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Archived News
3rd December 2002
MDC Briefing Note 22 November
Zimbabwe Regime admits failure on land reform
Justice for Agriculture - Land Reform NOT over
MDC statement to SADC EU meeting
MDC response to 2003 Budget for Zimbabwe
Huge MDC rally in Harare
MDC condemns threats and use of violence on underpaid professionals
Zimbabwe boots AFP chief out of the country
Harare keeps media away from ICC visit
Zimbabwe's bull run turns tail
Aussies freeze Zim leaders' accounts
Fuel tops the list of commodities for which Zimbabweans queue up
BBC escapes from record libel payout
Government maize import monopoly challenged
Chinamasa wards off Mugabe, Makoni clash
War veterans deny starving Nkayi villagers food
Food aid deal collapses
Zimbabwe food crisis is rooted in politics
Famine 'very close', WFP warns
ACP MPs slam Zimbabwe
MDC to investigate army harassment of Binga villagers
Letter from Lubumbashi
The new veterans march home
Bid to boycott Bredenkamp's Sanyati Lodge
Logistics a key element of emergency operation
Resettled farmers in trouble
Zimbabwe gives farmers two weeks to surrender their grain
Barwe fires shots at war vet over land row
Gold lures farmers from land
Zim recalls commissioner after Mugabe attack
Fuel situation set to deteriorate
Brussels outcome no victory for Zimbabwe
Congo’s quiet man fights to rebuild nation
We have failed, says Made
Forex dealers attacked in Zimbabwe
'Hold your horses - Mugabe's going nowhere'
Mugabe flexes his muscles
Get on yer bike
Famine looms as commercial farms reduced to zero activity
Government denies tensions with Botswana
Mugabe 'to blame for region's woes'
Perlemoen poachers 'lived in luxury'
Jambanja
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 27 November
Zimbabwe boots AFP chief out of the country
Harare The Zimbabwe government on Tuesday refused to renew the work permit of the AFP bureau chief in Harare, who must now leave the country by the end of the week. AFP's chairman and chief executive officer Bertrand Eveno expressed the international news agency's "deep regret" at the decision in a letter to the Zimbabwe government. Stephane Barbier (43) who has been the bureau chief in the five-country regional office in Harare since July 2001, must leave by Saturday when his current work permit expires. Eveno said in the letter that AFP has maintained a regional office in Zimbabwe for 22 years "acting always in good faith and strict compliance with all laws and regulations of your country." "I am obliged to register Agence France-Presse's sincere disappointment in this matter," Eveno said. In September the Zimbabwe authorities refused to renew the work permit of Griffin Shea, a US national working for AFP. Barbier's initial one-year permit had been extended by six months in June this year.
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo in July indicated to AFP that under the country's new press law, only Zimbabwean journalists would be allowed to work in the country. President Robert Mugabe enacted a law in March that imposed stringent limits on press freedoms for independent and foreign journalists working in the country. The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act allows only permanent residents or Zimbabwean nationals to operate as journalists on a long-term basis. Foreign journalists may work only for an unspecified "limited period" or cover specific events. The Supreme Court is due to make a ruling in a lawsuit filed by Zimbabwean journalists challenging the constitutionality of the law. Subject to registration under the new law, AFP plans to keep its Harare office manned by Zimbabwean journalists but the regional office will move to Johannesburg, South Africa. The Harare bureau covers Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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From The Nation (Kenya), 27 November
Harare keeps media away from ICC visit
Paul Redfern
Nairobi - Zimbabwe's decision to ban some reporters from covering the International Cricket Council's critical visit to the country this week could have profound consequences for whether or not it will be able to co-host the World Cup in February. Zimbabwe, along with Kenya and South Africa, was due to co-host the five week long tournament which starts in a little over two months time. The ICC visit is seen as critical in giving an endorsement for whether or not Zimbabwe would be allowed to co-host the World Cup. Its delegation will make up a decision on the grounds of security, safety and ground suitability after the visit ends tomorrow. While the ICC has tried to steer clear of the unfolding political crisis in the country, the decision of the Zimbabwe High Commission in London to refuse visas to two accredited journalists seeking to cover the trip, is likely to see intense western pressure put on the cricketing body to refuse Zimbabwe permission to co-host the tournament. British sports minister Richard Caborn said after yesterday's decision by the Zimbabwean authorities that the ICC "should consider whether this is a fit and proper place in which to run international matches."
The two journalists appear to have been banned despite giving an undertaking that they would only report on cricketing matters relating to the ICC visit and the World Cup. It has intensified fears that reporters will be banned from coming to the country to cover the World Cup in February. One of the men banned, Owen Slot, the Chief Sports Reporter for the Times newspaper said he had been asked to fax a statement to the Zimbabwean Ministry of Information saying that he would only write about the ICC delegation's visit and nothing else. He said he was specifically barred from writing about famine, the plight of white farmers and the suppression of political opposition. He would not have been allowed to travel to other parts of the country. After receiving notice that he was not going to be allowed to travel, Slot wrote that "it is to be hoped that the next three days will not be simply a case of going through the necessary processes. The ICC's take on all this is that ethical and moral issues are not its business. The sport-in-politics debate is not for its delegates, they are simply in the country to check on security and safety. (But) by banning the media, the natural conclusion is that there is something to hide." The Zimbabwe Cricket Union has tried to play down the issue insisting that the ICC delegation "will be pleasantly surprised by what they find." It has spent £480,000 (Sh60 million) updating facilities for the World Cup and stands to earn £3.8 million (Sh475 million) in television revenue as well as a percentage of tournament profits.
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From The Financial Times (UK), 26 November
Zimbabwe's bull run turns tail
By Tony Hawkins in Harare
A fortnight ago, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange industrials index at 130,900 was showing handsome real gains, even outpacing the country's rapidly escalating inflation rate. In a year fraught with controversial elections, serious drought, chaotic land resettlement and an estimated 11.9 per cent slide in real gross domestic product, the market had risen almost 168 per cent, compared with inflation of about 150 per cent. Not all of this can be explained by asset price inflation, though this was a contributory influence. Corporate results tell a surprising story. The most recent results of 20-odd industrial companies show a 31 per cent gain in pre-tax profits, crudely adjusted for inflation, while in US dollar terms, converted at a blend exchange rate - not the massively overvalued official rate - corporate profits are up 15 per cent this year. Remarkable though this is, no less astonishing has been the sudden dramatic reversal in the past two weeks. When Herbert Murerwa, the finance minister, in his 2003 budget tried to close the parallel market for foreign exchange, following this with a blanket price freeze on just about everything, the ZSE bull run collapsed into a rout. In just nine trading days, the index has lost almost 30 per cent of its value, closing on Tuesday at a four-month low of 92,162.
Prices have fallen right across the industrial board with Old Mutual - a much sought-after currency hedge - down a quarter. Meikles Africa, another currency hedge, is down 24 per cent, while Delta Corporation, which recently announced spectacular half-year results with US dollar profits up 200 per cent, has lost 34 per cent. Whether this is the much-anticipated shakeout or a temporary adjustment while entrepreneurs find their way around the latest, plainly unworkable, government controls remains to be seen. Businessmen and economists almost all agree that the three key planks of the Mugabe government's economic recovery platform a clampdown on the parallel market, a price freeze and the so-called "new deal" interest rate system - cannot, and will not, work. "It is not a matter of if they will unravel, but how and when," says one mining executive. "If they don't, we are not likely to be able to stay in business." This is because the new exchange rate policy apparently requires exporters to sell all their export earnings at the official exchange rate of Z$55 to the US dollar. Pre-budget, exporters were selling only 40 per cent at the official rate and the balance of 60 per cent at rates as favourable as Z$1,600 to the US unit, giving them an effective blend rate of more than Z$820.
The government's other measures are in trouble too. There has been a rush of price increases since the controls were imposed, with the price of milk going up 57 per cent at the weekend. Business believes they are unenforceable, though there is some nervousness about the government deploying the youth militia to ensure shopkeepers abide by the rules. It is the same story with interest rates. The fundamentals a borrowing requirement of 20 per cent of GDP when savings are less than half that - point to a monetary explosion and even higher inflation next year. However, the three pressure points - the exchange rate, interest rates and price controls - play out, it may be that investors have concluded that they have lived dangerously for long enough, awaiting some clarity on the economic policy front, before again plunging into so volatile a market.
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From News24 (SA), 25 November
Aussies freeze Zim leaders' accounts
Canberra - Australia's central bank on Monday ordered the nation's banks to freeze any accounts operated by nearly 80 Zimbabwean officials, including President Robert Mugabe. It was not immediately clear if Mugabe or any of those named by the Reserve Bank have assets in Australia. The measures are part of sanctions against the Mugabe government announced by Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer last month to protest Zimbabwe's deteriorating human rights situation. "With effect from today, the Reserve Bank has taken action to freeze the accounts of persons listed in the annex," the bank said in a statement. The annex named 77 people including Mugabe, his wife Grace, his sister Sabina Mugabe and Emmerson Mnangagwa, the parliamentary speaker. The list also includes cabinet secretary Charles Utete, army commander General Constantine Chiwenga, police commissioner Augustine Chihuri and Elisha Muzonzini, head of Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organization. "All transactions involving the transfer of funds or payments to, by the order of, or on behalf of such persons are prohibited," the Reserve Bank said.
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From Business Day (SA), 26 November
Fuel tops the list of commodities for which Zimbabweans queue up
Predictions of more drought may mean there is nothing to line up for
Harare Correspondent
Zimbabwe has become a land of long queues. At the TM Supermarket in Harare's Chadcombe shopping centre, a long line of people snakes out the door. Three other equally tortuous queues stretch across the adjacent road, almost blocking traffic. The situation is the same throughout urban Zimbabwe. People wake up early to queue for hours for bread, fuel, paraffin and maize meal. The fuel shortage has become particularly acute. Shortages of fuel have been occurring since 1999, sparked by lack of foreign currency to import or the country's inability to pay suppliers. Zimbabwe is getting fuel from Libyan oil company Tamoil. The government secured a 360m line of credit from Tripoli last year and renewed it in September, but this has failed to guarantee steady supplies due to erratic payments. While Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is an ally of Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, Tamoil is insisting on a commercial arrangement. Tamoil, which is based in Monaco, France, is owned 55% by Europoil Netherlands BV, a private consortium, and 45% by Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation. Initially, the fuel deal required government to pay Tamoil in domestic currency, which was remitted to the Jewel Bank, in which Libyans later bought a stake using that money, but the situation has now changed. Fuel is now supplied on a cash-on-delivery basis. Other companies that have been supplying Zimbabwe with fuel include Kuwait's Independent Petroleum Group and Sasol, whose 20m line of credit was reported recently in the press as having expired. In a recent admission of failure to resolve the fuel crisis, Mugabe recently complained of having sleepless nights as well as "stomach aches and headaches" as a result of scrounging for fuel. He subsequently ordered government to deregulate fuel imports to allow multinational companies to bring in their own consignments. Government and industry are currently working on mechanisms of implementing the new fuel policy. In the past 22 years, fuel procurement has been monopolised by the state-run National Oil Company of Zimbabwe. Government refused to liberalise the sector, arguing that fuel was a strategic commodity.
Bread shortages, meanwhile, have gripped Zimbabwe for the past six months. The lack of wheat stems from the collapse of agriculture as a result of government's land reforms, as well as drought conditions. Price controls, imposed on many basic commodities by the government last October in a bid to put a lid on skyrocketing inflation also played a role in the shortages. Earlier this month, the government extended the price freeze to cover fuel, newspapers and building material. This is likely to inflict further harm on companies that use inputs the prices of which are not controlled. The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries estimates that at least 1500 companies have closed in the past two years. Interconnected with shortages is Zimbabwe's inflation nightmare. Official estimates put inflation at 144,2%, while independent economists peg the figure at a minimum of 200%. During his national budget presentation earlier this month, Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa admitted that spiralling costs are now generating their own momentum, and that inflation is a national disaster. While other queues are getting longer as basic commodities' shortages become critical, queues for maize meal, Zimbabwe's staple food, may soon vanish as the commodity becomes increasingly scarce. With the country's meteorological offices predicting another drought next year, the queues will almost certainly disappear. But, in the meantime, Zimbabwe remains a country of queues - something that was difficult to imagine just three ago.
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From The Guardian (UK), 23 November
BBC escapes from record libel payout
Matt Wells, media correspondent
The BBC escaped the threat of a record libel payout last night when it agreed to pay £500,000 to an African diamond firm that it wrongly linked to Osama bin Laden. Oryx Natural Resources had been demanding £12m in damages which, if paid, would have been the most expensive libel in the BBC's history. But the diamond firm unexpectedly agreed to a much smaller amount, a month after a UN report claimed it was acting as a front for Robert Mugabe's army in Congo. Oryx says the issues are separate: it vigorously denies the UN findings. In a joint statement with Oryx, the corporation said: "The BBC regretted that a serious editorial mistake had occurred, and broadcast a full apology as a result of its error." Mark Damazer, the deputy director of BBC News, said: "The BBC is pleased that we have reached agreement with Oryx. We have made a mistake and were always prepared to pay Oryx the money they lost as a result." Broadcasting organisations usually take out insurance to cover libel losses. While the BBC would not say whether it was covered, legal sources said it was unlikely the corporation would be out of pocket. It is doubtful that insurance would have covered a £12m bill. Despite the settlement, serious questions remained about the quality of the journalism that led to the defamatory report. It claimed that a shareholder in a Congolese diamond mine was in jail for the bombings of US embassies in east Africa; the bombings were attributed to Bin Laden's terrorist network, al-Qaida. But it emerged that the BBC had confused two people with similar names. It had been prepared after pressure on BBC journalists to break exclusive stories. Oryx claimed it could have put the BBC right, given the chance. Diplomatic correspondent David Shukman and the Ten O'Clock News editor Mark Popescu - appointed four months earlier and with a reputation for a populist approach to news - were in the frame for a serious error of judgment.
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From IRIN (UN), 27 November
Government maize import monopoly challenged
Johannesburg - The Zimbabwe government's monopoly on maize imports, long cited as one of the reasons why the country is battling to keep up with food needs, is being challenged by a private importer which claims its constitutional rights have been violated. A World Food Programme cereal import progress report for mid-November recorded Zimbabwe's total uncovered cereal gap until the next harvest as 465,051 mt. But a government order issued last year has fixed the price of maize and given the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) sole distribution rights. This was to protect consumers during shortages brought on by a drought and disruptions to commercial farming during the land reform programme. In response, importer Frontline Marketing took the matter to the Supreme Court this week, arguing that the company's constitutional right to trade was being infringed. "My client [Frontline Marketing] trades in commodities and wants the opportunity to trade in maize," the firm's lawyer, Linda Chitato, told IRIN on Wednesday. The matter was heard by five judges, in accordance with challenges based on the constitution, and judgement was reserved, she said. Opposition Movement for Democratic Change agriculture spokesman Renson Gasela said the GMB should allow anyone to import maize, to overcome the current shortages. He conceded that prices of the unsubsidised commodity would increase, but "at least it would make it available." He said that at the moment the government had allowed brewers to import maize, but this was on condition it was used to brew beer, and not resold. "They should support anyone who wants to bring in maize," he told IRIN.
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From The Financial Gazette, 28 November
Chinamasa wards off Mugabe, Makoni clash
By Sydney Masamvu Assistant Editor
Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa coaxed former Finance Minister Simba Makoni to resign from parliament, averting a constitutional crisis and a confrontation between Makoni and President Robert Mugabe, government officials said this week. Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa told the House on Tuesday that Makoni and ailing former minister for health Timothy Stamps had resigned last week, paving the way for the appointment of new ministers Amos Midzi and Witness Mangwende as non-constituency MPs. While Stamps had long ago agreed to voluntarily relinquish his seat in Parliament, the government officials said Makoni, dropped from Mugabe’s "war Cabinet" along with Stamps in August, was adamant that he would not resign. They said Makoni’s intransigence had forced the government to delay announcing Stamps’ resignation The sources said as late as last Thursday, Chinamasa was still making frantic efforts to persuade the former Finance Minister to give up his seat. "There were a lot of efforts made by Chinamasa to get Makoni to relinquish his seat, it was not an easy process, no wonder why it took so long, up to the last day of the grace period, to resolve the issue," a senior government official privy to the negotiations told the Financial Gazette. "If the stalemate had extended up to Monday, we would have had a constitutional crisis," he added.
According to the constitution of Zimbabwe, only parliamentarians can serve as Cabinet ministers, but ministers can be appointed outside the House and given 90 days to formalise their status. Midzi and Mangwende were appointed in a Cabinet reshuffle in August and their grace period expired last Sunday, about three days before the November 21 and 22 resignation of Makoni and Stamps. Government officials said if Makoni had not resigned at the last minute, Mugabe would have been forced to intervene and order him to do so, otherwise Midzi and Mangwende, appointed Ministers of Energy and Transport respectively, would have had to resign from Cabinet last Sunday. But according to the constitution, Mugabe could not fire Makoni from parliament because he was appointed for the entire term of the House, which expires in 2005. Only elected parliamentarians can lose their seats if they are expelled from their parties. Since he was drooped from the Cabinet, Makoni has been attending parliamentary sessions, while Stamps had long ceased to do that.
Authoritative sources say Zanu PF, through Chinamasa, was forced to tell Makoni that he was brought in as a non-constituency parliamentarian on the understanding that he was serving the government as a minister, and that his status as MP would be revised if he was no longer in Cabinet. Chinamasa was unavailable for comment yesterday because he was attending a Politburo meeting. Makoni however told the Financial Gazette recently that he was not planning to relinquish his seat in parliament, but he could not be reached yesterday to explain his sudden u-turn as he was said to have gone out of the country on Tuesday. The former Finance Minister, seen by some commentators as a potential successor to Mugabe, was dropped from Cabinet after he differed with Zanu PF hardliners about the resolution of Zimbabwe’s economic crisis. Makoni advocated depreciation of the overvalued Zimbabwe dollar and the reestablishment of ties with the international community, policies opposed by Mugabe.
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From The Daily News, 28 November
War veterans deny starving Nkayi villagers food
From Our Correspondent in Bulawayo
Zanu PF supporters and so-called war veterans have intensified their reprisal campaign in Nkayi district in Matabeleland North against all suspected MDC supporters by denying them access to food aid. This lends weight to recent reports by the Roman Catholic Archbishop, Pius Ncube that some people, mostly MDC supporters, have died of hunger in Nkayi. Macala Mhlanga, the MDC constituency coordinator in Nkayi, who came to The Daily News offices in the company of two thin and visibly starving villagers this week said they were constantly denied food by some rowdy war veterans‚ who accused them of being used by British Prime Minister, Tony Blair and George W Bush, the American President, to cause "confusion and commotion" in the country. Mhlanga said the situation was very desperate and needed urgent attention. Siphiwe Nyathi, one of the villagers said her family was in serious need of food assistance as she had been barred from getting food that was donated by the World Food Programme because her husband was a perceived MDC stalwart.
"We are seeking assistance because Zanu PF is starving us saying we are supporting the wrong party. "Food is distributed at their rallies at which no suspected opposition supporter is allowed," Nyathi said. She said people were now depending on wild roots for sustenance. The villagers, she alleged, were told by the war vets and Zanu PF officials in the area that they would suffer the consequences of supporting a"British-sponsored party." Ethel Nkomo, another villager who had a child strapped to her back, said she was also denied food on the grounds that she was "grossly unpatriotic". "We are accused of being sell-outs because we support what they call an imperialist party bent on taking back the gains of independence to the whites. "My child is no longer going to school," Nkomo said. However, Christopher Chuma, the District Administrator denied the allegations of politicising food aid. He said they were all lies. "We are not discriminating against anyone, and that ’s a fact," Chuma said.
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From The Financial Gazette, 28 November
Food aid deal collapses
By Abel Mutsakani, Deputy Editor-in-Chief
A deal for the government to swap organic maize for genetically modified (GM) grain to feed close to seven million Zimbabweans facing starvation has virtually collapsed because Harare has insufficient maize stocks, jeopardising future food aid, the Financial Gazette established this week. The agreement, signed two months ago between the government and the United States of America, was supposed to result in Zimbabwe swapping naturally grown maize for genetically altered grain from the United States. An initial shipment of more than 17 000 tonnes of genetically modified maize donated by the US, enough to feed about 1.6 million hungry people for a month, was supposed to be exchanged for a similar quantity of organic maize. But the maize remains stockpiled at warehouses in neighbouring South Africa’s port city of Durban, two months after the government agreed it should be brought into the country. A spokesman for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Harare, Luis Clemens, confirmed that the maize, initially provided under the auspices of the USA’s Agency for International Development (USAID) but later handed over to WFP, was still outside Zimbabwe. "An agreement was signed for 17 500 tonnes of USA-donated maize, which was to be swapped for non-GM maize but that has not taken place yet," Clemens said yesterday.
There was no comment from Labour, Public Service and Social Welfare Minister July Moyo, who is in charge of food relief in Zimbabwe. But under the swap deal sealed in September, the WFP agreed to hand over the USA-donated maize to the government, which would mill it and distribute it to the public as mealie-meal. Harare would, in exchange, give the WFP 17 500 tonnes of naturally produced maize which the international food agency could distribute under its food relief programmes. The deal, which sources in the donor community say was intended to be a model for future food imports, was a compromise solution after Harare had objected to GM maize being brought into Zimbabwe. Harare, like other southern African governments facing hunger, says it does not want GM maize to be distributed in Zimbabwe. It fears farmers could plant it and endanger future agricultural exports, especially to the European Union, which has strict laws against the import of GM products.
The sources said the compromise deal was as good as dead because the government did not have the non-GM maize to exchange with donors. Drought and a controversial government programme to take over white-owned commercial farms has slashed maize production by at least 60 percent in the past year, making it difficult for the state to procure naturally grown grain. Zimbabwe also has no maize reserves stored for emergency situations such as the one it is facing. Sources said the government’s lack of maize stocks could derail future food donations especially since the USA is the largest single food donor. The USA contributes about half of all international emergency food aid requirements, but refuses to separate GM and non-GM food arguing it is harmless because Americans eat it. The USA announced this week that it had set aside US$104 million for food purchase for Zimbabwe but did not indicate whether the food would be bought from American producers or not. "This thing will not work anymore, not because the government does not want it to work, but because it does not have enough non-GMO maize to exchange and it is important to note that that also puts a big question on what will happen to future donations if they are GMO," a senior official with an international aid organisation said.
Clemens however declined to comment on future GM food donations. But aid agency officials say the collapse of the swap deal could hamper efforts to feed about 6.7 million Zimbabweans in need of emergency food aid, whose numbers could swell next year if the El Nino weather phenomenon hits southern Africa. The El Nino is associated with droughts in the region. "Past data had shown that this (El Nino conditions) could be accompanied by a drop in rainfall in the south of the country and a reduction in crop yields by between 20 to 40 percent," USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network said in its latest report on Zimbabwe. The organisation has called on the government and aid agencies to step up efforts to avert starvation as Zimbabwe’s food security situation worsens.
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From Knight Ridder (US), 27 November
Zimbabwe food crisis is rooted in politics
White farmers' land seized, going to seed
By Sudarsan Raghavan
Nyamandlovu - Joseph Makosana, 48, is a black war veteran who fought to free his country from white colonial rule. He recently took over a white-owned farm, one of the thousands that once helped to feed southern Africa. Now, he's struggling to grow corn. Gerry Southey, 40, is a white farmer. Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's government seized his farm two years ago and gave it to poor blacks. Now, it's a wasteland. The man-made roots of southern Africa's hunger crisis are visible in the lives of these two men at opposite ends of Zimbabwe's controversial land redistribution policies. Although they were born into different worlds, both their lives are imploding from the combustible mixture of long dry spells, political turmoil, colonial wounds and shoddy economic policies. In a resource-rich nation that once was self-sufficient, half the population of 12 million is facing chronic food shortages. This also could worsen the crisis in neighboring nations that traditionally buy food from Zimbabwe, aid workers say. An estimated 60 percent of Zimbabwe's commercial farms have stopped producing because of government evictions, threats from militant war veterans or fear of arrest, according to the Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe. The production of corn and other cereals has plummeted 70 percent this year, the United Nations says. The winter wheat harvest, the United Nations estimates, will fall as much as 45 percent. As a result, exports have plunged, bringing in very little of the foreign exchange the country needs to import food, aid workers say. Zimbabwe "would not be facing food shortages now if they had left the commercial sector to function as it had been before," said Andrew Natsios, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. "The disastrous decision to confiscate these farms tore up the one insurance policy the people had to get food."
Zimbabwe has been on the edge since 2000, when Mugabe, now 78, ordered the seizure of white-owned farms that were on property taken from blacks during British colonial rule. It was widely seen as a move to bolster his sinking popularity. White farmers, aid officials and Western diplomats agree that land redistribution is needed to undo colonialism's legacy in Zimbabwe, where whites make up 1 percent of the population but own 70 percent of the most fertile land. But they say the program's fast pace and Mugabe's hardball tactics have spawned violence and aggravated the food crisis. A dozen white farmers have been killed since the land redistribution campaign began in 2000, and nearly 3,000 have been evicted without compensation. At least 300 have been arrested, and Zimbabwe's parliament passed laws in October that make it even easier to seize white farmers' land. "Time is not on their side," Mugabe said on state radio. The United States and Europe have responded with economic sanctions and sharp condemnation. In October, Secretary of State Colin Powell blasted Mugabe for "the lack of respect for human rights and the rule of law" that has helped "push millions of people toward the brink of starvation." "It is absolute nonsense," Mugabe said, defending his land redistribution. "If anything, it's the only way to empower people to produce, not just enough for subsistence, but more. To enable them to enjoy life." But an estimated 150,000 black farm workers have lost their jobs, and although most of them are skilled farmers, they haven't received any of the seized land. Nor has Mugabe's government kept its promises to provide tractors, fertilizer, seeds, cattle and training, and Zimbabwe's 140 percent inflation has tripled the black-market prices of fertilizer, seeds and other goods.
Makosana, the former anti-colonial fighter, is proud to have a piece of the land that once belonged to his ancestors, but as he gazes at his untilled soil he sees a bleak future. The soft, red earth that surrounds his kraal, or homestead, in Matabeleland province is peppered with thin, mangled cornstalks. His granary is empty. On good days, he and his six children survive on black tea and one meal. Makosana's US$7-a-month government pension doesn't go far in these days of soaring corn prices. He and other war veterans who've settled on seized land nearby travel 100 miles south to Bulawayo to wait in long lines for food handouts. "Help us. We can learn how to get better," Makosana said in a tired voice dulled by months of hunger and dashed expectations. "The white farmers are necessary. They've got the expertise." In a normal year, Southey, the white commercial farmer, would be harvesting his crop of winter wheat now. He also used to grow corn, cotton, soybeans and sorghum. He exported flower seeds to the United States, Denmark and France. He had 120 head of cattle and 200 sheep. The cattle, sheep and flowerbeds are gone. On his 4,450-acre farm in Concession, north of Harare, tall, overgrown weeds sway in the wind. Goats are munching on the yellow grass, which used to be emerald green this time of year. Southey dismantled the irrigation pipes and sprinkler system. "It's a terrible feeling coming to your farm and seeing these people ruining it," said Southey. The farm, which was in Southey's family for four generations, has been carved into 14 plots. Businessmen and government officials loyal to Mugabe own some of them. War veterans occupy the remainder. Southey's black farm workers, now unemployed, want him to return because the war veterans have no money to pay them. Some militants have threatened them for accepting food, blankets and school fees from Southey, who wants his workers to stay on his farm and safeguard it. "This is where I was born. I have a right to live here," Southey said. "We've had a good 20 years here. We've built our farm up nicely. We've kept a lot of people employed. And we've contributed to the economy."
In the last growing season, commercial farmers earned US$800 million, 52 percent of Zimbabwe's export earnings. This season, that's expected to plunge to US$390 million as the farmers' share of gross domestic product drops to 6 percent from 14 percent, according to the Commercial Farmers Union. Price controls and foreign exchange restrictions have made matters worse, raising food prices and creating a thriving underground economy. The government has a monopoly on trading corn and other grains, which prevents private traders from importing grain. "Even people who have the money cannot go to the shop and buy food," said Robinah Mulenga, the head of the World Food Program office in Bulawayo. "It's not there." Malnutrition rates among Zimbabwean children are rising, and hunger is taking a toll on education. Children are dropping out of school to help their parents work in the fields, look after younger siblings or take care of sick relatives. "Some of the kids are falling asleep in the class because they are not getting enough food at home," said Abednegho Sapuka, the headmaster of the Mbuhulu primary school in the province of Matabeleland. "They are too weak to learn."
In some parts of the country, food has become a political weapon, according to human rights groups and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. In Binga, a sleepy MDC stronghold on the shores of Lake Kariba, armed war veterans shut down for two months a Roman Catholic Church project to feed 40,000 children, claiming that the people who ran it supported the MDC. In other areas, Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party is accused of doling out government-bought food aid only to people with party identification cards. Mugabe has publicly denied using food to gain political leverage. However, his deputy foreign minister, Abdenico Ncube, was quoted by the nation's independent Standard newspaper as telling starving villagers in June: "You cannot vote for the MDC and expect Zanu PF to help you." It's no surprise that scores of white farmers - many of whom backed the MDC - have moved to neighboring Zambia and Mozambique, which have welcomed them. Southey, who is thinking about moving to Australia, has appealed his eviction from his farm and is awaiting a court date. "Things can turn around quickly if law and order is restored and people are given a viable farming option," he said. "Give it another six months... . I don't know how quickly we can recover. The whole thing is collapsing quickly."
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From IRIN (UN), 28 November
Famine 'very close', WFP warns
Johannesburg - The World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Thursday that the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe has deteriorated to the point where "we are very close to famine" among already weakened households, WFP Deputy Country Director Gawaher Atif told IRIN. WFP had aimed to feed three million vulnerable people in November, but does not have the food available to reach that target. It will now have to prioritise who can be fed. "In November we'll focus on the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable, it's a target population that already doesn't have any other source of food except WFP ... We are very, very close to famine here," Atif said. The signs of extreme need are already evident. Wild foods, some poisonous without careful preparation, are being consumed. In food distribution queues, people are scooping up spilled maize kernels. School children are dropping out of class to find casual labour, levels of malnutrition are worsening, and hunger-related diseases are becoming more frequent, WFP said in a statement.
Overall, the agency faces a shortfall of 200,000 mt between now and March 2003. Although WFP's emergency operation has been 60 percent funded, it takes two to three months for those pledges to be translated into food on lorries bound for hungry communities. Another reason for the shortfall, Atif said, was that the Zimbabwean government has not been able to honour an agreement to swap 17,500 mt of locally stored maize for genetically modified grain held by WFP that was to have been milled by the state-owned Grain Marketing Board (GMB). The GMB, which outside WFP's operation has a monopoly on food distribution, has also struggled to import enough cereals to meet needs, due in particular to a lack of foreign exchange. A total of 6.7 million Zimbabweans will require food aid in the coming months leading up to next year's harvest. By January, WFP had planned to increase its distributions to 5.8 million people in 57 districts, subject to the availability of relief supplies. "We need more food," Atif said. "The situation is looking very bleak and that's the bottom line."
In the coming months, despite other potential hurdles like fuel shortages, WFP needs to increase its cereal deliveries to around 65,000 mt a month, "while the government must also rapidly increase its imports, since the economic situation has put more and more people at risk", the WFP statement said. It added the nationwide shortages of maize, bread, milk and sugar has seriously affected members of Zimbabwe's working class, who do not meet WFP's selection criteria. The combination of commercial shortages, high parallel market prices and an accelerating rate of inflation, expected to reach 200 percent by the end of the year, was drastically reducing the capacity of those earning fixed incomes to feed themselves. "The number of those in need keeps soaring and WFP cannot cope on its own. The gap needs to be filled both by the government, as well as by WFP and NGOs. Only a collective effort can hope to combat this crisis," the statement quoted WFP Country Director Kevin Farrell as saying.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 29 November
ACP MPs slam Zimbabwe
Mthulisi Mathuthu
Contrary to official reports that the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states unanimously agreed to boycott the just-aborted European Union/ACP parliamentary assembly in protest against Zimbabwe's exclusion, it has emerged that MPs from Botswana, Mozambique and Ghana distanced themselves from the ACP's position and condemned Zimbabwe for scuttling investment initiatives. The Zimbabwe Independent has learnt that MPs from the three countries on Monday afternoon strove to persuade other members of the ACP to accept the EU's decision to bar two Zimbabwean ministers from entering the EU parliamentary complex for the meeting. But South Africa, Cuba, Sudan and Haiti led the move to back Zimbabwe. Sources said while MPs from countries like Uganda, Ivory Coast and Senegal also criticised tyranny, it was those from Botswana, Ghana and Mozambique who were most forthright. According to the sources, delegates from the three countries reacted angrily to the 78-member ACP assembly co-president Adrien Houngbedji's call to have Zimbabwe's ministers allowed into the EU parliament.
Sources in Brussels said there was drama on Monday at the EU parliament with MPs from Ghana, Mozambique and Botswana lashing out at Minister of State for Enterprises and Parastatals, Paul Mangwana for provoking a confrontation. Ghana's Osei Prempeh spoke strongly against Zimbabwe and mocked its "anti-imperialist rhetoric" imploring it to "put your house in order" amid protests by Mangwana and MPs from South Africa and Cuba. Prempeh strove to convince other ACP countries to endorse the EU's decision arguing that from the inception of the Lome Convention to the Cotonou Agreement, ACP countries had refused to discuss human rights and democracy issues. Prempeh asked fellow ACP members not to "bury our heads in the sand". Botswana's head of delegation, Mrs Segogo, upheld the EU's decision and lashed out at President Robert Mugabe's regime for throwing spanners into the works of co-operation with the EU. "Botswana, Mozambique and Ghana all gave Zimbabwe a severe tongue-lashing, arguing that they were losing opportunities in multi-lateral bodies because of its misrule," said a diplomatic source from Brussels yesterday. "But Segogo was the most forthright as she wondered why Africans always waited to be reminded by Europeans of human rights.
Botswana has of late been liberal with home truths, accusing President Mugabe's regime of playing the spoiler in the region. Segogo blamed the deluge of Zimbabwean immigrants in her country on misrule in Zimbabwe. Sources yesterday said delegates were appalled by Mangwana's conduct as he repeatedly interjected, accusing Segogo, whites and Prempeh of ganging up against Zimbabwe. Segogo and Prempeh's comments, however, did not go down well with the South African delegation led by MP Rob Davies which issued a statement saying it was "strongly opposed to the EU's attempts to exclude certain members of the Zimbabwean delegation" because such action flew in the face of the Cotonou Agreement. However, it is understood Davies was subsequently disowned by South African diplomats for associating South Africa too closely with countries like Haiti and Sudan. Prempeh this week confirmed his stance but referred the Independent to the EU for his exact remarks.
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From The Financial Gazette, 28 November
MDC to investigate army harassment of Binga villagers
Bulawayo - The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will send a team to investigate allegations that members of the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) on a de-mining exercise in Binga are assaulting villagers in the Matabeleland North rural area, accusing them of supporting the opposition. Officials at the MDC’s regional office in Bulawayo said they had been inundated with phone calls from villagers claiming they were assaulted by members of the army on a de-mining exercise along the Zambezi Valley. Defence spokesman Lameck Mutanda yesterday said he could not immediately comment on the allegations and did not respond to written questions he requested from the Financial Gazette. But MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi said Binga villagers had reported that off-duty soldiers harassed and assaulted them frequently. He said: "We are dispatching a team to investigate what’s going on. We have received numerous reports of the activities of the army and one of our Members of Parliament (Jealous Sansole) has been a victim. This has to stop. We don’t know why the army is doing this." Sansole, who was allegedly assaulted together with six other people, was not available for comment yesterday as he was said to be seeking medical treatment for serious injuries sustained from the beating he received. Police in Binga confirmed that the legislator made a report at the area’s Siachilaba police station, adding that investigations were underway. Joel Gabuza, the MDC parliamentarian for Binga, said members of the ZNA were causing havoc and that many villagers had left the area in fear. "Sansole was beaten and I am sure if they find me, they will also beat me. People are living in fear," he said. Nyathi said the MDC was worried by the activities of soldiers in Binga, where villagers voted in large numbers for the MDC in the 2000 parliamentary elections, the March 2002 presidential poll and in rural district council elections held two months ago.
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From Private Eye (UK), 29 November
Letter from Lubumbashi
From our own correspondent
We learned of what amounted to a coup d’etat from a notorious gossip in the Park Hotel. The most powerful ‘tontons’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo had been suspended by our boy wonder president, Joseph Kabila. Out went security minister Mwenze Kongolo, presidency minister Katumba Mwanke, planning minister General Kalume Numbi and spy chief Kazadi Nyembwe. And in comes…Well, no one is exactly sure. The best clue is the arrival in town of several well-guarded Angolan and South African business types following the hasty departure of our Zimbabwean military brothers bearing large parcels of gem diamonds. The suspension of the four worst ‘pilleurs’ of the old regime and the departure of some of their collaborators occasioned much rejoicing here. ‘Lubum’ is a mining city and Mwenze and Katumba had been sharing out concessions too freely with their Zimbabwean and Belgian pals. We were too polite to complain until a UN investigation revealed that some $5bn of our mineral assets have been discreetly relocated from our beleaguered state mining companies to a group of private companies whose shares are held by Ministers Mwenze, Katumba and Kalume and associates. The latest theory here is that all those assets will be yanked back from the departing ministers and their allies to be auctioned again to the thronging Angolans and South Africans. After four years of what anyone with a US visa calls ‘Africa’s world war’, we tell ourselves the only way is up. But then we said that when Joseph’s father, corpulent rebel leader Laurent-Desire Kabila, toppled Mobuto Sese Seko in 1997. After three unhappy years at the helm, Laurent-Desire was shot in the ear by a bodyguard and spirited off to Zimbabwe to expire. At his funeral in Kinshasa a week later, three Zimbabwe Air Force Chinese F7 fighter jets crashed into each other and 30-year-old Joseph emerged as leader of Africa’s newest dynasty. Smiling sweetly and speaking wisely, Joseph was nevertheless held prisoner by the tontons. Unable to drive the Rwandan and Ugandan "pilleurs" from the east, and unwilling to stop our Zimbabwean allies from pillaging the south, we wondered what was the point of Joseph.
Always semi-detached from Congo, Lubum seemed to be heading for total divorce. Our city and its mineral-rich hinterland of Katanga have come under the sway of a military-business cabal. Swaggerer-in-chief is New Zealander, turned Belgian, turned Congolese commercant George Forrest. Moustachioed George is also France’s honorary consul in Lubum and renowned for his Bastille Day parties. Sensibly he joined the same freemason’s lodge as Belgian foreign minister and Congo aficionado Louis Michel. Formerly Mobuto’ s bag man and military supplier, Monsieur George now pledges allegiance to the Kabila dynasty, and in Katanga has helped America’s OM Group scoop up a $2bn stockpile of germaniun, a rare metal used in communication satellites. As you drive into Lubum from the south, you can’t miss George’s giant blue oven coughing acrid smoke into the sky. Funny that after a private meeting with George in his Lubum mansion, Belgian senate investigators concluded that his business ethics were entirely proper in the Congolese context. Deputy chief swaggerer is military and tobacco salesman John Bredenkamp, who ’s hoovered up a billion dollars of cobalt reserves in Katanga for a $400 000 down payment to his political pals in Kinshasa on top of his $15m spent so far on extraction. Thirty years ago he was busting UN sanctions to keep Ian Smith in planes to bomb rebel positions in Rhodesia. Now he calls himself Zimbabwean, does business with Mugabe’s army, operates his businesses out of Britain, sells British Aerospace (BAE Systems) military kit and is Lady Thatcher’s neighbour in Mayfair. It seems your prime minister Tony Blair’s indignation against Mugabe’s carpetbaggers is a trifle selective.
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From Africa Confidential (UK), 22 November
The new veterans march home
Corrupt and politicised, President Mugabe's army may be more dangerous at home than it was in the Congo
Trouble looms as the final contingent of Zimbabwean troops in Congo-Kinshasa returns home to a divided and nearly bankrupt country. Despite the veneer of multi-party elections, Zimbabwe is now under militarised rule, where a handful of the political elite makes policy alongside senior military and security officers. Economic decline, not military aggression, is the biggest threat facing the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. There are serious shortages of funds for the military payroll, let alone for equipment. The ZDF comes a poor third in southern Africa - in terms of size and equipment - to South Africa's and Angola's forces. Zimbabwe is outclassed and outspent. In Zimbabwe, defence spending of Z$76.4 billion (US$38.2 million. at the market rate) budgeted for 2003 is a little more than a tenth of budgeted defence spending of Z$16.2 bn. (circa US$300 mn.) in 2001; in 1998, official defence spending was about US$330 mn., much of it on new capital equipment. Of the Z$76.4 bn. for defence in 2003, wages for the Zimbabwe National Army take up Z$31 bn. and for the Air Force of Zimbabwe, Z$5 bn. - almost half the total allocation. Most economists believe that salary bill will be doubled by the end of 2003 but few can see where the money will come from.
The ZDF (overall commander, General Vitalis Zvinavashe) has an official authorised strength of 45,000 but there are estimated to be no more than 36,000 troops currently serving: about 32,000 in the ZNA, commanded by Lieutenant Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, and 4,000 in the AFZ, under Air Marshal Perence Shiri. All three commanding officers have been deeply enmeshed in Congo, with Zvinavashe and Shiri openly involved in business operations. Although senior officers overwhelmingly support the ruling Zanu PF, many middle-ranking and junior officers prefer the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The coming military reorganisation and job losses will not increase the government's popularity lower down the ranks. The reorganisation, originally scheduled for the late 1990s, was delayed because of the Congo operation.
The Congo factor
All the foreign armies sent to the Congo-Kinshasa war - Rwanda's, Uganda's and Zimbabwe's - have deteriorated as a result. The Zimbabwe Defence Forces' mission in Congo has been a turning point for Zimbabwe's military and their return home could worsen relations with their political masters. Some ZDF special forces will remain on security duties in Kinshasa, Mbuji Mayi and Lubumbashi as the ground is prepared for the deployment of specially trained guards by a private military company owned by senior ZDF officers. It was meant to work alongside a private Congolese firm, Cogas, but disputes have arisen about how the two can combine operations and levels of remuneration. A much bigger question is how Zimbabwe can secure repayment of the war debts that it claims Congo owes it for military assistance since August 1998. Now that most ZDF troops have left, the need to keep Harare sweet may not seem as pressing to Kinshasa. Both governments are considering restructuring their Zimbabwe-backed joint venture diamond and cobalt mining operations. The overwhelming need for the Zimbabwe government is short-term revenue to meet its worsening foreign exchange crisis. As an institution, the Zimbabwean military has been badly damaged by the Congo intervention, though many senior officers have personally profited.
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From the Zimbabwe Independent, 29 November
Bid to boycott Bredenkamp's Sanyati Lodge
Vincent Kahiya
Businessman and international financier John Bredenkamp, never far from controversy, is faced with protest from activists campaigning for a boycott of his flagship tourism investment in Zimbabwe, Sanyati Lodge in the Zambezi Valley. A group calling itself Zimactivism has been sending e-mails to tour operators asking them not to sell Sanyati Lodge as a tourist destination. "Whilst Sanyati Lodge is beautiful, one can't say the same for John Bredenkamp's activities," Zimactivism says. "Encourage a Bredenkamp boycott - become actively involved in a 'Shame Sanyati Lodge Campaign'. In Zimbabwe you can make a difference … get involved. There are a variety of alternative holiday resorts. Make sure your friends in South Africa know the situation," the group says. Based in Britain and Zimbabwe, Bredenkamp is the 33rd richest man in the United Kingdom with a fortune of £720 million. He has over the years attracted negative publicity here and abroad, mainly concerning the source of his wealth. Zimactivism is encouraging people to send protests to tour operators in South Africa and the UK who market Zimbabwe.
However, Bredenkamp's office in Harare recently scoffed at the campaign saying it had no bearing on tourist arrivals at the lodge. "It is the quality that endures at the end of the day," said Bredenkamp's spokesman, Costa Pafitis. "Sanyati Lodge is the best lodge in the country and is recognised as such by travellers who do not want to bring politics into their holiday. Our bookings are full and continue to swell because we are the best. These people (leading the campaign) should reveal themselves if they want us to take them seriously," he said. Sanyati Lodge has attracted a number of celebrities including the South African cricket team and Spice Girl Geri Halliwell. Bredenkamp has been at the centre of controversy because of his alleged links to the ruling order and mining deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the subject of a recent UN report. He is also accused of brokering arms deals and sanctions-busting involving aircraft spares for the Airforce of Zimbabwe. He has denied any wrong-doing. Pafitis said no-one had come up with substantive evidence incriminating Bredenkamp. "He is the flavour of the month and people can say whatever they want. But if the allegations are true, why has he never been prosecuted?" Pafitis asked.
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From IRIN (UN), 28 November
Logistics a key element of emergency operation
Durban - A variety of issues - such as the controversy regarding genetically modified (GM) food aid - have created challenges for logisticians working to keep the relief pipeline for Southern Africa open. Poul Skov is the World Food Programme's (WFP) logistic officer/port captain in Durban, the entry point for the majority of food aid in the region. Skov's office was just recently established, in fact it will only be fully staffed and operational in December. At present he has to manage 60,000 mt of various food aid commodities in the port. Maintaining the health of the stock has become a major challenge. "Our responsibilities are to handle all logistics services in Durban, [in cooperation] with other entities. The [port] office is going to be responsible for the dispatching of cargo to countries in need in Southern Africa, to monitor the cargo we have [stored] here in port and to make sure it remains healthy," Skov said. Last week they dispatched about 4,600 mt of stock. "It has gone down, previously we dispatched between 6,000 mt and 7,000 mt. This was partly due to the situation in Zimbabwe, with the GM maize issue having halted the transport of cargo to Zimbabwe," he added.
Monitoring the health of the stock has meant conducting daily inspections and spraying to prevent moss and insect infestation. "If you find infestation you have to arrange for fumigations of the cargo. At the moment the stock is in horizontal storage in bins, this carries a high risk of infestation. We prefer silos, it allows better management of the health of the stock. But for reasons of congestion - the silo's are full - we have to store it in bins," Skov said. Delays caused by the controversy surrounding the acceptance of GM maize - Zambia has rejected GM food aid while other countries in the region have insisted GM food be milled prior to distribution - has impacted on the food aid pipeline. "It affects me in that the routine is bogged down, there's no off-take [delivery] to the destination [the beneficiary countries]. It's a highly political thing. There's 3,000 mt of maize sitting in [rail] wagons that was meant for Zimbabwe, the GM maize may have to be taken off and stored in silos somewhere until it is sorted out," he said.
Rail operator Spoornet would want its wagons turned-around as quickly as possible so as to maximise their use and profitability. "They may say it's okay [to keep the GM maize stored on the wagons] for a while, but they will need their wagons soon," Skov said. This could become a problem as further relief shipments were expected soon. "Shipments are already en-route to Durban and, if worst comes to worst, they will have to be diverted to other ports. Durban is one of the main points of entry for shipments, feeding the [food aid] pipeline to the entire region and the Relogs [Regional Logistics] office in Johannesburg has to manage the food pipeline for the whole region," Skov added. This emphasised the need for smooth operations in the port. With stock pressures building in Durban, storing the food in "an adequate manner, according to the manual of WFP" has become Skov's main focus. Another challenge was dealing with transporters contracted to deliver food as "they are private operators, so their aims differ from WFP". "But the main challenge is keeping food healthy and getting them out of the bins and into silos," Skov added. "When you break the pipeline, you break the distribution [of food aid to beneficiaries]. [It was vital] that we make sure the pipeline ticks over, we do so in very close cooperation with Johannesburg - where the information regarding needs is gathered - and my job is to get it [food aid] underway as soon as possible," said Skov.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 29 November
Resettled farmers in trouble
Vincent Kahiya/Augustine Mukaro
The first rains which have fallen countrywide have not stirred resettled farmers into land preparation and planting, raising fears of another serious famine next year. The government has been upbeat about the resettlement programme, calling it a success of unparalleled proportions. But evidence on the ground suggests otherwise. The Zimbabwe Independent this week visited Mashonaland West, the country's prime farming area where in normal years the early irrigated maize crop is knee-high and the dryland crop would be at germination stage. But there is no such evidence this year. Weather experts have indicated that the El-Nino threat and the continuing rainfall deficit this season are getting stronger but there does not appear to be a plan by the government to mitigate the effects of the drought by putting a large maize crop under irrigation. Such a crop should mature with or without good rains. Crop experts this week said the absence of a large irrigated crop was telling insofar as it revealed the government's lack of planning. "It does not make sense for the government to give farmers in dry areas bags of seed and fertiliser when there is a real threat of a drought," said an agronomist with a seed company. "The government should instead have moved in around September to ensure that a large maize crop was planted under irrigation. There has been talk of a large maize crop to be harvested in February and then dried in kilns but where is the action?" he asked. Areas which normally produce an early maize crop such as Makonde, Mazowe Valley and Enterprise do not have any crop in the ground as this has either been looted or removed by farmers for safe keeping. The area between Mapinga and Chinhoyi along the Chirundu highway does not have any meaningful maize crop as vast stretches of land are either overgrown with weeds or have been ploughed but not planted.
Last week, Mashonaland West provincial governor Peter Chanetsa was quoted in a local daily pleading with those allocated land to move in quickly and begin ploughing. Land experts say about 40% of acquired land would be put to productive agricultural use while the rest was being held for speculative purposes. The total area that has been planted with maize from seed acquired by the government and donor agencies and that sold directly by seed houses to date will provide for about 1,2 million hectares. The initial production estimate at a yield of 0,6 to 0,8 tonnes/hectare would yield between 720 000 and 960 000 tonnes of maize. This falls far below the national requirement of about 1,8 million tonnes, excluding the strategic grain reserve requirements. Meanwhile, the United Nations World Food Programme yesterday said the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe was "deteriorating at a dangerously rapid pace". The WFP said reports of children dropping out of school and families resorting to ever more desperate coping mechanisms were increasing alarmingly. At the same time, there is a growing concern that food imports by both the government and aid agencies are falling far short of the amount required to feed people up until March. "We are approaching the very worst period of the crisis, when 6,7 million Zimbabweans will need food aid and yet WFP does not even have the resources to meet our target of three million beneficiaries in November. It is an extremely serious situation and it is only going to get worse," said Kevin Farrell, WFP representative in Zimbabwe.
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From Reuters/Bloomberg, 28 November
Zimbabwe gives farmers two weeks to surrender their grain
Harare - Zimbabwe's state-owned Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has ordered farmers to deliver their stocks of maize and grain within two weeks or it will seize them. Farmers were "directed to deliver all corn and wheat in their possession to the nearest receiving GMB depot within 14 days from the date of this invoice", the board, which has a monopoly on grain trade, said on Tuesday. More than half of the country's 12 million people are threatened by famine, according to the UN. President Robert Mugabe's government blames the food shortages on a regional drought, while the UN says a state policy of seizing mainly white-owned commercial farms for resettlement by blacks has slashed supplies. Mugabe introduced regulations last year giving the GMB the sole legal right to import and export maize and wheat. It ordered local producers to sell the commodities to the board. The UN World Food Programme and international donors have criticised the GMB's monopoly of the grain trade and urged the government to relax controls so that food imports could reach the country more quickly. Commercial farmers say that government supporters who have seized the farms have left grain to rot in the fields. "On one farm alone, the Retzlaff family lost 600ha of wheat after they were chased off their farm," said Wynand Hart, a spokesperson for Justice for Agriculture, a lobby group of white commercial farmers. Zimbabwe's supreme court had reserved judgment on a local company's challenge against the GMB monopoly over all trade in the staple maize, state media reported yesterday. Frontline Marketing had asked the country's highest court to terminate the GMB's monopoly and allow other players to trade in maize and wheat, the Herald newspaper said. Zimbabwe's deputy attorney-general, Bharat Patel, told the court the instrument was necessary to protect consumers against profiteering in sales of the scarce commodities. "In order to meet the objective of ensuring equitable distribution of maize at an affordable price, it is necessary to control the marketing of maize as prescribed by the [GMB] act," the Herald quoted Patel.
The US-based Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet) warned last month that Zimbabwe's food crisis was deepening and millions more faced starvation unless they received food aid and the government eased its monopoly on the grain trade. "The maize marketing system needs to be reviewed to allow more private sector participation in the marketing and distribution of maize to increase supplies, lower prices, and make maize accessible to starving people," it said. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change said Zimbabwe customs officials had impounded about 132 tons of maize the party had imported from South Africa. Zimbabwe produced about 500 000 tons of maize this year against normal harvests of about 1.5 million tons. The US, which has vowed to provide at least half of Zimbabwe's emergency food aid, has said that a further US$104 million will be given to buy 208 000 tons of urgently needed food supplies. The food is expected to arrive in Zimbabwe between now and March next year, Independent Foreign Service reported yesterday. Once the bread basket of southern Africa, Zimbabwe now needs food aid because of a sharply lower maize output. The government says the shortage is because of a drought that has hit small-scale black farmers, who account for 70 percent of Zimbabwe's annual maize output.
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From The Daily News, 29 November
Barwe fires shots at war vet over land row
By Precious Shumba
Reuben Barwe, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation chief correspondent embroiled in a land ownership dispute with war veterans, on Wednesday allegedly fired three shots at one of the plotholders, an ex-freedom fighter. Relations between Barwe and the war veterans at a farm in Norton reached boiling point on Wednesday when Barwe, 49, allegedly pulled out his pistol and fired at Isaac Chidhakwa, 46, one of seven plotholders at Sunnyside Extension Farm. Police in Norton confirmed the incident while Barwe could not be reached for comment yesterday. An officer at Norton Police Station said an Inspector Sithole, the police district intelligence officer with the Police Internal Security Intelligence, recorded Barwe’s statement of the reported incident between 12 noon and 1pm yesterday. "Barwe has been officially charged with the offence of discharging his firearm and attempting to kill the war veteran," he said. In March this year, Barwe allegedly fired two shots into the air at Budiriro Flats in Harare to scare off people who were jeering at him for his pro-government news reporting. Earlier that day on 9 March, the first polling day of the presidential election, Barwe was involved in an altercation with voters at Glen View 3 shopping centre polling station.
In an interview yesterday, Chidhakwa confirmed he had reported the incident to the police. He said the incident happened at about 5pm on Wednesday as he returned from his plot. He said he was in the company of another plotholder, Abisha Mukange. "Before we reached the gate, we met Barwe who stopped his vehicle. He ordered me to talk to him about their problems, but I refused to stop," Chidhakwa said. "He became hostile. I walked away because he looked very dangerous. I turned around and the next thing I saw was Barwe aiming a gun at me. I took to my heels and he fired a shot which went wide." Barwe reportedly then proceeded to Chidhakwa’s plot where the war veteran’s workers were planting maize seed and threatened to shoot them. Barwe allegedly came back and chased Chidhakwa in his vehicle, firing two shots in the process, which again went wide. Chidhakwa said he sought shelter at the adjacent Hunyani Forest Farm. War veterans allocated land at Sunnyside have previously attempted to evict Barwe from the farm. Last Wednesday, Barwe denied they were trying to evict him. He maintained he still retained the 240 hectares allocated to him and had already tilled about 50 hectares and planted maize and soya beans. Sunnyside was designated by the government under the chaotic land distribution programme and the Department of Agricultural Extension Services pegged 12 plots. Barwe was allocated one of the plots, 66 hectares in size, but has reportedly insisted he owns all the 240 hectares.
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From News24 (SA), 28 November
Gold lures farmers from land
Harare - Hungry Zimbabwean farmers are abandoning their fields in search of gold, raising the fear that the country will again not produce enough food to feed its people this season. More than six million Zimbabweans face starvation that aid agencies blame on political violence that has disrupted farming on commercial and communal farms. The government, however, blames food shortages on the drought that is affecting most of Southern Africa. The landowners are deserting their newly acquired plots granted under the country's controversial land programme in the hope that gold will provide an end to poverty and hunger. The new landowners say they have been waiting for the farming inputs promised to them by government since they were "resettled" on farms formerly owned by whites at the beginning of the year. One such landowner, Tatovonga Chiremba (22), of Shurugwi was "resettled" in the peri-urban area of Gweru in the Midlands province. "I've been panning along with other new farmers since we were brought here at the beginning of the year," he says. "We could be farming but the government hasn't distributed seed and fertiliser yet so we have to look for gold to make a living." "Given the fact that we can make a living through panning we may abandon the idea of farming if we don't get the inputs before the end of this year," he added.
The government recently legalised gold panning, under the banner of indigenous economic empowerment despite environmental hazards the practice poses and gold seekers are flocking to rivers, streams and abandoned gold mines. Their search is fuelled by the Central Bank's recent gold price increase to Z$50 000 (about R8 300) per ounce. The bank has also set up a gold trust fund to buy gold from the panners. Entrepreneurs also cashing in on the "gold rush" by setting up tuck shops and selling food and basic goods to aspiring miners. Cornelia Mudzingwa, an informal trader from Matenda in Zvishavane in the Midlands province says he can't think of a more rewarding line of business. "Business is quite vibrant here. I am making a lot of money by selling food and essentials like soap, maizemeal, sugar, cooking oil and oranges," Mudzingwa says. "We capitalise on the gold panners because every minute of their time is working time. They live in the bush. This means they can only buy from us even though our prices are exorbitant." Mudzingwa says he's smiling because he makes at least Z$10 000 (about R1 600) profit a day. Compared to the average low-income earners' monthly income of about Z$20 000 (about R3 300) a month Mudzingwa is a wealthy man. Reputable businesspeople and senior government officials are also climbing on the gold bandwagon by reportedly hiring people to pan for them. There are an estimated 100 000 panners in the Midlands province alone.
Zimbabwe once had one of the most vibrant economies in Africa, but the past three years have seen a decline and according to finance minister Herbert Murerwa's 2003 budget speech earlier this month there is little hope for recovery. The recession is widely blamed on government mismanagement and President Robert Mugabe's controversial seizure of the white-owned farms. Of the 4 500 white farmers only 600 have stayed on their farms since the start of the programme two years ago. The land was earmarked for "redistribution" of the country's poor but a recent audit by a ministerial committee established that less than a third of the allocated plots had not been taken up. Critics say the new farmers lack the financial backing and infrastructure needed to restore Zimbabwe's agricultural sector.
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From IOL (SA), 30 November
Zim recalls commissioner after Mugabe attack
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has recalled his high commissioner to Botswana as relations between the two southern African neighbours soured following comments by President Festus Mogae, a news report said on Saturday. The Johannesburg-based Saturday Star reported that although there was no immediate suggestion nor confirmation that High Commissioner Zenso Nsimbi had been recalled because of Mogae's recent criticism of Mugabe's policies, "this would seem likely," it said. Mogae has emerged as the only African leader to publicly attack Mugabe over his political and economic policies, which the Botswanan leader said were hurting the entire southern African region. About 6,7 million people, or half of Zimbabwe's population were threatened with famine due to food shortages. Aid agencies blame the shortages on a drought and disturbances to commercial agriculture due to an extremely controversial land reform programme.
Mogae recently told the London-based African Business magazine that Zimbabwe's woes were the result of a "drought of good governance". He also told the BBC's HardTalk programme that tourism had been negatively affected by events in Zimbabwe and that Botswana had been suffering as a result. The Botswana Guardian newspaper reported that Nsimbi had been recalled after complaints about his inaction regarding the plight of Zimbabweans allegedly being ill-treated by Botswana authorities. Zimbabweans, who say they are escaping economic hardships from their country, have been travelling into Botswana through the Plumtree border post or illegally sneaking past dry river beds that separate the two countries, the paper said. However, Nsimbi said the claims were difficult to prove: "We receive these allegations from Zimbabweans but they do not bring concrete evidence. We have also established that their allegations were false."
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 29 November
Fuel situation set to deteriorate
Staff Writer
There is no immediate solution in sight for the on-going fuel problems as it emerged this week that the government was reducing imports in line with a new policy to only supply indigenous operators. The new policy, announced on ZBC on Wednesday, comes as fuel queues of up to half-a-kilometre long have resurfaced in Harare where there is a serious petrol shortage. Energy minister Amos Midzi on Wednesday told parliament that the shortages were a result of logistical problems. The Zimbabwe Independent established yesterday there was about a week's supply of petrol in the country while the position with diesel was slightly better. There is however no credit facility in place as government is living from hand to mouth. Sources at Petrozim, which pumps fuel from Mutare to Harare, said it had this month pumped just 40% of normal capacity. The sources said fuel was only being released after being paid for. Suppliers Independent Petroleum Group of Kuwait sent a delegation to the country last week to impress on government the need to pay first before fuel could be released. The delegation left last weekend as a Libyan delegation arrived. It is here to evaluate Noczim's assets, which it intends taking over as part payment of a US$63 million debt. The Independent understands the assets - the fuel pipeline from Beira and Mabvuku holding tanks - have been valued at US$40 million by government. The Libyans reportedly regard the evaluation as too high. Industry players this week said the new policy where government through Noczim would supply product to indigenous players ahead of established companies was fraught with structural problems which were likely to exacerbate an already critical situation. They said the policy did not address the supply side as indigenous players did not have the capacity to import and had to rely on the government which itself was struggling to secure foreign currency to pay for the commodity.
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Comment from The Zimbabwe Independent, 29 November
Brussels outcome no victory for Zimbabwe
It is symptomatic of the warped thinking going on in the upper echelons of Zimbabwe today that the jeopardising of billions of dollars in trade and aid for developing countries could be represented as a victory! That is exactly what our rulers and their minions in the media want us to believe: that Zimbabwe, in securing the solidarity of ACP (African, Caribbean, and Pacific) states over the exclusion of two Zimbabwean officials from the European parliament's premises, where a session of the EU/ACP joint parliamentary assembly was due to be held on Monday, represents a victory for this government.
Exactly how is difficult to fathom. The Cotonou Agreement provides privileged access for the exports of former European colonies to the world's largest and most lucrative market. In other words they get in ahead of the competition. The most contentious example is the huge market provided by Britain and Germany for bananas from the Caribbean. American companies producing bananas in Central America cite this as a form of protectionism - which it is. The trade system established under Lome in its four manifestations and continued under Cotonou benefits the associate states in many different ways. Millions of Euros are allocated every year to development projects in ACP states. Sadc is a notable beneficiary. But the Europeans rightly insist that if EU funds are to be generously disbursed to developing countries, they must adhere to best practice in governance. In other words they shouldn't do what so many of those expressing solidarity with Zimbabwe this week have done with the billions of dollars given to them since Independence - lost them, wasted them or stolen them.
The Cotonou Agreement lays down that "respect for human rights, democratic principles, and the rule of law, which underpin the EU/ACP partnership shall constitute the essential elements of this agreement". Zimbabwe is in open violation of those terms. It has subverted the rule of law, trampled on the human rights of its citizens, and made a mockery of democratic principles. Its economy is in a state of advanced decay as a direct result of this misrule. As co-president of the EU/ACP joint parliamentary assembly Glenys Kinnock pointed out this week, the ACP grouping includes some of the most disadvantaged countries in the world. Forty out of the 78 ACP states are classified as "Least Developed Countries", 15 are landlocked, 38 have serious levels of poverty, and 33 others are particularly vulnerable as small island states. The principles of democracy and the rule of law on which the Cotonou Agreement is built are fundamental because development and prosperity cannot take place without them. If the EU were to ignore them it would be pouring money down the drain - as happened so often in the past. The 15 EU member states have publics they must answer to. They expect their money to be spent wisely and accountably. They also expect to see some benefit to the people of developing countries, not the Swiss bank accounts of their rulers.
The EU legislators can therefore be expected to stand firm on the issue of governance. They cannot afford to allow people who are part of a regime which sabotages agricultural production, violates human rights and manipulates electoral outcomes to carry on as if it were business as usual with donors. Many of those this week expressing public sympathy with Zimbabwe's rogue regime will no doubt be returning privately to say they had no choice. There will be urgent appeals for the aid tap to be left open. But the EU must make it clear that countries associating themselves with oppression and misgovernance cannot have it both ways. Either they abide by democratic rules or they lose the privileges accorded to them under Cotonou. There must be consistency of purpose. As Kinnock pointed out, "our electorates don't understand it when politicians take decisions which they don't follow through in a consistent way".
One of the most important outcomes in all this is the resolve shown by MEPs despite centrifugal national interests. Only a few months ago we were told that other EU states were refusing to support Britain's position on Zimbabwe. Now they all seem to be of one mind. How does the government explain that? This is clearly not a defeat for Britain or the EU. It is the people of 78 developing countries who will suffer. They are the victims of a misplaced nationalism that suggests governments can abuse their populations and get away with it. Not any longer it seems. The people of Zimbabwe, who the ACP regimes don't appear to give a damn about, will show little enthusiasm for their government's fictional victory in Brussels. They understand only too well the meaning of Zanu PF's sovereignty: shortages of everything, growing poverty and starvation. This "triumph" of foreign policy denies to them the benefits of international cooperation and brings home the cost of isolation. Meanwhile let's see what the ACP states offer by way of assistance to the regime they endorsed in Belgium.
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From The Sunday Times (UK), 1 December
Congo’s quiet man fights to rebuild nation
Richard Dowden, Kinshasa
The palace gardeners raked the paths and the lawns that sweep down to the Congo. Servants were putting out half a dozen old white plastic chairs under the trees. Sharp-suited security men strolled and glanced around. Then one appeared to take a break and sat down gingerly on one of the chairs. He sat alone staring towards the river for almost 10 minutes before we realised that he was not a guard but the president of a country only slightly smaller than western Europe. Joseph Kabila could not be more different to his predecessors, Mobutu Sese Seko or King Leopold. Mobutu ruled for 30 years, projecting power like an emperor and surrounding himself with splendour and flunkeys. Guests were offered pink champagne and food flown daily from France. A hundred years ago, Mobutu’s role model, Leopold of Belgium, looted the Congo to build grotesquely ornate palaces in Brussels. Kabila does not even wear a gold watch strap. He is dressed in a modest suit with no tie. He was put into the job after his father, Laurent Kabila, was murdered by bodyguards in January 2001. The government, a rump of Kabila senior’s cronies, could not agree who should rule so they appointed his son Joseph, a shy youth now aged 31. He grew up in east Africa and speaks English and Swahili better than French and Lingala, the common languages of Congo. Observers are unclear who he is close to. He seems to spend a lot of time with a younger brother and his mother. In the garden he looks isolated and vulnerable. When he answers my questions, his forehead moistens and his hand shakes slightly but after a while he chats easily. Have the Rwandan and Ugandan armies that moved in during the late 1990s now gone? "Yes - from information we have 80%, even 90%, 95% have left but we need confirmation," he said. "They might have gone from the country but have they gone for ever? Only Almighty God can know."
Kabila’s main political asset is that he is not his vain and incompetent father. He has survived two years with his reputation if not his grip on power much enhanced. The task of creating a nation out of this vast territory is huge. Congo has not been properly governed since independence in the 1960s. Mobutu imitated Leopold, looting all he wanted and leaving the rest destitute. The Congolese do not want the country to break up but their experience of government is of theft and rape. They welcome Kabila’s call for good government and an end to corruption. Outside the main towns there are no roads, only tracks through thick bush. Trade has ground to a halt and the east, one of the richer areas, burns as a result of several local wars. When Kabila took over he was bound by a peace agreement signed in Lusaka in 1999 that made him just one of several leaders supposed to share power. Now he is undisputed president. Uganda and Rwanda, who put his father in power in 1997 then invaded two years later, have been forced by international pressure to withdraw. That means Angola and Zimbabwe, his father’s allies, must also pull out their troops. An underfunded United Nations observer mission is supposed to be verifying whether or not these armies have gone.
At home Kabila has pleased the urban poor, saying he understands their plight. He at least offers them sympathy. Everyone was sceptical that this quiet son could dominate the gangsters and spivs who surrounded his father but he is a lot more popular than when he started. He has also pleased western countries by talking seriously about peace and good government. What happens next? Kabila said: "There is a government here that wants the country to be reunified, that wants a transition to elections." He is engaged in treacherous talks in South Africa with the leaders of the militias who occupy the north and east, some two-thirds of the country. They are supposed to be agreeing on a transitional government but every faction wants to continue to rule in its own area. All sides have been savaged by a recent UN report detailing their armies’ looting of the Congo’s mineral resources. It named senior politicians in all four intervening countries and senior members of Kabila’s own government. They were accused of selling $5 billion worth of Congo’s valuable mines and mineral deposits. While the other governments dismissed the report Kabila promptly suspended the ministers named. That pleased the West and ordinary people, but they do not rule Congo.
One of the suspended officials is the defence minister, Mwenze Kongolo, a powerful Katangese who is the main link between Kabila’s government and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. People like Mugabe and Kongolo, who have grown rich through the civil war, have little interest in ending it. Targeting a man like Kongolo could prove unwise. Kabila has no proper army. His close protection is Israeli-trained but the palace guard is made up of ill-trained nervy young men called Mai Mai. It was boys like these who killed his father. Until now his government’s best fighters have been the former Rwandan army which fled into Congo in 1994. Many of its commanders are accused of organising the butchery of up to 1m people. Under the present peace agreement it is supposed to be disbanded and disarmed. The departing Ugandan and Rwandan armies have left behind proxy militias, scores of well armed Congolese forces intent on extending their territory. Uganda and Rwanda first intervened as allies but then fell out and fought for control of diamond and timber areas in central Congo. All the armies appear to have local militias to protect the mines and assets they have seized but the departure of their main armies puts them up for grabs again.
The tranquillity of the riverside presidential palace in Kinshasa feels a long way from the bloody chaos, hunger and disease of eastern Congo. Yet, as Kabila glances anxiously around, he knows it could be shattered in a fraction of a second. No wonder he is nervous.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 1 December
We have failed, says Made
By Chengetai Zvauya
Lands and agriculture minister, Joseph Made, finally admitted last week that government has failed to ensure food security for the famine-stricken nation, more than a year after repeatedly dismissing warnings of a serious grain shortage. Made stunned members of the lands, agriculture and rural development committee on Monday, by painting a grim picture of the food situation in Zimbabwe. The Standard was the only newspaper to attend the committee meeting, a situation which troubled Made enough for him to say: "Mr Chairman, I would have preferred a balanced mix of reporters." The minister said apart from accumulating a serious maize deficit each week, government had not the slightest clue of the amount of grain farmers resettled under the controversial and chaotic land reform exercise would produce this current season. Said Made: "The country needs 35 000 tonnes of maize, but it is only able to import 22 000 tonnes, leaving a deficit of 13 000 tonnes every week. At one time, we ordered 400 000 tonnes, but only got 118 000 delivered. This is a big challenge for us as we will continue to need the stocks to feed the population. We don't know when we will be able to get these remaining stocks, but we are trying to make sure that they are in the country so we can distribute it."
Asked by Renson Gasela - the former Grain Marketing Board (GMB) head who is also the MDC shadow minister for lands and agriculture - why it was that government was failing to fulfil the simple task of buying grain in bulk, Made said: "I don't have the purse to buy the adequate maize supplies. Remember, it is allocated to us, so please bear with me." On his ministry's projected figures for the coming season, the minister said no such estimates were available. "At the moment, we don't have the projected figures of what we have planted this season and this is a big problem for us as government. We only hope that the new farmers will be able to produce enough grain to feed the country," said Made. Agricultural production was last season severely hampered by a combination of crippling drought and government-induced disturbances on commercial farms. The government went on to grab farms from about 3 000 commercial farmers, leaving the highly specialised sector with an estimated 1 000 farmers. Speaking after the meeting, also attended by Zanu PF MPs Kumbirai Kangai and Paul Mazikana, Gasela who was ordered by committee chairman Daniel Mackenzie Ncube not to ask too many questions, expressed disgust at the way government had up to this time failed to tell the nation the truth. "The nation will obviously be shocked by the minister's admission that the problem is far from over and that they are not even sure of what will come out of their much touted land reform exercise. We are in the middle of the rainy season, and Made chooses this time to expose his inability to plan. Surely this is a testimony of how the Mugabe regime is determined to drag our nation into further economic abyss," Gasela told The Standard.
Made, one of the ministers handpicked by Mugabe after the June 2000 parliamentary election, has in the past misled the nation about the food situation. Last year, he dismissed early warning signs of a serious maize deficit, saying, according to the knowledge he had gained from aerial flights across the country, Zimbabwe would have adequate grain supplies. However, several months later, Zimbabwe is facing a food crisis and over six million people are in need of food aid. Agricultural-based commodities such as bread, cooking oil and sugar are also in short supply. Long queues of people seeking bread and mealie meal have become the order of the day at shops throughout the country. The worst affected areas are the rural constituencies where the majority of the population are not gainfully employed. The Standard understands that the government is importing food from America, Argentina and Europe. Two years ago, government embarked on a land resettlement programme which saw white commercial farmers being displaced by indigenous farmers. The majority of these new farmers have not bothered to take up their pieces of land.
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From Business Day (SA), 2 December
Forex dealers attacked in Zimbabwe
Harare - Youths in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, have attacked a group of illegal foreign currency dealers ahead of a government ban on exchange offices. Eleven youths attacked the women, street traders and members of a church sect on Friday one day ahead of the government's deadline for people to stop trading money on the black market. They made off with foreign currency worth more than Z$1-million ($18,00). It said the youths were "angered over the continued destruction of the economy by illegal forex dealers". Last month Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa announced that currency exchange offices would be abolished from the end of November. The government blames the exchange offices for the crippling lack of foreign currency on the official market. It is not yet clear how closely the ban will be followed.
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From IOL (SA), 1 December
'Hold your horses - Mugabe's going nowhere'
Harare - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's successor will not be named until 2006, the state-run Sunday Mail said in an apparent bid to quash speculation the 78-year-old longtime leader could be replaced. Nathan Shamuyarira, information secretary in Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF, was quoted by the paper as saying the issue would be discussed at a party congress in 2006. The paper said the news had "scuppered frenzied speculation" in the private media that a Zanu PF conference due later this month would name a candidate to contest the next presidential election in 2008. The private press regularly speculates on possible successors to Mugabe, who has held power since 1980, first as prime minister and later as president. This year he won a new six-year term in a hard-fought election against Morgan Tsvangirai, 50, of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Western observers said the poll was not free or fair.
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From The Australian, 2 December
Mugabe flexes his muscles
From Michael Hartnack in Harare
Zimbabwean troops who recently returned home after four years at war in Congo are now ready to use their combat experience against the Government's enemies, President Robert Mugabe said. Addressing lavish celebrations to mark the final withdrawal from Congo of a Zimbabwean troop contingent that numbered 14,000 at its peak, Mr Mugabe promised land formerly owned by whites to the war's veterans. Government-backed militants began seizing white-owned land in February 2000, plunging the country into economic turmoil. "You needn't worry, there is still a lot of land to parcel out (and) we will parcel it out to our people, those committed because they have roots in our country," Mr Mugabe told a parade at the Chinese-built National Sports Stadium. Zimbabwe backed Congolese President Joseph Kabila's Government in a war against Ugandan and Rwandan-backed rebels. A cease-fire was brokered earlier this year. Mr Mugabe reiterated claims that the British Government was behind mounting opposition to his 22-year rule, because it sympathised with white Zimbabweans. "We cannot have little England or little Europe in either Zimbabwe or Africa," he said. "This is our land and it shall remain our land, not just for us who live today but all of us who live here for ever and ever and ever." Aid agencies say 6.7 million Zimbabweans are at risk of starvation before the harvests in March. The food shortages have been blamed on the farm seizures and drought. Mr Mugabe warned Western governments against intervening in his country. "Our participation in this (Congolese) operation strengthened our combat capability," he said. "Our forces have gone that extra mile in terms of combat readiness and would be more than prepared to use their experience and skill in dealing with aggression either at home or elsewhere if duty should call." He declined to say how much the intervention in Congo had cost or how many soldiers died. Recently-acquired secondhand military hardware, including helicopter gunships and armoured personnel carriers, were displayed at yesterday's parade. Meanwhile slogans calling for a "holy war" against Zimbabwe's 30,000 whites were daubed on the walls of Harare's main cricket ground, ahead of a visit by International Cricket Council officials. Zimbabwe is due to host six games during the cricket world cup in February.
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Comment from The Zimbabwe Standard, 1 December
Get on yer bike
Over the top by Brian Latham
It has been announced that the fuel crisis gripping a troubled central African country is about to become a fuel catastrophe. Just a few weeks ago, the most equal of all comrades announced petrol woes would end because oil companies would import their own fuel. Though most troubled motorists thought this would mean a sharp rise in the cost of petrol, they viewed the prospect as better than having no fuel at all. Still, this week the most equal of all comrades had his decree quashed by the troubled central African nation's minister for fuel queues. The minister said a new company would be formed to procure fuel for the troubled central African country. The new company will be a joint venture between the company that failed to supply the troubled central African nation's fuel for the last two years and another company that refuses to supply fuel on the unreasonable grounds that it would rather like to be paid. Petroleum industry analysts pointed out that while the joint venture was a courageous new initiative, it was hardly encouraging news for motorists or consumers. "If the state-owned No Oil Company hasn't been able to pay its debts and this other company from up north won't sell, we have to predict the likelihood of success is more than a little remote," said one analyst who added that the whole business was rather gloomy and depressing.
Not to be discouraged, the minister for fuel queues said he was confident the new plan would work. He said it would encourage competition in a marketplace so regulated by government that retailers can buy from only one supplier and sell only at a price set by the state. Moreover, he said (because ministers like the word), there would now be serious competition among the imperialist capitalist oil magnates because the state supplier would supply only to its own filling stations. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the More Diesel Coming Party (you'll be lucky) said the plan was madness but he looked forward to the day when the masses rose and set fire to the state-owned fuel stations. "Not that it'll be that spectacular," he said, "there won't be any explosions or anything like that because we can confidently say that all of them will be empty."
Still, while it's bad news for motorists, it's good news for bicycle merchants. Retailers around the troubled central African nation were reported to be doing a brisk trade in bicycles as troubled citizens prepared to make themselves look ludicrous on the two wheeled contraptions. Even in remote areas of the troubled central African country elderly bicycle mechanics are reported to be coming out of retirement to repair and rebuild the foolish looking machines in an effort to keep the people mobile. It has even been suggested that the cavalcade of the most equal of all comrades will in future be a multi-million dollar German limousine pulled by several dozen oxen confiscated from an colonialist farmer. "Under those circumstances a siren will probably be unnecessary," said a police spokesman. The rumour of a prototype Mercedes Scotch Cart has been scotched by both the heirs to the Nazi car manufacturer and the troubled central African nation's spin doctors. "There's no point in making a bullet proof limousine if you can shoot the cattle and render it immobile," said a pragmatic German - while a spin doctor for the most equal of all comrades dismissed the claim as undignified. "Next you'll be suggesting he queues for petrol like the rest of you ungrateful peasants," he said.
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From The Daily News, 2 December
Famine looms as commercial farms reduced to zero activity
Geoffrey Nyarota
As Flight SA020 descended in preparation for touchdown at Harare International Airport last Monday the intercom crackled into life overhead and an authoritative voice made an unusual announcement. "This is your captain speaking," the voice said. "Passengers occupying a window seat on either side may wish to look below to see how commercial farming is fast disappearing from Zimbabwe." Passengers, including those like me who were not occupying a window seat, responded and were reeled in shock. Their aerial inspection of the fast changing landscape below presented them with a forlorn picture of what the commercial farming sector has degenerated to in the 34 months since the first farm was invaded by a group of war veterans in the Masvingo area to signal the advent of government's agrarian reform programme, an exercise which has been marred by lawlessness and violence. What the passengers on Flight SA020 saw along their flight path was a scene of zero farming activity on commercial farms in the Beatrice and Harare South commercial farming area. While listeners and viewers of radio and television have been bombarded with the outrageous propaganda spewed out day and night by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation to extol the virtues of their country's new agrarian revolution spearheaded by the new farmers what the passengers on this flight and, no doubt, passengers on other flights, local and international see as they fly in and out of Harare is a totally different story. It is a story of desolation and total waste. Quite evidently there is little farming activity, let alone an agricultural revolution taking place on the commercial farms that once elevated Zimbabwe to the status of bread basket of the region along with South Africa. The new farmers in the Beatrice and Harare South areas are quite obviously not part of the new revolution that became the centrepiece of the optimistic propaganda that the draughtsmen at the Ministry of Information started to churn out before the first crop of the much anticipated rainy season had even taken root.
The resettlement programme has been bedevilled by a serious shortage of tractors, seed and fertilisers. There is a serious shortage of fertiliser in the country. A bank official who spoke on condition he was not identified said last week his bank's agric-business department was processing and approving, hundreds of applications from new farmers for loans. "Normally this process is over by August," he said. "But we are still processing hundreds of applications from people who say they want to buy tractors and other implements and inputs for this season. It's chaotic, but we are giving them the money, sometimes without full assessment of viability and without security." He said A2 Scheme farmers were receiving loans of up to $10 million. "Some government ministers are receiving up to $70 million. They say they want to buy combine harvesters. Some have old loans that they have not repaid or been servicing." In order to avoid jumping to a negative conclusion over government's much publicised agrarian reform on the basis of observations made from the air in only a part of the country, The Daily News last week chartered light aircraft to fly extensively over other commercial farming areas. This was to establish whether the pattern was the same there and to ascertain the extent or lack thereof of farming activity by the new settlers, many of them members of the war veteran community but others who are civilians resettled in orderly fashion as part of the A2 Scheme on productive land from which the previous white owners were forcibly, and in some cases, violently evicted over the past 34 months, as part of government's land resettlement programme. The chartered plane flew a Daily News photographer over the rich commercial farming area of Mazowe Valley to cover the Bindura and Concession areas, before veering off south east-wards to fly over the equally rich Marondera and Hwedza areas. A common observation in all areas was the almost total absence of land preparation for the new season in the commercial farming areas. It was also quite apparent that no winter crops were harvested. It was also evident that the occasional farming activity, which the traveller sometimes observes in the commercial farming districts is limited to the roadside, the favourite haunt of farm invaders.
The pictures published on this page are an example of what one sees from the air as one flies from Harare to Bindura via Concession and Glendale, where there is unequivocal evidence of almost zero farming activity. Similarly non-existent farming activity was observed in the Marondera/Hwedza area, despite the abundance of water, including irrigation schemes. The fact simply has to be accepted by the most ardent supporters of the current agrarian programme - it has been the cause of the total or near collapse of serious commercial farming activity in those areas covered by The Daily News flight. It becomes a logical assumption that it could be this serious decline in productive agriculture, rather than last season's drought situation that was the major cause of the current dire shortage of food, with little prospect that the haphazard planting of a few resource-strapped new farmers will make up for the national loss. Since the wave of government-sponsored farm invasions started in earnest in 2000 some 3 000 white commercial farmers have been evicted, some violently, from their farms. More than 10 members of the commercial farming community lost their lives in the period. Only 600 farmers remain on their farms, being engaged in full-scale or limited farming activity. There are unofficial reports that government is currently encouraging selected farmers either to return to their farms or to increase production. An estimated 900 000 farm workers have been displaced over the same period. The Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe, which is assisting displaced farm workers, reports that more than 150 000 farm workers and their families were displaced in August alone, when their employers were evicted by government's agrarian reform programme. Meanwhile, United Nations agencies estimate that 6,9 million Zimbabweans currently face starvation. The shortage of basic food stuffs has become acute in both rural and urban areas. There may be a deluge of rain this season. In the commercial farming sector the rains will fall, in most cases, on untilled land with little prospect of contributing towards the alleviation of the current spectre of starvation on a massive scale.
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From IRIN (UN), 2 December
Government denies tensions with Botswana
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe on Monday said a decision to recall its high commissioner to Botswana was part of a broader government reshuffle and had nothing to do with President Festus Mogae's recent criticism of the country's political and economic policies. "A number of ambassadors have been affected by the changes and reports suggesting that the commissioner in Gaborone was recalled because of some kind of worsening relationship between Zimbabwe and Botswana is simply not true," political counsellor at Zimbabwe's High Commission in Botswana, Tamuka Muranga told IRIN. But one analyst said Mogae's comments would have certainly angered Zimbabwean authorities and the removal of High Commissioner, Zenso Nsimbi, from Gaborone was evidence of that. Last month Mogae told the London-based African Business magazine that Zimbabwe's deepening political crisis was due to a "drought of good governance". "Mogae is the only African president who has publicly raised concern over the political upheavals in Zimbabwe. By recalling the high commissioner from Botswana, President Robert Mugabe certainly wants to send a clear message to Gaborone that Harare will not tolerate criticism," a senior researcher at the Institute of Security Studies Chris Maroleng said. Meanwhile, the Botswana Guardian reported that Nsimbi had been recalled following his inaction regarding complaints that Zimbabweans fleeing economic hardships in their country were being ill treated by Botswana authorities. Responding to the accusations, Mogae was quoted as saying: "This is a humanitarian crisis. We are trying to handle it as humanely as possible. But within the limits of our capacity, of our resources. We have no choice." Maroleng said Nsimbi's replacement would certainly be a "Zanu PF hardliner, somebody who could be tougher when it comes to defending the government's human rights record abroad". "It is unlikely that there would be total breakdown in diplomatic relations between Zimbabwe and Botswana as there are diplomatic channels through which these tensions can be discussed. But what Mogae's comments makes clear is that not all African leaders support what is going on in Zimbabwe," Maroleng said.
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