http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Africa News
Nov 22, 2008, 18:12
GMT
Harare - The government of Zimbabwe late Saturday said it had
not barred the
former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan from
entering the country
but instead asked him and his team to postpone the
visit.
Addressing journalists in Harare, Foreign Minister Simbarashe
Mumbengegwi
said Annan had 'misrepresented' facts by saying he together with
the former
US president Jimmy Carter and former Mozambican first lady Graca
Machel had
been barred from Zimbabwe.
The trio was scheduled to make
an analysis of the humanitarian crisis in
Zimbabwe on a November 22-23
visit. But they cancelled the trip after Harare
denied them
visas.
'The postponement was necessary because Mr Annan had made no prior
consultations with government of Zimbabwe regarding both the timing and
programme of his proposed visit as is normal practice,' said
Mumbengegwi.
'It is quite clear that no meaningful assessment of the
humanitarian
situation could be undertaken in the few hours the delegation
intended to be
in Zimbabwe.
'It was on that basis that Mr Annan was
advised, in good time, to postpone
the visit to allow for responses to be
made to the consolidated appeal based
on the joint assessment of the
humanitarian situation by the government of
Zimbabwe, the World Food
Programme and the UN Zimbabwe team,' Mumbengegwi
added.
Zimbabwe is
facing a serious humanitarian crisis with more than half the
population
facing starvation. A cholera outbreak in September has since
claimed about
300 lives, according to the World Health Organisation.
Mumbengegwi said
President Robert Mugabes government was fully aware of the
humanitarian
challenges facing the country and that Harare was determined to
address
these challenges.
'The government is willing to engage with all those of
good will in an
effort (to fight the humanitarian crisis.) The government
takes strong
exception to any exceptions to any suggestions that there are
those that
care more about the welfare of our people than we do,' he
said.
Asked if he would allow Annan and his team to come to Zimbabwe in
future,
Mumbengegwi said: 'If we come up with a mutually agreed to date. We
told
them that and that is not a secret.'
Earlier in Johannesburg the
trio had announced their visit was being called
off because Mugabe had
refused them entry.
At a press conference, the three, who were due to
travel to Zimbabwe on
behalf of The Elders grouping of leading statesmen and
women, said they were
disappointed that they had been denied an opportunity
to shine a light on
the humanitarian crisis in the country.
South
African President Kgalema Motlanthe and ex-president Thabo Mbeki, who
is
mediating in Zimbabwe's power-sharing talks, had intervened on their
behalf
with Mugabe, but to no avail, they said.
'It seems obvious to me that the
leaders of the (Mugabe) government are very
immune to reaching out for help
for their people,' Carter said.
Machel, a well-known social rights
campaigner and wife of The Elders
convener, anti-apartheid icon Nelson
Mandela, also said she was 'extremely
disappointed.'
This is the
first time The Elders - which was founded in 2007 to tackle
conflicts around
the world and also includes South African Archbishop
Emeritus Desmond Tutu,
an outspoken critic of Mugabe - has been refused
entry to a
country.
The Elders had been due to meet with aid organizations and
health workers to
discuss a worsening food crisis and a spiralling cholera
outbreak that has
claimed nearly 300 lives and infected thousands of others,
according to
several diplomatic and medical sources.
State media said
seven members of a local Christian sect were among the
victims of the
water-borne disease in the Harare township of Budiriro this
week. They had
refused treatment on the grounds their religion bans them
from all
medication other than 'holy water.'
While stressing their focus was on
humanitarian needs, including the food
shortages suffered by over 3 million
people, Annan, Machel and Carter had
also sought meetings with Mugabe and
the opposition.
They had been scheduled to meet with MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai in South
Africa on Friday. It was not clear whether the meeting
took place.
The MDC is coming under pressure from Zimbabwe's neighbours
to help stem the
crisis by accepting Mugabe's terms for joining a unity
government, in which
Mugabe remains president and Tsvangirai becomes prime
minister.
The MDC, which won the last parliamentary elections, accuses
Mugabe's
Zanu-PF of keeping all the important cabinet portfolios, bar
finance, for
itself.
The parties are reportedly scheduled to meet
again next week under Mbeki's
mediation to discuss a draft constitutional
amendment that will set out
Tsvangirai's powers as prime minister relative
to Mugabe's.
http://www.mg.co.za
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Nov 22 2008 10:39
A
delegation of prominent figures and former statesmen, known as the Elders,
cancelled its trip to Zimbabwe this weekend after it was refused entry into
the country for a humanitarian mission, it announced on Saturday.
The
Elders' delegation included three members -- former United Nations
secretary
general Kofi Annan, former United States president Jimmy Carter
and
international advocate for women's and children's rights Graca
Machel.
"We had to cancel our visit because the government made it very
clear that
it will not cooperate," Annan told a press conference in
Johannesburg.
Carter said they had applied for visas "several weeks ago"
but that
Zimbabwe's ambassador to Washington informed them that they would
not be
delivered "on time".
The government of President Robert Mugabe
"will not permit us to come in and
will not cooperate," Carter
said.
"We need no red-carpet treatment from the government of Zimbabwe,"
said
Annan. "We seek no permission other than permission to help the poor
and the
desperate.
"However, the refusal of the Zimbabwean government
to facilitate our visit
in any way has made it impossible for us to travel
at this time."
Annan said millions of people are in need of help in
Zimbabwe.
"We want to use our influence to increase the flow of
assistance,
immediately and in the longer term, to stop the terrible
suffering. We are
here to show solidarity with the people of Zimbabwe and to
assure them that
they are not alone," he said.
Machel said she was
"extremely" disappointed that they were unable to visit
the
country.
"We want to talk to the people and hear their stories directly.
We want
people to know that we care, and that we will do all we can to help
them.
People are dying from hunger every day in Zimbabwe and hospitals are
unable
to treat the sick."
"With schools struggling to stay open,
children are missing out on an
education. One in four children has lost one
or both parents.
"The government's attitude to our visit is deeply
regrettable," she said.
Carter, who actively supported Zimbabwe's
liberation struggle while in
office, said: "I am partisan. I make no apology
for that.
"I supported Zimbabwe's liberation struggle and I oppose
suffering and
misery. But I am very sorry that we are unable to visit
Zimbabwe."
"We will continue with our plans to learn as much as we can
while we are
here in the region, where millions of Zimbabweans inside and
outside the
country face a daily struggle for survival."
The Elders
will remain in South Africa to brief themselves as fully as
possible about
the situation in Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries.
They will speak to
humanitarian agency representatives, civil society
organisers, business
people and officials from Zimbabwe, South Africa and
the
region.
Cholera crisis
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is struggling to contain
"unprecedented" cholera
outbreaks that have spread to nine of the country's
10 provinces, state
media reported on Friday.
"The ministry is
battling to control unprecedented cholera outbreaks
affecting the country,"
Health and Child Welfare Minister Dr David
Parirenyatwa told the
Herald.
The majority of outbreaks had been traced to the capital, Harare,
he said.
Nearly 300 people had died as of November 18, the United Nations
chief
humanitarian agency said on Friday.
"The cholera outbreak has
taken a national dimension. Newer outbreaks are
reported from all provinces.
The total number of suspected cholera cases in
the country stands at 6 072
cases and 294 deaths," the UN's Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement.
The latest outbreaks were reported
from Beitbridge in the Matabele South
province, with 700 cases and 20
deaths. Health facilities in the area are
reporting an admission rate of 200
patients per day, OCHA said.
"The spatial distribution of outbreaks will
most likely continue to expand
as well as the number of people infected"
given the worsening water and
sanitation situation in densely populated
areas, it warned. -- Sapa, AFP
http://www.iol.co.za
November 22 2008 at
03:40PM
Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan
Tsvangirai met the
Elders' delegation in Johannesburg on Saturday, said the
delegation's
spokesperson.
"He met them [delegation] earlier today
[Saturday], unfortunately I'm not in
a position to disclose what was
discussed," said Katy Cronin.
The Elders' delegation has three members,
former United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former United States
president Jimmy Carter
and international advocate for women's and children's
rights Graça Machel.
They announced on Saturday that they had to cancel
their trip to Zimbabwe
for humanitarian mission this weekend, after they
were refused entry into
the country.
Tsvangirai was due to address
the Harold Harold Wolpe Lecture at the
University of KwaZulu-Natal on
Saturdayafternoon, when organisers announced
that he was meeting with the
Elders. - Sapa
http://news.yahoo.com
Sat Nov 22, 9:17 am ET
LIMA (AFP) - US President
George W. Bush on Saturday denounced Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe's
"illegitimate regime" and called for a new
government that would represent
the will of the country's people.
"We call for an end to the Mugabe
regime's brutal repression of basic
freedoms and for the formation of a
legitimate government that represents
the will of the people as expressed in
the March 2008 elections," Bush said
in a statement released as he attended
an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of
the Movement for Democratic Change
won the most votes in March's
presidential election but fell short of an
outright majority.
He
pulled out of a run-off against Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe non-stop
since independence from Britain in 1980, accusing the 84-year-old of
orchestrating attacks against his opposition supporters.
"Nearly
eight months have passed since the Zimbabwean people voted for a new
president, yet they still are governed by an illegitimate regime that
continues to suppress democratic voices and basic human rights," said
Bush.
"In addition to its disastrous economic policies which have forced
half the
population to rely on food assistance, the Mugabe regime is now
assaulting
doctors and nurses, denying citizens access to basic medical
services, and
stealing donor funds intended for HIV/AIDS patients," he
charged.
Bush said that, in October alone, independent organizations had
documented
about 1,300 incidents of politically motivated violence and
harassment by
the regime.
Washington will honor its pledges of
emergency humanitarian aid, which
totaled 186 million dollars in 2008, and
"stands ready to provide other
forms of assistance pending the formation of
a legitimate government that
represents the will of the Zimbabwean people,"
he vowed.
Power-sharing talks between Mugabe and Tsvangirai have yet to
yield a unity
government, despite several failed attempts by regional
leaders to force the
implementation of a September 15
accord.
Zimbabwe's economy has been in free-fall for years, leaving 80
percent of
the population in poverty and nearly half the country in need of
emergency
food aid by January, according to the United Nations.
The
country suffers the world's highest inflation rate, last estimated at
231
million percent in July, causing a breakdown in water and sanitation
that
has sparked an outbreak of cholera that has killed 294 people in recent
weeks, according to the US ambassador.
Western nations have said they
are ready to release hundreds of millions of
dollars in aid, but not while
Mugabe retains his sole grip on power.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/
For
Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 22,
2008
Nearly
eight months have passed since the Zimbabwean people voted for a new
president, yet they still are governed by an illegitimate regime that
continues to suppress democratic voices and basic human rights. In addition
to its disastrous economic policies which have forced half the population to
rely on food assistance, the Mugabe regime is now assaulting doctors and
nurses, denying citizens access to basic medical services, and stealing
donor funds intended for HIV/AIDS patients.
In October alone,
independent organizations documented some 1,300 incidents
of
politically-motivated violence and harassment by the regime. We call for
an
end to the Mugabe regime's brutal repression of basic freedoms and for
the
formation of a legitimate government that represents the will of the
people
as expressed in the March 2008 elections.
In spite of the regime's
aggressive actions against its own people, the
United States will continue
to honor its commitment to provide emergency
humanitarian assistance,
already totaling $186 million in 2008, and stands
ready to provide other
forms of assistance pending the formation of a
legitimate government that
represents the will of the Zimbabwean people.
From The Financial Gazette, 20 November
Njabulo Ncube, Political Editor
The government is
investigating whether Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader, Morgan
Tsvangirai, violated Zimbabwean immigration laws when he
travelled to France
using an Emergency Travel Document (ETD). Government
sources said yesterday
immigration officials at Plumtree border post in
Matabeleland South were
likely to take the flak, for allegedly allowing
Tsvangirai to cross into
Botswana despite the fact that his ETD limited
travel to South Africa and
Swaziland. While in Botswana, Tsvangirai attended
President Ian Khama's
parliamentary address in which he called for fresh
presidential elections in
Zimbabwe to be managed and supervised by the
international community. From
Botswana, Tsvangirai launched a diplomatic
offensive that took him to Zambia
and Tanzania. Both countries are not
included on the ETD. Government sources
said yesterday that the Attorney
General's Office was perusing relevant
statutes to see if Tsvangirai flouted
the country's laws especially with
regard to his visit to France, the
current chair of the European Union (EU).
The sources said government
officials at Munhumutapa Building in Harare as
well as at the Registrar
General's Office were incensed that Tsvangirai was
able to travel to Europe
without a valid passport. Some sources speculated
that the issue could spark
a diplomatic row between Harare and Pretoria,
which allowed him to fly out
to Europe. "The South Africans should not have
allowed Tsvangirai to fly out
to a European destination as the ETD is
specific that he is only allowed to
travel to South Africa and Swaziland.
There is consensus that the South
Africans are complicit on the issue," said
a government official, speaking
only after insisting he was not
named.
He said if immigration officials established that Tsvangirai
violated
Zimbabwean laws; he would be arrested the moment he touched down at
the
Harare International Airport or at any point of entry. However, an
immigration official, also speaking anonymously, said colleagues at the
Plumtree border post would be blamed for allowing the MDC leader through
into Botswana. He said Tsvangirai should have been barred from entering
Botswana via Plumtree and should instead have been advised to proceed on his
way through Beitbridge. The government has accused Khama of helping to train
MDC bandits to destabilise Zimbabwe, a charge denied by Tsvangirai and his
party. Khama last week invited the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) and the Zimbabwean government to visit Botswana to establish whether
any training camps existed. "But the issue has to be handled with caution
considering that all eyes are on Harare due to the stalled power-sharing
arrangement," said another source.
Tendai Biti, the secretary
general of the MDC-T and Tsvangirai's second in
command, told The Financial
Gazette that the MDC leader had not violated any
law, saying he held proper
travel documents. "One thing people are
forgetting is that President
Tsvangirai has a valid passport but it has
run-out of pages," said Biti. "If
the French decide to stamp on tissue paper
and have no problem with that, I
don't think it is Tsvangirai's problem,"
said Biti, who on Tuesday had two
charges against him dropped by the state
due to lack of evidence. "The
Registrar should issue him with a passport as
he submitted an application
about five months ago. There is no issue here,
really," Biti said. The chief
MDC negotiator in the stalled power-sharing
arrangement reiterated that the
question of the passport was one of the
contentious issues during the recent
SADC talks but regional leaders
allegedly chose not to address it.
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the Minister of
Information and Publicity, said it was a
mystery how Tsvangirai had traveled
to Europe on an ETD and the government
was entitled to probe the matter.
"The government has a right to know how he
travelled with an ETD and what he
was doing instead of finalizing the
formation of a new inclusive
government," said Ndlovu. "We are busy trying
to finalise the issue of Draft
Amendment 19 but he is gallivanting in
Europe."
http://www.cathybuckle.com
22nd November 2008
Dear Family and Friends,
Within half
a kilometre of a main army barracks and in view of a steady
stream of
traffic and hundreds of people, a man lay next to a main road
leading to the
Harare airport this week. Barefoot, painfully thin and with
thick, unkempt
hair the man lay unmoving on the verge, his feet protruding
into the busy
road. Standing on the opposite side of the road four men in
army camouflage
stood hitch- hiking, choosing not to see the man lying a few
steps away from
them. Is this what Zimbabwean authorities did not want the
former UN
Secretary General and former US President to see on a planned 2
day
humanitarian assessment visit? Is this why these two respected Elders
were
denied visas to enter Zimbabwe?
Outside banks, building societies and
post offices the crowds of people
trying to withdraw their own money have
grown to multiple thousands. Many
people have resorted to sleeping outside
the banks in order to be near the
front of the queues where they can only
withdraw five hundred thousand
dollars a day - enough to buy one mouthful of
a single cornish pasty being
sold at a local bakery this week. Two and a
half million dollars was the
price tag for this simple take away snack -
five days of queuing at the bank
to buy one meal for one person. Is this
what the authorities in Zimbabwe did
not want Kofi Annan and Jimmy Carter to
see? Is this why they were denied
visas to enter Zimbabwe?
On a
seventy kilometre stretch of road through what used to be prime
agricultural
land on the way to the capital city, there is silence and
desolation as
roadside farms lie unploughed and unplanted while the country
remains barren
of seed and fertilizer. Even as the rains fall on the land
and the ground
turns springy underfoot, the weeds are sprouting but not the
food. The
lushest crop I saw in 70 kilometres was grass being carefully
manicured on a
golf course. Is this what the authorities did not want Mr
Annan and Mr
Carter to see and why they were denied visas?
In supermarkets, the
majority of which are not allowed to trade in US
dollars, the shelves are
empty. There are no staple goods, no dairy
products, no confectionary, no
fast foods, no tinned or bottled products,
nothing to eat at all. From all
over the country there are first hand
reports of people barely surviving by
eating roots, wild berries, beetles
and insects. Is this what the world's
respected Elders were not supposed to
see and why they were denied visas to
come into Zimbabwe?
Hospitals without disposable gloves, medicines,
drips, bandages or
disinfectant. Nurses who cannot afford to come to work.
Toilets and taps
without water. A growing cholera outbreak in all areas of
the country with
300 people already dead. Raw sewage flowing in the streets
of high density
areas. Dustbins which have not been collected in urban
residential suburbs
since July in my home town. Men, women and children
collecting water in
bowls and buckets from swampy streams and murky pools.
No soap to buy in the
shops so no chance of preventing the spread of cholera
by washing your hands
with soap and water. Is this what Mr Annan, Mr Carter
and Mrs Machel might
have seen had they been granted visas to see for
themselves the humanitarian
catastrophe now engulfing Zimbabwe?
We
hope that the Elders will not give up on Zimbabwe, even though there is
no
welcome mat at our doorstep.
Until next time, thanks for reading, love cathy
http://www.radiovop.com
MASVINGO - The country has run out of
Anti-Retroviral drugs (ARVs),
dealing a major blow to the HIV and AIDS
patients, a highly placed source in
the health sector has
revealed.
The source added that only patients who take
Cotrimoxazole ARVs (on
level one or first line therapy) might be lucky as
there are limited
quantities still available owing to a government embargo
on the drugs early
this year.
"Hospitals are only giving drugs to
first line therapy patients who
are taking Cotrimoxazole drugs. All other
drugs are out of supply," said the
source in the Ministry of Health and
Child Welfare.
He added that those HIV positive patients with the A-B
strain of the
disease might die soon as it is difficult to manage.
Zimbabwe has more than six million HIV positive people and their fate
could
be sealed owing to the unavailability of the drugs, which are very
expensive
in private pharmacies and beyond the reach of many.
The source added
that even if the drugs were available, most of them
never found their way on
the deserving patients as oficials looted some for
the ill relatives, while
diverting others on the parallel market.
"Most of the drugs were
finished by top officials who looted the drugs
for sale on the black market.
Others also looted some for the HIV positive
relatives," added the
source.
In Masvingo, only four HIV patients could be lucky to get the
Cotrimoxazole as they have the local strain of the disease, according to
statistics leaked from the National AIDS Council (NAC), as well as other HIV
support centers.
Minister of Health, Dr David Parirenyatwa, could
not be reached for a
comment as he was said to be out of office attending
the Cholera outbreak.
His mobile went unanswered.
http://www.radiovop.com
HARARE - RESERVE Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor, Dr Gideon Gono has
said he will not leave office
despite numerous calls by the public to do so.
He said he did not
care about people passing around posters and
pieces of paper, especially in
Harare asking him to leave office because he
will not.
Zimbabwe
currency is currently worthless with the highest inflation in
the world at
more than 230 million percent.
Gono warned banks without enough
capital, that they would be closed
down.
He said commercial
banks were no longer allowed to borrow any money
from the RBZ. He also
accused bank managers and their friends of causing
the bull run on the
lucrative Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) by buying and
selling money on the
streets.
Gono said he did not care if he was now unpopular.
Meanwhile Zimbabwe's major commercial banks have teamed up to allow
locals
to receive their money from the Moneygramme facility.
This comes
after international banking facility - the US-based VISA
Credit Card
recently pulled out of Zimbabwe saying business was poor.
The banks
that have teamed up are CFX Bank Limited, Interfin Merchant
bank of Zimbabwe
Limited (Interfin), Kingdom Bank Limited (Kingdom), and
South African-based
Stanbic Bank of Zimbabwe Limited.
A spokesman said the facility would
allow locals to receive cash
safely and quickly across borders.
http://www.thetimes.co.za
Sapa Published:Nov 22,
2008
South
African health officials and their Zimbabwe counterparts are expected
to
meet shortly to discuss the cross-border cholera crisis, the Limpopo
Health
Department said today.
a..
"We are meeting our counterparts [soon],"
said departmental spokesman Phuti
Seloba when asked if SA was considering
intervening in the situation in
Zimbabwe.
He said the meeting
would discuss the [cholera] problem: "What to do. We
have been addressing
the problem and not dealing with the source".
He said any possible
action SA would take would depend on the outcome of the
meeting: "We first
need to identify the source before we deliberate on how
to deal with
it."
Seloba said there had now been 116 reported with Cholera in
Musina since
last Saturday.
Three of these were South Africans
and one Zambian. He said all these people
had some connection to or history
of being in Zimbabwe.
Addressing whether there was cholera risk to
the general South African
population, "I want to assure South Africans, they
are still very safe,"
said Seloba.
He said there were 17 people
in hospital and all were in a stable condition.
Seloba said the
rehydration centre at the hospital in Musina was up and
running and one at
the SA border gate was in the final stages of being set
up.
He
said the department was still in the process of getting another
rehydration
centre set up between the Zimbabwe and SA border gates.
There have
been three fatalities in Musina from cholera.
Yesterday, the
Kwazulu-Natal health department said a truck driver, who
arrived from
Zimbabwe and was confirmed to have cholera, was recovering in
an isolation
ward in Durban's Addington Hospital.
SABC news reported that national
health minister Barbara Hogan had said that
cabinet had approached the World
Health Organisation (WHO) to address the
cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe as
soon as possible.
The Associated Press reported yesterday that the
World Health Organisation
had indicated that 294 people have died in
Zimbabwe from a cholera outbreak.
WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib was
reported by the news agency as saying that
a total 6,072 cases had been
reported between the start of August and
November 18, with an upsurge in
cases in the past two weeks.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=7740
November 22, 2008
By
Mxolisi Ncube
JOHANNESBURG - More than 20 Zimbabwean are crossing into
South Africa on a
daily basis, some of them illegally, in a desperate bid to
seek treatment
for the killer cholera disease.
South African
health officials said that since the first admissions last
Saturday, the
number of affected Zimbabweans arriving in the country was
growing by the
day. As a result that country's health department is now
setting up
re-hydration centres at the border with Zimbabwe.
Limpopo Health
Department spokesperson, Phuthi Seloba, told The Zimbabwe
Times that the
department had treated more than 20 new Cholera patients from
Zimbabwe on
Saturday morning alone. This brought the total number of cholera
patients
who had undergone treatment in South Africa to more than 200.
"Most of
them do not have travel documents and have had to walk for days,
scrambling
under electric fences and barbed wire as well as avoiding army
patrols and
criminals, to come and get treatment here due to the collapsed
health system
in their own country," said Seloba.
He said 18 had been hospitalised, as
their condition was serious.
On reports that some Limpopo residents had
reacted with anger at the
possibility of the Zimbabwean immigrants spreading
the disease in South
Africa, Seloba said his department would take all
precautionary measures to
prevent the spread but without discriminating
against the Zimbabweans.
"They are human beings and fellow Africans and
we are supposed to help
them," he said. "We cannot prevent them coming here
because they did not
choose to be in the midst of what is happening in their
country."
Most of the patients are being attended to at Musina Hospital,
where the
South African authorities have set up a re-hydration centre
specifically to
treat the Zimbabweans.
Seloba said that it was not
the first time that Zimbabweans had come into
South Africa specifically to
seek treatment, as they contributed the biggest
percentage in the total
number of 25 000 foreign nationals that had been
treated in Limpopo since
the beginning of the year.
Seloba also revealed that the country's health
department would set up two
additional dehydration centres at the border to
treat the Zimbabweans and
save them from walking long distances to seek
treatment inside South Africa.
This was in addition to the existing
one.
A deadly cholera outbreak hit the Zimbabwean capital city, Harare
last
month. Independent medical reports have issued suggested that between
250
and 400 people have died of the disease nationwide.
Government
says that the number of deaths is less than 200, and claims that
the
disease, which has reportedly spread to the second biggest city of
Bulawayo
and to Chitungwiza, has been contained.
Cash-strapped Zimbabwean cities
are failing to purchase water purification
chemicals, due to both the
country's ever-worsening hyper-inflationary
environment and critical
shortages of hard currency needed to import the
chemicals, which are not
produced locally.
The local authorities do not have the capacity to
collect refuse and
maintain their water and sewage reticulation systems, now
being handled by
the government-run Zimbabwe Water National Water Authority
(ZINWA), and as a
result, burst pipes and the free flow of raw sewage have
become constant
features in all major cities.
http://thezimbabwean.co.uk
Saturday, 22 November 2008
SOUTH
AFRICA
Blue Waters settlement camp
CAPE TOWN, 21 November
2008 (IRIN) - As Aunesi Omari and her children
cowered in her room in
Philippi, a low-income section of the South African
city of Cape Town, in
Western Cape Province, she heard the armed men outside
shout: "We're going
to kill you because you don't want to listen."
Omari's crime was
that she had returned to her home after being run
out of the community in
May, along with thousands of other foreigners. The
men outside made their
point by firing two shots into the house she had
lived in for five
years.
The xenophobic attacks in May killed over 60 foreign
nationals across
the country and displaced some 20,000 in Western Cape. A
week after the
violence, the government established "safety camps" around
the country,
offering safe haven to foreigners.
From the outset
it was made clear the camps would be temporary, and
the displaced would need
to choose between reintegration into their local
communities, or
repatriation to their country of origin.
By late June, provincial
officials claimed that some 12,000 of the
22,000 displaced had voluntarily
returned to their neighbourhoods. Many
foreigners said they had faced dire
conditions in the camps - lack of food,
poor sanitation and, in wintry Cape
Town, insufficient protection from the
elements.
Still not
safe
An unknown number have continued to be victimised after
returning to
their communities, typically without an official programme of
protection or
monitoring by the government or police.
"I know
at least 20 people who went to be reintegrated and were raped
or killed or
attacked," Asad Abdullahi, a Somali leader in Cape Town's Blue
Waters
Security Site, told IRIN. "I've attended their funerals, and still
have
their documentation for asylum seeking."
Now they're talking about
evicting us from the camp. I don't know
which place I'm going to go. I'm
looking everywhere for where I'm going to
be safe
Like the other
650 people still in Blue Waters Site C, Abdullahi has
refused to leave
despite the camp's official closure over a week ago,
because he fears for
his life.
Omari, a Tutsi who fled ethnic violence in the eastern
Democratic
Republic of Congo, said she decided to return to her community in
July,
after a month in the camp, so that her five children could go back to
school.
The first night back the shots were fired, and she and
her husband
filed a police report the next day. "I told my husband, 'Let's
go the police
station, because this bullet is proof, and maybe they'll come
to make an
investigation'."
They reported the incident. Omari,
who speaks Xhosa, one of South
Africa's main languages, said the officer
called a colleague on the police
radio, but she heard him decline to
investigate the case.
"The police asked which kind of people it was
for, and said, 'Oh, it's
makwerikweri [derogatory term for a foreigner], I
don't want to come. They
want to prove why they don't want to go back to
community. If I make an
investigation for them, maybe that paper [document
opening a case] will be
that proof [evidence of the incident]'," Omari
alleged.
She and her husband subsequently returned to Blue Waters
Camp, where
they have stayed despite the likelihood of imminent eviction.
Her story was
mirrored by many others who said they had attempted to return
to their
communities but were threatened or assaulted within a day or two,
and had
fled back to the camps.
Xenophobia or
crime?
"When these killings take place, the police say it's crime,
not
xenophobia. But to us, we see another tactic, which is that the people
who
created the xenophobic attacks are now trying to scare us away, one by
one,
so we'll get scared and run away. It's another form of xenophobia, but
not
like the one in May," Mohammed Osman Jamma, leader of the Somali
Community
Board, a self-help association, told IRIN.
Photo:
Tebogo Letsie/IRIN
Residents of Ramaphosa informal settlement,
Johannesburg, hunting for
foreigners
Responding by email to
allegations that over 10 people had been killed
in xenophobic attacks around
Cape Town over the last month, the South
African Police Service wrote: "We
do not have any record of the existence of
xenophobia in the Western Cape
for that period. Be advised that several
cases of crime however were
reported."
The question is: where is the line drawn between
"common" crime and
xenophobia? "I'm not sure anyone has a clear answer to
that," said Hildegard
Fast, head of the province's disaster management
authority. "We have to note
that there is a problem with crime generally,
and sometimes those victims
will be foreigners.
"Sometimes
there may be elements of xenophobia in a criminal incident,
and in other
cases it may be the motivation for the incident. But rather
than having a
strict methodology to define that this is or is not
xenophobia, we have to
recognise that our number one goal, as a society, is
to create safer
communities for everyone, and creating safer communities for
foreigners is
part of that goal."
Fast also pointed out that foreigners, who are
often unable to open
bank accounts because of documentation problems, are
targeted because of
their vulnerability.
According to the
police, "Circumstances will dictate whether it will
be classified as a
xenophobic attack or as an act of crime. Usually an
attack on an individual
is regarded as crime, while several attacks against
foreign persons by
locals will be regarded as xenophobia, if evidence of
this nature
exists."
Some foreigners question police willingness to look for
evidence. A
Congolese man at Blue Waters, who wanted to be identified as
Matagera, said
a police officer had urinated on the tap where residents
bathe.
When confronted, the officer allegedly said that he was in
his country
and could do whatever he liked. "If the police, who are supposed
to protect
you, say things like that, and you're still pressing me to go
reintegrate, I
ask you, who is going to protect me there?"
Norbert Ndagijimana, a Rwandan, said he and his wife had returned to
their
community. A few days later his wife, Agathe, was on her way home from
church when she was told: "They're coming."
That night a small
mob pushed Ndagijimana's car away from their house
and smashed all its
windows. When the police came they told him he was lucky
that he still had
his car. When he asked them to take fingerprints, they
allegedly declined to
do so.
Whether these incidents constitute hate crime or not, it is
clear that
foreigners are vulnerable. "For me, there's no chance to stay
here," said
Abdallah Aman Afrah. He was shot in the arm and witnessed his
brother being
killed by armed robbers in their shop on 9
November.
"Now my other brothers and I are preparing to go back to
our country.
There's a war there, but that war is better than this one,
because that is
my country. I'll leave as soon as I have money to go
home."
The Somali Community Board is encouraging people to stay.
"The
situation in Somalia at the moment is appalling. Some of our community
want
to return, but it's not a good idea. But I understand their desire,
because
a lot of Somalis have lost everything here. It's out of frustration
that
they ask for repatriation."
Others like Aunesi Omari -
who, in her five years in South Africa has
seen her brother killed, her
daughter raped, and her home taken away from
her - seem to have fallen into
passive desperation.
"Now they're talking about evicting us from
the camp. I don't know
which place I'm going to go. I'm looking everywhere
for where I'm going to
be safe. In South Africa I'm not safe, and in my
country I'm not safe. Where
can I go with five children? I really don't know
what I'm going to do."