From The Zimbabwe Standard, 25 March
Diplomats dismiss Mudenge's threats
Diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe have dismissed foreign affairs minister Stan Mudenge's latest attempts to whip them into line, saying Zimbabwe should instead focus on regaining the confidence of the international community. Commenting soon after meeting Mudenge on Wednesday where the minister threatened them with unspecified action, the diplomats said Mudenge's threats were unfortunate and misdirected and that government had to put its own house in order before the diplomats could paint any positive picture about Zimbabwe.
In his latest attempt to arrest Zimbabwe's growing international isolation and poor image, Mudenge on Wednesday summoned Commonwealth and SADC ambassadors and strongly warned them to support the government or face unspecified action. Mudenge told the diplomats that the "people of Zimbabwe will react strongly" if any of them supported the opposition or sent negative reports about Zimbabwe to their countries. The diplomats in turn appealed to the government to abandon its confrontational approach and instead seek to forge rational ties with the international community. Mudenge's threats, they said, were one of the many examples of the poor public relations endeavours exercised by Zimbabwean officials.
Said one Commonwealth diplomat: "As for me, I am not taking him seriously. The meeting was a bore. When I came here I thought I was coming for a productive meeting, but then this? My job here is not to demonise Zimbabwe but at the same time I cannot be expected to fabricate reports. I cannot tell my government that things have improved here when in fact they are getting worse. Lying about events in Zimbabwe is not part of my brief. If the minister wants me to do that then I am not prepared to do so. I will continue painting the true picture of what is happening in Zimbabwe."
British ambassador, Peter Longworth, whose country was at the centre of attacks at the meeting, dismissed Mudenge's threats saying it was time that Zimbabwe changed its attitude towards the international community. Longworth said there had been no need for Mudenge to attack the diplomats, Britain, or any other Commonwealth country. Longworth said it was unfortunate that Mudenge still believed that Britain had the power to influence members of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Zimbabwe. "Diplomats are here to do their jobs and the government should let them do that. Why should they be threatened or attacked? There are a number of issues in this country that as diplomats we cannot ignore.
"Every time an international grouping expresses concern about Zimbabwe, the only explanation expressed here is that it is Britain which has influenced the action. There is no consideration that these countries can make up their own minds. The ball really is in Zimbabwe's court. It is justifiable for the CMAG to raise its concerns. We want the issues of the rule of law cleared and explanations on why court orders are being ignored. Two Standard journalists have been tortured. All these issues raise legitimate concern and we cannot just ignore them," said Longworth. The diplomats said Mudenge's threats would do very little to support government claims that Zimbabwe was a democratic country which respected opposing views.
From News24, 25 March
Zim farmers join land reform
Johannesburg - The Zimbabwe CFU on Sunday said it had put together a strategy that would be to the benefit of the land reform crisis in that country. CFU president Tim Henwood said during an interview on SABC's Newsmaker programme that his union had pledged to work with the government to resolve the crisis. "Many people were killed and the economy of the country has deteriorated. We are calling for an urgent dialogue with the government to resolve the problem." Henwood said there were farms that were available to black people. "People will be trained on how to run the farms but I cannot say how many farms are available. We are committed to negotiating with the government, and pledge to work to find a solution to the land reform crisis," he said. Henwood said that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe would realise that the union was serious about the issue once he had met the CFU.
More than 34 people died in political violence last year in Zimbabwe and thousands were beaten, raped and intimidated when Zimbabwean "war veterans" moved onto commercial farms. In hopes of ending the violence, former CFU president Nick Swanepoel ran advertisements in local papers last week urging farmers to drop all opposition to the scheme to resettle poor blacks on five million hectares of white-owned land. His plan called for the dropping of all legal action against the government and immediately moving 20 000 families onto plots of two to five hectares each, providing them with free tillage, fertiliser and seeds. He has also suggested changing the CFU's name and voting in a black president to lead the group.
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 25 March
Mugabe scoffs at farmers' dialogue
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Friday scoffed at white farmers sincerity, who this week pledged to work with the government to resolve a land reform crisis. "Now they are saying 'we want to negotiate with government, we want to work together with government'" Mugabe said in an address on state television. "Do they really mean it, with honest and in sincere terms or they want again to hoodwink us?" he said in his first reaction to overtures by the mostly white 4 500-strong CFU for the resumption of dialogue with government to resolve the land impasse.
White farmers on Wednesday expressed their commitment to re-open dialogue with government to resolve the violence-wracked land reform scheme. "Commercial farmers re-confirmed their absolute commitment to urgent dialogue with government, without preconditions, and to assisting in the successful, orderly implementation of land reforms," they said at the end of their meeting.
But Mugabe, speaking in a mixture of English and Shona to hundreds of flood victims in the country's northeastern Muzarabani district, said some of the farmers had expected Britain, the former colonial power to step in with aid in the land dispute. "Some [farmers] are saying maybe Britain will come to our assistance - that is what shows us that you [white farmers] are still nationals of Britain, you want help from Britain, you don't seek for help from us," Mugabe said. "Okay, so let Britain assist you," said Mugabe adding but "Britain can never, never, ever get us off the policy we have adopted with regards to land reforms, never ever, no matter what," he added.
The CFU special congress took place this week after more than a year of violence in Zimbabwe's countryside linked to forcible invasions of hundreds of white-owned farms by veterans of the nation's liberation war. The farmers have turned to the courts, and they have already declared Mugabe's land reform plan unconstitutional, ordering the eviction of illegal occupiers.
From our own correspondent, 26 March
Makoni uses Hunzvi tactics
Finance Minister Simba Makoni seems to be getting his advice from Joseph Chinotimba, self styled "leader of farm invasions" and Chenjerai Hitler Hunzvi, leader of the War Veterans Association. Last week Makoni summoned the 35 biggest foreign exchange earning companies in Zimbabwe (Delta, Anglo American, Kingdom Bank etc) to Parliament to explain to him why they were not repatriating foreign exchange into the country. Their reply was that they were not going to repatriate foreign exchange if the government continues to pay them at the fixed exchange rate of US$1 : Z$55 when they were sourcing the currency on the parallel market at almost US$1 : Z$100. Flanked by the Minister of State Security, Nicholas Goche - to get the threat of retaliation across very strongly - Makoni threatened to impose controls, but the companies would not budge.
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 25 March
'Mbeki fears Mugabe' - Tony Leon says he won't shut up
Johannesburg - Tony Leon, the leader of South Africa's main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, says President Thabo Mbeki is afraid of his Zimbabwean counterpart, Robert Mugabe, and so has not been able to take any meaningful steps in denouncing the lawlessness and human rights abuses by the Zimbabwe leader. Leon also said South Africa had a right to intervene in Zimbabwe's internal affairs, especially on issues which affected regional security.
Speaking to The Standard from his Cape Town home, Leon said: "Mugabe's concept is a very strange one indeed. Zimbabwe is a member of SADC and part of the functions of this body is to ensure regional peace and stability. So I fail to understand how the South African government, which is a close neighbour, wants to remain silent while Mugabe practises such a degree of lawlessness and disregard for the judiciary. The ANC is moving one step forward and 10 steps backwards in its approach to the Zimbabwean problem."
Leon added that regional member states should not just sit and watch when Zimbabwe's current crisis is threatening its regional neighbours like South Africa as far as investor confidence and tourism are concerned. The outspoken DA head said there was nothing unusual about him talking about Zimbabwe's crisis, and was surprised that the minister of justice, legal and parliamentary affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, wanted him to stay out of Zimbabwe's internal problems.
During Chinamasa's recent visit to South Africa, he complained to the Mbeki regime that Leon was meddling in Zimbabwe's internal affairs by meeting with commercial farmers and the opposition MDC. Said Leon: "Mugabe himself was vocal against the apartheid regime here in South Africa, and no one said he was interfering in South Africa's internal affairs. So why should his repressive rule be exempted? I was in Zimbabwe a few days ago and the situation is worse than is being reported. The atmosphere is tense," he said.
On what implications the Zimbabwean crisis had on South Africa, Leon said the writing was on the wall. "Right now there are more than two million Zimbabweans living here in South Africa, and soon there will be a massive inflow of more Zimbabweans coming into South Africa and that will not do our economy any good. Mbeki's externally funded national projects face the risk of being written off because of his silence and inaction with regards to discouraging and condemning Mugabe's rule. Big investors and business partners will end up disassociating themselves from South Africa and we cannot just stand and wait for this to happen."
The Standard asked Leon whether his interest in Zimbabwe's land issue was not spurred by a desire to stop the redistribution exercise from spreading to South Africa where white commercial farmers also hold large tracts of prime land. "As far as I am concerned there is no land reform going on in Zimbabwe. All this is Mugabe's trick of staying in power and shutting out the opposition. I do not fear land reform here in South Africa, and if the present government waits for 10 or 14 years before it introduces land reform then it is the government that will be responsible for what happens after that." On whether he sees the MDC pulling through in the forthcoming Zimbabwe presidential elections, Leon refused to comment, but instead said he would want the elections to be fair. "The MDC must get a fair crack of the whip in the presidential elections. That is all I can say."
From The Daily News, 23 March
How does Mugabe want to be remembered?
President Mugabe's studious silence in the face of all the mayhem being caused by criminal elements purporting to be acting with his blessing countrywide is puzzling. Puzzling in that no normal head of state who wants history to mention him kindly, would ever want his name associated, as patron, with the shocking gangsterism taking place in Zimbabwe today.
There is rapidly growing evidence that a tiny group of unelected citizens, a lunatic fringe in his ruling Zanu PF party masquerading as war veterans, is well on its way to completely usurping the authority of his constitutionally elected government as well as supplanting the country's legal and security systems with their own brand of local government administration based on the law of the jungle. It is clear there is now a general acceptance, out of fear no doubt, that all that one needs in order to set themselves above the normal law of the land is to simply declare themselves war veterans and they will be free to pillage, rape, murder and terrorise whole communities with impunity.
When the terror gangs were first let loose onto white-owned commercial farms, it was falsely claimed land-hungry war veterans had lost patience with the government's snail's pace land acquisition process and were, therefore, on spontaneous demonstrations for that cause. Further, to lend a fake legitimacy to Mugabe's purported revolutionary hard-line stance on the land question, the President himself ordered the police to let the farm invaders be.
Of course, everyone now knows the radical stance on land was conveniently contrived for political expediency when he saw defeat staring his Zanu PF in the face in the June 2000 parliamentary election. The terrorising of people in communal lands, which has now spread to high-density suburbs in Harare, is what quickly gave the lie to the land yarn, exposing the whole strategy as a ruthless campaign to destroy all support for the opposition MDC among unsophisticated Zimbabweans.
However, while Mugabe can perhaps afford to ignore calls for the restoration of law and order on the farms - because it is consistent with the declared aim that gave rise to the terror campaign - his deafening silence in the face of the Chenjerai Hunzvi-led gangsters' new campaign to paralyse the operations of local authorities, schools, clinics and private institutions, all in the name of destroying support for the MDC, is totally inexcusable.
We have pointed this out before, but we must remind the President again: The President of the Republic of Zimbabwe is elected on the assumption, by the electorate, that he has their best interests at heart. In fact, on taking his oath of office, he swears to uphold the Constitution of Zimbabwe and, to the best of his ability, do everything possible to ensure that the laws of the country are respected. In short, he supposed to be the embodiment of the law upon which every Zimbabwean's well-being depends regardless of their colour, creed or political affiliation.
All organs and institutions of central government as well as all local authorities are extensions of his own personal authority bestowed upon him by virtue of the office he occupies. As such, anyone who trashes those institutions or local authorities is trashing the President himself and so must expect the law of the land to deal with them severely. And yet, as Mugabe probably knows very well, his so-called war veterans have been disrupting the smooth running of local councils, schools and other institutions throughout the country in a new wave of lawlessness totally divorced from their farm invasions brief.
Among the many incidents which have taken place this month alone, testifying to the self-styled war veterans having become truly a law unto themselves, were: The closing-down of four offices at the Redcliff municipal offices because the officers were suspected to be MDC supporters; the closure of Kadoma municipal offices to force the resignation of executive officers because "they are MDC supporters"; the "dismissal" of 16 Marondera municipal employees for the same reason; the closure of two schools at Sawmills near Bulawayo for similar reasons and the takeover of recruitment of temporary teachers in Mt Darwin.
Will someone please tell the nation who exactly, between Mugabe and his government and Hunzvi and his gangsters, is in charge in this country? Unless Mugabe does something quickly to show he is in charge by reining Hunzvi in, historians are likely to classify him among Africa's worst villains.
From The Star (SA), 25 March
DRC asks UN to demilitarise Kisangani
Kinshasa - The government of the DRC on Sunday asked the United Nations Observer Mission in the DRC (MONUC) to demilitarise Kisangani, the third largest city in the country, which is currently under rebel control. In a public statement, Foreign Minister Leonard she Okitundu also asked MONUC to "work towards the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Rwandan troops and those of the RCD (the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy) from the city of Pweto" in the south-east of the country.
Kisangani, in the north-east, was the scene of heavy fighting last year between Ugandan and Rwandan forces backing the rebels in the former Zaire. Under heavy international pressure, the two armies left the city, which remains under RCD control. The RCD and Rwandan forces captured Pweto, in the mineral-rich Katanga Province, in December 2000 a few days before all the belligerents in the DRC conflict signed an agreement to disengage their troops from front-line positions.
The accord, which began to be implemented on March 14, lists Pweto as a defensive position for pro-government forces. MONUC has confirmed that the rebel and Rwandan forces have withdrawn from Pweto, which however remains administered by the rebels. The Kinshasa government has pledged to allow freedom of movement of goods and people throughout the vast central African country so that a ceasefire can be consolidated, and so that internal trade can resume to resolve an alarming food crisis. The war, which broke out in August 1998, pitted DRC government forces supported by troops from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe against the rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
From CNN, 25 March
Kabila to visit Zimbabwe, discuss Congo war
Harare - Congolese President Joseph Kabila is expected to arrive in Zimbabwe on Monday for his first state visit to Harare since assuming leadership, state media reported on Sunday. Zimbabwe's government-owned Sunday Mail said Kabila would meet President Robert Mugabe for talks, address parliament and meet local business leaders during the two-day visit. "Talks are expected to center on the latest situation in that country as foreign troops begin to pull out," the paper said. Zimbabwe government officials were not available for comment.
Mugabe has deployed over a quarter of Zimbabwe's 40,000-strong army in the DRC to help the government against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda. The 32-month-old conflict has also drawn in troops from Namibia and Angola to prop up Kabila's administration. The UN has reported that foreign troops in the vast country have started withdrawing in line with a United Nations disengagement plan, according to which all troops must withdraw 15 km from frontline positions within two weeks from March 15 to enable the UN to deploy military observers and support troops to monitor a cease-fire. Kabila took over the presidency in January after his father Laurent was assassinated by a bodyguard.
The Zimbabwean government says its begun paying compensation to white farmers whose land has been seized as part of its controversial resettlement programme.
The agriculture minister , Joseph Made, told state-run media that the authorities had paid for improvements to the land, such as buildings, and not for the land itself.
He gave no further details.
The Commercial Farmers' Union, thousands of whose members have had their farms occupied over the past year by government supporters, described the move as insignificant.
A union spokesman said limited payments had been made to a handful of farmers.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
From The Daily News, 26 March
Residents defy threats to attend Tsvangirai's rally
More than 15 000 Chitungwiza residents defied the intimidation and the beatings of the past few weeks by pro-Zanu PF militias, as well as the heavy presence of riot policemen to attend a rally addressed by the MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai was in Chitungwiza to officially open a flea market at Huruyadzo Shopping Centre. The market should have been opened on Sunday, 4 March but the ceremony was disrupted after armed riot police descended on the venue and beat up hundreds of St Mary's residents who had converged at the shopping centre to witness the event.
The centre is the hub of social and political activity in the suburb. The MDC was forced to abandon the function while the police announced that it had immediately placed a ban on all MDC meetings in Chitungwiza. After an urgent application filed by Job Sikhala, the MDC MP for St Mary's, the High Court nullified the ban, saying it violated freedom of expression and association. Residents of Chitungwiza including Sikhala, his pregnant wife and the family's maid, have been harassed and beaten-up by riot police and armed militia in army uniform since the beginning of the year. The armed militia have stormed nightclubs in Chitungwiza, an MDC stronghold, beating up patrons for voting for the opposition party in last year's parliamentary election.
Yesterday, residents of St Mary's turned out in their thousands to witness the official opening of the flea market by Tsvangirai. Addressing the crowd, estimated at more than 15 000, Tsvangirai said President Mugabe had resorted to forcing the people to vote for Zanu PF because he had nothing new to offer. "They can take our freedom, but they can never take away our dignity as a people," said Tsvangirai. He said those who wanted to rejoin the ruling Zanu PF were free to do so because the MDC did not force people to join the party, in the first place. Of late Zanu PF has been parading on television people alleged to be defecting from the MDC. The MDC has dismissed the defections as being stage-managed to hoodwink the people into believing that the opposition party was losing its popularity. Tsvangirai said Zanu PF was digging its own political grave by harassing and beating innocent people. He said the opening of the $500 000 flea market was a clear demonstration of the MDC's determination to bring development, prosperity and peace to the people of Zimbabwe. The project was initiated by Sikhala.
From Business Day (SA), 27 March
Eskom keen on troubled Zesa
As Zimbabwe continues to battle to cope with critical power shortages, Eskom, SA's power utility, has said it is still keen to participate in any partial privatisation of Zimbabwe's Zesa, particularly as Zesa is now up to date with the payments on its debt with Eskom. Dolly Mokgatle, executive director of Eskom's transmission group said last week that Zimbabwe was moving ahead with a privatisation programme for Zesa, although this could still take some time. Mokgatle said Zesa was expected to have settled its entire debt, estimated at R126m, with Eskom in the coming days. A portion of these funds had been placed in an escrow account in Zimbabwe and could be used by Eskom for feasibility studies and other purposes ahead of Zesa's future privatisation, she said. Eskom transmission manager Peter O'Connor said Zesa still had to be structured in such a way that investors would be interested in taking a stake, but it had committed itself to greater private sector involvement.
Among the options that Zimbabwe could embark on are offering an equity stake in Zesa, it could sell off or get partners for some of its power stations, or it could unbundle Zesa and sell stakes in its generation, transmission or distribution divisions. O'Connor said that Eskom was keen to participate and this would probably be done through Eskom Enterprises, a wholly owned subsidiary of the SA utility. There have been some industry concerns about the impact of high risk investments in Africa on Eskom's credit rating. Ratings group Standard & Poor's has given Eskom a stable local currency rating of A- and a foreign currency rating of BBB- which is closely linked to SA's sovereign rating. S&P's London-based Infrastructure Finance Ratings associate Jan Plantagie said yesterday that Zesa's debt with Eskom was a comparatively small amount. The fact that Eskom had managed to get any repayment of the debt that Zimbabwean utility originally owed was a positive sign, he said. Plantagie said that Eskom had made it clear that any acquisitions into Africa would be done through its wholly owned subsidiary, Eskom Enterprises.
From The Wall Street Journal (US), 26 March
Australia Zimbabwe Platinum Gives Go Ahead On Ngezi Mine
Sydney - Zimbabwe Platinum Mines Ltd. of Australia said Monday it will proceed with the development of the Ngezi open cast platinum mining project on the Great Dyke in Zimbabwe.Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. equity participation has been secured, as has project debt funding by Absa Bank Ltd., subject to shareholder approval, the company said in a statement. The Zimbabwean government also has given its support to the project, providing Zimbabwe Platinum Mines with the necessary approvals, it said. The South African Reserve Bank has approved the investment and debt funding.
Zimbabwe Platinum Mines, or Zimplats as it
is commonly known, said Impala has agreed to buy from Zimplats a 30% interest in
the Ngezi mine and the Hartley Platinum joint venture company for US$30 million.
Absa has committed to project debt funding of up to US$30 million on terms that
include political risk insurance. Zimplats and Impala Refining Services also
have an agreement in which Impala Refining will buy from Zimplats the smelter
matte containing the platinum group metals, gold, nickel and copper, which will
be produced from the Ngezi open cast mine ore.
Also under the agreement,
Zimplat's 51% stake holder, Delta Gold Ltd., will sell a 30% stake in Zimplats
to Impala and ABSA, reducing its stake to 21%. The share sale will be made at
A$1.25 a share for a total sale price of A$33.1 million. Ngezi is expected to
cost US$50 million to develop and first production is targeted for early 2002.
Ngezi is expected to produce 100,000 ounces of platinum and a further 100,000
ounces of other platinum group metals or gold a year over a 20 year period.
Zimplats plans to truck ore from Ngezi for processing at the existing Hartley
facilities at Selous 75 kilometers away.
Briefing reporters, Zimplats Director Peter Vanderspuy said the size of the project could be doubled after three years. Such an expansion would make it feasible to construct a processing plant on site and lead to the development of further platinum resources to feed the Hartley processing operations. While Impala and ABSA have stakes in only the initial Ngezi development, Vanderspuy said Impala would be the "obvious" candidate to be invited to participate in any Ngezi expansion and other developments in the area. Zimplat's total resources in the Great Dyke area that includes Ngezi and Hartley amounts to 316 million ounces of platinum group metals. "Impala and ABSA are both very highly regarded in their respective activities and they are demonstrating their commitment to support Zimplats in becoming an important new and independent producer of platinum group metals, based on the world's second largest resource of these metals," Zimplats Managing Director Roy Pitchford said in a statement.
From The Times (UK), 27 March
Mugabe moves to stamp out dual nationality
PRESIDENT Mugabe took the first legal steps yesterday to compel Britons living in Zimbabwe with dual citizenship to choose one nationality or the other. It could force thousands to leave the country. A Bill to amend the citizenship law in Zimbabwe, published yesterday, will oblige British subjects either to become Zimbabweans or to relinquish their British citizenship and apply for permanent residence to a Government now openly hostile to Britain.
About 26,000 Britons live in Zimbabwe and a large proportion are believed to have dual nationality. Although dual citizenship has been technically illegal since independence in 1980, until now the Zimbabwean authorities have turned a blind eye. Ian Smith, the former Rhodesian leader, is one of the best-known figures who will be forced to make a choice. Others will include senior members of the judiciary, the Civil Service and the business and farming communities. Among those whose citizenship is being investigated is that of the Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay, who was born in Manchester and who legally holds both Zimbabwean and British passports. Earlier this month the Chief Justice bowed to implicit threats of violence and resigned.
The move by the Zimbabwean Government has placed the Foreign Office in London in a difficult position because it recognises that many countries around the world, including the United States, also ban dual citizenship. The decision by Harare to enforce the dual nationality law is seen as another illustration of Mr Mugabe's toughening approach towards British passport-holders. In the past, all Zimbabwean nationals who also held foreign passports had to renounce their foreign citizenship, but this law required the renunciation to be made only to the Zimbabwean authorities and not to the foreign government. Britons renounced their British citizenship and handed in their passports to the Zimbabwean citizenship office, which then passed them to the British High Commission. However, the renunciation in Zimbabwean law had no effect in British law and the High Commission gave the passports back to their owners.
British diplomatic sources said those who decided to drop their British nationality had the right to change their mind at a later date. If the law is passed, it means that those dual citizens who opt for British citizenship - possibly several thousand people, mostly whites who are opposed to Mr Mugabe's rule - will lose the right to vote in presidential elections due next year. Another Bill published yesterday seeks to outlaw Zimbabwean political parties from receiving financial or material support from abroad, a move aimed at stifling foreign funding for the opposition MDC. The MDC is known to receive a large proportion of its financial backing from abroad.
From The Daily News, 26 March
Commonwealth insists on sending fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe
The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (Cmag), which was threatened from coming to Zimbabwe, remains defiantly determined to visit the country and investigate reports of intimidation of the Judiciary and the media and the collapse of the rule of law. Daniel Woolford, the public affairs officer of the eight-member Cmag, said: "All hope of the fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe has not been abandoned. Don McKinnon, the secretary-general, has written a detailed letter to President Mugabe, stating the background to the whole exercise. We are awaiting a response from Mr Mugabe, but in the meantime plans to visit Zimbabwe are still intact." Woolford was speaking from London in an interview with The Daily News over the weekend.
Professor Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of State for Information and Publicity in the President's Office, immediately denied knowledge of the Cmag's letter to Mugabe. "That is a blatant lie. We have not received any correspondence from them. They made a Press statement about a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe and we expressed our position through Stan Mudenge, the Foreign Affairs Minister," said Moyo. "If they want to volunteer information to The Daily News, why don't they volunteer the letter as well," Moyo said when contacted for comment yesterday. "I am fed up with these false claims," he said. Woolford declined to disclose the contents of the letter to Mugabe for diplomatic reasons.
The mission to Zimbabwe consists of Foreign Ministers of Barbados, Australia and Nigeria. Mudenge, a former chairman of the committee, maintained his stance that Cmag was not welcome to Zimbabwe and declared the proposed visit illegal. He said Cmag had no mandate over Zimbabwe. "Zimbabwe is not part of their mandate. We are clearing up issues with the UNDP first, then we can look at a possibility of a Commonwealth mission to come," said Mudenge. Mudenge said South Africa was carrying out a study to expand the scope of Cmag, findings which would be tabled at the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane (Chogm), Australia in October. "Instead of dispatching emissaries to Harare, Cmag should send its mission to London to persuade the British government to honour its commitment under the Lancaster House Agreement to help with the funding of the land resettlement programme in Zimbabwe," he said. Mudenge urged Commonwealth member states to bring Cmag back on track so that it operates within its mandate.
Speaking to the Voice of America on Friday, McKinnon said Mudenge's response was not the end of the chapter. McKinnon said: "I never see that as the End of a chapter in any way and we'll persevere. Zimbabwe is still a member of the family and we accept them as that." Conceding that the announcement to send a mission to Zimbabwe "probably puts a little strain" on relationships, the secretary-general, however, said no consideration had been given to suspend Harare from the Commonwealth. "It hasn't reached that stage. Suspension is the sort of thing that happens very automatically when a military regime takes over from a duly elected government." He said the mission to Zimbabwe was crucial as the Commonwealth ministers would be in a better position to brief Chogm leaders in Brisbane.
From The Financial Times, 27 March
Kabila, Mugabe discuss ties
Harare - In his first official state visit since taking office two months ago, Congolese President Joseph Kabila on Monday held talks with Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president and his closest ally. The two were accompanied by their foreign ministers and government ministers and officials from the security, economic, agricultural and tourism ministries. Officials said the talks had focused on the peace process in the DRC, the progress of disengagement of the warring parties and economic co-operation. Mr Kabila will on Tuesday meet business leaders and then address the Zimbabwe parliament. At least some of the opposition MDC members are likely to boycott the address.
Mr Mugabe's involvement in the Congo war is hugely unpopular in Zimbabwe and the high-profile nature of the visit, including the address to parliament, underlines the government's disregard for public opinion. In an effort to counter this, government officials are at pains to stress the potential economic and financial benefits to be secured from cementing the alliance with Congo. At present, Zimbabwe's economic links with the country are marginal but Harare is determined to derive some benefit from its lengthy and costly involvement in the conflict.
Highlighting the gap between Zimbabwe's worsening economic crisis and the government's political ambitions, including the Congo alliance, Zimbabwe's foreign currency market subsided into gridlock yesterday following last week's decision by three big foreign banks - Barclays, Standard Chartered and South Africa's Stanbic - to withdraw from the parallel market. Their move followed threats of sanctions - including the possible loss of their banking licences - by Simba Makoni, finance minister, who subsequently gave similar warnings to locally-owned banks. But bankers said the local banks had ignored the minister and were continuing to operate in the parallel market. The Zimbabwe dollar is trading in the parallel market at about Z$115 to the US dollar - more than double the official rate of Z$55. Orders for foreign currency at the official rate are building up from the state-owned National Oil Company and other state-owned companies.
From The Guardian (UK), 27 March
Troops pull back in Congo
Harare - President Joseph Kabila of the DRC flew to Zimbabwe yesterday for talks with his main military backer, Robert Mugabe, as the major belligerents begin to implement a peace accord to end central Africa's two-and-a-half year war. The UN says Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia have all met a commitment to pull back nearly 10 miles at about 100 key locations along the 1,500-mile frontline in Congo. The various forces are scheduled to disengage completely along the front by Thursday.
But a number of obstacles remain to the peace plan, including persuading foreign forces to withdraw from Congo altogether, establishing political talks between the government and rebels, and whether a transitional administration should replace Mr Kabila's rule. Mr Kabila has shown more willing than his murdered father, Laurent, to end the war and has permitted the deployment of the first UN peacekeepers. But few believe he is in full control of his government, and there are powerful elements in his regime opposed to talks with Congolese rebel groups until their Rwandan and Ugandan backers pull troops out. There are also questions about whether any of the foreign leaders involved, including Mr Mugabe, is really interested in seeing Kinshasa reassert its authority. They all have strong financial incentives to keep a foot in Congo. Today, Mr Kabila will address Zimbabwe's parliament, only the second foreign leader to do so since independence. But behind the scenes, it is likely to be Mr Mugabe who lays down the conditions for finally ending the war.
| The world should know what is happening here | |
|
3/27/01 8:06:20 AM (GMT +2) |
ALL citizens anxious for
the return of the rule of law should welcome with brass band parades any
individual or agency coming to Zimbabwe to find out the extent of the
lawlessness surrounding us.
The whole world needs to
know that the so-called war veterans are running this country, effectively. They
engineered the crisis in the Judiciary, which culminated in the forced
retirement of Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay. They publicly threatened to
physically harm the Supreme Court judges if they did not resign.
They staged
noisy demonstrations outside the offices of The Daily News before its printing
press was bombed in January. They have beaten up
Journalists of the
independent Press. They virtually run the State
broadcasting network, with
their leader, Chenjerai Hunzvi, able to appear on television as and when he
wishes.
They have closed down government offices, local council offices,
clinics, hospitals and, it now seems, creches.
The world must know that the
government of Zimbabwe, notwithstanding its robust protests, is lamentably
unable to deal with the lawlessness unleashed on the country by the so-called
war veterans. In truth, the people are virtually at their mercy.
And who are
they? These are people who make the outrageous claim that they fought for the
independence of this country, but are now about to destroy all the vestiges of
the pride and dignity that the people felt on that day on 18 April when the
Union Jack was lowered and the new flag of Zimbabwe was hoisted in its place.
They are about to drag through the mud of infamy the proud name of the true
liberators who sacrificed their lives for the freedom of their compatriots. And
all because a party which has destroyed the economy of this country has become
so desperate to hang on to power it is cynically willing to let a group of
people do its dirty work for it, to kill and maim innocent, unarmed citizens
because they believe there is an alternative to Zanu PF and the failure it
symbolises.
If the Commonwealth, the United Nations, the European Union, the
United
States Congress, the British Parliament or the Organisation of
African Unity wish to send fact-finding teams here the people ought to welcome
them.
The government itself ought to welcome them because it is a lie that
everything is running smoothly. There is only chaos if a group of people,
without any legal status, can dismiss council workers from their jobs, teachers
from schools or order the arrest of innocent citizens on unproven charges.
The Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing,
Ignatius Chombo, challenged in Parliament to explain how war veterans could
close down council offices, declared boldly that they were not allowed to do
this under the law.
But then he suggested, with monumental and shameless
lameness, that some of the offices were being closed “by the people”, outraged
by the alleged shoddy performance of the councils.
This is a load of
rubbish. Chombo and all of us know that he and his colleagues in government,
including President Mugabe, are so frightened of the war veterans, all they have
done since February last year, when these so-called heroes launched their
lawlessness on the farms, was to issue empty statements calling on them to
behave themselves.
How many times, for instance, has Vice-President Joseph
Msika publicly rebuked the war veterans? And how many times have they blithely
ignored him?
So far, incidentally, we have not once heard Mugabe himself
publicly
rebuking the war veterans for any of the lawlessness they have
committed since February last year.
As soon as he defied the High Court
orders requiring them to move out of the farms they had illegally occupied, he
signed a blank cheque for them and may have signed the death warrant of his own
political career in the process.
Zanu PF owes its victory in the 2000
election to the war veterans. The strong suspicion persists that the 35 or more
people who died in the election campaign were killed by the war veterans or on
their orders.
For this reason, Mugabe and his party feel obligated to the
war veterans. If the Zanu PF plan is to use their terror and murder tactics in
the run-up to the 2002 presidential election as now seems obvious then the world
definitely needs to know what the opposition will be up against.
And the
violence this time may not be one-sided, for most people feel they have had it
up to here with the so-called war veterans. Enough is enough they feel.
| War provides golden opportunity for corruption | |
|
3/27/01 8:08:12 AM (GMT +2) |
Alex de Waal
LONDON Why is there war in Africa?
Many academic reputations
have been built and ruined trying to answer this question, proffering a wide
range of “root causes”: the superpowers’ confrontation during the Cold War, the
geopolitical vacuum that followed; Africa’s unequal incorporation into the world
economy; ethnic and religious divisions; the legacy of colonially created
rivalries; weak or collapsing states; overblown “winner-take-all” states;
foreign meddling; lack of international interest.
But what happened to what
is perhaps the most common theory of war propounded by historians of Europe:
that wars arise from the (mis) calculations of interest by political leaders.
Niall Fergusson writes in The Pity of War: “The First World War . . . was
nothing less than the greatest error of modern history”
Gabriel Kolko, in
Century of War, attributes European wars to the self-delusions of political
leaders who believed they could control and in a meaningful sense “win” a war.
A parallel with Europe in the first half of the 20th century may not be
appropriate for contemporary Africa.
Our hypothesis that war is started by
men who mistakenly believe that they can control it and benefit from it is so
simple and obvious that it has usually been advanced only by those who study
far-gone times.
All history indicates that war, once started, cannot be
controlled and can rarely, in any meaningful sense, be “won”.
In almost any
war of the last 100 or so years the winners, if any, have been the bystanders.
So, why does a political leader start a war? Does there come a point at
which a military leader is so fatigued by the demands of politics he says, “F**k
this political/diplomatic process.
“It’s too slow and too difficult.
“Let’s just have a battle and kill some people and sort it all out.”
Probably yes.
And probably he feels a surge of emotion or relief that he
has delivered his (and his country’s) future back into the hands of fate. And
then the moral decay sets in.
Human life becomes relative. The logic of war
takes over. The demand of winning, or avoiding defeat, rules all.
Politics,
life, emotion, the calculus of means and ends, enters an alternative universe.
The longer or bloodier the conflict becomes, the higher the stakes and the
harder to give way. War breeds war. Militarism breeds militarism.
The
exhilaration of decision, the orgiastic delight at sending young men to their
deaths, becomes the weariness of entrapment in a maze of confusion and
hopelessness.
The delusional thinking that sparked the initiation of the war
is compounded.
And any peace settlement would only expose the flawed
decision-making and debased values of the man who made the decision to go to war
in the first place.
Since war was probably a cop-out from addressing tricky
problems, how is the initiator of the war going to explain that after a peace
settlement everyone has to go back to conducting messy and uncertain politics at
square one, or square minus one or minus 250.
War, especially protracted and
costly war, demands a narrative of comparable scope and grandeur to make it
meaningful, to keep its initiators in power, and preserve their legitimacy
before their people.
Nothing justifies genocide, but it is a historic
reality that genocidal extremism in Rwanda developed after the Rwandan Patriotic
Front invaded in 1990.
The Southern Sudanese have legitimate claims to
self-determination and deep-seated historic grievances.
But Islamic
extremism exploded and took power in Khartoum after the Sudan Popular Liberation
Army launched its rebellion.
Similarly, southern separatism and anti-Islamic
sentiment have grown massively after the national Islamic coup.
Eritrean
nationalism was nourished in the crucible of the thirty-year struggle against
Ethiopia.
And in Africa, where the weaponry for battlefield escalation may
be too expensive, and the bureaucratic machinery for mass conscription too
ineffectual, our war-makers must resort to ideological escalation instead.
Ethnic or religious extremism is a poor country’s Panzer Brigade, and its
leader’s Viagra a way of sparking into life the paralytic centralism that
afflicts a militarised regime with no war to fight.
War is also a golden
opportunity for corruption.
It is an expensive business, and if the
frontline commanders can finance it from their own entrepreneurial activities,
so much the better.
As for the soldiers, few African militaries can afford
to pay pensions or support families, so the opportunity to earn enough cash to
buy a small hotel or nice car replaces the more standard benefits provided in
industrialised countries. Wars generate wars.
While almost every citizen
and soldier becomes weary of war and dreams of finding a way of getting leverage
on the war-makers, those in charge derive power, wealth, legitimacy, and
psychological satisfaction from the state of affairs. Peace for them is a
problem.
The central dilemma of peacemaking is that peace has to be made
between the war-makers, deluded thugs though they are. But satisfying the
demands of the war-makers can only leave a country in a deeply vulnerable
position, ruled by people for whom personality, ideology, constituency, and
history establish a dangerous proclivity to start fighting again.
The
long-term challenge is the demilitarisation of politics: creating an environment
in which the use of force for political ends no longer commands any legitimacy.
Africa’s world war is the continent’s biggest mistake. It is in the hands of
Africa’s leaders to stop it.
By Alex de Waal is the director of Justice
Africa
| External exams ban outrages most parents | |
|
3/27/01 8:52:42 AM (GMT +2) |
Staff Reporter
PARENTS and
representatives of private schools are outraged by the new government
regulations, which make it compulsory for Ordinary and Advanced Level students
to write local examinations offered by the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council
(Zimsec).
Dr Samuel Mumbengegwi, the
Minister of Education, Sport and Culture, said last week that all schools whose
examinations were marked by foreign boards would be de-registered and closed,
with effect from next year.
The Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, last week told Parliament the ban on external
examinations was meant to preserve foreign currency.
John Calderwood, the
headmaster of Peterhouse Girls’ school and chairman of the Conference of Heads
of Independent Schools of Zimbabwe refused, through his secretary, to comment on
the new regulations.
Heritage Senior School, a private school in Harare,
last week published an advertisement offering 14 subjects at Form Three. The
examination board is the IGCSE, a British institute.
Yesterday, David
Austin, the managing director of the school, said: “The board will be meeting
soon to discuss the issue and we will also make our presentation to the
Minister.”
Parents who spoke to The Daily News said in a democratic society,
it was up to individuals to choose the right curriculum for their children.
Farai Mutero, a parent, said: “Some of the government ministers went to
schools outside the country and their children are writing these examinations
abroad. They have no right to choose what is good for our children.”
At
least three government ministers, Stan Mudenge of Foreign Affaitrs,
Herbert
Murerwa of Higher Education, Jonathan Moyo of Information, and
former
Agriculture minister, Kumbirai Kangai, are known to have children who attend
school outside Zimbabwe.
Mumbengegwi singled out the Cambridge University
Local Examinations
Syndicate and the International General Certificate of
Secondary Education
(IGCSE), two British examinations boards, which he said,
espoused the values of the British.
Zimbabwe stepped up its anti-Britain
rhetoric last week over a proposal to send a Commonwealth fact-finding mission
to Zimbabwe because of the
worsening crisis over the rule of law, the stand
off with the Judiciary and the expulsion of journalists, as well as charges by
the government that Britain is determined to overthrow President Mugabe.
Mutero said the government should not hide behind the issue of values.
The real problem, he said, was the shortage of foreign currency because the
government has in the past failed to release “A” Level results in time because
of non-payment of money to Cambridge.
“They should just say they are broke,”
he said.
A spokesman for one of the private colleges said local examinations
were not monitored professionally.
He cited cases of leakages, mix-ups in
examination papers, and errors in the question papers.
“The major issue is
the fear of leakages of examination papers.
A few years ago, the late Edmund
Garwe, the then Minister of Education,
resigned following the leakage of a
Junior Certificate examination paper at his house,” he said.
Dr Isiah
Sibanda, the director of Zimsec, was said to be attending meetings when The
Daily News contacted his office.
Tendai Manake, another parent, said there
were no jobs in Zimbabwe and it was necessary to have one’s child examined by an
internationally recognized institution so that students were marketable on the
job market in any country.
Mumbengegwi said they were about 30 schools that
intended to offer both
Zimsec and IGCSE examinations.
He said the the
Education Act was clear that all schools shall offer
examinations as
determined by the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry.
|
HARARE, March 27 (Reuters) - Congo President Joseph Kabila praised Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday for his military support in the Central African country's civil war. But Kabila's speech to Zimbabwe's parliament was boycotted by opposition members, who said the deployment of thousands of troops in the former Zaire was an unjustifiable drain on Zimbabwe's economy. "Zimbabweans have all reasons to be proud of what they have accomplished in the Democratic Republic of Congo," Kabila said, to applause from Mugabe and members of his ruling ZANU-PF party. "Through this act, the people of Zimbabwe and their leader...have proven to the world that they are respectful of fundamental principles governing states and nations," he said. Kabila's address capped a two-day state visit to Zimbabwe, his main ally in a 32-month-old conflict. The Congolese leader flew to Kinshasa on Tuesday evening. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia sent troops to Congo in 1998 to defend the Kinshasa government against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda. Kabila came to power after his father, Laurent Kabila, was assassinated in January. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which occupies 56 seats in the 150-member parliament, said the Congo war had left Zimbabwe's economy in a shambles. The MDC also said it believed Kabila did not deserve to be honoured in the same way as former South African President Nelson Mandela, the last African leader to be given the honour of addressing parliament. "We take great exception to the attempt to equate a man of Mandela's stature with President Joseph Kabila, who is not an elected president and has made no similar contribution to the struggle for freedom," the MDC statement said. Mugabe later told state television that the opposition were "imbeciles" for boycotting Kabila's address. SYMBOLIC VISIT Despite strong opposition at home, Mugabe has maintained a quarter of Zimbabwe's 40,000-strong army in Congo. He says they cannot be withdrawn until Uganda and Rwanda have pulled out their forces. Foreign troops, including those from Rwanda and Uganda, have started to withdraw from frontline positions in line with a United Nations disengagement plan. Political analysts said Mugabe probably invited Kabila to underline to the world the importance Kinshasa attaches to its relations with Harare. Kabila and Mugabe had a private meeting on Monday where the leaders discussed the Congo war, and later led their ministers in talks on economic cooperation. Kabila earlier on Tuesday urged Zimbabwean companies to invest in his mineral-rich country, saying they should take advantage of the strong political ties between the two states. "I would like to invite you to take a look at the opportunities that are limitless," Kabila said in a breakfast speech to 200 business leaders. Kabila said a bilateral agreement to ease trade barriers between the two countries should make it easier for Zimbabweans to do business in the Congo.
Copyright 2001 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. |
HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- The Zimbabwean government has taken the first step in tightening a law against dual citizenship -- a move likely to hit thousands of whites of British descent.
The amendment to the Citizenship Act, which still requires approval from parliament and President Robert Mugabe, says any person wishing to retain Zimbabwean citizenship will have to renounce their foreign citizenship.
A copy of the amendment made available to Reuters on Tuesday said the government also planned to reduce to five years from seven the time a citizen could stay out of the country before losing Zimbabwean citizenship.
The move follows a High Court ruling that the current law prohibiting dual citizenship was impractical because it did not require a person to give evidence that they had renounced any other citizenship.
The amendment said a person would cease to be a Zimbabwean citizen unless "he has effectively renounced his foreign citizenship in accordance with the law of that country and has made a declaration confirming such renunciation."
Under the amendment, the time limit for a person to renounce foreign citizenship would be reduced from one year to six months.
Last June, the government ordered thousands of Britons to surrender their Zimbabwean passports, arguing that they had not complied with a 1984 law banning dual citizenship.
Opposition critics complained the move was aimed at disenfranchising white Zimbabweans ahead of parliamentary election, narrowly won by Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party.
Under Zimbabwean law, anyone who is a citizen and holds a valid Zimbabwean passport can vote.
The High Court subsequently blocked the government from forcing Britons to hand over their passports.
Whites make up less than 1 percent of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people. The government accuses some of bankrolling the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Government officials estimate that up to 20,000 whites with Zimbabwean passports also hold British passports or can claim British citizenship.
When Zimbabwe banned dual citizenship in 1984, many people handed over their British passports to the embassy in Harare. However, Britain has never recognized this renunciation of rights to British nationality.
The British Embassy in Harare was not available for comment.
Copyright 2001 Reuters.
