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• ‘Massive Intervention Needed to Prevent Catastrophe in Zimbabwe & Malawi’
• Mugabe cracks down on opponents over poll dispute
• Zimbabwe sends 3 more to the gallows
• Top lawyers arrested in Zimbabwe
• Farm Invasions And Security Report - Tuesday 4 June 2002
• Law society chief arrested
• Farmer’s murderer was involved in row
• People power can save us, if we unite
• Government in a state of denial of reality
• Supreme Court overturns ruling on Harare elections
• United Nations, London - Protests
• Retrenched civil servants cry foul over packages
• UZ students run riot
• Court hears of alleged Moyo-Mpofu gay affair
• ZANU PF'S LEGACY TO ZIMBABWE

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04 Jun 2002 Concern: ‘Massive Intervention Needed to Prevent Catastrophe in Zimbabwe & Malawi’ Macdara Doyle

Concern Worldwide - Ireland

Zimbabwe and Malawi could face their worst famines in living memory unless there is immediate international action, Concern has warned. Both countries face severe food shortages that affect almost 11 million people in Zimbabwe and over three million in Malawi. Concern’s Jack Finucane - who headed a recent Assessment Mission to Zimbabwe -has concluded that: “Only massive intervention now, with large-scale delivery of food aid, will prevent catastrophe on the scale of the 1984 Ethiopian Famine, or Somalia 1991-92.” In Malawi, Concern chief executive Tom Arnold recently warned that: “If decisive action is not taken my fear is that many thousands of people will die.” Malawi and Zimbabwe have been worst affected by the severe food shortages being experienced across the Southern African region. The regional food shortfall - some four million tonnes - has been caused by drought, bad harvests, instability and economic crisis. Recent World Food Programme figures confirm that the Zimbabwean harvest was 77 percent down on 2001, affecting up to 80 percent of the population. Zimbabwe will need to procure and distribute 1.8 million tonnes of grain to meet the ‘food gap’. The Zimbabwean government does not have the means to purchase the necessary grain. Zimbabwe faces “potential catastrophe” said Mr Finucane, In Malawi, some 3.2 million people will need food aid to survive until next year’s harvest. The country needs to import some 600,000 tonnes of food. Concern Chief Executive, Tom Arnold - just returned from Malawi - has warned that “many thousands will die” unless there is immediate action. It is believed there have already been substantial deaths from hunger, in Malawi. A recent Concern Nutrition Report showed a serious rise in malnutrition rates and contained evidence of widespread deaths from starvation. Mr Arnold pointed out that although Malawi’s main harvest had occurred in April/May, many houselholds had already run out of food. He called for the immediate delivery of large quantities of maize to prevent “a catastrophic deterioration” in both Zimbabwe and Malawi. Zimbabwe and Malawi have some of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in the world.

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Mugabe cracks down on opponents over poll dispute
  HARARE, June 4 — Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government has turned up the heat on critics and political opponents fighting to overturn his controversial re-election as head of state in March.
       After a 10-week crackdown on journalists accused of ''publishing falsehoods'' against Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, police on Monday detained two top lawyers on allegations of writing letters inciting violence against the government.
       Police have also in the past week followed up Mugabe's warning he will not tolerate any revolt against his rule with raids on homes and business offices of some top opposition officials suspected of organising anti-government protests.
       The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) charges that ZANU-PF is continuing its intimidation of the movement to try to destroy its structures in a campaign launched before the March 9-11 presidential elections.
       MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has described Mugabe's victory in the vote as ''daylight robbery'' and is backed in his demands for a re-run by Western powers, who condemned the poll as fraudulent.
       The MDC has gone to court to challenge the result, and Tsvangirai has threatened to push for street protests to help overturn Mugabe's victory.
       Mugabe -- who says he won fairly and accuses the West of trying to impose Tsvangirai as Zimbabwe's leader -- says he will not tolerate any violence or protests against his victory.

TOUGH, NEW SECURITY LAW
       By Tuesday afternoon police were still holding Law Society of Zimbabwe President Stenford Moyo and the organisation's secretary Wilbert Mapombere for allegedly writing letters to the MDC and the British embassy urging violence against Mugabe.
       Chief police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said Moyo and Mapombere were likely to be charged under a tough new security law widely seen as aimed at repressing opposition to Mugabe.
       ''There is no campaign of any sort against the opposition, journalists or lawyers. This is about law and order,'' Bvudzijena said on Tuesday of charges the police were targeting a hit list drawn up by the government.
       He denied the government was abusing the new laws to harass the opposition and journalists.
       ''The police force is not going to be deterred from doing its work by these baseless accusations...The police will take all suspects to court and the courts will determine these cases.''
       The government has nailed charges against about a dozen foreign and local journalists under a new media law, which penalises ''abuse of journalistic privilege'' such as publishing ''falsehoods'' with heavy fines or jail terms of up to two years.
       Critics say the law, which Mugabe enacted days after his re-election, is being used against private media organisations backing the MDC's calls for a re-run of the election.
       Mugabe, 78, and Zimbabwe's sole ruler since the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain in 1980, says he will fight to defend his country's sovereignty.

Mugabe has warned the opposition against protesting

By Collin Chiwanza STERNFORD Moyo, the president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ), and the society’s secretary, Wilbert Mapombere, were arrested yesterday afternoon over allegations that they had in their possession subversive documents relating to the planned MDC mass action to force President Mugabe to conduct a rerun of the presidential election which he won controversially. Moyo’s wife, Sara, confirmed yesterday that her husband had been picked up by the police and was being held at an unknown place by late last night. Joseph Mafusire, Moyo’s colleague at Scanlen and Holderness law firm, said the two lawyers were being charged under Section 5 of the draconian Public Order and Security Act. He said four policemen stormed into Moyo’s law chambers and produced a search warrant before proceeding to search his offices, the LSZ premises and his home. After the search, the officers came out empty-handed, but took Moyo and Mapombere to the station. The investigating officer was identified as one Inspector Dohwa from the Law and Order Section at Harare Central Police Station. Several lawyers yesterday gathered at the Harare Central Police Station, where Moyo and Mapombere were being held. The LSZ, in its annual report for 2000, criticised the government for condoning lawlessness marked by political violence, extortion and personal attacks on judges and other legal service providers. In the report, Moyo relates how former Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay was “compelled by sustained abuse, unjustified and defamatory attacks together with threats of violence” to resign before his time was up. He also expressed the society’s concern at the circumstances that had led to the resignation of Justices James Devittie, Esmael Chatikobo and Michael Gillespie. In what appears to be a well-orchestrated clampdown on dissenting voices, the police in Mutare last week searched the offices of lawyer Innocent Gonese, who is the MDC parliamentary chief whip, and Giles Mutsekwa, the MDC shadow minister for defence. Gonese is the MP for Mutare Central, while Mutsekwa is the MP for Mutare North. The police said they were looking for documents concerning the imminent mass action being organised by the MDC. The MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, announced last week that his party was finalising strategies for an indefinite nationwide mass action.

Chief Reporter ONE of the alleged murderers of Charles Anderson, the commercial farmer shot dead in cold blood with an AK47 assault rifle in Mazowe/Glendale on Sunday, had earlier had an argument with the farmer. Workers at the farm and a farmer in the area yesterday said the man visited Anderson last week, to tell him to leave his irrigation pipes on the farm. The 378-hectare Dunmaglas of Norfolk Estate was designated under the Model A2 scheme. Anderson had reached an agreement with Ngoni Masoka, the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, for a take-over of the farm. A government notice in the Press on 3 February said Dunmaglas Farm of Norfolk Estate was now owned by Masoka. “The information I got from the workers is that Anderson had an argument with one of the alleged murderers over irrigation pipes. The youth told him that he should leave the property when he left next month,” said one of the workers. “We suspect that it was armed robbery,” said a farmer in the area. “But we also heard that Anderson had an argument with one of the alleged murderers who was identified by the workers.” The Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) said it suspected armed robbery was the motive. Although the police refused to give details, the government daily newspaper, The Herald, reported yesterday one of the alleged killers had been arrested. Anderson’s widow, Cindy, has been taken to Harare following the murder, but neighbours said Anderson’s body was still being held by the Bindura police. They said he was expected to buried on Thursday in Harare. Workers at the farm said Masoka has four fields of wheat while Anderson was still on the farm, pending the grading of his tobacco crop. Masoka could not be reached for comment. Anderson, 40, is the 12th member of the CFU to be murdered since invasions of commercial farms by so-called war veterans started more than two years ago.

LAST week Zimbabweans witnessed, for the first time in a very long time, what can only be called People Power. Black and white, rich and poor, rural and urban - we stood together and literally bombarded the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture with protest. The minister was going to do away with Cambridge International Examinations, put all our children into the same school uniforms and force teachers to stay at their posts from dawn to dusk. For two weeks every column in every newspaper in the country was filled with complaints about Minister Aeneas Chigwedere’s three proposals which were going to directly affect our homes and lives. The minister’s ideas were going to hurt us where it hurts the most - in our pockets. When Chigwedere saw how unpopular his new rulings were he backed down, retracted everything and said the proposals were no more than a subject for debate. He did not apologise for the mayhem he had caused, the enormous distress he had given parents and children or the weeks lost to students who had already been forced to change their “A” level subjects to suit his whims. In less than a fortnight, the people of Zimbabwe showed the minister and the government exactly what can happen when we stand together. People power is indeed a force to be reckoned with - something our government would do well to recognise in the traumatic months that lie ahead for an almost starving Zimbabwe. There are already half a million people in Zimbabwe surviving on donated food aid and the United Nations World Food Programme said last week that this number will increase dramatically to six million within the next few months. It’s hard to imagine that in a few months’ time more than half of our total population will be starving and entirely dependent on food aid. It’s even harder to understand why we have allowed this situation to occur in our country which, until two years ago, was a major food exporter in Africa. Remember how we all used to joke about the crumbling ruin of Zambia in the dying days of the Kenneth Kaunda regime? Remember how we used to laugh scornfully at our neighbours over the border and make jokes about the value of the Zambian kwacha? Now we are worse off than they ever were and we should be ashamed that we have not harnessed our people power and done something. Last week the UN World Food Programme also said that Zimbabwe was experiencing the longest dry spell in 20 years. In that case, why is there no water rationing and why have all our dams still got so much water in them? The Zimbabwe National Water Authority have just released their latest findings on the state of the country’s dams which are: Masvingo: 91 percent full, Matabeleland 79 percent, Mashonaland 89 percent, Midlands 88 percent and Manicaland 100 percent full. There is still an awful lot of water around for a country experiencing its worst dry spell in two decades and the reason for this is simple - the water is not being used to irrigate crops as it always was in days gone by when we were laughing at our Zambian neighbours who were starving. Now that we are starving, I wonder if they are laughing at us and our Minister of Agriculture. We are not using any water to irrigate our crops because there are no crops in the ground. There are no crops in the ground because the Minister of Agriculture has listed 95 percent of Zimbabwe’s farms for compulsory acquisition. Last week the Minister of Agriculture warned that any commercial farmer not planting wheat would have his farm listed for State seizure. Surely Minister Joseph Made is confused as there are now only 308 commercial farms in the whole country which are not listed for compulsory acquisition. Those 308 farms are expected to feed 13 million people. Between them they are supposed to provide all our meat, milk, bread, maize-meal, sugar and vegetables - at least until the new settler farmers are on their feet. The new settler farmers have no capital, no title deeds to their land and cannot even afford seed, let alone fertilisers, pesticides and labour. Every single Zimbabwean complaining about the situation in the country is to blame for this diabolical mess we find ourselves in. When there is no food to buy and our children are whining and hungry, it will be our own fault. When yet another relation arrives on our doorstep from the rural areas looking for a bed and food, it will be our own fault. At the moment the problem is that none of us think that we will be one of those six million starving people and until it starts to really hurt us where it counts the most - in our stomachs and pockets - we will continue to sit back and do absolutely nothing. The Minister of Agriculture must be told what we think of his policies the same way we told the Minister of Education, Sports and Culture about school uniforms and Cambridge International Examinations last week. People power is a force to be reckoned with, if we stand together.

THE government’s attempts to pretend that the whole world still loves it in spite of its violation of its citizens’ human rights are now bordering on the absurd. Last month, President Mugabe led a high-powered delegation to New York to attend a United Nations conference on children. Under the UN headquarters agreement the US is obliged to let any head of state into the UN building unless they are banned or suspended from the UN. That is the only reason why Mugabe and his retinue were able to travel to the US, in spite of the “smart sanctions” imposed on them by the US administration under the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act. If they had landed in Washington DC or Seattle, in Washington State, on a shopping spree, it is doubtful that they would have been allowed to get off their plane. But the government propaganda would have us believe that the government is winning its war against its detractors, that the sanctions are ineffective and that Zimbabwe is as squeaky clean, diplomatically, as it was before the bloodshed that began with the farm invasions of 2000 and culminated with the controversial presidential election last March. All this misinformation may fool some people some of the time, but it won’t fool all the people all the time. Last week, the Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, hosted the Speaker of the Angolan Parliament, Roberto de Almeida. Angola’s Parliament cannot be compared with other parliaments, not even in Africa, with its many “rubber-stamp” legislatures. Until the government killed the Unita rebel, Jonas Savimbi, a few months ago, Angola had no real use for a parliament, a vast swathe of the country being controlled by Savimbi’s rebels. In any case, Angolan government officials, including government ministers, are known to have looted the economy using the “cost” of the civil war as a pretext. De Almeida had the temerity to extol the Zimbabwe government’s chaotic land reform programme. But would he add the rider that it was unnecessary for so many people to die in the programme? No. We know why. His country has known only bloodshed since independence from the Portuguese in 1975. As far as he is concerned, bloodshed in such programmes is inevitable. The invitation to de Almeida would seem to have its parallel in the invitation to open the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in April to the Zambian president, Levy Mwanawasa. Here was a man whose own election last year was as controversial as Mugabe’s, littered with allegations of rigging. He won the election with 29,16 percent of the total votes cast. Respectable international observers concluded, as they did with the Zimbabwe’s election, the poll was not free or fair. Zimbabwe apparently invited him only after the Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, turned down their invitation. Obasanjo and South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki did not attend Mugabe’s installation ceremony. They may have pleaded previous engagements, but it is safe to suggest they may have been nervous about being seen to endorse an election the result of which would lead to Zimbabwe’s one-year suspension from the Commonwealth. Mugabe’s government is the “bad boy” of that group today. Yet the government pretends it retains the respect of the rest of the world. It seems to believe everybody will listen seriously to its objections over the creation of the New Economic Partnership for African Development (Nepad). Nepad may be as African in concept as the Organisation of African Unity was in 1963, but for it to have an impact on the continent’s poverty, it needs Western participation. In return, the West demands good governance and an end to government corruption, which would not be too much to ask for, if it wasn’t for the fact that, in Zimbabwe’s case, reality has been stood on its head. If the government had an alternative to Nepad, everybody would listen. But in its present state of the denial of reality, there is little hope of that.

By Lloyd Mudiwa THE Supreme Court last Thursday overturned last year’s ruling in the High Court by Justice Ben Hlatshwayo that Trudy Stevenson, the MP for Harare North, had no locus standi to challenge the legitimacy of the commission that ran Harare before last March’s municipal elections. Stevenson had appealed to the Supreme Court after Hlatshwayo dismissed her application for the holding of the municipal elections, saying she was wearing too many hats and it was not clear in what capacity she made the application. He had said: “She is a Member of Parliament, a voter, a Harare voter and a member of the MDC. So we don’t know in what capacity she made the application.” The Supreme Court’s ruling might, however, now be academic because the commission has been replaced after the elections which Stevenson was agitating against were conducted. Veteran Justices Wilson Sandura and Ali Ebrahim said Hlatshwayo only needed to have averred to the fact that Stevenson is a Harare resident and ratepayer and therefore has a locus standi in the matter. Their recently-appointed colleague Justice Vernanda Ziyambi, however, dissented. The three judges sat as a court of appeal. Sandura said: “Hlatshwayo’s judgment is overturned in toto and it is ordered that the first respondent pays the costs.” Stevenson had cited Dr Ignatius Chombo, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, as the first respondent. Other respondents are Dr Elijah Chanakira, the chairman of the commission, his deputy, Cleveria Chizema, and commissioners James Chitauro, Andrew Mpala, John Chiweshe, Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, Selina Mumbengegwi, Ted Makoni and Ian Galletly. Sandura and Ebrahim concurred with arguments by Stevenson’s counsel Advocate Adrian de Bourbon instructed by Jacob Mafume. De Bourbon submitted that it was made clear to Hlatshwayo that Stevenson was suing in her personal capacity, thus it was unnecessary for him to consider issues of her appearing in a representative capacity, or seeking to speak for all the voters in Harare. He said: “Stevenson was and is a resident of Harare and a registered voter within the area in which the City Council exists. Her locus standi was not put in issue by the Minister and Chanakira until Hlatshwayo raised the issue.” De Bourbon said the question of whether or not the city’s affairs can be operated by the government through a commission appointed by the minister, rather than through an elected council, was a matter in which every resident and especially every registered voter in Harare, as a group and as an individual, had an interest. “Indeed, in a normal democratic society the government itself would ensure that its own laws were complied with so that representation in the capital city was done in terms of the law, and not by virtue of ministerial feat.” The fact that Stevenson alleged that she was interested in the matter because she was an MP did not detract from the basic right that arises by virtue of her being a registered voter, De Bourbon said, adding that she had the right to stop the commissioners who were illegally conducting the affairs of Harare. In her application, Stevenson said Harare had unlawfully remained without elected representatives since 1999 when the government dismissed the then Executive Mayor Solomon Tawengwa and his entire predominantly Zanu PF council for mismanagement. Back to the Top Back to Index United Nations, London - Protests (Zimbabwe Human Rights Protests) Saturday, 22nd June 2002 12pm to 2pm Outside the United Nations Offices, Africa House 64 -78 Kingsway, London WC2, (Holborn Train Station take the main exit into Kingsway, turn left down Kingsway and Africa House is on your left on the next block Temple and Russell Square tubes are about 10 minutes walk away) UN World Food Programme and the F.A. O. said that 6 million Zimbabweans in both urban and rural areas need emergency food aid. They said that even after pledged aid had been given and government food imports had been made, the country would still have a shortfall of 1.5 million tonnes of cereals. The statement acknowledged that 2 years of farm invasions had compounded this massive food shortage and said that unless international food assistance was given urgently: "there will be a serious famine and loss of life in the coming months. The UN also spoke of the effects of drought saying Zimbabwe had just experienced the longest dry spell in 20 years. What they did not say however was that most of Zimbabwe's dams are full. In fact, for anyone that has lived in Zimbabwe, the dam percentages are completely beyond belief. (Masvingo 91%, Matabeleland 79%, Mashonaland 89%, Midlands 88% and Manicaland 100% full) The UN says this is our longest dry spell in 20 years and yet all our dams are almost 80% full . Zimbabwe dams are so full because the water has not been used to irrigate crops. There are no crops in the ground because government supporters stopped farmers from growing food because they wanted the land for their masters and now 6 million people face starvation. The sickening irony this week Agriculture Minister Dr Joseph Made said that any white farmer who did not put a crop of wheat into the ground would have his farm listed for seizure. I'm not sure where the Minister has been these last two years because he has already listed 95% of Zimbabwe's farms for government take over. There are now only 308 farms in the entire country not listed for state seizure. Neither Dr Made nor any of his officials are prepared to offer any written guarantees to a farmer that he will be able to grow, reap and sell his wheat before the government moves in and takes the farm over. 6 million starving Zimbabweans have Dr Made and his government to thank for their plight. We have become like Somalia and Ethiopia and are holding out our begging bowls to the world. A world who would rather feed us than help us to get a democratic government who care for their people. Contact Details: Washington 07967 182 532 (UK) Durani 07939 165044 (UK) Hilton 07747 614232 (UK) Albert 01765 607900 (UK) Back to the Top Back to Index Daily News       Retrenched civil servants cry foul over packages       6/4/02 8:31:39 AM (GMT +2)       Staff Reporter       Former civil servants whose posts in the two education ministries were abolished in January 1999 and August 2000, following the government's decision to sub-contract several services, claim they were short-changed on packages.       Most were employed as general hands in the ministries of Higher Education and Technology, and of Education, Sports and Culture.       When their posts were abolished, they were paid amounts ranging from $10 000 to $30 000, while their colleagues, who left in January 2001, were paid substantially higher amounts and given life pensions.       However, the Public Service Commission (PSC), has said the workers were paid their terminal benefits in terms of Section 10 of the Public Service (Pensions) Regulation of 1992, while their colleagues were paid in accordance with the Public Service (Pensions) (Amendment) Regulations 2001.       According to Section 10, which was in force at the time the workers' posts were abolished, employees who had contributed to their pensions for less than 20 years were entitled to double the amount of their contribution plus four percent interest for each completed year, and cash in lieu of any leave they were entitled to.       In a letter dated 19 December 2001 to the National Education Union of Zimbabwe, which is representing the former workers, the PSC said the new regulations, which came into effect on 1 January 2001, had repealed Section 10 of the 1992 regulations.       The PSC said: "In terms of the new regulations, any member who has contributed pension for a period of five years or more is entitled to a pension.       "It is therefore not proper to compare the packages you received and those received by your colleagues who retired two years later as your benefits were paid in terms of different regulations."       The PSC turned down an appeal by the former workers to consider increasing their packages on compassionate grounds.       They have so far written twice to President Mugabe, seeking a meeting with him in order to air their grievances.       In their first letter to Mugabe dated 14 January 2002, they said they had been intentionally discriminated against.       The government, they said, had not considered their long service and "instead we were sent out empty-handed". Moreover, the said Statutory Instrument of 1992 was never mentioned in the workshops conducted countrywide to discuss their retrenchments.       "It only appeared in the documents on the very days of the actual abolition of our offices, taking advantage of the illiteracy of most general hands, who comprise the majority of this disadvantaged group."       Lawrence Kamwi, the principal private secretary to the President, referred them to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare. Back to the Top Back to Index Daily News       UZ students run riot       6/4/02 8:28:06 AM (GMT +2)       Staff Reporter       ANGRY University of Zimbabwe (UZ) students fought running battles with the riot police and college security guards yesterday as they demonstrated against the late disbursement of their loans by the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ).       The students were supposed to get their payouts on Saturday 1 June.       A letter written to the students by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Hill, on 29 May, says: "Further to my memo of 27 May 2002, I would like to inform you that the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe has indicated that the student payouts will be released into your bank accounts by Saturday, First of June 2002."       Emmanuel Nyambuya, the president of the Students' Executive Council at the UZ, yesterday said: "The disturbances have been caused by the late disbursement of the payouts as most students are hungry. They do not have money to sustain themselves."       Late in the afternoon yesterday, a number of cars on the UZ campus, including that of Hill, were stoned by incensed students. Hill's car had shattered windscreens, according to one witness.       "Students have run out of their patience and I hope the CBZ will treat our plight as a matter of urgency," Nyambuya said.       It could not be established whether any of the students were injured.       Neither Hill nor the university spokesperson, Elizabeth Karonga, could be reached for comment late last night Back to the Top Back to Index Daily News       Court hears of alleged Moyo-Mpofu gay affair       6/4/02 9:18:35 AM (GMT +2)       By Fanuel Jongwe Court Reporter       JOB Sikhala, the MP for St Mary's, yesterday stunned a Harare magistrates' court when he alleged that Information and Publicity Minister Jonathan Moyo threatened to "fix" him for asking him about a rumour of an alleged homosexual relationship between the minister and the former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation chief executive officer, Alum Mpofu.       Mpofu resigned abruptly on 3 April after being caught in a compromising position with another man at a Harare nightclub on 27 March. He has since been confirmed to be homosexual by the Gays and Lesbians' Association of Zimbabwe.       Testifying in his trial on allegations of breaching the Posts and Telecommunications Act, the opposition MDC MP said Moyo made the threat at Parliament on 29 January after the Parliamentary legal committee produced an adverse report on the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill. "He was looking worried and agitated and I asked him why," Sikhala told magistrate Wilbert Mandinde. "His answer was: 'I want to bring journalistic morality in this country because the majority of journalists are wayward, mad pawns of Western imperialism.'       "I asked him whether he was aware that people in town were saying he was not qualified to talk about morality and whether he was aware there was a rumour in town that he had an intimate relationship with Alum Mpofu, when he was at Wits University and Mpofu at the South African Broadcasting Corporation.       "Jonathan Moyo became vicious, saying: 'You MDC people are the ones moving around spreading these lies. I am going to fix you, young man.' I have patiently waited for Jonathan Moyo's fixing. I have seen it today in this court." Sikhala, 29, and Tafadzwa Musekiwa, 26, a fellow MDC MP, were arrested on 14 September last year and detained by the police over alleged abusive calls to Moyo.       Sikhala said: "After my release I never heard anything about this matter until Dhowa and Sikhova (detectives from the Law and Order Section at Harare Central Police Station) came to my house with summons to appear in court." Prosecutor Lifa Dube said on 10 September last year, Sikhala borrowed Paul Mutuzu's cellphone from which he called Moyo. He allegedly told Moyo: "You will go, Jonathan. You will go. Why are you hanging up on me? What are you trying to do to my people?" Sikhala admitted during cross-examination he phoned the minister to enquire about the results of the Bulawayo mayoral election, but denied being abusive.       Musekiwa, a defence witness, said he made the first call to Moyo on 10 September to ask about the Bulawayo results and Moyo told him he was in a meeting.       "Later on Sikhala phoned to enquire about the Bulawayo election results," Musekiwa said. "Because of a network problem the phone went off. After some time, the minister returned the call and the accused moved away. The accused returned saying he had been verbally abused by the complainant." The verdict is expected on 21 June. Back to the Top Back to Index Excerpt from Jenny Sharman's comprehensive report on the devastation wrought on our environment i.e. the land, the flora & the fauna.(CLICK HERE FOR FULL REPORT - email readers can email me if they want the full report by email)    THE INVADERS AND INVADED   On close examination it was my experience that this illegal takeover of conservancy land (which for the past 18 months, you must remember, has been officially declared exempt from the                government's fast-track resettlement process), has largely not been for the benefit of the                 country's rural poor.    On Buffalo Range, the core ranch on the Chiredzi conservancy, the invasions are being carried out by prosperous sugar cane farmers, politicians, or businessmen from Chiredzi town. It is well known that the local MP, the District Administrator, members of the Central Intelligence Organisation, members of the police, doctors, teachers, sugar farmers and National Parks staff from Gonarezhou have acquired plots on the conservancy. Whilst we were on Chiredzi we heard news that two army personnel in full camouflage uniform came to check the snares being ambushed by the scouts. The scouts were too scared to arrest them. Two employees of the Veterinary Department have also been arrested for poaching on the Conservancy. The District Administrator, who is also the chairman of the District Land Committee in Chiredzi, has allocated himself prime land on the river just behind one of the lodges. The land has been burnt right to the garden of the lodge. The DA's secretary and the Messenger of the Court also have plots on the conservancy. The latter is exactly where the  conservancy's resident wild dogs have one of their dens.                                    All these apparently poverty-stricken plot-holders employ people to work on 'their' land whilst they continue to work in the towns, or on their own farms elsewhere. Whilst there are plot-holders from outlying communal areas, there is nothing to suggest that the bulk of invasions on the conservancies are going to help any of the country's landless or poor communities.  I asked one of the invaders on Save who came from a communal area if this was good land for him. He replied 'No, there's not enough water and rainfall is very low'. He told me he was going to try and grow groundnuts. He seemed to want to know more from me than I from him - did I know if 'they' were going to sink boreholes for them?  What about the water troughs, would they be filled? What about the animals, would they be 'quarantined' to stop them from eating the crops? He told me it took him 3 hours to walk to the nearest source of water. He wanted to grow maize but he knows he will need irrigation for that. Also he knows it won't be possible to fertilise this land without irrigation.  I spoke to Roger Whittal on the question of water. He told me, 'We're pumping water to one point for  them but otherwise there's no water. We have a few dams, which have water now, but come a bad season and we won't have water. We've sunk something like 40 or 50 boreholes over the years here and we've never found water. It's granite country, they're not going to find water here'.                                                    All along the road from this man's cleared land were women walking with jerry cans of water                strapped to their backs or balanced on their heads. Alongside them small children carried their own small bottles filled with water. Is this really a solution to land hunger and poverty alleviation?   One of the managers on Chiredzi is Joshua Maengedze. Living amidst the worst affected area on the conservancy, he has dealt with stock theft, poaching and intimidation on a daily basis. 'This is a political issue. The land is going to the elite, not the poor. Most people here are settlers from Mkwasine Sugar Estate. One man, Mabika, is a prosperous owner of part of the sugar estate and he has taken two plots here. The others come here and clear the land and their plan is to kill everything, not to farm.'  Maengedze manages a portion of the conservancy  that was bought in 1999 and passed through the Ministry of Lands to be granted a certificate of 'no present interest' by the government. A year later and there is suddenly a great deal of 'interest' as a vast number of the local Triangle Sugar Plantation employees, and Bikita communal  villagers, were moved on. The gentleman Joshua referred to, Mr. Mabika, drove past us in his Mazda pick-up on the way to one of the conservancy's staff compounds where he proceeded to fill two large drums of water pumped from a borehole for the staff and adjacent safari lodge. When we arrived the water pressure was clearly very low and the water was trickling through, the pump unable to deal with the sudden increase in demand from the mass of squatters in the area. This is the only source of water for the squatters on this portion of the conservancy and whilst we watched, a group of over 20 lined up for their meagre share of the spoils. It is blatantly obvious the land on Chiredzi cannot support this influx, it is only a matter of time before all its fragile resources will be exhausted, and the people will have to move on, or starve.                                                                                                                                                 Copyright© 2001 Jenny Sharman All Rights Reserved   Back to the Top Back to Index