Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
& VUSUMUZI SIFILE
AT least 70 men and women working for
Kingstons Limited have for a
week slept at the company's head office in
Harare, protesting against their
paltry transport allowances.
The workers are from the government-owned parastatal's 11 branches in
the
capital. The company has interests in books, music, stationery and
newspaper
distribution.
The workers said their salaries were not enough to
cover transport
costs for a month. The least paid takes home $5.7 million
and a transport
allowance of $6 million for 26 working days.
Combined, their salary and transport allowance amount to $11.7 million
but
each worker requires at least $20 million a month for transport alone,
by
the most conservative estimates.
Trade union activists say the
workers are virtually on slave wages.
"In reality, we are not
gainfully employed but are subsidising the
company," fumed one worker, who
asked not to be named for fear of
victimization. "Remember we have families
to feed, children to send to
school. Where do they think we can get the
money for that, when our salaries
are not enough to cover transport
alone?"
The workers have been sleeping on the fourth floor of the
building.
They have been authorised to use toilet and shower facilities at
Empire Gym,
located in the same building.
Some of the workers
use a toilet at a Parkade at Julius Nyerere Way.
To while away their time,
some workers have brought their radios from home.
Every day after work, they
gather in one of the rooms to pray for divine
intervention.
The
workers allege the management reneged on an earlier agreement to
give them
enough transport allowance for the whole month, basing the
calculations on
workers who commute to and from Chitungwiza where, at the
time of the
negotiations last week, a single trip cost $500 000. The fares
have since
gone up.
On 14 November, the workers' committee appealed to the
Ministry of
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare to "restore order in
our
organisation".
On that same day, the workers notified the
management of their
intention to sleep-in. The letter was copied to the
company's human
resources and development manager, John Majuru, the Ministry
of Labour, and
to the wives, husbands and guardians of Kingstons
employees.
Reads part of the letter: "As employees of Kingstons
Limited . our
employer has refused to review the transport allowance to the
current ruling
bus fares as per the agreement we signed on 26 March 2007, we
are left with
no option but to sleep.
"If we don't report home,
find us at No 34 Kwame Nkrumah, 4th floor,
Kingstons House."
Kingstons' general manager Dunmore Mazonde could not be reached for
comment
yesterday.
The Minister of Information and Publicity Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu - under
whose portfolio Kingstons falls - said although this was a
management and
not policy issue "the plight of the workers should be
attended to".
"Our policy is clear that workers should be taken
care of, and if
there is a problem, they have to come to us," Ndlovu
said.
The minister promised to look into the matter.
The dilemma of Kingstons workers represents the plight of over 80% of
workers in Zimbabwe, who can no longer survive on their salaries, according
to statistics released by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions.
In most cases, their monthly earnings are not enough to
cover even
their rentals.
ZCTU Secretary General, Wellington
Chibebe yesterday said the
situation at Kingstons was an example of how
workers were now being treated
as "slaves" in most companies.
"This is an element of slavery," Chibebe said. "Transport costs alone
are
now $40 million, yet most workers' salaries are far lower than that.
Workers
are not realising anything from their efforts."
The ZCTU has warned
employers to urgently resolve the salary
disparities "before the workers
take the law into their own hands".
Efforts to get a comment from
Employers' Confederation of Zimbabwe
(EMCOZ) national director, John
Mufukari, were fruitless.
Zim Standard
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
As you drive along old Mazowe Road, northwest
out of Harare, your
attention is drawn to a large, colourful billboard: it
announces the
existence of a new bio-diesel plant, "the first in
Africa".
The huge plant was commissioned amid pomp and fanfare by
President
Robert Mugabe recently.
The billboard says:
"Bio-Diesel Processing Plant in Zimbabwe: Towards
food self-sufficiency;
oiling the wheels of the nation."
There is no smoke billowing from
the tall chimneys. A few technicians
mill around the silent
plant.
The plant will become operational in two years when the
Jatropha
planted last year matures.
Touted by political leaders
as the panacea to the fuel crisis, the
plant probably deserves little of the
hype.
Haunted by an eight-year fuel crisis caused by the foreign
currency
crunch, the government sees the project as a likely
solution.
The plant is a joint effort between the government and
Yuon Woo
Investments of South Korea.
But experts are hesitant
to sound as enthusiastic as the politicians.
The government has no
capacity to support farmers to grow enough
Jatropha, cotton, sunflower and
soya bean seed to produce bio-diesel, say
the experts.
They say
the project will take "several years" to contribute to the
country's fuel
needs, if ever it will.
It's ironic that the plant was commissioned
a month after a United
Nations food expert called for "a five-year
moratorium" on bio-fuel
production.
But the government insists
that the plant will ease fuel shortages.
That would happen when the
plant is operating at full throttle,
producing 100 million litres of
bio-diesel a year.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Dr Gideon
Gono, at the same
high-profile, glitzy ceremony, noted that the success of
the bio-diesel
project, to produce 90-100 litres of diesel annually, would
depend entirely
on agriculture.
"These peak production levels
impose a challenge on the farming
community to produce adequate feedstock of
oil seeds to meet demand
throughout the year," he said.
But an
agriculture expert said it would take years for the bio-diesel
plant to
produce "meaningful quantities" of diesel.
"Right now we don't have
enough seed for soya beans and cotton and
where would they get the Jatropha?
It would be another white elephant," said
the expert who refused to be
named, as this was a "sensitive issue".
Another expert said: "We
would need a separate Zimbabwe to do that. We
cannot convert arable land to
grow Jatropha; otherwise we would experience
serious food shortages. There
is no land for that."
Zimbabwe has planted 100 hectares of Jatropha
since last year,
according to reports.
The land invasions of
2000 reduced oil seed production: soya bean from
150 000 to 60 000 tonnes;
sunflower from 40 000 in 1994 to 20 000 tonnes in
2006; groundnuts from
about 95 000 to 90 000 tonnes.
"But still," said the expert, "these
figures are too little to make
any meaningful contribution to produce
diesel. What they did (inaugurating
the plant) is like celebrating a
still-birth."
Land expert Professor Sam Moyo described the project
as "quite good"
but said the general fear was that uncontrolled and
unregulated growing of
Jatropha would have serious implications on food
production and the
environment.
A UN independent expert, Jean
Ziegler, last month condemned the
increasing use of crops to produce
bio-fuels as replacement for fossil
fuels, saying it was creating food
shortages.
Ziegler called for a five-year moratorium on bio-fuel
production to
stop what he called a growing "catastrophe" for the poor,
which he called "a
crime against humanity". Ziegler said it caused hikes in
prices leading to
more hunger.
Ziegler is a sociology professor
at the University of Geneva,
Switzerland, and the University of the Sorbonne
in Paris, France.
Among the negative effects of fuel production
from corn, sugarcane and
other crops are indiscriminate deforestation,
resulting in the high price
and shortage of food, says his
report.
Many species of trees would disappear, so ecosystems that
absorb
carbon from the atmosphere would be destroyed, leading to an increase
in
polluting emissions, the report says.
Research has shown
that countries such as India, Mali, China, the
Philippines and Malaysia are
starting huge plantations, betting that
Jatropha will help them to become
more energy independent and even export
bio-fuel.
It is too
soon to say whether Jatropha will be viable as a commercial
bio-fuel,
scientists say, and farmers in India are already expressing
frustration that
after being encouraged to plant huge swaths of the bush
they have found no
buyers for the seeds.
The scientists say countries that struggle to
feed their populations,
like Mali, can scarcely afford to give up cultivable
land for growing
bio-fuel crops.
Already, World Food Programme
estimates in Zimbabwe indicate that 4.1
million people need food
aid.
Zim Standard
By Kholwani Nyathi
recently in
Brazzaville
THE African Union is investigating
the alleged rampant abuse of
Zimbabwean refugees and asylum seekers in South
Africa and Botswana,
described as "xenophobic and hostile".
The
decision follows concerns raised by human rights groups in the
region to the
African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR)
meeting in
Brazzaville (Congo) recently.
The reports were submitted by the
Human Rights Institute of South
Africa (HURISA) and the Zimbabwe Exiles
Forum (ZEF).
They said South Africa and Botswana's refusal to treat
Zimbabwean
immigrants flooding the two countries as refugees fuelled the
abuse. ACHPR
is an organ of the AU.
The Special Rapporteur for
Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Internally
Displaced Persons and Immigrants, Tom
Nyanduga, presented a report to the
commission raising the
problem.
He said he had already requested the South African
government to
invite him to carry out further investigations.
"We are concerned about the ill-treatment of asylum seekers,
especially from
Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in South
Africa,"
Nyanduga said.
"To that end, there are serious concerns about the
activities of a
private company operating the Lindela Holding Centre for
illegal immigrants.
"I look forward to engaging the South African
authorities on the
matter and also to investigate other issues that have
been brought to the
attention of the commission."
Several
Zimbabwean immigrants have died in detention at the Lindela
Centre just
outside Johannesburg, after being denied food and being
subjected to
degrading treatment.
An estimated three million Zimbabweans have
fled the country since the
crisis started about eight years ago and most of
them sought refuge in South
Africa and Botswana.
Zimbabweans in
South Africa face the same problems and difficulties as
refugees from
Somalia, Ethiopia and DRC, particularly the lack of access to
documentation,
which affects their chances of securing gainful employment.
Botswana and South Africa deport thousands of Zimbabweans every
week.
"Zimbabwe is near collapse as evidenced by the acute shortage
of basic
necessities and the thousands of its citizens escaping the crisis
every
day," HURISA said.
"But Botswana and South Africa, who
handle the bulk of the immigrants,
are not handling the Zimbabwean crisis
properly as refugees and asylum
seekers are met with xenophobia and
hostility."
HURISA said Zimbabwean professionals such as doctors,
nurses and
lawyers fleeing the country were forced to do menial jobs in
South Africa
because they did not have proper documentation, yet the
neighbouring country
suffered from an acute skills shortage.
"Botswana and South Africa are best advised to use the funds they
allocate
for deportations of the refugees to handle the Zimbabwean
humanitarian
crisis more humanely," the institute added.
ZEF director, Gabriel
Shumba said they were concerned that
deportations of Zimbabweans from the
two countries continued to increase
amid more deaths of asylum seekers due
to hunger.
ACHPR chairperson, Sanji Monageng of Botswana, praised
HURISA and ZEF
for providing information about Zimbabwean refugees in the
two countries.
and pledged that the commission would conduct its
own investigations.
Last year Botswana said it deported about 50
000 Zimbabweans between
May and December, while 150 000 were repatriated
from South Africa during
the same period.
The Zimbabwean
delegation at the ACHPR led by Margaret Chiduku, an
official in the Ministry
of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs,
claimed that locals fleeing to
those countries were not refugees since the
country was not at
war.
Their South African colleagues also denied reports that
refugees and
asylum seekers were abused at detention centres.
Zim Standard
BY RUTENDO
MAWERE
GWERU - Landlords in the Midlands have devised new forms
of rent
payment for their tenants as a way of beating the continued erosion
of the
Zimbabwe dollar: groceries.
For some time now, most
landlords were charging rent in foreign
currency. But now, they have decided
groceries are better.
This phenomenon is fast gaining popularity in
Gweru, where letting out
a room or a full house is the only source of income
for most house owners.
An investigation by The Standard established
that most landlords are
accepting or even demanding groceries as rent. This,
they said, is an
attempt to beat the continued decline in the value of the
Zimbabwe dollar.
Sarah Dhlakama of Mkoba 20 said she was letting
out three rooms of her
house for groceries.
"As a landlord, I
have realised that the money I receive from tenants
at the end of every
month does not amount to much as a result of
hyperinflation," she said. "I
have decided that it is better for tenants to
give me groceries at the end
of the month as payment for rent. At the moment
each of my tenants is giving
me two litres of cooking oil and two bars of
soap for each
room."
Another landlord, identifying himself only as Moses said it
was
pointless to demand rent in cash.
"If I was to get $5
million per room, I would not be able to buy
much," he said. "At the moment,
cooking oil is going for $4 million on the
black market - which is the only
place where it is available. So, if I get
$5 million from a lodger what
would it buy me? I wouldn't be able to take
care of my family. I decided
groceries were better. This is better even for
my lodgers, than paying in
foreign currency, as some house owners in the
neighbourhood are
demanding."
Inflation has galloped to over 14 000%. Most landlords
say, in real
terms, the money that lodgers are paying loses value by the
day.
In the high-density of Mkoba, tenants pay a minimum of $3
million for
a room. Landlords who demand groceries usually require cooking
oil, soap,
rice and even sugar from their tenants. Those asking for hard
currency
charge 20 to 40 Botswana Pula or South African Rands - Z$3.6
million at the
parallel market.
While landlords are saying they
are only trying to survive in a
country with a collapsing economy, tenants
have condemned this practice.
Tenants buy the goods on the black market at
astronomical prices.
Talkmore Phiri of Mkoba 15 said although this
is not a good
arrangement, tenants had no option as accommodation was
scarce. "If you don't
want to play the game, you end up without a roof over
your head. You risk
starving your family, but they are sheltered, at least.
"
A property expert who asked not to be named for professional
reasons,
said while paying rentals in foreign currency was illegal; a house
was an
investment from which an owner sought maximum returns.
He said it would be difficult to control such practices as
accommodation was
scarce. Moreover, there was not much new construction
going on due to the
high costs and scarcity of building materials.
The situation had
been compounded by the reluctance by banks and
building societies to grant
loans to individuals. Buying or building a house
was now beyond the reach of
many. This meant that for a long time lodgers
would be at the mercy of house
owners.
Most cities and towns were plunged into a housing crisis
after the
ravages of Operation Murambatsvina.
The government's
solution to the crisis, Operation Garikai, was
clearly not designed to solve
the problem in the short term.
Zim Standard
By Godfrey
Mutimba
MASVINGO - Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi had to
be rescued from
an angry mob last week after his ministerial Mercedes Benz
struck a
pedestrian along Robert Mugabe Way.
The victim was
quickly rushed by ambulance to Masvingo General
Hospital, where he was later
reported to be battling for his life in the
intensive care
unit.
Efforts to get the victim's name were in vain as the police
refused to
release his identity.
Masvingo police spokesperson
Inspector Phibeon Nyambo declined to
comment on the accident.
"I do not know you, so I cannot give you any information on the
accident,"
Nyambo said.
Eyewitnesses alleged Mumbengegwi's vehicle was
speeding, drawing the
attention of scores of people doing their business in
the Central business
district.
The accident infuriated other
pedestrians who started hurling insults
at the minister, who is also the
Zanu PF provincial chairperson. Some of
them openly accused him of reckless
driving.
An aide, who was said to have appeared from nowhere,
jumped onto the
driver's seat and sped off as an angry mob threatened to
mete out instant
justice on Mumbengegwi.
Mumbengegwi could not
be reached for comment. Two months ago, the
minister's family made headlines
after a former farm worker, Fibion
Mafukidze, accused of stealing a fence at
their A2 Farm, died after being
beaten up by soldiers.
Mafukidze's relatives refused to bury him, demanding 100 cattle and
$10
billion as compensation from the Mumbengegwi family. They ended up
burying
him after the police intervened.
Zim Standard
BY GODFREY
MUTIMBA
MASVINGO - "Mupandawana nemasix waya enyu vabereki, six
waya chete
vabereki (Mupandawana for only $600 000)."
For
travellers at Chatsworth township, a few kilometres from
Mupandawana growth
point in Gutu, the voice of the excited tout seems
pointless.
They have just dropped off from a haulage truck from Masvingo and are
anxious for transport to the growth point, yet there is no bus or kombi in
sight.
All they see is a brand new tractor parked
nearby.
They ask the tout if he is up to some old-fashioned
con-tricks, which
is when he confidently points at the tractor.
Unbeknown to the travellers, the tractor, distributed under the
government's
much-ballyhooed farm mechanization programme, has been turned
into public
transport, plying several routes around the area.
The programme has
a fancy slogan, "The mother of all farming seasons",
coined by Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono. The central bank dished out the
farm equipment to new
farmers, hoping for a bumper harvest next year.
But there is now
evidence that the green some of the beneficiaries
have in mind is not in the
field, but in the equivalent of the greenback.
Zebron Masunda, a
former Zanu PF Masvingo provincial youth leader, is
out for a quick buck,
using the tractor as a cash cow. He has capitalised on
the current transport
problems by using the tractor as a commuter omnibus or
. . .
omni-tractor.
Instead of waiting for an entire agricultural season
to reap his
profits, Masunda now relies on the quick returns from commuting
between
Chatsworth and Mupandawana growth point every day - $600 000 a
passenger.
The Standard caught up with the fully-loaded tractor at
Mupandawana
last week.
Desperate travellers applauded the "new
farmer" for bringing them
transport relief. They did not consider the
likelihood that the farmer was
abusing the tractor. "We came on Masunda's
tractor," said Joseph Makuvaza,
excitedly. "He is helping us a lot as we
have been facing transport problems
all along."
Makuvaza said
he had a plot near Masunda's, who could not be reached
for comment. Sources
at Mpandawana confirmed he owned the tractor which
plied the route
daily.
Other transport operators have pulled out of the route owing
to the
fuel crisis and the terrible state of the roads, for so long
neglected by a
government grappling with the highest inflation rate in the
world.
Efforts to get a comment from the Masvingo Provincial
Administrator
were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, analysts condemned
the diversion of farming equipment,
seed, fertilizer and fuel, accusing the
government of wasting taxpayers'
funds by channelling resources to
unproductive new farmers.
Zim Standard
BY CAIPHAS
CHIMHETE
ZANU PF is using traditional leaders countrywide to
deny donated food
to suspected members of the MDC, a local non-governmental
organisation has
said.
The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), a
coalition of civic organisations
involved in conflict resolution, says
people without Zanu PF membership
cards had problems in obtaining food from
the Grain Marketing Board (GMB).
In Partisan Distribution of Food
and Other Forms of Aid: A national
report, the ZPP says partisan food
distribution was most prevalent in
Masvingo and the Midlands
provinces.
It noted that ruling party functionaries recommended
beneficiaries to
the GMB, a parastatal.
"Traditional leaders,
councillors and community food committees mostly
recommended by Zanu PF
leaders orchestrated the removal of non-ruling party
members from the list
of beneficiaries," said the report.
"Beneficiaries were expected to
chant ruling party slogans and to
produce party affiliation cards, before
receiving food."
The organisation recorded 267 cases of partisan
food distribution.
About 70% of those denied food were MDC members, 8% from
Zanu PF and 19%
were not affiliated to any political party.
Even Zanu PF supporters were falling victim to the partisan food
distribution.
"Some of the victims from Zanu PF were mostly
victimized by fellow
Zanu PF supporters on allegations of non-attendance of
meetings," says the
report.
The majority of Zimbabweans now
lack a legitimate means of livelihood
as a result of ad hoc policies adopted
by Zanu PF.
The report blames the government's Operation
Murambatsvina which
displaced nearly a million families, disrupting their
livelihoods.
The small-scale mining industry has also faced severe
challenges as a
result of several operations including Operation Chikorokoza
Chapera (End
Illegal Mining).
As a result of these policies and
successive poor harvests, millions
of people require food assistance this
year.
"However, it is sad to note that not all aid reaches the
intended
beneficiaries, due to partisan distribution of food and other
malpractices
in food distribution such as bribery, favouritism, nepotism and
inclusion of
ghost beneficiaries," says the report.
The Famine
Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) says close to 4.1
million people will
need food aid before the main harvest in 2008.
The most food
insecure provinces are Matabeleland North, Matabeleland
South and the
Midlands where many families failed to harvest anything.
Zimbabwe,
once the bread basket of the southern African region, has
had food deficits
since the 2000 land invasions that disrupted agriculture
and reduced yields
countrywide.
The poor harvests during recent years were further
compounded by the
poor rains, made worse by incompetent planning.
Zim Standard
By Bill
Saidi
ONCE the white voters of Southern Rhodesia rejected the
liberal-leaning Garfield Todd in the 1958 elections, it was almost
inevitable that their span as the rulers of this mineral-rich country was
doomed.
The year before, Ghana had achieved independence from
the British.
Even the architects of apartheid in South Africa were quaking
in their
boots.
Africa was on the march, a phenomenon
recognised by Britain's Prime
Minister, Harold Macmillan, and aptly
encapsulated in his "winds of change"
speech on African soil.
Winston Field, William Harper and other early white supremacists,
against
all the logical odds, clung to this incredible dream of a
white-dominated
country in the midst of black Africa for, as Smith was to
say, "a thousand
years".
But it took a man of such insatiable ambition for power as
Ian Douglas
Smith to dare to actually plan for a long white reign in the
middle of
Africa.
Smith may have been daring, courageous or a
visionary - or all three
wrapped into one - but to many blacks and even a
few whites, he sounded
stark raving bonkers.
By 1965, when he
staged his farcical "unilateral declaration of
independence" (UDI) even more
African states had fought their way to
independence from
Europe.
Black and white lives had been lost.
The
French had tried to hang on, but even their great Second World War
hero,
Charles De Gaulle, had given up.
In the year that the white voters
had rejected Todd's attempt to bring
the Africans into the political
mainstream, another African country, Guinea
had gained
independence.
By 1960, when the former Belgian Congo achieved its
precarious
independence, the map of Africa had changed
dramatically.
Yet Smith, by 1965, still clung to his forlorn hope
that "his
Africans" would prefer his rule to their own.
The
liberation war which followed UDI was brutal and savage and most
of the
blame must be placed squarely on Smith's shoulders. He believed he
could
shoot the white people to permanent dominance, in spite of the
numerical
odds.
If Smith believed the rest of the white world would be behind
him, he
must have been completely disoriented, either by a burning white,
supremacist dream, or by contempt for black people as rational, wise and
proud people.
In the end he lost the war, which had,
unfortunately, poisoned race
relations in the country. More than 30 000
people, most of them black, had
been killed inside the country or in
Mozambique and Zambia.
Smith's military raids into the two
neighbouring countries sheltering
the guerillas, Mozambique and Zambia, were
so destructive those leaders were
finally persuaded the sacrifice was too
much for their people to bear.
In 1974, Zambians found themselves
queuing for bread for the first
time since independence in 1964. Soon after
that a movement was launched to
initiate talks among the warring groups in
Zimbabwe.
Kenneth Kaunda sent a trusted emissary, Mark Chona, to
Salisbury to
talk to Joshua Nkomo, Robert Mugabe and Ndabaningi Sithole, all
of them
still in prison.
Meanwhile, Smith himself had agreed to
meet them in Lusaka, at Kaunda's
State House.
The rest, as they
say, is history - except for the one small footnote
in which I was the
victim. I lost my job on a newspaper because we published
the details of
Mark Chona's mission to Salisbury.
There have been many versions of
the events leading up to the
Lancaster House talks in London in 1979, but
what is indisputable is that it
was the Commonwealth Heads of Government
Meeting (CHOGM) in Lusaka that year
which finally cleared the way for the
talks.
Smith, who died in Cape Town last week, could not possibly
have looked
back at his life after UDI with pride. True, his performance as
prime
minister of an illegal regime under international sanctions was
remarkable.
It was so remarkable that even Africans have grudgingly admitted
that they
lacked for nothing under his rule.
But the price in
bloodshed was totally unnecessary. Talks would have
eventually
triumphed.
What galls many Zimbabweans today is that, after he took
over the
reins, Robert Mugabe showed he was completely out of his depth. In
a very
short period, spurred perhaps by another dream of a "thousand-year"
reign,
he destroyed a thriving economy, albeit one once propped up by South
Africa.
Today, not many people in Zimbabwe can think of Smith
without
comparing his performance during UDI with that of Robert Mugabe
since 1980.
Smith is one man who makes Mugabe's reign so pathetic
in terms of what
it has done to the country that even a thousand years
hence, people will
still shake their heads in disbelief, muttering: "How did
he do it?
Zim Standard
By Kholwani
Nyathi
BRAZZAVILLE - African human rights organisations want
recognition of
Zimbabweans fleeing the economic and political crisis in the
country to
neighbouring South Africa and Botswana as refugees.
They said this would ensure the refugees are treated according to
international humanitarian laws.
Moreover, this would compel
United Nations agencies to intervene in
the "deteriorating" situation in
Zimbabwe.
In submissions made at an African NGO Forum meeting ahead
of the 42nd
session of the African Commission for Human and People's Rights
(ACHPR) last
week, the groups expressed concern "at the worsening human
rights situation"
in the country.
The ACHPR, an organ of the
African Union (AU), described the human
rights situation in the country as
"alarming".
The call followed reports by the Human Rights Institute
of South
Africa (HURISA) and the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) citing
increased
incidents of Zimbabweans being allegedly abused while in detention
in the
neighbouring countries.
"It must be noted that last year
South Africa was deporting an average
of 4 000 Zimbabweans a week while
Botswana had also deported about 100 000
between May and December," said
Gabriel Shumba of ZEF.
"This shows that the situation in Zimbabwe
continues to deteriorate
and instead of treating those fleeing the crisis as
undesirable elements
these two countries will gain more by granting them
refugee status.
"This will not only ensure that Zimbabweans who are
being displaced by
the economic and political crisis are treated humanely
but it will also
benefit these countries in terms of human
resources."
An estimated three million Zimbabweans are said to have
fled the
country since the beginning of the political and economic crisis,
with most
of them settling in South Africa.
But the South
African government has repeatedly refused to recognise
such Zimbabweans as
refugees, saying most were in search of jobs and other
means of
survival.
Zim Standard
By Bertha
Shoko
About two million children are going to receive polio
vaccine and
Vitamin A supplements in Zimbabwe's second round of the biannual
Child
Health Days which is a critical campaign targeting all children under
five
years of age for this whole week.
Now in the third
consecutive year, Child Health Days have played a
significant role in
raising immunisation rates and boosting child survival
efforts in Zimbabwe.
On the back of the health campaigns, immunisation
coverage for children
under five has increased to more than 80% (from below
60% in 2001) for all
childhood vaccinations and Vitamin A supplementation.
The Child
Health Days (CHDs) are steered by the Ministry of Health and
Child Welfare
in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund
(UNICEF), the World
Health Organisation (WHO) and Helen Keller
International.
In
addition to an increase in immunisation coverage, the partnership
has
resulted in not a single case of reported polio since 1990 while
reported
cases of suspected measles have dropped 84% since 2004. There have
also not
been any reported cases of whooping cough in the last two years.
In
turn, these improvements have played a critical role in reducing
Zimbabwe's
child mortality rate by at least 20% due to vaccine preventable
diseases and
successful malaria programmes.
"The timing of this campaign is
critical," said Unicef Representative
in Zimbabwe, Dr Festo
Kavishe.
"Zimbabwe is winning the war against polio, - not a single
case has
been reported in 18 years but the new cases around Africa
necessitate that
we remain vigilant. At the same time, Child Health Days are
a critical boost
to health services that are under great stress as CHDs have
dramatically
increased coverage of immunisation for Zimbabwe's
children."
The week-long campaign is aided by essential funding
from the UK's
Department for International Development (DFID), Canada's
International
Development Agency (CIDA) and the Government of Ireland. More
than
US$1million is spent on vaccines, logistics and social mobilisation, a
critical component to the campaign's success is the time devoted by health
staff and volunteers across the country.
"Tens of thousands of
selfless, hardworking medical staff and
volunteers underscore why there is
so much reason to be positive in
Zimbabwe," said Unicef's Head of Health, Dr
Colleta Kibassa.
"These people will ensure that no child falls
within the cracks.
Already they have conducted weeks of community
mobilisation activities to
schools, community centres and clinics across the
country, ensuring that all
parents know why and where to take their children
to be immunised against
tuberculosis, measles, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping
cough, hepatitis B and
polio, and to receive Vitamin A
supplementation."
While Zimbabwe has not reported a polio case
since 1990, there has
been a looming threat from the neighbouring countries
which recorded cases
in recent years. "There remain many battles for
children still to be won,"
said Kavishe.
"But with continued
international support I am confident polio is one
in a chain of
victories."
With donor assistance from the UK and Japan, Unicef
provides support
to the Zimbabwe Expanded Programme on Immunisation (ZEPI)
and procures all
vaccines for immunisation, cold chain equipment for vaccine
storage and
technical
support to the health workers, said
Unicef.
Zim Standard
By Jennifer
Dube
A PRICE wrangle between the Grain Marketing Board and
millers is
reportedly behind the bread industry's failure to improve
supplies for three
months since winter wheat harvests began in September,
industry sources said
last week.
In an interview with
Standardbusiness, the GMB's newly appointed chief
executive officer, Albert
Mandizha, confirmed there was "some reaction to
the price
shift".
Sources said the production line was stalled when millers
reacted
against the parastatal's recent decision to scrap the wheat
subsidy.
They said of the 6 000 tonnes released by the GMB so far,
the millers
had only picked up 2 000 tonnes, hardly enough to satisfy the
demand for
bread for two days.
Early this month, the GMB asked
the government to either carry the
subsidy or allow the parastatal to sell
wheat to millers at the purchasing
price, plus a mark-up.
The
GMB was buying wheat from farmers at $71.5 million a tonne and
selling it to
the millers at a subsidised price of $ 238 000 a tonne.
It is
understood the government authorised the GMB to sell at the
buying price
plus a mark-up, much to the fury of the millers.
"They (millers)
are not buying the wheat. They are saying they are
still looking for the
money," sources said.
Mandizha would not elaborate on the issue,
saying he would only be
able to issue a "fuller" comment once negotiations
were concluded next week.
"Yes, there was some reaction from the
millers but we are still
negotiating with other stakeholders, including both
the millers and the
National Incomes and Pricing Commission," he said."We
are still trying to
finalise a number of things and I will only be able to
issue a fuller
comment after the meetings."
At the beginning of
this month, the GMB said about 20 000 tonnes of
winter wheat had been
delivered to its silos.
Meanwhile, sources said the bakeries also
locked horns with the
government over the newly-gazetted price of bread,
saying the increase was
insignificant, demanding it be reviewed
upwards.
The NIPC recently announced a 100% increase on the bread
price from
$100 000 a loaf to $200 000. It is estimated production currently
costs $500
000 a loaf.
Sources said despite the winter wheat
harvest, scarcity of flour was
now the major challenge for
bakers.
While the government gazetted price for flour stands at
$111 million a
tonne, bakers are getting flour at prices of between $800
million and $1
billion a tonne on the black market.
It is
understood that some bakers are importing flour from Malawi
where they pay
as much as $150 million a tonne.
Others, among them Bakers' Inn and
Superbake, have ceased operations
for more than one month.
National Bakers' Association chairman Vincent Mangoma confirmed the
shortage
of flour was affecting the industry but said the association was
confident a
solution was imminent.
"We are negotiating with the NIPC and they
are very understanding," he
said. "The Governemnt is also trying to help us
obtain cheap fuel from the
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe and some funding
from the Reserve Bank"
Zim Standard
BY OUR STAFF
THE
European Commission has given Non-State Actors (NSA) involved in
trade
issues a staggering Euro 1 million under a three-year capacity
building
project.
The Trade Capacity Building Project (TCBP), will benefit
non-state
actors directly involved in trade with exporters and traders
benefiting
through their association with the non-state actors.
The TCBP is being established in the context of the Economic
Partnership
Agreements (EPA) currently being negotiated by African,
Caribbean and
Pacific (ACP) group of states and the European Union.
Zimbabwe
takes part in the negotiations under the Eastern and Southern
African (ESA)
configuration.
ACP countries used to enjoy unilateral trade
preferences with the EU
for almost three decades under the Lomé Convention.
The Fourth Lomé
Convention was replaced by the Cotonou Partnership Agreement
in 2000, which
extends these unilateral trade preferences up to the end of
2007.
The EC said recent studies have indicated that NSA in
Zimbabwe have
little knowledge of EPA and other international trade
initiatives and lag
behind in participating in trade
negotiations.
The project is being implemented after the EU General
Council's 2002
decision under Article 96(2)(c) of the Cotonou Agreement
which states that
"financing support for all projects is suspended except in
direct support of
the population".
"In this context, Zimbabwe
has continued to receive support channelled
directly towards the
population."
It said that trade between Zimbabwe and EU has not
been affected by
the Council decision and there are no trade sanctions
between EU and
Zimbabwe.
"The EU as a bloc remains a major
trade partner of Zimbabwe. It is in
this context that EPA trade negotiations
are taking place with the
Government of Zimbabwe fully participating," it
said.
The EC said a turnaround of the economy will significantly
depend on
positive performance of exports to generate the required foreign
exchange.
But for this to materialize, the trade sector, being heavily
reliant on
export of commodities, needs to make a shift towards value
addition.
It said: "Continued reliance on traditional markets will
present major
risks for the country, given that the EPA trading environment
envisages the
removal of trade preferences."
EPA negotiations
cover trade issues in six areas: fisheries; services;
agriculture; market
access; development and trade related issues.
Last week ESA and EC
ministers met in Brussels and agreed to work
towards a Framework Agreement
of an EPA that will comprise trade in goods,
development cooperation,
fisheries and any other sectors on which
negotiations would have been
concluded.
A comprehensive EPA will be concluded by the end of
December next
year, replacing the Framework Agreement.
Zim Standard
By Jennifer
Dube
THE government should start implementing policies to deal
with the
root causes of the current economic crisis, not the symptoms,
Callisto
Jokonya, said last week.
The president of the
Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, said unless
the interventions resolved
the foreign currency crunch, their impact would
be minimal.
Jokonya said he welcomed the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor's Basic
Commodities Supply-Side Intervention (Bacossi) facility.
"Bacossi is a welcome development for the nation, but we need
interventions
that will address the real problem and not its symptoms,"
Jokonya said in an
interview.
"We need interventions that will improve foreign
currency supply and
also address capacity under-utilisation as those are the
real problems we
are facing."
RBZ governor Gideon Gono in
October unveiled the Bacossi facility in a
bid to assist companies to
restock after the government's price blitz which
heavily undermined
industrial operations, instead of achieving its objective
of "taming"
runaway inflation.
The facility is administered through the banks
and is a 270-day
renewable window under which producers and suppliers in
targeted sectors
borrow production target-linked working capital at a
concessionary interest
rate of 25% a year.
Jokonya said for the
last eight years, Zimbabwe had only managed to
come up with policies that
merely dealt with the symptoms of the economic
meltdown and not its root
causes.
"Take, for example, the price campaign . . .that is merely
many
business hours wasted in meetings and discussions," he said. "Prices
will
not come down simply because we have a price controlling body. They can
only
come down when production has been increased - we cannot control what
we don't
have, but only that which we have in our pockets."
He
said the Bacossi would be more helpful if it made it possible for
those
companies which sourced their inputs locally to have access to the
local
currency while those which relied on imports were given foreign
currency to
restock.
Last week, Gono told journalists that US$13 million had so
far been
disbursed under his facility, alongside Z$10trillion.
"I do not want to sound as if I am ungrateful for the support, but I
honestly do not believe it makes any sense, in the first place, for
government to run down industry and then start running around looking for
money to resuscitate it," a business executive said.
"The
authorities should allow businesses to operate freely and sustain
themselves".
The executive said that the authorities also
needed to take note of
the serious challenges the price blitz brought about
and "remove the red
tape" associated with Bacossi.
"Something
must be done to expedite the process of acquiring the funds
and if possible,
a way of avoiding commercial banks and going straight to
the RBZ should be
found.
"The current process is so long that by the time you get the
money,
its value would have been wiped away by inflation."
Of
more than 500 companies in the country, only 29 have so far
accessed funding
under the facility.
Among the beneficiaries are sugar manufacturer
Starafricacorporation
and Cairns Foods.
Zim Standard
BY NDAMU SANDU
FORTY-THREE-year-old Thulani Munda walks to work
every day as he
cannot afford the bus fare.
His monthly salary
of $13 million cannot cover his month's transport
bill. So Munda wakes up
early from his house in Epworth to join his
colleagues in their "walking
club" to Graniteside.
His employers, with a combination of
arrogance and the harsh economic
realities, have said that Munda is lucky to
be working.
"They told me that, in reality, I should be on the
streets, as the
company is facing difficulties," he told
Standardbusiness.
"They give us a transport allowance of $5 million
a month when the
monthly bill for transport is over $15 million," he
said.
When you include taxes and medical aid contributions for his
family,
Munda's net salary is $14 million, far below the Poverty Datumn Line
(PDL)
announced by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ).
In
its September update, CCZ said a family of six requires $22 million
a month
to survive.
Munda's predicament is shared by most workers who earn
below the PDL.
Despite earning so little, workers have a tax-free
threshold of a
paltry $4 million. Workers' salaries cannot buy much as
prices of basic
commodities continue to shoot up.
Munda says a
realistic, generous tax-free threshold would at least
give him some
breathing space, albeit temporarily.
Like any other worker, Munda
looks up to Samuel Mumbengegwi's national
budget presentation on Thursday
with optimism.
"May be this time around he will give us an early
Christmas present,"
he said.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) advocates that the bonus
should be taxed from the PDL figures,
to give more money to the workers.
"The tax-free threshold for
bonus should start at the PDL level ($22
million)," said Gideon Shoko, the
ZCTU acting secretary-general.
He says the government should waive
taxation on housing and transport
allowances to give workers a heftier
disposable income.
Analysts say Mumbengegwi's budget should set the
tone for the setting
up a framework under which companies operate without
constraints.
"The budget should clear the environment for companies
to increase
productivity," said David Mupamhadzi, group economist at the
Zimbabwe Allied
Banking Group (ZABG).
Mupamhadzi says there is
need to review the exchange rate which is not
competitive for exporters. At
the official exchange rate US$ fetches $30
000, far below the parallel
market rate of $1.2 million.
Mupamhadzi says there is need for
Mumbengegwi to use realistic
assumptions when crafting the National
Budget.
"Using unrealistic assumptions that inflation will go down
results in
expenditure distribution based on unrealistic assumptions which
has led to
supplementary budgets," he said.
Economic analysts
agree the government has to rein in expenditure.
Announcing a $37.1 trillion
Supplementary Budget in September, Mumbengegwi
told Parliament that
additional expenditure submissions were over $255
trillion beyond the
country's domestic financing.
"The continued fiscal indiscipline,"
said economic consultant Dr
Daniel Ndlela, "tells us that in the past years
the government has failed to
live within its means."
He added:
"I hope the Minister will rein in the printing of money."
Ndlela
said the government had to create a conducive environment that
creates
confidence among international partners, though indications were
high that
Mumbengegwi would come out fighting international financial
institutions.
Meanwhile, Munda is not sure whether prices will
remain static to give
workers breathing space.
The last time
Mumbengegwi announced a tax relief to workers, the
Minister of Industry and
International Trade Minister, Obert Mpofu awarded
businesses a 20% increase
on prices of all goods.
"Maybe this time around, I will afford a
smile and leave the walking
club," Munda said.
Zim Standard
BY NDAMU
SANDU
KINGDOM Financial Holdings Limited (KFHL) regional
expansion
programme, is on course, following the issuing of a banking
licence to its
associate company in Malawi.
Standardbusiness
was told last week that First Discount House (FDH),
owned 40.16% by Kingdom,
was given a banking licence by the Reserve Bank of
Malawi on
Thursday.
The licence has scope for merchant and retail banking as
well as the
formation of the building society.
Thomson
Mpinganjira, the FDH head, said the licence enables the
discount house to
transform itself into a Kingdom model as a one-stop shop
financial services
company. FDH also has a stock broking company, FDH
Stockbrokers.
"While FDH's listing was deferred, this licence
approval means that
implementation and roll-out of a bank will mean greater
value for investors
when the time comes for an Initial Public Offering,"
said Mpinganjira.
An FDH board meeting is slated for next Thursday
to share the "good
news" and map the way forward, he said.
FDH
wanted to run an IPO this year to finance the setting up of a
merchant
bank.
The IPO and subsequent listing of FDH was assented to by the
discount
firm's board at a 12 June meeting. The IPO would have run from 9
July and
closed on 3 August with listing slated on the 13 August, all things
being
equal.
The Malawian Stock Exchange told FDH that it had
to get a licence
first before running its capital raising
initiative.
Had the IPO gone ahead KFHL's stake in the company
would have been
reduced to 28.14%. Other FDH shareholders - T.F Mpinganjira
Trust and Old
Mutual - would have remained with 27.89% and 14% respectively,
with 30% of
the shares open to the public.
T.F Mpinganjira
Trust and Old Mutual have 39.84% and 20% shareholding
respectively.
KFHL funding of the 40% of the licence costs will
come from funds
raised outside Zimbabwe through a public issue of Kingdom
Meikles Africa
Limited (KMAL) shares, Nigel Chanakira KFHL group CEO told
Standardbusiness
Friday.
"The appetite in South Africa, United
Kingdom and Russia for KMAL
stock has been encouraging," said Chanakira, who
chairs the FDH board.
Zim Standard
By Our
Staff
IT would seem that the fight against piracy of any kind
in Africa will
be an ongoing battle for the authorities, particularly in the
movie, music
and software industries.
The truth is that
technology makes it very easy to simply make a copy
of a CD, DVD or piece of
software with the likes of CD- and DVD-writers and
tools on the Internet
that allow people to bypass anti-piracy measures
altogether.
This is according to Abednego Hlatshwayo, Anti-Piracy manager for
Microsoft
in East and Southern Africa, who believes that although the
authorities and
the producers of the material being pirated are always very
vocal about how
illegal it is to pirate anything and how it can hurt
businesses on all
levels, there is still this mentality of "it doesn't
affect me" or "they
already have enough money" coming from the general
public.
"This general misconception is not only naively inaccurate, but also
fuels
the widespread piracy that ravages many parts of the world. In this
case,
ignorance is not bliss," he says.
"There is, however, a single
challenge that, if overcome, could
potentially have a massive effect on the
way the people of Zimbabwe view
piracy - education about intellectual
property (IP)."
There is a certain level of complacence when it
comes to the issue of
intellectual property, Hlatshwayo says, because,
although many African
governments acknowledge that there is such a concept,
they lack the ability
to enforce IP rights affectively and to pass on the
message about the
importance of IP to their people.
"As a
result, people are less likely to care about the implication of
stealing IP
and pirating products because they cannot draw a direct
comparison between
copying something and physically stealing something from
a store shelf, for
example," he says.
Piracy not a governmental
priority
This complacence means that governmental budgets are less
likely to be
allocated to fighting piracy, which means that the police and
law
enforcement agencies in Zimbabwe are not sufficiently equipped to
identify
pirated goods and enforce IP regulations on offenders.
But why should they? They have roads to build, electricity to supply
to
their people and education that needs funding to ensure the future of
their
economies.
"This is exactly the 'catch 22' situation that IP owners
find
themselves having to resolve when dealing with countries where piracy
is
rampant and state priorities are far from protecting IP rights,"
Hlatshwayo
adds.
"The solution, however simple it may appear,
requires stern commitment
from all stakeholders in the fight against piracy,
including the public and
private sectors, law enforcement agencies and the
IP owners themselves.
"This commitment comes in the form of
financial investment, resource
allocation and skills transfer to ensure that
the proper amount of quality
information is transferred to the people that
have the power to make a
difference.
"The need exists for IP
owners to make a concerted effort to ensure
that everyone in Zimbabwe is as
educated about IP rights protection as
possible," he maintains.
This, Hlatshwayo says, means dedicating time and resources to wade
through
the various levels of protocol and bureaucracy, create awareness at
the
highest levels of state and demonstrate the quantifiable and tangible
damages that piracy can wreck on an economy.
Success lies
in proving value
Simply put, piracy robs the Zimbabwean government
of vital tax
revenue, which in turn, deprives its people of basic rights and
civil
services. It doesn't get any more tangible than that. But how do you
prove
it?
Microsoft has had much success in supporting and
offering training to
various anti-piracy initiatives in a number of African
countries including
Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, South Africa and
Botswana.
In Zambia and Kenya, particularly, there are dedicated
groups of
police that form part of the IP Protection Agencies, and who are
passionate
about their work and see the value that they bring to the country
through
their anti-piracy activities.
"Their successes and
growing list of convictions serve as a fuel that
drives their motivation to
make a real difference, and the governments are
slowly acknowledging their
success," Hlatshwayo says.
"But successful initiatives and
subsequent convictions could not have
been achieved without the commitment
from the governments of those countries
and the help of the private sector
in training the police."
What are YOU doing?
There
is a call to action for any IP stakeholders operating in Africa
to make it a
priority to help drive the education about IP in Africa. The
police cannot
do their job if they do not know what to look for.
Similarly,
governments cannot invest in anti-piracy initiatives if
they are not
properly educated about the importance of IP and the effect
piracy has on
their economies - and the benefits they'll gain in the way of
increased
foreign investment based on their ability to protect IP.
"When
something like piracy takes hold of a country and denies
businesses, on all
levels, their ability to do an honest day's work, it's
very easy for the IP
owners to point fingers at the police and blame them
for not doing their
jobs," says Hlatshwayo.
"But then they need to ask themselves:
'What are we doing to help the
government and its IP enforcement agencies to
confront piracy of any kind on
all levels?'
"All too often," he
continues, "multinational organisations operating
in Africa use marketing
spin to position Africa as 'an important market' or
as having 'huge growth
potential' but what are they actually doing to invest
in the countries that
they enter? What are they doing to help protect their
brands and fight off
the piracy of their products?"
The Zimbabwean police and IP
enforcement agencies can't do it alone.
And sometimes governments need a bit
of a helping hand as well to nudge them
forward in their thinking about
modern concepts such as IP protection, the
economic impact and how best to
enforce it.
Zim Standard
Comment
One of the constant threads that link State decisions in recent years
has
been vengeance. Today it defines our current parlous state.
Operation Murambatsvina was an act of madness driven by vengeance. The
campaign against teachers because of their perceived support for the
opposition is a dominant factor, defining the state of relations between the
profession and the government. It was followed by Sunrise, the mismanagement
of the fuel imports, Dzikisai Mutengo (price blitz). Now Sunrise II and
another price blitz threaten a demolition derby, to complete the unfinished
business of the first phases of State-sanctioned vengeance.
The
reluctance to act on the water crisis that threatens to unleash a
wave of
diseases on the second largest city in the country, Bulawayo, is
dictated
largely by masked vengeance intent on punishing the people of
Matabeleland.
The denial of adequate grain to the region is part of the same
sinister plot
by the State.
While the second phase of the price blitz that began
rolling out its
vengeful whirlwind in July appears stalled for the time
being, the same
logic that froze it does not recognise both the harm and
futility of waking
up one day and decreeing new currency.
Such
profound changes require campaigns preceding launch of the new
currency.
This, therefore, suggests a parallel campaign to the elections.
People will
be tripping over each other.
But there is the logistics. Elections
require an army of officers. It
is doubtful the Reserve Bank can raise that
kind of staff to manage the
proposed swift overnight currency
change.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy facing this country is the
dearth of an
opposition capable of exploiting, to the maximum, the State's
numerous
shortcomings. The State is campaigning for the opposition, which
appears
incapable of recognising and seizing opportunities it is being
gifted with.
But the desire by the State to subject the people of
this country to
further humiliating punishment has neither parallel nor
precedent. You don't
beat a man when he is down. Yet this is exactly what
the government is
intent on doing. It is as if there is sustained effort to
test and provoke
the majority of the people in this country to rise from
their docile
torpidity.
In normal countries and societies
currency changes are preceded by a
campaign lasting several months. The old
and new currencies are allowed to
circulate concurrently until the old is
finally phased out.
The decision to phase out, over night, the old
family of bearer
cheques will have greater devastating impact on the
ordinary people and not
the few so-called cash barons the State says it is
determined to deal with.
Somehow the government has developed a
knack of traumatising the very
people on whose behalf it claims to
act.
For the first time since independence Zimbabweans head into
the
festive season, while empty shop shelves stubbornly remind the
government of
its failure. The price blitz is a disaster. So is the havoc
being wrought on
the currency.
If the interests of this country
drive our decisions, then we should
not appear intent on re-inventing the
wheel. Other countries have
experienced the problems that confront this
country. We should not be afraid
to ask them how they were able to overcome
problems similar to those
Zimbabwe is facing.
Zimbabweans have
been traumatised enough already. Introduction of new
currency, overnight and
without warning is not going to end cash queues
outside banks as long as
people have difficulties accessing their deposits.
Overnight
currency switches are not going to instil confidence in
banks. The
government can go ahead and do what it likes, but it needs to
understand
that it will undermine people's beliefs in both the currency and
the banking
sector.
Zim Standard
sundayopinion by Bill
Saidi
TIME magazine is still going strong, 41 years after its 8
April 1966
cover story: IS GOD DEAD?
As far as I know, no
catastrophe of tsunami proportions has befallen
the editors, the reporters
or the production staff.
Perhaps there was controversy when the
publishing company went to bed
with Warner Brothers, and AOL, but there was
no fallout of biblical
proportions.
As with every medium
involved in the exposure of the scum of the
earth, the magazine burnt its
fingers with one or two stories.
None of this involved the
equivalent of the unleashing of pestilence.
TIME was not visited by
the sort of calamity that allegedly befell
John Lennon for his cheeky
remarks on Jesus Christ.
The question itself - Is God dead? -
wasn't rhetorical, but steeped in
what the editors perceived as the crisis
confronting US society at the time.
If God was alive, why had He
allowed America to sink to such depths of
depravity?
I
empathized with the editors' aim in publishing what was clearly a
soul-searching story under an equally polemical cover.
I was
29, a nine-year veteran in journalism, 13 years a Catholic.
By
1966, the year I won joint first prize in a nationwide short story
contest
in Zambia, I thought I had finally grasped the nettle of the human
condition.
It was more complex than I had ever imagined. Good
and Evil stalked
the land in equal measure and one had to be ever-watchful
of Temptation.
I had remained more or less faithful to the church,
in spite of an
incident at school which had shaken my faith to its
roots.
TIME's cover story generated controversy and provoked
condemnation
from the Christian lunatic fringe, who saw it as heresy and
sacrilege.
No doubt there were Christians who predicted God's
vengeance upon the
publishers - as others predicted, for me, a grisly end,
for my article, What
Would You Ask Jesus, Marx, Mzingeli?
I was
intrigued by the suggestion that God, to punish the talented
John Lennon,
chose a young man who later turned out to be mentally
unbalanced, to commit
the deadly deed.
This is a merciful, caring God?
I
have always believed a journalist's task is to probe and expose,
even the
Supernatural.
Religion is based on faith, which is not to be
disparaged because
without belief in SOMETHING the human soul is less than
whole.
Someone said if God had not existed, Humankind would have
created Him.
Belief in a Super Being is not crazy, or mumbo-jumbo. For
billions of
people - Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Hindus and even
Rastafarians -
there exists One such person.
What distinguishes
faith from fanaticism is the tendency to exaggerate
everything about the
object of idolatry, and to view sceptics, people
unaffected by that Supreme
Being, as oddballs, heretics, infidels, heathens
or what some have called
"the unwashed".
The reaction that I had "mocked" God is amazing.
Since 1966,
Christians have lobbed controversial barbs at their religion.
Some have been
provocative: gay people should not be barred from ordination.
They, too, are
God's creatures, born pure and innocent.
Others
have been more circumspect: shouldn't the church be concerned
more with
poverty around the world, than with the sexual proclivities of
adherents?
In Africa, there is consternation that any church
would preoccupy
itself with homosexuality while child mortality and maternal
deaths are on
the increase and while the cruelty of governments against
their own people
continues unabated.
Regular readers of the
American media will have come across stories
suggesting atheism is gaining
ground.
Christianity is not exactly reeling against the ropes,
punch-drunk
from atheism's incessant pounding, but the zealots are finding
themselves
more and more on the defensive.
What has
awakened even the previously ardent Christian's conscience to
the reality of
their faith's inadequacies is the state of the world: wars,
poverty,
corruption, abuse of human rights, victimisation of the weak,
support for
dictators, despots, bullies, and the reluctance to weed them out
of
civilised society.
There was a story in one magazine headlined Is
Religion Making a
Comeback? There was a time when most people had little
time for religion.
They saw it as having become irrelevant in an
increasingly materialistic,
hedonistic world, where possessions - from
trinkets to girlfriends in ermine
and pearls - were the "in
things".
Intolerance is not entirely Christian. Jesus was not
intolerant, or
Judas Iscariot would never have gone very far with his plot
to betray his
master.
If that scene was re-enacted today, Judas
would have died in a
"mysterious road accident", or in hospital, of an
overdose of some lethal
drug, long before he could get into his traitor
role.
Most people in history associated with the founding of
religions, were
peace-loving ascetics, not boisterous, hard-drinking,
libidinous,
foul-tempered ruffians.
When any religion begins to
espouse violence against non-adherents, it
must be de-classified, in a file
with Satan (?) written on it.
Zim Standard
Sundayview
by Judith Todd
Just after 2:30PM I got to Sandro's. The first table
I passed in my
search for Godwin was manned by Oliver Chimenya, big
business, Godfrey
Majonga, public relations, and Justin Nyoka, Permanent
Secretary of
Information for the government of Zimbabwe.
They
laughed loudly when they saw me and then rose to greet me. For
the first
time in our lives, Justin went so far as to kiss me. They all
obviously
considered it a great joke that I had been nominated for
parliament, but
were so friendly. Justin said he would write my maiden
speech for me. Then I
found Godwin, who was sitting with Comrade Mau-Mau and
Comrade Mao, both
from the prime minister's office. I went aside with Godwin
to listen to
grave things.
He said that when he had accompanied Minister Zvobgo
to the ANC
Children's Conference the previous Saturday, he told Eddison it
was rumoured
that PF Zapu was nominating me for a seat. They joked about it,
wondering
how I could cope in parliament with my impossibly small
voice.
But, said Godwin, Eddison had now asked him to urge me to
back down
immediately, as I had made a serious mistake. I had become a
pariah with the
Zanu PF Central Committee. Zanu PF had no intention of
allowing PF Zapu any
more seats in Parliament. They already had their own 30
candidates lined up,
and there was no room for PF Zapu.
Zvobgo
had told Godwin that when the prime minister had made my father
a senator,
it was with the blessing of the Zanu PF Central Committee. When
Shamuyarira,
the Minister of Information, appointed my mother a member of
the Mass Media
Trust, he had the blessing of the Central Committee. If I had
wanted to
become an MP, I should have approached someone in Zanu PF to take
it up with
the Central Committee and my request would have been considered.
But now I had accepted a PF Zapu nomination, people were looking
askance. He
was passing on this warning to me, through Godwin, to get out
now because he
wouldn't like to see me "hurt". He said that after Dumiso
Dabengwa, the
Central Committee considered me to be the most dangerous
person in the
country!
So, Godwin said, I have passed the message
on.
I made no comment throughout, thanked Godwin for passing on the
message and asked him to express my appreciation to Minister Zvobgo for his
concern. But I left Sandro's inwardly boiling and thinking what a ludicrous
role the minister was playing in the operation of his portfolio of Justice,
Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.
I went to collect a signature
from Ignatius Chigwendere, a
long-standing member of Zanu PF. When I entered
his office, he had to excuse
himself for a moment and I put the nomination
form on his desk. Member of
parliament Josaya B Hungwe walked in. He was the
Zanu PF whip. We greeted
each other. Ignatius returned and sat down. Hungwe
picked up the form and
looked at it. I asked, jokingly, whether I could have
his signature. He said
no, and I asked why not, still joking. He said:
"Because you are a Zapu
candidate." Then Hungwe spoke at
length.
He wasn't pleased. He said there had been no agreement
between the
parties on any possible PF Zapu candidates. Zanu PF had the
majority in
parliament and, as the MPs would be electing the new members,
there was no
chance of a PF Zapu candidate being chosen. My nomination had
caused
embarrassment, and Deputy Prime Minister Muzenda had been speaking
about it
only the night before. Hungwe wanted me to know that they were
angry that I
was a PF Zapu nomination. They never knew I belonged to PF
Zapu.
I said I didn't, which made me feel even more honoured that
PF Zapu
had nominated me. Well, he said, I might not belong to PF Zapu, but
people
would now go to their graves believing that I did. I said that was
fine.
Then, he continued, they couldn't vote for a PF Zapu candidate, but,
because
of the record of my parents, it was unthinkable that a Todd could
stand and
then be voted out. He himself came from Chibi area, and all his
brothers and
sisters and friends had benefited from the fine work of my
parents.
Ignatius was getting agitated. I turned to him and
said if it was
difficult for him to sign the form, that was quite all right.
I didn't mind.
But I had misinterpreted him. He ignored me and addressed
himself to Hungwe.
He, too, was angry. He said he didn't know and he didn't
care whether or not
I was a member of PF Zapu. But, he said, once, when I
was believed to be a
card-carrying member of Zapu, he had gone to me for
help in setting up a
committee in London to assist Tongogara and others who
had been locked up
and were being tortured in Zambia.
"Judy
didn't say anything about people being Zanu or Zapu. She just
helped us. And
now she is asking me to help her and I do so with pleasure."
He signed the
form with a flourish in front of Hungwe, who stalked out
slamming the
door.
I said to Ignatius that whatever happened to my nomination, I
would
never forget this moment, and I thanked him very much. He brushed my
thanks
aside and said: "They have forgotten what you did, and they need to
be
reminded."
"Maybe they never knew," I said.
"Then they need to be told," Ignatius said.
The Herald reported
that the Zanu PF Secretary for Administration,
Comrade Nyagumbo, had said
that the party was "now emphasising very strongly
national unity" following
the failure of unity talks. The unity talks
between the two major political
parties were over, he said, and there was no
reason for anyone to continue
sitting on the fence. PF Zapu members and any
other Zimbabwean who was not a
member of Zanu PF were most welcome to join
the ruling party, as there was
nothing left to wait for.
This was published the day after the
prime minister had left for the
Commonwealth conference in Vancouver. The
last time he went away, for the
funeral of Lord Soames, Nkala had instituted
a new wave of repression,
closing and searching PF Zapu offices, and so I
wondered what was now
planned to take place in his absence.
Nevison Nyashanu, a senior Zapu official, told me that in discussions
with
the prime minister, Dr Nkomo had originally asked for 10 seats in
parliament
and five in the senate. Mugabe accepted this, but then called him
back and
said he needed more room to manoeuvre. Nkomo then agreed on seven
seats in
parliament and three in the senate.
So there was an understanding
that was probably all along designed for
scuttling. Nevison confirmed that
it was believed by Zapu that their
candidates were to be integrated into a
Zanu list (thirteen for parliament
and seven for the senate), that there
would be no party labels and even no
election. The list totalling 20 for
parliament and 10 for the senate, would
simply be accepted by the remaining
parliamentarians acting as an electoral
college and this would be a further
step towards unity.
Nevison had held a high position on the Public
Service Commission. He
was then detained and abused in an unsuccessful
attempt to force him to give
evidence against people such as Edward Ndlovu
MP, accused of treason. When
charges were dropped against the accused,
Nevison was released but was
sacked from the commission. I saw Ibbo Mandaza,
who headed the commission
after that, and said how unfair the sacking of
Nevison was. Nevison himself
had never been charged with anything, I said to
Ibbo. His real crime had
been to be brave enough to stand for PF Zapu
against Dr Bernard Chidzero in
the 1985 election.
Ibbo
justified the action by saying that the fact that Nevison had
been detained
showed he was political. I doubted that anyone in Zimbabwe
could be
classified as more political than Ibbotson Mandaza.
* Excerpt
from Judith Todd's latest book, Through the Darkness; A Life
in Zimbabwe,
available from www.zebrapress.co.za.
Zim Standard
sundayview by
Brilliant Mhlanga
AS a person from Matabeleland, I wish to respond
to the statement
posted by the Spanish Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Santiago
Martinez-Caro.
His statements are part of the dismissive discourse
which seems not to
be addressing the core issues of the people of that
region. The Ambassador
wishes to encourage us to forget about the horrors
committed on us and the
loss of our loved ones; an act which was done in the
fashion of Hitler's
Holocaust.
A critical mind gleans a
summative amount of unsaid issues from the
Ambassador's statement alone. One
is puzzled therefore to note that the
Ambassador tacitly embraces the
notions of the one who commented carelessly,
as if seeking to dismiss what
Gorden Moyo said, about the talks, the history
of negotiations and Unity
Accord, Matabeleland and the unfortunate dark
patches in our history as a
nation.
It would appear, the Ambassador does not have deeper
knowledge of what
happened to the people of Matabeleland, during the
Gukurahundi period. This
probably explains his wish for us to follow the
Spanish model. I respect his
wish, but it might not work in an environment
where the political nuances
and contexts are different. I believe this is
why certain models have not
worked in Africa.
If Moyo said it
and the Ambassador has issues with it, I then wish to
request that we do not
blame Moyo, but the people of Matabeleland for having
been killed and
continuously labouring in their toil to try and talk about
their
ill-treatment and calling for a just cause. We should then agree to
blame
them on history, because their actions are a total summation of an
unjust
historical act on them. One would have expected them to talk about
it.
However, I wish to emphatically stress to the Ambassador
that the
Gukurahundi genocide did take place. Maybe he was simply not aware
of it. A
lot has been written and said about it lately. I will not delve
into the
details of it now. I will be happy if he could approach the crisis
of the
down-trodden masses - our crisis, with an open mind seeking to
strategically
engage us in mapping out a constructive way forward, than
showing us a
dismissive attitude.
I say so because from his
statement the words, "retribution for past
activities, on a regional and
ethnic basis" seem not to be a positive
gesture of nudging positive
solutions for Zimbabwe as a whole. If anything
those words criminalise and
trivialize an otherwise open, honest and candid
expression, seeking to show
the deeper meaning of the politics of Zimbabwe.
These statements tend to
soil various civil society initiatives to forge for
a forum to openly
discuss the crisis of the people of Matabeleland,
particularly the genocide.
And so it tends to impede any positive move aimed
at addressing the
political crisis in Zimbabwe. I therefore submit that it
is a sign that we
cannot easily ignore and relegate it to a historical
non-event. It happened
and we must find a common solution to it as
Zimbabweans.
I
would surely be among those who are happy to acknowledge that what
Moyo did
was the best given the circumstances. The effort alone must be
commended,
given, that very rare occasion where an entourage of ambassadors
visited
that part of the country; a seemingly God-forsaken region in all
respects.
The problems of Matabeleland are quite dissimilar to those of
Harare where
he is stationed. Venturing into most marginalized regions with
that in mind
tends to help in the avoidance of what might end up being
perceived by the
indigenous people as some kind of "deliberate vagueness".
Such
actions and statements can even be more divisive if
inappropriately put
across. In this case I humbly submit that the statements
by the ambassador
of Spain are surely divisive and uncalled for. They seek
to trivialize the
crises the people of Matabeleland have gone through since
1980. Indeed, the
people of Matabeleland have an unresolved problem: they
have seen very
little of development.
I can confirm this by reminding the
ambassador what the Minister of
Health, Dr David Parirenyatwa, said when he
visited hospitals in Bulawayo.
He openly lamented Matabeleland's
marginalization and regretted that this
had been going on for a long time.
This was widely covered in the media in
Zimbabwe, even by the state
media.
I wish to submit to the Ambassador that some of these
unresolved
issues seem not to be part of the broader arrangement of the SADC
initiated
talks. As a result, the approach to the talks is a blanket
mindset, hinged
on a general assumption that the crisis is truncated within
the locus of the
so-called "national agenda", and that what happened to
other sections must
be swiftly swept under the carpet.
I am
not sure whether the ambassador is aware that this is likely to
cause more
problems in future. In my view Zimbabwe's problems are bigger
than that
approach by a group of the selected "wise ones".
There is need
therefore for an all-embracive approach which
encompasses a wide section of
Zimbabwe's troubled groups. I wish to further
pose the following questions:
Is it not a paradox that the nexus of the
talks discusses Mugabe's exit
package, yet it ignores one of the major
causes for his unrelenting grip on
power, the Gukurahundi genocide? If it is
so trivial, then why is it not
being openly discussed in Zimbabwe to this
day? Do we therefore have to
blame the people of Matabeleland and concerned
Zimbabweans for raising this
historical fact?
I promise to talk about it until it is
embraced, particularly by
members of the diplomatic community, including
Ambassador Martinez-Caro.
Maybe the ambassador might also want
to know from his advisors what
happened to Thabo Mbeki (current President of
South Africa) in the early
1980s when he was in Zimbabwe as an ANC emissary.
I hope the brief, will
include that he, Mbeki, was arrested together with
the political prisoners
from Matabeleland and thrown into Maximum prison in
Zimbabwe. Some of the
political prisoners never came out alive; Mbeki knows
that.
Is it not an elaborate surprise then that this issue is
now expected
to be swept under the carpet and not even raised during the
talks? I will
not delve deeper into the nuances of the SADC initiated talks
as they remain
shrouded in mystery, but I wish to comment and urge everyone
to remain
alert. Otherwise these wild leaps into darkness might turn into
serious own
goals for the opposition.
Lastly, I agree with
the ambassador's first two major points on the
talks and differ with the
rest. The points are:
1. - The current negotiations taking place
between Zanu PF and the
Opposition have to be held with a certain discretion
if they are to have any
chance of succeeding. I therefore cannot agree with
those who continuously
demand publicity and enlargement of the
talks.
2. - The outcome of those negotiations cannot be, because of
time
constraints and level of representation, a final and definitive
solution to
Zimbabwe's problems. On the contrary, I believe and hope they
will be the
beginning of a political transition which may last for quite
some time and
which will end in a national framework which all Zimbabweans
will be able to
accept.
Media has duty to report unfolding human tragedy
JUST this past weekend
we have had three deaths of people closely
associated with us. Two of the
deaths this weekend were relatively young
people - one was a tuberculosis
death, the other a sudden death in hospital
from causes unknown. The third
death was a grandmother who had been ill for
some time.
The
statistics are horrendous - 1.6 million orphans - nearly a third
of all
children, increasing at the rate of 350 a day. Nearly 1 000 deaths a
day -
the highest child mortality in the world, the highest maternal
mortality
levels in Africa, if not the world.
Add to
this 3 500 Aids deaths, 1 000 deaths from Tuberculosis, 550
deaths from
Malaria every week. Add to that water-borne diseases as urban
water supplies
go untreated and sewerage systems fail and effluent plants
fall into
disrepair. Add to even these
terrifying statistics the toll from
malnutrition and even starvation.
Yet the regime here shows no sign
that it is even aware of the nature
and extent of the crisis. Their total
preoccupation with the retention of
power overrides all other
concerns.
I doubt if we will have eight million people in the
country by the
time of the proposed elections in March 2008.
That is half the population we predicted for the country by 2003 of 16
to 17
million. It chills me to think that just a few years ago we heard of
that
statement by Didymus Mutasa that Zimbabwe would be better off with six
million people who supported Zanu PF.
It makes Pol Pot and the
Rwandan genocides look amateurish and clumsy.
In the face of this
unfolding human tragedy, I find the whole attitude
of the media
incomprehensible. Just take two headlines in the past two
days - "Tsvangirai
backs down" in The Standard and then "Violent clashes
outside MDC
Headquarters" in Harare on ZimDaily. Both refer to the story
about the MDC
Women's Assembly decision to remove Lucia Matibenga from her
post as Women's
Chairperson and replace her with Theresa Makone.
In the first
instance it was the decision of the women in the MDC to
move against their
leadership. It was the representatives of all districts
and provincial
assemblies that met and elected Makone virtually unanimously.
The fact that
Matibenga has decided to fight back is nothing new or
extraordinary - its
politics.
By doing so, she has exhausted what sympathy and support
she had in
the leadership of the MDC and the matter is now a dead letter.
Makone's
election still has to be reported formally to the National
Executive but she
is already hard at work organising the women's wing in a
way that we have
not seen for years.
But the local press
(forget the State controlled media - that is just
a sick joke) and the South
African press are making a huge story out of the
whole thing. Suggesting
that the MDC might split again (a repetition of the
October 2005 incident
that did such damage and from which we are just
recovering). That is simply
nonsense.
But when it comes to the really big issues - like that of
the silent
genocide that is killing millions of our people or the tidal wave
of
refugees flooding out of Zimbabwe into neighboring countries, the media
does
little except pick up the occasional incident - such as the tragic
story of
the man who died of starvation outside the Home Affairs Office in
the Cape.
The wholesale abuse of Zimbabweans in South Africa and in
Botswana
goes largely unreported. Journalists pay scant regard to the real
story that
is cleverly disguised and hidden by Zanu PF rhetoric and
propaganda.
The media, by their very nature, have a responsibility
to search for
the real stories in any situation and then to publish those
stories with
integrity and conviction.
The Soweto massacre was
one such incident carved into the mind of the
world by a vigorous media. Set
that against the thousands dying every week
in Zimbabwe as a consequence of
a delinquent and rapacious regime. It bears
no comparison - yet I see no
significant media campaign around this issue.
Let's keep these
things in perspective. There is only one agenda in
Zimbabwe today and that
is how to remove Zanu PF from power and replace it
with a government that
will restore sanity to the country. Anyone supporting
any other agenda, no
matter how justified in normal circumstances, is just
perpetuating our
misery and mortality.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo
-----------------
Give Tsvangirai a break
THOUGH only a sympathiser of MDC, I am concerned by your paper's
latest bash
of the MDC, particularly Morgan Tsvangirai.
Of late your papers
have become specialist in criticising the MDC.
This is not the first time
Tsvangirai and the MDC have faltered; so why has
intensity of criticism
increased now, especially ahead of the forthcoming
elections?
I
admit that Tsvangirai may not be the best of leaders in the country
but at
this crucial moment, let's deal with the "suicide bomber", Robert
Mugabe,
who wants the nation to go down with him. If you have a snake and
rat in
your house what would you pursue first? Mugabe is the biggest
liability and
threat to our nationhood.
We have enough negative news about the
MDC from the State media and
Nathaniel Manheru. To Tsvangirai and his team,
let me say this: Do not
despair; people do not whip a dead
donkey.
A T Mutingwa
Birmingham
UK
--------------------
Masimirembwa should resign
EVEN
if the chairman of NIPC, Godwills Masimirembwa did not have such
a murky
past, he should resign because of his unworkable policy of requiring
the
cost of goods to be based artificially on foreign currency inputs at the
official rate, instead of the actual rate paid.
Does he expect
fuel to continue to be sold as if it were bought at the
official rate? The
man does not know what he is doing.
M Willis
Milton Park, Harare
------------
NIPC chairman should be sacked
IF recent press reports are accurate, how
can the chairman of the NIPC,
Godwills Masimirembwa, given such a past,
continue to occupy his position as
NIPC chairman?
He should resign immediately. Failing this, the
Ministry of Industry
and International Trade should sack him. Have they no
shame?
N March
Borrowdale, Harare