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Archived News
20th May 2003
Meldrum expelled from Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Independent comments on Presidents' meetings
Guardian journalist's passport seized
Zimbabwe confiscates Guardian reporter's residence permit
Zimbabwe police hold opposition protesters
Witness contradicts Ben-Menashe over alleged UK, CIA plot
Zimbabwe courts SA for aviation fuel
Zimbabwe at the breaking point
Guardian reporter's Zimbabwe lawyer threatened with jail
Last-ditch bid to save fuel deal
Zim Air refuels in Zambia
No shortage of imported goods for those with money
Funny no longer
Pope slams Zim land reform
Meldrum meets Immigration boss
Mandaza in donor funds row
Belgium caught in travel ban row
Zimbabwe sees return of hunter gatherer
SA resumes power supplies to ZESA
Dollar plunges
Dragged off and deported
Mugabe kicks out defiant journalist
'There are a lot of days when there is no food, no money'
Zimbabwe struggles with fuel shortage
Zim to expel fugitive MP?
Stock up food: ZCTU
MDC sues key treason witness
Forty die of malnutrition in Zimbabwe
Zimbabweans told to put cars on 'diet'
From joy and hope to corruption, tyranny and the misery of poverty
Ben-Menashe lied: CIO boss
Defense claims document theft in Tsvangirai treason trial
Muzenda ordered Meldrum expelled
Zimbabwe worsening, says Australia
The great canard
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From SABC News, 13 May
Guardian journalist's passport seized
Zimbabwean immigration officials seized the American passport of Andrew Meldrum, a correspondent of the Guardian newspaper of London today, amid fears that President Robert Mugabe's government plans to deport him. Meldrum and his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, agreed today to go to the immigration department a week after five officers turned up at his home at night demanding to see him and refusing to state their reason. At the end of what he said was a "belligerent" 30 minute interview with a senior immigration officer, Meldrum said he was ordered to hand over his passport and his Zimbabwe residence permit. He was allowed to leave the building but was told to return to the office tomorrow. Mtetwa said earlier she feared Meldrum would be detained and illegally deported. The 51-year-old American citizen, who has lived in Zimbabwe since 1980, is constantly vilified in the state media which accuses him of being a British spy, an opposition organiser and a saboteur. Today he went voluntarily with Mtetwa to the department where, he said, a senior officer named only as Siziba claimed he had been "writing bad things about Zimbabwe" and insisted he had been violating the conditions of his residence permit.
"I have been working here for 23 years as a journalist and my residence permit says I am a journalist. That is what I am doing," he said. "I don't know what the fuss is all about. They want me to write a letter stating that I am a journalist. They said they were looking into how I was granted my residence permit." Officials refused to allow Heather Lippett, a US embassy vice-consul, into the office to be present during the interview. In April 2001, immigration officials tried to kick in the door of BBC correspondent Joseph Winter's Harare apartment and later deported him, despite the fact that he had a valid temporary residence permit. Authorities claimed that his permit had been "illegally" issued, an allegation Winter and his lawyer denied. "I feel grimly determined," Meldrum said. "I am sticking up for my legal rights in Zimbabwe. They are not just my rights, they are the rights of other journalists. "Yes, I have plenty of fears, about night visits, for the safety of my wife, but that is the worry of many people in Zimbabwe today."
Meldrum is the last foreign national to be working in Zimbabwe as a correspondent for overseas media. The remainder are Zimbabwean citizens, but most have been refused official "licences" from the state information department. Jonathan Moyo, the Information Minister, has maintained a comprehensive ban on visiting foreign correspondents since he took charge of Mugabe's propaganda machine in late 2000. Also since then, three foreign correspondents resident there have been forced to leave. The New York-based International Committee to Protect Journalists says Mugabe's regime is among the 10 worst offenders against press freedom in the world. Under Mugabe, journalists have been tortured, arrested, assaulted and harassed, and the independent Daily News has been bombed twice. On the second occasion its entire printing press was destroyed within hours of Moyo declaring the newspaper "a threat to national security".
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From The Guardian (UK), 14 May
Zimbabwe confiscates Guardian reporter's residence permit
Steven Morris
The Guardian's Zimbabwe correspondent, Andrew Meldrum, was yesterday accused of breaking the terms of his residence permit by writing about the country's political situation. Officials told Meldrum, who has been covering Zimbabwe for 23 years, that he was allowed to write only about economics and tourism. They confiscated his residence permit and passport. Lawyers for Meldrum, one of the last foreign reporters in the country, fear the government is attempting to deport him. Last Wednesday, immigration officers arrived unannounced at his home after dark and said he was wanted for questioning. He was not there. His lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, said such night-time approaches "invariably led to arrest, detention and deportation". The editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, said he could only conclude the authorities were attempting to intimidate Meldrum and undermine the operation of a free press in Zimbabwe.
Ms Mtetwa wrote to the immigration authorities saying Meldrum was prepared to be interviewed by officials at their offices in normal working hours. Yesterday Meldrum, an American citizen, voluntarily went to the immigration offices in Harare with Ms Mtetwa and a US consular official. The official was not allowed to sit in on the meeting. Meldrum said a senior immigration official told him that he had been writing "bad stories" about Zimbabwe and his residence permit allowed him to write only about economics and tourism. Meldrum argued that the permit simply stated that he was allowed to work as a journalist. Outside the immigration offices Meldrum said he felt "grimly determined". He said: "I am defending not just my rights in Zimbabwe, but the rights of all journalists here and of permanent residents." After the raid at his home, he feared for his own safety and that of his wife and lawyer. "But that is the way many people live in Zimbabwe today." Ms Mtetwa is to deliver a letter to the immigration service today putting forward Meldrum's position. The Zimbabwean authorities have been attempting to imprison and deport Meldrum, 51, for more than a year. Last July the high court rejected a move by the government of President Robert Mugabe to have him deported. The previous week a magistrates court acquitted Meldrum of charges brought under a new press law which threatened to punish journalists writing "falsehoods". International press watchdog Reporters Sans Frontières has called on the government of Zimbabwe to stop its "harassment" of Meldrum.
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From SABC News, 13 May
Zimbabwe police hold opposition protesters
Zimbabwe's opposition said police detained nine women today who refused to remove T-shirts supporting their leader Morgan Tsvangirai, on trial for treason over an alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. The nine were among 200 women from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who marched to the High Court, the party said. Riot police ordered them to stop wearing shirts bearing the words: "We are behind you all the way". "The women refused to remove their T-shirts, but were forced to retreat. They marched back to their offices and on arrival, some of them were bundled into the two police trucks," the MDC said in a statement. A police spokesperson could not confirm their detention. Police have stepped up security around the Harare court for the trial, which resumed yesterday and takes place as Zimbabwe grapples with its worst political crisis in decades. Tsvangirai, MDC leader, and two party colleagues could face the death penalty if convicted of the charges, which they allege have been concocted to discredit the opposition movement. The MDC accuses Mugabe of vote rigging in last year's presidential election and has threatened to lead street protests against him. In a newspaper advert published today, the MDC women's league praised the three defendants as brave political fighters. "We here today, the women of the MDC, stand behind our leaders in the struggle against humanitarian crimes," the advert said. "You have shown that your bravery and commitment to this country and its people knows no bounds. Now it is our turn." Zimbabwe has seen its once vibrant economy all but collapse with fuel shortages, inflation well over 200% and about half the population of 14 million facing acute food shortages.
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From The Daily News, 14 May
Witness contradicts Ben-Menashe over alleged UK, CIA plot
Staff Reporters
A senior police officer yesterday denied knowledge of claims by the State's principal witness in the treason trial of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, that the British government and the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were involved in the alleged plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. Assistant Police Commissioner Moses Magandi yesterday told the High Court that the first time he learnt of the purported British and CIA involvement in the alleged assassination plot was when he read about the allegations in the Press. "I did not know about them (allegations of British and CIA involvement) until I read about them in newspapers when this trial started," Magandi told Judge President Paddington Garwe. Ari Ben-Menashe, the Canadian-based political consultant and the State's key witness in the case, told Garwe at the start of the trial in February that Britain and the CIA had allegedly helped plot Mugabe's demise and that London had offered US$10 million (Z$8,24 billion) for the assassination. Pressed by defence lawyers as to why he had omitted mentioning this vital evidence in his statement to the police, Ben-Menashe told the court he had verbally informed Magandi about the involvement of the United States and Britain in the alleged assassination plot.
But Magandi, who was part of the team that investigated the case and is one of the State's witnesses in the trial, yesterday told the court that Ben-Menashe never told him of the involvement of the two foreign powers in the alleged attempt by Tsvangirai and two other top leaders of his Movement for Democratic Change to kill Mugabe. The policeman, who is being cross-examined by the defence lawyers, also told the court that Ben-Menashe had not disclosed to him that he had been paid US$615 000 by the Zimbabwean government for unspecified consultancy services before he secretly video-taped a meeting where Tsvangirai allegedly requested Dickens & Madson, Ben-Menashe's firm, to facilitate the assassination of Mugabe. Responding to charges by George Bizos, the South African advocate leading the defence team, that Ben-Menashe had supplied the police with an altered version of the memorandum of agreement between his consultancy firm and the MDC, Magandi said the police had accepted whatever Ben-Menashe gave them because they thought it was the correct version of the agreement between the Canadian's company and the MDC.
Pressed on why the police refused to give a copy of the video-tape recording to the Canadian government which wanted it to assist them in their own investigations into the matter, Magandi said he could not answer for the Zimbabwean government which made the decision to refuse with the tape. According to Bizos, the Canadian High Commission in Harare wrote to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeking assistance to obtain a copy of the contentious video-tape. The High Commission had indicated they wanted to pass the tape and other relevant material on to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for an investigation into the alleged assassination and coup conspiracy by the MDC leaders. The Zimbabwean government turned down the request. The trial, in which Tsvangirai and his lieutenants could be sentenced to death if found guilty, continues today.
Meanwhile, nine MDC women supporters were yesterday arrested at the party's headquarters after they marched through the capital in solidarity with their leaders on trial. MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi said about 200 women marched to the High Court where the women were force to retreat by armed riot police squads deployed at the court. Nyathi said the police later picked up nine of the women marchers from the party's Harvest House headquarters and took them to Harare Central Police Station where they were still detained by midday yesterday. The police refused to comment on the arrests.
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From The Daily News, 13 May
Zimbabwe courts SA for aviation fuel
By Chris Goko, Business Reporter
The government has approached the Airports Company of South Africa (ACSA) for emergency fuel supplies as an acute shortage of Jet A1 fuel threatens to ground the national airliner, Air Zimbabwe, sources said yesterday. According to the sources, senior Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) officials left for Johannesburg last Sunday to plead with ACSA for an undisclosed amount of Jet A1 fuel and to discuss ways through which Zimbabwe could import the fuel cheaply, if possible with South Africa's help. "They are in South Africa. The purpose of the visit was to try and convince the South Africans to supply Zimbabwe with Jet A1 fuel," a CAAZ official told The Business Daily yesterday on condition he was not named. CAAZ chief executive Karikoga Kaseke could not be reached for comment on the matter but airports director Jerry Ndlovu confirmed Zimbabwe had sought South Africa's help to stave off the Jet A1 shortage that could scare away the few remaining international airlines still landing at Harare International Airport. "We have been in touch with ACSA over possibilities of them helping us procure fuel. We also want to see how they are getting it cheaply," said Ndlovu. Zimbabwe is in the grip of an acute fuel shortage since Libya cut off an oil for barter deal with Harare last year. The country has been without foreign currency to pay for crucial imports including fuel since the International Monetary Fund, donors and development partners cut off aid over differences with Harare on governance issues.
An Air Zimbabwe plane en route from London to Harare last Sunday had to divert and land in Zambia because it did not have enough fuel to complete the flight. However, the airline's officials said the plane had to refuel in Lusaka to conserve the dwindling fuel supplies in Harare. The sources said more CAAZ and Ministry of Transport officials were expected to leave Harare for Johannesburg today to join the team that went earlier. It was however, not possible to establish the progress of the talks between the Zimbabweans and the ACSA officials. But the sources said not much was likely to be achieved unless the Zimbabweans put money on the table. CAAZ, which is believed to be holding US$2 million (Z$1,6 billion) for fuel imports, is seeking to source cheaper Jet A1 fuel. The vital fuel sells at between US25 and 27 cents in South Africa but in Zimbabwe airlines must pay in excess of US$1. Zimbabwe consumes 15 million litres of Jet A1 fuel a month. But the country has virtually run out of all liquid fuels forcing the State-run National Oil Company of Zimbabwe to appeal to banks to help raise foreign currency to pay for fuel. South Africa has in the past helped Zimbabwe with fuel and electricity but has in recent weeks appeared reluctant to bail out its northern neighbour out of its worst energy crisis.
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Comment from the New York Times, 8 May
Zimbabwe at the breaking point
Zimbabwe, once a shining star in southern Africa, is collapsing under the disastrous rule of Robert Mugabe. This week, a powerful troika of African presidents from South Africa, Nigeria and Malawi traveled to Harare, raising hopes that they were finally prepared to do something about the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe. Unhappily, their visit failed to persuade Mr. Mugabe to open unconditional talks with the opposition. African leaders, especially President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, should take the lead in Zimbabwe. The chaos there poses the greatest immediate threat to neighboring South Africa, and it undermines the laudable effort by African leaders to promote economic partnership with the West on the basis of internal reforms.
Zimbabwe is a mess. There are drastic shortages of food and fuel, the rates of inflation and unemployment are soaring, coercive land reforms have shrunk agricultural production, and public frustration is at a breaking point. Mr. Mugabe, one of the main leaders of the struggle against white minority rule, blames whites, political opponents and Britain for his woes. But nobody really questions any longer that the greatest blame lies with Mr. Mugabe's inept, corrupt and brutal rule. In national elections last year, Mr. Mugabe's victory was so tainted that Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth.
We understand why African leaders are reluctant to lean on Mr. Mugabe. Mr. Mbeki shares Mr. Mugabe's roots in a liberation movement, and the instability of many African regimes makes their leaders loath to promote regime change anywhere. But halfhearted and reluctant gestures by Mr. Mbeki and others have achieved nothing in Zimbabwe except to make the opposition skeptical about their intentions. It is imperative for the presidents - Mr. Mbeki, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi - to demand that Mr. Mugabe open immediate talks with the leading opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, on ways to end the crisis and hold free and fair elections. Zimbabwe cannot endure five more years of Mr. Mugabe's misrule.
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From The Guardian (UK), 15 May
Guardian reporter's Zimbabwe lawyer threatened with jail
Owen Bowcott
The lawyer representing the Guardian's correspondent in Zimbabwe, Andrew Meldrum, was threatened with detention herself yesterday after she went on his behalf to the headquarters of the immigration service in Harare. Beatrice Mtetwa, a prominent local lawyer, was there to hand in a letter in response to the Zimbabwean government's confiscation of Meldrum's passport and residence permit. Immigration officials alleged earlier this week that he had breached the terms of his residence permit by writing about the country's political situation. Meldrum, 51, who has been covering Zimbabwe for 23 years, was told he should write only about economics and tourism. Ms Mtetwa was confronted by immigration officials and police officers infuriated that she was not accompanied by Meldrum. She was told she would be held until she had produced her client, despite the fact that there had been no previous request for Meldrum to attend yesterday. After further exchanges, she was finally allowed to leave. Ms Mtetwa and Meldrum, one of the last foreign reporters working in Zimbabwe, have been ordered to appear at the immigration office tomorrow morning. Last year Meldrum, an American citizen, was one of the first journalists to be prosecuted under new media laws. A Harare magistrate acquitted him of criminal charges of publishing false information about Zimbabwe. The law has been criticised by civil rights groups as an attempt to stifle criticism of President Robert Mugabe's government. Meldrum insists he is fighting to remain in the country not just on his own behalf, but to secure the rights of other journalists. "The government thinks that by trying to intimidate or deport me, or prevent me from working, they will also prevent other journalists who are doing great work," Meldrum said last week.
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From The Financial Gazette, 15 May
Last-ditch bid to save fuel deal
By Sunsleey Chamunorwa, Editor-In-Chief
In what might be a last-ditch attempt to revive the stalled fuel deal with Libya, Zimbabwe has cobbled up an ambitious plan to export US$100 million ($82.4 billion at the official exchange rate) worth of an assortment of agricultural commodities to the north African country in a bid to reactivate the stuck-up US$90 million revolving facility. The proposals that seek to help Zimbabwe ride out of its difficulties were put on the table between February and March this year, sources privy to deal said this week. Dogged by crippling foreign currency shortages that have taken the wind out of the economy, leaving it in a tough and desperate situation, Zimbabwe hopes to earn enough foreign currency to pay for its fuel imports. The proceeds from the exports would also be partly used to acquit the US$61 million plus interests that Zimbabwe owes Libya for the fuel already supplied. Prior to this proposal, it is understood that the Libyans had insisted that the financier of the deal, the Libyan Arab Foreign Bank (LAFB) would not provide any further finance to enable the Libyan oil company, TAMOIL to release fuel to Zimbabwe. The Libyans were irked by the fact that despite signing rescheduling agreements, the fuel procurement company, the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) had "practically and legally" defaulted. NOCZIM chief Webster Muriritirwa refused to comment on whether Zimbabwe had paid part of the outstanding US$61 million which the sources said was the last big obstacle to be cleared before Libya could resume fuel supplies to Zimbabwe. He referred all questions to the parent Ministry of Energy and Power Development. The Minister of Energy and Power Development, Amos Midzi, had not returned our calls as promised by the time of going to press, while the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Justin Mupamhanga was said to be out of the office.
It emerged this week that hoping to strike an eleventh-hour revival of the fuel deal whose terms have not been made public, Zimbabwean authorities have since advised their Libyan counterparts that the country could export tobacco, sugar and beef among other commodities, to Libya to enable it to discharge its liabilities. It could not however be ascertained whether Libya had given the nod to Zimbabwe's proposals. The Libyan ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mahmodu Yousef Azabi, could not furnish the paper with any details as he said he was having a meeting when contacted on Tuesday this week. Zimbabwe has however in the past failed to fulfil some of its export commitments to Libya. The Libyans have since expressed their disappointment that Zimbabwe's earlier export pledges were still to be realised. Initially a local private company, Farai Meats, owned by John Mapondera and a consortium of other black business people, was said to have clinched the deal to export beef to Libya but this deal seems to have failed to take off immediately. Yesterday Mapondera told this paper that his company would commence meat exports to Libya within the next 10 days. He said the initial exports would amount to 4 000 tonnes. Miffed by the failure of Farai Meats to expedite exports to Libya, the sources said, the government was now mulling plans for a new line of supply through the Cold Storage Company (CSC ). The CSC would however require up to three months to effect delivery. The mooted exports through CSC would however run parallel to the existing arrangements.
Zimbabwe's fuel supplies have literally run dry with chaotic, long and winding queues forming, sometimes for days, at various filling stations that are suspected to be in line for fuel deliveries that are still trickling in. Up until the last quarter of last year, the country has been receiving at least 70 percent of its supplies from Libya under a US$90 million facility. The facility was dealt a hammer-blow when Zimbabwe failed to pay US$61 million for the fuel that had been supplied by Libya. This stiffened the hand of the fuel supplier, which immediately halted all fuel supplies to Zimbabwe. The biting shortages of fuel have become a millstone around the nation's neck as the economic fallout of the cessation of the Libyan fuel supplies to Zimbabwe cuts across industry and commerce. NOCZIM has reportedly since directed service stations to start rationing fuel. Well-placed sources told this paper this week that Zimbabwe has proposed to supply 25 million kilogrammes of tobacco valued at US$60 million. At least half of this would be taken up by the Libyan Tobacco Company while the remainder would be marketed by the LAFB's appointed agents. It is understood that this has since been ratified by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Furthermore, the sources said, Zimbabwe has also undertaken, to export 10 000 tonnes of refined sugar per month to Libya. Based on international commodity prices, this would be worth an estimated US$15 million per month. At the time the proposals were made, it was hoped that Zimbabwe would have supplied about 50 000 tonnes of sugar to Libya by June this year. They also added that 300 tonnes of tea and coffee were earmarked for export to Libya. If the proposals are approved, it is hoped that the US$90 million fuel facility would eventually become a "self-liquidating" commitment with more exports earmarked for shipment next year.
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From The Cape Argus (SA), 14 May
Zim Air refuels in Zambia
Zimbabwe's embattled national airline, Air Zimbabwe, is now sending its planes for refuelling to Zambia as a fuel shortage in the country keeps biting. The Zimbabwe government, reeling under an acute foreign currency crisis, has failed to import any fuel over the last two weeks. Air Zimbabwe spokesman David Mwenga said the airline was doing everything possible to keep flying, including refuelling some of its planes in Zambia. This was not a permanent arrangement and only two of the airline's fleet of five had been sent to Zambia in the last three days, he said. But sources at Air Zimbabwe said were it not for the decision to refuel planes in Zambia, its entire fleet would have been grounded by now. The sources said the option to refuel in Lusaka, only 35 minutes flight from Harare, had become routine.
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From VOA News, 14 May
No shortage of imported goods for those with money
Tendai Maphosa
Harare - Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst economic crisis since independence 23 years ago. Basic commodities and fuel are in short supply. But, there is no shortage of imported goods in the supermarkets for those with money. Australian butter, Dutch cheese, South African wine, milk, cooking oil, margarine and even the staple maize meal are just some of the many products in abundance on supermarket shelves in the better off areas of Harare. While some of these products were available when the Zimbabwean economy was doing well, they had to compete with products manufactured in the country. Now they practically have the shelves to themselves. An economist for Zimbabwe's National Chamber of Commerce, James Jowa, says the shortage of foreign currency in Zimbabwe has made it very expensive to produce just about anything. As a result, he says, imported products are now often cheaper than those made in Zimbabwe. "Because of the major increases in the cost of producing goods and services, it's becoming relatively cheaper to import goods and services, particularly consumption goods like cooking oil, things like soap," he said. Mr. Jowa also says that the price controls on a number of essential commodities have made it uneconomical for companies to produce them. A businessman who spoke on condition of anonymity says business people are either using their own external funds or getting money on the parallel market to import the goods, some of which go straight to the thriving black market where huge profits can be made. But few legitimate businesses are profiting in Zimbabwe. Most manufacturers are operating at 30 to 40 percent capacity, and many companies are either down-sizing or relocating to neighboring countries. Mr. Jowa, the Chamber of Commerce economist, says Zimbabwe, which once had one of the strongest economies in Africa, is actually undergoing a process of de-industrialization.
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From ZWNEWS, 15 May
Funny no longer
By Michael Hartnack
Join the petrol queue and after anything up to 10 days, the defining moment arrives: a tanker appears - followed by a convoy of up to 50 of the driver's friends. The news sweeps the neighbourhood and crowds of owners rush to the scene, jumping into cars left in the queue with an employee or unemployed relative. More vehicles draw up alongside, three and four deep, hooting and vociferously demanding admission to the queue. The tanker driver's friends, trailing bumper-to-bumper behind him like ramoras on a shark, are the first to shatter the order established over the past days. He refuses to enter and unload until they are slotted in behind him. Then come dark limousines driven by well-known politicians and forbidding figures in service uniforms, for whom the crowd nervously hold back. "Why didn't you tell us this petrol is not for ordinary people?" a middle aged black woman cries out. By now a line of commuter minibuses has found a gap and forced its way in, the crews grimly determined to get some of the lifeblood of their business. Huge bundles of notes change hands as bribes are paid. The police arrive, collect deposit fines of thousands of dollars for overcharging from the pump attendants, get containers filled and put in the back of their truck, and depart. Then everything goes on exactly as it was. The motorists have to pay extra to make up the money the attendants lost in fines.
In Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, everyone has their own queue story, whether it is for fuel, bread, maize meal, sugar, cooking oil, passport application forms and even banknotes crisp from the Reserve Bank, which has run out of the imported ink and paper needed to print them. Only the largest denomination, Z$500, is now sufficient to buy a roll of sweets that cost sixpence in colonial times. Queues for public telephones lengthened when all coin-in-the-slot phones were shut down last month. A year after Mugabe opened a new US$10 million coin mint in Bulawayo (with a diatribe against the Jewish community there), all coins are valueless due to runaway inflation, and only phone cards are now usable, even for local calls. At clinics in the poorer suburbs, the chronically sick queue for medicines often limited to a single aspirin, regardless of their symptoms, while acute cases wait at hospital casualty departments for attention from harassed junior doctors, on duty 18 hours a day. Friends rushed a 66-year-old pensioner with an agonising bladder seizure and breathing problems to Harare's Parirenyatwa teaching hospital but gave up when they saw road accident victims who had not received attention after six hours. A nearby private hospital demanded Z$300 000 before they would look at him. He later died. In rural areas, people queue for safe drinking water as unserviced borehole pumps collapse.
The joke that Mugabe "is the man who put Zimbabwe back on its feet" has ceased to be funny as urban transport ground to a near halt over the past month. Tripling of petrol prices did nothing to alleviate the shortages despite regular rumours of new deals with South African, Libyan, Iranian and Nigerian suppliers. Exporters have begun sourcing their own fuel imports with illegally retained foreign funds. The Zimbabwean petrol queue, stretching for up to 4 kilometres, has become a new sociological phenomenon. Rusting, barely roadworthy vehicles are left in the approaches to filling stations day and night. Interspersed among them are mysterious items of junk such as old filing cabinet drawers, stones, branches, pre-1972 number plates, as well as ancient 44-gallon drums, meant to denote a place "saved" for one or more thirsty fuel tanks. Alongside are growing piles of rubbish and the smell of unburied sewage. The queue develops something of a fairground atmosphere as vendors move wearily up and down, desperate to make a living from their pitiful little displays of wares. In many queues ordinary drivers without connections to the tanker driver, the pump attendant or Mugabe's Zanu PF are rationed to 30 litres. Some drivers have special "long range" tanks fitted in the hope of getting extra to siphon out and sell for 2-3 times the Z$450/litre controlled price. When the garage owner appears and walks down the queue with his security guards, announcing that the supply has run out and all must try again next week, there are groans of despair, but no violence. No point in fighting for what is, by now, just not there. Many of the vehicles are left exactly where they were. With empty tanks, they are not easy to steal, although the owners risk pilfering of wheels, batteries and other spares. And the queue lives on, to be convulsed again with fleeting, frenzied life another day.
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From News24 (SA), 15 May
Pope slams Zim land reform
Vatican City - Pope John Paul II on Thursday sharply criticised Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's controversial land reform programme as an "error" which could only create tension and discord. "It is an error to think that any real benefit or success will come simply by expropriating large landholdings, dividing them into smaller production units and distributing them to others," the pope said. Agrarian reform may be necessary in many countries, the pope said, "but it is also a complex and delicate process". "Justice must be made available to all if the injuries of the past are to be left behind and a brighter future built." The pontiff was addressing diplomats to the Holy See as he received the credentials of 12 new ambassadors, including Harare's envoy Kelebert Nkomani. Since introducing the reforms three years ago, Mugabe's government has so far seized 11 million hectares of farmland from whites and redistributed it to 320 000 black families. The land reforms have partly been blamed for Zimbabwe's grave food shortages. The president has ordered a review of the scheme after his government admitted in March that the exercise has some "irregularities".
The 82-year-old pontiff said due weight must be given "to the various claims of land ownership, the right to land use and the common good". He said that when values of democracy, good government, human rights, dialogue and peace were neglected or violated, "social and political violence will eventually increase, the gap between rich and poor will grow ever wider..." He told Nkomani that if land redistribution in a given country was to offer a sustainable response to economic problems, it "must continue to develop over time and must ensure that the necessary infrastructures are in place". "Feelings of disenfranchisement or of being unjustly treated only serve to foment tension and discord." The leader of the Catholic Church added that any agrarian reform "should be in full accord with national policies and those of international bodies". The pope pledged the "full support" of the Catholic Church for efforts "to construct a culture of dialogue rather than confrontation, of reconciliation rather than conflict". Nkomani is also ambassador to Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the European Union.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 May
Meldrum meets Immigration boss
Staff Writer
The dispute involving Guardian correspondent Andrew Meldrum and the Immigration department is due to resume today when he meets chief Immigration officer Elasto Mugwadi. The department claims that in his letter of support for Meldrum's residence permit application, then Information minister Chen Chimutengwende indicated Meldrum would be covering economic and tourism issues. The department wanted to know why he is now writing political reports. Meldrum has replied in a letter approved by his lawyers that he has been writing economics-related stories. He pointed to his work for The Economist and the Economist Intelligence Unit. That did not preclude him, he argued, from writing other stories including political stories. In any case, he pointed out, his residence permit imposes no restrictions as to what he may write and simply states that he is expected to work as a journalist. "I am confident that I have broken no law," Meldrum told the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday. "There are no restrictions on my residence permit whatsoever. A journalist covers all news, be it political, economic or social - anything deemed newsworthy." Meldrum on Tuesday met a Senior Immigration Officer, Mr Siziba, who greeted him with: "Meldrum, you are continuing to write bad stories about Zimbabwe." Siziba led the group of immigration officers and what are suspected to be CIO officers that parked outside Meldrum's Highlands home last Wednesday evening claiming they wanted to interview him. They refused to provide their IDs to either Meldrum's wife or his lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa.
In discussions between Mugwadi and Mtetwa this week it transpired that the Immigration department had been led to believe Meldrum's High Court order last year upholding his right of abode in Zimbabwe had expired and that since he had not appealed to the Supreme Court for further relief, it was no longer valid. Mtetwa pointed out that the onus was on the department to appeal to the Supreme Court if it was unhappy with the High Court order that was still valid. Meldrum remains confident that the Immigration department doesn't have a case. "These are not the actions of a government that is confident of its legitimacy," Meldrum said. "These are the actions of a government that is afraid of freedom of the press, and of independent and critical journalism. If this action against me is intended to intimidate other Zimbabwean journalists it will surely fail." Yesterday, media freedom organisation Credo said the Zimbabwe authorities cannot exercise sovereignty outside the boundaries of international law. "The new accusation that conditions of Meldrum's permit only allow him to report on economics and tourism is false," Credo's coordinator Rotimi Sankore said. "Even if that were true, no competent journalist can report on the Zimbabwean economy and tourism industry without reflecting the political climate that has led to their collapse."
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 May
Mandaza in donor funds row
Vincent Kahiya
Publisher and political scientist Ibbo Mandaza allegedly diverted funds from the Southern African Political Economy Series (Sapes) Trust to his publishing house, rendering the organisation insolvent, it has been claimed. Court documents obtained by the Zimbabwe Independent yesterday said Mandaza diverted funds and assets from Sapes to his publishing company, Southern Africa Printing and Publishing House (Sappho) which publishes the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror. The allegations surfaced in an urgent High Court application this week in which Sapes executive director Mafa Sejanamane is suing Mandaza for unlawfully sending him on forced leave and barring him from executing his duties. In his affidavit, Sejanamane said Mandaza, who chairs the Sapes board of trustees, wanted him out of the trust because he had resisted attempts by the chairman to illegally transfer assets to Sappho. The court papers said Mandaza diverted at least $28 million from Sapes to Sappho.
"His organisation, Southern Africa Printing and Publishing House, owes Sapes Trust $28 million which is a small portion of money from the Ford Foundation grants and there are funds paid by Ford Foundation which are simply unaccounted for," said Sejanamane. The total grant from the Ford Foundation could not be established in the court papers. Sejanamane said in his affidavit Sapes was now technically insolvent. "Sapes Trust has become insolvent to the extent that it is not only unable to pay its trade creditors but it has not been able to pay salaries of its foreign recruited staff for the past three months," said Sejanamane. "(It) will not be able to make payments for the month of May 2003 and has not been able to pay its locally recruited staff for at least one month and will not be able to pay salaries for May 2003." He added: "The donor community from which Sapes Trust derives its principal support has become completely disenchanted and disillusioned and some donors have simply withdrawn their support and others are insisting on a proper audit of funds that they injected into the organisation."
Sejanamane said two donors, Ford Foundation and African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF), were keen to know how Sapes used funds donated. The ACBF has already instituted a probe in which it concluded that the biggest threat to the existence of Sapes was the "excessive protectiveness and desire to dominate and control its activities" by founder members. The Ford Foundation was this month expected to commission an audit into the use of funds donated to Sapes. Sejanamane said Mandaza had no authority to relieve him of his duties as only the board could take that decision. He said in the event of his being fired the Ford special audit might be prevented from taking place. He said Mandaza could also interfere with Sapes records which deal with the missing funds. He said Mandaza would also harass and intimidate staff at Sapes. Sejanamane said on May 7 Mandaza forced staff to sign a memorandum designed to exonerate him (Mandaza) from the illegal transfer to himself of donor funds, in particular Ford Foundation grants. Sappho experienced major financial problems between 1999 and 2001 and Sapes funds were used to fund some of its operations that culminated in a total expenditure of $35,9 million. Of this amount, $8,9 was officially designated as investment in Sappho whilst $27 million was designated as a cash loan.
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From BBC News, 16 May
Belgium caught in travel ban row
By Tim Franks
A Zimbabwean minister is visiting Brussels today despite a European Union ban on travel visas for members of the Zimbabwean Government. Samuel Mumbengegwi, the Minister for Trade, is expected to attend a meeting of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of countries. The EU imposed the sanctions because of what it said were violations of humans rights and the democratic process in Zimbabwe. The EU frequently professes its concern about the African nation - but the strict travel ban it has imposed on Zimbabwe's ruling class, is not, in practice, that strict. A spokesman for the Belgian foreign ministry explained that there is little his country can do. Belgium hosts the international organisation that is the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of nations. If they want to invite a Zimbabwean minister to the meeting, he has to be allowed to come, the spokesman said. But UK Conservative members of the European Parliament reject the Belgian argument. They say the African, Caribbean and Pacific group is a creation of the European Union and it is within the power of the EU to decide whom it wants to invite to its meetings. The British Government is not sending a minister to this meeting. It is, though, sending a senior official from the Department for International Development.
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From The Times (UK), 16 May
Zimbabwe sees return of hunter gatherer
By Jan Raath
No transport, no fuel, no power, just sackfuls of banknotes - a report from a collapsing nation
My maid, Nyarai, failed to turn up for work yesterday. There was no public transport and private minibuses have doubled their charges since a 283 per cent increase in petrol prices a month ago. She was unable to call because the telephone boxes no longer work. Nyarai would have come if she could. Her boyfriend is on forced leave because the textile factory where he works as a machinist can work only half time because of power cuts. Zimbabwe is a country rich in resources and with great potential. It used to have a well-oiled infrastructure that even South Africa, with its far bigger economy, envied. It was robust enough to withstand the first two decades of President Mugabe's rule but it has now reached the point of collapse. An advanced society is returning to the primitive. Turn-of-the-switch technology for heating, cooking and water is being replaced by fuel gathering, wood fires and water collection on foot. The bizarre and dysfunctional is the norm and very little surprises people. The expression "the wheels have come off" is on everyone's lips.
In Colquhoun Avenue, an upmarket area of embassies and apartment blocks, a young man uses a long metal rod to break twigs from trees for kindling. On Samora Machel Avenue, hundreds of battered white Japanese minibuses - the core of Harare's commuter fleet - form a mile-long queue for petrol. Roads into the city from townships on the outskirts are thronged with people who have to walk to work. The country's sole sugar refinery closed this week. There is ample, locally grown, raw sugar but no coal for the refining process. Wankie Colliery, the state-owned company that sits on one of the world's biggest coalfields, has suspended production. The massive dragline that scoops opencast coal was halted when it ran out of spares. There is no foreign currency to import new ones. Harare Hospital, which serves the capital's townships, is on the verge of closing. Unable to purchase coal, the hospital has its boilers out of action and cannot sterilise instruments, launder bedding or cook food. Air Zimbabwe, the state-owned airline, could soon be grounded. It confirmed this week that it had only "two or three days" of fuel. That is more than most motorists have. A two or three-day wait in a fuel queue no longer ensures a full tank. Most queues outside service stations are referred to as "hope queues", where people leave their cars for a week at a time. When a petrol tanker arrives, bedlam erupts. Opportunists cut in front of those who have waited. Fights break out and sometimes shots are fired. Riot police arrive late, blaming the fuel shortage.
In the past month, the South African and Mozambican utility companies that supply Zimbabwe with power have declared the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, the state company run by Mr Mugabe's brother-in-law, as an "interruptible customer" because of its failure to service its £22 million debt. This means that the company gets only ten minutes' notice of power cuts. Factory machinery jerks to a halt. Companies moulding tyres or plastics are left with hard, useless lumps oozing from moulds. The Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce estimates that fuel and electricity crises have cut industrial output to 35 per cent of normal. Officially inflation is running at 228 per cent. In reality it is out of control. The official exchange rate is 824 Zimbabwe dollars to one US dollar but on the black market it is 2,200. A white loaf cost five Zimbabwe dollars in 1998; it now costs 350. A businessman carjacked in the affluent suburb of Borrowdale last month offered 10 million dollars as reward for his year-old Mercedes SUV. That was the sum listed in the national budget ten years ago for procuring vehicles for the entire police force. The central bank still refuses to print denominations bigger than 500 dollars. At banks, depositors line up with sacks of money. At the withdrawal counter, tellers and customers can barely see each other over the wall of notes. The 500 dollar note is nicknamed the Ferrari because it is red and goes fast. It is disappearing from the streets as people hoard it. The central bank is not printing more because it has no foreign currency to import the high-quality watermarked paper and silver strips. Commercial bank officials say that it costs 700 Zimbabwe dollars to print a single 500 note.
This week a bank told a businessman who buys large quantities of cotton in peasant areas that it could offer him only 50 dollar notes. "He laughed," the bank manager said. "He says he needs one billion dollars a week. In fifties, that's 40 cubic metres of banknotes." This week it cost me 2,750 dollars to airmail a letter to Britain containing three A4 sheets of paper. I covered the back and front of the envelope with 100 dollar stamps - the highest denomination - except for a small patch where I wrote the address. Interestingly, the stamp features a pretty sketch of the Tokwe Mukorsi dam, which has not been built because Cabinet ministers have been fighting over bribes for the lucrative tender for the past 15 years. The cheapest telephone call is now 24 dollars, but the largest coin is 5 dollars. The coin boxes in busy public telephones would fill much faster than the post office could collect the coins, so they have been removed. They would be replaced by computer chip card phones "depending on the availability of foreign currency", a spokesman said.
Signs of poverty
Life expectancy at birth: 42.9 years, down from 56.0 years in 1975. Proportion of children dying before they are five: 11.7 per cent. Proportion of adult population with HIV/Aids in 2001: 33.7 per cent
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From The Daily News, 15 May
SA resumes power supplies to ZESA
Staff Reporter
South Africa has resumed electricity supplies to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), which is also expecting to begin receiving power from Mozambique's Hydro Electrica Cahorra Bassa (HBS) at the end of this month, ZESA chairman Sydney Gata said yesterday. He told The Daily News that supplies from South Africa's ESKOM resumed on Monday after Zimbabwe's power utility began paying arrears on its debt, which had ballooned in the last two years because of severe foreign currency shortages. According to Gata, ZESA has begun settling part of the US$55 million (Z$45,32 billion) it owes to ESKOM and HBS, which had cut back supplies. The ZESA chairman said the electricity situation was expected to stabilise in the next few months following the creation of a facility that would allow large exporters, especially mines, to pay their power bills in foreign currency. Gata said: "Full supplies from ESKOM started on Monday and HSB will resume its full supplies at the end of the month. I have been shuttling between Maputo and Johannesburg to discuss the progress and the contingencies we are putting in place." "Both ESKOM and HSB supplied us with electricity for five months without payment,'' he added. Gata said ZESA had not been receiving hard cash from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe since last December, but denied that the local power utility's debt to regional electricity suppliers was US$200 million as reported by the local Press.
Under ZESA's new agreement with exporters, companies will be offered significant tariff discounts to encourage them to settle their bills in hard cash. The agreement has enabled ZESA to slash its debt to regional suppliers from US$55 million to US$45 million in the past week, Gata said. He added that ZESA intends to have settled its debt by the end of June. He told The Daily News: '"Of the first group of 35 largest companies, 28 of them have signed an agreements in which they are paying their bills in US dollars and will enjoy tariff discounts.'' He said two of the 28 companies had signed advance payment agreements and would enjoy an additional discount. He said from those companies that signed the agreements, ZESA received US$5,4 million in February, adding that in July the electricity company expected to receive between US$11 million and US$12 million from the arrangement. Gata said under normal circumstances, ZESA needed US$17 million a month for its operations. Of this amount, US$7 million would be used for operations and development, including the purchase of new equipment, refurbishment and maintenance. US$5 million dollars would be used to meet commitments under bilateral and multilateral agreements with organisations such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank, while the remaining US$5 million would be used for imports. ZESA is charging US$3,2 per kilowatt per hour for electricity. However, companies still have the option of paying for power in local currency.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 May
Dollar plunges
Staff writers
The government fuelled the plunge of the Zimbabwe dollar to an all-time low of $2 700 to US$1 on Wednesday after it authorised dealers to buy foreign currency at "any rate" to help Noczim raise hard currency to pay fuel suppliers. The dollar traded at $2 700 to the greenback at the close of business on Wednesday and $2 100 yesterday as it eased back on news that Noczim had secured another lifeline facility elsewhere. There is also speculation that Zesa began buying the South African rand at $250: R1. Analysts said Zesa had descended on the border town of Beitbridge to capture limited inflows from South Africa. Meanwhile, a reliable source at the Reserve Bank told the Zimbabwe Independent Zimbabwe had one day's supply of foreign currency in its coffers. "Speculation has been caused by the statement by Noczim and this has put pressure on the local dollar as forex dealers sought to capitalise on the weak Zimdollar," said the source. The government had prioritised Noczim as Zesa has reportedly won a reprieve from the South Africans in a deal said to have been clinched on the sidelines of the talks between President Mugabe and South African President Thabo Mbeki when the latter visited Zimbabwe last Monday. "Fuel suppliers have been demanding cash upfront, and as the South African delegation which accompanied Mbeki made an undertaking not to switch Zesa off, priority has been given to fuel procurement," said the source.
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From The Guardian (UK), 17 May
Dragged off and deported
Zimbabwean officials flout courts after seizing Guardian correspondent
Steven Morris
The Guardian's Zimbabwe correspondent, Andrew Meldrum, was deported last night even though three separate court orders were made prohibiting his expulsion. After spending 23 years reporting on the country, Meldrum was manhandled into a car outside the offices of Zimbabwe's immigration service, driven to the airport and put on a plane to London. The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, led worldwide condemnation, saying: "I'm very concerned at this case. Petty and vindictive actions like this simply expose the Zimbabwe regime for what it is."Michael Ancram, the shadow foreign secretary, said: "This is yet another disgraceful action showing the lack of respect for freedom of expression and speech of Robert Mugabe's evil regime. This is the act of a dictator." A US state department spokesperson said the treatment of Meldrum, an American citizen, "reflects ongoing erosion of basic rights and the rule of law, and is yet another example of the intimidation faced by journalists in Zimbabwe, who have endured threats, arbitrary arrests and violence at the hands of the government and its supporters."
Meldrum's wife, Dolores, spoke to him on his mobile phone. "He told me the immigration officials had covered him with a jacket, hooded-style, and drove him around a dirt road. When they got to the airport he was locked up in an underground room," she told Reuters. Meldrum's lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, claimed his deportation signalled a "complete breakdown of the judicial system and the entire state machinery". The disturbing sequence of events began yesterday morning when Meldrum, 51, presented himself at the headquarters of the immigration service. He was told that he was considered a "prohibited immigrant" and "an undesirable inhabitant"and would be deported. He emerged from the building surrounded by officials and police. Meldrum shouted to waiting reporters: "I'm being deported. This is a vindictive action of a government afraid of a free press." He was manhandled by police officers, one of whom grabbed him by the collar, and bundled into an unmarked police car before being driven to the airport.
During the day the high court in Harare issued three orders at three hearings that Meldrum should not be deported. At the second of the hearings yesterday afternoon Ms Mtetwa argued that the immigration officials were in contempt for ignoring Meldrum's right to appeal a previous deportation order last July to the supreme court. That appeal has still to be heard. The state attorney, Loice Matamba-Moyotold, said she did not know why the home affairs minister, Kembo Mahadi, issued the deportation order because he had said it was not in the public interest to disclose why Meldrum was deemed an "undesirable". Judge Charles Hungwe said he saw no reason why the reporter should be detained. "He must be able to enjoy his freedom," the judge said. He said the state's reluctance to give reasons for Meldrum's deportation left "suspicions in one's mind". After the third hearing yesterday evening, Ms Mtetwa raced to the airport and served the new order prohibiting Meldrum's deportation to Air Zimbabwe staff. Though immigration officials rushed away when they saw her, she also managed to serve the order on them. Nevertheless, Meldrum was put on a flight to Gatwick. He managed to wave to friends and make a phone call to reassure them that he was all right. Ms Mtetwa said it was clear the state attorney and the immigration officers were not acting independently.
The editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, said: "The deportation of our reporter Andrew Meldrum from Zimbabwe is a political act which should invite the strongest possible condemnation from the international community. "The Zimbabwean authorities have been persecuting Andrew for the past 12 months and their determination to deport him can only be interpreted as a concerted effort to stifle any free press within the country. This is an extremely grim day for Zimbabwe." The latest attempts to deport Meldrum began last week when immigration officers arrived at his home after dark and said he was wanted for questioning. On Tuesday Meldrum voluntarily went to the immigration offices, where he was told he had been writing "bad stories" about Zimbabwe. His residence permit and passport were confiscated. He was subsequently told to appear at the immigration offices yesterday. Johann Fritz, director of the International Press Institute, said: "Meldrum's illegal and unwarranted removal is yet another example of the ongoing attempt by the government of President Mugabe to prevent information on the appalling situation in Zimbabwe finding its way out of the country." Paul Themba Nyathi, secretary for information and publicity for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, described the decision to deport Meldrum as "another nail in the coffin for press freedom in Zimbabwe".
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 17 May
Mugabe kicks out defiant journalist
Harare - Andrew Meldrum was determined not to go quietly yesterday. As he was dragged and shoved by Zimbabwe police into their vehicle, he was still shouting about press freedom. Ten hours later, despite numerous legal challenges to his deportation, he was bundled on to an Air Zimbabwe flight and banished from the country. He was due to land in London this morning. In a day of drama, Mr Meldrum, 51, veteran Zimbabwe correspondent for the Guardian was declared a prohibited immigrant in an order made on the third floor of a building in Nelson Mandela Street which houses the immigration department. Minutes later Mr Meldrum, an American citizen but long-standing permanent resident of Zimbabwe was arrested and taken at high speed in a police vehicle to Harare International Airport, where he disappeared for several hours. Frantic last-minute efforts ensued to allow him to stay. Mr Meldrum's solicitor, the diminutive Beatrice Mtetwa, ran from the immigration department to the nearby high court and applied for an urgent hearing to appeal against his deportation. Judge Charles Hungwe granted it immediately and set the hearing for yesterday afternoon. She then rushed back to the immigration department and served the papers on officials there. Then she drove to the airport and served the papers on Air Zimbabwe which had three aircraft leaving the country yesterday afternoon. But the efforts were in vain. Late in the evening, Mr Meldrum snatched a few brief words with his wife before being inserted on to a flight to Gatwick. American diplomats at the airport were not given access to him nor were they told where he was.
The latest saga began nine days ago when four men, saying they were immigration officials, arrived at his home at night in a convoy of vehicles, one a van with blacked-out windows. He was not at home and when Ms Mtetwa arrived and stood guard at his gate the officials left. She advised Mr Meldrum not to return home. She was then ordered to produce Mr Meldrum at the immigration offices yesterday. They spent half an hour behind locked doors, and when they emerged, accompanied by plain-clothed and uniformed members of the Zimbabwe police and members of the Central Intelligence Organisation, Mr Meldrum was composed but grim faced. "I am out. I have to go immediately." When he arrived downstairs a clutch of local and foreign journalists were waiting. He shouted to the media, many of whom were personal friends: "This is not the action of a legitimate government. It is afraid of a free press. It is afraid of independent and critical reporting." Infuriated police grabbed him around the neck, pulled at his jacket and eventually overpowered him and pushed him into a back passenger seat of their saloon. Diplomats who had parked across the street followed the police car, which was not marked with official number plates, to the airport. That was the last anyone saw of him until he flew out.
At the appointed time Judge Hungwe arrived at the high court, but Mr Meldrum was missing. The judge ruled that the police must produce him. "There is no reason to have him detained. He must be able to enjoy his freedom." The court was told that the deportation order, signed by Kembo Mohadi, the home affairs minister, said it was "not in the public interest to disclose the reasons why I deemed Andrew Meldrum an undesirable inhabitant or visitor to Zimbabwe". Ms Mtetwa told Judge Hungwe that the immigration official responsible for deporting Mr Meldrum was in contempt of court for failing to produce him for the hearing and should be imprisoned until her client appeared. She later obtained a second court order to prevent Mr Meldrum's deportation, but was unable to find immigration officials at the airport on which to serve the document. A legal expert said the contempt of court involved in overriding the high court orders was a "very serious" breach of law. But he added: "They were determined to get rid of him and they have. Regretfully the Zimbabwe police regularly ignore orders. They even laugh at them. That has been the trend for some time now."
In the past year Mr Meldrum has been accused in the state-controlled media of being a terrorist and a spy, and of damaging Zimbabwe's image. He has reported daily on Zimbabwe from shortly after independence from Britain in 1980, those days of hope, reconstruction and reconciliation which followed the country's first democratic elections after the Rhodesian civil war. But Zimbabwe gradually descended into repression, a country where human rights abuses are the order of the day for those who oppose the government. There is no single report among so many penned by Mr Meldrum in the past year that would have enraged the government more than usual. But he was the first journalist to be acquitted under legislation passed after the disputed presidential election last year, the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. He reported a story, which appeared in the Daily News, which claimed a woman had been beheaded by ruling party supporters in front of her children. The story was false, and the Guardian and Daily News published apologies. Mr Meldrum was arrested, charged, and last August was acquitted of publishing a falsehood, but was served with a deportation order outside the magistrate's court minutes later. Ms Mtetwa immediately went to the high court protesting that permanent residents have the same rights as citizens under the constitution and a decision on Mr Meldrum's status was referred to the supreme court, where it remains. Mr Meldrum is the latest in a long line of journalists targeted by President Robert Mugabe. The work permit of The Daily Telegraph's David Blair was withdrawn two years ago, that of the BBC's Joseph Winter at about the same time, and others back to the 1980s. More than 60 media workers have been arrested in the past year, according to the Media Institute of Southern Africa. Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian editor, said: "The authorities have been persecuting Andrew for 12 months and their clear determination to deport him can only be interpreted as a concerted effort to stifle any free press." Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, described Zimbabwe's action as "petty and vindictive".
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From The Times (UK), 16 May
'There are a lot of days when there is no food, no money'
By Jan Raath
Plaxedes John opens the fridge in her tiny house in Mufakose township to reveal a large white cake with pale green lettering that says "Happy Birthday Daddy". It is not for her three children to eat, however. It is an order she must deliver the next day. Otherwise the fridge contains just one tin bowl of "porridge" so thin that the maize meal scarcely discolours the water. Plaxedes's husband is away looking for work in South Africa but has had no success in two years. Her cakes - and the buns that she sells on the streets - are her sole source of income and her last cake order was two weeks ago. She is subsidised by her 70-year-old father, who lets two rooms in the house he rents from the Harare city council. "There are a lot of days when there is no food, no money in the house," she says. "My father gives food to the children and he goes hungry. Sometimes they cry and they go to sleep crying. You get angry. You think 'I told them there is no food' and they just go on crying."
The kitchen is swept clean but with no money to buy poison Plaxedes cannot get rid of cockroaches. Half a dozen of the insects have their heads buried in a lump of cooked maizemeal on the stove. Outside is a hard-tramped garden with a few rape plants and in the street, litter, dust and a constant flow of noisy people. She pays Zim $2,000 for her eldest son, Tendai, 9, to attend the nearby government primary school. The uniform cost her $17,000. The average daily wage for a menial worker in Zimbabwe is about $1,500, or 65p. Tendai leaves for school on a thin porridge breakfast but has no midday meal. "Times I cannot feed him. The children are used to it. If you look at them, you can see they are not having a good life. They are not healthy." Plaxedes, 28, is tall and thin and grooms herself carefully. Her black skirt is spotless. The creases in her white blouse are perfectly ironed. Both items are give-aways from her church. "We look after our things," she says. In March she was queuing for sugar at a nearby supermarket. Riot police beat the waiting women with long rubber truncheons for "making noise". When they had been driven away the police bought all the sugar. "They sell it on the black market. The price controllers (from the Ministry of Trade and Commerce) who take the food from people selling on the street, they also sell it on the black market. They and the police and the traders, they are all friends, they are all dealers." On the street yesterday she paid $100 for a tiny plastic sachet of sugar - enough for two cups of tea. "Tomorrow it can be $300. Everything is black market." She cannot remember the last time there was meat in the house. Usually the main meal is maizemeal porridge. "It doesn't taste of anything. It is a matter of filling your stomach so you are able to sleep," she says.
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From VOA News, 16 May
Zimbabwe struggles with fuel shortage
Tendai Maphosa
Harare - In Zimbabwe, the Harare city council is struggling to keep essential service vehicles running during the country's severe fuel shortage. This is causing suffering and anxiety in the country's capital city. The city council announced on national television, during the main news bulletin Thursday evening, that it had run out of fuel for the vehicles. But the situation has now apparently eased somewhat. A council official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the council made the announcement in response to the numerous calls from people asking why ambulances were not responding when summoned. Harare has a fleet of more than 30 ambulances and 25 engines. The official says the council normally gets 20,000 liters of gasoline and 30,000 liters of diesel fuel a week to keep the emergency vehicles running, as well as garbage collection trucks and other essential transport. He says supplies have been erratic for the past three months, and the city council last received 10,000 liters of gasoline on May 5, with the usual allocation of diesel. The council appealed to the fuel procurement and distribution authority on May 13, and got an assurance that its fuel needs would be attended to. By the time the city council received a further 10,000 liters of gas and 30,000 liters of diesel Thursday, all the essential service vehicles had run dry and had not been operational for two days. The city official says the council is now rationing fuel to non-essential service vehicles to keep the ambulances, fire engines and garbage collectors on the road. Mountains of garbage are now a feature of the city, which used to be one of the cleanest in Africa. Besides catering to the city's more than two million inhabitants, the fire engines have to respond to disasters such as road accidents, sometimes more than 100 kilometers beyond the city limits.
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From News24 (SA), 16 May
Zim to expel fugitive MP?
Harare - Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa is set have the youngest member of the 150-seat parliament, Tafadzwa Musekiwa, 28, expelled from the assembly. Musekiwa, MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in the Harare suburban seat of Zengeza, fled Zimbabwe and sought asylum in Britain earlier this year after fellow legislator Job Sikhala and his lawyer were detained and tortured. Chinamasa told the assembly he planned to stage a motion to declare the Zengeza constituency vacant. He described the absence of Musekiwa for 21 sitting days of the House "a disgrace" and "a disservice to constituents". The minister's move would trigger a by-election in the constituency. The MDC won 57 seats at the June 2000 parliamentary elections but has lost two in savagely-fought rural by-elections, due to the deaths of their MPs. The polls were marred by widespread violence and intimidation, and supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party were suspected of using of famine relief to bribe voters. The loss of Zengeza would put the MDC further at risk of losing the required 50 seat blocking quota for constitutional amendments. The MDC, led by veteran trade unionist Morgan Tsvangirai, recently won two suburban by-elections in the capital of Harare, which had been caused by the deaths of MPs. Musekiwa was reported to be eking out a living in Britain by undertaking menial casual work, including dish washing. Chinamasa branded this as "very demeaning" and said it "affects the sovereignty of this country". For Musekiwa to be expelled and his seat declared vacant, at least 75 MPs need to support Chinamasa's motion when it comes up for debate next week.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 18 May
Stock up food: ZCTU
By Henry Makiwa
Kadoma - Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has said that it shall call for an indefinite mass job stayaway at the end of the month and advises Zimbabweans to stock up food and keep some money when they get paid in the next few weeks. Lovemore Matombo, the ZCTU president told unionists in Kadoma on Friday evening to "store a bucket of mealie meal and save a penny" in anticipation of an indefinite job action at the end of this month. He said labour would "withdraw its services" unless the fuel prices were reduced to previous levels. The government has in the past ridiculed the ZCTU's demand for cheaper fuel saying the union "was dreaming". Matombo said: "The government has to clearly, unreservedly and unambiguously reduce the fuel prices if they dream to see the labour machine roll out again. We want you (workers) to go home and let the message filter to others who are not here that they should store a bucket of mealie meal and some savings of their meagre earnings at home because when we go on stayaway this time around we will not come back until our demands are addressed," he said.
Matombo accused the government of constantly taking labour for granted and disregarding its demands to peg the minimum wage at $125 000 per month. "It has always been futile talking to the government about workers' woes because they behave so inhumanely. It is like talking to an insensitive Chimpanzee - they feel no remorse about the current crisis," said Matombo. "But I promise you that if workers unite, we will tame the Chimpanzee. We want all workers to earn at least $125 000 by the end of June," Matombo said to a tumultuous approval from the 500 plus workers' representatives who braved the early winter evening chill to converge at Kadoma's Rimuka Stadium. "Even if there are state agents and the secret police among you, surely even the CIOs should by now know that the life workers are living is unsustainable and unpractical. How do you expect a worker who forks out at least $56 000 on transport fares a month to survive on a $47 000 pay?"
The ZCTU executive council was holding a weeklong general meeting in this Midlands town to map out a strategy to cajole the government into addressing workers' grievances. At the same meeting, Raymond Majongwe, the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe secretary general, urged workers to "cane" any teacher seen going to work during their ongoing strike. Teachers across the country downed chalk last week in protest of low pay and poor conditions of service. The ZCTU's leaders were yesterday expected to continue with their mission to win over workers' hearts for a nationwide mass action with a meeting in Kwekwe.
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From News24 (SA), 18 May
MDC sues key treason witness
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party is suing the key witness in the treason trial of its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, a party official said on Sunday. David Coltart, the MDC legal secretary said that the party is suing Canada-based political consultant Ari Ben-Menashe for "misrepresentation and breach of contract" and has asked Canadian police to investigate him for fraud. Ben-Menashe is the state's star witness in the trial of Tsvangirai and two other senior party officials, charged with plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe ahead of last year's presidential elections. "We've lodged a criminal complaint and instituted civil proceedings against him (Ben-Menashe)," Coltart said. Earlier this year, Ben-Menashe, the first witness to appear in the marathon trial, claimed that Tsvangirai, his secretary general Welshman Ncube and senior party official Renson Gasela requested his help in assassinating Mugabe ahead of the poll, which Tsvangirai lost. The MDC trio deny the charges, which carry the death penalty on conviction. They say they hired Ben-Menashe to do consultancy work for them in North America and paid him 100,000 dollars in fees. They now want to sue him because they claim he broke the contract.
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From AFP, 18 May
Forty die of malnutrition in Zimbabwe
Harare - Forty people have died from malnutrition in Zimbabwe's southern city of Bulawayo due to food shortages gripping the country, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Quoting a city health official, the private Daily News on Sunday said the people had died in the first two months of the year. "People do not have food," the city's director of health services, Rita Dlodlo told the paper. Aid agencies say at the height of food shortages last year, at least two-thirds of Zimbabwe's 11.6 million people required food aid. The numbers of those in need this year have been revised downwards due to forecasts of better harvests.
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From Business Day (SA), 18 May
Zimbabweans told to put cars on 'diet'
Harare - "Put your car on diet! Save fuel" was the message sent to drivers in Zimbabwe this week as the critical shortage of foreign exchange needed to import fuel continued to hit motorists hard. An information sheet entitled Fuel Facts and produced by oil firms and commercial and industrial groups confirmed that the fuel situation "continues to be critical." Even fire and ambulance services have not been spared. The capital's municipality announced this week that all services requiring transport had been grounded - including fire engines and ambulances. One of Air Zimbabwe's passenger jets had to land in neighbouring Zambia on its way from London last week to re-fuel. The government has this week been frantically seeking 75 million dollars needed to import fuel. While the official exchange rate is 824 Zimbabwe dollars to the greenback, or around 1,300 on the underground market, this week the parallel rate surged to an unprecedented high of 2,700 to the dollar, dealers said. As a result very little foreign exchange makes it through to the central bank.
Media reports also said the government had been trying to revive a stalled deal with Libya to trade agricultural products for fuel. The plan failed last year when Zimbabwe was unable to supply the promised goods due to low agricultural production, blamed on poor rains and a controversial and disruptive land reform programme. Zimbabwe's foreign earnings have been shrinking in recent years as production of the major hard currency earners - tobacco, gold and other exports - has been cut by up to two thirds. The situation has been worsened by the withdrawal of lines of credit by international banks because of Zimbabwe's failure to repay on time. Neither the World Bank nor the African Development Bank can lend to Zimbabwe, according to local economist John Robertson. "We spoiled our credit record," he said. To rectify the situation, Robertson said certain national policies need to be reversed and relations with the international lenders restored. "Those multi-lateral institutions such as the Bretton Woods (the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank) have to be re-engaged for Zimbabwe's survival and this is not a matter of choice," industrialist Anthony Mandiwanza concurred.
Economists say that for the country to regain international confidence, some political developments may be necessary. "The international community would like to see new management in Zimbabwe," said Robertson. "The government will actually do Zimbabwe a favour if they say 'We will resign'," he said. Another economist, Moses Tekere, said: "It's time for sacrifice." If President Robert Mugabe stepped down, "Zimbabwe will get forex" he predicted. But despite the acute shortages of foreign exchange, shop shelves here are full of expensive imported goods, from cooking oil to trinkets. And the latest designs in luxury vehicles are a common sight on the streets of the capital. Foreign currency shortages have also affected Zimbabwe's supply of electricity. The country imports around 30 percent of its power needs from South Africa, Mozambique and the Democratic Repubic of Congo (DRC). Last week the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) ordered registered exporters to pay for their electricity in foreign currency in a bid to raise the hard currency to pay for energy imports.
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Comment from The Guardian (UK), 19 May
From joy and hope to corruption, tyranny and the misery of poverty
For 23 years Andrew Meldrum reported from Zimbabwe. On Friday he was forcibily deported. Here, he describes how a country which offered so much hope to Africa became, under its leader Robert Mugabe, a pariah nation
Night visits to my home by threatening men in vans with blacked out windows. Attacks vilifying me in the state press as a "terrorist", an "agent of imperialism" and "a liar". Threats, by phone, email and conversations with "friends", in which I was told that I would not be safe in this country. These were all signs of the antipathy of President Robert Mugabe's government to a journalist chronicling the decline of his long and torrid rule. Over the past year I have been harassed, arrested, thrown in jail, put on trial, acquitted and finally -this weekend - deported from Zimbabwe. For those 12 months I continued to live and work there, to write about the country's political crisis, the economic melt-down that has turned one of Africa's most prosperous economies into one of its poorest, and the abuses of human rights and other democratic freedoms. In short, I watched how the regime transformed a functioning democracy into a police state.
I first arrived in Zimbabwe in 1980 when the country won its independence and majority rule. I was a young journalist full of enthusiasm for Robert Mugabe's new order, his policy of racial reconciliation, his socialist measures to improve the education, health and standards of living of black Zimbabweans. It was a heady time, when the entire country was infused with irrepressible optimism. Sadly, honeymoons never last, and by 1982 I found myself uncovering and reporting on the horrific mass killing of Zimbabwean civilians by the army's Fifth Brigade, Mugabe's praetorian guard. The chain of command led directly to Mugabe. It was a contradiction of all the country's positive developments. It was clear that the killing was part of Mugabe's drive to stamp out the opposition party, Joshua Nkomo's Zapu. By ejecting Nkomo from his cabinet and arresting army generals allied to Nkomo and charging them with treason, Mugabe caused a small scale rebellion of soldiers who supported them. Then the Fifth Brigade rolled into southern Zimbabwe, Matabeleland, and began the wholesale slaughter of thousands of the rural Ndebele people, the minority ethnic group which forms about 20% of the country's population. Scores of thousands more suffered beatings and hunger as the government stopped food supplies reaching the chronically drought-stricken area.
It became apparent that the violence was part of Mugabe's drive to consolidate his power. It continued until December 1987 when a broken Joshua Nkomo agreed to allow his party to be swallowed by Mugabe's Zanu-PF. The creation of a one-party state, Mugabe's stated goal, was within his grasp. Somehow, Robert Mugabe managed to emerge from the horrors of Matabeleland with his reputation relatively unscathed. No longer an untarnished hero, to be sure, but he remained a plausible leader. The lot of the majority of Zimbabweans continued to improve. Zimbabwe remained a beacon beaming the light of hope on South Africa's dark system of minority rule. Anti-apartheid activists of all colours flocked there and insisted that its democracy pointed the way for South Africa's future. It also became a hive of South African spies carrying out assassinations and terror bombings. It was an engrossing place to work as a journalist. When Nelson Mandela was freed, Zimbabwe was the first country he visited, underlining the crucial role it had played in the struggle against apartheid. But South Africa's progress was not entirely good news for Robert Mugabe. The international community ceased to see him as the lesser of two evils, compared to apartheid. A wave of democracy swept across southern Africa in which Malawi's Hastings Banda and Zambia's Kenneth Kaunda were toppled by overwhelming votes. When Mugabe proposed to declare Zimbabwe a one-party state, members of his own party's central committee blocked it, saying that they would be going against the democratic tide, and that they could enjoy de facto one-party rule without the trouble of imposing de jure control. Compared to the glowing magnanimity of Nelson Mandela, Mugabe appeared bitter and spiteful. A turning point came in August 1996 when, while opening the Zimbabwe International Book Fair, he spewed out a hate-filled tirade against gays. I remember scribbling down his furious words describing gays as "worse than pigs and dogs" and suggesting that homosexuality was akin to having sex with dead bodies. A group of schoolchildren sat dumbfounded by the speech. From that point on Mugabe's international image began its decline to despot.
This should not paint a picture that everything has been negative in Zimbabwe. My experience there has been overwhelmingly positive. Friends who are doctors, teachers, artists and lawyers bound together to create a community always encouraging fairness and democracy. But by 2000 the opposition to Mugabe's rule had grown so great that the churches, women's groups, human rights defenders and lawyers groups pressed for a new constitution. Mugabe agreed but, wily as ever, he created a document which increased his power rather than reduced it. His draft constitution was presented to the country in a referendum in February, 2000. Despite saturation coverage in the media, the voters rejected it. It was a stinging slap in the face. Two weeks later the first invasions of white-owned farms began. Mugabe was fighting back. The invasions were illegal but the police were ordered not to take any action against them. It was the beginning of the transformation of the police into a political entity which simply carries out its master's bidding. In June 2000 came the parliamentary elections. The opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had already won widespread popularity and campaigned valiantly despite a programme of violence in which more than 200 people, virtually all opposition supporters, were killed. The MDC narrowly lost the elections, which all credible international observer teams said were not free or fair.
In addition to the often ugly political developments in Mugabe's Zimbabwe, he has tragically failed to give effective leadership in the two huge social challenges facing the country, Aids and famine. Aids spread so rapidly that a few years ago Zimbabwe had the world's highest HIV infection rate: 35% of the adult population. Shying away from effective public education, the government created an Aids fund and then allowed Mugabe's cronies to loot it. After Mugabe's seizures of white-owned farms little was done to keep the land cultivated. It was no surprise when famine gripped the country. Even when more than half the population were forced to depend on international food relief, Mugabe could not resist trying to starve areas which supported the opposition. Repression of the press began in 2000. Just before the parliamentary elections, immigration officers served deportation orders on the BBC correspondent Joe Winter. He won a court order giving him a week to pack and wind up his affairs. But that night government thugs went to his ho use, ransacked it and terrorised him, his wife and young daughter. Winter left the country and within days the government deported the legendary South American journalist Mercedes Sayagues, whom we called La Pasionaria for her fearless reporting on human rights abuses. A few months later the Telegraph's correspondent, David Blair, was forced to leave the country. I became the last foreign journalist in the country.
The determination of the Zimbabwean press, particularly the reporters on the privately owned Daily News, the Zimbabwe Independent and the Standard, inspired me with their commitment to exposing corruption, beatings, torture, murder and other unsavoury aspects of Mugabe's rule. The printing press of the Daily News were blown up, the editor of the Standard, Mark Chavunduka, and his reporter, Ray Choto, were abducted by army officers and viciously tortured. Yet Zimbabwe's journalists refused to be deterred from writing about events as they happened. Systematic human rights abuses, the thwarting of democracy, corruption - these are the issues any journalist is obliged to cover. I continued to do work, the best work I could, and that led to my arrest and imprisonment last year. After my trial and acquittal and the government's failed attempt to deport me, I returned to my work. The steady drivel of articles vilifying me in the state press did not get me down, largely because of the hearty support and encouragement I received from people of all colours and walks of life when I walked on the street. That support, and phone calls and emails from fellow Zimbabwean journalists helped me to shrug off the government's threats.
But last Friday I was abducted and thrown out of the country, despite a court order to halt the action. When all is said and done, I still blame Ian Smith for Zimbabwe's troubles today. He ran a system which deprived the majority of their rights and dignity. The Rhodesian regime was so violent that only violence could unseat it. Only the most ruthless could overthrow Smith's system, and that was Robert Mugabe. Violence begets violence. And we can see now that Mugabe only values his own power and will use any force to maintain it. I am angry at how Mugabe has subverted Zimbabwe's democracy and reduced people to misery. I am appalled that the police kidnapped the opposition member of parliament Job Sikhala a few months ago and tortured him with electric shocks. I am furious that the regime has targeted ordinary citizens such as Raphinos Madzokere, who has been hospitalised twice for torture, has seen his home destroyed and now lives on the run with his wife and three children. I am determined to continue reporting on these abuses in the hope that they will stop, and to help bring the perpetrators to justice. I am confident that the people of Zimbabwe will succeed in restoring the country's democracy and basic freedoms, and will rebuild the economy to prosperity.
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From The Daily News, 20 May
Ben-Menashe lied: CIO boss
Court Reporter
The head of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), retired army Brigadier Happyton Bonyongwe, conceded yesterday that the political consultancy company of Ari Ben-Menashe, the government's star prosecution witness in the treason trial of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his two co-accused, lied about the contents of an audio-tape on the alleged plot by the three Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leaders to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. Bonyongwe said in his evidence-in-chief during the trial of Tsvangirai, MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube and the party's shadow agriculture minister Renson Gasela that all he could discern from the entire audio-tape was Tsvangirai's voice. Even then, the CIO boss said he did not hear the MDC leader utter the words "kill", "murder", or "assassinate" and that he relied for the most part on Ben-Menashe's narration of the alleged plot. But Dickens & Madson, the Montreal-based political consultancy headed by Ben-Menashe, published a newsletter on 13 February 2002 which carried an article purporting that Tsvangirai could be heard on the secretly recorded audio-tape requesting the firm's aid in a plot to murder Mugabe and overthrow the Zanu PF government. Several State witnesses, including Ben-Menashe and Air-Vice Marshal Robert Mhlanga, have conceded that they could not make out the conversation on the tape which Ben-Menashe had earlier claimed contained the vital evidence of the murder and coup conspiracy.
"The people who were recorded were up to no good but there was nothing substantive on which we could formulate the essentials of the plot," Bonyongwe said yesterday as he was being led by Acting Attorney-General Bharat Patel. The tape was delivered to Mhlanga as part of evidence of the alleged assassination plot. Asked by defence lawyer George Bizos whether he agreed that the article in the newsletter relating to the audio-tape was "a lie", Bonyongwe responded with a "yes". Bonyongwe blamed poor memory and "oversight" for failing to pick out the lie when he read the newsletter, produced by Dickens & Madson as part of its lobbying project on behalf of the Zimbabwe government. But the CIO director-general said he believed Ben-Menashe's claims because "the department had received information from other sources that there was indeed a plot to assassinate the President". Bonyongwe went with Police Assistant Commissioner Moses Magandi to collect the video-tape forming the basis of the State's case but denied ever playing a central role in the investigations. He said after viewing a video recording of a meeting between Tsvangirai and Dickens & Madson officials, he was convinced that Tsvangirai had a case to answer. "When evidence was secured, it was given to the experts in the police," he said. "I was not meant to be a kind of investigator in this case."
Bonyongwe said after Ben-Menashe delivered the audio-tape, diskette and transcript of the alleged assassination plot, the Zimbabwe government awarded his Canadian political consultancy firm a contract to lobby the United States, Canada and European Union countries to adopt a positive stance towards Zimbabwe and to seek investment from West Africa and the Russian Federation. The government paid Ben-Menashe's company US$385 000 (Z$317 240 000 on the 824: 1$US exchange rate) for his work. In a separate incident, police officers manning the High Court entrance yesterday briefly held an MDC messenger and seized Tsvangirai's statement at the ongoing treason trial. The messenger had just collected the statement from the MDC's offices. The officers allegedly photocopied the document, whose contents could not be established yesterday but which defence lawyer Chris Andersen said was "classified". Patel said the matter would be dealt with by "relevant authorities" and that the culprit would be prosecuted. The trial continues today.
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From VOA News, 19 May
Defense claims document theft in Tsvangirai treason trial
Harare - Lawyers representing Zimbabwe's opposition leader and two colleagues on trial for treason say some of their confidential papers were taken by a police officer and photocopied. At the end of a hearing, defense attorney Chris Andersen told the court a six-page statement it was waiting for was intercepted by a policeman, copied, and distributed. Judge Paddington Garwe said Tuesday's court session will begin with a discussion of the alleged document theft. Most of the day's session was taken up by the testimony of the head of Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organization, Brigadier Happyton Bonyongwe. He testified that a Canadian consultant who made the videotape at the heart of the state's case switched sides, after being hired by the opposition he began working for the government. The consultant, Ari Ben Menashe, was the state's first witness when the trial began in February. He was questioned extensively as the court watched the videotape, in which the state claims opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai plotted to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. The opposition said last week it had sued Mr. Ben Menashe in Canada to recover money it says it paid him for lobbying work to promote its image in North America.
The treason trial is one of several High Court actions in which the opposition Movement for Democratic Change is a major player. Last Friday, Mr. Tsvangirai asked a High Court judge to recuse himself from a hearing related to the opposition's challenge of last year's presidential-election results. The papers say the judge, Ben Hlatwayo, has received a formerly white-owned farm as part of the government's land reform program. The opposition says that calls his impartiality into question. Mr. Tsvangirai's has filed papers to force the High Court to set a trial date, after many delays. Meanwhile, in the same court building, another trial is reaching a crucial stage. An opposition member of parliament is charged with murdering a ruling Zanu PF party supporter nearly two-years ago. The government has used the killing to justify its claim that the opposition is a terrorist organization. The only evidence the state has produced so far are statements made by two of the accused who said they were tortured into making confessions.
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From The Daily News, 20 May
Muzenda ordered Meldrum expelled
By Farai Mutsaka, Chief Reporter
Beatrice Mtetwa, the Harare-based lawyer for deported American-born journalist Andrew Meldrum, said yesterday she would petition the High Court to compel the government to bring her client back into Zimbabwe. She spoke as it emerged that Vice-President Simon Muzenda had apparently sanctioned Meldrum's deportation on Friday night, which the government carried out despite a High Court order that it be halted. Government officials said Muzenda ignored advice from Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge, who had argued that the deportation should be stopped because it would harm Zimbabwe 's already battered human rights record. Meldrum, a permanent resident of Zimbabwe who had covered the country's unfolding economic and political crisis for two decades, was bundled into a London-bound Air Zimbabwe flight after government officials shrugged off the court order. But Mtetwa vowed yesterday she would petition the High Court to force the immigration department to bring Meldrum back in accordance with the High Court order granted on Friday by Justice Charles Hungwe. "The court directed that he should be brought back and I am still pursuing that. They (the government officials) are in contempt until they bring Meldrum back and they should go to jail if they don't respect the court," she told The Daily News.
Government officials told this newspaper that after Justice Hungwe's order to bring Meldrum to the court in the afternoon, chief immigration officer Elasto Mugwadi sought political opinion from Mudenge and Muzenda on how he could proceed. Mudenge advised Mugwadi to respect the High Court order but this was overruled by Muzenda. "Muzenda gave his blessings for the deportation to go ahead despite the court order. He said it was better to have Meldrum out of the country," one senior government official said. The officials declined to be named for fear of reprisals. It was not clear yesterday what role had been played by Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, who was cited as a respondent in Meldrum's court papers challenging the deportation order. Contacted for comment, Muzenda refused to respond to questions from The Daily News. "I am not going to answer those questions. Vanhu vekuDaily News musarambe muchitinetsa, vakomana. (You people from The Daily News should stop giving us headaches, please)," he said before switching off his mobile phone on Sunday. Further efforts to get him to respond proved fruitless yesterday. Mudenge's home and mobile phones went unanswered on Sunday while his secretary yesterday said the minister would be out of Harare this week.
The government officials said Mudenge had argued that going ahead with Meldrum's deportation was counter-productive as it would strengthen allegations that the government did not respect the rule of law. "Mudenge reasoned that whatever damage Meldrum had done or caused could not be reversed by deporting him. He thought that deporting Meldrum could only attract undue bad publicity at a time when African leaders are trying to convince the international community that Zimbabwe has restored the rule of law," another official said. The officials said following Muzenda's intervention, a plan was hatched by immigration officials to circumvent the court process. It was agreed that the immigration officials would not present Meldrum to the court but that government lawyers would represent the State in court while immigration officials waited for the Air Zimbabwe flight. Despite Justice Hungwe having given his order in the morning, Loyce Matanda-Moyo from the Attorney-General's Office only appeared at the court at 8.30pm, an hour before the Air Zimbabwe plane was due to leave for London. She did not bring Meldrum as ordered. Justice Hungwe then gave a final order that Matanda-Moyo should assist Meldrum's lawyer Mtetwa in locating Meldrum at the airport. But Air Zimbabwe and immigration officials ignored the order. "The idea was that the State would make a late appearance at the court so that Meldrum's lawyers would not get the time to type the order and serve it on immigration before the plane left," another official said.
Meanwhile Mark Ellis, the International Bar Association (IBA) executive director, and head of the Law Society of Zimbabwe Sternford Moyo have written to Bharat Patel, the acting Attorney-General, raising concerns over the manner in which the government ignored the High Court order. "On behalf of the IBA, I respectfully urge you to ensure that the court order is immediately respected, that the proper procedures are followed and that necessary measures are taken to ensure that such clear acts of intimidation do not take place again," Ellis said. Moyo said his organisation was "gravely concerned" by the deportation. "As you will no doubt appreciate, contempt of court undermines the authority of the court and the administration of justice," he said. "When agents of the State disregard court orders, the rule of law and indeed the administration of justice are seriously weakened." Patel last night said he had not seen the letters from Moyo and Ellis. "If I see them, I will definitely address their concerns," he said.
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From The Age (Australia), 20 May
Zimbabwe worsening, says Australia
Australia has told a meeting of Commonwealth ministers that lawlessness and political oppression in Zimbabwe continues to worsen, despite international pressure on the Mugabe regime for reform. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer released a paper to the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) in London warning President Robert Mugabe had continued his crackdown on political opponents following recent strikes organised by the opposition MDC. "Zimbabwean government police and soldiers launched an orchestrated campaign of violent retribution against opposition activists, supporters and government critics," the paper said. "Troops were deployed on to the streets of Harare and several hundred - possibly as many as 500 - opposition activists were arrested. "Many of those people were beaten and some of them claim to have been tortured." CMAG was established in Auckland in 1995 to deal with serious or persistent democratic violations within the Commonwealth. Mr Downer told the group that children had been beaten in Zimbabwe in recent months and soldiers sexually assaulted women. "Australian diplomats witnessed what was clearly the result of several vicious beatings by army personnel, including beatings with sticks wrapped in barbed wire," the paper said.
The Commonwealth in March agreed to extend a one-year suspension of Zimbabwe until at least December amid bickering between African members and countries including Britain, Australia and New Zealand. The sanction was imposed in 2002 following accusations of vote-rigging and the seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks. The paper said that despite claims by the Zimbabwe government that the land reform program was completed in August last year, properties continued to be listed for compulsory acquisition. "Some farms are being targeted for acquisition by government officials," it said. "In late 2002, Mugabe promised preferential allocations of newly acquired land to soldiers returning from the Democratic Republic of Congo." It said there had been no killings of white farmers since April 2002, but white farmers continued to be assaulted by settlers attempting to expel them from their farms. Australia, South Africa and Nigeria form a Commonwealth troika of countries mandated to monitor Zimbabwe and consider what action to take against Harare.
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Comment from ZWNEWS, 20 May
The great canard
By Michael Hartnack
One of the great ironies of the Zimbabwean crisis is increasing acceptance by African National Congress in South Africa of the lie that Zimbabwe's opposition party is a front for "right-wing Rhodesians," Britain and the United States. Behind Movement for Democratic Change members of Parliament such as Roy Bennett and David Coltart is seen the sinister hand of Western liberal capitalism. This canard is based on the racist delusion that black people are incapable of feeling discontent without white incitement - a replay of South African Nats blaming white liberals for fomenting black discontent under apartheid. President Thabo Mbeki, writing in ANC Today on May 8, said in all apparent seriousness that Zimbabwe's crisis arose from Robert Mugabe's "genuine concern" to meet the needs of the poor, and things had innocently gone awry due to a few sad economic snags. No Zimbabwean with any pride in their country would appeal for foreign pressure on Mugabe, Mbeki added - a grotesque remark coming from the leader of a movement that had sportsmen, academics, and even musicians blacklisted for having any kind of contact with South Africans under the old regime.
An opposition is not the puppet of foreign interests because it indicts its ruling elite before the bar of world opinion, as anti-apartheid forces did 1948-1992, and as Zimbabwe's dissidents are doing now. There is a world of difference between, on the one hand, a tyranny fomenting insurrections for selfish ideological ends, or to exploit illicit trade in blood diamonds and endangered hardwoods, and on the other hand a lawful political movement demanding peaceful foreign pressure for reform, especially after it has been cheated at the ballot box. The ANC appears fearful of letting the MDC appeal to the court of world opinion - lending credence to suggestions the ANC is frightened of finding itself in the dock one day. Mugabe's Zanu PF elite has endeavoured to exploit the ANC's paranoia to the full, and a prominent figure in their propaganda offensive is Matumwa Mawere. Mawere is a South African-based business associate of Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is parliamentary speaker, secretary for administration of the Zanu PF party, and who was named in a UN report last October on looting in the Congo. Mnangagwa also aspires to succeed Mugabe. In the 1990s, Mawere got South African newspapers to send black reporters to Zimbabwe "to find out the real truth.'' Mawere has been a persistent lobbyist for the Mugabe regime, and one need not look far for the source of recent articles trashing the MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai as a potential successor to Mugabe, while lauding Mnangagwa. Mawere knows that the very "ordinariness" of Tsvangirai, a veteran trade unionist, gives him a special appeal to the majority of voters in this country. A report in the Johannesburg Sunday Times on May 11 contained the following preposterous public relations handout description of Mnangagwa: "An exceptionally calculating man who intimately understands the nature of power; a man with a reputation in the West for getting things done and keeping the troops in line." Mnangagwa, this ludicrous panegyric went on, is uniquely placed to give Mugabe requisite guarantees of an undisturbed retirement, since he shares blame for the 1982-1987 Matabeleland atrocities (when he headed the Central Intelligence Organisation). Human rights outrages are not usually boasted about on a CV.
Mbeki must face the fact that Zimbabwe will continue to be a political and economic millstone around South Africa's neck until there is a sufficiently radical change to satisfy the IMF, the World Bank and international donors. They will not be content with the old Mugabe gang under Mnangagwa. Nor will they be satisfied with less than complete rejection of the lawlessness displayed last Friday when my colleague Andrew Meldrum was abducted and thrown out of the country, after 23 years, in contempt of three separate High Court orders. As for relying on internal resources to repair the damage, Zimbabwe will never be able to support its population while only the political elite enjoy security - fleeting security - to engage in any kind of productive or professional activity. No modern economy can work without protection from criminals. Mugabe was in South Africa last week and according to our state media enjoyed spectacular success at Fort Hare University and at Walter Sisulu's funeral in projecting himself, as he loves doing, as Africa's great beacon of anti-white sentiment. The ANC may have been intimidated, as he intended, by this attempt to appeal over its head to black sentiment. Meanwhile, the courage of Zimbabweans' own defiance was reflected in an amazingly daring MDC advertisement in independent newspapers, alluding to South African and Nigerian demands the opposition endorse Mugabe's bogus 2002 election for a further six-year term. A cartoon showed a well known figure being pursued by a crowd of passers-by crying "Thief! Thief! Thief!". "Do you recognise him?" a caption asked. "Yes, of course we recognise him. We recognise him as the senile thief who stole your voice in March 2002. We recognise him as the father of militia who murder and rape. We recognise him as plunderer of our national resources, pensions and all. We recognise him as the one denying us the right to express ourselves." No white or Western agent incited that. It is how Zimbabweans feel.
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