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HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe
could soon face bread shortages after the country's
major producer said it
was left with only two days of supplies, a state-run
newspaper reported on
Wednesday.
Lemmy Chikomo, operations director of the bakery firm Lobels,
attributed the
bread shortages to a critical lack of wheat and flour, which
has forced the
company to scale down operations.
"Flour availability has
deteriorated and this has forced us to use our
strategic stock since May,"
The Herald quoted Chikomo as saying on Tuesday.
"Now we are only left
with two days' supply. We have used all the 4,000
tonnes of flour that we
had as reserve stock."
Chikomo also said that wheat stocks were fast
running out. "Once we get
wheat we are home and dry, we will produce," he
said.
Since May, Lobels has been releasing about 200,000 loaves of bread
per day
to the market, but this has drastically dropped to 40,000 a day,
Chikomo
said.
The bread shortages come at a time when the southern
African country is
failing to pay for 36,000 tonnes of imported wheat that
is docked at Beira,
Mozambique, due to lack of foreign currency.
"Our
Bulawayo branch, which normally employs 254 people, stopped operations
on
August 25 as a result of acute shortages of flour," he said, adding that
in
Harare 1,500 workers were also sent on forced leave pending an
improvement
in the availability of flour.
Since June, when the government ordered a
price slash on goods and services,
bread sections in many stores across the
country have remained empty.
Retailers sell a standard loaf of bread at
30,000 Zimbabwe dollars, which is
120 US dollars at the official rate but
just 1.30 dollars on the parallel
market.
Zimbabwe's annual wheat
requirement is about 400,000 tonnes.
There has been a consistent deficit
since its land reforms of 2000 which led
to the departure of about 4,000
white farmers and triggered a slide in
agricultural output.
It
currently imports about 265,000 tonnes.
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
05 September 2007 06:00
The number of people facing serious food shortages in Zimbabwe
is expected
to grow to 4,1-million over the first quarter of next year, the
Canadian
ambassador to the African country said on Wednesday.
"This
figure is expected to increase dramatically in the coming
months due to a
combination of factors, including poor harvests and the
prevailing difficult
economic situation," Roxanne Dube said at a ceremony
where Canada donated
$3,3-million to the World Food Programme (WFP) to be
used to feed starving
Zimbabweans.
Dube, who said she has travelled around Zimbabwe
over the past
two years, said that the food situation in the crisis-hit
country was dire.
"I have seen dry and bare fields, empty
stores and abandoned
farming equipment. It is a very saddening situation,
especially when I hear
from Zimbabweans how difficult it is for them to feed
their families and
make ends meet," she said.
The WFP's
country director for Zimbabwe, Kevin Farrell, said
that his organisation
lacked $100-million needed to ward off famine that
threatened a third of
Zimbabwe's population.
"Our shortfall is somewhere in the
region of $100-million,"
Farrell said on the occasion.
He
said that food crisis in Zimbabwe was entering a "significant
phase" in
which more than four million people will be "food insecure" from
the lean
months of December to March.
Zimbabwe, has the "greatest
level of need of aid in the region",
he said.
Zimbabwe is
in the throes of a chronic economic crisis with the
world's highest rate of
inflation and four in every five people jobless.
About 80% of the population
live below the poverty threshold.
Hand to
mouth
Meanwhile, one of Zimbabwe's main bakeries has warned it
has
enough flour to last for just two more days, reports said on
Wednesday.
Lobels Bread has already sent hundreds of workers
on forced
leave and has almost exhausted its reserve stock of flour, a
company
executive was quoted as saying.
"Flour
availability has deteriorated and this has forced us to
use our strategic
stocks since May. Now we are only left with two days'
supply," operations
director Lemmy Chikomo told the government mouthpiece
Herald
daily.
"We have used all the 4 000 tonnes of flour that we
had as
reserve stock," he said.
The Zimbabwe government
is faced with a crippling wheat
shortage.
At the weekend,
Security Minister Didymus Mutasa admitted the
country was living from hand
to mouth as far as wheat stocks were concerned
because it did not have
enough hard currency to pay for the release of 36
000 tonnes of wheat
stockpiled in neighbouring Mozambique. -- Sapa-AFP, dpa
By Tichaona Sibanda
5
September 2007
There are reports that the latest round of talks held in
Pretoria over the
weekend might have come up with a number of agreements
aimed at resolving
the country's crisis.
According to a source,
negotiating teams representing Zanu-PF and the MDC
agreed on a number of
issues that will set the agenda for roundtable talks
between the two
parties.
The two parties met on Saturday and Sunday after a three week
break. Zanu-PF
is being represented at the talks by Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa and
Nicholas Goche the Labour minister, while the
secretary-generals of the two
MDC's Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube are
representing the opposition.
After briefing the South African parliament
recently saying the SADC
mandated talks were making progress, Mbeki is
reported to have flexed his
muscles leading to both parties making some
concessions over the weekend.
It has been alleged that they both agreed
on the need to amend draconian
laws such as the Public Order and Security
Act which constrains the
opposition, and the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act
which imposes gags on the media. Our source added
that the negotiating teams
also mooted the idea of postponing next year's
elections because what is
expected to come out of the talks will take time
to implement.
'We've heard from reports emanating from the talks that
there is need to
look at the voters' roll again and if both sides agree, it
will mean another
three to four months preparing for a new voters' roll. The
opposition is
calling for a new and impartial team to run the elections and
again this
will take time to come up with names of the people to supervise
the poll,'
said the source.
Daniel Molokele, a political commentator
based in Johannesburg, said Mbeki
adopted a 'hard nosed' approach that led
both parties to 'give and take' in
their latest round of talks.
'In
diplomatic language we call it horse trading. Very soon there is going
to be
a breakthrough and all what Mbeki wants from the talks is for Zimbabwe
to
have free and fair elections that would be accepted by everyone,' said
Molokele.
Many analysts and observers remain sceptical about Mbeki's
capability to
resolve the crisis given his closeness to Robert Mugabe. It is
no secret
that Zimbabweans are extremely angry with the kid-gloves treatment
of Mugabe
by Mbeki.
The dilemma over what to do about Zimbabwe has
presented Mbeki with his most
daunting foreign policy test to date. The
course of action that Mbeki
settles upon in the coming months could be
defining for his presidency, and
certainly his reputation as a serious
player on the world stage. It could
have a far-reaching impact on how
politics are in future conducted in the
14-member Southern African
Development Community (SADC).
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
The Herald (Harare) Published by the
government of Zimbabwe
5 September 2007
Posted to the web 5 September
2007
Harare
Harare's water supply situation has remained
unsatisfactory owing to
equipment breakdowns at Morton Jaffray Water
Treatment Plant and the lake
turnover being experienced at Lake
Chivero.
A lake turnover occurs when surface water gets colder than that
at the
bottom, resulting in water from the bottom rising to the top. When
this
happens, the water contains too many impurities, making it very
expensive to
treat. As a result, water purification and production are
suspended to save
on chemicals, which are in short supply.
"Our
chemical stocks level still remain critically low both at Morton
Jaffray and
Prince Edward. We are also experiencing regular breakdowns in
the
chlorination system (faulty suction valve) at Warren Control and this
has
resulted in high consumption of HTH. The problem is, however, not
confined
to Warren Control, but also includes Prince Edward and Morton
Jaffray," read
part of the Zinwa daily water status report.
The report indicated that
Mabvuku, Tafara, Ruwa, Hatcliffe, Hogerty Hill,
Philadelphia, Borrowdale
Brooke and Budiriro had no water.
EUobserver
05.09.2007 - 09:16 CET | By Helena Spongenberg
EU external affairs
commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner has suggested that a
government minister
could represent Zimbabwe at the forthcoming EU-Africa
summit as a solution
to some EU capitals' refusal to sit at the table with
president Robert
Mugabe.
In an interview published on Tuesday (4 September), Ms
Ferrero-Waldner
suggested "a high-ranking government minister, like the
foreign minister"
could attend the summit and represent Zimbabwe, instead of
Mr Mugabe who is
accused of human rights abuses by the west and by human
rights groups.
"I understand that the British naturally have a big
problem (over this
issue) but we should not let our political relationship
with Africa fall
apart because of Mugabe," the commissioner told the German
daily Financial
Times Deutschland.
Portugal - which currently holds
the rotating EU presidency - plans to host
the first EU-Africa summit in
seven years on 8-9 December 2007.
But the issue of how to deal with the
Zimbabwean leader is casting a shadow
over the event.
Mr Mugabe, in
power since his country's independence in 1980, currently has
an EU travel
ban against him. The red light was issued in 2002, after his
ruling Zanu-PF
party won in what the EU considers a rigged election.
However, several
African nations have threatened to boycott the high-ranking
political
meeting if Mr Mugabe is not allowed to attend, whilst on the
European side,
some capitals - particularly London - are likely to oppose
his presence at
the summit.
"Almost all Africans want Mugabe to be present," an EU
official said,
according to Reuters. "The Africans are really making this an
issue. It
could be difficult to sort this out."
The same row
indefinitely postponed a summit scheduled for 2003.
Portugal's president
Anibal Cavaco Silva called Tuesday (4 September) on
Europe and Africa to
show "imagination" over who should be invited to a
summit of the two
continents' leaders.
"It's very important to have this summit in Lisbon,"
he said during a press
conference in the European Parliament in
Strasbourg.
Brussels wants to launch a 'strategic partnership' with the
African
countries to get closer political and economic reforms, and Lisbon
views the
December summit as central to that goal.
The EU is wary of
the waves of illegal immigrants arriving from Africa as
well as China's
increasing economic influence on the continent.
"Europe's inertia in
relation to Africa may carry a heavy strategic price
for the union," Mr
Cavaco Silva said. "Now is the time to speak with Africa
instead of speaking
merely of Africa and its problems."
Zim Online
Wednesday 05 September 2007
By
Lizwe Sebatha
BULAWAYO - Top ZANU PF officials sang praises of former
parliamentary
speaker and presidential hopeful Emmerson Mnangagwa and called
him the king
of Zimbabwe at a 2004 meeting that President Robert Mugabe
later claimed was
held to plot a coup against him, the High Court heard
yesterday.
ZANU PF senator Josephine Moyo who was testifying in a case of
defamation
brought by independent parliamentarian Jonathan Moyo against
ruling party
chairman John Nkomo further told the court that officials also
likened
Mnangagwa to the late vice-president Joshua Nkomo, revered as the
father of
Zimbabwe's liberation struggle.
Moyo, a former member of
ZANU PF and spokesman of Mugabe, is suing Nkomo for
Z$2 billion in damages
for allegedly defaming him by telling Mugabe that he
(Moyo) organised the
meeting at Dinyane school in rural Tsholotsho to plot a
coup against the
Zimbabwean leader.
Nkomo denies defaming Moyo.
The defamation case
has afforded ordinary Zimbabweans a rare glimpse into
the vicious power
struggle between two hostile camps in ZANU PF - one
backing Mnangagwa and
another supporting Vice-President Joice Mujuru - to
succeed Mugabe when and
if he retires.
Senator Moyo told the Bulawayo High Court that Mnangagwa,
who chose not to
attend the Dinyane meeting at the last minute, would have
received a leopard
skin traditionally worn by kings at
ceremonies.
The senator said she informed the ZANU PF leadership about a
coup to topple
Mugabe after witnessing the happenings at
Dinyane.
"This was all peculiar to me. Names and totems of the late
Joshua Nkomo were
being showered on Mnangagwa as the King of Zimbabwe as the
campaign for his
candidacy for the vice-presidency intensified," Senator
Moyo told the court.
Moyo denies plotting to oust Mugabe and insist that
the meeting at Dinyane
was a prize giving ceremony, which was attended by
locals, and invited ZANU
PF and government officials.
Among those
expected to testify in the case that continues today in court
are Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Deputy Labour Minister Abednico
Ncube, Deputy
Tourism Minister Andrew Langa and war veterans' leader Joseph
Chinotimba.
An irate Mugabe cracked the whip at hearing news of the
Dinyane meeting
suspending Moyo and six of ZANU PF provincial chairmen who
attended the
meeting.
Moyo was later fired from the government and
ZANU PF after refusing orders
not to stand as an independent in the 2005
general election.
Mnangagwa, once seen as heir apparent to Mugabe, was
demoted to an obscure
job as Minister of Rural Housing and Social
Amenities.
The issue of Mugabe's succession however remains far from
being resolved
especially after the veteran leader earlier this year
appeared to withdraw
his backing for Mujuru and in the process handing a
lifeline to Mnangagwa to
re-launch his bid for the top job.
Mugabe,
in power since 1980, will next year stand for re-election for
another
five-year term and has not said when or whether he will leave
office.
But ZANU PF insiders say constitutional changes proposed by
the government
to empower Parliament to elect a new president if the
incumbent leaves
office before his/her term expires are a part of an exit
strategy to allow
Mugabe to handpick his successor and quit in or before
2010. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday
05 September 2007
By Patricia Mpofu
HARARE - The
Chinese government on Tuesday denied reports it was stopping
aid to
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, one of its oldest friends in
Africa but
accused by the West of gross human rights violations.
The London-based
Daily Telegraph last week ran a story quoting British
Foreign Minister Lord
Mark Malloch Brown as having said that Chinese
government officials had told
him that Beijing was withdrawing all
assistance except humanitarian aid to
Harare.
Malloch Brown, who was on his first visit to China since becoming
minister
for Asia, Africa and the United Nations, said withdrawal of aid by
China
would bring it in line with Britain and other Western nations that
suspended
direct aid to Harare but continue giving humanitarian
assistance.
But a spokesperson for the embassy of China in Zimbabwe said
in a statement
to ZimOnline that reports of Beijing withdrawing support to
Harare were
false.
"Recently, some media published reports claiming
that China was dropping all
assistance except humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe.
The embassy of China in
Zimbabwe wishes to clarify that this is simply not
the fact. China and
Zimbabwe enjoy a long history of friendship," the
spokesperson said.
The embassy official said Beijing had provided and
would continue giving aid
to Zimbabwe in various forms including
humanitarian assistance, grants,
lines of credit to Zimbabwe and its
people.
The official added that during last April's visit to Zimbabwe by
Jia
Qinglin, the chairman of the national committee of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference, China promised to build two primary
schools, one hospital and an Agriculture Technology Demonstration
Centre.
"In addition, China granted funds to renovate the National Sports
(Stadium)
of Zimbabwe. The two governments have also concluded negotiations
which will
see China delivering 40 million tonnes of soya beans to
Zimbabwe," the
Chinese official said.
The Harare administration will
see the public show of support by China as an
important victory in its
propaganda war with the West which it accuses of
imposing sanctions against
Zimbabwe and sabotaging its economy in a bid to
instigate revolt against
Mugabe and his ruling ZANU PF party.
Western governments deny sabotaging
Zimbabwe's economy and say targeted visa
and financial sanctions imposed
against Mugabe and his ruling elite in 2002
are punishment for their failure
to uphold human rights, the rule of law and
democracy.
Mugabe has
increasingly turned to China and other emerging Asian giants for
financial
and diplomatic support in a new "Look East" policy since his
fallout with
traditional development and trading partners in the West. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Wednesday 05 September
2007
By Lizwe Sebatha
BULAWAYO -
Hundreds of school children and teachers in Zimbabwe were
on Tuesday
stranded at home unable to return to schools because of an acute
fuel
shortage that has kept most public buses off the roads.
Zimbabwe's
schools opened for the final term of the year on Tuesday.
But ZimOnline
reporters who visited the main public bus termini in Bulawayo
and Harare saw
hundreds of pupils clad in school uniforms milling around
unable to get
transport back to school.
"We spent the whole day on Monday here
waiting for transport. We are
still here today (Tuesday) and to imagine that
my child will miss lessons
due to transport shortages is just too bad," said
Getrude Dube, whose child
was trying to catch buses from Bulawayo's Renkini
terminus to Wenezi High
school in Matabeleland South province.
Zimbabwe has grappled with fuel shortages since 1999, the result of a
severe
foreign currency crunch that has also spawned shortages of food,
essential
medicines, electricity and other key imports.
The fuel crisis took
a turn for the worst last month following a
government decree banning
private oil firms from importing fuel and giving
back the state's bankruptcy
National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) the
monopoly to import
fuel.
Long queues some stretching for several kilometers on end
that had
disappeared when the fuel market was partially liberalised have
reappeared
at garages since NOCZIM was made sole importer of
fuel.
"I think they must just cancel school holidays and keep the
children
at schools forever," said Patrick Chiweshe, at Harare's Mbare Msika
terminus
where he had just managed to put his son on bus to a boarding
school in
Chikomba rural district, about 140 km south-east of the
capital.
He added: "Otherwise what is the point of having them come
home when
there is no guarantee there will be enough buses to take them back
to
school."
The Association of Trust Schools that represents
several private
schools in the country described the transport situation as
"very critical".
"The situation is so bad for students at mission
and public schools as
they rely on hired buses, which do not have fuel, to
ferry them to schools,"
Trust chairman Jameson Timba said.
Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere admitted that the fuel crisis was
disrupting the new school term but sought to downplay the problem saying the
shortage of fuel was not limited to the education sector alone.
"Students, teachers and everyone else is facing transport problems due
to
fuel shortages," he said.
Once one of Africa's success stories,
Zimbabwe is in the grip of an
unprecedented economic meltdown marked by the
world's highest inflation of
more than 7 000 percent, deepening poverty and
unemployment of more than 80
percent.
Western governments and
the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change party blame Zimbabwe's
economic crisis on repression and wrong
policies by Mugabe - charges he
denies. - ZimOnline
VOA
By Peter Clottey
Washington, D.C.
05
September 2007
A controversy surrounding participation by
Zimbabwe's president at the
Euro-African summit to be held in Portugal has
taken another turn, with a
call from the summit commissioner for President
Robert Mugabe to be
represented by his foreign minister at a lower level.
However, some analysts
believe African heads of state, including South
Africa, would insist that
Mugabe be allowed to attend the EU-Africa summit.
Some European officials
say reaching a compromise to allow the summit to go
ahead as planned in
December would be difficult, given Africa's support for
Zimbabwe's
president, who many have accused of human rights abuses.
Meanwhile, summit
plans have been put on hold since 2003, as Britain and
other European
countries have refused to attend if Mugabe is
present.
John Makumbe is a senior lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.
From the
capital, Harare he shares his views about the EU-Africa summit with
reporter
Peter Clottey.
"It is expected that the EU is desperate to
have the Africa-EU summit to go
ahead. And the European countries are
desperate because of the influx of
refugees from particularly North and West
African states into Europe, and
they would like to reach some sort of
agreement with these African countries
on stemming the tide of these
refugees. And they can't do that without
having the Africa- EU summit,"
Makumbe pointed out.
He said organizers of the Euro-Africa summit might
try to prevent the
Zimbabwean president from attending the summit,
especially since most
European countries have expressed reservations over
Mugabe's presence at the
meeting.
"I think they will try, I think it
is very likely that Mugabe would say if
he is not attending himself in
person, then nobody at a lower level should
be allowed to attend. That's
one. Secondly, I think the African leaders
themselves are going to insist
that Zimbabwe should be represented at the
highest level, and that is at the
presidential level and that means Mugabe
attending. And I think, as things
are now, the Europeans are likely to
capitulate," he said.
Makumbe
said he believes a compromise could be reached to enable the
December summit
to go on as scheduled.
"I think a compromise is very possible if the EU
is promising to voice its
concern abut the human rights violations in
Zimbabwe at the Africa- EU
summit. A compromise could be reached where
Mugabe would be allowed to
attend on condition that the European countries
are at liberty to express
their dissatisfaction and unhappiness about
Mugabe's governance in
Zimbabwe," Makumbe noted.
He said President
Mugabe has fallen short of some of the tenets of good
governance in
Zimbabwe.
"He is the president of Zimbabwe, one of the cardinals of the
Africa -EU
relationship, all the way back from Cotonou (the capital of
Benin) is that
there would be a promotion of human rights, there would be
promotion of good
governance, there would be transparency on governance, and
in the handling
of the citizens of the two major regions, all of those have
been violated by
Robert Mugabe. He may be the head of state of Zimbabwe, but
he is the head
of state who is literarily chewing up his own people, and
that should be of
concern not only to the EU, but also African countries.
But as you and I
know, the African countries would defend Mugabe because
they themselves are
in an equally dubious position," he
said.
Issued by
the Freedom of Expression Institute
5 September 2007
Hundreds of
Southern Africans - including at 3 centres in South Africa -
will
participate this weekend in a global readathon to raise consciousness
about
the plight of Zimbabweans struggling for social justice, democracy,
freedom
of expression and economic survival.
This is the third Worldwide Reading
organized by the Berlin Literature
Festival under the theme: "The
Anniversary of a Political Lie". The first
Worldwide Reading in 2005
appealed for peace in Iraq. The second in 2006 was
in memoriam of the
award-winning Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, who
was assassinated
for her courageous reporting on human rights abuses in
Chechnya.
The
core texts to be read in over 40 countries worldwide are poems by
acclaimed
Zimbabwean writers Chenjerai Hove, Chirikuré Chirikuré and
Dumbudzo
Marachera, as well as Elinor Sisulu's foreword written for the book
"Gukurahundi in Zimbabwe: A Report on the Disturbances in Matabeleland and
the Midlands 1980- 1988" (Johannesburg 2007).
In South Africa veteran
poets and activists Dennis Brutus and Don Mattera
and acclaimed
poet/storyteller Gcina Mhlophe will be among those
participating in readings
in Durban, Johannesburg, Durban and Grahamstown .
The readings are presented
by The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, the Freedom
of Expression Institute and
the Platform for Public Deliberation.
See the Worldwide Reading website
http://www.peter-weiss-stiftung.de./index_en.html
By Henry Makiwa
05
September 2007
The Zimbabwean government has stepped up its
transformation of the Bindura
University of Science Education (BSUSE) into
an institution devoted to
training state agents, following the introduction
of a new degree
programme - in intelligence.
According to the
state-controlled Herald's report on Wednesday, the
programme is set to
commence soon as part of an agreement between the
university, the Ministry
of Higher and Tertiary Education and the Central
Intelligence Organisation
(CIO), for the professional education of CIO
officers. It is also understood
that lectures for the course will be held at
the recently opened "Robert
Gabriel Mugabe School of Intelligence."
Two years ago the university
introduced a degree programme in police and
defence studies, another course
that raised eyebrows following the drafting
of its students into a force
meant to quell student protests at higher
education institutions.
The
Zimbabwe National Students Union (Zinasu) swiftly dismissed the
programme as
another ploy by the ruling Zanu PF party to bolster its armed
wings.
Zinasu co-ordinator Washington Katema said: "The Bindura
University has now
become an extension of the ruling party security organ.
We are very
suspicious of the recent development. For starters most
universities have
now become white elephants so the introduction of this new
Robert Gabriel
Mugabe School of Intelligence is clearly a political move
meant to instill
fear. Already the university has that degree programme in
police and defence
studies whose students assaulted ordinary students on the
10th of May 2006
who were demonstrating peacefully at the
campus."
Representatives from the Higher and Tertiary Education ministry,
Bindura
University and the CIO signed a memorandum of understanding in
Harare last
Thursday to introduce the 'intelligence' degree.
Among
the signatories were the secretary for Higher and Tertiary Education
Dr
Washington Mbizvo, CIO director-general Retired Major General Happyton
Bonyongwe Dr Mbizvo and the BUSE Vice Chancellor Professor Sam
Tswana.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Trócaire
Date: 04 Sep 2008
As inflation rose to over 7000% in Zimbabwe last month,
many hoped Southern
Africa's leaders would take decisive action to halt the
country's freefall.
Their hopes were dashed.
The dinner menu of a
small, upmarket hotel in downtown Harare reflected a
pinch of optimism last
week. Next to (near impossible to get) items such as
chicken and beef a
little acronym had popped up: STA (subject to
availability). Unlike his
management, the waiter explaining the acronym to
querying customers didn't
beat around the bush: "There's no beef, there's no
chicken. There's no bread
either and there's no oil. There's no soap, there's
no nothing. the whole
situation here in Zimbabwe has become impossible."
Once again the media
spotlight is on Zimbabwe. In March it was the scenes of
opposition leaders
and civic activists as they emerged bruised and battered
from police
custody. Today, it is the equally upsetting scenes of
Zimbabweans as they
jostle in queues for bread or prepare to flee the
country out of fear and
desperation.
With the crisis deepening and spilling in to neighbouring
countries,
Zimbabwe watchers were keen to follow discussions at the August
Summit of
the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) in Lusaka,
Zambia, where
Southern Africa's leaders addressed Zimbabwe's crisis. Many
felt let down by
the public sentiments expressed by SADC leaders during the
conference and by
their final communiqué.
In March, SADC asked South
Africa's President Mbeki to manage a process of
political mediation and drew
up an economic recovery plan for Zimbabwe. Both
steps signalled the
recognition by Southern Africa's leaders of the need for
regional
intervention and domestic reform. But delegates greeted President
Mugabe
with thunderous applause at the Summit's opening ceremony. By
applauding "a
man who has destroyed a country" Southern Africa's leaders
showed an "utter
lack of concern for the plight of Zimbabweans," the South
African Bishop
Kevin Dowling told Catholic News Service. SADC's leaders did
not take the
opportunity to press for an end to Zimbabwe's pervasive human
rights
violations, to set a specific timeline for progress in mediation
talks, or
agree on a framework for addressing the economic crisis.
Deepening food
crisis, mounting human rights violations
With the rate of inflation now
officially over 7,000 per cent and with
shortages of basic commodities
across the board, the price cuts introduced
by the government in June to
quell the economic crisis appear to have
backfired. Even previously
cushioned sectors of society such as business
people (thousands of whom have
been arrested for non-compliance) and urban
professionals are feeling the
effects of meltdown.
Life is becoming more and more of a struggle for the
poor. On August 9, the
US-based Famine Early Warning System Network
classified the situation as an
emergency. They attributed the food crises in
the southwest and in urban
areas to a poor harvest but also to price
controls and restrictions on basic
commodity imports.
Since the New
Year harassment and intimidation of human rights activists,
opposition party
members and prominent, outspoken critics of the regime has
intensified. In
June, Ireland's Catholic Bishops expressed their "deepest
concern and dismay
at the ever worsening political and humanitarian
situation in
Zimbabwe."
Police have arbitrarily arrested and beaten hundreds of civil
society
activists in custody and have continued to use excessive and
unnecessary
force to disrupt peaceful demonstrations. At the beginning of
August,
government enacted the widely criticised and feared 'Interception of
Communications Bill' and continues to restrict public gatherings and free
press through application of oppressive legislation such as the notorious
'Public Order and Security Act'.
Trócaire in Zimbabwe
Trócaire
has been working in Zimbabwe since the early 1970s, supporting
projects to
improve access to food and develop civil society. The
organisation spent ?
1,471,947 in Zimbabwe last year on programmes to
alleviate the worsening
humanitarian crisis and to promote peace and
justice. Trócaire works with
local and national organisations to document
the situation in the country,
and raise awareness among policy-makers in
Zimbabwe and
internationally.
Organisations supported by Trócaire were represented in
a recent meeting
between Zimbabwean civil society leaders and SADC 's
political mediation
team for Zimbabwe. Civil society leaders called for a
people-driven review
of Zimbabwe's constitution. They also stressed the need
to end the organised
violence and torture and use of food as a political
tool by the government.
But the outcome of the SADC summit sees
Zimbabwe's President Mugabe once
again evade public censure, timelines and
benchmarks. Many fear that on the
domestic front, economic challenges aside,
he will now move ahead swiftly to
intensify the crackdown on opponents with
a view to consolidating power in
next year's elections.
For more
information contact Trócaire's press team:
Republic of Ireland: Catherine
Ginty, Press Officer, Trócaire. T: +353 1 505
3270 M: 086 629
3994
Northern Ireland & UK: David O'Hare , Press Officer, Trócaire.
T: 028 90 80
80 30 M: +44 7900053884
VOA
04 September 2007
Officials of Zimbabwe's
opposition Movement for Democratic Change said an
activist in rural
Marondera had been stabbed to death late Friday while
another member of the
party who was stabbed in the same incident was
paralyzed as a
result.
Sources in the MDC faction of Morgan Tsvangirai said Jabulani
Chiwoka, a
candidate in rural district elections to be held in January, was
killed by
suspected members of the ruling ZANU-PF party while Tafiranyika
Nyandoro was
hospitalized and immobile.
The alleged incident of
political violence in the approach to national
elections in early 2008 was
said to have occurred in Marondera, Mashonaland
East, a stronghold of the
ruling ZANU-PF party that has at times been a
"no-go zone" for the
opposition.
Tsvangirai faction Deputy Health Secretary Kerry Kay, who
lives in
Marondera, said Chiwoka had attended a gathering of the local
ZANU-PF party
last Thursday and was confronted as a political trespasser.
She said his
national identification number was taken down and he was warned
that harm
would come to him.
The following evening, Kay said, Chiwoka
and Nyandoro were stabbed while
drinking beer at a bar in the Svosve
communal lands. Chiwoka died
immediately, according to Kerry, who said
Nyandoro was being treated at the
hospital in Marondera.
In a recent
report, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum said that seven
months into
2007, the year has broken previous records for reported
political violence,
citing the approach of local, general and presidential
elections in early
2008.
No comment on the alleged stabbings could be obtained from
Marondera police.
Spokesman Nelson Chamisa of the Tsvangirai opposition
faction declined to
comment, saying the matter was still being
investigated.
But attorney Tafadzwa Mugabe of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights told
reporter Patience Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that his group has
received a report of the incident and is looking into it
as a case of
political violence.
New Zimbabwe
By
Staff Reporter
Last updated: 09/05/2007 19:16:21
THE acting Town Clerk of
Bulawayo, Joel Madubeko was arrested on Tuesday for
allegedly defying a
government ordered rates and price freeze.
Bulawayo mayor Japhet
Ndabeni-Ncube told New Zimbabwe.com that Madubeko
spent most of Tuesday at
the police's licensing inspectorate at Drill Hall,
"assisting police in
their investigations".
"We passed a supplementary budget on June 13,
which was going to be
effective on August 1. The presidential proclamation
was only made last
week. Some people apparently phoned the police, and that
misinformation
resulted in the police coming to our offices.
"We
showed them our books and resolutions. It was a kind of disturbing
probing,
but we hope they understood in the end," Ndabeni-Ncube said.
He said even
after he and his team had proved to the cops that "we didn't
break any law",
they insisted that either him or the town clerk must
accompany them to Drill
Hall to answer further questions.
"It was either me or him. I had other
pressing official engagements and they
understood and took the acting town
clerk. He spent quite some time there
but was released without charge. We
take it as an uninformed
misunderstanding on the part of the police," said
the mayor.
Asked about the attitude of the cops, he said they "were
friendly but one
could see that they meant business because they kept saying
we would answer
in court".
Police could not comment on the
matter.
President Mugabe last week issued a decree freezing prices and
wages, and
said these could only be raised with the express approval of a
commission he
is yet to handpick.
The Bulawayo City Council in June
approved a supplementary budget with a 2
600 percent hike in charges, citing
inflation and a ballooning wage bill.
The local authority said when it
crafted the original budget, inflation was
targeted to be 393 percent but it
had reached 3 713 percent by April,
meaning the budget was underperforming
by 3 320 percent, leaving the council
with no cash for essential
services.
In the revised budget, supplementary charges went up from $3
350 to $89 210,
50 a month, while sewerage fees went up from $880 to $23
434.
The fixed charge component for water supplies went up from $2 988 to
$79 584
a month, while the charge for consumed water went up from $490 to
$13 061
per kilolitre.
Ambulance fees were hiked from $23 200 to $617
816, with burial fees going
up from $1 778 465 to $3 557 948.
New Zimbabwe
By Lebo
Nkatazo
Last updated: 09/06/2007 04:20:09
ZIMBABWEAN authorities have kept
a tight lid on the discovery of diamonds in
the south-western Tsholotsho
district to avert a rush by hungry villagers,
documents seen on Wednesday
confirm.
Late last year, diamond deposits were discovered in Marange
district,
Manicaland Province, sparking a rush which saw the police arrest
over 20 000
fortune hunters.
A confidential letter, written by Titus
Nyatanga, the Director of Mining
Promotion and Development in the Ministry
of Mines to the Minerals Marketing
Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) said
diamonds were discovered last year in
Tsholotsho.
The MMCZ has the
sole authority to market and sell diamonds from the
country.
"Diamonds deposits were reported to be present in the
Tsholotsho area of
Matabeleland North Province. Already, Canister Resources
Private Holdings
holds an Exploration Prospecting Order (EPO) in the area.
Not much
information is known," he said in the letter seen by New
Zimbabwe.com.
Canister Holdings is owned by Zimbabwean citizen Nick
Graham.
Nyatanga added that the area where the diamond deposits are
located has been
declared a "protected zone" by the government to curb
illegal activities.
He added: "The Ministry is requesting the Minerals
Marketing Corporation of
Zimbabwe (MMCZ) to offer protection of the areas
and facilitate investment
opportunities by local and foreign organisations
for diamond exploration."
Tsholotsho is in Matabeleland South and close
to the border with Botswana,
the world's leading producer of gem quality
diamonds. The diamond industry
accounts for 70% of export earnings and 30%
of Botswana's GDP.
Professor Jonathan Moyo is MP for Tsholotsho, which is
about 130km south of
Bulawayo, the second largest city.
Business Report
August 27,
2007
By Quentin Wray
Cost of livin' gets so high,
Rich and
poor they start to cry:
Now the weak must get strong;
They say, "Oh what a
tribulation!"
Them belly full, but we hungry;
A hungry mob is a angry
mob...
A year or so before his death in 1981, Bob Marley, who penned
these words,
performed at the first independence celebrations in
Zimbabwe.
Later he later described this as the "biggest honour" of his
life.
One wonders how he would feel now, given that these lyrics could
have been
written yesterday about a country whose rebirth, after years under
oppressive minority rule, he helped usher in.
One hopes that, unlike
sub-Saharan Africa's current leaders, he would have
had the courage to stand
up and publicly denounce the rape of a beautiful
country.
Pro-democracy advocates are fond of arguing a positive - yet
largely
imaginary - link between good governance and economic
growth.
This so-called "democracy dividend" is trotted out to make
autocrats and
dictators, like Comrade (Cde) Bob and his cronies, forgo their
evil ways to
secure economic stability.
As much as I would love this
to be true, it patently isn't.
Just one of many examples proving the
disconnection between democratic
values and economic performance is the
recent drive by the Chinese Communist
Party, which runs China Inc, to give
newspapers two choices: publish
positive news or be accused of inciting the
overthrow of the government.
No Western government would get away with
what the Chinese government does
in terms of its human rights record,
environmental devastation and cynical
exploitation of target countries,
especially in Africa.
And yet its growth rate is
stellar.
South Africa, which outperforms China in all significant
measurements of
human rights, has a fairly pedestrian growth rate.
It
just doesn't seem right, does it?
The fact that the Zimbabwean economy
has collapsed so spectacularly is often
cited as an example of how turning
one's back on democracy ushers in
economic failure.
But to argue
this, in Zimbabwe's case at least, is a mistake.
If the Zim government
had merely given the opposition a klap for the
impertinence of thinking
someone other than Cde Bob should be in charge but
had left the farms alone
and not appropriated most of the available foreign
exchange for itself, the
country would probably still be solvent.
Other countries, such as China,
fail all democratic tests but are phenomenal
economic success stories. There
is no reason why Zimbabwe could not have
followed suit if it had sound
economic management.
The ongoing economic meltdown in Zimbabwe happened
not because the
government started abusing human rights with impunity but
because it messed
with the basic laws of economics.
If the economy
had been left intact and allowed to do its thing, inflation
would now be
well south of 7 000 percent and more than two out of 10 adults
would be in
work.
Starvation would certainly not be a daily reality for the middle
classes, a
group that is now shrinking both in girth and in
numbers.
The irony, which appears lost on most commentators, is that
Mugabe's efforts
to hang on to power are economically so unsound that he has
effectively
sealed his own fate in a way that no amount of foreign
intervention could
have done.
Silence Chihuri
Obviously the
sending home of the children of ZANU PF big-wigs has raffled
the feathers of
the establishment. This was never seen coming by a regime
that has become so
used to getting away with anything really. They have been
hit where it
hurts, their pride.
But for anyone among the parents of the home
coming children to sink to such
deplorable depths as to think that the
action of the Australian government
was a direct result of MDC President
Morgan Tsvangirai's recent visit to
that country, is quite typical of click
of people that live in cloud cocoon
land. No wonder these are the same
people who were hoodwinked by some sweet
talking n'anga that an ordinary
rock in some swampy area in Chinhoyi could
ooze with diesoline to fire the
government's grounded fleet into motion.
The most bizarre outcome
was the accosting of Tsvangirai and accusing him
for going 'to get the
children' from Australia while leaving his behind to
continue with their
studies. There is convenient ignorance here because the
ZANU PF misrule is
the very reason why Tsvangirai is leading the fight
against the regime. He
fully believes that the policies of the ZANU PF
government are not fit for
purpose and that includes the education policies.
It would have been very
surprising then for someone who totally disagrees
with the ZANU PF education
system to enrol his children on that same
education system. Of course not
everyone who is opposing ZANU PF and its
policies has children studying
abroad but all those who can have done so,
and others are continually trying
to do so.
That Tsvangirai would be found disembarking from the
same flight with these
unfortunate children is therefore a mere case of
fitting coincidence. They
are unfortunate in the sense that these are
children that are being punished
as a direct result of the misdemeanours of
their parents. It is an
unprecedented piece of history that is of course, a
culmination of a
calculated position that the Australian government has
taken towards the
ZANU PF government. The ejection of these hapless but
dubiously privileged
children may not necessarily speed up the crumbling of
the ZANU PF regime
but it will surely bite and hurt the ego of an
untouchable junta that is
wrecking havoc to an entire nation without the
slightest notion of remorse.
The action of the Australian does
come not so long after the University of
Edinburgh in Scotland took the
unprecedented step of stripping President
Mugabe of his honorary doctorate
for services to education in Africa. Mugabe
and his apologists did vainly
try to pour cold water over the move but
everyone knows that the
octogenarian dictator was indeed embarrassed and
humiliated. Such small
measures as the one taken by Edinburgh University do
send a very huge signal
to dictatorships that they can be tackled even by
the most apolitical
establishments and still feel the pinch.
Likewise, what the
Australian government has done is yet another small
measure that matters
because it is like dynamite coming in a small packet.
Although in this
instance a few kids are involved, this has the potential to
kick-off a
western-wide cocktail of measures that could see ZANU PF children
elsewhere
sent home in similar fashion. It would make a lot of sense because
some of
these children are now old enough to see that what their parents are
doing
is not helping other kids, but rather ruining their prospects. This
would
also make the targeted sanctions work more effectively because some
ZANU PF
officials have in the past used their children's weddings or
graduation
ceremonies as excuses for visiting the countries from where they
are banned.
It is a very simple matter, if the ZANU PF officials are as
happy with the
status quo as they try to preach, then they should simply
stay at home with
their children.
Because what has happened during those 'opportune
moments' is that the ZANU
PF big-wigs would try to kill two birds with one
stone by doing as much
'business' as possible while officially they are on a
family jaunt because
this is a government and ruling party that have the
hypocrisy of indicating
right while turning left. These are people who have
been deafening our ears
with their bankrupt and purposeless 'look east'
chants while they are
whisking their children west. Now that their children
have had their careers
stopped in their tracks, then that may really make
them pause and think for
one minute about what they have done to our
education system that was once
the envy of the entire SADC region and
beyond.
The East is not really bothered by human rights issues
and this is why
President Mugabe and his ZANU PF mugs have found convenient
solace in the
company of rogue and autocratic regimes such as the Chinese
government.
However, the West does scrutinize issues to do with human rights
and
education is one such human right that is revered in west. This is why
the
Australian government has seen it fit to eject the children of parents
whose
clueless policies have ruined the prospects of a nation while their
children
are secreted in the countries they hypocritically despise of. The
message is
clear for ZANU PF to read: If all is well in the state of
Zimbabwe then
surely those who are part of the establishment need not look
anywhere else
for advancement.
This is something that does
not surprise some of us who have been calling
for even tougher action
against the regime in Harare and we can only call
for more. Of course to
ZANU PF apologists this is another work of the 'enemy'
who is working for
regime change in Harare. It is a shamed that this kind of
action has had to
be taken, but it is an extremely necessary step. The next
step should be to
eject any ZANU PF official and children from the luxurious
hospital beds of
exclusive clinics scattered around the world and send them
back to die at
the mercy of the crumbling health delivery system over which
they are
presiding. These are people who are cooking chaff to feed the
nation while
behind closed doors they are dishing ubiquitous oriental
cuisine to their
own lustful mouths.
It is a shame that Zimbabweans may now have
to depend on western countries
especially after the useless charade that was
the last SADC summit, because
the African countries are in cahoots with our
self-serving government. It
would have made so much sense to see South
African for example, leading in
this kind of corrective action by sending
the hoards of ZANU PF kids who are
basking in the comfort of the glorious
halls of residence of leading South
African institutions of higher learning
while our sisters and brothers are
going without meals at the UZ and other
universities. There are more ZANU PF
kids in South Africa than anywhere in
the world and the message would have
been much louder and bolder. But with
the South African government choosing
their ridiculous so called quite
diplomacy it has been left to the west in
general, and the Australians and
Scots in particular to take it upon
themselves to take the Harare regime
head on.
Quiet diplomacy does work if it is indeed in existence.
This is diplomatic
tongue-lashing that is normally carried out behind closed
doors so as not to
unnecessarily and openly embarrass whoever is being
reprimanded. But if
there is nothing happening even behind the closed doors
along the corridors
of power, then there can never be expected a miracle to
happen. This is why
Mugabe and his henchmen are still on the rampage because
President Mbeki of
South Africa is fooling the world that he is dealing with
the ZANU PF
government quietly while in actual fact he is not doing anything
at all.
In fact what we have seen is complete contempt of Mbeki's
whatever efforts
by the ruling ZANU. For example how could the ZANU PF
delegation afford to
miss two out three of the three arranged meetings
between themselves and the
MDC especially when a SADC Summit is looming
where they were fully aware
that a progress report would be eagerly awaited?
This is why not that many
Zimbabweans have any real expectations that the
so-called mediation will
yield any results. If Mbeki was really confident of
his own initiatives he
would not advise the MDC party to delay launching the
election campaign
given the short period of time to go to the
polls.
As long as African leaders and countries do not want to
call a spade a
spade, then the colonial masters would have to be roped-in
much to the
chagrin of the so-called nationalists and liberation heroes who
are
oppressing fellow Africans.
Silence Chihuri is a
Zimbabwean who writes from Scotland. He can be
contacted on silencechihuri@hotmail.com
I don't know why people question the applause Mugabe got at the recent
SADC
conference. It was a conference of Kings.
William III and Louis
XIV would have treated each other with the greatest of
respect had they met:
they were, after all, the God-annointed absolute
rulers of their lands: the
law makers, the sole source of opinion, the
owners of their lands - which
they could parcel out to their favoured few -
the lords and barons and
baronets. Those who opposed them were not 'loyal
opposition' - they were
traitors! William III ursurped James II, who went
to a sticky end. Before
that, the Lord of Monmouth, who marched on James
II, went to a sticky end
when he lost the battle. So it is in Africa today.
King Nkruma was such
like. So was King Milton Obote, until he was ursurped
by King Idi Amin. Idi
Amin was toppled by insurrection, like King Louis
XVI, with the aid of the
Tanzanian army under King Julius Nyere - who,
untypically, finally realised
that his policies were no good for the masses
and stood down. Typically,
though, the King does not care for the peasants
who fall under his carriage
wheels and endanger his horses. The peasants
are good only because they pay
taxes.
The African Kings do not mind elections, so long as they give the
desired
results. Otherwise, they are rigged, and finally
ignored.
King Jomo Kenatta. King Kenneth Kaunda. King Mswati III. King
Robert
Mugabe, who is annoyed by the unwillingness of his economy to bend the
laws
of supply and demand, even after he has declared them invalid. The
masses
suffer? So what? The peasants are revolting? They certainly
are!
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain (er, I mean, elected), and hath
redeemed
us to God by His blood (or at least, other's blood in the
'struggle'), to
receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and
honour, and glory
and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto
Him that sitteth
upon the throne. (from Handel's Messiah)
Who would
not want to stay in such a condition? And who would not honour
another who
sits in a similar position? Hail, Robert Mugabe, King of
Zimbabwe! And hail
the Kings and King wannabees who hailed him so recently
at the SADC
conference! The peasants? Forget them - there are lots of them
and they are
of little importance unless they revolt. THEN you can
pity
them.
Andrew Scott
Rondebosch