Zim Online
Tue 13 June 2006
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe House of Assembly
Speaker John Nkomo at the
weekend invaded a former white-owned safari farm
in the southern Lupane
district and ordered the new black owner to leave by
end of this week or
risk being booted off the property by the
army.
Nkomo, who is the national chairman of the ruling ZANU PF
party and is
considered among moderates in President Robert Mugabe's
government, has had
a long-running feud with black empowerment activist
Langton Masunda over the
ownership of Jijima Safari lodge.
But
Nkomo, who is also seen as a possible future vice-president of
Zimbabwe in a
post-Mugabe government, three weeks ago withdrew a lawsuit
against Masunda
in which he had demanded Z$5 billion from the empowerment
activist for
illegally occupying the lodge.
An irate Masunda said: "Nkomo should
not interfere with my businesses.
I am a black Zimbabwean and I am entitled
to own a business like every
Zimbabwean in this
country.
"If Nkomo felt that I was on the property
illegally then why did he
withdraw the case from the courts? His threats of
using the army to force me
out of Jijima will not work."
According to eyewitnesses interviewed by ZimOnline, Nkomo, who was
accompanied by six other unidentified people, stormed the safari farm and
told workers there that they should vacate the place by the end of the week
so he could take over the lucrative business.
Nkomo yesterday
refused to discuss the farm wrangle with ZimOnline
reporters. "Please can
you just leave me alone and just leave these things,"
was all the
parliamentary speaker would say before switching off his mobile
phone.
The ZANU PF chairman has since last year battled to grab
the Jijima
safari business arguing that it belongs to him because it was a
part of Lugo
Ranch farm, a vast former white-owned estate allocated to Nkomo
by the
government during its controversial farm seizure programme over the
past six
years.
Masunda, who claims Jijima was allocated to him
also owns another
farm, Volunteer farm, which was seized by the government
from its former
white owners and is adjacent to Nkomo's Lugo
farm.
Top ZANU PF and government officials have allocated
themselves the
choicest farms seized from whites with some of Mugabe's
officials known to
have at least six farms each in open defiance of the
government's publicly
stated one-man-one-farm policy.
The
controversial farm seizure programme - that Mugabe says was
necessary to
correct a colonial land ownership system that reserved all the
best land for
whites - has been blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into its worst
food crisis
after the government failed to support black peasants re-settled
on former
white farms to maintain production. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tue 13 June 2006
HARARE - Pressure is piling on
Zimbabwe's central bank to depreciate
the official exchange rate amid
analyst projections that rising inflation
could drag the price of the local
dollar on the unofficial parallel market
in coming weeks to more than 420
000 against the American unit.
The southern African country's
annualised rate of inflation raced to 1
193.5 percent in May from April's 1
042.9 percent as a six-year-old economic
and political crisis
worsened.
Economic experts have warned that the upward inflation
spiral would
leave Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono with no
choice but to
allow the local unit to slide in the coming
weeks.
"Such action will diffuse speculative pressure on the
Zimbabwe dollar
by bridging the differential between the exchange rate and
inflation," said
an economist with a Harare-based commercial bank, who
declined to be named
for professional reasons.
A Harare
economist, James Jowa, noted that the monetary authorities
were caught
between a rock and a hard place in that it was not guaranteed
that any
devaluation now would trigger the required supply response on the
foreign
exchange market.
"It is a tricky situation and they (the
authorities) know that as long
as they don't address issues to do with the
supply constraints, the economy
will not move," said Jowa.
Efforts to address foreign currency problems are hampered by the fact
that
the government has since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2000
made
it difficult for individuals and others to buy hard cash on the
official
market.
All the hard currency coming in through the official
channels is
reserved for so-called strategic sectors.
"This,
coupled with the sub-economic exchange rate on the official
market, has
effectively meant that no one is prepared to part with their
hard cash at
the low exchange rate unless they are sure they will be able to
buy it at
something closer to the official rate," said the bank economist.
Gono, who has predicted that inflation would decline to about 400
percent by
year-end before slowing down to less than 50 percent by mid-2007,
has since
January resisted pressure to devalue the local currency.
The
Zimbabwe dollar has been officially pegged at 101 000 to the
United States
greenback for about two months, having marginally slided from
99 201against
the US unit.
The embattled currency is, however, trading at between
320 000 and 330
000 to the American dollar on the illegal but thriving
foreign currency
parallel market, which is more reflective of market
sentiment.
The analysts noted that based on monthly inflation
figures, the
unofficial exchange rate could climb to between 410 000 and 420
000 against
the US dollar by mid-July.
"This, however, assumes
that monthly inflation remains at 28 percent
during the coming month which
is highly unlikely at the rate we are going,"
said the bank
economist.
According to the Central Statistical Office, prices of
goods rose by
28 percent between April and May compared to 21.1 percent
between March and
April.
More pressure on prices during the
coming month is expected to come
from recent increases in transport costs
and electricity tariffs.
The state-run Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority announced a 95
percent tariff hike effective this month, while
urban transport operators
increased commuter fares by more than 30 percent
in the past two weeks.
The cost of bread also went up during the
past fortnight, exerting
more pressure on the June inflation
figure.
The rate of inflation is seen breaching the 1 300 percent
mark in
June. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tue 13
June 2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has
appealed to
President Robert Mugabe to help him evade trial in a case in
which he is
being accused of attempting to defeat the course of
justice.
Zimbabwe's Attorney-General Sobuza Gula-Ndebele, recently
indicated
that Chinamasa should be dragged to court for allegedly seeking to
defeat
the course of justice in a political violence case involving State
Security
Minister Didymus Mutasa.
The Justice Minister is set
to stand trial on July 3 in the eastern
town of Rusape on charges that he
attempted to pay key witnesses amounts
ranging from Z$3 million to $6
million to induce them not to give evidence
against his political ally,
Mutasa.
Mutasa is accused of sending his militant supporters to
beat up a
senior ZANU PF official and war veteran, James Kaunye, in the
run-up to the
2005 parliamentary election. Kaunye was challenging Mutasa to
represent ZANU
PF in Makoni North constituency in the poll.
Mutasa's supporters are already languishing in jail after they were
convicted in the courts.
Observers say the trial, which is part
of ZANU PF's succession
battles, could fatally injure Chinamasa's standing
in the party.
Chinamasa is part of a faction aligned to Emmerson
Mnangagwa which is
battling for control of ZANU PF against another faction
aligned to
Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
The Justice Minister is
said to have appealed to Mugabe to help
smoothen relations between him and
Gula-Ndebele, who is aligned to the
Mujuru camp and whom he believes is the
author of his predicament.
Chinamasa has had an uneasy relationship
with Gula-Ndebele with the
two openly clashing in Cabinet earlier this year
over policy issues.
"Chinamasa met Mugabe last week and asked him
to intervene between the
two over the feud. He accuses Gula-Ndebele of
trying to pull him down and
eventually take over as justice
minister.
"He wants Mugabe's help to iron out the issues. Chinamasa
is hoping
that with Mugabe's intervention the trial will fall away," said
the source.
Chinamasa refused to speak on the matter when contacted
by ZimOnline.
"What has any of that go to do with the media? I have no
comment," he said,
before cutting off the conversation.
Gula-Ndebele could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Mugabe has
in the past flexed his muscles to shield several government
ministers from
standing trial in Zimbabwe's courts despite clear evidence of
breach of the
law. - ZimOnline
The Mercury
By pressuring Mugabe, can
activists replace collusive states and business
that are benefiting from the
status quo? asks Patrick Bond
June 07, 2006 Edition 1
Patrick
Bond
The unwillingness of governments, multilateral bodies and big
business to
promote rudimentary democracy and social justice in Zimbabwe is
now
glaringly obvious. Renewed solidarity initiatives can be taken with
more
confidence by grass-roots activists on both sides of the Limpopo River
and
beyond.
Item: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appears to have been
intimidated into
not taking a trip to Harare, after President Thabo Mbeki
raised expectations
that he would achieve a breakthrough.
Mbeki last
week passed the buck to Annan and Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe: "It's
best left to them, to the UN and the Zimbabwean government
and, hopefully,
that will produce its outcome so that we remove this
particular matter from
the international agenda." Mugabe simply refused to
give Annan an
audience.
Item: Last Friday, the head of the European Commission's Harare
mission and
the Austrian ambassador to Zimbabwe wrote a letter to the Herald
newspaper
firmly stating: "There are no economic EU sanctions against
Zimbabwe. There
have never been economic EU sanctions against
Zimbabwe."
The bureaucrats were right, and they pointed out that for the
latest year
data available, 2004, "Zimbabwe had a trade surplus of E261
million (R2.23
billion) with EU states."
Item: A few days earlier,
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma told parliament that
Pretoria would not wield targeted "smart"
sanctions against Zimbabwe's
rulers: "It may not be a very useful tool to
use right now because it doesn't
seem to be yielding results, even in the
hands of the most powerful block in
the world."
Of course not, but for a simple reason: Pretoria is a
smart-sanctions
"buster" by permitting the Zimbabwe elite's shopping visits,
real estate
speculation and illicit financial holdings. If Pretoria joined in
imposing
smart sanctions, the results would be immediate and
formidable.
Investors
Item: Big business is again hopping into bed
with Mugabe, according to
Dianna Games of the SA Institute of International
Affairs writing last week
in Business Day: "Many South African companies
believe that Zimbabwe is
still a better and easier place in which to do
business than many other
African countries because of its strong business
culture, diversified
industrial base and relatively good infrastructure. And
many companies are
still making good, albeit often declining,
profits."
Pointing out that more than two dozen large South African
corporations
employ about 20 000 Zimbabweans in mining, retail, franchising,
commercial
agriculture and banking, she said: "There may be no better time
for
investors to take a long, hard look at the opportunities that
Zimbabwe
presents right now."
That was also a point made last year by
Tony Hawkins, Professor of Business
Studies at the University of Zimbabwe and
well known to Financial Times
readers: "South Africa has gained market share
in exports, tourism and
services. South Africa's share of investment in
Zimbabwe has also risen as
there has been an element of bargain-basement
buying by some mining and
industrial groups."
Hawkins added: "South
Africa is also taking significant skills from the
country, especially scarce
black skills in health, education, banking,
engineering and IT. It would be
too much to say that South Africa has
benefited in net terms, but there is a
good deal of evidence to suggest that
it is securing some gains from the
crisis."
Reflecting business confidence in Mugabe's ability to hold on,
two large
multinational firms - South Africa's Implats and the French bank
BNP
Paribas - last week announced, respectively, a R1.7 billion
platinum
investment (36% of which represents a gift to the government for
crony
"empowerment") and a R332 million credit secured by future nickel
export
revenues.
Another new Mugabe ally is the brutal dictator of
Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro
Obiang Nguema, who visited Zimbabwe in March and
whose country's oil began
flowing to Zimbabwe last week. Nguema wants the
British mercenary Simon Mann
extradited from Harare, where Mugabe's forces
are holding him after he
transited Harare in a 2004 attempted coup
bid.
Is pressure being applied by the West, as Mugabe often claims? Aside
from an
arms embargo on the government, the EU's smart sanctions apply to
just 100
key Zanu-PF leaders, and take the form of travel bans and a threat
to freeze
any assets they place in European banks. There are similar
provisions in the
US, but these countries together provide in excess of R1
billion in aid to
Zimbabwe, largely for food and humanitarian
relief
Threat
No one calls for that aid to be turned off because
it feeds millions of
people for whom Zimbabwe's own farms - especially the
small-scale and
peasant sectors - generated maize surpluses, prior to the
more general
meltdown of the country's agricultural infrastructure. The
starvation threat
has less to do with the takeover of white farms and more to
do with the
general lack of access to rural transport, fuel, pesticides,
fertilisers,
farm implements, electricity and the like.
What about a
renewed diplomatic initiative from the West? A good reflection
of the US
imperial agenda in Zimbabwe may be last week's report in a Harvard
University
journal authored by Todd Moss and Stewart Patrick of Washington's
Centre for
Global Development.
Moss and Patrick argue against existing sanctions:
"The US and EU may need
to review their sanctions legislation to ensure that
it does not create a
legal problem or disincentive for re-engagement or
private investment."
They also argue that a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe
government will "have to deal
with an inherited external debt of some $5
billion (about R30 billion).
Clearing arrears will be the first step, but the
arrears accrued within the
past few years account for nearly half the current
debt stock, suggesting
that some special dispensation may need to be found
with the multilateral
institutions and the Paris Club of
creditors."
In contrast, the position advocated by civil society
campaigners, such as
the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development and
Zimbabwe Social Forum, is
that the vast but useless 1990s loans advanced by
the International Monetary
Fund and World Bank should be completely
cancelled.
Indeed, following the lead of the Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius
Ncube,
Zimbabwean civil society may need to more publicly advocate
serious
sanctions, given the lack of pressure from opportunistic politicians
and
businesses.
Patrick Bond is Director of the UKZN Centre for Civil
Society and coauthor
of Zimbabwe's Plunge, available from the University of
KZN Press.
News24
11/06/2006 22:48 -
(SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's Sunday Mail newspaper reports that the
United States and
British governments want to create the false impression
that Zimbabwe is
about to descend into political and economic
chaos.
The newspaper, which usually reflects the thinking of President
Robert
Mugabe's government, claimed the International Monetary Fund had been
instructed to stop financial assistance to Zimbabwe and wait for the
inevitable implosion.
Quoting unnamed sources, the paper said the US
and British governments were
using think-tanks like the Brussels-based
International Crisis Group to push
their agenda.
The group said in a
report last week that, because of economic and political
turmoil, Zimbabwe
was on the way to becoming a failed state, plagued by
unrest and
violence.
The authorities in Harare regularly accuse Western states,
especially the
former colonial power Britain and the US of trying to change
the regime in
Zimbabwe.
[ This report does not necessarily
reflect the views of the United Nations]
HARARE, 12 Jun 2006 (IRIN) -
Zimbabwe's economic crisis is reaching into
prisons cells, often forcing
inmates to go without food for days, the
findings of two parliamentary
committees revealed.
Shortage of food and a lack of water, sanitation and
health services were
some of the problems in police cells and prisons across
the country.
According to official sources, Zimbabwe is holding at least
21,000 prisoners
in 42 facilities that were designed to hold roughly 16,000
inmates.
After a visit to the Highlands police station on the eastern
outskirts of
the capital, Harare, the parliamentary portfolio committee on
defence and
home affairs, headed by MP Claudius Makova, told parliament last
week: "The
shortage of food was said to have been exacerbated by the
shortage of maize.
Suspects were said to have gone for two days without food
and some were
relying on food brought by relatives."
The
parliamentary portfolio committee on justice, legal and parliamentary
affairs, led by Faber Chidarikire, a member of parliament for the ruling
ZANU-PF party, described the situation in the prisons they visited as
"disturbing", and said malnutrition and disease outbreaks were common as a
result of food shortages.
"There were serious shortages of
foodstuffs, such as sugar, mealie [maize]
meal, cooking oil, beans, meat and
most basic commodities. The committee was
informed that as a result of these
scanty allocations it was very difficult
to maintain the basic human
standards, resulting in prisoners suffering from
malnutrition," Chidarikire
told parliament.
He pointed out that resources in the undersupplied
Zimbabwe Prison Service
had been strained by the number of prisoners
suffering from AIDS-related
illnesses. "There were a lot of sick prisoners
suffering from pellagra [a
vitamin deficiency disease], TB [tuberculosis]
and other HIV-related
diseases. It is the committee's view that while the
objective of
imprisonment should be maintained, prisoners should be allowed
to get
adequate basic requirements."
"Terminally ill and old
prisoners should be granted affordable bail so that
courts do not end up
remanding undeserving prisoners in custody. This will
help reduce prisons
population to manageable levels," he suggested.
Interviews with police
officials and inmates revealed that the security
services had run out of
funds to provide health services and food.
Constable Jairos (not his real
name) at a police station near Harare, told
IRIN: "We have gone for more
than a week without rations for prisoners. At
the beginning of each year we
are given ... [an allocation in the national
budget] to buy food. However,
that money has since been exhausted and our
officer-in-charge has applied
for additional funds that we are still
awaiting. We have been told that the
budget ran out fast because of
inflation."
The Central Statistical
Office (CSO) recently said annual inflation had
surged to 1,193.5 percent,
up from 1,043 percent last month.
"We give them sadza [maizemeal
porridge] and matemba [dried fish] boiled in
water once every day in the
afternoon, when resources are available," Jairos
said. "At the beginning of
the year, when we still had money, we would give
them plain tea in the
morning and sometimes also feed them in the evening
before locking them up
for the night."
Stella Chitando, 23, who was accused of stealing by the
owner of a shop
where she worked and spent four days in police custody
before being released
because of lack of evidence, told IRIN she had to
depend on relatives for
food. "My aunt, with whom I stay, would make sure
she brought me food every
evening ... I shared the same cell with around six
other women and we would
share the little food that I or another inmate had
been brought."
She said visitors were sometimes barred from giving food
to their relatives
and friends. Jairos defended the move, explaining it was
necessary to turn
away visitors for security reasons.
Sanitary
conditions in the cells were poor. "I bathed only once during the
time I was
in detention, because water supplies were irregular," Chitando
said. "We
relieved ourselves right inside the cell and the room always
stank, since we
could not flush down our waste." There were no sanitary
pads, and the women
were forced to use old newspapers the police officers
gave them.
A
female suspect who could not get medication for her asthmatic condition
had
to be rushed to the nearby Harare General Hospital.
Often there was no
light in the cells, as there were no electric bulbs.
Chitando said she had
to share three thin, lice-infested blankets with other
inmates.
"The
shortage of blankets is, however, common at other police stations,"
Jairos
explained. "Since it is winter, we are forced to wash blankets that
we would
have used to cover the dead, some of which would be heavily
bloodstained,
and give them to the prisoners." The washed blankets do not
always dry
before evening comes and they have to be used.
Zimbabwe is trying to cope
with four years of food shortages caused by
erratic rainfall, the impact of
the chaotic fast-track land-reform programme
on the agricultural sector and
a critical lack of foreign currency to import
inputs, such as fertiliser and
fuel.
Business Day
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTELLIGENCE
Minister Ronnie Kasrils had travelled to Harare in a bid to
kick-start talks
between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and President
Thabo Mbeki, a
Harare newspaper reported on Friday.
The Zimbabwe Independent said
Kasrils had flown to Harare on a private
flight at midday on Thursday
accompanied by National Intelligence Agency
boss Manala Manzini.
Also
on the flight was the head of SA's secret service, Dennis Hilton, the
paper
reported.
It said Kasrils first met officials from the South African
embassy before
proceeding to talks with Zimbabwean State Security Minister
Didymus Mutasa
at a hotel.
The two were to discuss the possibility of
setting up a meeting between
Mugabe and Mbeki, the Independent
claimed.
"There has been no official confirmation of Kasrils' visit. "I
have to check
on that issue," said Lorna Daniels, a spokeswoman for SA's
intelligence
services ministry.
Mbeki's spokesman, Mukoni
Ratshitanga, told the Independent he was not aware
of any plans for talks
between the two southern African neighbours.
If the report of the visit
is true, it may point to fresh efforts by Mbeki
to get Mugabe to the
negotiating table to find a way out of Zimbabwe's
worsening economic and
political crisis.
Mbeki has been pursuing a controversial policy of quiet
diplomacy for six
years now, to the exasperation of some foreign policy
critics.
Thousands of Zimbabweans flooding every week across the border
to escape
hunger and poverty are generating tension in SA. Sapa-DPA
June 12, 2006,
By
Michael Appel
Johannesburg (AND) Zimbabwe's judiciary has been
plagued by scores of
resignations in both the country's supreme court and
regional magistrates
courts. Whilst the Zimbabwe government denies that
political intimidation
has nothing to do with the resignations many argue
otherwise.
When looking at media reports from the past, the issue
of Zimbabwe's
judiciary slipping gradually into the breadbasket of the
country's executive
seems to be round about the time of President Robert
Mugabe's highly
controversial land reform program.
To foreigners or people unfamiliar with Zimbabwe, the term 'land
reform
program' might conjure up images similar to Russia's land
collectivization
programme in the early 1930's, in which Stalin physically
exterminated an
entire social class of farmers called "kulaks" who were
opposed to the
nationalisation of land.
At the time, Stalin was trying
to eradicate what he considered "rural
capitalism", and the same principle
can be applied to what has ensued in
Zimbabwe over the last few
years.
Zimbabwe, a country existing mainly along
agricultural lines, was in
2000 ravaged by the forced removal of white
farmers from land by the ruling
party, Zanu-PF's
war-veterans.
Many opposed to Mugabe's land reform
program did the only thing any
person living in a true democracy could do
without resorting to
violence.they turned to the
judiciary.
The judicial system or the rule of law can
loosely be defined as the
heartbeat of democracy, without which it cannot
function. It is the standard
measure of the extent to which a government
upholds constitutionality and
subjects itself to the laws of the land as
well as international law. It is
also the protection of citizens from wide,
arbitrary and discretionary
powers of the
executive.
The rule of law should govern supremely and
neutrally, protecting
citizens against illegitimate state action and also
protect individual and
private interests. In essence it ensures that all
citizens are treated
equally and are subject to the law rather than to the
whims of the powerful.
Many bodies within and outside
Zimbabwe, including South African
President Thabo Mbeki, have criticised the
way in which the Zanu-PF has
distorted the impartiality of the
judiciary.
The Zanu-PF actively encouraged its militia,
war veterans and youths
to demonstrate against judges who were considered
out of line. In November
2000, war veterans raided the Supreme Court
building after it ruled that the
land reform program was
unconstitutional.
Non-governmental organisation (NGO),
Human Rights First, reported
that, "judges who rule on politically
significant cases with impartiality
and independence have been targeted
because of their neutrality and
subjected to arrest under false charges,
harassment, and threats on their
lives.
"Since
2001, at least seven judges have been forced off the bench due
to such
pressure. As a result, the effectiveness of the judiciary has been
undermined, contributing to a demise of the rule of law and a culture of
impunity for human rights abuses in Zimbabwe".
Zimbabwean newspapers and media organisations that were critical of
Mugabe's
land reform program found themselves not able to renew their
publishing
licences and were subsequently banned.
One such media
organisation said, "Recent utterances by High Court
judges reveal that
Zimbabwe's judiciary has all but surrendered its
independence to the
executive and the ruling Zanu-PF.
"Judges must defend the
rights of people irrespective of colour,
tribe, political history or
political affiliation. The law must protect even
Ian Smith, the former
Rhodesian premier who thought whites were superior to
blacks.
"If the government feels Smith and the former
Rhodesians have a case
to answer, let them press charges through the proper
channels. That is the
rule of law".
Executive Director of
the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights Mr Tsunga
believes that the Zimbabwean
judiciary "has become impotent as a result of
being undermined by Robert
Mugabe's government.
He said, "There is no transparency in the
appointment of judges in
Zimbabwe and the current judiciary is not
independent, especially when it
deals with cases of political
nature".
He highlighted the fact that judges and magistrates
who do not tow the
government's line are humiliated, beaten and transferred
to other
jurisdictions.
Sokwanele, a Zimbabwean online
publication, reported that:
"Political interference, poor
working conditions and low salaries have
led to a spate of resignations in
recent months, and among those left,
morale is at an all-time
low.
"The trend has accelerated since the year 2000 with a
particularly
high level of resignations among magistrates. According to the
ministry of
justice's own staffing statistics, 24 magistrates and almost as
many
prosecutors resigned in 2003.
"In the same year the
ministry lost 39 employees from the lower
grades, including clerks,
interpreters and recorders. In the first nine
months of 2004 the ministry
lost a further 12 magistrates, 10 prosecutors
and 36 clerical
staff."
Reports from Zimbabwe's Daily Mirror on Monday
confirmed the trend of
resignations and the county's chief magistrate,
Herbert Mandeya, commented
that the Harare regional court has an
establishment of eight magistrates,
but the numbers dropped from eight to
five between December 2005 and May
2006. Bulawayo's complement of regional
magistrates dropped from four to two
in the last nine
months."
Mandeya said this after two senior
prosecutors, Morgen Nemadire and
Stephen Musonah, were sworn into the
position of regional magistrates in the
country's capital Harare. Mandeya
said that, "these gentlemen have done the
magistrates department a great
honour by crossing the floor at a time when
the regional bench has literally
been crippled by resignations".
William Kasitomo and
Godwin Chizhande resigned from the bench and are
rumoured to be going into
private practices instead.
Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa, confirmed the current state of the
judiciary but said only that,
"the country's public sector has always been
hit by a shortage of legal
personnel".
AND on Monday spoke to Zimbabwe's
government spokesperson, George
Charamba, and asked whether there was a link
between the controversial land
reform program and the resignations, to which
he replied, "Don't attempt to
force a connection between the land reform
program and the resignations".
When AND asked Charamba
whether judges who ruled against government
[Zanu-PF] in cases were ever
victimised, he said, "they are allegations, and
that's all they
are".
Charamba reiterated that the high number of
resignations was due to
young graduates being drawn in by the private
sector, and for no other
reason.
"People are not
leaving the country to go abroad, they are just going
into private
practices," said Charamba.
Charamba's comment that
lawyers were not going oversees was in direct
contrast with that of the
Daily Mirror which said that, "Many more have left
the country to take up
other professions in developed countries such as the
United Kingdom (UK),
Australia and the USA".
Johannesburg Bureau
zimbabwejournlaists.com
By Nonthando Bhebhe
HARARE - MORGAN Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe's main opposition
party,
has threatened to lead mass demonstrations in late June and July in a
bid to
dislodge President Robert Mugabe from power. But Tsvangirai's
increasingly
evident weak leadership, together with widespread public
disillusionment
with the potential for change, suggests that the protests
will end in abject
failure.
Zimbabweans have endured steep economic decline and a
steady erosion
of political freedom in the past six years, and many appear
to have given
up - or at least to be reluctant to risk their necks for the
Movement for
Democratic Change, MDC, which has failed to live up to the
euphoria which
surrounded its birth in 1999.
When the MDC first
emerged on the Zimbabwean political scene, there
were high hopes that
Tsvangirai would prove to be Mugabe's nemesis. However,
the president has
survived the numerous attempts by his opponent to effect
regime
change.
"Tsvangirai has been like a boxer who, with his opponent
against the
ropes, fails to deliver the killer punch," Abel Munenzva, a
teacher in Mount
Darwin, 190 kilometres north of Harare, told IWPR. "The
killer punch could
have come way back in 2000, when - after that landmark
election - many
people were angry at how Mugabe so blatantly rigged
it.
"Another opportunity came in 2002, with the rapid economic
decline in
the country and another fraudulent poll which saw Mugabe hang
onto power."
In the 2000 ballot, the MDC won 57 out of 120
parliamentary seats in a
brief spell of opposition optimism. Many western
organisations observing the
vote, including the European Union and
Transparency International, said it
was rigged by the ruling ZANU PF party
and that opposition supporters had
been intimidated.
The
presidential election of March 2002, in which Mugabe narrowly
defeated
Tsvangirai, was marred by violence and by restrictions on
opposition
activity, and was so widely criticised that Zimbabwe was expelled
from the
Commonwealth, the club of former British territories.
While the MDC
cried foul, renewed hope came in June 2003 in what
Tsvangirai dubbed the
"final push" - a nationwide action in which the bulk
of ordinary Zimbabweans
were supposed to assemble in major towns and the
capital Harare, and march
to State House in a massive demonstration designed
to force Mugabe to
capitulate.
But the people, wearied by increasing economic
hardship, rigged polls,
a government that resorted to violence without
qualms, and opposition
leaders who led from the back, failed to heed the
call. Even the normally
radical student movement boycotted the "final
push".
In March 2005, ZANU PF won 78 of the 120 directly elected
seats in
parliament in a vote that once again was criticised as fraudulent
by
external observers.
In the wake of the three flawed
elections since 2000, the opposition
has lacked a clear strategy for
dislodging Mugabe. According to Munenzva,
"This has mainly been because the
man everybody entrusted with the
leadership of the new struggle for freedom,
Tsvangirai, has fallen far short
of expectations. After the 2002
presidential election, he showed himself
more than ever to be a weak leader,
unable to lead his people into the
battle and unsure on what course of
action to take."
Tsvangirai showed indecision after his party was
defeated in last year's
election, when he said people should "defend their
vote". This turned out to
mean launching a series of court cases contesting
constituency results. But
with a judiciary appointed and controlled by
Mugabe, the legal route was
never going to bring the opposition much
success.
Operation Murambatsvina (Drive Out the Rubbish) which
Mugabe launched
last year against poorer urban communities was another
missed opportunity
for Tsvangirai. More than 700,000 people watched their
homes being destroyed
by the security forces in what the government said was
a regeneration
project but many say as a way of eroding the MDC's urban
support base.
Critics, including Anna Tibaijuka, United Nations
Secretary-General
Kofi Annan's special envoy to Zimbabwe, saw it as a giant
social engineering
project designed to force potentially troublesome urban
communities back
into the countryside to reduce the possibility of a popular
uprising.
Tsvangirai left most of the condemnation of this
humanitarian tragedy
to the international community.
Another
opportunity now beckons for Tsvangirai to show his mettle.
The
Zimbabwean economy has imploded, with acute shortages of fuel,
food and
electricity, a dearth of foreign currency, and the world's highest
rate of
inflation at 1,040 per cent year on year, and rising. Most
Zimbabweans are
now so impoverished that they can no longer afford basic
health care,
accommodation and education.
Hopes of a change to this situation
rose again in April, when
Tsvangirai warned Mugabe that his 26 years of
uninterrupted power were
nearing their end.
"Mugabe has
subjected us to all kinds of torture, and his officials
have even threatened
to physically eliminate us," said the MDC leader. "But
we are not moved, and
mobilisation for mass action is surely under way."
In an attempt to
demonstrate his serious intent, Tsvangirai said that
this time he would lead
mass protests from the front. He and other MDC
leaders have been widely
accused over the past six years of encouraging "the
masses" to take the lead
while they stay at the rear of the action.
Mugabe warned his
opponent that he would be "dicing with death" if he
tried to seize power
through street protests.
"If you want an excuse for being killed,
be my guest," said the
president. "Go into the streets and
demonstrate."
He made it clear that ZANU PF forces, battle-hardened
in the war
against white rule in the Seventies, would react ruthlessly and
turn any
protests into a bloodbath.
Tsvangirai responded at a
big MDC rally, "I am prepared to die in
order to liberate the people of
Zimbabwe from ZANU PF's misrule."
But now it seems he is less
likely to risk dying for freedom than he
suggested back in
April.
In Zimbabwe, the mere mention of mass protests invokes
images of
running battles with the police and the army.
"If
people thought the government was brutal in the Nineties, this
winter's
demonstrations [in June and July] are likely to be bloodier than
ever, as
they threaten ZANU PF's hegemony," said a secretary who works for a
state-owned company. "For Mugabe it will mean a final stand."
The weekly Zimbabwe Independent, which takes an anti-Mugabe stance, is
now
reporting that Tsvangirai is putting mass protests on the back burner,
and
favouring instead the kind of international intervention that has so far
failed to end crisis in Zimbabwe.
"Most MDC supporters were
bracing for a showdown with government over
deteriorating living standards
and a collapsing economy," said the newspaper
on June 2. "But indications
are that hard-pressed Zimbabweans will have to
wait a little longer before
the 'cold winter of resistance' begins."
Responding to reports that
Tsvangirai and his fellow MDC leaders had
got cold feet about their plans
for public protests, party spokesman Nelson
Chamisa said, "The nation is now
ready for mass action. Obviously, we are
not going to alert the oppressors
by making a public announcement in advance
of the event."
If,
as now seems unlikely, a mass protest does materialise, its
success or
otherwise will be important in determining Zimbabwe's future.
Should the
protests go ahead but fail once more, the 82-year-old Mugabe's
rule will be
cemented, and a proposed amendment to the constitution
extending his term
until at least 2010 will be passed by parliament.
Many commentators
still think that if Tsvangirai displayed courage and
organisational skills,
he could easily lead a public angered by increasing
hunger and
poverty.
John Makumbe, a political science lecturer at Harare's
University of
Zimbabwe, said, "We are on the brink, and anyone who thinks
the political
situation is manageable at this rate of economic deterioration
is going to
be shocked. For many people, especially in the urban areas, life
has become
unaffordable and unbearable, and these people are waiting to vent
their
anger through mass demonstrations."
However, despite this
widespread view, the fact remains that all past
attempts by the MDC, as well
as by the National Constitutional Assembly, the
leading civil group
campaigning for political change, and by the umbrella
labour body, the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, to organise mass
protests and boycotts to
bring about regime change have failed
ignominiously.
So the big
question is just how many people would be prepared to
venture onto the
streets for a political opposition that has let them down
badly so many
times before?
"It is difficult to organise marches now. People are
afraid. People
are intimidated," admitted a top MDC official who asked to
remain anonymous.
Harare bank clerk Humphrey Mutasa expressed a
common sense of
pessimism when he said he would refuse to take part in any
demonstration
called by Tsvangirai.
"To tell you the truth, I
would rather suffer quietly at home and in
peace than be beaten up and still
continue to suffer," Mutasa told IWPR.
"Nothing will change after the mass
protests. Let's say people pour into the
streets. And then what? They will
just throw stones and call Mugabe names.
That will not force Mugabe to flee
the country, will it?"
Many Zimbabweans feel let down by earlier
half-hearted boycotts called
by the MDC which proved short
term.
A secretary at a power utility said she would rather protect
her job
than get fired for heeding the call to demonstrate. "Imagine being
unemployed in this environment," she said. "Nothing will change; nothing has
ever changed when past opposition demonstrations have occurred. So why
bother?"
To succeed, a fresh round of demonstrations would
require proper
planning and organisation, accompanied by an honest analysis
of why past
protests have failed. Analysts say the MDC has to come up with
clear
objectives that will encourage people to overcome their fear of
government
violence.
Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National
Constitutional Assembly and
a long-term advocate of mass action, says the
protest movement should not
merely aim to oust Mugabe, but should represent
a broad-based demand for
democratic reforms.
Those who take
this view say the "final push" of 2002 failed because
the sole objective was
to force Mugabe to flee. Journalists interviewed for
this report said the
MDC should learn from demonstrations that rocked
Zimbabwe 1997-98, when
there were widespread strikes against job losses,
poor working conditions
and government corruption. People might be more
likely to take to the
streets if the talk was of bread-and-butter issues.
The stakes are
high for the MDC as leaders attempt to judge and
capitalise on the public
mood.
"His [Tsvangirai's] credibility is on the line," said Tony
Hawkins,
Professor of Economics at the University of Harare.
"This time he really must deliver or risk political oblivion."
Nonthando Bhebhe is a pseudonym for a journalist in Zimbabwe.
June 12,
2006
By Tagu Mkwenyani
Harare (AND) A much awaited
study to ascertain the level of
vulnerability among Zimbabweans facing food
shortages is expected to be out
in the next few weeks.
The
Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment 2006 will be used by government
and aid
agencies planning relief efforts. Over the past few years the number
of
Zimbabweans who have become vulnerable to food shortages and resultant
diseases has increased as a result of hunger. An economic meltdown has also
worsened the situation with the majority of Zimbabweans now living below the
poverty datum.
According to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe
(CCZ), a family of six
in Zimbabwe now requires about $50 million to
survive, yet the few
Zimbabweans lucky to employed in country where
unemployment is above 80
percent earn below $10 million. "Data collected for
the 2006 Zimbabwe
Vulnerability Assessment (ZimVac) has been completed.
About 3 000 households
were interviewed.
The report is to be
released around the 1st week of July 2006," says a
report by the Food and
Agricultural Organisation (FAO). FAO is planning to
hold a Targeting
Workshop for NGOs for the 2006/07 agricultural season which
will establish
the number of households to be assisted with seed and
fertiliser assistance.
"The date will be decided as soon as the data from
the ZimVAC has been
released," said FAO.
The vulnerability report will clear the air
over the number of people
requiring assistance in Zimbabwe. There have been
conflicting reports over
the past few months with some aid agencies saying
close to five million
Zimbabweans were threatened with starvation. Others
have put the figure at
three million. The government has, however,
maintained that it has put in
place mechanism t ensure that no one dies of
starvation in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe Bureau
Sunday News, Zimbabwe
Farming Reporter
THE Minister of Agriculture, Dr
Joseph Made, says the government of Iran has
agreed to provide technical
support in agriculture with Zimbabwe.
This will see the Industrial
Development Corporation (IDC) assembling 1 000
tractors from
Iran.
Speaking to the Sunday News following a recent tour by a technical team
from
Iran, Dr Made said Iran agreed to provide special support to the
country's
research and extension sector.
"We need to train our extension
officers, and Iran has some of the leading
scientists in crop science,
agricultural mechanisation and farming support
inclusive of financial and
human resources support,'' he said.
He said Iran has the biggest livestock
institute and this comes at a time
when Zimbabwe is making efforts to
restock the national herd that has
dwindled to less than 300 000 due to
recurrent droughts.
"The co-operation will extend to manufacturing and supply
of vaccines to the
agricultural sector. It is our mission to provide enough
vaccines in the
wake of Foot-and- Mouth disease, anthrax and blackleg,'' he
said.
In the past two years under the mechanisation programme the Government,
through various farming organisations, has managed to import 400 tractors
from Iran and more are expected.
From AFP, 12 June
Harare -
Inflation in Zimbabwe has skyrocketed to nearly 1,200 per cent, an
economic
phenomenon set to bring further misery to people grappling with
acute food
and fuel shortages, high unemployment and abysmal poverty. The
country's
statistical office Friday said that 12-month inflation in May had
soared to
1,193.5 per cent and that prices were on an average 13 times
costlier than
in the same month of 2005. "The year-on-year rate of inflation
in May 2006
was 1,193.5 per cent, gaining 150.6 percentage points on the
April rate of
1,042.9 per cent," said Moffat Nyoni, acting director of the
Central
Statistical Office (CSO). "This means that on average, goods and
services
normally purchased by households for final use in Zimbabwe were
about 13
times as expensive in May 2006 as they had been 12 months before,"
he said.
Zimbabwe's inflation rate crossed the 1,000 per cent threshold to
reach a
world-record high of 1,042.9 per cent in April. It set off a spate
of price
increases. The cost of bread went up by more than 50 percent to
130,000
Zimbabwean dollars while public transport fares doubled.
At the start
of this month, the central bank issued a new 100,000-dollar
banknote four
months after unveiling another currency denomination. Economic
analysts said
central bank targets to slash inflation to below 500 per cent
in June and
double digits next year were nearly impossible. "Those who speak
in parables
and say inflation will just go down without fundamental policy
changes are
propagandists," analyst Daniel Ndhlela told AFP. "Inflation will
continue to
rise until the government addresses the factors driving it,
which are lack
of foreign investment, the printing of money by the central
bank and the
fixed exchange rate which is fuelling a parallel foreign
currency market."
Economic analyst Eric Bloch said inflation would not start
decelerating in
June as projected. "In the meanwhile, for the low-income
earners, the
economic hardships will continue," he said. Zimbabwe's main
opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai said: "You wonder how a Zimbabwean is
surviving
every day on less than one US dollar in this kind of
inflation."
Ordinary workers bearing the brunt of the economic
recession resort to
skipping meals, walking or cycling long distances to
work as they battle to
stretch their wages to the next pay day. Munyaradzi
Rusike, who works at a
food outlet in central Harare, said it was impossible
to plan a family
budget. "If you forget to buy something in a shop in the
morning and return
in the afternoon, there is a good chance that you will
find the price
doubled." The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe last week said the
cost of living
for a family of six rose 19.5 per cent from $41 million in
April to $49.1
million in May, pointing out that the average worker earned
less than $20
million. The country's main labour body, The Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade
Unions warned in May that it was planning mass strikes to demand
higher
wages to cushion workers against rising living costs. Zimbabwe is in
the
seventh consecutive year of economic recession characterised by high
inflation, unemployment, chronic shortages of basic goods like sugar and
cooking while more than 80 per cent of the 13 million population is living
below the poverty threshhold, according to economic analysts. The government
often blames the country's woes on sanctions imposed against President
Robert Mugabe and members of his inner circle by the United States and the
European Union. But critics say the recession was sparked by controversial
land reforms under which the state seized land from white farmers for
redistribution to landless-and often unskilled-blacks, thereby wreaking
havoc on the key agriculture sector.
From The Sunday Times (SA), 11 June
The good life came to an end for Mark Thatcher after he
blundered among the
plotteres in the 'Wonga Coup'. What was he up to? An
unrepentant 'Scratcher'
gives Adam Roberts his acerbid answers to an African
riddle.
Cape Town is popular at Christmas. From mid-December to
mid-January, South
Africans decamp from Johannesburg, Pretoria and other
landlocked cities and
head for the beaches, cafes and hotels of the "Mother
City". Most years when
he lived in the luxurious enclave of Constantia, Mark
Thatcher threw a house
party. His parties were well attended, especially
when his mother was
present - as became increasingly frequent after her
husband died. But his
neighbours and guests were hardly grateful. "If it
wasn't for his mother, he'd
be an East End barrow boy," said one. Another
described him as having "an
ego the size of a herd of elephants and the
attention span of a gnat". He
was said to be rude to waiters and imperious
to everyone.
Greg Wales, a British businessman who has long pursued
his fortunes in
Africa, vividly recalls flying to Cape Town from
Johannesburg shortly before
Christmas 2003 to attend Thatcher's party. It
was an exhilarating journey in
a private plane. The South African pilot,
Crause Steyl, took him down into a
narrow gorge in the Drakensberg
mountains, racing low inside the canyon and
twisting the plane sideways to
bring them through. Also enjoying the ride
was Simon Mann, a former SAS
officer and adventurer. Most who have known him
rather like this upper-class
Briton; women found his old Etonian manners
endearing. A South African who
met him socially thought him "quite charming,
not too dominating. Physically
he is not a hulk, he is not a marine, but
smallish, slim-boned". Wales,
Steyl and Mann were old friends with a
mission. They were going to spend
Christmas and the New Year putting the
final touches to plans for a coup in
Equatorial Guinea - one of the nastiest
oil-rich nations in Africa - that
they hoped would make them hugely wealthy
for the rest of their lives.
Several other characters, either engaged in the
"Wonga Coup" or very much
aware of it, were also in the Mother City that
Christmas.
Among
Thatcher's house guests was a jovial, sandy-haired individual called
Nigel
Morgan, a former member of the Irish Guards whom Thatcher had earlier
helped
through a difficult patch in South Africa by providing him with a
home for a
spell. Morgan's story is one that Graham Greene might have
relished. He
trained briefly as a Jesuit priest after working for a think
tank that
advised Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. Known to Mark Thatcher,
Mann and
other friends as Nosher or Captain Pig, Morgan has a startlingly
red face,
having spent years under the African sun while swallowing tumblers
of pink
gin and whisky. His love of hearty English food and cigars is
matched only
by the pleasure he takes in spinning yarns and arguing about
politics. He
would later be accused of betraying his friends, though he
denied it. Morgan
is not simply a bon vivant. He trades intelligence. When
he first heard
whispers of a plan for mercenary action in west Africa he
suspected that his
friend Mann was involved. He resolved to get close to the
action. As a
freelance intelligence man he wanted a chance to make money.
This could be a
moment to do business in Equatorial Guinea with Mann running
things. On the
other hand, he had close ties with the South African
authorities and would
be expected to pass on what he knew to them.
Morgan managed to get
James Kershaw, a young South African friend who was a
capable administrator
skilled in electronic communication, a job as Mann's
personal assistant.
Although Kershaw says he had no idea what was going on,
he effectively
became a mole at the centre of Mann's operations. Mann
probably knew, but
did not mind, that old Nosher got some information from
Kershaw. He may also
have suspected that Morgan relayed some of it to the
South African
authorities. Perhaps he hoped that, if the government severely
disapproved,
it would pass a message of discouragement back to him. If so,
he should have
known better. After a more than a decade supplying South
African mercenaries
for African wars, he had been given South African
citizenship on condition
that he would lead a quiet life. According to one
source he was removed to a
safe house and debriefed thoroughly about his
past before being allowed his
passport. Recruiting mercenaries was now
illegal in South Africa, which
wanted to rid itself of its old reputation as
a haven for "dogs of war".
"They told him that he must not be involved in
any military adventures any
more. He agreed," says a South African with
connections in the intelligence
world.
Yet Mann passed paperwork to Morgan and dined with him 22
times in the
months before the coup. After large tumblers of pink gin they
moved on to
steaks and heavy red wine, chatting lightly and cracking jokes.
One moment
it was trivial, then Mann would slip in serious questions. A
thinly
disguised discussion of his plot followed. It was, recalls Morgan, as
if
Mann were writing a film script and discussing fictional characters, not
plotting a real event. Mann half-jokingly threatened to kill Morgan if he
leaked a word. The next minute, however, he was asking for advice. Morgan
passed on information, documents and detailed warnings to South African
officials. He produced 10 intelligence reports about a coup - or, as he
termed it, a "catalyst for regime change" - in Equatorial Guinea. These were
read by South African intelligence, an organisation that, working under a
black government, was eager to distance itself from the sinister Boss
security service of the apartheid era. Morgan faced a moral quandary.
Although he helped to foil the coup plot, and thus helped South Africa's
government score an impressive intelligence victory, strengthening its moral
credentials in the region, he effectively betrayed friends who believed they
could trust him. However one judges this morally, the coup was doomed from
the start.
Into this intrigue fell the luckless - and apparently
clueless - figure of
Mark Thatcher. None of the plotters trusted or liked
him enough to tell him
what was really going on, but they were happy to take
his money. Although
others went to prison, he ended up as the most
high-profile casualty -
poorer by hundreds of thousands of pounds, branded a
felon, divorced, barred
from America where his children live and even asked
to move on by the Monaco
authorities when he attempted to settle there. How
did he get himself into
this mess? The story of the Wonga Coup has been much
enjoyed by students of
coup plots, African adventures and high jinks in the
tropics. But Thatcher's
role has never been fully explained. Like a man
waving a golf club in a
thunderstorm, Mark Thatcher invites intense and
unwelcome attention. In
conversation he can be affable enough, though
aggressive, too. When thinking
hard he puffs out his cheeks and glares. In
the course of three interviews
with me he joked that any unflattering
comments published about him would
lead to my needing "a new dental
surgeon", and if I dared identify him with
the Equatorial Guinea plot I
would end up "as Mr Stumpy" - walking around on
stumps for
legs.
Equatorial Guinea, a tiny former Spanish colony, might
reasonably claim to
be the most wretched nation on earth. It sits in the
armpit of Africa,
divided between a square of mainland territory and a
scattering of islands.
Almost nobody has a good word for it. If you see a
man limping on both legs,
quipped one American ambassador, you know he has
been to Equatorial Guinea.
Senior churchmen and politicians talk of the
"magical powers" of its rulers;
there are said to be regular witch-burnings.
Most commentators rank Obiang
Nguema, its president, as one of the worst
leaders anywhere in the world.
But he is also an extremely rich man thanks
to the oil reserves found in
abundance around his islands. The Cape Town
plotters planned to replace
Obiang with an exiled Guinean politician, Severo
Moto, and then to keep such
a grip on the weak new government that they
would be able to run the nation
like a company, reaping huge rewards from
their "investment". Mann believed,
wrongly, that he had political backing
from Spain, where Moto was living,
the United States and key African
governments, even South Africa. He also
had promises of $10m in finance from
private investors, but he needed more.
His hunger for funds led to one of
his bigger blunders: involving the son of
the former British prime
minister.
Thatcher moved to South Africa from the United States in
the early 1990s,
running a trading business focused on finished oil
products. His expertise,
he says, is in logistics. He was well travelled;
but while many outsiders
fall in love with the continent, despite its
manifold problems, he grew
fiercely pessimistic about it. "Africa is dead;
it's dying of cancer," he
told me. He blamed venal presidents for most of
Africa's woes. South Africa,
his adopted home, he saw as having a dismal
future. In 1997 he struck up a
friendship with Mann, the two sharing an
enthusiasm for business in mining,
oil, security and aviation. Mann was fond
of Thatcher, but few others liked
him. One plotter later said: "I put up
with him, largely because I admired
his mother. He put up with me because I
was friends with Simon and he is an
SAS groupie. He's a pain in the arse in
large doses. He is heavily insecure,
probably because he is the son of two
bright parents . . . he is not the
sharpest pebble on the beach." Crause
Steyl, the pilot, dealt with Thatcher
but did not like him. "He was not the
kind of personality I'd warm up to . .
. Luckily the only thing I had to
take was his money."
In interviews with me Thatcher made it clear he
disliked the government of
Equatorial Guinea, but he denied he ever
supported a coup. He suggested a
coup plot was little different from
terrorism, and "bearing in mind my
family has been subject to an actual
terror attack in Brighton, I'd never
knowingly be involved in something like
that". Yet Thatcher was said to be
eager to become involved in Mann's affair
even while other plotters kept him
at arm's length. He was associated with
the plotters from the early days of
their operations in mid-2003. Greg
Wales, who wrote a lengthy non-military
document describing how outsiders
could take power in Equatorial Guinea and
run it, wanted Thatcher excluded.
He wrote that if Thatcher's involvement
were known then the "rest of us, and
project (are) likely to be screwed as a
side-issue to people screwing him".
Short of excluding Thatcher from the
scheme, Wales emphasised that his role
should be kept hidden. There was no
remedy if Thatcher's part were
suspected, so "ensure (it) doesn't happen".
According to Steyl, Mann
also "feared Mark's inferiority complex might lead
to the British press
having a field day" but was still willing to involve
him. The reason was
simple, said Steyl. "The money. He brought us nearly
$280,000." The idea was
to get Thatcher to fund a helicopter that would be
used in an airport attack
against Obiang. Steyl continued: "The only thing
Mark actually did was lease
a helicopter. Apart from that, nothing. We never
discussed Equatorial Guinea
with him. We said we wanted to take an aeroplane
to west Africa. But it was
clear to me he was suspicious." Ron Wheeldon,
Thatcher's South African
lawyer, said: "I think he had no idea what was
going on. He thought he was
investing in an air ambulance to operate in west
Africa." In December 2003,
Mann told Thatcher he had found a suitable
helicopter. It could be chartered
for a three-month period. According to
court documents Thatcher later told
prosecutors that in December 2003 he
"began to doubt Mann's true intentions
and suspected that Mann might be
planning to become involved in mercenary
activity in the west African
region".
When I interviewed him,
however, he suggested that even in January 2004 he
still had no idea the
helicopter he had agreed to fund was to be used for
mercenary activity.
Despite his "misgivings", in early January he deposited
$20,000 into a bank
account controlled by Steyl's company AAA Aviation. A
few days later he paid
in another $255,000. Why did he do so, despite his
suspicions? Presumably
because he thought that working with Mann might
produce an adventure as well
as a profit. "He thought he'd put his bum in
the butter," said someone who
knew him well. Steyl used Thatcher's money to
charter a civilian helicopter;
but within three weeks its role in the coup
was dropped and it was returned
to the charter company. None of Thatcher's
money was returned to him,
however. Instead, early in March, $100,000 was
transferred from Steyl's AAA
Aviation account to an account set up by Mann
for coup finances. The
helicopter Thatcher had helped to charter was,
effectively, unused and some
of his money had been appropriated. But those
facts would not keep him out
of trouble.
As the final days to the coup ticked down in February 2004,
the plotters
were indiscreet and arrogant. In bars and restaurants, men
boasted of what
they planned. The lower ranks, hired as mercenaries, got
drunk and
loose-tongued in Pretoria's pubs. The plot was even debated at a
semi-public
meeting at Chatham House in London weeks before it was due to
take place.
One hired gun later said he refused to join because it had
become an open
secret. "There were also just too many people involved and it
did not have
the element of surprise you needed to pull off something of
this
proportion." Intelligence reports warning of an impending coup were
circulating. Another of the key plotters, Nick du Toit, a former South
African special forces soldier, was warned by friends inside the South
African Secret Service (SASS) that his activities were under
scrutiny.
Mann's money-raising efforts were overt. At a big garden
party he pitched
for contributions from his guests over the champagne. His
financiers pushed
him on. Under pressure, he made quick and bad decisions.
One financier
complained Mann "lost the plot" in the final weeks of the
botched operation.
Widely liked and respected as a soldier, he fumbled an
over-complicated
operation. When it started to go wrong, a braver or more
cautious man might
have dared to cancel. But he was propelled on by the
investors, by the need
to recoup losses, by his belief he had political
backing, by his own vanity
and by his love of adventure. By mid-March the
plot was blown to pieces.
After a tip-off from South Africa, Mann and a
planeload of mercenaries were
seized in Zimbabwe, and an advance party led
by du Toit was rounded up in
Equatorial Guinea itself. A King Air jet with
Wales and Moto, the putative
new president, on board took off from the
Canary Islands for Equatorial
Guinea, with Crause Steyl at the controls, but
they got no further than Mali
before turning back.
To be
continued...