The Zimbabwean
BY WILF
MBANGA
LONDON - After years of breaking its own laws, corrupting its
judiciary and
flagrantly ignoring orders from its Supreme Court, the
Zimbabwe government
is now cocking a snook at the world by tearing up
international agreements
and destroying property rights.
The latest
pronouncements by state security minister, Didymus Mutasa - who
is also in
charge of land redistribution - have set alarm bells ringing in
South
Africa, which has vast commercial interests in Zimbabwe.
Mutasa said the
government would henceforth disregard bilateral agreements
protecting
foreign-owned property to ensure that 'every black Zimbabwean has
land by
the onset of the rainy season' (November).
His statements were backed up
by justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, who
said the commercial farms seized
by government over the past four years were
now state property after the
government cancelled private title to the
properties in terms of the new
Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No.17).
The South Africans have also
been horrified by the Mugabe regime's recent
demand for US$16.6million in
unpaid taxes from SA-owned platinum miner
Zimplats. The company maintains it
was granted tax concessions by the
government in an original mining
agreement and through subsequent assurances
by the ministry of
mines.
The Mugabe regime's increasing disregard for the rule of law has
given
renewed urgency to South Africa's ongoing attempts to sign a bilateral
investor protection agreement with its northern neighbour. The protection
agreement is also understood to be one of the critical conditions for the
massive loan agreement requested by Mugabe two months ago.
The other
condition - talks with the opposition MDC - has also been flouted
by
Mugabe's intransigence.
South African investments in almost every sector
of the Zimbabwean economy
are massive, and feature primarily banking and
insurance, mining, commercial
farming and tourism.
Meanwhile, the
farmers' lobby group Justice for Agriculture has said it is
preparing a case
to be taken to the African Commission on Human and People's
Rights (ACHPR),
the Gambia-based continental human rights watchdog. (See
story p
3)
Zimbabwe's malfunctioning judiciary is now notorious, especially after
judges recently refused to submit themselves to scrutiny following
allegations that their rulings have been compromised by 'pressure' and
'inducements' from government officials seeking favourable
judgments.
The country's slide into utter lawlessness has been
accentuated this week by
the behaviour of Chinamasa in taking a second wife,
although he is already
married under the civil law Marriage Act, which
prohibits polygamy, and the
seizure of Peter Purcell-Gilpin's Helensvale
Estate by the husband of High
Court Judge Annie-Marie Gowora. (see stories
P2)
However, despite South Africa's alarm, it seems to be quietly
following in
Mugabe's footsteps. Press reports say authorities are on the
verge of
recommending the expropriation of five more white-owned commercial
farms,
bringing to six the number of SA properties earmarked for seizure in
this
manner.
Provincial Land Restitution Commissioner Blessing Mphela
has said final
notices would be served on land-owners soon to relay the
opinion of the
Commission on Restitution of Land Rights that further
negotiations would be
fruitless.
If landowners continued contesting
the process after receiving the notice, a
recommendation for expropriation
would be made to the Minister of Land
Affairs.
Zim Online
Fri 7
October 2005
HARARE - The Zimbabwe government has ordered 25 of the
few white
commercial farmers still remaining in the country to vacate their
land by
the end of this month, the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) said in a
statement on Thursday.
The largely white-membership CFU said
State Security Minister Didymus
Mutasa, who is also in charge of land
redistribution and the Ministers of
Agriculture and Justice, Joseph Made and
Patrick Chinamasa respectively,
told farmers in Makoni district in
Manicaland province that only 15 of the
40 white farmers there would be
permitted to continue farming.
"In Makoni district (Headlands,
Rusape and Nyazura), there are
presently 40 farmers. After a visit to the
area on 24 September by
Ministers Mutasa, Made and Chinamasa, the farmers
were told that only 15 of
them would be permitted to continue farming, and
the other 25 must cease
farming operations and vacate their farms," the CFU
statement reads in part.
The farmers' representative body spoke as
top government politicians
and supporters of President Robert Mugabe's
ruling ZANU PF party have in the
last five weeks intensified efforts to
seize land from the few white farmers
across the country.
About
90 percent of the more than 4 000 white large-scale producing
white
commercial farmers in Zimbabwe before 2000 were dispossessed of land
over
the past five years under the government's chaotic and often violent
land
redistribution exercise.
Mutasa, who was quoted by local newspapers
as having called white
farmers filthy, refused to discuss the fresh farm
evictions when contacted
by ZimOnline.
But Mutasa two months
ago said he was resuming the farm seizure
programme, which the government
had publicly said was finished, because he
wanted to ensure every black
Zimbabwean owned land by the onset of the next
rainy season around
November.
The CFU said several of its members have in the last few
weeks
reported being ordered to cease farming and vacate their
properties.
In Bindura in ZANU PF's stronghold Mashonaland Central
Province, two
farmers there have been given up to October 30 to stop farming
and leave. In
Chipinge district in eastern Zimbabwe, a total of five farmers
were in the
last two weeks forced off their properties.
The
farmers and their families, who were given hours to pack and go,
were forced
to leave behind farm equipment and even personal household
property all
worth billions of dollars. Some of the farmers and their
managers were
severely assaulted, according to the CFU.
But in Mashonaland East
governor, Ray Kaukonde, has ordered a stop to
farm invasions and there is
peace and quiet on farms there, the CFU said.
The farm seizures,
which Mugabe says were necessary to correct an
unjust colonial land tenure
system that bequeathed 75 percent of the best
arable land to minority whites
while blacks were cramped on poor soils, have
destabilised the agricultural
sector causing severe food shortages
Zimbabwe, also grappling a
severe economic crisis, has survived on
food handouts from the international
community since the farm seizures began
five years ago and this year
requires more than a million tonnes of food aid
or a third of its 12 million
people could starve.
But Mugabe denies his farm seizure programme
worsened Zimbabwe's
economic and food crisis, instead blaming food shortages
on poor weather and
economic problems on sabotage by Western governments
opposed to his land
reform policies. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Thu 6 October
2005
HARARE - Zimbabwe faces an unprecedented energy disaster by
2007 as
the government dithers on a US$600 million project to increase
generation
capacity at the country's biggest Hwange Thermal Power
Station.
According to a confidential document of the government's
power utility
ZESA Holdings (Private) Limited company that was obtained by
ZimOnline,
crisis-hit Zimbabwe will run a 630MW shortfall in electricity in
two years
time.
The country at present consumes 2 100MW about
30 percent of which is
imported from the Southern African Power Pool
comprising neighbouring
countries such as South Africa, Mozambique and
Zambia.
The document dated August 12, 2005 which was prepared by
the power
firm for the government says by 2007 the regional power pool would
have run
out of excess power for export.
But ZESA ominously
warns that the project to increase power output at
Hwange, which the power
firm says is behind schedule by 18 months, can only
be completed by 2009 or
early 2010.
The state energy firm says delays have been chiefly
because of failure
by the Harare administration to satisfy conditions set by
Chinese financiers
roped in to bankroll the massive power generation
project.
For example, the Zimbabwe government which has agreed to
give up 49
percent of its shareholding in the Zimbabwe Power Company, a
wholly-owned
subsidiary of ZESA, to CATIC of China has failed to raise the
15 percent
down-payment or equivalent security to unlock the financing
package.
"This investment requirement has not been fulfilled by the
Zimbabwe
government and has been outstanding since December 16, 2003. This
delay in
granting the requisite concessions has also delayed the expansion
of the
project by eighteen (18) months," the ZESA document reads in
part.
Detailed geological surveys to determine the quality of coal
and
extent of reserves critical in the designing of the power station has
also
not been done, more than a year since the work to extend generation at
Hwange should have begun.
"This expansion project will not be
complete until end of 2009 or
early 2010 . meanwhile, the Southern Africa
Power Pool will have run out of
excess export power, from which Zimbabwe is
getting about 30% of its
national energy requirements," according to
ZESA.
It was not possible to immediately get comment on the matter
from
Energy Minister Mike Nyambuya. - ZimOnline
The Zimbabwean
BY STANFORD
MUKASA
WASHINGTON - Simmering disputes within the ruling Zanu (PF) on how to
deal
with the present crisis have resulted in some secret contacts with the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as party heavies desperately seek an
agreement on the way out of the mess they have created.
The official line
is that MDC must join Zanu (PF). Nobody in his right mind
can believe that
MDC will willingly accept this proposal. It may well be
that Zanu (PF) is
trying to sweeten its proposal by talking of a power
sharing arrangement,
whereby MDC would be a junior partner in a government
of national unity.
This proposal has traditionally enjoyed the support of
the United States,
Britain and South Africa, but is untenable now, given
Mugabe's
stubbornness.
There are, however, certain factions - a parallel political
market if you
like - within the ruling party who are reportedly prepared to
offer a more
substantive role for the MDC in a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe. But the
opposition
movement must be careful not to enter into some internal
settlement just for
the sake of expediency.
The winds of change are
approaching Zimbabwe with the force of a hurricane.
Reports indicate that
the succession problem for Mugabe, who is now 81 years
old, will not be
resolved any time soon, if at all. Mugabe, like the late
Banda in Malawi,
has dominated politics for so long.
Some factions realize that in the
subsequent power struggle they could lose
out. They are also painfully aware
that Zanu (PF) has lost the support of
the majority of Zimbabweans and that
Mugabe is now ruling by sheer force.
Whatever proposals they may make for an
accommodation with the MDC, these
factions in Zanu (PF) know that free and
fair elections are the
non-negotiable condition for a lasting solution to
the country's problems.
Like it was for the Afrikaner business sector in
apartheid South Africa, the
writing is on the wall if Zanu (PF) business
leaders do not accept political
reforms that will lead to free and fair
elections. And in any such free and
fair elections Zanu (PF) has no chance
in hell of winning. Yet, still they
hope to reorganize and remain in power
in post-Mugabe Zimbabwe.
It is reported that they plan to replace Mugabe
with Simba Makoni instead of
Joyce Mujuru. In this way the party hopes to
field a candidate who will
command respect from the opposition civic society
and the masses. But below
Simba Makoni they will retain Mnangagwa as prime
minister. This, in effect,
will give him executive powers similar to those
Mugabe had when he was prime
minister and Rev. Canaan Banana was president.
Mujuru and John Nkomo would,
under this plan, remain vice
presidents.
Nobody in the civil society movement will be fooled by this
cheap tactic of
using Makoni as a cover, just to put a human face on Zanu
(PF), when Mujuru,
Nkomo, and Mnangagwa have all been Mugabe's faithful
companions and partners
in all the crimes against humanity.
Making
Makoni president while retaining Mugabe's cronies is like a wolf in
sheep's
clothing in a futile bid to convince Zimbabweans that Zanu (PF) is
under new
management! What a joke. No one will fall for that trick.
Makoni has
remained quiet during some of the most inhumane and brutal
treatment of
Zimbabweans by Mugabe. He has no record of standing up for
human rights, nor
of condemning the Mugabe regime for the crimes against the
people of
Zimbabwe. He was finance minister but, unlike the late Edison
Zvobgo, Makoni
never even once stood up to condemn Mugabe.
We understand that Makoni's
wife was either a member of MDC or sympathetic
to the MDC. This may have
made Makoni a moderate in Zanu (PF). But in the
eyes of Zimbabweans Makoni
belongs to the party and must also share the
responsibility of Zanu (PF)'s
crimes.
To its credit, MDC has resisted efforts to swallow it by
ZANU(PF).. But MDC
must do more. A new emerging leadership within the party,
Roy Bennett, Grace
Kwinjeh and Nelson Chamisa and many others have all
opposed MDC's
participation in the Senate elections. Bennett went as far as
calling on MDC
to withdraw its MPs from Parliament. MDC president, Morgan
Tsvangirayi, has
come up with a tough statement opposing MDC's participation
in the Senate.
Tsvangirayi has also suggested a review of the continued
involvement by the
MDC in Parliament.
The Zimbabwean
MASVINGO - White Zimbabweans
who do not agree with the 17th Amendment of the
constitution should leave
the country, President Robert Mugabe declared at
the weekend.
Speaking at
a memorial service for the late retired air Marshall Josiah
Tungamirai here,
Mugabe referred to the whites as 'boers' and warned them
not to resist land
invasions as they would be defeated. Zimbabwe has one of
the largest,
best-equipped armies in Africa thanks to Mugabe's regular
spending sprees on
Chinese weaponry.
Wearing an olive-green safari suit, instead of usual
Saville Row suit,
Mugabe warned the British not to interfere in the land
issue or they would
be repelled. Britain has spent £44 million on various
resettlement projects
since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. It suspended
further funding when the
government became intransigent about the
transparency of the resettlement
programme and it became apparent that the
landless peasants were not
benefiting from land acquisitions.
In a
combative harangue against the MDC he said they should 'not start a
fire
because it would consume them'. In countless cases during the past five
years the MDC has been on the receiving end of Zanu (PF) violence. In the
past, always preceding elections of some form, Mugabe has incited his
followers with anti-opposition rhetoric that normally results in a orgy of
violence. Senate elections are scheduled for November.
According to
the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) 50 farmers have been
assaulted in the
past two weeks, mainly in the Eastern Highlands. Two men
arrested by police
for beating one farmer so severely that he was taken to
hospital were
released this week and returned to reoccupy their victim's
land, the CFU
said.
The Zimbabwean
BY
SAWUYEYO
The Government of Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Regional and
International
Instruments guaranteeing the rule of law and independence of
the judiciary
such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights
(African Charter)
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights;
Article 26 of the African Charter, compels State parties to the
Charter to
guarantee the independence of the Courts and allow the
establishment and
improvement of appropriate national institutions entrusted
with the
promotion and protection of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by
the
Charter.
Article 7 of the African Charter provides that every
individual shall have
the right to have her/his cause heard which includes
the right to an appeal
to competent national organs against acts of
violating her/his fundamental
rights as recognized and guaranteed by
conventions, laws, regulations and
customs in force; the right to be
presumed innocent until proved guilty by a
competent court or tribunal; the
right to defense, including the right to be
defended by counsel of her/his
choice; and the right to be tried within a
reasonable time by an impartial
court or tribunal.
It must be noted with grave concern that Constitution
of Zimbabwe Amendment
(No.17) has the following implications:
The
Amendment effectively removes the fundamental rights to property, secure
protection of the law and freedom of movement from the people of Zimbabwe.
In attacking the right to freedom of movement directly, the amendment also
indirectly but significantly attacks the rights to freedom of association
and freedom of expression in that the right to travel out of the country
will be taken away if one is seen to have associated with real or imaginary
government opponents and uttered statements which in the minds of the
Executive are against "national interests".
National interests are
not defined but left to the discretion of the
frightened and paranoid State
officials who see every one from Zimbabwe who
has a different opinion to
theirs as wrong and therefore an agent of Bush or
Blair!
The
Amendment is a direct affront on basic human rights norms and standards
and
is a dereliction of the obligations of the State under section 1 of the
African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (to which it is a State party)
to recognise the rights, duties and freedoms enshrined in the Charter and to
undertake to adopt legislative and other measures to give effect to
them.
The African Charter guarantees all the rights which the State has
removed by
way of the Amendment.
The amendment ousts the jurisdiction
of the Courts to deal with pending and
future cases involving property
disputes in particular land. This reminds
the writer of the decrees that
Nigeria passed during the military
dictatorship which ousted the
jurisdiction of the courts which the African
Commission ruled in numerous
cases as constituting "an attack of
incalculable proportions on article 7 of
the African Charter. An attack of
this sort on the jurisdiction of the
courts is especially invidious, because
while it is a violation of human
rights in itself, it permits other
violations of rights to go
unredressed."
The African Commission has also previously ruled that the
ousting of the
jurisdiction of the courts threatens the independence of the
judiciary and
violates article 26 of the African Charter.
The
Amendment effectively usurps the authority of the courts of Zimbabwe by
denying the people of Zimbabwe recourse to the law in challenging State
action which violates fundamental human rights. This puts paid to the
principle of separation of powers, by allowing the Executive to initiate,
implement and adjudicate upon its own actions ensuring that the State will
not be scrutinised nor its actions reviewed by an independent and impartial
tribunal.
The amendment will result in the complete removal of the
functions of the
Judiciary and denial of any form of protection whatsoever
for the people who
rely on the courts for protection in certain cases.
Zimbabwe has effectively
kissed goodbye to the principle of separation of
powers which is the bedrock
upon which modern society is founded. Does
anyone still doubt that we are in
a defacto dictatorship?
The SADC,
AU and UN and appropriate organs under them need to take immediate
action to
encourage the President of Zimbabwe to enter into dialogue with
his
political opponents, captains of industry and civil society so that
Zimbabweans can find a lasting solution to the problems bedevilling the
country.
It must be emphasized that this tendency of passing
repressive pieces of
legislation to deal with legitimate concerns about
issues of governance
which the apartheid regime in South Africa and Ian
Smith did and has now
been perfected by a black government masquerading as a
pan-Africanist state
can not result in sustainable peace and development in
Zimbabwe. We need a
change in direction if we are to survive as a
country.
Zim Online
Fri 7 October 2005
HARARE - Imagine this:
Zimbabwe's inflation drops to a single
digit figure, foreign reserves
improve to six months import cover, while
arrears to the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) are cleared as Harare moves
to reclaim its seat among
the community of nations.
This is the dream of every
Zimbabwean - whether pro-President
Robert Mugabe or opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai - to wake up one
morning to the news that their
crisis-sapped country is back among the big
guys on Africa's economic
landscape.
But in the short to medium term this might as well
remain just
that - a mere pipe dream - according to economic experts. They
said that
chances of Zimbabwe registering major successes on the economic
front under
the current environment were as remote as communist Cuba
restoring
diplomatic relations with the United States by next
year.
The analysts said stabilisation prospects were getting
slimmer
by the day and warned that Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor
Gideon
Gono had his work cut out, with very little room to manouvre ahead of
his
third quarter monetary policy review at the end of this
month.
The central bank chief, tasked by Mugabe to
resuscitate Zimbabwe's
comatose economy, is expected to inform an anxious
nation on what measures
the RBZ wants to introduce to boost export
competitiveness and rein in the
twin problems of inflation and a runaway
parallel market for foreign
currency.
But according to
one economist with a Harare-based commercial
bank, the policy options for
the governor are rather limited and whatever he
would come up with would be
torn between pleasing the IMF, pandering to the
whims of a besieged
government approaching crucial elections and ensuring
industrial peace among
a restive civil service clamouring for a review of
their salaries and
working conditions.
"This is probably the most challenging
period in the past 22
months that the governor has been in office, given
that all indications
point to a worsening of our situation. His must be the
most difficult of
jobs because he should try to make sense of an untenable
situation," said
the economist, who requested anonymity citing professional
reasons.
The IMF this week painted a gloomy picture of
Zimbabwe's
economic prospects, arguing that the southern African country
would continue
to experience triple-digit inflation, further output
declines, and increased
poverty.
Annualised inflation was
pegged at 265.1 percent in August and
is projected to shoot to more than 400
percent by year-end, to keep Zimbabwe
among the countries with the highest
such rates in the world.
Poverty levels are estimated at more
than 80 percent for a
country that used to produce enough food to feed the
rest of southern Africa
before the mainstay agricultural sector was
destroyed under Mugabe's chaotic
and often violent land redistribution
programme.
The IMF warned that food security was an urgent
issue, given the
sharp fall in agricultural production. More than four
million Zimbabweans
are in urgent need of food assistance before the next
harvest expected
around April 2006.
Other forces expected
to pile the pressure on Gono's review
statement and projections for the
future are the budgetary requirements for
the forthcoming Senate elections
and growing clamours for a civil service
salary review before the end of the
year.
Elections to select members of the Senate are expected
before
the end of November but it was not clear if the poll was adequately
budgeted
for in light of rising costs of goods and
services.
Funding requirements for the agricultural sector
are also
expected to demand a lot of attention from the governor, as would
debt
repayments to the IMF.
Zimbabwe now owes the IMF
US$160 million after making two
surprise payments amounting to US$135
million in the past two months. The
Bretton Woods institution's board of
directors, which has threatened to
expel the country over its arrears, meets
again around March to review
Harare's position.
"All of
these costs would put pressure on the government and it
would be interesting
see how Mr. Gono would address these issues," said
Harare-based consultant
economist John Robertson.
The RBZ's support for farmers and
other quasi-fiscal activities
in which it has dished out billions of dollars
to various interest groups
have been blamed for the country's high money
supply growth, which jumped
from 219.1 percent in June to 259.9 percent in
July.
"Some of these quasi-fiscal activities have recently
been
reduced or discontinued. In particular, the authorities have indicated
that
all official foreign exchange transactions are now conducted at a
unified
tender rate, tobacco and gold price supports have been discontinued,
and
producer price support for cotton will be discontinued, effective
January
2006," said the IMF in a report on Zimbabwe released this
week.
But according to analysts, the biggest challenge for
Gono as he
prepares his monetary policy review statement would be how to
tackle the
tricky issue of the exchange rate.
The
country's exchange rate regime remains highly restricted, a
situation that
has created a thriving parallel market for hard cash. One
United States
greenback is trading at around 80 000 local dollars on the
parallel market
against the official rate of around 26 000 Zimbabwe dollars
to the US
unit.
The IMF noted that although the exchange rate had been
allowed
to depreciate over the past few months, the change had not been
enough to
wipe out the premium caused by the disparity between the official
market and
the illegal parallel market.
The proportion of
bids met at the government's forex auction
market had progressively declined
to about 10 percent and had been reflected
in acute shortages of basic
goods, particularly fuel and food.
According to the analysts,
the only one sure way out of a very
difficult situation for Gono was to
simply return the economy back to market
forces - a solution the top banker
would probably agree with but one his
political principals are certainly not
prepared to countenance at this
hour. - ZimOnline
The Zimbabwean
BY MORGAN
TSVANGIRAI
HARARE - While it remains our strategy and ultimate
goal to assume power
through the ballot box and other democratic means, our
experiences with
elections, both local and national, are instructive and
significantly
enlightening.
The Mugabe regime decided as far back as last
year to screw up the
Parliamentary election in order to rally a two-thirds
Parliamentary
majority, regardless of the national sentiment and the outcome
of the actual
voting patterns on the ground. In other words, like the 2002
Presidential
election, the result of the March 2005 poll was pre-determined.
Mugabe made
no secret of this, in his public pronouncements at rallies and
public
meetings.
Between 2000 and 2005, the regime failed to tamper
with the Lancaster House
Constitution because the MDC enjoyed a blocking
representation in
Parliament. An attempt was made to persuade the MDC into
working with Zanu
(PF) to amend the Constitution at the end of 2004. Unsure
of how we were
going to react, the project was abandoned.
Zanu (PF)
then decided to use its Parliamentary majority to push through a
raft of
legislation including the enactment of the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission Act
which created a highly partisan ZEC that proceeded to claim
to run the March
2005 election, and as is now the case, with disastrous
results.
Far
from resolving the national crisis, the electoral route has become a
weapon
used for driving our people apart and for deepening our mistrust in
the
conduct of the Robert Mugabe dictatorship.
Our people have totally lost
faith and confidence in elections. Elections
have brought no meaningful
change to their lifestyles. Against this
background, Zimbabweans are cagey
about the proposed Senate elections. The
Senate, as a national institution,
is being forced upon the nation against
our advice and despite our spirited
resistance in and outside Parliament.
The idea came out of a piecemeal
Constitutional change, Amendment No.17. We
have argued, together with the
entire civil society in Zimbabwe, that our
country needs a comprehensive
Constitutional review process, which is
people-driven and publicly accepted.
Zanu (PF) is against that approach,
sadly, for selfish reasons.
Zanu (PF)
can proceed with the Senatorial plebiscite, as they have indicated
they wish
to do, but that action shall fail to deal with the question of
legitimacy
and the crisis of governance before us. With a Senate, Zimbabwe
will
continue to strengthen its pariah status at home and abroad, with a
coterie
of ambitious politicians carrying the useless title of senator.
Because
of the unresolved disputes in 2000, in 2002 and after March 31 and
our
desire to end the national crisis, taking part in this flawed and
opportunistic exercise presents us as a party that is out of touch with the
grim reality on the ground. We shall be subjecting our people to a process
that provides no value addition to their political fortunes, pressing them
to pretend to make choices and informed decisions in a matter that fails to
raise their political destiny in any meaningful way.
We shall be
asking our people to follow the Zanu (PF) succession agenda, a
political
experiment that has cost our nation its esteem and driven us to
the most
agonizing level since time immemorial. We shall be asking the
people to
resign to their fate. I raise this point because we are told that
the
proposed Senate is a once-off, one term institution. Of what public
benefit,
economic or political, is this set-up going to give us as an
embattled
nation? What is in for the ordinary person, without food and
without a
job?
Talking of benefits, may I remind Zimbabwe that although the
proposed Senate
shall have fewer members than the current Parliament, the
election shall
cost us trillions of dollars more than the amount we spent in
March 2005
because of our substantially weaker currency and galloping
inflation?
Further, we will need the same numbers of ballot papers,
polling stations,
polling agents, election officials, election materials,
campaign materials,
fuels, imported ink, Chinese-made ballot boxes, vehicles
and all other
necessities that come with a real political contest. Surely,
can we afford
this luxurious expenditure at a time when we have no food, no
fuel, no
foreign currency and no jobs? Is creating 65 jobs for senior
citizens and
greedy politicians an emergency in Zimbabwe today?
From
the MDC, my position as President remains unchanged. We are in local
government, supposedly in charge of lives of 80 percent of the country's
prime productive minds. But have we ever been given a chance to exercise our
duties and responsibilities without Zanu (PF) meddling?
Harare is in
state of chaos because Zanu (PF) refused to accept democracy.
The same can
be said of Bulawayo, Mutare, Chegutu, Chitungwiza, and all the
other towns
and cities in our hands. Zanu (PF) is not interested in
co-existence. Zanu
(PF) is intolerant. Zanu (PF) does not accept our
presence and shall never
respect our political space and political autonomy,
hence the appointment of
so-called governors and resident ministers whose
mandate is to fight the MDC
at a local level.
Our presence in Parliament is merely symbolic. Despite
our protests, Zanu
(PF) has pushed some of the most draconian pieces of
legislation in Zimbabwe
during the past five years. MDC legislators are to
debate, raise matters of
reason, caution and advise Parliament, but that
translates to nothing as
Zanu (PF) simply abuses its inflated majority to do
as it wishes. What then
is the point?
The Zimbabwean struggle needs a
radical paradigm shift. Parliament cannot be
the main arena of our struggle.
Our experience in Parliament since 2000
shows that the struggle resides
outside Zanu (PF)-dominated institutions.
POSA, AIPPA, the NGO Bill,
Amendment No 17 and many other repressive laws
were shoved down our throats
in broad daylight. We have lost acres and acres
of political space through
legislation, imposed onto the people while we sit
there in Parliament.
Someone must explain to me that Zimbabwe shall be a
different place as soon
as we take up seats in the so-called Senate?
We must be serious with
ourselves if we hope to make an impact in our desire
to bring about
far-reaching democratic change in this country. Playing the
Zanu (PF) game
means more suffering and greater uncertainty about the
future. Instead of
wasting time with the Senate proposal, which we
vehemently opposed during
its passage in Parliament, perhaps it is time to
take a fresh look at our
continued presence in that often-abused
institution.
- Morgan
Tsvangirai, President, Movement for Democratic Change
FinGaz
10/6/2005 8:55:33 AM (GMT +2)
I COULD not
believe my ears when I watched a television news broadcast
during which a
ruling party official was shown breathing fire and brimstone
against the
Bulawayo City Council for what he termed its failure to manage
the water
shortages that have hit Zimbabwe's second largest city in recent
months.
Faced with dwindling volumes in its four supply
dams, the local
authority introduced water rationing in July. The situation
is so dire that
the council has resorted to using bowsers to ferry water to
some
high-density suburbs. Naturally, some households have not been getting
enough water and complaints have been voiced.
It was these
complaints that the said official from the ruling party's
Bulawayo province
seized upon as a pretext to attack the City Fathers for
being caught
flat-footed after failing to foresee the problems and putting
contingencies
in place. He delivered his punch line when he suggested that
the Bulawayo
Metropolitan Governor, Cain Mathema, should intervene to put
things
right.
Under normal circumstances, I would compliment this politician
for
showing such concern about problems affecting ordinary people and being
ready to suggest ways of helping them out of their predicament. But the
circumstances in which he made these comments, are, to say the least,
hypocritical and dishonest.
He took a cheap shot at the Bulawayo
City Council when he knows fully
well that the local authority's hands are
tied on this matter. His criticism
and that emanating from the mouth of
anyone in officialdom cannot be taken
seriously by anyone who knows the
background to why the city's water
problems have not been addressed all
these years.
These problems, which affect the rest of drought-prone
Matabeleland,
are perennial and the only way to address them once and for
all is to draw
water from the Zambezi River to cater for the needs of both
urban and rural
populations. In post-independence parlance, this should have
meant urgently
implementing the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP)
under which a
pipeline would carry water to the proposed Shangani Dam and
then on to
Bulawayo and other centres.
But as is well known, this
project has been on the 'verge' of
implementation for the last 10 years
since the government took it over - or
as cynics prefer to say 'hijacked' it
- from the Bulawayo City Council.
Prior to this, the local authority and
people of Bulawayo had come together
to do something for themselves after
being frustrated by state inertia since
independence. This determination
seemed to galvanise the government into
action and it soon announced its
assumption of responsibility for the
funding and speedy implementation and
completion of the scheme.
What followed has to be one of the worst
cases of carrot-dangling in
history. Despite regular announcements,
especially before elections and
other periods when politicians needed to
court voters from the arid region
for support, that implementation was
'imminent', the project has remained a
'pipe dream'. Short of playing God
and altering rainfall patterns, what else
can the Bulawayo City Council be
expected to do?
It is in the context of this background that the
sanctimonious
criticism of the Bulawayo City Fathers by ruling party and
government
officials should be viewed. In my humble opinion, the hammering
of the
municipal authorities is analogous to setting a snare for someone and
then
laughing hilariously when they get mired in the trap. These attacks can
only
be viewed as a gimmick to drive a wedge between the council and the
residents in a city that has repeatedly spurned the ruling party at the
polls. Anyone genuinely interested in the welfare of the residents of
Bulawayo should be asking the powers- that- be why promises to build the
Matabeleland Zambezi Water Pipeline have not been kept for more than a
decade.
Suggesting that the issue of Bulawayo's water problems
should be
referred to Mathema is an all too convenient cop-out that betrays
a total
lack of seriousness and concern. But alas, making illogical
statements for
the sake of being seen to be doing something has become the
modus operandi
of many politicians in the confused atmosphere prevailing in
Zimbabwe today.
As a minister in the self same government that is accused of
deliberately
hindering progress with regard to the MZWP, it is obvious that
there is
nothing Mathema can do to ease the water shortages in
Bulawayo.
Mathema was in fact, quoted by a Sunday paper last weekend
lashing out
at non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for sinking boreholes
in some
remote areas of Matabeleland in an effort to ease shortages for
rural
communities. He told a Matabeleland North Development Committee
meeting that
the NGOS should instead be building roads.
"Why don't
we have tarred roads in the province? Why should the NGOs
not come and
construct roads? Why should they put more emphasis on hand
pumps and
boreholes?" the paper quoted Mathema as asking.
The fact that a
governor should be asking questions about the absence
of tarred roads when
he should be answering them demonstrates to what extent
those in power have
perfected the art of passing the buck. It is
preposterous that on top of
this dereliction of duty they feel incensed and
outdone when NGOs step in to
cater for the welfare of neglected communities.
At the Matabeleland
North Development meeting referred to above, when
Mathema criticised NGOs
for sinking boreholes, he fumed: "There are no
hand-pumps in Europe. We want
metered water. Boreholes must go." Well, for a
start, Cde governor, sir,
beggars cannot be choosers! The reason why there
are no pumps in Europe is
probably because they have well-developed water
reticulation systems to
cater for their populations. As the Zimbabwean
government has not developed
such infrastructure, why should NGOs be
prevented from availing borehole
water to needy communities?
FinGaz
Felix
Njini
10/6/2005 9:13:04 AM (GMT +2)
Regional unions call
for joint action against Chinese imports
MORE than 35 Zimbabwean
textile firms have folded during the past
three years as they fail to
weather the competition brought about by an
influx of cheap textile products
from Asian traders.
Players in the industry said the influx of
Chinese textiles into the
country has had a devastating effect on local
textile firms'
competitiveness.
It has also been established that
the deluge of cheap textiles has not
only had an impact on Zimbabwe alone
but has led to job losses in South
Africa, Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland
and Zambia.
A Parliamentary portfolio committee on industry and
international
trade, which is currently lobbying the government to stem the
influx of the
cheap products, revealed that about 35 textiles firms around
the country had
gone into liquidation, throwing thousands of workers onto
the streets.
The chairman of the portfolio committee, Timothy
Mukahlera, who is the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Member
of Parliament for
Gweru Urban, said cheap imports have adversely affected
the textile
industry. Mukahlera said government should immediately ban cheap
Chinese
textiles.
"About 35 companies have gone into liquidation
because of the influx
of these cheap products from Asia and the Far East. We
cannot just allow
goods into the country just because they are cheap.
Whoever wants to trade
must bring quality goods," said Mukahlera.
"We will benefit in the short term, but long term there are no
benefits at
all, these people have destroyed our industry and they must be
stopped," he
said.
Analysts said the situation had put the increasingly-isolated
Harare
government in a policy dilemma. The government has launched an all
out
campaign to lure Asian investors into the country at the same time
cementing
ties with China.
"Government priority should be to make
sure that they somehow find a
way to block these products. We are losing
jobs because of these cheap
products," Mukahlera said.
David
Whitehead Textiles chief executive David Chimanye, who is also
chairman of
the Zimbabwe Textiles Manufacturers Association, said Zimbabwe
had laid open
its market to what other countries in the region are fighting
hard to
avoid.
"If we value add our products we will beat this whole thing
about
Asian imports but the problem is we have opened ourselves to what
South
Africa is fighting. We do not want to lose more jobs, unemployment is
high
enough," Chimanye said.
Unions from South Africa, Zimbabwe,
Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland and
Zambia, which recently met to find
solutions to the flood of cheap Chinese
products, are calling for joint
action against the challenge posed by China.
"We have identified the
challenge of Chinese imports flooding into
global and local markets as a
fundamental challenge for the industry, its
workers and their jobs," said
the unions in a joint statement.
South Africa is believed to have lost
55 000 jobs in the industry
since 2003 and is losing 2 000 jobs every month
while losses in other
countries are equally devastating, the unions
said.
Analysts said local companies are failing to compete with the
Chinese
exports because of government subsidies, an artificially weak
currency and
the absence of independent trade unions in China, which
depresses working
conditions and keeps costs down.
"We call on
retailers in developed economies to source a great
quantity of goods from
Southern African countries and from workplaces that
respect labour rights,"
said the unions.
FinGaz
Rangarirai Mberi
10/6/2005 9:03:25 AM (GMT
+2)
A CABINET minister has sharply criticised statements attributed
to
Transport and Communications Minister Chris Mushohwe threatening
white-owned
businesses with farm-style seizures.
Industry and
International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu, said the
Zimbabwean government had
no intention of taking over private industries.
"There is no such
feeling in government. It has never been discussed.
If ever such an
announcement were to be made, it would have to be made by my
office. It
didn't, and it won't. There is no such feeling in government. It
has never
been discussed. Even if I was advised by any of my colleagues to
do that
(take over white-run firms), I would not support it," Mpofu said.
Mushohwe reportedly told the annual congress of the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) last month that unless white businesspeople agreed
to cede some ownership in their companies to black Zimbabweans, government
would take over their companies.
"Most of these companies do not
want to give us equity. We might
decide to take over these companies just
like we did during the land-reform
exercise," Mushohwe was quoted as telling
the industrialists.
The threats were not the first to be made against
white and
foreign-run businesses. At the height of the farm occupations by
the
landless in 2000, self-styled war veterans, with the public backing of
senior government officials, threatened to take over white-run businesses
accusing them of funding the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The
disruptions were strongly criticised by then Industry and Commerce Minister
Nkosana Moyo, who was to later resign.
Mushohwe's threats against
private business are only the latest knock
to already rock-bottom investor
confidence. ZANU PF recently pushed through
amendments to the constitution,
which analysts say virtually outlaw private
title to farmland by banning all
legal challenges to land seizures by the
state. Critics expect investors,
especially in agriculture, to hold back on
any plans they might have had
prior to the amendments.
A string of listed firms, including the
country's largest sugar
producer, Hippo Valley, have lost large estates to
government's land reforms
and will not be able to recover the land after
President Robert Mugabe
signed the amendments into law.
Land
previously protected by bilateral investment agreements with
foreign
governments has also been targeted, a shift from earlier government
policy
to leave such land untouched.
FinGaz
Felix Njini
10/6/2005 9:05:10 AM (GMT +2)
ZANU PF's
vexatious succession politics, currently being played out at
provincial
levels, have seen the eruption of a bitter battle for supremacy
in the once
stable Midlands province where presidential aspirant Emmerson
Mnangagwa and
Rugare Gumbo are reportedly at each other's throat ahead of
the 2008
presidential election.
Well-placed ZANU PF insiders said Mnangagwa,
the party's secretary for
legal affairs, who is also the minister of rural
housing and amenities, and
Gumbo, the minister of economic affairs, have
clashed several times over who
should steer the party policies in the
province.
The same sources said an undeclared wasr was raging in the
Midlands
province following the emergence of two rival camps led by the two
veteran
ZANU PF politicians.
Gumbo is the Member of Parliament for
Mberengwa West, which he
controversially contested and finally won after a
re-run of the primary
elections while Mnangagwa narrowly lost the Kwekwe
central seat to the MDC
in March.
Sources from the Midlands
province allege that Gumbo, who is emerging
as the "anointed leader" of the
province following Mnangagwa's eventful but
ultimately unsuccessful bid for
the vice presidency last year, has strong
links to a powerful ZANU PF clique
controlled by retired soldier Solomon
Mujuru.
Mnangagwa and Gumbo
refused to disccuss the cause of their differences
when contacted for
comment yesterday.
"I do not give interviews," said Mnangagwa.
"I have no comment to make about that issue," Gumbo said, before
switching
off his phone.
Gumbo's strong links to the Mujuru camp, which thwarted
Mnangagwa's
bid for the vice-presidency last December has, however, not
earned him any
favours with the people of Midlands, the sources
said.
The increasingly influential Mujuru camp facilitated the
appointment
of Gumbo, who has successfully bounced back from relative
obscurity, to a
full Cabinet post, sources said. Gumbo was previously a
deputy minister of
home affairs.
"Mnangagwa is battling to regain
lost territory in the province and on
the other hand Gumbo has become the
favourite of Mugabe," said the sources.
The sources said Gumbo's
faction comprises deputy minister of health
Edwin Muguti, Midlands Governor
Cephas Msipa and air vice-marshal Henry
Muchena, among others.
Mnangagwa's band of sympathisers, which was attenuated by a witch-hunt
for
party officials who openly threw their weight behind his bid and
attended a
fateful meeting in Tsholotsho, is reported to include former
public service
minister July Moyo, party director Frederick Shava and
tourism minister
Francis Nhema.
The Mnangagwa camp suffered a major set back following
the resignation
from ZANU PF of Pearson Mbalekwa, a former Member of
Parliament for
Zvishavane.
"Mnangagwa had control of the province
for a long time and now Gumbo
has come onto the scene and tilted the
scales," said the sources.
Sharp differences have surfaced along tribal
lines between the
Mnangagwa and the Mujuru camps as ZANU PF politicians
position themselves to
take over from President Robert Mugabe, who has
indicated his desire to
retire in 2008.
The Zimbabwean
BY TRUDY
STEVENSON
Your Honour the Mayor
Re: Proposed visit by Sekesai
Makwavarara
As Parliamentary Spokesperson on Local Government and Housing
for the
Movement for Democratic Change and Member of Parliament for Harare
North, I
write to advise you that any official reception of Ms Makwavarara
by the
City of Moscow would be problematic to the vast majority of residents
of
Harare, the city she purports to represent.
Ms Makwavarara was
originally elected as a Councillor for Mabvuku Ward on an
MDC ticket. She
subsequently crossed the floor to join the ruling party,
ZanuPF, without the
mandate of the electorate, and proceeded to work with
that party to help
dissolve the democratically-elected Council, of which 44
of the 45 seats
were initially held by MDC.
She acted as Mayor when the elected Executive
Mayor, Elias Mudzuri, was
suspended and then dismissed, and retained her
elevated status, avoiding
elections and committee meetings, until eventually
Council could no longer
function. At this point the Minister dissolved
Council and appointed a
Commission to run the affairs of our city, with
Makwavarara as Chairperson
of that commission.
This commission's
legitimate term of office expired on 9 June this year. The
Minister extended
its life, ignoring an earlier Supreme Court ruling that a
local authority
commission's life cannot be extended beyond the initial 6
months. This
matter is currently on appeal before the Supreme Court.
Apart from the
questionable legitimacy of Ms Makwavarara and her commission's
tenure of
office, I must bring to your attention the fact that the City of
Harare is
virtually bankrupt, so that any expenditure on trips outside the
country for
whatever reason cannot be condoned. The Town Clerk stated
recently that the
city cannot function because it has no fuel, no foreign
exchange to buy
spare parts to repair vehicles including ambulances, fire
engines and refuse
removal trucks, no foreign exchange to purchase chemicals
to purify our
water and repair the water and sewerage infrastructure - etc.,
etc.
On top of this, Ms Makwavarara herself launched the vile
"Operation
Murambatsvina - Drive Out the Filth" - which was eventually
extended
nation-wide and resulted in destruction of the homes of at least
700,000
people who were left to sleep in the open in the depths of winter,
the
destruction of the livelihoods of some 2,5 million people in the
informal
sectors whose businesses were bulldozed, set on fire, etc and goods
seized,
and all the concomitant effects of this war against the majority
poor
citizens of Harare and elsewhere. These citizens are still reeling from
the
effects of this so-called Operation, and it will take us many years to
fully
recover from this man-made disaster.
In the circumstances, I
trust that you will appreciate the inadvisability of
receiving Ms
Makwavarara and her delegation officially as Mayor of Moscow.
Trudy
Stevenson MP
Parliamentary Spokesperson for Local Government and Housing,
Movement for
Democratic Change
Zim Online
Thu 6 October 2005
HARARE - The controversy surrounding
the demotion of President Robert
Mugabe's top bodyguard, Winston Changara,
deepened with fresh revelations on
Thursday that he was relieved of his
duties after Mugabe's wife Grace
allegedly complained that the security man
had indecently assaulted her.
Sources told ZimOnline that Grace
told Mugabe about three weeks before
she was due to accompany the President
on a trip to China last July that she
was not going to board the same plane
with Changara allegedly because the
policeman had made advances on her and
had also indecently assaulted her.
It was not possible to get
comment on the matter last night from
Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba
while the teetotaler Changara declined to
talk about the issue referring
ZimOnline to his superiors in the police.
"Iwe mupfana (young man)
those matters you want me to talk about are
serious. It is better you talk
to my police bosses," Changara said when
contacted by phone from
Johannesburg.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena
could not be reached for comment on
the matter while Home Affairs Minister
Kembo Mohadi, who on Tuesday this
week told ZimOnline that Changara was
absent from his guard duties because
he was sick, refused to discuss the
matter last night.
Mohadi said: "I have no further comments to make
on Changara whatever
new developments there are."
But our
sources at Police General Headquarters in Harare said Mugabe
had taken time
to act on his wife's claims of harassment by Changara
apparently because he
had ordered a probe into the allegations against his
long-time and trusted
bodyguard.
Things however came to a head before the probe ordered
by Mugabe could
be completed when a few days before departure to China,
Grace confronted her
husband again and insisted to him that she would not
travel to Beijing if
Changara was going to be part of the
delegation.
According to the same sources, Changara was then
replaced as chief
bodyguard to Mugabe by one Chief Superintendent Makanda
who at the time was
commander of police in Harare district.
Makanda is now with the police's close protection unit that was headed
by
Changara but is now being led by one Senior Assistant Commissioner Barare
since the demotion of Changara.
Makanda is also going to be
upgraded to an Assistant Commissioner next
month in keeping with security
regulations that Mugabe's top personal
bodyguard be of the rank of assistant
commissioner or above, our sources
said.
According to the same
sources Changara, who is now serving under the
dreaded Police Commissioner's
Pool, has been advised to resign from the
force for his own
good.
However the sources said Changara might not resign, adding
that the
disgraced policeman was adamant that Grace was influenced to lie
against him
by some unnamed politicians who felt he had become too powerful
because of
his closeness to Mugabe.
The commissioner's pool is
an internal facility normally reserved for
senior police officers who either
break the force's rules or who are
perceived to be sympathetic to the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
party.
Many condemned
to the pool have been frustrated into quitting the
police force altogether
because of the harsh conditions there. An officer
placed in the pool is
immediately stripped of benefits such as the privilege
to have a police
vehicle for personal use, telephones or even an office.
While in
the pool, the disgraced senior officers are made to perform
menial tasks
such as cleaning toilets and often under the supervision of
junior officers.
- ZimOnline
rednova
HARARE,
Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwean government has started to
translocate more
than 200 black rhinos after poachers have killed several of
the animals of
endangered species at Gourlays Farm in Matabeleland North.
Secretary for
Environment and Tourism Margaret Sangarwe was quoted by The
Herald newspaper
as saying on Wednesday that in the past few days, the Parks
and Wildlife
Management Authority has translocated 35 black rhinos and is
working out
modalities to move the remainder.
This follows the arrest of a poacher in
neighboring Botswana who was selling
a rhino horn believed to have been
removed from an animal killed in the
Gourlays Farmarea.
Parks wardens
also found two black rhinos with wire snares and now believe
that some
locals could be working in cahoots with foreigners.
Sangarwe said a
directive had since been issued to the authority to move in
fast and rescue
the black rhinos before they are poached out.
"We want them removed from
closer to our borders as soon as possible to curb
poaching of one of the
most endangered species in the country. There is
urgent need to place them
in areas where they can easily be monitored and
are secured," Sangarwe
said.
The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said all animals still
belong to
the government and the settlers' responsibility was to strengthen
the Parks
Authority's efforts to protect those animals from
poaching.
It said the animals can be translocated to animal-depleted
areas or any
other conducive areas if need arises.
The southern
African country has a population of 550 black rhinos and 230
white
rhinos.
Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS