Cash crisis forces Harare to suspend issuing of passports

Zim Online

Wednesday 29 November 2006

            HARARE - Zimbabwe's registry office has stopped issuing
identification cards, passports and other crucial documents to citizens as
an acute shortage of foreign currency - required to import production
material - appears to be steadily crippling vital state departments and
enterprises.

            Zimbabwe has grappled with a severe foreign currency crisis
since 1999 and itself the result of an unprecedented economic meltdown
described by the World Bank as the worst in the world outside a war zone.

            Senior officials at Registrar General's office told ZimOnline
that the office, that had managed to "just get by" since the foreign
currency shortages started, had now suspended the issuing of identity cards
and passports altogether because there is no hard cash to pay foreign
suppliers of the special ink and films used to produce the documents.

             "We have shortages of chemicals to develop films and we are
expecting to be able to resume issuing these documents in January," said one
official, who declined to be named because he did not have the permission of
Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede to disclose such information to the Press.

            Mudede, whose department is the government's documentation nerve
centre and also provides materials such as ballot papers during elections,
was yesterday said by his office to be busy attending meetings and unable to
take questions from reporters.

            Sources said the registry office that used to issue metal
identity cards but had replaced these with cheaper plastic cards had now
stopped issuing even the plastic cards.

            All adult Zimbabweans are required by law to have identity
cards.

            The registry office was also no longer issuing passports except
only to senior government officials and sick people wishing to travel
outside the country for treatment.

            The rest of Zimbabweans can only get temporary emergency travel
documents enabling them to visit specific destinations.

            ZimOnline correspondents who toured the registry department's
offices in Harare at Magaba Shopping Centre, Makombe Building, Hatfield Sub
office, Mabvuku and Parirenyatwa witnessed scores of people, milling around
dejected after they were turned away by officials who said there was no ink
or paper to process documents.

            Most of those turned away wanted passports - a much sought after
document among Zimbabweans who regularly trek to neighbouring countries
especially South Africa and Botswana to look for food in short supply at
home.

            The registry department is however only one in a long list of
government institutions and enterprises that have had operations severely
disrupted because of a shortage of hard cash.

            For example, state-owned Air Zimbabwe was earlier this month
forced to suspend flights to Britain for fear its planes could be seized by
creditors it had failed to pay because it did not have foreign currency.

            And the national rail network is on the brink of collapse, with
frequent accidents taking place because the National Railways of Zimbabwe
does not have hard cash to import spares, signals equipment or new wagons
and engines.

            On the other hand, electricity, fuel, essential medicines,
farming inputs, machine parts and raw materials for industry are in short
supply because there is no hard cash to pay foreign suppliers.

            Western governments and the main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change party blame Zimbabwe's foreign currency and economic
crisis on repression and mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe. He denies
the charge. - ZimOnline

Zimdollar takes heavy knock on black market

Zim Online

Wednesday 29 November 2006

      BULAWAYO - The Zimbabwe dollar took a heavy knock against major
currencies at the weekend on the illegal parallel market as a seven-year old
economic crisis showed no signs of slowing down.

      The bulk of foreign currency is traded on the illegal parallel market.

      On Tuesday, the Botswana pula and the South African rand were trading
at Z$360 and $320 respectively up from the $300 and $280 the two currencies
were selling at during last weekend.

      The United States dollar is now trading at $2 400 against the weekend
rate of $1 800 while the British pound rose from $2 700 to $3 200.

      Traditionally, foreign currency parallel market rates tend to go down
significantly towards the Christmas season as Zimbabweans working in the
region flood the market with foreign currency.

      "Very few people seem to be coming back home due to the prevailing
economic hardships here and this has kept the demand for foreign currency
higher than the supply.

      "The crackdown on the black market by both ZANU PF youths and the
police has also affected the rates as those dealers who are brave enough to
take chances strive to make a killing," said a Bulawayo-based economic
analyst who requested not to be named.

      Zimbabwe is in its seventh year of a bitter economic recession that
has seen inflation shooting to 1 070.2 percent, the highest in the world
outside a war zone.

      A near-worthless currency is only one of a litany of severe symptoms
?of an economic meltdown, critics blame on state mismanagement.?

      The meltdown has also spawned shortages of food, fuel, electricity,
?essential medicines and just about every basic survival commodity. -
ZimOnline

Jonathan Moyo lied over war credentials, court told

Zim Online

Wednesday 29 November 2006

      BULAWAYO - Ruling ZANU PF chairman John Nkomo on Tuesday accused
former information minister Jonathan Moyo of lying that he took part in
Zimbabwe's 1970s war of liberation against white settlers.

      Nkomo made the remarks as he testified in a Z$200 million defamation
lawsuit filed by the former information minister at the High Court in
Bulawayo.

      Moyo is suing Nkomo and ZANU PF politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa for
defamation after the two said he had plotted a coup against President Robert
Mugabe and other senior ruling party officials about two years ago.

      Testifying before Justice Francis Bere in Bulawayo yesterday, Nkomo
said Moyo was never at all in the liberation struggle.

      "I never met him, I did know not him and I have never met anyone who
says they knew him and even in the camps that he says he was, I never had
the privilege of knowing he was there, " �Nkomo told the court.

      Moyo in his evidence in chief had indicated that he took part in the
war of liberation and had been in camps in Tanzania and in Zambia.

      Nkomo, who is the first defendant, also told the court that Moyo had
hatched a plot to defy a decision by the ruling party's Politburo in
November 2004 that one of the two vice-presidents be a woman.

      Nkomo said a meeting called at the Rainbow Hotel in Bulawayo in
November 2004, which was attended by six provincial party chairmen, was
convened by Moyo to defy the Politburo decision that one of the two
vice-presidents be a woman.

      He said a list of the presidium drawn up by Moyo did not include Joice
Mujuru as a candidate for the vice-presidency.

      Mujuru was involved in a fierce battle with former parliamentary
speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa for the vice-presidency of ZANU PF.

      "The meeting in Bulawayo at the Rainbow Hotel was to defy the
Politburo decision to elevate Vice-President Mujuru and at the meeting a
list that did not include Mujuru had been compiled for onward transmission
to Harare in defiance of the politburo decision," Nkomo said.

      Nkomo and Dabengwa are being represented in the case by Francis
Chirimuuta of Gula-Ndebele and Partners.

      The case continues on Wednesday with Nkomo expected to round up his
evidence in chief in the matter.

      Among those still expected to testify in the case are the Minister of
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, the Deputy
Minister of

      Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Abedinigo Ncube, the Deputy
Minister of Environment and Tourism, Andrew Langa, and war veterans leader,
Joseph Chinotimba. - ZimOnline

Zimbabwe army says cellphones danger to security

Reuters

Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:34 AM GMT

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's military has said the country's mobile phone
operators are threatening national security by using independent connections
to the outside world, official media reported on Tuesday.

"The mobile service providers have their own international gateway system,
and from a security point of view, this is dangerous to the state because we
need to monitor traffic coming in and outside, but at the moment we can
not," the Zimbabwe Defence Forces director for communications, Colonel
Livingstone Chineka, was quoted by the Herald newspaper as saying.

Chineka said the three mobile phone firms should route international calls
through the state-owned fixed line operator TelOne, and not use their own
gateways, in order to make it easier to monitor international traffic.

There was no immediate comment from the three operators.

A Zimbabwe court this month suspended a government statute forcing mobile
operators to route international calls through TelOne after a challenge by
the country's two private firms, Econet Wireless and Telecel Zimbabwe.

The two companies had argued that re-routing calls through TelOne was meant
to subsidise the loss-making state company. Net*One, the third mobile
operator, is government-owned.

Zimbabwe early this year unveiled a proposed law that would give it
authority to monitor phones and mail -- both conventional and Internet -- to
protect national security and fight crime.

Rights groups say the "Interception of Communication Bill" is part of a
crackdown which has included tough policing and political intimidation to
stifle criticism of an economic crisis many blame on President Robert
Mugabe's policies.

Chineka, who was giving evidence on the bill, said security forces would
give their input before the proposed law is passed by parliament, adding
that mobile operators should be given at least a month to be connected to
TelOne's gateway.

"We want to listen, to make sure the nation is safe. If we liberalise the
gateways then it means there would be a group of people who would
communicate without our knowledge," Chineka was quoted as saying by the
government-controlled daily Mirror.

Econet has the largest subscriber base in Zimbabwe and is in the process of
adding a further 300,000 customers before the end of the year to take its
client numbers to 800,000.

The company, listed on the Zimbabwe stock exchange, has said that if
incoming traffic for customers on mobile networks is diverted to TelOne,
private mobile companies would be unable to raise foreign currency to settle
bills with operators overseas.

One very brave man and New Labour's shameful silence

Daily Mail

10:36am 28th November 2006

On radio 4' s Today Programme yesterday morning, the Archbishop of Bulawayo,
Pius Ncube, told listeners what has become of his benighted country,
Zimbabwe, during the terror of Robert Mugabe.

The life expectancy of a male is 37, of a woman 34. Poverty, malnutrition
and Aids are rife. From being the second or third richest country in
sub-Saharan Africa 25 years ago, Zimbabwe has become one of the poorest.

My feeling is that most people do not care very much, although I am sure
they are sympathetic. What is particularly strange is that the Left - which
used to set its clock by what happened in Zimbabwe when it was called
Rhodesia - apparently cares least of all.

The great foreign policy issues that got the Left going in the 1960s and
1970s were the Vietnam war, the iniquities of the Greek colonels - and
Rhodesia.

When its white Prime Minister, Ian Smith, declared independence from Britain
in 1965, Jeremy Thorpe, the then leader of the Liberal Party, suggested that
British troops should take back the country by force. So too did some
leading churchmen, though the British Government declined to follow their
advice.

For years Mr Smith was one of the Left's most hated men. Until Robert Mugabe
won power in 1980, the supposed evils of 'white minority rule' remained an
obsession for all self-respecting Lefties.

My own impression, on first visiting the country in 1978, was that it was
far from being the moral cesspit that had been made out. Nevertheless,
newspapers like the Guardian and the Observer, and countless Labour and
Liberal MPs, told us otherwise.

On Mugabe's election, the Left sang his praises. Tony Benn (then on the far
Left of the Labour Party, now the nation's favourite grandfather) wrote in
his diaries that he could not 'remember anything giving me so much plea-sure
for a long time'.

In truth, there was already ample evidence of Mugabe's ruthlessness in the
civil war that had raged in Rhodesia.

FOR years his Leftist admirers - and a good many Tories - continued to find
no fault with him. A blind eye was turned when he ordered the covert
massacre of thousands of Matabele, a minority tribe in the south of the
country, in 1984.

The Tory Government of the time cheerfully sold him arms, including
aircraft. The general view in the Foreign Office was that Mugabe was
basically a good egg.

This same good egg is responsible for nearly all the terrible things that
have happened. Several years ago he confiscated most of the highly
productive white-owned commercial farms, and redistributed them among his
friends and cronies.

A country which used to export food cannot begin to feed itself. There is
widespread malnutrition and some actual starvation.

Mugabe can hardly be blamed for the Aids epidemic mentioned by the
Archbishop of Bulawayo, since it is afflicting the whole of southern Africa.
But he can, and should, be blamed for the collapse of the economy (inflation
is 2,000 per cent) which means that Aids sufferers enjoy even less health
care than they do in neighbouring South Africa.

He most certainly can be held responsible for the bulldozing of shanty
towns, the suppression of a free Press, and the persecution, and sometimes
torture, of his political opponents.

Here is a human disaster which even by the tragic standards of Africa is
mind-boggling - and a state of affairs for which, as the former colonial
power that paved the way to Mugabe's victory, we must bear some
responsibility.

And yet, with a few honourable exceptions, our media and politicians are
mostly silent - or uninterested. Far more fuss is made of the admittedly
appalling situation in Darfur, which David Cameron has just visited.

And although it has been banned from Zimbabwe, the BBC could make more of an
effort to report the country's terrible human rights abuses.

During the period of white minority rule, it was not banned from Rhodesia,
and its coverage of the Smith regime was consistently critical.

Most shocking of all, if not very surprising, is the utter indifference of
the Left, which once regarded the condition of Rhodesia as one of the great
injustices of the world.

Now there are far greater injustices there - on my last visit to the country
I could find no one who did not think Robert Mugabe much more wicked than
Ian Smith - and yet no one on the Left seems the slightest bit interested.

Take, for example, that formidable Lefty Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee,
whom the Tory Party is now strangely clasping to its bosom.

We may be sure that 30 years ago Polly would have joined, if not led, any
anti-Ian Smith demonstration, and, if asked, might have sent food parcels to
Mugabe's freedom fighters.

Yet Polly, like all of her ilk, hardly ever writes about Zimbabwe's poverty
and malnutrition. However, if Ian Smith, now frail and very elderly, were to
visit this country, we can be sure that they would eagerly pick up their
pens in indignation.

All this teaches us is that the fulminations of intellectuals about foreign
countries reflect their own preoccupations rather than a true concern for
the unfortunate people who live in those places.

Controversies which seem to be about what happens abroad are often really to
do with home-grown ideological disputes. Ian Smith - a wartime pilot in the
RAF, incidentally - was represented as a white racist, and so became the
focus of swirling hatreds. As a former freedom fighter and Marxist, the
infinitely nastier Robert Mugabe does not fit into the Left's hall of
infamy, however many outrages he has committed.

You would scarcely imagine, to judge by New Labour's indifference - or is
amnesia an apter word? - that until just over 25 years ago, Zimbabwe was a
British colony and responsibility.

Tony Blair has raved about re-ordering countries such as the Congo and
Rwanda, over which Britain never had any control, but he has been unprepared
even to lift a finger for the poor persecuted people of Zimbabwe.

If we had spent one tenth of the resources on Zimbabwe that we have on Iraq,
and devoted a hundredth of the time and energy, something could have been
done. The same is true on a wider scale of the United States.

A fraction of the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been wasted in
reducing Iraq to a pul-versised and divided mess of a country could have
improved the lot not just of Zimbabweans but of the whole of the continent.
For all their protestations, the American neo-Conservatives are no more
exercised by the plight of Africans than Polly and her crew.

If Africa is a reproach to all of us, Zimbabwe is our particular shame. Pius
Ncube, Archbishop of Bulawayo - a brave man who dares to criticise Mugabe
openly in a vicious police state - won't take much more back to his people
than some empty good wishes. From Left-wing intellectuals and New Labour,
and, I fear, from David Cameron's new Tories, the message is the same. We
don't really care.

Enos Nkala statement on planned book

New Zimbabwe

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following is a statement by former Defence Minister Enos Nkala on a new
book that he is writing. He declares: "I am ready to spend the last days of
my life in Mugabe's prisons in defence of the legal, constitutional and
civil rights of the precious people of Zimbabwe":

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Enos Nkala
Last updated: 11/29/2006 04:25:20
ROBERT came into the political scene of this country in 1961. We had invited
him to join us. At this time he was a teacher in Ghana. He came while on
leave. I then shared a platform with him at Cyril Jennings Hall in May of
that year.
He spoke very well and we were impressed by his eloquence. At this time I
was secretary general of the National Democratic Party (NDP) which had been
formed on the 1st of January 1960.

Because of his eloquence and his clarity of issues, he impressed us and the
central committee sat and agreed that we should approach him and ask him to
join us. Morton Malianga and I were asked to approach him so that he could
join us in the struggle for the liberation of Zimbabwe.

He was staying at Cephas Msipa's house, from there we had a meeting with
him. As we got there we briefed him about our mission. Then a positive and
rewarding discussion took place. At the end of the meeting he agreed to join
us. But among other problems, if my memory serves me right, was his teaching
contract with a year to go. He then said to us he would find a way to
terminate it before it expired. Without making any reference to the ensuing
events concerning the contract all I can say is that he later joined as
publicity secretary of the NDP.

After a year or so the NDP was banned and its leadership restricted in their
respective home areas. If I am not wrong, it was for a period of three
months. Soon after their release from restriction, ZAPU was formed as a
substitute political party to the NDP. Of course, Joshua Nkomo remained as
leader.

The NDP held its national election conference, if my memory interprets this
occurrence of events appropriately it was in September of 1961 at which
conference Nkomo was elected president since he had been president of the
Southern Rhodesia African National Congress. When it got banned in 1959, he
went to exile in London. We had been campaigning for Joshua Nkomo to return
to lead the NDP, of which he was elected president in September of 1961. Of
course, Mugabe was retained as publicity secretary.

ZAPU was banned in 1962. At this time, Nkomo and others were outside the
country attending many of the meetings that later gave birth to the
Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Serious differences among leaders of
ZAPU emerged. There was a view among the leaders of ZAPU that had emerged
that Nkomo had failed as a leader. I was in support of this view. The
differences of views led to the split in the leadership of ZAPU which was
followed by the formation of ZANU at my Highfield house in 1963. The
characteristics of the serious differences that emerged will be clearly
spelt out in the book I am writing whose title will be: The Years of
Challenge.

At the formation of ZANU, Mugabe was not there. He was in Tanzania with his
wife attending to the birth of his son. At the formation of ZANU at my house
in May 1963 Sithole was elected president, deputised by Leopold Takawira,
Robert Mugabe was elected secretary general deputised by Eddison Zvobgo and
I was elected treasurer general deputised by Nathan Shamuyarira. The other
appointments can be found in the Chronicle and the Rhodesia Herald of the
following day.

I remained treasurer general of the party until my controversial resignation
in 1990 from both the government and all my executive positions in Zanu PF,
including of course, my membership of Zanu PF. I did this in total disgust
of the under-current manoeuvres of Robert Mugabe and his Zezuru group. It
was obvious to me that he wanted to clear me and Nyagumbo from both the
government and the party so as to enable him to become the dictator which he
is. The so-called Sandura Judicial Commission was appointed at his
initiation and instigation so that he could get rid of us.

It is unfortunate and very much regrettable that Maurice Nyagumbo was made
to take away his life. May his soul rest in peace. It was due to the Zezuru
Group of 26 that brought about the Sandura initiative. This group reports
directly to Robert Mugabe. It includes Zezuru judges, senior Zezuru army
officers and some senior Zezuru CIO. It is the policy making body. It
recommends the dismissal of ministers and appointment of ministers who are
amenable to Mugabe remaining in power. Should I be challenged over what I
have said herein, I am ready to elaborate and defend the position that I
have hinted to in this statement.

The critical issue that I want to raise among other things is the
destruction of the economy of this country by Mugabe and the Group of 26 and
the social fabric of the people of Zimbabwe. In everything, this group,
headed by Mugabe, has humiliated and cowed the people of this country into
total abject submission. The people of this country can no longer hold
demonstrations, protestations, or find any other means of expressing their
democratic rights.

Zanu PF has legal and constitutional rights to run the show, anyone found to
be in disagreement with Mugabe, the hidden hand of the Group of 26, CIO,
army and police, can be beaten and thrown into prison so as to induce
submission. Women with babies have been locked in police cells, trade
unionists have had their hands if not heads broken and beaten to the point
of total submission. Judicial processes have been negated by the unholy
influence of the Group of 26. Law and order, legal rights, constitutional
protection can now only be enjoyed by members of Zanu PF and those who
support the tyranny of His Excellency President Robert Mugabe.

It is my considered view that I should stand up and be counted among those
who are opposed to this ruthless dictatorship. Time has come for people of
Zimbabwe to stand up and be counted in opposition to this ruthless tyranny.

I want to remind His Excellency that I am not among those who die many times
before their actual death. I am a son of heroes and a self-made hero and
have just completed 74 years of my life with a greater part of it spent in
Ian Smith's prisons and detention camps for the liberation of my country.

President Mugabe talks, imagines and believes that he and he alone brought
about the freedom of Zimbabwe. He believes that some of us were sleeping at
home with our wives while he was fighting, this nonsense must come to an
end.

I am ready to spend the last days of my life in Mugabe's prisons in defence
of the legal, constitutional and civil rights of the precious people of
Zimbabwe. I wish to end thus far until he responds to this statement. Mugabe
must go now before the situation consumes him.

China Metallurgical Studying Offer for Zimbabwe Iron and Steel

Bloomberg

By Helen Yuan

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- China Metallurgical Group Corp., a state-owned mining
equipment and construction company, says it is examining a possible takeover
of Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Corp after it was invited to invest in the
African country.

``We just received the invitation to take over the debt- ridden company,''
Yang Mingde, vice president with China Metallurgical, said by phone from
Beijing today, without elaborating. ``We will study it.''

China's companies are stepping up investments in Africa as they search for
new markets for their products, and for new sources of commodities. Zimbabwe
Iron, known as Zisco, has been starved of investment for repairs as the
southern African country is in its sixth consecutive year of recession.

China Metallurgical Group's President Li Shu Kuan is in talks with
Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengengwi to buy a 60 percent
stake in Zisco, the Harare-based Herald newspaper reported yesterday.

Zisco is on the verge of collapse because of government corruption, the
newspaper reported Sept. 21, citing Trade and Industry Minister Obert Mpofu.
Global Steel Holding Ltd., which owns India's Ispat Industries Ltd.,
cancelled a $400 agreement Aug. 18 to increase output at Zisco.

China Metallurgical Group, formerly known as China Metallurgical
Construction Corp., changed its name in March as the company diversified its
businesses into overseas mining resource development and properties, Yang
said.

To contact the reporter for this story: Helen Yuan in Shanghai at
hyuan@bloomberg.net

China's MCC denies $3 bln bid for Zimbabwe Steel

Reuters

      Tue Nov 28, 2006 9:00 AM GMT

BEIJING (Reuters) - State-owned China Metallurgical Group Corp. (MCC) has
not made a bid for a struggling state-owned steel firm in Zimbabwe,
officials in MCC's planning and overseas investment departments said on
Tuesday.

Zimbabwe's Ambassador to China, Christopher Mutsvangwa, was quoted in the
government-run Herald newspaper on Monday as saying the Metallurgical
Corporation of China (MCC) had put in a $3 billion offer for a 60 percent
stake in troubled Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company (Ziscosteel) and was
waiting for a response from Harare.

"There's no such thing. We haven't bid for it at all," said an official with
MCC's overseas investment department.

Another official said MCC had been approached by Zimbabwe, but had no
comment on MCC's interest in or response to the reported proposal.

MCC International Corp. Ltd. chairman Li Shukuan met with several Zimbabwe
ministers and officials in late October, according to MCC's Web site
(www.mcc.com.cn), which didn't provide details of the content of the
meeting. Li could not be reached immediately for comment on Tuesday.

Mugabe's government is battling to keep Ziscosteel -- which is operating at
around 30 percent of capacity and which critics allege has been looted by
top state officials -- from collapsing after years of mismanagement.

Two months ago, Zimbabwe announced the failure of a $400 million investment
by India's Global Steel Holdings to rehabilitate Ziscosteel. That agreement
was signed early this year.

US$3 Billion Chinese Bid For Steel Firm Raises Questions In Harare

VOA

By Blessing Zulu
      Washington
      27 November 2006

A Chinese company has made a US$3 billion bid for a controlling stake in the
state-controlled Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company, or ZISCO, already the
focus of a major corruption scandal, and critics said the deal raises major
issues of governance.

The proposed investment comes just a few weeks after President Robert Mugabe
traveled to Beijing for a Sino-African summit and reconfirmed Zimbabwe's
relationship with China as one of its foremost client states on the
continent. Mr. Mugabe, cut off from Western economic assistance, has
enunciated a "Look East" policy.

Public and nongovernmental observers said Harare has not presented China's
offer to the national Tender Board for review. Sources on the tender board
and the board of the perennially troubled steelmaker itself said they have
not been consulted in the deal, announced Monday in the pages of the
state-run Herald newspaper.

The Metallurgical Corporation of China is the second Chinese firm to seek a
stake in the steel firm. Shougang International Trade and Engineering
Corporation built a blast furnace at ZISCO before withdrawing in 2005 over
Harare's alleged failure to make good on promises regarding the plant's
supply chain for coal and iron ore.

Shougang's relationship with ZISCO dated to the 1990s. At one point it
announced its intention to invest US$200 million into the steel making
company.

Earlier this year, the Indian firm Global Steel pulled out of a proposed
US$400 million joint venture with Harare, reportedly because of official
pressure for kickbacks.

This prompted investigation by the National Economic Conduct Inspectorate
and in turn a parliamentary probe into alleged top-level financial abuses. A
confidential report subsequent to a separate investigation by the
parliamentary committee on foreign affairs revealed that ZISCO owes
creditors more than US$200 million.

Economic consultant Peter Robinson told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that it is unfortunate ZISCO has been so poorly
managed, as in the current market for steel the parastatal could have
generated revenues for the state.

Members of the parliamentary committee on trade looking into alleged
corruption at ZISCO, declining to be named, were also critical of the latest
Chinese bid, complaining that it by-passed the Tender Board and therefore
lacks transparency.

Anti-corruption minister Paul Mangwana declined to comment.

For a legal perspective, reporter Zulu turned to lawyer Jacob Mafume,
coordinator of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, who said the general lack
of transparency around parastatal enterprises has led to the looting of
state assets by top officials.

Top-level corruption alleged at Ziscosteel

Business Day

28 November 2006

Dumisani Muleya

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harare Correspondent

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe's beleaguered government is in the grip
of possibly the biggest corruption scandal facing the country since
independence, one that has drawn in businessmen on both sides of the Limpopo
border, as well as cabinet ministers.

It centres on the alleged looting of Ziscosteel, the country's giant
steel-making public enterprise, allegedly by Mugabe's vice-presidents and
some ministers.

High-level corruption is increasingly becoming a cancer in the corridors of
power as top officials scramble to pillage the crumbling economy.

Vice-President Joice Mujuru, who is widely tipped to succeed Mugabe, has
been named in the Zisco saga in a report drawn up by the National Economic
Conduct Inspectorate (NECI), an elite government crime-investigation unit
run by state security.

Vice-President Joseph Msika and several ministers - including Samuel
Mumbengegwi (empowerment), Olivia Muchena (science and technology),
Sithembiso Nyoni (small and medium enterprise development), Stan Mudenge
(higher education), Patrick Chinamasa (justice), former Zanu (PF) MP
Tirivanhu Mudariki - and the late ruling party MP Gibson Munyoro are also
named.

Former Zisco MD Gabriel Masanga, marketing executive Rodwell Makuni and a
host of other senior managers are allegedly the kingpins of the operation to
funnel funds from Zisco.

South African companies mentioned in the report include Macsteel
International SA and Chartwell Capital Group, allegedly paid R1,6m and
R471827,15 in "questionable contracts".

The NECI says Zisco finances were raided through questionable contracts and
a string of payments covering controversial purchases, services, airfares,
hotel bookings, directors' fees, management expenses and entertainment
allowances.

Government officials received large sums as "entertainment allowances",
while others had air tickets, hotel bookings and food and drinks bought for
them using public funds when they were not on official business.

The report says Mujuru was given $11000 recorded as an entertainment
allowance when she visited Botswana during a weekend in 2004 on business
that had nothing to do with Zisco.

Zisco, the only integrated steelworks north of the Limpopo, is registered as
a private company but is 91% government owned. The other 9% is owned by six
different shareholders.

Zisco's group of companies includes four distribution centres, Lancashire
Steel, Buchwa Iron Mining Company and the Agricultural Manufacturing
Company. It has subsidiaries in SA, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique and
Namibia.

Muchena has disputed the claims in the report. The government has moved to
suppress it.

Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu faces impeachment for
perjury after he allegedly lied under oath to the parliamentary committee
investigating Zisco. The case against him resumes today.

Chairman of the committee Enock Porusingazi said government officials "will
soon be grilled" by his team.

Mpofu initially told the committee that senior officials, including
"colleagues of mine in parliament", had looted Zisco but later backtracked,
saying: "I'm not aware of any particular minister or senior person or MP or
anybody" involved in Zisco.

Anticorruption Minister Paul Mangwana initially said that those implicated
in the Zisco scandal would be prosecuted.

"Very soon we will take action and police will make arrests of those who
were involved in corruption at Ziscosteel, irrespective of their political
or social status," Mangwana said.

However, Mangwana later changed his statement, saying he could not talk
about the report "because it was a state security document". Later still, he
changed again, saying "a number of my esteemed colleagues are under
investigation".

Mangwana acknowledged at the weekend that there were allegations of
corruption, although he sought to protect ministers by saying that claims of
looting against the ministers were "red herrings".

State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa said the NECI report did not exist.

Msika, named in the report, said there was no looting at Zisco.

No other official government comment could be obtained.

Zimbabwe police arrest 2000 illegal immigrants

Business Day

Sapa-dpa

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HARARE - Zimbabwean police have arrested more than 2 000 people attempting
to cross the border illegally in a 12-day blitz along the country's
extensive border with southern neighbour SA, reports said today.

Thirty-one of the 2 189 illegal immigrants picked up while attempting to
cross the Limpopo River were Somalis believed to have escaped from holding
camps inside Zimbabwe, said the state-controlled Herald newspaper.

"We picked (up) some of the criminals on their way to South Africa while
others were arrested on their way back to Zimbabwe," police spokesman
Tafanana Dzirutwe told the paper.

He said arrests were part of a police blitz dubbed Operation Restore Sanity
that took place from November 13-25. Police have subsequently been deployed
to monitor more than 200 points along the Limpopo River used as crossing
points for those attempting to cross the border.

We are going to continue with our patrols until sanity is brought to the
area, said Dzirutwe.

SA, with its robust economy and strong currency is a destination of choice
for Zimbabweans escaping biting economic hardships at home.

The South African home affairs department is reported to be deporting about
300 illegal Zimbabwean immigrants a day. Illegal immigrants from East and
Central Africa also use Zimbabwe with its porous borders as a conduit to
reach SA.

In October, 12 Somalis were arrested in Zimbabwe while trying to cross the
Limpopo, while another 15 were arrested in northern Zimbabwe after they
crossed illegally into the country from Zambia.

Cross-border traders have little choice but to remain informal

From The Star (SA), 28 November

Winnie Graham

Margaret Banda leaves home in Zimbabwe once every other month to come
shopping in Joburg. She doesn't have much money but she brings with her a
selection of tablecloths the women "at home" have made for sale in South
Africa. Every item has been carefully handcrafted, each representing the
artistic talent of the different women who have decorated their particular
piece of cloth with reproductions of rock art or paintings of animals. When
she gets to Joburg, Margaret sells the tablecloths on behalf of the village
women. At this time of the year - with Christmas approaching - she will not
have much difficulty. They make excellent gifts. The money from the sale
will help her buy essentials for the families at home. Banda is just one of
hundreds - perhaps thousands - of women traders who leave their country
regularly to earn money by buying and selling "over the border". They are
known as informal border traders, "those invisible people" whose
contribution to the South African economy is largely unrecognised. The women
seldom have proper accommodation and are often harassed in the host country.
Yet, as "shopping tourists" they contribute millions of rands to the
economy.

How they get to South Africa is a story in itself. The women come by bus or
hitch lifts on trucks, bringing with them an assortment of products to sell.
They take home a range of necessities, including food and electronic
appliances. The volume of the informal trade could exceed the official
cross-border trade between certain countries - and it is often the basis for
food security. The role they play is the focus of an exhibition, entitled
Back and Forth, arranged by the Market Photo Workshop in co-operation with
the International Organisation for Migration (IOM)'s Partnership on HIV and
Mobility in Southern Africa (Phamsa) programme. It aims at highlighting the
activities of informal cross-border traders in southern Africa, focusing
particularly on the socio-economic factors that increase their vulnerability
to diseases like HIV. The exhibition was first staged in Musina earlier this
month and is currently running at the Photo Workshop Gallery at 2 President
Street in Joburg. According to an IOM study, the majority of women traders
in southern Africa are socially and economically marginalised, yet their new
lifestyle is having a positive impact on their lives. It is transforming
gender relations by thrusting them into non-traditional areas of operation.

"Economically empowered women of independent means are more likely to be
involved in decision making in their families, less likely to be dominated
by their partners and better able to control resources and benefits," says
an IOM document. Women constitute about 80% of the traders - a factor that
brings a sense of empowerment and new challenges. Yet they have problems of
their own in trading informally. The IOM say they are called "informal"
because they trade with goods, operate on a relatively small scale, do not
have access to preferential tariff agreements, often buy and/or sell in
informal sector markets, do not pass through formal import or export
channels and may be involved in smuggling. It adds that this kind of trade,
in the face of mounting poverty, unemployment and deteriorating
socio-economic conditions, has become a source of livelihood for poor
communities, mainly women. While the SA government has been actively
encouraging cross-border trade, the contribution made by the women is
usually overlooked. Researcher Sally Peberdy, who has studied South Africa's
immigration policy and the cross-border traders, says that the present
system of restrictive regulation has negative consequences - not only for
the traders but also for the South African government.

Duties paid at the border are a significant drain on the profit margin of
traders. They also come with costs to the Department of Customs and Excise
who have to administer the gathering of relatively small amounts of duties
against complex tariff schedules and open opportunities for corrupt Home
Affairs, and Customs and Excise officials as well as police. Peberdy has
found that, to date, no country in the region has a specific permit or visa
for these entrepreneurs. They do not benefit from preferential tariffs
"despite the prominence and seeming importance of these activities to
regional trade, economic development, poverty alleviation, the organisation
of regional markets and regional integration". The work focuses on traders
in the handicraft and curio sector as they are significant participants in
cross-border trade. Peberdy's report is based on semi-structured interviews
with 107 non-South African and 21 South African traders of handicrafts and
curios in Joburg and Cape Town. She adds: "We also interviewed 22 South
Africans who were employed by non-South African traders and 23 Zimbabwean
curio sellers in Harare and Masvingo, Zimbabwe. "Curios, wood and stone
carvings comprise 90% of the goods imported. The remaining 10% consists of
wire, clothes, crochet work and leather goods. Mozambican traders bring
vegetables, nuts and cloth. None of these products are readily available
within South Africa itself."

Peberdy says that although non-South African street traders are often
portrayed in the media as "illegal" and ill-educated, this is hardly the
case. The study found that more than 90% of non-South African respondents
had some secondary education. Nearly 40% had a formal qualification. It is a
myth, too, that the informal traders are poverty-stricken and desperate,
engaged in a struggle to "survive". Most are pursuing a future as small
entrepreneurs. Less than 50% were interested in finding formal employment
and less than 5% came to South Africa looking for work. Some 29% entered the
business because they "enjoy" trading and self-employment, and 7%
categorised themselves as artists. Nor are foreign migrants necessarily
flooding to South Africa to flee a desperate situation at home. They came
because of the opportunities offered by the tourist market; the strength of
the economy; and for South Africa's attractions. It also found that the
traders invest much of their profits within South Africa's formal retail and
manufacturing sectors. More than 50% spend 40% to 50% of their earnings in
South Africa. More than 20% employ South Africans in their business
operations

"More than 56% of all non-South Africans and 78% of SADC respondents take
goods out of South Africa to trade. Only 27% do not," Peberdy writes.
"Exported goods include electronics, appliances, clothes, shoes, household
goods and foodstuffs. These items are South African products which are being
promoted by industrial and SADC export policy." Studies have shown that
contrary to perceptions that "migrants, like informal cross-border traders,
carry disease to the places they visit", it is rather the process of getting
to this country that puts the traders at risk of contracting infections. In
other words, it is not their mobility that places them at risk of HIV but
the situations they encounter and the behaviour they may engage in on their
journeys. Official South African policy is to encourage trade with its SADC
partners. There is no sound economic reason why trade should be monopolised
by large South African formal-sector companies. The majority of traders from
the region enter on visitor visas which allow people to enter but not
officially trade. There is no system of trading permits in place. African
traders from outside the SADC region tend to be asylum seekers or refugees
who are allowed to trade.

Harare Commission Chief Makwavarara Draws Flak Over Budget

VOA

By Jonga Kandemiiri
      Washington
      27 November 2006

Relations between Harare residents and city Commission Chairwoman Sekesai
Makwavarara are even more strained than usual these days as her
state-appointed board presents its 2007 budget.

Residents of Ward 34 of the Mufakose section of Harare were scheduled to
meet with Makwavarara on Monday, but she failed to show up. This apparently
was because the residents were planning to stage a demonstration against her
administration.

Another meeting on Monday, in the Glenview district, broke up when residents
started to sing in protest and denounce Makwavarara, who was not there
either.

Residents complained that such an important meeting should not have been
held on a Monday afternoon when many residents had to be at work.

Harare activists complain that the budget was drawn up without sufficient
consultation, and that the process should have been completed by the end of
October.

Combined Harare Residents Association spokesman Precious Shumba told
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that more
demonstrations are in store for Harare commission members in the days ahead.

Victoria Falls faces losing its status

The Mercury

November 28, 2006 Edition 1

HARARE: Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe's prime tourist destination, risked being
delisted as a world heritage site if neighbouring Zambia went ahead with
plans to build 500 tourist chalets next to it, it was reported yesterday.

The Deputy Director of the World Heritage Centre in Paris, Kishore Rao, has
been in Zimbabwe and Zambia for high-level meetings after a request for an
investigation by Unesco and the World Conservation Union.

"We are here to assess the site in terms of the rules and regulations
governing the world heritage sites," said Rao. - Sapa-DPA

Zimbabwe urged to prepare for influx of Chinese tourists

People's Daily

      A leading Chinese travel agent said in Harare on Monday that Zimbabwe
needs to develop its tourism facilities to cater for the expected high
number of Chinese tourists in the next few years.

      Zimbabwe International Travel & Tours chief executive, Steve Ke Zhao,
told Xinhua in an interview that many Chinese were eager to visit Zimbabwe
and Africa to explore its original and unparalleled tourist products.

      "We are getting a lot of enquiries from Chinese citizens who, after
getting tired of seeing Europe and Asia, now want to come and see Zimbabwe
and Africa," said Zhao, whose company provides service to more than half of
the Chinese tourists coming into Zimbabwe.

      Zhao said many Chinese were now interested in coming to Zimbabwe
following the Approved Destination Status (ADS) granted to the country by
China in 2004, and also the recently-held Sino- Africa summit.

      He said the summit presented Africa with a great opportunity to market
itself to China.

      With millions of Chinese people flying to international destinations
every year, there was great scope for Zimbabwe to tap into the vast Asian
market, he added.

      Zhao, who has been in the travel business in Zimbabwe for the past
three years, said Africa's greatest advantage is that its flora and fauna
cannot be found in any other continent.

      "The nature of Africa's world is more original. Its tradition and
heritage is what really attracts Chinese people," he said.

      Zhao said Zimbabwe's tourism products sell well in China but bemoaned
the lack of an efficient transport system for easy movement of people.

      He said Air Zimbabwe's introduction of direct flights to China was a
welcome development, but indicated that more internal flights to other
tourist attractions such as Kariba and Great Zimbabwe should be introduced.

      "There are lots of beautiful places in Zimbabwe which, unfortunately,
cannot be accessed by air. We have to take tourists say, to Great Zimbabwe,
and bring them back to Harare for a flight to Victoria Falls. This does not
work well for the tourism sector in this country. There is need for
interconnectivity," Zhao said.

      He also bemoaned insufficient hotel facilities in the country, and
called for an improvement in the area. He said Zimbabwe should utilize this
time when the Chinese were not yet flocking in large numbers to prepare its
accommodation facilities.

      "It's just not good to have less than 3,000 beds in Victoria Falls,
home to one of the world's natural wonders," Zhao said.

      He said Zimbabwe's tourism industry was not yet ready to handle
Chinese tourists especially in terms of food. "The culture and language of
the two countries are diverse. Education is needed on both sides and I am
glad the Government of Zimbabwe has started a program to train Zimbabweans
in the Chinese language," he said.

      Tour manager for the company Edgar Sanyanga said 95 percent of their
business originated from the international market and 5 percent from locals.

      He said the hard economic conditions prevailing in the country had
seen many local people reducing international travel. Sanyanga said there
was however need for aggressive marketing of China in Zimbabwe as a credible
tourist and business destination.

      There has been a considerable increase in Chinese tourists coming into
Zimbabwe in recent years owing to government's deepening of relations with
the Asian country under its "Look East " policy.

      The Chinese company has so far employed 18 local people. Some of them
serve as managers in charge of various departments while three Chinese work
as tourist guides.

      With the growing number of Chinese visiting Zimbabwe, his company will
expand and hire more local people, Zhao said, adding that he came to
Zimbabwe also as a tourist a decade ago, and started his business in
catering sector.

      Source: Xinhua

Horror story

A long, brutal regime in Zimbabwe has cut women's life expectancy to just 34. How is this possible?

Lyndsey Turner
Tuesday November 28, 2006
The Guardian