Statement By the Director of the IMF African Department, Mr. Abdoulaye
Bio-Tchané, At the Conclusion of His Visit to
Zimbabwe
International Monetary Fund (Washington,
DC)
DOCUMENT November 17, 2004 Posted to the web November 18,
2004
Washington, DC
The Director of the African Department of the
International Monetary Fund, Mr. Abdoulaye Bio-Tchané, made the following
statement in Harare today:
"I have had a fruitful visit to Zimbabwe these
past few days and I want to thank my hosts, Acting Minister Murerwa and
Reserve Bank Governor Gono, for a warm welcome and for the quality of our
discussions. I also had meetings with several senior officials including the
Minister of Special Affairs, Mr. Nkomo, as well as with the ambassadors of
several donor countries.
"Yesterday, I had the privilege of meeting His
Excellency President Mugabe. My meeting was intended to provide an
opportunity for me to explain personally to the President the state of
Zimbabwe's relations with the IMF--which are now at a critical juncture--and
how we could establish a positive framework for moving forward. Our
discussions were informative and cordial and covered a number of
issues.
"The President reassured me that Zimbabwe was prepared to have a
meaningful relationship with the IMF, even if he did not always agree with
its economic advice. He stressed that Zimbabwe needed to grow and prosper as
a sovereign nation. In this regard, noting the country's rich agricultural
and mining resources, he observed that, with land reform now largely
completed, these sectors--particularly mining--needed more investment. He
also emphasized that Zimbabwe's prospects were enhanced by the skill level
of its workforce, which was the result of substantial public investment in
education since independence.
"My discussions with the Zimbabwean
authorities covered a range of economic and structural issues facing the
country today. I explained that the Fund wanted to work with the authorities
to help Zimbabwe achieve its full potential and to integrate the country
more closely with the international community. In order for the IMF to help
Zimbabwe, the authorities need to seize this window of opportunity to
demonstrate strengthened cooperation with the Fund before its Executive
Board next considers the issue of Zimbabwe's compulsory withdrawal. I
reiterated that strengthened cooperation could be demonstrated through: (i)
a comprehensive policy package comprising rapid macrostabilization,
substantive structural reforms, and a strengthening of governance to lay the
basis for a significant improvement in investor confidence; (ii) concerted
efforts to rebuild relations with other official creditors, which over time
will also lead to the external financing needed to ensure these policies are
sustainable; and (iii) a significant increase in payments to the Fund in
line with Zimbabwe's payments capacity. Such an increase should be possible
without undue import compression and hardship to the Zimbabwean people if a
comprehensive policy package supported by external financing is
adopted.
"I hope that in the period ahead, the Zimbabwean authorities can
work more closely with us as they implement a comprehensive policy package
to improve the welfare of the Zimbabwean people and to strengthen
cooperation with the IMF."
MUGABE WANTS TO RESUME TIES WITH IMF Fri 19 November
2004
HARARE - A top International Monetary Fund (IMF) official
yesterday said President Robert Mugabe has had a change of heart and now
wants to resume relations with the multilateral financier.
In a
Press statement after meeting Mugabe in Harare earlier this week IMF
director for Africa, Abdoulaye Bio Tchane, said the Zimbabwean leader had
assured him he wanted a new and meaningful relationship with the lending
institution.
He said: "I had the privilege of meeting His
Excellency President Mugabe . . . the President reassured me that Zimbabwe
was prepared to have a meaningful relationship with the IMF, even if he did
not always agree with its economic advice. He stressed that
Zimbabwe needed to grow and prosper as a sovereign nation."
Bio
Tchane, who was in the country to attend a workshop hosted by the
Harare-based Africa Capacity Building Foundation, added: "I explained that
the Fund wanted to work with the authorities to help Zimbabwe achieve its
full potential and to integrate the country more closely with the
international community."
Relations between Harare and the IMF
collapsed in 1999 when the organisation cut financial support to Harare over
differences with Mugabe on fiscal policy, land reform policy, human and
property rights.
One of the IMF's bitterest critics, Mugabe has
accused the institution of being used by Britain and the United States,
opposed to his chaotic and often violent land reforms, to undermine his
rule.
The IMF has closed its office in Harare and its board could
force Zimbabwe to withdraw from the Fund at its next meeting in December. -
ZimOnline
Jailing citizens for criticising Mugabe unconstitutional, says
legal committee Fri 19 November 2004
HARARE - The
Parliamentary Legal Committee has said it is unconstitutional to jail
citizens for criticising the state president.
Under the law,
Zimbabweans can be jailed for up to six months for criticising President
Robert Mugabe or making derogatory statements against him.
In a
report on the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Bill that seeks to
review and codify Zimbabwe's criminal law and justice procedures, the
committee said the Office of the President was an elected public office and
ring-fencing it against criticism would infringe on citizens' right to
free expression.
The report reads in part: "Given the nature of the
Presidency in Zimbabwe, which is a public elected political office, to
ring-fence that office against criticism amounts to derogation from
fundamental freedoms protected by the Constitution, particularly
with respect to the freedom of expression."
The committee said
indecent or obscene statements against the office or person of the President
could be punished under the law but said abusive statements or criticism in
general should not be criminalised.
The committee, which is led by
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) secretary general Welshman
Ncube, reviews legislation before the House to ensure it conforms with the
Constitution.
In the past, the government has amended Bills to
incorporate the views of the committee but this is not a legal requirement
and the government can ignore the committee's recommendations.
Several journalists have been arrested by the police after writing articles
deemed disrespectful of Mugabe. Ordinary citizens have also been arrested
for criticising Mugabe. - ZimOnline
16 civic group activists arrested for protesting against NGO
Bill Fri 19 November 2004
HARARE - Police yesterday arrested
about 16 supporters of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) who were
protesting against proposed new legislation imposing severe restrictions on
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe.
The NCA is a
coalition of human and civic rights groups, pro-democracy organisations,
labour, churches and opposition parties campaigning for a new and democratic
constitution for Zimbabwe.
The group has on several occasions in
the past few months clashed with the police over the proposed NGO law and
had yesterday called yet another demonstration against the draft
law.
About 300 supporters of the coalition converged in central
Harare singing and waving placards denouncing the NGO Bill before heavily
armed police who had kept tight surveillance throughout the city since
morning pounced on the protesters beating them up and arresting some of
them.
"We are now working with our lawyers to have them (the
arrested) released. What is sad about this matter is that the police went on
to arrest some people who are not even our members who were going about
their business in town," NCA spokeswoman Jessie Majome, said.
Parliament is expected to pass the NGO Bill next week after the House
earlier this week adjourned debate on the draft legislation to next
Tuesday.
The proposed law bans NGOs from carrying out voter
education and prohibits those wishing to carry out human rights and
governance-related work from receiving foreign funding. - ZimOnline
Please send any
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South Africa and Zimbabwe are on the verge of signing an agreement
to protect the rights of South African landowners in Zimbabwe, a top
official said today.
Mandisi Mpahlwa, the trade and industry
minister, said negotiations had been finalised and the agreement was ready
to be signed, echoing recent comments by Zimbabwean officials. The pact was
first mooted three years ago amidst the controversial land redistribution
policy of Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, which raised fears that
South African-owned property would be confiscated.
South Africa is
Zimbabwe's most important trading partner and one of the southern African
countries' biggest investors. "We have currently obtained the presidential
authority to proceed with the process of securing a date with our
counterparts for the occasion to sign the agreement," Mpahlwa said in
written reply to a parliamentary question.
He said the agreement would
allow South African investors to take legal action if their property was
expropriated. They would also be allowed to refer any investment related
dispute to international arbitration. "The South African government will
support the agreed due process of the law, in disputes involving nationals,"
Mpahlwa said.
Zimbabwe's land reform saw white-owned commercial farms
often violently seized and transferred to landless blacks. Last year,
Zimbabwe officials said land seized from South Africans may be returned once
its land reform programme was complete. - Reuters
Namibian Human Rights Group Assails Zimbabwean Election Observer By
William Eagle Washington, DC 18 November
2004
A Southern African human rights group is criticizing the
presence of a particular observer to this week's elections in Namibia.
Namibia's National Society for Human Rights says one of Zimbabwe's three
election observers is the former director of Zimbabwe's secret police, the
Central Intelligence Organization. The group says Shadreck Tongesai Chipanga
has been accused of widespread human rights abuses in his country -
including violent electoral intimidation in his own constituency of Makoni
East. Mr. Chipanga is heading an observer team for the parliamentary forum
of SADC - the Southern African Development Community - which has 40
observers in Namibia. Mr. Chipanga is in the Oshana Region - about 700
kilometers northwest of the capital, Windhoek.
Phil ya Nangoloh is
the executive director of the National Society for Human Rights. He says the
presidents of Namibia and Zimbabwe are close, and he believes that Mr.
Chipanga may have been sent to Namibia to interfere with the polls. Mr. Ya
Nangoloh says one of the preconditions for free and fair elections is
election integrity. He says SADC has failed to ensure integrity by allowing
Mr. Chipanga to monitor the elections.
In response, the The Secretary
General of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, Dr. Kasuka Mutukwa, says his group
will reconsider its rules for accepting elections monitors. Dr. Matukwa says
the only SADC criteria now on the books is that a given member country of
the Southern Africa Development Community, or SADC, send as election
monitors members of their own parliament. That team must include members of
the ruling party and an opposition party with prior experience monitoring
elections. Women must also be members of a country's monitoring
team.
Dr. Mutukwa says this is the first time that an observer's history
has caused controversy; as a result, he says the SADC Parliamentary Forum
will likely consider whether its requirements should be amended for
accepting regional observers for election monitoring.
By
Staff Reporter Last updated: 11/19/2004 10:22:47 ZANU PF was last night
warned that nominating Emmerson Mnangagwa as President Robert Mugabe's
successor could be the party's Waterloo.
The warnings come just days
before the Zanu PF annual congress early next month at which political
analysts say Mnangagwa will succeed Mugabe, with his two deputies being John
Nkomo and Didymus Mutasa.
Mnangagwa is disliked with passion in
south-western Zimbabwe where he is seen as the architect of a brutal
massacre of the minority Ndebele people which claimed over 20 000 lives soon
after Independence from Britain in 1980.
Opposition Zapu leader Paul
Siwela described Mnangagwa, Zanu PF's secretary for administration and
Speaker of Parliament as someone "who is so fond of killing" and "ill
qualified to lead".
Siwela told SW Radio Africa's Newsreel last night:
"Mnangagwa is ill qualified to be a national leader. He is the wrong person,
going for the wrong position at the wrong time. The man has so much blood on
his hands."
Zimbabwe's banned paper, The Daily News, now publishing
online, said it had been told that "it is now a fait accompli that Emmerson
Mnangagwa will be appointed the successor to President Robert Mugabe" at the
Zanu PF Congress.
The paper said current vice-president, Joseph Msika was
expected to step down, although it was not clear whether this will be of his
own accord or by coercion.
"The other key factor to emerge is that
Mugabe will have done a splendid tribal balancing act. Mugabe is a Zezuru
and there has been talk that the next party and government leader should
either be a Karanga, Ndebele or Manyika, the other major tribes in the
country," The Daily News said.
"The Karangas are the biggest tribal group
and Mnangagwa, who enjoyed unbridled support of the late vice-president
Simon Muzenda, himself a Karanga, is also from Masvingo
province.
"Didymus Mutasa will represent the Manyikas who have been
agitating for long to have their fingers in the royal pie after Mugabe. John
Nkomo, a distant relative of President Mugabe will represent the Ndebeles
after their party, Zapu was swallowed in the December 1987 Unity Accord
between Zanu PF and Zapu."
The speculation about Mnangagwa replacing
Mugabe was fuelled by an interview with a weekly newspaper last week in
which he tried to wiggle himself free of blame over his involvement in the
Matabeleland massacres. Analysts say he is preparing the ground for
take-over and is keen to shake-off the ghost of
Matabeleland.
"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.
Mnangagwa's utterances invited the ire of former
PF-Zapu stalwart Dumiso Dabengwa who described them as unhelpful, and
generally rubbished Mnangagwa's take on the situation.
Siwela said it
would be naïve for Mnangagwa to try and distance himself from the
Matabeleland massacres because he was the very person that supplied the
intelligence that triggered the atrocities.
An analyst said last
night: "If Mnangagwa goes on to lead Zanu PF, then that will be manna from
heaven for the opposition. Mnangagwa is exposed on all fronts, has so many
enemies and is just the perfect villain. He will take Zanu PF down with
him."