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Archived News
19th August 2003
Mugabe praises army for crushing protests
Outlets reject travellers cheques
After Liberia, Africans ponder face-saving exile for Mugabe
Share-cropping
Aid pipeline saved but "situation still alarming" - WFP
NGOs threaten action in Zimbabwe
Skills lost in "internal" brain drain
Zim wildlife pillage continues
Security Council extends panel seeking to halt plunder of resources
Tsvangirai demands progress on talks
Churches call for pro-active policy on Zimbabwe
Zim airports collapse
Hit for six
Mugabe makes new proposals
Opposition says no to Mugabe unity government
Ghost voters unearthed
Zimbabwe bankers see no relief to cash shortage
Fringe cuts
A2 multiple farm owners ignore Mugabe's order
Commonwealth members condemn Zimbabwe for human rights abuses
Mugabe re-appoints police chief
Zanu PF snubs church-led talks
Mugabe takes no chances on future charity
Muzenda critically ill
Soldiers run amok over cash
Mass murder: a perfect pension plan
Push for change in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe bans excess cash holdings
Zimbabwe empowers police to strip-search people for cash
Settlers ordered out
Gold production to plummet in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe envoy stages walk-out
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 12 August
Mugabe praises army for crushing protests
Harare - President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday hailed Zimbabwe's military for successfully crushing anti-government protests organised by the opposition early this year, saying the army had helped secure stability. Mugabe said the defence forces "maintained a high state of alert at all times and were able to secure our peace and stability" when "there were occurrences of violence and clearly myopic demonstrations which sought ... the overthrow of a democratically elected government". The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - which blames the government for severe hardships gripping the country, including high unemployment, runaway 360% inflation, shortages of fuel, food, money and medicines - this year organised mass anti-government strikes and marches. But the marches never got off the ground, as security forces turned out in force, and feared pro-government youth groups roamed the streets of the southern African country. Hundreds of opposition supporters, activists and officials, including MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, were arrested in June.
"Notwithstanding the avalanche of negative outpourings about Zimbabwe and the repeated efforts to disturb our peace, our state security organs have always risen to the occasion and continued to guarantee the existence of a peace [sic] environment in the country," Mugabe said in a nationally broadcast speech to mark Defence Forces Day on Tuesday. "We mark this day with pride," Mugabe said, announcing that his government would give priority to the modernisation of military equipment and re-training of the army to strengthen the army's reaction capacity to any external or internal aggression. Zimbabwe has completed its withdrawal from the Democratic Republic of Congo where some 12 000 troops were deployed between August 1998 and last year to shore up government forces who faced an uprising from rebels.
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From The Herald, 12 August
Outlets reject travellers cheques
Brian Benza
Harare - Several retail outlets continue rejecting the newly introduced travellers cheques in the city centre of Harare leaving most consumers who had banked on the claims stranded. The Government introduced the instruments as a way of easing the severe cash shortage effect that has left thousands of Zimbabweans unable to access any money from their banks. Travellers' cheques were introduced into the financial system by the central bank on Friday 8 August and all institutions in the country are required by law to recognise the cheques as a legal tender. The central bank has come under attack for not putting in place the proper logistics with the intended end users and recipients of the instruments. On Saturday, the only denomination that was reported to be available was the $100 000, which could prove to be useless to the average person in Zimbabwe as the amount is too high. On average, a normal person would want to purchase groceries worth about $30 000 to $40 000 so how will the retailer be able to change the cheque and give a customer cash worth more than the value of goods purchased, in these times of bank note crisis.
"We have not received any formal communication from the responsible authorities regarding the instruments which they say are as good as cash. So we are in no position to accept them," said a shop manager with a retail outlet on Mbuya neHanda Street in Harare. The cheques are supposed to be in high denominations of $100 000, $50 000, $20000, $10000 and $1000 are printed on bank note paper and have security features to distinguish genuine ones from counterfeits. One caller blamed the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for not having carried out a thorough awareness programme for the instruments to be readily used for transaction purposes. "Management has given us the directive not to accept travellers' cheques as we have only heard about them in the media and we do not even know how to distinguish fake cheques from genuine ones" said a till operator with Food Chain group supermarket. Of late, the cases of fraudulently drawn cheques have been on the increase especially in view of the pressing economic conditions which have seen con men coming with new ideas of trickery. The cautious approach being taken by the retailers could be justified.
The introduction of the cheques was timely coming as it did on the eve of the public holidays but the latest development have brought back the gloomy situation that existed before causing further untold suffering to the general public. "There was so much publicity about the instruments but I was surprised to learn that holders of the cheques are being turned away by the retailers. "So it means some people did not do their job of liaising with stakeholders since this is a new feature to the country's financial system," said a shopper at Food World. Cash shortages gripped the country's banking system four months ago amid reports that some retails were hoarding the notes and coins while others suspected that the cash was being externalised by unscrupulous cross border traders. The Government has also set a September deadline for abolishing the top denominated $500 note, which is being hoarded for black market trade. Cross border traders have since admitted that they possess considerable amounts of the local currency outside the country. They have already appealed to the Government to lengthen the grace period for the phasing out of the $500 bills.
At a press conference last week, the Minister of Finance and economic Development Dr Herbert Murerwa said the central bank would be introducing travellers cheques for customs duty payments following a ban by the Government to take money out of the country. The Government also intends to introduce a new $1 000 note as part of measures to deal with the shortage of bank notes, which will coincide, with the introduction of the new $500 bill. Efforts to get a comment from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and the Reserve Bank officials proved fruitless at the time of going to Press yesterday.
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From The Times (UK), 13 August
After Liberia, Africans ponder face-saving exile for Mugabe
By Richard Beeston
The peaceful removal of Charles Taylor’s regime in Liberia has spurred hopes that such intervention can be used to resolve other flashpoints in Africa, in particular the continuing crisis in Zimbabwe. Only hours after the former Liberian President settled into life in exile in Nigeria, leaders across the continent were following events and drawing parallels with other countries. The clear link with Zimbabwe was provided by President Chissano of Mozambique, the current head of the African Union. No sooner was he home from his "successful" mission to Liberia than he announced that he was leaving for Harare for his latest attempt at "conflict resolution". According to officials and commentators in Africa and beyond, the face-saving formula devised to ease out the Taylor regime, under the supervision of African leaders and US warships, could be adapted. "There is a new mood in Africa. There is hope that we are turning away from conflict and entering a new era," a senior South African official said.
Peace efforts are under way in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. There has also been a peaceful transfer of power in Kenya following elections widely praised for being free and fair. Elsewhere change has been slower. In the West African nation of Togo, President Gnassingbe Eyadema, the continent’s longest-serving leader, has clung to power for 36 years. Zimbabwe stands out as the most pressing unresolved problem. President Mugabe and his Zanu PF party have used intimidatory violence to cling to power. The country’s political crisis and economic collapse has impoverished millions and led to an exodus of refugees into neighbouring states. All this has been divisive for relations between Africa and the West and within the Commonwealth. "Zimbabwe is now on the front burner," said a source close to President Mbeki of South Africa, who played a key role in the departure of Mr Taylor from Liberia and is regarded as the central figure in any solution in Zimbabwe. "Mugabe is pushing 80 and will sooner rather than later seek to hand over power. Liberia demonstrated that it is possible to do this peacefully and without humiliation."
Alex Vines, head of the African programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said that several aspects of the Liberian example could be adapted for use in Zimbabwe. In particular, the creation of a transitional government would help to overcome the political stalemate in Harare, he said. He also envisaged a possible role for African leaders, who provided a face- saving cover for Mr Taylor’s resignation and departure, and could provide dignity to any ceremony that would ease Mr Mugabe out of office. Michael Ancram, Shadow Foreign Secretary, said that Africa had long "turned a blind eye to violence and persecution" and that the events in Liberia had set the continent’s leaders a challenge. "First, if African leaders want to make progress for their people they have no option but to work with the international community to ensure that dictators like Mugabe are removed. And second, there must be no question of Mugabe or Taylor being replaced by yet another tyrant who will abuse his people."
Exile is a common fate for deposed African leaders. In addition to Mr Taylor, at least seven former African rulers are in exile, including Mengistu Haile Mariam, of Ethiopia, who is in Harare as a guest of Mr Mugabe. But there are doubts whether the Zimbabwean leader, a former guerrilla commander, would ever contemplate voluntarily stepping down. In remarks this week to veterans of his country’s civil war, he renewed his attack on the Opposition, and he has resisted all attempts at compromise. Lord Renwick of Clifton, who served as British Ambassador to Pretoria and to Washington, doubted that the Zimbabwean leader would leave power unless he felt directly threatened, as Mr Taylor had by rebels and US forces closing in on the Liberian capital. "Who is going to make him stand aside?" Lord Renwick said. "It is no good sweet-talking Mugabe."
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Comment from ZWNEWS, 13 August
Share-cropping
By Michael Hartnack
As the annual Commercial Farmers' Union congress took place last week, Zimbabwe's Minister of Agriculture Joseph Made boycotted the event, and said he hoped it was the end of the union which had become "irrelevant" following the "successful" resettlement of 300 000 families on 5 000 former white-owned farms - once 17 percent of Zimbabwe. He predicted the principal spokesmen for agriculture would in future be the Zimbabwe Farmers' Union, formed by small-scale peasant cultivators. "There are a few remnants of former white commercial farmers, about 200 of them, and the tendency is to lecture 11 million Zimbabweans about the destruction of the economy," Made told the state-controlled Herald. He added that the former farmers had destroyed the economy by resisting land reform, exporting crops and depositing the profits in foreign banks, "growing flowers instead of food crops, and they even slaughtered dairy cows, and now they are burning pastures. This group has played mischief all the time because they think they are a special race." And then there’s reality. Impartial estimates suggest way less than half of the claimed 300 000 peasant farmers have been able to take up and work plots allocated them over the past three years. Many farms have been diverted from the war veterans who first seized them to the elite, but remain derelict. There have been violent confrontations between new recipients and the original invaders. Zanu PF Information supremo Nathan Shamuyarira said that Robert Mugabe had ordered black Zimbabweans who owned more than one farm to surrender the rest for peasant resettlement by July 13. Nothing has happened and it has become clear this is just another hoax by the ruling Zanu PF party - like the "Marxist Leninist Leadership Code" Mugabe promulgated in the 1980s. Party leaders were prohibited from owning private business interests, more than one dwelling house, or more than 80 hectares of land. When Herbert Ushewokunze - supposedly the party's chief socialist ideologue - died in 1995, he bequeathed twenty properties, including ten farms, to his ten sons (all called Herbert).
At the CFU congress, incoming president Doug Taylor-Freeme said it was Made who should be called to account for the wrecking of agriculture. Billions of dollars worth of infrastructure had been looted or vandalised, and foot-and-mouth disease was rife. "We have massive food imports and yet there is infrastructure sitting idle such as irrigation, tobacco facilities, greenhouses. Crops are being abandoned or stolen, pedigree herds slaughtered, and farmers being evicted while silos are sitting empty." The CFU says only 400 white farmers remain unaffected by the turmoil of the past four years. They include to the resentment of Zimbabwe-born farmers Italian nationals whose government has told Mugabe that their eviction would breach a bilateral investment protection agreement. Another 800 farmers are managing to sustain production on a remnant of their property. Other farmers have reached "private arrangements" with influential persons who have claimed land. Some such agreements have already been dishonoured after the farmers assisted with planting of crops. "Zimbabwe continues on a downward path to ruin, with no relief in sight," Taylor-Freeme told the CFU congress. Tobacco production was down 60 percent, wheat 90 percent, while 300 000 farm workers and their families were left destitute and homeless. "A reversal of the calamitous macro-economic situation just described can only happen if current destructive policies are abandoned in favour of rational ones, and international assistance is both sought, and quickly forthcoming," he said.
The Justice for Agriculture group last week urged farmers not to abandon hope and quit Zimbabwe. "We need every single one of you to rebuild when rebuilding becomes possible through the re-establishment of the rule of law and a legitimate responsible government," said a statement. It added that those forced to leave should ensure lawyers and accountants were briefed to defend their rights "so the farm cannot be acquired by default." It will, however, be difficult to attract back those who find their feet in less stressful environments, after suffering naked violence and plunder in the land of their birth. Tanzania recently tried to lure back farmers forced to quit by Julius Nyerere's nationalisation campaign in the 1960s. One would-be returnee reported he was not deterred so much by the annihilation of infrastructure - dams, roads, fences, houses - but by the absence of any form of community. The neighbours who once supported each other were scattered to the four winds. Tanzania is more likely to attract multinational companies which will restore modern-style production with the aid of expatriate managers on contract, and underwritten by international aid and guarantees.
The tale of the ten Herberts reflects the traditional Zanu PF cocktail of megalomania and greed which is likely to prove toxic to commercial use of the soil. The elite will have difficulty turning their booty from "fast track land reform" into cash cows, even with the lavish subsidies now promised them by a bankrupt state. Made cannot change economics: competitive advantage on world export markets rests with large-scale, efficient, uncorrupt, modern methods. Commercial agriculture is therefore certain to make a comeback - sooner or later - whether white Zimbabweans are involved or not. There is as little hope for the subsistence cultivator, who lacks expertise, capital, and title deeds, as there is for the "telephone farmer" who has a desk in a government ministry in Harare and maintains rural holdings as dumping grounds for superannuated wives. The traditional family-owned commercial farm may be doomed to disappear in Zimbabwe because the business is perceived to be just too risky. Although radical reformers will not mourn the passing of the concomitants - the exclusive country club, the polo field and rugby pitch - it will also mean the end of clinics run by farmers' wives, schools, and care for retired workers. It will mean commercial agriculture run by technocrats who do not speak the local languages, understand the culture, or have a stake in the land. If that happens, Mugabe will have achieved his dream of reducing those operating commercial agriculture to the status of landless, rootless share-croppers, although in a way he did not foresee. Commercial farming will still be there.
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From IRIN (UN), 13 August
Aid pipeline saved but "situation still alarming" - WFP
Johannesburg - A US $28 million cash injection has rescued the World Food Programme's (WFP) aid pipeline in Zimbabwe. The WPF said in a statement that the donation from the European Commission (EC) "could not have come at a more critical time". "Without [the donation], food aid supplies for Zimbabwe would have run out by the end of this month. This contribution will enable us to fast-track a regional purchase of about 60,000 mt of maize," WFP Zimbabwe Country Director, Kevin Farrell, was quoted as saying. Last year the EC and European Union member states donated about 40 percent of all contributions raised for Zimbabwe. "Thanks to the generous and timely response by donors such as the European Commission, WFP was able to avert widespread starvation last season," Farrel said. However, he warned that "the food security situation in Zimbabwe remains alarming, and without continued international support, a significant proportion of the population will remain at serious risk". A recent joint assessment by WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organisation found that about 3.3 million Zimbabweans are currently in urgent need of food aid. By January 2004, that number is expected to jump to 5.5 million. "People are increasingly showing up at rural food distributions, begging to receive food aid, but due to scarce resources, WFP is forced to restrict its rations to the most vulnerable, many of whom live in households affected by HIV/AIDS," WFP said. As further evidence of the desperate situation in Zimbabwe, at some distribution sites "beneficiaries have been seen opening and eating uncooked rations on the spot", the organisation said. In August WFP plans to feed 1.4 million people in rural areas and is looking to expand its programme in urban areas, "where food shortages have become acute".
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From Business Day (SA), 14 August
NGOs threaten action in Zimbabwe
International Affairs Editor
Zimbabwean civil groups are threatening to take members of the ruling Zanu PF to the recently established International Criminal Court on torture charges. At a conference outside Johannesburg that ended yesterday, a number of representatives said the intensity of the crackdown in Zimbabwe appeared to have somewhat abated, but that they tended to occur around the time of elections. They said extensive state-sponsored violent intimidation was used to crush the recent mass action orchestrated by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Non-governmental organisation (NGO) leaders fear a renewed crackdown with the onset of council elections in a number of towns. Yesterday they said there should be no blanket amnesty for human rights abuses, something that could rule out part of a widely rumoured exit package for President Robert Mugabe.
Taking members of the Zanu PF to the international court and an SA-type truth and reconciliation commission are two of the avenues being investigated by the NGO's, which include human rights and women's groups, and trade unions. To take the Zanu PF elite to the court, the groups would have to establish that there has been widespread and systematic use of torture, which would, under human rights law, constitute a crime against humanity. As Zimbabwe has signed but not ratified the Rome Statute, which set up the international court, those who planned and executed the torture could not be charged now. But should a future Zimbabwean government ratify the court's statute, the groups say that charges could be made. The groups are also investigating whether Mugabe and others could be held accountable for the massacre of an estimated 10000 people in Matabeleland between 1982 and 1983 by the Zimbabwean army's North Korean trained Fifth Brigade.
The Amani Trust has evidence of 3000 cases of torture over the period since February 2000, half of them involving intense beating of the soles of feet. Beating inflicted on this area causes severe pain and very often leaves little evidence in the form of scarring. The Zimbabwean Doctors for Human Rights also point to the extensive head-to-toe beatings and the use of cupped hands slamming against ears, which often ruptures ear drums. Arnold Tsumba, director of the Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights, says there is also a clear pattern of holding political detainees incommunicado.
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From IRIN (UN), 13 August
Skills lost in "internal" brain drain
Harare - Chamunorwa Chirova is a new type of Zimbabwean entrepreneur - he makes his money by illegally selling fuel on the thriving black market. It was not a job he anticipated when he graduated eight years ago with an engineering degree from the University of Zimbabwe. Until two years ago he was working at a beverage firm, struggling along in the depressed formal economy, when the economic crisis and rising cost of living made him reassess his future. "The salaries were so small, and we were working shifts as a result of reduced production. This meant our salaries were sometimes cut," explained 35-year-old Chamunorwa. In the meantime, government price controls on basic commodities had created a booming black market. He decided to resign and take his chances there. Now he supports his two children by selling fuel illegally on the street to desperate motorists, on behalf of dealers who have licences from the authorities to import the scarce commodity, while keeping an alert eye on the police. They are trying to stamp out the black market as it diverts fuel from the official outlets, where it is more than three times cheaper than the street price of Z$1,500 (US $1.80) a litre, but seldom available. The fuel shortage resulting from the government's crippling lack of foreign exchange has kept Chamunorwa in business. Despite the risks, he has been able to buy an old pickup truck with his earnings. "It's better than nothing, and I almost earn five times what my colleagues I left at that firm do," he said.
Tabeth Zuze, 25, made a similar decision to try her hand in the parallel market. She graduated from teachers' training college in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo only last year, but did not relish the idea of working in the rural areas, living in a one-roomed house with no transport, no clean water - and worse - no teaching aids, including even chalk. She now owns two flea market stalls in Harare's city centre, selling plasticware and china imported from South Africa. "I earn enough to pay rent and buy food. I can [turn over] up to Z$200,000 [US $244] a month," she said. Teachers in Zimbabwe earn an average of Z$150,000 (US $183). A recent report by the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre has shown that nearly 500,000 Zimbabwean professionals have left the country since 1990 in search of better opportunities overseas. But an internal movement of skilled Zimbabweans is also under way, robbing the country of much-needed capacity, and shrinking the government's tax revenue base. Both Chirova and Zuze represent the phenomenon of the "internal brain drain" - trained professionals who have remained in the country but chosen not to utilise their skills in formal careers.
The impact is felt throughout the professions. One lawyer told IRIN that his firm lost two junior lawyers this year alone. "The guys are now cross-border traders, selling sugar, cooking oil and clothes to Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia. They say they earn at least US $5,000 every month," he explained. The average salary for a junior lawyer is Z$450,000 (US $549). Social worker Michael Phiri said Zimbabwe's formal sector is increasingly understaffed as professionals seek opportunities elsewhere. In many rural communities where he has worked, clinics were manned by orderlies because nurses drifted to urban areas to look for alternative jobs, or joined the legion of Zimbabwean health care workers employed abroad, typically in Britain or South Africa. "Education is no longer a guarantee of employment, nor a good salary, as the economy is now more and more informal," Phiri said.
Chivora and Zuze deliberately opted out of formal employment. But for most Zimbabweans, the country's shrinking economy has left them with little other choice. Zimbabwe's unemployment rate is estimated at 75 percent and is expected to reach 90 percent by the end of 2003. According to George Making, a human resources consultant, 400 companies closed in 2002 alone, leaving at least 350,000 people jobless. Estimates put the number of formal jobs lost at over 800,000 since 2000, employment agent Tapiwa Chikudo told IRIN. The losses were mainly in the agriculture, construction and manufacturing industries. In addition, over 250,000 school leavers join the job market every year. One independent researcher believes Zimbabwe's decline has been so severe that the economy would need to grow by an unprecedented 25 percent over five years to achieve a reasonable recovery. "For Zimbabwe to recover to levels where it can generate sufficient jobs and wealth to ensure the repayment of loans on one hand, whilst allowing a significant improvement in the conditions of life for a poverty stricken and AIDS-ravaged population, the economy must sustain a minimum of a 25 percent economic growth rate over a space of not less than five years," said the researcher with the NGO, the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 13 August
Zim wildlife pillage continues
Yolandi Groenewald
Beleaguered Zimbabwean farmers say war veterans and hunters from South Africa and Botswana are stripping game farms of their wildlife. And even when Zimbabwean authorities arrest alleged perpetrators, political intervention allows them to walk free. The farmers now say they have had enough and will fight back on their own to protect the remaining wild animals. In May the Mail & Guardian reported that South African hunters and safari operators were exploiting the chaos in Zimbabwe. But Ben Zietsman, chief executive of the Matabeleland branch of the Commercial Farmers Union’s (CFU), has told the M&G the carnage is continuing. Farmers say that local authorities are writing out hunting permits for animals they do not own to turn a fast buck. "Settlers and local district councils have claimed the wildlife on listed properties [listed for expropriation in Zimbabwe's land resettlement programme] for themselves and are selling it off to the first unscrupulous buyer that comes along," Zietsman says. "Numerous South African hunters have been fingered [by the CFU and the Zimbabwean police] in the past few months for taking advantage of the confusion over land and wildlife ownership, and for contributing to the uncontrolled depletion of the wildlife resources on listed properties in Zimbabwe."
Evicted farmers in the area are livid about the annihilation of wildlife herds they have built up over many years. Many of these farmers have lost their land to supposed war veterans, but still hope that they may eventually reclaim their farms. But they are asking what will be left, Zietsman says. Pete van der Bergh, owner of the Musuma ranch near Bulawayo, has been grappling with an alleged illegal commercial hunter from Botswana. And Johnny Rodrigues, president of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF), a conservation action group, says investigations by Van der Bergh and other farmers in the area have identified the hunter - whose name is known to the M&G. "These bastards have virtually killed all my game and have destroyed my conservancy in 90 days," Van der Bergh says. "They have killed everything that walks, crawls or flies." He says the alleged illegal hunters have killed about 16 buffalo, 150 sable, 100 eland, 100 wildebeest and 30 zebra on his farm. Van der Bergh says they even killed the crocodiles in the river. "If I do not get help I will be confronting the hunters anyway. I am alone. I will be armed and I have a feeling that there will be a shootout ... Maybe this will stop these bastards. I will take matters into my own hands."
Even if the illegal hunters are caught, political connections ensure that they are not held for long, Zietsman says. Eight South African hunters recently returned to South Africa after alleged illegal hunting activities. They were arrested last month, but charges were dropped after they produced hunting permits from the local authorities. Farmers in the area suspect that in June the South African hunters shot a rhinoceros in the Bubiana conservancy in southern Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean police are still pursuing the South Africans’ alleged involvement. Zietsman says the hunt took place under the authority of the local rural district council, which is mainly run by the new settlers. The men were only released after a senior Zimbabwean politician, who recently acquired a farm in the same district, intervened, he says. "He applied pressure on the investigating police officers to release the men and drop the charges laid." Johan Brummer, one of the detained group, denied that they had engaged in illegal hunting. "We had perfectly lawful permits," he told the media shortly after returning to South Africa. "We did not do anything illegal." He said the group was released after the police confirmed their permits were legitimate. "They also confirmed that no quotas were exceeded."
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From The United Nations, 13 August
Security Council extends panel seeking to halt plunder of resources
Striving to halt the continuing plunder of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations Security Council today unanimously renewed the mandate of a special investigative panel and demanded that all States take immediate steps to end such illegal exploitation. The 15-0 vote gives the Expert Panel on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo until 31 October to complete its mandate, at the end of which it will submit a final report to the Council. The resolution noted "with great concern" that plundering continued, especially in the eastern part of the DRC, and stressed that "appropriate action should be taken with regard to those responsible for such activities." The Council "reiterates its demand that all states concerned take immediate steps to end the illegal exploitation of nature," the resolution added.
In a report to the Council last year, Panel Chairman Mahmoud Kassem said it had identified three "elite networks" that had carved out separate spheres of economic control in the country over the past four years. "The elite networks’ grip on the DRC’s economy extends far beyond precious natural resources to encompass territory, fiscal revenues and trade in general," he added. He said the networks’ activities involved highly organized and documented systems of embezzlement, tax fraud, extortion, kickbacks, false invoicing, asset-stripping of State companies and secret profit-sharing agreements, and that these activities were orchestrated in a manner that closely resembled criminal operations. "The networks collaborate with organized criminal groups, some of them transnational organizations in order to maximize profits," he stated, adding that they use those criminal groups for discreet military operations, money laundering, illegal currency transactions, counterfeiting operations, arms trafficking, smuggling and many other activities aimed at political destabilization. The war economy directed by these networks functions under the cover of armed conflict, manipulation of ethnic tensions and generalized violence that generate enormous profits for "small coteries of powerful individuals or the commercial wing on military institutions," Mr. Kassem said. The activities drain the DRC’s treasury of revenues at the national and local levels and leave the population without basic services.
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From The Daily News, 14 August
Tsvangirai demands progress on talks
By Zerubabel Mudzingwa and Precious Shumba
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday demanded that the ruling Zanu PF party reciprocate peace overtures, warning that his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party had not abandoned mass action but had extended the olive branch only in a bid to find a peaceful solution to Zimbabwe's crisis. Tsvangirai, who was speaking at the burial of Kadoma Central Member of Parliament Austin Mupandawana (MDC) in the town, accused Zanu PF of insincerity towards dialogue, saying the ruling party was dragging its feet on an initiative by Zimbabwe's church leaders to resuscitate dialogue between the country's biggest political parties. Mupandawana died on Saturday. Tsvangirai said: "Mass action is not yet off the agenda. The talks are an olive branch we are giving Zanu PF to test its sincerity about ending the crisis. But if we fail to make a breakthrough in the talks then we will resort to mass action."
Tsvangirai spoke as it emerged yesterday that there were sharp divisions within Zanu PF over whether to endorse the church-led search for a negotiated settlement to break Zimbabwe's political impasse. Sources said there was also bitter disagreement within the ruling party over issues that should be on the agenda, when and if talks with the MDC are resumed. The well-placed sources said because of the bitter wrangling between various and competing factions within Zanu PF, the ruling party had failed to submit its written position on the talks to the church leaders. Zanu PF was supposed to have submitted its position to the leaders of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference last week. The MDC has already confirmed in writing it is ready to resume talks. "The delays in submitting party proposals are mostly over the agenda items and whether or not we should accept the clergymen's initiative. The party would want wide consultations before we make a firm commitment to the proposals," a source told the Daily News yesterday.
A spokesman for the three-member church team, Trevor Manhanga, yesterday said his group was scheduled to meet Zanu PF chairman John Nkomo on Monday to get an update on that party's position on the issue of dialogue. Manhanga said: "We were in touch with Minister Nkomo and he suggested we should meet him this Friday or next Monday to hear their position. We agreed that we should meet just to see what the issues are." But Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira dismissed suggestions there was disagreement in his party over resumption of dialogue with the MDC, which broke down last August. Shamuyarira said: "That's not a true allegation. That's a falsehood on Zanu PF's position. We should negotiate directly with the parties concerned." The Zanu PF spokesman would, however, not say when the party would submit its position on resumption of negotiations in writing to the church leaders.
Both Zanu PF and state President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai told Manhanga and his group in separate meetings that they were committed to the resumption of dialogue between their rival parties. But Mugabe earlier this week poured cold water on prospects for dialogue when he demanded that the MDC "repent" first before there could be co-operation with his government. A week earlier, hawkish Zanu PF legal affairs secretary Patrick Chinamasa had trashed the church-led efforts to revive dialogue as insincere, accusing the clergymen of being biased in favour of the MDC. Tsvangirai yesterday warned Mugabe and his Zanu PF party not to misread the MDC's readiness for dialogue for a sign of capitulation. The opposition leader, who accused Zanu PF of wanting to use the proposed talks for propaganda purposes, said the MDC would not negotiate forever. He said: "We have our deadlines because we cannot negotiate ad infinitum, but we cannot discuss that because we don't negotiate through the Press. "Zanu PF has failed to reciprocate our goodwill overtures to save this country from total collapse. Instead we feel that they want to use this whole process of talks to portray a picture of themselves to the international community as a peace-loving party."
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 14 August
Churches call for pro-active policy on Zimbabwe
The central committee of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) has called on the South African government to be more pro-active in its efforts to facilitate a resolution of Zimbabwe's crisis. In a statement issued on Thursday, following the committee's meeting earlier this week, the SACC also expressed its support for the continuing efforts to ensure peace and stability in Zimbabwe. Representatives of the council's 24-member denominations welcomed the renewed communication between the government of Zimbabwe and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, the SACC said. "They recognised, in particular, the Zimbabwean churches' united witness for peace and human rights. The central committee expressed concern for and solidarity with the churches in Zimbabwe, and made the resources of the SACC's reconciliation and healing programme available to support the peace process." The committee also acknowledged the efforts of the South African government to promote peace and stability in Zimbabwe. "At the same time, however, the delegates urged Pretoria to be more pro-active in working for a just and sustainable solution to the nation's political and humanitarian crises," the SACC said.
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From The Financial Gazette, 14 August
Zim airports collapse
Brian Mangwende, Chief Reporter
Zimbabwe's aviation standards have plumbed to new depths, with the country’s premier Harare International Airport’s runway now reportedly unfit for landing by the world’s major airlines, giving another twist to the screws on the faltering tourism sector currently laden with gloom and doom. This development, which has forced leading international airlines to abandon Zimbabwe, has prompted the cash-strapped government to issue a directive to the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) to expeditiously upgrade the dilapidated infrastructure to meet international standards at a cost of $11 billion. There are however heightened fears that the hurried project could come unstuck due to prohibitive costs. Harare International Airport, the biggest and most developed of all airports around the country, was constructed in 1955 and first used in 1956 but the runway has never been strengthened or rehabilitated. Runways have a life span of 25 years, according to international aviation standards. Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Chicago Convention of the International Aviation Organisation (ICAO). As such, it has an international obligation to meet the standards and recommended practices enshrined in 18 annexes to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
Well-placed sources within the aviation industry this week disclosed that senior aviation officials would travel to the Middle East this month to mobilise resources and lure technical expertise to undertake the upgrading exercise as well as canvass Arab airlines to fly to Zimbabwe. The mission would include CAAZ chief executive officer Karikoga Kaseke. Last year, CAAZ issued a $2.8 billion tender to upgrade the Harare International Airport, but sources said the tender had been put on hold for unspecified reasons. Instead, the sources said the CAAZ directorate was now mulling plans to mobilise capital from indigenous companies for the stalled project. The indigenous companies would upgrade the airport on a build-own-transfer (BOT) basis at an estimated cost of $11 billion. They would own the upgraded facilities for about 20 years before surrendering them back to the government. Apart from the runway, which requires resurfacing to strengthen its capacity to hold huge carriers such as the Boeing 747, the new Boeing 777 and the A340 airbus, the airport needs a new airfield ground lighting system and a complete new approach system. CAAZ also intends to refurbish the old airport terminal and turn it into a business centre for revenue generation.
Industry sources said there were problems in attracting carriers from major tourist source markets such as Gulf, Emirates, Pacific, Virgin, and Atlantic airlines among others. Already, Mauritius, Qantas, Air France and Lufthansa, among other major airlines, heavily dependent on tourist attractions, have pulled out. This mirrors the accelerated decline in the tourism industry, at one time Zimbabwe’s fastest growing sector. Charles Samuriwo, the CAAZ board chairman, and Kaseke this week confirmed work was in progress to upgrade and refurbish all airports in the country but because of hyperinflation, the projected costs continued to rise to prohibitive levels. Both men confirmed plans to travel to the Middle East this month. "We should bring all stakeholders together with a view to work as a team to revive the industry," Samuriwo said. "CAAZ cannot go it alone but we will certainly take the lead in a joint vision to plan the revival of the industry." Samuriwo added that the Middle East trip was aimed at luring new players and mending relations with the old ones who had deserted Zimbabwe.
Other major airports in the country in need of a facelift are Victoria Falls, Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and Buffalo Range airports. Kaseke told The Financial Gazette that work at all airports was already in progress. "We’re refurbishing and upgrading all airports around the country at various costs," Kaseke said. "We have a tourist attraction in Zimbabwe which is the Victoria Falls. Instead of us getting the biggest share of revenue, we’re getting leftovers as most carriers shun our airports because of their conditions. We’re operating as a spoke which is unfair because we’re meant to be the hub of tourism in southern Africa. Government wants us to go all out in bringing traffic into the country," Kaseke said. Asked why it had taken so long to undertake such major upgrading and refurbishment projects, Kaseke merely said: "It was because of the government policy then." The Victoria Falls airport currently accommodates 200 000 passengers per year, but projections are that by the year 2010, the capacity should rise to 1.5 million. The initial cost for the upgrading of the Victoria Falls terminal building alone, which is already underway, was $3.7 billion last year but has been revised upwards to a staggering $51 billion due to skyrocketing inflation. So far CAAZ has spent $250 million on enabling works at that airport. Victoria Falls is the hub of tourist activities, boasting one of the world’s seven wonders.
The Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo airport, based in the country’s second largest city Bulawayo, has no basic facilities. International and domestic traffic are mixing, creating problems for customs and immigration officials. It has a capacity to handle 120 000 people per annum but is currently handling 200 000. In 1997, traffic was pegged at 300 000 people but dropped to 120 000 because of political and economic instability in the country. Buffalo Range, which can cater for a Boeing 737, needs refurbishment of the terminal and an extension of the runway. A tender is to be issued in September and work is expected to be complete sometime next year. Zimbabwe’s aviation industry is still fighting to redeem itself from its condemnation by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in November 1994. That year, the FAA found the government of Zimbabwe’s civil aviation standards not to be in compliance with international aviation safety standards for oversight of the country’s air carrier operations.
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Comment from ZWNEWS, 15 August
Hit for six
The government is so desperate for foreign currency that it seems even cricket players' bank accounts are not immune from the attentions of the country's security agents. Members of Zimbabwe's cricket squad stand to lose a large part of their earnings from playing in the World Cup, The Times reported yesterday. Not only has the total amount paid to each player reportedly been cut, but a ruling by the Reserve Bank also means that the players will be forced to change half of their remaining earnings into local currency at the official exchange rate. The players are furious. "It’s like they’re stealing our foreign currency," one unnamed player was quoted as saying, "and it’s only worth living in Zimbabwe if you can earn foreign currency." Small print in the players' contracts stated that, if the Zimbabwe Cricket Union's income from the tournament failed to reach a certain level, payments to the players would be cut pro-rata. The result of this was an immediate 19% cut in each player's payment. Worse was to follow. On the day the payments were made to the players' foreign currency accounts in Zimbabwe, CIO agents arrived demanding to see details of the accounts. The account manager was later informed that the Reserve Bank had decided that these accounts were deemed to be corporate, not individual, accounts. The change in status means that 50% of the players' earnings must be converted to Z$ at the official rate of 824 to the US$. On the black market, the US$ has recently been trading at up to Z$4500. Access to the remaining 50% held in foreign currency is by application to the Reserve Bank. There is no guarantee that any such application would be successful.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 15 August
Mugabe makes new proposals
Dumisani Muleya
President Robert Mugabe is now pinning his hopes on constitutional reform to extricate himself from the current crisis. High-level sources privy to the ongoing talks between Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said Mugabe is behind the ruling party's efforts to revive the constitutional issue as part of his bid to find an exit plan that allows him to go with dignity. The sources said Mugabe wants an amendment to the current constitution or the drawing up of a new one that would provide ring-fencing measures to protect him from prosecution for human rights abuses. It is understood Mugabe would, if the talks restart any time now and progress is made, relinquish the Zanu PF leadership in December during the party's annual conference but remain as head of state until fresh elections are held by June next year. The June time frame for fresh polls emerged after United States President George Bush's meeting with South African President Thabo Mbeki on July 9.
Contemplated changes would also revive the post of prime minister enabling Mugabe to retain the ceremonial post of head of state while conceding day-to-day authority to either his designated successor as party leader or an MDC official. Mugabe recently said he did not mind which system of government was in place although he preferred the American-style presidential system. Thabo Mbeki who has been trying for the past three years to broker a solution to Zimbabwe's seemingly intractable crisis was said to have indicated to a senior regional official recently that Mugabe wants to retire as Zanu PF leader in December. Mbeki has of late been trying to placate Mugabe to ensure he remains on the path to dialogue. In July Mbeki was reported to have engineered Mugabe's appointment as one of the five deputy chairs of the African Union in Mozambique as part of a wider propitiation policy. Sources said Pretoria would also ensure Zimbabwe is not discussed at the forthcoming Sadc meeting in Tanzania and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Nigeria in December, thus removing Mugabe from divisive and unflattering controversy.
The constitutional debate has now moved to the centre of the ongoing dialogue between the two parties aimed at breaking the political impasse. Zanu PF now wants to table the constitutional issue currently being considered informally when talks that broke down in May last year officially resume. The MDC is amenable to constitutional change but its position is that there has to be an interim document instead of a final one to facilitate transition to democratic legitimacy. Although Zanu PF is pressing for a signed and sealed constitutional deal in a bid to secure immunity guarantees for Mugabe, the MDC is resisting the idea because it says only a popularly elected government can bring about a genuine new constitution. The MDC's position is similar to the African National Congress's stance at the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa) from 1991-93. The opposition, whose civic society allies are anxious to ensure constitutional reform before a new political dispensation, recently raised the issue in its report to church mediators. "A programme for comprehensive constitutional reform is necessary and must be agreed upon so as to remove some of the major sources of political instability and contestation in the country," the MDC said. "Such constitutional reform should guide us in returning to legitimacy." The constitutional reform initiative is seen as the only way out for Mugabe now. The MDC's ally, the National Constitutional Assembly, has argued that a constitutional review should take precedence over politics, as it is the only route towards the restoration of democracy upon which political and economic stability rest.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 15 August
Opposition says no to Mugabe unity government
Harare - The opposition said Friday it would not join a government of national unity with President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, widening the rift on possible negotiations between the parties to end Zimbabwe's political and economic chaos. Paul Themba Nyathi, the chief spokesperson for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), described suggestions of a unity government with Mugabe's Zanu PF party as a gimmick designed to demoralise opposition supporters. "What we seek from dialogue is to find a route toward the restoration of democracy in the country. Anyone who thinks that the MDC seeks unity with Zanu PF is engaged in delusional politics," said Nyathi. "If Zanu PF and Mugabe think that the MDC seeks to march alongside them, they are gravely mistaken." He was responding to allegations printed on a pamphlet that the opposition was "moving toward a unity government" in its preparations for new talks with Mugabe's party. Nyathi said he believed the pamphlet came from the ruling party. He accused Mugabe's party of "seeking to redeem their image" by promoting the idea of a coalition government.
Earlier this week, Mugabe himself dashed hopes of a compromise with the opposition, seen as the only hope of dragging the country out of economic and political chaos. He called on his opponents to "repent and re-orientate themselves" before national political dialogue could resume, saying "there cannot be unity with enemies of the people." South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo have tried bringing the two parties to the negotiation table for more than a year. Talks failed after the opposition refused to recognise Mugabe's re-election for another six-year term last year. The MDC is challenging the results in court, claiming the vote was marred by rigging and intimidation by ruling party militants. These allegations also saw Zimbabwe suspended from the Commonwealth. Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Friday branded Mugabe an "unelected despot" and said his nation should not be readmitted to the decision-making councils of Britain and its former colonies. Howard was speaking on the sidelines of a Pacific leaders' meeting in Auckland. Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, with official inflation at 370%. Black-market trading in scarce food and gasoline puts inflation closer to 700%. Local currency shortages are blamed on the out-of-control inflation, the central bank's inability to print money quickly enough and the hoarding of cash amid uncertainty in the crumbling economy. The deepening economic crisis is blamed partly on the state programme that seized thousands of commercial farms from the white minority for redistribution to black settlers. The program is also blamed for greatly exacerbating a hunger crisis that threatens nearly half of the population. The United Nations estimates about 3,3-million Zimbabweans are in urgent need of food aid. Mass starvation last year was only avoided by international food aid.
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From The Daily News, 15 August
Ghost voters unearthed
By Precious Shumba, Senior Reporter
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)’s elections directorate yesterday said it had discovered the names of 6 000 "ghost" voters on the Gweru voters ’ roll ahead of the 30 to 31 August municipal elections. MacDonald Chirunga, an official with the opposition party’s elections directorate, told the Daily News that several potential voters in the city had been disenfranchised, while non-residents of Gweru were being registered under non-existent residential addresses. "We bought the voters’ roll from the RG’ s (Registrar-General’s) Office for the Gweru municipal elections and carried out a physical audit of the voters’ roll by checking names against given addresses," he said. "It has been proved beyond reasonable doubt that there are close to 6 000 anomalies. This reduces our chances of a convincing win as Zanu PF can benefit by about 20 percent through bussing in people and ghost voters." It was not possible to secure comment from Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede, who was yesterday reportedly attending meetings. But Zanu PF secretary for information and publicity Nathan Shamuyarira said those who doubted the credibility of the electoral system should go to court so that ghost voters could be disqualified from voting on the basis of available material evidence. "The registration of voters is an ever-continuing process, but one must be resident in a particular constituency to be registered," Shamuyarira said. "One has to give his name and physical address before they can be registered. The MDC should take that matter forward through the legal system and those illegally registered will be disqualified. No one knows better how to go to the courts than the MDC. Let them go to the courts and appeal against that."
Chirunga said the MDC had discovered several ghost names under incomplete or non-existent physical addresses, while another 723 phantom voters were registered at state institutions such as police stations, hospitals and military camps. The MDC officials said names such as that of Laison Morgan Tonera appeared on the voters’ roll in Ward 3 without a physical address. Chirunga said disenfranchised voters included one Janet Bafana of 206 Makina Square in Senga of Ward 5, who is registered under the Ward 3 voters’ roll. Other names appearing on the voters’ roll included Agnes Kudzai Matarise of Ward 3, Cecilia Jakachira and Inosi Matora, both of Ward 12, whose physical addresses indicated that they were residents of Silobela and Gokwe South constituencies. Electoral Supervisory Commission spokesman Thomas Bvuma yesterday admitted that there were problems arising from the voters’ rolls, mainly due to the continued movement of people from one area to another. He said: "I have not heard such reports and l have not seen any letters raising those issues from the MDC. Some people may have been registered a long time ago and people are moving to new areas like resettlement schemes. Those are factors which should be considered by people going through the voters’ rolls. If there are any anomalies, one has to consider when that registration occurred. In fact, people are moving to new residential areas without effecting transfers on the voters’ roll with the RG’s Office. Several names will, in the process, remain registered in an area they have since moved from. That’s a general problem that exists."
Meanwhile, MDC officials in Mutare said more than 50 opposition party supporters were injured on Wednesday night in clashes with suspected ruling Zanu PF activists ahead of this month’s urban council elections. The injured included two aides of MDC Mutare mayoral candidate Misheck Kagurabadza. The two, Peter Buzuzi and Shamiso Obert Mubango, sustained serious injuries from stabbings on Wednesday night, MDC officials said. MDC provincial spokesman Pishai Muchauraya yesterday said Buzuzi and Mubango were admitted at a privately-run city hospital after they were attacked by about 60 people dropped off by three Nissan Hardbody vehicles marked "Zanu PF Manicaland Province" and another marked "Zanu PF Mutasa DCC". Muchauraya said those attacked were among about 400 people gathered at Sakubva’s Ward 2 near Sakubva District Hospital at Kaburabadza’s campaign rally. Muchauraya said Kagurabadza escaped unhurt, but the windscreen of his Nissan vehicle was smashed. "Buzuzi and Mubango were stabbed while protecting Kagurabadza from being assaulted by the youths with missiles," Muchauraya said. He added that the police officer commanding Manicaland, Ronald Muderedzwa, whisked Buzuzi and Mubango to hospital. Muderedzwa yesterday confirmed that he had been called to the scene. "Yes, I heard about that, but can you call the Officer Commanding Mutare District, Emilia Moyo? " Moyo could not be reached for comment yesterday.
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From Reuters, 15 August
Zimbabwe bankers see no relief to cash shortage
By Stella Mapenzauswa
Harare - Bankers in Zimbabwe said on Friday few people had heeded a government plea to return large amounts of cash stashed at home, providing no relief to a crippling shortage of bank-notes which has hit the country. For the last two weeks scores of people have queued at banks in a desperate hope that depositors, mostly retailers, would bring in cash which could be withdrawn to buy food and fuel -- which are also scarce in the crisis-hit economy. President Robert Mugabe's government said last week it had outlawed the hoarding of cash and the government had set an end-September deadline to abolish the highest denominated Z$500 note, which it says is being hoarded for black market trade. "We haven't seen any significant inflows of the Z$500 notes back into the system, and cash injections from the central bank are still inadequate to meet demand," one official at a Harare commercial bank said on Friday. "Either people do not believe the government means business, or they are waiting until the last minute to bring back the money," he told Reuters.
Inflation in Zimbabwe is running at an annual rate of 366 percent - one of the highest in the world - and the Zimbabwe dollar is plummeting on the black market, where it is trading at 4,000 to the dollar, versus an official rate of 824/dollar. Just a month ago it was trading illegally at 3,500/dollar, while at the end of June it stood at 2,500 -- a trend which has fuelled expectations of an official devaluation. Zimbabwe's main labour union, which has recently led several anti-government protests, says it will consult its members on what action to take after a two week deadline it gave the government to resolve the cash crunch expired on Tuesday. The banknote shortage is the latest sign of a political and economic crisis which has deepened since Mugabe's controversial re-election in a March 2002 poll condemned as rigged by both the opposition and several Western countries. Critics say Mugabe has mismanaged the country since assuming power at independence from Britain in 1980, leading to chronic shortages of food, fuel and cash, along with an unemployment rate of more than 70 percent.
In a statement accompanying its interim results this week, financial services group Kingdom warned of further hardships for the country in coming months and said inflation could exceed 800 percent by the end of 2003. "What has clearly emerged...is that any remedy is dependent on a resolution of the political environment...thereby improving the country's sovereign risk, which is essential to attracting foreign investment," the group said. Mugabe, 79, denies the charges of misrule levied against him and says the economy has been sabotaged by local and international opponents over his controversial seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks. Earlier this month the International Monetary Fund urged Zimbabwe to enhance governance and transparency in its policies to attract foreign investment and regain the support of creditors and donors.
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From ZWNEWS, 15 August
Fringe cuts
Robert Mugabe has made it to the Fringe of the annual Edinburgh Festival via a five-piece acoustic rock band, Mann Friday. The band, led by Zimbabwean Rob Burrell, 25, performs each evening against a background of stills, some as beautiful as sunset over the Victoria Falls, others disturbing: a woman dying of AIDS, bloodied victims of Zanu PF thugs, a starving child. The show is titled Zimbabwe Ruins, and Mugabe stares briefly from one of the stills which, with the music and song, chronicle the country from shortly before 1980 independence the group are all in their mid-20s to the past four years of accelerating violence, corruption and decline. Zimbabwe Ruins has attracted a fair amount of attention for a fringe show - one of the hundreds of gigs, short plays, readings, and comic or would-be comic turns performed during August by often obscure artists in compact venues round the Scottish capital. The Times of London carried a news story, and Edinburgh’s Evening News called Zimbabwe Ruins "A tale to empower every race, colour and creed." For the group, recently arrived in Britain and hoping to make it in a highly competitive world, the political message of this show is only a part of what they hope to be about.
"We’re not a human rights awareness group or anything," said Burrell. "We decided to kill two birds with one stone to play as musicians and at the same time raise awareness of the situation in our country." Three of the group are Zimbabweans, all born in Harare: Burrell, Angus Wakeling and Ryan Koriya. The others are South African Justin Cocks, who teamed up with Burrell at Rhodes University in South Africa, and Briton JP Sutcliffe. In a style briefly reminiscent of Alexandra Fuller’s account of growing up as a white child in Zimbabwe, Burrell intersperses the music with a commentary on his own life. For example, "I am 12 and I am a white boy with a maid called Maria." And later Maria is dying of AIDS, and the 17-year-old Burrell and his family visit her in a township in a room with no power. Then comes the song: "Hold My Hand, I’m Tired." There are stills of 22-year-old "war veterans" seizing white-owned farms, of opposition Movement for Democratic Change offices burned and defaced, of elephants wandering lazily in the bush, of a Harare suburban garden in flower; of mountain trails in Zimbabwe’ s Eastern Highlands. The finale to this entertaining and moving performance with its sense of longing for a land that’s been left had the audience clapping along to the thudding beat of "Be Yourself, Be Nothing Else And Dance."
Elsewhere on the Fringe, Zimbabwean theatre company Over the Edge is performing Wole Soyinka's play King Baabu, a "hilarious, explosive and thoroughly African reworking" of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi (1896), which satirised the French bourgeoisie, and which was itself a rewrite of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The play traces the rise and fall of an African dictator. Soyinka recently explained the play's relevance to Zimbabwe, saying: "The Zimbabwean episode, for contemporary times, belonged squarely in the theatre of Ultimate Cynism and the Grossness of Greed." The Guardian's theatre critic described the performance: "Its rough-around-the-edges style only adds to its energetic charm, and the actors grow in confidence as this bloody tale unfolds. The term "shotgun wedding" is given new meaning in a show that sees the funny side of an African tragedy."
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From The Sunday Mirror, 17 August
A2 multiple farm owners ignore Mugabe's order
Innocent Chofamba-Sithole
The Presidential Land Review Committee has begun formulating the final report of its findings on the fast-track land reform programme amidst allegations that President Robert Mugabe’s call to multiple farm owners allocated farms free of charge under the A2 scheme has gone largely unheeded, the Sunday Mirror has learnt. Informed sources at the weekend said that most multiple farm owners, some of whom were named in the controversial Flora Buka Land Audit Report, had still not come forward to give up their ill-gotten properties. Investigations carried out by the Sunday Mirror last week revealed that the focus of the current farm reclamation exercise appears to be targeting only small plot holders under the fast-track A1 resettlement scheme while the commercial farming model under which powerful politicians and businessmen acquired scores of farms free of charge has been largely left unruffled. The move has raised glaring questions over the morality of parcelling out farms free of charge to middle class beneficiaries of the A2 scheme and placing the burden of compensating white farmers evicted from the properties on the frail shoulders of the hard-pressed tax-payers. "The middle classes should have been made to buy farms and not allocated. So now, even the middle classes are waiting for compensation from government. Why should someone get a free farm when others have bought?" queried a source. He argued that the recalcitrance of the beneficiaries of free farms could have been avoided had the land reform programme included a mechanism allowing the middle classes to compliment government’s efforts through buying farms as opposed to having them allocated for free. Local businessman, Mutumwa Mawere also threw his weight firmly behind the idea of black Zimbabweans purchasing farms to support the agrarian reform, adding that ultimately, the issue of land use should attract paramount attention. "What’s wrong with black people buying farms? The debate, really, should centre on whether that land is being used productively or not," he said.
It is common knowledge among senior government officials and politicians themselves that their peers, including some very senior people, have acquired more than one farm for free, thus making it difficult to effectively enforce the policy. "(Presidential Land Review Committee chairman, Charles) Utete is in a spot because this is just a smokescreen; he knows the anomalies that exist. His objective now is to highlight how much the land reform programme has benefitted ordinary Zimbabweans, which of course is a fact that should be acknowledged by all," a source close to government said. At the time of going to press, only Matabeleland North governor, Obert Mpofu had been confirmed as having filled in forms giving up one of his commercial farms, which he had acquired under the government’s A2 resettlement scheme. "Well, I wouldn’t want to comment on whether senior politicians here have given up their extra farms or not because that is a very sensitive issue. But as far as I know, only the governor has surrendered one of his farms, which was formerly owned by the Cold Storage Company. I understand he now wants to go into game ranching in Hwange," a well-placed government official in the province told the Sunday Mirror yesterday.
While most provincial governors who spoke to this paper yesterday reported progress on the regularisation of the ownership of A1 plots, most were reluctant to comment on the contentious issue of A2 multiple farm ownership. "The national land task force was here in the last two weeks and people identified as holding more than one property have been interviewed. In fact, some are coming forward to voluntarily surrender their farms," said Mashonaland West provincial governor, Peter Chanetsa. The national land task force is currently visiting all the provinces countrywide to verify claims of multiple farm ownership and to effect the surrender of excess properties. The task force, which already has a list of alleged violators of the government’s one man, one farm policy has also been to Mashonaland Central province and Manicaland, whose provincial governor Oppah Muchinguri could not be drawn into commenting on the multiple farm issue. Acting provincial governor for Mashonaland Central, Elliot Manyika confirmed that he had received the task force and had already regularised the ownership anomalies in the A1 model, with only a few cases outstanding. Matabeleland North provincial administrator, Livingstone Mashengele said the task force was due in Bulawayo this week and indicated that his team had already identified a number of A1 plots irregularly owned by some war veterans for reclamation.
Contacted for a comment on the farm reclamation exercise, national land task force chairman and special affairs minister, John Nkomo said it was too early to gauge the progress registered so far as the Presidential Land Review Committee is yet to submit its final report. "I wish I could respond but it’s probably too early, why don’t you wait till next week?" Nkomo said. A government-sanctioned preliminary land audit report detailing massive abuses of the one man, one farm policy under the A2 commercial farming scheme was early this year leaked to the international media, prompting spirited denials of its existence by both government and named persons. The report, which was compiled by land resettlement minister, Flora Buka, admitted that its long list of multiple farm owners under the A2 scheme was "not exhaustive as the people interviewed were scared to reveal any information" for fear of victimisation by the multiple farm owners "who seem to have their loyalists within the various land committees". Manyika, who is also named in the report as the owner of Duiker Flats and Sub Division 3 of Caledon farms, dismissed Buka’s report as non-existent, saying the allegations of multiple farm ownership under the A2 scheme in his province were "false insinuations". "Those were insinuations, there was no Buka report," he said. "Those kind of insinuations were false, that is why it (the Buka report) was dismissed by government. As far as I’m concerned that report never existed because, as a member of government, I never saw it," he added. But Buka yesterday said she had indeed gathered information on the land reform programme but refused to confirm or deny whether she had compiled and submitted a report to government. "I know that I went around the country and gathered information on the land reform programme, but I cannot confirm or deny that a report exists because I do not know the particular information for which you want that confirmation," she said.
Utete on Friday briefed President Mugabe on the progress his committee had made. He said the process of gathering data was now complete, with only the editing and ‘polishing up’ of the report remaining. The former chief secretary to the president and cabinet’s appointment as head of the land review committee is widely seen as indicative of President Mugabe’s desire to effectively plug the holes in the ambitious land reform programme on which he has staked his political career and legacy as a nationalist leader of independent Zimbabwe. On July 30, President Mugabe told a politburo meeting of the ruling Zanu PF that officials with multiple farms must relinquish them within two weeks to comply with the government’s one man, one farm policy under the A2 scheme. Dozens of senior Zanu PF leaders, including government ministers, are in possession of more than one farm obtained free of charge under the A2 scheme, a situation that has prompted a vociferous outcry from landless peasants, war veterans and other disaffected groups whose chances of owning land have been scuppered by the avaricious "chefs". In response, Mugabe then announced his plans to establish a presidential land review committee at Zanu PF’s national people’s conference held in Chinhoyi last December. "It will be necessary for us to review our land reform programme and establish where the process still needs strengthening, for as we have celebrated our progress, we have also heard disapproval of and dissatisfaction with certain elements of the programme," he said.
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From SABC News, 16 August
Commonwealth members condemn Zimbabwe for human rights abuses
The 11 South Pacific members of the commonwealth have condemned Zimbabwe for continuing human rights abuses, saying no progress had been made to end its suspension from the grouping. Leaders of the Pacific states, which include Australia and New Zealand, issued a statement at the end of the Pacific Islands Forum noting their grave concern at the situation in Zimbabwe, in particular continuing serious human rights abuses and the worsening economic crisis. They said Zimbabwe was showing an intransigence in its refusal to move back towards democracy. Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, has been accused of intimidation and vote rigging during the March 2002 presidential elections, leaving his African State racked with political violence. Earlier at the forum, John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, said Mugabe was an unelected despot and Zimbabwe should not be readmitted to the 54-nation commonwealth. Howard chairs a commonwealth troika, which includes South Africa and Nigeria, set up to judge democracy in Zimbabwe. In March, Zimbabwe's one-year suspension from the commonwealth, a group of mainly former British colonies, was extended until the end of the year after Australia, South Africa and Nigeria reported no progress in the restoration of democracy. South Pacific leaders said the next commonwealth leaders summit in December in Abuja, Nigeria, would permit an objective discussion of Zimbabwe's suspension, including further action that may be required to address the deteriorating situation. "Leaders considered that concrete and practical responses by the Zimbabwean authorities were urgently required by the suffering people of Zimbabwe. Such responses were also essential prerequisites for any return by Zimbabwe to full membership of the organisation, said the statement. Earlier this month, Joaquim Chissano, the Mozambican president, said after talks with Mugabe that he felt there was movement toward improving the volatile political situation in Zimbabwe. However, Pacific leaders said calls for the rule of law to be restored for political dialogue to be resumed, and for political violence to be brought to an end, remained unheeded.
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From AFP, 16 August
Mugabe re-appoints police chief
Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has extended the term of the country's police chief, who has been in office since 1991, for another year, according to state media. Commissioner Augustine Chihuri has been the country's substantive police chief since 1993, although he headed the force since 1991, in an acting capacity. Chihuri, 50, this year resigned an honorary position he had been awarded at the international police agency Interpol after criticism that the appointment was an endorsement of the Mugabe administration. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw attacked the appointment, saying it was "an insult to the people who have suffered at the hands of the Zimbabwean police and other state security apparatus in that country." Chihuri served on Interpol's executive committee for six years from 1996, and on stepping down received the honorary vice presidency of Interpol's executive committee for a three year term, in line with standard practice. Zimbabwe's police force has been accused of brutality, especially against opposition activists, but Chihuri has denied the allegations saying his force is professional and well-trained in human rights issues.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 15 August
Zanu PF snubs church-led talks
Itai Dzamara
The church-led talks to find a political accommodation in Zimbabwe are in trouble as Zanu PF will not be submitting its proposals to the clergy as promised, the Zimbabwe Independent heard this week. The initiative of the clerics is in danger of being sidelined altogether as Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change look set to press ahead with behind-the-scenes talks of their own. The ruling party, which was expected to submit proposals last week, is said to be suspicious of the church delegation that seeks to revive dialogue for an end to the political crisis gripping the country. "There is nothing to say about that," said Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira. "The teams have not even met to discuss the proposals. There is nothing to talk about." Zanu PF's chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa has publicly dismissed the church leaders as "insincere brokers" and supporters of the MDC. It is thought he was piqued by the publicity given to the church-led talks. His discussions with the MDC team headed by Prof Welshman Ncube are regarded in government circles as the official negotiations initiated by Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo last year.
Chinamasa's outburst against the clerics could also have been directed by hostility from President Mugabe himself and officials in his office. Sources said the church initiative, involving Bishop Sebastian Bakare of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches, Bishop Patrick Mutume of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference, and the Reverend Trevor Manhanga of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, was jeopardised when they issued a joint statement on July 17 condemning human rights abuses and instability prevailing in the country. The statement apologised for previous inaction by church leaders and called on government to address the economic malaise afflicting the country. When the church leaders met Mugabe on July 25 he is said to have had a copy of their statement on the table in front of him. The sources said Mugabe was keen to send out the message that talks would be held according to his rulebook and not the church's or the opposition's. "The church has to start to mend bridges with Zanu PF which is a major drawback to its mediation thrust," a source said.
The church leaders held meetings with both Zanu PF and MDC leaders last month, after which they proclaimed having received assurances from both sides on their commitment to the resumption of dialogue. But it now seems the government would prefer to concentrate on its direct talks with the MDC, abandoning the "unofficial" church mediators, at least for the time being. The Zanu PF delegation that met the church leaders comprised Mugabe, Shamuyarira, vice-president Joseph Msika and national chairman, John Nkomo. The church leaders had been waiting for written proposals from both sides. The MDC submitted its proposals three weeks ago. Zanu PF has been dithering on submission of its agenda because it has "reservations over the church in as far as what the party expects from the dialogue is concerned", a senior ruling party source said.
Manhanga yesterday said the church troika was organising a meeting with Zanu PF to better understand the party's position. "It appears there is some misunderstanding," said Manhanga. "We will probably understand when we meet with Zanu PF. We can't comment on what they feel about us or statements issued by the church because the party has not made any official position to us," said Manhanga. "It will be difficult to proceed without Zanu PF submitting its agenda or stating a clear position." The Independent recently disclosed that the political rivals have been holding informal talks behind the scenes, and sources this week said that the ruling party has opted to pursue this "official" route. A regional delegation with the blessing of South African President, Thabo Mbeki, would be expected to come and mediate the talks once there is evidence of progress. "The two parties are committed to dialogue," said a source privy to the ongoing manoeuvres. "In fact, they have been covering some ground. But the issue is that of the (church) mediator. Zanu PF has agreed to ignore the church's initiative because of the suspicion it has of the church leaders."
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From Business Day (SA), 18 August
Mugabe takes no chances on future charity
Deputy Editor
In a move that political analysts have interpreted as indicating that President Robert Mugabe may be contemplating leaving office soon, the 79-year-old leader has signed into law legislation that guarantees his financial security when he goes. Mugabe signed the Presidential Pension and Retirement Benefits Amendment Act which sets the annual pension of the "first President of Zimbabwe at 75% of the annual salary of a serving president" on Friday. Commentators viewed the hurried enactment of the law as a sign that Mugabe was securing his financial future ahead of a pending early retirement. President Thabo Mbeki has said that the Zimbabwean crisis will be resolved within a year, without giving details. "As the terms of the new act only apply to Mugabe and his vice-presidents, it is only logical to assume that his much talked about early retirement is now very close. "Otherwise, why should Mugabe worry about his future when he still has five years to serve on his term?" analyst Elliot Mhlanga said. Pegging his pension to that of a sitting president's salary is seen as a move by Mugabe to avert the situation where the ageing leader's financial security could be at the mercy of an unfriendly successor. It is also seen as confirmation of the seriousness of the economic crisis affecting Zimbabwe and the need to make his benefits keep up with inflation. The new act says that any person who, at any time since December 31 1987, has been president or vice-president of Zimbabwe for at least a full term, shall receive an annual pension that is equal to 75% of the annual salary of a serving president or deputy. The amendment to the act also provides for Mugabe's wife and children. Mugabe signed it soon after attending the 2003 Smart Partnership International Dialogue in Swaziland.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 17 August
Muzenda critically ill
By our own Staff
Air Zimbabwe managing director, Rambai Chingwena, last night refused to confirm or deny reports that a plane bound for Victoria Falls was yesterday diverted from Bulawayo to Johannesburg to bring back home Vice President Simon Muzenda who is seriously ill and was receiving treatment in South Africa. I am not aware of any plane being diverted from Bulawayo to Johannesburg," Chingwena told The Standard, adding " I don't comment on presidential matters.." An Air Zimbabwe official in Bulawayo confirmed that the Victoria Falls flight was delayed for about two hours yesterday morning "for technical reasons". He would not elaborate. Muzenda, whose absence was conspicuous during the National Heroes' Day celebrations presided over by President Robert Mugabe at the National Heroes' Acre on Monday, is said to be seriously ill with an undisclosed illness. He was, earlier this year, urgently flown to China to receive emergency treatment from world famous Chinese doctors. State broadcaster ZTV showed a forlorn looking Maud Muzenda, his wife, unaccompanied at the national shrine where national heroes are buried, as Mugabe read his official speech and acknowledged Muzenda's absence. The veteran Masvingo politician, 82, a founder member of the governing Zanu PF party and a close confidante of Mugabe, has been in poor health for the past three years. A family friend said the politician, who is perhaps the second most powerful person in Zanu PF, had recently fought off pressure from his children to quit public office and take time to recuperate, insisting that he would only resign when Mugabe retires.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 17 August
Soldiers run amok over cash
By Kumbirai Mafunda
Angry soldiers stormed the Chitungwiza premises of Beverley Building Society yesterday afternoon breaking windows and threatening tellers as the biting cash crisis threatens to spill into the streets. About 40 soldiers and police officers, who had been on the long queue for hours, were incensed when the building society announced that it was running out of bank notes and would serve only four of their colleagues who were helping out to maintain order. A glass panel was destroyed as the soldiers and policemen, desperate to get money for the weekend, broke into the Beverley Building Society premises and tried to force the tellers to serve them. Eyewitnesses said the soldiers and policemen, some in uniform, were angered by the building society's controller, a Mr Nyabani, who said they had run out of cash and told the huge crowd of customers to go home. Infuriated by the announcement, the soldiers bulldozed their way into the premises and only left after, apparently, realising that they had caused considerable damage to the building.
"Masoja ndivo akonzera zvose izvi. (the soldiers caused all this) We had closed the door when we realised that cash had run out. We explained to them that we were going to serve the four soldiers who were helping us. This is when the soldiers forced their way," said Kudakwashe Chipamawanga, a security guard with Safeguard Security, who was manning the entrance. The security guard said two queues had formed at the premises: one for soldiers and members of the armed forces, and another for the general public. "We were even favouring those from the uniformed forces. After every 20 civilians, we were allowing five soldiers," said Chipamawanga. The eyewitnesses said they were surprised at the slow reaction by the police stationed near the shopping centre. The police, said the eyewitnesses, only arrived at the building society premises after the soldiers and policemen had dispersed.
The shortage of bank notes, which has paralysed Zimbabwe for more than a month, is likely to spill into the streets as desperate people try to force their way into banks and building societies to withdraw their savings and salaries. Last month, The Standard reported that irate customers had forced their way into a number of banks and building societies in Harare and in the melee, many premises were damaged. Zimbabwe's biting bank notes' shortages continue unabated despite attempts by the government to replace the notes with travellers' cheques. Many Zimbabweans say the travellers' cheques are cumbersome and difficult to use because they come in huge denominations that cannot be used for small transactions.
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Comment from The Sunday Times (UK), 17 August
Mass murder: a perfect pension plan
The grotesque reign of Charles Taylor in Liberia has ended in comfortable retirement. Why should he and other despots get away with it? Does the world secretly admire dictators, asks Christopher Hope
One of the great killers of modern Africa has just retired, and he did so in style. President Charles Taylor, the freely elected tyrant of Liberia, dressed in virginal white for the leave-taking, looked like some novice for the priesthood or a cross between Macbeth and Mary Magdalene. He left office to salutes, a gospel choir and the warm applause of fellow African heads of state. Outside the presidential palace, the streets of Monrovia, the Liberian capital, were filled with the quick and the dead. There were the rebels who wished to kill him and the bodies of those whose deaths were laid at his door -except for those that were laid at the door of the American embassy, until the marines threatened to shoot any Liberians leaving the dead on their doorstep. So this was not your typical retirement bash. The palace was thronged with the good - and the grateful. There were priests, presidents and praise singers. There were those who had surfed to power on Charles Taylor’s coat tails, and wept to see him go. And there were those, like the presidents of South Africa, Mozambique and Ghana, who had come not to bury but to praise the retiring tyrant. Thabo Mbeki of South Africa sped him on his way with a note of thanks for considering the good of the Liberian people, and doing the decent thing. Charles Taylor was very moved. He compared himself to the sacrificial lamb and went on, awesomely, to prophesy: "God willing, I will be back." Then the gospel choir broke into Onward Christian Soldiers: presidents applauded and there was barely a dry eye in the place. Out at the airport the big Nigerian jet waited on the bullet- pocked runway. Charles Taylor was borne to the aircraft hemmed in by minders, looking like some prizefighter making his way to the ring or a star on Oscar night.
But for its mixture of bombast and schmaltz soaked in blood and tears, the departure of Charles Taylor cannot be matched. It was there in the glitz and the gold braid of the generals, in that unforgettable, snow-white robe worn with injured innocence by a man who went from thug, to warlord, to elected dictator and lethal dealer in diamonds and death. He left behind a land where child soldiers in blond wigs were stoked up to the eyeballs on anything they could stuff up their noses or into their veins, who rape and pillage, and where starving people forage for snails. The plane lifted off, the heads of state waved and the band played on. Thus was the passing into exile of one of the bloodiest killers Africa has seen. A lot has been made of Charles Taylor’s election slogan: "He killed your father and he killed your mother. Vote for him or he’ll kill you too." There are robust African observers who lose patience with effete westerners who find this kind of sloganeering a little over the top. These tough-minded folk like to remind people like me that "Africa is not for sissies". African leaders don’t do pensions or national health - they do real things: heaven and hell, life and death. I think I know what they mean, and it is very much part of the problem. There is something about frightened, helpless people that makes them actually long for the smack of strong government. Sometimes they adore the despot. And African strongmen from Cairo to the Cape have exploited this. But it is also a measure of how Africa has been patronised by the West. African tyrants have been tolerated, and even admired - Robert Mugabe has filled this role for years - for being just reasonably awful, only slightly murderous, only partially corrupt. Because the feeling was that Africans must be judged by lesser standards.
In hopeful moments I like to imagine that the African presidents who turned up in Monrovia to lend dignity and safe passage to Charles Taylor’s exit may have created a new form of diplomacy - the reverse state visit. In this version of the diplomatic quadrille, a legitimate leader does not visit a neighbouring despot in order to kiss hands but to wave farewell as the tyrant turned pensioner jets off into comfortable retirement. Watching the pictures of Charles Taylor and hearing his parting modest proposal: "History will remember me kindly . . ." I wondered again at the huge discrepancy between the despot in power and the mild, often sentimental demeanour of the mass murderer when observed in quiet retirement. Shake his hand and you don’ t see the blood beneath the fingernails for the perfection of the manicure. The former Emperor Bokassa, late of the Central African Empire, went into exile in France in the 1980s. "Papa Bok", as he was sometimes known, arrived unexpectedly at the hotel where I was staying, a pleasant spot next to Lake Annecy. He was a small, quiet man who wore well-cut suits. Before I was asked to leave, I used to watch the former emperor walking the lawns of this pleasant place, chatting to a young blonde, oozing amiability at every step. He used to dispose of his enemies with wonderful economy: he ate them. When a plague of beggars hit the capital, Bangui, Bokassa had them scooped up in a helicopter and dropped into a river. In politics, in town planning and in menus, Bokassa had a tidy mind. Watching the well-groomed former emperor with the animated blonde at his side, I wondered if she knew that, among various imperial diversions, Bokassa had been fond of kidnapping young schoolgirls and roping them, naked, to trees near the imperial kitchens.
For the tyrant spotter, Robert Mugabe’s capital of Harare is a crossroads of passing powermongers. Colonel Gadaffi arrives from time to time; the North Koreans, to whom Mugabe is so loyal he is known sometimes as Kim Il Bob, send soldiers or builders. Colonel Haile Mariam Mengistu, the Butcher of Addis Ababa, lives nearby. Like calls to like. It is as if tyrants need other tyrants; someone you can talk shop to - after a hard day in the killing fields. Mengistu, like Charles Taylor, killed many thousands and he got out of Addis just ahead of an avenging rebel force that was determined to shoot him. Robert Mugabe took him in, gave him round-the-clock guards, a villa in the smart suburb of Gun Hill and regularly declares he is willing to fight to the end to preserve a tyrant’s right to retire in peace. Ethiopia has been trying for years to extradite Mengistu. They nearly got him when he went to South Africa for medical treatment. But the South Africans, whom Mengistu gratefully describes as "my comrades in arms, my friends, my colleagues", declined to give him up and returned him to his Zimbabwean retreat.
When Charles Taylor’s plane touched down in Nigeria he went to Calabar, where the warm, wet climate is very like Liberia’s. It’s a generous house with fine verandas and commanding views. Some see this as the retirement scheme perfectly suited to the tyrant’s needs. A dictator refuses to step down, but everyone wants him to go. A posse of African presidents ride into town and escort him, not to jail, but to some place of safety where he will live happily, if quietly, free from worries about money, security or criminal charges. There are those who get very excited about this idea. They think Robert Mugabe is the perfect candidate for the honourable exit caper. If Thabo Mbeki showed up with the jet, the white robe and the choir, surely Mugabe would, as they say in Zimbabwe, "take the gap". He’d head out to the villa in South Africa that has been waiting for him for many years. Believe that and you will believe anything. Robert Mugabe is not ready to step down; he is not ready to go anywhere. He bestrides Zimbabwe like a terrible colossus. He is not simply its tyrant, he has become its climate, he is the sky, he fills it to the horizon. In his considered opinion, Zimbabwe is simply unthinkable without him. Anyone travelling in that far, sad country will be struck by the purest example of modern despotism. Charles Taylor likes to compare himself to the sacrificial lamb. Mugabe is more killer ram. The refusal by South African leaders to confront the despot on their doorstep is one of the great mysteries of modern times. Because what spreads from Zimbabwe, besides millions of refugees, are millions of spores of the contagion Mugabe’s rule has floated out over southern Africa. It is a mix of terror, race hatred, power and posturing buffoonery, held together with a great deal of gluey hypocrisy. That has been supplied to Mugabe like most other things he long ago ran out of - petrol, power, foreign exchange, friends - by the South African government, which has excused, supported and sustained him every step along his darkening way.
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Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 11 August
Push for change in Zimbabwe
Richard Calland
With apartheid South Africa it was crystal clear. There was a transnational, cross sector, multi-class, multi-race, solidarity against the regime and for the people of South Africa. Not, however, in the case of Zimbabwe now - decidedly and distinctively not. Why is this so? People, important people, have begun to scrutinise this rhetorical question with increasing vigour. Is it, they ask, because we fail to understand what is really going on in Zimbabwe? Or is it because they - the campaigning pro-democracy groups in Zimbabwe and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - fail to make their case and fail to adequately communicate what is going on? The main question is especially poignant for South Africans, who benefited from the anti-apartheid movement’s energy and commitment and the economic sanctions it promoted - ultimately with significant impact on the apartheid regime. Which largely explains the, at times bitter, sense of resentment at what the Zimbabwean campaigners regard as a lack of solidarity from South Africa. "Fence-sitting" is the politest of the various expressions of exasperation used. You accuse of us of running to the north, to London and Washington, for support, say the Zimbabweans, but who can blame us? When we look south, we have been met with equivocation from people we thought of as comrades and, from your presidency, obfuscation.
But this, I say, is changing rapidly. The lines of communication are improving. Importantly, a critical mass of "principled consciousness" - the core ingredient for any display of protest solidarity - has accrued. The South African Communist Party issued public statements after its central committee meeting a couple of months ago that carefully stated the non-negotiables of political freedom that should accompany South African diplomatic efforts in Zimbabwe. It deplored the "torture of political opponents of the regime and gross violations of human rights". And last Friday, after meetings with colleagues from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the Congress of South African Trade Unions went further than it has before. Speaking at a joint press conference in Cape Town, provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich linked his federation’s call for sanctions with solidarity sanctions against the apartheid regime and added that the time for quiet diplomacy had long passed. For good measure he concluded that Robert Mugabe should now go. Finish and klaar.
Important pockets of "middle" African National Congress are also now raising their voices inside the tripartite alliance, pricked by video evidence, for example, of politically motivated gang rapes. A groundswell of meaningful South African solidarity is growing, with consensus about its nodal points: solidarity for the human dignity of Zimbabweans, especially those most seriously affected by the crisis - the unemployed and indigent, the working class and the peasantry. Solidarity in relation to the need to design and then protect a credible set of negotiations aimed at unlocking what is now a mutually hurting stalemate. Solidarity with Zimbabwean democratic protest. And, perhaps most crucially, solidarity beyond free and fair elections, towards the longer-term goal of a stable government. One with the institutional capacity to be able to deliver progressive policy prescriptions, armed with a new Constitution produced by a legitimate public participation process. These are part of the why and the what elements of building solidarity. Attention will now be on adding programmatic content to the how question. More vigorous displays of solidarity are likely to follow. All of which adds up to a significantly changed climate and one that places those in power in and outside of Zimbabwe under more pressure to accept and push for change.
It seems to me that part of the motivation for these shifts has as much to do with South Africa, or Swaziland for that matter, as Zimbabwe. There is a parallel process of consciousness percolating through the minds of progressive activists and leaders around the region. There are genuine fears that the democratic space for progressive forces to resist the neo-liberal onslaught is closing, has already closed or may do so soon. Projecting perhaps from the disappointments of their own transitions, there is acceptance of the need for a more rigorously analytical response to the Zimbabwe crisis. The conclusion is straightforward: that Zimbabwe is a classic case of a petit bourgeois class stealing the national democratic revolution at the cost of the working class. As some are now prepared to admit, in its response the left in South Africa has been remiss, playing into Mugabe’s hands as the liberal right has leapt into the void to protest the plight of white farmers. There are complex and therefore mitigating reasons for the delay in showing solidarity. The progressive left does not want the agenda for Africa to be set by the United States or the United Kingdom. There is regret and confusion at the rapid deterioration of the post-colonial state. There is an inadequate understanding of the political economy of Zimbabwe and of the balance of forces. Which is where the channels of communication come in. Debunking the myriad mythology that has obscured clear analysis until now is an essential outcome of such engagement and therefore a foundation for building external solidarity. Concerns can be aired directly and responded to with equal candour. We perceive that the MDC lacks ideological coherence and strategic wit, charge the South Africans. After all, your leader came here and met Tony Leon, makes statements on President Thabo Mbeki that push the ANC into a corner and, in any case, how do we know you will be any different in government from, say, Frederick Chiluba in Zambia?
Perhaps there have been tactical blunders, respond the Zimbabweans, certainly you abandon your quiet diplomacy and bring out the megaphone when the MDC blunders. But your government goes silent when 10 people are murdered by Mugabe’s thugs and hundreds of workers are arrested as Zanu PF oppresses dissent. South Africans show solidarity with Palestinians, they go to die as human shields in Baghdad, but not for Zimbabwe. Part sophistication and world-wily insight; part arrogance and isolationism, thus does the South African response baffle the Zimbabweans. Call us what you like, the MDC adds, but deal with the tortures, the gang rape, the food insecurity and the fact that workers cannot access their wages to feed their families. This is the challenge now laid down with firm clarity; a healthily robust debate prompts a collective response with an internationalist character. It is extraordinary that the conversation is only really getting going now. Better late than never, for sure. Substantial external solidarity is an ideal foil to the installation of the sort of confidence-building measures that are essential if Zanu PF and the MDC are to enter into formal negotiations about the way forward. And thus, well-timed to concentrate the minds that matter most and thereby to help propel Zimbabwe into the transition process that its people so urgently deserve.
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From Business Day (SA), 19 August
Zimbabwe bans excess cash holdings
Harare - Zimbabwe has outlawed the holding by individuals and merchants of cash exceeding five million Zimbabwean dollars (US$6,250) in another bid to stem a cash crisis that has hit the country for four months, the central bank said on Monday. "It will be a criminal offence for any individual to be in possession of cash exceeding five million dollars at any time," according to a notice published on Monday by the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe summarising the new law. "This cash may be in their physical possession, on any premises or land or simply under their control," the notice said, adding that the regulation is effective from August 24. Merchants and government-run companies that generate more than five million dollars in cash are required to deposit any surplus in a bank. They are also required to keep records which "clearly show their cash receipts on each day".
A crippling cash shortage and soaring inflation in Zimbabwe has resulted in long queues of people in banks and at automated teller machines trying to withdraw cash. Cash issued at banks is now rationed, and sometimes daily allowances are just enough to buy five loaves of bread. An underground market for domestic cash has sprung up, with Zimbabwe dollars being sold by individuals and traders at commission rates of up to 30%. The cash crunch has led to near riotous situations at some banks, with irate clients breaking windows and glass doors after being turned away empty-handed after hours of standing in line. Commentators say Zimbabweans are keeping their cash at home because of lack of confidence in the economy, which is in a downward spiral. A thriving parallel foreign currency market has also been blamed for cash hoarding, with the US dollar fetching up to 4,800 Zimbabwe dollars on such markets against the official rate of one to 800.
In an effort to attract billions of Zimbabwe dollars stashed at home and in offices, the government announced last month it would withdraw the highest current denomination of banknotes within 60 days. It said it would replace the 500-dollar note with a new note of equal value, and also introduce a 1,000-dollar note. Three weeks later, government pleas to return large amounts of cash to the banks have not met with much success. A week ago it introduced local travellers cheques in another bid to ease the cash shortage, but these are facing resistance from shops and traders. The unprecedented domestic cash shortage has also been attributed to soaring inflation, which stood last month at 365%.
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From The Cape Times (SA), 19 August
Zimbabwe empowers police to strip-search people for cash
Harare - Zimbabwean police have been given the power to stop and strip people in the street if they suspect them of hoarding cash. Under sweeping new powers aimed at easing the country's two-month cash shortage, a statutory instrument printed yesterday says: "A police officer, acting in accordance with a warrant issued in terms of this section, may require a person to remove any clothing that the person is wearing, but only if the removal of clothing is necessary and reasonable for an effective search of the person." Zimbabweans have slated the new laws, which make it illegal to hold more than Z$5 million (about R10 000) in cash. "Do they even know what five million dollars looks like?," asked a businessman, who pointed out that Z$1m fits almost exactly into a standard shoebox. "Who do they think can hide five shoeboxes in their clothes?"
Businesses are asking how they are to pay monthly wages if they are not allowed to hold money on their premises. Advertisements published by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe over the weekend said: "It will be a criminal offence for any individual to be in possession of cash exceeding Z$5m at any time. The police will be authorised to seize any cash exceeding Z$5m, and even smaller amounts from traders and businesses." Zimbabwean economist John Robertson described the move as ominous. "It is not just that businesses might be forced to hold even smaller amounts," he said. "It is the new nature of it all. It's not normal in any country to limit the amount of cash one can hold." Robertson said the shortage of cash had little to do with hoarding notes. "If they had printed a Z$50 000 note this would never have arisen," he said. Z$50 000 equates to about R90 on Zimbabwe's flourishing black market. The new laws also make it illegal to sell banknotes. Cash- flush businesses have been cashing in with a scheme called cash for cheques. People desperate for cash to pay wages and bills write out cheques and receive banknotes for between 60 and 75% of the cheque's value.
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From The Daily News, 18 August
Settlers ordered out
The government yesterday ordered about 1 000 settlers at Little England Farm in Zvimba district, about 100 km west of Harare, to vacate the farm within 13 days from today to pave way for the widow of President Robert Mugabe's late nephew, Innocent Mugabe, and 68 other "chosen people". An official from the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, who only identified himself as Katone, told shocked settlers they should leave the farm by 30 August or face arrest. Katone, who was accompanied by senior police officers from Nyabira and Darwendale police stations, in charge of the area, did not tell the settlers where they would be resettled, but insisted their eviction had been ordered by the "highest offices". He said: "We are not going to accept questions from you. The time for questions has passed and we are here to deliver the message. This is a directive coming from the highest offices so I will not answer your questions." Katone told the settlers at a meeting held yesterday at the farm's main gate that only 21 families out of the group now occupying the farm would be allowed to remain at the property.
The late Innocent was the son of Mugabe's sister, Sabina. Innocent, who died two years ago, was a senior operative in the government's dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation. His widow, Merjury Winnet, who has been allocated 1 000 hectares at the 6 000-hectare Little England Farm, is already occupying the farmhouse vacated in 2000 by white farmer, Graham Smith. Innocent's sons, Joe and Hugh, attended the meeting yesterday between the government officials and the settlers, who moved onto Little England during the invasion of farms by government and ruling Zanu PF party supporters in 2000. A Daily News crew also attended the meeting held at the farm's main gate. The settlers, who told this newspaper that they had unsuccessfully attempted in the past months to have the occupation of Little England regularised by the government, vowed to resist any moves to push them off the prime property. Some of the settlers, who include war veterans and government workers, threatened to beat up Katone and his delegation and said they would remain at the farm in order to expose corruption in the land reform exercise.
One female settler, who identified herself as Mai Muzondo, told the government delegation: "You are corrupt and delivering a corrupt message. How did you come up with 21 people (selected to remain at the farm)? We have suffered enough and we are ready to be killed by the evicting policemen and soldiers. The President must know that his ministers and officials in Mashonaland West are corrupt and receiving bribes from rich people." But Katone told the settlers "the law will deal decisively" with anyone who defied the order to leave the farm. He said the settlers there were improperly settled on the farm and that apart from a few, none of the settlers had received letters offering them land at the farm from the government. He said: "We have only seven people who have been issued with genuine offer letters signed by (Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement) Minister (Joseph) Made. We don't accept letters from party chairmen, village heads and chiefs because they have not been given the authority to distribute land." Made and Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo could not be reached for comment on the simmering land dispute between the settlers and the government. Governor of Mashona |
