By Tererai
Karimakwenda
12 June 2006
There are several reports that
claim that the government has started
compensating former commercial white
farmers in Zimbabwe for their
properties which were illegally taken over by
the government. The minister
for Lands and Land Resettlement Didymus Mutasa
is reported to have said last
week the farmers are responding well to the
government's invitation to get
compensated for their property's
infrastructure. He is quoted as saying:
"..we are compensating the
infrastructure only, Blair should compensate them
for the land." But Justice
For Agriculture (JAG), which represents the
majority of evicted farmers in
the country, said the offers only amount to
about 5% of the true value of
the improvements on the land and the vast
majority of farmers are turning
this down.
Mutasa and the Zimbabwe government have insisted it
should be the
British government that compensates farmers for land according
to the
Lancaster House agreement signed at independence. Mutasa is also
reported to
have accused Blair of not sticking to the British government's
part of the
agreement. John Worsley Worswick of JAG admitted an agreement
was made at
Lancaster House but explained where it all went wrong. He said:
"Certainly
the farmers who were paid over the 15 year period got paid for
land and
improvements on that land. But the issues got muddied with regards
to
statements made by Mugabe that the land was stolen. Now this is very much
an
issue between the Zimbabwe government and the British government in that
it
predates 1980. In fact it goes all the way back to 1919 and at some stage
there is going to have to be an international ruling with regard to, was the
land stolen or not?"
Worswick also stressed that many farmers
bought their properties after
1980 with the blessing of the same government
now taking them back. He said:
"Certainly as farmers in this country we
accepted the hand of reconciliation
after 1980. 82% of the farmers who
stayed in the country had purchased their
land subsequent to 1980 with the
majority of them having received
certificates of "no present interest" from
the government and have basically
developed their farms with the blessing of
the government. So to turn around
in the year 2000 and to say the land was
stolen and you're taking it back
raises major issues that need probably at
this stage an international
ruling."
As for reports that many
farmers were accepting the recent government
offers for compensation.
Worswick said: "To the best of our knowledge only
200 farmers over the last
5 years have received any compensation. Now that's
200 farmers out a
possible 4,300 farmers who have been evicted. It's hardly
a major
response."
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Pretoria News
June 13,
2006 Edition 1
Peter Kagwanja
Zimbabwe's dangerous economic and
political slide seems to be compelling
South Africa to rethink its policy of
quiet diplomacy in favour of a
tougher, more public stance.
With its
bilateral approach having hit a dead end, Pretoria must now step up
its
multilateral engagement with African institutions and the international
community to pursue a mixed policy of diplomatic pressure, sanctions and
incentives to halt Zimbabwe's implosion.
Zimbabwe is becoming a
failed state, posing a real menace to regional peace
and security and
forcing Pretoria to take a hard look at the quiet diplomacy
policy.
On May 17, deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad sounded alarm
bells over the
impact of Zimbabwe's economic meltdown on South Africa -
including the
burden of more than 2-million refugees. President Mbeki has
also publicly
backed United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Kofi Annan's
proposed
diplomatic intervention to resolve Zimbab-we's
crisis.
Pretoria's public call for urgent solutions to the Zimbabwe
crisis signals
the end of its behind-the-curtains diplo-macy.
Mbeki
responded to Zimbabwe's crisis, triggered by the controversial 2000
land
reforms, with "quiet diplomacy" - a policy underpinned by the
imperatives of
African solidarity and peer pressure as opposed to "megaphone
diplomacy" and
open criticism of illiberal policies.
The policy was motivated by
Pretoria's intense fear of having a failed state
on its
doorsteps.
But besides shielding President Robert Mugabe from
international pressure,
the approach strengthened the hand of the ruling
elite and stabilised the
state, postponing Zimbabwe's political
meltdown.
And now the nightmare of a failed state looms even larger. The
most
formidable "opposition" to Mugabe's regime and threat to Zimbabwe's
stability is an economy running amok: a record peace-time annual inflation
rate of 1 042,9%; more than 75% unemployment; almost empty foreign reserves;
and acute fuel and food shortages.
The economic free fall complicates
a "triple" humanitarian crisis: more than
4-million refugees and internally
displaced persons; chronic food shortages
with several million hungry; and a
24,6% adult HIV infection rate.
Harare is heaping all the blame on
external forces and sanctions for its
economic woes, which is unhelpful. It
must start redressing its own
policies, which have pushed the economy to the
ropes. For instance, the 2005
state-engineered urban clean-up ("Operation
Murambatsvina") left more than
133 000 households without shelter or
livelihoods and wiped out the informal
sector - the poor's
haven.
Mugabe has promised to retire when his term expires in 2008, but
the lack of
a transition plan is leaving the country suspended in limbo
between war and
peace. The ruling Zanu-PF is split in the middle by a
vicious race to
succeed Mugabe.
Its plan to create a "transitional
presidency" and postpone elections in
2008 is threatening to drive key party
stalwarts to the opposition and
destroy the ruling party.
Moreover,
the regime's reliance on a nearly 40 000-strong military and the
more than
20 000 ready-for-combat youth militias to crush popular revolts is
fostering
a climate of a country under a de facto martial law.
But with shrinking
incomes and irregular pay, the rank and file officers may
not be relied upon
to quell riots.
Mbeki's intervention in October last year failed to
prevent the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) from fracturing
into two rival factions
now locked in self-destructive feuds over the
party's name and assets.
There is considerably doubt that an opposition
alliance would arise to field
one presidential candidate in 2008, dimming
the chances for a democratic
change and creating widespread frustration and
uncertainty.
In February, Mbeki presented a draft constitution, arising
from the
inter-party talks he brokered between 2002 and 2004, as the
showpiece of his
quiet diplomacy policy.
The draft can serve as a
starting point for a constitution-making process,
but it remains on the back
burner, with Mugabe declaring in February that
"there is no crisis requiring
intervention in Zimbabwe".
Even as the ripples of Zimbabwe's crisis rock
its neighbourhoods, Pretoria
lacks the requisite force of sanction to
reassert its mediation role. But it
has taken a significant first step in
attempting to apply economic pressure.
In September last year, after the
dispute over Zimbabwe's arrears to the
International Monetary Fund (IMF),
Pretoria offered a $500-million credit
line to enable Harare pay off its
debts and buy fuel and food.
But, as pre-conditions for the credit, it
urged for inter-party talks on a
new constitution, the scrapping of
restrictive laws and an economic recovery
plan.
Harare shot down this
initiative, paying its IMF arrears and printing
Z$60-trillion (about
$230-million) to sustain its operations.
But Pretoria's officials insist
that the loan offer is still on the table,
following the IMF's decision to
block Zimbabwe's access to renewed credit.
Although this creates an opening
for re-engagement, Zimbabwe is unlikely to
take the offer owing to
considerations of national sovereignty and pride.
Declining support for
Harare from African leaders like Libya's Muammar
Gaddafi, who supported
Mugabe with a staggering $480-million in 2002, might
boost South Africa's
economic pressure. But Foreign Minister Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma said last
month South Africa would not impose targeted
sanctions against
Zimbabwe.
Pretoria's multilateral diplomacy through the 14-member
Southern Africa
Development Community (SADC) is unlikely to bring about any
change, with its
diplomats acknowledging that "Mugabe is larger than
SADC".
SADC is unlikely to include Zimbabwe's crisis in the agenda for
its summit
in August.
The African Union's (AU) leaders' summit is
believed to have the requisite
diplomatic weight to accelerate chance in
Zimbabwe, but it lacks the
political will and courage to do so. "Zimbabwe is
a hot potato," a senior AU
official said recently.
The AU's
credibility suffered a setback after its January summit rejected on
technicalities yet another resolution by its own Commission on Human and
People's Rights critical of Zimbabwe.
Its summit next month offers an
opportunity to mobilise the continent behind
a call for urgent action to
resolve Zimbabwe's crisis, but South Africa
needs to act to ensure that the
chance is not missed.
Pretoria sees its best chance in backing the UN's
plan on Zimbabwe. Although
the plan's contours are still blurry, it is said
to involve a trade-off
between an aid package and Mugabe's exit
timetable.
But Zimbabwe has poured cold water on the plan, with Mugabe's
spokesman
George Charamba saying that Annan's invitation has
lapsed.
Annan's point-man, UN's under-secretary general for political
affairs
Ibrahim Gambari, has also denied that there is such a plan, despite
confirming that a visit from Annan is still a possibility.
Zimbabwe's
new diplomatic offensive to rope in former Tanzanian president
Benjamin
Mkapa to help in bilateral talks with the British Prime Minister
Tony Blair
appears misguided, with the UK backing the UN initiative.
Pretoria's new
tough stance might send the right message to Harare, but its
officials must
now stay the course.
.. Dr Peter Kagwanja is a Research Associate
with the Centre for
International Political Studies.
Institute for War & Peace
Reporting (London)
COLUMN
June 9, 2006
Posted to the web June 13,
2006
Benedict Unendoro
Harare
If an uprising begins in Zimbabwe
any time soon it might well be dubbed "the
Lemonist Revolution".
So
important has the lemon now become that it is a part of every family's
shopping basket. People visiting neighbouring South Africa return with
plastic bags loaded with the yellow-skinned citrus.
Fresh milk, when
available, has become unaffordable for most. The same goes
for sugar. At
breakfast, to enhance the taste of their morning cup of tea,
locals now use
lemon instead of milk and sugar. They need it in their
porridge too, for the
same reason.
"Tea tastes good with lemon," said Margaret Gweshe, a
housewife living in
Chitungwiza, 28 kilometres from Harare. "But that's not
why we have lemon
tea every day. We would prefer the old days when we had
milk we could
afford."
Prices of essential commodities have shot up,
with inflation reaching 1043
per cent in May. "People now only have money
for the very basics," said
Gweshe as she cradles a two-year-old child
showing the early signs of
malnutrition. "Maize meal is our staple, so all
the money has to be directed
towards it before we can think of buying
anything else."
For breakfast she gives the baby maize porridge with
lemon in it while she
makes do with a cup of tea and a sweet potato from her
garden. To preserve
maize rations there is no midday lunch. "Maputi is all
we will have in the
afternoon," she said. Maputi are popped maize, very
different from popcorn
familiar to film-goers. The latter is made from
special corn, while the
former are just ordinary maize kernels roasted until
they pop.
"For supper we always have sadza [a thick maize porridge] with
vegetables
boiled in salt. There is no cooking oil. We can't afford tomatoes
and
onions. Having supper is an ordeal rather than a pleasure," she
said.
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is now virtually complete and ordinary
Zimbabweans are bearing the brunt of it.
The price of a litre of
petrol increased from 200,000 to 300,000 Zimbabwe
dollars at the end of the
first week of June. Obviously no foreigner can
comprehend, at a glance, what
that means.
So bear with me for a short seminar on a country holding two
world records -
the highest inflation rate in the world and the fastest
shrinking economy.
The real value of one US dollar at the black market
rate in a country where
the formal economy has collapsed is 310,000 Zimbabwe
dollars.
President Robert Mugabe's has pegged the official exchange rate
at 102,000
Zimbabwe dollars to one US dollar, but US greenbacks are
exchanged at this
rate only in exceptional, unavoidable
circumstances.
To illustrate how far we have fallen, one Zimbabwe dollar
was worth more
than one American dollar at independence in
1980.
Eighty per cent of all Zimbabweans now live in abject poverty on
the
equivalent of less than one US dollar a day.
Every rise in the
price of fuel has an immediate effect on everything else.
Commuter bus fares
rise as soon as the price of fuel rises. The prices of
basic commodities
also rise because grocers have to pay more to bring the
commodities to their
shops.
Zimbabwe is the only country in the world whose highest
denomination bank
note cannot buy a loaf of bread. Less than a week after
the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe introduced a new 100,000 Zimbabwe dollar bank
note at the beginning
of June, the price of a loaf of bread shot up from
85,000 to 132,000
Zimbabwe dollars. Last Christmas, we were paying "only"
45,000 a loaf.
A lot of things have become so ridiculous in Zimbabwe that
they would be
hilariously funny if they were not so deadly serious and
causing so many of
us to die unnaturally early. Another world record we hold
is for the lowest
life expectancy for our women. According to the World
Health Organisation,
the average Zimbabwean woman does not live now beyond
the age of 34 compared
with 60 years at independence.
The word
"trillion" has been added to our basic vocabulary, because that is
the
monetary figure government departments and businesses work in.
But a
recent snap survey showed that only one in ten professionals know how
many
zeros there are in a trillion.
The Reserve Bank has introduced "bearer
cheques" because it has run out of
foreign exchange to import the kind of
high quality paper necessary for
printing standard bank notes. The bearer
cheques are printed on ordinary low
quality paper, with no security
features, and they expire after a given
period. The last "quality" bank note
printed in this country was for 1,000
Zimbabwe dollars, which these days
does not buy you even a single
matchstick.
For a single purchase of
twenty litres of petrol, one needs 6 million
Zimbabwe dollars or 300 twenty
thousand dollar bearer cheques. Petrol
attendants use money counters for
this and as the cheques purr in the
machine the poor quality paper sends
lots of dust into the attendant's face.
They have to wear masks because the
dust causes terrible coughing.
The dust pollution is made worse because
"some of our customers carry their
great wads of bearer cheques in the most
unsavoury of containers", one
attendant told IWPR at a service station in
the Harare suburb of Hatfield.
In the villages, the new money puzzles the
elderly. "Why do they give us
this new note when it cannot buy anything,"
asked an old man at funeral
vigil in Chivi, 320 km south of Harare. He told
IWPR that in his day, "when
money was still money", one could buy a pair of
shoes using the biggest
denomination note. "Now this 100,000 dollar bill
buys nothing, but they
bring it to us anyway," he said.
The 100,000
Zimbabwe dollar bill has been dubbed the "greenback" by local
wits because
of its colour. But, unlike a single US dollar, one of these new
notes is
useless by itself. To buy a single 40-watt lightbulb you need a
dozen
"greenbacks".
Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono said on the eve of the
launch of the
100,000 Zimbabwe dollar bearer cheque, "It will help reduce
the annoyance of
carrying loads and loads of money around and make shopping
easier." Well,
Gono, who lives in a palatial home perhaps second in size to
President
Mugabe's, is way out of touch with reality. We ordinary
Zimbabweans no
longer use wallets. They are too small. The country's money
is devaluing so
fast that you have to lug around plastic bags full of
"bricks" of notes if
you are going to a small grocery shop. To buy anything
bigger, you need a
suitcase.
For most low-income urban dwellers whose
salaries range from a low of five
million to an average of ten million
Zimbabwe dollars a month, life has
simply become unbearable.
Margaret
Gweshe's husband earns ten million Zimbabwe dollars and works near
the city
centre. He needs 200,000 a day to travel to and from work and the
total per
month is about four million. Rental accommodation in most working
class
suburbs ranges between 3 million and 3.5million a month for a single
room.
The Gweshes' monthly ten million Zimbabwe dollars is gobbled up
just by
transport and accommodation. They rent two rooms. Therefore there is
no
money for groceries, school fees and school uniforms, whose prices are
soaring in line with runaway inflation. School shoes now cost 3 million a
pair at a shoe shop considered to be one of the cheapest.
"A person
earning 10 million is not able to come to work, pay school fees
and
accommodation. That's what it means," said Fadzai Kaseke who lives in
the
sprawling shantytown of Epworth just outside Harare. "That person cannot
afford to get sick. Imagine if a serious illness falls in the family. The
person will be in serious trouble."
Most families are surviving on
one meal a day. Things that most people used
to take for granted, such as
milk, margarine, bread, sugar, meat, cooking
oil and tea, have become
luxuries. Beef, once a staple along with maize, now
costs 1 million Zimbabwe
dollars a kilogramme in a supermarket.
Zimbabweans joke grimly that
they are "poor millionaires". Like Gladys, a
domestic worker who earns more
than 3 million a month. That is a salary she
could only dream of a few years
ago when maids' monthly wages were set at
80,000. But these days her
millions do not stretch to a regular morsel of
meat. So she eats dried
grasshoppers.
"We are getting to the point where people can't take
anymore," said Lovemore
Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional
Assembly, a major lobby
group for political reform."Poverty and suffering
are growing by the day.
It's just a matter of time before inflation sparks
civil disobedience."
Benedict Unendoro is the pseudonym of an IWPR
journalist in Zimbabwe.
Washington Post
Asian
Giant's Appetite for Raw Materials, Markets Has Some Questioning Its
Impact
on Continent
By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign
Service
Tuesday, June 13, 2006; Page A14
JOHANNESBURG -- Every time
newspaper publisher Trevor Ncube visits his
native Zimbabwe, he said, there
seem to be more Chinese. He sees them
shopping at boutiques, driving fancy
cars, picking up their children from
elite private schools.
And as in
much of Africa, Ncube said, China's reach into Zimbabwe's economy
is equally
pervasive: The roads are filled with Chinese buses, the markets
with Chinese
goods, and Chinese-made planes are in the skies. Chinese
companies are major
investors in mining and telecommunications. The
government in Beijing,
meanwhile, is a crucial backer of Zimbabwe's
authoritarian president, Robert
Mugabe.
"They are all over the place," said Ncube, 43, who owns
newspapers in
Zimbabwe and South Africa. "If the British were our masters
yesterday, the
Chinese have come and taken their place."
Such unease
appears to be rising across Africa as Chinese become powerful
players --
and, in some places, the dominant ones -- in economies across the
continent.
In a pattern replicated across the world, China's voracious
appetite for raw
materials is helping push sub-Saharan economies to their
fastest growth in
three decades, and inexpensive Chinese-made products are
suddenly available
across the continent. Yet many Africans say the influx,
while offering
consumers more affordable goods, has not improved their
economic situation
and has hurt local companies.
African and Western activists say China's
increasingly close ties to the
troubled governments in Angola, Nigeria,
Sudan and Zimbabwe are undermining
efforts to nurture democracy and improve
human rights.
When Chinese President Hu Jintao toured Africa in April, he
implicitly
responded to concerns about his country's growing role on the
continent.
"China's development will not bring a threat to anyone but,
instead, will
only bring more opportunities and space for development to the
world," Hu
told the Nigerian National Assembly, according to news
reports.
He also reiterated China's policy of making business deals
without any
expectation that governments will improve democracy, respect
human rights or
fight corruption. He told reporters in Nairobi, the last
stop of his tour,
that China follows "a policy of noninterference in other
countries' internal
affairs."
China's overall trade with Africa rose
from $10.6 billion in 2000 to $40
billion last year and continues to
increase, according to Chinese government
statistics. Sub-Saharan Africa's
economic growth rate, meanwhile, has nearly
doubled over the same period,
from 3 percent to an estimated 5.8 percent
this year, the best since 1974,
according to the International Monetary
Fund. Among the major factors,
analysts and economists say, is the
increasing trade with
China.
"Those places that are energy-rich and mineral-rich are awash in
cash," said
J. Stephen Morrison, head of the Africa program for the Center
for Strategic
and International Studies, speaking from his office in
Washington. "And that
is driven in part by these new, rapid-growth Asian
economies."
China has spent billions of dollars securing drilling rights
in Nigeria,
Sudan and Angola, and has exploration or extraction deals with
Chad, Gabon,
Mauritania, Kenya, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and
Ethiopia.
The Chinese also have become investors in the booming copper
industry in
Zambia and Congo. They have been major buyers of timber in
Gabon, Cameroon,
Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea and Liberia. Chinese
companies were widely
criticized for keeping former president and war crimes
suspect Charles
Taylor flush with cash and prolonging Liberia's devastating
civil war. The
Chinese also have helped push up the prices of other African
exports such as
platinum, iron and coal.
New Zimbabwe
By Everette
Ndlovu
Last updated: 06/13/2006 11:19:54
THE Voice of the People radio
station (VOP) -- one of the few independent
radio stations broadcasting into
Zimbabwe -- has received the coveted One
World Special Award sponsored by
the BBC World Service Trust.
The award is given to "an overseas media
project that has made a unique
contribution to human rights."
The
radio station that has survived police raids, arrests, frequency jams,
and
an impending court case, was honoured at a ceremony in London last week
for
being the "voice of the voiceless under trying circumstances."
Despite
repressive media laws which have seen foreign correspondents
deported, VOP
broadcasts a daily programme, providing a lifeline for up to
half a million
listeners hungry for information.
Each day, the station broadcasts a
one-hour programme in the country's three
national languages - Shona,
Ndebele and English. As well as providing news
and debate, including the
exposure of human rights abuses, the station
covers health and education,
especially around HIV/AIDS.
Journalists from VOP, including director John
Masuku, made a special trip to
London to collect the award.
Masuku
said: "In its lifetime, the station has been criticised, threatened
and
jammed but what drives us on is the belief in giving a voice to the
voiceless - giving the people of Zimbabwe an opportunity to speak freely
about issues that affect their lives and country. This award provides huge
encouragement to us all. Thank you."
The ceremony was hosted by
Channel 4 News' main news anchor Jon Snow, a
supporter of the
awards.
The trial of Voice of the People (VOP) board members accused of
operating a
radio station without a licence in terms of the Broadcasting
Services Act
(BSA) has been set for 15 June 2006 at the Harare Magistrates
Courts.
Masuku and fellow VOP board members, David Masunda, Nhlanhla
Ngwenya,
Lawrence Chibwe, Millie Phiri, Arnold Tsunga and Bella Matambanadzo
go on
trial on June 16 accused of contravening section 7(1) of the
Broadcasting
Services Act which prohibits broadcasting without a
licence.
Zimbabwean prosecutors say the VOP bosses established an office
at in Harare
which they equipped with computers and produced news
programmes.
The news programmes were allegedly then dispatched to a
transmitter in the
Netherlands from where they were relayed to Madagascar.
The station in
Madagascar, prosecutors say, beamed the programmes into
Zimbabwe via short
wave.
journalism.co.za
The
mouthpiece of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party, The Voice, has been
taken off
the streets and seems to have collapsed, writes Torby
Muturikwa.
Journalists at the paper this week said they are
unsure of their
future after management could not indicate when the weekly
paper would be
back on the streets.
"We were told that the paper
was restructuring so it was important to
stop publishing temporarily. But
since the dismissal of Lovemore Mataire
(Editor) and the problems that we
now hear at Jongwe Printers, no one is
sure if the paper will come back,"
one journalist said.
Mataire had been charged with theft from the
paper, but was dismissed
after State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa
withdrew the charges early this
year.
Zanu PF Secretary for
Information and Publicity, Nathan Shamuyarira
had reported Mataire to the
police for stealing $6 million (R120) of the
newspaper's sales
revenue.
Shamuyarira refused to comment on the closure of The Voice
and said it
was a party issue and would be dealt with by the party and not
by outsiders.
The Voice has been off the streets since February
although insiders at
Zanu PF hinted that the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) might take
over the mouthpiece.
However, the
CIO did not take over after it discovered that Jongwe
Printers was in the
red. The CIO is currently also embroiled in a bitter
ownership wrangle with
founder of the Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers Group
(ZMNG), Dr Ibbo
Mandaza.
Jongwe Printers, the publishers of The Voice, are on the
verge of
collapse after money meant for recapitalisation was allegedly used
by Zanu
PF heavyweights.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe released
a Z$17.5 billion loan facility
for the purchase of a printing press but the
money was diverted to other
uses.
Two years ago, Jongwe spent a
$10.5 billion RBZ loan for a printing
press on an unsuitable machine that
can only print exercise books.
Recently the publishing house had
its property attached by the
Messenger of the Court to settle outstanding
debts owed to a number of
service providers.
The Voice,
formerly The People's Voice, has been Zanu PF's internal
newspaper for
almost twenty years.
Over the years, the paper has dramatically
lost revenue. Its
circulation dropped from 15 000 at its peak to less than
2000 per week.
Monday, 12 June, 2006
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
(London)
June 9, 2006
Posted to the web June 13, 2006
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" \u2013 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.
IOL
June 13
2006 at 01:25AM
Harare - Zimbabwe's information minister threatened
journalists deemed
"traitors" on Monday.
"You know what the end
of a traitor is?" Tichaona Jokonya asked during
a press
conference.
"The end of a traitor is always death. The unfortunate
thing about a
traitor is that you are killed by both your own people and the
person whom
you are serving," he said.
The comments appeared to
be the latest threat against reporters
working for Western media
organisations. The Zimbabwean government has long
had strained relations
with the West, who they say are determined to remove
Mugabe from
power.
Dozens of independent reporters have been arrested and
several foreign
journalists deported under stringent media laws introduced
shortly after
President Robert Mugabe's re-election in
2002.
Jokonya was addressing a press conference with an
official from the
Washington-based Pan-African Liberation Organisation, who
is on a
fact-finding visit to Zimbabwe.
Jokonya warned
Zimbabwean journalists against serving the interests of
Zimbabwe's
detractors, state radio said. - Sapa-dpa
United Methodist Communications
Jun. 12, 2006 News media contact: Kathy Gilbert * (615)
7425470* Nashville
{345}
NOTE: Photographs and related stories are
available at http://umns.umc.org.
By
Kathy L. Gilbert*
HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) - Gladman Makwenya is a young,
enthusiastic
communicator, ready to take on the challenges of spreading the
news about
the church in Zimbabwe with a pen and some loose recycled
newsprint pages.
Pen and paper are about the only tools he has right now;
he is not even
assured he will always have a table to write on or a chair to
sit in.
Barbara Nissen and Tafadzwa Mudambanuki, members of United
Methodist
Communications' Communications Resourcing Team, met with church
leaders in
Zimbabwe in 2005 to hear the stories of their
challenges.
The meeting was part of the Central Conference Communications
Initiative
approved by the 2004 General Conference. The United Methodist
Church's
legislative assembly approved the initiative to develop
communications
capabilities in the denomination's regional units - or
conferences - in
Africa, Europe and Asia.
Working in partnership with
central conference church leaders, United
Methodist Communications is
helping those areas not only meet their own
needs but also the needs of the
larger church "for hearing, embracing and
sharing life-transforming
stories," said Nissen.
"The leaders of the church in Africa have told us
their ministry is hindered
by the inability of church leaders and members to
communicate with each
other in a timely and accessible way," said the Rev.
Larry Hollon, top
executive of the communications agency.
Covenant of
mutual help
The Foundation for United Methodist Communications is working
to raise
funding for establishing communication centers in each conference.
The
Mississippi Annual (regional) Conference has pledged $14,000 to
establish a
center in Zimbabwe.
Teams of Mississippians have traveled
to Zimbabwe, visiting Africa
University, Mutare, Victoria Falls and Harare.
The teams have explored ways
to link human and material resources in
offering care for people impacted by
the AIDS pandemic.
After
Hurricane Katrina, Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa, resident bishop of
Zimbabwe,
directed that a gift from his salary be designated for relief in
Mississippi
and wrote a letter to United Methodists in that state expressing
his grief
that the church in Zimbabwe could not be physically present on the
Gulf
Coast in this time of great challenge.
Nhiwatiwa will preach and teach at
the 2006 Annual Conference Session in
Jackson, Miss. At the conference, the
Chabadza Covenant will be celebrated.
"Chabadza" is a Shona word that
describes a partnership in which one
observes another at work in a field and
joins in the work.
The bishop will serve as honored theologian in
residence in Mississippi,
engaging laity and clergy in study and dialogue.
Teams of youth and adults
are preparing to visit Zimbabwe. The
communications initiative is a priority
of the Chabadza
Covenant.
"Nothing can supersede communications in spreading the gospel,"
Nhiwatiwa
said. "Communication is the hallmark of doing ministry in all its
various
facets."
Struggling to survive
Zimbabwe is a country
struggling with many economic problems, including
hyperinflation, which
makes it very hard to budget and plan well, the bishop
said. Currently, $1
in U.S. currency equals Z$101,000.
Zimbabwe is also a country with
120,000 United Methodists in two annual
conferences and 12 districts. The
United Methodist Church was established in
1897 at Old Mutare Mission
through the efforts of Bishop Crane Joseph
Hartzell and other pioneers
including missionaries.
"On Sunday, everyone goes to church - it is the
center of communication,"
said Betty Spiwe Katiyo, lay leader of the
Zimbabwe West annual conference
and a member of the communications
board.
However, the bishop's office in Harare does not have even the most
basic
communication needs, she added. Katiyo said some businesses have
modern
equipment, but the church is far behind in having adequate
communication
tools.
"There are only two phone lines, and the
switchboard does not have enough
extensions for the conference staff," she
said. The office also lacks
computers and Internet service is almost always
"down."
"We need telephones, faxes and other vehicles as a means of
communication.
When you see what we have, you will not think it is normal
because of what
you are used to," she told Nissen and
Mudambanuki.
Communication outside the urban areas of Harare and Mutare
is much more
difficult, the team learned.
The Rev. Elijah
Kabungaidze, superintendent of the Murange District, has a
phone in his
house that doesn't ring and a cell phone that can only be used
if he climbs
a high hill several kilometers away.
Because of the severe fuel shortage
in the country, he uses a bicycle or
walks when he needs to visit his 14
circuits and 65 churches.
"I used to be able to get fuel once a week, but
now I am lucky to get it
once a month," he said. He is working to get a
computer in his office, a
small room behind his garage, but he has to wait
for electricity in his
area. He has two old typewriters but often has
trouble getting paper.
When he wants to send a letter, he waits on the
side of the road for a bus
to come by and gives the letter to a passenger,
who promises to get it to
the person he is trying to
reach.
Schoolchildren often become the means of communication, said the
Rev. Joseph
Zinhanga, pastor for Nyakatsapa primary school. Mavhu Chishakwe,
teacher in
charge, demonstrated how frustrating it is to try to get through
on the
school's party line.
"Most phone calls don't go through," she
said. "We have to wait for other
conversations to end. The code for school's
calls is three short rings and
one long ring."
Most of the 438
children enrolled in the primary school are orphans.
Zinhanga calls the
children together and selects the "head boy" to hand out
mail to students to
take to family, friends and neighbors.
Jack Chipfiko, head master of
Nyakatsapa secondary school, sends students to
collect the mail about 5
kilometers away. Children take mail home about 5 to
8 kilometers
away.
"The roads are very bad and haven't been attended to in the last
six or
seven years," he said. There is no phone line in his office, and he
mostly
uses a cell phone. "But it's hard to get a
connection."
Working on solutions
"One size will not fit all,"
Nissen said. "Through the initiative, we have
begun to work with conference
leaders in each episcopal area to identify
needs and approaches to building
and enhancing communication infrastructure
in the church."
"From what
we're hearing in Africa, we hope to help equip each area with the
tools and
training needed to run a viable communications center or
workstation,"
Mudambanuki said. "At the same time, we're looking at how
community radio or
ham radios could strengthen the outreach of the church."
A two-week
course of study will be held at Africa University June 15-30.
Classes will
include basic computer, Internet and email training,
journalism,
photography, videography, video editing, newsletter design and a
special
session on writing about social issues such as HIV/AIDS and malaria.
"It
is exciting to hear about the possibilities of having communication
offices
in all our Episcopal areas," said Makwenya. "It is my prayer that
God will
continue to open possibilities."
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News
Service news writer based in Nashville,
Tenn.
News media contact:
Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
Ghanaian Chronicle
(Accra)
June 12, 2006
Posted to the web June 12, 2006
David
Allan Paintsil
Cape Coast
Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, is
expected to present a paper on land
issues at a Reparations Conference in
Accra next month.
His presentation would educate the organizers of the
function on how
reparation would be of help to Africans with regards to land
issues.
Nana Kwamena Gyebi, President of Sankofa United Continent African
Roots
Development International Association of Ghana (SUCARDIF), said an
invitation has already been sent to Mr. Mugabe.
"Mugabe is the only
African leader who is fighting the cause for Africans
and he has been
portrayed by the West as a demon," he pointed out.
Nana Gyebi, who is
also co-convener of the meeting, said Mugabe's presence
would help allay
fears of Africans that the Zimbabwean President was a
tyrant oppressing his
people.
He said this at a press briefing on Thursday at Amamoma, where a
200-acre
land has been released for the construction of a US$180-million
Return Tower
as a symbol for the return of black Africans who were enslaved
in Europe and
the Americas.
"Mugabe has been suffocated too much by
US and Britain through sanctions
they placed on the country," he
said.
Explaining that the conference would give the southern African
leader the
opportunity to address reparation activists who would converge in
Accra from
July 22 to August 2.
Nana Gyebi said the conference would
serve as preparatory grounds to chart a
common course for the demand of
reparations for Africans, and also solicit
funds for the building of the
Tower of Return complex at Amamoma, a suburb
of Cape Coast in the Central
Region.
African-American Liberation Campaigner, Lewis Farrakhan, is also
billed to
attend the conference, according to Nana Gyebi.
A
repatriated African-American, Seestah Imakhus Njinga Ababio, said Africans
were demanding reparations for what they went through during the Trans
Atlantic Slavery period and people should not misconstrue it as begging for
money from the perpetrators.
The Chief of Amamoma, Nana Yatal, said
he was optimistic the tower's
construction would create job avenues for the
youth in the area and
commended all stakeholders for initiating such a
project.
The Central Regional Minister, Nana Ato Arthur, noted that
the construction
of the tower would boost tourism because the region serves
as the tourism
hub of Ghana.
He said the Regional Coordinating
Council would support the construction of
the symbolic tower.
Mr. Nii
Adiko, coordinator of the conference, said the African Union, ECOWAS
and
Ministry of Tourism and Diasporan Relations have all consented to the
construction of the tower.
New Zimbabwe
By Lebo
Nkatazo
Last updated: 06/13/2006 11:20:04
THE Combined Harare Residents
Association (CHRA) made fresh demands for
elections in Harare ahead of a
crucial cabinet meeting on Tuesday set to be
dominated by discussions over
the fate of a government-appointed commission
running the city.
The
commission, led by Zanu PF councillor Sekesai Makwavarara, will need a
new
mandate to continue at Town House following the lapse of its term last
Friday.
Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo was under pressure
this week from
opposition groups calling for new elections. He told The
Daily Mirror
newspaper that the matter would come before cabinet on Tuesday
night.
The CHRA petitioned Zimbabwe's High Court recently, seeking an
order for
elections to be declared in Harare. The matter, deemed not urgent
by the
court, is yet to be argued.
On Monday, CHRA spokesperson,
Precious Shumba said: "We are really concerned
by the delay in finalising
that matter. We hope this time around Chombo and
Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa will save the situation by organising
elections."
The
elected mayor of Harare, Elias Mudzuri who was elected on an opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was forced out of office by Chombo
following accusations of corruption and incompetence.
Makwavarara who
had just defected from the MDC was appointed by Chombo to
head the
commission on December 9, 2004. Government critics say the
commission's term
was illegally extended in June 2005.
Shumba said: "The CHRA is saying and
has been saying that the commission has
overstayed its legal mandate. Its
term has been illegally extended since
June 2005. We demand that elections
for Harare be held now."
Other members on the commission are Jameson
Kurasha, Tendai Savanhu, Prisca
Mupfumira, Viola Chasi, Musavaya Reza,
Terrence Hussein and Noel Muzuva.
It has been reported that Chombo
favours the appointment of Savanhu as the
new chairman of the commission,
but he faces opposition from his cabinet
colleagues.
Last year,
Chombo announced that elections for Harare, which should have
been held this
year, will now take place in 2007. Opposition officials say
Zanu PF fears
defeat in Harare, a major opposition stronghold.
The Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) recently announced the opening of
the inspection of the
voters roll for Kadoma and Chitungwiza mayoral
elections but was mum on
Harare.
New Zimbabwe
By Lebo
Nkatazo
Last updated: 06/13/2006 11:19:50
THE tenure of Zimbabwe's
government-appointed media regulation body -- the
Media and Information
Commission (MIC) -- runs out on Wednesday.
For four years Tafataona
Mahoso, the MIC chairman who is also a journalism
lecturer and newspaper
columnist has stood accused of suppressing media
freedoms by banning
newspapers critical of President Robert Mugabe's regime.
Four newspapers
have been banned since the MIC was established by an Act of
Parliament --
the much-criticised Access to Information and Publicity Act
(AIPPA) which
gives the body power to register and de-register newspapers
and
journalists.
The commission's first three terms stipulated under the
Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act ended in June
2005.
Mahoso's team of commissioners were handed two more six-month terms
which
expire on Wednesday.
A commissioner told New Zimbabwe.com
Tuesday: "Our letters of appointment
said the six-moth term was with effect
from December 14 and expires on June
14. We don't know what will happen but
there is talk that government will
deal with the issue at the end of
June."
The MIC has closed four critical newspapers since its
establishment.
A leading independent newspaper, The Daily News, was taken
off the streets
together with its sister paper, The Daily News on Sunday.
The commission was
also responsible for shutting down the Tribune and Weekly
Times newspapers
for reasons ranging from refusing to register to failing to
notify the MIC
of changes to ownership.
The High Court and the
Supreme Court have in separate judgments endorsed
arguments by the
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of the
Daily News, that
the MIC is biased.
The judgments have since gone to bar the MIC, as
presently constituted, from
hearing the ANZ case.
Information
Minister Tichaona Jokonya and Mahoso recently petitioned the
High Court to
dismiss with costs a Daily News application to be deemed
registered.
Jokonya and Mahoso are arguing that the court does not
have jurisdiction
over the matter. The MIC and the Information Minister,
they say, are the
only two authorities vested with powers to deal with the
registration of
newspapers.
Jokonya said after the High Court ruled
that the MIC must recuse itself from
hearing the Daily News' application for
registration, he considered setting
a special board but was advised the
Attorney General's office that he did
not have powers to do so.
By Lance
Guma
12 June 2006
Nolbert Kunonga, the Anglican Bishop of
Harar,e has reportedly
inducted Vice President Joseph Msika as a lay reader
in the church. This
comes amid growing signs that Robert Mugabe's regime has
clearly co-opted
the Bishop into using the church as a hunting ground for
supporters. Msika's
new post means he is effectively a sub deacon and can
conduct sermons in
church should the priest be absent. A priest who refused
to be named told
Newsreel that no public readings were made of Msika's
induction and this was
to deliberately avoid objections from parishioners.
The priest told us that
Msika could not be described as a regular churchgoer
adding that it was
actually his wife Mai Msika who came to the services most
of the time.
A few years ago the Vice president was made the patron
of St Albans
Anglican Mission School in Chiweshe - another move critics
believe was
politically motivated. Newsreel was also told that Harare's
former Mayor,
the late Solomon Tawengwa, did more for the Anglican Community
than Msika
but never received similar recognition. Tawengwa is said to have
built a
church for the diocese at his farm in Marondera during the time
Bishop
Jonathan Siyachitema was in charge. Journalist and Anglican
parishioner
Sandra Nyaira described Kunonga's induction of the Vice
President as a clear
attempt to curry favour with the regime. Apparently
Kunonga is also
ordaining people without any theological training as part of
his attempts to
fill the church with his sympathisers.
From his
base at the St Mary's Cathedral in Harare the Bishop has not
only come out
in support of the violent land seizure policy but he barred
the priests in
the church from criticising the much condemned Operation
Murambatsvina. He
is accused of running the diocese like a mafia
organisation, terrorising
critics and transferring to remote parishes any
priests who challenge his
authority. Christina Lamb writing for the Sunday
Times UK says the Harare
Bishop 'was given a farm and a seven bed-roomed
house overlooking a lake,'
as a reward for his open support of Zanu PF. The
farm is St Marnocks,
outside Harare.
The paper says the farm is one of the biggest in
the country and had
been seized from the Hale family who had bought it in
1990 for £700,000.'
The farm has gone from producing 4000 tonnes of cereal
to just less than 70
tonnes and Kunonga is allegedly refusing to return
irrigation equipment and
portable silos worth over £190,000, which he
seized. The paper quotes an
exiled priest in the United Kingdom as saying,
'Kunonga has terrorised
Christians and turned the diocese into a religious
branch of Zanu-PF.' The
situation is apparently so bad that 10 priests from
the Harare Diocese have
fled to the United kingdom. The Sunday Times says
the Archbishop of
Canterbury; Rowan Williams intervened with the Home Office
to assist the
priests get sanctuary in the UK.
Several
politicians in Zimbabwe have turned to religion as the country's
fortunes
continue to plunge. Businessman Philip Chiyangwa and Politicians
Webster
Shamu, Emerson Mnangagwa and Nathan Shumuyarira are some of the high
profiles figures to have committed themselves to particular
churches.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Tererai Karimakwenda
12 June 2006
A
group of women from several high-density suburbs have revealed that
they
believe anti-retroviral drugs donated to Zimbabwe to help the poor,
such as
themselves, have been diverted to private chemists by government
officials.
In March and April this year the women say they were told by
their sponsors
that loads of boxes of ARV drugs had been donated by Asian
countries to
benefit them. They were to access these for free at state-run
hospitals like
Mpilo and Parirenyatwa. But the women, who chose to remain
anonymous for
their safety, said the hospitals told them the drugs had run
out within the
first few weeks. But none of them had received any free ARVs.
When they went
to private chemists they saw the drugs for sale in boxes that
were exactly
like the donated boxes they had seen in the past but the prices
for these
ARVs were too far out of reach.
This news comes at a time when
drugs for tuberculosis are reported to
have run out in Zimbabwe. Other basic
drugs like the pain killer panadol are
also in short supply and very
expensive at the private chemists.
One HIV positive woman who
reports for SW Radio Africa told us she
confirmed at her local chemist that
the ARVs being sold there had been
provided by a government-run hospital.
She said the packaging had not even
been changed. The involvement of
government officials in diverting medicines
in short supply is not a new
story. The women we spoke with used to receive
free ARVs from a
non-governmental organisation that was ordered to stop
distributing such
drugs. They said this was meant to force them to buy them
at inflated prices
from chemists since they had no choice if they wanted to
live. But the
strategy has caused many unnecessary deaths. The women said
people are
simply dying at home without the medication because many cannot
afford it.
Our contact is lucky enough to have several sponsors that pay for
medication.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news