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Archived News
9th October 2002
Zimbabwean legislator released, aide assaulted
Zimbabwe political dispute heard at Supreme Court
Opposition has plenty to worry about
Kunonga asks court to bar parishioners
Lack of seed jeopardises critical 2002/03 cereal crop
Mbeki’s gamble
Three feared dead in Zim political violence
Freed MP saw food bartered for vote
US$85m food fund blocked
Govt physically evicts defiant farmers
Blessed Or Benighted Leadership? Facing Challenges in Zimbabwe and the Ivory Coast
Southern African leaders shut Mugabe out of senior regional role
Brussels, 3 October 2002 12630/02 (Presse 301) P 139/02
Fuel shortage in Zimbabwe creates havoc for commuters
Fuel crisis to spread countrywide
Zimbabwe farmers near Botswana border ordered out
Focus on economic impact of land reform
Politically related deaths now over 150
Zimbabwe's crisis again a concern at southern Africa summit
SADC pledges 'continued support' for Mugabe
Land seizures cost Zesa $12b
Police accused of not arresting wanted senior Zanu PF official
Fresh scandal rocks troubled NOCZIM
BAT pulls plug on Williams award
How SADC leaders spurned Mugabe
Electric torture in a Mugabe cell
Dissident Christians face arrest in Zimbabwe
Kunonga's critic gets death threat
Libya cuts off Zimbabwe's fuel
Zim tanks running on empty
SA to donate maize to UN food programme
Zambia rejects Mbeki maize offer
Makoni school heads may not talk about starvation
Zimbabwe's writers explore despair and violence under black rule
Zimbabwe fuel shortages worsen
Petrol supplies improve, diesel still erratic
Red Cross moves in to help victims of arson
R3 million perlemoen bust at Hoedspruit airport
Police ransack Bennet’s home
Yes - we have no fuel
Zimbabwe faces exclusion from EU-SADC summit
Opposition seeks UN investigation of rights abuses
Police accused of harassing farmers in Matabeleland
Dates set for Insiza by-election
Rautenbach associate faces fraud charges
Paying for mismanagement
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 2 October
Zimbabwean legislator released, aide assaulted
White Zimbabwean opposition MP Roy Bennett (44), his bodyguard and a South African national were released on Tuesday on bail two days after being arrested by secret police, lawyers said. Bennett's security aide, Mike Magwaza, was subjected to "prolonged assault" by agents of the Central Intelligence Organisation, President Robert Mugabe's secret police, said lawyer Arnold Tsunga. Bennett was unhurt, while South African Stuart Gervin had been "slapped around." The three were arrested on Sunday at a roadblock in Bennett's constituency of Chimanimani in south-east Zimbabwe during local government elections on Sunday, on allegations of taking photographs of a polling booth. Two weeks ago Mugabe declared that Bennett and other white MPs "belong in prison". Witnesses said Magwaza was assaulted almost immediately after he was taken into custody. Meanwhile, police arrested a member of parliament from the country's main opposition party. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said Tichaona Munyanyi, an MP for the low-income Harare suburb of Mbare, was arrested early on Tuesday morning. No reason for his arrest was given. Police representative Wayne Bvudzijena could not confirm Munyanyi's arrest when contacted for comment.
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From VOA News, 1 October
Zimbabwe political dispute heard at Supreme Court
Harare - The opposition's challenge to the outcome of Zimbabwe's presidential election last March reached the country's Supreme Court Tuesday. The losing opposition candidate is appealing an earlier ruling which denied him access to the original electronic voter registration list. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was represented by South African advocate Jeremy Gauntlett, in spite of earlier attempts by the Zimbabwe government to bar him from taking on the case. Mr Gauntlett is one of South Africa's most senior advocates, and has appeared several times on behalf of the African National Congress. He argued that no challenge to the presidential election, which gave President Robert Mugabe six more years in power, could be complete without scrutiny of the original voters' roll. The state has refused to release the electronic disks containing the names, offering thousands of pages of printed lists instead. Mr Gauntlett appealed this decision saying Mr Tsvangirai was entitled to the electronic version. Among the main allegations by the opposition, even before election day, was that the voters roll was improperly compiled, and was illegally withheld from them. There were claims that tens of thousands of voters were included, long after the closing date for registration. Lawyers acting for Mr Mugabe have denied all Mr Tsvangirai's allegations. Three judges, all recent appointees to the bench, heard the appeal, and reserved judgment to a later date. The largest observer missions, from Europe and the Commonwealth said the elections were neither free nor fair. South African observers, and several small missions from African countries declared the polls were legitimate and credible. Court officials say the opposition's case will likely continue for several months, and may not even resume until early next year.
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From IRIN (UN), 1 October
Opposition has plenty to worry about
Johannesburg - The intimidation and apathy that marred Zimbabwe's rural district council elections at the weekend also exposed the difficulty the opposition has in mounting an effective challenge to the government, political analysts told IRIN. The elections were held in 1,397 rural districts and 27 urban wards. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) only fielded 646 candidates, reportedly because of intimidation and bureaucratic hurdles which resulted in 700 ruling Zanu PF candidates being elected unopposed. In 86 wards that had declared by Monday evening, Zanu PF had won 72, the MDC 12 and two wards had gone to independent candidates, the state-run Herald newspaper reported. The rural results are expected to reflect an even larger Zanu PF victory. "The government of Zimbabwe, we think, did not take the necessary steps to ensure conditions for a fair and credible democratic election, and failed to ensure that all parties and candidates were able to participate; to condemn and punish election-related violence; and to follow transparent and equitable registration procedures for all candidates. So that's the way it turned out," US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Monday.
Brian Raftopoulos of the University of Zimbabwe's Institute of Development Studies said that the government's ability to prevent peaceful protest left the MDC "obviously in difficulty". He said that since the crushing disappointment of the March presidential poll defeat, the MDC had tried to consolidate, improve its policy capacity and image, while preparing for the weekend's elections. "The real achievement is that despite the government's onslaught, it is still on the ground," he told IRIN. Raftopoulos said that with peaceful avenues of legitimate opposition blocked, violent protest could be under consideration by elements within the party, "but the ground is exceedingly unpropitious". MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said in an interview in August with the South African newspaper The Mail & Guardian: "[More than] 80 percent of Zimbabweans want change. But we have to choose between violent and non-violent paths, the challenge being a young generation who believe it is time to think about armed struggle. We must be conscious that beyond this chaos, we'll have to pick up the pieces."
Tsvangirai and two MDC party officials were indicted on Monday on a charge of high treason related to an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, The Herald reported. Prosecutor Lawrence Phiri said the government was ready to commence trial on 11 November. According to Raftopoulos, Zanu PF's real political victory has been to undermine "the sense of hope" in Zimbabwe. With no chance of meaningful dialogue between the ruling party and the MDC on the horizon, the only option for the opposition was to pursue a long-term strategy aimed at its survival as a viable political alternative.
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From The Daily News, 1 October
Kunonga asks court to bar parishioners
Court Reporter Lloyd Mudiwa
Anglican Bishop Nolbert Kunonga wants the leadership and choir of the Cathedral of St Mary and All Saints in Harare banned from attending services and visiting church buildings in the Harare diocese. He said they had allegedly disrupted church services by joining other parishioners in accusing him of abusing his position by preaching pro-Zanu PF sermons. Kunonga has filed an application in the civil magistrates' courts in Harare for a temporary order barring the leadership and choir members from disrupting services and from visiting his home in Chisipite. The leadership includes two wardens; Ambrose Chikukwa and Newton Nyamupingidza, and 12 councillors: Llewlyn Nhamo, Albert Nhamoyebonde, Chenai Chitakunye, Sekai Chibaya, Pauline Makoni, Winnie Murape, Merjory Chombe, Graham Gilmour, Stanley Tsingo, George Mapuwire, Walter Gwete and Solomon Rondozai. The choir members are: Thompson Mapuranga, Emmanuel Makanza, Florence Gambiza, Bernard Kafesu and Canford Danga.
Kunonga wants them prevented from visiting his offices at Paget-Pax house, the Cathedral and its parking bay and holding meetings, apart from church services. He wants Nhamo, a councillor, ordered to surrender the keys to a number of church buildings. Kunonga is seeking an order directing the Standard Chartered Bank Zimbabwe Limited to freeze the account opened by the church's wardens and councillors. In his founding affidavit, Kunonga says he is applying for the orders against the 19 church members because of a number of events. He said he was supposed to have certified Chikukwa and Nyamupingidza's election as wardens within 14 days after the voting on 18 August, but had resumed duties before 25 August when they were to be admitted into office. "The wardens have taken it upon themselves to subvert the authority delegated by myself," he said. "They are acting contrary to their duties to the detriment of the church in that they met with the 12 councillors on 22 August where the council resolved to 'fight Kunonga'."
He said they opened a bank account with Standard Chartered Bank in the Cathedral's name when there was an account already operational. Councillors and choir members were not diligently performing their duties, he said. The choir, Kunonga said, refused to provide music during the service on 9 June resulting in him banning it from participating in the church's activities. The wardens and councillors later issued an "illegal directive" to the parish to disrupt proceedings during services, he said. Kunonga said: "They led the congregation on 23 June into singing uncontrollably, resulting in Father Manyau failing to conduct the service." Three other reverends - Leonard Muzhingi, Wilfred Zhuwankinyu and Linos Makore - whose services had been disturbed had also written to him, he said, adding that their conduct was unacceptable and likely to cause a breach of the peace. He said: "Nhamo, one of the councillors, changed the locks to the Dean's office and is keeping the keys. He also without authority received several keys to the Cathedral and associated buildings from Manyau who had since been dismissed."
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From IRIN (UN), 1 October
Lack of seed jeopardises critical 2002/03 cereal crop
Johannesburg - Preparations for the critical 2002/2003 planting season in drought-stricken Zimbabwe have been complicated by the lack of maize seed on the market. Despite assurances by seed suppliers that there was enough in the country to satisfy all domestic requirements for the 2002/03 production season, only small amounts are in fact available, the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWS NET) said in its latest report. "About 94 percent of farmers have no maize seed [for their next season's cereal crop] and about 60 percent don't know when they will get some. Without a timely and urgent distribution of maize seeds, many of Zimbabwe's farmers will not be able to plant. The consequences of a drop in maize production would be staggering," FEWS NET warned.
The recently completed Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (VAC) Emergency Food Security Assessment report indicated that 4.5 million people need food aid from September through November 2002. This number was expected to increase to 6.7 million from December through to March 2003. The assessment was carried out jointly by the UN World Food Programme, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, UN Children's Fund, FEWS NET and the Zimbabwe VAC. However, "the government's input support programme, funded at Zim $8.5 billion [about US $150 million at the official rate] ... has not started delivering inputs to smallholder farmers in either communal or resettlement areas". And time remaining for the input distribution was "becoming critically short", FEWS NET noted.
Economic analysts have estimated that Zim $160 billion (about US $3 billion) would be needed to adequately support the communal farmers and the newly resettled farmers with seeds, chemical fertilisers, tillage and extension advice. "The government's supplementary budget allocation for the input support programme is a mere 5 percent of the total estimated required funding," FEWS NET added. Aware that more funding was required, the government was negotiating with the banking sector for the provision of new farm loans. However, "little progress has been made in this direction because new farmers have only long-term leases and lack title deeds or other collateral and the government has not provided guarantees that the funding will go to the farmers," the early warning unit said.
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Comment from ZWNEWS, 2 October
Mbeki’s gamble
By Michael Hartnack
At the recent meeting of the Commonwealth Troika in Abuja, Nigeria, the South African government appears to have taken a foreign policy gamble in blocking Australia’s attempt to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth. The thinking behind the gamble is that in six months' time, when the Commonwealth is next due to consider Zimbabwe, what remains of the country’s white community will be politically dead and buried with the completion of Robert Mugabe’s programme of seizing 11 million hectares of white-owned farm land; stripped of financial support, the Movement for Democratic Change will then recede from the African diplomatic landscape, like Renamo in Mozambique or Unita in Angola; and South African President Thabo Mbeki’s African National Congress will be rewarded for its "quiet diplomacy" by having a grateful Zanu PF administration in power in Zimbabwe well beyond the peaceful retirement of Mugabe.
Mugabe first used the expression "the game is up" for Zimbabwe's whites in August, when he said his "fast track land reform" would be successfully completed by the end of the month, with 300 000 black Zimbabweans settled, ready to plant crops. British journalist Max Hastings, writing in London’s Daily Mail, commented: "Africa is reverting to a dark continent...The remaining whites will be driven out of Zimbabwe. The wise ones will go while they still have the skin on their backs. I would go further and suggest the game is up for the white man throughout Africa." Underlining Mugabe’s game’ s-up declaration, his Agriculture Minister Joseph Made taunted the MDC when
the Land Acquisition Act was steamrollered through Parliament, saying that the Act's annulment of all victories won by commercial farmers in court meant the party had failed to deliver promised reversal of land seizures to its white masters, and would wither away. But Mbeki’s gamble may be based on a false comparison between the MDC and Mozambique's Renamo and Angola's Unita rebels, both of which had backing from former white colonists. Renamo had support from former "non-assimilados" ("unassimilated" rural Mozambicans) against the urban black establishment, and Unita had a tribal base. In election after election, however, the MDC has shown itself above tribe and race. Its urban support is among Zimbabweans earning perhaps Z$10 000 - 50 000 a month, who may employ domestic help and own a television but cannot afford a car, let alone the BMWs and cell phones of Mugabe’s black elite.
Also, Mugabe’s boycott of Abuja revealed his inherent weakness. Just as independent journalists have been excluded from his press conferences for the past ten years because he does not like their questions, Mugabe dared not face questions from Australian Prime Minister John Howard. As his wartime companion Edgar Tekere avers, Mugabe loses his nerve when unable to play the bully. In contrast, given a clear road as at the Johannesburg Earth Summit, or surrounded by his goons with machine guns and rocket launchers, or met by some stammering diplomatic nonentity, he revels in the role of hectoring headmaster. As well as the reluctance of African leaders to criticise each other publicly, Mbeki’s policy toward Zimbabwe is motivated partly by an obsession among some ANC luminaries with what they see as blacks regaining ownership of South Africa’s resources. Many in the ANC may have sympathy for the likes of Jocelyn Chiwenga, wife of Zimbabwe's army commander, who told a farmer whose land she has appropriated that she "had not tasted white blood since 1980, and missed the experience, and that she just needed the slightest excuse to kill somebody". Offered a compromise over farm usage, Jocelyn Chiwenga said (according to papers lodged at the High Court last week) that she "had no intention of shaking hands with a white pig."
There could be no greater contrast to this than the treatment fellow inmates accorded recently-retired High Court Judge Fergus Blackie when he was detained on September 13 on spurious charges of misconduct. Blackie, 65, could not be brought food and medication when thrown in filthy cells in Harare's worst slum area, Matapi Hostels, since his whereabouts were kept secret from his family and lawyers for 27 hours. His seven cellmates, some of whom may have seen him before from the dock, willingly shared their humble provisions with him. The light at the end of the Zimbabwean tunnel can be seen clearly from the Matapi police cells, by those who know where to look. Morgan Tsvangirai, asked about the ANC's gamble, reminded South Africa that ethnic cleansing is a crime against humanity that never succeeds: some of the intended victims always survive, even when confronted with enemies of vastly greater efficiency than Mugabe’s Zanu PF. "This movement was not created by the white community," said Tsvangirai. "This movement was created out of the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe. You cannot destroy the MDC because you chase away the whites - and some of them will not be chased away. We represent the future, Zanu PF the past." At Abuja, added Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwean people "had been abandoned in their hour of greatest need," but they would face their fate and liberate themselves.
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From The Natal Mercury (SA), 1 October
Three feared dead in Zim political violence
By Basildon Peta
President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF on Tuesday won a key parliamentary by-election in a bloody weekend in Zimbabwe in which three opposition supporters are feared dead after being attacked by ruling party militants. Zanu PF retained the Hurungwe constituency. Marko Madiro polled about 16 000 votes for Zanu PF against Chief Justin Dandawa of the Movement for Democratic Change who polled 2 000 votes. The by-election was marred by violence and intimidation which stopped the opposition from holding a single campaign rally. Zanu PF controls 63 of the 120 contested seats in parliament against the MDC's 56 with a minor opposition party controlling one seat. The constitution allows Mugabe to appoint 30 extra MPs, giving his party a comfortable majority to pass legislation. The Hurungwe by-election coincided with rural district council elections also won by the ruling Zanu-PF party. Although official results were yet to be announced, the MDC said it had so far won only 27 of the 1 400 rural district wards. The opposition party did not expect to win more than 50 and Zanu PF was expected to win the remainder. The MDC said it was not able to field candidates in 700 wards. Three opposition party polling agents in the district council elections were feared dead after they were attacked by ruling party militants at a counting centre in the Zanu PF stronghold town of Bindura in Mashonaland Central province. The three were hit with axes in a fight that started when Zanu PF militants chased away opposition polling agents from the centre. MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said whole villages had been burnt down in wards where the MDC had won the district council elections.
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From Business Day (SA), 3 October
Freed MP saw food bartered for vote
International Affairs Editor
Newly freed Zimbabwean opposition party MP Roy Bennett said yesterday he had been arrested because he saw food being given in exchange for votes by the governing Zanu PF party. Bennet was arrested on Sunday along with Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activist Mike Magwaza and a friend, dual SA-UK citizen, Stewart Girvin. All had been released. Bennet told Business Day last night he had been kicked, stomped on and verbally abused by police and intelligence officers. He said a senior intelligence officer, Joseph Mwale, had called him a "white pig" and told him "to go back to England". The ruling Zanu PF party claimed an overwhelming victory in the local government elections, which the US state department described as neither free nor credible. Bennet said that at eight polling stations he visited in his Chimanimani constituency he saw two queues of people. He was told one queue was for illiterate people who required assistance in voting and another for those who did not require help. After voting, the people who were assisted would receive food delivered by a Zanu PF vehicle, said Bennet. According to Bennet, those who received assistance were able to buy the maize meal at a subsidised price of Z250 a bucket, which had become a standard measure for 15kg in Zimbabwe. In Harare, the nation's capital, maize meal was sold for an unsubsidised price of between Z2500 and $2800 a bucket. The MDC protested in parliament yesterday against systematic harassment of its legislators and petitioned police commissioner Augustine Chihuri to stop arbitrary arrests. Expressing dismay at rising police brutality, the MPs sought an urgent motion on the continued harassment of its members. (With Dumisani Muleya.)
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From The Financial Gazette, 3 October
US$85m food fund blocked
Staff Reporter
The Zimbabwe government has blocked efforts by international donors to set up a US$85 million basket fund that would have allowed the private sector to import 400 000 tonnes of food into the famine-hit country, the Financial Gazette established yesterday. International aid agency sources yesterday said discussions on setting up the fund between the government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which had dragged on for more than four months, had all but broken down. The UNDP was going to coordinate the basket fund that was also going to be used to finance other humanitarian imports such as essential medicines. "As we speak, there are no more discussions taking place on the setting up of the fund," a senior officer with one food aid agency told the Financial Gazette. Social Welfare Minister July Moyo could not be reached for comment on why there had been no agreement with donors on a fund seen as vital in a country that has seven million people, or half the population, facing starvation because of drought and policy failures. United Nations coordinator and UNDP resident representative in Zimbabwe Victor Angelo refused to discuss the issue, saying only: "The offer is still on the table."
International donors, most of them reluctant to release money directly to the Harare authorities, had been on standby for the launch of the fund, the sources said. More funds were expected to be released in addition to the US$85 million that was expected to kick-start the fund, with local private companies without foreign currency allowed to borrow cheaply from the fund to pay for food imports. But the government, which has banned companies other than its Grain Marketing Board (GMB) from trading in the two staples maize and wheat, is said to have objected to the fund saying private sector involvement in food importation would push up prices. The prices of milled maize and bread - as indeed those of virtually all other basic food commodities - are controlled by the government. But critics say the government fears that allowing too many players to bring food into the country could dilute the political mileage it is getting from food distribution, particularly in rural areas where in some cases its GMB is the only source of food. While no deaths from hunger have been officially reported so far, the UN says Zimbabwe's food crisis is deteriorating fast, with 600 000 children - or 30 percent of under fives out of two million - already vulnerable to nutritional problems. Poor rains last season have caused food shortages across southern Africa, but in Zimbabwe the epicentre of the food crisis - the government's chaotic and often violent drive to seize land from large-scale producers has destabilised the key agricultural sector.
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From The Financial Gazette, 3 October
Govt physically evicts defiant farmers
Staff Reporter
A government task force assisted by police this week began physically evicting white farmers in a move seen as the government's last push to remove the farmers from their land before the start of the rainy season next month. The Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) chairman for Matabeleland, Mark Crawford, said about 40 farmers had been evicted in Matabeleland province alone between Monday and yesterday. The task force, which includes provincial and district land committees, moved to Matabeleland South yesterday after touring farms in Matabeleland North on Monday and Tuesday and evicting the farmers. "About 40 farmers were forcibly and physically evicted from their farms by the police between Monday and today (Wednesday)," Crawford told the Financial Gazette. "This government task force is going around with the police, and when they leave a particular farm, police members remain on the farm to evict the farmers by giving them between one hour and 36-hour notices." Crawford said most of the farmers being evicted had contested the government's eviction orders in court and were awaiting judgment on their cases. Most of them have however left for safe havens in Bulawayo, he said. The task force is expected to start touring farms in other provinces next week.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena yesterday denied knowledge of the forcible eviction of the farmers by the police. CFU president Colin Cloete said the government was continuing with its onslaught on the farmers, adding that efforts by CFU members to subdivide their farms and share them with black farmers were not being recognised. He said a sizeable number of farmers would be forced off their properties today after the expiry of their Section 8 eviction notices, but he was not able to indicate exactly how many farmers would be affected. Some agricultural industry sources said more than 300 farmers would be evicted between today and November 8 when their Section 8 orders expire. More than 360 farmers have been arrested since August 10 for defying a government order to vacate their properties after the lapse of the 90-day period they were given by the government to wind up their operations. "A batch of farmers will have to leave the farms tomorrow (today) when their Section 8 orders expire but I am not too sure of the number," Cloete said. "This will go on until the middle of November when most of the farmers will have left." More than 2 500 farmers whose Section 8 orders expired last month are still on their properties, but Cloete said with the amendment of the Land Acquisition Act last month, most would be evicted by the middle of November.
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Comment from The Accra Mail (Ghana), 2 October
Blessed Or Benighted Leadership? Facing Challenges in Zimbabwe and the Ivory Coast
E. Ablorh-Odjidja
After the Troika meeting at Abuja, September 23, 2002, the verdict seemed to be that the AU would rather have Zimbabwe explode than solve the problem there. Considering other complex issues facing Africa today, one would have thought that the Zimbabwe matter was one the AU could have found easy to solve. But, it seems ludicrous now to have supposed that such optimism was possible in African affairs in the first place. Now the AU should get ready for the next conflagration; translation, next stop, the Ivory Coast.
The Abuja meeting took place in the capital of Nigeria, under the auspices of the Commonwealth and the AU; with Australia, South Africa and Nigeria as the Troika members to consider disciplinary sanctions against Zimbabwe. The mission leading to the meeting was clear: The Troika was to bring back Zimbabwe from the brink. Presidents Mbeki of South Africa and Obasanjo of Nigeria were there as representatives of the AU and they failed to do that. Mbeki and Obasanjo spent the good part of this year trumpeting the merits of the AU and NEPAD and the new found strength in "good governance through peer review". The cynics among us responded, "Yeah right!" And the dupes snapped back "shut up, this is a new day for Africa!" And now look. Mbeki and Obasanjo had a chance to make the call for "good governance" and they promptly lost their nerves at their very first encounter with a despot!
So the situation in Zimbabwe continues. We have a stolen election, an aging dictator who is bent on going down with the ship, a mounting internal and external disaffection with matters in Zimbabwe, a worsening economic and political situation in the country, a threat to good governance as defined by NEPAD, and failure to extend common courtesy to the AU, and Obasanjo and Mbeki found reasons to let Mugabe off the hook! You can bet that the AU is off to a very bad start with this failure. What explains this disappointment? Nothing! It is the same old OAU. The OAU did not morph into an AU with a real bite. It showed up at the Troika meeting as the same tired fraternity of presidents under a different guise. So the hope that was invested in Mbeki and Obasanjo to bring sense to the situation in Zimbabwe came back defeated, swept away like a wet paper towel in the path of a deluge. Unfortunately, there is still more trouble to come out of Africa. There is the Ivory Coast gaining notoriety daily, and others yet to surface that would make the problems of Zimbabwe look like a leaking faucet compared to the cascade at Victoria Falls. The major portion of the troubles engulfing Africa is impersonal and impermeable to reason. Obviously, one cannot approach AIDS, the disease, to talk reason. Neither can one talk logic to the half wit who is intent on ruling a country because he found himself in charge of an army. But all this is small matter if one cannot talk sense to Mugabe, a well educated African, and a liberator who has governed a country for 22 years. But that was exactly what happened at Abuja. Mugabe didn't even show up to listen to anybody talk sense.
When asked about the failure to sanction, John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, who together with Mbeki and Obasanjo chaired the Troika meeting, was so diplomatic. "Australia" he said "was of the opinion that Zimbabwe should be fully suspended from the Commonwealth with immediate effect. The other two members of the committee are of the opinion that the progress of Zimbabwe should continue to be monitored over the next six months." Really a nice answer for what should have been a charge for dereliction of duty against Mbeki and Obasanjo. Not even the snobbery at the invitation to come to Abuja could goad Mbeki and Obasanjo to take action against Mugabe. Before the meeting, the impression was that Mugabe, by failing to appear at Abuja, had risked the anger of the Troika and therefore had invited the wrath and certain sanctions of the AU and the Commonwealth. How mistaken was the prediction! As strange as things always are in Africa, the attempt to sanction Zimbabwe fell apart because South Africa sided with Nigeria against Australia, some said, along racial lines. But knowing what has transpired in Zimbabwe for the past year or two, Australia can be excused from charges of racism. A racist, to be honest, would have preferred the confusion to continue. The decision by Mbeki and Obasanjo, however, is another matter and should be suspect. Sanctions against African leaders by their brethren are rare. This is how past scripts of the OAU always read.
Still, Mugabe of all people should know that he has fought long and hard to make gains for his people. Nobody expects him to solve all the problems in his life time. And no one is asking for issue change. No African, including Tsvangirai, the opposition leader of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is plotting for the land issue to die. All that is being asked for is a new approach, a fresh start and a fair chance to choose a leader for the same country known as Zimbabwe. On this latter issue, Mugabe is seriously flawed. Tsvangirai, has called the last election a "coup d'etat", and is asking for a re-run under international supervision. He has warned of a gathering "people's storm" that would do battle with what he called President Robert Mugabe's "civil-military junta". Do we blame him? Can the Ivory Coast serve as a lesson? What started in the Ivory Coast as an attempt to steal an election lead to a coup in year 2000. Once one of the most stable countries in Africa, the Ivory Coast has become a tottering political mess. The insurrection is on, and the end is not in sight yet. The AU is also yet to respond with meaningful action. Earlier this year, the same AU instructed Mugabe to halt the political violence in Zimbabwe, to stop harassing the press, political opponents, and to seek to redress election and human rights abuses. Mugabe's rebuff of the Abuja Troika, and the subsequent victory handed him mean that he is not likely to listen to the AU; at least not within the six months charitably bestowed on him by Mbeki and Obasanjo. After the talks in Abuja failed, Australia declared that she might go it alone and impose sanctions against Zimbabwe. But what will the AU do after six months?
The AU needs to draw a parallel between Zimbabwe and the Ivory Coast, and to add to that the possibility that the whole middle portion of coastal West Africa is in danger of a spreading war. This war in the era of the AU, NEPAD and the much touted renaissance for Africa that one assumed reason and courage would guide the affairs of the continent. So how did Africa fail with the champions of "good governance" Mbeki and Obasanjo at the helm? The decision not to suspend Zimbabwe is a setback for progress in Africa. Minister of Information, Jonathan Moyo's "No serious person expected us (Zimbabwe) to be part of that kind of circus (in Abuja)," notwithstanding, Abuja should have been the proper venue to have brought sanity to Zimbabwean affairs. So once again we are forced to look at the AU like an intrepid reporter did once at the League of Nations after Italy invaded Ethiopia: "On the surface, very little is happening. Beneath the surface nothing is happening," he was reported to have said. You may say same about AU deliberations. Africa is under invasion by forces of the most unreasonable sorts. The continent is burning, but our leaders have turned cheerleaders for the arsonists. Now ask why Africa is so blessed. But first ask why we have leaders who so much want to lead, yet are unwilling or incapable of making those calls that leadership requires of them - to save the continent.
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From The Independent (UK), 4 October
Southern African leaders shut Mugabe out of senior regional role
By Basildon Peta
Southern African leaders have barred the Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe, from assuming a senior role in their 13-nation regional alliance. Diplomatic sources said yesterday that they had feared his leadership would destroy the organisation's reputation. Mr Mugabe was scheduled to assume the rotating deputy chairmanship of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), a post that would automatically lead to him becoming its chairman a year later. Harare would also have become the scheduled venue for next year's meeting. Instead, the Tanzanian President, Benjamin Mkapa, was appointed to the post. Next year's heads of state meeting will now be held in Tanzania. Although regional leaders have refrained from directly attacking Mr Mugabe over his drive to confiscate white-owned farms, diplomats said that in behind-the-scenes discussions the leaders have persistently tried to rein in the Zimbabwean leader.
The new SADC chairman, the Angolan President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, his predecessor, the Malawian President, Bakili Muluzi, and the body's executive secretary, Prega Ramsamy, all emphasised the need for regional stability during the summit's opening ceremony this week. An official privy to the SADC's deliberations said: "The SADC leaders have been criticised by Europe for turning a blind eye to Mugabe's excesses. By keeping him away from the leadership of SADC, they hope they can diplomatically make the world understand that they disagree with his policies." Zimbabwe's state media had this week celebrated the country's impending assumption of the deputy chairmanship. The Herald newspaper quoted officials saying they were excited about the appointment. However, the state media said yesterday that Mr Mugabe had chosen not to take the post owing to other "pressing commitments" at home. The Herald said Zimbabwe was happy to pass on the post so it could concentrate on its land seizures.
An unnamed diplomat said: "The whole reorganisation of the SADC bureau was unscheduled and is meant to send a message to Zimbabwe that the region values peace, security, stability and respect for greater democratisation." Another diplomat said: "The heads of state and government did not have to discuss Zimbabwe's land reform directly. Their actions sent the right signal." Mr Mugabe is widely seen as a liability in the region, which is faced with a devastating famine and is desperate to attract Western investment.
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From The Danish Presidency of the European Union, 3 October
Brussels, 3 October 2002 12630/02 (Presse 301) P 139/02
Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union, the Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union, the associated countries Cyprus and Malta, and the EFTA country Liechtenstein, member of the European Economic Area, concerning restrictive measures against Zimbabwe.
The Central and Eastern European countries associated with the European Union, the associated countries Cyprus and Malta, and the EFTA country Liechtenstein, member of the European Economic Area, declare that they share the objectives of the Council decision of 13 September 2002 implementing Council Common Position 2002/145/CFSP concerning restrictive measures against Zimbabwe. They will ensure that their national policies conform to that Council decision.
The European Union takes note of this commitment and welcomes it.
From ZWNEWS:
The Central and Eastern European countries include Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
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From VOA News, 3 October
Fuel shortage in Zimbabwe creates havoc for commuters
Zimbabwe all but ran out of fuel Thursday. For the first time in a year, long lines for gasoline can been seen throughout the capital and the second city Bulawayo. Those worst hit by the fuel crisis are commuters who must wait hours to get to and from work. Thousands of Zimbabweans were late for work Thursday because of the fuel shortages, which are likely to continue, despite reports there is fuel outside Harare. According to sources in the petroleum industry, there are millions of liters of fuel in storage, but Zimbabwe does not have the foreign currency to release it for distribution. Proprietors of gasoline stations around Harare say they have not been told why fuel has dried up, or when normal supplies will resume. The government says shortages of gasoline and diesel are caused by hoarding. Last year, President Robert Mugabe secured 70 percent of Zimbabwe's gasoline and diesel needs from Libya. Libya, whose leader, Muammar Gaddafi, has close ties with Mr. Mugabe, accepted payment in Zimbabwe's currency, which has little value outside the country. But other countries are not being as generous as Libya. Libya ships its fuel to Zimbabwe by way of Mozambique, which then pumps it from the port of Beira to Zimbabwe. However, before Zimbabwe can claim the fuel, Mozambique has been demanding payment in foreign currency. On several occasions in the last year, fuel briefly ran short, because Mozambique had not been paid. Last month, Mr. Mugabe visited Libya, and the state-controlled media said another year's contract had been signed. Financial analysts cite two possible reasons for the present fuel shortage: either Libya now wants to be paid in hard currency, or Mozambique has not been paid port dues and pumping fees. If either or both these reasons are behind the fuel crisis, then Zimbabwe is in a deeper economic crisis than ever before. Zimbabwe has no foreign currency and its dwindling mineral exports are held up in South Africa because of a strike at the port of Durban. Meanwhile, donor agencies are concerned that, if the fuel problem is not sorted out quickly, their food deliveries to hungry Zimbabweans in remote parts of the country will be interrupted.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 4 October
Fuel crisis to spread countrywide
Barnabas Thondhlana
Zimbabwe’s fuel crisis is expected to spread to the south of the country as financing agreements signed with suppliers in South Africa come to an end. Fuel industry sources said this week Zimbabwe had a US$20 million facility with Sasol and Engen to supply mainly the south and central parts of the country. Already US$10 million has been exhausted and the remainder will only last about 10 days. "Fuel purchasing company Petronas, which has been delivering Sasol and Engen fuel to Zimbabwe under the facility, will cease doing so as soon as the deal expires," said an industry source. "The likelihood of it being renewed is minimal as government does not have the money." Only four shipments are left. The source said there was an immediate need to address the ongoing fuel shortages as failure to do so would see Zimbabwe slipping back to the days when fuel queues were the order of the day. "The current crop of leadership in the Energy ministry has failed to contain the crisis and looks incapable of doing so," the source said.
The current shortages are likely to persist as there is no prospect of foreign exchange reserves improving. Harare has for the last two weeks been surviving on a US$10 million fuel financing facility sourced from the Afroxim Bank. The facility, organised by Trust Bank and the Merchant Bank of Central Africa, was sufficient to keep the city supplied for a week. The fuel was sourced from the Independent Petroleum Group's stocks at Noczim's Mabvuku storage tanks where IPG has over 100 million litres of various fuels. "A new facility of around US$60 million needs to be quickly negotiated if the situation is to be brought under control," said the industry source. The US$360 million Libyan fuel deal is yet to see a drop of petrol being delivered to the country. The Libyans have called in their US$63 million debt and have said delivery would only be effected if government made an effort to pay up.
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From VOA News, 2 October
Zimbabwe farmers near Botswana border ordered out
Dozens of ranchers in southern Zimbabwe have been ordered to leave their homesteads or be arrested. At least three ranchers were held Tuesday in police cells near the Botswana border, while others are expecting to be detained. Commercial Farmers Union spokesman Mac Crawford said at least 40 farmers in the dry Matabeleland Province were ordered to leave their homes immediately. He said some of the affected farmers had eviction notices they had defied, others had court orders allowing them to remain, and several had not received notice their properties were to be nationalized. While 90 percent of commercial farmers in central Zimbabwe were forced to leave their land in the past few weeks, those in Matabeleland Province had been least affected. Despite several murders of both ranchers and farm workers since President Robert Mugabe ordered invasions of white-owned land 31 months ago, about 300 farmers in the province remained. Farmers in Matabeleland run huge dairies and produce most of Zimbabwe's beef. Mr. Crawford said following police raids a few ranchers had quit for good. He said others are expecting to be arrested and are preparing a court challenge. Farmer and opposition Member of Parliament Roy Bennet was released from detention in eastern Zimbabwe, just hours before he marched with his fellow parliamentarians to police headquarters. Limping badly from wounds he said he suffered while in police cells, Mr. Bennet and fellow opposition parliamentarians took a petition to the police to protest torture. They said increasing numbers of officials and ordinary members of opposition groups, including youngsters, are being routinely tortured in police custody.
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From IRIN (UN), 3 October
Focus on economic impact of land reform
Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform programme has ignored the critical role played by the commercial farming sector in the economy, analysts and farmers have warned. "President Robert Mugabe's ... land reform policies are having profound consequences not only for commercial farming but for the agricultural sector as a whole. However, land reform is only one strand in a set of policies undermining the economy and feeding political instability," warned the political think-tank Oxford Analytica in a new report. In previous years mining, manufacturing, services and agriculture - both large and small-scale - all contributed significantly to employment and to gross domestic product (GDP). "Commercial agriculture alone contributed some 17 percent. The economy was well-integrated with particularly strong linkages between commercial agriculture and services and manufacturing. It was axiomatic that much of the rest of the economy would benefit from reinvested earnings following a good agricultural season. Commercial farmers were also playing an important role in the rapid expansion of Zimbabwe's tourism industry through the conversion of marginal farmland into wildlife habitat," Oxford Analytica said.
But by the second half of 2002, the economy was "rapidly unravelling" as the government struggled to deal with a major food crisis, blamed largely on its own land reform programme. The government's programme was aimed at addressing the imbalance in land ownership in Zimbabwe, and landless blacks are supposed to be the main beneficiaries. However, it has been criticised for disrupting commercial agriculture and being undertaken in a disorderly manner. Given the central role of commercial farming to agriculture and the economy, it was important that the foundations of agricultural recovery not be weakened further, Oxfam Analytica said. Both existing and new commercial farmers required timely access to farm machinery and equipment, seed, fertiliser and water for irrigation and livestock. "Few newly resettled farmers have the resources to purchase farm equipment, and half of the government-owned tractor fleet is out of service because of the lack of foreign currency to purchase spare parts. [Also] the extent to which seed-breeders' farms have been expropriated is unknown as is the impact on the supply of hybrid seed," Oxford Analytica said.
Rampant triple-digit inflation had led the government to impose price controls on fertiliser - "a policy that has only exacerbated shortages". This was because "the trend in fertiliser use in older resettlement areas has declined since adjustment policies were introduced in the early 1990s," the think-tank argued. The 2002 drought was cutting food supplies at a time when many dams were full, "because no irrigation is taking place on the farms acquired for land reform". Many of the people who received land reallocated from large-scale farms had "little or no commercial farming experience, so technology and inputs - if available - may be poorly or under-utilised if practical training is not provided". But newly resettled farmers were unlikely to receive adequate training as "almost all of the country's 1,200 agricultural specialists applied for land under the [redistribution] programme and are among the best-qualified to receive it". While it was not known how many had actually received land and would then leave government service, the government was "rapidly recruiting more than 5,000 new specialists and is assuming zero attrition among existing staff to bring total numbers to more than 6,000", Oxford Analytica added.
The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) reported on Thursday that the government would soon embark on a land audit to assess land uptake on designated farms. "The minister for land reform, Flora Bhuka, said the exerc ise will be done to ensure that all land is occupied and put to good use," ZBC reported. "The fast-track land reform programme has seen government allocating land to more than 310,000 families. Government is still in the process of handing over land to more than 54,000 families," ZBC said. The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), meanwhile, said the government's land reform programme and "illegal" evictions of farmers by ruling party supporters had brought the commercial farming sector "to its knees". Ben Kaschula, regional executive officer for the CFU Mashonaland Central region, told IRIN that "commercial farming as we've known it before has come to an end ... very few, perhaps 20 percent, of commercial farmers that were previously on land will possibly farm to a reduced extent in the next season. We had 3,200 licensed commercial farmers for the year that just ended, it's likely to be about 1,400 now and that's being optimistic," he said. No less than 1,200 farmers had been forced off the land, irrespective of whether or not they had received government eviction notices, Kaschula said.
In January 2000, the commercial farming sector employed more than 350,000 workers, roughly one-third of all wage employment. "By mid-2002, most of these workers had been displaced, and a former finance minister reported that a third of all formal sector jobs in the economy had been lost. Other sources put the unemployment rate at above 70 percent. Many of those who have lost jobs are now living in destitution, but the government is avoiding addressing the welfare implications of massive unemployment," the Oxford Analytica report alleged. Funding for agricultural activities was a major obstacle to agrarian recovery. International donors have ceased all funding, save for drought relief and HIV/AIDS programmes, and financial institutions were reluctant to grant loans to land reform beneficiaries as they lack title deeds to their new land. "In the face of debt, crop production and exports are generally down. Of major crops, only coffee and tea production was above 2000 levels in 2001. Last year, commercial farming contributed some 38 percent of Zimbabwe's total foreign exchange earnings, but it is estimated that at least 90 percent of such earnings will be lost under the current land reform programme," the think-tank warned.
Production of staple maize declined 31 percent in 2001 and even more in 2002, creating a need for expenditure to import an estimated 1.7 million mt of maize. Tourism earnings have also nose-dived - "not only because of international anxiety surrounding civil unrest but because of the widely publicised poaching of endangered wildlife in game conservation parks, where some 60 percent of wildlife has been lost," the report said. The domino effect of the present land reform policy has resulted in Zimbabwe's GDP shrinking by 4.5 percent in 2000, 7.5 percent in 2001. A decline of between 12-15 percent was forecast for 2002, "largely a consequence of farm invasions and the withdrawal of investors and foreign donors", the report noted.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 4 October
Politically related deaths now over 150
Augustine Mukaro
The death toll of victims of political violence has risen to 151 since 2000, the latest Human Rights Forum report says. The latest victim is Nikoniari Chibvamudeve who was killed in Hurungwe two weeks ago as the ruling Zanu PF party supporters stepped-up violence and intimidation during local government polls. According to the report, "Political Violence", 58 of the recorded deaths occurred this year. Just before the March presidential election the figure stood at 132 while 19 others died in post-election violence. "Organised violence has continued to prevail in all parts of the country," the report says. Some of the violence was allegedly perpetrated by uniformed details, with the greatest prevalence being reported in Manicaland. Soldiers have reportedly been spearheading violence in Manicaland. Examples include the 10 soldiers who severely assaulted bus conductors at Nyakamete and others who assaulted guards at Charleswood Farm.
"Specifically, in Chimanimani CIO agents, police officers and soldiers are meting out a reign of terror, assaulting civilians with baton sticks, sjamboks, booted feet and open hands," the report said. "Victims of violence are allegedly being taken to prison cells in the area, which the victims claim now serve as torture centres." Reports of political violence against teachers have been recorded in eight of the 10 provinces in the country with Bulawayo and Harare being the exceptions. The Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum report documents 238 individual cases of abuses against teachers by Zanu PF militias. "Since January 2001 violence on teachers witnessed the closure of 30 schools," the report says. "Most of the closures were due to teachers fleeing violence perpetrated against them and subsequently refusing to go back until their safety is guaranteed against the marauding war veterans and Zanu PF supporters." The forum said apart from school closures, other abuses suffered by teachers included abduction, unlawful arrest and detention, death threats and displacement from work places.
"Pepertrators would go to schools where targeted individuals taught and then physically remove them from their places of employment or just ordered the transfer of teachers they suspected to be opposition supporters," the report said. Teachers were also threatened with either job loss or personal injury if it was established that they supported the opposition. "At the highest level, this was done by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Stan Mudenge, but it was also done by 'war veterans' in Chimanimani, Bikita West, Masvingo Central, Mberengwa West and Zaka East," the report said. Some teachers were forced to flee their places of work as their schools were used as bases by Zanu PF militia for the torture of opposition members or as re-education centres and generally springboards from which they carried out political activities.
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From AFP, 3 October
Zimbabwe's crisis again a concern at southern Africa summit
Luanda - Zimbabwe's ongoing political crisis again nettled southern African leaders, who were wrapping up a two-day summit Thursday, as officials wrestled with an apparent refusal by the United States to meet a Zimbabwean delegation at an annual forum later this year. The United States and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) hold an annual meeting to review development programs and other issues. But officials at the summit here said that the United States had informed SADC that it would not attend the forum this year if Zimbabwe was part of the SADC delegation. "The United States said it would not attend if Zimbabwe is part of the meeting," one official said. Washington refused to recognize Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's re-election in March, citing widespread political violence and claims of vote fraud, and has slapped sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circle.
Officials at the summit said they were debating whether to skip the US-SADC forum this year, or to hold an informal meeting that would not include all 14 SADC countries. The forum was due to be held in Malawi later this year. Neighboring African leaders have had muted response to Mugabe's increasingly repressive regime, blamed for human rights abuses at home and for exacerbating the effects of a regional drought that has left nearly 15 million people in six countries facing famine. Since Mugabe two years ago began a controversial scheme of seizing white-owned farms for resettlement by blacks, agricultural production in Zimbabwe has plummeted, leaving a nation that once exported food to the region asking the UN's World Food Program for emergency aid.
Talks at the summit were expected to focus on the famine, and on recent gains in the peace process in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano left Luanda early in the day to return to Maputo ahead of celebrations Friday marking the 10th anniversary of the peace deal that ended 16 years of civil war in his country. By mid-day Thursday, officials had broken up into bilateral meetings between countries in the region, as they waited to finalize a final declaration. The SADC nations are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, the Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 4 October
SADC pledges 'continued support' for Mugabe
Luanda - Leaders from the 14 nations of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) again rallied behind Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe on Thursday, after a two-day summit that ended with few concrete decisions. Zimbabwe's neighbours have largely remained mute on the ongoing crisis in a once-vibrant nation that now needs international aid to feed its population. A final declaration said "the summit pledged continued support" for Mugabe, who briefed the delegates on his controversial land reform programmes. The reforms, and Mugabe's controversial re-election in March, have been slammed by some Western governments, which have slapped sanctions on his regime. "We are convinced that the ongoing land reform in that country is aimed at the rational, fair and equitable distribution of land to be used for the benefit of the people of Zimbabwe," Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa said at the summit's closing ceremony. "We in SADC remain united in appreciating the need for, and supporting, land reform in Zimbabwe," he said. Zimbabwe denies charges that the scheme to expropriate white-owned farms and turn them over to the black majority has contributed to the food crisis by slashing production. Harvest of maize, the staple grain, have fallen by more than 70% since Mugabe's land reforms began two years ago. Almost half of the nearly 13 million people currently at risk of starvation in drought-stricken southern Africa live in Zimbabwe, according to UN statistics. The country, once an exporter of grains, suffered a 1,8 million ton shortfall during the last harvest, which has contributed to the shortages in neighbouring countries.
The effects of Zimbabwe's isolation by Western countries burst into the discussions in the Angolan capital Luanda. Diplomats said bitter debates took place among SADC leaders over a US decision not to take part in an annual meeting with SADC if a Zimbabwean delegation attends. The SADC-US Forum is an annual meeting to review US development projects and other affairs in the region. The United States did not recognise Mugabe's re-election in March, citing widespread political violence and claims of vote fraud, and considers his government illegitimate. Delegates at the summit debated how to continue the meetings, possibly at a less formal level with a SADC team from a few nations representing the interests the region. SADC officials had wanted the meeting to take place in Malawi before the year ends.
While the summit did not agree to take any specific action on the regional famine, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos urged the region to "lead a true crusade against famine" and "to reduce the suffering" of people affected by the food shortages. "We should give a collective response to the great challenges of poverty, education, health, food security and combating terrorism," he said. The statement also thanked the UN World Food Programme and South Africa for their efforts to combat the famine and severe drought affecting six SADC nations. The two-day meeting was the first among SADC heads of state and government to take place in Angola, which ended a 27-year civil war with a ceasefire on April 4. The summit repeatedly praised Angola for making its ceasefire stick and declared support for recent peace efforts in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). A final declaration voiced support for Angola's "ongoing efforts aimed at providing assistance to demobilised soldiers, orphans, internally displaced people and the population affected" by the civil war. The SADC nations are Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, the Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 4 October
Land seizures cost Zesa $12b
Augustine Mukaro/Blessing Zulu
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) will lose at least $12 billion in revenue this year alone as the effects of the chaotic land reform programme remove power and service users in commercial agriculture. Documents to hand show that the 4 000 farmers forced to leave their properties or who have stopped production pending departure were paying on average a total of $1 billion in Zesa bills every month. Sources at the power utility said the parastatal is projected to incur the worst losses in its history this year. "Zesa suffered a $1 billion loss in the year 2000 and that was understood to be the worst compared to 1995's $100 million loss," sources said. "The loss of farmers as a revenue base will undoubtedly negatively impact on Zesa's delivery capacity and debt servicing." The $12 billion shortfall contributes a significant percentage of the parastatal's annual turnover.
The power utility is struggling to service its debt to neighbouring countries from whom it imports power for distribution to local consumers. Zesa owes Mozambican power-company Cahora Bassa over US$40 million and DRC's Snel more than US$2 million. It also owes Eskom of South Africa over US$40 million. Cahora Bassa has threatened to disconnect Zimbabwe if the debt is not serviced. The withdrawal of funding by the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, and the African Development Bank last year worsened Zesa's financial woes. The billion-dollar loss came to light when management wrote a memo dated July 18 to workers who were demanding a cost-of-living adjustment. "The need for a cost-of-living adjustment is acknowledged," the memo said. "The financial position is currently not strong in view of a loss of $1 billion as at May 2002." CFU president Collin Cloete who has only 80 hectares of irrigable land, said when operating at full capacity he paid on average $0,5 million every month.
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From The Daily News, 4 October
Police accused of not arresting wanted senior Zanu PF official
From our correspondent in Bulawayo
Lupane police are allegedly delayed the arrest of a senior Zanu PF official on a charge of raping a minor so he could run the party’s campaign in last weekend’s rural district council elections. The rape allegations against Cliford Sibanda, the provincial secretary for Lupane, came to light on Tuesday last week. The police, acting on orders from "above", allegedly refused to arrest Sibanda until Monday this week after the elections, won easily by Zanu PF. Lupane police yesterday refused to comment on the matter. Sibanda, 41, on Tuesday appeared for initial remand before Lupane magistrate, Felix Ndlovu, facing one count of rape. He was not asked to plead. Allegations against Sibanda were that on 29 September at a house at the Lupane district administrator's compound, he grabbed the girl, aged 14, and dragged her to a room in the house. The girl was described as a maid at the compound and was sweeping a room when the alleged offence took place. Sibanda was then alleged to have raped her once and then tried to buy her silence with $310. The offence only came to light when the young girl was asked about the money. She spilled the beans and the matter was reported to the police who reportedly reacted only a week later.
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From The Financial Gazette, 3 October
Fresh scandal rocks troubled NOCZIM
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
Senior staff at the government-owned National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) this week stood accused of colluding with drivers of private oil firms in siphoning scarce fuel from NOCZIM depots for resale mostly in Harare in a racket that is costing the state firm millions of dollars. The alleged racket, if proved, could be the second to hit the scandal-troubled NOCZIM in three years. High-level oil industry officials this week said more than two million litres of fuel, mostly diesel worth over $140 million at current pump prices, had been diverted by the racketeers to illegal selling points in the past year. Zimbabwe, in the throes of an on-off fuel crisis which erupted two years ago, needs 60 million litres of fuel a month or 720 million litres annually. It imports most of the fuel from Libya. The oil industry officials, preferring not to be named, told the Financial Gazette that several NOCZIM managers were colluding with drivers of some private fuel companies to pull off the scam. The drivers acted as middlemen and were used to divert the fuel to the illegal selling points. Most of the fuel is from the Mabvuku and Msasa depots in Harare, where senior officials would authorise the drivers to have additional fuel pumped into their tankers, which they would then take to these outlets, the officials alleged. The racket is believed to going on at all NOCZIM fuel depots. "We believe that up to two million litres of fuel is finding its way to these outlets not only in Harare but across the country and it seems everything is well coordinated with the drivers acting as the middlemen," one official said.
But NOCZIM's managing director Webster Muriritirwa this week said he found it hard to believe that fuel could be illegally siphoned out of the company's depots because pumping of the fuel was done automatically. "In theory that will not happen because everything is done automatically and there are reconciliation statements at the end of each day," he said. "You can come to Msasa next week and see how the system operates." The oil industry officials however argued that because individuals operated the system, it could be beaten. They said at no point had oil companies which receive fuel from their drivers complained that they were short, indicating that the fuel at illegal selling points was over and above that allocated to these firms. "So you need to ask yourself now where all this fuel is coming from if the oil companies are not losing their fuel," another official said. NOCZIM has been ridden by scandals over years. In 1999, at the height of the worst fuel crisis, investigations by this newspaper revealed that billions of dollars had been lost through shady deals conducted by senior officials, some of whom were later sacked. The company's debt peaked at a staggering $22 billion two years ago. On Tuesday this week, a Financial Gazette news crew visited one of the illegal fuel outlets in Harare's Graniteside industrial area, where three young men kept a vigil on the site. One of the three said the fuel they were selling came from NOCZIM and was transported by tankers belonging to private oil companies. A tanker, which had made a diesel delivery, had just left when this newspaper's news crew arrived. "The tankers bring it direct from NOCZIM," one of the young man said. "We can supply up to 1 000 litres as long as you bring your drums but you have to phone me first to confirm your order."
The oil industry officials said because most of the tankers were rarely filled to maximum capacity, this allowed additional fuel to be pumped into the tankers. A single tanker can carry up to 30 000 litres of diesel or petrol. Depending on the available space in the tankers, up to 5 000 litres of additional fuel could be siphoned at a time. For their part in the deal, the drivers get a handsome kickback while the operators of the illegal fuel points in turn pay the NOCZIM officials. The fuel is sold at inflated prices mostly to transport operators, including owners of commuter buses, in 200-litre drums. It is believed that local businesspeople run the illegal fuel depots but sources said there could be links between the operators and the NOCZIM officials, or the latter even owned some of the illegal outlets.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 4 October
BAT pulls plug on Williams award
Vincent Kahiya
In what looks like an embarrassing case of corporate cowardice, British American Tobacco Zimbabwe (BATZ) pulled its sponsorship from the Communicator of the Year award this year because one of the nominees was Justice for Agriculture (JAG)'s spokesperson, Jenni Williams. Zanu PF has chosen to demonise JAG as opposed to land reform. Correspondence at hand shows that BATZ gave an ultimatum to the organisers of the event, the Zimbabwe Institute of Public Relations (ZIPR), to withdraw Williams' nomination or the tobacco company would cancel its support for the event. The award ceremony was due to take place last Friday but was scrapped after the sponsors pulled out citing fear of courting controversy by recognising Williams. Williams has over the past year articulated the story of the commercial farmers who have lost their properties due to the current agrarian reform programme. JAG advocates judicial recourse so government is held to its own laws. Williams was Commercial Farmers’ Union spokesperson before she switched to JAG.
"We are uncomfortable with this year's awards becoming socially and/or politically controversial and we therefore confirm that as representatives of ZIPR, Pro-Comm are to approach Ms Jenni Williams or the people who nominated her to either withdraw from the competition or withdraw their nomination," said BATZ corporate affairs manager Peter Parirewa in a letter to Pro-Comm on September 19. Pro-Comm handles public relations for ZIPR. Williams however responded four days later refusing to withdraw. "On being made aware of this and after consultation with my proposers, I refuse to withdraw my nomination," said Williams in a letter to ZIPR. "I do this on the basis that I am a professional communicator and as such am not political and my role as a communicator should be separate to that of the product I communicate - I should be judged on the professionalism under which the product, view or issue is communicated by me and my company," she said. "I take great exception to this attempt to violate certain norms and understandings and request that BATZ make a principled and ethical stand and allow the competition to go ahead with all the original and valid nominees intact, thus allowing the judges their unfettered 'courtesy of choice' which is the BATZ motto," she said.
Asked to comment on the cancellation of the event, Parirewa first professed ignorance of the BATZ ultimatum. "I am not aware of that," he said. But when told that the Independent was in possession of a letter he signed he quickly questioned who had supplied the paper with the letter and promised to come back with a response. In a statement yesterday BATZ said the event was cancelled after consultations with ZIPR. "British American Tobacco, the sponsor of this award felt that some of the entry conditions had not been met by some possible candidates. Being a prestigious award it was prudent on the part of BATZ after consulting with ZIPR that the cancellation of this year's event be effected," the statement said.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 6 October
How SADC leaders spurned Mugabe
Zimbabwean president unfit to chair regional grouping
Ranjeni Munusamy
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe left the Angolan capital, Luanda, in a huff this week after his regional allies turned on him. They told him that the way he was going about land reform made him unfit to be a future chairman of the Southern African Development Community. Mugabe was next in line to be deputy chairman of the body, a position which would have made him chairman a year later. All pre-summit documentation had billed Mugabe as the new deputy chairman of SADC, who would take over leadership from Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos in 2003. But instead of going through the motions of electing him, heads of state, who were meeting at the annual SADC summit, told him the image of the regional body would suffer in his hands. The decision was conveyed to Mugabe by one of his closest allies, Malawian President Bakili Muluzi, on Wednesday. Due to Zimbabwe's internal and external battles, it was not the correct time for the country to be talking on behalf of SADC, Muluzi said. Mugabe did not protest as it was clear that the other leaders supported Muluzi's view, insiders said.
The Zimbabwean leader was to deliver the closing address at the two-day summit on Thursday evening, but instead left for Harare that morning. A few hours later, he flew to Maputo to attend the 10th anniversary celebrations of that country's peace deal. After private consultations before the start of the summit on Wednesday, most regional leaders agreed that allowing Mugabe to lead SADC would jeopardise the region's development projects and the organisation's future, as SADC is almost entirely dependent on Western donors. During the Wednesday meeting, Botswana's President Festus Mogae asked Mugabe why TV news reports showed white farmers packing up their possessions if Zimbabwe was only expropriating surplus land. Mugabe said the reports were not correct because all the farmers still had houses. "The leaders who spoke made it clear that they support the principle of land redistribution. However, nobody said they supported the way in which it was being carried out," said one SADC official. "They were not hostile but were very firm and made it clear that they would not calmly tolerate what was going on in Zimbabwe any more," said one minister. President Thabo Mbeki is said not to have contributed much to the debate.
At the meeting where he was stripped of the prospect of chairing the regional body, Mugabe said he had discussed land reform with former British prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major and that both had undertaken to sponsor the process to reverse the legacy of colonialism. But British Prime Minister Tony Blair had sabotaged the process, forcing the Zimbabwean government to act boldly on its own. The other SADC heads of state decided to announce that it had been Zimbabwe's decision to decline the position and offer it to Tanzania. Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister, Stan Mudenge, told the Sunday Times that Zimbabwe had offered the chairmanship to Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa. "We are also a little busy with the land reform programme," he said. Zimbabwe's image internationally and its impact on the SADC had not been raised, Mudenge said. "We briefed SADC that we are virtually finished with the redistribution. They were very supportive. Now we are focused on making the people who have settled on the land more productive." Speaking after the summit, Dos Santos said there was "solidarity and support" for Zimbabwe as it had a "courageous" government which was redistributing wealth in a "fair and balanced manner". Zimbabwe's fierce ally, Nambia, also came to its defence, saying the country's policies had no negative impact on the region. SADC is also heading for a face-off with the European Union over Zimbabwe. The two groups are scheduled to meet in Denmark to discuss cooperation, but the EU has indicated it is not prepared to have the meeting if Zimbabwe is part of the delegation.
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From The Sunday Times (UK), 6 October
Electric torture in a Mugabe cell
Tom Walker, Diplomatic Correspondent
It was a nondescript sort of room, about 12ft by 9ft, and the windows at the top of one wall looked out onto flowerbeds, but the police paraphernalia lying around left Tom Spicer in no doubt as to why he had been brought there. Scattered about the floor and tables were pieces of leather, handcuffs and blindfolds. As he had been led down to the basement of Harare central police station he had already seen a battery in one room with wires leading from it. "They told me I was going to be tortured, I just didn’t know how they were going to do it," said Spicer, 18, a college student and the sole white youth activist for Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The electric shocks were the worst of the four-hour ordeal. Blindfolded, Spicer felt a wire inserted into his ear, and he began experiencing the sort of pain meted out on a regular basis by President Robert Mugabe’s increasingly lawless police. Diplomats have begun comparing the brutality with the darkest days of Idi Amin’s rule in Uganda, a quarter of a century ago. "It’s fairly indescribable," said Spicer, a fifth-generation Zimbabwean whose parents once supported Mugabe and everything he stood for. More than a week after his torture he still cannot eat, his arms are sore and some of his muscles numb after straining against the handcuffs that bound him. He is at least able to walk again, after being beaten - again blindfolded - on the soles of his feet while a policeman sat on his knees. "They told me they were going to kill me," he said. But Spicer insists nothing he has been through has deterred him from supporting and working for the MDC. The opposition party’s swelling popularity has so irked Mugabe he has given his security forces virtual carte blanche to collude in the thuggery that besets a nation which was once - at his inauguration as president 22 years ago - a beacon of hope. "It’s definitely not put me off. I’m a Zimbabwean, and I’ve got the right to campaign for the party of my choice," said Spicer. "All my friends are supporting me."
Among them are Cosmos and Barabas Ndira, Reuben Tichareva and Tendai Maluzi, the four young blacks arrested with Spicer by the police in Mabvuku, a poor township area on the eastern outskirts of Harare a week last Thursday. The group were interrogated about a recent murder that had taken place while Spicer had been away on holiday with his parents, and were also quizzed about a series of alleged arson attacks. The blacks were asked why they liked a "white boy", and told they should be killing whites, not befriending them. The group were beaten and forced to chant slogans in support of Mugabe ’s party, Zanu-PF, which Spicer refused to do. He was then separated from his friends and his torture session began. During the four days of their detention the teenagers were allowed no access to lawyers and Spicer’s mother, Edwina, 54, a documentary film-maker, had only managed once to get a doctor anywhere near her badly injured son. Eventually on Monday the group was released, on bail of 10,000 Zimbabwean dollars each, about £115.
The irony for the Spicers is that they are a liberal family who left the then Rhodesia during the Ian Smith era in the 1970s and returned in the belief that Mugabe was setting up a genuinely pluralistic, multiracial and tolerant society. Tom’s father Newton is a former civil servant who works wi th the communal and small-scale farmers that Mugabe has championed in his land seizures. "Tom’s predicament catches headlines because he is white but this is nothing to do with race," said Edwina Spicer. "The British press has laboured on about the farmers but the point is the lack of any rule of law. Tom’s case highlights what is happening to every other young activist in the country. This is just my child’s story: there are thousands more." "We’re bringing a court action," said Tom Spicer. " I honestly do hold out hope." Hundreds of MDC supporters have been killed and injured since Mugabe’s clampdown began two years ago, and last week Roy Bennett, the party’s only white farmer MP, was badly beaten by police. Along with Stewart Girvin, a waiter from London born in Zimbabwe, he was charged with illegally filming food distribution at a polling station. During his detention the police allegedly threatened to brand Girvin with a soldering iron. Tom Spicer is returning to his studies at Harare’s Speciss College, where he will take A-levels in geography and history in two weeks. "I’m not planning much further ahead than that," he said. And what would he say to Mugabe if he met him? "If I told you I think I’d probably be arrested again."
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From IOL (SA), 5 October
Dissident Christians face arrest in Zimbabwe
By Angus Shaw
Harare - Dissident Christians opposed to their bishop for his support of the ruling party face arrest if they defy an order banning them from weekend services or church activities, their lawyer said on Saturday. Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, head of the Anglican Church in Harare, won a court order banning 19 church wardens, officials and choir members after they disrupted his sermons to protest their political content and praise of President Robert Mugabe and his regime. Zimbabwe has been gripped by more than two years of economic turmoil and political violence, widely blamed on the increasingly authoritarian ruling party. The parishioners, who want politics kept out of the church, will appeal for their banning order to be struck down by the Harare magistrate's court on Tuesday, their lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said. The interim order banned them from worshipping at the main Anglican Cathedral in downtown Harare and from visiting church-owned buildings and activities until further notice. "It means they can be arrested, even if someone invites them to a parish house for tea," Mtetwa said.
In court documents dated September 25, Kunonga accused the 19 church officials of disrupting services, with choir members refusing to provide choral music and on one occasion leading the congregation into "uncontrollably" singing hymns to stop the service. He also alleged some church wardens failed to follow routine administrative and financial procedures and were intent on subverting the authority of the bishop's office. Mtetwa described Kunonga's court application -and the granting of it -as irregular. Under diocese and parish rules, diocesan trustees needed to agree before any legal action was taken. Disputes in the church were normally considered first by the church chancellor and two registrars, all three of them lawyers. Kunonga was elected bishop last year after being accused of using ruling party influence to secure the post. He was also accused of firing priests who opposed his nomination. Strict security laws passed earlier this year that ban public gatherings without police permission have affected some meetings of church leaders critical of the government. Last month, a group of Christians was briefly arrested during a prayer vigil outside a police station where a member of their congregation was being held. About half Zimbabwe's 12,5 million people face severe food shortages blamed on drought and the government's seizures of thousands of white-owned farms.
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From The Daily News, 5 October
Kunonga's critic gets death threat
By Pedzisai Ruhanya Chief Reporter
The infighting in the Anglican Church in Harare took a dark turn this week when Pauline Makoni, a critic of the embattled Bishop Nolbert Kunonga, on Monday received an anonymous death threat. Mrs Makoni is the wife of well-known banker, Dr Julius Makoni, and the daughter of the retired bishop of the Anglican Church, Peter Hatendi. It is reported that a vehicle came up the driveway of her Highlands home and an envelope was tossed over the gate. By the time the gardener picked up the envelope the vehicle had already taken off at high speed. When Makoni read the letter, addressed to her personally, she was brought face-to-face with the threat of death. "Please note," the letter reads, "that your church executive you are in (sic) should resign not later than today or you will face death. This I assure you and if you do not tell your members . . ." The last part of the letter contains more threats, this time in Shona, but unprintable in a family newspaper, with obscene references to Mrs Makoni's private parts.
Pauline Makoni refused to discuss her ordeal yesterday. "Who gave you that letter?" she said when contacted by The Daily News. "I cannot discuss the letter with you because of the pending court case. But I can assure you I am not in any way scared." The letter to Makoni did not bear the name, address or signature of the writer. The matter was reported to Highlands Police Station the same day, but yesterday the police refused to comment. This was the latest incident in the ongoing upheavals that have rocked the Anglican Church in Harare since the appointment of Kunonga as head of the Harare Diocese. The threat to Makoni's life follows an application in the Harare Magistrates' Court by Kunonga in which he seeks the court's authority to bar the leadership of the Cathedral of St Mary and All Saints in Harare, including Makoni, from attending services and visiting church buildings in the Harare Diocese. As a result of Kunonga's application, Makoni said the leadership of the Harare Diocese, including herself, were on Saturday barred from church activities.
In his affidavit, Kunonga alleged the leadership had disrupted church services by joining other parishioners in accusing him of abusing his position by preaching pro-Zanu PF sermons. But in her affidavit, filed in the court yesterday on behalf of the 18 other parishioners by Beatrice Mtetwa of Kantor and Immerman legal practitioners, Makoni said the ruling to stop them from carrying out their duties should be reversed because Kunonga did not have the legal power to take such a decision. Under Chapter 8.6 of the Acts of the Diocese, any legal action had to be taken with the consent of the diocesan trustees. She said one of the trustees, Chris Molan, confirmed that the diocesan trustees did not authorise Kunonga to bring the matter to the court. It was noted that Kunonga did not have the power to remove duly elected councillors and wardens because they were not there to serve the personal interests of the sitting Bishop as their power derived entirely from the diocesan acts and not from the Bishop. "Kunonga also appears to have totally ignored that the respondents are a creature of the vestry and that they are obliged to carry out the lawful instructions and resolutions made at the annual vestry meeting. "If he has a problem at all with the proceedings of the vestry meeting, his course of action is not to seek to undo what was achieved through a democratic process of the church through the back door," she said.
Makoni said that as councillors legally elected in a vestry meeting which was lawfully held on the authority and request of Kunonga, "our mandate is to act in the best interests of the ecclesiastical division and to ensure that Christian principles are at all times upheld". She denied that any of the respondents did anything improper and Kunonga's failure to particularise the allegations of improper conduct could only serve to demonstrate that there was nothing to substantiate the allegations. They said they wanted the court to dismiss Kunonga's application and allow them to do their duties in accordance with laid out church regulations. "Kunonga has no power to stop any of the respondents from attending church and I challenge him to point out the Act and regulation under which he believes he can bar members from worshipping at any of the diocesan parishes," she said. Kunonga is a known Zanu PF supporter and is the only clergyman in Zimbabwe to be slapped with a travel ban by the United States of America, joining President Mugabe and other government and party officials, on allegations of human rights abuses and the break down of law and order.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 6 October
Libya cuts off Zimbabwe's fuel
Dingilizwe Ntuli
Zimbabwe's fuel crisis intensified this week amid reports that Libya had turned off its supply following non-payment. Zimbabwe has experienced recurrent fuel shortages since 2000 and Libya has supplied 70% of Harare's fuel needs since August last year. President Robert Mugabe recently visited Tripoli to hammer out a new deal with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Although Mugabe tried to renew the $360-million (about R3.6-billion) deal with Gaddafi, the Libyan oil company TamOil, in which the Libyan government is a major shareholder, called in its $63-million debt. TamOil is believed to have told Mugabe that fuel deliveries would resume only upon payment. The fuel crisis is set to worsen as financing agreements signed with other suppliers expire in a fortnight - and the chances of their renewal are minimal because of Zimbabwe's foreign exchange shortage. The shortage is so severe that the government failed to pay for 100 million litres of various fuels from Kuwait's Independent Petroleum Group's stocks in the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe's storage tanks in Harare.
But despite the overwhelming evidence of mounting fuel shortages, Mugabe's government insists fuel supplies are adequate and claims the "artificial shortages" are due to hoarding by traditional distributors. Deputy Energy Minister Reuben Marumahoko said the government was surprised by the shortages because "enough fuel for daily consumption was being pumped out of Noczim's main depot in Harare". "There is no need to panic because the country has enough fuel. "Right now, we have called in all the distributors to find out where the fuel is going and we are still investigating," Marumahoko told Parliament. He said the country's daily consumption of 1.9 million litres of diesel and 1.2 million litres of petrol was being released from the depot and there was no need to panic. However, his utterances contrasted with long queues at the few garages that still had supplies. Most garages in the capital, Harare, and the second largest city, Bulawayo, had dried up, crippling the country's already fragile public transport system and leaving commuters stranded. Most fleets have already been grounded by shortages of spare parts and the fuel crisis is set to compound the problem. Commuters have resorted to walking the long distances to their places of employment as it is taking them an average of two hours to catch public transport in the wake of the crisis.
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From News24 (SA), 6 October
Zim tanks running on empty
Harare - The government on Sunday blamed severe gasoline shortages on hoarding of fuel and industry executives reported a slowing of imports from Libya. Long lines of cars waiting for gasoline returned to fuel stations in Harare in the past week, after more than two years of frequent shortages. A report on new fuel shortages by a team of government investigators is scheduled for release on Monday, the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper reported. It quoted the energy ministry as saying the main Harare depot of the state National Oil Company had sufficient reserves to meet the capital's fuel needs. Government officials suspected private distributors were hoarding fuel and that had lead to panic buying, causing gas stations to run dry, the newspaper said. Private oil industry executives, who did not want to be named, said panic buying may have been triggered by rumours that a new oil deal with Libya had run into trouble.
The National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, the fuel procurement monopoly, said last month it was trying to raise $9m to pay outstanding freight and pumping charges for a consignment of Libyan gas berthed at the Mozambique port of Beira, causing delays in delivery. Its silence on whether delivery of regular supplies could be paid for by the economically devastated southern African country has fanned rumors of worsening shortages. Zimbabwe signed a new oil deal with Libya on September 11 to supply $30m worth of gas a month for the next year. Part of the cost would be met by Zimbabwean beef, tobacco and fruit exports to Libya. The north Africa country would also receive investments in Zimbabwean mining, tourism and agriculture, but a hard currency component for operational costs of delivery and some of the oil was included.
With agricultural production disrupted by drought and the seizure of white-owned farms, all food export quotas to Libya have not been met. Libyan investments in the country were seen as yielding only long term returns. Zimbabwe's previous yearlong fuel contract with Libya expired Aug. 31, with arrears on that deal still outstanding, according to industry executives. Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980 and has been wracked by political turmoil since 2000. Production of tobacco, the biggest hard currency earner, is expected to be more than halved next season due to disruptions in the agriculture-based economy. Tourism has collapsed, with hard currency receipts down by an estimated 80%. More than half of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people face severe food shortages. The Sunday Mail, meanwhile, reported two deaths in a food stampede as shortages of the corn meal staple worsen. Two infants died as youths forced their way into a food line outside a Harare milling company earlier this week, causing panic, it said.
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From Business Day (SA), 7 October
SA to donate maize to UN food programme
Government also offers to mill genetically modified grain
International Affairs Editor
SA IS to donate 100 000 tons of maize to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) for emergency food assistance in the region. The offer of maize to help supply the six countries in the region facing critical shortages came at last week's Southern African Development Community (SADC) Summit in Luanda. At a current maize spot price of R1 750 a ton, this would be worth about R175m, equivalent to about 12% of government's poverty relief and job summit allocations for this fiscal year. Earlier this year SA made a donation of $50 000, or R522 000 at Friday's exchange rate, toward regional famine relief by the WFP. SA also made the offer in Luanda, to mill, at its own cost, 600 000 tons of genetically modified maize now stored in Durban. The agriculture department said it could not respond to queries about the matter at a weekend, but the number of 600 000 tons in the communique could be overstated. The 600 000 tons would amount to 60% of the total emergency food aid requirement for the half year from September for the six countries with shortages: Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. While the communique says that the WFP has 60 000 tons stored in Durban, WFP records show it only has 40 000 tons of maize in the port at the moment.
Last night the WFP said it had still to talk to the SA agriculture department about the details of the offer. The SA offer to mill genetically modified maize that has been donated will make it easier for Zambia and Zimbabwe to accept emergency food aid. The two countries had refused to accept genetically modified maize that had not been milled because of what they said were the risks that would arise if it was planted. The SADC supported this position, saying "member states are at liberty to take a position to accept or reject genetically modified grain coming in as food aid". If it is accepted, they should ensure it is not planted and that it is milled into flour before it is distributed, the communique said. The SA donation to SADC members facing shortages could strengthen growing popular perceptions that a cause of rising maize meal prices is Zimbabwe's political problems. Over the past year the price of maize meal in retail stores has more than doubled. And as maize is widely used as feed for beef and dairy herds, the prices rises are helping push up other food prices, including those of substitutes.
The 100 000 tons SA will donate is about an eightieth of SA's entire maize production. While economists point out that this is too small an amount of total production to have a material effect on domestic prices, they do say that the regional shortage, along with the exchange rate plunge and worldwide pressures on maize supply, are pushing up domestic maize prices. Bullie Botma, chairman of Grain SA, which represents many of SA's larger maize and wheat farmers, said that instead of donating food to neighbouring countries government should consider giving assistance to South Africans who could no longer afford maize meal.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 6 October
Zambia rejects Mbeki maize offer
Ranjeni Munusamy
Luanda - Zambia has turned down a South African offer to mill 600 000 tons of genetically modified maize for distribution to its starving people. Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa told President Thabo Mbeki at the Southern Africa Development Community summit in Angola this week that his country had taken a national position against genetically modified grain and that although there were many hungry people in Zambia, "they are not starving". The United Nations estimates that nearly 2.5 million people in Zambia are at risk of starvation and the World Food Programme is feeding 1.3 million people in the country's worst-hit areas. Although GM maize in milled form is internationally accepted as unable to contaminate crops and safe for consumption, Mwanawasa said he had dispatched scientists to the US, Canada and South Africa to investigate biotech food and therefore could not accept Mbeki's offer. He also complained that while 70% of the US's food production was non-GM, Southern Africa was receiving stocks from the other "contaminated" 30%.
The 600 000 tons of GM maize stored at the port of Durban is not being distributed to an estimated 13 million people in dire need of food aid because countries such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia are refusing to accept it. Although six million Zimbabweans need food aid, Land Minister Joseph Made told the Sunday Times his country had a "maize deficit" but no famine. Furthermore, Mbeki's offer had resulted in embarrassment for him, with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe remarking that the region was not aware South Africa had been using GM food. Botswana's President Festus Mogae supported Mbeki, saying he had no problem with GM food. He offered to transport the maize, milled or not, to countries that wanted it. The SADC summit accepted the offer to mill the grain and a further donation of 100 000 tons of maize by South Africa. The SADC also decided that states are at liberty to accept or reject GM grain as food aid. "In the event that a member state accepts this grain, it should undertake awareness campaigns to ensure that GM maize is not planted, and also ensure that all GM maize is milled into flour before any distribution to beneficiaries," the summit decided. Land and Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza said the government would hold talks with South Africa's millers and the World Food Programme to ensure that the food stored in Durban is distributed as soon as possible.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 6 October
Makoni school heads may not talk about starvation
By Farai Mutsaka
Zanu PF Makoni district chairman, Nathaniel Mhiripiri, who is known for terrorising opposition supporters in the area, has warned headmasters and teachers in Makoni not to talk publicly about the current food shortages or any other hardships facing the country, The Standard has learnt. Addressing headmasters from Makoni at John Cowie Primary school on Tuesday, Mhiripiri warned that starving villagers in the area would receive no food assistance if they failed to rid the area of opposition supporters. "Mhiripiri said Zanu PF would willingly provide food aid if there were no MDC supporters in the area. But if the villagers continued to tolerate opposition elements in the area, they would not benefit from any government assistance," said a headmaster who attended the meeting. Another headmaster also at the meeting said they were surprised at Mhiripiri's presence there. He had arrived in the company of Makoni North MP Didymus Mutasa, war veterans and members of the Zanu PF Women's League. "The regional director (Lina Nhiwatiwa) told us that the ministry had found it necessary to invite Mutasa and his team as it was important for teachers, as professionals, to work with the government of the day," said the headmaster.
Despite being hard hit by famine, villagers in Makoni have not been receiving food aid and they suspect they are being punished for supporting the opposition. In both the 2000 general election and the March presidential poll, the ruling party managed to beat the opposition MDC by a few thousand votes. The headmasters said Mhiripiri told them the ban was being imposed to stop them from publicly speaking about the current problems facing the country and inciting the public against government. "Everyone present was surprised when Mhiripiri said we could not even speak on any issues relating to hardships, food shortages and food distribution as this would incite the public against Zanu PF. He also told us in no uncertain terms that we would be in trouble if we were suspected of having links with the MDC. Mutasa, however, said those doing Zanu PF work should continue to do so as they were serving the government of the day," said a headmaster who attended the meeting.
Mhiripiri could not be reached for comment throughout last week. His colleague, Mutasa refused to speak to The Standard when contacted for comment: "I don't want to speak to you people from The Standard because you lie too much," he said. Pressed further, Mutasa said: "I thought it was you people who are always talking about freedom. Why then are you refusing me my freedom not to speak to you. I am entitled to that. You are now harassing me by forcing me to speak to you. Please put your receiver down because if I cut my phone you will say I am rude." Efforts to get comment from Nhiwatiwa were fruitless as she was said to have taken the day off on Friday. Mutasa, a former cabinet minister who also held the influential post of Zanu PF secretary for administration, was booted out of government and subsequently demoted to secretary for external affairs in the party's supreme body, the politburo. Although Mutasa is said to have been quiet throughout the meeting, his presence was nevertheless intimidating. "He sat quietly throughout the meeting, but then people were terrified by his presence," said a headmaster.
Political violence has engulfed Makoni since the 2000 general election. Only last month, scores of aspiring MDC candidates for the local government elections were intimidated out of the election by marauding ruling party supporters and officials. "It was such a sensitive meeting that most headmasters felt that to resign was the only option. There is too much politics involved now and we are always at risk of being harassed. Sometimes you have teachers spending days on end doing Zanu PF business and we cannot even discipline them. They have become a law unto themselves. We cannot continue to work in such an environment," complained the headmaster. Teachers countrywide have been the targets of harassment and intimidation by ruling party hooligans and war veterans who accuse them of spreading opposition propaganda to illiterate villagers. Efforts to obtain protection from the ministry of education have been in vain with education minister, Aeneas Chigwedere, warning teachers that they had to face the music if they involved themselves in politics.
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From The New York Times, 6 October
Zimbabwe's writers explore despair and violence under black rule
By Rachel L. Swarns
Bulawayo - Every year after the dry, hungry winters, old women pray for the spring rains to cleanse the earth and revive parched fields. The first rains, known as gukurahundi in the Shona language, are usually hailed as a symbol of life, fertility and prosperity. But here the term gukurahundi is also a symbol of blood and violence. It is the name given to the killings that began a few years after white rule ended in 1980. Just as blacks were beginning to enjoy their newfound freedoms, their newly elected leader, Robert Mugabe, sent soldiers to cleanse the land of rival black insurgents. By 1988, thousands of people had been killed here in the province of Matabeleland. The years of terror left many people traumatized, fearful and silenced. Public discussion of the violence still remains taboo in many places, which is why Yvonne Vera's new novel, "The Stone Virgins," has attracted such attention. Ms. Vera, one of Zimbabwe's most prominent writers, describes the violence through two sisters whose lives are shattered by the battle between soldiers and dissidents. Thenjiwe is decapitated by a black insurgent. Nonceba survives, but the attacker slices off her lips. Her struggle to heal reflects, in many ways, this nation's struggle to acknowledge and come to terms with its raw, self-inflicted wounds. Government officials often chronicle the suffering endured by blacks during decades of white oppression, but they speak little of the blood spilled by black soldiers and guerrillas. No one knows how many people died in Matabeleland. Some say more than 3,000; others more than 10,000. And some book critics here are already comparing the troubles of the 1980's as depicted in Ms. Vera's novel to the political violence that batters this country today.
Over the past two and a half years, President Mugabe's militant supporters have killed scores of black opposition party members, human rights groups say. Journalists, writers and artists who have criticized his government have been harassed, arrested and jailed. Ms. Vera, 38, who runs Zimbabwe's National Art Gallery here, is not a political activist, and her novel is not a political tract. She loves Zimbabwe, she says, and spends her time nurturing young artists and huddling over her computer, constructing the haunting imagery, dense narratives and lyrical language that characterize her novels. But she could not ignore the violence swirling across the country. She was frightened at times that the government might take action against her. But she wrote the novel anyway, believing that Zimbabweans must confront the troubled past to move forward. "I asked some friends and they said, `Don't write it,' " Ms. Vera said as she sat in her art gallery, describing the warnings she heard whenever she discussed the violence of the 1980's. "It has been a silenced subject," she said. "There has been an absolute fear of even talking about it. For two years I did not write it. But it was not possible for me to have that self-censorship. I wanted to say, This is how it was. Just that. These destructive people were created, and they roamed the land. I cannot pretend to have been unaware of the relevance now. We weren't past this violence; we have remained in that."
By confronting the troubles of the past and acknowledging their continuing relevance, Ms. Vera is following one of Zimbabwe's most striking literary trends. Black writers here have written eloquently about black suffering under the white government and the jubilation that followed Mr. Mugabe's election in 1980. But since the late 1980's many writers who were in their 20's when white rule ended have focused on the damage and disillusionment experienced by blacks during and immediately after the struggle for self-determination. In "Shadows," Chenjerai Hove, 46, describes how some black guerrillas commandeered homes from their supporters and abandoned the children they fathered in rural villages. In "Harvest of Thorns," Shimmer Chinodya, who is also in his mid-40's, depicts the brutal public killings of black |
