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19 March 2001

A sinister fairy tale?

"SINISTER" is strong language for a diplomat, but that's how a British Foreign Office official described a plan to solve Zimbabwe's land invasion crisis. Allegedly the brain child of businessman John Bredenkamp - and allegedly backed by the Americans - the plan would see most farmers lose about one third of their land to the Zimbabwean government, and no doubt to the invaders. Mr Nick Swanepoel, a former CFU president, is also agitating for the plan. It is alleged that Mr Bredenkamp paid for advertisements taken out in two Zimbabwean dailies last week, under the auspices of the State controlled National Economic Consultative Forum's Land Task Force. The advertisements were "signed" by Mr Swanepoel, though the CFU denies prior knowledge of the NECF's decision to advertise, despite the fact that the union is officially a part of the Land Task Force.

But American backing is highly improbable (and denied), even with a new and naïve administration. The US government, and especially a new US government, is unlikely to invite international opprobrium by siding with Mr Mugabe's régime in Zimbabwe. France and Belgium aside, Zimbabwe has no credible friends, so the last thing Mr Bush wants to do is break ranks by embracing someone with increasingly fascistic tendencies.

That's why the same British diplomat who described the alleged plan as sinister also said it seemed "fanciful" - which makes it sound like a fairy tale.

That might leave Messrs Swanepoel and Bredenkamp's little plan up the proverbial creek, if they are indeed its architects. And that's also why the alleged American backing has to be alleged. It's implausible that a signatory to the 1998 donors' conference on land would suddenly turn a blind eye to lawlessness, let alone implement an absurd new resettlement plan that sees commercial agriculture, according to British reports, providing all the inputs, from land preparation to seed, for resettled farmers.

But Mr Bredenkamp has his followers. He also has, one hears alleged, closer links to ZANU-PF than most businessmen. That's enough to make most farmers sceptical - and it's certainly enough to make the rest of Zimbabwe squeal with indignation - because apart from a shrinking clique within the ruling party, and another shrinking clique within the war veterans' organisation, Zimbabweans want a return to the rule of law before resettlement is discussed.

The truth of the matter is hidden behind hysteria. Threatening death and destruction if the union's presidential trio - and its director - aren't replaced with "acceptable" faces, agriculture will be driven into the ground by the State, say those opposed to the union's leaders. People will die in their droves, claim the appeasers. And the creaky old State propaganda machine, under the laughable leadership of Professor Jonathan Moyo, tells a disbelieving nation that CFU intransigence is to blame for the nation's woes.

But that's simply not true. In fact, Mr Bredenkamp's whole initiative, if the British Press is to be believed, is based on "fanciful" claims and his relationship with the ruling party and Zimbabwe's ageing president. Whether that makes it self-serving or not is open to conjecture. It certainly makes it unpalatable to most farmers - and to the overwhelming majority of Zimbabweans who don't want to see organised agriculture sell the country down the river.

Still, the pro-appeasement lobby plays into the hands of a panic-stricken public. Playing on stereotypes that went out the window in the 1950s, one lobbyist exonerated Mr Mugabe by claiming, fatuously, that the "African mentality" means that a chief can do as he chooses, from rape to murder - and that Mr Mugabe, as the ultimate "chief", is unassailable. Well, Zimbabwean farmers are African too, but this sort of inaccurate and racist labelling only serves to make farmers appear anachronistic and unworthy. And for the record, no Shona chief, any more than any Celtic one, has been able to rape and murder his own people at will.

But that's a digression. The point is that farmers, unlike government, enjoy the moral high ground - at least on the issue of lawlessness. Yes, errors have been made in the past, but few, if any, by the present farming leadership.

ZANU-PF is as anxious as the farming community to end the crisis. The party realises that it has crippled itself and the country. It knows, because its shrieking response to bad publicity provides proof, that Zimbabwe has joined the league of pariah nations.

So now it wants a face-saving escape mechanism to extricate itself from this mess - and that's where Mr Bredenkamp's alleged proposal is supposed come in.

There is no merit in saving face this late in the day. There is a moral way to end the crisis and an immoral way to end it - and farmers will benefit in the long term by taking the moral route.

But the immediate future will be difficult. ZANU-PF will probably fulminate and unleash violence if the current leadership is given a mandate - and it may well decide to ban or "de-list" the CFU.

So… farmers face an agonising decision. But in the long term, Zimbabweans will reward those who stand tall in the face of tyranny and terror - and for farmers seeking long term tenure and security, appeasement will prove a very sad disappointment. Nor should it be forgotten that farmers are not, very definitely not, alone anymore. The country's trade union movement has given government a large and unpalatable raspberry, while the judiciary is bracing itself for an onslaught. The independent Press has refused to be kowtowed while people from Chitungwiza to Chiredzi are dealing with beatings that the ruling party admits to doling out. Besides, the party, like the government, is broke and cannot afford to sustain its terror tactics forever.

Put bluntly, it's a matter of trust. Leaders of organised agriculture; well, those in office, have done little or nothing unworthy of trust over the last 12 months. They may have wavered (and who wouldn't have?) but they've certainly never shown the sort of craven cowardice their commercial counterparts have shown. The same can't be said of the ruling party - and whether it can be said of Mr John Bredenkamp is for farmers to decide. Certainly the British seem to have made up their minds. They've said his plan would be "sinister" - but doubt it even exists.

 


Brian Latham
Editor- The Farmer

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Donors dump deal
Summer wheat in offing
AIDS council dissolution political
War vets derail ploughing matches
Government takes over CSC's debt


Donors dump deal

THERE will be no support for any land deal in Zimbabwe other than the UNDP - Mark Malloch Brown deal, The Farmer can reveal. Diplomats said they would not consider funding the sort of deal allegedly being proposed by Mr John Bredenkamp and Mr Nick Swanepoel - a deal the British have described as "sinister and fanciful". Any public relations exercise to promote an alternative deal would be stillborn, diplomats suggested, because donors refuse to consider the land problem in isolation. The general break down in the rule of law, threats to the judiciary, attempts to stifle the independent Press and violence in townships, on farms and in rural areas would have to be addressed simultaneously.

But even then, said diplomats, it would be the UNDP's plan or nothing. Alternative plans submitted by splinter groups would never be considered. Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) last week expressed surprise at advertisements carried in two national dailies calling for a "new team" to facilitate a negotiated settlement to the land crisis. The advertisements, carried under the auspices of the State established National Economic Consultative Forum's Land Task Force and signed by Mr Nick Swanepoel as co-chairman, are alleged to have been paid for by Mr John Bredenkamp, a wealthy Zimbabwean businessman said to have close links to President Mugabe's ZANU-PF.

A senior CFU insider said that Bredenkamp visited the union's president, Mr Tim Henwood, on Wednesday last week. It was at this meeting that Bredenkamp told Henwood about the advertisements which were to be placed in the national Press.

But the CFU, an active member of the NECF's Land Task Force, was unaware that the advertisements had ever been discussed. "They came as a complete surprise," said one senior staffer. "We would have known because we have people on that committee."

Still, despite the NECF advert, which calls for a massive PR effort to raise funds in the UK and USA to compensate farmers for their land, both governments were emphatic no money would be forthcoming for the initiative. "The British government is committed to land reform,' said Mr Richard Lindsay at the British High Commission in Harare, "but the only story we're prepared to discuss is the Malloch Brown initiative."

And Heather Lippitt at the American Embassy had the same to say. "We've not been involved in this initiative in any way," she told The Farmer. "Rumours suggesting the US government has supported the initiative are false. The only initiative the US government will discuss is the Malloch Brown one, and we would not be involved in any secret deal."

Lindsay went on to say, "The UNDP is the only show in town," adding that there could be no support if there was no rule of law across the board.

Throughout Zimbabwe's donor and diplomatic community last week there was consensus that the so-called Bredenkamp-Swanepoel initiative would gain no support. Diplomats regretted an initiative that dealt with agriculture in isolation, ignoring the threat to the judiciary, the Press and bypassing violence in communal and high density areas. They also stressed that only the UNDP initiative, with its basis in the 1998 donors' agreement, would be discussed - now or in the future.

But even Zimbabwe's own agriculture minister, Dr Joseph Made has dismissed the plan. He is quoted by the State-controlled Herald as saying it is a plan to "hoodwink the government."

And sources within the government controlled Zimbabwe Newspapers Group say that Professor Jonathan Moyo has stepped up his campaign to discredit the CFU - and its leadership. Reporters were urged to obtain a copy of a Probe Market report commissioned by the CFU to assess public attitudes to the union. The report is confidential and the private property of the farmers' union, said one staff member.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a member of the union's council claimed that this was not the first time Mr Swanepoel had made a bid to change the leadership of the CFU. At last year's September annual congress, Mr Swanepoel is alleged to have supported a bid by Mr Johnnie Heyns to oust Mr William Hughes, Vice President for Regions. Mr Heyns eventually withdrew his bid after an "intense" council meeting. Heyns and Swanepoel, and Mr Peter Henderson, had earlier been appointed to a task force to negotiate with Dr "Hitler" Hunzvi and so-called war veterans invading the country's farms. The negotiations proved fruitless.

What a banker

The current bid to change the leadership began about six weeks ago, said one union insider, alleging that members of the now disbanded Task Force began lobbying farmers and leaders of commerce and industry for support. Mr Greg Brackenridge, chairman of Zimbabwe's bankers' association is also said to have lobbied for new leadership and a new approach.

At the same time, rumours of a planned "night of the long knives" began to circulate in farming circles. It was alleged that if CFU members did not change their leaders - and dismiss their director, Mr David Hasluck - between 300 and 600 farmers would be murdered by the State's shadowy Central Intelligence Organisation and self-styled war veterans.

But if farmers did change their leaders, it was rumoured, the police would begin to remove invaders from the country's farms. It was also rumoured that the Americans were amenable to the initiative and would help pay compensation for land lost to the scheme - an accusation the Americans deny hotly.

Speaking at a farmers' meeting in the Mashonaland West district of Trelawney recently, the CFU's president, Mr Tim Henwood, would not be drawn into debate about the sources of the rumours. But he did say that he believed those who had, understandably, been drawn into believing them were "probably embarrassed" now that they understood the true position. Mr Henwood told farmers at the meeting that Mr Swanepoel had approached the union's trustees who had been alarmed by his message. The trustees in turn asked Mr Henwood if he would allow Messrs Swanepoel and Brackenridge to address council. It was then that the so-called "splinter group" wanting a change of leadership suggested that progress would not be made without Henwood's resignation. After heated debate it was decided that no decision could be made undemocratically because only the membership could vote on a change of leadership.

It was decided that a special congress of the CFU, set for this week, would be called. Farmers will meet to decide on their leadership - and on the merits of the Bredenkamp - Swanepoel initiative. Most farmers said they would give the existing Henwood-led leadership a mandate to run its normal course of office, which ends in August this year. "We're damned if we do and damned if we don't," said one farmer, "so we have to do what's morally right." Another farmer asked, "If the judiciary, the Press, the trade unions and the people in the townships have refused to buckle to ZANU-PF's violent tactics, how can we?


Summer wheat in offing

THE introduction of wheat seed varieties that are suitable to summer conditions is expected to attract more small scale and communal farmers to grow the crop.

The news of summer wheat was received with great interest among farmers and guests at the Seed Co field day held at its Rattray Arnold Research Station.

The growing, hitherto, of winter wheat, has largely been a preserve of large-scale commercial farmers who could afford to put up irrigation equipment and the complex management practices required for the crop. But with the introduction of the two new summer wheat crop varieties, Sahai and W8/2000, by the breeding company, those who could not afford to grow the crop on small-scale basis without irrigation can now do so.

The new varieties, which are favourable to summer conditions, could be grown without the use of electricity to drive irrigation pumps. Escalating electricity power costs are believed to be threatening to push many wheat farmers out of business.

According to Seed co wheat breeder, Mr Ephraim Havazvidi, the communal farmers, could now grow wheat for subsistence purposes and because the crop is rich in protein, it is seen as a very important part of their diet especially in view of the escalating costs of wheat products such as bread.

Mr Havazvidi said the new wheat seed varieties would be introduced on the market next summer. He said the W8/2000 could be best planted after early-reaped crops such as tobacco under a commercial set up. He said the variety was very stable in terms of falling numbers and that it was resistant to powdery mildew and other diseases.


AIDS council dissolution political

THE dissolution this week of the National AIDS Council board responsible for the administration of the AIDS levy has been described as a political decision aimed at getting rid of those of its members perceived to be supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The council, which administers millions of dollars of taxpayers' money collected as AIDS Levy, was suddenly dissolved by the Minister of Health and Child Welfare, Dr Timothy Stamps, under unclear circumstances. Dr Stamps claimed in parliament that the council was not properly constituted.

One of the members of the dissolved council and Commercial Farmers' Union AIDS project manager, Mrs Kerry Kay, confirmed that no clear reasons had been given for the decision.

She did not agree with Dr Stamp's assertion that the board was not properly constituted. "The reason being given is that it was not properly constituted is not correct. The board is correctly constituted. I am bitterly disappointed because as board members' ours was voluntary commitment."

She insisted the board had been handling large amounts of taxpayers' money in a transparent and accountable manner.

Mrs Kay hoped she would be reappointed once the new board was constituted. She has been linked to the AIDS awareness campaign for the past 10 years and represented the agriculture sector on the National AIDS Council board.


War vets derail ploughing matches

ZIMBABWE's National Ploughing Association, responsible for organising ploughing competitions to promote good land tillage, says it has been forced to scale down on ploughing competitions to prepare for the world-ploughing contest scheduled for September in Denmark.

The association said in a statement it had been forced to call off all matches prior to the normal ploughing match season and had to scale down on local competitions because of continued harassment and intimidation by so called war veterans on the farms.

Like many other associations, said the statement, 'The National Ploughing Association has not escaped the diabolical harassment and intimidation that has accompanied the farm invasions and squatting which started a year ago".

What has irked the ploughmen most is that some of the land invaders were only too eager to take over plots already ploughed and marked out disregarding the purpose for which the land was being prepared.

According to the NPAZ statement, failure to send a team to the world contest, traditionally selected from winners in local contests from the previous year, will be the fourth time this has happened since 1963. Other times were when, for political reasons, members were not allowed to plough in Yugoslavia (1969) Finland (1974) Sweden (1976) and the Netherlands in 1977.

Meanwhile, a recent meeting of the NPAZ executive resolved to continue promoting good land tillage through ploughing matches in various districts." It is the feeling that we must carry on at all costs. The benefits far outweigh the disadvantages when it comes to good land tillage," the association said in its statement.

Dates have been set, with the last match, which will consist of 12 ploughmen from previous matches, competing for the top four places, two of whom will plough in Denmark later this year, and the other two in Switzerland in 2002.

According to the NPAZ, a recent innovation to the World Ploughing Contest is the introduction of the reversible plough. By 2005, at least one competitor from each competing country will have to use this plough. In most countries the reversible plough is replacing the conventional (one-way) plough. The reversible ploughman has to set at least four mould boards, coulters and skimmers; two in each direction with accuracy to ensure all four slices are alike.

Although the reversible plough lays all the slices in the same direction, there has to be an opening split and start, a finish and ins and outs, but no crown or finishing furrow as with the conventional round-and-round ploughing in lands. "These new techniques have to be mastered. Consequently, the educative role of ploughing competitions challenges reversibles to maintain the highest standard of craftsmanship with the oldest and most everlasting tool of agriculture," said the NPAZ statement

To this end, four Zimbabwean ploughmen have imported from Norway new "state of the art" reversible ploughs and these will be on display at forthcoming matches on the following dates.

Selous on the 31st March on Pilmuir Farm.

Chinhoyi on the 7th April on Mtunzi Farm.

Wedza on the 5th May on Corby Farm.

Wenimbi on the 12th May on Irene Farm.

Should any areas wish to try holding a match, they should contact the NPAZ chairman, Mr Alistair Davies. He is in a position to provide all the relevant information.


Government takes over CSC's debt

THE government has taken over the Cold Storage Company's (CSC) debt of over $5 billion as the parastatal gears itself for privatisation.

The CSC has been reeling under mounting debt plunging it into the economic quagmire that most of the other State run companies find themselves in. The debt, company officials said was affecting efficiency resulting its failure to operate viably.

Speaking at the presentation of the CSC cattle producer of the year award, the CSC executive chairman, Mr William Mudekunye, said CSC was constrained by past deficits, which made it difficult to raise enough working capital to operate effectively.

"I am pleased that government has officially taken over the CSC debt with effect from 31 January 2001. This is a welcome move, as it will now enable the company to operate viably.

Meanwhile Mr Alan York of ER York and Company from the Chinhoyi region was named the CSC Commercial Producer for 2000 . He would be presented with two air tickets to the International Cattle exposition. The runner up was Mr Tony Lubber of Milverton Estates. Mr Lubber has previously been the producer of the year for three years in a row before being beaten by Mr York. The CSC Communal Producer for 2000 is Mr Mafiosi Cheda of Matebeleland South province. He was presented with three heifers and $6000.

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Army intervenes to rein - in errant war veterans

Brian Hungwe
THE army has moved to exercise greater control over war veterans in the wake of international concerns about growing lawlessness in Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Independent has established.

At a meeting two weeks ago in Harare ahead of a Zanu PF provincial election to be held this weekend in which war veterans are poised to take key positions in the running of the party in the capital, Zimbabwe Defence Forces supremo General Vitalis Zvinavashe read the riot act to the ex-combatants who have been implicated in the killing of farmers, theft, and closure of local government offices.

There are concerns in government circles that an undisciplined war veterans association leading the Zanu PF province in Harare would be a liability ahead of the presi- dential poll next year.

Zvinavashe warned the war veterans against indiscipline at a hastily organised meeting at the army’s Staff College at KGVI barracks on March 8. The ZDF this week confirmed that the meeting took place.

It came after allegations that army officers, claiming to be war veterans, were engaging in unlawful practices including the beating of civilians in Harare’s high-density suburbs. That was deemed undesirable in the countdown to the crucial presidential poll.

The Zimbabwe Defence Forces Service Commission, acting on the orders of the commander-in-chief, President Mugabe, transferred the war veterans’ department from the Office of the President to the Ministry of Defence late last year.

Zvinavashe was particularly irked, it is said, with the war veterans’ closure of public institutions such as local government offices and seizure of property belonging to people accused of being MDC supporters including farmers.

Sources within the army said Zvinavashe, a strict disciplinarian, wanted to spruce up the waning image of the defence forces and at the same time instill discipline in the war veterans.

The veterans’ national vice-chairman Patrick Nyaruwata told the Independent he was not prepared to comment on the deliberations of their meeting with the ZDF commander.

“Details of that meeting will not be released to the press until further notice,” he said.

Defence forces spokesperson Lt Colonel Mbonisi Gatsheni confirmed that the meeting took place but would not give details about the deliberations.
“The meeting was convened to inform the war veterans on the modalities for the smooth assimilation of the war veterans into the Zimbabwe Defence Forces as reserves,

the administration of the War Veterans Act and the required support for the welfare of the war veterans and their dependants,” Gatsheni said.
The Independent understands the meeting agreed that the administration of the affairs of the war veterans’ projects would now be monitored and audited by the army with the association’s chairman Chenjerai Hunzvi reporting on the administrative affairs of the veterans’ companies to the army.

The move is understood to have annoyed Hunzvi who wanted to keep the administration of the war veterans under his ambit.

This stemmed, army officers said, from persistent reports presented to Mugabe that war veterans could have been prejudiced of over $50 million from Zexcom projects and that there was no proper accountability or administration of its financial affairs.

Mugabe, sources said, instructed Zvinavashe to bring the situation under control.

“It is all about instilling political and financial discipline into the war veterans where it would appear there was no accountability of their projects owing to the continued infighting,” a government source said.

It was agreed during the deliberations, the source said, that the background of each war veteran, the battles he or she fought during the liberation struggle, be compiled and recorded for posterity, a development that war veterans said would disadvantage Hunzvi who they claim was never at the front.

The meeting between the veterans and the defence forces commander was attended by army commander Lt General Constantine Chiwenga, airforce commander Pe-rence Shiri and other senior officers.

The war veterans said that provincial chairpersons and the national executive attended the meeting.

The meeting followed the closure by war veterans of Motor Action’s Callies sports club in Eastlea and the seizure of commuter taxis owned by Pakistani investors.

Council offices in the Matabeleland provinces were closed between January and March this year by the war veterans who accused the staff of being MDC supporters. Vice-President Joseph Msika and Minister of Home Affairs John Nkomo told war veterans to desist from taking such action and to channel their grievances through the normal party channels.

Zanu PF secretary for the commissariat Border Gezi yesterday told the Independent that elections to select a new executive in Harare would be held on Sunday at the party’s headquarters. Sources said war veterans were jostling to position themselves for powerful posts in the Zanu PF provincial executive.

Among them are Chris Pasipamire and Endy Mhlanga who are eyeing the positions of chairman and deputy chairman respectively. Businessman Chris Mutsvangwa is likely to take the position of secretary-general while the infamous Joseph Chinotimba Brown, who won the contentious Harare war veterans chairmanship last weekend, is positioning himself for the influential post of political commissar. Hunzvi’s rival Douglas Mahiya is also vying for the same post. Other war veterans poised to take executive posts are Stalin Mau Mau (vice chair) and Mike Moyo (security).

Non-veterans Oliver Chidawu and Amos Midzi are also keen to land the chairman’s post. Chairman of the interim executive appointed at the dissolution of the Tony Gara executive last year, Forbes Magadu, is not contesting the top job.

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EU to probe Mugabe’s assets

Godfrey Marawanyika
THE European Parliament has recommended the probing of President Mugabe’s foreign assets in European Union countries in a resolution passed last week.

The parliament also expressed regret over the meeting held between Mugabe and the French and Belgian leaders a fortnight ago.

According to resolution B5-0183/2001 entitled “Human Rights: Situation in Zimbabwe”, the EU parliament called for the identification of Mugabe’s assets and those of his cronies. The resolution does not specify what was to be done with the information.

“The European Parliament calls on the Commission and Member States to identify overseas assets held by President Mugabe and his supporters,” the resolution said.

Last year this paper revealed that the European Union intended to probe Mugabe’s overseas assets.

Mugabe met with the Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt, EU commissioner Poul Nielson, and French President Jacques Chirac two weeks ago.

“Regret is also expressed at the decision by the Belgian government, the French President and Commissioner Nielson to meet with President Mugabe,” the resolution, passed last Thursday, said.

The “regret” is believed to have been triggered in EU circles by the death of another commercial farmer in Matabeleland at the hands of suspected government supporters two days before Mugabe met the Belgian and French leaders.

The parliament called on the Commission and member states to suspend all development co-operation assistance that was currently being managed through the Zimbabwe government and its agencies until such a time as democracy and the rule of law had been fully restored.

The EU parliament said the stability of Zimbabwe was “particularly important at this time because of the forthcoming presidential election”.
The parliament also expressed concern at the continued use of the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act which was enacted by the Rhodesian government to suppress nationalism.

“There is deep concern about the increasing use of the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act, which has been declared unconstitutional but has not yet been taken off the Statute Books,” the resolution said.

The parliament condemned the treatment of Chief Justice Gubbay, and “death threats against the remaining judges as unconstitutional action which was deliberately calculated to undermine the legal accountability of the government”.

It strongly condemned decisions by Harare authorities to “silence dissent, such as the recent crackdown on press freedoms, including a series of attacks on journalists and the independent press for which no-one has ever been charged”.

It specifically cited the expulsion of BBC correspondent Joseph Winter and Mail & Guardian correspondent Mercedes Sayagues. It also cited the bombing of the Daily News printing press.

The parliament condemned President’s Mugabe decision to grant amnesty to anyone liable to criminal charges for politically-motivated crimes committed during the period January 1 2000 to July 31 2000. The parliament called for an urgent and thorough investigation of all serious crimes and other human rights abuses, which occurred before, during and after the election in June 2000.

The parliament said whereas the government deficit was nearly 30% of GDP, hospitals and shops faced severe shortages.

“The government of Zimbabwe has been fuelling the war in the Congo by sending troops and equipment, and is spending a large part of its state budget in support of its military intervention in the DRC,” the parliament said.

Chief Justice Gubbay and death threats against the remaining judges as “unconstitutional action which was deliberately calculated to undermine the legal accountability of the government”.

It strongly condemned decisions by Harare authorities to “silence dissent, such as the recent crackdown on press freedoms, including a series of attacks on journalists and the independent press for which no-one has ever been charged”.

It specifically cited the expulsion of BBC correspondent Joseph Winter and Mail & Guardian correspondent Mercedes Sayagues. It also cited the bombing of the Daily News printing press.

The parliament condemned President’s Mugabe decision to grant amnesty to anyone liable to criminal charges for politically-motivated crimes committed during the period January 1 2000 to July 31 2000.

The parliament called for an urgent and thorough investigation of all serious crimes and other human rights abuses, which occurred before, during and after the election in June 2000.

The parliament said whereas the government deficit was nearly 30% of GDP, hospitals and shops faced severe shortages.

“The government of Zimbabwe has been fuelling the war in the Congo by sending troops and equipment, and is spending a large part of its state budget in support of its military intervention in the DRC,” the parliament
said.

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IPG sets tough terms on fuel

Vincent Kahiya
THE government of Zimbabwe this week acceded to demands by Kuwaiti fuel supplier, Independent Petroleum Group (IPG) which has set strict guidelines for the beleaguered Harare authorities in future business dealings.

The government announced that fuel was on its way immediately after the meeting with IPG officials where Zimbabwe was accused of taking unilateral decisions detrimental to the relationship between the two parties.

Zimbabwe’s contrition comes as more information emerged this week about the government’s heist of IPG fuel last month. Documents made available to the Independent show that Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Vitalis Zvinavashe ordered the breaking of the seals and the pumping of fuel which Zimbabwe had not paid for.

The government has since the publication of the story on the fuel “grab” last week by the Independent been trying to pour cold water on the allegations. In parliament on Wednesday Mines and Energy minister Sydney Sekeramayi told the House during a question and answer session that Zimbabwe had moved the fuel from Beira because the commodity was occupying too much space there.

“It was then requested that the product that was destined for Harare be moved elsewhere and the only logical place to put it was at Feruka Depot,” Sekeramayi said.

However, documents at hand show that IPG was not amused by the behaviour of the Zimbabweans and wrote a strong letter of complaint. The documents also show that the unauthorised release of fuel was not just an isolated case but recurred even after a formal complaint by IPG and an undertaking by Zimbabwe that it would not happen again.

In a letter dated February 17 to Sekeramayi, IPG managing director Jasem Al Musallam remonstrated with the minister over Zimbabwe’s failure to uphold an agreement that fuel would not be moved without IPG’s consent.
“This comes as a grave occurrence and undermines all efforts we have been undertaking with your goodselves,” said Al Musallam.

“Another disconcerting point is that whilst we tried to reach the various parties concerned in Noczim, no one was available to explain what happened,” he said.

He continued: “We are puzzled that in spite of these assurances unilateral action is still being taken violating what was agreed upon.
“We cannot tolerate such irresponsible action and this issue needs to be addressed immediately.”

According to a daily stock record sheet by commodity auditors SGS dated February 17 the discharging of the fuel was done by a Mr Mhandu on the instruction of General Zvinavashe who is chairman of the fuel taskforce.

Al Musallam’s letter and subsequent correspondence from IPG, sources said, set the tone for the meeting this week. The letters indicate that since the unauthorised release of the fuel relations have been fraught between the government and IPG which last week refused to release fuel despite appeals by Noczim boss Webster Muriritirwa.

“To date we have done a lot of business together to let us suffer shortages the way the country is experiencing at the moment...,” said Muriritirwa in a letter to IPG on March 13.

“The country is currently in a very serious fuel shortage and all our hopes are hinged on your sincere assistance and understanding,” he said.
But IPG was unmoved by the appeal. In its response IPG accused Noczim of failing to honour its commitments to pay for fuel and service the debt which at the time stood at US$50,9 million.

IPG demanded that its Zimbabwe dollar account be raised to reflect an exchange rate of $85 to US$1. The account currently has US$40 million. IPG also asked Zimbabwe to come up with a payment schedule to service the US$50,9 million debt. These issues formed the basis of Wednesday’s meeting in which Zimbabwe pledged to service the debt and not make unilateral decisions with regards to payments and release of fuel.

Sources close to the meeting said IPG took a tough stance on the government’s arbitrary removal of fuel from holding tanks without the supplier’s approval.

Sources privy to the details of the meeting said the Zimbabwe delegation agreed to increase the Zimbabwe dollar account and to put in place a payment schedule to service the debt and reduce the Kuwaiti company’s expo- sure to about US$30 million. The Zimbabweans also made an undertaking that they would no longer take unilateral action in the release of fuel and rescheduling debt payments.

The sources said Zimbabwe had shown some commitment by putting cash on the table during the meeting. Zimbabwe is said to have managed to pay for all the fuel that had been sitting in holding tanks at Feruka and diesel which had been illegally discharged into the Feruka to Harare pipeline. The sources said Noczim has also purchased 10 million litres of fuel from the stocks held at Beira.

Diesel started to trickle through the Msasa holding tanks yesterday while petrol started moving from Feruka by road.

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Candid Comment

Old MacDonald
IN the last 13 months our country has been dragged to the gates of hell. One can look back on bloodier periods in our history. In the bush war approximately 30 000 people were killed while hundreds of thousands more became displaced within Zimbabwe or refugees outside. Gukurahundi saw the death of at least 7 000.

One can look back on a period of greater economic stagnation, the depression of the 1920s, “when life seemed rusted through”, in the words of a book of the time. One can look back on a time, during Ian Smith’s UDI rule, when even more obviously than today, the hallmark of the state was its contempt for the rule of law and the very constitution which called it into being. It is fitting in some ways that a Rhodesian MP like Godfrey Chidyausiku should become the Chief Justice in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

But never have we experienced a time when violence and economic disintegration and disregard for legality coincided in such measure. We are living through historic times indeed, a crunch time for the people of Zimbabwe.

If there is one glimmer of sunshine in the grey clouds gathering, it is that we have finally begun to see the emergence of a multiracial civil society in our historically divided country. This has been demonstrated in the unprecedented solidarity between races and language groups in opposition to the reactionary ultranationalism of the ruling party.

Just over a year ago international headlines resulted from the spectacle of white demonstrators being beaten, arm-in-arm with black demonstrators, in the streets of Harare. Since then, in the untidy coalition called the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), we have seen a sea change in national politics with Zanu PF on the defensive for the first time in its history; though of course, when Zanu PF is on the defensive, it goes on the offensive!

Four white MPs including the Chimanimani farmer Roy Bennet were elected in overwhelmingly black constituencies to give the lie to the view that black Zimbabweans wish to see the backs of white Zimbabweans. Thanks, ironically, to the growing extremism of our president and his attempts to polarise the country on racial grounds, a middle ground has been created where people have come together.

Despite all appearances to the contrary, we are leaving behind the socio-political deformities and inhibitions created in the course of a hundred years of history.

And white farmers have done their bit to redeem the history of commercial famers in Zimbabwe through their pivotal role in the mobilisation of the MDC. It is true that we were acting in defence of our own interests, but the fact is that we played an essential part in the organisation and financing of the opposition. At last we started putting our money where our mouths were.

For those of us who recall the dark days when farmers such as Boss Lilford put their money and influence behind Ian Smith and the Rhodesian Front, or more recently when farmers climbed into bed with Zanu PF for the sake of special advantage, the willingness of farmers today to fall in with a democratic mass movement was something devoutly to be welcomed. The deaths of farmers, the killing of the mother of a farmer and the rapes of the children of a farmer signal that whatever our deepest mo- tivations, we were prepared to accept the consequences of this stand.

It bears repeating that for the first time ever in our history people of all races put themselves on the line and died for the sake of their membership of a common political party. This has never happened before; we should remember our dead as martyrs with a vision of a Zimbabwe where black and white would truly be united.

The new unity augurs well for the long-term future in Zimbabwe, whatever the extremely ominous probabilities in the short term. We all know that Robert Mugabe will hold on to power for as long as he can. We all know that the tactics which averted a Zanu PF meltdown in the parliamentary election last year will be repeated in the presidential election, if anything with an even greater level of ferocity.

Perhaps Mugabe will win the presidential election; but the unity being created on the ground is a guarantee that sooner or later his day and his way of holding power by demonising the minority will be gone and firmer ground will be reached. Black and white Zimbabweans are united and whites have acquitted themselves honourably under the onslaughts of the last 13 months.

And now the farmers are facing crunch time again. This week the members of the CFU have been asked to approve a deal floated by the Rhodesian sanctions buster, and Mugabe intimate, John Bredenkamp and his ally Nick Swanepoel.

The deal is controversial because those behind it suggest it carries the authority of the US government. It does not. They suggest that the United Kingdom will finance it. It will not. Britain has called the deal “sinister”; the US has called it “far-fetched”.

If ratified it will in effect represent the capitulation of the CFU to illegality. The judgements so hard-won in our embattled courts will be abandoned; the CFU leadership which had the temerity to sue for those judgements will be dismissed in ignominy and the organisation will assume its traditional role under a new guise as the political ally of Robert Mugabe.

The deal will vindicate the illegality and the bloodletting of the last 13 months. It will bolster Mugabe immeasurably and it will confirm the prevailing mindset of Zanu PF that what it wants it can take by force.

One of those “close” to the dealmakers was quoted as saying in last week’s London Sunday Times that “Mugabe is the chief until he dies — he can rape, murder, do what he likes, but he’s still the chief”. Even to us robust farmers these are hardly sentiments to encourage confidence in our supposed saviour and deliverer!

This makes it clear that even proponents of appeasement understand that we will enjoy a respite from state-sponsored terror only until the next time Mugabe finds it expedient to put the “squeeze” on us with another cynical pogrom.

And I am afraid that it will sound a deathknell to the hopes of those working for a Zimbabwe where whites were ready to commit themselves to a common agenda with black Zimbabweans for the sake of the national interest. It will be a betrayal of the democratic aspirations of millions of people in our country and send a signal that whites will ultimately always place self-interest before the good of the country.

I shudder to think of the long-term conseque-nces. A day will come when Mugabe is no longer our president, when Zanu PF is no longer in power. Nothing lasts forever. It would be a tragedy if farmers were now to lose their nerve and sacrifice their opportunity to be seen henceforth as men of honour and Zimbabwean patriots. The deal must be rejected.

l Old MacDonald is a nom de plume of a besieged local farmer.

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Muckraker


PRESIDENT Mugabe is in the best of health, the Herald assures us. And who is the expert they cite to back up this claim? The same person who said he wished Laurent Kabila a speedy recovery while he lay in a military mortuary!

Under the heading “Reports on President’s health dismissed”, the Herald rounded up a few tame “analysts” to give their opinions in order to counter an article appearing the previous day in the Financial Gazette.

The first to give his “impressions” was Professor Mwesiga Baregu of the Southern African Regional Institute of Policy Studies who said he had recently met the president at the Victoria Falls and his performance there, where he spoke at length about his trip to Libya, revealed no infirmity.

The picture he saw, Baregu said, was certainly not of a “sickling”, unless “the (Fingaz) writer had some confidential information from the doctor that everybody else does not know”.

Baregu no doubt regrets that he had not been privy to confidential information when he appeared on ZTV’s Newshour 48 hours after Kabila’s assassination and wished the deceased Congolese dictator a full recovery.
He remained mute while the Congolese ambassador told viewers that “as we speak a team of Congolese doctors are attending to him”.

In the circumstances, the Herald’s star witness as to the status of the president’s health could not have been less auspicious. Baregu is evident- ly not an expert on the health of regional heads of state and, indeed, has a record of not wanting to know too much about their demise despite his credentials as a prominent researcher.

“Echoing Professor Baregu’s impressions” was Dr Godfrey Chikowore of the University of Zimbabwe. He took a pot shot at the independent media.

“What it shows is that these people no longer have anything to write about. This is pure agenda-setting where one is determined to paint a sorry picture of anything that he dislikes,” the not-so-independent Chikowore opined. This was not the first time the Fingaz had written such an article, Chikowore suggested ominously.

But of all the “impressions” performed in the Herald last Friday the one by the Department of Information turned out to be the most entertaining.

Not shy of being accused of going over the top, or indeed of abandoning credibility altogether, the department gave one of its best frothing-at-the-mouth displays that would have had EU agriculture officials running for their stun-guns.

Describing the Fingaz story as “fiction”, the department said the article was “typical of the unholy partnership among the British counter-intelligence operatives, chequebook journalists, and gay gangsters in and outside the media”.

At one fell swoop all the government’s chief bogeymen were thus included in the conspiracy. But what does this hysterical reaction tell us? That the president is well and that there is nothing to worry about? Or that this is a government so insecure that it cannot permit any suggestion that Mugabe may suffer from some of the ailments that normally afflict a man of his age?

Whether the Fingaz story was right or wrong, the government’s response tells us all we need to know, as will the suggestion that newspapers should run stories informing the public that “their president was still alive”.

The visit of the International Bar Association also appears to have generated a great deal of indignation on the government side. Ministers were shown waving their arms around wildly on the steps of State House as they attempted to persuade their sceptical visitors that, contrary to all the evidence, Zimbabwe upheld the rule of law.

Yet the ministers shown remonstrating, Patrick Chinamasa and Jonathan Moyo, were the very same people who judges have complained were in the forefront of the government’s recent assaults on the judiciary.

Does Chinamasa not understand the implications of telling a Supreme Court judge that “the President would not want anything to happen to you”?

Then we have “a source close to the meeting” saying the visitors were told that “the situation had been worsened by some judges who went out of their way to attack war veterans”.

Is insisting that the government proceeds in accordance with its own laws and that war veterans stop their campaign of rural terror the same as “attacking war veterans”? And don’t we recall war veterans invading the High Court and Joseph Chinotimba subsequently forcing his way into the Chief Justice’s chambers? The police did not stop him, he said, because he was “big”.

If Gubbay didn’t go the war veterans would “declare war”, Chinotimba said.
So who is attacking who here?

“Going by what they were saying and what they have as facts,” the same government source said, “this group can really spoil our reputation.”

Really? How is that possible? The government is only now waking up to the fact that the intemperate vitriol of certain ministers, taking their cue from the president, has done incalculable damage to Zimbabwe’s reputation. Quibbling about the number of lawyers in Bulawayo is not going to mask that. And fancy Moyo thinking he was any match for George Bizos!

The jurists met with Inyika Trust, we are told, where Terrence Hussein appears to have done all the talking. Despite subsequent attempts to distance himself from the Herald’s version of events, it is clear that Inyika Trust is little more than a facade set up by Moyo and run by his legal cronies. At least the visiting jurists were able to explain to Hussein that his arguments regarding the Samson Mhuriro appeal were without legal merit, a point that should also have been made to the acting Chief Justice.

Acting police commissioner Godwin Matanga made some revealing remarks at the weekend. He dismissed reports implicating war veterans in the murder of Gloria Olds, saying the police were making progress with their investigations.

“We don’t just protect white farmers but we also have to protect those that may be implicated in such cases...,” he told the Standard. “Even war veterans deserve our protection.”

Shouldn’t that be: “We don’t protect white farmers. Only war veterans get our protection — particularly when they are involved in such cases”?

Are South African ministers gullible or just blind? Patrick Chinamasa’s counterpart Penuell Maduna was quoted in the South African press as saying Chinamasa had told him that all was well in Zimbabwe regarding the rule of law. It must be true, Maduna said, because it came from “the horse’s mouth”.

One columnist writing in the Johannesburg Sunday Times last weekend said the opposite end of the horse’s anatomy came more readily to mind!

South Africans should bear in mind what Lord Goldsmith thought of Chinamasa’s attempts to suggest the visit to Zimbabwe by the International Bar Association had been “stage-managed”.

It was “totally misleading, dishonest and false”, he said. Doesn’t that apply to much of what the minister has been saying recently?

On the subject of dishonesty, we were interested to hear what Noczim CEO Webster Muriritirwa had to say about sunshine journalism on the fuel front. Press reports that the situation was about to improve soon were false, he said. There was no solution in sight.

“It’s no use to continue lying to the public regarding the fuel situation in the country,” he said. Let’s hope the Herald takes this advice to heart.
The really annoying aspect of all this is that the major oil companies are keen to import fuel but the government won’t let them because it claims to be protecting the public from profiteering.

All the companies want to do is be able to recover their costs. Why doesn’t the government let the public choose who they want to buy fuel from: Noczim-supplied stations where the pumps are empty or
private-sector stations where fuel is slightly more expensive but available? How is the government protecting the public in the present situation, especially when desperate consumers are having to fork out upwards of $100 per litre on the parallel market where real profiteers are lurking?

Muckraker was amused by a recent article in the Spectator on relations with France. The magazine describes French ambassador Didier Ferrand’s courtesy call on Vice-President Joseph Msika:

“They did not exchange Gallic kisses on both cheeks, yet the two men came close to a bear-hug. For the slight, balding figure of M Didier Ferrand, France’s unctuous ambassador in Zimbabwe, it was a narrow escape. A bear-hug from the gangling, greying, permanently dribbling vice-president would have been a deeply unpleasant experience. A kiss might have been fatal.

But the message was unmistakable. While Robert Mugabe hobnobs with Jacques Chirac in Paris, France’s man in Harare is beavering away to help one of the most odious and reviled regimes in Africa...

“The regime loved it. It was their best propaganda since, well, since M Ferrand’s last visit to Zimbabwe House. State television usually resorts to Cuba, North Korea and bankrupt African rat-holes in its search for governments with helpful words for Mr Mugabe. Now Paris is claimed as an ally. In grateful reward, the main evening news offered a paean of praise to France that night.

“‘France is a big country with many rich companies,’ said the breathless announcer, accompanied by pictures of, er, red double-decker buses on Oxford Street. ‘France is very beautiful with many mountains,’ the voice continued, backed by shots of Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness. ‘The historic buildings of Paris are the most beautiful in the world’ — pictures of the King Charles bridge in Prague...

“M Ferrand must have wondered whether it was better to be praised or damned by Zimbabwean television... Yet M Ferrand is a hard man to offend. He was instrumental in ensuring that Mr Mugabe received a personal invitation from M Chirac to attend a summit of Francophone African countries in Cameroon in January.

This despots’ drinking club used to have a pretty clear membership policy. You had to be imbued with Gallic culture and awed by la gloire de la France. If you also strung up political opponents and butchered your people, that was a bonus.

“Mr Mugabe may meet the last requirement, but he is light-years away from the first. With his Saville Row suits, love of cricket and impeccable 19th-century English, no other African leader is as anglicised as this hammer of British colonialism. He recently revealed that breakfast in the Mugabe household consists of a bowl of porridge and a boiled egg. But there he was in Cameroon, the only visiting despot to bring a translator.

“While the British were happy to grant independence to their African colonies and then cheerfully forget about them, France was desperate to hold on to its empire. Nominal independence was given, but Paris reserved the right to select and topple leaders at will. Above all, her African ‘children’ had to accept the primacy of the French language and the glories of her culture. From this secure beachhead, France is now moving to capture Anglophone Africa...”

The motives could hardly be economic, the Spectator says. “Zimbabwe is a chaotic, impoverished, bankrupt wreck. There is no oil here. Even the arms dealers don’t get paid”.

But extending France’s sphere of influence and tweaking the lion’s tail have been French policy objectives since their defeat at Fashoda in 1898. Wooing Mugabe is part of a wider strategy.

“This disgruntled, alienated figure is an ideal candidate for the blandishments of Paris, aimed at taking Zimbabwe out of the Anglo-Saxon camp and into the embrace of France. Once again, the wicked imperialists are trying to seize Mr Mugabe’s country. This time, he may let them have it.”

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Trudy's Diary


THE new attorney-general has spoken! The new Broadcasting Regulations, brought in under Presidential Powers — so threatening was the prospect of an independent broadcaster — are constitutional despite an adverse report from the Parliamentary Legal Committee. Carefully hemmed in between Patrick Chinamasa and Jonathan Moyo, Chigovera had little option, did he?

The whole episode was blatantly stage-managed. We picked up the vibes the instant the Speaker previously ruled that the Sexual Offences Bill could proceed without a report from any committee, since it was more than 26 days since the Bill had been gazetted.

The fact that the Parliamentary Legal Committee includes two lawyers far senior to him failed to deter him or indeed Chinamasa, who proceeded to declare the entire report null and void due to the 26-day rule. He stated that the report had not been signed by Eddison Zvobgo or Kangai and a volley of other allegations, while the Speaker, another senior lawyer, denied Welshman Ncube the right of reply for the committee. Such is justice in the august House.

The whole charade will not have escaped the visiting delegation from the International Bar Association, nor will they have missed the point that what was at issue for Zanu PF was not the truth of the report (that the regulations are unconstitutional) but the proce- dure and the need to save face, not to mention to prevent freeing the air-waves. Freezing the airwaves is more like it.

Meanwhile, back to Parliament after a long Christmas break. At times the whole thing seems totally irrelevant, as if we all suffer from schizophrenia, debating who should be a national hero while right next door the Chief Justice is being attacked by a war thug in the Supreme Court.

It is not that MPs are insensitive or unaware of priorities, but rather the result of an extremely formal and procedural system managed by the ruling party, so that it is extremely difficult to suspend the Order of the Day to bring up a “matter of national importance”.

But we have succeeded a couple of times, as when the MDC office was
bombed and when Justin Mutendadzamera and his family were beaten black and blue in the “price riots”.

The President’s State of the Nation address before Christmas is traditionally first on the Order Paper in the new year, but again it seemed irrelevant in view of the serious deterioration of the real state of our nation since then and the fact that his speech failed to address any burning national issue seriously.

The two major debates so far (apart from the Broadcasting Regulations) have been the judiciary and the constitution. As soon as Chief Justice Gubbay was pressured to resign we tabled a motion (led by Gonese and Biti) supporting the existing judiciary and condemning any conduct undermining its independence.

Many of us spoke and our arguments were irrefutable. The Zanu PF tactic therefore was to adjourn the debate for nearly a week to the following Wednesday (February 21) after their next caucus and then come in with an “amendment” moved by their Chief Whip Joram Gumbo to “delete this motion in its entirety and substitute the following..” followed by a speel of typical hate rhetoric culminating in “Expresses lack of confidence in the impartiality...” and calling for two possible alternatives!

Oddly, Gumbo’s presentation was not well-prepared, indicating a rushed job even then, and Welshman finally demolished him with the incisive arguments of an expert against a mere beginner — or so it seemed at the time! Apart from insisting on the impartiality of the existing judiciary, he had three points:

l This could not be an “amendment” since it proposed deleting the motion in its entirety, therefore it was an alternative motion.

l It called upon the House to act unconstitutionally in setting up a Presidential Commission of Inquiry when it should be a tribunal set up by the Judicial Commission as specified in the constitution.

l It proposed two alternative resolutions when only one is the rule.

Again, Zanu PF had to re-strategise — they were losing! We knew we would lose the debate in the end, but the victory of that day’s battle was sweet. We retired for the weekend fortified and ready for our rallies and meetings all over the country. Sure enough, it was after the following Wednesday’s caucus that they came back with their answer. It was a whipped side, both vice-presidents and every possible member dragged from his/her bed/dusty corner to come and vote, even if s/he fell asleep in the meantime — and several did!

More telling, a vicious speech had been prepared — guess by whom? — and Christopher Mushowe was the chosen messenger. We were treated to some 40 minutes of partisan, antisemitic, racist venom, unparliamentary language and personal attacks on members totally ignored by the Speaker, resulting in Zvobgo rising to claim a right of reply to the accusation that he had passed information via his “third wife” to the Supreme Court judges in the CFU hearing on land invasions which had resulted in a ruling against government in November.

He returned having checked the verbatim Hansard record, and to his credit stood up for himself and his wife against the entire might of Zanu PF, which had obviously decided to trash him once and for all.

It was a moving moment for those of us who understood the undercurrents. His brilliant presentation of the Parliamentary Legal Committee’s adverse report on the Broadcasting Regulations two weeks ago further distanced him from the rabid members of his party.

Dave Coltart’s motion on re-launching the process for a new consti- tution was revived in the midst of all this. It was obviously extremely apposite as we were in a constitutional crisis already, and it appeared that the executive was determined to take over entirely from the other two branches of government.

He managed to persuade the Leader of the House, Chinamasa, Gumbo and the Speaker to push it forward on the Order Paper. We have 42 motions still to be debated and concluded, and his was always being pushed to the end.

A number of us have spoken to this motion now, both on the original and on Zvobgo’s amendment. Don’t forget that this motion was originally tabled in August last year when Zvobgo had moved his motion against the US Democracy Bill. Much water has flowed across the Atlantic since then!

Zvobgo’s amendment is really a delaying tactic — instead of being specific about setting up a parliamentary committee to look into and report by a certain date the best way forward in coming up with a new constitution, Zvobgo “calls upon government to consider mechanisms for making it possible to revisit the necessity for a new democratic Constitution...” Vague, vague, vague!

The other notable motion was Priscilla’s calling on government to ratify the Sadc declaration on gender and development. OK, so I’m biased, but it was well-timed — the eve of International Women’s Day — and extremely necessary! The declaration among other things calls on governments to put women in at least 30% of all decision-making posts in government, and public service by the year 2005.

All women MPs contributed to this debate, though understanding of the issues was not entirely even — Sabina Mugabe rambled on about her mother not being able to learn English at the mission school, to the extent that Paul Themba Nyathi whispered: “It runs in the family”.

Most of the men thought the entire motion a huge joke, much sniggering and nudging of ribs (not “lips” as Hansard recorded my speech!) and a member of my own party instructed us that the first thing we women must know is that they (men) all love us!

Welshman sobered us up by pointing out that we shouldn’t be going for 30% but 50%! Zanu PF was so horrified at the prospect of MDC stealing the show that Olivia Muchena moved an amendment to “express support to the President as Zimbabwe’s Head of State for signing the declaration...” and guess what — the motion was reported in the Herald as “Dr Muchena’s amendment to the motion originally moved by Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga”!

This brings me to the subject of “disappointing performance of MDC MPs”. It dismays me that the general public should be so gullible as to fall for Zanu PF propaganda — because that is what it is. MDC MPs behave much better than their colleagues on the other side, but they are constantly picked on by whoever is Speaker, and berated by ruling party heavy-weights, and unfortunately most journalists in the gallery are not experienced enough to assess the truth or even follow all that is going on.

Anyone who longs for “the good old days of Margaret Dongo and Dzikamai Mavhaire” has not registered the much more serious essence of debate in the House — rule of law, judiciary, constitution, etc — nor has s/he stopped to consider the damage they are doing by spreading this propaganda.

Other motions upcoming and being debated are decentralisation of business, Gukurahundi, integrated labour law, unemployment/poverty/wages/pensions, housing, squatter camps, corruption and so on. I got an amendment pass-ed on the Roads Bill, to prevent criminalisation in the case of flooding, etc, but when I tried to move Dave Coltart’s two amendments, Kangai shouted “Mrs Coltart ...” — expunged from Hansard, I notice! I was rather flattered that he should think me young enough!

A number of these motions should be supported by both sides since they are not controversial — but manner of presentation is all important! For example, Phillip Chiyangwa has moved a motion to set up an inquiry into corruption, but because he presented it so viciously with personal attacks on Coltart and whites in general, we are not very inclined to support it. For the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee to behave in so undiplomatic a fashion would be surprising, if it were someone else.

True to prediction but even sooner than anticipated, Makoni has already tabled a Financial Adjustments Bill! It amounts to some $55 million, not much perhaps when our national debt is something in the region of $160 billion, but he has yet again gone back on his word. How well I remember how emphatically he assured us last year there would be no more condoning of over-expenditure!

A most revealing committee report tabled was Land and Agriculture — the chairman Ncube is Zanu PF but made no bones about giving the facts as they had found them — that the fast-track programme is a disaster! Members of his party called him a “traitor” — of course.

Question Time is not as vibrant as it was last year, perhaps because the TV cameras are no longer there — though they appeared briefly these last two weeks. Many ministers are absent, and those present often duck the questions with impunity.

For example, I still await details of the beneficiaries of the $5b revolving fund set up to encourage exports announced in August last year. Swithun Mombeshora chose to appear just after Question Time this week (I had lined up some Questions Without Notice, but he wasn’t there!) to make his Ministerial Statement on the 15-month-old fuel crisis: government has no money, but is looking for some! I seem to have heard that before somewhere.

What else do MPs do?

This month I have held clinics in my constituency for report-back and problems, attended too many workshops ostensibly to help me improve our performance (Tobacco, Sexual Offences, Local Government), planned my own three-day workshop, prepared to debate other people’s motions and my own (Hatcliffe Extension), looked for funding for constituency projects, become involved in the Zimbabwe/France stand-off, tried to solve people’s problems, attended Parliamentary and other committee meetings.

And people ask: “What has my MP done for me?” Let me tell them, they should immediately stop parroting that Zanu PF line, and get out of the dreaded dependency syndrome which says “the minister/MP/councillor/chairman/etc will help me”.

That is the very essence of political patronage, and that is what we all need to get away from, as fast as we can, if ever we are to get this country out of the mess we are in!

l Trudy Stevenson is the MP for Harare North.

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Zimbabwe this Week.

This weekend we are going to the Matopos to work through our Education and Health policies for the time (soon) when we will be in power. We will be sitting a short distance from the graves of Cecil Rhodes and Mzilikazi (the first King of the Ndebele) and I wonder if somehow their spirits will influence the meetings! Rhodes was a rogue and was totally loyal to the idea of the British Empire to which he devoted his life. He pursued his visions with a ruthlessness that would have done Al Capone proud. But all the same, what a man of his time!! He spent only 23 years in Africa; died when he was 48 years old and started with a small stock of capital provided by a maiden Aunt. His achievements were legendary; he took possession of a million square miles of Africa for the Empire, built and paid for the construction of thousands of kilometers of railways and telegraph systems. He became Prime Minister of the Cape and started some 70 companies in his lifetime, two of which are amongst the largest companies in the world a hundred years later. And he did it all with no computers, jet airplanes or e-mail and never in the best of health – astonishing.

Mzilikazi was no less an outstanding figure – not quite of the stature of Chaka, founder of the Zulu nation, but still the founder of the Ndebele nation in Zimbabwe. Arriving in the early 1800’s with about 15 000 men, Mzilikazi built up this small nucleus into a fighting force that dominated the whole of central Africa. It was because of his marauding armies that Queen Victoria created the Protectorates that became Botswana and Zambia. When I was a boy growing up in Matebeleland I can remember men who took part in the raids – as far north as Malawi and deep into Botswana and Zambia. They were eventually only defeated by the superior technology of the Rhodes settlers. Mzilikazi's successor, Lobengula was driven out of Matebeleland and died with his devoted Mbizo regiment near the Victoria Falls. It was the descendants of these men amongst men who buried Rhodes and Mzilikazi in the Matopos hills with the royal Ndebele salute – never again used at such an event.

We may not like these guys and what they did, but my goodness, they were giants in the time that they lived – big even in a global context. Other great leaders, Kruger, Smuts, Nkomo, Sithole and now Mandela, followed them. Men who made a difference to the outcome of the history of their time. Can we do the same? I am sure we can, history will judge. Mugabe will be remembered, not for his efforts to free his people or his achievements during the first few years of power. He will be remembered for the Matebele massacres in the mid 80’s, as he sought to crush the independent Ndebele spirit, for staying on too long and brutalizing the people of his country in an effort to stay in power. He will also be remembered as the man who impoverished a whole generation.

As we seek to make the history of our years we must not forget that we all have a history – warts and all. We cannot ignore the past, but we can learn from it and try to avoid the mistakes made before our time. And so, the MDC, the newest political movement in Africa, takes time out in a deeply historical setting, to ponder what to do next. I find some significance in this and hope that we will be able to make progress on the path towards a new start for our people.

The Zanu PF spin doctors are doing everything they can to persuade the world that they are acting lawfully in their pursuit of land reform, that they have done all they can to correct their financial mismanagement and that their presence in the Congo is a contribution to continental security and peace. This was not a good week on all fronts.

The International Bar Association sent a team here of eminent jurists and they were not fooled. They saw a wide range of people and ended up telling the President that they did not like or approve of what they had seen. Then the farmers, beaten and bludgeoned by Zanu for over a year, met in a special Congress and stood their ground. They adopted just the right stance – no compromise on their civil and legal rights at citizens and investors, acceptance of the need for reform and a clear statement that they would work with the government to get the job done in the shortest time possible but only on an agreed and lawful basis.

In our view this was exactly what was needed – they kept the high ground, gave away nothing in terms of their basic rights but reiterated their oft-stated willingness to work out a solution with the other stakeholders. Then the IMF and the World Bank left the country and made a statement that they will talk to the Zimbabwe government in May again. No progress made at all but some advice on what was needed. Makoni was complimented on his efforts to keep the budget on course – not for long though by our calculations and even then, mainly at the expense of the civil service. And then finally, grudgingly, the GMB started to say we might need food imports! After denying this and overstating their stock position and the likely out turn of the 2001 crop, they now admit we need wheat and maize.

Then in the Congo, growing signs that the conflict is being worked out in some way, obviously the change of leadership and the effective take over by Angola as the real power on the ground in that area of the continent has made the difference. A sense that Zimbabwe is losing ground and influence in the country and that we will probably be able to end our intervention fairly soon and withdraw with nothing to show for three years of effort and expense. Even so that will be a great relief of those of us who have paid for this foolish excursion.

Here at home we have just been through the worst period of fuel shortages. Harare has virtually been out of fuel and in the rest of the country we have had a total stock out of diesel. This coupled to the report of the Jurists and the farmers principled position creates the ideal background for the meeting now scheduled with Mbeki. The two day session between a team of four Ministers from Zimbabwe and South Africa on Sunday and Monday was obviously very tough – that was clear from the SA Minister of Finances statement after the meeting and the silence of our own team. All good omens. Let’s repeat what we want from the meeting between the two leaders: -

  1. A full restoration of the rule of law, including the land reform process.
  2. Stability in the period leading up to the elections – this means we must have enough food, fuel and electricity to get by plus a halt to the state inspired violence against the opposition.
  3. A level playing field for the presidential election which is acknowledged as such by the international community.

All we want as a nation is the opportunity to vote freely and without coercion for the person we want to be President in April 2002. If Mbeki can deliver the minimum conditions required for this, he will have done a great service to Zimbabwe and to the region as a whole. If we as a nation then go to the polls and elect a new leader (whoever that might be) democratically and this is followed by a lawful transfer of power, we will be contributing to making a reality the vision of a new Africa which our continental leaders have enunciated in the past year. If he fails the opposite will be true.

Eddie Cross

23rd March 2001.

Please note that this note is personal and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Movement for Democratic Change.

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URGENT APPEAL

MDC Support (Southern Region)

This office has been asked by the Trustees of the Patrick Nabanyama Trust Fund to source funds for a Precast Concrete Wall and a cell phone for the Nabanyama family.

The ten alleged perpetrators identified at the end of this document have been released on bail and are reported to freely roam pass the Nabanyama house, thus creating further trauma for the Nabanyama family merely through their presence - an act of intimidation in itself.

There are no telephone lines in the area resulting in a feeling of isolation and exposure. The Nabanyama family continue to suffer. The provision of a wall and phone will provide a sense of security.

These requirements have been costed at $50,000.00. Any contribution to alleviate the continued suffering of the Nabanyama family will be greatly appreciated.

Donation Details

Within Zimbabwe: Donations to the Patrick Nabanyama Trust Fund - within Zimbabwe - may be made in two ways:

By Post: Donations for the Patrick Nabanyama Trust Fund should be directed to the Matilda Trust, PO Box 9400, Hillside, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (where they will be receipted), OR

Direct Bank Deposit: Barclays Bank - Account No. 1996379, Main Street Branch (No. 2307), Bulawayo. For foreign transfers, the Barclays (Zimbabwe) SWIFT address is BARCZWHXAXXX.

For accounting and audit purposes, it would be appreciated if Matilda Trust, PO Box 9400, Hillside, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, could be advised - via the address given above - of any donations made direct to the Bank Account, so that they may be receipted and acknowledged.

Cheques: These should be made payable to "Matilda Trust". To be sure that it is correctly allocated, please write clearly "PATRICK NABANYAMA TRUST" on the back of the cheque.

International: Donations from international sources should be sent to:

BSMG Worldwide

110 St. Martin’s Lane

Covent Garden

London WC2N 4RG

U.K.

Cheques: should be made payable to "BSMG Worldwide". To be sure that it is correctly allocated, please write clearly "PATRICK NABANYAMA TRUST" on the back of the cheque.

Patrick Nabanyama

Born in September 1947. Went missing on Monday 19 June 2000. Presumed dead.

Who was Patrick?

Patrick Nabamyama was a Zimbabwean citizen. He lived in Nketa, Bulawayo and was married to Patricia. They have nine children aged 2 to 23. At the time of his disappearance, Patrick was working as a general worker at Nketa Tavern in Bulawayo. He had worked there for nine years.

Conscientious, honest, kind-hearted, and well-respected in his community, Patrick was tired of seeing his family and neighbours suffering under the violence and corruption of the Zanu-PF Government. He wanted change.

Patrick decided to join the newly-formed MDC and soon became an active member, spreading the word of change in Zimbabwe. He was a Polling Officer for the MDC at the Parliamentary Elections 2000 and worked relentlessly for David Coltart MP in his Bulawayo South Constituency. Patrick soon earned the respect he deserved from his political colleagues and was well-liked by all.

The period leading up to the June elections were a time of great stress and concern for all, especially for those brave enough to stand up and declare their belief in a change of government. Such brave people were subjected to intense intimidation, death threats and assaults. Patrick was no exception.

What happened to Patrick?

One week before the elections Patrick’s life was threatened by war veterans who saw that he was leading a successful campaign on behalf of the MDC. These threats were reported to the Police.

At 4 am on the 17 June the Nabanyama Family woke up to find that their house had been daubed with paint and the initials ‘MDC’. Feeling insecure, they decided to leave their Nketa home and stay with relatives. They returned to their home on Monday 19 June, feeling safe in the knowledge that the assaults usually took place at night. They were wrong.

Around 4 pm on Monday 19 June, three men, whose identities are now known to the police, called at their house asking for Patrick. The men persuaded Patrick to go outside the house, whereupon a large number of war veterans and Zanu-PF supporters appeared from nearby and started pushing Patrick around. The family stood by helplessly and watched as Patrick was then thrown into the back of a pick-up truck, handcuffed and driven away.

He has never been seen again.

Where is Patrick now?

It is known that Patrick was driven from his house and taken to the war veterans HQ in Entumbane. It is believed that while there he was tortured and killed. His body has probably been dumped somewhere. There have been several reports and searches made to locate his body - without success. His whereabouts are still a mystery.

Why Patrick?

There were many deaths before, during, and after the June elections. None of these deaths have been fully investigated by the police, despite the identities of the perpetrators being known. Yet Patrick’s disappearance, amongst the multitide of other acts of violence, has captured the hearts of the local and international public, as it typifies the heartless and brutal campaign orchestrated by the Zimbabwe Government this year.

Patrick’s case is the only one where there is no actual body, thus enabling the known perpetrators to be charged only with the offence of kidnapping.

Regrettably, this offence falls within the recent Clemency Order granted by President Mugabe ( see further under Impunity in Zimbabwe). Effectively this means that the killers will not be held accountable for their crime unless his body is found, which would make it a charge of murder. Under these circumstances the Nabanyama Family cannot begin to heal their emotional wounds, nor can they seek any redress for their loss.

Update : On 21 December 2000, two of the ten men suspected of the abduction of Patrick Nabanyama walked free from court where they had appeared charged with the kidnapping of a second person, Welcome Makama. The prosecutor withdrew these second charges against them in line with the Presidential Clemency Order.

Update : On 22 January 2001, The Daily News reported that the docket relating to Patrick’s case, which had been sent to the Attorney General’s Office in June 2000 for a decision on whether or not to prosecute the accused, had gone missing. Lawyers were reported as saying that without the docket the case would become ‘a non-event’.

The ten accused - Cain Nkala (the Bulawayo provincial chairman of Chenjerai Hunzvi’s war veteran faction); Jackson Ncube; Ephraim Moyo; Frackson Ndlovu; Aleck Moyo; Stanley Ncube; Ngoni Dube; Julius Sibanda; Howard Ncube; and Simon Rwazi - have been remanded on five occasions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MDC Support (Southern Region), Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phone: +26391241156 / 7 or +26391244699
E-mail : mdcmatsup@gatorzw.com OR 241157@ecoweb.co.zw
Fundraising Details:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MDC SUPPORT (Southern Region) FUND - Make cheques payable to Matilda Trust, and send to P.O. Box 9400, Hillside, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe (clearly endorsed "Support ") or deposit into Barclays Bank, Main Street Branch (2307), Bulawayo - account number 1996379.
For transparency and accountability, please advise this office of deposits to enable us to receipt accordingly.
VICTIMS OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE FUND - as above, but clearly endorse cheques for "Victims Fund"
SOUTH AFRICA - One of the Party’s approved Fundraisers is Laurel Zurnamer, who is contactable on +27214473570 or on cellphone +27832921407.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
VISIT THE MDC WEBSITE AT www.mdczimbabwe.com !! ALSO LOOK IN AT the (all-new) ZimNews website at www.zwnews.com and the ZimToday website at www.zimtoday.com for news, views and pertinent information! To subscribe to the MDC central mailing list, EITHER sign up via the MDC website's Home page, OR send a blank e-mail to mdcmail-subscribe@listbot.com. FOR UP-TO-DATE INTERNATIONAL PRESS INFORMATION on the situation in Zimbabwe, subscribe to ZimNews at ironhorse@onetel.net.uk .
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In this issue :

From The Zimbabwe Independent, 23 March

IPG sets tough terms on fuel

The government of Zimbabwe this week acceded to demands by Kuwaiti fuel supplier, Independent Petroleum Group (IPG) which has set strict guidelines for the beleaguered Harare authorities in future business dealings. The government announced that fuel was on its way immediately after the meeting with IPG officials where Zimbabwe was accused of taking unilateral decisions detrimental to the relationship between the two parties.

Zimbabwe's contrition comes as more information emerged this week about the government's heist of IPG fuel last month. Documents made available to the Independent show that Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Vitalis Zvinavashe ordered the breaking of the seals and the pumping of fuel which Zimbabwe had not paid for. The government has since the publication of the story on the fuel "grab" last week by the Independent been trying to pour cold water on the allegations. In parliament on Wednesday Mines and Energy minister Sydney Sekeramayi told the House during a question and answer session that Zimbabwe had moved the fuel from Beira because the commodity was occupying too much space there. "It was then requested that the product that was destined for Harare be moved elsewhere and the only logical place to put it was at Feruka Depot," Sekeramayi said.

However, documents at hand show that IPG was not amused by the behaviour of the Zimbabweans and wrote a strong letter of complaint. The documents also show that the unauthorised release of fuel was not just an isolated case but recurred even after a formal complaint by IPG and an undertaking by Zimbabwe that it would not happen again. In a letter dated February 17 to Sekeramayi, IPG managing director Jasem Al Musallam remonstrated with the minister over Zimbabwe's failure to uphold an agreement that fuel would not be moved without IPG's consent. "This comes as a grave occurrence and undermines all efforts we have been undertaking with your goodselves," said Al Musallam. "Another disconcerting point is that whilst we tried to reach the various parties concerned in Noczim, no one was available to explain what happened," he said.

He continued: "We are puzzled that in spite of these assurances unilateral action is still being taken violating what was agreed upon. We cannot tolerate such irresponsible action and this issue needs to be addressed immediately." According to a daily stock record sheet by commodity auditors SGS dated February 17 the discharging of the fuel was done by a Mr Mhandu on the instruction of General Zvinavashe who is chairman of the fuel taskforce.

Al Musallam's letter and subsequent correspondence from IPG, sources said, set the tone for the meeting this week. The letters indicate that since the unauthorised release of the fuel relations have been fraught between the government and IPG which last week refused to release fuel despite appeals by Noczim boss Webster Muriritirwa. "To date we have done a lot of business together to let us suffer shortages the way the country is experiencing at the moment...," said Muriritirwa in a letter to IPG on March 13. "The country is currently in a very serious fuel shortage and all our hopes are hinged on your sincere assistance and understanding," he said.

But IPG was unmoved by the appeal. In its response IPG accused Noczim of failing to honour its commitments to pay for fuel and service the debt which at the time stood at US$50,9 million. IPG demanded that its Zimbabwe dollar account be raised to reflect an exchange rate of $85 to US$1. The account currently has US$40 million. IPG also asked Zimbabwe to come up with a payment schedule to service the US$50,9 million debt. These issues formed the basis of Wednesday's meeting in which Zimbabwe pledged to service the debt and not make unilateral decisions with regards to payments and release of fuel.

Sources close to the meeting said IPG took a tough stance on the government's arbitrary removal of fuel from holding tanks without the supplier's approval. Sources privy to the details of the meeting said the Zimbabwe delegation agreed to increase the Zimbabwe dollar account and to put in place a payment schedule to service the debt and reduce the Kuwaiti company's exposure to about US$30 million. The Zimbabweans also made an undertaking that they would no longer take unilateral action in the release of fuel and rescheduling debt payments.

The sources said Zimbabwe had shown some commitment by putting cash on the table during the meeting. Zimbabwe is said to have managed to pay for all the fuel that had been sitting in holding tanks at Feruka and diesel which had been illegally discharged into the Feruka to Harare pipeline. The sources said Noczim has also purchased 10 million litres of fuel from the stocks held at Beira. Diesel started to trickle through the Msasa holding tanks yesterday while petrol started moving from Feruka by road.

From The Star (SA), 22 March

IMF must show Zim the money, not SA - Mbeki

President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday that South Africa would not give Zimbabwe financial assistance to heal its economic woes and that support should instead come from the world community. "The economy of Zimbabwe won't be supported for its recovery by us. You need the IMF and the World Bank to be involved," Mbeki told a delegation of the South African National Editors' Forum in Pretoria.

He said his approach to Zimbabwe's escalating political crisis and deepening two-year-old economic recession had been to offer constructive support and to keep communications open. "It is clear there are some problems in Zimbabwe - problems of the economy, problems around land reform, problems with regard to the political situation in the country," he said. He said the skewed distribution of land in the former Rhodesia would have to be addressed, but without conflict and with international support. "There should be no occupation of farms," he said in a reference to the occupation or seizure of more than 1 000 white owned farms by black self-styled veterans of the country's liberation war.

Inflation in Zimbabwe is running at close to 70 percent, with unemployment over 60 percent and rising, critical shortages of fuel and looming shortages of staple foods. Mbeki has come under fire at home and abroad for his gentle diplomacy towards Zimbabwe, where about 30 people died and hundreds were hurt in the run-up to parliamentary elections last year. He has refused publicly to denounce Zimbabwe's President, Robert Mugabe, who is seeking re-election after 21 years in power.

But over the past year, Mbeki has discussed the country's problems privately with Zimbabwean government and opposition leaders. Ministers from the two countries met in Pretoria on Sunday and Monday to review areas of co-operation. "We are sending a team to Zimbabwe from our agriculture department in the next week to see what we can contribute to make sure that you have a smooth, non-conflictual process of land redistribution," Mbeki said. "The thing we don't want to have happen is the collapse of Zimbabwe. It wouldn't help them and it wouldn't help us.... We would have to deal with any radical worsening of the situation in Zimbabwe," he said. Mbeki told parliament recently he would meet Mugabe soon to discuss his concerns, but no date for the meeting has been announced.

From The Independent (UK), 23 March

Mugabe sacks editors of state-run newspapers

The Zimbabwe government has sacked the editors of the country's two largest state-controlled newspapers, intensifying a campaign to gag the media ahead of presidential elections next year. The government-controlled publisher did not explain why Ray Mungosi, the editor of the pro-government Herald newspaper, and Funny Mushava, editor of the Sunday Mail, had been forced out of their jobs on Wednesday. But their firings follow the sacking 10 days ago of Tommy Sithole, the chairman of Zimbabwe Newspapers, which publishes the two titles and four others, after he refused to implement a government directive to fire editors perceived to be critical of government policy.

Two months ago, supporters of President Robert Mugabe bombed the presses of the independent Daily News in a bid to silence opposition media. Mr Mungoshi and Mr Mushava, who refused to comment yesterday, were appointed to the pro-government newspapers eight months ago. They succeeded editors who were also fired for not toeing the government line. "The board of directors of Zimbabwe Newspapers has announced the appointment of Pikirayi Deketeke as editor of The Herald and William Chikoto as editor of the Sunday Mail from today," the government-controlled publisher said.

Mr Sithole has been replaced as head of Zimbabwe newspapers by prominent Zanu-PF supporter and businessman Enock Kamushinda. The Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) condemned what it called the "unjustifiable changes in editorship" which it said had affected the stability of Zimpapers and was a form of harassment against journalists.

Also yesterday, the government summoned Commonwealth diplomats in Harare to denounce plans for a ministerial fact-finding visit to Zimbabwe, accusing the British government of stopping at nothing to "topple" President Robert Mugabe. Describing Mr Blair's government as "racist", Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge told the 20 diplomats that the decision by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group to send the mission - comprising of the foreign ministers from Nigeria, Barbados and Australia - was "illegal". Relations between Britain and its former southern African colony soured after Mr Mugabe's supporters started a campaign to seize white-owned farms in February last year. Mr Mugabe justifies the seizures, which have been declared unlawful by Zimbabwe's highest court, on the grounds that they correct imbalances caused by "colonial settler robbery".

Zimbabwe has granted permanent residence to former Ethiopian strongman Mengistu Haile Mariam, who fled to the southern African country a decade ago, government officials said yesterday. Ethiopia warned that the decision could sour relations between the two countries.

From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 23 March

Mugabe ban on British exams, but not for sons

Harare - Zimbabwe's government stepped up its campaign to erase every trace of the colonial era yesterday by banning British exams from the country's schools. Children from almost every Commonwealth country in Africa follow the O- and A-level curricula specified by the Cambridge Examinations Board. But from next year state school pupils in Zimbabwe will be forced to sit locally administered exams.

Samuel Mumbengegwi, the Education Minister, vowed to close any school that failed to comply with the directive. He told The Herald, the official daily: "Many parents have already approached the government on why their children should be subjected to a foreign examination. The answer is that no school shall offer any foreign examination. I have called the leaders of errant schools to my office and directed them to desist from their intentions with immediate effect."

After 21 years of independence, most Zimbabwean schools remain steeped in British tradition. Classes are conducted in English, children recite Shakespeare by rote, O-levels are taken because GCSEs are scornfully regarded as being too easy and old-fashioned uniforms are worn, often complete with straw hats. O-levels are marked by the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council, whose staff are trained by British exam boards. A-level papers are sent to Britain for grading.

Zimbabwe has a thriving collection of private schools, and teachers doubt whether the government has the legal power to force these establishments to drop foreign exams. Modelled on British public schools from the 19th century, they are favoured by the black elite. President Mugabe has chosen a deeply traditional education for his own children. His son Bellarmine goes to the Heritage School, where 75 per cent of teachers are white. Another son, Robert, attends Hartmann House, a distinguished Catholic prep school; and his daughter, Bona, is enrolled at the Dominican Convent School. None of these is likely to drop the British exams.

Yesterday the Foreign Ministry accused Britain of racism and of plotting to oust the president. A statement said: "What is known for sure is the determination by the Labour Government to depose or cause the deposition of President Mugabe. Current efforts seem to be directed at interfering with the political process in Zimbabwe for that purpose." Mr Mugabe's sense of isolation has been worsened by the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy and the breakdown in relations with the World Bank and the IMF. Both ended support for his government in 1999 after economic targets were missed. An IMF assessment team left Harare yesterday without making any offer to resume assistance. Its statement demanded "stronger and more balanced policies".

From The Guardian (UK), 22 March

Disloyal citizens face persecution

Those who oppose Mugabe's government may lose their jobs or even their lives.

Acting chief Nembire's letter was chillingly frank. There are four teachers in his area, and he doesn't like their politics. He wants them out; not just out of his schools but the area under his responsibility. The reply from Zimbabwe's education ministry was equally sinister. It agreed that the teachers should go. Amid the high profile murders of white farmers and the nightly attacks on opposition supporters in Harare's townships, a quieter purge is underway of ordinary Zimbabweans who want rid of President Robert Mugabe's government.

Some opposition supporters are fired from the police and civil service. Others suddenly find it hard to buy traders licences or to keep their jobs as municipal bus drivers. In chief Nembire's fiefdom it is teachers who are the target. The chief's at times ungrammatical letter to the education ministry is a revealing account of why he wants rid of the four teachers. He is, he says, a member of the ruling Zanu-PF while the teachers are allegedly in contact with a local opposition leader, an R Shanya, who was a target for the ruling party's thugs during last years parliamentary elections.

"We have face serious problems with teachers of Nembire school through political activities at our area which is not good to us," the chief writes. "Even myself, I am Zanu PF member. I don't want any party to my area. Our MP, Kasukuwere S, told us to hand over our case to minister Gezi to assist us to remove dangerous teachers. They are in connection with R Shanya who was beaten by Zany PF [at the] time of elections." The chief's letter says that the district administrator, the highest government post in the area, told him to "take action to get them away". Perhaps most sinister, chief Nembire asks to be put in touch with Chenjerai "Hitler" Hunzvi, the leader of the war veterans who have violently occupied white-owned farms, killed farmers, murdered their workers and attacked the government's opponents.

"We are leaving in fear through political affairs caused by Shanya and his friends," the chief writes. It hardly seems likely given the nightly attacks by government thugs on opposition supporters in Harare's townships and across the country. Soldiers, police, "war veterans" and an increasingly significant criminal element are let loose on areas identified as strongholds of anti-government dissent. "Minister, I don't want to see this teachers. They should leave my school," the chief concludes.

The education ministry's director of schools, LC Bowora, raises no objections. "You are advised that the ministry's position is that teachers who are not wanted within their employment environment, for whatever reason, should be assisted to transfer to other areas," he wrote. Chief Nembire was free to sack the four teachers. Every other opposition supporter in his area got the message. Anything but total loyalty to Robert Mugabe will cost you your job if you work for the state. And it may even cost you your life.

From New Vision (Uganda), 22 March

Total DRC Exit to Delay - Kategaya

Stockholm - The full withdrawal of Ugandan troops from the DRC will not be possible until there is unity and stability in the country, Ugandan foreign minister Eriya Kategaya said Wednesday. "We would not have any reason to maintain troops in the DRC if the country was stable and under control," Kategaya told a news conference after a meeting with his Swedish counterpart, Anna Lindh, whose country currently holds the six-month rotating European Union presidency. He added that the situation in the DRC is not just one of internal politics of relevance only to Kinshasa, as it has broader consequences for neighbouring countries. "The situation affects the whole region," Kategaya said. "Uganda's neighbours, the DRC and Sudan, are faced with serious problems."

A troop pullback from front-line positions by all belligerents in the complex war in the DRC began last Thursday under an accord reached in December. The retreat 15 kilometres (nine miles) from about 100 front-line positions by forces is the first phase of a complete withdrawal. Kategaya said seven battalions or some 4,000 soldiers - more than half of the forces Uganda had committed to the DRC - had been redeployed from the front lines. He said on Tuesday, a battalion of Rwandan soldiers, almost 800 men, had been repatriated by plane from the DRC to Kigali. Rwanda and Uganda are the principal backers of rebels who launched a rebellion in 1998.

From Internews (Tanzania), 22 March

Soldiers Return Home From DRC

Kigali - Another contingent of Rwandan troops withdrawing from the DRC arrived in the capital Kigali on Tuesday. The first group left the DRC on 15 February after Rwanda and Uganda officially announced that they would pull out of the country in phases. President Paul Kagame at the Kanombe Airport received the battalion, which had been stationed in Kipuzi inside the DRC. About 60 soldiers arrived by plane while 1,600 others arrived on foot from North Katanga. Rwanda has started to pull back troops from frontline positions in the Congo in compliance with the Lusaka peace accord to restore peace in the Central African republic.

Speaking to journalists at the airport, Kagame said that the withdrawal was aimed at ensuring that the accord, signed in Lusaka, Zambia, last year, was implemented as agreed to by the warring parties. "We agreed that all the parties in the conflict would withdraw 15 km [from their positions inside the DRC]. But my troops withdrew by another 200 km," Kagame added. However, he said that some of the troops would remain at the new fallback positions until the other parties in the conflict demonstrated "sufficient good will" towards fulfilling the accord. The Rwandan leader said that a complete withdrawal of his troops depends on the response of the other parties in the conflict. Uganda has said it will withdraw more troops from the DRC this week.

Rwanda sent troops into the Congo in 1996 to fight elements of the former Rwandan Army (FAR) and the Interahamwe, militiamen allied to the then ruling Movement for National Development and Democracy (MRND), who fled into the DRC after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Kagame said that the objective of sending troops into the DRC had been achieved. Moreover, he added, the government was finding it difficult to sustain the troops in the DRC. "Our objective was to ensure that they [the Interahamwe and former FAR officials] do not attack Rwanda. I think this objective has been largely achieved," Kagame said.

Initially, Rwandan and Ugandan forces supported the late President Laurent Kabila to take over the DRC from Mobutu Sese Seko, with the tacit understanding that he, in turn, would help them disarm and arrest the militia and FAR soldiers. However, Kabila later fell out with Rwanda and Uganda and allegedly armed not only the FAR and the Interahamwe but also the Burundi rebel group FDD and the Congolese Mayi Mayi resistance. Kabila invited Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia into the DRC to fight what he termed the "occupation of DRC territory" by Rwanda and Uganda. Kabila was assassinated in January. His son, Joseph Kabila, took over and has reiterated his commitment to the implementation of the Lusaka accord, prompting the latest withdrawal of both Ugandan and Rwanda troops.

The soldiers who returned on Tuesday are some of several thousands expected back home in the near future. Colonel Karake Karenzi, the commander of the Northern Katanga region, told Internews at the weekend that other battalions were expected to arrive on foot, covering a distance of about 500 km to the shores of Lake Tanganyika, where they will then be collected by boat.

Kagame said he was hopeful that the United Nations would expand its peacekeeping operation in the Congo to facilitate the proper implementation of the accord. However, he expressed concern about the small number of UN troops on the ground. He said he was happy that the UN has promised to deploy more troops in the DRC. "What remains to be done is something that can be dealt with in the framework of the [Lusaka peace] accord, because there is the issue of disarmament," Kagame said. He said he was confident that the Security Council would advice the UN force in Congo (MONUC) on how to proceed with the disarmament. Asked about the government's plans for the returning troops, Kagame said a number of soldiers would be demobilized although the government was facing serious financial problems. "Those who can go back to school will go back to school, for those who are able to work we will assist them to get work and be reintegrated into the society," Kagame said.

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Friday March 23, 2001


Zimbabwe bans British exams


Zimbabwe has banned schools from entering pupils for British O-level and
A-level exams.

The education minister, Samuel Mumbengegwi, said pupils were "subjected to
emotional and psychological stress" while studying for foreign exams, and
claimed the ban would create a national identity. Chris McGreal, Harare

Mugabe ban on British exams, but not for sons
By David Blair in Harare

 ZIMBABWE'S government stepped up its campaign to erase every trace of the
colonial era yesterday by banning British exams from the country's schools.
Children from almost every Commonwealth country in Africa follow the O- and
A-level curricula specified by the Cambridge Examinations Board. But from
next year state school pupils in Zimbabwe will be forced to sit locally
administered exams.

Samuel Mumbengegwi, the Education Minister, vowed to close any school that
failed to comply with the directive. He told The Herald, the official daily:
"Many parents have already approached the government on why their children
should be subjected to a foreign examination.

"The answer is that no school shall offer any foreign examination. I have
called the leaders of errant schools to my office and directed them to
desist from their intentions with immediate effect."

After 21 years of independence, most Zimbabwean schools remain steeped in
British tradition. Classes are conducted in English, children recite
Shakespeare by rote, O-levels are taken because GCSEs are scornfully
regarded as being too easy and old-fashioned uniforms are worn, often
complete with straw hats.

O-levels are marked by the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council, whose staff
are trained by British exam boards. A-level papers are sent to Britain for
grading. Zimbabwe has a thriving collection of private schools, and teachers
doubt whether the government has the legal power to force these
establishments to drop foreign exams. Modelled on British public schools
from the 19th century, they are favoured by the black elite.

President Mugabe has chosen a deeply traditional education for his own
children. His son Bellarmine goes to the Heritage School, where 75 per cent
of teachers are white. Another son, Robert, attends Hartmann House, a
distinguished Catholic prep school; and his daughter, Bona, is enrolled at
the Dominican Convent School. None of these is likely to drop the British
exams.

Yesterday the Foreign Ministry accused Britain of racism and of plotting to
oust the president. A statement said: "What is known for sure is the
determination by the Labour Government to depose or cause the deposition of
President Mugabe. Current efforts seem to be directed at interfering with
the political process in Zimbabwe for that purpose."

Mr Mugabe's sense of isolation has been worsened by the collapse of
Zimbabwe's economy and the breakdown in relations with the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund. Both ended support for his government in
1999 after economic targets were missed. An IMF assessment team left Harare
yesterday without making any offer to resume assistance. Its statement
demanded "stronger and more balanced policies".
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(An interesting read. Most of these predictions have already come true for our irrigation company (a thriving business this time last year), which was forced to close its doors after being in operation for the last twelve years this March due to a drop in business in the region of 95% over the last twelve months.)
 
  open letter from John Robertson, 20 March

Do you know...

…that 250 000 commercial farm workers live with their families on the three thousand farms that Zanu PF is trying to confiscate from commercial farmers?

…that these farm workers earn about $500 million a month?

…that 850 000 of their children go to schools on those farms?

…that if the 250 000 farm workers lose their jobs, they will lose their incomes and their housing, and their children will lose their schools?

…that more than a million people will have to move from the farms, and many will have nowhere to go?

…that as $500 million a month disappears from the market place, traders and manufacturers all around the country will be forced to retrench many more thousands of people from their jobs in the towns?

…that many other businesses will shrink or collapse, and among them will be banks, transport companies, insurance companies, equipment suppliers and engineers as well as manufacturers and retailers?

…that many thousands more people will lose their jobs because the commercial farmers will no longer be buying inputs worth about $2 000 million a month? Specialised businesses that employ tens of thousands of other people have supplied these, and most will have to close down.

…that when they have no incomes to pay rents or school fees, most of the town people who lose their jobs will have to go back to their homes in the communal lands?

…that most of their children will have no chance of continuing in the already over-crowded rural schools and might lose all prospect of a better life?

…that although Zimbabwe might have produced enough food for next year, many families will have no money with which to buy it?

…that the money we receive from exporting many commercial crops pays for most of our fuel as well as most of our industrial materials, machines and spare parts? When these exports stop, most industries will stop and our transport services will be crippled.

…that our children might soon have no job prospects, no training prospects and no future outside impoverished peasant farming?

…that even the war veterans will soon be overcome by the poverty that surrounds them?

Zanu PF's policies are a Fast Track to calamity, disaster, chaos and misery. The policies have every prospect of failing, taking with them the livelihoods and dignity of millions of people.

Is this what we want?

We have every possible reason to do all that we can to ensure that the current land reform policies are not brought into operation.

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