Discuss the 2002 Budget with the MDC!
TUESDAY 6 Nov 6 pm (NOT Monday) at
MANDEL Training Centre (crnr
Adylinn/Marlborough Dr opposite
CFU)
Discussant-Dr Daniel NDLELA Economist
Organised by Trudy
Stevenson
MP Harare North
Secreatry for Policy and Research
*Meet
at Mandel EVERY MONTH
Together we can complete the change to a better life
for all Zimbabweans.
The power is in our hands.
COMMERCIAL
FARMERS' UNION
Farm Invasions and Security Report
Thursday 1
November 2001
This report does not purport to
cover all the incidents that are taking place in the commercial farming areas.
Communication problems and the fear of reprisals prevent farmers from reporting
all that happens. Farmers names, and in some cases farm names, are omitted to
minimise the risk of reprisals.
NATIONAL REPORT IN
BRIEF:
· Horseshoe – man locked in his
house over a labour dispute
· Horseshoe - owner has been
evacuated from his farm
· Work stoppages, displacements of farm
workers and extortion continue to occur
· Burning of grazing is compounding the
difficulties of cattle management
created by seasonal effects and foot-and-mouth
restrictions
· Demands to remove cattle entirely from
occupied farms are widespread as some settlers begin to plant maize in lands
prepared by farm owners
REGIONAL REPORTS
MASHONALAND
CENTRAL
Bindura - On Thursday afternoon the settlers on Brockley
Farm asked to speak to the owner who contacted the DA and was told not to speak
them. A commercial vehicle hired to transport a tobacco machine to the farm was
prevented from delivering the machine. On Thursday on Duiker Flats all work was
stopped under instruction from one Mutungire in an attempt to extort water and
other items from the owner. The illegal settlers formed a human barricade across
the gates preventing anyone from entering or leaving the premises. The police
response to this incident was totally biased in favour of the settlers. On
Frinton Farm an Agritex Officer and six helpers began pegging Rhodes Grass
paddocks. On Sunmount Estates unidentified men arrived on his farm and began
marking the trees with numbers of plots. When asked for papers they could not
produce them but said that the Lands Committee had sent
them.
Glendale - Tractors with ploughs and harrows arrived
on some of the farms in the district.
Horseshoe - On Blue
Grass Farm the owner’s partner was locked in his house over a labour dispute.
On Camsasa Farm the owner has been evacuated from his farm and all irrigation of
his tobacco crop has been stopped. On Amajuba Farm all work on the coffee
plantation has been stopped. On Naini Tal Farm the owner has been accused of
setting fires.
Mvurwi - Farfields Farm was pegged for
resettlement and illegal settlers arrived to claim the land that they said had
been allocated to them.
Tsatsi - On Rivers Farm illegal settlers stopped the
planting of tobacco after only two of the intended 40 hectares had been planted.
The situation remains unresolved. On Glen Devon Farm the resident war veterans
stopped the labourers from cutting gum poles and thatching grass. On Howick
Estates 30 illegal settlers arrived and began building huts. The invader who
goes by the name of Bote informed the owner that he no longer owned the farm and
that the farm had been legally given to them by the Government. The farm is not
listed for acquisition and no Section 5 has been issued to the owner. There
have been no changes on the farms where work stoppages are
continuing.
Victory Block - The labourers on Msitwe Farm, in
fear of being made redundant, attempted to return to work on Tuesday but the
illegal settlers threatened the manager with violence which then caused the
women to become involved. They were very brave and loud but in retaliation for
this the illegal settlers slashed 5000 tobacco plants (approximately 1 hectare)
that had already been planted. The Mvurwi Police were called to the scene but
they did not arrest the culprits The illegal settlers also burnt a paddock with
Rhodes Grass. Tensions are high on the farm between farm workers and illegal
settlers. The owner of Undercragg Farm was visited by a uniformed soldier who
stated that he was a plot holder on the farm and requested to rent a building in
the farm village to use as a grinding mill. The soldier was accompanied by a
Government Official from Harare (Arnold Kapisa) and three unknown men. The
request was denied and Kapisa later told the labourers that the owner had been
told to state when he intended to leave the farm. 32 illegal settlers led by
Mhaka stopped a tractor that was ridging. When the workers attempted to discuss
the matter with them they were threatened with violence. The tractor and workers
left the land and stated that they would return to work on Tuesday. The matter
has not been resolved. On Mount Fatigue Farm a police support unit Landrover
arrived on the farm with representatives from the Lands Committee, army and
police. Amongst them was a Mr.R.Marime, Mr.Kaningoni and one other man
representing the war veterans. The owner was informed by the representatives of
the Lands Committee Members that normal farming operations would be allowed on
unpegged lands. Under no circumstances was the farmer allowed to go anywhere
near officially pegged lands. The question of the 12 hectares of irrigated
tobacco that had already been planted was raised - because of the fact that it
lay within some of the pegged area. The farmer explained to them that the
ridging and fertilising had been done in August, prior to the land being pegged
on the 26th and 27th of September. The people concerned accepted that this was
an error and agreed that the farmer should continue with the crop. The Land
Committee wanted the farmer to instruct his labour, in their presence, not to be
nasty to the illegal settlers. This was done! The visitors expressed concern
when they realised that there were only 5 illegal settler families resident on
this farm.
MASHONALAND WEST (SOUTH)
Norton
- On one property the owner has had to harrow his seedbeds in as he is
unable to plant and it is now getting too late. The status quo regarding lack
of planting remains the same.
Selous - On Mount Carmel most
of the rest of the grazing has been burnt out and cattle have been moved on.
The D.A.'s pegging team continues to go out with letters on to properties even
where they are unlisted and do not fit into any Government criteria. The D.A.
says these order for pegging are instructions from his superiors in the
Ministry. They remain contemptuous of the Supreme Court Order stopping this
from continuing.
Chegutu/Suri-Suri - On Bougainvillea Farm
illegal occupiers have told the owner to remove all his cattle, and the owner is
still not allowed to plant despite the fact that the farm was only listed after
the Supreme Court Order stopped farms from being listed. On Exwick illegal
occupier Makoni has occupied a store room and barns. Government vehicles
continue to be used in taking off wood. This farm was de-listed nearly four
months ago. On Mkute Councillor Dube has erected a milling machine in one of
the outbuildings, with ZESA having supplied power from their transformer for
him. On Farnham a Rural District Council tractor and trailer delivered bricks
for illegal occupiers to build with. This property is unlisted.
Kadoma/Chakari/Battlefields - On Newbiggin Farm, where the
fifteen year old girl recently had a public whipping by the leader of the
illegal occupiers there, the witnesses who reported to police have been
threatened and told to get off the farm. On Eiffel Blue Farm the D.A's pegging
team is pegging under the centre pivot where the owner is currently trying to
plant Paprika.
MASHONALAND WEST (NORTH)
Trelawney/Darwendale - Squatodzi Farm owner received a demand
for land prep to be done and maize to be milled for a group of settlers. The
police declined to record the incident as no law had been broken. On Elveden
Farm 6 vehicles moved in with a total of 49 people. One pre-fabricated house
has been erected with an asbestos roof. There are now a total of 40 houses now.
The farmer reported to the Darwendale Police who would not provide an RRB
number. Next year's tobacco lands are now occupied. On Gwarati Farm settlers
informed some of the labour that they must stop stumping as the farmer will not
be allowed to even grow vegetables this year. They continued stumping anyway.
The farmer decided to pay all the labour for the days they worked and sent them
off back to the farm village to avoid being victimised.
Lions Den
- General - The situation is fairly quiet but some illegal fires and
continued pressure on cattle and grazing. Many farmers have been prevented from
planting. On Laureton no crops are allowed to be planted and the cattle are
under constant threat. The owner has been de-stocking but the settlers are
still not satisfied and he has been told that all his cattle must be off the
farm by today. The CIO Rural however agreed that the owner cannot be moved off
the farm. He phoned the owner to advise him of this and said he would reiterate
the point to the Land Committee. The Range owner is under constant pressure to
get off the land and not to plant any crops. The farmer has to dip the
settlers’ cattle when he dips his own cattle or he faces new threats. Two Tree
have a work stoppage except for the flowers. On Dumalan settlers have claimed
the land with underground piping for their own use. The owner is attempting to
negotiate the use of this land with the D.A. The owner of Kapfundi has been
driven off the farm together with all his cattle. On Shubara no cropping is
allowed, there is limited grazing left and lots of pressure on his cattle.
Building of houses continues and settlers have killed 3 calves and set fires.
On Mutala Farm no cropping is allowed and the farmer has had to compromise on
the grazing. The owner of Zintafuli has been forced off the farm and the house
has been occupied by settlers. Poaching is rampant. The owner of Omagora has
also been forced off his farm and poaching is rampant. No cropping and grazing
are allowed on Shadows Farm, Marnette and Zebra Vlei . On West/Athens and
Akardia grazing land is being disputed and Nyamakare has been burnt out.
Fynnland’s has successfully got his wheat crop off. On Blue Hills the DA
demolished three shacks erected without his consent. Kanami are able to plant
but with threats of destruction of the tobacco, even by one Police Officer in
uniform. Windsock Farm owner has been driven off the farm. Tsare Farm is 80%
burnt out with only 100 head of cattle left. Irrigation pipes have been stolen.
On Slaughter Farm the grazing has been burnt and there are approximately 50
head of cattle left. Chief Chirau sent a delegation of approximately 20 people
to settle on Sligo Farm. On Greensleeves Farm theft of irrigation equipment has
occurred. The owner’s guards and ZRP are patrolling at night for one week.
Portelet Farm has a work stoppage and on Portelet Estates the owner has been
stopped from baling wheat straw. Cattle are not allowed to graze the wheat straw
and there are no farming operations in progress.
Umboe - On
Temperley Farmgum trees have been felled and used to build houses. There are 23
houses on the farm, 8 Families, 5 Goats and 21 Cattle. The settlers are mixing
their cattle with Long Weaners. The farmer warned the settlers that these
weaners were being fed a high urea feed, and the farmer cannot be held
responsible if their cattle die from urea poisoning. Chifundi, Gordonia and
Elmely Farms have completed combining the wheat. The settlers have burnt all
the wheat lands and now the farmer is unable to bale wheat straw to feed his
cattle. All labour on the above three farms will be paid off at the end of
October 2001 as the farmer can no longer afford to pay wages. All lands have
been pegged so he is unable to plant crops. A Lister motor was stolen by
Shepard Everton, assisted by the driver of a Massey Furguson (390) tractor doing
land prep on the farm. The driver turned state witness and gave evidence
against Sheppard Everton on condition that he is not charged. On Fupi Farm
fires have now burnt most of the grazing. On Oswa Farm the previously reported
illegal activities continue uninterrupted. New fires are lit almost every
second day. Muni Farm owner held a meeting with the settlers, but they continue
to cut boundary fences and main Lions Den/Mhangura road fence. On Kaukua Farm
the construction of houses continues, snaring and hunting with dogs is on the
increase. Ditchwe Farm and Talfourd Farm has a work stoppage. Snaring and
hunting with dogs continue and there appears to be an increase in the number of
people visiting over the weekend. On Devonia Farm fires were started on
Thursday, Saturday and Sunday night by settlers which totally burnt out
approximately 100 ha. On Highbury Estates two settlers approached management and
stated that they wanted tractors to plough for them. The request was denied.
Land prep and normal farm operations continue without interference.
Doma - 3 Farms are not working : Northend, Kismet and
Vrede. A blue Land Rover went to pick up a war vet at Chiridsa Farm and the
occupants loaded a 7.5 hp Relmo motor as well.
Karoi -
Settlers have planted tobacco, maize and cotton in the tobacco ridges prepared
by the farmer. As at the 29th October, a full work stoppage continues. The D.A.
Karoi made an agreement with the farmer and settlers on co-existence and said
that if any settler broke the agreement the police would arrest them. The
settlers told the farmer that the D.A.'s agreement is scrapped as the settlers
own the land and the farmer must negotiate with each plot holder individually.
The farmer has decided to give most of his labour notice as obviously no
agreement is binding with any of these people. Ardingly Farm resident settlers
protested against the farm labourers gleaning the wheat fields. A settler by the
name of Jack threatened to burn the wheat straw and carried out his threat.
Extensive poaching continues unabated on Yawanda Farm. Large packs of dogs are a
frequent sight. The farm has not been successful in its attempts to restart full
farming operations. No arrests have been made despite the farmer’s tireless
efforts to report all cases of lawlessness to the Z.R.P.
Ayrshire
- Chiwe reports a work stoppage.
Chinhoyi -
The Range Farm has not been allowed to destroy his cotton crop and is not
allowed to bale his wheat straw. Two Tree Hill Farm owner met with settler
Vitalis Guta who had two houses burnt down in a fire started by other settlers
who were burning wheat lands. After avoiding a confrontation, the owner had a
panic radio signal from Two Tree Farm that all three foremen had been abducted
by "Vitalis-Guta". As a result of the police reaction to the abduction report
settlers have burnt all grazing and much of the wheat stubble. They have 300
cows with calves that will definitely die if the farmer cannot find alternative
grazing.
Nyabira - A large demonstration was held which
involved two new Renault tractors at Spa Farm. The ZRP were in attendance with
many other government vehicles. However, only a few ha. were planted. Fencing
on Upwey Farm has been stolen and the building of houses is taking place along
the road to Lilfordia. The seed maize producers remain concerned that the 300
meter sanitary zone cannot and will not be respected.
MASHONALAND EAST
Wedza - Newton
Farm had 10 irrigation sprinklers stolen whilst in use. On Fair Adventure a
reedbuck was shot. Another 3 fires were started on Rapako. Two cows were found
in snares and shots were heard in the night. 1 sable and 1 reedbuck were
slaughtered and 1 Impala snared. Snaring is on the increase. Leapyear 25 x 3"
pipes were stolen. A cream Nissan truck Reg. No 377-115G was seen and 17 damaged
pipes were recovered. On Markwe with the help of some of the illegal settlers
the owner's son caught one member of a gang stealing irrigation pipes, after
interrogation by the illegal settlers he told them there were 3 more in a truck.
After a chase in a vehicle they managed to apprehend the rest of the gang who
came from Darowa and are stealing pipes to make pots. The police arrested the
gang. 70 ha of Rhodes grass pasture were burnt on Fels together with 10 ha of
gum trees. After cleaning up in the greenhouse an estimated $15 000 000 worth of
export roses have been thrown away and 4 irrigation sprinklers were stolen. War
vets and illegal settlers arrived at Ashlyns having caught 3 people and the
driver of a 3 t truck (Reg. No. 411-475 E) who had been buying irrigation pipes
from the guard who had broken up 15 pipes and had another 15 beside his house.
On Imire another cow was poached. Snares that are cleared by guards are replaced
within 24 hours. Snaring rampant. Plymtree had 300 head of cattle pushed into
the security fence. The farm has been divided into 62 plots. At present there
are 5 illegal settlers and their wives on the farm. They again told the labour
they must move into the security fence. The owner called the police and the
labour have moved back into their houses but are very jittery. On Mbima a road
block of rocks and a tree was put across the road leading to the dam. Richard
Chirimuta, a settler from Rapako farm, led about 100 people to peg Kangewa. The
farm is not listed and has not been pegged or invaded before.
Marondera South - On Safari a drunken mob broke the
homestead fence lock and moved around the house drumming and
singing.
Marondera North – On Wingtip and Meandu Agritex are
pegging for A.2
Featherstone – On Kuruman during the night
an invader’s house was burnt, apparently by a child. War veteran Wezhira came to
the workers’ village and chased the workers out of their homes, threatening to
shoot anybody who tried to sleep in his home. At Featherstone Old Sale Pens war
veteran Wezhira, an ex-member of the Chivhu Land Committee was dismissed for
taking money for plots. He told the caretaker that if he refused to plough the
7 ha. premises he would be considered an MDC supporter, and Wezhira would take
over the land. The owners of Ngesi and Harvieston have completely destocked
their 450 breeding cows under pressure and Vergenoeg has destocked 300 cows and
heifers under pressure.
Beatrice - On New Retreat there is
continued pegging in steel in concrete. The irrigation 4'' aluminium main line
was deliberately sabotaged. Goldilands has renewed pegging. Up to 30 settlers
arrived on Brakveld in a minibus to peg this unlisted farm. The police were
informed but said they should continue with their activities. The invaders left
after an hour. Possibly the same group lead by war veteran Chitende started
planting on a land prepared land by the commercial farmer on Argyle Ranch.
Plots were being ploughed by oxen and later by the Manyame Rural Council tractor
on Welcome Home. On Maasplein war veteran Mombe stated that the farm now
belonged to the Government and instructed the manager that all work had now
finished on the farm and the labour could only work within the confines of the
fence around the two homesteads.
Enterprise & Goromonzi
– There is widespread ploughing by D.D.F. tractors
Macheke/
Virginia - MALDA had a prowler with a firearm within the homestead
security fence. This was reported to Police who stated that they would react
later in an undercover manner. Agritex are pegging on Glen Wyvis. There is
continuing pressure on Howgate by settlers for the owner to remove the cattle
from the paddock containing wheat stubble as they wish to commence ploughing.
They want the cattle to go back to a paddock with no grazing left as the cattle
have been forced to remain there for some weeks. Four head have died in the last
week from malnutrition. At a meeting held with settlers and war veteran Radoka
a compromise was reached on various matters including the grazing of cattle
during the day only. Demands that the farmer plough the settlers’ land were
refused. Murrayfield reports the widespread cutting of timber within a pine
plantation by settlers with preparation of the poles for sale by
them.
Harare South - Agritex arrived in a Ministry of
Health Vehicle on Edinburgh and told the owner they were there to peg.
MANICALAND
Mutare - On En Avante
the owner had ceded a piece of land and the DA told the war vets to move off the
rest of the farm onto the ceded land, as a result the war vets erected a
barricade across the road.
Odzi - On Green Valley war
vets/Zanu PF members have been forcing farm workers to attend meetings and
demanding transport for them to do so. This has been refused and war vet
Magondo took offence at the refusal and threatened the Owner with having the
farm closed down, told the owner to pack and go back to Britain. He claimed to
be President, Joseph Made, Msika etc with the authority of all the above. The
Police were advised of the above, and asked to explain to Magondo that transport
will never be available for such purposes, which they have undertaken to do. On
Clare Farm a piece of land had been ceded, and when the authorities told the war
vets to occupy the ceded land, they harassed the farmer.
MIDLANDS
No report
received.
MATABELELAND
Nyathi - The farmer
on Chiltern farm had a visit from Shepherd Moyo, a war vet who has caused a lot
of trouble in the district. He was drunk and arrived with a Combi load of people
and demanded to know where his land was. The farmer phoned the D.A.’s Secretary
who advised him that Moyo had no right to be there. The farmer then phoned Mr
Nkomo from the Bubi Rural District Council who spoke to Shepherd Moyo who
slammed down the phone and insisted that he phone the Governor. The farmer
refused to do this and finally Moyo left. He phoned Mr Nkomo back a few hours
later and was told that his application to be delisted had been approved and
Moyo was not to be allowed back on Chiltern Farm. Mary Ellen Farm’s Manager was
visited by 2 war vets claiming to belong to a Union called Horticulture and
Agriculture Workers Union of Zimbabwe, which the Manager has ascertained from
the ALB is not yet legal. They wanted to know if he had a Workers’ Committee and
why workers had been fired. Braemar Ranch had people who came to ascertain the
meat prices in the Butchery and insisted that the farmer lower the price to $50,
which the farmer refused to do. They said they would check prices on to other
farms. Mambo Ranch was visited by a man claiming to be a former member in charge
of a police station during the Smith regime, who asked to be shown two plots for
which he had paid $3000. The plots are supposed to be on another farm. The 9
settlers that were on the other farm have moved back to Kennilworth as they were
told by the Police that this was state land. Agritex also arrived on the farm
with a man who probably came from the Historical Society. This man was very
angry that the Agritex man had allowed them to settled on land considered holy
because of all the shrines, graves etc, and told him they had no right to move
people on to Mambo. The owner of Gravesend was told by Dumiswa Dabengwa that
he must sell him some cattle and the land on Gravesend. The owner reported the
loss of 3 cattle and said he had very good reaction from the Police member in
charge at Inyathi. Redland Valley Farm’s owner has asked to exchange his farm
for Dingaan farm, which was followed up with the Matabelenad North P.A. who also
updated Miss Siwela. The P.A. was angry and said that he was very disappointed
with her as she was refusing to de-list any white-owned farms in her district
and he would speak to her and the Governor about it. About 4 hours after this
conversation the owner's wife had an anonymous phone call from a woman (whom she
recognised as Miss Siwela) who threatened to kill her and her husband. On
Paddys Valley Farm a war vet, Mtambo, threatened to bring in the Youth Brigade
from Masvingo and kill 4 of the staff who were looking after the owners. The
farmer's wife phoned the Police, who promised to rectify the matter.
Nyamandhlovu – On Edwaleni Farm the owner reported that
there has been no improvement since September. There are settlers around the
farm homestead and the staff are cowed by the war vets' intimidation and
predations. 500 head of cattle and 120 donkeys are causing overstocking of the
farm by 50%. The farm has suffered 7 veld fires that have destroyed 55% of the
grazing area. Prime, improved grassland is being ploughed up and this will
increase the overstocking problem to 250% by Jan 2002. Settlers' lands are up
against every water point and are interfering with the availability of water.
Stockfeed has already been a major expense. The farm infrastructure is being
rendered inoperable. Police have attempted to move the squatters, but were
angrily rejected by the war vets. Wire theft has started, and what little game
is left is systematically being destroyed.
Bulawayo Lupane Road - Disused
PTC lines are being stolen and used for snares. Long lengths of wire are being
stolen in the Winterblock Area of the Cold Storage Commission Ranch. The PTC
Area Manager states that the wire should be reclaimed to construct new lines in
the Tsholotsho area and will assist by having the lines removed as fast as he
can. Two new settlers moved on to Cedar Park this week claiming to have been
sent by Gov Obert Mpofu. Content Lot 1/ Yekabiyinale - Both properties are
unlisted, but are occupied by 45 families. Settlers are continuing to arrive
and all attempts to halt and redress the situation with the authorities and
Lands Committee have failed. Foreman Felix Dube of Kennebec Farm was told by
war vets to leave the farm immediately and not to return. A heifer was killed
on Edwaleni farm and dragged onto Mkondo farm where some of the meat was
removed. Clever Ncube phoned at 0645 hrs to advise that he intended to value
Kauzaan farm. Ncube arrived at 1400 hrs with a driver in a Nissan 7 tonne truck
Reg. No. GLM 2211.and as he could not produce proof of whom he was and in what
capacity he was there he was asked to leave. Prior to leaving he said that he
had been sent by Mr Majero who could be contacted on given telephone numbers,
one of which turned out to be the National Breweries and the second number is
the Ministry of Local Government. A man in a brown Datsun 1300 pickup shot a
kudu cow on East Junction farm but before he could load it war vets living
nearby approached him and he absconded. It is believed he could be a butcher
from Tsholotsho. Following a report about D.D.F. bulldozers last week one of
them totally destroyed three steel gates on an undesignated farm whilst
proceeding to build some small 'dams'. A Police vehicle Z.R.P. 1151 driven by
Cst. Ngwenya of PISI Z.R.P. Nyamandlovu was found hunting on Cheshire farm at
3.00am. At least one of the group was a war vet, Moses Moyo, who was seen in
possession of a spotlight and an F.N. rifle. The vehicle was escorted to the
Nyamandlovu Police Station by local farmers. Inspector R.F. Ncube drove to the
complainant’s farm, an indigenous farmer, and the report was dropped. Following
a meeting at which certain dairy farmers, the Manager of D.M.B. Bulawayo Branch
and the Govenor of Matabeleland North were present, Japhet Mpofu, a local
farmer and office bearer in ZANU PF, told a farm manager that the landowner
would have to pay the squatters on the farm for their labour and materials used
to build their huts and for transport to move off the farm. Police react to a
report and the investigating officer said he would take the matter up with
Agritex.
Gwaai – On Hankano Ranch war vets deliberately
revved up the diesel engine on the borehole to the point that the borehole rods
or the diesel engine would be damaged. The owner was prevented from intervening
and threatened with a severe beating. The elderly owner was harangued for
sometime before he managed to convince them to allow him to slow the engine
down. It seems the only purpose to the exercise was to anger and antagonise the
owner. On another Gwaai property two Agritex officials who claimed they had been
allocated half each of the 400Ha farm and were going to take over the farm and
the safari company as it now belonged to them have not returned in the last five
days.
West Nicholson – On Jonsyl Ranch a further 30 settlers
have moved onto the Ranch.
Wedza Block - Army and Police
moved into position on Sunday 21st, and from Monday this week have been removing
illegal squatters off several properties in the area. Many have moved back to
their communal areas by themselves and some 500 are being moved by army vehicles
to a new area set aside for them under a local community plan. More than 2000
settlers are involved. Any resistance to moving has not been tolerated, and any
claims for refunds for payments to Councils/individuals/Committees etc have
been referred to the recipients of the money. The exercise is expected to be
completed next week. All huts are being destroyed by the army. All squatters
who arrived after March 2001 have been instructed to find their own way to their
place of origin, as their occupation is illegal. Settlers legally brought on
are being very efficiently run and co-ordinated. This will bring tremendous
relief to the local conservancy.
Shangani – On Cinderella
the cottage and storeroom were broken into last weekend and various household
good were stolen. Police have been informed, but no results as yet. On
Thornville Farm invasions are continuing to take place and building has
commenced. People arrived on Forfar Farm claiming that the farm had been
designated in May 2001. Military personnel have been showing interest in this
farm throughout the year. It was listed in April 2001.
Gwanda
- Illegal occupation and tree felling was reported on Cleveland Ranch.
Forestry Dept declared it illegal to fell trees on this property. Collen Bawn
ZRP advised the owner that the Gwanda District Lands Committee headed by the DA
is responsible for the six occupiers engaging in tree felling.
MASVINGO
Masvingo East and Central
– On Marah Ranch a fire was started by illegal occupiers which spread
into the owner’s security yard and burnt all the fruit trees. The owner is
presently away.
Mwenezi – Fires are reported to be a major
problem throught the area. Poaching is rife and there is continued theft of
wire and firewood. On KleinbeginJoco/Kayansee Ranches the court order to remove
all livestock is being completely ignored. One pedigree cow was caught in a
snare and has subsequently died. The owner of Bothasrus had a visit from the
Assistant DA at Beit Bridge and has been threatened with an invasion of people.
This property has not been invaded before.
Chiredzi –
Illegal occupiers are moving over all properties and poaching is rampant. Wire
theft is out of control and cattle are snared on a daily basis. Continued
poaching, deforestation and snaring continues unabated on Mungwezi Rand.
MDC Mailing list
Press Statement
1 Nov 01
Makoni Presents “No
Solutions Budget”
Introduction
After 21 years of Zanu PF rule, the
Zimbabwe economy is in a crisis of such
severe proportions that nothing short
of a comprehensive stabilisation and
recovery strategy would be adequate.
The budget prepared by Dr Simba
Makoni, Minister of Finance and Economic
Development instead tinkers at the
edges of the crisis, addressing some of
the symptoms of the problems but
failing to grapple with the fundamental
causes. He has missed the
opportunity to present a more far-sighted
approach, which might have some
chance of restoring confidence and
international support.
Economy in retreat
Minister Makoni painted a
dismal picture of the economy in 2001, and
predicts that it will be worse in
2002. This is not the “standstill” budget
that some were expecting, but a
“no solutions budget.” The Minister himself
had two criteria for his
budget. On the first, the mobilisation of
resources to expand the productive
base of the economy, despite all the
measures he claims will contribute he is
projecting a further decline in GDP
of 5.3% in 2002. This will be the fourth
year in a row that GDP has shrunk
in Zimbabwe, with income per capita
contracting even faster. This is
disastrous for the ordinary Zimbabwean.
This the Minister acknowledged in
his second criterion for his
budget—alleviating the suffering of the people.
Yet when it comes to the
social sectors his allocations do not even keep up
with
inflation.
Health
In the health sector, for example, the allocation is
76% above last year’s
totally inadequate resources, but the Ministry’s
inflation figure for 2002
is 83.6%, implying a decline in real terms for the
health sector. The
allocation of 2002 is one third of the target the
Minister himself mentioned
(US $21 per capita) for Zimbabwe to have a decent
health service Claims
that his budget will alleviate the suffering of
Zimbabweans caught in a
cycle of poverty and ill health, and struggling with
the consequences of the
HIV/AIDS pandemic are fallacious, since there is
evidently no real growth in
support to these
sectors.
Non-disclosure
There are some significant non-disclosures in
the statement. The defence
budget is not revealed, wages of civil servants
were discussed in an
abstract way, but no figures were given, no mention at
all of price control
and only a passing reference to the looming food
crisis. Most seriously for
the future of macro-economic stability was his
failure to be specific about
government’s intentions in respect of interest
and exchange rates. There is
thus no reason for the markets to anticipate
anything other than
continuation of the current disastrous negative real
interest rate and fixed
nominal exchange rate policies. These are the
measures which are driving up
inflation to unimaginable heights, and from the
budget statement it seems
that Zimbabwe is destined to spiral into inflation
levels of well over 100%
by the time of the presidential elections next
year.
Conclusion
Zimbabweans are a patient and long suffering people.
After 21 years of Zanu
PF maladministration, incomes are lower than before
independence, life
expectancy has fallen to below 40 years, inflation is
running at record
levels of around 86% and state institutions are near
collapse. The quality
of life for the great majority has no deteriorated to
the point where life
is a daily struggle for survival. Food is in short
supply; prices continue
to escalate; job losses run to hundreds of thousands
in the past 18 months
and are accelerating, so that about 65% of people who
should be working are
unemployed. In the coming year every sector of the
Zimbabwe economy will
show further decline in activity and output. There are
no signs that the
Zanu PF government has the political will or understanding
to arrest the
decline.
No amount of “dressing up” the stark facts can
disguise the reality. The
2002 budget shows more clearly than ever before
that this is an
administration which has run out of ideas, and is hell bent
on a destructive
course designed to protect their power at the expense of the
nation. This
stands in stark contrast to MDC: in August the party launched
its
comprehensive stabilisation and recovery programme, which will be a
BRIDGE
to a better future for our children.
It is time for change,
real change and only the MDC offers this at this time
in our history. The
power to effect change is in the hands of ordinary
Zimbabweans of all walks
of life. They must register to vote and when the
time comes, they must vote
for change in the way that the government manages
their
affairs.
Zimbabwe is a rich country and all that is needed to prosper
from its riches
is a government that respects the principles of good
governance and the rule
of law. Zimbabwe needs a government which will
implement a coherent
economic programme designed to set our country on a path
of sustainable
growth and development.
Welshman
Ncube
Secretary General
Business Day
Budget offers no hope for
Zimbabwe
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Hopes
faded on Friday that Zimbabwe's 2002 budget will help end the
nation's
economic crisis, as analysts warned the new plan could make matters
worse.
"It's a people-oriented budget, and to a large extent it's in line
with the
recent announcement by Zimbabwe that we are going back to
socialism," said
Edmore Tobaiwa, an independent economist.
The new
plan calls for massive spending increases - double for the military
and ealth
care and triple for agriculture - but predicts that the economy
will shrink
for the third year in a row.
That means the government will either fail
to make enough money to meet its
spending goals or will have to print more
money, which would send the
inflation rate even higher than its current
86.3%, analysts said.
"At the end of the day, you?re going to see that
the situation will
deteriorate," Tobaiwa said. "We're already in a recession,
it can only make
matters worse."
In many ways, the budget presentation
on Thursday in parliament was more
notable for what it failed to mention
than for what it did.
The detailed proposal of the spending plan was
still not available on Friday
because the government's printing press broke
down earlier this week.
The speech Thursday by Finance Minister Simba
Makoni largely ignored
Zimbabwe?s military intervention in the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC),
where one-third of its armed forces are deployed
to shore up the DRC
government against rebels.
"What's being spent
there, what they hope to do there, hasn't got a
mention," economist John
Robertson said.
Makoni mentioned only in passing the massive food
shortage already affecting
southern Zimbabwe, where 2.5 million people have
reportedly asked the
government for food relief.
The speech also
failed to take into account earnings losses caused by the
government?s
violence-wracked land reforms, which will "wipe out of
existence a huge
portion of the commercial farms, and a huge portion of the
foreign currency
earnings", Robertson said.
In his speech, Makoni projected increased
government revenue, even as the
tax base shrinks and businesses are
closing.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) called the
proposal a
"no-solutions budget", for failing to lay out a plan for reviving
the
economy.
In the coming year, every sector of the Zimbabwe economy
will show further
decline in activity and output. There are no signs that the
Zanu-PF
government has the political will and understanding to arrest the
decline,"
MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube said.
The budget did
call for new spending on public works, such as roads,
bridges, and dams, but
it was unclear how the government would raise the
money to finance the
projects.
"It's a very shallow budget. It's treating only the fringes of
the real
problems. It's not even recognising in the budget speech that these
problems
exist," Robertson said.
Most lenders pulled out of Zimbabwe
after the International Monetary Fund in
1999 cut off support over concerns
about governance issues and the slow pace
of market reforms.
Mugabe
announced two weeks ago that the government had abandoned its market
reform
program and would return to socialist policies.
Sapa-AFP
Zim Independent
Makoni budget a damp-squib
Barnabas
Thondhlana
FINANCE minister Simba Makoni yesterday presented a $390 billion
populist
budget which falls short of addressing the mounting problems
afflicting the
country.
Analysts described the budget as an
election-friendly gambit aimed at
appeasing a restive populace before the
watershed presidential poll next
year. None of the antidotes advanced by
Makoni come anywhere close to
providing a panacea for the ailing
economy.
The budget proposes modest tax reductions, a boost to the social
services
sector, and encourages construction in the high-density housing
sector.
Money will be raised by a 5% tax on bank profits.
But it is
silent on a programme for economic recovery.
“The budget has been presented
in a way which seeks to strengthen the voter
capacity base for the ruling
Zanu PF for next year’s presidential election
and it fails to address the
basic issues pressing the ordinary citizens,”
Tapiwa Mashakada, economics
spokesman of the Movement for Democratic Change
said.
University of
Zimbabwe business lecturer Professor Tony Hawkins said the
budget had no
relevance to the problems the nation was facing.
Makoni said Zimbabwe’s
economy was expected to shrink by 7,3% in 2001 from
an earlier estimate of
2,8% as the economic crisis deepens. He has estimated
the budget deficit at
12% of GDP.
“Persistent inflationary pressures, continuing uncertainty
over the land
reform programme, declining business confidence, the withdrawal
of support
by the international community, and shortages of foreign currency
have all
combined to make the decline much more than we projected,” Makoni
told
parliament.
While Makoni referred to privatisation under the now
increasingly redundant
Millennium Economic Recovery Programme, he provided no
timetable.
Privatisation was originally expected to provide $22 billion for
state
coffers. So far it has raised no more than $5,5 billion.
The
agriculture sector is reeling from the impact of hundreds of invasions
of
white-owned farms by pro-government militants who say they support Mugabe
’s
land programme.
The rest of the economy is suffering from a shortage of
hard currency,
record inflation and unemployment of over 60%.
Makoni
said Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector would decline by minus 12,2%
against an
original estimate of minus 9,5%; electricity and water minus 2%
(2%);
construction minus 2% (-2%), hotels and distribution minus 9,1%
(1%),
manufacturing minus 7,5% (-5%), mining minus 4% (-3%), and transport
and
communications minus 3,5% (2%).
Allocations to Health and
Education have risen. More money has been
invested in social welfare
services. And there will be some rehabilitation
of public infrastructure such
as roads.
Makoni said details of allocations to other departments such as
Defence,
Foreign Affairs, and the President’s Office will only be available
today.
There is provision for security services ahead of next year’s election
under
the Home Affairs vote.
Makoni admitted the budget had been
“extremely difficult to produce”, saying
each time “we thought it was coming
together, a new issue, challenge or
compelling need popped up”.
“The
pressures did not just emanate from huge demands on very limited
resources,
but morefrom how to stretch the resource farthest, in the
direction that
impacts most positively on the condition of life of
Zimbabweans,” he
said.
Minister Presents Election Budget
UN Integrated Regional Information
Networks
November 2, 2001
Posted to the web November 2,
2001
Public spending in Zimbabwe will double next year and taxes will
be cut in
what economists described as an electioneering budget presented
to
parliament on Thursday.
Less than four months before Zimbabwe goes
to the polls to elect a
president, Simba Makoni, finance minister, shrugged
off concerns over
deepening recession, a depreciating currency and escalating
inflation to
announce a 108 percent increase in public spending and the
equivalent of US
$400 million in tax cuts.
Economists described the
budget as a holding operation designed to see the
country through until the
presidential elections in March. "But most voters
will soon see that they
will probably be no better off," Harare-based
analyst John Robertson told
IRIN. He added that Makoni had failed to address
the real economic causes of
the nation's ills.
Public spending will increase to 42 percent of gross
domestic product from
38 percent this year, while revenues will increase
marginally to 27 percent
of GDP. The budget deficit will increase to 14.9
percent of GDP from 12
percent.
Makoni had been forced to radically
revise his earlier growth forecasts for
the economy, saying that GDP will
fall 7.3 percent in 2001, compared with a
budget projection last year of 2.8
percent. Agriculture - hard hit by the
land resettlement crisis, drought and
a foreign exchange shortage - is
leading the downturn with a 12 percent fall
in output, while tourism and
distribution are down 9 percent and
manufacturing and mining 7.5 percent
each.
"The whole budget is
predicated on everything staying the same in Zimbabwe
while every indicator
shows the economy is rapidly shrinking," Robertson
said. He warned that
Makoni's package bore little relation to economic
reality and would do little
to aleviate the nation's crisis.
In a speech that was at times remarkably
frank, the finance minister
admitted 75 percent of Zimbabweans were "living
in abject poverty". He
revealed health spending per head had fallen from US
$23.60 in 1991 to only
US $14 today.
The top tax rate was cut to 45
percent from 52 percent while the threshold
at which income tax becomes
payable by low income groups was increased to
Zim $90,000 (US $1,125) a year
from Zim $60,000 (US $1,687).
Robertson said that the increase in the tax
threshold would not offer much
poverty relief and that Makoni should have
upped it to around Zim $110,000
(US $2,062) to have made a real difference to
low income Zimbabweans.
The budget included US $36 million for
compensation to farmers for the 4,800
farms listed for compulsory
acquisition. A paltry sum, economists said,
given that the average value of
each farm listed was about US $1 million.
Thursday, 1 November, 2001, 15:57 GMT
Zimbabwe's economy slumps
Zimbabwe's weak currency has caused fuel
shortages
Zimbabwe's Finance Minister Simba Makoni has painted a bleak
economic picture in his 2002 budget statement, predicting a second year of
depression.
We are sitting at the bottom of the pile both in terms of the
sub-Saharan African group as well as the SADC group
|
Simba Makoni Finance Minister
|
"Persistent
inflationary pressures, continuing uncertainty over the land reform programme,
declining business confidence, the withdrawal of support by the international
community and shortages of foreign currency have all combined to make the
decline much more than we projected," Mr Makoni told the parliament.
The economy is expected to contract by 7.3% in 2001, more than twice the
previous estimate, and a further 5.3% in 2002, he said.
"We are sitting at the bottom of the pile both in terms of the sub-Saharan
African group as well as the SADC group" for economic growth, he said, referring
to the 14-nation Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).
Zimbabwe is in the midst of its worst economic crisis since independence from
Britain in 1980, with record inflation and unemployment of more than 60%.
President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reforms, in which white-owned
farms have been seized for redistribution, have deepened with the downturn.
Who's to blame?
The agriculture sector has suffered as production on hundreds of farms has
ceased.
Earlier this week, President Mugabe denied Zimbabwe's economic problems were
due to his government's policies and said he would not backtrack on the land
issue.
He claims the economy has been sabotaged by domestic and international
opponents, led by Britain, in retaliation for the land seizures.
Analysts said the budget is full of promises to win President Mugabe next
year's elections but they are unlikely to revive the shattered economy.
Economic slide
Zimbabwe's gross domestic product dropped to Z$385 in 2001, from Z$421 in
2000, and poverty levels have rocketed with three quarters of the population
living below the poverty line, said Mr Makoni.
Foreign investment has dried up, exports have fallen, inflation has risen to
86%, and arrears on Zimbabwe's foreign debt have risen to Z$682m, the finance
minister said.
Most international lenders, including the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund, have cut off Zimbabwe.
But the Z$390.2bn ($7bn) budget boosted spending on public works such as
dams, roads, bridges and irrigation.
Zim Independent
Govt builds fuel stocks
Vincent Kahiya
ZIMBABWE
is building up large fuel stocks to face international sanctions
and provide
for campaigning for the presidential election next year.
Government
sources said Zimbabwe was taking advantage of the concessionary
arrangement
with the government of Libya, which in August provided a US$90
million line
of credit to import huge stocks of all oil products.
The Zimbabwe
Independent understands that a Libyan business delegation met
President
Mugabe at his Munhumutapa offices on Tuesday for almost four hours
to discuss
investment opportunities in Zimbabwe. The Libyan fuel is being
paid for in
local currency which is deposited at the Jewel Bank. The Libyans
would like
to use the proceeds from the sale of fuel to invest in
agriculture, tourism
and fuel industry.
The Independent has been told that Libyan investors
were in Mashonaland West
and Mashonaland East inspecting farms on Tuesday.
The respective governors
Peter Chanetsa and David Karimanzira accompanied the
investors on the trips.
As Libyan investors continue to explore business
opportunities here From
Page 1
it is not clear whether Zimbabwe has
started to pay for the fuel and, if so,
how much has been
imported.
Fuel industry sources this week said Zimbabwe was importing
almost
one-and-a-half times its normal monthly consumption in a bid to build
stocks
which had been virtually wiped out in the last 20 months of critical
foreign
currency shortages. Zimbabwe’s current monthly consumption is around
60
million litres but as much as 90 million litres are being pumped through
the
pipeline from Beira, with over a third of all imports going into
the
reserves.
“The idea is to build between six months and a year’s
reserves of all
products before the expiry of the deal with the Libyans,” a
source in the
industry said.
“Before the shortages started almost two
years ago, Zimbabwe used to have
six months reserves but the truth of the
matter is that other than the
Libyans, no one is prepared to go into a big
deal with Zimbabwe because of
the country’s high risk factor. Zimbabwe would
rather make hay while the sun
shines,” the source said.
The industry
sources said Zimbabwe had enough storage facilities such as the
underground
tanks in Mabvuku and Msasa, which can store up to 700 million
litres of fuel.
This is enough to supply the country for 10 months. Zimbabwe
consumes two
million litre of fuel per day. There are however other storage
facilities at
Birmingham Road in Harare, Beitbridge, Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare
and the
smaller urban centres. These have a
combined capacity of over 500 million
litres.
Zim Independent
Mau-Mau invades Borrowdale farm
Forward
Maisokwadzo
ZANU PF Harare province publicity and information official Stalin
Mau-Mau,
together with a group of war veterans, has appropriated the $250
million
Carrick Creagh Farm in Borrowdale which he has started to subdivide
for
residential purposes, it has been gathered.
The former condom
vendor, cellphone salesman and now boxing promoter who
lost the Harare East
seat to the MDC’s Tendai Biti in last year’s election,
has allegedly flouted
the law as the property is being sub-divided without
the approval of the city
council.
Mau-Mau could not be reached for comment as his office said he
was in London
for a Commonwealth boxing title fight.
Sources said a
top cabinet minister was also working in cahoots with Mau-Mau
and committee
members of the Harare East Housing Scheme, a brainchild of
former Zanu PF MP,
Nyasha Chikwinya, Mau-Mau’s wife.
When the Zimbabwe Independent visited
the farm this week, a bulldozer was
seen constructing a road leading off
Umwinsidale Road next to the bridge
over the Umwinzi River.
Workers at
the farm said the bulldozer started work on Wednesday
last week but in only
one week a two-kilometre stretch had already been cut.
However, it could
not be immediately established who the owner of the
bulldozer is as the
driver refused to disclose his/her name.
Police at Borrowdale station
where complaints have been received confirmed
they had visited the farm and
saw the bulldozer making roads but could not
stop it as the farm owner had
signed an agreement with the war veterans, an
agreement the owner’s lawyers
said was not legally binding.
On Thursday last week, the farm owner’s
lawyers wrote a warning letter to
the construction company barring it from
continuing with its work on the
delisted farm, but no one complied with
it.
A second warning was again delivered yesterday but war veterans vowed
to
continue preparing the area for residential development.
Reports
reaching the Independent say people, particularly from the shanty
Hatcliffe
holding camp and some bused from Mbare, had been offered free
stands on the
farm.
The police said they have advised their superiors about the events
at the
farm, which they describe as “political”.
“The matter has been
referred to our PGHQ and I cannot comment
any further,” said a police
inspector at Borrowdale police station
yesterday.
Farm owner, Andrew
Newmarch, said the farm falls under the city limits and
he pays rates to
Harare City Council.
“This land is not being taken for farming but for a
housing scheme,” said
Newmarch, adding that the farm is owned by five family
members who have no
other farms.
“The damage caused to large trees is
totally unnecessary and they are doing
irreparable damage to the ecology of
the area, whereas our well- planned
subdivision has taken into consideration
all aspects of conservation and the
ecology of the area for present and
future generations,” he said.
“We are surrounded by about 37 plots and
small holdings in Umwinsidale who
stand to have the value of their properties
greatly affected should the
scheme go ahead.”
Newmarch said the move
by the construction company onto the farm followed
a band of war veterans who
had vowed to stay on the property after having
invaded it in May and built an
office block.
He said problems at the farm started in May when Mau-Mau
visited and forced
him under duress to sign a piece of paper giving part of
the farm to the
Harare East War Veterans Association.
“I told Mau-Mau
that I was not signing it willingly as outside my office
were approximately
500 war vets chanting and he told me that I knew what
would happen if I did
not sign it,” said Newmarch.
A memorandum of agreement prepared by the
war veterans which Newmarch signed
stated that:
“I, the undersigned
Andrew New-march on behalf of RW Newmarch, TJ Newmarch,
IM Speight and JE
Mackintosh of Newmarch Farm have agreed to contribute 250
acres as have been
physically identified by the war veterans to the people
of Harare East
Constituency for the purpose of housing only.”
Two war veterans named
Daniel and Mupambwa signed as witnesses on behalf of
their
comrades.
Documents in the possession of the Independent show that
prospective house
seekers should contact the Harare East Housing Scheme with
offices at 43
Basset Crescent, New Alexandra Park. The address is where
Mau-Mau’s head
office for his mobile phone company is located.
It is
understood that the management committee of the housing scheme located
at the
same premises has already sold some of the plots charging an
administration
fee of $50 000 and a planning and survey fee of $250 000 to
obtain a
stand.
“A member will be allocated high-density residential stand of up
to 400
square metres or 4 000 square metres for low density.
“All
payments to be made direct to the housing office at 43 Basset Crescent,
New
Alexandra Park,” reads part of the agreement.
Zim Independent
Eric Bloch Column
NO one can credibly argue
that Zimbabwe’s economy is healthy and well — not
even Zimbabwe’s Minister of
Fiction, Fable and Myth, who has demonstrated a
remarkable, endless endeavour
to contend that that which is not, is; and
that which is, is not! (Most
astounding of all is that he appears to believe
that he is capable of
convincing all, with virtually no exception, that when
the rain comes down in
torrents, the sun is shining, and vice versa, and
that any fault for such
occurrence is wholly attributable to whomsoever he
or his president have
targeted as the current scapegoat).
Be that as it may, even he is unable
to allege that Zimbabwe’s economy is
thriving, developing and
growing.
The reverse is most regrettably the case. The economy is fast
crumbling and
disintegrating. It is collapsing into a heap of debris.
Inflation has soared
to an all-time high of 86,3% per annum as of September
2001 (according to
official statistics) and to a real level in excess of 90%
after taking into
account changes in the mix of consumer
spending.
Inflation itself is causing drastic changes in spending
patterns, with most
having to restrict their expenditure to those of
accommodation, utilities,
food, health, education and transport insofar as
they are able, and have
nothing to spend on anything else. As a result, the
weightings in the
spending basket used to assess inflation are no longer
properly reflective
of spending patterns and, therefore, the extent of
inflation is no longer
properly assessed.
And, in recent times,
inflation of food and allied products, health and
transport has been greater
than impacting upon most other spending
categories, and therefore real
inflation is inevitably greater than what is
determined by the Central
Statistical Office.
But inflation is not the only indicator of the
economic collapse. So too is
the terrifying extent of business failures,
resultant closures and
consequential intensified unemployment. Yet another
assertive indicator of
the devastated economy is the chronic shortage of
foreign exchange,
primarily due to a gross insufficiency in export
performance (as a direct
result of an inflation caused lack in market price
competitiveness not
compensated for by realistic exchange rate adjustment),
and to an almost
total discontinuance of foreign direct investment (FDI), a
similarly very
considerable reduction in international aid and
balance-of-payments support,
and a massive decrease in tourism.
That
foreign exchange shortage has fuelled vigorous parallel and black
market
operations in foreign currencies at levels almost six times the
official
rates, and those currency costs have been a major contributor to
inflation
and continue to be.
However, not even those markets can provide all
foreign currency
requirements and therefore immense shortages exist of
critically needed
health care inputs, raw materials for commerce, industry
and other economic
sectors, spares to keep the wheels of the economy turning
and much else.
The extraordinary extent of economic ruination is also
evidenced by the
magnitude of the state’s deficit of revenues against
expenditures which, for
the current fiscal year, will be considerably in
excess of 10% of gross
domestic product (GDP). It is also evidenced by the
magnitude of the
national debt which includes arrears in international debt
servicing as will
exceed US$1 billion by year-end, and those arrears will
increase by 50% in
the fist half of next year.
At present estimated
GDP levels, the national debt now exceeds 10 years of
Zimbabwe’s total
economic output!
There are many, many more negative indicators of the
disastrous state of
Zimbabwe’s economy, but the above suffice to demonstrate
that the economy
has been decimated and is in a catastrophic state of rack
and ruin. No
single action will halt the economic decline. No single economic
policy will
reverse Zimbabwe’s economic ills, no matter how dynamically that
action or
policy is pursued. And there is no quick fix!
The depths of
the economy’s plunge downwards are so great that there can be
no miraculous,
spectacular recovery, irrespective of the extent that such a
recovery may be
desired. But an unreserved implementation of the September
2001 Abuja
agreement, negotiated between Zimbabwe, the United Kingdom, and
six other
Commonwealth states would be a very marked catalyst for
progressive
restoration of economic wellbeing.
First and foremost, the Abuja
agreement prescribes the re-establish ment in
Zimbabwe of law and order.
Government argues that law and order prevails,
but that is known by almost
all to be untrue. When farms, including those
not listed for state
acquisition, continue to be occupied by those devoid of
lawful right of
occupation, and they vandalise the properties and preclude
the farmers from
pursuing their lawful agricultural activities, law and
order does not exist,
and especially so when the occupiers threaten the
farmers, resort to
extortion, and destroy property, but the “guardians” of
law and order do
nothing and speciously argue that law and order exists.
Similarly, when
self-appointed spokesmen for labour harass employers and
browbeat
economically unsustainable wages out of them, and the authorities
stand idly
by and turn a blind eye, law and order does not exist. The same
is so when
civilian groups take the law into their own hands to enforce
destructive
price controls, and when the state studiously fails to prosecute
any in high
office for corruption law and order does not exist, and yet it
is a
prerequisite of a stable economic environment necessary for
future
growth.
If it is absent, investment is minimal, job-creation
non-existent,
international funding beyond the country’s reach.
Implementation of the
Abuja agreement includes, as a key element, ensuring
unreserved adherence to
the concepts of law and order, which would be a major
stimulant to economic
recovery.
The Abuja agreement, if positively
applied, will assure that that economic
sector as has been Zimbabwe’s
mainstay, being agriculture, will once again
fill that supreme economic role
and, in doing so, will not only be the
support of commercial farmers and
about 300 000 farm workers, but also for
many, many thousands of aspiring
indigenous farmers. Zimbabwe’s agricultural
potential is such that it could
readily be the granary of Africa, instead of
which Zimbabwe must presently
resort to vast importation of maize and wheat.
Zimbabwe is on the
threshold of severe food shortages, unless it can import
its needs, despite
its lack of foreign exchange and its lack of a
sufficiency of international
aid. And that is so despite the disregard, as
far back as last February, of
the Minister of Land and Agriculture Joseph
Made for the numerous warnings of
pending shortages (One must wonder why,
when his parents registered his
birth, they appended the letter “e” to his
surname!).
And Zimbabwe can
gain much economic wealth from other agricultural
activities, including the
production of cotton, horticultural products,
coffee, sugar, citrus, much
else, and the exploitation of livestock and game
ranching opportunities.
Instead, by perpetuating a state of anarchy,
Zimbabwe is likely to have at
least 75 000 productively capable hectares of
rich land standing
idle.
The probable losses of tobacco earnings in the forthcoming
season
approximate US$228 million, and losses from other crops that would
be
produced in normal conditions, but not presently possible, will be
many
millions more.
As a result, all other economic sectors will
continue to suffer and the
Zimbabwean people will suffer even more. Instead
of throwing endless
allegations against the other signatories of the Abuja
Agreement, mainly
ones without foundation, Zimbabwe as the potential
beneficiary should show
the maturity to take the lead. It should cease its
political posturing, its
self-belittling arrogant rejection of “demands” and
“ultimatums” of its
Abuja partners and others, and instead unreservedly
implement its Abuja
obligations.
If it does so, then to such extent as
the other countries have failed to
deliver (if they are at fault in so doing)
they will have no alternative but
to do so, for the eyes of the world will be
upon them.
Although government will have also to do much else, including
abandonment of
its foolhardy pursuit of a command economy, its disregard for
macro-economic
fundamentals, its pursuit of racial and ethnic divides, and
other
significant contributors to Zimbabwe’s economic morass. The first step
is to
ensure the constructive implementation, without reservations and
without
recrimination, of the Abuja agreement. Perhaps the time has come for
the
Zimbabwean government to lead by example, instead of fulfilling the role
of
destroyer.
Zim Independent
Comment
“A FUDGE” best describes the outcome
of last week’s visit by a team of
Commonwealth ministers to follow up
implementation of the Abuja accord.
It would be wrong to dismiss their
findings out of hand, however. Their
recommendation to the authorities to
instruct “the top leadership of the law
enforcement and security organs to
ensure that Zimbabwe’s commitments are
implemented and, where necessary,
enforced” was an implicit criticism of the
one-sided interpretation given to
the accord so far and the failure of the
police and other security personnel
to act as required.
“There were a number (of groups) who believed that
the rule of law had not
been adequately upheld,” the team said. “There was
confusion over the
process of the implementation of land redistribution and
there was concern
about the displacement of people working on the
farms.”
This is all very diplomatic. As we reveal this week, the
government fought
tooth and nail with the delegation to dilute what started
off as a
hard-hitting statement on the need for lawful solutions and an end
to
violence.
That the final communiqué fell well short of what was needed
is clear from
the way it was used this week to bolster the government’s case
against EU
sanctions.
Information minister Jonathan Moyo said the
Commonwealth visit “at the very
least concluded that there were conflicting
allegations on the situation in
Zimbabwe”.
It was surely not the
intention of the club ministers to let Zimbabwe off
the hook in this way. But
they can perhaps be forgiven for their lack of
precision. It must have been
confusing taking evidence from hundreds of
people from political parties,
civil society, and representative bodies.
There were a number of
organisations allied to or directly funded by Zanu PF
masquerading as civil
society, so genuine civic groups had to share their
time with
frauds.
Then there were the church leaders who might as well have gone in
as part of
the Zanu PF delegation. These worthies pronounced as follows: “The
land is
the core issue of the crisis in Zimbabwe. The land is the cause of
war,
destabilisation, political violence, racial tension that has
been
experienced of late and the general decline of our socio-economic life
of
the people of Zimbabwe.”
It evidently has nothing to do with
misrule, corruption, misallocation of
resources and lack of
accountability!
Explicit collaboration of this sort which helpfully
ignored state-sponsored
violence was only part of the problem. There were
also clumsy attempts ahead
of the meetings to predetermine the outcome by
restricting evidence to six
handpicked organisations. Fortunately, the
visiting ministers threw this
proposal out saying they were prepared to see
whoever wanted to be heard.
They came to the rescue again at Bath Farm
last Friday when Stan Mudenge,
Joseph Made and Josiah Hungwe demonstrated
extraordinary intolerance when
they tried to stop stakeholders from speaking
at what was supposed to be a
showcase occasion.
Only the intervention
of the Canadian minister ensured that the full story
of government’s illegal
and damaging fast-track scheme was heard (see Page
13).
The way in
which this government attempted to orchestrate the ministerial
visit as if no
organisations other than their own existed in Zimbabwe
betrays a deep fear of
democratic discourse. The same fear lies behind their
refusal to engage in
genuine democratic reform or set up an independent
electoral
commission.
The paranoia surrounding offers of assistance to civil
society by external
organisations like the Westminster Foundation are equally
revealing.
If the government persists in refusing to allow democracy to work
in
Zimbabwe, it is perfectly natural that parties and NGOs should receive
help
from sympathisers outside the country. When Zanu PF is receiving
assistance
from China and Libya why should this seem so strange?
At
the end of the day the Commomwealth team left with a better understanding
of
our problems. And contrary to assiduous attempts by the President’s
Office to
portray a racial divide among the countries represented, the real
divide — as
the events of Saturday demonstrated — was between Zimbabwean
ministers and
the world community.
So where next? The UNDP technical team will arrive
and find fast track a
mess. In other words what everybody else already
knows.
Despite the UN’s efforts to be helpful following a pledge Kofi Annan
gave to
Thabo Mbeki at the Millennium summit in New York last year,
Zimbabwe’s
refusal to comply with any sort of coherent programme and its
current
attempts to get around legal requirements by post-Abuja occupations
and
pegging have left the world body frustrated and helpless.
Without
a lawful and orderly programme there will be no donor funds.
The sooner
President Mugabe and Ministers Mudenge and Made wake up to this
reality the
better.
Daily Telegraph
Pay £70m to victims, court tells Mugabe
By
Philip Delves Broughton in New York
(Filed: 01/11/2001)
PRESIDENT
MUGABE was dealt a humiliating blow last night when his Zanu-PF
party was
ordered by a New York court to pay $100 million (£70 million)
compensation to
victims of violence that engulfed Zimbabwe's parliamentary
elections last
year.
It is unlikely that the money will be paid, but lawyers for the
victims plan
to begin freezing and appropriating Zanu-PF assets in Zimbabwe
and
worldwide. One of the plaintiffs, Maria Stevens, whose husband, a
white
tobacco farmer, was abducted and killed by militants, said the award
proved
that some of Mr Mugabe's followers "are absolute thugs and
terrorists".
Even if she never sees the money, she said, the case brought
further
credibility and attention to the accusations of human rights abuses
in
Zimbabwe. "At least I can tell my children I did everything in my
power,"
she said last night from her new home in Britain. Any money received
from
the suit will go first to the plaintiffs, to provide for their
children's
education and living costs, and the remainder to a welfare
fund.
Three victims, including Mrs Stevens, testified in New York last
week.
Adella Chiminya described how her husband, Tichaona, campaign manager
for
Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change,
was burned alive in his car by Zanu-PF activists in April. Elliot
Pfebve
joined the class action to seek justice for his brother, Matthew,
beaten to
death when a mob of more than 300 attacked their home.
The
Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum documented more than 1,000 crimes from
beatings
to torture committed during the 2000 election campaign. It said 31
people
were killed in violence widely attributed to supporters of the
ruling
Zanu-PF, who were later given an amnesty for their crimes.
Zim Independent
Editor's Memo
Iden Wetherell
Getting a
hearing
TOGETHER with our CEO, Trevor Ncube, I was among those invited to
meet the
team of visiting Commonwealth ministers last Friday evening at the
Harare
International Conference Centre.
We were not invited by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I hasten to add.
Despite the fact the visiting
ministers had expressed a wish to see us, the
ministry did not inform us of
the invitation and we had to rely on officials
attached to the visiting team
to tell us when we should attend.
When we arrived at the HICC we noticed
the Zimbabwe Independent had not been
listed by Zimbabwean officials as among
the newspapers expected to to be
represented in the media group. Nor had the
Financial Gazette.
I drew this to the attention of a number of senior
diplomats who said we
should go in when our time came despite this crude
attempt to keep us out.
Basildon Peta, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe
Union of Journalists,
joined us. So did John Gambanga, news editor of the
Daily News whose CEO had
been alerted by Trevor. The editors of the Herald
and the Sunday Mail had
evidently been informed by the government of their
need to attend!
We all had to wait a very long time before our turn came.
The ruling party,
the MDC, churches, NGOs and others were all scheduled to go
in ahead of us.
Tendai Biti appeared to be in typically combative mood as was
Sekai Holland
and John Makumbe.
We finally went in at about 11.30pm.
As I anticipated, the young men of no
fixed job description guarding the door
to the conference room tried to
limit attendance to those appearing on their
carefully edited list which led
to a minor fracas. Thankfully, Foreign
Affairs officials made a diplomatic
intervention which prevented any further
skirmishing in front of the
distinguished visitors.
I must say the
ministers gave us a good hearing which lasted over an hour.
We all made our
presentations although the state editors didn’t have much to
say for
themselves except of course to deny some of what we said.
I briefed the
panel of ministers, which included Stan Mudenge, on the way
the Law and Order
(Maintenance) Act was liberally applied against
journalists, 41 years after
it was passed. I also alerted them to the Access
to Information and
Protection of Privacy Bill that will no doubt include
recommendations by
Professor Jonathan Moyo’s Media Ethics Committee to
muzzle the independent
press.
The committee was handpicked by the Information minister and
includes
individuals who have already made it clear they believe prominent
people
should not be subjected to the spotlight we inconveniently shine upon
them.
Such curbs will of course be unconstitutional.
Gambanga referred
to the problems journalists from the Daily News have
experienced in trying to
cover stories on the farms. Mudenge flourished some
sort of document claiming
the Westminster Foundation was helping the paper
with its immediate
needs.
This was evidently his moment of triumph and he looked very
pleased with
himself — until Gambanga and Ncube asked why he was preoccupied
with people
trying to assist a newspaper whose premises had been bombed when
his
government had done nothing to apprehend those responsible for the
crime.
The smile disappeared. He had earlier produced copies of the
Zimbabwe
Independent, the Financial Gazette and the Daily News to show what a
free
press Zimbabwe had. He didn’t say why police had made no progress in
their
court-ordered investigation into the abduction and torture of
two
journalists by the army in 1999.
I wonder why when drawing
attention to the role of the Westminster
Foundation he didn’t disclose to the
visiting team that Zanu PF saw nothing
wrong with taking US$5 million from
Nigeria in 1980 to buy the Argus shares
in what is now Zimpapers. Nor did he
say why it was okay for Zanu PF to
accept £1 million from Tiny Rowland in
1995!
Then there are the millions reportedly due to flow into Zanu PF’s
coffers
from Libya for President Mugabe’s reelection campaign which are
unlikely to
be declared under the Political Parties (Finance) Act.
I
made it clear that one of the functions of a newspaper is to
embarrass
governments that do not play straight with their voters. Minister
Joseph
Made’s attempts to mislead the country on the availability of
grainstocks is
one example of that. Mudenge’s grandstanding on foreign
donations was
another.
It was obvious to most of us that the
Commonwealth, anxious to be seen to be
doing something useful, would at the
end of the day fudge the issue of
misgovernance so as to remain engaged.
That’s precisely what it did do.
But at least the ministers left Harare
with no illusions about the true
nature of the regime they remain engaged
with!
As the various groups emerged from the conference room they gave their
views
to the ZTV camera crew. Of all those interviewed the churches stood out
as
singularly unimpressive. Andrew Wutawunashe blamed the press for the
country
’s predicament. And the others, who included Zimbabwe Council of
Churches
secretary-general Densen Mafinyane and Catholic Commission for
Justice and
Peace president Bishop Patrick Mutume, didn’t
disagree.
Wutawunashe, who last year appeared on ZTV in support of the
government’s
constitutional proposals, actually suggested the government was
now engaged
in a programme of social justice!
He then ventured into
the field of economic disparities in Commonwealth
countries about which he
evidently knew very little.
The churchmen reacted with suitable
indignation when I asked why they had
been so slow to condemn violence. But
it was clear from their answers that
they are studiously ignoring where the
violence actually originates and
therefore have difficulty placing the blame
where it really belongs.
In fact they are next to useless and if you
belong to one of their churches
please tell them. Zimbabwe needs church
leaders who are capable of standing
up to evil.
Zim Independent
Muckraker
THE absence of Joseph Chinotimba
from the itinerary of the visiting
Commonwealth ministerial team last week
may have been seen by some as an
indication that his star is on the wane
following the Town House incident.
It will be recalled that he was
foisted on Sadc heads of state in early
September when they came here, with
rather embarrassing results when he gave
them a less-than courteous reception
at the Harare International Conference
Centre. Nothing much has been heard
from him since an alleged assault on
senior City of Harare
officials.
Evidently it was felt his diplomatic skills could be dispensed
with on this
occasion. But it would be wrong to write him off too soon. The
municipal
employee has now adopted a new career as a preacher and can be
found on the
evangelical circuit on Sundays.
At a rally in Epworth
last Sunday he was shown by ZTV quoting the Bible in
Shona — albeit rather
crudely.
“If you have seen the son, you have seen the father and if you
have seen the
father, you have seen the son,” he enthused.
“The same
should suffice,” he continued, warming to his theme. “If you have
seen
Chinotimba you have seen Mugabe and if you have seen Mugabe you have
seen
Chinos.”
This was at six o’clock. Sadly, by the time News-hour came round
he had been
axed, no doubt on the orders of other wannabe sons-of-God who
felt the
heavenly mantle was being fast-tracked without their
knowledge.
A few weeks ago we referred to the mysterious “African
diplomat” who keeps
popping up in Herald reports and sounds suspiciously like
another
commentator we are all familiar with — and very tired
of.
Well, since then the “African diplomat” has become a legend in his
own
lunchtime as people quote his “enough is enough” phrase whenever they
want
to inspire laughter among their companions.
Blissfully unaware
that the Herald’s “African diplomat” is now a national
joke, Itayi Musengeyi
conjured him up again in his report; “Whites divide
the Commonwealth” carried
in the Herald on Tuesday.
“Events at the Commonwealth ministers’ meeting
on land,” Musengeyi reported,
“revealed a need for a reform of the club and
other groupings such as the
European Union, diplomatic sources
said.”
Did they? Or did this come from Munhumutapa Building where the
“African
diplomat” is housed?
Anyway, why should the Commonwealth and
the EU, which are constantly
reviewing and revamping their institutions in
line with changing world
requirements, be told to reform when the Zimbabwe
government refuses to do
so?
Reform is not a priority, ministers have
repeatedly said.
The now all-too-familiar “African diplomat” made his
usual pitch.
“Because of the desire to perpetuate a colonial injustice
and entrench its
racism under the guise of democracy, human rights, and good
governance, the
ABC (Australia, Britain and Canada) group in general and
Britain in
particular has gone as far as creating a political movement
through the
opposition MDC to do the bidding for their kith and kin here,” he
was quoted
as saying.
Does Musengeyi think Herald readers are so
stupid as to believe an African
diplomat would use language so identical to
Jonathan Moyo that he might be
confused for the minister?
Perhaps the
Herald’s editor, Pikirayi Deketeke, could have a word with
officials in the
Information department: “We are prepared to carry your
silly ‘African
diplomat’ quotes provided they cannot be traced back to your
department. They
must actually sound like an African diplomat and not like a
minister doing
battle with the MDC. That way our credibility is not
undermined and nor is
yours.”
But as we know, this conversation will never take place because
of the
predictable response: “Off with his head.”
Keeping their heads
must be a full-time business at Herald House.
This week the Herald took
issue with ZUJ secretary-general Basildon Peta
over points Peta had raised in
his evidence to the visiting Commonwealth
team. But the real bone of
contention between them had nothing to do with
the number of independent
journalists under threat in rural areas as the
article suggested. It had
everything to do with journalists under threat at
Herald House.
Peta
had rather undiplomatically pointed out in his evidence to the
Commonwealth
team on Friday night that the editors of the Herald and Sunday
Mail were
lucky to be present. Their shelf-lives were nearing an end because
very few
state editors survived for more than six months under the
Moyo
regime.
This stung Deketeke who defended his track (or is it
fast-track) record and
pointed out that his experience in journalism extended
well beyond many of
the people present.
And he got his revenge on Peta
with the piece on Tuesday claiming the ZUJ
spokesman had not provided the
evidence he had promised the team. We look
forward to the next
round.
Journalists, by the way, are renowned for their ability to consume
a variety
of things other than hard news. But last Friday at the Harare
International
Conference Centre they were denied any sustenance
whatsoever.
Not only journalists suffered. Hundreds of Zimbabweans had
assembled at the
HICC to meet the visiting team of Commonwealth ministers. It
proved to be a
long wait as the team diligently heard evidence from all
sectors of
Zimbabwean society — despite assiduous attempts by government to
prevent
them from doing so. Many of those present had to wait up to six hours
before
seeing the team.
At no stage during that period (from 6pm to
12pm) did the HICC or the
government provide facilities for the assembled
masses to eat or drink. Not
a single tray of snacks, not even a bowl of
crisps or jug of water was
circulated. This was on one of the hottest nights
of the year when the HICC
air-conditioning failed!
At this time of
reduced revenues in the tourism sector, why did the HICC or
the adjoining
Sheraton Hotel not think of setting up a bar? They would have
made a fortune
given the presence of Zanu PF chefs, opposition MPs, NGO
heads, as well as
journalists.
Another point: With the emphasis currently being given to
the drive to
attract tourists, we wonder what the Commonwealth visitors
thought of the
litter piling up against the fence at the entrance to the
Sheraton. Or the
crisp packets, plastic bags and other detritus on the inside
of the
perimeter fence at the Zanu PF headquarters.
Why aren’t Zanu PF
youths deployed to clean up the place? Why can’t the
Sheraton staff look
after the areas immediately adjacent to their own hotel?
And why can’t the
City of Harare get a few workers from its army of staff to
clear the
municipal library lawn of litter?
Have the authorities given up caring
what other people think of us?
All over the city there are busy traffic
junctions where motorists take
their lives in their hands as they negotiate
their way through them because
the traffic lights have been
stolen.
There is no sign that the city authorities are moving with
urgency to
replace them. The police, who have a public duty to man these
junctions in
the interests of traffic safety, have been conspicuous by their
absence.
But they have been active in preventing vendors from selling
newspapers.
Anybody incurring injuries from a traffic accident at one of
these
intersections should give serious thought to holding the police and
city
authorities liable. They know there is a danger to the motoring public
yet
they are doing nothing about it.
Commissioner Augustine Chihuri,
by the way, invaded the space which the
Commonwealth team had assigned to the
CFU at the HICC on Thursday evening
and lectured them on how the farmers, not
the government, were responsible
for all the problems on the farms.
He
adopted the current Zanu PF line that farmers were responsible for a
number
of crimes.
“Yes, but are those allegations or have they been convicted?”
Baroness Amos
wanted to know.
“They are allegations,” Chihuri was
obliged to admit.
Muckraker came under fire this week from the e-mail
tourism newsletter,
ETEXT, for having “plagiarised” their comments on
incompetent advertising at
the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority last
week.
Muckraker last week published remarks made by ETEXT about glaring
errors in
a full-page ad from the ZTA promoting World Tourism Day.
We
are now accused of having published their remarks “without so much as
a
casual query” as to whether it would be alright to lift the
information.
“Small unattributed pieces were added to the original, changing
the slant
and the meaning considerably”, the newsletter said.
Their
main criticism however is that their original text did not name the
ZTA’s
Leslie Gwindi whereas ours did.
The original ETEXT copy said: “Failing to
check a full page bearing ZTA
logos at the head of a supplement celebrating
World Tourism Day demonstrates
absolute incompetence on the part of the PR
and marketing staff at the
parastatal.”
We pointed out in a sentence
of our own, which was clearly not attributed to
ETEXT, that Gwindi was the
ZTA PR manager.
This seems to have caused paroxysms of indignation at
ETEXT which
transformed a perfectly acceptable editorial intervention into a
hanging
offence. They also objected to our reference to their material as
coming
from “our correspondent”.
Has somebody been leaning on ETEXT or
are they naturally anal? “Our
correspondent” referred to the person who wrote
the e-mail. If the author is
keen for us to mention his name we would be
happy to oblige.
We hereby give full acknowledgement to ETEXT as the
author of the criticism
of the ZTA and Greyhawk consultancy and are deeply
appreciative to them for
sending us their comments. If there are quotes from
them that are not in
quotation marks at the outset, we are again happy here
to acknowledge their
contribution.
At no stage did we “change the
slant or the meaning considerably” unless
paranoia has got the better of
them. And we naturally regard anything sent
to us as “for our use” unless
otherwise stated.
Given the deafening silence of many ministers on the
land question we were
pleased to receive recently from a reader the views of
Defence minister
Sydney Sekeramayi.
“Any attempt at land-grabbing in
Zimbabwe would inevitably lead to local
conflicts which were unnecessary and
sometimes dangerous to the point of
people losing their lives,” he was quoted
as saying in a local publication.
“In order to avoid this the government
would see to it that people were
resettled in an orderly fashion and not in a
chaotic stampede,” he said.
“Should there be a land grab,” he asked,
“with the strongest getting the
most and the weakest getting nothing, only
poor worked-out pieces?”
Actually, he said this in August 1980 when he
was Minister of Lands.
Nevertheless, when mi-nisters say something
sensible there is nothing
wrong with recording it for posterity!
From The Zimbabwe
Standard, 28 October
Zanu PF women in Libya
drama
Libyan authorities
last month locked up in a cold room the information and publicity secretary of
the Zanu PF women’s league, Nyasha Chikwinya, during a row over the pricing of
goods exported to Libya for sale, The Standard has established. Chikwinya, the
former Harare North member of parliament, was in Libya as part of a delegation
of 40 Zanu PF women who were on a business exhibition tour of the north African
country. The women had joined President Robert Mugabe’s entourage to Libya to
commemorate the country’s 32 nd anniversary of the September First Revolution
whose celebrations were taking place from 1 to 15 September.
The group of women was
to have exhibited its goods for three days at the Arts and Crafts Gallery, and
then sell them in foreign currency. Trouble started on the first day of trading
when Libyan officials insisted on the right to peg the prices of goods from
Zimbabwe, with Chikwinya strongly counter-arguing that the hosts had no right to
determine prices. Chikwinya was eventually thrown into a cold room by Libyan
security details for remonstrating with officials over the pricing of the goods.
Sources told The Standard last week that Chikwinya was detained for about one
hour in the cold room of the five-star Allbada hotel. Upon release, Chikwinya is
said to have been shivering and to have immediately sought warm clothing.
Contacted for comment on Thursday, Chikwinya said: "I am not talking to the
press about our Libya trip. I’m in the process of writing a report to the
national executive of the women’s league."
Other women who formed
part of the delegation said bickering and political smear campaigns had cost
them the Libyan market and valuable foreign currency. Goods worth about Z$5,5
million had to be abandoned in Libya when the women were ordered home
prematurely because of their squabbles with the hosts. Scores of the women
blamed their ordeal on the deputy minister of youth development, gender and
employment creation, Shuvai Mahofa, whom they accused of conniving with the
Libyans. Contact for comment, Mahofa confirmed that the women had encountered
problems in Libya. "We had many women that we do not know, who wanted to travel
to Libya and they had also carried excessive luggage. These women who are making
noise are part of the MDC who wanted to take advantage of the trip," said
Mahofa.
The participants had
gone to Libya under the auspices of the Gadaffi Sisters Foundation, a coalition
headed by Mahofa and formed to encourage cooperation between the Zanu PF women’s
league and the Libyan government. Problems for the women started at the Harare
International airport where Mahofa barred some would-be participants, accusing
them of being members of the opposition. "We were left at the airport when
Mahofa, without any basis whatsoever, accused us of being supporters of the
opposition. We are business women from the party. She was only doing that
because she wanted to accommodate Jocelyn Chiwenga and Saniso Katerere who are
not part of the women’s league," said one woman who preferred anonymity. Jocelyn
Chiwenga is wife of army commander, Lieutenant General Constantine Chiwenga,
while Saniso Katerere is married to Harare businessman and Zanu PF MP, Philip
Chiyangwa.
Upon arrival in Libya,
the women were housed at a five-star hotel but their goods were taken by the
Libyan authorities for safekeeping. The bickering among the women is said to
have continued, prompting Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Libya, John Mvundura, to
order some 30 women to return home but without their goods which remained in the
hands of the Libyans. The other 10 women, led by Mahofa, remained and were
allowed to continue trading but they encountered problems with the Libyans over
prices resulting in the Chikwinya crisis. The 10 were then ordered to leave
their goods behind and were advised that proceedings from the sales would be
forwarded to them. However, no money was forthcoming and they have now been told
by Mahofa that their goods were donated to the Libyans on the instructions of
the Zimbabwean embassy.
Contacted for comment
at his Tripoli office, Mvundura confirmed that the goods had remained in Libya.
"I was asked by the leader of the delegation (Mahofa) to donate the goods, so
speak to her," he said. Each participant has now been offered US$200 by the
foundation as part of the allowances they should have been paid in Libya. Libyan
leader, Muammar Gadaffi, facilitated the trip by providing a chartered plane to
the Zanu PF women’s league to enable the participants to exhibit their wares
which included wooden carvings, batiks, pottery, basket ware, crocheted items,
sculptures, copper and other metal wares - weighing over 1 200 kgs in total. The
list of the women who visited Libya for the anniversary includes Idah
Mashonganyika, Sabina Mangwende, Tabeth Marumahoko, Shuvai Mahofa, Jocelyn
Chiwenga, Saniso Katerere, Mandy Chimene and Florence
Chiromo.
Zim Independent
Opinion
Learnmore Ndlovu
“STATE moves to arrest
economic rot” was the headline in the Herald of
October 19. This might lead
you to believe that the state is now going to
have a change of heart and
adopt a constructive approach to the economic
problems faced by Zimbabwe as a
result of government-sponsored disruption of
the agricultural sector.
Wrong.
The article goes on to suggest that new alternative markets have
been found
for agricultural exports and that this will help stimulate exports
and the
economy. But the article fails to explain why we lost our previous
export
markets, or where and how the exports will be produced to service the
new
markets.
It would appear that fact and fiction have merged for the
government and
that they no longer have any idea of which is which. In
trying, and maybe
succeeding, to misinform and confuse the nation, they have
also succeeded in
confusing themselves to the extent that they no longer know
what is true and
what is not true.
We lost our export markets because
of government-sponsored disruption of the
agricultural sector, thus stopping
the production of exports. We did not
lose the export markets because the
market did not want to deal with
Zimbabwe. You cannot have an export market
without anything to export.
Government has successfully stopped the
production of exports.
We have no surplus agricultural products to
export. We are short
of food to feed ourselves, so how can we export food?
Farmers
have been stopped from growing food, so where will the exports come
from?
Ministers make statements that the government’s priority is to grow
food,
which suggests that they have no concept of what is happening on the
farms.
When ministers make statements that law and order is being upheld,
that
there will be no food shortage, that we are abiding by the Abuja
agreement,
are they totally unaware of what is happening in Zimbabwe or are
they
deliberately misleading us?
President Robert Mugabe makes a
statement that industries and companies that
do not adhere to price controls
or stop production as a result of price
controls, will be nationalised. No
government-run business in Zimbabwe has
been successful or profitable. With
few if any exceptions
government-controlled businesses suffer from rampant
corruption and require
huge subsidies from the taxpayer.
Once you have
nationalised all major industries and companies, who will
create the income
required by government as taxes? Does Mugabe not know that
nationalised
industries and companies have been proven to be undesirable
and
unsuccessful?
Countries such as Russia and China who were the main
proponents of socialism
have opted to move away from the socialist doctrine
because it has proved to
be unworkable. Is Mugabe not aware of this? Or is
Mugabe simply determined
to destroy for the sake of destroying?
The
socialism promoted by Mugabe is not the same type of socialism practised
in
Europe as suggested by the Minister of Information, Jonathan Moyo.
Socialism
as practised successfully in Europe is not about state control of
production.
Socialism in Zimbabwe is about state control of production in
the mould of
communism and is not about improving the standards of living or
people’s
incomes.
The question no one has the answer to is, where is the breaking
point where
people will stop submitting and accepting violence, intimidation,
food
shortages and hardships? When will the people who accept the
misinformation
broadcast by government wake up to realise that they have been
badly misled?
When will the people stop tolerating bad governance and demand
an
accountable government working in the best interests of the
majority?
The promoted concept of land redistribution is that
over-crowded rural
masses will be resettled. Constructively carried out, this
could be a
success. But in far too many cases the over-crowded rural masses
are not the
beneficiaries of land reform. The people acquiring land under the
present
programme are far too often gainfully employed rather than being part
of the
unemployed and overcrowded masses. Even the police, so-called
guardians of
the law, have members who have illegally acquired land as new
settlers.
More unacceptable still are the ministers who are reported to
be earmarking
prime farms for themselves with no intention of sharing the
land with the
rural masses. A small case of conflict of interests and abuse
of power.
Learnmore Ndlovu is a freelance writer based in Harare.
Another
outbreak hits beef industry
Augustine Mukaro
AS the country battles with foot-and-mouth and
anthrax outbreaks which have hit the beef industry in the last two months,
another report of animal disease has been received, this time in the
Macheke/Virginia area.
Black
rhino census postponed
Busani Bafana
A SCHEDULED black rhino census in the Matusadona
National Park has been postponed after the Zambezi Society which sourced over
$10 million for the exercise has instead recommended a long-term conservation
approach for the endangered animals.
Byo
to go ahead with installation of mayor
Busani
Bafana
AFTER three consecutive cancellations of
the official installation of the Bulawayo executive mayor to accommodate Local
Government minister Ignatius Chombo, the ceremony goes ahead this afternoon
minus the minister.
CAAZ
board faces axe over CEO appointment
Brian
Hungwe
THE Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe
(CAAZ) board led by retired Col Godfrey Matemachani is reportedly awaiting
dissolution after repeated clashes with the Minister of Transport and
Communications over allegations that it predetermined interview results for
prospective candidates for the hotly disputed CAAZ chief executive’s post, the
Zimbabwe Independent has learnt.
Civic
organisations in voter registration drive
A VISIT to Zimbabwe’s main NGO website shows how seriously civic
organisations are taking the current voter registration drive. “Seize the
moment, vote, or wait another five years to be heard again!” screams a large
flashing message on the Kubatana site.
EU
rejects claims of British arm-twisting
Stanley
James
BRITAIN does not have the power to recommend
the imposition of sanctions on Zimbabwe by the European Union; such a decision
has to be agreed to by all member-states, the new European Commission head of
delegation in Zimbabwe, Francesca Mosca, told the Zimbabwe Independent this
week.
Mugabe’s
days of immunity numbered — US court
Brian
Hungwe
A UNITED States district court in New York
this week held the ruling Zanu PF party liable for the murder and torture of
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters in the run-up to last
year’s June parliamentary election.
Ngezi
starts full-scale output in January
Stanley
James
FULL-SCALE operations at the Ngezi Platinum
Mine are scheduled to commence in January.
UNDP
technical team will adhere to last year’s plan
Dumisani Muleya
THE United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) technical team expected to visit Zimbabwe in
mid-November to assess the land reform exercise will proceed on the basis of the
agency’s December 2000 proposals.
War
vets strike again at Town House
Augustine
Mukaro
BARELY a month after the attack on Town
House officials by war veterans, the ex-combatants were at it again on Wednesday
as they invaded Chamber Secretary Josephine Ncube’s office, forcing her to flee,
the Zimbabwe Independent heard this week.
Zim’s
bid to enlist ACP/EU support flops
Dumisani
Muleya
ZIMBABWE’S frantic efforts to enlist the
support of developing countries at the African, Caribbean and Pacific/ European
Union joint parliamentary assembly in Brussels this week to head off looming EU
sanctions has flopped.
Registration Threat to Media
Mail & Guardian
(Johannesburg)
ANALYSIS
November 2, 2001
Posted to the web November
1, 2001
Barry Streek
An apartheid-era proposal to licence
journalists in the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) has been
incorporated into a protocol that was
signed by the heads of state of its 14
member countries in August.
"State parties shall establish a regional and
internationally recognised
SADC accreditation system or procedure for media
practitioners with specific
guidelines in order to facilitate the work of
such personnel in the rest of
the world," Article 22 of the Protocol on
Culture, Information and Sport
states.
This clause, says the Media
Institute of Southern Africa (Misa), is
"extremely dangerous and subversive
to media freedom, no matter how it is
interpreted. What this means is that
SADC governments will make decisions on
which media or media institutions get
accreditation." Unaccredited media
practitioners would find it difficult to
work in SADC countries, let alone
on the rest of the continent, says Misa's
regional and information
coordinator Kaitira Kandjii.
"Licensing of
journalists also contradicts an extremely rich body of
impeccable
jurisprudence on freedom of the media. The Inter-American Court
of Human
Rights issued an opinion that the licensing of journalists was
illegal,
especially where it denied any person access to the full use of the
news as a
means of expressing themselves or imparting information,"
Kandjii
says.
The licensing of journalists was proposed by the
apartheid government a
number of times, but the move was staved off by the
opposition of
journalists and media companies.
Director General of
Foreign Affairs Sipo Pityana told the Mail & Guardian
that the protocol
was negotiated, from the South African side, by officials
of the Department
of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. He said the
protocol would have to
be ratified by Parliament before it could come into
effect.
Many SADC
countries, particularly Zimbabwe, Angola and Swaziland, have poor
media
freedom records and a common SADC accreditation of journalists
would
undoubtedly be used to stifle critical journalists and their
publications.
Currently foreign journalists, even those from SADC
countries, cannot enter
some countries in the region, such as Zimbabwe and
Namibia, unless they have
received accreditation from the governments of
those countries.
Kandjii says the relevant article on information in the
protocol only refers
in very general terms to the free flow of
information.
"Its reference to, and definitions of, issues of freedom of
information,
freedom of media, media independence and pluralistic media, is
technical and
without much substance. The protocol does not pretend to
elaborate, define
or create any substantive right to access to information at
all.
"Most disturbing is that the protocol fails to limit governments'
right to
impose restrictions on the freedom of the media."
This gives
individual SADC states carte blanche on the type of restrictions
each state
can impose.
"Individual SADC states can create their media laws in any
whimsical way
they wish without adhering to any common standards on what
should constitute
SADC media laws."
Article 20 states: "State parties
shall take necessary measures to ensure
the development of media that are
editorially independent and conscious of
their obligations to the public and
greater society." However, Article 21
notes that: "State parties shall
encourage the establishment or
strengthening of codes of ethics to boost
public confidence and
professionalism in the information
sub-sector."
Kandjii says the track record of some states in the SADC
region is enough
proof that [Article 21] will be used to curtail media
freedom".
Misa says the protocol "creates the impression of a
half-hearted and shoddy
attempt to pay lip-service to the right of a free
media. It is this aspect
that makes it dangerous and subversive to media
freedom, and the idea of the
free flow of information."
It should,
rather, clearly spell out the unrestricted and unhindered
intra-state and
inter-state right of movement by journalists
ZIMBABWE: IRIN Focus on impact of political violence
[This report does
not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
MUDZI, 2
November (IRIN) - As the shadows of the evening lengthen, the children still
play freely out in the fields, but the elders huddle in their huts, speaking in
low tones. You do not need to look hard to notice the unease that has settled
over Mudzi, a rural communal area about 200 km northeast of the capital,
Harare.
More than 15 months after political violence rocked Zimbabwe
during the run up to the country's parliamentary election, the memories are
still fresh in Mudzi - one of the areas worst hit by the unrest. At least 35
people, most of them opposition supporters, died across the country in the
violence that marred the country's watershed poll in which the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) offered the first credible challenge to the ruling
ZANU-PF's political domination.
The human cost of those events are still
being felt in Mudzi. There is a suspicion of strangers and a guardedness that
seems to reflect a new mood in the communal area as a result of the political
campaign last year and the renewed politicking around Zimbabwe's upcoming
presidential poll due in early 2002.
At Katsande primary school near
Nyamhanga village, one of the school teachers who would identify himself only as
"Mr Chiwanza", told IRIN that the school had experienced no disturbances during
the upheavals last year. Chiwanza insisted that he and his colleagues felt free
and secure at the school, but he refused to give his full identity because, he
said: "That would be just testing my luck too far, you never know what might
happen."
Maria (not her real name) has been more seriously affected. She
says she sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night screaming and calling her
husband's name. She told IRIN she has "this constant fear and anxiety, which is
sometimes accompanied by headaches and it never goes away".
In May
last year, at the height of the violence, a group of about 20 pro-government
"veterans" arrived outside her homestead demanding that everybody should come
out. They allegedly dragged her half-dressed husband out of the hut, accusing
him of supporting the opposition MDC and started beating him with logs and iron
clubs. Maria's husband died on the spot while her eldest son was left for dead.
He died the next morning.
Francis Lovemore, a University of Zimbabwe (UZ)
trained medical doctor, provides counselling to victims of violence and believes
that the symptoms Maria reports are trauma-related. He heads the clinical
department at Amani Trust, a Harare-based non-governmental organisation that has
led research into political violence and torture in Zimbabwe .
The
psycological impact of Zimbabwe's political crisis is only slowly being
realised. Of the several thousands of clients Amani has dealt with in the last
20 months, Lovemore said 75 percent required specialised counselling in stress
management. He believes that much more needs to be done to address the growing
numbers of socially damaging violence-related disorders.
The police say
they are still investigating the death of Maria's husband and son. But the
villagers in Nyamhanga IRIN spoke to said they could identify the killers if
asked. Many of them are allegedly unemployed youths from the area.
"There
is a general perception among some people that the police are not doing enough
to bring some of these culprits to book, but we are doing all we can to ensure
justice is done," police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told IRIN. Bvudzijena could
not provide details of the investigation into the murders of Maria's husband and
son, but he insisted that the police "are making impressive progress in all
these cases".
Villager Samuel Chiromo has a different perspective.
"The government has always regarded us as gullible and illiterate," he alleged.
"It appears that after wrecking our lives so we could vote it back into power,
we have been abandoned. No one can tell us who murdered our relatives or let
alone do something about the killings."
According to Lovemore, when
victims "get the impression that nothing is being done against the perpetrators
of violence, it only worsens their situation. But by far the main problem in
rural areas is the lack of facilities or qualified personnel to deal with the
various cases of stress disorder left behind by political violence."
Deputy Health Minister David Parirenyatwa, himself a medical doctor,
told IRIN that the public health system - the only source of health services for
more than 95 percent of rural people - could in most cases only adequately deal
with the physical injuries of victims of violence.
"The physical aspect
of it can in most cases be dealt with at the district hospitals. It is the
mental scarring, the stress that results from the physical wound, that is
difficult to handle," said Parirenyatwa.
Business Report
More gloomy times ahead for Zimbabwe
Sapa-AFP and
Reuters
November 02 2001 at 07:21AM
Harare - Zimbabwe's finance
minister painted a bleak picture of the
country's economy yesterday in
presenting the national budget for 2002,
predicting another year of
depression.
Zimbabwe's economy would have contracted by 7,3 percent by
the year's end,
finance minister Simba Makoni told parliament. Last year he
had projected
that the economy would contract by only 2,8 percent.
The
economy was projected to decline a further 5,3 percent in 2002,
Makoni
said.
"We are sitting at the bottom of the pile both in terms
of the sub-Saharan
African group as well as the SADC group" for economic
growth, he said,
referring to the 14-nation Southern African Development
Community.
Per capita, Zimbabwe's gross domestic product dropped to $385
in 2001, from
$421 in 2000, Makoni said. Poverty levels had shot up, with
about
three-fourths of Zimbabweans living below the poverty
line.
Foreign investment had dried up, exports had fallen, and inflation
had risen
to the point where Zimbabwe's economy was now considered
hyperinflationary,
he said.
The weak economy had led to a backlog of 1
million housing units in urban
areas even as Zimbabwe was suffering a brain
drain of educated workers
leaving the country, "robbing our country of
skilled personnel", Makoni
said,.
The arrears on Zimbabwe's foreign
debt had risen to US$682 million. Most
international lenders had cut off
funding to Zimbabwe.
But the budget of Z$390,2 billion (R69 billion)
Makoni presented proposed to
boost spending on public works such as dams,
roads, bridges and irrigation.
The budget increased spending on social
services, especially healthcare and
education.
Zimbabwe has suffered
serious shortages of medicines because it does not
have enough foreign
currency to buy drugs from overseas.
The budget also allocated money as
loans to support struggling businesses.
Tax breaks were given for people
to buy bricks for housing, and income tax
exemptions were expanded for the
poorest Zimbabweans.
More money would also go to policing, and Z$1,2
billion was budgeted for
next year's presidential
elections.
Meanwhile,# Zimbabwe had appealed to foreign donors for nearly
Z$20 billion
in emergency aid to stave off looming food shortages and to
repair crumbling
infrastructure, a Harare newspaper reported
yesterday.
The independent Financial Gazette said Makoni last week asked
the United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) representative in Zimbabwe,
Victor
Angelo, to appeal to donors for aid on Harare's behalf.
"Makoni
met Angelo last Wednesday and asked him to help raise Z$11 billion
from the
international community E the funds would finance a massive maize
and wheat
import programme, necessary if Zimbabweans are not to starve in
the next few
months," the newspaper said, citing diplomatic sources.
Makoni is
reported to have asked for another Z$8,8 billion to help repair
crumbling
infrastructure, including roads and bridges washed away during
heavy floods
two years ago.
Finance ministry officials were not available yesterday.
The UNDP office in
Harare declined to comment on the report.
Aid
agencies have warned of severe food shortages in the rural regions
of
Zimbabwe over the coming months.
Bumper Tobacco Crop Flops
Business Day (Johannesburg)
November 1,
2001
Tony Hawkins
Despite a larger-than forecast 2001 crop and
buoyant prices, Zimbabwe's
tobacco-growing industry is expected to shrink by
as much as a third next
year.
Sales of Virginia flue-cured leaf will
end this week after sales of about
200-million kilograms of tobacco. This is
about 15% less than was sold in
the 2000 harvest. The average price on the
auction floors this year was
318c/kg, an 88% increase on last year's
169c.
In theory, this means the 2001 crop was worth about $640m, compared
with
$400m last year.
Industry sources say, however, that sales floor
figures are no longer
meaningful, due to foreign currency trading by tobacco
merchants.
They have been paying a much higher price on the floor for
tobacco than
those in export markets. One industry insider said this year's
foreign
currency earnings from tobacco would be only slightly higher than
last
year's, despite the apparent steep improvement in the price.
The
Zimbabwe Tobacco Association says war veterans who have invaded farms
have
stopped about 500 growers a third of large-scale producers from
planting for
2002.
Industry sources say the early irrigation crop has been halved,
while the
total area under tobacco this year is likely to be down 30% to
about
52000ha. Forecasts put the 2002 harvest at 150-million kilograms at
best,
but growers said there could be a rush of late plantings if things
returned
to normal.
Tobacco is Zimbabwe's leading export, accounting
for 25%- 30% of export
revenue. A one-third reduction in the crop would mean
a decline of about 10%
in exports, which had fallen by about a third already
from the mid-1990's
peak of $2,5bn.
Daily news
Deputy minister failed exam twice
11/1/01 7:27:53 AM
(GMT +2)
By Pedzisai Ruhanya
CHRISTOPHER Mushowe, the Deputy
Minister of Transport and Communications,
acquired a master’s degree in
Public Administration, after the University of
Zimbabwe (UZ) Vice-Chancellor,
Professor Graham Hill came to his rescue.
A High Court judge described
the move as unprecedented.
Mushowe, a former director of State Residences
in President Mugabe’s Office,
had failed the examination.
In a 73-page
judgment, made available yesterday but passed in June, Justice
Elizabeth
Gwaunza attacked Hill for awarding a pass mark to Mushowe although
he had
failed both his first sitting and the supplementary examinations for
the
degree programme.
The judge also took a swipe at Mushowe, who is the MP
for Mutare West, for
using his position at State House to induce the UZ
authorities to award him
the degree.
She said such underhanded and
unethical behaviour would be understood by the
ordinary reader to undermine
Mushowe’s credentials as a top civil servant.
“The public expects
exemplary behaviour from those in leadership positions,
especially in the
government,” Gwaunza said.
Describing Hill as an unimpressive witness,
Gwaunza said: “Hill took the
apparently unprecedented step of first referring
the script to external
examiners and then changing the failing mark to a pass
mark. His explanation
for having done so lacked credence.”
After
failing the first attempt, Mushowe wrote a supplementary examination
marked
by two people who gave him 45 and 48 percent respectively.
Hill then gave
the script to two other external examiners to ensure Mushowe
got fair
treatment.
“Be that as it may, Hill received from the two external
examiners responses
suggesting that Mushowe was entitled at best, to a very
low pass mark and he
was a very average student,” the judge said.
Hill
then changed the 48 percent to a pass mark of 50 percent.
According to UZ
regulations, a failing mark in a supplementary examination,
no matter how
marginal, is never upgraded automatically to a pass as would
happen with an
original examination mark.
The court also found that Mushowe did not
possess a first degree, a
requirement for admission into the
programme.
Despite his lack of qualifications, Mushowe was exempted from
doing three
first year courses in spite of objections from the post-graduate
committee.
Gwaunza said the court heard that there was a general belief
that Mushowe
was a member of the Central Intelligence Organisation, “an
organisation
which invokes fear within the general public”. Professor Hill
admitted to
having heard the rumour.
She ruled that Mushowe did not
need to include the “Office of the President
and Cabinet” in his contact
address as he could have simply used the box
number.
“It is misleading
for Mushowe to say such an address was also his home
address. One does not
live in an office,” Gwaunza ruled.
“Mushowe used the presidential
letterhead to put the fear of the
presidential power into the UZ authorities,
forcing them to admit him.
“The additional sting also comes through quite
clearly. He used presidential
stationery to write letters to the UZ on what
in effect was a private,
personal matter, that concerning his being a student
at the UZ,” Gwaunza
said.
“Mushowe also knew, by so doing, that such
stationery would put the fear of
the President’s Office into the relevant
authorities and induce them to
admit him. Clearly, the ordinary readers would
understand this to mean that
Mushowe had abused his office in order to gain
admittance to the UZ.”
The judge ruled that given all these facts, the
probabilities were high that
Mushowe deliberately used his office in order to
influence action favourable
to him from the UZ authorities.
She said:
“This action induced his admission to the course and the
extraordinary
lengths that the authorities, especially Hill, went on to
eliminate any
possible bias in the marking of Mushowe’s script.
“Hill conceded it was
the very first time, and unusual for him as the
Vice-Chancellor to do
that.”
Gwaunza said Mushowe got the degree despite having failed his
final
examinations. Mushowe enrolled at the UZ in 1994.
She said Hill
took the very unusual step of personally telephoning Mushowe,
a student, and
informing him that he had passed.
She said Hill’s actions were difficult
to justify except on the basis that
Mushowe had exerted the influence of his
office to induce Hill.
Gwaunza made the ruling in a civil defamation case
in which Mushowe was
suing John Makumbe, a lecturer in the Department of
Political Sciences and
Administrative Studies, the UZ, Basildon Peta a
reporter with the now
defunct Sunday Gazette and its publisher, Modus
Publications, for $260 000.
Mushowe said Makumbe and Peta defamed him
when they said he was not
qualified to be enrolled at the college and that he
failed to pass his
examination but used his position as an officer in
Mugabe’s office to
acquire it.
Gwaunza said that she was satisfied
that the reader would understand that
the same fear Mushowe had put into the
UZ authorities to get them to admit
him had also induced them to start
working on how to change his failing mark
to a pass one.
Gwaunza
dismissed Mushowe’s application with costs saying the matter was of
public
interest.
Zimbabwe asks UN to provide food aid
FROM JAN RAATH IN
HARARE
ZIMBABWE has asked the United Nations for millions of pounds worth
of
emergency food aid.
The request comes after President Mugabe’s campaign
of harassment against
white farmers which has almost halved food
production.
Victor Angelo, the UN Development Fund’s Zimbabwe
representive, confirmed
that there had been a formal request for relief
assistance, which he was
considering. The request had come from Simba Makoni,
the Finance Minister.
Mr Angelo did not disclose the amount requested,
but the independent weekly
Financial Gazette said that Mr Makoni had asked
for help in raising Zim$11
billion (£140 million) from foreign countries. Mr
Angelo said that the UN’s
famine relief agency, the World Food Programme,
could send direct assistance
to communities “in dire need”.
Zimbabwe’s
National Early Warning Unit said this week that 700,000 people
already needed
food aid, and that the Government’s stocks of maize, the
national staple,
were likely to start running out next month.
It also said that the
Government needed “immediately” to import 200,000
tonnes of maize to avert
starvation.
The appeal to the UN comes as Mr Mugabe’s regime faces
increasing
international isolation because of its failure to restore the rule
of law
and to adhere to its agreement with Commonwealth foreign ministers at
Abuja,
Nigeria, in September to halt the campaign of violent seizures
of
white-owned farms.
UN Assessment Team Arrives
UN Integrated Regional Information
Networks
November 1, 2001
Posted to the web November 1,
2001
A United Nations team that is to assess Zimbabwe's land crisis
has begun
arriving in Harare, an official from the Food and Agriculture
Organisation
(FAO) told IRIN on Thursday.
A specialist in land
information management arrived at the weekend from FAO
headquarters in Rome
and is providing technical help to the ministry of
lands, said Victoria
Sekitoleko, FAO's Regional Representative for Southern
and Eastern
Africa.
"The specialist will begin work on establishing a comprehensive
land
information resource for the government," Sekitoleko said. She added
that
the government did not have proper information on land use, ownership
and
quality and had requested help from FAO to help establish this
resource.
The specialist is part of a United Nations Development Program
(UNDP)
assessment mission due in Harare next week. It will be headed by
Abdoulie
Janneh, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UNDP
Regional Bureau
for Africa. The mission will assess total progress made under
the Abuja
agreement.
The UN assessment mission was called for under a
Commonwealth deal signed in
Abuja in September. Zimbabwe agreed to curb
political violence tied to its
land reforms in exchange for British financing
of the programme. Part of the
deal called for Zimbabwe's government to work
more closely with the UNDP on
the land issue.
Meanwhile, a joint
report by the USAID-backed Famine Early Warning System
(FEWS) and the state
agricultural department made public on Wednesday
predicted worsening food
shortages. The report marks a departure in
government's attitude to the
nation's food situation - it had previously
allegedly sought to play down
evidence of shortages as the presidential poll
to be held early next year
approaches.
The report said as many as 30 percent of the population in
some districts in
central, western, southern and arid northern Zimbabwe
suffered food shortage
s during October. It noted that the nation's stocks of
grain, the staple
food, stood at about 200,355 mt in mid-October, the lowest
level in two
years, or 63 percent lower than at the same time last
year.
The report does not conflict with earlier studies that suggest the
combined
affects of drought, economic collapse, and the government's land
reform
programme would lead to severe food shortages next year.
By Busani Bafana
|
Farm workers weigh bananas in the Bindura area, 100 km
north-east of Harare. File
photo |
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe (Alertnet) - Alarm bells are ringing among aid
agencies and other non-governmental organisations running feeding programmes in
Zimbabwe as the price of basic commodities soars and the country's currency
declines in value.
The government has announced price controls on staples
such as bread, milk, salt, washing powder, cooking oil and sugar in a move
welcomed by consumers.
Manufacturers, however, caution that food shortages may worsen since some
will be forced to close down rather than make a loss.
A consortium of six NGOs operating in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces,
areas affected by floods last year and now grappling with a drought, said its
operations were being compromised by the economic crisis.
"Everything is getting expensive and food stuffs are in short supply," Norbet
Dube, spokesman for the consortium, told Alertnet.
"In our feeding programmes for under-fives we have used maize meal, cooking
oil and beans but we have had to shift to pre-prepared meals due to the high
costs of the basic ingredients."
Hesitation on the part of donors because of political turmoil in Zimbabwe has
also contributed to the slow implementation of some food security programmes
such as a pilot project for market gardens that the consortium was promoting in
drought-prone regions.
Dube said the project had taken off successfully in the Nkayi district of
Matabeleland North province but could not be extended to other areas because of
cost.
"There is no doubt that the economic situation coupled with the rising costs
of basic commodities has had a negative impact on our programmes as we are still
battling to complete surveys on the actual number of people needing drought
relief," he said.
"On the ground, most of the NGOs are ready as far as logistics and personnel
are concerned but we have not been able to get the up-to-date statistics from
government on how many people need help."
Among NGOs in the consortium were the Zimabwe-based Organisation of Rural
Associations for Progress, the Red Cross, World Vision, Christian Care, the
Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Development Commission.
Shrinking government allocations and tight international funding for the
emergency feeding programmes have forced the NGOs to become self-sustaining in
order to continue.
Feeding programmes for more than 100,000 children under five, launched in
Matabeleland South province last year, were being implemented on an ad hoc basic
by some NGOs.
More than 500,000 people in the Matabeleland region, where crops failed or
were washed away, were estimated to be in need of food aid and material
assistance. A similar number was under threat in Midlands province.
In addition, thousands of under-fives in schools would also need assistance.
In Matabeleland South province, declared a drought disaster area in 1995 to
solicit international and local intervention, all local councils started
registering people in need of food assistance in February this year.
Save the Children UK expects to feed people in Binga and Muzarabani and other
NGOs have warned of mass starvation in Matabeleland and other provinces where
crops failed and government food assistance has been minimal.
Daily news
Another farm invaded in Bindura
11/1/01 7:21:06 AM (GMT
+2)
Staff Reporter
DAWMILL Farm in Bindura was on Monday
invaded by alleged war veterans,
despite last week’s visit by a team from the
Commonwealth to assess the
government’s commitment to the Abuja Agreement in
which it undertook to stop
illegal farm occupations.
Ian Miller, the
farm owner said he decided to leave the farm after he was
given an ultimatum
to leave or risk being killed.
“The war veterans led by Cde Chitate came
to my farm on Monday afternoon,”
said Millar. “They left a note on the gate
saying the spirits of the land
wanted me to leave the farm.”
Miller
said the problem with the alleged war veterans started last Saturday
when he
denied access to the farm to evaluators from the government.
“On the
instructions of my lawyer Martin Dinha, I could not allow them into
my
property because it is not listed,” he said.
“I later received a call
from Mr Kufa, the district administrator, saying
that I had denigrated the
provincial governor through the evaluators and
that I had also denigrated the
President through the provincial governor.”
Officials at the DA’s office
refused to comment and referred all questions
to Mr Kufa who was said to be
in a meeting.
Dinha, confirmed that his client’s property was not
designated for
resettlement.
“To the best of my knowledge Dawmill is not
listed, neither has a letter
been served on Millar notifying him of the
intention to list the farm,” said
Dinha.
“I talked to Kufa over this
issue last week but nothing has materialised.
Funny enough this happens when
the government has made an undertaking to
evacuate invaders from undesignated
farms.”
Under the Abuja Agreement, the government undertook to restore
law and order
on commercial farms that have been invaded by so-called war
veterans.
In return, Britain and the international community would pay an
unspecified
amount of money to fund the resettlement programme.
At the
weekend however, the British government expressed dissatisfaction at
the
progress of the Zimbabwe government’s efforts to restore the rule of law
on
the farms.
The United Kingdom said it would only release the required
funds depending
on the outcome of a report that will be submitted by the
UNDP.
Daily news
LEADER PAGE Thursday 1 , November
Time for all men
of courage to take a stand
11/1/01 5:05:51 AM (GMT
+2)
Even though it has taken Eddison Zvobgo years of dithering,
prevarication
and an almost fatal hesitancy to follow Edgar Tekere’s
exceptionally bold
move of a little more than a decade ago to speak openly
about President
Mugabe, we think he still should be seen as a man of courage
for finally
having summoned enough guts to take the bull by the
horns.
As reported in our front page lead story on Tuesday, Zvobgo,
together with
his firebrand lieutenant, Dzikamai Mavhaire, were conspicuous
by their
absence from Mugabe’s Masvingo presidential election rally, thinly
disguised
as Vice-President Simon Muzenda’s birthday celebrations.
The
two men were merely being polite when they initially said they did not
attend
the rally because they had not been officially invited.
The real reason
was contained in their unequivocal statement later in the
story. Vowing they
would not campaign for Mugabe in the forthcoming
election, the two, for the
first time made it publicly known that they were
bitter for having been used
and then dumped by Mugabe in the past.
It was especially telling for
Mavhaire to poignantly state: “Zvobgo was
injured while campaigning for
Mugabe in 1996, and where is he now? This
time,we will not be
used.”
It is doubtful that had Zvobgo taken this decision in the
mid-1980s, when
Mugabe first showed that he could not be side-tracked from
his life-long
ambition that of setting up a one-party dictatorship to ensure
he rules for
life Zimbabwe would be in the mess that it is in
today.
For Zvobgo would never have crafted for Mugabe an executive
presidency with
such monstrously sweeping powers.
We are absolutely
certain more than half the people in the Cabinet right now
don’t approve at
all of what Mugabe is doing to our beloved Zimbabwe.
It is so clear from
their silence over contentious matters such as the use
of the police, army
and the CIO to cow everyone into pretending to support
the big lie that the
madness now going on in the countryside is in the
economic interest of the
people.
All those in Zanu PF and government, now being constantly sullied
as cowards
whom the President no longer trusts, are actually the real amadoda
sibili
(brave ones), who only lack the courage of their
conviction.
For the sake of saving Zimbabwe from total ruin, they have no
option but
take a cue from Zvobgo and Mavhaire. Some of them quite rightly
fear what
might happen in the event of Zanu PF losing power in view of their
having
used their party positions to amass wealth illegally.
Those
fears are, of course, not entirely unfounded. Roughly two years ago,
Mugabe
had occasion to make some singularly unflattering remarks with regard
to the
general conduct of some of the men and women who make up the team
that is
assisting him in steering the ship of state.
He said he was aware that
quite a number of his Cabinet ministers were
taking bribes to facilitate the
granting of government contracts, tenders
and the like.
Although, as
usual, he took no action against those concerned - which would
have been
almost the entire Cabinet and heads of parastatals - those who had
indulged
in corrupt activities must be still quite fearful.
It is mostly those
same men and women who, because they are apprehensive of
what might happen to
them, are ambivalent about following their conscience
or helping to
perpetuate his rule solely for the sake of using him as a
shield against
prosecution even though they want no part in what Mugabe is
doing
now.
Such people must choose between the benefits certain to accrue
from
timeously coming clean and helping build a new Zimbabwe and the risk
of
resisting change by supporting evil, whatever the consequencies.
Daily news
Group threatens civil unrest
11/1/01 7:16:44 AM (GMT
+2)
Staff Reporter
CRISIS In Zimbabwe (CIZ), a group of more
than 250 civic organisations, has
threatened civil disobedience unless the
government sets minimum conditions
for a free and fair election in the
presidential election next year.
President Mugabe of the ruling Zanu PF
party will face Morgan Tsvangirai of
the MDC in the presidential
race.
In a joint communique, the heads of civil society under the CIZ
raised
concern over the government-controlled electoral process which is
headed by
the Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede, a nephew of President
Mugabe.
CIZ made the following conditions: “Government must immediately
appoint an
independent electoral commission.
“The members of this
commission must be drawn from nominees provided by the
major stakeholders in
Zimbabwe.
“There should be a more intensive voter education programme,
aimed
particularly at the population in rural areas. There should be no
attempt by
the government to control voter education as is currently
proposed. A new
voters’ roll must be prepared and made available at least
three months
before the election. Everyone must have access to this
roll.
“The postal balloting arrangements must be revised to ensure that
all
eligible voters are able to cast their ballots. Very large numbers
of
Zimbabweans living outside the country are currently deprived of their
right
to participate in elections, and this is unacceptable. Election
monitors
must be allowed to monitor the postal vote process.”
Brian
Raftopolous, the CIZ spokesman on Tuesday said his organisation would
put
pressure on the government to make sure that the election is held when
the
conditions have been set.
“Unless we do put pressure on this government
no amount of external force
will help,” Raftopolous said. “We intend to do
something before the
year-end. Our strategy is already in place. This
strategy is essential for
the future democratic Zimbabwe.”
He said CIZ
was aware that the government might try to victimise those who
campaign for
civil disobedience.
“We will be irresponsible if we do not think of the
consequences,” said
Raftopolous.
“But that is the only option left
since the government does not want
dialogue. It uses dialogue to buy
time.”
John Makumbe, the CIZ chairman said although CIZ depended on
Zimbabweans,
Botswana and South Africa had started to exert pressure on
Zimbabwe.
“The recent deportations might have sent some signals but they
affected poor
people,” said Makumbe. “The Zimbabwe government has never been
known to care
about its people except the fat cats.”
The EU Threatens "Smart Sanctions"
In a new development, the European
Council of Ministers agreed on Monday
this week to hold talks with the
Government of Zimbabwe under the Cotanou
Agreement. This is the convention
that replaced the Lome Agreement last year
and governs the relationship
between the 15 Nation European Union and some
72 African, Asian and Caribbean
countries.
The EU is the largest integrated trading block in the world
and is also
Zimbabwe’s largest trading partner. In the past the EU and its
Member States
has also been the largest source of bilateral and multilateral
aid to the
country. Under the Cotanou Agreement, the Partner States have
agreed to
abide by agreed principles of governance and democracy as a
condition of
membership of this “club”. In the event that a State abrogates
the terms of
the agreement in any serious way, the procedure is for the EU to
call for
discussions with the government concerned to try and get them to
come back
into line with the terms of the Agreement to which they are an
signatory. In
the event that this fails, then sanctions of some kind are
applied until the
errant State complies.
The most recent example of
action under the terms of the Agreement is the
action taken against a Pacific
State when the elected Government was
overthrown in a coup.
The next
step will be for the EU to convene a meeting to discuss the
situation with
Zimbabwe and if these get nowhere, then some form of
sanctions will follow.
The EU has already indicated that it sees no role for
full-blown trade
sanctions, which will simply make things worse for ordinary
people, and the
MDC has strongly supported this view. What they are talking
about is the
possibility of “smart” sanctions which will specifically target
members of
the Zanu PF elite and their families. These could involve
freezing assets,
restricting travel and contact and withdrawal of travel
visas. They would
also involve suspension from the activities of the EU and
the ACP States
under the Cotanou Agreement.
Already the Zimbabwe government has rejected
the threat. However there can
be little doubt that this action will hurt the
present government and will
further intensify it’s economic and political
isolation. Further sanctions
can be expected from the USA very shortly and it
will put pressure on both
the United Nations and the OAU and the SADC to take
a more deliberate and
proactive stance on the Zimbabwe crisis.
In his
statement rejecting the EU threat, Munangagwa said that “Zimbabwe is
a
peaceful country and incidents of violence are few and far between, no
fresh
farm invasions are taking place and the EU has no right to dictate
how
Zimbabwe will hold it’s presidential elections in the new year”. That
kind
of statement is not going to help the situation in any way. The facts of
the
situation here are well known and foreign governments do not rely on Zanu
PF
propaganda for their information. In fact Mr Munangagwa is wrong in
all
respects – under the Harare Declaration, negotiated and signed under
the
Chairmanship of Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwe government has agreed to
a
common set of political and economic principles which are binding on
all
States in the Commonwealth. Under the Cotanou Agreement, to which we are
a
signatory and fully participated in its negotiation – led by
Minister
Shamuyarira, a senior Zanu PF politician, we are also bound by
common
principle.
But in the final analysis, the situation in Zimbabwe
is not going to be
sorted out by actions taken by foreign governments – no
matter how well
founded or justified. This is an African problem and must be
sorted out by
Africans themselves. We will be judged by what we do in this
respect and the
promoters of the African Recovery Plan must know that this is
the first real
test of their resolve. Here in Zimbabwe, we cannot rely on
outside pressure
bringing change. In the final analysis its up to us, with
courage and
conviction, to take control of our destiny again by using the one
thing we
still have – our right to vote, even if the playing field is not
level and w
e are beaten and bloodied in the process.
Eddie
Cross
Secretary for Economic Affairs
The Movement for Democratic
Change
Zimbabwe
A View from the Pan.
Speaking to a group of “settlers” of a commercial
farm during the recent
visit by the Commonwealth Ministers delegation, the
Zimbabwe Minister of
Foreign Affairs said “we will never reverse our stance
on the land – it is a
matter of honour.” He went on to say “our honour is at
stake in this matter”
. Then this morning the BBC carried an interview with
John Nkomo, who asked,
“why are you trying to criminalize us?” They are both
right – their honour
is at stake in many ways in the present crisis and they
are being treated
increasingly as common criminals by all and
sundry.
The ZBC and the State controlled newspapers have also excelled
themselves
this week – the anthrax outbreak in the midlands is the result of
“Rhodesian
biological warfare which killed thousands” of Zimbabweans in the
war of
independence. Then they changed tack and said it was the result
of
activities by “white commercial farmers who were unhappy with the
occupation
of their farms”. Anthrax may be new in the USA but it is endemic
in Africa
and dozens of cases occur each year. If anything it is the
lawlessness and
breakdown of veterinary controls that is causing any outbreak
at present.
The fact that 15 people were hungry enough to eat meat from a
carcass and
catch the disease – is a matter for us to ponder as
well.
The visit by the Commonwealth representatives is yet another round
in the
struggle between the international community and this government. At
stake
is the whole issue of good governance as defined in a multitude of
treaties
and agreements. Who won this round – I think the score card was a
narrow
points victory for the visitors. They adopted a resolution that called
on
the Zimbabwe government to fulfil its obligations under the Abuja
Agreement.
That’s a tall order as the Agreement calls on the Zimbabwe
government to
fully respect the terms of the Harare Declaration as well as
the rule of
law. But how to enforce this dictum? All they can continue to do
is to
withhold financial support and aid to Zimbabwe until we
comply.
I thought the CFU presentation was factual and clear – the idea
of actually
doing a full survey of commercial farms was very clever. The
facts were
stark – nearly 700 farms invaded since Abuja, 105 000 illegal
settlers on
the farms, 80 per cent of all invasions violent in one form or
another. 75
000-farm workers and their families displaced. No wonder John
Nkomo is being
treated as a criminal – these are, in any reasonable persons
understanding
criminal acts. Once again the Secretary General of the
Commonwealth did
little to convince that he is up to the job.
Who will
enter the ring for the next round? The EU meets today to decide on
what to do
next, the USA must be close to adopting the Zimbabwe Democracy
Bill and the
SADC Heads of State must be close to becoming engaged yet
again. They are the
real heavy weights in this contest and if a knock out is
to happen, it will
be in the SADC/Zimbabwe round. But the other players are
landing body blows
and if you have boxed – you will know that gradually
these blows make
themselves felt.
In the meantime the food crisis deepens, now we have a
mysterious explosion
on the rail link from Beitbridge to Gauteng. This is our
main lifeline and
is the only railway system that is capable of carrying the
heavy loads
required on a modern railway. The bridge was destroyed at the
site and the
line will be closed for 6 weeks or more. All traffic is being
diverted
through the Botswana system.
New controls on food prices –
Zanu PF politics is very simple at its heart,
how to win votes – you simply
double private sector wages in three months
and then reduce the selling
prices of their products to below cost. There is
something wrong with that
formula, but for the life of me I cannot see what
it is? Can you? Maybe the
present shortages of maize meal, sugar, salt,
bread, soap, washing powder are
the result? What to do with these
irresponsible business persons who refuse
to sell their products below
cost – why we threaten to take over their
business and let the workers run
them – its simple really.
What is
more difficult to understand is the attempt to stop people using
their own
grain to feed their own families. The picture of police taking
maize off
busses and confiscating the product is astonishing. The image of
those who
are raiding the informal markets in the towns to confiscate grain
being sold
along the roadside is also difficult to comprehend if you are
expecting to
win an election in 4 months time.
Real basic food shortages are appearing
– not just in the rural areas where
crops failed last season but also in the
cities as stocks decline. Still no
action on the part of the authorities, do
they really want starvation? Is
this part of the plan to drive all the MDC
voters off the farms and out of
the towns into South Africa so that they
cannot vote in the election?
M Ngwenya
29th October 2001.
Please
note that this note is personal and does not necessarily reflect the
views of
the Movement for Democratic Change.