ZIMBABWE: Reports of torture, assault continue
IRINnews Africa, Tue 24
Jun 2003
JOHANNESBURG, - Allegations of torture by the security forces
in
Zimbabwe have continued, a coalition of human rights groups said in
their
latest report.
"The majority of the perpetrators were
reportedly dressed in army and
police uniforms and, as such, the victims
plausibly concluded them to be ZNA
[army] and ZRP [police] personnel. [This]
identity appears to have been
confirmed by the use of police and army
vehicles, and by arrest and
detention at police stations following the act of
torture," the Human Rights
Forum said in their May update.
"Soldiers and police officers have on many occasions been reported as
forcing
entry into victims' homes, assaulting them with baton sticks, booted
feet and
open palms, apparently on the basis of their real or perceived
support of the
opposition MDC [Movement for Democratic Change]," the
report
noted.
The Human Rights Forum, a coalition of 14 NGOs,
said it received
reports of assault by members of the ruling ZANU-PF,
pro-government youths
from the Border Gezi National Youth Service Training
Centre, members of the
war veterans association and MDC youths.
The forum recorded 16 cases of torture, one of murder,
one
abduction/kidnapping and six cases of assault between 1 to 31 May. It
also
said there were 58 violations of people's freedom of
expression/association
or movement, 24 unlawful arrests (defined as an arrest
made with no
reasonable suspicion that an offence has been committed) and 13
cases of
unlawful detention (defined as detention for more than 48 hours
without
access to redress through the courts or subsequent release without
charge).
Violations pertaining to freedom of association and
expression were
perpetrated mainly around public protests such as a 5 May
demonstration held
in the capital, Harare, by MDC women protesting the
conditions faced by
Zimbabwe's women, the report said.
From
January to end May, the forum recorded 442 cases of unlawful
arrest, 266 of
torture, 180 assaults, 136 unlawful detentions, five
politically related
murders and five rapes.
MSNBC
Zimbabwe air force head says MDC offered him bribe
By Cris
Chinaka
HARARE, June 24 — Zimbabwe's air force chief said on Tuesday
the country's
main opposition party had offered him money to try to win his
loyalty, and
to persuade army generals loyal to President Robert Mugabe to
cross sides.
Air Marshall Perence Shiri told a High Court trying
opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai on treason charges that two legislators
from the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) sought the military's support
ahead of a March
2002 presidential vote.
Tsvangirai and two party
colleagues could face the death penalty if
convicted of charges of plotting
to assassinate Mugabe before the elections.
They all deny the
charges.
The MDC leader has mounted his own court challenge to
Mugabe's poll
victory, which the opposition and several Western countries
condemned as
fraudulent, and has accused Mugabe of ruining the country's once
bountiful
economy.
Last Friday the High Court granted Tsvangirai
bail after he was
detained for two weeks on separate treason charges. In that
case he was
alleged to have told his supporters to overthrow Mugabe through
protests.
Shiri told the High Court that MDC members of parliament Job
Sikhala
and Tafadzwa Musekiwa had met him twice in January 2002, saying
Tsvangirai
wanted him to be a key adviser when he came to power.
Shiri said he was suspicious of the MDC's agenda and had told the two
he had
difficulties with their policies, but would be bound to respect their
victory
if they took power in the elections.
''Sikhala said that if I was
agreeable to working with the MDC and to
talk to the other generals, the rank
and file and the war veterans to accept
the MDC, the MDC was prepared to pay
me 10 million (Zimbabwe) dollars,'' he
said.
''I told them that I
was not interested in their money... that I am
not a mercenary for hire,'' he
added.
Under cross-examination, Shiri said he had assumed from the
meeting
that the MDC was looking for a constitutional route to power, adding:
''But
I am not sure whether that was the case.''
The treason
charges against the three MDC officials hinges on a
videotape of a meeting in
Montreal between Canadian-based political
consultant Ari Ben-Menashe and
Tsvangirai, who allegedly discussed Mugabe's
''elimination.''
Ben-Menashe, labelled an unreliable witness by the defence, has
admitted he
taped the meeting solely to get evidence for the government but
denied
entrapping Tsvangirai or being paid for it.
The defence says the video
was doctored to discredit the MDC, the
most potent challenge to Mugabe's
power since he led the country to
independence from Britain in
1980.
Mugabe rejects the MDC's charges that his mismanagement is to
blame
for the collapse of Zimbabwe's once vibrant economy. The country has
chronic
shortages of fuel and foreign exchange, one of the highest rates
of
inflation in the world and a food crisis affecting half of its 14
million
population.
Carrying Fuel in Containers Banned
The Herald
(Harare)
June 24, 2003
Posted to the web June 24,
2003
Harare
Motorists carrying fuel in containers will now have to
obtain permits from
the Government as the State moves to curb the selling of
the commodity on
the thriving black market.
However, the regulations
were immediately greeted with mixed views from
motorists in and around
Harare.
Some welcomed the move while others had reservations saying
the Government
should ensure fuel was available on the market rather than
resort to stop
gap measures.
The Deputy Minister of Energy and Power
Development, Cde Rueben Marumahoko,
yesterday said the permits would be
obtained from his ministry.
"If, for example, someone has a funeral or is
a farmer who needs diesel, he
has to apply to the ministry to be given
permission to carry the fuel to his
farm otherwise he will get arrested,"
said Cde Marumahoko.
He, however, could not specify the quantity of fuel
one should seek
clearance for from the ministry.
It is, however,
understood that farmers who need to carry fuel are supposed
to submit their
identification cards, letters from the Department of
Agricultural, Research
and Extension Services and evidence of ownership of
the equipment requiring
the fuel when applying for permits.
Owners of grinding mills are expected
to produce operating licences, while
miners are required to produce an
application letter and identity card to be
vetted by officers at the Ministry
of Energy and Power Development.
Individuals who wish to carry fuel and
have special cases are required to
submit identity cards, an application
letter, state the purpose for which
the fuel is needed, car registration
number and routes and dates of travel.
Cde Marumahoko said the
regulations were introduced in March and that each
case was treated according
to its merits.
The permits are renewable after a certain period of time
and are collected
from the ministry's offices on Mondays, Wednesdays and
Fridays.
The Government recently accused commuter omnibus owners of
re-selling on
black market the fuel they get from designated service
stations.
Some operators are said to have completely withdrawn their
services opting
instead to queue for fuel, which they would in turn re-sell
on the black
market.
Mr Collen Moyo said the move did not make sense,
as there was no fuel on the
market.
"For them to do so, is the
commodity available? How do they prove the fuel
will be carried to the said
destination," he said.
Mr Moyo said for the policy to be binding
Government would have to increase
the number of police details to enforce the
regulations.
He said people carried fuel in containers other than their
vehicle tanks
because the commodity was not readily available.
Mr
Edward Tavaziva who welcomed the idea said motorists should instead
carry
fuel in metal containers that have breathing space.
He noted
that the idea was noble because it protected motorists in the event
of a road
traffic accident.
Mr Tavaziva said he carried fuel in a container each
time he travelled out
of Harare because there was no fuel
elsewhere.
Mr Alexio Dzumbunu suggested that the permits should be issued
for a
specified period of time.
He said the problem with the
regulations was that not everyone had the time
to queue for the
permits.
"We do not have time, unless there would be agents at service
stations to
issue those permits," he said.
Mr Dzumbunu said some cases
like funerals did not warrant applying for
permits because they were not
planned for.
He added that Government should just ensure there was enough
fuel on the
market rather than resort to stop gap measures.
Another
motorist who declined to be named said Government should allow
market forces
to determine the prices of fuel.
Mr Dereck Pollock said he would always
carry fuel with him because it was
not readily available on the
market.
Police were yesterday reported to be confiscating fuel carried in
containers
at various roadblocks around the city.
Tafadzwa Kapuya said
Government should work out ways of sourcing enough
fuel.
Reserve Bank Fails to Inject New Notes
The Herald
(Harare)
June 24, 2003
Posted to the web June 24, 2003
Walter
Muchinguri
Harare
THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is yet to introduce new
notes into the official
system despite an earlier undertaking that at least
$24 million in $500
notes would be injected into the market mid this month to
alleviate the cash
crisis.
The delay, it is understood, could be
caused by the fact that it has become
costly to produce the $500 bills and
that the central bank is actually
contemplating phasing them
out.
However, efforts to get comment from RBZ proved fruitless over the
past
week.
Reserve Bank Governor Dr Leonard Tsumba told journalists
earlier this month
that a subsidiary of the RBZ, Fidelity Printers had
already taken delivery
of 500 000 sheets of money paper early this month
which was already being
used to print additional notes.
As an
additional measure the central bank introduced three shifts at
Fidelity
Printers to ensure that notes were swiftly made available but this
has not
happened.
Officials in the banking sector yesterday said they were still
queuing to
receive the notes from the central bank.
"We have been
advised that we should start getting something this week but
we are still not
sure of the day the money will start coming through," said
one of the
officials.
The cash crisis has resulted in the re-introduction of the old
$20 notes,
which were in circulation in the 1980s and early 1990s but were
then phased
out in 1996 following the introduction of new notes.
A
number of people were on Friday surprised to receive these notes
from
commercial banks.
Many believe that the old $20 notes were
durable than the new notes that
were introduced in 1996.
Bank
officials confirmed that the money was part of the soiled notes that
the
central bank was reintroducing into the market.
"The Reserve Bank has
been injecting soiled notes into the market to
alleviate the shortage of
notes in the market place so some of those old
notes from way back are mixed
up with the new money which is soiled.
"Under normal circumstances the
soiled notes are supposed to be destroyed,"
said one bank executive who
declined to be named.
The central bank has been introducing smaller
denominations as part of its
strategy to alleviate the shortages of $500
notes on the market.
It has become common for banks to dispense $50 and
$20 dollar notes when
disbursing large sums of money.
RBZ is
understood to be making frantic efforts to prepare for the
introduction of
the new $1 000 note at the end of November.
Banks were instructed to come
up with their own measures to lure deposits,
and to encourage the use of
cards as opposed to bank notes when making
transactions.
Some of the
measures include the promotion of non-cash financial
transactions, including
raising cash guarantees on cheques, increased use of
innovative electronic
money, point of sale facilities and other forms of
direct debits.
Most
people in the country have been struggling to get money since May when
the
shortage of notes surfaced in the country.
Most banks are still giving
daily allocations of between $10 000 and $30 000
per individual.
Long
winding queues have become a common feature while some banks have on
several
occasions closed their doors before end of business after they run
out of
cash.
Commercial banks have suspended the Zimswitch facility on their
Automated
Teller Machines preferring to reserve the available cash for their
clients.
Unscrupulous traders with large sums of money are cashing in on
the
shortages by "selling" money to desperate clients.
EUObserver
Cox blasts governments on Zimbabwe
inaction
 |
| PAT COX - the European Parliament's
President has urged member states to "take action" (Photo:
www.cox-for-president.com) |
EUOBSERVER
/ BRUSSELS - The European Parliament's President has launched a scathing attack
on member states for their "weak" and "tardy" response to political violence in
Zimbabwe.
In a letter seen by the EUobserver, President Pat Cox
castigates the Council's collective response to a government clampdown following
a nation-wide strike in Zimbabwe earlier this month.
Sent early last week
to the European Council Chair and Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, Mr
Cox's letter urged member states to "take action" to address the "deplorable
deterioration" in the country.
Opposition calls for workers to stage the
week-long 'stay away' caused the Zimbabwean economy to virtually shut down and
resulted in Robert Mugabe's government threatening "severe action" against
protesters.
Reports indicate that more than three people may have been
killed by government-backed forces.
Mr Cox was reacting to a statement
by member states - which was also condemned by the Zimbabwean opposition as a
"disgrace".
Reuters
Powell wants pressure on Mugabe
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says that South
Africa and Zimbabwe's
other neighbours should put more pressure on
Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe for the sake of political change.
If they do not act, unrest in
Zimbabwe would continue to threaten stability
and prosperity in southern
Africa, he said in a opinion article in The New
York Times on
Tuesday.
"They can and should play a stronger and more sustained role
that fully
reflects the urgency of Zimbabwe's crisis. If leaders on the
continent do
not do more to convince President Mugabe to respect the rule of
law and
enter into a dialogue with the political opposition, he and his
cronies will
drag Zimbabwe down until there is nothing left to ruin," he
added.
Powell said the solution in Zimbabwe was for the ruling party
ZANU-PF and
the opposition to negotiate constitutional changes to allow for a
transition
of power.
"With the president gone, with a transitional
government in place and with a
date fixed for new elections, Zimbabweans of
all descriptions would, I
believe, come together to begin the process of
rebuilding their country," he
added.
The United States has taken a
hard line against Mugabe since last year's
presidential elections, based on
trying to isolate his government
internationally. President George W. Bush
has said Mugabe was not a
legitimate leader.
But Zimbabwe's neighbours
have been reluctant to follow the U.S. lead on
isolation. Botswana and
Angolan leaders said this month that public
criticism of Mugabe would only
make him more intransigent and the country
should be left alone.
This is London
We must speak out on Mugabe
By Aminatta Forna, Evening
Standard
19 June 2003
Events of the past few days in Zimbabwe demonstrate
- if proof were needed -
that the country is close to meltdown. This week
Robert Mugabe publicly
warned of reprisals against people demonstrating
against his regime. Another
opposition leader has been arrested. Elsewhere, a
high court judge seized
and took over a farm while the owner was
away.
Yet while George Bush has openly encouraged pro-democracy
protesters in
Tehran to oppose their regime, both he and Tony Blair continue
to sit on the
fence over Zimbabwe.
My own experience tells me that we
have only to look at what happened in a
country like Sierra Leone, where I
grew up, to realise what is possible in
Zimbabwe. The damage wrought by
Mugabe's regime closely mirrors events in
Sierra Leone a decade ago. It has
been called "a new kind of war": economic
ruin followed by the breakdown of
law and order give rise to armed conflict,
culminating in anarchy.
As
in Sierra Leone before the war, in Zimbabwe an ageing ruler clings
onto
power. The police, the army and the judiciary have been subverted to
the
cause of keeping him there and allowed to reap the rewards of
kleptocracy.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, is faced with a second
treason
charge, under laws which have been grotesquely misused for the
purpose.
The most recent charge stems from his call for people to stay
away from
work. In Sierra Leone in the 1970s my own father, who defied the
president
and blew the whistle on a violent and corrupt regime, was one of
the first
to be tried on trumped-up charges of treason.
My family and
others were terrorised in our homes by unemployed youths
recruited as
government thugs. They wore red shirts. In Zimbabwe Mugabe's
"Green Bombers"
perform a similar function.
The parallels are not lost on ordinary
Zimbabweans. I received an anonymous
article from a writer who had read my
memoir on the upheavals of
post-colonial Africa, The Devil that Danced on the
Water.
They commented: "The similarities are frightening ... I am
convinced that,
unless God, somehow, intervenes in our situation, we are
heading the same
tragic way that Sierra Leone went."
I have been back
to Sierra Leone four times since the British sent troops
there, and not once
have I heard Sierra Leonians dismiss Britain's role in
ending the bloodshed
as an act of "neocolonialism". On the streets of Harare
there are desperate
calls for Bush and Blair to come and "Saddam" us.
Yet Mugabe, when he
wants to silence Whitehall and nudge South African
president Thabo Mbeki back
into line, needs do no more than to raise the
spectre of colonialism, and
Britain turns tail. This week he did so again by
threatening to expel
Britain's ambassador in Harare.
Colonialism had plenty to answer for, but
the British government cannot
continue to be paralysed by Mugabe's rhetoric.
Military intervention would
be premature, but the injustices taking place in
Zimbabwe are as deplorable
as those in Iran or Iraq. The squeamishness of
Blair and Jack Straw in
speaking out is more misplaced now than
ever.
The ordinary office and factory workers in Zimbabwe who risked the
wrath of
Mugabe's thugs in staying away from work this week deserve more
robust
support from Britain.
Agribank Gets $4.1 Bn to Finance Food Projects
The Daily News
(Harare)
June 24, 2003
Posted to the web June 24, 2003
THE
Agriculture Bank (Agribank) of Zimbabwe Limited has received US$5
million
($4.1 billion at the official exchange rate) from the Arab Bank for
Economic
Development in Africa (BADEA), to be used to finance agricultural
and food
industry projects, it was learnt yesterday.
Agribank said in a statement
released on Monday that the money would be
loaned to private entrepreneurs
operating in Zimbabwe's agriculture and food
processing sectors, who would
use it to procure mostly capital equipment.
The projects involved should
be 'substantially' owned by Zimbabweans who
would be expected to export their
products, the company said in its
statement. The minimum loan awarded under
the arrangement will be US$50 000
($41.2 million) and BADEA will contribute
up to 50 percent of the total
project costs while Agribank will provide at
least 10 percent of the total
project costs.
'The Arab Bank for
Economic Development in Africa has, through the
government of Zimbabwe, made
available US$5 million to Agribank for the
financing of agricultural and food
industry projects,' Agribank said in its
statement.
'BADEA's
contribution would be at most 50 percent at total project cost.
Agribank's
contribution would be at least 10 percent of the same (while)
beneficiaries
will be expected to take responsibility for the balance,' the
Zimbabwean bank
added.
Land Experts Point to a Lack of Progress in Land Reform
The
Namibian (Windhoek)
June 24, 2003
Posted to the web June 24,
2003
Christof Maletsky
Windhoek
AN informal meeting of land
experts from southern Africa have expressed
concern over a "lack of real
progress" in land redistribution in the region.
They say governments have
failed to come up with viable policies and
programmes.
A regional
'think tank meeting', held in Pretoria recently, was called by
the UN Food
and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) regional office to analyse
constraints to
sustainable land reform.
Namibia was represented by land policy
consultant Dr Wolfgang Werner.
The meeting said Namibia has been unable
to devise technical solutions to
land use problems arising from the high
costs of resettling small-scale
farmers in a sparsely populated semi-arid
pastoral environment.
"Namibia has the usual policy dilemmas (economic
production versus poverty
alleviation) in the communal and commercial areas
and of deciding what the
role of stakeholders (national, regional,
traditional leaders, local users
and occupiers) should be," the report
said.
It added that the policy differences are played out in tensions
between the
"highly politicised" Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and
Rehabilitation and
the more technocratic Ministry of
Agriculture.
"Weak leadership, management and chronic incapacity in the
former [Lands]
have been a major constraint".
This, they continued, is
reflected in the comparative performance of two
different types of land
redistribution programmes: the Ministry of Lands'
land settlement programme
for the landless, "which has been a dreadful
failure", and the Ministry of
Agriculture's affirmative action loan scheme
(facilitated by the Agricultural
Bank) for emerging black commercial
farmers, which seemed to be a success in
terms of its stated objectives.
Events in Zimbabwe and their
repercussions, both within the country and for
Namibia and South Africa,
dominated the discussions.
The report from the meeting said governments
have failed to allocate the
financial and human resources needed to address
the land situation.
"At the same time, donors have found it increasingly
difficult to justify
the allocation of aid resources to land reform in the
region. This
reluctance is due to the lack of viable policies and programmes
and is also
a response to policy trends - in practice if not in rhetorical
terms - away
from the pro-poor agenda that donors feel should be the focus of
land reform
policies," the report said.
The meeting found that land
grabbing by elite groups is evident across the
region, even where new legal
frameworks protect existing local land rights.
"There are also signs
across the region that problems are due to a failure
of governments which are
varyingly authoritarian, centralised and
indifferent to human rights issues,"
the group of 14 experts said.
The group said neither Namibia nor South
Africa are any closer to finding
land reform solutions and expressed concern
about "grave consequences" if
the two countries allow the current impasse to
continue.
"The cost of taking no effective action could be very high
indeed. The
political will to get to grips with land reform is apparently
lacking and
perhaps best understood in the context of other, more acute,
concerns facing
these governments".
The think tank said the
'willing-seller, willing-buyer' concept must be
dropped if it is found to be
a constraint.
"We felt that there are several issues around this subject
that need more
investigation, such as the real nature of the constraint it
imposes, and
whether it is the supply of land or the other conditions (price
and who gets
land once it is redistributed) that are the real
problem".
According to the group, donors in the region see assistance for
land reform
as politically sensitive and complex, likely to result in
negative
consequences whatever the moral foundation, and therefore best
avoided.
The report urges donors not to "walk away when things turn sour,
but [to]
rather tread carefully and maintain a base flow of
support.
Nor should they give up on promoting a redistribution
agenda,
notwithstanding the disaster unfolding in Zimbabwe, which seems to
have
become the reference point in spite of it really being the worst
case
scenario".
News24
SA man's death: Suspects held
24/06/2003 14:24 -
(SA)
Bulawayo - Police in Zimbabwe have arrested three men in
connection with the
murder of South African tourist Conan Thomas at Hillside
Dams in Bulawayo on
Sunday.
Thomas, who was strolling at the picnic
spot in the company of his
girlfriend, her father and her two young sisters
was shot dead by one of
three assailants.
He was a sound and lighting
student at Allenby College in Gauteng.
Bulawayo police on Tuesday
confirmed the arrest of the three suspects, but
could not be drawn into
giving more details about the circumstances
surrounding the
incident.
Leon Bezuidenhout, the father of the Thomas's girlfriend Megan
said police
brought the suspects to his home early in the morning.
He
positively identified them as the men who had shot his would-be son-in
law
before robbing them of property and cash valued at Z$12m (about
R11
760).
"The suspects have been arrested and the police brought them
to my place for
identification early today before taking them into custody,"
said a
grief-stricken Bezuidenhout.
He said the shortage of commercial
flights in Zimbabwe had hampered the
transportation of Thomas's body to South
Africa for burial.
"We are working out logistics on the transportation of
the body to South
Africa. We were looking forward to ferrying it sometime
today or tomorrow,
but Air Zimbabwe has told us there are no commercial
flights," he said.
As a result, said Bezuidenhout, they were now
arranging for the body to be
transported by road through Zimbabwe's
Beitbridge border post.
"All things being equal, the body will be leaving
on Thursday at the
latest." he said.
Bezuidenhout, an official at a
South African tourism company, said Thomas's
murder was typical of the
violence he said was common in Zimbabwe. He said
there was no hope of a
revival of the tourism industry.
"It is so pathetic that tourists who
bring in the much-needed foreign
currency in Zimbabwe can be murdered like
this.
"Zimbabwe's tourism industry has ground to a halt because of the
rampant
lawlessness and if the government cannot stop it then there is no
hope for
its revival at all," he said.
Late last year, an Australian
tourist was killed by unknown assailants in
the resort town of Victoria falls
before being robbed of his possessions.
Grain Marketing board Seizes 350 Tonnes of Maize
The Herald
(Harare)
June 24, 2003
Posted to the web June 24, 2003
Sifelani
Tsiko
Harare
THE Grain Marketing Board recently impounded at least 350
tonnes of maize
worth over $45,5 million from farmers and companies which
include a major
milling firm.
GMB chief executive Retired Colonel
Samuel Muvuti told The Herald that 100
tonnes of maize were impounded on
Thursday last week from one of the
country's largest milling companies,
National Foods, which had illegally
sold the grain to Ostarama Feeds of
Bulawayo at a whooping price of $497 500
per tonne.
According to
Statutory Instrument 235A of 2001 only the GMB is allowed to
trade in maize
and wheat grain.
"These large milling companies complain day in day out
that they are not
getting enough maize and yet they go on to sell the maize
to other companies
at higher prices," said Rtd Col Muvuti.
"This is
illegal and unprofessional. It's un-businesslike. The grain we are
giving
them is for them to mill and sell to consumers."
GMB sells a tonne of
maize for $9 600 to millers but unscrupulous dealers
and some milling
companies were re-selling the maize at prices ranging from
$200 000 to $500
000 a tonne. The development comes in the wake of fears
that some
unscrupulous individuals and companies were hoarding maize with
the intention
of re-selling it later at exorbitant prices on the black
market.
One
of the directors at National Foods, Mr Peter Keen, admitted in a letter
dated
June 19 to the GMB that his company had offered to sell the maize to
Ostarama
since this was surplus imported maize.
"This serves to confirm that
National Foods Limited were approached by
Bateleur Ventures (on behalf of
Ostarama) to sell 100 tonnes of imported
maize," he said in the
letter.
"Ostarama are currently critically short of maize for the
production of
their ostrich feeds. I agreed to this request on condition that
the relevant
movement permit was acquired from GMB and the price of the maize
would be
our imported cost which is US$180.
"This 100 tonnes equates
to a small surplus from our imported consignment,"
read part of the
letter.
Col Muvuti criticised millers strongly for undermining Government
efforts to
ensure that food reaches consumers on time.
"These people
are always attacking GMB for not giving them enough maize and
yet they take
the same maize and resell it at higher prices.
"They are not playing
their part to ensure that maize meal gets to the
consumers. What these people
are trying to do is to create a crisis
environment in terms of grain shortage
to frustrate people of Zimbabwe for
their own ulterior motives," he
said.
"Where is the surplus coming from when they are getting the grain
at highly
subsidised prices?"
The 100 tonnes, which was impounded, was
taken to GMB Bulawayo depot.
Another 200 tonnes which were bought from
Chipunza Farm at a cost of $497
500 per tonne by Ostarama Feeds and handled
by Bateuler Ventures Commodity
brokers was also impounded recently from
Hortico.
A total of 50 tonnes were also impounded from a Gweru-based
brewer, Go Beer
Breweries, after the company purchased the maize directly
from farmers in
the Charandura area for $150 000 a tonne.
The
company's representatives appeared before the courts on Tuesday and the
case
was deferred to 30 June. The 50 tonnes of maize was impounded and
delivered
to GMB Gweru depot.
"We are taking them to court. We are the sole trader
of grain in the
country," said Col Muvuti. "We have intensified our
operations to try and
bring these criminals to book."
GMB has
impounded 1 800 tonnes of maize worth more than $234 million since
the
marketing season opened on April 1.
It has suspended a total of 26 small
to medium-scale millers for various
offences related to the illegal trading
of maize. Suspension may lead to the
companies being de-registered.
In
all the cases the buyer and seller are charged for violating Section
40(2) of
the Grain Marketing Act and Statutory Instrument 235A of 2001 which
prohibits
buying, importing or dealing in any controlled product.
Pungwe Breweries
of Mutare is also under investigation for purchasing 50
tonnes of maize from
farmers in the Vumba area at $160 000 per tonne.
At least 20 tonnes of
maize were impounded from FSI Agricom in a case in
which a contracted farmer,
Mr Benson Thondlana, of Middle Sabi moved the
maize from Manicaland to the
FSI farm in Chegutu.
The farmer now faces charges for failing to deliver
maize to GMB and
contravening Section 40(1)(a) of the Grain Marketing
Act.
Last month, a Norton-based poultry farmer Mr Peter Drummond was
convicted
and fined $200 000 for contravening the Act.
The farmer
purchased 59 tonnes from four co-operative millers and some
farmers around
Norton.
The four co-operative millers were de-registered by the GMB
following their
conviction in court last month.
The four millers are -
Mbuya Bhona, Kushinga, Kuguta and Nharira.
Last month another separate
quantity of 96 tonnes was impounded in Harare
and Bulawayo while the maize
was in transit from a farm in Karoi to
Mbembesi.
Royal Harare Sports
Club contravened section 40(2)(e) of the Grain Marketing
Act after purchasing
19 tonnes of maize from farmers in the Banket area.
The maize was
impounded and delivered to GMB Aspindale Depot in Harare. The
matter is still
pending before the courts.
Large milling companies have complained that
they were not getting adequate
supplies of maize to meet the huge demand for
maize meal.
"We are getting next to nothing," said Mr Ian Kind, the
managing director
for National Foods recently said. "These amounts we are
getting are really
pathetic. Our main plant has a capacity of milling 1 000
tonnes a day but
our allocation for the last month did not allow us to mill
for half a day."
"We are not allowed to buy our maize and the amounts we
are getting are
totally not viable. We would like GMB to supply us with a
bigger allocation
that would enable us to become viable in this business," he
said.
On average the GMB said it deals with about 50 cases every month
and the
majority of the violations involve farmers and members of the public
who
fail to deliver grain to the nearest GMB depot.
Motorists alertSource: SW Radio Africa 23 June
Make certain that your doors are locked and your
windows are shut when stopping at any intersection or robot anywhere in Harare.
Street kids are now picking up used syringes and needles from hospital rubbish
tips, filling them with water and stabbing motorists through their windows.
Obviously, the syringes and needles are contaminated, so the results of this
experience could have nasty long-term consequences. (Also, if air bubbles are
pumped into your bloodstream, this will result in an almost instantaneous
coronery.)
KEEP YOUR CAR DOORS LOCKED AND WINDOWS
CLOSED!
House RobberiesWe are becoming alarmingly concerned by the high numbers of house
robberies.
Here are some tips for you to try and remember.
Keep
your gates closed and locked at all times.
Do not allow ANYONE onto your
property.
Your domestics should have a telephone number for them to contact
you if
they are uncertain about who to let in.
If Police want to come in,
you should get their names, station, and number
and then phone the station to
confirm their ID's. DONT let them in until
these have been confirmed.
Do
not allow your domestics to have keys to the house, you are setting them
up
for the robbers.
Keep front and back doors locked during the day where
possible.
Check that your alarm system is working every 10 days.
All entry
and exit doors must be locked around 5.0pm -5.30pm every day.
Many robberies
take place in the early evening.
Remove and replace old rusty burglar bars
and install good strong ones.
Ideally your bedroom areas should be sealed off
from the living areas by
sturdy metal grill doors, padlocked, and YOU keep
the keys.
Make sure your cellphones are in the bedroom with you at night and
not left
lying around the house.
KNOW the number to call your local police
and a neighbours number in case
they have to go and fetch the cops.
Make
sure all windows are shut when you retire for the night.
Have as many outside
lights on as possible all night.
Dogs should sleep INSIDE the house.
Check
that your alarm is ON when you go to bed, if you have relatives or
children
coming home late, MAKE A PLAN
Before you open the back door in the
morning
make sure no one is lurking outside.
If you must have verandah doors open in
the evenings, install a metal grill
gate so that no one can get
in.
Mothers and others who get home at lunch time every day, try and change
the
times that you arrive, being so reliable and punctual every day of the
week
tells the robbers exactly when you'll be home.
Above all, if you
suspect there are intruders in your home at night DO NOT
GO AND INVESTIGATE,
stay in your bedroom, lock the door and call for help.
Get everyone into one
bedroom if possible.
Having safes at home is no longer a good idea - these
robbers are looking
for money, jewellery, weapons, and electrical
items.
This all seems painful and "do we really want to live like this" If we
are
going to live in Zimbabwe we have to take these precautions as do
residents
of many, many other countries.
By the way, 2 more people have
been victims of robberies on the airport road
after leaving the airport,
windows smashed and bags snatched.
THINK & BE CAREFUL.
Mary
van Heerden - Anti Hijack Trust
Comment from ZWNEWS, 24 June
Snap election?
Last Friday,
the Herald quoted Mugabe: "We should start preparing for the
(parliamentary)
elections now because 2005 is not far away. There is only
one and half to two
years to go. In the Midlands, the five seats we lost
must come back". On the
weekend, the Sunday Mail quoted justice minister
Chinamasa: "The countdown to
the 2005 parliamentary/general elections has
begun. Considering that it is
less than two years from now, it is correct to
state that the 2005
parliamentary/general elections are around the corner.
Preparations for
elections must now begin and given the tasks to be done and
that lie ahead,
the schedule of implementation is going to be very tight".
Mugabe
does not have the two-thirds majority in parliament necessary to
amend the
constitution. If he held new elections, and manufactured that
two-thirds
majority, he could dispense with the constitutional requirement
for a fresh
presidential election should he retire. A new president, of his
choosing,
could then be shooed into State House - without so much as a
by-your-leave.
It isn't rocket science. After all, the Congo did something
similar, and
nobody raised an eyebrow. And Kabila Jr.'s backers didn't even
bother with a
constitutional amendment.
But two years to go? Tight schedule? The
smart money is now betting on a
snap election - well before 2005. "OK,"
Mugabe will say to the opposition.
"You want fresh elections? Let's have
them." There will be more rigging than
in Nelson's navy and no independent
monitoring. Just an official South
African delegation, led perhaps by Mosiuoa
Lekota, or Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
(or should that be Dlamini-Mudenge?). And
the timing? Well, Mbeki did say
Mugabe would be gone within a year. Which
means a general election within
months...
From The Times-Picayune (US), 23 June
Fraud suspect pulls
disappearing act
After 20 years, he was to return to
N.O.
By Susan Finch, Staff writer
In the nearly 22 years
since federal authorities in New Orleans issued a
warrant for his arrest on
charges of bilking the government of Egypt out of
$7 million by falsely
claiming his New Orleans company had shipped it 11
million pounds of frozen
chickens, Alexander LeGault has been on the lam.
Not that the feds haven't
known where to find LeGault, a Wisconsin native in
his early 50s. They've
tried repeatedly, and without success, over the years
to get him returned to
New Orleans from Canada, where he has lived since
1982. But on May 30, it
seemed prosecutors were about to get their wish.
Under a deportation order
from Canadian authorities, LeGault that day was
scheduled to board a flight
in Montreal that would ultimately bring him back
to New Orleans for trial on
conspiracy and fraud charges that a grand jury
formalized into an indictment
in 1986. Once again, however, LeGault gave
authorities the slip. He never
showed up for his flight from Montreal's
Dorval International Airport, and
Canadian immigration officers who went
looking for him came up empty-handed,
according to a report in The Gazette,
a Montreal newspaper.
It was
the latest turn in LeGault's long-running battle to persuade
Canadian
immigration authorities that with a business, seven children - six
of them
born in Canada - and several employees in Canada, he should be
allowed to
remain there. In Montreal, LeGault was an officer of a political
consulting
firm headed by a former Israeli military-intelligence agent named
Ari
Ben-Menashe and had become involved in a treason trial under way in
Africa
since February. Because Ben-Menashe claims the firm was asked two
years ago
to help with a plan to assassinate Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe, he and
LeGault were scheduled to testify for the prosecution in the
trial of three
men accused in the plot. LeGault was eliminated as a witness,
though, after
he did not travel to Africa because of ill health, according to
a recent
account in the Harare Daily News. The Harare newspaper also said
that in
recent treason proceedings, an attorney for the defense read aloud a
letter
from a Canadian lawyer that said LeGault was about to be deported to
the
United States. "The (Canadian) government has bought him a plane ticket
to
New Orleans. The American authorities will be waiting for him when he
gets
there," the letter said.
Meanwhile, back in the United
States, federal prosecutors in Louisiana have
first dibs on LeGault,
chronologically speaking. LeGault and a co-defendant,
Alphonse Joseph Demots
Jr. of Detroit, were accused in federal court in New
Orleans of causing a
London bank to transfer $7 million to a Florida bank
account of their New
Orleans firm, Southern Federated Cooperatives, by
falsifying a shipping
document to say that the chickens had been loaded onto
ships bound for Egypt.
Demots has long since faced the music on the charges
against him. He pleaded
guilty to wire and mail fraud in 1984 and served two
years in prison.
According to the 1986 indictment still pending against
LeGault, he and Demots
had no intention of supplying the chickens. Among the
phony documents they
gave the London bank to carry out their scheme, the
indictment said, was a
certificate that said the birds had been slaughtered
according to Islamic
religious rites. The bank in London was to be repaid
the $7 million by an
Egyptian bank that was financing the chicken purchase,
according to the
indictment, which said a Cyprus broker for Southern
Federated Cooperatives
was also defrauded in the scheme. Florida prosecutors
also want their hands
on LeGault: He is accused of swindling hundreds of
elderly citizens out of
$13 million in a securities fraud scheme between
1993 and 1996, Montreal's
Gazette reported recently.
From News24 (SA), 23 June
Zim's Moyo 'almost
drowned'
Harare - Zimbabwe's Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, 57,
almost drowned
with his family and bodyguards at the weekend when the
houseboat in which
they were sailing on Lake Kariba hit a tree stump, the
Herald newspaper
reported on Monday. The report said the normally prolix Moyo
was "in a state
of shock" and unavailable for comment. Police spokesperson
said the
houseboat was carrying 14 occupants including the former academic,
his wife,
children, sister, two "security aides" and four boat crew members
when the
fibreglass hull was pierced shortly after 18:00 on Saturday and
began taking
in water. The Herald said Moyo, appointed to the cabinet after
masterminding
the ruling party publicity campaign in the June 2000
parliamentary
elections, "nearly drowned" although he and his family were
able to get into
two small fishing dinghies being towed by the houseboat,
which was partly
submerged but still afloat when police responded to rescue
calls at 22:30.
The Herald said there were no lifejackets aboard, in
violation of safety
regulations. Moyo and his family were embroiled in an
incident at a
Johannesburg Hotel at Christmas, when South African police had
to be called
to pacify a family quarrel.