The past few weeks have had a funny feel about them. Nothing
you can put
your finger on, just a sense that something is about to happen
and we do not
know quite what. Human senses can be like that. I recall a warm
Matabeleland
evening on a farm on the edge of the Matopo hills when a group
of us were
walking back to the farmhouse from a small dam. We had several
small dogs
with us and there were both adults and children. I had a feeling
then that
we were being followed. I turned and looked back to see if there
was
anything - nothing that I could see. But when we finally got to the
house, a
leopard came out of the grass at the side of the road, picked up one
of the
dogs and slipped away into the bush. So fast we were left wondering,
"Did
that really happen?"
Mugabe has just completed one of his forays
onto the world stage - first a
three-day State visit to Cuba and then his
annual holiday in New York
courtesy of the UN World Assembly. I am puzzled by
the almost total absence
of any sort of news about the Cuba visit. I saw a
bit of television
coverage - no sign of Fidel, just the Cuban Prime Minister
looking very
uncomfortable at a joint press conference. Silence means either
something
significant happened, or that nothing happened. I have a feeling
that this
time it was the latter. Mugabe has no friends left to whom he can
turn to
for help.
This was clearly demonstrated in the China/Malaysia
visit where he came away
empty handed, we learn now that in fact the Chinese
leadership told Mugabe
that "so long as we are your only friends in the
world, we will find it
difficult to help you." In other words - "repair your
relations with the
other major players and then we will help". The Indians
were even less
accommodating - not willing even to entertain Mugabe and his
entourage.
So we have the Mugabe regime about as isolated as any in the
world - we do
not have a nuclear programme to force others attentions and
with which to
threaten our region and play the "bad boy or else" game. But
translating
isolation into a democratic process of political change that will
deliver
the kind of transformation that we need to save the country is
another
matter.
As I write the opposition in Myanmar (Burma) is
considering what they should
do after 17 years of resistance and campaigning
for change. Their leadership
still under house arrest and a military Junta
still in power and enjoying
the connivance and support of its neighboring
countries like Thailand and
Malaysia. Are we destined for a similar fate? Our
neighbors tolerating the
state of affairs here simply because the effort to
effect real change is
just too much trouble?
But Mugabe is very
vulnerable - he is 83 years old, has not set up a
succession plan which might
work, his ship is sinking fast - GDP will
decline by up to 10 per cent this
year - now down by 50 per cent in 7 years,
export earnings continue to fall
and the final nails are being driven into
the coffin of agriculture so that
farm output this coming summer will
provide only about 20 per cent of our
needs. Unless Mugabe is prepared to
accept that up to half the population
will either die or flee the country,
he is simply running out of freeboard
and the sea looks very cold and
uninviting.
The issue is what will
trigger the required changes? If we look at the power
brokers in Zanu PF -
Munangagwa and Mujuru (the husband not the wife), they
are desperately
looking for a way out of this dead end alley. They have
canvassed this with
the MDC seeking assurances that they cannot expect about
the safety of their
persons, freedom and assets (ill gotten gains). They
have looked long and
hard at fighting their way back to the shore - a
strategy that requires
further manipulation of the constitution to give them
more time (extending
the term of the President to 2010 or making it possible
to appoint a
successor for two years until fresh elections are held in
2010).
They
are considering who might be in the team at that stage - Simba Makoni
as a
fresh face with a decent smile as President, Munangagwa as a tough
street
fighter as Prime Minister (more constitutional gerrymandering). John
Nkomo
and Mai Mujuru as Vice Presidents to give the team ethnic balance.
Their
problem is that even while they consider what to do and what staff
changes to
make in the captains cabin, the boat they are all riding in is
actually
sinking rather fast. Survival depends on millions of its passengers
bailing
out - weakening the opposition and reducing the cargo in the hold.
Even this
may not be enough and unless they can stop the crazy antics of
those who are
drilling holes in the bottom of the boat - like Chinamasa,
Mutasa and Chombo,
this tub is still going to the bottom and then we are all
in the drink -
whatever our allegiances and position today.
The suggestions that the MDC
abandon ship and set up an alternative
government in another boat a safe
distance away from this sinking ship, is
not workable. Talk about us leading
a charge on the Bridge and taking
control is also not a workable strategy -
workable, I said, it may be
tempting but in fact in today's environment
unlikely to work. So we are left
with pressure on those on the Bridge - from
those who will be most affected
by the final sinking of this particular ship.
From those who can offer
safety to those who fear the worst from the
sea.
The signs are all there that such approaches are taking place -
South Africa
remains steadfast - "we are here, right next door, you can see
us from the
Bridge, we can help - but first you must agree to certain
conditions". The
Captain of this sinking ship may splutter and explode with
anger at the
stated conditions, but he is no longer in any position to
bargain. Even Mr.
Anan has offered to come and look at the situation - from
the safety of a
helicopter - but he too has stated that if we want that to
happen then we
must concede the conditions the South Africans have laid down.
No less.
This morning the BBC covered a story about the UN granting
emergency relief
worth US$30 million to help the victims of
Murambatsvina. While they covered
the story they showed footage shot secretly
by local volunteers of the
conditions in Zimbabwe. The pictures were
disturbing to say the least. There
is now no doubt that thousands are dying
away from the reach of the
television cameras, but those on the Bridge know
this as do those next door
offering help. The question is how much longer
before a warning shot is
fired across their bow?
Eddie
Cross
Bulawayo, 28th September 2005
Washington 27 September 2005 |
The International Monetary Fund is putting together a technical team to determine the precise origin of a $120 million payment that Zimbabwe made to the institution before a critical September 9 IMF board meeting, a senior Fund official told VOA.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the team will review transactions involved in preparing the payment to see if there was any violation of private property rights in the process. Matumwa Mawere, a Zimbabwean businessman who formerly enjoyed close ties with the ruling elite around President Robert Mugabe but fled the country last year, has accused Harare of looting his assets for part of the funds.
IMF Africa Department Deputy Director Siddharth Tiwari said last week that the Fund’s executive board ordered the investigation. He said officials in Harare would be called upon to address the issue in a “transparent and open manner” in the investigation.
The IMF Executive Board met September 9 to vote on whether to recommend that the institution’s board of governors vote to require Zimbabwe to withdraw its membership because of debt service arrears piled up to $295 million before the recent payment.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono told the government-controlled Herald newspaper that the funds in question were legitimately sourced from “export proceeds, free funds and foreign currency liquidations,” then paid to the IMF through South Africa’s ABSA bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Mr. Gono charged that “some quarters felt offended and angered” when Zimbabwe was able to reduce its arrears – an apparent reference to Western nations including the United States and Great Britain which have criticized Mr. Mugabe’s policies
Reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe asked independent economist John Robertson about some of the technical aspects of the transaction in question.
Reuters
27 Sep 2005 23:28:20
GMT
Source: Reuters
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 27
(Reuters) - The United Nations appealed for nearly $30 million in humanitarian
supplies for the most vulnerable people evicted from urban slums in Zimbabwe,
according to a letter circulated on Tuesday.
The appeal was to have been
launched in August but President Robert Mugabe initially rejected the funds,
smarting from a critical U.N. report on July 2 that called his government's
bulldozing of urban slums a disastrous and unjustified venture that affected
700,000 people.
The new appeal, called "Common Response Plan" was sent to
U.N. ambassadors by Jan Egeland, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, and is
to provide some assistance to 300,000 people.
It asks for funds for shelter,
food, health supplies, water, sanitation and medicines to combat AIDS, which
affects about a quarter of the adult population and kills some 3,000 Zimbabweans
each week.
Mugabe has asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to visit and the
U.N. chief is considering it, diplomats said, adding that there was still
division among U.N. officials about whether he should make the trip. Egeland
intends to visit Zimbabwe first, late this month or in October.
In his
letter, Egeland said that while the government plans to provide 5,000 houses in
the short term, tens of thousands of people still lack adequate shelter.
"Some evicted people continue to move around, searching for housing as well
as work," Egeland wrote. "Others, such as families in Hatcliffe Extension near
Harare, live on or near the ruins of their former homes."
He said U.N.
officials in Zimbabwe were consulting with the government on how they could help
provide temporary shelter.
While donors contribute relief aid to Zimbabwe,
Mugabe's feud with Britain, a leading critic of his human rights record, has
prevented development assistance on a larger scale from the European Union, the
United States and elsewhere.
Egeland said the government's figures showed
92,460 dwellings had been demolished, directly affecting more than 133,000
households. The July 2 report from Anna Tibaijuka, the executive director of
U.N.-Habitat, estimates 570,000 people had lost their homes and 98,000 their
source of income.
AlertNet news is provided by
People's Daily
The Zimbabwean government is poised to set up a Biotechnology Authority to
monitor activities in the sector, the Deputy Minister of Science and Technology
Development, Patrick Zhuwawo said on Tuesday.
Zhuwawo said that a National
Biotechnology Bill to form the body was already under scrutiny in Parliament and
the biotechnology authority was expected to be operational before year-end.
"All the necessary groundwork is already in place and we wait for the bill
to sail through in Parliament that will make provisions for setting up the
biotechnology control authority," he said.
He said the bill would provide
for the management of potentially harmful biotechnologies and undertakings.
It would be a mechanism for managing the import, export, research,
development and use of biotech techniques and products, according to Zhuwawo.
Zhuwawo said the Biotechnology Authority would act as an advisory board to
the Ministry of Science and Technology Development as well as ensuring that
activities regarding biotechnology research, development and application are
performed in accordance with the law.
He said biotechnologies were very
important in national development especially in agriculture.
"Biotechnology
has made profound impact in agriculture, food processing, health and
environmental protection," he said.
Biotechnology has enabled a rapid
response in diagnosing diseases as well as disease monitoring.
Apart from
providing new sources of renewable energy, it has also improved crop and animal
production and health.
Source: Xinhua
Mail & Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
28 September 2005 10:26
Public
hospitals in Zimbabwe are finding it difficult to conduct HIV/Aids tests because
of a lack of essential laboratory chemicals, the state-run Herald newspaper
reported on Wednesday.
Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV infection
rates in the world. An estimated one in four Zimbabweans is
HIV-positive.
Tendai Nyakuedzwa, a laboratory scientist at Chitungwiza
General Hospital, a large public hospital about 20km from the capital Harare,
was cited as saying there was a "critical shortage" of reagents used in
HIV-testing.
Nyakuedzwa said machines used for accurate HIV-testing had
not been operating at the hospital for four months because of the lack of the
reagents.
The hospital's HIV viral load machine has also been lying
unused for the past year because of the lack of reagents, he said. The chemicals
have to be imported from neighbouring South Africa, but Zimbabwe is facing
critical shortages of foreign currency needed to pay for such
imports.
"We have to make-do with only two rapid on-spot HIV tests. But
in the case of determinant results, we need the machines that, as it is, we
cannot use now due to their state of disrepair," Nyakuedzwa
said.
Patients have the option of paying for tests in private medical
institutions, but their prices are steep and may be beyond the reach of
many.
Viral load tests are also not being conducted at Harare Central
Hospital, the Herald said. Specimens have to be sent to private laboratories for
testing.
"The bulk of our laboratory equipment has been lying idle for
many years and there is nothing new in us taking specimens to private
laboratories," one laboratory scientist was quoted as saying.
The Herald
said several patients with HIV/Aids "had to be turned away" in the last year
from both Harare Central Hospital and Chitungwiza General
Hospital.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa blamed the problems on
Zimbabwe's foreign currency shortages.
"The prevailing foreign currency
shortages are hampering efforts to import reagents and spares for equipment, he
said. - Sapa
AFX News Limited
09.28.2005, 07:04 AM
HARARE (AFX) - Zimbabwe has ordered the
eviction of some 70 families given farms under the controversial land reform
programme, to make way for an agricultural research station, Zimbabwe's Daily
Mirror newspaper said Wednesday.
Seventy small-scale farmers in
Mashonaland West and their families have been ordered off the farms they were
allocated in 2001, the privately-owned paper said, quoting farmers.
'The
ministry of agriculture officials told us to vacate, failure of which we would
be forcibly removed,' an unnamed farmer told the paper.
About 4,000
white commercial farmers have lost their land under the reform programme that
began in 2000 to redress imbalances from the colonial era when most arable land
was in the hand of whites.
The southern African country last month
approved a bill that prevents white farmers from resorting to the courts to
challenge the land seizures.
Mashonaland West governor Nelson Samkange
confirmed plans were afoot to build a research station and said moving the
farmers 'was still being looked into.'
'There is a proposal to have a
research station,' Samkange told the paper.
'It will be a centre where
people can be trained in agriculture.'
Zimbabwean Vice President Joyce
Mujuru earlier this month warned that black farmers who acquired land under the
reform plan and who were under-utilizing resources, were guilty of 'sabotage.'
'If you are not farming properly, this is sabotage at the highest
level,' she was quoted as saying.
IANS
The
enforced patch-up between captain Sourav Ganguly and coach Greg Chappell has
again brought to the fore the machinations and manipulations for which the
cricket board has been well known for years, leaving in its wake loads of
questions unanswered.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)
president Ranbir Singh Mahendra announced on Tuesday that "miscommunication" was
the root cause of the ill will between Ganguly and Chappell and not the
disagreement over team composition on the recent tour of Zimbabwe, as the former
Australia captain had made everyone believe in his much publicised e-mail to the
board.
Mahendra cannot be far from the truth, say experts, but it was the
easiest way to deflect public and media attention from the real issue - the
absence of harmony in the national team. (V.V.S. Laxman has spoken of "negative
vibes" in the dressing room and Zaheer Khan has disclosed that the "dressing
room atmosphere has not been all that great" lately.)
Although it was a
six-member panel that looked into the Ganguly-Chappell controversy, by all
accounts Mahendra, who was elected to the post by Jagmohan Dalmiya's casting
vote last year, was clearly influenced by the former president.
One
wonders how much Mahendra spoke during the four-and-a-half deliberations in
Mumbai Tuesday, especially in the presence of personalities like Dalmiya and
former captains Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri.
Ganguly and Dalmiya
belong to the same city, Kolkata, and the captain enjoys full backing of de
facto the most powerful man in Indian cricket.
There were several stark
contradictions and conflicts of interest in the whole episode, right from the
constitution of the review panel, also comprising S.K. Nair, secretary of the
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and former captain S.
Venkataraghavan.
Gavaskar and Shastri are television commentators and
write newspaper columns. They were also in the panel that picked Chappell as
coach in May and both were present in the BCCI review panel that also reviewed
the recent Sri Lankan and Zimbabwean tours besides the Ganguly-Chappell
controversy.
Mahendra ordered the players "not to write newspapers
columns" - affecting Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh,
Anil Kumble - and "interact with the media" after the meeting in
Mumbai.
It might sound all right for some people in the BCCI to gag the
players, captain and the coach as a policy decision, but is it practical,
especially in the absence of a media manager? Highly unlikely, as there are some
inherent conflict of interests that would prevent this policy from being
implemented effectively, if at all.
While asking the team not to
"interact" with the media, Mahendra did not spell out any restrictions on
Gavaskar and Shastri. It is odd but not unexpected, going by the way BCCI
functions. Even if the board wants, can it gag a Gavaskar or a
Shastri?
As commentators Gavaskar and Shastri, widely considered close to
Dalmiya, roundly criticised Indian players when the team lost the Videocon
Triangular Series final to New Zealand in Zimbabwe this month. Shastri, the more
vocal of the two, even hinted that a "certain senior player in the top order"
could be thrown out, leaving little to interpretation.
That the same
people sat in judgement on Tuesday amply showed the conflict of interests. How
much and how long can a person remain natural when his interests clash is
anyone's guess.
BCCI officials say that the board simply could not have
taken action against Ganguly or Chappell as the annual general meeting (AGM) -
and possibly elections - is yet to be held.
Any action could have
impacted on the votes and the Dalmiya-Mahendra group could not have afforded
that, particularly when it was believed to be on the back foot in the last
week's adjourned AGM in Kolkata. (There is no member in the review panel from
the rival group led by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar).
"If they had
sacked Ganguly there would have been a national furore, and if Chappell would
have been shown the door there would have been an international uproar. So
compromise was always on the cards - and it happened," summed up a BCCI
official.
And, more importantly, will the forced kiss-and-make-up
between Ganguly and Chappell last? If yes, how long? That remains the moot point
that millions of cricket fans in India are already asking.
(The author
is the sports editor of IANS. He can be reached at
qaiser.ali@eians.com)
IOL
September 28 2005 at
01:06AM
By Joe Lauria
United Nations (UN) officials have denied a
report that secretary-general Kofi Annan's planned journey to Zimbabwe has been
cancelled, saying discussions on a date and an agenda were still under
way.
Jan Egeland, the UN's humanitarian affairs co-ordinator, said he
would also visit Zimbabwe in mid-November.
The state-run Herald newspaper
in Harare reported this week that Annan had been forced to cancel his visit
because the United States and Britain had politicised it. The newspaper
suggested Annan agreed with this assessment.
'A lot of reporting from
media in Zimbabwe, which hasn't always been on target'
“I think there's been
a lot of reporting from media in Zimbabwe, which hasn't always been on target,”
said Stephane Dujarric, Annan's chief spokesperson
“As we've said before,
the secretary-general may go to Zimbabwe, but obviously any such visit would
have to be carefully planned in terms of its agenda and its aims,” he
said.
“The planning for such a visit is being done in conjunction with
our department of political affairs and Zimbabwean officials.
“We don't
want to set any conditions or time frames, but the point is that the visit be
properly planned.”
UN officials refused to comment on whether Annan had
agreed with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe that Washington and London had
overly influenced the perception of the visit.
An official said that no
date had been set for the Annan visit.
Egeland said he hoped his visit
to Zimbabwe would allow him to break an impasse between the UN and Mugabe's
government about distributing food to victims of Mugabe's controversial slum
clearance programme as well as for other Zimbabweans facing food
shortages.
Egeland said he had received positive feedback so far from
donors whom he had contacted.
The UN is seeking to raise $30-million
(about R193-million) to help those displaced by the urban clearance
campaign.
In August, Egeland said the appeal had been blocked because the
UN and the government could not agree to terms on how the aid would be
distributed.
“We are trying to help 300 000 of the evictees for the rest
of this year and into next year,” said Egeland. “In Zimbabwe, our big aim is to
work with the government to have a food-security programme to help several
million people who are at risk.”
Egeland said that the “crisis” of those
evicted from their homes “was now a smaller part of a bigger one.”
The
World Food Programme estimates that 4-million Zimbabweans out of a population of
13-million need food aid while the government claims the figure is
2,4-million.
UN officials would not comment on the thorny question of
whether the UN would allow the Zimbabwean government to control the programme.
Opposition groups fear that the government would withhold food from
strongholds of the political opposition.
The government, by contrast,
says it does not trust some non-governmental organisations to distribute the
food, claiming they have their own political agendas.
In the Herald
report Mugabe is quoted as saying that he saw the proposed Annan visit as an
opportunity for him to lecture the secretary- general on the wrongs of a UN
report in July that was highly critical of the slum clearance programme.
The report by UN envoy Anna Tibaijuka said that 700 000 people had been
made homeless, a number Mugabe claims was exaggerated.
Dujarric hinted in
his comments that Annan would not go unless the visit was “carefully planned in
terms of its agenda and its aims”.
Annan accepted an invitation from
Mugabe in late July to make a first-hand inspection of the slum clearance
programme.
At that time, Dujarric said before Annan could travel to
Zimbabwe Mugabe would have to halt the evictions, ensure aid was getting through
and start a process of political reconciliation.
The UN has given no
indication that it has dropped these conditions and is apparently still waiting
for assurances that they are taking place.
This article was
originally published on page 10 of Pretoria News on September 28, 2005
Mail & Guardian
Jan
Hennop | Harare, Zimbabwe
28 September 2005 09:20
It's impossible
to miss Oliver Mtukudzi.
Dressed in an all-black outfit that makes him
look like a Vietcong guerrilla, Zimbabwe's super-bard stands head and shoulders
above anyone else.
The lanky and tall "Tuku", as he is known by his fans
around Africa, is in a buoyant mood at a press conference with a group of fellow
musicians ahead of a weekend concert to celebrate his 53rd birthday.
On a
background screen at an upmarket Harare hotel, images flash of the arts centre
he's building in a small town just west of the capital and to which the proceeds
of the bash will be donated.
"This centre had to be finished yesterday,"
Mtukudzi tells journalists.
With a community hall and recording studio,
the Pakare Paye centre -- which means "that place" in Shona -- located in
Norton, 40km outside Harare, is to become a breeding ground for future talent in
the southern African country.
Tuku now hopes to have it finished by next
year.
Despite his growing stature as one of Africa's superstars -- he's
being mentioned in the same breath as Senegal's Salif Keita and Youssou N'Dour
-- Oliver Mtukudzi remains a humble man.
"I'm just the same old Oliver
that I have always been all these years. It's just the figure that's changed,"
he tells Agence France Presse with a faint trace of irony in his
voice.
"It's not me, it's the song, it's the product that's important,"
he says while his face remains as still as a carving from Zimbabwean
soapstone.
Two days later, on a balmy Saturday evening, Tuku's "product"
sets on fire a home crowd of several thousand at a sports ground in
Harare.
Dressed in a flamboyant cream suit and wearing his trademark
crochet-skullcap, Mtukudzi is every inch the superstar that has gone from Harare
to South Africa and on to Europe and the United
States.
"Yayayayayaaaaaa!" Tuku draws the crowd which responds with the
same greeting, before launching into a trio with guitar ace Louis Mhlanga and
long-time friend and music producer Steve Dyer.
"Tuku music", as it has
become known, is a mixture of ethnic styles including guitar rhythms of
Zimbabwe's mbira, some South African traditional mbaqanga -- a distinctive
guitar sound -- backed with a voice like sandpaper.
After 48 albums, Tuku
still possesses the wired energy that makes him so electric on stage.
It
was with fellow "collaborator" Dyer that Mtukudzi's star-status grew rapidly
beyond the borders of Zimbabwe, where he has laboured as a songwriter, producer,
writer and singer since first starting off in 1977.
After many years of
slaving on the local market in which he wrote music and starred in two movies,
Tuku and Dyer formed the "Mahube" group in 1997 and toured Europe.
The
two men co-produced a second album to go gold in South Africa called Bvume
(Tolerance) in 2000 followed by Vhunze Moto (Burning Embers) in 2002 in which
Mtukudzi plays with Dyer as well as his long-time band The Black
Spirits.
In March last year, Mahube released an album entitled Qhubeka
(Moving forward) while Mtukudzi released his 48th album this year, a solo work
called Nhava.
Singing in his native Shona and in English, Tuku's music
often carries social messages about HIV/Aids and alcohol abuse, encourages
self-respect or puts traditional Shona proverbs and wisdom into
song.
These days Tuku's music also carries a message of hope in Zimbabwe,
a country were people are facing food and fuel shortages.
"Things are not
good at the moment," he says.
"How people really survive here is a
miracle," he adds, but forgets to mention that his music inspires many, both
inside and out of Zimbabwe. - Sapa-AFP
NASDAQ
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP)--Zimbabwe's state-run hospitals can't afford medicines and equipment because of foreign currency shortages and were turning away patients, a government newspaper reported Wednesday.
The Herald quoted Tendai Nyakuedzwa, a laboratory scientist at Chitungwiza General Hospital, as saying the foreign currency shortage had left the hospital unable to import materials to test for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. He also said equipment to test patients' responses to medication had been out of order for over a year.
The Herald said Chitungwiza, on the southern outskirts of the capital, and Harare Central Hospital had been having problems for the past two years, turning away several HIV/AIDS patients or referring them to Harare's Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, a teaching facility that also is state-run but has international funding.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa also blamed foreign currency shortages for the lack of testing material and spare parts, the Herald reported. The teaching hospitals were named for the minister's father, Samuel, Zimbabwe's first black doctor.
More than 23% of Zimbabweans are believed to carry HIV, with at least 3,000 AIDS-related deaths a week.
The Herald also reported that the Justice Ministry lacked money to feed witnesses brought from remote rural areas to testify, affecting court proceedings.
An 11-year-old murder trial witness complained of hunger while testifying Monday and Judge Paddington Garwe postponed proceedings, the newspaper said.
Justice Ministry officials last week told a parliamentary committee they needed $1.1 billion to improve conditions for 27,000 prisoners in jails built for 16,000, to run courts efficiently, and pay off $1.5 million in debts. " Deplorable" prisons lacked basic running water and washing facilities, leading to outbreaks of tuberculosis and measles, legislators heard.
A sometimes violent campaign begun in 2000 to seize farms from whites and hand them over to blacks has been blamed for accelerating economic collapse in Zimbabwe. Agriculture had been the country's major foreign currency earner.
Zimbabwea faces 80% unemployment, 265% inflation, and severe shortages of staples.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 2:26 AM
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the
United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 28 September (IRIN) - Zimbabwean and
South African officials
are to meet in the next two weeks for further talks
on the possibility of
loan assistance, a government spokesman confirmed on
Wednesday.
"Talks have been continuing, but the two sides have not met
recently," South
African treasury spokesman Logan Wort told IRIN.
The
countries have been negotiating an aid package worth almost US $500
million,
including an outstanding payment of $175 million to the
International
Monetary Fund (IMF) to prevent Zimbabwe's expulsion from the
international
financial institution.
But talks had stalled over Zimbabwe's reluctance
to enforce political and
economic recovery plans - conditions set by the
South Africans for providing
the financial assistance. "The conditions still
stand, whenever talks
resume," said South African government
sources.
In late August the IMF began procedures to strip Zimbabwe of its
membership
over arrears to the tune of $295 million and failure to rein in
public
spending. However, earlier this month Zimbabwe managed to make a
payment of
$131 million to the IMF, which granted the troubled southern
African country
a six-month reprieve.
Zimbabwe has promised to settle
its arrears, currently totalling $175
million, by November 2006. It has also
submitted an economic recovery plan
to the IMF.
South African
government sources described Zimbabwe's recovery programme as
"unrealistic"
and said the IMF was "unlikely" to accept it.
The IMF has already
commented on some of the economic reform measures taken
by the Zimbabwean
government in recent months, such as liberalisation of the
fuel and maize
markets, saying they "fell well short of what is needed to
address
Zimbabwe's economic difficulties."
The Fund warned that "unless strong
macroeconomic policies are undertaken
without delay, economic and social
conditions could deteriorate further".
Unemployment is currently over 70
percent and inflation is more than 265
percent.
Meanwhile,
controversy has erupted over the source of Zimbabwe's initial
$131 million
payment to the IMF. At a press conference on the regional
outlook for
sub-Saharan Africa last week in Washington, an IMF official said
they had
queried the source of the funding.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor
Gideon Gono revealed that the money paid
to the IMF came from banks in New
York and London, among others, and the
funds had been sourced from export
proceeds, free funds and foreign currency
liquidations, according to the
official newspaper, The Herald, on Tuesday.
Zimbabwe is going through a
severe economic crisis, with serious food
shortages due to recurring
droughts and the government's fast-track land
redistribution programme,
which disrupted agricultural production and
slashed export
earnings.
The crisis has also seen a flood of Zimbabweans illegally
crossing the
border into South Africa. According to the Geneva-based
International
Organisation for Migration, at least 2,000 Zimbabweans are
deported from
South Africa via the border town of Beitbridge every
week.
South African government sources confirmed that Zimbabwe was in
urgent need
of assistance, such as food and agricultural inputs. "We are
extremely
concerned about the food situation," said a government
official.
A vulnerability assessment conducted by the Zimbabwean
government and some
NGOs earlier this year indicated that 2.9 million people
- an estimated 36
percent of the rural population - would require food aid
until the next
harvest in April 2006. Aid agencies have planned for over
four million in
need.
Sources in South Africa's ruling African
National Congress (ANC) party said
talks with the neighbouring country had
been disrupted by "political
interference".
"While the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe and other technocrats realise that our
assistance is critical,
the political leadership in Zimbabwe is suspicious
of South Africa's
intentions," commented a senior ANC official.
[ENDS]
We have sent
this message from a no-reply address to avoid bounced messages
into our
general email folder. Please do not hesitate to contact us at
Mail@IRINnews.org with any comments or
questions you may have
IRIN-SA
Tel: +27 11 895-1900
Fax: +27 11
784-6759
Email: IRIN-SA@irin.org.za
[This Item is
Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN
humanitarian
information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views
of the United
Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or
to change your
keywords, contact e-mail: IRIN@ocha.unon.org or Web:
http://www.irinnews.org . If you re-print,
copy, archive or re-post
this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.
Reposting by commercial
sites requires written IRIN
permission.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs 2005
U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information
Network (IRIN) - 1995-2005 ten years serving
the humanitarian community
Wed Sep 28, 2005 11:59 AM
GMT
HARARE (Reuters) - Two Zimbabwean court sessions were forced to adjourn
after hungry villagers serving as state witnesses demanded food, complaining
police had neither fed them nor given them shower facilities.
The state-run
Herald newspaper said on Wednesday the villagers had not eaten for three days
and were being housed in "squalid and inhuman conditions" at a police training
camp. It said some remand prisoners in a jail near Harare had also gone without
food after officers said they had no money to feed them.
"It is not
government policy to starve anyone, whether they are prisoners. Everyone is
entitled to food," said deputy information minister Bright Matonga, ordering an
investigation. Prison and justice ministry officials were not immediately
available for comment.
Analysts said it did not appear the villagers were
singled out for maltreatment. Their plight reflected the degree of hardships in
Zimbabwe, which is struggling with food shortages amid a worsening economic
crisis, they said.
Comment from Business Day (SA), 28 September
Dumisani Muleya
Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu PF has announced it
will soon amend the constitution - for the 18th time in 25 years - purportedly
to synchronise parliamentary and presidential elections. Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa proffered four scenarios of how the elections could be
synchronised. He said both could be held in 2008, when President Robert Mugabe’s
term expires, or both could be pushed back to 2010, when the general election is
due. But that would mean an interim president between 2008 and 2010, or a
president elected for only two years. The last option was to hold both elections
in 2015. Whatever the shenanigans at Zanu PF, Mugabe is stewing in his own
juices as he struggles to disentangle himself from his convoluted succession
crisis. Although all the scenarios Chinamasa put forward seem plausible, Zanu PF
insiders say the real plan is to delay the presidential poll until 2010 to give
Mugabe’s anointed successor, Joyce Mujuru, enough time to consolidate her grip
in the ruling party and prepare to mount a serious challenge for the presidency
after Mugabe.
While Mujuru is still seen as Mugabe’s preferred successor
after many other pretenders stumbled in the race to State House, questions are
being raised about her political and intellectual clout. Her critics think she
is not up to scratch, while her supporters think she could manage if given
enough help. But she is battling to cut a credible image of a leader-in-waiting.
As result of Mujuru’s mediocre profile, a Zanu PF coterie has hatched an ethnic
balancing plan in which former finance minister Simba Makoni would be Mugabe’s
successor. Zanu PF chairman and parliamentary speaker John Nkomo would be a
co-vice-president with Mujuru, while Zanu PF luminary Emmerson Mnangagwa, at one
time Mugabe’s heir apparent, would be prime minister. In terms of the plan,
Makoni would represent the interests of the Manyika (a Shona subgroup), Nkomo
the Ndebeles (an Nguni group of Zulu descent), Mujuru the ruling Zezurus
(although she is by origin said to be a Korekore, a Shona subgroup), and
Mnangagwa the Karangas (the largest Shona subgroup).
This arrangement in the
Zimbabwean mind-set of ethnic politics appears a fair-minded approach to
balancing competing tribal interests. This is not surprising because Zanu PF
politics are largely seen through the prism of simplistic historical and ethnic
dichotomies devoid of sound philosophy. This sort of hidebound planning confirms
the notion that Mugabe is concerned about himself and his family, his Zezuru
clique and his party, before thinking about national interest. Though this may
not be a true reflection of Mugabe’s philosophy, his actions always confirm what
might well be a conspiracy theory. As a result, this has largely filtered
through the body politic and Zimbabwe’s tribal politics. Chinua Achebe deals
with the dangers of such social and political organisation in his book, The
Trouble with Nigeria. It reveals leadership, institutional and policy failures
that give way to tribalism, usually under corrupt and incompetent political
regimes.
Mugabe’s retirement and succession plan at the moment involves the
use of constitutional amendments and an expanded legislature to support the
scheme. After the recent constitutional amendments, which reintroduced the
senate that was abolished in 1990, there will be elections in December for the
upper house to form a bicameral legislature dominated by Zanu PF. The senate
elections will be followed by another constitutional amendment to postpone the
2008 presidential poll to 2010. A provision could be inserted to ensure Mujuru
takes over if Mugabe cannot continue - for whatever reason. There could also be
a clause that there will be an interim president between 2008 and 2010. Mujuru
would be the interim president to prepare for a head start in the presidential
race. But this does not guarantee Mugabe’s smooth exit. He has left it too late.
Zimbabwe's biggest musical sensation turned 53 recently |
Oliver Mtukudzi, Zimbabwe's musical icon, turned 53 last week. The
award-winning musician is a source of inspiration to millions of people. Over 20
000 fans, including six international artists, were in Harare to celebrate his
birthday and catch a glimpse of his life, looking back on many years of
entertainment.
From the dusty streets of Highfields in Harare, Mtukudzi
set himself up as one of the few influential and respected musicians. Growing up
playing guitars in the township wasn't fashionable in the swinging sixties -
then it was associated with insolence that would amount to nothing.
But
today the father of four is still having the time of his life, a pied piper of
music pulling in crowds with his unique concoction of African music. His
birthday marked one of the few rare occasions in Zimbabwe when international
artists descended on the capital, this time to celebrate the rich musical life
of an icon.
Even President Thabo Mbeki has confessed to liking Tuku's
music.