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Archived News
12th June 2002
Top Zim lawyers held on subversion charges
Mugabe urged to allow food aid into Zimbabwe
Bread shortage looms
Rights group fears Harare manipulating food relief
Newspaper vendor assaulted
I am a good dictator, Muluzi declares
Ten thousand mourners at Lady Ruth's funeral
Law society staff are still being held
Workers bear brunt of land grab
Farmer's murderer was involved in row
Hangman gets back to work in Zimbabwe
The current status as regards listing of farms as at 17 April 2002.
People power can save us, if we unite
Zim lawyers walk free from 'subversion' case
Harare's plot claim slated as fiction
Thousands starve as war vets bar food aid
Nabanyama accused set free
Police impound MDC's poll challenge affidavits
Africa is ready to change with G8 help, says Mbeki
Malawi's president says heed me, not judges
US turns the screw on Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean judge reprimanded for international links
Police crush University students' demonstration
Illegitimate cabinet
Zanu PF starts witch-hunt in Bulawayo
Once again, African children are dying of hunger
High noon for the press in Zimbabwe
Mugabe arrives for Rome food summit
Mugabe starving the opposition: MDC
Governor's wife defies price controls
African nations back mutual policing plan
'Delinquent' Nepad states will be accountable
Keep out, Malawi's Muluzi tells US
Toying with a dangerous idea
Mugabe isolated at World Food summit in Rome
Mugabe evades EU travel ban to attend food summit in Rome
UN hunger meeting opens, minus most top leaders
Over the top
The desert of the mind
Zimbabwe declares disaster after crash
Mugabe exploits his hour upon the stage
Mugabe flaunts his land grab to summit
Mugabe sanctions 'must be stepped up'
Fresh fuel crisis looms
‘And allow them not to trespass against us'
Another bus accident kills 11 in Zimbabwe
US offers more food for S. Africa
Parliamentary written answers
US journalist faces test trial in Zimbabwe
Double standards
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From The Star (SA), 3 June
Top Zim lawyers held on subversion charges
Harare - Two top officials in the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) were arrested on Monday for allegedly trying to incite violence, police said. LSZ president Stenford Moyo and secretary-general Wilbert Mapombere are being charged under the country's new security law for trying to "subvert a constitutional government", said police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena. The two are alleged to have written letters to the British High Commission in Harare and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), calling for the suspension of crisis talks between the opposition MDC and President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party. "They were picked up in connection with two letters... in which they were calling for the suspension of talks ... to provide an environment for public disturbances," the spokesperson said. "In essence they were agitating for violence after the suspension of talks." Face-to-face talks, initiated and mediated by Nigeria and South Africa after the disputed March presidential election, were suspended last month after Zanu PF announced that it would postpone the talks pending the outcome of a legal challenge to the election results by the MDC. The MDC has rejected Mugabe's win, citing widespread violence against opposition supporters and claiming massive vote rigging.
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From SABC News, 3 June
Mugabe urged to allow food aid into Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has been urged to end its political grandstanding and urgently respond to the looming threat of starvation as a result of the growing food shortages. Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean President, has in recent months flatly refused to allow United States food supplies to be distributed within the beleaguered country. It is estimated that about 7,8 million Zimbabweans face starvation. A recent assessment by international food agencies has stated drought and the Zimbabwean faltering land resettlement programme as two of the factors, which have contributed to the current food crisis. Zimbabwe has also come under attack for its refusal to receive US food aid. The Harare administration has declined thousands of tons in maize supplies from Washington, saying it must first be certified as entirely free from genetic modification. Yet others view this as a ploy to deny starving Zimbabweans an opportunity to escape from the looming famine which is fast becoming a nightmare for government authorities. "I think it is also fair that the first priority must be to save lives, and I would hope that government makes the right prudent decision in the interest of its own population," says Machaira Kamau, of the UN Development Programme.
As more and more people within the region face massive food shortages an emergency meeting between the South African Development Community (SADC) secretariat and the UN authorities was convened. South Africa's ports and transportation infrastructure have been earmarked to help in the facilitation of the speedy delivery of food supplies to various famine threatened countries. "They will have to play a pivotal role in ensuring that there is a good transport network that will ensure the fast distribution of food." This is according to Prega Ramsamy, on behalf of the SADC Secretariat. Currently SADC is in a shortfall of about 3,2 million tons of additional maize supplies. A consolidated appeal for more food relief from western countries will be formally lodged next week.
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From The Daily News, 3 June
Bread shortage looms
A shortage of bread is looming in the country as wheat stocks are expected to run out in the next four weeks, officials in the wheat industry have said. The shortage of bread is likely to worsen the woes of Zimbabweans already facing a critical maize-meal shortage, with some using bread as a substitute. Zimbabwe has since last December experienced serious maize-meal shortages because of poor rainfall during the past two farming seasons, resulting in reduced maize production. Large-scale commercial farmers, who have irrigation facilities, also reduced maize-plantings in the past two years because of uncertainties caused by farm invasions. According the Zimbabwe Cereal Producers' Association (ZCPA), current wheat stocks are not enough to see the country through to the next harvest. Last year farmers produced a winter wheat crop of about 314 000 tonnes, which was less than the national annual requirement of between 380 000 and 400 000 tonnes.
More wheat shortages are again expected next year, as farmers say they have failed to plant this year due to disruption caused by the land reform programme. The deadline for planting this year's winter wheat crop is fast approaching, but farmers say they have only planted a third of what they did the previous year. The normal planting period for wheat is from late April to early June. Commercial wheat farmers, who over the years produced the bulk of the wheat crop, are blaming the government for their failure to plant wheat. Latest government laws demand that farmers who receive Section 8 orders must cease all farming activities and vacate their properties within 90 days. That means two-thirds of Zimbabwe's approximately 3 000 commercial farmers will have to leave their farms by 10 August, too early to have harvested any wheat. "Preliminary indications suggest that the commercial crop may be between 20 000 and 30 000 hectares as compared to 60 000 hectares grown last year. Production from this will be about 110 000 to 165 000 tonnes if harvests are not affected by interference," said the ZCPA official. The ZCPA said most of the wheat which could have augmented stocks this year would not be harvested, as the government had also failed to give the farmers written guarantees that they would be allowed to harvest whatever wheat they had planted.
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From The Financial Times (UK), 4 June
Rights group fears Harare manipulating food relief
Johannesburg - Concerns are mounting over political interference by the Zimbabwean government in the distribution of food relief to the 6m people facing severe food shortages in the southern African country. Physicians for Human Rights, a Danish non-governmental organisation (NGO), yesterday urged international aid agencies to monitor the distribution of food relief more closely to prevent supplies being selectively given to ruling Zanu PF supporters. The organisation fears President Robert Mugabe's regime is exploiting hunger to suppress support for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). It claims that Zanu PF supporters, civil servants and traditional leaders are blocking MDC supporters from acquiring maize, a staple food. "It is clear that some schemes have been discriminatory for months without the donor being aware," the Copenhagen-based group said in a report on political antagonism in Zimbabwe following presidential elections in March. Maize is distributed through government public works schemes, the state-owned Grain Marketing Board and donor programmes. But Physicians for Human Rights believes the marketing board denies grain to those people not holding Zanu PF membership and claims some public works programmes are reserved for government supporters.
Mr Mugabe has declared a state of emergency to supply food to hungry Zimbabweans. His government has made repeated assurances that, with international donor support, it will have enough food to ease the maize shortage. But it has accused farmers and traders of trying to sabotage its efforts. The country needs to import about 4m tonnes of maize over the coming year. Zimbabweans - particularly in the south-west and north - are suffering from a drought. But the government's controversial agricultural reform programme and a shortage of foreign currency have deepened food shortages. Commercial farmers have reduced planting in response to disruptions to farming operations and uncertainty about land tenure. Both the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the US government have warned Harare against using food aid for political ends. Earlier this year the government resisted the WFP's request to use established NGOs - such as World Vision and Christian Care to supply emergency food aid to about 500,000 people. The WFP has also complained of government pressure to add people of its choosing to emergency food distribution lists.
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From The Daily News, 3 June
Newspaper vendor assaulted
Bulawayo - A Chronicle newspaper vendor, Clement Mhlanga, was assaulted by Zanu PF youths who have declared the surroundings of the party’s provincial headquarters in Bulawayo a no-go area. Mhlanga, 21, said he was passing near the offices clutching a bundle of copies of the government-mouthpiece when he was confronted by a group of about 20 Zanu PF youths who demanded a Zanu PF membership card from him. The vendor told the group that his card was at home but they would have none of that. He said when he told them that he was only a vendor selling The Chronicle, they accused him of being an MDC supporter. "They grabbed me by the collar and dragged me into the party offices where they forced me to remove my shirt and belt," he said. They assaulted him with the belt on his bare back while others kicked and punched him. Mhlanga said while this was going on, two police officers guarding the offices just watched and did not help him. He sustained a swollen face and had weals on his back from being beaten with the belt.
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From The Star (SA), 3 June
I am a good dictator, Muluzi declares
Blantyre - Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi on Sunday described himself a dictator, saying it did not worry him that most of his critics were accusing him of making dictatorial directives. "Indeed I am a dictator... the advantage with me is that I am a good dictator who wants to maintain peace and stability in my country," Muluzi told a rally on the outskirts of the capital of Lilongwe. He said emphatically that he has deliberately banned demonstrations to protest or support his third term bid in order to avoid chaos in Malawi. Muluzi warned that he would use the army and the police to quash any demonstrations. His remarks came hours after Catholic church leaders throughout Malawi urged their followers during services of worship on Sunday to oppose the president's bid to stand for a third term in office in 2004. During the services most church leaders also said they were ready to die for truth and justice. They condemned the ruling party for tampering with the constitution just for the sake of wanting one man to stand for the third term. Currently the country's constitution binds President Muluzi to two five-year terms of office. In his speech, Muluzi was full of praise of Malawi's first president, the late Kamuzu Hastings Banda, which he described as "a civilised politician". "Malawi is a blessed nation. Kamuzu Banda was a political gentleman, a civilised politician. I am also a civilised politician," he said. "Kamuzu Banda and myself were very good friends. That is why he appointed me as one of his senior cabinet ministers. I also served as a secretary-general of the Malawi Congress Party (MCP)," he said.
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From The Daily News (SA), 4 June
Ten thousand mourners at Lady Ruth's funeral
Gaborone - More that 10 000 people attended the funeral of Botswana's popular first First Lady, the 78-year-old Lady Ruth Khama, in the Bamangwato tribal capital of Serowa, Botwana, on Saturday. The white woman who had defied and overcome racism to marry and support Botswana's first president, Sir Seretse Khama, was buried in the Royal burial ground of his tribe, on a high hill overlooking the village of Serowa. The night before, the heavens opened over most of Botswana and on the stroke of midnight on Friday there was an enormous bolt of lightning and a deafening clap of thunder. As if to announce that the Queen and co-founder of Botswana was dead. Abundant rain on Saturday failed to deter mourners arriving in thousands from all over Botswana and southern Africa and England. Among the honoured guests were Popo Molefe, premier of North West province, Charles Njonjo, former attorney-general of Kenya, the Queen Mother of the Bafokeng tribe, members of the Lesotho royal family, former Botswana president Sir Ketumile Masire and current Botswana President Festus Mogae.
Former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda attended the requiem mass that was held on Friday in the Anglican cathedral in Gaborone. Eulogies were delivered by Bishop Naledi of the Anglican Church and from representatives of charities Lady Khama supported, such as Botswana Red Cross and SOS Children's Villages. They described her banning from Botswana in the colonial era, her 36 years of service to Botswana and of her battle to overcome racial hatred from whites in South Africa, the then Rhodesia and Britain - and from blacks in the tribe of her husband. According to the Bishop of Botswana, her last wish was to see the Anglican cathedral of the Holy Cross consecrated, an omission which disappointed her during her life. She is survived by her son, Ian, Vice President of Botswana, daughter Jacqueline, twin sons Tshekedi and Anthony and six grandchildren.
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From Business Day (SA), 5 June
Law society staff are still being held
Hearings have been blighted by confusion
Harare - Attorneys for Law Society of Zimbabwe president Stenford Moyo and his organisation's secretary, Wilbert Mapombere, arrested on Monday for alleged subversion, were battling to secure the release of their clients. The legal representatives for the two top lawyers said they had made an urgent application to the high court to have Moyo and Mapombere released from "unlawful detention". The two were arrested on charges of allegedly writing subversive letters to opposition leaders and British diplomats. One of the legal representatives, Joseph Mafusire, said the hearing on the matter was in progress although it was on and off due to continuous disruptions by endless demands for the clarification of several issues. "So far we have appeared before Judge President Paddington Garwe twice and we are expecting to be back for the third time," he said. "There are several issues which are being clarified. The two policemen who are here said they need to consult their superiors on the issue of Moyo's and Mapombere's release and their appearance in court."
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said Moyo and Mapombere, who were arrested and released on Monday before being arrested again early yesterday morning, were supposed to have appeared in court. "They were supposed to have appeared in court (yesterday) afternoon but I'm not sure whether they did," he said. "I will find out." Mafusire, who is being assisted by advocate Adrian de Bourbon, said their urgent application to the court sought several things. "We want the court to declare their arrest and detention unlawful, we want them to be produced before the court, we want them to be given access to legal representation and we also want the search warrant against them declared invalid," he said. Police are alleging that Moyo and Mapombere wrote letters to opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) secretary-general Welshman Ncube and British diplomats inciting a rebellion against President Robert Mugabe's "constitutional government." The letters are also said to have urged MDC leaders to withdraw from reconciliation talks with the ruling Zanu (PF).
However, Ncube dismissed the allegations last night as a "total fabrication". "Firstly, we never received the letter that was purportedly written to us," he said. Going by what was reported in the state-controlled Herald, it is difficult to imagine that a lawyer of Moyo's standing could be the author of such a badly written letter. I think it was totally fake and was intended to secure his arrest and detention." Bvudzijena said the accused were likely to be charged under the repressive Public Order and Security Act. Ncube said the whole issue bordered on political harassment. "One is left with no doubt that this is a political issue calculated to intimidate the Law Society." The Law Society has of late been critical of partisan judges who are always anxious to curry government's favour in their rulings. The harassment of lawyers is widely seen as the broadening of Mugabe's crackdown on dissent. Journalists have been under siege in the past two months.
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From News24 (SA), 4 June
Workers bear brunt of land grab
Harare - The baby wrapped in cloth and strapped onto the back of an only slightly older sibling is not yet two months old. But in this community of Zimbabwean farm workers, that's old enough to have been forced from your home twice and be living in your second camp for people displaced by tumultuous land reforms and political violence. Two years after President Robert Mugabe began taking white-owned farms for resettlement by blacks, the former workers on those farms have been literally lost in the often violent process. The baby was born in a camp outside one of Harare's industrial neighbourhoods, where relief agencies are providing care for farm workers forced from their homes by militants spearheading land reforms. Her family and neighbours said they went to the camp about seven weeks ago, after new settlers on the farm, militant youths and soldiers, started beating the workers and chasing them from their homes. But after a few weeks, they said police found them at the camp and took them back to the farm.
"When we arrived there, we saw a soldier and the soldier told us that we cannot stay here," said a young mother who was washing clothes on a rock in the camp. "We were beaten by war veterans shoulder-to-shoulder with the policemen. They were there, together, the war veterans come and beat you," said the former foreman on the farm. "The policemen there... they don't even act." "Our houses are still there, but the so-called war veterans, and also youths and other individuals, they are in our houses. And other houses they burned, they looted everything," he said. People at the camp asked not to be identified for fear of their safety. They now live behind a church on the outskirts of Harare, in a camp of 15 army-green tents that house 53 of the people chased from the farm. Among them are 15 children, two orphaned presumably by the Aids epidemic which kills 2 000 people a week in Zimbabwe. About 150 other workers and their families from the farm are still missing. Two of the missing managed to find the camp last week, after connecting with one of the relief agencies providing tents, food and other basic supplies.
Workers' advocates estimate that tens of thousands of people are faced with a similar plight, but no one is sure where they are. By March, local human rights observers reported that some 17 000 opposition supporters had been internally displaced because of death threats, harassment and attacks. A humanitarian report from the United Nations and the regional famine warning system Fewsnet said last month that between 250 000 and 500 000 people have been displaced in Zimbabwe. Aside from people forced from their homes, about 70 000 farm workers have lost their jobs because of the land reforms, according to the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers' Union. Taken with their families, that means about 350 000 people have lost their livelihoods as the nation plunges into a worsening famine. The UN's World Food Programme says six million Zimbabweans, nearly half the population, need emergency food aid.
The land reforms have run hand-in-hand with political violence, mainly targeting the opposition, which rights groups say have seen thousands of people tortured or with their homes and property destroyed or stolen. Reverend Tim Neil, from the Zimbabwe Community Development Trust which cares for farm workers, said only 10% of displaced workers have received land under the reforms. As for the rest, no one can say where they are or how they're surviving without jobs or their own crops in a nation where the potentially deadly famine is just beginning to bite. "There are a lot of farm workers still on the farms but the farm's closed down. They're starving, they're starving," Neil said. "They can get some work, working for the new occupiers, but in the majority of cases they don't get paid money. They get paid in kind, so there's no money for school fees, things like that."
From ZWNEWS: The Amani Trust has recently released a study on the plight of farmworkers. If you would like a copy of this report, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message - total size 120 Kb, or about 2 1/2 times the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.
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From The Daily News, 4 June
Farmer's murderer was involved in row
One of the alleged murderers of Charles Anderson, the commercial farmer shot dead in cold blood with an AK47 assault rifle in Mazowe/Glendale on Sunday, had earlier had an argument with the farmer. Workers at the farm and a farmer in the area yesterday said the man visited Anderson last week, to tell him to leave his irrigation pipes on the farm. The 378-hectare Dunmaglas of Norfolk Estate was designated under the Model A2 scheme. Anderson had reached an agreement with Ngoni Masoka, the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, for a take-over of the farm. A government notice in the Press on 3 February said Dunmaglas Farm of Norfolk Estate was now owned by Masoka. "The information I got from the workers is that Anderson had an argument with one of the alleged murderers over irrigation pipes. The youth told him that he should leave the property when he left next month," said one of the workers. "We suspect that it was armed robbery," said a farmer in the area. "But we also heard that Anderson had an argument with one of the alleged murderers who was identified by the workers."
The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) said it suspected armed robbery was the motive. Although the police refused to give details, the government daily newspaper, The Herald, reported yesterday one of the alleged killers had been arrested. Anderson's widow, Cindy, has been taken to Harare following the murder, but neighbours said Anderson's body was still being held by the Bindura police. They said he was expected to buried on Thursday in Harare. Workers at the farm said Masoka has four fields of wheat while Anderson was still on the farm, pending the grading of his tobacco crop. Masoka could not be reached for comment. Anderson, 40, is the 12th member of the CFU to be murdered since invasions of commercial farms by so-called war veterans started more than two years ago.
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From The Star (SA), 4 June
Hangman gets back to work in Zimbabwe
Harare - Although under fire for allowing the murderers of more than 200 opposition supporters and 10 white farmers to escape with impunity, President Robert Mugabe's government has sent three convicted killers to the gallows. The executions announced on Tuesday bring to 69 the number hanged since Mugabe, 78, gained power in 1980. There were no apparent political motivations behind the crimes committed by the three men hanged in Harare last Friday. Edmore Masendeke, 30, was executed for his part in the 1995 murder of an elderly widow, Eileen Carlisle, in the southern town of Masvingo, although his accomplice escaped with a 15-year jail sentence after turning state witness. Anthony Muuzhe was hanged for the murder of two children, burned to death when he set alight to their hut and wired the door shut, hoping to kill their mother. Noel Rukanda was hanged for raping and strangling a 14-year-old girl. Executions were suspended in Zimbabwe for several years due to lack of a public hangman, but resumed last October when a candidate was covertly appointed.
The Catholic Church, which has denounced alleged selective application of the justice system, has led the campaign for abolition of the death penalty. None of the murderers of suspected opponents of the regime has been brought to justice, and human rights groups allege complicity of the authorities in high-profile killings, such as those of commercial farmers David Stevens and Martin Olds. Three Frenchmen, former mercenaries in the Rhodesian army, were among those hanged since Mugabe came to power. Morgan Tsvangirai, presidential candidate for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, theoretically faces the death sentence if convicted on current treason charges, arising from allegations he discussed the assassination of Mugabe with Canadian-based publicist Ari ben Menashe in Montreal last year. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have dropped their investigation following allegations Menashe was in the pay of Mugabe's government but Tsvangirai and two top officials of his party remain on remand on charges being pressed here.
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Land facts
The current status as regards listing of farms as at 17 April 2002.
Zimbabwe land distribution by sector as at September 2001
Large Scale Commercial Sector (6 000 farms) on 11 020 000 hectares - 28.2 percent; Small Scale Commercial Sector 1 380 000 hectares - 3.5 percent; The Communal Areas 16 350 000 hectares - 41.8 percent; Resettlement Area is 3 540 000 hectares - 9.1 percent; Parks/Forest Land 6 339 000 hectares - 16.2 percent; ARDA (State Farming) comprised 250 000 hectares - 0.6 percent; Urban Area 200 000 hectares - 0.5 percent. This represent a total of 39 079 000 hectares of land.
The Large Scale Commercial Sector, totalling 11 020 000 hectares (approximately 6000 farms) is divided up as follows :
Commercial Farmers' Union Members - 8 595 000 hectares or 78.0 per cent; Indigenous Commercial Farmers Union - 700 000 hectares (approx) or 6.4 per cent; Non Members (either Union)- 600 000 hectares (approx) or 5,4 per cent; Development Trust of Zimbabwe (Govt of Zim GoZ) - 332 000 hectares or 3.0 per cent; Indigenous/Tenant Schemes/Leases (GoZ) - 470 000 hectares or 4.3 per cent; Cold Storage Company (GoZ) - 211 000 hectares or 1.9 per cent; Forestry Commission (GoZ) - 112 000 hectares or 1.0 per cent.
Calculations to hand as at September 2001 indicate the following breakdown for the total land area of Zimbabwe:
State land - 27 604 000 hectares or 70.6 percent; Private land - 11 275 000 hectares or 28.9 percent; Urban land - 200 000 hectares or 0.5 percent; Total - 39 079 000 hectares
The Government of Zimbabwe Land Reform programme has resulted in changes to the above picture. Land has been acquired through notices of acquisition and in some instances, invaders have first arrived on farms, under the 'Fast track' programme and then steps have been taken to acquire the farms through legal means available. Some farms were deemed unsuitable and were then delisted from acquisition. However in November 2001, the Government of Zimbabwe announced its intention to implement Maximum Farm Size regulations and this resulted in the relisting of farms. The results below indicate this shift in policy. Listing refers to the naming of the farm in Government Gazette notices it is a preliminary notice, Section 5. The following are compulsory acquisition statistics, they represent the changing picture of occupation of land in Zimbabwe.
As at 01 March 2002, there were 5 648 farms measuring 10 231 950 hectares of land listed for acquisition. On this date there were 706 farms measuring 1 475 378 hectares delisted from acquisition. There were 51 farms, 90 698 hectares that had previously been delisted, relisted for acquisition. This brought the net figure to 4 526 farms on 8 847 270 hectares of land.
Statistics on compulsory acquisition as at 5 April 2002 are:
5 835 farms listed for acquisition, measuring 10 442 612 hectares. There were 706 farms on 1 475 378 hectares delisted. There were 51 farms, 90 698 hectares that had previously been delisted, which were relisted for acquisition, bringing the net listed to 5 180 farms on 9 057 932 hectares.
Statistics on compulsory acquisition as at 17 April 2002 are:
Gross listed: 5 849 farms on 10 452 519 hectares. Delisted dropped to 449 farms on 853 900 hectares and the number relisted rocketed up to 343 farms comprising 773 028 hectares. This brings the net listed to 5 743 farms on 10 371 647 hectares.
Of the 6 000 large scale commercial farms comprising 11 020 000 hectares (28.2% of the total land are of Zimbabwe) under threat of acquisition, there remain 151 farms on 567 481 hectares of land not affected by legal notice. To this could be added the delisted land of 449 farms on 853 900 hectares, which still remain in the hands of the original large scale commercial farmer. This brings the percentage of commercial land taken as at 17th April 2002 to 87,1 percent. Figures from Government Gazette weekly issues 26 April to 31st May 2002 are not included in the above.
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Comment from The Daily News, 4 June
People power can save us, if we unite
Last week Zimbabweans witnessed, for the first time in a very long time, what can only be called People Power. Black and white, rich and poor, rural and urban - we stood together and literally bombarded the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture with protest. The minister was going to do away with Cambridge International Examinations, put all our children into the same school uniforms and force teachers to stay at their posts from dawn to dusk. For two weeks every column in every newspaper in the country was filled with complaints about Minister Aeneas Chigwedere's three proposals which were going to directly affect our homes and lives. The minister's ideas were going to hurt us where it hurts the most - in our pockets. When Chigwedere saw how unpopular his new rulings were he backed down, retracted everything and said the proposals were no more than a subject for debate. He did not apologise for the mayhem he had caused, the enormous distress he had given parents and children or the weeks lost to students who had already been forced to change their "A" level subjects to suit his whims. In less than a fortnight, the people of Zimbabwe showed the minister and the government exactly what can happen when we stand together. People power is indeed a force to be reckoned with - something our government would do well to recognise in the traumatic months that lie ahead for an almost starving Zimbabwe.
There are already half a million people in Zimbabwe surviving on donated food aid and the United Nations World Food Programme said last week that this number will increase dramatically to six million within the next few months. It's hard to imagine that in a few months' time more than half of our total population will be starving and entirely dependent on food aid. It ’s even harder to understand why we have allowed this situation to occur in our country which, until two years ago, was a major food exporter in Africa. Remember how we all used to joke about the crumbling ruin of Zambia in the dying days of the Kenneth Kaunda regime? Remember how we used to laugh scornfully at our neighbours over the border and make jokes about the value of the Zambian kwacha? Now we are worse off than they ever were and we should be ashamed that we have not harnessed our people power and done something.
Last week the UN World Food Programme also said that Zimbabwe was experiencing the longest dry spell in 20 years. In that case, why is there no water rationing and why have all our dams still got so much water in them? The Zimbabwe National Water Authority have just released their latest findings on the state of the country's dams which are: Masvingo: 91 percent full, Matabeleland 79 percent, Mashonaland 89 percent, Midlands 88 percent and Manicaland 100 percent full. There is still an awful lot of water around for a country experiencing its worst dry spell in two decades and the reason for this is simple - the water is not being used to irrigate crops as it always was in days gone by when we were laughing at our Zambian neighbours who were starving. Now that we are starving, I wonder if they are laughing at us and our Minister of Agriculture. We are not using any water to irrigate our crops because there are no crops in the ground. There are no crops in the ground because the Minister of Agriculture has listed 95 percent of Zimbabwe's farms for compulsory acquisition. Last week the Minister of Agriculture warned that any commercial farmer not planting wheat would have his farm listed for State seizure. Surely Minister Joseph Made is confused as there are now only 308 commercial farms in the whole country which are not listed for compulsory acquisition. Those 308 farms are expected to feed 13 million people. Between them they are supposed to provide all our meat, milk, bread, maize-meal, sugar and vegetables - at least until the new settler farmers are on their feet. The new settler farmers have no capital, no title deeds to their land and cannot even afford seed, let alone fertilisers, pesticides and labour.
Every single Zimbabwean complaining about the situation in the country is to blame for this diabolical mess we find ourselves in. When there is no food to buy and our children are whining and hungry, it will be our own fault. When yet another relation arrives on our doorstep from the rural areas looking for a bed and food, it will be our own fault. At the moment the problem is that none of us think that we will be one of those six million starving people and until it starts to really hurt us where it counts the most - in our stomachs and pockets - we will continue to sit back and do absolutely nothing. The Minister of Agriculture must be told what we think of his policies the same way we told the Minister of Education, Sports and Culture about school uniforms and Cambridge International Examinations last week. People power is a force to be reckoned with, if we stand together.
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From The Star (SA), 5 June
Zim lawyers walk free from 'subversion' case
Harare - The head of the independent Law Society and his deputy, charged with trying to topple the government, walked freely out of court on Wednesday after a judge refused to order their release - but police did nothing to stop them. Judge Paddington Garwe, the head judge in the Harare High Court, said police had sufficient grounds when they arrested Sternford Moyo, president of the lawyers' group, and secretary Wilbert Mapombere, a former magistrate, on charges of subversion and incitement to violence on Monday. Under Zimbabwean law, Moyo and Mapombere would have to be taken to a lower court for a remand hearing within 48 hours of their arrests. But that deadline expired minutes after Garwe's ruling. "You are free to go," their lawyer Joseph Mafusire said. "There appears to be no intention to hold you further." The two men then walked free. Mafusire said the lawyers may be summoned to court later.
Their arrest was part of a widespread government crackdown on journalists, opposition leaders and prominent members of civil society. Moyo and Mapombere were accused of "subverting constitutional government" by allegedly urging the opposition and its supporters to topple President Robert Mugabe. Under strict new security laws, subversion carries a penalty of up to 20 years in jail. The lawyers denied the allegations and said letters purportedly written by them on Law Society stationery to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and British embassy officials were forgeries. Garwe admitted that the letters, released by police to the state media, contained uncharacteristic grammatical errors. "It is not possible for me to say the letters are forgeries, although I accept there may be aspects that need clarification," he said. He criticised police "for not being entirely candid" with the court and failing to provide testimony from two senior officers on the letters and searches of the lawyers' homes and offices. But "reasonable suspicion" still remained to detain them, Garwe said.
About 50 stunned lawyers who had gathered in the court ignored the usual protocol to stand as the judge left after delivering his decision. Tawanda Hondora, a spokesperson for the independent Lawyers for Human Rights, described the hearing as "farcical" and "a gross misapplication of the law". "We are outraged. The charges against two eminent lawyers are malicious and trumped up" in an attempt to intimidate lawyers who have criticised state intimidation of the judiciary and judicial bias for the ruling party, he said. Zimbabwe has been suffering its worst political and economic crisis since gaining independence from Britain in 1980. Local and international human rights organisations have criticised the government's efforts to suppress dissent and crush free expression.
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From Business Day (SA), 6 June
Harare's plot claim slated as fiction
Harare - Britain yesterday described as fiction claims by Zimbabwe's state media that it was colluding with opposition leaders and arrested lawyers to topple President Robert Mugabe's government. Spokeswoman for the British High Commission in Harare Sophie Honey said the state media's claims were unfounded. "The British government is not involved in a plot to topple the Zimbabwean government," Honey said. "The Herald prints a letter supposedly sent by the Law Society (of Zimbabwe) to the British High Commission on March 26. We have no record of having received any such letter." The government-controlled Herald yesterday alleged in an article headlined "Britain Meddling" that "investigations into the alleged plot by the Law Society of Zimbabwe president Stenford Moyo and secretary Wilbert Mapombere to topple government point to a heavy involvement of the British High Commission".
The paper alleged there was a flurry of activity on Tuesday as opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials and British diplomats held emergency meetings. Honey said this was not true as the high commission was closed for the queen's jubilee. "The British government has no wish to foment violence in Zimbabwe," she said. Moyo's and Mapombere's attorney advocate Adrian de Bourbon said the two prominent lawyers were released yesterday. MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube said yesterday the harassment of the lawyers was a sign that "the illegitimate Zanu PF regime is panicking". "We believe Moyo and Mapombere were arrested on trumped up charges in order to intimidate them for their principled stance in calling for a return to the rule of law," he said.
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From The Daily News, 5 June
Thousands starve as war vets bar food aid
Bulawayo - Thousands of Binga villagers are in dire need of food after war veterans allegedly disrupted a Roman Catholic Church feeding programme for schoolchildren and expectant mothers. Ignatius Chombo, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, last month ordered the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) to disband the programme because it set up structures similar to the government's. After Chombo's attack on the CCJP, war veterans camped outside their warehouse in Binga. They have warned they will destroy trucks ferrying food for distribution under the scheme. In the run-up to the March presidential election, the government banned non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from distributing food aid, except through State channels. It alleged that the NGOs were using food to campaign for the MDC, but the opposition party has accused Zanu PF of punishing those who did not vote for it by supplying food only to its known supporters.
Binga villagers said yesterday it was unjust and cruel of the government and war veterans to ban the food distribution over politics. Binga has serious food shortages with villagers surviving on hand-outs from the Catholic Church and Save-The-Children (UK), an NGO, since last year. Joseph Mwiinde, a villager from Siyachilaba, said the Catholics' feeding scheme had reduced the number of school dropouts. "A good number of children have now stopped going to school again because of hunger," he said. "They spend their time looking for maize." He said some villagers were going for days without food, surviving on roots and herbs. Peter Ndlovu, another villager, said a hungry man at Manjolo collapsed last week and was resuscitated with thin porridge. Bishop Robert Ndlovu, the Catholic diocese spokesman, said yesterday they had stopped distributing food to hundreds of expectant mothers at hospitals and more than 35 000 pupils in 34 primary schools and 17 pre-schools because of the war veterans' threats. He said: "We are puzzled by the government's attitude because we have nothing to do with politics. We were only feeding hungry people and this was being done transparently with the District Administrator being fully aware of our statistics."
Ndlovu said he was not sure whether the war veterans were acting on Chombo's orders, because they set up camp outside the CCJP offices immediately after the minister's order to disband the CCJP initiative. Chombo said at the time: "What authority are they using to set up structures parallel to those of the government?" Ndlovu said he was not aware of what structures the minister was referring to because they were only a church organisation. Ndlovu denied Chombo's allegations and said their funds were secured by CAFOD, a United Kingdom church organisation, which had nothing to do with the British government. Chombo's attack on the CCJP came as a surprise as he had gone to Binga to ostensibly deal with council matters. The CCJP has been at loggerheads with the government since its involvement in the drafting of a report, Breaking The Silence: Building True Peace, on the Gukurahundi atrocities of the early 1980s. The report detailed atrocities committed by the Zimbabwe National Army's 5 Brigade in Matabeleland and the Midlands, in which more than 20 000 people were massacred.
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From The Financial Gazette, 6 June
Nabanyama accused set free
Bulawayo - Six war veterans implicated in the abduction and alleged murder of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) election agent Patrick Nabanyama were yesterday acquitted by the High Court here due to lack of evidence linking them to the crime. Lawyers representing the former freedom fighters told the Financial Gazette that High Court judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha discharged their clients after the state failed to make a prima facie case against them. "I can confirm that my clients have been acquitted and discharged because of lack of evidence," said Brighton Ndove of Cheda and Partners, who represented the six war veterans together with Sindiso Mazibisa from the same law firm. Ndove added: "At the end of the prosecution ’s case, we applied to the court for their discharge using section 198 (3) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act. The court had to acquit the six accused persons for the simple reason that there was no reasonable evidence led by the state to prove that Nabanyama was killed and that if he is dead, there is no evidence to prove that he was murdered. If he was murdered, there was no evidence to prove that he was murdered by the six accused persons."
Mazibisa said the High Court could not prefer an alternative charge against the six war veterans because of the presidential amnesty issued under Statutory Instrument 1 of 2000, pardoning people accused of political offences. He said: "The difficulty the judge faced in this trial is that he could not convict the accused of any lesser charge such as kidnapping because of the Presidential Clemency issued soon after the June 2000 elections." Nabanyama was abducted from his Nketa home five days before Zimbabwe’s landmark June 2000 parliamentary elections and has not been seen or heard from since. In an incident similar to the Nabanyama case, war veterans Bulawayo leader Cain Nkala, also implicated in the election agent’s abduction, was seized from his Magwegwe West home last November and his body later found in a shallow grave at Norwood Farm outside Bulawayo. Scores of MDC officials and supporters have been charged with the murder of Nkala, who was strangled.
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From The Daily News, 5 June
Police impound MDC's poll challenge affidavits
Mutare - The Mutare police, in an apparent bid to thwart MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's legal challenge to President Mugabe's re-election last March, last week reportedly confiscated MDC members' signed affidavits and statements to be presented in the court case. The affidavits were obtained from MDC polling and election agents and supporters, all victims of violence by suspected Zanu PF supporters. The documents were taken away during raids by heavily armed police on several MDC offices in the city last Friday. There were fears yesterday that although the police had returned some of the affidavits, they held on to others, and could be preparing to clamp down on the signatories. This is the second time within a week that the police have raided MDC officials' property in Manicaland. Last week, they descended on Tsvangirai's rural home in Buhera North and severely assaulted his workers. The police said they were looking for arms of war and people suspected to have committed arson in the Marume area.
An officer at the Police General Headquarters' public relations department in Harare, identifying himself only as Phiri, yesterday refused to comment on the events in Mutare. "Before you go any further, I'm sure you are aware that we are not allowed to give comment to your paper," he said before hanging up the telephone. Last Friday, the police armed with AK47 rifles raided the MDC's provincial headquarters in Darlington suburb and the offices of the MP for Mutare Central and the MDC's chief whip, Innocent Gonese, and the MP for Mutare North, Giles Mutsekwa. At the time they said they were searching for documents they alleged were designed to oust Mugabe from power or force a rerun of the election, condemned as "daylight robbery" by Tsvangirai and flawed by many international observers. Arnold Tsunga, a Mutare lawyer representing the MDC, said yesterday the documents contained the names, addresses, wards, chiefs, villages, number of dependents and children of the victims. "I made six attempts to retrieve the material from the police in Mutare police station," Tsunga said. "They gave me feeble excuses such as the papers were locked up and they did not have the keys," he said. "On Monday, they gave me back 89 documents and said that was all they had taken. They had ample time to do anything with those papers." Tsunga said the confiscated documents were not mentioned on the search warrant, raising suspicions about the motive of the raid.
Tsunga said: "The immediate impression created is that they used the search warrant to gain access into the offices and search for other things." Pishai Muchauraya, the MDC's spokesman in Manicaland, said there were at least 200 recorded statements and affidavits, most from MDC polling and election agents arrested on the eve of the election in Mutasa District. In his High Court challenge to Mugabe's re-election, Tsvangirai cites political violence, intimidation and torture among other crimes perpetrated against his supporters. The MDC, in a nationwide exercise, has gathered affidavits and statements from victims of political violence to be used as court evidence.
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From The Times (UK), 6 June
Africa is ready to change with G8 help, says Mbeki
Johannesburg - Africa’s leaders gathered in South Africa yesterday to finalise plans to seek desperately needed foreign investment in return for ending corruption and promoting democracy across the continent. Hundreds of delegates arrived in Durban for a three-day economic conference to fine-tune proposals linking Western support to a promise of good governance. The proposals, drawn up by President Mbeki of South Africa, will be presented to the G8 industrial nations in Canada later this month. African leaders hope to win the help of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia and the United States in securing $64 billion (£44 billion) each year in investment. They hope that this will boost economic growth from the sluggish 2.6 per cent of the past decade to about 7 per cent. In return, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) would commit leaders to promise international donors to uphold global standards of democracy and good governance.
Mr Mbeki has spent months abroad to win support for the partnership, but its success will hinge on the G8 group of economic powers, which is holding its own summit at Kananaskis in rural Alberta, Canada, beginning on June 26. Its leaders are expected to unveil a plan that would include tackling debt and Aids, which affect nearly 25 million Africans. The plan will dominate this week’s Africa summit of the World Economic Forum, attended by 750 politicians, officials and businessmen from 48 countries in Durban. Mr Mbeki told them: "It is clear that we are attempting something that is very big, necessarily difficult, but exceedingly necessary. What is critically important for us as Africans is that we actually will move and we hope that you (international business leaders) will be our partner. We have to change." President Obasanjo of Nigeria said: "We cannot let it fail."
Haiko Alfeld, the forum’s director for Africa, said: "There has never been a better time for Africa to state its case, louder than ever, that it is ready for change and open for business. The opportunity presented by Nepad is matched by an unprecedented global commitment to fight poverty and inequality." Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, was enthusiastic in his support for the Nepad plan during his tour of West Africa in February. However, since then President Mugabe has retained power in a discredited election in Zimbabwe, peace talks in the Democratic Republic of Congo have failed to end a bloody civil war and political strife has dogged Madagascar. A group of about 70 demonstrators paraded outside the summit yesterday, claiming that "Nepad puts profits before people". Richard Pithouse, of the Concerned Citizens’ Forum, said: "(Nepad) will have a catastrophic effect on South Africa and the rest of the continent."
In Washington, a strong call for increased support by the world’s richest countries came from James Wolfensohn, the President of the World Bank. He said that African countries must break down internal barriers to trade and investment. Pledges of substantially increased aid for Africa were made by the European Union and the United States at a United Nations development summit in Monterey, Mexico, in March. "We need to make Monterey a reality for millions of African children," Mr Wolfensohn said. "Africa has heard too many words - especially from those who live far beyond its shores." According to the UN, aid to Africa fell more than $10 billion to $14.2 billion between 1989 and 1999.
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From The Cape Times (SA), 5 June
Malawi's president says heed me, not judges
Blantyre - President Bakili Muluzi has ordered Malawians to ignore a high court ruling overturning his ban on demonstrations relating to a proposed change to the constitution that would allow him to run for a third term. The ruling was "irresponsible and insensitive", Muluzi said yesterday. Judge Dunstain Mwaungulu ruled that the ban violated the constitutional rights to freedom of expression and assembly. Muluzi said on Tuesday he would instruct the police and the army to block protests. He said last week he would invoke emergency powers to stop demonstrations. Forces were on high alert for potential unrest, police officers said on Tuesday. Muluzi has not publicly demanded that the constitution be changed to enable him to run for a third term, but members of his ruling party have been pushing for this. The constitution restricts presidents to two five-year terms. Muluzi's second term ends in 2004. In the university town of Zomba, about 70km east of Blantyre, a group of students chanting anti-government slogans and objecting to a third term for Muluzi tried to stage a march, but were turned back by police. Major church groups are planning street demonstrations across the country on Friday against a third term.
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From The Times (UK), 7 June
US turns the screw on Zimbabwe
Harare - The United States announced plans yesterday to tighten sanctions against President Mugabe in response to the arrests of journalists and human rights lawyers in Zimbabwe. Simultaneously, the International Bar Association protested at the detention of Sternford Moyo, the president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe, and Wilbert Mapombere, its secretary, after allegations that they were plotting with the British High Commission to topple Mr Mugabe. Mr Moyo and Mr Mapombere were remanded yesterday by a magistrate until August on £400 bail under draconian new security legislation. They were charged with attempting to "coerce" the Government following the disputed presidential elections in March. They were alleged to have written to British diplomats about imminent mass protests to force fresh presidential elections. If tried and found guilty, they could face 20 years in prison.
A State Department statement demanded an immediate end to harassment of the press and lawyers. "The US is reviewing additional measures aimed at bringing pressure to bear on Zimbabwe’s leadership while supporting the people of Zimbabwe," it said, adding that the US was "consulting with others in the international community who are similarly concerned about the situation". A United Nations investigator also attacked Zimbabwe yesterday for the arrests. In his latest statement voicing concern at the deteriorating rule of law in Zimbabwe, Param Cumaraswamy, UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, urged Harare to release the men and withdraw all charges. "This latest arrest and detention reflects the continuation of the systematic attacks on the independence of judges and lawyers by the Government and its agencies," he said.
Supposed incriminating documents published have aroused ridicule among the diplomatic community as crude forgeries, because of their comic lapses in grammar. Mr Mapombere was alleged to have written to Brian Donnelly, the British High Commissioner, saying that he was "living (leaving) for UK soon". In an unprecedented show of anger at the detention of the two men, 50 colleagues who crowded a courtroom on Wednesday did not stand up for the president of the High Court, Judge Paddington Garwe, after he failed to order their release. Judge Garwe, seen as an ally of the regime, stopped Judge Ahmed Adam from hearing the case and declined to rule that prosecutors ’ claims of a plot were spurious. Sophie Honey, the British High Commission spokeswoman said it had no record of receiving any subversive letters and it was not involved in a plot with the Law Society to topple the Government. "The British Government has no wish to foment violence in Zimbabwe. It is absurd to suggest that the High Commissioner was posted here for that purpose," she said.
Diplomatic sources believe that Mr Mugabe may be planning to force the closure of British and other Western missions, to isolate society from western diplomatic support as the country plunges into the first famine in a century. The Law Society has denounced continuing attacks on judges seen as unsympathetic to Mr Mugabe’s redistribution of 5,000 white-owned farms to 300,000 black Zimbabweans. However, Patrick Chinamasa, the Justice Minister, accused Judge Wilson Sandura yesterday of setting himself up as a rival political authority to the Government by maintaining links with the International Bar Association. He banned Judge Sandura, last surviving Supreme Court colleague of Anthony Gubbay, the former Chief Justice, from travelling to Malawi on behalf of the association.
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From SABC News, 6 June
Zimbabwean judge reprimanded for international links
President Robert Mugabe's government has publicly rebuked a senior judge for maintaining links with the International Bar Association, the world premier body of leading jurists. In a letter released to the state-owned daily newspaper The Herald, Patrick Chinamasa, the Justice Minster, accused Supreme Court judge Wilson Sandura of "undermining and not contributing to judicial independence in Zimbabwe" through contacts with the International Bar Association after it censured alleged breakdowns in the rule of law. Chinamasa, who has previously demanded the resignation of Sandura, one of the last remaining judges from the era of former chief justice Anthony Gubbay, said the association had helped "demonise" Zimbabwe by its censure. Gubbay was forced to take early retirement last year in the face of death threats. Chinamasa forbade Sandura from accepting an invitation to join an International Bar Association mission to assess the judiciary and legal profession in Malawi, currently in controversy over alleged unpunished corruption, human rights abuses, and President Bakali Muluzi's bid to gain an unconstitutional third term in office. For Sandura to "align" himself with the association was "tantamount to the serving judge setting himself up as a rival political authority", claimed Chinamasa. Legal sources say Sandura will not respond to what they believe is a deliberate attempt to taunt the judge into resignation. In the past two years six highly respected judges have quit in protest at "selective" application of the law, state-sponsored violence, and breaches of the constitution.
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From The Daily News, 6 June
Police crush University students' demonstration
The riot police yesterday brutally crushed a demonstration by University of Zimbabwe (UZ) students over the late disbursement of pay-outs. One student claimed the police pounded his knee with batons even after he had pleaded with them not to hit him there as the knee had been operated on in 1994. The police pounced on the students as they marched peacefully from the Students' Services Centre to the administration block to demand a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Hill, who they accused of tricking them. The students said Hill cheated them last Saturday into withdrawing a High Court application against the UZ, the Ministry of Higher Education and Technology, and the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) before they were given their payouts. But by yesterday not a single student had been paid. Elizabeth Karonga, the UZ's director of information and publicity, could not be reached for comment.
The police, spilling out of three trucks, battered the fleeing students with batons. Reporters saw about six policemen in a truck, registration number ZRP 771D, dropping off three students they had earlier arrested. They ganged up on one student and beat him with their batons. Masimba Maponde, a first-year Bachelor of Arts student, pleaded with the police not to hit the knee on which he was operated in 1994, but they would not listen and proceeded to pound the knee. A sobbing Maponde said: "They hit me even harder when I told them my knee was injured." A dispute over payouts in April last year resulted in the death of Batanai Hadzizi, another first-year student. A magistrate ruled in an inquest that he died as a result of injuries sustained in a beating by the riot police on the campus.
Nkululeko Nyoni, the secretary-general of the Students' Executive Council, yesterday accused the police of unnecessarily provoking students. Angry students on Monday rioted over the late disbursement of payouts, stoning windows and motor vehicles, including the Vice-Chancellor's. Calm returned to the university on Tuesday. Nyoni said Hill urged students to withdraw the court case before the CBZ and the ministry could discuss the issue of payouts with them. The students last month requested the High Court to urgently handle their application for an order barring the ministry from deducting money from their loans, through the CBZ, to recover loan debts. The students, also wanted to bar the UZ from deducting $427 from each of their payouts to pay for damage to campus property during last year's demonstrations. But Justice Anne Marie Gowora said the matter was not urgent and would be dealt with as any other ordinary matter.
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From ZWNEWS, 7 June
Illegitimate cabinet
Nearly three months on from Zimbabwe’s disputed March 9-11 presidential elections, the country is still without a new Cabinet, and without a legitimately gazetted government, say many constitutional lawyers. When Parliament briefly reconvened in May, David Coltart, justice spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, attempted to call a point of order when Finance Minister Simba Makoni began delivering a report on the economy. Coltart said neither Makoni nor any member of the Cabinet was lawfully in office, since Robert Mugabe, who claimed victory in the elections, was required by the constitution to announce new appointments immediately following his own swearing-in on March 17. Coltart was promptly ruled out of order by Parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, who then allowed Makoni to continue making his report on the parlous condition of Zimbabwe's economy.
Diplomatic sources here say Mugabe told the South African and Nigerian governments he was delaying the announcement of a new Cabinet to leave the way clear for the "government of national unity" whose formation they have urged. Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo urged reconciliation to pull Zimbabwe out of two years of politically-inspired mayhem and unprecedented economic collapse, leading to famine. However, say the sources, Mugabe has been keen to seize the pretext to keep his vice presidents and ministers feeling insecure about their tenure - and their lavish tax free perks as members of the Zimbabwe "nomenklatura." The talks sponsored by the South Africans and Nigerians broke down last month when Mugabe’s officials demanded the MDC concede the legitimacy of his re-election, dropping a constitutional challenge in the Supreme Court.
In what was seen at the time as a clear reference to Makoni and other would-be reformers in the ruling Zanu PF, Mugabe last year said publicly there were "some ministers I cannot trust." He told the ruling party central committee that the distrusted ministers were prone to Western pressure to abandon his plans for "fast track" redistribution of 5 000 farms to 300 000 black Zimbabweans and "indigenise" the entire economy. At the crucial phase of Zimbabwe's economic structural adjustment programme in the 1990s, Mugabe left the finance ministry vacant and leaderless for years. It was a bid to lure, with promises of patronage, prominent figures in the business community away from the late Enoch Dumbutshena's opposition Forum party. When the programme failed, Mugabe blamed the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, which had provided US $300 million financial support.
Makoni last year was the first to break ranks with Cabinet colleagues, contradicting their claims there was no looming food shortage. This week he acknowledged disruption of commercial agriculture had exacerbated shortages, which Mugabe blames solely on poor rains. Parliament is not due to reconvene until August but may be recalled sooner if required, says Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa. Zimbabwe's current cabinet includes two vice presidents, 22 ministers, eight provincial governors (who have ministerial status) and nine deputy ministers.
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From The Financial Gazette, 6 June
Zanu PF starts witch-hunt in Bulawayo
Bulawayo - The appointment of Peter Sibanda as the new chief engineer for Bulawayo ahead of former incumbent George Mlilo has raised eyebrows here and Zanu PF has vowed to witch-hunt councillors that aligned with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in the selection process, the Financial Gazette established this week. About 28 councillors participated in the selection of the chief engineer’s post, left vacant last September by Mlilo when he opted to stand in the mayoral polls on a Zanu PF ticket against Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube of the MDC. Mlilo was defeated and tried to get his seat back by lobbying the governing party, which controls the council, to back him. Mike Parira-Mpofu, Zanu PF’s self-styled chief whip in the Bulawayo City Council where the ruling party has 17 councillors compared to the MDC’s nine and the two independents, said he was very unhappy with the selection process and would investigate how it was conducted.
Parira-Mpofu, an outspoken politician who once quit Zanu PF in 1998 before returning to the fold just before the parliamentary elections in June 2000, said it was obvious some of his colleagues in the governing party had sold out. "I have called a caucus of my members for this Friday," said Parira-Mpofu, adding: "I believe six or so councillors sold out and there are people with their names. I will find them out and see what actually transpired." Sainet Dube, another Zanu PF councillor in Bulawayo who is also the party’s political commissar in the province, said he strongly believed Mlilo was well qualified to retain the post of chief engineer. "It is not true that Peter (Sibanda) is better qualified. There is nothing like that; the selection was political," said Dube. "He (Peter) is only specialised in certain areas but has no town planning, no roads and environment management experience as George (Mlilo). I can’t go on and on as this issue is still confidential," he said.
Charles Mpofu, the MDC councillor who is leader of the opposition in council chambers, was however adamant that Sibanda was the better man for the job. "There is nothing political about the selection of Peter Sibanda. His qualifications speak for themselves," said Mpofu. "Sibanda’s presentation during the interviews was better than that of George. Irrespective of our political affiliations as councillors from Zanu PF and MDC, we were looking for a highly professional person and progressive Zanu PF councillors voted with us in choosing Peter Sibanda," said Mpofu. Other municipal officials that attended the selection process said Mlilo’s qualifications from the former Communist Eastern Europe could have militated against him. The former city engineer trained in Hungary while Sibanda qualified in India and at other Western universities. It is understood the government had promised Mlilo his job back in the event he lost the executive mayoral post last September or to send him for a diplomatic posting. Mlilo garnered about 12 000 votes against the 60 000 who voted for Ndabeni-Ncube in the mayoral election.
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From The Independent (UK), 7 June
Once again, African children are dying of hunger
But why is famine afflicting places of such natural wealth?
Durban - Hunger stalks southern Africa. In Malawi, the men risk their lives to dive for water-lily bulbs in crocodile-infested rivers and kill mice to eat and sell. The women gather wild grasses and boil up weeds to feed their children. Nearly 13 million people are on the brink of starvation as the worst food crisis in a decade spreads across six countries: Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho. A meeting in Johannesburg of aid officials and government leaders has heard a stark warning from the United Nations. Jean-Jacques Graisse, the deputy director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said: "This is a crisis of enormous dimensions. The situation worsens each day." More than 1 million tonnes of emergency food aid is required to avert an unfolding disaster in which many people will die. "We'll talk about a famine the day we see thousands and thousands of people dying," said Mr Graisse. "At this stage, we have a great number of people facing malnourishment and starvation in some areas, and if we do nothing, we will face a famine."
The most vulnerable - the very young and the sick - are already perishing, and millions are surviving on staple foods supplemented by scraps foraged from the wild. The British charity Christian Aid is assessing the crisis in Malawi and is poised to launch a major appeal. "People here are so desperate they are hunting mice to eat and sell," said the agency's Dominic Nutt, speaking from Blantyre. "Many villages are getting no help at all. We saw the fresh graves of hundreds of people in one village who have died since February. Children, many of them HIV orphans, have swollen stomachs from chronic malnutrition," he said. In Zambia there has been a 90 per cent crop failure and the price of maize has spiralled. Joanne Mute, of the aid agency Tearfund, who is in the worst-hit area in the south of the country, said: "Families here are eating roots and even rats when they can find them." Yesterday, the UN organisations released new estimates of food-aid needs in the six countries, based on the reports of its own fact-finding missions. The total number of people going hungry is 7.7 million, and they urgently require 262,000 tonnes of food aid. This number will soar to 11.5 million people from September to November, and to 12.8 million from December to March. Some four million tonnes of aid will be required to see the region through to the end of the year, the UN said. By then, there will be 6 million Zimbabweans in need of emergency food aid, 3.2 million people in Malawi, 2.3 million in Zambia, 500,000 in Mozambique, 445,000 in Lesotho and 231,000 in Swaziland.
Southern Africa is a region of enormous natural wealth. So why are 13 million people enduring these pitiful conditions? Drought and floods are certainly to blame, but man-made calamities, such as the decision of the authorities in Malawi to sell off a strategic 167,000-tonne grain reserve and President Robert Mugabe's controversial land seizures in Zimbabwe, have played a big part. It is no coincidence that the countries worst hit by food shortages are those in the greatest political turmoil - Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia. But only now are governments in the region admitting that they share the blame. Non-governmental organisations have criticised the IMF for encouraging Malawi, where up to 3.2 million people are going hungry, to reduce its grain reserves. Yet Malawi itself ordered the total sale, and the government is now investigating where the money went. The privatisation of agencies that previously regulated the price paid to farmers and the distribution of seed and fertiliser has also contributed to the crisis. Zimbabwe used to export food to the entire region. Now an extraordinary 5.3 million people need aid. Yesterday a minister in Mr Mugabe's government admitted for the first time that politically inspired invasions of thousands of white-owned commercial farms were partly to blame for the crisis. Simba Makoni, Zimbabwe's Finance minister, conceded at a summit in Durban that his country's land-redistribution policies had reduced the amount of commercial farmland growing maize, the staple food. "It compounds, it exacerbates, but it is not the primary cause of the problem," he added, placing the blame primarily on drought. The ruling Zanu PF party is also accused of delivering food aid only to its supporters.
Nobody at the gleaming International Conference Centre in Durban is going hungry. There, in a separate meeting, eight African presidents and 700 delegates from 47 countries (28 of them African) are thrashing out ways of implementing Nepad - the New Economic Partnership for African Development - the continent's renaissance plan, and attracting funding for it at the upcoming G8 summit in Canada. The summit in Durban and the famine gathering in Johannesburg are inextricably linked. Nepad would help Africa cope with famine in the future by tackling issues such as the need to stamp out corruption. The meeting in Johannesburg, organised by the WFP and the Food and Agricultural Organisation, has brought together some 100 aid agency, donor and government officials to coordinate their responses and to tackle issues such as accountability and donor concerns about giving aid to governments they view as unreliable. The focus is also on an Aids epidemic that is deepening the effects of crop failure.
While climate has played an important role in the impending food security crisis the need for more effective governance is highlighted by a new problem being faced this year, according to Brenda Barton, of the WFP. "Governments said they would import large amounts of food, but these have largely not materialised," she said. "Lack of imports has meant lack of food on the market, which has fuelled price hikes. This has made the poor unable to buy food when their harvests run dry." Zimbabwe, like Malawi, sold maize reserves even as shortages escalated. Zimbabwe has had its longest dry spell in 20 years. But that is far from the only reason for its worst agricultural crisis since the country achieved independence in 1980. Drought has been aggravated by a sharp fall in maize production by commercial farmers, who used to produce a third of total cereals but whose farming has been severely disrupted by land reform and invasions. While the area of planted maize has grown through the resettlement of peasant farmers, the area of commercial farmland planted with maize - the most productive sector - has plummeted by 62 per cent in two years since the start of farm occupations. Maize production is 77 per cent less than it was two years ago, other cereal production is 67 per cent less.
The WFP says: "The extremely poor main season has been caused by a severe drought between January and April in most parts of the country and the near collapse of large-scale commercial production due to land reform activities. Zimbabwe is facing an immediate, serious food crisis. Unless sufficient food can be imported, and the poorest people can access it, severe malnutrition and death caused by hunger will occur in the coming months". Mr Mugabe may also be facing a torrid time from fellow African political leaders in the coming month, as they prepare to sell the Nepad scheme to the G8. Zimbabwe's political crisis could make it a test case for the regeneration plan, which promises political and economic reform in return for debt relief and increased Western aid. Zimbabwe has expressed fears that it will be "abandoned" by the rest of Africa. Olusegun Obasanjo, the Nigerian President, said that Africa would not hesitate to "sanction itself" if necessary.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 9 June
High noon for the press in Zimbabwe
A major showdown is looming between the Zimbabwean government and the independent press over the licensing of media houses and journalists, which is to start in a few days. The battle lines were already drawn as independent press proprietors, journalist unions and media watchdogs began mobilising this week to challenge the government on the press legislation. They want to avoid closures and job losses if they are denied registration. In terms of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, media companies and journalists have to be licensed with effect from June 16 to be able to continue operating. The Act stipulates that no one will be allowed to own or run a "mass media service" such as a newspaper, news agency, radio or television station, film company, advertising agency or publishing concern unless it is registered with the government-controlled Media and Information Commission, which was set up to regulate the media. It also states that foreigners are not allowed to own or run a media organisation. Journalists will have to be accredited by the commission to continue working.
According to the independent media, the commission, headed by media lecturer Tafataona Mahoso, is packed with supporters of the government. Its members were handpicked by Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, who has been locked in combat with the independent media since his appointment in 2000. Legal experts say it is almost certain that the press law is unconstitutional in many areas. A parliamentary legal committee, chaired by veteran politician and lawyer Eddison Zvobgo, said the requirement for media houses to be registered was designed to limit the free flow of information and freedom of expression. The committee, which included opposition MP Welshman Ncube, said: "It should be obvious that the only possible reason for this provision is to impose control by government over mass media owners and their products." "They cannot operate without registration. To that extent, this provision restricts the freedom of expression of mass media owners," it said. The Act says that if a media house's registration certificate is cancelled, it must cease to operate and may not reapply for registration for two years. "This restriction is wholly arbitrary and, for that reason, unconstitutional," the committee said. It also said attempts to license journalists were ultra vires.
The Zimbabwean branch of the Media Institute of Southern Africa expressed outrage at the appointment to the commission of pro-government "political activists whose hatred of sections of the Zimbabwean media is well known". The institute said the commission's impartiality was questionable: "It is doubtful whether the commission will be able to act impartially when it is stuffed with political activists and those with intolerant tendencies whose contempt of dissent is well documented." The Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe said the commission had a huge credibility gap. "The commission itself is not an independent body since it is appointed by a government minister and is entirely accountable to him," it said. "While the commission purports to encourage and enforce ethical and professional journalistic practice, its functions serve to restrict the public's constitutional rights to freedom of expression."
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From BBC News, 8 June
Mugabe arrives for Rome food summit
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has arrived in Rome for a United Nations conference, despite a ban on him travelling to Europe, according to officials. The restriction was imposed by the European Union, but under United Nations rules, heads of state are allowed access to all UN conferences. The heads of state and ministers attending the four-day meeting are expected to commit themselves to further efforts to reduce the number of hungry people worldwide. Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe have expressed anger that Mr Mugabe is apparently being allowed to take part when, they say, he is responsible for causing starvation in his own country. The summit takes place against the background of a worsening food crisis in southern Africa, including Zimbabwe. An estimated 12.8 million people in six countries are at risk of starvation because of drought, floods, government mismanagement and economic instability.
"It is ironic and laughable that a person who has masterminded the impoverishment of the country and the mass starvation of children ... will have the gall to go to a food conference", Welshman Ncube, Secretary-General of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change told The Times newspaper of London. According to some reports, Mr Mugabe is expected to strongly attack the legacy of colonialism and meet UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan when he attends sessions on Monday and Tuesday. There has been no official comment from the Italian Government on the anticipated arrival of Mr Mugabe and other Zimbabwean ministers. Last month, Mr Mugabe attended the world children's summit in New York, despite a travel ban imposed by the United States as part of international sanctions against the Zimbabwean leader and senior officials. In April, the head of Zimbabwe's police force was allowed to visit France, again despite a ban on travel.
According to a study by UN agencies last month, Zimbabwe's maize harvest this year is expected to be slightly more than 500,000 tonnes - just over a quarter of the average crop produced in the last decade. The shortfall is already being felt in urban and remote rural areas. The government has declared a state of disaster as worsening shortages threaten widespread famine. It has blamed the crisis on a drought, but the World Food Programme says agricultural disruption caused by the confiscation of white-owned farms has also contributed to the problem.
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From Business Day (SA), 8 June
Mugabe starving the opposition: MDC
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition has accused President Mugabe of withholding food aid from its supporters even as the country is experiencing a major food crisis. Distribution of food packages have been halted by the government in several areas known as opposition strongholds, said Welshman Ncube, a leading official of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The government has denied the opposition claims, but independent aid workers and human rights groups have raised concerns over unfair distribution and interference in relief programs by local state officials and ruling party militants. "Mugabe is responsible for the hunger of children across Zimbabwe on the basis (of whether or not) their parents support the MDC," Ncube said. Ncube's accusations came as Mugabe arrived in Rome for a UN food summit that is scheduled to begin tomorrow.
Zimbabwe is among several southern African countries seeking food aid to avert starvation among their people. Ncube described Mugabe's trip to Rome as a cynical ploy to skirt a European Union travel ban on Mugabe and top officials imposed to protest human and democratic rights violations following disputed presidential elections in March. "(Mugabe) has the gall to say he is going to a food conference when he has destroyed agriculture and food security in this country," Ncube said. Severe food shortages have been caused by erratic rains and farm disruptions in a government program to nationalize 95 percent of white-owned farms. The US-funded Famine Early Warning System Network estimates nearly one fourth of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people are currently facing hunger. The World Food Program estimates half the population will need food aid to avert starvation this year.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 9 June
Governor's wife defies price controls
Masvingo - Ruth Hungwe, the wife of the Masvingo provincial governor Josiah Hungwe, is defying government price controls by selling mealie meal at above stipulated prices, residents of Masvingo have alleged. Ruth, a retired nurse turned businesswoman is reported to be charging exorbitant prices for the staple food. Masvingo provincial police spokesman, Inspector Learn Ncube, said if the governor's wife was found to be violating price controls, the law would take its course. "Law is law, and it should apply to everybody regardless of the fact that one is the governor or the governor's wife," he said. The residents claim that the businesswoman, who owns a grinding mill in Rujeko high density suburb, acquires maize from the Grain marketing Board at controlled prices and grinds it for resale as mealie meal. A Standard correspondent who went to the grinding mill, posing as a desperate man looking for mealie meal was told that a 20 kg of the scarce commodity was going for $800 instead of government pegged price of $495. Contacted for a comment Ruth denied that she was buying maize from the GMB and reselling it at exorbitant prices. "I have since stopped buying from GMB. People come with their own maize to be grinded at my mill," she said. A GMB worker who preferred not to be named also confirmed that Ruth was buying mealie meal in bulk. "If retailers come here, we do not check whether their intention is to make a killing or not,' he said.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 9 June
African nations back mutual policing plan
In a major boost for President Thabo Mbeki's economic recovery programme, African political leaders this week committed themselves to good governance and stringent periodic reviews of each other's performance. At the end of the World Economic Summit in Durban, the leaders committed themselves to a peer review mechanism proposed by Presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. The leaders - including Kenya's Daniel arap Moi, Uganda's Yoweri Museveni, Zambia's Levy Mwanawasa, Malawi's Bakili Muluzi and Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique - all pledged to commit themselves to the scrutiny of their peers. Zimbabwe's Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Simba Makoni, also pledged support for Mbeki's New Partnership for Africa's Development and the peer review mechanism. "Zimbabwe is part of the African family of nations and will participate together with all its 53 peer countries in the endeavour to make Nepad a reality," he said. "We are aware of the opinion from some quarters that the success or failure of Nepad will be measured by its positions on Zimbabwe." Chissano said that Nepad was bringing a new economic order to Africa, enabling it to develop its capacity to occupy its rightful place in the global economy. "It is not money that will change Africa, but the attitudes and actions of its own leaders. As Mozambicans, we have committed ourselves to working within the structures of the African Union and Nepad to make our continent a better place for all," he said.
Mbeki said a peer review mechanism should not be seen as interference, but would allow African leaders to work together in identifying common weaknesses and correcting them. He said it would be bad for leaders to get a negative review from their peers as they would be tainted in the markets, and added that Nepad was structured to ensure that only uncooperative countries were punished. "We have said that you can't punish a whole continent for things taking place in one country. There are more serious issues we are dealing with - ending the wars in the Congo and Angola - and hence we need partnership in Nepad," he said. Mbeki said he did not foresee any African country wanting to be excluded from Nepad as it was difficult working alone. The majority of African states had signed the African Union Act, which also stipulated strict observance of good governance, democracy and the rule of law, he said. "The peer review process will only be a policing mechanism of things we have already agreed upon," he said.
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From The Saturday Star (SA), 8 June
'Delinquent' Nepad states will be accountable
The African Economic Summit ended in Durban on Friday with a clear warning to Africa's delinquent governments that they would be made to account for their transgressions within the year. President Thabo Mbeki and Trade and Industry Minister Alec Erwin made it clear African governments would have to live up to the standards of democracy, human rights, peace and good governance to which they have pledged themselves. The so-called "peer review mechanism" of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) is the key to how African governments will police each other's compliance with the codes of conduct they are setting themselves. Though the details of this mechanism and of the codes of conduct are still being negotiated by African governments, Erwin made it clear that observance of the codes would not be voluntary.
Mbeki said that the African leaders would decide at the founding summit of the African Union (AU) in Durban next month "what sort of steps should be taken" against states that persistently "showed up negatively" in the peer reviews. Nobutake Odano, Japan's chief official on Africa who is also his prime minister's representative on the group formulating the G8's action plan for Nepad, earlier said that G8 states would probably give more financial support to countries that did well in the reviews. Mbeki said that Nepad would draft its own codes of conduct "to say this is good conduct, and this is bad conduct". The precise structure of the peer review mechanism was also still being finalised. Mbeki had made it clear earlier that the people responsible for conducting the reviews would be independent of governments, to ensure objectivity. He suggested that several forces would converge in ensuring good governance as the proposed pan-African parliament would be able to hold governments accountable.
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From BBC News, 7 June
Keep out, Malawi's Muluzi tells US
President Bakili Muluzi has told Western governments not to interfere in Malawi's internal affairs. He took particular exception to outside comment on efforts by his ruling United Democratic Front party to change the constitution so that presidents may serve more than two terms. Mr Muluzi - whose second five-year term of office ends in 2004 - was apparently reacting to a statement from the US embassy in the capital of Lilongwe. That release followed one by Britain - the former colonial power - which cautioned Malawi against adopting any constitutional amendment. Mr Muluzi, who has not said if he wishes to seek a third term, was visibly angry at what he saw as interference. "I refuse to be dictated to, that's dictatorship," he said. "The third term issue is not their business." He accused nations which provide aid to Malawi of trying to take advantage of his impoverished country and turn it into a puppet state. The US statement seemed to criticise Mr Muluzi's ban on demonstrations by people in favour or against changing the constitution to allow a third term. "The proposed constitutional amendment clearly represents an important national decision for Malawians with potential far-reaching consequences for the country," it said. "The United States Government strongly urges a process of careful consideration of this proposal that provides for the open and unhindered peaceful participation and expression of views of all Malawians." Despite the protest ban, religious leaders opposed to a third term said they still planned to hold meetings this weekend. Roman Catholics and Protestants will gather in Lilongwe and Blantyre for non-denominational prayers one organiser said would ask God to bring Malawi back from the brink of dictatorship.
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Comment from The Daily News, 7 June
Toying with a dangerous idea
Human nature is such that self-interest is the driving force behind every individual's actions, no matter how selfless or altruistic people may claim to be. People all want the best for themselves and only after they have achieved that will they start to think about doing something for others. To get what we want we need to as much as possible control both our environment and the people around us. That means having power, be it in the home, in our peer group, in the community or at work. But ultimate power comes with running your country which is why, even in the most democratic countries, the battle for political office is fierce. So fierce the fight is that, in Africa, those aspiring to power will stop at literally nothing to gain it. It is also human nature that once people get into power, they will seldom give it up voluntarily. In fact, they will do anything to hold on to power by any means, fair or foul. For leaders in many countries in post-colonial Africa, unfortunately, it has meant using the first few years after the first democratic elections doing everything possible to ensure the one-man-one-vote elections that put them into power would be the first and last in the country. Devices to entrench themselves in power until death have included creating a political environment more repressive than in the colonial era. Through sustained systematic harassment of political opponents, the new rulers have made it impossible for opposition parties to survive to the next general elections. They have also made it impossible for new parties to emerge, thus creating virtual one party states.
Others have expressly outlawed multi-party democracy as Hastings Kamuzu Banda did in Malawi where he declared himself Life President with his Malawi Congress Party as the sole lawful political organisation. Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda tried to do the same when he harassed Harry Nkumbula and the African National Congress into extinction. So, too, did our own Robert Mugabe when he tried to obliterate opposition politics through his spirited campaign for a one-party state, spearheaded by the women's league. All these attempts at life-presidency have in the main been orchestrated by the men at the helm of governments themselves supported by a small coterie of sycophants. They have been efforts which did not have much grass-roots appeal. That, thankfully, is why they failed in the end. Other would-be life presidents, such as Namibia's Sam Nujoma and Zambia's Frederick Chiluba, sensing that their life-presidency aspirations would never be realised, have had a go at changing the constitution to enable them to rule for just that little bit longer. Invariably they have met with very limited success. Nujoma succeeded in extending his political shelf-life by only one year. Chiluba was a lot less successful when he tried to imitate Nujoma last year as parliament threw out the proposal. It was clear in both cases the people, painfully aware how those who overstay their welcome tend to dispossess them of their power to change governments, made sure they were not conned into unwittingly creating absolute monarchs disguised as elected leaders. It is against this background that the people of Malawi must do everything in their power to stop their parliamentarians from continuing to entertain the dangerous idea they are reported, in a story we carried a few days ago, to be toying with.
A news agency report said the parliamentarians have started debate on changing the country's constitution "to allow presidency-for-life", thus paving the way for Bakili Muluzi to run for a third term. The actual motion states "that once a person is elected to office, he or she can stand for election for as many times as they want". Allowing that kind of situation to arise is the worst political mistake any parliament could ever make in Africa. It is like signing a document committing yourself to slavery. Of all the people on this continent, Malawians should know better than to want to give anyone the chance of becoming a Life President. The best-forgotten days they spent under Banda's dictatorship and their bitter struggle to end it ought to have taught them the essence of the saying: "Once bitten twice shy."
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From The Times (UK), 10 June
Mugabe isolated at World Food summit in Rome
Harare/Rome - With backing from Britain and the United States, Italy threw a diplomatic cordon sanitaire around President Mugabe of Zimbabwe yesterday after his arrival in Rome for the World Food summit. Officials said that Italy had no choice but to admit him, but they emphasised that he was in Rome on sufferance. He and his entourage would be confined to the limited agenda of the summit today and would not be allowed to engage in meetings with Italian or other EU delegates. In Zimbabwe, relief workers described Mr Mugabe’s attendance at a summit as a moral outrage, claiming that his Government was deliberately starving rural families accused of voting for the opposition during the March elections. "People are going to die," said the Rev Tim Neill, co-ordinator of a team of voluntary organisations trying to distribute relief despite local bans imposed by pro-Government "war veterans". He said that food was being used as a political weapon and 80 per cent of Zimbabwe’s 13 million people needed assistance.
Mr Mugabe has circumvented the ban on him visiting European Union countries because the food summit is a United Nations event. He arrived on Saturday having flown via London and is staying at the heavily guarded residence of the Ambassador of Zimbabwe in a Rome suburb. Diplomats said that Mr Mugabe had attempted to break out of his diplomatic isolation by proposing that he meet Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister and the summit president. This was been "politely but firmly refused" by the Italians. Mr Mugabe is expected to meet Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General. The summit, attended by 4,000 delegates from 182 UN member nations, is to review progress on targets set by a similar meeting in Rome five years ago, which vowed to halve world hunger by 2015. An estimated 20,000 anti-globalisation protesters - half the number expected - demonstrated at the weekend, demanding stronger measures to help the world’s poor and dispossessed. The German Government has refused Stan Mudenge, Zimbabwe’s Foreign Minister, a visa to attend his daughter’s wedding in Berlin next month, despite his protests that the EU travel ban "violates his human rights as a father".
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 10 June
Mugabe evades EU travel ban to attend food summit in Rome
Harare/London/Rome - President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe was in Rome last night, exploiting a loophole in the travel ban on his regime to make his first trip to Europe since sanctions were imposed. Flaunting his freedom to attend official United Nations functions, Mr Mugabe flew via London and landed at Ciampino military airport in Rome at dawn on Saturday to take part in a world food summit, Italian sources said. The British Government said it was "not aware" that Mr Mugabe had transited through Britain, but could not rule out the possibility. A Foreign Office spokesman said last night: "There is no doubt that the presence in Europe of this individual is extremely distasteful. But of course we accept that our European Union partners are bound by their treaty obligations."
Mr Mugabe's trip is the second time he has side-stepped the travel ban imposed by the EU and America in February in response to the violence and fraud surrounding the Zimbabwean presidential election campaign. Also, the assets of Mr Mugabe and his entourage were frozen. Last month the president got around the "smart sanctions" by attending the United Nations General Assembly in New York, exploiting an agreement that obliges America to permit access to the UN headquarters for any head of state not banned by the UN itself. On the way home, his delegation passed through Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Zimbabwean ministers said the trip was proof of the sanctions' ineffectiveness and boasted that Mr Mugabe had "25 green lights to travel anywhere he wishes".
British officials insist that the travel ban "has had an impact". Whitehall sources said Mr Mugabe and his lieutenants have been refused visas to enter Europe three times in the past six weeks. Augustine Chihuri, Zimbabwe's police commissioner, was refused permission to enter Spain after a trip to Lyons, France, for an Interpol meeting. Germany declined to give a visa to Stan Mudenge, the foreign minister, and Mr Mugabe was refused permission to enter France when he refuelled in Paris and he had to stay on the transit side of the airport. Unlike the American ban, the EU sanctions do not apply to the families of government members and Mr Mugabe's wife, Grace, has been given a visa by Spain, diplomatic sources in Harare said. She is expected to take advantage of the trip to buy clothes.
Italian sources said Mr Mugabe was accompanied to Rome by Mr Mudenge and the agriculture minister, Joseph Made, one of the architects of the policy of expropriating millions of acres of white-owned property. Although Mr Mugabe's stay in Rome is limited to the summit, and mainly restricted to the confines of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, which is organising the gathering, the trip has caused some embarrassment even before the summit formally begins today. "It is the big scandal of the summit," an FAO source yesterday. "We have been inundated by complaints by people from around the world who are furious." The FAO called the summit to put the world back on target to halve the number of hungry people - 800 million - by 2015, as agreed six years ago. Zimbabwe, where a poor economy, drought and the seizure of white-owned farms have left more than five million people needing food aid, is one of six countries where the FAO said the food crisis was acute. By next year the number is expected to rise to six million. Yesterday 118 commercial farmers waited in vain for government permission to plant wheat.
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From Reuters, 9 June
UN hunger meeting opens, minus most top leaders
Rome - Most of the world's top leaders will skip the opening of the United Nations conference on hunger on Monday, undermining hopes that the meeting will resuscitate efforts to dramatically reduce world hunger. While dozens of leaders from developing countries have flocked to Rome, including Zimbabwe's shunned president, Robert Mugabe, only the heads of two wealthy Western countries - Italy and Spain - are expected to attend. Jacques Diouf, the director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, said bitterly before the four-day meeting that this was "a good indication of the political priority that is given to the tragedy of hunger."
Many affluent countries grouped in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development will be represented by their agriculture ministers, who are expected to resist United Nations demands to pump more cash into the war on hunger. The Rome summit meeting follows a 1996 event at which delegates vowed to cut the number of hungry people from 840 million to no more than 400 million by 2015. But in the past six years, the number has only dropped to 815 million. In order to hit the 1996 goal, the FAO is seeking an additional $24 billion a year in agricultural and rural investment. At present, overseas development assistance from wealthier countries totals some $68 billion, of which only $11 billion is earmarked for agriculture. The conference is also likely to revive heated debate over the development of genetically modified crops, which is being pushed by the United States but is opposed by non-governmental organizations meeting on the sidelines in Rome. United States and European Union officials will also come under pressure over the substantial subsidies paid out to their farmers, which the FAO says depress world commodity prices at the expense of third world producers.
The absence this week of top world leaders means that Mr. Mugabe, who has managed to sidestep an European Union travel ban to attend the conference, might steal the limelight. Western governments say Mr. Mugabe is partly responsible for food shortages affecting millions of people in Zimbabwe following the invasion of productive, white-owned farms over the past two years by militants loyal to the president. The European Union has banned Mr. Mugabe from travelling in its countries because of his treatment of political opponents, but is obliged to make an exception for the food conference because it is under the auspices of the United Nations.
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Comment from The Zimbabwe Standard, 9 June
Over the top
The legal profession in a troubled central African nation is in disarray following moves to make letter-writing illegal. Lawyers point out that the move is more sinister than it looks. The lawyers claim that from time to time men in dark glasses and nylon suits write letters on your behalf, send them off and then have you arrested for writing letters you never wrote. Meanwhile, the leaders of the Zany party are crowing with delight over their brilliant ploy, saying it's almost as clever as playing around with video footage. At least with letters there are no digital numbers that make time run backwards. Still, the lawyers aren't pleased. For a start, the grammar is terrible, said one legal expert of the men in dark glasses and cheap nylon suits. The least they could do would be to get someone with a working knowledge of English. The letter writing scheme comes in the wake of an increasing number of arrests of lawyers and journalists in the troubled central African country. It has become a matter of honour to be hauled down to the cop shop, said one journalist, adding that the company in the cells was an improvement on the company in the charge office.
But the government of the troubled central African country expressed puzzlement over the lawyers' concerns. We thought they'd be pleased that we're making their work easier, said a spokesman from the ministry of misinformation. After all, we know that most lawyers are dangerous subversives in the pay of capitalist imperialists. They'd have eventually written those letters themselves, so all we've done is speed up the wheels of justice a little. And in another surprising move, foreign lawyers have been declared enemies of the state. They join a long list that includes five million urban citizens, so-called independent journalists, farmers who aren't members of the Zany party, minority groups and anyone who has imposed sanctions on the troubled central African country's troubled leaders. Speaking to a handful of party loyalists recently, the troubled central African nation's injustice minister, Comrade Pat O'China banned judges from visiting neighbouring countries to attend subversive meetings. The move followed an application by a leading judge to visit colleagues for a friendly chat. We know these people are responsible for the fact that the most equal of all comrades can't take his wife to Bloomingdale's and for that they need to be punished, said O'China.
An increasing number of Zany party leaders and their wives are appearing on lists in western nations, it has been reported. Those affected say that having one's name on a list makes life very troublesome. It is very difficult now, complained the wife of one of the country's less educated generals, after reading th |
