The ZIMBABWE Situation Our thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe
- may peace, truth and justice prevail.
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COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION
Farm Invasions And Security Report
Friday 24 May 2002

This report does not purport to cover all the incidents that are taking place in the commercial farming areas.  Communication problems and the fear of reprisals prevent farmers from reporting all that happens.  Farmers names, and in some cases farm names, are omitted to minimise the risk of reprisals.

NATIONAL REPORT IN BRIEF
REGIONAL NEWS
MANICALAND
Chimanimani – at Charleswood Estate the remains of yet another calf was found this week.  This is the second one in six weeks.
Mutare – at En Avante the Police told the youths to move, which they seemed to be doing on the morning of 23.05.02.
 
MASHONALAND CENTRAL
No report received.

MASHONALAND EAST
FOUND:
1 red Mitsubishi 11 hp diesel engine (square), not attached to anything. Serial No NM110.
5 hp Honda petrol engine plus waterpump.
Green petter engine and water pump.
If anyone is missing these please contact the CFU Masheast office.
Beatrice – 4840 m of fencing stolen.  Two dairy cows slaughtered.
Macheke/Virginia – a Dam outlet tap was removed from a dam on one farm.  There was the attempted slaughter of one cow.  Guards chased from a pecan orchard and school kids told to help themselves.
Marondera North – one Section 5 received and farmers were visited by A2 settlers.
Wedza – one owner was given 10 days to vacate the property.  Three Section 8 Orders received.  Five people were arrested by ZRP for theft.
 
MASHONALAND WEST (NORTH)
No report received.
 
MASHONALAND WEST (SOUTH)
Norton - On River Gardens Farm the owner tried to return, but was stopped at an illegal roadblock.  He has not been able to return for a month.  The Governor, however, has now visited the farm. Wheat planting is still not an option in the Porta Road area, although on Gowrie Farm, Sabina Mugabe is busy planting her Wheat and denying the murdered owners' son his own income.
Chegutu - New settlers came on to Farnham Farm, which is unlisted, and are building brick structures.  On Faun Farm the Deputy Minister of Justice continues to use the owner’s tractors and diesel.  One tractor has been broken.  He has promised to pay but no money has been forthcoming to date.  In the meantime, the owner is denied the right to earn a living on this single owned farm. 
Chakari - On Deweras Farm, President’s Office officials and police continue to demand the use of the owner’s irrigation pipes.  They have also used their influence to obtain GMB inputs and have four DDF tractors busy ploughing up the owner’s irrigation block.  The owner and his father have previously sold three farms to Government and this is their only remaining farm.  The DA refuses to allow them to plant.  Despite assurances from the Governor, the police and DA are not helpful in allowing the owner of Blackmorevale to plant.  The owners have previously offered half their farm to Government and own no other property.  Not a single hectare of the 600 hectares available for wheat has been planted.
Kadoma - On Tannach the DA has refused permission for the owner to use his centre pivot for planting Wheat.  The DA, police and Lands Committee visited three farms, two of which have established cereal crops, and ordered the owners to move off their farms.
General - No letters of comfort are signed by either the Governor or the DA for Wheat producers.  The majority of Wheat producers have Section 8 notices and face prosecution for continuing to grow their Wheat unless these letters are signed. 
 
MASVINGO
Masvingo East and Central – the Lamotte Farm owner reported a veld fire started by settlers on 21.05.02.
Chiredzi – plenty of poachers continue to be arrested by the Anti Poaching Unit covering Ruware, Eaglemont, Wasarara, Bangala and Samba Ranches. More settlers are moving on to Ruware.
Written report from the situation on the cane farms expected within the next two days.
Mwenezi - Poaching, theft and snaring continue.
Gutu / Chatsworth - Nothing to report.
Save Conservancy - Poaching, theft and snaring continue.
 
MIDLANDS
Wildebeest Farm reports one dairy cow, two weeks from calving, was hacked to death with a chopper, and only one hind leg was taken.

MATABELELAND
No report received.

 aisd1@cfu.co.zw                                 Visit the CFU Website www.mweb.co.zw/cfu
 
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Unless specifically stated that this message is a Commercial Farmers' Union communiqué, or that it is being issued or forwarded to you by the sender in an official CFU capacity, the opinions contained therein are private. Private messages also include those sent on behalf of any organisation not directly affiliated to the Union. The CFU does not accept any legal responsibility for private messages and opinions held by the sender and transmitted over its local area network to other CFU network users and/or to external addressees.
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      Zimbabwe to Stop Compensating White Farmers for Land Improvements

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

      Xinhuanet 2002-05-25 02:46:17


      HARARE, May 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Zimbabwean Agriculture Minister
Joseph Made said on Friday that the government would stop paying white
farmers for improvements to land seized under the government's land reform
scheme.

      "We will be making a full statement that we are suspending
compensation for improvements on farms," Made told a workshop for newly
resettled farmers.

      "We want to put the resources into investment that can see us
support new farmers to ensure that we have food at our table," he said.

      The Zimbabwean government has agreed to pay for improvements to the
investments of land such as buildings, irrigation systems and dams, but not
for the land itself.

      Made told the workshop that the government had so far taken
7.4million hectares of land and divided it among 210,520 black families for
small-scale farming.

      He added that another 54,000 people have applied for land undera
scheme aimed at taking entire commercial farms and giving them to black
owners, but only 13,000 people had so far been allocated farms.

      Despite accounting for less than 1 percent of the population,
white Zimbabweans had owned about 70 percent of all the country's land. The
land reforms have targeted as much as 95 percent of white-owned lands.
Enditem

   
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Kariba North Bank Workers Warn of Black Out


The Post (Lusaka)
May 24, 2002
Posted to the web May 24, 2002
Bivan Saluseki

WORKERS at Kariba North Bank Company (KNBC) in Siavonga have warned of a
black out in Zambia if problems at the institution are not addressed.
Power and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (POGAWUZ) secretary general
Tresford Mubanga yesterday said the company's assets were allegedly being
stripped off by a top manager and government was not doing anything despite
receiving reports.
Labour permanent secretary Alec Chirwa, who recently went to Siavonga to
receive submissions from the aggrieved unionised workers who accused general
manager Reginald Sibanda of various offences, said the problems at the
company would be resolved soon. Chirwa said the workers should be patient
and maintain unity of purpose as government would soon normalise things.
But Mubanga said the laxity by government to take action on the problems
that have beset the company was worrying. "When workers get annoyed, there
will be a black out not only in Zambia but in the SADC (Southern Africa
Development Community) region," he said.
Mubanga wondered how long the union was going to restrain workers from
taking action. He said even the current power load-shedding is as a result
of the problems at KNBC. Mubanga said KNBC was operating at 50 per cent
capacity.
He said government had even allowed the general manager to go on leave at
such a critical time. Mubanga said property at KNBC was being vandalised and
stolen and the union had given its report to President Levy Mwanawasa and
the Ministry of Energy and Water Development but nothing has been done so
far. He said KNBC management has even gone further to suspend five union
officials. "They (management) are here to start chopping off the heads of
those who have reported the matter.
This can not be tolerated," said Mubanga. And POGAWUZ president Songolo
Siboli said the union was convinced that what was happening at KNBC was
being ignored by government which confesses to rule by laws and not men.
Siboli said the union wants to protect the nation's big installation.
He said government has been asking for evidence and despite the union
bringing out such evidence, there has not been anything done by government
to address the problem. "We can not tolerate this," he said. "Workers'
rights have been trampled upon by management."

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Debt Defaults By Commercial Farmers to Hit Banks' Profits

Financial Gazette (Harare)
May 23, 2002
Posted to the web May 24, 2002
Staff Reporter

BANKERS have warned that Zimbabwe's high-flying financial sector could face
a decline in profits if commercial farmers being pushed off the land by
ruling ZANU PF party supporters default on their loan and overdraft
payments.
The warnings come amid reports that more than 250 white commercial farmers
have been forced off their land since the March presidential election,
raising fears that some of them might fail to repay their loans to
commercial banks.
In addition, the government has earmarked 90 percent of all commercial
farmland for seizure to resettle landless peasants, making it difficult for
farmers to get finance from the banking sector and jeopardising loan
repayments.
White farmers, who are expected to meet bankers this month to discuss the
instability in the agricultural sector which might result in their
repayments being rescheduled, estimate that they owe banks and other
financial institutions about $30 billion in unpaid loans and overdrafts, up
from $6 billion four years ago.
But banking officials say their exposure to the farming sector could be
between $15 billion and $20 billion, out of a total of about $104 billion in
loans to all sectors of the economy.
An official of a Harare commercial bank said banks had taken a very cautious
approach last season in giving out loans to commercial farmers and only well
established banks had huge loans to commercial farmers in their books.
This was likely to minimise the damage to financial institutions of payment
defaults by farmers, but would affect profitability in the banking sector,
whose members have posted impressive financial results in the last two years
despite Zimbabwe's economic crisis.
"Banks have been very cautious in providing loans to commercial farmers and
if the farmers were to default, the damage will not be as great as what
would have been expected last year after the 2000 land invasions," the
official told the Financial Gazette.
"There are others (established banks) which have heavy exposure to the
commercial farming sector but these will most probably be able to absorb it.
However it will have an impact on bank profitability."
Economist John Robertson said a large number of loans were at risk, but that
the banks would not collapse because, besides having reserves, the banks had
taken proper precaution when they lent money to farmers.
"A large part of the loans made available to the farmers are at risk if
farmers are chased from their land," he said. "You have to realise that
banks do not make that much in profits so obviously it will heavily affect
the banks' profits."
Stanbic Bank, one of the old banks still lending money to farmers, said in
its April economic bulletin that the government should quickly conclude its
controversial land reforms and come up with a defined land tenure system to
enable banks to continue lending money to farmers.
"A shorter transaction phase of the ongoing land reform programme would
enhance the credit worthiness of agriculture," the bank said. "This would
enable the financial system to continue to fully support this critically
important sector."

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Struggling to Survive!: Most Workers Only Earning US$1.20 a Day


The Insider (Harare)
OPINION
May 24, 2002
Posted to the web May 24, 2002
Charles Rukuni
Harare
The campaign is very simple, very subtle. But the message is loud and clear.
Anyone, especially black, leaving the country to look for greener pastures
is reportedly suffering from the "devaluation of the mind". Though jobs are
had to come by with unemployment at over 70 percent, people are reportedly
leaving "professional jobs" to do "menial" jobs that locals of those
countries abhor. But a walk past Makombe Building in Harare or the passport
office in Bulawayo tells you something is terribly wrong. How can so many
people brave the chilly weather, every morning, at the risk of being turned
down unless they buy a prime position from a tout, simply to get a passport,
especially when one considers the costs involved in going abroad and tears
some have shed when they have been denied entry?
To blame it all on lack of patriotism, or colonial upbringing or
brainwashing, is simply to take a simplistic view, an unrealistic view for
that matter. The honest truth is that people are simply thinking about
survival. Life has become so difficult that most people can barely make ends
meet even with a full-time job. The picture on the ground is so pathetic
that one wonders how people ever make it. According to figures provided by
the economics department of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the
average wage in industry is now about $9 000.This means the average worker
is only earning US$1.20 a day.
Besides, the temptation to leave the country is so great. In fact, it is
hard to resist. Imagine a school teacher, earning $24 000 a month gross,
sees an advert in the Sunday Times of South Africa which is now on sale in
the country and is cheaper than local papers for that matter. The advert
says you have to be under 28. The job pays 123 pounds a day with a bonus of
100 pounds after the teaching for 25 days.
At the official exchange rate this means the teacher can earn $9 840 a day,
more than the minimum monthly wage in industry. The teacher can therefore
earn his or her gross monthly salary in three days. A month of 22 days
brings in $216 480 gross. But people in Zimbabwe do not trade their money at
the official exchange rate. They change it on the parallel market rate. Even
commercial banks are offering a similar facility. At the parallel market
rate, the teacher's salary jumps to $56 580 a day, more than twice his
monthly gross. In a month of 22 working days, the poor bugger is a
millionaire. It would take the same teacher three-and-a-half-years without
any meals or anything to clock that million. Even if the teacher was to get
a job across the river in Botswana, the basic salary would shoot to $125 000
a month. So, can anyone really resist that?
Add to this, the fact that according to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe's
bread basket for March, a person needed $23 983.33 to feed a family of four
children. For the teacher, the salary has already been cleaned out before
Makoni has taken his share, never mind Cuthbert Dube and his Premier Service
Medical Aid Society or the Zimbabwe Teachers Association's membership dues.
And the nearly $24 000 assumes that mealie meal is available at $983.70 when
in reality one bucket now costs over $1 200. It also assumes you can get
sugar, milk and cooking oil at the controlled prices. Never mind the walking
or travelling you have to do in search of these basic commodities.
Even at the more conservative figures provided by the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions' economics department, life is just as tough. The ZCTU says a
person requires on average $3 403.31 a month to survive. This makes it $20
419.86 for a family of six which is used by the Consumer Council. The ZCTU
uses a family of five as the average Zimbabwean household is 4.8 persons. It
says its poverty datum line is based on a scientific formula agreed to with
the central statistics office which gives the official rate of inflation.
The ZCTU figures were for April.
But a Zimbabwean teacher is not an average worker. His or her salary is
almost three times that of the average worker. person. How then does the
average worker fare, especially this year since the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions has not entered into any collective bargaining arrangement with
the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe which has in the past set parameters
from which trade unions could measure their bargaining success? According to
a source within the ZCTU there was no collective bargaining between the two
representative bodies this year because of the huge gains made last year. It
was therefore up to the affiliate unions to negotiate.
Salaries currently being earned in industry are pathetic. According to
registered collective bargaining agreements obtained by The Insider the
minimum wage for those at Dairibord which was $6 570 at the beginning of
last year should more than double to $14 434.30 at the beginning of July.
Construction industry workers will be languishing at $7 759.10 and there
seems to have been no review from July last year. Harare municipality, to
which Joseph Chinotimba should be paying more attention, was at $9 004. The
clothing industry has tremendous strides rising from $3 500 at the beginning
of last year to $6 680 in July and $8 925.96 in October last year. The same
minimum wage now applies to the furniture manufacturing industry; Rufaro
Marketing; the plastics manufacturing industry; the mining industry which is
a commendable jump from $4 223; the brickmaking and clay products industry;
the cement and lime industry;
independent educational and welfare institutions; the motor industry; the
meat, fish, poultry and abattoir processing subsector and the baking
subsector.
It also applies to the sweets and confectionery subsector; the leather and
shoe industry; the electronics, communications, radio, TV manufacturing
industry; the ceramics and associated products industry; the catering
industry; the fibre cement products and manufacturing industry; the
chemicals and fertiliser and pharmaceuticals and agro-chemicals industry;
the phosphates and explosives industry, the paints and printing inks and
industrial chemicals sector; the transport sector which covers omnibus
operators, the freight sector, taxi operators, boat operators; the lumber
milling, timber processing and trading industry; the ferro alloy industry;
as well as the detergents, edible oils and fats industry.
With the bulk of industrial and commercial workers falling in this wage
bracket, this means most families have to work for two-and-a-half months to
afford one
month's basic requirements. The basic requirements are 2kg of margarine a
month, 20kg of roller meal, 6kg of sugar, 500g of tea leaves, 31 pints of
milk, 2.25
litres of cooking oil, 31 loaves of bread, 2kg of flour, 4 kg of rice,
vegetables every day, 2 kg of salt and 8kg of meat. It also includes basic
transport, soaps and detergents, rent for a three-roomed house, durable
household goods, health and education, clothing and footwear and maintenance
and heat.
But there are some who earn lower than the average. Those in the
engineering, iron and steel industry, for example have a minimum wage of $7
050. The worst are those working for welfare institutions whose minimum is
still at $3 000 for sector A and $3 500 for sector B, lower than the $3 800
those in the agricultural industry started getting in March this year. This
was quite a commendable move from $1 932 in April last year. One therefore
has to struggle for six months for a month's basic needs. The situation is
equally bad for those in the textile industry who have a minimum wage of $4
481.20 as well as those in the sugar milling industry whose basic wage is $3
262 and those in the luxaflor roses works council who are slightly better at
$3 682.90.
None of the industries offers anything close to the basic basket. The
highest minimum is that of cigarette and tobacco manufacturing industries
which is $18 200 which was effective from January last year. It is followed
by the printing and packaging industry at $17 131 which will be effective
from July this year. Other sectors worthy noting are the banking industry
with a minimum wage of $14 326 effective from October last year and ZESA
with $11 635.
With these kind of wages, can anyone blame anyone trying to get a greener
pasture, considering that even if one crosses the border to clean floors at
people's homes, one can walk away with $15 000 a month?

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Daily news - Leader Page

      Nepad calls for leaders with no despotic hang-ups

      5/24/02 12:40:09 PM (GMT +2)



      THE radical New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad),
conceived by three respected African leaders, has been received with mixed
feelings on the continent.



      Some believe it offers a partnership with the rich nations of the West
that could, within a very short period of time, catapult the continent out
of its squalor of poverty to levels of development comparable, at the very
least, to those of Asia.

      Others squirm at the prospect of relying too much on the charity of
the West to propel their countries to prosperity. They blame the same rich
nations for dumping them onto the scrap-heap of underdevelopment in the
first place.

      These are the same countries which colonised them and gouged out their
natural resources to develop[p their own economies.

      After independence, the same rich countries offered the African states
trade and aid on an unequal basis, always mindful of dictating their own
terms.

      These detractors of Nepad maintain that the West seems to have a
vested interest in the continuing poverty of the continent. As long as that
status remains, Africa has little or no bargaining power to speak of.

      Most of the detractors are the same people whose aversion to the quid
pro quo that goes with Nepad is almost pathological: they hate it when the
West demands that they run their countries as true democracies, with free
and fair elections, the rule of law, a free Press and unfettered freedom for
the opposition parties.

      Nepad is obviously not for African leaders with despotic hang-ups, who
believe that it is "unAfrican" to hold elections under the supervision of an
independent commission and to give the opposition as much access to the
media as the ruling party.

      This is why Nepad is so radical. It calls on African leaders to run
their countries almost as democratically as the Western leaders who are
offering them aid to run their countries.

      To the latent dictators who run many African countries, this is so
unacceptable they are willing to scuttle Nepad on that basis alone.

      For such people, the pride of being an African transcends even the
need to end the monumental poverty so evident on the continent.

      Being anti-colonialist, being anti-West and being insanely Afrocentric
is far more important than swallowing their pride and accepting aid "with
strings attached".

      What they fear most is the so-called recolonisation of the continent.
But Nepad envisages an equal partnership: there will be investment from the
Western countries, estimated at US$64 billion (Z$3 520 billion) at the
conference in Dakar, Senegal, last month.

      For their part, the Africans will ensure that the investors obtain a
good return for their money, in a country where democracy, good governance
and the rule of law flourish.

      But above all, the people will benefit: there would be jobs, schools,
hospitals and clinics, good roads and an infrastructure that ensures the
country prospers steadily.

      Why any African leader would not wish all this for their people can be
explained only by a glance back at the history of African independence.

      Many started off wanting their people to gain the economic as well as
the political kingdom they had attained at independence.

      But somewhere along the way, as in Zimbabwe, they wandered off the
straight and narrow path and began to concentrate on staying in power, come
what might.

      Rivals were eliminated ruthlessly and any dissenting voices silenced
brutally. This is why Zimbabwe has become the virtual fly in the ointment of
the success of Nepad.

      Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdelazziz Bouteflika and Abdoulaye
Wade, the initiators of Nepad, have been told by the West if the Zimbabwe
crisis is not resolved, there is very little chance of Nepad getting
anywhere.

      So, the tragedy of Zimbabwe, its violence, its misgovernance, its
inability to hold a free and fair election, its racism and its xenophobia
could doom the continent to more decades of poverty. All this for the sake
of keeping one old man in power.
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Daily news

      Harare City Council owes SA computer company $11 million

      5/24/02 12:31:25 PM (GMT +2)


      By Luke Tamborinyoka Municipal Reporter

      HARARE City Council has yet to produce audited accounts for the past
three years, amid reports the municipality owes a South African computer
systems company a total of US$200 000 (Z$11 million).



      The computerisation of the city treasurer's department by the South
African consultants would have speeded up the production of the audited
accounts. But it is understood the company pulled out due to non-payment of
part of the US$400 000 contract.

      Officials in the city treasurer's department said they were now
manually producing the 1999 accounts after the pull-out by the South African
company contracted to install a new computer system.

      The company had installed a hardware and software package that would
have enabled the council to speedily produce audited accounts. In a
confidential report dated 12 April 2002, the treasurer's department said:
"The contractors left the site in May 2000 because of failure on the part of
the city to secure the necessary foreign currency to pay for networking and
hardware installation services.

      "The software loading, take-on of data and commissioning was and is
still outstanding. To date, the outstanding foreign currency commitments
have still to be honoured and for the company to resume the project."

      The report says the failure to produce the accounts in time was
compounded by the continuous break-down of their old equipment. The
production of audited
      accounts is normal business practice and will strengthen the ability
of the city to borrow from financial institutions.

      A senior official in the department said on Wednesday if the South
African consultants had completed their project, it would have enabled the
company to identify debtors and to obtain all financial information at the
click of a button.

      The audit committee of the new council, at its meeting on 6 May, said
the officials should work flat out to produce the accounts. "The committee
felt that since the council's relationship with the outside world depended
on timeous production of audited accounts, it was therefore of paramount
importance to produce the accounts on time," the committee's minutes read.
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Daily news

      Mpofu calls for orderly distribution of maize

      5/24/02 12:30:24 PM (GMT +2)


      From Chris Gande in Bulawayo

      OBERT Mpofu, the Matabeleland North Governor, has called for the
orderly distribution of maize which is currently carried out by war veterans
at the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) in Bulawayo.



      Mpofu said his office at Mhlahlandhlela Building now resembled a
milling company because of people who flocking to him seeking maize. He was
officiating at a
      Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) certificate awards
function in Bulawayo last Friday. "We are all aware of the severe drought
which has
      resulted in food shortages. This is a serious problem. There must be
fair distribution of maize," he said.

      He said fair distribution of maize would make it available to everyone
and not only those familiar with people in influential positions. Despite
the importation of maize from South Africa, Kenya and Brazil, shortages of
maize-meal have persisted in most shops, mainly because of the chaotic way
it is distributed by war veterans. The governor said he was aware of the
man-hours being lost to industry and commerce while people search
frantically for maize-meal.

      He noted that some people were sleeping outside shops waiting for the
delivery of maize-meal, which was no longer as regular as before. Mpofu
appealed to the ZNCC to look into the issue of hoarding of basic commodities
to ensure that there are no more artificial shortages.

      He said the ZNCC consistently tried to develop the region, but that
there was room for more development since Matabeleland had a lot of natural
resources.
      He challenged the ZNCC to help develop Lupane, the Matabeleland North
capital, so that businesses are able to tap the abundant natural resources
in the province. He said the province had methane gas, a lot of tourist
attractions, and curios were available in abundance.

      Mpofu said a number of development projects were on the cards in
Matabeleland North. They included a multi-million-dollar electricity
sub-station in Lupane and a commercial bank in Binga.

      Mpofu, apparently referring to a story which recently appeared in The
Daily News, said: "I am a businessman and when I acquire a business it
becomes headline news." He has reportedly taken over part of a farm which
formerly belonged to the Cold Storage Company.
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Daily news

      Former ESC member blasts report

      5/24/02 12:20:25 PM (GMT +2)


      From Chris Gande in Bulawayo

      JAMES Majwabu-Moyo, a former Electoral Supervisory Commission member
(ESC) says he resigned last month because he disagreed with the conclusions
of an election report stating that the poll was free and fair.



      The Bulawayo-based lawyer was appointed to the commission by President
Mugabe in 1998. Majwabu-Moyo had earlier not disclosed the reasons for his
resignation to The Daily News, preferring that the ESC chairman, Sobusa
Gula-Ndebele, be the one to do so. But Gula-Ndebele would not reveal the
reasons for the resignation, insisting that as far as he knew Majwabu-Moyo
was still a commissioner.

      "In any case," said Gula-Ndebele, "even if Majwabu-Moyo resigned, his
letter would have been sent direct to President Robert Mugabe."
Investigations by The Daily News revealed that Majwabu-Moyo sent his
resignation letter, a copy of which is in this paper's possession, on 8
April.

      The letter was sent from Bulawayo to Harare by a courier company and
was received the following day by a man identified as Abukar, who works in
Gula-Ndebele's office.

      Part of the letter reads:
      "What prompted my resignation is the fact that I have found myself
unable to agree with the views and conclusion reached by the drafters of the
Presidential Election Report."

      Majwabu-Moyo submitted a report covering the Matabeleland region to
the ESC which is in contrast with the one presented to President Mugabe by
the other three ESC members.

      In his report, Majwabu-Moyo noted that the pre-election period was
characterised by violence and intimidation "on a large scale in many areas
of Matabeleland North".

      His report mentioned the "serious" reports of the assault on the
Members of Parliament for Lupane and Nkayi, David Mpala and Abednico Bhebhe
respectively, by soldiers and Zanu PF supporters.

      Moyo-Majwabu's report mentioned the incident at White City Stadium in
February 2002 when police fired tear-gas at MDC supporters trying to enter
the stadium, which was invaded by war veterans who prevented them from
holding their rally there.

      He said during the election there were "too many" people who were
turned away for "one reason or the other". "By close of voting on 9 March,
people who had been turned away in Matabeleland North, South and Bulawayo
were over 30 000. This is a frightening figure and gives a clear indication
that there is something terribly wrong somewhere within the system," his
report said.

      On the post-election period, Majwabu-Moyo said there was confusion
about moving ballot boxes to counting centres. He noted that after initially
stating that boxes were to stay at polling centres overnight, the provincial
registrar's office advised that boxes be moved to counting centres, which
was done.

      "Although the polling days were free from violence, it is difficult to
say that the earlier violence did not have an impact on the people one way
or another.

      "For reasons set out above and from my investigations, I am unable to
say that the whole electoral process. . . was free and fair," he wrote.





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      Zaka MDC activists severely assaulted

      5/24/02 12:01:57 PM (GMT +2)


      From Our Correspondent in Masvingo

      TWO MDC officials were severely beaten up in Zaka on Wednesday as they
prepared for rural district council elections scheduled for August.



      A policeman at Zaka Police Station, who did not wish to be named,
confirmed the police were investigating the case. The MDC alleges police
officers at Zaka Police Station took part in the beatings. Shaky Matake, the
MDC vice-chairman for Masvingo, said political violence had erupted in Gutu,
Zaka and Bikita where rural district council elections are due to take
place.

      He said his party had pressed charges against the Zaka Police Station
officer-in-charge for allegedly assaulting the two MDC activists. "The fact
that police participated in the beatings leaves us with no option but to
file criminal charges against the officer-in- charge," he said.

      "We expect the police to do their duty impartially but they are not
doing so." The officials assaulted are Johannes Chingore, the chairman for
Zaka West and Henry Chitapa, the district co-ordinator.

      The MDC said it suspected the assailants were Zanu PF supporters.
According to MDC officials the terror campaign against their members is
being spearheaded by a war veteran and Zanu PF youths whom the party has
identified by name.

      The two MDC officials were reportedly abducted at Mushungwa business
centre by a group of suspected war veterans. They were beaten up before
being taken to Zaka Police Station, where the beatings continued.

      According to a medical report, Chitapa needs to see an ophthalmologist
because he reportedly sustained injuries to his eyes. The victims were later
given 24 hours to leave the district.

      Chingore said: "We were ordered to renounce our MDC membership. Some
of the police officers assaulted us. We were told not to stand as MDC
candidates in the forthcoming rural district council elections."

      A report was made to the police in Masvingo, they said, but so far no
action has been taken. "We are still investigating the case," said a
policeman who refused to be named. "The two were recorded as CRB number
0013437 and 0013438."
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      3 500 youths catch Aids daily

      5/24/02 12:00:33 PM (GMT +2)


      From Sandra Mujokoro in Bulawayo

      NEARLY 3 500 youths in the 15-24 age group are infected with the
HIV/Aids virus every day in Zimbabwe. A document produced by the Child and
Law Foundation (CLF), in Harare, and the Centre for Reproductive Law and
Policy in the United States, said a total of about 7 000 people are infected
with HIV/Aids every day in Zimbabwe.



      The document, titled State of Denial: Adolescent Reproductive Rights
in Zimbabwe, is based on more than 800 interviews with adolescents, parents,
government officials, non-governmental organisations and United Nations
agencies.

      It says 30 percent of girls aged between 15 and 19 years have had
sexual intercourse at least once. About 40 percent of female adolescents in
Zimbabwe become mothers by the time they turn 19, according to the document.

      The director of CLF, Naira Khan, said there is some kind of myth in
people's minds that if children have information about contraception they
will go out and have earlier sexual relationships.

      "This is laughable, because even though they don't have information,
they go off and experiment very early in their lives. We need to gain access
to the children. We don't have access to the children because the Ministry
of Education preaches abstinence and parents don't like to have their
children talk about sex and sexuality."

      The report, presented to a UN Special Conference on Children in New
York early this month, concludes that young people are denied their rights
to access reproductive health information and services.
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      Row over new school names

      5/24/02 12:49:19 PM (GMT +2)


      Staff Reporter

      A CLASH is looming between school development associations (SDAs) in
Harare and Aeneas Chigwedere, the Minister of Education, Sports and Culture,
after he allegedly imposed the proposed new names at government-owned
schools.



      Parents at one school protested at its being renamed after Chenjerai
Hunzvi, the late leader of the war veterans who led the 2000 invasion of
commercial farms in which a number of farmers and their workers were killed.

      Schools contacted said Chigwedere had imposed names at his own
discretion, despite earlier assurances that he would respect the democratic
submissions of SDAs on implementing the name changes.

      "Instead, the minister has imposed names of Zimbabwean heroes against
all respectful submissions by parents, through the SDAs," said a head at a
Harare school.
      The headmasters said they could not afford the costs involved in
changing school names as they were struggling to meet other financial
commitments at their schools. They argued that in some cases, they had
stocks of stationery under the current school names for the next three
years.

      Another school head said: "The minister should appreciate the concerns
of parents. We are crying out for more financing as we are currently
under-funded severely."

      Chigwedere, however, said there was no going back on the name changes.
He said all government and municipal schools would use their own financial
resources to fund the name change programme.

      He said all schools with colonial names should adopt the new names
without fail. Chigwedere said: "We gave SDAs four months to submit their
proposals on school name changes, from September to 31 December 2001.

      "Some of the schools wanted their existing names to remain and did not
submit their proposals, but we are insisting on new names." On the
imposition of names, he said the final approval of the proposed new names
would be made by the Cabinet committee on names.

      But a deputy headmaster at another school in the capital complained:
"It is not a question of just changing names. They are overlooking the
financial implications on the schools affected. Our SDA will not manage."

      Some of the proposed name changes are: Prince Edward High to Murenga
Boys' High; Mt Pleasant High becoming Joshua Nkomo High; Allan Wilson
renamed Mutapa Boys' High; Queen Elizabeth Girls' High changing to Sally
Mugabe Girls' High; Milton High renamed Khumalo High; Warren Park 4 Primary
becoming Edson Sithole Primary; and Umvukwes Primary changing to Border Gezi
Primary School.
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Mugabe's policy sends 700 firms into oblivion
Independent Foreign Service
May 24 2002 at 06:32AM

Harare - At least 700 companies had shut down in the last 18 months because of Zimbabwe's debilitating economic crisis, leaving 90 000 workers jobless, according to a report by Amani Trust, the country's main private social welfare organisation.

The report examines the conditions in Zimbabwe before and after the disputed March presidential election won by President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe's agriculture industry has shed the most jobs in the last 18 months, mainly because of Mugabe's policy of confiscating productive white farms, ostensibly for black resettlement without compensation. It emerged this week that a large chunk of the farms had gone to Mugabe's cronies.

About 70 000 jobs were lost in the agricultural sector alone in the past 18 months, according to Amani Trust.

Other sectors include the construction and the tourism industries, with a dramatic fall of 80 percent in tourist arrivals since Mugabe triggered the crisis in Zimbabwe in February 2000.

Amani Trust has been helping a number of farm workers who were left jobless after the seizure of their employers' properties. The organisation has provided them with temporary shelter and food rations.

"The farm invasions have resulted in large numbers of farm workers being put out of work and made homeless," said the report. "At least 70 000 farm workers have been put out of work over the last 18 months and, together with their families, they have been rendered destitute.

"If the current land invasions and accompanying displacements continue, it could result in about 1 million farm workers and their families becoming internally displaced persons."

Amani Trust also noted that Zimbabwe's economic crisis had driven thousands of middle- and higher-ranking black professionals abroad.

The organisation recommended an international investigation of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, the reform of the police service to promote accountability and effectiveness, and regional and international action to foster judicial independence and effectiveness.

"The Zimbabwe government should ratify the Convention Against Torture with alacrity," the organisation said.

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