International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished:
October 7, 2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Nine white farmers could
face up to two years in jail for
refusing to leave their properties to make
way for blacks under Zimbabwe's
land redistribution scheme, the state Sunday
Mail newspaper reported.
The farmers were ordered to hand over their
properties by Sept. 30 and are
scheduled to appear Friday in the district
court at Chegutu, 100 kilometers
(60 miles) southwest of Harare, the paper
said.
The government insists its program to nationalize white-owned farms
was
completed more than a year ago and left about 300 white farmers on the
land.
But farmers' groups have since reported continued land seizures and
arrests
of defiant owners.
Some 5,000 white-owned farms have been
taken over in the often-violent
seizures that began in 2000 and disrupted
the agriculture-based economy in
the former regional breadbasket, which now
suffers chronic shortages of
food, hard currency and gasoline.
The
Sunday Mail said the nine farmers had asked that the new seizures go
straight to appeal in the nation's highest court, the Supreme
Court.
But prosecutors argued they should have vacated their
properties first.
"The farmers have come to court with dirty hands. They are
expected first to
comply with a lawful order and later challenge it," the
paper quoted
prosecutor Blackson Matemba saying.
The maximum penalty
for defying land handover laws is up to two years in
jail, a fine or both.
Previous ownership challenges by whites have failed or
been subjected to
protracted legal delays.
The government says the laws are designed to
correct colonial-era imbalances
in land ownership
Last month, the
government hurried through legislation forcing whites and
foreign interests
to hand over 51 percent control of their businesses to
blacks.
The
Indiginization and Economic Empowerment Bill has still to be signed into
law
by President Robert Mugabe. New legislation proposing identical measures
for
blacks to take over a controlling stake of the nation's mines goes
before
the Harare Parliament when it reconvenes Oct. 30.
The central bank has
cautioned against hasty seizures as the country faces
its worst economic
crisis since independence, with the world's highest
official inflation of
nearly 7,000 percent and shelves empty of the corn
meal staple and basic
goods.
Independent estimates put real inflation closer to 25,000 percent,
and the
International Monetary Funds has forecast it reaching 100,000
percent by the
end of the year.
The Sunday Mail, a government
mouthpiece, quoted official statistics that
only 48 of about 80 companies
listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange have
black chief
executives.
"If one goes to Japan or China, they are the majority players
of their
economies, but when we do it in Africa, people make noise," said
Indigenization and Empowerment Minister Paul Mangwana, the Sunday Mail
reported.
In separate report, the paper said economic hardship had
triggered a sharp
increase in grave robbing - despite centuries-old taboos
on the desecration
of graves.
Ornaments, traditional clay pots, metal
plates and flowers have been stolen,
and thieves were removing headstones
before concrete foundations hardened -
to make tiles, kitchen units and
furniture facings, the paper said.
Mail and Guardian
Emmanuel Goujon | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
06 October 2007
10:27
African diplomats presented a united front on Saturday
to
support Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's presence at an upcoming
European Union-Africa summit despite strong European
reservations.
"The African Union wants all African countries
to take part" in
the summit in Lisbon in December, an official from the
pan-African body's
headquarters in Addis Ababa said.
The
official, who requested to remain anonymous, contradicted
comments by French
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who claimed the AU had
offered to talk
Mugabe out of travelling to Portugal.
The 83-year-old
firebrand Zimbabwean leader has come under a
barrage of international
criticism for violating political and human rights
in his country and
plunging it into a disastrous economic crisis.
British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown has made it clear Mugabe was
not welcome at the
summit, but Mugabe has brushed away criticism from his
country's former
colonial power and shown no sign of backing down.
"Zimbabwe,
in spite of the crisis, is an African country and we
are defending
principles here. We have asked Mugabe to talk to his
opposition but the AU
respects the principle of non-interference," said one
official from the
African Union's Peace and Security Committee.
"We resort to
interference only in extreme cases of violence or
genocide."
"It is not the only country not to respect
democracy, look at
Togo, Niger ... Zimbabwe's problem is mainly with London;
it's a bilateral
issue and is none of our business. If the Europeans really
insist on this
point, the summit risks falling through," the official
added.
Originally planned to take place in April 2003, the
summit was
repeatedly postponed due to the adamant refusal of several
European
countries to host Mugabe over his rights record.
Britain and other European powerhouses have urged the AU to use
its leverage
and convince Mugabe to let his country be represented at the
summit by
another official, so far in vain.
"On this file, the AU's
position is clear and resolute: all
member countries should take part in the
Lisbon summit. As Zimbabwe head of
state, Robert Mugabe should take part,"
another high-ranking AU official
told Agence France-Presse on condition of
anonymity.
On Thursday, AU Commission chairperson Alpha Oumar
Konare and
the current president of the organisation, Ghanaian President
John Kufuor,
had reaffirmed their position to visiting German Chancellor
Angela Merkel.
"We want the next EU-Africa summit to be a
success and herald a
new partnership. All Africans should be invited, this
is the basis of this
new partnership," Konare said.
Merkel, who is now in South Africa, lamented the plight of
Zimbabweans but
stopped short of backing Brown's tough line.
"The situation
is a very difficult one. It's a disastrous one,
which I very clearly stated
in our conversation," she said Friday.
She said African
countries themselves should be left to decide
who attends the talks in
Portugal. -- AFP
Mmegi, Botswana
*TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE
CORRESPONDENT
Why do African
leaders tip-toe around the rogue Zimbabwean president? It
cannot be the
nonsense that Robert Mugabe is viewed as a hero and so they
revere him even
when he kills the same people he supposedly 'liberated.'
Heroism
is bestowed on dead people after taking into consideration the sum
output of
their efforts, behaviour and unselfish, daring servitude to the
people or
the nation. Otherwise 'living heroes' have to constantly renew
their status
until they die.
Nelson Mandela, the world's most revered statesman, is
considered a hero on
all fronts and there is little dispute about that. But
to maintain that
'living hero' status, Mandela has to be careful. It only
takes one small
mistake for his hero status to evaporate.
Is Mugabe a
hero just because he is perceived to have liberated Zimbabwe? If
so, then,
does that hero status still stand in light of what has and
continues to
happen under his stewardship?
Thousands are believed and known to have
died at his hands in the Midlands
and Matebeleland provinces in what he,
himself, termed 'a moment of
madness'. There are politically motivated
killings blamed on his supporters
and he does not chide
them.
Apparently, all these negatives, abuse, mismanagement of the
nation's
finances and the economy do not take anything away from a
hero.
Mugabe remains a hero for failing to maintain, just to maintain,
what our
nation inherited from the white government. He remains a hero after
destroying the nation's agricultural base and presiding over starving people
that he refuses to give food because they are suspected of not supporting
his political party. He remains a hero whose vanity demands that in every
city, town and township be a street named after him. He remains a hero to
African presidents when he sends millions of his people into neighbouring
countries to look for food.
Just how do African presidents define
'hero'? If Mugabe is a hero by any
measure, then Africa, not just Zimbabwe,
is doomed. But that shows us that
Africa has never been able to elect the
right people into office.
Will we ever get an African president who can
distinguish him or herself
apart from the 'presidential' garbage we have
seen on the African continent
since the 1950s up to today?
Not
likely.
Africa appears to have not even one president with principles
anchored in
conviction, reality and belief. Africa's so-called presidents
are chancers
who entered politics, not to serve, but to be served and to
accumulate
wealth.
They behave like sheep swayed by a shepherd
dog.
And, indeed, it appears to me those collies have a far better sense of
direction than SADC leaders.
Unlike African presidents, those mutts
not only know where they should go
but also know the right thing to do with
what's entrusted to them. SADC,
like the rest of Africa, urgently needs
meaningful leadership.
Africa does not deserve the leadership it
has.
Let us start with Joachim Chissano, the former Mozambican president. It
appears to me that Chissano is a bored man. I am almost certain that he did
not buy a pig farm while he was president. Because of boredom, he is
spouting embarrassing garbage about Zimbabwe and, in particular, Robert
Mugabe.
Chissano, like the now widely discredited Levy Mwanawasa,
urges that Mugabe
be invited to the Portugal summit 'to engage him in an
exchange of views',
something he failed to do with Mugabe while he was
president. Only last year
Mugabe refused Chissano to be a mediator in the
Zimbabwean crisis.
During his presidency, Chissano softly but
conspicuously turned away from
Mugabe after discovering that Mugabe was an
unreasonable dictator, immune to
any constructive suggestions. Chissano,
unlike Samora Machel, went on to
concentrate on rebuilding his nation and he
did a splendid job without being
unnecessarily weighed down by Mugabe.
Mozambique's revival must be credited
to Chissano after the disastrous start
Machel reigned on the country.
But today, Chissano spouts falsehoods
about engaging Mugabe in debate,
thereby retarding efforts to reign in the
notorious Zimbabwean leader.
Mozambique is on an economic rise and
keeping Mugabe in power gives
Mozambique access to markets that would
otherwise be filled by Zimbabwe.
Sometime this year, Zambia's Levy
Mwanawasa broke with the old tired and
self defeating chorus from unthinking
African presidents. He likened
Zimbabwe to the legendary Titanic and raised
hopes that African leaders
were, at last, ready to confront
Mugabe.
Within a few days of that statement, Mwanawasa had dispatched a
high ranking
envoy to mend fences with Mugabe.
Mwanawasa wanted the
Zimbabwean issue debated at the Lusaka SADC meeting,
Mugabe did
not.
Mugabe, unschooled in verbal decency, berated Mwanawasa in a
closed-door
plenary session.
"Mwanawasa, who do you think you are?"
Mugabe growled angrily at the hapless
Zambian who immediately retreated into
a cowardly posture, telling Mugabe
that he had misunderstood his
intentions.
As suddenly as the strike of a match, Mwanawasa's confidence
deserted him.
Since that day, he has been behaving in an embarrassing
manner. Suddenly,
Mwanawasa said the Zimbabwean situation was being
exaggerated and told the
world that he would not attend the Portugal summit
if Mugabe were excluded.
He is now Mugabe's tea-boy, fetching the political
sticks where ever Mugabe
chooses to throw them.
What a shame, a
president, a lawyer and no principles at all.
Addressing American students at
an Arkansas university, Mwanawasa said all
the problems the opposition
parties face in Zimbabwe were self inflicted.
"Seizures of land from
white commercial farmers in Zimbabwe were a bit
harsh," he said. "But
opposition forces brought the push by Mugabe upon
themselves." Don't ask me;
I have no idea what he meant.
Mwanawasa said western powers must be
willing to talk to Mugabe. "Dialogue
is the most important thing...talk to
him; give him your message... and you
will find you will be getting better
results." This is from a SADC chairman.
He, along with his organization,
failed to speak to Mugabe and now invites
foreigners to engage Mugabe in
talks. No wonder he won the presidency with
only 29 percent of the Zambian
vote!
And Mwanawasa added another untruth, claiming that the issue in
Zimbabwe is
over land. It is not and never was. And Mwanawasa knows
it.
Several months ago, Ghana's John Kuffour raised the hopes of
Zimbabweans
when he stood with Thabo Mbeki outside the presidential offices
in South
Africa and pointed out that Mugabe was a problem not to be
tolerated.
It now does not appear as if Kuffour remembers that anymore
because his
'African Union', like the cowards in SADC, said they would not
attend a
summit in Portugal if Mugabe is excluded.
This really is
pathetic; African leaders sacrifice their national economies,
potential
assistance and possible opening of trade markets for the continued
survival
of one of the world's most notorious dictators.
Then there is Mbeki, a
very dismal leader indeed.
And where are Wade and Kibaki? Early on, they made
noises about the
Zimbabwean tragedy and both seem to have forgotten about
it. Early this
week, Wade said he was going to Zimbabwe in two weeks' time
to talk to
Mugabe because, he said, it should not be left to Mbeki alone. I
wish him
the best!
Mugabe's irrelevant recent speech at the UN was
more than embarrassing to
himself. He tried to give the world an incorrect
recital of history. He
spoke, not of Africa's or Zimbabwe's problems, but of
his own desire to
survive. It showed us the helplessness of rage. It was
like attending his
own funeral.
Unfortunately for Mugabe, he can
never make himself look better by reciting
someone else's
shortcomings.
African leaders are an intolerable embarrassment. And I
badly want to remind
them that honesty goes deeper than
facts.
Honesty is rooted in the soul rather than the world. Africa needs
honest
leaders and none of what we have now.
*Tanonoka Joseph Whande
is a Botswana-based Zimbabwean writer.
Monsters and Critics
Oct 7, 2007, 8:43 GMT
Johannesburg/Harare - War
veterans in Zimbabwe are planning to stage a
'million man' march through the
streets of the capital Harare in support of
President Robert Mugabe, state
radio said early Sunday.
Veterans of the 1970s war against white minority
rule are among the 83-year
old Mugabe's most loyal supporters.
They
have been holding countrywide marches to show solidarity with Mugabes
decision to stand in presidential elections due next year, despite
Zimbabwe's worsening economic crisis.
Dozens of war veterans staged
the most recent march, which was held in the
south-western town of Gwanda,
state radio said.
The radio gave very few details on the planned
march.
'Any party member who does not support the revolution will be
considered a
sellout,' National War Veterans Association chairman Jabulani
Sibanda was
quoted as saying.
Sibanda did not say when the march
would take place. Zimbabwe's entire
population numbers less than 12
million.
There is speculation that Mugabe could face surprise opposition
to his
candidacy at a congress of his ruling ZANU-PF party later this
year.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/hartley/2007/10/07/asmal-is-leading-who-will-follow/
7 October 2007, 17:52 GMT + 2
THE former
Education Minister, Kader Asmal, has broken ranks with the
government over
Zimbabwe.
Business Day newspaper reported how Asmal told a Cape Town book
launch this
week that South Africa did not have the appropriate approach to
Zimbabwe.
Asmal was speaking at the launch of the book Though the Darkness -
A Life in
Zimbabwe by the daughter of former Prime Minister, Sir Garfield
Todd.
Asmal said that some of the actions of Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe were
akin to
those of Cambodian dictator and mass murderer, Pol Pot.
The
Business Day report read: "He said the refrain that only Zimbabweans
could
decide their future was hollow in the face of an uneven political
playing
field and a lack of normality. He described the recent depredations
of
Mugabe's security forces in Operation Murambatsvina (Operation Cleanup)
as
reminiscent of Cambodia's killing fields."
These are probably the most direct
and harshest words said by a senior ANC
politician on the Zimbabwean
crisis.
Asmal went so far as to suggest that should President Thabo Mbeki's
stuttering mediation effort fail, the United Nations should become
involved.
Asmal interrogated his own failure to speak out on the Zimbabwean
crisis
earlier, saying"
"Why do I speak now? I should have done so in the
1980s when thousands of
people were murdered by the Fifth Brigade in
Matabeleland. I did not do so.
Neither did I do so during Operation
Murambatsvina, when those who want to
retain power refer to their fellow
citizens as 's**ts who have to be removed'."
Asmal's decision to speak to his
conscience has blown a breathe of fresh air
through South Africa's tired,
stale and apologetic stance on Mugabe.
Mbeki should realise that there are
many more who take this view in private,
but fear to do so in public for
political reasons. They must speak out now.
Toronto Sun
Sun, October 7, 2007
Oh yeah, Zimbabwe doesn't
have any oil
By MARK BONOKOSKI
The day after
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the United
Nations General
Assembly last week, Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe took to
the same podium.
But it was as if he were never there.
Despite the presence of a ruthless
dictator whose pseudo-democracy has
driven his once-prosperous African
nation into ruins and has saddled it with
an inflation rate that defies
probability, the world's media continued to
focus for days on Ahmadinejad's
rambling and defiant 40-minute speech, and
his vow to ignore any UN-directed
measures regarding his country's nuclear
capabilities.
Mugabe was
virtually ignored. And so, therefore, was the plight of his
people.
If only Zimbabwe had oil, and a Persian Gulf.
But it
has neither.
Over the course of my career in the newspaper game,
I have spent upwards of
six months in Zimbabwe -- five of those months when
it was known as
Rhodesia, and at the tail end of a civil war to shed itself
of Great
Britain, and then another month or so 10 years later when it was
about to
enter its 10th year of independence.
But it has never left
my monitor.
BROKEN PROMISES
Back in 1948, author Alan Paton wrote
the celebrated novel Cry, the Beloved
County as a protest to shed badly
needed light on the social structures in
South Africa that were about to
give rise to the evils of apartheid in his
country.
Zimbabwe should
have such a book, for never has an African country so rich
of soil and so
breathtakingly wondrous been so savagely eviscerated by one
man without the
world raising more than a benign eyebrow.
And to think that, once upon a
time, Robert Mugabe at least feigned promise.
I received word, a few
years back, that Rhodesian-born farmer John Nicholson
had died of a heart
attack. The last time I saw him was in 1989. He was in
the back section of
Tenegenenge Farm, the 2,000-hectare tobacco plantation
he owned in the
Sipilio Valley of northern Zimbabwe, on the lee side of the
Zambezi
Mountains, and in the former kill zone of Mugabe's guerrillas who
would
leave their bases in Mozambique, travel through the bush at night, and
hit
white farmers while they slept.
A decade previous, John Nicholson would
have had his FN rifle strapped over
his shoulder, and a side arm in his
belt. I was with him then, too, covering
the Rhodesian war and what the
media were calling its Last White Christmas.
I slept in Nicholson's home,
ate with his young family at their dinner
table, went on patrols with
Rhodesia's white-led but black-soldiered
territorial army, saw bodies torn
apart by rudimentary land mines, went to
rallies guarded by black private
armies, listened on short-wave radio as
Mugabe's guerrillas attacked
white-owned farms and slaughtered scores of
black farmhands, and wrote human
interest stories about the exodus to South
Africa as the death toll reached
27,000.
But, on this day 10 years later, the "terrorists" in the Sipilio
Valley were
long gone, the land was quiet, and John Nicholson was walking
through his
farm unarmed.
But there were already different troubles
on the horizon, and the tell-tale
signs were there, not quite dead canaries
in the coal mine, but warnings
nonetheless.
Zimbabwe was already in a
foreign currency crisis, so severe that even light
bulbs had become black
market items.
When the war ended, and he was elected Zimbabwe's first
black leader, Mugabe
initially abided by the Lancaster House independence
agreement with Great
Britain -- no farmer's land would be arbitrarily turned
over to the blacks.
Mugabe claimed to understand that farmers like John
Nicholson represented
some $525 million (then) in foreign currency, and that
his country,
following war sanctions against the previous white-rule
government, was in
desperate need of foreign money -- its Third World status
already below that
of Bolivia.
But that was then, not now. Those
days, back then, turned out to be the good
times.
Not long after,
Mugabe began hauling out the same old polemic that he would
use for the next
two decades -- that the neo-colonial West was to blame for
all his woes, and
then casting aside any criticism that his own erraticism
had created the
majority of his nation's despair ... his decision in 2000 to
seize all the
white-owned commercial farms in his country and turn them over
to his
political cronies and, when that went straight to hell, his
initiative to
solve the problem by simply printing more money.
With the expertise of
the white farmer gone, the vast majority of Zimbabwe's
incredibly rich
agricultural land now lies fallow. A country that once had
no one going
hungry now has starvation, and is dependent on food aid.
Unemployment has
pushed beyond 80%.
And, as stated earlier, Zimbabwe now has an inflation
rate that defies
probability. The latest numbers had the rate pegged at
7,600%, the highest
in the world. And, it's no typo. Unofficial numbers have
it closer to
10,000%.
And to think that the first canary in the coal
mine some 18 years ago was
the shortage of light bulbs. Back then, however,
I was uncertain if it were
prophecy.
And then Mugabe totally
derailed, virtually with the Western world's support
through its apathy for
a landlocked African country that was rich only in
soil, not
oil.
John Nicholson died on the cusp of his farm being seized, which is
probably
all for the better. The devotion of his country, and the country of
his
ancestors, would have killed his spirit and, once the spirit dies, the
heart
is often quick to follow.
When I left his farm back in April,
1989, and returned to London where I was
Sun Media's European bureau chief,
Nicholson reflected on what had
transpired between the years he wore an FN
rifle strapped to his shoulder
and the day he could no longer buy ordinary,
run-of-the-mill bulbs to light
up his barns.
"I don't blame the
ordinary black man for what is happening to this
country," he said. "How can
you? The ordinary black man is good people.
"But I do blame the leaders
for running this country into the ground. They
were too eager in their
transition, and they took over governing before they
had learned the ropes
properly," he said. "And now they are paying for it.
In fact, we're all
paying for it.
"Who knows how long it will go on before it
ends?"
The Telegraph
By Stephen Bevan and Special Correspondent in Bulawayo
Last
Updated: 10:42am BST 07/10/2007
Mandy Mukwesha remembers
with fondness her friend Noel Sakala, the
quiet football-loving teenager who
occupied the bed next to her in hospital.
Both aged 17, their lives
blighted by kidney disease, and dependent on
regular sessions on a kidney
dialysis machine, they gave each other
encouragement and talked about the
school work they were missing.
But now Noel is dead - a victim not
of the illness for which he could
have been treated, but of the economic
crisis that has engulfed Zimbabwe and
has brought its health service to the
brink of collapse.
The only two dialysis machines in the state-run
Mpilo hospital in
Bulawayo, on which Noel, Mandy and thousands of other
kidney patients in
Zimbabwe's second city and the surrounding provinces
depended, broke down a
month ago. The hospital says it cannot afford the
parts needed to repair
them.
In the capital city, Harare, 10 of
the state hospitals' 18 dialysis
machines have broken down, forcing patients
to queue round the clock for
treatment. There are reports of patients
sleeping in the queues so as not to
miss their session.
In
Bulawayo, Mandy's family has been forced to rely on donations from
neighbours to help pay for dialysis at the private hospital where Noel, too,
had been getting treatment.
But when Noel's father died, his
insurance company refused to pay for
the boy's treatment and his mother
could not afford the replacement kits,
containing an artificial kidney and
tubes, required for each dialysis
session. Without treatment, Noel's kidneys
could not cope and he died
pitifully, unable to move and covered in bed
sores.
Pale and swollen herself from the buildup of fluid and waste
that her
own kidneys cannot filter out, Mandy smiled weakly as she recalled
Noel as
"a soccer and volleyball enthusiast who loved
computers".
Her mother, 41-year old Epiphania Mukwesha, struggled
to hold back
tears as she explained: "Noel was in the hospital bed next to
Mandy. His
mother couldn't afford the kits, which are imported from South
Africa and
cost R200 [£14] each.
"We tried to help by giving
him kits when we had extra ones. But the
week before he died we only had one
and couldn't spare one for him so he
could not have his dialysis. He died
last week."
For now at least, her daughter is alive, although she
is having only
one treatment session a week rather than the two or three she
needs. Mandy's
father, Abisha, 45, is employed as an toolmaker for the state
railway and
his salary, though high by local standards at Z$9million (£10) a
month, does
not cover the cost of a single session of
-dialysis.
Their neighbours are making up the shortfall, though Mrs
Mukwesha
fears that even that won't be enough as Mandy's condition
worsens.
"The treatment costs are high: we pay Z$10 million (£11 at
the black
market exchange rate) per four-hour session and my daughter has to
do one
session a week, but when her condition deteriorates we have to do
more
sessions," she said at the family's modest brick house in the densely
populated suburb of Nketa, five miles from the city centre.
But
for the hundreds like Noel who cannot afford to keep paying the
high fees
charged by private hospitals, there is little hope.
Dr Eric
Enwerem, a neurologist in private practice, said: "The deaths
recorded at
private hospitals are just the tip of the iceberg. Those who are
poor are
just silently succumbing to the kidney disease as they can not
afford the
high cost of dialysis treatment."
It is just one grim indicator of
the depth of the crisis affecting
Zimbabwe's health service, once one of the
best in Africa but now brought to
its knees by the country's economic
collapse under Robert Mugabe's
government. Inflation is 6,000 per cent, four
out of five people are
unemployed and there is a critical shortage of
foreign currency.
Much of the equipment in state hospitals has
broken down, drugs are
scarce and many doctors and nurses have fled to South
Africa, Europe or
America. The bitter irony for renal patients is that 54
new dialysis
machines donated by the Swedish government three years ago have
long been
gathering dust in storage rooms, since the government said it did
not have
the expertise to maintain them nor the foreign currency to buy
spare parts.
Zimbabwe's health minister, David Parirenyatwa, said
last week his
ministry was doing "everything possible" to have the Bulawayo
machines
repaired.
He also claimed that an agreement had been
reached with Sweden over
the donated equipment, which would be installed
"soon".
But while the government continues to make promises, Mrs
Mukwesha is
forced to watch her daughter's condition
-deteriorate.
"It pains me to see my daughter in this condition and
I am forced to
fork out huge monies while government should be repairing the
dialysis
machines. What do they want us to do under these circumstances?"
she asked,
throwing her hands up in despair.
New Zimbabwe
By Torby Chimhashu
Last updated: 10/08/2007
00:02:46
DAYS after Zimbabwe's central bank governor said low beer prices
were
turning the country into "a nation of drunkards", the country's main
beer
supplier increased prices by more than 200 percent Friday, sparking
uproar
from imbibers.
State media, rarely critical of government
officials, also took exception,
asking in a report published Saturday if
Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono
"appreciates the rights of
drinkers".
A 375ml pint of popular local brands Castle, Pilsener and Lion
now attracts
a retail price of $165 00, up from Z$50 000, while a 750ml
bottle costs
Z$330 000, up from Z$100 000.
Gono used his mid-term
monetary policy on Monday last week to call for the
removal of government
price controls on beer, saying husbands were coming
home drunk to their
families.
Gono said: "We are creating a nation of drunkards because beer
is so cheap.
By doing what we did to beer (imposing price controls), we are
causing
disharmony in families because husbands are coming home drunk every
day.
"Decision makers are now making drunken decisions. Clear beer has
been made
so cheap that people are now substituting water for
beer.
"Streets kids are now drinking from the Meikles Hotel where they
disturb
peace and at times attack our tourists. I am not against beer
drinkers but
surely the commodity has been ridiculously priced
cheaply."
His words appear to have been taken to heart. Delta Beverages,
the main beer
supplier, took note of the governor's words and moved swiftly
to announce
the sharp price increases.
For many beer drinkers, the
governor's statement was the trigger for the
price hikes, the Chronicle
said.
The paper, published in the second largest city of Bulawayo, said
"imbibers
were left wondering whether the Governor of the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe, Dr
Gideon
Gono, appreciates the rights of drinkers."
The
paper gave voice to "outraged drinkers" who also accused the RBZ
governor of
being severely critical of drinkers.
"I don't think the governor drinks,
because if he was one of us, he wouldn't
let beer be increased by such a big
margin," one drinker, "seating outside a
night club", told the
paper.
Dlodlo added: "We are not saying it shouldn't have gone up, but
the way he
attacked drinkers was even worse than what he says when he talks
about
corruption."
The governor's comments were self-defeating,
another reader averred,
"because by advocating for a price increase Gono
was, in a way, contributing
to inflation."
Thamsanqa Ncube said:
"Although Dr Gono felt that by increasing the price of
beer he will bring
sanity at homes as men, especially, will not be going out
regularly, the
opposite is true because men will rather spend money on beer
than buy
relish.
"The increase will kill the social lives of many people. If men
cannot get
beer then their next target are women. I feel sorry for married
women."
Struggling Zimbabweans got a rare treat in July when they found
across-the-board price slashes ordered by President Robert Mugabe also
applied to beer.
Although beer quickly disappeared from retail
outlets, it has still been
available in hotels and bars - sometimes costing
just Z$70,000 per pint, the
equivalent to less than 20 US cents at the black
market rate.
In some outlets, a pint is selling for up to Z$280,000,
still less than
£0.50 at black market prices. Bar patrons say the new prices
are too high.
From The Nyasa Times (Malawi), 5 October
Our reporter
UK's Border and
Immigration Agency (BIA) has detained Zimbabwean opposition
MDC member, Amos
Chifamba pending for his imminent removal from UK to Malawi
and has
attracted frantic efforts by MDC members in UK to stop the
deportation.
Chifamba, was detained by Immigration authorities when he went
to report on
Monday at Sheffield. BIA has been rounding up on those who have
been refused
asylum in the UK, with the intention of deporting them. The
Zimbabwean came
to the UK on a Malawian passport and sought asylum after
showing the
authorities his Zimbabwean passport and his metal national ID to
prove that
he was Zimbabwean and had only used the Malawian passport to get
into the
UK. According to Munetsi Jangwa, chairman for South Yorkshire MDC
(Movement
for Democratic Change) UK, Chifamba is the chairperson of the
South
Yorkshire youth branch. He is described as "an effective member" of
MDC.
Jangwa said they are fearing that if Chifamba is deported to
Malawi, his
life will be in danger as the Malawian authorities will hand him
over to
Zimbabwe's notorious security forces given the fact that there is
working
cooperation by the two countries. Recently, the UK government also
deported
a hunger-striking Zimbabwean woman who travelled to the UK on
Malawi
passport. Her Malawian account upon deportation has not been traced.
Jangwa
is urging Zimbabweans to download and complete the petition on:
www.changezimbabwe.com, which
will be sent to Home Office and the Kenyan
Airways to demand the
cancellation of Chifamba's removal. The Zimbabwean has
been booked for
forced removal with the Kenya Airways KQ101 this coming
Sunday at
8pm.
Jangwa said: "We are now getting seriously worried about the
British
government's double-faced approach to us, promising us one thing and
doing
another. We are very certain, and the British courts have supported
our
position, that if he is deported to Malawi, he will definitely be handed
over to Zimbabwe and face the Zimbabwean Central Intelligence Organization
goons who will torture him to death." He said MDC UK was worried that their
member's deportation was being "fast-tracked." "The Immigration officials do
not even want to talk to us, so we are urging people to download and sign
petition which will be put on changezimbabwe.com. We have children of Zanu
PF cronies going to school here on dubious scholarships, depriving the rest
of Zimbabweans education in Zimbabwe, but they are targeting the democracy
activists." According to current practice Zimbabweans are not supposed to be
deported if there is a fear that he or she might be tortured or killed.
Jangwa said the MDC UK was also trying to get legal representation for
Chifamba through the Zimbabwe Association. He also appealed for National
Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaign (NCADC) a voluntary organization,
which provides practical help and advice to people facing deportation to
launch and run anti-deportation campaign. A Home Office spokesman said: "We
don't comment on individual cases."
We were happy to be joined at the
Vigil by a Buddhist monk and a number of
other supporters of a big
demonstration in Trafalgar Square against the
oppression in Burma. They
immediately recognized the similarities between
Burma and Zimbabwe: the
hated, long-lasting tyrannies, the poverty and
corruption and torture. The
reality of the situation in Zimbabwe was
brought home to us by Agnes
Zengeya, the death of whose brother we mourned.
A 35 year old school sports
master, he died for the lack of a hospital drip.
Another of our
supporters, Fungayi, reported that his elderly, frail mother
in Mubare had
been forcibly conscripted to walk to the airport to greet
Mugabe. He also
said he'd been told that schoolchildren were now being
conscripted to join
the police and taught Zanu-PF slogans - not a good omen
for free and fair
elections.
Apart from the passionate dancing and singing and drumming led
by Jenatry,
Patson and Dumi, we had the excitement of someone stealing one
of our
posters. The poster "Mugabe Monster" was taken by a suspected
Zanu-PF man
passing by and when several of our supporters caught up with him
it had been
dumped (appropriately) into a dustbin. A policeman who happened
to be there
asked whether we wished to prosecute the thief but supporters
said no. On
further reflection we think we should have had the police take
his name and
address with a view to establishing his status here so that we
can try to
ensure that he is returned to Zimbabwe.
Next Saturday
marks our 5th anniversary and we are pleased that Kate Hoey
MP, Chair of the
All Party Parliamentary Group on Zimbabwe, will join us.
She has been such
an encouragement over the years. Kate has agreed to
receive our petition
calling on EU governments to suspend government to
government aid to SADC
countries until they honour their human rights
commitments to Zimbabwe by
condemning Mugabe's abuses instead of applauding
him. We are not talking
here about humanitarian or food aid but the money,
for instance, which paid
for the Robert Mugabe Highway in Malawi. We want
this SADC money diverted
instead to feed the starving in Zimbabwe.
The petition has been signed by
thousands of passers-by. It is a real
petition with physical signatures not
a one-click internet petition. Kate is
to pass the petition on to Gordon
Brown and we will be sending copies to all
EU and SADC
governments.
After next week's Vigil we are having a wake to mark the 5th
anniversary at
RampART, a former school building which has been squatted by
a local group
to use as a creative centre and social space. We are grateful
to them for
allowing us to use the premises for free. Thanks to Gugu
Ndhlovu-Tutani and
Agnes Zengeya and their team of cooks and cleaners who
will be missing the
Vigil on the auspicious day to prepare the venue and the
food for the
evening. Jeff Sango and his team have been working hard to
provide the wake
with drinks - no wake is complete without them. Thanks to
Walter Semwayo
who is providing music equipment and transport and also to
our security team
of Arnold Kuwewa, Moses Kandiyawo and Bie Tapa. We will
also need extra
help to manage the big crowd expected at the Vigil - Dumi
Tutani, Chipo
Chaya and Luka Phiri will be in charge of this.
While
we were writing this we had good news from our partners in RoHR
(Restoration
of Human Rights) Zimbabwe. They held a rally in Harare today
and it was
attended by 10,000 people.
Buhle Maphosa, Deputy Secretary of the Women's
Wing of MDC UK, brought three
of her children to the Vigil. She was able to
bring them to the UK from
Zimbabwe two weeks ago. They enjoyed playing with
Ian and Francesca who
seem to have become the Vigil children's entertainers.
Buhle's daughter, 11
year old Thobeka, took a turn at leading the singing in
a beautiful high
voice. Other good news was that supporter Yvonne Fombe now
has a baby
daughter - another Cockney-Zimbabwean.
For this week's
Vigil pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/
FOR
THE RECORD: 101 signed the register. Supporters from Banbury, Bedford,
Birmingham, Colchester, Corby, Leamington Spa, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool,
Luton, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Romford, Southampton, Southend,
Tunbridge Wells, Wolverhampton and many from London and environs.
FOR
YOUR DIARY:
- Monday, 8th October 2007 - Central London Zimbabwe
Forum. The
speaker is Innocent of the Tolerance Zimbabwe Society (TZS). TZS
is a group
that wants to promote political and cultural tolerance in
Zimbabwe and to
contribute to achieving democracy. We will be meeting in the
downstairs
function room of the Bell and Compass, 9-11 Villiers Street,
London, WC2N
6NA, next to Charing Cross Station at the corner of Villiers
Street and John
Adam Street (near our usual venue the Theodore Bullfrog).
Several of us will
be going to meet the management of RampART to finalise
arrangements for
Saturday's social event. Apologies from the Vigil to the
Forum team for
taking away some of their regulars.
- Saturday,
13th October, 2 - 6 pm. Zimbabwe Vigil's 5th Anniversary
followed by a
social event at RampART Creative Centre and Social Space,
15-17 Rampart
Street, London E1 2LA.
Vigil co-ordinators
The Vigil, outside the
Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place
every Saturday from 14.00
to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of
human rights by the current
regime in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in
October 2002 will continue
until internationally-monitored, free and fair
elections are held in
Zimbabwe. http://www.zimvigil.co.uk
Lloyd
Msipa
There is an old Chinese proverb that says that 'over a long
distance, you
learn about the strength of your horse; over a long time, you
learn about
the character of your friend. Loosely translated it means over
time your
strength or resolve will determine whether you will stand the test
of time.
Opposition Politics in Zimbabwe have come full circle from the
politics of
confrontation, division and now engagement constructive or
otherwise. With
the recent climb down by the opposition over Constitutional
amendment number
18 to the total dismay of other players like the National
Constitutional
assembly and the Save Zimbabwe project it appears the
opposition in Zimbabwe
in its current composition will not succeed in
unseating a Zanu PF
government next year or in the future.
A
cursory analysis of the strategies employed by the opposition in
Zimbabwe
against the government now and in the past reveals major
tactical errors.
The opposition used the politics of confrontation when at
the time
engagement was more plausible, divisive politics further
exacerbated their
strategies rendering them weak and hence less effective to
carry out the
mandate confided in them by Zimbabweans in and outside
Zimbabwe. Today they
have espoused the politics of engagement when
confrontation or a hybrid of
both confrontation and engagement would have
been appropriate. This approach
has significantly reduced their esteem in
the minds and eyes of right
thinking progressive Zimbabweans and the
International community. Yes, some
would argue that either way the
Opposition had little choice in the matter
and hence the attempt to salvage
whatever concession by supporting this bill
was more appropriate,
unfortunately politics is not that simple.
In politics permanent
interests take precedence over permanent friends. To
illustrate my point one
has to look at the resurgence of politicians like
Mnangangwa to mainstream
Zanu pf Politics as a case in point. It is in
this spirit that as
Zimbabweans in and outside can not be seen to leave the
destiny of Zimbabwe
in the hands of a few individuals who themselves seem
radar less. Zimbabwe's
situation is not only unique but is fraught with
complicated historical and
modern problems. Zimbabwe under the government of
Zanu PF represents a
challenge to the efforts of the pioneer column in
1890. The Zanu pf
government has in all essence reversed the work began by
the pioneer column
led by Cecil John Rhodes and his British South African
Company in
1890.
This force saw the annexation of Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia)
by a force ( Later
christened the British South African Police ) consisting
of some 480 men
together with all the various mining rights and prospects.
The Pioneer
column was set up to set up to exploit the provisions of a
treaty of 1888,
the so-called Rudd Concession between Cecil John Rhodes's,
British South
African company on behalf of Queen Victoria and the sovereign
power in the
region at the time which was the Matebele King Lobengula. The
Pioneer Corps
was officially disbanded on the 1st of October 1890 with the
formation of
the BSAP Police. Each member was granted land on which to farm.
As we all
know the rest is history.
In the modern context the impact
of challenging this historical injustice
has got us where we are today. The
challenge that is presented to us as a
generation is generational
intervention. The complicated but yet unique
situation in Zimbabwe requires
more than just politics of the podium. The
politics of Zimbabwe require an
all encompassing approach by all progressive
thinking Zimbabweans who think
outside the box. The Zimbabwe problem ca not
be resolved at party politics
level. The Zimbabwean problem demands a United
Peoples Patriotic Front. We
need to arrive in our lives to a point of
personal resolve. Before we are
political party members we are first and
foremost Zimbabweans. The outcome
of the Zimbabwean project will serve as a
precedent of what happens in South
Africa and other African countries with
regard to the land issue and the
politics of food that go with it.
It is in this spirit that I am
particularly wary of the status quo where we
have mortgaged the solution to
the Zimbabwean problem on a few individuals
and a single fragmented
opposition party. It is important that the people of
Zimbabwe come out of
their comfort zones and begin to formulate an all
encompassing people's
solution to our problems. Charity begins at home. We
can not be seen to be
outsourcing the solution to the Zimbabwe problem. "Ask
not what your country
can do for you, but what you can do for your country",
to borrow a popular
American idiom. Zimbabwe more now than ever requires in
place before the
next plebiscite a new people driven patriotic front to
serve as a vehicle to
our salvation.
Lloyd Msipa is a Lawyer resident in the United
Kingdom and can be contacted
at lmsipalaw@virtalukandco.commm
Zim Online
Monday 08 October 2007
Own
Correspondent
JOHANNESBURG - The United States-based Famine Early Warning
Systems Network
(FEWSNET) says up to 40 percent of Zimbabwe's rural
population will need
urgent food aid between October and next March to avert
starvation.
The famine early warning body, which has previously said more
than 4.1
million Zimbabweans or over a third of the population would need
food aid
this year, warned in its latest report that the food security
situation in
Zimbabwe would worsen between October 2007 and February 2008
when the early
harvest becomes available.
It warned of massive food
insecurity in the south and west of the country as
well as in urban areas
during the next six months unless the government
improved its maize import
plan and there is a lot of movement on
humanitarian food aid programmes
announced recently.
"While the risk of widespread starvation would be
ameliorated under this
scenario, food insecurity would remain widespread,
affecting over 10 percent
of the rural population between October and
December 2007, and up to 40
percent of the rural population between January
and March 2008, based on
data available from the June 2007 Zimbabwe
Vulnerability Assessment
Committee assessment," said FEWSNET.
One
million urban residents are also estimated to need assistance over the
next
six months.
Once southern Africa's breadbasket, Zimbabwe has grappled
severe food
shortages over the past seven years due to persistent drought
and a chaotic
land reform programme that saw President Robert Mugabe's
government seize
white farms, that produced the bulk of the country's food
needs, for
redistribution to landless blacks.
The Harare authorities
say they will this year import 400 000 tonnes of
maize from Malawi and a
further 200 000 tonnes from Tanzania to cover the
national
shortfall.
But a serious shortage of foreign currency is hampering
efforts to import
food, forcing the Zimbabwean government to resort to
barter trade to secure
maize supplies from Malawi.
The cash-strapped
Zimbabwean government is said to be exporting several
tonnes of sugar to
Malawi in exchange for maize. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 08 October 2007
By Prince
Nyathi
HARARE - The Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) says
the
government should postpone public examinations that are scheduled to
begin
today to give teachers' and students enough time to prepare for the
exams.
PTUZ national co-ordinator Osward Madziwa said they had advised
the
government to postpone the examinations by a month following a spate of
strikes by teachers this year over poor pay and working
conditions.
"As you know, teachers went on strike in February for two
weeks and this
most recent strike was for three weeks, so this means both
teachers and the
students need more time to prepare for the examinations,"
said Madziwa.
Zimbabwean teachers had until last week been on a
three-week strike
demanding higher pay. The strike paralysed operations
resulting in virtually
no learning taking place at most schools around the
country.
The strike ended last week after the government awarded teachers
a 420
percent salary hike that will see most teachers earning about Z$14
million a
month, up from the Z$2.9 million they used to earn before the
increment.
Grade Seven public examinations were scheduled to start today
while Ordinary
Level students will sit for their first exams next
week.
The PTUZ official said proceeding with the exams would give a
"false"
picture of students' capabilities given the wide disruptions in the
teaching
schedule.
Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere could not be
reached for comment on the
matter.
Tendai Chikowore, the president of
the larger pro-government Zimbabwe
Teachers' Union (ZIMTA), could also not
be reached for comment at the
weekend.
Zimbabwe's education system,
once the envy of the southern African region,
has virtually collapsed
because of massive under-funding and mismanagement.
The government, that
is also battling an unprecedented economic crisis, has
struggled to pay
teachers handsomely resulting in the majority of qualified
teachers fleeing
into neighbouring countries in search of better
opportunities. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Monday 08 October 2007
By
Farisai Gonye
HARARE - Mozambique has scrapped visas for Zimbabweans
wishing to visit that
country amid fears that the move will open the
floodgates for thousands of
Zimbabweans fleeing economic hardships in the
southern African country.
The agreement was signed last Wednesday between
Mozambique's Interior
Minister Jose Pacherco and his Zimbabwean counterpart
Kembo Mohadi,
according to a statement released to the media.
A
journalist with Radio Mozambique said the authorities in Maputo had
deliberately delayed signing the agreement fearing that it could open
floodgates to thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing hardships at
home.
"There were genuine fears that Zimbabweans now finding it hard to
enter
South Africa would flee to Manica Province which is very accessible to
Zimbabweans.
"The (Mozambican) government is already fighting an
increasing number of
Zimbabweans crossing into the province illegally," said
the journalist who
refused to be named because he is not authorized to speak
to the Press.
Pacherco however dismissed fears of a flood of Zimbabweans
into the country
as misplaced.
"We believe fears that Zimbabweans
would come to seek refuge here in
increasing numbers are misplaced. This
agreement will instead help reduce
the number of people entering both
countries illegally. It will open us to
greater economic growth and
development, he said in the statement.
At least three million
Zimbabweans, a quarter of the country's 12 million
population, are living
outside the country after fleeing increasing economic
hardships at
home.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a severe economic crisis that has
manifested
itself in rampant poverty, widespread unemployment and shortages
of almost
every survival basic commodity. - ZimOnline
LONDON - 8 October 2007
The Archbishop of Harare has issued an urgent appeal for help
as Zimbabwe
faces a spiralling food crisis. It is estimated that one in
three people
will soon be in need of food aid following a disastrous
harvest.
CAFOD launched a £4million appeal on Friday for Zimbabwe. The
aid agency
will run an emergency response programme providing over 120,000
people in
some of the worst affected areas with food supplies and seeds and
tools.
In his appeal the Archbishop of Harare, Robert Ndlovu, said: "The
people of
Zimbabwe are suffering. Our once bountiful nation is unable to
feed its
people and the coming months will bring yet deeper hunger and
desperation
for many.
"Now the Zimbabwean people stand at the edge of
a precipice. Our country is
in deep crisis. Our harvest has failed, through
a combination of severe
drought, HIV and AIDS and the consequences of
economic decline.
"We have already lost too many of our children,
friends, brothers and
sisters to hunger and disease. Many more have fled the
country, fleeing from
lives that have become unbearable through poverty and
hunger.
"Now the Zimbabwean people stand at the edge of a precipice. Our
country is
in deep crisis. Our harvest has failed, through a combination of
severe
drought, HIV and AIDS and the consequences of economic
decline.
"By March one in three people in Zimbabwe will have no food.
Many will run
out very soon. Our brothers and sisters face a struggle for
survival at a
time when many have nothing left, their possessions sold and
their health
gone.
"On behalf of my Zimbabwean brothers and sisters
living in hunger, I appeal
to their fellow Christian brothers and sisters to
walk alongside them during
this difficult time in faith and Christian
charity.
"Our message of hope remains: 'God is always on the side of the
Oppressed.'"
CAFOD director Chris Bain said: "CAFOD is one of the few aid
agencies that
is still able to reach people directly in Zimbabwe. The
country is facing an
immense crisis but unless we act quickly, the situation
will spiral
downwards and we will start to see loss of life on a large
scale.
"In response to this crisis, CAFOD has decided that all money
raised from
Friday's Fast Day will now go to helping the most vulnerable
people in
Zimbabwe. "CAFOD is asking its supporters to respond generously to
the
Archbishop's appeal."
To donate now to CAFOD's Zimbabwe appeal,
please visit
www.cafod.org.uk/zimbabweappeal
©
Independent Catholic News 2007