Martin Fletcher, Port Stanley
http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article329776.ece
Praise-singing politicians fall over themselves to
salute Zimbabwe's leader
as he nears 30 years in office
Mar 1, 2010 12:00
AM | By FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT and IRIN NEWS
Zanu-PF bootlickers, hangers-on
and sycophants have been falling over each
other to wish Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe many more years in power.
The octogenarian,
who on April 18 this year marks 30 years in power, has
been compared to God
in newspaper and television adverts.
Mugabe, who turned 86 last Sunday,
was feted at an exclusive bash in
Bulawayo, the country's second-largest
city, on Friday.
Among the artists picked to entertain at the Bulawayo
bash was Jamaican
reggae icon Sizzla Kalonji.
"I am honoured to be in
Zimbabwe to grace birthday celebrations of a great
revolutionary leader and
Pan-Africanist who is fighting to uplift the
livelihoods of marginalised
Africans - President Mugabe," the musician
gushed to
journalists.
Other entertainers billed to perform for the occasion - at
which Zanu-PF
bigwigs had no qualms about showing off their designer
clothes, cars and
other bling - included South Africa's Soul Brothers and
Mzwakhe Mbuli.
But Friday's bash paled in comparison to the adverts
praising Mugabe - which
have been flighted since the beginning of February
as Zanu-PF supporters,
army, police and other securocrats spent thousands of
dollars to sponsor
colourful, slavish messages in support of the
president.
The parliament of Zimbabwe, whose secretariat is packed with
Zanu-PF
apologists, paid for an ad in which Mugabe was described as "a
torchbearer
of African self-determination, an embodiment of black
empowerment who
encapsulates true African values, an icon of emancipation of
the black
majority from the yoke of colonial oppression".
It
continued: "Revered by friends and foes alike, the consolidation of the
gains of revolution requires that we leave no room for complacency and that
we emulate your illustrious life of dedication and commitment to
justice."
Didymus Mutasa, the Zanu-PF secretary for administration and a
minister of
state in Mugabe's office, described Mugabe as "a special gift
God gave to
Zimbabwe and Africa as a whole".
In a praise-singing
article in one of the government newspapers, the Mugabe
spin-doctor said the
octogenarian had proved to be "a great visionary and
revolutionary. He was
an object of cynosure held in both veneration and
reverence among other
African leaders and in some international circles.
"He has remained
resolutely steadfast and as constant as the Northern Star.
Under his astute
leadership Zimbabwe has enjoyed a flourishing democracy,
thriving on the
corner stone of a multiparty system, tolerance and
reconciliation around
which egalitarianism is built ...
"No amount of hate speech or the
smearing mudslinging can blinker and
distract him from championing causes
that add value to the world order."
While Mugabe is being applauded by
his supporters, nearly two million
Zimbabwean's are dependent on food aid to
survive.
IRIN News reported that about 1.6 million Zimbabweans will be
food-insecure
between January and March 2010, with about 1.9 million
receiving food aid.
The report, based on an update compiled by several UN
agencies, said at
least 35% of children in Zimbabwe are severely
malnourished.
The report noted that Zimbabwe's economic recovery was
sluggish and that the
provision of basic services is still problematic. The
amount of foreign
currency in circulation was also very limited.
http://www.businessday.co.za/
Published: 2010/03/01 06:32:16
AM
THE leadership of Zimbabwe's farm workers union
had gone into hiding after a
series of raids, arrests and threats against
them, lawyers said yesterday.
The raids followed a documentary which the
union had produced exposing the
violent abuse of workers by militia on
white- owned farms seized by
President Robert Mugabe's backers, lawyer Trust
Maanda said.
The documentary, titled The House of Justice, was released
last year. It is
a compilation of secretly recorded footage of attacks
during the takeovers
of the country's commercial farms since
2000.
Maanda confirmed that Gertrude Hambira, secretary- general of the
General
Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe, was in hiding
since
Wednesday. She had been interrogated that day for two hours at police
national headquarters by 17 senior officers of the Joint Operations Command
(JOC). The unit combines the country's military, police and intelligence
service and is known to direct the political strategy of Mugabe's Zanu
(PF).
Union officials said Hambira was told she would be jailed for the
documentary, which showed farm workers being murdered and tortured by
Mugabe's
militias.
The lawyers said the JOC's actions were
illegal.
A second raid was carried out on Hambira's office on Friday in
which two
officials were arrested, but released after a few hours. Two more
had been
ordered to hand themselves over to police for interrogation today,
union
officials in hiding said.
London-based Amnesty International
last week denounced the latest in a
series of Zimbabwean human rights
violations as the country's power-sharing
government - set up in February
last year by Mugabe and pro-democracy leader
Morgan Tsvangirai -
weakens.
Separately, Mugabe on Saturday defended new regulations to give
locals
majority shareholdings in big corporations, saying they were meant to
correct historical imbalances.
The law takes effect today and allows
45 days for companies valued at more
than 500000 to sell 51% stakes to
locals.
"Our indigenisation policy, like the land reform programme, is
meant to
correct historical imbalances in the ownership of our resources,"
Mugabe
told hundreds of supporters at his 86th birthday
celebrations.
"This policy is not meant to nationalise companies but to
broaden ownership
of our resources," he said during the lavish party in
Zimbabwe's second city
of Bulawayo.
It will affect the local
operations of firms such as Standard Chartered
Bank, Barclays and platinum
mining giant Zimplats, among others.
Sapa-AFP-DPA
Business leaders
fear it will result in a flight of capital and hamstring
Zimbabwe's efforts
to attract foreign investment, desperately needed to help
recovery from a
decade of economic free-fall that impoverished the nation.
Sapa-AFP-DPA
Under the unity government, Zimbabwe last year posted
4.9 percent economic
growth, the first time the economy grew since 1997. The
"indigenisation"
policy has been compared with the controversial land
seizure programme. The
land programme has been blamed for a slump in food
production in the former
regional breadbasket because the majority of
beneficiaries lacked the means
and skills to farm.
According to the
United Nations, 15% of Zimbabweans will need food
assistance this year.
Sapa-AFP Sapa-DPA
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
March
1, 2010
Jan Raath
A law to force white-owned companies to
surrender 51 per cent of their
shareholdings to black Zimbabweans comes into
effect today, amid panic in
the country's business sector and fears of a
catastrophic slide back into
economic chaos.
Six weeks from now all
companies with a relatively modest asset value of at
least US$500,000
(£325,000) will have to submit official forms detailing the
race of each of
their shareholders. If whites are in the majority they will
have to submit
their "indigenisation plans", which have to be carried out
within five
years.
At his lavish $300,000 celebrations for his 86th birthday in the
western
city of Bulawayo on Saturday, President Mugabe compared the new law
with his
"revolutionary land reforms" that set off the seizure of
white-owned farms
ten years ago.
He said that only "indigenous
people" could control the country's resources.
"We are saying no, no, no,
the land is ours, the gold is ours, the uranium
and the forests and the
wildlife is ours." Recently he declared that white
Zimbabweans were "not
indigenous, even though they were born here. They are
the offspring of
settlers."
Western diplomats said that the laws were Mr Mugabe's last
trick to persuade
people to vote for him in elections when the current
power-sharing
government comes to an end in about 2012.
Analysts said
that the announcement of the laws two weeks ago put an
immediate brake on
billions of dollars of investment plans, including a $500
million project
for the expansion of a platinum mine by the South
African-based company
Impala Platinum, the world's second-biggest producer
of the
metal.
"It is the stupidest law ever introduced by this government, and
there's a
lot of competition for that," said the economist John
Robertson.
"I started from scratch in 2003 after they grabbed my farm,"
said an enraged
50-year-old white transport operator. "I've set myself up
again in business,
and now they want to steal it from me again. They have no
shame."
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Lizwe Sebatha Monday 01 March
2010
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe will sell diamonds outside the Kimberley
Process (KP)
should the world diamond trade watchdog rule that Harare's
efforts to comply
with its standards are inadequate, Mines Minister Obert
Mpofu said at the
weekend.
"If the KP is unsatisfied with our efforts
and wants to be difficult saying
that we have failed to comply with their
requirements .. we will not lose
sleep but rather we will just pull put and
not lose anything," Mpofu said,
while addressing the Bulawayo Press Club
last Friday evening.
"The KP does not own the diamond trade markets.
Zimbabwe will pull out of
the KP and sell its diamonds to those markets," he
said.
Mpofu's comments echo threats by President Robert Mugabe about two
weeks ago
to withdraw from the KP process, suggesting growing frustration in
Harare
over demands by the diamond body that Zimbabwe cleans up mining of
diamonds
at its controversial Marange field or face a ban that would damage
the
southern African country's diamond industry.
The KP is a grouping
of diamond trading countries and civic society groups
set up to prevent
trade in conflict or blood diamonds.
The group has since last year been
under pressure to impose an international
ban on Zimbabwe diamonds after a
team of investigators it dispatched to
Marange unearthed rights abuses and
other irregularities at notorious
diamond field that is also known as
Chiadzwa.
Zimbabwe however escaped a KP ban last November but the global
body gave
Harare a June 2010 deadline to make reforms to comply with its
regulations.
Under a set of measures meant to bring Zimbabwe's
controversial diamond
industry in line with KP standards, the watchdog must
monitor production and
sales of diamonds from Marange.
But Harare and
the KP are yet to name a monitor for Marange, while human
rights groups
allege that state security agents continue to commit human
rights violations
and other crimes at the diamond field. - ZimOnline.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=27608
March 1, 2010
By Our
Correspondent
BULAWAYO - The Minister of Mines and Mining Development,
Obert Mpofu has
denied allegations of corruption involving diamonds saying
the claims were
coming from detractors bent on destroying his political
career.
Mpofu has been on many occasions been singled out as one of the
senior
government officials involved in the plunder of diamonds from
Chiadzwa in
Marange.
Early this month he was accompanied by police
officers to the Reserve Bank
to retrieve 29 kg of diamonds. This was carried
out in defiance of a Supreme
Court order in the dispute between the lawful
mining concession holders,
African Consolidated Resources (ACR) and the
government.
The order said the diamonds should be secured in the vaults
of the Reserve
Bank.
The diamonds have since
vanished.
However, responding to a barrage of questions from journalists
at the
Bulawayo Press Club on Friday, Mpofu said he had never touched a
diamond in
his life. He said senior members of his Zanu-PF party were
raising such
allegations to destroy his political career.
"I have
never touched a diamond in my life and all those people who are
accusing me
of being corrupt with Chiadzwa diamonds are some members of my
party who are
trying to destroy my political career," he said.
Mpofu claimed he was the
most popular government minister, saying
politicians who were making noise
about Chiadzwa diamonds were the looters
of the diamonds
themselves.
"I can tell you, I am the most popular minister in government
today; that is
why you journalists like writing about me," he said.
"Otherwise people who
are making too much noise about Chiadzwa are the same
people who benefited
from it; we know all this."
He also said he was
never summoned by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai over
Chiadzwa diamonds
saying he held meetings with the Prime Minister on weekly
basis.
The
minister accused South African mining giant company De Beers of having
looted Chiadzwa diamonds for 15 years without government's
knowledge.
The Chiadzwa fields used to be managed by De Beers, after
independence, De
Beers sold its franchise to ACR, a British company. Two
years ago the
government confiscated the fields and handed them to the
state-owned
Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.
"De Beers looted
our diamonds for 15 years and sending them to South Africa
without our
knowledge," said Mpofu. "They had even declared that area a
restricted area,
as if it was their land."
Turning to his background Mpofu boasted of
being the first, among current
senior Zanu-PF politicians in Matabeleland,
to have joined the liberation
struggle.
"Among all current Zanu-PF
leaders in Matabeleland I think I was the first
guy to join the liberation
struggle," he said.
"My rural home is Jambezi near Victoria Falls; so in
1966 I just crossed
into Zambia which is just 49
kilometres away
from home, and I joined the liberation struggle.
"I know senior politicians
in Matabeleland don't like me but I don't care
because povo (people) like
me; that's why they elected me."
Mpofu dismissed reports that he
practiced nepotism in the appointment of
most senior staff members in his
ministry. "I appoint these people according
to their qualifications," he
said. "I am not an idiot"
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Edith Kaseke Monday 01 March
2010
HARARE - Zimbabwe's foreign-owned companies woke up on 45
days notice today
to meet a government directive to draft plans on how they
will sell majority
stakes to blacks, leaving alarmed investors seriously
considering their
future and dampening the country's recovery
prospects.
Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister
Saviour
Kasukuwere last month published regulations forcing all businesses
owned by
foreigners to set out in the next 45 days how they propose to cede
51
percent of their holdings to locals.
Foreign-owned firms have five
years from today to offload at least 51
percent stake to local Zimbabweans
under the controversial regulations.
The fragile coalition of President
Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai is deeply divided on the
issue and company executives want the
government to shelve the law, at least
until the country starts attracting
big investment.
"There is
uncertainty within the business sector and we are engaging
government on
this, to say why don't we set these (regulations) aside for
now and focus on
attracting investment," Kumbirai Katsande, who heads the
Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries said.
The regulations came after the signing into law
of the Indigenisation and
Empowerment Act by Mugabe on the eve of the March
2008 general elections.
Tsvangirai has said the regulations were null and
void because they were not
referred to him or the Cabinet, but Kasukuwere
argued that he consulted
widely and while debate could continue on the
issue, the law stood.
Land invasions
Investors were further
alarmed on Friday when Kasukuwere said the government
planned to amend or
repeal 13 other laws he said hindered the empowerment
drive and threatened
to impose huge fines on firms that failed to surrender
majority shares to
locals.
This was after the ZANU-PF politician had last week briefed his
party's
politburo, which adopted the regulations and analysts said this
showed the
party's resolve to push ahead with the controversial
law.
"Certainly it will not be business as usual from Monday and if there
is
anyone who doubts ZANU-PF's resolve, they only need to look at the land
invasions, which caught everyone by surprise. That is the extent to which
they will go," John Robertson, a consultant economist told
ZimOnline.
"For ZANU-PF, this is all about politics and you can see that
they already
are looking at the next elections. But this is not empowerment,
they want to
give these companies to their cronies," said
Robertson.
Mugabe's supporters, led by war veterans and youth militia,
shocked the
world in 2000 when they invaded white-owned commercial farms, in
a spree
that left dozens of farmers dead and started the country's isolation
by the
West.
The free-for-all farm take-overs disrupted commercial
agriculture, which is
yet to recover a decade later, and analysts fear that
this could be repeated
in the business sector if not properly
implemented.
Companies approached
Unconfirmed reports say some
senior government officials from Mugabe's
ZANU-PF have approached some
companies, including banks, with offers to
acquire 51 percent of their
shares.
Although companies have up to five years to implement their
empowerment
plans, their directors face up to five years in jail if they
fail to furnish
Kasukuwere with their empowerment proposals by mid next
month.
Analysts see foreign companies coming under pressure ahead of
elections,
which look set to be held in 2013, when the current term of
parliament ends,
analysts said.
At risk are foreign-owned banks and
mines, which have the largest
investments in Zimbabwe and which Mugabe has
accused in the past of working
with his Western enemies to remove him from
power.
Financial institutions like British-based Standard Chartered Plc
and
Barclays Plc and mining houses Anglo Platinum Limited (Angloplat),
Impala
Platinum Holdings (Implats) and Rio Tinto all have operations in
Zimbabwe
and are easy targets in the empowerment drive.
Rio Tinto is
withholding $200 million to expand its 78 percent controlled
Murowa diamond
mine, Angloplat says it is monitoring developments before
committing on more
investment at its Unki mine and Implats says it has an
agreement with the
government that protects the take over of its Zimplats
unit.
Company
closures
Zimbabweans have for years failed to buy a 15 percent stake in
Zimplats.
"I don't see these foreign-owned companies ceding control to
locals, it does
not make business sense. Will Barclays Plc allow their bank
to remain in
operation when they have 49 percent shares? I don't think so,"
a European
Union diplomat said.
"But I think the most important
question is, 'do Zimbabweans have the
resources to buy themselves into these
businesses?' Certainly no," the
diplomat, who refused to be named
said.
Analysts said foreign-owned businesses could opt to shut down if
they came
under pressure to part with their shares, but miners like Implats
could be
exposed with their future growth pinned on its Zimbabwe
operations.
The world's second largest platinum producer is banking on
the country's
rich platinum reserves along the mineral-rich Great Dyke for
its expansion
in future. - ZimOnline.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent Monday 01 March
2010
HARARE - A measles outbreak has killed 110 people in Zimbabwe
out of 14 882
cases recorded over the past five months, according to a joint
government
and World Health Organisation (WHO) report.
"1482
suspected cases and 110 deaths, of which 107 were community deaths
were
reported since the start of the outbreak in September 200," said the
weekly
Epidemiological Bulletin released by the WHO and Zimbabwe's Health
Ministry
at the weekend.
The report also said 77 cases of cholera and one death
from the disease were
recorded in seven of the country's 62
districts.
The cholera statistics show a vast improvement from the same
time last year
when the disease devastated Zimbabwe but the figures are
still a sign that
the country's health and humanitarian situation remains
fragile and in need
of constant monitoring and support.
Zimbabwe's
health delivery system, like most social services in the country,
has shown
signs of recovery since formation of a coalition government last
year by
President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
But public
hospitals remain without adequate equipment or drugs and
overburdened by a
burgeoning HIV/AIDS caseload, while nurses and doctors
have threatened to go
on strike to press the coalition government to hike
salaries.
Non-health government workers have been on strike since
three weeks ago to
demand improved salaries but the government - which says
it is already using
65 percent of the US100 million it earns per month on
salaries - has said it
is unable to increase remuneration by any substantial
amount. - ZimOnline.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=27597
March 1, 2010
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has thanked the country's
partisan security
forces and his supporters for protecting him against what
he described as
his enemies during his three decades of controversial
rule.
The veteran leader, who was addressing party delegates to a party
organised
in honour of his 86th birthday in Bulawayo Saturday, said he would
not have
reached the advanced age if it were not for their
protection.
"Along the way there were those who wanted my life; there
were those who
threw many bombs that missed me," Mugabe said.
"They
all missed me and in part you may say it was luck and providence. But
to a
very great extent, it was also that I had vigilant people around me,
security forces around me, Chimurenga eyes around me and I want to express
my gratitude to them all."
Mugabe has never experienced any direct
assassination attempt but has
antagonised his opponents whom he has accused
of trying to assassinate him.
His rule has come under challenge from
former opponents, former Zanu Ndonga
leader Ndabaningi Sithole and former PF
Zapu leader Joshua Nkomo.
Lately, Mugabe got the most formidable
challenge to his rule from MDC
President Morgan Tsvangirai, now Prime
Minister.
All the three opposition leaders and some of their officials
have faced
treason charges from Mugabe's government.
For their first
time in his rule, Mugabe lost an election to an opponent,
Tsvangirai in the
March 2008 elections.
But he maintained his stranglehold on power after
the country's security
forces and his militant supporters went into a two
month orgy of political
violence by targeting Tsvangirai's
supporters.
The country's service chiefs have vowed they will never
recognise an MDC
rule.
The MDC says over 200 of its supporters died
as a result of the state
sponsored violence while thousands were hounded out
of their homes by
marauding death squads.
In his address on Saturday,
Mugabe defended Zimbabwe's controversial
indigenisation law which compels
foreign firms to cede at least 51 percent
shareholding to
locals.
Tsvangirai's mainstream MDC says the law would be harmful to the
inclusive
government's current attempts to restore economic recovery to the
country.
Zimbabwe is keen to attract foreign direct investment in order
toaugment its
ongoing resuscitation of an economy which has endured a decade
of continuous
collapse under Mugabe's populist policies.
"This policy
is not meant straightforwardly to nationalise companies but to
broaden the
ownership of the economy in a manner which recognises the
sovereign right of
the people of Zimbabwe," Mugabe said.
"We will need partners from
outside, partners of our own choice not partners
who impose them. Those who
would want to impose partners would be
aggressors. They are unwanted we
would repulse them."
Mugabe maintained the controversial Border Gezi
Youth training programme was
important to the country's youths.
He
said this was acknowledged by the Global Political Agreement his party
signed with its former rivals.
He said national youth training will
help the youth acquire a "national
ideology and national consciousness"
rooted in the country's history.
"Government shall this year be
finalising the national youth service
programme to widen its reach to youths
across the country in all the
provinces and create a vanguard for national
development," he said.
"The national youth service programme must
inculcate the values of
patriotism, discipline, tolerance, non violence,
openness, democracy,
equality, justice, nationalism and respect.
"All
youths regardless of race, ethnicity, gender religion or political
affiliation will be eligible to participate in the programme."
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=27604
March 1, 2010
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has called on youths to
demand for the
lifting of Western imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe which he
termed evil and an
impediment to Zimbabwe's development.
He accused
Western countries of relentless attempts to gain control of the
country's
rich natural resources.
"I would want to urge all the youth movement
across the country and perhaps
even across Africa to now raise their voices
louder than before in demanding
that imperialists countries of Europe and
America leave us alone and drop
those evil sanctions that they have imposed
on us," he said.
Mugabe (86) was addressing Zanu-PF loyalists and youths
who attended his
belated birthday celebrations in Bulawayo,
Saturday.
Dubbed the 21st February Movement celebrations, Mugabe's
controversial
birthday bashes have been held for the past 24 years and are
rotated across
all the country's provinces.
"Those sanctions are
impeding our development," Mugabe said.
"They are impeding the
development of our youths, our children and therefore
are affecting the
future of our children, the future of our country.
"We want them dropped,
not today but yesterday. So let it be a campaign, a
vigorous campaign across
the country across Africa against Europe and
America."
Mugabe said
his country has been unfairly victimised by the rich countries.
His party
says Zimbabwe is being punished for its controversial land reform
programme
in the past 10 years in which over 4000 white Zimbabweans, who are
descendants Europe, had their land repossessed for redistribution to the
black majority.
"Why of all countries in the world, of all countries
in Africa should
Zimbabwe be burden with sanctions?" Mugabe
charged.
"What sin is it that Zimbabwe has done or committed? And those
who have
imposed those sanctions, can they tell us that they are cleaner
than
Zimbabwe, that they are politically better than Zimbabwe?
"Yet
it's only yesterday they were here as evil colonisers as settler
colonialists in the country."
Youths from his party staged a street
demonstration on Wednesday last week
to demand the lifting of
sanctions.
The march followed a decision by the European Union recently
to extend by a
year a travel ban and asset freeze on the veteran leader and
196 other
individuals, mainly members of his Zanu PF party, who are accused
of human
rights violations.
The sanctions also target 31 companies,
including banks, said to have
shareholding by people with links to
Zanu-PF.
Mugabe said Zimbabwe wouldl fight to repel any foreign
interference.
"They want our gold,"said Mugabe; "they want our platinum;
they want our
diamonds; they want our uranium, the want our land and we are
saying 'no,
no.'
"No the land is ours; no the platinum is ours; no
the gold is ours; the
diamonds are ours; the uranium is ours; the forests
and the wildlife are
ours. Zimbabwe is ours.
"You will not take it.
We will fight for it. We fought for it yesterday. We
will fight for it today
and tomorrow."
The Western countries have maintained the embargo on
citing the continued
violation of and in some cases non compliance to the
Global Political
Agreement he signed with his former rivals in the MDC in
September 2008.
Zimbabwe's unity pact led to the formation of the unity
government in
February last year.
The protesters on Wednesday gave
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai a period
of one month to get the sanctions
removed or face unspecified action.
The mainstream MDC led by Prime
Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says it is the
responsibility of all the parties
in the unity government to work towards
the lifting of sanctions through
ensuring full compliance with the unity
pact.
Zanu-PF is adamant it
will make no further concessions to MDC as it has
already fulfilled its
obligations.
South African President Jacob Zuma has pledged to confront
Britain on the
need to scrap the sanctions against his neighbour.
He
says the sanctions are fanning tensions within the country shaky unity
government.
PAUL MITCHELL
March 1, 2010 -
9:19AM
AFP
Graeme Cremer captured three wickets for 11 runs as
Zimbabwe's spinners
bowled the visitors to a stunning, 26-run victory over
West Indies in a
Twenty20 International on Sunday.
Zimbabwe exploited
West Indies' susceptibility to spin, as the home team,
chasing a modest 106
for victory, was restricted to 79 for seven from their
allocation of 20
overs to hand the visitors a win in the only T20I between
the two sides in
this series.
The Zimbabwe spinners shared all seven wickets with
off-spinner Greg Lamb
taking two for 14 from his four overs, while their
captain Prosper Utseya
and left-arm spinner Ray Price took one scalp
apiece.
It was a complete reversal of fortunes after Zimbabwe's batting
at Queen's
Park Oval was demolished by Darren Sammy and Sulieman
Benn.
Choosing to bat, the visitors were dismissed for 105 in 19.5 overs,
as Sammy
collected 5-26 from 3.5 overs to trump Benn's 4-6 from four overs
for the
third-best figures in a T20I.
Only Umar Gul of Pakistan with
5-6 from three overs against New Zealand in a
Twenty20 World Cup match last
year at the Oval, and Nehemiah Odhiambo with
5-20 from four overs for Kenya
against Scotland earlier this year in Nairobi
now have better figures in a
T20I than Sammy.
Hamilton Masakadza hit the top score of 44 from 67 balls
for the
Zimbabweans, and Elton Chigumbura led a late charge with 34 from 19
balls to
bring some respectability to the visitors' total. No other batsman
passed
20.
Utseya and Price opened the bowling, and made life
difficult for West
Indies' openers Adrian Barath and Shivnarine
Chanderpaul.
But Cremer swung the match decisively, when he bowled Kieron
Pollard for
one, and trapped Darren Bravo lbw for a first-ball duck in the
ninth over to
leave West Indies 4-32.
Cremer turned villain, when he
dropped Chanderpaul, on 16, at wide long-on
off Lamb, but his miss was not
costly.
Lamb gained a palpable lbw decision over Chanderpaul in the 12th
over to
leave West Indies 5-39, and though Denesh Ramdin, leading the home
team in
the absence of resting talisman Chris Gayle, tried to launch a late
charge,
the result was never in any doubt.
Earlier, Zimbabwe suffered
a catastrophic start, when they slumped to 4-11
in the fifth over, after
Benn, opening the bowling, removed Vusimuzi
Sibanda, Tatenda Taibu, Stuart
Matsikenyeri, and Brendan Taylor all for
ducks in his spell.
Zimbabwe
never fully recovered, although Masakadza and Lamb added 40 for the
fourth
wicket before Sammy came into the attack and ran through the bottom
half of
the visitors' batting.
This was the first T20I between the two sides
ever.
The two sides now play five One-day Internationals - the first is
next
Thursday.
http://www.eturbonews.com
Photo by Gill Staden,
eTN
By Gill Staden, eTN | Feb 28, 2010
The governments of
Zambia and Zimbabwe are in a mad scramble to complete a
document to be given
to UNESCO on the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site.
The report was first
requested by UNESCO in 2002 and then again in 2006.
Various deadlines have
been passed and extensions given. The latest deadline
of February 1, 2010
has again passed, and UNESCO has received no document.
In 2007, the joint
Zambia/Zimbabwe team requested for financial assistance
in the amount of
US$30,000 to help them to undertake the report. UNESCO gave
them this
assistance but still has no report.
The private sectors on both sides of
the border are very alarmed at their
governments' inability to produce this
document. Not only is the report
important for the continued luxury of
having the Victoria Falls as a World
Heritage Site, but it is also important
in its content.
UNESCO required the governments to form a Joint
Management Team and an
Integrated Management Plan for the site. It also
requested that certain
issues were addressed. The main issue in 2006 was
Zambia's worrying
commitment to further development within the site;
development which UNESCO
felt compromised its beauty and integrity. Other
concerns were on invasive
species such as lantana and water hyacinth;
pollution in the river; the
water extraction by Zambia for hydro-electricity
generation; and the
continued licensing of helicopters, microlights, and
other tourism services.
To be fair to both governments, some measures
have been undertaken to
protect the World Heritage Site. A balloon
operation, which started its life
in Zimbabwe and then moved over to Zambia,
was discontinued. The lantana on
the Zambian side is being eradicated with
private sector assistance; in the
meantime, though, the lantana has become a
forest on the Zimbabwe side.
Again, on the Zambian side, the water hyacinth
problem is being tackled. The
development of a hotel on the Zambian side was
stopped because of concerns
from the private sector but still rumbles on in
the background.
The Victoria Falls World Heritage Site was proclaimed in
1989. It covers the
Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia and the Victoria
Falls National Park
in Zimbabwe. A buffer zone surrounds the site, which
extends to a 30
kilometer radius around the Victoria Falls. When both
governments signed the
agreement with UNESCO in 1989, they committed
themselves to work together
for the protection of the Victoria Falls and its
surrounding area. It seems
that their half-hearted attempts at protection
will avail them nothing if
they cannot produce one report and work
together.
There is a small window for Zambia and Zimbabwe to submit the
report before
the 2010 session of the World Heritage Committee; all
documents have to
reach UNESCO by March 15. The scramble to complete the
document is to try to
meet that date. In the meantime, a large delegation
from Zambia's Ministry
of Tourism starts a three-week tour of Europe,
visiting London, Paris,
Berlin, and Madrid, to promote tourism. As Victoria
Falls is Zambia's main
tourist attraction, one can only wonder how this team
will explain to the
world how Zambia's main tourist attraction has been
downgraded, while they
were on a tour to promote it.
A Zimbabwean deminer looks for devices near Surf Bay. The mines had been laid there to deter a Normandy-style landing