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Issues surrounding the formation of a transitional government in Zimbabwe
Mass Public Opinion Institute

August 2003

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This survey examines the issues surrounding the formation of a transitional government in Zimbabwe. In addition, it also examines people's views regarding a government of national unity and the succession debate within ZANU (PF). The survey was motivated by the desire to find out the views of the general populace in view of the current debate on the way forward for this country.

The survey found out that there is a desire for a change to the status quo. Most people favour concurrent presidential and parliamentary elections. Also outstanding is the desire for fresh elections. For the majority of people, the solution to the problems facing the country lies in dialogue. The two major parties are both expected to compromise and climb down from the positions so far maintained. Further, people expect a democratic selection process in the ZANU (PF) succession issue, with Simba Makoni being the candidate people feel would fare better against the opposition.


Q1. What do you understand by " transitional government"?
The survey shows that a significant majority of the respondents do not know what the term 'transitional government' means. We recorded five responses in order of their frequency.

1 Do not know (80.0%)
2 'Care-taker' government (6.6%)
3 Government of national unity (1.2%)
4 Change of government (1.1%)


Q2. Some people have suggested that the ruling party and the opposition should form a transitional government that should be tasked with organizing a re-run of the presidential election within the shortest period of time possible. How supportive are you of this idea?
A: The responses within the provinces reflects the national picture of the fact that people support the idea of a transitional government which should be tasked with organizing a re-run of the presidential election. 38.1% say that this is a noble idea and are "very supportive". 31.8% are "supportive" thus a total of 69.9% think that the ruling party and the opposition have an obligation of forming a transitional government. Interestingly this view also has a majority even in provinces that traditionally have been considered ZANU (PF) strongholds. The same applies in the rural areas, which too have been considered ZANU (PF)'s strongest support base.

Q3. Some people in Zimbabwe and in the international community have suggested that ZANU PF and the opposition should form a government of national unity while others say they should not. What is your opinion on this issue?
A: 55.6% are of the opinion that ZANU PF and MDC should form a government of national unity. The thinking among the respondents appears to be that a government of national unity will bring genuine peace, law and order as well as social and economic development. In 2000 a survey conducted by the Institute showed that 73.7% respondents were in favour of a government of national unity (GNU).


Q4. If you are of the opinion that the two parties should not form a government of national unity, which of the following statements best describes why you are opposed to the idea?
A: 40.5% say it is important to have an opposition for democracy to function effectively and therefore the MDC should not join ZANU (PF). 36.1% do not trust ZANU (PF) and fear that the opposition could be "swallowed". The bottom line for most respondents appears to be that an opposition party keeps the government on its toes and is therefore necessary.


Q5. Would you be in favour of a constitutional amendment that will require that parliamentary and presidential elections run concurrently in Zimbabwe?
A: 59.2% favours a constitutional amendment that would require parliamentary and presidential elections to be held concurrently in Zimbabwe. Judging also from the apathy that characterized the just ended local elections and parliamentary by-elections, it appears that people are tired of elections. This is a view that emerges whichever way the data is analysed. One respondent said, "If it is just one election, at least we will get beaten up once".


Q6. If you were in favour of this constitutional amendment, when would you like the concurrent elections to be held?
A: Respondents are impatient to wait any longer hence 59.8% say that it is better for the elections to be held "immediately". 21.8% say in 2005 and a few, 6.4% can wait up to 2008 when the presidential election will be due. Interestingly 55.7% of those residing in the rural areas which are believed to be ZANU PF strongholds feel that the concurrent elections should be held immediately.


Q7. Do you think ZANU (PF) and MDC should resume talks to find a solution to the country's problems?
A: 80.0% say "Yes" to the question of whether MDC and ZANU PF should engage in talks. It is apparent therefore that for a majority of the respondents the solution to the problems currently facing Zimbabwe lies in dialogue. What is also interesting is that whichever variable is used for analysis, the view still emerges prominently.


Q8. Which one of the two parties (ZANU PF and MDC) is not genuinely committed to dialogue?
A: 30.5% say ZANU PF is not genuinely committed to dialogue and a majority 35.3% say both parties are accountable for the delays and lack of progress in these talks.16.3% say MDC alone is not really committed to dialogue. While a significant percentage point to ZANU (PF) as the stumbling block to negotiation, it must be noted that the MDC is not completely absolved of blame. It appears therefore that people expect both parties to climb down from their positions even if it is by different degrees.


Q9. ZANU (PF) has indicated that it will only go to the negotiating table if the MDC recognizes President Mugabe's legitimacy, while the MDC has insisted that the talks should be unconditional. What is your opinion on this issue?
A: A majority, 39.7% of respondents are of the opinion that there should not be any conditions for the talks to resume. If the MDC succumbs to the conditions set by the ruling party, this will erode its argument that it lost a flawed election. 32.8% feel that both parties should find middle ground and strike a compromise.


Q10. Some people have said there is need for intervention of external arbitrators like President Mbeki and President Obasanjo for the talks to succeed while others have said that there is need for arbitrators from within the country like church leaders. What is your opinion?
A: 38.9% of the respondents are of the opinion that there is need for external arbitrators. This response slightly outweighs the 36.8% who say arbitrators should be from within the country. Across the age divide, those in the 25-30 year category and those above 51 years of age favour arbitration that comes from within the country as compared to external intervention.


Q11. Some people have suggested that President Mugabe should step down now and pave the way for a fresh election immediately while others have said he should serve until his term expires in 2008 and then retire. What is your opinion?
A: The majority view is that President Mugabe should retire now (51.3%). What is striking however is that this is a view that is shared across provinces, the residential area divide, gender and the different age groups. Even the traditionally pro-ZANU (PF) provinces such as Mashonaland East, West and Central have a majority of respondents expressing the view that President Mugabe should retire now and pave the way for fresh elections. The age analysis reveals the elderly (those aged over 40), who have been pro-ZANU (PF) in the past, have shifted significantly in their views.


Q12. Some people have suggested that President Mugabe is not sincere in his intentions of stepping down despite encouraging debate on his succession, while others have said that he is genuinely committed to stepping down. What is your opinion?
A: 54.8% of the respondents consider President Mugabe's comments about retirement as insincere. Again, it is striking that in the rural areas (hitherto the foundation of ZANU (PF) support) the majority share this view. The same applies to all provinces including Mashonaland East, West and Central. Across the different age groups, there is also consensus that President Mugabe is not genuine.


Q13. Some people have said that President Mugabe should appoint his own successor while others have said the ruling party should choose a successor at its annual conference in December. What is your opinion?
A: The data reveal overwhelming support for the succession issue to be settled by the party as a whole rather than by President Mugabe as an individual. This view runs across all the variables.


Q14. If President Mugabe were to retire today and a presidential election is held today which candidate would you vote for?

Table 49: By Province

Dabengwa

0.7

Msika

4.6

John Nkomo

5.6

Tsvangirai

35.8

Makoni

15.2

Mnangagwa

5.5

Sekeramayi

0.6

Moyo

3.1

Maya

0.5

Zvobgo

2.5

Kumbula

0.4

Siwela

0.1

Goche

0.1

Other

25.3

If free and fair presidential elections were to be held today, Morgan Tsvangirai would emerge the winner. However, what is of great interest, particularly to the succession debate within ZANU (PF) is the following: Of ZANU (PF)'s potential leaders, Simba Makoni appears to be favourite with people. This view cuts across all the variables utilized in the analysis. Emmerson Mnangagwa follows him.


Q15. Do you think Morgan Tsvangirai should stand as the MDC candidate in the next presidential election, whenever it is held?
A: Respondents were overwhelmingly in favour of Morgan Tsvangirai contesting the next presidential election as the MDC candidate. Again, the view is shared across the different analysis variables.


Q16. Finally, do you think interviews about these and other issues are important?
A: The people appreciate the work that we do. In addition, responses to this question indicate the need to have the public consulted more often and extensively on issues that affect them. Asked why interviews such as these were important, respondents said it was because it afforded them an opportunity to contribute to public policy.


CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. It would appear that the majority of people desire a change to the status quo. 69.9% are in favour of the formation of a transitional government that would organize a re-run of the presidential elections. 55.6% desire the formation of a government of national unity. In addition, 59.2% of the respondents want concurrent presidential and parliamentary elections and of these, 59.8% want such elections to be held immediately. 51.3% want President Mugabe to retire now and pave the way for fresh elections.
  2. The majority of people embrace the idea of a vibrant democracy. Of the 39.8% who do not want a government of national unity, 40,5% say the existence of an opposition party is vital for a thriving democracy.
  3. High on the list of people's expectations is successful dialogue between the two major political parties. 80.0% of respondents say the two parties should resume talks. 35.3% view both parties as currently not genuine in the negotiating process. 39.7% of the respondents feel there should be no conditions to these talks while 32.8% specifically say both parties should strike a compromise. With 38.9% and 36.8% opting for external and internal mediators respectively, it would appear that for most people, the success of the talks lies in commitment from both parties.
  4. People want a democratic process in the ZANU (PF) succession issue. 60.4% want the party to choose a successor as opposed to 14.5% who want President Mugabe to appoint one. If presidential elections were to be held today, Simba Makoni would be the ZANU (PF) candidate who would fare better against the opposition.
  5. Public consultation is a vital cog in any democracy and one that the people yearn for and appreciate. 87.5% of the respondents said interviews such as these are important.
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MDC reviews first day of Morgan Tsvangirai’s court challenge of the March 2002 election result
MDC Department of Legal Affairs
November 03, 2003

  1. After a delay of more than 18 months Morgan Tsvangirai’s court challenge against the result of the March 2002 Zimbabwe Presidential Election finally began in the Harare High Court today, 3 November 2003.

  2. The initial signs were not auspicious. When Mr Tsvangirai’s legal team and supporters arrived at the High Court Building at 9.40am, for a scheduled 10.00am start, they were shown to Court E, a cramped and dingy court room on the roof of the High Court building, noteworthy principally for the paint pealing in strips from its walls and ceilings. It is difficult to see how the allocation of that court room to a case involving a Presidential Election challenge amounted to anything other than a calculated insult to the Petitioner, Mr Tsvangirai.

  3. For reasons that may or may not have had something to do with the arrival, as observers, of an American Federal Judge, a prominent Kenyan lawyer and members of the diplomatic corps, the hearing was re-allocated to the main court room, Court A.

  4. It was in the spacious and wood-paneled surrounds of Court A that Advocate Jeremy Gauntlett S.C. of South Africa opened proceedings on behalf of Mr Tsvangirai before the Mr Justice Hlatshwayo.

  5. Advocate Gauntlett addressed the court for some 2½ hours. He reminded the Judge that it had been agreed at the Pre-Trial Conference that the hearing would deal firstly with the points of law raised on behalf of Mr Tsvangirai and the Respondents, including Robert Mugabe. Advocate Gauntlett pointed out that, if the High Court found in favour of Mr Tsvangirai on any of his main legal arguments, that would necessarily entail a finding that the 2002 Presidential Election was not conducted in accordance with the law of Zimbabwe, and was a nullity. This would mean that Robert Mugabe had not been validly elected as President.

  6. Advocate Gauntlett stated that Mr Tsvangirai’s court challenge had been brought in terms of Section 102 of the Electoral Act, which requires that all elections in Zimbabwe must be free and fair, and permits the High Court to set aside any election which is flawed " by reason of irregularity or for any other cause whatsoever".

  7. He went on to submit to the court that Section 102 of the Electoral Act must be read in terms of the Zimbabwean Constitution, which guarantees citizens freedom of expression (through, among other things, voting in free and fair elections), and in terms of Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which contemplates that the political will of citizens be expressed through "periodic and genuine elections". Advocate Gauntlett informed the court that it was Mr Tsvangirai’s submission that the March 2002 Presidential Election had been conducted in a blatantly unconstitutional way; the genuineness and fairness of the election had been stifled at birth.

  8. Advocate Gauntlett then dealt with the first of MorganTsvangirai’s two principal arguments, namely the argument relating to Section 158 of the Electoral Act. This section was enacted by Parliament in 1990, and purports to give the President power to make any election law he sees fit.

  9. Section 158 of the Electoral Act, argued Advocate Gauntlett, offends against the Zimbabwe Constitution, which states that only Parliament can make electoral laws. Furthermore, the granting of unlimited law-making power to the President is fundamentally destructive of the principle of separation of powers which underpins all democracies.

  10. Mr Gauntlett submitted that the effect of Section 158 was to create the extraordinary spectacle of one of the contestants in the Presidential Election setting himself up as the rule-maker for that election, using that rule-making power for self-serving purposes.

  11. Advocate Gauntlett argued that Section 158 of the Electoral Act was such a usurpation of power as has not been seen since the battle between Parliament and the King in England in the 17th Century.

  12. Advocate Gauntlett contended on behalf of Mr Tsvangirai that it was beyond rational debate that Parliament cannot delegate to the President law-making functions which have been allocated to it by the Constitution. The Constitution of Zimbabwe says clearly that only Parliament can make electoral laws; therefore the President cannot do so.

  13. Advocate Gauntlett went on to point out that only days before the 2002 Presidential Election, Robert Mugabe used Section 158 to make rules which radically altered, in his favour, the way in which the election was conducted.

  14. What makes Section 158 particularly offensive, said Advocate Gauntlett, is that it imposes no restrictions whatsoever on the President; he is given unrestricted power to make any election laws he chooses. Section 158 is therefore fundamentally destructive of Parliament’s right to legislate, and constitutes a blank cheque drawn on the political will of the Zimbabwean people.

  15. Because Section 158 was enacted in violation of the Zimbabwean Constitution, it was void from the moment of that purported enactment. Therefore, all rules and regulations made by the President in terms of Section 158 were invalid. Because those rules related to issues of vital importance to the conduct of the election, the election itself was fatally flawed, cannot stand and should be set aside.

  16. Advocate Gauntlett then turned to the second of Morgan Tsvangirai’s two principal legal arguments, namely the argument concerning the Electoral Supervisory Commission ("ESC").

  17. Section 61 of the Zimbabwe Constitution, said Advocate Gauntlett, stipulates that an ESC of 5 members must be created, with responsibility for supervising registration of voters and the conduct of Presidential and Parliamentary Elections. The Constitution makes it clear that the ESC must be independent, "not subject to the direction or control of any person or authority."

  18. Advocate Gauntlett pointed out that it is perfectly obvious from the Constitution that the ESC is an integral part of the election process; the ESC is the only body which may register voters and conduct elections.

  19. However, Robert Mugabe, for reasons which he has chosen not to disclose, appointed only four members of the ESC, not the required five. From the outset, therefore, the ESC was not validly constituted, and could not therefore, as a matter of law, conduct or supervise the election.

  20. Furthermore, Robert Mugabe, only 4 days before the election, made a regulation which fundamentally affected the constitutionally-protected independence of the ESC, by compelling the ESC (in violation of Section 11 of the Electoral Act) to take on as staff persons who were not members of the public service and who were appointed by a Minister nominated by Robert Mugabe, even if the ESC did not need or want such staff.

  21. Advocate Gauntlett argued that without an independent ESC in place, properly constituted and compliant with the Constitution and the Electoral Act, the election did not take place in terms of the most basic requirements of the Constitution, and was therefore a nullity.

  22. Advocate Gauntlett also dealt with the principal submissions made by Robert Mugabe’s lawyers in attempting to rebut Morgan Tsvangirai’s legal arguments. These submissions, said Advocate Gauntlett, were:
    1. frivolous
    2. constituted ankle-biting procedural manoeuvring
    3. without merit
    4. obsessive endeavours to cut down access to the courts by ordinary citizens
    5. a contrived attempt to escape addressing the merits of the matter.

  23. One of Robert Mugabe’s principal arguments, set out in his court papers, is that Morgan Tsvangirai does not have legal standing or locus standi to mount his court challenge. In response to this argument, Advocate Gauntlett pointed out that Section 102 of the Electoral Act expressly permits an unsuccessful candidate to challenge the validity of an election result. Furthermore, said Advocate Gauntlett, the argument that the leader of the official opposition, one of the two main candidates in the election, couldn’t come to court to challenge the validity of that election was startling and frivolous. He said also that other, shorter Anglo-Saxon words could have been used to describe such an argument.

  24. In support of his attack on Robert Mugabe’s contention that Morgan Tsvangirai lacks legal standing, Advocate Gauntlett cited an battery of Zimbabwean and international authorities which clearly demonstrates that, in law, Morgan Tsvangirai has the necessary legal standing.

  25. Another of Robert Mugabe’s principal arguments, mounted as a defence to Morgan Tsvangirai’s claim that the Election was not conducted in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, is that the High Court does not have jurisdiction to rule on matters dealing with an alleged breach of the Constitution. Robert Mugabe’s argument is that only the Supreme Court, and not the High Court, can make rulings on the Constitution; because the Electoral Act requires a challenge to an election to be brought in the High Court and not in the Supreme Court, Morgan Tsvangirai is barred from alleging that the election was conducted in violation of the Constitution.

  26. In answer to this argument, Advocate Gauntlett pointed out that Sections 13 and 23 of the High Court Act confer on the High Court full original Civil and Criminal jurisdiction over all matters in Zimbabwe. This jurisdiction clearly includes the making of rulings on the meaning and effect of the Constitution, and alleged breaches of the Constitution. Advocate Gauntlett cited some 40 High Court decisions in which that court had made rulings about provisions of the Constitution, as evidence that the High Court has now and always has had the jurisdiction to do this.

  27. Therefore, concluded Advocate Gauntlett, the point raised by Robert Mugabe is an impudent, astonishing and startling submission, wholly without merit.

  28. It is anticipated that the lawyers for Robert Mugabe and the Electoral Supervisory Commission will begin their answering oral arguments tomorrow morning, 4 November 2003.
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The Herald

Zimbabwe Prison Services acquires farms

By Blessing Chigwaza
The Zimbabwe Prison Services has acquired farms where it will build new
prisons as part of its efforts to decongest prisons, the Commissioner of
Prisons, Retired Major General Paradzai Zimondi, has said.

"We have acquired some farms through the land reform programme in order to
establish more prisons.

"This will help in easing the prison population because there is
overcrowding in the institutions, which might result in the outbreak of
diseases such as diarrhoea and tuberculosis," he told The Herald last
Friday.

Zimbabwean prisons’ holding capacity is 16 000 but there are currently more
than 20 000 inmates, resulting in the overcrowding of prisons.

Rtd Maj Gen Zimondi said prisoners would be taught farming skills so that
they would produce food for their own consumption.

Currently, ZPS relies on taxpayers’ money for their daily needs and they
wanted to do away with that system.

Responding to media reports alleging that homosexuality was on the increase
in prisons, Rtd Maj Gen Zimondi said ZPS had already begun a project in
Gweru to build a prison for young offenders.

"Seasoned prisoners normally target vulnerable young offenders, so there is
need to separate them from seasoned criminals.

"This is practised in most countries throughout the world."

The ZPS commissioner said they would work towards effective rehabilitation
of offenders and move away from the old system that promotes idleness.

"We believe training social work is very critical to the rehabilitation
thrust that we are trying to pursue," he told 18 ZPS officers who graduated
with certificates in social work at the School of Social Work in Harare.

"Hence, may I assure the management of the School of Social Work that these
graduands will be deployed in the ZPS Rehabilitation Section and commence
the rehabilitation of offenders in earnest."

Rtd Maj Gen Zimondi said his vision was to see ZPS move towards a more
dynamic approach to the incarceration and rehabilitation of offenders where
suspicion and confrontation is replaced by trust and co-operation between
officers and offenders.
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Financial Times

      Zimbabwe election 'stifled at birth'
      By Tony Hawkins
      Published: November 4 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: November 4 2003 4:00

      Lawyers for Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, yesterday
accused President Robert Mugabe's government of rigging presidential
elections in March 2002, saying the poll had been "stifled at birth and
conducted in respects that were blatantly unconstitutional".

      Jeremy Gauntlett, South African advocate for the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, blamed "purely obstructive tactics" on the
government's part for the long delay in bringing the challenge to court.

      Official results gave Mr Mugabe a fifth term as head of state, with 54
per cent of the vote. The poll was rejected as neither free nor fair by the
European Union and the Commonwealth but was recognised by most African
governments. Tony Hawkins, Harare

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JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com

Please send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
justice@telco.co.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the subject line.

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

Letter 1:
Dear JAG,
Two kinds of letter appear frequently in your Open Letter forum. The first
is an appeal of sorts for reconciliation between farmers: Jeans Simons'
letter of October 30th (`stop blaming CFU, stop pointing fingers at our
neighbours') is a good example. The second kind of letter seeks to justify
or rationalise accommodations, loosely descried as `deals', with ZANU PF or
its various representatives. Unfortunately the two positions are
irreconcilable - there can be no useful and justifiable unity between
commercial farmers whilst some amongst them defend co-operation with the
forces that have all but destroyed commercial agriculture in Zimbabwe.
This is particularly unfortunate now as commercial agriculture faces, at
present, a greater threat of permanent extinction than at any time over the
last four, horrible, years. Such, it seems, is not generally understood.
Some may stagger on through the darkness but few will survive a dawn in
which we are not honestly and honourably represented.
It is understandable that commercial farmers in Zimbabwe should have
reacted in different ways to the trials of these last four years. Farming
is, by its very nature, an individual business. Farms have suffered
different and varying forms of affliction and persecution. And there has
been no clear lead from the farming organisations: the CFU has veered from
querulous opposition to uncertain acquiescence with the regime and back
again. JAG has the moral high ground but has yet to persuade a clear
majority of farmers, former and present, to join it there. The actions of
the ZTA should, one day, merit detailed scrutiny but we might speculate
that many of those actions thus uncovered will prove unsavoury and
duplicitous.
One suspicion, muttered over glasses of Castle at the bar, must be laid to
rest. The divisions between farmers are not the result of some
Machiavellian and ingenious policy of Mugabe's, another example of his
legendary cunning. It is the case that, at the moment of his greatest
weakness, he gratefully received a life belt from that most ill judged of
projects - the ZJRI. But if you seek a monument to Mugabe's political
acumen and political abilities look around you at what Zimbabwe has become.
Any half-decent politician would have been able to preserve power, and
re-distribute land, without destroying his country in the process. Mugabe
has made it up as he has gone along to catastrophic effect. And he did not
anyway need to divide the farmers - they did it themselves.
Calls for reconciliation, for `putting the past behind us and moving on'
always seem ostensibly civilized and wise. But often they are not. We must
remember that `let's let bygones be bygones' is the reassuring cry of the
African dictator who, having bludgeoned and bankrupted his country, now
looks to the West for some ready cash. It is the endlessly repeated chorus
of Mugabe's apologists in Africa as history carries downstream each new
folly or atrocity. We cannot put the past behind us while that past, and
actions within it, continue to infect and infest the present.
I have tried to be patient with the same old weary arguments for appeasing
the regime, for accommodations, for deals. But patience is exhausted. There
is the `well, what would you have done?' argument. There is the farmer who
claims that by playing various groups of squatters and ZANU flunkies off
against each other he is somehow scoring shrewd points while his farm is
eroded around him. There is the tear-jerking argument about making it
through the dark times or `SURVIVAL' (sic) which suggests that protection
of your own through appeasement of your persecutors is somehow admirable.
There is the argument of the farmer who makes a success story out of
`peaceful co-existence' with squatters who have stolen half of his farm.
There is the line about the need to keep agriculture going in preparation
for better times. There are those who seek absolution by tarnishing
everyone else (`well - YOU buy black market fuel'). Most contemptible are
all of those who dismiss every moral parameter by saying, sometimes with
tangible self-satisfaction `Hey, I'm just a businessman' or, worse still,
`well, that's Africa.' I suspect that AR B-Walker (open letter forum 29
October) and I stand shoulder to shoulder on this.
There is one time for doing deals with squatters and thugs and attackers
and that is when life is in immediate danger. That's it.
What is so depressing about these arguments for deals is that they are not
just wrong, they are stupid too. Let each farmer or businessman or NGO who
compromises with Mugabe's regime, to keep himself in business look, out
beyond his well-tended land or cool office or executive car park at the
dismal chaos he has helped to create. For that is the truth of it: anyone
who plants or waters or reaps for the squatters, or lends them equipment or
subsidises them, or seeks the assistance or protection of some capering
local apparatchik is guilty of giving to Mugabe's destructive regime the
credibility and authority it craves and needs to survive. And that regime,
if left unchecked, will, sooner or later, do for all of us. Such
accommodation feeds the monster that will chew us up and spit us out. What
an extraordinarily stupid way to behave.
There are farmers still on the land who have never dealt and never
compromised. Good luck to them. Long may they continue. But even there, I
would question any continued production of tobacco or flowers for such
directly subsides the Mugabe regime providing the desperately needed forex
that keeps it stumbling along. In a country where millions go hungry the
production of maize or wheat seems more sensible and more moral. How
outraged tobacco farmers have been when I have suggested this. Do I not
understand the complexity of the crop? The infrastructural imperative? The
dangers to the soil implicit in new crops. Yes I do. But set against the
bigger and appalling picture such arguments seem petulant and self-serving.
Selling potatoes at your farm gate is one thing, providing forex for Mugabe
to buy the continuing loyalty of his cohorts is quite another.
Few sensible or honourable people would deny the rights of the commercial
farmers to the land they have temporarily lost or still occupy. The vast
majority of farms were bought on the open market at a time when anybody,
black or white, could buy. This kills Mugabe's vicious rhetoric of a
colonial legacy stone dead. Equally I do not buy the admirable Ben Norton's
prognosis about the impossibility of removing squatters: if, on my travels,
I had come across a quorum of squatters, or even A2 farmers, who had made
a real success of their optimistic yet illegitimate agricultural forays
then I might think differently. But I have not.
But such is no guarantee that the rights and interests of commercial
farmers and their employees will be adequately represented when dawn breaks
over Zimbabwe. This is serious for a dawn of sorts may not be far away. And
if we lose the chance that that dawn offers we may be gone for fifty years.
Weary of stalemate the MDC, the international community and even ZANU or
elements within it, begin to believe that negotiation is the only way out.
Such negotiation would, I think, reward Mugabe for his tyranny but
realpolitik might ensure it comes about anyway.  And, under current
circumstances, the farmers would be, at best, spectators and, at worst,
ghosts at that particular feast,
Why? Because the extensive sympathy for commercial farmers and their
employees around the world in the media and in most divisions of public
opinion is not shared by those who will manage Zimbabwe's immediate future.
The MDC will remain wary of weakening its African credentials (and this is
one area where Mugabe's barbs have done us real harm.) Many NGOs are
instinctively opposed to the very concept of white farmers and itch to pour
resources into the squatted lands. The prevailing zeitgeist in European
government circles is predominantly liberal and applies to Zimbabwe's
commercial farmers an unjustified prejudice that could never be displayed
towards, for example, an Asian businessman in Bradford. Few African
governments have lost sleep over the plight of commercial farmers and their
further disadvantaging might give any future agreements an appropriate
sheen of African empowerment. The actions of the CFU and others have
already conveyed the impression that farmers would give up just about
anything in return for lasting tenure of the few farms they still cling to.
We are the good guys (and even those who have `dealt' still have rights).
We are recognised by most clear-thinking people round the world to be so.
But those who will decide our future do not share this benign view.
And there is a future to be fought for. There has been something almost
self-indulgent about many of the cri de coeurs that we read on these pages:
(`it's over, it's over'). It's not over. Zimbabwe needs, and will one day
have, an agricultural system that comprises a large and intensive
commercial sector and a balance of small scale and subsistence farming that
answers social needs and yet remains profitable. There could be room on the
land for a majority of those commercial farmers who wish to remain or
return although their individual conditions may not always be exactly as
they were before. Many could and should remain or return to their farms.
Good sense, good economics and the rule of law says so; only racial
prejudice does not.
But such cannot be furthered or achieved by a divided commercial farming
community hamstrung by a record of rapprochement with its persecutors.
There needs to be unity but unity, to be blunt, on what more or less is the
JAG agenda. A further difficulty here is that commercial agriculture in
Zimbabwe contrived for itself an immensely complex and overblown
architecture - congress this and council that and deputy chairman of this,
that and the other. It proved wholly unequal to the challenges of recent
years and now seems absurdly inappropriate. Can those crouching in the
ruins of the CFU, for example, confess their failure, walk away and rebuild
with their erstwhile rivals?
Such a complex situation, and such a profusion of baggage, makes any
concrete suggestions seem unworkable, even fatuous, particularly while
Mugabe still squats on, or behind, the throne. But concrete suggestions
there must be and so I advance some:
1) Representatives of the Commercial Farmers, in possession and
dispossessed, and their employees, former and current, and their workers to
create a representative team: The Zimbabwe Farming Alliance or some such.
Any relevant organisation to be represented although I would submit that
JAG would be the most appropriate co-ordinator.
2) Such representatives to open formal discussion (not ad hoc exchanges)
with the MDC, with Zimbabwean civil society, industrial and professional
bodies, with leading NGOs (particularly the UNDP), donors, notably the EU
and the USA, interested government such as the South African, German,
British, Australian and Nigerian, with the Churches and, in time, with
SADC, COMESA and the AU.
3) The alliance would pursue an agreed manifesto comprising some or all of
the following principles:
a) No colonial legacy; most commercial farmers, of all colours, had bought
their farms on the open market and had, and still have, a right to them.
(Yes, such may be unpopular in certain quarters but it's the truth and time
we started saying so),
b) Respect for all constitutional laws and the rule of law. .
c) A recognition that Zimbabwe needs to design and implement at once a
pattern of land distribution that balances effectiveness with a respect for
the ethnic balance. This to be achieved by a transparent, equitable and
legal land reform programme.
d) Recognition that all forms of agriculture, commercial, subsistence small
scale, will have a place in Zimbabwe for the foreseeable future and that
all should be sensibly arranged for maximum production and maximum social
content.
e) Tolerance towards, and support for, both squatters and displaced farm
workers during the land reform process.
f) A determination that all useful land will be put to use and those who
have acquired land illegally and made no use of it should be obliged to
give it up.
g) A recognition that the creation of a sustainable system will be
essentially a Zimbabwean responsibility. There may be some donor money but
the bulk of the work of reconstruction on sensible and useful lines will
fall to Zimbabweans (and never, by the way, will there be a greater need
for the Zimbabwean commercial farmers' remorseless energy and flare for
improvisation.).
4) Proposals for the conduct of a comprehensive, independent, non partisan
and effective land audit to establish who is where and what is what. A good
NGO project this.
5) Proposals for the early resurrection of commercial farms to production.
6) Proposals for distribution and early exploitation of unused and fallow
land.
7) Proposals for an early confirmation of which farmers wish to return or
remain or renounce their farms to facilitate the land reform process and
the establishment of commercial farming core areas.
8) Proposals for the funding and distribution of restitution/compensation.
9) Proposals for the improvement of agriculture on communal lands, possibly
through allocation of title deeds.
10) Proposals for assistance to, and re-location and re-training of those
squatters who are committed to the land but must move from reclaimed
commercial farmland.
11) Proposals for the resurrection of the agricultural support sector, once
such an important employer in Zimbabwe.
Nearly all of the plans of man undergo numerous changes before
implementation and many hardly work even then. Hopefully more able people
have better plans already further advanced.  I wish I could see them.
Perhaps I have not been looking in the right places.
Who will pay for all the above, for the hundreds of thousands of hours of
expert time required? I don't know. In a perfect world we could fund such
projects with plunder recovered from those who have so gleefully robbed and
cheated since 1999. But Zimbabwe is very far from being a perfect world.
Yet amidst the chaos and misery any group of Zimbabweans trying to set
things right and build a future out of the wreckage must and should attract
at least a stream from the oceans of donor money sloshing around the world.
If I find any I'll let you know.
The dawn is coming and if it finds us asleep then, however in the right we
may be, we will also be up a creek. Indefinitely. There is hope. There are
prospects. But we have to find them, articulate them, and make them a part
of Zimbabwe's future.
Yours sincerely,
Sophia Janssen

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Letter 2: Re Open Letters Forum No. 174 dated 29 October

I write in reference to A.R.B-Walker's letter to the JAG Open Letters Forum
No. 174 dated 29 October 2003 and applaud his actions and decisions. If
only more Zimbabweans thought like him.

Frank Urquhart.

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Letter 3: Is Anyone's Media Licence to Operate Legal?

Sir,

Just a thought....

If, as a recent court ruling states, the media commission is NOT legally
constituted, Do they have the legal right to issue the licences that are
currently seen as valid?

How could these licences be legal as they are issued by a commission that,
in itself, is NOT legal?

Momma Kat

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All letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for Agriculture.
Back to the Top
Back to Index

JOB OPPORTUNITIES: Updated November 3, 2003

Please send any job opportunities for publication in this newsletter to:
JAG Job Opportunities <justice@telco.co.zw>

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NATIONAL
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HARARE
(ad inserted 30 October 2003)

Bookkeeper / Accounts Administrator Required:

A small but growing manufacturing / retailing / investment group of
companies, seeks the services of a Bookkeeper/ Accounts Administrator.

The person should have very good knowledge of practical business
bookkeeping, up to Trial Balance. A reasonable knowledge of Balance Sheets
is required. The person should be a self-starter, motivated, and
outgoing. The chosen candidate will have all the direction needed for
him/her to perform their tasks. The following description with regard to
the position is needed:

1) Cashbooks, Debtors, Creditors, Bank Reconciliation's, Wages,

2) Must be computer literate with regard to Microsoft Office, i.e. MS Excel
and Windows and MS Word.

3) Must be computer literate with regard to Our Accounting Software,
such as QuickBooks Accounting, Sage, or Pastel

4) Must be able to handle Monthly Returns, such as, Sales Tax (Shortly
VAT), PAYE, NEC, NSSA, Manpower and Standards Development Levy.

5) Basic understanding on implementation and the administration of company
flow charts (paper work trail) and the correct manner in storing and filing
company records.

6) Basic knowledge on compiling accounting records for External Auditors.

Interested candidates, please e-mail a copy of your CV to vb@hms.co.zw or
phone 091 253 991

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HARARE
(ad inserted 30 October 2003)

We are looking to recruit an assistant restaurant manager for our St.
Elmo's location in Harare.  The successful candidate should be highly
motivated, and preferably have good food service experience.  A competitive
package will be offered.

The St. Elmo's franchisee in Zimbabwe/ Zambia is expanding and this job
will almost certainly lead to promotion.

The successful candidate will be sent to Cape Town for Training with the
Franchiser.

Please respond to:

ted@houses.africaonline.co.zw and copy all responses to:
elmos@pc2000.co.zw

(Bus: 263-4-702412
(Home: 263-4-861930
ÈCell: 263-91-210-203
ÊFax: 263-4-790584
ted@houses.africaonline.co.zw
* Snail Mail: Private Bag 604E, Harare, Zimbabwe
*Physical (i.e. courier) Address: No 2 Denmark Road, Milton Park, Harare,
Zimbabwe

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HARARE
(ad inserted 30 October 2003)

We are a steel products manufacturing company looking for a temporary
supervisor to oversee the manufacture and erection of sheds inside and
outside the country. Position immediately available. Please contact us at:
mtemwa@zol.co.zw, or phone 011409229 or 744207.

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HARARE
(ad inserted 20 October 2003)

"Pottery manufacturing company in Greendale is seeking a Production
Manager, to oversee and control the manufacturing, costing and exporting of
pottery. Enthusiastic, self-starter with friendly disposition is
required. Computer experience especially spreadsheets a must.

Please e-mail CV's to markh@zimestatecoffee.co.zw or write to P.O.Box
GT2696, Graniteside, Harare."

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HARARE
(ad inserted 15 October 2003)

I am looking for an experienced driver.  Ideally, the successful applicant
will be able to double as a gardener and live on the property.

Alternatively, is there anyone in the Highlands area who has a driver whom
they would be prepared to share?

Replies to gailc@zol.co.zw or phone 498266/091-354079

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HARARE
(ad inserted 13 October 2003)

We are looking to recruit a candidate from Zimbabwe to be our
Zimbabwe Liaison Officer - based in Harare, Zimbabwe
Salary between £490 - £600 Sterling per month (depending on skills and
experience), full time, Contract - from November 2003 until March 2005

Reporting to the Southern Africa Programme Manager (SAPM), the Zimbabwe
Liaison Officer (ZLO) will work to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency
of CIIR / ICD's programme in Zimbabwe. The postholder will be supporting
CIIR / ICD's skillshare and advocacy work in the country. She/he will also
be expected to help the SAPM to maintain a broader perspective of the
Southern Africa Region. The ZLO will provide supervision and support to
CIIR / ICDs Development Workers (DWs) and maintain and build key
partnerships with local partner organisations in response to CIIR / ICD's
HIV & AIDS and disability strategies for Zimbabwe.

The postholder should have degree or appropriate qualification in social
sciences or related field and three to five years of relevant work
experience, preferably within a non-governmental organisation, preferably
with senior responsibility.

You should have excellent administration skills and sound book keeping and
financial management experience. Competent IT skills, excellent
self-organising, and prioritising skills, as well as experience of
providing support to and of monitoring personnel is essential. Due to the
nature of the post experience of being able to work effectively within the
current social/economic and political environment in Zimbabwe is essential.

Good interpersonal and communication skills to liaise effectively with
people at various levels and good oral and written communication skills in
English and in Shona and/or Ndebele are important. It is essential to have
a proven ability to think and act strategically in response to HIV & AIDS
as a development issue and a good grasp of gender analysis and dynamics in
southern Africa. Last but not least you must have a valid full driving
licence and willingness to travel extensively by car within Zimbabwe.

Closing date 31 October 2003
Interviews Early November

 For further information and an application form visit
http://www.ciir.org/ciir.asp?section=jobs or email icd@iway.na
alternatively fax ++264 61 232317.

CIIR / ICD are committed to equal opportunities
Charity No. 294 329

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HARARE
(ad inserted 07 October 2003)

We have a vacancy coming up in at the end of November for an Administrator
who will perform various BASIC functions in our Harare office.

It is not too demanding and would suit a semi-retired farmer.

Salary modest but has the use of a car to and from work, fuel provided.

The primary role is to "keep and eye on" warehousing and general office
situation.  Please contact JAG offices for contact details.

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HARARE
(ad inserted 02 October 2003)

The Trading Company in Msasa is looking for a mornings only bookkeeper who
is able to work up to trial balance.

Please contact 486596, 011 217 841 or email tradeco@icon.co.zw for further
details.

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HARARE
(ad inserted 02 October 2003)

RESCUE Sheltered Workshop for 43 mentally and physically disabled invite
application for the following posts:

1. Administrator/Director
2. Workshop Manager
3. Bookkeeper

The disabled persons have been trained to carry out various semi-skilled
work in the manufacture of wheelchairs in a well-equipped and spacious
workshop in Harare.

Applications with CV to be sent to Chairman Executive Committee, P O Box
A381, Avondale, Harare.
Tel: (w) 304575, cell 011 405 046

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HARARE
(ad inserted 01 October 2003)

We are looking for someone to work on our till in the Art Mart, please
contact Lindy Rowlands at 485514 for more details.

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HARARE
(ad inserted 19 September 2003)

VACANCY FOR CLASS 2 DRIVER
Applicant, who should be 30 years of age or over, would ideally have:

Minimum 5 years experience
Good references
Competitive salary offered.

Contact: Ms Bassett
KDB HOLDINGS (PVT) LIMITED, Harare
Telephone: 758921

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HARARE
(ad inserted 19 September 2003)

Retired farmer/handyman required overseeing a clothing and fabric factory
in Msasa.  No special qualifications needed.  Work hours are from 7am - 5
pm on Mon-Thurs and 7am - 1pm on Friday.  Please contact 011 217 841 for
further details.

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HARARE - Avondale area
(ad inserted 19 September 2003)

We are looking for someone to work a 2-3-morning week.  Must be computer
literate and have knowledge of Data input, Excel and Graphs.

Please contact 04 794478 for further details.

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HARARE
(ad inserted 16 September 2003)

We have a vacancy for a receptionist.
Applicant must be MS Word/ Excel/ e-mail literate and of a cheerful manner.
Salary on application.
Phone Carol Livingston 305613/4 Harare

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HARARE (Glen Lorne)
(ad inserted 04 September 2003)

Position for a 5-day week mornings only handyman at Imba Matombo Hotel will
be available from 14 September 2003. Please contact Julie Webb 499013.

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

BULAWAYO
(ad inserted 10 October 2003)

We are looking for someone who has:

1. Loads of common sense
2. Patience
3. Sense of humour and an ability to communicate at all levels
4. Self-motivation
5. Prepared to work hands on (mostly feet on!)
6. Perseverance
7. A touch of stubbornness would be an advantage
8. ENERGY (that should perhaps have been listed first!)

That is the basic mindset.

Then:
Experience in sewing most important. Designing and pattern making an
advantage but not essential.
The working environment is in an export orientated clothing factory - we
are unquestionably competitive in the world market and have uncompromising
quality standards to support this.

The work is hard, the job is rewarding. If you are interested, please
contact me on email: judepete@mweb.co.zw

Judith Clark

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CHEGUTU
(ad inserted 02 September 2003)

Farm sitter urgently required from 16-30th September 2003.  Duties to
include looking after tobacco grading shed and possible ridging to be done.
Please contact 091 321 406.

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GWERU
(ad inserted 30 October 2003)

Vacancies exist at a safari camp near Gweru for Hotel School trained staff
with at least 2 years experience in the Hotel and Catering industry.
Positions offered include Food & Beverage manager, reception staff, chefs,
cooks, housekeepers, laundry staff, general cleaners and ground staff.
Send CV with application to The Manager, Box 1218, Gweru.

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GWERU
(ad inserted 18 September 2003)

SITUATION VACANT / EMPLOYMENT

A very exciting and challenging opportunity for a financial controller /
accountant in the tourism industry

IDEALLY: We require: A couple who can both become involved in the
business and who do not still have children at school.

Either the husband or wife should have extensive accounting experience and
be able to manage the accounting staff.

The company is also involved in Christian mission and overseas student
tours throughout Africa, conducting hunting safaris and has an export
orientated weavery business.

The company offices, homesteads, extensive workshops and very busy Safari
lodge/camp are based on a game park 10 kms out of Gweru.

Enthusiastic and committed couples interested in joining us should please
forward details to or phone me directly on 091-205956

The position is available immediately and really is an exiting one.

We offer:

· Company vehicle
· Company house on the game park
· Competitive salary
· Lots of perks
ANDREW CONOLLY
ANTELOPE PARK / AFRICAN ENCOUNTER SAFARIS
P O Box 1218, Gweru, Zimbabwe
Phone/Fax: +(263 54) 52172, 50919
E-Mail: antelope@mweb.co.zw
Web-site: antelopepark.co.zw

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HEADLANDS
(ad inserted 30 October 2003)

Position suitable for retired man or couple to help with cattle operation.
Large house and garden.
Negotiable job description and remuneration.
Phone 04 - 882978
Email: fertylin@zambezi.net

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KARIBA
(ad inserted 20 October 2003)

Do you love the bush, enjoy gardening, and have the personality to make
guests feel welcome? Are you mechanically minded?  Interested in catering?
We are looking for a mature fit couple to run our resort at Kariba.  If you
feel this is for you, please email us on conquest@mweb.co.zw.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
KARIBA - TIGER BAY
(ad inserted 16 September 2003)

Lake Fresh Fisheries in Kariba has a vacancy for the position of General
Manager with the core business being Kapenta Fishing. Ideal for successful
farmer - minimum age 30 years. The company offers a very attractive Salary,
free vehicle for company use, plus free house, lights and water, with 21
working days leave p/a. Genuine applications only please
Phone 011 608 782 or 308960, or email conquest@mweb.co.zw
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

KARIBA
(ad inserted 09 September 2003)

A General Manager is wanted in Chalala, Kariba to start work immediately.
Skills to include:

1. diesel mechanic,
2. must be a hard worker,
3. is familiar with boats and equipment,
4. good at labour relations,
5. preferably married as social life is limited.

A 3-bedroomed cottage is offered for accommodation.

Salary is substantial but negotiable.

Please contact 061 2523 or 011 715 425 for further information.

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MASVINGO
(ad inserted 16 September 2003)

Wanted:

A farm manager / assistant for a horticultural project situated 25 km from
Masvingo.
Please contact Mr. P. Buchan on Buflower@zol.co.zw

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MUTARE
(ad inserted 03 November 2003)

Management position available on an expanding horticultural project a half
hour outside Mutare.

Please contact: dalyn@mutare.icon.co.zw
telephone - 020 4 2207 / 011 210 668 / 020 64065.

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NKAI (MATABELELAND NORTH)
(ad inserted 08 October 2003)

We have a job offer as a manager of a large Timber Milling operation in
Nkai.  We are looking for:

1.  A decision maker with good managerial skills, able to control and
discipline a large work force.  Integrity and honesty are vital.

2.  Because Nkai is in the middle of the bush and far away from any towns,
it is important that the applicants are personalities that are not
interested in social life or likely to turn to alcohol.  A more introverted
type of person would be more suitable.  Preferably without children at
school.

3.  Duties will involve the running of a very large hardwood sawmill, hire
and fire of labourers, maintenance of all machinery and vehicles and
dealing with customers.  Work will often take up weekends.  Any mechanical
knowledge will be greatly advantageous.

4.  Accommodation at the moment consists of a Bungalow.  However when the
right person is found for the position we intend building.

5.  Salary although not fully decided at this point will be very high.  We
will work out a scheme based on percentage of profits as well as a basic.
Salary although paid in Zim Dollars will be based on the Rand.

Regards

Glen Wiseman
Cell phone: 011 208 329

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RAFFINGORA
(ad inserted 20 October 2003)

Wanted:

Someone to assist on farm; any retired farmer or displaced couple looking
for somewhere to live or something to do.

Contact Doreen for more information on e-mail: sylviadu@ecoweb.co.zw

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

INTERNATIONAL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

BOTSWANA
(ad inserted 29 September 2003)

AMEECHI INVESTMENTS SEEK A SUITABLY QUALIFIED MECHANIC FOR A RANCHING
OPERATION IN BOTSWANA. THE POST IS WITH IMMEDIATE EFFECT.  APPLICANTS WITH
EXPERIENCE WITH HEAVY EARTH-MOVING EQUIPMENT WILL HAVE AN ADDED ADVANTAGE.
CONTACT TELEPHONE NUMBERS AND CONTACTABLE REFERENCES ARE REQUIRED.
APPLICATIONS WITH CVs TO BE POSTED ASAP TO THE FARM MANAGER, AMEECHI
INVESTMENTS, PO BOX 602195, GABERONE, BOTSWANA.

Please contact: kok@zta.co.zw for further details

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MALAWI - TOBACCO MANAGERS

Tobacco managers wanted in Malawi: 2003/4 seasons 100ha Flue cured 100ha
Maize African tobacco managers of Malawian extraction wanting to relocate
with costs paid and paper work facilities. Malawian Passport Holders will
obviously be given preference. Respond to JAG's email address and we will
forward.

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NIGERIA
(ad inserted 16 October 2003)

I work for a US based Consulting firm - GoodWorks
International LLC, engaged in amongst other things, promoting investment in
Africa.

Some of our clients in Nigeria, in this respect, Northern State Governors
have asked that we enquire into the possibility of attracting farmers
seeking to divest or diversify their knowledge, expertise or investments
from Zimbabwe and the Southern African region into the northern part of
Nigeria.

The northern part of Nigeria is seeking to boost its economic activity and
develop its communities by promoting the only viable assets it has - its
agriculturally viable land and traditional farming communities. Riding on
the back of an "agricultural boost" would be the development of tourism in
the area, largely renowned for a rich culture, colorful festivals, an
erstwhile beautiful game reserve and numerous other historically valuable
sites which have suffered neglect.

The northern part of Nigeria has a traditionally farming community, notable
for the production of maize, sorghum, cowpeas, groundnuts, rice, sugar cane
etc., cattle rearing and poultry farming.

The idea would be to have these farmers, enter into joint
venture/working/concession/management agreements for farms or land either
owned and/or controlled by the state governments.

Similarly, I am also seeking game park operators who might be interested in
considering a similar working arrangement for a game reserve located in
Bauchi state (Yankari game reserve).

I would appreciate your putting me in touch with members of the farming
community interested in exploring this opportunity further and I would be
happy to provide additional information and arrange working
visits/conference calls.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Regards.

Aisha Rimi
GWI Consulting
1900 K Street, Suite 1050
Washington DC, 20006
www.gwiconsulting.com

Tel: 202 736 2152
Fax: 202 736 2213

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SOUTH AFRICA
(ad inserted 07 October 2003)

There is a vacancy for a vegetable production manager in SA. The project is
involved in the production of baby vegetables and peas (Mange Tout) for the
local market (Woolworths) and the European markets.

The applicant must be able to work in SA. The project is based in the
Southern Cape region of George.

Good experience in all aspects of farming are essential - I am looking for
a particularly dedicated person.

Please contact me - CHRIS CHARTER
info@1910fruitbox.co.za
+27 82 880-1351

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UGANDA
(ad inserted 09 October 2003)

Ugandan Forest Resource Management and Conservation Programme

PLANTATION SPECIALIST: TERMS OF REFERENCE

Qualifications:
Degree or Diploma in Forestry or Forest Engineering

Essential Experience:
· Minimum 8 years practical experience of establishing, management and
harvesting of large-scale, commercial, tropical or sub-tropical timber
plantations - particularly pines and eucalypts.
· Proven experience of modern weed control techniques - including the safe
use of herbicides.
· A thorough understanding of modern tree nursery techniques.
· Demonstrable experience of working with chain saws.
· Experience with skidding logs using a 4WD tractor and double-drum winch.
· Organising and supervising private Contractors to carry out work.
· Drawing up and implementing fire protection plans for forests.

Desirable Experience:
· Knowledge of Health and Safety issues in forestry operations.
· Experience in training in various aspects of plantation silviculture and
harvesting.
· Forest Certification experience.
· Knowledge of marketing roundwood.
· Competence in computer use - especially MS Office applications.

Duration:
A 12-month contract initially but with a likelihood of extension

Location:
The successful applicant will be based in Kampala.  The work will involve
frequent travel around Uganda which will necessitate frequent overnight
stays up-country. Kampala is a thriving, cosmopolitan city with excellent
facilities for shopping, schooling and general R&R.

Start Date:
ASAP from 1st October 2003.

Support:
The post-holder will have the use of a good 4WD vehicle to carry out his or
her duties and a driver will be assigned to the vehicle.

Salary and Conditions:
To be discussed with Agrisystems Ltd. (UK).

Background:
The activities of the FRMCP places considerable emphasis on the development
of new plantations and the sustainable management of the remaining mature
plantations.
Despite the excellent growth conditions available for tree plantations in
Uganda, the forest plantation sector still remains under developed and a
serious shortfall of timber is predicted in the near future.

The FRMCP has already started establishing some demonstration plantations
in Forest Reserves in strategic places around the country and has also
recently launched a Sawlog Production Grant Scheme to act as an incentive
to the private sector to plant commercial timber crops.

The lack of practical skills (following years of poor management and
general unrest in the country) is severely affecting the FRMCP's plantation
development plans hence the need to recruit a suitable person who can pass
skills to the Programme's management team, private sector & other
stakeholders to meet its plantation development targets.

Other Info:
The post-holder will join the Agrisystems Technical Advisory (TA) team -
reporting directly to the FRMCP's Chief Technical Advisor.

Please contact: david@agrisystems.co.ke for further information.

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

UGANDA
(ad inserted 08 September 2003)

I have been in Uganda for the last six weeks. Whilst there, I met a Ugandan
who is a lawyer by profession, who owns three pieces of land and who is
looking for someone to run farming operations for him. He has 800 acres
between Entebbe and Kampala, where he is doing maize and cattle and two
other properties of 10 square miles and two square miles respectively, both
with potential for irrigation if necessary.

Should you know of anyone who might be interested, I would ask that they
send responses to the Ugandan email address for more information:
marcr@spacenet.co.ug
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ZAMBIA
(ad inserted 01 October 2003)

HORTICULTURE MANAGER REQUIRED IN ZAMBIA ON THE COPPERBELT
VEGETABLES AND FRUIT
Vegetable and fruit grower supplying large supermarket chain from
developing irrigated Copperbelt Farm requires a suitably qualified hands-on
Assistant.  Married or single.  Wife could assist in office.  Some
experience with seeding growing an advantage.
Excellent free housing and services paid, and vehicle provided.  Salary
negotiable.
Please reply email simmonds@zamnet.zm
Fax: Zambia +260 2 210468
Tel: Zambia +260 96 990096

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ZAMBIA
(ad inserted 09 September 2003)

Mechanical Engineer required for a large engineering firm in Lusaka.  All
enquiries contact Diego Casilli in Lusaka on dcasilli@amanita.com.zm or
+2601286452.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
For the latest listings of accommodation available for farmers, contact
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw (updated 3 November 2003)

Back to the Top
Back to Index

JAG LEGAL COMMUNIQUE

JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE LEGAL COMMUNIQUE - November 3, 2003

Email: justice@telco.co.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Internet: www.justiceforagriculture.com

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

PRELIMINARY NOTICE TO COMPULSORILY ACQUIRE LAND

The Herald of Friday 31 October 2003 contains new listings Lot 120 (4
farms) and Lot 121 (6 farms) have been listed under Section 5 Notice and
Lot 122 (1 farm) has been listed under Section 3.

LOT 120
GOROMONZI 4945/83 PATRICK FRANCIS MELLON REMAINING EXTENT OF BELLEVUE FARM
1266.5172

LOMAGUNDI 9221/87 E D DODGEN (1987) P/L NYRUGWE 594.4325

MARANDELLAS 5315/97 NICHOLAS TRIAL HOWMAN S/D A OF CLOSEBURN OF RASTENBURG
126.9497

SALISBURY 441/70 MICHAEL EDWIN GUYSE THORBURN REMAINDER OF S/D A PORTION OF
ELLANDALE 1189.5976 MORGEN

LOT 121
MAZOE 3678/94 WELMODE FARM P/L UMVUKWE FLATS A 1032.2400

DARWIN 11653/99 MTUATUA P/L LOT 1 OF LOT 1 OF MTORAZENI 1025.4006

DARWIN 11654/99 YOYO INVESTMENTS P/L REMAINDER OF LOT 1 OF MTORAZENI
1530.1394

MAZOE 4410/81 WORMWOOD FARM P/L S/D A OF WORM WOOD OF MOORE'S GRANT
334.2046

SALISBURY 104/93 STOCKADE FARM P/L STOCKADE OF MADZUGETU 402.4747

SHAMVA 2886/88 ROBOROUGH FARM P/L TEMBO 326.3705

LOT 122 (Section 3)
SALISBURY 2242/69 P B ARNOTT & SON P/L R/E OF GOOD HOPE 1460.6822 ACRES
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Zim Standard

      Pius Ncube suffers stroke
      By Loughty Dube

      OUTSPOKEN Roman Catholic Archbishop and strong critic of President
Robert Mugabe's misrule, Father Pius Ncube, right, has suffered a stroke but
is recovering at his parish home, The Standard has established.

      The Archbishop of Matabeleland, an ardent critic of Mugabe over the
years, is said to have suffered a mild stroke on the right side of the body
but is said to be recovering "quite quickly" from the attack, sources in the
church said.

      "He just had a slight problem but the stroke was not serious. It was
quite mild and he will be well soon. There is no need to panic as the father
is out of danger. He is now taking a rest but will be performing his normal
duties very soon," said a Catholic nun at the parish.

      It was however difficult to establish finer details of the nature of
the attack as church officials kept referring this reporter from one person
to the other.

      Ncube, unlike other senior Roman Catholic bishops, has questioned some
of Mugabe's policies that have been blamed for marginalising the two
Matabeleland provinces and human rights abuses by State security agents
loyal to the Zanu PF leader.

      Mugabe has not made his hatred of Ncube secret and has on numerous
occasions openly accused the senior cleric of dabbling in politics, instead
of concentrating on matters of the pulpit.

      Mugabe's clashes with Ncube date back to the early 1980s when the
bishop, together with some clerics, led the publication of a report compiled
by the Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice (CCJP) outlining atrocities
perpetrated by Zimbabwean soldiers during political disturbances in
Matabeleland.

      Ncube was in June this year praised by the US Secretary of State Colin
Powell for his stand against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

      His work with the Peace Solidarity Trust, a grouping of church leaders
from Southern Africa, has also angered Zimbabwean government officials.
Ncube is the current chairman of the Trust.

      The Trust last month released a damning report outlining activities at
the Green Bombers' National Youth Training camps, where horrendous stories
of rape of young girls were told.

      It was not possible to talk to Archbishop Ncube at the time of going
to print.
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Zim Standard

      Zesa fails to connect Zimre Park
      By Valentine Maponga

      WHILE the government claims that its rural electrification programme
is gathering momentum and has covered much ground, the State's Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) is failing to connect electricity to
most parts of Harare's new residential areas.

      Zesa's inability to pay for products, which this year has resulted in
the termination of supplies from major suppliers such as Cafca, has led to
serious shortages and delays in new electricity connections around Harare,
it was learnt last week.

      Most houses in the Zimre Park' Phase Two housing scheme have been
without electricity for the past three years and the power utility
attributes its failure to electrify the houses to crippling shortages of
equipment and manpower.

      "We have been regularly visiting Zesa's head offices, only to be
referred back to their Harare East offices, under which we are told Zimre
Park falls, but nothing has materialised," said one house owner who said he
was willing to pay any amount to get electricity.

      Rejoice Ngwenya, also resident at Zimre Park, said some of the
residents were willing to buy their own equipment to have their properties
electrified.

      "People have already said they are willing to buy their own
electricity metres and even transformers to get connected. If there are
problems at Zesa, I think it's high time they do something. We are always
getting excuses that there are no electricity fuses or transformers," said
Ngwenya.

      Many house owners in Zimre Park say there are not getting value for
their properties because they do not even know how to value their properties
for renting out.

      "You cannot ask for someone to pay for a house which has got no
electricity. A lot of the people who own these houses are out of the country
and want to rent them, but it's very difficult for one to appreciate a house
without electricity while living in a city like Harare," said another
disappointed owner who said he had to team up with neighbours to buy a
transformer.

      "We bought our own transformer for the connections but now it's over
three weeks without being connected. We are living in the dark because even
candles and firewood are now very expensive," he said.

      Some Zimre Park residents say they have now resorted to the use of gas
stoves and lamps, which are considered very dangerous if not handled
properly.

      Currently Zesa is undergoing a commercialisation process, which
officials at the power supplier claim would revive the beleaguered
parastatal into viable business.
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Zim Standard

      As economic crisis takes toll on tourism
      By Lee Berthiaume

      Great Zimbabwe turns to white elephant ON this hot Sunday, it wouldn't
be unreasonable to expect dozens of visitors wandering through the
labyrinthine complex exploring the mysteries of the Shona people.

      Yet the site's parking lot is empty, its nearby hotel deserted. Guides
lounge around waiting for some one to request their services.

      The economic and political situation has had a large impact on the
ancient ruins of the Great Zimbabwe, and the rest of the country's tourist
market.

      Great Zimbabwe is indeed dying a second death, a sad thought that the
people of the world won't ever learn about the Mashona people.

      Rising above the valley floor, the ancient ruins of Great Zimbabwe,
the centre of the Munhumutapa Empire, still conjure a feeling of mystery and
majestic presence.

      When German archaeologists "discovered" the site in 1871, their first
thought was that it had to have been built by either a conqueror from the
Middle East or Europe - the Romans or Persians.

      They refused to believe that the indigenous people who lived in the
area could have constructed such a structure.

      Only recently have the Mashona people - ancestors of the modern-day
Shonas - received recognition for their work. Situated over 1 800 acres, the
Great Zimbabwe is a cultural, architectural and spiritual wonder.

      Though it is significantly sketchy as to how or why it was built,
historians believe the Great Zimbabwe - which gave the country its name -
was built both as an administrative and ruling centre for the Mashona
Kingdom and as a defensive fortification against attacks by aggressive
groups in the region.

      Carbon dating reports the oldest sections, the Hill Complex, were
constructed sometime around 1200 AD. Fires were constructed at a nearby
granite quarry which is still visible today.

      The heated stone peeled off the quarry walls and was carried back to
the construction site several kilometres away, including a march up the
steep hill to the palace.

      The granite walls and different doorways that still exist today show
the intricacy of such construction as each stone was placed in a specific
way. The walls create not only a barrier from the elements but also
protection during an attack, situated as they are on the edge of several
cliffs. From the Hill Complex, the Mashona could survey the land for miles
in every direction.

      Even now it's easy to picture the Mashona people watching a trade
caravan snaking through the hills to the east bearing brass, gold and
porcelain.

      Such artefacts - from a brass spoon to plates with Chinese and Persian
designs - have been discovered within the ruins and ancient Portuguese
documents speak of Great Zimbabwe as a trading hub for the region.

      On the east side of the complex, cut into the side of a cliff from
which the valley spreads below, is a cave. Sitting inside, the chief's
representative would enter the cave and yell a message.

      That message would ring through the valley and bounce off the
mountains beyond to be heard miles away.

      Stone steps, worn from centuries of use, snake down from the hill
complex, where the chief and his dignitaries would eat, sleep and be
entertained, to the valley below.

      Visitors must go single file through a narrow defile between a boulder
and the cliff where an army could be thrown back by a few well-armed
defenders above. However, the Mashona people were not without their
courtesies; rock benches have been placed at intervals on the path up the
hill.

      At the foot of the hill was where the chief's army slept. While no
buildings remain - the clay and mud huts have long since disappeared -
artefacts testify to the army's presence.

      A dirt path that is still used today bears signs of having existed
centuries earlier. Stone arches are visible just under the dirt, as are
bones from animals consumed by Great Zimbabwe's inhabitants, who numbered as
many as 18 000 at one time.

      Walls still mark the Valley complex, where the chief's junior wives
lived, their huts protected by the stone barriers. There they would care for
his sons, hoping their name would be called from the cave to sleep with the
chief that night.

      However, the junior wives' walls pale in comparison to the Great
Enclosure, where the chief's senior wife would care for his heirs. The
largest pre-colonial structure south of the Sahara, the walls protecting the
senior wife rise up to 13 metres high and in some places are six metres
thick.

      Even in the blistering heat, the walls still exude a chill from the
night before and their feeling of impenetrable strength is awe-inspiring
even in this day of steel and concrete.

      Besides the legend of the Mugabes, the site's traditional caregivers,
the stories surrounding Great Zimbabwe are few and speculation runs rampant.
The reasons the Mashonas felt it necessary to build Great Zimbabwe in 1100
AD and what befell the Mashona empire and caused the site to be abandoned
around 1600 AD, are still shrouded in mystery.

      Some say the city's population simply exceeded its ability to support
everyone and this reason is the most lauded as there is no evidence of a
battle.
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Zim Standard

      Aids fatalities make "Business of Death" lucrative
      By Lee Berthiaume

      IF it wasn't for the large sign, the hearse and the stacks of coffins,
it would be easy to dismiss Harmony Funeral Services as just another
warehouse bay at the bustling Makoni shopping centre of Chitungwiza, near
Harare.

      Yet this is exactly the type of funeral operation, one of a plethora
of "fly by night" businesses that have been popping up throughout the
country in the wake of killer diseases like HIV/Aids and tuberculosis, and
at a time when the country is facing unprecedented food and medicine
shortages.

      In Zimbabwe, where dozens of other industries are collapsing due to
the country's economic crisis, the "business of death" is thriving.

      Next door to Harmony, a sign reading "Coffins" is affixed to a wall
with two arrows pointing down a narrow passage between two stands. Here a
family has decided to start a business selling home-made coffins to anyone
who needs one.

      Once you've bought that coffin, the next stop is Sydney Marufu's stand
down the road. Marufu and his family have been selling tombstones since last
year when they needed to make money and realised that death was the easiest
place to start.

      "We started because most of the people are dying," Marufu said. "We
see different people every day and there are many."

      According to Casper Magwere of Homage Funeral Services, Zimbabwe has
seen an increased demand for funeral services given the country's current
situation.

      "You have the HIV/Aids epidemic and many others," Magwere said, adding
that 95 per cent of the funerals his company services are the result of
HIV/Aids deaths. "And tuberculosis is on the rise. There is a generation
that has to be served."

      In 2002, Harare alone had 17 504 recorded deaths, an increase of
almost 500 from the year before. The three leading causes of death in the
capital - according to the city's health department - were pneumonia,
tuberculosis and HIV related illnesses, all of which are on the increase.

      Last year there were 57 524 reported cases of sexually transmitted
diseases compared to 49 166 in 2001, continuing the trend for the third
straight year.

      While funeral parlours in Harare are busy trying to service the
capital, they are also receiving steady business from rural communities
where HIV/Aids rates and cases of other terminal illnesses are even more
prevalent.

      According to a manager at Doves Funeral Services, as of October 20
there had been 19 467 recorded deaths in Harare and the surrounding area,
which equals roughly 67 per day. According to the manager, who asked not to
be named, his parlour receives between eight and 12 new clients per day.

      With so much death around, Magwere said there's plenty of business for
everyone.

      "The number of deaths is increasing on a daily basis. I think every
parlour would agree they have a fair share (of business)," said Magwere.

      According to Magwere, a service at an established parlour can cost
anything between $150 000 and several millions, depending on how involved
the service is.

      Still, many families cannot afford to bury their loved ones with even
the simplest service.

      In response, the country has seen an increase in the number of funeral
assurance plans, which operate like life insurance. Still others have
started to pay for their funerals in advance through pre-payment plans. This
way, when they die, their survivors don't have to worry about coming up with
the money to pay.

      Still, even with these options, many people have turned to
alternatives like Harmony and Marufu. However, Magwere and others say these
alternatives don't provide people with what they need.

      "A lot of them are fly by night in that they are here to take
advantage of people's grief," said the Doves manager. "I'm sure a lot of
them are making a profit off HIV/Aids."

      The main service that is missing, said Magwere, is the counselling and
the comforting that established funeral homes offer.

      He said Homage not only provides funeral services but also helps
orphans and conducts HIV/Aids counselling.

      "We go a step further," Magwere said. "We are trying to go that extra
step. These guys are coming into it for the money and I don't think it's
very fair. We have to be seen to have heart."
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Zim Standard

      German NGO sponsors rural water project
      By our own Staff

      AT least 48 000 families are set to benefit from a project by the
German Agro Action (GAA) and the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office
(ECHO) aimed at the rehabilitation of rural water points in Zimbabwe.

      The project manager, Jochen Hertle, said the project was a result of
his institution's ongoing response and interventions to the effects of the
drought and poverty alleviation to the rural communities.

      About 1,2 million Euros was injected into the project. The villagers
to benefit will be from six selected districts of Gwanda, Mwenezi, Nkayi,
Bulilimamangwe and Gokwe South where 100 water points have already been
rehabilitated so far.

      These districts receive small amounts of rainfall every year which
makes it difficult for people to practise proper farming without the use of
irrigation facilities.

      "A total of 1 200 boreholes will be rehabilitated and 38 water points
are to be constructed from which increased availability and accessibility to
reliable, hygienic, safe and clean water for domestic use is expected," said
Hertle.

      Hertle said about 48 000 families are also set to benefit from a
"Participatory Health and Hygiene Education" programme in which 500 people
in different communities are to be trained in health refresher courses.

      "Despite the shortages of spare parts and the spiralling inflation, we
have all the materials we need for the water project which is expected to be
completed in May next year," he added.

      Currently, GAA - the largest private non-governmental organisation for
humanitarian aid in Germany - and local partners are implementing a "food
for work" project based on self-help activities to rehabilitate farm
irrigation schemes for 3 300 families in Manicaland and Matebeleland South.

      Two projects for water supply in Nyamarimbira have also been
implemented in conjunction with Intermediate Technology Development Group
(ITDG).

      Recently, statistics from United Nations indicated that more than 5,5
million Zimbabweans will need food aid by January next year due to food
shortages caused by the drought and the government's highly criticised land
reform programme.
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Zim Standard

      As economic crisis takes toll on urban households Open air meat
markets flourish
      newsfocus By Caiphas Chimhete

      FROM a distance, all that a casual observer can see are scores of
people carrying small plastic bags to and from an open space at Huruyadzo
Shopping Centre in St Mary's, Chitungwiza's oldest and most impoverished
suburb. On getting closer, swarms of flies create a diversion as their
source of attraction becomes obvious.

      For the mostly women holders of makeshift stalls at this open air meat
market, keeping away the flies from their merchandise is a major
pre-occupation. Wielding all kinds of "weapons" ranging from newspapers,
tree branches or just their hands, they frenziedly wave about - as they try
to clear the intruders that are taking as much interest in their wares as
the people milling around their stalls.

      As the price of beef, pork and chicken continue to skyrocket beyond
the reach of many ordinary Zimbabweans, open-air meat markets have
mushroomed in many high density suburbs, providing an alternative source of
beef at more affordable prices. Enterprising vendors, taking advantage of
the situation, have set up make shift butcheries wherever they can get
customers. This can be along dusty streets, any open spaces reserved as
children's play grounds or township squares.

      Meat cuts ranging from ordinary beef, offal, (guru nematumbu), fish,
chicken offal (including gizzards and intestines) as well as pig ears are
sold from unhygienic wheelbarrows, dishes, plates as well as small cups.

      The vendors are, understandably, very secretive about the source of
the cheap meat.

      "Why do you want to know where we get the beef? If you want it just
buy and leave," retorted one meat vendor, as he fought away swarms of
determined flies attracted by the foul smell that was emanating from the
beef.

      It is generally thought the source of the meat could be cattle
rustlers who slaughter beasts at a council farm near Mufakose or steal
cattle from villages in the Seke communal area. So far, a number of people
have been arrested and charged for cattle rustling.

      Yet despite the unhygienic state of these open-air meat markets and
backyard butcheries, ordinary high-density dwellers in areas such as
Budiriro, Kuwadzana, Highfield, Tafara, Mabvuku, Glen View and Mufakose,
Chitungwiza's Unit H, D, N and Makoni Shopping Centre, now increasingly rely
on them for their daily beef needs.

      "We have been buying this meat for quite some time now but none of us
has fallen ill. If we continue buying from these people, the butcheries will
reduce their prices," said Mai Tapiwa of Bidiriro One suburb.

      Presently, the average price of super beef in supermarkets is $15 000
per kilogramme while that of stewing beef is about $11 500 per kg. Belly
pork and pork chops cost about $7 900 and $8 000 per kg respectively.

      A snap survey by The Standard last week revealed that the majority of
meat-starved people in high-density suburbs did not care about the risk
posed by the flies hovering around these makeshift meat markets.

      Health experts warn however, that the coming of the rains could just
be all that is needed to cause a disease outbreak in most of these areas if
the meat vendors continue their business.

      The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) acting executive director,
Rosemary Mpofu, expressed grave concern over the safety of consumers saying
they become vulnerable to diseases if they buy food from street vendors.

      "The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, through its research, has
discovered that more and more consumers cannot afford to buy meat through
the formal market and are turning to street vendors for meat products," said
Mpofu.

      The consumer watchdog said consumers have a right to a healthy
environment and safety.

      "This is an infringement on the consumers' right to safety," she said.

      However, Harare City Council director of health services, Lovemore
Mumbengeranwa, through his secretary declined to comment referring all
questions to Cuthbert Rwazemba, the council's public relations officer.

      Rwazemba demanded the questions in writing, saying he will forward
them to Mumbengeranwa, a process that was likely to take more than a week.

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Zim Standard

      Bakers halt operations
      By Kumbirai Mafunda

      MILLERS and bakers have stopped milling and baking operations
countrywide owing to a reduction in rationed allocations from the country's
sole grain procurer, the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), it emerged last week.

      Baking industry sources said the GMB recently reduced its wheat
allocations to millers, thereby causing a countrywide shortages of bread,
which is a basic foodstuff to most households.

      Millers said they have not received wheat supplies from GMB since
September, as the parastatal body battles with wheat shortages.

      Sources said Bulawayo, the country's second largest city, is the
hardest hit as it has gone for the past two weeks without bread, owing to
erratic supplies of flour from millers.

      "We have gone for two weeks now without bread. We are not getting any
wheat from GMB," said a source from Bulawayo.

      He said the limited supplies they used to get were from a few farmers
who were selling their grain directly and not through the GMB, but even that
had dwindled.

      "For the past three weeks, some bakers have gone without baking. It's
likely to get worse," said one Harare baker.

      Apart from the wheat deficit, bakers said they were confronted with
energy constraints to move the few supplies by road.

      They also said the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) was failing to
provide wagons to ferry the meagre supplies from farmers.

      Another source said the small quantities being imported from
Mozambique were currently blocked by NRZ locomotives that are fuelling in
Mozambique.

      "We are also faced with problems of diesel to transport wheat and
flour," the source added.

      In the light of the critical flour situation, the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) held an emergency meeting in Harare with the
National Bakers' Association of Zimbabwe on Thursday. The outcome of the
meeting could not be ascertained before going to Press.

      Officials from the three major millers - Blue Ribbon, National Foods
and Victoria Milling - confirmed that the flour situation was becoming
"desperate".

      They said in recent weeks, their single allocations had gone down from
2 500 tonnes per week to between 400 and 500 tonnes. The supply situation
was also very erratic and sometimes no deliveries were made.

      Under normal circumstances, millers said they required about 3 000
tonnes of flour each per week. The millers said the GMB told them the flour
problem was not caused by shortages, but by supply bottlenecks as a result
of logistic problems.

      The wheat shortage, bakers said, is forcing some of them to import
flour from South Africa and other neighbouring countries, hence the
precipitous increase in the price of bread, sometimes costing $3 000 a loaf
from last week.

      Agricultural experts said wheat harvests from the winter wheat crop,
which began last month, were unlikely to exceed 30 000 tonnes.

      That harvest, experts said, would only last for about a month as
actual wheat requirements necessary to feed the nation each month amount to
about 40 000 tonnes.

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Zim Standard

      Top cop admits police giving public raw deal
      By our own Staff

      MASVINGO: A senior police officer has said the Zimbabwe Republic
Police should repent from its wrong doing against the public if it is to
regain the confidence of the people it serves.

      Delivering a lecture on customer care at Masvingo Phoenix Centre,
police spokesman, Chief Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka, said the
partnership and trust between the police and members of the public no longer
existed.

      "We are giving the public a raw deal and we must repent from our wrong
doing as soon as possible in order to regain the lost confidence and pride,"
said Mandipaka.

      "We have received numerous complaints from members of the public who
accuse the police of brutality, harassment, hostility, as well as demanding
bribes from the complainants.

      "Right now, the Zimbabwe Republic Police is losing millions of dollars
through civil lawsuits and there are piles and piles of these at the Police
General Headquarters. The public is increasingly getting disgruntled by our
actions," said Mandipaka, in a rare admission by a senior ZRP officer of the
police's failings.

      The ZRP, whose head Augustine Chihuri has publicly admitted being a
member of the ruling party, has been accused of being partisan.

      Shortly after the workshop, Mandipaka said the police was trying to
resuscitate its battered image.
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Zim Standard

      Nightmare in a govt hospital - a personal experience
      By Wilson Dakwa

      I HAD never dreamt that one day I would be admitted at a hospital but
as I later learnt, things can happen at anytime and one has to be ready for
such an eventuality.

      About a week ago I was rushed to a city referral hospital in an
ambulance suffering from hypertension.

      My nightmare began on arrival at the hospital's casualty department
where I was wheeled in a stretcher.

      The time was shortly after 2 pm and there was a lot of activity in the
corridors as patients and staff moved about.

      My stretcher was wheeled into the corridor and there I was to lie for
the next one and half-hours without being attended to by anybody, despite
being in a bad state. The nursing staff and junior doctors appeared more
interested in making conversation among themselves about their different
experiences.

      After what seemed an eternity, a fellow whom I believed to be a doctor
finally came and before he could inquire about my condition, he read the
chart that had been left by the ambulance crew detailing my medical history.

      He began shouting at me saying that it was my fault that I had been
admitted to the hospital and that I should look after myself instead of
bothering over-worked health personnel.

      I ignored his remarks and after an hour I was finally wheeled into a
ward on the third floor. This ward was full of people who looked very ill,
and mostly elderly.

      Here I was told to lie on the bed for two and half hours again without
being attended to. A doctor finally came and I was at last given medication.

      6 pm was supper time and here, if you are expecting a decent meal, you
will be disappointed. Supper consisted of sadza and something black and that
resembled vegetables.

      It later turned out that the "black thing" were boiled vegetables and
are a daily diet, something which long-term patients in the ward described
as worse than prison food.

      At 6 am, we were all given our medication and from then on the staff
ignored us. By 4.30 pm I was getting worried since I had not received my
afternoon medication. I began to feel dizzy and knew that my blood pressure
had risen to dangerous levels.

      I called for a nursing sister and told her about my condition and
complained that I had not received my afternoon medication.

      To my surprise, the sister insisted that the afternoon medication had
been administered to me, but I pleaded: "Sister,

      since morning I have been sleeping on this bed and no one has attended
to me."

      After some intense argument, she finally agreed to give me my
medication after warning me that I risked an overdose.

      It later transpired that my outburst was a blessing as the staff in
the ward began administering medication to most of the patients. It turned
out that the majority had not been given their daily medication and this was
particularly bad since some were seriously ill.
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Zim Standard

      Justice a pipedream as lawyers hike fees
      By Violet Nyambo

      FOR the ordinary Zimbabwean, having legal representation in court has
become a pipe dream as it now costs an arm and a leg to hire the services of
a lawyer. Most lawyers interviewed by The Standard admitted that legal fees
were now above the reach of most people and that many clients were opting
out after failing to raise the huge fees demanded.

      "We are receiving fewer cases because of the high legal tariffs we
have to charge which most people cannot afford. In my case, I deal mainly
with clients who have property cases," said one lawyer who requested
anonymity.

      Currently, an ordinary case that appears in the High Court can set a
client back by as much as $500 000 in deposit fees only. Charges also depend
on the severity of the case and the experience of the lawyer.

      The Law Society of Zimbabwe recently spelt out new tariffs for general
professional services which are charged at an hourly rate and were effected
from the beginning of last month.

      In a report, Albert Musarurwa, the national director of the Legal
Resources Foundation (LRF), said that access to justice by low-income
earners remains the biggest challenge for the government and the legal
sector in Zimbabwe.

      "An unregistered law graduate's hourly charge ranges between $10 000
and $15 000; between $12 000 and $20 000 for the least experienced legal
practitioner (0-2 years experience) and between $50 000 to $75 000 for the
most experienced lawyers," reads part of the report.

      The consultation fees for most lawyers The Standard spoke to range
between $50 000 and $60 000. One senior practitioner who deals with
commercial cases said his firm charges $127 000 for consultation alone.

      "Tariffs for legal services are high in a situation where the
statutory minimum wage is $48 000, what more of the unemployed litigants?

      "The need for lawyers to provide legal services to indigent and deserv
ing clients is an absolute imperative," the LRF report states.

      The report also stressed the need for government to set aside more
financial resources for the provision of legal services.
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Zim Standard

      Critical shortages hit blood bank
      By Violet Nyambo

      THE National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS), the country's blood
bank, was saved from closure last month by aid agencies after it ran out of
basic consumables.

      So critical were the shortages of basic equipment such as needles and
test kits that at one time some officials mulled the possibility of stopping
blood collections altogether.

      The fuel crisis that has persisted since last year also worsened
matters as it grounded NBTS vehicles, making it extremely difficult for
officials to reach out to blood donors, mainly school children.

      Emmanuel Masvikeni, the NBTS marketing and public relations manager,
confirmed to The Standard that essential equipment used when collecting
blood almost ran out in September.

      "We have an acute shortage of foreign currency and most of the
products such as test kits, reagents, needles and haemophilia drugs are
exported and we cannot afford to buy them," he said.

      Masvikeni said a donation of test kits from the Department for
International Development (DFID), which will last up to the end of this
year, saved the day.

      "Blood level are satisfactory for the mean time and they can sustain
us up to the festive season. The demand for blood is low at the present
moment because of the current strike by the medical staff," he said, in
apparent reference to a national work stoppage by junior and middle level
medical doctors.

      The need for blood in Zimbabwe usually increases during the festive
season because of an increased number of motor vehicle accidents.

      The NBTS is the main supplier of blood to hospitals and heavily
depends on the school children who make up about 75% of the donors.
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Zim Standard

      MDC candidates assaulted by Zanu PF vigilantes
      By our own Staff

      ZANU PF's notorious "Top Six vigilante" unit in Mashonaland West last
week assaulted some Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials and
prevented them from submitting their papers to the nomination court for the
mayoral elections in Chinhoyi, The Standard has learnt.

      The Zanu PF supporters also assaulted three officials from the
Registrar General's Office, whom they accused of being "sell outs" for
having accepted MDC nomination papers as they had planned to block the
presentation of the papers.

      The nomination papers were later taken away by the rowdy supporters.

      But MDC secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, vowed to challenge the
Registrar-General's Office's declaration that Zanu PF won the elections
unopposed despite reports of intimidation and assaults.

      "We cannot rest while the electoral process is being abused by Zanu
PF. We have to fight for our democratic rights," said Ncube.

      The Registrar-General's Office last week declared Zanu PF candidates
unopposed winners in two mayoral seats, 13 urban wards and seven rural
district council by-elections around the country, despite reports of
widespread violence and intimidation in towns and wards that were not
contested.

      Zanu PF's Risipa Kapesa, won the Chinhoyi mayoral seat "unopposed"
while in Marondera, Ralph Chimanikire, was declared the mayor after the MDC
"failed" to nominate a candidate.

      MDC mayoral candidate for Chinhoyi, Edeline Huchu and another
candidate for ward three, Cleopas Watama, were attacked at their homes and
ordered to withdraw their candidatures.

      The two were admitted at Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital overnight after
being beaten up by Zanu PF's local "Top Six" gang.

      "The gang ordered me to withdraw my candidature and started assaulting
me. I denied that I was contesting the election. They placed a rock on my
neck before they left. I have a swollen neck right now. I repeatedly called
out their names that's why they left me," said Huchu, who said she knows her
attackers.

      In two other cases, MDC administrator for Mashonaland West, Gift
Konjana, was severely assaulted at Chinhoyi Nomination Court where he had
gone to pay the election fee for Huchu, while Blackmore Nyangairo - a
candidate for ward 13 - was also attacked at his home in White City.

      Konjana and other MDC officials who tried to present nomination papers
for Huchu were on Tuesday detained and locked in an office until about 6 PM.

      The MDC alleges that the provincial registrar, a Mr Chirenda, informed
the Registrar-General, Tobaiwa Mudede, that Zanu PF supporters had
"hi-jacked" the process and were demanding that their candidates be declared
winners unopposed.

      Contacted for a comment Mudede yesterday said: "Send a fax now, we
cannot talk over the phone, you will misrepresent me."

      Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena, said they had not received
reports that MDC candidates were barred from presenting their papers.

      "We have not received anything of that sort," said Bvudzijena.

      But MDC provincial chairman, Silas Matamisa, insisted that he
approached one Superintendent Marisa of the ZRP, who supplied riot police to
control Zanu PF supporters but failed.

      "Konjana was attacked inside the nomination court in the presence of
some police officers," said Matamisa.

      The MDC said this also happened in the presence of some officials from
the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC).

      ESC spokesperson, Thomas Bvuma, could not be reached for a comment.
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Zim Standard

      Journalist arrested
      By our own Staff

      BULAWAYO - A South African-based Zimbabwean journalist, Andrew
Zhakata, is wallowing in a Beitbridge prison after he was arrested on Monday
on allegations of sneaking into the country illegally to write reports on
the country's health delivery system.

      By the time of going to press, Zhakata, who is employed by The Star
newspaper in Johannesburg, was still in police detention by Friday and the
police could not explain why he had not been taken to court despite the fact
that he was arrested six days ago.

      Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena referred The Standard to
Matabeleland South police spokesman, Trust Ndlovu, who said he had no
information on the matter.
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Zim Standard

      Right to land is transient

      To my fellow displaced farmers, I say all those people who so happily
have "taken up their rights to land" are going to find that they have a very
transient right to that land.

      When a bigger chef comes along or a stronger war vet, or a bigger
group of Green Bombers who suddenly fancy the piece of land that the "new"
farmer has spent so much money on....he is going to start looking around for
a means to secure ownership of his piece of land.

      He is going to find that his nebulous piece of paper from the lands
office or the rural council or the governor or his minister or who ever gave
him the right to use the piece of land, will be valueless in the face of a
bigger force.

      He will then have to find a way of securing his title to the property.

      And so it is when those very people who have taken the land away from
us, have to try and resort to the law to secure their property that we will
start to revisit a man's right to title to his property.

      Jean Simon

      Harare

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Zim Standard

      It's the economy, stupid!

      FOR the past four or five years, the country's economy has been in
deep recession - to put it mildly. Over the same period, countless
high-sounding policies supposedly to carry us out of this morass have been
propounded by the authorities who seem to have their heads in the cloudsŠand
are seemingly oblivious of the realities on the ground.

      The local currency's value has plummeted to ludicrous levels and with
each passing day, continues its slide, disappearing fast like sand in an
egg-timer.

      All the nonsense of price controls has exposed the folly of the policy
makers that as long as the quintessential conditions and groundwork are
absent, they can as well pack their belongings and vacate office. Stone age
economics and populist blue-prints only help, if they help in anyway, in
delaying the inevitable.

      Look at what they did with the price of commodities. They price them
at ridiculous levels to appease the electorate but the fallacy has now come
into the open that you can't sell below your production cost. Trying to do
that has forced many companies to shed off staff or some have simply voted
with their feet.

      All this blabber-talk of conspiracy theories should be dismissed with
the contempt it deserves and for anyone to continuously peddle such feeble
smoke-screens smacks of malice and lack of regard for the intelligence of
Zimbabweans.

      Everybody is complaining, at least those who are seeing reason and
reality, that things have gone out of hand. Commuters are paying through the
nose to travel to and from work and getting to their destinations at odd
times.

      Even more saddening is that the police are failing to conduct their
normal business because they don't have fuel. A wry smile crossed my lips
when I read that the police had failed to ferry accused persons to the
Magistrates Court - how things have fallen apart in Zimbabwe!

      So, before Herbert Murerwa (title or no title, what's the difference)
announces his trillion dollar budget, which I am sure, though pray not, will
be just as hopeless as its predecessors, I would give a word of advice: give
us an honest and upright account on how the government is going to spend and
how much its going to draw in.

      For Pete's sake, we don't want another supplementary budget that is
almost double the original just to finish off the last three months of the
year.

      All the problems we have - cash problems, forex shortage, black
market, perverse corruption - are symptomatic of a fractured economy and as
long as fiscal and monetary discipline are not brought back, we are bogged
down till kingdom come.

      Like Bill Clinton said in his election campaign in the early '90s, the
answer to all this: "It's the economy, stupid!" But as long as we think it's
the imperialists, this confused comedy of our lives will continue to stick
like a leech.

      Kumbirai Dunduru

      Harare

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Zim Standard

      Reduce personal tax: MDC
      By Kumbirai Mafunda

      THE forthcoming 2004 National Budget should grant massive concessions
to low-income earners and increase the income tax threshold to $200 000 with
effect from January next year, says the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).

      In its proposals for the Budget entitled 2004 National Budget:
Pro-consumer Taxation, the party's finance, budget and economic planning
shadow minister, Tapiwa Mashakada, said hyperinflation - estimated at 455,6%
as of September - has unleashed severe socio-economic difficulties
especially on the low-income earners and pensioners.

      Mashakada said the Budget's biggest challenge and priority should be
economic stabilisation and recovery. This, he said could be achieved by
pursuing inflation targeting measures coupled by the hardening of interest
rates within the next 18 months.

      The MDC has already stated that the Zimbabwean economy has degenerated
to reflect traits that are only found in economies of failed states due
either to war or serious economic arson.

      As well as experiencing one of the highest inflation rates in the
world, Zimbabwe is struggling with multiple shortages including those of
foreign currency and local bank notes, and an unemployment rate of more than
80%.

      Mashakada said serious consideration should be given to low income
earners, retrenched workers and pensioners to cushion these vulnerable
groups from the adverse impact of hyperinflation.

      In the 2003 National Budget, the tax-free threshold for individuals
was increased to $180 000, up from $90 000. Analysts say it is highly
unlikely that this would be revised again this year, given the government's
insatiable appetite for spending.

      The MDC has proposed the tax-free bonus for the low-income bracket to
be increased to $4 200 000 from $2 400 000 per annum and an 80% bonus tax
free for the middle-income bracket targetting those earning $6 000 000 to
$12 000 000 per annum.

      All pension income should be exempted from taxation while retrenchment
packages should be 100% tax exempt, the MDC says.

      On Value Added Tax (VAT) earmarked for introduction next year, the
opposition party says it should be reduced to 5% on all stages and on point
of sale machines.

      Mashakada said fuel imports and essential drugs should be duty free so
as to stabilise pump prices and improve the nation's health.

      To develop Zimbabwe, the MDC is advocating for project finance and
capital development allocations to each and every Member of Parliament.

      Mashakada said the funds would be allocated under a parliamentary vote
and would warehoused by Parliament on behalf of each MP with disbursement
done by the Clerk of Parliament direct to suppliers.

      The MDC is also proposing that exporters should retain 80% of their
earnings and surrender 20% only to the central bank for essential imports.
Currently, exporters only retain 50% of their earnings while the other 50%
is capitulated to the RBZ.

      Since the introduction of the 50:50 retention scheme, exporters have
expressed disgruntlement over the RBZ's failure to release their money in
time.

      To liberalise the foreign exchange market, the MDC has proposed that
individual and corporate foreign currency accounts (FCAs) and bureaux de
change be re-introduced.

      "The economy is in the jaws of politics. A quick resolution of the
political impasse is a sine qua non for economic development," said
Mashakada.

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Zim Standard

      Transport ministry in dire straits
      By Tafara Tandi

      BULAWAYO-Failure by the government to allocate sufficient funds to the
Ministry of Transport and Communication, which received only $11,898bn out
of the proposed $35,694bn last year, has seen a stagnation in road
construction and maintenance work.

      Hardest hit by this problem are newly resettled areas, which badly
need roads and bridges for use by the new farmers.

      Under its chaotic fast track land reform exercise, the government
resettled villagers in remote areas - including nature conservancies - which
do not have any infrastructure such as roads and bridges.

      Zimbabwe's cash-strapped government only allocated $11,898bn to the
roads ministry, a mere third of what it had requested.

      "The vote was a mere pittance especially when taking into
consideration the projects the ministry intended to embark on," said
legislator, Silas Mangono, the committee chairman of the Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee on Roads last week while presenting a paper at a
pre-budget workshop for MPs in Bulawayo.

      This scenario, Mangono said, had resulted in major road projects
grinding to a halt owing to lack of finance. The shortage of diesel, cement,
gases and steel on the local market also worsened the situation.

      "Government should put in place mechanisms through which the ministry
can source these scarce inputs to ensure that road construction and
maintenance works continue even under difficult times," said Mangono.
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Zim Standard

      Banks queues re-emerge
      By our own Staff

      THE relief and joy at the easing of the bank notes crisis in recent
weeks seems to have come to a premature end because meandering queues have
once again emerged in front of banks.

      Long winding queues, which had become a common eye sore at the
country's commercial banks, seemed over following the introduction in
September of the bearer's cheques in higher denominations of $5 000, $10 000
and $20 000 by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).

      However, the cash crunch has returned to haunt banks and building
societies, once again inconveniencing clients who were relieved at the
settlement.

      Queues have now re-emerged at most banks, especially at the new and
smaller indigenous banks that sprouted after the liberalisation of the
financial sector.

      Sources in the financial sector said the RBZ has in recent weeks
slashed bank-note allocations to commercial banks, hence the new shortages.

      "Allocations from the central bank are coming down. Most banks are
experiencing a decline in allocations because the central bank thinks the
market is saturated," said one source.

      Another bank official cited capacity constraints straining the RBZ's
attempts to continue servicing the market.

      "There is a mismatch between the demand from the market and what the
RBZ can afford to pump into the market. With raging inflation, there has
been an increase in the demand for money," said the official.

      Economists said the shortages were a direct result of the ballooning
inflation, which, according to the government's Central Statistics Office
(CSO), blazed past the 455% mark in September.

      Some of the experts urged the central bank to adjust bank note
allocations to commercial banks and building societies and to introduce
higher denominated notes.

      "With prices escalating on a daily basis, the transaction demand for
money will also increase hence the need to look at introducing higher
denominations," said Trust Holdings' group economist, David Mupamhadzi.

      Currently, the highest note in circulation in Zimbabwe is a bearer's
cheque whose value is $20 000.

      However, a retail manager at a commercial bank in the capital said
there was nothing amiss in the re-emergence of queues at banking halls: the
increased demand in notes was a result of workers withdrawing their
salaries.

      Another Harare-based economist warned the RBZ that it must view the
reemergence of queues for money as an indication that the introduction of
bearer's cheques was never going to be a permanent solution to the note
crisis.
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Zim Standard

      Ian Smith should just shut up
      Sundaytalk with Pius Wakatama

      The Standard last week reported that Ian Douglas Smith, the former and
last Prime Minister of white-ruled Rhodesia as saying, "I told you so," in
regard to the economic meltdown and lawless chaos that Zimbabwe finds itself
in today. He made it clear that he felt vindicated by the way President
Robert Mugabe had destroyed the country's economy.

      He said: "Even ordinary people now see that they were wrong, through
hindsight, to allow him (Mugabe) into power. I get so many people calling to
say how much the country has gone down the drain and how they want to
restore Rhodesia to what it was."

      It seems as though Smith is still as senseless as he was when he was
Prime Minister of Rhodesia.

      If he had any sense at all, he would just shut up instead of gloating
over the pitiful state that our beloved country finds itself in today. His
government was no better than that of Robert Mugabe and we are where we are
today because of him and his racist Rhodesia Front Party.

      He should, in fact, be thankful that after our real independence in
1980, he and his cabinet of rebels were not lined up in Rufaro Stadium and
shot for their crimes against the people of this country.

      We have the hopeless government we have today because the extreme
right-wing Ian Smith refused to listen to the legitimate cry of the
Africans. He also stubbornly refused to listen to many reasonable whites
like the former Southern Rhodesia Prime Minister, Garfield Todd, and Pat
Bashford, then leader of the Centre Party.

      "I told you so," indeed! What did he tell us.

      The message which came across loud and clear to every black man was
that we were baboons who belonged to the hills and mountains. I still
remember my disgust when, after being heckled by some students at the then
University of Rhodesia, Ian Smith retaliated by singing in Africaans, a song
referring to them as baboons.

      Africans in this country did not really care about the colour of the
person ruling them as long as they were treated fairly and equally with
everybody else.

      The early nationalists like Reverend Samkange, Benjamin Burombo,
Charles Mzingeli, George Nyandoro and James Chikerema, did not originally
agitate for one man one vote or majority rule. They agitated for an end to
racial discrimination in all areas, including the allocation of land.

      Successive white governments resisted the reasonable and legitimate
demands of Africans. They even went ahead to enact more virulent racist
laws. It became clear to Africans, therefore, that the only way to secure
their rights as citizens were by attaining majority self rule. Thus came the
demand for one man one vote which was endorsed by the United Nations General
Assembly in 1962.

      On April 1964, Ian Smith declared that he did not expect majority rule
in Rhodesia in his life time.

      He threatened to declare Rhodesia independent of Britain unilaterally
because the British had clearly told him that it would not grant Rhodesia
independence before majority rule.

      Harold Wilson, the then British Prime Minister pleaded with Smith not
to declare unilateral independence (UDI) "for the sake of your country and
for the sake of Africa". In defiance, Ian Douglas Smith broadcast to the
nation the Rhodesian government's proclamation of independence.

      The die was cast. There was only one way left for blacks to achieve
their legitimate goals and that was through war. The armed struggle was
therefore initiated and the first shots were fired in Chinhoyi. The door to
a negotiated settlement providing for eventual one-man one-vote with
reasonable transitional measures was therefore, firmly closed by Ian Douglas
Smith and his Cabinet of rebels.

      Thanks to Ian Smith, the country went through a traumatic racial war
whose scars will never be forgotten or erased. This is how the war veterans
came to power. We can therefore rightly blame Ian Smith for aiding them to
come to power. I will not continue to dwell on the painful past for that is
now water under the bridge. It is better and more profitable to dwell on the
painful present.

      Am I the only one who seems to feel that the wind has changed
direction?

      When our problems started in ernest we were told by the State media
that these were caused by the MDC, the British, the United States and then
the European Union as well. The President, aided and abetted by his faithful
side-kicks - Jonathan Moyo, Tafataona Mahoso and Patrick Chinamasa - really
went to town in blaming the whole Western world for the mess Zanu PF had
clearly created through corruption and ineptitude. Later "unscrupulous"
local businessmen joined the long list of scapegoats.

      However, this line of propaganda has now worn thin. People's
skepticism can no longer be hidden. They now laugh openly when any
government leaders tries to blame the MDC or external forces for the mess in
Zimbabwe. A new approach had to be found.

      Thanks to the genius of a professor in the President's office.
Jonathan Moyo is never one to look far for new strategies and tactics. The
man is brilliant, the idea is to now to shift blame elsewhere. The President
can do no wrong of course. He is never to blame.

      We all know that when animals are hungry enough they will devour their
own offspring. Zanu Pf is really hungry for new scape goats. Why not put the
blame for the disaster, which is Zimbabwe, on individual department heads,
ministries and ministers. Of course, the fact that no ministry was ever
allowed to take any action on anything without President Mugabe's approval
is irrelevant. The President must remain clean.

      I was just aware of this new strategy when the faithful government
media started to publish analysts' comments criticising government's
handling of this and that.

      The first casualty was Leonard Tsumba, head of the Reserve Bank.

      He was blamed for the foreign and local currency shortages and had to
go. Who will be next?

      Me thinks it will be the hapless and confused Minister of Lands,
Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Joseph Made. He is to blame for maize
seed and input shortages, isn't he? After that whose head will roll next?
Your guess is as good as mine.

      He who has ears to hear let him hear.

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Zim Standard

      Running a race by yourself - Zanu PF style

      Zimbabwe is now being ruled through fear and intimidation ONE of the
most stupid statements to come out of the mouth of that media dinosaur
Jonathan Moyo two days ago was to lie that "people have spoken
overwhelmingly in favour of Zanu PF" following the sham that the ruling
party wants us to believe were 'democratic' mayoral, urban and rural
district council by-elections that were never held.

      In an interview with last Friday's Government Gazette that passes for
a daily newspaper after the Politburo meeting, it was reported that this
anachronistic body was happy that the ruling party had last week managed to
'win' unopposed mayoral seats and 13 unopposed wards in Marondera and
Chinhoyi. Zanu PF also 'won' unopposed in rural wards in Marondera, Bindura,
Shamva, Mutoko, Mangwe and Umzingwane.

      In Chinhoyi, for example, notorious Zanu PF goons so called the "Top
Six" are reported to have assaulted not only MDC candidates preventing them
from submitting their nomination papers, but also officers from the
Registrar General's office whom they accused of being sellouts.

      Yet the junior minister would have us believe: "The MDC was having
difficulties in finding candidates. This shows that the people now
understand the context of the current economic challenges facing the
country. The people have confidence in the ability of the party and
government".

      For the past three years, Zimbabweans have endured many daft and
senseless things from this man but in terms of lack of reason, none beats
this one. This one really takes the biscuit.

      How did the people speak when no elections were going to be held
because of intimidation, harassment and violence visited upon opposition
candidates and supporters as we report elsewhere in this issue. It is really
amazing to see the extent to which things are being twisted to conform with
the warped thinking of a party that has lost all legitimacy and credibility
in the eyes of the majority of Zimbabweans.

      Every time Jonathan Moyo opens his mouth, he says things which bear no
relation to what is happening on the ground. To argue as he did that the
people had now abandoned "the spirit of blame" just because the opposition
party failed to field candidates in the wake of massive intimidation is a
grotesque distortion of the truth.

      Obviously, if you run a race by yourself, you are going to 'win'
because there is no competition. Given the seriousness of the current
crisis, there is no way Zanu PF can win a free, fair and transparent
election. Absolutely no way! And Zanu PF knows that.

      This country is now being ruled through fear and intimidation. This is
an all-powerful truth and it will be pure evil for self-styled political
pundits like Jonathan Moyo to ignore or wish it away. There is nothing to
celebrate about a bogus win in which you deliberately hound your opponents
out of existence. Where is the democracy in that? But we also happen to know
that the problem is that democracy is a hurrah word - even a political
dinosaur like Jonathan Moyo claims to be a democrat!

      What Jonathan Moyo conveniently forgets is that the people know why
they are in such a terrible predicament. They are living the problems on a
daily basis. People are not stupid Johno. They are very intelligent and
highly discerning. There is evidence also witnessed by one's own eyes. They
see their communities' opposition candidates' rights being violated with
impunity.

      Zimbabweans do not buy your crap about the shortage of foreign
currency being the major cause of the current economic difficulties, neither
do they believe you when you talk about tourism in Zimbabwe having soared to
60%. It is simply not true.

      It is common knowledge that businesses and individuals are struggling
with fuel shortages, run-away inflation and the consequent daily price
increases. And the root caue of all this is the destruction by the ruling
Zanu PF party of a once thriving economy.

      Tourism, far from picking up significantly, has actually slipped from
being a major foreign currency earner. No amount of lying will wash with the
long-suffering Zimbabweans.

      There is a crippling inability in the department of information and
publicity in the Office of the President to communicate truthfully and in a
simple language with the people of Zimbabwe. There is no political will to
fix the problem that has bedevilled this country for three years now.
Committee after committee - nothing comes to fruition.

      The latest is the cabinet task force to look into the problems of
foreign exchange facing the country. How the same people who, themselves are
guilty to a large extent of causing the problem can then be expected to
carry out an objective and truthful investigation boggles the mind.

      This is like setting a thief to catch a thief!

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Zim Standard

      State bans unbanned paper
      overthetop By Brian Latham

      CONFUSED police in a troubled central African police state have banned
an unbanned newspaper. The move came just a day after a court ruled the
banned newspaper should be registered.

      The same court also ruled that the so-called commission that registers
newspapers in the troubled central African basket case was not properly
constituted and had shown bias.

      That didn't stop the police from closing the paper down again.

      Analysts said they did not understand the police action, but
attributed it to the assumption that the nation's police force has a
collective IQ of three.

      For their part, Zany propagandists, also not known for their
intelligence, claimed that though a court had ruled the banned paper should
be registered, it was not registered and was therefore illegal.

      Thousands of victims of Zany logic pointed out that this is not the
first time the Zany Party had over-ruled the troubled central African police
state's courts.

      "The police and the Zany Party are above the courts," said one
political analyst who cannot be named.

      Still, the Zany Party has had its way by keeping the streets free of
the troublesome newspaper. This leaves it free to behave largely as it
likes, though in reality it always behaved exactly as it liked. The only
difference is that people have to wait until the end of the week to read
about it.

      The new banning of the paper coincided with an unprecedented rumour
sweeping the troubled central African gossip factory. Tens of thousands of
people announced that the most equal of all comrades had gone to join his
ancestors - or at least gone to hospital.

      Unfortunately the banned newspaper was unable to set the record
straight because it had been banned. That left rectifying the rumour to the
state-owned Daily Horrid, but it remained silent on the issue.

      Instead the Horrid repeated reams of turgid drivel about some land
report no one will ever read or take notice of, but which is apparently
important to the Zany Party and the six people who read the Horrid every
day.

      Still, never one not to look on the bright side, the banning of
newspapers has had one positive effect: it has made the Zany Party even more
unpopular.

      Some analysts believe that isn't possible, but Over The Top can report
that the sale of Zany Party cards has fallen dramatically. In fact, were it
not for the fact that the green-clad Dzaku-Dzaku are forced to carry cards,
they wouldn't be moving at all.

      In the meantime, troubled central Africans are waiting to see if the
banned newspaper will still be banned after it is registered. Most expect it
will remain banned - or that a new law will prevent it from being
registered.

      On the other hand, it may end up in the hands of the Zany Party which
will then trumpet to the world that the troubled central African nation has
a free press. Of course, no one will believe it because no one believes
anything it says.

      But OTT can dispel the rumour that the dysfunctional disinformation
minister intended to use the seized equipment from the banned paper in a new
propaganda agency. It was merely an idea, not an intention, and clearly an
unworkable idea because no one in the ministry knew how to use the
equipment.

      Government finances being what they are, typewriters are about as
sophisticated as the technology gets - and most of those are broken.

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