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Archived News
22nd April 2003
Mugabe's Fuel Hike Piles on the Misery for Ordinary Zimbabweans
Zimbabwe hikes fuel prices amid shortages, crisis
Police assault MDC activists
Zimbabwe's torture adverts hit a nerve
Judgment reserved in Tsvangirai poll petition
Zimbabwe may become newest 'collapsed state'
When will Bush save us, Zimbabweans wonder
Hollow words for Zimbabwean
Sudan, Zimbabwe escape censure at UN rights meeting
Whose soldiers?
'Dlamini-Zuma is Mugabe's chief apologist'
Govt hampers food aid plans
Chigovera forced to retire
Landmark victory for Tsvangirai
Tsvangirai poll petition stalled
Zimbabwe: 'Never has the country been so isolated'
Zim torture report released
UN agency to halve Zimbabwe food aid
Despite government predictions, famine persists in Zimbabwe's remotest villages
Zimbabwe judge secretly grabs white-owned farm
Bishops block Zanu PF's bid to declare Chakaipa a hero
Zimbabwe's torturers on the run
Mugabe trys to stir fears of British recolonisation
Zimbabwean activist 'dies after torture'
Zimbabwe's union plans another anti-govt strike
Fury at Zuma's dismissal of Zimbabwe terror
Double blow for Bob
Soldier's family fear for safety
Zim unions call for fuel price protest strike
Mugabe hinting at retirement?
Cash-strapped Zesa warns of power cuts
Blackout looms
Uncertainty of Zimbabwe's food situation causes planning problems for aid agencies
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From Reuters, 15 April
Zimbabwe hikes fuel prices amid shortages, crisis
Harare - Zimbabwe is raising fuel prices for the second time in as many months, more than trebling the price of some fuel as the country grapples with chronic shortages, a government minister said on Tuesday. In remarks broadcast on state television, Energy and Power Development Minister Amos Midzi said the retail price of leaded petrol would go up 209.9 percent to Z$450 ($0.55) a litre, while diesel would rise to Z$200 from Z$119.43 per litre. The increases would be effective from Tuesday midnight, he said just hours after Zimbabwe's Central Statistics Office announced inflation raced to another record high in March. Consumer prices jumped by an annual 228 percent, up from 220.9 percent in February, sparking speculation among analysts that inflation could hit 350 percent before the end of the year thanks to a thriving black market for basic foodstuffs. Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis in more than 20 years, with record high inflation and unemployment coupled with acute shortages of foreign currency and fuel. In late February, President Robert Mugabe's government raised fuel prices by almost 100 percent in a bid to lure private companies into importing badly needed supplies, as the foreign currency squeeze hampered government imports. Long queues have become commonplace outside services stations, and even after the latest increases, official fuel prices are still well below prices on the black market. Fuel supplies have been erratic since 1999, but the crisis intensified late last year when Libya halted shipments because of a failed barter arrangement. Last year the government ordered foreign oil companies with retail outlets in Zimbabwe to import their own products for resale, effectively ending a monopoly held by the state National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM). The fuel crisis has led to daily fuel queues for beleaguered Zimbabweans already grappling with shortages of many basic consumer goods, including staples such as maize meal, bread, milk and sugar. Nearly half of the country's 14 million people are threatened by severe food shortages, which aid agencies blame partly on disruptions to agriculture linked to the government's seizure of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to landless blacks. Mugabe, 79, accuses Western powers opposed to his land distribution of sabotaging Zimbabwe's economy. ($1 = 824 Zimbabwe dollars at official rate, or 1,400 on the black market).
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From The Daily News, 16 April
Police assault MDC activists
By Precious Shumba
Officers from St Mary's Police Station on Sunday arrested four MDC activists and severely tortured them for allegedly assaulting a policeman in Chitungwiza and resisting lawful arrest last month. Immediately after their arrest, the four opposition members were taken to Chitungwiza General Hospital for treatment under tight police guard. The activists' lawyer, Alec Muchadehama, yesterday confirmed the torture of Tonderai Richard Machiridza, David Chipunza, John Mazhambe and Lisbon Mutandwa. Muchadehama said the police denied him and fellow lawyer, Godfrey Sibanda, permission to interview their clients who were bandaged all over their bodies and visibly in pain. "The police arrested and tortured these men before chaining them to their hospital beds," he said. "On Monday, there was a policeman guarding each of the four men. At the time of our visit to hospital, Machiridza's head was covered in bandages. Muchadehama said an Inspector Mbedzi, the officer-in-charge at St Mary's Police Station, told him yesterday that Chipunza and Mutandwa would be transferred to Harare Central Police Station' s CID law and order section. Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena, the police spokesman, refused to comment on the arrest of the MDC activists and allegations being levelled against the police. Muchadehama said when he was eventually allowed to see the two, who were being held at St Mary's Police Station yesterday, they had difficulty in speaking and walking. The reasons for the arrest of the four activists remained unclear because they had not been charged by yesterday. But Muchadehama had gathered that the police wanted them in connection with the alleged assault of a policeman and resisting arrest. He said Machiridza and Mazhambe were still being held at the hospital where they remain chained to their beds. Tariro Shumba, the MDC spokesman in Chitungwiza, said the two were severely tortured immediately after their arrest before they were taken to Chitungwiza General Hospital for treatment. Yesterday, the police guarding the two hospitalised activists denied The Daily News crew access to them.
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From The Star (SA), 16 April
Zimbabwe's torture adverts hit a nerve
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change has found a new way of embarrassing the Zanu PF government - it is publishing full-page pictures of wounded and beaten torture victims. And underneath the pictures there's a stark message in its "Action for National Survival" campaign: Change demands action. The MDC hasn't said what form that action will take, or when it will happen, but insiders have hinted it will resemble the ANC-United Democratic Front struggle against apartheid in the 1980s. They say the problems they face are almost identical, save for the colour of their oppressor. The tightly government-controlled press responded to the advertising campaign by claiming the MDC had recruited army deserters to beat township residents. The MDC hit back with scathing attacks in its adverts. "Are we expected to believe that the MDC sponsors army deserters, hires trucks ... all to attack its own members?" it shouted in a full-page advert yesterday. The adverts featured two photos of the MDC's Chitungwiza secretary for information, Paul Shambira, his torso showing the lacerations caused by whips. "Mr Shambira was brutally attacked by armed men in uniform in Chitungwiza last week. The men were moving around the area in army trucks," said the MDC.
The opposition stops short of accusing the Zimbabwe National Army of carrying out the reign of terror that has engulfed Harare's townships. Instead it refers to "men in military uniform", because the MDC believes the attackers and torturers who conduct the raids are actually members of Zimbabwe's notorious Border Gezi Youth Brigades, the so-called Green Bombers, who owe their allegiance and continued survival to Zanu PF. The campaign comes amid growing international pressure - especially from the United States, which on Monday called on Zimbabwe's neighbours to step up pressure on President Robert Mugabe to hand over power to a transitional government in order to pave the way for new elections. Zanu PF yesterday told the US to "go to hell", saying it was the US itself which had hold new elections because George W Bush "was not elected". He was referring to Bush's 2001 appointment as president after the outcome of the decisive Florida campaign had to be decided by a court, instead of by the votes counted. "Instead of shouting instructions for Mugabe to step down, it's the Americans themselves who need a transitional government to hold fresh elections and replace the unelected Bush," said Zanu PF secretary for information Nathan Shamuyarira. He said anyone who wanted a new election in Zimbabwe was daydreaming.
A senior unnamed US State Department official said: "What we're telling them is there has to be a transitional government in Zimbabwe that leads to a free and fair, internationally supervised election. That is the goal. Mugabe stole the last one; we can't let that happen again," the official said, referring to the widely condemned election in March last year that Mugabe won. The situation in Zimbabwe was hurting the economies of other countries in the region as potential investors steered clear because of fears about the spread of the crisis, the official added. "The neighbourhood is starting to realise that there is a downside to giving aid and protection to Comrade Bob," the official said, using a derogatory nickname for Mugabe. Shamuyarira said the only way to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis was for the US and Europe to accept the results of last year's presidential election and "work with President Mugabe's elected government". The MDC's national survival campaign started last month with a full-page advert detailing the names of policemen and state agents the MDC said were known torturers. The opposition appealed to the families of the torturers to "pressure" them into changing their ways and to think about a future, democratic Zimbabwe. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo responded with a scathing attack on newspapers "that should know better", saying the adverts were illegal. But, buoyed by the fall of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, the MDC published another advert, listing the demise of dictators around the world. "If you are supporting the dictatorship in Zimbabwe today," it said, "remember that you will be alone, facing millions of angry people. The dictator is certainly on his way out. Look at yourself." The campaign, which is clearly upsetting Zanu PF leaders, is the first open defiance the MDC has shown since its stayaway action last month. But the campaign of defiance has not come without a cost. Police have arrested at least 500 township residents since the stayaway, while more than 250 suspected MDC supporters were treated in hospital after being beaten, raped or tortured.
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From The Daily News, 15 April
Judgment reserved in Tsvangirai poll petition
Court Reporter
Judgment was reserved yesterday in MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's High Court application to have Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede and Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa's opposition to the MDC presidential election petition thrown out. Justice Susan Mavangira said she needed time to consider the submissions made by Tsvangirai's lawyers, Advocate Adrian de Bourbon and Bryant Elliot and the opposing submissions by Yvonne Dondo, of the Attorney General's Office, representing Mudede and Chinamasa, and President Mugabe's lawyer, Terence Hussein. Tsvangirai wants the High Court to nullify the results of the March 2002 presidential election which he said was fraught with violence and electoral irregularities. Mugabe is the first respondent while Mudede and Chinamasa are second and third respondents, respectively.
Tsvangirai last year made several requests through the High Court for the production of various material and information relating to the election but Mudede and Chinamasa failed to comply with court orders to provide the material. On 12 October, Justice Lavender Makoni ordered Mudede to direct constituency registrars countrywide to secure all ballot papers and counterfoils used in the election in separate sealed packets and surrender the material together with all voters' rolls to him for safe custody. Mudede did not comply, Tsvangirai's lawyers said. In a separate case, Justice Antonia Guvava granted an order sought by the MDC leader to compel Mudede to make available documents and information such as correspondence to the police and other "stakeholders" on the administration of polling stations.
In responding to the order, Mudede said notices on polling stations, voting hours and dates were published in newspapers and did not submit the requested correspondence. "It was the newspapers that dictated the hours," de Bourbon said. "That's what Mr Mudede is telling the court. He has abrogated the responsibilities given to him in terms of the Electoral Act. He is in continuous default. The question is what can be done about the default. If the person who breaches court orders is a government official and if Mr Mugabe wants a situation where this court imposes no form of sanction for breaches of its rules, the court is undermined." Dondo said the ballot papers and other election material were bulky and Mudede did not have transport to ferry them and space in Harare to keep the requested election material. Mudede could not be held to be in wilful default, she said. She said the information requested from Chinamasa was privileged and that David Mangota, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, had explained the position. Hussein said the court could not issue the default judgment sought by Tsvangirai.
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From Business Day (SA), 16 April
Zimbabwe may become newest 'collapsed state'
International Affairs Editor
A report from a Washington-based think tank, the Centre for Security and International Studies (CSIS), released earlier this week says Zimbabwe may become the world's newest collapsed state. The report says that in a worst-case scenario SA may have to intervene militarily to restore order. It says the worsening situation presents an opportunity for SA and other key African governments, the western powers, as well as the United Nations, to put aside past differences and put new energy into the search for a settlement. "The African Union (AU) is best positioned to spearhead a negotiating effort, if the SA government is prepared to provide strong and impartial leadership, and if the AU effort is backed by substantial international diplomatic and financial resources targeted to push the policies towards political compromise."
However, it is the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that is engaging Zimbabwe through a task force, rather than the AU. At the weekend President Thabo Mbeki told African newspaper editors that the AU had not come up with a position on Zimbabwe. The visit of the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Walter Kansteiner, to Botswana and SA could be an attempt to lobby for Zimbabwe to receive attention at the AU meeting in Maputo in early July. Among the reports' authors are two senior Africa policy figures in the administration of President Bill Clinton, Stephen Morrison, who heads the CSIS Africa programme, and John Pendergast, a co-director of the Africa programme of the International Crisis Group, which monitors world trouble spots. The other authors are Jennifer Cooke of the CSIS and Jessica Bowers of the International Crisis Group. With major military operations completed in Iraq, the US is under pressure to show that other trouble spots also have its attention. The Palestinians and the Israelis could soon come under pressure to start talks and as part of this wider global push, Zimbabwe is likely to receive more intense attention from Washington.
The European Union has also shown interest in playing a mediating role in Zimbabwe, so it is unlikely that the US would play this role alone. In addition the Commonwealth could still play a potential role, particularly in view of the report of its secretary general, Donald McKinnon, on the lack of progress Harare has made on the grounds on which it was suspended from the body. But the report says the US could still be distracted by reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan and be unwilling to devote sustained attention to Zimbabwe. It also says the US will need to overcome its own doubts that SADC member countries are willing to look at a post-Mugabe future. The report says the window for concerted action is increased by growing global agreement on the nature of the crisis and its implications. "African leaders, who in the past may have been loath to condemn President Robert Mugabe's motives, can no longer fail to acknowledge his policies' disastrous
effects," it says. Adding to the space for a new diplomatic initiative, says the report, is that SA's policy "appears to be quietly shifting". The authors note President Thabo Mbeki's statement earlier this month in Parliament that SA, "would not agree with actions that deny the rights of Zimbabweans the opportunity to protest peacefully". Space for a settlement is also being created by a shift in opinion by some in the ruling Zanu (PF) party. Economic disintegration, diminishing opportunities for enrichment, and ever more objectionable forms of violence are increasing scepticism about policies, it says.
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From The Star (SA), 16 April
When will Bush save us, Zimbabweans wonder
Harare - Kenny Kwaramba sells cellphone accessories at a fleamarket in Zimbabwe - but Iraq, and the ousting of its dictator Saddam Hussein - has been on his mind lately. "When is Bush coming to save us?" he asks, echoing the sentiment of many others during a brutal crackdown by President Robert Mugabe's government on the opposition. War coverage in the state media mainly vilifies the coalition, speaking of invaders with imperialist designs. State media have also called for the body of a black Zimbabwean serving in the British army who was killed in Basra, not to be allowed home for burial. He has been called a traitor working for the former colonial power. But Kwaramba says the images of jubilation among Iraqis at the fall of Saddam's regime have not been lost on his hungry and demoralised friends in his troubled country. "Ordinary people are poor. People are impatient. It is coming," he said. Analysts say most Zimbabweans don't think United States military intervention would ever happen in Zimbabwe, but see the coalition action as a symbol of distaste for dictatorships. "Dictators can no longer hide behind the smokescreen of sovereignty to commit atrocities," said Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, a political scientist at Zimbabwe University.
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From BBC News, 15 April
Hollow words for Zimbabwean
A man in Zimbabwe has completed his attempt to enter the record books by talking in public non-stop for 36 hours. But Jonah Mungoshi's hopes of making it into the Guinness Book of Records have been dashed. Jonah began speaking at 0900 GMT in the capital, Harare, on Friday and finished on Saturday evening. But when Jonah contacted Guinness to have his record attempt ratified he received some bad news. Guinness told him that since their last contact last year, when the record stood at 26 hours, things had changed. They told Jonah that an Indian man, Masanam Venu, spoke for 51 and a half hours in January on "The fundamentals of chemistry". Jonah admitted he was downcast at the news, but said he was not going to give up now. "Obviously I'm disappointed, but I'm proud of what I've managed to achieve. I'm seriously considering another attempt." Jonah, a 36-year-old, who works as a marketing manager for a bank, is no stranger to competitive chat. He finished third at a World Public Speaking Championship in Texas, USA. Straight after completing his long-winded feat at the weekend, Jonah told the BBC that, although tired, he felt he could have carried on for several more hours. "There were moments when I spoke when I think I was actually asleep," he admitted. "I was having lapses of concentration, but people would shout," he said.He attempted to keep his audience awake as he talked his way through 18 academic topics. Among the subjects he covered: Finances and the young; Achieving extraordinary success; Speed marketing; Thought management; Leadership. Spectators seemed impressed at his stamina and the content - although by the early hours of Saturday morning much of the audience was dozing according to the BBC's Steve Vickers on the Network Africa programme. Jonah closed his speech to loud applause, with the words: "Ladies and Gentleman, the moment you have all been waiting for, I will now stop speaking."
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From SABC News, 16 April
Sudan, Zimbabwe escape censure at UN rights meeting
The United Nations top human rights body rejected an European Union motion condemning abuses in Sudan today and blocked a bid to put Zimbabwe in the dock. The Commission on Human Rights narrowly rejected a motion by the European Union on the "continuing violations of human rights and international humanitarian law" in Sudan. The action automatically ended the mandate of the special United Nations investigator on Africa's biggest country. On Zimbabwe, the European Union, with the backing of the United States, had sought for the second year running to condemn rights "violations" by President Robert Mugabe's government. However, African countries led by South Africa voted to prevent any further action being taken on the EU call, a similar outcome to last year. In its motion, the EU had accused the Mugabe government of "numerous cases of assault and torture in a climate of impunity" as well as "occurrences of violations of the freedoms of expression, opinion, association and assembly".
However, human rights activists and some Western diplomats say the commission, which traditionally offers the chance to "name and shame" countries that abuse rights, is growing increasingly reluctant to point the finger at any state. In part this is because many member states have questionable rights records of their own, but it also reflects irritation by many developing countries at what they see as "double standards" on the part of the richer nations. In rejecting the EU resolution on Sudan, the commission went against the recommendation of its own special investigator who had reported that human rights abuses continued in the country. "While civil society has become more pro-active and better organised, the security apparatus continues to operate in impunity," Gerhart Baum reported to this year's commission. Defeat for the EU motion, which also spoke of the "violations of the rights of women and girls, including female genital mutilation" and the use of "arbitrary arrest and detention", meant that Baum's mandate was not renewed.
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From ZWNEWS, 17 April
Whose soldiers?
Zimbabwe's escape from censure in yesterday's vote at the UN Human Rights Commission was a narrow one. The 'no action' motion, led by South Africa, was approved by 28 votes to 24, with one abstention. Sources at the meeting said that South Africa had used its influence to persuade the African nations present to vote as a bloc in favour of the motion, which effectively ended all discussion on Zimbabwe. Prior to the vote, the Zimbabwe delegation had circulated a lobbying paper to other delegations at the Geneva meeting. Using florid language, the Zimbabwean delegation accuses Britain, and its "principal ally" the United States, of direct and active responsibility for the ongoing human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. The recent widely-observed national stayaway, the document claims, had been organised and timed "by design" to coincide with the UN meeting. Britain and the US want to create a human rights catastrophe, so that Zimbabwe will "explode", the delegation claims.
The delegation admits in the paper that Zimbabweans have been beaten up by soldiers in recent times, but then went on to ask, bizarrely: "Whose soldiers?" These soldiers, the delegation explains, are Zimbabweans who had been "enticed to commit atrocious human rights violations" and were "in the pay of foreign governments". Evidence of these human rights abuses presented at the UN meeting, including the "notoriuos" video In a Dark Time which detailed the use of rape as a political tool in Zimbabwe, is dismissed as "fiction, which is sometimes more convincing than reality". Those appearing in the video, the delegations claims, "performed for a fee". Information was at hand, the document claims, which showed that these foreign governments intended to "intervene" in Zimbabwe to remove President Mugabe from power. The document strongly implies that this intervention is to be military. "Let us deny these forces the pretext they seek to 'liberate' yet another developing country", the paper ends. In return for the diplomatic help from the South Africans at the UN meeting, however, the state-owned Bulawayo Chronicle on Tuesday carried an article accusing President Mbeki of "fast becoming the George Bush of Africa", and of selling out to Britain and the United States over the Zimbabwe issue in the hope of reviving prospects for NEPAD.
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From The Cape Times (SA), 17 April
'Dlamini-Zuma is Mugabe's chief apologist'
Johannesburg - "Mugabe's chief apologist" is how Zimbabwe's main opposition party brands South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it was sick and tired of Dlamini-Zuma's "never-ending" habit of "manufacturing" excuses for President Robert Mugabe. This follows Dlamini-Zuma's claim at the weekend that his government was "moving" to restore some confiscated farms to white farmers and was amending repressive legislation. Dlamini-Zuma told reporters in Pretoria last Friday that there had been "movement" by the Zimbabwe government on fulfilling two other undertakings it had given to the South African government. She said it had set aside R450-million to compensate evicted farmers for improvements to their farms. It had also submitted legislation to parliament to amend the draconian Public Order and Security Act (Posa) and a harsh media law under which 13 journalists have been arrested and charged. But a top MDC official said in Johannesburg on Wednesday that Dlamini-Zuma was either "living on another planet" or had chosen to effectively become Mugabe's "chief apologist". "Instead of barking about non-existent progress in Zimbabwe, Dlamini-Zuma should at least have a mechanism for ensuring that these so-called undertakings made to her have been delivered by Mugabe before she misleads the world," said the MDC's secretary for economic affairs, Tendai Biti. Biti said the MDC had "stopped feeling let down" by Dlamini-Zuma's patronising statements on Mugabe. "We have told ourselves that South Africa is not the universe. Only decisive action from the people of Zimbabwe themselves will free them from his regime. But when that happens, we will find it hard to relate to Dlamini-Zuma and Mbeki," he said.
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From The Financial Gazette, 17 April
Govt hampers food aid plans
Staff Reporter
Delays by the government in announcing how much food Zimbabwe will harvest this year could hamper efforts to mobilise humanitarian aid for the country, international donor groups and foreign diplomats in Harare said this week. Relief agencies said while ongoing food programmes for Zimbabwe were ending at the end of this month as planned, they could not plan for the next relief effort until the government provided information on what it required. "Everybody is waiting for information," a United States Agency for International Development official told the Financial Gazette yesterday. "It 's getting late and we need to plan now, but it's difficult to do so if there are various figures flying all over as is happening now," the official added. Agriculture Minister Joseph Made could not be reached for comment on the matter. Made has in the past indicated that his ministry was still studying this year's crop to determine potential output. But sources at the Agriculture Ministry's crop forecasting department said delays in announcing expected production output were because of disagreement between their department and some senior government politicians who wanted the department to put maize production this year at more than 1.2 million tonnes. They said this was because the government wanted to justify its controversial land reforms by showing that production had not fallen since the farm seizures that began in 2000, but that it had in fact picked up from the about 500 000 of maize produced last year. "They want us to tell the world that maize production this year will be between 1.2 million to 1.5 million tonnes," said an official, who spoke on condition he was not named.
A harvest in the region of 1.2 million or more would leave Zimbabwe with a maize deficit of around 500 000 tonnes, much lower than the 1.4 million tonne deficit last season. The country consumes between 1.5 million to 1.8 milion tonnes of maize annually. In its latest crop forecast, the United States-based Famine Early Warning System Network (FEWSNET) has projected that Zimbabwe's maize output could be around 1 289 000 tonnes. But aid agencies told the Financial Gazette that field officers on the ground were reporting that some families would produce enough for consumption but that the majority would harvest enough to last one month to three months at the most. A senior official with a United Nations (UN) food agency said: "Production this year is no doubt better than last year, but still there will be a lot of people requiring aid. In fact, the FEWSNET figure of 1.2 million tonnes of maize is viewed by many as much higher than what will actually be harvested." A Commercial Farmers' Union official, who declined to be named, said according to the organisation's surveys, maize output this year would be around 800 000 tonnes. Aid agency officials warned that continued delays in announcing Zimbabwe's food relief requirements or underplaying the food deficit would only hinder the international community' s capacity to help Zimbabwe. The government last year refused until the last minute that the country faced a serious food shortage, even after a survey by the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) showed Zimbabwe faced starvation. The WFP this week said it would next week begin surveying Zimbabwe's food aid requirements and that the study would be complete at the end of the month.
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From The Daily News, 17 April
Chigovera forced to retire
By Brian Mangwende, Chief Reporter
Andrew Chigovera, the Attorney-General (AG), could have been forced to retire, contrary to reports by the State media that he had done so voluntarily. Chigovera was appointed to the post in August 2000 when President Mugabe reshuffled the Cabinet following Zanu PF's narrow victory over the MDC in the parliamentary election. Last Wednesday, when The Daily News contacted Chigovera, 50, well in advance of the official announcement of his retirement, he categorically dismissed the reports of his impending retirement as false. He said: "That's not true. There is nothing of that sort which has happened." His deputy, Bharat Patel, professed ignorance on the matter, saying: "I know nothing about that. I have no comment." But that Wednesday, Chigovera and Patel were reportedly in marathon meetings with the latter trying to convince his boss not to leave. Despite vehemently denying that he had tendered his resignation, Chigovera later appeared on ZBC/TV in a telephone interview over the weekend, confirming "his retirement". Contacted for comment on the same issue, Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Chigovera's predecessor, also expressed ignorance over the issue. He said: "That is incorrect. He has not left his office and neither am I aware that he wants to leave. That is untrue." But a source in the legal fraternity said Chigovera had become a "risk" and had lost the confidence of Zanu PF officials. The government has in the past shown that it had no faith in Chigovera. Although his office is supposed to handle all cases involving government institutions, private lawyers were being engaged. The AG's Office has in the past been heavily criticised for failing to secure convictions following the arrest of several MDC activists, a number of whom have been cleared without being charged on appearing before the courts. The source said Zanu PF felt betrayed by Chigovera because he had allegedly failed to successfully prosecute members of the opposition by "letting them off the hook".
In April 2002, Professor Jonathan Moyo, the Minister of State for Information and Publicity in the President's Office, launched a scathing attack on the AG's Office, saying there were increasing reports of some well-known MDC members bragging that they would not be prosecuted because some of the prosecutors were their former students. Moyo said at the time: "The laws are very clear. No one is above the law. If anyone has committed a crime he should appear before a court of law." He accused prosecutors and the judiciary of being biased against Zanu PF in favour of the MDC. Said the source: "Chigovera had become unpopular with the Zanu PF leadership. He was summoned to State House where he was grilled over his failure to successfully prosecute people perceived to be 'enemies of the State'. "He should have seen it coming. He is a professional who was doing his job, but Zanu PF literally hates professionals. The security guards at his house have since been removed." Efforts to get comments from Chigovera proved fruitless as he was said to be attending a funeral, while Chinamasa could not be reached. But some Harare lawyers, who refused to be named, said Chigovera did not retire voluntarily. One lawyer said: "We are aware that Chigovera was forced to leave office. He was seen as a person sympathetic to the MDC as most of the State cases flopped in the courts. "Prosecutors are having a tough time trying to prosecute cases against opposition members because of lack of evidence. It's embarrassing."
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Chigovera was being retired for failing to effectively represent Chinamasa and Information Secretary George Charamba when they faced separate contempt of court charges. The government has also accused several judicial officials of deliberately bungling hearings to protect opposition members hauled before the courts. The Reuters story quoted the State-owned Sunday Mail newspaper citing Chinamasa as saying Chigovera would leave immediately. Chigovera's early retirement officially takes effect from 1 May. Since the parliamentary campaigns in 2000, hundreds of opposition supporters have been arrested, tortured and unlawfully detained. In many instances, the courts have either refused to prosecute them or place them on remand. Since he was appointed AG in August 2000, Chigovera pledged to investigate the murder of Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika, the two MDC activists who were petrol-bombed four months before his appointment, with a view to prosecuting the alleged murderers. Joseph Mwale, a CIO operative, and Kainos Tom "Kitsiyatota" Zimunya, a war veteran, were named in the High Court as the killers. The two activists were killed in the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary election in Buhera North, where MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai lost, but the result was nullified by the High Court. The alleged killers have still not been brought before the courts.
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From The Daily News, 18 April
Landmark victory for Tsvangirai
By Fanuel Jongwe, Court Reporter
High Court judge Ann-Marie Gowora has ordered the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) to release to the MDC's lawyers various documents relating to the 2002 presidential election as requested by the opposition party. Gowora also ordered that the ESC pay the legal costs incurred by the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, in seeking the court order. Tsvangirai was represented by Bryant Elliot. The documents include memoranda and other papers relating to the appointment of members of the ESC secretariat, including Brigadier Douglas Nyikayaramba, engaged to supervise the election. The documents are required by the opposition party for its petition to seek the nullification of the election controversially won by President Mugabe. The MDC contended that personnel employed by the ESC for the election included members of the Zimbabwe National Army and that, as a result, the army virtually ran the election.
The opposition party said the General Laws Amendment Act, 2, of 2002, gave the ESC the sole right to educate voters, a role previously played by non-governmental organisations. "The applicant, therefore, requires that the memoranda and other documents relating to the secretariat should be discovered by the respondent," Gowora said. "I do not see any reason why the respondent should not be ordered to discover the documents in question as they are relevant to the matter in dispute in the main petition. In my view, the assertion by the applicant that the respondent played a pivotal role in the conduct of the Presidential Election cannot be gainsaid. Such documents as the respondent might have in relation to the same would, of course, be relevant to the conduct of the election. I can see no justification for not granting the order sought by the respondent for further discovery."
In a related case, Justice Lavender Makoni ordered Tobaiwa Mudede, the Registrar-General, on 12 October last year to direct all constituency registrars countrywide to secure all ballot papers and counterfoils used in the election in separate sealed packets and surrender the material together with all voters' rolls to him for safe custody. Mudede allegedly defied the court order. Yvonne Dondo, of the Attorney-General's Office, said Mudede's office did not have the transport to ferry the election residue to Harare and the space to keep the material. In responding to another order granted by Justice Antonia Guvava to make available documents and correspondence to the police and other election "stakeholders", Mudede allegedly said all notices relating to polling stations, voting hours and dates were published in newspapers and he did not submit the requested correspondence.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 17 April
Tsvangirai poll petition stalled
Dumisani Muleya/Vincent Kahiya
A dispute has erupted between Movement for Democratic Change president Morgan Tsvangirai's lawyers and the High Court over the opening of a landmark court hearing into the opposition leader's election petition against President Robert Mugabe's disputed re-election last year. Documents at hand show that Tsvangirai's attorneys, Gill, Godlonton & Gerrans, are resisting suggestions that Judge President Paddington Garwe preside over the hearing. Garwe is currently sitting in Tsvangirai's treason trial. Writing on behalf of High Court registrar Jacob Manzunzu on February 26, Garwe's clerk, Punish Murumbi, said dates for the petition could not be set now because Garwe - who "will in all probability" preside over the case - was still engaged in Tsvangirai's treason trial. "The petition will in all probability be presided over by the Judge President who, as you are aware, is currently presiding over a lengthy treason trial,"Murumbi wrote to Tsvangirai's lawyer, Bryant Elliot. "As it is not possible for both matters to be heard at the same time, the date of set down will only be advised once it becomes apparent when the criminal trial is likely to be concluded," he said.
But Elliot on March 25 said it was "not appropriate" in the first place for Garwe to hear the petition because he has been involved in the treason trial. He also said delaying the election case would prejudice Tsvangirai. MDC lawyers have of late been quarrelling with the High Court registrar's office over set down dates for the start of the unprecedented electoral trial. The lawyers have been demanding the fixing of the dates in a series of letters since January 15. However, the registrar's office has refused to do so claiming that it was not possible at present due to the treason case. Tsvangirai and two other senior MDC officials are facing allegations of plotting to assassinate Mugabe in late 2001. The accusations surfaced in the run-up to the controversial March 2002 presidential poll which Tsvangirai says was rigged. Murumbi said there were other issues before the court such as further discovery (disclosure of further documentary evidence) and verification of ballots that needed to be sorted out first. But Tsvangirai's lawyers wrote to Murumbi again on March 25 saying the issues he had raised should not prevent the case from proceeding.
As the row intensified, Murumbi on March 27 replied insisting that his initial explanations were valid. "Tsvangirai is the petitioner in the above case (electoral challenge) as he is also the first accused in the treason trial," Murumbi said. "Both cases are lengthy ones and obviously they cannot proceed at the same time. Put differently, Tsvangirai cannot appear in two courts at the same time." However, the MDC attorneys yesterday held firm, arguing the problem was not Tsvangirai having to appear before two courts at the same time but Garwe having to preside over the two cases simultaneously. They said they could not see the reason why another judge, besides Garwe who is committed indefinitely, could not deal with the election petition. "In a criminal trial, in terms of Section 194 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act the presence of the accused at the trial is required at all times," the MDC lawyers said. "However, in a civil trial, there is no legal requirement in terms of the Civil Evidence Act for a litigant to be present at all times of his trial." The treason trial is a criminal case while the election challenge is a civil action. Neither Mugabe nor Tsvangirai have to attend the election hearing. MDC attorneys say the election petition should be heard "as a matter of urgency". "In the circumstances, we respectfully do not agree that the election petition cannot be set down until the criminal trial is completed. This will delay the hearing of the election petition indefinitely and will therefore severely prejudice our client's legal rights," Tsvangirai's lawyers said.
This comes amid reports that the country's justice system is creaking to a halt due to bureaucratic bottlenecks and allegations of abuse of the system used to allocate cases to judges. There have been serious delays in the processing of appeal cases coming from lower courts to the Supreme Court. Before the cases are set down for appeal documents used in the lower courts have to be bound into records which are then used by the Supreme Court. Judgements have also not been produced on time. Law Society of Zimbabwe President Sternford Moyo in his report last week noted concern over the delay in the production of judgements. "Initially we were advised that the delay in the production of judgements was due to the fact that the duplicating machine was too old," said Moyo. "We have established that there is a brand new machine and all that it requires are consumables," he said. He said there were currently at least 180 records awaiting production due to insufficient manpower resources. Moyo said a number of practitioners would like the courts to revive the system whereby urgent matters are allocated to the duty judge irrespective of the subject matter. Cases pending include constitutional challenges to the Broadcasting Services Act and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 17 April
Zimbabwe: 'Never has the country been so isolated'
As Zimbabwe prepares to celebrate 23 years of independence from Britain on Friday, deepening economic and social crises in the country are certain to cast a shadow over festivities. The country is due to mark its independence at a time when most Zimbabweans are pre-occupied by the social and economic woes surrounding them. Even as the country flounders in the grip of severe shortages of basic goods and triple-digit inflation, the authorities this week nearly trebled the price of gasoline. At least 80% of the country's 11,6 million people live well below the poverty line, and the recent fuel price increases are bound to plunge many Zimbabweans even deeper into poverty and misery. Unemployment rates hover at more than 70% and recurring power outages have forced many industrialists to cut production time by at least half, adding to the ranks of the unemployed. Faced with huge debts accumulated by importing electricity and threats of being cut off by South African and Mozambican suppliers, energy authorities have introduced power rationing, a move that has further disrupted manufacturing schedules. In an independence message to his supporters, Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader said: "This nation has been robbed of hope and the country has been reduced to wasteland." A privately-owned weekly, The Zimbabwe Independent said: "Never has the country been so impoverished and isolated."Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Lovemore Matombo said there is nothing to celebrate at independence this year. "It's no longer independence, it is now dependence," he said, referring to the levels of poverty he said workers had been reduced to. President Robert Mugabe himself last year acknowledged that poverty was on the rise. "Basic commodities are beyond the reach of many, poverty is increasing," he said in last year's independence day address.
Since the late 1990s the Zimbabwe economy has been on a downward spiral. Inflation that averaged 18 percent in 1997 is now reported to have reached a crippling 228%. A severe shortage of foreign currency, desperately needed for imports of power, petroleum and food, has resulted in those commodities being in short supply or priced beyond the reach of most Zimbabweans. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) has been on the downward slide over the past few years, with GDP growth pegged at a record low of -11,9% last year. The opposition says young people in the country have nothing to look forward to. "Babies are not even allowed a chance to start in life because they are being slowly starved to death due to shortages of baby food," said MDC leader, Tsvangirai. Despite tough security laws in the country that the opposition and civil society say are designed to stifle protest, the MDC and the labour movement have separately announced they will be staging mass action against the government. On Wednesday the ZCTU demanded the government reverse the fuel price increases or face mass action, which it warned could see "a lot of blood" being spilled. "There shall be a lot of blood sponsored by the government because the government has sponsored a terrorist structure within itself to terrorise Zimbabweans," Matombo told reporters. In press advertisements published on Thursday, a local rights group, the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CCZ) claimed that since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, Zimbabweans were now only "free to be intimidated, to be tear-gassed ... free to be beaten, free to be silenced".
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From News24 (SA), 17 April
Zim torture report released
Johannesburg - The day before Zimbabwe celebrates its independence day, church leaders released a report on Thursday citing incidents of torture allegedly carried out by police and government supporters. The Solidarity Peace Trust, comprising four Zimbabwean church leaders and two from South Africa, said in its foreword that the report concentrated on incidents of torture reported between February 24 and March 25 in Bulawayo. The report was endorsed by an independent group of Danish medical doctors called Physicians for Human Rights, Denmark. "State organised violence occurred on a massive scale in many parts of Zimbabwe during the month of March 2003," the trust said in the report, released in Johannesburg. "We document in this report that mutilating torture beyond any doubt is practised by government supporters against their political opponents in Zimbabwe in 2003." The report charges that in all the cases reported to human rights health officials in Bulawayo in March, the police were implicated as the perpetrators. All the cases of abuse took place in the context of peaceful public protest, while almost half the victims were women. "This may reflect a growing willingness on the part of ordinary Zimbabweans, in particular women, to take part in such protests, and more blatant attempts by the state to prevent this."
Some instances of abuse also occurred at peaceful protests during CWC matches in Bulawayo. "The current authors are aware of 15 detentions in relation to the first CWC match in Bulawayo, of 42 detentions at the second and of 23 detentions at the third. All those detained have reported torture or severe ill treatment." Fourteen of the detainees reported that they were kicked and trodden on, and beaten with police batons or wooden sticks, while six said they were beaten with a baseball bat or a sjambok. All the detainees reported they were denied food and water for between one and six days. Thirty-two said they were put in a cell measuring 3x4 metres, while a larger cell nearby was empty. Medical treatment was also denied. The report says that a youth with a broken arm was held for six days in a cell and repeatedly denied medical care. Janah Ncube, who is the chairperson of the Zimbabwean Women's Coalition and attended Thursday's function, said there had been a dramatic increase in women being raped by youths dressed in military uniforms. "It is as if we are at war and they are using rape to get to us," she said. "In one case a grandmother was raped by 12 men, in another a woman was raped by five men. It is so dehumanising. They are trying to rob us of our dignity."
A woman also had an AK47 forced into her vagina at a youth training centre where she was held for eight months as a sex slave, Ncube said. The youngest sex worker at the training centre was said to be 12 years old. Ncube said the women's movement wants to establish a rape crisis centre in Zimbabwe to assist victims of sexual abuse. "We need to get them medical care, to put them in contact with lawyers and to supply them with antiretrovirals." She said the people of Zimbabwe simply wanted to be treated with respect. "We are ordinary, uncomplicated people. We want to have families, a job, the security that comes from a job, go to soccer once in a while, be allowed to live free and without fear." Ncube added that the violence and strife in the country had little to do with land reform issues or race issues. "It is (Zimbabwe's ruling party) Zanu PF against the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) and the government does not like political opposition. It is political and it is about power." Zimbabwe's ambassador to South Africa was not available for comment on Thursday.
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From Reuters, 17 April
UN agency to halve Zimbabwe food aid
By Cris Chinaka
Zambezi Valley - The United Nations World Food Programme will halve its aid to Zimbabwe in May and June because some recipients have grown enough crops to feed themselves for a time, a spokesman said on Thursday. Nearly half of the southern African country's 14 million people have survived on food aid in the past year amid severe shortages caused by drought and a chaotic programme of farm seizures by President Robert Mugabe's government. The WFP has been feeding an average 4.6 million people a month in one of its largest humanitarian programmes in a region where over 14 million people have been facing starvation. Production used to far exceed consumption, but average farming output fell by about 75 percent last year. WFP Harare spokesman Luis Clemens told reporters in the poor northeastern Dande district in the Zambezi Valley that the cut did not mean Zimbabwe's food crisis was over, just that assistance would only go to those in real need. "We are not pulling out," he said, explaining food provision would roughly halve to 30,000 tonnes a month in May and June. We are going to carry out a thorough assessment of what the food aid needs are going to be, but for now we believe that up to half of those who have been benefiting from the WFP can survive on their own for two or so months," Clemens added.
France's ambassador to Zimbabwe Didier Ferrand, accompanying a WFP team to the dry Dande district, said it was clear Zimbabwe would still need international aid. "From here, you can see that some parts of the country still need help," he said as he surveyed hundreds of villagers who had walked miles to a distribution point to collect bags of the staple maize meal. Others had come in ox-drawn carts. Mugabe's government has not yet released official 2002/03 harvest forecasts, but some officials say current estimates vary between 500,000 tonnes and 1.3 million tonnes of maize. Aid agencies say the delay in estimating the crop could affect badly needed food inflows later in the year. Zimbabwe's government-owned Herald newspaper said a 1.3 million tonne maize harvest would meet two-thirds of the country's consumption needs. Farming officials say only between 600 and 800 out of 4,500 white commercial farmers are actively farming. Mugabe says the land seizures are meant to correct colonial imbalances that left 70 percent of the country's best farmland in the hands of the minority white population.
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From Associated Press, 17 April
Despite government predictions, famine persists in Zimbabwe's remotest villages
Angus Shaw
Chitsungo - Among the stunted trees and scrub of the scorching Zambezi River valley lie the graves of at least 100 victims of Zimbabwe's worst famine. Erratic rains and the government's confiscation of white-owned farms have led to the crisis here in Chitsungo, which like other rural towns is struggling to survive on foreign food handouts. Some townspeople haven't made it. "They are buried outside the villages," said Joel Zonke, an official with the charity Christian Care. "The relatives come and tell us the names of those who have passed away from hunger." As Zimbabwe marks its 23rd anniversary of independence from British colonial rule on Friday, there is little to celebrate here. Subsistence farmers have not been able to grow enough grain to feed their families. Meager cotton crops will bring in some cash, but there is nothing to buy with it in district stores. Women, some pushing wheelbarrows with babies on their backs, and rickety carts hauled by emaciated cattle, head along paths and dusty tracks toward this remote village of 3,000 families about 150 miles north of Harare.
The United Nations' World Food Program is drastically scaling down its food deliveries to Zimbabwe - from about 60,000 tons a month to 30,000 tons - as the first of the year's harvests begin to trickle in. But it will continue to supply the people of Chitsungo with handouts of corn, the staple food, said official Luis Clemens. The nation's deepening economic crisis has collapsed what aid officials call "marketing mechanisms" that traditionally brought supplies to the nation's most stressed areas. Zimbabwe, once known as "the breadbasket of Africa," now suffers record inflation and unemployment and acute shortages of food and gasoline. The WFP and foreign donors have called for the government to end the monopoly of the state Grain Marketing Board and ease price controls on food. These have worsened food shortages blamed on droughts and the land seizures. A lack of accurate forecasts on this year's harvest makes the future equally uncertain for many across Zimbabwe, say aid officials and diplomats.
Unofficial forecasts estimate that Zimbabwe will harvest 1.3 million tons of food, slightly short of annual requirements but three times the amount harvested last year, when massive food imports were needed. That figure is based largely on regional reports from state agricultural officials believed to be under intense political pressure to show the success of peasant farming after the often violent seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms. The Commercial Farmers Union, which represents some 400 white farmers still working on their land, estimates a maximum grain harvest from all local sources this year of about 800,000 tons. "I am convinced the country will need significant food assistance for the rest of the year," said Didier Ferrand, the French ambassador to Zimbabwe, who is involved in European Union aid efforts. The WFP says it too is waiting for the official crop forecast but has cut aid imports because its officials in most districts estimate new harvests will be sufficient for between two and six months. Last year, the agency said 7.2 million Zimbabweans, more than half the population, needed food assistance. It fed nearly 5 million people last month, averting mass starvation. The new danger, said WFP's Clemens, lies in "food gaps" that emerge in coming weeks after aid supplies have been wound down. Donors were unlikely to commit more funds without seeing the government's crop estimates, promised next month. "It still takes three months from the donor's pledge to getting the food into people's mouths," he said.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 19 April
Zimbabwe judge secretly grabs white-owned farm
Harare - A senior Zimbabwean judge has secretly grabbed a prize white-owned farm in the heart of the nation's richest land. The discovery came as Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, congratulated his people on regaining their land from white farmers in a defiant speech to mark 23 years of independence yesterday. Judge Paddington Garwe seized Mount Lothian farm in the Enterprise area. It was owned by C G Tracey, one of the first white farmers to embrace Zimbabwe's independence from Britain in 1980. Judge Garwe is Judge President of the High Court, the second highest judge in the country. He is presiding over the treason trial of Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Mr Tracey arranged the key donor conference after independence. He has been chairman of several important agricultural groups, introduced some of the most innovative farming methods and was highly regarded by the government in the early days of independence. "Now he is just another white man, and they want him to go," said a former neighbour. The seizure, believed to have happened last month, is the latest in the Enterprise farming area, about 20 miles east of Harare. The area is occupied by more members of the ruling elite - a clutch of cabinet ministers, senior members of the Zimbabwe National Army and the hierarchy of the Central Intelligence Organisation - than any other of the former commercial farming districts. Of the 66 white commercial farmers in the Enterprise district before Mr Mugabe ordered the land grab three years ago, fewer than a dozen are left.
Mr Tracey, in his 80s, is said to be "heartbroken and confused" about being forced from his home and life's work. Former neighbours said "CG", as he is known, had refused to discuss his eviction, fearing reprisals. He left Zimbabwe on holiday yesterday. "He thinks that if he says nothing the judge will one day allow him back into his home," said a former neighbour now living in South Africa. "He is living in a dream world where he believes that order will return to his beloved Zimbabwe. CG is an old man and confused after the turmoil. He is not thinking straight." The former neighbour said Mr Tracey was forced off the farm by violent ruling Zanu-PF party members posing as "landless" peasants. Judge Garwe declined to comment on the claims, saying, through his secretary, that he would respond to written questions after Easter. He was appointed Judge President two years ago after Mr Mugabe's purge of independent jurors who had, until then, ruled that the land grab and eviction of white farmers were illegal.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 17 April
Bishops block Zanu PF's bid to declare Chakaipa a hero
Mthulisi Mathuthu
President Robert Mugabe suffered an embarrassment this week when Catholic bishops rejected his party's bid to have his late friend, Archbishop Patrick Chakaipa, buried at Heroes Acre. It emerged this week that Mugabe and his Zanu PF stalwarts, who include secretary for information and publicity Nathan Shamuyarira, were pushing for Chakaipa's proclamation as a hero through the Mashonaland West provincial executive. Provincial chairman Philip Chiyangwa applied to the politburo to have the late primate buried at the national shrine but the bishops and the Chakaipa family turned down the idea arguing that it was improper to politicise Chakaipa's funeral. A source said neither the bishops nor the family were enthusiastic about the proposal, leading to its abandonment. The bishops argued that burying Chakaipa at the national shrine would have suggested that he was a Zanu PF party member. Archbishop Pius Ncube said it would have been improper to equate a man of the cloth with politicians. "It was just a joke. Some people wanted to score cheap political mileage because the whole issue is irrelevant and even Mugabe himself never raised it at the funeral," said Ncube. "Even Chiyangwa who proposed it never came to the funeral and so you can see that it was totally out of the question." Chiyangwa yesterday said he had applied to the politburo because Chakaipa was "a success story" whose service went beyond religion. He wondered why the clergy had not lobbied to honour their colleague. "The issue of the heroes' status is beyond politics and the church has the right to push for the honour of one of their own. Chakaipa, as you know is a success from my province and so I am right (in petitioning the politburo)," he said. Chiyangwa said there was still a chance for Chakaipa to be accorded the status even though he would not be buried at the shrine. "If they could bring the remains of that white man Guy Clutton-Brock for burial here what will stop them from doing the same with Chakaipa?" he asked.
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From BBC News, 17 April
Zimbabwe's torturers on the run
By Alastair Leithead
Johannesburg - They are young Zimbabweans living rough in Johannesburg, on the run from the Zimbabwean secret service and the youth force commanders who taught them violence. They are not wanted for the rapes, beatings, murders and arson they committed in the name of Zimbabwe's ruling party, but because they ran away and are now telling the truth about what they've been doing. "We went to the farms and broke everything. We took livestock, machines and burned the houses. The children were raped, the small children. We raped the girls. We targeted white farmers and opposition politicians," said Themba Skhosana, who's 19. In the last few weeks a massive government crackdown on the opposition Movement for Democratic Change has seen hundreds of supporters arrested, most held without charge and then released days later - many having been beaten and tortured. Responsible for much of the violence is Zimbabwe's National Youth Service - what the government calls a peace corps designed to lift youngsters out of poverty, but what its former members describe as ruling Zanu-PF party military camps of teenagers being taught to beat, rape and kill. "They used to give us beer and drugs and told us we were going to destroy farms. Also, people who were MDC were not allowed to buy food from the shops, but Zanu-PF were allowed food when they showed their card," said Andrew Moyo, also 19. They're notorious in the country as the "green bombers" after the uniforms they wear and the chaos that follows in their wake. Themba Ndlovu is 22, he said they were promised money, jobs and land, but instead they were forced to attack people and burn down farms - they received nothing and were told if they ran away they would be killed. "We used crowbars and firearms," he said. "I have not killed, but I have raped. I raped a 12 year old girl. We have attacked people from the MDC party - many people. I need to change my life - that is why I ran away from Zimbabwe. "It is too hard living on the streets in Johannesburg. The Zimbabwe Central Intelligence Officers are looking for us and if the South African police find us they will send us back. "If I am taken back to Zimbabwe I will be assassinated, jailed or killed. Others have been taken back from South Africa and they have just disappeared."
The boys ran away from their camps and with help from friends and relatives illegally crossed into South Africa. It's not known how many have escaped, but their accounts paint a brutal picture of state-sponsored killing and violence. Moses Mzila-Ndlovu is shadow foreign minister in Zimbabwe and an MDC MP - he says there has been widespread intimidation after a peaceful mass protest last month. "Five hundred people were arrested in a matter of two or three days soon after the mass stay-away and it shows you the level of harassment and intimidation. Two hundred and fifty of these people needed hospital treatment," he said while in South Africa. "Whether Mugabe arrests us or not the people of Zimbabwe have become so confident and daring as to demand their civil liberties back, demand an end to this brutalisation, demand a restoration of the rule of law and to demand a legitimate government." With the crisis taking place on Zimbabwe's doorstep and with President Thabo Mbeki currently chairing the African Union (AU), the emphasis has been put on South Africa and the region to take a harder line on Zimbabwe. But President Mbeki said the AU "doesn't have a position on Zimbabwe". His official spokesman said he would comment on almost anything except Zimbabwe, and the department of foreign affairs also refused to be interviewed saying government policy has not changed. That policy, in place for months now, is for "quiet diplomacy," but it doesn't appear to have had any effect on an increasing catalogue of violence and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 19 April
Mugabe trys to stir fears of British recolonisation
Harare - In an independence day address yesterday, Robert Mugabe repeated accusations that Britain wanted to recolonise Zimbabwe. "Zimbabwe will never, ever, ever be a colony again . . . Africa is for Africans, Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans," he said. "It gives me immense pleasure to tell you that the land that for over a century we yearned to recover has come back to us. It is your land, my land," he told crowds at the National Sports Stadium in Harare. He said it was a "laughable" claim that his land grab, in which 97 per cent of productive white-owned land has been seized, had failed. This winter "new" farmers will grow more than 200,000 acres of wheat, he promised. "We will be lucky if we see 10 per cent of that," one crop forecaster said.
Comment from The Independent (UK), 19 April
Strikes, starvation and state terrorism: the tragedy of Zimbabwe grows deeper
The war in Iraq, with its dramatic build-up and equally dramatic denouement, inevitably eclipsed many otherwise important news stories. Among the most deserving of notice was the sharply deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe. It may even be - reprehensible though it seems - that Robert Mugabe cynically exploited the distraction to crack down even harder on his enemies. Speaking at a military parade to mark the 23rd anniversary of Zimbabwean independence yesterday, Mr Mugabe warned the opposition Movement for Democratic Change not to challenge his rule, accusing its members of being bent on violence. Advertisements in state newspapers called on Zimbabweans to eschew "mass violence" by "terrorists and thugs". How many more beleaguered governments will cite "terrorism" to justify their own abuses of power? Mr Mugabe's record on economic management, as on human rights, is execrable. In evidence that the levels of deprivation may now be threatening the stability of his regime, he was compelled yesterday to mention two unmentionables: the dire shortages of medicine and fuel. More than half the population in one of Africa's richest agricultural lands is short of food. Obscured first by the cricket World Cup and then by the war in Iraq, human rights violations have escalated. A strike organised by the opposition last month prompted a wave of arrests and evictions, with widespread and well-founded allegations of torture and rape. Some 500 opposition officials and activists were arrested. More than 250 were treated for injuries they had sustained from assaults and beatings. Church leaders from Zimbabwe and South Africa documented 80 cases of World Cup protesters being detained and tortured or otherwise ill-treated.
The opposition is infinitely brave, but necessarily subdued. The MDC says that last year more than 1,000 of its activists were tortured and 58 killed. Human rights groups that have tried to document the repression have been outlawed or silenced under the Public Order and Security Act. The judiciary is alone in having managed to retain much of its integrity, but its judgments are increasingly undermined by corrupt officials and police. If ever a country's opposition needed dispassionate exposure of what is happening and unswerving moral support by those free to give it, it is that of Zimbabwe. This makes it all the more inexplicable that a Commonwealth report on the progress - or lack of it - in Zimbabwe since its Commonwealth membership was suspended last year was not given the widest possible audience. The report documents a whole catalogue of abuses, including selective enforcement of the law and continued chaotic, violent and unjust implementation of land reform. This report - released, despite its "restricted" classification, by the Tory party, has now, regrettably, become a political football, which will allow Mr Mugabe to dismiss it as yet more proof that the "white" Commonwealth wants to "recolonise" his country. Unless South Africa and Zimbabwe's other neighbours cease their tacit solidarity with Harare, however, Mr Mugabe will be able to persist in his pretence that his country's desperate crisis is all about colonialism, when in reality it is all about him.
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From The Guardian (UK), 21 April
Zimbabwean activist 'dies after torture'
Andrew Meldrum in Harare
A member of Zimbabwe's opposition has died as a result of police torture, according to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Tonderai Machiridza, 32, died after six days in police custody, according to the MDC, which issued photographs of the unconscious Machiridza being carried to hospital. Armed police took him from his home in Chitungwiza, on April 13. Three other MDC members were also arrested in Chitungwiza that day, accused of having taken a pair of handcuffs from a police officer during the national strike organised by the opposition party on March 18 and 19. The four were allegedly assaulted by police using truncheons, handcuffs and booted feet. Machiridza was bleeding and complained of a severe headache before he fell unconscious, said witnesses. Two others in his group suffered a broken arm and a broken leg, according to the MDC. Police took Machiridza to Chitungwiza hospital where he was chained to his bed and received rudimentary care. Last Wednesday, a court investigation at his hospital bed resulted in an order that Machiridza should be released to receive proper medical attention. The court also ordered an investigation into the allegations of torture.
Machiridza died on Friday, the 23rd anniversary of Zimbabwe's independence. "The fact that he died on our Independence Day is symbolic of the death of all our freedoms and our rights," said an MDC spokesman, Paul Themba Nyathi. The MDC claims that 600 of its supporters have been tortured in police custody this year. At least four MDC members of parliament say they were tortured by police inflicting electric shocks. Independent medical examinations have confirmed injuries consistent with their accounts. Reports of the death highlighted the grim mood over the Easter holiday, in which Zimbabweans suffered food and fuel shortages. Inflation has hit 228% and unemployment 70%, pushing four-fifths of the population below the poverty line. Roman Catholic bishops issued an Easter letter denouncing Robert Mugabe's government for committing gross human rights abuses while the population goes hungry.
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From Associated Press, 20 April
Zimbabwe's union plans another anti-govt strike
Harare - Zimbabwe's largest trade union called for a national strike to protest the government's economic policies, specifically a hike in gasoline prices that they say has made it too expensive for most workers to travel to their jobs in this troubled southern African country, a newspaper reported Sunday. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, an umbrella grouping of trade organizations, is closely affiliated with the main opposition party. Its officials said they were hesitant to divulge details of the planned strike, fearing retribution from the increasingly authoritarian government, the independent Standard newspaper said. No specific date was given for the launch of the strike, but officials said it would take place in the next week. An anti-government strike last month succeeded in shutting down businesses across the country for two days and was followed by a massive crackdown by the authorities. Hundreds were arrested and many were beaten.
Zimbabwe is suffering its worst political and economic crisis since independence in 1980 with acute shortages of food, gasoline, medicine and essential imports. Last week the government tripled the price of regular gasoline and most bus and commuter fares have more than doubled, taking up as much as three-fourths of the monthly earnings of average workers. "Workers have demanded immediate action," said Lovemore Matombo, the union's president. "It is very clear that most workers can no longer go to work because they can't afford the transport costs. (The strike) will be indefinite."There was no immediate comment from President Robert Mugabe's government on the plans for another national strike, but he recently told supporters he would deal harshly with those who countered him through mass protests.
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From The Sunday Independent (SA), 20 April
Fury at Zuma's dismissal of Zimbabwe terror
By Brian Latham
Harare - South Africa's inaction over the Zimbabwe crisis is being increasingly condemned by both the opposition and ordinary Zimbabweans. After Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the foreign minister, recently said there had been "movement" in the right direction in Zimbabwe, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said her comments were "unhelpful". Tensions were further heightened when South Africa blocked a United Nations vote condemning human rights abuses in the troubled country. Dlamini-Zuma says the Zimbabwe government has vowed to ease draconian laws and make peace by offering farms back to evicted white farmers. But the laws she referred to, the much-slated public order and security act (Posa) and the access to information and privacy act (Aipa) remain unchanged. Posa is used routinely to arrest opposition MDC officials. Paul Themba Nyathi, the MDC spokesperson, says that all but four of his party's national executive have been arrested since February 2000. In direct contradiction to Dlamini-Zuma's claim, Patrick Chinamasa, Zimbabwe's hardline justice minister, has said his government sees no reason to amend Posa, saying the law is necessary to control those intent on destabilising Zimbabwe. And harsh press laws in Aipa, the brainchild of Jonathan Moyo, the information minister, also remain unchanged. Journalists from Zimbabwe's beleaguered independent press remain largely unaccredited and subject to indiscriminate harassment at the hands of police and shadowy state agents from Mugabe's notorious Central Intelligence Organisation. Dlamini-Zuma's claim that white farmers have been offered back land has been dismissed by farmers, hundreds of whom are sitting idle in Harare.
A Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) farm association chairperson from the violence-plagued Mashonaland West province said: "There was a memorandum of agreement, but the CFU wanted certain conditions regarding violence, evictions and human rights abuses put in writing and signed by the agriculture minister. Nothing has been forthcoming, so the whole thing is just sitting. Any farmer who went back without written guarantees would be mad after everything that's happened in the last three years. "If the government isn't prepared to give those guarantees, it seems obvious to us that they're not serious about all this, it's just being done to placate foreigners," he said. It is Posa that has wreaked the most havoc on Zimbabwe's civil society. The law makes it illegal to ridicule Mugabe or cause "feelings of hostility" towards the police. A recent spate of arrests directed at MDC leaders after last month's mass action was conducted mainly under Posa. And despite widespread proof of torture and violence, Dlamini-Zuma has dismissed the abuse as "overzealousness" on the part of Zimbabwe's security forces. Her glib dismissal of hundreds of cases of torture drew real anger from torture victims and civil society in Zimbabwe. "I doubt Zuma would describe it as overzealous if she was whipped with barbed wire or raped with an AK47 barrel," said Temba Chituwu, who fled his home in Harare's western Kuwadzana township after soldiers began imposing curfews on the MDC stronghold.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 18 April
Double blow for Bob
David Masunda
Harare - The retirements - one after the other - of two of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's key civil servants during the past two weeks, are testimony to the fact that many of the mandarins at his Munhumutapa offices have seen that the writing is on the wall and others might soon be clamouring to get out, say analysts. Charles Utete, chief secretary to the president and Cabinet and a close adviser to Mugabe since independence from Britain in 1980, announced his retirement a week ago, after 23 years in the Office of the President. Utete, a reclusive man, was regarded as Mugabe's closest adviser and the man who was involved in the formulation of the Zanu PF leader's post-independence policies and cabinets. The former academic, who lectured in Tanzania in the 1970s, was not seen at many functions of the ruling Zanu PF party, unlike many other senior civil servants who often drive thousands of kilometres to attend and be seen at Mugabe's political rallies. In fact, his continuous absence from Zanu PF rallies and the fact that he rarely made any political statements of his own in public grudgingly earned Utete respect even among the Zimbabwean opposition. Utete was, however, said to belong to the powerful "Chivhu Mafia" that includes some of Zanu PF's most influential politicians, who, party sources say, have considerable say on who gets appointed to Mugabe's Cabinet. Utete is also related to Mugabe's wife, Grace. The measure of his importance was felt at his farewell party when Mugabe was quoted in the state-controlled Herald newspaper as saying that although Utete deserved a good rest, "his retirement had left an acute sense of anxiety, wistfulness, ending, loss, emptiness and even desertion". Utete said he had tried to retire in 1999 but Mugabe had persuaded him to stay on. He had stayed even longer to help with the formulation of the Zimbabwean leader's internationally condemned land reforms and with his controversial re-election last year.
A few days after the retirement of Utete, Zimbabwe's attorney general, Andrew Chigovera, also announced that he was calling it quits after 23 years of service in government. The attorney general, who at times repeatedly clashed with the media, joined Mugabe's government in 1980 and rose through the ranks to become Zimbabwe's top law officer. It was during Chigovera's tenure that some of the most draconian pieces of legislation, such as the notorious Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Public Order and Security Act, were crafted. Although Chigovera sometimes appeared too keen to please Mugabe and his ministers, he occasionally came under fire from the likes of Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, who publicly rebuked the attorney general's office for - according to Moyo - being too soft on opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) members and journalists under prosecution. Luke Tamborinyoka, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists, said Chigovera "was overwhelmed by politics" during his tenure as top law officer. While Mugabe did not publicly bemoan Chigovera's departure as he did that of Utete, their retirements may signal the beginning of an exodus from the public service as many professionals begin to feel that the Zanu PF leader's administration is sinking. Meanwhile, the MDC's top executive met last weekend and resolved to continue with its mass action strategy as a means to oust Mugabe's government from power. The MDC was split over the decision, with one section favouring mass action while another preferred to lure Zanu PF and its leader back to the negotiating table.
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From The Times (UK), 21 April
Soldier's family fear for safety
By Jan Raath in Harare
The parents of Private Christopher Muzvuru, the Irish Guardsman who died in action on April 6 in the assault on Basra, have been questioned by Zimbabwe' s secret police over their son's role in the British Army, a relative said yesterday. He said that the family had been visited by agents of the Central Intelligence Organisation, President Mugabe's secret police, and by plainclothes CID officers. "Their mother is now terrified," he said. "They are getting calls from all over all the time." Provisional arrangements had been made to return the body this week for burial. However, the family, fearful of the hostility that their son's participation in the war has provoked in Zimbabwe, said that Private Muzvuru, who was 21, may be buried in Britain, where he has some family. "It's no longer clear whether he will be buried here or in Britain," his relative said.
Private Muzvuru has been vilified in Zimbabwe's pro-government press. The Zimbabwe Daily Mirror denounced him as "a mercenary" for fighting for a country that was "virtually at war" with Zimbabwe. It said that he should be buried "in the country he preferred to die for". The state-controlled daily The Herald portrayed Private Muzvuru in a cartoon as a "Buffalo Soldier", a black unit in the United States cavalry described by the reggae singer Bob Marley as a group of ex-slaves exploited by whites. His parents in the city of Gweru have refused to speak to the press and relatives say that they fear retribution by the Government or by ruling party vigilantes. More than 40 relatives and friends of Private Muzvuru gathered at RAF Brize Norton last week, when his body was flown to Britain. He was the first black piper in the history of the Irish Guards, which he joined in October 2001.There are about 200 Zimbabweans serving in the British Army, along with other Commonwealth subjects who are eligible to serve in the Armed Forces.
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From IOL (SA), 21 April
Zim unions call for fuel price protest strike
Harare - Zimbabwe's main labour movement called on Monday for a three-day national strike to protest at higher fuel price rises, saying the stoppage could go on indefinitely if the government did not reverse the increases. Lovemore Matombo, president of Zimbabwe's Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said the ZCTU's general council had unanimously decided to challenge a decision by President Robert Mugabe's government to hike fuel prices by more than 300 percent. "The ZCTU is undertaking a peaceful three-day stayaway from Wednesday 23 April to Friday 25 April 2003," he said in a statement. "Unless the government gives in to the above demand (to reverse the price increases), the job boycott will be indefinite," he added. Zimbabwe is facing its worst crisis in more than two decades, with soaring unemployment and shortages of fuel, foreign exchange and food which many blame on Mugabe's policies. Annual inflation hit a record 228 percent in March. Last month, the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) staged one of the biggest protests against Mugabe since he came to power 23 years ago after calling a two-day strike that shut down about 80 percent of the southern African country's businesses and industries. The MDC accuses Mugabe of stealing last year's presidential election and has vowed to lead street protests in a bid to drive him from office. Last week it said it would support protests against the fuel price hikes announced last Wednesday. The government said the increase, which saw petrol rocket to Z$450 (about R4,60) a litre from Z$145, was necessary to help improve fuel imports. Fuel supplies have become scarce since Libya halted shipments last year when a barter deal collapsed.
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From News24 (SA), 22 April
Mugabe hinting at retirement?
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Monday hinted that he was "getting to a stage" when retirement might be possible, when asked on state television if he was ready to step down. There has been mounting speculation that several officials within Mugabe's ruling party are jostling to position themselves to replace the 79-year-old leader, should he step down. Mugabe has said in the past that he would consider stepping down when his government had completed the land reform programme that has seen white-owned land redistributed among new black farmers. "We are getting to a stage where we shall say 'ah fine, we have settled this matter and people can retire,'" Mugabe said, when asked if he felt he had achieved what he had set out to. Mugabe often uses the plural "we" when talking about himself. In January this year it was rumoured that army chief Vitalis Zvinavashe and speaker of parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa had contacted opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai over a plan to retire Mugabe and form a unity government. The ruling party dismissed the report. Mugabe has been in power in the southern African country since independence in 1980.
Mugabe also said he was prepared to meet opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai if the latter accepted Mugabe won presidential elections last year, the 79-year old leader said on Monday. In a wide-ranging interview broadcast on state television, Mugabe hit out at the United States for wanting him to hand over power to a transitional government, saying Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner could "go hang". The Zimbabwean leader was speaking in a special interview to mark Zimbabwe's 23 years of independence. But the celebrations have been marred for many by worsening economic hardships and widening political divisions. The country's main labour body has set Wednesday as the start of protest mass action over a massive fuel price hike announced last week. Inflation meanwhile has reached 228% and 7.8 million people have faced food shortages. Mugabe, however, claimed that most Zimbabweans are content. "The majority of people are a happy lot despite the hardships we're going through," he said. And he blamed food shortages and other economic problems on the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Tsvangirai's party. "What's the cause of the shortages? Isn't it the opposition that is calling on the international community for sanctions?" he asked. "You have to accept the reality that Mugabe is the president. If he (Tsvangirai) accepts that, there is no problem, none at all," he said. Tsvangirai is facing treason charges for allegedly plotting to assassinate Mugabe, charges he denies.
During the interview Mugabe reacted angrily to recent criticism of his government by Britain and the United States. Both have been critics of alleged human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and the controversial land reform programme. The US's Kansteiner is said to be soon going on a mission to Botswana and South Africa - two of Zimbabwe's neighbours - to build up pressure against the Mugabe government. "He (Kansteiner) can go hang. I was elected," Mugabe charged. "Who is Kansteiner to pronounce the validity (of the election)?" Zimbabwe's economic decline has coincided with a three-year old programme to take land from white farmers to give to new black farmers. Mugabe hailed the success of the programme, saying Zimbabwe was not "totally independent until the land issue was under control". He warned that black empowerment was "going to visit" other sectors dominated by foreigners, including manufacturing and mining.
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From The Daily News, 22 April
Cash-strapped Zesa warns of power cuts
Staff Reporter
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) has warned of a long period of frequent power cuts because "curtailment measures" effected by its external suppliers for non-payment of electricity imports worth about US$20 million ($1,6 billion). "The load-shedding has come about because there is insufficient generation to meet demand as a result of curtailment measures adopted by our external suppliers due to non-payment," the power utility said in a notice published in The Sunday Mail this week. Zesa said the acute shortage of foreign currency had made it difficult for the parastatal to import electricity from its suppliers under the Southern Africa power pool which brings together Eskom of South Africa, HCB of Mozambique and Snel of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. An insider yesterday said each time the power utility fell short on its payments for electricity imports from Mozambique's HCB, supplies of between 50 and 200 megawatts would be withheld every month until Zesa clears its debt. Zesa said measures taken by its external suppliers following its frequent non-payment of power imports had forced it to introduce load-shedding. A spokesman said load-shedding was now in full swing and daily interruptions of electricity supplies should be expected. The Zesa spokesman said it was not possible to run the power generation system without "a spinning reserve" which is provided by power imports.Zimbabwe, whose peak demand for electricity is about 2 000 megawatts, imports about 35 percent of electricity to supplement the 65 percent generated locally. Industrialists have warned of retrenchments because of low levels of production caused by load-shedding. Commerce and industry have already voiced concern at the proposed load-shedding plans, which will reduce production levels at a time most companies are affected by adverse economic conditions.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 20 April
Blackout looms
By Itai Dzamara
Zimbabwe faces a total power blackout by the end of the week unless the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) urgently acquires foreign currency to settle outstanding debts to regional power suppliers. Sources within the parastatal yesterday told The Standard that the regional electricity suppliers, South Africa's Eskom and HydroCahora Bassa (HCB) of Mozambique, had lost their patience with Zesa which had since last year, failed to settle debts amounting to billions of Zimbabwean dollars due to the critical shortage of foreign currency. Over the past few weeks, the suppliers had substantially reduced the supply of electricity to Zimbabwe, forcing the local power utility to introduce load shedding which has severely affected Zimbabwe's industry. Already, supply from SNEL of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was reportedly switched off last month. Documents availed to this paper last week revealed that senior officials at Zesa were holding a series of meetings with the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) in an effort to raise hard currency from big business and avert a looming blackout. It has, however, emerged that the meetings did not yield anything due to the general unavailability of foreign currency in Zimbabwe. Said Anthony Mandiwanza, the president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), a key organisation within the TNF: "There has not been any progress. It has been mere talk without any tangible results. The issue is now beyond the control of ZESA and unless something is done quickly, we could face a blackout by the end of this week. Unless outstanding debts are settled, and they require foreign currency which is not available, we are in deep trouble." Lovemore Matombo, the president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said: "The suggestion raised at the TNF to have exporting companies pay their bills to Zesa in foreign currency has not yielded anything and has therefore rendered futile any efforts by the forum to solve the crisis. We have a big problem which can cause a blackout any time."
Contacted for comment last week on Thursday Zesa's executive chairman Sydney Gata, acknowledged the gravity of the crisis but refused to be drawn into further discussion saying a statement would be issued this week. Said Gata: "Indeed the problem has been with us for long time. However, we are currently meeting with government and other stake holders such as members of the TNF and will be issuing a statement either on Tuesday or Wednesday." On Friday morning, however, Gata claimed to be in yet another meeting. Panic is reported to have gripped the parastatal and government last week resulting in marathon meetings-which, apparently, also yielded nothing. It emerged that efforts by Zesa to solve the problem by appealing to exporters to pay their bills in foreign currency hit a snag as many business people are questioning government's commitment to solving the crisis. Part of the 50% in foreign currency earnings the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe receives is supposed to go towards payments for electricity. "Many business people feel government is not committed to solving this problem. They want the TNF to call for an emergency meeting in order to find an all-inclusive solution," said a member of the forum. Zesa is among the major economic players to have suffered the severe effects of the economic malaise which intensified in 2000 as a result of Zimbabwe's unplanned and violent land grabs. The souring of relations with most of the international community exacerbated the problem as trade with Zimbabwe became highly risky and as a result, foreign currency dried up. Load shedding was introduced last month as a means of economising on limited power supplies. Industry and labour have been hardest hit by the load shedding, which has resulted in workers being sent on forced leave because of the significant downsizing in production.
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From VOA News, 21 April
Uncertainty of Zimbabwe's food situation causes planning problems for aid agencies
Harare - Crop forecasters in Zimbabwe are presenting widely different predictions for this year's harvest, making it difficult for aid agencies to plan food aid to the country for the rest of the year. The group responsible for warning about food shortages says the situation in Zimbabwe will not be as bad this year as it has been for the past two years. The Famine Early Warning System forecasters, known as FEWSNET, say the maize crop now being harvested will be nearly 1.3 million tons. That would be enough to feed two-thirds of the population during the coming year. But the Union of Commercial Farmers, who have had their farms confiscated under the Land Reform Program, says the harvest will be only about half that amount, and that much of it is being eaten by desperately hungry people in the countryside, while it is still green. The Union says very few growers will deliver their dried maize to the government's Grain Marketing Board for milling to supply retailers. The Union predicts most of the growers will choose instead to keep much of their crop, or sell it on the open market, even though that is against the law. Only the Grain Marketing Board is allowed to trade in grain.
It is difficult for aid agencies like the U.N. World Food Program to sort out the predictions and make plans. FEWSNET is relatively new, and is partly U.S. funded, but it has been accurate in recent years. The Commercial Farmers Union has a long history of accurate forecasts, but its members have had their land taken, and are no longer as closely in touch with the situation. The Land Reform Program has been widely blamed for the current food shortage in Zimbabwe, which has left half the population relying on U.N. handouts to survive. The Land Reform Program was designed to give the large, productive white-owned commercial farms to landless blacks. But most of the land went to supporters of President Robert Mugabe. They lacked experience and funding to make the farms work, and were also hit by a drought, resulting in very little production in the Land Reform Program's first two years. The Zimbabwe government says the drought is responsible for the entire shortage, not its policies.
The World Food Program says it will be feeding nearly five million Zimbabweans when it downsizes its distribution program next month to coincide with the annual harvest. The question is how to plan for the rest of the year. The WFP could be buying cheap maize now from South Africa, where there is a large harvest. But spokesman Luis Clemens says that without reliable forecasts, it is difficult for the agency to raise the money needed to make the purchases. Mr. Clemens says the planning is made more difficult by the Zimbabwe government's refusal to disclose how much grain it has imported during the past year. The government has also been withholding its own crop estimates. While maize is the staple crop in Zimbabwe, other harvests are also expected to be low this year. The Commercial Farmers Union says very little wheat or soybeans will be harvested, and the beef and dairy herds are now too small to fill the country's needs.
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