VOA
By Paula
Wolfson
White House
23 November 2005
President
Bush is expanding U.S. sanctions on Zimbabwe. The move is
designed to send
a message to those standing in the way of democratic
reform.
In March
2003, President Bush froze the assets of 77 people responsible for
hindering
democratic reforms in Zimbabwe, including President Robert Mugabe.
Now, he
has added another 138 names to the list, along with 33 entities.
Mr. Bush
put the expanded sanctions in place by an executive order, which he
signed
during a visit to his Texas ranch. In a letter to congressional
leaders,
he says the expanded sanctions will affect key government and party
officials in Zimbabwe and members of their families.
The letter says
that since the first sanctions were imposed, the situation
in Zimbabwe has
only gotten worse. President Bush says the government
continues to suppress
opposition groups and civil society, undermine the
independent media, ignore
decisions by its courts, and refuse to enter into
meaningful political
negotiations. He says parliamentary elections earlier
this year were
neither free nor fair, and adds the recent demolitions of low
income housing
and informal markets shows the need for additional sanctions.
As part of
his executive order, President Bush is also directing the
secretary of the
treasury to keep a close watch on the situation and add
more names, as
warranted, to those already targeted by sanctions.
In a written
statement, Deputy White House Press Secretary Dana Perino
stresses these
sanctions are not aimed at the people of Zimbabwe, but rather
those
responsible for their plight. She says the policies of the Mugabe
government have devastated Zimbabwe, and warns the only way to prevent
further sanctions is for all political factions to embrace democratic
reforms and engage in a meaningful political dialogue to end the impasse
caused by a series of flawed elections.
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
November 23,
2005
By
the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the
laws of
the United States of America, including the International Emergency
Economic
Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National
Emergencies Act
(50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United
States Code,
and in order to take additional steps with respect to the
continued actions
and policies of certain persons who undermine Zimbabwe's
democratic
processes and with respect to the national emergency described
and declared
in Executive Order 13288 of March 6, 2003,
I, GEORGE W. BUSH,
President of the United States of America, hereby
order:
Section 1.
The Annex to Executive Order 13288 of March 6, 2003, is replaced
and
superseded in its entirety by the Annex to this order.
Sec. 2. Section 6
of Executive Order 13288 is renumbered as section 8.
Sections 1 through 5 of
Executive Order 13288 are replaced with new sections
1 through 7 as
follows:
Section 1. (a) Except to the extent provided in section
203(b)(1), (3),
and (4) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(1), (3), and (4)), and
in regulations,
orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant
to this order,
and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license
or permit
granted prior to the effective date of this order, all property
and
interests in property of the following persons, that are in the United
States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or
hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons,
including their overseas branches, are blocked and may not be transferred,
paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in:
1.. the persons
listed in the Annex to this order; and
2.. any person determined by
the Secretary of the Treasury, in
consultation with the Secretary of
State:
1.. to have engaged in actions or policies to undermine
Zimbabwe's
democratic processes or institutions;
2.. to have
materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial,
material, or
technological support for, or goods or services in support of,
such actions
or policies or any person whose property and interests in
property are
blocked pursuant to this order;
3.. to be or have been an immediate
family member of any person whose
property and interests in property are
blocked pursuant to this order; or
4.. to be owned or controlled by,
or acting or purporting to act for or
on behalf of, directly or indirectly,
any person whose property and
interests in property are blocked pursuant to
this order.
(b) I hereby determine that the making of donations of the
type of
articles specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C.
1702(b)(2)) by,
to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and
interests in
property are blocked pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section
would
seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency
declared in
this order, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by
paragraph
(a) of this section.
(c) The prohibitions in paragraph
(a) of this section include but are
not limited to (i) the making of any
contribution or provision of funds,
goods, or services by, to, or for the
benefit of any person whose property
and interests in property are blocked
pursuant to this order, and (ii) the
receipt of any contribution or
provision of funds, goods, or services from
any such person.
Sec.
2. (a) Any transaction by a United States person or within the United
States
that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding, or
attempts
to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is
prohibited.
(b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the
prohibitions set forth in
this order is prohibited.
Sec. 3. For the
purposes of this order:
1.. the term "person" means an individual
or entity;
2.. the term "entity" means a partnership, association,
trust, joint
venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization;
and
3.. the term "United States person" means any United States
citizen,
permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the
United
States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including
foreign
branches), or any person in the United States.
Sec. 4. For
those persons whose property and interests in property are
blocked pursuant
to this order who might have a constitutional presence in
the United States,
I find that, because of the ability to transfer funds or
other assets
instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be
taken
pursuant to this order would render these measures ineffectual. I
therefore
determine that, for these measures to be effective in addressing
the
national emergency declared in this order, there need be no prior notice
of
a listing or determination made pursuant to section 1(a) of this order.
Sec. 5. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary
of
State, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including the
promulgation
of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to
the President
by IEEPA, as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of
this order. The
Secretary of the Treasury may redelegate any of these
functions to other
officers and agencies of the United States Government,
consistent with
applicable law. All agencies of the United States Government
are hereby
directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority
to carry
out the provisions of this order and, where appropriate, to advise
the
Secretary of the Treasury in a timely manner of the measures taken.
Sec. 6. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary
of
State, is hereby authorized to determine, subsequent to the issuance of
this
order, that circumstances no longer warrant the inclusion of a person
in the
Annex to this order and that the property and interests in property
of that
person are therefore no longer blocked pursuant to section 1(a) of
this
order.
Sec. 7. This order is not intended to create, nor does it
create, any
right, benefit, or privilege, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law
or in equity by any party against the United States, its
departments,
agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers or
employees, or any
other person."
Sec. 3. This order is not intended
to create, nor does it create, any right,
benefit, or privilege, substantive
or procedural, enforceable at law or in
equity by any party against the
United States, its departments, agencies,
instrumentalities, or entities,
its officers or employees, or any other
person.
Sec. 4. This order
shall take effect at 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time,
November 23,
2005.
Sec. 5. This order shall be transmitted to the Congress and
published in the
Federal Register.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE
HOUSE,
November 22, 2005.
Times of Zambia
By Business
Reporter
A ZAMBIAN business delegation, currently on a tour of South
Africa, has
challenged farmers in that country to consider investing in
Zambia.
In a presentation to the farmers during a seminar dubbed "Business
opportunities in Zambia" held at Park Hyatts Hotel in Johannesburg, the
delegation implored their counterparts to learn from their Zimbabwean
colleagues that had trekked to Zambia.
According to a statement from the
Zambian embassy in Pretoria, South Africa,
the farmers who attended the
workshop, sponsored by the French government
and the South African Chamber
of Commerce, were challenged to take advantage
of Zambia's good fertile land
and abundant water.
First secretary at the Zambian embassy, Samuel Ngoma,
said the delegation
told South African farmers that Zambia held the region's
largest volume of
fresh water and that it had about 60 million hectares of
land available for
agriculture.
Zambia also had the cheapest electricity
in the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) with a comprehensive
power distribution network. The
country was in an excellent position to
serve its neighbours.
The team also noted that the country was doing well in
terms of copper
production, with new mines in North-Western Province and
that the area was
becoming another Copperbelt.
Added to these
opportunities were projects such as the construction of a new
cement plant
in Chilanga and many other investments in the tourism sector.
The delegation
included French ambassador to Zambia, Francis Saudubray, Bank
of Zambia
(BoZ) governor, Caleb Fundanga, Equinox Lumwana Mine chief
executive, Harry
Michael and Stanbic Bank Zambia managing director, Larry
Kalala.
Others
are Chilanga Cement managing director, Ian Coulter, Total Zambia
managing
director, Martin MacCathy, Chamber of Mines president, Emmanuel
Mutati and
former Agriculture deputy minister, Chance Kabaghe.
FROM THE ZIMBABWE VIGIL
PRESS RELEASE
Zimbabwean exiles are to stage an overnight vigil
outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in London in protest at the elections taking place
on Saturday, 26th November, for the newly created Senate in
Zimbabwe.
The demonstration will begin at 7 pm on Friday (25th November)
when a giant ballot box will be displayed outside the Embassy. The box’s
opening will be sealed to symbolise support for the Broad Alliance of civil
society groups in Zimbabwe, including trade unions, who oppose the Senate plan
and instead want constitutional reform and an end to the routine rigging of
elections.
The Broad Alliance believes the purpose behind the creation
of the Senate is to add more cronies to the gravy train and further entrench
Mugabe’s vicious regime.
The demonstration is mounted by the Zimbabwe
Vigil, which has staged weekly protests outside the Embassy for the past three
years to draw public attention to human rights abuses and lack of democracy in
Zimbabwe.
A spokesperson for the Vigil said, “We believe the Senate is a
waste of public money at a time when half the population is starving. We appeal
to the UN Security Council to investigate violations of human rights in
Zimbabwe, where genocide is quietly taking place.”
Protest from 7 pm on
Friday, 25th November outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London WC2. The
overnight Vigil will be followed by the regular Vigil from 2 pm to 6 pm on
Saturday, 26th November.
Photo Opportunities: Drumming, singing,
dancing.
Interview Opportunities with refugees, including torture
victims.
Contacts: Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa
07984 254 830
Wiz
Bishop 07963 521
160
Ephraim Tapa
07940 079 090
New Zimbabwe
By Staff
Reporters
Last updated: 11/24/2005 10:12:34
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe this
week sidestepped Vice President, Joice Mujuru,
by okaying the suspension of
two Air Zimbabwe bosses, one of them a relative
to his deputy.
A
furious Mugabe cleared the Air Zimbabwe board to "take appropriate action"
to normalise things after Zimbabwe's national airliner grounded its entire
fleet in 25 years due to a fuel crisis.
Sources in the airline's
board said Wednesday that Mujuru, a relative to
Tendai Mujuru, Air
Zimbabwe's corporate secretary who was suspended together
with Chief
Executive Tendai Mahachi, had repeatedly used her powers of
overseeing
parastatals to veto attempts by the board to fire the two.
Mujuru and
Mahachi were suspended this week "pending investigations into
serious
disruptions of the airline's operations and services" which saw its
fleet
being grounded after running out of fuel.
The sources said
recommendations had been made to Mujuru, and Transport
Minister, Chris
Mushowe, for changes to the Air Zimbabwe management but
Mujuru was unwilling
to authorise the changes.
Mushowe, who is believed to be in Emerson
Mnangagwa's camp in the Zanu PF
succession politics, is also said to have
clashed with the ministry's former
permanent secretary, Karikoga Kaseke,
over the two officials. Kaseke, a
Mujuru ally, resisted action against
Mahachi and Mujuru.
Air Zimbabwe sources told New Zimbabwe.com that it
had been clear "for a
long time" that for the airline to improve its
fortunes, the two who face
accusations of corruption and poor planning had
to be relieved of their
duties.
The sources said the Mujuru family
"controlled everything at the airport and
in the military". Their areas of
control include airport duty free shops,
general supplies and relatives
seconded to top jobs.
Said an Air Zimbabwe board member: "As a board we
couldn't fire Mujuru
without getting approval from the top. The VP (Joice
Mujuru) always said
'give them more time', but when we met the President
recently, he said we
should take any appropriate action without consulting
anyone.
"In other words, he gave us the go ahead not to listen to the
Vice
President."
Despite months of corruption and mismanagement
allegations against the Air
Zimbabwe bosses, sources say they have been
shielded by Mujuru and the
disgraced former Transport Ministry Permanent
Secretary, Karikoga Kaseke,
who was booted out in the last cabinet
reshuffle.
Kaseke is a Mujuru ally in Zanu PF's succession politics. He
is a former
military intelligence officer who became close to the Vice
President's
retired army general husband, Solomon Mujuru, in the
1980's.
When Kaseke was embroiled in a statutory rape scandal after
impregnating a
17-year-old orphan, the Vice President colluded with The
Daily Mirror
newspaper, which is owned by the CIO -- to dispossess the rape
victim of
documents relating to her case which had been reported to the
police.
Although Air Zimbabwe is back in the air after taking delivery of
new fuel
supplies, sources say it will last for only two weeks, and the
airline could
once again be forced to cancel or restrict flights.
people to people
p2p news /
p2pnet: Eighty developing nations want a Net-based news resource
called
agreed the Nonaligned Movement News Network to be launched in the
hope it
will "combat what they see as smear campaigns and distorted coverage
of
their countries in the Western media," says Red Herring.
"But Human
Rights Watch (HRW), an organization dedicated to upholding
political freedom
and exposing human rights violations, called the network a
temporary victory
for repression," it says.
Only Cuba, Iran, Syria, Myanmar, North
Korea, Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Malaysia
have been named as members and for HRW,
"this is not a sterling list of
countries friendly to
journalists".
HRW spokesperson Minky Worden is quoted as saying,
"These are all countries
that have a very tight grip on their domestic
media. I presume they are
tired of pesky wire reporters. Zimbabwe, for
instance, has systematically
crushed the press. Myanmar's national
newspapers are a joke outside the
country."
IPSNews
Stanley
Karombo
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 23 (IPS) - In the dingy halls of the hotel, one
of the
staff is talking on the phone. "Tau has been killed," he says. "I
cannot
tell you who did it, but Memo discovered the corpse."
The
deceased woman was a prostitute who can be spotted in the room she used,
barely covered by a quilt, a telephone cord wound around her neck. She
appears to have been stabbed several times, as fresh blood is staining her
blouse. From what your correspondent can tell, there are signs of a
struggle.
Soon five women dressed in tight, faded jeans saunter into
the hotel and ask
what has happened. "Who has killed her?" enquires one,
matter-of-factly. "We
want to know whether she is a member of our group or
not."
When it emerges that this is not the case, the women seem relieved
and speak
in Ndebele, one of the languages used in Zimbabwe: "Girls, she is
not one of
us. She is not from Bulawayo." Bulawayo is Zimbabwe's
second-largest city.
The episode is a reminder not only of the dangers
which lurk in this area of
Johannesburg -- the high-density, somewhat
infamous suburb of Hillbrow --
but also of the extent to which Zimbabweans
have made neighbouring South
Africa their home, for the most part
illegally.
An estimated 2.5 million have crossed the border, sometimes
bringing ethnic
tensions along with their luggage.
A Zimbabwean
prostitute interviewed by IPS said certain Ndebele migrants
accused their
Shona counterparts of ruining Zimbabwe by perpetually voting
for President
Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic
Front.
A Ndebele man who lives in Hillbrow had similar observations: "I
hate
Shonas. We cannot work together...Not at all!" he
exclaimed.
Certain Ndebele remember all too well the "Gukurahundi". This
Shona term
means "the early rain which washes away the chaff before the
spring rains";
but it is also a euphemism for the actions of the president's
fifth brigade
and other forces in the Ndebele provinces of Matabeleland and
the Midlands
in the 1980s. During this period, the brigade engaged in the
indiscriminate
killing of thousands.
The massacres caused some to
leave Zimbabwe for South Africa. Since then,
many more have followed --
prompted by political persecution and economic
decline.
However, just
8,000 applications for political asylum have been filed by
Zimbabweans to
date, according to the Department of Home Affairs -- while
only about 90
people have actually received political asylum in South
Africa.
Home
Affairs official Richard Sikakane told IPS that the application process
had
been slowed by a 130,000-strong backlog of cases. An amendment to the
Refugees Act is said to be in the pipeline to speed up asylum
applications.
Often, Zimbabweans have found their new home scarcely more
hospitable than
the old. Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
admits that refugees
and asylum seekers are frequently mistreated by the
police. In the country
as a whole, high levels of unemployment have also led
to increasing
xenophobia.
Some migrants claim they are paying bribes
to officers to avoid being taken
to the Lindela Repatriation Centre.
According to immigration official
Mantshele Tau, about 300,000 Zimbabweans
have been deported in recent years.
And so, says Julie Ncube* as she sits
cross-legged, lighting a cigarette --
one of many: "We're on the horns of a
dilemma -- to go and face starvation
in Zimbabwe or face abuse by the
police."
She told IPS that many of her friends staying in Johannesburg
had become
"unofficial wives" for policemen here (police spokesperson Ronnie
Naidoo
could not confirm the allegation).
"In the end, it's either
you pay them or submit to sex or both. Life in Jozi
(a nickname for
Johannesburg) is hell on earth; it is not that rosy as we
were meant to
believe."
Nonetheless, says Ncube, people who remain in Zimbabwe have
high
expectations of those who leave, many to support their
families.
"It would help if my fellow countrymen, if people back home,
appreciated the
difficulties we have to endure here," she adds. "For anyone
to send home 500
rand a month, for instance, is a very big
achievement."
In other instances, the South African experience has been
more positive.
Jeremiah Gwaze is better off than many of his peers.
Unlike those who
continue to battle for existence on the streets of Jozi,
Gwaze -- a graduate
of Harare Polytechnic in Zimbabwe -- works for an
electrical company in the
northern Gauteng province.
The tall,
vivacious man sits in the well-decorated living room of his
Yeoville
apartment, smiling has he recalls the harrowing years of starting a
new life
in Johannesburg.
"I had no money when arrived here. I used to sleep on
the streets and most
of the Sundays I sat outsides churches begging," he
told IPS.
Zimbabwe is currently in its sixth year of a bitter economic
recession that
has seen fuel, food, electricity, essential medicines and
other basic
commodities become in short supply because there is little
foreign currency
to pay suppliers from abroad.
Critics blame the
economic meltdown on mismanagement and repressive rule by
veteran President
Robert Mugabe.
However, the aging head of state ascribes Zimbabwe's woes
to sabotage by
Britain and its Western allies; this, he says, was in return
for his
campaign started in 2000 to seize land from whites -- allegedly for
distribution to black Zimbabweans who were deprived of land during
colonialism and its aftermath.
* Certain names have been changed to
protect the privacy of those concerned.
(END/2005)
The Herald
"The chairman and
board of directors of Air Zimbabwe are proud to introduce
you to the people
who will be guiding your national airline into the
challenging stratosphere
of the 21st century. The task involved is
formidable, demanding talent,
imagination, determination, dynamism and
commitment. And plain old sweat . .
.
"(As we seek) to be the airline that best meets the needs of the
customer,
operate profitably and contribute to the development of Zimbabwe,
using the
skills and talents of a committed workforce."
These words
were part of an advertisement placed in the newspaper by Air
Zimbabwe on
October 27 1994 when it announced a new management team then
headed by Mr
Huttush Muringi.
Anyone reading this would have been easily convinced
that the airline really
meant business and nothing would stop it from
delivering a service second to
none to its customers.
Any investor
seeking a stake in the aviation industry would not have thought
twice before
injecting funds into such a promising business.
The Government would have
been forgiven for clinging to its stake in such a
sound business that seemed
to have a clear vision.
Had its shares been trading on the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange, stockbrokers
would have clearly labelled it a "definite
buy".
Anyone would have been excused for dreaming (at that time) that Air
Zimbabwe
would become an airline of repute not just on the continent but
throughout
the entire globe.
Many would have been excused for
thinking that the airline would fly
Zimbabwe's flag to dizzy
heights.
The words air travel could easily have been synonymous with Air
Zimbabwe
going by the promises in the mission statement and the
advertisement.
But alas, these were mere words that have since come to
nothing.
Events unfolding at the airline over the past decade are in
sharp contrast
to the promises that were enveloped in this mission
statement.
As I was going through the files I kept referring to this
advertisement
hoping to find any development at Air Zimbabwe that came close
to the
promises enunciated in the mission statement. Sadly, I could not find
any.
In fact, the story of Air Zimbabwe over the past decade has always
been a
tragic one. The episode has been punctuated by a few seemingly
positive
developments that have fizzled into oblivion.
But we had not
expected the crisis to deteriorate to levels where the
airline would suspend
most, if not all its local, regional and international
trips due to poor
planning.
Such a story could easily belong to fiction but it is real. On
Tuesday this
paper reported that Air Zimbabwe had grounded its entire fleet
because it
had run out of fuel.
On face value one could have easily
taken this to be a reflection of the
fuel shortages the country is
experiencing, but no! It all boils down to
poor planning and ineffective
management.
It has since emerged that the airline had been sourcing fuel
from other
sources instead of the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, which
could have
given preference to the airline as has been the case with other
critical
sectors of the economy.
Such an embarrassing situation could
have been avoided had proper
procurement plans and procedures been observed.
How can an airline with only
seven aircraft ground its entire fleet
inconveniencing hundreds of
travellers in the process?
We find it
inexcusable. Thanks to intervention by the Government, some
flights had
resumed as of yesterday.
But, as stated by some of the irate travellers
who were left stranded, it
has increasingly become difficult to plan if you
are travelling with such an
inconsistent airline.
Last night the
airline even had the temerity to ask passengers who had
already bought
tickets which effectively guarantee them space on the plane,
to phone the
airline first before making their way to the airport.
This is a crisis in
the true sense of the word. Something needs to be done
and done
fast.
However, the crisis at Air Zimbabwe appears to be a complex one
which needs
thorough research and proper handling.
The turnover of
chief executives at the airline leaves many wondering if its
problems can
all be attributed to just poor management.
Over the past few years more
than six executives have been appointed to lead
the airline but operational
problems have continued unabated.
Industrial actions by engineers,
pilots, ground staff, etc, have remained
the order of the day at Air
Zimbabwe.
I remember last year President Mugabe, irked by its poor
performance, stated
that the airline needed a complete
overhaul.
These feelings were echoed by Vice President Mujuru a few
months ago when
she read the riot act to Air Zimbabwe bosses after a
205-seater Boeing 737
flew to Dubai with 49 people on board on its maiden
flight and returned home
with just one passenger.
Many turnaround
programmes have over the years been coined for the
parastatal but these have
failed to produce results.
Flight delays and reschedulings have become an
everyday experience at the
airline which has resultantly been forced to fork
out large sums of money in
foreign currency to accommodate and feed
passengers that have been left
stranded on some of its regional and
international routes.
The list of problems at Air Zimbabwe is endless and
one particularly
embarrassing incident occurred last year when it was
suspended from the IATA
Clearing House for failing to pay US$1,5
million.
This happened at a time when the airline had been given the
green light to
charge in foreign currency on some of its routes.
The
sad part is that all this reflects badly not just on the airline but on
Zimbabwe as a country.
The tourism industry suffers a great deal
because it needs a reliable air
service to attract
tourists.
Businessmen who need to attend conferences and other meetings
rely on Air
Zimbabwe for air transport but many have been forced to miss the
meetings
while some have lost lucrative deals due to its poor
service.
Airzim was also recently in the papers for charging exorbitant
fares on all
its routes. Things cannot get any worse.
Sustainable
solutions to all this have to be implemented expeditiously.
Air Zimbabwe
is supposed to be a national pride but it has become a national
embarrassment.
It has potential to operate viably and transform its
mission statement into
reality.
Options along these lines need to be
pursued.
For now we can only hope for the better.
Business Report
November 24, 2005
By Cris Chinaka
Harare - Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe was dangling offers of uranium
deposits as part of a
strategy to ease western pressure on his government,
foreign diplomats and
analysts said on Tuesday.
Mugabe said at the weekend that Zimbabwe had
found deposits of uranium but
that it would use the mineral only for
electricity generation, not to supply
nuclear weapons
programmes.
Analysts said Mugabe's statement - delivered without details
at a function
in his home village - was designed to draw attention to
Zimbabwe's vast
mineral wealth, including uranium.
"What Mugabe was
saying ... [is] that he has things the West would want and
does not want to
fall into enemy hands," said a senior western diplomat in
Harare.
"Mugabe is indirectly saying to the West: you guys will have
to go easy on
me if we have to work out some deals for mutual
benefit."
Mining experts said there were sizeable deposits in the Kanyemba
district of
the Zambezi Valley, and several companies from Australia,
Canada, Britain
and the US were interested.
But whether the country
possesses enough of the metal in sufficient grade to
be economically viable
remains unclear. A major uranium find would be a
boost for Mugabe's
government. The Zimbabwean economy has all but collapsed
following the
seizure of white-owned farms to give to landless black people.
World
uranium demand is expected to grow, partly because of plans by China -
a
close Mugabe ally - to build nuclear power plants. Spot prices for uranium
are at record highs above $30 (R200) a pound, against $20 a pound last
year.
Zimbabwe mining officials said foreign firms had approached the
government
for rights to exploit uranium deposits that were found two
decades ago,
although it was not known if these were the same deposits that
Mugabe was
referring to.
Enriched uranium can be used to fuel nuclear
power plants or, in a more
enriched state, to produce a nuclear weapon,
although Mugabe said Zimbabwe
had no plans to provide uranium for "bomb
making".
Western diplomats noted that, along with China, Mugabe's
government was
drawing closer to Iran and North Korea, both of which are at
loggerheads
with the international community over their nuclear
programmes.
Political commentator Eldred Masunungure said Mugabe was
using Zimbabwe's
economic promise to remind the West that he was not to be
trifled with.
"Almost all the big mining companies here are from western
countries, and if
Zimbabwe has uranium Mugabe will certainly try to use that
as a bargaining
chip," said Masunungure, the chairman of the political
science department at
the University of Zimbabwe.
- Reuters
The Herald
By Kudzai
Chawafambira
THE Zimbabwe Stock Exchange is battling to raise more than
US$1,5 million to
buy both software and hardware needed for the installation
of an electronic
trading system owing to foreign currency
shortages.
ZSE chief executive Mr Emmanuel Munyukwi said it was proving
difficult to
raise funds required for the purchase of the necessary software
and
hardware.
"We were hoping that we would be able to conform to the
Sadc region's goal
of integrating real time network of national securities
by next year.
"However, we have been unable to source foreign currency
necessary for the
acquisition of both software and hardware applications for
the electronic
trading system," said Mr Munyukwi.
He added that an
efficient electronic trading system was an essential
feature in the
developing markets but the ZSE was still lagging behind in
its
implementation of an electronic trading system due to the foreign
currency
crunch in the country.
He said the implementation of the project was the
only way to go considering
the transactions, settlements and clearing would
be done electronically.
The idea of an electronic trading system has been
on the drawing board for
several years and its timely establishment would go
a long way in aligning
Zimbabwe's capital markets with prevailing
international trends.
The establishment of a central depository system is
planned and, in the
absence of electronic trading, will greatly speed up
processing of share
dealings, which currently can take several
weeks.
A central depository system is an electronic book entry system
used to
record and maintain securities and to register their
transfer.
The system provides for changes in ownership without the need
for physical
movements of securities or execution of transfer
deeds.
Ownership will be transferred as soon as securities move from one
account to
another.
CDS is purely a settlement vehicle and does not
affect the trading in any
manner whatsoever.
The ZSE is currently an
active member of the Committee of Sadc Stock
Exchanges (COSSE) which
includes Botswana, South Africa, Mauritius, Zambia,
Lesotho and
Namibia.
COSSE is considering the advantages for the sub-Saharan region
of a common
telecommunications platform for the transmission of data, and
donors or
sponsors are being sought to support this vision.
Effective
regional co-operation has the capacity to turn around the economy
of African
countries and economic and trade co-operation plays an important
role in the
development of regional economies in Africa.
The ZSE currently has 78
listed counters, four of which are suspended.
Although small by world
standards, it boasts a high degree of sophistication
only surpassed by a few
of its peers on the African continent, notably the
Johannesburg Stock
Exchange, which has more than 400 listed counters.
The JSE has offered
technical assistance and continues to disseminate
important information to
the Sadc and other African stock exchanges.
It is implicit in the vision
that the JSE has promoted for the region to
link the sub-Saharan markets
using world-class technological systems, the
upshot of which must leave each
market an independent and autonomous entity
capable of controlling itself
and its destiny.
Mail and Guardian
Fanuel Jongwe | Harare,
Zimbabwe
24 November 2005
08:20
As Zimbabweans go to the ballot on Saturday
to elect
members to a new and controversial Upper House of Parliament, the
buzz is
not about the polls but rather on chronic food shortages and the
economic
meltdown.
Despite radio and
television messages exhorting
people to vote for ruling-party candidates and
news stories about the rift
in the main opposition over contesting the
polls, there is little excitement
about the
elections.
President Robert Mugabe's party, which
won a
landslide victory in parliamentary elections in March, used its
two-thirds
majority in the House to approve constitutional changes in August
to
reintroduce a bicameral legislature abolished in
1990.
"The question is what benefit will I get if
I go to
vote, and the answer is nothing," said Ella Tayengwa, a 46-year-old
mother
of four from the populous township of Tafara in
Harare.
Widowed six years ago, she ran a thriving
vegetable
shop that was razed to the ground during a controversial
government blitz on
illegal urban structures.
"The Senate is not for us, but rather for Zanu-PF
[the ruling party] elite,
so I would rather stay at home on the polling day
as my way of protest," she
said. "The majority of us have no food and some
who lost their homes are
still living in the open, so nobody cares about an
election that will not
make their lives any better.
"A caring government
would have used the
Z$90-billion budgeted for the elections to feed its
people."
International aid agencies estimate that
about
4,3-million people out of Zimbabwe's population of 13-million require
food
assistance.
'Boycott the
elections'
A pamphlet being distributed by Women of
Zimbabwe
Arise, a pressure group campaigning for a poll boycott, says the
"government
is spending Z$90-billion on Senate elections, but many are
starving".
"Do you want senators or your basic
right to live
with dignity?" the pamphlet says, adding: "Boycott the
elections."
The country's major labour movement
said the Senate
is a waste of scarce money as Zimbabwe is in the throes of
its worst
economic crisis to date.
Zimbabwe's
economy has been on a downturn over the
past six years, characterised by
triple-digit inflation, more than 70%
unemployment and chronic shortages of
basic goods such as sugar, cooking oil
and
fuel.
"The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
[ZCTU] would
rather have billions budgeted for the Senate being channelled
towards the
improvement of salaries for teachers, police, soldiers and
nurses in public
hospitals," the ZCTU said in a statement on
Sunday.
"The president should do away with this
practice of
accommodating his few cronies at the expense of the majority of
Zimbabweans," it said.
But political analyst
Augustine Timbe said the
Senate is necessary "to engender public confidence
in our lawmaking
process".
"We have gone past
that phase in our history when it
was necessary to rush laws through
Parliament to satisfy urgent needs such
as the land reforms," Timbe
said.
"Governance issues can now be handled in a
cool and
calculated manner, and this will retain the confidence in our
lawmaking
process that was lost when laws were quashed by the Supreme
Court," Timbe
said.
Critics of the Senate
said it is a ploy by Mugabe to
appease ruling-party members who lost in the
March parliamentary elections.
Others say it is
aimed at further buttressing the
stranglehold Mugabe's party has on the
legislature.
The Senate has caused a split in the
main opposition
Movement for Democratic Change party after 26 party members
defied a call by
their leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, to boycott the
polls.
Tsvangirai argued that the Senate was a
waste of
money, especially at a time of acute economic distress. --
Sapa-AFP