News24
Observer 'Zim violence veteran'
15/11/2004 15:25 -
(SA)
Harare - A senior member of an African observer group monitoring
Namibia's
elections which began on Monday had his own election in Zimbabwe's
2000
polls annulled because of violent intimidation in his constituency,
according to court records.
Shadreck Chipanga, a former director of
Zimbabwe's notorious secret police,
was identified by witnesses as being at
the wheel of a pick-up truck
carrying ruling party supporters who
disembowelled a young man on the bonnet
of the vehicle for having opposition
pamphlets during the run-up to the
violence-wracked 2000 parliamentary
elections, according to a judgement in
the case.
Zimbabwe's
state-controlled daily Herald reported on Thursday that Chipanga
had been
appointed as one of two deputy chairs of the observer delegation of
the
parliamentary forum of the Southern African Development Committee, the
14-nation regional political bloc, to the two-day elections in
Namibia.
Appointed deputy minister
In October last year, high
court judge Paddington Garwe ruled that the
attack was sufficient to order
the cancellation of the election result in
the constituency of Makoni East
about 180km east of Harare.
Chipanga won by fewer than 100
votes.
However, he has remained in his seat and last year was appointed
by
President Robert Mugabe to be deputy minister of home affairs.
An
appeal by Chipanga against the ruling was noted, said Sheila Jarvis,
lawyer
for Nicholas Mudzengerere, who stood against the former director of
the CIA.
Nothing has happened since then.
The hearing took place in 2001 and it
took Garwe, the head of the high
court, two years to come to a
decision.
The court heard that Francis Chigonzo and a friend were walking
home from
work in the constituency shortly before the elections when they
stopped to
pick up election leaflets scattered on the road by the opposition
Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC).
A pick-up truck loaded with
supporters of Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party
stopped and seized them, ramming
the head of one of the two young men under
one of the vehicle's wheels and
making as if they were about to drive
forward.
Man's stomach slit
open
Chigonzo, 23, told the court that Chipanga was the
driver.
The other young man was allowed to flee while Chigonzo was then
pinioned on
the bonnet of the truck and Chipanga's campaign manager slit
open his
stomach with a knife.
They drove off, leaving him for
dead.
The young man pushed his entrails back into his stomach and walked
to the
nearest clinic, the court heard.
He was able to give evidence
in the case, but died of his wounds soon after.
Chipanga told the court
he gave Chigonzo's mother ZIM$500 (about US$3) for
medical
expenses.
The constituency is one of 38 that the MDC challenged after the
2000
election, but only a small proportion of the cases have been heard. -
Sapa-dpa
The Guardian
Three arrested over Zimbabwe murders
Staff and
agencies
Monday November 15, 2004
Zimbabwean police have arrested
three men wanted in connection with the
murders of two British men whose
bodies were found dumped in a well, a
police official said today.
The two
Britons, Kenny James Froud, 39, and 40-year-old Simon Buckley, were
believed
to have been killed during a robbery in Harare's affluent eastern
suburb of
Greendale, where they shared a flat.
Their bodies were discovered earlier
this month, submerged in 30ft of water,
after a local security guard went to
draw water from the well. The bodies
had been weighed down by building
blocks, and one had a rope around its
neck.
Police also found an axe
- believed to have been used in the killings - in
the well. The men were
thought to have been murdered in September.
Two of the suspects are
brothers, and were arrested in the Gokwe district of
northern Zimbabwe,
around 241km (150 miles) west of Harare, Wayne
Bvudzijena, an assistant
police commissioner, said. He said the third
suspect had been detained in
Harare.
Mr Froud had reportedly been a resident of Zimbabwe for many
years, and it
was thought Mr Buckley had been visiting him for a few
months.
The men had been missing for more than a month when family and
friends saw a
report in the Herald newspaper about two bodies being found,
and contacted
officers at Rhodesville police station. Three people, believed
to have been
relatives, identified the bodies at a hospital
mortuary.
Police said forensics indicated that the men had been killed in
their flat.
Most of their belongings - including a fridge, a mobile phone
and a camera -
had been taken.
Mr Buckley was originally from
Tyneside, and it was thought that he had been
living in southern England
before moving to Africa. Mr Froud was said to be
from southern England.
New Zimbabwe
Mnangagwa, Dabengwa clash over Matabeleland
massacres
By Nkululeko Sibanda
Last updated: 11/15/2004
20:01:44
SPEAKER of Parliament and Zanu PF national secretary for
administration,
Emmerson Mnangagwa, has provoked the ire of the old PF-Zapu
guard by
reliving the Gukurahundi era and laying some blame on the PF-Zapu
leadership, for the onslaught on Matabeleland and the Midlands by 5 Brigade
in the mid-1980s.
Mnangagwa was quoted in the Financial Gazette as
saying that he had not
participated in the killings, but had only passed on
intelligence to the
authorities as to what was happening on the ground,
including the discovery
of arms caches.
He went on to say that the
atrocities which claimed over 20 000 lives and
left many maimed and
displaced were caused by the PF-Zapu leadership's
failure to accept the
result of the 1980 elections.
Even former Zipra intelligence chief,
Dumiso Dabengwa, who hardly talks
about the past, including the period he
was incarcerated on allegations of
attempting to topple President Robert
Mugabe's government, has for once
broken his silence, albeit in a diplomatic
manner.
"That is a very sensitive issue that we are still consulting
other people
on. We thought that with the signing of the Unity Accord in
1987, everything
had been buried. But it appears that some people are
digging into the
history and opening up the wounds that were inflicted by
that era.
"It is unfortunate that someone is doing that (digging up the
graves) 17
years down the line and after a proclamation by the State
President that the
situation should not happen again. But as I said, we are
still consulting
and making statements now will create problems," he
said.
Dabengwa, a former Cabinet minister, is also a member of the Zanu
PF
Politburo, the highest decision-making body of the party outside
Congress.
Another member of the PF-Zapu old guard, who is also in the
Politburo, said
Mnangagwa's utterances had infuriated the PF-Zapu old guard,
which had vowed
to seek an explanation from Mnangagwa when the Zanu PF
Politburo convenes
this week.
He said that the statements by
Mnangagwa were in bad taste as they revived
memories of the adversities that
afflicted the people of Matabeleland after
the 5 Brigade descended on
innocent civilians in the province.
Thousands of people were killed in
the clampdown, codenamed Gukurahundi, an
act that President Robert Mugabe
later admitted was "a moment of madness
that is regretted and should never
happen again in the history of Zimbabwe".
The top PF-Zapu leadership then
comprised the late Vice-President Joshua
Nkomo, the late Josiah Chinamano,
and the incumbent Vice-President, Joseph
Msika.
"Politically, if the
Zapu leadership had accepted that they had lost the
elections and that the
number of seats they had were equal to their
popularity and convey(ed) that
message to their forces, then it could not
have happened. It was necessary
for them to have accepted democratic
decisions," the Zanu PF secretary for
administration was quoted as having
said.
The PF-Zapu member said a
number of his colleagues from the old party were
not amused by Mnangagwa's
utterances.
"As is the trend in Zanu PF politics and the Politburo, we do
not dress down
each other, talk or address each other through the media and
in public, even
if one of us says things that are in bad taste as regards
the party or the
government. We have a systematic way of addressing these
things.
"In the forthcoming Politburo meeting, we will demand that our
fellow
comrade explain why he made these statements, because as far as we
are
concerned, they were in bad taste and have ripple effects on the Unity
Accord that we, together with Zanu PF, signed in 1987," he said.
This
was not the time to start pointing fingers and apportioning blame to
anyone,
but a time for healing the wounds that were inflicted as a result of
Gukurahundi.
"This regrettable move by the aspiring president in
Mnangagwa is very
unfortunate. We then wonder how a person intending to
occupy such a high
office as the presidency would make such irresponsible
comments on an issue
that the State President deplored, later extending a
hand of reconciliation
to all those that were affected by the
atrocities.
"It goes on to show how someone is trying to use the
Matabeleland atrocities
issue as his ladder to rise to stardom, but I do not
think this is the right
way to do it," the member of the old guard
said.
Adding his weight to the ex-official's sentiments, Bulawayo Agenda
chairman,
Godden Moyo, said that the statements had reopened healing
wounds.
"I would like to implore the ruling party to discuss this issue
at its
upcoming congress and come up with some solutions to the issue
because I
believe that this congress is being held to discuss the way
forward on
fundamental issues, and the Matabeleland atrocities are an issue
that should
be addressed by the congress.
"The Congress should set up
a truth, reconciliation and justice committee on
the atrocities, so that
those who were involved would be able to come to the
committee and make a
public apology, which in my view, is the best way
forward," Moyo
said.
Efforts to get a comment from Mnangagwa were fruitless.
Daily
Mirror
Selector accused of not fielding enough black players
Wisden Cricinfo
staff
November 15, 2004
With the Zimbabwe selectors
expected to name their squad to take on England
in five one-day
internationals on Friday, it has been claimed that Macsood
Ebrahim, the
chief selector, was involved in a heated exchange with Elvis
Sembezeya at
the weekend.
The alleged incident took place during the Zimbabwe A v
Namibia match at the
Old Georgians club in Harare on Saturday. While it is
unclear what triggered
the incident, eyewitnesses said that Sembezeya, one
of the founder members
of Takashinga, an all-black club based in the Harare
suburb of Highfield,
accused Ebrahim of not picking Takashinga players and
preferring whites in
the Zimbabwe A side that they were watching at the
time. That team contained
four white players, and was captained by Gavin
Ewing.
Some of the eyewitnesses also claimed that Sembezeya
threatened to dig up
the pitch ahead of the England matches if the situation
continued. Such
threats have been attributed to others within Zimbabwe
cricket in the past.
There is a certain irony in the row. Last May,
Ozias Bvute, who has been
identified with Ebrahim as being at the core of
the unrest within Zimbabwe
cricket, had an almost identical face-off with
Stephen Mangongo, Ebrahim's
predecessor, over the same issue - the number of
white players in the side.
On that occasion Mangongo allegedly ended up in
an armlock.
© Wisden Cricinfo Ltd
Mail and Guardian
Crucial congress coming up for ruling Zim
party
Harare, Zimbabwe
15 November 2004
12:24
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu-PF is set to hold a crucial congress next
month to
renew the party's leadership, a spokesperson said on Monday, amid
signs that
President Robert Mugabe will stay on as leader.
The party
will elect new leaders and discuss issues arising from various
reports to be
presented at the congress from December 1 to 5, said party
spokesperson
Nathan Shamuyarira.
"There will be the election of central committee
members, then the election
of the presidency -- the president and the
vice-presidents," Shamuyarira
said.
He declined to comment on
possible changes in the party leadership, saying
simply that "some may stand
down, some may not stand down".
In an interview with his party's
mouthpiece, The Voice, two months ago,
Mugabe said that at the congress "new
leaders will have to be elected. We
[will] all stand down and ... people
will re-elect or reject us".
Mugabe (80), in power since Zimbabwe's
independence in 1980, has been
president of Zanu-PF since the 1970s when the
movement fought a war against
white minority rule in then
Rhodesia.
The Zimbabwe leader has hinted that he would like to step down
from the
presidency after his term expires in 2008.
At his party's
annual conference last year, Mugabe told his supporters that
he was not yet
ready to resign.
"If I feel I cannot do it [govern] any more, I'll come
to you in an
honourable way and say, 'Ah no. I think I've now come to a
stage where I
need a rest.' I'll tell you that.
"I haven't told you
that, have I?" he asked.
The expected 10 000 delegates to the congress,
held every five years, vote
for their leaders by a show of hands from the
floor.
Shamuyarira said the main item on the agenda is the report of the
party's
central committee, which will be presented by Mugabe and from which
discussions arise and resolutions adopted.
"The main item on the
agenda will be the president's report, which is the
central committee report
on what has happened over the last five years," he
said.
The
150-member central committee is the decision-making body between
congresses.
Parliamentary elections due next March are also expected
to dominate the
congress, to be held in the capital.
The
four-year-old land-reform programme, which has partly been blamed for
food
shortages in Zimbabwe, once known as the bread basket of the region, is
also
set to feature prominently during the discussions. -- Sapa-AFP
Zim Observer
'I will not shake hands with Mugabe' -
Cricketer
by STAFF EDITORS (11/15/2004)
Giving a clearer
indication of the mood within the team before England's
one-day series
against Zimbabwe, Darren Gough has said that if it were up to
the players,
none would tour Zimbabwe. Gough admitted that the potential
damage of the
ICC's financial penalties gave the players little room to
manoeuvre.
His comments came after Graham Thorpe and Michael Vaughan
expressed
discontent at having to travel to Zimbabwe.
Gough says
the players have agreed to tour to save the England and Wales
Cricket Board
from financial disaster.
"England will lose between £10m and £20m if we
don't go," he told the Daily
Telegraph newspaper.
"We've been advised
not to socialise, just to keep out of the limelight when
we're not on the
cricket pitch. It's sad but that's what we'll be doing."
Gough said he
was only going to Zimbabwe to represent his country at
cricket, and would
walk away if asked to shake hands with Robert Mugabe,
Zimbabwe's president.
"I'm there for one reason - to represent my country in
an international
cricket match. We've all been advised not to socialise, not
to play golf,
just to keep out of the limelight when we're not on the
cricket pitch. It's
sad but that's what we'll be doing.
"If I get into a situation where I'm
supposed to be at a function and
shaking hands with Mugabe, I won't do it.
I'll walk away. I'm not afraid to
do that."
Thorpe, who will join the
squad for the Test series in South Africa which
follows, claimed the ECB had
"bullied the players psychologically with
threats of what will happen to the
game in this country if they don't tour".
But Gough said the threat of
financial reprisals from the International
Cricket Council had forced the
ECB's hand.
"Youth cricket will suffer, the Academy - everything the
country's worker
for will suffer."
He added: "If the International
Cricket Council said it was up to each
individual player whether he wanted
to go, and England wouldn't suffer
financially, each player would pull
out."
Hansard Wednesday 10 November 2004
QUESTIONS WITH
NOTICE
PARTICIPATION OF ZIMBABWEANS IN NATIONAL ELECTIONS
Ms
STEVENSON asked the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs
to
explain why the Zimbabwe Government is not going to amend the Electoral
Act
to allow citizens residing outside the country to vote when the
SADC
Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections signed by
President
Mugabe and other Heads of State in Mauritius in August provide for
the right
of all citizens to participate in their national elections, and
Mozambican
citizens will be allowed to vote at their Harare
Embassy.
MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFIARS (Mr
CHINAMASA): Madam
Speaker, our electoral system is constituency based and as
such gives the
right to vote to a Zimbabwean citizen who is resident in a
particular
constituency. As Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary
Affairs, I
have an obligation to uphold the Constitution and the law. For
the rest, I
would respectfully ask Hon Stevenson to refer to the answer I
gave to the
question posed by Hon member Mr Chirowamhangu last week. Suffice
to say
that the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections
are
not a law. They are not a Protocol. They are not enforceable. They
merely
provide principles and guidelines. They recognise that SADC countries
are
at different stages of development or evolution in the sphere of
democratic
traditions, institutions and systems and that some countries such
as Angola
and the DRC have not yet held any elections. Swaziland does not
have any
Constitution. All countries in the region are grappling within
their unique
circumstances and history to forge a democratic path to a better
tomorrow.
The comparisons that you have drawn between Mozambique and Zimbabwe
are
clearly not appropriate. Mozambique is not further under sanctions. It
is
not under siege. The Mozambican political and business leadership,
whether
belonging to the ruling and opposition parties, are not under any
travel ban
from any country to which their people have migrated. In any
event, unlike
the Mozambican authorities, we have, in the past been subjected
to
unjustified and unwarranted criticism from MDC against postal voting.
MDC
spoke critically against allowing soldiers who wee in the DRC in 1999
to
vote in the 2000 and 2002 Elections. MDC needs to be reminded that it
made
the most noise over allowing soldiers to vote in the 2000 and
20002
Presidential elections. The opposition must learn to take a
principled
position and not to contradict itself frequently. We know that
opportunism
is their forte but it should not be done to mislead Zimbabwean
people both
here and abroad.
Madam Speaker, let me say that the
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora are fully
patriotic towards their country. They
know they are being fed on a diet of
false and malicious propaganda by MDC
and its international allies. They
are fully aware that Zimbabwean
authorities and business leaders suffer from
a travel ban which prevents them
from visiting them and interacting with
them freely. We have of course not
forgotten that when the Governor of the
Reserve Bank, Dr Gono travelled to
the UK MDC lobbied the British Government
to cancel his visa so as to prevent
Zimbabweans in the Diaspora from being
addressed by Zimbabwean authorities.
Similar illegal actions were
perpetrated by the MDC against the Governor of
the Reserve Bank when he
travelled to the United States and South Africa. My
advice to the Hon Ms
Stevenson is that when she speaks on these matters, she
must not speak with
a forked tongue.
MRS STEVENSON: Is the Minister
implying that politicians from America,
Britain, Botswana or Mozambique come
to Zimbabwe and campaign to their
citizens before an election? If so, could
he give some examples of that,
because I do not see that happening?
MR
CHINAMASA: The Hon member is obviously not aware of the leadership
from
Mozambique which has been holding rallies in this country. They
estimate
the Mozambican population to have been around 50 000. They were
only able
to register about 5 000 but they have been here holding rallies
country-wide
in order to canvas for support.
Mr COLTART: My first
supplementary question is that would the Hon Minister
advise this House
whether there are any travel bans of any nature which
prevent his Government
from travelling within the SADC area and that is
preventing them from
campaigning?
Secondly, because of that, my understanding of the situation
is that there
are no bans in place against members of the Government and
given that
position why is it that the Government’s policy is to deny
Zimbabweans
resident in the SADC an opportunity to vote in the forthcoming
election?
MR CHINAMASA: If we introduce a rule it must be done in a non
discriminatory
manner. You cannot provide one rule for those who are in
Zambia and a
different rule for Zimbabweans who are in Australia. That is
discriminatory
and unacceptable.
Mr COLTART: This august House
recently passed an amendment to the
Citizenship Act that specifically related
to certain countries in SADC.
That was discriminatory. If we can grant
particular rights to our citizens
who come from Zambia or Malawi, why cannot
the same privilege be extended in
reverse to Zimbabweans who live in the
SADC?
MR CHINAMASA: The example given is not appropriate. On the example
he
referred to, we were giving and extending citizenship to people who
have
been here for
years.
________________________________________________
ELECTION
PETITIONS
Mrs STEVENSON asked the Minister of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary
Affairs:
a) to inform the House how many election petitions
were filed in 2000;
b) to inform the House haw many have been
finalised;
c) to explain the implications of laws passed in Parliament by
Members
eventually found not to have been duly elected.
MINISTER OF
JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFIARS (Mr CHINAMASA): I thank
the Hon Mrs
Stevenson, Member of Parliament for Harare North, for asking the
question and
I respond as follows:
a) Madam Speaker, all the election petitions filed
in the 2000 elections and
which were politically motivated and were
instigated and sponsored by the
British, were all filed by MDC. So MDC would
know the number of petitions
which it filed in 2000. They have that
information in their own records. I
would therefore respectfully ask Ms
Stevenson to ask the MDC Secretary
General, Professor Welshman Ncube to
provide this information.
b) Madam Speaker, I am not privy to any of these
petitions. I have no
information as to which election petitions were filed
and at what various
stages they are. Again I would refer Ms Stevenson to the
instigators of
these petitions. I am sure they would know.
c) Madam
Speaker, in Zimbabwe the judiciary is independent and the Executive
has no
authority whatsoever to supervise what the judiciary does in the day
to day
conduct of its business. In this regard, I can only speculate that
because
of increased litigation, it has not been possible to finalise these
petitions
timeously and I doubt if there is anything which can be done given
the deluge
of litigations that our court are facing. Zimbabwe now takes
pride as one of
the most litigious countries in Africa, if not the world.
d) I am again not
privy to the information as regards which Members of
Parliament are currently
in the House and whose election is still subject to
a court ruling. I would
respectfully ask the Hon Ms Stevenson to ask the
Hon members concerned.
e)
Madam Speaker, as far as I am aware, this Parliament is properly
constituted
by Members of Parliament who are constitutionally elected to sit
in this
House. I am sure that if any information comes to the Speaker’s
attention
that any Member is declared by the court unlawfully elected hand
has not
appealed against such decision, you would not hesitate to declare
that seat
vacant.
Mrs STEVENSON: I would like to re-ask the first two questions.
Madam
Speaker, in my view the Minister of Justice has records or should
have
records and if he does not then there is a serious problem in his
Ministry.
His Ministry should have a record of all that takes place in our
courts.
The Minister should be able to answer that question. I wish to
restate that
he has not answered the question and it is his duty as Minister
to answer
questions in this House. I would respectfully ask that he answers
the
questions.
Mr CHINAMASA: I think I want to beg the Hon MDC legal
practitioners here
outside Parliament to advise you that there is no way that
the Ministry of
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs would have a record
of what takes
place in every court, every day. We have scores of courts
countrywide; we
have no business as a Ministry unless where my Ministry is
sued. We have no
business to know what is going on and in fact, we do not
know what takes
place in the courts.
Ms STEVENSON: May I place on the
table for the information of the Hon
Speaker and the House the state of the
electoral petitions to date?
DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Stevenson, I am afraid
that you cannot table this paper.
Thank
you.
_________________________________________
MINISTERIAL STATEMENT :
NATIONAL EXAMINATIONS: 2004
MINISTER OF HIGHER AND TERTIARY EDUCATION (DR
CHOMBO) on behalf of Minister
of Education, Sport and Culture
…..
Mrs
STEVENSON: I would like to ask the Minister. He stated that the
candidates
of Girls High have failed to take the examination and that no
candidate will
be disadvantaged. Could the Minister explain exactly what
measures have been
taken so that these candidates will not be disadvantaged?
MINISTER: I do
not understand what she said in the first part, could she
repeat?
Mrs
STEVENSON: Could the Minister state the precise measures that have been
taken
to ensure that candidates who will sit for the exams will not
be
disadvantaged? What exactly is the Ministry doing on that
issue?
MINISTER: The precise action that we are taking, I am not at
liberty to
explain to her because it prejudices the examinations and I want
to clearly
state that it is unfair for our colleagues on the other side to
take
advantage of any situation and politicise it when it is not
politics.
From The Star (SA), 15 November
This country could soon be despised
across Africa
Ancini Yokojoma, a 26-year-old Zimbabwean journalist,
speaks about his
arrest by police and his experience at Lindela. I was
arrested in August
because I didn't have an inoculation mark. That's how I
was identified as a
Zimbabwean. I have seen donkeys being identified with
their marks, not
people. In the United Kingdom, the moment you are arrested
as an illegal,
you are given access to a lawyer. That doesn't happen here. I
have a valid
three-year work permit but they refused to release me. We were
crammed into
trucks and sprayed with pepper and teargas. We also saw some
guys being
chased like dogs by armed policemen. Some women were promised
freedom for
sex, which they never got. Some guys had their IDs confiscated
and to have
them returned, they had to pay R100; some lost their asylum
papers in the
process. I got ill within three days of arriving at Lindela
because the
place is so overcrowded. In a cell, which was supposed to
accommodate only
15 people, we were packed to 70 - made to sleep two to a
bed, with some
sleeping on the floor where water from a leaking toilet would
wet
mattresses. I was denied medical attention throughout my stay there and
threatened with a thorough beating if I complained. I had flu, tonsillitis
and sinus pains. Without medical attention you die. One night some guys in
the room next door tried to escape. They were caught and the ring- leader
was beaten by the guards. I saw him pass out as they continued to beat him.
A security guard I befriended told me they usually switch off the CCTV
cameras when they beat people and if you die, they would say you fought with
others. They would check if you had had any visitors; if not, they just bury
you silently.
For me, with the right documents, relatives had to
fork out R2 000 to pay a
lawyer to secure my release. I agree that laws have
to be upheld but it
seems in South Africa, harassing, torturing and
deporting foreigners has
become a lucrative business. Regarding repression
and human rights abuses,
Robert Mugabe could actually learn from South
Africa how to mistreat and
break people. My parents left Zimbabwe to live in
Ulm, a very conservative
German town, but they've never experienced anything
like this. Americans are
despised across the world. Would South Africa want
its citizens to be
despised across Africa? It won't be long before that
happens. Papa Leshabane
of Lindela responds: There is no way a person can be
assaulted by our staff
without the control room picking it up. On switching
off of cameras, the
control room is monitored by a National Control Centre
at our head office
and another check is done in an office in the centre.
This is to ensure that
the people in the control room know they are being
watched. No one is buried
at the facility. The clinic is available for all,
and it's not true he was
denied access to medical facilities. The facility
is very clean. No male
officials sleep with women in exchange for freedom.
Anyway, Home Affairs is
responsible for releasing inmates, and only women
officials are deployed in
the women's section.
From The Daily Mirror (UK), 15 November
Test star's blast stings
cricket top brass
Mike Walters
Graham Thorpe is facing
disciplinary action after accusing Lord's of
bullying England players into
going to Zimbabwe. In an extraordinary
outburst, he waves off Michael
Vaughan's men at the departure lounge today
by claiming England were
railroaded into fulfilling the tour nobody wants -
nobody, that is, except
forelock-tugging bosses at the England and Wales
Cricket Board. Last night
ECB chairman David Morgan said he would be
studying the full context of his
remarks overnight. "I've not seen the whole
text of Graham's remarks so it
would be wrong for me to make snap
judgements," he said. "But I understand,
from a text message, his comments
include something about England's players
being bullied into going to
Zimbabwe and I will consider them at the
appropriate time." Thorpe, who has
retired from one-day internationals,
claims it was a "disgrace" Vaughan's
squad were railroaded into the trip
simply to appease International Cricket
Council hawks. And England's
left-handed linchpin, who links up with the
Test squad in South Africa next
month, says Vaughan has been betrayed.
The ECB have emerged with no
credit for caving in to the remote prospect of
England being suspended from
international cricket if they fail to pitch up
in Zimbabwe. Thorpe has been
deeply unimpressed with the scaremongering and
said: "When England pulled
out of their World Cup match in Harare last year,
the ECB promised the
players they would never again be placed in the
position of having to go to
Zimbabwe against their moral judgement. But here
we are, 20 months later,
and the players have been left in exactly that
position again. It's a
disgrace. Players are deeply concerned about the
political situation in
Zimbabwe. They don't want to be at the centre of
protests that could lead to
opposition supporters being arrested and
mistreated. And they can't
understand a logic that says it was right to pull
out of the World Cup match
last year but wrong not to travel now. But the
ECB says the tour must go
ahead because of the financial repercussions for
English cricket should they
be penalised for not going. They've allowed
themselves to be bullied by the
ICC and, in turn, have bullied the players
psychologically with threats of
what will happen."
Thorpe says the five-match series is an insult to
Zimbabwe rebels Andy
Flower and Henry Olonga, who made black armband
protests during the World
Cup and have not played for their country since.
He added: "They were
incredibly courageous wearing those armbands, but did
their bravery mean
nothing in the end? By their weakness, the ICC and ECB
have betrayed Flower,
Olonga and the England players once again. The ICC
appear to have been
desperate to push the moral issues under the carpet and
the ECB have weakly
toed the line." Thorpe, 35, is likely to escape
punishment for his outburst,
not least because the ECB are in no position to
punish free speech when they
are happy to claim the moral low ground over
Zimbabwe. Vaughan made plain
last week his distaste for the Zimbabwe leg of
this winter's itinerary. He
admitted: "I can't say I'm particularly looking
forward to it. We all just
want to get it over and done with." Spinner
Ashley Giles, who agreed to tour
only out of loyalty to Vaughan, said: "It
will be such a relief when we get
to South Africa in early December because
it means we won't have to worry
about Zimbabwe any more."
From The Sunday Independent (SA), 14 November
The flotsam and jetsam
of Aids
By Sarah Crowe
Lavender Mbika, the newly appointed
treasurer, is as lovely as her name -
bright-eyed, fresh-faced and with the
nubile figure of a blossoming
14-year-old. Of the 16 "orphans" in the small
"nutrition garden" in
Zvishavane, in Zimbabwe's Midlands, Lavender is one of
the few who still has
a mother. The other little ones, sunken and
sad-looking, have latched on to
Lavender. It is a stark study in contrasts.
While she lights up the lens,
white-grinning teeth, eager to be
photographed, the others clutch at her
skirts, shying away from the camera.
The lights in their eyes have gone out.
These are just a few of Zimbabwe's
almost one million Aids orphans. They are
living proof that the country,
like many of its neighbours, is now in the
death phase of the epidemic.
Lavender's father was somebody significant
once, fairly high up in the
military until he died "after a long illness",
leaving Lavender to be added
to the growing list of orphans. Already the
number of children in Zimbabwe
who have lost a parent is estimated at 1,3
million, with 980 000 of them
left without any parent because of Aids - this
out of a total population of
5,8 million children, or more than 10 percent
of the total population of
11,6 million. The United Nations Children's Fund
estimates that by 2010 this
number is expected to be as high as one in five
children. Orphans in
Zimbabwe survive by only the most tenuous thread. The
all-embracing extended
African family has withered and all but collapsed
under the strain of the
crisis. Relatives prey off children once their
parents are gone and teenage
girls are most exposed to sexual abuse, early
pregnancy and HIV. Young
mothers are dying at a greater rate and 10 years
earlier than men, leaving
an exaggerated vacuum in a society that has become
used to absent fathers.
Every home seems to have taken in an orphan or 10.
These home-carers,
the women, are the true backbone of this society. Enia
Phiri is one of these
stalwarts. She does what she can to care for the many
orphans around her,
but she knows she can never replace a real mother. "To
be a child without a
mother is the worst, worst thing," she says. "The way
people speak to them
is not loving like a mother. They say, 'Do this, do
that'. The orphans are
not happy like other children." To keep some
semblance of home life intact,
and to give orphans some power over their
fragile lives, community-based
interventions such as these "nutrition
gardens", funded by the European
Union's humanitarian aid department, have
worked best. This has helped to
build a network of community and
non-governmental organisations, in 27
districts of the country, that aims to
reach 30 000 children. Some of the
initiatives are nutrition gardens, where
the children - some no higher than
the vegetables - learn to cultivate and
sell the produce. "Things have
really changed now with the garden," says
Lavender. "We can buy books and
ballpoints for school. The orphans are
benefiting because we now get soap to
wash and sometimes cooking oil." It
doesn't go far, though. Lavender keeps
the books, and knows they have made
Z$17 000 so far. With the country in the
throes of an economic crisis, this
gives them only enough to buy some
pencils and exercise books: a pencil
costs around Z500 (about 50c) and Z$2
000 buys one exercise book. Not far
from the lovely Lavender and her fellow
orphans is another 14-year-old,
Precious Phiri, and her 11-year-old brother,
Learnmore. Since their parents
died several years ago, the two children have
lived alone. With no money for
school fees, their days are spent surviving -
fetching water, cleaning,
cooking - with the help of Red Cross women.
Learnmore has the yellowed eyes
of a man who has lived alone too long: a
haunted, unloved look. Since their
parents died they had struggled together
in a run-down hut that needed
rethatching. Now, at least, they have a good,
solid roof over their heads -
part of a project to rehabilitate housing -
and a new latrine. But with the
rising cost of education, Learnmore has
little chance of living up to the
name his parents gave him. School fees,
uniforms and books have made
schooling something he and his sister cannot
afford.
They are not alone. Until recently Zimbabwean education was
the pride of
Africa, but gains made since independence in 1980 have been
wiped out by the
multiple onslaught of HIV and Aids, the orphan crisis,
economic erosion and
the effects of successive years of drought and hunger.
By 2001 at least one
in four teachers was infected by HIV, and United
Nations studies show that
school enrolment dropped from 86 percent to 63
percent in 2002, and 25
percent fewer children now complete primary school.
Girls are dropping out
in greater numbers, as they are the ones who stay at
home to care for sick
relatives or are forced into early marriage. The
government does have a
scheme to help orphans remain in school, the Basic
Education Assistance
Module, or Beam, but few are able to gain access to it.
The government is
also one of the first in the region to approve a national
plan of action for
orphans and other vulnerable children. This outlines a
strategy to help get
children into school and make sure they have better
access to health care,
nutrition and safe water. As costs skyrocket,
however, these plans are
threatened as donors become more reluctant to fund
President Robert Mugabe's
regime. "This national plan of action gives us an
important road map to
accelerate our efforts to make sure that no child is
left out," said UN
Children's Fund representative Festo Kavishe. "We know we
are only reaching
a small number of children. It is crucial that we act now.
Children need
more international support, and if we are going to reverse the
HIV
prevalence rate we have to start with these children, who, by being
orphaned, are the most vulnerable to abuse."
Sarah Crowe visited
Zimbabwe recently. She is the UN Children's Fund's
communications officer
for sub-Saharan Africa
US$12m Fuel Funds Diverted
The Herald (Harare)
November
15, 2004
Posted to the web November 15, 2004
Harare
More than
US$12 million allocated for fuel procurement has been diverted to
other uses
with at least 15 companies failing to submit required information
on their
fuel imports and distribution.
The US$12,4 million that cannot be
accounted for is enough to buy two weeks'
supply of fuel for the whole
country.
The huge diversion was discovered during audits by the
Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ), which sought to establish the causes of fuel
shortages
experienced lately despite the allocation of adequate foreign
currency.
"There is a variance of US$12,4 million in the foreign currency
that was
awarded to companies for fuel imports and what the companies
confirmed,
through documentary evidence, to have utilised for fuel," said
the central
bank.
The audit was conducted to ascertain whether funds
allocated to fuel
importers through their banks were used for the intended
purpose.
The audit trail also saw visits to companies that accessed
foreign currency
through the auction to establish whether the fuel was
actually delivered to
Zimbabwe.
Companies were asked to submit
information on bills of entry for delivered
imports and invoices for the
fuel they imported.
Teams of investigators were also dispatched to all
banks to verify whether
funds were transferred to the suppliers of fuel. The
banks had to produce
telegraphic transfers corresponding to the awarded
funds.
However, it emerged at the weekend that corruption in the sector,
which has
adversely affected the smooth importation and distribution of
fuel, was more
rampant than had been originally thought.
"Violations
of exchange control regulations were noted during these
inspections," said
the central bank.
The private sector has seen serious shortages of fuel
in recent weeks
following a clampdown by the Reserve Bank on
cheating.
Prices are drifting upwards with petrol now fetching between $3
600 and $4
300 a litre, while diesel now costs between $3 600 and $4 400 a
litre.
Price rises can be expected with the Zimbabwean dollar drifting
slowly
downwards because of the difference in inflation rates with major
economies
and international fuel prices rising.
But competition has
kept pressure on suppliers to keep margins to the
minimum and so fuel prices
have tended to drift upwards, rather than jump
upwards in large steps. The
latest rises come to 19 percent for petrol and
22 percent for diesel, much
larger jumps than the sector has seen this year.
The fuel black market is
also feared to be re-emerging in Harare as a result
of the
shortages.
Figures released by the RBZ showed that between January 12 and
November 10,
a total of US$182 million was allocated to private oil
companies for fuel
procurement.
Of this amount, US$57 million was
allocated in September and October during
the transition to the Special
Purpose Vehicle (SPV) tasked with importing
fuel on behalf of the private
companies.
In addition, the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) was
allocated
US$140 million directly from the central bank for fuel procurement
and
debt-servicing.
Thus, from January 12 to November 10 a total of
US$360 million was allocated
to the oil sector, translating into an average
of US$36 million a month.
The launch of the foreign currency auction
market and the high priority
status accorded to fuel importation have seen
higher allocations compared to
the US$167 million disbursed to the sector
for the whole of last year.
In the past, fuel shortages have been
attributed to inadequate foreign
currency, an argument that can no longer be
sustained given the improving
foreign currency allocations to the
sector.
Statistics show that the sector has, in fact, been allocated
figures
slightly above actual requirements.
The US$36 million
allocated per month is still adequate to meet imports
despite the increases
in international oil prices.
According to the RBZ, at the peak of
economic activity, national fuel
requirements would average US$40 million a
month, a figure that has risen to
US$60 million following increases in
global oil prices.
International oil prices have risen by 42 percent over
the past nine months
from US$31,12 per barrel in February to US$44,19 a
barrel in November.
However, with the economy currently operating at 60
percent capacity,
consumption levels require US$36 million per
month.
Since the beginning of the year, fuel imports by private oil
companies have
been funded from the auction through a competitive bidding
process, but the
system has changed with effect from September 6 as
allocations on the
auction system are now being made through the
SPV.
The new system was introduced to circumvent fraudulent behaviour by
some
companies who were diverting funds allocated to them to import
fuel.
However, the implementation of the SPV has created some logistical
problems
in the procurement and distribution of fuel, hence the current
shortages.
Most service stations in Harare and other parts of the country
have run dry
over the past two weeks due to the teething
problems.
Noczim last week came to the rescue when it released fuel from
its stocks to
help out the private sector.
Fuel shortages impact
adversely on the production and distribution of goods
and services in the
economy.
In agriculture, the economy's mainstay, at least 200 million
litres of
diesel are required per year.
Thus persistent shortages
imply disruption in agricultural production,
reducing output and increasing
supply bottlenecks in the economy.
Fuel shortages also impair the
distribution of raw materials and
intermediate inputs required for
production.
Furthermore, inadequate fuel supplies induce inflationary
pressures.
Production constraints as a result of poor fuel supplies
translate into
increased unit costs and higher prices.
The black
market, where fuel fetches much higher prices than those obtaining
on the
official market, also aggravates the situation.
Statistics show that fuel
accounts for between 15 percent and 20 percent of
total production costs,
hence increases in fuel prices, as witnessed at the
weekend, directly impact
on the cost of production.
Made, Mumbengegwi Leave for Russia
The Herald
(Harare)
November 15, 2004
Posted to the web November 15,
2004
Harare
THE Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr
Joseph Made, and his
Industry and International Trade counterpart, Dr Samuel
Mumbengegwi, last
week left Harare for Moscow where they are seeking to
deepen co-operation in
various fields between Russia and
Zimbabwe.
According to Dr Made, the Russians, who are ranked among the
top
beer-brewing nations of the world, had expressed great interest in the
country's barley for their breweries.
The minister said the Russians
had indicated that they wanted a massive
supply of barley from Zimbabwe,
reputed to be among the best barley
producers, because of its soils and
ambient environment that is conducive
for the production of the
crop.
Dr Made said they were going to Moscow to seek co-operation with
the
Russians in the form of an exchange of barley for equipment which can be
used in the ongoing agrarian reforms.
He said that the negotiations
for co-operation were not only restricted to
barley, but extended to the
sale of other agricultural produce like cotton
and paprika, which are also
in demand in Russia.
He said the exchange programme would incorporate
agro-processing machinery.
The three-day visit, Dr Made said, was at the
invitation of the Russians who
came to the country about two months ago on a
fact-finding mission.
Mmegi, Botswana
Thieves Use Floor Polish In Burglaries
Bame Piet
11/15/2004 4:36:39 PM (GMT +2)
Some people would
say that they had locked their doors and windows but
when they woke up, they
found their possessions missing. Some would say they
left their property
like cell-phones or money in their bedrooms but when
they woke up the
following morning, they would be devastated to find that
someone broke into
the house and made away with them.
Monitor learnt that these
crimes are committed after the victims are
induced into a deep slumber by
various sprays. "When the thieves come into
your house, you would sleep like
you are dead and they can do as they wish
inside your house and even move
you from your bed but you still won't wake
up," a victim said jokingly. It
is said that thieves look for small openings
in a house to spray the
chemicals that make people sleep deeply. The Monitor
has learnt from an
anonymous source that even floor polish can be used as
sleep inducing spray
by thieves. "In Zimbabwe, we know how to make floor
polish and guys there
would make it and mix it with a chemical that would
make you sleepy after
you had excessively inhaled it," Patrick (not his real
name)
said.
He revealed that this mixture is sold to gullible people who
are then
followed home and robbed when they are asleep. The crooks who sell
it
usually persuade the buyer to reveal their house numbers and to use the
mixture on a particular night.
Station Commander of Broadhurst
Police Sarah Gabathuse has said that
they often receive reports of theft in
which victims complain about the
unusual sleep on the night of theft.
However she said they are not aware of
the floor polish in question. Thamaga
Police Station Commander Koketso
Oabile said that the common crime in his
area is where thieves use force to
gain entry into a house. He said he was
not aware of the floor polish in
question as they had not had cases of house
break-ins while the owners are
asleep.
A senior police officer
at Central Police Station who did not want to
be mentioned said that he had
heard the rumour about a spray that was being
used by thieves to make their
victims fall asleep. But he declined to
comment further saying his superiors
could provide more answers.
Evening Times (UK)
£50,000 race claim award overturned
A WORKER who won nearly £50,000 in a race claim
against Glasgow council has been stripped of his compensation.
Social work manager Clarence Bvunzai was awarded the
cash last year after he won a racial discrimination case against his employers
at a tribunal.
He said he had been overlooked
for a promoted post because he was black. But the Evening Times can today reveal
Mr Bvunzai's victory has been overturned. An appeal tribunal, chaired by Lord
Johnston, has quashed the decision to award Mr Bvunzai £48,681 in compensation.
It said the ruling in favour of Mr Bvunzai,
who had made four previous unsuccessful claims of racial discrimination against
the council, was 'nothing short of perverse'.
Zimbabwe-born Mr Bvunzai, 55, of Hollinwell Road,
Summerston, still works for the council - at a special unit for people with
learning difficulties.
A separate appeal
tribunal also cleared the council of allegations it racially discriminated
against another employee, Kuldip Dhesi, who won £6173 after a tribunal found he
had been discriminated against when he applied for a managerial role on an
asylum-seeker project.
George Ryan, the
council's personnel convener, said: "We are proud of our record in promoting
equal opportunities and good race relations in how we recruit and promote staff.
The original findings were grossly unfair to us."