|
Archived News
11th November 2003
MDC Weekly Briefing Note
Second day of MDC challenge to 2002 elections
Zimbabwe court to rule on Mugabe poll challenge
Decision time for Zimbabwe
Mugabe names new bank governor
Zimbabwe's debt hits Z$600bn
Banks queues re-emerge
Zimbabwe army commander to retire
Zimbabweans are criminalised
Zimbabwe labor court declares physicians' strike illegal
President appoints provincial governors
Zimbabwe court hears arguments in presidential loser's case
Zimbabweans buying fuel in Mozambique
Power struggle looms within the ruling party
NGOs step in as urban food crisis deepens
Mugabe appoints general to key state post
Shiri tipped for Zvinavashe's post
Zimbabwe doctors defy govt
Obasanjo tries to sneak Zim in
MDC bewildered by Mbeki's view on talks
Excuses, excuses
No chance, Mr President
Mugabe meets NZ diplomat
Diplomatic spat with Zimbabwe based on misunderstanding - Mfat
Banks ordered to retain 50% forex from individuals
Desperate measures in the battle for foreign currency
Instability spreads as thousands flee from Zimbabwe
Why flatter Mr. Mbeki?
Military chief after Mugabe's seat
Zimbabwe riot police to curb illegal forex deals
Police blitz nets hundreds in Bulawayo
Several injured in gold claim clashes
Snake eater dies
Harare needs peer review, says Masire
Directive for bank to waive surety on loans risky
Illegal hunts wiping out Zimbabwe's wildlife
Zim set for 'bruising succession struggle'
Summit hopes to avoid Zimbabwe split
The master of survival
Mbeki 'promises too much on Zimbabwe
Enough quiet diplomacy, time for tough talking, says law society
Mogae talks tough on illegal immigrants
Zimbabwe doctors insist on pay increase to return to work
Zimbabwe is not trying to oust McKinnon
Canaan Banana of Zimbabwe dead
Zimbabwe's lawyers on the frontline
Top
From Reuters, 4 November
Zimbabwe court to rule on Mugabe poll challenge
By Stella Mapenzauswa
Harare - Lawyers for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe demanded on Tuesday his critics bring witnesses to back their claim that his re-election last year was rigged, calling on the High Court not to decide just on legal arguments. Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and several Western groups say Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, rigged the March 2002 poll to overcome an unprecedented challenge to his rule. High Court judge Ben Hlatshwayo reserved judgment on the matter to an unspecified date. He might decide on the validity of the election purely on the basis of the arguments of the last two days, or order a fuller hearing with witnesses. Mugabe's lawyer said on Tuesday that Tsvangirai's legal team had failed over the last two days to back its charges that many laws and regulations governing the election were not in line with Zimbabwe's constitution, and should call witnesses. "This must rank as one of the weakest petitions that have come before this court.... What you are being asked to do is come up with a decision based on the flowery language that has been used. In my respectful submission that is not possible," Terrence Hussein, representing Mugabe, told the judge. "It is inconceivable that the election of the president should be set aside because three lawyers appeared before you and made arguments; that would be a monumental legal disaster."
In his preliminary statement to the court on Monday, Tsvangirai's lawyer, Jeremy Gauntlett of South Africa, said the elections were "stifled, at best, because the president, one of the contenders, became the rule-maker" and should be nullified. Hussein denied Mugabe abused presidential powers to change some electoral rules in his favor 72 hours before voting, saying he had acted to fill a void created by a Supreme Court decision that had nullified legislation relevant to the vote. The MDC says if the judge orders the hearing to be taken further, it will argue Mugabe's party used violence and intimidation against opponents, bribed voters and hogged access to state media. African observers said the polls had been free and fair, but the European Union and Commonwealth condemned them as deeply flawed. The Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe for a year. Mugabe insists he won the election fairly and says the MDC is a puppet of Western powers he accuses of sabotaging Zimbabwe's economy. They did that to punish his government for its seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks. Critics say the economy is a victim of 23 years of state mismanagement.
Top
Comment from The Nation (Thailand), 5 November
Decision time for Zimbabwe
The bold legal challenge launched this week by Zimbabwe's opposition to President Robert Mugabe's rule essentially asks the country's High Court to make a choice between two views: The first, held by the poll's Western international monitors, is that the national election was deeply flawed and rigged, and the second, held by observers sent from neighbouring countries, is that it was fine by African standards. Given Mugabe's control and intimidation of the judiciary in recent years - only last month a judge was taken hostage by soldiers during a government dispute with a critical newspaper - there is little reason to believe the court will side with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is already standing trial on treason charges. Still, the clash of the two positions validates the claim of Tsvangirai's lawyer Jeremy Gauntlett that this is the most important case to come before the courts in Zimbabwe since the 1960s, when the wife of a detained black nationalist challenged the legality of Ian Smith's rebel Rhodesian government.
Among Tsvangirai's complaints about the election last March, which Mugabe won with 56 per cent of the vote, are that members of the supervising election committee were hand-picked by Mugabe; that only Mugabe loyalists - including soldiers, government officials and diplomats - were given the right to a postal vote while three million other citizens, who had fled the economic problems at home to live in South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Britain were denied a say; that Mugabe abused sweeping presidential powers to change some electoral rules 72 hours before polling; and that the ruling party waged a campaign of violence and intimidation against opposition supporters, bribed voters and hogged access to state media. The position of the African observers, many of whom did not even stay for the balloting, seemed to be that none of that mattered as long as the winner had connections to Zimbabwe's 1970s war of liberation.
For this was what really was at stake in last year's election. Should Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change have won, it would have been the first time one of the so-called national-liberation-movement governments that now rule much of southern Africa was tossed out of power and replaced peacefully. This would have been an alarming development for the region's self-serving elites - most of whom have only a long-exhausted claim of having helped secure independence for their countries from colonial rule to justify their hold on power. Certainly they can't claim to have competently administered national affairs. In Zimbabwe, close to eight million people are now facing starvation thanks in part to a politically motivated decision by Mugabe to seize commercial farms from white landowners. The health and education systems have collapsed and the economy is in a shambles. Similarly, in South Africa, Angola, Mozambique and Namibia life expectancy is shrinking and living conditions are generally getting worse.
To be sure, it can be argued that Mugabe didn't really become a target of his Western critics until he turned his back on an International Monetary Fund-sponsored austerity programme. Before then, Washington and London seemed content to turn a blind eye to his abuses - such as his brutal suppression of the political opposition in Matabeleland in the 1980s - as long as the interests of multinationals were protected. The advent of liberal black parties such as the MDC is an encouraging development for African voters who are fed up with the tyranny, corruption and hypocrisy of their leaders. Mugabe and his regional counterparts repeatedly say they are acting to defend the "gains of liberation" but in most cases they are the only people with gains to protect. Yet, as the hearing currently underway in Harare will no doubt show, the battle against oppression will be a long, uphill one.
Top
From The Financial Times (UK), 5 November
Mugabe names new bank governor
By Tony Hawkins
Four days after promising to restructure Zimbabwe's central bank and turn it into a "developmental institution", President Robert Mugabe yesterday named Gideon Gono, a long-standing ruling party loyalist, as the bank's new governor. Mr Gono had resigned his post as chief executive of the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe, which has played the lead role in raising finance for the government at home and abroad and in negotiating with Libya for fuel supplies. Mr Gono, an experienced banker, has also worked for the state-owned Zimbabwe Development Bank.
Top
From Business Day (SA), 5 November
Zimbabwe's debt hits Z$600bn
Bulawayo Correspondent
Zimbabwe's domestic debt has ballooned to more than Z$600bn, as government borrows heavily from the private sector to prop up ailing parastatals and finance subsidies on grain and fuel. Major state-owned enterprises, particularly the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, the Grain Marketing Board, the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company and Air Zimbabwe were cited by the finance ministry as the biggest contributors to the domestic debt. In a move to sustain the controversial land reform programme, government is subsidising the price of fuel to resettled farmers as well as grain and wheat purchases from them through the Grain Marketing Board, thus incurring a heavy deficit. The deficit in turn is being financed by heavy borrowing from the private sector through the issue of state-guaranteed grain bills, agrobonds and petrofin bills. Yesterday, government went to the market for Z$10bn to finance fuel procurement for the national oil company, which ran out of stocks a fortnight ago.
The finance ministry's permanent secretary, Nicholas Ncube, told a meeting of industry and commerce leaders in Bulawayo last week that much of the borrowing was in favour of recurrent expenditure at the expense of capital and infrastructure development. He said most parastatals were recording losses due to mismanagement and their failure to charge economically viable prices. "Large public sector borrowing requirements, not all supportive of productive activities, have anchored money supply growth rates in excess of 300%. These are inconsistent with economic activity and have largely served to attract inflation." Meanwhile, the central bank yesterday announced an increase of 19,9% in the country's broad money supply growth between March and April this year. In its latest economic review, the bank said broad money supply growth, or the total cash stock in circulation, was higher at 226,6%, while the money market recorded surpluses of Z$3bn in April. The country's money supply growth is estimated at more than 300%, fuelled on by hyperinflation, and the introduction of high denomination bearer's cheques, much of which money is being used for speculative and consumptive purposes.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 2 November
Banks queues re-emerge
Our Own Staff
The relief and joy at the easing of the bank notes crisis in recent weeks seems to have come to a premature end because meandering queues have once again emerged in front of banks. Long winding queues, which had become a common eye sore at the country's commercial banks, seemed over following the introduction in September of the bearer's cheques in higher denominations of $5 000, $10 000 and $20 000 by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). However, the cash crunch has returned to haunt banks and building societies, once again inconveniencing clients who were relieved at the settlement. Queues have now re-emerged at most banks, especially at the new and smaller indigenous banks that sprouted after the liberalisation of the financial sector.
Sources in the financial sector said the RBZ has in recent weeks slashed bank-note allocations to commercial banks, hence the new shortages. "Allocations from the central bank are coming down. Most banks are experiencing a decline in allocations because the central bank thinks the market is saturated," said one source. Another bank official cited capacity constraints straining the RBZ's attempts to continue servicing the market. "There is a mismatch between the demand from the market and what the RBZ can afford to pump into the market. With raging inflation, there has been an increase in the demand for money," said the official. Economists said the shortages were a direct result of the ballooning inflation, which, according to the government's Central Statistics Office (CSO), blazed past the 455% mark in September.
Some of the experts urged the central bank to adjust bank note allocations to commercial banks and building societies and to introduce higher denominated notes. "With prices escalating on a daily basis, the transaction demand for money will also increase hence the need to look at introducing higher denominations," said Trust Holdings' group economist, David Mupamhadzi. Currently, the highest note in circulation in Zimbabwe is a bearer's cheque whose value is $20 000. However, a retail manager at a commercial bank in the capital said there was nothing amiss in the re-emergence of queues at banking halls: the increased demand in notes was a result of workers withdrawing their salaries. Another Harare-based economist warned the RBZ that it must view the reemergence of queues for money as an indication that the introduction of bearer's cheques was never going to be a permanent solution to the note crisis.
Top
From Reuters, 4 November
Zimbabwe army commander to retire
Harare - Zimbabwe's army commander, an independence war hero and one of President Robert Mugabe's key hardline allies, is due to retire next month after nearly a decade in office, government officials said on Tuesday. General Vitalis Zvinavashe, popularly known by his guerrilla name "Fox-Gava," stirred controversy ahead of elections last year by saying the security forces would never allow "anyone opposed to the ideals of the 1970s Liberation War" to come to power. It was a threat clearly aimed at opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Mugabe denies that the presidential elections, criticised by Western governments as flawed, were rigged. Appointed head of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) in 1994, Zvinavashe, 60, was for years also a member of the politburo, the powerful inner-cabinet of Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party. One government and Zanu PF official said the general, for whom Mugabe hosted a farewell party at his State House residence on Monday, had indicated that he was "available for any state and party duties" but had not spelled out any specific plans. Political analysts said Zvinavashe's departure from the army would not change the character of the military whose top brass is chiefly composed of war veterans fiercely loyal to Zanu PF. Zvinavashe could go into full-time politics and may run in a parliamentary by-election for a vacancy created by the death of vice-president Simon Muzenda in September, analysts said. Zvinavashe was not available for comment on Tuesday.
Government sources say Zvinavashe's army post is likely to be filled by Air Marshall Perence Shiri, a tough soldier who operated under the name "Black Jesus" during the 1970s bush war. Shiri led a crack brigade which crushed an armed rebellion in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland in the 1980s, a campaign which some human rights groups say left about 20,000 civilians dead. At Zvinavashe's farewell party, Mugabe described the quiet and reclusive general as a dependable officer and political ally. "Never a coward, never afraid, never refusing a mission." Analysts said Mugabe could decide to deploy Zvinavashe and former air force chief Josiah Tungamirai to manage Zanu PF affairs in the faction-ridden but important southern Masvingo province ahead of parliamentary elections in 2005. "Both Zvinavashe and Tungamirai have the prestige that Mugabe needs to stabilise his party especially during debate over his possible successor, and I think that's the role they are going to be playing," said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the Harare-based political pressure group, the National Constitutional Assembly.
Earlier this year, Zvinavashe denied media reports that he and Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa, regarded by many as Mugabe's preferred successor, had approached Tsvangirai to work out an honourable exit plan for Mugabe. Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, is struggling with a severe economic crisis blamed on government mismanagement and his controversial political and economic policies, including his seizures of white-owned farms for black resettlement. A United Nations report named Zvinavashe as one of the African figures who profited from the plunder of Democratic Republic of Congo's diamond riches in a war in which Zimbabwe deployed thousands of troops in support of Kinshasa.
Top
Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 4 November
Zimbabweans are criminalised
Gugulethu Moyo
A tear fell from my cheek on to the concrete floor. It was 7pm - time to go. I took one last look through the bars of the prison cell. A police officer bellowed, "One prisoner at a time, you get your food one by one!" They stood in line waiting to fetch their evening meal from a pile at the cell door. Stuart moved forward to peer into the paper bag with his name marked on it. He walked bare-foot. His tailored, light-grey trousers, now heavily creased and streaked with grime, were rolled up to his knees. Rachel waved goodbye. She stood quietly in line behind 20 other detainees. Her feet stood bare on the filthy ground. Stuart Mattinson is a retired stockbroker. He runs a financial consultancy in Harare. He has not been to the offices of his financial advisory firm all week. Rachel Kupara is a well-known Zimbabwean investment banker. She sits on the boards of four Zimbabwean companies - one of them listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. For three years, during the 1990s, she served as a director of state-controlled newspaper publishing company Zimbabwe Newspapers Ltd. Three months ago she accepted a seat on the board of another publishing company, Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) Ltd, publishers of The Daily News. She had been selected because of her sharp financial mind and solid exposure to media business.
This Wednesday both these people stood in the dock of a dingy Harare courtroom, accused with three other directors of the company. Their crime: trying to run this publishing business. The day before when my lawyer colleague Beatrice Mtetwa had tried to take them lunch, the prison officer, a Sergeant Garanonga, informed her that lunch had been abolished. With effect from 8am that day, criminal "suspects" were only entitled to eat breakfast and supper. Mtetwa was forced to negotiate with the comptroller of prisoners to allow at least one of the four detainees to have his food. He is on a strict medication regime and cannot take his medication on an empty stomach. Earlier the same morning my colleague and I had been denied access for the purpose of rendering legal advice. We had had to seek the intervention of a senior police officer and were allowed only five minutes with them. During our brief interview we enquired about the conditions under which they were being detained. Their description was of inhumane conditions. The latrines housed within the cells were overflowing with human waste. The floors were encrusted with dirt that had probably accumulated over years of neglect. The walls and ceiling were stained with blood. The blankets that line the concrete beds were infested with lice. By the second day of detention one of the directors, Brian Mutsau, had developed severe diarrhoea.
ANZ, the publishing company of which the group are directors, was formed in 1998. It’s primary objective, according to its Articles of Association, is to publish newspapers. The state’s company laws permit a company to carry out any business activity authorised in its objects clause. In March last year the state legislated to criminalise certain activities relating to publishing in the country. Seven weeks ago, in pursuance of this law, police clamped down on the alleged criminal activity of ANZ. Police, armed with AK-47 rifles, raided the company’s premises, forcefully evicted staff, and seized the assets of the company. Publishing operations were shut down for six weeks. Millions of dollars of revenue were lost. ANZ’s directors took the state to court and last Friday won the battle to reopen the business. On Saturday October 25 the company was back in business. The 50 000 copies of that day’s edition of The Daily News circulated in the capital were sold out within two hours. By lunchtime on October 25 18 employees of the company were detained in a Harare police station. They had been forcefully removed from their offices while working on the newspaper’s Sunday edition. Heavily armed police took control of the premises, and that night the police raided the private residence of the CEO. They arrested his niece. She was told that she would be kept hostage until her uncle, Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, gave himself up. The girl, who had been charged with "engaging in conduct likely to cause a breach of public peace", was released on Monday morning when Nkomo handed himself over to the police. Early on Tuesday morning, in Bulawayo, the police raided the home of a non-executive director and retired High Court Judge, Washington Sansole. He was arrested. The police informed him that he would be released only when other directors of the company had been arrested. They held him until a High Court judge determined that the detention was unlawful and ordered that he be released. All this in Zimbabwe.
It is perhaps beyond me to understand the motive of a government that would sanction this kind of bastardisation of its criminal justice system, save to say that the Zimbabwean government has, through the enactment of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa), criminalised legitimate economic activity. Newspaper publishing, in a normal society, is a principal form of behaviour that brings people and institutions into contact with each other and fosters economic and social progress. In a just society, the stigma of criminality is only imposed on those who have incurred the just condemnation of the criminal law. By this I mean that there is a relationship between the vigorous enforcement of criminal sanctions and public acceptance of the propriety of employing criminal sanctions. A government cannot persuade the people to view conduct as wrongful simply by making it criminal. Law, even criminal law, is simply not that potent a weapon of social control. In fact, the reverse becomes true. Far from criminalising morally neutral conduct, the intensive application of criminal sanctions to activity that is considered to be "normal", as is the case with newspaper publishing, has the effect of decriminalising the criminal law, traumatising its citizens and bringing the criminal justice system into disrepute. A state that makes criminal that which people regard as acceptable will find that the people’s attitude towards what is criminal undergoes change. Criminality loses its stigma and, slowly criminals are perceived as victims, rather than as a danger to society. Unfortunately, the change in perception extends to all criminal cases, be they serious crime that must be eradicated or not. People cease to accept the state’s definition of criminality and the criminal law loses its potency as a weapon for social control. Zimbabwe’s Aippa has the effect of making criminal almost all the activities of media enterprises within Zimbabwe. This misapplication of the criminal law lacks proper justification and thereby brings the Zimbabwean criminal justice system into disrepute.
Gugulethu Moyo is the legal adviser to The Daily News
Top
From VOA News, 5 November
Zimbabwe labor court declares physicians' strike illegal
Tendai Maphosa
The two-week strike by junior and mid-level doctors in Zimbabwe has been declared illegal by a labor court. The court has ordered the doctors back to work. Presiding Judge Lilian Hove acknowledged that the doctors have a legitimate grievance over their salaries, which needs urgent resolution. But, she said they ignored established procedures to have their issues solved before resorting to the work stoppage. She said the doctors had gone on strike in total disregard of their duties to save lives. She ordered the strike terminated immediately and that the doctors report for duty by no later than ten o'clock Thursday morning. Under Zimbabwean law it is illegal for doctors to go on strike because they are considered providers of an essential service. Judge Hove also ordered a government negotiating council to meet with the doctors by Friday, and said the doctors' salary grievance must be settled by the 28th of this month. The judge said the government council cancelled a scheduled meeting with the doctors last Friday for what she called flimsy reasons.
The striking doctors' representatives declined to make a statement on the judge's back-to-work order, saying they needed to consult with their members first. They had earlier said they would not go back to work without a written promise on how their grievances would be addressed. The doctors went on strike on October 23, after several attempts to get their salaries increased failed. The doctors are asking for a pay increase of up to 8,000 percent to compensate for high inflation and the low value of the Zimbabwe currency. At the unofficial rate, junior doctors now make only about $63 a month, while their mid-level counterparts earn about $80. Nurses, who earn even less, briefly joined the doctors job action. They went back to work after getting an 800 percent increase, according to the Independent, a Zimbabwean weekly newspaper. Zimbabwe's health care system, once considered one of the best in sub-Saharan Africa, is collapsing because of severe shortage of money for medical equipment and essential drugs. Many of Zimbabwe's doctors, nurses, and other health-care professionals are leaving Zimbabwe for countries offering better pay.
Top
From The Herald, 6 November
President appoints provincial governors
Herald Reporter
President Mugabe has appointed four new Provincial Governors and Resident Ministers and re-appointed four others. The new Governors are Lieutenant General Michael Nyambuya who takes over in Manicaland. He replaces Cde Oppah Muchinguri who is retiring at the end of this month. Until his new appointment, Lt General Nyambuya was a Major General in the Zimbabwe National Army, which he served for 23 years. A war veteran, Lt General Nyambuya distinguished himself as an accomplished commander with the Sadc Allied Forces during Operation Sovereign Legitimacy in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Sadc Allied Forces comprising Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia helped DRC repel a Rwandan and Ugandan-backed rebellion. Former Zimbabwe Newspapers chairman Cde Nelson Samkange is the new Governor for Mashonaland West. He takes over from Cde Peter Chanetsa who is retiring at the end of this month. A tourism consultant and former journalist, Cde Samkange was once the marketing director of the then Zimbabwe Tourism Development Corporation where he rose through the ranks to become chief executive of the tourism promotion body in 1996, now called the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority. He left ZTA to go into consultancy and was appointed Zimpapers chairman in 1999 until 2000.
Cde Angeline Masuku is the new Governor for Matabeleland South. She replaces the late Cde Stephen Nkomo who died in April this year. Cde Masuku is a former Member of Parliament for Luveve constituency, which she served from 1990 to 2000. She is also a member of the Zanu PF Politburo and holds the post of secretary for the disabled and disadvantaged. During the liberation struggle, Cde Masuku went to Botswana and later Zambia where she rose through the ranks in the Zapu structures. Former Mbare West MP Cde Ephraim Masawi is the new Governor for Mashonaland Central. He takes over from Cde Elliot Manyika who has been doubling as Governor and Cabinet Minister. Cde Masawi is a member of the Zanu PF central committee. The four Governors who were re-appointed are Cde David Karimanzira (Mashonaland East), Cde Josaya Hungwe (Masvingo), Cde Cephas Msipa (Midlands) and Cde Obert Mpofu (Matabeleland North). The appointments and re-appointments are for a period of two years and take effect from December 1.
Top
From The New York Times, 6 November
Zimbabwe court hears arguments in presidential loser's case
By Michael Wines
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's High Court completed a brief hearing Tuesday into charges that President Robert Mugabe's supporters rigged his 2002 re-election victory, but there was no indication when, or which way, the court might rule. In a case some called historic - and others argued was predetermined by Zimbabwe's politically skewed justice system - lawyers for the losing candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, argued that the election was stolen from him by fraud and intimidation. At one point in the hearing, they offered 200 pages of documents they said would prove that election rules were abused and, in some cases, altered at the last minute. In particular, Mr. Tsvangirai's lawyers complained that four-fifths of Zimbabwe's 119 polling places were closed during the third and final day of elections in defiance of a court order stating that the polls should remain open. The lawyers also alleged that Mr. Mugabe packed the Electoral Supervisory Commission with military officials and supporters, ensuring that it could not oversee an impartial ballot.
But lawyers for Mr. Mugabe, Zimbabwe's leader since it dissolved Rhodesia's white-run government 23 years ago, dismissed Mr. Tsvangirai's complaints as groundless and called for a full-scale trial. "It is inconceivable that the election of the president should be set aside because three lawyers appeared before you and made arguments," the Reuters news service quoted Mr. Mugabe's lawyer, Terrence Hussein, as saying. "What you are being asked to do is come up with a decision based on the flowery language that has been used. In my respectful submission, that is not possible." The judge in the case, Justice Ben Hlartshwayo, could dismiss the complaint, invalidate Mr. Mugabe's election or convene a trial with witnesses as Mr. Mugabe's lawyers demanded. The justice has indicated that he will not rush to judgment, a statement some see as significant in itself, given Mr. Mugabe's age - he is 79 - and rumors about his health. Mr. Mugabe is building himself a palace north of the capital, Harare, raising speculation that he may announce his retirement at a congress of the ruling Zanu PF party late this year. Some news accounts suggest that he has come under growing pressure to surrender power as his nationalization of prime farmland and controls on prices and exchange rates have brought Zimbabwe's economy to a standstill.
A lawyer for Mr. Tsvangirai, Bryan Elliot, said in a phone interview Tuesday that the lawyers "have no idea when a ruling will be made." Asked whether he hoped for a favorable ruling, he replied, "We brought the case because we were hopeful." Other private legal experts in Harare said in phone interviews that Zimbabwe's judicial system is so subject to political influence that even the High Court, which has some measure of independence, would be hard pressed to rule impartially. The judge who heard the arguments is the one who last year ordered that presidential polls be kept open a third day. Mr. Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change, lost the election by 400,000 votes in an election most Western observers and human-rights groups denounced as fraudulent. Observers from many African countries and from Russia and China called it free and fair. The government has since charged Mr. Tsvangirai with treason, accusing him of plotting to assassinate Mr. Mugabe.
From ZWNEWS: If you would like to read a commentary by the MDC legal team on the two days of the High Court hearing, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message, approximately 1 1/2 times the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.
Top
From Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique, 5 November
Zimbabweans buying fuel in Mozambique
Maputo - The economic crisis in Zimbabwe is now so acute that Zimbabwean companies are sending tankers across the border into Mozambique to buy fuel, reports Wednesday's issue of the independent newsheet Mediafax. Zimbabwe's desperate shortage of foreign currency has made it ever more difficult for the country to import fuel, even from eccentric friends such as the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddaffi. Fuel used to flow to Zimbabwe along a pipeline from Beira - but nothing has been pumped since February, because of the large debts that Zimbabwe owes to the Mozambique-Zimbabwe Pipeline Company (CPMZ). Anonymous sources from CPMZ told Mediafax the company has complained at the Mozambican government's tolerance of large amounts of fuel going into Zimbabwe, before the Zimbabwean authorities have settled their debt to CPMZ. Zimbabwean motorists living in the east of the country have recently made a habit of crossing over into Mozambique's Manica province merely to buy fuel. Mediafax reports that the main beneficiary from this is the company BP-Mozambique, which owns most of the fuel pumps used by the Zimbabweans.
Top
From IPS, 3 November
Power struggle looms within the ruling party
Chris Anold Msipa
Harare - The opposition call for President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to hand over power has been echoed worldwide, but less anxiously than the unpublished demand from within the ruling Zanu PF. A former army colonel, who refused to be named, said he foresaw a dramatic change after the forthcoming annual congress of the party. Most senior army officers also felt the need to replace the current party leadership "with fresh and more serious individuals". He said there is likely to be serious clashes among the big guns in Zanu PF over the corruption that has torn the party apart and caused the civil service to rot to unprecedented levels ever; even the police are reportedly soliciting for bribes in public. The congress will take place in Zimbabwe's most populous south-eastern province of Masvingo, a Zanu PF stronghold and its most politically discordant region, on Dec. 4-6. Officials in the party said Mugabe, facing his stiffest opposition since independence in 1980, has swallowed his pride and allowed the crumbling party to recall abandoned nationalists and former guerrilla commanders. The development is likely to spell doom for the new faces he introduced into the party's politburo and central committee over the years. Political commentators said possible victims were Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, who have allegedly caused a lot of anxiety in Zanu PF since they joined the government in 2000.
Tapiwa Padera, a war veterans' leader in Chivhu district near Masvingo, said the recalled cadres include Webster Gwauya, Joseph Chimurenga, Dzinashe Machingura, a Doctor Mudzingwa, Mukudzei Midzi and Rugare Gumbo, who is Deputy Interior Minister. Some of these people, Padera said, rebelled against the party long before the war against Ian Smith's white minority rule was over in 1980. Padera expects the congress to rehabilitate them so that they can also enjoy the fruits of the liberation struggle. "We differed politically in the past. But they are still Zimbabweans, whom we should win back so that they don't go to the enemy," he said, referring to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Also expected to rejoin Zanu PF is its former Secretary-General, Edgar Tekere, one of the presidential aspirants and a one time close ally of Mugabe. Tekere was fired from the party in the mid-1980s after disagreeing with Mugabe. Mugabe this weekend told the Zanu PF Central Committee in the capital, Harare, critical issues the congress would tackle include "economic sabotage" and fuel shortages gripping the country. He avoided the issue of succession and the prevailing political impasse with the opposition.
Job Sikhala, an outspoken MDC legislator, said he did not expect anything new to emerge from the December gathering. "It has always been a yearly talk shop since independence. I don't see what you and me can expect from it," he said. Sikhala said there was chance for better things if Mugabe handed over power, because Zanu PF "is not entirely made up of stooges. There are many progressive people in that party who would like to see this country prosper. Mugabe has been a stumbling bloc in the political dialogue, and there will definitely be progress if he is out of the way." Other commentators said the 79-year-old head of state should allow majority decisions at the congress, where there has never been a candidate to challenge him on the presidency. "If that congress is to mean anything, Mugabe just has to step down and hand over to someone else, like what (Nelson) Mandela did in South Africa," Charles Butao, a businessperson, told IPS in an interview in Harare. He said the gathering comes when most basic needs are inaccessible to the majority of Zimbabweans. Fuel is in short supply, even water tapes have run dry in cities, food is 5,000 to 6,000 times more expensive, while prices continue to spiral and transport is a nightmare. Butao said Zimbabwe needed a transitional government under either a religious leader or the Speaker of Parliament, if sanity was to return to the country. Mugabe, he said, should also admit that his international ties have waned at the expense of the nation.
Zanu PF, concerned about the deteriorating economy, is also occupied with court challenges against its legislators who joined parliament in 2000. Mugabe himself has been accused by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of MDC, of stealing the vote in 2002. Yet Zanu PF is expected to engage the opposition in dialogue. Bishop Sebastian Bakare, head of a team of church leaders mediating in the proposed Zanu PF/MDC talks, said there was no reason to wait for the Zanu PF congress, as both parties had already submitted the topics they wanted discussed. He refused to reveal the contents of the documents. Welshman Ncube, the MDC Secretary-General, said the proposed dialogue did not mean his group had given up its fight against results of both the legislative polls and presidential vote. The dialogue, if it came to fruition, would be mainly on the ballot disagreement, he said. The ruling party also has more serious internal dissents to silence. The war veterans have managed to grab Mugabe by the collar to meet their demands. So-called ex-detainees and war collaborators are also calling for recognition and compensation for their contributions in the liberation struggle. Yet another collection of young academics, business people, labour leaders and ex-combatants has emerged in the political shadows, with claims that it is a Zanu PF creation aimed to weaken the main opposition. Such groups and the ruling party are said to have people lined up to take over from President Mugabe. Speaker of Parliament Emerson Mnangagwa, former Interior Minister Dumiso Dabengwa, former Justice Minister Edison Zvobgo, former Information Minister Nathan Shamuyarira and Vice-President Joseph Msika have indicated interest in the top post if it fell vacant.
Most businesspeople and intellectuals prefer former Finance Minister Simba Makoni, who they say displayed a more sober frame of mind while with the United Nations and with the government, from which he was fired after calling for the devaluation of the local currency. Endy Mhlanga, Secretary General of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association, said ex-combatants should now field their own candidate, because politicians and former detainees have enjoyed since 1980. "It is now our turn to rule the land we fought for," he said, without giving any possible names. Zanu PF, led by Mugabe, has ruled Zimbabwe for the past 23 years. Three years ago it fell out with the country's former colonial power, Britain, sparking the worst economic chaos in the country's history, after seizing white-owned farms for black resettlement. Its forthcoming congress has sparked wild speculations.
Top
From IRIN (UN), 4 November
NGOs step in as urban food crisis deepens
Bulawayo - Clutching the plastic cup to her chest like a prized possession, four-year-old Clara Ncube grins broadly as she inches closer to the serving podium at Tshabalala Clinic, a supplementary feeding centre for children in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo. After a short wait she gets her share and skips off to the patch of shade where dozens of other children are already eating their highly nutritious corn meal porridge. Clara is one of 10,164 children aged six years and below who are being fed by Help Germany, an NGO working to mitigate the effects of food shortages on urban households in Zimbabwe. The supplementary feeding programme operates at all 17 clinics of the Bulawayo City Council and is a joint venture between the NGO and the city's directorate of health services. In Harare, 25,625 children are also benefiting from a similar programme operating at 25 municipal clinics. The pilot programme in both cities, which started in March, has since lapsed to make way for an expanded main programme beginning in November. The children are screened for various health conditions while visiting the council clinics for regular check-ups, to see if they are eligible. "This programme cares for children whose growth is diagnosed as either faltering or static. Some are found to be terribly underweight, or to suffer from other diseases which do not permit body growth," Help Germany's project co-ordinator for Matabeleland Province, Yvonne Neudeck, told IRIN. "We are primarily feeding them on corn-soya porridge. This is a very easy-to-prepare mix that goes with either salt or sugar. We also give the families of beneficiaries a monthly allocation of 10 kg of the corn-soya blend, and one litre of cooking oil. The more the beneficiaries, the bigger the allocation," she added.
Information gathered during and after the pilot programme suggested that 30 percent of the children aged six and under in Bulawayo were stunted because of lack of food. "Growth and weight-faltering is a serious a problem among the children. Eight months after the beginning of the pilot programme, the number is growing steadily. In July we thought we were at a peak total of 7,275 children under our programme, but we were feeding 10,164 by the end of September. The number is set to grow, as the shortage of food in urban households is also on the increase," said Neudeck. She noted that while 80 percent of the children in the supplementary feeding programme had shown positive growth and weight gain, 20 percent of the children showed no improvement. "These are the children who end up dying. But the truth is not that they die of malnutrition, as has frequently been said. The children are either HIV-positive, or have tuberculosis, diarrhoea, or any other life-threatening diseases which ends up leading to their death. They still die, even if they are fed on high-energy foods like the nutrimeal porridge supplied by organisations. So malnutrition is not the cause of most of the deaths as reported." Neudeck said visits to the homes of the beneficiaries had revealed there was hardly any food - and the food situation in the homes continued to deteriorate as shortages worsened across the country. "The criteria used by the United Nations and humanitarian organisations states that employed people cannot be beneficiaries in food aid distribution programmes. But, because of the hyper-inflation environment, incomes have been eroded to a point that breadwinners can no longer feed the families. Besides, the food - when it's there, in the shops - is so expensive that some people simply cannot afford it. [Also,] the quality of foods people are ... eating are so low as to have no real nutritional value. The result among children is severe loss of weight and lack of growth," said Neudeck. In conjunction with the World Food Programme (WFP), Help Germany will start a new feeding programme at Bulawayo's 14 primary schools as well as several in Harare.
"Education officials have of late reported that school children are fainting during lessons because of lack of food. They had also complained of a drop in individual child performance in the classes and a high number of children dropping totally out of school. So it was decided that the programme be expanded to include children of primary school-going age. This time there is also a plan to include Chitungwiza," she said. A total of 32 schools are expected to participate in the programme by the end of January next year. Schools and parents will provide the sites and personnel to cook and serve the food. "Depending on continued financial support from donors, who include the German government, we would like to expand the programme, not only to include other age groups, but other urban centres around Zimbabwe, since this programme is not confined to the three centres we are currently operating in," said Neudeck. World Vision International, another WFP food distribution implementing agency, announced that it would embark on a similar programme in schools in Zimbabwe's urban centres. The food security situation in Zimbabwe's major urban centres has deteriorated in the last six months. After operating on critically low stocks for some time, the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), the country's sole grain procurement and distribution company, hit the zero mark last month, setting off severe food shortages among urban families that had been dependent on cheap cereals from the GMB, as compared to the exorbitant prices of the parallel market.
Top
From Reuters, 6 November
Mugabe appoints general to key state post
By Cris Chinaka
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has named an army general as governor of the country's largest province, filling another key state post with a military officer ahead of crucial parliamentary elections in 2005. The Zimbabwe Defence Forces' (ZDF) top brass consists largely of veterans fiercely loyal to Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party, now grappling with the country's worst economic and political crisis since independence from Britain in 1980. In a statement made available on Thursday, the government said Mugabe had on Wednesday appointed army chief of staff Lieutenant-General Michael Nyambuya as governor of the eastern Manicaland province to succeed Oppah Muchinguri, who is retiring at the end of November. Nyambuya's promotion follows a string of similar moves by Mugabe, who over the last four years has retired more than a dozen top officers to head institutions including the national intelligence agency, foreign embassies and the electoral supervisory commission. Political analysts say former guerrilla leader Mugabe sees the army as source of loyalist cadres who can be redeployed into civilian jobs to help fight his political challenges.
In his reshuffle of provincial governors, Mugabe also dropped Mashonaland West governor Peter Chanetsa, who has denied reports in private newspapers that he grabbed more than one farm from thousands of white-owned properties seized by the government for black resettlement. Mugabe named four new provincial governors, including Nyambuya, and renewed the terms of four others in what could be the start of a reshuffle of government ministers which Zimbabwe state media said at the weekend was on the way. Nyambuya, who led the United Nations' peacekeeping force in Angola and Zimbabwean troops during their intervention in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a veteran of Zimbabwe's 1970s guerrilla war which was co-led by Mugabe. Nyambuya takes charge of Manicaland for a two-year term that covers legislative elections due in 2005, likely to see Mugabe's Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) face off again after a fierce competition in 2000.
"I think Mugabe is already looking to the next elections, and I see this appointment as part of Zanu PF's preparations for those elections, trying to lock in Manicaland because of its size," said analyst Lovemore Madhuku, chairperson of political pressure group National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). Manicaland is the rural home province of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Although he personally lost a parliamentary seat during the 2000 elections, the MDC won several seats in the eastern province bordering Mozambique. The High Court ruled that Tsvangirai had lost "unfairly" in the poll, which was marred by violence and intimidation, but Zanu PF has appealed against the ruling. Nyambuya's appointment came just days after Mugabe announced the retirement of army chief General Vitalis Zvinavashe amid speculation he will switch to full-time politics. There are no former military officers in the cabinet at the moment but Mugabe's team includes senior veterans of the 1970s war of independence. Mugabe, 79, has been in power since independence in 1980 and is struggling with a deep economic crisis blamed on government mismanagement and his controversial policies, including his seizures of white-owned farms for black resettlement.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 7 November
Shiri tipped for Zvinavashe's post
Dumisani Muleya
Airforce of Zimbabwe commander Air-Marshal Perence Shiri is likely to replace Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander General Vitalis Zvinavashe who is retiring next month, it emerged yesterday. Military sources said Shiri would soon be appointed to take over after President Robert Mugabe confirmed Zvinavashe's year-end retirement at a farewell party this week. The Zimbabwe Independent revealed on October 3 that Zvinavashe would be quitting his military post in December. Sources said Shiri - commander of the now-defunct North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade which massacred thousands of civilians during a campaign of repression in Matabeleland and Midlands in the 1980s - was the leading candidate to fill the powerful post created in 1994 when the army and airforce were brought under a single command structure. Zvinavashe was the first ZDF commander after he took over the army in 1992 from General Solomon Mujuru who had retired together with Air-Marshal Josiah Tungamirai.
"Shiri is likely to be the next commander of ZDF because he is considered loyal and dependable by Mugabe," a military source said. "If you look at the current crop of top military officers, he is Mugabe's right-hand serviceman." As part of changes in the defence forces, Mugabe last week promoted Air Commodore Elson Moyo to Air Vice-Marshal, bringing to three the number of Shiri's deputies. The other two are Air Vice-Marshals Henry Muchena and Titus AbuBasuthu. Sources said this was an indication that Shiri was moving up. They said Muchena was expected to replace Shiri as airforce commander. The sources said however ill-health might militate against Shiri's appointment for a five-year term. His record as commander of the Gukurahundi that perpetrated the Matabeleland atrocities could also be a stumbling block in an era of political reconciliation. "The other problem that could work against Shiri's appointment is that former Zipra commanders in the army are becoming increasingly agitated by Mugabe's noticeable preference for ex-Zanla officers," a source said. "That is creating unhealthy tension and frustration."
Sources said the appointment of Lieutenant-General Mike Nyambuya as Manicaland governor was part of the army restructuring exercise. Another name mentioned in connection with Zvinavashe's post is that of the Zimbabwe National Army commander, Lieutenant-General Constantine Chiwenga, who could soon be elevated to a full general. Chiwenga is currently the acting ZDF commander because Zvinavashe in on leave pending retirement. Sources said Chiwenga was loyal and played a crucial role during last year's presidential poll in garnering votes for Mugabe and could be rewarded for that. "Chiwenga is also well-placed but his chances compared to those of Shiri are slim," a source said. "Air-Marshal Shiri is senior to Chiwenga and that is important in the army." It is understood Chiwenga is close to Mujuru, and Mugabe, who is said to be ill-at-ease with Mujuru, might not give him the job for that reason.
There has also been mention of Zimbabwean ambassador to Cuba, retired Major-General Jevan Maseko, as a possible replacement for Zvinavashe. But Maseko has been out of the army for a long time on diplomatic service. This leaves him as an improbable candidate. There has recently been speculation about Zvinavashe's future with some reports linking him to a political career. While late Vice-President Simon Muzenda's Gutu North seat is vacant, it is thought Tungamirai has a better chance there. Zvinavashe has been linked to the vacant vice-presidency. Such an appointment - although politically problematic - would at one stroke remove a dilemma for Mugabe while at the same time completing a process of militarising top posts which has been underway for several years.
Top
From Associated Press, 6 November
Zimbabwe doctors defy govt
Harare - Doctors stayed away from Zimbabwe's state hospitals on Thursday in defiance of a government order declaring their crippling two-week strike illegal. About 500 doctors are participating in the strike to demand pay hikes of up to 8,000 per cent to keep pace with runaway inflation. The most junior among them make as little as 400,000 Zimbabwean dollars ($80) a month. Labour court Judge Lillian Hove conceded on Wednesday that the doctors had "genuine grievances" but declared their action illegal. Under Zimbabwe's tough labour laws, anyone disrupting an essential service could be jailed up to five years. Doctors participating in the strike did not comment on the ruling, and there were no immediate reports of arrests. Last week, some 20,000 striking nurses returned to their wards following an appeal by Health Minister David Parirenyatwa and the promise of a speedy pay review. Zimbabwe faces its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, with 70 per cent unemployment and acute shortages of food, gasoline and medicine. Inflation is running at over 455 per cent.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 7 November
Obasanjo tries to sneak Zim in
Dumisani Muleya
President Robert Mugabe is battling to sneak into the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Abuja, Nigeria, next month after he was initially barred. Diplomatic sources said Mugabe was engaged in critical talks with Nigerian President lusegun Obasanjo over the issue. South African President Thabo Mbeki is understood to be part of the negotiations to secure Mugabe a belated invitation to the biennial summit, even if it may not mean full participation. Mugabe has not been invited to Chogm because his regime, which is suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth, has failed to comply with demands for fundamental democratic reforms set out in March last year. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian premier John Howard, the outgoing Chogm chair, have threatened to boycott the meeting if Mugabe attends. Commonwealth secretary-general Don McKinnon has said Mugabe will not attend the meeting unless he embraces serious reforms.
Obasanjo said last month that Mugabe would not be invited to Abuja unless there was a positive "sea change" in Zimbabwe. In an attempt to deliver the "sea change" as Chogm approaches, Mugabe last week announced there would be sweeping reforms of state institutions, including a cabinet reshuffle. This week he launched the reforms starting with the appointment of a new Reserve Bank governor and provincial governors. A cabinet and army reshuffle is also looming. Meanwhile, Mbeki this week said while visiting Canada that there was progress in trying to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis. He said talks between the ruling Zanu PF and Movement for Democratic Change opposition could produce a coalition government soon. He said dialogue was still going on. But the parties concerned have said the talks were off. Mbeki's remarks after meeting Canadian premier Jean Chretien were seen as part of efforts to secure Mugabe an invitation to Chogm.
Evidence of Mugabe's battle to get into Abuja mounted this week with reports by the Nigerian Chogm taskforce that Obasanjo and other leaders were locked in high-level consultations over the suspension of Zimbabwe and Pakistan from the Commonwealth. Pakistan was suspended in 1999 when President General Pervez Musharraf seized power through a coup. Musharraf, like Mugabe, has not been invited. Nigerian Foreign Affairs Director of International Organisations Ambassador Olusegun Akinsanya told journalists in Abuja that although the two countries remain uninvited to the December 5-8 meeting "for the time being", Obasanjo was still working on the issue.
Top
From The Star (SA), 7 November
MDC bewildered by Mbeki's view on talks
By Basildon Peta
Zimbabwe's main opposition is "pleasantly surprised" by President Thabo Mbeki's latest allegation that talks to produce a coalition government are under way. Reports from Canada quoted Mbeki as saying, at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Jean Chretien, that President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change were talking and could reach agreement soon. But MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube said: "We know nothing about these talks. We can only assume that maybe Mr Mbeki is talking to Zanu PF and Zanu PF is talking to him. If Mr Mbeki and Zanu PF decide to approach us, we will gladly wait to hear from them." Ncube said unofficial talks had taken place between the MDC and Zanu PF more than three months ago, but had not yielded anything. "We never got to a stage of resuming dialogue and we have not heard anything from Zanu PF in three months. We are therefore surprised by the news from Canada," Ncube said. Mbeki said in Canada that both sides realised they needed to resolve Zimbabwe's political problems before tackling a crippling economic crisis. "They're talking to each other now," Mbeki was quoted as saying. "My sense is that it won't take that long. "I think the ruling party and the opposition understand ... the depth of the economic crisis and the impact on the lives of the people," Mbeki said. "Nobody is dragging their feet. They will move with some speed." Chretien confirmed he had been informed of progress in the alleged Zimbabwe talks by Mbeki and that a deal would be struck soon. Meanwhile Mugabe's government has asked for a $20-million (R140-million) line of credit from Iran for the importation of badly needed seeds and other agricultural needs to assist black farmers who were allocated land seized from white farmers.
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 7 November
Excuses, excuses
Harare - Zimbabwe's information minister on Thursday accused some western powers of sabotaging the southern African country's economy in a bid to unseat President Robert Mugabe's government. Jonathan Moyo told a high level meeting on the country's economic crisis that the countries wanted Mugabe to leave power over his controversial land reforms, during which a minority group of whites lost land to thousands of landless blacks. "Britain, America, Australia... and New Zealand are truly and seriously committed to regime change, they seek a regime change in Zimbabwe," he said. "They are pursuing it through acts of economic sabotage and they use weapons of mass deception, (under the cover of) instruments of democracy, human rights rule of law, good governance, to sound reasonable," Moyo said. "They steal our foreign currency earnings, they attack even our own currency to the point of saying it's scarce, to blame the government, to seek regime change, and they drive the parallel market," he told top government, economic and civic officials seeking solutions to the economic malaise.
Zimbabwe is grappling with a record economic problems characterised by hyperinflation at 455% and shortages of most basics, among them grains and fuel. The economic problems have been widely blamed on Mugabe's government. Said Moyo: "This country is under de facto economic sanctions." Mugabe and his closest associates have been placed under targetted sanctions which include travel bans to the European Union and the United States on allegations of right abuses. Zimbabwe has repeatedly accused Britain, the former colonial power of bankrolling the leading opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Moyo accused government workers of failing to implement government policies because of bureaucracy and ideological differences. "Right now there is in our country a frenzy against government authority, against policy. The state machinery has been weakened," he said. "That is why we have a flourishing parallel (black) market, that is why we have hyperinflation .. the instruments for intervention are not there," he admitted. The two day conference convened by government and business heard on Wednesday that Zimbabwe's economy was being undermined by contradictory and ineffectual government policies, corruption, greed and the country's negative image abroad.
Top
From Africa Confidential (UK), 7 November
No chance, Mr President
Party officials and military commanders are ignoring President Mugabe's orders to surrender their farms
Several government ministers and senior military officers accused of grabbing farms are refusing to hand them back to the state, according to a new report on land reform ordered by President Robert Mugabe. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo and 13 other ministers have secured several farms in violation of the government's 'one man, one farm' rule, the report says. Details of ministers' and officers' holdings are contained in a confidential annexe to the main report, which has been discussed in cabinet. Mugabe asked former Secretary to the Government Charles Utete to investigate the findings of an earlier land audit by the Minister of State in Deputy President Joseph Msika's office, Flora Buka. This had found major abuses of the land resettlement programme by senior officials. Buka's audit reported that some of the worst violations of the land reform policy were perpetrated by Mugabe's closest political allies, such as Air Vice-Marshall Perence Shiri, Minister Moyo, and Mugabe's sister, Sabina Mugabe.
The Utete report, which was given a stronger investigative team then Buka's, found that 178 Zimbabweans. Drawn predominantly from the political and military elite, had broken the terms of the land resettlement programme; Buka found just 41 wrongdoers. Some named have suggested that Buka's report was a conspiracy by allies of presidential aspirant and Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa to weaken his rivals, such as Defence Minister Sidney Sekeramayi. Although Mnangagwa is one of Zimbabwe's wealthiest politicians, none of the land investigations has criticised his operations. Buka's list of those violating the one man, one farm' rule included: Sekeremayi; Provincial Governors Eliot Manyika, Peter Chanetsa Josiah Hungwe; newspaper publishers Ibbo Mandaza and Mutumwa Mawere; and Barclays Bank Chief Executive Alex Jongwe.
Only a few of those Buka named appear to have obeyed Mugabe's order in July that they should keep just on of the farms they have been allocated and return the rest to the state. Moyo announced that he had withdrawn claims to an additional farm on 4 August. He is currently registered as the owner of one farm and his mother is registered as the new owner of another. About 24,000 acres of farmland (about 10,000 hectares) had been handed back, but the worst cases of land grabbing remain. The Zimbabwe National Army commander, General Constantine Chiwenga, and Air Force commander Shiri are also reported to have returned some of their allocated farms to the state. Yet Africa Confidential has learned that no further action is to be taken against Shiri, a business and political ally of Mugabe's who was identified as owning at least three farms: one was the 3,600-acre Eirin Farm in Marondera, over three times the maximum size allowed. Shiri was described in Buka's audit as trying to evict from Eirin 96 landless families wo had been allocated the farm under the government's resettlement scheme.
Although the bulk of Utete's report has now been made public, the annexe listing 178 high-ranking Zimbabweans violating the rules on land resettlement is being kept secret. On the first drafts of the full report circulated to cabinet, there is a note on page 97 referring to a secret annexe which would be mad available separately. To date, only a handful of people have been able to see and make copies of the annexe, presumably to limit political embarrassment. The list includes Peter Chanetsa, Governor of Mashonaland West (Mugabe's home province), whose household is reported to own nine farms - one each for him and his wife, and one for each of their seven children. One of the nine farms was handed over last month to the newly elected member of parliament for Makonde, Kindness Paradza. Mugabe appoints all provincial governors. Chanetsa was the government's chief of protocol for the first decade of Mugabe's rule. Governors chair the provincial land committee, which is mandated to allocate land under the resettlement programme. The Utete committee reported a turf war in Mashonaland West. There Minister of Lands Joseph Made, Governor Chanetsa, and the provincial party chairman, Phillip Chiyangwa, are quarrelling over the right to allocate land. In Matabeleland, Governor Obert Mpofu is reported to have three farms amounting to 75,000 acres.
Top
From News24 (SA), 7 November
Mugabe meets NZ diplomat
Harare, Zimbabwe - New Zealand's new high commissioner to Zimbabwe was allowed to present his credentials on Thursday, despite government threats to reject his appointment. High Commissioner Warren Searell was the last of seven diplomats to be received on Thursday by President Robert Mugabe at State House. Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge had complained that Searell broke protocol by making appointments to meet with opposition and civic leaders before Thursday's ceremony. "There will be no credentials for him," Mudenge had been quoted by the state-run Herald newspaper as saying. "He will be free to return where he came from with the next plane."
Top
From NZPA, 8 November
Diplomatic spat with Zimbabwe based on misunderstanding - Mfat
Accusations that New Zealand's new high commissioner to Zimbabwe had "seriously breached" diplomatic protocol were sparked by a misunderstanding, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) says. Despite threats to reject his appointment, High Commissioner Warren Searell was allowed to present his credentials to President Robert Mugabe on Thursday. Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge had earlier complained Mr Searell breached protocol by making appointments to meet opposition and civic leaders before Thursday's ceremony. Western diplomats privately expressed alarm at what they saw as evidence of spying on their activities, the Associated Press reported. However, Mfat spokesman Brad Tattersfield said the incident arose from a misunderstanding. The New Zealanders had submitted a draft programme for Mr Searell's visit to the Zimbabwean government for their comment ahead of time. The Zimbabwean regime which has been heavily criticised for human rights abuses by the New Zealand Government and other Commonwealth nations took exception to what they chose to interpret as "a serious breach of diplomatic protocol". Foreign ambassadors to New Zealand routinely visit others before formally presenting their credentials to the governor-general. Zimbabwe was suspended from all decision-making councils of the 54-nation Commonwealth group of Britain and its former colonies after Mugabe's government was accused of intimidation and vote-rigging in March 2002 presidential elections.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 7 November
Banks ordered to retain 50% forex from individuals
Blessing Zulu
The government has instructed banks to retain 50% of foreign currency from individual foreign currency accounts, the Zimbabwe Independent has established. This follows recent moves by government proposing to target individual account holders although this was never enforced. Now banks have been ordered to account for every cent that they have in foreign currency. Government last week formed a special taskforce to address the management of foreign currency which it said was being abused. The taskforce has directed the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to scrutinise all individual foreign currency transactions. "Individuals who receive foreign currency from foreign sources have been classified as exporting services," said a bank chief economist. The new arrangement means that when an individual wants to withdraw foreign currency from a personal account, he has to exchange half of it using the official rate of $824 to the US dollar. The bank will then remit the other 50% of hard currency to the RBZ. The move resulted in individuals rushing to liquidate their foreign currency holdings last week.
Analysts said the move would force people to deposit their foreign currency outside the country. "Botswana and South Africa are set to benefit from this circus," said a chief economist with a local bank. "People will opt for offshore accounts in these countries and Zimbabwe will lose the little foreign currency that was trickling in." Finance minister Herbert Murerwa said people working abroad would be encouraged to assist. "Further, government is holding discussions with interested parties for purposes of mobilising foreign currency from Zimbabweans in the diaspora," Murerwa said at a National Economic Revival Programme meeting earlier this year. "Indications are that a minimum of US$1 million can be collected on a weekly basis," Murerwa said. It is believed that there are up to three million Zimbabweans in South Africa, 176 400 in the UK, 33 075 in the US and 165 375 in Botswana. The shift from exporting companies to individual foreign currency account holders demonstrates government's desperation to raise hard currency. The foreign currency crisis has been exacerbated by the collapse of the agricultural sector. The chaos on the farms has seen tobacco production, the main forex earner, taking a nosedive. The tourism sector has also been hit by the collapse of the rule of law and the government's human rights record.
Top
From Sokwanele, 7 November
Desperate measures in the battle for foreign currency
Bulawayo - The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) set up road blocks on Thursday on all the major roads into Bulawayo. This in itself is not unusual, but the events that took place on the Botswana road are a clear indication that the government is having to resort to desperate measures to procure foreign currency. The roadblock on the main road to the Botswana border saw the police accompanied by Central Intelligence Organisation plain clothes policemen and riot police. The police were searching vehicles and confiscating any foreign currency they could find. The law in Zimbabwe states that it is legal to carry up to US$250 without it being acquired through a bank or stamped in a passport. Yet, the police were having a free-for-all, confiscating all amounts being carried by hapless motorists.
One couple en route to a business meeting in Botswana had US$900 stamped in their passports. When their cash was seized illegally they objected, stating that, as their funds were obtained through legal methods, the police action was tantamount to theft. The police officer in charge then warned them not to be so emotional. Another Bulawayo resident had Z$10 000 000 worth of Botswana pula taken, a knock that few can take in the current economic climate. Several South African tourists were also stopped and only after being thoroughly interrogated and producing proof of their status were they released. An American diplomat was also harassed, but he too was released after contacting his lawyers. The Zimbabwean travellers were made to wait until groups of ten victims were in place, and then were accompanied to Donnington Police Station, close to the roadblock. There they were told they would receive receipts for the confiscated currency, but the station had no receipt books. They were then sent to Hillside police station, where they were also told there were no receipt books.
Eventually the police took bank details for all the affected "criminals" who were informed that the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority would reimburse them in Zimbabwe dollars at the current bank rate if they could prove the funds were obtained legally. The current bank rate for US$ is Z$840 - the black market rate is running at Z$6000. They were given no time frame in which their cases would be seen to. Zimbabwe's banks are virtually unable to sell foreign currency. The only reliable source of foreign exchange is on the black market. There have also been reports that women of the Apostolic Church, known to be regular traders in foreign currency, have been arrested by the truck load over the past two days. Police have also been confiscating fuel from travellers who are unable to prove where it was bought.
Top
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 8 November
Instability spreads as thousands flee from Zimbabwe
The effects of Robert Mugabe's regime are forcing thousands of people to seek sanctuary in neighbouring countries - a situation that is threatening to destabilise the whole region, writes Tim Butcher in Gabrone.
Less than a mile from the mirror-panelled banks and high-rise offices of Botswana's richest firms, penniless Zimbabweans gather on dusty street corners begging for work. Unregistered, unkempt and unlawful in a foreign land, the desperate men whisper "Piece work, piece work" sotto voce, meaning "odd job" to any passer-by. If you are brave enough to stop your car at what appears to be an empty junction, a mini-stampede erupts as Zimbabweans surge towards the vehicle, hands flapping for car door handles in an unseemly scrum to be first in line. Malnourished and haggard, the men try anything to convince would-be employers. Some brandish O-level certificates as proof that they passed through Zimbabwe's once respected but now barely functioning education system. Others show references from employers back in Zimbabwe long closed down or even character references from the country's opposition Movement for Democratic Change, to indicate that they are not tainted by association with President Robert Mugabe's regime.
All the documents have to be retrieved from a carefully secreted position - tucked in a sock or hidden behind a belt. To be found with such paperwork by the police is grounds for the bearer to be kicked out of Botswana as an illegal. "I have been coming across the border regularly for two years now," said 24-year-old Mqondisi from Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo. "We get a few days' permission to be here, but we all stay to look for work because a little bit of money here in Botswana is more than we can hope for in Zimbabwe. The police catch us and stick us in the trucks that take us back over the border, but after a few days we come back." The problems caused to southern Africa by the Mugabe regime's systematic destruction of the economy and the democratic system are causing worsening trouble. An estimated three million Zimbabweans are seeking sanctuary in neighbouring South Africa, while 400,000 have gone to Mozambique. Anything from 10 to 20 per cent of the Zimbabwean population have left their homes to seek job security and wages in neighbouring lands. Trains, buses and lorries have been used by the South African authorities to deport 498,321 since the crisis began in 2000, according to official figures, although it is believed that only one in six illegal immigrants is caught.
Even desperately poor Mozambique is now attracting Zimbabweans. Thousands have streamed over the mountainous eastern border into Manica province, hoping to be paid in any currency other than the Zimbabwean dollar. Ironically, many black Zimbabweans are leaving for Mozambique to work on farms being run by the same white farmers kicked off their land by Mr Mugabe. Zimbabwe may hate the white farmer, but scores have been welcomed into Mozambique by the authorities keen to lure agricultural specialists, especially in the tobacco sector. Botswana, too, has also been inundated. A rare African economic success story, it is now under threat from hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. It is dramatic proof of the regional chaos caused by Mr Mugabe's chaotic rule. With a tiny population of only 1.7 million, Botswana faces being overwhelmed by those fleeing the economic chaos, political violence and spiralling lawlessness of Zimbabwe, which has a population more than eight times greater.
The flood has led inexorably to tension, with Botswanans blaming the arrivals for a surge in petty crime and for stealing jobs. Local police have been accused of beating the arrivals and other human rights abuses. Spencer Mogapi, editor of the independent Botswana Gazette, said: "If we had 10,000 illegal Zimbabweans here we would not be able to cope because we are so small. "But our government says officially that there are 60,000 here already and most people believe the real number to be much more than that." The suburb of White City in the Botswanan capital, Gaborone, offers clear proof of the scale of the problem. As the crisis in Zimbabwe has worsened, the illegal immigrant situation in Botswana has become steadily worse, although the secretive government of President Festus Mogae rarely speaks publicly about the problem. He is understood to be concerned about the influx, which threatens the economic and social stability of his small country, and as a result he is believed to be one of Mr Mugabe's fiercest regional critics.
A new detention centre for illegal immigrants has recently been built near Botswana's border with Zimbabwe, and Botswana is erecting an electrified fence along the border to stop illegal immigrants and diseased cattle. There was no response from the president's spokesman after an approach by The Telegraph, and a western television crew was asked to leave the country recently after attempting to film a report on the issue. Don McKinnon, secretary general of the Commonwealth, discussed the regional fall-out from Mr Mugabe's economic mismanagement recently and let slip that Botswana might have as many as 200,000 illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe. Alfred Dube, Botswana's ambassador at the United Nations, hinted at the threat of vigilantism against illegal Zimbabwean immigrants who are blamed for everything from petty crime to spreading Aids. "We are concerned about what is going on," said the ambassador. "It is very unfortunate that we have our houses being burgled every day and our children being harassed. We understand why our people are saying Zimbabweans must go." Back in Gaborone, Mr Mogapi said death provided the starkest proof of the scale of the problem. "There are so many of them that when they die they are filling up our mortuaries for days as their families do not have the means to come to collect them," he said. "The authorities here have to bury them in unmarked graves. It is a very sad situation."
Top
Comment from The Globe & Mail (Canada), 6 November
Why flatter Mr. Mbeki?
Ever the gracious host, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien had only praise for South African President Thabo Mbeki when he visited Canada this week. One of the topics they discussed was the situation in Zimbabwe, where the misrule of President Robert Mugabe has caused an economic and humanitarian crisis. "President Mbeki has been working very hard to improve the situation of democracy in Zimbabwe," Mr. Chrétien said. Has he? If so, he has very little to show for it. Mr. Mugabe has made no move to ease his autocratic rule. Only last month his government shut down the country's only independent newspaper, the Daily News. The opposition, which might have won last year's elections if Mr. Mugabe had not rigged them, is subjected to constant government harassment and intimidation. The economy is staggering from a land confiscation drive aimed at white farmers, pillar of the agriculture-based economy. If this is democratic progress, what would regression look like?
Mr. Mbeki has always gone his own way on Zimbabwe. While Canada and most other countries have pressured Mr. Mugabe to change - suspending Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth and cutting off direct aid - Mr. Mbeki has argued that friendly persuasion would work better. It's a nice theory, but Mr. Mbeki of all people should know its flaws. When South Africa was ruled by whites, the United States argued that friendly persuasion was the best way to force the apartheid regime to change. The theory was called constructive engagement, and Mr. Mbeki, a fierce foe of apartheid, said it would never work. Now, in a rich historical irony, he champions the same approach to Zimbabwe. While the rest of the Commonwealth wants to keep Mr. Mugabe away from next month's Commonwealth meeting in Nigeria, Mr. Mbeki wants him welcomed. Friendly persuasion. Constructive engagement. Whatever you call it, the policy has been a spectacular flop. Rather than thank Mr. Mbeki for his constructive work on Zimbabwe, Mr. Chrétien and other world leaders should urge Mr. Mbeki to join with them in shunning Mr. Mugabe and bringing his awful regime to an end.
Top
From Sapa, 8 November
Military chief after Mugabe's seat
Harare - Zimbabwe's top military commander, General Vitalis Zvinavashe on Saturday declared himself ready for "national political duty" when he retires next month. Zvinavashe, who has been seen as a likely successor to President Robert Mugabe because of his policies, has indicated his support for widespread seizure of white-owned business assets in Zimbabwe. This was similar to Mugabe's "revolutionary land reform programme" that started in 2000, which urged lawless ruling party followers to invade and occupy 95% of the 11-million hectares of land owned by whites. Zvinavashe had been linked to political violence, corruption and involvement in the illegal "blood diamonds" trade during the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He said that he would refuse to obey opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai if he was elected to power. "Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change was created by foreigners and some Zimbabweans who have become willing British collaborators. These collaborators are prepared to wash away the wishes of thousands of young Zimbabweans who shed blood in pursuit of a free and liberated Zimbabwe," said Zvinavashe.
He said his party will not accept, support nor salute anyone with a different agenda that threatened the very existence of their sovereignty, their country and people. However, he said there was "nothing wrong with opposition parties," but added an opposition which went against the wishes of the people became irrelevant in any political structure. In the state-controlled daily Herald newspaper, he said he stood ready to accept any national task bestowed upon him by the leadership of the country in post-military life. However, he has dismissed reports that he would mark his entry into Zimbabwe's political mainstream by campaigning for a parliamentary seat in his home area in southern Zimbabwe. "I would never opt for a district position. I am the commander of the Zimbabwe defence forces, which is a national position," he said. Although Zvinashe has shown the willingness to take over the presidency, Mugabe has given no indication whether he will retire. The pressure from within his ruling Zanu PF party and from the international community has not been successful in forcing him to step down. However, many people believed that he will make an announcement when the ruling party holds its annual conference in the southern town of Masvingo next month. One senior Zanu PF official said Mugabe's resignation was the first step that had to be taken before the country can start to end the worsening economic and social crisis.
Top
From AFP, 8 November
Zimbabwe riot police to curb illegal forex deals
Harare - The Zimbabwe government, facing critical foreign currency shortages, has deployed riot police in the capital Harare to stop illegal street dealing, a newspaper said on Saturday. The state-run Herald said that the police were now on patrol at an international bus terminus in the city centre, which is a haven for illegal money changers. "We are only chasing them away and the main aim is to curb the illicit dealings especially in the city centre," police spokeswoman Cecilia Churu was quoted as saying. But the paper said money changers could easily outwit the uniformed police, and plainclothes detectives would have been better. Zimbabwe is currently in the grips of a chronic shortage of foreign currency needed to buy fuel, food and medicines. The government blames the crisis on a thriving parallel market for foreign currency, where the US dollar trades for more than seven times the official rate of 824 Zimbabwe dollars to one US. The presence of riot police at the bus station, which connects Zimbabwe to other countries in the region such as South Africa and Zambia, was giving travellers a bad image of the country, the report said.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 9 November
Police blitz nets hundreds in Bulawayo
By Loughty Dube
Bulawayo - Police in Bulawayo have launched a massive clampdown on the illegal trading in fuel and foreign currency raiding the homes and cars of suspected dealers and confiscating millions worth of foreign exchange in an operation that put hundreds of people behind bars and left city residents shell shocked. Riot police, supported by heavily armed police officers and detectives, first swooped on the Fort Street foreign exchange black market popularly known as the ‘World Bank’ and arrested dozens of illegal dealers before combing the main rural bus terminus near the city and taking into custody hundreds of suspects. Police and CIO members also set up roadblocks in all roads leading out of the city, strip-searching vehicles and confiscating any foreign currency or fuel they could find. Police spokesman Smile Dube however could not shed any light on the motive for the clampdown saying divulging any information at this stage would jeopardise police operations. "The operation is a national exercise and commenting on it at this early stage will compromise the whole exercise but we will make information available later." Dube said.
Eyewitnesses who spoke to The Standard said some people were injured when illegal vendors at the bus terminus reacted angrily to the arrest of their colleagues and the confiscation of their goods. "There were serious clashes when police confiscated some goods from vendors and forex dealers at the Renkini Bus Terminus as police swooped down on anyone they suspected to be dealing in foreign exchange," said the witness. The police also arrested illegal fuel dealers and seized thousand of litres of both petrol and diesel. Zimbabwe is in the grip of a crippling fuel shortage and the government has recently allowed private companies to import the commodity. It is however still an offence to trade in fuel without licence. A Zimbabwean motorist who said he was on his way to buy fuel in Botswana alleged that police had confiscated more than US$900 from him at a roadblock near Donnington Police Station. He said they told him that he would be refunded his money by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority but in local currency.
Top
From The Sunday Mirror, 9 November
Several injured in gold claim clashes
Pamenus Tuso
Gold panners in the mining city of Kwekwe were last week involved in bloody gold claims clashes which left scores of the illegal gold dealers seriously injured. Residents in the city told the Sunday Mirror that clashes reminiscent of ethnic fights in West Africa started at Gaika, a disused mine outside the city of Kwekwe, where local panners were accusing panners from Zhombe of "encroaching" into their own territory. The residents said the local panners, some of them relatively new in this profession which has attracted the interest of those who are gainfully employed to augment their meagre salaries, became jealous of their much experienced Zhombe counterparts who appeared to be more successful in the illicit activity. The ruling Zanu PF, as a thank you to the gold panners for propping up its candidate, Stanford Bonyongwe during the mayoral elections allowed hoardes of youths, widely known here as "amakorokoza" to set up panning villages in and around the city. The clashes, which spilled into the city’s volatile Amaveni township, are said to have lasted for two days. One of the clashes’ victims who was only identified as George is said to have suffered broken ribs and was ferried to a Bulawayo hospital.
"The situation was very tense and nasty. The gold panners, who were armed with an assortment of weapons such as chains and iron rods among others, were just pouncing on anyone whom they suspected to be a foreign panner in the area. This mining terrorism surely has to come to an end," said a resident who refused to be named for fear of reprisals from the panners. During the past few months, several panners have also been killed in gold claims fights, while others have been trapped and killed underground owing to poor safety standards. Very few cases have been reported to the police since fellow panners fear being arrested and prosecuted. During Bonyongwe’s installation ceremony as recently, senior Zanu PF and government officials were falling over each other in praising the illegal gold dealers who have caused untold environmental damage in the city. Recently the panners, who can easily be identified by their recklessness and extravagant spending, dug out some parts of Globe and Phoenix primary school in the city. Their disorderly activities have also accelerated acts of deforestation and excessive soil erosion, rendering the city’s dams and rivers vulnerable to siltation.
Early this year Kwekwe police rounded up 570 illegal gold panners and netted $1,66 million in fines in a military style swoop, code named "Operation Mariyawanda." Environmentalists who spoke to the Sunday Mirror said there was an urgent need for the government and council to adopt an aggressive stance, introducing a mechanism to draft panners under one legal umbrella. This idea, they said, would facilitate managerial duties fostering the addressing of environmental issues more practically. "Pegging out claims after undertaking environmental impact assessment should be the way forward. Above all, aid from donors could be also easily sourced if panners are registered (under an Act of parliament) for recognition purposes. Efforts to get a comment from Vincent Katapa, Kwekwe police spokesman, were in vain as he was said to be attending a funeral.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 9 November
Snake eater dies
By Parker Graham
Masvingo - Thirty-year-old Simbarashe Gurajena, who last week shocked Masvingo residents when he devoured a cobra, has died, The Standard has learnt. Gurajena, who said hunger had driven him to eat the snake, died at Masvingo Provincial General Hospital a day after he was admitted, hospital authorities and police confirmed. According to Masvingo provincial police spokesperson, Inspector Patson Nyabadza, Gurajena died shortly after his admission at the hospital. "We want to advise members of the public to desist from eating snakes and other unfamiliar animal meat products because some of the meat contains poison," said Nyabadza. Business temporarily came to a standstill in Masvingo last week on Thursday when thousands of shop attendants and passers-by rushed out to watch the starving Gurajena gobble down the 75-centimetre long cobra. He had caught the snake near Mucheke Stadium. Gurajena, who started by chomping the cobra’s head, had to be restrained by relatives before he had eaten the whole reptile. The relatives took him to the hospital where he later died.
Top
From The Sunday Times (SA), 9 November
Harare needs peer review, says Masire
Dumisane Hlophe
Former Botswana president Ketumile Masire says Zimbabwe must be subjected to the African Union's peer review mechanism. Speaking to the Sunday Times in Johannesburg this week, Masire urged the AU to act on Zimbabwe, arguing that the significance of the continental body "will be determined by the way it holds its member states accountable" to its principles. The peer review mechanism is an attempt by African governments to encourage one another to pursue good governance and democratic practices. "The AU has good guidelines on democratic principles that determine whether a country or leader is democratic or not," he said. Masire was in South Africa to attend a conference on election management in the Southern African Development Community region, organised by the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa. Asked about the political situation in Swaziland, he said the kingdom must find a way to adjust to change. "Swaziland cannot afford to forget that the whole political scene in the region has changed." He added that while the SADC must help, "Swazis must decide their own future". Masire was optimistic about the progress made in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He said that while the two-year transitional period was set to end "some time in August next year", critical issues still needed to be resolved. These included electoral mechanisms such as "the type of electoral system, regional demarcation and the provision of identification documents". As well as playing the role of peacemaker in his retirement, Masire has also become a commercial farmer. But he was quick to add: "I am not making a profit yet. I am still new."
Top
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 7 November
Directive for bank to waive surety on loans risky
Augustine Mukaro
A directive from the cabinet taskforce on inputs supply and distribution for the Agricultural Development Bank to drop stringent conditions such as collateral security on loans to farmers can only work in a viable economy, analysts said last week. Economists said the taskforce's directive could spell doom for the beleaguered financial institution unless there is a capital injection from donors or government itself. "Lack of binding agreements will result in serious defaults as the farmers would have nothing to lose," one economist said. "The level of default has been prevalent with many other government-backed loans. The Grain Marketing Board has had problems in recovering its money, the same with the Agriculture Rural Development Authority and many others. These parastatals managed to survive through constant government interventions with grants and because our economy was stable."
The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU)'s economics department said the directive was unsustainable because in the first place there was no money to talk about. "The much publicised $60 billion is enough to finance only 2 000 hectares of tobacco," the CFU said. Under normal circumstances 76 000 hectares would be put under a tobacco crop in the commercial sector alone. A hectare of tobacco requires about $30 million to grow. Analysts said under the prevailing economic situation where government is appealing to the international community for both food assistance and seeds to cover serious deficits, it cannot afford to issue loans where repayments are not guaranteed. They said the taskforce's directive would put the Agricultural Development Bank under serious viability problems once the $60 billion availed by government was exhausted. "No investor would want to put his money where there is no guarantee that it will be recovered when it's called. He would also need to put his money where there is adequate security," one said.
Top
From The Cape Times (SA), 5 November
Illegal hunts wiping out Zimbabwe's wildlife
By Melanie Gosling
Zimbabwe wildlife is being slaughtered by poachers, biltong hunters and illegal safari operators who are taking advantage of the country's unsettled situation to fill their pockets. South Africans are believed to be among the illegal operators, as are Zimbabwe government officials. Desperate environmentalists, trying to keep tabs on the illegal hunting, believe up to 80% of the wild animals on Zimbabwe's wildlife conservancies and about 60% in Zimbabwe's national parks have been wiped out. The World Wide Fund for Nature's (WWF) Southern African regional office in Harare says illegal safari operators from South Africa pay small "trophy fees" to people who are occupying wildlife properties, which enables them to shoot any animals - including elephants - for meat, hides and trophies, all of which are exported illegally. WWF said in a statement recently that 16 endangered black rhino and several elephants had been slaughtered in Matusadona and Hwange National Parks. They said Zimbabwe's deteriorating economy and land disputes had stimulated poaching for "bushmeat", and rhinos were being caught in bushmeat snares.WWF's rhino specialist, Raoul du Toit, said while impoverished Zimbabweans may claim to be driven to poaching to feed themselves, unethical sport hunters were driven by money and thrill-seeking.
Johnny Rodrigues, chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said three elephants had been shot in Hwange Estate last week. "Last week 40 protected sable were exported. It is so easy to forge signatures on export permits," Rodrigues said yesterday. Rodrigues has lists of registration numbers of people seen hunting illegally in Zimbabwe, many of whom come from Limpopo province. Zimbabwe National Parks staff have been seen in the company of South African hunters. Paul Bristow, who has a cattle and game farm near Beit Bridge, said two South Africans had moved onto his property two weeks ago to hunt for biltong and skins. They claimed they had been given permission by war veterans. The Hunting Report, a newsletter for hunters published in the United States, has warned American hunters that safaris are being conducted illegally in Zimbabwe. "The illegal hunts are being conducted on lands that have been occupied by so-called war veterans who don't own these lands or possess the rights to wildlife on them. The South African professional hunters are simply capitalising on the lawlessness and disorder in Zimbabwe," the newsletter said. Gary Davies, chief executive director of the Professional Hunters' Association of SA, said yesterday he had heard reports of illegal hunting, which the association condemned. "If they are our members we will take action, but so far we've only heard accusations and no one has come up with anything to substantiate the claims," Davies said. The Cape Times was unable to get comment from Zimbabwe National Parks or the country's department of environment and tourism. Tony Frost of WWF-South Africa said yesterday: "We decry in the strongest terms any form of illegal or unethical hunting. It is a tragedy."
Top
From The Sunday Independent (SA), 9 November
Zim set for 'bruising succession struggle'
By Basildon Peta
The stage is set for a bruising succession struggle in Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF after General Vitalis Zvinavashe, Zimbabwe's army commander, unexpectedly announced that he would be retiring next month. Zvinavashe, who is in charge of both the Zimbabwe National Army and the Zimbabwe Air Force, has been a key player in the country's politics with Mugabe's heavy reliance on the military to maintain his grip on power. Zvinavashe shook Zimbabwe's body politic earlier this year when he publicly said Zimbabwe was in crisis and that a way out needed to be found quickly. His remarks were preceded by allegations that Zvinavashe and Emmerson Mnangagwa, the speaker of parliament, had sent an emissary, Colonel Lionel Dyke, a retired army officer, to Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, to sound him out on a transitional mechanism to end the crisis. Jonathan Moyo, Mugabe's chief spin doctor, railed against Zvinavashe and Mnangagwa, accusing them of plotting a coup. Dyke later said he had approached Tsvangirai in his personal capacity as a concerned Zimbabwean, though few believed him.
Zanu PF insiders said Zvinavashe's announcement had "complicated" the succession issue. It comes after the death of Simon Muzenda, the vice-president, whom Mugabe is yet to replace. Muzenda's replacement is the man most likely to succeed Mugabe. Although Zvinavashe has not yet publicly stated his political ambitions, these have become known in Zanu PF circles. He is a loyal Zanu PF cadre and is said to be holding secret political meetings to prepare his candidature for the presidency. Insiders said Zvinavashe wanted to fill the gap left by Muzenda in Masvingo province. Once he becomes the new kingmaker in Masvingo, he is well placed to succeed Mugabe. Zvinavashe hails from Masvingo. Party insiders said Zvinavashe had complicated the succession struggle in many ways. If he decides to run himself, he will certainly derail Mnangagwa's chances. Mnangagwa, widely believed to be Mugabe's personal choice, is already behaving like an heir apparent. But Mnangagwa is hugely unpopular among party cadres.
Alternatively, Zvinavashe could decide to back Mnangagwa and become his running mate. This would create even more problems in the party as those opposed to Mnangagwa would rally forces against his "strengthened camp". John Nkomo, the special affairs minister, another candidate believed to be in the running for the succession, is fiercely opposed to Mnangagwa. So too is Solomon Mujuru, who led Mugabe's forces in the liberation struggle, and is backing Sydney Sekeramayi, the defence minister. "The last thing we can afford is to have our liberation war veterans fighting each other in the succession race," said one insider who preferred not to be named. "Unfortunately it looks increasingly likely to happen." Other party officials blamed Mugabe for the succession chaos. "Through his failure to lead, he is throwing the party into problems. If he appointed a new vice-president fast enough, we would have known his choice and it would have been easier for him to rally the party," said a Zanu PF MP.
Top
From The Financial Times (UK, 10 November
Summit hopes to avoid Zimbabwe split
By David White, Africa Editor
Leading Commonwealth countries and officials of the 54-member organisation are trying to avoid a damaging summit split over the continued suspension of Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe. "I think we've got a few possibilities of dealing with it," Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth secretary-general, told the Financial Times. "The underlying fact is that no-one wants this issue to divide the Commonwealth." Members - mostly former British colonies - are anxious to prevent argument over Zimbabwe from dominating a meeting of heads of government in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on December 5-8. Diplomats said a compromise might involve leaving the suspension in place but setting up a review process to advise on when it might be lifted. Nigeria has made it clear that President Mugabe will not be invited to the summit, avoiding a predicament for Tony Blair, the British prime minister, and Queen Elizabeth, the Commonwealth's official head, who is due to open the meeting. Zimbabwe was suspended in March last year for an initial 12 months after being condemned for violence and vote-rigging in Mr Mugabe's re-election. The measure was carried forward to the summit after an acrimonious clash in the "troika" dealing with Zimbabwe's case, between John Howard, the Australian prime minister, and the two African presidents, South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo.
Mr McKinnon agreed there had been "no consensus" on extending the suspension, but argued that there was a clear majority in favour. The argument sets the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada against southern African countries. Other African members regard Zimbabwe as an embarrassment but are reluctant to break ranks. Mr McKinnon also hinted the summit would be unable to decide on reinstating Pakistan, suspended in 1999 after the military coup led by General Pervez Musharraf, now president. The UK and other "white" Commonwealth countries want to recognise Pakistan's support in the war on terrorism. African countries argue, however, that the Commonwealth should be consistent in rejecting military governments. Mr McKinnon said Pakistan had moved back towards democracy with last year's parliamentary elections. But there were "a couple of outstanding issues" - Gen Musharraf's dual role as head of state and army chief and his powers to dissolve parliament. A ministerial group would review Pakistan's progress on the eve of the summit, he said, but indicated that it would be too late for a decision on reinstatement.
On Zimbabwe, Mr McKinnon said "a series of markers" had been laid down for allowing the country back into Commonwealth ministerial meetings. These were reconciliation between the ruling Zanu PF party and its opponents in the Movement for Democratic Change, the repeal of repressive laws, an end to systematic violence, a response to recommendations made by Commonwealth electoral observers and involvement of the United Nations Development Programme in land redistribution, which has been at the centre of Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis. He said discussions with African leaders had indicated broad support for these principles. But there was "by no means total unity" on how to proceed. Presidents Mbeki and Obasanjo have both have argued for suspension to be lifted. "Our view is that isolation has not helped. It has hardened [the Zimbabwe government's] positions," Aziz Pahad, deputy South African foreign minister, told the Financial Times in Pretoria. South Africa has been facilitating low-level contacts between Zanu PF and the MDC, but no clear negotiating path has emerged.
Top
From Time, 10 November
The master of survival
President Robert Mugabe's latest crackdown on dissents is driving the opposition underground
By Stephan Faris
Bulawayo - Samuel Khumalo's dreadlocks once reached down to his chest. All that remains of them now are prickly halos of hair that surround several centimeters of split, swollen scalp. The 40-year-old postal clerk and member of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions was among the first to arrive last month outside the governor's office in downtown Bulawayo for a peaceful protest against Zimbabwe's high taxes and cost of living. Several dozen demonstrators had barely begun to gather when police charged the crowd. Khumalo received two cracks to the head before police officers dragged him by his dreadlocks for nearly a kilometer, until they reached a police station where they thrashed him with their batons and ripped out his matted tresses with their bare hands. Khumalo and two other protesters were then blindfolded and driven 20 km out of town, beaten again and dumped in the bush. "They were saying, 'What you chaps started is war,'" Khumalo says. Khumalo's ordeal is just one skirmish in President Robert Mugabe's long, bloody war on dissent. Over the past six weeks, Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party has closed the country's only independent daily newspaper and stepped u |
