Zim Standard
BY FOSTER DONGOZI
THE Zanu PF politburo has condemned the
Chinese government,
saying they were flooding the local economy with
substandard goods while
sending quality goods to Europe and the
Americas.
The substandard goods are derisively referred to as
zhing-zhongs
in Zimbabwe.
"The issue of the Chinese goods
came up at a recent politburo
meeting," a Zanu PF politburo member told The
Standard, "and concern was
raised over the substandard goods that have been
coming from China.
"We noted that although the Chinese are
our friends, they are
making the people hate the
government."
The politburo member said although China was the
largest growing
economy in the world, it was "rather unfair" for them to
provide quality
service and goods to the Western countries "at our
expense".
He said the government's desperate efforts to court
Russian
investment were driven by fears that the Chinese would continue to
take
advantage of Zimbabwe's "Look East" policy, knowing that they would
have no
competitors due to lack of investor confidence.
The Zanu PF newspaper, The Voice, reported recently that all
Chinese deals
would now have to be "evaluated".
The newspaper quoted
Vice-President Joice Mujuru as having told
a politburo meeting: "A special
sub-committee of The Look East Task Force of
the National Economic Recovery
Council should now be set up."
President Robert Mugabe was
recently reported to have been
unhappy with a deal, in which Zimbabwe bought
two MA60 planes from China,
because they were said to be
substandard.
Mugabe does not use the
planes.
Zanu PF secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa,
professed
ignorance of the condemnation of Chinese goods during the
politburo meeting.
"If they (discussions) were held then they
were not done in my
presence, but I am certain there was no such discussion.
In any case the
goods from China don't just find their way to Zimbabwe.
There are some
people who import them into the country."
The government turned East after it was slapped with sanctions
by Western
countries for alleged gross human rights violations.
During
the liberation war, the Chinese trained and armed Zanla
guerrillas, and out
of gratitude, the government has awarded companies from
China, tenders to
build dams, hospitals and the National Sports Stadium.
Most
of the district hospitals built by the Chinese a few years
ago are already
falling apart while Valley Dam irrigation scheme in Matobo
district was
built using outdated technology, making it difficult for
beneficiaries to
achieve any meaningful harvests.
The giant National Sports
Stadium in Harare built by the Chinese
and opened in 1987 started cracking
and sinking almost as soon as it was
commissioned.
It has
now been closed for almost two years for renovations.
The
fallout over trading with China has already claimed the
scalp of Zimbabwe's
Ambassador to China and former Mugabe minder, Chris
Mutsvangwa, who is
reported to be on his way out of the diplomatic service.
A
politburo member told The Standard that Mutsvangwa was
suspected to have
helped the Emmerson Mnangagwa faction to compile a damning
dossier, accusing
Mujuru of having gone on a business trip to China to seal
deals which would
benefit family members instead of the country.
Zim Standard
BY
OUR STAFF
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe could live to regret
his encouragement
of the police to deal ruthlessly with protesters, The
Standard has learnt.
On Thursday the House of Lords
recommended that Mugabe's
exhortations to the police to beat up trade union
demonstrators could be
used to arraign him before the International Court of
Justice at The Hague
for crimes against humanity.
Speaking during a stop-over in Cairo, Egypt, on his way from the
United
Nations recently Mugabe praised the police for their brutal assault
on
leaders of the labour movement and civic society activists. Mugabe warned
anyone contemplating demonstrating against his government because of
deteriorating levels of poverty that they would face the full wrath of the
law.
But the House of Lords in debate that put Zimbabwe
under the
spotlight said Mugabe's comments amounted to claiming
responsibility for the
actions of the police and would be relevant if
matters came to The Hague.
Baroness D'Souza suggested the
British government use the full
array of legal, diplomatic and other
measures open to the UK and the
European Union in order to create a critical
mass of international opinion
and to support those in Zimbabwe who bear the
"unspeakable brunt of
repression".
She recalled the 2005
report of the Select Committee on Foreign
Affairs which recommended that the
UK start a campaign for the referral of
Mugabe to the International Criminal
Court for "his manifold and monstrous"
crimes against the people of
Zimbabwe.
Torture in Zimbabwe, Baroness D'Souza said, was
widespread,
systematic and severe and therefore constituted a crime against
humanity.
She said: "Under the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal
Court, there is a duty on all those who signed up to
the statute to bring a
prosecution at the Court in The Hague. Perhaps now is
the time to initiate a
campaign on that."
She went
further, calling for the exclusion of the Zimbabwe
police from participating
in "any international peace-keeping missions".
Zimbabwe has just sent a new
contingent of police officers to Kosovo.
Baroness Park of
Monmouth said Mugabe only thinks in terms of
command operations and cited
the increasing role of the military in various
key institutions, which role
she said had produced disastrous consequences.
In
Matabeleland, she said, the brutality of the soldiers and
their absolute
power had brought back the memories of the "murderous
destruction wrought by
5 Brigade in the 1980s".
But the Earl of Sandwich, noting
Zimbabwe's rapid decline, which
has seen a once prosperous state being
transformed from a breadbasket to a
basket case remarked: "This is largely
the achievement of one man who has
transformed himself from an acclaimed
idol of the liberation struggle to a
ruthless dictator, who is well past his
sell-by date . . ."
Describing himself as an optimist for
Zimbabwe, Lord St John of
Bletso, said there have been many false dawns for
Zimbabwe and her
long-suffering people in recent years when it seemed a deal
would be struck
and a government of national unity established and law and
order restored.
But he said the arrest of Charles Taylor, the
former president
of Liberia scuttled everything. "The incident scared Robert
Mugabe into
believing that the same fate might await him. He therefore
prefers to cling
to power."
He however said he would
expect the UK to play a major role in
the reconstruction of Zimbabwe and in
this respect recommended that the
British government start promoting a
Marshall Aid programme to support the
swift recovery of
Zimbabwe.
"The fundamentals," he said, "remain in place and
when the time
comes, Her Majesty's Government must be ready to lead the
recovery and to
incentivise and motivate the international community to
rebuild that
wonderful country."
Zim Standard
BY VALENTINE MAPONGA
UNKNOWN assailants yesterday morning
attacked su pended
Chitungwiza mayor Misheck Shoko's house and two others
belonging to MDC
members in Mabvuku in Harare.
All the
houses belong to members of the anti-Senate faction led
by Morgan
Tsvangirai.
Shoko yesterday told The Standard the assailants
came to his
house around 4AM and destroyed the security wall before moving
towards the
bedroom.
"They really wanted to harm someone
here," said Shoko, "because
they did not behave like
thieves.
"They were throwing stones through my bedroom
windows and they
never said anything; it was war."
At
least 12 windowpanes were destroyed during the attack, which
lasted for
about 15 minutes, according to Shoko.
The attackers were only
scared away by the neighbours who woke
up because of the noise. Then they
fled in a white pick-up truck.
"This is purely political
violence and I believe this is coming
from Zanu PF," said Shoko. "I have
been holding a series of campaign
meetings in Dema for the forthcoming rural
council elections. The matter is
being investigated by the
police."
Chitungwiza police con firmed receiving a report
from Shoko
about the attack.
Earlier around 1AM, another
group of unknown assailants attacked
a house belonging to MDC National Youth
Secretary for Security, Tonderai
Ndira in Mabvuku.
Ndira
said he had earlier in the week received a call from
"someone" on his mobile
phone threatening to kill him.
We heard voices of people
talking outside the house for about
five minutes. Later the attackers
started calling me out of the house so
that we could go and attend a party
meeting," Ndira said.
After a while, he said, they started
throwing stones at the
house destroying all the front
windows.
"They later fled in a white pick-up truck but I am
sure these
are guys from with in our party. We have had a lot of divisions
in the party
over the past few months. It is now very dangerous because we
now don't know
our real enemies," said Ndira, who reported the matter to
Mabvuku Police
Station (RRB 061682).
In another related
incident, another MDC member, Kufa Chapo, was
kidnapped by a gang at around
midnight and heavily assaulted before being
dumped.
Chapo
also reported the matter to the police (RRB 061681).
MDC
spokesperson Nelson Chamisa confirmed receiving the reports
of assaults but
blamed it on the ruling party.
"We have no doubt this is the
work of Zanu PF through the CIO.
They want to create a sense of divisions
within our party before the
presidential elections but I tell you they will
not succeed," Chamisa said.
No comment could be obtain-ed
from Zanu PF spokesperson Nathan
Shamuyarira yesterday.
Zim Standard
By our
staff
JUSTICE for Agriculture (JAG) Trust has threatened
to take the
government to the African Commission of Human and People's
Rights over what
it describes as a skewed compensation of dispossessed
former commercial
farmers.
JAG Trust chairman John
Worswick told The Standard on Friday the
trust viewed the compensation
scheme as a "government scam" because it was
seriously
flawed.
"This is a bloody scam. There was no compensation
board and no
compensation fund as is required in the Constitution. They gave
farmers 5 to
10% of the real value of their properties and the valuation was
done by
incompetent people," Worswick said.
The farmers
failed to find recourse in the Zimbabwean courts and
were now compiling a
legal case with the African Commission, JAG Trust said.
"We
have been deprived of legal recourse by Amendment 17 (which
declared that
all land belongs to the State) and are now going to a higher
court."
The JAG chairman said farmers had, through the
Valuation
Consortium, conducted separate valuations of their properties and
were
disturbed when government offered to give them less than the price
arrived
at by the independent assessors.
Worswick said
the government has compensated only 300 of the 4
500 dispossessed farmers
since 2000, when the chaotic land invasions,
spearheaded by war veterans and
Zanu PF supporters, started.
He said: "Those who accepted
were mostly the elderly farmers,
who were destitute and did not have much of
a choice because they have been
out of their farms for six years now. The
deal was skewed in that farmers
were given the option of a 40% discount of
their money if it was to be given
as a lump sum.
"Alternatively, they could opt to get the money without a
discount for over
five years and who would agree to this in these
hyper-inflationary
times?"
The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Lands,
Land Reform
and Resettlement, Ngoni Masuka, last week said the government
had paid out
$842 billion to 45 commercial farmers this
year.
He said budgetary allocations made for the programme
had been
wiped out by inflation, currently at 1 023.3%.
The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) said it was unhappy with the
government's level of commitment towards compensating
farmers.
CFU vice-president Trevor Gifford said: "I do not
believe the
government is serious about compensation because if it was,
there would be a
lot of money in the budget for it."
Gifford said he was disturbed by the fact that most white
farmers, who
re-applied for land in A2 farms, had their application rejected
for what he
called "racially" motivated reasons.
"Over a thousand farmers
are sitting and wanting to farm but
their applications were rejected. Some
of the applications date back to
2002," he said.
Zim Standard
By Bertha Shoko
ZIMBABWE's HIV and
Aids activists will this week stage a "die
in" at a venue yet to be
disclosed in protest against the government's
failure to provide
Anti-Retroviral drugs (ARVs) to hundreds of people in
need of
them.
The leader of the "rebel" group, known to his fellow
activists
as "General Gunpowder" (his war name for what the group calls the
"ARV
chimurenga") told The Standard last Thursday they planned to go ahead
with
their protest because the government "has totally failed
us".
There are presently 40 000 people on ARVs in the
country,
compared with between 300 000 and 600 000 who are in urgent need of
them.
HIV and Aids activists are angry with this disparity as
they
believe the government and the National Aids Council of Zimbabwe are
not
doing enough for the poor who are infected with the
disease.
General Gun Powder, whose real name is Joao
Zangarati, said in
the last week the group had mobilised support for the
protests in various
parts of the country.
Zangarati said
the response his movement received from HIV and
Aids activists over the past
week was "overwhelming". He said he believed
this was a sign of growing
discontent among many people affected and
infected by HIV and
Aids.
General Gunpowder said: "We have gone around the
country,
drumming up support for the movement and the mass protest this
week. I tell
you Zimbabwean HIV and Aids activists are more than ready to
take the
government to task. Tanga tatovanonokera.
"The
people in Harare say they have their $600 transport fares
ready for the day
and those from outside the capital are ready too. They are
willing to do
anything to raise money to come and take part in something
they believe
in."
Another activist who is part of the movement, Sebastian
Chinhaire, told The Standard that apart from the support they had managed to
amass in Zimbabwe, the group had the region's support.
Chinhaire said: "We were at a regional conference two weeks ago
in Malawi
and our SADC (Southern Africa Development Community) brothers (in
the HIV
and Aids fight) are one hundred percent behind us. We have the
support of
Zambia, Malawi itself, Lesotho,Tanzania and the Treatment Action
Campaign of
South Africa (TACSA). During our protests they are going to send
petitions
and solidarity messages on our behalf to the Minister of Health
and Child
Welfare."
Zangarati emphasised the planned protest action was
not the
brainchild of the Zimbabwe National Network of People Living with
HIV and
Aids (ZNPP+).
He said: "The members of the 'ARV
chimurenga', including myself
are mostly members of the ZNPP+ who are not
happy with the passive stance
that our organisation has taken towards the
government over the years; this
stance has yielded
nothing.
"We now want to confront the government head-on
because quiet
diplomacy has not worked. Our people are dying. They have no
ARVs, no food,
no money to treat opportunistic infections and many PLWAs
(people living
with Aids) were left homeless and without livelihoods after
Operation
Murambatsvina. We are convinced that this is a government with
little
respect and concern for its people."
Zangarati
insisted his group's members still belonged to the
ZNPP+.
He said the group had decided, "for security reasons", not to
disclose the
venue of their protest action. They did not want to alert the
"notorious"
police, he said.
"Our members will know where to go and when
to do so. We don't
want the police to stop our protests. We are also not
going to seek their
clearance because the outcome is obvious. In any case
this is a 'chimurenga'.
We didn't seek police clearance when we went to war
against colonialism."
Zim Standard
By Nqobani
Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - Over 300 unserviced graves at the
Bulawayo Provincial
Heroes' Acre are in danger of caving in after light
showers last week.
This has raised fears that most of them
might be washed away
during the coming rainy season.
Of
the 534 graves at the shrine, about 100 have been serviced
under the first
phase.
The government is yet to provide gravestones at the
shrine,
which has exposed the graves to harsh weather
conditions.
Some of the graves are continuously trampled upon
by people
visiting the shrine.
In addition a number of
concrete slabs placed on some graves to
protect them have developed wide
cracks.
Felix Mafa, the executive director of the
Post-Independence
Survivors' Trust (PIST), said the state of the graves
"showed the government
does not recognise the heroes lying at the
shrine".
"It is most unfortunate that most of the graves are
unattended
and are in a deplorable state," Mafa said.
"It
is part of the government's philosophy not to recognise some
of the heroes
of the liberation struggle. For example, the government has
not
rehabilitated the graves of fallen heroes in neighbouring
countries."
The president of the Zimbabwe Liberators' Peace
Initiative
(ZLPI), Max Mnkandla, said: "The graves should not have reached
such a sorry
state. It is up to all of us to honour our heroes and respect
the dead."
The Standard tried in vain to obtain a comment
from the
Department of Museums and National Monuments.
But in an interview last August, the caretaker of the Heroes'
acres,
Lovemore Mandima, told The Standard the graves would be serviced soon
after
the Heroes' Day.
Mandima said then: "As I speak, we have made
96 stones available
but we are waiting for the other 25 so that we can start
working on the
graves."
Zim Standard
BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
MUTARE - Efforts
by the Attorney General's Office to bring to
book the dreaded Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operative, Joseph
Mwale, for the alleged
murder of two MDC activists in 2000 suffered a major
setback with the
transfer of the police officer dealing with the case.
The
officer commanding Manicaland Province, Ronald Muderedzwa,
was recently
transferred to Matabeleland South province.
Efforts to get
comment from police spokesman for Manicaland,
Joshua Tigere, were fruitless
as his mobile number was not reachable.
Muderedzwa was
supposed to provide the docket to the AG's office
by 6
October.
But police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena yesterday
confirmed
that Muderedzwa was transferred "some time
ago".
But Bvudzijena said the transfer did not mean that the
office
was closed. "Someone should be doing the work he was doing at the
moment,"
he said.
Bvudzijena said he was not privy to the
details of the Mwale
story and would need to cross check with police in
Manicaland.
Senior Assistant Commissioner Clement Munoriyarwa,
appointed to
replace Muderedzwa, has not taken up his post as he is said to
be on a
peace-keeping mission in Sudan.
The AG's office
said they would this week make a follow-up with
the police as to their
progress in bringing Mwale to book.
Levison Chikafu,
Manicaland area prosecutor last week told The
Standard he would soon write
to the police again to find out how far they
had gone with the
investigations.
Chikafu said the deadline of 6 October the
AG's gave the police
to submit Mwale's docket to his office had since passed
and he needed to
find out from the police why they were taking their time to
bring Mwale to
book.
Mwale has eluded the law since he
allegedly masterminded the
gruesome murder of MDC activists Talent Mabika
and Tichaona Chiminya near
Murambinda growth point during the run-up to the
2000 Parliamentary
elections.
Mwale and Kainos Tom
"Kitsiyatota" Zimunya, a war veteran, were
named in the High Court as the
culprits behind the petrol attack that killed
the MDC activists. Both are
yet to appear in court.
They failed to turn up in court in
2001 where they were expected
to testify in MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's
election petition.
Zim Standard
BY
VALENTINE MAPONGA
ACTING Minister of Information and
Publicity Paul Mangwana's bid
to circumvent a western embargo against
Zimbabwean government officials
recently backfired after the United States
government confiscated the US$36
000 with which he tried to import a tractor
from that country.
Going against President Robert Mugabe's
"Look East" policy which
accords preferential status to China and other
Asian countries in the
eastern bloc in Zimbabwe's economic relations,
Mangwana attempted to import
a tractor from the US.
Mugabe's government turned to the East after being slapped with
targeted
sanctions by several Western countries for gross human rights
violations.
Impeccable sources said Mangwana, who is on
the US sanctions
list, tried to buy a tractor through a Harare firm, Farmec
(Pvt) Ltd.
He was told to deposit part of the purchase price
in foreign
currency into a US account.
"The US
government, after noticing Mangwana's name on the
transaction, impounded the
money," said the sources. "He had deposited about
US$36 000 for the vehicle
and the shipping."
The source said this incensed
Mangwana.
Two weeks ago, he confirmed he had deposited US$36
000 into a US
account to import the tractor.
"What
happened is this: I wanted to buy a Massey Ferguson
tractor through Farmec
Zimbabwe but they told me they were not in stock.
They also told me that I
would have to deposit part of the foreign currency
into a US account, which
I did," Mangwana said.
He said he was shocked to receive a
letter from the United
States government, notifying him that they had
impounded the money.
"This is what we have always been
saying," the minister fumed,
"that these sanctions are really not smart
sanctions. They are trade and
economic sanctions against the people of
Zimbabwe and it is hurting the
nation. I wanted to help feed the
nation."
Farmec has also notified him of the development, he
said.
Efforts to get a comment from Farmec officials proved
fruitless.
US President George W Bush issued an executive
order targeting
the assets of 77 senior government officials who have
formulated,
implemented, or supported policies that have undermined
Zimbabwe's
democratic institutions.
The order blocks all
property and economic assets of the
targeted individuals, and also prohibits
US citizens or residents from
engaging in transactions with the targeted
individuals.
Following the imposition of the sanctions, the
government has
since adopted a "Look East" trade policy.
But most of the products from the eastern countries,
particularly China,
have failed to match those from the West.
Eight tractors
bought by the government-appointed commission
running Harare early this year
have failed to pull refuse trucks as they do
not have the required
horsepower.
Zim Standard
By Fanuel Viriri
A Chipinge
farmer, Bruce Richter, could not take his three dogs
to his "new home" after
being violently ordered off his 428-hectare Redsands
Farm by a CIO operative
in Chipinge.
The three dogs, Brutus, Cheeky and Taige were
put down on
Wednesday since the Richters were due to leave for New Zealand
on Friday.
"It's sad because I was left with only these dogs
after I was
forced off my farm at gunpoint. I have had these dogs for the
last nine
years and they are the only things I have but I cannot take them
with my
family to New Zealand. Zimbabwe is my country and this is the only
place
that my children have known but I have no choice as I was told to
leave"
Richter said last Friday.
Redsands Farm was once
the pride of Manicaland earning US$1
million a year after Bruce and Sharon
Richter put 120 hectares under coffee
and macadamia nuts on 130 hectares. On
another 30 hectares the family grew
tea with the remaining 50 hectares a gum
plantation. The Richters employed
400 workers, but all that is now
history.
"I was told to abandon my farm at gunpoint, in the
dead of
night, with one of the invaders wielding an AK47 rifle and a
handgun,"
Richter said. "My little daughters were terrified. We were forced
to abandon
everything. I was never shown an offer letter by the new owners
or any
documentation but I was just told to pack-up and leave all my
equipment and
crops. I do not want to leave this farm, this is my home. I
have been on
this farm since my father (Roy Richter) bought it in 1980, when
it was a
mere bush, which was being used for cattle farming. I imported a
tea and
coffee processing plant from Australia," he said.
Richter said it was disheartening that for the last one year he
had
co-existed with four "new farmers" who had been offered a portion of his
farm - 165 hectares.
"The lands committee came here and
pegged 165 ha which was given
to four guys and we have co-existed for a
year, until I was told I should
leave for good by Manicaland CIO boss
Innocent Chibaya," Richter said.
Chibaya was not immediately
reachable.
Seventy percent of the macadamia plantations in
Zimbabwe
originate from Redsands Farm, but it is lying idle. Macadamia nuts
take
eight years to mature before they are ready for
export.
"I have a Bachelor's Degree in Commerce majoring in
Agricultural
Economics. Farming is all I know and this is the only home I
know," said
Richter.
Sharon, who was equally devastated,
said the eviction was the
most trying time for their daughters Nichole (16)
and Kimberley (10) as they
had been forced to leave a country they love
dearly. The Richters are
parents ofSamantha Richter (17) who was Zimbabwe's
only medal winner at the
Eighth All Africa Swimming Championships held in
Senegal last month. She
earned three bronze medals in the 50m butterfly
(29.13sec), 100m freestyle
(59.44sec) and 50m freestyle (27.56sec) to
underline the benefit of her
current full-time status at the Pretoria High
Performance Centre in South
Africa.
Samantha's 50m
butterfly was a new Zimbabwe 17-year age group
record, as was her
100m-butterfly time of 1min 05.00sec.
"I am devastated and so
are my daughters," Sharon said.
"Samantha is aiming to represent the country
in the Olympics. The children
are saddened because they do not have any
other home than Zimbabwe. We were
told to pack up in 24 hours and we left
all our farm equipment and
furniture. It was most unpleasant for the
children. I hope one day things
will change and we will come back," Sharon
said.
Zim Standard
BY OUR
CORRESPONDENT
MUTARE - The trial of Peter Mike
Hitschmann, the ex-Rhodesian
soldier arrested earlier this year on
allegations of possessing dangerous
weapons of war will start this week in
the High Court before Justice Elfas
Chitakunye.
The High
Court circuit will begin sitting in Mutare from
tomorrow. An official from
the Attorney-General's office said Hitschmann's
trial would start on
Thursday.
While in Mutare, Justice Chitakunye will also
preside over
several murder and other high-profile criminal
cases.
Levison Chikafu, the Manicaland Area Prosecutor, will
represent
the AG's office.
Hitschmann was arrested
earlier this year together with six
others, including Giles Mutsekwa, the
Movement for Democratic Change Mutare
North MP, for allegedly possessing
weapons of war.
The other six were acquitted by the courts
but Hitschmann
remained in custody after it was ruled that he had a case to
answer.
Zim Standard
BY
CAIPHAS CHIMHETE
A day before the commemorations of the
World Habitat Day on 3
October, residents of Porta Farm Extension were
baffled when they were
served with eviction notices, reminding them of last
year's controversial
Operation Murambatsvina.
Even though
the 37 households have been on the farm, popularly
known as Kasa, for nearly
a decade, they were given 48 hours to vacate by
the Kuwadzana District
Office, which falls under the Harare City Council.
However, a
day later, the residents got a reprieve after the
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights (ZLHR) obtained a court interdict barring
their eviction until
tomorrow, when the matter will be considered in court.
ZLHR
projects lawyer Tafadzwa Mugabe said: "The evictions are a
continuation of
the so-called clean-up exercise. On the strength of the
court order, I told
them to return to their homes. As of today, I have not
received any adverse
reports."
If the court fails to grant the final Order
tomorrow, the
residents will join thousands other victims of the operation
such as
38-year-old Mike Sithole, who is failing to make ends
meet.
Wearing a Zanu PF party T-shirt with President Robert
Mugabe's
picture in front, Sithole is not deterred by the searing heat as he
crushes
boulders for sale. His wife, Netsai (26), is seated metres away with
her own
pile of concrete stones.
Since Operation
Murambatsvina in May last year, crushing stones
for sale at Kuwadzana
Squatter Camp in Harare, is now the sole source of
livelihood for the
Sithole family.
Before the internationally condemned
operation, Sithole ran a
tuck shop and rented a backyard cottage in the same
high-density suburb.
But his promising life was shattered the
day the cottage was
pulled down. He now lives in a one-metre-high plastic
shack with his wife of
more than 10 years.
The couple has
three children but they are all living in their
rural home in Machazi
Village in Chipinge district.
"We live like wild animals. We
have no food, no money. All our
property was destroyed during the operation
because we were not home when
our cottage was destroyed," recounts Sithole,
as he continues crushing a
boulder.
The couple has only
one threadbare blanket, two pots and a few
plates. They fetch their drinking
water from a well, less than 10 metres
from a stream of
sewage.
The business of selling stones - which are used in
the
construction industry - is not at all rewarding. At least more than half
of
the 40 families at Kuwadzana Squatter Camp, are in the same trade
rendering
it uncompetitive.
"These days a full
wheelbarrow of stones cost $1 000 or less. At
times, we spend two weeks
without getting a customer," said Sithole, wiping
beads of sweat from his
forehead using his T-shirt, printed "Vote Zanu PF".
But he
has no kind words for Mugabe.
"Go and tell him (Mugabe) that
we are still in the open and the
rains are coming," said
Sithole.
Since May last year, the couple has not been able to
visit their
rural home, where their three children are living with their
grandparents,
because they cannot raise the bus fare.
Netsai said she is longing to see her children.
"They
(government) have been promising to give us houses for
over a year now but
nothing has materialised. Now the rains will soak us
again this year. This
small shack will not shield us from the heavy winds
and rain," said Sithole,
pointing to a plastic shack roofed only by two
broken asbestos sheets,
remnants of the dreadful operation.
Over a month ago, Amnesty
International (AI) said Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle, which was launched
by the government in June 2005 to
provide better housing to those affected
by the clean-up exercise, was a
total failure.
After
touring the affected areas across the country, AI said
most of the victims
of the operation have not benefited from the rebuilding
exercise, with only
3 325 houses constructed - compared to the 92 460 homes
destroyed.
The majority of the houses are incomplete -
lacking doors,
windows, floors and even roofs. They also do not have access
to adequate
water or sanitation facilities.
Construction
at most sites has ground to a halt because the
government has no
money.
AI's Africa programme director Kolawole Olaniyan said:
"Operation Garikai is a wholly inadequate response to the mass violations of
2005, and in reality has achieved very little."
Olaniyan
said the reconstruction programme was a failed
government public relations
project to cover up mass human rights
violations.
He said
the government should seek international assistance to
address the immediate
housing and humanitarian needs of the affected people.
Zim Standard
BY
OUR STAFF
AN attempt by the government to rescue TelOne
from collapse by
forcing other mobile cellular operators to share their
international traffic
revenue could result in renewed legal battles in the
industry.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications has
gazetted a
statutory instrument requiring mobile phone companies to route
their
international traffic through TelOne from the end of this month. The
ministry has already summoned the telecoms regulator to implement the law
with effect from 1 November 2006.
Although the statutory
instrument was gazetted more than six
months ago without prior consultation,
all the mobile operators made
representations to the regulator claiming it
was legally flawed and was a
violation of their licences.
The licences allow them to operate international gateways for
traffic to and
from their own networks.
The regulator then agreed to suspend
the statutory instrument
until it was amended. But matters came to a head
when TelOne recently failed
to settle a US$700 000 bill for international
access, and the ministry
ordered the regulator to implement the statutory
instrument before it was
amended.
"This is in spite of
the fact that a committee of the National
Economic Development Priority
Programme (NEDPP) meeting to look into the
telecommucations sector had also
concluded that the objectives of the SI
were not the correct way to deal
with the issue," said an industry source.
"This could set the stage for
fresh confrontation which could lead to
renewed legal battles," he told
Standardbusiness on Friday.
Another telecommunications expert
said the real problem was
deeper than simply the issue of international
termination rates.
At present, there are three mobile
operators in Zimbabwe, with
Econet the largest, with a capacity of more than
800 000 subscribers. The
company intends to shortly release new
lines.
Telecel has about 130 000 subscribers. TelOne and
Netone
currently have a combined subscriber base of about 600 000. This
means that
the private sector is currently providing the majority of the
telecommunications services in the country.
Even in areas
like public community payphones services, which
one would have considered
the domain of the State-owned sector, which are
supposed to have less profit
emphasis, Econet and Telecel provide more than
90% of all community
payphones.
A spokesman for Econet Wireless Zimbabwe was
reluctant to
discuss the issue but confirmed initiatives were underway to
resolve the
issue.
Zim Standard
Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAYO - Civil
servants' May salary adjustments and high
inflation forced the 2006 National
budget to run a financing deficit of
about $10 billion, Finance Minister
Herbert Murerwa has said.
Presenting a paper during a
three-day pre-budget seminar in
Bulawayo a fortnight ago, Murerwa said the
budget performance to August
showed expenditure at $136.7 billion and
revenue of $127 billion.
"Actual performance to August 2006
shows expenditures at $136.7
billion and revenue of $127 billion, resulting
in a financing deficit of
$9.7 billion," Murerwa said.
He
said that total expenditure for the eight-month period to
August 2006
amounted to $136.7 billion against an original target of $90.7
billion.
Murerwa attributed the target over-run to May
salary adjustments
and inflation which eroded the original budget
allocations.
This, Murerwa said, creates high budget deficits
which
contribute to high money supply growth rates and in turn becomes one
of the
main drivers of inflation.
He implored government
to live within its means and move away
from borrowing for recurrent
expenditure.
Murerwa said there was an improvement in revenue
collection due
to the Value Added Tax, individual income tax (PAYE) and
customs duty.
"Cumulative revenue collection for the period
to 31 August 2006
amounted to $127 billion against a target of $94.5
billion" he said.
He attributed the improved VAT collections
to an increase in the
prices of goods and services complemented by the
movement in the exchange
rate.
"VAT collections amounted
to $37.4 billion against a target of
28.7 billion, while income tax
collections and customs duty amounted to
$32.2 billion and $16.6 billion
against a target of $18.4 and $12.8 billion
respectively," Murerwa
said.
Murerwa said the positive performance of PAYE reflects
the award
of higher than anticipated salary and wage settlements while the
improved
customs duty performance was attributed to the movement of the
exchange rate
which impacted on the value of imports during the period under
review.
Zim Standard
By our staff
THE parliamentary
portfolio committee on Foreign Affairs,
Industry and International Trade has
started compiling its findings on
US$400 million management contract between
ZISCOSTEEL and Indian firm Global
Steel Holdings Limited (GSHL) and will
present the report next week.
The committee has been on a
fact-finding mission to ascertain
the reasons behind the collapse of the
deal.
Edwin Mushoriwa, committee acting chairperson, told
Standardbusiness last week that the report will be presented when Parliament
resumes sitting on 31 October 2006.
"We resolved to
consider the evidence we have. This coming week
we will compile the report
to be presented to Parliament," Mushoriwa said.
Mushoriwa was
evasive when asked whether the committee now has
the report by National
Economic Conduct Inspectorate (NECI) saying, "It
would be subjudice to tell
you what evidence we have."
Giving oral evidence on the deal
last month, Industry and
International Trade Minister, Obert Mpofu, said
there was a NECI document
that exposed corruption by MPs and ministers at
the troubled steelmaker.
Mpofu later made a sensational
U-turn saying that he did not
mean that MPs and ministers had looted
ZISCOSTEEL but that their companies
were buying from the parastatal and
making profits while the steelmaker
suffered huge losses.
When asked by Standardbusiness whether the committee would
invite Mpofu
again after he failed to attend Wednesday's meeting, Mushoriwa
said the
committee was winding up its findings. He said Mpofu had failed to
attend
the meeting citing other pressing commitments.
ZISCOSTEEL and
GSHL entered into a deal early this year that
appeared to have been made in
heaven. GSHL would inject US$400 million in
return for a 20-year management
contract of the steelmaker.
The transaction was dubbed
Rehabilitation Operate and Transfer
and GSHL was supposed to inject foreign
currency for rehabilitation of the
ZISCOSTEEL plant components, especially
blast furnaces, coke oven batteries,
LD furnace and rolling mills. After 20
years, the management control would
have reverted to
government.
Immediately after the announcement, GSHL
representative Lalit
Seghal was thrust at the helm of the parastatal. He
left unceremoniously in
August in what analysts interpreted as the end of
the deal.
Zim Standard
BY Our Staff
HWANGE Colliery Company, Zimbabwe's largest
coal producer says
the acquisition of new mining equipment has enabled it to
double production.
The company's managing director, Dr
Godfrey Dzinomwa, said last
week that his company is on course to satisfy
national demand. The
development marks an improvement from recent months
where the coal producer
has been unable to meet national demand averaging
320 000 tonnes a month
because of flooding that took place earlier in the
year.
Dzinomwa said the delivery of the equipment had enabled
HCC to
increase coal production in its opencast and underground mines to 10
000
tonnes and 1 600 tonnes respectively.
". . .
following the delivery of raw mining equipment recently,
and its subsequent
deployment into production, coal output from the opencast
mine has doubled
from an average of 5 000 tonnes per day to an average of 10
000 tonnes per
day," Dzinomwa said in a statement released on Friday.
Production at the coal producer's underground mine, said the
managing
director, has also increased from an average of 800 tonnes a day to
1 600
tonnes per day.
HCC received equipment that included two
drilling machines from
Sweden, two shuttle cars from Joy Mining in South
Africa, 10 terex dump
trucks, two atlas excavators and one terex water
bowser from Norinco in
China.
Zim Standard
BY
OUR STAFF
THE government has hired a private firm of
consultants to probe
the country's critical manpower shortage, caused by
brain drain.
The Parliamentary portfolio committee on Mines,
Energy,
Environment and Tourism heard last week that the survey would assess
the
impact of brain drain on productivity in the private and public
sectors.
Between 3.5 million and 5 million Zimbabweans,
mostly
professionals, are in the diaspora, seeking greener
pastures.
The survey is to be conducted under the National
Economic
Development Priority Programme (NEDPP), a new economic model
envisaged to
put the economy - in free-fall for the past seven years - on a
better keel.
Thabani Dhliwayo, the deputy director of
Economic Analysis in
the Ministry of Economic Development, told the
committee the human resource
base was the pivot for sustainable
development.
Dhliwayo said: "This survey, to be completed at
the end of
October 2006, will allow for informed policy decisions to be made
by both
the public and private sectors."
Dhliwayo was
giving oral evidence on the objectives and
successes of
NEDPP.
He said that the Human Skills, Identification,
Deployment and
Retention Taskforce had identified critical manpower shortage
areas in all
ministries.
Replying to Bikita West Member
of Parliament Claudious Makova,
Dhliwayo said the NEDPP had embraced all
stakeholders, and had institutional
mechanisms to ensure
follow-ups.
He said although 63 000 hectares had been put
under winter
wheat, against a target of 110 000 hectares, this was still a
step in the
right direction.
Dhliwayo said the government
had released $3.5 billion through
the Agricultural Sector Productivity
Enhancement Facility and Agribank for
the 2006 winter wheat
programme.
In reply to Senator Tsitsi Muzenda's question on
inflation,
Dhliwayo said: "I can assure you it (inflation) will be a thing
of the past
in the not too distant future."
Zim Standard
Comment
THE government
either has a very short memory or, as in most
other cases, is being
downright deceptive. It demonstrates the only
commitment government has is
to its own the survival.
One of the reasons Zimbabwe has been
brought to its knees and
now suffers the ignominy of having to import food,
which it used to produce
in surplus, is because its pretentious farmers
decided there were other ways
of making quick money.
The
government, in its desperate bid to cover up the disastrous
experiment it
calls the "agrarian reform", poured resources into supporting
the new
settlers. Despite the facilities at their disposal from the
government, the
new farmers decided that selling input support on the
parallel market or
splashing the cheap money from State-guaranteed loans on
fancy vehicles
instead of farm machinery was more sensible than the
back-breaking exertions
that farming demands.
Outraged by the humiliation it was
handed by the new farmers,
the government earlier this year declared it
would not repeat its misguided
policy of pouring resources into a bottomless
pit when the intended
beneficiaries had no desire to rise to the challenge
and keep up their side
of the bargain. The government threatened seizure of
underutilised farms
from its supporters. It was a warped way of trying to
stampede new farmers
into making productive use of their
farms.
But in a complete somersault, the government last week
said
farmers - the same people who betrayed it by selling fuel and inputs on
the
parallel market - could start drawing government fuel allocated for the
2006/7 agricultural season.
This policy reversal should
not surprise us because very rarely
does the government mean what it says or
say what it means. In the case of
fuel, government decided to interfere with
supply of the commodity just when
stocks were reaching service stations in
reasonable quantities and being
sold at affordable prices. Quite what it
sought to achieve apart from
wreaking havoc in the market is a
mystery.
But the reversal last week seems to shed new light
on government's
motive. The majority of the people in government and the
ruling party do not
want to commit their own resources to any of the
ventures they dabble in.
They prefer someone to foot the bill for their
puerile flirtations with the
land.
Under the guise of
ensuring that resources are made available to
farmers, those in government
have now opened an avenue for them to access
State resources. The government
believes Zimbabweans are so naive they will
have forgotten recent events
while the fat cats continue to feed off the
State resources without being
made to account.
There are always ulterior motives in
everything the government
does. One of the motives is to mislead Zimbabweans
while profiting from such
deception. For example, since ruling party and
government officials took up
farming, the government has not dragged its
feet over increasing producer
prices. The timeous decisions on prices are
portrayed as incentives to
farmers; however, in reality they do this for
themselves because they are
now the farmers, although what they do is
actually questionable.
A measure of how the government can be
deceptive is in the
announcement that Zimbabwe will receive fertilizer from
China. This will be
paid for in foreign currency yet local industries face
closure because of
inadequate foreign currency to import raw materials so
that the industries
continue to operate and workers keep their
jobs.
This Tomfoolery may buy them time, but not forever. It
may
divert attention for some time but the majority of Zimbabweans are
beginning
to see through this charade of selfishness.
Zim Standard
Sunday
Opinion By Trudy Stevenson
RURAL Council elections will take
place across the country next
weekend, so we in the cities are aware that
campaign teams are frantically
rushing all over the place, but we have not
heard much about what the
various candidates are saying or promising, at
their rallies and meetings.
If any candidate thinks he or she
is under pressure right now,
that is nothing compared to what will face them
once they have won. Their
task is much more daunting than that of urban
councillors, for the simple
reason that there is a serious lack of
development in the rural areas.
This government is guilty of
neglecting the rural areas for 26
years. We are in effect two nations, a
poor, backward rural nation and a
poor, modern urban nation. At least
urbanites have the advantage of
modernity, but our rural citizens are
languishing back in the Stone Age,
some literally using stones to grind
their grains and tilling the land with
their bare hands or a hoe if they are
lucky.
We in the MDC believe there is need to integrate the
rural areas
with the rest of our nation if we are serious about
nation-building. To this
end, it will be the challenge of the newly elected
councillors to push for
real empowerment of their councils so that they can
address the needs of the
people.
Rural councils are not
mere tools of central government, there
to carry out directives from on
high. They are the government people at
local level have elected, and those
people expect them to uplift their
communities towards a better life. People
in general have more contact with
their local authorities than with central
government, and for this reason it
is vital that democracy works and is seen
to work at local level.
Tragically, the Zanu PF government is
guilty of abysmal failure
in this regard, as highlighted by the Report of
the Comptroller and
Auditor-General on the Decentralisation and Empowerment
of the Rural
District Councils as Co-ordinated by the Ministry of Local
Government,
Public Works and National Housing (VFM 2004:01). The Zimbabwe
Programme for
Economic and Social Transformation (ZIMPREST) embarked on in
1995 included
the Decentralisation Programme which sought to develop the
capacity of all
the then 57 Rural District Councils (RDCs) to plan,
implement and manage
their own developmental projects in a sustainable
manner. The time frame for
the Decentralisation Programme was 1996-2000, yet
little if any positive
decentralisation has taken place to this very
date.
The report puts the blame squarely on the co-ordinating
Ministry
of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing "which
co-ordinates
the Decentralisation Programme did not liaise with the relevant
authorities
to ensure that the RDC Act and relevant sector Ministries' Acts
are
amended." (Executive Summary i) The report further states that there has
been little or no effort to capacitate the RDCs and that "Some Ministries
like Rural Resources and Water Development and Local Government, Public
Works and National Housing are not transferring their functions under the
pretext that the RDCs do not have the human and financial capacities."
(Executive Summary ii).
It is also widely known that RDCs
generate very little revenue
at local level, not least because many
commercial farmers have been chased
away and the new farmers are either
unwilling or unable to pay the same
level of levies and charges. As a
result, they are virtually bankrupt.
In these circumstances,
it will be a remarkable councillor
indeed who meets the voters'
expectations! It will not matter whether that
councillor is MDC or Zanu PF -
the obstacles are practically insurmountable.
At least the MDC councillor is
likely to be aware of the need to change the
system, whereas the Zanu PF
councillor will be under pressure to maintain
the status quo, and not to
rock the boat.
My alarm bell rang at an example of this
pressure reported in
the Herald on Monday 16 October, when Mashonaland East
Governor Ray Kaukonde
was quoted as saying: "If you feel among yourselves
there is no capable
councillor for the council chairman's post, come to my
office and we will
assist you with a commissioner to head the
council."
As Kaukonde is essentially a businessman, perhaps
he is not
familiar with the concept of local government. Let me therefore
take this
opportunity to educate him and any others who may be under the
same
misapprehension. Local government is elected by the people at local
level.
They do not need assistance in the form of having a commissioner
appointed
by someone higher up, unless they believe their elected council is
guilty of
gross misconduct or serious dereliction of duty. Even as badly
neglected and
backward as our rural areas are, there will be someone in
every community
capable of leading those people, and they will elect that
person, given the
freedom to do so.
That is what
democracy is all about. Zanu PF should not be
afraid of democracy. I will
imagine just for a moment that Zimbabwe is
indeed a democracy, and say: Let
the people decide - and may the best
candidates win!
* Trudy Stevenson, is the Shadow Minister of Local Government
and Housing,
MDC- Mutambara group.
Zim Standard
Sunday Opinion By Philip Pasirayi
OTHER writers and I have argued before that Zimbabwe's foreign
policy is
barren while its domestic politics is characterised by sordidness,
corruption, ineptitude and smugness.
Those among us that
are gullible and see no evil and hear no
evil have dismissed these
assertions as baseless, factional, fictitious and
unsubstantiated.
What prompts this article is President
Robert Mugabe's remarks
two weeks ago when he demanded that the new Dutch
ambassador, Joseph
Weterings, explain why his country and the European Union
(EU) have imposed
sanctions on Zimbabwe.
The
State-controlled media has been at the forefront of telling
lies that the
authorship of sanctions against the Zanu PF government is
illegitimate and
that the international community is being cajoled by
Britain into an
otherwise bilateral dispute between Zimbabwe and her former
colonial
master.
In a comment which appeared earlier this month in one
of the
state-controlled media, it was argued that, "A bilateral dispute
between
Zimbabwe and its former colonial master, Britain, over the
redistribution of
land from a minority white group to the black majority has
become
internationalised such that the EU has become an enemy of Zimbabwe.
The
truth is that the Netherlands, like any other member of the EU, has no
grounds for imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe and let alone seeking to
interfere in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe."
The
notion of sovereignty and non-interference in a country's
internal affairs
has become obsolete.
As argued by political scientists
Keohane and Nye, today's world
is characterised by pooled sovereignties and
increased integration and
interdependence in the spheres of economics and
politics.
The impunity with which human rights continue to be
violated and
the humanitarian disaster that confronts our country are legal
grounds upon
which the EU and other members of the international community
can intervene
in Zimbabwe. The people are being oppressed in the name of
sovereignty.
In international law, human rights have assumed
the status of a
special regime which, according to the United Nations
Charter of 1945, all
members of the UN are supposed to respect and promote.
Human rights are
universal and at the core of humanity emphasising the
importance of human
dignity, equality and
non-discrimination.
Since 2000, Zanu PF has desperately
sought to place the British
at the core of the Zimbabwean crisis. This has
been done in order to provide
some measure of morality to Zanu PF's cause of
fighting an invasive former
colonial master that is still harbouring a
colonial agenda and refusing to
give up or at least co-operate on the land
question.
The brutal attack on the secretary general of the
Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions, Wellington Chibebe, and other labour
leaders
recently and the arrest of leaders of the Progressive Teachers'
Union of
Zimbabwe in Masvingo, who were celebrating the World Teachers' Day
is
indicative of a regime that is determined to thwart any voices of dissent
at
the domestic level but is also quick to hide under the guise of
sovereignty
and blame everything on external
interference.
Mugabe's attacks on Ambassador Weterings were
undiplomatic and
meant to divert people's attention from blaming Zanu PF for
the economic
woes that we are currently facing as a country. The
international community,
including countries of the EU such as The
Netherlands are not bound by the
notion of sovereignty and non-interference
on matters relating to violations
of human rights, especially when they
occur at the instigation of the State.
It was also imperative
for the EU to deal decisively with the
errant Zanu PF leadership so that it
clearly distinguishes itself as an
international body that respects human
rights and the rule of law.
The reason why Zimbabwe is
reeling under a severe economic
crisis is due to a myriad of reasons which
relate to Zanu PF's misadventures
such as the ill-conceived land reform
exercise, human rights abuses,
involvement in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) conflict and
unbudgeted for money which was doled out to
veterans of the liberation
struggle under the War Victims Compensation
Fund.
To conceive of the Zimbabwean crisis as limited to land
reform
is merely reductionist and an attempt by Zanu PF to justify its
claims that
the British premier Tony Blair is meddling in the domestic
affairs of
Zimbabwe.
Even if land reform marks the
genesis of the crisis, the blame
should still be shouldered by President
Mugabe's government that sanctioned
the abuses perpetrated by his mandarins
under the guise of giving land to
the landless.
As noted
by the Internatioal Crisis Group (ICG), "land is just
one part of Zimbabwe's
wider political and economic crisis and cannot be
addressed in
isolation."
The government continues to fiddle while it
blames the Western
powers notably Britain and the United States for our
economic misery and yet
it is clear that corruption and Zanu PF repression
have led us to this
situation. It is this same situation that needs surgical
intervention sooner
rather than merely tinkering with peripheral
issues.
As further noted by the ICG, a r eturn to normalcy in
Zimbabwe
is only possible through a change in government. The ICG notes
that, "a
change in government will have to be the starting point if Zimbabwe
hopes to
emerge from its current crisis."
Embassies, NGOs help us respect our dead
I appeal to the
different diplomatic missions in Zimbabwe and
the numerous non-governmental
organisations to help Zimbabweans in how to
handle their dead compatriots
with respect.
The government is overwhelmed with problems and
is now
completely unable to provide services to the nation. One service
which is
now beyond the ability of the government is the simple provision of
mortuary
services in every centre of the country.
The
sight of Masvingo General Hospital is both horrifying and
pathetic, to say
the least. The mortuary's refrigerators broke down and are
therefore not
functioning, while the space is grossly inadequate. The result
is that
hospital workers just pile the bodies in rows in corridors. Worms
can be
seen crawling over the dead bodies while the stench from the
decomposing
bodies is overpowering.
Frankly, I don't think this is the
way to treat our dead
relatives. Are our fat-cat government ministers aware
of the catastrophe in
our hospital mortuaries?
What is Dr
David Parirenyatwa, the Minister of Health and Child
Welfare doing about
this shameful state of affairs? His late father, Dr
Samuel Parirenyatwa,
would be ashamed if he were still alive because he was
a man of
integrity.
Since the government has failed dismally, I am
appealing to
embassies and non-governmental organisations to forget protocol
and step in
to help innocent Zimbabweans in their hour of
need.
I would like to suggest that each embassy or
non-governmental
organisation (NGO) adopts a hospital or health centre. The
adopting embassy
or NGO should be allowed to improve the mortuary service of
the adopted
hospital and run the health service of the adopted centre
without
interference from our inept government.
With an
improved mortuary service at hospitals in the country,
Zimbabweans can at
least give their dead relatives a respectful send-off.
Our
mortuaries should now adopt a 24-hour service so that
relatives of the dead
can collect the bodies and expedite burial. The
condition of the dead
deteriorates with delay. Hospitals should make an
effort to improve and
modernise their mortuaries so that they can cope with
the ever-increasing
numbers of dead people. The inadequacy of mortuary
services is now a
countrywide phenomenon.
Mission hospital mortuary services
are no exception and I would
like to plead with the original missionaries to
assist in building better
mortuary facilities at the various church mission
hospitals.
If embassies and NGOs are unable to help, my plea
should
therefore go to the general Zimbabwean public, although I am aware
that
Zimbabweans are already over-taxed and are in dire straits, we must not
allow our dead relatives to decompose before they are
buried.
Another suggestion could be for Zimbabweans to get
together and
build mortuaries at every centre in the country. We should be
prepared to
part with a few dollars a month to go towards the improvement of
our
mortuary services.
This plea goes to every Zimbabwean
because the services will be
for everybody sooner or later. We all know how
our government has failed in
the provision of this essential service so we
should not look forward to any
help coming from that
quarter.
To the government, I say: this is the time to make
peace with
the people of Zimbabwe by giving them a Constitution they are
demanding and
deserve. Allow them to organise free and fair elections so
that they will
choose a government of their choice, one which is capable of
negotiating
with the world so that this country can
progress.
The dead deserve better
Masvingo
-----------
Gender sensitivity for the
sake of it
THE recent election of one particular female as
chairperson of Karoi Town Council on the strength of gender alone is one
typical example of how the concept of gender sensitivity can be misplaced,
distorted and abused.
While it is appreciated that
the concept of gender
sensitivity is very noble, I believe very strongly
that it should be gender
sensitive as well as environment
sensitive.
The criterion of acceptability to leadership
should not
just take into account only gender status for the sake of it; it
should
identify the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to perform one's
functions. It will be setting the clock back, and compromising recognised
values and standards, if we have leaders, who can't see beyond temporary
setbacks.
It is unfortunate that gender issues are,
at times, used
to just fulfil one's insatiable lust for power and
prestige.
Karoi town deserves better leadership than
what it has
been landed with.
Resident
Karoi
--------
The regime's double standards
THE powers that be have been
displaying double standards
of the worst kind in an independent but not free
Zimbabwe.
They have been crying foul over the EU, US
and
Australian-led sanctions, playing to the gallery for the world to see
their
tears yet for the dreaded Operation Murambatsvina they will try by all
means
necessary to sweep this ill-conceived phenomenon under the
carpet.
The operation has indeed become the
government's sanctions
upon its people such that the speed and ruthlessness
with which it was
carried out will be hard to erase from the memory of those
affected and will
forever stand as a dark era in the history of the
country.
The government could have at least offered the
people
alternative shelter rather than driving them out of sight where they
are
enduring their suffering, with no prospects of immediate
redress.
To add insult to injury, the much-publicised
Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle has been overridden by political
consideration in much
the same way as the land reform before
it.
Politicisation dismisses the authenticity and good
intentions of such programmes, which initially start off as meant to benefit
everyone irrespective of party affiliation.
Let not
the regime cry foul over sanctions by the West
when it is unable to look at
itself and the sanctions it has imposed on its
own
people.
The sad thing is that there are forces that try
to justify
such actions.
Gerald
Dandah
Gweru
----------
Mugabe, Gono unholy alliance sinking the country
deeper
into despair
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe, the
public media and their
favourite commentators have all attributed the
economic malaise the country
is experiencing to sanctions, floods, drought,
the opposition MDC, and stay
aways by the labour movement and demonstrations
by the much-hated National
Constitutional
Assembly.
A good number of people from our
constituencies of
Mutoko North and South are now much wiser than the
imagination of our
corrupt leadership. We now know the cancer behind all
this and we no longer
believe lip-service by Zanu PF will provide the
panacea to our problems.
It is now clear that
successive droughts did not
affect Zimbabwe alone but the whole of Southern
Africa, yet we import maize
from South
Africa.
As for sanctions, Mugabe is hiding behind
a finger.
There are no trade embargoes imposed against Zimbabwe. The truth
is that our
agricultural and mining sectors are performing below capacity
and cannot
produce anything worthwhile and as such we cannot be expected to
export
anything. Mugabe's unholy alliance with the late Chenjerai "Hitler"
Hunzvi
resulted in the demise of the country's biggest employment sector and
highest foreign currency earner -
agriculture.
It is important to remember that we
get foreign
currency from exports and not from informal traders. Zimbabwe's
government
failed to meet its loan repayment obligation and the result was
suspension
of the balance of payments support by the International Monetary
Fund. Where
in this do sanctions come in?
As
for the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Gideon
Gono, he should not expect to
succeed in his turnaround project as long as
the agriculture and mining
sectors are not restored to the '80s and '90s
levels when the rule of law
was still observed and applied. The Governor
should advocate for the
resuscitation of the formal sector which is fast
being overtaken by the
informal sector.
About 80% of Zimbabwe's
workforce is unemployed and
they get their livelihood from informal
activities such as buying and
selling foreign currency. Controlling this
sector is not as easy as removing
three zeros. I would say it is as
difficult as removing the three Ms -
Mugabe, (Joice) Mujuru and (Joseph)
Msika.
The Mugabe-Gono alliance is determined to
inflict
more pain/suffering on Zimbabweans. Remember it was after Gono's
Monetary
Review Policy statement that the government unleashed "Operation
Murambavanhu". The result was shortage of accommodation and subsequent
increase in rent and inflation rose to unprecedented levels, ushering in a
lot of zeros.
It has become the trend that
after each monetary
review policy statement, new scapegoats are found.
First, it was the banks
and the result was closure of
banks.
There has been talk of "Operation Maguta"
being a
success, yet National Foods is to embark on a retrenchment programme
as a
result of grain shortage.
"Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle" has failed to live
up to its publicity hype. In
Mutoko, the beneficiaries are already living in
houses built under this
programme but the houses do not have water, sewerage
reticulation and
certification of occupation from the health inspectorate.
Soon there could
be an outbreak of diseases and I can't think of a normal
person calling this
a success.
A political turnaround should be a
pre-condition for
an economic turnaround.
T G H
Mutoko
----------
Calling international attention to the
plight of
rural women
IN the past one week
we celebrated the
International Day of Rural Women and the World Food
Day.
In Zimbabwe the World Food Day was
celebrated
without food and the International Rural Women's Day came when
rural women
are suffering under abject poverty, hunger, malnutrition and
political
oppression. As these two noble days are celebrated, the
Matabeleland
Empowerment Services
Association:
* calls the attention of the
international
community to human rights abuses being carried out by the Zanu
PF
government;
* calls the attention of
the international
community to the plight of rural women in Matabeleland and
the Midlands;
* calls the attention of the
international
community to rising poverty, hunger, malnutrition and related
suffering in
Zimbabwe, particularly among rural
women;
* calls the attention of the
international
community to the plight of people living with HIV and
Aids;
* condemns the government for
ignoring the
water and food crisis in
Matabeleland;
* condemns the government for
ignoring the
plight of rural women and people living with HIV and
Aids;
* condemns the government for failing
to
procure and distribute life-saving ARVs for HIV/Aids
patients;
* condemns the government for
ignoring rural
poverty, hunger and malnutrition and using them as political
tools;
* calls upon the government of
Zimbabwe to
appeal for food aid and stop politicising access to grain;
and
* urges all people in the country to
rise up
against the political thuggery sanctioned at the State
House.
While a majority of people in
the country live
in complete poverty and misery, the chefs in Zanu PF live
in luxury. MESA
condemns this in the strongest possible
terms.
Effie
Mazilankatha-Ncube
Executive Director &
CEO
Matabeleland Empowerment Services
Association.
----------
Letters In
Brief
I would like to comment on the issue of
Gukurahundi that some of our leaders want to play around with. At the same
time I wish to caution them.
Gukurahundi did not only affect the Ndebele
people, it affected every
Zimbabwean who has a conscience. Even though I am
not an Ndebele I don't
want for any second or more to allow my mind to
wander in those days when
evil walked across Zimbabwe.
I know that
when someone is wronged he/she
would want an apology, but let's find the
right channels without re-opening
old wounds because it is like a spark that
can cause a raging fire.
Let God be the
judge of situations like this
because I know you will not get a public
apology from Zanu PF. But they know
and we know it was wrong and
evil.
Zimbabwe is for our children and by
all
means necessary let us not try to plant hate in their
minds.
PWZW
Harare
******************
What was
Msika's point? here
YOUR story "Msika
speaks out on Gukurahundi"
By Nqobani Ndlovu (15.10.06) raises some
curiosity.
If Vice President Joseph Msika
is not
satisfied with President Robert Mugabe's response on the Gukurahundi
killings in Matabeleland and the Midlands during the 1980s, why then did he,
and the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo sign the 1987 Unity
Accord?
I recall Nkomo going around ZAPU
constituencies of Matabeleland North and South selling the Unity Accord.
What is the point of commenting on it now (two decades later)? Do I sense
some opportunism here?
George
Bachinche
Gwaai
From The Daily Mirror, 20 October
Fortune Mbele, Court
Reporter
A senior official in the Ministry of Industry and
International Trade
allegedly usurped his minister's powers and approved an
increase in the
retail price of bread from $200 to $295 a loaf. Norman
Chakanetsa (57), the
director of research and consumer affairs in the
ministry, was arrested on
Tuesday on corruption charges for allegedly
writing letters to bakers,
retailers and the police advising them that the
retail price of bread had
gone up. Yesterday, he appeared before Harare
magistrate Olivia Mariga on
allegations of breaching Section 174 (1) (a) of
the Criminal Law
(Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9: 23. The court
heard that,
according to statutory requirements, the increases are supposed
to be
effected by the Minister of Industry and International Trade, who
currently
is Obert Mpofu. State papers indicate that on September 26 Mpofu's
ministry
established a Price Stabilisation Committee comprising
representatives from
the ministries of Finance, Home Affairs, Public
Service, Labour and Social
Welfare and the Zimbabwe National Chamber of
Commerce (ZNCC), the Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ), the Confederation
of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI)
and the Zimbabwe Republic Police
(ZRP).
The purpose of the committee was to monitor prices of
controlled goods,
which include bread, mealie-meal and flour. The committee
was tasked with
recommending prices for these products. The recommendations
would then be
sent to Mpofu for the approval of interim prices before the
Cabinet also
approved them. Statutory Instrument 125/02 Control of Goods
(Price Control)
Order 2003 states that the minister informs the National
Bakers Association
(NBA) of the interim prices. The price stabilisation
committee allegedly
convened its first meeting three days after its
inception at the industry
and international trade ministry offices, with
Chakanetsa chairing. The
agenda of the meeting was to discuss the
committee's operational modalities
and no price adjustments of bread were
deliberated on. The following day,
however, Chakanetsa allegedly usurped
Mpofu's powers and wrote letters to
bakers, retailers and the police
informing them that the wholesale price of
bread had gone up from $200 to
$280 adding that the retail price had
accordingly shot up to
$295.
Prosecutor Servious Kufandada told the court that Chakanetsa
was not
entitled to approve the increases or write letters to the bakers'
association and retailers. As such, Kufandada said, Chakanetsa acted
inconsistently and contrary to his duties as a public officer. The
prosecutor said he would produce the minutes of the Prices Stabilisation
Committee of September 29, which indicated that price adjustments were not
discussed. He said he would also tender a letter originated by Chakanetsa to
the bakers, retailers and the police. Chakanetsa was remanded out of custody
to Monday on free bail. His lawyer Francis Chirimuta indicated that he would
be making an application for refusal of placement of his client on remand on
that day. The price of bread increased from $200 to $295 at the end of last
month ostensibly to cushion bakers against the ever-increasing cost of
production. Bread had disappeared from most retail outlets after bakers
argued that charging $200 for bread was no longer viable.
Some
managers from leading retail outlets confirmed they had received
notification of the new prices from the Ministry of Industry and
International Trade. NBA chairman, Burombo Mudumo then confirmed the new
price and said the increases would help bakers break even. Last month, the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) released US$10 million for the importation of
wheat to avert a serious bread shortage, but the industry said it would take
weeks before the wheat arrived in the country. Zimbabwe's requires 400 000
tonnes of wheat every year. The NBA last month said the industry should
charge $385 a loaf to keep pace with working capital due to inflation
currently pegged 1 023 percent. Of late, bread supplies have been erratic
with some retailers accusing bakers of conditionally supplying the basic
commodity.
From The Cape Times (SA), 20 October
Basildon Peta
The Zimbabwean government has issued 100
fresh eviction notices on the
country's dwindling population of white
farmers, as the World Food Programme
warned that at least 1.4 million
Zimbabweans are in dire need of food aid.
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU)
chief executive officer Hendrik Olivier said
from Harare last night that the
targeted farmers faced jail unless they
moved off their farms within three
months. Zimbabwe has tightened its land
seizure laws and once the latest
amendments are signed into law by President
Robert Mugabe, farmers served
with eviction notices will be re-quired to
move in seven days instead of 90.
"Some farmers had already planted
long-term crops like tobacco. They are in
distress. They just don't know
what do," said Olivier. Only about 300 white
commercial farmers remain in
Zimbabwe from an original 4 500 before Mugabe's
government launched farm
seizures in 2002. Since then the agriculture sector
has decreased by more
than half and Zimbabweans now survive on food imports
and the generosity of
food donors. Olivier said the CFU had sent appeals to
the government over
the latest farm evictions but had received no
feedback.
IPS
Moyiga
Nduru
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 20 (IPS) - Concern about ivory sales in Southern
Africa is
persisting among environmental groups -- this after the Convention
on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) granted Japan stockpile
buyer status earlier this month.
The move came despite CITES'
decision to turn down a request by Japan and
China for a one-off purchase of
60 tonnes of ivory stockpiled in Botswana,
Namibia and South Africa. The
CITES secretariat -- located in Geneva,
Switzerland -- is administered by
the Nairobi-based United Nations
Environment Programme.
"We are
extremely concerned by CITES giving Japan their blessing," Jason
Bell-Leask,
Southern African director of the International Fund for Animal
Welfare
(IFAW), told IPS. "It's difficult to distinguish between illegal and
legal
ivory in Japan...We do not believe that Japan has done enough to
prevent the
(illegal) trade in ivory."
Instead, he would like to see ivory stockpiles
put beyond the reach of all
potential buyers.
"The stockpiles should
be destroyed...They should have no commercial value.
It encourages
poaching," Bell-Leask noted, calling on Southern Africa to
follow the
example set by former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi in the
1990s.
"President Moi burned them (stockpiles), and it has reduced
poaching and
increased the number of tourists to Kenya."
Fears about
putting more ivory on the market stem reflect the consequences
of a 1997
decision by CITES to allow a sale of ivory stockpiles from
Botswana, Namibia
and Zimbabwe. Since then, 13,333 tusks, a figure
representing just the tip
of the iceberg, have been seized, notes IFAW.
"The previous one-off sale
to Japan has spun the ivory markets in Asia out
of control," Grace Ge
Gabriel, IFAW Regional Director for Asia, said in a
statement earlier this
month. "With over 17 tonnes of ivory under
investigation, all of which was
confiscated in Asian ports in the past year,
it is ludicrous to even
contemplate allowing another sale to any country."
Noted Lawrence
Anthony, founder of the Earth Organisation, a non-profit
based in South
Africa: "In the Far East, there's a huge market for ivory;
there are
thousands of businesses that make a living out of ivory. They are
not going
to close shop so soon -- they will try to stay in the business."
Many of
these businesses produce ivory artefacts such as carvings, jewellery
and
name seals.
"There is too much illegal ivory in the market. Just look at
the Congo where
thousands of elephants have been killed in the past decade
alone," Anthony
added, in reference to the war-torn Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC).
"Ivory is a source of funding for all dubious groups, which may
be
politicians or military."
An expert on African elephants, Anthony
is also well-known for saving lions
and a blind bear from the Baghdad zoo
soon after the invasion of Iraq in
2003. He has just concluded a deal with
the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a
Ugandan rebel group, to save four
northern white rhinos and other key
endangered species under their
control.
The rhinos are in neighbouring DRC's Garamba National Park,
which is
occupied by the LRA. The number of rhino -- whose horns are also in
great
demand in the Far and Middle East -- has dwindled from more than 30 in
2004,
according to the Earth Organisation. The population was decimated by
armed
groups roaming the DRC's lawless east.
Rhino horns are used in
China for traditional medicine to reduce fever, and
in the Middle East for
dagger handles.
Inasmuch as certain parties in Africa fear ivory sales,
others are less
decided on this issue.
However, a failure to resolve
the matter satisfactorily bodes ill for
Southern Africa -- and the rest of
the continent.
"Southern Africa accounts for 70 percent of Africa's total
elephant
population. Africa has an estimated 450,000 elephants. Prior to the
1980s
the population was one million. They were killed by poachers for their
tusks,'' said Bell-Leask. (END/2006)
Dear Family and Friends,
I do not remember what month or even what year it
was when I came face to
face, for the first time, with the reality of those
strange sounding words
I'd learnt at school: pellagra, beri beri, scurvy and
rickets. It was in
the mid 1970's and I was in my late teens. Zimbabwe's
Independence was near
- just a few years away - and I was doing a placement
for my training as a
social worker. I had been sent to a high density suburb
- in those days
called townships - where thousands of people, displaced by
the war, were
sitting it out in extreme poverty, just waiting for the time
when they
could go home. The task was simple - identify and then assist
people most
in need - and they were literally all around me.
That was
thirty years ago but there are parts of it I remember as if it
were today.
Everywhere I looked there it was - not words in text books but
living proof
of pellagra, beri beri, scurvy and rickets. If ever a mother
needed to
explain to their child why they had to eat their vegetables -
here it was.
Arms and legs as thin as sticks; deep cracks and open sores on
feet, shins
and arms; bow legs, sunken faces and staring lethargy. And
scabies too -
scores and scores of children itching and itching and itching
as the mites
were everywhere, in their hair, in their dirty raggy clothes
and probably
even in the sand under their bare feet. What little we had as
trainee social
workers in the middle of a civil war, didn't go very far. We
had vitamin
supplements, red carbolic soap, antiseptic liquid and plastic
basins. Forever
I will remember squatting down in the dust, picking up a
naked screaming
infant and bathing it in disinfectant in a bright green
plastic bowl. The
child was absolutely terrified and screamed hysterically
- I can still hear
that sound now.
Those are not images I like to remember but every now and
again I do think
of them, it helps to know how shockingly bad things were
then, just before
independence. I didn't think I would ever see those things
again, at least
not in Zimbabwe. This week I saw one of those words again:
pellagra - and
it bought memories of 30 years ago flooding back.
On
page 7 of a weekly newspaper there was a report which I wish had been on
the
front page and I wish it had been accompanied by photographs. "
Malnutrition
claims five at Ingutsheni" is the headline.Ingutsheni is not a
high density
suburb or a camp for refugees, it is a mental hospital in
Bulawayo. The
report details the dire conditions currently prevailing.
Severe shortages of
food and medicine, a very unbalanced diet and extreme
financial problems. The
report told of people at Ingutsheni suffering from
pellagra lesions, weight
loss, nutritional diseases and serious
malnutrition
problems.
Ingutsheni is not alone. Similar situations are there for any
who care, or
dare, to go and see for themselves. I have a friend whose son is
in a home
for mentally handicapped adults. It is bad, very bad, I have seen
it with
my own eyes and it breaks my heart to know that this is happening in
our
beautiful, bountiful land. At homes for the mentally handicapped,
the
mentally ill, the elderly, orphanages -oh God help us - people who
cannot
help themselves are suffering and dying, out of sight and out of mind
in
Zimbabwe's institutions. People barely surviving on only maize meal,
people
who need eggs, fruit, milk, meat, nuts, cereals.
Memories of a
naked, screaming child from thirty years ago are vivid in my
mind this week.
I cannot stop myself from wondering where that child is
now, if he is even
still alive. This is 2006, we are not at war and this
should not be happening
but it seems nothing and no one can do a thing to
stop it. I write this
letter for David and his colleagues in a home for
mentally handicapped adults
- you have no voice, I know and I am so sorry.
Until next week, with love,
cathy. Copyright cathy buckle 21st October
2006.
http:/africantears.netfirms.com
Strategy Page
October 21,
2006: China is donating a million dollars worth of construction
equipment to
the Zimbabwe army. The equipment will be used by army engineers
to build
housing and training facilities for troops. Mismanagement by the
current
government has largely destroyed the economy, and about a third of
the
population has fled their homes, often to neighboring countries, in
search
of food. By donating non-combat equipment, China wins favor with the
current
government, and no enmity from those who will run the next
government. It's
a clever use of foreign aid.