CONFLICTING maize harvest forecasts are
presenting international donor
agencies with difficulties in planning food
aid for Zimbabwe.
Crop forecasters have issued widely different
predictions for this year's
harvest, making it difficult for the aid agencies
to plan for further
assistance.
In its latest report, the Famine
Early Warning System Network (Fewsnet) said
the maize crop being currently
harvested would be nearly 1,3 million tonnes.
Fewsnet attributed the
increase in production to heavy rains brought by
cyclone
Japhet.
But this would be only enough to feed two-thirds of the
population through
to the next season.
Zimbabwe requires 1,8
million tonnes of maize to feed the nation annually.
This figure excludes 500
000 tonnes which should always be in the strategic
grain
reserves.
However, the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has forecast
between 600 000 and
700 000 tonnes of maize.
The CFU said low
production of maize was caused by the dry spell at the
beginning of the
season and the unavailability of inputs to the new farmers.
It said the
harvest would also be reduced because much of it was being
consumed by
thousands of starving people in the countryside while it was
still
green.
Disruptions caused by farm seizures have also contributed to
the undermining
of production.
To make matters worse, the CFU
said, most of the producers would choose to
keep their crop on-farm unless
favourable prices are offered or sell it on
the open
market.
Government itself predicted that production would be below a
million tonnes.
This has left donor agencies unsure about the levels of maize
deficits which
the country has and thus unable to plan for bridging the
gap.
The World Food Programme (WFP), which is still to compile its
findings on
the food situation, has expressed scepticism over the Fewsnet
figures,
saying that preliminary figures are pointing to a much smaller
output than
the forecast 1,3 million tonnes.
"The Vulnerability
Assessment Committee will issue a vulnerability and food
security report in
May detailing food gap for the April 2003/4 consumption
year," the WFP
said.
The WFP has sent out two teams across the country on an
assessment mission
to determine whether the organisation should continue
donating food relief
or not.
The Vulnerability Assessment
Committee has been sent to Matabeleland South
to access the drought relief
and mitigation programme, while another team
would move to other
provinces.
WFP spokesperson Luis Clemens confirmed the exercise and
said its results
would give an indication of future plans.
"We are
assessing the feeding programme in the light of new harvests and the
results
we get will determine whether we continue with the feeding exercise
or not,"
Clemens said.
"There are some instances where some people are getting
food aid from both
the government and the WFP scheme and we will also have to
reconcile the
list with that of people who got good
harvests."
Zimbabwe Independent...
Numbers of
resettled people inflated
Augustine Mukaro
SERIOUS discrepancies have emerged over the
number of people who have been
supposedly resettled under government's
controversial land reform programme.
President Robert Mugabe and
government officials as well as African leaders
hawking government's land
reform exercise to the international community
have been issuing
contradictory figures on resettlement.
In a circular quoted by the
Sunday Mail this week, Agriculture minister
Joseph Made said of the 11
million hectares acquired to date, 210 000
settlers have been allocated land
under the A1 scheme and 14 880 under A2.
However, Zimbabwe's High
Commissioner to South Africa Simon Khaya Moyo
recently told journalists in
Johannesburg a different story.
"From July to August 31, 2002, when
the fast-track land resettlement
programme officially ended, over 300 000
families have been resettled on the
A1 villagised resettlement scheme, whilst
almost 54 000 black farmers have
been resettled on the A2 commercial farming
scheme," Moyo said.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who has
been marketing Zimbabwe's land
reforms, in February gave a similar picture of
the situation.
In his letter to the Commonwealth troika on Zimbabwe
chair, Prime Minister
John Howard of Australia, Obasanjo said 220 000
communal families had been
resettled under A1 and 54 000 indigenous
commercial farmers allocated land
under A2.
"Generally, the
Zimbabwean government gave land to those who intended to
utilise it for
farming purposes," he said.
The Zimbabwe Independent put the figure
of A2 beneficiaries at 13 000
towards the end of last year. Made's latest
assessment of 14 880 is hugely
down from the 54 000 government has been
handing out abroad and raises
questions as to how well the scheme is being
monitored.
The situation on the ground shows serious anomalies with
some ruling party
chefs grabbing up to five farms each. This has apparently
prompted Mugabe to
dissolve land committees that have been at the centre of
the problem with
regard to land allocations.
Zimbabwe Independent...
Editor's
Memo
Banking and barging
Iden Wetherell
HAVE you
noticed how impersonal banking has become in recent years? Gone are
the days
when a bank manager knew his/her customers or indeed cared
about
them.
I have had an account at Barclays Avondale since 1980. The
staff there are
invariably polite and helpful. But the system
stinks.
Let me explain. On a recent Saturday morning I attempted to
cash a cheque
for what I thought was a modest amount. But the teller told me
I didn't have
sufficient funds to cover it.
There must be some
mistake, I insisted with growing embarrassment as
customers behind me awaited
my fate with interest. The teller swivelled his
computer screen to show me -
and everybody else - the problem. There was a
cheque, deposited in my account
the previous Monday, but still not cleared
by Saturday. I would have to wait
until Monday - a full seven days - before
I could draw against it, I was
politely told.
The cheque had been credited to my account by somebody
who also banks at the
branch. But it still needed seven days to clear because
all cheques are sent
to central clearing. That was the policy, I was
told.
I asked for an overdraft to cover the amount I was withdrawing.
That
wouldn't be possible, I was informed. Overdrafts have to accord with a
given
percentage of "turnover". Evidently "turnover" in my account left
something
to be desired. I am not a big spender.
In case I had any
doubt about this, the teller called a number at
headquarters where the policy
was repeated. It was patiently explained to me
that the days when customers
met the manager to arrange an overdraft were
long since gone. It was all down
to the numbers now - yes the "turnover".
In other words my 23 years
with Barclays counted for nothing. There were no
notes on the computer to
say: "This is a reliable customer who has been with
us for donkey's years and
hardly ever been overdrawn. Give him the money."
Would you believe
this is what Barclays calls a "Prestige Service"? In fact
it is no service at
all. In fairness they did offer a loan. But why should I
have to go through
all that?
Exactly why in this electronic age does it take them a week
to clear a
cheque deposited at the same branch? Why can't a customer who has
banked
with them for over two decades be able to secure funds at a weekend
when it
is quite evident that a cheque credited five days earlier but now
snared in
their Dickensian clearing system is blocking
access?
Banks make money on the time it takes to clear cheques. A
businessman in the
queue behind me said it played havoc with his cashflow. I
can believe it.
Barclays made a profit of $10,5 billion last
year.
That's my money - and yours. We deserve better from them. They
should put
customers back into their business equation and stop taking them
for
granted. Let's hear less about "turnover" and more "How can we
help?"
On the same topic of customer care, how has your garage
treated you during
the ongoing fuel crisis? This is the service station where
you hold an
account, have your vehicle fixed and routinely bought petrol or
diesel in
the good old days before we were plunged into this one-man-made
crisis. What
have they done to keep your business?
Many have
permitted forecourt anarchy. They have allowed taxi drivers to
barge in,
taken bribes, ignored the needs of long-time customers and
generally behaved
badly. It still astounds me that one garage on Samora
Machel Ave is so
disorganised whenever fuel arrives that traffic is allowed
to block three
lanes. The police don't seem to mind. Others however have got
their queues
down to a fine art and ensure there is no lawlessness of the
national
variety.
Our prize this week goes to Reg Harris Motors. Not only does
it police its
fuel queues, it sends SMS messages to account holders alerting
them to the
next delivery. This is the sort of service all garages should be
delivering.
If you think your garage deserves a mention, or have
experienced chaos at
another, please write and tell me. One day, when we get
a democratic
government, fuel will flow again. We need then to remember those
service
stations that respected their customers and those that
didn't.
FinGaz
MDC sets terms
for petition withdrawal
By Abel Mutsakani Deputy
Editor-in-Chief
5/1/03 10:22:33 AM (GMT
+2)
THE opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) wants President
Robert Mugabe to publicly and irrevocably commit
himself to early retirement
before the opposition party can withdraw a High
Court petition challenging
Mugabe's March 2003 re-election victory, according
to MDC officials.
The officials, who spoke
on condition of anonymity, said there was
also growing recognition within the
opposition party that despite Mugabe's
chequered and controversial legacy,
his contribution to Zimbabwe's
independence could not be totally
ignored.
Mugabe's immunity from prosecution
for human rights abuses during his
23-year iron-fisted rule would have to be
part of negotiations between the
MDC and ruling ZANU PF once there was clear
and unimpeded progress towards
an early exit for Mugabe, according to the
sources.
"The position in the party is that
the election petition will
naturally fall away once Mugabe publicly commits
himself to an early exit
plan," a top MDC official told the Financial
Gazette.
But the official said there was still
no unanimous position within
Zimbabwe's main opposition party on how long
Zimbabweans should wait before
they elect a new government if Mugabe steps
down.
The two options being proposed were to
hold elections within three
months as stipulated by the Constitution, or have
a longer transitional
period subject to negotiations between the MDC and ZANU
PF.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai would
yesterday neither confirm nor deny
whether his party would drop its court
challenge against Mugabe's victory
and engage ZANU PF in negotiations if he
announced he was stepping down
before his term ends in
2008.
Tsvangirai would only say: "The time is
ripe now for the MDC and ZANU
PF to put the national interest above petty and
personal interests.
"People out there want to
see a better life created for them, they don
't want to see the country being
reduced to this poverty and suffering,"
he
added.
Neither ZANU PF spokesman Nathan
Shamuyarira nor the party's chairman
John Nkomo could be reached for comment
on the matter yesterday.
But the government
earlier this week ruled out any possibility of
Mugabe retiring before the
expiry of his term.
Speculation on Mugabe's
future has been rife in the past week, after
the 79-year old leader himself
hinted at his possible retirement by
encouraging open debate on his successor
as head of his ruling ZANU PF
party.
In an
interview with state television last Monday, Mugabe also said he
was ready to
meet Tsvangirai over Zimbabwe's deepening crisis if the
opposition recognised
his disputed re-election.
Analysts say this is
the government's euphemistic way of calling on
Tsvangirai to withdraw his
election petition from the courts.
Mugabe has
held on to power despite international sanctions and a
debilitating economic
crisis at home, but his presidency has been blighted
by Tsvangirai's refusal
to recognise him and the opposition leader's
decision to petition the courts
to nullify his re-election.
The MDC's
conditions for re-engagement with the government come as the
leaders of South
Africa, Nigeria and Malawi are expected in Harare next week
in what South
African officials yesterday said was a mission to try and
bring the MDC and
ZANU PF back to the negotiating table.
Negotiations between Zimbabwe's two main political parties collapsed
last
year when the MDC filed a court application challenging Mugabe's
re-election,
which it says was only possible because of electoral fraud and
massive vote
rigging by the ruling party.
But diplomatic
sources told this newspaper that besides attempting to
rekindle dialogue
between the Zimbabwean parties, the three leaders were
expected to ratchet up
pressure on Mugabe to lay out an exit plan that would
culminate in democratic
elections in Zimbabwe.
They said this was
after Mugabe himself reportedly indicated in a
telephone call a few weeks ago
to South African President Thabo Mbeki that
he now wanted to
retire.
The United States of America has also
weighed in, telling Malawian
leader Bakili Muluzi that it preferred a
transitional government tasked with
organising fresh elections to take over
in Zimbabwe, the diplomats said.
They told the
Financial Gazette that the United States had indicated
that the elections
should be held under international
supervision.
Zimbabwe's economic and political
crises have spiralled since Mugabe
defeated Tsvangirai in last year's
presidential poll, which has also been
condemned as fraudulent by the
European Union, the United States, the
Commonwealth and Southern Africa
Development Community parliamentarians.
Many
blame Mugabe's policies for high unemployment and fuel, foreign
currency and
food shortages.
In the last two months, the
labour-backed MDC and the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) have
staged huge national strikes that
political analysts say have shaken the
government's confidence and
stranglehold on
power.
The MDC has threatened to marshal
hundreds of thousands of its urban
supporters in a march on Mugabe's State
House residence to force him to
quit, while the ZCTU says it is considering
calling an indefinite job strike
if the government does not address the
deepening crisis.
FinGaz
AirZim fails to switch to new booking
system
By Luke Tamborinyoka News
Editor
5/1/03 10:23:16 AM (GMT
+2)
AIR Zimbabwe has failed to switch over
to a new US$200 000 ($164.8
million) booking system purchased to curb a
multi-million dollar ticket
scam, with technical hitches in the installation
of the programme forcing
employees to resort to manual ticketing and cutting
the national airliner
off from local and international terminals, the
Financial Gazette has
established.
Company officials said Air Zimbabwe was supposed to switch over from
its old
ticketing system to the new one on Saturday, but the system failed
to
transfer crucial data and the switch over or "migration" to the new
software
failed.
The new system was purchased from an
American firm called World Span
and more than 20 Air Zimbabwe officials
travelled to the United States for
negotiations on the acquisition of the
software and for training on how to
use it.
Air Zimbabwe insiders said more than US$200 000 was spent in the
purchase of
physical infrastructure for the new programme and to link the
airline to an
international booking system run by World
Span.
The booking system was supposed to close
loopholes in the national
airline's old ticketing
procedures.
The loopholes have been used by
employees to prejudice Air Zimbabwe of
millions of dollars in a scam in which
several passengers were flown to the
United Kingdom without paying any money
to the airline.
Air Zimbabwe officials, who
spoke on condition of anonymity, said the
switchover had still not been
effected by yesterday, with staff still
completing ticketing procedures
manually.
"No-one has been able to pick out
the problem, but there are no
print-outs for bookings right now, no printed
tickets and the whole system
has been in shambles since Saturday," an
official at the parastatal told the
Financial
Gazette.
"The tickets are being done manually
and there is no link between
reservations and departure control at the
airport and with other terminals
such as London, Victoria Falls and Bulawayo.
The system has failed to link
up even with travel agencies and other
airlines."
There was no comment from Air
Zimbabwe managing director Rambai
Chingwena, who was said to be attending
meetings.
Air Zimbabwe insiders however said
it was not clear at this stage
whether the fault was with World Span or with
the airline's equipment or how
the company's management planned to resolve
the problem.
The officials said Air Zimbabwe
had awarded the booking system tender
to the American company despite being
recommended to use Sat International,
a United States-based firm that has
successfully installed new booking and
ticketing systems for Ethiopian
Airlines and Air Botswana.
Under the contract
with World Span, which the officials said they
believed was signed in
October, Air Zimbabwe has to pay about US$2 000 a
month to the US
company.
The officials said several
delegations from Air Zimbabwe travelled to
the United States for negotiations
and training for periods of between one
and two weeks and were each paid
allowances of US$500 per day.
The negotiations
were coordinated by Leslie Machado, Air Zimbabwe's
general sales agent in
California, while the project manager in Zimbabwe was
Ben Makwarimba, the
acting sales manager, the Air Zimbabwe insiders
said.
Makwarimba was said to be out of the
office and had not returned calls
by late
yesterday.
"Some of the people were only sent
there so they could get allowances.
How can someone from finance go on such
technical trips that have little or
no relevance to their department?" an
official with the national airline
said.
The officials said if the technical problems in the new system were
not
speedily resolved, Air Zimbabwe could be prejudiced of more money
by
employees involved in the ticket racket that the company is attempting
to
curb.
The scam, under which some
employees were bribed by passengers, is
being investigated by the police's
Criminal Investigations Department.
The
financially troubled airline, which is operating below capacity
and has been
hit by a sharp decline in domestic and international tourist
arrivals, is
expected to post a loss this year because its salary bill has
shot up by 300
percent.
The company reportedly lost billions
of dollars in foreign currency
through the payment of bonus fees, travel
allowances and kickbacks in a
failed deal to procure two 50-seater aircraft
from France.
Air Zimbabwe management has
denied the charges.
FinGaz
S Africa demands
seized farms back
Staff
Reporter
5/1/03 10:25:16 AM (GMT
+2)
THE Zimbabwean government has bowed to
pressure by regional powerhouse
South Africa to return land it seized from
South African citizens under its
controversial land reform programme, it
emerged this week.
Zimbabwe undertook to
give back land it grabbed from white South
Africans at the height of the
resettlement exercise, at a meeting held in
Harare in February between senior
South African and Zimbabwean foreign
affairs officials, sources close to the
matter said.
Neither Agriculture Minister
Joseph Made nor his Foreign Affairs
counterpart Stan Mudenge could be reached
yesterday for comment on the
matter.
South
Africa's High Commissioner in Harare, Jeremiah Ndou, was also
not available
for comment yesterday.
But in a letter to one
of the affected farmers, Crawford von Abbo,
South Africa's deputy Foreign
Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad indicates that
Harare had agreed to return land
seized from South Africa citizens.
According
to the letter, the concession was made in terms of the
Bilateral Investment
Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) signed by
the two
neighbours.
Pahad's letter, dated March 10
2003, reads in part: "The latest
bilateral discussions on this issue (return
of land) took place in Harare
from 17 to 18 February
2003.
"The South African delegation was
advised that the Zimbabwean
government 's policy is "that listed farms under
the land reform programme
owned by nationals from SADC member states and/or
countries with Bilateral
Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements would
be delisted in
accordance with the Laws and regulations of
Zimbabwe."
Under the BIPPA between Zimbabwe
and South Africa, neither can seize
the other's investments or those of the
other's nationals without paying
full
compensation.
But under its Land Acquisition
Act, the government is not required to
pay for land seized under its
resettlement programme, but for farm
improvements
only.
However, the state has indicated in the
past that land protected under
government-to-government investment protection
agreements will be spared.
Pretoria demanded
that Harare release South African-owned farms after
several of its nationals
complained that their land had been seized without
compensation, despite the
provisions of the BIPPA between the two
states.
But it could not be immediately
established whether Harare would also
now keep its hands off the large tracts
of land owned by the South
African-based Oppenheimer family, which it has
long targeted for acquisition
FinGaz
Huge drop in tobacco
sales at auction floors
Staff
Reporters
5/1/03 10:25:51 AM (GMT
+2)
ONLY 7 979 bales of tobacco have been
sold since the opening of the
auction floors last Wednesday, with industry
officials blaming severe fuel
shortages for the drop from 15 749 bales sold
in the same period last year.
Statistics
from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB)
indicate that 2 287
bales were sold yesterday, the sixth day of the
marketing season, compared to
4 276 bales in the same period in 2002.
According to the TIMB's statistics, 720 of the bales were sold by
Burley
Marketing Zimbabwe, while Tobacco Sales Floor sold 1 085 and
Zimbabwe
Industry Tobacco Auction Centre sold
482.
Zimbabwe Tobacco Association president
Duncan Millar said the low
sales could be a result of the fuel crisis, which
has caused delays in the
delivery of bales to the auction floors in
Harare.
He said some farmers were also still
reaping and curing their crops
because of late
planting.
"So little has been sold because the
market has not yet settled down
because some farmers had a late planting
season. We expect that full
deliveries will be coming in the third week of
May," Millar said.
Average prices for the
golden leaf were yesterday between US165c and
US192c a
kilogramme.
Millar said his association
expected between 80 and 85 million kgs of
tobacco to be delivered to the
auction floors this year, a 50 percent
decline from the crop sold in
2002.
Analysts have attributed the decline in
output to drought and to the
government's chaotic land reform exercise, under
which several large-scale
tobacco farmers were evicted from their
land.
Serious shortages of inputs have also
affected growers.
FinGaz
Studies underway in
Zim to map food needs
5/1/03
10:28:51 AM (GMT +2)
JOHANNESBURG - Two
assessments currently being conducted in Zimbabwe
will allow the World Food
Programme (WFP) to better prepare for meeting the
expected food needs for the
year ahead.
About half of all Zimbabweans
currently require food aid to survive,
following poor harvests brought on by
drought, HIV/AIDS and the impact of
the government's fast-track land reform
programme on agricultural
production.
WFP
Zimbabwe spokesman Luis Clemens told said the agency had
distributed about 60
000 mt of food aid to 4.7 million vulnerable
Zimbabweans in
March.
"The distributions consist of 10 kg of
maize, 1 kg of pulses (beans),
0.6 kg of vegetable oil and 1 kg of fortified
corn soya blend (CSB),"
Clemens said.
"In
April, WFP will distribute to 4.6 million people some 50 000 mt of
food aid,
less than in the previous month. There will be a distribution of
maize and
CSB, but no vegetable oil and pulses as we don't have enough [of
those
commodities)."
WFP would be scaling down its
assistance during the harvest months,
he
explained.
"(There will be) a reduction
in May/June of our food distributions,
because there's a harvest. In those
places where there's no harvest we
continue with business as usual," Clemens
said.
"WFP is in the business of providing
food to those who are vulnerable,
who have no source of food, who are in need
of food aid. Folks who have just
harvested enough food to feed themselves for
at least a few months are
temporarily not in need of food aid," he
added.
The two assessments being conducted,
along with government crop
figures, would allow aid agencies to plot the way
forward in the
post-harvest period.
"The
first is the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC)
which is an
inter-agency assessment in which WFP, NGOs, government and
Southern African
Development Community(SADC) all participate," Clemens
said.
The ZimVAC would "map out the need for
food aid and the numbers (of
those in need), projecting forward to April next
year".
"The second assessment is a WFP and UN
Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) Crop and Food Supply Assessment
Mission, going on in
Zimbabwe at the moment. This is looking at the size of
the harvest, domestic
production, government capacity to import (food), and
seed and fertiliser
availability vis-à-vis human consumption requirements,"
Clemens said.
This assessment would subtract
domestic production and government
capacity to import food from annual
consumption requirements in order to
indicate the food gap for the marketing
year ending April 2004.
"So between the [FAO]
crop and food [assessment mission] and the
ZimVAC we should be getting a
pretty good idea of what the food gap is
likely to be," he
added.
Clemens stressed, however, that the WFP
could act on that data only
once the government issued a request for
assistance.
An appeal would then be made to
donors at a stakeholders' meeting
expected to be held in June in
Johannesburg, South Africa. - Irin
FinGaz
Fired Zimpost
workers recalled
Staff
Reporter
5/1/03 10:31:04 AM (GMT
+2)
THE Zimbabwe Postal Services (ZIMPOST)
has recalled workers it
summarily dismissed for participating in a three-day
work stayaway called by
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to
protest a massive fuel price
hike, the labour body president, Lovemore
Matombo, said yesterday.
The ZCTU
president was among the ZIMPOST workers dismissed
on
Saturday.
Matombo said 90 percent of
ZIMPOST's 2 800 workers had on Saturday
been issued with dismissal letters
for heeding the ZCTU stayaway call, which
led to the closure of most
businesses from Wednesday to Friday last week.
But he said management had on Monday verbally communicated to some of
the
sacked employees to resume their normal
duties.
He however said there was still
confusion among workers, who feared
that management could at any time invoke
the dismissal letters.
"There has not been any
retraction and without that retraction,
workers believe that they still
remain dismissed," Matombo told the
Financial
Gazette.
"Management should have written a
circular to all the workers, but
this has not happened. So basically, the
dismissals still stand, although
people are still working," he
added.
He said a meeting with ZIMPOST
management requested by the Postal
Workers' Union on Tuesday to seek
clarification on the matter had been
postponed to next
week.
FinGaz
Letters
Moyo's ads nauseating
5/1/03 9:42:57 AM (GMT +2)
EDITOR - I was
astonished to find that, in place of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC)
advertisements previously flighted, the Financial
Gazette last week was
flaunting three full pages of foul ZANU PF adverts
inserted by the Department
of Information and Publicity.
In the
adverts, Jonathan Moyo's crowd accuses those responsible for
the recent mass
action of causing mass violence against "school children,
ordinary people in
the townships, bus operators and only
black-owned
businesses".
It's obviously the
ruling party's response to the MDC's adverts
appearing in the private Press
berating alleged ZANU PF torture and
violence. But which is the party whose
leadership boasts constantly of their
degrees in violence? And him the
President of the country too!
And which party
has the "dirty tricks department"?
One more
trick like that and Fingaz staff will suddenly find they can'
t even give
their paper away. Already a number of people have told me they
won't buy
another copy of the Financial Gazette.
We all
know Moyo's propensity for spreading the most blatant foul lies
every time he
opens his mouth. Looks as though he has infiltrated the Fingaz
management!
With him aboard, the paper will sink like a
stone.
Pity it has had a very worthwhile
history until now. The choice is
theirs. Staff - not just management - please
note.
PNR
Silversides,
Harare.
FinGaz
Letters
We're
at war already
5/1/03 9:43:27 AM
(GMT +2)
EDITOR - Following the
publication of my article in which I commented
about the need for
decisiveness and boldness, I received a barrage of
messages, some of which
appeared to have been authored by liberation
war
veterans.
It was clear from the
responses that my message was grossly
misunderstood by some and I felt
compelled to shed light on what my
convictions are in a plain
terms.
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines
war as a "state of hostility,
conflict or antagonism/ a struggle or
competition between opposing forces or
for a particular
end".
It is in this context that I view our
situation. We are already at
war.
And our
particular end is freedom from hunger. Our particular end is
freedom from
political repression.
Our particular end is
the freedom of Zimbabweans to feel safe in their
own country and to express
their views and belong to political parties of
their choice without the fear
of state victimisation.
Our desired goal is a
Zimbabwe where people from different political
orientations can express their
views in public without the fear of
harassment from state secret agents and
the police.
We are striving for a Zimbabwe
where there is political and economic
order; where the rights of citizens are
respe1cted by the government and
where people live in "brotherhood" (and
sisterhood).
War is not just about guns and
bombs. But the fundamentals of strategy
remain the
same.
A prolonged campaign brings about a lot
of suffering and stretches the
material and
human resources. It can destroy people's willpower. It is not wise
for
leaders to promise action
if no
adequate preparation is done to implement the action
with
success.
What I find disturbing is
that even members of my family now fear for
my safety because of my
contributions to the Press. What country is that
where people are persecuted
for expressing their views?
This is why I say
we are at war. The point is Zimbabwe is now like a
stationery hurricane
taking its toll on innocent citizens. The people don't
know when the
hurricane is going to move and where it is
going.
For how long can we have this
hurricane? No guns but we are at war.
And without guns we have to continue
fighting until our dignity as a people
is
restored.
We have to fight until the barrels
of guns are removed from our
mouths. We have to strive until we can choose
what we want to eat, at the
time we want. We will pay the
price.
We will continue speaking for those who
are not able to speak, those
who are suffering but are afraid that they can
lose their lives even for
looking at a policeman. We will continue speaking
for those who know that
even tearing the newspaper picture of the President
can be a serious crime.
Simon
Bere,
Harare.
FinGaz
. . . And now
to the notebook. . . ZNA men deserting
again!
5/1/03 10:31:48 AM (GMT
+2)
Men in Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA)
uniforms are on the rampage again,
assaulting and torturing several innocent
civilians in Harare, Chitungwiza
and Mutare last
weekend.
According to Press reports,
the armed bandits told their victims they
were punishing them for supporting
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) three-day job
stayaway.
How, in a country where the rate of
unemployment is above 60 percent,
these rogues were able to tell who had
stayed home in support of the ZCTU
strike and who simply had no job to go to
in the first place remains a
mystery.
And
equally puzzling is why so many ZNA men are deserting the army to
join the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party.
This is of course assuming that you
believe the childish claims by
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo and army
spokesmen Alphious Makotore last
month that the uniformed people who tortured
and harassed innocent civilians
last month had in fact deserted from the army
and were working with the MDC.
Of plots to
derail trains
Still on
propaganda.
Mukanya wants to know why Moyo
would let his staff splash adverts in
newspapers telling people that the
concrete blocks that should be and are
part of ordinary rail level crossings
were put there by the MDC in an
attempt to derail
trains.
Professor, Mukanya may not agree with
your views, but he would be the
first to admit that you can be brilliant. So
why can't you think up
something better and more convincing than this, even
if we know it's all
lies?
Or have you guys
at the Department of Information and Publicity become
so enmeshed in your
propaganda that you can no longer tell the difference
between lies and the
truth even if your mother's life depended on
it?
Blackmail
Mukanya feels somehow
re-
lieved by resurfacing reports that Uncle
Bob could be finally
contemplating what nearly everybody else, including
people in his ZANU PF
party, thinks he should have done as far back as
February 2000 when his
draft constitution was rejected by Zimbabweans - that
is step down.
Comrade Thabo "quiet diplomacy"
Mbeki of South Africa and presidents
Bakili Muluzi and Olusegun Obasanjo of
Malawi and Nigeria respectively are
reportedly planning to visit Uncle Bob to
try and convince him there is life
after State
House.
But one worrying thing about the
otherwise welcome exit plan are
reports that key among Uncle Bob's conditions
before he can relinquish power
is a demand that he should be made immune from
prosecution for human rights
abuses committed during his 23-year
rule.
It is said that there are many,
including regional leaders, who feel
Mugabe should be granted his wish if
that is the price Zimbabweans have to
pay to see him off which, if true,
makes the whole suggested plot stink to
high
heaven.
Why should Uncle Bob, if he is not
guilty, be afraid to stand before a
court of law and be declared innocent? Or
if he is guilty then is it not
cheap blackmail for him to demand that we let
him off the hook or he won't
go?
We
wonder.
Our lady of
shopping
After southern African
states
would not follow the example set by the
US government, the EU and
others by imposing smart sanctions on Zimbabwe's
ruling elite, ordinary
Zimbabweans exiled in those countries have taken it
upon themselves to
enforce "travel restrictions" of their own on government
officials.
As indeed comrade First Lady Grace
Mugabe last week discovered in
Johannesburg. According to Press reports, a
group of Zimbabweans living in
South Africa virtually waylaid Grace in
Johannesburg where she was shopping,
staging protests at the posh Caesar's
Palace hotel where she was staying.
Some of
the placards the protestors held read "Mugabe is not the
people's choice" and
"Mugabe must go".
A group calling itself
Concerned Zimbabweans Living Abroad said it
organised the
protest.
The president of the group, Jay
Sibanda, told journalists: "Grace
Mugabe is the right target. There is
nothing more embarrassing for a man
than having your wife tell you that her
shopping has been disrupted by
disgruntled
people.
"Whenever these people go shopping
anywhere else in the world,
peace-loving people should tell them to leave,"
he said.
We couldn't agree with you more,
Sibanda.
Sickened
We close the notebook
this
week with these words taken from a letter
published on the Letters to
the Editor page of the Daily News of April
28.
We quote: "The way the television
programme, US Invasion of Iraq, is
(sic) conducted simply shows that the
Mugabe regime is uncomfortable about
the US' uprooting of
dictators.
"That is why the Mugabe government
is now trying to make everybody
hate
America.
"Should the Americans decide to pay
Zimbabwe a visit, we shall not be
on Gushungo's side, but will wait to be
seen on BBC giving the invaders a
heroic
welcome."
The writer simply signed him/herself
off as "Sickened". Mukanya bets
he/she is not
alone.
The way things have fallen apart in
Zimbabwe is sickening to everyone,
except of course those that can still find
foreign currency to go on
shopping sprees outside the
country.
Our job is to develop and sustain cricket in a
country facing economic hardship 
