IOL
October 28 2005
at 04:17AM
Johannesburg - The Zimbabwean government does not intend
chasing all
white farmers out of the country, Zimbabwe's Herald Online
reported on
Friday.
It quoted vice-president Joseph Msika as
saying: "Our policy is not to
drive all whites out of their
farms."
The policy of "one-man one-farm" should not be used against
legally
settled productive white commercial farmers, he told a farmers union
congress in Bulawayo.
"We have situations, like the one in
Esigodini, where some
ex-combatants are unilaterally trying to push out some
white farmers
producing tomatoes in Esigodini for sale here in Bulawayo,"
Msika said.
"That is not our policy."
It was
unfortunate that the social and economic justice programme was
being wrongly
interpreted by some people to justify displacing white
commercial
farmers.
"What I know about the land reform programme is that
it says, if a
white commercial farmer has five farms, then we take four so
that he remains
with one," Msika said.
"If again that one farm
is too big we then apply the concept of
maximum farm sizes and we take a
portion of the farm and leave him with the
right-sized portion. The
intention is not to grab everything."
Both new farmers and the
white commercial farmers should work together
to achieve food security in
the country.
"The whites used us during the colonial era. We should
also use them
this time around. One obviously cannot just wake up a good
farmer, you need
to learn," Msika said. - Sapa
IOL
October 28
2005 at 05:52AM
By Cris Chinaka
Harare - Zimbabweans
are using mobile phones to spice up their lives
with a bit of humour and
take their minds off the daily grind of life in the
shattered economy,
scrounging for scant food and fuel.
Behind the veil of a state
dominated media, packed with official lines
on the problems facing the
southern African country which leave no room for
lighthearted tales,
Zimbabwe's urban population is resorting to the Internet
and short message
services via cellphones to spread some laughter.
At least once a
day, a cellphone user is likely to receive a humorous
SMS, ranging from a
dirty joke to a tickle about the lives of Zimbabwe's
rulers.
One joke which has circulated at fuel queues among motorists
struggling with
shortages and buying the scarce commodity at exorbitant
black market rates
is an invitation to make haste to a fuel garage which
supposedly has copious
amounts of the commodity.
"Do you need petrol or diesel? No queue
and take some containers if
you wish. COST is pump price," the message
begins, leaving the desperate
motorist almost stunned with relief. But of
course there is a catch, as the
SMS continues: "RUSH now and see a guy
called Al Sayid at Number 13 Shaduuf
Road, Tripoli, Libya."
Libya had been Zimbabwe's largest fuel supplier before it cut off the
deal
three years ago after Mugabe's government failed to pay its bills.
And then there is the greeting message designed to poke fun at the
harried
motorist with an empty fuel tank: "Greetings from the proud owner of
50
litres of fuel."
A large chunk of the jokes are brimming with
sexual innuendo.
In one such tale, a shopper walks out of a leading
Harare supermarket
and stuffs his hand down the front of his pants,
prompting the female
security guard at the exit to ask what he has slipped
into his trousers.
Irritated, the man shoots back, "Are you trying
to tell me this shop
now sells penises?"
Zimbabwe's political
leaders are frequently the butt of some of the
jokes, but people rarely
spread these outside their trusted circle of
friends and family for fear of
landing in jail for breaching tough security
laws.
Mugabe, 81,
and in power since Zimbabwe won independence from Britain
in 1980, approved
the punitive legislation three years ago in the face of
serious political
challenges and an economic crisis many blame on government
mismanagement.
Scores of people have been hauled before the
courts on charges of
contravening the laws, which include a ban on political
rallies without
police permission and insulting or undermining the authority
of the
president, an offence punishable by a fine or a jail term of up to a
year.
Zim Online
Sat 29 October 2005
HARARE - Zimbabwe was this week thrown back
into the dark ages when
authorities in the town of Shamva north-east of
Harare started removing
garbage using donkey and ox-drawn carts as a crunch
fuel crisis continues to
bite.
Zimbabwe has experienced
intermittent fuel shortages for the past
six-years, precipitated by the
country's worst economic crisis that has
spawned critical shortages of
foreign currency needed to pay for oil
imports.
The chief
executive officer of Shamva town council, Sydney Chiwara,
said yesterday
fuel shortages had forced authorities to suspend the use of
tractors and
trucks used to remove garbage from the town's Nyaradzo
residential
suburb.
Chiwara said the latest move was the only available option
for the
council as it battles to avert a health
disaster.
"We have been having a problem of diesel
and this is a stop-gap
measure which we have taken to prevent a health
hazard," he told ZimOnline
by phone from the district council about 90km
from the capital Harare.
"We are hoping that we will get diesel
soon but in the meantime the
donkey and ox-drawn cart have come in handy. We
do not have any other
choice."
Donkey and ox-drawn cart owners
in the district have become instant
millionaires as the council pays up to
keep the garbage off the street. But
residents of Nyaradzo complained on
state television on Thursday that the
new transport system had its own
shortcomings, such as donkey and cattle
dung strewn all over the
suburb.
Fuel shortages have resulted in urban suburbs going for
weeks with
uncollected garbage, which health experts say will result in a
serious
health crisis if it continues into the rainy season, expected to
begin
anytime now.
In September, Harare town clerk Nomusa
Chideya told a parliamentary
portfolio committee that the city had been
forced to purchase fuel on the
black market after failing to get allocation
from the government.
Although other officials have not publicly
commented on where they are
getting fuel, most are getting it from the black
market at no less than $100
000 a litre to keep their vehicle fleet on the
road.
But Shamva has become the first council in the country to
improvise
using donkey and ox-drawn carts to remove garbage, something that
may have
been unthinkable to many Zimbabweans. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Sat 29 October 2005
BOCHA - Visiting
Bocha rural district, more than 200km south-east of
Harare, one would be
forgiven for thinking that mourners at a funeral wake
in one of the villages
here are on some kind of competition to see who among
them cooks the
best.
Soon after the burial of James Mushipe, the mourners troop
back to the
home of the deceased to have lunch. Each mourner takes out a
packet of food
that they have brought along. But this is no competition to
see who prepares
the best food. Instead this is testimony of hunger stalking
Zimbabwe.
"It's a sign of the times," said Norman, the sombre-faced
elder
brother to the late Mushipe. "This is a new tradition brought about by
increasing hunger and shortage of food. So, people are now required to bring
their own food whenever they attend funerals," he added.
Bring-your-own-bottle or food parties are as common in Zimbabwe as
everywhere else. But the long held tradition was that at funerals the family
of the deceased must fend for relatives and friends gathered to comfort and
help them through their proverbial moment of need.
The
community would chip in with contributions of small portions of
food,
traditional beer or even utensils to be used to cook and serve food to
the
mourners but it remained the responsibility of the deceased's family to
feed
mourners.
Not anymore, as Zimbabwe grapples a severe economic
recession that set
in after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) withdrew
financial assistance
in 1999 and gathered momentum after President Robert
Mugabe launched his
controversial farm seizure programme a year
later.
Mugabe's chaotic and often violent seizure of productive
land from
white farmers for redistribution to landless blacks destabilised
the
mainstay agricultural sector, causing a 60 percent drop in food
production.
Zimbabwe, once a regional bread basket, has avoided
starvation for the
last five years only because international relief groups
have chipped in
with food handouts. And more than one million tonnes of food
aid are
urgently required or an estimated third of the country's 12 million
people
could starve between now and the next harvests that begin around
March/April
2006, according to World Food Programme (WFP)
figures.
But it is not only food that is in critical short supply.
Fuel,
electricity, essential medical drugs and just about every other basic
survival commodity is in critical short supply, this at a time a burgeoning
HIV/AIDS crisis is ravaging the country, killing at least 3 000 people every
week.
Philemon Mugano, a member of the Bocha rural district
council,
describes how the worsening crisis has forced even this most
conservative
community here to review tradition in order to keep with the
hard times.
He said: "People are dying every day because of
HIV/AIDS. Coupled with
the fact that virtually everyone here is starving
with no form of food
support either from the government or (international)
donors, it had become
a nightmare for bereaving families to feed all the
mourners.
"Hence we now require everyone to bring their own meal
provisions for
the duration of the bereavement."
Mugabe, who until
just before last March's disputed parliamentary
election, denied Zimbabwe
faced food shortages, has barred international
food aid groups from
assisting starving people accusing them of using food
aid to try and win
support for the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC)
party.
The WFP and other non-governmental organisations are allowed
to feed
only special groups such as orphans, people living with HIV/AIDS and
the
elderly. Unconfirmed reports suggest Mugabe will only open up the
country
to internal food agencies after a senate election scheduled for
November 26.
But Mugano said many in his area could not wait until
end of next
month before they can get food aid, adding that the
"Bring-your-on-food"
funeral wakes should be enough evidence of how
desperate the situation had
become.
"It might seem like a joke
to some, when we say there is hunger here,"
the councillor said. He added:
"But the truth my brother is that we have
reached a point beyond which there
could be total disaster. For example, in
my ward alone I have in the last
month witnessed at least three deaths
because of hunger-related
illnesses."
Former University of Zimbabwe vice-chancellor and
leading social
scientist Gordon Chavhunduka, concurred with the councillor,
saying only the
most desperate of situations could see people requiring
mourners to carry
along their own food.
He said:
"Circumstances, such as the one Zimbabwe finds itself in,
force many to
abandon cultural norms for survival. All this is happening
because of
starvation even if our political leaders don't want to take
necessary steps
to ensure people are assisted with food."
Defending his
government's decision to bar food agencies, Mugabe told
journalists on the
sidelines of the United Nations summit last month that no
one was starving
in Zimbabwe saying the country had heaps of potatoes and
rice which people
could turn to but only that they did not prefer them.
Asked to
comment on Mugabe's rice and potato claim, 57-year old Tsitsi
Katuzure would
not in the first place believe the President could have said
such a thing.
She said: "You people are lying against our President because
only a mad man
can claim that we are starving here simply because we think
potatoes and
rice do not taste nice." - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Sat
29 October 2005
HARARE - A government minister this week seized one
of the country's
largest citrus fruit estates near Chegutu town after
forcing out the white
owner as senior government and security officials step
up a fresh round of
farm seizures.
Deputy Information Minister
Bright Matonga grabbed the prime Lions
Vlei farm near Chegutu, about 60km
south-west of Harare throwing out
hundreds of farm workers and putting in
jeopardy a Z$7 billion (about US$120
000) fruit export project that was
being implemented at the farm with help
from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ).
Matonga, like all other senior government officials who own
at least a
farm seized from whites, already owns Mupandaguta farm in Banket
district,
north of Harare. The deputy minister, who is said to have seized
the farm
with help from the police, was not available for comment on the
matter last
night.
But the displaced farmer, Tom Beattie, told
ZimOnline that Matonga
pitched up at the farm last Sunday and declared
himself the new owner,
telling Beattie to leave immediately.
When Beattie demanded to see an official letter from the government
authorising Matonga to take over the farm, the minister is said to have said
no letter was necessary since the farm was "state land".
Beattie, who is now staying at his son's home after being thrown off
his
farm, said: "He (Matonga) came and broke the security locks on the gate,
started removing the furniture from the house of which the police were even
assisting. This is very bad . . . we had secured a loan to do granadillas
for export worth more than $7 billion."
Farm evictions have
intensified ahead of the rainy season expected to
begin anytime soon, this
despite statements by Vice President Joseph Msika
and RBZ governor Gideon
Gono that the government would not allow the few
remaining white farmers to
be removed from the land.
The largely white-member Commercial
Farmers Union (CFU) early this
month said a number of white commercial
farmers countrywide were being
ordered to cease farming by supporters of
President Robert Mugabe's ruling
ZANU PF party.
About 25
commercial farmers were evicted in the prime farming district
of Makoni in
the past four weeks while farm invasions continue to be
reported in the
south-eastern Chipinge farming district.
The government has since
2000 forced off the land about 90 percent of
Zimbabwe's large-scale
producing white commercial farmers to pave way for
landless black
villagers.
But the country has suffered severe food shortages as a
result because
the government did not give the black farmers inputs or
skills training to
maintain production on the former white
farms.
An estimated four million people or a third of the 12
million
Zimbabweans urgently require more than a million tonnes of food aid
or they
will starve. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Sat 29 October 2005
JOHANNESBURG - Inmates who
died at the government's Lindela
Repatriation Centre outside Johannesburg
could have been saved if the centre
had adequate health facilities, South
African Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe
Mapisa-Nqakula said on
Friday.
Scores of Zimbabweans as well as illegal immigrants from
other
countries are held at Lindela at any given time. There have been
numerous
complaints of beatings and ill-treatment of inmates at the
centre.
Mapisa-Nqakula, who was speaking at the release of a report
of the
findings of an inquiry into deaths at Lindela she ordered last
August, said
many of those who had died at the centre had suffered from
diseases such as
meningitis which she said the centre did not have the
capacity to treat.
The Home Affairs Minister said she ordered the
inquiry after "we
observed a disturbing trend in the frequency of these
deaths, particularly
during the months preceding the establishment of the
independent committee."
There were nine deaths at Lindela this
year, and 43 more at the nearby
Leratong Hospital - to which the
repatriation centre refers inmates
considered more seriously ill, the report
revealed.
Among those who died were two Zimbabweans, Mcabangeleni
Mlambo, 22,
and Alice Tshumba who died in July at Lindela and Leratong
Hospital
respectively.
Mlambo died after having bled from the nose
and vomited blood. The
nursing sister's report stated he had "flu and
conjunctivitis".
Tshumba who was seven-and-a-half months pregnant
died at Leratong
hospital after being referred there from Lindela. A post
mortem stated that
her death was consistent with gastro-enteritis and
pulmonary oedema (fluid
in the lungs).
The government committee
recommended that the capacity of the medical
care facility at Lindela be
addressed through the provision of adequate
infrastructure and human
resources.
It also recommended continuous training of Lindela's
clinic staff in
emergency medical care, mental health and tropical medicine
- in particular
the management of HIV/Aids, TB and malaria - and protocols
in the outbreak
of infectious diseases such as meningococcal meningitis,
typhoid and
cholera.
It was also recommended that detainees be
screened for medical
conditions on their arrival at the centre.
The
committee was chaired by retired Methodist Church minister Rev
Otto
Mbangula, and included Advocate Ngoako Ramatlhodi and Dr Hashim Moomal
who
is a retired pathologist and an expert in post mortem analysis. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Sat 29 October 2005
HARARE - The cash-strapped Zimbabwe
government is planning to blow
US$18.5 million on the African Cup of Nations
finals in 2010 if it wins the
right to host the continental soccer
showcase.
According to the official hosting project proposal titled
"Bringing
the beautiful game to a beautiful country" which has already been
submitted
to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) which is in charge
of running
football on the continent, the total expenditure is billed to
come to US$18
427 800.
The document, which was compiled by a
nine-member bidding committee,
was accompanied by a letter written by
Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa)
chairman Rafiq Khan and Education,
Sport and Culture Minister Aeneas
Chigwedere.
According to the
project proposal, the government proposed to book 30
people from each of the
participating teams in economy class while the CAF
president, honorary
president and the two vice-presidents will travel first
class.
Participating team players will be given a daily indemnity of USD$100
while
match officials will pocket USD$200 per match.
On hotel
accommodation, Zimbabwe has budgeted US$970 000 while
transport costs are
pegged at a massive US$864 000. The CAF congress will
chew a massive US$425
000 while printing costs are set to blow US$4.3
million.
The
Zimbabwe authorities will also splash a massive US$300 000 during
the
opening and closing ceremonies for the tournament, while medals and
match
equipment will chew a staggering US$650 000 and US$500 000
respectively.
Algeria, Senegal, Mozambique, Zambia and Morocco
are also seeking to
host the 2010 soccer tournament. CAF is expected to
announce the winner next
year.
In 2000, Zimbabwe lost the right
to host the soccer finals after Zifa
failed to secure government backing on
the project. The tournament was later
jointly hosted by Ghana and
Nigeria.
Zimbabwe is going through a severe economic recession
which has seen
the country battle a severe fuel crisis because there is no
foreign currency
to import the commodity. - ZimOnline
BuaNews
(Tshwane)
October 28, 2005
Posted to the web October 28,
2005
Home Affairs has confirmed that visa requirements with Zimbabwe
are still in
place.
The department says it has not scrapped visa
requirements for Zimbabweans
traveling on ordinary passports into South
Africa for holiday, business and
transit purposes.
In a statement the
department has also reminded all airlines, travel agents
and travelers to
take note of the decision.
The department says it had to clarify the
situation after "misleading" media
reports that South Africa and Zimbabwe
had agreed to scrap Visa between the
two countries.
"We would like to
add, however, that Government officials, including Police
on cross border
investigations are exempt from South African visa
requirements," said the
department.
The department has advised the media to seek clarity from the
department
through correct channels before publishing information that will
cause
confusion among people.
IOL
October 28
2005 at 02:46AM
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will
spearhead his party's
campaign in the opposition stronghold of Matabeleland
ahead of next month's
controversial senate elections, state television
reported on Thursday.
In an apparent bid to make the most out of a
split in the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) about whether
or not to participate in
the poll, a senior ruling party official said the
campaign will be centred
on the second city of Bulawayo.
"This
campaign will be led by the presidium, as led by the president,
his
excellency Comrade R G Mugabe," said Elliot Manyika, the national
secretary
for the commissariat in the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union
Patriotic
Front (Zanu-PF).
"He'll go together with the presidium and the
rest of the central
committee members and politburo members into the field
to campaign for our
candidates," he said.
Bulawayo and the two
Matabeleland provinces are traditional MDC
strongholds. But bitter
infighting in recent weeks has threatened to tear
apart the six-year old
party.
On Monday, 26 MDC candidates, including 15 from Matabeleland
and
Bulawayo, registered to contest the senate election, defying opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai who had said the party would boycott the
poll.
Opposition supporters in Matabeleland appear keen to prevent
Zanu-PF
from gaining a foothold in their region.
On Wednesday
Tsvangirai told reporters here that his party was working
to resolve its
differences to "replace the Mugabe dictatorship". - Sapa-dpa
New Zimbabwe
By Staff
Reporter
Last updated: 10/29/2005 03:42:09
A ONE-TIME Zimbabwean diplomat
and high-ranking member of Zimbabwe's
opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) in the United Kingdom was
beginning a two-and-half year jail
term on Friday.
Oswald Ndanga, 63, of Wodecroft Road, Luton, was
reprimanded by a judge for
running a con where he pretended to be a lawyer
and immigration consultant.
Ndanga has served as Zimbabwe's Deputy
Minister for Foreign Affairs and was
appointed the country's ambassador to
the then Soviet Union, now Russia.
He resurfaced in 2000 when he stood in
a by-election in the Chikomba
district on behalf of the MDC. He lost out to
the ruling Zanu PF's candidate
amid claims of voter intimidation and
rigging. He is also the MDC's district
chairman in Luton.
He offered
advice to his countrymen who were seeking asylum and others who
wanted to
stay in the country for a fee.
But Luton Crown Court heard that he did
very little to follow up the
applications.
Ndanga had pleaded guilty
to eight charges of obtaining property by
deception, one of providing
immigration advice or services without
qualification and one of fraudulent
trading.
Prosecutor Stuart Alford said Ndanga had claimed on business
cards that he
was a lawyer whereas he had only completed one year of a three
year law
course.
Several cases where Zimbabwean people seeking
immigration services had been
conned by him were outlined in court. It also
heard he had been serving a
community punishment order for eleven identical
offences in 2001 and 2002.
Rasib Ghaffar, defending, said: "By using the
terms on his business card he
meant that his client would have access to
lawyers."
He added Ndanga thought he had an agreement with a proper firm
of
immigration advisors which covered him.
Sentencing him, Judge John
Bevan said: "You are a liar when you call
yourself a solicitor and you are a
good old fashioned confidence trickster."
He said Ndanga would serve half
his 27-months sentence and then be released
on licence. He was also banned
from being involved with any company for 10
years.
By Tichaona
Sibanda
28 October 2005
Robert Mugabe is reported to have
authorised a restructuring of the
police force that will see Police
Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and other
senior officers leaving the force
to be replaced by a "new breed of trusted
officers"
ZimOnline
on Friday quoted authoritative sources who said the changes
in the police
force, which were initially earmarked to take place last
month, were part of
a wider re-organisation of the top brass in the security
forces by Mugabe.
The ultimate aim is to place the forces in the hands of
trusted loyalists
before Mugabe retires, supposedly in 2008.
According to the sources
Chihuri was supposed to be replaced by Mugabe's
nephew Innocent Matibiri
when his term expired last September. This could
not happen because Mugabe
had, until a few weeks ago, not given his final
approval to the
restructuring plan.
Chihuri will be forced to go since his rank
will be phased out. Some
of his deputies and senior officers, whom the
President is suspicious of,
will be forced to leave as well. "A new breed of
trusted police officers
will be installed," said a source who did not want
to be named.
Chihuri, who was part of a group of fighters that
unsuccessfully
rebelled against Mugabe during Zimbabwe's 1970s war of
independence, is
still Police Commissioner after his term was
extended.
Former Assistant Commissioner Jonathan Chawora, speaking
in London,
said the proposed changes don't necessarily mean who ever takes
over would
be obliged to protect Mugabe from prosecution.
'
There is a unique system in the uniformed forces where officers are
bound to
be loyal to the serving government. It would be foolhardy for
Mugabe to
presume that his loyalists will be able to defend some of his
actions when
he retires,' said Chawora.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
By Lance Guma
28 October
2005
The President of the Zimbabwe National Association of
Students Unions,
Washington Katema says the level of victimization of
student's countrywide
has reached alarming levels. The University of
Zimbabwe is reported to have
suspended Student Executive Council members
following allegations they
incited a rebellion over a directive by
authorities for students to pay for
hostel refurbishments. In a bizarre move
the University wants students to
sign letters agreeing to them paying
Z$150,000 each for the repainting and
repair of hostel facilities on
campus.
The directive has been met with extreme anger by the students
who are
already receiving meagre allowances as it is. Students in hostel
receive
Z$1,1 million while those non-residents get Z$1,9 million grants.
Protests
from student leaders to the Vice Chancellor Levi Nyagura, have only
attracted the suspension of Collen Chibanga and Mfundo Mlilo, the Vice
President and Secretary General respectively. The Vice Chancellor says they
are suspended until a disciplinary committee hears their case.
Last Wednesday disturbances broke out on campus, with riot police
besieging
the campus and randomly beating up students. At Bindura University
a student
leader was also expelled on various spurious allegations. In
Masvingo
students are being forced to join governments housing PR stunt,
'Operation
Garikai' as part of their attachment. At the Harare Polytechnic a
dean of
students was recently suspended for trying to poison a group of
student
leaders by pouring acid onto their sheets and food in the hostels. A
separate incident also saw the President of the University of Zimbabwe
Students Council expelled for allegedly cheating on his exams.
At the Midlands State University, Ornwell Marasha, another student
leader
was expelled 3 weeks before he could complete his 3-year degree
programme.
He was accused of leading the production of a politically
motivated video on
campus, which allegedly brought the University into
'disrepute'. ZINASU
President Katema says students in the whole country were
being subjected to
unbelievable levels of harassment and intimidation.
Suspensions and
expulsions had now become a way of life for every
student.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
The Herald (Harare)
October 28,
2005
Posted to the web October 28, 2005
Harare
THE CMED
reportedly squandered more than $2 billion the Ministry of Mines
and Mining
Development had paid for the purchase of 15 new vehicles last
year.
This has resulted in vehicle assembling firm Willowvale Mazda
Motor
Industries (WMMI) failing to deliver the 15 vehicles, worth over $2
billion,
to the ministry since last year.
Secretary for Mines and
Mining Development Mr Thabani Ndlovu yesterday said
the ministry had paid
the full price to WMMI through the CMED for the
purchase of the vehicles
that had not been delivered in full up to now.
Mr Ndlovu told the
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines, Environment
and Tourism that
only five vehicles were delivered to the ministry and
efforts to get the 10
others had so far been fruitless.
"We are concerned that the ministry has
been prejudiced because we could
have had the vehicles a year ago, but up to
now CMED has not delivered
them," he said.
Mr Ndlovu said his
ministry was in desperate need of the vehicles and there
were fears that the
vehicles could have been distributed to other
ministries.
"At the
time, the vehicles cost $150 million each and that amount was paid
for by
the ministry in full," he said.
The secretary said as a result of the
ministry's desperate situation, it had
since approached the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe to provide at least US$180 000
to buy vehicles.
"CMED got
the money from the ministry to purchase the vehicles and they did
not
deliver, so they might have given someone else. I think that's more than
corruption. The department must pay up and deliver the vehicles," said Gokwe
South Member of Parliament Cde Jason Machaya (Zanu-PF), a member of the
committee.
Querying why ministry officials had not confronted CMED
over the issue
Bikita West MP Cde Claudius Makova (Zanu-PF), another member
of the
committee, said they should be more serious.
He said ministry
officials and the responsible CMED personnel should be
summoned to appear
before the committee urgently to explain what happened to
the
vehicles.
Mr Ndlovu, however, said the other major constraint faced by
his ministry
was that last year's budget of $81 billion was cut by $24
billion.
The chopped-off portion, he said, was, among other needs,
supposed to
finance the monitoring of mines to establish whether they were
smuggling
minerals out of the country.
"A number of mines have so far
been closed for flouting regulations," he
said.
Another member of the
committee, Guruve South MP Cde Edward
Chindori-Chininga (Zanu-PF) asked the
officials to comment on reports that
precious minerals like gold and
platinum were being smuggled out of the
country.
Confirming that
there had been such reports, which he described as
worrisome, Mr Ndlovu said
that was the reason why the ministry had deployed
its personnel in different
parts of the country to monitor the situation.
"We want to plug that hole
before everything is out. Zimra (the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority) has
purchased scanners, which can see through cargo
leaving the country at the
borders," said the secretary.
He said although the ministry had been
allocated a fuel allocation of about
600 000 litres per month, it had not
been getting that amount of late.
He said the ministry had only 50
percent of the required staff and most
people who applied for jobs in the
ministry did not take up the posts
because of poor remuneration.
Mr
Ndlovu also told the committee that the ministry was resuscitating mines
that were closed between 2002 and last year and said the diamond mine in
Beitbridge would be opening soon.
Acting chief Government mining
engineer Mr Charles Tahwa also told the
committee that as a result of scarce
resources, safety in the country's
mines had been compromised with at least
27 people having lost their lives
at registered mines so far this
year.
He said the figure could actually be higher if unregistered mines
were
included.
Reuters
Fri Oct 28, 2005 2:51 PM GMT
By Nita Bhalla
PORT LOUIS (Reuters) -
Southern and east African countries lose billions of
dollars every year to
drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and
mineral smuggling,
severely hampering development, an expert said on Friday.
A lack of data
makes it difficult to quantify exactly how much is lost, said
Charles
Goredema, senior research fellow at the influential Institute for
Security
Studies in South Africa.
"In South Africa alone, 80 million rand is lost
annually so we are talking
in the multibillion-dollar range being lost in
the region every year," he
said in an interview with Reuters.
More
than 500 million people live in southern and eastern Africa -- which
comprise more than half of the continent's 53 countries -- and the majority
live on less than a dollar a day.
Though both regions are relatively
stable, grinding poverty and weak
policing create an environment in which
crime flourishes.
"The loss of money through these crimes is a serious
issue for the region
because the money is lost by countries which can least
afford to be without
those kinds of resources," he said.
Goredema
says the smuggling of gold and diamonds means tax is not being
paid,
resulting in revenue losses for governments to fund health, housing
and
education.
Analysts say criminal activity, like armed robbery and car
theft, increases
the cost of securing and insuring property, adversely
impacting economies
where social services are not well
developed.
Although the extent of revenue loss and crime types varies
across the
region, Goredema says countries like Zimbabwe and the Democratic
Republic of
Congo (DRC) face the biggest problem with the smuggling of gold
and
platinum.
Others lose money to diamond, cobalt and zinc
smuggling, he said.
Recent seizures of several tonnes of narcotics worth
millions of dollars in
Kenya and South Africa show that Africa is
increasingly becoming a hub for
drug trafficking.
Mauritius, Botswana
and South Africa have the best laws in the region to
tackle financial crimes
and smuggling, but many other are lacking such laws
and sometimes, even the
agencies to enforce them.
And those that have agencies often find that
they have no backing from their
governments, leading to ineffectiveness, he
said.
The problem is especially acute with anti-corruption bodies, which
have to
depend on the very governments they investigate for funding, leaving
them
open to sabotage.
"And then there is the whole question of
autonomy, most anti-corruption
agencies are not independent," he
said.
Many anti-corruption laws do not obligate people to explain wealth
which is
disproportionate to their income, or to declare their assets if
they are in
positions that can be abused, he said.
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Monday October 17th – Sunday October
23rd 2005
Weekly Media Update 2005-40
CONTENTS
1. GENERAL
COMMENT
2. THE MDC SPLIT AND SENATORIAL ELECTIONS
3. THE MONETARY
POLICY
1. General comment
THE media’s failure to inform the
public of important developments has again been exposed by their “no-memory”
coverage of news; in this case their failure to follow up on the trial of 44
journalists from the banned Daily News accused of practicing without licences,
an offence that attracts a maximum jail sentence of two years under Zimbabwe’s
repressive media laws.
As this report was being compiled, the
international journalists’ watchdog organisation, Reporters Sans Frontiers,
revealed (25/10) that the State had apparently “abandoned the prosecution” of
the journalists after court officials failed to turn up for their trial on
October 12th.
According to the international journalists’ watchdog,
the Daily News staffers and their lawyer went to the court “but none of the
court officials including the judge in charge of the case knew about the
hearing”. It quoted an official from the paper’s publishers, the Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe, saying the authorities were “too embarrassed to proceed
with the prosecution” after the acquittal of the first Daily News journalist to
be tried on the same charge, Kelvin Jakachira, and had therefore decided to “let
the case slowly die a natural death”.
SW Radio Africa (26/10) picked up
the story the following day while the rest of the media missed it. The fact that
only the niche market radio station reported the matter clearly shows the
adverse effects of repressive media laws, which have severely eroded media
diversity, leaving the partisan government controlled media the dominant sources
of information.
Instead of heeding calls to democratise the country’s
media environment, The Zimbabwean (21/10) revealed that the authorities were
instead employing unorthodox means to further choke the free flow of
information. The London-based weekly reported an unnamed “intelligence source”
alleging that government was “using sophisticated satellite equipment purchased
from China” to jam broadcasts by the small independent radio station, Voice of
the People. MMPZ’s own efforts to monitor the station’s signal over the past
three weeks have been frustrated by a steady droning interference.
SW
Radio Africa, which was forced to change its broadcasting frequencies in the
run-up to the March parliamentary election due to jamming, first reported the
issue about two months ago. MMPZ condemns these attempts to starve the nation of
alternative sources of information as desperate acts of people frightened of the
truth.
2. The MDC split and Senatorial elections
THE government
media continued with their narrow and biased interpretation of the divisions
rocking the MDC over participation in the November 26 Senate elections during
the week. Almost all 53 stories these media carried (government Press [29] and
ZBH [24]) on the matter, used the decision by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to
overrule his party’s National Executive Council’s 33:31 vote favouring
participation in the election to launch a personal attack on him, saying he was
undemocratic and dictatorial.
They simplistically attributed the rift
in the opposition to his actions without giving a holistic picture of the
problems bedeviling the opposition party. Neither did they critically examine
the underlying implications of such divisions on the party’s survival and indeed
the country’s struggle for democracy. Rather, Radio Zimbabwe and ZTV (18/10,
8pm) and Power FM (19/10, 8pm) merely castigated Tsvangirai for “failing” to
“uphold the principles of democracy, which the party claims to champion” by his
rejection of the decision by his party’s executive council.
ZTV
recruited ZANU PF apologists Media and Information Commission chairman Tafataona
Mahoso and Herald reporter Caesar Zvayi, who attacked the opposition as
“immature”. Although ZTV reported in the same bulletin that members of the
public had expressed “mixed feelings” over Tsvangirai’s decision to boycott the
polls, only two of the 15 selected individuals supported the opposition leader,
while the rest denounced him for allegedly breaching his party’s constitution
and “pleasing his masters”, an expression that clearly exposed the sources of
their information. But how exactly Tsvangirai was pandering to the whims of his
perceived ‘masters’ was not explained.
ZBH’s anti-Tsvangirai coverage
was reflected in its sourcing pattern. For example, 16 of the 21 MDC voices
quoted on ZBH supported the party’s participation, while only five supported
Tsvangirai. In addition, all alternative voices and most of the selected
individuals sourced for comment maligned the opposition leader. (See
Fig1.)
Fig 1 Voice distribution on ZBH
Zanu
PFMDCGovtAlternativePoliceZECOrdinary people
252111721630
The
government papers adopted a similar trend.
They turned their coverage of the
MDC conflict into a personal attack on Tsvangirai, describing him, for example,
as a “fake democrat” and a “political nobody” (The Herald 18/10) while reporting
approvingly of the MDC’s pro-participation faction led by Welshman Ncube, whom
The Sunday Mail (23/10) portrayed as “the cool politician” and “the real
deal”.
The Herald (22/10) took its anti-Tsvangirai crusade to wildly
propagandist extremes in its front page article People vs Tsvangirai. The
inflammatory commentary portrayed Tsvangirai as a national villain who had not
only wreaked untold suffering on the nation but his party as well. It cited
“analysts” calling for the MDC leader to “be made accountable for the crimes he
has committed” against Zimbabweans. However, not a single analyst was identified
or quoted directly saying these things.
Instead, The Herald quoted
Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga urging Zimbabweans to “organise a
mass action against Mr Tsvangirai” whose “disregard of the law is legendary”,
adding, “most of the challenges that we (Zimbabweans) are facing can be traced
to his recklessness”.
The paper’s determination to condemn Tsvangirai as a
political outcast was reinforced by its publication of a close-up picture of the
opposition leader’s face plastered with eight newsflashes of his alleged crimes
against the nation. Notably, most of the alleged crimes had either been
dismissed by the courts or were largely untested.
This campaign against
the MDC leader resulted in the government papers failing to investigate the
circumstances in which Tsvangirai is said to have breached his party’s
constitution, threatened his rivals or issued his boycott call. For example, The
Herald and Chronicle (20/10) never verified the MDC leader’s claims that the
NEC’s decision to participate in the Senate election was influenced by
vote-buying by members of the party’s “top six”. They only appeared to be
interested in celebrating the party’s conflict by amplifying any criticism that
Tsvangirai’s rivals aimed at him.
Although the government Press carried
more MDC voices than any other, (Fig 2) these were mostly from the group
advocating participation in the Senate election.
Fig 2. Voice
distribution in the government Press
MDC Zanu PF GovtZECAlternative
537775
While the in-fighting in the MDC presented the government
media with a glorious opportunity to denigrate Tsvangirai and his party, they
carried 34 stories (government Press [12] and ZBH [22]) that presented a
sanitized picture of ZANU PF’s preparations for the poll.
In contrast,
the private media adopted a generally professional approach in the 47 stories
(private Press [22], Studio 7 [18] and SW Radio Africa [7]) they carried on the
damaging divisions within the MDC. These media gave both MDC factions an
opportunity to articulate their positions. Thus, the pro-participation group’s
argument that the MDC should not surrender political space to Zanu PF by
boycotting the poll and Tsvangirai’s contention that contesting the poll was
useless as Zimbabwe’s electoral laws “breed illegitimate outcomes” were
reasonably projected. For example, while SW Radio Africa (18/10) quoted
Tsvangirai claiming that he had overturned the NEC’s vote in accordance with the
“mandate given to him by Congress”, the next night the station reported MDC
vice-president Gibson Sibanda giving a different position. Sibanda accused his
boss of “breaching party laws and misrepresenting facts”.
The
Financial Gazette (20/10), which alone carried seven stories on the matter,
revealed in two stories that the rift in the MDC was more than just a fight over
the Senate elections. It depicted the current rift as emanating from a year-long
power struggle for control of the party between the two factions ahead of the
party’s congress next year.
The story cited a Press statement apparently
issued by MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda, linking Tsvangirai’s “wilful”
violation of the MDC’s constitution to previous acts of violence against senior
national and provincial leaders by party youths.
Tsvangirai’s spokesman
William Bango dismissed the statement saying it was likely a fraud since
“another person other than Mr Sibanda himself” had signed it.
In
addition, it cited unnamed MDC insiders chronicling more conspiracies on the
alleged origins of the power struggle between Tsvangirai and his rivals.
The
Gazette also provided an illuminating account of what transpired during the
MDC’s NEC meeting itself. It reported Tsvangirai as having been press-ganged by
his lieutenants to conduct a vote on the matter, a development the opposition
leader interpreted as meant to “sabotage” and “humiliate” him.
The
Standard (23/10) carried three opinion pieces calling on the MDC to boycott the
election, saying it should find other democratic means of bringing about
change. Earlier, the Zimbabwe Independent (21/10) questioned Tsvangirai’s
boycott calls, saying: “What is there to lose in the Senate poll that the MDC
has not already lost in the lower chamber (Parliament)?”
Figs 3 and 4 show
the voice distribution in the private media.
Fig 3. Sourcing pattern of
the private Press
Zanu PFMDCAlternativeZECGovtOther oppositionUnnamed
92753224
Fig 4. Voice distribution on private radio
stations
Zanu PFMDCForeign AlternativeZECOrdinary
people
22221312
Notably, both sections of the media failed to
independently verify the constitution of the opposition party and establish the
fundamental authority of the MDC.
The media also hardly carried helpful
information on the electoral authorities’ election preparations. For example,
ZBH merely carried 23 stories that passively rehashed the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) announcement that it had embarked on voter education campaigns.
As a result, there was inadequate information on constituency boundaries,
timeframes and measurable outputs of the voter education exercise, and
inspection of the voters’ roll.
The dismal manner in which the
government media covered this critical component of the poll was best captured
by The Herald (22/10), which failed to seek clarity on the impartiality and
mandate of the ZEC’s National Logistics Committee, which includes Public
Commission Chairman Mariyawanda Nzuwa (chair), Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede,
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and at least five secretaries of
government ministries such as secretary for Information, George Charamba.
Although the private media also failed to report meaningfully on the
administration of the election, Studio 7 (18/10) and SW Radio Africa (21/10)
quoted Zimbabwe Election Support Network chairman Reginald Matchaba-Hove
accusing the authorities of gerrymandering in order to neutralise MDC
strongholds. He alleged on SW Radio Africa that the poll “has already (been)
rigged” because Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa “simply came up with the
amalgamation of various constituencies” and “more often than not” diluted urban
seats with “rural constituencies”.
The government media ignored the issue.
3. The Monetary Policy
THE government media’s amnesia in
handling pertinent national policy issues was clearly illustrated by their
supine coverage of the monetary policy review statement from Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono during the week.
These media simply celebrated the
statement without relating it to Gono’s previous monetary policy pronouncements.
For example, none of the 30 stories the official Press (12) and ZBH (18) carried
on the matter viewed Gono’s decision to relinquish government control of the
exchange rate and allow market forces to determine the value of the local
currency as a major policy shift considering he has steadfastly refused to do so
in the past.
Neither did these media try to link this development with
IMF demands to allow the market to determine the value of the local dollar. Nor
did they see Gono’s drastic revision of his inflation target of 80 % by year-end
to between 280 and 300 % as a clear admission of failed economic policies. There
was also no analysis on the effects of raising interest rates from about 200% to
more than 400% on industry’s viability.
Instead, ZTV (20/10, 8pm) simply
rehashed highlights of Gono’s statements and celebrated the new foreign currency
exchange policy saying the move would “improve foreign currency inflows” without
explaining how.
The Herald (21/10) followed suit. It passively noted
that the introduction of the interbank market exchange rate “will pave way for
efficient allocation of resources in the foreign currency market …at the same
time improving exporters’ viability and luring foreign exchange into the
official system”.
And instead of seeking diverse opinion on the subject, the
paper simply restricted itself to sourcing comments from pro-government
analysts, who praised the purported benefits of the dollar’s effective
devaluation, although the word “devaluation” was pointedly missing from
government media reports.
None of the media asked policymakers and
commentators why it had been necessary to impose such heavy controls on the
dollar’s value for so long, if allowing the dollar to find its own value was the
solution to Zimbabwe’s economic crisis. The inflationary effect of the
devaluation and its impact on the soaring cost of living was also never
touched.
To lend the monetary policy international approval, ZTV (21/10,
8pm) and Power FM (22/10, 8pm) claimed that the “diplomatic community” had also
“thrown its weight behind economic recovery measures outlined by central bank
governor” saying “whilst Zimbabwe has received widespread negative publicity on
issues pertaining to both economic and political issues, the situation on the
ground reflects a better Zimbabwe with a better future”.
None of the
ambassadors were quoted saying this.
It was against this blind
endorsement of Gono’s policies that the government media suffocated the
governor’s plans to introduce a new currency by March next year, a move usually
taken by countries with failed economies. The government media’s pathetically
inadequate coverage exposed their reliance on official sources and alternative
voices that merely echoed government sentiment, as illustrated by the sourcing
pattern of the official Press. See Fig 4.
Fig 4 Voice distribution in
the government Press
Alternative ProfessionalBusiness
Govt
42717
Most of the 15 stories the private Press carried on
Gono’s new monetary policy were sceptical about its ability to turn around the
economy. The Zimbabwe Independent (21/10) especially, believed that despite the
IMF’s predictions of a bleak economic future, Gono had still “not come up with a
viable reconstruction model but clung to the failed plan”, a situation that
boded ill for the economy.
It noted that the governor’s plans to introduce a
new currency, his revision of inflation targets and the dumping of foreign
currency auctions for a floating system was actually an admission of his failed
monetary policies.
The Standard (23/10) noted that Gono implored
government not to condone more land invasions if his efforts to win the war
against inflation was to be won. Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa carried three
stories that also questioned the effectiveness of Gono’s
policies.
Ends//
The MEDIA UPDATE was produced and circulated by the
Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe, 15 Duthie Avenue, Alexandra Park, Harare,
Tel/fax: 263 4 703702, E-mail: monitors@mmpz.org.zw
Feel free to write
to MMPZ. We may not able to respond to everything but we will look at each
message. For previous MMPZ reports, and more information about the Project,
please visit our website at http://www.mmpz.org.zw
Iran Daily
PRETORIA, South Africa, Oct.
28--Iranian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Hamid Moayer
and Zimbabwe's Foreign
Minister Mubengegwei Simbarashe in a meeting on
Thursday discussed matters
of bilateral concern.
At the meeting, Moayer referred to cooperation between
the two countries in
the international assemblies and bilateral agreements
and declared Iran's
interest in establishing a joint commission.
The
foreign ministers of the two countries will preside over the commission,
which is to discuss cooperation in various fields including trade, defense,
information and publicity, roads and transportation, telecommunications as
well as promotion of sciences and technology.
Expressing the interest of
Iranian companies in investing in Zimbabwe's
various economic fields, the
diplomat called for guarantees and facilities
required for the presence of
Iranian enterprises in Zimbabwe.
For his part, Mubengegwi appreciated Iran's
contribution to various economic
projects in that country, calling for
close
collaboration, particularly in extraction and exploitation of mines in
Zimbabwe.
The foreign minister pointed to his country's economic problems
and said,
"Given that Zimbabwe's debts to the International Monetary Fund
will soon be
due, the country is now in critical financial condition."