A hand grenade exploded late Monday at the headquarters of Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Harare, shattering windows but injuring no one, security guards and party officials said Tuesday.
"I heard a big sound like a gun, all at once, and the windows fell out," said James Rupiya, one of two night guards who was there when the grenade exploded.
The grenade was thrown over the fence surrounding the building and landed on the brick courtyard at about 11:15 p.m., Rupiya and his colleague Marksom Ndebele said.
The blast blew out the glass in windows and doors in front of the building, and shattered one window of a car belonging to the party's director of security. The grenade left a small hole in the brick courtyard.
The grenade's pin was still resting on the car's hood early Tuesday, and police found bits of the grenade's shell scattered around the courtyard among the shards of glass.
Neither guard was hurt, and they said they were the only two people at the offices.
"It's getting out of hand now, it's really getting out hand," said MDC administrator David Chimhini, who was at the scene assessing the damage.
Chimhini said police told him they believed the grenade may have been old or somehow malfunctioning, because the blast was not as strong as it could have been.
Chimhini and the two guards said this was the first attack directly on the party's building, although individual party members have faced intimidation around the country and had their homes stoned.
The MDC took nearly half of all contested seats in parliamentary elections in June, following months of violence and intimidation directly mainly at opposition supporters.
Reuters - Sep 11 2000 11:27AM ET
NAIROBI (Reuters) - While the world's big oil consumers gripe about high crude prices, it is African nations, least able to cough up the extra dollars, that are suffering most.
Sub-Saharan Africa actually produces more oil than it consumes, but most of the oil comes from just two countries -- Nigeria and Angola.
The majority of countries in the region are importers of oil and are highly exposed to hikes in oil prices -- many spending more than one third of their foreign exchange earnings on fuel imports.
``High oil prices are basically bad for Africa,'' said Brian Paxton, managing director of Mbendi, Pretoria-based publishers specializing in African business and trade.
``Some economies are falling apart because the import costs are just too much to bear.''
The decision at weekend by the oil producers' cartel OPEC to raise output by three percent failed to make a dent in oil prices which are still hovering around highs not seen since the 1990 Gulf crisis.
At some $33 a barrel, prices are more than three times what they were two-and-a-half years ago.
HIGH PRICES UNDERMINE GROWTH, ANNOY CONSUMERS
Zimbabwe's state oil procurer last week hiked fuel prices for the fourth time this year, raising the price of paraffin -- used by the bulk of the urban poor -- by more than 100 percent and gasoline by 45 percent.
Zimbabwe's fuel crisis -- blamed as much on government mismanagement as rising oil prices -- has threatened the viability of several industries and has deepened the country's worst economic crisis since independence.
Tiny Uganda's oil import bill has jumped by some 30 percent in the last year to $140 million, an expense it could ill-afford as the price of coffee, the country's main export commodity, fell.
The combination meant that Uganda missed its economic growth target by two percentage points this year, while neighboring Rwanda, whose economy has barely recovered from civil war, is also suffering.
``The oil price rise is affecting growth, because most of our industries here use oil, especially diesel. The trucks that bring us all our goods use diesel,'' said Jean-Bosco Iyadema, a senior official at Rwanda's Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
As in Europe, where truckers and motorists have protested against rising fuel prices, Rwandan consumers are becoming increasingly disgruntled.
``Of course we're upset. It's hard to raise prices in a country where there is no money,'' said Jean-Pierre Sagahutu, a taxi driver in the capital Kigali.
``Our customers think we're greedy. They call us thieves, but it's not our fault. It's a problem of petrol.''
LITTLE BENEFIT FOR ORDINARY AFRICANS
In war-torn Angola, sub-Saharan Africa's second-leading oil producer, soaring world prices mean little to people on the crumbling streets of the capital Luanda.
The country produces a hefty 780,000 barrels per day (bpd) -- a figure which is set to double over the next two years as new Atlantic prospects become available.
But Angolans still face high prices and long lines at the pumps. Earlier this year, the government removed subsidies on fuel -- stoking prices by a whopping 1,600 percent overnight.
``Even in the producer nations the efficiencies are so poor that you won't see these higher revenues benefiting the people,'' said Paxton.
``There are too many sticky fingers, too many ways for the money to get diverted before it can be plowed back into the economy.''
Nigeria, by far the region's biggest producer, was long seen as the place where powerful multinationals and corrupt politicians skimmed off oil riches and left the poor with nothing.
But now with a new democratic government, the 2 million bpd producer could be the only country in the region where high oil prices spell good news.
Revenues have exceeded expectations, the local currency has strengthened, the cost of living for ordinary Nigerians has fallen and ambitious infrastructure programs are expected to create thousands of new jobs.
12 September 2000
Hello there,
From now on we will give you summaries on all the sits
being contested.
Below is the one for Gokwe North:
GOKWE NORTH
ELECTION PETITION
SIBANGANI MLANDU PETITIONER
AND
ELECK MKANDHLA
RESPONDENT
GROUNDS
1 CORRUPT PRACTICES
Cited:-
a) Many cases
of beating and severe intimidation
b) MDC campaign team member Wonder
Manhango abducted by ZanuPF led by Mr.Karonga. His legs were broken, his head
bashed in with a hoe handle and he was castrated with a cattle castrater.
c)
Houses searched and destroyed by known ZanuPF members..
d) The petitioners
house was invaded and a rally held by ZanuPF in his house, raising a ZanuPF flag
above it
2 ELECTORAL IRREGULARITIES
Cited:-
a) Many voters denied
access to polling stations.
b) ZanuPF members actively campaigning within 100
metres of the polling station.
c) Only 12 out of 38 polling stations did not
refuse MDC polling agents to enter.
Petition filed on the 26th of July
2000
Sureties forms signed and forms filed
Service on the ZANU(PF)
candidate
Regards,
MDC Support Centre
8th Floor, Gold
Bridge
Eastgate
Harare
091367151/2/3
Guqula Izenzo/Maitiro
Chinja
"The rule of law should not be applied selectively" (Morgan
Tsvangirayi)
12 September 2000
Here is the second installment of our legal challege update--a summary of the
Gokwe East Election Petition.
GOKWE EAST ELECTION PETITION
TINOS
MUDZORI PETITIONER
AND
FLORA BHUKA RESPONDENT
GROUNDS
1
PRE-ELECTION VIOLENCE
Cited cases include:-
a) Death of Wonder Manhango
after an attack by a group of youths wearing ZanuPF T-shirts.
b) Mr. Josiah
Matupire, MDC activist attacked by assailants wearing ZanuPF and the respondents
T-shirts.
c) Numerous other attacks on MDC members, causing bodily harm,
destroying property, destroying grinding mills, putting sugar in the fuel tank
of a grinding mill motor. Acts performed by known and identified members of
ZanuPF.
2 ELECTORAL IRREGULARITIES
Cited:-
a) Numerous MDC polling
agents refused entry into the polling stations.
b) Campaigning within the 100
metre radius by ZanuPF.
c) Known and feared war veterans permitted to sit at
the entrance to polling stations.
d) Postal votes from a disused Fifth
brigade army barracks in Gokwe.
e) Confiscation of Identity documents from
suspected MDC members by ZanuPF members.
Petition filed on the 26th of
July 2000
Sureties forms signed and forms filed
Service on Registrar
General and the ZANU(PF) candidate
Keep up the
support!
Regards,
MDC Support Centre
8th Floor, Gold
Bridge
Eastgate
Harare
091367151/2/3
Guqula Izenzo/Maitiro
Chinja
"The rule of law should not be applied selectively" (Morgan
Tsvangirayi)