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Archived News
2nd July 2002
Farm workers left destitute
Zimbabwe whites told it is against law to farm land
Zimbabwe crisis deepens as Mugabe sticks to his guns
Disastrous cabinet
Mugabe tells farmers to down tools
My mother's choice: eat cattle feed, or go hungry
Independent journalists operate in a climate of intimidation, repression and, now, licensing
The despotic Mr Mugabe has presented the West with a devil's choice
Subsidising tyranny
Report finds 'structural impunity' rife
New legal battle to keep Zimbabwe farming
Zimbabwe begins ban on farming by whites
Mbeki fights to sell his vision to wary African leaders
Blair losing struggle to get new G8 deal for Africa
Mugabe 'conceals bad human rights record’
Tutu calls for fresh elections
Zimbabwe government will arrest journalists again
Torture now of epidemic proportions
Serious shortage of salt hits Zimbabwe
Iron fist will fail, analysts warn
African opportunity
G-8 Nepad response disappoints Africans
MDC mayoral candidate escapes petrol bomb attack
Zim takes hard line on 'soft' prosecutor
Zimbabwe opposition supporters remain imprisoned despite Supreme Court order
Plot to kick Zvobgo out of Zanu PF fails
DRC's back covered by SA bridging loan
Zimbabwe food crisis warning
Food shortage claims 27
UN pledges food aid to Zim
Govt approves GM maize imports
Zim rights abuse probe ends
Private media barred from meeting human rights group
Defiant jailers in court
Mugabe warns defiant farmers
SADC NGO Council slams Zimbabwe
Land reform could exacerbate Zimbabwean poverty
Mugabe threatens to seize food company over national salt shortage
Mugabe rules out devaluation of currency despite crisis
Drought, economic collapse and disastrous land reform drive Zimbabwe to brink of starvation
Democracy in Africa
Judgment recommended vs. Zimbabwe
Food crisis hits Harare as bread runs out
Zim hit by another bread shortage
Only a third of maize crop is harvested
Nabanyamas turn to Civil Court
Over the top
How the land lies
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 23 June
Farm workers left destitute
While President Mugabe's Zanu PF regime lauds itself for liberating thousands of Zimbabweans from poverty by providing them with land under the controversial fast-track land reform programme, it has emerged that a greater number of the displaced farm workers are now wallowing in poverty. The sole representative body of the country's agricultural workers, the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (Gapwuz) said affected workers could be divided into two categories: Those stuck at invaded commercial farms, and those who had ventured into informal activities, such as gold panning in Mashonaland West and Central. Gapwuz grassroots coordinator, Gift Muti, told Standard Business: "Other farm workers joined those at Porta Farm as squatters, but this is not a straight-forward way of living. Although others have engaged in the buying and selling of goods, others are engaging in theft, poaching and illegal fishing which is outside the law."
To alleviate the misery and the reported cases of malnutrition, he said the worker's body had embarked on a food relief programme to rescue farm workers and their families. "We are giving out mealie meal, matemba and cooking oil. We have also managed to pay school fees for children at Wadzanai Primary School in Shamva and we are assisting aged workers who were our members for a long time by giving them money to travel to their homes." Although government gazetted a law which enables it to set up an Agricultural Employees Compensation Committee to determine benefits and entitlements for farm workers affected by its resettlement programme, Muti said no workers had been paid out as commercial farmers are yet to be compensated by government. He lashed out at the government for failing to come up with a comprehensive land reform programme. "Government's response is not clear on the future of farm workers. They are saying workers are going to be employed by new farm owners, but the reality is that displaced farm workers are in a dilemma," said Muti. Godfrey Magaramombe, the director of Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ) agreed with Muti. "It is still on the drawing board. Nothing has taken place. It is taking too long and workers are stranded. If people are displaced it will be hard to track them," said Magaramombe.
Muti said newly resettled farmers were unable to employ those previously catered for by commercial farmers. "They are underpaying them, while others are even failing to pay them," he said. Research carried out by Gapwuz indicates that farm workers are not benefiting from the land grab exercise. An average of five former farm workers are said to have benefited from every 10 designated commercial farms. Gapwuz and the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe deplored health standards at informal settlements which have mushroomed in the peri-urban areas. "Farmers used to employ farm health workers who used to provide health services and assist children at creches, but the health workers have been made redundant. Our survey on farms around towns found that the displacements have increased prostitution and hence the cases of HIV and Aids," said Muti. FCTZ which is currently feeding about 15 000 children affected by the displacements and providing shelter to farm workers, concurred with Muti on the matter of increased prostitution. "Obviously others are engaging in commercial sex activities and we have received reports of high infant mortality rates and cases of tuberculosis," Magaramombe said.
As the reality of the government's warped land policy strikes the core of society, another social ill has manifested itself in the form of child labour. In Bindura children are reportedly said to be hunting mice and working on settlers' land for a pittance. Ian Kay, a commercial farmer who was chased away from his Chipesa farm in Marondera together with his 120 workers, said although some of his workers had managed to get shelter from friends and relatives, the prevailing economic difficulties were straining their upkeep. "Because of prevailing hardships, they can't stay long with extended families. They can only stay for a short period and then wander around from place to place," said Kay. He said Zimbabwean farmers were keen to carry on with farming in spite of the situation. "Right now there is tobacco waiting to be graded at my farm, but settlers on the ground are refusing to let us do our job."
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From The Times (UK), 24 June
Zimbabwe whites told it is against law to farm land
Harare - From midnight tonight it will be a crime for 2,900 Zimbabwean white farmers to produce food or exports to help to feed their country’s population, much of it now facing starvation. In what could be the most serious single blow to the country’s already shattered economy, the farmers will tomorrow face arrest if they set foot on their lands. Twenty years ago the same farmers earned President Mugabe’s newly independent nation its reputation as the breadbasket of Africa. Now the law allows them only to stay in their homesteads. Amendments last month to laws governing the confiscation of land order the closure of 60 per cent of the country’s productive farmland. In 45 days’ time even their homesteads will be denied them, when the Land Acquisition Act orders automatic eviction. Violation of either deadline carries maximum penalties of two years in jail or a fine of Z$20,000 (about £35).
For most of the remaining 40 per cent of the farmers, a rash of new 90-day expulsion orders is being issued, and 94 per cent of the 28 million acres of white farmland has been formally listed for Mr Mugabe’s land grab. A clause in the law allows farmers to apply for an exemption, and a group of tobacco farmers put in their applications last week. However, Jonathan Moyo, the Information Minister, was dismissive of the applications. "They are a waste of time because they are cynical and sinister," he said. "There will be no extra-judicial waiver. The land reform programme is real and irreversible." Jenni Williams, a spokesman for the Commercial Farmers’ Union, said: "This is insanity. Ranchers have got to water their cattle. They can’t just leave them. There are people with millions of dollars of wheat in the ground. People cannot just get up and walk away from everything they have built up in their lives. It’s absolutely unconstitutional." The farmers were divided on how to deal with the new threat, she said. "There will be those who will not abandon their homes and would rather face the authorities."
Ironically, the most effective resistance to Mr Mugabe’s newest recklessness would be for all farmers to close down immediately and leave the regime with far worse food shortages, said Lindsay Campbell, 33, who farms tobacco and cattle in the Marondera area about 50 miles east of Harare. "If we all just do what the minister says, they will realise pretty soon it wasn’t such a smart move," she said. "On Monday we are going to move all our cattle off. We are going to stop everything on Tuesday. We are not going to move outside our security fence." The Campbells’ property has just been "resettled" for the second time. About two years ago it was allocated to peasant farmers who practise subsistence agriculture. Now they have learnt that it has just been allocated again, this time to a senior government official. "The settlers are not going to like this," she said.
Farmers will lose not only their land and homes, but all property that is "permanently" connected to the land, like pumps cemented into the ground and powerful electricity generators. The new law says that farmers have the right to take their moveable property with them. In practice, most owners have been illegally forced, usually under police scrutiny, to leave with a couple of suitcases of clothing. The tractors, earth-moving equipment, computers and sheds full of crops left behind, have been claimed by the senior ruling party functionaries, top military and police officers and their relatives Zimbabwe’s new farming class - as their own. Hopes for compensation have almost entirely been abandoned, especially now that the Government is in effect bankrupt and inflation is running at 120 per cent. Economists estimate that £5.5 billion worth of moveable assets have been illegally impounded or looted since February 2000, when ruling party militants began invading white farms.
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From Reuters, 23 June
Zimbabwe crisis deepens as Mugabe sticks to his guns
Harare - Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis is deepening as President Robert Mugabe cranks up pressure against the opposition, and continues his controversial land-seizure drive, political analysts say. They argue that Mugabe has compounded Zimbabwe's gloomy outlook with a swoop of arrests and warnings to his opponents that he will not tolerate any protests against his rule, and another vow that his land reforms are irreversible. "If you look at all the things that are happening...if you add it up in any manner you want, what you will find is a situation that is getting worse and worse," said Masipula Sithole, professor of political science at the University of Zimbabwe. "There is more repression, a more repressive atmosphere and there are no new ideas coming from the government. It is behaving as if everything is normal and that is what is making the situation really bad."
The government arrested and took to court nearly 100 members of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) this week for illegal rallies. The ruling Zanu PF party says the rallies are being called to plot a national revolt to overturn Mugabe's re-election earlier this year in a disputed poll. MDC leader Tsvangirai accused the police of brutality in dispersing the rallies, but said he would not give up his efforts to organise anti-government protests. While Mugabe's government kept its eyes and guns on its opponents, the crisis in Zimbabwe's economy, in its fourth year of recession, appeared to be worsening. Food shortages - blamed on drought and Mugabe's seizures of white-owned commercial farms - are spreading, the Zimbabwean dollar continues to crumble in value and the price of critical health drugs has risen by over 200 percent since December. "The economy has become a hostage of our politics and there is nothing in our politics to liberate the economy," said private economic consultant John Robertson.
Increasing numbers of farmers whose land has been designated for seizure by Mugabe's government for redistribution to landless blacks are leaving their land following government orders, raising the spectre of an even wider food crisis. Many of the farms' new occupants have little or no farming experience and Zimbabwean farmers are emigrating in droves, with some neighbours like Mozambique snapping up their expertise. The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), which represents about 4,500 white farmers, says up to 90 percent of its members are likely to lose their land under the government's "fast-track" land-reform programme. Agricultural authorities in Mozambique said on Sunday some of the 150 Zimbabwean commercial farmers who had applied for land in the central province of Manica would soon be operating there, having paid their taxes and consulted local communities.
Besides the staple maize meal, Zimbabwean media said this week sugar was in short supply because millers had had no coal deliveries from a state railway service, commandeered by the government to move food aid around the southern Africa country where a quarter of its 14 million people are facing starvation. International aid agencies - including the World Food Programme (WFP) - say about half the population might be in need of food assistance by the end of the year and that Zimbabwe's current food crisis is mainly man-made. The country's key farming sector used to be breadbasket of the region. But Mugabe, whose March presidential election was condemned as fraudulent by many Western powers, blames this year's food shortage on drought.
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Comment from The Zimbabwe Standard, 23 June
Disastrous cabinet
On Sunday with Chido Makunike
How is the revolution under President Mugabe and his senior aides going? Is there any hope of the nation soon reaching the promised land of enough food, a stable currency and a booming economy? The signs are not encouraging. Shortages of essential commodities are worsening, our currency has experienced its steepest decline in the last month; company closures and joblessness are the order of the day. How are some of the other members of Mr Mugabe's team faring?
Finance minister Simba Makoni is in the interesting position of, on the one hand, being accused of having failed to influence even a single one of Mugabe's politics and economics, but on the other of being defended even by critics of Mr Mugabe. He is not the hate-spewing, rabble-rouser in the mould of his boss and some other ministers, that's why many commentators go out of their way to excuse his ineffectualness. Makoni may be a nice enough chap, but given the mess we are in now, is 'nice' in a cabinet minister good enough? One day he makes a statement calling for sanity on the part of his colleagues but the next day distances himself from that very statement for fear of trouble with Mugabe. We need Zimbabweans who can make a fearless stand. Does Makoni stand for anything? I hope he is not simply a window dresser, there to enjoy the privileges of being a minister but without the power and latitude to do anything useful.
I would like to nominate my favourite minister, none other than Mugabe's propaganda chief, Jonathan Moyo, for what has been proposed in the past - the position of prime minister. He already makes statements on matters concerning other ministers' jurisdictions, so we might as well formally recognise his resourcefulness and initiative. But he must be warned in the strongest terms that as PM, he will not be able to just fire all the other ministers and run the government single-handedly. For your next birthday, my main man Moyo, I have bought you a copy of the international best-seller by Norman Vincent Peale, How to Win Friends and Influence People. After reading it, pass it on to Mugabe and police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena, who might become a little more effective at their jobs if they take its wisdom to heart. Finally, whatever it is that makes Moyo appear to be perpetually angry, I urge him to please try to relax. Exercise and meditation are two ideas to try. They cost nothing and they work. It's not worth it to be Mugabe's most enthusiastic flunky at the cost of having neither friends nor respect.
I used to think of agriculture minister Joseph Made as a mild-mannered, laid back type, but soon after his appointment, he took on the intimidatory, belligerent style of Mugabe and Moyo. You see the negative kind of pressure that can influence you when you hang out with the wrong crowd? Or is it defensiveness about possibly going down in posterity as the clever fellow who went all the way to America to attain prestigious degrees in agriculture, only to come back to destroy commercial agriculture in the name of land reform, instead of using one's learning to rise to the challenge of meeting the need for both? For the sake of Made's legacy, I hope the Mugabe type of land reform, derided far and wide, and seen as the immediate cause of the current famine, will be vindicated in Made's lifetime. For now, it has brought hunger, suffering and international humiliation for his fellow Zimbabweans.
In a new cabinet, I would propose Mrs Grace Mugabe as head of a new ministry of finance, spending and trade. I have no doubt that our trade with countries like Italy, Germany, the US, Britain and Singapore would improve dramatically. These countries make a lot of the fine, expensive material things that make life so meaningful, and Mrs Mugabe has enjoyed visiting them all. This appointment would be conditional on Comrade Grace agreeing to have her foreign trips and expense accounts closely monitored, since foreign currency has become such a scarce, precious commodity.
Almost weekly, we are told how our depressed tourism industry is just about to experience a fantastic boom that will end all our problems. Tourism minister Francis Nhema has recently been looking very glum, perhaps he has the thankless job of trying to attract tourists to Zimbabwe, when some would argue that the president and some of his other ministers are working even harder to keep them away. I felt so sorry for Nhema when he was reduced to commandeering a group of Americans around the countryside to a big dinner, and trying to make it look like the tourism event of the year. Alas, there is as yet no sign of the promised tourist deluge. Some wags have unkindly suggested that Mr Mugabe, with his penchant for flying to what parts of the world he still can, and for putting up in ritzy hotels, sort of acts like a tourist to Zimbabwe, and that he might want to take over the portfolio, and have a go at attracting other tourists. Surely this is the kind of rude talk that can only emanate from enemies of the revolution, renegades and foreign stooges.
Putting the rather hot-headed Patrick Chinamasa in charge of a ministry with the word 'justice' in it was surely a non-starter. I suggest putting his talents to better use in a proposed ministry of aggression, responsible for ruthlessly dealing with demonstrations by members of the opposition and similar dangerous, subversive activities. I am not at all impressed with the diplomatic skills of minister of foreign affairs, Stan Mudenge. The name of his ministry turned out to have been prophetic, as it has emerged that his daughter was conducting a hot affair with a foreigner, leading to their wedding in Germany this month. Mudenge ranted something to the effect that even if he was denied a visa for the wedding because of sanctions, this country would still "never go back to the whites" - the hook that the Mugabe regime uses whenever it is censured or embarrassed. I thought this rather ugly talk from a supposedly seasoned diplomat, and a gentleman welcoming a white son in law into the family. This harsh racial talk is sure to cause alarm and despondency to the German in-laws, who may be wondering just what they have got themselves in to.
I am not aware of anything Elliot Manyika has accomplished as minister of employment creation, but non-achievement does not necessarily disqualify him from being a minister, as the prolonged tenure of many other ministers has shown. No, what worries me most about Manyika being so close to the seat of power is the rumour that he is studying for an advanced degree with a British university. If true, is this not a terrible threat to our national sovereignty, at a time when Mugabe is tirelessly alerting us to the diabolical and neo-colonialist designs of the British? Under the guise of educating Manyika, the crafty British could very well lure him from the straight and narrow path, causing him to waver in his revolutionary fervour. I am aware that the serious charge that he is working in cahoots with the British could destroy his career in the Mugabe regime, but my patriotic and evolutionary spirit does not allow me to keep quiet about this possible act of betrayal. CIO, where are you when you can actually do the country some good? At the risk of being accused of being counter-revolutionary, I must confess the revolutionary cabinet does not inspire much confidence in me at the moment.
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From The Guardian (UK), 25 June
Mugabe tells farmers to down tools
Order given to abandon wheat crops in hungry Zimbabwe
Harare - President Robert Mugabe ordered 2,900 commercial farmers to stop work yesterday, as Zimbabwe faces its worst food shortage for 60 years. The order is the final step before the government seizes the farms, including the crops in the fields, for redistribution to its black supporters. "From [today] a farmer could be arrested for trying to feed the nation," the Commercial Farmers Union spokeswoman Jenni Williams said. "We have 22,567 hectares [more than 56,000 acres] of wheat in the ground which will only be harvested in September/October. Who is going to look after the crop if the farmers stop working?" She said the union was considering asking the courts to stop the order. Other union sources said discussions with the government were still taking place. Many farmers vowed to ignore the order. One, asking not to be named for fear of retribution, said: "It is madness, our farms are producing wheat and other food crops while so many in this country are going hungry. Now we are being ordered to stop all farming work. It is crazy. I will not give in to this. I have crops in the ground and animals to feed and I am determined to keep going. What will my workers do if I shut down?" Human rights groups said that the ruling could make more than 100,000 farm workers homeless overnight. "It is a human rights catastrophe," John Makumbe, chairman of the Zimbabwe Crisis Committee, said. "These farm workers are real people and they are vulnerable. The government is taking away their livelihoods and their homes, but it is not doing anything to give them an alternative."
The often violent land seizures are blamed, even by some of Mr Mugabe's ministers, for the food shortages. The World Food Programme estimates that nearly half the country's 12.5 million people will need food assistance this year. The food crisis is due to a combination of dry weather during the growing season and the disruptions on the commercial farms, which are about five times more productive than small farms, the WFP said. The new order shows that Mr Mugabe is determined to dismantle the white farming community whatever the social cost. Any of the farmers involved who continue working after today's deadline may be jailed for up to two years. Since June 2000 the government has named 5,872 mostly white-owned properties for confiscation. On many already vacated livestock and irrigation and other equipment have been seized without compensation.
State radio reported yesterday that security checkpoints would be set up in farming districts to prevent "sabotage" of the land reform programme: an apparent effort to stop farmers removing goods and equipment from their property. The state media have accused some white farmers of adopting a "scorched earth" policy after confiscation. The farmers' union denies the accusation. The EU allocated E6m (£3.9m) famine aid to Zimbabwe yesterday and again accused President Mugabe's policies of aggravating the food crisis. "The private sector has a leading role to play in bringing in food on the market. The government must remove the constraints which are preventing this from happening," the EU aid commissioner, Poul Nielson, said. The order will make it difficult for the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, to convince western leaders that he has persuaded Mr Mugabe to moderate his more extreme policies. That may prompt the G8 summit in Canada this week to decline funds for Mr Mbeki's New Economic Partnership for African Development (Nepad). Although told to stop work, the farmers are allowed to stay on their land for 45 days.
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From The Independent (UK), 25 June
My mother's choice: eat cattle feed, or go hungry
My 68-year-old mother has to cope with tough choices in Robert Mugabe's present day Zimbabwe. Either she has to feed on yellow maize, which is grown in China for cattle feed purposes, or she must starve. Otherwise, she can wait for me to find a way of getting white maize to her from Johannesburg, about 750 miles away - no easy matter, as Zimbabwe customs officials are not allowing food imports without the hard-to-get government import licences. The work and effort needed to buy the yellow maize donated by President Mugabe's communist allies in China is no laughing matter. She has to queue alongside thousands other Zimbabweans to buy her share. The queues don't mean the yellow maize is available. People just queue in anticipation of its arrival. Many days it doesn't arrive, but the queues remain. The political and economic crisis in this beleaguered country of 13 million inhabitants is deepening despite Mr Mugabe's "victory" in the March election. Perhaps it is only now that many Zimbabweans have begun to feel the real impact of Mr Mugabe's drive to confiscate white land and distribute it among his supporters. Many of those have dismally failed to sustain production levels. Most were dumped on the farms in the run-up to Zimbabwe's parliamentary election in June 2000 without the necessary back-up equipment and resources. Many more were dumped in the period leading to Zimbabwe's March 2002 presidential election.
It took me a drive along the main highway from Harare to the once plush tourist resort of Kariba to appreciate the extent of the ruin of Mr Mugabe's land seizure policies on Zimbabwe's commercial agriculture. Commercial farms along the highway would normally make any visitor to Zimbabwe green with envy. Even the former prime minister Margaret Thatcher publicly acknowledged Zimbabwe's agricultural prowess when she flew over the area during a state visit in 1986 and saw huge swathes of tobacco, wheat, and maize. But a drive through the same highway today exposes one to large patches of emerging forests. The productive farms have been cut into small pieces of land where no production is taking place. Small grass-thatched huts stand distinctively on the small plots carved out of the large commercial farms.
It is not surprising that many of the ruling party supporters, who accepted the small pieces of land in the euphoria of Mr Mugabe's election campaign, are abandoning the plots to go back to their original communal areas. The equipment, the boreholes, the schools and the clinics they were promised are nowhere in sight. While everyone agrees in principle with the need for land reform and redistribution, Mr Mugabe's approach is not a credible reform process geared towards poverty alleviation. In fact, it is the easiest and fastest way of destroying a once viable agricultural sector. Repression and more repression has become a daily diet for Zimbabweans. As one political commentator said: "All he cares for is power, power and more power ... It's now power to Mugabe, poverty to the people." Yet the most surprising development is the deafening silence from the international community to Zimbabwe's human rights abuses. Regional analysts now warn that time might be running out rapidly to prevent serious bloodshed in Zimbabwe and throw the whole southern Africa region into turmoil. The need for the international community, particularly the EU, to revisit its "all bark, no bite" policies on Mr Mugabe cannot be over emphasised.
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From ZWNEWS, 25 June
Independent journalists operate in a climate of intimidation, repression and, now, licensing
On the very day that three employees of the independent Daily News were arrested and savagely beaten by police for trying to cover an opposition rally, Robert Mugabe’s regime unveiled regulations for "licensing" newspapers and journalists. The two events underlined the climate of increasing intimidation and repression, both physical and political, in which independent journalists local and foreign now operate in Zimbabwe. Newton Spicer, an independent filmmaker, was arrested in his stationary car at the June 16 rally in central Harare. Daily News reporter Guthrie Munyuki, photographer Urginia Mauluka, and driver Shadreck Mukwecheni were arrested in their car, made to lie on the ground and beaten with batons and rifle butts. Munyuki's arm was broken. The four were held with 80 suspected supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change for over 24 hours in freezing and vermin-ridden cells. For much of the time they were denied medical attention, despite their injuries, as well as food and access to lawyers. When she was eventually released and limped out into the arms of her family, Mauluka not unnaturally burst into tears. Formal charges against all four were dropped on June 20. But the fact is that it is now a crime, punishable by whatever "extra judicial measures" Mugabe's forces deem appropriate, for a journalist (or a lawyer) to be in the vicinity of a gathering the regime is trying to suppress.
The licensing regulations were issued under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, signed into law by Mugabe on March 16. The deadline for complying with the regulations was June 16 itself - clearly nonsensical and impossible. Publishing houses, advertising agencies and cinemas must pay Zimbabwe $20 000 to apply for a year's licence to operate and Zimbabwe $500 000 if this is granted by the regime’s Media and Information Commission, headed by a virulently anti-white and anti-Western lecturer at the Harare polytechnic. Journalists working only for local media outlets pay smaller fees, but for those serving international media, things become vastly more expensive. An office serving foreign outlets must pay US$2 000 (in foreign currency notes) to apply for a licence and US$10 000 if it is granted. Any journalist serving foreign media - even if a Zimbabwean citizen - must pay US$50 (in foreign currency) to apply and US$1 000 for annual accreditation. Those who already hold press cards (under the previous informal arrangement with the Information Ministry) will be deemed to be operating lawfully until December 31, and need not apply until then. Since banks have no foreign currency for sale, local journalists seeking accreditation to serve foreign media will have to buy the US dollar notes at black market rates of US$1 to Zimbabwe $600 -- in other words Zimbabwe $30,000 to apply and Zimbabwe $600 000 for the accreditation itself. Where - to whom - the money will go is anyone's guess. A foreign correspondent seeking to enter Zimbabwe will have to pay US$100 to apply for temporary accreditation and US$500 in the unlikely event it is granted. All fees will be forfeited if the commission revokes a licence or accreditation for alleged infringement of the state-imposed "code of conduct."
International media watchdogs denounce the fees as a huge "tax" on the news media and the journalistic profession, regardless of how they are administered. However, the fees are not just "conscience money" intended to make us think twice before annoying the authorities. The Media and Information Commission has the right to refuse accreditation and to set conditions for individuals and organisations hoping to operate here. It may, in theory, require staff to possess certificates they have completed ruling Zanu PF "Youth National Service", or to be graduates of the Harare polytechnic "school of journalism". It may forbid work for specific outlets such as the BBC, or limit correspondents to one topic (say, gardening notes). Commission head Tafataona Mahoso has no known journalism training but in 1986 obtained a doctorate of philosophy from a university in Philadelphia, USA, on the sinister role of white liberals in frustrating liberation between 1920 and 1980. In the state-run Sunday Mail of June 16 Mahoso wrote a half-page article headlined "Neo- Colonial Media Seeks to undermine African Morale." He has previously declared civilisation to have been a uniquely black African phenomenon, besieged to this day by white "barbarians." On June 23, as proof of a conspiracy by whites and their lackeys to censor African history and undermine morale, Mahoso cited surveys carried by the Daily News that most Zimbabweans want Mugabe to retire, and that security force moguls are in all arms of government. Having toiled through Mahoso's verbiage, many may feel it is pointless to apply to his commission for accreditation.
Alan Rusbridger, editor of Britain’s Guardian newspaper, is among voices urging a boycott of the entire process. However, journalists’ lawyers advise we ought to go through the niceties of applying, while simultaneously arguing in court that the process violates constitutional rights of free expression. Correspondents for foreign media might claim, for example, that the fees being levied against us (in foreign exchange) are discriminatory and irrational. Lawyers advise that if journalists apply and are refused registration, the onus will be thrown on the commission and the regime. To begin with defiance will risk summary seizure of equipment, and imprisonment of staff for up to two years. This, many argue, would merely enable the authorities to accomplish by legislation what the terror squad failed to do last year when they blew up the presses of the Daily News with impunity: silence us. At the first trial this month under the draconian press law, lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa argued that Guardian correspondent Andrew Meldrum did no more than state the truth: that the murder of an opposition supporter was reported by the Daily News, while police declined to comment. Subsequently, doubts were cast on the credibility of the Daily News' source, who disappeared - and may have links to security police. Mtetwa also says prosecutors have failed to prove publication. They rely entirely on a printout from a Guardian web page. An international expert on media law, British barrister Geoffrey Robertson, who is attending the Meldrum trial, says the Mugabe regime may have "shot itself in the foot" by seeking to internationalise and exports its oppressive laws, thus provoking an international response.
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Comment from The Independent (UK), 25 June
The despotic Mr Mugabe has presented the West with a devil's choice
As of midnight last night, almost 3,000 white farmers in Zimbabwe faced the starkest of choices: to cease farming forthwith and give up their land or to place themselves on the wrong side of the law, risking eviction by force and imprisonment. The deadline imposed by the government of Robert Mugabe requires them to stop farming now, if need be with crops still unharvested, and to vacate the land within 45 days. The government's order is not without a certain rationale. The practical purpose is to accelerate the redistribution of farmland to landless blacks and give new impetus to the flagging programme of land reform. The political purpose is to fulfil long-standing election promises and stem the rising tide of black discontent.
In terms of feeding the country, however, this despotic government could hardly have chosen a worse time to enact its order. At least two regions of Zimbabwe are already suffering severe food shortages. As much as half the population is likely to need food assistance of some kind before the end of the year. The reason is only partly the drought that threatens the whole region; botched land reform, farm-occupations and assaults on white farmers have compounded the hardship. Which is why the government's decision to lay down the law to white farmers at this juncture defies belief. The order would deprive around 60 per cent of white commercial farmers of their land. It is estimated that another 30 per cent have already abandoned their farms, which would leave only around 5 per cent of the country's 4,000 white farmers still in business in six weeks' time. Already breaking under the strain, the most efficient and productive sector of Zimbabwe's agriculture would be effectively destroyed.
The first signs were that most were choosing to carry on in the hope, perhaps, that the incompetence of the Mugabe government, so evident in other areas, would manifest itself in its inability to enforce last night's deadline. But while the farmers deserve the highest praise for their courage, the risks they face are enormous. However it is not only Zimbabwe's remaining farmers who confront an unenviable dilemma as a result of the Mugabe government's order. Western governments - above all the British Government - face a devil's choice of their own. If food shortages in Zimbabwe develop into famine, should they provide aid or not? If they supply aid, they could be accused of shoring up a debilitated and corrupt regime and compensating for its failings. If they refuse to do so, they could be complicit in mass starvation.
For Britain, the dilemma has an additional, and distasteful, element of blackmail. President Mugabe holds Britain to blame for the whole food crisis, claiming that it reneged on a promise to help underwrite land reform. The British Government says its offer was contingent on the orderly redistribution of land. There can be no question of Western governments standing by as Zimbabwe starves. They must do their utmost to feed the hungry, but government-to-government assistance should be avoided, as should financial donations. Aid should be channelled through voluntary organisations and managed in such a way as to bypass the Zimbabwe government and the corrupt local officials the regime has spawned. This would convey a double message to the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe: that the Mugabe government is powerless to help them, and that foreign countries are not the enemies they have been painted to be.
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Comment from ZWNEWS, 25 June
Subsidising tyranny
Aid, it has been said, is the transfer of wealth from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. This is not necessarily a reason not to give, as a proportion of most direct aid does benefit the starving child, the desperate mother, even if another proportion goes to buy a new car for the official responsible. But the provision of aid becomes yet more morally complex when it directly subsidises a tyrannical regime such as that of Resident Mugabe.
First the ironies: Mugabe is primarily responsible for his people’s hunger as even his regional allies now concede, albeit still on the sly. He blames the drought but his people go hungry alongside full dams, the waters unexploited. His fast track programme has replaced farmland with wasteland, his A2 commercial pioneers are concerned only with plunder. As hunger spreads, his regime seeks to eliminate 17 out of any 20 commercial farms once and for all in less than two months’ time. Every speech he makes is a foam-flecked condemnation of the West yet it is the UK, Australia and, most of all, the USA who are supplying the aid to keep his people alive millions of US dollars, thousands of tonnes of food. A last irony is that the real food hardship is, so far, primarily rural: hence the West is feeding many of that small proportion of the electorate which willingly voted for Mugabe.
Mugabe facilitated the famine, now it is the West who is coming to his help. But does he pass any of the further tests that confront him? Are there, perhaps, pleas in mitigation? Has he checked or modified his disastrous land policy to ensure some kind of future food security? No, the reverse is true as the few remaining productive farms are annexed and despoiled. Has he opened up the food system to permit a more competitive and effective import of food? No, the Zanu PF-run state monopoly, the GMB, continues to run the trade to the greater enrichment of Zanu PF cronies and the greater suffering of the Zimbabwean people. Spared, in part, the obligation to feed his people by the West, has he used the exchequer monies so saved to benefit Zimbabwe? Of course not most of the money saved goes in financing dubious loans from dubious banks, in paying his all-important apparatus of army and police and so-called war veterans, in subsidising non-productive squatters and in shoring up deals with Libya and the DRC where senior Zanu PF officials can make personal fortunes behind the facades of state enterprise.
Worse than all of this: even the aid provided by the Englishman in Truro, the taxpayer in Seattle, is sometimes twisted to Mugabe’s direct benefit. However much the NGOs in Zimbabwe World Vision, Christian Care, WFP - try to distribute food fairly, it is often the case that after their trucks bump away, the Zanu PF system closes it, re-allocating food to the Zanu PF faithful in Mugabe’s name or simply selling it for personal gain.
So, international food aid directly subsidises Resident Mugabe and he uses the resources so saved to maintain himself in power. Should the West swallow its liberal principles and shut down supplies? It is true that such a move might kill those who starve now but it might help ensure that such starvation does not become a permanent feature of life in Zimbabwe, as it surely will under Mugabe. But this is the sort of decision the West is temperamentally unable to take and the world is probably a better place for that. Sadly, the world cannot even seek a half way point and request more realistic policies from Mugabe in exchange for propping him up, as he has already shown himself willing to let his people die rather than yield to sanity. So what can be done?
1. Those responsible for smashing Zimbabwe’s food security, and for its selfish and incompetent policy of food distribution, should suffer targeted sanctions from the EU and from the West: Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Local Government, the DAs and the governors and the GMB: put them all on the list. Hitherto damp squibs, these sanctions are about to bite with the inclusion of spouses and offspring.
2. Aid should be calibrated, so far as is possible, so that its quantities keep mothers, infants and the elderly alive and healthy. It should reach those recipients directly. There should be no surplus to line Mugabe’s pockets. Aid should cease where integrity of distribution cannot be guaranteed.
3. The UN should establish a Zimbabwean task force that researches, and reports upon, the integrity of international aid distribution throughout Zimbabwe.
4. All sacks and containers of maize and other foodstuffs should be clearly marked so that recipients cannot be led to believe that they are recipients of Mugabe’s largesse.
5. Running totals for the provision of aid, and the areas of its distribution, should be available to the independent press in Zimbabwe.
6. The WFP should present to SADC and to the AU organisation its prognosis for long term food shortage in southern Africa should Mugabe utterly destroy the Zimbabwean agricultural sector, as is his intention.
There can be no mutually beneficial alliance between the conscience of the West and Mugabe’s tyranny. The latter will always exploit the former whilst Mugabe curses those who are saving his people. But we should not simply accept this fact; rather we should broadcast it and fight it. We wish to help Mugabe’s victims. We wish to see an end to Mugabe. For with his departure, and the end of his vicious regime, there will come hope for all.
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From IRIN (UN), 25 June
Report finds 'structural impunity' rife
Johannesburg - The heat was turned up a notch on Zimbabwe on Tuesday as Amnesty International, which once campaigned for the release from prison of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, presented a report documenting what it called "structural impunity" in the country. Added to a looming food crisis expected to affect six million people and the introduction of a law banning 2,900 mainly white commercial farmers from working on their land, the government now also had to fend off fresh accusations that it allowed human rights violations to go unpunished. Amnesty International spokesman Samkelo Mokhine said at the launch of the report in Johannesburg that there had been a pattern of human rights violations in Zimbabwe since the 1970s and 1980s. But Zimbabweans had never seen the issue of impunity addressed, they had only seen pardons, amnesties and clemencies. "The ordinary Zimbabwean hasn't had any sense of justice - not just from the 70s, (under the previous Rhodesian government) but up to 2002," he said. "With this report we are hoping to jog the international community and the Southern African Development Community into action. If we don't do anything, what hope are we giving to the ordinary Zimbabwean? They are facing a food crisis, unattended human rights violations and the undermining of their judiciary. People are assaulted and killed with impunity - what message are we sending to them?"
The report, 'Zimbabwe: The toll of impunity', examined politically-motivated violations before, during, and after the March 2002 presidential election which returned Mugabe to power. It alleged that violations were primarily committed by members of state-sponsored militia who operated with the consent of the state, and also by state security forces. It said the authorities in Zimbabwe had systematically failed to bring those responsible for serious violations to justice. To do this the government used presidential amnesties, clemencies and indemnities, prevented investigations into human rights violations, and curbed the freedom of the media. It also allegedly manipulated the police and eroded the independence of the judiciary. An example of the use of amnesties was a clemency order proclaimed by Mugabe on 6 October 2000 after the June 2000 parliamentary elections. This gave indemnity to anyone who committed a politically motivated crime from 1 January to 31 July of that election year. The indemnity excluded rape, murder and fraud but included grievous bodily harm - the category of crime that torture falls under. To facilitate impunity, the state denied involvement with the militia, even though the militia had often been transported and supported by the police, the report charged. The 2002 Public Order and Security Act criminalised a wide range of activities associated with freedom of expression, association and assembly, and violated Zimbabwe's obligations under international human rights law, Amnesty said.
The new Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act empowered the Information Minister to launch investigations into the operations of media houses without the involvement of either the police or the judiciary. The judiciary itself was being undermined with the government openly defying superior court rulings that contradict its policy and harassing judges perceived to be critical. Since 2000, two Supreme Court judges, including the Chief Justice, and four High Court judges have resigned. Impunity was allegedly reinforced by undermining the police. Mokhine said that this also affected policemen who were trying to carry out their duties properly. "If a policeman investigated allegations of rape against certain militia he would find himself transferred to a rural area or relegated to the 'Commissioners pool' where he will have no desk and no duties. NGOs have stopped trying to report rapes because the policemen don't want to investigate," he said.
Mokhine said Zimbabwe was in clear violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which says states have a duty to bring to justice those within their jurisdiction who are responsible for human rights violations. Amnesty recommended that Zimbabwe ratify the United Nations Convention Against Torture, allow a thorough impartial investigation into allegations of human rights violations, make sure the police abide by international human rights standards, and that an independent police monitoring mechanism be created. Laws not conforming to international human rights standards should be repealed or amended, and further international pressure should be applied on the Zimbabwean authorities to allow the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on torture and on the independence of judges and lawyers to take action. It also encouraged more visits by bodies like the Commonwealth and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The African Commission on Human and People's Rights was currently in Zimbabwe on a fact finding mission. The delegation included Jainaba Johm of Gambia, Fiona Adolu of Uganda and Barney Pityana of South Africa. Mokhine also urged SADC to become more involved. "The rights of ordinary Zimbabweans should take precedence over politics," he said referring to regional "quiet diplomacy" policies. The report had been presented to the Zimbabwe government.
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From The Guardian (UK), 26 June
New legal battle to keep Zimbabwe farming
Harare - Two white Zimbabwean farmers took the government to court yesterday in an effort to block its order that they abandon their farms. It was a test case closely watched by 3,000 others also facing eviction. A 45-day countdown for the white farmers to leave their land began yesterday, but many vowed to stay put rather than watch crops rot in a country short of food. Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers' Union has not joined the action, but is keenly awaiting the outcome, which is expected on Friday. The order was the latest shot in the government's battle to redistribute farms to landless black Zimbabweans. Many analysts have blamed the "fast-track" programme for Zimbabwe's current food shortage - part of the worst economic crisis in the 22 years since independence. The agricultural shutdown could put as many as 250,000 farm labourers out of work. Jean Simon, who owns a farm 80 miles from Harare, said: "I have 340 workers here who have over 1,000 dependents. We are being stopped from earning a living. This is not a money issue... when we are facing starvation, we are fighting about who should be growing food."
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From The Washington Times, 25 June
Zimbabwe begins ban on farming by whites
Zimbabwe imposed its ban yesterday on production for nearly 3,000 white-owned farms as a leading aid expert said there was "precious little time" left to avoid a devastating regional famine. The white farmers, who work on the country's most productive acreage, have 45 days before they must surrender their holdings under a land-expropriation bill President Robert Mugabe signed last month. Once known as southern Africa's breadbasket, Zimbabwe's agricultural output has plummeted 40 percent in the past year, as Mr. Mugabe's government has clashed with the mostly white farmers over his redistribution plans. The violence and intimidation of farmers, coupled with the worst regional drought in two decades, has put as many as 6 million mostly poor, rural and black Zimbabweans - half of the population - at risk of starvation by the end of the year, according to the United Nation's World Food Program. Last night was the deadline for 2,900 white-owned farms to cease production under the land law approved by the government last month. The law, which was condemned by the United States and European governments, gives affected farmers until Aug. 8 to vacate their properties. The order takes effect at the onset of the southern African winter but comes when many farmers have sugar cane in the ground ready for harvesting next month. Brendan Gormley is chief executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee, a group of 14 leading British international-aid agencies. "There is precious little time" left to avoid a looming famine next year, he said in an e-mail interview yesterday. "We're already seeing pockets of malnutrition." Mr. Gormley said a serious food crisis can be avoided only if aid money and seeds are distributed soon to prepare for the next harvest, in March 2003.
There were few reports of violence as the deadline for the production ban passed last night. The Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union, which represents the bulk of the country's white-owned farms, said its members were continuing production as usual while waiting for the government to act. Farmers who work their land in defiance of the law face two years in prison or a fine. Many of the country's 4,000 white farmers decided not to plant this year, either because of disruptions caused by illegal squatters or because of the prospect of imminent land seizure. The World Food Program estimates that 800,000 black workers on the white-owned farms will lose their jobs if the redistribution program proceeds. Mr. Mugabe has argued that the land program is necessary to redress injustices dating to colonial times and to ensure the country's long-term food-supply needs are met. Two decades after the end of colonial rule, whites control a third of the nation's best farmland, though they constitute less than 1 percent of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people. But Mr. Mugabe's many foreign and domestic critics say the land-reform program has been badly mismanaged, with gangs of so-called war veterans illegally claiming many of the most lucrative farms, and associates and relatives of the president being given favored sites.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday, "We think the government of Zimbabwe's land policy, including the chaotic and the often violent seizure of privately owned farms, has greatly compounded the country's worsening social, economic and political crisis. We continue to support rational, sustainable and equitable land reform in Zimbabwe," Mr. Boucher said. "Very sadly, that's not what's happening." The European Union has cut off most official aid programs to the Mugabe government after a disputed March presidential election in which Mr. Mugabe turned back the most serious political challenge to his 22-year rule. But yesterday the European Union's executive commission approved two shipments of emergency food aid to families in the poorest areas of Zimbabwe and to farm workers hurt by resettlement. But Poul Nielson, head of development and humanitarian aid for the European Commission, said Zimbabwe's looming food crisis can't be solved by outside humanitarian aid. "The private sector has a leading role to play in bringing food on to the market," Mr. Nielson said in a statement released in Brussels. "The government must remove the constraints which are preventing this from happening." The United Nations estimated earlier this month that 12.8 million people in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe face a severe food crisis between now and next spring.
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From The Guardian (UK), 26 June
Mbeki fights to sell his vision to wary African leaders
Johannesburg - Thabo Mbeki has made hard compromises to keep his ambitious recovery plan for Africa on the international agenda. Days after Robert Mugabe stole Zimbabwe's election, Tony Blair warned the South African president that continued prevarication over Zimbabwe would cost him crucial support for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). A few weeks later, a raucous press conference following a meeting with the Canadian prime minister, Jean Chretien, brought home to Mr Mbeki just how much his strange views on Aids - questioning the link between HIV and Aids - were tainting western perceptions of his vision of an African renaissance. Mr Chretien, in Pretoria to talk about this week's G8 summit, privately warned Mr Mbeki that his Aids policies were undermining support for Nepad. Canadian journalists reinforced the point as they shunned Mr Mbeki's attempts to speak about the G8 meeting and flayed him with questions on his HIV policies.
Mr Mbeki reluctantly made limited concessions on both Zimbabwe and Aids: he was forced to agree to suspend Zimbabwe from the Common wealth, and he lifted objections to his government pursuing a more orthodox approach to Aids. He made the compromises knowing Nepad's fate is linked far more to his own credibility than to the credibility of the other African leaders behind the plan - Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo or Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal. However, South Africa's leader is struggling to sell Nepad not just to the G8, but to the rest of his continent too. Earlier this month, Mr Mbeki bluntly stated that Africa is primarily looking for money from the west. "The fact of the matter is that these countries have large volumes of capital that we need for the renaissance of our continent," he said. Africa is also pressing for debt reduction and greater access to western markets.
But there is a deal. Central to Nepad is a commitment by African countries to hold each other to a higher standard of governance than the continent has generally known over recent decades. The "peer review mechanism" was to have been in place by mid-June but South Africa is still battling to get consensus on "general principles". Earlier this month, South Africa's finance minister, Trevor Manuel, acknowledged that Pretoria is having difficulty selling the mechanism to those African leaders who show little respect for decent government and fair elections, and to those who view Nepad as hardly more than an extension of International Monetary Fund dictates. "It is a hard issue. It entails giving up bits of sovereignty. It is particularly difficult for those countries that fought hard struggles against colonial powers," he said. "The more of these hard issues that we put on the table the easier it is for us to deal with them. But, there is no doubt that it is going to be difficult."
The most outspoken critic has been South Africa's main rival for leadership in Africa, Muammar Gadafy. Mr Mbeki may have the credibility in the west, but Col Gadafy has the money - he has helped bankroll Mr Mugabe - and he's not going to embarrass some of Africa's more authoritarian leaders by bringing up the issue of democracy. Mr Mbeki flew to Libya earlier this month to try to ensure that Col Gadafy did not rock the boat ahead of the G8 meeting. The Libyan leader responded by calling Nepad an attempt by the west to recolonise Africa. "It is quite hard and quite difficult for an African man to believe that he will be treated on an equal footing by the colonisers and racists. I don't believe they have changed their racist mentality," he said. "If there are common benefits, we are ready. But we will not be tricked easily. Africa is a giant which has woken up and broken its shackles...The time has passed for creating stooges."
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has also questioned Nepad, saying that Mr Mbeki has gone to great lengths to win the support of big business but has failed to consult many other interested parties. Its general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, called the strategies "vague" and said Nepad does not protect democracy. "People have to adhere to what has been agreed upon, but what happens if they do not?" he asked. That is a central question, particularly in the light of South Africa's prevarication over Zimbabwe. Pretoria has argued that sanctions against Mr Mugabe's government would harm poor Zimbabweans. But that would apply to any African nation, and it is still unclear what alternative mechanisms will be used to punish those governments that do not adhere to their commitments under Nepad.
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From The Guardian (UK), 26 June
Blair losing struggle to get new G8 deal for Africa
Leaders of the world's eight most powerful economies were coming under mounting pressure last night to convene an emergency summit on Africa, as hopes faded that rich countries will deliver a big aid boost to the world's poorest continent at their meeting in Canada today. With President Bush's controversial plan for the Middle East likely to dominate the G8 agenda, aid campaigners expressed frustration that the summit may achieve little new for Africa, despite last-minute lobbying by British ministers and officials. Tony Blair, who last year described the plight of the continent as a scar on the world's conscience, has campaigned to push Africa up the international agenda. At a meeting yesterday with aid agencies before his departure for the remote mountain resort of Kananaskis in Alberta, the prime minister pledged to increase Britain's aid to Africa to £1bn by 2006. "In terms of our own aid, we've put our money where our mouth is," his spokesman said.
But with none of the leading economies apart from the hosts, Canada, putting money on the table before the meeting, Downing Street officials acknowledged that the summit is likely to fall short of expectations raised by talk of a "Marshall plan" for Africa after last year's G8 summit in Genoa. "We are not going to achieve everything we want at this summit," Mr Blair's spokesman said. "But the momentum started at Genoa will continue. We have come a long way in a year. The summit will take us further but we will have to keep at this." Aid agencies welcomed the 50% increase in British aid and urged Mr Blair to push the case for Africa "to the wire". "Increased British aid to Africa provides some much-needed leadership - a weak response at the G8 summit would be a tragedy," said Salil Shetty, chief executive of ActionAid.
Campaigners are hoping that if opposition from the US and Japan scuppers hopes of more aid, deeper debt relief and a better deal on trade for Africa, Mr Blair can persuade his fellow leaders to hold a special summit in an African country. "If G8 leaders fail in Canada, they must agree to redouble their efforts and must agree to convene a special summit in Africa next year to agree a more concrete plan," said Justin Forsyth, head of policy of Oxfam. Mr Blair's spokesman said the prime minister had been "appalled" to discover on his visit to Africa this year that a child died every three seconds. Part of the increased British aid will go on health, along with education, conflict prevention and building better governance. The prime minister told aid agencies it would require some "heavy lifting" to get the G8 to commit itself to Britain's agenda. Mr Blair wants rich countries to commit themselves to eradicating polio in four years, offering a better deal on trade for Africa, and providing more resources for the 10 countries in danger of emerging from the international debt relief process more indebted than they were at the start. But the prime minister's spokesman acknowledged that past G8 summits had failed to deliver: "We have not achieved what we promised at successive summits."
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From Business Day, 27 June
Mugabe 'conceals bad human rights record’
Harare - As the African Human Rights Commission continue its probe into rights abuses in Zimbabwe, President Robert Mugabe is reportedly trying to whitewash his appalling human rights record. State media reports say Mugabe told the investigating team in a closed meeting on Tuesday that his government brought respect for people's rights in Zimbabwe and had become the "custodian" of those rights. "We are the custodians of these rights we brought at a cost," Mugabe reportedly said. Despite overwhelming evidence of gross human rights violations by government spanning more than 20 years including accusations of genocide against Ndebele minorities during the 1980s Mugabe has continued to insist he was the guardian of Zimbabweans' rights. The investigating team raised concern to authorities over violence associated with land seizures, vicious attacks against judges and lawyers, lawlessness, electoral fraud, harassment of journalists, and repression.
However, Mugabe is said to have tried to air-brush these issues by dwelling on colonial iniquities and the liberation struggle, land expropriations, and other excuses to divert attention from his regime's abuses. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), however, told the commission that Mugabe's government has violated human rights on a massive scale. MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube told the team that his party's members have been victims of systematic repression in the form of killings, torture, rape, kidnappings, disappearances, and intimidation. Meanwhile, Britain has donated an additional £22m to the hunger-stricken Zimbabwe for humanitarian aid through the World Food Programme. The British high commission in Harare said the money was part of a £45m aid package for Southern Africa to avert the widespread and deteriorating famine.
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From ZWNEWS, 27 June
Tutu calls for fresh elections
Desmond Tutu has called for fresh elections in Zimbabwe. In a foreword to a new report by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition on the current turmoil in Zimbabwe, the Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, and veteran South African anti-apartheid campaigner, made a frank and unequivocal appeal to the international community, and Zimbabwe’s neighbours, to press for fresh presidential elections. "It is now clear that the resolution to the Zimbabwe crisis can only be found in recapturing the legitimacy of government and returning the country to a fair and just rule of law," the Archbishop said. "Sadly, evidence shows that the presidential elections in March were not fair and thus the current government cannot regain this legitimacy. A new vote, with guarantees of fairness and free expression, will undoubtedly be necessary."
Tutu’s sentiments were echoed by Pius Ncube, Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo. "Over the last two years I have seen a steady deterioration of respect for human dignity and rights in Zimbabwe. In the past two months, I have known of a number of persons who have died of hunger right here in my city," Ncube said, recommending the report. "We have seen police and militia threaten, intimidate, and sometimes attack unarmed civilian protesters. We have spoken out, only to be threatened and attacked ourselves. Writing a report such as this one, by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, carries great risks. I pray that readers of this report will do their utmost to assist in stopping the unnecessary suffering that has been brought on this fine land. May God move you to act quickly and decisively," said Ncube. "The hard facts on the ground in Zimbabwe, so well compiled in this report, suggest an alarming array of policies and practices that may be leading the country to a catastrophic future," said Tutu.
FROM ZWNEWS: If you would like a copy of the Crisis in Zimbabwe report, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message - total size 1 Mb.
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From SABC News, 26 June
Zimbabwe government will arrest journalists again
A visiting human rights group was told by a government official that the ordeal two Zimbabwean reporters suffered at the hands of state security agents in 1999 "would happen again" if they reported "falsehoods". The Herald, a Zimbabwean newspaper, said that a delegation from the African Commission and People's Rights, probing reports of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, today asked Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Speaker of Parliament, about the illegal arrest of journalists Mark Chavunduka and Ray Choto. "What happened to them when they falsely wrote that the army was planning a coup would happen to them again if they repeat that because nobody is above the law," said Mnangagwa. The two were arrested by police after they reported in the weekly independent Standard that army officers had been arrested for plotting a coup to overthrow President Robert Mugabe. Police handed them over to military intelligence who allegedly tortured them for three days with electric shocks to their genitals, partial drowning and assault. Mugabe later endorsed the arrests and dismissed an appeal from the judiciary to publicly assert his support for the rule of law. Court orders that the alleged atrocity be investigated have also been ignored.
"We installed the law when we took over at independence (in 1980) and there can never be anybody who can preach the rule of law to us at the moment," Mnangagwa was quoted as saying. The visit of the commission, founded by a charter drawn up by African presidents, follows two years of political strife in Zimbabwe. The three-person commission, led by Jainaba Johm of Gambia, and including prominent South African human rights official Barney Pityana, met Mugabe earlier today. During the meeting, Mugabe told them Zimbabweans were enjoying human rights that had been secured by the country's war against white minority rule in the 70s, The Herald said. "We are the custodians of these rights we bought at a cost," Mugabe said. The commission also met senior officials of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change as well as Jonathan Moyo, the Information Minister, who was quoted by The Herald as saying: "Zimbabwe is a much more stable and peaceful country than most countries in Africa." He blamed "the whites factor" for the country's "bad publicity".
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From ZWNEWS, 27 June
Torture now of epidemic proportions
The use of torture by the government in Zimbabwe has now assumed epidemic proportions, according to Zimbabwean human rights activists. The evidence, from epidemiological studies, show a systematic use of torture for political purposes, which goes well beyond mere physical assaults generated by heated political sentiments. Speaking yesterday at a London meeting hosted by the Law Society of England and Wales, an array of speakers presented the evidence to back up their claim. The event, held to commemorate the UN International Day for the Victims of Torture, focused specifically on Zimbabwean victims of torture. In a moving testimony, amid the grand tranquillity of the Law Society’s gilt, marble and wood-panelled reading room, Tapson Muzuwa spelled out his personal experience of the systematic persecution of the government’s political opponents. Muzuwa, an activist for the National Constitutional Assembly and subsequently for the MDC, described in graphic detail the harassment, threats and torture which finally lead him to be granted political asylum in the UK. His account was put in a broader context by Tony Reeler, who set out the evidence from studies by the Amani Trust of which he is Clinical Director.
Contradicting frequent government claims that violence is a feature of Zimbabwean politics resulting from heated party-political passions, Reeler said that the evidence showed that the physical assaults, beatings and killings were orchestrated and systematic. Physical injuries were often of the same type wherever they occurred, with beatings on the soles of the feet and buttocks, and perforated eardrums indicating a policy disseminated through the Zanu PF network of "war veterans", militia, police, army and CIO. Reeler, who this week received the prestigious Eclipse Award from the US-based Centre for Victims of Torture, also warned that the decrease in political violence perpetrated by the government and its supporters in recent weeks has begun to be reversed. Albert Muzarurwa of the Legal Resources Foundation, described in detail the raft of repressive laws designed to stifle dissent in Zimbabwe. Lucy Winskell, chair of the Law Society’s International Human Rights Committee, spoke in support of the recently arrested members of the Law Society of Zimbabwe. Michael Ellman, board member of the Fédération Internationale des Ligues des Droits de l'Homme, and Steven Powles, ICC section head of the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales, also set out the possibilities for international legal redress for victims of torture.
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From The Daily News, 26 June
Serious shortage of salt hits Zimbabwe
There is a serious shortage of salt in Zimbabwe. Visits to six major Harare supermarkets in search of the commodity on Monday yielded nothing. The shelves had no salt and frustrated shoppers were walking out empty-handed. The country has for long been experiencing major shortages of basic food commodities such as sugar, maize meal, wheat, cooking oil and even soap. Some of the major shortages came as a direct result of the government’s chaotic land reform programme and the drought. "Sugar supplies have been dwindling in the past two weeks because of a plant breakdown," said Tapera Choto, a shop floor supervisor at OK. "Our customers have been coming into the shop in search of most basic commodities, only to go back home empty- handed. The shelves are empty as you can see." He said Zimbabwe does not produce salt locally, but relies on imports from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. "Since it is imported, salt has to be paid for in scarce foreign currency, which leads to a shortage of the commodity. The next shipment of salt will definitely make it more expensive than it is now," Choto said.
Salt is currently pegged at US$65 (Z$3 575) a tonne, making it one of the cheapest commodities on the international market. Helen Chinamasa of a newly-opened Spar supermarket said they had been informed by their suppliers, Blue Ribbons and National Foods, that they no longer had any salt in stock due to dwindling foreign currency shortages. A frustrated shopper at the Fife Avenue Shopping Centre said: "This is terrible. I cannot believe that Zimbabwe has sunk this low. The absence of salt from the shelves will soon be felt since iodised salt prevents goitre. We cannot do without salt." Farai Zizhou, of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, said the salt shortage was as a direct result of the foreign currency crisis. Efforts to get a comment from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare on the implications of the salt shortage were fruitless since the acting minister, Dr David Parirenyatwa was said to be out of his office.
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From The Financial Gazette, 27 June
Iron fist will fail, analysts warn
A nervous Zimbabwe government has put its opponents under siege in what analysts this week said was a futile effort to thwart swelling public anger and agitation over the administration’s failure to end a worsening economic and food crisis. They said the government was panicking at the prospects of mass protests threatened by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "The strategy is to thoroughly terrorise the population into submission as a way of neutralising the impending MDC-led mass action," University of Zimbabwe (UZ) political analyst Masipula Sithole told the Financial Gazette. The MDC has threatened to call mass protests soon to force President Robert Mugabe, who it accuses of stealing a presidential election earlier this year, to re-stage the ballot. In a show of force unprecedented since Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF party wrested power from British colonialists 22 years ago, armed police have in the past few weeks swooped on the opposition, arresting nearly 100 MDC activists. The law enforcement agency has also broken up social gatherings and university student meetings, arguing that they could be used to mobilise support for the proposed strike. The government has also intensified a crackdown on the country’s independent media by arresting and sending several journalists to the courts for alleged contravention of sections of a tough media law passed earlier this year. Sithole said by publicly wielding the iron fist, the government was sending a clear message to ordinary Zimbabweans on the cost of joining any protest against it.
UZ Institute of Development Studies associate professor Brian Raftopoulos said the government’s high-handed approach was an admission it did not have any solution to the deepening political, economic and food crisis. Nearly half of Zimbabwe’s 12 million people face starvation because of poor rains last season but largely because Zanu PF supporters disrupted agricultural production when they seized land from large-scale producing white farmers. International isolation of Zimbabwe’s government, which intensified following Mugabe’s controversial election victory in March, has only helped quicken the meltdown of a crumbling economy already sapped by lack of foreign aid, hard cash, runaway inflation and unemployment and mass poverty. Said Raftopoulos: "They (the government) have no solution to the crises facing the nation and they see suppression of all voices of dissent as a way of consolidating their hold on power. What we are seeing are the typical signs of dictatorship."
The police force, accused by many Zimbabweans of partisanship, two weeks ago shot and killed Harare taxi driver Lloyd Midzi at a road block because he did not stop when ordered to. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena later regretted the killing but said the road blocks had been put up in most of Harare to counter the MDC’s threatened mass action. A week later armed police forcibly broke up an MDC-organised meeting in central Harare, which was being held to commemorate the Day of the African Child. The police said they feared the gathering posed a threat to public peace. Several MDC activists, including some of the party’s legislators and journalists covering the meeting, were severely assaulted by police. But even more revealing of how insecure the embattled government has become was the police ’s reaction to UZ students innocently celebrating Senegal’s extra-time victory against Sweden at the ongoing World Cup soccer in Japan and South Korea. In no time, armed riot police had descended on the college’s campus grounds, where the celebrations were taking place, mistakenly thinking that the students were protesting against the government.
The police also dispersed a meeting of UZ students seeking to elect a new leadership. A few days later, police in Harare’s Mabvuku township broke up a crowd watching social soccer because they suspected it was an MDC meeting to mobilise for mass action. "Every little thing is a cause for strong reaction from the authorities. It just shows how insecure the government feels," Raftopoulos acknowledged. But Sithole said the government’s use of strong-arm tactics amid worsening social and economic hardships among citizens would not silence opposition against it. "It can only achieve the opposite," he noted. "We have seen this in other countries where governments have attempted to quell discontent by using force against the people," Sithole said. "In the long run, these governments have failed and there is no valid reason to believe the government of Zimbabwe will succeed where others have failed."
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Comment from the New York Times, 26 June
African opportunity
Africa has enjoyed too few of globalization's benefits and suffered too many of its costs. The continent's future should get the attention it deserves at this week's summit of Group of 8 democracies in Canada. On the table Thursday will be an African proposal for a new economic bargain that should push President Bush, the leaders of seven other industrialized nations and the presidents of South Africa, Nigeria, Senegal and possibly Algeria beyond the usual platitudes about cooperation. The proposal, known as the New Partnership for Africa's Development, resembles Mr. Bush's plan for directing increased American foreign aid to countries following enlightened policies. African nations would commit to fair elections, respect for human rights, better education and health care, and financial accountability. Western countries would deliver more aid, freer trade and increased private investment. Mechanisms still to be spelled out would review performance on both sides. To be credible, the reviewers must be fully independent of government. African leaders in particular have too readily excused each other's shortcomings in the name of African solidarity.
Africa's record of political and economic achievement has been mixed in recent years. Multiparty elections have increased dramatically, but not all of them have been free and fair. Earlier this year, Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, used fraud and violence to rig his re-election. In contrast, Mozambique, Botswana, Senegal and Ghana, among others, have held admirably honest elections. Several countries, including Ghana, Uganda and Mozambique, have followed market-based economic policies with generally successful results. Elsewhere, in places like Nigeria and Angola, pervasive corruption has cheated ordinary citizens and discouraged needed investment.
Two spokesmen for the proposed new economic partnership with the West, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, have damaged their credibility by failing to press effectively for new elections in Zimbabwe. Mr. Mbeki also sabotaged health care in his country by opposing, until very recently, the use of drugs that block transmission from mothers to children of the virus that causes AIDS, while Mr. Obasanjo has failed to curb corruption and has tolerated serious human rights abuses by Nigeria's armed forces. The G-8 leaders need to raise these issues with their African guests, although Mr. Bush seems to be the only one inclined to do so. They should also be prepared to direct ample resources to Africa's decently governed countries.
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From Business Day (SA), 28 June
G-8 Nepad response disappoints Africans
Plan does not go far enough' on issues such as debt relief and market access
Calgary - African delegates were last night putting a brave face on their disappointment with the Africa Action Plan released by Group of Eight (G-8) leaders at their summit meeting in Kananaskis, Canada. The plan was billed as a response to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad), but African officials said that the G-8 had not gone far enough on aid, debt relief, market access and the financing of infrastructure. One adviser to an African leader said it appeared that instead of embracing Nepad which four African leaders, including President Thabo Mbeki, travelled to Kananaskis to promote the G-8 had adopted a "wait-and-see attitude". As part of their plan, the G-8 leaders committed themselves to ensuring that an extra $6bn a year flowed into Africa by 2006 - a pledge African delegates said would help reverse declining aid flows, but which was well below what was being requested. Under the proposal, which the summit's Canadian hosts have pushed, half of the new development assistance commitments of 12bn made earlier this year by the US, Canada and the European Union will be directed to Africa. The G-8 also said it was ready to make an extra $1bn available in debt relief to help eligible countries reduce external obligations to sustainable levels. But it spurned a bid by African countries for a rethink on subsidies, which are seen as harming Africa's global competitiveness, saying any reduction would be done within the framework of the World Trade Organisation. The plan says that it is the "G8's initial response, designed to encourage the imaginative effort that underlies Nepad".
Despite the initial disappointment and criticism, one delegate said the African group was pleased with the pledge of increased support for efforts to achieve peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Sudan. He said other positives were greater support for governance, health, education and information technology. Mbeki and the presidents of Algeria, Nigeria and Senegal were scheduled to give their response to the G-8 plan in the early hours of this morning SA time. The plan offers only general direction and clearly states that it will be up to individual G-8 governments to make their own decisions on how to assist Nepad. It does not contain time frames for the achievement of specific development goals. But it does amount to a clear commitment to focus aid on countries that are making efforts to fulfil Nepad's objectives on political and economic governance. "Our partners will be selected on the basis of measured results. This will lead us to focus our efforts on countries that demonstrate a political and financial commitment to good governance and the rule of law, investing in their people and pursuing policies that spur economic growth and alleviate poverty."
Nongovernmental organisations were even more critical that African governments. Neville Gabriel, director of the justice and peace department of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference, described the G-8 plan as a "no-action plan" and a rehash of past statements. A spokesman for Oxfam, the international aid and advocacy group which has operations in Africa, said: "We are disappointed at this wasted opportunity. They're offering peanuts to Africa and repackaged peanuts at that," he said. In SA, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) said it would inspect the conditions the G-8 countries would attach to the funding. Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said that in the past money given to Africa had been subject to conditions which left the continent poorer.
The plan covers peace and security, strengthening institutions, implementing debt relief, increasing agricultural productivity, expanding knowledge, improving water resource management and health, as well as dealing with HIV/AIDS. It also includes a commitment to significantly increase aid to basic education, information technology development and the health sector. In making conflict prevention and resolution a top priority, the G-8 said it would provide additional support for efforts to bring peace to the Congo and Sudan and help support peace in Angola and Sierra Leone. Few specifics are given, but the plan says the G-8 will offer assistance with disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes. It also says it will deliver an Africa G-8 plan next year for the development of capabilities on the continent to undertake peace support operations.
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From The Daily News, 27 June
MDC mayoral candidate escapes petrol bomb attack
Daniel Mugomba, the MDC candidate for the Kadoma mayor election, narrowly escaped death when suspected Zanu PF supporters petrol-bombed his house in Rimuka suburb in the early hours of Tuesday, destroying property worth more than $700 000. The election is due at the end of next month. Mugomba, 48, was unanimously chosen by the MDC last week to stand in the election scheduled for 27-28 July. He said: "I was asleep when the incident happened. I suspect the purpose of the attack was to kill me or at least to destroy my particulars before the nomination court sits next week. I am lucky to be alive as you can see from the extensive property damage." The nomination court sits on 4 July. The candidate said he escaped unhurt. Zanu PF is fielding Fanuel Phiri, the acting Kadoma mayor, who took over the job after the death of Ernest Shamuyarira in February. Mugomba said two petrol bombs were hurled into the house resulting in the destruction of two bedroom windows. All the property in the bedroom was gutted. "I suspect this was done by Zanu PF supporters in order to stop me from taking part in the election," he said. Mugomba reported the matter to the police but when asked for comment yesterday, a police officer at Rimuka police station said the officer-in-charge was out of his office on business. Mugomba said both the fire brigade and the police responded quickly to his report and part of his property was rescued by the fire-fighters because the fire was only limited to his bedroom. "The police were very co-operative following the report," he said.
Mugomba, an engineer by profession, is the chairman of the Kadoma Residents and Ratepayers Association, district chairman of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and chairman of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) water project research in the area. Despite the temporary setback, Mugomba vowed to remain focussed on the key problems affecting the residents of Kadoma. "I want to urge the residents of Kadoma to be tolerant, desist from any form of political violence and to pursue the development of our city," he said. He said his party had promised to beef up security at his house in order to safeguard his life and property. Learnmore Jongwe, the MDC spokesperson yesterday condemned the attack, saying: "The MDC is worried by these wanton acts of terrorism by Zanu PF, which is illegitimately clinging to power after stealing the March presidential election. The attempt on Mugomba's life is evidence that Zanu PF has permanently adopted violence as an integral part of its campaign strategy in every election." Mugomba said the attack was the first major incident of political violence in the area since the March presidential election, controversially won by President Mugabe. The attack comes at a time when a delegation of the African Commission on People’s Rights is in the country to meet a number of organisations, including political parties and government officials, to hear evidence on alleged human rights violations.
Kadoma town falls under the Kadoma Central constituency which was won by the MDC's Austin Mupandawana in the 2000 parliamentary election. Mupandawana polled 12 049 votes against Zanu PF's 5 666. In the 9 - 11 March presidential election, MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai polled 14 446 against Mugabe's 9 346 votes in Kadoma. The MDC has won all the mayoral elections conducted since the 2000 parliamentary poll in which it won 57 seats, mostly in urban areas. Bulawayo, Harare, Chitungwiza, Masvingo and Chegutu now have MDC mayors.
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From The Cape Times (SA), 27 June
Zim takes hard line on 'soft' prosecutor
Zimbabwe's government wants to dismiss a state prosecutor who has recommended a fine instead of a jail term for a British journalist charged with publishing "false news". Sources in the ministry of justice have confirmed a report by the state-owned Herald newspaper that the government is investigating the prosecutor, Thabani Mpofu. Mpofu told the court during Andrew Meldrum's trial last week that if the journalist for the Guardian was convicted, the state would recommend that he be fined and would not seek a jail term. The sources said Mpofu's remarks had incensed Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo, who wanted to see Meldrum jailed. Moyo complained to the Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, said a ministry source. "(Moyo) accused Mpofu of going soft on the Meldrum case," said the source. "He is talking of Mpofu's involvement in a British conspiracy to acquit Meldrum. Moyo and Chinamasa want Mpofu fired." Efforts to reach Chinamasa for comment failed. Moyo has banned interviews with journalists working for the independent press. The charges against Meldrum arose from a report that supporters of President Robert Mugabe had decapitated a woman in front of her two daughters. The story appeared in the Daily News and was distributed by other news organisations. It later turned out that the information given to the newspaper was false. The Daily News retracted the story. But the government went on to arrest Meldrum and journalists at the Daily News.
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From VOA News, 27 June
Zimbabwe opposition supporters remain imprisoned despite Supreme Court order
Harare - Two supporters of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, who were arrested last November, are still in prison despite a Supreme Court order for their release one week ago. The two young men are charged with kidnapping and murdering a veteran of Zimbabwe's independence war. When the body of war veteran Cain Nkala was shown on state television last year, the two suspects, Khatani Sibanda and Sazani Mpofu, told viewers they played a part in his death. A few days later, the two men told their lawyer, in papers now filed with the high court, that they had been tortured into making the confession. Their lawyers have worked since November to secure the release of the two on bail. There have already been four court orders for their release, the latest by Zimbabwe's chief justice, Godfrey Chidyausuku. But the prisons department ignored the court orders, and has now been charged with contempt of court for failing to release the two men. The two suspects were brought to court again Thursday. A state-controlled newspaper reported new arrest warrants have been issued against them in anticipation of their release on bail. Legal sources say the new warrants are contrary to normal legal practice in Zimbabwe. They say that normally, a suspect released on bail remains free throughout the trial. Lawyers acting for the two men say that, if they are arrested again, they will have to begin the process all over again to petition courts for bail. The lawyers also say the government's case against Mr. Sibanda, Mr. Mpofu, and at least 10 other MDC members in the murder of Cain Nkala apparently rests entirely on the confessions that the two men now say were made under duress.
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From The Daily News, 27 June
Plot to kick Zvobgo out of Zanu PF fails
Masvingo - A plot by the ruling Zanu PF party’s Masvingo province to oust Dr Eddison Zvobgo, 67, at one time the party’s secretary for legal affairs and former long-time Cabinet minister, hit a snag this week because the provincial body has no power to expel him. Zvobgo, a founding member of Zanu PF, dismissed the attempt, saying those conspiring to remove him were "small boys" in the Masvingo executive. His sin, according to Zanu PF’s Masvingo executive, stems from his failure to campaign for President Mugabe’s re-election last March. Zvobgo yesterday described the individuals behind the plot as "too junior" to remove him from the party. He said: "Those who have been talking of firing me are too junior to me. I am a senior member of the party and cannot be summoned by small boys."
In a letter copied to the provincial executive, the Masvingo Zanu PF district co-ordinating committee, chaired by Absolom Mudavanhu, recommended that Zvobgo, the MP for Masvingo South, be expelled. Zvobgo, a former politburo member, now sits in the party’s central committee. The provincial executive, chaired by Dr Samuel Mumbengegwi, later adopted the proposal and intended to forward it to the national executive as party factionalism in Masvingo continues to rage. But a Zanu PF provincial meeting on Saturday, which was attended by Zvobgo, agreed that it was out of the provincial executive’s jurisdiction to eject senior party members. A Zanu PF official who refused to be named said yesterday: "The provincial executive has no power to restructure the central committee. Zvobgo is a senior party member and cannot appear before the provincial executive. The meeting resolved that it was unconstitutional to do so."
Last month, the Zanu PF spokesman for Masvingo, Raymond Takavarasha, said the party was on a restructuring exercise which would result in Zvobgo being gradually eased out. Contacted for comment yesterday, Takavarasha claimed the weekend meeting discussed the restructuring exercise, not the Zvobgo issue. Zvobgo, who has in the past been told by senior party members, including the late Border Gezi, to leave Zanu PF, has declared he will not leave the party he helped form with colleagues such as Mugabe. The Masvingo strongman was dropped from most key party organs after the parliamentary election in 2000. He refused to work with the Mumbengegwi executive in the run-up to the 9-11 March presidential poll, saying he did not want to be used. Zvobgo slaughtered 14 beasts in celebration of Zanu PF’s victory in the 2000 parliamentary election.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 27 June
DRC's back covered by SA bridging loan
South Africa's National Treasury has given the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo a bridging loan to the equivalent of R760-million to help them country clear its International Monetary Fund (IMF)liabilities. According to a Cabinet statement, issued after its fortnightly meeting on Wednesday, the loan would allow the DRC to, once again, draw resources from the IMF's poverty alleviation facility. The loan was for 75-million Special Drawing Rights (SDR) - a currency term used by the IMF and World Bank for international aid transactions. "This will help clear the DRC's overdue obligations with the IMF and allow that country to draw resources under the IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility," government representative Joel Netshitenzhe said in the statement. Treasury officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
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From The Weekend Australian, 29 June
Zimbabwe food crisis warning
Harare - Zimbabwe’s food crisis is "very serious", a senior UN official said today, warning that millions of people will face famine in the coming months unless quick and decisive action is taken. Zimbabwe "is facing a food crisis even in harvest time", Kenzo Oshima, UN under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs told a press conference after a three-day visit to the southern African country which used to be considered the breadbasket of the region. "There will be a more grave situation in the coming months affecting millions of people in this country ... unless it is addressed promptly and boldly," he said. In its latest humanitarian report, received today, the UN said 5.5 million Zimbabweans face hunger during the next year, and warned that the country will need to import more than 1.8 million tonnes of cereal to survive until the 2003 harvest. Government plans to import about 312,000 tonnes of food, while donors and several agencies have begun working to import grains, according to the report.
Oshima is leading a UN-team on a tour of four southern African nations threatened by famine. After Zimbabwe, they are due to visit Malawi, Zambia and Angola. He met with Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe yesterday, as well as with finance minister Simba Makoni, social welfare minister July Moyo and agriculture minister Joseph Made, as well as with foreign ambassadors and non-government organisations based here. Oshima described his meetings with government officials as a "very frank and interesting exchange of views". Zimbabwe's food shortages have been blamed in part on a drought, and in part on Mugabe's tumultuous land reforms, in which more than 90 per cent of white-owned commercial farms have been targeted for resettlement by blacks. Under a new law, about 2,900 white-owned farms were supposed to stop working on Monday, but many farmers ignored the deadline, according to the Commercial Farmers Union which represents them.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 28 June
Food shortage claims 27
Despite president Robert Mugabe's claims that nobody will die of hunger, critical food shortages in the country have so far claimed about 30 lives through malnutrition-induced diseases in the drought-stricken provinces of Matabeleland North and Masvingo, it emerged this week. A staff member at Binga District Hospital this week said food shortages in the district had reached critical levels and a considerable number of local people were surviving on roots and leaves. The staff member said the hospital had recorded 27 child deaths due to malnutrition-related diseases since the beginning of the year. "The situation has been worsened by the pulling out of two donors, CCJP and Save the Children Foundation, which used to distribute food to starving rural folk," the staff member said. The two organisations pulled out after war veterans allegedly demanded that priority in food distribution be given to Zanu PF supporters.
A medical officer in Masvingo province said HIV and Aids-related deaths had risen by at least 25% due to malnutrition. "It is a basic fact that a good diet, especially proteins, can prolong the life of a person carrying the virus," said the medical officer. "With this severe drought, malnutrition has played havoc on Aids sufferers and we have begun to see an increase in HIV-related deaths. I can say the rate has gone up at least 25% in the last six months," he said. Apart from the massive food shortages, there is a real threat of water shortages in Matabeleland and Masvingo provinces. According to a United Nations Water and Sanitation Assessment report, the situation is set to get worse as there are indications of a serious reduction in groundwater in the most affected areas.
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From News24 (SA), 28 June
UN pledges food aid to Zim
Harare - The United Nations called on Friday for a massive food relief effort for Zimbabwe, where severe shortages caused by drought and government land seizures threaten millions of people with starvation. UN Under Secretary General Kenzo Oshima, the world body's top emergency relief co-ordinator, said President Robert Mugabe's government had agreed to work out a plan under which the world body would mobilise more food assistance for the country. Aid agencies say four to six million of Zimbabwe's nearly 14 million people need food aid to offset shortages caused by drought and aggravated by Mugabe's plan to seize white-owned commercial farms for black resettlement. "The situation is very serious... and unless there is massive effort to get in aid, it (the food shortages) will have a very devastating effect," Oshima told reporters after a three-day visit to assess the country's food needs. He did not give details of his talks with the government.
Almost 13 million people in six southern African states - Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland - are at risk of famine unless they receive food aid. Two successive years of poor harvests caused by drought, floods and frost, coupled with economic and political crises, have slashed food availability and caused prices of the staple food maize to skyrocket. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) has said it needs some $400 million from donor governments to tackle the crisis in southern Africa. Asked whether he agreed with the view of some aid groups and regional analysts that Zimbabwe's food crisis was largely man-made, Oshima said he was not there to discuss politics. "It is not for me to argue whether there are problems, natural or man-made. My duty is to co-ordinate humanitarian relief... and the magnitude of the problem affecting Zimbabwe is very serious," he said. "... Our responsibility is not to engage in political talks but to make sure that the people in need are assisted. We let others deal with the political problems," Oshima added.
Oshima said the country's needs were about 40% of the total food aid requirements for the southern African region. Analysts say drought and Mugabe's land policies were responsible for a 60% fall in the production of Zimbabwe's staple maize food this year. Mugabe vowed to press ahead with the land programme on Wednesday in his first public comments since the expiry this week of a government deadline ordering nearly 3 000 farmers to stop working their land. A 45-day countdown for the white farmers to leave their land began on Tuesday, but many vowed to stay put rather than watch vital crops rot in a nation short of food. Two white farmers have filed suit seeking to block the government order in a test case closely watched by thousands of others also facing eviction.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 28 June
Govt approves GM maize imports
The government has approved the importation of genetically-modified maize as part of efforts to feed starving Zimbabweans, the Zimbabwe Independent established this week. World Food Programme (WFP) public affairs officer in Zimbabwe, Makena Walker, this week confirmed government had agreed to allow GM maize into the country. "The government of Zimbabwe has agreed to take GM maize so long as it is milled immediately upon arrival in the country," Walker said. The Independent understands the Bio-Safety Board in the Office of the President and Cabinet recently wrote to the WFP, which is co-ordinating relief efforts in the country, stating government policy regarding the importation of GM maize. Walker confirmed receipt of the letter but could not provide further details. Earlier this month the government was reported to have turned down GM maize from the United States because it threatened beef exports and local maize seed varieties. In a televised programme, Talking Farming, Lands and Agriculture minister Joseph Made said GM maize was "unacceptable in Zimbabwe".
Maize initially destined for Zimbabwe was eventually shipped to Malawi and Zambia who are also facing severe food shortages. Walker said the WFP placed no restrictions on GM foods which had passed the safety standards of a donating country and were accepted by the recipient country. "There are no restrictions placed on GM foods under the Codex Alimentarius, which is the joint World Health Organisation and Food and Agriculture Organisation body dealing with safety and other standards for trade in foods. WFP neither tests nor labels for GM content since that is not called for by the Codex and there are no internationally-accepted standards for such tests," said Walker. A recent United Nations report said GMO products (maize meal) had been allowed into the country, but only by special waiver on a case-by-case basis. The waivers are granted after consultations with the Bio-Safety Board, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, and the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare. "The administrative complexity of obtaining the waiver could impede actual food aid delivery by delaying logistical timeline necessities," the report said. "The UN system and donors are negotiating with government to establish a more streamlined means of bringing GMO products into the country in order to ease the current food crisis," said the UN. Last week we incorrectly reported that the WFP had imported 117 000 tonnes of food under the aid programme to Zimbabwe. The WFP this week said pledges of up to 66 600 tonnes had been made to date.
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From News24 (SA), 28 June
Zim rights abuse probe ends
Harare - An African commission on human rights on Friday wrapped up a six-day fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe, where it was investigating widespread allegations of rights abuses. Jainaba Johm, who headed the delegation from the African Commission on Human and People's Rights, said the team had accumulated 20kg of documents, interviewed victims of political violence, and met with officials from government, police, the opposition, pro-democracy groups and local rights bodies. "As for what our conclusions will be at the end of the day, that is for our report," she told a press conference. Her team's report will be released at the commission's next meeting in Banjul, Gambia, from October 17 to 31. Even if the commission, which is part of the Organisation for African Unity (OAU), confirms reports of abuses, it has few powers to force changes in Zimbabwe, suffering from more than two years of political and economic crisis. "We cannot enforce, but our documents have been very persuasive. Governments have adopted some of our recommendations," Johm said. The commission's visit came as international rights watchdog Amnesty International accused Zimbabwe's government of systematically shielding people responsible for torture, abductions and political killings from justice. The government used armed gangs to crush the opposition, subvert the rule of law, undermine the judiciary and harass the private press, Amnesty charged. Zimbabwe's Human Rights NGO Forum has documented 55 deaths in political violence this year, mainly surrounding the March presidential election.
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From The Daily News, 28 June
Private media barred from meeting human rights group
The government, in a bid to whitewash its appalling human rights record, did not invite the independent media to speak to the African Commission on Human and People's Rights delegation, in the country this week to probe allegations of human rights abuses. On Wednesday, government apologists William Chikoto of The Sunday Mail, Pikirayi Deketeke of The Herald and Tafataona Mahoso from the Harare Polytechnic's mass communications school, lined up to praise the government before the commission at the Harare International Conference Centre. No one from the independent media was invited by the government secretariat, resulting in Andy Moyse of the Media Monitoring Project in Zimbabwe (MMPZ) having to run around to ensure the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and the MMPZ were given a hear |
