Zim Online
Monday 16 October
2006
BULAWAYO - A Zimbabwe government
minister at the weekend
admitted that the National Economic Development
Priority Programme (NEDPP)
set up earlier this year had failed to
resuscitate the country's comatose
economy.
Economic
Development Minister, Rugare Gumbo, said the NEDPP had
failed because it was
a hurried project which was set up to deal with a
national
emergency.
Addressing business leaders and parliamentarians
during a
three-day 2007 pre-budget seminar in Zimbabwe's second biggest city
of
Bulawayo on Friday, Gumbo said the government had failed to manage the
programme.
"The problem with the NEDPP is that it came as
an emergency to
solve the economic crisis facing the country and I agree
that we failed to
manage it and therefore it did not bear the desired
fruits.
"We are human beings and we make mistakes," Gumbo
said.
The remarks were the first by a Zimbabwe government
minister
openly admitting that Harare's economic reforms were not
working.
The Harare authorities have often put a brave face
insisting the
economy, in its seventh straight year of recession, had turned
the corner.
President Robert Mugabe's embattled government
had touted the
NEDPP, set up last April, as the panacea to the country's
economic crisis
with Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono
consistently
defending the programme as a huge success.
Among its goals, the NEDPP was supposed to help reduce
inflation, stabilise
the Zimbabwe dollar and ensure food security. It also
sought to generate
foreign currency and increase agricultural output and
productivity.
But the situation on the ground has
worsened since last April
when the programme was set up with for example,
inflation still at 1 023.3
percent last month, the highest in the world
outside a war zone.
A confidential document prepared for the
Economic Development
Ministry which was leaked to ZimOnline last week also
painted a picture of a
government in crisis, ripped apart by serious
infighting and uncommitted to
ending a seven-year old
recession.
The document entitled, "Memorandum to the National
Security
Council on the National Economic Development Priority Programme,"
blamed the
economic crisis on lack of urgency and lack of policy
co-ordination by the
government.
Skyrocketing
unemployment, shortages of foreign currency, food,
electricity and
increasing poverty levels are some of the highlights of
Zimbabwe's crisis.
The World Bank says Zimbabwe's crisis is the worst in the
world outside a
war zone.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
party and
major Western governments blame the crisis on mismanagement and
repression
by Mugabe, in power since the country's independence from Britain
26 years
ago.
But Mugabe denies the charge blaming the
crisis on Western
sanctions and erratic rains. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 16 October
2006
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai on Sunday
urged Zimbabweans to seize the opportunity and oust
President Robert Mugabe
during street protests being planned by his
party.
Tsvangirai, who heads the main faction of the splintered
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party, has since March this year said
he will lead
protests to force Mugabe to give up power to a transitional
authority.
Addressing thousands of his supporters at White City
Stadium in
Zimbabwe's second biggest city of Bulawayo to celebrate the
party's seventh
anniversary yesterday, Tsvangirai said people must
eventually confront
Mugabe on the streets.
"Mugabe will not go
through people merely talking about him going and
we say when the time comes
for us to go out there (on the streets), there
should be no
compromise.
"People continue to say that Mugabe should go. But what
are we doing
about it?" he said.
Tsvangirai did not say when
exactly the protests will begin.
MDC spokesman, Nelson Chamisa last
week told ZimOnline that his party
had already begun a decentralised process
in cities and towns to embolden
its supporters to confront the
government.
Yesterday, Tsvangirai also demanded a new democratic
constitution
before the next presidential election scheduled for 2008 saying
days when
the ruling ZANU PF party would set the rules and the opposition
followed
were over.
"We demand a new constitution before the
next elections . . . The
time for ZANU PF to continuously set the rules
whilst we follow is gone and
we need a new constitution to decide who should
lead us as Zimbabweans,"
Tsvangirai said.
Speaking at the same
occasion, Lucia Matibenga, the chairperson of the
MDC's Women's Wing,
criticised what she said were "desktop activists" who
are quick to criticise
the party while refusing to join them in the
trenches.
"We have
desktop activists whose job is to criticise what the MDC
would have done.
Why they don't they come into the trenches with us? We need
them here with
us," she said.
The MDC, which had presented the greatest challenge
to Mugabe's
26-year grip on power, is severely weakened after it split into
two rival
factions late last year over whether the party should have
participated in
senate polls.
The Zimbabwe government has in
the past threatened the MDC not to go
ahead with the protests with Mugabe
saying last August that soldiers will
pull the trigger on demonstrators. -
ZimOnline
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 15 October
Godfrey Marawanyika
Haare -
Zimbabwe, shunned by the West, is trawling ever wider for
alternative
business partners, but analysts say much-trumpeted deals with
its new
friends are unlikely to yield meaningful benefits for the country.
The
state-run Zimbabwe Central Bank summoned reporters to a press conference
last week to attend the signing of a series of memorandums of understanding
[MOU] with Russian conglomerate Rusaviatrade said to be worth $300-million.
In theory, the signings should lead to the construction of a new suburban
rail link to Harare as well an upgrade to the country's main airport. But
economists said the signing was likely to be as unproductive as similar
agreements signed with the likes of China and India. "It's more propaganda
than anything else," said independent economist Wilson Johwa. "Nothing
concrete has ever come out of these MOUs whether they are from China or
Russia."
Once a regional economic model, Zimbabwe is in the
throes of an economic
crisis with a four-figure inflation, mounting poverty
and perennial
shortages of fuel and basic foodstuffs. The economic decline
was made worse
after the country's former economic allies in the European
Union and the
United States slammed doors on President Robert Mugabe's
administration
following disputed presidential polls in 2002. After the
imposition of
targeted sanctions on Mugabe and members of his inner circle,
Zimbabwe
adopted a "Look East" policy, seeking to buttress political and
trade
relations in particular with China, Malaysia and Singapore. The
Chinese
influence is such that the government in Beijing is funding a new
department
at Harare's state-run University of Zimbabwe that will offer
Chinese
language and culture courses. But critics say the policy has thus
far done
little to halt Zimbabwe's economic spiral and are sceptical that
the tie-up
with Moscow will prove more fruitful.
Zimbabwe last
year signed a deal with a Chinese supplier, First Automobile
Works, to
supply 1 000 commuter buses to ply urban routes, especially in
Harare.
However only a handful were delivered and the capital's transport
problems
remain unresolved. Chinese investors last year also declared their
interest
in platinum mining, but the project never took off. In 2003,
Zimbabwe also
courted Libyan investors by offering them farms in exchange
for oil from the
north African republic but the deal again collapsed. "These
are just
promises, yet what we need is real investment," said Medicine
Masiyiwa, from
the Africa Institute for Policy Development think tank. "Last
time we had
Libyans, the Chinese and now the Russians. It just shows that
focus is
lacking. We now seem to be diverging from the look east policy."
Rangarirai
Mberi, business editor of the independent Financial Gazette, said
Zimbabwe's
tight restrictions on international money transfers would be a
disincentive
to investors such as the Russians. "This makes it very
difficult for any
foreign investors to repatriate their earnings," Mberi
told Agence
France-Presse.
If analysts are sceptical about the economic benefits
of the tie-ups with
China and Russia, Mugabe is well aware that both
countries are powerful
players on the diplomatic front and therefore useful
allies. University of
Zimbabwe lecturer Godfrey Chikowore said Zimbabwe
would reap great benefits
from reviving old friendships with countries such
as Russia. "Russia is a
superpower on its own, better than Britain and the
US, and it is going to
help in the development of our electrical power
generation and set up a
commercial bank," he said. He blamed the collapse of
some of the business
deals with Mugabe's new allies on outside interference.
"The problem is that
we are talking of influence, directly or indirectly by
some Western
nations," said Chikowore.
[This seems very similar to another story some months ago, where it turned
out that no farmers who were no longer farming had asked to farm again.....
it was just farmers who were still on their farms sho asked to stay. It
does not look as if this is something new..? Ed]
Reuters
Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:37 AM BST
EAST
LONDON, South Africa (Reuters) - Zimbabwe, facing food shortages blamed
partly on its large-scale seizures of white-owned farms, is considering
allowing some interested whites to return to farming, a minister
said.
President Robert Mugabe's government has received over 200
applications from
whites to take up farming again, land minister Flora Buka
said on Saturday
during an agriculture conference in South
Africa.
"As regards white commercial farmers, there are some who have
indicated that
they would want to continue farming," Buka told
Reuters.
"Their applications are being considered. If they are willing to
stay, that
is also going to be considered. Also, the amount of land they
have is also
going to be considered."
Asked if the government was
still confiscating land from whites to
redistribute to blacks, Buka said:
"Yes, we are still resettling our people
on the land that is state
land."
Many of Zimbabwe's white farmers have gone overseas or to other
African
countries after often violent land grabs backed by Mugabe, who
initiated the
redistribution programme six years ago.
Industry
analysts say only about 600 of Zimbabwe's 4,500 white farmers have
kept
their land.
Zimbabwe was once the breadbasket of the region and a net
exporter of maize
and other essential cereals to its neighbours.
But
food agencies say the departure of experienced white commercial farmers
has
cut into agricultural output and exposed Zimbabweans to persistent food
shortages. Meanwhile, a severe economic crisis has led to a shortage of
foreign currency and surging inflation of more than 1,000 percent
annually
The U.N. World Food Programme said last week 1.4 million
Zimbabweans will
need food aid in the next six months despite improved
agricultural output
last season.
Mugabe's government has forecast
production of 1.8 million tonnes of the
staple maize, but food agencies,
while acknowledging output has improved,
predict a lower crop.
The
WFP said 10 percent of the country's estimated 12 million people would
need
aid before next April.
Mugabe's government has defended its land
programme as necessary to reverse
injustices of British colonial
rule.
As in other African countries, many blacks in Zimbabwe were
forcibly removed
from their land under colonialism, leaving white minorities
holding most of
the arable land.
October 15, 2006
By Dave Mlilo
Zimbabwe (AND) The leader of the main faction of the
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai said on Sunday his
party would no
longer allow President Robert Mugabe's embattled regime to
set the rules of
political engagement in the country.
The
leader of the main faction of the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC),
Morgan Tsvangirai said on Sunday his party would no longer allow
President
Robert Mugabe's embattled regime to set the rules of political
engagement in
the country. Addressing about 1000 people who braved the
searing heat to
attend a rally to mark the seventh anniversary of the
formation of the
labour-backed party at White City Stadium in Bulawayo,
Tsvangirai signaled
that his camp would continue piling pressure on Mugabe
to agree to
opposition demands for a new and democratic constitution which
guarantees
free and fair elections. "Mugabe cannot be allowed to set the
rules in this
country for us to follow. We will never succeed if we allow
him to feel that
he is comfortable in power," said Tsvangirai to the
cheering crowd. Formed
in 1999, the MDC nearly beat Mugabe's ZANU - PF in a
parliamentary election
held a year later. The party won 57 seats while
ZANU - PF won 62 in the
election Tsvangirai and most Western countries,
condemned as rigged. Since
then, Tsvangirai's party has lost two major
elections in 2002 and 2005. Now,
he is demanding a new constitution and a
more democratic electoral process
that give a fair chance to all contesting
parties to win. "We won all the
elections but lost power," he said.
Tsvangirai also made an impassioned plea
for Zimbabweans to renew their
faith in bringing democracy to the country
after years of misrule by Mugabe,
a veteran who has ruled the country since
independence from Britain in 1980.
To this end, Tsvangirai said his party
would continue to engage any
democratic forces that seek to bring about
change in the country. He made
reference to a pact signed by opposition
leaders in July to forge a united
front against ZANU PF. "The challenge to
save Zimbabwe is on you (the
masses) and that must be done now. I want all
the people of this country to
commit themselves to the 'Save Zimbabwe
Project,'" he added referring the
formal opposition agreement to bring
change to the southern African country.
Zimbabwe, a former prosperous
country is gripped by an economic crisis
marked by lack of food, jobs,
foreign currency and fuel. Reflecting on the
past seven years, Tsvangirai
said the period was difficult but the party has
managed to survive amid
government pressure to crush and infiltrate it.
"When I reflect on the past
seven years, I see a difficult time for the
democratic process in this
country. I also see regime that is determined to
fight against its own
people. This is a government that has completely
failed to rule. But Mugabe
must know that the will of the people will
prevail despite his suppression.
His preoccupation is just power," said the
opposition leader. Speaking at
the same event, Lucia Matibenga, the
chairperson of the women's assembly in
the party who was savagely assaulted
by police during recent labour-backed
demonstrations said the strong-arm
tactics only embolden democratic forces
in the country. "They beat us but
our agenda will continue to go ahead,"
said Matibenga who is also
vice-president of the main labour body, Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU). "They beat us but that gives us more
courage." She said in future
when the ZCTU calls for street marches; the
masses should pour out in
numbers. Zimbabwe Bureau, AND
Strategy Page
October 15, 2006: Angola
and Zimbabwe signed a military training cooperation
agreement. Angola and
Zimbabwe signed a defense cooperation deal in 2002,
but there was little
follow-through. Zimbabwe is currently looking for
allies-- anywhere it can
find them. Libya is a nominal ally, but since
Qadaffi gave up his weapons of
mass destruction, he's been far less
agreeable to crossing Great Britain.
Zimbabwe's dictator, Robert Mugabe,
regards Britain as one of his primary
enemies.
It may seem impossible, given Zimbabwe's runaway
inflation and systemic
poverty, but infighting in Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF
Party has further
increased instability in the country. At issue is who will
succeed dictator
Robert Mugabe. Two major factions have emerged. One is led
by former
Zimbabwean Army general Solomon Mujuru. The other is led by the
government's
Rural Amenities minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa also
wants to run for
president. His likely opponent is Vice-President Joice
Mujuru, who is the
wife of Solomon. However, other "rumors" say that General
Mujuru is actually
backing former Finance Minister Simba Makoni for
president. Manangagwa is
regarded as the "front runner." However, charges of
corruption have also led
to an investigation that involves Zimbabwe's
intelligence agency, the
Central Intelligence Organisation. Manangagwa is
allegedly the target of a
probe looking at graft involving ZANU-PF finances.
There is another
complicating factor. Mugabe has not stepped down. He has
indicated he will
retire when his term ends in 2008. However, the
presidential election could
be postponed until 2010. Meanwhile Zimbabwe is
an economic disaster zone of
epic proportions. The economic failure has
exacerbated tribal rivalries
between the Shona and Matabele. Intra-ZANU-PF
political maneuvering adds yet
another potentially explosive factor. The key
player is Solomon Mujuru-- the
retired general's military contacts mean he
has plenty of friends with guns.
October 15, 2006
By Itayi Garande
LONDON - Pressure groups Zim Vigil (London) and Free Zim Youth UK
yesterday
marched and danced on the streets of London and staged a
demonstration at
the South African embassy marking the fourth anniversary of
the Zimbabwe
Vigil.
The event which was attended by 200 or more people was
filled with
chants and songs against the Zanu PF government in Zimbabwe.
Many political
and human rights activists, Zimbabwean and non-Zimbabwean,
attended the
event showing solidarity with the ZimVigil group.
Speakers included the prominent civil rights activist, Peter Tatchell,
gender activist and advocate, Yvonne Marimo, and the African Liberation
Support Campaign Network's Tokumbo Oku.
The long trail marched
from Zimbabwe House to the South African
embassy in central London. FreeZim
Youth leaders were dressed in military
gear to mark the renewed fight for
democracy in Zimbabwe.
The group marched carrying a mock coffin
symbolising victims of
Operation Murambatsvina and this was dumped at the
embassy.
Alois Mbawara one of the leaders of FreeZim Youth,
expressed his
disappointment at Mbeki for not speaking out against human
rights abuses in
Zimbabwe and blamed the South African leader as not being
an honest broker
in the crisis.
After the demonstration group
marched back to the Zimbabwean embassy
to join and carry on with the
ZimVigil as usual.
Yesterday's event included many groups including
the press from
different Zimbabwean and foreign newspapers and many
concerned people from
the streets of London often stopped to join in the
dances and find out more
about the demonstrations.
"Mugabe
should be ashamed of his betrayal of the Zimbabwean people,"
said one
passer-by. "I saw him here in London in the late '70s during the
Lancaster
House negotiations and he seemed like a visionary who would make
the lives
of Zimbabweans better, instead he has made their lives worse, and
should be
ashamed", she continued.
As predicted there was a large turnout for
the fourth anniversary and
ZimVigil urges more people to show some
solidarity and attend the Saturday
meetings, every Saturday until freedom is
attained in Zimbabwe. -
TalkZimbabwe.com
October 15, 2006
By
Itayi Garande
LONDON - A UK civil rights activist urged South
Africa to take a more
positive stance against the ruling government in
Zimbabwe.
It also urged the international community to rally
together to end
what it described as President Robert Mugabe's
tyranny.
Speaking at a demonstration organised by FreeZim Youth at
South Africa
House in London yesterday Peter Tatchell, a prominent civil
rights activist,
blamed South African president Thabo Mbeki for his quiet
diplomatic stance
on the situation in Zimbabwe.
In a
highly-charged speech Tatchell said the South African struggle to
free
Nelson Mandela, black political prisoners and to end apartheid would
have
not been possible without international solidarity and the
uncompromising
contribution of the Zimbabwean people.
According to Tatchell,
during the apartheid era the UK community met
at South Africa House for more
than four years demonstrating against the
evil apartheid regime of P.W.
Botha. Other demonstrations were held across
the world in New York, Paris,
Berlin, and Sydney during that era to end
apartheid at the request of the
ANC.
"The ANC's betrayal of Zimbabwe is so shocking and so
shameful," said
Tatchell blaming President Mbeki for turning his back
against Zimbabwe.
Tatchell also said Mugabe's tyranny is comparable
to, if not worse,
than the evil apartheid system that existed in South
Africa.
Comparing the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, where 69 blacks
were
killed when South African police opened fire on approximately 300
demonstrators protesting against pass laws, and the Gukurahundi atrocities,
Tatchell said 20,000 people massacred in Matabeleland is a "Sharpeville
every day, every week".
He called on the international
community, especially the ANC, to take
measures against the Zanu PF
government in Zimbabwe, without which freedom
will be difficult to achieve
in the country
TalkZimbabwe.com
From Poetry International
Irene
Staunton
Whether Albert Nyathi is dressed in a flowing scarlet robe,
his rabbit skin
hat and leopard skin wrap, or his feathers, what imbues his
poetry is his
enthusiasm and sincerity which, despite his success, continue
to be invested
with an almost artless belief in himself and his work. Albert
Nyathi is
often referred to as Zimbabwe's "premier performance dub poet".
Born in Kezi
in Matabeleland South into a cattle-herding community, he
mastered
traditional praise poetry at school. He soon started to write his
own plays
and poems, inspired by the national freedom struggle. As a
university
student in the 1980s, he became very influential within the
student union
and often spoke at rallies. Later, he gave up his career in
government
service as a senior member of the National Arts Council to
concentrate on
performance poetry and the development of youth training
programmes in
Harare's townships. Around 1990, he started fusing his poetry
with music in
order to reach a wider audience.
Nyathi, who
performs in both English and Ndebele, is equally popular in his
home country
and in the West, though arguably for quite different reasons.
In Zimbabwe,
as I have said previously, much poetry is written and
performed, but by
comparison very little is read. It is enjoyed for its
immediacy and its
rhetoric. To be a poet all you have to say is "I am";
whether you succeed
will depend on your performance. Within this context,
Nyathi is a star. The
issues he addresses in his poetry are those that
affect people's everyday
lives: "Zimbabwe is a land of queues, we queue in
banks, we queue for bread,
we queue ." for example. Using straightforward
colloquial language, easily
accessible speech rhythms, and simple overt
imagery, such as:
My
Daughter . . . protect you
From hungry lions silently eyeing you
Licking
their lips
Ready to pounce on you
From the jumpy jumpy monkeys that
move
From tree to tree
('My Daughter')
Nyathi reaches out to
and embraces everyone with his concerns which reflect
their own. Poet and
audience become one living being reassured by a
commonality in a complex
world where tradition and modernity, religion and
politics, poverty and
wealth, hunger, unemployment and death jostle
consciously at the forefront
of people's, often difficult, lives. In
addition, he is not unafraid to
address overtly political subjects:
This [politics] is where the
cruellest survive
Those who can afford
Are swivelling, swaying in their
posh limousines
While citizens starve to death.
('Dear Mzwakha
Mbuli')
In so doing Nyathi gives voice to sentiments that people are
often afraid to
express in a public arena. That the poet does so bonds his
audience together
in shared feeling, shared outrage and provides at least
temporary allusive
confidence, a commonality lost in the quotidian struggle
to survive. That
Nyathi is also very popular in the West is, at least in my
view, more
contentious, and provides for us both a subject of perennial
debate. To me,
there is a constant danger that the poet dressed in full
Ndebele regalia
passionately declaiming his verses like chants, is in danger
of reinforcing
a crude stereotype of Africa, while at the same time
appealing to the
nostalgic liberal sympathy of those who live in comfort,
and need never
engage beyond the collection box. This may be a harsh
analysis, but the
issues remain ones which need to be addressed. Arguably
too, Nyathi as a
performer, a great lover of life, brings a zest, a great
rhetorical flourish
to his observations which lift them from the banal to
the fervid, and in so
doing makes us reflect again on the definition,
meaning and power of poetry
in relation to its audience.
Baby
Footballer
Softly, swimmingly
Deftly defiantly
Softly,
swerving
Ducking like a lone duck
Dodging even a bullet
Splashing
water
Under the good guidance
Of a proud mum
From a small
man
Splashing like a mad duck
Kicking the empty air
Albert Nyathi,
2006
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Stephen
Kuuzabuwe
THE attack on Kadoma residents by soldiers from the
nearby Suri Suri
defence forces base shows the rampart disregard for the law
by the Defence
forces. Only a few weeks ago it was the Zimbabwe Republic
Police waging an
orgy of violence on innocent unarmed
demonstrators.
In a country where the rule of law prevails, such an
incident as the
attack on the soldier would have been reported,
thoroughly
investigated and the culprits brought before the
courts.
Gone are the days when we looked up to the soldiers in
uniform as our
heroes, our liberators and defenders of our freedom.
Overnight they have
become symbols of oppression, torture, brutality and
defenders of one of the
most authoritarian regimes in the
world.
The attack on the residents of Kadoma is a clear indication
of the
excessive powers they enjoy under the Commander-In-Chief. I am
certain
someone in the chain of command knew what was happening and the
implications
of such actions were not so important.
After all
this has been done before and who has dared lift a finger?
Instant justice
had to be meted out immediately. Is the ZDF operating at the
same level as
the rank marshals where, mob rule is the order of the day?
I would
understand their anger had they requested their own military
police to put
pressure on their ZRP colleagues to launch an investigation
immediately
before they took the law into their own hands.
Whatever happened to
the idea of our forces maintaining good public
relations? Does anybody care
anymore? Is this the order of the day under a
ZANU PF government? State -
sponsored terrorism? Definitely yes!
This was an excuse once again
to suppress the truth. It is true that
the soldier had no money to pay for
the fare. It is a fact that the whole
blame should be on Robert Mugabe and
his corrupt government for destroying
the economy and reducing his own
soldiers to beggars.
That soldier should not have been using public
transport to go to work
in the first place. Maybe the government trucks they
should be using were
being used at some senior officer's farm
somewhere.
After all these are the beneficiaries of the land
redistribution
exercise.
Rank marshals, like the general public
are venting out their anger
with the government. These are young men and
women who should be gainfully
employed but with unemployment at 80% what
else can we expect? It is only a
question of time before the soldiers
start
revolting and realize who the real enemy is.
How
long are the people of Zimbabwe going to suffer at the
hands of such
tyranny? It has been a long time but definitely it will
not be
forever!
www.chinaview.cn 2006-10-16
05:01:27
HARARE, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- One person has died of
suspected
anthrax while 82 others have so far received treatment following
an outbreak
of the disease in Zimbabwe's province of Mashonaland West, The
Sunday Mail
reported.
The provincial medical director
Winceslas Nyamayaro confirmed the
disease outbreak but said the cause of the
one recorded death had not yet
been ascertained.
Eighty-two
cases involving people and two cases involving cattle
were detected on
Ngwarati and Mahewu farms in Trelawney last week. Anthrax
is an acute,
contagious disease characterized by septicaemia and sudden
death.
The disease is caused by the bacterium bacillus
anthracis whose
unique feature is its ability to form dormant stages
(spores) which can
survive in the soil for many years.
Animals become infected by ingestion of contaminated feed or
water. In the
body, the spores multiply and produce a lethal toxin which
kills the animal.
Crispen Devere, who is the acting provincial environmental
health officer,
said his office had managed to contain the situation.
"It is
the first time we have had an outbreak on those two farms
but I wish to
inform all concerned parties that we have managed to
successfully treat all
cases at Ngwarati and Mahewu farms," Devere said.
Enditem