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Archived News
15th October 2002
MDC Weekly Briefing Note
Teacher-strike leaders held
Appeal paves way to challenge new citizenship laws
Kunonga’s bid to bar parishioners fails
'Sham' local elections condemned
Winning MDC candidates forced to flee their homes
Flashy cars not mine, says Chiyangwa
Zim unionist's lawyer reports savage beating
Zimbabwe's teachers vow to prolong strike
First the media, now the NGOs
Zimbabwe evicts all white sugar cane farmers
Food imports running out
Harare talks to test quiet diplomacy's credibility
UN urged to investigate state torture
Mnangagwa linked to money-laundering
'Major famine' warning in Zimbabwe
Defeated Zanu PF threatens to starve MDC supporters
Zanu PF bars food aid to starving Binga folk
Van Hoogstraten faces £1m fine a month for hiding assets
'Zim government planning media clampdown'
Crackdown on Zimbabwe
Hitler, the Arab Playboy and the Son of God - Part 1
When will Zimbabwean economy's fall arrive?
Sir Garfield Todd
Hitler, the Arab Playboy and the Son of God - Part 2
More than 600 Zimbabwe teachers fired over strike
Zanu PF MPs stun Mugabe
Humans and animals vie for winter crop
Rautenbach wins next round on getting assets returned to him
Mugabe's 'heir' linked to blood diamond trade
Tell that to the children
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From News24 (SA), 9 October
Teacher-strike leaders held
Harare - Zimbabwean police have detained the leaders of a teacher strike which has disrupted classes at schools throughout the country. An official of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), the organisation that called the strike, said the union's secretary-general Raymond Majongwe and president Takavafira Zhou were being held by police. "Zhou was picked up and Majongwe gave himself up to police after they had been to his house looking for him," said PTUZ national co-ordinator Innocent Sibanda. Majongwe's wife confirmed that police visits had begun on Tuesday and said: "They came and searched the house at 6.30 this morning." Inspector Andrew Phiri confirmed that police were holding Majongwe and that he was due to be charged under the Public Order and Security Act. "We are indeed holding Majongwe and he will be charged under the act, which makes it an offence for 'any person who, acting in concert with one or more other persons, forcibly invades the rights of other people'." He could not confirm that police had arrested Zhou, but said "he is also wanted to answer the same allegations as Majongwe".
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From Business Day (SA), 10 October
Appeal paves way to challenge new citizenship laws
Zimbabwean court clears path for class action
Dumisani Muleya
Harare - The Zimbabwe-born son of Hungarian refugees yesterday won the right to challenge President Robert Mugabe's draconian new citizenship laws that threaten to leave 2-million Zimbabweans stateless. Leslie Leventhe Petho, a Harare-based businessman, won his appeal in the supreme court against a ban on a class action lawsuit on behalf of the children of immigrants who have been refused Zimbabwean passports on the grounds they might secretly hold an illegal second citizenship, inherited through their parents. Supreme court judge Wilson Sandura overruled an earlier high court ban on Petho's case, for which he needed special permission under newly enacted Zimbabwean law. Sandura directed Petho, whose case is backed by the Legal Resources Foundation, a civic lobby group, to advertise his legal action so people in the same situation would be aware of the likely effect on their rights. The supreme court is expected to hear Petho's case. He is campaigning to have his Zimbabwean passport and citizenship restored within the next six months, setting a precedent for Zimbabweans of Malawian, Mozambican, Indian, SA and British descent, who have been turned away by registrar-general Tobaiwa Mudede.
Legal sources said that more than 2 million people might be affected by Mugabe's move to strip Zimbabweans with foreign-born parents of their automatic right to citizenship. Dual citizenship is already banned, but Mugabe claimed white critics of his regime were secretly flouting the ban. Petho, whose parents fled the 1956 Hungarian uprising, was born in Zimbabwe in 1960. He was told by the Hungarian embassy in Pretoria that he could only obtain legal proof he had no claim to Hungarian citizenship by successfully applying for it and then completing renunciation procedures. But the application would irrevocably strip him of Zimbabwean citizenship. He said he was pleased with his court success. "I think I did the right thing to find out what my rights were and stand up for them in court," he said. A US state department human rights report alleges there is rampant corruption in Zimbabwe's passport office, with bribes often needed as a precondition for granting passports and citizenship proof.
Meanwhile, University of Zimbabwe political analyst John Makumbe said yesterday that Mugabe's policies had reduced the country to a vast swathe of "economic rubble". At the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries congress in Harare, Makumbe said: "There can no disputing of the fact that Mugabe's policies have destroyed the economy. The unleashing of war veterans on the general populace, white farmers, the opposition and critics has inflicted untold damage on the socioeconomic situation in Zimbabwe." "Each of government's tactics its attacks on farmers, opposition, private press, and the judiciary has deepened Zimbabwe's economic troubles. All major sectors of the economy, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and tourism have experienced sharp decline," he said. Makumbe, a trenchant Mugabe critic, said political violence, lawlessness, hunger, humanitarian crisis, social services collapse, foreign currency shortages, capital flight and brain drain were the result of Mugabe's misrule.
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From The Daily News, 9 October
Kunonga’s bid to bar parishioners fails
Staff Reporter
Bishop Nolbert Kunonga’s lawyer yesterday abandoned his application in the civil magistrates’ court for a permanent order to bar a number of parishioners from entering the Cathedral of St Mary and All Saints and carrying out their duties. Mabasa Crispen Mukome told magistrate Peter Kumbawa that he could not proceed with the application without further instructions from Kunonga, the head of the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe, who was not in court. Kunonga was said to be out of town and could not be reached. The court granted Kunonga an interim order barring the 19 parishioners on 26 September. They included 12 church councillors, two wardens and five members of the church choir. Yesterday, Mukome had earlier sought that the hearing be postponed to 16 October because there were several disputed facts emanating from the respondents’ opposing affidavits. Mukome said: "Basically, the applicant is saying he needs time to make an answering affidavit, which cannot be done on 24 hours’ notice. He has indicated he needs a period of two weeks at most." Beatrice Mtetwa of Kantor and Immermann, for the respondents, successfully argued against the postponement, saying Kunonga should not have brought the matter as an urgent application in the first place if he then wanted it to be postponed. She again successfully argued against Mukome’s leave to appeal against the dismissal of his application for a postponement.
Kumbawa said of the application for postponement: "It is clear that this is just an effort to shackle the respondents." After Mukome said he could not proceed without further instructions from Kunonga, Kumbawa said: "I will make a ruling that the application has been abandoned. We take it that it has been withdrawn." He ordered Kunonga to pay the costs of the application on the higher legal practitioner and client scale. Admonishing Mukome after he applied to be excused from the case because he could not get further instructions from Kunonga, Kumbawa said: "You are abandoning the applicant. You have a duty to carry them through." Kumbawa continued: "We are experts. Like doctors we do not let our patients die on us. We do everything to help them." The 19 cathedral officials, almost all of whom were in the court, were jubilant after Kumbawa’s ruling. Church councillor Llewelyn Nhamo said: "I think it has gone very well. Justice has been done. God reigns." Sekai Chibaya, the cathedral’s finance chairperson, said the council was going to pursue the issue of the cathedral’s almost $1,3 million which Kunonga reportedly removed from the cathedral’s Standard Chartered Bank account opened by the councillors.
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From News24 (SA), 9 October
'Sham' local elections condemned
London - Last month's local elections in Zimbabwe were "a complete sham", British junior foreign office minister Valerie Amos told the House of Lords on Tuesday. In a short debate on Zimbabwe in Britain's upper house of parliament, Amos said: "Zimbabwe's people must be allowed free and fair elections in the presence of impartial international observers. The rural district council elections on September 28 to 29 demonstrated the lack of democratic accountability. The election was a complete sham." Amos added: "Through a process of intimidation and bureaucratic obstruction, Zanu PF (President Robert Mugabe's ruling party) prevented the opposition MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) fielding candidates in half the wards. During the campaign MDC supporters were killed. Others were intimidated. And Zanu PF used food to bribe voters." Zimbabwe's state radio reported that Mugabe's ruling party had won the majority of seats in the polls.
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From The Financial Gazette, 10 October
Winning MDC candidates forced to flee their homes
Staff Reporter
Bulawayo - The Matabeleland branch of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) this week accused ruling Zanu PF supporters of launching a violent campaign of retribution against its members who won seats in the just-ended rural district council elections. A senior Zanu PF official quickly denied the claim. Although police said they had not received any reports of post-election violence in the province, MDC officials said their winning candidates in Binga, Gwanda and Plumtree had been forced to flee their homes. Others had been assaulted by self-styled war veterans, militant supporters of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF who are too young to have fought in Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war. The MDC won 16 of the 22 contested wards in Binga, three out of 10 seats in Gwanda and four out of 25 seats at stake in Plumtree. Jonathan Sibanda, the MDC's organising secretary for Matabeleland South, said Nkanyiso Nkala, one of the party's winning candidates in Gwanda, was on the run after war veterans demanded that he defects to the ruling party. "He is under pressure from the war veterans and is on the run now because they are harassing him and other known MDC supporters," he said. "They want him to cross the floor to the ruling party."
Nkala himself could not be contacted for comment. His whereabouts were unknown this week when this newspaper phoned the MDC offices in Gwanda, the provincial capital of Matabeleland South. Two other winning candidates are reportedly in hiding after being visited at their respective homes by Zanu PF supporters. According to MDC officials in Gwanda, the war veterans have chased away about 10 teachers from five schools there and three nurses from Umzimumi Clinic for ostensibly supporting the MDC. "The teachers and nurses are being harassed. They are being accused of aiding the MDC to win here in Ward Three in Gwanda North," Sibanda said. Chief Masuku, the traditional leader of Gwanda North, where the MDC won the Ward Three, is said to have also come under pressure from Zanu PF for "allowing the enemy to win". The chief was not available for comment. Said Sibanda: "Chief Masuku is also being pressured. These people are not happy that they lost and are taking it upon the people in the ward."
In the remote and poor district of Binga in Matabeleland North, where the MDC won 16 of the 22 contested wards, opposition officials said their councillors were also being intimidated and threatened with denials of food in the drought-hit area. Veni Muleya, the MDC winning candidate in Binga's Mutsheso Ward, was at the weekend severely assaulted. Sophie Ngwenya, the MDC losing candidate in Tinde Ward, was also assaulted for standing for the MDC in the elections. In Insiza, where a parliamentary by-election is due at end of this month, the MDC's winning candidates in the rural polls were reported to have fled to Bulawayo because of the violence. But Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the ruling party's deputy political commissar, scoffed at the reports of the alleged retribution. "Zanu PF won overwhelmingly. In fact, we were leading before any votes were cast. This talk of retribution against the few MDC councillors is silly," he said. "A loser always complains, but if this is really what is happening, then the police are there to do their job."
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From The Financial Gazette, 10 October
Flashy cars not mine, says Chiyangwa
Staff Reporter
Flamboyant Harare businessman and Zanu PF legislator Philip Chiyangwa says all the flashy cars he drives are not his, but demonstration models from car showrooms. Chiyangwa was responding to queries why most of the cars he drives have no registration numbers as is required by Zimbabwean law. He said this week the cars needed no registration because they were on sale and driving them around as he does was part of marketing them. "Those are demo cars. I have a contract with car dealers to demonstrate their cars to the public," Chiyangwa told the Financial Gazette. "Have you not noticed that the latest types of Mercedes-Benz and BMWs start increasing in Harare as soon as I am seen driving them? I market the cars well and I get a good commission for that." Over the years, Chiyangwa has made a reputation for driving only the latest and most expensive brands of the Mercedes-Benz, BMWs and Mitsubishi Pajeros. He has boasted in the local media that he is in a class of his own, often saying he is the first person in Africa to own a particular car model.
This week Chiyangwa said he was a role model and got contracts to show off the cars because of the way he dresses and because of the respect he commands in business circles. "It is the way I dress and the way I am respected that qualifies me to do this job. They (the car dealers) don't just give the contracts to anyone," he said. Chiyangwa said he started driving showroom cars in the 1990s when he and fellow black empowerment crusader Peter Pamire promoted Mitsubishi Pajeros in Zimbabwe. Pamire died in a still unresolved road accident in March 1997 when he lost control of the Pajero he was driving. Chiyangwa said in the next two weeks he would be driving one of the flashiest cars ever seen in Zimbabwe's capital. He would not say what car it would be. "Some car dealers have approached me but I have refused. I don't just drive any car," he boasted. Chiyangwa, a close relative of President Robert Mugabe, says he is a self-made billionaire who sold simple vegetables and then graduated to owning several companies in Zimbabwe.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 11 October
Zim unionist's lawyer reports savage beating
Harare The leader of a Zimbabwe teachers' union which has called its members out on indefinite strike, Raymond Majongwe, has been "seriously injured" while in police custody, his lawyer Tererayi Gunje said on Thursday. "He has been beaten up and when I saw him yesterday (Wednesday) night he couldn't sit on his own. I think he has broken ribs and internal bleeding," said Gunje. Police late on Thursday finally agreed to have Majongwe seen by a doctor. According to Gunje, his client will remain in police custody until he appears in court for remand on Friday. Under Zimbabwean law a suspect has to be brought before a magistrate within forty-eight hours of being arrested. Police have to apply for permission to keep somebody in custody longer than the forty-eight hours. Majongwe gave himself up to the police on Wednesday, the second day of a teachers' strike called by the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), after police had been to his house looking for him, the national coordinator of the PTUZ, Innocent Shibanda, told AFP.
A representative for the police, Andrew Phiri, said that Gunje's allegations would be investigated. Phiri confirmed on Wednesday that the police were holding Majongwe and that he was due to be charged under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). The POSA makes it an offence for "any person who, acting in concert with one or more other persons, forcibly invades the rights of other people", said Phiri. Neither Gunje nor Phiri was unable to confirm that PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou was also arrested on Wednesday, as the union has claimed. Phiri has said, however, that Zhou "is also wanted to answer the same allegations as Majongwe." The police have alleged that Majongwe, Zhou and two others went around schools threatening teachers who wanted to work and disrupting classes. The PTUZ has called a strike to demand a 100% salary increase backdated to January and a 100% cost of living adjustment backdated to June. A high school teacher in Zimbabwe takes home 20 000 Zimbabwe dollars a month. The response to the strike call has been mixed, with some teachers, mainly in urban areas, reporting for duty but not teaching. Education, Sport and Culture Minister Aneas Chigwedere has called the strike illegal, even after conceding last week that teachers in Zimbabwe are the lowest paid in the southern African region.
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From Business DAY (SA), 11 October
Zimbabwe's teachers vow to prolong strike
Harare Correspondent
Zimbabwe’s teachers vowed yesterday to continue with their strike for better salaries and working conditions despite the arrest and detention of their leaders. Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe spokesman Innocent Sibanda said the arrest of the group's secretary-general Raymond Majongwe two days ago for organising the industrial action would not stop the strike. "We refuse to be intimidated and we will not back down until all teachers' grievances have been addressed," Sibanda said. The teachers went on strike on Tuesday, demanding a 100% salary hike and a similar cost of living adjustment backdated to January and June respectively. Government reacted with anger, arresting and detaining the ringleaders, claiming the strike was illegal. Police, who are better paid than teachers, arrested Majongwe, union president Takavafira Zhou and the union's secretary, Charity Chipuriro. Although Zhou and Chipuriro were later released, Majongwe, who had been vocal on teachers' grievances, was locked up. He is due to appear in court today on charges of disrupting law and order. Sibanda said the charges were trumped up under an "obscure section" of the repressive Public Order and Security Act. Government insists it is unable to meet the teachers' salary demands because it has no money. But the teachers are asking where government is getting the money to dish out to resettled peasants and finance its numerous political projects to retain power.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 11 October
First the media, now the NGOs
Blessing Zulu
Johannesburg - Using controversial legislation, the Mugabe regime has begun to crackdown on NGOs and civil society. The Zimbabwean government has instructed all NGOs to register under the controversial Private Voluntary Organisations (PVO) Act in a move seen as a further attempt to clamp down on independent voices. After failing to use the Political Parties (Finances) Act to kill off foreign funding of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the government believes that funds for the MDC are being channelled through NGOs, hence the crackdown. Last month the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare published an advertisement in the government-controlled Herald instructing all NGOs not registered to do so in terms of Section 9 of the PVO Act. Section 6 of the Act does not allow such a "body, institution or association to operate without being registered", the notice said. Section 25 of the same Act makes it a criminal offence to operate without being registered.
Human rights activist Brian Kagoro said the Act criminalised organisations such as the temporary networks set up to respond to the food crisis and those meant to assist displaced farm workers. He said most of these were trusts registered with the Registrar of Deeds and the High Court. "It is tantamount to saying that, faced with the incapacity of the state and registered PVOs to respond to the current crisis due to its magnitude, all bona fide attempts to assist are criminal," Kagoro said. The law was enacted in 1997 but was not being fully enforced and analysts view the attempts to do so now as a sign of desperation. The recent moves by the government are contrary to a ruling of the full bench of the Supreme Court, which struck down provisions of the PVO Act in 1997. The case involved the Ministry of Labour and the Association of Women's Clubs. The NGO Network Alliance Project (NNAP), which groups all NGOs, said the government was considering tightening the legislation. "The Ministry of Justice is believed to be drafting legislation that will affect the operations of non-profit organisations in Zimbabwe," the NNAP said in a statement.
On Wednesday Information Minister Jonathan Moyo suggested on local TV that the government would crack down on NGOs funded by foreign governments. Jonah Gokova, coordinator for Ecumenical Support Services, said the law was highly controversial and undemocratic. "To start with, the PVO Act has always been a very contentious piece of legislation since it was passed into law in 1997. NGO/civil society activists have described the Act as undemocratic and completely inadequate as a basis for creating an enabling framework for NGO/civil society dialogue and cooperation." Gokova said the government wanted to use this law to crack down on the activities of the NGOs and civil society. "The real motive behind the PVO Act is for government to achieve total control of NGO/civil society groups," he said. "We have seen this happening with other critical sectors like the students, workers, the judiciary, the media and political parties, all of which have been affected by specifically designed legislation intended to stifle their work. There is no reason why NGOs/civil society should assume that they could be an exception unless they are deciding to play a more passive role in the face of an unprecedented national crisis."
Kagoro said the obsession with NGOs could be linked to the increasing isolation of the Mugabe regime. "It is because of the drought, the economic meltdown and the isolation of the regime. The NGO sector is the conduit for bilateral and multi-lateral development and this explains their obsession with controlling this sector," said Kagoro. MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said the move was an attack on civilisation itself. "The other aim of this strategy is to destroy the little democratic space created by the NGOs for the past 22 years. This is a desperate attempt by the Mugabe regime to cling to power and such measures are a threat to civilisation itself."
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From VOA News, 9 October
Zimbabwe evicts all white sugar cane farmers
All of Zimbabwe's white sugar-cane farmers have been evicted from their properties in the past two days. A small town in southeastern Zimbabwe is overflowing with homeless families. According to the sugar cane growers association, the government's land task force moved into the town of Chiredzi on Monday and ordered 72 white farmers to leave. In a telephone interview, an association spokesman said that by mid-day all the farmers had left their homes, and had not managed to take any farm equipment with them. These farmers produce 18 percent of Zimbabwe's sugar, and were six weeks from harvesting this year's crop. There are scores of black sugar-cane farmers in the area, but none of them have been affected. President Robert Mugabe launched often violent invasions of white owned land in February 2000, but the sugar-cane farmers were largely unaffected until now.
The land task force, appointed by President Mugabe, spent last week in the arid ranchland of Matabeleland province and forced more than 70 cattle ranchers, and the only export flower grower, to leave. Some violence and the arrest of several white farmers accompanied these evictions. Dozens of workers on the flower farm lost all their possessions when their houses were burned. Next week, commercial farmers believe the task force will move to the last two provinces where white farmers still remain, and will evict them. According to the state-controlled media, President Mugabe met with his politburo on Monday, and discussed the land issue. After the meeting, politburo member, and justice minister Patrick Chinamasa was quoted as saying allegations that confiscated land had been given to ruling party members are false. Mr. Chinamsa's wife, Monica, moved onto a white-owned farm southeast of Harare three weeks ago.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 11 October
Food imports running out
Vincent Kahiya
Despite government claims last month that the United Nations would increase food aid to Zimbabwe, the situation on the ground has not changed significantly as volumes are much less than those expected. At the end of a meeting between President Mugabe and UN World Food Programme director James Morris last month, the government announced that the WFP would increase food supplies to Zimbabwe to 55 000 tonnes a month. Information at hand, however, shows that only one maize shipment of 14 000 tonnes of maize from the United States is expected at the port of Maputo. This shipment will be the only WFP-sourced maize consignment for the whole of the month. The ship Axon Adriane is due to dock in Maputo tomorrow. Also expected this month from the US are two shipments of 807 tonnes of beans and 1 708 tonnes of vegetable oil aboard the ship Pavel Vavilo, on October 27. Tuesday next week will see the arrival at the port of Beira of 20 000 tonnes of the Jewel Bank's yellow maize imports. Donor support for the WFP initiative to import food has failed to match the demand of at least 50 000 tonnes a week.
The country needs about 25 000 tonnes of maize a week and the two shipments this month would barely last two weeks at normal consumption levels. The maize is, however, only expected to arrive in the country at the end of the month due to huge delays in off-loading caused by congestion at the ports. Shipment details obtained this week show that there is no Grain Marketing Board maize shipment for the next three weeks, which is likely to exacerbate an already critical food situation in the country. Sources at the GMB yesterday said the government was now relying on WFP food aid and the Jewel Bank imports, which have started to trickle in from Brazil. Of the 486 000 tonnes expected to be shipped under the Jewel Bank import arrangement, 106 000 tonnes have been secured as there is a scarcity of the commodity in the Americas.
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From Business Day (SA), 11 October
Harare talks to test quiet diplomacy's credibility
Without tangible progress, SADC and Nepad could be facing new pressures
International Affairs Editor
The credibility of SA's "quiet diplomacy" towards Harare will face a test today when SA Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma meets Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Should there be no tangible progress from the Harare talks towards SA's attempts at national reconciliation in the country, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development could face new pressures from Europe and the US. The wide-ranging talks that began yesterday with Dlamini-Zuma and her Zimbabwean counterpart, Stan Mudenge, give adequate scope for SA to deliver a tough message about the growing cost to the region of Zimbabwe's policies. Dampened investor interest and, in part, the worsening regional food crisis because of disruption of agriculture in the country, are two of the foremost costs of Zimbabwe's policies. But there was no hint from the foreign affairs department yesterday that Pretoria was about to abandon "quiet diplomacy". Zuma and a delegation of senior foreign affairs officials want the ruling Zanu PF party and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to resume talks. These broke off on May 11 after Zanu PF withdrew because the MDC challenged the legality of the election in court. The MDC said it would return to the talks if there was a more conducive environment in which the presidential elections could be held. One solution that SA had proposed was that of a government of national unity, but, with the MDC having challenged the Zanu PF victory in court, the opposition party says it could not agree to such an arrangement. Should Dlamini-Zuma return to Pretoria empty-handed, without a date for the resumption of talks, it would be increasingly hard for SA to hold onto its position that its efforts were ensuring a return to the rule of law in the country.
According to the statement issued by the foreign affairs department yesterday, the talks would cover a broad range of topics and easily give scope for SA to point out the cost of SA's policies to itself and the region. The department said the meeting was expected to focus on bilateral issues, land reform, the regional food crisis, protection of investments, and regional security. It was also expected to cover efforts aimed at reconciliation and the resumption of talks between the government and MDC. If SA fails in its aim, it will also be difficult for it to defend Zimbabwe against the Australian argument that Zimbabwe should be suspended from the Commonwealth. The "Troika" of SA President Thabo Mbeki, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Australian Prime Minister John Howard will meet in March next year to review the position again. It was Howard who argued for Zimbabwe's full suspension at the meeting in Abuja last month. However, they all expressed "disappointment" that the Commonwealth had been unable to hold talks with Mugabe. Today's Harare talks could at least give a message that Harare is now willing to talk. The foreign affairs department said the Harare talks had been arranged at last week's summit meeting of SADC in Luanda. At that meeting Zimbabwe's fellow SADC members prevented the possibility of Mugabe hosting next year's SADC meeting, by making Tanzania he deputy chair of the grouping. Zimbabwe denied it was a snub saying that it had to concentrate on its land reform programme. The US is refusing to hold an annual meeting with the SADC to review development issues if Zimbabwe is included. The European Union is also still considering its position on a summit with regional leaders scheduled for November.
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From The Guardian (UK), 12 October
UN urged to investigate state torture
Zimbabwe opposition leader says rights abuses are on the rise
Andrew Meldrum in Harare
Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, yesterday urged the United Nations to investigate the growing number of incidents of state torture in the country. "We are witnessing an alarming rise of cases of torture, electric shocks and beatings perpetrated by the police," Mr Tsvangirai told the Guardian. "We are calling on the UN human rights commission to urgently investigate this. It would help to stop the carnage, the violence and human rights abuses that are taking place in the country." "It is clear that Zimbabwe's political crisis is deepening and state torture is being used to suppress any opposition to the Mugabe regime. We are appealing to the UN to look into this as soon as possible," added Mr Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "We are appealing to the international community to help us stop the torture and to hold the perpetrators accountable. The police, the army, the CIO [central intelligence organisation], the militia are all being used to inflict violence and brutality against the people. They are on a campaign to crush our opposition party."
More than 1,050 cases of torture in Zimbabwe have been documented this year, according to a report issued this week by the Human Rights Forum. Linos Mushonga, a Harare city councillor and MDC member, said he repeatedly lost consciousness from police giving him electric shocks. "They attached electrodes to my toes, my fingers and my penis. They said they were going to punish me for supporting the opposition," Mr Mushonga said. "They switched the current on again and again. The pain shot through my body and I saw white, like lightning. I went into convulsions." The torture took place at Chinamora police station at the end of August, he said. "I had been blindfolded but I knew we were at the Chinamora station because I could hear the police radio communications." Mr Mushonga was not released until September 17; he was then in hospital for eight days. Doctors' reports confirm injuries consistent with electric shocks and beatings. "If the police can do this to me, a city councillor, then who is safe in Zimbabwe?" Mr Mushonga asked. "This has happened to many other people. The international community is letting us down. How can Augustine Chihuri [Zimbabwe's police commissioner] be a vice-president of Interpol? How can he be the chairman of the southern African regional police organisation?"
Other recent reports of torture include Tom Tawanda Spicer, 18, a leader of the MDC's youth wing, who was also shocked into convulsions and beaten, according to medical reports. He claims his torture took place at Harare's central police station. "This is happening at police stations across the country," admitted a member of the police force, who would not give his name for fear of retribution. "Many of us are ashamed of it but if we protest we are reprimanded." Zimbabwean human rights groups are compiling reports of torture and offering medical treatment and counselling to the victims. Those groups are also facing the wrath of the Mugabe government. Recently police raided the offices of the Amani Trust and arrested Dr Frances Lovemore, who treats victims of violence. He was jailed for more than 24 hours before being released without charge.
A leading US food aid official warned yesterday that Zimbabwe would face a "major famine" if the government did not allow massive amounts of food to be imported by the end of the year. Tony Hall, the US ambassador to the UN food and agriculture organisation said: "The critical time is in the next two months."
From ZWNEWS: If you would like a copy of the ZHR NGO September Political Violence Report referred to above, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message - total size 240 Kb, or approximately 5 times the size of the average ZWNEWS.
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From The Daily News, 11 October
Mnangagwa linked to money-laundering
By Geoff Nyarota Editor-in-Chief
The name of Zimbabwe’s Speaker of Parliament has been linked to serious allegations of illegal transfer of money and the purchase of "blood diamonds" in the former war zones of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). An article published in el Pais, a Spanish national newspaper, a fortnight ago, identifies Emmerson Mnangagwa and international financier Thamer Said Ahmed al Shanfari, the playboy son of a former Omani oil minister, as the chief protagonists in the alleged web of intrigue, conspiracy and deceit. Shanfari is the president and chief executive officer of a company called Oryx Natural Resources that owns a diamond concession in Mbuji-Mayi in the DRC, jointly with the governments of Zimbabwe and the DRC. Yesterday Mnangagwa, who granted The Daily News a rare interview, dismissed the string of allegations against him as a pack of lies. The el Pais story, which is reproduced on our centrespread, alleges Harare International Airport was used as a conduit for money-laundering and for smuggled diamonds.
Mnangagwa is described as the man who, among other things, guaranteed the safe passage of illegal cash and diamonds through Harare Airport, by ensuring that couriers breezed through customs without too many questions being asked by suspicious officials. It is alleged that Mnangagwa received a generous cut after every trip. In Harare, a long-term close associate of Mnangagwa read the el Pais story this week. He said, save for a few minor errors, the story was true. He said its only weakness was that it omitted certain crucial information and names. A source closely linked to the transactions told el Pais: "What would happen would be that Emmerson would come around to Thamer’s house for a barbecue or a dinner - he has a huge house outside Harare - and while they were eating, one of Thamer’s trusted people would put two or three of these cardboard boxes stuffed with money into the boot of Emmerson’s car." To illustrate the extent of Mnangagwa’s influence and involvement in Kinshasa, the source, whom the Spanish paper identified only as Ali for his protection, said the Speaker had rescued an employee of Shanfari’s who was arrested and jailed in the DRC capital. "One day we got nailed at Kinshasa Airport," Ali said. "There was a cock-up. Someone wasn’t tipped off on time, and they caught us - Congolese military security with US$ 750 000 (Z$41,25 million) worth of Congolese francs on our way back to Harare. "An employee of Shanfari’s was jailed, as was Patel, the Kenya Airways man. Shanfari’s employee was released after Mnangagwa intervened directly on his behalf with the Congolese justice minister."
Yesterday Mnangagwa confirmed he had personally intervened by approaching his then counterpart, the Congolese Minister of Justice, Mwenze Kongolo, after the arrest of one Graham Pelham at Kinshasa Airport. "If they detain you in the DRC they forget about you," Mnangagwa said. "When this man was arrested they telephoned to say an employee of Oryx had been arrested. I telephoned my counterpart, the Minister of Justice, Mwenze Kongolo. That is true. I telephoned the minister and asked him to investigate." Mnangagwa was Minister of Justice before he became Speaker of Parliament after his defeat in Kwekwe in the 2000 parliamentary election. Yesterday he denied that boxes of money had been loaded into the boot of his car at the Harare residence of Shanfari. "It is true that I had dinner at Shanfari’s house," the Speaker said. "In fact, I had dinner there twice. But I deny that I ever attended a braai and I deny that any money was loaded into the boot of my car. Could they have put money in my boot without me seeing it? Mind you this was three years ago."
Mnangagwa said, as far as he knew, the only money donated by Shanfari had been handed over to Zanu PF to help the party with its parliamentary election campaign in 2000. "He donated about $1 million to Zanu PF," Mnangagwa said. "That I can confirm and the receipts are there." Asked to explain the nature of the relationship between Shanfari and himself, Mnangagwa denied there was a personal relationship. "Shanfari has a relationship with the army, not even with the government," he said. "There is no personal relationship between me and Shanfari. I am not aware that any diamonds are being smuggled out of the DRC. It is not possible, if you know the system in the DRC." Mnangagwa did not explain how he became a guest at Shanfari’s dinner table on two occasions if no personal relationship existed or why he was called to the rescue and responded positively after Shanfari’s employee was arrested. He said his only involvement in the DRC was between 1997 and 2000 when he was chairman of a ministerial committee set up to promote trade relations between Zimbabwe and the war-ravaged central African country. Mnangagwa said: "In 2000, after I lost my parliamentary seat in Kwekwe, I ceased to be Minister of Justice and I ceased to be chairman of the ministerial committee."
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From IOL, 11 October
'Major famine' warning in Zimbabwe
Harare - A top United States food aid official on Friday warned that Zimbabwe would face a "major famine" if the government did not clear away bureaucratic roadblocks and allow massive amounts of food to be imported by the end of the year. Tony Hall, the US ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, spoke after touring relief projects in Zimbabwe during a three day visit. An estimated 6,7 million Zimbabweans, more than half the nation's 12,5 million people, are in danger of going hungry this year, according to the World Food Programme. "The critical time is in the next two months," said Hall. "If by the end of December enough food hasn't arrived in this country, there is going to be major famine and there is going to be major death." The government allows some aid organisations to distribute free food in the country but maintains a monopoly on selling grain. Aid workers have complained that a major crisis will hit the nation unless businesses are allowed to import and sell grain.
Though the Zimbabwean government has repeatedly denied using food as a political weapon, Hall said he heard specific testimony that the government refused to sell grain to opposition supporters and in areas considered hotbeds of opposition support. Hall said Social Welfare Minister July Moyo acknowledged that private grain shipments "had been held up for political reasons". However, US grain donations had not been manipulated, said Hall. Zimbabwe is the hardest-hit of six southern African nations facing a food crisis. Hall expected the United States to give more than half the food needed to carry the region through to the harvest in March. Aid officials blamed Zimbabwe's problems on inclement weather as well as the government's seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to landless blacks. "Drought has not caused this problem, it has only compounded the problem," said Hall. The US ambassador to Zimbabwe, Joe Sullivan, said Washington had offered to support previous land reform plans, but would not assist the current seizures "carried out in a violent manner without reference to the rule of law."
Meanwhile, South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma met Mugabe in Harare for "a courtesy call," and discussed a variety of issues, said Hester Pretorius, spokesperson for the South African High Commission. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said he was not invited to meet with Zuma. South Africa and Nigeria had sponsored reconciliation talks after disputed March presidential elections. The talks broke down after the ruling party demanded the opposition recognise Mugabe's victory declaration in an election many observers said was horribly flawed. "If (the South Africans) are honest brokers then surely they can see both sides. The MDC was not the one that scuttled the talks," he said. He said his party rejected proposals for a government of national unity but was prepared to support a transitional authority that would hold fresh elections under a new constitution.
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From The Daily News, 11 October
Defeated Zanu PF threatens to starve MDC supporters
Our Correspondent
Zanu PF militia and the so-called war-veterans have threatened to unleash a reign of terror in Bulilimamangwe constituency's Ward 12, following an MDC victory in the recent rural district council elections. The election was won by the MDC's Jonathan Meja Ncube who defeated Zanu PF's Ephraim Ndlovu. The war veterans are alleged to have called a meeting at Mangubo Primary School on Friday to tell people that Zanu PF would stop providing them with food because they were bent on "selling the country to Britain". Shailet Ndlovu, a villager who attended the meeting, said it was true that the meeting was called on Friday and that people were threatened with starvation because of their allegiance to the MDC. "At the meeting the war veterans told us that we would no longer receive any food from the government," she said. Despite demands by the NGOs in July that President Mugabe should not politicise food aid, people, especially in rural areas, have been misinformed that it was Zanu PF which supplies them with food. Some people, suspected to be MDC supporters, are allegedly being denied the right to buy basic commodities which are in short supply.
The losing MDC candidate for Ward 16, Mtshumayeli Ndlovu, confirmed some Zanu PF youths were deployed in the Mwatsi area, saying it was a desperate move by Zanu PF to frustrate and intimidate people. "I understand the militia was deployed on Friday at Mwatsi village, and that is why I have come all the way from Bulawayo to monitor the situation," said Ndlovu. He said the youths must have come either from Bulawayo or Plumtree. "What puzzles me is: which food are they talking about?" asked Ndlovu. Moses Mzila Ndlovu, the MDC MP for Bulilimamangwe, said it was madness on Zanu PF's part to make such threats because the food that people receive was from the NGOs. "Threats to starve the people are not new. Even during the 1980s, people in Matabeleland were always threatened with starvation and other unspecified action by Zanu PF because they supported the opposition party, Zapu," said Ndlovu. Mzila said people should not be intimidated because the food they are getting was sourced and distributed by NGOs and not Zanu PF. He said he would be organising a meeting with the World Vision to ask them to increase food supplies in the area to avert starvation. He expressed concern that the youths could attack the newly-elected councillor and villagers.
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From The Daily News, 11 October
Zanu PF bars food aid to starving Binga folk
Chris Gande
Food as a political weapon continues to be used by Zanu PF against the opposition. In the MDC stronghold of Binga in Matabeleland North, a non-governmental organisation, Save The Children, and the Catholic Church have been ordered by the ruling party to stop distributing food to starving Binga villagers. Zanu PF officials said they were punishing the villagers for voting for the MDC in last month's rural district council elections. The order was issued to the two organisations last Friday. The order came at a time when the Grain Marketing Board depot in Binga has no grain in its silos. A good number of school children have reportedly fainted at their desks because of hunger. An unidentified elderly man reportedly died last week after taking medicine on an empty stomach. He had just been discharged from hospital. Joel Gabbuza, the Binga Member of Parliament, said yesterday he spoke to the provincial governor, Obert Mpofu, about the food situation in the province when they met in Harare. "The governor accused the NGOs of supporting the MDC. He told me that he did not know what was happening in Binga, but we have the names of two workers from his office who were among those who stopped the distribution of food supplies in the area," he said. Mpofu could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Zanu PF supporters recently burnt down the huts of a councillor and a losing candidate in the Binga area. Fifty-five goats owned by two MDC supporters were torched after the MDC won elections in parts of Binga. Save The Children and the Catholic Church had stopped distributing food in the area in the run-up to the 28 and 29 September elections. They resumed three days after the results were announced but a number of Zanu PF officials accused them of celebrating the MDC victory by distributing the food. Of the 21 wards contested, the MDC won 16, Zanu PF the remainder, despite launching a massive pre-election terror campaign. The terror continued after the election with the burning down last weekend of the home of Van Muleya, an MDC candidate for Mucheso ward. One of the villagers was accused of being an MDC supporter because an MDC T-shirt was found at his home. At Tinde, Sophie Ngwenya lost property worth more than $1 million when her home was burnt down by suspected Zanu PF supporters. Ngwenya, a losing candidate in the elections, lost $80 000 in cash, and her brother's property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars which she had in her keeping. Police refused to comment on the arson attacks. At nearby Kamativi, Matthew Ngwenya, an MDC winning candidate, is in Bulawayo after fleeing from his home following threats on his life by Zanu PF supporters. His family has sought refuge at the home of Jealous Sansole, the local MDC MP.
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From The Times (UK), 12 October
Van Hoogstraten faces £1m fine a month for hiding assets
By Steve Bird
The jailed property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten will be fined about £1 million a month until he discloses the full extent of his wealth to the courts, a judge ruled yesterday. Van Hoogstraten is being sued by the relatives of Mohammad Raja, the property dealer murdered by his associates. Mr Justice Peter Smith found van Hoogstraten in contempt of court for purposely disobeying orders to disclose his assets. He said that the fines were the only option left. He told the High Court that van Hoogstraten, 57, said to be worth between £60 million and £500 million, would have viewed imprisonment with "utter indifference" as he faced a possible life sentence for the manslaughter of Mr Raja. Mr Raja, 62, had been suing van Hoogstraten, his former business associate, for £5 million for alleged property fraud. He was shot and stabbed to death in July 1999 at his home in Sutton, South London, by two men identified at the criminal trial as van Hoogstraten’s hitmen. An Old Bailey jury found van Hoogstraten guilty of manslaughter. The jury accepted that he had not ordered Mr Raja’s murder. The Raja family is continuing the legal action against van Hoogstraten over the alleged property fraud and brought yesterday’s action after he refused to disclose his assets and make a sworn statement verifying his account of his wealth. The judge froze van Hoogstraten’s known assets and imposed a £200,000 weekly fine, to increase each week by 10 per cent, from next month.
Van Hoogstraten is already facing huge legal bills after his trial, and there are doubts over the future of his extensive holdings in Zimbabwe. Legal action is also pending over unpaid bills for the £40 million Hamilton Palace, in East Sussex. He is being held in Belmarsh Prison and is due to be sentenced later this month. Peter Irvin, for the Raja family, said that van Hoogstraten was delaying matters to allow his associates - "who are not people of probity" - to remove his assets. The more time it went on the more his assets would be dissipated. Van Hoogstraten has sacked the lawyers representing him in the civil case and is now representing himself. The case is due to begin in March. He was allowed 28 days to pay the fine and apply to the court to discharge the fine order. The judge ordered him to pay the costs of the applications, amounting to £7,272.50. David Croke and Robert Knapp were jailed for life in July for Mr Raja’s murder. Mr Raja’s two grandsons, Waheed and Rizvan Raja, were upstairs and rushed to help their grandfather when they heard his shouts. Both told the Old Bailey jury that they had heard him shout in Punjabi: "These are Hoogstraten’s men. They’ve hit me, they’ve hit me."
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From IOL (SA), 12 October
'Zim government planning media clampdown'
Harare - The Zimbabwean government is planning to tighten already draconian security laws in a bid to further restrict the independent media, a state-owned newspaper reported Saturday. Zimbabwe has been gripped by more than two years of political and economic turmoil, widely blamed on the increasingly unpopular ruling party. The government has ordered the seizure of thousands of white-owned farms and ruthlessly tried to silence all dissent against its policies. A law passed earlier this year granted a state-appointed commission the power to ban publications and bar journalists from practising or have them prosecuted. The commission currently has to conduct an inquiry into any alleged infringements of the law, but a proposed amendment may abolish this requirement when the commission "considers that no substantial disputes of law or fact are required to be determined", the state-owned Herald newspaper reported. The government is also considering making abuse of the freedom of expression an offence, it said. Independent jurists have yet to receive copies of the proposed changes. Thirteen journalists and an opposition legislator, who was accused of filming the distribution of food aid to ruling party supporters, have already been arrested under media laws, which carry maximum jail sentences of up to two years.
Meanwhile President Robert Mugabe has also threatened to clamp down on independent charities, describing them as "hatcheries of political opposition." "We hear some noises about (non-governmental organisations) threatening to defy government," he told a meeting of 200 senior ruling party officials Friday. "We will soon remind them who they are, where they belong and what their accredited mission is." Mugabe said new laws would be drafted to curb foreign funding of organizations which regarded themselves as "little governments". "Moneys continue to pour in variously, through individuals, through Trojan horses, among them non-governmental organisations, trade unions, select private media, embassies, private companies and selected banks, through trusts, through the so-called international development agencies, through foundations and even through drought relief structures - all to be used against us," he said. Mugabe began seizing white owned farms in February 2000 after losing a constitutional referendum that would have extended his rule indefinitely. Subsequent parliamentary and presidential elections which returned the ruling party to power and gave Mugabe another six-year term in office were condemned as flawed by local and international observers. More than 6 million Zimbabweans currently face food shortages, blamed on drought and the farm seizure programme.
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From The Sunday Telegraph (Australia), 13 October
Crackdown on Zimbabwe
Australia today launched long-awaited sanctions against Zimbabwe's leadership, including travel bans and a freeze on assets. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia could not remain unmoved by the tragic situation unfolding in the African nation. Mr Downer said President Robert Mugabe had continually failed to respond to the international community's profound concern about human rights abuses and subversion of the rule of law. But he conceded the sanctions were mainly symbolic and would not cause grave difficulties for the Zimbabwean government. "Obviously, they are not going to overwhelm the Zimbabwe administration in any way," he said on ABC Television. "But they are an important statement by Australia that we have done everything we can to try to get Zimbabwe effectively to engage with the international community...particularly with the Commonwealth. They have refused to do so in a constructive way." The so-called smart sanctions are targeted at the government rather than a broad-brush approach which could harm the people. They comprise: a ban on travel to Australia by Zimbabwean ministers and certain senior officials; a freeze on the Australian assets of such ministers and officials; suspension of Australian non-humanitarian aid to Zimbabwe; prohibition of defence sales and suspension of all defence links; downgrading of cultural links and suspension of bilateral ministerial contact.
Mr Downer said it gave Australia no pleasure to impose these measures. He said Australia had consistently sought to promote and defend the Commonwealth's fundamental democratic values and supported Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. "We do so again today in support of ordinary Zimbabweans of every race," he said. "The measures I am announcing today are designed to influence the current government to return to good governance and the rule of law, while avoiding harm to the people of Zimbabwe." Mr Downer said Australia had committed $26 million in humanitarian assistance to southern and eastern Africa, including Zimbabwe, to combat the effects of drought and governance failures on the rural poor. He said Australia now joined a large group of countries which had imposed targeted sanctions against the Mugabe government in the wake of the flawed Zimbabwe presidential elections in March. "I call on those in authority in Zimbabwe to take careful note of our actions and to work with us to restore Zimbabwe to full compliance with Commonwealth principles," he said.
Sir Garfield Todd: 13 July 1908 - 13 October 2002
Sir Garfield Todd died early Sunday morning in the Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo, aged 94. He was admitted to the hospital after suffering a stroke last week.
The Todds came to Zimbabwe as missionaries in 1934, when they assumed the management of the Dadaya Mission station. Sir Garfield was prime minister of Southern Rhodesia from 1953 to 1958, when he was defeated in an election largely because he was seen to be too sympathetic to the cause of political power sharing. He was detained by the Rhodesian government in 1965 and 1972 for his stand against the Unilateral Declaration of Independence and the settlement proposals struck between the Smith government and Britain in 1971. Since he first came to the country, Sir Garfield was a tireless advocate of human rights causes; not least, despite his very advanced years, his public and outspoken support over the last few years to pro-democracy groups in Zimbabwe. Early this year he won a court case in which the government had denied him the right to vote, saying he was not a Zimbabwean citizen. His wife, Lady Grace, died in late December 2001. He is survived by his daughter Judith.
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From el Pais (Spain)
Hitler, the Arab Playboy and the Son of God - Part 1
By John Carlin
Part One
In order to transport half a million dollars in unlaundered cash safely from one country to another there are two basic requirements. First, you must possess a business class ticket, because the weight of half a million dollars exceeds the hand luggage limit on Economy. Second, you must disembark at an airport where customs officials may be relied upon not to ask questions. Harare International Airport has provided precisely such facilities in recent years; foreign associates of the Zimbabwean government have provided the business class tickets and the millions in cash. Once inside Zimbabwe, the money has been employed, among other things, to pay off senior government officials and others close to President Robert Mugabe; to engage in currency exchange rackets; and, abetted by the military and other elements in the Zimbabwean state apparatus, to purchase "blood diamonds" in the war zones of the Congo.
In tracking the trail of the cash, el Pais has obtained dozens of documents, including three signed affidavits, and spoken to experts on Zimbabwe in London, Washington and New York. But the investigation has centred chiefly on the testimony of two individuals who worked closely for more than two years within an elite clique of Zimbabweans and foreign business people who have been making big money out of the mayhem of war. The two individuals' story reveals the corrupt schemings of Robert Mugabe's inner circle and reinforces the perception - held by the European Union and the United States, among others - that Mugabe is the leader not so much of a national government as of a small gang that has spent the last four years getting rich thanks to a war that has cost more than two million lives in the Congo; that deems its own survival to be of more pressing urgency than the impending death by famine, as the United Nations has warned, of six million Zimbabweans.
In conversations el País held in Washington that ranged from Congress to the State Department to the Pentagon and in London with officials of the government and members of the House of Lords, the words that kept on recurring to describe Zimbabwe's ruling elite were "mafia", "pillage" and "criminal". The consensus, summed up by one congressional staffer in Washington, was that the Zimbabwean government was "a criminal organisation run for the benefit of Mugabe and his cronies". "Mugabe always was power-hungry, but not - I thought - corrupt. I never imagined he would end up presiding over the most corrupt regime in Africa," said Robin Renwick, one of the chief architects of the Lancaster House agreement which gave independence to Zimbabwe and, as it turned out, uninterrupted power to Mugabe and his Zanu PF party for the last 22 years. Lord Renwick, later British ambassador in South Africa and Washington, has been one of the more vocal proponents of an EU visa ban and assets freeze imposed this year on Mugabe and 71 of his associates. Russ Feingold, the Democrat who chairs the US Senate's Sub-Committee on Africa, has pushed for similar sanctions in Washington. Senator Feingold, who has met with members of Mugabe's inner circle, said that Zimbabwe's "elites" had "strong incentives to retain power regardless of the cost to the country as a whole"; that it was difficult to avoid the conclusion "that public office is being used almost solely for private gain". Or, as Renwick more bluntly put it, "the Zimbabwean army has been rented out in the Congo for the benefit of Mugabe and the mafia around him".
Ed Royce, the Republican who heads the House of Representatives' Africa sub-committee, is outraged by what he calls Mugabe's use of "food as a weapon", deliberately "starving people" his political opponents. The judiciary is neutered, the press is gagged (North Korea-style, no foreign press are allowed in Zimbabwe today) and meanwhile, Royce said, "Mugabe's cronies live high by pillaging the Democratic Republic of Congo". Walter Kansteiner, the US assistant secretary of state for Africa, spoke of the man-made "tragedy" of Zimbabwe when he spoke to el País. Traditionally an exporter of food, a country with a solid infrastructure and one of the highest educational standards in Africa, Zimbabwe had been a beacon of light in a dark continent. It had emerged, in Kansteiner's word, "from a harsh colonial past into a country that clearly valued democratic tradition". Not any more, said Kansteiner, who - choosing his words diplomatically - described the business deals the Mugabe regime now engaged in as a "a little bit murky".
The revelations of the two individuals from inside the Zimbabwean "mafia" who spoke to el Pais, in conversations held in London and Marbella, help reveal the depths of the Zimbabwean tragedy and shed new light on the murk; on a state-sanctioned criminal network whose accomplices and interests extend from Africa to Europe and the Middle East. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they feared that if their names were published they, or their wives and children, might be killed. Because of their very real concerns, the two sources shall be known in this article as - choosing two names entirely at random - Ali and Moses. The story they tell has two protagonists, Emmerson Mnangagwa and Thamer Said Ahmed Al Shanfari, both of whom have been in the spotlight of a long-standing United Nations investigation into the looting of the Congo's mineral wealth. Mnangagwa is Mugabe's crony in chief: his closest confidant, the key man in Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organisation - the secret police - ever since independence, and the man with whose blessing almost any crime may be committed in Zimbabwe with impunity. Al Shanfari, Mnangagawa's crony, is an Omani entrepreneur described in a secret South African intelligence document obtained by el País as "the Zimbabweans' most important foreign business partner". Mnangagwa, known in Zimbabwe as "the Son of God" because of the general supposition that he is Mugabe's anointed successor, is the man who, among other things, guarantees the safe passage of illegal cash and diamonds through Harare Airport. Shanfari, the playboy son of a former Omani oil minister, is the man who starts the ball rolling by buying the business class tickets and arranging the transfer of the large sums of cash from Europe on which the commercial transactions in the Congo depend. Shanfari is the president and chief executive officer of a company called Oryx Natural Resources that owns a diamond concession in Mbuji-Mayi, in the Congo, jointly with the governments of Zimbabwe and the Congo.
Ali, more hands-on in his dealings with Mnangagwa and Shanfari than Moses, recalls how three different individuals paid by Shanfari would take it in turns to pick up sums ranging from 500,000 to 750,000 US dollars in cash from a bank account in London and a bank account in Brussels, both in the Oryx company name. The money itself did not belong to Oryx (a company whose auditors are the same as Enron's, Arthur Andersen) but to at least three Arab business associates of Shanfari's. One of them was a Lebanese diamond dealer; one an Iraqi arms dealer; one a Sudanese businessman who had been involved in the bankruptcy scandal of the Abu Dhabi-based Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in 1992. Ali and Moses said they knew personally, from first-hand evidence, of ten such trips, involving a total of around five million dollars. "But we know there were many more of these missions, even though we were not directly involved," they said. Shanfari's couriers, ex-soldiers who could be relied upon to obey and follow orders, would catch a plane at Gatwick Airport ("there was no problem with the x-ray machine: money just shows up as ordinary paper"), take their business class seats and fly south to Harare, where - thanks to Mnangagwa and the complicity of the Zimbabwean military - they would breeze through customs. "The money would then be distributed in various ways," said Ali, who says he saw much of what happened with his own eyes. "Part of it would go to the PLO Embassy in Harare. The ambassador was a very nice man. As well as being the longest-serving diplomat in Harare - his car's number plate was CD1 - he was a foreign exchange dealer. He gave us Zimbabwean dollars in return for the US, lots of them, in big cardboard boxes." Large chunks of this money would then go to Emmerson Mnangagwa. "Emmerson would get a cut after very trip. What would happen would be that Emmerson would come round to Thamer's house for a barbecue or a dinner he has a huge ranch house outside Harare -- and while they were eating one of Thamer's trusted people would put two or three of these cardboard boxes stuffed with money into the boot of Emmerson's car."
Another of the beneficiaries of Shanfari's largesse was Mugabe's young wife, Grace, a woman who has acquired a reputation as something of an African Imelda Marcos on account of her profligate spending down the years in the shops of London, New York, Madrid and other western capitals which she has visited in recent years - usually flying Air Zimbabwe, a state airline which the Mugabes have a habit of commandeering for their own private use. Ali and Moses said they were aware of boxes of money having been delivered by car to the First Lady at her home. A third beneficiary was General Vitalis Zvinavashe, head of the Zimbabwean armed forces, famous for having uttered the following memorable line last March on the eve of Zimbabwe's flagrantly stolen, "Any change designed to reverse the gains of this revolution will not be supported." Another individual who received cash hand-outs from Shanfari was Sydney Sekeramayi, Mnangagwa's most serious rival to take over as president eventually from Mugabe. Sekeremayi, today minister of mines and energy, wrote a letter to Shanfari dated 7 July 2000 when he was Minister of State Security in the President's Office - meaning head of intelligence - thanking him for monies received. Elections had just taken place in Zimbabwe and Sekeremayi had retained his parliamentary seat. The letter, a copy of which has been obtained by el País, carries an official Zimbabwean government letter head and contains Sekeremayi's signature at the bottom. It reads: "Dear Mr Thamer Al-Shanfari, I am writing this letter to express my sincere appreciation for the generous moral, material and financial assistance you rendered to boost my election campaign. My re-election as the Member of Parliament for Marondera East was greatly facilitated by your support. Thank you very much.Dr S:T: Sekeremayi."
The crucial cogs in the state apparatus having been duly oiled (Moses calculates that Mugabe's people took between 10 and 20 per cent of the cash that arrived on the flights from London Gatwick), the remaining money set off into Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. On planes provided by a company called Avient - of which the Zanu PF treasurer and close Mugabe associate J.C. Joshi is a director that also had a side-line supplying Antonov aircraft and Ukrainian pilots to the Congo military. Mnangagwa, who did business deals with his Congo counterparts, saw to it that there would be no awkward questions asked by the customs men at Kinshasa airport. "The procedure was quite straightfoward," Moses explained. "We'd meet with a guy called Alphonse in Kinshasa, a Belgian diamond dealer, and we gave him US dollars for uncut stones that had been extracted in the Congo's big diamond area Mbuji-Mayi. Then we'd go back to Harare with the diamonds and from there we'd take them down to South Africa to have them cut. That was the tricky part."
A couple of individuals who Ali and Moses know very well and who were employed by Shanfari transported the diamonds to Johannesburg in their underpants. "Enough diamonds to fill a tea cup," said Moses. "Easily half a million to a million US worth on each trip." Once the stones had made it through Johannesburg airport the rest was easy. "We got the diamonds back into Harare - never a problem because we had the infrastructure of the military to assist us and of course carte blanche in the airport itself.
From there the diamonds, certified as if they had been extracted legally from a mine owned by Oryx, travelled on to Antwerp where they were sold legally. The people who put the money into the system in the first place got the same amount back - but now certified by the Antwerp diamond buyer as having clean provenance. It was pure money-laundering. Everybody was happy. Thamer's Arab friends had achieved their objectives. Thamer took a big cut. Emmerson and the others made easy money."
Sometimes, though, Shanfari tried to get a little too clever, according to Ali and Moses. "It worked beautifully, until the day that it didn't." This is what would happen. The US dollars would travel from Harare to Kinshasa but not, initially, to buy diamonds. To be changed, rather, into Congolese Francs. At the office of an associate of Shanfari's called Akram that Ali describes as having been "just full of foreign currencies". Akram was Akram Moorad, nephew of the Lebanese diamond dealer who was among Shanfari’s cash suppliers in Europe. "Thamer called the Congolese Francs 'chicken feed'," recalled Ali. "There was tons of the stuff, loaded inside big silver containers, that we'd take back to Harare. Later, in the dead of night, we'd load the boxes onto a Libyan plane - a private plane in from Tripoli - at Harare airport which would take the money to Kisangani, which was the heart of rebel country in the Congo war. Here they desperately needed Congolese Francs." Congolese Francs are the local currency but cash has been hard to obtain. The distance between the capital Kinshasa and Kisangani is more than 700 miles. In war-time getting from one place to the other has proved almost impossible. Getting US dollars presented less of a challenge, because they could be shipped across Congo's borders with two countries friendly to the Kisangani rebels, Uganda and Rwanda. "So they bought Thamer's Congolese Francs in US dollars," Ali continued, "but Thamer got back double the rate he'd sold them at in Kinshasa. Double!"
It was a great business, (though there are suggestions now that some of the dollars received might have been forged). But it was risky. "Because if either the Zimbabweans or the Congolese found out the money was going to those they were actually at war with, there would be hell to pay for Thamer." As far as the Zimbabwe authorities were concerned, Moses explained, the Libyan plane was taking the money to Oryx's mine at Mbuji-Mayi, to pay for staff and equipment. "One day we got nailed at Kinshasa airport," Ali said. "There was a cock-up, someone wasn't tipped off on time, and they caught us - Congolese military security - with 750,000 US worth of Congolese Francs on our way back to Harare." An employee of Shanfari's was jailed, as was Patel the Kenya Airways man. Shanfari's employee was released after Mnangagwa intervened directly on his behalf with the Congolese justice minister.
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From Business Day, 14 October
When will Zimbabwean economy's fall arrive?
Dianna Games
Insiders give it between six months and three years, if leaders stay in power
Repeated announcements of the demise of the Zimbabwean economy over the past year look to have been premature. It has shown surprising resilience in the face of assault, principally from within. How does it survive? How long has it got? What will be its death knell? No one has ready answers; but, all things considered, the end is surely nigh. People close to the workings of the Zimbabwean economic engine give it anything between six months and three years assuming the current corrosive leadership remains in place. But most businesses in the country do not look that far ahead. Year-on-year strategising is seen as a luxury, if not a folly. Yet, ironically, the remnants of the rattletrap economic vehicle on which the survivalist businesses ride are, to a large extent, being fuelled by distortions created by the government's ill-considered economic interventions.
Key among these is a ballooning parallel market for foreign exchange. With the government's resolve to keep the exchange rate artificially pegged at Z$55 to US$1, the currency market is dominated by black market trading. The parallel rate rises almost weekly. It is currently at anything between Z$600 and Z$800 to $1 and is likely to jump again at the end of the tobacco selling season in November. Although the government recently labelled former finance minister Simba Makoni a saboteur for suggesting the currency be devalued, it has contradicted itself by introducing a range of ad hoc sectoral and other agreements at more favourable exchange rates for example, a new duty on luxury imports at Z$300:US1, more than five times the official rate. There are currently nine different exchange rates in operation. The booming foreign exchange trade has been boosted by a swelling stream of remittances sent home by the more than one-million expatriate Zimbabweans, mostly in SA and the UK, which are estimated to run into millions of dollars a month. It's a further distortion providing life-support for an economy in its death throes. While price controls remain, there is a thriving black market in price-controlled goods that are in short supply in the formal market. However, exporters and manufacturers have been hard hit by the requirement that they sell 40% of export earnings to the government at the official rate. This is used to buy fuel and electricity supplies. Appeals for relief from this crippling measure have mostly fallen on deaf ears. An exception is the goldmining sector, which has benefited from a support price introduced to stave off the collapse of mining operations. But business chambers report the government mostly ignores their suggestions on how to effect economic recovery even though it has downgraded its own gross domestic product (GDP) growth predictions to minus 11,1%.
None of the macroeconomic fundamentals look good. Inflation is at about 130%, interest rates have been pushed down artificially through the use of treasury bills to reduce domestic debt currently at a third of GDP and rising by Z$3bn a week price controls create distortions, foreign investment has dropped by 80% since 2000 and at least 60% of government spending goes on servicing debt. Even the boom on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) is a reflection of the parlous overall economic environment. A real interest rate of minus 110% has attracted money to the ZSE as a hedge, with institutions investing in large companies. And while many listed companies have shown good results, high inflation undermines real gains. The sorry situation has also created an "asset bubble". Consumers are pouring their rapidly devaluing money into imported goods, property, vehicles and tangible assets, giving aspects of the economy a superficial appearance of normality. The government, seemingly unable to backtrack on its calamitous land reform, is looking at effectively raiding pension funds to help finance the strategy, further eroding the nation's savings base. It is launching an agricultural bond to raise Z$30bn to fund inputs for new farmers and is expecting the pension funds to buy into it. The funds have been given until the year-end to increase their prescribed asset ratios to 45%.
President Robert Mugabe, despite being principally responsible for this mess, seems invincible. Many in the country are fearful of his "spies". Most of those interviewed asked not to be named for fear of some form of reprisal. The only criticism he hears is from the international community, the media and the private sector. He has vilified the first two and largely ignores the third. Ruling party officials are reported to be threatening and intimidating white-owned companies, looking to take over their assets at prices well below market value. This follows invasions of such companies last year by war veterans and government-led trade unionists. For many Zimbabweans, change seems elusive. Each time other regional leaders fail to even register their disapproval of a ruinous regime, Mugabe's hand is strengthened. So what will be the catalyst for real change? "The economy will jettison Mugabe. He is going to find that if you don't manage the economy it will manage you. Eventually all these unsustainable policies will converge in the collapse of the economy," predicts one businessman. As the country runs out of food and the new farmers wait on their land for assistance, months away from any prospect of new crops, scapegoats are coming into short supply. "So far, Mugabe has blamed the whites and the international community and got away with it. But when people have no food, who will they blame?" asks another. So while many Zimbabweans still hope for effective outside intervention as a catalyst for reasonably orderly change, in the end it might be empty stomachs that lead the broad mass of Zimbabweans to declare that enough is enough. Games is director of Africa@Work, a pan African publishing and conferences company. This is part of a longer report compiled for the SA Institute of International Affairs.
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From The Guardian (UK), 14 October
Sir Garfield Todd
Patrick Keatley and Andrew Meldrum
Becoming a legend in his lifetime is a heavy burden for any man to bear. But it was typical of Sir Garfield Todd, the progressive prime minister of Southern Rhodesia in the mid-1950s, who has died aged 94, that he carried the load lightly, though being an internationally respected guru was little consolation for decades of exclusion from active politics. Todd's involvement in public life sprang from the empathy he felt with the Africans whose interests he had looked after as superintendent of the Dadaya mission school, in the vast Shabani district. This led him to conclude that only if he became an MP could he improve the prospects of black Rhodesians who, in that era, amounted to barely 2% of the voters' roll. Parliament in Salisbury (now Harare) was, of course, all white.
In 1946, Todd won the Shabani seat for the United Rhodesia Party, the most liberal of the groupings in the field. After rising through three ministerial postings, in 1953 he became prime minister and party president. He proceeded to introduce various progressive measures, including, in 1955, a five-year plan to give elementary education to every African of school age. His 1957 franchise bill cleared the way for multi-racial trade unions. He went to South Africa and the United States in search of financial backing for a new system of land husbandry in the tribal trust areas. As a sop to critics who said that Todd was "soft on natives", he dealt drastically with the first big African strike, at the Wankie colliery in 1954, calling in the tough mobile police unit. But basically, he was turning a blind eye to the old rule of white settler politics, which was "never be overtaken on the right".
His fall came when he proposed a revision of the franchise qualifications, which, he estimated, would add between 6,000 and 10,000 Africans to the roll. It was perhaps naive of him to try to reassure his critics that these black voters would amount, at most, to 20% of the number of qualified whites. In fact, the figure would have been closer to 16%, but Todd was not wily in those ways. When his ministers resigned en bloc in outrage at the proposals, he formed a new cabinet, but, three months later, the party rejected him as leader, in favour of Sir Edgar Whitehead. Todd went into the wilderness, initially forming a splinter party, which failed to win a single seat in the 1958 election. In a farewell statement, he spoke from the heart: "We must make it possible for every individual to lead the good life, to win a place in the sun. We are in danger of becoming a race of fear-ridden neurotics - we who live in the finest country on earth."
Todd was born in New Zealand, and worked, in his student years, at his father's brickmaking business. After university at Otago, he went to the Glen Leith Theological College, took holy orders in 1931, and was assigned to mission work in South Africa. This was interrupted by studies at Witwatersrand University, in Johannesburg, and at Butler University, in the United States, leading, in 1934, to the Dadaya mission posting. With his deep love of the land, and the perception that it was being neglected under a racially divisive system, Todd began buying up tracts of cheap land, until a very considerable agricultural development began to take shape. He built a school for African children. Indeed, several of today's leading Zimbabwean figures - including President Robert Mugabe - got their first experience of authority by trekking out to Shabani to teach at the Todd school.
Todd's period in power was followed by years of frustration and political humiliation. In an attempt at a comeback, he joined Sir John Moffatt, of Northern Rhodesia, in forming the Central Africa Party in 1960. But this, like another party he tried to form the following year, failed to gain seats in elections where white voters never numbered less than 96% per cent of the electorate. He further alienated himself from the settler community when, in 1960, he shared a platform with the African nationalist leader Joshua Nkomo, and jointly appealed to the British government to suspend Rhodesia's colonial constitution. Gradually, however, Todd began to emerge as the conscience of his country, increasingly honoured in the outside world. His handsome appearance and his remarkable fluency - he spoke at 200 words a minute - ensured him frequent radio and television exposure.
His appearance before the United Nations colonialism committee in New York, caused a particular furore in settler circles at home, and it was as more UN invitations began to arrive that, in 1965, the rightwing Ian Smith, who had recently declared Rhodesia's unilateral - and illegal - independence, decided to immobilise him. Todd, and his wife Grace, were put under house arrest at their ranch, for a renewable period of one year, and further harassments followed. Full-scale detention was ordered in 1972, and extended to Todd's daughter Judith, who had been campaigning on his behalf in London and other European capitals. Each promptly went on hunger strike, but the net was closing in. Judith went into exile for eight years, while her father remained at the ranch until June 1976, banned from even writing or receiving letters. For long periods, the phone line was cut. That October, Nkomo invited him to join his delegation at the unproductive Geneva conference on the future of Rhodesia.
However, as the Todds well knew, the bush war directed by Mugabe's skilful guerrilla commander, Josiah Tongogara, was getting under way. Seven years later, Smith and the settlers recognised that the game was up, and surrendered at the Lancaster House conference in London in 1979. With Zimbabwean independence, and the transfer of power to the African majority the following year, Todd was invited to serve as a senator for five years. In 1985, he was given a long-overdue knighthood, at the instigation of the New Zealand government. In his later years, with African majority rule spreading to South Africa, he found himself regarded as a source of wisdom, and the ranch at Dadaya drew a succession of admirers seeking enlightenment. Recent visitors found him as incisive and positive as ever; clear of mind and warm in his forgiveness of those who had persecuted him. He said his philosophy derived from the Bible: "Just keep throwing your bread upon the waters; if you're lucky, it will come back as ham sandwiches." Todd is survived by his three daughters, Judith, Cynthia and Alycen; his wife died last year.
Andrew Meldrum writes: Garfield Todd remained a vital, vigorous voice in Zimbabwean politics right up to his death. The nation paid close attention to his principled and pointed statements against corruption, human rights abuses and the worsening plight of the average Zimbabwean - even if Robert Mugabe did not heed his words. Last February, when told he had been stripped of his citizenship - like thousands of Zimbabweans whose parents were born in foreign countries - and would not be allowed to vote in the hotly contested presidential election, the former premier responded in typically forthright fashion. He said he would not willingly agree to lose his vote, and felt bound to "shoulder the responsibility of totally rejecting the disenfranchisement of Zimbabweans by Zanu PF [Mugabe's ruling party]. "I am horrified by the destruction of our economy, the starving of our people, the undermining of our constitution, the torture and humiliation of our nation by Zanu-PF," he said. "Just as we stood with courage against the racism of the past, so today we must stand with courage against the terror of the present. Come what may, I will be going to the polling station to claim my right as a very senior citizen of Zimbabwe, to cast my ballot for good against evil." So, on voting day, the defiant Todd stood in the polling queues, his erect bearing and full shock of white hair belying his years, only to be turned away by apologetic officials. He remained determinedly optimistic that good would prevail.
Reginald Stephen Garfield Todd, politician, born July 13 1908; died October 13 2002
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From el Pais (Spain)
Hitler, the Arab Playboy and the Son of God - Part 2
By John Carlin
Part Two
Pressure is increasing almost by the day from every corner of the world for "regime change" in Zimbabwe, for the termination of a Mugabe autocracy perceived to be so criminal and illegitimate that even Nelson Mandela has called on Zimbabweans to rise up and overthrow it by force of arms. Only last Tuesday as Mandela's good friend former US president Bill Clinton was speaking out in Nigeria against the election-rigging and intimidation of political opponents in Zimbabwe, a senior United Nations human rights investigator from Malaysia, Param Cumaraswamy, denounced Mugabe's "systematic attack on the rule of law". Three days later the prime minister of Australia, John Howard, announced his government would examine imposing "targeted sanctions" against Zimbabwe, in the manner of the US, that since February prohibits entry to top Zimbabwean officials, and the European Union which so far this year has imposed visa bans and asset freezes on 72 members of the Mugabe regime. In both the US and Europe moves are afoot to shut off a possible leak in the sanctions system by extending it to include people who do business with Zimbabwe. As Lord Renwick, a former British ambassador to South Africa and the US and one of Mugabe's most vocal critics, told el País: "In order to put more pressure on Mugabe you must obviously tie up his associates - among other things, by freezing their assets."
The Mugabe regime's leading foreign business partner, Oryx Natural Resources, is not yet on any sanctions list, although when the company sought to list itself last year on the London Stock Exchange it was turned down. As the Sunday Times wrote at the time, "The bid to float Oryx sits uncomfortably with a campaign by the British government to organise an international ban on sales of 'blood diamonds' from conflict areas". Yesterday's el Pais, in the first of a two-part series on Zimbabwe's "mafia state", made a list of allegations against Oryx and its chairman, Omani businessman Thamer Said Ahmed Al Shanfari, based on detailed testimony from two individuals closely involved with the affairs of Oryx and the Zimbabwean government. Oryx has contacted el Pais and declared the allegations to be "completely untrue". The allegations, in essence, are that the company made cash payments to senior members of the Zimbabwean government or individuals otherwise close to President Robert Mugabe; bought "blood" or "conflict" diamonds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in some cases smuggled them abroad, among other places to Belgium, where they were eventually sold, passed off as having been extracted from a mining concession that Oryx shares with the Zimbabwean government in the diamond-rich Congo area of Mbuji Mayi.
"I refute all the allegations," said Geoffrey White, who together with a company lawyer in London has been responding in the last two days, by fax and by telephone, to issues raised by el País. "This is rubbish," Mr White said, adding that he believed that el País had fallen victim to an elaborate hoax. He said that two ex-employees of Oryx, "frauds" "driven by revenge" against the company, which they believed owed them money, had been spreading malicious lies. In a letter faxed later, Oryx's London lawyer, Mischon de Reya, said the allegations against his client were "grossly defamatory". The lawyer wrote that, according to Mr White, the people he believed to be the sources for the el País investigation were "motivated by extreme malice towards Oryx Natural Resources" and were "trying to defraud" the company's owner, Thamer Al Shanfari. These two individuals whom Mr White believes to be the sources on which el País is relying are not named in the letter but, according to Mischon de Reya, had "made threats to kill both Thamer Al Shanfari and Geoffrey White". By contrast, Mr White declared in the first of his faxed responses to el País, received on Friday, "The Oryx Group prides itself on conducting itself with honesty and integrity."
The Oryx Group first became involved with the Mugabe regime four years ago. Everything flowed from a proposal President Laurent Kabila of the Congo made to Mugabe in 1998. Facing heavy military pressure from rebel armies backed by Uganda and Rwanda, Kabila proposed to Mugabe that he would give him access to a diamond concession in the Congo valued at one billion dollars - the concession in Mbuji Mayi - in exchange for the loan of his army. Mugabe readily agreed to the diamonds-for-soldiers deal but what he did not have was the technical or commercial expertise to extract the diamonds. Enter Kamal Khalfan, a weapons dealer, Oryx shareholder and old Harare resident who rejoiced in the title of honorary consul of Oman in Zimbabwe. Khalfan suggested to Mugabe that Shanfari might be just the partner he needed. Shanfari, a 34-year-old graduate of the Colorado School of Mines who comes from a lavishly wealthy and influential Omani family, flew to Harare and met Mugabe. A company was created, a joint venture between Shanfari's Oryx, a company called Osleg (the business wing of the Zimbabwean armed forces) and a third co-signatory to the agreement, dated 16 July 1999, "the government of the Republic of Zimbabwe" - meaning the clique who ran Zanu PF. Osleg already had a partnership agreement with Congo's Comiex, a private company linked to the Presidency in Kinshasa. Under the terms of the agreement with Osleg, Oryx would run the diamond mining enterprise in Mbuji Mayi and take 40 per cent of the profits. The problem, Oryx was to find, was that - owing to the war and the logistical problems presented by the Congo's poverty and its vastness - the diamond concession of Mbuji-Mayi was not producing diamonds on a scale remotely proportionate to its one billion dollar valuation.
Individuals who have worked on the mine have said in recent weeks that the quantities of diamonds mined have been minimal. One source familiar with a United Nations investigation going on now into the looting of the Congo's mineral wealth maintained that the Oryx mine was generating little more than 100,000 US dollars worth of diamonds per month. "That's nothing in the diamond business," the source said. A senior congressional staffer in Washington who closely monitors events in Zimbabwe and the Congo made a similar point: "No one has been able to make money out of Congo diamond mining yet and so no reason to believe the Zimbabweans and their foreign partners were going to. The whole business is a bust, save as a cover for other stuff."
Other stuff, such as trading in "blood diamonds" at a time of war and mass starvation, which has enriched a group of no more than a dozen Zimbabwean individuals notable among whom have been Mr and Mrs Mugabe and Emmerson Mnangagwa, identified by the UN, the EU and the US as prime beneficiaries of the Congo-Zimbabwe apocalypse In the case of Mnangagwa, known in Zimbabwe these days as "chief executive" of the Congo as well as "Son of God" (because of the general assumption that he is Mugabe's chosen successor) , the wonder is that no one has put him on a sanctions list sooner. Or perhaps tried him for war crimes. Mnangagwa, who is 56, was minister of state security and head of the secret police at the time of the notorious Matabeleland massacres of 1983, in which the Zimbabwean army's North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade killed more than 10,000 innocent civilians inhabiting a region of Zimbabwe considered to be opposed to Mugabe. Mnangagwa, identified by human rights groups as the man who organised the massacres, was rewarded by Mugabe with the job of justice minister, a job he kept for 12 years. Mnangagwa, whom diplomats in southern Africa believe to have been the vote-rigger-in-chief in the presidential elections held in March this year, was described in a United Nations Security Council report put out at the end of last year as "the architect of the commercial activities of Zanu PF" (Zimbabwe's ruling party) and the prime mover behind the illicit diamond trading in the Congo.
Mnangagwa, identified by el País' sources as Shanfari's closest associate in the Congo diamond partnership, has been a regular guest of honour at large dinners that Shanfari has hosted at his Harare home. Another guest, the sources claimed, used to be Chenjerai Hunzvi, better known by his chosen nickname "Hitler". Hitler, who died a year ago of natural causes, rose to prominence four years ago as the man who led the invasions of Zimbabwe's white-owned farms. Under the protection of among others - Mnangagwa when he was justice minister, Hitler would encourage his storm troopers to rob and commit murder safe in the knowledge there would be no legal consequences. It was in such a climate, in such a country, with such people, that Oryx's Mr Shanfari has judged the circumstances propitious during the last four years to do business. His number two at Oryx, Geoffrey White, says the company is proud of its "honesty and integrity". Yet, as the top foreign business associate of what Nelson Mandela has called the Mugabe tyranny, he can deny all the allegations that he wishes but he cannot deny that he is an accomplice of a small power clique that uses food as a weapon to starve its political opponents, that murders and tortures political rivals with impunity, that steals elections, that has profited from a savage war in the Congo, that sets the perpetuation of its own power and wealth above the welfare of the six million Zimbabweans that today are facing famine, that has destroyed its own country and has blood all over its hands.
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From SABC News, 14 October
More than 600 Zimbabwe teachers fired over strike
At least 627 teachers have been fired in Zimbabwe for taking part in an illegal strike, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) TV News reported today. Hundreds of teachers across the country went on strike last week to press for higher wages. State television said the dismissals were with immediate effect and advised teachers in retirement to contact the ministry for employment. Reacting to news of the dismissals, Raymond Majongwe, the secretary general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), which called the strike, said: "This is really an unfortunate precedent." "Are we saying that Zimbabwe has enough teachers to dismiss them willy-nilly?" he asked. He said that lawyers for the teachers would challenge the dismissals, which he claimed had not followed established procedures. Majongwe said the strike, which began last Tuesday, would continue until the grievances of the teachers had been met. "We are ready for a fight," he said. "These people (teachers) have nothing to lose." A high school teacher in Zimbabwe takes home Z$ 20 000 a month, much less than other civil servants. The PTUZ is demanding a 100% salary increase backdated to January and a 100% cost of living adjustment backdated to June. Majongwe was arrested last week and charged under the country's Public Order and Security Act for "invading the rights of others" after he allegedly agitated for teachers to join the strike. He is now out on bail.
From ZWNEWS: We have available "Teaching them a lesson" - a recent report by the ZHR NGO on how teachers have been singled out for attack over the last two years. If you would like a copy, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message - total size 480 Kb, or around 10 times the size of the daily ZWNEWS.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 13 October
Zanu PF MPs stun Mugabe
By Chengetai Zvauya
Zanu PF MPs, for long considered gutless in the presence of President Mugabe, last week found enough courage to confront their leader and demand an explanation of the fuel crisis besetting the nation, The Standard has learnt. In a rare move, the MPs stunned Mugabe, who last month personally concluded a fuel deal with Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, when they told him that he owed them an explanation for the lack of fuel in the country. Mugabe’s ministers have in past weeks been making conflicting statements, and at times, blatantly uttering falsehoods on the existence or non existence of fuel. According to the US$360 million (Z$19,8 billion) fuel deal, signed by Mugabe and Gaddafi, Zimbabwe is assured of supplies until September next year, when the deal expires. But before the ink on the deal has even dried, the country has started experiencing sporadic fuel shortages, casting doubts on the authenticity of the arrangement, which critics say is tantamount to mortgaging the country to Libya. Under the deal, forex-starved Zimbabwe trades assets such as land and equity in state enterprises, in exchange for fuel from Libya.
Unimpressed Zanu PF MPs took advantage of Monday’s party caucus meeting at the Zanu PF headquarters to tell Mugabe that his government had messed up on the issue. "We demanded he explain the truth of the situation because our constituents want an explanation. We openly told Mugabe that we were not happy with the situation and we did not mince our words. We made it clear that despite denials by his ministers there was no fuel at service stations," said a Zanu PF MP who attended the meeting. Another MP said it was the first time the MPs had really quizzed Mugabe, who has become almost a demigod at the party he has led for over 20 years. "The president, who was very attentive throughout, said energy minister, Amos Midzi, should have told the nation the truth about the shortage. He read the mood of the MPs and decided to play the part of listener," said a Zanu PF MP. Midzi was to have presented a report on the fuel situation at the meeting, but failed to turn up.
Contacted for comment, Zanu PF chief whip, Joram Gumbo, confirmed that the MPs had raised concerns to Mugabe over the fuel situation. "It is no secret that we do not have forex in the country, but arrangements were made for other countries to help us with fuel. We are still having fuel shortages and the MPs wanted the matter taken up with the president. We had the opportunity of discussing issues affecting the country, including fuel and food shortages and the land redistribution exercise. The president did appreciate the problems and said the government would do its best to resolve the crisis facing the country," he added. Many service stations are failing to provide fuel and winding queues of motorists are the order of the day at the few service stations that do have fuel. Most of the outlets have dried up and the country’s fragile public transport system has virtually collapsed, leaving commuters stranded.
The government has been at pains to explain the erratic nature of supplies to service stations, with its ministers and Zanu PF apologists claiming that the current shortage is due to saboteurs, bent on discrediting the Zanu PF government. A report on the fuel situation by a government-appointed team of investigators which should have been released on Monday has still not been publicised, prompting fears that information may be doctored to suit the Zanu PF conspiracy theory. Analysts say the investigators are likely to heap the blame on fuel companies who have been accused of hoarding in the past. The country consumes 1,9 million litres of diesel and 1,2 million litres of petrol per day. The petrol is being distributed by the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim). Supplies are no longer assured as the country does not have enough forex to buy the commodity due to isolation from the international community because of the government’s poor human rights record.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 13 October
Humans and animals vie for winter crop
By Eupha Mahenga
Despite the tight security provided by security companies, Catties and Cobra, the winter maize crop in the Lowveld which was expected to temporarily ease the country's acute grain shortage, is being ravaged by both humans and animals, security officials have said. "The green cob is being stolen by wild pigs, monkeys and baboons, which are very difficult to control though we have managed to kill quite a number. But now that the early crop is being harvested, we face the problem of human theft," said a security official. While the mealie meal shortage continues, and famine ravaged households grow increasingly desperate, the Cobra and Catties security firms are working flat out to protect the endangered crop. "There are daily arrests of people who have stolen the crop and we have managed to recover some of the stolen maize. These people come from Tshovani township and the estates compounds. Some of the stolen maize is not recovered, even when the perpetrators have been caught," said a Cobra security official.
Speaking to some Catties security officials, it emerged that the wild animals were more difficult to deal with than their human partners in crime who were deterred by the armed security details. " People are afraid of the rifles, they don’t know that they are not meant for them but for the animals. That’s why they don’t come in large numbers, nevertheless nzara iri mudzimba is forcing them to steal. Animals are rather difficult to control," said an official. Emily Zhuwarara a worker at the estate, told The Standard, that many households were so hunger-stricken, they could not resist the crop. "Honestly, we can’t blame the thieves because they are hungry, but now the security officials are scattered everywhere and it’s difficult for anyone to set foot near the fields." Some of the workers at the estate told The Standard that people were no longer willing to be seen walking within the estate late at night as they would be subjected to intense questioning.
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From Business Day (SA), 15 October
Rautenbach wins next round on getting assets returned to him
Law Courts Correspondent
The Asset Forfeiture Unit has vowed to intensify efforts to bring to book beleaguered Zimbabwean businessman Billy Rautenbach even as it suffered a second setback to retain his assets. The state lost an appeal in the Johannesburg High Court yesterday to have the former Wheels of Africa and Hyundai Motor Distributors owner's assets remain in its custody. The ruling threatens to cripple the unit's efforts to compel Rautenbach to return from Zimbabwe to SA to face tax evasion and fraud charges involving the importing of vehicles to Botswana. Rautenbach's spokesman Wren Mast-Ingle said the court ordered the unit to return his assets immediately. The court also ordered the curator to release all property and "assets including funds in bank accounts which formed part of the provisional restraint orders to such persons or entities from which they were originally taken". Yesterday's ruling followed the unit's appeal against a judgment in the same court by Judge Pierre Rabie a week ago, revoking an interim confiscation order, with costs, lodged by the national directorate of public prosecutions.
The unit's spokesman, Sipho Ngwema, said: "It is expected it will be completed soon (and) on completion, the prosecution will (seek) Rautenbach's extradition." Both SA and Zimbabwe are bound by the Commonwealth Agreement for the Rendition of Fugitive Offenders. Ngwema said the unit was disappointed by the court's ruling. "(It) is a blow to all Rautenbach's SA creditors, who are owed more than R800m," he said. Media reports and speculation locally has been that Pretoria will have a tough time trying to extradite the former head of Hyundai and Volvo distribution and Wheels of Africa businesses in SA because of his top political connections in Zimbabwe. Rautenbach, whose SA-based companies were liquidated since raids on the tycoon's homes and properties in April two years ago, was linked to President Robert Mugabe and parliamentary speaker Emerson Mnangagwa. Rautenbach is accused of conspiring with others to fraudulently reduce the tax liability of his various companies. The unit has seized Rautenbach's property worth R60m. Among the assets seized were a helicopter, a house and six flats in Sandton, a Cape wine farm and another farm in KwaZulu-Natal.
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From The Cape Argus (SA), 15 October
Mugabe's 'heir' linked to blood diamond trade
By Basildon Peta
Zimbawean President Robert Mugabe's likely successor, speaker of parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa, has been implicated in a shady deal involving money laundering and the trading of blood diamonds from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). An article in the Spanish daily newspaper, El Pais, named Mnangagwa and international financier Thamer Said Ahmed al Shanfari, a son of a former oil minister in Oman, as the two men who guaranteed the safe passage of illegal cash and diamonds through Harare International Airport by circumventing customs regulations in Harare. Shanfari is the president and chief executive officer of a company called Oryx Natural Resources, which jointly owns diamond concessions in Mbuji Mbayi in the DRC with the Zimbabwe government. When one of the Shanfari's employees was arrested and jailed in the DRC, Mnangagwa allegedly intervened and secured his release, a sign of his influence in the DRC. Mnangagwa admitted having intervened to secure the release of Shanfari's employee. He, however, denied the money laundering and illegal diamond trading charges.
The Spanish newspaper's article detailed how Harare was used as a conduit for money laundering and diamonds smuggling, with Mnangagwa facilitating the deals and getting what the newspaper says was a "healthy cut" from Shanfari. Mnangagwa is Mugabe's personal choice for successor. Despite having lost his parliamentary seat in the 2000 elections and his bid to become Zanu-PF national chairman in the same year, Mugabe plucked Mnangagwa from imminent political obscurity and made him speaker of parliament. He also appointed him to the powerful post of Zanu PF's secretary of administration. Analysts have said Mugabe sees Mnangagwa as an insurance policy against future probes into his corruption and abuse of office. Mnangagwa has been previously mentioned in numerous reports, including one in the newsletter Africa Confidential, as the man involved in co-ordinating Mugabe's mining interests in the DRC, together with controversial South African businessman Billy Rautenbach, a personal friend of Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa successfully lobbied for Rautenbach's appointment as chief executive of the DRC's mining parastatal, Gecamines. Rautenbach was later fired by the DRC government from Gecamines.
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Comment from ZWNEWS, 15 October
Tell that to the children
By Michael Hartnack
At least 8 000 Zimbabwean children, the Amani Trust estimates, have been traumatised by seeing their parents or teachers subjected to political brutality by militant supporters of Robert Mugabe. It is a figure that should be borne in mind by those commentators who, from a safe distance in foreign lands, sneer at the opposition Movement for Democratic Change for not getting the people on the streets. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has spoken repeatedly of putting the creation of a long lasting political culture of democracy and tolerance before the short-term goal of his own power. However, there are voices calling for the party to espouse revenge and retaliation. A recent article in the independently-owned Daily News, written under a pseudonym, called the MDC leaders a "bunch of cowards". The writer listed MDC supporters who have been murdered with impunity by members of Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party, and declared, "The best way to destroy an evil system is to let such people have a taste of their own medicine." Ominously, the writer urged the formation of a militant "Third Force" to get rid of both Zanu PF and the MDC. Happily, the weight of Zimbabwean culture is still against such hot heads. Although two children were reported to have been accidentally trampled to death last week in stampedes for maize meal, queues are generally orderly and good-humoured, showing this culture lives on, even in dire straits.
In the context of the shortages, by the way, we discovered last week the regime's working definition of "a journalist" - anyone who records information Zanu PF does not want recorded. MDC member of Parliament Roy Bennett was arrested under draconian new anti-press laws on charges of working as a journalist without accreditation. He video-recorded officials distributing maize to people who had asked to be "assisted" in voting, on the grounds they were illiterate. Those who did not ask for assistance were barred from getting the maize piled high near the polling stations. Legislation presented to Parliament last week bans private organisations from giving voters instructions on how to complete ballot papers without assistance. While the official media crow that these bogus elections indicate the impending demise of the MDC, the depth of popular anger must not be mistaken. For now, however, as Tsvangirai well knows, people are pre-occupied with day |
