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Was Zimbabwe's
election fair?
As Zimbabwe's High Court starts to consider
an opposition challenge against
President Robert Mugabe's 2002 election
victory, BBC News Online looks back
at the issues raised by the different
observer groups. The Commonwealth
group invited by the Zimbabwean authorities
to observe the presidential
election strongly condemned the conduct of the
poll. Observers from a
Norwegian mission and the local Zimbabwean Election
Support Network (ZESN)
also issued condemnations of the election, saying it
was held in a climate
of fear. But this verdict was not universal - observers
from Nigeria and
South Africa in effect endorsed the elections, while the
Organisation of
African Unity (OAU) team announced that "in general the
elections were
transparent, credible, free and fair." And Namibia, which also
had observers
in Zimbabwe, described the poll as "watertight, without room
for rigging".
Violence and
intimidation
Kare Vollan, head of the 25-member Norwegian
Observer mission, said that
although there were reports of violence being
carried out by both sides,
there is "no doubt that the evidence is extremely
clear that the majority of
those cases were carried out by the ruling party".
The Commonwealth group
blamed "paramilitary youth groups" for a systematic
campaign of intimidation
against known or suspected supporters of the main
opposition party, the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Human rights
groups say more than 30
people - mostly opposition supporters - were killed
in the two months before
the election on 9-11 March 2003. International human
rights group Amnesty
International says about 1,400 people - mostly
opposition polling agents and
monitors - were arrested during the voting
period.According to the ZESN - a
coalition of local non-governmental
organisations - in 40-50% of rural
constituencies, opposition officials were
unable to oversee polling. It says
they were deliberately waylaid on their
way to polling stations and were
subjected to violence and harassment by
police and Zanu-PF militants.
Polling
day
The number of polling stations in urban areas and
MDC strongholds was
reduced by up to 50% since the 2000 parliamentary
elections, according to
the ZESN. According to the registrar-general an
additional 644 polling
stations were deployed in rural areas. Out of 12,500
local, trained monitors
only about 400 were accredited for more than 4,500
polling stations across
the country. In Harare, a tripartite election -
presidential, mayoral and
municipal - created "chaos and confusion" local
monitors say. Despite a
requirement in the Electoral Act to allow voters in
line at the close of the
polls to vote, the registrar general closed all
polling stations at around
10pm on the first and second days of polling and
at 7pm in Harare and
Chitungwiza on the extended third day, the Norwegian
mission said. Thousands
of voters still in line were dispersed by the police,
it said in a
statement. According to new rules drawn up ahead of the
election, the
electoral supervisory commission could only be made up of civil
servants -
including police officers and soldiers from the ministries of home
affairs
and defence - sparking allegation by local monitors that they may
be
susceptible to government pressure.
Voter
registration
According to local election observers, the
election administration had a
number of shortcomings. In urban areas, people
were required to produce
passports and utility bills to prove they have lived
in their constituencies
for the past 12 months. Observers say this
disciminated against the young
and the poor. In rural areas, local chiefs and
village heads, often seen as
being pro-government, were required to vouch for
anyone registering to vote.
Postal votes were restricted to diplomats and
members of the armed forces,
disenfranchising students and workers living
abroad.
Media
During campaigning,
local observers say the media was biased in favour of Mr
Mugabe and denied Mr
Tsvangirai the right of
reply.
Citizenship
A law passed just
ahead of the election stripped citizens with dual
nationality of their right
to vote. Many blacks and whites were told that
their names appeared on a list
of "prohibited voters" when they turned up to
vote. Although most had been
informed beforehand of the decision, local
observers say there was not enough
time for those people to do anything
about it.
CHOGM: Obasanjo lobbies for Mugabe's participation
By Abdulrahman Akpata
Abuja -
As preparations for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
(CHOGM)
coming up in Abuja next month heighten, there are indications that
President
Oluse-gun Obasanjo is rooting for the participation of his
Zimbabwean
counterpart, Robert Mugabe, at the summit. Briefing newsmen at a
workshop
organised for media practitioners in Abuja, the Director of
International
Organisations Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?
said though no
invitation was extended to Zimbabwe and Pakistan, he was
optimistic that the
high- level consultation currently going on to get
Mugabe to attend would
yield result. His words: "When countries are
suspended from the Commonwealth,
they are not expected to attend meetings.
In these two cases there is no
consensus, decisions in the Commonwealth are
taken by consensus and up till
now there is no consensus on these two
countries." "However, consultations
are going on, of course President
Olusegun Obasanjo is actively engaged in
this consultation particularly on
Zimbabwe’s question. At the moment,
Zimbabwe and Pakistan are not invited
and consultation are still going on
these two countries," he said.
On the intended benefits to be derived
from hosting the meeting, Akinsanya
pointed out that there are immense
benefits as the meeting open the
frontiers of Nigeria to a greater
opportunity, virtually in all fields.
Similarly, the media co-ordinator of
Abuja CHOGM, Otunba Segun Runsewe in
his presentation, extolled the
state-of-the-art facilities in the media
centre which he described as modern
and the best in the world. According to
him, though there would be
restriction for journalists and media
practitioners, because of security
reasons, adding that that would be no
inhibition as the modern media
facilities provided would do the magic. The
media co-ordinator said the Task
Force on Abuja CHOGM would test-run these
facilities on November 21 to
perfect all the necessary logistic for the
coverage of the meeting. His
words: "we are bringing in the best ICT
equipment first of its kind, the OB
Van coming into the country is the best
and 75 per cent of what we need are
already in the country, these would be
test-run November 21 in addition to
three big vehicles with 10 internet
facilities each.
From ZWNEWS, 4 November
Zimbabwe named in Colombian arms deal.
The Zimbabwe government's name was used to cover up the covert
supply of
arms to anti-government guerrillas in Colombia, it has emerged.
Reports last
month from Ecuador, Colombia and Miami said that the weapons,
worth US$240
000, had been transferred in 2000 from Ecuador to the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) - the main rebel group in
Colombia. El Nuevo
Herald, the Spanish language sister paper of the Miami
Herald, reported from
the Colombian capital Bogata at the beginning of
October that documents in
its possession showed that the armaments,
originally belonging to the
Ecuadorean Air Force, had been sold -
fictitiously - to Zimbabwe Defence
Industries, but had in fact been
transferred to FARC. Some of the weapons
were reportedly to be used in an
assassination attempt on the Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe, and have been
used in other more recent attacks in
Colombia. FARC, and other guerrilla
groups, have been fighting the Colombian
government for four decades, in a
murky war inextricably bound up with the
drugs trade.
The arms -
M-72-A2 rockets and cluster bombs - were originally bought by
Ecuador in
1977. In 2000, the then Ecuadorean minister of defence, Admiral
Hugo Unda,
decommissioned the weapons as "obsolete", and arranged for them
to be "sold"
to Zimbabwe, using the Brazilian company ATR as an
intermediary, at a
considerable discount to their real value of US$3
million. The arms were
supposedly transported in an Ilyushin 76 aircraft -
registration number UR
76767 - which left Russia, landed in Mexico en route
to Ecuador, and then
filed a false flight plan from the Ecuadorean military
base at Taura to
Chile, Brazil, Angola and Harare. The shipment, however,
was in fact only
flown as far as Iquique in Chile, and was then ferried to
various places in
Colombia by a fleet of smaller planes. Another figure
accused of being at the
centre of the deal is the Anglican bishop of the
Ecuadorean capital Quito,
Walter Crespo Guarderas, who is currently being
held there in prison, and is
said to have brokered the arrangement. Crespo
recently admitted having links
with FARC, but denied involvement in the arms
shipment, saying that a
confession he had made had been extracted from him
using drugs placed in his
food while he was incarcerated. Both the Zimbabwe
government and ATR denied
to el Nuevo Herald that they were in any way
involved in the deal
nasdaq.com
Zimbabwe Judge Adjourns Challenge To Mugabe's
Re-Election
HARARE (AP)--A High Court judge on Tuesday adjourned
an opposition challenge
to President Robert Mugabe's re-election last year
without setting a date
for a ruling.
Judge Ben Hlatshwayo is expected
to take weeks, if not months, before ruling
on 200 pages of submissions by
lawyers for opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai alleging procedural
violations in the drawing up of voters' rolls
and running of the March 2002
poll.
Only if the opposition is successful with this part of its case
will it be
allowed to bring evidence of intimidation and vote rigging before
the court.
Tsvangirai's lawyers complained that polling station officials
had secret
lists of people to be turned away because of alleged citizenship
flaws.
Others were improperly added to the roll without giving the opposition
a
chance of review, they said.
State lawyers argued Tuesday that the
government followed procedure
throughout the election process.
They
also claimed the High Court didn't have jurisdiction over the case and
should
refer it to the Supreme Court, where a former government
minister
presides.
The government says Mugabe won 56% of last year's
vote, compared with 42%
for Tsvangirai.
Foreign observers and human
rights groups have rejected the elections,
saying they were deeply flawed.
The Commonwealth of Britain and its former
colonies suspended Zimbabwe for a
year, citing political violence,
repressive laws and unfair voting conditions
that swayed the poll in
Mugabe's favor.
The High Court has the
authority to order a new poll, but any decision can
be appealed to the
Supreme Court.
Mugabe, 79, led the nation to independence from Britain in
1980 and faced
little dissent until recent years, when the nation's economy
collapsed and
political violence erupted.
The often violent
confiscation of white-owned farms for redistribution to
blacks has crippled
the agriculture-based economy.
Mugabe's government has also stepped up a
crackdown on the opposition and
independent media.
Tsvangirai has been
charged with treason for allegedly plotting to kill
Mugabe. Police have also
shut down the country's only independent daily
newspaper, despite a court
ruling allowing it to publish.
Daily News owners and managers vowed
Tuesday to exhaust all legal avenues to
stay in print.
"The Daily News
has become the news itself, which is not what a newspaper is
supposed to be,"
said Strive Masiyiwa, chairman of Associated Newspapers
Zimbabwe, which
publishes the paper.
Masiyiwa, who spoke at a news briefing in
Johannesburg, South African, said
the paper was being singled out for
political reasons.
The Daily News, with a readership of more than
940,000, has been an
important platform for criticism of Mugabe's 23-year
rule. The state
controls the country's two other dailies and its only
television and radio
station.
Dow Jones Newswires
11-04-031349ET
Reuters
Zimbabwe Court to Rule on Mugabe Poll Challenge
Tue November
4, 2003 12:59 PM ET
By Stella Mapenzauswa
HARARE (Reuters) - Lawyers
for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe demanded
on Tuesday his critics bring
witnesses to back their claim that his
re-election last year was rigged,
calling on the High Court not to decide
just on legal
arguments.
Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) and
several Western groups say Mugabe, in power since independence from
Britain
in 1980, rigged the March 2002 poll to overcome an unprecedented
challenge
to his rule.
High Court judge Ben Hlatshwayo reserved
judgment on the matter to an
unspecified date. He might decide on the
validity of the election purely on
the basis of the arguments of the last two
days, or order a fuller hearing
with witnesses.
Mugabe's lawyer said
on Tuesday that Tsvangirai's legal team had failed over
the last two days to
back its charges that many laws and regulations
governing the election were
not in line with Zimbabwe's constitution, and
should call
witnesses.
"This must rank as one of the weakest petitions that have come
before this
court.... What you are being asked to do is come up with a
decision based on
the flowery language that has been used. In my respectful
submission that is
not possible," Terrence Hussein, representing Mugabe, told
the judge.
"It is inconceivable that the election of the president should
be set aside
because three lawyers appeared before you and made arguments;
that would be
a monumental legal disaster."
In his preliminary
statement to the court on Monday, Tsvangirai's lawyer,
Jeremy Gauntlett of
South Africa, said the elections were "stifled, at best,
because the
president, one of the contenders, became the rule-maker" and
should be
nullified.
Hussein denied Mugabe abused presidential powers to change
some electoral
rules in his favor 72 hours before voting, saying he had acted
to fill a
void created by a Supreme Court decision that had nullified
legislation
relevant to the vote.
The MDC says if the judge orders the
hearing to be taken further, it will
argue Mugabe's party used violence and
intimidation against opponents,
bribed voters and hogged access to state
media.
African observers said the polls had been free and fair, but the
European
Union and Commonwealth condemned them as deeply flawed. The
Commonwealth
suspended Zimbabwe for a year.
Mugabe insists he won the
election fairly and says the MDC is a puppet of
Western powers he accuses of
sabotaging Zimbabwe's economy. They did that to
punish his government for its
seizure of white-owned farms for
redistribution to landless
blacks.
Critics say the economy is a victim of 23 years of state
mismanagement.
Business Day
Mugabe made up rules' in disputed
poll
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Court
hears of vote-rigging, violence
Harare Correspondent
ZIMBABWEAN
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan
Tsvangirai's
landmark court battle against President Robert Mugabe's hotly
disputed
re-election last year opened on a dramatic note in
Harare
yesterday.
The court challenge, which attracted a full house at
the high court, began
with Tsvangirai's lawyers charging that Mugabe was a
"player, referee and
linesman" in the "fatally flawed" election.
The
MDC attorneys, led by South African advocate Jeremy Gauntlett, argued
that it
was "inescapable" not to conclude that the poll was fundamentally
flawed and
brazenly rigged.
They said the court must nullify Mugabe's controversial
victory on legal
grounds and also on account of violence and
intimidation.
"The fairness and genuineness of the elections were stifled
at birth by that
extraordinary sight of the incumbent, the main contender of
the elections,
being set up as a main rule-maker in an election in which he
was one of the
two main actors," Gauntlett said.
He said Mugabe
modified the laws as and when he wished to suit his interest
.
Veteran
Zimbabwean lawyer Adrian de Bourbon, who assisted Gauntlett, said
Mugabe
"changed the rules of the game and moved the goal posts" until the
day before
the election to secure a predetermined outcome.
He said Mugabe made a
"flurry of self-serving regulations" that had the
"individual and cumulative
effect" of rigging the electoral process.
"What happened in this election
is that the rules of the game were
continuously changed by one candidate.
Instead of leaving the playing field
even, the respondent (Mugabe) changed
the rules as he went on," De Bourbon
said.
"We submit this was
unconstitutional, unlawful, and not permissible. The law
does not permit such
a change of the rules, let alone by one of the
contestants."
Mugabe's
lawyers will make their submissions during the initial
five-day
hearing.
Chief defence lawyer Terence Hussein listened as
Tsvangirai's attorneys
attacked Mugabe for allegedly "rorting" (stealing with
cheek) the election.
Hussein will argue Tsvangirai is "misdirecting"
himself in trying to get
Mugabe's re-election nullified.
Tsvangirai
was joined in court by a number of MDC officials, MPs
and
supporters.
In his opening remarks, Justice Ben Hlatshwayo said:
"This is not a story
about a pound of flesh but a serious matter concerning
the heart of the
nation."
Gauntlett said Zimbabwe's Electoral
Supervisory Commission was unlawfully
constituted and that was good reason
enough to nullify Mugabe's victory.
BBC
Zimbabwe army chief to step down
The head of
Zimbabwe's Defence Forces has announced that he is to
resign at the end of
the year.
General Vitalis Zvinavashe is a close ally of President
Robert Mugabe
and like many army commanders, fought in the war which brought
him to power.
Before last year's presidential poll, he warned that
the army would
not accept an opposition victory.
But earlier
this year, he denied reports that he was trying to
negotiate a deal with the
opposition.
General Zvinavashe was also named by the United Nations
as one of
those who had pesonally benefited from the war in the Democratic
Republic of
Congo, in which Zimbabwe intervened.
Political
role
Correspondents say that the change in the army leadership is
unlikely
to change the character of the army leaders, who are mostly loyal to
Mr
Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.
Reuters news agency reports that
he could be replaced by Air Marshall
Perence Shiri, another Mugabe ally, who
played a key role in supressing the
1980s dissent in south-western Zimbabwe,
which left up to 20,000 people
dead.
Reuters also reports that
he may be considering taking up a full-time
political role, possibly running
in the parliamentary by-election created by
the death of Vice-President Simon
Muzenda.
One government and Zanu-PF official said the general, for
whom Mr
Mugabe hosted a farewell party at his State House residence on
Monday, had
indicated that he was "available for any state and party
duties".
In January, at a time when many government officials were
denying the
extent of Zimbabwe's economic problems and food shortages, or
blaming a
western plot, he was quoted as saying: "We must admit there is a
crisis - it
is not right to keep quiet and let nature take its
course".
At the same time, he denied media reports that he had
spoken to
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai about negotiating a safe exit
for Mr Mug
abe.
Taskforce to Investigate Forex Leakages
UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks
November 4, 2003
Posted to the web November 4,
2003
Johannesburg
Zimbabwean economists said on Tuesday that the
formation of a government
taskforce to address foreign currency shortages
would not resolve the
current economic crisis, and authorities should instead
focus on trying to
raise the hard currency the country needed.
In a
bid to improve foreign currency inflows into the state's coffers,
the
government formed a special taskforce of nine cabinet members last
week.
The government has blamed the business sector for failing to
declare their
foreign currency earnings, thereby fuelling the thriving
parallel foreign
exchange market and depriving critical industries, such as
the energy
sector, of much-needed hard cash to import fuel and
power.
According to the official Herald newspaper, the taskforce is
expected to
work out tighter mechanisms for remitting foreign currency to the
Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe, compile a database of all the major exporting
companies in
Zimbabwe, and investigate companies accused of offloading
foreign currency
in the parallel market.
But economic analysts told
IRIN the move was misdirected, noting previous
unsuccessful attempts by the
authorities to police the country's exporters
and importers.
"It is
very difficult to expect a positive outcome from this taskforce,
especially
since the government has not provided any incentive which would
encourage
businesses to openly declare their foreign currency earnings. The
reports of
businesses dumping foreign currency onto the black market is not
surprising,
given the overvalued Zimbabwe dollar. The government's decision
to give
individuals Zim $824 [to the US dollar], instead of the Zim $6,000
that is
being charged on the black market, has only made an already bad
situation
even worse," Dennis Nikisi, director of the Graduate School of
Management at
the University of Zimbabwe, told IRIN.
While it was necessary to minimise
foreign currency leakages, the government
should also turn its attention to
the ailing industrial sector, Nikisi
added.
"The government's concerns
[over forex mismanagement] are legitimate, but it
is necessary to note that
some of the top foreign currency earning
industries have either shut down, or
have reported record low productivity
levels. So, while there may be hard
currency in circulation, it is
negligible. What is needed is a major
injection of foreign capital to
strengthen the capacity of the production
sector," he explained.
Tobacco, the country's major foreign currency
earner, this year recorded the
lowest volume sold in nearly 25
years.
Economic analyst Tony Hawkins said: "What is needed is an exchange
rate that
reflects the reality of the current situation. The lack of foreign
exchange
has dramatically pushed up operational costs for companies,
negatively
affecting their profit margins. A better exchange, hopefully, will
encourage
business exporters to use the official foreign exchange
market."
In an attempt to stem foreign currency leakages, the government
has in the
past called on the Reserve Bank to engage audit firms to carry out
pre- and
post-shipment inspections of Zimbabwe's exports and imports.
Interview With WFP Country Director
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
INTERVIEW
November 4,
2003
Posted to the web November 4, 2003
Harare
Amid warnings that Zimbabwe's already dire food crisis is set to worsen next year, IRIN spoke to World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director Kevin Farrell on the implications for humanitarian aid.
In the interview, Farrell said millions of Zimbabweans were at risk due to critical problems of both supply and access to food. He called for greater levels of donor funding, otherwise WFP could be forced to cut back on distributions.
How would you characterise the current food crisis?
In simple terms, the food crisis is due to a shortage of basic commodities on local markets, particularly cereals. Last year, Zimbabwe only produced 40 percent of the maize the country needs for consumption, and an even smaller percentage of wheat. What that means is that a very large number of people cannot access cereals at all - either because they are not available in local markets, or because the price has risen beyond their means.
However, the causes of this crisis are anything but simple.
Millions of people are in need of assistance because of a complex web of factors - inadequate food production due to low plantings, insufficient access to agricultural inputs, erratic weather (an early season drought followed by heavy, late rains), households having already sold off assets, economic decline, soaring prices, extreme poverty and catastrophic rates of HIV/AIDS.
It is an extremely complex crisis - and it would seem that only with a combination of food aid and essential non-food assistance would millions of Zimbabweans be able to survive the current crisis and begin a process of recovery.
Given the current state of the food pipeline, what are your concerns for the beginning of 2004?
As I said, millions of people in Zimbabwe are already facing massive food shortages and very high prices in the their local markets. And, as we get closer to next year's harvest - and particularly during the three 'hunger months' from January to March - we are concerned that even more people will be unable to find food, or will be unable to buy whatever is available with prices continuing to rise. So, again, it's a problem both of supply and of access.
In terms of WFP's food aid pipeline - the situation has improved slightly over the past few weeks following a number of additional donations. However, WFP still faces severe pipeline problems in the early months of 2004. At the moment, we have only sufficient maize until January, and there are also shortages of other key commodities, such as vegetable oil, pulses and corn-soya blend (CSB).
Without new contributions, WFP will be forced to cut back on its distributions next year - leaving millions of people with reduced rations, or no rations at all.
But when you speak of 'pipeline', it is important to keep in mind that international food aid should only complement the efforts of government to feed its population - that's where the prime responsibility lies. We should only be here to help fill a short-term gap. Unfortunately, it would seem that the government's efforts to import the maize it needs are being hampered by a shortage of foreign currency.
So, yes, we are concerned that there might be a break in WFP's pipeline in early 2004, but we are even more concerned about whether there will be sufficient food on the market, that people with money can buy. The more food these people can buy, the fewer we will be called on to assist.
WFP's US $197 million appeal for Zimbabwe is currently only 40 percent funded. The EC recently announced that -25 million, apparently earmarked for Zimbabwe, would no longer be available. Why do the donors appear so hesitant?
I suppose you should really ask donors that question! However, what I can see is a combination of things:
Firstly, up until the end of last month, most donors had expressed concern about the government's intentions in relation to the work of NGOs. However, on September 25th, WFP and the government signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that helped to clarify the situation. It means that WFP can continue distributing food aid as we did before - in other words, through NGO implementing partners, and to beneficiaries selected by their own communities - solely on the basis of need.
Secondly, I believe some donors are also unhappy with what they see as the inadequate information provided by the government on what it has managed to do so far this year in commercially importing and distributing food in the country - and, of course, what imports can be expected in the next few months.
And, finally, there are far greater demands for humanitarian assistance this year from other countries in Africa and elsewhere - including Iraq - which means that there is much less donor money to go around.
But, let me add that, despite the somewhat hesitant response to the current crisis, donors appear - in our regular briefings - to be just as engaged in the process today as they were last year, and just as committed. And, remember that, although there is a large shortfall, donors have already contributed over US $85 million to WFP's Zimbabwean appeal.
It is a lot of money - it just isn't as much as last year. And it certainly isn't enough.
Some NGOs have suggested that WFP's appeal shot too low, and was predicated on an unrealistic assessment of how much food the government could import and distribute through the Grain Marketing Board (GMB). Are you concerned that, given the dire foreign exchange situation and the lack of consistent and regular supplies of GMB maize, the numbers in need are going to climb well beyond the forecast 5.5 million mark?
Certainly we are concerned. But, as I say, it's difficult to know just how concerned we should be, since we really don't know how bad the forex crisis is and, in particular, what commercial food imports we might expect. There's a certain amount of guessing going on - both government and the international community trying to figure out what the other might be planning. It is not easy to plan a humanitarian response in that situation.
But certainly, if the estimates we made earlier in the year about what food the GMB might import prove to be too high, then the numbers in need could well go beyond 5.5 million.
Zimbabwe's vulnerability assessment report clearly spells out the crisis facing former commercial farm workers and newly resettled farmers. If vulnerability is the principle governing who gets fed, shouldn't the humanitarian community have targeted these communities for intervention? Why has there been such a delay?
Up until now, WFP has concentrated its aid and resources primarily on the people who were most affected by the food crisis - and these have been mainly people in communal areas as well as some especially vulnerable groups, such as malnourished children under five in urban areas, and households affected by HIV/AIDS.
All along, it has been clear that needs have exceeded the resources, both in the communal areas and elsewhere. Indeed, WFP has been aware of - and concerned about - the fact that the needs of two main groups have not been adequately addressed because of limited resources. These are vulnerable people living in urban areas, and people living in the former commercial farm areas.
So, while these groups were not targeted during the first year of the crisis, it was not for any 'non-humanitarian' reason, but because the most vulnerable groups were in the communal farm areas.
Furthermore, it is certainly not true to say that the international community has not assisted people living on the former commercial farm areas. WFP and some of the international NGOs have indeed been providing food assistance, though on a limited scale. And, at the moment, we are in discussions about the next step - to see how we might expand our response, because the need is certainly there.
And I'd also like to add that, just as we are seeking ways of expanding assistance in the former commercial farm areas, WFP is also expanding operations in the urban areas. Indeed, we are already reaching 50,000 vulnerable children in Harare and Bulawayo - children we were unable to help before.
One area of policy reform that donors have urged the government to introduce is the end of the GMB monopoly and price controls. Is that the entire solution? Given levels of poverty, would you envisage the need for some kind of subsidy or safety net in place to protect the most vulnerable?
Yes. Throughout this crisis, WFP has advocated for policy change in food marketing, since we believe that letting private traders import and sell food on the market would help to meet a good part of the food gap. Incidentally, this is not a position taken only for Zimbabwe. In fact, WFP encourages donors to give us cash so we can buy food in the region - which we see as a way of encouraging agricultural production as well as local traders and markets - and so help to foster economic growth and development.
But no, we have never suggested that ending the current food marketing policy represents the entire solution - and certainly not in the short term.
If, tomorrow, private traders were allowed to import and sell maize, we believe it would certainly help get more food supplies into the market - and that would take some of the pressure off both the government's capacity and the humanitarian response. But there would still be a need for a safety net, since prices may rise for a time and there would still be some people who could not afford to buy the food - but the numbers who could not buy food would be much more manageable.
In the longer term, of course, there is a need for a number of other economic measures to be taken to help increase food production, so that Zimbabwe can once again feed its population.
Q: Given the critical lack of inputs for this planting season, are you concerned that next year's harvest will also be poor?
A: Very concerned - although, again, it's a bit difficult to read how acute the shortage of inputs is. However, according to both the agricultural sector and the government itself, there is a serious shortage of seed and, perhaps more especially, fertilizer and draught power, and also fuel to move these inputs to the farmers in time for planting. So, certainly, there is still serious concern about the prospects of short-term recovery in the food sector.
Have we reached the point with Zimbabwe where there can be no quick-fix solution and the humanitarian community must think of a long-term commitment? If so, what do you make of the lack of donor interest in funding the non-food items in the current Zimbabwe appeal?
I don't think anyone ever thought there could be a quick-fix solution to this crisis. It is far too complex for that.
In simple food terms, we are certainly hoping that there will be a better harvest in 2004, leaving far fewer people in need of assistance. However, good rains and adequate access to agricultural inputs will not solve this crisis, since the underlying causes of vulnerability will remain - HIV/AIDS and poverty.
And that is why it is crucial for donors to fund both food and non-food aid. The UN Special Envoy for the Southern Africa crisis - who is also WFP's Executive Director - has repeatedly stressed the importance of funding the non-food needs, so as to put households back on the road to recovery. While emergency relief measures, in particular food and medicines, are needed to save lives, support for longer-term recovery is just as crucial. The need is to protect the livelihoods of less vulnerable households and communities, and prevent them from slipping back into crisis.
But, as for donor perceptions and interest in funding these vital non-food items - again, you will have to ask others closer to that situation!
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
November 4, 2003
Posted to the web November 4,
2003
Wyndham Hartley, Parliamentary Editor
Cape Town
British
Minister for Africa Chris Mullin believes that while the
peer-review
mechanism (PRM) of the African Union is a bold commitment that
should help
attract foreign investment, Africans could not hide from the
problem posed
by Zimbabwe.
Mullin, on his first visit to SA after
being appointed about six months ago,
promised a small invited audience at
the University of Cape Town that the
situation in Iraq and Britain's
involvement in it would not detract from its
commitment to Africa. British
spending in Africa was set to rise to £1bn in
2006, Mullin said.
When
asked about peer review, which is designed to keep African
countries
committed to good governance, Mullin said that it made sense to
start with
the more manageable cases and to use voluntary accession to peer
review as a
starting point. "But you cannot sign up to good governance and
then bury
your head in the sand as soon as the first tough case
arrives.
"Good governance is critical to Africa's development. As
President (Thabo)
Mbeki has said, democracy, good governance and respect for
human rights are
not alien conditions imposed by western donors. They are
African values
rooted in the councils of chiefs for generations. PRM is a
bold commitment,
establishing a process of monitoring that goes further than
any other in the
world. It will give business, African and foreign, the
confidence to
invest," Mullin said.
He said that SA and Britain
largely saw eye to eye on Zimbabwe.
"We know that President Mbeki and
others have been working hard to help the
negotiations .
"We applaud
those efforts, and wish them every success. But for those talks
to succeed
there has to be commitment to dialogue. In this context, the
closure of the
Daily News and the locking up of trade union leaders sends
the wrong signal
and must be reversed," he said.
NGOs Step in As Urban Food Crisis Deepens
UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks
November 4, 2003
Posted to the web November 4,
2003
Bulawayo
Clutching the plastic cup to her chest like a prized
possession,
four-year-old Clara Ncube grins broadly as she inches closer to
the serving
podium at Tshabalala Clinic, a supplementary feeding centre for
children in
Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo.
After a short wait she
gets her share and skips off to the patch of shade
where dozens of other
children are already eating their highly nutritious
corn meal
porridge.
Clara is one of 10,164 children aged six years and below who
are being fed
by Help Germany, an NGO working to mitigate the effects of food
shortages on
urban households in Zimbabwe.
The supplementary feeding
programme operates at all 17 clinics of the
Bulawayo City Council and is a
joint venture between the NGO and the city's
directorate of health services.
In Harare, 25,625 children are also
benefiting from a similar programme
operating at 25 municipal clinics.
The pilot programme in both cities,
which started in March, has since lapsed
to make way for an expanded main
programme beginning in November. The
children are screened for various health
conditions while visiting the
council clinics for regular check-ups, to see
if they are eligible.
"This programme cares for children whose growth is
diagnosed as either
faltering or static. Some are found to be terribly
underweight, or to suffer
from other diseases which do not permit body
growth," Help Germany's project
co-ordinator for Matabeleland Province,
Yvonne Neudeck, told IRIN.
"We are primarily feeding them on corn-soya
porridge. This is a very
easy-to-prepare mix that goes with either salt or
sugar. We also give the
families of beneficiaries a monthly allocation of 10
kg of the corn-soya
blend, and one litre of cooking oil. The more the
beneficiaries, the bigger
the allocation," she added.
Information
gathered during and after the pilot programme suggested that 30
percent of
the children aged six and under in Bulawayo were stunted because
of lack of
food.
"Growth and weight-faltering is a serious a problem among the
children.
Eight months after the beginning of the pilot programme, the number
is
growing steadily. In July we thought we were at a peak total of
7,275
children under our programme, but we were feeding 10,164 by the end
of
September. The number is set to grow, as the shortage of food in
urban
households is also on the increase," said Neudeck.
She noted
that while 80 percent of the children in the supplementary feeding
programme
had shown positive growth and weight gain, 20 percent of the
children showed
no improvement.
"These are the children who end up dying. But the truth
is not that they die
of malnutrition, as has frequently been said. The
children are either
HIV-positive, or have tuberculosis, diarrhoea, or any
other life-threatening
diseases which ends up leading to their death. They
still die, even if they
are fed on high-energy foods like the nutrimeal
porridge supplied by
organisations. So malnutrition is not the cause of most
of the deaths as
reported."
Neudeck said visits to the homes of the
beneficiaries had revealed there was
hardly any food - and the food situation
in the homes continued to
deteriorate as shortages worsened across the
country.
"The criteria used by the United Nations and humanitarian
organisations
states that employed people cannot be beneficiaries in food aid
distribution
programmes. But, because of the hyper-inflation environment,
incomes have
been eroded to a point that breadwinners can no longer feed the
families.
Besides, the food - when it's there, in the shops - is so expensive
that
some people simply cannot afford it. [Also,] the quality of foods people
are
... eating are so low as to have no real nutritional value. The result
among
children is severe loss of weight and lack of growth," said
Neudeck.
In conjunction with the World Food Programme (WFP), Help Germany
will start
a new feeding programme at Bulawayo's 14 primary schools as well
as several
in Harare.
"Education officials have of late reported that
school children are fainting
during lessons because of lack of food. They had
also complained of a drop
in individual child performance in the classes and
a high number of children
dropping totally out of school. So it was decided
that the programme be
expanded to include children of primary school-going
age. This time there is
also a plan to include Chitungwiza," she
said.
A total of 32 schools are expected to participate in the programme
by the
end of January next year. Schools and parents will provide the sites
and
personnel to cook and serve the food.
"Depending on continued
financial support from donors, who include the
German government, we would
like to expand the programme, not only to
include other age groups, but other
urban centres around Zimbabwe, since
this programme is not confined to the
three centres we are currently
operating in," said Neudeck.
World
Vision International, another WFP food distribution implementing
agency,
announced that it would embark on a similar programme in schools
in
Zimbabwe's urban centres.
The food security situation in Zimbabwe's
major urban centres has
deteriorated in the last six months. After operating
on critically low
stocks for some time, the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), the
country's sole
grain procurement and distribution company, hit the zero mark
last month,
setting off severe food shortages among urban families that had
been
dependent on cheap cereals from the GMB, as compared to the
exorbitant
prices of the parallel market.
Special Report On Deepening Food Crisis
UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks
November 4, 2003
Posted to the web November 4,
2003
Johannesburg
Already dire, Zimbabwe's food crisis is set to
worsen next year, the World
Food Programme (WFP) has warned.
"Millions
of people are already facing massive food shortages and very high
prices in
their local markets. And as we get closer to next year's harvest -
and
particularly during the three 'hunger months' from January to March - we
are
concerned that even more people will be unable to find food or will be
unable
to buy whatever is available, with prices continuing to rise," WFP
Country
Director Kevin Farrell told IRIN. [See
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37637]
Makena
Walker, WFP spokeswoman in Harare, noted: "Zimbabweans in the cities
have
been hard hit by shortages and the little food that is available is
sold at
black market rates, which the majority cannot afford. As it is, we
are
feeding two million people across the country, but we expect that number
to
increase to 2.8 million by the end of this month."
Zimbabwe accounts for
about two-thirds of WFP's US $311 million regional
appeal. Originally it was
thought 5.5 million Zimbabweans would need food
assistance by early next
year, but the figure was based on an assumption
that the government would be
able to meet its commercial import targets.
Zimbabwe's severe foreign
exchange shortage means that WFP is now projecting
a higher
figure.
"We have only received 40 percent of [the US $197 million]
Zimbabwe appeal
we made in July and there is nothing in our pipeline for
cereals from March
onwards. Many people in the rural areas are already eating
wild fruits,"
Walker added.
As with last year, when WFP fed 6.7
million Zimbabweans, the agency's food
rations target the most vulnerable in
each community - the elderly, widows,
woman-headed households, orphans and
people living with HIV/AIDS. [See
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=32905]
For
the rest of Zimbabweans, the state-run Grain Marketing Board (GMB)
is
supposed to supply the staple maize at a subsidised rate.
However,
commercial imports of grain by the GMB have been squeezed by the
foreign
currency crunch, and supplies to its depots across the country have
been at
best erratic.
Shortages of basic commodities at the
government-controlled prices have
forced most Zimbabweans to rely on the
black market, where prices are at
least double.
The food crisis - a
result of drought, the government's land redistribution
programme and
HIV/AIDS - has been compounded by Zimbabwe's sharp economic
decline, which
has sapped the ability of rural and urban households to cope.
The inflation
rate is currently 469 percent, and unemployment at 70 percent.
[See http://www.irinnews.org/S_report.asp?ReportID=35074]
"The
increasingly desperate situation in the urban areas will certainly
create a
bigger demand for relief food. It is therefore critically important
that we
get more food donations if we are to deal with the situation we
expecting in
the first three months of 2004," said Walker. [See
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37631]
HIV/AIDS
has added an extra dimension to the humanitarian crisis, robbing
households
of breadwinners, deepening poverty and magnifying the impact of
poor
nutrition. [See: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37632]
In
Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, erratic GMB grain deliveries ground to
a
virtual halt after May.
"Between January and May we could chance upon
some deliveries to the local
shops, but even then it was difficult, because
that was the time when war
veterans were in charge of the process and were
demanding the production of
ruling party cards before one could buy. Somehow
we managed to survive by
buying the cards to get access to the grain," mother
of six, Anna Mguni,
told IRIN.
"After May, the deliveries became less
and less frequent, forcing us to turn
to relatives who had managed a little
harvest in the rural areas. But that
also dried up," she
added.
Bulawayo Deputy Mayor Charles Mpofu, a member of the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change, said the alleged politicisation of food was
no longer an
issue. "There is nothing left to politicise. Everyone is so
concerned about
finding the means of survival because the food is not there
at all," he
commented.
"While others can afford the black market
rates, the majority are simply
starving, with parents and elder children
going for days living on porridge
just to ensure that the younger ones can
eat and survive. That includes
mine," said Victor Chitongo, an unemployed
father of three.
Humanitarian agencies are already warning that
Zimbabwe's agricultural
production, which last year met only 40 percent of
local maize demand, is
unlikely to recover next season, even if there are
good rains, due to
critical shortages of farming inputs.
According to
preliminary projections by the Seed Security Network of the
Southern African
Development Community, Zimbabwe faces a maize seed deficit
of about 40,000
mt. The foreign currency shortage continues to limit the
availability of
other critical agricultural inputs, the most important of
which are spares
for the repair and maintenance of agricultural equipment,
fuel and
fertilisers.