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Daily News

OFF THE RECORD with The Mole

10/20/01 12:37:28 PM (GMT +2)


The story Machirori refused to publish

Early into her new post in the 1980s as the first ever female News Editor at
The Chronicle and in the entire Zimbabwe Newspapers (Zimpapers) group as a
matter of fact it became clear that Edna Machirori, who has just been eased
out of her new post as the paper’s first female Editor, was no woman to mess
with.

She was no push-over.

In fact, as her then Editor, Geoff Nyarota, quickly realised, the moment she
felt you wanted to brow-beat her simply because she was a woman, she would
never hesitate to take you on in an argument, firmly stand her ground right
or wrong until you either gave in or gave up.

That was what soon inspired Nyarota to nickname her “The Iron Lady”.
She is a remarkably tough woman as Steve Mpofu also quickly discovered when
he later replaced Nyarota at The Chronicle.
That she got fired from her editorship of The Chronicle barely three months
after her appointment the shortest editorship of that paper on record would
appear to point to the fact that it didn’t take long either for Information
Minister Jonathan Moyo, the de facto Zimpapers
Editor-in-Chief, to realise that Machirori was, in a manner of speaking, a
hard nut to crack.

Tension between the two had been building up for weeks because of the unease
she felt about being ordered to publish as fact, Moyo’s image-maker Admore
Tshuma’s palpably transparent fiction in praise of the minister.

Things finally came to a head when she resolved enough was enough and
decided to show Moyo why she was called The Iron Lady.

She flatly refused to publish Tshuma’s carefully doctored and heavily biased
story meant, on the one hand, to minimise the damage inflicted on Moyo by
Sikhanyiso Ndlovu’s unflattering remarks about the minister, while on the
other hand it sought to discredit Ndlovu by rubbishing his remarks as being
those of a jealous, bad loser.

Her refusal to print the story was based on two legitimate professional
considerations. In the first place, she had asked Tshuma to seek Ndlovu’s
reaction in order to balance the story. Tshuma refused. Not only that.

Curiously, Tshuma, who, it is understood, normally insisted that his stories
about Moyo should always be under his personal by-line, this time expressly
forbade the Editor to by-line him. So she stood her ground and refused to
let the story see the light of day.

Although it was subsequently never published, The Mole somehow managed to
get an unedited copy of Tshuma’s original copy.

The following is part of the story datelined “Tshuma, September 16
Sikhanyiso” whose non-publication earned Machirori her marching orders:

“Zanu PF Bulawayo Provincial Chairman, Cde Jabulani Sibanda, yesterday told
the party’s acting national commissariat (sic), Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu to shut
up because his statements were causing confusion within the party at a wrong
time.

Cde Sibanda was reacting to Dr Ndlovu’s statement in Saturday’s Chronicle
that the general mood among ex-Zapu leaders and supporters was that the
Unity Accord was not benefiting people of Matabeleland.

“In the same story, Dr Ndlovu savaged the Minister of State for Information
and Publicity, Professor Jonathan Moyo, saying he did not like ‘his style of
doing things’.

“Cde Sibanda dismissed Dr Ndlovu’s accusation as ‘nonsensical’ saying all
cabinet ministers have a national mandate to serve the entire country. ‘I
think Sikhanyiso is going with the wind,’ Cde Sibanda said. ‘He is not
qualified enough to talk about the Unity Accord. He is not positioned to
speak about it,’ said Cde Sibanda, a former Zipra cadre close to the late Dr
Joshua Nkomo.” (Are we to understand from this statement that Sikhanyiso was
“not close” to Nkomo, I wonder?)

Tshuma’s unpublished Moyo-image damage-control piece continues with Sibanda
saying: “‘This bad attitude by politicians in Matabeleland has cost us
virtually all the elections. Instead of concentrating on campaigns we spend
our time saying Jonathan Moyo want (sic) to become the new Joshua Nkomo in
Matabeleland.” (Who, exactly, said that? In any case, isn’t Moyo working
overtime these days doing just that, if we may ask?)

Sibanda promptly responds: “‘I know Jonathan does not have those ambitions.’
Cde Sibanda applauded Prof Moyo for showing commitment in working for the
people in Matabeleland . . .”

Then followed the character assassination of Ndlovu which could not have
been authored too far away from the Department of Information: “Analyst
(sic) said it was grossly unfair for politicians to blackmail the President
into giving them ministerial positions by making empty threats on the Unity
Accord. They have chose (sic) to speak about the Unity Accord because they
know that it is a sensitive subject, analyst (sic) said.

“A party official who requested anonymity scoffed at Dr Ndlovu saying his
statements were treasonous and unacceptable considering that he was the
party’s acting national commissariat (sic).

The official said a commissariat (sic) of the late Cde Border Gezi’s caliber
would not speak like that especially at this moment when the ruling party
faced pressure from external forces.

“‘If it were not for Prof Moyo and his officers who came to our rescue
during the campaign in Bulawayo,’ said analyst (sic), ‘things could have
been worse difficult (sic) for us.’

Party officials said Dr Ndlovu’s attack on Prof Moyo was childish and
unwarranted. Analysts said it takes a malicious person to fail to
appreciated the laudable and supreme efforts being made by a fellow
politician to reorganise the party.”
Then came the punch line: “This raises a lot of suspicions, especially when
it is being said at a time when The Daily News is attacking Pro Moyo left,
right and centre. Journalist (sic) from the hostile media have found (?) a
field day in Dr Ndlovu’s statements . . . blah, blah, blah . . .”

The rigmarole goes on and on. Needless to say, this was one very long ego
trip by one truly remarkable titan of an egocentric whose identity we all
know.

But the bottom line is that the story never saw the light of day in The
Chronicle because The Iron Lady Machirori simply said: “No more of this
vainglorious nonsense!” and that was it. And for that principled stand, she
was soon given the boot. But she left with her head held high.
Great girl!

As Machirori departed from The Chronicle, Tshuma bid colleagues farewell
enroute to the UK, where it is understood he enrolled for a course in basics
of journalism.
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Daily News

Tsvangirai wins prestigious Solidar Silver Rose Award

10/20/01 12:16:59 PM (GMT +2)


By Sandra Nyaira Political Editor

MORGAN Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, has won the prestigious 2001
Solidar Silver Rose Award.

He was presented with the award yesterday at a special ceremony at the
European Union (EU) Parliament in Brussels.

The award was presented to him by Glenys Kinnock, a Member of the EU
Parliament, on behalf of the president Guyvuy Vherhofstadt.

The Solidar Silver Rose is an award for outstanding achievement by an
individual or organisation in the activities of civil society and in
bringing about a fairer and more just society.

Tsvangirai, whose party almost ended Zanu PF’s 21 years of uninterrupted
rule in last year’s parliamentary election, has become President Mugabe’s
biggest thorn in the flesh since independence.

The two will lock horns in next year’s watershed presidential election that
is expected to be held by April. There have been a number of attempts on
Tsvangirai’s life by suspected Zanu PF supporters on a number of occasions
as he went around the country on party business.

Austrian Roma rights campaigner, Rudolf Sarkozi, and Polish community
organisation, The Barka Foundation for Mutual Help, were also awarded the
2001 Solidar Silver Rose Awards.

Kinnock, who headed the selection jury, said: “We hope that these awards
will give greater recognition to these courageous figures, and give
inspiration to others who may wish to follow in their footsteps.”

At a crucial period for world stability, the Solidar Silver Rose Award
winners “show the positive change that can be brought about by determined
individuals and organisations”, the citation read.

Solidar is an independent international alliance of development,
humanitarian assistance and social welfare non-governmental organisations
which have links with the trade unions and democratic labour parties.

After accepting the award, Tsvangirai will meet with high-level officials on
a tour of European capitals of Copenhagen, Stockholm, Brussels, Paris and
London.

During his tour, he will “ask the Western governments to send a strong
signal to Mugabe that restoring the rule of law and protecting human rights
in Zimbabwe remains high on the political agenda”.

Although the horrific events in the United States on 11 September have
naturally focused world attention on combating terrorism, Tsvangirai will
urge the West not to forget the crisis in Zimbabwe.

Some of the officials he will meet include Charles Josselin, French Minister
for Co-operation, Laurette Onkelinx, the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister, Anna
Lindh, the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Baroness Amos, the
British Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

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From The Times of India

C'wealth foreign ministers to visit Zimbabwe


ONDON: Key Commonwealth foreign ministers will visit Zimbabwe next week for
talks with President Robert Mugabe on the thorny issue of land reform, the
Commonwealth Secretariat said in a statement issued here late Friday.

The visit has been expected since Zimbabwe extended an invitation to the
ministers during a Commonwealth meeting, in Abuja on September 6, during
which they discussed the tense political situation in the southern African
country.

The foreign ministers from Britain, Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Kenya,
Nigeria and South Africa will also meet members of Zimbabwe's government and
opposition leaders, the statement said.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon will also attend the visit next
Thursday and Friday.

In Abuja, agreement was reached committing Zimbabwe to end illegal
occupations of land and to take action to stop political violence, in
exchange for British financing of Mugabe's land reforms.

Zimbabwe is a former British colony. London has spearheaded international
criticism of the occupation of white-owned farms and the associated violence
by pro-government militants.

Mugabe says he simply wants to correct colonial-era inequities which left
whites owning a disportionate amount of land.

McKinnon said the Commonwealth meeting "represents an important step towards
implementation of the Abuja Agreement".

He added, through the statement, that he hoped "all concerned" would be able
"to agree an implementation timetable".

According to a survey published Friday by Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers'
Union (CFU), white-owned farms in the country have suffered a major
escalation of violence in recent weeks, despite the Commonwealth deal.
Zimbabwe, which has a majority black population, has been shaken in recent
months by the violent farm seizures by landless blacks.

White farmers and, to a greater extent, black farm workers have been victims
of the violence.

Political opponents of Mugabe have meanwhile been attacked, beaten or even
killed by his supporters with the apparent backing of the police.


( AFP )

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From The Irish Times

Zimbabwe farm output tumbling after land crisis

 Last updated: 19-10-01, 21:26


Zimbabwe's embattled white farmers said today the country's land crisis had
escalated despite a deal by the government to end violent farm invasions,
and output of key crops could fall by 40 percent next year.

A survey by the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) on the impact of farm
invasions by supporters of President Robert Mugabe showed some 1,948 farms
out of 6,000 properties owned by whites had been occupied since February
2000, with 72 percent of these invaded from March this year after a law
cutting out further invasions.

The CFU said production of tobacco, which accounts for a third of Zimbabwe's
export earnings, could fall by at least a third in the 2001/2 (Nov-April)
cropping season as an increasing number of new settlers were halting
commercial production.

"Unless the problems of operation stoppages is addressed, and our survey
shows that this is affecting 31 percent of the farms, some believe the
tobacco could fall as low as 100 million kg," CFU director Mr David Hasluck
told a news conference.

And that we will also see significant falls in other crops such as maize,
coffee and paprika, Mr Hasluck added.

Zimbabwe produced about 190 million kg of flue-cured tobacco this year, and
is the world's third largest exporter after the US and Brazil.

The survey was immediately dismissed as a pack of lies by Zimbabwe's
Agriculture minister Joseph Made.

"It's a pack of lies. If things are so bad, why don't they pack and go and
we will take over the production," Mr Made said on state television.
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From news.com.au
 
Mugabe set for war

21oct01
HARARE: Robert Mugabe has ordered supporters to stockpile weapons and prepare for war.

As the Zimbabwean leader edges towards predicted defeat in next year's presidential elections, he has signalled his determination to cling to power by resorting to terror tactics.

And gangs that spearheaded violent land invasions earlier this year are being trained by members of the armed forces to crush opposition.

There were reports this week that some members of the ruling ZANU PF party have already been handed French-made weapons despite an arms embargo imposed last year by the European Union and the US.

Mugabe is said to have enlisted the help of Namibia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to sidestep the sanctions.

The Financial Gazette newspaper reported that a DRC military cargo plane, loaded with weapons, recently arrived at the Suri Suri airbase in Chegutu, 100km west of Harare.

From there, guns were shipped to army bases throughout the country and handed to Mugabe's supporters, who have been told to make it impossible for opposition members to campaign or even vote in rural areas.

Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi said: "I am not going to comment on that one."

A senior government official told the newspaper: "I sympathise with those who want change in the presidential elections, but judging by the groundwork ZANU PF is doing to deal with the opposition, I am afraid to say that I don't see that change coming."

France has denied supplying arms to Zimbabwe, but said it could not prevent other African nations selling French-made weapons.


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Daily Telegraph

Violence rises on Zimbabwe farms
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare
(Filed: 20/10/2001)

VIOLENCE on Zimbabwe's mainly white-owned farms is dramatically worse since President Mugabe signed the Abuja Agreement, according to a survey of commercial farmers.

 
Robert Mugabe's cabinet ministers have told whites they have no rights over land

Almost 700 farms have been invaded since the meeting of Commonwealth foreign ministers in Abuja, Nigeria, last month. Mr Mugabe agreed then to stop the invasions and return his land reform campaign to the rule of law.

However, David Hasluck, director of the Commercial Farmers' Union, gave a chilling account of developments in the agricultural sector, which provides nearly half Zimbabwe's foreign currency. Nearly a third of Zimbabwe's population has applied for food aid.

Of the farmers surveyed, 51 per cent had been invaded, Mr Hasluck said. More than 800 violent incidents, including assaults on farmers and their workers, had been recorded.

Mr Hasluck predicted at least a 40 per cent loss of production this season, costing £142 million for the tobacco industry alone. Commercial farmers were growing only enough of the staple food, maize, for their workers and for stock feeds.

Mr Hasluck said 75,000 people had been forced from their farm homes in the past few months. They were replaced by 104,000 "settlers", who so far had made no preparations to grow crops when the rains fall next month.

In the past 10 days, four of Mr Mugabe's most loyal cabinet ministers have been touring white-owned farms and speaking to farmers and new "settlers". They have repeatedly told white farmers that they have "no rights over land".

These meetings were no more than "political rallies", according to a CFU official.

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From Business Recorder

Zimbabwe publisher protests over government 'harassment'

.......HARARE : A leading Zimbabwean newspaper publisher sold copies of his
papers near President Robert Mugabe's office on Friday, protesting against
what he says is government harassment of independent media. Trevor Ncube,
publisher of the weekly Zimbabwe Independent and Sunday Standard, said about
60 of his paper sellers had been arrested and fined by police in the last
three weeks on charges of obstructing traffic or selling goods without a
licence.
......."These charges are not just false, but they have been trumped up as
part of a programme to harass the private media, hit our sales and to limit
the flow of news perceived to be critical of the government," Ncube told
reporters as he sold papers at a road junction near Mugabe's office in the
capital Harare for about two hours.
......."We are not going to sit down while the government abuses our rights
and uses the police to attack our operations and try to drive us out of
business. I am here to protest that."
.......A police spokesman dismissed the protest as a publicity stunt.
......."People are selling newspapers all over the country, and where
vendors have been arrested they have been arrested without prejudice of what
newspapers they are selling and they have been arrested on justifiable
grounds," the spokesman told Reuters.
.......Political analysts say Mugabe has targeted independent media, the
judiciary and the opposition before presidential elections due by April 2002
in which he is expected to face his toughest challenge since coming to power
in 1980.
.......The government says the West, notably former colonial power Britain,
is using foreign and local media to discredit its drive to seize white-owned
farms for land-less blacks.
.......Earlier this year, the government refused to extend the work permit
of a British journalist working for London's Daily Telegraph and expelled a
BBC correspondent and a correspondent for South Africa's Mail and Guardian
newspaper.
.......Zimbabwe now requires foreign journalists to apply a month in advance
to visit, and has turned down many applications.
.......In Johannesburg, the chairman of the Foreign Correspondents
Association of Southern Africa, Kurt Shillinger, told Reuters the Zimbabean
government seemed to be taking advantage of attention being focused on US
air strikes in Afghanistan.
......."The number of foreign journalists being denied permission to enter
Zimbabwe exceeds those being allowed in," he said.
......."This may simply be a symptom of the fact that Zimbabwe is no longer
getting enough international exposure because of what is happening in
Afghanistan. It gives President Robert Mugabe an excellent opportunity to
carry on with impunity," he added.-Reuters

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: Saturday, October 20, 2001 11:25 AM
Subject: burned out of their own homes

Dear family and friends,
At around midnight a black Zimbabwean woman in Chegutu was woken by men banging on her door saying they had come with a message. The woman, alone and frightened, was reluctant to open her door. When she finally did so she was lashed on her shoulder with a whip. She immediately closed and locked the door. I can only imagine her terror as she then heard the men get up on to the roof of her house and smash a hole through it. The men poured paraffin through the hole in the roof and dropped in a burning missile. The woman could not get out as the men were still there, waiting for her with sticks and rocks. She could not protect any of her posessions and had to wait until at last the men ran away. Priscah emerged with only the thin nightdress on her back, her home was burnt down, all her posessions lost. What was her crime? Priscah supported the opposition mdc party. No arrests have been made. This excerpt comes from a 12 page report just released by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum on political violence in our country in September. In September alone there were 6 deaths/executions; 14 kidnappings/detentions and 112 cases of torture. The ZHR Forum says that 42 711 people have been displaced from their homes due to political violence since January. For Priscah I wear my yellow ribbon in silent protest at this horror.
On Friday Trevor Ncube, the Publisher and Managing Editor of the Zimbabwe Independent and Sunday Standard newspapers, took to the streets of Harare, stood in the middle of a busy road and sold copies of this weeks' Independent. Over 60 newspaper vendors employed by Trevor have been arrested and fined for "obstructing traffic" or "selling goods without a licence". This is a blatant and crude attempt to stop the truth of Zimbabwe's hell being told. Trevor said: "We are not going to sit down while the government abuses our rights and uses the police to attack our operations and drive us out of business. I am here to protest that." Trevor Ncube has been consistently determined to tell and expose the truths behind Zimbabwe's land grab. When he wrote the introduction to my book, African Tears, Trevor spoke from the heart. He has encouraged and inspired me in so many ways and is an inspiration to hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans. I applaud you Trevor and wear my yellow ribbon in support of your unflagging determination not to be beaten.
In Marondera this week a beautiful Holstein dairy cow was slashed from her rectum to her stomach. Still alive, parts of her intestines were pulled out, her right eye was gouged out and the cow was then left to die. The men who did this call themselves "war veterans" and they then told the farm workers that the same thing would happen to them if they did not vacate the houses on the farm on which they work and live. On another Marondera farm 60 "war veterans" stormed the farm workers village just before dark. They smashed windows and dragged people out of their homes. 16 men and 6 women were beaten with sticks, whips, clubs and chains. One of the women was pregnant but even she was not spared and was kicked in the belly. No arrests were made and when asked why the Police Member in Charge said he would have to "clear it with his commanding ofiicer." On yet another Marondera farm, the owner was barricaded into his home by "war veterans". They broke down the security gates, smashed homestead windows and lit fires outside the house. They then pushed running hose pipes in through the broken windows, flooded the house and burnt rubber in an attempt to get the owner to abandon his home and farm. This farm is not listed for government seizure. These three examples are a minute fraction of the horrors over this past week and for all these farmers and the people who work for them, I wear my yellow ribbon in support of  bravery and immense courage.
Price controls  of basic goods introduced by our government have had exactly the expected results. Bakers who spend Z$52 to produce a loaf of bread are now being forced to sell it at Z$48 - their businesses are going to collapse and already hundreds of casual workers have been laid off. In Marondera's largest supermarket yesterday morning there was no rice, salt or cooking oil - all newly controlled products. Controlling the price of basic commodities was, I thought, political suicide, President Mugabe however, has declared otherwise. Speaking at a funeral this week, our President said that any companies which closed down would be nationalised and run by the state. He said it was time to return to the ideologies of socialism.
I know my letter this week appears bitty and disjointed but I have done this for a reason. On the 29th October the EU is set to meet and make a decision on the crisis in Zimbabwe. Glenys Kinnock MEP said this week:" the onus is now on the EU." She is right. We have had our hands tied on every single front. The police are not acting and have turned on the people they swore to protect. The screws have been tightened on the press.The judiciary has been rendered almost impotent. Almost no foreign journalists are being allowed into the country. Infringements of the Abuja Agreement are blatant. People are enduring terror in the extreme, being burned out of their homes with nothing but their nightdresses. Yes, it is up to the EU now, and to anyone else brave enough to speak out, to save Zimbabwe from herself. Black, white, brown or in between - whatever our colour, age or sex, there are no human rights in Zimbabwe, no legal rights, no political rights, no property or business rights - we are completely at the mercy of a political party intent on complete and utter destruction.To the many dozens of people who have written this week, I am sorry I have not replied to you all. I will attempt to catch up this weekend and thank you all for your support and encouragement. Like Trevor and Priscah and hundreds of farmers and their workers, I am not prepared to give up. With love, cathy.   
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COMMERCIAL FARMERS' UNION
Farm Invasions and Security Report
Thursday 18th October 2001



This report does not purport to cover all the incidents that are taking place in the commercial farming areas. Communication problems and the fear of reprisals prevent farmers from reporting all that happens. Farmers names, and in some cases farm names, are omitted to minimise the risk of reprisals.
NATIONAL REPORT IN BRIEF:
Macheke/Virginia - 150kg of tobacco and steam hose were stolen
Marondera – Uitkyk - 16 men and 6 women were beaten
 Marondera – farmer barricaded in his house
Harare South - the manager and family  barricaded in their house
Karoi – farmer pelted with catapults
 REGIONAL REPORTS:
 Mashonaland East
Macheke / Virginia - Belgravia, Flintand Mignon had complete work stoppages which were reported to the police and the DA  with no reaction.  The situation was however resolved. 65ha of maize stover on Maryland was set alight and illegal settlers prevented the owner from putting out the fire. At Hazeldene 150kg of tobacco and a steam hose were stolen.  The manager of Castledene Pines  was informed that he had to be off the farm or else.  The threat has been reported to the police and the DA at Murehwa.  On Fault Agritex have been pegging on the farm for the last two days.  Camdale reported a lorry delivering building material, livestock and household goods during the night.  On Twist Mr Matatse arrived with Agritex to settle a boundary dispute between Twist and Barrymore farm. The matter will be discussed in Murewha and an answer was promised for Tuesday. Illegal Occupiers attempted to move all the cattle into the yard fence of Nygadzi Farm.  The owner has moved the cattle to another farm temporarily and is still waiting police reaction. There is a total work stoppage of all the Nyagadzi labour who have been told that they are never again to work for the present owner.  Illegal occupiers have stopped the labour from destroying  regrowth on Glen Summerset and the occupiers have demanded the farm store be opened again. The store has been shut awaiting clarification on price controls. The tractors have been stopped from taking out cattle food.  Government Valuers are assessing Lingone Farm.  17 cattle have been confirmed with sleeping sickness on Chirunge Farm. The Government Veterinary Department has been informed & Tsetse Fly Control will be in attendance. The police and D.A. have visited Hazeldene Farm and reportedly told the illegal occupiers to vacate the farm and said that farming operations should continue. There has been no change and farming is still not possible.   Police and the D.A. also visited Morning Star and told the illegal occupiers to move off the farm which they have said they would do.  Work stoppages continue on Belgravia  and Mignon farm.  The Agritex pegging team were pegging on Showers with the pegs being set in concrete.
Beatrice - Alemane farm has a 100% work stoppage.  At Maarsplein no new work is allowed except the dipping of cattle and to finish the grading.  On Nengwa work is only allowed on the flowers and onions.  Silveroak had some occupiers from town visit the farm over the weekend and pegged land that had been prepared. Eden Farm has not been listed but they are not allowed to do any work.  Brakveld had invaders from Mondoro arrive with threats of violence.  This situation was resolved.  Goldilands had an occupier from town visit the farm over the weekend and was seen taking soil samples.  The DA Seke later said that farms in that area were to be taken for commercial resettlement.  An Apostolic Faith Church pick up went to  Endslensdeel with thatching grass yesterday and have started building huts again. The farm is not listed and the illegal occupiers were moved off but have returned.  Illegal occupiers instructed the owner of Dunrobin farm to move all cattle of f the farm so that they can plough their land.  On Slygo farm five heiffers were speared and one has had to be put down as a result of this.
General - There was a political meeting in the township and farm workers were invited.  The speaker said that if anyone of them wanted to start a project they must submit their plans to the party and that money was readily available.  There is however ongoing theft of irrigation piping and valuators are visiting listed and delisted farms.
Marondera South -  The owner of Uitkyk attempted to continue working, backed up by a Court Order.  About 60 illegal settlers stormed the farm village after work, smashing windows, dragging workers out of their houses and beating them with sticks, whips, clubs and chains.  There was at least one firearm present.  16 men and 6 women were beaten, some of them severely.  One was axed in the head, potentially fatally.  A pregnant woman was kicked in the stomach.  The workers’ possessions were thrown out  of their houses.  Police responded but made no arrests.  On Sunday morning the farmer received a warning that the settlers were regrouping to attack again, but this was apparently aborted because police were on the farm taking statements.  Instead they rounded up the workers on Bonne Chance and indoctrinated them with slogans denouncing the owner of Uitkyk.  The settlers returned to Uitkyk on Sunday afternoon to finish their business but this time they were outnumbered.  When asked why no arrests had been made, the acting Member in Charge said he had to clear this with his Commanding Officer first.  On Ruware illegal settlers barricaded the farmer in his house on Friday night in retaliation for going back to work.  The farm is not listed, and the PA had instructed that work should go ahead.  The attackers broke down the security gate, smashed windows, lit fires outside the house, turned hose pipes on through windows and attempted to smoke out the occupants with burning rubber.  Terara farm had a cow mutilated.  Its eyes were gouged out and the anus cut open, a similar incident to that which happened last year on the same date.
Marondera North -  At Lekkerwater  harrassment continues.  Communal cattle have been moved onto Essexdale.  Glenisla has fires being lit on a continuous basis.
Wedza -  Beziudenhout has been pegged by Agritex into large plots.On Rhodesdale over the past two weeks 3 sable cows and 2 giraffe, one of them pregnant, have been slaughtered and the meat taken away by scotch cart.  Msasa had 4 poachers, two of them armed, who chased the guards out of the lands.  Two police details were collected from the station and followed the poachers to Shaka. A pedigree calf is missing from Scorror and is believed to have been poached.  The remains of a poached duiker and a reedbuck were found. On Markwe the illegal settlers claim they caught seven people responsible for slaughtering cattle and selling the meat and took them to the police.  The seven then denied the charge saying they had been beaten into admitting the charge.  At Mbima a policeman who was investigating a theft asked the settlers why they were chopping down indigenous trees bordering a small dam and was told they had been told to do so by the DA to make vegetable gardens.  On Leeds a red tractor belonging to Sango Motors in Wedza is ploughing a portion of last years paprika land which was earmarked for maize this year.  Assistant Inspector Nhakwe would not take the report and referred the matter to the DA.  The farmers of Mbima, Corby, Leeds and Markwe who were called to see the DA last week have all had labour threatened by the settlers.  The labour were told that if they do not move into the barn areas they would be beaten up.  The police have been informed in each case but Inspector Nyamatamba says that he is unable to do anything as it is political and the DA must deal with it, but states that the labour should stay in their houses.  He says he can only act if there is violence.  The DA has said, on several occasions, that he will come down and speak to the settlers but never arrives.  On Friday he was supposed to visit Mbima but he was seen in a blue lorry collecting gum poles from Merryhill illegally.  A tractor has arrived and started ridging with no fertilizer or E.D.B. on  Igudu Farm.  Four herdsmen were assault on Chakadenga. The illegal occupiers alleged the cattle were allowed to eat the thatching on the their houses. The cattle had not been near the houses.  A trailer was taken on Bigkleigh by illegal occupier Kujeke. When the owner retrieved it he was harassed all weekend with gates left open etc.  and he took the owners dog which has since been returned.  Although Brentor Farm is not listed Agritex have been pegging it for commercial resettlement.   Agritex has been pegging Fair Adventure for commercial resettlement. A crowd arrived at Rhodesdale and rocks were thrown over the gate and three messages left for the owner. The first in shona “JB we cannot live with you Pack up & go.”  The other two in English saying  “ JB you did not bring these animals from the U.K. they are ours”   “ JB you did not bring this soil from the U.K. it is ours.”  An eland and three calves were found dead with parts missing at Imire Game farm. Poachers are suspected.  One Kudu an eland bull & cow have been found snared. A weaner is also missing.  A fire was started at midnight on Rapako Farm  by suspected poachers.  Two heifers are missing and the remains of another were found in a sack at the dam.  Another cow that was missing was found dead.  A Tsesebee was found dead and a zebra in a snare was released.  2km of fencing was stolen.  Illegal occupier Chigwadere has asked the farm owner to do his ridging for him.  Valuators arrived on Markwe farm and a cow was hamstrung.  About $600 000,00 worth of irrigation equipment has been stolen in a two day period.  There are about 25 head of illegal occupiers’ cattle being moved around Plymtree farm.  The owner’s 300 cattle are confined to a 60ha plot.  Illegal occupier Darlington Dinide, also known as Black Wadada was seen by farm labourers starting fires.  About 600ha of land was burnt on Ruware.  The old remains of a kudu and reedbuck were found on Brent farm.  Illegal occupiers were planting maize in a land prepared for tobacco on Lustleigh farm. The owner of Corby farm received a phone call asking him to inform all the farmers on listed farms in the district that the Lands Committee had decided that all cattle on the listed farms must be off by the 20th of this month.  A river pump was vandalised on Mbima farm, and it appears that they tried to steal the starter.  38 head of illegal occupiers’ cattle are wondering around the farm with gates being left open and the cattle mixing with the commercial cattle.
Featherstone - On Calais illegal occupiers demanded that the manager remove his dairy cows from the paddocks on the farm because it is time to plough.  If the cattle are not removed they will be put in the security fence.  The matter was reported to the police.  Member In Charge (Inspector Mutize) said the problem was that farmer has two farms which is not correct.  The dairy cattle and followers were put into the security fence area and the DA and Member In Charge said the cattle should stay in this fenced area.  As yet milking has not been stopped.  On Thursday night cattle broke out and one was severely axed.  Kaukonde and  Makunde have both said dairy farms should not be interfered with .  The owner has offered a portion of the farm for subdivision. Kuruman A dairy farm is under extreme pressure from occupiers.   On Vergenoeg a group of approximately twelve settlers told the owner that he has four days to remove the cattle from the property because it is time to prepare the land.  The farmer has already sold three properties to the Government and had Government authority to purchase Vergenoeg.  Uitkyk  has work stoppages.  Oasis  is unlisted and has been pegged. Indications are that the farm will be utilised for model A2. The owner is unable to begin planting tobacco. The DA is aware of the status but says it is earmarked for future resettlement. On Nswala Manyoni resettlement villagers assisted in the apprehension of stock thieves who stole two cows and a calf.
General – Government valuators visited several farms in the area.
Harare South -  On Dunluce occupiers Matsangura and Luston Karonga approached a tractor driver and told him that if he worked the following day they would destroy the tractor, lime and fertilizer and kill the owner. Whilst threatening the driver, he was waving a pistol around.  On Sunday a Mazda 323 with Matsangura and two friends cut a padlock on the farm gate and drove around the tobacco lands and started lighting fires on the land.  On Auk’s Nest Mr Chidagwa and another, both armed, threatened two workers.  They wanted the driver to get the tractor and destroy the seedbeds.  Police came on Saturday morning and failed to recover the firearms.  Further investigation are taking place. On Sunday evening the manager of Rusimbiro and his family were barricaded in their house by settlers who lit a large fire and sang and danced until midnight.   Three Agritex vehicles arrived on Garth farm and told the farmer to leave the farm.  About 12 illegal occupiers threatened to assault the foreman of Swallowfield farm because he was ridging his lands.  The owner was chased off the land into his house and was referred to the DA to sort the problem out.  The gang leader arrived in the farm village and started burning houses. Eight houses were burnt. The mob then went  to the owner’s house and shouted for him to pack and leave the farm and built a fire about 100m from the house. Later the owner and his wife went around the farm to assess damage and were ambushed, their vehicle’s window was smashed.  Brechin, Carolina and Duiker farms were evaluated by Government Evaluators.
Bromley / Ruwa / Enterprise - The owner and son of Fourdyce farm were moved off the farm completely.
Matabeleleland
Nyamandhlovu – On Auburn and Hilda farms the DDF arrived to peg the property and drove over and broke irrigation pipes.  The owner was followed to Ticehurst Police Station where he went to lay a complaint and he was followed to his house in an attempt to intimidate him.  Squatters from Redwood Park threaten workers on neighbouring Mcombeni farm and ordered that some leave immediately and others next week.  The evening milking has been stopped.  The property has virtually been taken over by squatters.  The environmental destruction is massive with large areas of farm cleared of its natural woodlands. 2500m barbed wire has been stolen, this was reported to Siganda ZRP with no response.  On Kennelly's the DDF have pegged approximately 10 plots.  900 acres of grazing has been destroyed on Glen Curragh and Nyokeni despite being currently in use.  A perpetrator has been arrested and has appeared in court. A very aggressive group of war vets, led by Pindumbone, were at Ticehurst Police Station threatened the farmer when he went to make a report.  Fires have burnt about 5500 acres on East Junction, West Junction and Glen Carrif.  The accused is a squatter who works in Bulawayo and will appear in court.  A fire was started on East Junction Farm by Mr Just Ngwenya, a squatter, where he was clearing land for ploughing.  The fire raged out of control and in three hours burnt approximately 2000 hectares of prime winter grazing.  This included the whole of West Junction, a farm rich in wildlife.  No effort was made by squatters to assist in controlling the fire.  The matter was reported to police and investigations are under way.  A private vehicle with a war vet  and a Mr Tommy was driving around Galitos Farm. They shot an unidentified animal and a duiker.  The incident has been reported to the Ticehurst Police sub station.  On Glen Curragh Ranch ruling party cards were being sold at $20 for membership only and  $70 to include some sort of food aid.  Squatters have been told to mobilise youth. Umguza R.D.C.  C.E.O. threatens to get war vets to burn Nyamandlovu Farmer's Hall if the Council are not allowed to use it.  On returning to Marylands the owner found most of his farm burnt and fence removal continuing.  A group of about 50 squatters gathered at Highfields farm security gate shouting and complaining about the arrest of  poachers, shooting of warthogs by safari clients and denial of entry to the farm store which is within the security fence.The situation was defused after the arrival of Sgt. In Charge of Police Mounted Unit and some of his details.  Farmer did not accede to squatters demands.
General -  It is estimated that over 100 000 acres have been burnt so far in the district this year.  About 20 000 this week.  D.D.F. continue to plough but a lot of squatters have not stumped their lands.  Poaching, snaring and tree cutting continue on all farms and appear to be increasing.
Insiza – there have been extensive fires on Ensangu where they now have only 600 acres left to carry 400 head of cattle.  In previous deliberately lit fires, 25,000 acres of the 32,000 acre ranch has been burnt.  This week on the remaining 7,000 acres, grazing was deliberately torched and the ranch owners were only able to save 600 acres.  Lochard farm workers have been severely intimidated and have, under war vet instruction and supervision, moved all the cattle onto the southern half of the ranch across the main Bulawayo Gweru road.  The war vets removed the telephone from the farmhouse thus denying staff access to the owners, threatening that if the owner comes onto the farm they are going to kill him.  Fort Rixon Police have been notified and a result is awaited. On Unbunja there has been an invasion of 32 squatters even though the farm remains unlisted.  The farmer has been refused permission to keep cattle on this property.  Pyramid Farm was designated in June and an army truck arrived with a new invasion of people.  Very large bundles of thatching have been stolen.
Shangani - Although Forfar and Thornville have not been gazetted, valuation teams are insisting on doing valuations.  On Forfar four families have been resettled in the last fortnight with more threatening to come on and a staff sergeant and another member of the National Army have allocated themselves land and are building rapidly.  The vehicle being used to ferry material has already had a garage built for it.  Albany has four residents building permanent structures. Rampant tree felling and land clearing are in progress.
General - A bulldozer has been clearing lands on Matabeleland Concession farm and a DDF tractor has been clearing on Mount Pleasant Farm.  Poaching with snares and dogs and tree chopping are ongoing on most properties.  War Vets have threatened the Headmistress at St James Secondary School, which has about 700 pupils and staff.  The Officer in Charge, Inspector Nube, refuses to offer protection.
Inyathi – On Deesdale a farm guard who was dismissed went to the war vets claiming that the foreman had made false allegations to his employer to have him dismissed.  In the ensuing arguments the foreman and another worker were beaten.  The housekeeper was falsely implicated and severely beaten up.  Police are investigating. Huntsman Farm have had fences cut and cattle have been driven in from Inyathi Communal Land.  This was reported to Dr Moyo of the Turk Mine Veterinary Office and the Police.  Baltimore have war vets inspecting their plots and leaving people to take care of them. 15 snares have been removed.  The farmer and game scouts tracked a scotch cart with stolen boundary wire. The suspects fled, but the scotch cart, a bicycle and $3500 was impounded.  During a follow-up, three suspects were arrested and wire recovered.  Three poachers were caught with three warthogs and have been prosecuted.  Since their arrest, no more poaching incidents have been reported.  Ten people arrived to demand wheat from the foreman, which he refused, and the people left very angry.  The incident was reported and the leader of the group has been charged with misconduct and breaking the peace.  On Gourlay farm the gardener was handcuffed and slapped around by war vets.  A Police report was made.  Fire has been deliberately started by settlers and a large area has been burnt.   On Clonmore Ranch the security fence around the workshop was broken into and the tractor battery was stolen. 300 ha has been destroyed by fire set deliberately by settlers on Alandale. Despite a restraining court order, large areas are being cleared and trees cut on Greenlands and Wessels farms.
West Nicholson – Both Highway and Springs Ranches saw new occupations last week with demands to remove all cattle off the ranches.  Labour housing is being threatened with take-overs and claims are being made that the ranches belong to the people.
Beit Bridge - General - DA Mbedzi has threatened that he will defy the Abuja agreement and push more people onto Beit Bridge farms and targeting Jopembi Lots 7A and 8, because the farmer is using legal procedures to frustrate the acquisition of his properties.
Figtree – On Sandown North a fire destroyed 300ha of irrigation land including 2ha of spineless cactus pears, which were imported plant material valued at $400,000. Earlier a worker's house and irrigation and piping were also destroyed. 
Bubi - Chilton Farm had $1225 worth of thatching grass stolen. A game scout came across three men carrying a .303 rifle.  He did not attempt to apprehend them, but on the way to report the incident, he heard a shot.  No animal found, and police offered to assist with incidents of this nature with a mounted patrol.
 MASHONALAND CENTRAL
Bindura - There is a total work stoppage on Minto Farm. The DA has told the owner to go ahead and plant but the illegal settlers refuse to allow any work on the farm.
Mazoe / Concession -  Irrigation equipment to the value of $70 000:00 was stolen on Marodzi River Farm .
Glendale - There has been no change where work stoppages, strikes and theft of irrigation equipment is concerned.
MASVINGO
Masvingo East and Central Area - Ballinahone Farm owner reported fire on this property on the evening of the 16th October 2001. Fire burnt right up to owner’s homestead and around all ZESA connections. No grazing left on this property.  Beauly Farm  has gates that are being locked and tied down with wire being maliciously opened and padlocks are then stolen and the gates left open. Owner is experiencing extreme difficulty in the running of his property. Grazing has been completely burnt out and fences continue to be cut.  Shallock Park Farm has been instructed not to use river sand on neighbouring farm. Illegal occupiers will also not allow the use of the tractor on the farm. The owner has to receive special permission from the Land Committee to uplift his grinding mill and fluorescent light from neighbouring farm.  Lamotte Farm reported a fire that has burnt out 10% of this farm. More illegal occupiers reported to be moving everywhere.
Chiredzi Area - There has been more pegging and clearing of plots on Dawlish Ranch. More people are moving onto Bombardine Ranch. Alstar Haven illegal occupiers’ cattle mysteriously found in the owners yard on the 15th October 2001 at 12pm.  Bangala Ranch had Agritex accompanied by Land Committee Zaka on the property to peg plots amidst the irrigated citrus crop. 5ha plots are being pegged. The owner has been left with a 30ha plot.  At Wasarasara Ranch illegal occupiers ploughed up the owner’s access roads. One log was put across the one road – other logs have since been removed.
General Comments - Extensive poaching continues to take place. Burning, tree cutting still continue unabated.
Mwenezi Area - Once again just more of the same - cutting, burning, fence destruction, theft of wire, gates left open, snaring, poaching with dogs, harassment of cattle, etc. Fires are increasing again with the warmer dry weather.  On Quagga Pan 'A' & 'B' / Alko / Kyalami  pipeline vandalism is making it impossible to obtain water. It is virtually guaranteed that the pipe will be broken within hours of being repaired. Many other properties, such as Limburgia, are unable to cope with the increased demand for water. There has still been no resolution to the issue of Red zone communal cattle in the Green zone Mateke hills properties.
South Of Bubi – A court order obtained  instructing DVO and O-I-C, Beitbridge to remove all communal cattle has had no effect. There are still cattle going backwards and forwards to dip across the zone and quarantine fence. Donkeys pulling carts also trundle happily from the FMD area onto Joko and Kleinbegin. Six head of cattle were brought onto Kayansee last week from the Tshituripasi area.
Gutu / Chatsworth Area - Three police details, headed by Cst Nhema, with six fully armed army personnel arrived at Berry Springs Farm  to demand why a contour ridge had been repaired, and a water hole created from the borrow pit. In the absence of the owner the army details were left to 'guard' the workings till the afternoon. On the return of the owner, he was aggressively addressed, and told that he needed to fill in the hole. He explained that the repair of a contour and deepening of a water hole were good developments, but was told that it was too late for developments as the land no longer belonged to him. The owner was told he had to fill in the hole. He suggested that this was a 'stupid idea', which met with an extremely angry and aggressive response. This lead to a period of sustained harassment by the police and army details which ended close to midnight when a superior officer apparently instructed that the farmer be released from the police station where he had been taken.  A more conciliatory attitude was displayed the following morning when the farmer again reported to the station as instructed.  A further dispute about the legality of burying a deceased relative on the farm was also resolved.
 Midlands
Gweru East/Lalapanz - Fires, building, tree chopping, land preparation, theft of fencing and gates being left open is ongoing throughout the area. A farmer has been told to move his cattle off again, after an agreement had been reached as to which land he could use for his herd.
Kwekwe - A tractor driver was discing fire breaks when a police vehicle arrived with 3 plain clothes people and they demanded that the driver stop as he was working on their plots. The driver was able to resume when they realised there was no threat to their plots. A house is being built on an undesignated property and no planting is allowed on half of the property. A farmer has to sell the cattle on designated property as there is no grazing left due to fires. Brick making and poaching with dogs is ongoing. 16 houses have been built on a property and the farmer told he is not allowed to plant. An occupier beat a farmer’s dog on the head with a plank with nails in it. A gum pole plantation has been burned. Continual fires being set on the properties. A hired bulldozer arrived on the property to start bush clearing. A caretaker told the owner that he must leave the gates open in order for occupants to come and go as they please Fires were set 10 metres away from the barley land. When the owner put out the fires the occupier got angry. Police were called and did not react. Continuous poaching and burning ongoing. No response from police as they say they are understaffed. One farmer had 45 plots allocated and only 8 appear to be opening up the land for cropping at present. Most of these plots have been allocated to army, police and teachers. Two cattle slaughtered, one a cow in calf. Only the hindquarter was removed. Boundary fences are being cut and kudu slaughtered. A businessman from Gokwe delivered a worker to clear his plot. Local war vets under the influence of alcohol, visited a farmer issuing threats, accusing the farmer of not co-operating. One urinated in the farmyard in front of the women. The farm workers were told by war vets that they would have to leave with their white men and they would not get land. Settlers have been moving onto a farm in vehicles which are all police, army and air force vehicles. Plainclothes police visited a farm demanding that weapons be handed over and made threats when the farmer refused. Items which had been stolen were found but the farmer was told he could not claim them because the farm had been valued. Army personnel visited a farm with the stated intention of marking out their plots and drove around the lands and house. 25 sprinklers and risers, 4 x 4" aluminium pipes and one control valve stolen. Hunting dogs have been shot and poachers chased off. The poachers come from the neighbouring resettlement area and have threatened scouts for shooting their dogs. Rhino conservancy scouts, looking for a missing rhino, were threatened by occupiers and given one hour to get off the farm. The occupiers said the land and the animals belonged to them and accused the scouts of poaching. Police and Army personnel have been seen hunting with rifles.
MANICALAND
Nyanga - The situation at Claremont is calm but ZFTU never arrived yesterday and are expected today.
MASHONALAND CENTRAL
Horseshoe - 17 farms with work stoppages. The Rungudzi clerk was threatened with death if he does not leave the farm.  Poachers/occupiers setting fires continuously, as one is extinguished another is started. Approx 4 000 acres have been burnt.  Grazing is now critical.  Poaching day and night since the police removed guards' guns. Blue Grass and Siyalima have extensive fires started by poachers/occupiers.  Rushpeak have occupiers threatening to evict workers from their homes.  Poaching and tree cutting is on-going.
MASHONALAND WEST NORTH
Karoi - All farms that attempted to start work 2 weeks ago are still unable to. Pegging teams arrived on Musha Wedu and Elka Ranch although the farms are not listed. Yeadon Farm labour went with a tractor to collect wood for the boiler. The settlers told the labour they would be beaten and chased out of the farm village.  The squatters became aggressive and threatening towards the farmer and grabbed him by the arm.  The farmer managed to free himself and ran towards the gate. The settlers started pelting the farmer with catapults and he radioed for help. ZRP refused to attend on the grounds of lack of transport. Local farmers arrived and the mob that had started toy-toying at the gate dispersed. After repairing a hole in the fence the farmers left and once they had gone the mob returned asking the labour to join them in their chanting. The labour refused and they left until the following morning. ZRP arrived at 9.00am the following day and diffused the situation despite further threats from the settlers that they would return.  On Little Gem Rex Jesus used the H F S A radio network to request keys for the farm from the farmer. As he was denied the keys he smashed the lock on the entrance gate and proceeded to the homestead, threatened the guard who gave him the keys and he took up residence in a storeroom off the main house. He claims the house is now his.  On Yawanda Farm poaching of wildlife continues despite reports to ZRP.  Poachers claim they are from the Government and can do as they please. The farmer intended to rebuild his farm village after it was destroyed last week but he has been advised not to do so by the settlers as they claim it is now theirs and after the tobacco is finished his labour must move off.  La Rochelle Farm had settlers who told the  labour to leave, then they returned with reinforcements and asked the farmer to leave. The farmer is waiting for official notification from the Government. In the meantime no work is allowed on the farm and a skeleton staff are allowed to feed cattle and domestic work may continue. On Fiddlers Green settlers admitted setting fire to the maize stover in front of the homestead. Settlers tried to stop the farmer and labour from putting out the fires. Labour has been assaulted by settlers and work stopped.  Laughing Hills has illegal pegging of the farm. Fires have been started by the settlers and the labour told to vacate their houses. The settlers are occupying the farm village and the farmer has to remove his cattle.
Trelawney/Darwendale - Molby now has eight rudimentary structures in the farm village that have all been built by the same three people. On Sunday an Army truck with +/- 30 arrived. They took one look at the soil and said that it was no good and they were off to Kadoma where the soil was better. Planting started today on Molby with no problems or any sign of invaders. On Venmara settlers put in demands for all inputs and they want lands ploughed immediately.  When the farmer refused these demands, the settlers threatened to pull out the tobacco but have not done so to date. Work continues.  On Chimwemwe  the farmer was informed the he may not use the main farm access road as this passes the settler houses. When the farmer started using the back roads, the gates were wired up by the settlers. The farmer has since cut the gates open and there has been no further reaction from settlers. The farmer is not growing a crop this season.  Cleeve  -  Settlers threatened to burn tractors if farmer continued working – the Banket MIC went to investigate but was largely ineffective. At a meeting held on Friday 12th with Reward Tabukwa and Flight Lft. Jumbe, the farmer was told that he does not communicate well and must therefore be punished by not allowing him to grow crops in the final two lands that are not yet planted. Subsequent meetings later resulted in the farmer being allowed to plant in the one land but not the other and no-one arrived for a meeting called by them today (Tuesday) Work continues.  Major Mlambo arrived on Templeton Ranch  and stated that he has been allocated a plot and that the cattle there must be moved. Pastures were subsequently burnt out.
Chinhoyi - Sligo /Natalia Farms  are in the process of being pegged.  Greensleeves Farm  had a kudu poached.  On Portelet Farm the owner will be allowed to continue farming if he agrees to prepare 160 ha of land, and supply seed and fertilizer to the settlers.  The owner has since received a letter suggesting that he remove all his cattle as he has not met the settlers’ demands. On Portlelet Estates the settlers informed the workers that the owner has agreed to prepare land and supply seed and fertilizer to the settlers, which is not true.  Longvalley Farm had settlers trying to break down the gate to get at his maize and 25 tonnes of corn and cob maize was loaded into scotch carts.
Tengwe – On Lasvagas Farm several workers were told by illegal occupiers to get land from their boss.  Police went out defused the situation.  Tayesa Farm owner has been told to move out of his house and his workers were stopped from working.  Police went out and defused the situation.  The situation flared up again when the D.A.'s assistant went out and told the farmer that more land preparation must be done at the farmers cost for the illegal occupiers before he can plant,
Nyabira - One farm worker was abducted and beaten with a metal rod.  He has been intimidated not to report the matter.  A Mazda B1600 was stolen from Wellesley Farm, the gate fence was cut and the vehicle pushed out of the premises.  The vehicle was recovered as a shell and an axle at Lilfordia base camp, 24 hours later.   
MASHONALAND WEST SOUTH
Norton - Another two properties are currently being pegged and work stoppages continue on all properties previously mentioned, with the tobacco crop expected to be about fifty percent of last year in the area. On Wilbered farm domestic staff have been evicted from their homes and are living in the homestead with the owner. Illegal occupiers have extorted eighty thousand dollars from the cattle operation after starting to burn grazing when their demands were not met.
Selous -  On Homedale farm  which was pegged and invaded since the 6 September, the owner has had to abandon the six hectares of tobacco that he did manage to plant due to Government having allocated this land to someone else. On Impofhoe the owner is not allowed to plant his dry land crop. On Norwood the owner has not been able to irrigate his three hectares of paprika for several weeks. On Wicklow  the full Lad Committee told the farmers’ committee set up by Minister Chombo that they were to be dissolved and that Wicklow could not continue production. Another cow was slaughtered on Wicklow. On Exwick over a hundred thousand dollars worth of wood has been corded and Wing Commander Mazamban has taken to moving it at night in Air Force vehicles rather than in broad daylight as was the case previously.
Chegutu/Suri-Suri - At least ten occupied farms have had aluminium irrigation pipes stolen in the Suri-Suri area over the last few weeks. On La Forte farm the gatehouse hut was burnt down. On Just Right seed maize was stolen. On Borden occupiers stole thirty metres of pipe from the reservoir so the owner now has no water.
Kadoma/Chakari/Battlefieds -  Virtually the whole area is in a work stoppage situation with seventy five percent of the farmers unable to do any land preparation due to pegging. Farmers are having to make a decision as to whether to write off prospects for any production this year or not. Most farmers are regrettably going to be forced into a no production situation if something doesn't change over the next few days. One farmer on Twinlands tried to plant in an unpegged area on his farm under a thirty hectare centre pivot where he had ridged and fertilised for paprika in July.  Ten members of the Land Committee came and stopped him. The farm is a single owned farm. In the area where illegal occupiers had recently stolen and caused the loss of seven million dollars worth of potatoes illegal occupiers are now moving in on the cattle. On Normandy North thirteen head of cattle have been stolen. On Inniskillen two cows have been stolen and on Georgea three have been stolen.



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Daily News

Police bar Daily News reporters from covering Nust graduation

10/20/01 12:17:35 PM (GMT +2)


From Our Correspondent in Bulawayo

THE police and security personnel yesterday barred reporters from The Daily
News from covering the National University of Science and Technology (Nust)’
s graduation ceremony where President Mugabe was officiating.

Three police officers and three other security personnel in plain clothes
said The Daily News had not been invited to the event and they were under
strict orders not to allow the crew entry.

A Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation news crew and several other reporters
from the government-controlled media were allowed entry at almost the same
time The Daily News was barred. They did not produce any invitation cards.

“Who invited you here? This is a State occasion and you can only attend by
invitation. Go and write that we sent you back,” said one of the security
personnel.

He further threatened Daily News photographer Grey Chitiga and reporter
Mduduzi Mathuthu with arrest for “trespassing” if they did not leave the
Nust campus.

Nust’s director of information and public relations, Felix Fandroy Moyo,
yesterday described the incident as regrettable.
Moyo said he had not received any instructions from the police to bar
reporters from The Daily News.
Mugabe capped 433 graduates including 11 from the Department of Chemical
Engineering.

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Daily News

Bakers head for showdown with government

10/20/01 12:18:36 PM (GMT +2)


By Collin Chiwanza

THE government and bakers are set for a major showdown as representatives of
bakeries throughout the country yesterday gave a 14-day ultimatum for the
government to revisit the gazetted statutory price of bread or they will
close shop.

The bakers, who are pressing for subsidies on flour and wheat, said if the
government fails to come up with an acceptable compromise that will enable
their operations to remain viable, they will stop production.

Fifty bakers attended the meeting which agreed on the ultimatum in Harare.
Mark Prior, chairman of the National Bakers’ Association of Zimbabwe (NBAZ),
said it was unfortunate that the government was not acting on an appeal from
the bakers for a review of the controlled price.

Prior said: “We will be forced to close down. They are just quiet. We have
heard absolutely nothing from the government and we are unsuccessfully
trying to contact them.

“We are giving them a maximum of two weeks to act on this matter. If nothing
materialises we will be left with no option except to close down because we
can’t continue to produce at a loss.”

The NBAZ chairman said bakers were getting “very agitated” as they wanted to
know what the government was doing to address their concerns before they
accrue huge losses.

“In the meantime, we will continue to produce limited amounts of bread until
the Grain Marketing Board brings down the prices of wheat,” said Prior.

The closure of bakeries will inevitably result in a serious shortage of
bread and loss of jobs.

President Mugabe, threatening a return to socialism, last week said the
government would take over companies closing down because of the price
decree.

The bakers’ 14-day ultimatum came as the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions
(ZCTU) announced yesterday that it fully backed price controls only as a
short-term measure against the price increases which were
spiralling out of control.

Addressing a news conference in Harare yesterday, Lovemore Matombo, the ZCTU
president, said long-term measures were needed to address the problem of
price increases, which he said was fundamentally political.

Matombo said: “As ZCTU, we fully support price controls as an interim
measure to cushion the public from high prices. For the short term, price
controls are the only best possible solution under the current
circumstances.

“However, we think that the problems we have in this country are political
and we need an urgent political solution.”

Matombo criticised Mugabe’s plans to reintroduce socialism saying it was not
a wise move “to go back where others are coming from”.

Said Matombo: “We started off with socialism and abandoned it for capitalism
after discovering that socialism was not feasible.

“Many other countries, including the powerful Soviet Union, and the rest of
the world, have already moved from socialism to which we want to go back to,
it is wrong.”

Matombo attacked some companies which he said were profiteering at the
expense of the suffering consumers.
“It is very true that some companies are profiteering,” said Matombo.
“However, what we have done in the Tripartite Negotiating Forum is to set up
a price monitoring and surveillance unit to investigate reports of
profiteering.
“In some cases some products were increased by more than 200 percent why all
of a sudden and by such a magnitude?”

Last week the government gazetted reduced prices of bread, maize meal,
cooking oil, margarine, beef, chicken, soap, salt and fresh milk.
The price of bread was reduced from about $61,50 to $48,40 a loaf.
Bakers are resisting the new prices, arguing their businesses will not be
sustainable and they will be forced to close.

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Daily News

Doctors boycott casualty section over allowances

10/20/01 12:22:37 PM (GMT +2)


Staff Reporter

There are no doctors manning Parirenyatwa Hospital’s Casualty Department due
to a stalemate over allowances which their employer, the Public Service
Commission (PSC), has yet to address.

Sydney Makarawo, the acting chief executive officer of the Parirenyatwa
Group of Hospitals, said: “It is a spill-over from the recent strike by
health workers.”

Nurses, junior and middle level doctors at government central hospitals went
on strike over salaries and working conditions on 24 July, joining
specialist doctors who had already been on strike for three weeks demanding
a review of their on-call allowances.

Makarawo said: “The doctors working in Casualty, like any other doctors,
expect to be paid an allowance. It is not as if there is a shortage of
doctors at the moment. The allowances awarded were unacceptable and unless
there is a change, the stalemate is likely to continue.”

Makarawo said talks with the PSC on resolving the problem were promising.

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Daily News

Goche threatens Mutasa

10/20/01 1:32:10 PM (GMT +2)


By Brian Mangwende

LEADING Zanu PF members from Mashonaland Central Province are alleged to
have threatened to harm war veterans and a top businesswoman over their
Telecel Zimbabwe shares.

Nicholas Goche, the Minister of State Security, and Chen Chimutengwende, a
former Minister of Information, were among people alleged to have threatened
Jane Mutasa and two war veterans’ leaders in the ongoing squabble over their
shares in Telecel Zimbabwe.

The company’s chairman is James Makamba, a former Zanu PF MP for Mount
Darwin in Mashonaland Central.
Mutasa is the president of the Indigenous Business Women’s Organisation, a
shareholder in Telecel.

Goche and Chimutengwende this week denied they ever threatened
Mutasa.
She and Giles Munyoro, a war veteran who leads the Empowerment Corporation,
and Edwin Hokonya, another war veteran who leads the Magamba eChimurenga
Housing Scheme, initiated by the late Chenjerai Hunzvi, say they have
received threats on the telephone from Goche, Chimutengwende and other
people claiming to be members of the Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO).

Mutasa alleged Goche telephoned her repeatedly, threatening to harm her if
she persisted with her demand for Makamba to explain what happened to her
organisation’s shares in the cellphone company.

A senior CIO official, identified only as Kanengoni, is among the people who
have allegedly harassed and threatened to kill the three shareholders of
Telecel Zimbabwe.

Mutasa said Goche, Chimutengwende as well as CIO and CID Fraud Squad
officers had telephoned her and other shareholders warning them to stop
their probe into the alleged mismanagement of company funds at Telecel.

They said the threats started soon after they accused Makamba of allegedly
swindling them of millions of dollars in their shares.
Goche denied threatening either Mutasa, Munyoro or Hokonya.

Mutasa said: “We have been threatened with death, harassed over the
telephone by people who say they are from the CIO and at times CID.

What aretheir interests?
“At one time I had to tell them to stop phoning me at odd hours because I am
a married woman. What will my husband say if I continue receiving phone
calls asking me to report at the police station at night?”

Goche admitted he phoned Mutasa but said it was only to give her advice on
how to go about solving the Telecel shares problem.

He denied phoning Munyoro or Hokonya.
He said: “I telephoned Mutasa last Saturday after I received a report about
the disturbances at Telecel and asked her to solve their problem with
Makamba amicably and not through jambanja.”

Jambanja is war veteran slang for violence.
“Mutasa is a respected leader in our society and out of respect, I advised
her to engage a lawyer to take over the matter. Why should they behave in
such a barbaric manner and close down their company? She told me a whole lot
of other things such as the discrepancies in the company’s salary structure,
but I was not interested.”

Denying the allegations, Chimutengwende said: “Who am I to get involved in
Telecel business? I know Munyoro through other business transactions and,
besides, we come from the same communal area. I have never phoned Mutasa. As
for Hokonya, I wouldn’t recognise him if I met him on the street.”

Early this month, war veterans led by Mutasa, Munyoro and Hokonya, stormed
the Telecel offices in Graniteside demanding that Makamba explain the fate
of their shares.

They threatened to shut down the company if Makamba failed to give them a
satisfactory explanation.

Hokonya said: “We are sick and tired of these phone calls by State agents.

“The truth can never be suppressed by threats. On several occasions, Makamba
declined to meet us over this issue. We will never disclose our next move
because we do not want to alert him. He must just wait and see.”

Said Munyoro: “Makamba should remember that we got the licence with the help
of President Mugabe and Joyce Mujuru, the Minister of Rural Resources and
Water Development. People did not bid for it.

“We have shares in there and he must explain what’s happening to them.”
Makamba declined to comment.

Nine days ago, Harare police questioned Munyoro and Hokonya in connection
with the disturbances at the offices.

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Daily News

Soldiers to remain in DRC, says Sekeramayi

10/20/01 12:21:22 PM (GMT +2)


Political Editor

ZIMBABWE will not withdraw totally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(DRC) where fresh fighting has been reported over the past few weeks, a
government minister said on Thursday.

Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi said the deployment of more United
Nations peacekeeping forces will determine the time-frame for the total
pull-out of Zimbabwean troops from the DRC.

The Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) deployed about 12 000 troops in the DRC in
August 1998 to help prevent the government of the then president, Laurent
Kabila, from being toppled by rebels supported by Rwanda and Uganda.

About 4 000 Zimbabwean soldiers from three battalions have been pulled out
since April, but the exercise has been halted to allow the deployment of a
UN peace-keeping force.

There have also been reports of new deployment but Sekeramayi said this was
not true. He said fresh troops were relieving their colleagues in the DRC.

Sources in the government say the government’s reluctance to withdraw the
soldiers from the DRC was to ensure that private and public money-spinning
ventures established in that country are protected.

ZDF supremos, notably General Vitalis Zvinavashe, the Commander, are
involved in billion-dollar deals in companies such as Sengamines, Oryx
Diamonds Limited and Osleg Private Limited.

The DRC conflict has been dubbed the new scramble for Africa with the ZDF
last month getting into a $16 billion deal to fell trees in the Congo. The
logging operation is expected to bring in profits of over $2 billion over
the next two to three years.

Angola and Namibia Zimbabwe’s allies in the Congo withdrew all their troops
after three years of intense fighting that prevented the fall of Kinshasa to
the rebels.

An official from the Namibian Defence Ministry, Frans Nghitila, was last
week quoted as saying his country would not send its troops back to the DRC
despite renewed attacks by Rwandan-backed rebels there.

But Sekeramayi dismissed the article saying this was part of “indirect
British pressure” to put Zimbabwe in bad light by pushing articles that
suggested that all the allies had pulled out of the DRC.

He said: “There is a lot of disinformation that is going on at the moment.
The Namibians have written to us and said they are prepared to send back
their troops to the DRC if the situation deteriorated.”

“What has been happening is that the British have been pushing these stories
and exerting this indirect pressure with some British citizens who are on
the UN mission going to the extent of provoking our soldiers in the DRC
expecting them to retaliate.”

He said the British wanted the soldiers to react and then “publish stories
saying Zimbabweans in the Congo are in conflict with the UN and all this is
calculated to damage our reputation”.

“Zimbabwean soldiers will remain in the DRC until enough UN peacekeepers
have been deployed,” said Sekeramayi. “We will comply with their timetable
of withdrawal to the letter. It is the UN that is delaying our total
withdrawal.”

Sekeramayi said the DRC peace accord was holding at the moment because of
the presence of Zimbabwean soldiers who could not afford to lose the ground
gained so far.

But Nghitila told The Namibian newspaper on Wednesday last week that Namibia
had accomplished its mission in the DRC by successfully preventing the
rebels from taking over the government.

He said all Namibian troops and equipment had now been withdrawn under the
Lusaka ceasefire agreement.
Namibian President Sam Nujoma had earlier told Joseph Kabila, the DRC
president, that though the withdrawal had started, Namibia was ready to
continue to assist if the international community failed to ensure the
successful deployment of UN forces.

There have been incidents of heavy clashes between rebels and
government-backed forces in areas like Fizi on the shores of Lake Tanganyika
dealing a blow to the fragile Lusaka ceasefire agreement.

“Our involvement was to create a conducive environment for elections. That
we have achieved and I don’t see us going back. The rebels must come to
their senses,” Nghitila said.

Sekeramayi was tight-lipped on how much Zimbabwe had spent on the DRC war so
far. At one stage the military intervention was estimated to cost US$2
million (Z$110 million) a day.

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From Business Report

Mugabe ditches IMF agreements 'to revive economy'

From Sapa-AFP
October 20 2001 at 07:20AM
Harare - Zimbabwe would abandon the economic reforms it negotiated in 1991
with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and was deciding on alternative
policies, the Herald newspaper said yesterday.

"Analysts were agreed that there was no reason why Zimbabwe should be
imprisoned by economic policies that had failed to work in other countries,"
the state-run paper reported.

"Economic liberalisation has not led the private sector to take advantage of
market forces but has led to the creation of a clique that has taken
advantage of the liberalised environment to entrench itself and has been
profiteering instead of doing honest business," it added.

The government has asked a group of economic, industrial, financial and
banking experts to draft a new economic policy. The new policy is to focus
on President Robert Mugabe's land reforms, which have paralysed the
once-vibrant agricultural sector.

The paper said the new policy aimed to revive the economy by producing
agricultural products for export to markets such as Malaysia, Thailand,
China, Libya and Mauritius, as well as to its existing markets in Europe. It
also aimed to boost mineral exports and public works projects, such as
housing and building infrastructure.

Information minister Jonathan Moyo defended the decision to change economic
models. "We are surprised that some people are scornful of this and we hope
it is not racism, because socialism is alive in Europe. It seems like
socialism is OK in Europe, but not OK in Africa," he told the paper.

Zimbabwe embarked on market reforms in 1991, with the IMF subsequently
pulling out in 1999. The country has stopped paying its IMF debt, racking up
$53 million in arrears by late September

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BBC
 
Saturday, 20 October, 2001, 12:48 GMT 13:48 UK
Zimbabwe's benefit match
Zimbabwean player Grant Flower
Zimbabwean cricket will have benefited from England's short tour
By the BBC's Jonathan Agnew

Even on the day the England team left for Zimbabwe, there were last-minute appeals from politicians and pressure groups that felt the trip could be used as publicity stunt, and give credence to Robert Mugabe's regime.

As someone who knows Zimbabwe pretty well - my first wife was from there - I never thought for a moment that the players' safety would be compromised. But the publicity angle did concern me.

In fact, this proved to be correct, as a large article in the government-supporting Herald newspaper confirmed.


I wandered into an ordinary-looking chemist shop in Harare in search of a toothbrush. The price was 900 Zimbabwe dollars - £11!

Seizing on a report by a cricket writer for the Daily Telegraph, who happened to mention that, with spring sunshine and the jacaranda trees in full bloom Harare was a pleasant place to be, the publicity machine declared this as evidence that there were no problems in Zimbabwe.

The journalists who had been expelled, it was alleged - including the BBC - were mischief-making.

But the columns of smoke we saw rising from farms into the clear blue sky between Bulawayo and the Matopas in the south-west of Zimbabwe suggested a different story.

Thriving black market

The US dollar is king in Zimbabwe, and you really can't do anything without either it, or pounds.

I was separated from my baggage at the start of the trip, and having exchanged some US dollars at the 'proper bank rate', I wandered into an ordinary-looking chemist shop in Harare in search of a toothbrush.

The price was 900 Zimbabwe dollars - £11! It was only then that the black market - or parallel market as it is called - was introduced to me. Even in broad daylight, we would stroll into a back room of a local restaurant, clutching our pounds. In return we were given 350 Zimbabwe dollars to the pound, nearly five times the proper rate.

Suddenly the price of my toothbrush took on a different appearance - and the best fillet steaks in town became little more than a pound, while imported South African wine was a couple of pounds

Nasser Hussain playing in Zimbabwe
England beat Zimbabwe 5-0 in the one-day matches
But what on earth do the locals do - like the taxi drivers whose meters now rotate even faster than fruit machines?

The answer is that they mutter increasingly openly and bravely about the government, and its prospects in the elections next spring.

In fact local news, and particularly politics, dominate the newspapers - which are fiercely divided in their loyalties. The Herald and the Bulawayo Chronicle support the government to the extent that the Chronicle described Mr Mugabe's approach to land reform as "internationally acclaimed".

On the other hand, the Daily News attacks the government at every opportunity and the result is that the war in Afghanistan is relegated to page 13, or thereabouts, on a typical day.

Shambolic beauty contest

In fact the editor of the Daily News felt that a ferocious account of the shambles that was the 2001 Miss Zimbabwe pageant deserved greater prominence than the American Air Strikes - mind you, presented by the cricketer Henry Olonga, it did sound an extraordinary evening.

Due to begin at 7.30, the event only started at 9 when the audience started to become restless.


Olonga's cricketing jokes didn't go down terribly well with the increasingly irate audience

A clearly relieved Olonga started to introduce the contestants when a breathless official rushed onto the stage and announced that the girls weren't ready yet.

What does Olonga do now? His repertoire of cricketing jokes didn't go down terribly well with the increasingly irate audience - which he then treated us to, of all things, a coaching clinic on fast bowling.

Finally, with all other options exhausted, he burst - unaccompanied - into song.

At last the contest began - without, our correspondent noted with a suggestion of disappointment, the swimsuit parade. Apparently there was an unsavoury incident at last year's do. However, he did report that during the show one of the girls' garments fell off.

The evening was rounded off by Zimbabwe's equivalent of Julia Morley who, at the end of her speech of thanks, invited a host of helpers onto the stage to receive a bouquet of flowers.

Yes, you guessed it - there were no flowers.

In need of TLC

It's easy to visit Zimbabwe now - especially if, like me, your experience goes back 20 years or more - and feel sad.

Harare is not now a town you can walk around anymore without a feeling of unease. But above all, the country as a whole urgently needs some TLC - some tender loving care.

At least, though, there was evidence of society's change for the better at the sporting venues we visited.

Robert Mugabe
Mr Mugabe's government has been heavily criticised abroad
Not so long ago, the only black faces you would have seen in the bar of the Harare Sports Club would have been waiters, but now blacks, whites and Asians all mix quite happily, enjoying a beer, of course, and watching the cricket.

On the field, black players represented Zimbabwe not because of the crazy, short-sighted quota system that they are trying to enforce in South Africa, but because these cricketers are talented and more than capable of holding their own.

And it was the cricketers, in particular, who will have benefited the most from England's short tour and who would have suffered the most had we pulled out.

The foreign currency we brought with us for the radio and television broadcasting rights will be ploughed back into local cricket which, in a country of such grave uncertainty, will be the more secure for our visit.

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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 20 October

Violence rises on Zimbabwe farms

Harare - Violence on Zimbabwe's mainly white-owned farms is dramatically worse since President Mugabe signed the Abuja Agreement, according to a survey of commercial farmers. Almost 700 farms have been invaded since the meeting of Commonwealth foreign ministers in Abuja, Nigeria, last month. Mr Mugabe agreed then to stop the invasions and return his land reform campaign to the rule of law. However, David Hasluck, director of the Commercial Farmers' Union, gave a chilling account of developments in the agricultural sector, which provides nearly half Zimbabwe's foreign currency. Nearly a third of Zimbabwe's population has applied for food aid.

Of the farmers surveyed, 51 per cent had been invaded, Mr Hasluck said. More than 800 violent incidents, including assaults on farmers and their workers, had been recorded. Mr Hasluck predicted at least a 40 per cent loss of production this season, costing £142 million for the tobacco industry alone. Commercial farmers were growing only enough of the staple food, maize, for their workers and for stock feeds. Mr Hasluck said 75,000 people had been forced from their farm homes in the past few months. They were replaced by 104,000 "settlers", who so far had made no preparations to grow crops when the rains fall next month. In the past 10 days, four of Mr Mugabe's most loyal cabinet ministers have been touring white-owned farms and speaking to farmers and new "settlers". They have repeatedly told white farmers that they have "no rights over land". These meetings were no more than "political rallies", according to a CFU official.

From News24 (SA), 20 October

40% drop in Zim farm production

Harare - The main white farmers' organisation on Friday forecast a 40% drop in commercial farm production this year because of disruptions and violence on farms by ruling party militants. The continuing disruptions violated an accord Zimbabwe signed in Nigeria on September 6 that was intended to end the violence, the Commercial Farmers Union said. Ruling party militants began their often-violent occupation of nearly 2 000 white-owned farms last year, demanding the land be seized and turned over to landless blacks. The government quickly followed with plans to seize nearly all the white-owned farmland in the country. Opposition officials say both moves were meant to drum up support for the ruling party ahead of parliamentary elections last year and presidential elections expected next year.

The farmers' union released the results of a survey of its members on Friday showing that 1183 farms were affected by work stoppages last month, with about 350 farms shut down completely, some for several months, union officials said. More than 40 000 ha of food crops were under threat, reducing crops of corn, the staple food, by up to 40% compared to last year. Tobacco, the main hard currency earner, was likely to be reduced by between 35 - 50%, a loss of some $228 million in hard currency revenues in next year's tobacco marketing season. Zimbabwe is the second largest tobacco exporter after Brazil, which has already announced increases in its production to make up for the 650 000 tons Zimbabwean growers have not been able to plant this year, the union said.

The farmers were forced to slaughter more than 240 000 cattle - 20% of the commercial herd - this year after militants and land occupiers torched grazing land, the union said. "This trend of violence and disruptions is continuing and the economic consequences will deteriorate further," union director David Hasluck said. At total of 104 175 militants, occupiers and squatters were on 1 948 private farms and 74 998 farm workers and their family members had been driven off their employers' land. Farmers reported 829 incidents of violence against their families and their workers since the September 6 agreement Zimbabwe signed with ministers of the Commonwealth of Britain and its former territories promising to restore law and order to farming districts and stop new farm occupations. Colin Cloete, a union leader, said the survey revealed worsening violence since the accord. "We see a strong trend in the escalation of farm invasions and work stoppages in the last six to eight weeks," Cloete said. Occupiers had seized land on 688 farms since the accord. President Robert Mugabe had promised to abide by the accord, but some doubted whether he could quickly rein in the militants.

From VOA News, 19 October

Commonwealth delegation to meet with Zimbabwe government

A group of key Commonwealth ministers will be in Zimbabwe next week for talks with the government about its controversial land reform policies. A statement issued Friday by the Committee of Commonwealth foreign ministers says the group will meet with members of the Zimbabwe government as well as opposition leaders next Thursday and Friday. The ministers from Britain, Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa were invited to Zimbabwe by the government at a September sixth meeting in Abuja, Nigeria. At the Abuja meeting Zimbabwe agreed to end its seizures of white-owned farms and stop political violence in the nation. In return, Britain said it would provide funding for a peaceful land reform program. A commonwealth spokesman says the meetings represent an important step towards implementation of the Abuja agreement. In spite of the accord, a survey issued Friday by Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union indicates that farm violence has actually escalated in recent weeks.

From The Daily News, 19 October

Police detain deportees

Beitbridge - The police and officers from the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) are reportedly harassing and detaining thousands of Zimbabwean farm workers who are currently being thrown out of South Africa. The deportees have been accused of being vigilantes trained in South Africa to destabilise Zimbabwe. This follows claims by the Zanu PF MP for Mt Darwin South, Saviour Kasukuwere, that some South African commercial farmers had trained vigilantes now being brought into the country through illegal crossing points along the border, to provide security for their Zimbabwean counterparts. Kasukuwere, a former CIO operative, claimed the Zimbabwean authorities had unearthed about 500 such cases. The deportees are said to be linked to the fearsome former South African soldiers of the 32 Battalion who now provide security to South African commercial farmers. "They all failed to prove they were Zimbabweans," said Kasukuwere, who sits on the Parliamentary committee on defence.

The theory being advanced by the Zimbabwean government is that the vigilantes are going to be used to attack war veterans and families resettled on seized white-owned commercial farms. Several deportees at Nottingham and Sentinel Estates in Beitbridge told reporters they had nowhere to go after being expelled from South Africa. They complained they had been searched by Zimbabwean security personnel. Those without national identification particulars were being detained, they said. "They came here in their vehicles and started quizzing us on our identities. Those who failed to produce their identity documents were bundled into the vehicles and taken to Beitbridge," said one deportee at a temporary camp set up for the stranded deportees at Sentinel Estates.

The police in Beitbridge yesterday denied they were harassing the deportees. At least 2 000 deported former workers are stranded at Bite, Sentinel and Nottingham. An official from the South African High Commission in Harare yesterday dismissed allegations that the deportees were trained vigilantes as "fictitious garbage". He said: "There is no such policy which South Africa has embarked on. It is someone’s imagination." A South African court has halted the deportations following an urgent application by commercial farmers who said there was need for dialogue before the deportations could be effected. Meanwhile, Collin Chiwanza reports in Harare that the MDC says it holds President Mugabe and his government responsible for the deportation of the farm workers who were otherwise gainfully employed in South Africa. In a statement yesterday, the MDC secretary-general, Professor Welshman Ncube, said: "These Zimbabweans are a tiny fraction of our citizens who have become economic refugees in countries all over the world as a result of Zanu PF’s failed economic policies. We hold Zanu PF wholly responsible for the fate of all these Zimbabweans." Up to 15 000 Zimbabweans working on farms in South Africa are being deported by immigration officials, supported by the army and the police.

Reacting to the deportation reports, Ncube said if Zimbabweans were to enjoy peace and tranquillity, urgent action was required to stop the continued harassment, torture and spilling of blood instigated by the government. "After 21 years of independence, Zimbabweans face dim prospects of life as our country is deeply mired in economic ruin," said Ncube. Ncube, the acting MDC spokesperson, said it was unfortunate that Mugabe and his government were quick to find scapegoats for any problems caused by the skewed policies of their party. He said: "The tragedy of this outgoing government is that it suffers from the recurrent problem of dishonesty. It has perfected the art of identifying groups of people other than itself as the cause of the Zimbabwean crisis. It is this same government which is in the process of displacing over 200 000 farm workers in the country through State-sponsored violence." Ncube said while companies were closing down and thousands of Zimbabweans lost their jobs, the government seemed to be interested in appointing endless so-called action committees. He said the government could appoint as many action committees as it deemed fit and give them all sorts of names, but that would not solve unemployment and border-jumping problems.

From The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 October

Zim/SA in diplomatic tiff

Friction between South Africa and Zimbabwe, which first surfaced at the September 11 Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in Harare, intensified this week with a war of words between officials on either side of the Limpopo. Fuelling the row, high-level sources said, is a growing perception in Pretoria that President Mugabe, in retaliation for the diplomatic wringing he received in Harare last month, is supporting the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC)’s agenda of land invasions modelled on Zanu PF’s programme. Despite being a negligible party in electoral terms, the PAC has been given red-carpet treatment in Harare and provided extensive state media coverage for its land agenda. PAC officials, who expressed support for land invasions in Zimbabwe during a visit to Harare in August, are set to return soon for further talks with their traditional Zanu PF allies. South African war veterans, reportedly raising funds for President Robert Mugabe’s re-election next year, are also thought to be backing Harare in its diplomatic spat with Pretoria. A meeting is due this month in South Africa between regional ex-combatants and the land issue is expected to feature prominently.

Sources said Mbeki’s robust stance in regional initiatives over the Zimbabwe crisis, particularly his encouragement of meetings with civil society, have riled Mugabe. Since the SADC taskforce Harare meeting, the already fraught diplomatic relations between Pretoria and Harare have further deteriorated. Zimbabwean authorities, disguising themselves as "analysts"in the official media, have attacked Mbeki to undermine his policies, especially on land. They claim that while refusing to speak to the opposition in South Africa on the land issue, he is only too prepared to meet Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Sources said Mugabe and his advisors resent Mbeki because he has abandoned the revolutionary solidarity stance which Mugabe has used to camouflage his isolation. Harare also does not like Pretoria’s meetings with the MDC, a party it alleges represents foreign interests. This could explain the resuscitation of relations with the PAC which were abandoned after a Cape Town bomb attack in 1993.

Despite energetic efforts by Pretoria to explain the deportation of illegal Zimbabwean farm workers as "routine". analysts say the move should be seen in terms of a deteriorating relationship. Harare and Pretoria - albeit indirectly - this week exchanged fire over the issue. Zimbabwe, through its propaganda mouthpieces, claimed South Africa wanted to sabotage its land reform through the deportations and threatened to seize more land to resettle the deportees. It also said whites were influencing Mbeki’s government on this matter despite clear evidence that Northern Province farmers were helping their workers to appeal against the move. South African Home Affairs director-general Billy Masentlha said in an interview that it was disturbing to note officials were associating themselves with "unfortunate" remarks. "(Zimbabwe’s) Government has been making unfortunate statements on the basis of propaganda and rumour," he said. "Most of the things that have been said about this matter are just not true." Masentlha said official media reports that 8 000 Zimbabwean farm workers "slipped" out of South Africa to avoid deportation were unfounded. "It’s an absolute lie, a total fabrication," he said. "The fact is the courts have ordered (that) we should have an out-of-court settlement and we have given farmers until the end of this week to argue their case. Next week we will provide them with a definite response."

There are 10 152 Zimbabwean farm workers in South Africa’s Northern Province currently working on 94 properties - not 15 000 as the Zimbabwe state media has been claiming. The total number of farm workers in the Northern Province - including South Africans and other foreigners - is 16 000. Despite the widening diplomatic rift, Masentlha denied his government was playing tit for tat. "We are not deporting Zimbabweans alone. We are deporting illegal immigrants from South Africa including the farm workers. How many Mozambicans, Malawians, Zambians, Nigerians and others do we deport on a daily basis?" he asked. Masentlha said South Africa wants to end the exploitation of what he termed the Zimbabwe "slave market" by its farmers while creating jobs for locals.

From The Star (SA), 19 October

Zim newsman takes to the streets in anger

Harare - The publisher of a major Zimbabwean weekly joined his newspaper's vendors on the streets of Harare on Friday to protest at a police crackdown on street vendors. Trevor Ncube, publisher and chief executive of the Zimbabwe Independent, sold copies of his paper in one of the capital's busiest intersections during the morning rush hour, hoping police would arrest him. Although several police cars and soldiers passed by, no one bothered Ncube. "The whole point was to get the police's attention and to make a point" about the arrests of vendors during the last three weeks, he said. "We have on average every week about 20 vendors being arrested," he added. "I think this is a ploy between the police and (information minister) Jonathan Moyo's office to affect the press...to attempt to limit the free flow of information," he said. Police say they are enforcing traffic laws and a city ban on street vendors, though vendors of vegetables or other products have not been affected. The crackdown has affected two other weeklies, the Financial Gazette and the Standard, which have suffered declining street sales as police detain the vendors for most of the day, Ncube said. International press groups have repeatedly criticised the infringement of press rights by President Robert Mugabe's government, including harassment of journalists by police.

From ZWNEWS, 20 October

Voter Registration

Yesterday we offered to send readers copies of the government’s mobile Voter Registration Programme, This document shows the dates and places where people can go to check whether their name is on the voters’ roll, and if not, to register to vote in the 2002 Presidential election. There are other, permanent, offices where you can do this. All Provincial Registration Offices, as well as the Registrar-General’s headquarters in Harare, can be used.

Potential voters should take with them their identification document and some proof of residential address (a PTC or Zesa bill, or something of that nature). The process of form-filling is handled by the registration officer. It is extremely important that you check the details entered on the form. Also, insist on being given a slip to prove that you have registered. This slip should be kept safely and taken with you when you go to vote. Do not leave the registration centre without this slip – prior to the parliamentary election in 2000, many people were not given these slips, were then unable to prove they had registered, and were unable to vote if their name had not been included on the voters’ roll.

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Extract from a Zimbabwean farmer's letter:

"Life here sucks at the moment but we all carry on in a bit of a daze, expecting things to change miraculously in our favour any time soon. There's no way we will be able to plant a crop this year and are currently trying to figure out whether or not we can survive a year with only the income from our store and butchery and selling cattle next year. (Actually our store has been closed for a couple of months now because of break-ins but we can easily re-open). It's just we are reluctant to re-open when most of the customers will be squatters! So much farm labour from all the surrounding farms here have been chased away."
" ... it's starting to get hot, we wish the rains would start in earnest - at least so that our cattle will stay on the farm! At the moment they stray all over the place in search of green grass when veld fires have swept through (all over the district) and the situation isn't helped by the fences constantly being cut and gates being left open daily by our new neighbours. "
"P. is having a dreadful time in Chakari - still working, just, but judging from the sitreps, not for long. Plus to add to the frustration squatters accidentally set fire to 40 hectares of his wheat he was in the middle of combining last week. That beautiful farm looks like TTL - I haven't been down for nearly a year and am too cowardly to do so because I know how heartbreaking it will be. All the game poached, not a fish left in the dam, trees cut everywhere, mombies, donkeys, dogs etc everywhere. "'
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The Herald
 
 

Esap successor sought

Herald Reporter
THE Government is putting together a panel of economists, industrialists, financial experts and bankers to map the way forward following the decision to dump the World Bank and International Monetary Fund-sponsored economic reform programme.

The Herald understands that some of the members in the panel have been working on this under the National Economic Consultative Forum and the Tripartite Negotiating Forum, which looked at the need for a social contract between labour, Government and business.

It is also understood that policy documents on the way forward would soon be brought before Cabinet for discussion.

The Government last week introduced price controls to stop manufacturers and retailers from exploiting the people through profiteering.

Sources said the introduction of price controls was not an overnight development, but that it had been studied by experts for more than a year.

Industry — especially the bakers and millers, who were now running around claiming that they wanted dialogue — had been given a platform through the NECF, but they had snubbed the opportunity.

As far back as last September, the TNF came up with a draft protocol on incomes and prices and had resolved that there was need to come up with a new regime for managing incomes and prices, putting floors and ceilings to stimulate growth and bring down inflation.

Sources said the policy thinking within Government went beyond price controls of basic commodities, but that there was a macro-economic framework based on the fast-track land reform programme as the centre around which the economy should be rejuvenated.

This would be done through the production of agricultural products for exports and taking advantage of new alternative markets in Malaysia, Thailand, China, Libya, Mauritius, etcetera, and consolidating existing markets.

The new policy thrust — sources said — was aimed at stimulating exports focussing on agricultural products, minerals and embarking on public works programmes such as housing, the provision of infrastructure and amenities, resulting in the creation of employment.

The new developments were taking place against the realisation that the economic structural adjustment programme had been around for more than 10 years but there was little to show for it.

Economic analysts were agreed that there was no reason why Zimbabwe should be imprisoned by economic policies that had failed to work in other countries.

Esap had a lifespan of five years but the Government had toyed with the programme for 10 years, a fact analysts said showed that it was committed to giving the policy its best shot.

"It has become clear that the policy had major structural defects which had to do with the nature of the economy, its history and the composition of key actors which made it least susceptible to market dynamics because it is dominated by oligopolies.

"Therefore economic liberalisation has not led the private sector to take advantage of market forces but has led to the creation of a clique that has taken advantage of the liberalised environment to entrench itself and has been profiteering instead of doing honest business."

Sources said the Zimbabwe dollar had been devalued by more than 300 percent over the past three years, but there had been no correct response from the market, leading to a point where people no longer had faith in devaluation.

Privatisation was supposed to lead to economic empowerment of the indigenous Zimbabweans, but it had now become a "bookkeeping exercise" and was being used to mortgage national assets, said the source, citing reports that the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe wanted to move to Mauritius.

"That shows that privatisation can lead to capital flight. That is why there should be a distinction between privatisation and empowerment.

"What is needed in an economy like ours is to bring indigenous people into the mainstream economy through empowerment," said the sources.

The announcement by President Mugabe on Monday that the Government had dumped Esap had been met with cynicism and criticism from some quarters, yet South Africa had "quietly" dumped its Reconstruction and Development Programme in the early 1990s and its economic growth programme in the late 1990s but there was no public outcry.

The dumping of Esap comes at a time the Government had introduced socialist economic programmes such as the urban commuter trains. Governments the world-over subsidised urban transport.

Contacted for comment yesterday, the Minister of State for Information and Publicity, Professor Jonathan Moyo, said: "The President has said we now have another opportunity for the socialism that we wanted to work.

"We are surprised that some people are scornful of this and we hope it is not racism because socialism is alive in Europe. It seems like socialism is okay in Europe but not okay in Africa.

"The Labour Party is introducing socialism in Britain. If it is good for them, why is it bad for us? There are a lot of people in our country who think that socialism is a slogan and do not know that it is one of the most powerful economic fundamentals of the modern world."

Prof Moyo said the Communist Party of South Africa was party of the government in that country yet no-one raised an eyebrow about it.

"So what’s the fuss when we say we want to revert to our socialism? Communism is more ominous in the minds of the capitalists than socialism," he said.

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The Daily News - Leader Page

Placing problem on Mugabe’s doorstep

10/19/01 7:37:19 AM (GMT +2)



THE South African government must have decided to let Zimbabwe itself deal
with the consequences of its own disastrous policies unemployment and
economic migrants when it ordered a Monday deadline for mass deportations of
Zimbabweans working in that country.

That the directive took South African farmers, who employ the Zimbabweans,
by surprise suggests it was not something that had been the subject of
consultations between the two governments and must, therefore, be a profound
statement on how the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) now views
this country.

The assumption must be that the Sadc has given up on trying rational
persuasion of President Mugabe to halt his policies, which have the
potential to destabilise the region, and have decided to place the problem
on Mugabe’s doorstep.

In the past, people simply ran away from Mugabe’s policies, but by deporting
them, the South Africans are forcing them to react to what the ruling party,
Zanu PF, and the government are doing to them.

Sadc must have reasoned that Mugabe has less pressing issues on his hands
and that is why he has pursued his agenda on land for the past 20 months.



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