From the MDC, 11 June 2000
30th MDC supporter dies in violence
Last Sunday, June 4, two MDC members, Finos Zhau (23) and his brother were taken from their home at Danga at Mberengwa West constituency by ZanuPF members and marched to Texas ranch, a well-known site used by so-called war veterans as a torture chamber. It is a farm that was recently invaded and is a headquarters for war veterans in the area, a lot of people have been taken there and tortured according to Mberengwa MDC officials.
The two brothers were kept there until Wednesday last week and were very badly beaten with sticks and iron bars. They were released on Wednesday evening, Finos was unable to walk. They stopped at Mbwembe school and stayed there. Finos' unnamed brother left him with MDC candidate Mfandaidza Hove and went back to the village to inform others. However, on Friday, Finos Zhau died. He leaves a wife and small children. His brother has since been taken to hospital and is in a serious condition.
Although the police at Mberengwa
and the police at Mataga and at Sundawana were informed on Friday, none have
tried to interview the surviving brother.
The postmortem will be
performed in Bulawayo on Monday. The funeral will take place on Tuesday in Danga
at 7am, the police have advised MDC party officials not to attend the
funeral.
From The Guardian (UK), 12 June 2000
Mugabe accuses UN monitors
Andrew Meldrum in Harare
President Robert Mugabe yesterday accused the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, of trying to "hijack the international monitoring" of Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections later this month. Even as Mr Mugabe attacked the UN, state-sponsored political violence continued in Zimbabwe with one more opposition member killed, one tortured and others badly beaten.
Mr Mugabe reacted angrily to the UN's withdrawal on Friday from monitoring Zimbabwe's elections. Mr Mugabe said the world body had tried to assume "an illegitimate role" as co-ordinator of foreign election observers. The secretary general decided to act when Mr Mugabe issued new restrictions on international monitors, including regulations on where they could go and a lengthy accreditation procedure.
The UN said the new regulations were contrary to standard international procedures and withdrew its offer to supervise and coordinate 300 international observers and 16,000 domestic monitors. The European Union has taken on the role of coordinating other observer missions. EU, Commonwealth and other observer groups are livid about the new restrictions, which they believe are clearly attempts to make them less effective on the ground. But they have decided to carry on in the hope that their presence will help bring about better elections with less violence.
The presence of the international observers has reduced, but not halted, Zimbabwe's political violence. In the latest attack, a supporter of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change was killed in the troubled Mberengwa district while another is in intensive care after being tortured. Finos Zhou, 21, died after being abducted and severely beaten by supporters of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party. His brother is in hospital with numerous injuries and cigarette burns all over his body. Although at least three prospective MDC candidates for Parliament have been killed, the party has managed to field candidates in all 120 constituencies and is posing the biggest challenge to Mr Mugabe since he led the nation to independence from Britain in 1980.
Despite widespread intimidation, support for the MDC appears to be growing. "We are being ruled by thieves and murderers instead of leaders," said Prosper Katsaya Mapfumo at an MDC rally yesterday. "It is now or never. Now is the time for us to build a better Zimbabwe for our children." He was speaking at a rally for the MDC candidate in Harare East, human rights lawyer Tendai Biti, attended by more than 3,000 Zimbabweans, black and white.
"The main issue in our campaign is the economy," said Mr Biti. The MDC would cut the budget deficit and withdraw troops from the Congo war, creating a new economic climate and delivering new jobs. Most of Mr Biti's supporters arrived on foot, wearing jackets and jerseys but shed the outer layers to reveal MDC T-shirts. Just a few weeks ago an MDC supporter was beaten to death after being caught wearing such a shirt. The enthusiasm of the MDC rally was in stark contrast to the lavish but subdued Zanu-PF rally in the same constituency for its candidate, Stalin Mau-Mau. It featured free refreshments, free T-shirts and caps, and music from one of Harare's most popular bands. It was also attended by about 3,000 people.
"There is no political violence in Zimbabwe," declared Border Gezi, a provincial governor, at the rally. "Those who create violence cannot expect Zanu-PF to go to bed and do nothing. We are not like Jesus. If you hit my cheek, I will hit back with a big fist," he said.
From CNN, 11 June 2000
Opposition in Zimbabwe says another official is killed in election violence
HARARE - Another opposition organizer in Zimbabwe has died after being attacked and tortured by ruling-party supporters, the main opposition party said Sunday.
The death of 21-year-old Finos Zhou brought to 31 the number of people killed in political violence since February. Zhou and his brother campaigned for the Movement for Democratic Change in the remote Mberengwa district, about 300 kilometers (190 miles) southwest of Harare, said Sekai Holland, the party's election candidate for the district.
The two were abducted by ruling party militants last Sunday, Holland said. They were beaten and burned with cigarettes. After they were released, the younger brother died Friday at a party supporter's farmhouse, Holland said. His funeral was scheduled for Monday.
The elder Zhou was in critical care in the hospital at the district center of Zvishavane, Holland said. Holland said the brothers had been deliberately targeted. Police were not available for comment on the death.
The main opposition party poses the biggest threat to President Robert Mugabe's hold on power since he led the nation to independence from Britain in 1980. The human-rights group Amnesty International has said it doubts that the elections, set for June 24-25, can be free and fair because of a campaign of "state-sponsored terror" mostly perpetrated by ruling-party supporters against opponents.
Border Gezi, a top ruling party official, on Sunday said opposition supporters provoked violence. "We are not like Jesus. If you hit our cheeks, we will hit back," he told supporters at a rally for Stalin Mau-Mau, an election candidate in Mugabe's party in Harare's eastern suburbs. Mau-Mau, a former Marxist guerrilla in the liberation war that led to independence, is now a wealthy businessman who still uses his revolutionary pseudonym.
Independent human-rights monitors, however, say ruling-party militants, including thousands who have illegally occupied more than 1,400 white-owned farms, are responsible for instigating as much as 90 percent of incidents of violence and intimidation.
From News24 (SA), 11 June 2000
Violence death toll hits 31
Harare - The death toll in the violent run-up to Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections this month reached 31 after the fatal assault and torture of an opposition campaign worker in a ruling Zanu-PF party detention camp, opposition officials said on Sunday. Fainos Zhou, 21, died on Friday in the Mberengwa district about 300km south west of Harare and would be buried in the area on Monday, said Sekai Holland, candidate in the area for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
She said Zhou's brother, whose first name she did not know, and one of her security guards, were both in hospital with severe lacerations, bruising and cigarette burns all over their bodies. Police in the area refused to comment.
Mberengwa has since last month become one of the worst hit in the tide of violence that has swept through Zimbabwe since February as ruling party supporters set out to crush the MDC. Holland said the two Zhou brothers were pulled off a bus on Sunday last week at a roadblock manned by Zanu-PF supporters in the Mataga area, and taken to a base of self-styled guerrilla war veterans on a nearby commercial farm, occupied by ruling party squatters.
"They were tortured for three days. They were burnt with cigarettes. They were beaten on their legs knees and hands with sticks. One of them had no skin on his back," she said. The brothers were released on Wednesday, and walked 20km to her family home near Mataga. She said her own vehicle had been burnt by ruling party supporters and the only way to get the two to hospital was by bus.
"But Zanu-PF had roadblocks and were demanding Zanu-PF cards from everyone," she said. It would not have been safe for the two brothers to be taken by bus. Fainos died on Friday night.
Holland is challenging her cousin Richard Hove, one of Mugabe's cabinet ministers and MP, for the area in the last parliament. Several hundred international observers have arrived in Zimbabwe to monitor the elections but have not been able to leave the capital Harare because new regulations demand that they first be accredited by electoral authorities. Accreditation is due to begin on Monday.
The country's well-publicised turbulence has resulted in the cancellation of a planned visit there by the Spanish Olympic men's and women's hockey team in August. Colin Williams, coach of the Zimbabwe men's team, said the tour was meant to be part of the Spanish team's preparations for the Olympic Games in Sydney. "However, they have cancelled that tour after hearing and reading about the situation in Zimbabwe," he said.
It was the second major international sporting event to be called off in two days. On Saturday the Dunlop Challenge Rally, one of the biggest regional motorsport events in Southern Africa, also due to take place in August, was cancelled because the organisers said they "could not guarantee the safety" of visiting drivers.
Veterans loyal to Mugabe have vowed they will go to war if Mugabe does not win the elections, scheduled for June 25-25.
Comment from The Star (SA), 10 June 2000
Can Zim find courage to vote out Mugabe?
Earlier this year, the Helen Suzman Foundation carried out the first national opinion survey in Zimbabwe in a long time. Its purpose was to provide all political actors, the press and civil society, with a political road map of a society whose political contours have long been invisible under one-party dominance. The results were striking. Held in February, at the same time as the constitutional referendum, the findings cast considerable doubt on the validity of the referendum result.
In Harare and Bulawayo, where ballot stuffing was all but impossible, the results tallied almost exactly with the official results, but everywhere else the estimate of anti-government opinion was far higher than the referendum suggested. It seemed as if the government had rigged the referendum - and still lost it.
Overall, only 35 percent wanted Zanu-PF to stay in power; 63 percent thought it time for a change; 75 percent wanted the president's powers reduced; 69 percent thought he should resign after two terms and 65 percent wanted him out right away. Moreover, 69 percent were very dissatisfied with the government and 68 percent lacked confidence that it was telling the truth.
On the other hand, opposition feeling had yet to crystallise fully. The poll showed that in a presidential race Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), lagged behind Mugabe but half either refused to answer this question or were uncertain. The auguries, however, for the MDC were good. Many voters were only just becoming aware of it and after the referendum victory the momentum was on the MDC's side. The overwhelming impression from the survey was that the president and his party had outstayed their welcome. The government was out of touch: Its concerns were no longer the same as the voters'.
Whereas Mugabe endlessly harped on the land question, the survey showed that only nine percent thought the land question was the most important issue and 55 percent wanted things to stay as they were on the land. A further 13 percent even thought that white farmers who had left should be invited back. As many as 80 percent thought it was not sensible to blame the whites for the country's problems. Voters overwhelmingly blamed the government, not only for the state of the economy but for its failure to solve the land question. Unfortunately, as the message began to sink in that the government was facing defeat, Mugabe and Zanu-PF allegedly fell back on the use of state-sponsored terror to try to change the electoral arithmetic.
The Suzman foundation survey found that only 21 percent of voters believed nobody in their community was frightened of Zanu-PF. About 33 percent said most were, eight percent said everyone was frightened. Only 30 percent felt confident they could criticise the government without harm befalling them and 52 percent said it would be difficult to vote differently from the way the police, security police and Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) wanted.
At stake in Zimbabwe is more than the plight of individuals or political parties. The rule of law, prospects for multiparty democracy and for future economic development are all on the line. An ageing liberation culture seems to be breaking on the anvil of its own corruption and arrogance but in its death agony it seems willing to pull the whole country down with it. For Zimbabwe's sake, and in the interests of all democrats in southern Africa, one must hope ordinary Zimbabweans will find the courage on June 24-25 to vote for a different future.
This article appears in the June 2000 issue of Focus, published by the Helen Suzman Foundation.
From Reuters, 11 June 2000Commonwealth chief doubts fair Zimbabwe poll
By Dominic Evans
LONDON - Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said on Sunday that conditions in Zimbabwe did not appear conducive to free and fair elections.
McKinnon, who has sent a team of observers to monitor the June 24-25 parliamentary election, said recent violence and intimidation in Zimbabwe was "not a good omen". "I've only had preliminary reports because (the Commonwealth team) haven't been out into the countryside, but one still has to be concerned that the problems there don't really look as though they are conducive to free and fair elections," he said.
"There are far too many people being killed in front of an election. Far too many. That's not a good omen for an election," he told BBC Television's Breakfast with Frost. The Commonwealth has expressed concern at a recent wave of violence which has killed at least 27 people, mainly opposition supporters, after invasions of white-owned farms by liberation war veterans and supporters of President Robert Mugabe. The war veterans say the land was stolen during the British colonial era a century ago. Opposition figures say the land invasions are aimed at crushing dissent before the election.
"When I was there three or four weeks ago there was clearly the issue of violence, there was clearly the issue of voter intimidation," McKinnon said. McKinnon said the 54-nation Commonwealth was unlikely to take swift action if it deemed the elections unsatisfactory. But he said that a critical report from the organisation, made up of Britain and most of its former colonies, could not be ignored in Zimbabwe.
"People will see it, take note of it and that will have some effect on whoever is in charge in Harare," he said.
The Commonwealth has sent a 44-strong team to Zimbabwe. It will deploy four observers to each of Zimbabwe's 10 electoral provinces to assess the political environment and determine whether the poll is free and fair. Veterans' leader Chenjerai Hunzvi has warned hundreds of election observers who have arrived from the European Union, the Commonwealth and the Southern African Development Community to steer clear of the emotive land issue. The United Nations said last week it had pulled out of the election process in Zimbabwe after the Harare government rejected its offer to co-ordinate the international observers.
From BBC News, 11 June 2000
EXTRACT FROM BBC BREAKFAST WITH FROST INTERVIEW: DON MCKINNON JUNE 11TH, 2000
DAVID FROST:
Well now Fiji was partially suspended from the Commonwealth last week in protest at its adoption of military rule. The Prime Minister and other hostages have now entered their fourth week in captivity following the coup but Fiji is not the only pressing issue the new Secretary General of the Commonwealth is having to deal with. Elections, or so-called elections, will be held in Zimbabwe later this month and the question there is whether they'll be free or fair at all, our diplomatic correspondent James Robbins reports.
[FILM CLIP]
DAVID FROST:
James Robbins reporting there and now I'm joined by the Commonwealth Secretary General himself Don McKinnon, good morning Don.
DON MCKINNON:
Good morning.
DAVID FROST:
Let's begin with Rhodesia shall we for a minute, now known as Zimbabwe, Harare now no longer known by its old name. But now what is your opinion at the moment at the way things are going, you've had six, or so advanced observers from your team out there, there are going to be 44 isn't there, in the end, what, what are the, what did you see there and what are you hearing?
DON MCKINNON:
Well I was there probably three or four weeks ago, there was clearly the issue of violence, there was clearly the issue of voter intimidation both of which I took up with President Mugabe and said these are to be concerns in the lead up to an election. We've had a small team there now, I think the whole of the observer team has, in Harare at the present time, I've only had a preliminary report because they haven't been out in the countryside but one still has to be concerned that the problems there don't really look as though they're conducive to free and fair elections.
DAVID FROST:
Is there anything that could be done to make them so, I mean the UN have drawn back from their role but you haven't and there will be other observers there, is there anything that can be done, it can only be done I suppose by Mr Mugabe?
DON MCKINNON:
Well there are probably going to be 150 plus observers there by the time the elections are held. A lot of observers unfortunately are probably only going in for two or three days. The Commonwealth ones will be there for the full period there and afterwards so you've got a reasonable amount of coverage but I guess if you're looking at, you know, 4,600 polling stations throughout the country plus this level of, level of concern about the future for a lot of people, it's very uncertain.
DAVID FROST:
And when they talk about 29 people being killed, I mean most of those were supporters of the opposition or white farmers weren't they?
DON MCKINNON:
Far too many people being killed in front of an election, far too many and that, that, that's not a good moment for an election unfortunately.
DAVID FROST:
So, so what would, what would happen Don if your observers and other observers come to the conclusion that this was not a full and fair election, that there was disgraceful intimidation, it is not a fair result, what do we do then?
DON MCKINNON:
Well I'm obviously in the hands of now the election team led by General Abdulsalami Abubakar who are due to report to me immediately after the election and again before the results are announced and after the results are announced. There will of course be interim reports up until then but if they come down with a very severe report that report is left just to hang there I guess because people see it, people examine it, people take note of it and that will have some effect on whoever is in control in Harare after that I'm sure.
DAVID FROST:
Well but will anybody do anything about it?
DON MCKINNON:
Well that's up to other International agencies.
DAVID FROST:
Would we for instance consider suspending an undemocratic Zimbabwe regime from the Commonwealth?
DON MCKINNON:
Well that is likely to be addressed by ministers when they next meet on a series of issues, obviously it wouldn't happen immediately unless there was something extraordinary to develop but if it is just considered to be an election that didn't go right that can be addressed by ministers and they may have a number of views on how it should be dealt with.
DAVID FROST:
Do you think there's any hope of a change of heart by Robert Mugabe?
DON MCKINNON:
Well he, he certainly impressed upon me at the time that he wanted to see free and fair elections. He spent a bit of his time in discussion with me saying that the opposition were a large part of the problem, I said to him well look the opposition are minor by comparison with Zanu-PF surely that's not the case and we, we went off on to another subject I guess. But he is obviously a very proud man and this is a big major electoral issue for him.
DAVID FROST:
But I mean he said, he said yesterday or the day before that white farmers that resist removal from their farms by squatters will be killed and we may take more of the farms, that is not very hopeful language is it?
DON MCKINNON:
Not at all, not at all and is really quite in-appropriate, not at all the kind of signals that he was giving me when I met with him just a few weeks ago.
DAVID FROST:
So you doubt now some of the things he said to you?
DON MCKINNON:
Well I'm only picking up what I see in the media about what is reported back to me and I'm frankly looking forward to the report I get from, from the observer mission that's there.
DAVID FROST:
Yes will you get reports on a regular basis or only after the election?
DON MCKINNON:
Oh no I'll be getting reports from, we have eight commonwealth secretary officials down there now with the observer team so there'll be a, a reasonable capacity to get broad spectrum reports from across the country.
From Business Day (SA), 11 June 2000
Mugabe attacks UN over Zimbabwe poll observers
HARARE - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has sharply criticised the United Nations, saying it had tried to seize control of all international observers ahead of the crucial June 24-25 parliamentary election. The official Sunday Mail newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying the world body had tried to hijack the election observation process instead of deploying its own independent observers.
"I never invited the UN to send a co-ordination team. I asked them to send an observer team,=94 said Mugabe, addressing what the Sunday Mail called a star rally in the town of Marondera, north of the capital Harare, late on Saturday. "The world body tried to hijack the election monitoring process. Instead of sending observers, the UN wanted to send an irrelevant technical team, which wanted to co-ordinate the whole process," Mugabe was quoted as saying.
The UN said it had pulled out of the election process in Zimbabwe after the Harare government had rejected its offer to co-ordinate the numerous international observers. The Sunday Mail said there were about 16 000 foreign observers in Zimbabwe to monitor the elections, including teams from the Commonwealth, the European Union and the Southern Africa Development Community.
The weekly Standard newspaper reported on Sunday that the polls could be legally challenged on the ground that the statutory Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) had failed to exercise some of its key constitutional obligations. "A consultant with the ESC, Rejoice Ngwenya, confirmed that the ESC had not taken part in the supervision of registration of voters and that it had also not been consulted in matters of the modification of the Electoral Act," the newspaper reported. The modification, contained in a government gazette notice published on Friday, allows only members of a "disciplined force" and those outside the country on government business and their spouses to vote through the postal system. "The postal voters are a little bit tricky to monitor," the Standard quoted Ngwenya as saying.
The ESC has the task of supervising the electoral process and the elections themselves. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights chairman Kevin Laue as well as opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials David Coltart and Welshman Ncube said sidelining the ESC could lead to a challenge of the poll results. They said there was already widespread abuse of the electoral process.
Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon said on Sunday conditions in Zimbabwe did not appear conducive to free and fair elections. "There are far too many people being killed ahead of an election. Far too many. That is not a good omen for an election," he told BBC Television’s Breakfast with Frost.
At least 27 people have died and hundreds, mainly supporters of the opposition MDC, have been beaten, raped or forced to flee their homes in the last few months. Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party and allied veterans of the country’s liberation war are blamed for most of the violence. The attacks followed the invasion of hundreds of white-owned farms since February by liberation war veterans and Mugabe supporters.
Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, former Nigerian military ruler and head of the Commonwealth’s observer mission, told reporters on Saturday he expected Mugabe to stick by his pledge to allow the 44-member group access to all areas during the elections. Mugabe, 76, faces the biggest challenge of his 20 years in power from the MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai were on Sunday addressing rallies in rural districts in eastern and southern Zimbabwe respectively.
From The Observer (UK), 11 June 2000
Oryx float killed by FO
Link with Congo conflict scuppers diamond firm's ambitions - Adviser Grant Thornton quits
Jamie Doward
Pressure from the Government has forced the controversial diamond mining company Oryx to pull its UK flotation, The Observer can reveal. Senior London Stock Exchange officials told advisers to Oryx, which has links to the Zimbabwe and Congo governments, that it would not be allowed to go ahead after objections from UK authorities. It is understood that the Foreign Office pressed the exchange to halt the flotation. Government officials said there were concerns about the company's mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire.
The highly unusual Stock Exchange move came days after Oryx's adviser, Grant Thornton, stated: 'We are satisfied Oryx has fulfilled all appropriate criteria required for admission to the Alternative Investment Market.' But after the exchange had closed last Friday, Grant Thornton wrote to tell Oryx it was no longer prepared to act as its adviser. UK stock exchange regulations say any company seeking a listing must be approved by independent advisers.
The Observer has established that a 'highly placed individual' approached the exchange regulators several days ago, expressing concern about the flotation. Peter Hain, the Foreign Office Minister, has criticised Oryx because its diamond concession, which the firm believes could be worth $1 billion, was in the southern Congo - 'a clear conflict zone' in the country's bloody civil war.
Oryx disputes this, saying the concession, near the town of Mbuji Mayi, is hundreds of miles from the fighting in Kisangani, where hundreds died last week following clashes between rival rebel factions backed by Rwandan and Ugandan troops. United Nations observers, however, reported fighting earlier this year between Congolese government troops and rebel forces in the Kasai region, in which Mbuji Mayi is situated.
Oryx, registered in the Cayman Islands, has been criticised for its links with Zimbabwe and Congo through two joint ventures. Under the terms of the Mbuji Mayi concession, Oryx and the Zimbabwean government each receive 40 per cent of future dividends. The Congolese government takes the rest. The flotation, which was to have been through a reverse takeover of Petra Diamonds, will intensify the focus on gem mining in the Congo. Only a few miles from the Oryx concession, the Belgian company Sebeka, partly owned by De Beers, has mined for several years. The Millennium Diamond - the huge, apparently priceless gem displayed in the Millennium Dome - was mined near Mbuji Mayi, although De Beers claims it was unearthed before the current conflict.
Geoffrey White, Oryx's deputy managing director, was angry about the pulling of the flotation, due on Tuesday. 'The attraction of seeking a listing through Petra was that we believed London had total transparency, and we could operate on a clear commercial basis,' he said. 'We're outraged by what's happened.'
Petra Diamonds, whose shares are suspended, was due to hold an extraordinary general meeting tomorrow, so shareholders could vote on Oryx's reverse takeover. Asked if legal action was possible, White said: 'That's under review.'
From Business Day (SA), 11 June 2000
Congo diamond firm Oryx set to pull UK listing
LONDON – A mining firm with a $1bn diamond concession in the Congo is set to pull its London stock market listing amid mounting controversy about the role of gems in fuelling African wars, industry sources said on Sunday. The British government has voiced concerns about Oryx’s activities and its links with the governments of Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which are fighting together in a bloody civil war in the country.
Oryx - incorporated in the Cayman Islands and run from Oman - was due to have floated on the junior Alternative Investment Market on June 13 through a reverse takeover of Petra Diamonds. Shareholders were to have voted on the plan at an extraordinary general meeting on Monday. But its plans have faced a barrage of criticism from government officials and human rights activists.
The Observer newspaper said the London Stock Exchange had told Oryx’s adviser Grant Thornton that the float would not be allowed to go ahead after objections from British authorities and that Grant Thornton had resigned from the case. Stock exchange rules require companies to be approved by independent advisers.
"We are outraged by what has happened," Geoffrey White, Oryx’s deputy MD, said. A foreign office spokesman said on Sunday he was unaware of any official intervention, but repeated the government’s concerns about companies trading in diamonds from African countries at war, such as the Congo.
"Trading in diamonds from war-torn Congo is distasteful, but it is for the relevant authorities such as the Financial Services Authority or London Stock Exchange to take any action on company listings," he said.
Oryx’s appearance as a listed British company comes at a sensitive time as international attention focuses on the role of diamonds in financing wars in Africa. The British government has taken a lead in efforts to stop the trade, calling last week for an international embargo on diamonds from Sierra Leone.
Oryx denies it will be producing "conflict diamonds" from the Congo concession near Mbuji Mayi, an area which has been controlled by Zimbabwean troops for some time. Oryx has profit-sharing arrangements with Osleg, a firm linked to the Zimbabwean government, and Comiex, which has ties to the Congo government. Oryx and Osleg will each take 40% of gem mining profits while Comiex is to get 20%. Zimbabwean troops have been in Congo since 1998, supporting the government of President Laurent Kabila which is fighting rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda.
From News24 (SA), 11 June 2000
'Land grab list must be revised'
Harare - There was more controversy in Zimbabwe on Sunday over moves to confiscate white-owned farms when a cabinet minister announced that the list of 804 farms meant for seizure would have to be "revised."
Agriculture minister Joyce Mujuru was quoted on state radio as saying there were "many errors" on the list of properties promulgated on June 2. The Commercial Farmers' Union also warned listed farmers this weekend not to exercise their right to lodge official objections to the proposed seizure of their farms before elections due on June 24- 25. "This could prove to be highly inflammatory," a circular to farmers warned. It quoted remarks by President Robert Mugabe at a campaign rally last week that if farmers "try and resist war veterans, they (veterans) will kill them."
Self-styled guerilla war veterans have led the often violent invasion of white farms, and now occupy about 960 of them. Five white farmers have been murdered since mid-April, when Mugabe denounced them as "enemies of the state." The mass land-grab has become the biggest issue on Mugabe's election campaign as he promises to hand over nearly two million hectares of white land to blacks, returning to them what he claims was "stolen" by white settlers who began arriving here 110 years ago.
But there has been massive condemnation of the farm invasions as a reckless, racist move to crush support for opposition political parties on the farms that will destroy the once thriving economy. Last week Mugabe warned that the government might grab all 11 million ha owned by whites. The news bulletin did not elaborate on the "errors" mentioned by Mujuru, but officials of the Commercial Farmers' Union said that nine of the farms on the list were duplicates. They also say that the list has almost completely ignored government promises that only farms that are under-utilised, owned by absentee landlords and foreigners, next door to overcrowded peasant farming areas or are part of holdings of several farms, would be seized.
The CFU said all of the listed properties were actively farmed and included some of the most productive properties in the country. Nearly 180 were the owners' only farm and only five farms were foreign owned. The CFU estimated that 75 000 farm workers and their families would be driven out of their jobs and output of Zimbabwe dollars six billion ($160 million) will be lost in the first year.
The union also said that agriculture ministry officials began on Saturday in the Chegutu area 100km west of Harare to distribute notices to listed farmers, formally notifying them of the government's intention to confiscate their land. Farmers have 30 days in which to object to the proposed confiscation. Government officials have told the union they are prepared to negotiate over which farms that are seized, and would be willing to consider swaps with other farms.
From Pan African News Agency, 11 June 2000
Zimbabwe To Stage Biggest Ever Elections
Rangarirai Shoko
HARARE - The parliamentary elections Zimbabwe will hold this month will be the biggest the country has ever held in terms of people registered to vote and candidates vying to be elected, poll officials said at the weekend.
More than five million people, out of the country's estimated population of 12.4 million, have registered to vote while a total of 566 candidates are standing in the election, the first in which the ruling ZANU-PF party is being opposed in all 120 constituencies. The labour-backed opposition, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is the only other party to field candidates in all areas where in the past the governing party won unopposed. However, most of the candidates are concentrated in urban areas where opposition parties enjoy strong support and where they are expected to do better than ZANU-PF's stronghold in rural areas.
Parliamentary elections in the past were characterised by voter apathy in which the majority of the electorate, especially in towns, did not even bother to register. Political analysts said the prospect of ZANU-PF's defeat, deduced from the government's failure in February to win a referendum on a new constitution, had galvanised electoral interest in the 24-25 June poll.
From Pan African News Agency, 11 June 2000
Mugabe To Expel Party Members Running As Independents In Poll
Rangarirai Shoko
MARONDERA, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party has resolved to expel 20 members contesting this month's parliamentary polls as independent candidates after losing in primary elections, party leader President Robert Mugabe said at the weekend. He said the party, which has been in power since the southern African country gained independence from Britain in 1980, would not re-admit the rebels into ZANU-PF even if they won in the elections.
"There is no such thing as an independent ZANU-PF candidate. All those standing as independents will never be re-admitted into the party whether they win or lose," Mugabe said at a campaign rally in the eastern farming town of Marondera. Several ZANU-PF members, especially former MPs who were voted out in the primary elections, have registered to stand as independent candidates in the 24-25 June parliamentary elections. Attempts by senior party officials to persuade the rebels to drop out from the race, and avoid splitting votes, have failed.
The ruling party faces a tough challenge, especially in urban areas, from a new labour-backed opposition party called the Movement For Democratic Change.
From The Star (SA), 11 June 2000
Party defectors make Mugabe jittery
Harare - A record number of candidates are contesting parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe as independents, the majority of them defectors from the ruling party, according to a list published on Sunday. Of the 566 aspirants for the 120 contested seats, 92 are independent, 35 of them from President Robert Mugabe's governing Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF). The decision by so many former party members to stand on their own is worrying the party, which has swept to overwhelming wins in the four elections held since independence from Britain in 1980.
Mugabe, at all five of the rallies he addressed last week, went to great pains to lash out at the defectors. "Anyone who declares himself independent is lost and has become an enemy of the party," he told one rally on Saturday at Sadza, south-east of the capital, obviously concerned that the defectors could split the ruling party vote. He singled out southern Masvingo province where 11 disgruntled former party members who refused to accept defeat in party primary elections decided to stand alone. At another rally, Mugabe warned the defectors' supporters that they too would be considered Zanu-PF's enemies.
A new opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), born from the trade union movement, is contesting all 120 electorates - the first such challenge to Mugabe's party in Zimbabwe's history. An average 15 seats went unopposed to Zanu-PF candidates in each of the previous parliamentary elections. "There is a lot of concern because Zanu-PF is used to the opposition splitting its own vote to the advantage of Zanu-PF, but now its own vote is going to be split," said political scientist John Makumbe.
Several Zanu-PF members of the outgoing parliament left the party in April, citing lack of democracy in the primary elections to choose party candidates for the June 24 and 25 elections. Two MDC members who lost out in the party selection process are standing as independents. "Even in the opposition, there isn't unanimity and unity as is sometimes portrayed," Makumbe noted. The proliferation of independents has been described as democratic, but Makumbe said: "It may be negative if politics is being seen as a meal ticket, a necessary thing to ensure they get a pay cheque for the next five years."
Mugabe's party has expelled all those who decided to stand as independents and vowed that it will not consider taking them back into the fold even if they win seats in parliament. A cartoon in the independent Standard depicts a long wall plastered with independents' posters and suggests that they form a party of independents. Fifteen parties are taking part in the elections. Mugabe appoints 30 MPs in addition to those who win the 120 contested seats in first-past-the-post voting – there are no reruns - which means that Zanu-PF need win only 46 seats to retain its majority, but the combined opposition needs to win 76. In the outgoing parliament, Zanu-PF held 147 of the 150 seats.
From The Star (SA), 11 June 2000
I'm here to stay, says Mugabe
Marondera - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe, now 76, declared on Saturday he would retire from office only after his ruling party voted him out. Mugabe, who has ruled the country since independence from Britain 20 years ago, and whose current term expires in 2002, told an election rally in this town south-east of Harare that some members of the last parliament who have been calling for him to step down, were wasting their time. "Some people in (the former) parliament want Mugabe to be removed from power," he said. "I will only give up power if the congress so decides."
"If the congress votes us out, well, we will go," he said. The ruling Zanu-PF party holds its congress every five years. The last one took place in December 1999. Mugabe also announced that his government would seriously consider establishing a senate in the next parliament, due to be elected on June 24-25. The current constitution does not provide for a bicameral parliament.
From BBC News, 9 June 2000
US welcomes Cuban doctors from Zimbabwe
The United States authorities say they are prepared to grant refugee status to two Cuban doctors who defected while working in Zimbabwe. The doctors - Leonel Cordova Rodriguez and Noris Pena Martinez - were sent to Zimbabwe in February as part of a Cuban aid programme to provide medical care in rural areas.
They left their work in May and sought to emigrate to Canada. The Zimbabwean authorities detained them and sought to extradite them to Cuba but were stopped by the United Nations refugee agency, which recognised the pair as refugees.
US officials say they expect the pair to move to the US once they have completed formalities with the immigration service.
From the MDC - please read and circulate as widely as you can. It is relevant for EVERYONE, not just farmers. NB look closely at Section 3 of this message
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 10 June 2000
UN team abandons Zimbabwe elections
By David Blair in Harare
THE United Nations team sent to help monitor the elections in Zimbabwe has been called home, it was announced last night. The decision came as it emerged that a British consultant hired by the European Union's observer mission had been deported. President Robert Mugabe's exclusion of Britons and the sudden resignation of the Commonwealth's most senior election observer, against the background of a murderous campaign aimed at suppressing the opposition, have led most commentators to conclude that a fair contest is impossible.
Morgan Tsvangirai, president of the Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe's main opposition party, said the UN's decision was "a vote of no confidence in the electoral process". The UN had sent seven representatives to co-ordinate observer missions from the Commonwealth, the EU and other organisations. But in a series of meetings with Carlos Lopez, the head of the UN Development Programme in Harare, officials demanded that the UN's role be changed.
Fred Eckhardt, a UN spokesman, said Mr Mugabe had invited the UN to abandon its work as a co-ordinator and act as an observer. This flew in the face of assurances to Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general. Mr Eckhardt said: "The secretary general had understood from President Mugabe that this co-ordinating role was acceptable to the government. There is too little time to fulfil a monitoring role. The secretary-general felt if we were not in a co-ordinating role, then there was no reason for us to stay." He said the team would depart "very soon".
Commentators suspect that Mr Mugabe wants to frustrate international observers, who have yet to begin work with only a fortnight to go before polling on 24 and 25 June. Mr Tsvangirai said: "The burden lies on [international] organisations to ensure they are not endorsing an unacceptable process. It is glaringly obvious that the government is hampering the work of the observers, there's no doubt about it."
Referring to the UN's decision, he accused Mr Mugabe of "a deliberate attempt to scare the election monitors". He said: "There is a limit to which these organisations can continue to be accommodating. For an African Secretary General of the United Nations to show his displeasure in this way is a serious commentary, by an African representing the international community, on the actions of an African despot."
Mr Mugabe said last month that he would not accept scrutiny from Britain. The EU and the Commonwealth quietly bowed to his will and refrained from sending British observers. But they discovered on Tuesday that Mr Mugabe's ban on Britons extends to anyone vaguely connected with the election. Mark Stevens, a Briton working for Election Reform International, was apprehended at the airport and placed on a flight back to Britain. The EU chose not to make a protest.
Comment from the Daily Telegraph, 10 Jun 2000
Britain kowtows to Mugabe
ELECTION monitors have a well-earned low reputation. Take, for example, the blatantly rigged poll in Albania in 1997, which the Council of Europe pronounced as "adequate and acceptable at this stage". The Blair government has now taken such equivocation a stage further.
Last month, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe said he did not want British observers in the European Union and Commonwealth teams monitoring the general election on June 24 and 25. The High Commission in Harare was furious, but has since been made to toe the more "diplomatic" line of the Foreign Office in London. Richard Lindsay, the mission's spokesman, said: "We regard it as important to get observers here rather than respond to an inflammatory statement." In other words, if a bully deliberately provokes you, you give in rather than stick to what should be a point of principle. Mr Mugabe has got his way. Britain, a leading member of both the EU and Commonwealth, will not be represented among the 240 monitors from those two bodies. A British trainer of election observers has even been refused entry to the country.
There is a grave danger that the monitoring operation in Zimbabwe will lend spurious legitimacy to an election which has no chance of being free and fair. The United Nations, at least, has made a stand by announcing the withdrawal of its election team after Mr Mugabe had arbitrarily redesignated its role. The president had first asked the UN to co-ordinate the international monitoring effort, then changed the invitation to that of simply providing observers. Against that refusal to bow to presidential whim must be set the late arrival of the EU and Commonwealth teams and their further delay by bureaucratic requirements for accreditation. Two weeks before polling day, they have not begun to do their job. Meanwhile, opponents of Mr Mugabe continue to be subjected to terror tactics. Addressing his supporters on Thursday, the old tyrant said that white farmers who resisted seizure of their land would die. The incitement to murder comes right from the top.
From The Financial Times, 10 June 2000
Mugabe ministers in diamond link
By Francesco Guerrera, Michael Holman and Andrew Parker
Further evidence has emerged of links between the Zimbabwean government and Oryx, a diamond mining company seeking a listing in London on Tuesday. Two ministers in President Robert Mugabe's cabinet are directors of a company - controlled by Zimbabwe's ruling party - that will take a stake in Oryx.
The disclosure comes as Oryx was planning to meet its financial advisers Grant Thornton on Saturday after they expressed concerns about the float. On Friday night, Peter Hain, Foreign Office minister for Africa, rejected Oryx's claim that the department had not been "suspicious" about its plans to mine diamonds in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "No foreign office official has given any encouragement to Oryx to get involved in this diamond concession in the DRC. Quite the opposite, Oryx should not touch the Congo with a barge pole in the present circumstances."
Emmerson Mnangagwa, minister of justice, and Sidney Sekeremayi, minister of state for national security, are listed in the company register office in Harare, the Zimbabwe capital, as directors of Zidco Holdings Private Ltd, a commercial arm of the ruling Zanu-PF party. Zidco will receive 237,935 ordinary shares in Oryx, a stake of about 0.24 per cent worth £120,000 ($181,000). Oryx plans to list through a reverse takeover of London-listed Petra Diamonds, whose shareholders will be asked to approve the deal at an extraordinary meeting on Monday.
On Friday, Geoffrey White, Oryx deputy managing director, said he was "not aware" the ministers were directors of Zidco. Oryx had dealt with Jayant Joshi, a British director of Zidco. Oryx has a commercial arrangement with the Zimbabwean government to exploit a diamond concession worth an estimated $1bn in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The concession - some 35 kilometres south of the town of Mbuji Mayi - is an area controlled by Zimbabwean troops which are supporting the Congolese government of President Laurent Kabila in its fight against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda.
According to the prospectus, Oryx has invested $8.4m in the concession through a loan guaranteed by the government. In a letter to the Financial Times last month, Adonis Pouroulis, Petra Diamonds managing director, acknowledged the Zimbabwean government had seconded a representative of the army to the board of Osleg, a company controlled by the Zimbabwean government that entered into a profit-sharing agreement with Oryx. The links between Oryx and the government are believed to have come under scrutiny from the London Stock Exchange, which could delay the listing.
The ownership of the Oryx concession is also causing concerns. In the prospectus the company says that, until recently, the concession belonged to MIBA, a joint venture between the Congolese state diamond mining company and the Belgian mining group Sibeka. However, "due to the lack of exploitation work to fulfil the requirements under which the mining licence was granted to them in the first place, a ministerial decree has revoked all their claims to this concession area". This is disputed by Sibeka. People close to the company said on Friday they were not aware that the concession rights had been revoked and had not been notified of any ministerial decree.
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 9 June 2000
Diamond company to pay Zimbabwe for role in Congo
Vincent Kahiya
ZIMBABWE will be partly paid for its participation in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) conflict from proceeds from the controversial Oryx Diamonds company which is seeking a listing on the London Stock Exchange, the Zimbabwe Independent established this week. The listing follows a reverse takeover of London-listed Petra Diamonds Ltd by Oryx Natural Resources Ltd.
Sources close to the deal said Zimbabwe, which through a shadowy military company called Osleg is guaranteed 40% of the profits in the US$1 billion diamond mining venture in the DRC, would not be making any financial outlay to the project. "Zimbabwe has already paid for its shareholding in the project through the deployment of troops in the DRC and the protection the troops are offering to the project and the government of Laurent Kabila," a government source said.
Zimbabwe is considered an important component in the deal due to the security provided by the ZDF. The deposits are in Kasai-Oriental southwest of the diamond capital, Mbuji-Mayi, that has been a target of the Rwandan-backed rebels. Zimbabwe is believed to be spending US$3 million a month in the DRC despite the prevailing economic hardships. The deal is bankrolled by money from an Omani company, Oryx, with Laurent Kabila's Comiex as the third partner.
Last month Defence Minister Moven Mahachi said at a press conference that the company had not started operations in the Congo. Zimbabwe's involvement in mining developments has never been clearly spelt out by the authorities in Harare. When Zimbabwe went to the DRC to bolster Kabila's government, it was believed that the ZDF would be paid from money raised from the DRC's mineral wealth. At the press conference, Mahachi denied this, saying the army was not a mercenary force and Zimbabwe had not gone to the DRC for monetary gains. He also indicated that the business concerned had not produced anything for the Zimbabweans.
Oryx Diamonds, to be flo-ated on the London Stock Exchange on June 13, would make available shares in a multi-billion dollar diamond mining concession ceded to the new company by a government decree. Analysts said the ZDF's involvement in Oryx Diamonds meant it had long-term plans in the Congo - which could influence the withdrawal plans of the force. "Under the present circumstance, we are not likely to see the Zimbabwean troops home soon because the success of this project depends to a large extent on the availability of security in the area," the source said. "It is no secret at the moment that without the Zimbabwe troops, Kabila is doomed and with it the diamond venture," he said.
The Ministry of Defence had not responded to questions sent to spokesman Colonel Chancellor Diye. Last month, the Zimbabwe Independent broke the news that DRC mines minister Frederic Kibassa Maliba ordered a parastatal, Miniere de Bakwanga (Miba), to cede the Senga-Senga concession in Mbuji-Mayi to the joint-venture company. The paper also provided details on the operations of Osleg, Cosleg, and Comiex. European diamond dealers have since the announcement of the deal last month indicated that the launch of the company would be a major test of market sentiment towards the British government's attempt to get buyers to boycott diamonds from war situations such as the DRC, Sierra Leone and Angola.
This is the first attempt by the governments of Zimbabwe and the DRC to legitimise their mineral business interests in the Great Lakes regions since the ZDF troops joined the civil war in August 1998. The quest for legitimacy is however under threat from calls from West European capitals for merchants not to trade in "blood or conflict diamonds".
Presidential spokesman George Charamba this week said the West had no mandate to lecture African countries on business ethics. He said European countries had continued to do business in Rhodesia even after the imposition of sanctions. "During UDI there were 600 British companies doing business in Zimbabwe. Where was their moral compunction during that period?" asked Charamba. "It is injudicious for them to say that. How can the devil cite the scriptures when the whole empire rested on illegality," he said.
Charamba said those raising concern also wanted a piece of the natural wealth in the DRC. He said the joint venture was meant to promote the South-South business initiative and there was nothing illegal about it. On the quantum of Zimbabwe's investment in the project, Charamba could not give a figure but said Zimbabwe would invest both personnel and material capital in the deal. "I cannot give a figure at the moment but I can guarantee you that the money will go into Treasury. It is going to take three or four years before that profit starts to come in," he said.
Osleg will get 40% of the profits while Oryx would get an equal portion. The remaining portion of 20% is earmarked for Comiex, which is believed to be controlled by Kabila. According to documents at the company registry offices in Harare, Osleg directors include ZDF chief General Vitalis Zvinavashe, Defence ministry permanent secretary Job Whabira, and retired Major General Dauramanzi.
From The Independent (UK), 10 June 2000
Names missing from Zimbabwe's polling lists
By Basildon Petain, Harare
Zimbabwean officials are denying accusations of vote-rigging ahead of the country's forthcoming elections after thousands of people discovered their names were missing from voters' rolls. Some not listed in the constituencies where they registered say they have been told to check the rolls in other constituencies. "But how can I go and check my name in a different constituency when I know very well I registered in this constituency (Harare Central)?" asked David Timbe, a perplexed would-be voter.
Opposition parties have accused the government of leaving off the rolls young voters and whites sympathetic to them. Zimbabwe's largest opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has threatened to go to court unless the registrar general, Tobaiwa Mudede, guarantees in writing to prepare a supplementary list of people omitted from the original roll released for public inspection a week ago.
President Robert Mugabe said at a rally in Gutu on Wednesday that all those whose names were not on the roll should re-register so they could vote. Mr Mugabe said it was not his government's intention to disenfranchise any blacks. His statement contradicts officials from the registrar general's office at various inspection centres who say people who re-register on the supplementary roll will be eligible to vote only in the 2005 parliamentary elections.
Opposition parties say they have little hope that their supporters, especially the young, will be able to vote on 24 and 25 June, even if their names are put on the supplementary role. John Chimusoro, a 19-year-old student at the University of Zimbabwe whose name is missing, said: "I don't even understand why so many people should be asked to re-register now when they had already registered in the first place. What if they come with another excuse on the election day itself and we fail to vote? These are all excuses designed to rig the election."
David Coltart, MDC secretary for legal affairs, said his party had been inundated with calls from those who failed to register to vote, especially people between 18 and 20. "More than 100,000 of our supporters in the urban centres are affected and we will have to resort to court action to seek redress," Mr Coltart said.
But Mr Mudede dismissed the charges that he was manipulating the voters' roll. "If it was intended that a certain section of the community should be disenfranchised, then why put the voters' roll [out] to public inspection?" asked Mr Mudede. "This allegation is unfounded and baseless."
A United Nations team of election experts said the voters' roll was in disarray, with one in four of the people registered to vote being dead.
From The Mail & Guardian, 9 June 2000
Zim farmers defiant after Mugabe threats
OWN CORRESPONDENT
Harare - ZIMBABWE's white farmers will not be intimidated by President Robert Mugabe's threats against them, a union farming official said on Friday, after Mugabe warned white farmers that they will die if they try to resist land invasions. At the same time political opponents say the president's fighting talk will earn him stiff international sanction.
"We are absolutely committed to following the legal processes of this country and not to be intimidated by these statements," David Hasluck, the director of the country's predominantly white Commercial Farmers Union said. "If they try and resist them they will die," Mugabe told a campaign rally in Mpanawanda, 220km southeast of Harare. "The statement is extremely unhelpful and not conducive to having a credible election in this country," said Hasluck. General elections are due June 24-25.
Comment from The Daily News, 9 June 2000Whites who desert should not be allowed back
WHITES deserting us in our hour of need (should not be allowed back) It is said that a friend in need is a friend indeed.
Apparently this is not the case with a significant number of liberal white Zimbabweans. They appear to be our friends and are quite happy to enjoy the fruits of the country when the going is good but quickly decide to high-tail it at the slightest hint of national trouble. It may sound unkind, but that is the stuff traitors are made of.
The Mole came to this conclusion after reading in the papers what they are saying and planning to do during the election period. In rapid succession I was first amazed, then felt disappointed and finally felt decidedly angry as I got to end of a story in Monday's edition of The Daily News titled Terror causes election exodus.
"Travel agents in Harare," read part of the story, "said at the weekend that hundreds of white families had booked a holiday in one of Zimbabwe's four neighbouring countries for the eight-day election-linked school holiday beginning from 21 June". Days earlier, I had read a letter in the same newspaper (which, as I was to find out later, would appear in two other independent newspapers), written by one David Berger. Berger was advising whites not to vote as doing so might expose them to blame for the result.
Now these are extremely shocking and irresponsible attitudes to harbour for a group of people vehemently asserting each and every day that they are as Zimbabwean as the darkest of their black fellow citizens. The two courses of action have the same effect. They are a niggardly act of self-disenfranchisement for contemptibly selfish considerations at a time when supreme self-sacrifice is what is expected of every citizen with genuine love for their country.
Patriotism means preparedness to die for your country. But, these cowards would rather leave the fighting to others and only return when it is time to share the spoils. After all that we have gone through together, it is sheer lunacy for any white citizen to chicken out at the very last hurdle which, incidentally, is also the easiest. Voting is every citizen's most important civic duty. Refrain from the exercise and we may all be stuck with the looting, the lies, the profligacy, the terror and the economic ruin for eternity.
What is most worrying about the course these whites have chosen to take is that it sends the wrong message to less sophisticated voters. Those of our black brothers and sisters who have been subjected to terror tactics will say: "If whites won't vote because they fear to be blamed for the result, then it must be true that your vote is NOT SECRET after all and that Zanu PF people will find out if you do not vote for them. Therefore, we have no choice but to vote for them."
The consequences of the whites' planned actions are far-reaching and dire. They are most unpatriotic. Those planning their own latter-day Hegira say that if things "go well at the elections" they will then come back. The Mole suspects that what they mean by "things going well at the elections" is a win for Zanu PF which they interpret as a guarantee for a return to peace - and the probable perpetuation of the present poverty and suffering. What they don't seem to appreciate is that a win for the opposition will equally guarantee a return to that peace and, more significantly, a return to the road to economic recovery, prosperity and happiness for all of us in the not-too-distant future.
In the event of the latter scenario prevailing, The Mole proposes that the those whites who shall have chosen to take the yellow route should never be allowed back into Zimbabwe. If they like it here, they must be prepared to do the unpleasant work of cleaning up the mess with the rest of us.
The Mole will dwell at length on the subject of whites who seem to have panicked so much they are prepared to let the rest of us who are determined to give our all in our efforts to bring about positive change for no other reason except to save their own skins.
The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU), which for all intents and purposes is an exclusively white organisation has also badly sold out, not only on its members but on all forces, civic and political, fighting for better governance. Its newly-found but despicably cowardly policy of "appeasement" with RGM's political henchmen led by Hitler has done more harm than good, particularly to the farmers the CFU was so anxious to "protect". It has also done irreparable harm to the organisation which people now see as spineless.
The first big mistake which the farmers made and one which exposed them as lamentably immature, politically, was to invite CNN to film them signing donation cheques to the Movement for Democratic Change. It was not just naive. It was crass stupidity. That was an act of thumping their noses at Zanu PF. An act whose foolishness is graphically equated in Shona to slap angry lion (kurova shumba nembama). The farmers have since paid dearly for it.
And so have their innocent, defenceless workers. By association too, the MDC, has also paid dearly in that, whereas before the farm invasions their support all over the country was virtually unassailable, they can no longer count on the rural vote with any certainty. When the invasions started, instead of seeing them as the ruse that they actually were and simply abandon those farms for the safety of the towns, they thought they could take on the invaders in physical combat. Another fatal mistake. But by the time they realised that, some of them had already been killed.
Enter the CFU with its compromise offer. For Pete's sake, compromise with whom? Did they ever think the invaders were genuinely interested in their land? If they did then, they must have been mighty moronic. All that hogwash about wanting to repossess land was a facade for Hunzvi's men's politicisation mission. Being fooled into agreeing to enter into negotiations with those murderers was like a maiden accepting an offer of a safe night alone with a rapist.
UN pulls out of Zimbabwe poll
The United Nations has announced that it will not - as planned – act as a co-ordinator for international observer groups monitoring the forthcoming general elections in Zimbabwe. The world body was to have co-ordinated the work of several groups of observers.
No formal reason has been given for its withdrawal, but the BBC correspondent in Zimbabwe says it's understood that it was the result of a deadlock in discussions with the Zimbabwean government, which wanted the UN to play a much smaller role than it planned. Our correspondent says there is no indication that any other observer groups will withdraw. He says that opposition parties in Zimbabwe have banked on the observer missions being in place to try to ensure that the poll will be free and fair.
From Reuters, 9 June 2000
Zimbabwe Police Vow Order, Opposition Slams Mugabe
By Cris Chinaka
HARARE - Zimbabwe's police commissioner vowed Friday to maintain law and order during upcoming elections this month and dismissed an opposition leader's prediction that violence would escalate because President Robert Mugabe was ''behaving like a gangster.''
``We have put in place a mechanism to ensure that we discharge our duty, which is that of maintaining law and order,'' Police Commissioner Augustine Chiuri told a news conference. Chiuri said at least six police officers would be deployed at each of the country's 4,000 voting stations for parliamentary elections June 24 and 25.
At least 27 people have been killed and hundreds, mainly supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), have been beaten, raped or forced to flee their homes and the last few months. The violence followed the invasion of hundreds of white-owned farms since February by liberation war veterans and Mugabe supporters claiming land they say was stolen a century ago during the British colonial era. Mugabe has approved the invasions but denies responsibility for the violence.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Mugabe had encouraged the violence by refusing to order the veterans off the farms. ``Mugabe is allowing these land invaders to act like outlaws. It is the responsibility of this government to call people to order, but instead Mugabe is behaving like a gangster,'' Tsvangirai said in a statement. At a rally southeast of Harare Thursday, Mugabe praised the veterans and said they would not be moved off the land until the program of seizing 804 white-owned farms had begun. ``Elections cannot be free and fair when there are war veterans on the farms which have become concentration camps for our people,'' Tsvangirai said.
He predicted the violence would intensify on voting weekend as Mugabe supporters tried to intimidate people right up to the ballot box. Chiuri rejected opposition fears that the violence would get worse in the weeks ahead. ``I want to advise that the situation is calm and that we are working with all stakeholders to ensure that it remains calm,'' he said.
Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party, which faces its first serious electoral challenge in 20 years of post-independence rule, dismissed a report by Amnesty International that the state is sponsoring terrorism against its opponents. Jonathan Moyo, a member of ZANU-PF's campaign directorate, charged that the London-based human rights group's report Thursday was designed to aid the MDC and to demonize the government. ``It is a biased report that purports to cover what is happening in this country, but all it does is repeat the stories we have been hearing from the MDC, clearly one-sided versions,'' he told Reuters.
``It does not include cases of violence against ZANU-PF candidates and supporters that are a matter of public record, and so in our view the Amnesty report is a crude piece of propaganda for the MDC and is part of sinister campaign in Britain to demonize the ZANU-PF government,'' he added.
Amnesty said in the report that a wave of ``state sponsored terrorism'' against Mugabe opponents is threatening free and fair elections and Amnesty's Africa Director Maina Kiai accused the government of using veterans to intimidate the electorate. ``There is a deliberate plan. It started with the farmers, then moved to the farm workers and on to teachers and businessman and now to the opposition,'' Kiai told reporters Thursday. ``It is clearly state-sponsored terrorism.''
Analysts believe the land invasions are part of a campaign of terror against the MDC, which political analysts say poses the greatest challenge to ZANU-PF since it won power when the former Rhodesia gained independence from Britain in 1980.
Moyo said ZANU-PF's Western opponents had stepped up their propaganda campaign in the run-up to the parliamentary election, claiming some international news agencies had distorted remarks by Mugabe Thursday at a rally in southeastern Zimbabwe on the deaths of white farmers so it could tally with Amnesty's report.
``While Amnesty was releasing its rubbish, they were misquoting the president, suggesting he had warned that more whites would be killed. He said nothing of that sort,'' he said. The issue of British citizenship, which whites were told to renounce in favor of permanent residence in Zimbabwe if they wanted to vote, arose again Friday. Three white judges held a news conference to reject ZANU-PF accusations that they held British citizenship and could not pass judgement on politically sensitive cases. ``The insinuation that the judges are anything other than loyal citizens of Zimbabwe ... is false,'' the judges said in a joint statement read at the conference.
From The Washington Post, 9 June 2000
Cuban Doctors Freed From Jail in Zimbabwe
By Karen DeYoung
Two Cuban doctors who say they were abducted and imprisoned in Zimbabwe after they tried to defect were allowed to apply formally for refugee status yesterday, the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said.
Leonel Cordova Rodriguez, 31, and Noris Pena Martinez, 25, were released from the prison where they had been held after they thwarted an attempt to send them home last Friday. They were interviewed by Zimbabwe's refugee eligibility committee, the first step toward attaining political asylum in a third country.
Dominik Bartsch, the spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency in neighboring Lusaka, Zambia, said it was expected that their status would be resolved quickly. Bartsch said the doctors were in good condition and had been moved from a prison outside Harare to a less restricted facility in the capital, although they were still technically in Zimbabwean government custody.
The two disappeared last Friday morning, nine days after publicly denouncing the Cuban government and declaring their intention to seek political asylum in Canada. Both were members of a medical team in Zimbabwe, among thousands of Cuban doctors their government sends to poor countries on aid missions. Hours after they vanished, the doctors appeared at the Johannesburg airport, where Zimbabwean officials attempted to place them aboard an Air France flight bound for Paris, with a connection to Cuba.
The plan was thwarted when the doctors slipped a note to Air France officials saying they had been kidnapped by Zimbabwean police, in the presence of Cuban diplomats, who were attempting to send them back to Havana. South African authorities forced the group to fly back to Harare, and Air France sent a copy of the note to the headquarters of the U.N. refugee agency in Geneva. Despite repeated U.N. queries, it was not until Wednesday that Zimbabwe acknowledged that the two were in a local prison and allowed U.N. officials to visit them.
In a statement yesterday, the refugee agency described what had happened to the doctors as "attempted deportation to Cuba." Zimbabwean government spokesman George Charamba said the two were seized because they had left a refugee holding center, where they were sent after their initial application, to stay with a friend, the Associated Press reported. The U.N. agency said the doctors did not realize they were not allowed to leave the refugee center, but noted that Zimbabwe is a signatory to international conventions that require it to protect any applicant for refugee status.
In Havana, the Associated Press reported that a Cuban Foreign Ministry spokeswoman denied involvement in the attempt to repatriate the two doctors forcibly and said that Zimbabwe had the right to make such decisions. "Cuba had nothing to do with that," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Aymee Hernandez said. Cuban diplomats, she said, "don't have any authority to extract people from one country and take them to another."
Hernandez accused the two defectors of "embarrassing moral conduct" in their attempts to obtain political asylum. She said they had committed no crime in Cuba, but "they have failed to fulfill the obligations of their work . . . as well as the labor and migratory regulations of this brother nation." As a result, she said, "it corresponds to the authorities of Zimbabwe to adopt the decisions that they deem pertinent."
From The Star (SA), 9 June 2000
Zim refuses UK electoral expert entry
Harare - A British electoral expert, sent to Zimbabwe to train observers for June 24 to 25 parliamentary polls, was detained at Harare airport before being sent back to Britain, a source at the British High Commission said on Friday. The source, who did not want to be named, said the expert came to Zimbabwe under the auspices of the European Union, but was sent back to Britain on Tuesday after being detained at the airport. The European Commission is expected to take up the issue with the Zimbabwe government, the spokesperson said.
President Robert Mugabe has categorically stated that he does not want British observers to oversee elections in his country, claiming that their verdict would be biased as a result of the diplomatic war of words between his country and its former colonial master. No such sanction was placed, however, on election monitors from other nations. The European Union has the largest international election observation mission in the country. There are expected to be 200 campaign observers in the country by polling days.
From The Daily News, 9 June 2000
Farm workers in demo against war vets
Staff Reporter
POLICE in Chimanimani on Wednesday prevented more than 300 farm workers from marching into the town to demonstrate against unpaid wages promised to them by war veterans when they invaded Charleswood Estate, owned by Roy Bennet.
Bennet, the Chimanimani candidate for the Movement for Democratic Change in the forthcoming parliamentary election, said he was called in by the police to persuade the workers who had refused to budge. "I was called by the police to intervene and call my workers back to the farm," said Bennet. He said he opted to pay the farm workers and will claim the money back from the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association "as they were the ones who promised to pay my workers after invading my farm."
However, Inspector Francis Mubvuta, speaking from the police provincial headquarters in Mutare said he could not confirm the incident as there was no communication with Chimanimani police posts. Bennet said apart from the hundreds of war veterans who were already on his farm since 10 May, more had moved onto the farm by midday on Wednesday. He said he was told by the war veterans on the farm that they were waiting for their leader, Chenjerai Hunzvi to come and address them before taking further action. However, Hunzvi did not turn up and the war veterans left the farm. Bennet said he did not feel safe at all as more death threats had been made, "but I have to fight on".
Bennet who returned to his farm under police escort, said he found some of his farming equipment, personal belongings, including rifles and shot guns, and about $480 000 missing. He alleged that eight of his cattle were slaughtered during his absence. Police have since arrested at least 18 people in connection with theft from Bennet's farm.
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 9 June 2000
$20m Zanu PF channelled to land siezure remains unaccounted for
Brian Hungwe
THERE is concern that the $20 million the ruling Zanu PF party channelled to the war veterans from its depleted coffers in February to bolster its now three-month-old land seizure campaign was abused, the Zimbabwe Independent has learnt.
Highly-placed government sources told the Independent that the money was siphoned from Zanu PF's $76 million Political Parties (Finance) Act budgetary allocation leaving no funds for its campaign for the crucial parliamentary election to be held on June 24/25.
The money was disbursed through the War Veterans Association chairman Chenjerai Hunzvi, who distributed part of the money to every province through its leadership, sources said. The Independent now understands that serious problems have emerged over how the money was disbursed and used as no proper records were kept. The issue was raised during a recent politburo meeting, but was simply quashed on the grounds that the war veterans should sort out the problem among themselves.
Sources this week said it was not proper for the party to entrust Hunzvi with a special responsibility for disbursing the money. "Hunzvi was the secretary of the fund, the accountant, and the disburser for every transaction," a source said. The Zanu PF headquarters was reduced to a social centre in April, where ex-combatants would converge every weekend to eat and drink as they waited for instructions from their leadership. The funds were used for the upkeep of over 50 000 war veterans and other hangers-on who sources said were at one time getting $100-$150 a day.
The party's national task force, of which Hunzvi is a member, released a further $6 million on Wednesday for use by the war veterans for distribution through its respective provincial party leaderships. Hunzvi however denied that the money was channelled into the war veterans' coffers. "We expected the money, but it never materialised," Hunzvi said. "No money was misappropriated," he said.
When Hunzvi addressed the war veterans in April, he assured them that the money had been disbursed and every province would get its allocation. The party's deputy secretary for Information and Publicity, Chen Chimutengwende, told the Independent that he was not aware of any allegations about the abuse of the money. "I am not aware that the funds were abused, you can seek a comment from the war veterans themselves," Chimutengwende said.
This week, Zanu PF parliamentary candidates each received $100 000 for campaigning, which they said was not enough to cover their expenses. The candidates alleged the $2 million allocated to each province for the same purpose was abused, as the money never got to some aspiring MPs. Party sources told the Independent that it was unfair for the party to be channelling the huge amounts to the war veterans.
The decision to finance the whole land seizure exercise was arrived at during a meeting at the party headquarters by the party's strategic campaign team. The team comprised the party's secretary for the commissariat and culture, Moven Mahachi, the secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa, the party's 10 provincial commissariat leaders, and two officials based at the party's headquarters. Sources said the party's secretary for finance, Emmerson Mnangagwa, got the instructions from the politburo to channel the party funds to the war veterans at the beginning of the year after President Robert Mugabe had given the green light to the programme.
From The Daily News, 9 June 2000
Independent Zanu PF candidate kidnapped
Sandra Nyaira, Political Reporter
Patrick Chabvamuperu, a Zanu PF independent candidate for Mutoko North, was kidnapped on Tuesday by suspected war veterans loyal to Olivia Muchena, his Zanu PF rival in the constituency, it is alleged. The war veterans interrogated him at a house in Mutoko where they tried to force him into signing a document saying he was withdrawing from the parliamentary contest against Muchena.
"They held me overnight but I'm okay and I will be hiking to Harare as soon as possible," was all Chabvamuperu could say when The Daily News caught up with him at Mutoko Police Station. Factionalism and infighting within Zanu PF has reached new heights as senior figures vie for supremacy in the ruling party.
Squabbles over the results of the primary election to select candidates have diverted the focus of candidates from the real campaign. In Highfield yesterday suspected war veterans attacked a private office used by Zanu PF independent, Richard Shambambeva-Nyandoro. They also closed the Zanu PF office at Machipisa shopping centre, saying party workers there supported Shambambeva-Nyandoro.
"The workers ran away because the war veterans had a gun," said Shambambeva-Nyandoro. "I do not know what they have taken from the office. They came back a second time in the afternoon and forced their way into the Social Welfare creche, disrupting children's lessons." Shambambeva-Nyandoro's offices are at the Highfield Social Welfare Creche, run by the Harare City Council. The war veterans said they were looking for his campaign materials. "This is outrageous," he said. "I pay rent to the Harare City Council for these offices. We should just go to the election and see who wins."
In Mutoko, Muchena lost her party's primary election twice to Chabvamuperu. Zanu PF then declared her the winner after a third round. Yesterday Chabvamuperu told The Daily News he had lost his green Mazda B1600 truck to the war veterans. Police said they were trying to recover the vehicle. "I guess that is a Zanu PF matter," the officer-in-charge, Inspector Masuku, said. "It's in-house and I do not have any details about that."
From The Daily News, 9 June 2000
Zanu PF admits involvement in Chivi political violence
Energy Bara, Masvingo
The ruling Zanu PF party has admitted that political violence which rocked Chivi district in the past two weeks in which an army vehicle was used and teachers houses were destroyed was perpetrated by its supporters. But, the party quickly qualified that admission by saying those supporters involved in violence were sympathisers of the 11 politicians who lost in the oarty's primary election and decided to go independent.
Addressing about 120 supporters at Chigwikwi School in Chivi yesterday, the party's candidate for Chivi North, Samuel Mumbengegwi said Zanu PF supporters loyal to independent candidates were responsible for the destruction of property. About $1 million worth of property was destroyed during political clashes in the district late last month. Most of the property belonged to schoolteachers who were the main targets of the Zanu PF orchestrated violence.
A soldier with the Zimbabwe National Army, David Manyeruke, allegedly drove an army truck from Kwekwe to Chivi, a distance of almost 200km, where he transported Zanu PF supporters involved in clashes with the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters. 10 ruling party supporters including Manyeruke are awaiting trial following the violence. The State has since denied them bail on the grounds that the accused were likely to abscond since they were facing serious allegations and, alternatively, if released, they were likely to threaten witnesses.
Mumbengegwi dismissed reports that supporters of the opposition MDC were involved in the clashes. "People had been made to understand that the opposition MDC was responsible for the clashes but that is not true," he said. "It has come to our attention that those who denounced the party and followed independent candidates were the culprits." Mumbengegwi attacked the Zanu PF independents. He labelled them sellouts, not committed to the ruling party and its leadership. "By standing as independents they have shown that they are rebels of the party and anyone who supports them is also an enemy," Mumbengegwi said.
However, the independent candidate for Chivi, Albert Chamwadoro has dismissed the claims that his supporters were involved in the clashes. He said such utterances were being made by his Zanu PF rivals who were imposed on the people. In Chivi North, there are two distinct Zanu PF groups: one loyal to Chamwadoro and the other to Mumbengengwi. Twice winner of party primary elections in the constituency, Chamwadoro said he was forced to stand as independent after he had been dropped by the Zanu PF politburo at the last minute.
The Zanu PF top leadership has since denounced violence against the opposition. The leaders called on their supporters to stop violence. At a pre-election conference held in Harare on Wednesday three of the party's leaders in its supreme council, the politburo denounced violence. Among them were Vice-President Simon Muzenda, Zanu PF national chairman, John Nkomo, party secretary for legal affairs, Eddison Zvobgo and information and publicity secretary, Nathan Shamuyarira.
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 9 June 2000
Libya asks for larger share in Zim/Kuwait fuel deal
LIBYA is demanding a bigger stake in the fuel deal between the government and Kuwait Independent Petroleum Group (IPG) in line with their contribution to the arrangement, the Zimbabwe Independent heard this week. Well-placed oil industry sources said the Libyans - who were instrumental in securing a US$60 million ($2,3 billion) line of credit for the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) – were bargaining for an up to 50% share of business in the contract. Libyans were said to be currently holding less than half the share they wanted.
The Libyan dissatisfaction comes amid renewed efforts by fuel supplier Zimalzam to fill up the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe fuel reservoirs at Msasa and Southerton. Zimalzam this week confirmed that they would submit their proposal to government next week as an alternative to the IPG deal, which was susceptible to political manoeuvres.
This is not the first time that Zimalzam has made such a proposal to government. In the first two instances at the end of last year and early this year, the proposal was shot down during the squabbling with Sasol over the overland supply tender. Zimalzam spokesman Chris Pasipamire said his company was prepared to supply fuel through the pipeline as long as the government provided the necessary guarantees.
"We are prepared to do that because we still have the US$50 million," said Pasipamire. "I think we will be resubmitting our proposal tomorrow (Friday) or next week. If the government can provide the necessary guarantees then we can give credit of up to 180 days," he said. Pasipamire said the government would only pay Zimalzam for drawdown. The government, sources said, is likely to concentrate on the concerns being raised by the Libyans and ensure that Kuwait fuel continued to flow into the country.
A Libyan delegation comprising five officials of President Muammar Gaddafi's ruling Revolutionary Committee Movement of Libya is currently in the country for talks with government and Zanu PF officials. Sources said although their official agenda was to hold a workshop to discuss democratic reforms and other related issues, part of their mission included bilateral issues and the fuel situation.
The delegation held private talks with authorities on Wednesday night at the Sheraton Hotel where President Mugabe had a meeting with Zanu PF election candidates. Efforts to get comment from the Libyan embassy were unsuccessful this week. The ambassador was said to be out of the country while his deputy was said to be busy. The press officer refused to comment.
The Brussels-based banking institution which brokered the deal, KBC Nv's general manager for Asia, Middle East and Africa, Marc Bernaert, told the Independent in a telephone interview from Belgium yesterday that he could not shed light on the matter because negotiations were yet to be finalised. "I can't say anything at the moment because negotiations are still on. The deal has not been concluded. Get back to us sometime later, we may be able to tell you what is happening," he said.
Sources said the Libyan demands for an increased stake in the fuel contract were threatening negotiations which were still underway for the conclusion of the deal. Zimbabwe desperately needs the contract to ensure a lasting solution to the fuel crisis. "The Libyans want up to 50% stake in the deal because they were instrumental in the mobilisation of funds. This means the contract has to be re-negotiated or new conditions will have to be included in the agreement," a source said.
The Libyan claim for a greater stake in the deal comes amid concerns from Tripoli over the US$100 million ($3,8 billion) line of credit extended to Zimbabwe two years ago. It is understood that the Libyans suspected the money has not been put to good use. Only US$40 million ($1,52 billion) of that amount has been accounted for. It is not clear what happened to the remainder, which was re-negotiated last year. However, sources said part of the money was diverted by government to fund the ruling Zanu PF's election campaign.
The ruling party went scrounging for funds in Kuwait during President Mugabe's visit to the Gulf state in search of fuel in March. It has also sought campaign funds from several countries abroad including a $100 million donation in cash and kind from China.
Sources said the Libyans were prepared to pull out of the deal if their demands were not met. "They are contesting that they contributed immensely in the securing of the line of credit that led to the IPG/Noczim deal but they are not reaping anything significant from it. They are prepared to pull out if their demands are not met," a source close to the arrangements said.
The fuel deal, facilitated by the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ), was signed two months ago with the London branch of KBC Nv, the lead bank in a consortium of seven European and Arab banks.
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 9 June 2000
Fidelity ordered to print more money
GOVERNMENT ordered the Reserve Bank-owned Fidelity Printers to print $250 million a fortnight ago to be injected into the market in a bid to have more money at its disposal as the election draws near, the Zimbabwe Independent has established. Central bank sources this week confirmed Fidelity Printers had been ordered to ratchet up its printing schedule to make available money for government to borrow for use in its electoral campaign.
Government, whose coffers are virtually empty due to an insatiable appetite for cash, borrows from the domestic market to finance its operations. Over the years a very thin line has separated government and ruling Zanu PF operations, with the party given unlimited access to the fiscus.
The government's use of its overdraft facility with the central bank has intensified with its latest borrowings accumulating to nearly $10 billion in a single week last month. Government borrowing through the overdraft facility represents the creation of money since it would be borrowing against non-existent assets. This spurs money supply growth and creates aggregate demand in the economy since there would be too much money chasing few goods.
The Independent understands Fidelity Printers staff were up until last week working around the clock, Monday to Friday, to feed the demand for cash. On Saturdays and Sundays they break in the evenings, only to resume the cycle on Mondays. From last week the printers were working up to 11pm. "We do not know what has caused this sudden demand for more cash on the market or where the money is going. It is not our business to ask, and we are now working 24-hour shifts to meet the set targets," said a source at the printers.
The source said the round-the-clock shift came into play just before the farm invasions got under-way. "It is as if government needed the money urgently. This has not been seen at Fidelity Printers that people go for three months on a 24-hour shift," the source said. Since February, Fidelity has printed over $30 billion to service the government overdraft, over and above its target. "In the past, the printers would maybe work up till midnight to meet certain set targets. If the need arose, a 24-hour shift was effected, but it never ran for more than two weeks at most.
The central bank source said government usually printed money against available goods and services. "This has now gone out the window. We are printing money on the advice of the powers that be," he said. A spokesman for the RBZ said this week Fidelity Printers were working normal hours since February, with additional hours only on a need basis. He denied there was a marked increase in the need for cash. "Cash withdrawals and deposits from our customers have been normal. However, demand for cash is attributable to a number of factors, among them inflation, that is, the generalised increase in the price of goods and services," the RBZ spokesman said. "Fidelity Printers does not mint money to service government's overdraft. In terms of the Reserve Bank Act, we are the sole issuers of notes and coin in Zimbabwe. For your information, government overdraft is far less than the figure suggested by you," he said.
From The Daily News, 9 June 2000
Omitted voters can still register: Mugabe
Staff Reporter
PRESIDENT Mugabe said yesterday people whose names were omitted on the voters' roll would be allowed to register until Monday next week, to vote in this month's parliamentary election. Addressing a rally at Gutu-Mupandawana, Masvingo province, Mugabe said: "We still have two weeks before the elections. Party leaders should go and tell the people whose names did not appear on the voters' roll to re-register." He urged Zanu PF supporters at Gutu-Mupandawana to go and check the voters' roll to rectify any anomalies.
Gutu-Mupandawana falls under the Gutu North constituency where Vice-President Muzenda is the Zanu PF candidate. Muzenda is being challenged by Crispa Musoni of the Movement for Democratic Change. Hundreds of people have complained that their names were missing from the voters' roll which was put for national inspection last Thursday. Other people have said they found the names of their deceased relatives still on the voters' roll and have dismissed the roll as "a complete mix-up". The other concern was that when people registered they were not given receipts and there was, therefore, no way they could prove that they had registered before the April cut-off point. Inspection of the voters' roll ends next Tuesday.
From The Daily News, 9 June 2000
Zesa introduces electricity rationing
Staff Reporters
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) said yesterday it had resorted to emergency power rationing countrywide because of a critical foreign currency shortage and an increase in demand caused by the cold weather.
The shortage of foreign currency has restricted additional power imports, affecting supplies to all towns and cities, the mines, and commerce and industry. Mhangura Mine, for example, has been closed for the past two days because it has no power. Workers and their families have been foraging in the nearby bushes for wood and water, a spokesman said yesterday. "At present, our internal and external supply sources are capable of providing a peak demand of 1 600-1 800MW against a demand of 1 800-2 000MW, giving a shortfall of 25 percent," said Sam Mahlanza, the Zesa spokesman.
The parastatal was battling to service its debts for power imports and now owes Eskom of South Africa more than US$20 million ($760 million). Francis Masawi, Zesa's transmission director, said on Monday the figure had shot up from US$18 million in 1998 to more than US$20 million this month. The debt has been converted into a loan payable over two years. Zimbabwe obtains 45 percent of its electricity needs from Escom of South Africa, Societe Nationale d'Electricite (Snel) in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Hydro de Cahora Bassa in Mozambique.
From The Christian Science Monitor, 9 June 2000-06-09
Zimbabwe braces for food crisis
Ross Herbert
HARARE - Three years after colonial rule, Zimbabwe was full of promise for Frederick Chizanza back in 1983. The agriculture school graduate was one of the first people to be resettled in a government program to buy up white-owned farms and resettle blacks. His family and about 135 others were given tractors and reorganized as a cattle and tobacco cooperative on Alban Farm outside Harare.
Today, only 17 families remain. The farm that was supposed to emancipate blacks from white oppression has gone bankrupt. And Mr. Chizanza's dreams of self-sufficiency are shattered. His story is a dark reminder of the risks that lie ahead for Zimbabwe.
With the violent seizure of some 1,500 Zimbabwe farms (one-third of the nation's operating farms) in recent months by war veterans and ruling party activists, Zimbabwe now faces a profound economic crisis that portends a famine. International aid agencies are bracing for what could become an acute food shortage in years to come. And Zimbabwe is largely dependent on agricultural exports for foreign currency to purchase such basic needs as fuel.
"Food imports will increase in the final months of the year, and food prices will increase sharply over the next few months, pushing inflation higher than previously forecast," Standard Chartered Bank said in his recent economic analysis of the nation. Already, the prices for vegetables - principally grown on occupied commercial farms - have skyrocketed some 200 percent. Winter wheat plantings are down one-third because farm invaders have prevented new plantings.
Economists predict severe bread shortages within six months, when the present crop should be heading to flour mills. That could necessitate the import of an extra 100,000 tons of wheat. But currency is scarce. Oddly, it seems that few people - if anyone - in Zimbabwe are actively pursuing a contingency plan. Officially there is a land committee composed of the minister of agriculture, Chenjerai Hunzvi, leader of the war veterans, and the head of the Commercial Farmers Union. Together they are supposed to negotiate a rapid distribution program of the seized land, but so far it is a free-for-all. Mr. Hunzvi has vowed to begin distributing land before the June 24 elections on a murky first-come first-served basis to squatters.
However, the Commercial Farmers Union estimated production on those farms last year was worth $6.2 billion but would decline by $5 billion under Hunzvi's scheme. The pending crisis is partly to blame on the invaders. War veterans have blocked the planting of about a third of the land normally dedicated to wheat, a crop nearly exclusively grown by white commercial farms because of its need for careful irrigation.
Vegetables, also mainly grown commercially, are in short supply and prices up some 200 percent, while tobacco, the country's biggest foreign-exchange earner sits mostly unprocessed in tobacco barns because many white farmers have abandoned their land. That promises to worsen the already dire foreign-currency shortages that are the reason why cars and trucks now must wait in mile-long lines to buy gasoline and diesel.
But Zimbabwe faces a deeper challenge. When British settlers first moved in force into Zimbabwe in the 1880s, their agricultural technology wasn't much different from that used by blacks. There was no fertilizer, plowing was by oxen, and harvesting by hand. Whites, in steady contact with the outside world have kept pace with modern farming, and today run highly mechanized, modern farms. Zimbabwe's peasant farmers lag behind. Most plowing is still by oxen. The white government did little to improve black farmers' know-how. And the post-independence government's efforts have been disastrous.
Mugabe has expanded agricultural colleges and deployed farm advisers to rural areas, but they have been unable to significantly change the basic farm methods employed. Communal farmers still largely throw down fertilizer by hand without measuring or testing soil conditions. Worse, their best efforts have been overwhelmed by Mugabe's economic mismanagement, which has hurt the rural poor most. He has consistently run government deficits of 8 to 10 percent of GDP and dismissed as colonialism IMF and donor demands that he put forward a plan to close that gap. Without rigorously cutting government spending, Zimbabwe cannot survive without major infusions of outside cash.
That has a very direct bearing on people like Chizanza, who has no savings and must borrow money for fertilizer, seed, tractors and harvesters. And there is no money in government coffers for support loans or start-up equipment - which effectively condemns newly settled farmers to operate at subsistence level.
Inflation, running around 55 percent, has ravaged many small farmers by increasing the costs of production, clothes, school fees, and healthcare. Another aspect to Zimbabwe's crisis, also linked to lack of capital, is irrigation. Severe droughts typically hit every five to eight years. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, between 30 and 40 percent of commercial farmland is irrigated. But once land is transferred into resettlement schemes, the rate falls to less than 1 percent, because most farmers fail to maintain irrigation ditches or run pumps.
As a result, when the last major drought hit in 1992, white corn production plummeted to just 10 percent of pre-drought levels, leaving a massive need for food imports. "The headlines are all talking about violence, but the biggest problem is the economy," says Hugo Firks, a white tobacco farmer. "No money is changing hands. We are buying fertilizer at an average exchange rate of 54 to the US dollar and we are having to sell tobacco at $38 to $1. "You don't have to be a mathematician to figure those numbers will make you go bust."
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 9 June 2000
As poll violence mounts . . . Ndiweni urges president to call off poll
Busani Bufana
AS political intimidation mounts in the run-up to the general election, President Robert Mugabe should consider calling off the polls to stop the violence, a leading chief has urged.
Chief Khayisa Ndiweni of Ntabazinduna, in a call for the regeneration of traditional values, said over the weekend that Mugabe had the constitutional power to stop the election which has fuelled inter-party tensions. More than 28 people have died and hundreds injured in political violence and intimidation throughout the country.
"The only person who can stop the election is President Mugabe," Ndi-weni said during a wide-ranging consultative meeting with the people of Ntabazinduna. "He has the power to stop the election on the grounds that there is violence. The law says no one should vote under duress."
Urging the people to discuss the election openly, Ndiweni said previous polls had brought loss of lives and it remained to be seen if the country's election later this month would not be worse. "Why should people suffer in the name of elections?" he said "It is your right to vote but you must know what you are voting for. There is so much killing, maiming and disappearance of people because of the election."
Ndiweni called the meeting to warn villagers about political violence which was being reported in parts of his area. The chief said the member of parliament for Bubi-Umguza under which Ntabazinduna falls, Obert Mpofu, was invited to the meeting to update him on concerns about political intimidation and violence. In the no hold-barred meeting, villagers were unhappy about the intimidation stemming from political differences. The chief expressed disappointment that Mpofu was not present because he had wanted to express concerns over the intimidation in the run up to the elections. "The issue of the election is a sad one as people are being killed, or maimed. Is this good?" Ndiweni asked. "If God could hear our pleas maybe the election should be stopped because people are dying."
Contacted for comment about the claims of violence, Mpofu said he was not aware of any violence in Ntabazinduna nor had any incidents been reported to him. "There has never been any reports to us about violence," Mpofu told the Independent this week. "So it would be difficult for me to solve something that has not happened or reported to me. No leader worth his salt can condone any form of violence. I have been preaching daily against violence."
Bubi-Umguza constituency, which has the largest number of ex-combatants on farms in Matabeleland, has reported many incidents of violence. The worst was the killing of rancher, Martin Olds, on Independence Day. Last month, the home of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidate Jacob Thabane was razed in a politically-motivated attack, while on Monday this week, a store belong to Mark Ncube, an independent candidate for Bubi- Umguza, was petrol-bombed in an apparent political attack.
Mpofu said he had taken action on all reported incidents in his area and held meetings to quell any violence. Mpofu, who is also the deputy minister of Industry and Commerce, has been linked to the intimidation of members of the opposition in his constituency where he will be contesting with four candidates from the Liberty Party, Zapu and the MDC.
"From our very reliable information, we know that there are some opposition members committing certain crimes in the name of Zanu PF to gain political mileage," said Mpofu. "For instance the people who burnt down Thabane's house are his party's youths. The people who were arrested are MDC youths and they were in court." Mpofu dismissed allegations of having a hand in the violence against Zanu PF opponents or of having a gang of thugs. He said such allegations were from people with an agenda to destabilise Zanu PF and its candidates. Mpofu is a member of the central committee and is responsible for national security.
"I do not have a terror gang," he said. "I have a well-known election campaign team. It does not help me to incite violence because Bubi-Umguza is the safest seat. I do not have to harass anyone to win that seat."
Ndiweni warned villagers against putting the party or church affiliation ahead of development issues, saying this added to the disunity in the area. "In this area we need to revisit the past way of living. Today we see people being beaten up because of political parties," said Ndiweni, who at one time was leader of the short-lived United National Federal party. "The party is your own issue," he said. "Chiefs are above politics. I am not saying you should not join political parties, I am only against the mistakes people have made."