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Archived News
14th October 2003
MDC Weekly Briefing note
Send a protest against arrest of ZCTU people
Over 200 unionists arested in Zimbabwe
MDC Publicity Officer put on trial
NZ confirms Mugabe envoy plot
Mugabe's would-be successor waits in wings
SADC urged to take action on press freedom
Key municipal services collapsing as economic crisis bites
Coping
200 trade unionists held
Ottawa asked to back indictment of Mugabe
Canadians want to charge Mugabe with genocide
Harare swaps cheques as crisis deepens
Rising costs of medical drugs impacts on poor
Norway ups aid to developing countries, but cuts Zimbabwe
Tourists will stay away until Mugabe goes
Diplomat in spat with Zim settlers
Police release Zimbabwe unionists after 'guilt fines' paid
SA battles itself over Zim
Zimbabwe faces food crunch as imports lag
Kansteiner lashes Mugabe over rights
T-shirt gets Zim journo into trouble
Waiting for death
Zimbabwe mob holds Mbeki envoy hostage
Mugabe seeks help from Annan on land
Sorry, still no cash!
Cloud cuckoo land in Zimbabwe
Lesson from Zimbabwe
Mbeki won't talk to archbishop about Zimbabwe crisis
Leaders are appeasing Mugabe
RBZ extends bearer’s cheques duration
Mr Burial Cheques
Succession team leaves divisions in wake
Mavhaire vies for presidency
Summit cancelled after Britain bans Mugabe henchmen
Maize demand threatens SA reserves
Daily News owner to fight 'to the last drop'
Zimbabwe not ready for Nepad's peer review
The melt down of liberty continues unabated
Zimbabwe opposition spokesman charged over protest
McKinnon urges Zimbabwean reconciliation
Mugabe approves change to tough Zimbabwe media law
The state's business is booming
Bandits don't make businessmen
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From The Australian, 8 October
NZ confirms Mugabe envoy plot
By John Kerin
New Zealand has confirmed that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has hatched an ambitious plot to unseat Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon over his role in the rogue State's continuing suspension. But New Zealand's Foreign Minister Phil Goff said yesterday there was no sign of support from other Commonwealth nations to support the ousting of the former New Zealand foreign minister. Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer also has indicated he would support Mr McKinnon against any Zimbabwe-inspired plot. The confirmation follows a report in London's The Times newspaper that suggested Mr Mugabe was seeking the support of African nations to ensure Mr McKinnon did not win a second four-year term when the 54-nation Commonwealth group meets in Abuja, Nigeria, in December. Mr Mugabe wants an Asian candidate to replace him. Mr Mugabe is angry at Mr McKinnon's insistence that Zimbabwe remain suspended from the Commonwealth until the political and humanitarian situation in the country improves. Mr McKinnon intervened after a Commonwealth troika of Prime Minister John Howard, South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was unable to agree whether to continue Zimbabwe's suspension when it was reviewed in March. Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said yesterday he supported Australian government efforts to retain Mr McKinnon.
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From The Star (SA), 8 October
Mugabe's would-be successor waits in wings
By Basildon Peta
The race to succeed President Robert Mugabe is gathering momentum, with Zimbabwe's military supremo, General Vitalis Zvinavashe, set to quit his post in two months' time. He will possibly line himself up to succeed Mugabe if the 79-year-old leader decides to retire. Politicians in Zimbabwe's largest political province, Masvingo, from where Zvinavashe hails, say that although he is being coy about his plans, his main wish is to fill the void created by the recent death of vice-president Simon Muzenda. Muzenda also hailed from Masvingo, and was the kingmaker in the province. By taking over Muzenda's role, Zvinavashe sees himself being able to achieve greater things - even having a go at the presidency, Masvingo politicians believe. Zvinavashe, who has been head of both the Zimbabwe National Army and the air force, unsettled Zimbabwe's body politics earlier this year when he declared that Zimbabwe was in crisis and politicians needed to do something urgently to reverse the slide. His statements fuelled speculation that the army might be contemplating a takeover. Zvinavashe, who rarely gives interviews, has not publicly made his plans known after quitting the army. Political analyst Lovemore Madhuku said Zvinavashe might see his position in the army as a springboard for an effective role in politics.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 7 October
SADC urged to take action on press freedom
Gaberone - The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been urged to take action on threats to press freedom in the region, particularly in Zimbabwe. At a meeting with the SADC secretariat in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, a Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) delegation raised concerns that the mandatory licensing of journalists could be open to abuse by governments. A particular source of unease was Zimbabwe's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the recent shutting down of the country's only independent daily newspaper, The Daily News. "These laws will infringe on the freedom of movement of all SADC journalists, as articulated in the SADC protocol on information, sports and culture," said Thomas Deve, Misa board member and former online editor of The Daily News. "[The SADC protocol] calls for regional governments to harmonise their legislation on media, in pursuit of freedom of movement and access to information," he noted.
The three-day visit to Botswana, which ended at the weekend, is part of a regional campaign, titled SADC Journalists Under Fire: Speak Out for Free and Open Media Targeting Violations against Journalists in the SADC Region. "The major problem is the fact that under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, for you to practise as a journalist you have to be licensed. What is also worrying for journalists is that some government departments do not recognise the accreditation card," said Miriam Madziwa, the Bulawayo-based editor of Zimbabwean newspaper The Tribune. "The question becomes: why should we register if the accreditation card is not recognised by government departments?" Madziwa said. During local government elections at the end of August, accredited journalists allegedly could not get access to polling stations, or information from officials, unless they had accreditation specifically allowing them to cover the elections.
While it has been argued that Zimbabwe's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act is meant to regulate the operations of the media and allow the free flow of information, the Misa delegation maintains that the Act is undemocratic, and places a number of onerous restrictions on the information that journalists, civil society and the public can access and report on. Severe punitive measures that could be taken in the event of any crime being committed by journalists are also imposed by the Act. Records and other information relating to politics and other issues of national governance are strictly out of bounds, Misa said. The Act does not confer the right to information on any person that is not a citizen, body corporate or mass media service, and not registered in Zimbabwe in terms of this Act or the Broadcasting Services Act.
"Zimbabwe should be a rallying call for countries in the region, because governments in the region undertook to expand and increase the number of players in the media industry," said Jacob Mafume, a Misa legal consultant. "The situation in Zimbabwe is an indicator of how governments are moving, and the way they will implement SADC agreements. In Zimbabwe the government is trying to restrict media diversity and plurality," he charged. Misa has just completed an audit of the status of the media in the region, with specific emphasis on Zimbabwe, as a basis from which to lobby for a more favourable media climate in Southern Africa. The Misa delegation pointed out that the African Commission on Human and People's Rights has adopted a Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa. Principle VIII states that "any registration system for the print media shall not impose substantive restrictions on the right to freedom of expression".
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From IRIN (UN), 7 October
Key municipal services collapsing as economic crisis bites
Harare - Three children on their way from school splash dirty water flowing from a burst sewer pipe at each other, while further down the road a man holds his nose as he passes a pool of liquid human waste accumulating in a pothole. The sewer pipe burst two weeks ago, but nothing has been done - in spite of repeated visits to the Harare City Council's health department by residents of the high-density suburb of Warren Park with requests to mend the pipe. The sight of sewage flowing down the streets and accumulating in drainage pipes is common, not only in Warren Park, but also in other suburbs. The problem used to be confined to high-density areas due to overcrowding, but affluent low-density suburbs are now also being affected. Residents have largely blamed the situation on the ongoing squabble between the ministry of local government and national housing, and the municipal council, which is dominated by the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Mike Davis, the chairman of the Combined Harare Residents' Association (CHRA) said the standoff between the council and the ministry had adversely affected the delivery of essential services. "The government is interfering too much in the affairs of the council, and our feeling is that the local government ministry wants ratepayers to believe that the municipality is not capable of delivering. Too much attention is now being focused on the disturbances occurring due to the interference, and it is unfortunate that the residents are suffering most," Davis told IRIN. The suspension of Harare mayor Elias Mudzuri had turned the city council into a political battleground, Davis added. Mudzuri, elected mayor on an MDC ticket last year, was suspended in April by the local government minister, Ignatius Chombo, on charges of incompetence and corruption. Since his suspension the council has been run by another MDC member, Mudzuri's deputy and currently acting mayor, Sekai Makwavarara, pending the finalisation of Mudzuri's case.
Makwavarara was seen by most of the councillors as being too sympathetic to the ruling Zanu PF, and her house was recently stoned by suspected MDC supporters. "It is obvious that Makwavarara cannot exert herself fully to running the affairs of the council. The current tension makes her feel vulnerable, and makes her unable to adequately co-ordinate activities of the municipality," said Davis. He alleged that the government was deliberately postponing Mudzuri's case as a way of perpetuating the problems at Town House, where the municipal offices are located. "The interference is so bad that the council cannot fire bad workers, for as long as they belong to the ruling party. That obviously compromises professionalism, hence the failure to deliver," added Davis. Earlier this year Chombo established a five-member committee that he said should help in the running of the affairs at Town House. Mudzuri rejected the committee, charging that it was Chombo's way of trying to frustrate him.
Residents remarked that since the MDC council took over from a government-imposed commission last year, standards in the city had been steadily falling. Besides the sewage problem, householders were becoming used to mounds of garbage accumulating on the roadsides because refuse collectors were failing to cope - it now took more than a month before garbage collectors visited their area. Juliet Moyo of Kambuzuma suburb said residents were resorting to dumping their garbage on the streets because they did not have a choice. "Refuse collectors used to clear rubbish on a daily basis. As time went on, they cut their visits to three times a week, but now we have to go for more than a month without getting the services. This is despite the fact that we are always paying our rates on time," she told IRIN. She expressed the fear that children who played at the dumps risked contracting diseases as the rubbish mounds were infested with rats and flies.
The city council last year engaged black-owned companies to collect refuse but they were not adequately performing the task, mainly due to the shortage of spare parts needed for the maintenance of their trucks. Most of the council fleet that would normally be allocated to garbage clearance is also not operating because the municipality does not have enough money for parts and fuel. Davis said collapsing infrastructure was another major problem - a number of suburbs have gone without water for more than three weeks because the water reticulation and pumping system could not cope. Davis said CHRA had tried in vain to lobby the government on behalf of the embattled city council to obtain increased borrowing powers. The council was granted limited borrowing powers, but the money they could access was said to be far less than required. "The government seems averse to increasing council's borrowing powers. Right now, we are made to understand that council can only access Z$200 million, but common sense will tell you that the municipality needs billions of dollars in order to cope," said Davis. Observers have questioned why the commission that previously ran the city was accorded full borrowing powers, yet the current municipality was being denied these facilities. Davis said full borrowing powers should be restored urgently if service delivery was to improve.
Acting mayor Makwavarara admitted that inflation, which has shot beyond 400 percent, was making it difficult to properly maintain the city's infrastructure. She said the skyrocketing prices of equipment needed to keep the city running was playing havoc with finances. As a result, the council had been forced to suspend some of its main projects, such as the expansion of residential estates and the upgrading of sewage treatment works. The lack of sufficient funding has affected not only the quantity of water being supplied to consumers, but also its quality. Makwavarara indicated that cost of water purification had risen fifteen-fold, and the department of works was finding it difficult to access foreign currency to purchase and import purifying chemicals. The frequent cuts in water supplies were adversely affecting the performance of industry.
Shakespeare Maya, the proprietor of a steel manufacturing company, said his plant had been without water for three weeks. The company consumed more than 40 000 litres of water in its industrial cooling process and had to hire people to fetch water from a nearby river, but this was far from enough. "We are operating at less than 20 percent of our capacity. Because of the water problem, we are failing to meet demand. We have big orders but cannot honour them, and that is bad for business. If the situation continues like that, we will be forced to downsize operations," Maya told IRIN. He said there was no accountability in the way the council and the local government were treating the water shortage problem. He urged residents to mobilise themselves and lobby government. However, Davis said it was difficult to get residents to protest against the poor services they were receiving. "It has proved to be difficult to mobilise people. All the time we try to hold a meeting, we are arrested under the Public Order and Security Act. People are now afraid to gather to discuss their problems because of the draconian law," said Davis. The only option left was to organise residents to boycott paying rates, but this was difficult because it would mean the suspension of many key services.
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Comment from ZWNEWS, 8 October
Coping
By Michael Hartnack
Getting by each day in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe means learning to cope in a strange country. It is a land where people have lost all faith in financial institutions, where ordinary citizens are constantly exposed to arrest while the powerful may commit grand larceny, where shortages are a way of life, and where a new valuable skill is making a tank of fuel last three weeks. It can be done. It is just another of the coping mechanisms for one daily problem after another and carrying on as if all these hardships were natural everyday events.
As Zimbabweans, we just accept things, as soldiers do at a war front, however weird they seem to people arriving for the first time - as we accept the continual deaths of our workmates and friends from AIDS, and the continual emigration. Somehow or other children are got to school, despite the transport crisis. At 5 a.m. men may be seen cycling or walking to work in far-off industrial sites. A shop assistant said to me recently that his children's generation will grow up hardly knowing the taste of meat - many if not most parents can only afford vegetables. Previous generations took for granted this was a country where protein was as plentiful as sunshine, and they would have some form of beef stew twice a day - lunch and supper.
Ideally, a home needs an electric hot plate, a gas burner and a wood/charcoal braai so there is always a means of cooking whatever source of domestic energy suddenly gets cut off. When it was possible to buy fresh milk my family saved the 2 litre containers, washed them out, and filled them with water, so week-long dry taps would not leave us without means of flushing and washing (while we drank the bathroom geysers). Preparing for a hoped-for rainy season, we had a painter repair our rusting gates and gutters and saved a great deal by purchasing the materials in January, since when they have more than quadrupled in price. The painter was, however, extremely unhappy to be paid by cheque. Like most ordinary people, he no longer believes in the financial institutions and the system of exchange on which national economies are founded. Many families survive only on remittances received from the three million expatriates, which they change on the black market at seven times the official rate. We are fast coming to the point where some underground form of currency will be invented - match boxes or cowrie shells, or perhaps bottles of liquor.
We resign ourselves to carrying risks without insurance. Premiums are sky-high and any paper value put on possessions will be obsolete within weeks, because inflation tops 426 percent on the most conservative estimate. Many routine things expose citizens to arrest and prosecution - such as buying bread and other staples on the black market, even though there is no alternative. It is an offence, for example, to carry petrol in a container but with most trade taking place "under the counter", and vehicles constantly running on empty, it is impossible to avoid doing so. Journalists from The Daily News, the independent newspaper silenced in September by the regime, were charged last week for merely for carrying on their profession. At the same time the industrious, ordinary citizen has no redress for wrongs which an outsider would think were a punishable crime. Yet people with influence may commit grand larceny, assault, demanding money with menaces, robbery, and even murder, and police say, "It is a political matter. There are sensitive (i.e. politically powerful) personalities involved. We cannot interfere."
Zimbabweans have factored this and much else into their thinking, such as the danger of getting the more virulent forms of skin cancer from the tropical sun, or malaria. It goes with the new style of economy motoring: getting the engine revolutions gently up to 1500 then keeping steadily at that, driving at 50-60 kph at the side of the road like the proverbial old lady in a 1950 Morris Minor. It makes a tankful of petrol last three weeks. The Mercedes Benzes roar past on the crown of the road while the commuter minibuses overtake inside, on the verge. A citizen may be stopped at any time by persons in uniform, subjected to a search and told there is a fee for this "service" - unfortunately there is no receipt book, so he must just hand over the money. Anything he is carrying, from a copy of an "unpatriotic" newspaper to sugar and cooking oil, may be confiscated. The citizen either gives it up or submits to being detained indefinitely. In an age of sky-scrapers and dazzling technology, ploughing with oxen no longer seems archaic, but a "sensible application of intermediate technology". Rich and poor are wider apart than before. It is a narrow little society, and a hazardous one, but many of us believe it is still possible to rescue it. In the final analysis, we belong here. It's home.
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From News24 (SA), 8 October
200 trade unionists held
Harare - At least 200 trade union activists were arrested on Wednesday for participating in protests against soaring prices and high taxes in the latest crackdown on dissent in the troubled southern African country. Police blamed white factory owners for supporting the protests called for by the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions, the country's 100 000 member umbrella body of trade organisations. In the capital Harare, leaders of the ZCTU were arrested along with 49 supporters marching through the downtown area. Scores of riot police in combat fatigues patrolled the capital wielding batons, tear gas canisters and riot guns and were seen loading those arrested onto trucks. Elsewhere in the country, at least 41 trade unionists were arrested in Zimbabwe's second largest city of Bulawayo, and 100 were arrested in the eastern border city of Mutare. Several others were arrested in the towns of Chinhoyi, Gweru and Masvingo, said John Mawire, a lawyer for the ZCTU.
Those arrested had violated the sweeping Public Order and Security Act, said police Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena. Mawire said he expected they would be held in police cells overnight and brought to court on Thursday. Under the Public Order and Security Act, all public gatherings must be approved in advance by authorities, and Bvudzijena said the trade union did not seek permission for the march. The charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in jail under the new security laws, which critics say are the latest example of President Robert Mugabe's efforts to hold onto power by creating a police state. Meanwhile, Bvudzijena blamed some white factory owners for facilitating the protest action. "Investigations have revealed some white factory owners have closed their work places and urged their employees to go and demonstrate," he told state radio. One trade unionist was injured when riot police suppressed a protest in Gweru, said Mlamleli Sibanda, a union spokesperson. The extent of the protester's injury was not immediately known.
In Harare, despite the trade union's call for workers to take to the streets to protest the country's crumbling economy, only several dozen turned out, all of whom were promptly arrested. In June, opposition-led street protests were crushed before they started by a massive show of military and police force. "There will come a time when people have to react," ZTCU President Lovemore Matombo said, speaking from his cellphone while being arrested. "People are saying enough is enough." The opposition-alligned trade unions blame Mugabe for plunging the economy into its worst crisis, with 70% unemployment and acute shortages of food, gasoline and medicine. A state program to seize thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks has crippled the agriculture-based economy in the past three years. Inflation has soared to 420%. Mugabe's government has in recent years stepped up its crackdown on the opposition. Investment and foreign aid have dried up in protest of human rights abuses and last year's tainted presidential elections. The opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has been charged with treason, and last month the country's only independent daily newspaper, The Daily News, was shut down by the government.
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From The Globe and Mail (Canada), 8 October
Ottawa asked to back indictment of Mugabe
By Oliver Moore
The federal government was asked Wednesday to approve a genocide indictment against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, a case that could be the first real test of Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. A team of lawyers has used the act to craft a wide-ranging indictment that accuses Mr. Mugabe of committing genocide through the deprivation of food. But it will come into force only if Justice Minister Martin Cauchon approves it. Alliance MP Keith Martin, who has made several trips to Zimbabwe among 20 to Africa, said that he is optimistic that the federal government will give the indictment the legal force it needs, pointing to a recent statement by Foreign Minister Bill Graham that such an indictment is "a option to consider." "In order for it to work, the Minister of Justice has to simply say that this indictment, or one like it, will be used against Mr. Mugabe if he sets foot in Canada or if he's extradited to Canada," Mr. Martin told globeandmail.com, adding: "We'll see whether or not our foreign policy has some muscle or whether its just a lot of hot air. We've given the government the path, the question is whether they choose to take it or not."
Mr. Martin said that the former guerrilla leader, who took power in 1980, has a vicious track record dating back through most of his long rule. The indictment cites "not only the use of food as a weapon, but the abduction of children into the paramilitary training programs, use of children to commit atrocities, including torture, rape and murder, the use of rape as a tool of terror, gang rape. The murder of civilians." "Here you have one leader, one regime, committing genocide in his own country," he said. "If we don't do anything, a lot of people are going to die ... If we don't do something about Zimbabwe, then our law is just a piece of paper." Zimbabwe teetered to the point of collapse after Mr. Mugabe dispatched his youth brigades to take over white farms in the name of decolonization and black emancipation. Mr. Mugabe appeared blind to the widespread problems this caused, even as the economy crashed and the nation had to import food. He insists that external opponents are racists and that internal opponents are the puppets left over from British imperialism. His actions have split the Commonwealth and led to sanctions by the United States and the European Union. Mr. Martin said Wednesday that the point of the indictment is to hamper Mr. Mugabe's ability to move internationally, and hopefully to break the logjam the issue has caused at the Commonwealth. "The hope is that other countries will do the same thing so he becomes boxed in," he said. "So if he wants to go on his shopping sprees to Paris or London, they will have a similar indictment and that they will serve it to him if he winds up on their shores. On the other hand, they could arrest him and deport him if they chose to do, along the lines of what happened to Pinochet."
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From SAPA, 9 October
Canadians want to charge Mugabe with genocide
Ottawa - Senior members of Canada's three largest parliamentary parties on Wednesday called on the Canadian government to indict Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Senior members of the governing Liberal Party, the right-wing populist Canadian Alliance and the regional, left-of-centre Bloc Quebecois said they were calling on Ottawa to issue a formal indictment against Mugabe. At a joint press conference, Keith Martin, of the Canadian Alliance, said that if the government agreed to the three parties' demands, Mugabe could face arrest and trial if he ever stepped foot on Canadian soil or if he visited any other country with which Canada has extradition agreements. In addition, said Irwin Cotler of Canada's governing Liberal Party, Zimbabwe should be "permanently suspended from the Commonwealth," an association linking Britain with more than 50 former colonies. Martin said there was irrefutable evidence that "children as young as 10 are forced to take part in torture and gang rape" by Mugabe's regime. Martin claimed that Mugabe had been "using rape as a tool" to silence any opposition to regime.
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From Business Day (SA), 9 October
Harare swaps cheques as crisis deepens
Harare Correspondent
The Zimbabwean government has ordered the withdrawal of its travellers' cheques, barely two months after they were introduced to alleviate the country's cash shortage. The travellers' cheques, released into the banking system amid a lot of political hype by authorities, have been removed in favour of the easily convertible bearer's cheques that are now widely in circulation. A senior central bank official said yesterday the government had ordered its printing firm, Fidelity Printers, to stop producing travellers' cheques due to "their questionable legal tender". The move points out the economic policy confusion and overall mismanagement of President Robert Mugabe's regime. His government has never adopted a suitable economic policies since it came into power 23 three years ago. Zimbabwe has been battling a severe cash shortage for several months. The crisis was caused by hyperinflation the rate is currently 426,6% and the government's failure to anticipate the subsequent rise in demand for bank notes. The government released new Z$1000 bank notes last week, hard on the heels of the introduction of redesigned Z$500 notes two weeks ago. It pumped Z$2,5bn in Z$1000 notes into the banking system and will continue to introduce the same amount every day until December to improve money supply. A similar amount in Z$500 notes would be released into the financial system every day for the next three months, the government has said. The cash shortage in Zimbabwe reflects the broader economic crisis that the country finds itself mired in. Zimbabwe's growing list of shortages includes fuel, power, food and basic commodities, as well as foreign currency.
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From IRIN (UN) 7 October
Rising costs of medical drugs impacts on poor
Bulawayo - The cost of health care in Zimbabwe finally went beyond the reach of most people this month when medical drug suppliers and pharmacies hiked prices by more than 1,000 percent, citing an increase by the same margin in import costs. Health care specialists told IRIN the new prices were a fresh blow to access to health care by ordinary citizens, coming just two weeks after the country's private medical practitioners increased their fees by 80 percent. Zimbabwe's public health sector has been hard-hit by a wide range of problems, including drug and medicine shortages, the exodus of skilled medical personnel and the high cost of medical care. A recent survey of pharmacies in Bulawayo, the country's second city, revealed that paracetemol went up from Z$110 in August, to Z$1,100 this month, while a 500 ml bottle of children's cough mixture now costs Z$6,000, up from Z$450 last month. "At this rate, no ordinary Zimbabwean worker can afford to buy drugs at these prices. But as drug retailers we have no choice but to pass the increases on to patients, because they are imposed on us by drug wholesalers. Our increases are in fact the ripple effects of the high drug importation costs, which suppliers have always complained about," said a manager at one of the city's major pharmacy chains.
The secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Medical Wholesalers Association (ZMWA), Isaiah Shoniwa, was recently quoted by local media as saying price increases in the drug sector were imminent because importation costs had gone up by 1,000 percent. "We find the cost of importing drugs highly prohibitive. In fact, most of us are not sure if we will remain in business because of the high costs involved," Shoniwa said. Zimbabwe imports most of its medication requirements and the shortage of foreign currency in the mainstream economy has forced suppliers to source foreign currency in the parallel market - hence the new prices. ZMWA has also dismissed assertions that locally manufactured drugs should cost much less, arguing that 98 percent of the raw materials have to be imported. The association said the inability of the industry to access foreign currency at bank rates was making production increasingly expensive. In the interests of public health, government has in the past threatened to extend price controls to the medical services sector, to curb what it called "arbitrary prices increases". Shoniwa said the introduction of price controls in the sector would force wholesalers to stop importing and deal a final blow to the ailing public health sector. Efforts to obtain comment from Health Minister David Parirenyat were fruitless. Blessing Chebundo, the chairman of the parliamentary portfolio on public health, was also not available.
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From The Cape Times (SA), 9 October
Norway ups aid to developing countries, but cuts Zimbabwe
Norway will increase aid for developing countries to 0.94% of its gross national income (GNI) next year. But it has dropped Zimbabwe from its list of recipients because of deterioration in governance there. However it has elevated Madagascar, Kenya and Afghanistan to the status of key aid recipients because of positive developments in those countries. Norway's foreign ministry announced yesterday it was increasing its worldwide 2004 development assistance budget from 0.93% to 0.94% of GNI, to a new total of about R15 billion. This was the next step in a plan to achieve a development assistance budget of 1% of GNI. Norway's development aid is already among the highest in the world, as a proportion of GNI.The Norwegians also announced that they were changing their list of key development partners.Though Norway had already stopped giving development aid to Zimbabwe, removing it from the list of key development partners confirms this decision indefinitely.
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Comment from Business Day (SA), 6 October
Tourists will stay away until Mugabe goes
Dianna Games
The dulcet tones of Zimbabwe's Ruvhuvhuto Sisters were heard at several glittering banquets in SA last month, inviting visitors to "Come to Victoria Falls Down In Zimbabwe". The musical fare heralded the Zimbabwe government's new initiative to persuade South Africans and, later, the rest of the world to return to the country's tourist hotspots. The campaign is spearheaded by Zimbabwe's ever-creative information minister, Jonathan Moyo, who, ironically, has played no small part in tarnishing Zimbabwe's image abroad, leading to the decline in tourist arrivals. The problem is not the merit of Victoria Falls as a tourism drawcard. Over the past three years the problem has been, and still is, the erratic and violent actions of a government desperate to hold on to power.
In 1999, tourism was one of the three top foreign currency earners, accounting for 12,4% of Zimbabwe's gross domestic product and 8,5% of employment. Since 2000, this figure has shrunk about 15%. In the first half of last year alone, tourism revenue dropped 44% over the same period in 2001 and tourist arrivals fell 48%. The tourism ministry's various attempts to rescue the industry have been scuttled by President Robert Mugabe's statements and actions. The latest effort is partly premised on the fact that the government believes visitors will return now that the land programme has ended. However, the land programme is far from over. In September alone, the government listed several hundred more farms for seizure. And even as the Zimbabwe campaign team dazzled South African audiences in September, a less attractive scene played itself out in the country's wildlife areas and game parks.
So-called war veterans and youth militia have, in the past few weeks, invaded lodges and game parks. High-ranking government officials (and even an employee of the state broadcaster) have been given land in the renowned Gwayi Valley Conservancy in south-western Zimbabwe which is being used for illegal hunting and carved up into farmland (the area contains several hundred elephants protected under a decree Mugabe signed in 1991). Heritage sites, wildlife, ecotourism and the safari industry are, along with the more obvious attractions such as Victoria Falls, key to the success of tourism. But the fight to preserve wildlife stocks and some ecosystems is steadily being lost. As a result of the land resettlement programme, and of drought and starvation, as much as 80% of wildlife on commercial game farms has been poached. Huge tracts of land on conservancies have been slashed and burned, resulting in widespread deforestation and erosion. Some rare species are being threatened with extinction.
The move to relocate new farmers to these areas is, however, contrary to the government's classification of the land now used as conservancies as being unsuitable for agriculture without extensive irrigation because of they are in drought-prone, low rainfall, semiarid areas. It has been shown statistically that in these areas, only one crop of dry-land maize can be reaped over a period of five years. Cattle farming has also proved to be significantly less lucrative than managing and conserving game for tourism and hunting. Also affected by problems in these areas is Zimbabwe's highly successful Campfire (Communal Areas Management Programme for Resources) programme which shared the commercial gains of hunting and tourism with communities around game areas. There are also concerns about whether, as things stand, Zimbabwe should be part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. The industry braced itself recently when the government said in order to stop the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, all buffalo on private land would be culled. However, sanity has prevailed and the government, private sector and donors are looking at new fencing and relocation initiatives to curb outbreaks.
For all its flaws, the new initiative may force Zimbabwe to take a closer look at what is affecting tourism and to find longterm solutions. But tourists will not return in numbers until Mugabe goes; he is inextricably part of the perception problems. Filling hotels is, however, only part of the solution. More important is acting now against the long-term destruction of future tourist attractions, to preserve them for the future.
Games is Director of Africa @ Work, a company focusing on Africa
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From The Star (SA), 10 October
Diplomat in spat with Zim settlers
By Sapa-AFP and Independent Foreign Service
Harare - South Africa's high commissioner to Zimbabwe has been barricaded into a former white-owned farm by angry black settlers. State television said the incident occurred yesterday when high commissioner Jeremiah Ndou visited a farm in Mashonaland West, northern Zimbabwe, with a television crew from the SA Broadcasting Corporation. Ndou was later allowed to leave the farm, formerly owned by a white South African, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) reported. The ZBC said the settlers on the farm were wary of the South African television crew because "there had been a number of stage-managed situations in Mashonaland West aimed at portraying lawlessness in Zimbabwe". A member of the SABC crew accompanying Ndou refused to comment when contacted yesterday. Ndou was later summoned to Zimbabwe's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "where it was discovered that he had not been given clearance to visit the area", the ZBC said. He was supposed to attend a meeting with the new farmers and the former owner. The government embarked on a fast-track land redistribution programme in 2000, which has seen thousands of white-owned farms seized for redistribution to black farmers.
Meanwhile, police in Harare yesterday released 53 members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions arrested the day before. The unionists, who included ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe, were released from custody after being cautioned and told that the police might press charges later. "It was harassment, just pure harassment," Matombo said. "We always knew that we would suffer intimidation and harassment. There was no substance to their charges." A police spokesperson said the unionists would be charged under the Public Order and Security Act. Matombo said the ZCTU would continue to demonstrate against high taxation and inflation until Zimbabwe's budget was presented next month. "This issue isn't finished," he said. "We will continue with our plans." ZCTU legal adviser Johnlife Mawhire said there had been further arrests in the southern town of Chiredzi and in Chegutu, west of Harare. Matombo said it was not possible to say how many people remained in custody countrywide. "There was a lot of brutality," he said. "In Bulawayo, four of our members were beaten severely. Two were blindfolded by police and taken over 50km out of town before being beaten and left for dead in the bush. One crawled to a main road and they were rescued by passers-by."
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From AFP, 9 October
Police release Zimbabwe unionists after 'guilt fines' paid
Zimbabwe union activists, who were arrested in Harare ahead of an anti-government protest have been released by police, some after paying an "admission of guilt" fine. About 50 people, including Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general Wellington Chibebe, were arrested yesterday to prevent them staging a protest against high taxes, inflation and alleged human rights abuses. ZCTU spokesman Mlameli Sibanda says after detaining the union activists for nearly 12 hours, the police offered them the option of paying an "admission of guilt" fine for conduct likely to disturb peace. He says half the group, including the union leaders, rejected the police proposal, preferring to go to court. The rest paid. "Police then released all of them but asked the 21 who did not pay to report to the police central station today," Mr Mlameli said.
The fate of around 100 union activists reportedly arrested in the eastern border city of Mutare could not be immediately established. ZCTU organised protest marches against spiralling inflation, high taxation and alleged rights abuses, saying it was "perturbed by Government's inaction on the crisis facing Zimbabwe". Prices of basic goods have been rising steadily in Zimbabwe in recent months, with annual inflation officially hitting 426.6 per cent in August.Economists believe true inflation figures are much higher, and could reach 1,000 per cent by the end of the year. The ZCTU is the oldest and largest umbrella body of trade unions in Zimbabwe. Set up in the early 1980s with the blessing of President Robert Mugabe, it gave birth in 1999 to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the country's most credible opposition challenge to Mugabe's Government so far.
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From News24 (SA), 9 October
SA battles itself over Zim
Willem Jordaan
Cape Town - The ANC is at loggerheads with its alliance partners over the handling of the Zimbabwe crisis after more than 40 leaders of the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were arrested. The South African Communist Party (SACP) said president Robert Mugabe should know that there is "widespread anger" over the imprisonment of union leaders, the closure of newspapers, the violent harassment of civilians and disturbing reports over the youth militia's rape of women. The SACP said all Zimbabweans, but "especially those in government", were responsible for creating a climate of tolerance. While the South African government has repeatedly stressed the importance of negotiations between the ruling Zanu PF party and the opposition, the SACP said negotiations could not be limited to agreements behind closed doors. "We know from experience that public pressure and civilian activism are important to bridge political deadlocks," the SACP said in its statement.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) also condemned the Mugabe government's actions and said it was a pity that he (Mugabe) saw trade unions as enemies. Cosatu and the SACP demanded that the union leaders be released immediately. Government spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said civil society had the right to air public opinions about Zimbabwe, but he refused comment on the alliance partners' statements and demands. The ANC said that it took note of the arrest of the union leaders and that they should either be charged or released. Mamoepa added that government did convey the South African Editors Forum's concerns over the closing down of Zimbabwean independent newspapers to that country's government. He did not want to identify the person who conveyed the message. When asked whether there had been any reaction to this message, he responded that the message was merely relayed.
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From Reuters AlertNet, 9 October
Zimbabwe faces food crunch as imports lag
Harare - Zimbabwe is well short of filling its food deficit for the season ending in March, with imports to date still less than a third of what it needs, a U.S.-based food security unit said on Thursday. Aid agencies say 5.5 million people in Zimbabwe will need food aid by year-end. The country, once the breadbasket of southern Africa, has struggled with shortages over the past three years, with agencies pointing to drought and disruption linked President Robert Mugabe's seizure of white-owned commercial farms for landless blacks. In its September food security report the Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) put Zimbabwe's total cereals gap for 2003/04 (April-March) at about 738,464 tonnes, including 671,424 tonnes of staple maize. "Food aid and commercial imports achieved by mid-September 2003 have covered only 28 percent of the 2003/04 marketing year's initial cereal deficit," FEWSNET said. "The 2002/03 harvest is running out for most rural households, and purchased foods are selling at prices that continue to escalate far beyond the reach of the majority of poor households," it added.
Although rainfall prospects appeared good, the 2003/04 cropping season beginning in November could be undermined by shortages of key inputs like fertiliser and seed, with maize output likely to be just 1.2 million tonnes or 66 percent of national needs. The United Nations World Food Programme has appealed for a total of $550 million to stave off widespread starvation in the region - much of it earmarked for Zimbabwe - but said recently that only about 20 percent of the target had been reached. Zimbabwe's food shortages are one aspect of an economic crisis plaguing the country, which has shown itself in acute shortages of fuel and foreign currency, one of the world's highest rates of inflation and unemployment of over 70 percent. Mugabe rejects charges that his land reforms have contributed to the food crisis, or that the programme - which he says is meant to correct land ownership imbalances created by colonialism - has mainly benefited senior government officials.
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From Business Day (SA), 10 October
Kansteiner lashes Mugabe over rights
Gaborone - The closure of Zimbabwe's only independent daily last month showed a lack of democracy and a lack of respect for human rights, US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Walter Kansteiner said in the Botswanan capital yesterday. Kansteiner said ahead of a visit by Washington's top AIDS official to Botswana that the closure of the Daily News was a blow against freedom of expression. "This (the closure) shows lack of democracy and lack of respect for human rights," Kansteiner said, setting the tone for US AIDS co-ordinator Randall Tobias. Last month, police shut the newspaper and its printing presses after the supreme court ruled that the paper, which is fiercely critical of President Robert Mugabe, was operating illegally. Kansteiner said: "Zimbabwe is a sad story. The economy and social side of the country continue to deteriorate. There is hyperinflation and a food crisis and we are seeing an implosion of the economy."
Earlier this month, US President George Bush said in Washington he was "not satisfied" with the effort to promote political reforms in Zimbabwe. But he expressed confidence in President Thabo Mbeki, and called Mbeki his "point man" in the region. Bush urged all Zimbabwe's neighbours to keep up pressure for change. Kansteiner also said the US was trying to get more countries involved in the fight against AIDS in Africa. Tobias, on his first assignment following his appointment by Bush who has pledged $15bn to fight AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean in the next five years was visiting Botswana to see the ravages of the disease firsthand, Kansteiner said. UNAIDS has said that nearly 38% of Botswana's 1,7-million people are infected. About 20-million Africans, most in the sub-Sahara, have died as the result of AIDS in the 22-year documented history of the pandemic.
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From SAPA, 10 October
T-shirt gets Zim journo into trouble
Harare - A senior journalist for Zimbabwe's Financial Gazette, Cyril Zenda, has reported to the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) that he was robbed and attacked by a vigilante group in Harare last week. Zenda told Misa-Zimbabwe that he was spotted by a vigilante group known as Chipangano when he got off a bus at the main terminus in Harare. He said that the group pulled him to a secluded spot and began interrogating him over a message on a Misa-Zimbabwe T-shirt he was wearing. The T-shirt bore the message "Free My Voice: Free the Airwaves". The group demanded to know what the message meant. He told Misa-Zimbabwe that the group demanded to know what the message meant and why he was wearing a T-shirt with an anti-government slogan. Zenda said he lied to the group, telling them that the T-shirt had been a gift from his younger brother. According to Zenda the group then proceeded to tear the T-shirt from his body and burn it. The group also robbed him of Z$5 000 and his cellphone. Chipangano is a vigilante group associated with the ruling party Zanu PF. Despite numerous complaints of harassment from members of the public and opposition members, no concrete action has yet been taken by the police to disband the group, Misa said.
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From IPS, 10 October
Waiting for death
Wilson Johwa
Bulawayo - It's been months since Noma, a cancer patient at Mpilo, the largest government hospital here, has gone for radiotherapy. The process is meant to stop the cancer in her leg from spreading. But five months ago the only machine used by patients in three provinces - Matabeleland, Masvingo and Midlands - broke down and there is no foreign currency to import spares. Mpilo Hospital has also run out chemotherapy drugs. Furthermore, 10 of the 12 radiographers have left for better prospects abroad, which means even if the radiology centre's machines were operational, it would still be crippled by the staff shortage. Now, Noma has to travel to Parirenyatwa Hospital, the biggest referral centre in the country and only other major cancer treatment centre. However, as the superintendent of Mpilo Hospital, Dr Juliet Dube-Ndebele notes, most patients - including Noma - are too poor and cannot afford the high transport fees for the 480 kilometre journey to Harare. Specialist surgeon Chad Tarumbwa says there has been no cancer treatment in the country for the past two years, due to machine breakdowns and a perennial absence of drugs. Those who can afford it fork out a lot of money to go to neighbouring Botswana and elsewhere or pay millions still, to get treatment in private hospitals since the drugs are extremely expensive. "The majority of people with cancer here are not being looked after. It's only those whose cancer is amenable to surgery and it comes early enough for us to operate, be it breast cancer and we remove the breast. But there is still no follow-up treatment," Tarumbwa says. "That is a disaster because AIDS itself and HIV also increase the risk of cancer," he says. "It opens up a whole lot of cancers that we didn't see before."
As Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis deepens, the health sector has been one of the major casualties of a collapsed currency, runaway inflation exceeding 500 percent, empty foreign exchange coffers and a massive brain drain. All categories of doctors, nurses and other health personnel have been among the first to leave the country for better prospects in neighbouring countries and abroad. Those remaining complain of inferior pay and conditions of service and are frequently on strike. While its own locally trained doctors emigrate, the government has relied on doctors from Cuba to ease pressure in the crumbling public hospitals. The latest contingent of 74 arrived in February this year. In June 54 doctors, 11 pharmacists and three radiographers from the Democratic Republic of Congo arrived in the country on a three-year working programme under which they were deployed to provincial and district hospitals. But in a situation where the government is broke foreign doctors can only do so much, not least because they are Spanish and French-speaking, in itself a critical factor in rural outposts where even the official language English is not well understood. Throughout the country, patients - already reeling from the prevailing 70 percent unemployment and widening poverty - are also coming to terms with a crumbling health service and the escalating price of available drugs which have shot up by 1 000 percent in the last two months alone. A shrinking economy has left only about one million Zimbabweans out of a population of 12,5 million on medical insurance. Of those only about half a million people are estimated to be actively using their medical aid privileges.
"The macro-economic position of the whole country is not very good, so budgetary constraints occur in the health sector," says Dr Jimmy Gazi the acting president of the Zimbabwe Red Cross. "We have got shortages in almost all the departments; we've shortages in theatres, shortages in the wards, medicines, pharmacies and food." The government's failure to pay for coal which is used for heating hospital boilers is one extra problem public hospitals have had to deal with. This month a major central hospital had to have its food cooked at its sister hospital due to lack of coal, which in turn also affected sterilization and laundry. Since Zimbabwe embarked on its controversial land reform programme three years ago, food production has plummeted and the country has to rely on food aid for half its population. Malnutrition is now a growing problem, with most households unable to afford three meals a day. Severely disadvantaged are those living with AIDS. All they can afford are painkillers and hardly the much-needed immuno boosting drugs whose cost per month is several times an average salary. Last month, the United States government launched a pilot programme a scheme under-which non-Genetically Modified sorghum from the US will be milled in Bulawayo and distributed at subsidized rates to households in low income urban areas. If successful, the programme will be extended to other cities. "The reason for this programme is that while most food aid is being distributed in rural areas, it is clear that food insecurity has been worsening in urban areas and that a major reason for this has been the lack of access to food in markets," said US ambassador Joseph Sullivan who launched the programme. The programme complements the rural-based food aid programmes by the World Food Programme and other donors.
Signs of a deepening health crisis were sounded recently when Shangani Hospital was reported to have turned away patients due to a lack of food. Yet it is not the only health institution that can barely feed the large numbers of patients mainly those living with HIV-AIDS. The Brethren in Christ Church runs two hospitals and a similar number of clinics in the southern provinces of Matabeleland. Its head, Bishop Danisa Ndlovu, says the main challenge is in affording relish to go with the meal. "Beef has become very expensive and so that leaves the patient with little alternative but to resort to simple green vegetable and beans that are also expensive," he says. Bishop Ndlovu adds that the problem ultimately boils down to a lack of resources. Promised assistance from the government's supplementary budget is yet to arrive. In August, the government unveiled an emergency supplementary budget meant to pay civil servants' salaries as well as the importation of food, seeds and medicines. Equivalent to 840 million US dollars, the budget almost doubled the existing budget. Part of the health part of the budget was earmarked for the national blood bank, the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS), particularly the purchase of reagents for use in detecting signs of HIV and Aids, syphilis and Hepatitis C in blood. But NBTS spokesman Emmanuel Masvikeni says funds from the supplementary vote have not yet been allocated. "We are very cash-strapped and we don't even know how much we are supposed to get." About 75 percent of the blood collected by the NBTS goes to government hospitals hence the organization cannot easily press the government to approve market-based fees. "What they can't give us by way of a fee increase they give us by way of a grant," Masvikeni says. The NTBS is presently sitting on half its blood requirements partly because school children, who account for the bulk of the blood, have just come out of holidays. However, Masvikeni says too many bleeding sessions have to be cancelled due to the prevailing fuel shortages and water rationing which affects some schools in Harare.
A chilling vindication of the crisis in the country's health system was borne by the recent announced that even before the advent of the rainy season; about 700 people have already died from malaria. Last year, the malaria season was particularly brutal due to avoidable bottlenecks in the importation of drugs. Just like they are affected the most by the prevailing crisis in the country, rural people have to brace for another difficult mosquito season. Dr. Tarumbwa acknowledges that sometimes all a doctor can do is watch a patient die for lack of materials. "They get to a hospital and there are no drugs, no intravenous fluids, and they can't purchase them because they have no money. You can watch a patient die."
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From The Times (SA), 11 October
Zimbabwe mob holds Mbeki envoy hostage
From Jan Raath in Harare
South Africa’s most senior diplomat in Zimbabwe was held hostage for two hours this week by squatters, who threatened to attack him on the farm of a South African citizen threatened with illegal seizure, witnesses said yesterday. The Mercedes Benz limousine used by Jeremiah Ndou, the High Commissioner, which was clearly identifiable by its diplomatic plates, was barricaded inside the security gate of the farm in the Chinhoyi district, about 60 miles north of Harare, as a crowd of about 25 youths hurled abuse at him on Wednesday. A retired Zimbabwean military officer, who was reportedly carrying a firearm and who has been trying to take over the farm, told Mr Ndou that "blood will be spilt here today" because the diplomat was "collaborating with whites". Mr Ndou had answered an appeal from Jan Kotze, a South African who last week received an eviction order from Hill Path, his 2,700-acre farm, where he grows crops and keeps 700 head of cattle. A bilateral agreement between South Africa and Zimbabwe is supposed to protect South African citizens’ property from confiscation, but Mr Kotze, 39, has been fighting for the past 18 months to hang on to his farm as the former officer encroached further and further on to his premises.
President Mbeki’s policy of "quiet diplomacy" to persuade President Mugabe to end his campaign of repression is one of the dictator’s last sources of international support. However, the incident will add to the tension in relations between the two governments, which were already strained by the arrest of 200 trade unionists this week and the closure of the Daily News, Zimbabwe’s only surviving independent daily newspaper. Diplomatic sources said yesterday that Mr Ndou had protested about the incident at a meeting with Stan Mudenge, the Zimbabwean Foreign Minister, on Thursday. They said that Simon Moyo, the Zimbabwean High Commissioner in Pretoria, had been summoned to the South African Foreign Ministry on the same day. It is not clear how many South Africans are among the estimated 500 white farmers - of the original 4,500 - who are left in the wake of Mr Mugabe’s lawless and violent campaign of land seizures. Mr Ndou is known to have appointed a senior official to devote himself to the issue.
"The South Africans must be getting pretty annoyed, because the Zimbabweans say they will honour the agreement, but then go on listing the South African-owned farms for seizure," an official within the Zimbabwean Commercial Farmers’ Union said. Mr Ndou is known to be the only diplomat based in Harare to have visited his nationals’ farms in trouble. The incident on Wednesday ended only when a senior Zimbabwean government official, contacted by alarmed South African diplomats, called the former army officer and told him to "back off", Mr Kotze said. Thirteen white farmers and 35 of their workers have been murdered and thousands assaulted or tortured on the country’s commercial farms since the state-driven land invasions began in 2000. Only in rare cases has action been taken against their assailants.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 10 October
Mugabe seeks help from Annan on land
Vincent Kahiya
President Robert Mugabe last week presented the findings of the Land Audit Report to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a bid to convince the international community that reorganisation would take place on the farms to correct errors in the fast-track land reform programme. Diplomatic sources this week said Mugabe, who met Annan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York on Tuesday last week, wanted the UN to believe that there were positive developments on the land as evidenced by the report. At the United Nations Development Programme-brokered donors conference held in Harare in 1998 it was agreed that for Zimbabwe to receive international financial assistance, the land reform programme would have to be transparent, benefit mainly the poor and be sustainable. To date many senior members of the ruling Zanu PF party, the defence forces and government have benefited, with some of them getting more than one farm. Mugabe recently issued an ultimatum for senior officials who acquired more than one farm to surrender them. The response has been less than enthusiastic. Analysts dispute government claims that 300 000 families have been resettled on nearly 11 million hectares of land seized from white commercial farmers.
The sources said Mugabe was keen to secure an endorsement of the land review process from Annan who has in the past registered his disquiet at Zimbabwe's conduct of land reform. Information and Publicity secretary George Charamba, who accompanied Mugabe to New York, yesterday refused to discuss the issue. UN co-ordinator in Harare Victor Angelo could not be reached as his office said he was in New York on business. The report, which was compiled by an audit team headed by former senior civil servant, Dr Charles Utete, has been kept under wraps since it was presented to Mugabe last month. It was presented to politburo members last month and Zanu PF sources said the party's decision-making organ deliberated on it this week. The sources said government would only release the report after securing endorsement of the review from key stakeholders, which include the UN.
Diplomatic sources said the endorsement of the report's recommendations by the UN was crucial in shoring up Mugabe's regime which has seen the agricultural sector collapse around it. Despite loud official bragging about the success of land reform, the government cannot hide the huge funding deficit in the agricultural sector. The government has failed to mobilise funding for infrastructure development and extension services. It believes that its commitment to implementing the one-man one-farm policy, which would see the redistribution of excess farms, could restore confidence in the donor community. "Through the (Utete) audit, the government is trying to say to donors, 'we do not have anything to hide and we are prepared to correct our mistakes'," said an officer at the UNDP. There are fears among donors that the UN, through the UNDP office in Harare, could be manipulated by the government to try and legitimise a flawed process of resettlement. "Donors will be closely following the developments on the ground before committing their resources," the officer said.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 10 October
Sorry, still no cash!
Ngoni Chanakira
Despite frantic efforts by the discredited Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to solve the worst cash crisis in the country's history by offloading bearer and traveller's cheques and new $1 000 notes to disgruntled customers, kilometres of queues still exist countrywide. Scenes of jostling and impatient customers in Harare's central business district this week resembled those of spectators awaiting entry into a football stadium. The cash fiasco, which has affected everyone in one way or another, resulted in the introduction of bearer's cheques in denominations of $1 000, $5 000, $10 000 and $50 000 onto the market in tandem with new $500 notes last Friday. On Wednesday a new $1 000 note, the highest since Independence, was also dished out by the RBZ to a worried public that has been forced to wait in queues from as early as 5:00 am daily for sums as little as $5 000 - enough for four loaves of bread.
Economists maintain that government needs to plug spiralling inflation, now standing at 426,6% for August, for the cash situation to normalise. They have already predicted inflation will continue increasing to surpass the 1 000% mark by year-end. Trust Holdings Ltd chief executive officer William Nyemba told analysts at a briefing on his institution's results that what was needed in Zimbabwe were higher denominations "full stop". He said hyperinflation was "killing the economy". While presenting his $672 billion Supplementary Budget to parliament last month the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Herbert Murerwa admitted that the difficult macroeconomic environment characterised by "persistent high inflation", had necessitated the need for government to go cap in hand to the 150-member august House. Murerwa said as inflation escalates and economic performance worsened, a growing proportion of the country's population was now living below the poverty datum line - further deteriorating standards of living. "Mr Speaker, I believe that it is important that our policies must fight inflation," Murerwa said. "Continued failure to do so threatens to destroy the very social fabric of the nation."
In its analysis of the hyperinflationary environment and high money supply growth NMB Holdings Ltd (NMB) said the hyperinflationary trend was driven mainly by the partial relaxation of price controls, excessive credit expansion, shortage of foreign currency and consequent effect and widespread indexation in the economy. In January, representatives of government, the business community and labour signed a Prices and Income Stabilisation Protocol. "The protocol's objective was to manage prices of basic commodities, salaries and wages, through a tripartite price monitoring and surveillance sub-committee, which would negotiate with producers on viable prices for all basic commodities," NMB said. "The spiralling inflation is evidence of the protocol's failure to arrest the pace of price increases in the economy." It said unless monetary policy was tightened during the second half of this year, money supply growth was expected to accelerate.
Bearer cheques have been more acceptable to retailers unlike the traveller's cheques, which have been occasionally rejected. Both the bearer and traveller's cheques are, however, deemed "illegal tender" on commuter omnibuses operating in the capital. Analysts said while the idea to introduce more money onto the market was noble, government did not educate the public on time and sufficiently about the new mode of money, especially individuals in the rural areas where the majority of the nation's population resides. Thousands of the nation's farmers - both new and old - who produce cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, maize, and groundnuts which are delivered daily into town and payment given on delivery reside in the rural areas. Analysts said it was these individuals who needed to be educated about the new money and not only those living in major cities and towns who have access to plastic money such as credit cards and Automated Teller Machine cards.
Zimbabwe Farmers' Union president Silas Hungwe this week encouraged small-scale farmers to accept bearer and traveller's cheques as payment because they are "instruments of the government and are legal tender". The sentiments were expressed after several farmers were uneasy about payments being made using cheques. Cotton farmers are notorious for blowing their "hard earned cash" immediately after receiving it. The cash crisis has driven the country's economy further down the drain. The complications have encouraged a thriving dealer's market with individuals now buying and selling money as a form of employment. The informal sector seems to be the hardest hit at the moment as traders are hesitant to accept payment in cheques. They prefer cash which they use to order more goods. Flea markets have also suffered. Traders at flea markets prefer cash which they also use to order their goods from Botswana, South Africa and Malawi. While the RBZ says it is continuing to inject "billions" into the ailing economy, the situation on the ground makes dismal reading. NMB deputy managing director James Mushore recently told Business Digest that the sooner government realised that the country cannot write new economic rules that ignore supply and demand, the sooner "we can set about implementing solutions to the economic mess that we are in".
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Comment from The Cape Times, 10 October
Cloud cuckoo land in Zimbabwe
By Rex Conway
"We have been tracking your 4x4, Mr Davies," said the braai guest. "It was doing 120km/h towards Gweru, but now it is travelling 450km/h somewhere over central Zambia." It took a while for the meaning of the change of speeds to sink in. I had had quite a bewildering time keeping track of the talk around the fire. Why, I was beginning to ask, but the story teller, who was reporting on a conversation between the concerned client and his vehicle tracking service, came through with the answer quickly enough: the car in question was a popular choice for car thieves in Zimbabwe, and invariably 4x4s made their way to ready buyers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The gist of the talk was that these journeys were being helped along by transport aircraft, courtesy of the Zimbabwe Air Force which is based at Thornhill near the Zimbabwe Midlands city of Gweru. As is usual at braais, particularly of the Zimbabwean variety, the talk carries an odd mixture of stories, hard fact, innuendo, jokes and rumours. Hard to believe everything, but also hard to ignore. A case in point was discovering the unofficial (and real rate) of the Zimbabwe dollar in relation to the rand. The government rate sets it at about $116 to one rand. I was very interested to hear the going rate on the streets was actually over $500 - by the end of my visit a week later, it had climbed to $630 while the official rate remained steady. I could not figure out how the unofficial rate was pegged, who did the pegging and what influenced it. But I was to find out the next day that the figure quoted at the braai was accurate to a fault.
"This is an economy for the street-wise," said my friend, who then proceeded to illustrate some strange facts which were to be verified over the next few days by different people that I was to meet during my week-long sojourn. For starters, people make money from selling paper money - a lot of money. A 40% return within a day. How? Well, there is a shortage of money in the country for people to transact their business. The government has put a limit on people carrying no more than $5 million (or R10 000 by black market rates of two weeks ago) about them, and police roadblocks outside on the national roads are there to try and ensure that this is strictly applied. "You can hand in $1m to a businessman who needs the money to do a deal and the next day you will get $1.4m back," said my friend. On top of that, the much touted $500-note (brought into circulation a few months ago to ease the daily burden of carrying huge wads of money to conduct even the most basic forms of transaction) offered an unexpected bonus in South Africa. A businessman explained that the 5mm-wide metal security thread on the note is said to be made of platinum and is worth R3 in this country. The government has brought out a revised version of the new note sans the metal strip, and declared that the note will be legal tender until the end of this month. A week later another businessman showed me the new note which had a less valuable strip, which used the template of the old $5-note with two zeroes added on. The issue date on the note read as 2001. It was in this last week of September that the government also brought out the $5 000, $10 000 and $20 000 bearer cheques to keep pace with the 400% inflation. Otherwise the wads in Zimbabweans' pockets would grow greater and greater.
The average Zimbabwean needs time; petrol shortages mean more and more people walk to work. My sister takes an hour each way to get from home to her office in Bulawayo. You need time to wait in the long, long queues outside the city's many banks in the hope of getting money, if the bank has any to give you. My sister's wage as an office clerk is $200 000, which buys her about 200 loaves of bread a month, if she wanted to. A Granny Smith apple costs $1 000 and is prized like Beluga caviar. I went to Borrow Street Swimming Pool, which remains the best public swimming pool in Africa, to see who was left of the lunch-time crowd of previous years. There were still one or two old friends there. I offered the last of my two apples to them and they leapt out of their reclining position to accept them faster than a speeding bullet before anyone else could make a move on them. It shocked me. As much as it shocked me being in a supermarket stocked with many of the goods we see here in Cape Town and noticing thin pensioners in worn-out safari suits staring longingly at goods they could no longer afford. For someone from South Africa, the items were selling at a very reasonable rate, if you were au fait with the street value of the rand that is. For the local Zimbabwean, such things are way out of reach.
Yet if you were a businessman who knows what you are doing, there is money to be made. A friend at the braai told of a wholesaler who was selling high-quality television sets for $5m each. The owner of an electrical goods shop bought every set in that shop and the next day was selling them at $10m a set. "I can tell you now that that wholesaler will not last the year if he continues in this way," said my friend. If you have time in Bulawayo, you can trawl the shops to find the "bargains". With 400% inflation (projected to reach 1 000% by the end of the year), shopkeepers are hard-pressed to keep up with changing prices. There can be huge price discrepancies between shops. A multiplug set costing $10 000 in one hardware shop can cost anything between $15 and $18 000 in others. Word of mouth would soon see the product disappear from the cheap shop's shelves. At the braai I attended, the talk was about the imminent rise in the price of Coca-Cola and a 40% hike in the deposit price of the bottles. Sure enough, there were people going out buying up every bottle of the soft drink to resell after the price increase took place. "I am stupid to be running a business," said my friend, whose factory employing 20 people turns out metal frames. "The money that I make in a month, I can sell and make a big profit within days - no overheads, no paper work, no staff problems." "Do you want to know something else?" he tells me. "People are making big bucks in this country - you go to Harare, you'll see the cars and houses going up there. Do you know that Harare has the biggest number of Mercedes-Benzes per capita in the world?" Fact or fiction? I don't know; in Zimbabwe anything seems possible.
The name of the writer, who visited Zimbabwe recently, has been changed to protect his identity and that of his family.
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Comment from Business Day (SA), 9 October
Lesson from Zimbabwe
Migration, not land, is the issue
Geoff Hill
Over the past two years, I have been researching a book on Zimbabwe and the question most people ask me is: will what has happened there be repeated in SA? My own view is that it won't. The logic being that, just because Uganda fell under the tyranny of Idi Amin didn't mean that neighbouring states like Kenya and Tanzania followed suit and started butchering their people. The Zimbabwean crisis is very much a product of Mugabe's need to stay in power long after the electorate has tired of him. But, if similar circumstances do ever emerge in SA, my worry is that we won't see them coming. The problem is that, when people talk about Zimbabwe, they focus on the land invasions, but in SA the search for answers doesn't start there.
So where do you go? I'd start at Johannesburg's Park Station and long-haul buses pulling in from all over the country, each one packed with young men and woman from the rural areas coming to the city in search of a better life. The problem is so bad that, if the rate of migration to cities like Johannesburg and Durban is not stemmed, city life including jobs, water, housing and general wellbeing will not keep pace with the surge in population. That's where Zimbabwe's problem began. From independence in 1980 to the start of the farm invasions in 1999, the country's population almost doubled, but the number of people living in Harare jumped fivefold. And Zimbabwe is not alone. The movement of people from rural areas to the towns is just as severe in Thailand, the Philippines, Kenya and Brazil. And in each case the typical migrant is aged between 18 and 30, educated and unemployed. Studies by the United Nations and others have shown that when you educate people in the countryside, they invariably move to the urban areas. One report suggested that, after three years of primary school, a person was twice as likely to seek work in the city than someone with no education. After three years at high school, the ratio doubled again to four times as likely to move to the city. In Zimbabwe, it was the urban poor, living six or more to a room, who led the revolt against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. However, their gripe was not land, but money and jobs. In 1998, when they took to the streets and threatened to vote out the ruling party at the next election, the government tried to distract them with the land, but no one was listening and opposition grew because the real complaint had not been addressed.
Without question, there are rural communities in SA who need and deserve land and government should make sure they get it through legal means. But that will not prevent a revolution. If you give land to families now, how many of their children will stay home and grow crops once they leave school? Experience in the rest of Africa suggests that those kids will head for the cities and try to put their education to work. So what are the choices? One would be to close the rural schools and stunt the mental growth of a generation, but that would be unforgivable. The other would be to accept that SA is rapidly becoming an urban nation, full of skilled, hardworking young people who deserve the right to build themselves a better future. At independence in 1980, the literacy rate in Rhodesia was already an impressive 70%, whereas across most of SA, less than half the population could read and write. Mugabe performed a miracle and, within 15 years, he had raised literacy to 95%. In that context, he remains one of my heroes. But nothing was done to cater for the demands of an educated workforce. When you've spent 10 years or more at school and your parents worked at three jobs to keep you there, your dreams go far beyond a life in the fields. The new generation would rather be on the internet than on the land. If land was the issue then why, when it is there for the taking, have 2-million black Zimbabweans decamped to SA and about 600000 to the UK? Surely they should be claiming their plots instead? But small-scale agriculture would never give them the income needed for clothes, school fees, cellphones, television and the myriad goods that are part of Africa's new culture. So what are the options?
SA needs to put all its effort into industrial growth and government could help the rural areas by extending its programme of decentralisation and encouraging new investors through tax relief and other benefits to set up shop in the country towns where unemployment is highest. Giving people land will not keep them at home, but if they can find jobs in their own communities, there's a good chance they will not migrate to the city. Perhaps on the land there is room to test the Israeli kibbutz system in which a large number of people work an estate in line with best farming practice. This could cater for some of the thousands of unemployed people in places like rural KwaZulu-Natal. As a journalist, hardly a month goes by that I am not called out to cover a protest staged by Zimbabwean exiles in SA. The demonstrations are invariably against Mugabe, all the participants are young, black and educated and, with their banners and placards, they deny the notion that land reform has delivered what the people really want. I am a fan of the way the African National Congress has run this country over the past 10 years. SA has enjoyed more democracy and better government than any country in the history of this continent and there is much to be proud of. But if the party's right to power is ever questioned, the challenge will come from the urban poor. And, as in Zimbabwe, land will not be the issue.
Hill is southern African correspondent for a daily newspaper in Washington DC. His Book, Battle for Zimbabwe: The Final Countdown (NewHolland), will be released on October 15
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 12 October
Mbeki won't talk to archbishop about Zimbabwe crisis
Sunday Times Foreign Desk
President Thabo Mbeki's office and the Archbishop of Cape Town, Njongonkulu Ndungane, who is battling to resolve Zimbabwe's political and economic crises, are at loggerheads over how to deal with that country's problems. Information from SA intelligence sources shows that Mbeki's office and Ndungane have failed to develop a common plan to tackle the Zimbabwean crisis, which Pretoria has been trying to unscramble for three years. Following his visit to Harare in March, where he met President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, as well as a wide cross-section of Zimbabweans, Ndungane has failed to make progress because of a lack of collaboration and possibly, it is alleged, sabotage from Pretoria. Mugabe is still waiting for feedback from SA on issues he raised with Ndungane during their meeting in Harare. The archbishop met Mugabe primarily to report back on his earlier meeting in the UK with the Archbishop of Canterbury on the Zimbabwe issue. Mugabe's major complaint to Ndungane was that the British government was interfering in domestic affairs and treating him "like a small boy". Mugabe also said that some clergymen in Zimbabwe were pursuing clandestine political agendas by supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Mugabe told Ndungane that he appreciated the need for political diversity in Zimbabwe but insisted that the MDC was a British front. However, Ndungane has not been able to proceed because of apparent hostility from Mbeki's office. Ndungane expressed exasperation over the lack of co-operation from the President's office during a meeting with senior South African intelligence officers on March 22. The archbishop has been trying to meet Mbeki since April to brief him about his trip to Harare, but without success. He has indicated to top officers of the SA Secret Service, which deals with foreign intelligence, that his efforts were designed to complement Mbeki's initiative on the Zimbabwe issue, and not undermine it.
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From News24 (SA), 11 October
Leaders are appeasing Mugabe
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's African neighbours are appeasing the country's increasingly authoritarian President Robert Mugabe and prolonging his rule by pursuing an approach of so-called quiet diplomacy, a senior Zimbabwean opposition official said Saturday. Welshman Ncube, general-secretary of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said it was hard to understand why African states were taking a softer approach on Mugabe than Western powers and people from within the troubled country itself. "This is the bewildering part of the policy," Ncube told a forum on democracy and Zimbabwe at a Johannesburg hotel. "You might call it quiet diplomacy ... but what it is is appeasement." The approach, he said, "has had the unfortunate effect of actually prolonging the crisis."
President Thabo Mbeki has defended South Africa's policy on Zimbabwe. He says the best solution to the Zimbabwe crisis would be to bring Mugabe's ruling party and the opposition to the negotiating table on the country's deepening political and economic crisis. But negotiation efforts have floundered. The opposition blames Mugabe for plunging the southern African country into its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, with 70 percent unemployment and acute shortages of food, gasoline and medicine. A state programme to seize thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks has crippled the agriculture-based economy in the past three years. Inflation has soared to 420 percent. Mugabe's government has in recent years stepped up its crackdown on the opposition. Investment and foreign aid have dried up in protest against human rights abuses and last year's tainted presidential elections. Ncube and another senior opposition official were acquitted in July of treason. They had been charged along with the head of the opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, of plotting to kill Mugabe. Tsvangirai continues to stand trial. "Opposition politics in Zimbabwe," Ncube told the forum, "is a very dangerous profession."
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 12 October
RBZ extends bearer’s cheques duration
By our own Staff
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has stretched the life-span of bearer’s cheques to the end of next June, giving the popular bonds an extra six months in circulation. Zimbabwe introduced bearer’s cheques, large denominated paper that acts as legal tender, after the country experienced an unprecedented cash shortage. New bearer’s cheques, released by the central bank to commercial banks last week, already carry the changed dates of expiry from January 31, 2004 to June 30 in the same year. The government says about $390bn worth of bearer’s cheques are expected to have been discharged countrywide by December. The bearer’s cheques are in denominations of $5 000, $10 000 and $20 000. Analysts said the extension of the lifespan of the bearer’s cheques meant that despite reports that they can easily be forged, the RBZ was confident that they would temporarily solve the cash problem. "They were just experimenting. But it has given them temporary reprieve whilst they work on a more durable solution to solve the crisis," said Kingdom Holdings’ financial analyst, Witness Chinyama. Chinyama however warned that government needed to address the fundamental factor, which is inflation which last month blazed past 400% to perch at 426,6%. "They need to work on inflation because it is the underlying cause. The injection of cash should be in tandem with an increase in output," said Chinyama.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 10 October
Mr Burial Cheques
Staff Writer
Finance minister Herbert Murerwa says he is now popularly known as "Mr Burial Cheques". Addressing VIPs at the launch of Barbican Bank Ltd on Tuesday night, Murerwa said: "I know you are all concerned about the current cash crisis. I am too. I am however more concerned because I am now being called Mr Burial Cheques." The nickname was coined from the bearer cheques introduced by government in a bid to try and solve the cash fiasco. Murerwa, whose ministry coordinates operations at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, said while he sympathised with Zimbabweans because of the cash squeeze he, however, could not be held responsible for the way the economy was being run.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 10 October
Succession team leaves divisions in wake
Dumisani Muleya
President Robert Mugabe recently disbanded the controversial Zanu PF succession committee after a damaging row erupted in the ruling party over its role. High-level official sources said Mugabe dissolved the committee to avoid fuelling the escalating succession struggle that was slowly degenerating into a dog-eat-dog affair. The team, whose architect and prime mover was retired army commander General Solomon Mujuru, comprised Zanu PF politburo heavyweights who were anxious to gather people's views on Mugabe's succession nationwide. Sources said Mugabe sanctioned the committee after he was approached by secretary for external affairs Didymus Mutasa on behalf of senior party members. He was however rattled by his lieutenants' manoeuvres for his crown.
Mutasa approached Mugabe after the president declared the succession debate open in April. His move followed meetings in Manicaland over who should succeed Mugabe. According to Mutasa, a Zanu PF provincial committee in Manicaland discussed the issue before party members privately approached him. Sources said Mujuru was one of those who approached Mutasa and asked him to put out feelers to Mugabe on the issue. Mutasa obliged but only received half-hearted approval from Mugabe. It is understood the late Vice-President Simon Muzenda and Joseph Msika were strongly opposed to Mutasa's initiative because they regarded it as "dangerous". They believed the move, which directly threatened their own positions, would set a bad precedent in the party. The two leaders thought succession should be dealt with through party structures but Mugabe all the same gave Mutasa the go-ahead. The committee, chaired by Zanu PF secretary for legal affairs Patrick Chinamasa, later recruited senior party members to spearhead the debate.
But Mujuru, who together with politburo heavyweights retired Air Marshal Josiah Tungamirai and Dumiso Dabengwa had earlier met Mugabe over the issue, remained in control of the contested succession team. When inevitable bickering broke out among Zanu PF bigwigs over the committee, Mugabe intervened and disbanded it. However, it is thought Mujuru and his camp are keen on reviving the committee. Mujuru, Tungamirai and Dabengwa are said to be opposed to Zanu PF secretary for administration Emmerson Mnangagwa's ascendancy. It is understood they have told Mugabe they will not back Mnangagwa's succession bid. Despite his persistent denials about it, Mnangagwa is seen as Mugabe's anointed successor. But he faces a serious challenge from Zanu PF chair John Nkomo who now ranks third after Mugabe and Msika. Nkomo is said to be currently consolidating his position for a bid for Mugabe's crown.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 12 October
Mavhaire vies for presidency
By Parker Graham
Masvingo Maverick Zanu PF stalwart and the party’s former Masvingo provincial chairman Dzikamai Mavhaire, could be taking steps out of the political wilderness armed with huge ambitions. Encouraged by simmering disunity in Zanu PF and the poor socio-economic policies and deteriorating political stability in the country, Mavhaire believes that this is the right time to go for the top political post in the land, according to The Mirror, a Masvingo independent weekly that interviewed him recently. Without explaining where he would get the support from, Mavhaire is quoted as having made a bold decision to go for the Zanu PF presidency after seeing that senior governing party politicians were developing cold feet in the succession race.
"I have since started campaigning for the presidential post at grassroots level and I am using the current restructuring exercise being undertaken to sell my candidature to the Zanu PF structures. The problem in Zanu PF is that there is too much fear within the party and people are afraid to come to the open," said Mavhaire. "My first assignment will be on constitutional reform before I retire after serving only one term," said the ambitious politician. However the controversial politician who was suspended from Zanu PF after making the famous "Mugabe must go" statement, refused to speak to a correspondent of The Standard who tried several times to be granted an interview with him. Mavhaire made it clear that he was not at liberty to talk to national mainstream media like The Standard but only to community-based publications. Mavhaire, who was ousted from office in 1998 for allegedly abusing his position in Zanu PF and replaced by Zephania Matchaba-Hove and then Samuel Mumbengegwi, has since then been a mere card carrying member.
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From The Independent (UK), 13 October
Summit cancelled after Britain bans Mugabe henchmen
By Marie Woolf, chief political correspondent
A summit of international leaders in London next year, due to be opened by the Queen and addressed by Nelson Mandela, has been cancelled after the Government barred members of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean regime. A dispute in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), set up in the 1890s to promote world co-operation and peace, has led to the withdrawal of next year's annual conference from Britain in March, after several years of planning. The Foreign Office refused to break an EU travel ban on named members of Mr Mugabe's disgraced regime. Officials said they would not grant visas to associates of Mr Mugabe, including his right-hand man, Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mr Mnangagwa, a former head of the state security services, helped to plan an invasion of Matabeleland to crush opposition Zapu rebels in which some 50,000 people died. Also in the delegation was the Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, an architect of the land reform programme. Invitations to Mr Mandela and Kofi Annan, secretary general of the United Nations, have been withdrawn, and bookings of Westminster Hall, where the opening ceremony was due to be addressed by the Queen, have been cancelled.
Hundreds of leading parliamentarians and heads of state were due to attend the event, which has not been held in Britain since Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. The dispute revives memories of February's Anglo-French fall-out, when Jacques Chirac invited Mr Mugabe to attend the 22nd Franco-African summit in Paris. The British delegation to the IPU, led by the Labour MP John Austin, argued it would be unethical to break the EU travel ban, and any meeting would be seen as sanctioning human rights abuses by the Mugabe regime. "I think the entire British group of the IPU will be extremely disappointed by this decision to withdraw the conference, but there are certain principles you have to stick by," Mr Austin said last night. "The UK Government is absolutely right to adhere to this ban." African nations threatened to boycott the conference if it was held in London, and France condemned Britain for adhering to the EU travel ban, which applies to 78 members of Mr Mugabe's regime and was renewed in February. After a row at the IPU's headquarters in Geneva on Friday, in which Britain was called an imperialist, members voted against holding the event in London without the banned Zimbabweans. Organisers are drawing up plans to hold the summit elsewhere, possibly in Thailand. Bill Rammell, a Foreign Office minister, spent months trying to keep the conference in London. "We did everything in our power to accommodate the IPU's concerns, but at the end of the day we could not breach our international legal obligations," he said.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 12 October
Maize demand threatens SA reserves
By Parker Graham, recently in Johannesburg
South African agricultural experts and economists are bitter about persistent maize shortages in Zimbabwe saying such food deficits are seriously threatening their grain reserves. Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Securities Exchange Agricultural General Manager, Rod Gravelet-Blondin, says the demand for SA maize by their northern neighbours across the Limpopo River had increased rapidly, a move that saw the price of the commodity skyrocketing. He says while a tonne of maize grain used to cost R600 last year, its price had soared up to R2 000 this year due to increased demand from Zimbabwe. "While it is a fact that Zimbabwe and Zambia experienced drought during the 2002/2003 agricultural season, it is our feeling that the invasion of the white-owned commercial farms and mismanagement contributed to food shortage in Harare. As I speak right now, a tonne of maize cost R2 000 compared to R600 last season. We are very much concerned about the deteriorating agricultural activities in Zimbabwe because it is our main trading partner in agriculture," said Gravelet-Blondin. Gravelet-Blondin pointed out that South Africa was no longer capable of supplying all the 14 SADC countries with maize because the demand at home had increased too. He said the information from the South African Grain Service (SAGIS) showed that the country had little maize to feed the entire SADC region but enough to take the over 40 million locals to the next rainy season. Zimbabwe used to be the breadbasket of southern Africa but due to economic mismanagement, the country has become the basket case of the SADC region.
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From The Sunday Independent (SA), 12 October
Daily News owner to fight 'to the last drop'
By Basildon Peta
Observers of Zimbabwe's political and economic decline would rank opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as President Robert Mugabe's number one enemy. But the more meticulous would give that honorific to Strive Masiyiwa, the telecommunications tycoon and owner of the banned Daily News. No stranger to clashes with the Mugabe regime, Masiyiwa was the only businessman to volunteer to rescue the Daily News when the newspaper was on the verge of collapse in 2000. Breaking his silence on the closure of his newspaper this week, Masiyiwa vowed to fight "to the last ounce of my blood" until the paper was reopened. "Perhaps it is only through the closure of the paper that I personally have come to fully appreciate what this paper meant to the people of Zimbabwe," he said. "It is my national duty to do everything possible to get it reopened, in fact it is more than a national duty; it is a duty I owe to every person in the world who values democracy; so I will fight. If it takes two weeks I will be happy, but if it takes 20 years and I am still there, I will still be fighting..."
Masiyiwa has undertaken to pay salaries of all Daily News staff for at least two years even if they don't sell a single copy while fighting for the right to publish. Zimbabwe's administrative court will shortly hear an application for an order to overturn the government-appointed Media and Information Committee's decision to ban the Daily News and its sister paper, the Daily News on Sunday. Even if Masiyiwa's company wins, it's certain that the regime will appeal and will not allow the paper to resume publishing. It will retain its confiscated equipment and the appeal might take up to two years before it is heard by the supreme court. But Masiyiwa's rescue of the Daily News is only one of many reasons why he is Mugabe's number one foe. While still in his 30s, Masiyiwa fought a bitter legal struggle and foiled Mugabe's bid to award the country's first cellular phone licence to cronies who included Chenjerai Hunzvi, the late war veterans leader who began Mugabe's land seizure campaign before he died in 2001. In 1993, Masiyiwa successfully challenged the government monopoly on telecommunications as a flagrant violation of the constitutional right to freedom of expression. He then invested heavily in setting up the first cellphone services but was refused a licence. Mugabe instead issued a licence to a company called Telecel Zimbabwe in which Hunzvi and other cronies had invested. What followed was a gruelling five-year court battle that ended with the courts cancelling the Telecel licence and awarding it to Masiyiwa. Zimbabweans flocked to his network and within a few months it had a market capitalisation of Z$400-million.
After settling in Johannesburg in 2000, Masiyiwa expanded his Econet Wireless telecommunications group to provide cellphone and other services in eight African countries and in Britain and New Zealand. His relationship with the regime worsened after he refused to take part in a media commission handpicked by Mugabe which authored a draft constitution that entrenched Mugabe's power. Mugabe wanted Masiyiwa to come back from Johannesburg and take a seat in the commission, probably to give it a semblance of credibility. After the rejection of the draft constitution in a national referendum in February last year, the regime blamed the loss on white farmers and Masiyiwa whose cell network had been used by "No" campaigners to send SMS messages urging people not to approve the draft in the referendum. The regime started accusing Masiyiwa of funding anti-Mugabe activities. After a series of death threats, arrests and an intimidation campaign, Masiyiwa fled the country in early 2000 after he received a tip-off about a plot to assassinate him.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 10 October
Zimbabwe not ready for Nepad's peer review
Shakeman Mugari
Finance minister Herbert Murerwa says Zimbabwe is not prepared to be scrutinised under Nepad's peer review mechanism. The peer review mechanism, which was launched by Nepad (New Partnership for Africa's Development) leaders to monitor African governments on governance practices, is set to be up and running by December. Sixteen African countries have since volunteered to be test cases in the initial stages of the project, which political analysts say is the litmus test of Nepad leaders' commitment to democracy and human rights. It is also viewed as the key to unlocking much-needed development assistance from G8 countries. In an interview with the Zimbabwe Independent in Tokyo last week, Murerwa said Zimbabwe had not volunteered to be reviewed. "Our position is that this is a voluntary and individual choice by some African countries," said Murerwa. "And we have chosen not to be reviewed. We are not prepared." Although the names of the 16 volunteers are yet to be made public, Murerwa confirmed Zimbabwe was not on the list. Murerwa was not clear on whether Zimbabwe would join the list later. "It will be a government decision. When the government decides the time is ripe we will volunteer for review," Murerwa said.
Nigeria announced last week that it had opened its doors for review. It pronounced its support for the review process at the recently held Third Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD III) in Japan. At the TICAD III meeting, Japan, a key donor to Zimbabwe, announced its intention to adopt Nepad as the platform to assist Africa's developing countries. Analysts say Zimbabwe's reluctance to come under the spotlight shows its non-compliance with democratic norms. They say government is aware that it has not improved its human rights record and delivery of democracy. "The government is aware that they will fail any kind of assessment for good governance. Any honest assessor will find them guilty of human rights abuses," said National Constitutional Assembly chairman, Lovemore Madhuku. Zimbabwe is currently under the international spotlight for its crack-down on the media and the opposition.
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From IPS, 13 October
The melt down of liberty continues unabated
Wilson Johwa
Harare - "Demonstrations here never last more than 10 minutes before the police move in," photojournalist Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi remarks casually. It is another misleadingly tranquil day in Zimbabwe's capital city, Harare, where Mukwazhi and two colleagues are keeping tabs on a group advocating for a new constitution, the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). Members of the organisation are due to march to parliament with placards, agitating for a new constitution as the starting point to resolving the political gridlock in the country. However, Mukwazhi's comments turns out to be an understatement. Even before the demonstration begins, it is quashed. Plainclothes police officers sneak up on anyone wearing an NCA shirt and throw them into waiting vehicles. Mukwazhi and the two other freelance photojournalists are bungled together with the NCA demonstrators within seconds of snapping pictures of NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku who, with a small group of activists, tries to unfurl a banner.
Altogether, 102 NCA activists are arrested. Together with the three photojournalists they spend 24 hours in custody charged with "engaging in conduct likely to breach the peace". This is an offence under an all-encompassing law from the country's colonial past, the Miscellaneous Offences Act. Freedom only comes when they pay admission of guilt fines, even though they all know they have committed no crime. "We paid in protest, not paying the fine would have meant staying in prison," their lawyer, Alec Muchadehama says. Once released Mukwazhi seeks legal action to have the admission of guilt stuck down. Having three such admissions could cost any journalist his hard-to-get official accreditation card as it is tantamount to having a criminal record.
While the government of President Robert Mugabe digs it's heels in, the right to peaceful demonstration is one less freedom Zimbabweans have. Engaging in a public protest is like waiving a red flag in front of the police who have a reservoir of laws to justify a clampdown. The main law against gatherings is the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), which replaced another draconian colonial legislation, the Law and Order (Maintenance) Act. Since its enactment in January 2002, POSA has been used to target opposition supporters, independent media and human rights activities. It restricts their right to criticise the government, engage in or organize acts of peaceful civil disobedience. On October 9, a demonstration by the country's powerful labour organisation, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), was also foiled before it began. Fifty-five ZCTU members who had planned to speak out against high taxation and the cost of living were arrested. Three of them were seriously assaulted by the police. Members of the group were cautioned and released. But charges might be pressed later if the police decide to do so. However, the ZCTU remains unintimidated. It has planned more demonstrations against high taxation and inflation until Zimbabwe's budget is presented next month.
It's president, Lovemore Matombo, was among those detained. He says the most distasteful irony was finding himself in the same cell that he occupied for 35 days in 1975 for resisting colonial injustice. "You really feel quite depressed purely because we are an independent country and are supposed to be democratic enough to allow the basic freedoms to flow in the normal way," he says. The union leader says what disturbed him further was that they were hassled merely for protesting against the well-known issue of taxation. For years Zimbabweans, who are among some of the most heavily taxed people in the world, have unsuccessfully sought tax relief from the government. Three days after the ZCTU protest, a newly-formed anti-globalisation coalition, the Zimbabwe Social Forum which is affiliated to the World Social Forum, was denied permission for a peaceful march. "Because of the legislation and the political environment in Zimbabwe, it had to be a peace rally instead," said one of the organizers, Thomas Deve. Matombo says the government's intolerance for civil disobedience is purely a matter of clinging to power despite all odds.
The government stands accused of plunging the country into it's worst economic crisis ever, with inflation at over 500 percent, unemployment at |
