Saving The Harare Three
Anthony C.
LoBaido
October 6, 2005
Three soldiers are languishing in a dank
prison in Zimbabwe under the worst
conditions imaginable. Even Nelson Mandela
has called for their release. But
Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe won't let
them go.
According to Mugabe, the recent Nicole Kidman film, "The
Interpreter" was
about his misrule of that nation. Mugabe has blathered in
recent months that
U.S. President George Bush Jr., Hollywood and the CIA are
all aligned
against him.
Bush Jr. did sign a Presidential Directive
against Mugabe, but the
PC-demoralized CIA and MI-6 (British Intelligence)
cannot do much about the
situation. That being to help the MDC (Movement for
Democratic Change, "the
good guys"), take power from the ZANU-PF (Mugabe's
Shona-dominated party)
and end the nightmare.
Zimbabwe is a strange
and troubled land. After his most recent visit to
South Africa, Bush Jr. left
South Africa's Marxist President Thabo Mbeki
behind as his "point man" on
Zimbabwe. But because of the "African Big Man"
philosophy the younger Mbeki
could never challenge Mugabe. As Mbeki's recent
reinauguration Mugabe had a
seat of honor, as the ANC continues to prop up
the ZANU-PF with massive
amounts of financial and other aid. However, Mbeki
has also asked Mugabe to
let them go free from prison.
Who are the Harare Three?
Harare is
the capital of Zim. It was renamed from "Salisbury" after the fall
of
Rhodesia to archetype Maoism, Communism and Mugabe-ism. Kevin Woods is
one of
the Harare Three still left in jail. Philip Conjwayo and Mike Smith
are the
other two. Woods fought in the war in Rhodesia on the side of South
Africa.
But Rhodesia, which had declared independence from Great Britain,
lost that
war when the apartheid regime withdrew support.
Around this time Henry
Kissinger publicly stated that "white regimes would
not survive in Southern
Africa." Rhodesian leader Ian Smith, a World War II
fighter pilot, visited
with Kissinger but then President Jimmy Carter would
not see
him.
Mugabe took power and carried out the little known Matabele massacre
with
the help of North Korean mercenaries. The Matabele were enemies of
the
Shona. More than 25,000 died but no one knows for sure the exact
number.
Kevin Woods is a hero to freedom-loving Rhodesians, South
Africans,
Americans, Australians, Kiwis and Brits. Not so much because he
fought
against Mugabe but because of all he has survived and endured in
prison. The
war days are long gone, having disappeared into the dustbin of
history along
with the old Soviet Union.
In recent years, South
African sociologist Sasha Gear has conducted
workshops where ex white Special
Forces from the old SADF meet with ex-ANC
members. All of them have bonded,
realizing they were used as pawns by the
old elite - black and white. In the
Truth and Reconciliation Hearings, South
Africans of all persuasions have for
the most part, regretted any and all
violent actions during the Cold War and
apartheid and anti-apartheid
struggles.
The old Soviet Union, North
Korea and Mainland China (and Chavez's modern
Venezuela, which hosted Mugabe
as a king during a visit) were all allies of
Zimbabwe against the pro-West
apartheid regime. South African special forces
attacked ANC bases in Angola,
Zimbabwe and Southwest Africa (now Namibia)
during what P.W. Botha termed
"the total onslaught" phase.
During this time the ANC carried out its own
terrorist bombings like Church
Street and horrendous human rights abuses and
torture of its own black
cadres at the Mbokodo camp in Angola. "Mbokodo"
means "the grinding stone"
in Xhosa. The ANC is a Xhosa dominated
organization which has been at odds
with the Zulus for much of its existence.
However, the ANC was led by a
white, Soviet, the late Colonel Joe Slovo,
during the 1980s. The ANC was
also the first communist party set up the
Soviets after the 1917 revolution,
carried out under the banner of "workers
unite to keep South Africa white."
What did they do wrong?
Kevin
Woods' alleged war crime is particularly noxious, and strange, since
Mugabe
had taken power in Zimbabwe about eight years prior, and the
apartheid regime
was in its dying days.
This much is known about the war crime, and was
verified to Wnd.com by Mike
Woods;
At approximately 2100 hours on 11
January 1988, a car bomb was detonated at
an ANC facility in Bulawayo,
killing the civilian driver and seriously
injuring several ANC personnel.
Kevin Woods had previously identified the
facility to a South African Special
Forces Intelligence Agent, Kit Bawden,
and subsequently a South African
Defense Force aircraft delivered explosives
to a cattle ranch near Fort Rixon
belonging to Kit's brother, Barry Bawden.
Philip Conjwayo procured the
vehicle and civilian driver, a Zambian by the
name of Obed Amon Mwanza for
the purpose of delivering the explosives to the
ANC facility. This facility
was located at 16a Jungle Road, North Trenance.
The driver was told he was
participating in an illegal foreign currency deal
and given instructions to
sound the car's horn on arrival at the facility
and then to abandon the
vehicle.
Mike Smith and Kit Bawden fitted the explosives to the car.
Mwanza then
drove it to the target and upon sounding the horn, Kit Bawden,
who was
accompanied by Smith, detonated the explosives, killing Mwanza
instantly and
injuring six ANC personnel, one of them seriously.
Kevin
Woods was in South Africa at the time the raid took place.
On 18th
November 1988, Agents Woods, Smith and Conjwayo were sentenced to
death for
the car bomb attack in Bulawayo. Agents Woods, Smith and Bawden
were also
sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for the car bombing of another
ANC
facility in Harare. On 28th October 1993, on appeal, Agents Woods, Smith
and
Conjwayo had their death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, and
Bawden's
40 years imprisonment to 25 years imprisonment.
Kevin Woods had applied
for amnesty under the guidelines of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission
or "TRC." However there is a hitch. The TRC has no
power to grant amnesty for
apartheid era crimes committed beyond South
African soil. For example, the
shadowy Civil Cooperation Bureau carried out
over 225 professional, military
style executions of anti-apartheid activists
worldwide. And because they did
not occur on South African territory, (as in
the alleged crimes of Dr. Wauter
Basson in Namibia) they fall in between the
cracks of the legal process in
The New South Afirca.
TRC or no TRC, Mugabe will not Kevin Woods him go.
As noted, even Nelson
Mandela, who knows a hero when he sees one, has called
for Kevin's release.
A death sentence has been pronounced against the three
men but has not been
carried out. They have spent five years in solitary
confinement. Their
confessions were extracted under torture. Even their
children were involved
during this barbaric process and an unborn baby as
well.
Mugabe is not a man without reason. He has sought out alliances
with Libya,
the ANC and Mainland China. He send his troops to fight in the
DRC as
mercenaries in order to raid that nation's natural resources. This
only
increased the money in his coffers.
It is now accepted that
Mugabe was less than thrilled last year when a group
of South African
mercenaries involved with elite ex-SAS soldier Simon Mann
and Mark Thatcher,
the son of The Lady Thatcher, were arrested in Zimbabwe
for allegedly
planning a coup in oil rich Equatorial Guinea. This bizarre
scenario may have
only hardened Mugabe's resolve.
Marge Leitner, a South African who
monitors the political scene in Southern
Africa very closely, told Wnd.com,
"This business with Kevin Woods is too
horrible for words. Politically nobody
wants to touch it. For some
unexplicable reason."
Mugabe and his
secret police and private militias "The Green Bombers" are
not to be taken
lightly. They have been modeled on the Hitler Nazi Youth.
For example, Cathy
Buckle, the famous author of "African Tears," had her
farm taken away (in
part) because she was my Wnd.com informant inside
Zimbabwe.
Until now,
in secret, Wnd.com has been in contact with Mike Woods, Kevin's
brother, who
lives in Australia. Mike in turn has been in contact with
Kevin's barrister,
Julia Wood. Both Woods and Wood believe there still
exists the hope Kevin
Woods will be released.
Mike Woods inyathi@bigpond.net.au has set up a
website dealing with the
Harare Three http://free-harare3.org/ and has politely
requested
freedom-loving readers to send cookies, novels and toiletries to
Kevin Woods
if they are so inclined.
"Drink concentrate and sweets
would also be nice," Mike Woods told Wnd.com.
He asked that nothing about
Mugabe or Zimbabwe be included or written with
the care packages, for obvious
reasons.
The conditions in the prison are terrible. The inmates live in
their own
filth, they only have a little blanket in the winter months,
there's no
doctor ... no nothing.
The address for any care packages
that might go to Kevin Woods.
K.Woods
c/o Julia Wood
(Barrister)
PO Box 3188
Harare
Zimbabwe
Will Robert Mugabe find
the strength and forgiveness in his heart to let the
Harare Three
go?
As Nicole Kidman said in "The Interpreter," while reminding (the
would-be)
Mugabe of his true self; "Even the faintest whisper can be heard
above the
sound of armies when it speaks the truth."
JAG OPEN LETTER FORUM
Email: jag@mango.zw;
justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please send any material for publication
in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject
line.
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Letter
1:
Dear JAG,
The following is of interest - especially in our
economic climate.
My name is Jose Luis Perrone and I am the CFO to the
LAL - Southern Cone
Unit.
Let's see if the lessons learned from the
Argentina's hyperinflation crisis
may be of any help to your company in
Zimbabwe:
OUTLINE
1. You are about to live a very unique
situation, very stressing but also
very (too) exciting.
2. It won't
last forever; no economy can endure real hyperinflation for
more than just
few days until activity collapses.
3. The process that leads to
hyperinflation may take several months,
though.
4. The process after
hyperinflation is even more dangerous as it implies
adjusting to a brand-new
mindset.
5. Finally, but most importantly, you can make a profit out of
the
mess!!!!!!
HIGH INFLATION (or the process before)
This
period characterizes by growing two-digit inflation rates preceded/
followed
by continuous devaluation of the local currency and very high (in
nominal and
in real terms) interest rates.
As economic agents tend to get rid of
local currency as fast as it reaches
their hands, the number of transactions
in the economy accelerates:
Goods are purchased notwithstanding the
actual level of demand (but as a
means of protecting the value of the
business net worth); after a short
while stocks begin piling-up not only in
the POS's (Point of Sales) shelves
but even into home garages!!!
The
usual behaviour of a typical Distributor shows the following
patterns:
1. Buy more and growingly, but, not surprisingly, sell less
and
reluctantly. As said, the Distributor first regard Stocks as
a
"value-keeper" and very shortly as a "profit-maker" (if
intelligently
combined with patterns 2 and 3).
2. Sales orders tend
to highly concentrate towards the day prior to the
date-of-change of the
pricing list (usually the last day of each month).By
delaying the order, the
distributor will then be selling at the new
(higher) prices while paying
their purchases at the old (lower) costs.
3. Tend to delay payments as
much as allowed by the Company. The more they
can delay the payment the less
they will pay (in terms of the current value
of the goods).
Retailers
behave pretty much the same, only that as they collect cash
daily, they run
to buy cash as much goods as they can get from the
Distributors.
As
the latter have already cut-off terms, the retailers cannot usually
stock-up.
If the retailer continues selling other than cash (i.e. credit
card), he or
she may risk default as collections are made at a devalued
currency that now
buys a lesser quantity of goods.
The actions that can be taken for
mitigating the erosion caused by
inflation or even for making a profit out of
it) are the following:
1. Change the price listing as often as
necessary.
2. Calculate prices by estimating the cost of reposition of
raw materials.
Do not use past or current costs!!!! The reposition costs that
you should
estimate are those as far in the future as your supply cycle
dictates.
3. Always add to the prices calculated as per 2 above the rate
of
inflation that you estimate will happen between the date of issuance of
the
price listing and the day that the invoices will be finally
cashed.
4. Reduce the length of payment terms, provide incentives for
prepayments.
5. As the situation deteriorates stubbornly accelerate the
actions
mentioned above. Do not fear a negative impact of these actions upon
sales,
remember and remind your colleagues that the clients are buying
for
stockpiling and they would rather get rid of local currency than delay
a
purchase for arguing against price increases and/or shorter payment
terms.
Actually you will not want to sell while your customers will
hardly
pressure you to buy, and they in turn will not be willing to sell to
their
clients!!!!
The back-office workload increases substantially as
the price-changing
cycle accelerates and the scrutiny over payments is
overstressed. The IT
Department must be prepared well in advance for coping
with the
fast-changing requirements.
Despite the hazards, inflation
also brings opportunities for boosting
earnings (bear high in your mind that
financial institutions usually earn
tons of money from this process): some of
the costs will continue
relatively fixed in local currency (i.e. salaries and
services) and there
will always be payables in local currency (i.e. taxes).
You should run
away from assets in local monies as fast as possible and
conversely should
keep, as much as feasible, liabilities in such currency.
Short-term (very,
very short) investments reasonably secured (i.e. in local
currency with a
very high rate of return or in hard currency) are ALWAYS
preferable to less
liquid assets (such as stocks or fixed
assets).
HYPERINFLATION
This stage is when inflation hits a
monthly three-digit rate and prices
vary by the minute (in fact there is not
a fair value for goods). As I
said, this will last for a very short period
of time, so don't panic, you
will certainly survive!!! Just bear in mind
that there will not only be
economic turmoil but social unrest and political
upheavals; the behavioural
patterns change quite dramatically.
From
the business standpoint there is not much to do other than selling
CASH-ONLY
in HARD-CURRENCY-ONLY!!!!! Be prepared in advance: think of all
the legal
implications and possible biases (sometimes the law forbids the
making of
local transactions in foreign currencies, however reality will
push-over);
and the logistics (collecting in hard currency means carrying
and keeping
actual dollars / pounds / whatever but not cheques).
Also protect your
staff, make sure that they understand the process and are
prepared for
carrying-on (not only for dealing with the business but also
with their
personal lives). You may think of paying their wages daily or
at least
weekly.
REBIRTH (the day after)
Hyperinflation leads inevitably to
economic paralysis. The painful way out
is through a strong political
steering move capable of introducing deep
changes in the social fabric and in
the economic institutions.
Amongst those many changes the creation of a
new currency (or even its
complete disappearance and the substitution by a
foreign one) and the
removal of the causes of hyper (i.e. fiscal deficit)
will change the
economic environment very abruptly (i.e. very low inflation
or even
deflation, very high - in real terms - interest rates, a blossoming
of
private investment and recreation of consumer demand).
In many
cases the mind and behaviour of economic agents is hard to adjust
to the new
truly different situation: the Distributors may continue their
habit of
stockpiling; the working capital cycle then slows-down quite
perceivable and
they run-out of cash; they then go to the banks to get more
funding (which
the banks are now willing to lend easily!!!!) to buy
more
stocks.
After a while that stocks do not move, they realize that
their debts with
suppliers cannot be paid with inflationary gains as in the
past.
(Eventually it can be quite the opposite as the stock at the moment
of
payment might be priced less than at the moment of purchasing); but
they
have already added bank debts which pay (very high) interest and so all
of
a sudden they are on the verge of bankruptcy.
The first action that
you should take to mitigate the credit exposure is to
visit the top clients
and assess their stock and financial situation, make
sure that they do the
same with their clients too. Also be prepared to
accept return sales, the
remaining outstanding trade balance may require
refinancing, but this may
make sense only if the client is not yet deeply
indebted with banks.
I
hope that the above is of any help for you and your team, please do
not
hesitate in calling me should I be of further assistance.
Best
regards,
Jose Luis Perrone
CFO - LAL Southern
Cone
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Letter
2:
Editor,
In the interests of good open debate and Voltaire like
thinking - could we
engage your contributor - Dutiro? The innuendo of his
last letter portrayed
Mr. Mugabe as a current hero rather than an ex
hero.
Perhaps Dutiro could inform the open letter forum readers if he
believes
that Mr. Mugabe has made any mistakes at all in the last twenty five
years.
This would be invaluable food for thought and give a different
perspective.
J.L.
Robinson.
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Letter
3:
Dear JAG,
Re Stuart Chappell's letter, I am glad that there
have been so many
responses. My own reaction was one of emotional
exhaustion. We have tried
so hard, for so many years to counter the
propaganda machine that conceals
the realities of Zimbabwe and up pops a guy
like this full of what I am
sure he regards as valid argument. Unfortunately
he believes the
propaganda, or he has another agenda.
It takes me back
to an angry evening long ago in the early 1980's when a
pompous visitor from
Britain who was at my mother's dinner table with his
wife and son, the latter
a First Secretary in the local British High
Commission, asked me if I were
not pleased with the way things were going,
as eighteen months earlier he
thought I was not so happy. Through gritted
teeth I said, "It is pig
sticking time in Matabeleland". Shocked silence
and then I had to explain the
massacres that were taking place at that
time.
After dinner the First
Secretary took me aside and berated me for telling
lies, saying that
Rhodesians (he called us that) were full of South African
propaganda.
Furiously I replied that what I knew was true, and that we
were not talking
of idle matters but people's lives and that either he was
the liar or he was
not doing his job. When that particular gentleman (and
I would still like to
ring his neck) left the country, he phoned my brother
and said that Zimbabwe
was "all washed up". So why, I enquired, did he
trouble to take me to task
at a private function. My brother replied,
"They were under orders to make
it look good".
Now along comes a similar character in the form of Stuart
Chappell, just
when another form of genocide is taking place, a more subtle
kind. In
weaving his argument, Chappell, denies the terrible suffering of
the
ordinary, black people of Zimbabwe. Yes, the farmers have suffered, but
we
know this was a political smokescreen. If it were not there would
have
been, long back, many competent and qualified black farmers making
land
reform a reality instead of a bunch of wasters.
Whites make news,
blacks can die slowly, in their thousands, but Mr
Chappell wants to buy a
farm.
Give us a break!
Aluta.
Harare
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Letter
4:
Dear JAG
Re: Stuart Chappell
There is the old adage that
"people never learn from history". It is clear
that it is impossible to
learn if we either forget or re-write history so
consistently whilst looking
for explanations for what has happened.
History as I see it:
1
Lancaster House allowed for protection of land tenure for 10 years
but
reallocation of land on a willing buyer/seller basis with the UK
and
Zimbabwe Governments contributing financially.
2 At independence
we heard that Mugabe thought that he needed to reduce the
white population to
a controllable 80 000 and then sustain this figure
until he had total control
of the economy at which time he would rid
Zimbabwe of the remaining whites.
Within 2 years this first goal had been
achieved and pressure came off the
white population.
3 Many farms were reallocated in the first 10 years,
and after, with
adequate compensation being paid.
4 The land issue
only raised its head in the lead up to elections. At one
pre-election
meeting, that I know about, Mugabe told farmers not to take
note of his
speeches but look to his actions. This was taken to mean that
his rhetoric
about taking land was just that and he knew that he needed to
continue with
commercial agriculture for the good of the economy.
5 In the late 90s the
UK Government withdrew support as they believed that
some of the money was
being misallocated or not benefiting the landless
population. It cannot be
disputed that many farms bought and paid for by
the UK Government ended up in
the hands of Chefs or their relatives/friends
(as fronts).
6 In 1996
(Presidential election year) or 1997 the Zimbabwe Government
tried to
expropriate some 1 500 farms which led to an international and
local uproar.
I am unsure of the timing or terms offered but they could
not have been
acceptable to landowners, etc.
7 The above led to the Land Conference
attended by several world
governments (not just the British) at which a plan
of action and finance
for a transparent and sustainable land reform programme
was agreed by all
attending the conference and pledges of financial support
made by many
countries. The Zimbabwe Government was to identify pilot
schemes which
they failed to do. (This may have been as they wanted to
continue with
commercial agriculture which was the backbone of the economy -
makes sense
and could explain the slow implementation of the reform over the
previous
18 years).
8 In 2000 we held a Constitutional Referendum.
During the lead up it
became obvious that ZANU(PF)'s proposals were not going
to be accepted,
especially the provisions for Mugabe to extend his reign of
power, without
a big draw card. To this end Mugabe introduced the infamous
Clause 16
provision that the British should be responsible for paying for the
land.
This had no effect on the outcome of the referendum, which rejected
the
constitutional proposals, as the people were no longer interested in
land
reform or continued persecution of the whites. Clause 16 was a dead
duck.
This infuriated Mugabe as he had misread the electorate and lost
his
referendum. He made a very consolatory speech and within days the
land
invasions had started. He needed to vent his anger and thought that
the
white farmers had lobbied for the rejection of the constitution because
of
Clause 16. The farmers had taken a very back seat and only
provided
transport for their labour to vote.
9 I believe that although
led by war veterans the land invasions were not
instigated by them but by
Mugabe as retribution for the "NO" vote. Remember
that nothing happens
without Mugabe's sanction. I believe the original
target was some 1 000 or 1
500 farms.
10 The "NO" vote gave confidence to the white community that
democracy was
truly alive in Zimbabwe and they could re-engage in
politics.
11 The referendum was closely followed by the 2000
parliamentary elections
which ZANU(PF) could not be sure of winning given the
"NO" vote and the
rise of the MDC. Moyo needed a scapegoat goat and blamed
the MDC which
until then was little known - it was the NCA that lobbied for
the rejection
of the constitutional proposals.
12 To protect their
land/rights white farmers threw their weight behind the
MDC as they thought
there was a real chance of change for the betterment of
Zimbabwe as a whole.
They did not believe that the invasions were anything
more than a short term
political move to win ZANU(PF) the election but also
thought that by having a
change of government away from a revolutionary
party the land issue would be
finally put to bed.
13 Mugabe was incensed at the TV footage showing
farmers giving large sums
of money to the MDC and gave the green light for
total farm expropriation/
invasion, whatever the cost to the country's
economy. The farmers now
truly joined the ranks of "those who are against
me".
I know the above is not complete and may have inaccuracies. Maybe
people
who remember can correct or add and JAG can produce an accurate report
so
we do not loose sight of our history.
Even today there is no clear
blueprint for the resettlement of the land nor
has any plan been tabled in
parliament. The conclusion must be that this
is still political expediency
or retribution and not a move to address any
colonial imbalances.
In
hind sight the white community, and especially the farmers, should have
kept
out of politics or even have supported Mugabe to the hilt. We should
have
sold our souls to the devil and continued with the good life. This
bears
heavily on me as I feel more than a degree of responsibility for what
has
transpired to everyone in Zimbabwe. But does one sup with the
devil?
Unfortunately we joined the fray and now have to see it to its end
-
hopefully a better Zimbabwe for all.
To the farmers who feel
betrayed by their fellow black Zimbabweans, I would
like to assure you that
the vast majority of the population are sympathetic
and do not subscribe to
what is going on. Please do not feel bitter
towards them. They are
suffering more than you and are no more responsible
for what has happened.
We all share equally for challenging the regime,
inaction, indecision and
just being cowed by the viciousness of the
governing
authorities.
Regards
Alan
McCormick
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Letter
5:
Dear JAG,
Please allow me the space to reply to Stuart
Chappell's fascinating letter.
It is a great shame that he is still waiting
to buy property in what he
seems to perceive as the epitome of democracy - I
suggest he does it
immediately in case he misses out on this golden era in
Zimbabwe.
Apparently Mr. Shamu and Mr. Mugabe (and others) have actually
implemented
a new form of tenure to replace Title - it is in the form of
Diesel -
"Liquid Title" - I think that the terms of reference are freely
available
from the Selous farmers or possibly Charles Davy. A couple of drums
to some
politically correct people - like Shamu might well be all Stuart
needs to
get an A2 plot and throw his foundations - so simple.
Moving
on to Mr. Chappell's assertions on Justice and Sovereignty from his
(and Mr.
Mugabe's) perspective - perhaps he could pop down to Matabeleland
and check
out the 20 000 graves of BLACK men, women and children - never
mind Martin
Olds', David Stephens' graves or, going back to the dawn of
this golden
Mugabe era, and visit the grave of Mr. Adams in Harare - just
to name a few.
I think Edgar Tekere - Senator in waiting (?) - might be an
ideal tour guide
for the latter. This will make the ideal tour for a
prospective immigrant. He
could also seek some guidance on title from a
compatriot - the owner of
Central Estates. Of course it would not be at all
necessary for him to ask
Roy Bennett anything about anything because this
might be confuse Mr.
Chappell's his brilliant legal justification of Zanu
genocide - all totally
acceptable because RAB Butler facilitated Northern
Rhodesian and Nyasaland
independence before that of Southern Rhodesia. Now
RAB can be blamed for
killing 20 000 people in 1982 (not Mugabe or Shiri) -
and a white citizen and
Titleholder should give Mugabe the money for that
Title but the holder of a
British passport (like Chappell) need not - QED!
Good old Mugabe but naughty
RAB, he sentenced over 20 000 people to death
in advance at the Falls
Conference (1963?) without even knowing. Good old
Stuart Chappell for
pointing this out.
Perhaps I need to apply for a British passport to
reduce my exposure to
Mugabe and Chappell! I had thought that displaced
farmers (black and white)
might attempt to get Chinese passports - whose
holders have been offered
land in Zimbabwe in preference to its own
citizens.
J.L.
Robinson.
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Letter
6:
Dear Jag
Mr. Stuart Chappell's letter refers.
When I
first read his letter I thought it was a joke. Assuming this not to
be the
case, Mr. Chappell obviously knows little about Africa and nothing
about
Zimbabwe. Firstly let me state my credentials for the views that I
express
here. In my 60 years I have lived throughout Africa from the very
north to
the very south of this continent, including specifically a five
year period
in Zimbabwe from 1995 to 2000.
My 'politically incorrect' views are bound
to upset the likes of Mr.
Chappell, but they are based on actual experience
and involvement with many
different countries in Africa.
Firstly the
much maligned (White) colonists of Africa through their
resourcefulness, hard
work and capital dragged Africa out of the stone age
over the last hundred
years. Since the start of the "Uhuru" era in the
1950's, the so called
indigenous peoples republics of Africa have been
pushing this continent back
into the stone age. I can hardly think of any
state that has significantly
improved over their previous colonialist time,
and certainly none that has
done it without the continued input of those
whites still left in their
countries, to say nothing of the massive amounts
of capital resources that
were left behind, and in many areas continues to
be input from outside
sources.
With specific reference to Zimbabwe, even Mr. Chappell tacitly
admits that
the funding provided by the Lancaster House Agreement for land
reform, was
not used for this by Mugabe's regime. As with most if not all
African
regimes, this money has been corruptly used by the regime.
Mr.
Chappell probably does not know that the White commercial
farmlands
represented only around 13% of the total area of Zimbabwe, whilst
producing
in excess of 90% of the agricultural wealth of the old Zimbabwe. It
should
be added that it was by sheer hard work and generations of farming
families
that this land was brought from its unused state into productive
use. Prior
to these folk, Africa survived through a shifting agriculture
economy, a
state to which it is now rapidly returning as a result of the
policies of
current African governments.
The sad thing is that the
Whites brought to Africa all the benefits of the
society of their times, such
as infrastructure, education, employment and
medicine, which has resulted in
an explosion of the population who can now
no longer feed themselves, or
maintain the legacy left behind for them.
This process has been exacerbated
by actions such as those of Mugabe's
regime, to the point where recovery is
extremely difficult and costly.
Perhaps Mr. Chappell should ask himself why
it is that states neighbouring
Zimbabwe have abandoned their previous policy
of getting rid of the Whites
and are now actively asking these displaced
White Zimbabweans to come to
their countries to help build their farming
infrastructures.
Finally Mr. Chappell is incorrect in assuming that all
white owned farmland
is as a result of implied theft from the "rightful"
(Black) owners. Many
properties were bought and sold legally with all the
necessary Government
approvals and fees from 1980 up to 1999. At the very
least the seizure of
this land is government theft, and worse, he needs to
check to see to whom
it has now been given. As for wanting to live, own land
and work having a
pre requisite of excluding oneself from the political
process, WELL,
welcome to Orwellian 1984!
Mr. Chappell, you would be
well advised to keep your funds in Sterling or
Euros, but if you insist in
proceeding I know lots of Zim farmers who would
be happy to arrange an
exchange.
Anon
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
7:
Dear JAG,
After eight years at Bally Vaughan working first as a
volunteer and then as
a consultant amongst the animals that I consider to be
my family, I will be
taking over the tenancy of the Bally Vaughan Bird and
Game Sanctuary on the
first of October 2005.
This includes the hilltop
"Duck and Grouse Restaurant" where we will serve
English breakfasts and a
buffet Sunday lunch, the "Gazebo Restaurant" where
high quality fast foods
will be available, and we will be opening a coffee
and cake shop. We will
also offer braai facilities at the weekends. Our aim
is to offer quality and
good service.
The income from the restaurants goes towards the care of
our many
orphaned, injured, abandoned and endangered animals whose needs are
so many
and whose welfare is my primary concern.
New activities
include Horse-Back Safaris, pony rides, fishing in our
newly stocked dam and
guided tours of the wildlife sanctuary. Meet Khan,
our stunning leopard, when
he makes a star appearance with his handler.
I would like to thank all of
you on behalf of the animals at Bally
Vaughan, who cannot speak for
themselves, for your support, encouragement
and belief in the future of our
wildlife heritage. Bally Vaughan was
created by Robin McIntosh as a wildlife
sanctuary , and at a time in this
country's history when such a place is
needed as never before, I intend to
do my utmost to follow the beliefs of a
man whose mission was to create a
better future for our wildlife. You have
all contributed in so many ways to
the continued operation of Bally Vaughan
and for that I am truly
appreciative.
I look forward to seeing you at
Bally Vaughan in the future and hope that
you will continue to feel a part of
the lives of our unique and cherished
animal residents.
SARAH
CARTER
BALLY VAUGHAN BIRD AND GAME
SANCTUARY
www.ballyvaughan.co.zw
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERYONE YOU
KNOW! LET'S SAVE BALLY VAUGHAN AND
MAKE IT A
SUCCESS!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
8:
Hello JAG,
IS ANYONE ABLE TO HELP OR REFER?
Greetings
from Durban,
You may have heard of our book 'SAS Rhodesia'? Well we are
preparing the
2nd edition and we are desperate for a photo of John Wickenden
BSAP Special
Branch. Is it possible on your next email to BSAP friends to
ask if
anyone can help.
Many thanks
Jonathan
pittaway@iafrica.com
Box 50178
Musgrave 4062
South Africa
083
660 0000 c
031 312 0674 h
031 303 7614
f
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions
of the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
FreeMarketNews
Thursday, October 06,
2005
Off at a slight tangent. I attended a lunch today organized by
the
International Policy Network, the think-tank that produces more ideas
that
could actually help developing countries than Gordon Brown tax
rises.
The guest was Geoff Hill, a journalist of many years' standing,
who worked
in Zimbabwe until he had to leave the country, writes now for the
Washington
Times, and spends much time in southern Africa.
He was
talking of his just published book, What Happens After Mugabe? (I
understand
the book trade refers to it as WHAM, so it is difficult to work
out which
section of any bookshop it might end up in.)
The book consists of various
interviews and discussions among the huge and
ever-growing diaspora of
Zimbabweans but the talk was on Mr Hill's ideas of
what ought to be done now
in order to ensure that when Mugabe disappears off
the scene, by whatever
method, the country can have a relatively smooth
transition.
Of
course, years of bloody oppression do not a smooth transition make and
there
are many people who are determined that those who have imprisoned,
tortured
and murdered should be punished. It was not clear whether the
general
feeling was that the punishment should be administered by a future
Zimbabwean court or by the International Human Rights one. Both are fraught
with difficulty and the South African Commission for Truth and
Reconciliation does not exactly fill one with hope.
Over and above
that, Mr Hill insisted, preparations must be made now for the
reconstruction
of the country. And that is precisely what the western
countries and the
international community are not doing.
The UN - to start at the top - has
never been able to pass a single
resolution about Zimbabwe, blocked as they
were each time by other African
countries. The Commonwealth, which, for some
reason Mr Hill thinks, is now
doing a good job in restraining tyrannies,
has, in fact, been hampered by
the same problem. South Africa, the "the
points man", has rather belatedly
shown some disapprobation of Mugabe's
behaviour but, by and large, Thabo
Mbeki has not been much help.
The
EU has passed various resolutions and imposed the odd sanction, also
proceeded to break every one of them, whenever President Chirac or whoever
wanted to strut around at a pan-African conference.
The United States
has, more or less, decided that on this one they will act
at several removes
- the removes being Britain and the EU. And Britain? What
of the country
that will probably end up paying a large proportion of the
aid? Well, the
government has made its views known. Unable to expel people
who are openly
calling for murder and mayhem in this country and others, it
has insisted
that Zimbabweans who have asked for asylum on the grounds that
they have
already been persecuted and tortured and will be again, if they go
back,
should, nevertheless, be sent back. A High Court case has started
today.
Throughout the farce and horror outlined above, Zimbabwe
continued to
receive aid that was immediately stolen by Mugabe, his wife and
other
friends and relations.
But does anyone have any plans for the
resuscitation of the country if and
when Mugabe should die (and he is 82)?
Well, . errm . it seems not. The
State Department has no plans; the FCO has
no plans; the NGOs do not wish to
spend money on anything like that, when
there are conferences and other
freebies to be had for themselves.
It
seems that somebody has thought of compiling a database of the
whereabouts
of educated and qualified Zimbabweans so these people can be
invited or
induced to return, should circumstances change. The NGOs thought
it was a
great idea. Would they be able to come up with $50,000 to start the
database. Well, errm, the budget is a bit tight at the moment, old boy. No
need to rush into things. Come back when it is all happening.
One
could re-establish record of land ownership, which was kept reasonably
well
until 2000. One could start training police officers - surely something
the
Commonwealth could organize. There is a need for a Zimabwean community
radio
station in South Africa that would serve as a rallying point and a
training
ground for replacement journalists, radio being much more important
than
print in most African countries.
And so on, and so on. It was painful to
listen to the catalogue of ideas
that were met with sympathetic sighs and
blank faces in the various official
organizations, particularly as one
thinks of the amount of money that has
been spent on useless aid projects.
Would Bob Geldof consider taking the
cause up? I don't think so. There is
not enough publicity in it. Would Kate
Moss click her fingers again? Woops,
sorry, forgot, she is in a bit of
trouble herself at the moment. Well, not
trouble exactly, but you know what
I mean.
But then, let's face it:
preparation for the future does not come very high
on any political list of
priorities, unless it is preparation for
comfortable billets.
to
block
Chinotimba from entering America
By Violet Gonda
6 October
2005
There has been an outcry from Zimbabweans at home and abroad
over
attempts by the war veteran Joseph Chinotimba to set up a fund to
assist
victims of Hurricane Katrina, while people in his own country are
starving.
Chinotimba, the vice-chairman of the Zimbabwe National
Liberation War
Veterans Association, riled many last week when he announced
that he would
prefer to assist the storm victims in New Orleans as opposed
to victims of
Operation Murambatsvina, saying what happened in America was
'an act of God'.
Chinotimba's own association has distanced itself
from the fund set up
by the controversial ex- combatant. The war veterans
re-organising
chairperson Andrew Ndlovu told The Daily Mirror that
Chinotimba had no
mandate from ex-combatants to establish the fund using
their name. Ndlovu
said apart from uplifting the lives of war veterans, the
money could also be
used to import much-needed fuel. Chinotimba brushed this
aside and
reportedly called Ndlovu a madman.
Concerned
Zimbabweans in North America have embarked on a campaign to
block the ZANU
PF led delegation from entering the USA. The pressure groups
says, "this
naked attempt by a brutal dictatorship to ingratiate itself with
the
American public should be rejected and condemned." The group urged
Americans
to avoid associating with a regime that recently committed a
"tsunami"
against its own citizens, and has brought nothing but pain and
suffering to
ordinary Zimbabweans.
Ralph Black, a member of "Concerned
Zimbabweans in North America' says
letters have already been sent to the
Mayor of New Orleans, the US embassy
in Harare and US State Department
asking them not to allow Mugabe's thugs
into the US. The pressure group is
appealing to these authorities not to
accept blood money, saying the
American government would not take money from
despots like Saddam Hussein or
Milosevic and Mugabe and his cronies are in
the same league.
While the United Nations is appealing for nearly US$30m in
humanitarian
supplies for the most vulnerable people, evicted during what it
termed a
"disastrous venture" in Zimbabwe, ZANU PF members are busy trying
to embark
on this international publicity stunt.
The notorious African
American group, the December 12 Movement, is
said to be organizing logistics
in America for this PR exercise. Members of
The December 12 Movement are
fanatical supporters of the Mugabe regime. The
war veterans' fund has an
October 31 deadline and aims to raise between Z$20
billion to Z$30
billion.
Chinotimba is expected to head the delegation which will
take the
donations to New Orleans at the beginning of
November.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
06 October 2005
The MDC has organised 2
rallies this coming weekend which are deemed
very crucial to the opposition
in terms of deciding the way forward. Tererai
spoke to William Bango,
personal assistant to MDC president Morgan
Tsvangirai about these planned
events, the reported divisions within the top
ranks on the senate elections,
and the way forward.
Bango said the party has been holding
consultative meetings in a
countrywide campaign in order to get an idea from
the people as to how they
want to proceed. So far they have been to Hwange,
Gwanda, Shamva, Mutare,
Masvingo and many other places. Harare and
Chitungwiza were the next and
final step in this process, and decisions
would be made soon.
Bango said Zimbabweans had been through a wide
range of experiences
since the formation of the MDC, and had tried many
strategies to remove the
present government peacefully and resolve the
current crisis. He said the
MDC tried participating in elections and tried
different forms of mass
action without any success. At every turn the people
were cheated and they
were now asking for different strategies. The opinions
gathered by the party
so far show that many are opposed to participating in
the senatorial
elections that ZANU-PF has invented.
On the
issue of the reported divisions within the party, Bango said
party president
Morgan Tsvangirai has always said everyone in the
organisation, from the
president to the peasant, is allowed an opinion and
allowed to vote. This is
why there are many positions regarding the senate
elections being allowed to
be debated.
Bango sees Harare constituency as crucial to the future
of the party.
And he believes the rallies this weekend are crucial to the
debate on
national issues. They may very well decide the future of the
country.
The Harare rally will be held on Saturday 8 October 2005
at Zimbabwe
Grounds while the Chitungwiza rally will be held at The Tennis
Court Centre
in Unit D Chitungwiza on Sunday 9 October 2005. The party
expects thousands
to throng the two venues and hear their leaders speak on
various issues,
including the controversial senate
elections.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
By Tichaona
Sibanda
6 October 2005
MDC legislator and party spokesman
for Defence, Giles Mutsekwa has
confirmed there is deep disgruntlement
within the Zimbabwe Defence Forces
due to low salaries and poor working and
living conditions.
The Mutare North MP said morale in the ZDF is
'very very low indeed'.
Media reports from Harare said both the army and the
air force have been hit
by protests over government's failure to increase
their salaries.
This has apparently irked most of the soldiers who
are becoming
agitated over government's refusal to increase their salaries
and provide
adequate food supplies to the 40 000 strong army.
Mutsekwa, a retired Major with 20 years experience in the military
warned
that any sensible government would know that the last thing to do in
an army
was to disappoint a serving soldier.
He said; 'These guys are the
back-bone of Mugabe's survival, they
provide security for the entire nation,
and yet the majority are living in
poverty, save for a few favoured
officers. It has been our call as the MDC
that our soldiers must be well
paid and well equipped, but if you look at
the situation now, the army is
bloated, ill-equipped, ill-paid,
ill-accommodated and ill-clothed. It takes
away the pride of these
professional people'.
Mutsekwa pointed
out that the disgruntlement of these soldiers is now
coming out in the open,
citing examples where he has been approached on a
number of occasions by
soldiers seeking advice.
'Soldiers speak to us openly. But we have
told them there is very
little that Zanu (PF) can do for them now or in the
near future. They
(government) simply do not have the capacity to maintain a
happy and a
well-paid army. I tell them their only hope now is for a new
government'.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
News24
06/10/2005 21:50 -
(SA)
Harare - Police armed with batons and riot shields fought
running battles
with street traders this week as authorities pressed ahead
with a clampdown
against street vendors in Harare?s southern townships, a
Zimbabwe newspaper
reported on Thursday.
Police have arrested 14 706
vendors, seized their produce and fined them a
total of Z$782m ($31 000)
over the past two weeks in a revival of President
Robert Mugabe's hated
Operation Murambatsvina - Drive Out Filth - according
to official
figures.
Police have codenamed the latest sweep Operation
Hatidzokereshure - No Sneak
Return.
The UN estimates 700 000
Zimbabweans have lost their homes, livelihoods or
both in Murambatsvina,
launched May 19.
Scarce maize meal, cooking oil, soap, flour, sugar,
rice, fish and chicken
meat were impounded when parliamentary police stormed
the streets.
Police spokesperson Loveless Rupere was quoted as saying the
crackdown
against illegal vending was "a routine exercise".
Shortage
of staple foods
Opposition legislator Priscilla Misihairabwe-Mushonga
said there were
frequent shortages of staples such as maize meal in local
stores, forcing
many residents to buy from vendors.
The informal
sector is also one of the few remaining sources of jobs in a
country facing
over 70% unemployment.
"What the police are doing is an act of wickedness
and very intolerable
especially in these difficult times when it is hard to
get a job," the
Mirror quoted street vendor Peter Gumbo as saying. "Most of
us are eking out
a living from selling these basic commodities."
Some
residents, however, accused the vendors of snapping up scarce
commodities in
bulk whenever they appear in stores and charging exorbitant
prices for them,
the paper said.
Economic difficulties
Late on Wednesday, a rowdy
crowd stretching back nearly 1km besieged a
supermarket in Harare's northern
Avonlea suburb where sugar was on sale at
the controlled price of Z$4 500
(17 cents) a kilogramme. The black market
price is over Z$50 000
($2).
Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy has been in freefall since the
government began seizing thousands of white-owned farms in 2000 for
redistribution to blacks.
Years of drought have compounded the
country's difficulties and an estimated
four million of Zimbabwe's 12
million people are in urgent need of food aid,
according to UN
figures.
The state-controlled Herald newspaper reported this week that
Mugabe ordered
the Murambatsvina blitz "to nip in the bud a Ukrainian-style
revolution by
dispersing the slum dwellers via the demolition of their
habitats".
The report contradicted previous government claims that there
was no
political motive for the demolitions, which it said were aimed at
cleaning
up urban slums. Opposition leaders claimed from the start the
campaign was
aimed at breaking up their support base among the urban
poor.
Xinhua
www.chinaview.cn 2005-10-07 00:48:11
HARARE,
Oct. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- A commuter plane donated to Zimbabwe
by China
following the purchase of two commuter aircraft last year is
expected to
arrive in the country early next year, an official said on
Thursday.
Air Zimbabwe's spokesperson, David Mwenga, said
the plane was
still going through the production process.
He said before end of the year the national airline would dispatch
a team of
engineers to test and inspect the MA60 aircraft.
"We are
expecting the aircraft early January and its acceptance
will be done before
the end of this year," he said.
Mwenga said the new plane was
expected to service Hwange and the
Transfrontier Parks among other routes in
a bid to promote tourism in the
country.
Zimbabwe purchased
two MA60 commuter airplanes from China
following an agreement that was
signed between the two countries in December
last year.
The
planes were expected to feed into the Far East destination
with Harare being
the harbor.
They would also ply Lusaka, Lilongwe, Beira and
Lubumbashi routes
in the region, and the Kariba and Victoria Falls routes
locally.
Early this year, Air Zimbabwe re-launched a direct
flight to the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Victoria
Falls-Johannesburg flight.
It also introduced a new flight to
Beijing, China via Singaporeas
part of its turnaround strategy to be
completed by 2008. Enditem
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date
:2005-Oct-07
BULAWAYO - The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) is
appealing to the
Ministry of Industry and International Trade to enforce the
Control of Goods
(Price Control) Act, which the consumer watchdog says is
being violated by
some shop-owners.
The council's regional manager for
Bulawayo province, Comfort Muchekeza,
said there was urgent need for
government to review the relevance of a
section of the Act (Chapter 14:05),
which regulated the prices of certain
basic commodities such as bread,
mealie-meal, sugar, flour and milk.
"Government should come up with a clear
position on the issue of price
controls. What is most worrying is that
consumers are being ripped off when
a statutory instrument to protect them
is in place. What is the relevance
of such an Act?" asked Muchekeza.
He
said almost 100 percent of basic goods providers in the city were
flouting
the Act.
According to the current statutory instrument, a standard loaf of
bread is
supposed to cost $7 500 but most shops are selling the commodity at
more
than $25 000.
"The issue here is that of legality. As far as the
law is concerned, these
prices are illegal," he said.
Muchekeza said his
council would soon engage businesspersons on the need to
respect the
consumer's rights.
"For quite sometime we have been concentrating on the
individual rights of
consumers, but now we are saying service providers
should also be part and
parcel of the process. We believe a well-informed
business person on
consumer rights will make the difference," he
said.
Bulawayo-based economist Jack Clive said the government should discuss
the
issue of price controls.
"You cannot control the end product where
raw materials which make that
product are not controlled. The government
should simply do away with those
controls because they are unnecessary," he
said.
The Minister of Finance, Herbert Murerwa, recently told a parliamentary
portfolio committee that the country should consider scrapping price
controls.
Xinhua
www.chinaview.cn 2005-10-07 00:28:40
HARARE, Oct. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Zimbabwe's Speaker of Parliament,
John Nkomo,
on Thursday called on Members of Parliament from both the ruling
Zimbabwe
African National Union-Patriotic Front and opposition Movement for
Democratic Change to work together to tackle the country's economic
challenges.
Speaking at the official opening of a three-day
pre-budget
consultative seminar for Members of Parliament, Nkomo reminded
the delegates
that Zimbabwe's poor relations with Western countries and
multi-lateral
institutions were a result of differences with Britain over
the land reform
program which it had promised to finance during independence
talks in 1979
but later reneged on its promise.
The
situation, which has seen Zimbabwe being slapped with
sanctions by the west,
would make the 2006 budget a difficult one because of
the country's economic
woes characterized by high inflation, shortages of
foreign currency, fuel
and other basic commodities.
He said the challenges required a
national outlook, commitment,
resilience and unyielding determination that
had won the country its
sovereignty 25 years ago.
"Given
these multi-faceted challenges, it is my belief that the
Millennium
Development Goals can be used as a useful policy framework to
guide
honorable Members in their deliberations to find lasting solutions,"
he
said.
He said the government had invested heavily in
agriculture after
realizing that the country's economy rests on the
sector.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe availed a 7 trillion
Zimbabwean
dollars (about 269 million US dollars) Agricultural Productive
Enhancement
Facility for this farming season.
Nkomo also
said apart from agriculture, the government had also
identified mining and
manufacturing sectors as among key sectors to the
country's economic
turnaround. Enditem
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
From
Our Correspondent in Bulawayo
issue date :2005-Oct-07
PUSHCART
operators, once confined to major bus terminuses and market places
ferrying
goods and farm produce, have now invaded residential areas here
becoming the
most convenient mode of collecting refuse.
The carts better referred to, as
"Scanias" have since become a common sight
in the city's western suburbs
teeming with garbage for disposal.
The city centre has also become an eyesore
as the Bulawayo City Council was
failing to collect refuse due to the
current fuel blues and the shortage of
foreign currency to buy spare parts
for most of its ageing and dilapidated
fleet.
About 75 percent of the
city's refuse collection vehicles are grounded
because breakdowns cannot be
attended to due to the stated limitations. Some
of the rubbish has been left
uncollected for almost two months
now.
In most high-density suburbs,
pushcarts have become the norm rather than the
exception as operators mill
about looking for potential customers wanting to
clear rubbish from their
premises.
The pushcarts, which come in all shapes and sizes, off load the
waste in
undesignated open spaces in residential areas, seriously posing a
health
hazard to city residents.
Pushcart operators who spoke to The
Daily Mirror yesterday confirmed that
business was brisk and hoped the fuel
crisis persisted and this boosted
their viability.
"Our charges are
reasonable, hence people are rushing to us to transport the
garbage. We
charge $10 000 per load but for companies, we charge even more,"
said Titus
Nkomo who operates at a bus stop in Nkulumane.
Some city companies have also
resorted to hiring pushcarts to clear rubbish
at their sites as the fuel
shortages continue unabated.
A city soap-manufacturing firm has since
contracted seven pushcart operators
to ferry the company's refuse at least
twice weekly.
"The pushcarts have come in handy. Council delivery system has
collapsed in
the city and we cannot just watch while industrial waste piles
in our
faces," said James Jami, managing director of the
company.
City
director of health services Zanile Hwalimo recently told council that
her
department was failing to effectively service western suburbs due to the
recurrent fuel problems.
Despite the total collapse of the city refuse
collection system, residents
have accused council of continuing to bill them
on rubbish collection
charges.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Shame Makoshori
issue date :2005-Oct-07
A PRAGMATIC
economic prosperity and investment inflows are hugely dependent
on a
reliable and adequate infrastructure such as roads, railways, air
traffic
telecommunications and conducive investment regulations offering
investors
sufficient space to reap maximum benefits from their investments.
Government
has in the past 25 years sought to provide power water and
telecommunications services through state-owned corporations.
Grand
efforts were laid out after independence to expand the manufacturing
sector
with strong complimentary rail networks and power supplies.
But 25 years on,
the earlier gains have taken a swift turn.
Power supplies are now erratic,
industrial production has declined and the
networks are hugely under
utilised.
While holistic strategies have been implemented to resuscitate
industrial
production and increase output, the current stock of industrial
infrastructure is shocking.
This reveals how the current turnaround
strategies have slammed the door on
the protection of infrastructure for
future use.
The strategy has been to maintain production, but a survey by The
Business
Mirror in two industrial sites-the Workington heavy industry and
the
Graniteside light industrial sites revealed that multibillion-dollar
properties left by divesting companies are in a bad state.
In Workington,
at least 10 factories have had their roofs looted exposing
plants to bad
weather.
Previously promising projects like Zimbabwe Textile Industries, and
other
chemical, paper, tiles and building material manufacturing investments
have
been abandoned and no proper care is taken to both buildings and
plants.
Rail sidings are now idle because companies that previously required
wagon
services for raw material supplies either no longer require bulk
supplies or
they have moved out.
In their place, retailers have set up
shop, slowly transforming the once
prosperous heavy industrial site into a
market place for the buying and
selling of computer hard and software,
fabrics, stationery, and vehicles,
most of them imported.
At the former
complex Tinto Industries a successful multinational whose
interests included
the manufacturing and mining sectors, more than 20 SMEs
had taken over by
last year.
These have since disbursed after rentals shot up amid a shrinking
market and
increased competition in the same trade.
Chinese investors are
making inroads but most of them deal in imported
textiles, glass and carpet
retailing, most of which are imported.
This probably explains the reason why
manufacturing output plunged by 8.5
percent in 2004.
Previous
experiences in Africa have shown that such lack of
infrastructure had been
the biggest disincentive for investment and the
continued decaying of
properties in Zimbabwe would stand to be a cause for
concern when investors
flock in.
Billions of dollars that could be committed to other investments
could be
required to plant imports if the deterioration of
continues.
"Some of these companies closed down as early as 1991, and I do
not think
the plants will work even if new investors come in," said a
manager at ZFC.
In Graniteside there are few idle properties but more that 15
buildings
started in the 1990s before the effects of the Economic Structural
Adjustment Programmes (Esap) took their toll, remain unfinished.
The
closing companies pushed out thousands of workers out of employment but
this
has not dampened the spirits of thousands more to flock to the ghost
properties every morning in search of worker despite strong signs that the
small companies setting up shop have no capacity to absorb them.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date :2005-Oct-07
THE
Harare City Council's finance committee met on Tuesday to discuss the
2006
budget formulation, with reports that the current inflationary
environment
was making it difficult to come up with estimates that would
improve the
city's financial status.
Various meetings between heads of department have
already been held in
preparation for next year's budget.
Harare
spokesperson Leslie Gwindi yesterday said the finance committee had
also
looked at ways to beat inflation that is currently pegged at
265percent.
"The committee met yesterday (Wednesday) to discuss the
budget but the
problem we are facing now is the crisis of inflation. It is
now difficult to
budget for a year given the rate at which prices are rising
and the
committee recommended that heads of department should go back and
look at
ways that would ensure that we come up with estimates that take into
account
the current high rate of inflation," he said.
The council is
facing financial problems largely due to sub-economic rates
it charges
residents, and the late implementation of budgets.
Gwindi also acknowledged
that the current changes in the management of the
city had affected the flow
of business.
"There has been a lot of shifting (in the management) but we
have to adapt
quickly and move on with the business," he said.
Director
of works Psychology Chiwanga and chamber secretary Josephine Ncube
were
suspended this week.
The director of housing and community services, Numero
Mubaiwa, chief
security officer Tavanani Gomo and four other top municipal
police officers
were also sent on forced leave in the past two weeks.
The
council spokesperson added that public meetings would be conducted after
the
officials had finished with their internal consultations.
Reuters
06 Oct 2005 13:33:00 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Mabvuto Banda
and Ed Stoddard
BLANTYRE/JOHANNESBURG, Oct 6 (Reuters) - South Africa has
mountains of
expensive maize it can't sell while poor people in nearby
countries need
food aid to stay alive and aid agencies are short of cash to
buy the staple
food.
The age-old paradox of extreme hunger alongside
plenty hangs over southern
Africa.
"We have too much maize in South
Africa ... It's one thing to produce but
another to produce economically,"
said economist Nico Hawkins of the
producer body Grain South Africa
(SA).
South Africa's Crop Estimates Committee said last month its
projection for
the 2005 maize crop was unchanged at a bumper 12.18 million
tonnes.
"If this estimate is correct, then we will see a surplus from
this year into
next of 5 million tonnes," said Hawkins.
Farmers need
850-900 rand ($130-$137) a tonne to break even and have
signalled they plan
to plant much less maize next year in response to low
prices, he
said.
While South African farmers pile up surplus grain, aid agencies say
up to 12
million people in the region will need food handouts for the next
six months
following crop failures.
The main problem is not supplies
of grain, but getting the cash to buy it
and transporting it to those in
need.
"The problem right now is we have a massive funding shortfall,"
said Mike
Huggins, regional spokesman for the United Nations World Food
Programme.
"The other problem we have to face is timing. Governments make
available
food and cash when the situation has already deteriorated and in
some cases
it's too late for some people."
Some governments insist on
giving food, which can take a long time to reach
the hungry.
It takes
around four months to move food from abroad and six weeks to buy
food in the
region if cash donations are given.
"If we have cash, we will buy
locally, if there is no food available
locally, we do it regionally as long
as the prices remain competitive,"
Huggins said.
South Africa, where
prices have shot up by one third since the start of
August on worries of a
smaller-than-expected crop, is in danger of pricing
itself out of the
market, he added.
"I think if the price started getting up around the 900
rand mark, then it
would be cause for alarm," Huggins said.
The price
of the most traded white maize contract on Thursday closed 0.9
percent
higher at 867.80 rand per tonne.
Aid agencies say some 12 million people
in nearby countries including
Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Zambia and
Zimbabwe will need food aid until the
next harvest around April 2006. Some
parts of southern Africa have fertile
soil but the rains during the past
growing season were erratic and unevenly
spread. South Africa's maize areas
saw good drenchings but drought and hot
sun hit the crop in Malawi and other
countries.
(Additional reporting by Eric Onstad)
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the
United Nations]
BULAWAYO, 6 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - The Zimbabwe
government's recent controversial
clean-up drive, 'Operation Restore Order',
which left some 700,000 without
homes or livelihoods, also denied people
living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) access
to antiretroviral treatment.
Chip
Maphosa, a single mother of three, was among the thousands affected by
the
campaign. Her family spent two weeks sleeping in the open after the
shack
she was renting in Makokoba township in the southern city of Bulawayo
was
destroyed by police.
The HIV-positive Maphosa has now found temporary
shelter for her family at
the Salvation Army Church in Makokoba. Rattled by
a coughing fit, and
sneezing regularly, she told IRIN "my condition is
getting worse... this
cough is not good". The clean-up campaign had
disrupted her antiretroviral
(ARV) treatment.
Zimbabwe has one of the
world's highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates at 25
percent of a population of
11.5 million. According to the joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS), a minimum of 180,000 Zimbabweans
died of AIDS-related illnesses in
2004, while in 2005 an estimated 3,500
were succumbing to the disease every
week.
It is thought that over 1.5 million children have lost one or both
their
parents to the epidemic.
A survey by the Bulawayo-based
Matabeleland AIDS Council (MAC) said about
200 terminally ill people had
been displaced by the clean-up campaign and
most were in dire need of food,
clothes and drugs. It was also difficult for
AIDS workers to locate evicted
PLWHA, who were often unable to continue
their treatment as a
result.
Hlengiwe Ngwenya has also found shelter at the Salvation Army
facility. She
tearfully recalled the day in June when police swooped on
Killarney, a
squatter camp south of Bulawayo, and destroyed her shack and
everything in
it, including her medical records.
"I have to start
afresh. I was receiving ARVs but my schedule has been
disrupted," she
said.
Methuseli Ndlovu lost his HIV-positive wife soon after they were
removed
from an urban area to their rural home, 90 km north of Bulawayo.
"She
required urgent medical care, but the clinic in my village has had to
close
due to drug shortages," he told IRIN.
In his report following a
visit to Zimbabwe in July, Rod Macleod, director
of the London-based
Catholic Institute for International Relations, related
how a widow who had
lost her husband to AIDS and was struggling to look
after four children was
given 24 hours to knock down her own house and had
to spend winter exposed
to the elements.
Nurses at clinics in Bulawayo said patients who had been
receiving treatment
for tuberculosis (TB), one of the main opportunistic
diseases associated
with HIV/AIDS, had disappeared.
"We have tried to
make follow-ups at their homes but we have been told that
they no longer
stay there after their homes were destroyed," said a matron
at Bulawayo's
Central Hospital, a major referral centre. "Most of them are
infected with
pulmonary TB and they are spreading it."
Home-based care providers were
no longer available to help look after the
sick, and health workers said
community-based AIDS initiatives crumbled when
their members were
dispersed.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle had become difficult for the
displaced,
because they no longer had access to counselling sessions or much
choice in
what they ate.
Church leaders estimated that over 20,000
displaced people were housed in
ecclesiastical facilities across Bulawayo,
waiting to be moved to a transit
camp at Helensvale Farm, 20 km northwest of
the city.
Pastor Albert Tatenda, a member of a group of 200 clerics
involved in
discussions with the government over the plight of those
displaced by the
clean-up campaign, said facilities in transit camps had to
be upgraded to
avoid outbreaks of communicable diseases.
"There is
much to be done, like setting up the tents and clearing the grass.
We have
made it clear to the government that this has to be done before
people move
in," Tatenda noted.
According to the government, evictees are to be
allocated houses under a US
$300 million programme dubbed Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle (Operation
Live Well), currently
underway.
However, critics have argued that the state does not have the
resources to
house all the displaced people, some of whom had been on
housing waiting
lists for over 10 years, and pointed out that the programme
was moving at a
slow pace. Others have alleged it would only benefit those
supporting the
ruling ZANU-PF party.
Nevertheless, people like
Maphosa look forward to being relocated, as long
as they are resettled
closer to Bulawayo, because "I need to have access to
a referral health
centre for tablets and check-up".
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the
United Nations]
HARARE, 6 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - Five months after the
Zimbabwean government
cleared the streets of urban centres across the
country of vendors, beggars
and street children, informal traders are
trickling back but are forced to
play hide-and-seek as police prowl the
pavements on the lookout for illegal
operators.
Pinos Muhacha leans
against a wall, standing guard over empty cigarette
packets placed on a
tattered cardboard box, a threadbare knapsack on his
back.
The empty
cigarette packs act as a decoy for prying police as well as a sign
to
customers that this is a vending site.
Muhacha is one of the vendors who
dared to return to their former trading
place after police blitzed stalls in
the capital, Harare, as part of a slum
clearance campaign dubbed 'Operation
Murambatsvina' (Drive Out Trash).
"It is still a cat-and-mouse game here
on the streets - one has to be
constantly on the move," he says, taking out
two half-empty packs of
cigarettes from his knapsack for a
customer.
Muhacha's customer complains about the inconvenience of having
to search for
vendors when they were readily visible before the blitz.
"Buying any fruit
is now a hassle - at least in the past one could buy a
single avocado, an
orange or a banana. The absence of vendors has forced us
to go into
supermarkets, where fruit is sold in expensive packages," he told
IRIN.
"There are no jobs unless one decides to cross into South Africa
illegally
or risk scaling the electrified fence into neighbouring Botswana,"
Muhacha
commented.
Informal traders who were forcibly cleared off the
streets are back in
numbers, driven by deepening economic hardship to try
and eke out a living.
They had gone underground: some turned their homes
into clandestine
mini-shops, while others set up along the streets of
working-class suburbs,
ready to whisk their fruit and vegetables indoors at
the slightest hint of
an impending police raid.
But reduced business
due to overtrading in the suburbs eventually prompted
them to go back to the
city streets and avenues where business had always
been
brisk.
Vendors tested the waters first by operating only during early
evenings when
workers jostled to get home on the few buses
available.
"It is hunger that forces us to defy the police ban - how else
do city
authorities expect us to feed, clothe and pay for lodgings for our
families
when there are not enough jobs to go around? It is the only
alternative for
survival," said Ndakaitei Gwinyai, a 46-year old divorcee
from the
working-class suburb of Mufakose.
Gwinyai said she had lost
a major portion of her "investment" in the form of
fruit and vegetables in
the initial raids, but that had not deterred her
from "trying her luck" once
more because the need to survive outweighed the
risk.
"You know what
is involved - if I get caught and get my wares impounded, I
take it as an
unlucky day; if I elude police swoops my children have food on
their table.
Have you ever agonised over watching your children go hungry
because you
fear authorities?" she asked.
In the past two weeks Zimbabwean police
have arrested an estimated 14,700
vagrants, street vendors and illegal
foreign currency dealers in the capital
as police battled to enforce the
urban clearance campaign.
According to Harare city council spokesman
Leslie Gwindi, "Council plans to
boost the number of its municipal police to
enforce trading by-laws in the
city. We are determined to rid the streets of
vagrants, touts and idlers at
all cost. We want to maintain order and retain
the status of 'The Sunshine
City' that Harare previously
enjoyed."
The vendors' return has also brought piles of uncollected
garbage back to
streets and alleyways but municipal officials say there is
little they can
do because of the crippling fuel shortage.
Town clerk
Ngoni Chideya noted that besides the fuel shortage, his council's
garbage
collection fleet has been hobbled by an acute shortage of foreign
currency
to buy spares. "At times council buys fuel on the black market to
keep
emergency services going - we prioritise emergency services ahead of
garbage
collection."
The Zimbabwean
BY LITANY BIRD
Dear
Family and Friends,
Thanks to the kindness and generosity of friends, I
have just returned from
a fortnight in Mozambique and it was a long overdue
and extremely welcome
break from the daily grind of Zimbabwe. I can't say
that I missed home while
I was away or that two weeks was long enough but
oh, how wonderful it was to
be able to be normal. After five and half years
of Zimbabwe's turmoil, I had
forgotten what it felt like to be even
marginally in control of the everyday
events of normal life in a normal
country.
I had forgotten how it felt to drive into a gas station and fill
up with
petrol. I had forgotten what piles of sugar sitting on a supermarket
shelf
looked like. I had forgotten how marvellous it was to find the price
of
goods unchanged from one day to the next, and, even better, from one week
to
the next.
Mozambique's prolific markets and roadside vendors
reminded me of home, or
rather of how home was, before our government did
their dire deeds with
bulldozers a few months ago. In the Mozambique markets
you could negotiate
and bargain for almost anything you can think of from a
goat to a pineapple,
a freshly caught octopus to a carved wooden turtle, or,
if you were so
inclined a five piece lounge suite, double bed or even a
generator could be
bought on the side of road.
I realised how much
this variety, diversity and bargaining had also been the
face of Zimbabwe
and how much its absence has changed our country into the
sanitized and
totally government-controlled environment that it now is. The
bulldozers of
our government not only deprived people of the ability to earn
a living but
they also silenced the market chatter, stifled the laughter,
suffocated
expression and sterilized our streets, towns and lives.
On the journey to
and from the border I realised how internally isolated we
have become in
Zimbabwe. With almost no fuel available for the past five
months most
Zimbabweans don't or can't afford to travel inside our own
country anymore.
We don't have any way of knowing what's really happening
outside of our own
towns and have become totally reliant on the propaganda
we are force fed by
state radio and television.
For months we have been told that food
shortages are because of crippling
drought in Zimbabwe and yet I was very
surprised to see from the road how
many rivers still had running water in
them and how many dams were not dry.
This is not the picture of drought that
we Africans know so well.
This unharvested water is shocking in a hungry
country. It should be used to
bring production to the miles and miles of
deserted, untended farms that you
see along the roads. The farms that the
government changed the constitution
to grab. Less than a month away from the
main maize planting season, I was
very shocked to see almost no prepared
lands, no ploughed fields and no
tractors tilling the farms for 250
kilometres along the main road to the
border.
It is chillingly quiet
out there on the farms and yet summer is here and the
rains are about to
begin. In the two weeks that I have been away almost
every single thing in
my shopping basket has almost doubled in price and
perhaps the most chilling
thing that I have seen since I have been home is
how few people are buying
seed maize - it is simply too expensive.
Everyone is saying that this
year is going to be the worst and they are
right because our pantries and
pockets are empty and hunger already has one
foot in the door. Zimbabwe may
not be much in the world news these days but
please don't forget us. Until
next week, Ndini Shamwari Yenyu.
The Zimbabwean
Roy Bennett, former
MDC MP for Chimanimani, has just spent a year in jail in
Zimbabwe. He speaks
to Revd Dr MARTINE STEMERICK about widespread torture on
the
inside.
Martine: What about torture in the prisons? Did you witness
any?
Roy: Yes, I saw torture in every single prison I went to. [NB: Roy
was held
in three different prisons.] I saw people being beaten and abused.
But the
prisoners are strong. Their faith is strong. They carry on through
it.
In the prison system, one becomes very hardened. They harden you more
than
you ever were before you went in there because there are regular
beatings
from the guards. When you get out to the gangs, you are searched.
When you
come in from the gangs, you are searched.
If you are too slow in
sitting down or squatting - because you can't talk to
the guards standing
up; you have to grovel on the floor to talk to them -
and if you're late
getting down to grovel, you are beaten.
Prisoners are beaten if the
guards feel you've done something wrong - like
some guys will smoke and
they'll be found with a match on them, they are
then taken into a cell and
forced to lie on their stomachs. Their legs are
then bent up backwards and
their feet are beaten with rubber truncheons on
the bottom of their
feet.
They'll get anything from 20 to 100 lashes on the bottom of their
feet. I
witnessed two people who were crippled on the bottom of their feet
as a
result of these beatings. All the bones on the bottom of their feet had
been
broken.
Their whole humanity is taken away from them. Their
dignity is taken away
from them. When you come in from the labour gangs to
come into the prisons,
you have to strip naked and do star jumps in front of
the prison guards.
Martine: Did they ever attempt to starve you in
prison? We understand there
is no food right now in Zimbabwe.
Roy: It
basically shows you that the government is broke. It doesn't have
the money
to be able to support its own prison system. It wasn't just the
food; it was
also the clothing. The prisoners are given torn, tatty
clothing: they would
stitch it with their own hands. If they didn't stitch
it, they would just
wear tatters like beggars.
No one in the prisons is allowed to wear
shoes. No jerseys in the winter and
no shoes. That's the prison: it's
government property. There's no budget, no
money. So the prisoners are
victimized. They don't get the right food. Under
the prison law, there is
set stipulation how many times people should get
meat, toothbrush and
toothpaste and access to soap. It's in the standing
rules and orders, but
because they haven't got the money they can't do it.
And they view the
prisoners as subhumans, so they really don't care that
they are not fed or
clothed properly.
Martine: What would Heather bring you when she came to
visit?
Roy: She'd bring me a week's supply of high-protein food that the
doctor had
allowed me to get and some fruit and vegetables. And I would
always feed
absolutely terrible walking into a prison with 600 people who
have nothing.
And you're carrying two bags of food.
But I'd share it
with the prisoners. In one case, the guy next to me was
HIV-positive and not
eating, so I'd fix up some of the high protein food and
I was feeding him.
Without that, I would have never survived. I would have
died in prison.
There were times that they tried to poison me in prison.
Definitely. So, I'd
always make sure that whatever food I did eat, came out
of he same pot as
everybody else. I'd never eat anything other than that.
And what Heather
brought me, I made sure that it was sealed before I ate it.
And if it wasn't
sealed, I threw it away.
Martine: What did the other prisoners
do?
Roy: You see, within the prison system you've got 'them' and 'us.'
And the
'us' is the majority, and the 'them' is the minority. It's basically
the
same as the Zanu (PF) regime in Zimbabwe. So, you've got a few prisoners
who
are trustees and prison informants. They inform about any rackets that
are
going on in prison or anything that is being said in prison or anything
that
is being done. And they are used by the guards to do anything against
the
prisoners.
But all the prisoners are aware who these guys are so
they stay clear of
them and watch them like a hawk and they make sure that
the informants are
not aware of what the prisoners are doing. And these
informants would
sometimes come to me with beautiful meat on a plate and
offer it to me. And
wherever I was, I would get pinches and the other
prisoners would pull the
hair on the back of my leg and say, "Don't touch
it! Don't touch it!" So
they were very good like that.
Martine: Is it
safe to send asylum seekers from the UK back to Zimbabwe?
Roy: If any of
those people had a history of political activism, they would
definitely face
victimization on their return to Zimbabwe through
imprisonment, torture, and
suppression.
There's no doubt about that. To draw the line between who is
a political
activist and who is not is very difficult because everybody is
suffering
because of political victimization.
Remember - people don't
want to be here in the first place. The reason that
they are here is because
they can't stay at home. So what the British
government should be doing is
speaking out very loudly about the situation
in Zimbabwe, putting as much
pressure as they can on the surrounding
neighbours for democracy and freedom
to return to the people of Zimbabwe,
then every asylum seeker living in the
UK will go home and they won't have a
problem with having those people
here.
But, to send people back under the current circumstances is
certainly
inhuman and would subject those people to human rights abuses.
FinGaz
Ruramai
Mutizwa
10/6/2005 9:14:25 AM (GMT +2)
CASH strapped Air
Zimbabwe has bypassed security checks by operating a
damaged Boeing 737
repaired using parts salvaged from a similar plane
without consulting Boeing
engineers as is routine.
The Boeing 737 was put on service check
(C-check) on September 28, a
week after it was damaged during towing. David
Mwenga, the spokesperson for
the national carrier, confirmed the repaired
plane would start operating
soon, but declined to state where the parts had
been sourced.
However, sources say Air Zimbabwe will not hire the
Boeing engineers,
as the debt-laden national airline is unable to raise the
fees for their
services, which are paid in foreign currency.
"There
is no indication that they plan to bring the Boeing engineers
as they simply
do not have the money to consult them," a source said this
week.
Air Zimbabwe's three Boeing 737s - including the damaged plane - had
not
been operating because of various faults, Mwenga said.
"We expect the
Boeing 737 that we have been working on to start
operating soon. We have
actually taken it out for a C-check" he said.
Safety procedure requires
that engineers from the suppliers, Boeing,
be called in to conduct safety
checks on damaged aircraft before they can
fly again, experts say.
Sources told The Financial Gazette that Air Zimbabwe had planned to
strip
the damaged plane of parts and use them on another Boeing 737 that had
been
lying idle. Mwenga refused to comment.
From The Times (UK), 6 October
By Richard Ford, Home Correspondent
Deportations
of failed asylum-seekers to Zimbabwe should remain suspended
because they
are considered "traitors" and "Blair's spies" by the Mugabe
regime, a court
was told yesterday. Mark Henderson, counsel for the Refugee
Legal Centre,
said: "Evidence presented by ourselves and presented by the
Home Secretary
refers to the Zimbabwean authorities viewing such people as
traitors, guilty
of treachery and betrayal." Mr Henderson was opening a test
case on behalf
of a Zimbabwean migrant, who cannot be identified, who is
challenging the
Home Secretary's decision to remove him from Britain. The
Asylum Immigration
Tribunal, sitting in London, is to look at new evidence
on conditions in
Zimbabwe. Once it has considered whether it is safe to send
people back,
another hearing will deal with the failed asylum-seekers'
attempt to avoid
deportation. Mr Henderson said that Charles Clarke, the
Home Secretary, had
now admitted that deportees were handed over to
authorities on arrival in
Harare, despite previous denials. He said: "The
evidence suggests that
anyone associated with the British authorities, and
in particular someone
who has sought their protection from Mugabe and Zanu
PF and their forces,
will be viewed, to say the least, with suspicion . . .
Anyone who sought
asylum in Britain will at least be at real risk of ill
treatment.
(President) Mugabe believes they (the British Government) are
leading an
international campaign to effect regime change." But Steven
Kovats, counsel
for the Home Office, said evidence from field reports showed
that "failed
asylum-seekers as a class are not at real risk of treatment
contrary to
Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights". The
hearing
continues.