Toronto Star
By
Nelson Banya
HARARE (Reuters) - Talks on the formation of a power-sharing
government in
Zimbabwe failed on Tuesday to end a long stalemate over
cabinet posts, the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
said.
The MDC and President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF have been negotiating
since
Sept. 15, when an outline deal was reached to end a political crisis
that
worsened after Mugabe's re-election unopposed in an election in June
boycotted by the MDC.
Tendai Biti, Secretary General of Morgan
Tsvangirai's main MDC faction, said
no progress had been made in talks on
Tuesday.
"There's no progress, there's a clear deadlock. We met again
today but
couldn't move the process forward," Biti told Reuters.
The
MDC said earlier that talks were deadlocked on sharing out all key
ministries. It called for urgent African mediation over the crisis, which
has accelerated Zimbabwe's economic collapse.
ZANU-PF said at the
weekend that the dispute centred only on the finance and
home affairs
ministries but an MDC statement on Tuesday rejected this.
The MDC called
for help from the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) and the
African Union. The original deal was brokered by Thabo Mbeki,
who remains as
SADC mediator despite being ousted as South African
president.
"The
facilitator has to come back," Biti said.
Asked if the MDC had made
contact with him, Biti said Mbeki "is aware of
what is
happening."
ZANU-PF officials were not immediately available for
comment.
A senior ZANU-PF official said on Monday that Mugabe was
expected to meet
Tsvangirai in the next two days in another attempt to break
the deadlock.
NO CONTACT
"Considering the fact that it is now
exactly 21 days after the signing of
the global agreement, the cabinet
deadlock calls for the urgent help and
assistance from SADC and AU as
guarantors of the deal, to unfreeze the
impasse," the MDC said.
Under
the outline agreement, Mugabe would retain the presidency and chair
the
cabinet, while Tsvangirai would head a council of ministers supervising
the
cabinet.
Without a breakthrough, Zimbabwe's economy could worsen still
further. The
once-prosperous nation is crumbling under inflation of about 11
million
percent -- the highest in the world -- and chronic food
shortages.
Zimbabweans have to queue for hours, sometimes overnight, to
withdraw money
from banks where withdrawal limits have been imposed by the
central bank.
"MDC is concerned with the prolonged and protracted
dialogue considering
that the people are dying of hunger, factories closed,
school calendars
disrupted, workers not going to work and disease outbreak,"
said the MDC.
"The country is at a standstill and the people's patience
is running out,
hence the resolution of the impasse is more urgent than ever
before."
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
Violet
Gonda
7 October 2008
The political crisis in Zimbabwe continues
with no end in sight. Tendai
Biti, the Secretary General for the Tsvangirai
led MDC, said there is a
complete failure to agree. He said that ZANU PF and
MDC negotiators met
again on Tuesday, but with no result.
Biti told
SW Radio Africa: "The facilitators must be brought in and the
facilitator
must use his wisdom to try and break a situation which, in my
view is not
characterised by good faith and a situation that might embarrass
Africa
which celebrated on the 15th of September and might find itself in a
situation where those celebrations were premature."
The MDC's chief
negotiator said Zimbabwe is now in a tragic situation where
80% of the
population are starving and surviving on berries, in a country
with an
inflation rate never before seen in any other part of the world. "So
it's a
disaster, an absolutely disaster," Biti lashed out.
ZANU PF says that
there are only two contentious cabinet posts, but the MDC
Secretary General
insists there is no agreement on anything. "All the
portfolios are at stake.
So basically you have to start from afresh. It's
like a jigsaw puzzle. You
may have two pieces that you may not have sorted
out but these two pieces
affect the entire jigsaw," Biti added.
When asked why the MDC signed a
deal before the negotiations had been
concluded, Biti responded by saying:
"Judging from where we were coming from
the issue of allocation of cabinets
should have been a foregone conclusion.
Surely ZANU PF would have understood
that they cannot, under whatever
matrix, demand the finance ministries
because they failed. The reason why we
are where we are is because they
failed. So they would have recognised that
the MDC has to be given this
task. Equally the MDC would have deferred to
ZANU PF on the question of
security ministries because they are still
controlling. That is
elementary."
The MDC leader said what is causing the deadlock is an
"absence of good
faith and the absence of common sense."
On Tuesday,
South Africa's News 24 reported that MDC spokesperson Nelson
Chamisa had
expressed regret that the party had signed the power-sharing
deal, without
having agreed on the make-up of a unity government. According
to the online
paper Chamisa told a radio station in South Africa that he
thought the
party's "big mistake" was to have signed a deal before the
negotiations had
been concluded.
We asked Tendai Biti if he regretted the signing of the
deal and he said: ""Absolutely
not. We have served Zimbabweans to the best
of our abilities and we will
continue to serve."
He went on to say:
"We have done everything we can to serve Zimbabweans
honestly and
faithfully. What is missing is a paradigm on the part of ZANU
PF and we
can't be blamed for that."
The Secretary General said if the deal
collapses then the fault must fall
squarely on ZANU PF.
He also
denied reports that the MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai was forced
into
signing the deal by former South African President Thabo Mbeki. He said
the
signing of the deal came after intense negotiations by the three
political
parties.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Africa
News
Oct 7, 2008, 7:11 GMT
Johannesburg - A spokesman for
Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) on Tuesday expressed regret
that the party signed a power-sharing deal
with President Robert Mugabe,
without having agreed on the make-up of a
unity government.
Speaking
on South African radio about the three-week delay in the
implementation of
the historic September 15 agreement, MDC spokesman Nelson
Chamisa said he he
thought the party's 'big mistake' was to have signed a
deal before the
negotiations had been concluded.
Hopes for an end to Zimbabwe's economic
and political crisis had been high
when autocratic President Robert Mugabe
agreed to share power with his
longtime rival Morgan Tsvangirai in a deal
brokered by former South African
president Thabo Mbeki.
Under the
deal, Mugabe remains president with reduced powers and Tsvangirai
becomes
prime minister.
Three weeks later, fears that the deal could fall apart
are mounting as
Mugabe's Zanu-PF party and the MDC remain at loggerheads on
how to share
ministerial posts between them.
The bare-bones September
agreement merely states that Zanu-PF is to get 15
ministries in a
31-ministry cabinet, Tsvangirai's MDC is to get 13 and a
splinter MDC
faction led by Arthur Mutambara gets three.
Despite widespread reports
before the signing that the parties had agreed
that the MDC would gain
control of key ministries such as home affairs,
which controls the police,
and finance, and that Zanu-PF would retain
defence, among others, the MDC
says there was never any such agreement.
Early last week, Mugabe had said
he expected the government to be finalized
by the weekend and that only four
ministries were still in contention. But
later talks between the 84-year-old
leader and Tsvangirai, 56, ended without
a breakthrough.
Accusing
Zanu-PF of wanting to retain its stranglehold on power, the MDC has
referred
the disagreement to the Southern African Development Community,
which
deployed Mbeki as a mediator.
'We are very clear that there hasn't been
any progress,' Chamisa said.
'Zanu-PF are resorting to propaganda,
misinformation, misleading the public,
trying to portray a kind of picture
where things are moving,' Chamisa
accused.
Since the agreement, Mbeki
has been ousted by the ruling African National
Congress as South Africa's
president.
SADC has endorsed him to remain on as mediator in Zimbabwe,
but Mbeki has
not yet returned try to shore up the deal, which is seen as
crucial to
salvaging Zimbabwe's battered economy.
Western governments
are standing by to inject millions of dollars of aid and
investment into
Zimbabwe but only if a credible MDC-dominated government is
installed.
[MDC Media Release]
The MDC dismisses Zanu PF claims that only two cabinet
posts are yet to be
resolved upon. Contrary to these claims, there is a
deadlock on the
allocation of all key ministries and the allocation of
governors.
There has been neither contact nor communication made between
the MDC and
Zanu PF as mischievously reported in The Herald. The
negotiating teams have
not met since the meeting between the three
principals on Saturday to
discuss the outstanding issues.
Considering
the fact that it is now exactly 21 days after the signing of the
global
agreement, the cabinet deadlock calls for the urgent help and
assistance
from SADC and AU as guarantors of the deal to unfreeze the
impasse.
MDC is concerned with the prolonged and protracted dialogue
considering that
the people are dying of hunger, factories closed, school
calendars
disrupted, workers not going to work and disease
outbreak.
The country is at a standstill and the people 's patience is
running out,
hence the resolution of the impasse is more urgent than ever
before.
--
For more information please call MDC (Zimbabwe) Hon. Mr.
Nelson Chamisa
0912940489 National Spokesperson or Luke Tamborinyoka
0912850556 or (South
Africa) Nqobizitha Mlilo 0835274650 or George
Sibotshiwe 0766330314
http://www.mg.co.za
DONNA BRYSON | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Oct 07 2008
17:33
It's a waiting game, and no one is better at outlasting his
competition than
Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.
After a June election that
the world derided as a sham, Zimbabwe's longtime
president signed a unity
government deal with the opposition last month that
allows him to keep his
job.
But his cronies in the Cabinet who would lose power are now
baulking. As
Zimbabwe descends into financial and humanitarian chaos, Mugabe
appears
content just to wait for the opposition to yield to his demand for
more
choice Cabinet seats.
For decades, Mugabe has consistently shown
that he is more interested in
power than the fate of his people. In
contrast, the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change is pained by the
delays in instituting reforms that could
help Zimbabwe's hungry
masses.
Mugabe has even more leverage because he has never been afraid to
use
violence against his rivals. His police, soldiers and party militants
drove
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai out of the June presidential
run-off
with attacks on opposition supporters.
And he has been using
violence for years. Soon after Mugabe took over after
independence from
Britain in 1980, his troops were accused of massacring
rivals in the western
Matabeleland province. In 2005, his government
brutally cleared out slum
areas seen as opposition strongholds.
Even as Mugabe signed the
power-sharing deal three weeks ago, he sounded far
from defeated.
In
a nationally televised speech, he offered to teach opposition members how
to
govern, noting they had had little experience -- but not acknowledging
that
was because he had used violence and fraud to keep them out of office.
At
one point during the speech, Tsvangirai held his hand to his head in
disbelief. Since then, the two have been unable to agree on how to share the
Cabinet, with Tsvangirai accusing Mugabe of trying to hold on to the most
powerful posts.
The main disputes have been over who would control
the police, defence,
justice, finance, foreign affairs, information and
local government.
Control of the security forces is particularly
sensitive. Top generals have
said publicly they would never salute
Tsvangirai. Mugabe could, as he has
threatened to do, simply name his own
Cabinet, with or without opposition
members. That he has yet to do so
indicates some concern about the reaction
of his neighbours and the
West.
But he could still try to portray the opposition as the stumbling
block at a
time when Zimbabwe needs a true leader to tame its hyperinflation
-- an
economic crisis some have compared to the situation in Germany after
World
War I.
Zimbabweans are suffering chronic shortages of hard
currency, cash, food and
all basic goods and medicines. Aid agencies say at
least five million
people, about half the population, will need food
handouts by January.
Under the power-sharing deal, Mugabe remains
president and head of the
Cabinet. As prime minister Tsvangirai heads a
council of ministers -- in
effect, the Cabinet without Mugabe present --
responsible for government
policies, a complex arrangement Mugabe could
exploit by playing on tensions
within the opposition.
Mugabe's party
gets 15 Cabinet seats, Tsvangirai's party gets 13 and a
smaller breakaway
opposition group led by Arthur Mutamabara gets three.
Critics, including
Zimbabwean labor, religious and human rights groups that
traditionally back
Tsvangirai, say the deal should never have been struck.
They say what
Zimbabwe needs now is an apolitical administration with
neither Mugabe nor
Tsvangirai that could prepare for new elections.
The opposition has
called on African leaders such as former South African
President Thabo
Mbeki, who mediated the power-sharing agreement, to step
back in. But
African leaders have had very little success in the past in
influencing
Mugabe.
If the opposition has any leverage, it is with the broader
international
community. Western powers are ready to unblock aid and
investment -- but
only if Tsvangirai is established as the main
decision-maker.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Monday
that European Union
sanctions will not be lifted until Mugabe and the
opposition agree on a new
administration.
Mugabe, though, insists
that his country doesn't need its former colonial
power and blames his
country's economic woes on Western sanctions.
His critics counter that
Zimbabwe's severe decline began in 2000 with
Mugabe's orders to seize
white-owned farms, ostensibly to help impoverished
black Zimbabweans. Most
of the farms seized went to Mugabe loyalists
instead, devastating the
country's agricultural base.
While banks in the capital are besieged
daily by poor people trying to
withdraw pittances to buy bread, Mugabe
loyalists have easy access to
foreign currency and can play off currency
discrepancies on the black
market. Some are getting rich amid the chaos. -
Sapa-AP
Aware of the divisive and often times confrontational nature of elections
and by elections;
Noting the need to allow this agreement to take root amongst the parties
and people of Zimbabwe; and
Cognisant of the need to give our people some breathing space and a
healing period;
21.1 The Parties hereby agree that for a period of 12 months from the date
of signing of this agreement, should any electoral vacancy arise in respect
of a local authority or parliamentary seat, for whatever reason, only the
party holding that seat prior to the vacancy occurring shall be entitled to
nominate and field a candidate to fill the seat subject to that party
complying with the rules governing its internal democracy.
http://www.mg.co.za
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Oct 07 2008
13:31
African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma said on
Tuesday that
Zimbabwe's political parties should keep talking to resolve an
impasse in
forming a Cabinet under a power-sharing deal.
But Zuma
said that if outside mediation was needed, he was confident that
his rival,
former South African president Thabo Mbeki, could step in to
break the
deadlock.
"I am hoping that it is going to be resolved by Zimbabweans
themselves. I
think it is just taking long. They just have to negotiate with
themselves
and find a solution," Zuma said in an interview on SAfm
radio.
"What is happening now is a challenge to the leadership ... to
exercise
responsibility as the leaders and the political parties for the
sake of the
country," he said.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
leader Morgan Tsvangirai agreed on
September 15 to form a unity government
under a deal brokered by
Mbeki.
Talks have since bogged down, with Tsvangirai accusing Mugabe of
wanting to
grab most key ministries -- such as defence, home affairs,
foreign affairs
and finance.
A protracted political crisis has
wreaked havoc in Zimbabwe, once one of
Africa's most prosperous countries,
which now suffers the world's highest
rate of inflation, last estimated at
11,2-million percent, with millions
dependent on food aid.
Just days
after Mbeki brokered the deal, he was forced from office in his
own
long-running power struggle with Zuma.
But Zuma on Tuesday commended his
rival's mediation efforts, and said he was
confident that the former
president could return to Zimbabwe if his help was
again needed.
"If
he intervenes again, I am certain he will do a good job," Zuma
said.
Urgent help
Meanwhile, the MDC said on Tuesday talks on forming
a Cabinet with Mugabe's
party were deadlocked over all key ministries and
called for urgent African
mediation.
"The MDC dismisses Zanu-PF
claims that only two Cabinet posts are yet to be
resolved," the opposition
said in a statement.
It called for help from the Southern African
Development Community (SADC)
and the African Union.
Zanu-PF officials
were not immediately available for comment.
A senior Zanu-PF official
said on Monday that Mugabe was expected to meet
opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai in the next two days in another attempt
to break a deadlock over
cabinet posts.
But the MDC said there had been no contact between the
parties since talks
on Saturday between Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Arthur
Mutambara, who heads a
breakaway MDC faction.
"Considering the fact
that it is now exactly 21 days after the signing of
the global agreement,
the Cabinet deadlock calls for the urgent help and
assistance from SADC and
AU as guarantors of the deal to unfreeze the
impasse," said the
MDC.
Under the outline agreement, Mugabe will retain the presidency and
chair the
Cabinet, while Tsvangirai heads a council of ministers supervising
the
Cabinet. -- AFP, Reuters
SABC
October 07,
2008, 15:00
The United Nations (UN) Office on Humanitarian Affairs is
appealing for at
least $240 million, or over R2 billion, for emergency
humanitarian aid for
Zimbabwe.
The office's country director, Georges
Tadonki, says almost a third of the
population will need urgent food, health
care, and agriculture support over
the next three months. Tadonki says
international donors have been more
forthcoming since a power-sharing deal
was signed between the main political
rivals last month. However, he has
appealed to the rival parties, whose
negotiations are now stalled, to grasp
the urgency of the humanitarian
crisis
Meanwhile, there is increasing
concern over Zimbabwe's historic
power-sharing agreement. Most recently,
Zanu-PF and the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) appear to be clashing
in their decision on key
cabinet positions.
In spite of state media
reports suggesting that differences have been
narrowed down to just two
ministries, the MDC claims there is a deadlock on
all 31 portfolios. The MDC
is accusing Zanu-PF of negotiating in bad faith
and misleading the nation on
the true state of the cabinet formation talks.
IOL
October 07
2008 at 06:12PM
Harare - School exams in Zimbabwe should be
cancelled because strike
action by teachers has left pupils unprepared, a
teaching union said on
Tuesday.
"For the record, there was no
meaningful learning and teaching in 2008
and all examination classes are not
prepared," Takavafira Zhou, leader of
the Progressive Teachers' Union of
Zimbabwe (PTUZ), told journalists.
Teachers went on strike when
classes began in January, demanding pay
increases and better working
conditions.
The strike was briefly suspended following a deal with
the government
but nearly two months ago the teachers embarked on an
indefinite strike.
Due to massive inflation teachers have seen
their salary shrink to a
pittance.
High school pupils were due
to take their final examinations at the
beginning of October but have not yet
been informed whether they will go
ahead.
Zimbabwe's economy has
been on a downturn for a decade with high
inflation and unemployment. At
least 80 percent of the population lives in
poverty.
The
state-run Herald newspaper on Tuesday reported that some teachers
were
demanding payment in groceries and cash from parents and pupils.
http://www.radiovop.com
HARARE, October 7,
2008 - The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe
(PTUZ), on Monday met with
education authorities in a bid to persuade the
government to defer the
October/November 2008 public examinations.
The militant
PTUZ on Monday held closed door deliberations with the
permanent secretary
for Education, Sports and Culture, Stephen Mahere, to
discuss the crisis in
Zimbabwe's education sector amid revelations that
entry examination
statements for national examinations, which officially
start next week, have
not been distributed to schools and students.
Raymond
Majongwe, PTUZ's secretary general confirmed meeting with
Mahere and his
team of directors at the ministry's head office.
The union
officials and the ministry of education officials
deliberated on salary and
working conditions of teachers, the 2008 public
examinations, alleged unfair
labour practices in the teaching profession and
the situation of teachers
who were allegedly victims of political violence
in the March and June
presidential elections.
PTUZ wants the government to peg
teachers salaries in US$ and are
demanding take-home salaries of
US$1200.
Citing numerous industrial strikes by teachers and
violence against
teachers during the presidential elections, the union told
Mahere and his
officials that very little education took place during the
academic year
hence the push to have this year's public examinations
deferred or
cancelled.
"We have recommended the setting up
of a committee to assess the state
of the student's preparedness for 2008
public examinations comprising
stakeholders from government, labour and
employers with a view to either
defer the examinations to an appropriate
date as determined by the outcome
of the survey or set aside the 2008
academic year and allow students to
repeat their current grades in 2009 and
freeze all intakes for a new cohort
of Grade 1, Form 1 and Form 5," reads
part of a PTUZ document handed to
government on Monday.
Mahere told RadioVOP that his ministry was still studying the union's
input.
"We had a fruitful meeting but we are still studying
their points of
view," he said.
http://www.zimbabwetoday.co.uk
A bleak outlook for Zimbabwe's students as
classes fail to start
All four of Zimbabwe's universities have failed to
open for the first
semester of the 2008/2009 academic year. And the country's
students are left
wondering if their education has come to a sudden and
permanent stop.
The University of Zimbabwe (UZ), the National University
of Science and
Technology (NUST), Midlands State University (MSU) and
Chinhoyi University
of Technology (CUT) have all failed to open their doors,
some six weeks
after the scheduled resumption of studies.
The basic
problem at all four establishments seems to be a familiar one for
our
country: the staff have withdrawn their labour because their salaries
are
unrealistically low.
I understand that lecturers have demanded a monthly
salary of US$1500, which
is the average paid for similar posts in South
Africa. But it is clear that
none of the institutions can afford this level
of pay.
Students who attempted to attend in the normal way were met by
brief notices
announcing an indefinite suspension of all activity. One
statement, by MSU
Registrar G.T. Gurira, claimed that his university had
officially opened on
September 30, but closed immediately due to a withdrawal
of labour by
members of the teaching staff.
I contacted UZ
Vice-Chancellor Professor Levy Nyagura, who told me that the
decision to
close was made by his university council, but he refused to
comment on the
reasons for that decision.
Zimbabwe National Students Union president
Clever Bere said the closure of
the universities was a sign of failed
leadership in the country. "The end
loser was always going to be the
student," he said. "First we lost out on
quality of teaching, now we are
losing out on any teaching at all."
Final year economics student Primrose
Siluma said: "I hoped I would graduate
this year. Then I could find a job and
help my parents. Now there is no
chance, and I am devastated."
Posted
on Tuesday, 07 October 2008 at 10:45
By Lance Guma
07
October 2008
With the deadlock over the cabinet continuing Tuesday, the
country descended
deeper into economic meltdown. Banks ran out of cash with
thousands of
people milling outside for money, some companies shut down over
the
cancellation of electronic bank transfers and the University of Zimbabwe
announced it was suspending indefinitely its scheduled opening, owing to a
lecturers strike for better pay. And there's also a virtual news blackout.
People desperate for news and information have to negotiate the high cost of
newspapers and the chronic power cuts restrict them to occasional bulletins
on radio or TV.
UZ students who went to campus on Monday found
notices telling them the
university would be closed indefinitely. Vice
Chancellor Levy Nyagura said
the decision was reached after a meeting of the
UZ council. At the centre of
the problems for the institution is a strike by
lecturers who are demanding
better pay and working conditions. The state of
facilities at the UZ is also
said to be 'deplorable' with toilets not
working, among other things. A
former student told Newsreel that half the
toilets at the UZ were not
working 7 years ago and 'one can only imagine
what the general state of
decline is right now.' Under council health and
safety by-laws the college
would never pass any checks of its
facilities.
Elsewhere all the other major colleges are also closed
including the
National University of Science and Technology (NUST) and the
Midlands State
University (MSU). Lecturers at NUST have been on strike for
more than 3
months also demanding better pay and working conditions. Mfundo
Mlilo from
the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) confirmed that only
the Harare
Polytechnic, Great Zimbabwe University in Masvingo and the
Bindura
University were open.
On Monday banks completely ran out of
cash as thousands tried to withdraw
their money. The new Z$20 000 cash
withdrawal limit still means long queues
in order to get hardly enough money
to survive. With inflation pegged at 530
billion percent by some independent
experts it's not hard to see why the
banks can never supply enough money to
meet demand. But instead of
addressing the fundamentals the Reserve Bank has
been fire-fighting the
symptoms. The cancellation of electronic bank
transfers has been one such
misguided move, and many companies face closure
over the new rules.
Economic analyst Bekithemba Mhlanga told Newsreel
that Gono's policies had
given rise to the mass use of electronic transfers
as a way of beating cash
shortages. He said the big problem is that there is
more money in people's
accounts than physically exists in notes and coins in
the banks. He called
this 'virtual' money and said senior officials in the
central bank were
involved in shady RTGS deals that had worsened the
situation. He said Gono's
measures were an attempt to solve problems he
created via his own policies.
'The only surprise is that Zimbabwe is having
economic problems at the same
time as the rest of the world,' Mhlanga
remarked.
According to the Kubatana blog, an underground movement calling
itself
People to People distributed flyers in Harare over the weekend
'rebuking the
Reserve Bank Governor for printing substandard bank notes in
the form of the
new $20 000.' The new notes have no security features and so
are very easy
to counterfeit and many shops and vendors are refusing to
accept them.
Meanwhile the group the 'Restoration of Human Rights in
Zimbabwe' (ROHR) has
slammed the decision by Justice Joseph Musakwa on their
court challenge over
cash withdrawals. On 25th September they had applied to
the High Court for a
complete scrapping of cash withdrawal limits. The Judge
ruled the case was
not urgent. ROHR members Rodgers Chigwededza, Tinashe
Gotora, Jackson
Mabota, and Precious Mateyeni had all filed a petition
asking the court to
scrap or review the withdrawal limits.
ROHR
expressed frustration the judge would rule the case is not urgent, 'and
should join the long civil case queue for it to be heard. In other words we
are supposed to join another queue to stop the cash queues?' their statement
read. One of the applicants in the case, Jackson Mabota, is the sole bread
winner while his wife is pregnant. 'His salary is deposited in the bank and
he is struggling to get his money from the bank so he can sustain his family
needs. Mrs Mateyeni (another applicant) has two school going children who
have been missing classes because of the cash crisis caused by Gono's
policies.'
The attitude of the judiciary summarizes government attitude
to the crisis.
The fat cats are OK and they just don't care about anyone
else.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
An underground movement that calls itself People to People distributed, or rather littered, Harare’s streets with flyers over the weekend carrying a message rebuking the Reserve Bank Governor for printing substandard bank notes in the form of the new $20 000. Aside from detailing how the $20 000 note has no tight security features and is probably being replicated, the flyers also mention that some shops and vendors are not accepting this note as legal tender. The flyer also demands reasonable withdrawal limits and reasonable policies to curb inflation.
I started hearing complaints about the $20 000 note last week and indeed, it is of poor quality and appears to have been printed on something like bond paper. It also doesn’t have raised font or the silver security strip and watermark that have been the usual security features. But until today it has been possible to transact with it. First it was the hwindis (conductors). They are no longer considering the $20 000 note as legal tender. Unfortunately for them a lot of us had that note and we’d gone such a distance that either dropping us all off or taking us all back to the taxi rank would have been a loss either way. The hwindi eventually capitulated on taking the notes muttering under his breath that as soon as he can he will deposit the money in a bank.
While it is commendable citizen activism the flyers may spark alarm and despondency. The flyers were strewn all over the city from taxi ranks to shopping centres such that those who initially hadn’t closely analyzed the $20 000 note are all going to start shunning it. Now this is a disaster because that’s what the banks are churning out and one cannot exactly consider the option of re-depositing because of the hassle getting it in the first place and there is no guarantee of getting 10s next time. In any case, who wants to deal with tellers who are always on go slow and probably orchestrate the formation of the long bank queues in order to work overtime to reap the benefits?
When bearer cheques were first introduced in 2003 people blasted them for their insulting poor quality and very existence but not to the extent of actually not recognizing them as legal tender. If the people lose faith in the national currency, it spells disaster. One of the fundamental principles of a good economy is that the people have confidence in it. Most Zimbabweans know the security features of the US dollar better than their own money. In fact, they can tell a fake from a real one and actually know which year that country printed new notes.
It is nauseating to think that some people can just play games with a country’s whole economy and get away with it. What will it take for the man who sits at the helm of our central bank to admit failure and resign?
It really is a shame. The Shona version of the People to People flyer concludes by saying: Nderipi zita idzva reBhanga guru renyika? Rinonzi Zeroes Acre! Loosely translated: What is the new name for country’s central bank? It is called the Zeroes Acre! Indeed.
http://www.mmegi.bw
Tuesday, 07 October
2008
TSHIRELETSO
MOTLOGELWA
Staff Writer
Botswana has said that South Africa's deposed
president, Thabo Mbeki should
intervene to break the deadlock over the
sharing of cabinet posts in
Zimbabwe. Mbeki mediated the Zimbabwe
power-sharing deal.
Botswana has expressed concern over the
current cabinet posts-sharing
impasse between ZANU-PF, MDC-Tsvangirai and
MDC-Mutambara in the Zimbabwean
government of national unity.
The
Botswana Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement yesterday
expressing concern over the delay in forming a Government of National Unity
(GNU) in Zimbabwe as per the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the
warring parties a month ago.
"The parties committed themselves to put
Zimbabwe first and give its people
a genuine chance at rebuilding and
reconstructing their livelihood. (The
impasse) is disturbing and in our view
cannot be ignored. Further delay in
forming a government and implementing
the agreement can only increase the
plight of the people of Zimbabwe," the
statement warned.
Botswana implored the parties to work towards seeking
solutions and bridging
their differences and "set Zimbabwe on a path of
national reconciliation,
economic reconstruction and recovery".
The
statement called on Mbeki to intervene to assist the parties in breaking
the
impasse.
http://www.energycurrent.com
Filed from Singapore 10/7/2008
11:26:39 AM GMT
HARARE: The National Oil Co. of Zimbabwe
(NOCZIM) is recruiting contract
farmers to cultivate jatropha to support the
country's biodiesel production.
NOCZIM pledged to provide farmers with
cuttings to set up short-term
yielding plantations from September to November
2008. Farmers with the
capacity of preparing at least five hectares of land
are eligible to apply
for the programme. The programme will assist the
farmers to set up the
plantations.
Zimbabwe is aiming to build
biofuel plants in all of its 10 provinces by
2010, according to a government
official late last year. A biofuel unit was
set up within NOCZIM earlier this
year to fulfill Harare's biodiesel
ambition.
IOL
October 07 2008 at 05:07PM
The exiled leaders of Zimbabwe's
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
have entered into discussions with that
country's ambassador to South
Africa, the party said on Tuesday.
"The leadership of the Movement for Democratic Change in South Africa
paid a
courtesy visit to ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo as a gesture of
goodwill in the
ongoing powersharing talks," the MDC said in a statement.
The MDC's
Austin Moyo and Sibanengi Dube held a brief meeting with
Moyo at his offices
in Pretoria.
"We discussed various issues affecting Zimbabweans in
diaspora
including the need for the inclusive government to comprehensively
deal with
repatriating Zimbabweans back home," the MDC said.
The
visit took place amid concerns over Zimbabwe's political rivals'
failure to
reach an agreement on forming a unity government.
President Robert
Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai signed a
power-sharing agreement more
than three weeks ago after contested
presidential and parliamentary
elections. - Sapa
Reuters
Tue 7 Oct 2008,
15:59 GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean soccer player drowned in a
crocodile
infested river during a ritual to cleanse his team of bad spirits
before a
match, a state newspaper said on Tuesday.
The Chronicle
quoted unnamed sources as saying about 16 players from second
division side
Midland Portland Cement were told to swim in the Zambezi river
in the resort
town of Victoria Falls ahead of a soccer match on Sunday.
"The technical
team told every player to get into the river so that they
could be cleansed
of bad spirits," it said.
The paper quoted local police commander Peter
Rodzi as saying that after the
swim, the other players had noticed that one
of the team was missing.
"The area where the team was swimming is
prohibited as the current is
strong. The river is also infested with
crocodiles and hippos," said Rodzi.
Belief in the power of spirits is
widespread in Zimbabwe and many African
countries.
(Reporting by
McDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
http://www.channel4.com
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2008
By: Guest
blogger
Hunger forces more people to beg as seized farms remain
neglected, writes
guest blogger Helen from Zimbabwe.
The old woman
went from door to door in a village just 10km out of town and
at each house
she held out a small, blue, chipped enamel bowl and asked if
anyone could
spare a little food.
On the third attempt she got a couple of tablespoons
of cooked sadza (thick
maize meal porridge) and she knelt on the ground and
clapped with cupped
hands, the traditional thanks.
A man in the
village who witnessed the hungry woman asking for food said
that he felt so
ashamed for her suffering and for the state of the country.
There are
four commercial farms in the vicinity of this village: one is
literally a
stone's throw across the road and the others are all less than
3km
away.
All these farms which between them produced tobacco, maize, beef,
lamb,
milk, chickens and eggs, were seized by the government in the last
seven
years but all have now fallen into disrepair and neglect and no
longer
produce any food for sale.
One hungry woman begging for food
from her neighbours is the tip of the
iceberg in Zimbabwe's rural
villages.
Three weeks after a power sharing agreement was signed there is
still no
sign of government assistance and so far only people with HIV and
AIDS are
receiving help from NGOs. Registered individuals this week each
received a
month's supply of anti-retrovirals, 20kg of unground maize, 5kg of
dried
beans and 2 litres of cooking oil.
While lists of names of
families who need food aid have been compiled, so
far nothing has arrived and
people are surviving on wild fruits. At this
time of year the fruits in
season are wild oranges (locally called Mutamba)
and small wild plums (known
as Muhacha) but competition for the fruit is
fierce and there is never enough
to support hungry families.
Villagers who still have some food left from
last year's harvest are sorting
through the dwindling remnants and selecting
pips that they can plant.
Two weeks before Zimbabwe's main planting
season there is no seed maize or
fertilizer to be found anywhere and village
Headmen and Chiefs are calling
meetings and advising people to reserve any
maize pips that look good enough
to plant.
The hunger is equally bad
in urban areas where a cocktail of disastrous
economic policies have
virtually closed the country down.
Cheques are not accepted by any shops
or businesses, electronic transfers
have been stopped by the Reserve Bank,
inter account transfers have been
suspended and cash is almost non
existent.
Banks have become totally swamped with thousands of people
desperate to
withdraw the maximum daily limit of twenty thousand
dollars.
With your daily limit of cash, if you are lucky enough to get
it, you cannot
even buy one orange. A single 65 gram packet of two minute
noodles is this
week priced at 117 thousand dollars, requiring 6 days of
queuing at the
bank.
Most people have no choice but to queue at the
banks where lines form as
early as 2am. All day, every day the bank queues
are being controlled by
Police with dogs and scuffles are breaking out more
and more frequently as
tempers flare and desperation rises.
If you can
get one, the new 20,000 note is cause for both concern and
amusement. The
note has no metal security thread and displays a peculiar
Zimbabwe Bird which
looks distinctly thin and misshapen and sits on the note
at a skewed angle -
a fitting symbol of the state we're in.
By Alex
Bell
07 October 2008
A Zimbabwe activism group, Save Zimbabwe Campaign
Coalition, has lashed out
at the South African government for corruption and
ill treatment of refugees
at Home Affairs and refugee centres across the
country - after the child of
an exile was killed in a police raid at a Cape
Town Home Affairs office last
week.
According to group officials,
police allegedly attacked a group of
protesting exiles, including a group of
Zimbabweans, outside the Nyanga
office last Friday and shot at them at close
range with rubber bullets. In
the stampede that ensued a young woman,
believed to be a Zimbabwean exile
with a baby on her shoulders, fell and
landed on her child who later died.
The group has since called on the South
African government to "uphold the
rights of immigrant citizens and take
drastic actions against law
enforcement instruments who are abusing their
responsibilities."
The Coalition has also lashed out at the South African
government's decision
to withdraw asylum from Zimbabwean refugees, under the
pretence that the
political and economic crises in Zimbabwe have been
"resolved". The group
said in a statement on Tuesday that the decision is "a
great
misrepresentation of the political developments in the country." A
representative, Alana, explained to Newsreel on Tuesday that abuse of
refugees is happening "against a backdrop of corruption at Home Affairs,"
where exiles that can pay R150 bribes are able to get crucial asylum
papers.
"Home affairs officials still refuse to let humanitarian
volunteers enter
the building," she said, "and consequently the degree of
corruption of
officials and the levels of poverty of the people inside Home
Affairs
remains unknown."
At the same time, Amnesty International on
Tuesday issued an alert for the
safety of refugees in South Africa, after
the last camp for victims of May's
xenophobic violence was closed on Monday.
The group said that violence
against displaced persons attempting to return
to local South African
communities continues, "with police failing to accept
that these crimes are
part of a continuing pattern of xenophobic attacks."
The organisation is now
urging the South African government to honour its
obligations towards those
displaced by the xenophobic violence of last May,
and called on the United
Nations Human Rights Commissioner to
intervene.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
07 October
2008
The Combined Harare Residents Association
joins
The advent of Operation Murambatsvina saw
the city of
The city of
The water and sewer management problems have seen some residential areas going for years, months and weeks without water and unattended sewer bursts respectively. The shortages of water dictates that residents fetch water from unprotected sources thus diseases like cholera breed easily. CHRA has so far received countless cases of cholera and diarrhoea. The spread of these diseases is quickened by the crowding in most houses where in most cases a family of six live in one room and several families live in one house.
The saddening reality is the fact that
those housing schemes accessible to average residents, like the Mbuya Nehanda in
Kuwadzana and the Garikai scheme (which succeeded Operation Murambastvina) were
allocated on partisan basis. All this is happening while some residents have
been on the city of
Combined
Exploration House, Third Floor
Landline: 00263- 4-
705114
Contacts:
Email: jag@mango.zw; justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
Please
send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with "For Open Letter Forum" in the
subject line.
To subscribe/unsubscribe to the JAG mailing list, please
email: jag@mango.zw
with subject line
"subscribe" or
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.
Cathy Buckle - Gangster State
Dear JAG,
In the three weeks since a
power sharing deal was signed between the winners
and losers of Zimbabwe's
election, nothing has happened except arguments. So
many of us had such high
hopes but these are fading fast.
There is no sign of leadership, either
from the old or the new, and all we
hear is bickering and whining about
wanting more mediation when all we
really need is action. No one knows who is
in charge, or who is going to be
in charge of what and while this vacuum
continues we have virtually turned
into a gangster state.
The shortage
of bank notes has reached critical lengths. People are queuing
outside banks
from as early as 2 am in the morning in order to draw out
their daily limit
which is not even enough to buy a single packet of soup.
No shops or
businesses are accepting cheques anymore. Electronic transfers -
known as
RTGS's - have been stopped by the Reserve bank in the last few days
and so
with no cash, no cheques and no transfers, we are grinding to a halt.
For all
the people who simply cannot fight their way to the front of bank
queues,
which are literally thousands strong, there is real hunger,
suffering and
despair. For others, there are vast fortunes being made in a
frenzy of
illegal deals.
In a parking bay in the centre of a busy town and with
literally thousands
of people milling around, a black market currency deal
was being done in
broad daylight on the bonnet of a car. Thick wads of
Zimbabwe dollars were
being counted out in exchange for a few US dollars. No
attempt was being
made to disguise what was going on or conceal the illegal
transaction and in
fact no one seemed to even care. This is a common sight
and just one of many
deals going on in plain view of Police in uniform who
mill around, stand in
bank queues, lean against walls and trees but do
nothing to stop the
lawbreakers.
This week I've met pensioners, hungry
because they can't pay for what little
food there is by cheque and can't get
cash out of the bank. I've met middle
aged men desperate because they can't
get enough money out the bank to buy
food for their families. I've met people
from rural areas who say that
despite the propaganda being peddled every day
in the State media, no food,
seed or fertilizer has arrived in their villages
yet. I've met nurses who
say that despite news reports they still have no
drugs for their patients.
I've met shop owners whose businesses are
collapsing as their employees are
in queues at the banks, and so are their
customers. I've met parents in
total despair as their children are still not
in school a month into the
term because teachers are on strike.
The
walls are falling down around us very fast now and still we baby-cry
about
mediators. Shame on us. Until next time, thanks for reading,
love
cathy.cCopyright cathy buckle 4th October
2008.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.
Eddie Cross - Chaos in Zimbabwe
Today I went from one meeting to another
using the main streets in Harare
it was pure chaos. The City had no
electricity, the traffic lights at all
intersections were not working and the
traffic was gridlocked. The Police
were nowhere to be seen and even as we sat
in the traffic a police car drove
past ramped the pavement and drove though
the intersection paying no
attention to what was going on around
them.
At the Reserve Bank it was the same. They are printing money and
creating
money in other forms so fast that the inflation rate is no
longer
calculable. What we do know is that the RTGS rate - that is the rate
at
which foreign exchange is exchanged in the open market for money
transferred
by electronic means is moving by the hour. At the beginning of
August it was
7 to 1 against the US dollar (after we dropped 9 zeros) and
yesterday it was
2 000 000 to 1. Quite a change in 8 weeks! At this rate it
will be no less
than 10 million to one by next weekend.
Desperate
people are queuing for days at the banks and other financial
houses to try
and get their money out of the system so that they can spend
it before it
literally melts to nothing. In Gweru last week the main street
was almost
closed by crowds at ATM¹s and banks. In Harare literally
thousands of people
jam every cash outlet. The maximum withdrawal by an
individual is $20 000 a
day worth US$ 0,001 cents.
The Reserve Bank, faced with the escalating
consequences of their own
ineptitude are now printing money on plain local
bond paper with no security
features. The mafia are having a field day and so
many counterfeit notes are
circulating that people are refusing the new
notes. Instead of adopting a
carefully crafted plan to overcome these
problems and to correct the
fundamentals that are driving the system towards
collapse, the Governor
today simply closed down the RTGS system and I
understand even the inter
bank system; rendering the only alternative window
for payments impassable.
It is illegal to trade in hard currency you can
go to jail for this if you
try, it is illegal to change money on the street,
you cannot charge a market
price for what you sell unless you are willing to
risk intervention or
worse. Even today there were reports of the government
taking action against
retailers who were ³over charging². Business is unable
to pay their staff in
cash, they pay them by bank transfer and then watch as
half their work force
is absent all day standing in queues.
Non cash
forms of payments are rampant barter is common, the use of fuel
coupons with
a face value of about US$30 each is also common tender. The BBC
carried a
story this week of an auction in Harare where the bids were all
expressed in
coupons. Most firms are now being forced to sell their goods
and services in
hard currency Rand or US dollars even though it is illegal.
Businesses
do not bank the money because the Reserve Bank keeps a close
watch on any
foreign exchange balances in the Banks and simply expropriates
them.
Crediting the owner of these accounts with local currency at a
ridiculous
rate of exchange and then using the flow of hard currency to
support the life
styles of the small elite that is still in charge. At these
rates of exchange
a luxury, top of the range car costs less than the price
of a local
cigarette.
Here we are, 4 weeks away from the start of the wet season and
we have 2 per
cent of our fertilizer requirements in stock. All other inputs
are virtually
unobtainable. The Reserve Bank is handing out expensive farm
equipment to
Zanu PF fat cats like sweets to a kindergarten, but they cannot
provide fuel
or seed or fertilizer or chemicals. It's
madness.
Remaining farmers black and white are being evicted from their
farms by
Zanu PF heavies such as a Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank and
what is
left of the once world class tobacco industry is facing extinction.
Dairy
farmers, pig farms and fruit estates are all facing illegal invasion
and
disruption of activity. The Police simply respond to appeals for help
by
saying that they cannot help because ³it is political².
Our retail
chains are empty, many stores are closed, the wholesalers are no
longer
functional and industry is running at 10 per cent of capacity. Power
supplies
are down to about half of demand, fuel is in short supply and spare
parts are
unobtainable. All basic foods are virtually only available in the
parallel
market at very high prices. Although government schools have opened
their
doors and the children have gone to school no teachers are at work.
The
universities will not open their doors this term the final term before
vital
exams. Business cannot fix prices or salaries their normal activities
are
simply frozen in their tracks.
In the midst of this chaos Mugabe went on
a 10 day spree to New York to make
a speech. The cost of a 20 minute
opportunity to denigrate the leading
nations in the world, the very people
who have fed his population for 8
years, was the cost of taking a Boeing 767
to New York and back via Egypt.
The 54 member delegation must have cost at
least US$2 million in allowances
and expenses while there.
Then on
return he wastes another week with no action on the formation of a
new
government now 3 weeks since the SADC facilitated deal with the MDC
was
signed. And remember we have not had a proper government since the
29th
March nearly 7 months. Since Parliament was convened several weeks ago,
we
have had no government at all. When confronted with the need to make
a
decision on the allocation of Ministerial portfolios, Zanu PF has
been
frozen in its tracks like a child confronted with a cobra. Simply
not
knowing what to do and beginning to realize for the first time that the
end
of the road is in sight for them.
Even though Thabo Mbeki is no
longer the power broker he was after his
removal from the Presidency in South
Africa, they are terrified of his visit
to sort out the impasse because they
know that their arguments for a
disproportionate share of Ministerial
portfolios are not defensible. They
cannot hold out for much longer and Mbeki
is on his way.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 4th October
2008
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.
Rob Gass
Dear JAG,
The letters of October 5 from Cathy Buckle and
Eddie Cross are instructive.
They detail in heart wrenching clarity the
unbelievable extent to which the
whole Zimbabwean system has
malfunctioned.
The situation they describe is surely the fulfilment of
the prediction made
by the previous United States ambassador to Zimbabwe when
he predicted the
inevitable collapse of the economy, the state and its
system.
As painful as it is for all of us to witness these events and to
hear them
detailed and described, we must ask ourselves if there is not
an
inevitability in this process of events.
Of course we all admire
Cathy's outrage and passion when she demands
immediate action she says quote
"The walls are falling down all around us
and still we baby cry about
mediators. Shame on us!" I would simply say to
Cathy: The MDC conceded way
too much in the initial agreement considering
that they won an overwhelming
mandate in the election. The fact is that the
MDC cannot afford any further
concessions or they go down the road of Joshua
Nkomo.
We have been
fortunate in recent years to have a correspondent who possesses
insight and
the ability to summarize the complex issues of the day in such
clear and
straightforward terms and that is Eddie Cross. Eddie closes his
letter on a
note of optimism when he says (regarding the intransigent ZANU
PF
negotiators) quote: "They cannot hold out much longer and Thabo Mbeki is
on
the way". Well much as I admire and respect Eddie Cross I have to say
that
he expresses more faith in Thabo Mbeki than the man's performance
deserves.
Let's remind ourselves that this is the same Thabo Mbeki who for
all these
years has known that the people of Zimbabwe have voted
overwhelmingly against
tyranny and corruption and yet has never uttered one
word of comment or
condemnation about the subversion of democracy and the
theft of
elections.
Rob
Gass
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.
Gerry Whitehead
Hi All at JAG,
Morgan has been forced to deal with
the devil after winning the
Parliamentary Elections and I am sure the
Presidential Elections. Mugabe's
forces took over the counting process
manipulated it for over a month and
came up with a win for Morgan, but not
enough to prevent a run off, giving
Mugabe another chance.
The signing of
the so called historic power sharing deal is worthless and
will only prolong
the agony of the people in Zimbabwe. You can not deal with
the devil; he has
no compaction or scruples.
Regards
Gerry
Whitehead
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.
Pat Mangwende
Dear JAG,
I refer to the letter of response from Stu
Taylor to Kay. I don't, for one
minute, think that Stu meant what Kay thought
in her response. I hope that
Stu's letter to Kay clears up this
matter.
Whilst we are on the subject of women, I would like to add
something.
In the history of Zimbabwe, if ever there was a time to say
"now is the
hour", this is the crunch point. If ever there was time that
people could
see the imperative to take to the streets and demand freedom and
democracy,
now has to be the hour.
I ask many Zimbabweans why direct
street action is not happening and all I
get is excuse after excuse. It is
quite incredible how the excuses roll off
tongues. However, my question is
always followed by another - "Well why is
it that the women of WOZA can pull
600 women (and a few men) onto the
streets?" Sadly, there is no answer to
this question. There is only silence.
The truth of the matter is that it
is the women of our country who have the
balls. Zanu PF have emasculated many
of our men.
Our collective entrapped paralysis is almost like hara-kiri.
It provides a
clear signal to zanu-pf to carry on and do whatever they want
to subjugate
our people and rape our country.
If ever the world
spotlight was on Zimbabwe and if ever our democratic
leadership needed people
power on the streets, now is the hour. It's all
about pressure. It's all
about saving our country. It's all about sending a
loud unequivocal message
to zanu-pf and the world that we demand our
freedom, we demand our rights and
we demand the people's mandate. It's up to
us all to do this!
The
question now is - are we going to join WOZA in the streets or are we
going to
let them carry this heavy burden on our behalf?
Is Mugabe right? He tells
the world that we Zimbabweans are happy with our
lot. Does not our silence
surely support his view?
God help and God bless our country - now is the
hour!
Pat
Mangwende
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.
Wily Burt
Dear JAG,
It appears that the State Plunders are at it
again - Listing more properties
in the Government Gazette and the Herald for
the un-rehabilitate desperado
comrades to loot. One would think that the
likes of JAG would be publishing
these new lists so that the real owners can
track who is plundering their
properties now.
Wily
Burt
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.
Dawn Holtzhausen
Dear JAG,
As most of you are now aware, Bulawayo
Polo-Crosse members (and special
friends to many of us), Ron and Margaret
Sparrows' little girl - Courtney
Sparrow (9yrs), was attacked by lions last
Tuesday
Her parents own a safari ranch in Masvingo and Courtney
innocently went next
door, last Tuesday, with the maids when they went to
clean the one partner's
house (he is away in Canada). The partner, had
brought up a couple of lions
and left them in the garden vicinity to look
after the house and as a form
of protection as they have had a long on-going
saga with war vets etc.
Courtney was inside the house, with the maids,
and was standing next to a
window. The lioness put her paw through and got
Courtney's arm and actually
managed to pull her through the burglar barred
window. The gardener rushed
and beat the lioness with a pole and Courtney
managed to get away - she ran
to the gate only to find it was locked, she
panicked and ran back to the
window - and on the way a young male lion then
attacked her.
Margy, her mom, managed to beat the male lion with a pole
and they got
Courtney away and out the enclosure. She was air lifted to
Avenues, Harare,
where there was absolutely nothing that could be done for
her - fortunately
they managed to stabilize her enough and then Ron and Margy
were able to
arrange to have her flown to Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg,
South Africa.
Her oesophagus had to be rebuilt and miraculously none of
the puncture
wounds from the mauling damaged any internal organs and although
the front
of her skull was bitten off - there is no brain damage. Her left
eye was
pulled out the socket and the skin and bone on top damaged - but
amazingly
her eye is intact and she has had an operation to repair the eye
socket
using bone and skin from her hip.
Sadly with all the hassles
the farmers have had here the last few years,
this families income has
dwindled drastically to a point where, like most of
us Zimbabweans, they were
already at a point of just making do (survival),
and were hoping and praying
things would turn the corner soon with regards
to our economy. I am led to
believe that like most of us, they were unable
to afford the exorbitant cost
of external Medical Cover and now they have
been left in the devastating
position of having to fund these unbelievable
medical bills.
More
than anything, this family - especially Courtney, desperately needs
your
prayer, and if you can afford it and feel compelled to do so, a
small
donation to help with the enormous costs incurred saving this child's
life
and now her continued treatment which will include further
surgeries.
Although she is stabilized, and off the respirator and breathing
on her
own, she still has a long long road ahead as far as full recovery
is
concerned and already, one week in, the medical bill is sitting at R500
000
(half a million rand).
We are doing every thing we can here to try
and raise money but as you can
imagine it is difficult in Zim....
If
you would like to make a donation then please contact either myself
costalotazw@yahoo.com, Lynn and Leanne
McBean mcbean@mweb.co.zw or Ron
&
Margy sparrowsmith@yoafrica.com or simplywild@zol.co.zw . (BANKING
DETAILS
SEE BELOW)
Lynn McBean together with Ron will be instrumental
in setting up an account
for this purpose.
More than anything please
be assured, as mentioned earlier: - your prayers
and support are far more
valuable than dollars and cents and are VERY, VERY
much appreciated by the
Sparrow family. (One can only begin to imagine the
trauma and desperation
that they have been through).
Thanks and God Bless
Dawn
Holtzhausen
023 751170/09 289666
Lynn McBean
Herewith all the
Banking details you should need -
Account Holder: MILPARK
HOSPITAL
Bank: NEDBANK
Branch Name: FOX STREET
(82 Simmonds Street, between Fox and Main
Sts, Johannesburg, South
Africa)
Account Number: 1908466545
Branch Code: 190805
Swift
Code: NEDSZAJJ
Current Account
PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU USE
THE REFERENCE THAT WILL MAKE SURE THAT THEY
ALLOCATE FUNDS: SPARROW CJ
MS
If you would like to speak to someone at the hospital, please call
their
Marketing Manager Amelda Swartz on 011 480 5686 or 082 783 8492 or
email
aswartz@milpark.netcare.co.za
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All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice
for
Agriculture.
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