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Copyright © 2003, Dow Jones Newswires
OTA, Nigeria
(AP)--Closing ranks against Zimbabwe's leader, Nigerian
President Olusegun
Obasanjo said Tuesday that President Robert Mugabe won't
be invited to next
month's British Commonwealth summit here.
Mugabe has said he
expects to attend, raising the threat of a boycott
by Queen Elizabeth II and
by prime ministers of the U.K., Australia, Canada,
New Zealand and Pacific
nations.
The summit is Dec. 5-8 in Abuja, Nigeria's
capital.
"He will not have an invitation," Obasanjo told foreign
reporters
Tuesday, speaking at his farm north of Lagos.
"He can
come on a bilateral basis, but not during" the summit,
Obasanjo
said.
Obasanjo also said he hoped conflict over Mugabe wouldn't
overshadow
other issues at the summit.
Zimbabwe was suspended by
the Commonwealth after Mugabe's disputed
re-election in 2002.
Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon and Australian Prime
Minister
John Howard have repeatedly criticized Mugabe for human rights
violations in
Zimbabwe. They also have called for a restoration of the rule
of law before
the suspension could be lifted.
Some members of the 54-nation
Commonwealth have warned Mugabe's
presence could split the
organization.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 25,
2003 08:42 ET (13:42 GMT)
ABC Australia
Zimbabwe judge quits newspaper appeal case
A Zimbabwe judge
has stepped down from hearing an appeal by a private
newspaper against a
government shutdown after he was accused by the state
media of being
biased.
The Daily News -- Zimbabwe's only private daily newspaper -- was
forced to
stop publication more than two months ago after a court ruling that
it was
operating illegally without licence.
State media authorities
have blocked the efforts of the paper, a persistent
critic of President
Robert Mugabe's government as the country grapples with
a mounting economic
and political crisis, to resume business.
Judge Michael Majuru, president
of the Administrative Court, last month
ordered a state-appointed commission
to reverse its decision and give the
paper's publishers, the Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), an
operating licence.
The commission
appealed against the order, and police shut down the paper
again after it
resumed publication following the ruling, saying that the
judgement
stipulated that the Daily News be granted a licence by November 30
and did
not give it authority to resume immediate publication.
Until the Supreme
Court rules on the commission's appeal, the Daily News
will need judicial
approval to resume publishing.
On Tuesday, Judge Majuru said he was
stepping down from hearing a new appeal
by the ANZ following charges in the
official Herald newspaper that he had
"told some members of the public" that
he would rule in favour of the Daily
News.
"The effects of the report
is that I have pre-determined the matter. I think
it is only prudent and
fair, in the interest of justice, that I recuse
myself from this matter,"
Judge Majuru said in court, just before the Daily
News' case was due to
open.
He did not say if he agreed with the accusations of bias levelled
against
him.
-- Reuters
Business Day
Judge hearing Daily News case probed:
report
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
HARARE
– The Zimbabwe authorities are investigating the conduct of the judge
hearing
the case against the Daily News after he allegedly said he would
rule in
favour of the newspaper and allow it to publish again, the state-run
Herald
reported.
Quoting "authoritative sources", the newspaper said judge Michael
Majuru,
president of the Administrative Court, was being probed after
apparently
telling a "member of the public" that he was going to allow the
Daily News
to resume publishing.
The Daily News, the country's most
popular newspaper and the only
alternative to state-run dailies The Herald
and The Chronicle, was closed
down in September by armed police after the
Supreme Court ruled it was
operating illegally because it was not registered
with the state-appointed
media commission.
"Authoritative sources
confirmed last night that an investigation had been
instituted into the
conduct of Mr Michael Majuru ... following allegations
that he had told some
members of the public (about) the decision he was
going to make on the (Daily
News) application," the Herald said.
"Mr Majuru is alleged to have told a
certain member of the public on two
different occasions that he was going to
rule in favour of the Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe and allow it to
resume publishing the Daily News," it
added.
Last month the
administrative court ruled that the newspaper, which is a
staunch critic of
President Robert Mugabe, should be given a licence by the
media commission
before November 30.
The outspoken paper wants that ruling – set aside
when the commission lodged
an appeal with the Supreme Court – to be enforced.
When the paper tried to
register, the media commission turned down its
application.
The October ruling ordering that it be accredited with the
commission was
seen as a victory for the Daily News, which published a
comeback edition a
day later.
But police again shut down the paper
again on October 25, saying it was not
yet registered. It has not been
published since.
AFP
News24
'We must guard Zim internet'
25/11/2003 08:29 -
(SA)
Harare - International media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres
(RSF) on
Monday urged the Zimbabwean authorities to drop charges against 14
people
arrested for circulating an e-mail message calling for President
Robert
Mugabe's ouster.
"Robert Mugabe has already gagged the
traditional news media and we must now
speak out so that the internet does
not meet the same fate," the group said
in a statement received in
Harare.
Last week 14 people appeared in a Harare court charged with
circulating an
e-mail calling for "violent demonstrations and strikes to push
Robert Mugabe
out of office".
They were released on bail but ordered
back to court on November 26.
State media said the controversial message
circulated by the group also
complained about the country's economic problems
including high taxes, high
inflation and high unemployment.
It also
attacked Mugabe and undermined his office, reports said.
Insulting the
president or undermining his authority are criminal offences
under strict
security laws brought in last year.
The Paris-based media watchdog said
in its statement that using the internet
to distribute information was a
right that "must not be denied" the
opposition in Zimbabwe.
Comment from ZWNEWS, 25 November
The Knights of the Free Lunch
By Michael Hartnack
While Zimbabwe slumps into an
ever more parlous state, Robert Mugabe is
enjoying his latest game: teasing
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo as,
with the aid of South Africa, he
attempts to wangle an invitation to the
December 5-8 Commonwealth summit in
Nigeria. Opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai emerged grim-faced and silent
from a meeting in Harare with
Obasanjo Nov. 17. The state-run Herald, in a
column written with the
authority of a Mugabe Cabinet minister, mocked
Obasanjo as "an undertaker"
who had dug his diplomatic grave by failing to
join South African President
Thabo Mbeki in insisting that Mugabe be invited
to the summit. The Herald
said Mugabe had enjoyed "playfully shadow boxing"
with Obasanjo who had gone
too far trying to placate the "white racists" in
the 54-nation grouping, at
the expense of African solidarity. Mugabe says he
has "no case to answer at
all" for rigging the March 2002 presidential
elections and is thus entitled
to attend. If he arrives, the organization
faces a damaging split. Observers
here summarise Obasanjo's problem thus: he
wanted to get Mugabe and
Tsvangirai to accept an interim government of
national unity as a first step
to getting Zimbabwe back into the
international community and addressing the
economic catastrophe that
threatens to turn into a full-scale famine. For
Mugabe, the sticking point is
the word "interim". For Tsvangirai it is
"unity.’’ Mugabe would be happy to
co-opt a few members of Tsvangirai’s
Movement for Democratic Change into a
coalition on his own terms, as he did
Joshua Nkomo's Zapu in 1987-88. In
return for grandiose titles and lucrative
perks - a place at the Mugabe "free
lunch" table - the MDC leadership should
forget being spokesman for popular
grievances. Tsvangirai, however, cannot
accept unity while fundamentals
remain unchanged on the economy and, most
crucially, on democratic human
rights.
The parlous state of civil liberties was reflected by the
arrest of 14
Zimbabweans earlier this month for circulating an e-mail calling
for
protests. This was the first prosecution of its kind, although
wise
subscribers have known for years that some electronic communications
were
closely monitored. The parlous state of laws and courts was shown by
the
latest Supreme Court judgement that human rights' lawyers have no
inherent
right to see 20-year old reports on state-sponsored violence
in
Matabeleland, that Mugabe has chosen to keep secret. The parlous state
of
the economy was reflected by the budget presented to Parliament Nov.
20.
Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa used all the expected flowery phrases
about
bringing down world-record inflation and restoring prosperity. Yet
all
Murerwa's figures for the gross national product, income,
expenditure,
showed increase by a factor of six. In other words, behind the
rhetoric is a
conservative expectation inflation will average at least 600
percent in
2004. The shadowy Central Intelligence Organisation, voted
Zimbabwe $5
billion in last year's estimates, gets $62 billion in order to
snoop on our
e mails and do all the other things human rights activists have
vainly
denounced over the past four blood-soaked years. Gideon Gono,
newly
appointed Governor of the Reserve Bank, is to make a statement on
interest
rates and foreign currency in the next few weeks but the way was
pointed by
Murerwa. "Government, through the Reserve Bank, has put in
place
institutional structures and implementation modalities to mobilise
foreign
currency from non-resident Zimbabweans through the formal financial
system.
Plans for implementation are at an advanced stage and will be
disclosed in
the governor's statement." What this verbiage means is that
Mugabe wants to
milk foreign currency sent home to (literally) starving
relatives by the 3
million Zimbabweans driven into economic exile in South
Africa, Britain,
Botswana, Australia, Canada and elsewhere. Forcing the
recipients in
Zimbabwe to change their money at an unrealistic rate will be,
in effect, a
form of concealed supertax at 80 - 90 cents in the
dollar.
Having chewed up commerce, industry, tourism, and 5 000
white-owned farms,
Mugabe's regime has now turned to the foreign exchange
market as a further
source of "free lunch" patronage. A privileged few crony
bankers are allowed
to buy foreign currency at the official rate - US$1 to
Z$824 or R1 to Z$125.
Everyone else (including exporters) buys foreign
currency at the parallel or
informal rate US$1 to Zimbabwe $6 000 or R1 to
Zimbabwe $700, but sell their
received income to the regime at the official
rate. This is why, in
practical terms, a bottle of Marmite costs Z$34 000
(the minimum wage for a
gardener for a month). The shop has to buy foreign
currency to import it at
Z$700-R1, buying the currency on the black market
and adding a 100 percent
mark up for the risk they are taking. But if the
gardener is sent R20 by a
relative working for the Marmite factory in Durban,
he is supposed to sell
it on the formal market for Z$2 500. Somebody chosen
by Mugabe’s Zanu PF
gets a free lunch of over Z$11 000 - something more than
a Marmite sandwich.
There is no hope of reversing this criminal lunacy over
inflation and the
exchange rate until production and exports get going again.
Up to half
Zimbabwe’s productive capacity has been wiped out in five years
of
disastrous Mugabe policies, subjecting economic reality to
short-term
political expediency. It’s known as deindustralization. For
example, it is
no longer economic to produce the traditional money-spinners,
tobacco and
gold, and they are going the way of the once thriving textile
industry.
Producers cannot get the imported inputs and many of the most
efficient were
hounded out of business on grounds of colour. Zimbabwe needs
help from the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and from
international
donors and investors. It needs a mountain of unserviced debt to
be
rescheduled, and fresh loans. No international body will touch Zimbabwe
with
a bargepole under the present regime. Murerwa called this "sanctions".
The
message from the budget, as from the Obasanjo talks, is clear: King
Robert
and his Knights of the Free Lunch Table plan to continue their
lifelong
quest. Meanwhile, UN agencies warn 5,5 million Zimbabweans are in
danger of
starving to death before the next harvests in March.
Unions Bruised As Formal Economy Shrinks
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
November 25, 2003
Posted to the web November 25,
2003
Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg
Brutal state repression has
harmed organised labour
AFTER its antigovernment protests over the
economic crisis and repression
were suppressed by police last week, the
Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
was left badly bruised and
weakened.
Heavily armed riot police ruthlessly descended on the
labour movement across
the country and crushed its protests.
Union
leaders and civic society activists were arrested and more than 350
activists
have been detained.
Those arrested included the union's president
Lovemore Matombo,
vice-president Lucia Matibenga, secretary-general
Wellington Chibhebhe,
National Constitutional Assembly chairman Lovemore
Madhuku, University of
Zimbabwe's Prof Brian Raftopoulos, and his colleague
John Makumbe, who is
also chairman of Transparency
International-Zimbabwe.
Combined Harare Residents Association chairman
Mike Davies and Andrew Moyse
of the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe were
also arrested under the
repressive Public Order & Security Act.
A
police crackdown last month broke the labour movement's fulcrum and left
it
seriously emasculated.
In February, unions also bungled demonstrations,
only to be rescued by the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) the
following month. The MDC
also held a five-day rolling mass action in June
that brought the country to
a grinding halt.
While police repression
has pulverised strikes in Zimbabwe, it is also
increasingly becoming clear
that Zimbabwe's oncepowerful labour movement is
losing clout as the formal
sector of the economy continues to shrink.
Last week's abortive
industrial action left the formerly militant unions
severely weakened and
many of Zimbabwe's workers browbeaten.
But Matombo says the unions have
not been weakened after the failed strike,
but are "actually reinvigorated
and hardened" by police brutality.
He says it is incorrect to say the
labour movement is no longer effective
because "what is happening is that we
are now faced with a Herculean task
which we have done very well to
execute".
Despite Matombo's denial, the union's power has been rapidly
declining over
the years due to a shrinking economy.
An independent
study on labour activism done last year says Zimbabwe's
formal sector of the
economy, which accounts for about a fifth of the
potential labour force, is
contracting at an alarming rate. The research
says most of Zimbabwe's 6-
million potential workers half the country's
population are either employed
in the informal sector of the economy or
unemployed.
It indicates that
the unions' support and power has been waning due to
company closures,
liquidations, scaling down of operations and
retrenchments.
It also
says trade unionism in Zimbabwe is withering due to a
antitrade-unionist
laws.
Utete Land Report: the Details
The Herald
(Harare)
November 25, 2003
Posted to the web November 25,
2003
Harare
This is the twenty-fourth part in a series of articles
on the details of the
land report presented to President Mugabe by the
Presidential Land Review
Committee chaired by Dr Charles Utete.
iv.
Government should create an enabling environment for investment by
the
private sector and institute credit policies that encourage borrowing
for
irrigation development by farmers.
v. Irrigation water pricing
policy should be formulated through a
participatory approach and
water-pricing formulae should be worked out in
consultation with the users.
However the levying of charges on water use
from private boreholes, small
dams and weirs should be stopped because it
discourages investment in water
resource development and the enhancement of
production on farms through
irrigation.
vi. In line with a recommendation already made in this
report, irrigation
planning, design, construction, maintenance of
infrastructure, management,
and allied activities comprising on-farm water
management, should be the
responsibility of the ministry responsible for
Agriculture.
vii. Smallholder irrigation is a specialised undertaking
which, to realise
its full potential, must be supported by specialist
services in agronomy,
crop husbandry, business management, marketing, post
harvest handling, water
management and irrigation engineering.
viii.
Farmer participation should be encouraged in all development phases,
from the
very beginning of planning and designing, through to
implementation,
management and evaluation of the irrigation systems.
ix. Training of
farmers in water management, irrigated crop production,
marketing as well as
general management and operation and maintenance are
pre-requisites for
scheme viability under farmer management.
General Issues Relating to
Water
and Water Quality
i. Environmental Quality Information
System (EQUIS), a new system of
determining the chemistry, geology and
limnology of water could be adopted
as a means of assessing potable water
quality at house-hold, village, town
and city levels. The system assesses
water quality in wells, boreholes,
rivers (recording the state of running
water in canals, rivers and steams
using telemetric technology or even
satellites via geographical information
systems (GIS).
ii. Each house
in rural homes, villages, towns and cities should where
possible have gutters
installed, and water tanks constructed for water
harvesting and
storage.
iii. Efforts could also be made to capture water from the rock
croppings,
hills and into reservoirs to generate hydroelectric power or for
domestic
use and irrigation.
iv. Small dams should be constructed on
tributaries of medium to large-scale
rivers into which to pump floodwater,
which would normally be lost to the
sea.
v. As each dam is built,
efforts should be made to add a hydro-electric
installation to generate power
for the local community.
vi. Water polluters should be penalised as a
matter of policy and principle.
12. Plantations, Forests, Safaris and
Conservancies
Safaris/Conservancies
With the promulgation of the
1975 Wildlife Act, farmers and ranchers on
private land became increasingly
aware of the financial value of their
wildlife resources. This has taken the
form of sport hunting and
non-consumptive tourism, with the latter being more
significant on certain
private properties.
Wildlife ranching and
tourism in Zimbabwe has grown steadily over the years.
The comparative
advantage of wildlife lies primarily with its aesthetic
value rather than in
the production of meat. Since the late 1980s, Zimbabwe
has become a major
destination for sport hunters and wildlife tourists.
Tourism and sport
hunting on state land is managed by National Parks and
forms the core of the
land allocated to wildlife-based tourism in Zimbabwe.
In 1991 it was
estimated that 30% of total sport hunting revenue was earned
from state land.
In 1998 and 1999 this sector grossed US$21 million.
On communal land, the
main formal use of wildlife is through sport hunting
in districts with
appropriate hunting authority. The revenue earned in 1998
by rural District
Councils was US$1.8 million.
Fast Track, Safaris and
Conservancies
Under Fast Track, emphasis has tended to be placed on the
use of land for
crops and livestock, with not much attention being paid to
wildlife
production as a legitimate land use option on newly settled farms.
Yet in
many regions of Zimbabwe poor rainfall and other agro-ecological
conditions
severely constrain crop production. In those regions and even in
some higher
rainfalls areas alternative land uses based on sustainable use of
wildlife
have proven to be successful and profitable in the
past.
Recommendations
a) Wildlife based land reform policy must be
developed and used to guide
settlements in those areas where wildlife is the
most appropriate land use
option.
b) Government should consider
devising a financial package to enable new
settlers to buy machinery and
other requirements critical for a successful
wildlife operation.
c)
Allocation of a game ranch or part of a conservancy must be preceded
by
technical proposals to be evaluated by a competent authority.
d)
Technical support including the provision of animals must be extended to
new
settlers who are expected to observe land use stricture for the area.
e)
Some wildlife farms including those that constitute conservancies must
be
acquired and designated as core wildlife production zones to be offered
on
lease basis to approved Zimbabwean and foreign applicants.
f)
Resolute action needs to be taken to stem poaching, and illegal
settlements
in parks estates and stiffer penalties comparable to those now
encompassed
under the amended Stock Theft Act should be enforced.
g) Government
should seriously consider enacting a law requiring that
conservancies of
safaris be run on corporate basis.
Indigenous And Plantation
Forests
Indigenous Forests
The Forestry Company owns and manages
some 800 000 ha of gazetted or
demarcated indigenous forests in western
Zimbabwean on behalf of government.
The forests are located on the
ecologically fragile Kalahari sands which are
characterised by low and
erratic rainfall. The forests areas were gazetted
for purposes of catchment
conservation; protection of important commercial
indigenous timber species
only found on Kalahari sands; and the conservation
and sustainable management
of the resident wild flora and fauna.
According to the Forest Act , no
people should reside in them without
authority. Hence any persons and their
livestock occupying such forest area
as Gwaai/Bembesi, Umguza/Insiza, Chesa,
Gwampa/ Lake Alice, Ngamo, Kavira
and Mzola - as has been reported in the
past - should be accommodated
elsewhere or provision made to enable them to
utilise some aspects of the
forest resource under proper
management.
Plantation Forests
Zimbabwe has a well-developed
exotic plantation forest resource base on some
119 000 ha of land. Some 62%
of the planted area belongs to private
companies and individuals while the
remainder is owned by the state through
the Forest Company, the state forest
authority.
The exotic plantation forestry industry is mostly vertically
integrated into
timber production, processing, packaging and marketing in
order to increase
returns from a high volume and low value product. The
industry has invested
considerable in plantation development, saw milling and
value addition over
the last decade.
However, the proposal to divide
some of the plantation forests into small
farms of about 250 hectares form to
be allocated to individuals will almost
certainly prove
unviable.
Given the high level of vertical integration, the long
gestation period and
the contribution to the national economy of the exotic
plantation forestry
industry, it is recommended that land in this category
should be maintained
in the current state without any
fragmentation.
It is further recommended that the shareholding structure
of the existing
timber production companies should be broadened to include
indigenous
people. Smallholder out-grower schemes should be promoted in order
to
increase the forest resource base.
13. The role of the Private
Sector, Including Agro-Industrial Concerns, in
Agriculture
1. Private
business concerns are deeply enmeshed in the agrarian sector in
Zimbabwe's
economy. From primary commodity production and processing to
infrastructural
development, equipment and machinery manufacturing, input
provision and
marketing and increasingly - contract farming activities, that
role looms
large.
2. The range of activities is thus diverse, covering food crops
but also the
production, processing and marketing of commercial commodities
such as
tobacco, paprika and cotton.
3. In addition to the above,
private business organisations take on such
other activities as transport,
storage and distribution of agricultural
commodities and related
inputs.
4. However, crucial to the success of the Land Reform Programme
in the
medium to long term is the need for genuine partnership and
collaboration
between the private and public sectors in the areas indicated
below:
5 Research and Development
Research into and production of
agricultural inputs, machinery and equipment
is expensive. This calls for
private sector interaction with the public
sector institutions such as the
Scientific and Industrial Research and
Development Centre (SIRDC) and the
Agricultural Research Council and
Universities to develop local Research and
Development (R & D)
6 Transport and Storage
Transport and
storage are vital services to the farmer if his goods are to
be competitive
at the market. However, provision of the two is also
dependent on good
infrastructure of roads and communications.
7 Irrigation
Development
It is recommended that Government provide incentives to
encourage research
into making irrigation technology cheaper and therefore
accessible to the
majority of farmers. Israel has developed advanced
irrigation methods, which
have boosted agricultural production.
8
Processing of Produce and Value Addition
Processing of produce and value
addition is essential in that the country
will be able to earn higher returns
on exports, as well as creating job
opportunities. Further, the establishment
of rural growth points will entice
agro-processors to provide processing
facilities in situ.
9.
Contract Production
Contract
production of both domestic and export products should be
encouraged. These
tap into the resources of the private sector requiring
produce. Some tobacco
producing countries, like Brazil have developed this
practice to good
effect.
10 Marketing and Distribution
Marketing and Distribution
underpin the production chain. Production is
valueless if it is has no market
and ability to reach the market. Market
intelligence, knowledge of the
quality and packaging requirements of a
market are key tools to successful
production.
Recommendations
l The private sector agro-business
should be encouraged to participate fully
in agricultural enterprises at all
levels.
l Consideration should be given to the granting of tax
concessions to
companies for research expenses or where commitment has been
made to
undertake such research.
l Given the objective of creating
skilled farmers among Zimbabweans,
Government should put in place a
regulatory framework for contract farming.
This should be structured in such
a way that it proscribes the current
practice of business entitled carrying
out all farming activities on behalf
of some beneficiaries of the Land Reform
Programme.
l Given that transport and communication services are vital
for the farming
sector, Government should encouraged private investment in
the development
of these networks. In this regard, the proposed rail
concessionaires could
be one such method.
l As part of measure to
boost the livestock sector, Government should
encourage investment in the
production of affordable vaccines vital for
disease control. The quality of
livestock is dependent on the pedigree base
of livestock, which is only
possible through stringent disease control
measures.
l The
establishment of farm equipment hire companies based at rural service
centres
should be encouraged to mitigate the lack of such equipment amongst
some of
the A1 and A2 farmers who do not own equipment.
l The rural trader, who
has capacity, should be assisted to provide dealer
depots for agro-chemicals,
machinery and equipment. Bigger business entities
should work in partnership
with the rural trader and not compete for
business in these areas.
l
Agro-processing companies should be encouraged to promote out grower
schemes
in their areas of operation.
14 Skills, Training and Extension
Services
1.0 Introduction
1.1 The Fast Track process has been
successful in distributing land to the
needy. The major challenge that
confronts the nation is to make the
resettled land productive. This, is at
least in part achievable provided
appropriate skills and knowledge are l From
Page 9
imparted to the new farmer. This calls for the revamping of the
research and
extension systems. It has been established that the new farmers
posses
varying levels of skills endowment. However, the need for further
training
has been established with a view of enabling the farmers
to:
i) Utilise the land, capital and labour effectively and
efficiently;
ii) Develop the ability , given the input resources
available to them, to
choose the enterprises that will profit most by using
the technique of farm
budgeting and record keeping,
iii) Pass on
acquired skills and information to fellow neighbouring farmers
simply by
demonstrating good crop and animal husbandry practices.
iv) To be
self-reliant by seeking information by themselves, for example,
input
requirements, producer prices and other technical information
without
depending entirely on extension agents.
2.0 Research and
Extension Capacity
2.1 Research and extension institutions exist in
Zimbabwe with various
capacities. There are four public institutions that are
currently
responsible for research and extension. These are The Department
of
Agricultural Research and Extension; the Department of
Agricultural
Engineering; the Department of Veterinary Services and the
Department of
Livestock Production and Development. Complementing their
activities are
other public and private institutions such as, universities
and farmer
organisations. Given the increased number of new farmers requiring
the
services of these institutions, there is need for the Government
to
streamline their functions with a view to making them responsive to
the
needs of the expanded farmer base.
3.0 Recommendations
3.1
In order to enhance the productive capacity of the new farmers the
Committee
recommends that Government does the following:
Short-term
measures
(a) Accelerate the process of deploying extension workers to the
recently
established farming communities arising from the Fast Track Land
Reform
Programme. Research and experience have demonstrated that extension
agents
are more effective when they live within farming
communities.
(b) Identify specialised skills among former farm workers
and initiate a
programme of certification of the skills they possess, to
build a database
accessible to the new farmer.
(c) Establish
mechanisms, which encourage farmer-to-farmer training at farm
level, for
example, through tours of arms that are doing well in the
neighbourhood. This
could be complemented by training activities such as,
field days, trials and
demonstrations, farmer groups and competitions.
(d) Build village
libraries and ward information kiosks for purposes of
information
dissemination and equip them with appropriate and timely
information collated
for the local farmer (see Charter 9 (vii) above)
Long-term
measures
(e) The old and tried approaches of imparting skills and
knowledge which had
proved successful could be resuscitated such as the
master farmer training
and certification and on-farm training for
communities.
(f) The need to build more Kushinga-Phikelela-type
institutions in the rest
of the Provinces offering short and specialised
courses for farmers is
vital.
(g) A curriculum with agricultural
skills training component should be
designed for schools. Basic skills on
crop and livestock production could be
imparted to local communities through
the same school facilities; i.e.
schools could become sites for refresher
courses or field days for farmers
in the local community.
(h) It is
also recommended that a system that regularly collects and
collates accurate
national, provincial and district data and information on
farmer skills and
training needs and requirements be instituted into
strategic skills
planning.
15. The Agrarian Reform and the Protection Of the
Environment
1. While the Fast Track land resettlement brought long
awaited land to the
people of Zimbabwe, its long-term sustainability will
depend on measures
taken to protect the land and its natural resources.
Without such measures,
deforestation, soil erosion, land degradation and
siltation would occur
unhindered, rendering future economic development
unsustainable.
2. Land use practices must be both ecologically
sustainable and economically
viable as determined by prior suitability
assessments, having regard to the
three main land use systems of cropping,
forestry and wildlife ranching.
3. Cropping is the most dominant land use
system in suitable agro-ecological
zones and in irrigated areas. There is
need to ensure long term
sustainability through good land husbandry practices
and other measures
which protect the land from soil erosion, land degradation
and siltation.
Sustainability of some high potential agricultural land is
under serious
threat as a result of the rampant illegal and unregulated gold
panning and
related mining activities, which have led to land degradation and
pollution
of water bodies through the release of cyanide, mercury and other
poisonous
substances into rivers. Urgent practice steps should be taken to
control
these activities.
4. Forests are essential to control erosion,
provide energy, building
materials, fencing and fodder. They have also
recently come to be recognised
as vital "carbon sinks". Random removal of
forests is a recipe for
desertification. In addition, Zimbabwe requires
timber plantations for local
use and for foreign currency generation through
exports. There is need to
increase the area under timber plantation if the
long term national needs
and requirements are to be satisfied.
5. Some
farmers in drought prone fragile areas have turned to wildlife as
the best
land use option which is ecologically sustainable and most suitable
in
semi-arid and arid areas of Natural Regions IV and V. It has been proved
in
these areas that the return from wildlife is often much higher than that
from
livestock or crop production.
6. Comprehensive policies and programmes
are however required to ensure
sustainability in the exploitation of these
resources.
Such policy must minimally aim at achieving:
a)
Cropping systems that reduce progressively, and eventually eliminate,
soil
erosion that results in siltation of rivers, dams and other water
sources.
Silted river systems, such as the Save, should be rehabilitated as
a matter
of deliberate policy and urgent action.
b) The protection and
preservation of indigenous forests found in most parts
of the country and
especially in Matabeleland North and the Midlands
Provinces, and the properly
administered exploitation of the exotic timber
plantations of Manicaland, are
matters of great national importance. It
should also be noted in regard to
the latter that the timber industry is
vertically integrated in terms of
production, processing, packaging and
marketing. It employs some 16 000
people. The industry accounts for 35 of
the GDP.
The area earmarked
for exotic timber is approximately 155 353 hectares with
110 000 hectares
planted. Some 42% of the plantations belong to the State,
54% to private
companies, mainly the Wattle Company of Zimbabwe and Board
timbers, and the
remainder to private growers including co-operatives. The
Ministry of
Environment and Tourism advises that if the plantation area is
not expanded
the available timber resources will in a few years not be able
to satisfy the
country's timber processing capacity. This would mean that
Zimbabwe would
need to import from other counties.
c) The formulation of policies on
game ranching and wildlife conservancies
or sanctuaries aiming to achieve
equity and adequate financial benefits for
both local communities and the
country as a whole should be a priority.
7. What is required,
essentially, is a Master Plan for environmental
protection that is actionable
and that engages all interested parties as
regards its formulation,
execution, oversight and review. Aspects of the
Plan would obviously call for
engagement of neighbouring countries as
already demonstrated by the
Gonarezhou-Kruger-Gaza Transfrontier Park.
Funding Mechanisms
1.0
Background
1.1 Agricultural finance - short, medium and long term, is an
essential
prerequisite for any farming venture. Formal financing of
agriculture has
occurred in Zimbabwe since the beginning of the colonial era.
Land was held
under freehold or leasehold security. Since Independence
Government has
often guaranteed loans for communal farmers directly or
through the old
Agricultural Finance Corporation.
1.2 The challenge
facing the agricultural finance delivery sector in the
aftermath of the Fast
Track is the creation of financing schemes that cover
a whole range of new
players in the agricultural sector. Government is
currently providing the
bulk of agricultural sector. Government is currently
providing the bulk of
agricultural finance through various schemes. These
include input support
schemes, the irrigation support schemes tillage
programme and the raising of
finance through agro-bills. These schemes are
currently responsible for the
core of the agricultural production in the
country. However, they have
encountered such problems as lack of close
liaison between institutions and
inadequate resources.
1.3 The private sector has also been involved in
agricultural finance
through direct financing by banks, input support
schemes, contract farming
and agro-processor financing. Nonetheless, the need
for agricultural finance
is much greater than ever before. There is need for
collaboration between
Government and the private sector, to finance
agricultural activities.
2.0 Recom-mendations
In order to enhance
agricultural production the committee recommends that:
(a) The setting up
of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) be effected as
soon as
practicable. The success of the land reform programme will, among
other
things, depend on the provision of adequate capital.
All existing
Government credit schemes should be collapsed in the ADB;
(b) The ADB
should give emphasis to financing A1 and communal farmers. The
ADB will in
addition be complemented by the other commercial banks in
financing A2 and
large-scale commercial farmers;
(c) Low interest finance be availed to
farmers in the formative years
particularly for infrastructure
development.
As balance sheets strengthen through farmers redeeming their
loans, they
should be weaned off to access finance from the commercial
sector.
(d) The Ministries of Finance and Lands should work out a
co-ordinated
mechanism to finance agriculture;
(e) Government
continues to provide inputs to carefully targeted groups. A
new mechanism
needs to be put in place to handle the input support scheme;
(f)
Agro-processors, marketers and other private sector organisations put up
a
revolving fund to assist farmers, given agriculture's contribution to
the
various manufacturing processes.This fund could be administered jointly
by
the Government and private sector;
(g) The private sector be
encouraged to go into contract farming under
arrangements that do not however
render farmers into mere rent collectors;
(h) Government should consider
the possibility of subsidising at farm level
the production of targeted food
and other crops in order to curb excessive
price increases which may be
unaffordable to the consumer;
(i) There be targeted production for the
export markets;
(j) Government and the private sector should
accelerate efforts to find new
markets abroad; and
(k) As already
indicated elsewhere in this Report, Government should
spearhead the setting
up of farm mechanisation hire services in newly
resettled areas.
Oil Companies Face Transport Problems
The Herald
(Harare)
November 25, 2003
Posted to the web November 25,
2003
Harare
Oil companies are facing serious transport problems to
ferry fuel from Beira
into the country, a situation that has pushed up the
price of petroleum
products.
The companies are now charging prices
ranging between the gazetted $1 980
and $3 500 a litre for petrol, depending
on the costs incurred by a
particular company in transporting the
fuel.
Representatives of the industry recently met the Minister of
Energy and
Power Development Cde Amos Midzi to brief him on the
situation.
They requested to use the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe
pipeline from
Beira to Harare to transport fuel if they were to cut on
transport expenses
and bring in large quantities.
The oil companies
use haulage trucks that are costly and unreliable to
transport large
quantities of fuel.
Cde Midzi said there was already a policy allowing
the companies to use the
pipeline to transport fuel.
"That position
was taken long ago and it's up to the companies to discuss
with Noczim on
charges," he said.
Cde Midzi confirmed meeting the oil industry
representatives and said they
would meet again soon to discuss outstanding
problems.
"We met and we agreed they were going to come back indicating
how they are
going to meet the market demand for fuel," he said.
"It
will be premature to say what exactly came up at the meeting because
they
will come back again and we will discuss further."
Petroleum Marketers
Association of Zimbabwe chairman Mr Masimba Kambarami
yesterday said the pump
price disparities were a result of different
transport costs.
"We met
with the minister and discussed ways of stepping up the delivery of
fuel and
the main constraint is that we use road haulage," he said.
"The logistics
of bringing in fuel by road is not efficient and is costly,
but companies are
doing what they can to bring in the commodity."
Mr Kambarami said the
shortage of foreign currency remained another threat
to the efficient
procurement of fuel by the oil companies.
The Government in August
de-regulated the oil industry and introduced a
two-tier pricing
system.
Under the new system, Noczim would sell fuel to selected
institutions at $1
750 a litre for petrol and $1 650 a litre for
diesel.
The public would buy leaded petrol at $1 980 a litre from filling
stations,
with diesel costing $1 850 a litre.
The service stations
should sell unleaded petrol at $2 600 a litre.
The Government said it
would soon set up an independent regulatory
commission to protect motorists
against unfair practices by some fuel
importing companies.
The
deregulation of the oil industry was meant to improve efficiency in
the
procurement of fuel that has intermittently been in short supply since
the
end of 1999.
State to Introduce Tighter Measures to Curb Forex Leaks
The
Herald (Harare)
November 25, 2003
Posted to the web November 25,
2003
Harare
THE Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr
Herbert Murerwa, says
Government will next year tighten screws on exchange
control regulations to
bridle the continued foreign currency leaks
particularly by exporting
companies.
In his 2004 national budget
presentation in Harare last week, Dr Murerwa
said there was need to implement
acrimonious measures in the current
regulations of foreign exchange to
"account for and harness all foreign
currency" due to the country.
"In
order to stamp out foreign currency leakage within the country,
appropriate
changes will be effected to make exchange control regulations
applicable to
all locally registered companies operating in the Export
Processing Zone
Authority (EPZA)," Dr Murerwa said.
Zimbabwe is reportedly losing
billions of dollars in revenue due to some
exporting companies that are
failing to remit foreign exchange earnings to
the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe as
stipulated by the exchange control
regulations.
Under the existing
law, exporting firms are compelled to remit at least 50
percent of their
foreign earnings and retain the remainder.
Dr Murerwa blasted companies
accorded EPZA status for failing to forward to
the central bank the foreign
currency earnings.
He said: "Some foreign currency leakage have,
evidently, been through
locally registered companies that have been granted
EPZA status.
"The companies borrow Zimbabwe dollars and also raise
foreign exchange from
the domestic market, but retain 100 percent of their
foreign currency
earnings, as they are not subject to exchange
statutes."
Dr Murerwa's announcement falls hard on the heels of similar
calls by other
stakeholders who have implored the RBZ to implement effective
monitoring
mechanisms aimed at sealing foreign currency leaks in the hotel
industry.
The chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on
Budget, Finance and
Economic Development, Mr David Chapfika, last month said
there was need to
keep track on the use of foreign exchange by some hotels in
the country.
He said small hotels had been receiving a surge in
occupancies but were not
remitting their foreign earnings.
"There has
been a sizeable number of tourists from the region who have been
visiting the
country and are staying in three star or less hotels," said
Mr
Chapfika.
"The Reserve Bank need to come up with effective devices
like those
introduced in other sectors, like hunting, to reconcile the little
foreign
currency being earned by these hotels."
Widespread unofficial
dealing in foreign exchange involving corporate bodies
and individuals that
are siphoning the country of hard cash have become the
order of the
day.
It is envisaged that measures put in place to reconcile any foreign
earnings
to the country would go a long way in shoring up the country's
shrinking
foreign currency reserves.
Daily News
Zimbabwe – a negative object lesson in
democracy
Date:25-Nov, 2003
THIS morning, after I
had been shopping for some bread and milk, I
went to see a family. I was
offered a cup of black tea, "Sorry, we have no
milk".
And I was
given a plate of cooked ice, "Sorry, we have no bread". The
small pension of
the retired civil servant is worth less and less.
I am told Harare
Central Hospital is in a state of immaculate
cleanliness. All the beds are
covered with freshly laundered bed-sheets.
Nobody is in those beds.
There are no patients. Because there are no
doctors. Not even for those who
can pay. Let alone for those who cannot pay,
the majority.
An
anaemic woman needs a blood transfusion. Since the doctors are on
strike she
will not get one. A child needs surgery for a gross abscess in
her left
eye.
The money has been paid, but there is no doctor to do the op.
People
seek help at the local clinic, but there are no
medicines.
If you have no medical insurance and cannot pay vast
amounts cash down
at a private hospital you are doomed.
The
well-endowed fly to London for treatment (some of whom come back
in luxury
caskets). Everything becomes possible for those who can lay their
hands on
that magic medicine called foreign currency.
All this cries to high
heaven. But where are the banner headlines?
Where are the mass protests?
Where are the feature programmes on radio and
TV analysing the causes of the
breakdown of the health services?
Instead the big issue in the
state media at present is the demand of
government to be invited to the
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in
Abuja in December.
Who of the countless gravely ill people left to die in Mbare and
elsewhere
and their families cares a hoot about yet another trip of the head
of
state?
The political classes, including the heads of state of
neighbouring
countries and the continent in general, simply can no longer
look at the
Zimbabwean calamity from the people’s perspective.
They are a closed society very sensitive to one another’s feelings,
but
callous towards the "masses" somewhere outside State House and its pomp
and
ceremony.
Didymus Mutasa suggested earlier in the year that
Zimbabwe would be
better off with only half its present population of 12
million. Is that now
our secret target? Would that not be conspiracy to
commit genocide and mass
murder?
Zimbabwe teaches the world a
negative object lesson in democracy. It
shows what happens to a country
without an opposition able to play its
proper role and a free
media.
This week the trade unions tried to stage protest marches.
Around 100
leaders were arrested immediately and held in detention for
days.
The state broadcaster is entirely silent about
this.
By giving the people only selected bits of information and
suppressing
all opinions other than its own, the regime allows only one
interpretation
of current reality to be broadcast.
Partisan
interpretations of reality are never complete. They are
one-sided and
simplistic at best, and completely false and misleading
at
worst.
To arrive even at a remotely adequate understanding of
our current
political, economic and social reality we need to approach it
from different
angles and get as many viewpoints as possible.
There is more truth in a number of contradictory statements than in
one
smooth and logical presentation.
You want to read more than one
newspaper and listen to more than one
radio station to get a full
picture.
Any bright student wants to listen to several professors
and compare
their different positions. It is an intellectual disaster if you
have to
listen to just one professor as poor Zimbabweans are forced to
do.
"Zimbabwe was raped and robbed by colonialists and it is still
being
raped and robbed by neo-colonialists even today. Any failure of
the
post-Independence government is due to (neo-)colonialist rape and
robbery.
Anyone deviating from this party-line is an agent of
(neo-)colonialists."
If these are the ideological spectacles
through which you have to look
at present-day Zimbabwean reality, you are
forced to close your eyes to any
fact that does not fit this narrow mould,
e.g. the fact that the resources
of this country were robbed not only by out-
but also by insiders.
If Independence has any meaning at all and is
more than a propaganda
ploy, then it means exactly this that we have to blame
ourselves and not
just the rest of the world for our misery.
Unless the full truth is allowed to come out in all its complexity and
with
all its bewildering contradictions, we are simply out of touch with
reality
and no longer able to deal adequately with it. This is the current
Zimbabwean
disease.
Any authoritarian regime, insofar as it suppresses that
concert of
different voices which alone brings out the complete truth and
allows only
one, its own, voice to be heard, ends up cut off from
reality.
But reality has a nasty way of asserting itself. People
ignoring it
collide with it with one almighty bang.
Nature has a
brutal cure for people obsessed with their own glory of
days long gone by and
unable to face the future. Death removes them from the
scene, one by one, and
relegates them to that mythical world of past heroes
they are so fond
of.
Unless Zimbabweans are given full access to information, to the
good
news as well as to the bad, to the news they like and the news they
loathe,
they will go on living in fairyland.
Unless they are
getting used to the cut and thrust of a free exchange
of views, at village
councils, in parliament or on the market place of the
media, they will not be
able to come to grips with the real world.
Africa was raped and
robbed. True. But African elites have also done
an awful lot of raping and
robbing themselves and are still doing so.
Unless you are prepared
to accept both these two perspectives, one
more alarming than the other, you
will never be able to explain why those
people die prematurely at home rather
than being cared for in our health
care institutions.
By Fr
Oskar Wermter SJ