Zim Online
Friday 10 November
2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe yesterday started
issuing 99-year leases to solidify
its often violent and controversial land
reforms but analysts said a rebound
in the key agriculture was unlikely
unless leases are given to competent
farmers and critical inputs are availed
on time.
President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF has made the land
reforms -
which resulted in the wholesale seizure of land from white
commercial
farmers for redistribution to blacks - the plank of its election
campaigns
since 2000.
Commercial agriculture, once the
country's top foreign currency
earner, has plunged by 60 percent since 2001,
which critics blame on the
often chaotic reforms that many also say have
caused food shortages.
Analysts have said lack of security of
tenure had hamstrung farmers
from accessing credit from banks to shore up
agriculture production.
Yesterday, the government sought to
confound its critics handing out
leases to about a hundred beneficiaries and
among them about half a dozen
former white farmers.
Describing
the distribution of leases as an historic occasion, Mugabe
challenged banks
to be patriotic and support the new land owners.
He said: "My call
to them (banks) is to take advantage of this
security of tenure to support
agriculture. Banks and financial institutions
should restart the elaborate
programmes of support for agriculture they had
in place before
independence.
"This moment should indeed presage a new dawn
demanding a patriotic
commitment from the whole financial
sector."
But analysts said title deeds were only one of the many
components of
what farmers required in order to restore the southern African
nation to its
former breadbasket of the region status.
"It is a
step in the right direction," said Bulawayo-based economist
Eric Bloch. "But
it is only one of the many things that need to be done to
resolve the
problems in the agriculture sector."
"There is need to ensure the
leases are given to genuine farmers who
have the skills to work the land not
to people with the right political
connections," said Bloch, adding that
issues such as for example
availability of fuel and electricity for
irrigation needed to be addressed
to revive agriculture.
Critics say most beneficiaries of the land reforms are either not well
trained or not trained at all and have used the acquired farms as weekend
holiday spots while the country experiences food shortages.
Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, has denied charges that
his
cronies have mostly benefited from the land reforms, which he says were
necessary to address colonial injustices at the hands of minority
whites.
Zimbabwe has relied on food imports since 2001 due to
mainly to
failure by new black farmers to raise agriculture output to levels
attained
by previously white commercial farmers.
Mugabe blames
drought for the shortages while farmers complain of
inadequate inputs
especially seed, fertilizer and chemicals.
As a result of the food
shortages Zimbabwe has had to import maize
from South Africa and northern
neighbour Zambia, a country it used to feed.
"The leases are
critical but then I think the worrying factor is the
clause that says the
government can give a farmer three-year notice to
cancel the lease and that
on its own erodes the benefits of having the lease
in the first place,"
James Jowa, a Harare-based economist said.
The government last year
amended the country's constitution making all
agriculture land state
property in a widely criticised move, which
effectively killed chances of
attracting foreign investors.
Poor performance in the agriculture
sector has hamstrung the country's
anti-inflation drive as prices of basic
food commodities continue to shoot
through the roof. Zimbabwe has the
highest inflation rate in the world.
Agriculture contributes 18.5
percent of Zimbabwe's gross domestic
product while 60 percent of raw
materials required in the manufacturing
sector come from
agriculture.
The disturbances in the agriculture sector have had
far reaching
consequences as hundreds of thousands have lost jobs while the
manufacturing
sector, starved of inputs from the sector, is operating below
30 percent
capacity.
"Leases will not guarantee a bumper
harvest. It is about capacitating
farmers and having a sound agriculture
policy, which at the moment is not
there," John Makumbe, a University of
Zimbabwe political scientist said.
Critics say the land reforms
have been dogged by blunders from the
start and point to the latest contract
to import 70 000 tonnes of fertilizer
from an obscure South African company
as one case in point.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe brokered deal
has seen the country fork
out scarce foreign currency to import Compound D
fertilizer from Intshona
but tests carried by the Grain Marketing Board show
the quality is below
standard and will affect yields.
Mugabe,
whose government has been ostracised by West over the land
seizures, says
the economy, which has contracted by 40 percent in the last 7
years, is
finally turning the corner, powered by improved agriculture output
although
others disagree. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 10 November
2006
HARARE - As the factions of Zimbabwe's
main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party take the first
steps towards re-unification
ahead of a decisive presidential election in
2008, the goings-on behind the
scenes point to tough and protracted
negotiations between the two bickering
sides on the nature and form of their
re-marriage.
Both the Morgan Tsvangirai-led group and their cousins
led by Arthur
Mutambara held two stormy and separate national executive
meetings in Harare
last Saturday, with the hawks within both camps
dismissing unity overtures
citing "irreconcilable differences."
Insiders believe the hawks within both camps are the vital cogs that
will
decide whether these unity talks eventually succeed.
On a sunny
Saturday afternoon last week at St Lucia Park, an exclusive
conference venue
in Harare where the Tsvangirai-led faction held its
national executive
retreat, there were tears as passionate and emotional
speakers argued for
and against the reintegration of the squabbling
factions.
When
the issue of unity came up for discussion, there was explosive
and heated
debate that went on for close to four hours.
The hawks among
Tsvangirai's group who spoke strongly against unity,
citing irreconcilable
differences, include national organising secretary
Elias Mudzuri, the youth
assembly chairperson Thamsanqa Mahlangu, national
chairman Isaac Matongo,
deputy secretary-general Tapiwa Mashakada and
committee member Cephas
Makuyana.
Insiders told ZimOnline that journalist and deputy
secretary for
international relations, Grace Kwinje, broke down and had to
be calmed down
by fellow national executive member Kerry Kay as she narrated
the futility
of re-unification, saying all the Tsvangirai group - the larger
between the
two opposition factions - needed to do was to work harder on the
ground as
it had proved to have majority support.
Women's wing
leader in the Tsvangirai-led MDC, Lucia Matibenga, spoke
passionately as she
accused the faction of seeking - by pushing for unity
with the Mutambara-led
MDC - to re-infect itself with the same cancer that
had almost led to the
collapse of the opposition.
Matibenga argued that the factors that
led to the split had not
changed and as a representative of the women, there
was no reason to reunite
with those who almost failed a national
dream.
She said: "We are giving ourselves the same disease that led
to the
split. As women we believe that unity, without addressing the causes
of the
split will not help anyone."
The hawks also argued how
difficult it was going to be to work with
former secretary-general Welshman
Ncube who they accused of having stuffed
the party's Harvest House
headquarters with people from his Ndebele tribe.
Ncube who is now
secretary general of the Mutambara faction denies
favouring one group in
making appointments to Harvest House.
Yet others, such as Ian
Makone, said it was better to "absorb" the
other group rather than reunite
with it. Others demanded to know the nature
of the remarriage and asked
whether there would be another extra-ordinary
Congress to elect new office
bearers.
Those who preferred to give unity a chance included former
Daily News
boss Sam Sipepa Nkomo, vice national chairman Lovemore Moyo and
Tsvangirai
himself.
Tsvangirai told the meeting that he had
traversed the country when he
held over 60 rallies in the run-up to the
district council elections and the
feeling of the people on the ground was
that the party should unite.
He said the people had made an
impassioned plea on him to make sure
all the democratic forces are reunited
to confront the common enemy: Robert
Mugabe and ZANU PF.
In a
highly emotional narration, Tsvangirai said even though they had
scored some
political victories and won more seats in the council elections,
unity was a
bigger prize for the suffering people of Zimbabwe.
Tsvangirai said:
"I have travelled around the country and the people
want the democratic
forces to unite. I have suffered a lot personally due to
the split and unity
is the best prize we could give to the people of
Zimbabwe."
It
appeared Tsvangirai's intervention somewhat managed to calm
tempers. After
his speech, there was stunning silence as the delegates began
to confer
quietly among themselves.
The Tsvangirai-faction eventually set up
a five-member team led by
Nkomo that was tasked with negotiating the
modalities of unity. The
committee also included Matongo, who demanded that
he be included in the
negotiating task force.
Across town, a
similar debate was taking place in the Arthur
Mutambara-led camp. Legislator
for St Mary's constituency Job Sikhala,
deputy secretary general of the
faction Priscilla Misiharabwi-Mushonga and
Nkayi constituency Member of
Parliament Abednigo Bhebhe argued vociferously
against unity.
They said the two factions had "irreconcilable differences".
Nevertheless,
the faction agreed to set up a committee led by Ncube to
negotiate the
possibility of remarriage.
Talks for unity are a result of shuttle
diplomacy and secret meetings
between Tsvangirai and Mutambara following
their discussion and agreement to
work together at the Christian Alliance
meeting held on 29 July 2006.
It is believed that Tsvangirai hopes
to be elected the leader and
presidential candidate for a united front while
Mutambara hopes to use his
proximity to Tsvangirai to garner grassroots
support and poise himself as
eventual successor to the former trade unionist
turned opposition
politician.
Ncube is, however said to be "not
too keen" about the re-unification
moves but he remained silent during his
faction's meeting, sources said.
The hawks within both groups seem
to be more worried that they could
lose their positions if negotiations for
re-marriage succeed. The
Tsvangirai-led faction seemed to have moved towards
consensus when a
national standing committee on Wednesday night endorsed the
need for
reintegration.
After that meeting, the larger faction
of the opposition party
immediately issued a statement saying unity was in
line with a resolution at
its Congress in March where they agreed to
reintegrate and work with all the
democratic forces.
But the
hawks are still holding sway. The youth in the Tsvangirai
group, led by
Mahlangu, are set to hold an emergency meeting this Saturday
to block any
overtures for unity.
Talk of unity by Christmas by some in the
opposition party is probably
positive thinking but events on the ground
suggest it might be long time
yet - certainly well beyond December 25, 2006
- before unity is achieved.
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 10 November
2006
HARARE - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has
ordered the intelligence
service to investigate central bank governor Gideon
Gono and Agriculture
Minister Joseph Made over allegations the two imported
thousands of tonnes
of fake fertilizer from South Africa in return for
kickbacks, sources told
ZimOnline.
The sources said an irate
Mugabe - who has in the past backed Gono to
the hilt - ordered an immediate
probe last week, while he was still in
Beijing for the Africa-China summit
and after he was briefed by intelligence
officials about the fertilizer
importation scandal.
Mugabe has also ordered Made to appear before
him next week to explain
why he authorised the importation of 70 000 tonnes
of fake fertilizer into
the country, according to our sources who are senior
officials in Mugabe's
office and in the spy Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO) that is
carrying out the probe.
"Mugabe is
intimately involved in agriculture these days and when he
heard about the
fertilizer boob, he ordered Mutasa (Didymus, the
Intelligence Minister) to
get to the bottom of the matter. Some heads will
roll," said a source, who
spoke on condition he was not named.
According to our sources,
Mugabe himself had not openly accused Made
and Gono of taking bribes to
import the fertilizer. But there was strong
suspicion in the intelligence
service that the two men may have received
kickbacks particularly because
they ignored laid down procedures that
require that fertilizer being
imported into the country be first tested.
Questions were also
being asked as to why Made and Gono refused to buy
from traditional and well
established suppliers and instead chose an obscure
firm that now appears to
be a briefcase company, according to sources.
Mutasa confirmed the
probe by the CIO but said it was not specifically
targeting Made or Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gono - who sourced
hard cash to pay for the
fake Compound D fertilizer.
He said: "It is a lie that we are
investigating the two gentlemen per
ser. Food production being a national
security issue, we are only interested
in who did what and where the whole
deal went wrong. We are not targeting
anyone yet."
Gono and
Made could not be reached for comment on the matter last
night.
Investigations by ZimOnline have however revealed that Made and Gono
hatched
a plan in March this year to side-step the Department of
Agricultural
Research and Extension (AREX) in importing fertilizer from
South
Africa.
According to Zimbabwe's laws, all fertilizer imports should
be
authorised by AREX's Soils, Chemistry and Research Board which conducts
tests to establish whether foreign manufactured fertilizer is compatible
with Zimbabwean soils.
But Made and Gono by-passed AREX arguing
that involving the
organisation would delay the fertilizer importation
programme.
Although our investigations have revealed a conspiracy
between Made
and Gono, we were unable to establish whether the two entered
the deal for
monetary gain or other kickbacks. But this suspicion has now
formed the core
of the CIO's investigations.
Gono, the sources
said, supplied the name of the South African
company, Intshona, and the
contacts to Made, sources said. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 10 November
2006
HARARE - Troubled national flag
carrier, Air Zimbabwe, on
Wednesday cancelled a scheduled flight to London
after authorities there
threatened to seize the heavily indebted airline's
plane because of an
unpaid debt.
Sources at Air Zimbabwe
told ZimOnline yesterday that the flight
which was scheduled for 10.15pm was
cancelled at around 9.30pm following a
crisis meeting between management and
the board.
The sources said Air Zimbabwe has failed to repay
debts
totalling about US$2 million to key service providers which include
the
Agency for the Safety of Air Navigation in Africa and Madagascar
(Asecna),
which manages air spaces.
ASECNA and other
service providers, who are also owed money,
last week threatened to withdraw
their services in a bid to coax the
cash-strapped Zimbabwean airline to
pay.
"The national airline owes money to some authorities in
Europe
and North Africa ," said the sources who refused to be named because
they
are not authorised to speak to the press.
Air
Zimbabwe spokesman David Mwenga confirmed the cancellation
of the flight but
attributed the cancellation to some "operational problems".
Hundreds of stranded passengers were later accommodated at the
Crowne Plaza
Hotel in Harare on Wednesday night while others were booked
onto alternative
flights for Friday.
Air Zimbabwe was one of the best airlines
in Africa at
independence in 1980. But years of mismanagement and corruption
have nearly
brought the airline to its knees.
The airline
has in recent months failed to service some routes
or delayed passengers
because planes could not fly due to a lack of spares
or fuel, blamed on an
acute shortage of foreign currency to pay foreign
suppliers. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Friday 10 November
2006
JOHANNESBURG - South African's
deputy foreign affairs minister
Aziz Pahad on Wednesday said a team of
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) leaders has now been mandated
to deal with the crisis in
Zimbabwe.
Pahad said a
three-member SADC delegation shall soon visit
Zimbabwe to push for an end to
the country's seven-year old crisis. He did
not say which countries would
comprise the delegation but in the past such
missions have included the
former, present and incoming chairmen of SADC or
their
representatives.
The deputy foreign affairs minister made the
remarks as he
briefed the media in Pretoria yesterday on progress towards
resolving the
crisis in South Africa's troubled northern
neighbour.
Pahad did not say when the SADC troika will visit
Harare.
Previous efforts by SADC to help end Zimbabwe's
crisis have hit
a brick-wall with President Robert Mugabe refusing to sit
down in talks with
the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
party.
Mugabe dismisses the MDC as a front for Western
governments out
to reverse the gains of the liberation struggle, a charge
dismissed as false
by the opposition party.
SADC leaders
deferred discussions on Zimbabwe at their last
meeting of head of states in
Maseru, Lesotho last August saying they wanted
to give a chance to an
initiative by former Tanzanian president Benjamin
Mkapa to resolve the
crisis.
But the Mkapa initiative appeared to have been a ruse
with
sources saying there has never been any initiative by Mkapa to act as
mediator between Harare and former colonial power Britain
.
The British embassy in Harare has also poured cold water on
the
initiative insisting London was not aware of any negotiations between
itself
and Harare. - ZimOnline
New York Times
By
MICHAEL WINES
Published: November 12, 2006
HOW does a pariah state
convince the rest of the world to come visit on
their next
vacation?
Zimbabwe's tourism industry surely would not pose the question
that way. But
that is the near-insuperable marketing challenge the country -
which
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice classified as an "outpost of
tyranny"
last year - has faced since its autocratic president, Robert G.
Mugabe,
started a scorched-earth campaign against all vestiges of Western
colonialism six years ago.
In 1999, just before the government's
first seizures of thousands of
white-owned commercial farms sparked both an
economic downturn and Western
condemnation, tourists streamed to Zimbabwe to
visit sites like Victoria
Falls. The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority recorded 2.2
million arrivals at its
airports and border posts, 600,000 of them from
overseas. Last year there
were 1.56 million - and barely 200,000 were
foreigners. "Tourism was growing
at the rate of 15 percent a year, and then
came the land reform program,"
Shingi Munyeza, the chief executive of ZimSun
Leisure Group, one of the
nation's top hoteliers, said in a telephone
interview from Harare.
Zimbabwe's loss has been its neighbors' gain.
Botswana's international
tourist receipts have soared to $280 million a
year, and Zambia, on the
other side of Victoria Falls, has seen its tourism
take quintuple this
decade, to $150 million a year. Meanwhile, tourism
revenues in Zimbabwe came
to just $30 million last year, said the
Harare-based economist John
Robertson, compared with $200 million at the
height of the country's
popularity.
It appears that many tourists
have the idea that because Western governments
have plastered Zimbabwe with
travel warnings, that because a million or more
citizens have gone into
voluntary exile, that because the government
bulldozed or burned the homes
of at least 750,000 slum-dwellers last year,
sending them fleeing into the
countryside - that because of all that and
more, a vacation there might be
less than idyllic.
And they are, for the most part, right. The economy is
a mess, and for the
tourist that means frequent shortages not only of
essentials like gasoline,
but of everything else, from Coca-Cola to
toothpaste, and lately, electrical
power for hours at a time. And with
inflation nipping along at a rate of
1,200 percent a year, prices,
denominated in Zimbabwean dollars, rise almost
daily. (Tourists can exchange
their currency for Zimbabwean currency, but
only the highly risky black
market will deliver their money's worth; the
government-rigged legal
exchange rate robs visitors of up to half their
money's true
value.)
Furthermore, if you get sick or hurt, there is little medical
care - or even
medicine - available. And getting around the country is also
problematic.
Air Zimbabwe has had many breakdowns and in-flight emergencies
in recent
years, and the trains are not particularly reliable
either.
And yet. Zimbabwe still has magnificent Victoria Falls and Hwange
National
Park, which teemed with wildlife until 2001, when government
mismanagement
and starving poachers began killing much of it. But what
remains - giraffe,
antelope, all the big five game - is impressive. There
are still comfortable
lodges, vibrant Harare night life and stunning art,
from elegant Shona
sculpture in soapstone and verdite to handmade textiles
and pottery.
But the ethical considerations in visiting such an
autocratic state are
double-edged: many tourists avoid Zimbabwe for fear of
helping finance its
regime, while the tourism industry and its desperate
workers could use some
foreign exchange to feed their families.
All
that, however, is a tough sell in the face of travel warnings, like the
latest from the United States State Department, which raises the specter of
political and economic turmoil, food shortages and violent crime. "These
travel warnings have really prejudiced both the travelers from North America
and Europe from coming here and enjoying the attractions and facilities we
have," Mr. Munyeza said. Zimbabwe's government says its tourism woes are
rooted in Western economic sabotage and propaganda, which it calls foreign
aggression. "After we embarked on what we think was the right thing to do -
to redistribute the land - Zimbabwe was really ravaged, not only as a
destination, but as a country," said Karikoga Kaseke, the chief executive of
the government's Zimbabwe Tourism Authority.
The government's
image-polishing counterinsurgency is called the Perception
Management
Program, and it consists in part of handing out junkets to travel
writers,
travel agents and tour operators. Last year, Mr. Kaseke said, the
program
brought 533 such people to Zimbabwe from around the world, including
the
officially reviled United States and Britain. "The people are now
hearing
another side, and they are making a decision with information," he
said.
At the same time, Zimbabwe officials began a diplomatic
campaign, lobbying
foreign embassies to soften or even lift their travel
warnings.
President Mugabe's government has also looked to Asia to
replace lost
Western investment and tourism. Mr. Mugabe's Look East policy,
focused
mostly on Beijing, has brought to Zimbabwe Chinese shoes, buses,
passenger
planes, jet fighters, clothes and, increasingly, Chinese and other
Asian
tourists - Asian arrivals are up 75 percent this year, the government
says,
although the absolute number is unclear.
Finally, both the
government and the tourist industry have taken some
practical steps to
reassure visitors. Victoria Falls now has a squad of
tourist police, modeled
on those at Egyptian tourism spots, whose job is to
disperse beggars and
pickpockets and to project an aura of security. The
country's parks agency
has begun to renovate some of its prime properties,
including lodges along
the Zambezi River. While Sheraton gave up on Zimbabwe
this year, turning
over its nouveau-Soviet tower to a local operator, other
hoteliers are
sprucing up: ZimSun, for instance, is refurbishing its Crowne
Plaza hotel in
Harare, one of the city's largest, to the tune of $5 million.
For the
Christmas holidays, the company plans to give fuel coupons to South
African
vacationers who come by car.
Whether any of this has made a difference
depends on whom one consults. Mr.
Kaseke's tourism authority says that
visitor arrivals in Zimbabwe leaped by
one-third in the first half of 2006,
to over a million arrivals, compared
with the same period in 2005. While
visits from Europe were down, he said,
American tourism - mostly adventurers
and hunters - rose sharply, and
arrivals from Germany and Asia soared more
than 75 percent.
"We thought it would work," Mr. Kaseke said of his
agency's campaign, "but
we never thought it would work as good as it
has."
Alas, however, none of that success was reflected in the hotel
business.
Occupancy rates fell to 32 percent, from 38 percent in the same
span of
2005, according to the tourism authority. Hotel operators say that
is
because the crashing economy has made hotels too expensive for domestic
clients, offsetting a rise in international visitors.
And the latest
numbers indicate that overseas tourism in 2006 was virtually
flat compared
with 2005. That was the year in which the government's
slum-clearance
project, dubbed Operation Drive Out Trash, rendered hundreds
of thousands
homeless and loosed a torrent of international condemnation.
Foreign tourism
seems not to have recovered from that blow.
Perhaps the answer to whether
a vacation in this particular Outpost of
Tyranny is worthwhile and even
ethical, lies in the type of tourist one is.
Even casual tourists should
abide by some precautions. Tourism Web sites
abound with stories of visitors
who innocently snap photos of forbidden
sites, only to find themselves under
interrogation in the local police
station. Changing money outside official
channels can make economic sense
but is dicey, risking arrest or, perhaps, a
clever fraud.
Having said that, tourists can comfortably revel in the
marvel of Victoria
Falls or Hwange's wildlife in considerable luxury and
with little risk,
though more luxurious - and costlier - accommodations are
available across
the river in Zambia. Tourists who travel in groups are
virtually assured of
a trouble-free trip.
Still, the visitor who
totes a backpack instead of a cartload of Tumi
luggage may be the most
satisfied category of tourist. Victoria Falls has
bungee jumping, microlight
aircraft flying and extreme whitewater rafting,
and the rest of the country,
a rough-hewn work in progress, is the sort of
place that may actually appeal
to travelers whose sense of adventure cannot
be quelled by police roadblocks
and fuel shortages.
MICHAEL WINES is the chief of the Johannesburg bureau
of The Times.
IOL
November 09 2006
at 02:11PM
Harare - The Zimbabwean government is to establish an
official
commission to monitor prices and incomes in the latest attempt to
stall
skyrocketing inflation, a government minister said on
Thursday.
"We are hopeful that the (incomes and pricing) commission
will be in
place soon," Industry and International Trade Minister Obert
Mpofu told AFP.
"The commission will be an independent body which
will look at a whole
range of issues affecting price adjustments which are
driving inflation and
see whether incomes are commensurate with the price
increase.
"The commission will also look at profiteering but not
profiteering
exclusively but also interrogate reasons preferred by
businesses to justify
price movements."
Zimbabwe's economy has been on a downturn in the last five years
characterised by runaway inflation which stood at 1,023 percent in September
and perennial shortages of basic commodities such as cooking oil, fuel and
the staple cornmeal.
The government slashed three zeroes from
its currency back in August
but the move failed to put the breaks on the
inflation rate.
President Robert Mugabe's government first
introduced price controls
for selected goods four years ago to snuff out a
burgeoning black market
where scarce goods were sold for up to three times
the state-imposed price.
The government occasionally deploys police
to raid businesses and
arrest price control violators who are usually
released after paying a fine.
The planned law provides for the
appointment of a commission "to
monitor price trends of goods and
services... producing price monitoring
reports and initiating corrective
measures in cases of unscrupulous
businesses affecting Zimbabwe's pricing
system," according to a draft
version of the bill. - Sapa-AFP
IOL
November 09 2006
at 02:06PM
Harare - A Zimbabwe court has fined two Botswana
reporters for
breaching a law barring journalists from working in the
country without
government approval.
Critics say President
Robert Mugabe's government is using tough media
laws - which also bar
foreign journalists from setting up base in Zimbabwe -
to terrorise the
media and curb criticism in the face of a severe economic
crisis.
The official Herald newspaper said on Thursday TV
reporter Beauty
Mokoba and cameraman Koketso Seofela were fined Zim$5 000
(about R146) each,
or two months in prison, after pleading guilty to
illegally crossing the
Botswana-Zimbabwe border and filming an animal
disease control checkpoint
earlier this year.
The two were arrested and released on bail in April and have appeared
at a
Zimbabwe district magistrate's court on the border with Botswana.
The Zimbabwean government says its media laws were designed to bring
order
to an industry operating unprofessionally and denies it has targeted
its
opponents and critics. - Reuters
November 9, 2006
By
Savious Kwinika (CAJ)
TWO Botswana Broadcasting Service journalists
have been fined $4 000
for allegedly practicing without accreditation from
the country's media
regulatory body, the Media and Information Commission
headed by Tafataona
Mahoso.
Beauty Mokoba, a reporter
and Koketso Seofola, a cameraman from
Botswana pleaded guilty of
contravening a section of the Access to
Information and Privacy Act (AIPPA)
which calls for journalists to obtain
accreditation from the MIC before
practicing. Mokoba and Seofola were fined
$4000 or 40 days in prison for
practicing without MIC accreditation. They
were also fined $1000 or 20 days
in prison after they pleaded guilty to
contravening the Immigration Act when
they entered the country illegally.
In his judgment on Tuesday,
Plumtree senior resident Magistrate, Mark
Dziba said the two were fined
$5000 after he took account that they were
first offenders and that they did
not waste the court's time after pleaded
guilty to the
allegations.
The agreed facts are that Mokoba and Seofola on 30
April at around
12pm the pair entered the country illegally through the
Matsilodge border
while doing a documentary on foot and mouth disease. The
post is adjacent to
Zimbabwe 's Mphoengs border post. The documentary which
was for marketing
purposes of Botswana beef to the European Union was based
on that country's
efforts in combating the foot and mouth
disease.
The two allegedly crossed into the country illegally after
noticing
that Zimbabwe was facing a foot and mouth outbreak at a river point
separating Matsilodge and Mphoengs border post. The Zimbabwe foot and mouth
control point was mounted before Zimbabwe 's Immigration point when coming
into the country.
The two allegedly defied orders from the
Zimbabwe 's Department of
Veterinary Services officials who told them to
seek permission from higher
Plumtree offices before crossing into the
country for their documentary.
They were arrested after Seofola who was in
the river separating the two
countries had started filming the Zimbabwean
border post and the clearing
point. Mokoba and Seofola were both represented
by Promise Ncube and Kucaca
Phulu both from Coghlan and Welsh in Bulawayo .
The state's case was led by
Prince Butshe-Dube.
Yahoo News
by Fanuel
Jongwe Thu Nov 9, 10:47 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's President Robert
Mugabe has doled out long-term
leases to land which had been confiscated
from white farmers, warning the
former owners not to expect government
compensation.
Senior government officials along with five white
farmers were among the
recipients of the 120 99-year leases presented by the
veteran president at a
ceremony in an international conference centre in
downtown Harare.
Zimbabwe launched its controversial and often violent
land reforms seven
years ago, seizing at least 4,000 properties formerly
tilled by white
farmers and pledging to redistribute them to landless
blacks.
Mugabe called the farm seizures a correction of historical
imbalances that
favoured colonial settlers and gave his blessings to bands
of veterans of
the country's 1970s liberation war who led the farm
seizures.
But the move precipitated a collapse in agricultural
production, once the
mainstay of the Zimbabwean economy, which is now
blighted by inflation
running at more than 1,000 percent and previously
unheard of food shortages.
In his address to the recipients of the
leases, Mugbabe made a rare
acknowledgement of the troubles now affecting
the farming sector as he urged
the beneficiaries to exploit the land to the
full.
"We need more maize, much more than we were able to produce last
year. (We
need) more wheat, more cotton so that we can produce enough so we
can
export," said the 82-year-old Mugabe, who has been in power since
Zimbabwe
won independence from Britain in 1980.
"You should guard it
(the land) jealously and you should be prepared to die
for it. Land for us
is about life and death," he added.
Only several hundred white farmers
are now believed to be still operating in
Zimbabwe and many of the former
landowners have since left the country.
Mugabe ruled out any prospect of
compensation from his regime, saying the
former white farmers should look to
look to Zimbabwe's old colonial master.
"On the issue of compensation, I
wish to reiterate that all the sums we
acquired are inspected and
compensated for," he said.
"That (the money) you will get from (British
Prime Minister Tony) Blair. We
will not give it to you."
One of the
white farmers who was given a land lease was Dennis Streak, the
father of
Zimbabwe's former cricket captain Heath Streak.
He had been earmarked for
eviction after being handed a confiscation notice.
But he is now being
allowed to stay on the land after impressing authorities
with the levels of
production since the notice was issued.
Although he was not present at
the ceremony, another white farmer said he
was delighted to get the
opportunity to continue working land which he first
acquired shortly before
the start of the land reform programme.
"What has happened this afternoon
is a tremendous occasion and I think it
will be a tremendous boost for
agriculture in Zimbabwe," said Michael
Belensky who grows maize and soya
beans west of Harare.
Among the other recipients were the chief of
protocol in Mugabe's office,
Munyaradzi Kajese, and the chief correspondent
on Zimbabwe state television,
Reuben Barwa.
The Commercial Farmers'
Union, the mouthpiece of the white farmers, gave a
guarded welcome to the
distribution of the leases, while warning that the
move was mired in legal
uncertainty.
"It's going to be interesting to see how the 99-year lease
mechanism is
going to work out because while the facility might bring some
partial
stability back to the sector, no transaction of transfers of leases
has
taken place between the government and former owners," said CFU
spokeswoman
Emily Crookes.
By Tererai Karimakwenda
09 November 2006
Members of the
public took part in a debate on Tuesday focusing on the
controversial ZISCO
corruption case. The event was hosted by Crisis in
Zimbabwe Coalition,
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and the corruption
watchdog Transparency
International- Zimbabwe Chapter.
It has been alleged that top
government officials engaged in wholesale
looting at the government run
steel giant. The National Economic Conduct
Inspectorate (NECI) produced a
detailed report on activities at ZISCO which
concluded there was gross
mismanagement and corruption by top officials. But
the report has been kept
from public scrutiny and from a parliamentary
committee that is also
investigating ZISCO.
Many participants at the debate Tuesday said
they believe the report
is being suppressed because it contains the names of
top chefs from the
ruling party who looted millions of dollars with
impunity. Jacob Mafume from
the Crisis Coalition said the public consensus
was that the looting at ZISCO
is no surprise. Contributors felt strongly
that what is needed is a
wholesale solution to the Zimbabwe 's problems.
They want the culprits in
the ZISCO case to be prosecuted no matter what
office they hold.
On Thursday, two days after the public debate,
management at ZISCO
dismissed the NECI report in a story published in none
other than the
government controlled Herald newspaper. They said the report
was full of
speculation "clearly from self-serving sources" and that the
NECI had
transformed media speculation into a report.
Political
commentator and UZ lecturer Dr John Makumbe, who has worked
for years with
the corruption watchdog Transparency International, said they
have been
aware for some time that ZANU-PF people were and still are looting
at ZISCO.
He said the ZISCO management's claim in the Herald that NECI did
not
understand the inner workings of the company was hog wash.
Makumbe
said wholesale looting is taking place all over the country
because there is
no-one in charge. He added that everyone dips in when the
person running
things is an old 82 year old man who is asleep. Makumbe
explained that
systems of checks and balances that are in place are not
followed up and
those who guard these systems are in bed with the looters.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By
Andrew Matiba
In the end we will remember not the words of our
enemies, but the
silence of our friends - MARTIN LUTHER KING
JR.
Zimbabwe is bedevilled by economic woes of unimaginable
magnitude,
corrupt from the State House to the lowest pauper in the land,
riddled with
ministers who can not tell the difference between
their knees and their elbows and yet the ZANU PF government has got
the
nerve to call who-so-ever opposes or criticizes it is unpatriotic.
My fellow countryman it is time we wake up and smell the coffee,
this
government has failed and is by day running out of ideas, it is
now time to
look for a precedent.
Have we not gone to the polling stations to
cast our votes and have
them stolen from us?
Has MDC and Morgan
Tsvangirai not sat down and tried to reason with
this butcher from Zvimba
with his cronies? I am sorry to say that I do not
see this man relinquishing
power under any diplomatic circumstances.
It is time we thought
about this hard and realise that probably it
is time for ultimate
sacrifices to bring stability and normality in
our beloved
country.
Like our forefathers before us who fought the colonialists
in the
first Chimurenga, the courageous liberation fighters who fought the
oppressive Smith regime which brought about the independence which we
(ZIMBABWEANS) so rightly deserved, even though it has
not come
without its short-comings.
As a people, putting aside our ethnic
differences colour or creed,
we are impelled to do the right thing for
the generations to come for
if we are not careful, we will never see a
prosperous and dignified Zimbabwe
in this generation.
Please
pardon my aggressive approach, but after realizing that there
is never been
a DICTATOR who has admitted to his short-comings or
relinquished power on
his own accord.
I have looked at history, no one comes to thought.
When I look at
us( ZIMBABWEANS) I see a lot has changed in our genetic
make-up, we have
lost our mettle and have grown timid. This ZANU PF monster
has seen and
taken advantage of this.
Just the thought of mass
demonstration to exercise one of our
fundamental rights or to complain of
the deplorable conditions we
are living in, the mention of Black boots
and national army we quiver
and run like dogs with our tails between our
legs. Who is supposed to make
that change for us? The WEST, SOUTH AFRICA,
who? Please someone tell me.
The army itself is looking for a way
out, but we the masses have
become too weak to support. Hats off to
Tsvangirai, one man who has stood
firm and held his ground against this
tyrant and what happens next, a
divided cause, fighting within.
I will touch on this topic in my next article but people let us use
common
sense and stop this playground politics because dismal
failure is
written all over it and for the record we will never
achieve any great
things with wrangling over a name and it strengthens the
enemy we are trying
to depose.
I feel very livid at people who look at the Zimbabwe
situation on
ethnicity, colour or creed. Mugabe and his wives (ZANU) has had
his
tentacles of corruption, deceit and violation of every possible human
right
touch Shona, Ndebele and White.
Too much hate and
mistrust has been instilled amongst ourselves to the
benefit of ZANU
PF.
We constantly talk each other down, belittle each other and
always
bickering about each other's ethnicity and background while the blood
sucking vampire with his concubines, bleed us all dry with no
remorse to our backgrounds.
ZIMBABWE, ZIMBABWE only we can deliver
ourselves from this evil. We
are a very resourceful people, look at what we
have gone through over the
years, surely we can rid us of this
tyrant.
Let us think outside the Pandora's box of passive
demonstration and
peaceful means, for we have tried to be peaceful and
passive but it has
failed.
Fear only breeds misery, HEROES are
not born but made. This
government has been holding us to ransom for
more than
a quarter of a century, surely personally I have just had
enough, I am
ready to go to the next level.
A wise man once
said to me 'A perfect world belongs only to the realm
of the imagination.' I
am not saying I have the perfect solution to our woes
but just look at where
we are now.
Is this the independence we all craved for? As a people
I say lets
rise up as we did before and take our country back from the dogs
and I
mean by any means necessary.
ZIMBABWE, ZIMBABWE
ARISE FROM YOUR SLUMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Andrew Matiba can
be contacted on ramchez23@yahoo.co.uk
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
With
the failure of recent currency reforms, analysts warn country faces
absolute
collapse.
By Godfrey Bepe in Harare (AR No. 82,
9-Nov-06)
Restaurant customers in Zimbabwe are again paying with heavy
brick-sized
wads of local currency heaved around in carpet bags despite the
removal
three months ago by the Reserve Bank of three zeros from the
country's
inflation-wracked currency.
With inflation having topped
1,200 per cent, a takeaway beefburger now sets
you back 10,500 Zimbabwe
dollars, or 6.6 US dollars at the commonly used
black market rate, compared
with 2,100 Zimbabwe dollars on August 1, the
date on which the old currency
was abolished and issued new notes with three
zeros lopped off.
Awash
with old notes in a system in which the International Monetary Fund
says
inflation will top 4,400 per cent, Zimbabweans relieved their misery by
joking that they were "the world's poorest millionaires".
The
scrapping of those old notes and of three zeros from the new ones robbed
them of the title, which was of little comfort living as they do in the only
country in Africa which for the past seven years has recorded annual
negative growth rates.
But already Zimbabweans are heading once again
towards becoming "the world's
poorest millionaires". Real estate buyers are
again handing over deposits of
millions of Zimbabwean dollars in notes
stuffed into suitcases and car
boots.
Before August businesses were
handling such huge volumes of notes that they
needed currency counting
machines even for the simplest transactions. After
a brief lull, following
Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono's "reform",
newspapers are again
advertising currency counting machines for sale.
With inflation out of
control, massive foreign currency shortages following
the collapse of
export-earning industries such as commercial agriculture,
tourism and gold
mining, and a minimal tax base with unemployment at 80 per
cent, the
collapsing value of the Zimbabwe dollar is just one sign of the
nation's
wider economic disintegration.
"We are looking at total meltdown," one
economic analyst told IWPR. "In the
next few months the country could be
pushed into absolute collapse. Gono's
so-called currency reforms have not
worked."
On the black market, which all Zimbabweans and visitors use
extensively, the
value of the Zimbabwe dollar fluctuates. Over one recent
period of four
days, the black market rate for just one US dollar swung from
1,200 to 1,600
Zimbabwe dollars. [The official exchange rate, which everyone
avoids
wherever possible because it is so unrealistic, is one US dollar to
250
Zimbabwe dollars.] "The rate is changing by the hour," one black market
dealer told IWPR.
Troubled Central Bank officials are running out of
the new currency faster
than they can print it as black marketers and money
launderers withdraw
massive amounts of bank notes to buy hard currency for
future speculation.
The government introduced regulations to limit
withdrawals to 100,000
Zimbabwe dollars at a time, but it is being flouted
as the big-time dealers
pay bribes to bank tellers who, like all ordinary
Zimbabweans, are
struggling to survive.
The government has repeatedly
refused to devalue the currency properly as
part of an effort to stem the
country's decline. The black market has been
stoked by the severe hard
currency shortages, with the unofficial exchange
rate being pushed up by the
day as even desperate state-owned enterprises
seek the hard currency the
government is unable to provide in order to
settle debts for imported fuel
and electricity and other external fees. Many
of those debts, especially for
coal, seed and fertiliser, are being
foreclosed.
Faced with new
uncontrollable inflation despite its "three zeros" tactic,
the Central Bank
is warning that it will introduce yet another new currency
soon - and this
time citizens will be given only 24 hours to trade in their
old notes before
they become "useful only as manure", in the words of Gono.
In the
bewildering world of Zimbabwean money, the highest existing banknote
is for
1,000 Zimbabwe dollars - four US dollars at the official exchange
rate, 60
cents at the black market rate - which buys very little. Most
transactions
up to 100,000 Zimbabwe dollars are in so-called "bearer
cheques", printed on
low quality paper because the government no longer has
enough foreign
exchange to import the kind of high quality paper necessary
for printing
standard bank notes. Bearer cheques have no security and they
expire as a
means of exchange beyond a date printed on them.
Besides robbing
Zimbabweans of the kind of standard cash enjoyed elsewhere
in the world,
travel over small and long distances has become a nightmare
because of the
lack of foreign exchange. There is no petrol, for example, at
stations along
the 260 kilometre trunk road between Harare and the main
eastern Zimbabwe
city of Mutare. Oil industry executives say the shortages
have been caused
by the dearth of hard currency to pay for state-controlled
imports and the
near-collapse of the government's main deal with a supplier
that provides 70
per cent of the country's monthly fuel requirements.
The fuel crisis has
been exacerbated by the state-owned National Oil
Company's strategy of
pegging fuel prices in an ultimately futile bid to
stem inflation. With
petrol set at a controlled price of 325 Zimbabwe
dollars a litre, it is,
when available, the cheapest anywhere in southern
and central Africa, half
the price of a local pint of milk or beer.
The trickle of fuel imports
are heavily subsidised by the state. Private oil
industry executives say
that on the open market fuel could be bought and
shipped into the landlocked
country at a cost of 1,200 Zimbabwe dollars a
litre, giving consumers
assured and plentiful access at a retail price of
slightly above 1,500
Zimbabwe dollars a litre. Without allowing oil
companies to import freely
and charge market prices, analysts say the fuel
crisis will
worsen.
Meanwhile, some 3.5 million people in a remaining population of
11.5
million - some three million or more have fled to other countries -
face
hunger in the coming months because of a disastrous drop in
agricultural
production as a result of badly planned reforms, including the
violent
seizure of largely white-owned commercial farms from 2000 onwards,
and the
inability to afford the import of such essential imports as seed and
fertiliser.
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe reported that the price
of washing powder
rose 47 per cent, bread 42 per cent and sugar 39 per cent
in October.
Electricity increased by a crippling 270 per cent. John
Robertson, the
country's leading independent economist, said the country's
industrial base
had shrunk 65 per cent in the last six years
Godfrey
Bepe is the pseudonym of an IWPR journalist in Zimbabwe.
----- Original Message -----
From: Eddie Cross
Sent: Thursday,
November 09, 2006 9:05 AM
Subject: Diamond Mining in Zimbabwe
Joel
Gabuza - the MDC SEcretary for Mining and the current Chairman of
the
Parliamentary Committee on Mining, said he has visitied this site and saw
as
many as 30 000 people digging diamonds on the claim. He said the
road
approaching the claim was jammed with traffic and that many illegal
buyers
were present.
The illegal mining was suddenly stopped just
prior to the recent elections
and reopened when the local people re-elected
Zanu to their Rural District
Council. It continues as we write and marks a
serious violation of the
rights of mining houses doing exploration in
Zimbabwe. The suggestion is
that local Zanu PF interests are deeply involved
in the operation.
Eddie Cross
9th October 2006
State sanctioned
illegal diamond mining in Zimbabwe
By: Rodrick Mukumbira
Posted:
'30-OCT-06 11:00' GMT C Mineweb 1997-2006
WINDHOEK (Mineweb.com)
--Politics superseded rational thinking when
industrial diamonds were
discovered in Marange, in eastern Zimbabwe along
the border with Mozambique,
last May, as politicians advocated for a
free-for-all policy and ordered
villagers to extract the precious mineral at
will.
In a plot straight
from the fairy tales, diamonds had transformed very poor
and illiterate
villagers into millionaires by Zimbabwean standards over
night - forget the
national pride diamond wealth has brought to Botswana -
as they sold the
precious stones extracted from a claim owned by LSX listed
Africa
Consolidated Resources to illegal middlemen under the "watchful" eye
of the
police and state security organ, Criminal Intelligence Organisation.
The
middlemen, in turn, sold the diamonds to Minerals Marketing Corporation
of
Zimbabwe (MMCZ), the official mineral buyer for a profit. Industrial
diamonds
are said to also have a ready market in Zimbabwe's southern
neighbour, South
Africa.
Local teachers and their pupils, policemen and council workers
had joined in
the rush that revealed the sad state of Zimbabwe's economic
policy in which
politics take precedence over rational thinking.
When
senior ruling ZANU-PF politicians, intent on consolidating their hold
on the
poor, gave the villagers the go-ahead to mine, no environmental
impact
assessment had been carried out at the mine and its environs. There
are no
toilets or safe drinking water for the huge throngs gathered
there
daily.
Media reports spoke of villagers from this low rainfall
area, dominated by
rocky terrain and thorny bush, being overwhelmed by their
new-found wealth
competing among themselves on spending the windfall with
beers being bought
in crates instead of rounds and prostitutes reporting a
brisk business.
They do not know what to do with the vast amounts which
they carry around,
it appears. That they are overwhelmed by their new-found
wealth is evident
in the way they appear to be in competition with each other
to spend it as
quickly as possible.
Marange also remained poor and
underdeveloped despite the diamond rush. The
local council was not collecting
any royalties or levies from the miners.
The buyers and miners were not
paying any taxes, as Zimbabwe's answer to a
five-year foreign currency
drought was being exploited to satisfy political
ends.
Since the
controversial move by the government in 2000 to take over white
owned
commercial farms for distribution to landless blacks, Zimbabwe has
been going
through an economic recession that is characterised by foreign
currency, fuel
and food shortages.
Since last week the cash-trapped government has been
clamping down on the
illegal trade on diamonds, as it, without confirmation,
heeds calls by
economic analysts that it was losing millions in foreign
currency earnings.
On Friday, the government suspended activity and
ordered everyone off the
claim, ironically to allow them to prepare to vote
in Saturday's rural
district council elections.
This week army and
police units are due to be deployed.
"We have to put a stop to the
illegal activities," police spokesperson Wayne
Bvudzijena, is quoted as
saying.
Amos Midzi, Minister of Mines and Mining Development, is on
record as
advocating the establishment of a full mining operation on the
claim, as
opposed to the free-for-all enforced by politicians.
On
Monday, fears were abounding that the villagers were being snubbed
in
preference for a few selected "connected" local companies that would
be
awarded contracts to mine the diamonds.
Uncontrolled digging has
left many mini-craters in the area. Press reports
from Zimbabwe quote several
villagers saying they were forced to sell
illegally to middlemen because MMCZ
was failing to cope with the swelling
number of customers.
"The MMCZ
people just don't want to admit the truth," one villager was
quoted as
saying, "which is that they don't have enough money and staff to
handle the
volume of the trade. They are always running out of money. This
week they
were still paying people who were put on a list a week earlier.
And they
didn't even pay everyone on that list."
Meanwhile, Africa Consolidated
Resources was this week taking legal action
against MMCZ, which was in June
granted diamond mining rights for Marange,
to stop the state-owned company
from seizing the claim.
The British company is arguing that MMCZ has no
legal right to the claim as
Zimbabwe's Precious Stones Trade Act prohibits
any licensed dealer from
engaging in mining activities.
MMCZ is
licensed to deal with all precious minerals with the exception of
gold.
SABC
November 09, 2006,
07:45
Zimbabwe has developed an animal antibiotic that is set to
"revolutionise"
the agricultural sector, Harare's Herald newspaper reported
today. Its
website said the new drug would bolster the control of internal
and external
parasites in livestock.
Robson Mafoti, the Scientific
and Industrial Research and Development Centre
(SIRDC) chief executive, said
the antibiotic, Sirdamectin, was one of the
most effective animal drugs ever
produced.
"Our animal antibiotic Sirdamectin will revolutionise the
agricultural
sector. SIRDC continues with its research agenda in order to
come up with
other products, some of which we shall soon be
commercialising," he said.
Mafoti said with the introduction of the
locally-made drug, Zimbabwe would
be able to fight diseases at a lower cost.
SIRDC was working with the
Medical Control Authority of Zimbabwe to get its
manufacturing facility
qualified. The organisation, he said, was working
with the department of
veterinary services in carrying out an efficacy trial
for the drug. Large
numbers of cattle die from tick-borne diseases in
Zimbabwe every year,
especially during the rainy season. - Sapa
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Stephen
Kuuzabuwe
THERE is a remarkable resemblance between the present
day Zimbabwe
Republic Police Force and apartheid South Africa's police.
During the days
of apartheid political activists, students, civil society,
workers and their
representatives were always being arrested
and
detained over trumped up charges.
The same thing is happening with
our very own Zimbabwe Republic
Police in Independent Zimbabwe. Barely a
week passes by without any
member of these groups being picked up by the
police or a demonstration
being disrupted and organizers
arrested.
The fact that lawyers representing the detainees are not
allowed to
see their clients and end up being arrested themselves makes the
whole
procedure a criminal act.
Last week the National
Constitutional Assembly's demonstrations to
demand a new constitution for
Zimbabwe was disrupted by the state's
machinery of violence, the ZRP riot
squad. Students demonstrating against
worsening learning conditions were
disrupted
and the leaders were detained and arrested.
The
NCA is not committing a crime by demonstrating and demanding
a new
constitution for the country. Dr Lovemore Madhuku is not a
criminal in any
way. He is the leader of a properly constituted civic body
representing the
ordinary peoples' views.
Promise Mkwananzi is not a criminal in any
way. He is just a leader of
a national students' body. To demonstrate and
demand a new
constitution for one's country is not a crime nor is it a
crime to
demand better working and learning conditions.
It is
only a despotic regime that tries to stifle such innocent civil
action by
its citizenry using draconian legislations that should not even
have been on
the statute books. This certainly is against the ideals of a
democratic
society.
Zimbabwe students, like any other students throughout the
world have
an inalienable right to stand up and defend academic
freedom.
Students have a right to participate in the country's
affairs without
hindrance from such brutal forces like the ZRP.
Civic groups, opposition activists, trade unionists and students all
have
tales to tell about our brutal police force. It has been said before
and
will be said again that the ZRP is a brutal police force that only
serves
the interests of ZANU PF and not the nation.
It should not be
surprising that I am comparing them to police in the
Rhodesia and apartheid
South Africa era.
'An unjust law is itself a species of violence.
Arrest for its breach
is more so." M. Ghandi
Zimbabwejournalists.com
By Stephen Kuuzabuwe
LONDON - It was
interesting to read that Zimbabwe's clergy are finally
awakening from their
slumber over so many years and coming to the people's
rescue.
The most disheartening thing was they did so after the four-hour lunch
at
State House. It is with this background that I and a host of others view
this document with suspicion and more so when no attempt was made to consult
with all stakeholders.
One thing that is quite obvious in the
document is they are still
dreaming of Sugarcandy Mountain when the country
is burning. That they had
to wait this long baffles the mind.
Only a few have dared to stand up and speak out against Mugabe and
ZANU PF's
tyranny.
Until the church starts calling a spade a spade, the whole
exercise of
coming up with volumes and volumes of declarations and blue
prints becomes
an exercise in futility.
Mugabe is a tyranny.
Period. That is a fact. That he needs to go as
soon as possible is a
foregone conclusion in every Zimbabwean's mind. Even
those within his own
party want him to go.
While they could not come out openly to put
Zimbabwe's demise at the
front door of State House, it is noteworthy that
the Church has not
forgotten its theological mandate of addressing issues
concerned
with good governance, justice and peace.
The
invitation to State House could not have come at a better time for
the Men
of the Cloth. They could have gone a step further to make it known
to His
Excellency that the people have not enjoyed these three aspects of
life
under his government and that people are
starving because of his
controversial land grab exercise.
They could have also made it
known to His Excellency that anyone who
thinks differently from the ZANU PF
line of thinking is not an enemy.
They could also have made it
known to His Excellency that justice
demands that everyone, rich or
poor, white or black are equal before
the law. Lastly they could have
reminded His Excellency that party
faithfuls, CIO agents and policemen are
not above the law and that
these security organs are not an extension
of the ZANU PF department
of security.
Typical of the Men of
the Cloth, they skirted around the truth. The
trip to State House was
basically to legitimize the illegitimate. That trip
should have been
undertaken at the height of the Gukurahundi
atrocities, at the height
of the political disturbances and food
riots. It should have been undertaken
when the illegal land invasions were
taking place, when people had all their
livelihoods destroyed
under operation Murambatsvina, when students were
being tear gassed
and tortured at the country's institutions of higher
learning.
How many members of the clergy spoke out when the two
pieces of
legislation AIPPA and POSA were in conception? Did they make
any
attempts to halt these two pieces of legislation that have consumed what
little democratic space remained in Independent Zimbabwe?
In
principle what I am saying is the Church should be advocating for
dialogue
to facilitate regime change.
Mugabe and ZANU PF have failed the
nation. It need not be Archbishop
Desmond Tutu telling Mugabe that he has
failed the nation but our own
Clergy. Just imagine what difference it would
have made if we had twenty
clerics like Archbishop Pius Ncube!
As a representative of the people, the Church has failed to stand up
for the
downtrodden. Instead they have been taking the 'hear no evil, see no
evil'
stance for a long time. The Church's role should be to teach
injustice,
conscientise and act instead of being mere spectators, as has
been the case
for a long time.
Every Church leader should be asking themselves
the question 'Have we
looked after God's flock?' Preaching about the
afterlife is not enough when
God's people are suffering at the hands of a
brutal and corrupt regime.
If the document 'The Zimbabwe We Want'
came about as a spontaneous
decision to act and save God's suffering
humanity, then the Church leaders
should refuse to be used as pawns in the
power struggle and start calling a
spade a spade. It is of no use to come up
with a document like this after
4-hour lunches at State
House.
In conclusion, I wish to urge the Churches to 'walk the
talk'. They
have identified issues concerning Zimbabwe as a nation without
antagonizing
the Executive. Fair enough. For me the way forward is to
involve all
stakeholders in coming up with a homegrown constitution and
facilitating
dialogue for a regime change.
The latter
suggestion obviously will not go down well with the
Executive. We have seen
the clenched fist and the message it sends to party
faithfuls and the rogue
security organs.
By Lance Guma
09 November 2006
A
lawyer working with asylum seekers in the United Kingdom has moved
to quell
speculation that massive deportations of failed asylum seekers are
taking
place quietly away from the public glare. In an interview on
Thursday,
Newsreel was told that failed asylum seekers have been granted
permission to
take their case to the Court of Appeal where they are trying
to get Zimbabwe
declared an 'unsafe destination.' Although the Asylum and
Immigration
Tribunal (AIT) ruled in August this year that deportees did not
face
'automatic risk' the failed claimant in the case, referred to only as
AA,
has appealed and this means the matter is yet to be concluded.
What
has added to the confusion however is the fact that 'Zimbabweans'
who went
into the UK on Malawian passports, those who have overstayed their
visas and
others in jail for criminal offences are not covered by the
temporary
amnesty. If the Malawian embassy in the United Kingdom certifies
that a
passport being held is genuine then any other document the
'Zimbabweans' are
producing will not be considered the lawyer explained. It
is these
deportations that are at the centre of the confusion. The appeal by
'AA is
likely to be finalised by the 19 th December according to press
reports.
Yeukai Taruvinga a failed asylum seeker, who is also a
member of the
radical Free-Zim Youth UK, told Newsreel that the standard of
legal
representation let them down in their applications. She called on the
UK
Home Office to allow them to lodge fresh applications using competent
lawyers, saying this would make a big difference. Taruvinga says they are
getting a raw deal from the legal process in terms of time and meanwhile
their lives are in limbo. 'We are not allowed to work,' she explained, 'and
we are not getting any money from the state to survive.'
Sarah
Harland from the Zimbabwe Association told the New Zimbabwe.com
website on
Tuesday that, 'Permission has been granted to appeal, and we
should expect
that to be done before December 19. It will be on very
technical grounds and
on points of law. The issue is whether the tribunal
came to the correct
decision in August. Until the appeal is heard, and a
decision handed down,
no Zimbabweans on Zimbabwean passports should be
detained or deported.' She
estimates that there are between 15 and 20 failed
asylum seekers in
detention and that some of these entered the country on
Malawian passports
while some have just completed prison sentences.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
From The Herald, 9 November
Herald
Reporter
The Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company has dismissed a report
by the National
Economic Conduct Inspectorate alleging financial
mismanagement,
externalisation of funds and corruption by top executives
that could have
resulted in the firm losing millions of dollars in foreign
currency. Zisco
management said the NECI report was full of speculation
"clearly from
self-serving sources". They said it appeared NECI had
transformed media
speculation into a report. "It is stressed that this
speculation emanating
from these nefarious sources is thoroughly misplaced.
The fact of the matter
is that sensible business decisions were made based
on the environment
facing management and the board," said the Zisco
management in an 83-page
response to the NECI allegations. In its report,
NECI alleged that Zisco
could have been prejudiced of millions of dollars in
foreign currency
through underhand deals with South African and Botswana
companies, bypassing
exchange control regulations between 2002 and 2004.
NECI alleged that Zisco
could also have been prejudiced of hard currency
through the underpricing of
its steel exports on the international market
and hiring second-hand
equipment outside the country.
The
inspectorate has recommended that Zisco top executives, including former
managing director Dr Gabriel Masanga, be charged and prosecuted for abuse of
office and grossly mismanaging the country's sole steelmaker. The Zisco top
executives should also be charged with contravening the country's exchange
control regulations and the Prevention of Corruption Act, the inspectorate
said in a report of its investigations. However, the Zisco management hit
back at the NECI, saying some of its observations and recommendations showed
that it was not well-versed with operations at Zisco. It denied the
allegations levelled against Dr Masanga and Zisco marketing executive Mr
Rodwell Makuni, saying they never benefited personally from the deals at
Zisco. The management said whatever they did at Zisco was with the knowledge
of the company's board, chaired by Mr David Muringari. "But more important,
is the fact that there is no specific contention that they received a gift
or consideration for themselves as an inducement or reward for doing the act
prohibited by section (3a) to (f)" of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The
contentions merely deal with speculative/conjectural suppositions that the
executive benefited from such transactions. The contentions consequently
fail or, alternatively, have been made prematurely without any
investigations covering the specific contentions as required by statutory
provisions."
"It is not the intention of the legislature, in
terms of the Prevention of
Corruption Act, to punish an agent for having
made a less prudent decision
or to have caused a loss to his principal which
will suffice for a
prosecution in terms of the Act. It has to be proved that
the imprudence or
act leading to the loss was deliberately done after the
party making the
decision had been induced by a gift for himself or any
other person," they
argued. The Zisco management denied externalising
foreign currency and
overpaying Tswana Steel, a Botswana company it
acquired. "Payments for the
acquisition of an interest in Tswana were
authorised not only by the board
of directors, but by the exchange control
authority . . ." On payments of
directors' fees in foreign currency, Zisco
said these were made in terms of
the exchange control regulations and the
companies that paid the fees,
although wholly owned by Zisco, were not based
in Zimbabwe, hence were
justified to pay in foreign currency. The Zisco
executives also denied
allegations of abuse of office through the purchase
of fuel, billets and
clearing of goods at Beitbridge border post, saying
everything was done
above board and no laws were violated. They also said
there was nothing
sinister in their donating fuel to Zanu PF and Vice
President Mujuru for
campaign purposes. Zisco, they said, did not operate in
a vacuum but in an
economic and social environment and this must be viewed
within the context
of the country's politics.
The Zisco managers
said the inspectorate's findings were an under-estimation
of the serious
production challenges being faced by the company. They said
what was
emerging from the NECI report was lack of knowledge about how Blast
Furnace
Number 4 as well as other sections at the steelworks operate. The
Zisco
management defended its decision to hire second-hand dump trucks and
front-end loaders from South Africa, saying this originated from survival
strategies formulated during various weekly management meetings attended by
all senior managers. They also said it was "unfair and unkind" for NECI to
vilify management over the deal with Macsteel International South Africa. As
the economic environment changed, they said, it became imperative for Zisco
to adapt and be responsive to shifting conditions while at the same time
adhering to the principles of prudence with regard to management corporate
governance. As a result, the management came up with the idea of
pre-financing with Macsteel, which involved a request to the customer to pay
in advance for consumables and sometimes spares that would be used for the
production of the ordered products. Without Macsteel's pre-financing
support, they contended, production at Zisco would have ground to a halt.
"To vilify management for such an innovative idea is both unfair and unkind.
This can only be expected from enemies of our country who would want
Zimbabwe and Zisco, in particular, to sink deeper into trouble," they
said.
On the hiring of Chartwell Capital Group of South Africa to
restructure its
balance sheet, the Zisco management said the company was
chosen because its
charges were relatively cheaper and it had extensive
experience to do the
job. The agreement was also approved by the Zisco
board. Allegations that
Zisco hired used equipment from another South
African company, Reclam, to
benefit the latter were also wrong as this was
all done above board. The
Zisco management also alleged that the whole NECI
probe was orchestrated by
an MDC Member of Parliament from the Midlands
Province as part of an agenda
to remove "the Zanu PF aligned management"
from the company. They said the
motive of the MDC could be understood as
part of its sanctions agenda
against the country and "any actions that
counter these sanctions".
From The Swazi Observer, 9 November
By Miriam Madziwa
Women in Zimbabwe are taking to
the streets to show their frustration with
poor governance, lack of basic
social services and unprecedented increases
in the cost of education. In the
process, police have arrested nearly 1000
members of the pressure group
Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), for their
attempts to hold their leaders
accountable. This past October, WOZA members
scored three legal victories
after the State failed to substantiate its
charges against some of the women
arrested while demonstrating, prompting
the magistrates to set the women
free. Others have not been as successful.
Some women spend months detained
in filthy prison cells, sometimes with
babies on their backs, attending
continually postponed hearings while the
prosecution teams try to find
charges that will stick. Some have gone into
labour while in police
detention. Jane Mlambo* is from a low-income suburb
in Bulawayo. At 62, the
widow explains how jam has become a luxury, and she
cannot even afford to
buy bread on which to serve the spread. Her peer in
rural Insiza district,
Thembi Ndlovu is frustrated that her grandchildren
are no longer attending
school because of prohibitive school fees and costly
uniforms demanded
before admission. Both reminisce about the past and dream
of a brighter
future for their grandchildren. Such recollections and pent up
frustrations
have stirred up strong discontent not just in Mlambo and Ndlovu
but also in
hundreds of other Zimbabwean women who have joined WOZA.
WOZA's
mission is to restore the dignity of the country's women by speaking
out
against social and economic injustices that have eroded the well-being
of
the majority of the country's citizens. Guided by their motto 'The power
of
love can overcome the love of power' the women peacefully show their
displeasure. WOZA is now known for it's non-violent but highly imaginative
demonstrations during which they persistently call for 'tough love' among
the country's leaders to resolve the crisis that has made not just women',
but all Zimbabweans' lives unbearable. A major plus for the organisation is
that the protests always catch State security agents napping because WOZA
does not publicise actions beforehand. By the time security agents catch on,
the women have already had their say. With its street action and frequent
visit to 'the garden' (WOZA lingo for police cells), the organisation is
slowly chalking up victories against a repressive government. While in the
garden, the women seize the opportunity to share some sisterly love through
song and dance. The songs also send a message to the arresting officers to
realise that they are also victims of the socio-political
environment.
Additionally, the women highlight the fact that
Zimbabwe's situation is
untenable but things are bound to change if they
continue speaking out. So
effective has this strategy been that police
officers who have heard the
women's 'tough love songs' now refuse to arrest
lead singers within the
organisation. WOZA members say through their
homemade, hand written placards
and leaflets they are communicating with a
government that has cut off
communication links with its people. Listening
and watching WOZA members
plan and stage their projects, one gets the
impression that here are women
determined to have their voices and opinions
heard. Here are women who
invest their time and meager resources to stage
protracted protests for
their dream of a 'socially just future.' These women
put passion and
conviction into their street actions. These women are
serious. The women's
commitment is evident through their style of doing
things. Members receive
intensive training programmes to maintain the
organisation's philosophy of
non-violence and to always show love. Now even
brutal baton-welding police
officers have conceded in court that when they
go to break-up WOZA
demonstrations, "the women are very co-operative and sit
down and allow
themselves to be arrested."
The spirit of
sisterhood ensures packed courtrooms when WOZA activists
appear in court.
Members who escape the police dragnet after protests go and
offer themselves
for arrest so that they can be together with their sisters.
With such an
impressive record of accomplishment, maybe it is about time
disgruntled
Zimbabweans start taking WOZA seriously. Currently debate in
opposition
political circles and civic society is revolving around the need
to a
'united and brave leader to direct a popular revolt." Maybe it's time
to
draw helpful lessons from WOZA's experiences. Essentially, it is not
about
how strong the leadership is but how involved, committed and prepared
members are in identifying a cause and planning how they will achieve their
stated objectives. It's about unshakeable belief in what you are doing and
love for a brighter tomorrow. Just as the old adage notes, "it's love that
makes the world go round". WOZA is using love to unsettle an oppressive
regime.
Zim Online
Friday 10 November
2006
HARARE - This week we start a new column
called Straight Talk and we
hope our readers will find it entertaining and
once in a while educational -
hopefully useful.
We will talk about
anything under the sun so rest assured nothing is
taboo.
I also
hope that you will find this column a useful stress buster. I
however
promise I will not hesitate to delve into politics but mostly in a
light
manner.
I realise we are living in a period replete with misery and
I really
would not like to make you cry unnecessarily. So we shall have some
giggles
here and there for as long as we can.
This week we look
at how the condom has become Zimbabwe's best friend.
In a country
where at least 3 000 people die of HIV/AIDS every week,
it is encouraging to
note that more and more people are beginning to take
the responsibility of
not spreading the scourge or ensuring that they do not
contract
it.
I go to church once in a while and I have heard many elders in
the
church decry the use of condoms but hey, you ignore the condom at your
own
risk.
In an ideal world we would all live like puritans -
abstain or wait
until we marry and then stick to one partner but this is the
real world
where even with death at the doorstep people still succumb to the
allure of
the forbidden fruit.
According to Population Services
Zimbabwe, with sales of more than 3.8
million female condoms and 163 million
male condoms over the last five
years, our country is leading on the African
continent in condom use - wow!
Recently a friend pointed out that
the condom might not just save our
sexual lives but might come in handy in
other aspects of our lives.
She said she tried to buy 20 litre
plastic containers to store
household water in these dry days but the price
had gone up. A group of
young men on one of the capital's streets tried to
get at least Z$20 million
now Z$20 000 per container out of
her.
She said she was so disgusted and almost went off to buy a
pack or two
of male condoms. Each pack contains three and is way, way
cheaper than the
containers but apparently according to someone she knows
and seems to trust,
one condom can hold up to 18 litres of
water.
Fill six up, tie them neatly and store in a cool place and
you have
yourself a nice supply of water for bathing, toilet and if push
comes to
shove for drinking and cooking.
Don't knock the
condom, these are tough times and I might just try and
see for myself how
they hold up as water containers. If you decide to store
your water this
cheaper way, remember to boil it because Harare water aint
what it used to
be.
But do not forget the most important use of the condom - if you
cannot
control your sexual appetite please protect yourself and those
unfortunate
enough to fall into your bed.
And you girls, the
ball is in your court, you want it badly then be
prepared keep your own
stash of female condoms and no matter how much you
love the man, insist on
using them.
God knows I am an old woman - likely to be a granny
soon so I know how
young people behave.
No matter how much we
preach about the dangers of HIV/AIDS some will
still take the plunge. The
figures of new infections are going down so let
us keep it that
way.
Enough said about condoms.
Lately there have been
major discussions on the Domestic Violence
Bill. I have heard it described
as a women's Bill.
Very few people I have spoken to know exactly
what is contained in the
Bill. Some women's organisations have praised
legislators for coming up with
something for their protection.
Even opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party legislator
Timothy Mubhawu does not sound like he has fully understood the import of
the Bill.
Men should not rush to think it is in favour of
women. It is aimed
hopefully at protecting abused men and women. If your
wife batters you, you
can use it to get the law to sort her out and vice
versa.
What I would really like to understand is the issue of
denial of
conjugal rights and obsessive possessiveness. How do you measure
reasonable
and unreasonable possessiveness? How do you measure reasonable
conjugal
rights?
I hear some people do it once a month, once in
two or three months and
others once every week or every two days. I am not
sure anybody can expertly
and reasonably say how many times would be
considered fair or adequate.
If I have a low libido should my
spouse take me to court for something
I am not in control of? Would men be
happy to make love to someone who just
lies there because she does not want
it that day or that month for that
matter?
People go off each
other for various reasons - at times it is because
one party has been
unfaithful or they just have too much on their mind to
prioritise
sex.
Some women always have a headache and some men are always
tired so I
am sure if the Bill becomes law we might witness thousands of
Zimbabweans
going to the courts to demand their conjugal rights. God spare
our children!
Whatever happens with this Bill both men and women
have to be very
careful what they want in it for they might find they have
bitten off more
than they can chew.
Violence is bad
irrespective of who perpetrates it. But will
legislating against it make
people stop and will many seek the justice of
the courts?
In
the past we have had several cases of battered women who chose to
remain
married and refused to report their men because they were the bread
winners
and because there was pressure from family to avoid publicising
"family
matters", will a new law change people's attitudes?
All we have at
the end of the day is each other and if we cannot
protect each other and
seek to understand each other better without
exchanging blows and throwing
hot water at each other then we are in serious
trouble.
Until
next week, be blessed.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
09 November
2006
The Zimbabwe opposition faction led by Movement for
Democratic Change
founding president Morgan Tsvangirai has taken steps to
rebuild its
organization in the Harare district of Mabvuku, whose former
leader was
dismissed from his post there after he embarrassed the party by
coming out
against domestic violence legislation.
The Tsvangirai
faction named former Harare city councillor Falls Nhari of
Mabvuku to head
up an interim committee for the party in the troubled
district, also the
scene of an attack on a rival MDC faction leader in July
which left her
seriously injured. Ousted district leader Timothy Mubhawu
fell under
suspicion in that political violence.
Mubhawu stirred the ire of MDC
women and faction leaders recently when he
said in parliamentary debate on
legislation to toughen penalties for
domestic violence that establishing
women as the equals of men ran against
God's will. That provoked a
demonstration by opposition women and
disciplinary action by the faction,
which dismissed Mubhawu as Mabvuku
leader and dissolved the local
organization.
Elections for a permanent committee will be held in two
months, Tsvangirai
faction officials said. Some Mabvuku party members
complained that there was
no local consultation in the three Mabvuku wards
before the interim panel
was named.
But Harare province chairman
Morgan Femai told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of
VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that the process adhered to the party's
constitution.