FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube
UNITED Nations
Secretary General Kofi Annan has slammed President Robert
Mugabe over the
government's rejection of international aid as millions of
people grapple
with the twin scourges of starvation and homelessness
following the
demolition of slums last May.
In what diplomatic sources in Harare
described as a no-holds-barred
statement, Annan said he was gravely
concerned by the humanitarian situation
in Zimbabwe as it emerged that
thousands of people still slept in the open
and in urgent need of aid, five
months after the beginning of the government's
controversial Operation
Murambatsvina clean-up exercise.
"The United Nations continues to receive
reports that tens of thousands of
people are still homeless and in need of
assistance, months after the
eviction campaign began in May 2005," Annan's
spokesman Stephen Dujarric
said in a statement this week. "He (Annan) is
particularly dismayed to learn
that the government of Zimbabwe's Ad-Hoc
Inter-Ministerial Cabinet Committee
has rejected offers of UN assistance,"
said Dujarric.
In an official communication to the UN, Local Government
Minister Ignatius
Chombo stated that it was the government's position that
"there is no longer
a compelling need to provide temporary shelter as there
is no humanitarian
crisis."
Chombo also claimed that government had
addressed the most urgent shelter
needs in Zimbabwe after it put into place
Operation Garikai, the successor
to Operation Murambatsvina.
Dujarric
said this "directly contradicted the report by the Secretary
General's
Special Envoy on Human Settlement Issues in Zimbabwe, Anna
Tibaijuka, as
well as most recent reports from the United Nations and the
humanitarian
community in Zimbabwe."
Tibaijuka, a Tanzanian national, spent two weeks
in the country on a
fact-finding mission after the government launched its
controversial and
widely condemned clean-up exercise. Tibaijuka reported
that at least 700 000
people were rendered homeless about six months ago
after the government
demolished thousands of houses and backyard shacks in
an exercise she said
was a disastrous venture carried out with indifference
to human suffering.
According to Tibaijuka, another 2.4 million people
were also directly
affected by the exercise, which President Mugabe said was
"necessary to
restore the beauty of cities and towns."
"A large
number of vulnerable groups, including the recent evictees as well
as other
vulnerable populations, remain in need of immediate assistance,
including
shelter. Furthermore, there is no clear evidence that the
subsequent
government efforts have significantly benefited these groups,"
Annan's
spokes-man added.
"The Secretary General notes the government's decision
to decline assistance
comes despite extensive consultations on relief
efforts that ensued in the
past months between the United Nations and the
government. Meanwhile, the
impending rainy season threatens to worsen the
living conditions of the
affected population."
Annan is said to be
disturbed by the continued suffering and appealed to the
government "to
ensure that those who are out in the open, without shelter
and without means
of sustaining their livelihoods, are provided with
humanitarian assistance
in collaboration with the UN and the humanitarian
community in order to
avert a further deterioration of the humanitarian
situation."
The
scathing criticism of President Mugabe's government comes after a
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Local Government, which toured
Hatcliffe Extension, Whitecliff, Hopley Estate, and the Jo'burg Lines in
Mbare revealed the government had failed to meet targets set for its
Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle.
FinGaz
Nelson
Banya
A PUBLIC row erupted this week between Agriculture Minister Joseph
Made and
his deputy, Sylvester Nguni, over declining output from the
country's farms
since the advent of land reforms in 2000.
Made
reacted angrily to Nguni's candid assessment of the state of the
agriculture
sector, which has declined sharply since the government embarked
on the
controversial land reforms.
Addressing a Zimbabwe Farmers' Union congress
in Bulawayo last week, Nguni,
who until his appointment to the ministry in
April was head of the country's
most profitable agro-industrial businesses,
the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe,
said the government had made mistakes in its
allocation of land, which saw
some people without "the faintest idea of
farming" getting vast tracts of
farmland.
"We have a few people that
are really committed to production while many
others are doing nothing on
the farms. The problem is that we gave land to
people lacking the passion
for farming and this is why every year production
has been declining," Nguni
was quoted as saying.
Zimbabwe has witnessed reversals in tobacco, maize,
milk and horticultural
production, losing its erstwhile position as the
sub-region's breadbasket.
Tobacco production, which peaked at 200 million
kilogrammes in 1999, has
sagged to levels of around 80 million kilogrammes
while dairy and
horticultural production has almost fallen by 50
percent.
Although the region has been hit by a series of droughts in
recent years,
some countries such as Zambia have managed to produce
surpluses to export to
Zimbabwe, reversing the previous trend.
Nguni also
charged that key stakeholders in agriculture, including
government, "were
not telling the truth when it came to matters afflicting
agriculture yet the
truth, however unpalatable it might be, forms the basis
for moving
forward."
"The truth of the matter is that the maize price is not very
attractive.
Even if we did not have a drought we were still going to import
as farmers
turn to more lucrative crops - and that is the truth," Nguni
said. He went
on to attack the government's endless audits of the land
reform programme.
Nguni's statements drew sharp and immediate criticism
from Made, who charged
that the deputy minister was advancing arguments long
held by "detractors"
of the land reform exercise.
In response to
Nguni's suggestion that government cedes institutions such as
the
degenerating Agricul-tural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) -
which,
incidentally, Made used to head before his ministerial appointment -
to
individuals and organisations with capacity, Made said: "The deputy
minister
should come up with recommendations on how best to assist these
institutions
so that farmers can get the best out of it."
Made also repeated the
government's mantra that the decline in agricultural
production has been
brought about by a series of droughts and "illegal
sanctions imposed by
Britain and her allies."
Made, who has been accused of frequently
misrepresenting the country's food
security situation and must have been
stung by Nguni's charge that both the
government and industry were being
economical with the truth, is believed to
have an uneasy relationship with
his deputy, with whom he frequently clashed
when Nguni was still at
Cottco.
The agriculture minister also attacked industry for "not moving
inputs to
farmers on time" and former white commercial farmers for
"vandalising
property on the farms."
Last August, the permanent
secretary in the agriculture ministry, Simon
Pazvakavambwa, earned himself a
reprimand after revealing that the Grain
Marketing Board - the sole grain
procurement body in the country - only had
three weeks' stocks of maize left
in its silos. At the time, grain imports,
which had averaged 15 000 tonnes
per week fro several months, had virtually
stopped.
The government
has since stepped up grain imports from South Africa.
FinGaz
Rangarirai
Mberi
THE four founding directors of NMBZ Holdings Limited have teamed up
with key
shareholder and ally Yusuf Ahmid to ward off a Nick van Hoogstraten
takeover
at the bank's rights offer, The Financial Gazette can
reveal.
Senior Business Reporter
Julius Makoni, James
Mushore, Francis Zimuto and Otto Chekeche, initially
seen as not following
their rights, "have indicated their intention to
follow their rights and
will be in a position to make an irrevocable
undertaking to this end",
according to correspondence seen by this paper.
The offer closed
yesterday.
The four founding directors collectively own 35 percent of the
bank, and
earlier reports of their family trusts not following their rights
had raised
the prospect of the lead underwriter taking control.
NMBZ
named Syfrets as the lead underwriter, but the institution, a
subsidiary of
Financial Holdings Limited (Finhold), will apparently yield
extra shares to
Ahmid, who is based in England.
"NMBZ would have a preference for a well
known 'name' to head the
underwriting, and have raised the possibility of
your organisation
fulfilling this role. A fee for acting as the conduit for
the underwriting
would be payable and would involve no financial outlay," a
letter written to
Syfrets says.
To secure all extra stock, Ahmid, a
14 percent shareholder, will take up all
unclaimed shares, the documents
show. However, another source said this week
a new arrangement, designed to
"make sure that all the shares are not left
in the hands of one
shareholder", has subsequently been agreed.
Van Hoogstraten had made an
offer to underwrite the bank's rights issue, but
NMBZ management and board,
aware that the crafty British investor was
looking for the extra shares he
needs to gain a majority share of the bank,
turned him down.
But van
Hoogstraten has apparently been actively buying NMBZ letters of
allocations
(LAs), which went up on the market on October 17, in a separate
strategy to
rustle up as much stock as he could get.
NMB LAs hit an unprecedented
$400 on strong bidding, up from $20 only two
weeks ago. The share price rose
98 percent to $800 yesterday..
Ahmid, through his Palisades Limited and
Kurper Limited investment vehicles,
has secured the alliance of another
group of shareholders, which controls a
further 6 percent.
Old
Mutual, the 20 percent controlling shareholder, followed its rights.
More
than 80 percent of NMBZ shareholders-including Messina-had expressed
their
support ahead of the offer. Ahmid bought into NMBZ in 2003 via an
off-the-market deal that angered Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) authorities,
resulting in a two-day suspension of the counter from the bourse, lifted
after the deal was clarified to the satisfaction of the ZSE.
NMBZ is
raising $64 billion for NMB Bank, its core division that returned to
profit
in the third quarter.
"The rights issue route is one generally preferred by
the ZSE in that it
allows all current shareholders the opportunity to
participate in the
exercise to re-capitalise their bank, so as not to dilute
their respective
ownership.
Furthermore, the process is the most
transparent and equitable in fixing a
realistic rights issue price without
prejudicing existing shareholders, who
have a pre-emptive right to maintain
their stakes," NMBZ says in its offer
statement.
FinGaz
Njabulo Ncube
THE
faction-riddled Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) holds its
make-or-break
national council meeting on Saturday where the party's future
is expected to
be decided, amid indications party leader Morgan Tsvangirai
is looking to
throw down the gauntlet by calling for an extra-ordinary
congress before
Christmas.
The Financial Gazette can reveal that as part of Saturday's
agenda the
embattled Tsvangi-rai, would recommend to the national council
the expulsion
of suspended St Mary's legislator Job Sikhala. The
legislator's case would
feature on the agenda, along with other disciplinary
cases.
However, top on the agenda is the state of the party, the fate of
candidates
who registered for the senate elections, leadership cohesion and
the message
from the MDC to the Zimbabwean electorate.
Also on the
agenda is an update on the congress process that is envisaged to
be held as
an extra-ordinary congress before the end of the year where only
two items,
the MDC constitution and leadership would top the bill. Insiders
said
yesterday Sikhala would not attend the Saturday national executive
meeting,
as he would be serving his suspension.
It emerged yesterday that some
senior party officials in favour of
participating in the November 26 senate
elections have been urging
provincial chairpersons not to attend Saturday's
national council meeting.
Deputy secretary general Gift Chima-nikire
raised prospects of another
abortive meeting early this week when he issued
a statement contradicting
Tsvangirai.
It is, however, understood that
Tsvangirai has asked deputy provincial
chairpersons to be on stand-by to
attend the national executive meeting
expected to chart the way forward for
the faction-ravaged party. Tsvangirai's
spokesman, William Bango, dismissed
assertions the national executive
council would flop.
"There is so
much interest in this particular meeting following the fall-out
on 12
October," said Bango.
"Council members are anxious to chart the way
forward. They are feeling the
heat from the structures, particularly those
provinces which initially
conducted a flawed consultative process and in
nominating candidates for the
senate elections. Structures are urging their
representatives to present the
true picture on the ground."
FinGaz
Charles
Rukuni
BULAWAYO-Council has approved a $3.8 trillion "maintenance budget"
for 2006,
which will see charges increase by an average of 250 percent but
still leave
a deficit of $1.3 trillion.
The budget was approved by
the council on Monday but still awaits approval
by the Ministry of Local
Government. This year's budget was only approved in
April when the council
had already lost $5.3 billion in revenue. It was also
trimmed from $775
billion to $515 billion.
Presenting the budget for 2006, the chairman of
the Finance and Development
Committee, Clr Thaba Moyo, said there was an
urgent need to speed up
approval of the budget because total income at
current levels of charges
would only amount to $738 billion leaving a
deficit of $3.1 billion.
Clr Moyo said during budget consultations,
residents had said priority
should be given to the provision of water,
followed by health, sewerage,
housing and roads.
Bulawayo has been
under water rationing since July and some suburbs,
especially those on
higher ground, have at times gone for weeks without
water.
The city
has had no new sources of water since 1976 when the population was
about 250
000. Bulawayo had a population of 677 000 according to the 2002
census but
this figure has been disputed.
The council has set aside $100 billion as
its contribution towards the
harnessing of water from the Mtshabezi Dam and
the Zambezi Water Project.
The provision of water is the responsibility of
the Zimbabwe National Water
Authority but so far it has failed to
deliver.
The council said it would have to increase tariffs and
rationalise staff to
reduce or eliminate the $1.3 trillion
deficit.
Other ways of expanding its revenue would include
commercialisation of some
services, venturing into horticulture, reviewing
rentals of council
properties and adjusting fees and licences to full-cost
recovery or
inflation levels.
FinGaz
Charles
Rukuni
BULAWAYO - Central bank governor Gideon Gono may have got his
exchange rate
policy right this time but this could be derailed by
commercial banks that
have now decided to play god in the market as well as
by the serious
mismatch between the monetary and fiscal
policies.
Zimbabwe abandoned the foreign currency auction system on
October 20 and
replaced it with an open market system under which foreign
currency was
supposed to trade on the inter-bank market with market forces
determining
the exchange rate.
But instead of allowing the market to
determine the exchange rate,
commercial banks last week set a mid-rate of
$60 000 to the greenback,
prompting market analyst Witness Chinyama to query
why they had assumed the
role of price-setters when they did not possess the
foreign currency and
were not its users.
Writing in his weekly column
in The Financial Gazette, Chinyama said: "If we
are serious about harnessing
the parallel market and making it (foreign
currency) accessible to everyone
so as to ameliorate the foreign currency
crisis currently prevailing in
Zimbabwe, surely we should give exalted
status to the major stakeholders in
the generation and usage of foreign
currency.
"Banks should not
collude and hold these stakeholders at ransom, as this
initial stage is very
crucial in getting the necessary confidence and trust
from holders of
foreign currency as it is a very rare chance that has
presented itself to
improve foreign currency inflows."
Bulawayo business consultant Eric
Bloch concurred. He said while Gono had
made it clear that market forces
should dictate the exchange rate,
commercial banks were now playing the role
of god. He said while under the
previous system the central bank dictated
the exchange rate, commercial
banks were now directing it.
Bloch said
if this anomaly was not quickly rectified, exporters would remain
unviable
so there was likely to be no improvement in foreign currency
generation.
He said using the 2003 exchange rate and adjusting it for
inflation, the
dollar should be trading at $75 000 to the greenback. Most
banks are trading
at below $60 000.
Zimbabwe National Chamber of
Commerce president Luxon Zembe said he was not
worried about the fact that
the dollar had plunged because it was still
trying to find its level but he
added that the currency should not trade at
the parallel market rate. As
such, the new exchange rate needed a stabiliser
in the form of balance of
payments support otherwise the local currency
would just plunge as it has
been doing on the parallel market.
"Our currency should not trade at the
parallel market rate but rather at the
purchasing power parity level. This
is why we need a stabiliser.
Without a stabiliser, the market will just
go haywire. The dollar with trade
at the parallel market level and continue
to fall," he said.
The Zimbabwe dollar was pegged at $26 000 to the
greenback on the auction
floor but traded at up to $100 000 on the parallel
market. It was officially
trading at $5 735 to the greenback at the
beginning of the year.
"Since we cannot get balance of payments support
from the traditional
sources - the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank, we need
to speed up talks for a bilateral loan with South
Africa," Zembe said. "The
talks have been dragging on for too long and
people are beginning to lose
hope."
Zimbabwe entered into bilateral
talks with South Africa more than four
months ago. It was reportedly seeking
a loan of up to US$1 billion, part of
which was supposed to be used to clear
its arrears with the IMF which was
threatening to expel the country from the
organisation.
Zimbabwe had arrears of US$295 million but paid US$135
million at the end of
August just days before the IMF was to deliberate on
its fate. There were
questions about how it had raised such a huge amount
when its coffers were
empty but Gono said the money came from free funds and
published a list of
the sources.
The skewed exchange rate has seen a
slowdown in inflows which had picked up
from a paltry US$301 million in 2003
to US$1.7 billion last year. Foreign
currency inflows declined from US$1.2
billion in the first nine months of
last year to US$1 billion during the
same period this year. The biggest drop
was in remittances from Zimbabweans
abroad. It shot down from US$39.5
million to US$17.1
million.
Observers believe that this did not mean that Zimbabweans were
no longer
sending money home but simply that they were no longer using
official
channels. It is widely believed that most Zimbabweans abroad were
now
sending money to their relatives through agencies in neighbouring
countries
where they could get hard currency, which they would then cash on
the black
market at home.
Zembe said while Gono had made the right
move, his monetary policy urgently
needed to be buttressed by a
complimentary fiscal policy otherwise all the
gains from the monetary policy
would be wiped out and then reversed. There
was, therefore, an urgent need
to address the discrepancy between the
monetary and fiscal policies to
improve productivity and viability of
enterprises.
Finance Minister
Herbert Murerwa, he said, should have announced fiscal
measures to
compliment the monetary policy instead of waiting for his 2006
budget, which
will only be effective from January, which is three months
away.
"We
have to accept that the monetary policy alone will not solve our
problems.
It has to be buttressed by the fiscal policy. Right now, we are
already
faced with a disastrous time lag that is likely to create a lot of
distortions. For example, manufacturers are now buying foreign currency at
the interbank rate while prices of their products are still controlled. This
gap is disastrous. Murerwa should have announced some policy measures to
move in tandem with the monetary policy."
Zembe said the government
should remove price controls and take into account
the cost of production
otherwise those with vast sums of cash will buy all
available products on
the market and put them on the black market where they
are sold at
exorbitant prices.
"Our biggest problem is that we are addressing our
problems on a piecemeal
basis. This should be a package with the monetary
policy moving in tandem
with the fiscal policy. Right now, it's like someone
driving a car with one
foot on the accelerator and the other on the brakes,"
Zembe said.
FinGaz
Munyaradzi
Mugowo
KONDOZI Farm - wrested from Canvest Farming and transferred to the
Agriculture and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) last year - has lost
lucrative export markets, which the government had hoped to inherit from its
former owners.
A highly placed ARDA official said the authority,
which muscled its way into
Kondozi in April last year, had failed to
penetrate the niche markets that
had been secured by Canvest Farming through
negotiated contracts.
Substantial export receipts have slipped through
ARDA's fingers as a result,
plunging the parastatal, which had borrowed
equipment on the strength of
projected foreign currency inflows, into
serious external arrears.
Soon after forcibly annexing Kondozi farm, ARDA
ambitiously exchanged
signatures with the governments of Malaysia and Iran
in machinery import
deals worth over US$100 million to ramp up
production.
The precipitous fall in export earnings, triggered by an
unforeseen loss of
the farm's markets - most of which were still controlled
by Canvest, which
has since migrated to Mozambique - has left both Kondozi
and its new
proprietor wallowing in debt.
A consortium of business
tycoons - Edwin Moyo, Adrian Zeederburg and the De
Klerk family - owned
Canvest Farming, a former Export Processing Zone
agro-firm that had secured
markets for flowers and other horticultural
products in Canada and
Switzerland.
"It was hoped that the capital expenditure would boost
ARDA's horticultural
output and push earnings up. It was also hoped that
ARDA would easily pay
back the loan with earnings from horticultural
exports. But this turned out
to be a grievous miscalculation because ARDA
failed to inherit the markets
to which Canvest Farming exported because they
had been secured through
negotiated contracts.
"There was no choice
for ARDA, but to look for new markets and that has been
a nightmare. The
major problem was the political takeover of the farm; it
affected business
confidence and resulted in a loss of existing and
potential markets," said
the source.
Joseph Matovanyika, the chief executive officer of the
parastatal, could not
be contacted for comment. Sources however, said
Kondozi has been forced to
scout for new markets in Belgium and other
European countries.
FinGaz
Felix Njini
THE
crash of the Zimbabwe dollar against major currencies on the official
market, from $26 000 to around $60 000 against the United States dollar, has
pushed up the costs of importing by more than 130 percent, setting the stage
for steep wholesale price increases.
Analysts said the latest
exchange rate movement - the result of the central
bank's decision to float
the local currency - is going to put further
pressure on the costs of
production, dampening any prospects of industry
increasing its capacity
utilisation.
They also expressed fears that the current impasse on the
interbank market,
which has seen no meaningful trade since the policy
intervention due to
haggling over the mechanism, could further compound the
situation.
Analysts also said in the short-term, this move is likely to
further strain
capacity utilisation, which is down to 20 percent from around
60 percent
during the same period last year.
Market watchers said
underutilisation is, in turn, likely to fuel inflation,
which was measured
at 360 percent in September.
A market analyst with Zimbabwe Financial
Holdings (Finhold) said there is
likely to be more cost-push inflation
emanating from the recent relaxation
of the foreign exchange
market.
"The likely introduction of foreign currency denominated import
duty may
result in higher import costs for firms, which have a higher import
content
in their production process. Such costs will be passed on to the
final
consumer in the form of increased prices for goods and services,"
Finhold
said.
This might also result in the central bank failing to
meet its inflation
target of between 280 percent and 300
percent.
Analysts said importers' demands for foreign currency, which has
been
increasing during the past months, is likely to shoot up in the coming
weeks
as merchants and industry stock up for the coming festive
holidays.
Because of the high risk factor associated with doing business
in Zimbabwe,
importers are no longer getting the 90-day credit facilities
they used to
enjoy.
Eric Bloch, a chartered accountant, however said
the movement of the
official rate to around Z$60 000:US$ would have minimal
impact on importers.
Bloch said very few importers were using the phased out
auction rate due to
foreign currency unavailability. "There will be very
little impact on
inflation because most imports were being financed by the
parallel market,"
Bloch said.
Rates on the thriving black market have
surged to around Z$100 000 against
the greenback, the British pound is
attracting rates of up to Z$130 000
while the rand is now hovering around
Z$14 000.
Analysts also said the much vaunted economic takeoff would remain a
mirage
given the burgeoning inflation differential between Zimbabwe and its
major
trading partners as well as high interest rates that local producers
have to
contend with.
They said the harsh macro-economic climate
affected the ability of
Zimbabwean exporters to produce enough goods to
satisfy both the domestic
and export markets.
Swingeing input costs
being propelled by the cost of foreign currency on the
parallel market have
made it almost impossible for the local exporter to
penetrate foreign
markets, especially those with single digit inflation and
interest
rates.
For instance, analysts cite production costs in South Africa,
Zimbabwe's
biggest trading partner where inflation is less than five percent
versus
Zimbabwe's 360 percent, which is showing signs of rising even
further.
Bloch said that the rate that has been pegged by banks (Z$60
000:US$) is
'too low to bring exporter viability.'
"They should not
fix it, it should be market driven. There will be big
problems if they
continue suppressing the rate because the black market will
continue to
thrive, pushing up costs and inflation," said Bloch.
Analysts also note
that any signs of reversal of the new foreign currency
dispensation would
attract wrong signals to the market.
"In fact, there should not be any
direct control of the system by the
authorities. Such moves will simply
promote the further existence of the
parallel market," Finhold
said.
Independent economist John Robertson also said there was confusion
on who
should peg the interbank rate.
"The rate is being suppressed
but the central bank is saying they are not
exercising any form of controls,
so it must be the bankers themselves who
are holding down the rate,"
Robertson said.
FinGaz
Audrey
Chitsika
THE current tobacco-planting season has been blighted by the
shortage of
critical inputs, mainly fertiliser, pointing to yet another
decline in
production.
The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board
(TIMB), which recently received 500
tonnes of fertiliser from Windmill for
distribution to farmers, has sounded
alarm bells, saying the quantities were
far below requirements.
Andrew Matibiri, TIMB's technical services
director, told The Financial
Gazette that the 500 tonnes of fertiliser is
far below the 15 000 to 20 000
tonnes required by farmers this season, but
said more fertiliser was
expected from the Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company
(ZFC).
"The 500 tonnes of fertiliser can only cover 700 hectares of land,
which is
far below what the farmers require.
"We are expecting some
more from ZFC so that the farmers can commence with
the planting season to
avoid delays," Matibiri said.
The tobacco industry, which has witnessed a
radical change in fortunes since
the advent of the government's
controversial land reform programme in 2000,
plans to put a total of 50 000
hectares under tobacco seed this season.
However, inadequate fertiliser
supplies, fuel, equipment and chemicals
shortages have wreaked havoc on all
previous production targets set in the
past few years.
The shortage
of inputs has seen farmers delaying in planting their seed,
which in turn
leads to low yields at the end of the season.
"Most farmers have
suspended their planting because they do not have the
fertiliser and fuel or
tillage and other inputs. The earlier the farmers
start to prepare the more
the yields will improve.
"Dry land tobacco farmers are failing to prepare for
the season citing the
shortage of diesel," said Matibiri.
Analysts
and industry expects have forecast the production costs for this
season to
range between $80 million and $150 million per hectare.
In the just-ended
selling season, just about 80 million kilogrammes of
tobacco was sold,
against an earlier projection of 160 million kilogrammes.
At its peak, the
country used to produce over 200 million kilogrammes of the
golden leaf.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi
A
COMPANY owned by Vice President Joice Mujuru's family has taken control of
brick maker Willdale, one of the main suppliers to government's Operation
Garikai housing programme.
Dahaw Trading now controls 40 percent of
Willdale, after apparently buying
shares previously held by Intermarket
Nominees and Trust Merchant Bank (TMB)
Nominees, formerly the top
shareholder.
However, the family is said to hold an even larger stake through
separate
stock held by nominee companies.
The Mujuru family took
control after buying stock in special share deals on
the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange (ZSE) over the past several months. Dealers say
that Dahaw bought
most of its shares from Intermarket Nominees, although
there was no
confirmation of that speculation this week. Intermarket
Nominees has since
cut its shareholding from 22 percent to 1.26 percent. TMB
Nominees has sold
its entire shareholding in Willdale.
Willdale is the cheapest share on
the ZSE, currently selling at around $24.
Dahaw Trading was incorporated
in October last year, and lists Solomon,
Nyasha and Maidei Mujuru as its
directors.
Old Mutual is a distant number two shareholder, with 15
percent. Scaiflow, a
major investor on the ZSE, holds 2.84
percent.
Ray Kaukonde, the Mashonaland East governor, bought 11.5 percent
in Willdale
in November 2003. Although he is reported to have since reduced
his
shareholding, it is unclear how much of the company he still
owns.
Willdale is a former Mashonaland Holdings subsidiary, but was later
spun off
from the group. After conversion of Willdale's convertible shares
and
debentures, Mashold first diluted its 100 percent control to 27 percent,
before finally easing out.
Trust's involvement in Willdale, in which it
made available financing
facilities for the company, was later used as one
of the reasons for its
closure. Mashold's had an $18 billion investment in
Intermarket frozen last
year after the financial institution had three of
its subsidiaries placed
under curatorship.
In 2001, Willdale's poor
trading position and uncertainty about future
viability delayed its listing
plans, resulting in the company only being
listed two years
later.
Most of Willdale's business is in the housing sector, but
competition from
cheaper imports has seen Willdale's market share
contracting.
The company recorded an operating loss of $1.2 billion at
the March half
year due to depressed demand. But Operation Garikai,
government's ambitious
housing plan, has raised industry hopes for increased
demand for building
materials.
PG Industries, the country's largest
building material maker, and Turnall,
an asbestos piping company, have said
Operation Garikai could help lift
construction companies, hit by a sharp dip
in new construction business.
Operation Garikai - under which it is aimed
to build up to 2 million homes -
is seen as government's attempts to atone
for Operation Murambatsvina, the
slum demolition campaign that displaced the
poor and drew sharp censure from
a United Nations housing envoy in July.
FinGaz
Njabulo
Ncube
WITH sweat cascading from her brow in the glare of the scorching
summer sun,
Tsitsi Zhou emerges from her plastic shelter at Hatcliffe
Extension,
clutching her meagre belongings.
Zhou, a single mother of
two, forced into this sordid settlement at the
height of the government's
controversial clean-up operation about six months
ago, is visibly angry,
hungry and exhausted. "I am out of here," says Zhou
as she points to her
plastic dwelling, one of hundreds of such ramshackle
and temporary
structures dotted around Hatcliffe Extension.
"There's no food, water,
toilets. There's nothing. These people (the
government) lied to us that we
would have decent houses by August. Now the
rains are around the corner and
we are still living like this," she says,
once again pointing to the plastic
structures, which she says turn into
baking ovens due to the prevailing hot
weather conditions.
"The government still has a lot to do to improve the
lives of people here.
To say we are suffering is an under-statement. This is
Sodom and Gomorrah.
Very soon people will perish here due to diseases. There
are no toilets. We
use the bush (to relieve ourselves)," she says, somewhat
embarrassed.
She is not alone in this predicament. Shupikai Gore, uprooted
from Mbare
Majubeki Lines to Hatcliffe Extension, vowed never to return to
the holding
place, referring to the settlement simply as Hell.
"It's a
miracle how people are surviving in those plastic shelters in these
conditions. I would rather sleep on the pavements, " said Gore.
Were it
not for the generosity of UNICEF and to some extent the Catholic
Church,
which provided the plastic shelters, water and food handouts, Zhou,
Gore and
thousands of other people displaced by the clean-up operation would
still be
hungry and sleeping in the open.
"It is clear the government has failed to
deliver and the targets they set
for August are all hot air," added
Gore.
When it launched Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle amid pomp and
ceremony, the
government said it would build enough houses to accommodate
all the people
displaced by its widely condemned exercise which, according
to a United
Nations report left about 700 000 people homeless after state
security
agents allegedly masterminded the destruction of thousands of
houses and
backyard shacks.
President Robert Mugabe defended the
controversial operation, stating
categorically that it was necessary to
restore the beauty of cities and
towns which he claimed had become havens
for corrupt activities, a charge
critics vehemently dismissed, alleging the
scheme had been designed to get
back at urban dwellers for voting for the
main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
According to the
hard-hitting UN report compiled by Special Envoy Tanzanian
Anna Tibaijuka,
another 2.4 million people were also directly affected by
the operation that
the US and other major Western countries strongly
condemned.
However an
unmoved President Mugabe, accusing critics of romanticising
squalor by
denouncing the operation, announced a massive $3 trillion
reconstruction
programme.
However the tour this week by this paper and the Parliamentary
Portfolio
Committee on Local Government revealed a different story - the
government's
funds had done little to improve the lot of people displaced by
the
operation.
Poor planning, lack of finances and fuel, among other
things, were
bedeviling the operation which critics still slam as
ill-conceived, and
vindictive.
People at the designated sites spoke of
abject poverty, builders spending
days and nights idle and corruption in the
allocation of the few houses that
have been roofed but not floored. They
spoke of the threat of diseases due
to lack of sanitary facilities and clean
piped drinking water.
The tour confirmed the government had dismally failed
to meet set targets
and deadlines because of a severe shortage of cement,
the government's
financial incapacity to construct houses without outside
help, the poor
conditions at the settlements and their inhabitants and the
exposure to
diseases due to lack of sanitary facilities.
"The other
aspect which shocked most of us in the Committee is that major
beneficiaries
are civil servants and that some people perceived to be
supporting the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have been
flushed out of the
dwellings," said a committee member, who spoke on
condition of
anonymity.
"We were also shocked to see that people are still staying in the
open
without any solution to their plight," added the
legislator.
Independent investigations revealed that the set target of 2 010
houses, 54
factory shells and 17 vendor marts for the four sites identified
in Harare -
at Hatcliffe Extension, Hopley, Hatcliffe and Prospect - were a
pipe-dream.
However statistics provided after the tour to these sites by the
Committee
released this week, show that only 70 units had been built and
roofed at
Hatcliffe Extension compared to a target of 520 which was
envisaged to be
met by the end of August.
Thirteen houses at Hatcliffe
Extension are still at window level while 221
are at foundation level. At
Whitecliff, the government blamed lack of
progress on "a lot of boulders
which had impended progress as there was lack
of blasting material, making
the project more expensive." There are plans to
relocate people living in
plastic shelters to Hopley Farm as only 277 houses
have been roofed out of a
target of 1 448 units under Phase 1. Six units
were at wall plate level, 18
at window level and 10 at foundation level, a
far cry from the target.
Phases 2 and 3 at Hopley Farm are still to kick-off
due to what officials
claimed was lack of financial resources. The
government statement also
confirmed the project was far from meeting set
targets.
"The challenges
being faced by the programme range from increase in prices
of building
materials due to the prevailing hyperinflation, erratic supply
of cement and
timeous release of funds from the government for payment of
materials and
services," reads part of the statement released by parliament
this week.
FinGaz
IT has been reported but not
yet denied that President Robert Mugabe is
mulling a cabinet
reshuffle.
Coming, as it does, against an unprecedented economic
meltdown, news of the
reshuffle would, under normal circumstances, be
welcomed by those who
understand the depth of the abyss from which Zimbabwe
now has to find a way
out. A farewell to the ministers responsible for the
country's obsolete
social and economic structures could be farewell to
mediocrity and failure.
The wish of the people, who fully understand the
scale of the catastrophe
that has befallen Zimbabwe, would not be for the
President to simply remove
unwanted politicians from ministerial posts. It
is one for enhanced and
effective public resource management that will make
it possible to return
the country to the pre-2000 situation. This is the
major reason for which a
change in the composition of the Cabinet would be
eagerly awaited.
Sadly, over the years Zimbabweans have become accustomed
to seeing the same
old and uninspiring faces being recycled. The generality
of Zimbabweans
understandably now consider any talk of a Cabinet reshuffle
more as a time
for political musical chairs than an opportunity to enhance
performance. And
it is difficult to escape the impression that, despite the
depressing
situation in the country, which calls for a complete overhaul of
the
Cabinet, people feel that the situation will not be different this time
around. They have been waiting for this to happen over the past 25 years of
independence. But it never did. And they no longer have very high hopes for
it.
Be that as it may, we still feel that when he finally exercises
his
prerogative to reconstitute the Cabinet, this provides President Mugabe
with
the opportunity to overcome the inertia of ZANU PF's encumbering
politics of
liberation struggle ties. The occasion should signal the dawn of
a new era
and a decisive rupture with the long gone past. This means he has
to drop
and not merely reshuffle even so-called party heavyweights who have
become
part of the furniture in the government offices that they occupy,
their
perceived political clout notwithstanding. That is if the President is
to
avoid bequeathing a terrible legacy to Zimbabwe. It is either this or
deeper
conservatism, which we are afraid will be ruinous for the country.
The
political meaning and basic significance of our proposition is that
Zimbabwe
will be rid of the deadwood and gravy-train riders with whom it has
been
stuck as if it is something the country's historical situation
prescribed.
As it is, a lot of damage has already been done.
Other
than the introduction of universal adult suffrage and the now reversed
gains
scored in the education and health sectors, Zimbabwe is as far from
bettering the lives of the historically marginalised blacks as it was in
1980. True, the government has repossessed land ostensibly to empower the
historically disadvantaged blacks. That is however all there is to it
because the much-vaunted back-to-the-land idealism has almost come unstuck.
The country is not only failing to feed itself but agriculture, which
previously made the single biggest sectoral contribution to the country's
GDP, is not adding value to the economy despite its undoubted
potential.
The foregoing imponderables should partly be blamed on the
incompetence of
some of those ministers who bear birthmarks of Zimbabwean
politics - lack of
common sense, ignoring economic laws, arrogance, conceit,
scapegoating and
lack of accountability despite their pretensions to speak
on behalf of the
people. They might not necessarily have caused the
socio-economic
difficulties but they are as sure as hell responsible for
aggravating them.
Most of these ministers have outlived their usefulness. It
is difficult to
understand how they have remained in government this
long.
Admittedly, in appointing a new cabinet President Mugabe should not
throw
away the baby with the bath water. But it is high time the President -
not
known for sacking incompetent Cabinet colleagues who when they take a
position on anything, Zimbabweans automatically take the opposite one and
know they are right - let these ministers fall by the wayside and leave the
chips to fall where they may.
Given the state of affairs in a number
of public sectors, it is not
difficult to come up with a list of those
ministers that should be dropped.
Top of the list should be the most
unenergetic minister of energy in the
world, Mike Nyambuya, Joseph Made,
whose handling of agriculture has
provoked a sharp intake of breath from the
not-so-easily shocked
Zimbabweans, Aeneas Chigwedere, who has almost
destroyed what was left of
the country's education system with a single
swing of a political blade.
Herbert Murerwa and Rugare Gumbo of the key
ministries of Finance and
Economic Development, respectively, both of whom
are conspicuous by their
defeaning silence in the face of the deepening
economic crisis.
FinGaz
Staff Reporter
SOUTH
Africa has tightened its strict visa requirements for Zimbabweans in a
bid
to forestall a deluge of immigrants as the economic crisis across the
Limpopo deepens.
Pretoria this month said it would no longer require
transit visas for
several nationalities but said the system would remain in
force for
Zimbabweans and nationals from 16 other countries.
"This
policy is to be implemented with immediate effect and an immigration
directive to this effect will follow in due course," the home affairs office
said in a statement without giving reasons.
The development comes at
a time when the Southern African Development
Community (SADC) is negotiating
a visa-free treaty.
It is estimated that over 500 000 Zimbabweans have
sought refuge across the
Limpopo to escape a recession now in its sixth
year.
Ironically, despite the fallout between Harare and other former
friendly
states, South Africa has been solidly behind President Robert
Mugabe's
government, in power since the country's independence in
1980.
Excluded from the transit visa exemption requirement are Zimbabwe,
Bangladesh, Cameron, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia,
Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan, China, Russia, Sierra Leone,
Somalia, Sudan and the Ukraine.
FinGaz
WHEN is corruption not corruption? Apparently, in the
KwaZulu-Natal province
of South Africa at least, corruption is not
corruption when the perpetrator
or culprit is a member of your ethnic
group!
These are the rather unusual findings of a study conducted by
Research
Surveys, a South African organisation, on the sacking of former
vice-president Jacob Zuma.
According to the survey, whose findings
have been widely reported in the
media, 63 percent of the population
supports the way President Thabo Mbeki
dealt with the situation after Zuma
was implicated following the conviction
of his former financial adviser,
Schabir Shaik, of corruption. Zuma is due
to appear in court soon to face
charges stemming from his relationship with
Schaik, which South African
judge Hilary Squires described as having been
"generally
corrupt."
The survey findings come in the wake of charges by Mbeki's
detractors that
he acted vindictively when he fired Zuma as his deputy in
June. They alleged
that the South African leader acted high-handedly to
remove Zuma from the
political scene ahead of the end of his current term of
office in 2009. It
was claimed that despite being limited to two terms of
office by South
Africa's constitution, Mbeki was eyeing a third term as
president and
therefore acted in advance to eliminate his strongest
challenger.
Despite being far-fetched, this argument persisted and the
pro-Zuma lobby
appeared to enjoy majority support because powerful blocs
such as the
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the South
African Communist
Party and both the youth and women's wings of the ruling
ANC vociferously
threw their weight behind the corruption-tainted former
vice-president. When
they warned of dire consequences if he was not
reinstated, one was left
wondering how corruption would ever be eradicated
in Africa in the face of
such contradictions and double
standards.
The leaders of many African countries where corruption is
rampant cannot
take decisive action because they are hamstrung either by
their own
complicity in the plunder of national resources or the need to
protect
relatives and cronies. Mbeki's bold move against Zuma, which
underscored the
fact that there should be no sacred cows in the fight
against graft, should
have set an example to be emulated by
others.
But despite vindicating Mbeki overall, the survey findings, which
show that
the stiffest opposition to his decision to dismiss Zuma was
recorded in the
Zulu-speaking provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga,
raise the spectre
of ethnicity colouring perceptions on national issues and
problems. The
survey showed that while 70 percent of respondents interviewed
in all other
South African provinces approved of Mbeki's handling of the
Zuma affair,
only nine percent Zulu speakers saw things the same way. The
overwhelming
majority believed Zuma was unfairly treated and got a raw
deal.
The Zuma case however, shows why no form of corruption should ever
be swept
under the carpet regardless of the status, ethnicity or political
affiliation of the culprit. Just as Mbeki has refused to buckle under
pressure in the face of Zulu opposition to his actions, he should show the
same steadfastness, if say, he had to deal with a corrupt heavyweight
belonging to his own Sotho ethnic group.
A head of state is in office
to look out for the interests of all sectors of
the population and he should
endeavour to establish a track record of
consistently doing so without fear
or favour. It is only this way that
selective perceptions based on tribe,
colour, or political affiliation can
eventually be rendered irrelevant in
the fight against corruption.
Despite the acrimonious atmosphere that has
surrounded the Zuma affair since
Mbeki took the unprecedented step of firing
hid number two, I think the
South African leader has still set an example
that should be emulated by his
peers across Africa. The corruption ratings
recently announced by
Transparency International which showed most African
countries faring
atrociously, confirm that corruption is a cancer that
African leaders can no
longer pretend to wish away. A concerted effort is
needed to tackle it.
Officials in Zimbabwe, unfortunately, also need to
get their act together if
our country is to be rid of this scourge. These
days, hardly a week goes by
without a major scandal surfacing in the public
or private sector. Last
week, this paper published details about the
incredible abuse of motor
vehicles at a government ministry where a
permanent secretary is reported to
have a fleet of eight luxury cars for his
and his family's use.
It is when you read horror stories like this that
you wonder what the
Ministry of Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies is doing
when it cannot
detect serious irregularities of this magnitude going on
right under its
nose. A few weeks ago the same ministry was conducting
workshops and
appealing for information on corrupt dealings and activities.
But how can
its appeals for tips be taken seriously when it chooses to
ignore burgeoning
corruption in the public sector? As Mbeki has shown, one
has to be prepared
to be unpopular with some sections of the community in
order to take a
principled stand against the cancer of corruption.
FinGaz
FAMISHED magistrates who thought
the presence of (In)Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa at their recent AGM
in Gweru was a chance to sweep clean
all the dark corners of their hearts
got more than they had bargained for.
Really much more than they had asked
for.
Guess what the foul-mouthed Chinamasa told the magistrates when they
complained that they could no longer survive on the slave wages they are
getting from their employer? "It's better for one to resign if you can't
make ends meet within the wages you receive as magistrates." And the
ministry's perm sec David Mangota chimed in: "I don't like to believe it is
poor salaries that cause corruption, but greed. People who are poor usually
accept their lot and don't engage in corruption."
What a way to tell
someone to bugger off!
So those unpatriotic doctors, nurses, teachers,
magistrates, policemen and
others who are leaving the public service in
their droves could be right
after all! It is now official . . . if you are
unhappy with your pay-cheque,
just resign because no one will do anything
about it. It's a
take-it-or-leave-it scenario.
Surely, how can one
even dream of improved conditions of service if it is
with this attitude
that the government comes to the negotiating table? So
like Chinamasa said,
the best thing is to just leave (you don't eat
patriotism), except obviously
those who "accept their lot," as Mangota said.
Two-Boy
CZ would like
to commiserate with Cde Edgar Tekere, whose comeback to the
(mis)ruling
party hit a brick wall recently when his name was "forgotten"
from the final
list of those who will represent the party in the forthcoming
Senate
elections.
Tekere seems to conveniently have a very short memory. He thinks
every other
person also has such a rotten memory? So he thought his
readmission into
ZANU PF was automatic simply because he thought it should
be?
But there is really no way that the party could just take him back
like
that. He differed with the party "in a major way" in 1988, contested
the
1990 general elections under the ZUM banner, and went on to make a
career of
hurling insults at the party. Hasn't he seen it happen to others
before? So
why does he think he is so special?
How far?
IN the
interest of openness and transparency, both of which form the very
foundation of Operation Integrity, some concerned Zimbos have asked CZ to
please ask on their behalf how much progress has our Cde Chinos made in
raising the $30 billion that he threatened the hapless victims of Hurricane
Katrina with? How much - in both cash and kind has been raised - and when
can the beneficiaries start rubbing their hands in anticipation? Hopefully
these were not just addled threats . . . the usual empty spiel of a spawning
toad.
So?
SO Cde Koga's new duties at the staid Zimbabwe Tourism
Authority include
running national beauty pageants? Wonderful. Isn't it? If
whosoever seconded
the man to that tired organisation thought he was
punishing the wayward
fellow, then they got it all wrong. It has turned out
to be a promotion in
disguise . . . since there seems to be more
featherbeddings in the new
position than before. Heaps and lots for that
matter!
Remember some cases in recent history? It is always rumoured in
Harare bars
that the reason why the late former president, the Reverend
Canaan Banana,
got away with an open prison jail term was that in its
wisdom, the court
realised that for a man like that a custodial sentence
could have been
three-and-a-half heavens rolled into
one!
Coincidence?
LAST week Dunlop Zimbabwe MD, Phil Whitehead,
rubbished reports that his
company had been given foreign currency by the
government to sustain its
operations, and instead pointed out that the said
funds were specifically
meant to produce tyres for the Great Uncle's
ever-lengthening motorcade and
his army of gluttonous hangers-on. Think of
it!
Traditionally, this is not the done thing, for some matters pertaining to
the mystic lives of the rulers are left unsaid.
So this week the
fellow passed on. What a coincidence! Don't quote naughty
CZ. It's the hand
of God.
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
03 November 2005
09:49
The Zimbabwe government says United Nations Secretary
General
Kofi Annan does not have a "factual position" on the country and is
being
misled by people in his office, a government spokesperson told the
state-controlled Herald newspaper on Thursday.
President
Robert Mugabe's spokesperson George Charamba told the
newspaper that Annan
should wait until a top UN humanitarian official visits
the country before
issuing statements on the plight of Zimbabweans made
homeless by an urban
clean-up campaign earlier this year.
"There was a commitment
by Zimbabwe to play host to the UN
humanitarian coordinator this month, and
the UN secretary general cannot
have a factual position on the situation in
Zimbabwe until that coordinator
comes and makes his assessment and reports
back to him," Charamba said.
On Monday, a spokesperson for
Annan issued a statement saying
that the secretary general was "deeply
concerned" by the plight of tens of
thousand of Zimbabweans who remain
homeless after police in May mounted a
blitz that saw the demolition of
houses, shacks and flea markets throughout
the country.
The blitz, which the authorities described as an urban renewal
campaign,
received widespread international criticism.
"There are
people working in the secretary general's office who
mislead him," Charamba
said.
Charamba said the UN had been influenced by recent
reports from
the BBC on Zimbabwe.
"What has prompted the
statement, which purported to be coming
from Mr Annan, is a documentary
aired by BBC's [South Africa-based
correspondent] Hilary Andersson," he
said.
"Comrade Charamba said Mr Annan cannot rely on the BBC
as a bona
fide media organisation to speak on Zimbabwe because Zimbabwe and
Britain
has a diplomatic war emanating from the land question," the Herald
added.
In his statement, Annan also expressed dismay over the
government's refusal of UN offers of temporary shelter to the
displaced.
The statement from Annan's office insisted that a
"large number
of vulnerable groups, including the recent evictees as well as
other
vulnerable populations, remain in need of immediate humanitarian
assistance,
including shelter".
But Charamba told the
Herald the government does not want
temporary shelters.
"If the UN and donors are keen to assist in augmenting
government efforts,
they should assist in constructing permanent structures
and not temporary
structures," he said.
The government has promised to build
tens of thousands of new
houses over the next few years. But the ambitious
programme is being
hampered by reported shortages of cash and building
materials. Independent
economists say Zimbabwe's tightly stretched economy
cannot afford such a
programme.
Jan Egeland, the UN's
under-secretary general for humanitarian
affairs, is due in Zimbabwe at the
end of November. -- Sapa-DPA
ABC, Australia
Last Update: Thursday, November 3, 2005. 6:00pm
(AEDT)
The Federal Government says
it will continue to pressure other countries to
"stand up to" the Zimbabwe
Government in light of fresh reports about the
situation
there.
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer has seized on media
reports that
Zimbabwe's Deputy Agriculture Minister has admitted that food
has run out in
his country because land has been given to people with no
passion for
farming.
Mr Downer has told Parliament 4 million people
need food aid, but the
Government in Zimbabwe this week rejected a United
Nations offer of help.
"We will continue to do what we can to pressure
the international community
to take further action against Zimbabwe," he
said.
"To pressure countries like South Africa to be more robust in
standing up to
President [Robert] Mugabe, to pressure members of the
Security Council to
consider a referral of President Mugabe's regime to the
International
Criminal Court."
Slum program
The Zimbabwean
Government's program to clean up slum areas has also caused
concern
internationally.
However, President Mugabe has told ABC News (America)
that reports of
thousands of Zimbabweans still being homeless are
"nonsense".
"Anyone who wants facts should come and see what's happening.
We removed
them from slums and put them in new places," he
said.
"Obviously when you destroy slums, even as you prepare new places
for them,
there is a dislocation, disorganisation of the family for that
moment."
It is unclear when the interview took place.
President
Mugabe's Government refused aid from the UN because of the world
body's
description of the demolition program as a humanitarian crisis, and
over
calls for the prosecution of those who led the campaign.
"Thousands and
thousands and thousands and thousands. You go there now and
see whether
those thousands are there... Where are they? A figment of their
imagination.
They exaggerated," he said.
- ABC/Reuters