Zim Standard
By
Walter Marwizi
PETER Hitschmann, an ex-Rhodesian soldier at
the centre of an
"arms cache" discovery that has resulted in more than a
dozen arrests is a
licensed arms dealer and a hunter, The Standard can
reveal.
The State accuses Hitschmann and several other
suspects of
working with the hitherto unknown Zimbabwe Freedom Movement in
order to
overthrow the government.
But his lawyer, Trust
Maanda of Henning Lock Donagher law firm,
said any charges against
Hitschmann, who does not dispute that he owns some
firearms since he is a
dealer, would not stick in a court of law untainted
by
politics.
"Look at the Firearms Act. An arms dealer can keep
arms for sale
or just keep them. He did not commit any offence. Hitschmann
is also a
hunter who has used his firearms to deal with problem animals in
Mutare," he
said, adding that police had taken away Hitschmann's
licence.
The lawyer would however not say whether all the
arms, which
were being displayed by the police, belonged to Hitschmann. "My
client has
not had a chance to see all the weapons that are being shown by
police since
he has been locked up since Monday. We don't know if there are
any additions
or fabrications."
Hitschmann, Mutare North
MP Giles Mutsekwa, Knowledge Nyamhuka,
Thando Sibanda, all members of the
opposition MDC and two policemen
Wellington Tsuro and Edwin Chikutye
appeared before a Mutare magistrate
Fabian Feshete yesterday after their
lawyers made an urgent application for
their release. They were in detention
more than 48-hours. The matter is set
to be heard in Mutare tomorrow
morning.
Yesterday, they were charged with conspiracy to
possess weapons
for purposes of insurgency, banditry, sabotage and terrorism
under Section
10 of the Public Order and Security Act
(Posa).
The State said the group had conspired to assassinate
President
Mugabe, businessman and Zanu PF activist Esau Mupfumi and Chipinge
South MP
Enock Porusingazi during the 21st February Movement celebrations
held in
Mutare.
The State said the suspects had also
hatched a plan to kill the
President before he arrived at the
venue.
Part of the State outline reads: "To achieve this, the
group
agreed to spill oil on Christmas Pass highway when the motorcade would
be
approaching, so that the motorcade would slip and get involved in an
accident."
They had also " agreed to throw tear smoke
canisters in tents
where the 21st February Movement celebrations were going
to be held so as to
cause panic, disturbance to ordinary people in
attendance", the State added.
In court, the lawyers for
Nyamhuka, Sibanda, Tsuro and Chikutye
said their clients had been tortured
by police while in detention at Adams
Barracks in Mutare in an effort to
force them to confess their involvement
in the alleged assassination.
Mutsekwa, who is the MDC shadow secretary for
defence, had no complaints
against the police.
While Maanda, one of the lawyers,
confirmed to The Standard
earlier that Hitschmann had been tortured by
security details who wanted to
force him to confess his involvement and that
of others, the ex-Rhodesian
soldier, in a strange turn of events, told the
court yesterday that he had
no complaints against the police. Then he
disowned his lawyer preferring to
represent himself. He raised no objections
to being remanded to 15 March.
Zim Standard
By
Foster Dongozi
THE General Agricultural and Plantation
Workers' Union of
Zimbabwe have referred their dispute with Chief Justice,
Godfrey
Chidyausiku, to the National Employment Council for Agriculture
after union
representatives were reportedly ordered off his farm two weeks
ago.
Gertrude Hambira, the GAPWUZ secretary general, told The
Standard that three unionists visited the judge's Arusha Farm on Mutoko road
to investigate allegations of unfair labour practices.
However, Chidyausiku has denied ever ordering the unionists out
of his farm.
"That is not true. They were never denied access," he said.
Chidyausiku grows cabbages and tomatoes, among other crops.
Hambira said when representatives drove onto the farm, they met
Chidyausiku
who told them he was not prepared to talk to them.
"The union
representatives proceeded towards the homestead but
their vehicle broke
down. A person who identified himself as Kundi, a
relative of Chidyausiku
offered to drive them to the main road but on the
way out, they met the
judge who allegedly ordered them out of the vehicle
saying they could not
get a ride in his car."
The representatives then walked to
the main road for lifts to
Harare, Hambira said.
"When
they returned to tow the union's truck from Chidyausiku's
farm the following
day, they found that two tyres had been deflated and the
reason why the
tyres were deflated or who did it is open to speculation,"
Hambira told The
Standard.
When asked if he was aware that the GAPWUZ truck
had its tyres
deflated, the telephone connection was
lost.
In her letter to the NEC for Agriculture, Hambira
wrote:
"Efforts by our officers to address the following allegations have
been
fruitless. Non- payment of allowances, non-payment of leave days,
signing of
contract forms, NEC dues, non-functional workers' committee,
health and
safety issues."
Under section 63 of the Labour
Relations Act, the Agriculture
NEC has powers to go to farms and make
enquiries.
Zim Standard
By Gibbs Dube
GWANDA - A crippling drought has devastated
Matabeleland South
Province, where more than 500 000 people who have not
received food supplies
since November last year are in urgent need of relief
aid.
Relief agencies, senior government officials, community
leaders
and villagers have indicated that the humanitarian crisis is being
ignored
by the government at a time when the provincial leadership has
requested
that the region be declared a national
disaster.
"We are facing a crisis in this region as more than
500 000
people are starving. Most people have no access to food because
there are
virtually no maize supplies from the Grain Marketing Board," said
senior
government official who declined to be named.
He
said although provincial leaders recommended early this year
that the
province be declared a national disaster, there had been no
response from
central government.
"Government's food security assessments
can be likened to
navigation without a compass. People should know better
than take government's
promises on food self-sufficiency at face value. It's
about time Zimbabweans
stopped listening to 'no Zimbabweans will starve'
gibberish," said another
official.
According to top
officials of several non-governmental
organisations, the food crisis has
worsened during the past two months due
to serious shortages of
maize-meal.
"There is definitely a humanitarian crisis in
this region with
most people failing to source maize. I believe that the
government should be
serious about this issue because people are really
suffering in most parts
of Beitbridge and Gwanda South," said one of the
officials.
Community leaders and villagers in some parts of
Gwanda South
visited by The Standard revealed that they have failed to
source maize from
the GMB since November last year.
Village head Durban Pida of Tibeli Village, in Nkalange communal
lands, said
most villagers were struggling to afford a decent meal a day
with most of
them surviving on caterpillars and pounded roots of an
indigenous tree
commonly referred to as mtopi.
The situation is the same in
Mbuzimbili and Zwabagwamba communal
areas in Gwanda South, where village
heads have been holding on to more than
$48 million for the purchase of
maize from the GMB.
Village head Ezekiel Nare of Zwabagwamba
village said: "Our
situation may be worse than any other place in this
region because we last
received maize supplies in October last year. We have
been told that there
is no maize at the GMB each time we send people for
maize.
"Out of the total 270 bags of maize we paid for last
October, we
only received 100 bags. We have been told that we cannot be
given the
outstanding 170 bags because of the maize crisis in
Zimbabwe."
His views were echoed by several villagers in the
district
including Boniface Dube, the village head of Mbuzimbili Village in
the
Selonga communal lands.
"We are in serious trouble
here because people are starving.
They have nowhere to go to source
maize-meal. The shops are empty and the
GMB does not have maize. Right now,
I have over $24 million that was paid by
villagers so that we can source
maize from the Gwanda GMB depot," Dube said.
He indicated
that the money was raised during the past three
months but efforts to get
maize have been in vain.
The community leaders,
non-governmental organizations and
government officials noted that
government should move in to avert a
humanitarian crisis.
Governor for Matabeleland South, Angeline Masuku, was not
available for
comment although senior officials indicated that she was
worried about the
food crisis in the region.
If declared a national disaster,
the region is likely to open
floodgates for national and international
humanitarian assistance.
The region has been hit by several
droughts since independence
in 1980 with the worst recorded in 1991 in which
thousands of people faced
serious starvation.
Although
government has over the years proposed the traditional
isiphala
senkosi/zhunde ramambo concept as a measure of ensuring food
security in
Zimbabwe, critics say it has failed dismally.
Zim Standard
By our staff
THE stage is set for the
anti-Senate MDC two-day congress to be
held this week at the City Sports
Centre in Harare.
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman for the faction
said just over 10
000 delegates were expected to flood Harare for
registration on Friday
before the congress roars into life on Saturday and
Sunday.
"This congress is going to be a tribute to all the brave
women
and men of Zimbabwe who sacrificed their lives, property and were
beaten and
disabled by the Zanu PF regime because they were members of the
MDC.
They played a very important role in their brave fight for a
new
Zimbabwe. We are going to acknowledge their supreme sacrifice and we
will
not let them down by allowing the MDC to fall into the hands of people
working against the interests of Zimbabweans."
Chamisa said
the congress would prove they were the legitimate
MDC which has the backing
of the people of Zimbabwe.
"The Zanu PF regime is having
sleepless nights about the
congress and that is why we have witnessed
different attempts to destabilise
our congress," he said.
The
congress, whose theme is Rallying People for a New Zimbabwe,
would among
other things see Tsvangirai making a report, elections for
office bearers,
constitutional amendments and a programme of action to
confront the
dictatorship, he said.
The pro-Senate MDC held its congress in
Bulawayo and Professor
Arthur Mutambara emerged as its new
leader.
The anti-Senate faction is expected to have a smooth
election
for its top leaders.
Tsvangirai is expected to
retain the post of party president
with Makokoba Member of Parliament,
Thokozani Khuphe, expected to be elected
deputy president
unopposed.
Isaac Matongo is also expected to retain the post of
national
chairman unchallenged while Tendai Biti and Ian Makone are expected
to lock
horns for the post of Secretary General. Matobo legislator, Lovemore
Moyo is
eyeing the post of deputy secretary general.
Former
Chimanimani legislator, Roy Bennett, is the front runner
for the post of
treasurer.
Gertrude Mthombeni and Elias Mudzuri are front runners
for the
position of national organising secretary.
Chamisa
said the fact that they were requesting contributions
from members did not
mean they had run out of money, although like every one
else, they were
experiencing difficulties.
"Even parties like Zanu PF which loot
State resources request
funding from their members. The MDC belongs to the
people and we are asking
them to assist and we are grateful for the
overwhelming response that we
have received from members."
Zim Standard
By our
staff
BULAWAYO -- Forty-seven Bulawayo residents attended the
launch
of a new political party, the Patriotic Union of MaNdebeleland (PUMA)
led by
the former president of the Zimbabwe Teachers' Association, Leonard
Nkala.
The audience at the Large City Hall was mostly made up
of people
above the age of 40 years who appeared to be the target group of
the party
whose major thrust is the empowerment of the minority
Ndebeles.
The party, launched under the theme "Nothing for us
without us",
unveiled its manifesto which proposes the division of
Matabeleland and the
Midlands into 10 provinces based on King Mzilikazi's
traditional boundaries
before the collapse of the Ndebele nation in the
1800s.
Speaking at the official launch, the interim chairman
of the
party, Dumisani Matshazi, disputed reports that the party was an
ethnically
based organisation saying those were remarks of people who wanted
to derail
the objectives of PUMA.
"Tribalism has been
used to scare the people of Matabeleland
from emancipating themselves from
Zanu PF hegemony. We will not succumb to
fear because I am prepared to die
for the Ndebele cause," said Matshazi who
is also a minister of
religion.
Matshazi said the people of Matabeleland had been
deprived of
basic necessities such as access to health facilities, education
and
reliable water sources supposed to be provided by the
government.
He said people of Matabeleland wanted their own
government but
without necessarily becoming a separate State from the rest
of the country.
"We want to have our own legislature and
other arms of
governance so as to remove the chains of oppression from our
people. It is
unfortunate that some of our people enjoy freedom when they
are outside the
country and we will redress that," said one of the interim
executive
members.
The party took a swipe at the 1987
unity accord signed between
PF Zapu and Zanu PF saying it had only benefited
a few individuals while
most of the people in Matabeleland were still
suffering because of the
country's mismanagement under the Zanu PF.
Zim Standard
By Foster Dongozi
COMMERCIAL farm
workers numbering close to 300 000 are preparing
to go on strike after the
Minister of Labour, Nicholas Goche, threw the
farming sector into confusion
when he commented on workers' wages.
Goche had urged farmers
to pay farm labourers $665 000 a month -
a move that could raise conflict of
interest as he is also a farmer.
The strike has the potential
to cripple the agricultural
industry, which is at its crucial pre-harvest
stage.
He recently told a Mazowe farmers' meeting - most of
them Zanu
PF members - that farm workers deserved a miserable monthly
wage.
"The $1.3 million being demanded and the letters being
distributed by some farm workers' representatives pertaining to the illegal
salaries should not be taken seriously until the formal agreement on the
actual salary has been made," Goche, who is responsible for the welfare of
workers, was quoted as saying.
The minister also placed a
notice in a newspaper after farmers
allegedly telephoned his office to find
out how much they should pay their
workers.
The notice
read: "My ministry would like to inform farmers that
the National Employment
Council Agriculture is negotiating for minimum wages
for the period January
to April 2006. As a way forward, in the interim,
farmers should pay the $665
000 minimum wage for the general agriculture and
$1 100 000 for both the
agro and timber sectors in the industry."
An average family
of six in Zimbabwe needs $28 million to meet
its basic
requirements.
However, the General Agricultural and
Plantation Workers' Union
of Zimbabwe has come out fighting, declaring that
Goche was "uninformed".
Gertrude Hambira, the GAPWUZ
secretary general, said contrary to
Goche's statements, a new minimum wage
had already been agreed between the
union and representatives of
farmers.
"It would appear that the minister's statements were
issued from
an uninformed perspective. Officers in his ministry are quite
aware of the
developments and it is quite unfortunate that the minister had
to issue such
press statements without seeking clarification from his
officers."
She said Goche's statements were confusing the
farmers and the
workers and her offices had started receiving reports of
conflicts between
workers and farmers following the
confusion.
Others had already resolved to go on strike for a
higher wage.
"The correct position is that wage negotiations
in the
agriculture sector were long concluded and an agreement was reached
during
the month of December 2005."
Hambira showed The
Standard copies of the signed agreements,
which in part read as follows:
"The parties to the NEC Agriculture, GAPWUZ
and Agricultural Labour Bureau
agreed to increase the wages from $665 000
per month to $1 300 000 with
effect from January 2006. The agreement for the
agro (tea) sector was
reached on December 16 2005, increasing the wages from
$1 100 000 to $2 200
000 while the agreement for timber workers was reached
on February 18 2006,
increasing the wages from $1 100 000 to $2 800 000."
Hambira
dismissed Goche's statements urging farmers to ignore
statements circulated
by GAPWUZ.
"It is the responsibility of the union to
disseminate
information to the members on the outcome of the negotiations.
It is absurd
for anybody to suggest that we should not communicate with our
members. That
is absolute nonsense," said the combative
Hambira.
She urged Goche to push for better working
conditions for
commercial farm workers.
"Minister Goche
should ideally be trying to ensure that the
conditions of workers are
improved. The work we do on farms is very hard and
our members need proper
nourishment to do that work," Hambira said.
When The Standard
sought Goche's comment on Thursday, he was
singing a different
tune.
"I am very much informed; don't call me uninformed, I
think you
should withdraw that statement."
Zim Standard
By Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - The Cold Storage Company (CSC)
owes creditors US$33.5
million (Z$3.4 billion) which has resulted in the
parastatal failing to pay
more than 1 000 workers during the past two
months.
The Standard established last week that CSC is
operating at 20%
of its normal capacity, a situation that has worsened the
financial position
of the company.
The debt comes at a
time when the parastatal is reportedly
facing a host of problems including
failure to pay workers.
CSC chief executive officer, Ngoni
Chinogaramombe, said the
financial position of the company was being
worsened by the loss of its
fresh beef export quota to the traditional
lucrative European Union markets.
He made no comment about the government's
much talked about "Look East"
policy and the reported vast new markets the
government has opened up.
The company has not been exporting
to the EU due to the outbreak
of the foot and mouth disease in 2001 and the
most recent being reported in
2004.
"We have an
outstanding debt of US$33.5 million. We are
currently operating at 20% of
normal capacity, but with the resumption of
fresh beef exports to the EU,
possibly by December and to the Far East by
June, we hope to be back to our
normal operational position," Chinogaramombe
said.
Quasi-State companies are facing financial difficulties and are
currently
relying on funding from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to stay
afloat
under the Productive Sector Facility and the Parastatal Reorientation
Programme, which started last year in February.
Recent
reports say that the central bank governor Gideon Gono
warned President
Robert Mugabe that parastatals were in a state of collapse
and were
worsening Zimbabwe's economic crisis.
Zim Standard
By Our
Staff
A baseline study on how far media organisations in the
region
have gone in developing plans of action on Gender and HIV and AIDS is
due
for release on 3 May - the occasion marking International Press Freedom
Day.
The release of the study is part of an audit exercise
arising
from the September 2004 Gender and Media Summit and will coincide
with
efforts to develop HIV work place policies for media organisations
throughout Southern Africa.
The second Gender and Media
Summit is due to be held in South
Africa in early September this year. It is
expected to focus on a review of
the achievements made since the 2004 Summit
and identify the way ahead.
Announcement of the release of the
results of the baseline study
was made during a video conference at the
World Bank offices last week, part
of activities to mark International
Women's Day that linked Harare to sites
in Johannesburg, South Africa,
Maseru in Lesotho, London in the United
Kingdom, Lilongwe in Malawi, Lusaka
in Zambia, Paris in France with
representation from Angola, Mozambique and
Namibia.
Chair of the Gender and Media Southern Africa Network
(GEMSA)
and executive director of Gender Links, Zimbabwean Colleen
Lowe-Morna, led
the discussion, which considered how media diversity could
be transformed
into a vehicle for democracy, while at the same time being
good for
business.
Discussants also heard about the latest
frontiers on media
research and monitoring, through presentations from
London, Johannesburg and
Maseru.
The video conference
provided a platform for auditing
achievements made since the 2004 summit,
but it also helped discussants draw
up a road map for the future in the way
the media ought to be covering
issues on gender and HIV and
AIDS.
Media houses had since the 2004 summit responded by
creating
enabling environments in their newsrooms with the establishment of
desks
covering issues on gender and HIV and AIDS.
Zim Standard
By Valentine Maponga
ZAKA - Many
rural Zimbabweans are bracing themselves for yet
another year of food
shortages as adverse weather conditions took a heavy
toll on crops in parts
of the country.
Despite experiencing heavy rains over the
past months,
traditionally dry areas have received poor rains since the
beginning of the
year.
The country's southern provinces
of Matabeleland, Masvingo and
Manicaland which experienced the driest spell
during the last season, have
also been affected this
year.
A recent visit to Zaka District, about 300 kilometres
south of
Harare revealed that crops were already a write off. According to
the
villagers, the area last received good rains in
December.
The villagers said they had lost hope of ever
getting anything
from their fields which were turning into pastures for
their malnourished
livestock.
In many parts of Zaka and
Bikita districts, farmers had already
started appealing for food aid. "We
hope the government will be able to
supply us with food because we will
definitely get nothing from the fields.
Our rivers, however, have water
because some areas up there have received
enough rain," said Susan Mutsvene
of Zaka.
Another villager, Masimba Munemero, said the only
people who are
going to get "a little something" from their fields were the
ones who
planted early.
"We are bracing for another tough
year. For most of the people
here, I think last year was much better because
people managed to get a few
bags of maize," Munemero
said.
Newly resettled farmers in the perennially dry Masvingo
province
are also struggling as witnessed by the state of farms along the
Masvingo-Harare highway.
In areas where adequate rains
fell, most resettled farmers have
failed to take advantage of the recent
rains due to a serious shortage of
critical inputs.
Zim Standard
By Gibbs Dube
BULAWAYO - Lawyers representing Minister and
former Speaker of
Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa in a $112 billion lawsuit
have requested the
High Court to probe the disappearance of legal documents
relating to the
case in which Gweru businessman Patrick Kombayi was granted
an order to
attach the minister's property.
The revelations
by the Minister's lawyer, Nicholas Mathonsi of
Coghlan and Welsh instructed
by Dzimba Jaravaza and Associates, come a week
after Mnangagwa was granted a
temporary reprieve following the rescission of
a High Court order
instructing the Sheriff to attach his property.
Last August the
High Court ordered the Sheriff or his deputy to
attach Mnangagwa's property
valued at $112 billion after Kombayi filed a
US$20 million lawsuit claiming
that the minister defamed him in a book,
Simon Vengayi Muzenda and the
Struggle for and Liberation of Zimbabwe.
However, the minister
applied for the rescission of Justice
Maphios Cheda's default judgement.
Mehluli Sibanda of Coghlan and Welsh
successfully applied for the reversal
of the writ of execution against
Mnangagwa's property.
In
last week's judgement, Justice Nicholas Ndou ordered "that
the judgement
taken by default against applicant on 2 August 2005 be and is
hereby
rescinded and that the costs of this application be borne by the
respondent
(Kombayi)".
In a letter to the Registrar of the High Court last
Wednesday,
the minister's lawyers said several documents relating to the
case had gone
missing, raising eyebrows over the handling of the
matter.
Mathonsi in his letter said the rate at which the
documents had
disappeared from the High Court records "suggests that the
record is being
tampered with in an alarming way".
Zim Standard
By our staff
BULAWAYO - THE maize meal
shortage in Zimbabwe has reached
crisis proportions.
In
Bulawayo, for example, two small teacups command $35 000
while in Harare,
500g cost $50 000, but there is a critical shortage of the
commodity.
Maize meal joins a plethora of other basic
commodities such as
fuel, electricity, sugar, salt, tape water and cooking
oil which are not
readily available.
President Robert
Mugabe is on record saying aid organisations
should take food aid to other
starving people and not choke Zimbabweans with
food donations. Nearly five
million Zimbabweans are expected to face food
shortages this year, according
to international aid organisations.
Some families now spend
more than a week without eating the
staple
sadza/isitshwala.
An average family of six has to spend at
least $350 000 a day
for a plate of sadza lunch and supper as it needs at
least eight packets of
black market maize-meal.
The black
market traders in Bulawayo told The Standard that they
were sourcing the
commodity from various small-scale milling companies who
usually sell maize
meal at night in order to avoid detection by police and
security
agents.
Black market traders say they are recording brisk
business from
maize meal sales although they were aware of the critical
shortage of the
commodity in the city.
One of the vendors
based at Renkini Country Bus Terminus,
Sithabile Mdlongwa, said: "It is now
a question of survival of the fittest
among city residents. As long as we
make money, we are not concerned about
the serious shortage of maize
meal."
Backyard millers have found a ready market for maize
meal as the
commodity is now fetching $400 000 and $850 000 for 5 and 10 kg
pockets
respectively.
The shortages have raised fears
that schools in Matabeleland may
close down due to the critical shortage of
maize meal.
Among the schools likely to be affected are
Wanezi Mission,
Mtshabezi High School, Usher Secondary and Gloag Ranch
Mission.
Bulawayo Residents' Association (BURA) chairman,
Winos Dube,
blamed the system of zoning millers by the government for the
continuing
shortage of the commodity.
Dube said the
government blundered by zoning small millers to
supply the high-density
areas with big commercial millers taking care of the
less populated
low-density suburbs.
"Millers with a higher capacity should
have been made to supply
the high- density suburbs. Big millers are
currently supplying the central
business district and low-density areas
instead of the high-density suburbs.
This has created chaos resulting in
small millers taking advantage of the
people by channelling the commodity to
the black market," Dube said.
The government has introduced a
zoning system in a move that is
designed to bring transparency in the
distribution of maize meal and close
any loopholes for the black market
traders, but queues for the commodity
remain a common sight in
Bulawayo.
Bulawayo Metropolitan Governor and Resident
Minister, Cain
Mathema, who released the government-zoning list, refused to
talk to this
newspaper when contacted for comment.
Mathema said: "Tshiyana lami (Leave me alone). You are a
problem . I have no
comment. You only want to distort information."
The
government has since launched a crackdown on the country's
millers accusing
them of stockpiling grain in the face of the deterioration
of maize supplies
in the south-western parts of Zimbabwe. However the
crackdown has not
resulted in the availability of more maize meal on the
market.
Reports say teams from the Joint Operations
Command, which
comprises security officials, have been dispatched to search
for grain at
milling plants around the country.
Senior
Zanu PF officials have of late been found breaking the
country's grain laws
by moving the commodity to other parts of the country
in pursuit of quick
gains.
Zim Standard
By our
staff
THE United People Party (UPP) has expressed concern
over the way
Zimbabwe is increasingly being run by military
personnel.
In its position paper titled: Preserving and
Prospering the
Nation of Zimbabwe, UPP notes that control and protectionist
tendencies by
Zanu PF have led to corruption taking centre stage in the
country, with
businesses and properties being expropriated at
will.
"State security agents or their proxies now dominate
the running
of key businesses (Grain Marketing Board, Agriculture and all
parastatals)
including the national electoral process.
"Key national and strategic issuers are directed by the Joint
Operations
Command (JOC) and not the Cabinet. The JOC, a group of the Army,
Police and
the Central Intelligence Organisation meets weekly to define the
rule, power
play and governance of the country.
UPP led by Daniel Shumba,
who is the interim president said in
simple terms, "Zimbabwe is run as a
dictatorship".
"The power play of the country, should one care to
observe, is
controlled by the same group of people, faction and tribe within
Zanu PF
that also dominates the JOC."
The party said
Zimbabweans needed peace, food, shelter, security
and prosperity among other
things.
"The country has descended into abject decay,
reducing the
electorate to poor, starving, desperate people, easy to
manipulate and
overwhelm. We have to stop the Zanu PF arrogance and bullish
tactics."
Meanwhile there are reports that UPP has
intensified a
recruitment drive in areas that are predominantly Zanu PF
strongholds.
The party is reported to be capitalising on the
disgruntlement
in Zanu PF, which stemmed from a crackdown launched by
President Mugabe last
year to quell the so-called Tsholotsho
rebellion.
The effect of the drive seems to be mainly
attracting the
attention of Zanu PF in Masvingo province, where Shumba was a
provincial
party chairman.
A witch hunt to flush out UPP
members is underway amid reports
that the party officials fear Masvingo
could be a hub of UPP politics before
the party strengthens its structures
in other areas.
Even war veterans have been rocked by
divisions over UPP, which
is establishing branches in many
areas.
The provincial War Veterans' Association, led by
Isaiah Muzenda,
held a meeting recently, which sought to expel war veterans
suspected of
being sympathetic to UPP.
One of the
targeted war veterans, who declined to be named, told
The Standard that a
motion to expel anyone linked to Shumba was moved but
failed to win
support.
Another source added that Muzenda was being used by
the
provincial leadership who fear that Shumba could be very powerful in the
province if he got the support if war veterans.
Muzenda
told The Standard said the association was not prepared
to work with anyone
who is not Zanu PF.
"We have been receiving reports of some
certain individuals who
are working with UPP and our message to them is
clear. If they have joined
another party then they cannot continue to be our
members. You can't
separate Zanu PF and war veterans association ever!" he
said.
Zim Standard
By Our
Staff
GOVERNMENT policies are to blame for the erosion of the
country's
savings and the plight of pensioners, a local economist said on
Tuesday.
The State moved to reduce interest rates in a bid
to contain
its domestic debt but local economist, John Robertson says this
has been at
the expense of the country's economic growth. The economist told
employers
at a breakfast meeting organised by Price Waterhouse Coopers to
discuss the
annual salary survey on Tuesday that Zimbabwe's failure to
increase savings
should be blamed solely on government's
policies.
"Part of the problem comes down to policies. The
government
could not raise the value of the tax needed so they decided in
2001 to
reduce rates to bring down government debt but that has been at the
cost of
savings," Robertson said.
Government resorted to
borrowing from the domestic market after
it was snubbed by international
creditors. This week the International
Monetary Fund overturned a decision
to resume financial assistance to the
country
Zim Standard
marketmovers with
Deborah-Fay Ndlovu
THE stock market rose on Wednesday as the
Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe began to inject liquidity into the money market but
worries over
government legislation could prevent a full recovery in the
equities,
analysts warned last week.
Government announced
a Cabinet approval of amendments on the
Mines and Minerals Act that will
allow locals to take 51 % stake in foreign
owned mines in a move that has
sent shivers in the performance of mining
counters.
Other
stocks are also reeling from government legislation with
exporting counters
failing to make headway because of volume based exchange
rate while there
are creeks in financials because of systematic risks
emanating from the
closure of Sagit Financial House.
Investors are also wary
that financial institutions might not
meet the new minimum capital
requirements.
The stock market had been depressed until last
Wednesday when it
upped 2.10% to close at 33,674,280.76 points after the
money market had
record deficits totalling $5,5 trillion the previous week
that sent interest
rates spiralling.
Wednesday's recovery
was a shock to the market with an analyst
attributing the gains to
volatility of the market that has seen investors
taking positions in blue
chip counters.
"Those are definite winners and investors who
know they would
never lose on blue chips. So what is happening now is that
with the increase
in interest rates, investors who are still on the stock
market are adjusting
their portfolios and taking positions in the blue chips
and currency hedged
counters," said the analyst.
Wednesday's gainers included Econet which upped $15 000 to $240
000 ahead of
its dividend pay out next week. CFI closed $1 700 higher at $11
200 on news
that it had announced Biosafety facilities to avoid potential
risks of bird
flu.
Cottco which analysts expect to release good results
recovered
$1 500 on Wednesday to $12 000. Losses were in Colcom which was
down $10
000 to $25 000. Finhold lost $8 000 to $22 000 while AFDIS shed $2
000 to
$16 000.
Zim Standard
Comment
THE MDC let down their mayoral candidate in Chegutu,
while Zanu
PF must be embarrassed that after marshalling its big guns all it
could
manage was to mobilise a mere 3 236 voters - 901 more than the
opposition
candidate, the outgoing mayor whose party is divided and
enfeebled.
In the run up to last Saturday's mayoral poll in
Chegutu, Zanu
PF assembled a formidable campaign team comprising President
Robert Mugabe,
the Governor for Mashonaland West, Nelson Samkange, Webster
Shamu, the MP
for Chegutu, John Mafa, Zanu PF's provincial chairperson for
Mashonaland
West, Zanu PF's political commissar, Elliot Manyika, the
President of the
Senate, Edna Madzongwe, the Deputy Minister of Information
and Publicity,
Bright Matonga, the President's cousins, Leo Mugabe and
Patrick Zhuwao, and
the Secretary for Information, George
Charamba.
To ensure maximum crowd turnout, they roped in
popular
entertainer Hosiah Chipanga.
However, on Saturday
the poll figures told a different picture,
undressing claims that a massive
rally turnout - especially a forced one -
necessarily translates into higher
voting numbers on election day.
Mashonaland West is Mugabe's
home province and Chegutu is less
than 100km from Mugabe's rural home at
Kutama.
Not even the orchestrated donation by Mugabe of
computers to 10
schools in the province and offers of maize meal to voters
could excite
residents of Chegutu to come out and vote for Zanu PF's Martin
Zimani, This
was hardly the "burial" of MDC that the ruling party had
hoped for!
Voters, long accustomed to being fed a diet of
promises,
decided they had enough of being taken for
fools.
The votes losing candidate Francis Dhlakama garnered -
2 335 -
demonstrate clearly that had Morgan Tsvangirai and his entourage
waded into
the battle in Chegutu in support of Dhlakama the party would have
retained
the seat safely. But thanks to his ambivalence, he delivered
Chegutu into
the hands of Zanu PF. In the January local authority polls in
Chitungwiza,
Tsvangirai's faction of the MDC took part in the elections.
However, in
Chegutu he decided on an irrational policy shift to abandon
their candidate
and giving Zanu PF a free hand.
Many
people have suffered from Zanu PF's coercion and will
question Tsvangirai's
ambivalence.
Zanu PF will now feel emboldened to move against
the remaining
MDC mayors in Bulawayo, Gweru, Kariba and Masvingo. The people
who support
the opposition are entitled to expect their party to rally
behind them at
such critical moments.
While many will
question the wisdom of the MDC's strategies,
Zanu PF knows that the writing
is on the wall and that it is living on
borrowed time - thanks to a factious
and discordant opposition.
It is time we established the
ground rules on what percentage of
the total registered voters must take
part in a poll for a person to deserve
office as a councillor, mayor or MP
- not this farce of 6 000 voters
determining the fate of a town with more
than 20 000 registered voters. By
any definition this was a hollow victory
for Mugabe right on his doorstep.
Zim Standard
sundayopinion by Marko Phiri
THE bane of African politics is
not necessarily the ages old
vices of corruption, violation of human rights,
electoral fraud, tinkering
with the constitution, politicisation of the
uniformed forces and so on.
While all these and more have
turned good men and women into war
mongers and merchants of hate, the
obsession by politicians - both ruling
and pretenders to the throne - to
make collective decisions for their
supporters without bringing pertinent
issues to a referendum, for example,
has marked out Africa as a place where
politicians have assumed the
omniscience of an oracle.
While ruling parties have been known to claim that by virtue of
occupying
the seat of power they make decisions based on a populist vote
that sprang
them to power, opposition parties tend to have a hard time
proving they make
decisions with the consent of and onbehalf their
grassroots foot
soldiers.
A look at the MDC fallout brings to the fore these
issues. The
pro-Senate camp has taken the route of Zanu PF's "guided
democracy" where
supporters simply endorse decisions set by leadership
without the supporters'
say in how those decisions
werereached.
Without taking anything from Arthur Mutambara,
elected leader of
the pro-Senate faction, it has to be asked where leaders
come from. We have
seen the imposition of candidates in Zanu PF with
disgruntled members
inviting the ire of party bigwigs after they decided to
stand as independent
candidates. Now with what is happening in the
pro-Senate MDC, do these chaps
not leave themselves exposed to claims that
they are taking many leaves from
the Zanu PF book of political
manoeuvring?
It is apparent party loyalists were "guided" on
who to spring to
the driving seat and this interrogation is based on the
overwhelming
endorsement of the good professor. Is it not too good to be
true for all
provinces to endorse a man virtually unknown in the streets of
Sizinda,
Nkulumane and other constituencies claimed by the pro-Senate
faction?
These questions have to be asked and not in the
manner of
casting aspersions at the pro-Senate faction by rather how it has
chosen to
conduct itself and what this means aboutlocal politics. We have
enough of
this from the ruling party where leaders imagine themselves as
indispensable
sages while supporters merely echo slogans like the legendary
empty vessels.
Another angle to look at all this is at
Parliament. The
pro-Senate faction says it has themajority of seats in the
legislature
vis-à-vis the anti-Senate faction therefore they would be the
legitimate
MDC.
However, the logical progression of that
sophistry would be that
the people who voted for the parliamentarians
claimed by the pro-Senate camp
also endorsed the participation in the
Senate.
What are the supporters themselves saying, that is if
they have
been given any opportunity to air their sentiments? Or they are
rendered not
necessarily gifted in the province of intellectual
interrogation?
Now because what has also been thrown into the
already raging
factional fires is the matter of the $8 billion allotted to
the opposition
under the Political Finances Act which would have been a
"united" MDC
entitlement, claims of who represents the interest of the
people inevitably
reach ridiculous heights with unverifiable claims of
drawing thelargest
voter allegiance.
But now that there
is also bickering over party regalia, the
argument again is based on who is
the legitimate MDC and that legitimacy,
the factions would like to believe,
rests within courts of law not the
people who broke their backs and lost
their lives to a party loved and
followed with passion at its inception in a
fashion eerily reminiscent of
religious cults.
This, no
doubt, signals the death of popular politics thought
here at one time to be
epitomised by the emergence of the Movement for
Democratic
Change.
Because the assumption of who the masses want as
their last
action hero has tended to form the political philosophy of
African despots,
what then becomes of opposition politics when factions
claim the majority
support of what would now be very nebulous
constituency or electorate?
How do they get to the hearts and
minds of what would now be
erstwhile supporters? Amid all these questions
emerge an electorate battered
by "ballot fatigue" and the next thing we see
is voter apathy, and worst of
all the perpetuation of a very repressive
status quo.
Who decides these important matters if not the
people
themselves? Politicians make the assumption that they know what is
best for
the people and therefore the country.
The
people's struggle was long usurped by intellectual and other
differences,
and the winner will definitely not emerge from either of the
factions.
The losers and winners are pretty obvious: The
losers are the
people who fervently chanted "Chinja Maitiro Guqula Izenzo"
in June 2000.
And the winner is... Zanu PF! And all this because politicians
imagine they
know everything.
Zim Standard
sundayfocus by Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem
THE International Women's day has been marked every 8 March for
almost a
century (the first being March 8 1911) in honour of women,
celebrate their
achievements and focus attention on the continuing
challenges facing the
full realisation of the fullest potential of women as
equal citizens with
equal rights as men.
It is a day to recommit everyone to the
motto: women's rights
are human rights.
It is not just a
"Women's Day" per se even if that is how it is
popularly celebrated. It is
about gender awareness and democratic struggles
to make the world a better
place for all its inhabitants, men and women.
There is no
denying the fact that women have made tremendous
advances globally and in
Africa in the past few years. There are many
visible pointers in the growing
numbers of women in top political positions
including Ministers, MPs and in
the judiciary.
And last year, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, of
Liberia, finally broke
through the ceiling by becoming the first popularly
elected female head of
state in Africa. That victory means that women no
longer have to rely on the
good will of men in order to hold or aspire to
political offices.
The truth is that most of the women who
had been Vice Presidents
on this continent have largely been "appointed" by
a "kind" male president.
An unwritten convention in suchpatronage is to go
for women "who will not
cause trouble" and who will be
"forever
grateful" to the "appointing
authority".
Johnson-Sirleaf has now put paid to that. No
longer would an
African woman's political ambition be limited to the second
position as a
kind of political accessory for Presidents and political
parties seeking
political correctness and looking for women's crucial votes.
They should go
for the top most jobs in their own right and by merit rather
than as someone's
widow, spouse, partner, daughter, or "good
girl".
It is not just in politics that African women are
making giant
strides. Just look around in the other fields: economy,
community, civil
society groups and NGOs, education, academia, the
professions, etc.
These achievements are not due to
magnanimity on the part of
the men who are still very much in charge of the
largely patriarchal power
structures in the society but the outcome of wider
struggles, sometimes
provoking incremental reforms and sometimes the result
of prolonged
conflicts and smashing of old prejudices and social
attitudes.
Women as women and as part of the democratic
struggles together
with menhave won and continue to struggle for more
victories in new
frontiers. No doubt a changing consciousness and awareness
is improving men's
attitudes and creating men who may not be as hostile to
the advancement of
women as their fathers or grand
fathers.
But the fact that we can still point at women in top
places mean
that it is not yet common place.
There are
many challenges ahead. In some countries where women
have made giant
strides in formal political institutions like Uganda or
Rwanda for
instance, there is a tendency to see the progress as the "gift"
of the
president thereby inculcating a kind of political gratitude that
promotes
political cronyism to the detriment of the wider interests of women's
struggles.
Even in countries such as South Africa where
the gender gains
are part of a widerprogressive movement and liberation
agenda there is a
tendency to make women feel perpetually grateful to the
ruling party!
There is a challenge of making sure that as the
representation
increases so also will be the quality of life for the vast
majority of women
and poor men too. The limited quota approach is mainly
incorporating women
into the exploitative and oppressive system not tearing
the system down. The
men who control and benefit from that system can live
with tinkering with
the system that way.
Zim Standard
By Bertha Shoko
AS Zimbabwe joined the
rest of the world in commemorating
International Women's Day last week on
Wednesday, the Women Coalition of
Zimbabwe lamented the failure by many
women to access voluntary counselling
and testing services (VCTs) and HIV
and Aids treatment.
This year's theme for the day is: Women
in Decision Making.
The Women's Movement also spoke out
strongly against
gender-based violence which they said contributed to the
high HIV infection
rates in Zimbabwean women and women in other parts of the
world.
In a statement to mark International Women's Day, the
Women and
AIDS Support Network (WASN) said it has "sad reflections" on the
lives of
women in the country. WASN said it was particularly saddened by the
high
cost of Anti Retroviral Drugs (ARVs) that are now out of reach of most
people.
Said WASN: "Women remain the most infected and
affected people
by HIV and AIDS which is claiming many lives. Women are
dying prematurely of
AIDS because of a number of factors, which chiefly
include lack of access to
HIV related treatment due to
poverty.
" In a country where the vast majority of women are
living under
the poverty datum line it is difficult for them to purchase
these drugs if a
doctor prescribes them. In cases where the woman is working
it will be
difficult for her to weigh her options of buying food, pay
rentals and then
be able to purchase her medication for every month for the
rest of her
life."
ARVs now cost between $4 and $6
million for a month's supply,
depending on the drug line an HIV-positive
person is taking. The Ministry of
Health and Child Welfare (MOHCW) is
currently running heavily subsidised ARV
programmes countrywide. However
many people, the majority of them women,
have failed to enrol on these
State-run programmes because they have failed
to expand due to limited
resources.
WASN also spoke against the increased cases of
gender-based
violence saying this abuse predisposes women to HIV and
Aids.
Approximately 57% of people living with HIV in southern
Africa
are women and more than 52% of people that die of AIDS in southern
Africa
are women (UNAIDS, 2005).
In another message, the
Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and
Network (ZWRCN) said creating a society
that respects and upholds the rights
of women should be a national agenda.
These rights include; right to life,
health, education and decent
accommodation.
ZWRCN said this year's theme Women in Decision
Making "prodes
every one to take stock of their individual and collective
contribution to a
society that protects and advances women's rights to equal
opportunities and
treatment".
Said ZWRCN: "Challenges for
us as a society, however, manifest
in the continued wanton disregard for the
right to enjoy rights guaranteed
in the international instruments Zimbabwe
is signatory to.
"Violence against women, increasingly
ending in death,
continues to negate all the efforts made to ensure that
women become more
actively involved in decision-making not only in the
public sphere but at
family level."
The Southern African
Aids Information Dissemination Service
(SAfAIDS) said the major barriers to
effective participation in leadership
and decision making for women included
the deeply ingrained cultural and
traditional stereotypes around the role of
women, institutional cultures and
health challenges like HIV and
AIDS.
Said SAfAIDS: "The intersection of the HIV and AIDS
crisis with
poverty, unemployment, lack of education, and responsibilities
for caring
for sick family members further limits opportunities for women
and girls to
contribute meaningfully to development.
"Although the impact of HIV/AIDS on women in Africa has been
well documented
and lamented by global leaders like Nelson Mandela and Kofi
Annan, little
progress has been made in addressing the fundamental drivers
of the epidemic
which include gender inequality, cultural and traditional
practices."
To mark International Women's Day, SAfAIDS
also called on all
women in leadership positions to take a stand in
addressing the epidemic.
Tsvangirai's MDC faction showing Zanu PF
traits
I was bemused by an advert from the anti-Senate faction of
the
MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai, which appeared in your newspaper on
Sunday.
The advert invited "members and sympathisers in the
fight for
democracy and a new Zimbabwe, wishing to contribute towards the
party's
second national congress, to make their donations to the
party".
The advert then listed the dates of the congress as
being 17 -19
March 2006 and indicated that it would take place at the City
Sports Centre.
"Once again, the party hopes all committed
cadres and
sympathisers will contribute towards the rallying of the people
for change
as we seek to realise the nation's vision for a new Zimbabwe and
a new
beginning," the advert declared.
I have a few
problems with the advert and the thinking behind
it. First the anti-Senate
faction does not have money, but goes ahead and
plans its congress over
three days. I am dismayed because such thinking is
no different from Zanu
PF. The lack of money has never stopped Zanu PF from
doing anything. That is
why it has gone and printed more money.
In fact, President
Robert Mugabe despite his Economics degree
once expressed surprise at the
notion that a country could ever go broke.
I would have
preferred to see the anti-Senate faction doing
things differently and
leading by example. By asking people to contribute
money it is acknowledging
that it has no money but it nevertheless expects
its rank and file
membership to have money.
I find this an interesting
contradiction and one I frankly did
not expect from a party claiming to be
an alternative to the current
quicksand.
What do I mean?
I would, if I were party of Tsvangirai's faction
have decided that we would
do with as little inconvenience to our members as
possible. The fact that
they can stick with the faction is testimony enough
of their commitment and
support for Tsvangirai's faction.
I would, if I were in
Tsvangirai's faction, have explored ways
of condensing the congress into
one-day. Sadly they have chosen to rival
Zanu PF's big bash in Esigodini.
How do Tsvangirai and company feel feasting
for three days, when they are
fully aware that at the end of the congress
the delegates will return to
face hardships at home or in their houses? The
sad thing is they are trying
to compete with Zanu PF and allowing Zanu PF to
set the tone and agenda of
the competition. This may cost them considerable
support and
sympathy.
I would, if I were in their shoes, have asked
members in Harare
to help put up delegates from out of town; I would have
trimmed the
delegates to a more manageable but representative figure; I
would have
ensured that the whole congress is over and done within one day -
all the
people would understand the rationale for this, especially at a time
of food
shortages and disease outbreaks. Above all I would be fighting to
demonstrate that as a party we can do what the ruling party did at a
fraction of the cost.
That is the kind of leadership I
expect from a party putting
itself up as a serious
alternative.
M Moyo
Fitchlea
Kwekwe
----------
Govt's
$8b ploy to destroy MDC
ALLOW me an opportunity to express
my views on the $8
billion offered to the MDC faction, which used to be led
by Professor
Welshman Ncube but is now headed by Professor Arthur
Mutambara.
It is quite clear that the ruling party is
trying to
create an impression that it is closely aligned with the faction
which
benefited from the money disbursed.
The
Minister of Justice, Legal; and Parliamentary Affairs
released the money to
one faction when he knew very well that there was a
misunderstanding between
the two parties.
Patrick Chinamasa knew very well that
each faction had
some sitting MPs. The pro-Senate has 22 while Morgan
Tsvangirai has 18,
which means the funds should have been shared equally on
the basis of the
number of parliamentarians. Chinamasa's decision shows
clearly that Zanu PF
is trying to weaken Tsvangirai's faction by denying it
its entitlement. This
is an attempt to sabotage the national congress of
Tsvangirai's faction, due
to be held on 17 - 19 March
2006.
My advice to Tsvangirai is not to be intimidated
by the
dirty tactics. He should fill all the positions vacated by the
pro-Senate
MDC members. But he should allow genuine members of the MDC to
contest any
position he/she wishes, provided he/she has the right to do so.
The MDC has
a lot of supporters who have suffered a lot during the past 26
years. We
cannot be misled by a party that is being used by Zanu PF and one
which has
not done anything to stop corruption, sky-rocketing prices,
soaring
inflation, deteriorating standards of both health and education. The
list is
endless.
We must be careful not to fall
into the same trap that
resulted in Zapu being swamped and the
marginalisation of its former members
even though they are in
Cabinet.
They were accorded less important ministries.
It is for
this reason that Vice President Joseph Msika's statements are not
taken
seriously. This is the marginalisation that I refer to. The ball is in
our
court.
W A
Mbare
Harare
---------
MDC
split exposesTsvangirai
THE 1989 demonstrations that took
place at the University
of Zimbabwe led by Professor Arthur Mutambara,
Munyaradzi Gwisai and others,
who were then student leaders, propelled the
dismissed MDC president Morgan
Tsvangirai to greater
heights.
The 1997 ZCTU organised riots were the second
stage of
resistance by the vigilant and brave Zimbabweans who were getting
fed up
with Mugabe's administration, especially after the destructive
Economic
Structural Adjustment Programme, which left a legacy of poverty and
misery
among the ordinary people of this country.
Even after the riots, Tsvangirai was still not ready to
leave the ZCTU to
help form the Movement for Democratic Change.
When
Mutambara came to Zimbabwe in 2003, Tsvangirai felt
unsettled because he
knew pretty well that Mutambara was his master. A
Zimbabwean is a Zimbabwean
even if he stays in the US for 20 years. The
split in the MDC has exposed
Tsvangirai's poor administrative skills.
Tsvangirai has
Vice President Joseph Msika's habit of
uttering degrading and dehumanising
sentiments in public.
Mutambara has all the ingredients
of a powerful and
visionary leader whose focus and progressive thinking has
silenced Robert
Mugabe and other envious critics. Call a spade a
spade.
Tsvangirai can spend the whole year analysing
the recently
elected pro-senate MDC president but Tsvangirai can never keep
a good man
down. The freedom train is on a roll!
Kurauone Chihwayi
Glen Norah
Harare
---------
Mugabe's terrifying depths of
paranoia
IT is with weary eyes that I continue to read
articles in
which President Robert Mugabe still believes that the
independent media in
Zimbabwe is driven by foreign
forces.
Why is it so strange for Mugabe to think that
it is not
possible for native Zimbabweans to run and write for these
publications?
No - the faceless foreigner is to
blame.
When paranoia creeps into the depths of your
mind it is
too terrifying to think that the people you liberated do not all
stand in
awe of you. You gave them freedom and they used it to move
on.
But obviously, to Mugabe, this can not be - not
"his
people".
Zimbabwe is populated by individuals
of high literacy,
astute business skills - you try running a company in
Zimbabwe - and steely
determination.
Just remove
the corrupt public sector and the suppressive
head of state and replace them
with a half way normal situation and Zimbabwe
will recover in a few
years.
We all look forward to that
day.
Annetta Holmes
Port
Shepstone
South Africa
---------
Ray of hope for long suffering
teachers
IT was very pleasing that at long last the plight
of the
teachers' salaries was mentioned by President Robert
Mugabe.
Though it has taken him so long to realise the
very low
salaries of teachers, at least it gives teachers countrywide a ray
of hope
of a better living standard in the immediate to medium term.
Teachers in
Zimbabwe have become a laughing stock because of their present
very low
salaries, which everyone is aware of.
After the President's concern, the committee that will be
appointed to look
into teachers' salaries should also consider the number of
years of
experience of each teacher. This is because in the past a teacher's
experience was not taken into account.
Teachers of
varying experience were bunched together and
as such it was very
disappointing to the more experienced teachers.
It is hoped
that this anomaly will be rectified once and
for
all.
D R Mutungagore
Mutare
------------
Chombo
blinded
WHY has the Minister of Local Government been so
blinded by
Harare Town Clerk, Nomutsa Chideya, on many issues about the
running of
council? Let the man be brought to account for the
following:
Exposing residents of Harare to dirty drinking
water; pot holes
that litter our roads; burst sewage pipes; broken down
traffic lights;
uncollected mountains of refuse; and broken down street
lighting.
Vulcan
Harare
----------
Pricing scam
THE practice of
inflating the prices of old stock in
supermarkets is a cause for concern to
customers who are already harassed by
economic hardships.
The following is my experience in the week ending 4 February. I
bought a
packet of Williards porridge oats at a supermarket in High Glen
(Budiriro)
for $135 000. Two days later, the identical packet, with the same
expiry
date - 30 April 2006 was selling for $319 000 at supermarket in
Harare's
First Street - the same price as those with an expiry date of 31
May
2006.
I had it scanned at the till to make sure. When I asked
the
manager why this was so, he could not give an explanation. The same
product
also cost $319 000 in Bon Marche but at least that store doesn't
have as its
slogan, "Lower prices to the people".
Sr
Eileen Clear
Eastlea
Harare
-------------
'Zimbabweans are more British than the
British'
I am glad that Professor Arthur Mutambara
addressed the
issue of patriotism in his recent speech. Patriotism and
brotherhood should
be top of the agenda of any African country that wishes
to emancipate itself
from the continued cycle of
neo-colonialism.
I believe it is immaterial whether
this issue of
patriotism is a Zanu PF creation or a Mutambara
creation.
I do not deny that macroeconomic policy is
also an urgent
matter, but I believe that Zimbabwe having one of the most
diversified
economies in Africa, and despite being in so-called economic
disrepair still
remains one of Africa's richest countries in terms of GDP
per capita.
Therefore, with relatively good governance and strict
macro-economic
policies, Zimbabwe is likely to recover from this economic
crisis
eventually.
The main problem Zimbabwe and
indeed Zimbabweans have is
of a more social nature and that is indeed
patriotism. Having been in the
Diaspora several times I have often heard
non-Zimbabwean nationals both
European and African that Zimbabweans, despite
their skin colour and accent
were remarkably unAfrican. I remember one of my
professors remarking that
Zimbabweans were in fact "more British than the
British".
It is through lack of patriotism that many
Zimbabweans
discriminate each other according to ethnicity and in some
instances
astonishingly socio-economic class. Indeed, I've heard some
Zimbabweans
refer to this very British notion. It is due to lack of
patriotism that
many Zimbabweans refuse to be seen to promote Zimbabwean
arts, religion and
other aspects of culture.
Lack
of patriotism has caused many Zimbabweans to tell
lies about their country
and their president, in order to secure refuge in
foreign lands. Lack of
patriotism has caused Zimbabwe to be a laughing stock
among other blacks who
view us as a bastard race which is in dire need of
going back to its
roots.
It is unpatriotic individuals who commit
espionage at the
cost of our country's integrity. It is through patriotism,
that every man,
woman and child shall do the best they can for their
country. It is through
patriotism that our leaders will govern well in order
to benefit their
people and not their pockets and those of foreign
banks.
It is important for current and future leaders
to address
this issue without necessarily labelling it a Zanu PF or MDC
phenomenon and
to take genuine measures to address this issue because the
way Zimbabwe is
going, I believe our children will have no heritage to call
their own.
Patriot
Harare
-----------
Massive corruption in
'Garikai' housing
I have been employed by the Department of
Housing at
Remembrance Drive for the past 10 years and want to draw
attention to the
embarrassing level of corruption which is taking place in
the allocation of
74 stands in Southerton.
The
names of the Minister of Local Government and the
chair of the commission
running the city of Harare are being peddled left
right and centre by top
officials in order to instil fear and fuel
corruption. They say the names of
the beneficiaries of the stands are
directives coming from the minister or
the chair of the commission.
We know there have been
people who for years have been on
the housing waiting list. Some of them are
working and earn good salaries
and ought to benefit as they have the
resources and have been on the housing
waiting
list.
One of the officials has corruptly invited people
from
ZBC, Zanu PF and Ministry of Local Government to take up the stands in
Southerton. These people already own houses elsewhere and are beneficiaries
of "Operation Garikai". ZBC crews are being rewarded for covering news items
that involve some of these officials.
At the height
of "Garikai" some 60 stands were allocated
to church people under what was
called a co-operative of pastors. The
beneficiaries were not victims of
"Murambatsvina". The authorisation was
said to have come from the chair of
the commission running the city of
Harare.
There
are hundreds of council workers with no houses yet
they were left out. The
way the scheme has been handled is a shame. I
suggest auditors be called in
to conduct an exercise into the list of the
"special people" and establish
whether they ever applied for stands, how
long they have been on the housing
waiting list and whether they have the
resources.
Anti-Corruption
Harare
---------
Log in Chigwedere's own eye
I
would like to respond to Minister Aeneas Chigwedere's
claim that Zimbabwe
Football Association (ZIFA) is led by incompetent
people, as reported by The
Chronicle of 21 February, 2006. Well, for now, I
will neither agree nor
disagree with his claim.
My point is; heyi mnumzana
(mister), please remove the log
or dirt in your eye so that you will see
clearly the incompetence on your
part before pretending to be a clean
minister. What efforts did you as the
responsible sports minister make to
ensure Zifa had all the resources they
require at any given time for them to
take the Warriors to the world cup?
Was it Zifa's
incompetence that fundraising was still in
progress after the Africa Cup of
Nations had begun? Remember your suggestion
that all schools in Zimbabwe
should have one uniform? Remember the unheard
of school fees hike which was
backdated? Can we say these were ideas from a
competent minister or
otherwise?
In short, as a Cabinet minister, you are one
of those whom
the President celebrated the eve of his birthday by
lambasting.
Lizwelibolile Ncube
Bulawayo