Zim Online
Thursday 25 October 2007
By Rugare
Munodawafa
HARARE - Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi on Wednesday
acknowledged that
opposition supporters were being victimised and admitted
this could
jeopardize on-going dialogue between the ruling ZANU PF party and
the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
Sources
told ZimOnline that Mohadi told senior MDC officials he met
Wednesday
morning at his offices to personally report to him acts of
violence against
members of the opposition party.
"He (Mohadi) also undertook to study a
dossier prepared by the MDC detailing
all acts of violence against its
supporters that took place after March,"
said a government official who
attended the meeting between Mohadi and the
opposition
officials.
According to our source, MDC home affairs secretary Sam Sipepa
immediately
impressed upon Mohadi that to test the government's sincerity,
the
opposition party would seek permission to hold a public
demonstration.
The police, who under state security laws must sanction
all public
demonstrations, have in the past banned the MDC from holding
demonstrations
although ZANU PF supporters are regularly allowed to march in
the streets in
support of President Robert Mugabe.
Mohadi, who could
not be reached for comment on the matter, reportedly
promised to look into a
request by the MDC to hold demonstrations.
The meeting between Mohadi and
MDC officials was held following the minister's
request to MDC president
Morgan Tsvangirai that he wanted the opposition to
corroborate statements
that politically motivated violence was on the
increase despite the South
African brokered talks between the opposition
party and ZANU PF.
At a
press conference soon after the meeting, Nkomo said they had impressed
upon
Mohadi that dialogue could only proceed well if ZANU PF desisted from
acts
of violence on the ground.
"We told him it would be difficult for us to
talk if we have a gag on our
mouth and a gun barrel on our back," he said.
"We also suggested to him that
he should make a public statement against
violence and urging the police to
be non-partisan in their application of
the law.
Nkomo said apart from comprehensive dossier of violence, his
delegation had
also raised with Mohadi reports received by the opposition
party suggesting
that the government had ordered more teargas for use
against the opposition
in the run-up to the election.
The MDC
officials also told Mohadi the police continued to treat the
opposition
party like an illegal movement despite it being a registered
political party
with legislators in Parliament and councilors throughout the
country.
ZimOnline understands that in the dossier submitted to
Mohadi, the MDC
claimed that 4 122 incidents of political violence and human
rights abuses
were recorded between January and June 2007.
These
included seven murders, 18 rapes, 459 cases of torture, 34 cases of
discrimination in food aid, 69 abductions, 2 323 cases of intimidation, 1
141 cases of assault and 152 cases of unlawful detentions.
The
opposition officials also raised the issue of Joseph Mwale, a state
secret
agent who allegedly murdered two MDC activists in 2000 but is yet to
face
justice and remains employed by the government.
"Mohadi and his officials
kept on jotting down notes and promised to look
into the issues raised by
the MDC delegation but it is not clear what, if
any action, will be taken,"
the source said. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thursday 25 October 2007
By Simplisio
Chirinda
HARARE - Zimbabwe non-governmental organisations (NGOs) will
meet the ruling
ZANU PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party
to press the political parties to consider the views of
civic society during
negotiations to end the country's crisis.
Civic
groups that have unsuccessfully attempted to persuade South Africa's
President Thabo Mbeki - facilitating talks between ZANU PF and the MDC - to
include them in the dialogue process, insist they should be part to any
initiative to end the country's crisis, arguing Zimbabwe's future cannot be
left to politicians alone.
Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN)
director Rindai Chipfunde said a
meeting of civic groups held in Harare on
Wednesday had resolved to "request
for a meeting with the political parties
involved in the talks and find out
how we can be engaged and let our views
be known and represented by the
mediating teams."
Chipfunde, who said
NGOs also wanted more information about the inter-party
talks that have been
held in almost total secrecy, did not say when exactly
the civic groups
would be requesting meetings with the two political
parties.
Civic
groups will meet the political parties separately and ZimOnline
understands
the first meeting with the MDC is scheduled to take place in
Harare
today.
The NGOs will also use today's meeting to discuss the MDC's
backing of
government constitutional reforms, a move disapproved by most
civic groups.
Mbeki was last March asked by Southern African Development
Community (SADC)
heads of state and government to lead efforts to resolve
Zimbabwe's
eight-year crisis by facilitating dialogue between ZANU PF and
the MDC.
Mbeki - who insists dialogue will deliver free and fair
elections in
Zimbabwe next year - has not made civic society formal parties
to the talks
arguing SADC mandated him to broker talks between political
parties only.
Civic groups represented at the Wednesday meeting included
the Media
Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Media Monitoring Project of
Zimbabwe
(MMPZ), Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) and Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human
Rights (ZLHR) among others. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thursday 25 October 2007
By
Thulani Munda
HARARE - Zimbabwe has issued seed firms with permits to
import maize seed
for the 2007-2008 agricultural season, Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe (RBZ)
governor Gideon Gono said yesterday.
Giving an update
on the forthcoming agricultural season dubbed the "Mother
of all Seasons,"
Gono said contracts and funding arrangements had been
finalized and seed
houses would start importing from Zambia and Botswana.
"Within the last
24 hours, we have concluded everything to do with the maize
seed needed by
the country," Gono said. "Our suppliers in Zambia and
Botswana have
confirmed that by Monday the first consignment would be
delivered."
Zimbabwe needs an estimated 50 000 metric tonnes of maize
seed for the
agricultural season. So far at least 36 000 metric tonnes are
available but
seed houses are holding on to stocks unwilling to sell at
state-fixed prices
they say are uneconomic.
Seed houses are expected
to import 12 400 metric tonnes of maize seed from
neighbouring
countries.
Gono said Zimbabwe had secured a line of credit from a Western
European
country to buy raw materials for the manufacture of packaging for
agricultural produce next marketing season.
He said factories were
already working on the packaging and 30 million bags
will be available by
March next year. Gono could not be drawn into revealing
the identify of the
country that he claimed had provided lines of credit.
Gono said the
central bank would launch a high-tech fuel facility for
selected farmers in
all the provinces. Under the arrangement, at least 50
farmers from each of
the 10 provinces will be issued with a card they can
use to swipe fuel at
designated service stations.
Zimbabwe, also grappling with its worst ever
economic crisis, has since 2000
relied on food imports and handouts from
international food agencies mainly
due to failure by new black farmers
resettled on former white-owned
commercial farms under a controversial
government land redistribution
programme to maintain production.
Poor
performance in the mainstay agricultural sector has also had far
reaching
consequences as hundreds of thousands have lost jobs while the
manufacturing
sector, starved of inputs from the sector, is operating below
30 percent of
capacity. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thursday 25 October
2007
By Nigel Hangarume
HARARE -
Zimbabwe's first match in South Africa's domestic
competitions has been put
on hold after player concerns were raised this
week.
Cricket
South Africa (CSA) had announced this week Zimbabwe would
participate in
South Africa's domestic competitions.
But yesterday CSA said it had
put Zimbabwe's participation on hold
until a board meeting tomorrow
deliberates player concerns.
Zimbabwe were scheduled to play South
Africa's six professional
sides - Cape Cobras, Diamond Eagles, Highveld
Lions, Nashua Dolphins, Nashua
Titans and Supersport Warriors.
Representatives of all of South Africa's six franchise sides on Monday
met
in Cape Town where some players are said to have raised concerns about
playing Zimbabwe.
"I can't at this stage reveal what was
decided at the meeting, but you
can take it from the fact that the meeting
was held that some of the players
have concerns about playing against
Zimbabwe," Tony Irish, chief executive
of the South African Cricketers
Association, was quoted by the Mercury as
saying yesterday.
"We
have taken up the issue with Cricket South Africa."
Zimbabwe
Cricket officials said they would wait for official
communication from
CSA.
It could not be established why South African players had
reservations
about playing Zimbabwe.
The South African senior
team and their A side toured Zimbabwe last
month.
India A came
in July as a replacement for West Indies A who refused
tour Zimbabwe on
security grounds.
Sri Lanka A are currently playing Zimbabwe
Select.
Australia scrapped a tour scheduled for last month as a
protest
against President Robert Mugabe's human rights record.
Zimbabwe is facing a crippling economic crisis - dramatised by food,
fuel,
drugs and power shortages - blamed on Mugabe's policies. - ZimOnline
IPSnews
By Tonderai
Kwidini
HARARE, Oct 24 (IPS) - Anti-death penalty activists in Zimbabwe
are keeping
up their campaign, despite a police clampdown on their meetings
and
ever-lengthening food queues, power cuts and the relentless rise in
prices
of many essential items.
"It is now very difficult to obtain
police clearance to hold gatherings.
Everything we try to do to bring people
together is viewed by the police as
a political event," John Chinamurungu,
Amnesty International's chairperson
in Zimbabwe, told IPS. "It's very
difficult to get campaigns going."
Amnesty and the Zimbabwe Association
for Crime Prevention and the
Rehabilitation of Offenders (Zacro) have been
co-operating closely to rally
public support for the abolition of the death
penalty and to get the issue
on the national political
agenda.
Zacro's new engagement follows an opinion article by an official
of the
organisation in the state-owned daily, 'The Herald', last January.
This
announced the opening of a carefully-scripted Zacro campaign, details
of
which were later outlined to IPS by Edson Chiota, the organisation's
national co-ordinator.
The plan included carrying the message of
abolition to Zimbabwe's 13 million
citizens with the printing and
distribution of millions of posters and
pamphlets.
But campaigning
has been hit by the speed and scale of the unfolding
economic crisis. In
January the year-on-year official inflation rate was
1,600 percent. In
September it reached 7,982.1 percent, according to the
government's Central
Statistical Office. Unofficially, the rate is said to
be approaching 25,000
percent.
Paper and fuel, essential for a nationwide campaign, are almost
impossible
to obtain.
The struggle to exist from day to day is now
uppermost on people's minds. In
the capital, Harare, hour-long queues for
bread are normal. Earlier this
month, the agriculture ministry announced
that the wheat harvest was
two-thirds of what was required. Shortly
afterwards, the official price of
bread was increased by 300
percent.
"There are millions in Zimbabwe who need food assistance,"
Richard Lee of
the United Nations World Food Programme, said in August. It
was estimated
then that some 3.3 million would require the agency's help to
survive over
the coming months.
Authorities have responded to any
street protest or show of dissent by
rushing in riot police, creating an
atmosphere of fear and intimidation.
But despite the unfolding
catastrophe, Amnesty and Zacro have refused to be
cowed into calling off
their sensitisation workshops on the death penalty.
Amnesty's local
vice-chairperson, Francis Mweene, has been a notable
participant, having
survived death row. He was sentenced to death in
white-ruled Rhodesia, as
Zimbabwe was known before it gained independence in
1980.
"It was a
big surprise to me that I found myself able to live again.It was
because
Amnesty Zimbabwe stood for my right to life," he told IPS, recalling
how the
organisation's international contacts helped pull him back from the
jaws of
death.
"It is through testimonies that I think people can be sensitised
and
understand why we are advocating against (the) death
(sentence)."
Mweene's leading of the testimonies clearly makes it
difficult for the
authorities to step in and ban such meetings. Zimbabwe's
president, Robert
Mugabe, led a liberation war against the Ian Smith regime
and would
certainly have ended up on death row like Mweene had he been
captured.
Alongside these meetings, Amnesty has been issuing T-Shirts
emblazoned with
anti-death penalty slogans.
In July, Zacro tried to
persuade traditional leaders in the Council of
Chiefs to support its
anti-death penalty campaign. The chiefs were holding
their annual meeting in
Harare and the northern resort of Victoria Falls.
But politicians were
clearly not willing to see this happen. They stepped in
to prevent the death
penalty issue being tabled at the meeting, according to
sources.
"We
hoped to start with the chiefs and use them as leverage to get this
issue
into the House of Assembly and eventually seek out an audience with
the head
of state," Chakanyuka told IPS.
The chiefs could have raised the issue in
parliament, where they sit by
appointment.
Zacro's focus on the
chiefs fitted into the initial thrust of the campaign,
which argued that the
death penalty was "alien and contrary to traditional
African concepts of
justice and beliefs".
The meeting also showed that opinion among the
officially-supported chiefs
was divided on the death penalty
issue.
"You should be given a sentence in accordance with your crime. If
you
deliberately kill, you should also be killed," Chief Makoni told the
meeting, according to a press report at the time in the privately-owned
'Financial Gazette'.
It has been suggested that the chiefs might have
been less than enthusiastic
about being associated with such a controversial
issue and bringing it
before Mugabe, for fear of losing their privileges.
They are essentially on
the government payroll.
"With the elections
coming there is no chance we will be able to talk to the
chiefs again until
afterwards," a disappointed Chakanyuka said.
The polls -- presidential,
parliamentary and local government -- are
expected to be held in six
months.
Zacro is now planning to circulate a nation-wide petition calling
for
abolition of the death penalty.
"We want to present a petition to
President Mugabe since he is the man who
has been vested with all the powers
to decide if one should be sent to the
gallows or not," Chakanyuka
said.
Mugabe has resisted all calls for the repeal of the death penalty,
which
dates back to the colonial era, in his 27 years of rule -- and is
unlikely
to change his mind now, in the twilight of his beleaguered
regime.
But by campaigning on this issue now and associating the
retention of
capital punishment more closely with his name, it may be hoped
that one of
the first measures to be adopted by his successors will be the
abolition of
the death penalty.
Zacro is also hoping that its
campaign will stimulate public interest in
further penal reforms.
The
last execution in Zimbabwe was carried out in 2004. Since 1999 seven
people
have been executed by hanging, according to Zacro. (END/2007)
VOA
By Ndimyake Mwakalyelye
Washington
24
October 2007
The international polemic over whether or
not European Union chair Portugal
should invite Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe to the European-African
summit coming up in December in Lisbon seems
to be tilting in Mr. Mugabe's
favor.
The Czech Republic and Sweden
recently threatened to boycott the summit
along with Britain if Mr. Mugabe
attended, but most European nations seem
likely to attend.
This
neutral stance was reflected in a declaration Friday by members of the
European Parliament and the Pan-African Parliament stated jointly that Mr.
Mugabe should be allowed to participate in the summit in his capacity as
Zimbabwean president.
The delegation weighed the consequences of a
ban on his attendance, warning
this would result in a further delay of the
EU-AU summit, canceled in 2003
over the very same issue. The European and
African parliamentarians said
that as they directly represent
constituencies, they should have more say on
the EU-Africa
strategy.
The European and African parliamentarians said they would meet
again before
the December summit to outline the issues they want placed on
the agenda.
Portugal has stated that it will not discriminate against any
country or
leader.
A senior Portuguese official said the quarrel
between Zimbabwe and Britain
is bilateral, so it should not overshadow the
larger issues the summit will
address, such as security, human rights and
immigration, adding that Europe
could not afford miss another chance to
engage Africa, as China and the
United States are doing.
The head of
the Dutch delegation to the Pan-African Parliament meeting,
Maria Martin,
told reporter Ndimyake Mwakalyelye of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that the
position adopted Friday should not be taken as a show of
support for Mr.
Mugabe.
Rapporteur Marwick Khumalo of the Pan-African Parliament's
committee on
cooperation, international relations and conflict resolution,
said the
upcoming summit was bigger than just Zimbabwe and Mr.
Mugabe.
Khumalo, a member of the Swaziland parliament, said his
organization now has
the resources to send mission to Zimbabwe to look into
human rights
allegations.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
24 October
2007
The Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions, which many
consider to be aligned
with the government of President Robert Mugabe, has
been rocked with a power
struggle that featured the ouster over the past
weekend of its entire
leadership.
Those dismissed by a vote of 25 out
of 33 affiliate members at a meeting of
the union's general council included
the prominent war veteran Joseph
Chinotimba, who is a vice president of the
union, now-embattled President
Alfred Makwarimba, and Information Secretary
Kennias Shamuyarira.
Chinotimba and the others on the executive panel
were accused of entering a
social contract with business and the state
without obtaining approval from
the council.
Charges of factionalism
and embezzlement have also been launched.
But the ousted executive
members, who were not present at the Bulawayo
meeting in question, have
refused to acknowledge their dismissal, saying
Chinotimba engineered the
meeting as part of a ploy to seize the presidency
from
Makwarimba.
Chinotimba was suspended from his post earlier this year
after announcing
that Makwarimba had been ousted, then was readmitted on the
insistence of
Political Commissar Elliot Manyika of the ruling ZANU-PF
party, a cabinet
member.
Chinotimba could not be reached for comment
on the imbroglio.
But outgoing union spokesman Shamuyarira told reporter
Jonga Kandemiiri that
a general council meeting is on tap for Friday in
Harare, adding that he and
the others ousted in last weekend's meeting have
handed the matter over to
their lawyers.
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
24
October 2007
Eight student leaders at the University of
Zimbabwe were summoned Wednesday
to a disciplinary proceeding by university
Vice Chancellor Levy Nyagura to
face charges that they led a violent protest
in July against the closure of
residence halls.
The UZ Student
Representative Council said university officials failed to
complete the
hearings in one day, having failed to produce statements by
security
personnal.
The cases of student activists Thabani Moyo, Manifest Jabuli
and Tatenda
Chiuya were heard in the first day of the hearing. Sources said
charges
against Moyo and Jabuli were withdrawn for lack of evidence while
Chiuya was
acquitted.
The cases of Student Representative Council
President Lovemore Chinoputsa,
Vice President Sean Matsheza, Legal Affairs
Secretary Fortune Chamba, and
students Ceasar Sitiya and Shadreck Vengesai
were adjourned until Nov. 7.
In July, Nyagura ordered police to evict an
estimated 5,000 students from
residence halls on grounds they were unfit to
inhabit, leaving thousands
sleeping in the open.
Students staged
protests over what human rights activists called a
humanitarian
crisis.
Secretary General Beloved Chiweshe of the Zimbabwe National
Students Union
told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that many
students see the hearing as a way of intimidating
students now reduced to
vagrants.
"Whose bread I eat,
his song I sings, money talks, money is power"
Exiled Zimbabweans need to
understand that, "it is often safe and painless
to be brave from a
distance". Let us grab the regime by the belt buckle and
force it recognise
the Diaspora economic might. Our actions will compel the
regime to
acquiesce to our demands for our right to vote, an immediate end
to state
sanctioned violence, the return of the rule of law and free and
fair
elections.
The Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), Gideon
Gono, in cohorts
with the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) now
employs covert
black-market foreign currency buyers. The sole function of
the buyers is to
mop up all available currency from the public and
authorized dealers,
utilizing the infinite amounts of freshly minted local
cash provided by the
RBZ. The foreign exchange is bought clandestinely at
the day's prevailing
black market rate (US$1: ZW$1 000 000 000.00) or (£1:
ZW$2 250 000 000.00)
and subsequently transported and secured in the RBZ
vaults for use by the
government.
ZANU (PF) and government officials
then acquire the same foreign currency
from the RBZ at the official rate
(US$1: ZW$30 000.00). Simple arithmetic
will show that when a cabinet
minister requires annual college fees (US$35
000.00) for his child to attend
a university in the "imperialist west", he
pays the RBZ, one billion and
fifty million dollars (ZW$1 050 000 000
000.00). The RBZ in contrast would
have acquired the same amount of foreign
currency from the parallel market
for 35 billion dollars (ZW$35 000 000
000.00). Thus Diaspora funds sent by
hardworking Zimbabweans living in exile
with the intention of sustaining
their families inadvertently become the
subsidy and essential lifeline to
buttress and maintain the regime.
Case in point: a Zimbabwean care
worker in the United Kingdom sends £ 50.00
(pounds) home to his mother
through a money transfer agent. The RBZ through
the agent gives the mother
ZW $112 500 000 000.00 and retains the £50.00
(pounds) for onward
transmission to the government. Essentially the
government is buying
currency back at only a fraction of its local value.
Rather than utilizing
the funds for national essentials like food,
electricity, fuel and
medicines, the government instead spends the valuable
foreign currency
acquiring non productive assets e.g. luxury cars, homes
and expensive
foreign shopping sprees.
Uku ndiko kunonzi kudzorera marasha
kuHwange!!
From November 1 to November 30, 2007, let us starve the
regime of its
source of foreign currency. During this period, as a protest
to the
continuing human rights violations, we must to use our collective
Diaspora
monetary strength by withholding all money transfers for that
phase. It is
estimated that 1 500 000 working Zimbabweans reside outside the
country. On
average exiles remit twenty-five dollars (US $25.00), per month
to relatives
back home. If we collectively protest and withhold remittances,
the
government fails to collect a monthly subsidy of 37 million dollars (US
$37
500 000.00.), from its disenfranchised citizenry.
All
Zimbabweans in exile should exercise their constitutional rights and
grasp
this momentous occasion for a powerful, bipartisan demonstration
against the
government's economic mismanagement, irrational policies,
endemic corruption
and blatant breach of international humanitarian law. The
regime must repeal
draconian laws and allow exiled Zimbabweans to vote.
Let us clutch this
fortuitous moment and deprive the regime of its
sustenance. The power for
our own emancipation is in our wallets.
Asesabi
Lutho
Phil Matibe - pmatibe@gmail.com