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Archived News
21st January 2003
Decision Of AEU Federal Conference - 16 January 2003
Mugabe weighs on the rand
Kaunda tells Mugabe what to do
Zimbabwe tells England cricket team: safety is not guaranteed
Minister's wife sues Daily News
Zimbabwe’s email system collapses
Mugabe’s denial of retirement followed by opposition crackdown
Mudzuri gets death threat
Mugabe's downfall imminent, say rivals
Two more Zanu PF MPs lose their seats
New rules see forex inflows plunge 70%
We’re in crisis, admits Zimbabwe’s army chief
Mugabe exit plot thickens
Talks in Zimbabwe depend on pressure
Catholics censure their bishops for appeasing Mugabe
Mugabe's bungling leaves only prayers for Zimbabweans
Unrepentant Moyo in a spin
Mugabe exit…Gen Zvinavashe speaks out . . .
MDC accuse police of torture
A travesty of justice - victims of assault jailed and charged
Cases of politicised food aid growing, says MDC
Zimbabwe’s new farmers not getting their hands dirty
Mbeki led plot to replace Mugabe
Reports of Zimbabwe coup plot are denied
Mugabe steps up terror ahead of World Cup
Green Bombers set up camp in Kuwadzana
SA judge slates Harare court's decision as fundamentally flawed
SA demands explanation of insults
Leader's nephews seize farms from 'war veterans'
Mugabe goes on a Singapore shopping blitz
Moyo blames Mugabe retirement rumours on staff
Tuks student in 'Zim plot'
Despair hits Zanu PF stronghold
Mugabe's land reform sends Zimbabwe into further peril
Will he or won't he?
Famine plagues Zimbabwe
MDC members poisoned in custody, says Ncube
Murder trial opens in Zimbabwe; Deeper political divisions at stake
MP flees
Zimbabwe citizens groups urge strike against government
Poker hands
Mugabe denies plan to retire early, leave Zimbabwe
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From The Washington Times, 15 January
Mugabe denies plan to retire early, leave Zimbabwe
By Geoff Hill
Johannesburg - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe sought yesterday to end talk that he was considering early retirement, telling a skeptical nation that it would be "foolhardy" for him to step down just months after a fiercely contested election. But talk of a secret deal reverberated in his capital, Harare, where opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told news organizations during the weekend that he had been approached by the president's Zanu PF party about participating in a post-Mugabe government. Speaking in Zambia, where he attended a ceremony to honor former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, Mr. Mugabe said, "It would be absolutely counterrevolutionary and foolhardy for me to step down" at this time. He insisted that exile was not an option, saying, "I fought for Zimbabwe, and when I die I will be buried in Zimbabwe, nowhere else." The remarks failed to quiet the speculation in Harare, where political scientist Brian Raftopoulos of Harare University described the reports of a deal as "a glimmer of hope." "My own view is the offer could not have been made without Mugabe's knowledge, and it is the beginning of a process," he told the Associated Press. If Mr. Mugabe holds on to the presidency, some of his critics say, it may be too dangerous for him to stay in Zimbabwe because of
the large number of people who have been mistreated under his 23-year rule. It is more likely, they say, that Mr. Mugabe would take his estimated fortune of up to $100 million and seek a comfortable exile in Malaysia - where much of his money is said to be deposited - or some other sympathetic country such as Libya, Cuba or North Korea. The president's security concerns are illustrated by the nearly mile-long motorcade that accompanies him when he travels several times a year to his hometown of Zvimba, about 50 miles northeast of Harare. Armed motorcyclists lead the way, and troop-carrying vehicles flank the president's customized Mercedes Benz S600 Pullman, armor-plated by the German company Cloer International to the highest specifications. The vehicle arrived in Zimbabwe in April along with armored trucks for the motorcade plus a Mercedes for each of Mr. Mugabe's two vice presidents, all at a total price of more than $4 million.
"It's not just Zvimba; he can't stay in Zimbabwe," said Patricia Katsande, a mother of three who in September had to flee the town of Karoi, 100 miles north of Harare. Mr. Mugabe's militia beat her and broke her 9-year-old son's leg because she and her family had not attended a meeting of the Zanu PF two miles from their home. Such violence had intensified since Mr. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change emerged in 2000 as a serious challenger to the president's rule. "My story is one of thousands, hundreds of thousands," Mrs. Katsande said at the family's new home, a single room in one of the black commuter suburbs near Johannesburg. "I am a widow, and they beat me and hit my son with an iron bar when he tried to protect me. And all for the crime of not attending a meeting. I will never forgive them for that, not Mr. Mugabe, not one of his thugs. They must be tried when Mr. Mugabe loses power, or the people will kill them."
Not everyone believes Mr. Mugabe would be at risk in his hometown. "People talk, but no one would take any action against the old man," said James Chikerema, 77, a pioneer of Zimbabwe's independence struggle who now believes Mr. Mugabe has lost the confidence of the people. "If he wanted to retire, he could go to Zvimba or even stay in town and mingle with people while he does his shopping," he said by telephone from Harare. "He could live like any other person." Mr. Mugabe does not live like the average Zimbabwean. While the people line up for gas, bread and cooking oil, he and his wife, known as Comrade Grace, 38, have their groceries flown in from London. The London Financial Times estimated in February that Mr. Mugabe could own foreign assets, including cash and property, worth as much as $100 million, some of which came from mineral concessions in Congo. The United States, Canada, Britain, the European Union and Australia have acted to freeze any assets Mr. Mugabe and his ministers may own in those countries. While some senior members of Zanu PF have had their accounts blocked, Mr. Mugabe is said to keep his money in Malaysia. Mr. Mugabe is a regular visitor to South Africa, but Jay Jay Sibanda, who heads a lobby group of black Zimbabwean exiles, said it would be difficult for him to settle here. "Have you ever noticed that Mr. Mugabe and his ministers don't advertise their trips to South Africa?" he asked. "That is because they fear their own people who now live here." Mr. Sibanda said his group would not condone vigilante action against Mr. Mugabe or his ministers. Still, he said, "People are hurting. Many have been forced to flee Zimbabwe under traumatic circumstances. A lot have been tortured and, in truth, I think it would be hard for anyone to guarantee Mr. Mugabe's safety in South Africa. "If a future government supplied him with armed protection, he might be safer in Zvimba."
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From Business Day (SA), 14 January
Mugabe weighs on the rand
Johannesburg - The rand lost ground against major currencies early on Tuesday afternoon after Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe denied reports of a plan that would see him step down. At 14:23, the rand was trading at 8.7340 to the US dollar from a New York close of 8.6305. It traded at an intraday worst level of 8.75, the rand's worst level since December 30, 2002. On Monday, reports that top ruling party officials in Zimbabwe were offering a deal to end Mugabe's rule in that country were denied by both the opposition, MDC, and the South African government. Nevertheless, when Mugabe himself denied these reports, the rand started to weaken, a currency trader said. "When Mugabe said something denying the reports, the rand started to move up (weaker)," he said, adding that London banks had also been buying dollars today. At 14:23, the rand was trading at 9.2154 against the euro from a previous 9.1302. It broke above the R14.00 level against sterling to trade at 14.0115 from Monday's 13.8991.
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From The Natal Mercury (SA), 14 January
Kaunda tells Mugabe what to do
By Anthony Mukwita & Basildon Peta
Former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda told Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe - with him on a Zambian stage - that he had to forget the past and rather focus on fighting Aids and fostering development. Mugabe responded by saying Zimbabwe's problems were British prime minister Tony Blair's fault. Later he told reporters it would be "foolhardy" and "counter-revolutionary" for him to quit power, rejecting reports that he planned to make way for a new leadership. Mugabe was in Lusaka to attend a ceremony in honour of Kaunda by current Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa. Kaunda said it was time to leave the hardships of colonialism behind and tackle the new problems of Africa. "Yesterday it was the fight against colonialism," Kaunda said "Today it is HIV/Aids, not white or black." Mwanawasa, with Namibian president Sam Nujoma also looking on, bestowed the Order of the Eagle of Zambia: First Division and Grand Commander of the Eagle of Zambia on Kaunda. Mwanawasa described Kaunda as "a true Pan Africanist who believed that Zambia could not enjoy true emancipation if the rest of the region remained under the yoke of colonialism". Kaunda shed tears as he accepted the honour and said he would dedicate his life to fighting Aids. He told Mugabe to bury the hatchet and get on with economic development instead of fighting "colonialist ghosts", quoting a passage from the Bible saying: "Vengeance is for the Lord." Kaunda views Mugabe as a huge liability to Africa and has been lobbying regional leaders to exert pressure on him to quit.
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From The Independent, (UK), 15 January
Zimbabwe tells England cricket team: safety is not guaranteed
By Baslidon Peta, Southern Africa Correspondent and David Llewellyn
The safety of cricket players and fans in Harare cannot be guaranteed, its mayor warned yesterday, after England decided to go ahead with its World Cup match in Zimbabwe. Elias Mudzuri, who had supported hosting six of the World Cup matches in his city, reversed his position, saying he could no longer promise security because of the Zimbabwe government's failure to show restraint. "The situation in Zimbabwe is ever-deteriorating and anything could happen to the cricketers and their fans," Mr Mudzuri said. Opposition civic groups fighting President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian regime also warned of "unpleasant" surprises awaiting the cricketers. Tim Lamb, chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board, had said defiantly that his board would ignore British government advice and proceed with the Harare match on 13 February. The announcement was made at Lord's after the home of cricket had been invaded by protesters opposed to the Harare match. The group, led by the activist Peter Tatchell, barged past security officials, with placards saying "Bowl out killer Mugabe", "No cricket while Zimbabwe burns", and "Berlin 1936, Harare 2003". Mr Lamb was forced to move to another room. He said the decision of the board was unanimous. "We have not been elected to make decisions of a political nature," he said. "The Government haven't offered a penny of compensation, which we consider to be inequitable." But he left the door open. "I can assure you the ECB will not expect its players to go to Harare if there is any risk that there physical safety could be at risk."
Tensions are running high in Harare as Zimbabwe grapples with a threatened famine, soaring inflation, political violence and fuel shortages. Violent pro-Mugabe youths known as green bombers are causing chaos in the city as they try to control food queues in the capital, flushing out suspected opposition supporters. More government opponents, including the mayor, were jailed at the weekend for assembling peacefully to discuss water problems in the city. Mr Mudzuri said he had now learnt that anything could happen. "How then can I stand up and guarantee the safety of these visitors? I can't do that." Zimbabwe's civic groups, who have formed an umbrella group called Organised Resistance, have also promised widespread demonstrations during the World Cup matches to expose Mr Mugabe's brutality. A leader of the umbrella group, Lovemore Madhuku, said his group was calling for a national strike, which would prove to the cricket authorities that their decision to play cricket in Harare amid the struggle for democracy in the beleaguered country was insane. Morgan Tsvangirai, Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, has publicly urged the England cricketers not to travel to Harare. His party was accused by Zimbabwe police last night of fomenting a secret plot to disrupt the matches and embarrass Mr Mugabe's government. The police vowed to thwart any such plans. World Cup organisers welcomed the England decision. The Australian team has come under similar pressure from its government. President Mugabe branded all Australians as criminals yesterday and described John Howard, the country's Prime Minister, as "a product of genetically modified criminals".
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From The Herald, 14 January
Minister's wife sues Daily News
Harare - The wife of the Minister of Information and Publicity Professor Jonathan Moyo, Mrs Beatrice Moyo, is suing The Daily News for publishing a false and malicious story alleging that her husband beat her up on New Year's eve while staying at a hotel in Johannesburg. "The allegation carried in the sensational headline of the story is totally false and is not supported by any evidence either in the story itself or the original story maliciously published by The Sunday Times of South Africa on January 12 2003," she said in a letter written to her lawyers. The sensational and false headline in The Daily News story has caused me and my family, especially my children who were with us during the holiday immense pain. I'm distressed that my husband's political enemies are now seeking to intrude upon the privacy of our family using half truths, outright falsehoods and innuendoes to settle political scores with him at my expense." Mrs Moyo said it is true that they were celebrating New Year just after midnight, when there was some misunderstanding among some of the guests who were partying with them in Room 806 at the Mercure Hotel after they held a fireworks display in the secluded gardens of the hotel, but there are a number of inaccuracies in the manner the story was reported. "That I sought police intervention is not true and that the fracas involved my husband or him beating me up, as maliciously alleged by The Daily News is not true," she said. "In fact at no time was my husband in Room 806 during the party or the entire period of our stay at the hotel. Contrary to claims by The Sunday Times repeated by The Daily News that I made reference to my husband describing him as a "senior government officer," at no time did I ever mention him in connection with the fracas in Room 806 or at any other time during our entire stay at the Mercure Hotel for that matter."
The Sunday Times reported that Prof Moyo, his wife and four children stayed at the hotel in Bedfordview from December 27 to January 8 and allegedly went on a shopping spree, spending thousands of rands on food. It also alleged that the couple had fought and one of Prof Moyo's children phoned the reception to alert the hotel's management. Mrs Moyo has written a letter to her lawyers, Mr Johannes Tomana of Muzangaza, Mandaza and Tomana instructing him to demand an apology and a complete retraction of the false, sensational, malicious and hurtful headline from The Daily News. She also instructed her lawyers to institute appropriate legal action for damages caused to "me personally, her husband and her children". "The Daily News was so unprofessional and unethical in its sensational and false headline that they did not have the common decency to check their 'facts' with me. Even worse, their headline makes an allegation which is not even hinted in the original story by The Sunday Times nor supported by any police record. Nowhere in The Sunday Times article is it claimed that my husband beat me up. That is a total fabrication by The Daily News," she said.
The Daily News fabrication, she said, is an "opportunistic and malicious attack on my husband using me and our children to settle political scores, which have nothing to do with me." "As a family, we are not prepared to tolerate this onslaught on my husband using falsehoods about me. We have suffered enough from scurrilous allegations of a personal and hurtful nature around my husband by The Daily News and other media like it. I am not going to take any more of it. My husband has done a lot for Zimbabwe and continues to do it at a great cost to me and the children who miss him dearly when he is away on public duty. He has had to rely on family support, which we have given him. I do not want this support to be contaminated or prostituted by the likes of The Daily News who have shown no regard for the truth, personal privacy and family values. It is for this reason that I would like you to institute legal action against The Daily News on my behalf," she said.
From ZWNEWS: If you would like to see the photograph published in the Sunday Times of Professor Moyo in the South African hotel room, please let us know. It will be sent as a .jpg attachment to an email message - total size 28 Kb, approximately half the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.
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From ZWNEWS, 15 January
Zimbabwe’s email system collapses
The technical problems which have been brewing in Zimbabwe’s email system for months came to a head yesterday, with widespread failures affecting subscribers at almost all internet service providers in the country. People outside Zimbabwe reported that email sent to Zimbabwe email addresses were returned with the message "user/domain unknown". Those sending email from Zimbabwe to international addresses had messages bounced back to them, and access to Zimbabwean websites from outside the country has also been difficult, or impossible at times. The problems are expected to take some time to sort out. The technical faults apparently stem from the management of the top-level Zimbabwean internet domain (anything ending in .zw) by Telone. Telone is the successor organisation to the Post and Telecommunications Corporation (PTC), and is the state-controlled body responsible for Zimbabwe’s electronic and telephone networks. Managing the top-level domain involves the responsibility for, amongst other things, keeping up to date the information required by internet networks around the globe in order to communicate with the Zimbabwean system. It appears that Telone may have lost this information, or not updated it, with the result that the rest of the world will not have the technical information necessary to communicate with servers in Zimbabwe. "As far as the rest of the world is concerned, Zimbabwe may just as well not exist in electronic terms," said one ISP manager. "The system has been run like an unroadworthy country bus repaired at the side of the road."
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From VOA News, 15 January
Mugabe’s denial of retirement followed by opposition crackdown
Harare - There has been a wave of arrests of opposition politicians and activists in Zimbabwe. One opposition Member of Parliament, Paul Mudzuri, was arrested in a poor Harare suburb Sunday and his location remains unknown. Police say a second opposition lawmaker, Job Sikhala, was arrested late Tuesday. Later, three executive members of the Combined Harare Residents Association were arrested, and their chairman Mike Davies, said they were taken to a police station on the west side of the city. According to the judicial watchdog organization the Legal Resources Foundation, human rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba was also arrested. Assistant police commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed the arrests of the two members of parliament, and said they were being held in connection with unrest and the destruction of a public bus. He said he was still checking on other arrests brought to his attention.
Mr. Davies, of the Combined Harare Residents Association, says the arrests of his members were deplorable. He says lawyers have been contacted to help secure their release. Mr. Davies expressed concern that Member of Parliament Mudzuri appears to have disappeared in police custody, and he wants to be sure his members do not suffer the same fate. The Residents Association played a key role in ensuring that there were elections for a mayor and a city council last year. For years, Harare residents had an appointed mayor and administration from the ruling Zanu PF party. The Residents Association launched a long series of legal challenges to force an election, which was held on the same day as nation wide presidential elections last March. Candidates from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change swept to power and now control most of the urban centers. Last week, the government announced it would appoint governors for the major cities, an apparent effort to marginalize the elected mayors.
Harare's elected mayor Elias Mudzuri was arrested last Saturday. He was released early Monday, and he reported filthy conditions in cells in Harare Central Police Station. He said there was not enough food for inmates, and that if the first citizen of Harare could be arrested while doing his job, addressing taxpayers, no one was safe. He said the government is constantly interfering with his work. The mayor predicted that the government's critical shortage of foreign currency would force Harare residents to use impure water in three weeks, because there are no chemicals to purify the city's recycled water. There have been small anti government demonstrations in poor neighborhoods of the city in the past two days.
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From The Daily News, 15 January
Mudzuri gets death threat
Municipal Reporter
Elias Mudzuri says a suspected State security agent has warned him he could get killed if he continues to hold consultative meetings with Harare residents and ratepayers. Mudzuri, the Executive Mayor, told journalists yesterday he was taken into a separate room from his colleagues at Harare Central Police Station where the unidentified man threatened he would be killed. Mudzuri vowed the death threat would not deter him from holding the meetings. Yesterday, Wayne Bvudzijena, the police spokesman, declined to comment. "I was taken to a room where a man who refused to identify himself asked me who I thought I was," Mudzuri said. "He warned me they had orders to do anything necessary to contain me if I did not stop the meetings. I am scared for my life. They can do anything to me and nothing will happen to them." In a statement on Mudzuri’s ordeal, Christian Ude, the Lord Mayor of Harare’s German twin city, Munich, said a mayor could only do a good job if he communicated with the residents. "In Germany it is prescribed by law the mayors have to invite people to a residents’ meeting at least once a year," he said. "It is incomprehensible for us that Mudzuri and his councillors should be deprived of the right to meet with residents. This flies in the face of all democratic principles and must be considered harassment and disruption of my colleague’s work."
Mick Davies, the acting chairman of the Combined Harare Residents Association, said: "We did not fight for three years to uphold the constitutional right to elect our own representatives only to see this right arbitrarily withdrawn by a minister of an illegitimate government." Mudzuri and 20 others were arrested in Mabvuku on Saturday for allegedly holding a political meeting. His arrest came amid alleged interference by Ignatius Chombo, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, in MDC-dominated councils. Cuthbert Rwazemba, the council spokesman arrested together with the mayor, confirmed Mudzuri was taken away from the others as they waited for their release. The alleged death threat came after a second order by High Court judge Justice Benjamin Paradza on Monday, for the police to release the council group. The police, Rwazemba said, detained them for a further one and a half hours after their lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa served them with Paradza’s second order. They only released them after she threatened to return to the judge, he said.
Mudzuri said his doctor had given him five-days’ sick leave because he suffered from hypertension. He attacked the police’s heavy-handedness, accusing the officer commanding crime, Harare province, Brighton Mudzamiri, of ordering his officers to manhandle him. Mudzamiri could not be reached for comment. "Mudzamiri said he did not know me and was working on orders from the top," Mudzuri said. "It is a pity because he is an Officer Commanding of the city where I am the first citizen and he doesn’t bother to know me when his job is to protect citizens. "While we might want cricketers and foreigners to visit the city next month, I am now questioning this, given that we might have dirty water by the end of the month and that even the city father can be arrested. "What would happen if a cricketer or an ordinary person was caught on the wrong side of the law?"
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From The Times (UK), 16 January
Mugabe's downfall imminent, say rivals
From Jan Raath in Harare
The leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition party predicted the imminent collapse of Robert Mugabe’s regime yesterday in a lengthy public statement affirming that two top officials from the ruling Zanu PF party had offered him the President’s resignation. Morgan Tsvangirai said that Mr Mugabe’s lieutenants had "all virtually abandoned him and maintain an appearance of loyalty out of fear. The machinery around Mugabe is now collapsing fast and leaking heavily." He claimed to have received reports from people close to Mr Mugabe that the 78-year-old leader had told his family to "get ready for life after his 23-year-old dictatorship". Zimbabwe was "grinding to a halt", Mr Tsvangirai said. Its commercial agriculture was in ruins. The country’s fuel supply would dry up at the end of the month and there was no money to buy more. "Mugabe does not know where the next litre of diesel or petrol is coming from," he said. Mr Mugabe’s "greatest nemesis" was the economy, which "refuses to bend to all his dictatorial formulae. He cannot use on the economy the same weapons he is using to subvert democracy and crush human rights. He cannot rig it, he cannot shoot it, he cannot intimidate it and, although he raped it, the economy continues to land fatal blows that Mugabe cannot block."
Mr Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), issued the statement to rebut a stream of denials from Mr Mugabe and Zanu PF that two of the regime’s senior members had secretly offered him a deal to save Zimbabwe from its deepening emergency. A barrage of party statements blamed the British Government for reports in The Times and other media outlets, calling them "wicked, malicious and mischievous" and "the work of the enemy bent on destroying Zimbabwe". However, Mr Tsvangirai announced that "for the record, Zimbabweans and the international community need to know" that in December, Colonel Lionel Dyck, a respected former Zimbabwe Army officer, took a message to him from Emmerson Mnangagwa, who ranks third in the Zanu PF Politburo, and General Vitalis Zvinavashe, Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. He said that they "wanted to hear my views on the way forward now that Robert Mugabe had, in Dyck’s words, long indicated that he wanted to retire, was being restrained by Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe and could only be allowed to do so at such a time deemed appropriate by the two men and many others in Zanu PF." Colonel Dyck had made clear that the initiative stemmed from "the realisation that he (Mugabe) has lost all capacity to govern".
Mr Tsvangirai said that he had told Colonel Dyck that the MDC was "prepared to assist in the necessary transitional arrangements to enable Zimbabwe to move forward", but made "categorically clear that this does not mean participating in the formation of a government of national unity or some underhand pact with Zanu PF...We will never be party to any political arrangement that seeks to sanitise Mugabe’s violent illegitimacy. If we are to avoid bloodshed, and achieve the change we have been trying to secure over the past three years, there is no other way other than through constructive dialogue," Mr Tsvangirai said. Brian Raftopoulos, a member of the Crisis in Zimbabwe think tank, said that Mr Tsvangirai’s statement would inflame the long-suppressed debate inside Zanu PF about Mr Mugabe’s future. "Tsvangirai has very cleverly challenged them to deal with the situation," he said. "He is putting pressure on them to deal with it, and for people inside the party to come out in the open. "There are increasing indications that these discussions on succession are taking place. There will be more leaks and more pressure. There is a real sense now that he is battling. Zanu PF has never been so vulnerable. It gives the public a sense of hope again." On Tuesday Mr Mugabe said that he would "never, never, never" go into exile. But the state press reported his speech under the ambiguous headline: "I am not retiring yet."
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From The Financial Gazette, 16 January
Two more Zanu PF MPs lose their seats
Staff Reporter
The High Court has nullified the election of Zanu PF’s Eleck Mkandla and Jaison Machaya as members of parliament for Gokwe North and Gokwe South respectively, after ruling that the 2000 parliamentary polls held in the two areas were not fair. Justice Rita Makarau, who heard the two election petitions from opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) losing candidates, said there was overwhelming evidence that the two Zanu PF members of parliament depended heavily on corrupt acts to win the polls. The petitioner in the Gokwe North case was Sibangani Mlandu while Lameck Mulambi opposed the outcome of the Gokwe South poll. Justice Makarau said according to evidence presented to the court, widespread violence in the two parts of Gokwe made a fair election impossible. "Uncontroverted and reliable evidence has been led from not less than 10 villagers in the constituency that they were subjected to intimidation and violence on account of their membership of the MDC during the run up to the election," she said in her ruling in the Gokwe North case. "Properties were destroyed and burnt as part of the intimidation. In my view, the evidence before me can only lead to the conclusion that free franchise was affected in the constituency and therefore corrupt practices were committed in the election of the respondent," she added.
According to witnesses who testified in the two cases, Zanu PF candidates and their supporters terrorised villagers suspected of sympathising with the MDC, leading to several opposition party polling agents not undertaking their duties because they were intimidated. The MDC is challenging the election results of over 30 constituencies won by Zanu PF in 2000, while the ruling party is challenging the results of about six constituencies won by the MDC. The nullification of the Gokwe election results brings to seven the total number of Zanu PF members of parliament who have lost their seats because of the petitions. All the results were nullified mainly because of pre-election violence allegedly perpetrated by Zanu PF supporters. Advocate Happias Zhou instructed by Lewis Uriri of Honey & Blanckenberg represented the two MDC petitioners.
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From The Financial Gazette, 16 January
New rules see forex inflows plunge 70%
By Godfrey Marawanyika Senior Reporter
Weekly foreign currency inflows into Zimbabwe’s banking sector have dropped at least 70 percent from US$6 million since the announcement of tough exchange control measures aimed at curbing hard cash leakages, according to statistics from the central bank. Figures obtained this week from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s economic research division show that in the week ending November 8 2002, the week before the announcement by Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa of new foreign exchange restrictions, hard currency inflows of US$6 million were recorded by the banking sector. The inflows had declined from US$10.3 million at the beginning of last November. After Murerwa announced that exporters would now be required to remit 50 percent of their foreign earnings to the central bank and the remainder would also be held by the Reserve Bank on their behalf, inflows fell to US$2.3 million in the week to December 6. Before the new policy, exporters had to remit 40 percent of forex earnings to the Reserve Bank and could trade the remainder on the parallel market for hard cash, where most of Zimbabwe’s foreign currency transactions are conducted. To curb the parallel market, the government also announced in November that bureaux de change would shut down at the end of the month. However, central bank statistics show that despite the closure of the bureaux and the surrender of all export earnings to the Reserve Bank, official inflows steadily declined to US$1.3 million on December 13 and to US$0.5 million on December 27, which was insufficient to cover any imports. "Figures capture official inflows only," the central bank ’s economic research department said in an internal report made available to the Financial Gazette. "Prior to centralisation of foreign exchange transactions at the central bank in November 2002, estimates were that around 80 percent of foreign exchange transactions were taking place on the parallel market."
But analysts this week said it was clear from the Reserve Bank’s own statistics that the new regulations had failed to stamp out the parallel market. Recent figures show that the improvement in inflows has been slight since the end of December, with US$1.6 million realised in the seven days to January 7. The analysts said parallel market exchange rates were more than 20 times the government-fixed $55 to US$1, which could account for the reluctance by forex holders to trade on the official market. The rate for the American greenback reached $2 000 against the Zimbabwe dollar in its heyday last year and is now trading at around $1 500. Banking sources estimate that before the new exchange control measures came into effect, foreign currency account (FCA) holders cleaned out close to US$30 million from their banks because they did not want to lose out through the fixed exchange rate. "Private businesses cleaned out their FCAs before new measures were implemented, denying the state about US$30 million in foreign exchange inflows," a foreign exchange dealer told the Financial Gazette. The private sector has submitted to the government proposals for the devaluation to $800 to US$1 of the exchange rate that is applied to the 50 percent of exporters’ earnings that is held on their behalf by the central bank. This half of the exporters’ proceeds is supposed to be used by companies within 60 says to meet their import and other needs. However, commentators said devaluing the Zimbabwe dollar on its own would not resolve the country’s foreign currency crisis. They said a comprehensive economic recovery programme that would address macroeconomic instability, declining exports and the withdrawal of balance of payments support by international organisations was necessary. Zimbabwean exporters, like other local companies, have been hard hit by escalating inflation, which rose to an all time high of 175.5 percent in November and is expected to shoot up to 500 percent before the end of the year. The country’s harsh operating environment has pushed up their operating costs, making their products less competitive on international markets. This has contributed to declining forex inflows to the banking sector, which were already falling even before the announcement of the new exchange control measures.
According to figures from the Reserve Bank, the inflows did not even rise significantly during the tobacco marketing season, which normally boosts Zimbabwe’s hard cash earnings. The figures show that the highest inflows in a week during the tobacco season were US$18.5 million in the week ending September 27, only US$3 million more than the US$15 million received in the week to June 28. The inflows began declining in the week ending October 25, the week before the tobacco auction floors closed, when only US$9.2 million was realised, before picking up briefly at the beginning of November, when US$10.3 million was received. "The country’s overall export performance remains weak, with exports estimated to have contracted by 10.8 percent in 2002," Reserve Bank governor Leonard Tsumba said in response to question from the Financial Gazette. "Exporting sectors have been adversely affected by rising production costs, cash flow difficulties, high inflation and unavailability of raw materials," he added. The central bank governor said the difficulties faced by exporters had been coupled with the lack of international donor support, which had adversely affected Zimbabwe’s balance of payments position. Multilateral institutions have withdrawn balance of payments support in the past three years because of the government’s fiscal policies and its controversial land reform programme. "Against this background, foreign exchange reserves have declined to unsustainably low levels," Tsumba said. "This has adversely affected the country’s capacity to procure critical imports such as drugs, fuel, electricity and raw materials." He said because of declining inflows, Zimbabwe had enough forex "for a limited number of months of continuous importation," although analysts said this might be an overestimation. Foreign exchange dealers warned that if inflows continued to dwindle, it would become even more difficult to stamp out the parallel market, where they said rates were overvalued because of severe shortages on the official market. They said continued depreciation on the parallel market could force out of business a large number of companies that rely on the market for hard cash and which are already struggling because of Zimbabwe’s worst economic crisis in 22 years. A forex dealer said: "The direct opposite of what (the government) sought to achieve is happening. It’s only a matter of time before the government admits that they have failed in their policies."
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From The Independent (UK), 17 January
We’re in crisis, admits Zimbabwe’s army chief
By Basildon Peta, Southern Africa correspondent
The commander of Zimbabwe's armed forces has publicly admitted for the first time that the country is deep in crisis and has recommended a national task force should resolve the country's emergency. The powerful head of the Zimbabwe National Army and the Air Force of Zimbabwe spoke out while most senior politicians, including President Robert Mugabe, refuse to publicly acknowledge the country is in turmoil. Some blame the drought for the problems. Although General Vitalis Zvinavashe reiterated his loyalty to Mr Mugabe, observers in Zimbabwe saw his statement as a direct confirmation that senior aides to Mr Mugabe were greatly worried by the country's slide into perdition and many of them would be relieved if their leader quit. This week, the general denied hatching a plan to send President Mugabe into retirement in return for immunity from prosecution. Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, said he was approached with the plan by a mediator who said he was representing General Zvinavashe and Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Parliamentary speaker.
General Zvinavashe said Zimbabweans had to be told frankly that the country was in a crisis. "First we must admit there is a crisis," General Zvinavashe told Business Tribune, a newspaper owned by Mutumwa Mawere, a prominent businessman with strong links to President Mugabe and the ruling Zanu PF. "Everyone can see that. So we must do something about it. It is important for the nation to be told that we are facing an economic crisis. In my view, it is not right to keep quiet and let nature take its course." He called for a national task force involving all branches of government, "and not necessarily cabinet ministers", to be set up urgently to deal with what he called an emergency situation in Zimbabwe. General Zvinavashe did not say whether the task force should include the opposition but said it must have powers to make substantive decisions that would not be overturned by civil servants or cabinet ministers. He said the task force should be supervised by the 79-year-old President. Lovemore Madhuku, a University of Zimbabwe law professor, said: "It does say a lot when senior soldiers, the greatest beneficiaries of Mugabe's corrupt patronage, start admitting things are bad. It also confirms the denied reports about initiatives to oust Mugabe are not completely unfounded." General Zvinavashe, who rarely gives press interviews, has attributed those reports to British propaganda.
In another blow to President Mugabe, the Zimbabwe High Court yesterday nullified the results of two constituencies won by his party in the bitterly contested June 2000 parliamentary elections, and accused the ruling party of having used violence to win the seats. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) narrowly lost to Mr Mugabe's Zanu PF and went to court to challenge results in 37 constituencies. Seven Zanu PF victories have been overturned and three ruling party election wins upheld. Judge Rita Makarau said yesterday there was evidence of widespread intimidation of MDC supporters before the polls. "Properties were destroyed and burnt as part of the intimidation. The evidence before me can only lead to the conclusion that free franchise was affected in the constituency and therefore corrupt practices were committed in the election of the respondents."
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 17 January
Mugabe exit plot thickens
Dumisani Muleya
Despite energetic denials from President Mugabe this week, speculation surrounding the future of his presidency intensified as more details emerged of an exit deal put together by his closest associates. The latest initiative has placed Mugabe in a vulnerable position as his government openly admits its failure to cope with food and fuel shortages. Sources said this week Zanu PF secretary for administration Emmerson Mnangagwa and Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Vitalis Zvinavashe, implicated in the attempted palace coup against Mugabe, were keen to exploit widening fault lines within the ruling party to advance their interests. The deteriorating economic situation may have spurred their latest initiative. Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe were named by opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai as behind the mission by retired army officer, Colonel Lionel Dyck, to market their power-sharing plans which involve a comfortable exit package for Mugabe. Dyck is understood to have been in contact with key stakeholders in the plan including the British government. British foreign secretary Jack Straw was said to have been aware of the plan, hence his recent statement that London would support any local initiative to resolve the current crisis. "Dyck has been working tirelessly behind-the-scenes to establish some consensus on the issues at stake - and appeared to have made some headway until mid-December when Tsvangirai denounced his overtures," a source following the initiative said. In terms of Dyck's plan, Mugabe and his family would be allowed free passage to live wherever they wanted, targeted sanctions would be lifted, and an interim government formed with Mnangagwa, Mugabe's perceived heir apparent, as president and Tsvangirai as deputy. A fresh presidential election would be held in two years.
Dyck initially claimed he was Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe's emissary when he met Tsvangirai on December 13, the MDC leader says. He said Dyck reported back to his principals after the meeting. But he now appears under pressure to amend his story because Mugabe is on the warpath. Dyck's remarks in a pro-government paper yesterday - where he said he was his own man on the mission to Tsvangirai - were seen as damage-limitation. Tsvangirai said yesterday in an interview he had no reason to doubt Dyck's initial claim. He said the ball was now in Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe's court to explain the issue. "I have no reason to doubt him," he said. "There have been a lot of fishing expeditions by Zanu PF prior to that. The burden to clarify whether or not they sent Dyck is theirs. Dyck actually phoned me after the meeting and said they (Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe) were happy with our position (the need for a transitional arrangement and a fresh election)." Despite a flurry of official denials, including Mugabe's own in Lusaka on Tuesday, Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe have not yet directly refuted the claim that Dyck was their envoy although they have denied any knowledge of the exit plan.
Sources said Mnangagwa's alleged manoeuvres - which the CIO is said to be probing - could unleash an open succession battle in Zanu PF. A rival faction, which consists of potential movers and shakers, retired General Solomon Mujuru, Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi and former cabinet minister and PF Zapu supremo, Dumiso Dabengwa, was said to be jockeying against Mnangagwa's bid for power. Mujuru is understood to have fallen out with Mugabe before last year's disputed March presidential election after he reportedly told him to retire. Sources say Ibbo Mandaza, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror - which revived the story last weekend - played a role. Sources said Mandaza planted the story to test the succession waters on Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe's behalf. Mnangagwa's perceived ally, Mutumwa Mawere, who controls a business empire, was involved in sounding out Tsvangirai on the deal. But Mawere denied this. "I don't get involved in such political deals," he said this week. "I have no standing in politics to be a factor in this issue." While it is agreed Mugabe was unaware of the manoeuvring by his closest associates, intelligence sources have said he has privately informed members of his family of his desire to retire by the end of the year. The latest disclosures, sources say, are likely to convey the impression of a besieged and vulnerable presidency.
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From Business Day (SA), 17 January
Talks in Zimbabwe depend on pressure
International Affairs Editor
A senior official from the Zimbabwean opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the chances of talks between itself and the ruling Zanu PF party depend heavily on the pressure that SA and other Southern African Development Community (SADC) members can exert on President Robert Mugabe. However, while on a visit to SA, MDC spokesman Paul Themba-Nyathi said that as Pretoria was thought to have given Mugabe increasing support in recent months the chances of the SA government playing the role of an honest broker were slight. He said SA had abandoned its quiet diplomacy in favour of "outspoken support" for Mugabe, judging by statements made by SA Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana during their recent visits to Zimbabwe. Themba-Nyathi said food and fuel shortages, as well as the spread of food riots, could place increasing pressure on Mugabe to open talks with the opposition. Both the Zimbabwean government and the opposition say there have been no talks about a deal involving amnesty for Mugabe in exchange for his resignation, and there is no sign of an emerging common ground on which negotiations can begin.
"There is no doubt the whole (Zimbabwe crisis) will be resolved by negotiation," Themba-Nyathi said. President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo failed to meet their pledge to involve themselves personally in an effort to achieve dialogue, he said. "Talks can resume anytime if Zanu PF does not insist on preconditions," Themba-Nyathi said. Zanu PF have said they are only prepared to begin talks if the MDC withdraws its application to have election results set aside. "Talk of a government of national unity, is just not on," he said. A government of national unity is one of SA's proposals to resolve the crisis. "SA thinks it can simply co-opt the MDC" into a government of national unity. We are not going that route. What is on is a transitional arrangement with a limited lifespan, that would lead to free and fair elections, " he said. Themba-Nyathi said that the matter of whether Mugabe should be granted an amnesty would possibly be discussed. "If you have negotiations, everything is up for negotiation." He said pressure on the government was intensifying with the shortages, making it difficult for Mugabe to distribute patronage to his supporters. "You cannot escape scarcity. Even a Zanu PF card does not allow people to obtain food."
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From Times (UK), 17 January
Catholics censure their bishops for appeasing Mugabe
From Jan Raath in Harare
Senior members of one of Zimbabwe’s biggest Catholic dioceses delivered a scathing attack against the church hierarchy yesterday for appeasing President Mugabe, and demanded that it confront his "evil regime". The move came as a judge stripped two MPs from the ruling Zanu PF party of their seats, ruling that their victories in 2000 had been won through "intimidation and violence". Six Zanu PF victories have been nullified out of 41 being challenged by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The 260 priests, deacons, sisters and brothers of the archdiocese of Bulawayo said: "There is no place for neutrality in the face of the evil which is destroying our nation. Time has run out for compromise with an evil regime. Attempts to use personal influence and persuasion have only allowed a corrupt system to consolidate its power." The Western Matabeleland provinces have probably suffered far more brutality at Mr Mugabe’s hands than any other part of the country. Dissent among the Ndebele-speaking people could provoke an even greater threat of schism in the country.
The clergy demanded that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the church’s executive body, "come out publicly with a clear and honest voice, on behalf of the voiceless, as their predecessors did during the liberation struggle (against the former white minority Rhodesian Government)". This is the first time that the general clergy of Zimbabwe’s most powerful church have spoken out against the silence of their bishops over the past three years of repression and lawlessness under Mr Mugabe. Observers say that Mr Mugabe has successfully courted the leadership of most churches in Zimbabwe and counts the heads of both the Catholic and Anglican churches as his personal allies. The exception has been Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, who has constantly condemned Mr Mugabe and helped to focus international attention on Zanu PF’s strategy of denying food aid to starving opposition supporters. He is kept under permanent state surveillance and said to be on a secret police hitlist. "We condemn those who harass, who attack, who plan evil against the Archbishop," the clergy said. "We condemn those who attempt to silence his voice."
Nqobile Nyathi, the Editor of the independent Financial Gazette, said yesterday that she had been detained by police for allegedly publishing false information about Mr Mugabe. The charges referred to advertisements in the newspaper last year for a mock trial of Mr Mugabe in which he was blamed for murder and rape by his militias.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 17 January
Mugabe's bungling leaves only prayers for Zimbabweans
At the Catholic mission where Robert Mugabe once prayed, the congregation is gaunt and weary through lack of food. At Mass a torpor hangs over the worshippers created by more than just the summer heat. It is born of the relentless hunger that has dragged on for months, gnawing the vigour from singers' voices and priests' prayers. Even the usually uplifting African beat from the church's drummers seems a little muffled and the pious exhortations of Father Thomas Makuleke Tshabalala weakened. "I don't know how they carry on out there at Empandeni," Pius Ncube, Archbishop of Bulawayo, said from his city centre office 60 miles away. "They have run out of money for rice, potatoes are unthinkably expensive and the supply of mealie meal has disappeared completely." Shaking his head as if contemplating a miracle, the archbishop kept repeating the words: "I don't know how they are surviving."
The food crisis now stalking Zimbabwe is not typical of Africa. There are no dramatic television pictures of stick-legged mothers carrying infants with bloated stomachs or scenes of drought-stricken vastnesses. Instead the country looks pretty normal. Poor rains have made it a little parched in places but few of the reservoirs are empty and the scrubby bush remains as green and leafy as ever. But, while Zimbabweans are not dying of starvation by the legion, they are suffering from food shortages that are almost entirely man-made, created by President Mugabe's bungling of a once-vibrant agricultural economy, and his limiting of food supplies to his political supporters. Empandeni, a long and dusty journey west of Bulawayo, is where Mr Mugabe once studied and then taught. It is next to a reservoir filled with water from the source that first drew Jesuit missionaries to the area more than 100 years ago. The congregation of St Francis Xavier church all have a story to tell of sapping hunger. "It's not just that we do not have any food in our homes or in our fields," Loveness Mangete, a teenager attending Mass, said. "But even if we have money we cannot buy any food because the shops do not have anything, so what can we do? Perhaps the only thing is to pray." Another worshipper added: "Things are bad round here now, there is suffering man, plenty of suffering," A trickle of food is getting through, largely provided by donor nations and aid groups but supporters of Mr Mugabe's ruling party, Zanu PF, are quick to claim credit whenever it is delivered.
Mr Mugabe was baptised a Catholic and taught and studied at Empandeni mission school at the end of the Second World War but there is little evidence of his showing any warmth towards his alma mater. A Catholic human rights groups has blamed Mr Mugabe for thousands of political killings during his 23-year rule of Zimbabwe. In the eyes of Archbishop Ncube, the Zimbabwean president has long since lost any right to call himself Catholic. "Love your neighbour as yourself is one of the fundamental tenets but I do not see Mr Mugabe practising that principle as he inflicts suffering on an entire nation," the archbishop said. "He claims to be a Catholic but what he has done to this country shows his Catholicity is meaningless, quite bogus." Aid groups are trying to ship in food aid to places such as Empandeni but its remoteness does not make it easy and so-called war veterans, the bully boys responsible for Mr Mugabe's political dirty work, have been active in the area dumping villagers on to former white-owned commercial farms and ordering them on pain of death to stay to enjoy the "fruits of Mr Mugabe's land-reform process." The doors of the primary and secondary schools at Empandeni were due to be opened this week to more than 800 pupils but the teachers do not know how many children will be able to attend this year, with their families facing such acute shortages of food and money. Founded by the Jesuits in 1887 and nurtured by British colonialists, Empandeni mission is in danger of being done away with by Mr Mugabe's mismanagement.
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From The Star (SA), 17 January
Unrepentant Moyo in a spin
President Robert Mugabe's chief spin doctor says he will never apologise to South Africans for calling them "dirty, filthy and uncouth". Jonathan Moyo added on Thursday that any attempt to get him to apologise was, in fact, "adding salt to an injury". The Herald, the Zimbabwean government's mouthpiece, seemed to suggest instead that it was the South African government that should apologise to Moyo for his "treatment" by the local media. Moyo relaunched a scathing attack on Sunday Times editor Mathatha Tsedu, describing him as a "monumental disgrace". Tsedu said he dismissed Moyo's earlier remarks with the contempt they deserved after his newspaper exposed a spending spree by the Moyo entourage in Johannesburg.
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From Business Tribune, 16 January
Mugabe exit…Gen Zvinavashe speaks out . . .
Business Tribune Reporter
Harare - Retired Zimbabwe National Army Colonel Lionel Dyke last night confirmed he had met Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai "to sound him out on a peaceful change of government" but denied he had done so on behalf of Zanu PF. "I am a Zimbabwean and it is in this capacity that I approached the MDC leader to sound him on the peaceful change of government. I was not sent by Zvinavashe or (Emmerson) Mnangagwa to meet Tsvangirai. I went on my own to discuss with him on his views on a peaceful change of government," said Dyke, who now runs an outfit that uproots land mines in war zones, from Angola to Kosovo. Dyke was commenting for the first time on the international furore that arose after an announcement by Tsvangirai that Zanu PF had approached him with a package for retiring President Mugabe from office before his term ends in 2006. "It was only after I had met Tsvangirai in December that I went to see General Zvinavashe, not in his professional capacity but as a former colleague. Remember I am a retired soldier." He denied making any contacts with British politicians after his meetings. Meanwhile, head of Zimbabwe's armed forces General Vitalis Zvinavashe has denied involvement in a conspiracy to oust Mugabe from office saying only the electorate had the constitutional power to do so. Zvinavashe, a four-star general and hero of the 1970s liberation war, told the Business Tribune this week that claims by the MDC that he was part of a Zanu PF team negotiating Mugabe's peaceful exit from power were "totally false". The general, who rarely gives interviews to journalists, said he and his officers had made it clear prior to the March 2002 presidential elections - exactly a year ago - that no soldier under his command would salute anyone who never fought or participated in Zimbabwe's war of liberation. Tsvangirai, the only man to garner more than one million votes against Mugabe, did not fight in Zimbabwe's war.
"Nothing has changed … our stance remains the same up to this day," Zvinavashe told this newspaper. They (MDC) together with the British and the Americans demonised me when I made that statement. So what has changed … am I a good guy now?" he asked. On January 9 last year, two months before the Presidential plebiscite, Zvinavashe, flanked by commanders of the army, air force, police, secret service and prisons declared to the nation: "We wish to make it very clear to all Zimbabwean citizens that the security organisations will only stand in support of those political leaders that will pursue Zimbabwean values, traditions and beliefs for which thousands of lives were lost, in pursuit of Zimbabwe's hard-won independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and national interests. Let it be known that the highest office in the land is a 'straightjacket' whose occupant is expected to observe the objectives of the liberation struggle. We (the military) will, therefore, not accept, let alone support or salute, anyone with a different agenda that threatens the very existence of our sovereignty, our country and our people." The entire Zimbabwean military is commanded by former war veterans.
Zvinavashe believes the reports linking him and Parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa to an alleged scheme to force Mugabe to retire were as a result of the British's propaganda machinery at work. In a story that received worldwide publicity, Tsvangirai named in a BBC interview Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe, as the initiators of an alleged scheme that is aimed at paving Mugabe's smooth exit from power. But both Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe have since denied talking to the MDC or that they were involved in such a plot. The MDC leader said the mediator in the alleged plot was Col Dyke, former commander of the now disbanded 6th Brigade. This week Zvinavashe said as a soldier he supported the Constitution of Zimbabwe and would not be part of a clandestine operation that deviated from the laws of the land. His mandate as armed forces chief, he said, was to uphold the rule of law and to ensure that the territorial boundaries of Zimbabwe were protected. Zvinavashe said Mugabe would finish his term as prescribed by the Zimbabwe Constitution and said only the ballot was the final arbiter. "I will support what is right and I will never support anything that is wrong," the general declared.
About four months ago, the MDC leader hired journalist William Bango to carry out a specific task of arranging a face-to-face meeting between Mugabe and Tsvangirai. Sources told this newspaper Bango had, over the past few months, worked overtime frantically trying to meet influential people in Zanu PF and those outside including church leaders appealing to them to persuade Mugabe to meet Tsvangirai. Bango, has however, failed to meet both Mnangagwa and Zvinavashe to present Tsvangirai's proposal. In a wide-ranging discussion this week, Zvinavashe said he was aware that the country was in an economic crisis but that it was the duty of politicians to provide solutions. In times of crisis, he said, the military was always ready to assist if given the mandate to do so. Since last year, military officers were attached to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) to supervise the procurement and movement of maize grain into the country. Zvinavashe thinks that in order to get out the current crisis, a national task force involving all arms of government, and not necessarily cabinet ministers, should be set up urgently to deal with what he sees as an "emergency" situation. The proposed task force would operate under the direct supervision of President Mugabe, report to him directly and have powers to make substantive decisions that will not be overturned by civil servants or cabinet ministers. "First, we must admit there is a crisis. Everyone can see that … so we must do something about it," he said. "It is important for the nation to be told that we are facing an economic crisis and that the people should brace for it. In my view it is not right to keep quiet and let nature take its course." Zimbabwe is currently facing a major economic crisis ranging from the shortage of food, fuel couple by high prices of all goods and services. The foreign currency coffers are also empty and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is incapable of providing any solution.
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From IRIN (UN), 17 January
MDC accuse police of torture
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Friday accused the police of torturing party officials taken into custody. The statement followed the court appearance on Thursday of MDC Member of Parliament (MP) Job Sikhala, who alleged that he had been beaten by the police, subjected to electric shock treatment, and forced to drink an unknown substance that left him feeling unwell. Sikhala reportedly told magistrate Caroline-Ann Chigumira that he "witnessed the most horrifying incident of inhumanity which even the laws of the jungle would not tolerate". The MP was arrested along with four other people after being accused of burning a public transport company bus on Monday. He said that after he was arrested he was blind-folded and taken to an unknown destination by two police officers, the Daily News reported.
"When I got there, they started beating me under my feet," Sikhala was quoted by the newspaper as saying. "They said I had to tell the truth about the bus incident. They beat me until I gave in and told them what they considered the truth ... All this was happening while live electric wires were tied to a toe on each of my legs and on my genitals. At one time I passed out and when I regained consciousness one of the officers urinated on me and I also urinated," Sikhala reportedly said. "Then I was ordered to roll on the urine until it dried up. I was later told to drink some liquid which they claimed was the urine. But the liquid was choking and did not smell like human urine. I am sure it was some poisoned stuff. No wonder I had a severe cough and running stomach this morning."
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said he had not received reports of Sikhala alleged torture, but he told IRIN: "We don't have a culture of assaulting or torturing suspects in our custody." MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube said in a statement: "The torture and inhuman treatment of MDC MP for St Mary's, Job Sikhala, is typical of the reign of terror that [President] Robert Mugabe has unleashed on all the people of Zimbabwe who have dared to hold views different from those of his party. "Revelations that Sikhala was also made to drink an unspecified liquid also confirms our fears that all MDC leaders and activists who have been in police custody in the last few months have been poisoned," Ncube said. He named five MDC officials who had been held by the police - some of them allegedly tortured - and forced to drink an unknown substance that had made them ill.
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From Combined Harare Residents' Association (CHRA), 16 January
A travesty of justice - victims of assault jailed and charged
CHRA’s Chief Executive Office Farai Barnabas Mangodza (31), Information Officer Jameson Gadzirayi (23), Executive Committee Member Joseph Rose (38) and Kuwadzana resident, Richard Mudekwe (22) were arrested by police on Tuesday night in Kuwadzana. The four CHRA workers went to Kuwadzana as a follow-up trip to a meeting on Tuesday morning with ZESN (Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network) where we discussed strategies for the forthcoming Kuwadzana by-election. They did not hold any meeting. After driving around they stopped at Kuwadzana 5 centre where they were surrounded by youth militiamen and abducted to a building nearby which belongs to council but has been commandeered by the militia. They were then beaten for approximately two hours with a variety of instruments including batons, sjamboks and bricks on their backs, buttocks, thighs and feet. Eventually they were ‘rescued’ by police only to be detained for the night. When they were taken to Law and Order at Central, the officer at L&O said that there were no charges that could be laid against the four and they were taken back to Kuwadzana. They were eventually charged under the Miscellaneous Offences Act with ‘behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace’ and released after signing admissions of guilt and paying $5 000 each. We decided that they needed to get medical attention; it was better to sign the admissions and get them out of police custody than let them spend another night in the barbaric and inhuman conditions in the cell (where the previous night some 30-odd prisoners shared a cell about 10 sq metres with no room to sit let alone lie down!). We subsequently took them to Avenues Clinic to be examined by a doctor and to take photos of their injuries. Fortunately the four did not suffer any major injuries and they are now resting at home.
It is absolutely iniquitous that the police did not attempt to arrest the perpetrators of this violence, which can only confirm our suspicions that the beatings were carried out with the acquiescence of the police and the state. In addition to the personal injuries, over $10 000 was stolen and shared amongst the thugs while we have yet to recover two cell phones and shoes belonging to the four. The fact that the police then proceeded to hold and attempt to charge the four without any attempt to provide medical care or to notify the families of the four is beyond the bounds of human behaviour. We shall be meeting with our lawyers to consider our responses to this attack and the police response. This is part of the ongoing attempt by the regime to silence civic activists working for democracy in Harare and Zimbabwe. We have also learnt that Mayor Mudzuri has been threatened with re-arrest since his release on Monday.
Thank you to the many friends in Zimbabwe and elsewhere who have phoned to express solidarity and sympathy for the four. We would remind everyone that this is not an isolated occurrence and that such events are a daily reality for many Zimbabweans who are at the mercy of arbitrary violence perpetrated by para-military thugs paid for and sanctioned by the Mugabe regime and ignored by a morally corrupt and compliant police force that have betrayed the basic tenets of their so-called charter.
From ZWNEWS: If you want to see some of the photographs taken at the Avenues Clinic, please let us know. They will be sent as .jpg attachments to an email message - total size 30 Kb, or approximately 60% of the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.
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From The Daily News, 17 January
Cases of politicised food aid growing, says MDC
From Our Correspondent in Masvingo
The MDC says cases of suspected opposition members being denied food aid and agricultural inputs are on the increase, as hunger and starvation take their toll on Zimbabwe. Despite claims by the government that food aid was being distributed to all the starving people irrespective of their political affiliation, thousands of villagers in the Chief Shumba and Murinye areas of Masvingo said they were being denied food because they supported the opposition. Silas Mangono, the MDC Member of Parliament for Masvingo Central, yesterday said cases of people being denied food aid on political grounds were on the increase. Said Mangono: "I have received reports from people in Murinye and Muchakata areas complaining that they are not benefiting from relief aid sourced by both the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). It is true that food aid is being politicised and the situation seems to be getting out of hand. "It is a sad situation as some families are going for days without food. We are surprised because what we know is that the government should not discriminate against people on political grounds." Mangono said he would soon meet representatives of NGOs and Zanu PF officials in Masvingo over the issue. He said well-known politicians were allegedly taking advantage of their positions to acquire maize grain from the Grain Marketing Board for resale at high prices to starving people. Nicholas Muchetu, a spokesperson for the villagers said thousands of suspected MDC supporters could starve to death if Zanu PF activists continued to deny them food aid. Muchetu said: "If you go and register for food you are asked which party you belong to. In most cases they demand a Zanu PF card. We have been denied food aid and agricultural inputs. We have also been excluded from the public works programme and we are surviving on wild fruits and edible insects."
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 17 January
Zimbabwe’s new farmers not getting their hands dirty
Harare - Less than half the land the Zimbabwe government has seized from white farmers to redistribute to landless blacks has been taken up by its new owners in at least one prime farming region, reports said on Friday. "Vast tracks of land acquired by government for the fast-track resettlement programme and allocated to new farmers under the commercial farming model ... in Mashonaland West (province) are lying idle," the privately-owned Daily Mirror newspaper said. Beneficiaries of the land reform programme were given until August last year to take up their land, but a commercial farming scheme in the province had a low uptake rate of between 35% and 50% of allocated land. But all the land allocated to small-scale communal farmers under the programme has been taken up, the paper said. The government has threatened to repossess all unoccupied land allocated to black farmers under the commercial farm resettlement scheme. The government-run Herald newspaper cited Lands Minister Joseph Made as saying the state will repossess all land not taken up and use it for food production.
Two-thirds of Zimbabwe's population is currently threatened by famine. The main reason given for prospective farmers failing to take up their land was that most of it was undeveloped and required lots of work. "Some were expecting to be given plots on good soils, others didn't want to clear the land and expected already cleared ones," Mashonaland West Provincial Governor Peter Chanetsa said in a report to a parliamentary committee probing the land uptake throughout the country. Zimbabwe embarked on a controversial and sometimes violent land reform programme in early 2000. The exercise saw white landowners being dispossessed of their land to make way for landless blacks. To date, the government claims to have re-settled 374 000 small-scale black farmers on 14-million hectares of formerly white-owned land. Aid agencies say land reform is partly responsible for the hunger threatening close to eight million Zimbabweans, along with a drought that has hit five other southern African countries.
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From The Sunday Times (UK), 19 January
Mbeki led plot to replace Mugabe
RW Johnson, Johannesburg
When Robert Mugabe dismissed as "counter-revolutionary and foolhardy" suggestions that he planned to step down, Zimbabwe’s veteran president appeared last week to have quashed speculation that he might leave office in a deal with the opposition. Fresh controversy is threatening to erupt, however, with the disclosure that President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa tried to engineer Mugabe’s departure. The collapse of the deal - which included a guarantee of immunity for Mugabe, 78, from prosecution for human rights abuses during the seizures of white farms - is a serious embarrassment for Mbeki. South Africa’s leader had seen the replacement of Mugabe by Emmerson Mnangagwa, a close associate, as a way to protect Zimbabwe from the wrath of the international community and to halt its growing isolation. Mugabe’s continued hold on power also puts Mbeki in the uncomfortable position of having to bow to demands from Commonwealth members, including Britain, for the renewal in March of Zimbabwe’s suspension from the organisation.
The seeds of compromise were sown last March when South African observers were told to find the voting in Zimbabwe’s presidential election free and fair, despite the violence and rigging that marred it. Commonwealth observer s, by contrast, found the poll fraudulent. This created an impossible situation for Mbeki at a Commonwealth heads of government meeting after the election. At the initiative of Tony Blair, the decision on what action to recommend was delegated to a committee consisting of Mbeki, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo and John Howard, Australia’s prime minister. To Mbeki’s dismay the Commonwealth observers’ report made action against Mugabe inevitable. The only concession he won was that Zimbabwe’s suspension from the organisation was limited to a year. Mbeki returned to South Africa making furious comments about the "white Commonwealth" and declaring that "if the decision-making process within the Commonwealth is to be informed by this kind of thinking, it is not worth maintaining the association". His wrath was directed particularly at Blair and Howard. Mbeki’s objective since has been to avoid the humiliation of having to recommend that Zimbabwe’s suspension be renewed. The deal to secure a change of leadership was a way of achieving that.
Mbeki’s African National Congress (ANC) sees itself as part of an alliance of liberation movements that fought against white rule, and feels a deep kinship with Mugabe’s Zanu PF party, so he is determined that Zanu PF must stay in power, even if Mugabe has to go. South Africa’s diplomacy has accordingly moved from trying to persuade the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to accept Mugabe’s legitimacy to promoting Mnangagwa as heir apparent. With Mbeki’s encouragement, the Institute for Democracy in South Africa invited Obasanjo, Mnangagwa and MDC officials to join the South African president at a meeting on the Zimbabwe crisis last November. All agreed to come - but then Zanu PF vetoed Mnangagwa’s attendance and the talks were called off. The MDC also had serious reservations about the deal, not least because of Mnangagwa’s appalling record on human rights: he was the secret police chief behind the torture and death of thousands of Ndebele people in the Matabeleland massacres of the 1980s. Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, angrily resisted South African and British pressure to impose a deal. Mbeki nevertheless pressed ahead: Mnangagwa was invited to the ANC’s party conference and embraced by Mbeki before hundreds of cheering delegates, to whom he was presented as the next leader of Zimbabwe. It is not certain how much Mugabe knew of such plans. But Mbeki believed that once he was out of the way it would be possible to convince the Commonwealth to lift Zimbabwe’s suspension and give the new administration a chance.
When news of the deal leaked last weekend Mugabe felt obliged to deny it and the proposal collapsed. South Africa swiftly stepped back. The foreign affairs ministry said: "We know nothing," in a statement dismissed by the MDC as "ridiculous". The MDC believes Mbeki has so compromised himself with his support of Mnangagwa that he can no longer play the role of honest broker in the crisis. It is also deeply critical of the British embassy in Harare which, it says, has supported the Mnangagwa deal despite the MDC’s insistence on free elections for the next president. Mbeki now faces the embarrassment of having to back the renewal of Zimbabwe’s suspension from the Commonwealth. Mugabe has made no effort to move towards the Commonwealth position and has banned Blair and Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth secretary-general, from Zimbabwe. Mbeki feels he has once again been put into this situation by Blair and Howard. The ANC’s youth leader, Malusi Gigaba, accused Britain and Australia last week of "sickening hypocrisy" in their dealings with Zimbabwe. Mugabe’s insistence that he is staying failed to quieten criticism at home. General Vitalis Zvinavashe, commander of the Zimbabwe armed forces, called for a national task force to deal with the "emergency situation". Although he did not say it should include the MDC, this was clearly the implication. "We must admit there is a crisis," Zvinavashe said. "We must do something about it. It is not right to keep quiet and let nature take its course."
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From AFP, 18 January
Reports of Zimbabwe coup plot are denied
Harare - A top official in Zimbabwe's governing party who was reported this week to be behind a plan to oust President Robert Mugabe says no such plan exists, a newspaper reported today. "There is no vacancy for a president in this country," Emmerson Mnangagwa, the speaker of Parliament, told the newspaper of the governing Zanu PF. Reports by local and international news organizations said that Mr. Mnangagwa and the commander of the Zimbabwe defense forces, Gen. Vitalis Zvinavashe, were behind plans to force Mr. Mugabe out of office. Mr. Mnangagwa told The People's Voice that the British government and the Movement for Democratic Change, an opposition group, were trying to divide the governing party, adding that he and General Zvinavashe were the targets of hostile news organizations. The news media has "always attacked me because I am a strong and dedicated cadre" of the party, said Mr. Mnangagwa. General Zvinavashe has also denied being behind any plot to oust Mr. Mugabe.
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From The Observer (UK), 19 January
Mugabe steps up terror ahead of World Cup
Andrew Meldrum in Harare
State torture and unwarranted arrests have increased dramatically in Zimbabwe in the past week, highlighting a drastic decline in the country's security that should force the International Cricket Council to re-think the six World Cup matches planned for next month, opposition leaders claimed last night. Prominent Zimbabwean journalists who have attacked the ICC for not getting firm guarantees from President Robert Mugabe's government that international reporters will be able to freely cover the cricket tournament, now believe many may be denied entry into the country at all. As food riots pointed up the increasingly volatile situation, the government stepped up violent repression in an effort to hamper the organisation of major anti-Mugabe demonstrations it believes are being planned to coincide with the World Cup matches.
In the past week police arrested and tortured two opposition members of parliament, held the mayor of Harare in jail for 48 hours before releasing him without charges and detained and beat more than a dozen others. Opposition member of parliament Job Sikhala wept in court last Friday as he described electric shock torture on his genitals and prolonged beatings inflicted by police. Opposition MP Paul Madzore was also beaten in police custody last week. Opposition leaders now say the impending cricket matches are actually causing the Mugabe government to step up the violence. 'The World Cup authorities must know that they bear the responsibility for the current terrorisation of Zimbabweans by the Mugabe regime in a last ditch effort to silence its critics,' said Welshman Ncube, secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Paul Themba Nyathi, MDC spokesman, told The Observer, 'the Mugabe regime is increasing its violence to try to stamp out any opposition before the cricket matches. This does not bode well for the World Cup. It underlines the increasing security risks to both players and supporters. The ICC cannot afford to ignore such ominous developments.'
Iden Wetherell, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, said: 'It is shocking that the ICC is proceeding as if nothing is amiss. They have no assurances that journalists will be able to report freely on what they see in Zimbabwe. It is against the interests of a free press and the fair play cricket is supposed to stand for.' The deterioration of Zimbabwe's security comes as famine grips the country, threatening an estimated two-thirds of the country's 12 million people. In response, top members of Mugabe's own party, Zanu PF, have suggested Mugabe step down to allow a coalition government to rescue the country's rapidly declining economy, restore the rule of law and prepare the way for free and fair elections.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 19 January
Green Bombers set up camp in Kuwadzana
By our own Staff
The infamous Zanu PF youth militia, this week intensified their violent campaign in Kuwadzana ahead of the forthcoming by-election. Residents of the high-density suburb, told The Standard on Friday that the notorious gangs of 'Green Bombers' have set up camps at Kuwadzana 5 shopping centre, Kuwadzana 4 Library, Kuwadzana 1 Home Industries and at a Harare city council building at Kuwadzana 5 shopping centre. The youth are allegedly launching violent night campaigns and raids on the homes of those they perceive to be sympathetic to the opposition. Elias Mudzuri , the executive mayor of Harare, expressed discontent over the youths' activities. Mudzuri said: "They are abusing city council facilities and we are concerned by this situation. We want Zanu PF to order them out of the council premises because they do not belong to them. We have now approached the police and we hope they are going to evict the militia from our properties."
Observers say the rogue youths, whom Zanu PF have hired on numerous occasions to embark on brutal crusades for the ruling party, may be their greatest undoing and cause of their flagging fortunes. An irate Alphas Mafa said: "These youths are an albatross around Zanu PF's neck and I can bet they are going to lose this election. We are deeply distressed and angered by the activities of these youths. They beat up people on a daily basis here and what is so infuriating is that they are aliens in our neighbourhood-most of them are Zanu PF's bussed in mercenaries. They have set up camps in all ward sections where they have erected their Zanu PF flags purportedly to announce their arrival. We are appealing to the police to intervene before the situation further deteriorates. Some council property and even a library have been turned into camps and torture chambers by the youth."
The youths have been reportedly enlisted by David Mutasa, the Kuwadzana businessman and sculptor who was last week officially anointed as Zanu PF's candidate for the forthcoming poll. Mutasa will square up with Nelson Chamisa, the MDC's national chairman and the National Alliance for Good Governance's Kempton Chiwewete. Clemence Chokure, a Kuwadzana resident, said: "The Green Bombers are abducting and harassing innocent residents. They are also demanding food from tuck shop owners warning them that they risk having their businesses shut down. "Some are grabbing the scarce commodities such as sugar, bread, cooking oil and mealie meal from poor vendors at Kuwadzana 2 and Kuwadzana 4. They then proceed to share the loot at their bases." The Kuwadzana seat fell vacant following the death of MP and MDC spokesperson, Learnmore Jongwe in controversial circumstances in police custody, last year. The government is yet to announce the dates of the poll.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 19 January
SA judge slates Harare court's decision as fundamentally flawed
By Carmel Rickard
A senior South African judge has launched a blistering attack on a controversial decision by Zimbabwe's highest court, saying its three judges failed to protect constitutional rights and that their decision was fundamentally flawed. Judge Gerald Friedman, the now-retired former Judge President of the Cape Town High Court, and Appeal Court judge in South Africa, Lesotho and Botswana, was asked by the International Bar Association to write a report on the Zimbabwe Supreme Court's decision related to a case involving opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai has been trying for almost a year to get a copy of the updated voters' roll as he needs it for his legal challenge to the outcome of last year's presidential election. In the report, released this week, Judge Friedman says he studied the appeal record, as well as other court papers, and attended the hearings at which the matter was argued. Once the three Supreme Court judges handed down their decision he finalised his report and gave it to the International Bar Association, which had asked him to serve as an independent observer.
His outline of the case makes it clear that Tsvangirai is in a Catch-22 situation. The computerised roll is held on disc in Harare. However, officials refused to supply an electronic copy, saying they could give him only a printed version - although they had given him an electronic version of the previous roll. When he took the matter to court, the first judge said that he was not entitled to an electronic copy. Tsvangirai's lawyers then appealed to the Supreme Court, but in the meantime asked to buy a printed copy. However, the registrar-general refused to supply even this, saying: "These rolls have to be printed. They need finance, printing, logistics, stationery and manpower." Furthermore, the Supreme Court found on several grounds that Tsvangirai was not entitled to any copy of the roll - and that if he did not like that, he should have the law changed rather than come to court. The judges held that the law only allowed an individual voter who had a particular interest in a constituency to get a copy of the roll of that area. It did not provide for someone in Tsvangirai's position to get a copy of the entire roll to contest the whole electoral outcome.
Judge Friedman said this approach was wrong; the only question the judges had been asked to resolve was whether the registrar-general was obliged to give Tsvangirai a copy of the roll in electronic format. He said the court had dealt with a number of other issues not in dispute between the parties, without resolving the central issue. He was also scathing of their failure to protect Tsvangirai's right to information under the Zimbabwe constitution and other laws. The roll is a matter in the public domain and it is fundamental to a constitutional democracy and the exercise of fundamental rights that everyone has access to it. "All in all," he said, "I consider the judgment of the Supreme Court to be fundamentally flawed."
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 19 January
SA demands explanation of insults
Ranjeni Munusamy
Diplomatic relations between South Africa and Zimbabwe have hit an all-time low.
Pretoria has issued a démarche signalling its intense disapproval of President Robert Mugabe's government over reported remarks by his Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, that South Africans are "filthy, recklessly uncouth, and barbaric". The government is particularly outraged by Moyo's inference that President Thabo Mbeki is unfit to lead the African renaissance. Moyo made the statements in Zimbabwe's state-owned The Herald newspaper following a Sunday Times exposé last week of his extravagant spending spree in South Africa while millions of ordinary Zimbabweans faced starvation. The Department of Foreign Affairs summoned the Zimbabwean high commissioner in South Africa this week to explain Moyo's comments. This amounts to a démarche which, in international relations, is the strongest sanction a country can exercise against another short of cutting diplomatic ties. A clearly stunned Zimbabwean government responded on Friday by issuing an extensive statement distancing itself from Moyo's remarks and emphasising its strong bonds with South Africa. Zimbabwe's foreign ministry said it wanted to "make it clear that the views expressed by the Honourable Minister were his own on the basis of his embarrassing experience during his holiday stay in South Africa". "The ministry wishes to assure our brothers and sisters in South Africa, colleagues in the SA Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the SA government as a whole that, notwithstanding the immense influence of the private media... the Zimbabwe government respects and supports the role and efforts of His Excellency President Thabo Mbeki to bring about the dawn of a new Africa." SA Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said the government "noted and accepted the reassurance of the Zimbabwean authorities in as far as it pertains to the President and people of South Africa". But senior government officials say Mbeki and members of his Cabinet were deeply angered by Moyo's statements. They say that although Moyo and his government have since tried to explain that his attack was directed at Sunday Times journalists, the government was convinced the comments pertaining to the African renaissance were clearly aimed at Mbeki. Diplomatic sources say Moyo is now facing heat from colleagues in government and Zanu PF.
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From The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 19 January
Leader's nephews seize farms from 'war veterans'
By Philip Sherwell
Two nephews of Robert Mugabe have seized former white-owned farms from so-called war veterans in the latest rift between the Zimbabwean president's regime and his militant "shock troops", it emerged yesterday. Robert and Patrick Zhuwau evicted the settlers from several properties that they had appropriated from their previous white owners three years ago when Mr Mugabe unleashed pro-government mobs, including war veterans, at the start of his land-grab policy. The brothers are the sons of Sabina Mugabe, the president's fiery older sister and an MP in his ruling Zanu PF party. The Telegraph reported last year how she earlier led a terror campaign against white farmers and threatened to seize property from Terry Ford, a landowner killed by settlers last March. The disputed farms are in the Mugabe family home district of Zvimba, about 50 miles west of Harare. Other relatives of the president are also reported to have displaced settlers from farms. The seizures have infuriated the war veterans, who complained that the nephews and other family members had taken no part in the "fight for land". They had only come "to reap where others have sown", said Juliet Govha, the war veterans' leader in the area. "That is very unfair and we do not think President Mugabe is aware of what they are doing." Relations between the settlers and the government have deteriorated dramatically as the economy has collapsed. War veterans have led major food riots in Bulawayo and Harare this month. In rural areas, there have been earlier cases of settlers claiming that they had been displaced from farms by senior figures in the military and the Mugabe regime. The splits between Mr Mugabe and some of his most militant supporters mirror the crisis engulfing the country. "It's like thieves falling out," said a displaced white farmer. The Zhuwau brothers did not respond to calls.
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From The Sunday Tribune, 19 January
Mugabe goes on a Singapore shopping blitz
By Douglas Carew
When it comes to lavish Christmas spending, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe is king. Mugabe has outdone his big-spending spin doctor Jonathan Moyo by flying to Singapore to indulge in a huge shopping spree of his own, while back home millions of his countrymen face starvation, partly because of Mugabe's failed policies. Information Minister Moyo's two week spending spree in Johannesburg received extensive news coverage this week, but Mugabe went to even greater lengths to stock up on expensive goods for himself and beat the shortages caused by the Zimbabwean economy's state of near paralysis. Singapore is south-east Asia's premier shopping destination, with thousands of shops selling the best the world's manufacturers have to offer, and Mugabe stocked up with 15 trolley loads, including high-tech electronic goods. Mugabe and his political cronies are banned from entering the European Union and the US in terms of sanctions imposed against his human rights violations. But he was spotted last week in business class on a flight from Singapore to Johannesburg by Greg Mills, national director of the South African Institute of International Affairs.
Mills, who had been on a working visit to the East, was checking in at Changi Airport in Singapore when he was amazed to see the 15 trolley-loads of goods addressed to Mugabe's official residence in Harare. The boxes were sealed so Mills could not see what they contained. However some had labels of high-tech electronic products. "Just before take-off, Mugabe, his wife and eight other members of their entourage stepped on board and he sat directly behind me," Mills said. "With what is going on in his country, the rest of the business class passengers were stunned at his presence." Mills said aside from the shopping spree, the 10 business-class seats would have cost at least $30 000 (about R270 000). "One is scandalised by his taking a holiday in the East and indulging in a shopping spree with so many people starving at home because of his policies," Mills said. Moyo was unrepentant when details of his spending spree in Johannesburg were reported. A newspaper reported that Moyo had filled his luxury Pajero, a Mercedes Benz, a bakkie and a trailer with goods ranging from a big-screen television and home theatre system to rolls of polony, canned food and mealie meal.
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From SABC News, 20 January
Moyo blames Mugabe retirement rumours on staff
Jonathan Moyo, Zimbabwe's Information Minister, is now blaming disgruntled civil servants for spreading reports about an alleged plan for the retirement of President Robert Mugabe. Moyo says the debate on Mugabe's future is "tantamount to plotting a coup in the glare of the media". He has blamed the economic crisis gripping the country on government bureaucrats and suggested members of the civil service may be serving what he termed hostile political interests. Moyo was the cause of a diplomatic row between Zimbabwe and South Africa last week. Moyo made derogatory comments about South Africans, and South Africa requested an explanation. The Mugabe government then distanced itself from Moyo's statements.
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From News24 (SA), 19 January
Tuks student in 'Zim plot'
Sonja Carstens
Pretoria - A student from the University of Pretoria's centre for human rights has been arrested in Zimbabwe for allegedly being involved in a plot to overthrow the government. Gabriel Shumba, who received his master's degree from the university in December last year, was released on bail over the weekend. He was apparently severely tortured and given electric shocks to his genitals while in prison. He is facing a charge of high treason. Shumba was arrested after acting as a legal representative for Job Sikhala, a parliamentarian for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Professor Christof Heyns, the centre's director, said Shumba was apparently forced to sign a statement. His passport was confiscated. Shumba would have returned to the centre on Monday to work on reports dealing with the monitoring of elections in Lesotho and Madagascar. "This action is against the Constitution and international treaties. There can never be any justification for torture," Heyns said.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 19 January
Despair hits Zanu PF stronghold
By Itai Dzamara
Mutoko As one drives eastwards from All Souls Mission, along the dusty road that leads to Makaha growth point, a small, haphazard pole and dagga settlement comes into view. This is Nyamakosi, a typical rural village which is just like any other rural hamlet in Zimbabwe. This is the impression any passerby can get but for those familiar with local politics, Nyamakosi is no ordinary village. Since independence, it has been the well-known bastion of Zanu PF politics within the Mutoko South constituency, and in the disputed March 2002 presidential election, it did not disappoint. The constituency which shares its borders with Mutoko North and Mount Darwin in Mashonaland East, registered a massive victory for President Robert Mugabe, giving the beleaguered leader an edge over his rival, the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai. During the run up to the election, Nyamakosi village was an impenetrable Zanu PF fortress, with hordes of militia and war veterans shutting out the whole constituency from the MDC campaign teams. But, as a Standard news crew visiting the village over the weekend discovered, the hype and anxiety that gripped the village in the run up to last year's election has all but died and despair and disillusionment has set in among the villagers who are feeling the effects of Zanu PF's destructive policies. For most of the villagers, basic commodities such as sugar, flour and cooking oil are now a luxury. Most families are battling to get a single meal a day, something which used to be unheard of in the highly productive village, where families were always assured of good harvests. The situation has become so desperate that villagers are beginning to question the capabilities of their good old benevolent president who in the past, would send them drought relief when they experienced hardships arising from poor harvests. Even the name Mugabe which used to have some sort of supernatural power attached to it, is now ridiculed openly.
Ambuya Teria Gurupira, who is unsure of her exact age, told The Standard that hardships had taken their toll on the village and forced villagers to doubt whether Mugabe is still on top of the situation. Said Ambuya Gu-rupira: "Ko Mugabe aripiko zvinhu zvichinyangara kudai. Shuka, mafuta, munyu, chingwa, furawu paribe. Iyi ndiyo inonzi nhamo chaiyo. Zvakatooma kupinda hondo yatakahwisana naSmith. Izvi azvitadza Mugabe, dai achisiira vamwe (Where is Mugabe as things continue to deteriorate like this? All the basic commodities are not available. Life has become tougher than it was during the war of liberation. Mugabe has failed and should pass the baton on to others)." Chenzira Sasa, a middle aged woman who was busy planting maize seed said: "Everything is uncertain. We had gone for several weeks without rain until the heavy downpour we had the day before yesterday. We are headed for real disaster, especially after the drought we experienced last season. We hoped Mugabe would come and save us, but he is nowhere to be seen. Tavakutongo raramiswa nemagonyeti mazuvaano." Popularly referred to as magonyeti, the heavy trucks that have brought in food aid from World Vision, are a symbol of hope to the villagers who now believe the donor has replaced Mugabe as their saviour. World Vision has also been giving the villagers maize and beans seeds, most of which have been washed and turned into food. Gift Rukweza, 23, an MDC activist who has occasionally been persecuted by Zanu PF youths, told The Standard that the villagers had come to the painful realisation that they had been used by Zanu PF. "Villagers here have now realised, albeit too late, that they were foolishly dragged into bed with the Zanu PF people, only to be left alone when the house caught fire. It is now clear and indisputable that Mugabe doesn't have the capacity to bring salvation to the suffering people," he said.
Olivia Muchena, the MP for Mutoko South, has also ceased to exist in the hopes of the Nyamakosi villagers. She was last heard of during the bloody campaigns for the presidential elections last year. Hunger is not the only problem that the Nyamakosi villagers are having to contend with. Their cattle have been dying due to lack of grazing pasture and water and some diseases. Only two boreholes have water and the rest are dry, forcing villagers to spend hours in queues for the vital liquid. More children are likely to either drop out of school, as parents fail to raise fees, or opt for menial jobs such as herding cattle or working in other people's fields in order to raise the money to buy food for their starving families. Worse still, more youths have resorted to loitering and indulging in crime in an attempt to eke out a living. Farming inputs are either unavailable, inaccessible or unaffordable for the majority of the villagers. A bag of fertiliser, for example, is costing up to $20 000 on the black market where it is readily available. By last week, some villagers had not yet planted their seeds whilst others were still hoping to obtain seeds from donors. But it seems not everyone in the village is fed up with Mugabe. Tendai Makoto, a Zanu PF militia known for his brutal exploits during the campaign period says Mugabe remains the saviour of Nyamakosi and the rest of the country. Said Makoto: "We will not let the country go back to the British through the MDC. It is true that hunger has taken its toll and people are suffering. Something needs to be done. The leaders (Mugabe and his party) should quickly save the people. However, we still have faith in them. For now, we hope the gonyeti will come again."
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From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (US), 20 January
Mugabe's land reform sends Zimbabwe into further peril
Wallace Chuma, a Zimbabwean journalist, worked at the Post-Gazette from July through November of last year as an Alfred Friendly Press Fellow. This is his account of his recent return home.
By Wallace Chuma
Harare - Early last year, as I prepared to leave Zimbabwe for a six-month journalism fellowship in the United States, my country was spiraling downward. To maintain power, President Robert Mugabe had rigged his re-election and had declared war on whites, sending thugs to steal their farms. People of all colors who objected to his increasingly repressive rule were subject to violence or arrest. Prices were beginning to rise and goods were getting scarce. AIDS was rampant. International institutions were pulling out of Zimbabwe and levying sanctions on the Mugabe regime. I returned to Zimbabwe last month, apprehensive and anxious, having kept up with my homeland's decline into near famine via news reports and e-mails from friends, who suggested I extend my stay in the U.S. "by all means necessary." It didn't take long to see how badly things had deteriorated in a mere half-year. I touched down at Harare International Airport to find it sickly and desolate. My airplane was one of a handful at what was once a bustling terminal. Most airlines, taking their cue from international investors, had left. Almost all the passengers were Zimbabweans, so they filed behind the "Residents only" line at Customs. The "Visitors" section was deserted. Zimbabwe today is a country without visitors. As we drove home, the friend who picked me up from the airport could not hide his disappointment. "So, you've decided to come back?" he said. I told him I had to under U.S. law, after the completion of my fellowship.
"If whoever sponsored you for that program could not extend your stay, then you should have considered applying for asylum," he said. He told me most of my friends, educated professionals, had left the country during my brief absence. As we drove on, I wanted to ask why the highway was deserted. But I figured it was because most people preferred to spend Saturday afternoon indoors. My friend read my mind. "Look, there're no cars on the roads. Motorists are either in petrol queues or they have parked their empty cars. We've been without enough fuel for God knows how long." He himself was still driving courtesy of the thriving black market, where a liter of gasoline costs 15 times the government's posted price. I soon discovered that Harare, the capital, had turned into two cities. In one, thousands work around the clock to scrape by, and thousands more spend the better part of their days queuing for gasoline, bread, cooking oil, corn meal -- virtually everything. This is a city of broken people, loafers and frustrated professionals whose monthly salaries can carry them only a few days past payday. The other Harare, the seat of government, is a paradise for the properly connected. Affluent young men with tony briefcases drive the latest Mercedes or BMW sedans, armed with tiny cell phones and pistols (despite stringent government regulations on the possession of firearms). These members of the privileged class make their fortunes through illegal dealing in foreign currency (which is in critical short supply) and other scarce commodities. They also bank on backdoor contracts from government departments. Everybody envies them.
Having overcome jet lag, I boarded a crowded commuter bus into the city center two days after arriving home. The number of people seemed to have doubled since I had left in June. Shortly after I got off the bus, a frail young woman walking just in front of me tripped and fell hard on the pavement. I knelt and helped her get back on her feet. She managed to whisper "thank you" before moving on, barely. "She must be very hungry," said a young man who had witnessed the brief scene. An elderly woman chipped in, "Who's not hungry these days, if you're not a thief." I walked to the end of the street, looking for newspapers. I grabbed two and handed a Z$100 bill ($2 U.S.) to the vendor. I noticed his frozen stare. He asked if I was a visitor to the country. I had to pay another Z$100; the cover prices had doubled. Prices for household commodities had gone up an average 500 percent while I was away - for those things that are available at all. Scarce goods cannot be found at conventional shops, though, where prices are controlled by the government, but only at grotesque places called "gum trees," or "sanitary lanes" or just "there." These are backyard markets where prices can range up to 10 times the official rate and can change several times a day. There is a price for the morning, for midday, for afternoon and for evening. There is usually little room for negotiation. Toward midday I visited my barber for an overdue haircut. He was glad to see me, but, like my friends, thought I was foolish to come back to Zimbabwe. The price for a standard haircut had gone up 400 percent. I asked him how he was doing. "We've come to a stage where you have to think as an individual and respond to things as an individual," he said. For a Zimbabwean, or any African socialized in the communal ethos which underpins our history and values, this was shocking. My barber didn't see things changing for the better anytime soon. "If you allow yourself to break down, then fine," he said. "If you find other ways to survive, again fine. Who cares?"
On my second day in downtown Harare, I listened to a small group of workers argue about the merits of a "stayaway," a general strike, to protest the government's economic mismanagement and disdain for the law. In the past, such actions have been effective, often reversing government policies. On this day, most workers ignored the call to action, hastily made by the National Constitutional Assembly, a coalition of civic groups. "Stayaway or no stayaway, things won't change," one of the workers said. "In fact, we could end up being beaten up or killed by the green bombers and the army." "Green bombers" is the derogatory term for hordes of young militiamen trained by the government to crush dissent and instill "patriotism" in the country. One fellow said it was better to be killed in protest than die of hunger, but he soon gave up on the stayaway, too, for lack of followers. Mugabe's dictatorial regime has made one thing clear: If y |
