Mail and Guardian
Windhoek,
Namibia
01 March 2007 08:38
Zimbabwean
President Robert Mugabe denounced the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) on
Wednesday evening, calling dependence on the crisis
lender and other donors
tantamount to economic slavery, reducing African
countries to
beggars.
"We don't have to go to IMF for that, even to any
European
donor, for what we can do between and amongst ourselves," Mugabe
told a
business meeting organised in Windhoek by the Namibian Chamber of
Commerce
and Industry.
"And when we start doing it on our
own, you'll see them coming,
saying 'Ah, you have a factory here. We want to
assist you.' Then, if we
want a partner, the partner must come on our terms,
because then we will
have the capacity to do things on our
own."
"When we don't have that capacity, then we are like
economic
slaves. We go begging. There are still countries in Africa which go
begging
for money in order to pay their civil servants, and they got
independent in
the '60s," he said.
Citing non-payments of
arrears, the IMF has just frozen support
for Zimbabwe, which has now reached
the world's highest inflation rate at 1
600 per cent
annually.
Human rights activists held a small demonstration
outside the
Zimbabwean embassy on Wednesday morning in Windhoek to protest
Mugabe's
rule.
"The main reason for this protest is to
add to the ever-growing
international outrage over the dangerous
human-rights, humanitarian and
human security situation, which is prevailing
in Zimbabwe," Namibia's
National Society for Human Rights said in a
statement.
The protesters called on Mugabe and his government
to "respect
the work of human-rights defenders, restore the operation of
independent
print and electronic media, allow all legitimate political
opposition
parties the room to operate, restore respect for the rule of law
and the
independence of the judiciary and present the requisite
constitutional
amendment before the nation as a whole for a
referendum."
The 83-year-old Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe
since 1980,
arrived on Tuesday in Namibia for a state
visit.
Mugabe called for greater cooperation between Southern
African
Development Community (SADC) countries, a thinly veiled criticism of
South
Africa and its continuing economic dominance through the Southern
African
Customs Union (Sacu).
"One subject that has been
lingering on our agenda in SADC is
the one that has to do with tariffs,
reducing tariffs at what rate and when
do we expect to get to zero tariff
level?" Mugabe asked.
"Usually where there is bigness and
largeness, there is usually
a claim-inherited, historical claim -- for the
large partner to want to
continue to be large and also to want the small
ones to continue to be
small. I'm not saying this is what is
happening."
Mugabe further called for greater regional
cooperation in trade
and sharing of expertise that would allow the region to
"add value" instead
of simply selling primary commodities including beef,
leather, fruit and
minerals.
During the official gala
dinner he hailed his land and
resettlement policy as "completed
successfully," adding that Britain and the
United States had wanted to
punish Zimbabwe for "daring to take our destiny
into our own
hands".
The support Mugabe voiced for Namibia "as you tackle
the mammoth
task of land reform in your own way" brought no response by
Namibian
President Hifikepunye Pohamba.
Pohamba, who was
democratically elected in 2004, called for
greater "efforts to strengthen
democratic governance and the rule of law for
a more peaceful
continent".
While having been given the red-carpet treatment
on his arrival,
Mugabe is not seen to be as close an ally of Pohamba as he
was of former
Namibian president and liberation struggle comrade Sam
Nujoma.
Namibia's human-rights groups and business community
have
criticised the Mugabe visit as "sending the wrong signal" to a world
that is
taking an increasingly critical approach to Mugabe's
regime.
Political observers hope that during official talks,
Pohamba
will try to influence Mugabe to step down come elections next year,
in the
kind of quiet diplomacy for which leaders like South African
President Thabo
Mbeki have been criticised.
Following a
visit to a diamond-polishing factory and a meeting
with local businesses,
Mugabe is to leave on Thursday for Namibia's east
coast to view dry-dock
facilities at Walvis Bay harbour and see a
fish-processing plant before
returning Friday to Zimbabwe.
'The nation will be in
darkness'
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank governor, Gideon Gono, told
a
parliamentary committee that he was struggling to keep the country's
electricity on and the air force aloft. He admitted he had no funds to buy
police vehicles or print passports and that unless drastic action was taken
on rampant inflation, Zimbabwe could slump "to levels never dreamt
before".
Scant hope of better times was offered by Gono when
he came to
the parliamentary committee on defence and home affairs on
Tuesday to
respond to appeals from the police, army and other departments
for foreign
currency to buy vehicles, vital equipment and basic
materials.
Gono is favoured by Mugabe for his optimism, so
many Zimbabweans
will have been surprised by his bleak assessment, published
in the state
Herald newspaper on Wednesday.
He told the
parliamentary group that he received desperate calls
daily from state food
and petrol distributors, the national airline, and the
state railway and
power utility -- all demanding hard currency for imports.
He said an
official from the power utility called at dusk saying: "If you
don't give us
money the nation will be in darkness."
But he said the bank's
priority was to allocate hard currency
for imports of maize, Zimbabwe's
staple grain, to avert a looming food
crisis. He admitted currency had been
diverted from almost every government
department to buy
food.
The committee chairperson, Claudius Makova, of Mugabe's
Zanu-PF
party, said its investigations showed that the police needed more
than 15
000 vehicles but had 1 500. He said the air force needed $2-million
to keep
planes in the air.
The passport office had
earlier said it had a backlog of 300 000
applications but could not produce
any because it had no paper or ink. It is
resorting to issuing emergency
travel documents on plain paper.
Gono said he did not have
the foreign currency to pay those
urgent bills. He said Zimbabwe needed more
than $2,5-billionn "to function
well" but he did not know where he could
find the hard currency.
"If we were talking about local
currency, I would say, 'Don't
worry, in the next 30 minutes we will print
money,'" he said, but added that
he could not print US dollars or British
pounds.
Gono blamed people who had taken over white-owned
farms for
failing to produce food. "There are some people who have become
professional
land occupiers, vandalising equipment and moving from one farm
to another,"
he said.
Tobacco exports were the nation's
main hard currency earners
before the land seizures. Tobacco production this
year is forecast at
one-fifth of the 1999 level and food output is down to
one-third.
The economy would fall to "levels never dreamt
before" unless
there was an immediate wage and price freeze, he
said.
In a sign of growing public impatience, dozens of
people were
arrested yesterday for defying a police ban on demonstrations to
protest at
hardship and repression.
The National
Constitutional Assembly said many of those arrested
were assaulted but it
vowed to continue demonstrating. "We believe that
demonstrating for a new
Constitution is a genuine cause that cannot be
blocked by a corrupt police
force whose mandate is merely that of protecting
a failed regime," said the
group, which campaigns for constitutional reform.
Zimbabwe's
main labour body, the Zimbawe Congress of Trade
Unions, confirmed on
Wednesday that it would hold a general strike on April
3 and 4 to protest at
the hardships it blamed on the government. It rejected
Gono's call for a
wage freeze, saying poor and hungry workers could not
accept
that.
"People are hungry and they are fed up. The terrible
economy is
creating a growing mood of desperation," said John Makumbe, a
political
science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. "We have seen
battles
between police and protesters and this could grow." - Guardian,
Sapa-DPA
The Telegraph
Last Updated:
2:17am GMT 01/03/2007
One of the most powerful figures in
Zimbabwe has issued a damning
indictment of President Robert Mugabe's
policies by publicly criticising the
actions of the people allocated land
seized from white owners.
Gideon Gono, the governor of the central
reserve bank, appeared to
acknowledge that his nation had been shattered by
Mr Mugabe's "land reform
programme".
According to the
state-owned Herald newspaper, Mr Gono also
acknowledged that the lack of
food production had led to food imports
gobbling up foreign currency
reserves desperately needed for fuel and spare
parts for
machinery.
advertisement
Mr Gono told a panel of MPs in
Harare that many black farmers,
including politicians, who resettled on
former white-owned farms, were
failing to produce food.
"There
are some people who have become professional land occupiers,
vandalising
equipment and moving from one farm to another," Mr Gono told a
parliamentary
committee on home affairs.
Mr Gono said he received desperate
telephones calls daily from
government enterprises including food
distributors, the state gasoline
procurement agency, the loss-making
national airline, the state railroad
company and the main power utility. He
said that they had all demanded hard
currency for imported
materials.
He added that the central bank's priority was to
allocate hard
currency for imports of corn to avert a looming food crisis,
especially in
southern Zimbabwe.
The committee chairman,
Claudius Makova of the ruling Zanu-PF party,
said its investigations showed
the Zimbabwe police needed more than 15,000
vehicles but possessed just
3,000, of which half were off the road awaiting
repairs and imported spare
parts.
Mr Mugabe is facing growing unrest, with inflation running
at almost
1,600 per cent - the highest in the world - and acute shortages of
petrol,
food and medicine.
Last Updated: 2:17am GMT
01/03/2007
One of the most powerful figures in Zimbabwe has
issued a damning
indictment of President Robert Mugabe's policies by
publicly criticising the
actions of the people allocated land seized from
white owners.
Gideon Gono, the governor of the central reserve
bank, appeared to
acknowledge that his nation had been shattered by Mr
Mugabe's "land reform
programme".
According to the state-owned
Herald newspaper, Mr Gono also
acknowledged that the lack of food production
had led to food imports
gobbling up foreign currency reserves desperately
needed for fuel and spare
parts for machinery.
Mr Gono told a
panel of MPs in Harare that many black farmers,
including politicians, who
resettled on former white-owned farms, were
failing to produce
food.
"There are some people who have become professional land
occupiers,
vandalising equipment and moving from one farm to another," Mr
Gono told a
parliamentary committee on home affairs.
Mr Gono
said he received desperate telephones calls daily from
government
enterprises including food distributors, the state gasoline
procurement
agency, the loss-making national airline, the state railroad
company and the
main power utility. He said that they had all demanded hard
currency for
imported materials.
He added that the central bank's priority was
to allocate hard
currency for imports of corn to avert a looming food
crisis, especially in
southern Zimbabwe.
The committee
chairman, Claudius Makova of the ruling Zanu-PF party,
said its
investigations showed the Zimbabwe police needed more than 15,000
vehicles
but possessed just 3,000, of which half were off the road awaiting
repairs
and imported spare parts.
Mr Mugabe is facing growing unrest, with
inflation running at almost
1,600 per cent - the highest in the world - and
acute shortages of petrol,
food and medicine.
zimbabwejournalists.com
1st Mar 2007 01:31 GMT
By a Correspondent
HARARE -
Trudy Stevenson, the Member of Parliament for Harare North, was
ejected from
Parliament yesterday for attempting to defend the freedom of
the airwaves in
Zimbabwe after she heckled a deputy minister in the
150-member House on the
issue.
Stevenson was responding to an answer given by information deputy
minister,
Bright Matonga, on why the Zimbabwe government is jamming
independent radio
stations such as SW Radioafrica, Studio 7 and Radio Voice
of the People that
operate from the United Kingdom, the United States and
the Netherlands
respectively.
Matonga, who is currently implicated in
a corruption trial in the matter of
a ZUPCO bus tender while he was the
chief executive officer of ZUPCO, had
been asked to clarify the government's
position on independent radio
stations and why the government was using
ruthless means to ensure listeners
were deprived of news.
The
question was not on the order paper.
Matonga gloated he was glad that the
opposition MDC had noted his government
had the power to jam broadcasts of
"propaganda" against the State from
outside the country and confirmed they
indeed were jamming those broadcasts.
He said he was also pleased that
listeners, mainly those in the rural areas
that do not even receive the
local FM stations were no longer receiving the
independent radio station
broadcasts as their frequencies were being
disturbed by government
agents.
A desk within the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has
been set up to
deal specifically with the jamming of the three radio
stations' frequencies.
Matonga told Parliament the Zimbabwe government
was right to block the radio
stations from reaching people in Zimbabwe,
adding the UK did not receive
broadcasts from foreign countries.
"We
cannot allow foreigners to invade our airwaves without our authority. We
will continue to do it. We need to protect our sovereignty. If you go to
England you will not receive any foreign radio station," said
Matonga.
At this, Stevenson heckled Matonga saying loudly that his
statement was
incorrect. To the contrary, the UK received thousands of
foreign stations
broadcasting into the country everyday.
Many more
heckles were exchanged across the floor, forcing acting Speaker,
Kumbirai
Kangai, to order Stevenson out of the chamber.
The Zimbabwe government
has since last year been jamming independent radio
stations that broadcast
into the country through equipment sourced from
China resulting in many
failing to receive the stations on their radios.
The government has also
gone out of its way to confiscate radios donated to
rural communities and
teachers in particular saying they are being used as
agents for regime
change by those donating them.
This has forced broadcasters such as SW
Radio Africa to come up with
innovative ways through which to send news back
to listeners in Zimbabwe.
The London-based stations is now sending daily
text messages to people in
Zimbabwe to feed them on news about their
country.
The Herald
THE winter season in the
City of Harare has lasted too long. Some of us not
too friendly with such
seasons are almost reaching freezing point.
Indeed, Harare was once a
"Sunshine City" but we have not experienced much
of that in recent
years.
The potholes on the roads, malfunctioning traffic lights,
uncollected
garbage, raw sewage flowing all over the place, etcetera, does
not in any
way give the city a ray of sunlight.
It has all been dark
and gloomy. Complaints have been made over and over
about all these but we
have not seen much in terms of visible efforts to
restore the
brightness.
Of course, once in a while you see some men in overalls
filling potholes
here and there you also see others redrawing road markings.
These efforts we
do appreciate, but now it's a question of too little too
late.
Harare is still one of the best cities on the continent but maybe
this is
now the case of the best not being good enough.
Harare has
potential to attract both local and foreign investment in a big
way. It is a
city that could achieve so much in terms of being the
torch-bearer for the
rest of the country but presently, it is far from
holding even a dim
candle.
So much has gone wrong in Harare in terms of infrastructure
maintenance, let
alone development. The city has failed to meet the demands
of the massive
rural to urban migration witnessed, particularly in the 1980s
and 1990s.
The powers-that-be in the city have failed to live up to
growing demands
associated with modern-day cities. Piecemeal efforts have
not yielded much
and it's time the occupants at Town House come up with
concrete strategies
to turn things around.
Economic turnaround does
not happen magically at national level but it
requires efforts even at
municipal or city levels to feed into national
programmes.
Of course,
constraints such as inadequate funds, lack of foreign currency,
and other
such have been advanced to explain why things are not happening in
Harare
but there certainly should be a way around these problems.
I'm sure the
city had better use for the $1,6 million it recently forked out
in the case
involving the pothole-damaged Mercedes-Benz belonging to Stanbic
managing
director Ms Pindie Nyandoro.
Great respect for the action taken by Ms
Nyandoro but I hope the City of
Harare learnt a lesson or two on how a
stitch in time saves nine. I could
not get the quotations of fixing a
standard size pothole, but I should think
the kind of money paid out to Ms
Nyandoro could have been used to fix
several potholes.
Most roads in
Harare have become very dangerous particularly at night when
it is difficult
to see a pothole before you sink into one. Some of the roads
are so littered
with potholes, you try to avoid one but in the process you
hit into
another.
Soon the City Fathers and Mothers might be preoccupied with
raising money
for car damages when they could do better with repairing the
roads
themselves.
Imagine on a single journey from the city centre
you avoid an accident by a
whisker at a malfunctioning traffic
light-controlled intersection, but you
are met with another as you try to
avoid a whole chain of potholes in Malta
Road, Braeside, on your way to the
airport.
As stated by High Court judge Justice Charles Hungwe in his
judgment in the
City of Harare vs Ms Nyandoro case, the council has failed
to properly
discharge its duties of maintaining roads.
So much more
needs to be done to get things right if we are to return to the
days of
glory in Harare.
The central business district is also not what it used
to be. It was an
achievement of high proportion to visit Harare years ago
and you could feel
the difference the minute you disembarked from a bus or
kombi in Harare.
The city had a touch of class you could only experience
here but now it's
so, so different.
These are not trivial issues. An
investor injects his money after many
considerations, particularly the
availability of sound infrastructure, among
other things, hence the need for
Harare to ensure everything is in place.
The central business district
also needs a serious facelift. In this regard
we applaud efforts to restore
sanity and hygiene in many of the buildings
which house informal
operators.
However, the inspections should not just be one-off events.
Periodic checks
will ensure the high standards associated with the Harare of
yesteryear are
restored. The office space and the various designated
shopping and parking
facilities should be kept up to standard.
The
challenges are there, particularly under the unstable macro-economic
environment but in some instances lack of proper sound management systems
are being camouflaged and wrongly attributed to the economic environment.
2007 has been dubbed a year of restoration, revival and regeneration and I
sincerely hope Harare will go with the flow and ensure plastering, painting,
resurfacings, reconnections and other repairs are done
timeously.
Harare is a potentially viable investment destination, which
should be
allowed to achieve this potential. Of course, it's not as easy as
it sounds
but we hope the Harare Commission and those who man the various
departments,
divisions, etc, that fall under it will come up with a sound
and practical
programme to restore the sunshine city status.
Indeed,
the sun is still high up. It has not moved from its natural posture
but it's
just that Harare has drifted a bit away from it. It needs to start
drifting
back into position lest we freeze.
Comments and opinions on this and
any other issues are most welcome on:
victoria.ruzvidzo@zimpapers.co.zw
The Zimbabwean
-making
millions for the Zanu (PF) feeding trough
BY MUONGORORI
This week the
Zimbabwe dollar went through the 1 000 to 1 barrier against
the Rand - the
most frequently traded currency. That puts the US dollar over
7 000 to 1 and
the Pound to over 11 000 to one - a massive devaluation of
the local
currency in the past two weeks.
But the official rate for US dollars is still
250 to 1 and anyone going into
the bank to change foreign exchange will get
that rate. Exporters who sell
their goods in USD will get that rate on a
third of their total earnings -
the balance can be used by the exporters or
traded. So-called free funds -
those foreign exchange resources that are not
the proceeds of economic
activity inside Zimbabwe (such as funds from the
Diaspora) can also be
traded - but not in the Banks - only on the
street.
So if the State buys fuel using the US$500 million a year they take
from
exporters at 250 to 1 exchange rates, they can buy fuel - at a cost of
about
60 US cents a litre landed and sell it on local markets at Z$325 a
litre and
make a very nice profit. Their problems arise when they have to
take into
account all the demands on the official pool of foreign exchange
created in
this way.
The State allocates these funds secretly so no
breakdown of what they do
with them is available - what we do know is that
they do not have enough to
buy food (US$350 million a year), fuel (US$600
million a year) and
electricity (about US$60 million a year) and meet
demands for patronage and
self seeking payments for luxury cars and other
Zanu (PF) perks.
So the supply of fuel at these low prices is limited to
people who are
connected to the State in some way and perhaps the security
forces and the
Police. The rest of us have to rely on the private sector.
The private
sector does not get any funding in terms of foreign exchange
from the
official system - they have to buy the so-called free funds on the
open
market for this purpose and that is where the parallel market for
foreign
exchange comes in - at 28 times the official price.
So we who
rely on the open market for supplies - 98 per cent of the people
who live
here, must pay Z$6 500 a litre for fuel or go without. If the State
was to
try and control the open market price, fuel would vanish overnight
and the
country would literally come to a halt.
Take maize as another example - the
State buys maize from our neighbours at
about R1750 per tonne. This is only
Z$62 500 a tonne at the official rate of
exchange for the local currency.
However, if it is purchased at the parallel
market rate then the cost rises
to Z$1 750 000 or 28 times the "official"
cost. The selling price was Z$600
a tonne (yes - six hundred dollars a
tonne). So the GMB was virtually giving
away the product to local buyers.
But if you went into a store to buy maize
meal - just milled maize in a bag,
then you would have had to pay about
Z$150 000 a tonne - a gross margin over
raw materials costs of 250 times the
sale price from the GMB. Who made the
profit?
The profits made on such a
system are enormous - on the 1,2 million tonnes
of maize sold annually in
this market for human consumption, the profit
would be at present prices
Z$350 billion a year. That is a massive 500 per
cent gross margin - at the
very least. Some traders are demanding Z$550 000
a tonne for maize meal -
this is the wholesale price set by the indigenous
millers association, an
organisation linked to Zanu (PF).
The Zimbabwean
BY ITAI
DZAMARA
HARARE
As serious water problems continue to haunt residents of
metropolitan
Harare, it has emerged that donated funds for the Kunzvi Dam
project have
been systematically looted over the past couple of
years.
The project was mooted a decade ago as a way of averting water
problems for
the capital and its satellite towns by constructing a dam some
20km east of
Harare.
Investigations reveal that donations provided by
Russia, Iran and the UK
have all been either channelled to other
self-serving projects by the Zanu
(PF) government or looted by high-ranking
government officials.
Sources within the ministry of Water and Infrastructure
Development said the
recently appointed minister, Munacho Mutezo, had
"unearthed a real scandal".
Mutezo is making concerted efforts to find
solutions to Harare's chronic
water and sewage reticulation problems. He
declined to open the can of worms
when contacted by The Zimbabwean this
week, saying "a lot has been happening
and some things have hampered
progress".
Sources privy to goings-on in Mutezo's ministry and those at the
Zimbabwe
National Water Authority (ZINWA) said he could expose the looting,
which is
likely to implicate Vice President Joice Mujuru, who served for a
long time
in the ministry of water resources and is reported to have
received a many
donations during her tenure.
"If it weren't for
corruption the Kunzvi Dam Project could have taken off by
now," a highly
place d source said. "Inquiries have shown that a lot of
donated funds were
clearly not used for the intended purpose."
A former government minister, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed
it as a Zanu (PF) culture "that
of taking donated funds to use on projects
such as training of militia or
hosting Independence celebrations". He added
that government was culpable
for not taking the Kunzvi project seriously
despite the growing water
problems for Harare "because most chefs have wells
at their
homes".
The Zimbabwean
John Makumbe
Some of us
have often stated that Zanu (PF) contains the seeds of its own
destruction.
Recent reports seem to confirm that some of these seeds are now
germinating
and bearing frightfully bitter fruit for the dictator and his
fewer and
fewer supporters. The Mujuru faction, for example, boycotted
Gideon Gono's
meaningless monetary policy presentation a few weeks ago and,
more recently,
Joice Mujuru staged a no-show at the mother of all birthday
parties,
Mugabe's annual circus (this year dubbed the 83rd birthday) in
Gweru.
The
ever-watchful political analysts in Zimbabwe linked this turn of events
to
Mugabe accusing Mujuru of using Tekere and Mandaza to further her
succession
crusade. This is all juicy stuff, as it demonstrates that for the
geriatric
Mugabe things are really falling apart.
At last, some of the pillars of the
former liberation movement are crumbling
in the face of a resurging
opposition MDC and a restive populace reeling
under horrendous
socio-economic hardships.
In a ridiculous attempt to keep the lid on the
boiling pot, the Zanu (PF)
Repressive Police (ZRP) last week imposed a ban
on political meetings and
street demonstrations throughout Harare. This was
in response to civic
action that the courageous WOZA, MOZA and MDC
(Tsvangirai) had successfully
executed in Harare and Bulawayo.
Indeed,
the MDC (Mutambara) had also given the ZRP a tough time on the
streets of
Bulawayo. This took place while teachers were on strike. Add to
that the
fact that junior doctors and nurses are still out on strike, and
might be
joined by university academics this week.
It is an exciting time for the
Mugabe regime, which is frothing at the mouth
following the EU's renewal of
targeted sanctions against the crumbling
government. Not to be outdone, the
IMF last week also decided to freeze out
the desperate and bankrupt regime
in terms of financial support and voting
rights. It is double trouble for
the dictator, both at home and
internationally. The poor chap does not know
which way to turn. Where are
the Chinese when you need them?
In addition
to the ZRP-imposed ban on political meetings and street
demonstrations, an
illegal curfew seems to have been imposed in some parts
of the country. This
undeclared curfew caught unawares several individuals
when the vicious
running dogs of dictatorship, the ZRP, attacked them late
at night for no
apparent reason. Officials in the ZRP deny there is a curfew
in
operation.
The regime is desperate to contain these unprecedented levels of
despondency
and fury from the people of Zimbabwe. In this desperation, the
regime is
becoming increasingly vicious in its brutality against the
suffering people.
But it is only a matter of time before the regime is
forced to commit
genocide, possibly later this year. This 2007 is turning
out to be Mugabe's
final year in office, whether he likes it or not. Sadly,
before he departs,
he is going to ruin this bleeding country in order to
make sure that whoever
inherits it will have a tough time restoring the
nation's fortunes.
With Joice Mujuru sulking away and Emmerson Mnangagwa
unsure of whether he
is coming or going, Mugabe has probably become the most
isolated and
ostracised head of state in modern-day Africa. He does not know
who to
trust - apart, of course, from George Charamba. I doubt very much
that he
can even trust one Grace Marufu.
The Zimbabwean
By Herbert
Dapi
MASVINGO- The operations of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society have been
plunged
into disarray with the withdrawal of food aid because donors are
concerned
about the 'politicisation' of handouts by Zanu (PF)
officials.
Sources said aid was trickling in, and food had not been handed
out for some
time.
The board was made up of politicians and at one time
it was chaired by
Dzikamai Mavhaiere, senator, provincial commiserate, and
member of the
politburo.
A Mrs Chiturumani, from the Women's League, was
responsible for monitoring
and screening beneficiaries.
It is claimed the
names of suspected opposition members were deleted from
the register. It was
also found that the register recorded many names of
deceased people.
It
is alleged Chiturumani turned herself into a cult figure, as she had the
final say on beneficiaries.
Staff members who questioned the logic of
politicising food aid were forced
to leave, or demoted, and it is reported
that there was a high staff turn
over. It has also emerged that vehicles
were used for political-party
campaign purposes.
A source expressed fears
that the organisation was going to fold, not only
in Masvingo but for the
whole of Zimbabwe.
Red Cross officials could not drawn to comment.
The
Zimbabwean has learnt that the operation has been taken over by another
NGO,
Dachcare.
The Zimbabwean
HARARE - The government has come under
withering criticism from civic and
opposition groups for imposing a curfew
on Harare and banning demonstrations
and rallies in the capital.
The
International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute condemned the ban
as
a breach of the right to freedom of assembly protected by international
and
regional human rights law and the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
The IBA said it
doubted the Constitutional validity of the draconian POSA,
which enables the
Zimbabwe Government to undermine the right to freedom of
assembly
by
prohibiting or restricting legitimate protests. IBA noted that the
three-month ban exceeded the one-month limit imposed under POSA.
"The
Government of Zimbabwe has again undermined the guarantees of human
rights
and the rule of law by preventing the citizens of Zimbabwe from
exercising
their fundamental right to free assembly," said Mark Ellis,
executive
director of the International Bar Association.
"The Mugabe Government's
breaches of international human rights law and
complete disregard for the
rights enshrined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe
continue to
escalate."
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said the police were in
contravention of
Section 27 of POSA, which empowered police to outlaw
rallies for only one
month.
"We want to make it clear to the police that
we will not listen to partisan
orders that are meant to protect a failed
regime that is desperately
clinging to power," said a spokesman for the NCA.
"The police should come
out clear and declare their allegiance to Zanu (PF)
as it is wrong to put on
two hats at the same time, attempting to confuse
the whole nation."
A spokesman of the Tsvangirai-led MDC, Nelson Chamisa,
said intimidation and
autocratic antics would not stand between the people
and their vision for a
new Zimbabwe. - Gift Phiri
The Zimbabwean
HARARE - MISA-Zimbabwe
has called upon the government to uphold the rights
of citizens to express
themselves freely and peacefully, and to cease the
wanton arrests and
detentions.
The group said it noted with concern "the unprecedented rise in
the number
of arrests of human rights activists during the past week as the
Zimbabwean
government intensifies its brutal clampdown.
"The repression
and restriction of the fundamental rights of freedom of
expression, assembly
and association which puts into serious doubt
Zimbabwe's commitment to the
rule of law manifests in the wanton disregard
of court orders by the police
and the shocking rise in the number of arrests
and detentions of student
leaders, teachers politicians and human rights
activists, among them women
and minors.
"More than 200 people were arrested during the week beginning 13
February
2007 in blatant violations of basic human liberties guaranteed
under Section
13 of the Zimbabwean Constitution notwithstanding the
charters, conventions
and declarations, notably the African Charter on Human
and Peoples Rights,
to which Zimbabwe is a state party."
Some victims of
police actions were detained for more than the stipulated
48-hour period in
filthy police cells, as lawyers battled to gain access to
the activists, it
said.
The Zimbabwean
AFRICA should expect grim
violations of media and human rights in Zimbabwe
if President Mugabe
continued in office for the next three years, a recent
meeting of Zimbabwe
Journalists Support Network (ZJSN) heard in Pretoria
last week.
ZJSN
Chairman Victor Kasaga said: "Mugabe is failing to correct his mistakes
and
improve the country's economy, he is intensifying fear and intimidation.
What he wants is to watch World Cup in 2010 from state house then he will
go."
MDC National Treasurer Roy Bennett said his party was working with
Zimbabweans in South Africa and other countries to ensure Mugabe would not
stay in office illegally.
Mugabe marked his 83rd birthday with a police
ban on political rallies and a
suggestion that though some party members
wanted him out of power he would
not bow to pressure.
Meanwhile Itayi
Zimunya, of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition media office,
this week called
upon the SA government to play a role in solving the crisis
in its
neighbour. "We urge our comrades in South Africa to open their eyes
and
mouth on Zimbabwe," he said. - Ntandoyenkosi Ncube
The Zimbabwean
Stanford G Mukasa
MDC can hasten
Mugabe's demise
THE Mugabe government's actions in banning MDC rallies,
jailing its leaders
and using brute force on its supporters sends one very
clear message to
Zimbabweans: Mugabe is the same yesterday, today and
forever.
Mugabe has the monopoly of state-sponsored violence. He controls the
army,
police, CIO and youth militia thugs. Their budget far exceeds the
needs of
the country.
However, what Mugabe does not control is the
economy and the volcanic
rumblings of dissent within Zanu (PF). This leads
to the view that the only
real prospects for change come from within the
ruling party, or through the
economy.
Does this mean that the opposition
movement has been effectively
emasculated? The question is: Where does MDC
go from here?
What is the MDC's strategy now that all its efforts have been
severely
undermined by Mugabe? Mugabe's laws mean that the MDC can be
severely
punished even when acting within the law, as happened recently when
two MDC
rallies were banned even after officials had followed all the legal
procedures and had obtained permission to hold them.
For seven years now,
the opposition movement has followed the same strategy
of fighting futile
elections, participating in Parliament, and seeking
permission from the
police to hold meetings and rallies. The results have
been dismally similar:
rallies denied, elections lost, supporters beaten,
jailed and some even
killed.
However, just because Mugabe controls state violence it does not mean
the
opposition movement has no strength. Mugabe's own security and military
chiefs have advised him that the masses are now ready, willing and able to
stage protests. They have, in fact, defined the opposition movement's
strength. No military force can overwhelm a determined
population.
Examples abound everywhere. Almost every day we read about
popular protests
around the world. The latest is the standoff in Guinea
where a determined
population has stood its ground and used mass protests to
force the
president to make major concessions. A similar protest took place
in Togo
last year.
The opposition movement in Zimbabwe should now be
strategizing on how to
mobilize the masses. One obvious reason why previous
mass protests were
unsuccessful is that announcements were made in the glare
of media
publicity - including when and where they would take place! One can
well
imagine a smiling Mugabe taking necessary measures to frustrate the
protests.
In contrast, recent demonstrations have been relatively
effective because
they were not widely announced. The spontaneous
demonstrations that have
spread around the country are a crystal clear
message to the opposition
movement's leadership that there is a real
potential for mass action.
Some opportunities exist in the widening cracks in
Zanu (PF). Mugabe's
recent speech amply demonstrates that the jostling for
power is now reaching
epidemic proportions. Given the deteriorating
conditions in Zimbabwe, it is
quite possible that mass action may ultimately
not be necessary after all,
especially if the regime was to fall on its
weight like a rotten fruit. But
the opposition movement would be ill advised
to mark time in the expectation
that this will happen.
Zimbabwe is not an
island. It relies on the international community in terms
of trade and
tourism as well as remittances from Zimbabweans in the
Diaspora. The
opposition movement should strengthen contacts and ties with
other civil
society groups in neighbouring countries. Namibia, for example,
has a strong
human rights organization that has taken effective steps to
protest against
abuses by Mugabe. Cosatu in South Africa has expressed
solidarity with the
ZCTU. French trade unions reportedly put pressure on
their government to
deny Mugabe permission to attend the Franco-African
summit. In the United
States, some trade unions are ready to support their
counterparts in
Zimbabwe.
Diaspora Zimbabweans can play an important role in helping to seek
support.
A civil disobedience campaign, backed by international civic
organizations
like trade unions and churches, would significantly invigorate
the struggle
against Mugabe's dictatorship.
The Zimbabwean
By Bayethe Zitha
BULAWAYO
- A police assistant commissioner has been accused of corruptly
intervening
in a marital dispute between a Zimbabwean woman and her
Australian-born
husband.
Kudzai Machokoto (25) of Mpopoma high-density suburb, who is now
trying to
divorce Geoffrey Brian Rievaulx (49), has accused Assistant
Commissioner
Crowd Chirenje of ganging up with her estranged husband (a
Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe branch manager for Bulawayo and a city businessman)
to defraud her
of more than Z$6m.
Machokoto married Rievaulx in Tasmania,
Australia in January last year and
the couple relocated to Zimbabwe eight
months later.
Machokoto, a qualified nurse who has worked in South Africa and
Australia,
accuses the senior police officer of threatening her with
unspecified action
and calling her a prostitute.
The couple had decided
to sell one of their two cars, a Vauxhall Astra,
through a local car dealer,
Mr Shah of Shah Car Sales. The couple fell out
and, when the car was sold,
Machokoto found "Mr Shah connived with my
husband to give him the money and
sideline me."
Upon learning of this, Machokoto rushed to the garage in the
company of two
police officers from Bulawayo Central police station, who
witnessed her
receiving a Merchant Bank of Central Africa cheque for Z$6 458
000 from
Shah.
Machokoto banked the cheque in her Zimbank account on
October 31, 2006. She
alleges that Shah immediately phoned the assistant
commissioner and told him
what had happened. Chirenje demanded she come to
his office at the Bulawayo
provincial police headquarters in Ross
Camp.
"When I got there, Chirenje was very angry with me - as if I had stolen
something from him! He insulted me with words that I cannot repeat to you
and said that I should leave his friends alone as I was just a prostitute
like many other Zimbabwean women.
"He then demanded that I should give
him the cheque. When I told him that I
had deposited it in my account, he
picked up the phone and called the RBZ's
Bulawayo branch and told the branch
manager to stop the cheque," said
Machokoto.
Chirenje refuted the
allegations this week, saying Machokoto was just one of
his many sworn
enemies trying to get him.
The Zimbabwean
By Bayethe
Zitha
BULAWAYO - Former Zimbabwe National War Veterans Association
secretary-general, Andrew Ndlovu, has been accused of stealing $6,5m worth
of wheat from fellow A2 farmers in Nyamandlovu, which he allegedly sold to
the Grain Marketing Board last year.
Morgan Sibanda and Bekithemba
Mafengu, Ndlovu's neighbours at a four-hectare
farm in Plot 02 of Lot A,
Mandalay Farm in Nyamandlovu, told The Zimbabwean
that they filed a joint
complaint of theft against the war veteran in
November last year.
"He is
there at his house in Nkulumane but police have not yet arrested him.
All
they tell us is that they are still investigating the case and we have
lost
all hope of recovering anything from him. I think he is using his
influence
as a member of the ruling party," said Mafengu.
The two men told The
Zimbabwean that they share a diesel engine with Ndlovu
to draw water for
irrigating their crops. Sometime last year, they used the
war veteran's
diesel, with his consent, to irrigate their crops. When he
wanted it
replaced, there was none to buy due to fuel shortages.
"We offered to give
him money in black-market rates so that he could try and
buy it himself but
he refused. One day in November, he took a combine
harvester and harvested
our wheat, which he later sold to the GMB.
"When we asked him why he had done
that, he said he was trying to recover
his diesel, the value of which was
way below that of the wheat he stole from
us," said Sibanda.
Police
sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that they had
received a complaint but were told by their superiors not to arrest the war
veteran.
"They told us to treat the matter as a civil misunderstanding
and tell the
complainants to try and recover their wheat through the Small
Claims Courts
but we have not yet told them. They said Ndlovu is a member of
the ruling
party and thus must not be arrested," said a junior police
officer.
Police spokesman for Bulawayo, Inspector Shepherd Sibanda, refused
to
comment.
The Zimbabwean
HARARE - Zimbabwe faces a
massive grain deficit again this year amid reports
that the bulk of
Zimbabwe's early planted maize crop has been irreparably
damaged by a
prolonged dry spell across the country in January and early
February, says
the national crop assessment unit.
"The early planted maize crop in most
provinces is reported to be a total
write-off as it was severely affected by
the mid-season dry spell at
tasselling stage. The recent rains in most parts
of the country have greatly
improved the general condition of the
late-planted crop but with high
chances of getting low yields," said the
report by AREX, a department within
the Agriculture ministry.
The dry
spell had also affected the leaf size of some of the season's
tobacco crop
and was likely to cause a fall in yields. Tobacco is Zimbabwe's
major cash
crop and rakes in approximately a third of the country's foreign
currency
earnings.
In a recent report, the US-based Famine Early Warning System
Network
(FEWSNET) said that output from the 2006/7 (November-March) crop was
likely
to be down since cash constraints had forced communal farmers to use
low-yielding maize seed varieties. FEWSNET said contingency plans should be
put in place to deal with a possible shortage of the staple grain. - Gift
Phiri
The Zimbabwean
HARARE - The sharp
hike in fuel prices is likely to sound the death knell
for most companies,
already weighed down by an acute shortage of foreign
exchange and key
inputs, top economists warned this week
Economic experts spoke as the pump
price of a litre of petrol rose to a
staggering Z$6,500, inflation shot to
almost 1,600 percent, and the country
electricity shortages woes
intensified.
Energy minister Mike Nyambuya was not immediately available for
comment. But
economist John Robertson said inflationary pressures had pushed
up fuel
pipeline costs, such as transportation and storage, resulting in
NOCZIM
selling fuel products at below procurement costs. The removal of
subsidies
by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono was another reason of the
sharp hike in
prices.
Robertson said the impact of the fuel price hikes,
when fuel was already in
very short supply, would have a disastrous impact
on the economy and the
lives of ordinary Zimbabweans.
"Everybody will be
affected," said Robertson. "We will be in a very serious
predicament in
terms of moving production goods, getting food delivered and
moving coal,
timber and heavy commodities to the factories. So, we will have
a very
serious shrinkage in the volume of business being done.
"Coupled with this is
the fact that we're now experiencing power cuts
because South Africa's
(power parastatal) Eskom is getting very serious
about being paid, we owe
them so much money (and lack the foreign currency
to pay the debt),"
Robertson said.
He added that because of the energy crisis in Zimbabwe "we
expect to see
worsening shortages of consumer goods in the shops and
shortages of export
goods". This would further aggravate the foreign
currency shortage in the
country.
The economic problems could not be
fixed without solving the political
problems besetting the country,
Robertson noted.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the
latest fuel
price increase was a massive hike "just two months after another
previous
hike of 95 percent".
"In real terms this increase means that for
those vehicles which have 60
litre tanks the cost of fuel rises from
$240,000 to $360,000. This is way
above the net salary of a majority of
ordinary Zimbabweans, even MPs," MDC
spokesman Nelson Chamisa said. - Gift
Phiri
New Zimbabwe
By
Asher Tarivona Mutsengi
Last updated: 03/01/2007 11:39:52
THE IT industry
in Africa is growing, attracting foreign investment and
attention and the
use of the Internet is fast becoming a phenomenon.
It is highly
disturbing that the government of Zimbabwe is lagging behind in
embracing
the use of the Internet in all facets of information management
and service
provision.
Most governments have official governments websites where they
share and
convey policy issues and engage the general populace in governance
issues.
I visited www.gta.gov.zw,
which is listed as the official Zimbabwe
government website. The website
takes decades to load, besides it has the
worst design of all the
100
governments websites I visited.
While the homepage offers links to
some ministries, there isn't much. Most
ministries' home pages contain the
same mission statements that were coined
in 1980, which means you just have
to visit the sites once.
A click on the link to the Ministry of
Information & Publicity is the most
disappointing because the ministry
does not have a website. God forbid! This
is the ministry that is
responsible for churning out government propaganda
and the so-called
reliable information.
The websites for the ministries of Higher
Education, Industry &
International Trade, Public Service and Labor do
not exist despite the links
listed. Where would an interested investor find
information about investing
in Zimbabwe?
I would have expected the
Ministry of Anti-Corruption to have a website
where people can post
tip-offs. Other countries publish bids for government
purchasing contracts
on the Web, this way they are accessible to all not
only government
supporters who read the The Herald or The Chronicle. This
helps fight
corruption.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is not even listed, yet this is
where
applicants for births certificates could check to see exactly where
their
case is being handled in the government approval process.
While
some ministries do have websites, for instance the Ministry of Finance
has a
website where one can download the latest fiscal policy, it is highly
underdeveloped. The rest are just home pages, never updated and designed
using just basic HTML.
Just across the border, the South African,
Botswana and Zambian governments
have some of the highly developed
government websites. Ranging from the
president's office to the tinniest
department, all have websites with
detailed information about government
services.
If you visit www.acts.co.za, you can locate the full text of
current South
African legislation which includes amendments, schedules and
regulations and
are updated whenever an amendment is promulgated in the
Government Gazette.
One can receive notification by email of any updates,
amendments and
additions to the legislation.
From what I see, there
is every reason to believe that the opposition MDC
will have an intact IT
policy judging from their immediate embrace of the
Internet. It has four
official sites -- www.mdczw.org, www.mdczimbabwe.org,
www.mdcuk.org and www.mdcregional.co.za.
The
websites are fully developed, for instance www.mdcregional.co.za uses
some of
the latest flash technology and is updated timely. In South Africa,
all
political parties -- from the Democratic Alliance to Inkatha Freedom
Party
have websites, with the ANC having the most developed. You might have
guessed right when it comes to Zanu PF -- the url www.zanupfpub.com takes
you to a human
rights protest site.
Even Zimbabwean embassies doted all over the world
do not have websites
where visitors can find information on the required
travel documents,
assistance and other information.
The website
www.zimbabweembassy.ca supposedly
meant to be Zimbabwean Embassy
website in Canada takes you to a home page
where the national anthem plays
in the background. Beyond that that's all,
if you try to enter the site, you
will be surprised to find raw basic HTML
language.
No good news for the embassy based in the Information
technology hub of the
United States of America. It does not have a website,
neither do our
missions in Australia, China, Libya or anywhere in the world.
In sharp
contrast Botswana, Swaziland, Lesotho, Tanzania, Namibia, Angola
and Zambia
consulates have embraced the use of the Internet to share
information and
offer assistance to their citizens and visitors.
Most
governments turn to Internet-based services as a way to cut red tape,
the
Internet is a means of advancing and consolidating transparency and
democracy into the overall practice of public administration.
The
Internet is arguably the most powerful medium for the sharing and
distribution of ideas man has ever known. Most Zimbabweans, like in other
nations with oppressive governments, have looked to the Internet as a way to
disseminate their anti-government views not only to fellow residents, but
also to the rest of the world.
On line news websites like www.newzimbabwe.com have filled the void
that
exists after the banning of critical newspapers by the Zimbabwe
government.
Africa is very far behind the rest of the world in Internet
use, and it
seems that the gap will only get bigger unless something is
done. Our
government in Zimbabwe is just not committed. The president has
been around
the country a few times donating computers to various schools.
If that is
not a publicity stunt, then it is good.
However, it is not
enough. The government must go the extra mile to
effectively use the
Internet to engage with its citizens dotted all over the
world, to face the
world and embrace the Internet to improve Zimbabweans'
life standards by
spreading awareness about current affairs and policy
direction.
Asher
Tarivona Mutsengi writes from Edmonton, Canada, and can be contacted
at ashermutsengi@yahoo.com
FROM THE ZIMBABWE VIGIL
Press Notice - 1st March 2007
Supporters of the Zimbabwean opposition party,
the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), are to stage a demonstration in
London on Saturday, 3rd March
in protest at the latest restrictions on
political activity in Zimbabwe.
Police in Harare disregarded a court order
and prevented a rally which was
to be addressed by MDC leader Morgan
Tsvagirai on Sunday, 18th February.
The rally was to protest against
Mugabe's plans to postpone presidential
elections until 2010. The Mugabe
regime has now banned political activity
in Harare for three months as the
country spirals into economic meltdown.
MDC supporters from throughout
the UK are to gather in Trafalgar Square and
then march to the Zimbabwe
Embassy in the Strand at 2 pm to join the
Zimbabwe Vigil, which has been
demonstrating outside the Embassy every
Saturday for more than 4 years
against human rights abuses and in support of
free and fair elections in
Zimbabwe.
The meeting will be addressed by the Chair of the MDC in the
UK, Ephraim
Tapa, and other leaders.
Interview opportunities with
Zimbabwean activists and refugees
Photo Opportunities: Dancing, Singing
and Drumming
Contacts:
For MDC UK: Jason Matewu, 07816 619 788
For
Zimbabwe Vigil: Rose Benton, 07970 996 003