nasdaq.com
In Broke
Zimbabwe, Bank Can't Afford To Print New
Money
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)--In a
sign of Zimbabwe's dire economic straits,
the central bank was unable to
print new money because the heavily indebted
government failed to give it
enough hard currency to import special paper,
inks and security seals, state
radio reported Friday
Zimbabwe lurched
closer to economic collapse as banks ran out of
money, fuel and power
shortages worsened, factories slowed production and
even pay phones were
being scrapped because inflation has made calls too
expensive for
coins.
Shortages of the
largest-denomination banknotes, 500 Zimbabwean
dollars, left banks without
enough cash for regular withdrawals.
The
official exchange rate of 800 Zimbabwe dollars to the U.S. unit.
The black
market, or "parallel" exchange rate, is
1,400-1.
"We have reached an extremely
serious situation. If it continues like
this, the economy will soon come to a
complete standstill," said James Jowa,
chief economist at the independent
Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce.
Acute shortages of gasoline have worsened, with vehicles lined outside
empty
gas stations for up to three days.
Industries and businesses are reporting growing absenteeism by staff
who
can't get transportation to work.
Industrial production is estimated to be more than 60% below
capacity.
Inflation has soared to a record 228% this year and unemployment is
nearly
70%.
Production has been further
hurt by regular power outages, known as
"load shedding," by the state
electricity utility since April 20. Some
factories have been without power
for six hours a day.
Energy Minister Amos
Midzi told state television Thursday that
regional power suppliers have
classified Zimbabwe as "an unreliable
customer" and reserved the right to
shut off power at short notice.
Acute food
shortages have been blamed on erratic rains and the often
violent
confiscation of thousands of white-owned commercial farms
since
2000.
Foreign aid, investment and
loans dried up in protest at political
violence, state-orchestrated human
rights abuses and disputed presidential
elections last year that independent
observers said were rigged.
Foreign
funding accounted for nearly half the hard currency inflows.
The rest came
from tobacco harvests, tourism and mining, all now
sharply
depleted.
"The government is
broke. There's no chance at all of recovery without
a political settlement
and support from the international community," Jowa
said.
Dow
Jones Newswires
05-09-031301ETCopyright (C) 2003 Dow Jones &
Company, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
CNN
Zimbabwe economy teeters on brink
Friday,
May 9, 2003 Posted: 2:31 PM EDT (1831 GMT)
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) --
Zimbabwe lurched closer to economic collapse Friday
as banks ran out of
money, fuel and power shortages worsened, factories
slowed production and pay
phones were scrapped because calls have become too
expensive for
coins.
The central bank was not able to print money because the heavily
indebted
government failed to give it enough hard currency to import special
paper,
ink and security seals, state radio reported Friday.
Shortages
of the largest denomination, the 500 Zimbabwe dollar bill, left
banks without
enough cash for regular withdrawals.
A box of matches costs 15 Zimbabwe
dollars, or two U.S. cents at the
official exchange rate of 800 Zimbabwe
dollars to the U.S. dollar. The black
market rate is 1,400-1.
"We have
reached an extremely serious situation. If it continues like this,
the
economy will soon come to a complete standstill," said James Jowa,
chief
economist at the independent Zimbabwe National Chamber of
Commerce.
Acute shortages of gasoline have worsened, with vehicles lined
up outside
empty gas stations for as long as three days. Some vehicles are
abandoned by
owners in what drivers call "hope" lines.
Industries and
businesses report growing absenteeism by staff who can't get
transportation
to work. It simply isn't available, says the Confederation of
Zimbabwe
Industries.
"The number of man-hours lost as a result is incalculable.
Man-hours also
lost as a result of workers spending many hours in fuel queues
is
mind-boggling," said Farai Zizhou, acting head of the
confederation.
Industrial production is estimated to be 60 percent below
capacity as
Zimbabwe faces its worst economic crisis since independence in
1980.
Inflation has soared to a record 228 percent this year and unemployment
is
nearly 70 percent.
Production has been further hurt by regular
power outages, known as "load
shedding," by the state electricity utility
since April 20. Some factories
have been without power for six hours a
day.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority announced last month that
supplies
of power imported from the Congo and neighboring Mozambique, Zambia
and
South Africa were being reduced because Zimbabwe failed to pay for
imports
in foreign currency.
Energy Minister Amos Midzi told state
television Thursday that regional
power suppliers classified Zimbabwe as "an
unreliable customer" and reserved
the right to shut off power at short
notice.
Zimbabwe imports 35 percent of its power
requirements.
Many stores and offices in downtown Harare closed Tuesday
during a six-hour
power outage that jammed elevators and cashpoints, shut
down refrigerators
and froze computers at firms without back-up
power.
Zimbabwe's coal-fired and hydroelectric generating stations have
been hit by
breakdowns and shortages of spare parts and
equipment.
Acute food shortages have been blamed on erratic rains and the
often violent
confiscation of thousands of white-owned commercial farms since
2000.
The state telephone company says it has begun ripping out its pay
phones.
It said in a statement last week that the largest coin -- 5
Zimbabwe
dollars -- was far too low in value for spiraling call charges. The
company
said it was trying to set up computerized "phone shops" and public
card
phones but warned "this will depend on the availability of
foreign
currency."
Jowa, the chamber of commerce economist, said not
much of that was in sight.
Foreign aid, investment and loans dried up in
protest at political violence,
state-orchestrated human rights abuses and
disputed presidential elections
last year that independent observers said
were rigged.
Foreign funding accounted for nearly half the hard currency
inflows. The
rest came from tobacco harvests, tourism and mining, all now
sharply
depleted.
"The government is broke. There's no chance at all
of recovery without a
political settlement and support from the international
community," Jowa
said.
From The Guardian (UK), 9
May
Reporter willing to face questions, says
lawyer
Steven Morris
Lawyers acting for the Guardian's
Zimbabwe correspondent, Andrew Meldrum,
insisted yesterday he was willing to
be interviewed by bona fide officials
following proper procedures. Meldrum's
legal team suspect immigration
officials intended to deport him when they
turned up in force at his home
after dark on Wednesday night. They have tried
to contact the immigration
authorities to find out why they wanted to speak
with Meldrum, an American
citizen, but have so far been unable to do so.
Meldrum's lawyer, Beatrice
Mtetwa, said: "He remains willing to answer
questions to bona fide officials
provided they follow proper legal procedure
which requires that they state
their inquiry upfront." Alan Rusbridger, the
Guardian's editor, said: "We
are extremely concerned about the intentions of
the Zimbabwean immigration
authorities in pursuing our journalist Andrew
Meldrum. We can only conclude
that this is an attempt to intimidate Andrew
and undermine the operation of
a free press in Zimbabwe, something the
international community should
condemn in the strongest terms." He has
written to the foreign secretary,
Jack Straw, the US ambassador, William
Farish, and international press
organisations urging them to
intervene.
According to Ms Mtetwa, a convoy of at least three
vehicles arrived at
Meldrum's home at 8pm. He was not present. When the
officials were asked why
they were there they said Meldrum was "wanted for
questioning". They refused
to say what the questioning was about. The
immigration officials left to get
reinforcements. Ms Mtetwa said the visit to
Meldrum's home was similar to
previous cases "where nighttime visits by large
numbers of officers
invariably led to arrest, detention and deportation". She
has written to the
immigration authorities confirming Meldrum's willingness
to be interviewed
at the immigration offices in Harare in working hours, once
he is told what
the questioning is about. The Zimbabwean authorities have
been attempting to
imprison and deport Meldrum for more than a year. Last
July the high court
in Harare rejected a move by the government of President
Robert Mugabe to
have him deported. The previous week a magistrates court
acquitted Meldrum
of charges brought under a new press law which threatened
to punish
journalists writing "falsehoods". Shortly before Meldrum's house
was visited
by immigration authorities on Wednesday, Zimbabwe's supreme court
struck
down key sections of the law under which Meldrum had been prosecuted.
Three
journalists have been expelled from the country over the past two
years.
Meldrum is one of the last international journalists reporting from
inside
Zimbabwe. He holds permanent resident status, having covered the
country for
the Guardian for 22 years.
VOA
Zimbabwe Opposition Leader Continues to Challenge
Election Results
Peta Thornycroft
Harare
09 May 2003, 17:19
UTC
Zimbabwe's opposition leader has gone to court to try and force
authorities
to move forward with his legal challenge to President Robert
Mugabe's
election victory a year ago.
Movement for Democratic Change
leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday filed
papers in the High Court demanding
that his legal challenge to the 2002
presidential elections begin.
The
presidential election took place in March of last year. The opposition
said
the election was seriously flawed and, as the law required, filed a
legal
challenge 90 days after the results were announced.
In his petition on
Friday, Mr. Tsvangirai accuses state lawyers of failing
to comply with court
rules. He says, among other things, the state still
refuses to provide ballot
papers and boxes from the disputed election.
He also says a pre-trial
conference held last September did not lead to a
trial date and no judge has
yet been assigned to the case. Mr. Tsvangirai
says all of these breaches of
procedure are illegal.
Last week, Mr. Mugabe and the presidents of three
African countries asked
Mr. Tsvangirai to drop his election challenge to
facilitate peace talk
between the ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition
party.
Mr. Mugabe said he would not talk to Mr. Tsvangirai unless he took
the step.
But the opposition leader responded that he would not withdraw the
challenge
unless an infrastructure was agreed for a transitional authority
leading to
fresh elections in Zimbabwe.
In his petition Mr.
Tsvangirai, who lost the election by 15 percent of the
vote, said he would
object to a judge presiding over the case who was also a
beneficiary of
Zimbabwe's controversial land reform program.
Mr. Tsvangirai said any
judge who had been given a farm by Mr. Mugabe's
administration would be
biased against him.
One of the beneficiaries of Mr. Mugabe's land reform
program is the second
most important legal figure in Zimbabwe, the president
of the High Court,
Judge Paddington Garwe. He would normally hear a case of
this importance.
If Mr. Tsvangirai's application is granted, the trial
will have to begin
seven days later.
BBC
Zimbabwe short of banknotes
|
Banks are issuing smaller
notes |
The Zimbabwe government can no longer afford to pay for the ink and
special paper needed to print the local currency according to the
state-controlled Herald Newspaper.
It said the government had no foreign currency to pay for the
materials, which have to be imported.
Local money will now be added to the long list of shortages in the
country.
Long queues of people waiting outside banks to withdraw cash are
already a familiar sight in the capital, Harare.
This petrol station has had no fuel for a
week |
The shortage of banknotes will add to the frustrations for people who
are already coping with shortages of fuel and basic commodities.
The newspaper report said banks had resorted to issuing the small 100
and 50 Zimbabwe dollar bills (worth 12 US cents and six US cents).
But that is unlikely to help in a country where inflation stands at
228% and prices increase weekly.
|
British Foreign Secretary to Visit
UN
Integrated Regional Information Networks
May 9, 2003
Posted to the web
May 9, 2003
Johannesburg
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will
visit South Africa next week to
conduct bilateral talks and visit community
development projects.
This follows a visit to the region last week by
Walter Kansteiner, the US
assistant secretary of state for African affairs,
to open a trade
information office in Botswana for countries eligible for the
African Growth
and Opportunity Act.
An update on Zimbabwe will be
on Straw's agenda, which will also include
developments in Iraq and other
matters, British High Commission spokesman
Nick Sheppard said on
Friday.
President Thabo Mbeki travelled to Zimbabwe earlier this week to
join his
Malawian and Nigerian counterparts for a series of meetings with
President
Robert Mugabe and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
over the
country's political and economic crisis.
Straw's visit
follows a meeting between the South African president and
British Prime
Minister Tony Blair two months ago, and an agreement that the
two would meet
again to continue discussions.
Relations between Britain and Zimbabwe are
currently strained over the
country's land reform programme, which Zimbabwe
says Britain, as the
country's former coloniser, must pay
for.
ifex.org
Source: Media Institute of Southern
Africa
Date: 09 MAY 2003
Country/Topic: Zimbabwe
Person(s):
Target(s):
Type(s) of violation(s): legal
action
Urgency: Bulletin
(MISA/IFEX) - The following is a 7 May
2003 MISA-Zimbabwe statement:
MISA-Zimbabwe statement on the
repealing of Section 80 of AIPPA
The Zimbabwe chapter of the
Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA-Zimbabwe) welcomes the striking down
of Section 80 of the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA). We regard this as a
victory for all those who believe in, and are
fighting for, freedom of
expression and the rights of media
workers.
We note that since the enactment of the AIPPA Bill,
MISA-Zimbabwe and other
media stakeholders have been calling for the
repealing of not only Section
80, but the entire Act. We believe the Act does
not contain any ingredients
that promote access to information.
Since
the enactment of the AIPPA in March 2002, over 34 charges have been
brought
against journalists and other media persons under Section 80. It was
also
clear that the section was being abused to target private media
journalists
only. Section 80 rendered the practice of journalism criminal
and
impossible.
To date, all efforts to commence dialogue with the concerned
ministry have
proven unsuccessful. It is therefore with great relief and
vindication that
the courts have seen it prudent to strike this section off
the statutes
books. Section 80 was in many aspects similar to some sections
of the
repealed Law and Order Maintenance Act (LOMA). There is no doubt that
the
government simply re-introduced legislation that it knows was
declared
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court a few years ago. MISA-Zimbabwe
hails
the consistency that has been shown by the Supreme Court so
far.
The striking of Section 80 gives us hope that the courts will find
many of
the AIPPA sections that negatively affect the work of journalists
equally
unconstitutional.
MORE INFORMATION:
For further
information, contact Zoe Titus or Kaitira Kandjii, Regional
Information
Coordinator, MISA, Street Address: 21 Johann Albrecht Street,
Mailing
Address; Private Bag 13386 Windhoek, Namibia, tel: +264 61 232975,
fax: +264
61 248016, e-mail: research@misa.org or kkandjii@misa.org,
Internet:
http://www.misa.org/
SABC
Ending Zimbabwe crisis will take pain, sacrifice:
Mbeki
May 09, 2003,
13:30
The longer Zimbabwe's problems remain unresolved, the more
entrenched poverty
will become, and the greater the degree of social
instability, President
Thabo Mbeki said
today.
Writing in the African National Congress' online publication,
ANC Today, he
said it would take pain and sacrifice on the part of
Zimbabweans to end the
economic crisis in that country. Mbeki added that,
contrary to what some in
South Africa claimed, the crisis did not originate
from the desperate actions
of a reckless political leadership. "It arose
from a genuine concern to meet
the needs of the black poor, without taking
into account the harsh economic
reality that, in the end, we must pay for
what we
consume."
Mbeki, commenting just days after he and the presidents of
Nigeria and Malawi
held talks with Robert Mugabe, with Zimbabwe's President,
and the
opposition's Morgan Tsvangirai to help resolve the crisis, said
social
instability would rise as the poor tried to respond to the pains
of
hunger.
The more protracted this instability, the greater would be the
polarisation
and generalised social and political conflict in Zimbabwe. "To
respond to
this, the state will inevitably have to emphasise issues of law
and order,
even as it has ever fewer means to address the needs of
the
people.
"As it responds in this manner, the less it will have the
possibility to
address anything else other than the issue of law and order.
The more it does
this, the greater will be the degree of the absence of
order and
stability."
Unaffordable fuel
subsidy
This was not because of demonic people in the Zimbabwean capital
"harbouring
evil hearts". To come out of the crisis, the people of Zimbabwe
would have to
make serious sacrifices, as demonstrated by the recent sharp
increase in fuel
prices as the government reduced the unaffordable fuel
subsidy. Mbeki said he
remained convinced the people of Zimbabwe had to
decide their own
future.
"Our own experience as a movement (the ANC) tells us
unequivocally, that no
lasting solution to the challenges that face Zimbabwe
can be found, unless
that solution comes from the people of
Zimbabwe
themselves.
"It tells us that no Zimbabweans with any pride in their
country, and respect
for themselves, will accept that another should
determine their
destiny."
South Africa would never treat Zimbabwe as its tenth province.
This country
would continue to encourage the ruling Zanu-PF and the Movement
for
Democratic Change (MDC) to negotiate a common response to
Zimbabwe's
challenges, as was done earlier this week. "We were pleased and
inspired
that the leadership of Zimbabwe itself holds the same
view.
"Accordingly, we hope that all obstacles to the resumption of
the dialogue
between ZANU-PF and the MDC, if any exist, will be removed, so
that the talks
can begin," he said. - Sapa
Financial Times
America
promises aid if Zimbabwe reforms
By
John Reed in Johannesburg
Published: May 9
2003 17:09 | Last Updated: May 9 2003
17:09
America is poised to pour
economic aid into Zimbabwe if an African-led
diplomatic effort launched this
week brings a "credible" blueprint for
political change, a top US diplomat
said on Friday.
"Zimbabwe will need a
tremendous amount of reconstruction, and if the
process leads to a
breakthrough, we are ready to jump in with both technical
and financial
resources," Walter Kansteiner, assistant secretary of state
for Africa, said
in an interview on Friday.
On Saturday Mr
Kansteiner wraps up a tour of southern Africa focused
largely on efforts to
end the stalemate between Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe and his
opponents. On Monday a mission to Harare by three African
leaders extracted
pledges from Mr Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai to hold
talks.
US assistance for Zimbabwe might
include technical aid to rebuild
infrastructure, help in rebuilding civil
society and organising new
elections, as well as direct bilateral aid, Mr
Kansteiner said.
Asked about US
preconditions for aid, he said: "There would have to be
a credible and
legitimate process unfolding, and a transition occurring."
However, he added:
"I don't see any red lines."
In dangling
the carrot of US aid in exchange for a political
settlement between the
warring camps, the remarks go beyond previous
American diplomatic pledges.
Formerly the US had said it would withhold any
help for Zimbabwe until Mr
Mugabe resigns and new elections are held.
With Zimbabwe's economy in free-fall, US and UK diplomatic pressure
for an
African-led political settlement is intensifying. The crisis is
expected to
top the agenda when Jack Straw, UK foreign secretary, visits
South Africa
next week.
Mr Kansteiner called this
week's diplomatic mission led by South
Africa's Thabo Mbeki, Nigeria's
Olesegun Obasanjo, and Malawi's Bakili
Muluzi, "a significant beginning: "I
think it marks a real engagement and
involvement, and I'm quite hopeful," he
said.
His remarks are more upbeat than
most opinion within the region after
this week's talks, which failed to bring
a previously rumoured pledge from
Mr Mugabe to step down. The Zimbabwean
leader also said he would only meet
Mr Tsvangirai if he drops a legal
challenge to his re-election last year.
Some Africans also fear a heavy-handed US attempt at coercive "regime
change"
in Zimbabwe. "The people of Zimbabwe must decide their own future,"
President
Mbeki said in a weekly letter published Friday on the website of
his African
National Congress.
Mr Kansteiner dismissed
the notion, saying: "What we want is regime
legitimacy - for the voice of the
Zimbabwean people to be effectively
heard."
Dear Sir,
It must be a terrible thing in one's dotage to know
that all you have worked for, striven for,
is worthless, that all the world knows that you are
a tired old man with nothing to show for your almost 80 years but hatred,
sycophancy, from the people you are supposed to be leading to whatever your
twisted mind considers your treasured goal.
Hiding in the depths of your palace in fearful
self-imprisonment, only appearing cowering in the most heavily armoured vehicle
in the world, knowing how your people "love" you;
or protected by a host of microphones on a rostrum,
heavily guarded by a bunch of hoodlums in uniform. Barking,
frenzied, spewing hatred like a terrified, sick minded dog barking at shadows,
at everything that moves.
Watching your hated rival walking fearless, made
riotously welcome in the streets of the townships where you dare not go for fear
they might tear you limb from limb (as possibly they well
might.
How are your stomach pains, your headaches?
Worse, much worse? You might be
an object of pity if there had been the slightest pity shown by you for those
you and your henchmen tortured, raped, beat to a pulp. But no;
only now an object of derision - and hatred.
Keep on having your sleepless nights, old man,
tortured by your fears, your insecurity.
Tortured now by the wild rejoicings of the people
of Iraq that they are free from the rule of the Middle Eastern Beast, Saddam
Hussein. And knowing that the people of Zimbabwe will similarly
rejoice when the Beast of Southern Africa is no more. You will, of
course,
recall that the Beast is one with the mighty
Beelzebub below, the Devil himself.
And recall - "those whom the gods would destroy
they first make mad". Feel it coming on, old man?
Or are you way past that stage by now? The curses of millions of
your people
are upon you, and there is no escape from the
punishment those curses will bring you.
Anon
news24
Tsvangirai seeks passport
09/05/2003
16:23 - (SA)
Harare - Lawyers for opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai said Friday they
were trying to secure his passport, confiscated
by the state last year, to
allow him to travel to Malawi next
week.
The Movement for Democratic Change leader wants to meet Malawian
President
Bakili Muluzi over the stalemate do discuss the stalemate in talks
with
President Robert Mugabe's government.
Tsvangirai was invited on
Tuesday by Muluzi the day after he visited
Zimbabwe with South African
president Thabo Mbekei and Nigerian
president-elect Olusegun Obasanjo in an
attempt to bring the MDC and
Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party to negotiations
aimed at ending the country's
crisis.
However, he can only go if he
gets back his passport, confiscated since last
year when he was indicted for
trial on charges of plotting to assassinate
Mugabe.
Tsvangirai's
attorney, Innocent Chagonda, said on Friday he was applying to
the high court
for the release of the passport.
The application would include Welshman
Ncube, secretary-general of
Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic
Change, who is a co-accused
in his trial, and party vice-president Gibson
Sibanda, facing charges of
helping to organise a national strike in March
last month.
The MDC wants the two officials to accompany Tsvangirai to
Malawi, but they
also had their passports seized after criminal proceedings
were opened
against them.
William Bango, Tsvangirai's spokesperson,
said the pro-democracy leader had
been invited by the Malawi high
commissioner in Harare on Tuesday, the day
after the three African leaders'
visit.
Expectations that the three would lean on the 79-year-old Mugabe
to
relinquish his 23-year grip on power evaporated when he said he would
not
talk to Tsvangirai unless he withdrew the MDC's court challenge to
Mugabe's
widely disputed victory in presidential elections last
year.
Chagonda said the meeting with Muluzi in Lilongwe was
provisionally
scheduled for Friday next week, and Tsvangirai planned to leave
Zimbabwe on
Thursday.
Tsvangirai's treason trial resumes on Monday,
and Chagonda said he would
apply for the hearing to be postponed on Thursday
and Friday to allow
Tsvangirai and Ncube to travel to Malawi.
The two,
as well as MDC agriculture secretary Renson Gasela, have pleaded
not guilty
but face the death penalty if convicted. - Sapa-DPA
JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE PR COMMUNIQUÉ
- May 9, 2003
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In
today's Herald newspaper the full page Government advert exhorts the
people
not to subsidise lawlessness and violence and to insist on the rule
of
law. This is ludicrous considering the State sponsored break down
of
the rule of law, particularly in the Agricultural areas of Zimbabwe
over
the past four years. It is just as ludicrous when one considers
the State
sponsored Genocide carried out by the Fifth Brigade in Matabeleland
in the
early 1980's.
The people in the rural areas, farmers and their
farm workers, members of
the opposition and indeed millions of Zimbabweans
have experienced enormous
economic losses as a direct consequence of the
state sponsored break down
of the rule of law. Zimbabweans have
suffered physical and mental torture
over a protracted period and many have
lost their lives as a result.
This is part of the advert "Don't subsidise
their lawlessness and violence.
Insist on the rule of law. If you suffered
any injury, loss or damage to
property or if you suffered any economic loss
as a result of the illegal
stayaway and violent mass action, you have a legal
right to be compensated
by those who organized, encouraged or supported the
illegal stayaway.
Consult your lawyer on what you should do or call us for
more information
at: Dept. of Information and Publicity, Office of the
President and
Cabinet. Phone: 4-703891 or Fax: 4-790402".
Well
this could be interesting for farmers and their farm workers who have
been
illegally and unconstitutionally deprived of their rights by the
state
sponsored machinery. Deprived of their home, their assets, their
income,
their profession, their pension, their right to unbiased recourse to
the
law for crimes perpetrated against them even their right to be heard
on
court prior to eviction without conviction, their right to live
peacefully
without fear of violence, eviction and persecution.
Perhaps
now is the time to take the Government at its word, and see if
their
definition of the Rule of Law applies to every Zimbabwean citizen
across the
board???
JAG is preparing a Rule of Law Case which seeks to prove not
only that
there has been a breakdown in the rule of law in the agricultural
regions
of Zimbabwe but that this has been state sponsored and inspired and
that
state law enforcement agencies such as the ZRP and NDF's have
been
complicit in this, either by active involvement or omission of
or
dereliction to duty in upholding the rule of law.
Submission of
this case is now imminent and in the light of the ludicrous
claims above -
URGENT!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Justice
for Agriculture mailing list
To subscribe/unsubscribe: Please write to
jag-list-admin@mango.zw
JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE LEGAL COMMUNIQUÉ -
May 9, 2003
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rule
of Law Case - URGENT
Farmers Association and Provincial supporting
affidavits:
(To be read in conjunction with JAG legal communiqué of 8 May
2003 for
individual affidavits).
These affidavits need to tie the
affidavits from your farmers' association
area or province together giving an
overall impression of the extent of the
rule of law breakdown. Topics
that might be covered are general but it is
good to give specific examples of
the general topic by referring to an
attached affidavit from one of your
farmers or workers or a specific
experience that you had in this
time.
Some of the topics may include answers to the following
questions:
· Have farmers and their workers been prevented from reaping
their crops in
your area? If so, give a general picture and refer to an
affidavit of a
specific farmer's or give a first hand account of a situation
where you
were involved with such a situation.
· Have farmers and
their workers been prevented from planting crops in your
area? If so,
refer to an affidavit from a specific farmer or give a first
hand account of
a situation where you were involved with such a situation.
· Were farmers
and/or their workers arrested without section 8's or with
nullified section
8's in your area? If so, give a general picture and
refer to an
affidavit from a specific farmer or give a first hand account
of a situation
where you were involved with such a situation.
· Were farmers barred from
returning to their homes and businesses by the
magistrates? If so,
refer to an affidavit from a specific farmer or give a
first hand account of
a situation where you were involved with such a
situation.
· Were
unlisted farmers demarcated and settled by the authorities? If
so,
refer to an affidavit from a specific farmer or give a first hand
account
of a situation where you were involved with such a
situation.
· Were farmers and/or farm workers subjected to forced
evictions from their
homes while the police either stood by or assisted the
invaders? If so,
give a general picture and refer to an affidavit from
a specific farmer or
give a first hand account of a situation where you were
involved with such
a situation.
· Were farmers and/or farm workers
subjected to beatings, pungwes or even
murders while the police failed or
refused to react and arrest the
perpetrators? If so, give a general
picture and refer to an affidavit from
a specific farmer or give a first hand
account of a situation where you
were involved with such a
situation.
· Was maize for farm usage confiscated leaving farm workers
with no food
while the police stood by or aided the individuals
involved? If so, give a
general picture and refer to an affidavit from
a specific farmer or give a
first hand account of a situation where you were
involved with such a
situation.
· Was grazing systematically destroyed
by fire so that cattle had to be
sent for slaughter and ranching operations
closed down while the police
failed or refused to arrest the
perpetrators? If so, refer to an affidavit
from a specific farmer or
give a first hand account of a situation where
you were involved with such a
situation.
· Were farmers forces to pay SI6 payments where they had no
intention of
closing their farms down or laying off their workers? If
so, give a
general picture and refer to an affidavit from a specific farmer
or give a
first hand account of a situation where you were involved with such
a
situation.
· Have particular policemen been involved in "leading"
the invaders or
police stations been manned by invaders? If so, give a
general picture and
refer to an affidavit from a specific farmer or give a
first hand account
of a situation where you were involved with such a
situation.
· Have police refused to take reports and give out RRB and CRB
numbers?
If so, give a general picture and refer to an affidavit from a
specific
farmer or give a first hand account of a situation where you were
involved
with such a situation.
· Have police refused to carry out
eviction orders of settlers or other
court orders that might have brought
farming operations back to normal?
If so, give a general picture and refer to
an affidavit from a specific
farmer or give a first hand account of a
situation where you were involved
with such a situation.
I'm sure
there are other topics that you may wish to bring in to show how
the rule of
law has broken down in your area. No affidavit will be
fully
comprehensive but please attempt to do something on it as a matter
of
urgency. Two or three pages will be more than adequate.
As
individual farmers reading this communiqué please check whether your
farmer
representative at association or regional level is willing to assist
with
this exercise as a matter of extreme urgency. The Quinnell case
seeks
also to show the general rule of law breakdown and we have a deadline
to
meet in two weeks. This is a major step towards
restitution/compensation
and its success depends on whether you choose to
bring out the evidence or
not.
Leviticus 5:1 "If a person sins because
he does not speak up when he hears
a public charge to testify regarding
something he has seen or learned
about, he will be held
responsible"
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for Agriculture mailing list
To subscribe/unsubscribe: Please write to
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JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE LEGAL COMMUNIQUÉ -
May 9, 2003
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
A
further 38 farms (see below) were listed today for compulsory
acquisition
under Section 5 notice in The Herald.
Farmers are advised
that they must object to all Section 5 notices and make
every legal effort to
have their Section 8 orders set aside in the High
Court even reissue Section
8 orders which have a 7 day maturity. Those
farmers who had the first
section 8 set aside in the High Court using the
Tengwe Estate precedent of
bond holders or registered real right Holders
are less vulnerable in that
both section 5 notice and section 8 order are
rendered invalid. Hence a
new process of acquisition has to be initiated
and the first Sec. 8 under
each new process has a 90-day maturity period.
Most vulnerable are those who
had their Section 8 orders set aside using
the Simon and Simon precedent of
section 7 process being out of time in
that this sets aside the section 8
order and leaves the section 5 notice
valid if it is still under 2 years old.
This allows for a re-issue section
8 order with a 7 day
maturity.
However many farmers had both strategies available for
challenge and before
the 25th October 2002 amendment number 2 these farmers
were advised to work
back chronologically in the legal challenges i.e.
challenge under Simon and
Simon first. This means that those farmers with
both strategies available
having received re-issue Section 8 orders might
still have grounds to
challenge if the new process under
Amendment
number 2 has not been followed. Likewise those farmers with
no
procedural grounds to challenge could initiate a constitutional
challenge
citing 2 precedents from the Quinnell case that are applicable;
knowing
full well that the issue will be resolved by the Quinnell case, long
before
their constitutional challenge comes to Court. The interim
relief ruling
granted to Quinnell should be applied and granted.
Likewise urgency should
be claimed.
Farmers requiring clarification on
this should contact me urgently
(011-612595).
Likewise a recent legal
communiqué relating to the new amendment (25th Oct)
is available
electronically or from our office in hard copy.
Anyone requiring
information on the latest listing please do not hesitate
to contact our
offices on 04 799410.
J. W-Worswick
Vice Chairman,
JUSTICE FOR
AGRICULTURE.
BULALIMAMANGWE 1
BULAWAYO 1
CHARTER 1
GOROMONZI
1
GWELO 1
HARTLEY 1
LOMAGUNDI 7
LUPANE 2
MAKONI 10
MARANDELLAS
3
MATOBO 2
MAZOE 1
UMZINGWANE 1
WANKIE 1
GWANDA 4
SALISBURY
1
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for Agriculture mailing list
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Hoovers
Libyan investors due in Zimbabwe for talks on
"acquisition of assets"
May 9, 2003 3:18pm
Libyan
investors are coming to Zimbabwe at the end of the month to re-open
stalled
negotiations on the acquisition of assets here, including the
strategic
Mutare to Harare fuel pipeline, the Zimbabwe Independent
can
reveal.
Government sources this week said officials from oil
conglomerate, Tamoil,
together with other Libyan investors, were edgy after
President Mugabe's
Independence Day interview when he hinted at his
retirement.
"They would like to secure assets as soon as possible to
protect themselves
against any eventuality," a source said.
Apart from
interest in the petro-chemical industry the Libyans have
expressed interest
in agro-processing, the hospitality industry and banking,
but the prize
assets with strategic importance to the North Africans are the
pipeline and
holding tanks in Mabvuku. The Libyans would like to take
control of the
assets to further their influence in the local fuel industry
through a joint
venture company with Noczim [National Oil Company of
Zimbabwe] called
Tamoil-Zimbabwe.
Negotiations between the Libyans and government over the
fuel handling
facilities stalled in December after the two parties failed to
agree on the
value of the assets. Government negotiators called for a proper
audit of the
assets before any deals could be signed. This resulted in Tamoil
cancelling
credit facilities thereby cutting off supplies to Zimbabwe. Since
the
beginning of the year, Zimbabwe has been importing fuel from Kuwait in
an
over-the-counter arrangement.
Government sources this week said the
Libyans would this time around have
their Zimbabwean counterparts at a
disadvantage. Supplies have over the past
two weeks reduced to a trickle with
Harare totally dry last weekend as
Noczim failed to raise foreign
currency.
"The Libyans can dangle goodies in the face of government -like
a line of
credit -and the pipeline is gone," an industry source
said.
The source said this could guarantee supplies in the short term but
there
was the clear and present danger of the Libyans building an empire
and
killing off competition.
"If they take over the pipeline, it is
very likely that the pipeline will
only be used to transport Libyan
fuel."
Why Africa Only Has Four Months to Rescue
Zimbabwe
allAfrica.com
OPINION
May 9, 2003
Posted
to the web May 9, 2003
Allister Sparks
Johannesburg
Now that
President Thabo Mbeki and his colleagues, Nigeria's Olusegun
Obasanjo and
Malawi's Bakili Muluzi, are at last engaged in a serious effort
to resolve
the Zimbabwe crisis, it is time to look ahead to a post-Mugabe
era and try to
assess the country's recovery prospects.
How much of the economic damage
inflicted by Mugabe's madness is permanent,
how much is recoverable, and how
long might a recovery process take?
Even a rough assessment reveals one
stark fact which Mbeki and his
colleagues should note. Time is of the
essence. There is a tight window of
opportunity, between June and September
of this year, when a fairly swift
recovery will still be possible. After that
it will become rapidly more
difficult and full recovery will be less
likely.
Already some of the damage is permanent. Zimbabwe has suffered a
serious
loss of skills, especially in the industrial sector and in the
professions.
Some 60% of the country's trained professional people -
engineers,
accountants, lawyers and doctors - have left the country. Few will
return.
The industrial sector has been the worst hit. Scores of
enterprises have
been forced to close down and others have moved to
neighboring states in a
disinvestment process that eclipses anything South
Africa experienced during
the apartheid years.
One estimate is that
half a billion U.S. dollars of industrial investment
has left the country
annually for the past three years. Again, it will be
hard to persuade any of
these enterprises to return.
The mining sector has suffered the least
harm. Although mining is being
badly disrupted by power cuts at the moment as
foreign electricity
suppliers, Eskom included, demand up-front payments which
the crippled
Zimbabwean fiscus cannot meet, the mines have suffered no
structural damage
and could quickly be brought back to full
production.
And ironically, although the agricultural sector was the
target of President
Mugabe's wildly disruptive "land reform program", which
has been the root
cause of Zimbabwe's economic collapse, it, too, could be
substantially
revived in a relatively short time.
This is because what
Mugabe unleashed was not in reality a land reform
program at all but a
mindless spasm of legalized theft and vandalism which
brought agricultural
production, and thus the economy as a whole, to a
standstill.
But the
wonderfully fertile land is still there, and given bold policies to
reverse
what has been done it could be brought back to levels of production
within a
few years where Zimbabwe could at least feed itself and pay its way
once
again.
Some permanent damage has been inflicted in agriculture too. A
quarter of
the evicted commercial farmers, including some of the most
valuable
producers of specialist crops like seed maize, have emigrated to
prosper in
Australia and New Zealand, and they will not return. But
three-quarters of
the farmers are still in the country, having moved into the
cities and towns
and clung to their title deeds in the hope that things will
change.
At the same time, between 60% and 70% of the farms from which
these
commercial farmers were evicted are now vacant, abandoned by the
black
"settlers" who were unable to operate them because of a lack of
expertise,
financial resources, labour and government
back-up.
Travelling across the country, as I did recently from Harare to
Bulawayo,
reveals a remarkable sight of lush grazing - the livestock
population has
been decimated to a quarter of what it was only three years
ago - and
unworked farmland. Large fields which used to yield crops of maize,
soya
bean, sorghum and tobacco, now lie unploughed and overgrown with
weeds.
A leading Zimbabwean rancher and agricultural specialist, Michael
Clark,
describes what he saw during a recent trip through the once
thriving
Masvingo and Chatsworth farming areas. "Although there were a few
isolated
settler huts," Clark writes in an e-mailed memorandum, "there was
nothing
else. No crops, no cattle, no people, no wildlife, no farmers,
no
production."
Through most of the rest of the country it is the
same, he says, "just an
empty void." Clark describes one farm he visited
which used to run 22,000
head of export quality cattle, and which is now
deserted.
What this means is that with a bold and determined reversal of
policy, the
farmers who are still in the country could be returned to their
unoccupied
farms. A substantial part of the agricultural economy could be
revived.
This should then be followed by a legitimate and sensible land
reform
program, with land properly acquired with fair compensation for
occupation
by authentic black farmers, who should be provided with the
financial
support to acquire the seeds, fertilizers and other equipment they
need to
make productive use of it.
But speed is
critical.
Zimbabwe is bankrupt and to get it up and running again it
needs to have a
tobacco crop in the ground by September. Do that, says John
Robertson, the
country's leading independent economist, and Zimbabwe could
possibly match
its 1999 export earnings of US$600-million next year, compared
with the
miserable US$150-million it earned from tobacco sales this year.
This would
be a lifesaving injection of foreign exchange, the essential
starting point
on the road to recovery.
But, Robertson warns, to
achieve that requires getting the bulk of the
available commercial farmers
back on the abandoned farms by June or July.
In other words, there is no
time for further timidity and egg-dancing by
Mbeki, Obasanjo and Muluzi in
their dealings with Mugabe.
More critical still, if a settlement is
delayed until next year it will be
too late to plant food crops for the 2004
harvest. Starvation, already
ravaging the rural population, will then become
worse with no chance of
recovery until the 2005 season.
The timeline
is achievable. What is needed is a swift agreement that Mugabe
should retire
immediately, with a guarantee of immunity from prosecution for
all his crimes
to ease him on his way, and for a new leader with some local
and
international credibility to take over the leadership of the ruling
Zanu-PF
party.
The former Finance Minister, Simba Makoni, whom Mugabe fired last
year for
suggesting the Zimbabwe dollar should be devalued, would clearly be
the most
competent successor, but he lacks a solid support base within the
party and
other old party hacks are hungry for the job. Again Mbeki and
company should
use their influence to get the right man appointed, for
international
credibility is vital to the recovery process.
That done,
negotiations should then take place between the new Zanu-PF
leadership and
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for a
joint transitional
administration to take over and prepare the ground for
internationally
supervised elections to take place, preferably before the
end of the
year.
That would be enough to win international endorsement of the deal.
The World
Bank and International Monetary Fund would then come on board, and
with the
support of the police and military the reconstruction program could
begin
even before the election.
But if there is any further diplomatic
soft-shoe shuffling, another
agricultural season will be lost and the misery
will turn into catastrophe,
for Zimbabwe and the
region.
Village
Voice
Nat Hentoff
Any Anti-Mugabe Protesters
Here?
Zimbabwe Cleared by United Nations
May 9th, 2003 6:00
PM
The majority of people [in Zimbabwe] are a happy lot despite the
hardships
we're going through. -President Robert Mugabe, The New York Times,
April
24
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
After
a two-day strike on March 18 and 19-described by The New York Times as
"the
largest public protest against President Mugabe since he was re-elected
last
year in a contest that was marred by widespread allegations
of
fraud"-Mugabe's enforcers cracked down on his opponents. There were
the
customary arrests and torturings, as reported in the same New York
Times
story, in which the dictator crowed about his people's "happy
lot."
But there are no protests on the streets of America.
No
American newspaper, as far as I know, has detailed the torture inflicted
on
members of the opposition. However, I have "A Report on Organized
Violence
and Torture in Zimbabwe From 20 to 24 March 2003" from the Crisis
in Zimbabwe
Coalition. As I noted in "Hell Is a Real Place" (October 11,
2002), the
coalition is composed of trade unions, women's rights
organizations,
students, and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum.
In Appendix 2 of the
report from Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, 32-year-old MK,
secretary of that
city's Movement for Democratic Change, the country's
leading opposition
party, declares:
"At approximately 1 a.m. on Sunday 23rd March, 2003, 20
men (16 in army
uniform and four in civilian clothing) climbed over the
boundary wall
surrounding our home. When my father answered the knocking on
the door, the
men burst in shouting that they wanted his wife. They called
her out and
attacked her.
"She was wrapped in a cloth and they did not
wait for her to dress before
they started to beat her with hose pipes and the
butts of their AK-47
assault rifles. Her cloth fell off leaving her naked,
and they continued to
beat her. They locked my father and the younger
children in a bedroom. I
heard my mother screaming-they made her open her
legs and they tried to push
the barrel of an AK into her vagina. . . . It is
clear that my mother was
severely traumatized by the attack. She has said
that she wants to commit
suicide."
From the coalition's medical
reports: Patient Mrs. K has a large bruise of
her right eye and tender
swellings on her head. She has multiple deep
bruises of her back, buttocks,
and legs, and a bruise in her vagina
consistent with her story of assault
with a rifle barrel in her vagina. She
is at present admitted in hospital.
She shows signs of acute anxiety."
There are other case histories, and in
a summary of the attacks, the
coalition reports: "The majority of the
perpetrators were dressed in
Zimbabwe National Army uniform, and were
conveyed in military vehicles to
the homes of the victims. Some perpetrators
were in police uniforms. . . .
"Many victims reported the use of torture
tactics . . . burning with
cigarettes and acid, inserting foreign objects
into the women's genital
areas, urinating in the victim's mouth, and forcing
the victims to drink
substances such as urine. . . . Many were threatened
with further assault if
they reported their injuries.
"In several
cases, victims who had received life-saving treatment at a
hospital and were
discharged were assaulted again, requiring readmission for
other injuries. .
. . Photographic evidence of injuries received is
available." Perhaps New
York City Council member Charles Barron will send
for these photographs and
display them at City Hall, where he lauded Mugabe
last
September.
Zimbabwe is a member of the United Nations Human Rights
Commission-whose
name has become a repellent oxymoron that Eleanor Roosevelt
could not have
foreseen when she worked so hard to help create the United
Nations. At this
year's session in Geneva, as an April 18 editorial in The
Washington Post
noted, "The commission . . . voted against putting Zimbabwe
on its list of
countries requiring special observation." (Emphasis
added.)
If you were to imagine the convening of a Human Rights Commission
in Hades,
it would consist of Cuba, Syria, Sudan, China, and Saudi Arabia.
Libya would
be the chair. But I have actually named the real-life members of
that United
Nations body-the hope of the tortured of the world. Even Mugabe's
Zimbabwe
sits there!
And at the very session during which Zimbabwe was
given a pass by its fellow
whited sepulchers in the commission-I was informed
by the American
Anti-Slavery Group-the African bloc of nations at the UN
succeeded in
upgrading the human rights status of Sudan, the notorious land
of genocide.
The National Islamic Front, which rules that nation-where black
women from
the South are still taken into slavery and raped-is now freed from
all
previous UN economic restrictions.
Meanwhile, The Economist (April
5) reports that in a friendly lift to Robert
Mugabe, "South Africa,
Zimbabwe's most influential neighbor, is actively
seeking to end [Mugabe's]
isolation." And in the April 15 New York Times,
Ginger Thompson writes,
"Moses Mzila Ndlovu, a high-level official in
Zimbabwe's leading opposition
party, has charged that South Africa helps
prop up the Mugabe government by
allowing Zimbabwe to defer payments of
millions of dollars in debt for
electricity, fuel, telephone service, and
food. 'President Mugabe is taking
that money and using it to build
structures of repression,' said Mr.
Ndlovu."
From Catherine Buckle-a Zimbabwean who has written extensively
on
conservation and wildlife education, and who sends a weekly online
letter
chronicling Mugabe's repressions-there is this news: "A visiting
delegation
of Southern African foreign ministers were in Zimbabwe [in March].
. . . At
the close of their nine-hour meeting in Harare, a spokesman for the
South
African Foreign Ministry said: 'Our position is that the people of
Zimbabwe
must be the masters of their own destiny.' " But who is going to
help the
Zimbabweans get rid of the dictator who is their master
now?
But it is not only South Africa and other democratic African nations
that
have been very slow to react to Mugabe's terrorism of his people.
The
Economist (April 5) says candidly, "The truth is that neither Britain
nor
any other western power has made more than token efforts to curb Mr.
Mugabe,
because he poses no threat to their vital interests.
"If the
people of Zimbabwe desire a change of regime (and it is obvious that
they
do), they can expect little outside help. . . . Outsiders could do more
to
help . . . They could increase the pressure by . . . pursuing the
ruling
party's business associates, especially those who have helped the
Zimbabwean
army to loot Congo, where it was sent in 1998 to prop up another
despotic
regime." Any investigative reporters working on those business
associates?
The
Herald
Spirit medium to 'unlock monument's
mystery'
Herald Reporter
A Masvingo spirit medium's theory
that there is treasure under the Great
Zimbabwe will come to test today when
he leads Government officials and
chiefs to "unlock the mystery" surrounding
the historic monument.
The spirit medium Sekuru Chinhope also known as
Manunure or Nunuratshe who
claimed to have lived more than 10 000 years ago,
argues that what people
see at the Great Zimbabwe is less fascinating than
the real monument
underground.
Although no one in this country, from
archeologists to politicians and
spirit mediums have expressed knowledge of
the existence of any underground
structure at Great Zimbabwe, Sekuru Chinhope
says he would open up the
underground in front of the chiefs and Government
officials.
"There is a head statue of the architecture of Great Zimbabwe.
I will prove
that there indeed exists a much more fascinating and bigger
structure just
under the monument you see today," said Sekuru
Chinhope.
He added: "People did not live in the structure you see today,
they lived in
caves underground especially during the rainy
season."
Some mining companies and archeologists have however surveyed
underneath the
monument and concluded that there was nothing underground.
Masvingo
provincial Press secretary in the Department of Information and
Publicity,
Mr Samson Muduma said the spirit medium has over the past three
years gone
to most Government offices and even to Vice President Muzenda
trying to get
permission to prove his case.
"At first, people did not
take him seriously but of late, chiefs and
Government officials have decided
to let him prove his story.
"If he proves it, that will open another page
in history but if he fails to
prove it, it will be a sad story given how we
moved from one office to
another.
"On Saturday (today) at least five
chiefs and several Government officials
and security agents will go to the
monument to see what he has," said Mr
Muduma.
The Great Zimbabwe is
one of the country's star tourist attractions.
The ruins of Great
Zimbabwe (house of stones) that gave the country its name
was shrouded in
mystery for generations.
And after it revealed its physical secrets to a
questing world in the 19th
century, its origins were bitterly fought over by
rival antiquarians.
The myths - principally that the ruins were built by
the Israelites,
Phoenicians or the Arabians, even links with the Queen of
Sheba - have been
swept away.
The old time archaeologists who for 50
years favoured such theories in a
great war over the history of the buildings
gave way to a new breed of
scientists who, through radio-carbon dating and
other evidence, have
positively identified the architects as
African.
The centre of an empire from the 13th to the 15th centuries,
they were, in
fact, the work of Shona-Karanga civilisation.
Some
historians say the people who developed the medieval site were the
guiding
spirits behind the war of liberation that brought about
Zimbabwe's
independence in 1980.
Mail and
Guardian
Harare becomes the capital of
chaos
08 May 2003 07:32
In
Harare these days you never know where you are going to end up when you
take
a taxi. A dozen passengers crammed into a taxi van recently
complained
angrily among themselves about Zimbabwe's high inflation, critical
fuel
shortages and the police who shoved them when they were stopped
at
roadblocks.
When one man tried to defend the police, a woman
retorted: "The police are
just Mugabe's dogs." The rest of the passengers
cheered. When the taxi
stopped, the man jumped out and ran to some nearby
police officers. He
identified himself as an off-duty policeman and ordered
them to arrest the
passengers. They were jailed overnight and charged for
insulting police, a
crime under the Public Order and Security Act.
For
many months horror stories have been emerging from Zimbabwe about
the
suffering inflicted by President Robert Mugabe. Newspapers have been
filled
with accounts of political corruption, rapes and beatings. But behind
these
stories lie the daily hardships felt by the capital's 1,7-million
people.
What was once a thriving city has descended into a place of
empty
supermarkets, petrol queues and blackouts.
In the past week the
longstanding fuel shortages have taken a turn for the
worse. Hundreds of
vehicles spend entire days and nights in fuel queues in
Harare. "We used to
laugh at Zambians because of all the shortages they had.
Now they are
laughing at us because it is much worse here," said a salesman.
"We never
thought it would get this bad."
A few months ago Mugabe's motorcade of
more than 20 vehicles, including two
trucks full of armed soldiers, passed a
fuel queue on Samora Machel Avenue
in downtown Harare. The president was met
by jeers and hoots of derision.
Some people threw empty cans. The soldiers
later returned and beat up many
of those in the queue. A law has also been
passed declaring it illegal to
make derogatory comments or gestures to the
presidential motorcade.
Harare's new mayor, Elias Mudzuri, tried to
improve city services; garbage
collections were organised and crews sent out
to fill potholes. But Mudzuri,
elected by nearly 80% of Harare's voters,
belongs to the opposition party,
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Last week the Mugabe government
sacked him, accusing him of incompetence and
corruption. Mudzuri has been
barred from his office and has gone into hiding
after receiving threats.
At first glance, the supermarket in central
Harare appears well-stocked and
busy. But on closer inspection, rows and rows
of toilet paper are displayed.
"That is where there should be salt and that
is where there should be sugar,
but those items are out of stock so they put
up toilet paper," said Idah
Mandaza.
"And mealie meal [maize meal,
Zimbabwe's staple food] and cooking oil and
soap, they have all been replaced
with toilet paper. But we can't eat loo
paper. Either basic things are not
available or I can't afford them. I never
thought it would come to
this."
For Mandaza, Zimbabwe's inflation of 228% and 12% decline in GDP
are not dry
economic statistics. They are the harsh facts of life that she,
her family
and everyone in Zimbabwe grapple with daily.
Mandaza (53)
is proud of her job as the assistant production manager in a
Harare factory.
But by the time she pays for travel to and from work and her
rent for a small
two-roomed house, more than half of her salary is gone.
"I'm lucky, I have
two sons and they both have jobs. But I still must be
very careful when I
shop. I support my mother and my sister, plus I help my
brothers in the rural
areas. There is just not enough money," she said.
Zimbabwe's once
thriving middle-class is struggling to get by, but the poor
are desperate.
Growing numbers are begging and rummaging through rubbish
bins. The disparity
in wealth has widened after two years of economic
crisis.
"In 40 years
working as a doctor, I have never seen so many cases of
malnutrition,
particularly among children," said a general practitioner. "It
used to be
that I would only see signs of kwashiorkor [a form of
malnutrition caused by
inadequate protein intake] in children from the rural
areas. Now I see it in
city children."
The United Nations estimates that nearly one million
urban Zimbabweans do
not have enough food. In total, more than seven million
of the country's
12-million people are threatened with starvation, according
to the
government. Just a few years ago Zimbabwe was extolled as the
breadbasket of
Africa for all the surplus food it exported.
An unruly
commotion erupts in the supermarket as people rush to the bakery
section
where bread is put on the shelves. After a few minutes of shoving
and
grabbing, the bread is gone. One woman was knocked down in the
scuffle.
There used to be a similar rush when milk and other fresh dairy
products
were delivered. But for two weeks there have not been any milk
deliveries. A
dairy farm that supplied 40% of Harare's milk has been overrun
by Mugabe's
supporters, according to local newspaper reports.
The
supermarket no longer puts its rare deliveries of maize meal or other
scarce
items on sale in the store. After some mini-riots in which shelves
were
knocked down, the scarce goods are sold at the back of the store
where
deliveries are made. People queue there for hours.
Zimbabwe's
once respected police are now widely feared for arbitrary
arrests, beatings
and torture. In the past two months 10 high-profile
Zimbabweans, including
three members of parliament and one lawyer, have
accused police of torturing
them with electric shocks. Medical examinations
have confirmed injuries
consistent with their harrowing accounts. Most were
released without
charges.
Last month more than 250 opposition supporters were forced to go
into
hospital after men dressed in army uniforms raided their homes and
beat
them.
But not everyone is gloomy and depressed. "The worse things
get, the sooner
we will have a change," said one motorist queueing for fuel.
"The more angry
people get, the sooner they will press Mugabe to
go."
He pointed to the visit to Harare on Monday of South Africa's
president
Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian equivalent Olusegun Obasanjo. "Do you
think
they came to congratulate Mugabe on doing such a good job? No, they
came to
tell Mugabe he must go. The pressure is mounting and change is in the
air. I
can feel it." - Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003