|
Archived News
14th January 2003
Zim food rioters walk free - for now
Zimbabwe releases 5,500 prisoners
Congo sentences 26 to death for Kabila's murder
Zimbabwe in danger of reverting to medieval-style feudal state in 2003
Opposition march broken up in Harare
10 000 voters added to Kuwadzana voters’ roll
Fuel shortage hits the dead
Zim offered business solution
Govt presses DRC to pay $100 bn debt in forex
Mayhem as war vets open ‘torture office’
Libyans to dump farms deal
High Court Judge occupies farm
Zimbabwe food supply threatened
Zim might axe price controls
Suspected war vets destroy $5m property in MDC offices
Pay-out impasse in Zimbabwe cricket row
Tsvangirai trial dominates legal calendar
South African minister hails Mugabe land grab
Urban hunter-gatherers emerge
Food riots point to turf wars
Lone voice prepared to take on the terror of Mugabe
Zimbabwean opposition politician detained by police
Hey, big spender
Moyo's wife flees fight in hotel room and calls police
Violence may settle cricket row
SAS in the Zim frame
African Newsmaker of the Year 2002
Zimbabwe said to be considering Mugabe exit plan
Secret deal for Mugabe to quit
World Cup fears grow as mayor is arrested
Harare mayor to face charges
Welcome aboard 2003
Aussie-tourist's attacker arrested
Zimbabwe denies plot to replace Mugabe
Timing of Mugabe "offer" crucial
Zim court orders release of Harare mayor
Zanu PF sells maize on black market
Moyo’s bizarre attack on SA
Only unrest will shift games from Zimbabwe
U.S. weighs sanctions against Zimbabwe
Top
From The Guardian (UK), 8 January
U.S. weighs sanctions against Zimbabwe
Washington (AP) - The Bush administration is leaning toward imposing additional sanctions against Zimbabwe in response to alleged fraud in last year's presidential elections and continued human rights violations, a senior official said Tuesday. The official, briefing reporters on the condition that he not be identified, said a final decision could come this month. He said any new sanctions would be financial in nature but he provided no details. Last spring, the administration denied visas for certain Zimbabwean political leaders and froze their U.S. assets. It also imposed a ban on the transfer of U.S. defense articles. An inter-agency group is studying the possibility of additional sanctions, the official said. President Bush will make the final decision. The United States has refused to recognize President Robert Mugabe's claim that he won the presidential election last March. Suggesting that Mugabe lost the election to opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, Secretary of State Colin Powell said last March the outcome did not reflect the will of the Zimbabwean people. Besides the alleged electoral fraud, the official said Zimbabwean authorities are denying food to the country's neediest citizens. He added that there also has been a breakdown in law and order. Another source of concern, the official said, are growing ties between Mugabe and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. The official did not elaborate. According to the official, Mugabe's policies, coupled with a prolonged drought, have devastated the economy, with half the country in need of emergency food relief. Of six southern African countries facing a food crisis, the official said Zimbabwe's situation is the most difficult. Many destitute Zimbabweans are fleeing across the border into South Africa, he said.
Top
From The Natal Mercury (SA), 7 January
Zim food rioters walk free - for now
Bulawayo - A Zimbabwe magistrate on Monday released 37 people who were arrested for besieging a state-run grain distribution depot over what they called unfair distribution of the scarce staple, maize meal. The 37, who will return to court on January 20, were arrested on Friday after battles with riot police outside a depot of the state-managed Grain Marketing Board. Three of the suspects - John Sibanda, Henry Sibanda and Solomon Hlatshwayo - were said to be in the leadership of the ruling Zanu PF in the western Matabeleland province. They will be charged under new security laws for failing to notify the police of their intention to hold a demonstration, while the rest will be charged with public violence. The three alleged riot leaders were made to pay Z$5 000 (R756) each as part of their bail conditions with the other 34 paying Z$1 500 (R227) each. Earlier, heavily armed riot police sealed off the courthouse where the hearing was taking place after a group of about 60 war veterans tried to stage a protest outside the court building. About two thirds of Zimbabwe's 11,6 million people are threatened by food shortages - blamed mainly by officials on a drought which has hit several countries of the region hard.
Meanwhile Zimbabwe's main opposition and analysts attacked President Robert Mugabe's plan to appoint governors in the two main opposition ruled cities as yet another direct assault on the little democratic space left for the people of Zimbabwe, reports Basildon Peta. A spokesperson for the MDC, Paul Themba Nyathi, said his party was not taking it lying down and had started consultations to find the best suitable option of challenging Mugabe over his latest draconian decision. Mugabe has approved a proclamation empowering him to appoint governors in the capital, Harare, and Bulawayo, the two major cities won by MDC candidates in executive mayoral elections. The appointment of the powerful governors would immediately render the two executive mayors useless as the governors would assume most of their powers.
Top
From The People’s Daily (China), 8 January
Zimbabwe releases 5,500 prisoners
Prison Services spokesman Frankie Meki said in Harare on Tuesday that a total of 5,500 prisoners have so far been released from the country's 42 prisons under the general amnesty proclaimed by President Robert Mugabe last week. At least 3,600 prisoners were released over two days soon after the gazetting of the proclamation. Meki said that of those released to date, 5,212 were males and 288 were females. By the end of the exercise, nearly 6,000 prisoners will have been released as the government battles to reduce overcrowding in the prisons. Prisoners who qualified for the general amnesty fall into several categories, including prisoners aged 60 and above serving determinate sentences and those serving life sentences on or before Dec. 31, 1985. Zimbabwe's prisons were overcrowded and held close to 25,000 prisoners, yet the existing structures have the capacity to hold a maximum of 16,000.
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 8 January
Congo sentences 26 to death for Kabila's murder
The Democratic Republic of Congo sought to end speculation about one of Africa's greatest mysteries yesterday by sentencing 26 people to death for the murder of President Laurent Kabila two years ago. Kabila was shot by a teenage bodyguard in his marble palace as he was seeking treatment for an ailment. His death removed the main obstacle to ending the four-year war in the region, which involved nine national armies and is thought to have cost at least three million lives. With Kabila's allies as well as his enemies rumoured to have been behind his murder, yesterday's sentences suggested a hasty effort to end what had become an affair damaging to his son and successor President Joseph Kabila. After a year-long military trial, 135 defendants were called to the bench yesterday to hear their verdicts and sentences. The death sentences drew gasps and sobs from the packed courtroom. Sixty-four men and women were given prison sentences ranging from six months to life.
Eddy Kapend, the late president's cousin and a close adviser, was the most senior official sentenced to death. He is alleged to have killed Kabila's assassin in an effort to cover up an attempted palace coup. He appeared on state television shortly after the murder, appealing for calm. He also organised the execution of 11 Lebanese diamond dealers he claimed were responsible. The condemned men have no right of appeal, but Kapend's lawyer said she would seek presidential mercy. Amnesty International denounced the sentences, saying the defendants were denied access to legal advice, and calling the military judges incompetent. It urged President Kabila to overturn the death sentences, and added: "Executing people will simply serve to further brutalise an already deeply traumatised society."
But since Kabila is keen to put an end to the mystery, observers in Kinshasa expect at least some of the executions to be carried out. Journalists were barred from the court several months ago after reports of bizarre proceedings: the murder weapon was lost, the only witnesses to the murder were dead or on trial, during adjournments guards and prisoners danced together to the Congolese rumba. Among the accused was the 19-year-old wife of Kabila's killer. Another young woman, when asked why she was on trial, said it was because she had rejected the advances of one of the investigators. "The trial was a sham which shed absolutely no light on the assassination and was becoming a political liability," said Francois Grignon of the International Crisis Group, a think-tank focusing on the region. "Now they're trying to sweep it under the carpet."
Top
Comment from ZWNEWS
Zimbabwe in danger of reverting to medieval-style feudal state in 2003
By Michael Hartnack (written 31 December)
As Zimbabwe enters 2003, the entire formal business sector is being driven underground and the elite of Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party are acquiring revered names on the company register at fire-sale prices; several hundred, perhaps several thousand, evicted white farmers surreptitiously try to keep some production going, risking jail terms; independent journalists live in a nebulous state; and the only daily newspaper not controlled by the state is in trouble. In short, Zimbabwe is in danger of returning in 2003 to some form of mediaeval feudal system in which is it impossible to work any piece of ground, operate any enterprise, or pursue any livelihood except with this implicit clause: "You will be faithful in thought, word and deed to the ruling party and their claim to hold on to power at any cost."
The dire plight of many urban businesses is due to orders by the state to sell products at fixed prices despite hyper-inflation above 175 percent. The maximum prices in many instances exceed cost of procurement, particularly where there is some imported content. Some businesses, whether under the new or the old owners, survive by hastily re-packaging their product. Margarine, for example, is labelled "spread", as if it were beef or yeast extract, which is not yet embraced by controls. Other businesses trade out of the back door. Some managers who are caught simply carry on, adding the fines to their under-the-counter prices as an extra charge on the customer. Among the commercial farmers whose land has been seized, several hundred are simply waiting, hoping they will, somehow or other, be able to return and revive production on properties from which they were forcibly evicted although they received no formal "Section 8" seizure orders under the Land Acquisition Act. Some were thrown out at a few hours' or even a few minutes' notice by violent mobs or by prominent members of the political elite who simply announced "We're taking over. If you don't go right away we'll kill your family." Many of these properties are now derelict, the homesteads looted and vandalised, machinery and irrigation equipment stolen along with harvested crops in the barns. Some farmers who did receive Section 8 orders are secretly trying to keep at least a bit of production going -risking jail sentences of up to seven years. In theory, their land now belongs to the state, although whether any fair-minded court of law would uphold this is open to question. They have based themselves in nearby towns and cities or on their neighbours' properties. They sneak out to plant or tend crops, both for themselves and for groups of squatters with whom they have reached a modus vivendi, and to look after livestock and infrastructure. They hope the political clouds will break, perhaps as a result of food shortages and the threat of famine hanging over 8 million Zimbabweans - 70 percent of the 11,6m population.
Newspapers and periodicals were in the last batch of products to have their prices frozen, a move that threatens to bankrupt all privately owned media. (The regime might subsidise the titles controlled by its Mass Media Trust.) We, as Zimbabwean journalists, exist in an even more nebulous state, having applied two months ago for accreditation for 2003 in terms of the newly-passed Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. We have neither received accreditation nor been categorically refused. Anyone working without accreditation after December 31 may be sentenced to up to two years' imprisonment. On December 31, the state-appointed Media and Information Commission said that some time during the week beginning January 6 it would start issuing certificates to journalists, publications and publishing houses stating they had permission to operate in the coming year. It did not say when, or how, those refused permission would be notified.
The Commission chairman Tafataona Mahoso is a Marxist ideologue who lectures on politics at Harare polytechnic. The Supreme Court has yet to rule on a petition brought by journalists to have the act ruled unconstitutional as a violation of entrenched rights of free expression. Mahoso said his Commission was still processing additional information it had sought from some applicants, and compiling a list of "delinquent companies" which had not applied for registration. Sources at the Commission say the group of correspondents for foreign media to which I belong is being "confrontational" because we submitted our US $50 application fees in Zimbabwe dollars, converted at the official rate, instead of in US dollar bills. In a letter to the commission, our lawyers pointed out that it is illegal for Zimbabwean citizens and permanent residents (which we all are) to pay a Zimbabwean entity, such as the Commission, in foreign exchange. At the official rate, US$50 is Z$2 750. On the streets, the only place where most Zimbabwe residents can buy foreign exchange, the 50 American notes would cost Z$85 000. If accreditation is granted, correspondents for foreign media have to pay a further fee of US$1 000 - Z$55 000 at the official rate, a cool Z$1,7 million on the black market. Mahoso responded mid-December demanding copies of our contracts with our foreign media clients. We presume the Commission wanted to calculate a rake-off on our earnings. We replied that most of us don't have contracts - foreign or features editors simply phone and request contributions. Then Mahoso demanded attested copies of professional qualifications certificates, or articles published under our by-lines.
Independent journalists join so many Zimbabweans whose practice of an honest livelihood is sinking into illegality, while those who have committed robbery and murder have been shielded by the state and allowed to continue with impunity. Zimbabwe’s sole independent daily newspaper has been the most high-profile casualty so far. The Daily News, launched in 1999 under founder-editor Geoff Nyarota, survived the January 2001 bombing of its presses immediately after Moyo declared it to be "an enemy of the state" that would be silenced. It managed to sustain publication, using contract printers, then imported new presses enabling it to resume an aggressive sales drive. Despite violent intimidation of vendors in many rural centres, where ruling party militants declared The Daily News "banned", the rival Herald's circulation has dropped from more than 130 000 to 70 000 a day as it lost credibility. The week before Christmas - as the price controls on publications were gazetted - the Daily News failed to appear because of a strike by workers demanding 150 percent pay rises that approached the rate of inflation. Nyarota has reportedly been at loggerheads with new executive chairman Sam Nkomo. Management accused Nyarota of fomenting industrial action by advancing the strikers their month-end salaries and on December 30 announced his dismissal. Nyarota’s deputy, Davison Maruziva, resigned in sympathy. If the Daily News is forced to change its stance it will be a major blow for civil society. But the threat, now, is to the entire formal sector economy.
Top
From BBC News, 8 January
Opposition march broken up in Harare
Four opposition supporters in Zimbabwe have been arrested after demonstrating in support of the Harare mayor, Elias Mudzuri. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it hoped to have 2,000 people at the demonstration, but the police banned the protest, and arrested those who turned up. Earlier this week the government announced it was introducing a new post of governor to run Zimbabwe's two main cities - Harare and Bulawayo - both of which are at present controlled by MDC mayors. The opposition has condemned the government for the arrests, and what it says are police assaults on passers by. Under tough new security laws, the police must approve all planned demonstrations. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said the MDC activists had been arrested for carrying placards, reports the French news agency, AFP. The arrests were a "violation of residents' constitutional right to express themselves," said the MDC's Local Government spokesman Gabriel Chaibva. Zimbabwe's eight largely rural provinces already have governors, who also sit in parliament and have wide powers. Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo denied that the new governors would make the opposition mayors redundant and said they would coordinate development. But MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyati told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that it was "laughable" for the government, which had presided over a 22-year decline in services, to say it would now turn things around. The new governors would usurp the powers of the elected mayors, he said.
Top
From The Financial Gazette, 9 January
10 000 voters added to Kuwadzana voters’ roll
Staff Reporter
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) yesterday alleged that it had unearthed hundreds of phantom and non-resident voters in Kuwadzana constituency in an audit that revealed 10 000 new names had been added to the voters’ roll since the March 2002 presidential election. The MDC faces the ruling Zanu PF in a by-election to replace the late Learnmore Jongwe, the opposition party’s member of Parliament for Kuwadzana who died last year. The government is still to set the dates for the poll, in which MDC national youth chairman Nelson Chamisa will square off against a ruling party candidate yet to be nominated. The opposition party’s campaign manager in Kuwadzana, Charlton Hwende, said an MDC audit of the Kuwadzana voters’ register showed a total 10 000 new names of potential voters had been added to the roll since the presidential election controversially won by President Robert Mugabe last year. Hwende said a physical check by the MDC showed that several of the new voters did not live at the Kuwadzana addresses listed as their residences on the voters’ register. Another 150 people registered to vote in the by-election actually live in the Zanu PF stronghold of Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe constituency in Mashonaland East province, he said.
Some of the new voters were traced to Dzivarasekwa high-density suburb, located close to Kuwadzana, while others were from Epworth just outside Harare and Seke communal lands. Hwende told the Financial Gazette: "We deployed about 90 people, 30 per ward, to carry out an extensive audit on the voters’ roll. What was most worrying about the results of the audit was the number of voters who are not known by the landlords and the neighbours at the addresses where they are purported to be staying. A good number, about 150, is coming from Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe, while others are from Seke Rural and from urban constituencies such as Epworth and Dzivarasekwa, where Zanu PF enjoys substantial support." Hwende said the MDC’s 90-member audit team had uncovered cases where up to 25 potential voters were listed on the voters’ roll as residing at a given Kuwadzana address, where in fact only five people lived. Several names of long deceased people were also still appearing on the voters register, according to Hwende. The MDC official said his party had conducted its audit using the voters’ roll utilised in last year’s presidential ballot and another copy of the register supplied by Mudede’s office.
Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede, who is in charge of compiling the voters’ roll, could not be reached for comment on the matter by the time of going to print last night. The Registrar General has been accused of manipulating the voters’ roll to favour Zanu PF. Mudede, whose office this week confirmed that thousands of mostly Zanu PF-supporting illegal settlers at Whitecliff farm adjacent to Kuwadzana had been registered to vote in the upcoming by-election, denies the charge. Zanu PF secretary for administration Emmerson Mnangagwa said his party was happy with the Kuwadzana voters’ roll and vehemently denied charges that ineligible ruling party members were being added to the register to ensure the party won the by-election. He told the Financial Gazette: "What rigging? Are they already panicking? The voters ’ roll was open for inspection. They can’t just be unhappy in their offices. They have got to inspect the voters’ roll. That is the purpose for inspection, to rectify anomalies. You can’t just sit at home and be unhappy. You put forward your concerns."
Top
From The Daily News, 8 January
Fuel shortage hits the dead
By Fanuel Jongwe and Sam Munyavi
The acute fuel shortage is now affecting even the dead: relatives cannot fulfil the wishes of their dear departed ones to be cremated. Bodies awaiting cremation at the Harare City Council’s crematorium at Warren Hills Cemetery are piling up at major funeral parlours because there is no petroleum gas to fire the furnaces. By yesterday, there were at least 20 bodies lying in funeral parlours in the capital. The council’s crematorium becomes one of the latest casualties of the foreign currency shortage which has resulted in long queues of motorists at filling stations all over the country in a tiring search for scant fuel. Cuthbert Rwazemba, the council’s spokesman, said: "Our supplier, Mobil, cannot get the petroleum gas because they do not have the foreign currency to import it from South Africa. They have asked the council to help source the US$13 500 (Z$742 500 at the official exchange rate) needed and we have written to our parent ministry, the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, to assist by persuading the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to grant them the foreign currency." No comment could be obtained from Mobil yesterday. Rwazemba said all the equipment at the crematorium was in working condition and the council had the money to buy the foreign currency. He said: "Corpses are obviously piling up, but there is really nothing the council can do unless the foreign currency for the gas is made available."
Reverend Noel Alfon, a manager at Funeral and Cremation Services, said their mortuary in Herbert Chitepo Avenue was full and they were having to refer bodies to the Doves Funeral Parlour in Harare Street. Three bodies were transferred to Doves yesterday. "We have a capacity for 14 bodies and we are filled up," Alfon said. "We wrote to the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) on 14 December, but we haven’t received a response up to now." An angry Julie Atkinson of Avondale said yesterday the body of her father, who died at home on 23 December, was still lying in the mortuary at Funeral and Cremation Services awaiting cremation. "I think something has to be said and done about this," Atkinson said. "I have phoned Noczim for an explanation, but they say the managing director is busy all the time. The other option is to transport the body to Bulawayo where the crematorium uses diesel, but I don’t want my father’s body to be taken all the way to Bulawayo when we have a perfectly working crematorium in Harare." No comment could be obtained from State-owned Noczim, the main fuel supplier and distributor in the country.
Top
From News24 (SA), 8 January
Zim offered business solution
Cris Chinaka
Harare - Zimbabwe's struggling business community has presented an industrial survival plan to President Robert Mugabe's government which analysts say is a last-ditch bid to save the country's crumbling economy. The rescue plan, details of which came to light on Wednesday, includes proposals on how to tackle food, fuel and other shortages and a broader economic crisis which Mugabe blames on his domestic and foreign opponents. Zimbabwe's economy is in its fourth year of recession. Unemployment in the formal sector has doubled to 70% in the last 10 years, inflation is at a record 175.5%, the country has no foreign currency reserves and has suffered intermittent fuel shortages for three years. But political and economic analysts say the fate of the private sector plan - which industry officials say was submitted to Mugabe's deputies three weeks ago - is uncertain. Although the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), which submitted the plan, and the government have not published full details, local newspapers say it calls for interest rate and tax incentives for farmers and exporters, as well as changes to foreign currency and fuel price regulations. The rescue plan also advocates realistic price controls and prudent management, and for a boost in energy production and supply to help companies threatened by rising input costs. The CZI says over 600 companies have been forced to close in the last three years due to unrealistic price controls, and high import costs on industries forced to buy expensive foreign currency on the black market due to shortages. "The plan contains some sound proposals critical to reviving the economy. But the bottom line is that all these suggestions depend on the government's attitude, and so far there is no sign that the government wants to change its policies," said a bank economist.
But senior officials in Mugabe's administration said on Wednesday the government was studying the proposals with an open mind. "The government is actively looking at a number of proposals on how to help various sectors of the economy, and the plan you are referring to is among those under consideration," one official said. CZI president Anthony Mandiwanza confirmed on Wednesday he had met Vice-President Simon Muzenda two weeks ago over the rescue plan, but declined to discuss details. "Both the government and industry understands that there is need to work together for our country and our economy... and that in our situation, this is very urgent," he said. Zimbabweans are grappling with shortages of many basic goods, including bread, milk, cooking oil and sugar. Nearly half the country's 14 million people are facing severe food shortages which Mugabe's critics say have been exacerbated by state seizure of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to landless blacks. Eric Bloch, one of Zimbabwe's leading economic commentators, said the plan might be a last life-line for Mugabe. "The situation is desperate and the hope is that government will realise that there is no option other than to do the right thing," he said.
Top
From The Financial Gazette, 9 January
Govt presses DRC to pay $100 bn debt in forex
Staff Reporter
The government is pressing the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to pay part of the $100 billion Zimbabwe spent on the DRC’s four-year civil war in foreign currency in a bid to boost the country’s hard cash resources, it was learnt this week. Government officials said the Zimbabwean ministerial delegation that visited the DRC last November had tabled the proposal to the Congolese because of the country’s biting fuel crisis. "Various ways were discussed on commercial deals which can be implemented by the two governments (to settle the debt)," an official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Financial Gazette. "One option Zimbabwe has tabled is to have compensation of the war effort paid in foreign currency to help pay for our fuel bill." Officials in the Ministry of Finance, which has been involved in negotiations on the DRC war debt, could not comment on the matter yesterday. Contacted on his mobile phone, the ministry’s permanent secretary, Nicholas Ncube, said he was attending a funeral and was unable to discuss the issue. Energy and Power Development Minister Amos Midzi declined to comment, saying he was "busy attending to pressing issues".
Sources however said the Zimbabwean government had received no response to their proposals from Kinshasa, which wants to compensate Zimbabwe through timber and diamond concessions. The sources said representatives of the DRC government had told the Harare officials at the November meeting that the onus was on Zimbabwe to ensure that the concessions the country was granted became operational. They said the proposal made to the DRC was only one of several options the Zimbabwean government was considering to pay its fuel bill after a procurement deal with Libya failed to halt the country’s liquid fuel crisis. Zimbabwe needs about US$45 million a month to meet its fuel requirements, but has been unable to raise the money because of a hard cash squeeze, which has adversely affected business and the country’s public transport system. Official sources said the country’s fuel shortages had worsened in the past few weeks because President Robert Mugabe had been advised against acceding to demands by Libya to barter fuel for the national oil-pipeline at Feruka and storage depots in Masasa.
Libya emerged as the country’s main liquid energy supplier after a deal in which the North African country supplied Zimbabwe with fuel on preferential terms in exchange for investment opportunities. According to government sources, the Libyans had initially been interested in ventures in the hotel, tourism, farming and financial sectors, before further casting their eyes on key Zimbabwean fuel assets. Sources say government and National Oil Company of Zimbabwe officials had advised Mugabe against endorsing further demands that they described as "outrageous". "President Robert Mugabe was advised that it was improper to let the Libyans get the pipeline and depots as they had been demanding because those are of national strategic and security importance," a government official told the Financial Gazette. "That was the hitch." Analysts this week said the government was under pressure to quickly resolve the fuel crisis, which has been cited as one of the key factors affecting the viability of local businesses. The Matabeleland Chamber of Industries this week warned that the fuel crisis was one of the reasons that could forced half of its 75 members out of business in the first quarter of this year.
Top
From The Financial Gazette, 9 January
Mayhem as war vets open ‘torture office’
Bulawayo - War veterans have opened an office in one of Bulawayo’s oldest high-density suburbs, which residents this week said was being used as an illegal police station where members of the public were subjected to beatings as punishment for perceived crimes. The residents alleged that several people had been beaten and tortured in the office, which is located at Pumula shopping centre. "People are being subjected to kangaroo courts at that office everyday," Pumula resident Paul Tshuma told the Financial Gazette. "Some have been beaten while others have been tortured. We have brought this to the attention of the police at Pumula police station, but nothing has been done," added a visibly angry Tshuma. Smile Dube, the Bulawayo spokesman for the Zimbabwe Republic Police, however said there was "no way" war veterans could usurp police powers. "It is news to me that there are war veterans arresting people in Pumula," he said. "I will find out what is happening. At the moment, I cannot fully comment on something that I have not investigated." "Who gave them power to arrest people?" he added.
However, Clement Moyo, another Pumula resident, alleged that he was "arrested" by the war veterans following a family dispute. He said he was forced to their office and assaulted by the war veterans, who he later reported at Pumula police station. Moyo said the Pumula shopping centre office had become so notorious that residents were afraid to walk past it at night. "These people need to be exposed," he told the Financial Gazette. "I am taking some of them to court for what they did. They think they are the police yet there are not. "Some of them are not war veterans. They are using that office for their nefarious activities and this has to stop." Other Pumula residents said the war veterans used the office as a base for raids on local shops and vendors suspected to be hoarding or selling basic commodities at higher prices than those gazetted by the government. They said the war veterans had taken over the registration of people in need of mealie meal and bread at local shops. "You cannot buy mealie meal if you are not one of them. They now control the queues at the shops in addition to harassing us," said Tshuma.
Police officers at Pumula police station, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they had received reports of harassment and beatings by the war veterans based in Pumula. "These people are taking advantage of the political situation but I tell you, it’s just a matter of days before we bring them to book," a police officer said. "They think we are stupid but we are gathering information on what they do in that office. We are going to account for all those that have committed any crimes. They (war veterans) go around claiming that they are part of us. They are free to work with us to combat crime but not to try and usurp our powers as some of them are doing." David Mano, another Pumula resident, said the police should shut down the war veterans’ office because it was fuelling animosity between the residents and the former freedom fighters. "We are against that office," he said. "The war veterans there are behaving as a law unto themselves. This has to stop because very soon the residents that have been quiet will be forced to retaliate. We know most of these people that are causing trouble but they seem to have no shame. Police should do something."
It was not possible to get comment from the war veterans this week. The Financial Gazette was denied entry into the Pumula shopping centre office by a self-confessed war veteran standing guard at the door of the premises. "We only allow Zanu PF supporters, war veterans and residents with genuine problems. You are not one of us. You are of one those youths in this suburb that need re-education," he fumed. "You are sell-outs, get away. Go away before you court trouble." Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials in Bulawayo said they had received reports of beatings and harassment by war veterans in Pumula. "Some of our supporters have been taken there," said MDC chief whip in the Bulawayo City Council Charles Mpofu. "We are aware of it. Meal mealie is also being sold there to Zanu PF supporters. That office has to be investigated. It is as if it’s a police station on its own yet it’s just a batch of confused opportunists." War veterans played a leading role in the occupation of white-owned farms in 2000 and have been implicated in the political violence that has rocked Zimbabwe since in the past two years. Commentators have accused the government of allowing the war veterans and youths who are part of the controversial national service programme to commit crimes with impunity because they have emerged as a strong power base for the ruling Zanu PF.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 10 January
Libyans to dump farms deal
Dumisani Muleya
As the US$360 million fuel deal between Libya and Zimbabwe remains on the brink of collapse, the Libyans are now keen to relinquish control over farms mortgaged in the arrangement, the Zimbabwe Independent has learnt. Government sources said the Libyans were no longer interested in a block of six farms around Chinhoyi in Mashonaland West which they were given on a 22-year lease. The farms were officially ceded to the North Africans as part of the state properties - which included equities in fuel, tourism, construction and agriculture - surrendered during the fuel deal negotiations. "The Libyans no longer want the land because of political uncertainties," a source said. "They now want out and are demanding an amount equivalent to the market value of those farms." The consolidated farms are valued at US$12,5 million. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi visited the block in July 2001 when he travelled to Zimbabwe by road from Lusaka, where he had attended the Organisation of African Unity summit. Currently the land is under the management of Libyans who have bought three houses at Mazvikadei holiday resort near Banket where they are staying.
The Libyans, who are now demanding cash-on-delivery for fuel, were said to have been angered by government's failure to honour parts of the deal. Libya's Tamoil Trading Ltd, which until recently supplied 70% of Zimbabwe's fuel needs, had initially agreed to supply fuel with government paying in local currency at a US$1 to $455,96 exchange rate. But Zimbabwe - which now owes the Libyans $22 billion or US$48,3 million for fuel - found itself unable to pay as of June last year. A Finance ministry internal memo dated June 26, reveals worries about government's failure to uphold its commitments. "In terms of the new repayment agreement signed with the Libyan Arab Foreign Bank in April 2002, a total of US$42,953 million should have been paid off by June 22, 2002. Funds are, however, not available to meet this commitment," the memo said. "In this agreement, the understanding was Noczim would deposit the Zimbabwean dollar equivalent of oil supplied in a CBZ clearing account, which would be used to make local investments by the Libyan authorities. These investments and exports would offset the debt due to Libya." However, the only tangible Libyan investment so far is the purchase of a 11,68% Jewel Bank stake for US$6,7 million at a US$1 to $300 exchange rate and a 15% stake in Rainbow Tourism Group.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 10 January
High Court Judge occupies farm
Blessing Zulu
High Court judge Justice Ben Hlatshwayo, with the assistance of the police, has joined the bandwagon of prominent individuals involved in the controversial land reform exercise by occupying a farm that has a provisional court order sparing it from acquisition. Hlatshwayo last month occupied the 375-hectare Lot 1 of Gwina Farm in Mashonaland West belonging to one of the country's leading farmers, Vernon Nicolle. Documents made available to the Zimbabwe Independent this week show that on September 12, the High Court issued Nicolle with a Provisional Order (case number HC 8180/02). The final judgment on the matter has not been delivered as the Minister of Lands did not respond within the stipulated 10 days. Despite the provisional order, Hlatshwayo proceeded to occupy the farm. He has also ignored letters written to him by Nicolle's lawyers.
In the first letter delivered to Hlatshwayo at his chambers, the lawyers said the judge was violating the High Court Order. "We have been instructed by our client that over the weekend of November 23/24, 2002, you moved agricultural equipment onto the farm, having previously visited the farm on the 15 and 22 November, 2002," said the letter. "The Order remains of force and effect. Given the terms of the Order you are not, with respect, entitled to visit the farm, neither are you authorised to deliver implements to or deploy guards on the farm and which we assume, lest you advise to the contrary, is preparatory to conducting farming operations. Be advised that our client will, if necessary, approach the High Court for relief. We trust that this will not be necessary," the letter said. Another letter dated December 3 and delivered to Hlatshwayo also expressed concern at his conduct. "We are informed that you have moved your equipment into certain sheds on the farm and which is being guarded by policemen from Banket," the letter said. "In addition, it is alleged that approaches have been made to employ our client's labour. With respect you are trespassing."
Hlatshwayo himself moved onto the farm in late December. The Independent heard this week that the judge moved in with his maroon Mitsubishi, registration 627-219, towing a blue caravan. Nicolle said he confronted Hlatshwayo and told him that he was acting illegally. "I stressed that being a judge, he should know how the legal system in Zimbabwe works," said Nicolle. Hlatshwayo said he was not moving since it was not his problem. "Hlatshwayo told me that my conflict is with the acquiring authority which is government, not himself," Nicolle said. Hlatshwayo, who sometimes sleeps in the caravan on the farm, is now ploughing and forcing Nicolle to stop any farming activities, Nicolle said.
Top
From CNN, 9 January
Zimbabwe food supply threatened
Harare - Zimbabwe appears headed for another season of food shortages in 2003-2004 with poor rains and reduced plantings likely to dent output, a U.S.-based food monitoring organization said Thursday. Although Zimbabwe was once the bread basket of southern Africa, sharply reduced domestic food production has forced the country into dependence upon food aid, and nearly half Zimbabwe's estimated 14 million people now face starvation. In its latest update on the situation in Zimbabwe, the Famine Early Warning System Network known as FEWSNET said below-average rains ranging from 40 to 60 percent of normal, as well as hot, dry weather in late 2002 had cut plantings and exerted extreme stress on the staple maize crop already in the ground. "If things do not improve, food security will once again be of major concern in 2003-2004," the group said, adding that "the (weather) prospects for 2002-03 are beginning to look quite gloomy." The country's worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980 is blamed on both drought and President Robert Mugabe's controversial seizure of land from minority whites for redistribution to landless blacks. Agriculture industry officials say local producers lack agricultural basics, such as seed and fertilizers, with the current October to March growing season already well underway. To compound their problems, an El Nino weather pattern threatens to dry up the remaining half of the growing season for much of southern Africa.
Aid agencies say the food situation in most rural areas has continued to deteriorate with rising shortages of basic commodities such as maize meal, sugar, flour and bread. "The government should review and improve the efficiency of its grain distribution system. Procurement and distribution of food aid needs to be stepped up urgently in order to address the growing unmet food needs of rural households," FEWSNET said. In signs of growing political strains over food supplies in Zimbabwe, a mob tried to storm the state Grain Marketing Board depot in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo last Friday, prompting riot police to fire teargas and arrest 34 people. The United Nations World Food Program says it still needs some $190 million to fund its current southern African food relief project, covering Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Lesotho and Swaziland and due to last until the end of March. Mugabe's government says the Zimbabwe shortages are due solely to the drought which has hit small-scale black farmers who account for 70 percent of Zimbabwe's annual maize output.
Top
From News24 (SA), 9 January
Zim might axe price controls
Harare - Zimbabwe is considering dropping price controls, instituting new regulations for the fuel supply and fixing new exchange rates for exporters to improve the country's economic situation. Zimbabwe's economy is undergoing its worst crisis since independence 22 years ago, with inflation at record levels of 175.5% and predicted to rise. The state-controlled Herald reported on Thursday that the government was mulling over new measures to rebuild the shattered economy, key among which are the removal of price controls and new exchange rates for exporters. The paper said price controls would be replaced by a management strategy whereby price movements would be staggered on a quarterly basis. Price controls were first imposed on a range of basic goods in October 2001. The list of goods under the price freeze has recently been expanded to include such things as schoolbooks, toiletries and electrical goods. The controls have been blamed for the disappearance of many basic goods from shop shelves.
On the fuel front, the government is considering whether it should provide subsidised fuel to indigenous oil distributors for essential services only, while multinational oil companies must import their own. An analyst told the Herald: "If adopted, this strategy could save the government large sums of foreign currency while also reducing the fuel procurement burden." Zimbabwean fuel is the cheapest in the region, but supplies are scarce and erratic. There are also proposals for exporters to be able to receive a port ion of their profits at an exchange rate of Z$800 to one US dollar, as opposed to the official fixed exchange rate of 55:1. The government has steadfastly refused to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar, but exporters blame the fixed exchange rate for many of their problems. The Herald said consultations on the proposals would be completed soon and "a speedy implementation process initiated thereafter". The newspaper said industry representatives had met top government officials, including Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa, last month to chart the way forward. "We have had discussions with representatives of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) and exporters and the government is considering some of their proposals," Murerwa was quoted as saying. The economy declined by 11& last year, while at least 600 companies have closed down in the last three years, citing lack of viability.
Top
From The Daily News, 9 January
Suspected war vets destroy $5m property in MDC offices
From Our Correspondent in Mutare
About 30 so-called war veterans on Monday attacked the MDC offices in Chimanimani, destroying property worthy more than $5 million. They also confiscated documents, electrical appliances and membership cards, said an MDC spokesman in Mutare. The office has been attacked on many occasions by Zanu PF activists forcing its closure in the run-up to the March 2002 presidential elections. Pishai Muchauraya, MDC’s provincial spokesperson, said the former freedom fighters raided the office armed with guns, sticks and machetes. Muchauraya said: "They were searching for documents pertaining to the Mutare mayoral elections scheduled to be held in August when the mayor, Lawrence Mudehwe’s term ends. The war veterans destroyed three refrigerators valued at about $1 million each, took away a digital camera, 26 files and 10 000 membership cards. We are are convinced all this is an effort to get inside information on our operations, campaign strategy and frustrate the constituency MP Roy Bennet." Muchauraya said the membership cards were valued at about $100 000 while the digital camera is worth over $750 000. The incident was reported to the police in Chimanimani. Muchauraya said no arrests had been made despite an undertaking by an Inspector Chogugudza, the member-in-charge of Chimanimani Police Station, to investigate the matter. Chogugudza could not be reached for comment. Zacharia Mutize, the deputy provincial police spokesperson, said he was still to receive the report on the attack.
Top
From The Guardian (UK), 10 January
Pay-out impasse in Zimbabwe cricket row
Paul Kelso and Anne Perkins
English cricket was facing its biggest crisis in 30 years last night after a crucial meeting between ministers and England and Wales Cricket Board officials failed to resolve the impasse over a World Cup match with Zimbabwe. The government had called on the ECB to withdraw from the fixture because of human rights abuses by Robert Mugabe's regime, but refused to meet ECB demands to compensate it for losses of up to £1m it could incur by boycotting the match. After a "frank" exchange of views yesterday the gulf between the two sides was as wide as ever. Tim Lamb, the ECB chief executive, said he was disappointed at the outcome of the meeting and said his first responsibility was to the financial wellbeing of English cricket. He criticised the government for making its views clear just six weeks before the game was scheduled. "If we sacrifice this match it will, in effect, be at the government's request - and for the wider national interest," he said. "We don't understand therefore the government's refusal to compensate us out of the national purse for any consequential losses we incur. These losses could damage cricket enormously. Surely, it is only fair that the government should at least discuss this with us. "I'm sorry if people think that is not sufficiently moral. I think we have been put in a really difficult situation. Only at the 59th minute of the 11th hour did the government make their concerns clear." He said that if the game did go ahead the ECB was determined not to hand Mr Mugabe a propaganda coup. Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, reiterated the government's position. "This is not the government's decision, it is the ECB's decision but we think it would be inappropriate to play the game in Zimbabwe," she said. "The ECB's major concern was the cost to them of withdrawing from the match. We told them there is no question of any kind of public compensation."
The final decision on whether the ECB will attend will be taken by the 15 members of the ECB management board who are expected to meet next week. In the Commons, nearly 50 MPs including the former culture minister Chris Smith have signed a motion demanding that the ECB back out of all matches in Zimbabwe, while Tory MPs pressed the government to "stop passing the buck and take some action". The veteran backbencher David Winnick said it would be an "absolute disgrace" for the English team to play when Mr Mugabe was guilty of "lawless tyranny". Robin Cook, the leader of the Commons, insisted that the ECB had known since last summer that the government was opposed to World Cup matches being played in Zimbabwe. "I think it is rather unreasonable of the ECB to pretend it has only noticed in the last few weeks that there is a problem in Zimbabwe. We could not have been clearer about the government's position on this - that the cricket team should not go, that it would be wrong for them to go." Despite his assurances, the government did not offer an opinion on whether the match should take place until December 27 last year, following remarks by Clare Short. The match could still be called off on security grounds if the situation in Zimbabwe worsens in the coming weeks. There are food and fuel shortages in Harare and Bulawayo and at the weekend a government grain warehouse was stormed. On February 3, 10 days before the game is due to take place, the main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and two senior colleagues go on trial on allegations of plotting to assassinate Mr Mugabe.
Top
From The Daily News, 10 January
Tsvangirai trial dominates legal calendar
Court reporter
The treason trial of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and two senior MDC officials, set for 3 February, will be among the highlights of this year’s legal calendar which opens on Monday next week. Tsvangirai is on $3 million bail. His co-accused are Welshman Ncube, the party’s secretary-general, and Renson Gasela, the MP for Gweru Rural and the party’s shadow minister of agriculture. They face allegations of plotting to assassinate President Mugabe. Ncube and Gasela were initially granted $500 000 bail each, but were later ordered to pay another $500 000 each when their trial date was set in September last year. The State is relying on the evidence of Ari-Ben Menashe, the head of a Canadian consultancy firm allegedly hired by the MDC to eliminate Mugabe, and three other witnesses identified as Alexander H Legault, Tara Thomas and Bernard Schober. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is expected to deliver a landmark judgement following an application by the Independent Journalists’ Association challenging the constitutionality of sections of the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The court’s ruling will determine the legality or otherwise of the powers of the government-appointed Media and Information Commission to register journalists. The journalists’ body is also challenging section 80 under which more than a dozen journalists from the private Press have been arrested. Other high-profile cases in the High Court include the trial of Cleopas Kundiona, a Zanu PF official in Marondera, and six others on murder charges. Kundiona allegedly conspired with his co-accused to kill Musekiwa Kufakwadziya, a political opponent in the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary election. The trial of Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, the MP for Lobengula-Magwegwe (MDC) and five party supporters implicated in the murder of Bulawayo war veteran leader, Cain Nkala, is set to resume on 20 January. On 3 March MDC youths, Remember Moyo and Khethani Sibanda, will appear in the High Court for the alleged murder of Limukani Lupahla, a Zanu PF youth leader, in Lupane. Albertina Gwavava, a former financial director at Export Leaf Tobacco, on trial for allegedly defrauding the company of over $42 million, returns to the High Court when her trial continues on 17 March.
Top
From The Guardian (UK), 11 January
South African minister hails Mugabe land grab
Mungo Soggot in Johannesburg, Andrew Meldrum in Harare, and agencies
The South Africa labour minister, Membathisi Mdladlana, said in Zimbabwe yesterday that his country had a lot to learn from President Robert Mugabe's programme of land reform. The political opposition in South Africa denounced his remarks as "chilling". Mr Mdladlana said during a tour of farms that it was "important that black people should also own land that they till, and know how to produce food and be self-sufficient and sustainable". The South African Press Association also quoted him as saying that South Africa had a lot to learn about land reform from its neighbour. His comments were trumpeted by Zimbabwe's state press as strongly supportive of Mr Mugabe's land seizures, which are widely seen as the primary cause of the country's current famine. An estimated 8 million of Zimbabwe's 13 million people are threatened with starvation, according to the UN and other international bodies. The black farmers being resettled by Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF party have not been given title to the land, which remains in the hands of the state.
The South African Democratic Alliance opposition said Mr Mdladlana's "support for Zanu PF's land redistribution programme is chilling". Its land affairs spokesman, Andries Botha, said: "President Mugabe and Zanu PF's violent and unconstitutional 'redistribution at all costs' programme has resulted in the complete collapse of Zimbabwe's agrarian-dominated economy. "This hardly sounds like the example South Africa should be following." The editor of the newspaper Zimbabwe Independent, Iden Wetherell, said: "The South African labour minister allowed himself to be led around by Zimbabwean officials." "They took him to a few showcase schemes purporting to prove that the land redistribution programme has been a success... when it is patently clear that the systematic destruction of Zimbabwe's agricultural sector has been catastrophic." Since South Africa's transition to democracy in 1994, the ANC government has pursued a cautious land reform programme. President Thabo Mbeki has said that land invasions will never take place. Even so, Mr Mdladlana's words will exacerbate the fear that some in the South African government sympathise with Zanu PF.
South Africa is tackling land reform in two ways: it is assessing claims from people who say they were unfairly forced off their land under apartheid and it is distributing state and other land to formerly disadvantaged communities. The government's land programme got off to a slow start, and only 7% of land earmarked for redistribution has been transferred. The process has accelerated in the past three years, however. Last year the director general of the government's department of land affairs, Gilingwe Mayende, told a newspaper that white farmers supported land reform and were voluntarily offering land for redistribution to landless black people. South Africa would not follow Zimbabwe's example, he added. The support of landowners would help the government to redistribute 30% of agricultural land to landless communities by 2015. Carl Opperman of Agri Wes-Cape, a farmers' organisation, said he was surprised by Mr Mdladlana's remarks. Farmers in the Cape had drawn up extensive plans for reform, given them to the government, and were now waiting for a response. "We are waiting for government to put money into land reform," he said.
Top
From The Financial Gazette, 9 January
Urban hunter-gatherers emerge
Farai Mutsaka, Senior Reporter
Mutare - While the more affluent were sleeping off their Christmas and New Year hangovers, 30-year old Wilford Muchingami joined his neighbours in Sakubva high-density suburb in a quest for basic foodstuffs that for most Zimbabweans have become like the Holy Grail because of their scarcity. The little maize meal he had at home was eaten during the festive season, a time when families usually receive many visitors and when children cannot be fobbed off with meagre portions of food. For Muchingami and thousands of other Zimbabwean urban workers, the end of the holiday was bleaker this year than in the past, when most families had to worry primarily about the infamous "January disease": little money and countless bills to pay. A dejected Muchingami told the Financial Gazette that with the 2002 festive season over, he and his neighbours had to literally hunt for every basic foodstuff imaginable: mealie meal, sugar, cooking oil, bread and many others. "If I had a choice, I would just queue for the mealie meal at the supermarket, but they are no longer getting any supplies," he said.
Basic commodities have slowly disappeared off most supermarket shelves in Mutare and other towns and cities across Zimbabwe in the last few months. The shortages have combined with a biting fuel crisis to make life unbearable for most urban dwellers. The food shortages have been blamed on price controls imposed by the government in 2001, drought and a controversial land reform programme that slashed food production by 60 percent last year. Unable to recoup escalating production costs by raising prices, manufacturers have cut back on production of controlled goods or introduced substitute products at prices that many urban workers cannot afford. As a result, hunger, which until a few months ago appeared to be largely confined to the country’s poorer rural communities, is fast tightening its grip on the country’s urban communities. In Harare, the city’ s health department warned last year that malnutrition in children was on the rise due to the food shortages. But the extent of the impact of the food crisis in Zimbabwe’s urban areas remains unclear. No comprehensive survey has been undertaken to determine the number of urban dwellers that are in need of emergency food aid. Hindered by inadequate resources, relief efforts by both the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) remain focused on rural areas, where the bulk of the more than eight million Zimbabweans facing starvation live. Left to largely fend for themselves, the country’s urban poor have been forced to adapt to whatever survival strategies they can.
Mike Zengeya, another Sakubva resident, told the Financial Gazette his secret to survival was joining whatever queue he might come across because chances were the commodity on offer was one he was in need of. He said: "Whenever you see a queue, you just join and then ask whatever it is people are queuing for later. The greater chance is that you were probably looking for whatever it is that’s being sold. The point is, we have to queue for almost everything and soon, we may have to queue even for cigarettes. That is how bad things have become." Zengeya spoke as he hurried to join a long and winding queue at a Sakubva shop, which was selling sugar for the first time in three weeks. Other consumers in urban areas have survived the food shortages by cultivating the operators of a thriving black market in foodstuffs that is awash with scarce commodities. But prices on the illegal market have recently skyrocketed beyond the reach of families with low incomes that have not kept pace with soaring inflation, which reached an all time high of 175.5 percent in November. The cost of goods on the black market is more than treble the prices set by the government, making them a luxury for many urbanites. According to a 2002 survey by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, an urban family of four needs at least $35 000 a month to pay for basic commodities, but many workers do not earn half this amount.
Mutare resident Raymond Tembeya said: "I earn $16 000 a month. Compare this with the prices being charged on the black market and you will understand my bitterness." Tembeya, who is employed as a general labourer by a food manufacturing company, added: "I have a family of five and yet a bucket of maize costs $4 500, a two kilogramme packet of sugar costs $500 and I am buying a loaf of bread for $180. And you expect me to survive? At least in the rural areas they receive assistance from the NGOs." The general labourer said the problems faced by his family and many others lucky enough to still have employed bread winners had been compounded by Zimbabwe’s economic recession, which has forced a large number of companies out of business. The closure of several firms in the past three years has pushed the country’s unemployment rate up to more than 70 percent and unable to relocate to the rural areas, which have been even harder hit by the food crisis, many retrenched workers are being forced to rely on urban-based relatives for survival. Tembeya told the Financial Gazette: "At least I am lucky, I am still holding on to my job. But things have become tougher. A number of my relatives have been retrenched and I now have the burden of looking after them as well as paying school fees for some of their children." As the shortages bite harder and the number of dependents increase, several families in Mutare interviewed by this newspaper said they have had to change their eating habits. Prisca Tarewa explained: "It’s either you have the money but the goods aren’t available or when the goods become available, you no longer have the money. So we have been forced to change our feeding habits. Instead of three square meals a day, we now have only two. One that combines breakfast and lunch and another one in the evening."
But for others like Muchingami, a staunch supporter of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the food crisis has brought additional problems. He must register himself as a member of the ruling Zanu PF so that he can receive maize meal, which he says the party has been distributing to its members in the past few weeks. The ruling party has denied distributing food aid along partisan lines. But Muchingami said: "Since the beginning of December, mealie meal has been distributed through Zanu PF councillors and in most instances, we are left out. Some people in this area have received mealie meal on four occasions and we have been left out because we are perceived to be supporters of the MDC. I guess Zanu PF is trying to use the hunger in the cities to win back support. So if I am to get food, I will have to be seen as one of them, even if it’s against my conscience." And with weather and agricultural experts forecasting another drought this year, Muchingami fears he may have to compromise his political principles for a long time to come.
Top
Comment from ZWNEWS, 11 January
Food riots point to turf wars
To some observers, recent outbreaks of violence in food queues in Harare and Bulawayo signal the start of widespread rioting as Zimbabweans finally rebel against the misery of living under Robert Mugabe’s regime. But the instigators of the disturbances were self-styled war veterans and other pro-Mugabe militants, all imbued with a culture of impunity. What Zimbabwe may now be facing is not spontaneous uprisings against Mugabe, but Chicago-style turf wars among rival warlords seeking local monopolies to exploit a cowed, starving population.
The latest disturbances occurred when war veterans, the mainstay of Mugabe's violent three-year onslaught against the Zimbabwean population, battled with police and the newly-mustered Green Bombers for control of food queues. The first maize distribution disturbance was triggered in Bulawayo's Tshabalala township Jan. 3 when a local Zanu PF war veteran leader ordered his supporters to besiege the Grain Marketing Board depot and prevent distribution of maize to millers he alleged were unsuitable recipients. Despite the presence at the depot of army personnel and Green Bomber youth militia, police had to be called, fighting running battles with up to 4 000 people. More than 30 were arrested and brought to court on two days later, but charges were then dropped - in contrast to the past unrelenting prosecution of peaceful protesters for the MDC. Three days later in Harare war veterans attempted to take control of a maize queue adjacent to the shrine of the Vapostori sect in Chitungwiza. Residents came to the aid of the police and successfully fought off the militants, who took refuge at the shrine. The militants stand to make huge profits, apart from satisfying the hunger of their families and friends. A 10kg bag of meal costing Z$250 can be resold immediately on the black market for more than Z$1 500. At some township filling stations, Zanu PF youths offer to escort motorists to the head of 2 km fuel queues in return for Z$1 000 bribes.
War veterans and Green Bombers have in the past seemed to have frightened Mugabe’s uniformed police, who have turned a blind eye to blatant lawbreaking. In contrast, political opponents and ordinary civilians battling to make a living are easily and brutally crushed. For example, on 8 January police simply seized goods in a raid for price control breaches on vendors at Gweru's main bus terminus. Eight protesting vendors, stripped of their entire capital and means of livelihood, were arrested on charges of defying the draconian Public Order and Security Act. That same day, a fleeting demonstration at Harare’s Town House in support of the capital's embattled mayor, Elias Mudzuri, of the Movement for Democratic Change, reflected the extreme caution of opposition supporters in confronting the security forces. After the briefest exhibition of posters and singing of protest songs, the few score demonstrators fled before a much larger force of baton-wielding paramilitaries could close in. Police staked out every street corner and approach to the city centre in reaction to the first hint of MDC protest at the state media's smear campaign against Mudzuri. His 10-month battle with inherited urban neglect has been obstructed by the central authorities and by Zanu PF loyalists among municipal staff.
As in the 1990s, when he hesitated to confront ex-guerillas who were angry at corrupt war disability handouts to the elite, the Zanu PF leadership fear a head-on confrontation with the militants. War veterans led by the late Chenjerai Hunzwi were given Z$20 million to ensure Mugabe's June 2000 election victory, when around 200 people were murdered with impunity. A year earlier Mugabe had awarded them gratuities totalling US$350 million after he had been barracked by them at Heroes Acre, and after they had ransacked the ruling party headquarters and besieged an international African-American conference. Without their terror campaign, Mugabe would have been forced to concede defeat in the June 2000 parliamentary elections and the March 2002 presidential poll against MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The attitude of the war veterans, a force who - correctly - believe themselves above the law, was also revealed in the resort town of Victoria Falls where they began interrogating and intimidating residents following the fatal stabbing a week ago of an Australian visitor, Peter Stafford, 27, from Adelaide. "You have brought shame on Zimbabwe," squads were alleged to have told curio vendors and other residents. Police admitted at least 50 people were detained for questioning but no arrests had been made. Tourism Minister Alfred Nhema said the murder in the rain forest overlooking the waterfall was an isolated incident perpetrated by "elements bent on undermining Zimbabwe's tourism industry". But an Australian foreign ministry spokesman said the killing highlighted the undesirability of World Cup cricket matches taking place in Zimbabwe next month. Mugabe faces a growing threat - not from ordinary Zimbabweans, terrorised after three years of unimpeded thuggery by troops and militants, but from the regime’s own security forces and paramilitaries as they, too, begin suffering from shortages.
Top
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 11 January
Lone voice prepared to take on the terror of Mugabe
Tim Butcher meets the archbishop who refuses to be cowed by intimidation.
Archbishop Pius Ncube's eyes were rheumy and tired but mere mention of Robert Mugabe was enough to make them sparkle with defiance. "It is my Christian duty to stand up to evil," the archbishop said from his cluttered office at St Mary's Catholic Cathedral in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city and the capital of Matabeleland. "This government has used terror and fear to silence people for too long. People feel threatened and hounded by an evil regime and it is important for people in positions like mine not to be silenced." In Zimbabwe, where the current crisis is dishonestly portrayed by the Mugabe regime as a battle between black and white, the 56-year-old archbishop's softly-spoken championing of the suffering black majority stands out. His is a courageous and almost lone voice, reflecting his daily exposure to the pain inflicted on his 150,000-strong Ndebele congregation by Mr Mugabe's predominantly Shona regime.
A queue of supplicants forms each morning outside his office, spelling out case after case of injustice, brutality and abuse at the hands of Mr Mugabe's government. "Just go and ask them what they are having to put up with now," he said. "Because there is no fuel left, minibus drivers raised the price of a trip 10 times at Christmas because of the price of black market petrol. So if you wanted to go, say, to see your family at Plumtree just 120 kilometres away at Christmas you would have to pay 5,000 Zimbabwe dollars (£70) instead of 500 dollars. Now that is a tremendous amount of money in Zimbabwe, out of reach for all but a few." A string of Christmas cards looped above the archbishop's desk as the phone rang repeatedly with requests for help. Nuns shuttled in and out carrying yet more applications for assistance. Each time his thick glasses would be pushed back high on his head as he listened politely, nodding slowly and promising what help his church's modest coffers could afford. Only once did his dour face break into a smile.
"And a Happy Queue Year to you as well," he said in response to a joke that is now going the rounds, based on the day-long queues Zimbabweans face for every basic commodity. "Starvation is out there and it is claiming lives all the time, such as the farmer I heard of last week who had not eaten for six days and yet took his animals out to look for pasture to graze," the archbishop said. "They found his body where he had gone to sleep. He was too weak to survive. People are dying from starvation out there while the government spends money on weapons and the military. Those who are not in the ruling party are denied food and condemned to suffer. It is deliberate, it is evil and it is wrong." Trained for seven years by Jesuits in what was then Rhodesia, Archbishop Ncube then spent two years studying in Rome before returning to his place of birth at the height of the independence war of the 1970s. He saw violence perpetrated both by Ian Smith's white regime in the 1970s and by Mr Mugabe's armed campaign against the Ndebele in the 1980s but what makes his position now so extraordinary is his willingness to criticise Mr Mugabe publicly.
The organised Church in Zimbabwe has been accused of kowtowing to the Mugabe government, with Norbert Kunonga, the Anglican Bishop of Harare, causing outrage when he gave his full support to Mr Mugabe in an open address to clergy. While the Roman Catholic church has not been afraid to gather evidence of human rights abuses across the country, the country's seven other Catholic bishops have not been as outspoken as Archbishop Ncube. As the Zimbabwe regime's most turbulent priest, Archbishop Ncube knows that his position is not without peril. His telephones have been tapped, his life has been threatened and the state-owned press carries a stream of bilious innuendo about him. Among the most ludicrous accusations are that he has raped nuns, fathered bastard children and indulged in homosexual acts in Zimbabwe's prisons. In a country where political assassination is not uncommon, St Mary's Cathedral looks more like a fortress than a place of worship, with all of its perimeter wall crowned with coils of razor wire. It is no accident that he keeps for inspiration a picture of Oscar Romero, the Catholic archbishop from El Salvador who was shot dead as he celebrated Mass in 1980 by Right-wing terrorists after he had dared to criticise the government. "Now he showed that we must not seek compromise," Archbishop Ncube said. "We have to be brave enough to stand up to evil whenever we see it."
Top
From VOA News, 11 January
Zimbabwean opposition politician detained by police
The opposition mayor of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, says police have detained him for holding what they called an illegal meeting. Elias Mudzuri told reporters by telephone from a police station that officers interrupted a public meeting in Harare and took him and several city officials and municipal councillors for questioning. Mr. Mudzuri said police accused him of holding a political meeting without permission and thus violating the country's security laws. The mayor told reporters the accusations were false, because he was holding a regular civic forum with constituents. Police have not commented on the incident, nor confirmed the arrest. Mr. Mudzuri, a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, is a vocal critic of government policy. Earlier this week, the government announced it would appoint governors for Harare and Bulawayo, both opposition strongholds and the country's largest cities. The government has rejected opposition charges that it is creating the posts to take over the powers of elected opposition mayors.
Top
From The Sunday Times (SA), 12 January
Hey, big spender
Mugabe's spin doctor stocks up on food in SA as millions starve at home
By Mzilikazi Wa Africa
Zimbabwe's propaganda chief, Jonathan Moyo, spent nearly two weeks in South Africa on a holiday shopping spree while millions of his countrymen face starvation. The controversial minister of information, who wants to be the next president of Zimbabwe, booked into the Mercure Hotel in Bedfordview from December 27 to January 8 with four children and his wife, Betty. While there, he went on a shopping spree - surrounded by his bodyguards - and bought thousands of rands worth of food to take home to Zimbabwe, where more than two-thirds of the population of 11.6 million are desperate for something to eat. It was just one year ago that Moyo, referring to South Africa, said: "It is you people who have Mandela squatter camps all over the place, not us. In fact, the average black person in Zimbabwe is better off than the average black person in South Africa." He bought a big-screen TV and a home theatre system. When he ran out of packing space in his luxury vehicles - a Pajero (registration number 752-098X), a Mercedes-Benz car (registration 752-082E) and a bakkie - Moyo filled a trailer (registration HYF 394 GP) with cooking oil, canned food , rice, sugar, mealie meal, polony, macaroni and bread.
Just days before Moyo's shopping jaunt, Zimbabweans were bracing themselves for a miserable Christmas without basic goods like fuel, milk and fruit. They are forced to queue for hours just to buy a loaf of bread. The Sunday Times booked into a room in the Mercure Hotel directly opposite rooms 804 and 806, where Moyo's family were staying . His bodyguards and children were seen packing groceries into the vehicles on Tuesday afternoon and again at 4.20am on Wednesday before leaving at dawn to go home. After Moyo had departed, escorted by bodyguards, the Sunday Times went inside room 806 and found five staff cleaning up the mess. The family had been enjoying appetising holiday takeaways. Bits of uneaten food were lying on the floor. Empty bottles of beer were scattered about and at least four unopened dumpies of Moyo's favourite beer had been left behind. Two trolleys were needed to remove the garbage.
The leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai, said he was horrified. "This man has no shame at all. He goes to South Africa to buy his food while Zimbabweans are struggling to buy salt and bread. Where did he get the foreign currency when we do not have any in Zimbabwe? [President] Robert Mugabe is ordering food from London and Moyo is shopping in South Africa. These people are hypocrites." The Sunday Times tried repeatedly to reach Moyo, calling his office, his cellphone, the Zimbabwean high commission - and even Mugabe's office. A secretary said: "Professor Moyo is on leave and cannot be reached as he is in his rural village where there are no telephones. His cellphone is broken." Zimbabwean government spokesman Knox Zenglu said: "I am told he has gone to his home village and there are no telephones there. I am sorry, there is nothing we can do for you." Attempts to reach George Charamba, head of Zimbabwe's Communication Department, and Zimbabwe's High Commissioner in South Africa, Simon Moyo, were also unsuccessful.
Top
From The Sunday Times (SA), 12 January
Moyo's wife flees fight in hotel room and calls police
By Mzilikazi Wa Afrika
Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo's wife, Betty, called police to intervene in a row in his Johannesburg hotel room on New Year's Eve. The drama started when one of Moyo's children phoned a receptionist to report a fight in the room. The Sunday Times has established that a security guard was sent to the room to check if the hotel's property was being damaged during the row and to calm those who were fighting. But the guard was stopped as he made his way to the suite by Moyo's wife, who ran out of the room. She warned him not to go into the room because her husband "was a senior politician and a government minister" who would never listen to a security guard. "I want to see the police - please phone the police to come here," she was heard shouting. Moyo's wife was taken to the reception area where she pleaded with the night staff to call the police or give her directions to the nearest police station. Two police officers responded to the call but gave Moyo's party only a verbal warning. No assault case was opened. "The receptionist said police must rush to room 806 because of the fighting, which might damage the hotel property," said Sam Baloyi, an official at Bedfordview police station. "I don't know what was discussed. I have never seen any report but I can confirm that no case was opened." The hotel confirmed that the incident took place but refused to comment further.
Top
From The Observer (UK), 12 January
Violence may settle cricket row
Denis Campbell and Kamal Ahmed
England's controversial cricket World Cup match in Zimbabwe next month looked set to be cancelled last night because of growing political violence by supporters of Robert Mugabe's regime and worsening food riots. As pressure grew on Tony Blair to make an 'unequivocal statement' on the issue at his monthly press briefing tomorrow, the International Cricket Council, the sport's global governing body, confirmed yesterday it would move all six World Cup matches out of Zimbabwe if growing security problems meant players' safety could not be guaranteed. In a clear signal that they are prepared to pull out, the England players last night underlined their opposition to Mugabe. 'The players and the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) are very much aware of the repressive nature of the Mugabe regime, and are keen to help the Zimbabwean people and Zimbabwe cricket,' said Richard Bevan of the Professional Cricketers' Association, who has been centrally involved in the stand-off between the Government and the ECB over whether England should fulfil their fixture.
Although the ECB will confirm on Tuesday its intention to fulfil England's fixture in Harare on 13 February, spokesman John Read last night underlined that 'if the situation in Zimbabwe deteriorates beyond an acceptable situation, to the point where we and the ICC don't think it's safe to go, and the safety of our players can't be confirmed, then we won't go. 'If things do deteriorate, we would put pressure on the ICC, and I'm sure the ICC would then decide to move the games to South Africa.' Yesterday, Charles Kennedy, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the Government had mishandled the situation and had sent out mixed messages. 'This has been mishandled,' he said. 'The Government has been very late in expressing its view that the England team should not play in Zimbabwe. It should have been deciding much earlier; instead mixed messages have sown confusion. Sport and politics should not be mixed but occasionally it is unavoidable - the appalling Mugabe regime will undoubtedly seek to exploit this opportunity and that's unacceptable. England shouldn't play there.' Kennedy said the ECB should be paid compensation by the Government for having to pull out.
Backbench Labour MPs also voiced their concern. Tony Banks, the former Sports Minister, said Blair should 'take the initiative' and contact other countries to organise a boycott. 'The ECB aren't diplomats and shouldn't be left to sort this out,' Banks said. 'England should only not play if the other teams don't play.' Mark Ford, the son of the Zimbabwean farmer who was brutally beaten before being shot dead by groups loyal to Mugabe, has called on Blair to pull England out of their match with Zimbabwe. Ford said by playing in Zimbabwe England would be 'sending out the wrong message to the world' about the country. The ICC has set up a standing committee to monitor the security situation in Zimbabwe in light of the problems being caused by its descent into famine. Up to seven million Zimbabweans are now going hungry and there were food riots last week in Harare and Bulawayo, where other World Cup games will be held.
Cricket insiders believe the move will lead to matches being transferred to South Africa, which is hosting the bulk of the tournament, and act as a face-saver for the Government and ECB. Officials are also worried the matches themselves could become flashpoints as opposition groups plan to stage demonstrations outside them. Malcolm Gray, the ICC's president, said a fresh safety inspection team could be dispatched to Zimbabwe if the situation deteriorated, and its findings could lead to the games being moved. A previous visit in November declared Zimbabwe safe, but violence has worsened since then. Ministers have warned that the situation in Zimbabwe is expected to worsen in the coming weeks. There is also concern that a trial of three opposition leaders due to start on 3 February in Harare could lead to unrest.
Additional reporting: Tom de Castella
Top
From The Mirror (UK), 11 January
SAS in the Zim frame
Exclusive From Mike Walters In Hobart
Lord’s officials have revealed they could re-hire the ex-SAS bodyguards who acted as England's minders in India last winter for the World Cup powder-keg in Zimbabwe. If England's controversial tie in Harare on February 13 goes ahead, England and Wales Cricket Board bosses want Nasser Hussain's men protected by their own security team. ECB spent nearly £100,000 on by hiring former servicemen Matt Kilbride and Douglas Dick from Mayfair-based personal protection specialists Olive Security to shadow England players in India. And with political tensions rising over England's opening World Cup group match in Zimbabwe, Lord's have discussed the provision of more minders for Hussain's squad. Violent demonstrations in Harare against Robert Mugabe's regime have increased fears about the England players' security, and International Cricket Council president Malcolm Gray admitted last night Zimbabwe's safety guarantees were being reviewed.
Top
Comment from Time Magazine, 22 December
African Newsmaker of the Year 2002
Robert Mugabe: Because he stole the election and ruined Zimbabwe's economy by seizing the country's white-owned farms and giving them to his soldiers, cronies and family members
By Simon Robinson
"The economy is the land," President Robert Mugabe declared repeatedly in the run-up to Zimbabwe's presidential election last March. Mugabe finally made good on his plan to redistribute his country's farms, and as a result Zimbabwe's economy - once among Africa's strongest - is in freefall. A land that was once fertile now lies scorched and fallow. Comrade Mugabe, as he is still known in Zimbabwe's state media, bludgeoned his way to re-election, beating out opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in a poll marred by violence and allegations of official vote rigging. European, American and Commonwealth observers all questioned the election's legitimacy. But Mugabe rejected these misgivings, cracked down on dissent, and sped up his controversial land redistribution scheme.
The 78-year-old President says forcing Zimbabwe's few thousand white commercial farmers to hand over most of their land to poor blacks is necessary to right historic wrongs. While few question the need for redress - ownership of Zimbabwe's agriculture industry was starkly divided between white and black - Mugabe's methods are plainly unfair. Most of the redistributed land has gone to supporters, such as the thuggish "war veterans" whom the President uses to intimidate political opponents. Senior soldiers back from fighting (and some lucrative diamond mining on the side) in the Democratic Republic of Congo also did extremely well out of the program, as did Mugabe's cronies and family. Legitimate beneficiaries - such as peasant workers - have been allotted tiny patches of land but given no farm training, no money to buy seeds, not even a spade. As a result, some large-scale commercial farms have been broken into hundreds of small subsistence plots; some are used as training camps for Mugabe's thugs; and some, like the one visited by Time earlier this year, have become makeshift bars where angry war vets drink the day away.
Inevitably, the program has gutted Zimbabwe's once-thriving agriculture industry. Tobacco farming, which until two years ago brought in a third of Zimbabwe's foreign currency reserves, is now running at just 30% of capacity. Zimbabwe desperately needs this money to pay for imports like fuel and machinery. More than 100,000 farm workers have lost their jobs, pushing unemployment above 60%. As the economy has shrivelled - down 12% this year, according to government figures - price controls on basic foodstuffs have left supermarket shelves empty. Most remarkably, the country now has two interest rates: a lower rate for exporters and "productive" companies and a much higher one for everybody else. The result of such lunacy has been chaos and hunger. Like much of southern Africa, Zimbabwe is in the grip of a severe drought. But Zimbabweans also have to contend with a dictator intent on starving his opponents into submission. Aid workers, Western diplomats and religious leaders charge Mugabe with using food aid as a political weapon. Mugabe denies the charge. Still, supporters of his Zanu PF party regularly receive food, opposition supporters do not. Right now some 7 million Zimbabweans - half the country's population - are in desperate need of help.
Mugabe probably sees 2002 as a triumph. He won re-election and finally managed to force the majority of white farmers off their land. The revolution he began fighting four decades ago is over. But his personal victory has resulted in a national tragedy. He did get one thing right, though: in Zimbabwe, the economy is the land. And this year Mugabe managed to destroy both.
Top
From SABC News, 13 January
Zimbabwe said to be considering Mugabe exit plan
A Zimbabwe private newspaper reported yesterday that Zimbabwean, South African and British authorities have hatched a plan for embattled President Robert Mugabe to hand power to his chosen successor before the end of his current term in 2006. The Zimbabwe Sunday Mirror said the plan, which it claimed had the support of Zimbabwe's army commander, included the appointment of an interim government with the support of the main opposition and the holding of parliamentary and presidential elections in 2005. Mugabe was re-elected in a controversial presidential poll last March, which his main rival Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said was rigged and which was condemned as fraudulent by many Western powers, including Britain and the US. There is regular speculation in the Zimbabwe media and in diplomatic circles in Harare over Mugabe's future. Only last month his ruling party was forced to make a statement that Mugabe will serve his full term to 2006. The Sunday Mirror is run by Ibbo Mandaza, a former senior civil servant in Mugabe's administration, who is now considered close to the government.
Quoting diplomats and "sources privy to the highly confidential plan", the newspaper reported that the "Mugabe exit plan" had been hatched after realising that former colonial power's drive to oust him had failed but also that travel and economic sanctions against Zimbabwean political leaders were biting. "Sources privy to the highly confidential plan say the move has been precipitated by the mutual realisation among influential Zimbabwean and British officials, with the mediation of the South African government, that they have lost dismally from their current diplomatic stand-off, and that a peaceful settlement, which would lead to a normalisation of relations would benefit the two countries," the newspaper said. "According to a highly impeccable source involved in brokering the deal, Mugabe will relinquish power on the strength of a proposed succession plan that will see Emmerson Mnangagwa, the current Speaker of Parliament and (ruling) Zanu PF party secretary for administration, taking over as head of state," it said. Mnangagwa, one of Mugabe's closest political confidantes, has over the years been seen as his preferred successor. Neither Mnangagwa nor Mugabe's spokesperson were available for comment last night but the Mirror quoted Mnangagwa as saying he was not aware of any such plan. He added however, "But of course I cannot stop you from speculating."
Top
From The Guardian (UK), 13 January
Secret deal for Mugabe to quit
Andrew Meldrum in Harare
Mediators acting for top government officials have floated the idea that President Robert Mugabe would retire in return for immunity from prosecution, Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, disclosed last night. Mr Tsvangirai said he had talked with independent mediators on behalf of the house speaker, Emmerson Mnangagwa, and armed forces chief of staff, General Vitalis Zvinavashe. "They wanted my assurance that if Mugabe retired, [the Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe's opposition party] would take part in a transition towards new democratic elections." Gen Zvinavashe and Mr Mnangagwa, seen as Mr Mugabe's heir apparent, are two of the most powerful ruling Zanu PF politicians. Mr Tsvangirai said the approach was made because they said they realise Mr Mugabe "is the main stumbling block". "They said Mugabe must step down before we can find solutions to our economic decline and the hunger, among many other problems." Mr Tsvangirai named retired Zimbabwean army Colonel Lionel Dyke, a close associate of both men, as a mediator.
The mediators said the two Zanu PF leaders would secure Mr Mugabe's retirement to regain some international legitimacy for the country and get renewed aid and investment. Mr Tsvangirai thought that Mr Mnangagwa and Gen Zvinavashe had tried to set up talks because there is no clear Mugabe successor. "Clearly, the succession issue has not been concluded and they were trying to position themselves." Despite the apparent promise that Mr Mugabe would step down, the opposition leader turned down the mediators' suggestions. "I rejected that exploratory approach because we in Zimbabwe need open, transparent discussions to lead us back to democracy. We cannot accept pre-conditions set up in secret deals," he said. Mr Tsvangirai's MDC held direct talks with Zanu PF last year. The talks quickly broke down but Mr Tsvangirai said he thought there was a good chance for their renewal. Mr Tsvangirai said talks could determine how Mr Mugabe would step down and the establishment of a transitional coalition government leading to free and fair elections. Issues to be considered include whether or not Mr Mugabe would be granted immunity from prosecution for alleged human rights abuses and whether he would be exiled. Mr Tsvangirai has stated many times that any power-sharing government would only be temporary.
Zanu PF party officials were unavailable for comment. There has been no response from Mr Mugabe himself, who was scheduled to return to office today after a holiday. Britain's shadow foreign secretary, Michael Ancram, said: "Anything that shows any movement in relation to ending Mugabe's evil regime must be greeted with cautious welcome." Mr Ancram said he wanted to know more about the suggested deal, particularly those concerning an end to the persecution of the Matabele, the displaced black farm workers, and the illegal land grabs. "I obviously will wish to consult with opposition members in Zimbabwe before deciding whether this offer is genuine or cosmetic." Prof Paul Wilkinson, an international relations expert from St Andrews University, said such a deal would be "extraordinary" if it happened. But to be successful, he said, the move would need wider support, preferably from Mr Mugabe himself, or at least senior ministers and the ruling Zanu PF party machine.
Top
From The Guardian (UK), 13 January
World Cup fears grow as mayor is arrested
Paul Kelso and Andrew Meldrum in Harare
England's controversial World Cup match in Zimbabwe was thrown into further doubt at the weekend when the mayor of Harare and 22 city officials were arrested and allegedly beaten by police. Elias Mudzuri, a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was arrested on Saturday afternoon as he was to speak to 500 residents about water supply problems in the capital. The arrest is significant because Mudzuri was one of the politicians consulted by an ICC delegation that visited Zimbabwe in November and declared the matches could go ahead. He has been refused access to his lawyer and family, despite having a blood pressure condition that requires medication. The deputy mayor and 21 other municipal officials were also arrested. Despite the MDC's opposition to the tournament Mudzuri and his counterpart in Bulawayo said the matches would be a boon to their cities. He had, however, called for supporters to wear black armbands in protest at the policies of Robert Mugabe. Tim Lamb, the ECB's chief executive, made much of Mudzuri's apparent endorsement when opposition to the matches gathered momentum.
Gabriel Chaibva, an MDC MP, said the security situation in Harare has deteriorated amid anger at what most see as a politically motivated intervention. "This is an outrageous act which shows the Mugabe government will go to any lengths to destroy and crush the legal opposition. The city's population is furious and the security situation has seriously deteriorated," Chaibva said. "Police manhandled mayor Mudzuri, shoving him and tearing his shirt, threatening to kill him before they bundled him away to jail." Food, fuel and water are all scarce in Zimbabwe. The World Food Programme has said five million people face famine as a result of Mugabe's land reform policies. Police used the draconian Public Order and Security Act which allows them to break up any gathering of more than three people that does not have prior approval to make the arrests. They are the latest in a series of actions by the Mugabe regime against officials representing the opposition party, which was elected in Harare early this year. The government has refused to release funds to the city government and has carried out a vicious propaganda campaign against the mayor. A demonstration against the government's actions last week was brusquely broken up by police. Despite the arrests Zimbabwe's World Cup general manager Dave Everington was unconcerned: "I wouldn't say there is a tense atmosphere here at all," he said. "I believe we have one or two problems and one or two shortages, but general security is certainly not a problem."
The ECB's management board will meet tomorrow to decide whether England will tour. Yesterday Lamb implied that only a deterioration in the security situation would prevent them going. "The neatest solution to all of this, ironically, was if the security situation were to deteriorate and the ICC were to revisit its decision," he said. "I do understand and respect the view of those who feel we shouldn't be playing cricket in a country where there is total political and economical turmoil - but at the same time people have to understand we have signed legally binding contracts to play in this competition. We don't believe that cancelling one cricket match will help to put food into people's stomachs and fuel into people's cars." Meanwhile David Graveney is to stand down from his post as the chief executive of the Professional Cricketers' Association. Graveney, who is also England's chairman of selectors, has been under pressure since he broke ranks with the ECB and said that England should not travel to Zimbabwe. The charge of hypocrisy was levelled - he was a member of Mike Gatting's rebel tour to South Africa - and there has been some unease at the one man holding two such influential positions.
Top
From BBC News, 12 January
Harare mayor to face charges
The opposition mayor of Zimbabwe's capital Harare, who was arrested on Saturday for holding a political rally without permission, will face court charges this week, police say. The mayor, Elias Mudzuri, will remain in custody until his court appearance on Monday or Tuesday, according to the authorities. Under Zimbabwe's Public Order and Security Act, police clearance must be obtained for all political gatherings. Mr Mudzuri is also expected to be charged with assault - police say he bit an officer's finger during his arrest. Opposition leaders, however, contend Mr Mudzuri was "manhandled" by police. They are now trying to secure the release of the mayor and 20 supporters who were detained at the same time as him. The main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), denies that Saturday's gathering was political. It says the meeting was called to discuss civic matters like waste collection problems. Mr Mudzuri was elected mayor last March. He has been involved in a power struggle with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF government ever since. The government has accused the mayor of incompetence, corruption and insubordination. On Wednesday, four opposition supporters were arrested for demonstrating against moves by President Mugabe's administration to appoint governors to run the opposition-held cities of Harare and Bulawayo. The government says the new governors will not interfere with the mayors, but the MDC sees the move as a drive against its growing power.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 12 January
Welcome aboard 2003
Over the top by Brian Latham
Citizens of a troubled central African country have moved into the New Year surrounded by uncertainty and confusion. Amid government reports suggesting that there is either no fuel or lots available - or that saboteurs are hoarding all the fuel, most residents spent the festive season sitting miserably in their motorcars showing no visible signs of festivity. To add to the confusion, the troubled central African nation's middle classes were divided between those who wanted foreigners to play cricket in their country and those who didn't. The debate became so heated that Zany Party spin doctors were able to exploit the issue by suggesting that an Australian tourist, murdered in a well-known if largely empty tourist resort, was killed by enemies of the state who hoped the murder would derail international cricket matches scheduled in the troubled central African country. No one suggested a more sensible and prosaic reason for the murder, or considered the possibility that he may have been robbed and killed. Alternatively, he may have been involved in a money changing deal that went sour, or he may simply have been murdered for being an Australian.
Still, debate raged fiercely when a clearly troubled cricket official announced that foreign cricketers would be safely transported from their luxury hotels to sporting venues in the troubled central African nation's troubled cities. It has also been announced that fuel and food would be guaranteed for the visiting cricketers. Residents of the troubled nation pondered the morality of guaranteeing fuel and food to a handful of pampered and overpaid posers while 11 million locals were starving to death in fuel queues. Meanwhile frantic cricket officials said the matches should go ahead as planned because what the troubled central African country needed more than anything else was a little light hearted entertainment in these troubled times. Most people interviewed by Over The Top said they got all the entertainment and humour they needed from watching the antics of the Zany Party. In fact, they said, they wished the entertainment would stop for a while because; well, frankly, three years of non-stop absurdity on the state-owned airwaves was a bit much.
While the debate raged on, freedom-loving citizens of the troubled central African nation vowed to hold protests should the matches take place. It was unclear whether some of them were demonstrating at the thought of foreigners lending credibility to the Zany government or whether they were simply offended by the prospect of watching 22 lunatics slapping a small leather ball around a green field for hours on end. It seemed strange, some said, that so many white adherents of this peculiar game should be willing to play sport at a venue that just recently displayed graffiti on its walls exhorting death to all honkies - stranger still that local and deeply troubled whites should be willing to set foot in the place. Given that it took so long for the graffiti to be removed, the would-be protesters said, it seemed possible that the management at the club in question supported the sentiments written so boldly on their walls. It has also been pointed out that with no guarantees being made for the safety of spectators, let alone the availability of fuel or even food, it was unlikely that cricket enthusiasts would flock to the troubled central African country for a few weeks of sunshine. Sunshine is all very well, but it doesn't put petrol in the tank or food on the table.
Top
From News24 (SA), 12 January
Aussie-tourist's attacker arrested
Harare - Police in Zimbabwe have arrested a man in connection with the murder last week of an Australian tourist in the resort town of Victoria Falls, the state-controlled Sunday Mail reported. Twenty-seven-year-old Peter Stafford was stabbed to death last Saturday in an attack government officials said could have been an attempt to tarnish Zimbabwe's reputation ahead of the cricket World Cup. The Sunday Mail said the suspect was a resident of Victoria Falls and was found with some property belonging to the tourist. Detectives believe there was more than one attacker. Contradicting earlier suggestions, the paper quoted police chief Augustine Chihuri as saying the murder "has nothing to do with politics." "It is a straightforward criminal act by a gang we suspect wanted to rob the tourist of property," Chihuri told the paper. Zimbabwe is due to host six of the 54 World Cup cricket matches, and the attack heightened fears over the security of visitors to the southern African country.
Top
From The Guardian (UK), 14 January
Zimbabwe denies plot to replace Mugabe
Opposition claims power-brokers made approach
Andrew Meldrum in Harare
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party yesterday scrambled to deny reports that two leading officials approached opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai with a plan for President Robert Mugabe to step down. "This is a wicked, malicious and mischievous attempt to bring the British-sponsored MDC [the Movement for Democratic Change, Zimbabwe's opposition party] to power by unconstitutional means," said Zanu PF's secretary for information Nathan Shamuyarira on state radio. But Mr Tsvangirai insisted last night that the "exit plan" for Mr Mugabe to leave office before his term expires in 2008 was proposed to him by a mediator acting for two top party officials - parliament's Speaker, Emmerson Mnangagwa and General Vitalis Zvinavashe, chief of staff of the armed forces. "They asked for the cooperation of the MDC in a transitional period after Mugabe leaves power," said Mr Tsvangirai. "That initial effort has collapsed, but I am sure there will be more such initiatives. Everyone is desperate to find a solution to Zimbabwe's crisis." He said that the solution will come when the two parties, Zanu PF and the MDC, sit down at a table and negotiate over Zimbabwe's return to democracy. Mr Tsvangirai is due to stand trial on February 3 for allegedly plotting to have Mr Mugabe assassinated by a Canadian consultancy firm.
State radio, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), also carried a denial by Gen Zvinavashe who dismissed the report of his involvement in the plan as, "the work of enemies bent on destroying the country". The radio news also stated that Mr Mnangagwa, the other alleged co-conspirator, had "no knowledge" of the plan. The denials may have backfired, as they served to increase speculation in Zimbabwe about how much longer the 78 year-old president can continue in power. "Even the ZBC is talking about Mugabe stepping down from power," said one motorist who was waiting in a one-kilo metre queue for petrol. "Of course he must step down when this country has no fuel, no mealie meal and no rule of law." South Africa also denied involvement in any attempt to replace Mr Mugabe with a coalition government pending fresh elections. "South Africa is neither aware of nor party to the reported deal," said foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa. He was not prepared to comment on whether South Africa would support such an arrangement. The government in Pretoria had been involved in an effort to get Zanu PF and the MDC to negotiate last year after Mr Mugabe's disputed re-election in March. But the effort quickly broke down.
The new attempt at negotiation is seen as significant because it came from two of the highest ranking members of Mr Mugabe's party. It seems likely that Mr Mugabe did not know of their effort to open talks with Mr Tsvangirai. "This was clearly an attempt to test the waters for a negotiated end to Mugabe's rule," said Brian Raftopoulos, chairman of the Zimbabwe Crisis Committee. "This time it may not have succeeded but the pressure is increasing for such negotiations, both internally and internationally. This negotiating could carry on for the rest of the year." Mr Mugabe himself has not issued any comment on the reports. He is currently on an extended holiday in Thailand that has raised criticism from average Zimbabweans, who say he should not be out spending money when the country is grappling with economic problems. The minister of information Jonathan Moyo was also busy denying South African press reports that he had gone on a shopping spree while on holiday in Johannesburg. The reports also stated that police were called to Mr Moyo's hotel because he was allegedly beating his wife. Mr Moyo blamed "British intelligence".
|
