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Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede's office plans to deploy most mobile voter registration stations in occupied commercial farms to enable ruling Zanu PF supporters to register to vote in next year's presidential election, it was learnt this week. Authoritative official sources told the Financial Gazette that Mudede's office, which kicked off mobile voter registration on Monday, was working hand in hand with state security agents to manipulate the voters' roll with these measures. They said Central Intelligence Organisation officers, who have been seconded to Mudede's office countrywide, would in the eight weeks of mobile voter registration work mainly on commercial farms occupied by Zanu PF supporters.

Although mobile voter registration offices will be available countrywide, the exercise will be concentrated in Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East and Mashonaland West, where Zanu PF supporters have seized large numbers of commercial farms under the so-called fast-track land resettlement exercise. Zanu PF enjoys huge political support in the three provinces and wants the mobile voter registration service to be readily available to resettled peasants and rural folk, who form the bulk of its support. The mobile stations will also register many resettled peasants who are ineligible to vote in the presidential election because they were moved from their homes to be resettled elsewhere in commercial farms after the June 2000 parliamentary election.

Voters in the presidential poll will be required to cast their ballots in their constituencies and nowhere else. Sources privy to Zanu PF's exercise said Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo's ultimatum to resettled peasants to occupy their pieces of land by the end of last month was aimed at making it possible to assess the number of people resettled before the start of the mobile voter registration exercise. The government says it has resettled about 200 000 people under its scheme. Mudede could not be reached for comment because, his officials said, he was attending meetings away from his office. Home Affairs Minister John Nkomo, whose ministry runs Mudede's office, was reported to be out of Harare and unreachable.

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who will square off against Zanu PF's President Robert Mugabe, said the government should establish an independent electoral commission to ensure free and fair elections. Although Zimbabwe's voters' roll is said to be in a shambles, the government has spurned offers of technical expertise ahead of the election from foreign organisations. "For us to have some reasonable grounds to have a free and fair election, we need an independent electoral commission to be set up," Tsvangirai said yesterday. He said the government-appointed Electoral Supervisory Commission had become dysfunctional since its work was now being done by Mudede's office.

International NGOs working in Zimbabwe are preparing food distribution and food for work programmes despite the government's reluctance to admit to a food crisis, representatives said on Tuesday. "We're initially targeting about 130 000 people in the Midlands and Matabeleland South provinces," Zvidzai Maburutse of World Vision International (WVI) in Harare told IRIN. Food shortages in these regions have been largely drought induced, impacting adversely on a population mainly made up of subsistence farmers. Lack of food in other areas has been attributed to additional factors, including the government's chaotic land reform programme, as well as a severe foreign exchange shortage. During a recent food assessment mission to the two provinces, WVI found that in seven districts, over 50 percent of the population had no livestock, no reliable source of income and no agricultural implements, and that very little grain production was taking place. "The problem is trying to identify those really in need, those without remittances from South Africa and entirely dependant on subsistence farming," he added. WVI have received funding from USAID, and food importation and distribution would commence soon, Maburutse said.

Oxfam in Zimbabwe is trying to help a smaller number of rural people – about 8 500 - "but that's just phase one, we'll expand if we can secure enough funding," Arif Khan, Oxfam's regional humanitarian coordinator told IRIN from Pretoria. He added that Oxfam was equally concerned about food shortages in urban areas and that his agency was trying to address this problem as well. Both agencies said they had secured permission from government to import food aid at a time when the issue of food shortages is of growing political sensitivity. Oxfam is attempting to raise about US $1 million to fund the first part of its programme. "It's like talking to two governments right now - at a local level there's a great deal of concern and enthusiasm for food aid, at national there's still a strong element of denial that parts of the country are going to starve soon," one aid worker who wished to remain anonymous told IRIN. Khan said he was aware of the possibility of President Mugabe's government using food aid as a political tool in the run-up to next year's crucial presidential election. "If there's any attempt by government to control Oxfam's food aid programmes we would have to think again," he said.

Further signs are emerging that the government is trying to assert control over dwindling food supplies. At the weekend the 'Zimbabwe Standard' reported that the army had been deployed to enforce a recent government decree that farmers sell all their maize to the government. Communal farmers in Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central are reportedly the worst affected as the army is now monitoring the sale of grain as well as the ferrying of the crop to various destinations around the country. Farmers said they were being forced to sell to the controversial Grain Marketing Board (GMB) for half what they could get privately for their maize. Finance Minister Simba Makoni told parliament recently that 100 000 mt of maize and 60 000 mt of wheat would have to be imported to make up for shortfalls in domestic production. According to a United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimate in June, Zimbabwe will need to import a total of about 570 000 mt of maize and wheat to avert starvation and replenish its reserves.

Zimbabwe is amassing huge quantities of arms and ammunition using two African allies in preparation for next year's crucial presidential election, it has been established. Financial Gazette investigations in the past one-and-a-half months have revealed that the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Namibia are helping Zimbabwe circumvent an international arms embargo to buy huge quantities of guns and bullets for next year's ballot. The arms embargo was imposed on Harare last year by Europe and the United States on President Robert Mugabe's government because of its appalling human rights record. The investigations show that Zimbabwe is importing and massing an assortment of guns at army bases around the country in preparation for the poll, which is expected to be violent. Most of the guns have been arriving secretly at Suri Suri airbase in Chegutu before they are distributed to other military bases and some will be sent to farms where self-styled war veterans have established bases to intimidate voters. The bulk of the weapons have arrived from the DRC in that country's military cargo plane. The weapons consist of a significant portion of French-made guns, most of which top government sources say will be distributed to war veterans who are central to the ruling Zanu PF party's re-election strategy in the presidential poll.

The sources say Zimbabwe, after the massive depletion of its armoury because of its participation in the three-year-old DRC war, has been finding it extremely difficult to replenish its arms stocks because its traditional and cheaper arms suppliers in Europe are refusing to sell it arms. This had forced the army to implement some unpalatable measures, including the grounding of most of its entire fleet of Hawk fighter aircraft due to Britain's refusal to sell spare parts. Virtually all European Union member states have severed ties with Zimbabwe and imposed an arms embargo on the country. "Although we can still buy a number of arms from countries like Russia and China, a greater part of our fairly priced weapons, ammunition and spares have been sourced from mainly European countries like Britain, Sweden, France and others over the years. We can no longer buy arms from Europe at the moment because of the problems here," said a top Ministry of Defence source. "We have been left with no alternative but to buy some weapons via our allies in the DRC who have access to some of these European weapons that we have preference for." Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi declined to comment on the allegations of sanctions busting and the massing of guns at army bases around the country. "Just avoid that one for now. I am not going to comment on that one," Sekeramayi said yesterday before immediately cutting off his telephone.

Asked why weapons of French origin were finding their way into Zimbabwe in an interview last month, Jerome Sautier, the first counsellor at the French embassy in Harare, and Lieutenant Colonel Dault, the defence attache, said France was not selling any arms to Zimbabwe. The two said they had no knowledge of the arrival of French arms in the country but said France sold arms to several African countries which could in turn re-sell them to other countries. They said they did not know whether this was the case with Zimbabwe. "In Africa, we have military relationships with many countries. We have, for instance, sold arms to many French-speaking countries. These arms can in turn be re-sold by those other countries," said Sautier, adding that there was also the possibility of illegal arms trafficking outside the authority of the French government. The first secretary at the Namibian High Commission in Harare, Mati Jose, said he had no knowledge of Namibia helping Zimbabwe to bust the arms embargo while the DRC's ambassador to Zimbabwe Mawapanga Mwanananga could not be reached for comment.

Authoritative military sources said the army will be training and arming war veterans to ensure that Mugabe is re-elected in the ballot which must be held by the end of March. A number of bases have been established for the war veterans throughout Zimbabwe, particularly in those areas which did not have army camps. The sources said the war veterans will operate from these bases, their main objective being to make it impossible for the MDC to campaign in rural areas. Opposition supporters would also be harassed and ejected out of the rural areas to disable them from voting in their constituencies. A number of war veterans have in fact already been armed. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said in a statement that Zanu PF supporters who smashed MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's vehicle and thwarted his planned meeting with his party's structures in Sanyati last week were armed with guns. A senior government official said: "I sympathize with those who want change in the presidential elections but judging by the groundwork that Zanu PF is doing to deal with the opposition, I am afraid to say that I don't see that change coming."

Bakeries in Harare have laid off hundreds of contract workers and are losing $1,8 million a day as the wrangle between the government and bakers over statutory price controls on bread continued yesterday with no solution in sight. The bakers argue they are incurring heavy losses and risk going out of business soon after using up the current flour stocks. Jacob Dube, president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, said yesterday bakers were losing $1,8 million every day because of the mandatory price controls on bread introduced by the government last week. Addressing journalists after a meeting of the Business Leaders’ Forum in Harare, Dube said: "It’s not possible to produce bread at $52 and sell it at $48. A business that does that will close down sooner or later."

Dube said attempts to control the price of bread without curbing prices along the supply chain would cause an economic dislocation. He said: "There is a big possibility that there will be serious food shortages this year." A production manager at a city bakery, who refused to be named, said: "We are incurring heavy losses every day and we cannot continue producing bread under the prevailing circumstances. As a result, we are down-sizing our operations and doing away with contract workers." Since the beginning of this year, the price of flour has gone up every month by between 10 and 20 percent, he said. "Our business is no longer sustainable and the allegations of profiteering are baseless because of the hyper-inflation, now hovering at about 86 percent," the manager said.

While the Cabinet was expected to discuss the matter yesterday, Mark Prior, chairman of the National Bakers’ Association of Zimbabwe, said bakeries were producing and selling bread at a huge loss. Prior said millers and bakers were still waiting for the government’s response to an appeal for a review of the price so that all parties could get a better deal. "We have already indicated to the government that we will not be viable if we sell bread at the gazetted prices," said Prior. "Bakers are still producing bread, but we need to make it clear that they are selling at a loss. The length of time we can continue to operate at a loss is debatable."

The government last week gazetted price controls on bread, maize meal, margarine, beef, pork, sugar, chicken, soap, salt and fresh milk. But millers and bakers are resisting the new prices, arguing they would make business non-viable. Prior said: "There is a massive demand for bread at the moment because not all bakeries are operational. We are producing limited quantities of bread and delivering it around town, but not to rural areas. This is because of the high delivery costs." The business leaders’ meeting yesterday came ahead of today’s conference of the Tripartite Negotiating Forum, which brings together leaders from government, business and labour. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and International Trade said in a statement yesterday that sales tax would not be applicable to bread, maize meal, cooking oil, chicken, beef, sugar, milk, margarine, pork products and salt. But economists immediately dismissed the statement as inconsequential because the products had always been non-taxable.

South African farmers opposed to the repatriation of some 15 000 Zimbabwean farm workers reached an out-of-court settlement with the government on Monday, giving the workers a temporary reprieve. The farmers filed for an urgent interdict in the Pretoria High Court to prevent the country from expelling the workers, whose work permits expired on Monday. According to the deal reached late on Monday afternoon, South Africa's home affairs department will make no arrests or carry out deportations before further talks have been held with agricultural unions in the area. The deal also provides for dates to be set within a week to make representations in the case to Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

But home affairs representative Leslie Mashokwe said farmers were reneging on a deal made a year ago between them and the government to have all Zimbabwean workers off some 93 farms in the Limpopo valley in northeastern South Africa on the border with Zimbabwe. Last week, the department again confirmed that no new Zimbabwean work permits would be issued. The department argued that deportations would create jobs for South Africans in the impoverished Northern Province, where unemployment stands at 34%, according to 1999 government statistics. "The issue at stake here is that they willy-nilly decided to break their end of the bargain," Mashokwe said.

The farmers have warned that a decision to hastily repatriate thousands of Zimbabweans workers would plunge the local economy into chaos. They are asking for more time to resolve the matter and phase out a foreign workforce that has been working on their farms for up to 15 years. Many families lived on both sides of the South Africa-Zimbabwe border, divided by the Limpopo River. Some workers had married South Africans and had children with them. The repatriation would leave farmers in want of a workforce to harvest crops, mainly perishable fruit and vegetables, said Edward Voster, a representative for AgriSA, the agricultural union umbrella body which represents mainly white farmers. Voster added he could not state how many Zimbabwean farm workers had already left, but said that those who had had done so voluntarily. "The people that have left so far have done so voluntarily because they didn't want to find themselves caught by South African law," he said.

Television footage of the violence engulfing Zimbabwe often gives the impression that this is primarily a battle between rich white farmers and landless blacks. This is wrong, say three Zimbabweans who visited Brisbane recently. According to farmer Ian Kay, journalist Benhilda Chanetsa and human rights worker Noma Nabanyama, the violence is being inflicted by war veterans and party militants loyal to President Robert Mugabe. The victims are from all sections of Zimbabwean society – white landholders, black farm workers and opposition groups and non-government organisations out of favour with the Government. All three have suffered in this reign of terror.

Ms Nabanyama has the most heart-wrenching story. Her father, political activist Patrick Nabanyama, was kidnapped by war veterans last year and is feared dead, while Mr Kay was badly beaten on his farm at Marondera. Photographs of his battered body were published in newspapers around the world in April last year. Ms Chanetsa, a sub-editor at The Standard newspaper, works in a climate of fear. Her editor was arrested and tortured by war veterans and now faces defamation charges. The source of this chaos, they say, is Mr Mugabe. The 78-year-old leader, faced with a crumbling economy and a strong challenge from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in elections due next year, is turning on the terror in a desperate bid to stay in power. His shock troops are led by militants from the ruling Zanu PF party and veterans from the 1970s war of liberation which ousted white minority leader Ian Smith.

For Ms Nabanyama, the terror arrived on June 19 last year. On that day, war veterans came to her home and dragged away her father Patrick, who was an election agent for MDC politician David Coltart. "They came to our house in Bulawayo at 4pm," she said. "They took him out violently, started dragging him…bundled him into a car and that was the last time we saw him. I was with my mother and four young brothers. We screamed at them but they wouldn't listen. I don't think he is still alive. It has been a year now." The kidnapping of her father propelled Ms Nabanyama into a new life as a human rights activist with the Amani Trust, an organisation dedicated to the rehabilitation of torture victims.

For Mr Kay, the trouble started in 1998 when his farm was first invaded. He says he was an obvious target because of his political involvement with the MDC and before that with the Zimbabwe Union of Democrats. But it was in April last year that he had a brush with death. "I was checking our work at our farm school," he said. "A group of youths arrived at where I was and surrounded me and started beating me. They tied me up and were taking me into the bush to dispatch me, so they said. Before we arrived where there was any cover, my son came with a vehicle. They took fright and I ran away." Mr Kay left his 2000ha maize and cattle farm after this beating and stayed away until September last year. The war veterans have forced him to remove all stock and to scale back his cropping program. As for recent efforts to curb the farm invasions, Mr Kay said these had failed. The Zimbabwean Government had agreed at a summit in Nigeria last month to end violence against white farmers and respect the rule of law. But Mr Kay said that since beginning of September, 20 more farms had been invaded and there had been 25 incidents of household sieges or beatings of farmers.

Although Ms Chanetsa has not been personally attacked, she has seen her workmates beaten and intimidated. "My editor Mark Chavunduka and chief writer Ray Choto were tortured in police cells with electric shocks," she said. "If you ask them today, they will tell you that they still have nightmares about what happened." These attacks happened in January 1999 and caused such an international outcry that the Government was forced to pull back. "They use other methods now," Ms Chanetsa said. "They can send their thugs to harass journalists and prevent them from entering state functions." She said the Government also was resorting to defamation laws in a bid to cripple the media. The Standard, a weekly paper with a circulation of 80,000, is facing two criminal defamation charges after it quoted a London Sunday Times story which claimed that Mr Mugabe was haunted by the ghost of Josiah Tongogara, a former rival who died in 1980. Both Mr Kay and Ms Chanetsa think that Mr Mugabe is in desperate political trouble, especially in urban areas. "In the cities he has no support whatsoever," Ms Chanetsa said. "The inflation rate is officially 70 per cent but it is actually more. If there was a fair election, the MDC would probably win it." Mr Kay said that there was a desperate need for outside pressure to assist Zimbabwe's people.

Eight schools in Gokwe North have been closed over the past two weeks in the wake of a new wave of terror being unleashed by suspected war veterans and Zanu PF militants against MDC supporters in the area. Scores of teachers at schools in Nembudziya, Gumunyu and Choda are reported to have fled after being beaten up by marauding Zanu PF supporters. The schools affected are Chomuwuyu, Zumba, Gumunyu, Nyamasanga, Mashame, Makwiyo, Mashuma and Dekete. The violence is likely to affect students sitting for the Grade 7 and O-Level examinations in the next fortnight.

The militants, who have formed a group of about 500 people, are alleged to have established camps at Tenda and Mashumba primary schools where suspected MDC supporters are reportedly taken for torture. Last Friday more than 20 teachers at Mashumba Primary School fled after the Zanu PF supporters besieged the school and attacked them. "We had to walk for 40km to Zumba business centre from where we got transport to Gokwe Centre," said a victim who fled to Gweru. On the same day the militants allegedly disrupted a prize-giving day at Chomuwuyu Secondary School, assaulting three teachers and forcing several others to flee. "Our main worry is that escalating violence against the teachers will affect Grade Seven and O-Level examinations due in the next two weeks," said a teacher from Mashame Secondary School. The headmaster of the school fled after the raiders threatened to kill him. Most of the teachers said they would only go back to the school when their security was guaranteed.

The attackers are allegedly being led by a Zanu PF councillor and two war veteran leaders. Isaac Tanyanyiwa, the Midlands regional director for Education, said yesterday he was unaware of the disturbances. Six MDC supporters were admitted to Mtora Hospital and later transferred to the Avenues Clinic in Harare after they were kidnapped and severely assaulted by Zanu PF supporters camped near Mtora growth point last Thursday. Several MDC supporters have fled their homes after receiving death threats and having their homes burnt down. All this is happening at a time the government is constantly reassuring the international community that it is strictly complying with the Abuja Agreement which, among other things, requires it to enforce the rule of law. MDC officials and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association have accused the police in the area of failing to protect victims of political violence. The nearest police station, Choda police post, is manned by two officers.

Harare - President Robert Mugabe's government plans to seize additional white farms to resettle up to 15 000 Zimbabwean farmworkers being expelled from South Africa's northern province. South Africa's director-general of Home Affairs, Billy Masetlha, said the expulsions were being ordered to create jobs for unemployed South Africans. Zimbabwean state radio said the first 400 deportees, ferried across the border in three trucks, complained of being left hungry and penniless by the South African authorities. A broadcast said residents of the border town of Beitbridge reported increased housebreakings. "They don't have money to get to their homes and say they were abused when they were brought into Zimbabwe," said a Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation reporter, Freedom Moyo.

Moyo said the expulsions were a South African government conspiracy to "sabotage Zimbabwe's land reform" - the redistribution of 5 000 white-owned farms, totalling 8,3-million hectares, to black Zimbabweans. An official also told the state-controlled daily newspaper, The Herald: "If the South African government goes ahead with this unprecedented move, the Zimbabwe government will gazette more farms to resettle these people. When we do that we do not expect anyone from South Africa to raise their voices." White farmers have made urgent application for a Pretoria High Court injunction to stop expulsion of their employees, but the Zimbabwean official claimed: "It is surprising an African government would do that to please a few whites. This could mark the beginning of a furore against South Africa and its whites." He said the expulsions "showed the architects of apartheid were still alive and well in that country". South African Northern Province farmers say dislocation of their traditional Zimbabwean labour force will lead to a major drop in production as they have difficulty recruiting reliable replacements among local people.

Five workers at Uitkyk Farm in Marondera were brutally attacked by land invaders and Zanu PF supporters in a fresh wave of violence that swept across three adjacent farms over the weekend. The attacks come amid reports of a $12 million extortion racket by the so-called war veterans in Mashonaland Central. The other farms affected are Eirene, owned by Hamish Charters, and Bon Chance, run by Henry Harris. One of the workers at Uitkyk Farm, a 27-year-old, sustained a deep cut to the head after he was struck with an axe. He was rushed to Marondera Hospital on Saturday where he received six stitches. He said they were attacked after being accused of being MDC supporters. Two other workers at the farm showed the Daily News crew the injuries they sustained after being attacked with chains and sticks.

By late yesterday, two of the five workers had not returned from Marondera where they were taken by the police in the morning for treatment. Angus Campbell of Uitkyk Farm said the fresh wave of violence began last Thursday when a group of farm invaders carrying chains, knobkerries and sticks invaded his farm early in the morning. The invaders, who were led by Edward Jera from the nearby Svosve communal lands, accused the farm workers of supporting both the MDC and the white commercial farmers whose operations they have ordered stopped. He said visits to Shadreck Magunda, the Marondera District Administrator, had proved fruitless while a Sergeant Matambanadzo of Marondera police had failed to contain the situation.

Several farmers in the area, including David Kay of Chipesa Farm and Belinda Taylor of Marirangwe Dairy Farm, say they have almost stopped farming operations because of the relentless violence and lawlessness. On 6 September, the government signed the Abuja agreement in the Nigerian capital of the same name, in which it agreed to curb violence on the farms and uphold the rule of law. The latest violence is despite a recent High Court order issued by Justice Moses Chinhengo instructing Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, the provincial and district administrators in Mashonaland East, and the Central Intelligence Organisation to curb lawlessness and allow farmers to operate freely.

Meanwhile, war veterans in Mashonaland Central have extorted about $12 million from commercial farmers, forcing them to pay gratuities and terminal packages to their workers. The Agriculture Labour Bureau says commercial farmers in the province paid the money under duress in the last few months as the anarchy on commercial farms escalates. The bureau said 950 farms nationwide were facing varying degrees of work stoppages while 350 have virtually ceased operations. "Reports received by the Agriculture Labour Bureau reveal that farm workers, particularly in Mashonaland Central areas, have made outrageous demands for gratuities, apparently under manipulation by criminal elements, who are in some instances war veterans," said Ewen Rodgers, the chief executive officer of the bureau.

The report comes at a time when thousands of distressed farm workers are facing an uncertain future because of the political violence on the commercial farms. Farmers said reports of extortion are rampant nationwide, but are more prevalent in the Zanu PF stronghold of Mashonaland Central. One farmer in Mvurwi was forced to pay out $3 400 to each worker for every year served. The latest development also comes at a time when the government seeks to introduce a statutory instrument forcing commercial farmers to pay retrenchment packages to farm workers, left jobless by the chaotic land reform programme. The farmers say the government should pay the workers because it is seizing the farms.

Popular superstar, Oliver Mtukudzi, was last weekend forced to cancel his show in Chinhoyi following threats by anonymous people that they would disrupt the musical performance on grounds that it was being promoted by an MDC sympathiser. Mtukudzi’s manager, Debbie Metcalfe, told The Standard on Friday that she received phone calls, two days before the show which was scheduled for last Saturday, in which threats of assault were issued against Mtukudzi if he proceeded with the show. She said the band had taken the threats seriously after considering the rampant violence that has generally gripped the country.

However, she refuted claims that Zanu PF youths in Chinhoyi had accused Mtukudzi of sympathising with the MDC. She said the youths had instead accused the promoter of the show, Dennis Kagonye, of being an MDC supporter. "We first received two calls warning us not to travel to Chinhoyi. The following day, a band member came with some information that there were some people who wanted to disturb the show. The promoter, Dennis, was considered to be an MDC supporter and apparently some people were not happy about that. At first we decided that we would not play the contentious song, Wasakara, but later we thought it was not worth the risk. We have only one Oliver Mtukudzi," said Metcalfe.

She said a group had been hired to cause violence and disrupt the show. "The information we had was that a group had been hired to cause mayhem at the show. The group was armed with teargas canisters and we just couldn’t take the risk. We couldn’t risk Oliver’s life, especially at this time. We had to incur financial losses as a result of the postponement but we had to take the threats seriously. Imagine if we had gone ahead with the show and people had been hurt, we would be blaming ourselves for not taking the warnings we received seriously," she said.

Mtukudzi earned the wrath of Zanu PF supporters after the release of his blockbuster, Wasakara. In the song, Mtukudzi encourages the aged to accept that the years have taken their toll. He urges them to surrender power to the young who still have the energy. Coming at a time of intense rivalry between the MDC and Zanu PF, the song has largely been seen as ridiculing President Mugabe, 77, who continues to hold on to power and has even made public his intention to run for a sixth term next year. However, Mtukudzi has, himself, said the song has no political connotations but that people were free to interpret the song any way they chose.

The MDC has suspended from the national executive four members of parliament linked to the squabbles that recently rocked the party. Party spokesman and MP for Kuwadzana, Learnmore Jongwe; security chief and MP for St Mary’s, Job Sikhala; MP for Zengeza and national executive member, Tafadzwa Musekiwa; and shadow minister for finance and MP for Hatfield, Tapiwa Mashakada, were ordered yesterday to step down from the national executive, as well as from their positions in the party. They, however, remain as ordinary members of the party until the commission set up by the MDC to investigate the root of the squabbles finalises its report.

MDC secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, confirmed yesterday evening that the four, together with Chitungwiza provincial chairman, Alex Musundire, had been relieved of their duties pending investigation. The decision to suspend the five was taken at a national council meeting yesterday. Said Ncube: "The national executive and the national council resolved that anyone whose name has been mentioned in connection with the problems in Harare and St Mary’s be temporarily suspended from holding any official duties for and on behalf of the party until the commission has finished its work. The move is to facilitate proper investigations."

"What this essentially means is that Learnmore Jongwe will not perform his functions as spokesman for the party and will not sit in the national executive; Job Sikhala will not perform his functions as secretary for security and will not sit in the national executive; Tafadzwa Musekiwa will no longer sit in the national executive; Tapiwa Mashakada will no longer perform his functions as shadow minister for finance and as vice chairman for Harare province and Alex Musundire will no longer be chairman for Chitungwiza," said Ncube.

The five have been at the centre of factional clashes which rocked the party late last month and early this month. Sikhala at one time threatened to resign from the party after his house was attacked by youths, allegedly sent by Mashakada and Musundire. The group descended on Sikhala’s house on 27 September and extensively damaged the house and injured his two-year-old daughter. The attacks were blamed on Mashakada and Musundire who are alleged to have formed an underground youth movement to cause divisions and mayhem in the party. The underground movement is said to have been behind the chaos at the party’s Harare provincial elections last month. The elections had to be aborted after the youths ran amok resulting in MP for Glen Norah, Priscilla Misihairabwi running for dear life after she was attacked by the group.

Musekiwa, Jongwe and Sikhala at one time wrote a letter to party president, Morgan Tsvangirai, expressing concern at Mashakada’s conduct, whom they accused of trying to break the party. Mashakada, on the other hand, accused the trio of being part of a wider plot to dislodge all the executive members. Ncube said the suspended members would resume their duties once they were cleared by the commission of inquiry. "We will look at the report. Once the report has been submitted then those cleared of any wrongdoing will resume their duties. It will be up to the disciplinary committee to decide whether those not cleared by the report should continue with their official duties," said Ncube. In a separate interview, Tsvangirai dispelled fears that the five had been fired from the party. He said disciplinary action would only be taken once the commission has presented its report. "That is rubbish. No one has been axed from the party. The fate of those members will only be determined by the findings of the commission," he said.

Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC president, yesterday narrowly escaped what his party described as an assassination attempt after his convoy and personal vehicle were attacked at Patchway Mine in Kadoma by a group of about 70 Zanu PF supporters. Addressing a Press conference after the attack, Tsvangirai said: "It was clear. What would you say when a group of between 50 and 70 people attack you and almost destroy your vehicle? The attack could have led to death." The windows on the passenger seat side of the vehicle where Tsvangirai was sitting were completely destroyed, while the rear windows were smashed open, leaving big holes in them. Tsvangirai said: "We were going to Sanyati when a group of about 50 youths attacked our convoy around 11am. My vehicle’s windows were shattered by stones. We had to drive through the crowd, but fortunately no one was hurt."

This was the second attack on Tsvangirai’s convoy this year. On 23 July, Tsvangirai’s motorcade was attacked by Zanu PF youths in Chiveso village in Bindura in the run-up to the Bindura by-election. Learnmore Jongwe, the MDC’s secretary for information and publicity, yesterday said: "We now have firm and solid information that Zanu PF intends to stop Tsvangirai from contesting the forthcoming presidential election by physically eliminating him. The strategy is deliberately designed to be less sophisticated and involves the use of agents disguised as village vigilantes." Jongwe said the damage to Tsvangirai’s Pajero vehicle was in excess of $950 000.

Tsvangirai said the attack occurred as he drove to Sanyati with other MDC officials to educate his party structures on the need for a peaceful election campaign and to encourage them to register to vote for the presidential election. Tsvangirai said the attack, a clear violation of the Abuja agreement in which the government promised to restore the rule of law, took place in the presence of a police inspector he named only as Makaza, the officer commanding Kadoma Rural. "The international community should note that the Abuja agreement was a smokescreen to hoodwink them into believing that law and order would be restored in the country," he said. The incident was reported at Kadoma Central police station. But an Inspector Mpofu, the officer-in-charge of the station, referred questions to Makaza, who was reportedly out of the office. "It would appear that Makaza was around the vicinity of the incident. I hold him responsible for that incident," Tsvangirai said. A police officer at Kadoma Rural who refused to identify himself yesterday said: "The position is that we do not speak to the Press, but it is not true that Makaza was involved in that incident."

Johannesburg - The economic crisis in Zimbabwe, and rising prices in particular, are having a devastating effect on its people, the South African government said on Friday. Alec Erwin, the minister of trade and industry, said economic mismanagement had led to sky-rocketing inflation that was hurting Zimbabwe's poorest people. "What is happening to ordinary people and workers is devastating, absolutely devastating. And it's not being solved," he said. "They desperately need help." Inflation in Zimbabwe is estimated at 70 per cent, while unemployment is 50 per cent. The country is facing shortages of basic foodstuffs and the International Monetary Fund has ruled out making further loans to the country.

Mr Erwin's comments followed a partial U-turn by the government of Zimbabwe on Friday on its decision to impose price controls on staple foods. Wednesday's announcement of big cuts in the price of bread, maize, meat, cooking oil and milk had led to a run on shops, causing food shortages and threatening to close down hundreds of companies. This acknowledgment of Zimbabwe's economic plight by the South African government is one of its strongest statements yet about the extent of the financial crisis, precipitated by political violence and land invasions in its northern neighbour. Mr Erwin warned that South Africa should avoid the de-industrialisation and job losses that had taken place in Zimbabwe. "In a short period in Zimbabwe, the industrial capacity has been destroyed. It would be very dangerous in South Africa," he said.

The Zimbabwean ministry of trade and industry on Friday ordered that the price cuts of between 10 and 45 per cent announced on Wednesday should be reduced to between 5 and 20 per cent, after business leaders complained the new prices did not cover production costs. Supermarkets and bakeries across the country were forced to close on Friday after running out of bread and other foods and being besieged by customers demanding lower prices. The price of a loaf of bread, which had dropped 33 per cent to around Z$34 ($61 US cents) on Friday, was increased to Z$48, a drop of 14 per cent from the non-regulated price. The price of bread has increased eight times this year. The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) said on Friday that even the modified price cuts were a threat to many businesses. "Reduced prices will lead to closures and job losses," said Jacob Dube, a CZI official.

The government has deployed the army in parts of Manicaland seen as loyal to the Movement for Democratic Change as part of the ruling party’s nationwide campaign to root out opposition. Latest information reaching the Zimbabwe Independent indicates the military - garrisoning MDC Chimanimani MP Roy Bennett’s Charleswood Estate - went on the rampage this week assaulting people accused of being opposition supporters. Sources said the vicious crackdown, which also involved the police and state intelligence agents, started last weekend and left a trail of victims. "On Saturday, October 6, police, under the command of Assistant Inspector Mujuru, CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation) under Joseph Mwale, and the army, under Captain Charamba from ZNA (Zimbabwe National Army) 3 Brigade Mutare, proceeded with about 25 details to Machongwe village to assault people accused of supporting the MDC," a source said.

Sources said soldiers assaulted a number of people. Some of the victims of what appears to be organised state terrorism were identified as Edmore Mafuse (24), Tobias Machocho (22), Shepherd Kajai (31), Brian Manoma (9), and Never Ruwo (32). "Ruwo sustained a fractured skull, face lacerations, severe bruises and multiple cuts. He is currently undergoing treatment," a source explained. "A headmaster from Kushinga A school had serious lacerations and bruises as well. Some of the victims have not yet got treatment because of death threats they received when they went to hospitals or clinics." It is understood the local MDC leadership reported the incidents to Chimanimani police station. Constable Matubu of Police Internal Security Intelligence was said to be investigating the matter. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said he was not aware of the situation.

Trouble also struck Biriwiri township in Chimanimani on Sunday. Soldiers and state security operatives were said to have unleashed another wave of terror. This followed a meeting earlier in the day held by senior Zanu PF officials. Present were Didymus Mutasa, Zanu PF secretary for foreign affairs in the politburo and Makoni North MP; Patrick Chinamasa, Justice minister and non-constituency MP; Munacho Mutezo, the Zanu PF candidate who lost to Bennett in last year’s general election; Sidney Gata, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority chair and chief executive; Jane Knight, a local Zanu PF coordinator and several district officials. A headmaster and two teachers from each school across the district, civil servants, and community leaders were ordered to attend the weekend gathering, it was said.

"They were told their jobs and lives were on the line if they continued supporting the opposition," a source said. "The headmaster for Nenhowe School was ordered to stand up and identified as a suspected MDC supporter and threatened with reprisal." It is understood Mutasa opened the meeting claiming Mutezo was the legitimate MP for Chimanimani and not Bennett who beat Mutezo the Zanu PF rural stronghold by 11 410 to 8 072 votes. A source close to the get-together said Mutasa announced: "I’m now declaring Munacho Mutezo as the official MP for Chimanimani and Roy Bennett as history." Sources said Chinamasa asked the audience how they could have voted for a "Boer" and why they wanted to return the country to whites.

"He said Zanu PF was there to stay and people better get used to it because things will never change," another source said. "They all dwelt in war-like rhetoric threatening villagers with retribution in the most menacing manner possible." It was said Gata - who is President Robert Mugabe’s brother-in-law - alleged he had received applications for electricity from a number of MPs but Bennett had not been interested in bringing power to his constituency. "The Zanu PF officials also urged people to proceed to Bennett’s Charleswood Farm to seize the property," a source noted. "They said if you want to kill a hornet you destroy its nest." "In the evening around 5pm two plainclothes soldiers entered Charleswood Estate bar and started harassing farm employees," another source revealed. "Scuffles ensued and several people were beaten up." Violence has been going on in Chimanimani for sometime now. Bennett’s farm and MDC supporters have been targets for government-sponsored mobs and the state security apparatus.

Influential leaders of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party and senior intelligence officers hatched an "Idi Amin-type" plan to expel almost all white farmers from Zimbabwe by December if international efforts to resolve the land crisis failed but the plan has apparently been abandoned, it emerged this week. The government however denied the existence of such a plan, saying the introduction of the fast-track land reform programme was meant to address such concerns as the slow pace of resettlement. Idi Amin, the 1970s ruler of Uganda, expelled all Asians from the East African country after accusing them of corruption and excessively exploiting the economy. The Zimbabwean plan, which seems to have been aborted following the signing of the Abuja agreement last month, would have begun with riots on farms in the Chinhoyi and Mhangura areas of Mashonaland West, intelligence sources told the Financial Gazette. Many farmers in August fled the rich farming areas from rampaging government supporters who targeted their small communities for random assaults. According to the sources, the plan by the CIO and Zanu PF hinged on landless villagers, party youths and self-styled war veterans being inflamed to attack farmers and drive them out of properties as the quickest way of implementing the government's fast-track land reforms.

Marauding bands of villagers and war veterans attacked farmers in Mashonaland West in August and looted properties, forcing owners and their workers to flee after an altercation at Liston Shield, a farm about 15 km from Chinhoyi, ignited the rampage. It is alleged that some senior Zanu PF leaders had visited the farming area and urged villagers to physically attack farmers to force them to abandon their properties. Twenty-one white farmers were later arrested and are being charged with common assault. Their case attracted international attention when the courts initially refused them bail. According to the sources, the exercise to induce the mass exodus of white farmers from Zimbabwe was only abandoned after Nigeria successfully cobbled up a truce between Zimbabwe and Britain, its former colonial master, in Abuja on September 6. What also helped to cool tempers was the generous land reform plan offered before Abuja by some members of the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) as part of the Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement Initiative. Under the Abuja agreement, Zimbabwe assured the international community it would restore law and order in exchange for the resumption of Western aid and the funding of its land programme.

One source said the "Idi Amin" plan was actually part of a "grand strategy" hatched by members of the spy Central Intelligence Organisation, war veterans and some Zanu PF leaders as the final countdown that would have culminated in attacks on leading members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Aspects of the plan that apparently found favour among senior military and intelligence officers included forcing MDC leaders to flee the country before next year's presidential poll. "When it comes to the nitty-gritty, these people do not care. They are guerrillas, they are just like the Talibans," said one intelligence source, referring to the militant Islamic government being pounded by the United States for allegedly supporting international terrorism. Almost all of Zimbabwe's senior military and intelligence officers are former members of Robert Mugabe's pre-independence ZANLA guerrilla army.

The source said Britain and the CFU must have got wind of the plan and immediately agreed to attend the Abuja talks. The CFU, through a spokesman, however said this week the organisation did not know of the plan. Contacted for comment, a senior Zanu PF legislator this week said in confidence that while not privy to the original plan to scare away farmers, the intention to get rid of them was well known within the party and would continue "whether there is Abuja or not". "It is simple," said the legislator who preferred anonymity, "the whites have to leave the farms. The difference now is that with Abuja, they will be paid. Before they would have left with only the compensation for improvements they made on the properties." The Zanu PF leader said in provinces such as Mashonaland Central, white farmers had already realised that only working with the ruling party would assure their continued stay on their properties.

Welshman Ncube, the MDC's secretary-general, said his party was aware of the plan to force some of its senior executives into exile or into detention and scrap next year's presidential election. "We are aware that that is one of the contingency plans which is said to be preferred by Zanu PF even now. It's not as if this has been abandoned because of Abuja," Ncube said. He said his party's own intelligence sources had warned the MDC that the ruling party would use all means at its disposal to retain power and these might include introducing martial law and arresting opposition party leaders. The department of information yesterday evening brushed off the so-called "Idi Amin" plan saying the fact that the government had introduced the fast track land reform programme was to address concerns over the slow pace of resettlement since the Lancaster House conference in 1980. A government spokesman directed the Financial Gazette to Zanu PF or the Zimbabwe Liberation War Veterans Association to check whether they knew about the alleged plan to chase away farmers to speed up the resettlement exercise. It was not possible to do so before going to print.

Harare - The international community should introduce sanctions against President Robert Mugabe and other members of the Zimbabwean government, the International Crisis Group says in a report released today. The report, Zimbabwe: Time for International Action, stresses that political violence and farm invasions have continued and even increased, despite Mr Mugabe's promise at the Commonwealth meeting in Nigeria to restore the rule of law. "It is time for the international community to raise pressure to the next level by instituting 'smart' sanctions against Mugabe and the Zanu PF leadership and [by] providing direct aid to the opposition and civil society organisations," it says.

"The purpose of these measures is to encourage positive policy changes in Zimbabwe while time remains and to give encouragement to the people of that country who are working for such change." The ICG in Brussels says that limited sanctions should be imposed to prevent Mr Mugabe thinking he has free run to intensify repression because the international community is focused on Afghanistan. Its report calls for international travel sanctions and a freeze on the financial assets of Mr Mugabe and senior members of the government. It says sanctions will "isolate Mugabe and bring further pressure to bear for positive change."

It coincides with renewed political violence. Six members of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) opposition showed evidence of torture they say was carried out by supporters of Zanu PF. MDC officials in the Gokwe area of central Zimbabwe showed feet severely swollen by beatings with iron bars. They said they were told it was the beginning of the presidential election campaign. Mr Mugabe is seeking a new term at the election, which must be held by the end of March. The ICG report says Zanu PF is using intimidation to ensure that he wins.