'Principals fail to agree on Gono, AG'

http://www.zimonline.co.za

by Patricia Mpofu and Charles Tembo Thursday 14 May 2009

HARARE - President Robert Mugabe and his two coalition partners have
reached agreement on all outstanding issues from last year's power-sharing
agreement but remain divided on the fate of the governor of the central bank
and the attorney general, ZimOnline has learnt.

Sources said Mugabe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime
Minister Arthur Mutambara had agreed on principle on distribution of the
country's 10 provincial governorships and other top public posts such as
ambassadors and permanent secretaries of ministries.

But they said Mugabe had steadfastly rejected demands by Tsvangirai
and Mutambara to fire Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gideon Gono
and Attorney General Johannes Tomana, even after the two former opposition
politicians told him it would be near impossible for the government to get
financial support from Western countries if Gono remained at the (RBZ).

"The issue of the unilateral appointments of Gono and Tomana emerged
as the sticking items in Tuesday's deliberations," said a senior government
official who did not want to be named because he did not have authority to
speak to the media.

Tsvangirai's spokesman James Maridadi confirmed they had been movement
on the outstanding issues that had threatened to bog down the unity
government in a damaging stalemate.

But Maridadi refused to shed light on the matter saying the three
principal leaders would announce the outcome of their deliberations Friday.

He said: "The principals did meet on Tuesday and made a position on
all the outstanding issues. However, they will communicate that position on
Friday, May 15."

Speaking during the launch of the government's 100-day action plan
earlier on Wednesday, Tsvangirai said he, Mugabe and Mutambara had reached
agreement on some of the outstanding issues on the political agreement but
did not give further details.

"I am glad to report on the outstanding issues we are making progress
and we will be making an announcement very shortly," said Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai and Mutambara have been pushing Mugabe to rescind the
appointments of Gono and Tomana because the President made them without
consulting his coalition partners as is required under last September's
global political agreement that gave birth to the power sharing government.

Among key concerns Western governments want addressed before they can
support the Harare government is reform at the RBZ where Gono is accused of
stoking up the Zimbabwe's economic meltdown through quasi-fiscal activities,
including funding Mugabe's political programmes.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also criticised Gono and
last week called for an independent audit of the RBZ, a step it said was
necessary to enhance the credibility of the unity government's economic turn
around programme and also to help attract key donor support.

But our sources said Mugabe stubbornly refused to shift on the matter
and it was most likely that Gono and Tomana will keep their jobs.

However Mugabe had agreed that his ZANU PF party share control of the
10 provincial governors' posts with the two MDC formation led by Tsvangirai
and Mutambara.

The veteran President had also agreed that the parties share
ambassadorial and other senior public posts.

Mugabe and Tsvangirai were likely to meet on Friday to discuss the
issue of the swearing in of Roy Bennett as deputy minister of agriculture,
according to our sources.

Tsvangirai picked Bennett for the agriculture post but Mugabe has
refused to swear in the former white farmer, claiming he still had an
outstanding terrorism case at the courts although the President has agreed
to swear in other ministers who still have cases to answer at the courts.

Once a model African economy, Zimbabwe is in the grip of an
unprecedented economic and humanitarian crisis marked by acute shortages of
hard cash, deepening poverty and record unemployment.

The coalition government is seen as offering Zimbabwe the best
opportunity in a decade to restore stability and end a devastating economic
crisis.

But failure by the government to win support from Western donor
countries coupled with a determined push by hardliners in Mugabe's ZANU PF
party to collapse the administration have intensified doubts about its
durability. - ZimOnline

Attorney General ordered arrest of journos

http://www.zimonline.co.za

by Own Correspondent Thursday 14 May 2009

HARARE - Zimbabwe's controversial Attorney General, Johannes Tomana, ordered
the arrest of two senior journalists earlier this week without the knowledge
of the Ministry of Home Affairs or Police Commissioner-General Augustine
Chihuri, a cabinet minister told Parliament yesterday.?

Co-Minister of Home Affairs Giles Mutsekwa, said that Tomana had admitted to
ordering the arrest of Zimbabwe Independent editor Vincent Kahiya and his
news editor Constantine Chimakure on Monday.?

"The two were arrested on instruction from the Ministry of Justice and the
Attorney General in particularly. I have asked the AG to put it in writing
and I will take up the matter with my colleague, the Minister of Justice,"
he said  ?

He said his ministry condemns the arrest and harassment of journalists and
that he was disgusted by the arrest of the two scribes.?

Minister Mutsekwa was responding to a question by the Kwekwe Member of the
House of Assembly, Blessing Chebundo, why government continues to arrests
journalists going about their duties.?

The two journalists were arrested for publishing a story last week, naming
state agents who allegedly tortured scores of human rights defenders and
members of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC party last year.

They were released on Tuesday after paying US$200 bail each and were ordered
to return to court on May 28.?

'We've secured over US$1bn from Africa'

http://www.zimonline.co.za

by Own Correspondent Thursday 14 May 2009

HARARE - A Zimbabwean government official on Wednesday said President Robert
Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's unity government had exceeded
its target of securing US$1 billion in credit lines from Africa.

The coalition government, seen as offering Zimbabwe the best opportunity in
a decade to restore stability and end a devastating economic crisis, was
formed in February following the signing of a power-sharing agreement last
September.

Speaking at the launch of Harare's 100-day plan to repair the southern
African country's shattered economy Economic Planning Minister Elton Mangoma
said a lot of ground had been covered in securing private sector funding.

"We've made major strides in obtaining lines of credit for the private
sector . . . so our $1 billion target has already been surpassed," Mangoma
said.

Once a prosperous nation, the southern African country is desperately
seeking $2 billion in emergency funding and $8 billion in the long term to
help stabilise an economy ravaged by a decade of hyper-inflation,
unemployment above 90 percent and political violence.

Mangoma said the more than $1billion Zimbabwe had so far secured was
provided by African financial institutions such as the African Development
Bank, the Cairo-based African Export-Import Bank, while neighbouring South
Africa and Botswana chipped in with $150 million.

Mangoma, however, said only South Africa and China with a combined US$35
million had responded positively to efforts to raise $1 billion in direct
aid from donors which the government desperately needs to fund its
operations.

Key Western donor countries have withheld direct financial support to
Harare, demanding that the unity government carry out far reaching political
and media reforms and end a fresh wave of farm invasions before they
consider releasing any money

Despite the government's urgent need to raise funds, Mangoma said they would
not sell underperforming parastatals.

"Our focus is not going to be on wholesale privatisation of parastatals.
They will be reformed to increase efficiency. Prices are low at the moment,
so bringing public assets for sale now will not bring much benefit," Mangoma
said.

Speaking at same occasion Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa repeated the
new government's commitment to implement political reforms and to end
Zimbabwe's international isolation by engaging Western governments that
imposed sanctions on Mugabe's ZANU PF government, all within the 100-day
period.

"We want to see the review of media policy and laws to create a plural media
sector, to kick-start the constitutional reform process and the
re-engagement of the international community," Chinamasa said. - ZimOnline

Women want rights violators brought to justice

http://www.zimonline.co.za

by Norest Muzvaba Thursday 14 May 2009

JOHANNESBURG - A women's rights group on Wednesday called on Zimbabwe's
power-sharing government to bring to justice people who committed human
rights violations including sexual abuse against women during the run-up to
a controversial second round presidential ballot won by President Robert
Mugabe last June.

The Women Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCZ) also urged Southern African
Development Community (SADC) leaders to pressure the unity government of
Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to uphold a regional protocol on
gender.

"Any transitional process will not be effective unless it addresses the
issues raised by those affected. Attempts of national healing and
reconciliation without (justice) provide a short-lived remedy to conflict,"
said WCZ chairwoman Emilia Muchawa, during the launch in Johannesburg of a
documentary on violence against women in Zimbabwe.

The documentary titled, "Hear Us - Zimbabwean Women Affected by Political
Violence Speak Out", and an accompanying report titled, "Putting it Right:
Addressing Human Rights Violations Against Zimbabwean Women", give detailed
accounts and footage of how women were beaten, tortured and raped during the
violence that engulfed Zimbabwe before the June vote.

Women's groups estimate that more than 2000 women may have been raped
between May and June last year.

In one of the most touching moments captured in the documentary a woman
identified only as Memory recounts how she was gang raped by militia from
Mugabe's ZANU PF party at torture camp in rural Zimbabwe.

She recalls: "When I arrived at the base, they removed all my clothes and I
was raped by three men, one after the other," Memory says in the
documentary.  She added that after the rape she attempted to file a report
with the police who however declined to accept her statement.

"We are not dealing with political violence cases. The time will come when
we will deal with them," Memory recollects one police officer telling her.

The documentary was produced by the WCZ working in collaboration with the
Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU).

RAU is a non-governmental organisation based in Harare pushing for setting
up of a truth, justice and reconciliation commission and working on
providing specialist assistance in research and advocacy in the field of
human rights, democracy and governance.

Zimbabwe witnessed some of its worst ever political violence during the run
up to the June vote that was being held after Mugabe was defeated by then
opposition leader Tsvangirai in an earlier vote the previous March. But the
opposition leader failed to achieve the margin required to take power and
avoid a second round run-off vote.

Tsvangirai pulled out of the June ballot citing state-sponsored attacks
against his supporters and in the process, leaving Mugabe to win as sole
candidate.

But the election was universally condemned, with African countries that had
refrained from criticising Mugabe in the past also denouncing the
violence-marred election - a situation that forced Zimbabwean leader to open
negotiations to share power with Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, who heads
a smaller opposition party.

The WCZ said it welcomed the power-sharing agreement or global political
agreement (GPA) signed last September because the document acknowledges
equality between men and women and recognises women's role in nation
building.

But the group urged the SADC, which brokered the GPA, to pressure the Harare
government to implement the power-sharing agreement in full including
clauses underpinning women's rights.

Regional governments should also lean on Harare to incorporate the SADC
Protocol on Gender and Development into Zimbabwean law, according to the
WCZ. - ZimOnline.

I am disgusted - Mutsekwa

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Tuesday, 12 May 2009

The arrest and detention of two journalists on Monday has been slammed
in the strongest terms by Home Affairs minister Giles Mustekwa.
He told The Zimbabwean that he was "deeply disgusted about the arrest"
of Zimbabwe Independent newspaper editor Vincent Kahiya and news editor
Constantine Chimakure, who were arrested and thrown into filthy police cells
at the notorious Harare Central Police Station for overnight detention on
charges of allegedly publishing falsehoods and undermining law enforcement
agents.
Their crime: reporting information contained in public court documents
naming members of a government hit-squad. The alleged false report names
security agents involved in the abduction of Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) members and human rights activists last year, including Jestina
Mukoko.
Mutsekwa said the journalists' arrest constituted a serious and
contemptuous breach of Article 19 of the power-sharing agreement, which
commits MDC and Zanu (PF) to freedom of the press.
The arrest and subsequent detention of the two journalists came as
government completed a conference in Kariba on Saturday on how to reform the
media in line with the global political agreement.
Lawyer Innocent Chagonda, who also sits on the JOMIC, is representing
the two journalists. They are being charged under Section 31 (a) of the
Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act.
The Act says if one publishes something that is wholly or materially
false with the intention of undermining public confidence in the law
enforcement agents, prison service of defence forces, they will be guilty of
a crime and face up to 20 years in jail.
Chimakure gleaned his information from indictment papers served on 16
of the accused persons who are due to stand trial at the end of June.
"I am certainly very much against journalists getting detained for
simply doing their job," Mutsekwa said. "It paints the inclusive government
in the worst possible light. I am disappointed."
Mutsekwa blamed "excited elements" in the police for orchestrating the
arrest.
"As minister of Home Affairs, I am deeply disgusted," he added.
Journalists in Zimbabwe have roundly condemned the government's
obsessive hounding of the two journalists working for one of the few
remaining independent Harare-based publications.
"How can you detain people over public documents?" asked journalist
Dumisani Muleya. "This demonstrates absolute repressive tendency. It proves
that there is nothing changing on the ground. Is this what they mean when
they say they are on track? Perhaps this government is well on track on its
repressive track. There is absolutely no change."
Foster Dongozi, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Union of
Journalists, called for the immediate and unconditional release of the two
journalists, adding he was seriously concerned about the detention and
well-being of colleagues.
"We are actually shocked that at a time when we are making efforts to
reform media laws, police take such punitive measures against journalists.
We are amazed by this behaviour by the authorities. It makes us wonder if
government is serious in engaging media stakeholders or maybe they are
trying to buy time."
Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) Zimbabwe Chapter chairperson
Loughty Dube slammed the arrests and called for the immediate dropping of
charges against the two.
"This is unacceptable," he said. "This is a clear indicator that
government has not yet changed its hostile attitude towards the press."
Muleya reiterated that police were ordinarily ignorant and alleged an
invisible hand that was "malicious and vindictive."
"They are court papers, they are public documents. Someone there is
ignorant and malicious," he said, adding that the MDC was acting like
"figureheads" in the new government with no authority.
He said it was also curious that a member of the JOMIC had taken up
the matter and had been defied by police.

Arrest of journalists is "own goal"

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Wednesday, 13 May 2009
The Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) has expressed outrage at the
escalation of harassment of journalists in the country.
"The latest assault on press freedom was launched by the law and order
section of the Zimbabwe Republic Police who stormed the offices of the
Zimbabwe Independent newspaper over the weekend as they sought to arrest the
newspaper's editor, Vincent Kahiya and its news editor, Constantine
Chimakure," said the union's secretary-general, Foster Dongozi.
The two were wanted in connection with a story based on a public
document that revealed the identities of security officers behind the
abduction of journalists and civic society activists last year.
The two handed themselves in to police on Monday.
"The irony is that the manhunt for the two was launched on the day
that a conference to reform the media was underway," said Dongozi.
The detention of Kahiya and Chimakure comes at a time when the editor
of The Sunday News, Brezhnev Malaba, and journalist Nduduzo Tshuma are
facing criminal defamation charges for publishing a story that implicated
the police in a corruption scandal involving grain.
Broadcaster Jestina Mukoko has been dragged in and out of jail on
allegations of recruiting bandits while freelance photo-journalist Andrison
Manyere is in custody on similar charges.
"In view of ongoing attempts to rebrand the country in order to
attract investment and tourism, the latest move amounts to a spectacular own
goal," said Dongozi.
BY STAFF REPORTER
HARARE

Security concerns hamper ATM forex transactions in Zimbabwe

http://www.itnewsafrica.com/?p=2621

May 12, 2009

MOVES in Zimbabwe to have Automated Teller Machines dispense foreign
currency have been scuttled by security concerns.
This was highlighted by finance minister Tendai Biti who said this was not
caused by liquidity.
"Our ATMs will be dispensing foreign currency and as such thieves from
across the border can come in and raid these ATMs because they will be
holding hard currency which is internationally accepted," he told media.
Only one bank, Premier Bank, currently has ATMs that are dispensing foreign
currency.
The ATMs are dispensing amounts between US$1 and US$500 in Harare and
Bulawayo.
There are fears of bombing of ATMs following such incidents in South Africa
and the United States.
About liquidity, Biti said, "Liquidity is no longer a crisis, there is
enough money circulating in the economy," he said.

Marcus Mushonga, Harare

Invaders decimate wildlife

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Wednesday, 13 May 2009
HARARE - Wildlife experts believe that hundreds of animals have been
poached in Zimbabwe since the relaunch of President Robert Mugabe's land
invasions soon after the formation of the inclusive government in February.

The ongoing slaughter, which includes supposedly protected species
such as black rhinoceros, has wiped out an estimated 60 per cent of wildlife
on privately owned game ranches and conservancies.
Such areas have been overrun by thousands of settlers, who have
stripped away game fences and used the wire to make snares, using the meat
either for subsistence amid increasing hunger caused by dollarisation, food
shortages in rural areas, or for commercial sale.
"This country's natural heritage is being decimated," said Johnny
Rodrigues, of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force. "Unless the government
restores law and order, we can ultimately kiss Zimbabwe's wildlife goodbye."
There is also evidence that rural authorities in some areas have
sanctioned the shooting of game in order to feed the youth militia set up to
terrorise political opponents by Mugabe's Zanu (PF) party during his
campaign for re-election.
There are two main habitats for wildlife in Zimbabwe, commercial game
ranches, which earn their income from tourism and controlled hunting, and
which in some cases have joined together to form larger conservancies, and
National Parks.
Staff reporter

Teachers stole school computers

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Wednesday, 13 May 2009
BULAWAYO - A teacher and two villagers from Nkayi, Matabeleland North
have been jailed for two years for stealing computers that were donated by
President Robert Mugabe to a school in Nkayi.

President Mugabe donated hundreds of computers to rural schools at the
height of the election campaigns last year, with the opposition MDC accusing
the 85-year-old leader of vote buying.
Most of the computers are lying idle as the rural schools have no
electricity to power them.
Guwe Secondary School in Nkayi was one of the recipients. The
computers lay idle there until Thembani Ndlovu, a teacher at the school,
allegedly connived with two villagers - Phathisani Moyo and Nqobani Ncube -
to steal them.
This was revealed in court last week by state prosecutor, Maxwell
Hapanyengwi, during the trial of the accused.
Ndlovu used to keep keys to the storeroom where the computers were
being kept, the court was told.
The court was told that the three stole five computers, which they
intended selling in Bulawayo. However, luck ran out for them, leading to
their arrest before they sold the computers.
Magistrate, Thabekhulu Dube sentenced them to two years imprisonment
after the accused pleaded guilty to theft charges. Six months of the
sentence were suspended on condition of good behavior.  Natasha Hove

Consumer prices on the rise

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Wednesday, 13 May 2009
HARARE - Consumer prices are on the rise again. The Consumer Council
of Zimbabwe reported an 8 per cent rise in April for the cost of a basket of
key goods.

The monthly surge was led by a 28 per cent rise in rents, the Consumer
Council said.
An urban family of six now needs US$427 a month to get by - but civil
servants and many private sector employees are earning just US$100 a month,
if even that.
Economist Nyasha Muchichwa of the Labour and Economic Development
Research
Institute of Zimbabwe said costs had risen in part due to a tightening
in imports from neighbouring South Africa.

Though the rate of inflation at 8 per cent is modest compared with the
astronomical increases in prices in the past, it is a cause for concern
given the limited purchasing power of average Zimbabweans.

In addition, Zimbabwe's Central Statistical Office recently reported
price decreases. In general prices eased about 3 per cent in each of the
past few months, the CSO said.

Foreign retailers exploiting Zim chaos - economist

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Wednesday, 13 May 2009
HARARE - The Zimbabwe government's move to legalise trade in foreign
currency is not benefiting urban consumers, but those shielded elites and
barons of the underground market, says economist Caryn Abrahams.

All retailers and wholesalers are selling their merchandise in foreign
money, while motorists are allowed to buy fuel exclusively in foreign
currency.
Abrahams, a doctoral researcher at the University of Edinburgh, said
in a discussion paper last week that the supposed aim of the currency
reforms was for the benefit of urban consumers.
"But the truth is that only a certain kind of shielded elites
benefit," Abrahams said. "Who are the residents who have the means and
choice to buy in US Dollars or travel to South Africa to shop? It's
certainly not the ordinary urban resident in Harare earning US$100 a month.
"There is no doubt that the winners are those who can access forex,
the supermarkets who front benevolence, and the barons of the underground
market. What emerges is an interesting convergence of formal economic
spaces, legitimate trade, elitist consumption, and extreme economic
stability - a climate perfect for racketeers and extortionists."
Abrahams said the role of foreign retail in Zimbabwe, as elsewhere,
only entrenched unstable conditions. She said the major beneficiary of this
new scheme were foreign governments and companies exporting products into
Zimbabwe and selling them in hard currency.
"South African supermarkets find it easier to stock shelves under this
new forex allowance because they have access to protected financial stores
and thus have less risk," Abrahams said. "Their apolitical position makes
them the perfect vessel for economic transactions that take advantage of
crisis."
Chief reporter

Zim farmers create jobs in Moz

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk

Wednesday, 13 May 2009
MUTARE - Evicted white Zimbabwean commercial farmers have created more
than 4,000 jobs in neighbouring Mozambique, where they settled after being
ousted from their land back home, a regional governor said.

"The Zimbabwean farmer,s with about 1,000 hectares (2,400 acres) of
land each have so far generated a total of 4,118 new jobs," Soares Nhaca,
governor of the central Mozambican province of Manica, where the farmers
settled, told the media.
Nhaca said there were about 100 Zimbabwean farmers in the fertile
districts of Manica province, growing tobacco, cotton and maize. Most of the
new jobs are on tobacco farms, the governor said, adding that some farmers
also grew mangoes and millet for export to South Africa.
All land in Mozambique belongs to the state and cannot be sold. The
Mozambican constitution only allows land to be leased.
Manica province, which borders Zimbabwe, is the most sought-after by
foreign farmers.
Staff reporter

Catholic Church Launches Peace Programme

http://www.radiovop.com

Harare - The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) is
carrying out a countrywide outreach programme to promote peace in Zimbabwe.

The Programme tries to bridge the gap between followers of different
political parties in the country as well as healing the wounds of last year's
poll violence.

"We are trying to bring together both perpetrators of violence and
their victims with the aim of cultivating peace and reconciliation among the
people of Zimbabwe," said Alouis Chaumba the CCJP's National Director.

"We are working with all the eight dioceses of the Catholic Church in
Zimbabwe to spread out the programme. We make use of small workshops, church
services and any other occassion that is fit for reconciliation," said
Chaumba.

He said the programme was built around the same principles with the
the post 1994 Rwanda genocide traditional courts where perpetrator and
victim were brought together in a reveal all style.

 "The victims are getting an opportunity to let the anger out and
offers the perpetrators an opportunity to confess and apologise," said
Chaumba.

More than 200 MDC supporters were killed last year in poll related
violence. Prime Minister Tsvangirai was also forced to pull out of a June 27
Presidential run-off poll citing mounting political violence targeting his
followers.

At its formation in February, Zimbabwe new inclusive government
committed itself to a programme of national healing but apart from the
appointment of Zanu PF's John Nkomo, MDC's Sekai Holland and Gibson Sibanda
as ministers of state responsible for National Healing, nothing concrete has
occurred.

Chaumba added that despite the slow start there has been some heady
way in the programme.

He gave an example of an incident  which happened in Harare where a
victim and a perpetrator of violence were given an opportunity to face up
and made peace at the end of the day.

"We have realised that most of the time victims want the perpetrators
of violence to own up, ask them questions on why they were getting violent
and who asked them to do it, all they want are answers. On the other hand
the perpetrators want to ask for forgiveness and ask the victims what they
can do to say sorry or compensate victims," said Chaumba.

Zimbabwe emigrant's tale steals show at arts festival

http://www.africasia.com

HARARE, May 14 (AFP)

Unable to find jobs after completing high school in a small mining town in
Zimbabwe, friends Jonathan Nkala and Jacob Banda saw their only hope in
neighbouring South Africa.

Without passports and oblivious to the dangers that lay ahead, the pair left
home pretending they were going to look for firewood and set off to the
southern border town of Beitbridge.

But Banda failed to make it to the other side of the border. He drowned in
the crocodile-infested Limpopo River. And for Nkala, life in South Africa
turned out to be much more difficult than he had anticipated.

The 28-year-old Nkala relives the trauma in the play "The Crossing" which
was one of the highlights of last week's Harare International Festival of
the Arts (HIFA).

"We had no passports because we could not afford the cost of a passport as
well as bus fare to the nearest city where there are passport offices," said
Nkala, raised in the small mining town of Kwekwe.

He remembers his hometown fondly but said it was "so small one cannot sneeze
without the entire community hearing and chorusing 'bless you'."

He calls his country the Unstable State of Zimbabwe (USZ), and a place where
"funerals were being postponed because there was no petrol at the gas
stations.

"We both know it was dangerous and illegal, but being in Zimbabwe was
dangerous," he said.

While still mourning the loss of his childhood friend, Nkala landed a job as
a tomato picker on a farm in South Africa's Limpopo province, earning a mere
pittance.

Undeterred he set off for Cape Town through Johannesburg where he went for
months knocking on one gate after another looking for a job while in the
evening he slept rough outside a park.

There he would often see residents walking their dogs. In his wretched
circumstances he even wished he was one of the well-kept dogs with their
shiny healthy coats.

One day he got a job as a gardener and earned some money to proceed to his
destination in Cape Town where he got an asylum-seeker's permit and started
making wire handicrafts for sale to tourists at the beach.

"While selling my crafts, I met a customer who said he suffered from
depression and at one point wanted to commit suicide," Nkala told AFP.

"But when I told him my life story, he changed his mind and asked me to
write a script of my experiences."

The customer put him in contact with award-winning South African producer Bo
Petersen, who trained Nkala and produced the play about his journey from
Kwekwe to Cape Town.

"Normally a play involves people talking about other people," Petersen told
AFP. "What makes The Crossing different is that it is Jonathan telling his
own life story. It's powerful."

"The Crossing" was one of the most popular shows at the Harare International
Festival of the Arts which brought together international artists including
Malian singer Habib Koite, Portuguese Sara Tavares, Penelope Jane Powers
from South Africa and a host of local performers.