Reuters
Mon 29 Sep
2008, 12:22 GMT
By Nelson Banya
HARARE, Sept 29 (Reuters)
- Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on
Monday he expected a unity
government to be formed by the end of this week,
ending an impasse with the
opposition over cabinet posts.
"We discussed the ministries before I
left. Only four remain, but there is
no deadlock. We will be setting up
government this week, towards the end of
the week," Mugabe told reporters
when he returned home from a U.N. General
Assembly meeting.
An
outline agreement signed this month between Mugabe and opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai brought hope that political stability could reverse
Zimbabwe's economic chaos.
Tsvangirai, who is set to become prime
minister under the deal, called on
Saturday for the formation of a
power-sharing government "in the next few
days" to help end the
crisis.
Under the deal, Mugabe retains the presidency and chairs cabinet,
while
Tsvangirai will chair a council of ministers supervising the
cabinet.
So far, Zimbabweans have seen little benefit from the
deal.
The central bank introduced higher denomination banknotes on Monday
in
another sign of the runaway hyperinflation that shows no sign of
abating.
Arthur Mutambara, who heads a small faction of the opposition
Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) is also taking part in the negotiations
and is set
to be one of two deputy prime ministers.
The opposition
will have a combined cabinet majority, with Tsvangirai's main
MDC faction
controlling 13 cabinet posts in the new government, Mugabe's
ZANU-PF 15 and
Mutambara's breakaway MDC faction three. (Reporting by Nelson
Banya and
MacDonald Dzirutwe; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Barry
Moody )
http://www.iht.com
The Associated PressPublished: September 29,
2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe: Banking authorities raised the daily
withdrawal limit in
Zimbabwe, prompting tens of thousands to line up Monday
in desperate hopes
of getting enough cash for groceries before spiraling
inflation eats away
more value.
New rules went into affect the day
President Robert Mugabe returned from the
U.N. allowing withdrawals of up to
20,000 Zimbabwe dollars (US$35). The old
1,000 Zimbabwean-dollar limit was
barely enough to buy a newspaper.
The limit and the fact that Zimbabwe
has the world's highest inflation rate,
officially 11 million percent,
unofficially much higher, has meant long
lines at banks most
days.
But Monday was extraordinary. Mothers with babies strapped to their
backs
arrived at bank doors at dawn. Police vainly tried to stop the crowds
from
blocking traffic, but there appeared to be more police and uniformed
soldiers in line to get cash than on duty.
Lovemore Matombo, head of
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, said if
politicians did not take
action soon to ease the suffering of workers "we
will go onto the
streets."
He called for the limit on withdrawals to be removed
altogether, but central
bank officials say that could spark a run on banks
that would ultimately
worsen the cash shortages.
On Saturday, central
bank governor Gideon Gono vowed to keep printing money,
a practice critics
say has fueled inflation.
As the lines disrupted traffic in Harare, the
capital, Mugabe returned from
a 10-day trip to the U.N. promising a new
coalition government will be named
soon. Getting the long-promised
government up and running is seen as a first
step to addressing the southern
African nation's growing economic and
humanitarian crisis.
But with
his absence, a power-sharing deal he signed with his longtime
rivals in the
Movement for Democratic Change has stalled. The two sides have
been unable
to agree which party would control key Cabinet posts, among them
the Finance
Ministry.
Looking fit even at 84, Mugabe was greeted by about 1,500
singing, dancing
well-wishers at the airport.
"We never said there
was a deadlock. But we will be setting up a government
this week, toward the
end of the week," he promised, warning U.S. Ambassador
James McGee, an
outspoken critic, to stop "interfering" in domestic matters.
Mugabe's
rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, who is to be prime minister in the unity
government, said during the weekend that a new power-sharing government must
be formed within days to avert a humanitarian crisis.
Under the
power-sharing deal, Mugabe's party gets 15 Cabinet seats and 16 go
to
Tsvangirai's party and a smaller breakaway opposition group led by Arthur
Mutamabara.
Mugabe remains president and head of the Cabinet. As
prime minister,
Tsvangirai heads a new council of ministers responsible for
government
policies.
Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain
in 1980, blames Western
sanctions for Zimbabwe's economic collapse. But
critics point to his 2000
order that commercial farms be seized from whites.
The often-violent
seizures disrupted the agriculture-based economy, and much
of the land went
to Mugabe loyalists instead of the poor blacks he said he
wanted to help.
Yahoo News
Mon Sep 29, 9:08 AM
ET
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's central bank Monday introduced 10,000- and
20,000-dollar bank notes to ease a cash crunch in the country struggling to
cope with the world's highest inflation rate.
The central bank
has unveiled a series of ever-larger bills since August,
when the central
bank struck 10 zeros off the local currency that had become
so weak that
billions of dollars were required just to buy bread.
The new notes are
meant to help Zimbabwe, once one of Africa's most
prosperous nations, keep
up with crushing hyperinflation last reported at
11.2 million
percent.
Cash currency is in such short supply that banks are essentially
rationing
money, allowing businesses and consumers to withdraw only 20,000
dollars a
day -- worth only 20 US dollars on the black market.
The
restrictions have led to long queues outside banks, with some people
sleeping on the pavements in the hope of being the first person to reach the
teller window in the morning.
Zimbabwe's economy has been on a
downturn for a decade with high
unemployment and food shortages in a country
where at least 80 percent of
the population live below the poverty
line.
The country's chronic economic crisis has condemned 80 percent of
the
population to poverty, amid mass shortages of basic goods in shops.
By
Lance Guma
29 September 2008
Cash queues at the banks persisted
Monday, despite the Reserve Bank raising
the maximum cash withdrawal limit
from Z$1 000 to Z$20 000 and introducing
new Z$10 000 and Z$20 000 dollar
bank notes. Our correspondents in Bulawayo
and Harare witnessed a massive
scramble for cash as desperate depositors
battled to withdraw their hard
earned money from their accounts. Long
winding queues were observed in major
cities, including Bulawayo and Harare.
Thousands of people, including
mothers with babies strapped to their backs,
slept the night at bank
premises trying to be the first in line at the
opening of
business.
Last week the central bank announced an increase in the maximum
cash
withdrawal limit. This was seen as a direct response to the threat of
strike
action from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). The union
gave the
central bank seven days to scrap the limit, arguing workers were
spending
too much time in the queues trying to get their own money. For some
the old
Z$1 000 limit was barely enough to cover transport to and from work,
let
alone meet any other daily need. A meeting of the ZCTU general council
Friday appeared to back down on the strike threat. A statement released
later read; 'The mass action penciled in for 1stOctober has been deferred
while we assess, in consultation with our structures, the impact of the RBZ
move to increase the daily maximum withdrawal.'
It was only in August
that 10 zeroes were struck off the currency in an
attempt to ease the
shortages and make transactions easier, but at that time
analysts warned the
zeroes would quickly creep back. Those predictions came
true with an almost
immediate devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar against
major currencies. With
inflation at well over 11 million percent central
bank Governor Gideon
Gono's fire-fighting techniques have been slammed as a
failure. In the
absence of fundamental political and economic reforms
analysts say they can
be no change in the situation. During last weeks tour
of banks with long
cash queues Prime Minister designate Morgan Tsvangirai
called for the
immediate assembling of a new government to deal with these
issues affecting
people. Whether this will happen this week remains to be
seen.
Meanwhile the ZCTU has criticized the power sharing accord
between ZANU PF
and the MDC saying, 'people would be led by an unelected
government for the
next five years.' The union said they viewed the new
government as a
temporary stop-gap measure. 'The ZCTU maintains its earlier
position on the
need for a Neutral Transitional Authority as the panacea to
the current
electoral dispute. However, if the present arrangement is to
continue, it
must be a transitional arrangement that will lead to a free and
fair
election under a new, people driven
constitution.'
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Monday,
29 September 2008 08:52
Saturday, 27 September 2008
THE measures
previously undertaken by the Reserve Bank to increase the
maximum bank
withdrawal limits for individuals and companies have amply
demonstrated the
futility of such approaches.
What is clear is that the
solution cannot emanate from the central
bank. It has to come from elsewhere,
including the lessons of countries that
have suffered similar crises,
although on a more limited scale compared to
Zimbabwe.
On
Thursday the Reserve Bank announced that from tomorrow (Monday) it
was
raising the maximum cash withdrawal limit for individuals and companies
to
$20 000 and $10 000 respectively.
It is difficult to understand
what informs central bank decisions:
companies, cognisant of the hardships
their workers are enduring have taken
to paying them bus fares in cash. It is
therefore incomprehensible how
anyone can suggest that companies access a
maximum of only $10 000 a day. In
any case the needs of any given company are
greater than those of
individuals.
What effectively the central
bank is doing is to force companies to
access cash from and through
unorthodox means. And the real beneficiaries
are the "cash barons". We all
know who they are and which organisation they
belong to.
The
central bank has failed to learn a lesson from the past and to
appreciate
that every time such limits are set the prices of commodities
follow with yet
another round of increases.
The longest queues in town are now
found at banks. There are more
people at banks at any given time than there
are at work. That is a damning
statement on the failure to manage the cash
crisis. Setting maximum
withdrawal limits has served to provide short-lived
relief.
We cannot pretend that we are managing the process when
people are
spending nights in bank queues in order to access their
hard-earned savings.
The lesson ordinary people are taking from the on-going
crisis is: if you
can, do not deposit your savings in a bank, because it is a
struggle to get
it. It is aseconomic blueprint that will bring an end to the
queues outside
banks.
The whole exercise is designed to frustrate
depositors from
withdrawing their money. People should be able to access as
much of their
money as they want when they want it.
Matters are
not made any easier when there are suggestions that
central bank staff are
allowed to withdraw as much as 10-fold the amounts
ordinary depositors were
permitted as of last week. Such charges fuel
allegations of the duplicitous
conduct of the Reserve Bank.
One thing that the cash crisis has
emphasised is to make the
transition from the rhetoric of the political
settlement agreed to by the
three main political parties to the
implementation of the deal, so that
Zimbabweans have a permanent solution to
cash shortages.
Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday did what many of the
politicians have
never bothered to - gain a first-hand impression of what
ordinary
Zimbabweans have to endure when he toured the long-winding bank
queues in
central Harare.
Many distraught depositors will hope
something tangible comes out of
the Prime Minister-designate's walkabout, not
just in a resolution to the
shortage of money but in the country's recovery
process.
One development to emerge from last week's hiatus in the
negotiations
over sharing of government ministerial positions is that the
outside world
is more concerned that after the September 15 agreement
Zimbabweans should
have hit the ground running in implementing the recovery
process.
The country's political leadership needs to prove that
they too are
concerned and should set about implementing their economic
blueprint that
will bring an end to the queues outside banks and locate
workers at their
work stations.
http://www.apanews.net
APA-Harare (Zimbabwe) Two more Zimbabwean universities
have postponed
indefinitely the opening of the new academic year citing a
host of
challenges, including shortages of staff, water and food, APA learnt
here
Monday.
One of the institutions, Chinhoyi University of
Technology (CUT), told
students that the opening of the 2008/09 first
semester, which was scheduled
to start on Monday, has been postponed to a
later date due to acute water
problems, food procurement challenges and
staff shortages.
CUT spokesperson Tapera Musekiwa said the
institution, located in the
provincial capital of President Robert Mugabe's
home town, would only reopen
once "these issues were resolved".
Another state-run institution of higher learning, Midlands State
University
located in the third city of Gweru, has also told students that
it would
remain closed until further notice.
The two institutions join the
country's largest university, University
of Zimbabwe, which has remained
closed since the new academic year started
in August.
Zimbabwe
is in the middle of an eight-year economic crisis manifesting
itself in
record inflation, food shortages and problems in the provision of
water.
JN/nm/APA
2008-09-29
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=4922
September 28, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - An association of residents in Glen Norah, Harare
has taken the
Minister of Public Service and Social Welfare and
Commissioner-General of
Police Augustine Chihuri to the High Court seeking
to reverse a ban which
bars the group from distributing food to its
members.
The Glen Norah Resident Association has 200 members among the
suburb's poor
community, who include elderly pensioners, orphans and the
disabled.
The court application Number HC 4743/08 lodged by human rights
lawyers on
Friday cited the Officer Commanding Harare South as the first
respondent,
the Minister of the Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare as
the second
and the Commissioner general of Police.
The police in Glen
Norah barred the association from distributing the food
demanding that it
produces a certificate of registration to allow it
distribute mealie-meal
and sugar beans to orphans, people living with
HIV/AIDS and the elderly in
the suburb.
Sometime in July the organisation received a donation of food
comprising 600
packets of 10kg mealie-meal and a quantity of sugar beans
from the
Catholic-based Jesuit Relief Fund.
A government ban on the
operations of NGOs published in a June edict has
spawned severe food
shortages and starvation among both urban and rural
communities.
The
edict was premised on Zanu-PF claims that the humanitarian food
assistance
organisations were using food as a campaign tool to canvass
support for the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) during the presidential
elections.
President Robert Mugabe stood against the MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai and
lost in March. In June, Mugabe stood unchallenged in a
runoff which was
widely condemned as a sham. His rival, Morgan Tsvangirai of
the MDC
boycotted the second election, citing political violence against his
supporters.
The ban on food drew international outrage from human
rights organisations
and governments. They expressed concerns that the
decision would worsen
starvation among communities after a failed
agricultural season.
In his founding affidavit in the case represented by
the Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights (ZLHR), the chairman of the residents
association Kingsley
Kanyuchi said the police, instructed by the Officer in
Charge at Glen Norah
police station, ordered the association to stop
distributing the donated
food.
"After several follow-ups with the
Officer Commanding Harare South I was
told that the association could only
distribute food to its members after
getting the authorization from the
minister of Labour," Kanyuchi's affidavit
reads.
When a meeting was
called on September 1 of all NGO [article ends here...]
http://www.thetimes.co.za
Moses Mudzwiti Published:Sep 29,
2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As
Zimbabwe collapses, Zanu-PF salutes old tyrant
ZANU-PF yesterday embarked
on a massive campaign to woo party members into
giving President Robert
Mugabe a "hero's welcome" when he returns to Harare
from the UN
today.
a.. State-controlled radio said Zanu- PF was
pleased with Mugabe's speech at
the UN and he deserved a hero's
welcome.
Mugabe exonerated himself from causing Zimbabwe's worst
economic collapse in
living memory by blaming "Western
imperialists".
A major mining house, Falcon Gold Zimbabwe , last week
estimated that
inflation in Zimbabwe was about to exceed 1 billion
percent.
Many industries in Zimbabwe have seen production plummet.
Some were
operating at less than 30percent of normal
capacity.
The capital, Harare, is battling a cholera epidemic that
has claimed 13
lives. Without sufficient chemicals for water purification,
the city
authorities are at a loss as to how to deal with the health
crisis.
"Wash your hands with ash after using the toilet," a health
official told
residents of the densely populated Unit O, where the disease
was first
reported. Lack of clean water in many urban areas puts poor
Zimbabweans at
risk of cholera and other diseases.
Mugabe told
the UN general assembly that "illegally imposed" sanctions by
Britain and
the US had caused untold hardships for Zimbabweans.
He dismissed
reports that the agreement with opposition political parties to
form an
"all-inclusive government" was in trouble.
The 84-year-old president,
who has ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist since
independence from Britain in
1980, left for the UN last week after
negotiations with the opposition on
the allocation of crucial ministries hit
a brick wall.
An agreement
signed earlier this month stipulates that Mugabe's party will
have 15
ministries, Morgan Tsvangirai's MDC will have 13 and Arthur
Mutambara, of
the breakaway MDC formation, will have three. But the parties
could not
agree on which would control crucial ministries, including those
of finance
and foreign affairs.
Mugabe's return to Zimbabwe is expected to
expedite the finalisation of the
cabinet.
Tsvangirai, the prime
minister designate, who will take office once the
cabinet is finalised,
warned that further delays in forming the new
government would worsen
Zimbabwe's food crisis.
"The uncertainty pertaining to the
negotiations is causing unnecessary
anxiety and agony," Tsvangirai said at
the weekend.
He said it was "imperative that a government be formed
in the next few days".
http://www.capeargus.co.za
2008-09-29 09:29:30
Zimbabwe has
undergone intense political, economic and social anarchy for
nearly a
decade, so any intervention that can help restore calm is more than
welcome.
As an exiled Zimbabwean journalist living in Cape Town, I
believe President
Thabo Mbeki, who brokered the "historic" power-sharing
deal, deserves praise
for diplomacy, despite his early departure from the
president's office due
to squabbles within his party.
It is a deal that
hopefully will lead to a new chapter in the history of my
country.
Yet my greatest concern is not only that the deal remains on
paper and has
yet to be transformed into tangible meaning but also that it
is fragile, and
bitter rivals Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change
remain
reluctant to set aside selfish pursuits in order to rebuild the
country.
I hope Mbeki will finish his job and tie together the last
difficult knots
of the deal regarding the composition of the cabinet. I
sincerely hope to
see my country return to its former glory and I wish to
make a contribution
towards realising that dream.
The deal has become
a major talking point in refugee camps sheltering
Zimbabweans and in coffee
shops and bars across Cape Town.
The big question that is being asked is
whether we should now rush home and
start to rebuild our country, or rather
adopt a wait-and-see position until
the deal has become a
reality.
And for me as a journalist, who fled the country with the secret
service on
my heels and having been tortured and labelled an enemy of the
state, I
remain nervous about going back chiefly because the deal put the
critical
question of a free press on the backburner.
How do we go back to
a country where the media landscape remains a grey
wasteland fraught with
lethal landmines and death traps?
It is important to remember that the
ideological and repressive state
machinery ruthlessly instituted by the
Mugabe regime to attack a free press,
political activists and civil society
is still alive and a huge cause for
concern.
It is imperative that
instruments of oppression and repression, such as the
secret service, the
police, the army and the militia that murdered and
tortured many of my
colleagues who sought to find the truth, be reformed.
Thousands of
ordinary Zimbabweans have suffered under the iron rule of this
regime and
others have lost their lives.
The notorious media laws such as the Access
to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (Aippa), Public Order and
Security Act (Posa) and the
Broadcasting Act and institutions such as the
infamous Media and Information
Commission have been used for nearly a decade
to stifle a free press, and as
a consequence, to starve Zimbabweans of a
pluralistic and diverse source of
information.
These instruments need
to be abolished if the power-sharing deal is to be
taken
seriously.
It is vital that the state broadcaster - the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting
Corporation, which is run as a political venture to advance the
interests of
Zanu-PF while trashing those of the nation - goes through
rigorous changes
to play its role in advancing the development of a
democratic state.
Zimbabwe has experienced socio-economic meltdown for
nearly a decade.
As a journalist I would like to appeal to the business
sector to assist us
to rebuild our ruined independent media institutions,
such as the Daily
News, which was shut down by the government a few years
ago.
I call upon concerned fellow professionals in this country and those
around
the world who have helped tell our story of change, to go the extra
mile by
supporting the
re-establishment of dynamic institutions that
would foster the rights and
liberties of my people and champion the growth
of democracy.
My wish would be to see the establishment of a free press
in Zimbabwe sooner
rather than later.
Only a free press can ensure
that Zanu-PF and the MDC follow through with
the undertakings they made in
the deal.
Zimbabweans need access to a free press so they can be fully
informed of the
critical formulation of the new constitution and other
developments, such as
the socio-economic policies that the country will
adopt.
The ruling party has been accused of mass murder and torture. As a
result I
had hoped the deal would include provision for a process of
national
healing - such as a truth and reconciliation commission - but
unfortunately
this has has not been the case.
A free press needs to
operate to ensure crimes against humanity are not
swept under the carpet.
Until I see signs of one, I remain nervous to return
to my country.
http://www.iwpr.net
Since historic political settlement was signed, a wave of
forced evictions
has been reported.
By Chipo Sithole in Harare (ZCR
No. 165, 29-Sep-08)
White farmers in Zimbabwe say that since a
power-sharing deal between the
ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, MDC, was
signed, many have come under renewed
pressure to leave their land.
The Commercial Farmers Union, CFU - a
grouping of white farmers - said that
military officials and self-styled
former guerrillas of Zimbabwe's war of
independence invaded 42 more
white-owned farms within hours of the agreement
being signed between
President Robert Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai on September
15.
"Since [then], there has been an increased number of disruptions on
farms,
with new alleged beneficiaries arriving on many properties and
claiming
immediate access to the homesteads and crop lands, despite the fact
there is
no vacant possession [right to possess land in which there is no
current
occupant]," said a CFU report covering the period from September 17
to 19.
The report also noted that there has been an upsurge in the number
of
prosecutions for alleged offences under the Gazetted Land (Consequential
Provisions) Act, which was passed in December 2006, and makes it illegal for
a farmer to remain on a farm listed for acquisition. In the Rotten Row Court
in Harare, four white farmers face prosecution under the act for defying
orders to hand over their farms to black settlers.
"All [court]
summonses were issued after the signing of the recent
power-sharing
agreement," CFU president Doug Taylor-Freeme told IWPR.
Since the onset
of Mugabe's land invasions in 2000 - when land owned by
white farmers was
confiscated and given to poor black Zimbabweans and
political supporters -
only about 280 of an original 4,500 white commercial
farmers remain on their
farms.
Observers say that ZANU-PF hardliners now appear to be trying to
seize the
remaining farms before a new government is formed following the
political
settlement.
"It would seem the intention is to grab the
farms before the announcement of
the new all-inclusive government, which
might be very soon," said Alex
Dhewa, a businessman and political
analyst.
"The target obviously would be the remaining white
farmers."
John Worswick, head of white farmers' pressure group, Justice
for
Agriculture, JAG, agrees that there would appear to be a last-ditch
attempt
to remove those few white farmers still on their land.
"At
the moment, no remaining farmer appears to be safe from.what appears to
be a
final clean-up of any remaining white-owned land in Zimbabwe," said
Worswick.
"Although considering there has not been an active
government for six
months, the legality of [the seizures] is questionable,
they are having a
huge destabilising effect on confidence and hence
production."
Zimbabwe has been without a government since March, when
Tsvangirai won the
first round of the presidential election, but fell short
of an absolute
majority. Mugabe later won a controversial June 27
presidential runoff
unopposed after Tsvangirai withdrew, citing
state-sponsored violence against
his supporters.
Following the
elections, Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since independence
from Britain in
1980, has been forced to share power with rivals under
pressure from an
imploding economy.
The president insisted on safeguards in the
power-sharing agreement he has
entered with the opposition, designed to
ensure that his land reforms are
irreversible. For example, Article V,
Clause 5.5 deals with "the
irreversibility of.land acquisitions and
redistribution".
The Mugabe government has long claimed that the
opposition, which it
frequently accuses of being a puppet of former colonial
power Britain, was
planning to reverse the changes in land ownership in the
country if it
seized power.
However, the agreement also says that the
parties agree to "conduct a
comprehensive, transparent and non-partisan land
audit.. for the purpose of
establishing accountability and eliminating
multiple farm ownerships".
Yet senior officials in his government and in
the army, who benefited
immensely through his patronage networks, are
staunchly opposed to the
power-sharing deal, which they fear could reverse
the land redistribution
programme. Farmers suspect them of leading the
latest invasions.
Worswick said he believed that recent evictions were
planned by a clique of
ZANU-PF hardliners - rather than initiated through
official channels - as
one of the invaders reportedly turned up with an
offer letter apparently
signed by a minister and dated September
2.
Because the government declared two years ago that farm seizures were
at an
end, offer letters - in which the ministry offers farmland to
prospective
black farmers, who then use these offers to force white farmers
off their
land - issued after 2006 are suspect.
As head of JAG,
Worswick is informed of all new farm seizures, and he said
even farms
covered by Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection
Agreements, BIPPAS,
were being invaded in the latest round of evictions.
BIPPAS are
government-to-government agreements, which ensure that citizens
of one
country who invest in another are protected by the host government
from any
form of harassment. Under these, their investments are supposed to
be immune
to seizures.
Observers say a further threat to white productive farmers
could come from
Mugabe's promise during a speech on September 11 to give
land to those
traditional chiefs who had so far not benefited from the land
reform
programme.
The chiefs have mobilised support for Mugabe in the
rural areas.
"All [of these factors] are having a detrimental effect on
the already
reduced level of production of strategic crops this forthcoming
season -
which in fact is already upon us," said Worswick.
A
shortfall in the harvest can only do more damage to Zimbabwe's economy,
which has been on a downward spiral since the turn of the decade when Mugabe
first launched his controversial land-reform programme.
There is now
diplomatic pressure to end the seizures of the remaining
white-owned
farms.
IWPR has seen a diplomatic note sent by the South African embassy
in Harare
to the Zimbabwe government, and copied to Police
Commissioner-General
Augustine Chihuri.
The note reveals that South
African ambassador to Zimbabwe Mlungisi Mkhalima
has sought the intervention
of Zimbabwe's deputy foreign affairs minister
Reuben Marumahoko in halting
further farm seizures.
It makes reference to the south-eastern lowveld of
the country where South
African conglomerate Tongaat Hullet owns vast sugar
cane plantations which
are reportedly under siege by ZANU-PF
militants.
Digby Nesbitt, a farmer from that area, who grows seed cane
for the South
African company's sugar mill, said he was struggling to head
off his
eviction by Assistant Police Commisioner Edmore
Veterai.
Nesbitt told IWPR that he has been under siege from Veterai -
who is already
in contempt of three court orders to vacate Nesbitt's farm,
as well as an
interim relief order granted by the Southern African
Development Community,
SADC, tribunal in Windhoek, Namibia.
Sitting
around a green-baize card table in the Harare Club, Nesbitt - who
had come
to the capital to seek government intervention - said he could find
little
cause for optimism.
Yet the farmer, who has lived in Zimbabwe for
decades, said he was resolute
that he will not move an inch from his farm
where he runs an orphanage for
disadvantaged children.
A fellow white
farmer, who preferred to remain anonymous, said he thought
the reported
seizures were an attempt to grab land before the new government
comes
in.
"I even doubt the authenticity of the offer letters [the invaders]
are
brandishing. We have it on good authority that the last offer letters
were
issued at [the ZANU-PF national congress in] Goromonzi in December
2006. So
these offer letters they have are fake," he said.
"This is
ethnic cleansing, pure and simple," said another farmer, who
declined to be
named.
Chipo Sithole is the pseudonym of an IWPR journalist in Zimbabwe.
http://www.zimbabwetoday.co.uk
Chilling accounts of a new wave of farm
invasions
Hopes that the signing of the power-sharing agreement would
result in an end
to the forcible evictions of white farmers in Zimbabwe have
been dashed with
the news that the reverse is true. Taking advantage of the
current stalemate
between the ruling parties, a fresh wave of farm invasions
has been
launched.
It is currently believed that another 35
white-owned farms have been grabbed
in the last two weeks, usually by
combined bands of Zanu-PF militia and
so-called War Veterans. In many cases
the farms are taken over and stripped
of everything of value, before the
gangs move on to another target.
The President of the Commercial Farmers
Union (CFU), Trevor Gifford, told me
that things were getting progressively
worse. "There are a lot of new
invasions," he said, "the worst areas being
Manicaland, Masvingo and
Mashonaland East, West and Central." The invasions
had been regularly
reported to police, but no action was taken.
One
white farmer is recounting an incident at his farm which left him
staring
down the barrel of a gun wielded by a self-proclaimed top official
of the
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
Mr. Filippo Marucchi-Chierro,
originally from Italy, who farms at Trelawne
but has never been listed for
acquisition, described how a Mr. Andrew
Muzonzini, with an ID number
63-447595B-18, describing himself as the
Political Commissar of the CIO,
drove onto his property on September 12.
After an argument over whether
and how Mr. Marucchi-Chierro should move out,
Mr. Muzonzini shouted: "The
only thing you guys (white farmers) will
understand is if we use
this."
He then produced an AK-47 weapon from his vehicle, and pointed it
at the
farmer.
Mr. Marucchi-Chierro is still on his farm, but for how
long remains
questionable. Meanwhile the latest invasions are certain to
disrupt
preparations for the new rainy season, now only weeks away - this in
a
country where food shortages remain acute, and every farmer needs to
produce
as much as possible.
Another farmer I spoke to, Mr. Swan
Hurbbet, had this to say: "Invading
farms in Zimbabwe has ceased to be an
event of our time. It is now a
tradition, passed down from one generation to
another."
Posted on Monday, 29 September 2008 at 15:46
WOZA demands the immediate forming of a new government in a street demonstration
in Bulawayo today
OVER 600 members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) and
Men of Zimbabwe Arise (MOZA) took to the streets of Bulawayo this afternoon,
marching straight to Mhlahlandlela Government Complex to demand the immediate
forming of a new government as outlined in the 15 September power-sharing deal.
Despite this complex being directly opposite the Zimbabwe Republic Police Drill
Hall, no members appear to have been arrested at the time of this release.
On several occasions, police officers walked by the protest looking the
other way. Workers at the three government complexes along the route met the
peaceful procession with big smiles. They demanded copies of the Woza Moya
newsletter covering our position as regards the power-sharing agreement. At
Mhlahlandlela, the security guard received the newsletter and some placards with
a broad smile and handed them in to the receptionist.
The protest began
at the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) where participants delivered
a protest note, complaining about poor electricity supply and high tariffs.
Bystanders shouted out – ‘Well done, good job – good job!’ The procession then
proceeded several blocks to the government complex where it ended.
The
theme of the protest was ‘actions speak louder than words’. Despite it being 15
days since the deal was signed, no progress has been made in forming a new
government although it was to have been implemented immediately. Food prices are
soaring, electricity and water cuts are increasing but no one seems interested
or able to deal decisively with these issues and the ordinary citizens continues
to carry the ever-increasing burden. WOZA members, along with the rest of the
nation, are starving but unable to access food aid despite recognition in the
deal that the situation is urgent.
WOZA is therefore demanding immediate
action regarding the formation of a new government that will begin to work on
solving urgent social issues, like food, electricity and water. We also
requested that the mothers of the nation arise and demand a liveable peace.
During the protest, WOZA members chanted in Ndebele – ‘ayihlale phansi
ihambe umthetho’ (sit down and maintain discipline). This was sang both as a way
to ensure that the activists maintained non-violent discipline and also as a
message to politicians to sit down and respect the deal. Other songs sang
include a WOZA favourite – ‘this is an issue that men are failing to solve’.
Some of the placards written by members read – ‘we can’t eat empty
promises’; ‘once bitten twice shy’; ‘we are hungry’ and ‘three principals, the
talk show is over’.
The protest was also a test to see if freedoms of
expression and assembly have opened up and WOZA commend the police for looking
the other way. In our view police did not act to arrest anyone because they are
fed up and personally support the protest issue.
BILL WATCH 38/2008
[28th September 2008]
The Senate will sit on Tuesday 7th October, the House of Assembly on 14th October
[See end of Bulletin for latest Statutory Instrument]
New Government
There is no Constitutional obstacle to the formation of a new government as soon as the parties have agreed to how Ministerial portfolios will be shared out and each party has put forward names to fill its allotted posts [see Bill Watch 37]. Latest press reports indicate that the government is likely to be formed soon after Mr Mugabe's return early this week.
Structures of Proposed New Government
Note: "Government" used in its wider sense can refer to all branches and levels of government and its implementing bodies, but "Government" here is used to refer to "executive authority" at national level.
The structures of the Inclusive Government are based on the provisions of the present Constitution and the changes provided for by the Power-Sharing Agreement, which will have to be confirmed by Constitution Amendment 19. [Of course there is nothing to preclude further changes being included in Constitution Amendment 19 provided all parties agree]. The following is an outline of these structures [also showing the representation of political parties and comparisons with the outgoing government] but does not list their functions and responsibilities.
President and two Vice-Presidents
These posts exist under the present Constitution. The Power-Sharing Agreement stipulates that the President will be Mr Mugabe [ZANU-PF] and that he will appoint two Vice-Presidents nominated by himself "and /or ZANU-PF".
Prime Minister and two deputies
These are newly created posts and will have to be provided for by Constitutional Amendment 19. All three will be formally appointed by the President. The Power-Sharing Agreement stipulates that the Prime Minister will be Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and that he shall be appointed "pending the enactment of Constitution Amendment 19". There will 1 Deputy Prime Minister from MDT-T, and 1 from MDC-M.
Ministers and Deputy Ministers
In the Outgoing Government there were:
32 Ministers [including Ministers of State], all ZANU PF
22 Deputy Ministers, all ZANU PF
In the New Government there will be:
31 Ministers: 15 ZANU-PF, 13 MDC-T, 3 MDC-M.
15 Deputy Ministers: 8 ZANU-PF, 6 MDC-T, 1 MDC-M.
According to Article 20.1.6 (5) and (6) of the Power-Saving Agreement Ministers and Deputy Ministers will be party nominees formally appointed by the President in accordance with the Agreement. They may be relieved of their duties only after consultation among the leaders of all the political parties participating in the Inclusive Government.
Under the present Constitution a Minister must either be a Senator or a member of the House of Assembly when appointed or become one within three months. The Power-Sharing Agreement does not basically alter this but it also provides that each party may have one Minister who is not a member of Parliament. These 3 Ministers will become non-voting members of the House of Assembly.
Cabinet
Under our present Constitution: the Cabinet consists of the President, the Vice-President/s and "such Ministers as the President may from time to appoint". [Deputy Ministers are not eligible to be members of Cabinet]. Ministers appointed to the Cabinet hold office as such at the President's pleasure [Constitution, section 31G]. In other words, Ministers are not automatically [ex officio] members of the Cabinet, and appointment to the Cabinet is distinct from appointment as a Minister [and requires the taking of a special Cabinet member's oath of office]. In the past, however, President Mugabe has appointed all Ministers as members of Cabinet.
The Outgoing Cabinet: included all 32 Ministers. With the President and the two Vice-Presidents total membership was 35 [plus the Attorney-General as an ex officio non-voting member of Cabinet].
The New Cabinet: the Power-Sharing Agreement does not in as many words state that all Ministers will be members of Cabinet. The apportionment of Ministerial posts, however, is so carefully detailed that most analysts have assumed that all Ministers will be members of Cabinet. In which case the Cabinet can be expected to consist of: the President [chairperson], the Prime Minister [deputy chairperson], two Vice-Presidents, two Deputy Prime Ministers and all 31 Ministers - total membership 37 [plus the Attorney-General, whose position as an ex officio non-voting member of Cabinet is not altered by the Power-Sharing Agreement].
The Constitution has never provided for Deputy Ministers to be members of Cabinet, and the Power-Sharing Agreement does not change this.
Council of Ministers
Article 20.1.5 of the Power-Sharing Agreement provides for a Council of Ministers consisting of "all the Cabinet Ministers, chaired by the Prime Minister". It has almost the same composition as the Cabinet but it will not include the President, the two Vice-Presidents nor the Attorney-General.
Total membership will therefore be 34 - Prime Minister, 2 Deputy Prime Ministers and 31 Ministers.
Parliamentary News
High Court Application for New Election of Speaker
Independent MP Jonathan Moyo and three MDC-M MPs have lodged a High Court application to set aside the election of Mr Lovemore Moyo [MDC-T] as Speaker of the House of Assembly on the ground that the Clerk of Parliament failed to conduct the election by secret ballot. The allegation is that many MDC-T MPs displayed their completed ballot papers to other MPs before depositing them in the ballot box. Section 39 of the Constitution states that the election must be in accordance the House of Assembly Standing Orders which require a secret ballot [without going into detail as to exactly how it should be conducted].
Vacancies in Parliament to be filled
There is new vacancy in the House of Assembly following the recent death of the ZANU-PF MP for Guruve North, Mr Mabharanga, making three vacancies in all. In the Senate there are three vacant elected seats requiring by-elections, and two vacant appointed seats. Section 39 of the Electoral Act requires the gazetting of a by-election polling date within 14 days of notification of a vacancy. But presumably by-elections will not be held pending Constitutional Amendment 19 - to give effect to Article 21 of the Power-Sharing Agreement, which envisages a 12-month moratorium on by-elections, during which time any vacancy will be filled by nomination by the party holding the seat prior to the occurrence of the vacancy.
Local Authorities
Court challenge to Minister's appointment of councillors
An elected Bulawayo city councillor has challenged the Minister of Local Government's appointment of nine additional councillors to the Bulawayo City Council. Section 4A of the Urban Councils Act [only added to the Act in January this year] permits the Minister to appoint a limited number of "councillors representing special interests Š who shall hold office during the pleasure of the Minister". The complaint is that the Minister's appointees do not represent special interests, and that most of them have been appointed merely to give ZANU-PF [defeated in the 29th March poll] representation on the council.
SADC Tribunal - Land Case Update
The SADC Tribunal has still not handed down its decision in the Campbell case. [Reminder: Mr Campbell and 76 other applicants have applied for a ruling that the Government's land reform programme is in breach of Zimbabwe's treaty obligations as a member of SADC.]
The Tribunal has, however, dismissed the application by 343 resettlement farmers who complained that they could not move on to land allocated to them by the Government because of the Tribunal's interim protection orders granted earlier this year in the Campbell case. The Tribunal rejected the application, saying that it had no jurisdiction over the matter because there was no dispute between the applicants and the State of Zimbabwe.
Statutory Instruments & General Notices
Gazette of 19th September [not actually published until 22nd September]:
SI 128/2008 - new registration fees under Insurance Act
SI 129/2008 - new registration fees under Pension and Provident Funds Act
SI 130/2008 - new tariff of fees for services provided by messengers of the magistrates court
Gazette Extraordinary of 22nd September:
SI 131/2008 - rules for the licensing and operation of Foreign Exchange Licensed Shops
Gazette Extraordinary of 22nd September:
SI 132/2008 - new income tax bands for the 2008 tax year [replacing those enacted by SI 111/2008 on the 30th July]. The only changes are for the period 1st August to 31st December [with bands for the period 1st to 31st August expressed in old currency and bands for 1st September to 31st December expressed in new currency].
Gazette of 26th September:
SI 133/2008 - increases carbon tax [to 20 cents per litre] and the NOCZIM debt redemption levy [also to 20 cents per litre]. Effective immediately.
SI 135/2008 - increases customs duty on petrol and diesel to 10% or 77 cents per litre, whichever is the higher [previously 5% or $5 000 per litre (old currency)]. Effective immediately.
GN 113/2008 - lists public holidays for 2009
Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.
HARARE, 29 September 2008 (IRIN) - The
leadership of Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is claiming that
state-controlled media are still using negative reporting, in contravention of a
power-sharing deal signed by the country's main political parties on September
15.
Photo:
IRIN
Free
speech for all
President Robert Mugabe, leader of ZANU-PF, and prime
minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC, and Arthur Mutambara,
leader of a smaller MDC faction, are parties to the deal brokered by former
South African president Thabo Mbeki.
According to Article 19 of the
power-sharing deal: "The parties hereby agree that steps be taken to ensure that
the public media provides balanced and fair coverage to all political parties
for their legitimate and political activities."
It further states, "The
public and private media shall refrain from using abusive language that may
incite hostility, political intolerance and ethnic hatred, or unfairly
undermines political parties and other organisations."
Lovemore Moyo, an
MDC legislator and Speaker of the House of Assembly, said at a media awards
ceremony in the capital, Harare, that "Despite the signing of a political
agreement by the political parties, we have sections of the public media that
continue to report negatively about the opposition leadership."
The
National Journalistic and Media Awards (NJAMA) honours journalists from the
private, state and "underground" media. "I am sure all of you are aware that the
African continent is replete with examples of partisan reporting that has led to
conflict and instability," said Moyo, the awards ceremony's guest of honour.
He told the audience that press controls would be lifted during his term
of office. "Government interference in the media should be discouraged, to
ensure impartial and accurate reporting.
"Our parliament has, over the
years, passed various media laws that have hindered freedom of expression and
made it difficult for journalists to operate. As parliament, we stand ready to
play our part in the liberalisation of the media, in line with the spirit of the
agreement among the political parties."
Since the power-sharing deal was
signed, the MDC has continued to be vilified by media columnists, including
"Nathaniel Manheru", believed to be a pseudonym for President Robert Mugabe's
spokesman, George Charamba.
MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said in a
statement: "The MDC is calling on all journalists in the country, especially
those in the state media, to play a positive role in moving our country forward
through assisting national healing and creating hope.
We note with dismay that the
state-controlled media continues with its use of hate speech and propaganda,
which flies in the face of the spirit of national engagement and the political
settlement
"We note with
dismay that the state-controlled media continues with its use of hate speech and
propaganda, which flies in the face of the spirit of national engagement and the
political settlement in Harare recently.
"The ZBC [Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation] and the [state-controlled] Herald [daily newspaper] continue to
give acres of space to analysts who want to poison the spirit of dialogue. The
public media should play a pivotal role in healing the nation and give people
hope."
Information minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said he was unaware of any
media attacks by the public media on the MDC. "Who has attacked them? I am not
aware of any attacks. I would also urge the MDC to be rational and not
confrontational when dealing with certain issues. I am sure they wanted to
bulldoze their way into the newsrooms, but the editors exercise their
independence and neutrality."
Matthew Takaona, president of the Zimbabwe
Union of Journalists, told IRIN: "The inclusion of Article 19 is a reflection
and acknowledgement that the media has played a role in fomenting some of the
problems facing this country; in particular, promotion of divisions and
polarisation through hate speech."
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations]
In a recent meeting with diplomats, faced with serious
concerns about the
workability of the arrangements negotiated with Zanu PF,
Morgan Tsvangirai
laughingly said ³this new government is like a union
between a donkey and a
horse, it could produce a mule not very pretty, but
functional². One of
the diplomats responded that mules are sterile they
cannot reproduce
themselves. That is probably just as well!
Because
the deal has not yet been even consummated, we do not have the
beginnings, so
no progress. I understand that Mr. Mugabe came back from his
trip to the UN
General Assembly in New York this morning. It had been
rumored that he was
not due in until next Friday; so that is progress. Now
we need to get things
moving so that a new government can be sworn by next
weekend and we can
finally start work.
The one thing that observers are generally failing to
see in this situation
is that the swearing in of a new Cabinet and government
will in fact signal
the end of the Zanu PF Junta. Over the past ten years we
have seen a gradual
shift from Cabinet government to rule by a
civilian/military junta. This
Junta remains firmly in charge today and is
working at fever pitch to sweep
their tracks and secure a last minute meal at
the nations expense. I think
they have now accepted that their time in
control is nearly over and that
the SADC process has gone too far to be
reversed.
Once a Cabinet is sworn in and Morgan Tsvangirai becomes Prime
Minister with
responsibility for supervising and managing all government
Ministries, we
will again be governed by a more conventional government
system power and
control will shift from the Junta to the Cabinet where it
actually belongs.
The effectiveness of the new arrangements will then
depend on our ability to
mould the new team into a cohesive whole that will
work together to put the
country back onto its feet. Given our recent
history, that will not be
easy but at the same time its not impossible. We
have many advantages over
other States that have had to try and bring their
countries back into the
mainstream of development after conflict and decline.
We have not been swept
by violence and armed insurrection. Our armed forces,
remain generally
disciplined and professional, they will take orders. Our
economy is in
tatters and dangerously close to complete collapse, but the
fundamentals are
all there.
If we finally get this deal consummated,
MDC will have very largely achieved
what it set out to achieve 9 years ago
a peaceful, legal and democratic
transfer of power to a new government that
can effect fundamental change in
the way our affairs are run. Sure we have
had to compromise and share power
with Zanu PF and the transfer has only come
about because our neighbors have
helped us hammer out a deal that enables us
to work together during the
transition, but once the new team is in place and
starts work, we can say
that power is once more in democratic hands and has
been wrested from a
military dominated Junta that was destroying our
country.
This past week we have been trying to meet all stakeholders in
an effort to
try and find out what are the fundamental problems and concerns
of the
people who make things happen in Zimbabwe. A team led by the Prime
Minister
designate has met the food industry, the bankers, the mining
industry
leadership and the combined farmers unions. It is not a pretty
picture.
The food people told us they have insufficient stocks to feed
the country,
that the capacity to finance and physically import the
quantities needed to
prevent starvation and hardship were just not available.
Industrialists told
us they were working at 10 per cent of their capacity and
could not fund the
necessary recovery in their activity if the wider economy
was stabilized and
returned to growth. The miners said that three quarters of
all gold mines
were closed and overall the industry was operating at 20 per
cent of
capacity. The bankers said they feared for their staff as crowds of
people
gathered at all banking halls and ATM¹s in a desperate effort to gain
access
to their funds as inflation, now at over a billion per cent per
annum,
simply destroyed their savings and salaries while they stood in
queues.
Farmers pleaded for security on their farms and the return of the
rule of
law and said that with 4 weeks to go to the annual planting season,
only 5
per cent of the necessary inputs for the new crop were in place. They
told
us that if nothing was done about this, yet another year of shortages
and
hunger would be inevitable in 2009 with no chance of relief until 2010.
A
delegation from the cities told us that water shortages were now critical
that public health and sanitation were in jeopardy throughout the
country.
Teachers told us that virtually no real teaching was going on in
schools and
that many students would simply have to repeat the year to get
back on
track.
Despite the daunting and stark conditions confronting
all sectors of our
economy and society we were encouraged as, sector by
sector, leadership
pledged themselves to help us get out of this mess as
quickly as possible.
Just yesterday I was with a team who were working on
what to do in the first
100 days of the new administration. How to improve
services and stabilise
the economy. How to get Zimbabwe working
again.
Can we do it? Yes we can! Mules may not be pretty but they can
work and work
effectively. But we have to demonstrate that before a skeptical
and wary
world. We also have to try and meet the needs and aspirations of
the
millions of our people who have patiently supported us and fought with us
in
what has been a principled and non-violent democratic struggle to regain
our
freedoms. We are nearly there.
Eddie Cross
Bulawayo, 28th
September 2008
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=4914
September 28, 2008
By Jane
Madembo
A WEEK ago, I met a South African woman, a professor at Columbia
University,
in a pub in Manhattan, New York. We immediately started talking
politics,
the effectiveness or lack thereof, of South African President
Mbeki's role
in mediating efforts in Zimbabwe. Finally, she just said, "You
know what?
You Zimbabweans are a little passive. In South Africa we don't
mess around.
Mugabe would have gone a long time ago."
A week later,
she was proven right. Mbeki was forced to resign.
But in Zimbabwe, where
the President has done far more harm than what former
President Mbeki was
accused of in South Africa, Mugabe still reigns supreme.
This week Mugabe
has been at the United Nations, as he has been every year
of his presidency.
For nearly thirty years Robert Mugabe has travelled from
Zimbabwe to New
York to attend UN meetings. Nothing stops him.
The United Nations
headquarters in New York is located in a posh area of
Manhattan. New York,
compared to Harare, is like paradise. The street lights
shine bright night
and day. The restaurants feature the best cuisine from
all over the world.
The supermarkets overflow with food from every corner of
the globe. Food
vendors line up on street corners. Clothes, from the best
designers in the
world are stocked in boutiques. In this city which never
sleeps, there is
everything that man wants and money can buy.
If Mugabe had taken a ride
on the subway, he would have noticed that even
the sewer rats in New York
City are well-fed and healthy. There is plenty of
food for
everyone.
In New York, Mugabe and his delegation of 40 were able to
forget about the
other country called Zimbabwe. There, the streets have been
dark for a long
time and the buildings look like those of a ghost town. The
people on the
streets are hungry and desperate. Supermarket are deserted,
the shelves are
empty.
Over there, even if you have money, there is
little that you can buy.
Therefore, it is not difficult to speculate what
members of the delegation
packed into their baggage on return
home.
Back at the UN, these meetings have become so routine that people
like
President Mugabe and his delegation, with little in the world to worry
about, sleep through them. The words 'human rights, poverty, development,
equality, justice, democracy and freedom of speech' start to seem like the
drone of a plane flying overhead.
They mean little to
them.
Instead, Mugabe called for the lifting of sanctions against
Zimbabwe.
Perhaps someone should have advised Mugabe that, instead of the
40-member
delegation, he should have brought along Morgan Tsvangirai. What a
difference that would have made in the eyes of the world? Instead of him
calling for the lifting of sanctions, it should have been Tsvangirai
speaking. I doubt that anyone took Mugabe's call seriously.
Watching
Mugabe, one is inclined to wonder whether there are any cooler
heads within
the ruling Zanu-PF party.
Refuse lies uncollected around the city of
Harare. The streets lights don't
function. There is no electricity most of
the time. No medicine. There is
little food in schools, or anywhere else.
There is no money in the banks.
Parents are paying school fees in
cows
But that's not Mugabe's problem. As far as he is concerned it is
Bush's and
the British's fault.
Is it?
I once read an article
by a woman who was agonizing over getting her
82-year-old father to stop
driving. She said his car has numerous dents from
bumping into parked cars,
trees, parking meters and other minor traffic
accidents. On the few
occasions when they have travelled together, the
father insisted on driving
the car, leaving her to clench her jaws and hold
on to her seat in fear as
he sped along dangerously. Finally, she called the
police on her father.
After a lot of drama, he finally surrendered the keys.
Despite the fact
that he placed the life of other road users on line with
his erratic
driving, no amount of reasoning would get her father to stop
driving. He
remained as stubborn as ever, insisting that he had been driving
all his
life.
The old man in the above story has something in common with
Mugabe.
Mugabe, who has been President of Zimbabwe for almost 30 years,
views
Zimbabwe as his personal property, like a car. He owns it. George
Charamba
is right. Mugabe will never capitulate.
Never mind that the
people of Zimbabwe are struggling, hungry, and jobless.
Never mind that they
want change. He alone has the solution to the country's
problems. The
solution according to Mugabe is that the West shouldn't
interfere in
Zimbabwe's politics. They should look the other way when he
abuses people.
They should look the other way and ignore the hungry stream
of Zimbabwean
refugees arriving on their borders.
Mugabe won't be going back home until
October 3. Meanwhile, the people of
Zimbabwe must wait as they have been
waiting for the last ten years for
change. The MDC may bite their nails or
whatever until Mugabe comes back.
The MDC is in danger of losing the
people's support. There was a sense of
anti-climax after the signing of the
agreement. There were no loud cheers.
We didn't see any refugees streaming
across the border going back to
Zimbabwe. Instead, there are more questions
than answers about the nature of
this agreement.
Mugabe is as
stubborn and as rigid as ever.
The brave men and women MDC members of
Parliament are hardworking ordinary
people. Now, they are coming into the
fold. They will get houses and other
perks. In time, they too will get
comfortable, and may forget what brought
them there in the first place.
After all, when you are sitting dry by the
fireplace, it's hard to go back
into the cold.
Nothing will change in Zimbabwe with Mugabe at the
controls, and as he said,
in his interview with Associated Press at the UN,
he is not going anywhere
soon.
This is the reality my friends. Unless
cooler heads prevail, Mugabe will
drive Zimbabwe into the ditch.
http://voanews.com
By Akwei Thompson
Washington,DC
28 September 2008
Earlier this month a
power-sharing agreement was signed in Zimbabwe between
the ruling Zanu-PF
and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Under the deal, a new
government is to be formed with ministers from Both
ZANU-PF and the MDC.
However, follow-up talks to elect a power sharing
cabinet have
stalled.
In his assessment of the current political mood in the country,
John
Makumbe, professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe,
Harare told VOA's Akwei Thompson there is a feeling of disquiet and concern
among the people amidst all the wrangling between the two parties.
"I
think there's is a little bit of uneasiness. People are a bit tired of
waiting and they would like the new government to be put in place as soon as
possible," Makumbe said.
Professor Makumbe said it would take some
hard bargaining among the parties
to "in fact agree on identifying first of
all which are the key ministries
and then allocate those key mninistries on
pro rata basis - on the basis of
what parliamentary representation each
party has.."
In the meantime Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has warned
that Zimbabwe is
facing a humanitarian crisis in the coming months if a new
power sharing
government is not formed soon.
ZANU-PF, however,
appears to be trying to hold on to all the key ministries
and to give the
MDC formation only the "peripheral, only the minor or
trivial ministries,"
Makumbe noted. Makumbe feared that the talks may end
bein mediated again by
SADC
He characterized President Mugabe's recent appeal at the UN for the
immediate removal of sanctions which have brought "untold suffering to his
people, as hot air. He called for the sanctions to be tightened to
"encourage Mugabe and motivate him to do the right thing."
http://www.radiovop.com
MASVINGO, September 29 2008 - War
Veterans Association provincial
chairman, Isaiah Muzenda, was last week
given a thorough beating as
retribution by wood poachers whom he had tried
to relieve of their loot,
police have confirmed.
Muzenda was hit with a log resulting in him sustaining several
injuries on
the head, after he was mobbed by close to ten people who were
looking for
firewood in a farm bordering his, near the small mining town of
Mashava,
located about 30 kilometers outside Masvingo.
Police said they
have since identified the wood poachers, and charged
them with
assault.
Muzenda, who once led a delegation of former guerilla
fighters into a
dairy farmer's plot late last year- got a taste of his own
medicine when the
ten asked him where he thought they would get money to buy
firewood, given
the incessant power cuts by Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority, (ZESA)
Holdings.
"When he asked them to leave
the firewood, they hit back and quizzed
him over the power outages. When he
tried to instill fear in them, they
started beating him with a log, before
fleeing," a witness said.
But Muzenda, who is also the provincial
lands secretary in ZANU PF,
said he had caught the ten vandalizing equipment
at his farm.
"They were burning grass for no reason and
vandalizing farm
equipment," he said.
The provincial war
veterans chairman is recuperating at home after
being treated at Masvingo
General Hospital.
Church of the Province of Central Africa
The Diocese
of Harare
From the Bishop of Harare
P.O. Box
HR7331
Harare
Pastoral Letter September 2008
Theme: God Our
Refuge
Dear Sisters and Brothers
I am still under shock as I write
this Pastoral letter. A young mother and
her son about 10 years old appeared
at the doorstep of our flat recently
asking for food. After more than 40
years as a priest I know the difference
between a professional street beggar
and a hungry person genuinely asking
for food. She was no street beggar at
all. Going by her appearance she had
not seen water to bathe for a long
time. This young mother represents many
others in our community today in
Zimbabwe.
As you all know, most people have been without running water in
their homes
for months, let alone, electricity, and there are no affordable
food items
in the shops. Cholera, a waterborne disease, has claimed several
lives in
Chitungwiza. Children are being sent home from schools because
teachers like
all workers are underpaid. One does not have to speak about
unemployment any
more, because the majority of our work force is at home as
they cannot
afford bus fare to work. Housebreaking and other criminal
activities have
increased. In short we have been messed up by a few men and
women who have
ravaged our economy through corruption and patronage. As
voters we have done
our best but our participation in the elections has been
fruitless. Good
governance, justice and peace remain a pipe dream for is all
in Zimbabwe.
Selfish leadership has no room for the neighbour. Such kind of
leadership
should be reminded of the words of Job:
"Naked I came from my
mother's womb and naked I will depart".
In a situation like this the
following prayer may be of help to you:
Jesus Christ
when scorn and
shame besiege us
and hope is veiled in grief,
hold us in your wounded
hands
and make your face shine on us again,
for you are our Lord and God.
Amen.
We refer you to Ps.31 for further personal
reflection.
Diocese of Rochester
As many of you know my wife and I
were in the United Kingdom to attend
Lambeth Conference. Whilst in the UK,
we took the opportunity to
re-establish our diocesan link with the Diocese
of Rochester. It was a happy
occasion to formalise our relationship. Apart
from visiting some parishes in
that diocese and staying with host families,
I had the opportunity to preach
in the Rochester Cathedral under the
leadership of the very able Dean and a
very welcoming congregation. My wife
and I were very much uplifted in
fellowship with so many sisters and
brothers in that cathedral. At the
Eucharist the intercessor prayed for
"Michael, the Bishop of Rochester,
Brian, the Assistant Bishop, and
Sebastian, the Bishop of Harare." This was
one important way of
demonstrating our new relationship. Likewise we are
asking our intercessors
to pray for "Sebastian our Bishop, Michael Bishop of
Rochester and Brian,
his assistant". For your information the full names of
the two bishops are:
Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester and Brian
Castle, Bishop of Tonbridge
(Tonbridge is part of Rochester Diocese).
The Diocese of
Rochester has an established Link Committee, and we are in
the process of
forming one. The Link committees will work together in order
to strengthen
our relationship. We are going to ask you to submit profiles
of your
parishes so as to be linked with those in Rochester. We are glad to
hear
that the link between Tafara and Rainham in Rochester Diocese has
continued
despite the temporary suspension of the link. If there are some
parishes
which had links with Rochester before the suspension and would like
to
resume them, please let us know.
While we were in Rochester
Diocese, Rainham church organised a special
evening prayer for Zimbabwe with
colour slides taken by Bishop Brian during
his recent visit to Harare
showing locked churches and open air services as
well as empty supermarket
shelves. It was a very touching service,
especially to know the concerns
expressed by our brothers and sisters in
Rochester
Diocese.
Lambeth Conference 2008
The Lambeth Conference is
a gathering of bishops from the entire Anglican
Communion which met for the
first time in 1888. It meets every ten years to
discuss issues of common
concern in the mission of the church today. In the
words of the Archbishop
of Canterbury: "The chief aims of our time together
are, first, that we
become more confident in our Anglican identity, by
deepening our awareness
of how we are responsible to and for each other; and
second, that we grow in
energy and in enthusiasm for our task of leading the
work of mission in our
church."
The conference gives bishops a chance not only to get to
know each other
personally, but also to share stories from different parts
of the world and
the cultural contexts they come from. This year's
conference was attended by
670 bishops out of approximately 800 bishops in
the Anglican Communion.
Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda did not
attend.
One of the issues that came up among others was
homosexuality, especially
the blessing of same sex marriages and ordination
of openly gays and
lesbians. Lambeth's position was that homosexuality is a
sensitive pastoral
and divisive issue that has to be handled with care.
Lambeth discussed this
issue in a very responsible manner by emphasising the
importance of the
family bond in the Communion whereby members of one family
do not have to
agree on all issues but still remain a family. Contrary to
the forecast by
the media that the Anglican Communion was about to break up,
the 670-
bishops present expressed their allegiance to the Archbishop of
Canterbury
and the Communion. It was also made clear and agreed upon, after
long
discussion in small groups where all the bishops were able to make an
input,
that the ordination of gays and lesbians and blessings of same sex
marriages
was to stop forthwith and the discussion about these matters was
to
continue.
You may have heard that several bishops met in
Jerusalem prior to Lambeth
expressing their unwillingness to participate at
the Lambeth Conference over
the issue of homosexuality. However a good
number of those who met in
Jerusalem also attended Lambeth to show their
allegiance to Canterbury and
the Anglican Communion. Even those who stayed
away have not severed
relationship with Canterbury.
There
were many other areas of serious concern such as the political crises
in
Zimbabwe, Darfur and Pakistan. My wife and I were surprised and indeed
moved
to come across so many bishops and their spouses who were very much
aware
about the persecution in our diocese and assured us of their prayers.
Archbishop Rowan Williams and his wife Jane personally pray for Zimbabwe
daily in their chapel. They are indeed a gift to the Anglican Communion. We
came home feeling very much encouraged by the solidarity we experienced at
Lambeth.
We were also reminded of our responsibility in
Zimbabwe to pray for other
areas of conflict in the worldwide Communion. We
rarely hear of such places
mentioned in our intercessions. Once more we
appeal to clergy to remind
those who lead the prayers that the Anglican
Church goes beyond our national
boundaries and that we have a duty to pray
for one another and especially
for those in troubled areas of the
world.
62nd Session of Synod
Synod was held on 29 and 30
August 2008. We want to thank you, especially
those who had the opportunity
to discuss the agenda before Synod in their
congregations. This helped a
great deal to make our deliberations at Synod
more meaningful and also
faster. A good number of resolutions were passed,
and it is our sincere hope
that they will be implemented. We do believe that
your delegates have since
reported back to you about the resolutions taken a
Synod. We will be
approaching some members to serve on various commissions
to form the newly
established Diocesan Council.
Chapter Appointments
We are
pleased to announce the names of the new Chapter of the Cathedral of
St Mary
and All Saints:
Canon H. Chifunyise, Canon T. Madeyi, Canon D. Manyau,
Canon J. Mudowaya,
Canon F. Mutamiri (Dean), Canon C. Tapera, Canon W.
Zhuwakino to be
installed in the Cathedral in the near future. Canons D.
Nhema, M.
Madziwanyika, M. Makoni, who are in active retirement will serve
as honorary
canons of the Cathedral.
Ordination
God
willing there will be ordination of the following candidates at Banket
Church on 27 September 2008 at 9am:
Rev. Taurai Constantine
Kachembere
Mr Alexander Mahlava
Mr. Naboth Manzungo
Mr.
Boyman Mancama
M. Mahomed Selemani
Please pray for them and their
families.
Political Agreement
The news of the deal between
MDC and ZANUPF is most a most welcome
development. We hope, however that the
deal was motivated by and has the
interests of the people at heart and that
there is serious commitment to its
implementation on all
sides.
Your Bishop
Signed +Sebastian Harare
HARARE, 29 September 2008 (PlusNews) - AIDS
activists are hoping that the country's new administration will make good on
promises to urgently improve access to affordable HIV/AIDS treatment and
services at state hospitals.
Photo:
Obinna Anyadike/IRIN
NGOs want
to resume their work supporting people living with
HIV
The country's three political parties -
ZANU-PF and the two factions of the majority Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) - signed a power-sharing deal on 15 September, ending one of the worst
periods of inter-party political violence since Zimbabwe gained independence in
1980.
Despite scepticism that the three parties will be able to work
together, the deal has brought hope to many ordinary Zimbabweans, particularly
those living with HIV, who have been battling to cope in the current harsh
economic and political environment.
Of the estimated 320,000 people in
need of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, only about 100,000 are accessing the
medication at public health facilities. Besides the treatment gap, government
hospitals are struggling to deliver services in the face of shortages of drugs,
medical staff and foreign currency.
Zimbabwe's social welfare minister
banned the operations of all non-governmental organisations (NGOs) during the
run-up to the June 27 presidential runoff, compounding the lack of services
available from the public health sector. Included in the ban
were about 400 organisations providing support services to people living
with HIV, such as home-based care, orphan care and ARV treatment.
Although the ban was lifted after an international outcry from human
rights activists, in reality, only those organisations running ARV programmes
were allowed to resume their work; the beneficiaries of other HIV support
services, including orphans and vulnerable children, were left to fend for
themselves.
NGOs affected by the ban are now hoping to be allowed to
continue their work without undue interference and restrictions by the
government.
High expectations for new government
Bernard Nyathi, president of the Zimbabwe HIV and AIDS Activist
Union, who is living with HIV, told IRIN/PlusNews that under the new
administration, parliament would cease to be the "rubber stamp" it had been for
the past 28 years when ZANU-PF dominated.
"Through appropriate legal frameworks,
members of parliament ... could help improve the lives of us people living with
HIV. We have no doubt about that and we are very optimistic," said Nyathi. "The
welfare of HIV-positive Zimbabweans has, for too long, been ignored."
The welfare of HIV-positive Zimbabweans has, for
too long, been ignored
Chairman of the Zimbabwe National Network of People Living with HIV and
AIDS (ZNNP+), Benjamin Mazhindu, shared Nyathi's optimism. "In previous years
there has been serious under-funding of key ministries, such as health and
social welfare, with ministries such as defence being given priority," he said.
"In an all-inclusive government, budget allocations won't just be the
decision of one party that has a majority in the house, as was the case before.
Our hope, as people living with HIV, rests on the fact that budget proposals
will [now] be heavily debated in parliament."
Mazhindu added that as
soon as the new cabinet was sworn in, ZNNP+ would mobilise its members to start
lobbying for urgent action on access to treatment, and for increasing budget
allocations to the health sector.
Another challenge facing the new
government will be to improve relations with donors, to secure more external
HIV/AIDS funding. As a result of the political crisis, many international donors
have pulled out of Zimbabwe over the years, creating a huge funding deficit for
HIV/AIDS programmes.
But it will take time for the new
government to make meaningful changes and, in the meantime, life for many of the
estimated 1.7 million people living with HIV in Zimbabwe will continue to be a
struggle.
Read more:
AIDS organisations still
grounded
NGOs withering under
foreign currency shortages
Wild fruits instead of food
aid
With inflation at more than 11.2 million percent, those on
treatment are finding it increasingly difficult to afford food to take with
their drugs. For those on waiting lists to begin ARV treatment, getting adequate
food is also essential for helping to delay progression of the disease.
http://www.newera.com.na
Monday, 29th of September 2008
By
Petronella Sibeene
WINDHOEK
President Hifikepunye Pohamba has asked the
United Nations Secretary General
to use the influence of his office to
secure international bailout packages
for Zimbabwe.
Pohamba said the
international community should extend both financial and
humanitarian
packages to Zimbabwe.
"We have had the opportunity to meet with the
secretary general and we urged
the international community to provide
financial and humanitarian assistance
to Zimbabwe to ensure successful
implementation of the power-sharing deal,"
said the
President.
Pohamba said this yesterday morning when he arrived at Hosea
Kutako
International Airport from the United Nations General Assembly in New
York.
The President added that Namibia emphasised the need for sanctions
imposed
on that country to be removed.
Apart from attending the UN
General Assembly, the President said Namibia
participated in two other
special meetings one of them being the meeting
with Ban Ki-moon, whom he
invited to visit Namibia early next year.
During their special meeting,
the President indicated to the UN Secretary
General the need to start
inter-governmental institutions, in particular the
expansion and
democratisation of the UN Security Council.
Calls for changes and reforms
for the UN Security Council are becoming
louder and yesterday the President
said Africa still demands two permanent
and five non-permanent positions on
the UN Security Council.
Namibia also participated in the high-level
meeting that evaluated Africa's
status and implementation of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
"The aim was to take stock of Africa's
developmental needs and constraints
and how to improve on them," the
President said.
A declaration on how to improve the African situation was
signed and the UN
Secretary General and the President of the General
Assembly are expected to
draw up a summary on the way
forward.
Namibia also assured its support on all endeavours especially on
peace and
security and global economic development.
According to
Pohamba, the country is committed to peacekeeping activities
whenever
required, particularly in the region of Darfur in Sudan.
"We informed him
(the UN Secretary General) of Namibia's readiness to sign
the Generic
Memorandum of Understanding on peacekeeping in Darfur," he said.
The
Namibian delegation to the UN General Assembly further participated in
the
Commonwealth deliberations that looked into the implementation of
resolutions passed in Kampala last year.
Generally, the UN General
Assembly meeting that took place from September 23
to 26 discussed what
Pohamba termed as "highly burning challenges" facing
mankind especially the
African people.
Some of the challenges include financial constraints,
global energy, and
devastating impact of climate change, high food and fuel
prices, HIV/AIDS
and abject poverty.
The assembly discussed the need
for collective efforts in responding to the
identified challenges and how
development and cooperating partners can be
engaged in rescuing the
situation.
Could someone please explain to me
how Mr Gideon Gono got the job as the head of the RBZ? An interesting IMF report
on the economic crisis and hyperinflation afflicting
Whereas the minimum prerequisites
for most personnel vying to be in charge of Central Banks in any developed
country would logically require the highest level of education, well proven
track record and past experience in monetary management, it appears that as
Zimbabweans (Zanu –PF in particular) we do not understand such a simple concept.
As Zimbabweans we often boast of how well educated and intelligent we are, so
can someone please give me a well educated answer as to why Gideon got the
job?
Although credited with turning
around the fortunes of the CBZ, I don’t believe that this alone should have
qualified him to run the RBZ?
Let’s take Alan Greenspan as
example, former chairman of the Federal Reserve of the
In brief, his record speaks for
itself - received B.S in Economics (summa cum laude – with supreme honour) 1948,
an M.A in Economics in 1950, awarded a PhD in economics in 1977, and in 2005 was
awarded honorary Doctoral of Commercial Science from
NYU.
His work experience is similarly
as impressive. Stating the obvious, that
You might also be interested to
know that Zimbabwe's voting rights in the
IMF were suspended effective June 6, 2003 pursuant to Article
XXVI, Section 2(b) of the
Articles of
Agreement, (see the link http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/memdir/members.htm)
in laymen’s terms this means that Zimbabwe could not borrow any money from the
IMF and would not receive any economical/financial technical
assistance, which is effectively the nail in
the coffin for any economy in the world. So, although there are no “sanctions”
per say on
Before I go off on a tangent, I
have to go back to the reason for this article i.e. quite simply that Mr Gideon
Gono is not qualified for the job Governor of our central bank, the RBZ and his
record definitely speaks for itself. He never has been and never will be the
right person for the job. At this point in time,
Qualifications
Experience
Education
Functional and
Technical Skills
Leadership
Management
Other
If anyone fits the profile, please
send your CV’s to the government and canvass for any vacancies that they should
have once the current governor when it dawns on them where the problem
lies.
Written
by
Clive Samvura
Jnr
E-mail: clivesamx@yahoo.co.uk
VOA
By Darren Taylor
Washington
29 September
2008
In terms of Zimbabwe's power-sharing deal, the
parties have agreed to
prioritize the restoration of economic stability and
growth in the country.
The southern African nation's financial sector is
ravaged. Its official
inflation rate is the highest in the world at 11
million per cent, with
unemployment estimated at 80 per cent. Most
Zimbabweans are mired in
poverty. Shortages of food, fuel, electricity and
foreign currency persist.
Economists agree that a vibrant economy is
non-negotiable for a lasting
peace in the country.
Dr. Raymond
Gilpin, an economist at the United States Institute of Peace -
the USIP -
who's originally from Sierra Leone, has conducted intensive
research into
Zimbabwe's economy, and the consequences of the country's
"mind boggling"
inflation rate.
"The people of Zimbabwe have to contend with prices that
rise practically
every minute. You have the curious circumstance there where
the moment you
make a purchase, it devalues almost immediately. People's
money also loses
value every minute. If you have savings in Zimbabwe,
they're practically
worthless," says the Cambridge and Georgetown
University-educated financial
expert, who's also served as an economist at
the World Bank and African
Development Bank Group.
Gilpin attributes
the sad state of Zimbabwe's economy first and foremost to
"two decades of
bad economic policies" by President Robert Mugabe's
government, which
instituted "catastrophic" price controls, fixed exchange
rates and harmed
mainstays of Zimbabwe's economy, such as agriculture.
Gilpin says the
ZANU-PF administration simply spent too much on the wrong
things.
A
clause in the power-sharing agreement reads, "the parties are committed to
working together on a full and comprehensive economic programme to
resuscitate Zimbabwe's economy, which will urgently address the issues of
production, food security, poverty and unemployment and the challenges of
high inflation, interest rates and the exchange rate."
As
a result of the deal, the Movement for Democratic Change - MDC - led by
Morgan Tsvangirai wants to assume responsibility for reviving Zimbabwe's
economy. However, some analysts have concluded that this will be a poisoned
chalice for the country's new Prime Minister, given the massive scale of the
task ahead.
"It's daunting, to say the least," Gilpin told VOA.
"There are problems
everywhere."
Mr. Mugabe's government though is
balking at permitting Tsvangirai's MDC to
take control of key ministries,
including that of finance, even though
observers are in agreement that
ZANU-PF has in recent years presided over
economic degradation on a grand
scale.
A recent USIP briefing moderated by Gilpin concluded that the
Mugabe
government's "failure to uphold the rule of law created chaos and
uncertainty, which eroded business confidence, led to the misallocation of
resources and depressed economic output."
Corruption burgeoned under
Mugabe, says Gilpin, and was evident for example
in allocation of prime crop
land confiscated from white farmers to ruling
party members and allies with
little or no experience in agriculture.
Rampant cronyism
The USIP
briefing found that politics and economics were "very closely
intertwined in
Zimbabwe.. Bad governance has fostered a culture of impunity
and helped
reinforce the political and economic muscle of the regime's
leadership. This
group has become deeply vested in the status quo. They have
demonstrated a
capacity to do whatever it takes to maintain their privileged
positions,
which guarantee unfettered access to wealth and power - at the
expense of
the vast majority of Zimbabweans."
Gilpin says president Mugabe's "very
close relationship" with Zimbabwe's
armed forces has "exacerbated the fiscal
pressures" in the country, as it's
resulted in the state spending a lot of
money on the security sectors, and
reducing spending on sectors such as
health, education and job creation.
According to Bernard Harborne, Lead
Conflict Specialist at the World Bank,
Zimbabwe's military and its leaders
have been "major beneficiaries" of
government "quasi-fiscal
excesses."
"Substantial transfers and subsidies are made to keep them
loyal and in
check. This fiscal drain has reinforced the regime-focused
nature of the
military and cultivated a culture of entitlement," Harborne
says.
He adds that fiscal reform in Zimbabwe will have "profound
ramifications"
for the country's armed forces.
Gilpin says the
"paradox" in Zimbabwe presently is that certain people in
the country are
getting rich directly as a result of the chaotic state of
the
economy.
"Wherever you have economic policies that impose controls on
currency and
trade, those with access to the levers of power are able to use
that for
their benefit. They control trade; they impose premiums on currency
transactions. Those are the people who are making the most money. The few
who have access to political power use that to derive vast economic
benefit."
The effect of this, Gilpin explains, is that Zimbabwe's
dollar continues to
weaken and inflation rises, "meaning that the ordinary
Zimbabwean earns less
every day for the same amount of work, and their
savings - particularly if
it's in local currency - is devalued on an ongoing
basis."
Foreign investments still pouring in
Yet as the economic
situation has progressively worsened for Zimbabwe's
citizens, large
investments have continued to flow into the country.
"The Zimbabwean
economy, back into the mid-1980s, had always been a strong
economic regional
anchor. As such, a number of large companies have ongoing
investment
programs in Zimbabwe. A number of the more recent investments are
continuation plans by these large companies," Gilpin comments.
In
June, Anglo American, one of the largest mining conglomerates in the
world,
decided to invest a further $400 million in Zimbabwe's platinum
mines. The
London-based Lonhro mining group is also planning to invest about
$66
million in the country this year. But economic observers say it's mainly
South African mining operations that have been injecting investments into
Zimbabwe.
Gilpin says it's "very difficult to say" if this foreign
money has benefited
"ordinary" Zimbabweans. "One could hypothesize that at
the household level
there might be some benefit in terms of employment, in
terms of availability
to some services provided by large
companies."
MDC officials have previously blamed some big international
companies for
"propping up" the ZANU-PF government with cash, and have said
that many of
the Mugabe administration's abuses wouldn't have happened
without the money
provided to it by certain foreign enterprises. The
opposition members warned
that such firms would suffer consequences in the
event of the MDC wielding
executive power in Zimbabwe.
But Gilpin
says it is "important to distinguish between the excesses of the
Mugabe
regime and their mismanagement of the economy, and private sector
enterprise."
The economist says it's the ZANU-PF administration, and
not international
big business, that's ultimately to blame for human rights
and financial
abuses in Zimbabwe.
In addition, he says, "A number of
the companies doing business in and
business with Zimbabwe do not do
business directly with the Zimbabwe regime.
To that degree, there has been
some degree of welfare benefit to the
people."
Innovative methods
used to circumvent inflation rate
Gilpin says an informal economy that's
sprung up in Zimbabwe as a result of
the poor economy has in effect saved
the country from complete economic
devastation.
"Households and firms
have developed mechanisms to go around the frightening
inflation
rate."
At the USIP briefing, Frank Young, the vice-president of one of
the largest
international for-profit government and business research and
consulting
firms, Abt Associates, explained how citizens and businesses had
developed
"imaginative and extremely agile strategies" to survive because
"the
Zimbabwean currency has lost value as a medium of exchange."
The
barter system has re-emerged in the country, for example.
The briefing
concluded: "The failure of financial institutions to attract
deposits and
provide credit has forced Zimbabweans to adopt mechanisms to
avoid the costs
and perils of doing business via official channels. The
practically
worthless currency has been replaced with innovative means of
exchange, like
petrol coupons and non-perishable groceries. Savings are
widely held in US
dollars and South African rand. The 'official' economy is
irrelevant and a
number of informal, barter systems have developed, based on
strong community
networks. They allow groups to purchase and barter
essential commodities
(like food and fuel) while hedging against inflation
and currency
depreciation."
Solutions?
The agreement proposes the creation of a
National Economic Council,
comprised of members of the different parties,
with members of major sectors
of the economy, such as manufacturing and
mining, to advise government on
policy.
However, some economists
estimate that, if there's true political and
economic reform in Zimbabwe as
a result of the power-sharing agreement, it'll
take at least 15 years for
the country's economy to reach a favorable level.
Gilpin says there are
certain steps that need to be taken as soon as
possible for this to
happen.
"The necessary first step is an answer to the political
situation. Policy
frameworks have to be completely changed, controls have to
be removed;
institutions have to be depoliticized."
He points out
that the Mugabe government "ran ongoing budget deficits" and
that these were
primarily financed by Zimbabwe's Central Bank, which
injected money at
extraordinary rates. This action by the Central Bank, he
states, must end,
as must control of certain sectors of the economy by the
top brass of
Zimbabwe's security forces.
"Funds need to be channeled to more needy
sectors of the economy, not the
army and Mugabe's political allies," Gilpin
comments.
He says Zimbabwe's economy can eventually be stabilized if
inflation is
controlled.
"We also have to make sense of the currency
to stop the wide gap between the
official exchange rate and the market
exchange rate. To do that, firstly -
and very, very simply but politically
it has been difficult to do - the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe needs to stop
printing money. The main impetus for
the printing of money is the fact that
the Reserve Bank has been lumped with
a number of quasi-fiscal
responsibilities, like paying subsidies, paying
government debt and
providing export credits to the favored few. That has to
stop. Once we
stanch the flow of money into the economy, inflation will come
down."
Confidence in Zimbabwe's economy and its currency are also
essential to
economic recovery, Gilpin says.
"Confidence in the
economy will only come once people recognize that there
are focused and
transparent policies, and that the key institutions -
primarily the Reserve
Bank - are doing the right things.
According to the USIP briefing, the
massive debt amassed by the ZANU-PF
administration must be addressed, and
"external resources" and international
assistance must be mobilized to "help
finance reform and provide social
safety nets."
Keith Campbell, whose
South Africa-based risk analysis firm, Executive
Research Associates, has
been closely monitoring the situation in Zimbabwe,
is convinced that "in the
end, there's only one way" to ensure economic
rehabilitation in the
country.
"There must be a political solution that takes the economy away
from
ZANU-PF. Then, the failed policies of the past can be corrected, and
this
network of people around Mugabe that have been monopolizing government
contracts and subsidies can be broken down."
http://www.busrep.co.za
September 29, 2008
By Ethel
Hazelhurst
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has sent a loud, clear
message to the
world: subvert market forces at your peril. Though it was not
his intention,
the man who has run Zimbabwe since 1980 has demonstrated the
danger of
replacing reality with fantasy and the folly of fiddling with a
working
economy.
He has shown that, if a government messes with a
country's productive
capacity it ends up with hyperinflation. If the
government imposes price
controls the people will face famine.
And
if, while the government systematically destroys the country's
industries
and plunders its currency reserves, the man at the top gives a
finger to the
international community, the country ends up with nothing but
an empty
begging bowl.
And so it's come to pass.
Zimbabweans have been
allowed to draw only Z$1000 (R20 on the informal
market) a day - not enough
to buy a loaf of bread. On Friday they were given
the go-ahead to buy and
sell goods in foreign currency, because their own is
worthless.
The
official exchange rate on Zimbabwe's interbank market is US$1 to Z$116.
However, news agency Bloomberg says that on the black market, where most
residents buy foreign exchange, it takes Z$1 million to buy
US$1.
There is no accurate figure for the country's inflation, partly
because it's
moving so quickly that each calculation is rapidly
overtaken.
However, Sapa-AP said on Friday that inflation was estimated
at 15 percent a
day, which made Zimbabwe's currency almost worthless, at
one-billionth of
the value it held at the beginning of the
year.
Unemployment is running at 90 percent. But even the employed can't
eat
because the country is running out of food.
Bloomberg reported
that the US-funded famine early warning systems network,
saying Zimbabwe may
run out of cereals by November and must triple food
imports between now and
March to meet demand.
The country that only a few years ago was the
bread basket of southern
Africa can't even feed its own.This is a measure of
Mugabe's achievements.
He, of course, has ended up with plenty and is
still riding high. He and his
accomplices have benefited hugely from the
episode, while Zimbabweans have
become impoverished. And with the alleged
settlement achieved, but the
process of choosing a cabinet deadlocked, they
are still battling to feed
their families.
The impasse has to be
resolved before the country can move out of its
poverty trap and start
rebuilding the economy.
What role will South Africa play, now it has a
new government? More of the
same, it seems.
Former president Thabo
Mbeki is to continue as mediator. And Jakkie
Cilliers, the executive
director of the Institute for Security Studies,
expects continuity as
foreign minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma remains in
place.
There are,
of course, limits to what South Africa can do. Sanctions would
only increase
Zimbabweans' misery. But South Africa could stop running
interference
between Mugabe and the rest of the world.
Cilliers says that so far South
Africa has shielded Mugabe from pressure
from the international community
and critics in Africa. In that case, one
productive move would be to stop
insulating Mugabe from the real world and
let events take their
course.
There's another message in this tale for voters who ignore
policies and
focus on traditional loyalties: when you let an evil genie out
of the
bottle, it is very difficult to put him back in.
By Alex Bell
29 September
2008
The security of Zimbabwean refugees of politically motivated
violence in
South Africa is under threat, following a decision by the
department of Home
Affairs to withdraw asylum because of the power sharing
accord in Zimbabwe.
South Africa has been the landing ground for millions
of Zimbabweans who
fled their homes to seek safety, in the midst of brutal
attacks orchestrated
by ZANU PF. The flood of exiles and the turbulent
nature of Zimbabwe's
political crisis forced the South African government to
review its refugee
policies - a change that ensured asylum and safety from
deportation for
thousands of Zimbabweans while the situation in their
country remained
volatile.
However, despite ongoing reports of
violence, starvation and political
unrest, Zimbabweans seeking asylum,
including those who applied for
extensions on their asylum papers, are now
being turned down by home
affairs, with officials citing the power sharing
deal that was signed
between the leaders of the MDC and ZANU PF.
The
signing of the deal has done nothing to change the situation on the
ground,
a situation that forced so many to flee. The desperate humanitarian
crisis
has left millions facing starvation, while the breakdown of the
country's
sanitation services has prompted fears of an outbreak of serious
diseases.
At the same time the number of farm invasions has risen and ZANU
PF torture
camps have remained fully operational, all while the impasse over
cabinet
posts continues.
Human rights lawyer for the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum, Anna
Moyo, told Newsreel
on Monday the sudden 'hostility' from the South African
government was
putting 'the lives of Zimbabweans at risk'. She explained
that there are
serious concerns about the ongoing violence in Zimbabwe,
saying the 'human
rights situation is still desperate'. Moyo added that
there are rumours that
many Zimbabweans have already been deported, and
expressed her own fears for
the safety of new refugees. "Its difficult now
for new exiles, because so
many are still crossing the border, and their
safety is at risk," Moyo said.
SW Radio Africa
Zimbabwe news
http://www.iol.co.za
September 29 2008 at
06:28AM
By Kanina Foss
An eight-year-old Zimbabwean
girl has been mauled by two lions that
were supposed to protect her from war
veterans intent on claiming her
family's farm.
Rapport
newspaper stated that one of the lions spotted Courtney
Sparrow through a
window and dragged her out of the house.
Courtney's mother Margaret
had secured the lions in front of the house
after surviving the farm's
fourth war veteran attack in three months, during
which she single-handedly
chased away the invaders with a firearm.
Courtney's father Ron, who
breeds lions, was in Mozambique.
Ron told Rapport that Margaret had
kept windows latched, but that on
the evening of September 16, the lioness
had sprung through a window that
had a weak
spot.
A domestic worker tried to pull Courtney
back, but was injured, and
the lioness dragged the screaming little girl's
24kg body outside.
A farmworker beat off the lioness with a stick,
and Courtney
immediately stood up and tried to run away, but she was knocked
down again
by the male lion.
Courtney sustained serious
injuries on her arm, face and head.
According to Rapport, there was also a
hole in her oesophagus.
She was taken from her farm in the
south-eastern province of Masvingo
to a clinic, where her condition was
stabilised, and thereafter she was
airlifted to Harare.
Courtney's parents told Rapport that the medical care at the hospital
was so
poor, they didn't even have painkillers. They then decided to airlift
their
daughter to Joburg.
Courtney arrived at Joburg's Netcare Milpark
hospital a day after the
attack and went straight into theatre for 10
hours.
On Sunday night she had been moved to a general ward
awaiting further
surgery.
This article was originally
published on page 1 of The Star on
September 29, 2008