International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: June 28,
2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Long-suffering Zimbabweans faced chaos
in shops and
businesses Thursday as the government vowed to enforce drastic
price cuts of
around 50 percent.
Managers addressed chaotic lines of
shoppers at check out counters who were
demanding clarification on
prices.
Most goods, including bread, meat and milk were not reduced. In
one store,
the same brand of local beer was marked at two different prices
on separate
shelves.
The cheaper beer was delivered earlier in the
day, after the partly
government-owned National Breweries announced a 50
percent drop in their
charges, store workers said.
State radio said
late Thursday the independent National Bakers Association
also agreed to cut
the price of bread by half as long as millers reduced the
cost of flour,
enabling bakers to stay in business.
Chain store executives were
huddled in management meetings and held talks
with government officials
through the day.
"In a nutshell, we are being told to sell a product for less
than we paid
for it. It means we won't be able to replace it when existing
stocks have
gone. It makes no sense, ask any school arithmetic class," said
one
executive.
He asked not to be identified in case of being accused
of defying the state
and facing arrest.
The government has warned
business and shops a crack unit of security
personnel - seen to include
secret police agents - has begun monitoring
prices and will have powers to
enforce price cuts that include powers of
arrest.
Uniformed police
armed with automatic rifles and a machine gun were seen
questioning one
harassed store manager in northern Harare on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the
government ordered sweeping reductions on a range of goods.
Gas stations
were told to slash the price of scarce gasoline by up to 70
percent. Except
for a handful of gas stations licensed to sell petrol to
holders of hard
currency coupons, most regular gas stations were closed
Thursday.
Industry Minister Obert Mpofu said in an announcement
Thursday the
government extended price controls to all goods and services in
addition to
those of basic commodities listed Tuesday.
He did not
specify new reductions on particular goods but said the mandate
of a prices
monitoring task force was extended across the board to guard
against
profiteering and overcharging.
Official inflation is given at 4,500
percent, the highest in the world.
Private financial institutions estimate
real inflation to be 9,000 percent.
New official inflation calculations
are expected to include reduced prices
even if they are not fully enforced
or if quoted goods disappear from the
shelves.
President Robert
Mugabe, addressing a state funeral on Wednesday, accused
businesses of
profiteering and raising prices to foment civil unrest in
support of a
Western-backed campaign to oust him through "regime change."
He repeated
threats the government would seize businesses and mines he said
were in "the
dirty game" of regime change and broke exchange control laws by
withholding
hard currency earnings from state coffers.
The nation's worst economic
crisis began after the often-violent seizures of
thousands of white-owned
commercial farms disrupted the agriculture-based
economy in 2000 in the
former regional breadbasket.
The meltdown led to acute shortages of food,
hard currency, gasoline,
medicines and most basic goods. Up to four million
Zimbabweans, one fourth
of the population, are expected to need food
handouts before the middle of
next year, U.N. officials estimate.
Yahoo News
Thu Jun 28,
7:30 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe ordered a blanket freeze Thursday on
the prices of
all goods and services, urging members of the public to blow
the whistle on
retailers who ignore the latest edict.
Industry
Minister Obert Mpofu was quoted by state media as saying that price
controls
-- previously limited to essential goods -- would be extended
across the
board, and that prices could only be raised with government
approval.
"The (government's price-monitoring) task force further directs
that all
other goods and services that were previously neither controlled
nor
monitored shall with immediate effect be monitored," Mpofu was quoted as
saying by state-controlled radio.
In a statement read out on the
radio, Mpofu called on shoppers to contact
police if any retailer was
suspected of either overcharging or stashing
goods away.
"All members
of the public, with information on issues involving violations
and hoarding,
should urgently report such information to the nearest police
station," said
the statement.
The latest directive followed a warning this week from
President Robert
Mugabe that his government would seize and nationalise
businesses caught
charging exorbitant prices.
Retailers and
manufacturers have been jacking up prices, sometimes more than
once a day,
as they grapple with the impact of the world's highest inflation
rate, which
economists believe has surpassed 5,000 percent.
Since the introduction of
price controls on selected goods five years ago,
the government has
occasionally published the legal price for controlled
goods in its official
gazette.
Retailers often complain, however, that by the time the new
prices are set
and announced, they have been overtaken by
inflation.
Mpofu announced Monday that retailers could only charge the
gazetted price
for goods such as bread or oil as published on June 19, but
the order was
widely ignored.
Three months after the extra-ordinary Summit of the Heads of State and
Government of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), which took place
on 29 March 2007 in Dar es Salaam, the United Republic of Tanzania, over one
hundred international human rights and civil society organisations have come
together to call on SADC leaders to urge the government of Zimbabwe to end human
rights violations in Zimbabwe. In particular, we call on President Thabo Mbeki
of South Africa, in his capacity as the SADC-appointed mediator, to ensure that
human rights issues are prioritised in any settlement to be agreed by the
government of Zimbabwe and the political opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC). Attacks on members of the political opposition and civil society
organisations are taking place in the context of a severely declining economy as
well as an increasingly repressive environment in Zimbabwe, in which the rights
to freedom of expression, association and assembly are regularly suppressed by
the government and incidents of state-sponsored organised violence and torture
are increasing. President Mbeki was mandated to facilitate a dialogue between the government
of Zimbabwe and the MDC, following the torture and ill-treatment of a number of
leaders and members of the MDC and other civil society organisations by the
Zimbabwe Republic Police on 11 March 2007. The MDC and human rights activists
were arrested for attempting to attend a prayer meeting organised to protest a
three month ban of rallies and demonstrations imposed by police in parts of
Harare under section 27 of the Public Order and Security Act. We are concerned that since the SADC meeting, arbitrary arrest and detention,
torture and organised violence have been on the increase in Zimbabwe. At least 30 political detainees arrested on 28 March 2007, including MDC
Member of Parliament Paul Madzore and MDC Director of Elections Dennis Murira,
spent over two months in custody awaiting trial, and 18 have since had the
charges dropped. The detainees’ lawyers, Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni, were also
arrested outside the High Court on 4 May 2007 after submitting court papers on
behalf of Amos Musekiwa, one of the political detainees. The lawyers were only
released on bail on 7 May. On 8 May police in Harare beat lawyers who had gathered outside the High
Court to protest the unlawful arrest of Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni.
Police forced some of the lawyers including Beatrice Mtetwa, President of the
Zimbabwe Law Society, into a police truck before driving to a secluded area and
reportedly beating them. They were then released. The Zimbabwean government has justified arbitrary arrest, detention, torture
and ill-treatment as a response to attacks on police by alleged opposition
supporters. As with all alleged criminal acts, we urge the government of
Zimbabwe to immediately and impartially investigate these attacks, respecting
the rights of the suspected perpetrators, including the right to a fair trial.
However, incidents of violence by protestors by no means justify excessive use
of force, torture or ill-treatment by the police. We are also concerned that two years after an estimated 700,000 people lost
their home or livelihood or both when the government embarked on a programme of
mass forced evictions codenamed Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order), the
government has failed to provide an effective remedy to the victims. Most of the
victims are still in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The SADC initiative
should not forget these victims of human rights violations. These human rights concerns have been well documented, including in the
African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ report of its 2002 fact-finding
mission to Zimbabwe. However, the government of Zimbabwe has failed to implement
key recommendations contained in the African Commission’s report and its
resolution adopted at the 38th Ordinary Session in November 2005.
The human rights situation in Zimbabwe requires immediate action by SADC
leaders. President Mbeki and other leaders of SADC should send a clear and
unequivocal signal to the government of Zimbabwe that they will not remain
silent about the violations of human rights perpetrated in Zimbabwe and should
ensure that the government of Zimbabwe takes immediate steps to respect and
protect human rights of all people in Zimbabwe, including ending the use of
excessive force, torture and ill-treatment. Central to resolving the crisis in
Zimbabwe is the need to ensure that perpetrators of human rights violations are
held accountable and that the victims have access to justice. Any attempt to
circumvent the needs of victims will not bring a lasting solution. In their mediation efforts, President Mbeki and the other member states of
SADC should not be limited to finding a short-term political solution between
the government of Zimbabwe and the MDC, but should aim to find a long-term
solution to the human rights crisis in Zimbabwe. This can be achieved by
consulting widely among civil society organisations in Zimbabwe and ensuring
that all stakeholders are able to contribute to the process. Through their mediation efforts, we urge President Mbeki and the other member
states of SADC to ensure the following:
AI Index:
AFR 46/021/2007 (Public)
News Service
No: 123
28 June 2007
Human rights issues must be at the centre
of any dialogue between the government of Zimbabwe and the Movement for
Democratic Change
A joint statement from Amnesty
International, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights
Supporting organisations:
The Southern Africa Documentation and Co-operation
Centre (SADOCC)
Austria
DITSHWANELO - The Botswana Centre for Human
Rights
Botswana
The Botswana Council of Churches (BCC)
Botswana
The Botswana Council of Non-Governmental
Organisations (BOCONGO)
Botswana
The Botswana Secondary Teachers Union (BOSETU)
Botswana
DITSHWANELO - The Botswana Centre for Human Rights
Botswana
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
Botswana Chapter
Botswana
The Botswana Congress Party (BCP)
Botswana
The Botswana Community Based Organisations
Network)(BOCOBONET)
Botswana
Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and
HIV/AIDS,(BONELA)
Botswana
The Botswana Unified Local Government Service
Association(BULGASA)
Botswana
Cooperation for Research, Development and Education
(CORDE)
Botswana
Kagisano Society Women's Shelter
Botswana
Kgolagano Theological College
Botswana
Transparency International Botswana
Botswana
Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains
(M.I.D.H.)
Côte-d'Ivoire
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
Egypt
Collectif des Associations Contre l’Impunité au Togo
(CACIT)
France
Kunst für Menschenrechte (Art for Human Rights)
Germany
The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
India
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen
Participation
International
Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW-K)
Kenya
Kenya Land Alliance
Kenya
Citizens for Constitutional Change-4Cs
Kenya
Fida Kenya
Kenya
Chemichemi ya Ukweli
Kenya
Independent Medical Legal Unit-UMLU
Kenya
Habiba International Women and Youth affairs.
Kenya
Constitutional Reform Education Consortium
(CRECO)
Kenya
Center for Democratic Empowerment (CEDE)
Liberia
Institute for Policy Interaction
Malawi
Associação Moçambicana para o Desenvolvimento e
Democracia
Mozambique
The Rainbow Project
Namibia
The Legal Assistance Centre
Namibia
Namibia Development Trust
Namibia
Namibia NGO Forum
Namibia
Nyae Nyae Development Foundation of Namibia
Namibia
!Nara Training Centre
Namibia
Zimbabwe Watch
Netherlands
National Forum for Human Rights
Sierra Leone
National Advocacy Coalition on Extractives
Sierra Leone
Defence for Children International
Sierra Leone
Action for Community Task
Sierra Leone
Movement of Concerned Kono Youths
Sierra Leone
Affected Mining Landowners Association - Kono
Sierra Leone
Community Advocacy and Development Movement
Sierra Leone
Rural Development and Productive Workers Union
Sierra Leone
Mining and Allied Union
Sierra Leone
Peace and Conflict Society FBC
Sierra Leone
Centre for Human Rights - Tongolici
Sierra Leone
Black Hall Road Youth Organisation
Sierra Leone
Network Movement for Youth and Children
Sierra Leone
Network for Community Development and Human
Rights
Sierra Leone
Society for Democratic Initiatives - Sierra
Leone
Sierra Leone
Civil Society Alternative Process of Sierra
Leone
Sierra Leone
Treatment Action Campaign
South Africa
Southern Africa Litigation Centre(SALC)
South Africa
Lawyers for Human Rights- South Africa
South Africa
Media Institute of Southern Africa - South
Africa
South Africa
Solidarity Peace Trust
South Africa
Zimbabwe Exiles Forum
South Africa
South African NGO Coalition (SANGOCO)
Land Access
Movement of South AfricaSouth Africa
South Africa
Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT)
Sudan
African Centre for Democracy and Human Rights
Studies
The Gambia
West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (Togo)
Togo
La Commission Episcopale Nationale JUSTICE ET
PAIX
Togo
Association togolaise pour la défense et la
promotion des droits de l'homme (ATDPDH)
Togo
Fahamu - Networks for Social Justice.
UK
Redress
UK
Review of African Political Economy
UK
International Bar Association’s Human Rights
Institute
UK
Human Rights Watch
United States
Legal Resources Foundation-Zambia
Zambia
Southern Africa Legal Assistance Network-SALAN
Zambia
Media Institute of Southern Africa - Zambia
Zambia
Catholic Commission for Justice, Development and
Peace (CCJDP)
Zambia
Civil Sodiety MDG Campaign Zambia
Zambia
Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human
Rights
Zimbabwe
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and Men of Zimbabwe
Arise (MOZA)
Zimbabwe
Justice for Agriculture Trust (JAG)
Zimbabwe
Justice for Agriculture Membership Association
(JAGMA)
Zimbabwe
Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Transparency International Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Bulawayo Agenda
Zimbabwe
Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace
Zimbabwe
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition
Zimbabwe
Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Legal Resources Foundation
Zimbabwe
Media Institute of Southern Africa
Zimbabwe
National Association of Non-Governmental
Organisations
Zimbabwe
National Constitutional Assembly
Zimbabwe
Non-violent Action and Strategies for Social Change
Zimbabwe
Radio Dialogue
Zimbabwe
Southern Africa Human Rights Trust
Zimbabwe
Transparency International (Zimbabwe)
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Association for Crime Prevention and the
Rehabilitation of the Offender
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Human Rights Association
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Peace Project
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association
Zimbabwe
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
Zimbabwe
Nonviolent Action and Strategies for Social Change
(NOVASC)
Zimbabwe
Zim Online
Friday 29 June 2007
Own
Correspondent
HARARE - Zimbabwe's main opposition on Thursday said a
planned empowerment
law that will compel foreign-owned firms to cede shares
to blacks was a
"mere avenue" for President Robert Mugabe and his followers
to loot the
remaining viable sectors of the economy, especially
mining.
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party secretary general
Tendai Biti
said after plundering white farms and plunging the country into
food
shortages - all in the name of redistributing land to landless blacks -
Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party were now "seeking to destroy the
remaining pockets of the economy."
"It (empowerment law) will allow
ZANU PF and its acolytes access into the
remaining sectors of the economy,
in particular mining, which, because of
high initial investment capital, it
has hitherto been unable to access,"
Biti said in a
statement.
"Indeed, empowerment will take place but of the very same
looters that have
brought the country's economy to its knees," added Biti,
who belongs to the
main wing of the divided MDC led by Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Both ZANU PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira and government
spokesman
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu were not immediately available to respond to
Biti's
charges.
The government gazetted the Indigenisation and
Economic Empowerment Bill
last week and says it will soon be tabled for
debate in the ZANU
PF-dominated Parliament and should be ready for
implementation before
year-end.
The government says the proposed law
seeks to ensure that indigenous black
Zimbabweans are in control of the
economy by forcing all foreign-owned
business in the country to cede at
least 51 percent shareholding to blacks.
But analysts have been
pessimistic about the empowerment law saying as
happened with land
redistribution it is the politically powerful and
well-connected - not
ordinary blacks - who will end up holding controlling
stake in most of the
major businesses in the country.
ZANU PF politicians, military officers
and top government officials ended up
with most of the lucrative farms
seized from whites, with some having as
many as six farms each.
Biti,
who is a trained lawyer, said forcing existing businesses sell 51
percent of
their stake to blacks as envisaged under the empowerment law
would be a
violation of property rights guaranteed in Zimbabwe's
Constitution and would
also be a breach of Article 17 of the Universal
Declaration of Human
Rights.
Economic analysts have however warned that the empowerment law
would scare
away investors and would, in the same way farm seizures
decimated commercial
agriculture, derail the industrial sector as control of
large and
sophisticated businesses is surrendered to blacks most of who do
not have
funds or skills to run them.
Critics blame severe food
shortages in Zimbabwe since 2000 on the government's
chaotic and often
violent land redistribution exercise that displaced
established white
commercial farmers and replaced them with either
incompetent or inadequately
funded black farmers.
Food production plunged by about 60 percent as a
result while chaos in the
agriculture sector because of the farm seizures
also hit hard Zimbabwe's
once impressive manufacturing sector that had
depended on a robust farming
sector for orders and inputs.
Several
firms have shut down since 2000 while many still in business are
operating
at about 30 percent of capacity, in a country where unemployment
is more
than 80 percent. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 29 June 2007
Own
Correspondent
JOHANNESBURG - Prominent academic Ibbo Mandaza says
President Robert Mugabe
must quit power by September to save Zimbabwe from
further economic ruin.
Mandaza, who is believed to be a close member of
the Solomon Mujuru faction
in the ruling ZANU PF party said economic
recovery would not start in
Zimbabwe as long as Mugabe remained in
power.
Mandaza was the main speaker at a seminar entitled: Zimbabwe at
the
Crossroads which was held at the South African Institute of
International
Affairs at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg late on
Wednesday.
Describing Mugabe as the biggest stumbling block to economic
recovery in
Zimbabwe, Mandaza said he in fact believed that Mugabe would no
longer be in
power by September because quitting "is the only reasonable
thing for him
(Mugabe) to do.
In an unusually sharp criticism of
Mugabe, Mandaza said Mugabe's future
security against any possible
prosecution for human rights abuses will be
better if he resigned
now.
"Mugabe should do the obvious and go by September. It's my
expectation as a
participant in the Zimbabwean political discourse that he
will in fact go by
December," said Mandaza, who seems to have attracted
Mugabe's ire by
publishing Edgar Tekere's controversial autobiography, A
Lifetime of
Struggle.
"Nothing of an economic recovery will start as
long as he (Mugabe) remains,"
said Mandaza.
Mandaza said he also did
not think that the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party was
a puppet of the British as regularly
claimed by Mugabe.
Though it had
its own problems and was hampered by lack of a clear vision
and policies to
rescue Zimbabwe from its present economic situation, Mandaza
said he still
regarded the MDC as a legitimate opposition with a substantial
presence in
parliament.
He also did not have much faith in the current South African
brokered
dialogue between the MDC and ZANU PF. He said the dialogue should
have been
taking place in Zimbabwe.
South Africa had also lost the
plot by bringing the two parties to the
negotiating table only. Zimbabwe's
problems were not about ZANU PF and the
MDC only.
Mandaza also said
that mostly the elite had benefited from Zimbabwe's land
reforms. These he
said included cabinet ministers, their deputies, judges,
senior civil
servants and others.
He said he was not himself a beneficiary though some
media reports have
previously claimed that he was allocated several
conservancies in southern
Zimbabwe.
Mandaza said at the core of the
Zimbabwean crisis was a "defensive state"
which had become autocratic and no
longer respected the rule of law.
He had been challenged on what he
believed was the main cause of the
Zimbabwe crisis and whether he shared the
view that the land issue was the
main problem as regularly claimed by
Mugabe.
Mandaza said the issue of the ZANU PF party's presidential
candidate for
next year was far from settled.
"There has been no
debate at all about who the ruling party's candidate
would be contrary to
what the media is saying," said Mandaza, who apart from
his close links to
the Mujuru faction, served as one of Mugabe's top civil
servants after
independence in 1980 before quitting to pursue academia.
Mandaza said the
special congress called by ZANU PF and expected later this
year would debate
and decide on who stands for the party in next year's
elections.
He
did not believe Mugabe would be the candidate as he faced enormous
pressure
to quit.
Mandaza claimed that 99 percent of all people in ZANU PF did not
like what
was happening in Zimbabwe and were probably fed up with
Mugabe.
However, he was angrily challenged on this claim by prominent
South African
lawyer, George Bizos, who also addressed the gathering
alongside the
National Constitutional Assembly (NCA)'s Tapera
Kapuya.
Bizos quizzed Mandaza on why all these people were not
challenging Mugabe
why he destroyed Zimbabwe if ever they
existed.
Bizos, who represented Nelson Mandela at his treason trial in
the 1960s, and
also rescued Morgan Tvangirai from a treason charge, said he
did not think
people in ZANU PF were disenchanted by Mugabe as they would
surely have done
something to challenge him.
Mandaza insisted that
Mugabe was facing serious internal resistance.
Bizos urged Zimbabweans
from all political persuasions to convene and
consider granting Mugabe a
comprehensive amnesty to pave way for his
departure from power and at least
ensure a beginning of the resolution of
the Zimbabwe crisis.
"There
ought to come a stage when all Zimbabweans (of differing political
persuasions) say let bygones be bygones . . . let us look into the future
and not the past," said Bizos. "It worked for us in South Africa. It can
work for Zimbabwe," added Bizos, in reference to indemnifying Mugabe for
atrocities committed while in office just like the ANC did with most former
apartheid rulers.
Bizos slammed constitutional amendments gazetted by
the Zimbabwe government
two weeks ago which are seen giving the ruling party
an easy victory in next
year's elections.
The constitutional
amendments significantly expand the size of parliament,
among other things,
empowering Mugabe to create more constituencies in his
rural strongholds to
maintain his large majority in Parliament.
Bizos said in a nutshell, the
constitutional amendments were aimed at
perpetuating Mugabe and ZANU PF's
authoritarian rule for the entire life of
their existence. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 29 June
2007
By Hendricks Chizhanje and Thabani
Mlilo
HARARE - Zimbabwean businesses on Thursday slashed prices by
50
percent a day after the government sent in soldiers in urban areas to
enforce a government order issued on Monday to reduce prices.
A
survey by ZimOnline on Thursday showed that most shops in the city
centre
and working class suburbs had complied with the order although there
were
rumblings of discontent among businessmen.
In a letter to retailers
yesterday, Zimbabwe's biggest beverage
manufacturer, Delta Corporation, said
it had with immediate effect slashed
prices of all of its beverages in line
with the government order.
A 2 litre pack of opaque beer commonly
known as "Scud" which was
selling for Z$80 000 has now been reduced to $40
000 while a bottle of soft
drinks which was going for Z$50 000 has now been
reduced to $25 000 a
bottle.
"In compliance with the directive
from the Minister of Industry and
International Trade (Obert Mpofu), we have
reverted to the price schedules
as at 18 June 2007," read part of a
letter.
On Wednesday, Mpofu extended the order to reduce prices to
all
commodities saying the price freeze was meant to cushion consumers who
are
bearing the brunt of Zimbabwe's eight-year old economic
recession.
In the eastern city of Mutare, residents said some
retailers appeared
to be resisting the government order to reduce prices
with some of them
returning some goods to wholesalers.
"Some
retailers appear to be returning some goods to suppliers or are
holding them
in their warehouses," said Austen Mbaka, a resident of Sakubva
suburb in the
city.
President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday threatened to seize
businesses he
accused of working with his western enemies to foment
rebellion against his
government by hiking prices of essential
commodities.
Mugabe said his government will "play it rough" with
businesses that
failed to heed the government order to reduce
prices.
The embattled Zimbabwean government on Monday ordered a
price freeze
and a return to prices as of 18 June 2007 following a massive
price hike of
500 percent over the past few weeks.
Harare has
since drafted in soldiers and the police to enforce the
price freeze that
economists say will have devastating effects on
business. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 29 June
2007
By Nqobizitha Khumalo
BULAWAYO - State security agents at Zimbabwe's Bulawayo International
airport on Tuesday briefly detained six South African church pastors, only
allowing them to depart after interrogating them for about an
hour.
The South Africans were returning home after visiting
Zimbabwe to
participate in a church ceremony to commemorate the UN
International Day in
Support of Victims of Torture.
Bulawayo
Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube said: "The church leaders were
harassed at
the airport. The CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) agents
took away
their passports and detained them in a room.
"They interrogated the
church leaders on the purpose of their visit to
Zimbabwe but all this is a
sign of desperation on the part of the
government."
The South
Africans were in Zimbabwe at the invitation of the
Solidarity Peace Trust,
which campaigns for a resolution of Zimbabwe's
crisis and is co-led by
Ncube.
President Robert Mugabe's government has in recent years
barred
several foreign civic and church leaders it perceives as critical of
its
rule from visiting Zimbabwe.
Meanwhile, Bishop Kevin
Dowling, who led the South African pastors,
accused Mugabe of serious human
rights violations and said his rule was
about to end in a Tuesday address to
people gathered to commemorate the UN
Torture Day at Bulawayo's St Mary's
church.
The Bishop said: "Why would a government torture its own
people, why
would a so called government inflict injuries on its own
citizens, the
Zimbabwe government is creating fear to make people afraid to
do anything.
"God was not with the apartheid regime and God is not
with this regime
in Zimbabwe, it will fail."
Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa was not immediately available to
respond to charges that
the government uses torture against citizens.
However, Harare has
in the past rejected similar criticism by the
church and human rights
organisations that it accuses of seeking to use
false claims of human rights
abuses and torture by state agents to tarnish
and vilify Mugabe's
government. - ZimOnline
Reuters
Thu 28 Jun 2007,
11:08 GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE, June 28 (Reuters) -
President Robert Mugabe's new push to get tough
on the economy may bring
short-term political benefits but is likely to
leave Zimbabwe in even worse
straits as its economic infrastructure
collapses.
Mugabe -- facing
the highest inflation rate in the world and simmering
political troubles --
this week warned that he was ready to nationalise
firms accused of "dirty
tricks" against his rule, sending fresh jitters
through the country's
beleaguered business community.
Any move to follow through on the threat
could push out Zimbabwe's few
remaining foreign investors, deepening its
pariah status, and could see more
Zimbabwean products shut out of
international markets as buyers look for
suppliers unhampered by political
problems, analysts say.
Mugabe made his comments the day after his
government tabled a bill which
seeks to hand majority holding of all
businesses -- including banks and
mines -- to local Zimbabweans, and ordered
a price freeze in an effort to
fight inflation, now nearing 4,000
percent.
Political analysts said Mugabe's moves appeared aimed at
mollifying an
increasingly restive population, but warned that his actions
could have
disastrous results.
Mugabe, Zimbabwe's sole ruler since
independence in 1980 who is seeking
re-election in 2008, could also use the
planned empowerment law to enrich
supporters and consolidate ranks before
next year's general elections,
analysts said.
Leading political
commentator Eldred Masunungure said the announcements were
designed to
assure voters that Mugabe's government was in full control of
the economy
and had their interests at heart.
"The government has exhausted all other
alternatives (to manage the economy)
and all this is an expression of
failure and inability to control or
manipulate the economy," he
said.
"But they cannot just remain aloof. They have to be seen to be
doing
something, even though it is not addressing the fundamental problems
afflicting the economy," Masunungure said.
Some economists say the
threats should be taken seriously, noting that
Mugabe has done this before.
They point to his pre-election seizure of
white-owned farms in 2000 that
critics say has worsened the economic crisis
and food
shortages.
While Mugabe won the 2000 election, the country he rules is in
far worse
shape than before.
EMPTY BREAD BASKET
Once the
bread basket of the region, Zimbabwe has endured a punishing
recession that
has squeezed consumers with skyrocketing inflation, left four
out of five
people without jobs and resulted in shortages of foreign
currency, food and
fuel. Mugabe says the economy has been sabotaged by his
Western foes and
branded company executives "serpents" drafted by former
colonial power
Britain to help topple him by raising prices, cutting
production and
stashing foreign earnings abroad.
In the past week alone, prices have
gone up threefold, further squeezing
consumers, especially urban workers who
have to live with severe water and
power cuts, burst sewer pipes and a
suffocating political environment.
Authorities have set up a police crack
unit to arrest business people who
defy an order to roll back all prices to
June 18 levels. Some goods have
already disappeared from shops after the
directive.
Analysts said price controls would drive the economy even
further
underground -- making it all but impossible for the authorities to
regain
control despite Mugabe's vows that both his government and the
economy will
ride out the storm, thanks to widespread popular
support.
"Things will get a great deal worse," said Anthony Hawkins,
professor of
business studies at the University of Zimbabwe. "It's a sign of
desperation,
casting around for extreme solutions."
Masunungure
agreed, saying Mugabe's proposals were likely to hasten the
economic
meltdown.
"This is a symbolic reaction to something beyond government's
control but
more importantly, it is a boost to the black market and we will
see even
more vicious price increases."
VOA
By
Naomi Schwarz
Dakar
28 June 2007
African heads
of state are arriving in Ghana's capital, Accra, to prepare
for an African
Union Summit that officially opens Sunday, July 1. The
meeting aims to
address a Libyan proposal to create a continent-wide
government. But African
human rights activists say there are many more
pressing issues, such as the
conflict in Darfur, that should be addressed
first. Naomi Schwarz has more
from VOA's regional bureau in Dakar.
A proposal by Libyan president
Muammar Gaddafi for the African Union to be
replaced by a United States of
Africa is at the top of the agenda for the AU
Summit set to begin in Ghana
on Sunday. Preparatory sessions are already
underway, and Mr. Gaddafi has
been touring African countries to drum up
support for his
proposition.
In Ivory Coast's capital, Abidjan, on Wednesday, Mr. Gaddafi
told a cheering
crowd of thousands, that, "We should construct a single,
powerful African
government, one army with two million soldiers, one
currency, one African
identity, one passport."
But Saidou Arji, a
human rights activist based in Ghana, says he thinks
African heads of state
have more important issues to focus on.
"You have everyday hundreds or
thousands of young people who go into the sea
and have strived to go to the
western countries, in order to have better
lives," he said. "I think that is
the priority for our leaders, not to talk
about some continental government
and others. We must resolve these issues
first."
He says civil
society organizations in Ghana have planned many activities
around the
summit to raise awareness of this issue and others, including the
conflict
in Darfur and the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. Thursday will be
a day of
solidarity with Zimbabwe, where the population is suffering from
inflation
at around 4,000 percent, as well as crippling poverty,
unemployment, and
food and fuel shortages.
The idea of a single African state was first
proposed in the early 1960s, as
African countries gained independence from
colonial powers. Africa analyst
Richard Reeve, with the British-based think
tank Chatham House, says the
concept has always been a populist one, but he
does not think it is likely
to be realized any time soon.
"The
African Union as it stands is dependent on aid for its functioning -
and it
has very limited functioning - from Europe and major donor states,"
he
said.
Reeve says donor states think it is too early for a united African
state,
and they doubt that a single body could govern across such a large
and still
troubled continent.
"In general, donor states are in favor
of greater African integration, but
integration on a functional basis," he
said. "The way that the African Union
is constructed gives voice to that,
but in effect does not have the capacity
to integrate effectively. It
devolves policy to various regional economic
and political
communities."
Human Rights activist Arji says Africa should assess the
effectiveness of
these regional bodies, like the Economic Community of West
African States in
West Africa, before aiming at continent wide
integration.
European Parliament
Development and cooperation - 28-06-2007 -
15:52
Zimbabwe, a country suffering from serious famine and huge
violations of
human rights, was the subject of lively debates at the 13th
session of the
ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, which completed its work
in Wiesbaden
on Thursday. Among other events, the Assembly adopted a
resolution calling
for the deployment of an international force in
Darfur.
In the absence of a delegation from Zimbabwe, it was decided
in advance that
there would not be a vote on a resolution on the situation
in that country
during this meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly
(JPA). Clear
positions on the regime of Robert Mugabe were nevertheless
expressed during
the debates.
Certain ACP delegations criticised the
holding of a debate in Wiesbaden
given the absence of Zimbabwean delegation.
JPA Co-President Glenys Kinnock
(PES, UK) said she did not understand the
reluctance to discuss the issue of
Zimbabwe: "People are suffering in the
country." She pointed out that Nelson
Chamisa, an MP from the opposition and
spokesperson for the Movement of
Democratic Change was attacked and suffered
a head injury at Harare airport
on his way to a meeting of JPA in Brussels
in March. "Our Assembly has the
responsibility to address this issue
because Zimbabwe has signed the Cotonou
Agreement", she
concluded.
Peya Mushelenga (Namibia) expressed his disagreement with "all
those who
took sides on the issue of Zimbabwe" and said that other topics
should be
addressed like the situation in Palestine, the blockade on Cuba
and Iraq.
Send an international force to Darfur
In a resolution
adopted on developments in Darfur, the parliamentarians
consider that the
deployment of a hybrid UN/African Union force "must take
place as soon as
possible". They call on the Sudanese government to "disarm
all the rebels
including the janjaweed, and to end the bombing of the Darfur
region".
"We must avoid what happened in ex-Yugoslavia, where we were
late taking
action and late in intervening and we all know the consequences
that
followed," said Josep Borell (PES, ES) Chair of the European Parliament
Development Committee.
Mr Borrell will lead a delegation of five MEPs
to Darfur from 30 June to 6
July.
The Assembly also adopted reports
on:
a.. Good governance, transparency and accountability in relation
with the
exploitation of natural resources in ACP countries -
co-rapporteurs: Michael
Gahler (EPP-ED, DE) and Evelyne B. Cheron (
Haiti)
b.. Migration of Skilled Workers and its Effect on National
Development -
co-rapporteurs: Sharon Hay Webster ( Jamaica) and Luisa
Morgantini (GUE/NGL,
IT)
c.. Poverty reduction for small farmers in ACP
countries - in particular
in the fruit, vegetable and flowers sectors -
co-rapporteurs: Kilontsi
Mporogomyi ( Tanzania) and Carl Schlyter
(Greens/EFA, SE)
The JPA brings together Members of the European
Parliament and MPs from the
African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states
which have signed the Cotonou
Agreement that governs EU relations with the
ACP for a 20-year period.
The next meeting of the JPA will take place in
Kigali (Rwanda) from 17 to 23
November
2007.
23/06/2007
Co-President : Glenys Kinnock (PES,
UK)
Co-President : René Radembino-Coniquet (Gabon)
13th ACP-EU Joint
Parliamentary Assembly
Wiesbaden, Germany
Myjoyonline, Ghana
Posted on:
28-Jun-2007
While Ghana prepares to host 52 Heads
of State of Africa from
July 1-3, 2007 for the Ninth Ordinary Summit of the
African Union, a number
of pressure groups and individuals are also
preparing to organize massive
demonstrations that could possibly mar an
otherwise grand and historic event
in the life of the
continent.
The Independent says the planned demonstrations
will be
organised over three main issues; the Darfur crises, the political
turmoil
and economic crisis in Zimbabwe and the killing of some 44 Ghanaians
in the
Gambia.
A number of human rights activists and
non-governmental
organizations are going to lead the demonstrators, who have
started
converging in Accra from different parts of
Africa.
The Independent says its sources close to the
organisers of the
mass demonstrations say they are awaiting more numbers and
they are going to
beat the streets till the AU Summit hears what they have
to say.
They said they would go to the farthest ends to bring
the human
rights violation across the continent to the leaders who will be
here.
The sources said, the situation in the Darfur is
appalling and
the intransigence of Khartoum is worsening it. The least said
about
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe the better, the paper quotes one
source,
and added that President Mugabe has turned himself into a block that
is not
doing anything to relieve the people of their
plight.
Turning the radars on Gambia another source pointed
out that
there must put the killing of some 50 Ghanaians in the Gambia on
the table
for the African leaders to look at.
The paper
said, having picked up those signals, the security
agencies in the country
are on high alert to avert possible disruption to
the African Union (AU)
Summit.
On Wednesday, machine gun-wielding policemen could be
seen on
the streets within two mile radius of the Accra International
Conference
Centre (AICC) where the summit is expected to take
place.
The armed security personnel subject people entering
the
conference centre to thorough search and interrogations. A number of
plain
clothes security personnel have also been deplored at the conference
centre
and areas close to the AICC.
Areas besieged by the
security personnel include Osu, Ridge, and
the Ring Road
Central.
The paper said a number of organisations planning to
organise
the demonstrations have received funding from Europe and the United
States
of America. Others have also received funding from opposition parties
in
some African countries.
A leading Non-Governmental
Organization (NGO), the Commonwealth
Human Rights Initiative has indicated
its readiness to protest against
Gambia President Yahaya Jammeh's attending
of the Summit for the killing of
44 Ghanaian immigrants by Gambian security
forces.
Source: The Independent
Africa News, Netherlands
28
June 2007 - The Zimbabwe Crisis Platform. In all the confusion over what
is
at issue in the current Zimbabwe crisis, a few points seem to have been
missed entirely. They seem to have been wholly missed by the SADC Presidents
in Dar-es Salaam recently when they unwisely endorsed Zanu(PF)'s "land
reform" process.
Firstly, a number of public opinion surveys
in the past 7 years have shown
that land is not a concern for the ordinary
Zimbabwean. In the two surveys
conducted by the Afrobarometer, in 1999 and
2004, less than 1% in 1999 and
only 4% in 2004 said it was an issue of
importance. Clearly land is not the
issue for ordinary Zimbabweans that
Zanu(PF) claims it is.
Liberation struggle not about
land
Secondly, whilst land was an issue during the liberation
struggles, it was
not the only issue. Actually, the major issue was
enfranchisement, for it
was by denying the majority of Zimbabweans the vote
that the various white
governments maintained their control of political
power. The calls for
majority rule and one man, one vote were at the core of
the struggles
between black and white through the sixties and
seventies.
If the SADC Presidents were even-handed about land,
they would support the
need for land reform but disagree with the manner of
land reform. They could
do this without losing face, and earn the respect of
the Zimbabwean people.
After all the facts on Zimbabwean land reform are
very clear to all, and
supported by empirical evidence.
Firstly,
whilst the land reform process was not the only factor in the
demise of the
Zimbabwe economy - the decline had begun at least 5 years
before 2000 - it
has been the single most important factor since 2000.
Furthermore, Economist
Craig Richardson has demonstrated that the decline
since 2000 cannot be
explained by drought, as is frequently argued by the
Zimbabwe government.
The 'drought' of 2000/01 was only about 22% below
average rainfall, and less
severe than at least twelve other recent low
rainfall periods. Furthermore,
the previous relationship between GDP growth
and rainfall that had held for
two decades no longer applied after 1999.
Drought not the
reason
The comparison between Zimbabwe and its regional neighbours
further
strengthens this point. As a report for the Centre for Global
Development
demonstrated, there has never been a two-year period in which a
drought in
Zimbabwe's maize-producing regions was not seen also in Zambia
and Malawi.
Despite this pattern, the drop in Zimbabwe's maize production
has exceeded
its neighbours over the past 5 years. Zimbabwean maize
production fell 74%
from 1999 to 2004, while in Malawi it fell just 31% and
in Zambia it
actually increased. Therefore, it is clear that drought does
not explain the
catastrophic decline in the Zimbabwe
economy
Secondly, the other explanation for Zimbabwe's economic
decline endlessly
repeated by the Zimbabwe government, the application of
economic sanctions,
also does not hold water. This Zanu-PF point of view was
also supported by
the SADC Presidents at Dar-es-Salaam. The only official
sanctions applied to
Zimbabwe are those specifically targeted at individuals
by both the EU and
the US, and these involve travel bans and the freezing of
external assets
for the listed persons. It is true that there has been a
withdrawal of many
aspects of development assistance, but not humanitarian
assistance. The
Bretton Woods institutions have also withdrawn support to
Zimbabwe, but not
for reasons of politics, rather these are related to the
failure to pay its
debts and its extremely poor fiscal and monetary
policies.
No land redistribution but violent
displacement
Thirdly, as a new report from the Zimbabwe Human Rights
NGO Forum
demonstrates, the process of land "acquisition" resembled a
violent
displacement rather than any semblance of legal acquisition of land.
The
report states this baldly: "This report finds that the gross human
rights
violations, and the violations of rights generally, were much greater
than
had been previously assumed. It is also evident that the patterns of
violations and those involved in the perpetration of these violations are
not commensurate with conflicts over land between land owners and landless
people. Instead the data from the survey suggests organised appropriation
by an elite, as has been widely claimed."
Fourthly, the
losses incurred by commercial farmers and farm workers were
not trivial.
According to the Human Rights Forum report, the total financial
losses
incurred by white farmers responding to the survey, according to
their own
estimates, are US$368 million. If the survey's figures are
extrapolated to
the entire commercial farming sector the figure is an
astronomical US$8.4
billion. This has nothing to do with the value of the
land or improvements,
but with damages incurred as a consequence of the
government's failure to
protect farmers and undertake an orderly process of
land reform. These are
losses for which civil damages should be able to be
claimed.
The First Post
It's a daily struggle
trying to survive in
a society where money is worthless
I
popped out for a Z$25,000 loaf of bread last Friday. It had gone up to
Z$30,000 dollars. I ran home for the extra, ran back to the shop - and the
price of my loaf had risen to Z$44,000.
That's life in Zimbabwe today -
or at least it was, until this week when our
government took bold and
decisive action to reduce the inflatory spiral, and
predictably everything
got even worse straight away.
Perhaps alarmed by the forecasts of doom
issuing from the lips of American
ambassadors and others, the government
decided that the simplest way to cut
prices was to... well, cut
prices.
An order went out to all manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to
slash
their prices by half. Any who showed the slightest reluctance to do so
were
visited by the Green Bombers - young graduates from the Zanu-PF terror
camps
whose economic arguments are enforced with a smack on the head with a
stout
stick.
Those shops that obeyed the edict and reduced their prices
were invaded by
fervent shoppers, and the result was chaos, with many
businesses threatening
to close their doors for the rest of the week at
least, if not for good.
And the end result? Where it worked best, where
prices were cut by a genuine
50 per cent, the government succeeded in
reducing the cost of living to
almost exactly what it was 10 days
ago.
The government has some other exciting wheezes on the go. Reserve
Bank of
Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono is issuing a new set of bearer
cheques,
replacing those introduced last August, and intended to be used
instead of
dollars. Bearer cheques, of course, are soon subject to the same
inflationary whirlwind as real money.
So where are we today? Back in
the same old chaos, is the answer. Zimbabwe
is becoming a non-currency
society. No one banks money any more. We only go
to our banks to cash our
salary cheques as soon as they are paid in. Then we
run - and I do mean run
- to the nearest store to buy something.
Anything. After all, a kilo of
sugar is as sweet next week as it is today,
and the money spent to buy it
will be little more than worthless tomorrow.
You might like to know how
much things cost on an everyday basis, and I can
give you some prices. A
shirt is Z$15m. Shoes, Z$20m. A beer - Z$75,000.
Mind you, that's at the
time of writing. No doubt by the time of reading
those prices will seem
fatuously low.
So how do we manage? The answer is, by the historic medium
of barter.
Housewives barter what they have in their kitchen cupboard. A few
beans for
a litre of oil, perhaps. They take their example from our
government, which
now hands over what sugar we still produce to Malawi in
exchange for maize
meal.
So whose fault is all this? Who's to blame?
The government has no doubt.
It's you - the nations of the west. You are
deliberately strangling us;
deliberately inflating our currency;
deliberately bringing economic chaos
down on our heads, in order to get rid
of Mugabe and co.
If that is so, can you please hurry it up?
FIRST
POSTED JUNE 28, 2007
Monsters and Critics
Jun 28, 2007, 8:35 GMT
Harare/Johannesburg - Two
reporters from Zimbabwe's state- controlled Herald
daily have appeared in
court on extortion charges, the newspaper reported on
Thursday.
The
two, both in their 20s, are charged with soliciting and receiving a 4
million Zimbabwe dollar bribe (4,000 US dollars) from the director of the
Institute of Administration and Commerce last week.
The allegation is
that one of the reporters phoned the director and said he
was working on a
story on rumoured corrupt activities at the institute,
which is based in the
capital Harare.
The director, Gordon Mombeshora, is claiming that the
pair agreed with him
to stop publishing the story in return for the money,
which is way above a
state journalist's salary.
Detectives picked up
the pair as soon as they were given the money, the
Herald says.
The
allegations will be another slap in the face for Zimbabwe's state media,
which is closely controlled by President Robert Mugabe's
government.
The private press in Zimbabwe has been hard hit by a raft of
press laws that
have seen dozens of private reporters arrested, mostly for
working without
licences or publishing stories highly critical of the
authorities and the
army.
State reporters have been largely spared
the ravages of the press laws, but
they have got into a few messes of their
own making.
A reporter in the eastern border city of Mutare was recently
implicated in
an extortion case, while another journalist in the central
city of Masvingo
has been accused of raping a teenager.
The two
Herald reporters have been released on bail of 200,000 Zimbabwe
dollars
each. Their trial has been set for August 21.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche
Presse-Agentur
The Zimbabwean
(28-06-07)
Many prices rocketed this week:
|
|
|
Week's increase |
M meal |
10kg |
Z$126,500.00 |
62.8% |
tomatoes |
1kg |
Z$41,250.00 |
87.5% |
matches |
Box |
Z$2,320.00 |
0.0% |
Soap,hand |
150g |
Z$52,000.00 |
[404.9% over 4 weeks] |
Soap,bath |
250g |
Z$125,000.00 |
98.4% |
Soap,blue |
1kg |
Z$268,000.00 |
102.3% |
flour, |
plain |
n/a |
|
flour, SR |
5kg |
[Z$160,000.00 on street only] |
130.2% |
Tea, cheapest |
125g |
Z$18,500.00 |
39.6% |
Bread, white |
700g |
Z$31,000.00 |
34.8% |
Salt, table |
1kg |
Z$40,500.00 |
-26.4% |
soyamince |
500g |
Z$56,000.00 |
43.6% |
beans |
500g |
Z$61,000.00 |
11.9% |
cooking oil |
2 litres |
[Z$325,000.00 on street only] |
[276.5% over 4 weeks] |
sugar |
- |
n/a |
|
lacto |
500ml |
Z$28,850.00 |
0.0% |
milk |
500ml |
Z$27,180.00 |
[ 124.6% over 4 weeks] |
P’nut butter |
500g |
Z$94,500.00 |
71.8% |
The Z$ is dropping so fast on the parallel market it is difficult to give a rate.
IOL
Basildon Peta
June 28 2007 at 09:20AM
South African
advocate George Bizos has urged Zimbabweans from all
political persuasions
to convene and consider granting President Robert
Mugabe a comprehensive
amnesty to pave the way for his departure from power
and at least ensure a
beginning to the resolution of the Zimbabwean crisis.
"There ought
to come a stage when all Zimbabweans (of differing
political persuasions)
say: let bygones be bygones . let us look into the
future and not the past
." Bizos said at a seminar entitled "Zimbabwe at the
Crossroads" at the
South African Institute of International Affairs in
Johannesburg on
Wednesday night.
"It worked for us in South Africa; it can work for
Zimbabwe ." added
Bizos, in reference to indemnifying Mugabe for atrocities
committed while in
office, just like the ANC did with most former apartheid
rulers.
Bizos went on to slam constitutional amendments
gazetted by the
Zimbabwean government two weeks ago, which are seen as
giving the ruling
Zanu-PF an easy victory in next year's
elections.
The amendments significantly expand the size of
parliament, among
other things, empowering Mugabe to create more
constituencies in his rural
strongholds in an effort to maintain his large
majority in parliament.
Bizos said that in a nutshell, the
constitutional amendments were
aimed at perpetuating Mugabe and Zanu-PF's
authoritarian rule.
Bizos added that he did not want to comment on
whether the current
talks between the opposition and the ruling party
mediated by President
Thabo Mbeki would succeed.
But what he
was sure of was that next year's elections in Zimbabwe
would not be free and
fair unless the current electoral framework was
overhauled.
This article was originally published
on page 7 of The Star on June
28, 2007
The Zimbabwean
(28-06-07)
HARARE
MOVEMENT for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai will be
holding meetings with President John Kuffor of Ghana soon
and CAJ News can
reveal that the chairman of the African Union has called
the meeting after
growing concern over the tense political situation in
Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai is expected to ratchet pressure on Kuffor, who since
taking over
the AU chair has shown clear disdain and disapproval of
President Robert
Mugabe's human rights abuses and political
repression.
Highly-placed sources within the main wing of the MDC led by
Tsvangirai told
CAJ News in confidence that the former trade unionist would
use the
opportunity to call for censure of Mugabe as well as expose the
ineffectiveness of the Mbeki dialogue initiative, which Zanu (PF) is using
to buy time and try to strike an unfair deal with the
opposition.
"Tsvangirai is going to tell Kuffor that contrary to what
Mugabe tries to
make the world believe, there is no improvement on the
political situation
in Zimbabwe and that it now requires resolute action by
the AU and the
African leaders," a senior MDC official said.
"Kuffor
has also requested that Tsvangirai briefs him on the Mbeki dialogue
initiative and the president is going to call a spade a spade especially by
exposing the delaying tactics being used by Zanu (PF) as well as Mbeki's
bias in the mediation.
MDC secretary general, Tendai Biti confirmed
the visit to Accra, Ghana by
Tsvangirai and his team but said details of the
meeting could only be
revealed after the discussions.
Kuffor is
believed to be planning a visit to Harare in the coming month to
assess the
situation as well as hold discussions with Mugabe, who is
increasingly
attracting the condemnation of his colleagues in Africa over
political
repression and refusal to step down from power.
Tsvangirai and other Save
Zimbabwe Coalition leaders were recently in the
United Kingdom where they
held rallies and meetings as part of the
international outreach ahead of
next year's elections- CAJ News.
BULAWAYO, 28 June 2007 (IRIN) - What people
discard tells you something
about their level of wellbeing: for the garbage
collectors who trawl through
the trash at the municipal dumpsite in
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city,
things have never been so bad.
The
roar of a refuse collection truck approaching the dumpsite on the
outskirts
of the southern city triggers a newfound desperation among the
rubbish
recyclers trying to make a living from other people's leftovers.
At the
entrance gate two men have vaulted onto the top of the truck, while
another
hangs precariously from its tailgate, their mouths stuffed with rags
to
avoid the suffocating dust as best they can. Two others stand guard at
the
gate to screen encroaching newcomers.
"We just don't allow anyone to come
into our territory because there is much
less to go around for everyone,"
says one of the guards, scanning an
expectant group milling near the
entrance.
Tenjiwe Sihlalo, 40, wades through the mashed garbage, trying
to keep pace
with the slow-moving truck, ignoring the grit and dirt it has
churned up.
"Good garbage is hard to come by these days, unlike in the past,
when we
could get quality throwaways," she says.
As the truck tips
out its load, the scavengers rush forward, waving away the
plumes of dust,
trying to quickly identify anything of value for resale.
"You hardly find
enough trash of reasonable quality," complains 52-year-old
Gibson
Hlongwane.
The manufacturing firms that have survived Zimbabwe's
seven-year recession
have been conserving packaging - bad news for the
dumpsite entrepreneurs.
Economists estimate that most firms are operating
at between 60 percent and
70 percent below capacity in a long-running
foreign currency crisis that has
squeezed imports of raw materials and
equipment spare parts. Just two out of
10 Zimbabweans have formal jobs,
while inflation, currently around 4,000
percent, could hit over a million
percent by the end of the year.
Hlongwane has been recycling garbage for
the past five years, and says times
have never been this tough. "It appears
manufacturers no longer discard
cartons and cardboard boxes that used to
fetch us good money," he comments,
picking through scraps of
cardboard.
"Either that or the workers at the factories first go through
the material
that has to be thrown away for what they can retrieve for
recycling before
dumping the worst for us."
The erratic collection of
garbage by the city council from Bulawayo's
wealthier suburbs has not
helped.
"We used to get second-hand clothes and shoes thrown away by the
residents.
Now we rarely do," Sihlalo says, inching towards the base of the
rubbish
dump to prize out what looks like a broken sandal before picking up
her bag
and heading for an open space to sort out her day's finds.
The planned conservation area will straddle the borders of
Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is hoped the park will bring in tourists to such attractions
as the Victoria Falls, Okavango swamps, Chobe National Park and Caprivi Strip.
Officials believe it will also help regional tourism ahead of
the 2010 World Cup taking place in South Africa. The prosposed Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Park will cost an
estimated $100m to set up and is expected to contribute significantly to job
creation in the five countries. Africa's biggest game park at the moment is the
35,000-square-kilometre Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park on the borders of
Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. While the southern African region has big potential as a tourist
destination, those meeting in Botswana's capital, Gaborone, say much needs to be
done to attract tourists to the region.
At Thursday's gathering tourism ministers and environmental
experts are hammering out a joint conservation policy. "The major issue is about sustainable tourism," Botswana's
Tourism Minister Kitso Mokaila told the BBC. "Tourism is a revenue generator and therefore if we can get the
conservation issue right then I think we can start talking more positively and
more confidently about sustainable tourism." Among the obstacles cited were the landmines scattered in the
Cuando Cubango region of Angola, where a 27-year civil war ended in 2002.
"What we want right now is to make sure that the funds that are
available for the de-mining to proceed as soon as possible," said Eduardoa
Chingunji, Angola's tourism minister. "But let's not forget that at times also the question of
landmines in Angola is overblown... there are specific areas where there were
battle lines for a long time - that's where you find the concentration.
"The priority right now is to de-mine a major part of the border
that is between the countries," he said. Another issue the ministers have been grappling with is the bad
image associated with Zimbabwe that could well tarnish their park project.
Tourists tend to shun Zimbabwe because of the political and
economic strife there. But Mr Mokaila said he did not see politics coming in the way of
business. "When I was in the Victoria Falls all I could see were tourists
all over the show. Obviously if the Zimbabwe situation were to change it would
also enhance what we're doing. "But I think that the very fact that we're also involved with
them in these negotiations also assists their issues." As well as finding a common position on issues of tourism and
the management of the wildlife, it is also hoped that the project will assist in
region's economic integration. Reuters http://www.charlierandall.org/ From The Cape Times (SA), 28 June Please send any job opportunities for publication in this newsletter to:
JAG
BBC Focus on Africa, Gaborone
Plans
to create the world's largest game park are being finalised at a meeting in
Botswana in southern Africa.
Jazz legend raps Africa leaders for lack of action
Thu 28 Jun
2007, 17:35 GMT
By Orla Ryan
ACCRA, June 28 (Reuters Life!) -
South African jazz legend Hugh Masekela
accused African leaders on Thursday
of doing nothing to stop killing in
Darfur and injustice in Zimbabwe as they
prepared to discuss plans for a
continental government.
Trumpet
player Masekela, who had also campaigned against apartheid in South
Africa,
joined African civil society groups in calling for action on Darfur
and
Zimbabwe days before the start of an African Union summit in Accra,
Ghana.
The main item on the summit agenda is a proposal to build a
United States of
Africa and create an executive structure to govern it. Some
African rights
activists say the meeting should be working instead to end
conflicts and
abuses on the world's poorest continent.
Masekela was
scathing about what he called the inability of African leaders
to tackle
problems on their own doorstep, such as the crisis in Sudan's west
Darfur
region, where an estimated 200,000 people have been killed in a
conflict
between government-backed militias and rebels.
"The African Union is not
going to do anything, these are people who sit to
dinner together, who drink
wine together. I won't say they protect each
other but they are not going to
do anything," Masekela told reporters.
He was speaking on the sidelines
of an NGO event organised to highlight the
situation in Zimbabwe, where
President Robert Mugabe is accused by critics
of repressing opponents and
driving the country to the brink of economic
collapse.
Advocates of
creating a federal African government for the 53-nation AU say
it will have
the strength and authority to prevent situations like Darfur
from occurring,
or of intervening to stop them if necessary. Libyan leader
Muammar Gaddafi
is proposing a continental army.
But some countries, like South Africa
and Uganda, want a more gradual
approach that moves towards greater
continental integration through the
strengthening of regional economic
communities that already exist. (Editing
by Pascal Fletcher; Dakar Newsroom;
+221 864 5076)
West Indies board cancels A-team tour
Martin Williamson
June 28,
2007
A dismal day for Zimbabwe cricket was capped by confirmation from
the West
Indies that the proposed A-team tour had been cancelled. The news
comes
within hours of a damning ICC report into Zimbabwe cricket being
leaked by
the BBC.
Although the West Indies Cricket Board told
Cricinfo yesterday that no
decision had been made, it now emerges that Bruce
Aanensen, the WICB chief
executive, had already written to the Zimbabwe
board to notify them that the
tour was off.
"I regret to advise that
in spite of our best efforts and your unstinting
support, we are now advised
by the CARICOM Secretariat that after careful
consideration of a wide range
of views they regretfully have to change their
position and advise the WICB
that the tour should not take place," he said.
"You will appreciate that we
have to be guided by the wishes of the heads of
government. Our apologies to
Zimbabwe Cricket for any inconvenience caused
by this late
decision."
Lovemore Banda, the ZC media manager, told The Herald that the
decision was
"regrettable", adding that the "training squad will remain in
camp as we
have a Zimbabwe A tour to South Africa at the end of July. We
will also
continue talking to other boards about A tours as part of our
on-going
programme to expose our young side to top-level three or four-day
cricket."
Although the WICB statement indicated that CARICOM had changed
its position,
Cricinfo revealed last week that a senior official said it had
never given
the board the all clear.
Furthermore, the WICB had been
unable to raise a side after WIPA, the
players' association, advised its
members that there were serious security
issues surrounding the tour. The
WICB had been trying to find players but
had been unable to do so, and it
had even been unable to find anyone to
captain the team.
Despite
repeated assurances that a squad was about to be named, with West
Indies set
to land in Harare on July 1 and play the first four-day match on
July 4, it
became increasingly obvious that the trip was doomed.
Until now, the only
sides refusing to tour Zimbabwe on safety or moral
grounds have been white,
and this has been seized on by the authorities as
evidence of what
government sources have variously described as "racism" and
"colonialism".
But that West Indies are now unwilling to tour raises serious
concerns about
the future of the country as a destination for tours of any
kind.
Martin Williamson is executive editor of Cricinfo
©
Cricinfo
Zimbabwe stand accused
THE international community is due to learn
today that more than
£300,000 has gone missing from Zimbabwe Cricket funds,
siphoned into three
unknown companies in transactions not disclosed to the
auditors.
Discrepancies were revealed by a forensic check
commissioned by the
International Cricket Council. In addition Zimbabwe
Cricket officials were
suspected of being involved with motor vehicle
importers and striking deals
in contravention of their government's foreign
exchange regulations. That
business was believed to be worth about
£500,000.
The ICC are meeting in London this week and, according to
the BBC,
delegates have seen a damning report by Malcolm Speed, the ICC
chief
executive. Serious doubts have been cast on the authenticity of the
Zimbabwean balance sheet. Funds due from the World Cup tournament have been
withheld since the first payment of more than £1 million.
There
is evidence, cited in cricinfo, that the Zimbabwe Cricket
accounts have been
suspect since at least 2004.
This week the West Indies A tour to
Zimbabwe was cancelled for
"security reasons" apparently on the advice of
the Caricom secretariat,
though it was reported that the Board were having
difficulty raising a team
of enough players willing to go.
The
Zimbabwe nation is experiencing an eighth successive year of
recession,
shackled by near-worthless currency -- the Zimbabwe Dollar. They
have the
world's highest inflation rate, which rose to 4,530 per cent in
May, leaving
four in five people without jobs and communities facing
starvation. The
business community has accepted that the economy is now on
the brink of
collapse.
A report released last week by the Confederation of
Zimbabwe
Industries confirmed that productivity had plummeted: "The
manufacturing
sector now contributes 15.5 per cent to Zimbabwe's gross
domestic product,
compared with 24 per cent a decade ago. The country has
also been hit by
shortages of electricity and foreign currency as well a
skewed exchange rate
and government price controls."
The
Confederation president, Callisto Jokonya, commented: "We no
longer have an
industry to talk about. We have de-industrialised ourselves."
The
manufacturing sector, which used to be the strongest sub-Sahara outside
South Africa, contracted by seven per cent last year, and agriculture has
seen a catastrophic decline since the farm seizures.
President
Robert Mugabe has accused Western countries of economic
sabotage.
Posted by Charlie
Randall
28/06/2007 10:11:51
No time to shop around as Zimbabwe
prices shoot up by the hour
Harare - Accountant Shawn Kureva was left
cursing his decision to delay
buying cement at a Harare hardware store until
he had compared prices
elsewhere in inflation-ravaged Zimbabwe. "The price
for a bag of cement was
Z$300 000 and I had enough money for five but
thought it was not a bad idea
to compare prices," he said of his shopping
trip last Friday. "When I went
around other shops in the neighbourhood, I
found cement was out of stock. By
the time I went back to the first shop in
the afternoon the price had shot
up to Z$850 000 a bag so I bought two
instead of five." It could have been
worse. If he had waited until after the
weekend he would only have had
enough for one bag as the price had shot up
again to Z$1.2 million dollars
by Monday. There are thousands of similar
stories every day in Zimbabwe.
With the country's world-record inflation
driving prices haywire there is a
new unwritten law for shoppers, buy now or
pay double later. "The price
escalations are not sustainable," said Best
Doroh, an analyst with the
financial group ZB Holdings. "Those who have a
little excess cash are
converting it to more stable currencies."
The
inflation rate was last announced surreptitiously in a newspaper report
at 3
714% in April and is now believed to be well beyond 4 500%. Outgoing US
ambassador to Harare Christopher Dell said inflation would end the year at
1.5 million percent and end up toppling President Robert Mugabe. Over the
past weeks, prices of some goods and services went up more than 300%. To
cushion workers, some companies are giving staff grocery hampers as part of
their pay. On Monday, the government ordered businesses to slash prices of
basic goods such as cooking oil, bread and fuel by half as part of a clutch
of measures to stall escalating prices. But economics professor Tony Hawkins
expressed doubt the new price freeze would arrest the inflation spiral.
"Logically, if controls are imposed arbitrarily without taking into
consideration the production costs, firms will say they can't produce.
Shortages will be the natural result and this will see the scarce
commodities appearing at much higher prices on the parallel market." The
goverment often blames the economic decline on targeted sanctions imposed by
the US and the European Union on Mugabe. Last week a state daily claimed to
have unearthed a grand plot, masterminded by the US and former colonial
master Britain, to destroy Zimbabwe's economy.
JAG Job Opportunities dated 28 June 2007
Job Opportunities; <mailto:jag@mango.zw> jag@mango.zw or
<mailto:justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw>
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 7 June 2007)
Contracts in the DRC
Wanted: for
six month renewable contracts in the DRC, three Zimbabwean farm
managers.
One with experience in orchard and plantation crops especially
citrus and
bananas, the second with experience in row cropping: potatoes,
maize/soya,
wheat and barley and the third with experience in dairy
production. Formal
agricultural qualifications an advantage but not a
necessity.
Fluency
in Swahili preferable but not essential.
Contact:
011610073.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 7 June 2007)
Furniture Factory
Manager
Beira, Mozambique - based
A furniture
factory making a range of hardwood furniture is looking for a
production
manager.
This person will be responsible for:
Management
of the machine shop and assembly line of a hardwood
furniture
producer.
Implementation of the process of continuous
improvement within the factory.
Production scheduling of orders and
management of all raw materials and
consumables.
Operations and the
maintenance of the equipment.
Quality management and
control.
The candidate should have experience with working with
large teams of semi
and unskilled workers. Be adaptable and creative, working
in sometimes
difficult conditions without technical support. The ability to
make critical
decisions, at times with little information, to anticipate
problems and plan
for them. The flexibility to develop creative, practical
and realistic
solutions in based on an understanding of the limitations of
the local
environment.
Experience in production and
manufacture in the timber industry preferred,
though relevant non-timber
production experience in developing countries
also an
advantage.
The candidate should be prepared to reside full time
in Mozambique full
time. Fully legal residence and work permits will be
provided.
Package in US$.
Portuguese not
essential at the start but the successful candidate would
have to learn to
communicate in the language.
Basic computer literacy an
advantage.
CV's will be accepted until the end of June 2007, and
the candidate will be
expected on I August 2007.
Included in
your CV or on the covering letter please advise what package you
will be
expecting.
Please email tctdalmann@tdm.co.mz or fax +258 23 30 21
61 for an application
form.
For additional company
information see www.dalmann.com
<http://www.dalmann.com/>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 7 June 2007)
Mature gardener
Preferably
married but without children. Traceable references required.
Accommodation on
site.
Contact G. Dartnall -
302702.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 7 June 2007)
VACANCY - ESTATE
MANAGER
Applications are invited for the position of Estate
Manager at St George's
College.
Applicants should have
mechanical experience sufficient for the maintaining
of vehicles, borehole
pumps, estate machinery and the general supervision of
the on-site workshop
and stores department.
Other duties include the maintenance of
school buildings and staff
residential accommodation, the care and
development of grounds and gardens
as well as the correct utilization of the
irrigation and water management
systems.
Applicants should
have good man management skills; the ability to understand
and converse in
both languages will be an advantage as would basic computer
skills.
A good salary is offered, commensurate with experience, as well
as other
benefits including housing on campus.
Interested
candidates should forward CV's and contactable references to the
Headmaster's
Secretary on headsec@stgeorges.co.zw or Fax CV's to
Harare
797648.
Closing date for applications will be the
30th June and we regret that only
short-listed candidates will receive a
response.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 14 June 2007)
Receptionist wanted
Must be young,
innovative, and computer literate. Excel spreadsheets a must.
Good
telephone manners needed. Msasa area.
e-mail cv's to info@fourseasonsfoods.co.zw or fax
486168
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 14 June 2007)
Nursery School Teacher
Fairly newly established nursery school in Chisipite looking
for a qualified
nursery school teacher to teach pre-school year. Looking for
somebody who
is not likely to be leaving country in near future and mature
and
professional by nature. Attractive salary on offer and lovely
environment
to work in.
Please contact Kerry-Ann on 0912
754226.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 14 June 2007)
Secretarial/Management Position
. . . to commence soonest . . .
UK based
business needing a competent & efficient, self-motivated,
dedicated,
responsible mature person of high integrity to manage their
office in
Zimbabwe.
Required of you:-
A. Excellent
Computer Skills in -
- MSOutlook emails
- File Management
- MSWord
- Internet
B. Good in MSExcel
C.
Company Registration procedures:
- working knowledge
of
Knowledge of LINUX an added advantage
Located
in Avondale.
Remuneration paid from UK
Assessments being
conducted by
Thomas Vallance ACIArb
Executive
Director
PARADiGM Trust(Pvt)Ltd
Trust Executives &
Administrators
Para-Legal Advisory Services
POBox HG750,
Highlands.
Tels: (B) 04-304 482
(M) 011-617
161
0912-227 473
Emails:
[paradigm@zol.co.zw]
[paradigm@mango.zw]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 14 June 2007)
We are looking for a mature person or
couple to run our small 12 bed safari
camp. This position would be ideal for
a mature couple or man from a farming
background.
Essential
are staff management skills as well as able to speak shona.
Love of
wildlife and wilderness areas.
Ideal candidates will have some animal
husbandry skills in particular in
relation to horses.
The camp is
situated 2 hours from Harare.
There is no zesa but then again there is
none in Harare!
Good communication skills and like people also a
requirement!
Some handy man skills an advantage.
Excellent package
for right person/s.
Please contact 091 2256434 or email riding@vardensafaris.com delay in
our
replying via email may be experienced due to dial up/phone
problems.
VARDEN SAFARIS
RIDING SAFARIS - MAVURADONHA
MOUNTAINS
PO BOX BW 1714 - BORROWDALE
HARARE - ZIMBABWE
PH/FAX: HARARE
OFFICE (263) 4 861766
JANINE CELL: (263) 91 256 434
BASE CAMP CELL: (263)
91 252 163
email: riding@vardensafaris.com
www.vardensafaris.com
WE
OPERATE IN A MALARIA FREE AREA.
WE AIM TO REPLY TO ALL EMAIL
MESSAGES WITHIN 24 HOURS - IF YOU HAVE NOT
HEARD FROM US AND ARE EXPECTING A
REPLY PLEASE RESEND YOUR EMAIL
ZIMBABWE - POSITIVELY
GOOD!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 21 June)
FINANCIAL MANAGER (ACCOUNTANT OR SENIOR
BOOKKEEPER)
* EXPERIENCE ESSENTIAL WITH SOUND KNOWLEDGE OF
COMPUTERIZED ACCOUNTING
PRACTICES TO BALANCE SHEET.
* INCUMBENT TO HEAD A
DEPARTMENT OF 3 SUBORDINATES IN A LONG
ESTABLISHED FAMILY BUSINESS IN
GRANITESIDE HARARE
TELEPHONE - GLYNIS 751704/6 OR CELL 011
630164
EMAIL : auctions@yoafrica.co
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 28 June)
Gardener required:
Can anyone
recommend a reliable, experienced gardener? We would prefer a
mature person
who can work without much supervision. In return a good salary
is offered
along with excellent accommodation
Please phone 011 614
233
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 28 June)
OXFORD IT
Phone -
309855 - 60, 3099274
<mailto:oronald@oxfordit.co.zw> cv@oxfordit.co.zw , ronald@oxfordit.co.zw
BOOKKEEPERS
-M/Only and full day positions with very good remuneration.
PA's
- M/Only or full day - always looking for experienced
ladies.
Engineer - Experience on Intel / AMD based Servers and
server equipment,
knowledge of Windows 2000/2003 Server and UNIX an advantage
and 5 years
experience minimum. Urgent.
System Administrator
- Installation linux and windows servers, Internet
onsite Linux, Windows
support, windows VOIP servers and support, software
support, VPN, network
support, computer hardware installation and support
maybe, ISP background
added advantage. Attractive package
IBM Hardware - IBM i and
or p series and x series midrange servers, at
least two years experience,
BSc/HND in Electrical Engineering/Computer
Science or City & Guilds T4/T5
or equivalent
Senior Software Developer - SQL Server, Crystal
Reports, VB6 & VB.Net for
financial applications. Need to be a team
player with good communication
skills. This is a demanding position with
appropriate rewards. Attractive
package
Web Hosting - At
least three years experience working as a Web developer.
Graphic
Designer - Flash, Adobe, Macromedia, HTML, Photoshop, Developing
graphics on
the web
Group Finance Manager - Review of unit monthly accounts, annual
audit,
consolidation and aggregation of Final Stats, Preferably qualified
(CA, or
CIMA, or ACCA)
Branch Accountant - Preparation of
monthly accounts, monthly
reconciliations, supervision of staff, reporting to
Group Financial Manager.
Operations Manager: One of
Zimbabwe's leading tourism organisations is
currently looking for a
Zimbabwean-born operations manager to be based out
of Harare who will manage
all logistics and operations for expeditions and
gap year programmes.
Preferably with pro-guides licence, great people
skills, organisational
skills, good computer literacy, single or able to
travel often for quite long
periods of time and clean drivers license. To
start immediately. Competitive
salary.
Project Manager: One of Zimbabwe's leading tourism
organisations is
currently looking for a Zimbabwean-born operations manager
to manage our
Hwange National Park conservation volunteer programme.
Preferably with
pro-guides licence, great people skills, organisational
skills, good
computer literacy, single/able to base in Hwange and clean
drivers license.
To start immediately. Competitive
salary
Phone - 309855 - 60, 3099274
<mailto:oronald@oxfordit.co.zw> cv@oxfordit.co.zw , ronald@oxfordit.co.zw
---------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 28 June)
Secretary/PA required (preferably a displaced
farmer's wife)
An opportunity has arisen at the JAG Trust for a
secretarial/personal
assistant to the CEO. The successful applicant must be
punctual, reliable,
able to use initiative, meet deadlines, engage in a high
degree of public
relation skills and able to work as part of a team and
independently. JAG
is a small office but a fun and challenging environment
to work in, although
can be stressful at times.
Skills
required:
- Typing
- Minute Taking
- Diary
Management for CEO
- Knowledge of all Microsoft Office
Programs
- Good PR skills
A competitive, inflation
proofed remuneration package is offered plus a fuel
allowance.
Interested applicants should contact the JAG Office on
04-799410 and furnish
a written application with cv via email (justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
and
jag@mango.zw) for the attention of the
Trust's CEO.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 28 June)
Tobacco Manager
We urgently require the
services of a Tobacco Manager who will be
responsible for the production of a
90 ha crop. The farm is situated in
Zimbabwe.
The successful
applicant will be:
* Honest;
*
Energetic;
* Hard working and in good health;
*
Dependable; and
* Competent and experienced in tobacco
production.
Please revert to: agrijoe@hms.co.zw with copies of current
C.V and
references and await follow up from this
end
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
EMPLOYMENT
REQUIRED
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad inserted 7 June 2007)
Outsource your payrolls. For
confidential payrolls produced on FDS system.
Accounting services offered
to Final accounts
Contact : Jenny at tiger1@mweb.co.zw or
011400754.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 7 June 2007)
I am a mature man looking for Secretarial
/ Administration/ Reception with
10 years of experience.
Computer literate, good communication skills with
all
segments of Zimbabwe and foreign societies. Hard working. I will
consider
full or part time engagement in any field. Well travelled having
worked in
almost every sector in the industries.
Please contact me on 492 590
(Work) 0912339 438 Cell or e-mail me at:
tengarnetts@yahoo.com
Tendai
Karinda
Mr.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 21 June)
Returning to Harare in August looking for a
part time job in a coffee shop,
restaurant, B & B in fact anything that's
fun and can keep me busy for 3-4
days a week. Can do most
things.
Please contact Merle Grant phone 00 267 7211296 or
email shell@it.bw
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Ad
inserted 28 June)
Mature
Secretary/PA/Administrator
* Available ASAP
*
Reliable
* Able to Work without supervision
* Can run an
executive office
* Computer literate
* Phone 0912 425
468
* E-mail: julietjokomo@yahoo.co.uk
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
For
the latest listings of accommodation available for farmers, contact
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
(updated 28 June 2007)