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Archived News
23rd December 2003
Zimbabwe children hit by rising school fees
Ultimatum for striking nurses, doctors
Journalist detained, equipment confiscated
Greener pastures create passport to corruption
Crackdown on forex smuggling
Kenya hunts for missing billions
Mbeki to test quiet diplomacy in Harare
Zim opposition urges Mbeki to hear its side
Machinery to be taken from white farmers in Zimbabwe
Agriculture badly affected by HIV/Aids
Zimbabwe's bank chief tackles inflation
Zimbabwe with its back to the wall
Food prices spike beyond reach of average Zimbabwean family, UN says
Botswana police intensify patrols along Zim border
South African leader visits Zimbabwe to urge talks
Mugabe agrees 'to be serious' about talks
Daily News given permission to publish
UN: More aid needed for Zim crises
Bearer cheques/$500 notes to stay
Harare ‘inciting hatred’
Editor responds to threats
Daily News raided, again
Mugabe's men defy death threat judge over media freedom
Kidnapped accountant made to drink acid
MDC gets ready to talk
Zimbabwe's food crisis spreads to cities
Zim illegals have nowhere to go
Muckraker - Choice channels for the First Family
Churches slam Mbeki over Zimbabwe stance
MDC aims to bring Mugabe to negotiating table
MDC's plan for reviving Zimbabwe
Land reform seen as vote-buying gimmick
Mugabe's Geneva jaunt gobbles over $2b
SA moves to dampen furore over Zimbabwe
Mbeki stance an excuse to sell
MDC seeks clarity on Zanu PF conditions
Zimbabwe workers forced to drink acid
Striking doctors acquitted
Food crisis looks set to drag on
WFP forced to cut December food rations
Zimbabwe police arrest two in acid murder case
Zimbabwe opposition, ruling party to meet for 1st time in 4 months
There'll be no 'loud diplomacy'
The truth about Mugabe's Zimbabwe
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 17 December
Zimbabwe children hit by rising school fees
Harare - Children in Zimbabwe are to become the latest victims of President Robert Mugabe's destruction of the economy, with fees at state schools about to go up at least 10 times. When the new school year begins next month many families will be faced with paying nearly half their income to send just one child to school. "That's it. It's the end," said a father of two in a suburban supermarket east of the capital Harare yesterday, looking for something he could afford to feed his family. "We won't send the children to school next year. There is nothing else to do." The man, a junior civil servant in a vehicle repair workshop on the edge of the city, added: "Don't ask my name, you know why." Parents run the financial affairs at most of the 6,000-plus government schools in Zimbabwe, and they have been holding meetings to set fees for January. With interest rates soaring to between 400 and 500 per cent and real inflation topping 1,000 per cent according to private-sector economists, governing bodies say they have no alternative but to ask parents to pay more than some earn.
At one high school, in the Mabvuku township, about 10 miles east of Harare, fees are going up less than in many other places, from Z$500 (50p) a term in January this year to Z$5000 next month. It is a school for the children of the working class, or rather, with up to 80 per cent unemployed, the would-be working class. At Lewisam Primary, a government school in a richer suburb, where the pupils come from middle-income families, fees have gone up from the equivalent of £19 a term to £25. The education minister, Aenias Chigwedere blamed "unscrupulous" schools, rather than the economy, for the increases, which he condemned as a scandal. The hard-currency value of the Zimbabwe dollar does not reflect the extraordinary and unprecedented pain of the ordinary family trying to feed itself and pay school fees. A pound sterling is equivalent to Z$10,000 on the black market, which is where most foreign currency changes hands, including at banks. The official rate is £1 to Z$1,315, but that is used only by the government to pay for commodities such as gold or tobacco.
Most factories are now giving their lowest-paid workers about Z$120 000 a month, or £12. Rent, fuel, car spares and other everyday items are priced according to the black market value of US dollars and are therefore out of reach of many workers. World Bank statistics on Zimbabwe show that two years ago it had the highest literacy rate in Africa, at about 97 per cent between the ages of 15 and 24. Last year 2.4 million children attended school and were served by 61,000 teachers. Fidelis Mahashu, an MP for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said yesterday: "The quality of education is deteriorating fast, and the new school fees must not be used by the government to prevent children from going to school." He said science text books were now unaffordable for the majority, with many costing the equivalent of about £60. "Every child has a fundamental right to education, and fees must be affordable. It is the responsibility of the government to not only superintend schools, but to provide adequate funds so every child can go. "The root cause is the failing economy, not schools overcharging. People will be very despondent."
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 17 December
Ultimatum for striking nurses, doctors
The Zimbabwean government has given striking doctors and nurses until Friday to return to work or face termination of their employment contracts, according to the Public Service Commission (PSC). In a statement issued this morning, the PSC said it "noted with grave concern that doctors and nurses embarked on a work stoppage in consequence of disputes regarding their conditions of employment. This work stoppage has the intention of inducing or compelling the Commission to agree with demands made by doctors and nurses". The Commission added: "It is trite law that an employer is not obliged to retain or reserve an employee's job/position where such employee has abandoned his/her job. After taking legal advice, the Commission has therefore resolved (that) all doctors and nurses who are still engaged in the work stoppage...report for duty not later than Friday 19th December 2003. Failure by doctors and nurses to comply with the directive will result in the Commission invoking the provisions of Section 58 and 59 of the Public Services Regulations 2000, as amended."
The PSC said those doctors or nurses who did not wish to comply with the directive or who did not believe their contracts should be terminated should make written submissions to the Commission before 19 December, clearly stating their reasons. Written submissions should also be made by those doctors and nurses who intend to report for duty but will not work, and those who are unable to report for duty. "Such written representations will be considered by the Commission in arriving at a decision of whether or not to terminate the employment contract," the PSC said. It was not possible yesterday to obtain comment on the ultimatum from the associations representing doctors and nurses. The strike by public doctors and nurses has crippled Zimbabwe's already embattled public health delivery system, with most hospitals being manned by health personnel from the uniformed forces and attending to emergency cases only. The strike, one of several over pay and working conditions in the past two years, comes at a time a large number of doctors and nurses have left Zimbabwe in search of better paying jobs. Public hospitals have also been hit by under-funding from the government and severe foreign currency shortages that have hampered the import of essential medicines.
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From MISA, 16 December
Journalist detained, equipment confiscated
Martin Chimenya, a journalist working for the Voice of the People Communications Trust (VOP), was arrested on 8 December in the city of Masvingo, 293 km south of the capital Harare. He was charged under section 79 (1) of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) for allegedly practising as a journalist without accreditation. Under this section journalists are not allowed to work without a license from the Media and Information Commission. The magistrate's court released Chimenya on December 10 on a Z$15 000 bail (approximately US$19). He was ordered to appear in court again on December 23, 2003. His recorder and tapes are yet to be returned. Members of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) picked up Chimenya from his home in Masvingo on December 8. The agents ordered him to take all his equipment, which included tapes and a recorder.
Since his arrest till the afternoon of the following day, December 9, Chimenya's whereabouts were unknown as the police denied his arrest. Tongai Matutu, a lawyer hired by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Zimbabwe to find and represent Chimenya was only able to see him on Tuesday afternoon at the Masvingo Central Police station. Other journalists in the city informed MISA-Zimbabwe said that Chimenya was handed over to the police on December 9. CIO agents have no arresting powers under Zimbabwe law. The police also accused Chimenya of recording interviews in which president Robert Mugabe was denigrated. Under section 16 of the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) it is an offence to denigrate the President. On his release Chimenya told MISA-Zimbabwe that he was not harassed or beaten. He added that his interrogators wanted to find out which organisation he worked for and how they transmit news.
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From IRIN (UN), 16 December
Greener pastures create passport to corruption
Harare - Zimbabweans trying to leave the country in search of economic opportunities are having to deal with government officials whom they allege are turning their plight into profit, IRIN has learnt. Rising incidents of graft by public officials has coincided with Zimbabwe's worsening economic conditions, according to the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International (TI). It ranked Zimbabwe as among the world's most corrupt countries in a report released in October. The organisation claimed corruption was rampant in both the private and public sectors, but said the perception among ordinary Zimbabweans was mostly that public office was being used for personal enrichment. The authorities dismissed TI's findings, accusing the group of partisanship. Zimbabwe's economic problems took a sharp turn for the worst when pro-government militants, led by veterans of the country's liberation war, began illegally invading white-owned farms in 2000. Investors and donors turned away from the country in protest at the lawlessness, resulting in the current acute shortages of foreign currency and fuel, and the skyrocketing prices of basic commodities. Almost 70 percent of the labour force is unemployed, and the inflation rate, now officially at 526 percent, is expected to reach 700 percent by the end of March 2004.
Exactly how many Zimbabweans have emigrated over the past three years remains unclear, but the queues remain long outside the passport office in the capital, Harare. It is not uncommon for people to spend the night outside on the pavement, to ensure at least getting into the building the following day. The delays that characterise the application process have been complicated by corruption. Twenty-seven year old Anne Kamba told IRIN she had come to the passport offices for the past five days, but was finding it difficult to obtain an application form. "Senior authorities here tell us that application forms are there in abundance, but, surprisingly, when we ask for them from the relevant offices, we are told that they have run out," she explained. "What I have since discovered is that some officials are deliberately withholding the forms as a way of forcing us to buy them from them or their middlemen. They have formed syndicates with young men who loiter at the [entrance] gate and approach us, saying they have the forms. But where do these people think we will get the money from in these times of hardships?"
According to Kamba the "middlemen" asked for Zim $200,000 (about US $250 at the official exchange rate of Zim $824 to the US dollar) for a passport application form, which they shared with passport control officials. "In some cases, passport seekers do not even have to visit these offices. Everything - from the application to the collection of passports - is done for them while they are at home. These are the people who are prepared to pay large sums of money, which sometimes runs into millions of [Zimbabwean] dollars," she added. Kamba, a qualified primary school teacher with three years' experience, hopes to join her sister in the United Kingdom. She told IRIN that low wages and poor working conditions had made her decide to seek employment abroad. Zimbabwe is experiencing a debilitating flight of professional and skilled people escaping the country's economic meltdown, with the health and teaching professions most affected by the brain drain. Those unable to leave have turned to "moonlighting" as a way of supplementing their meagre incomes, while others have seen opportunity in the crisis and are turning it to their own advantage.
Constable Stan Mapiye (not his real name), a security guard at the central passport office, is among a handful of individuals who have benefited - he manages to net almost Zim $80,000 (US $100) daily. "I am glad this country is going through an economic crisis, because to me it is a blessing in disguise," he told IRIN. "I am able to make so much money because there are thousands of desperate people who come here every day to look for passports in order to seek greener pastures abroad." Mapiye, a junior police constable, earns an official gross monthly salary of Zim $140,000 (US $175). For around Zim $10,000 (US $12), Mapiya is willing to move a person to the front of the long queue of passport seekers. "These days, it's your money that talks. There is no need for you to sleep in a queue in order to get your passport," he said. A senior passport officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was difficult to monitor the activities of subordinates because of pressures of work. "Even though we condemn corruption in the strongest terms, there is no guarantee that employing people to monitor the situation at the gate and in the corridors will help, as these people might end up collaborating with the rotten eggs in our midst," she said.
John Makumbe, Transparency International's local representative, attributes escalating corruption to a "breakdown of the justice delivery system". He said because of poor remuneration, the police, magistrates and judges were resorting to bribes in order to make ends meet. "The whole justice system, right from the Supreme Court to the lowest courts, is in shambles. There are no monitoring and retributive mechanisms to ensure that those who would have been found on the wrong side of the law are punished. The situation is made even more pathetic by the fact that those who should enforce and interpret the law are also corrupt," Makumbe alleged. He called on the government to create an independent anti-corruption commission to tackle graft in both the public and private sectors.
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From IRIN (UN), 15 December
Crackdown on forex smuggling
Bulawayo - With an iron grip on a medium-sized travelling bag, Zodwa strolls leisurely along Fifth Avenue, one of the busiest streets in the southern Zimbabwean town of Bulawayo, keeping an eye out for cars bearing foreign plates, and the police. Zodwa is a foreign currency dealer, one of the hundreds working on the parallel market in Zimbabwe's second city. Her business is made possible by an official exchange rate that bears no relation to the street value of the local currency, which has been steadily eroded by the country's economic crisis. The government, however, blames people like Zodwa for the shortages of foreign currency in the formal economy. It is determined to hit back, especially with Christmas approaching, when people working abroad return with plenty of hard currency.
In a statement last week, the police said 24-hour roadblocks, manned jointly by the police and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), would be set up along the main highways from the South African and Botswana borders in a crackdown on currency smuggling. The response revives the stop-and-search operations carried out by the police and ZIMRA in early November, which were halted after a public outcry over their intrusiveness. "The police will intensify their crackdown to monitor the movement of foreign currency into the country during the festive season. We expect many Zimbabweans who work in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia to enter the country. These are the people who smuggle in the foreign currency that feeds the black market in Bulawayo and Harare," said a police spokesman.
The crackdown is the work of a nine-member cabinet taskforce led by Water Development and Rural Resources Minister Joyce Mujuru. Apart from using the police and ZIMRA to clamp down on the dealers and smugglers, the taskforce is also monitoring the conduct of banks that run foreign currency accounts. Under the new law on foreign currency transactions, the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe takes as much as 50 percent of foreign earnings in taxes, while the remaining amount must be exchanged at the official rate of US $1 to Zim $824. On the parallel market the rate varies between Zim $5,600 to Zim $8,000 to the greenback. Several hundred foreign currency dealers have been arrested in Bulawayo over the past month, with about Zim $40 million (US $49,000) seized, according to police spokesman Inspector Smile Dube. The police have also recovered over Zim $32 million through searches at Beitbridge, on the border with South Africa.
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From BBC News, 16 December
Kenya hunts for missing billions
The authorities in Kenya are seeking to retrieve at least $1bn (£570m) siphoned out of the country by former officials. A six-month inquiry by investigative group Kroll has tracked the stolen money to accounts in big-name banks, and shares in London hotels. The money may already have passed on to less co-operative places such as Zimbabwe, Kenyan ministers believe. But experts say recovering the loot - possibly as much as $4bn - could be much more difficult than tracing it. The money in question is thought to have been embezzled during the previous administration of former President Daniel arap Moi, who ruled for 24 years before stepping down following election defeat in December last year. "Identifying the assets is just the first step," Gladwell Odieno, Executive Director of anti-graft group Transparency International (TI) Kenya, told BBC News Online. "Getting the money back is a much more questionable proposition. The people who got the money out obviously had enormous resources, and it's not easy for developing country governments to conduct these cases. The odds are stacked against them."
If the money is still in Europe, then freezing it may still be possible with such means as the Mareva Injunction - a legal tool which allows assets to be frozen without the target being notified in advance. But Justice Minister Robinson Githae told the BBC that the money may already be elsewhere. "What we have been told is that this money, most of it, was in Switzerland, in Monaco and in the Cayman Islands," he said. "But now the intelligence information we have is that this money is now being moved to some African countries like Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botwsana." Mr Githae said scams during the 1990s included one where the government was allegedly defrauded of millions of dollars worth of official payments designed to encourage exports. The main conduit is thought to be a firm set up to encourage gold and jewel exports called Goldenberg International, now the subject of a massive public inquiry. Other alleged scams involved government officials allowing their associates to borrow money from the central bank only to re-lend it at much higher interest rates.
The total figure for corruption has been put as high as $3-4bn, according to testimony to the inquiry into Goldenberg. Such a large sum, the inquiry heard, could have funded universal primary education for a decade - and is not far off the entire government budget for the current year. "Kenyans are seeing what they have lost, the years of development that have been stolen from them," Ms Otieno said. Among those targeted by the investigation are a number of serving and former officials and ministers, who served under former President Daniel arap Moi, and Kenyans are expecting them to face sanctions when the inquiry reconvenes in January. Mr Moi relinquished power after 24 years at the top after his Kanu party lost an election in December 2002. A coalition of opposition parties, Narc, took over, and new President Mwai Kibaki put John Githongo - Ms Otieno's predecessor at the head of TI Kenya - in charge of ethics and anti-corruption. In this case, the resources allegedly diverted as part of the Goldenberg International operation ended up in European and US banks.
Foreign exchange transactions at a number of banks, named at the inquiry in Nairobi, helped launder the proceeds. According to the Financial Times, they also funded the purchase of assets including shares in two London hotels, the Kroll investigation has found. In the future, it could be easier to recover this kind of money. On 9 December the United Nations formally unveiled its International Convention against Corruption, signed by a number of countries including Kenya and the UK. The Convention commits signatories to repatriate resources looted in this manner. But it will not come into force till 30 countries ratify it, a process which could take at least two years.
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From Business Day (SA), 18 December
Mbeki to test quiet diplomacy in Harare
With mounting pressure to prove that "quiet diplomacy" can help bring about a settlement in Zimbabwe, President Thabo Mbeki arrives in Harare today for talks with the country's president, Robert Mugabe. The visit comes as Archbishop Desmond Tutu called on SA to speak out against human rights violations. Tutu said SA's stance raised the question of what would stop SA from lapsing into undemocratic practices if it was indifferent to what was happening north of the border. Arnold Vaatz, a deputy leader from Germany's main opposition party, the Christian Democrats, who spent three days in Zimbabwe, said yesterday he feared for the future of southern Africa if SA tolerated and supported "a criminal and racist" government. Vaatz also warned that SA was losing postapartheid international goodwill and credibility and stood to lose out on international investment.
Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo, said yesterday that the president's visit was part of continuing consultations with Mugabe, to help the people of Zimbabwe to find a solution to their problems. Khumalo said the visit was planned "a long time ago" and was not a result of events at the recent Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Nigeria, at which Zimbabwe was indefinitely suspended from the Commonwealth. The expulsion was criticised by the Southern African Development Community. Mbeki was particularly stinging in his attack, labelling the move by European members as seeking to protect their "kith and kin". In a statement earlier this week, Tutu said that what was reportedly happening in Zimbabwe was "totally unacceptable and reprehensible". By drawing attention to the issue, Vaatz could put pressure on German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to make Zimbabwe a prominent matter on his visit to SA early next year. As SA has supported Zimbabwe, Vaatz said, "you ask yourself, what's the future for SA and Africa"? Vaatz said his deepest impression from the visit was how similar the climate of repression in Zimbabwe was to that in his former homeland, east Germany. He said there was an environment of deep mistrust in Zimbabwe, as well as "deep insecurity about the future".
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From Reuters, 18 December
Zim opposition urges Mbeki to hear its side
By Stella Mapenzauswa
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition urged South African President Thabo Mbeki to hear its arguments when he visits his troubled northern neighbour for talks with President Robert Mugabe on Thursday. Mbeki has stood by an increasingly isolated Mugabe, who stormed out of the Commonwealth earlier this month, and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has previously condemned his "soft diplomacy" on Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis. Zimbabwe state television quoted Mbeki's spokeperson Bheki Khumalo as saying he would meet Mugabe to discuss "bilateral issues and others relating to the situation in Zimbabwe". "The meeting really is about consultation... to find out the latest situation there," Khumalo said in remarks broadcast by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. Earlier, Khumalo told South Africa's state broadcaster Mbeki had no plans to meet the MDC, which said it hoped Mbeki would back the Commonwealth's view that the "root cause of the Zimbabwe crisis is a crisis of governance and legitimacy". "Successful brokerage in the resolution of the Zimbabwe crisis will be determined by even-handedness and the willingness to listen to the views of both sides of the Zimbabwean political equation," it said in a statement.
The political crisis in Zimbabwe has deepened since Mugabe's disputed re-election last year in a vote several Western countries said was rigged. At a meeting in Nigeria earlier this month, the Commonwealth extended indefinitely Zimbabwe's suspension over the disputed election result, prompting the veteran leader to withdraw from the group of mainly former British colonies. The Commonwealth move was seen as a defeat for Mbeki, who led a number of mainly southern African countries advocating a more reconciliatory approach towards Mugabe as Zimbabwe sinks into its worst political and economic crisis since independence. Khumalo said Mbeki had no intention of changing his stance. Mugabe says he will not go back on his decision to quit the Club and will only entertain leaders of Commonwealth member states if they approach him as representatives of their individual countries. Mugabe, who dismisses the MDC as a puppet group, has vowed he will only resume stalled talks with the opposition over Zimbabwe's crisis if it drops its legal challenge against his election victory, which he insists was above board. The veteran leader says his local and foreign enemies have sabotaged Zimbabwe's economy to pay him back for his policy of seizing white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.
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From The Independent (UK), 18 December
Machinery to be taken from white farmers in Zimbabwe
By Basildon Peta, Southern Africa correspondent
White farmers who have been forced from their land in Zimbabwe will now have their farming equipment confiscated by the government under a new decree passed by President Robert Mugabe. Farmers are banned from selling, damaging or immobilising their farm machinery. Those who defy the decree, which has been enacted under Mr Mugabe's wide-ranging presidential powers, face two years in jail or a fine. The decree is aimed mainly at confiscating and re-distributing white-owned farming machinery, without giving compensation. Cronies of Mr Mugabe have been allocated land, seized ostensibly to benefit landless peasants. The clampdown comes as Thabo Mbeki, the South African President, arrives in Zimbabwe today to try to negotiate an end to the crisis. Vast tracts of the land seized are now idle, either because the beneficiaries do not have equipment to farm or because they are too poor.
The decree empowers the Agriculture Ministry and its representatives to "enter any land or premises to ascertain whether there is any farm equipment or materials not being used for agricultural purposes." The equipment can be confiscated and forfeited to the state if it is derelict. Farmers who have been forced off their land have been unable to use their farming equipment, and many put it in storage. Others were selling their equipment to survive. But the decree means this is no longer possible. Mr Mugabe refused to compensate farmers for land seized, but he promised compensation for improvements and equipment. However, this has never happened. Some equipment left on farms has already been vandalised or confiscated. Farmers who had not already moved equipment from their land had been barred from doing so. John Worsley-Worswick, vice-chairman of the Justice in Agriculture farmers' representative body, said: "It's suddenly a crime to have a piece of equipment you cannot use because you have been forced off your farm. This is daylight robbery. It is vindictive and intimidatory. Mugabe is keen we give up altogether." He added that the decree violated constitutional rights of ownership. Meanwhile, Mr Mugabe has ruled out the possibility of his country's return to the Commonwealth, after withdrawing earlier this month.
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From IRIN (UN), 17 December
Agriculture badly affected by HIV/Aids
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's struggling agricultural sector, already hard hit by drought, shortages of inputs and the fast-track land reform programme, has also been badly affected by HIV/AIDS. In its latest report the UN Relief and Recovery Unit (RRU) noted that "productivity has been severely affected in the agricultural sector as a direct result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country". Research indicates a 43 percent HIV/AIDS prevalence rate on farms, compared to a national infection level of 24.6 percent, with the highest number of HIV-positive people in the 15 to 23 age range - "the core of the agricultural labour force". The research, conducted for the UN Development Programme and soon to be published in the "Zimbabwe Human Development Report 2003", found that 23 percent of labour losses among farming communities were due to HIV/AIDS. As a result, the total area cropped in Zimbabwe had declined by about 39 percent. "Crop yield has declined by 59 percent, and marketed output declines of 66 percent could be experienced in Zimbabwe's agricultural sector due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic," the RRU said.
The impact of HIV/AIDS on agriculture has seen both "labour quantity and quality compromised through incapacitation and deaths". This included the "loss of agricultural extension workers through death, illness and discharge on medical grounds", while a "significant amount of man-hours have been lost [through] increased absenteeism because of illness, caring for the sick or attending funerals". The research indicated a statistical decline in livestock and crop production among communal HIV/AIDS-affected households. Investment levels were also lower, as "resources meant for agricultural production are increasingly being diverted to care for the sick, and for funeral expenses". In response to the crisis the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement has established an HIV/AIDS desk to spearhead HIV/AIDS programmes. Some of its interventions include the distribution of condoms and holding awareness workshops on HIV/AIDS. However, these initiatives had been hindered by a lack of resources, the RRU said.
The Unit noted that the combined impact of HIV/AIDS, the macroeconomic policy environment and Zimbabwe's "severe economic decline", were the main causal factors of the humanitarian crisis in the country. "These factors will continue to simultaneously erode self-reliance at household level, and the quality of essential basic services at the national level, leading to rising vulnerability," the study predicted. IRIN reported earlier this year that observers had forecast another poor 2003-04 farming season, to which the acute shortage of inputs, including seeds, fertiliser and farming implements contributed. The Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) recently noted that "over the past four seasons, production has either remained static or declined, due to a number of factors beyond the control of general farmers". The government's fast-track land reform programme and drought have been blamed for the downturn in production. But planning a recovery for the sector, which is vital to both household and national income, is going to be difficult with the added complication of HIV/AIDS. "With the agricultural sector threatened in this way, and at a time when food security is already a major cause for concern, urgent short- and medium-term initiatives in the HIV/AIDS sector are required," the RRU warned.
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From The Financial Times (UK), 17 December
Zimbabwe's bank chief tackles inflation
By Tony Hawkins in Harare
Gideon Gono, new governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank, will on Thursday present his first monetary policy statement, expected to include a substantial devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar and drastic new measures to tackle inflation. Mr Gono will unveil his policy a day after the publication of inflation figures showing that prices rose 33.6 per cent in November, the highest monthly increase to date. Year-on-year inflation accelerated dramatically from 525.8 per cent in October to 619.6 per cent last month. Prices have doubled in the last three months to give an annualised inflation rate of over 1900 per cent. Public expectations of what Mr Gono can deliver have been built up in the state media, but bankers say Mr Gono faces a near-impossible task. President Robert Mugabe has repeatedly said interest rates are too high and must come down, while last month the cabinet vetoed plans to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar from its current official rate of Z$824 to the US dollar to over Z$3,000. Despite political obstacles, the markets believe there will be a substantial devaluation on Thursday to more than Z$3,000 to the US dollar. If it goes ahead, the move will not be called devaluation but an adjustment to the "export support" exchange rate.
There is speculation too that in a move to regulate the parallel market, where the Zimbabwe dollar trades between Z$6,500 and Z$7,000 to the US dollar, Mr Gono will announce a new system of tradable bearer bonds, denominated in foreign currency that exporters will be required to hold for a minimum of 90 days. Bankers say the exchange rate adjustment is a less taxing problem than resolving the rapidly-worsening crisis in the country's money market. Overnight rates have risen to over 600 per cent as banks struggle to meet their obligations. At least four banks have been shut out of the daily clearing system because of liquidity problems, suggesting that to avoid a crisis the central bank will have to to pump more money into the market, thereby bringing interest rates down. Bankers say this would worsen rather than reduce inflation. "To square the circle, Mr Gono will have to come up with some innovative measures, to force down interest rates while simultaneously discouraging banks from lending for non-productive purposes," said one banker.
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From Business Day (SA), 18 December
Zimbabwe with its back to the wall
Harare - Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate, on an almost vertical curve, hit 620% in November, according to official statistics issued yesterday. Interest rates soared at about the same rate, marking the critical worsening of the economy. Figures from the state Central Statistical Office said year-on-year inflation reached 619.5% to the end of November, while measured against the previous month, the rate rose 33.6%, against 25% in October, itself a record. Food prices in November shot up 35%, drinks and tobacco by 49% and clothing and footwear by 21.9% . The worst, however, was medical expenses which went up 224% in a single month. Meanwhile, interest rates hit to 635% on Monday, the state-controlled daily Herald newspaper reported. The interest rate surge was a result of a shortage of liquidity driven largely by rapidly rising costs. Last week, local reports said at least four banks failed to raise normal liquidity requirements and the local market fell Z$179-billion (about US$28-million) of demand. The pressure abated after the Central Bank pumped in Z$150-billion during the week, but after two days, it was back up again. "Everybody is scrambling," said economist Tony Hawkins. "Earlier this year it was a shortage of banknotes, now it's a shortage of liquidity. There's only one way the rate can go, and that's up, unless they take drastic action." Finance company executives warn of a looming banking industry crash. New Central Bank governor Gideon Gono is due to make a major monetary policy statement on Thursday. President Robert Mugabe still exercises full control over the country's finances, insisting on low interest rates and controlled commodity prices, and has denounced calls for the devaluation of the currency - now pegged at US1/ZD824, against a parallel rate of US$1/Z$6,500 - as "treason." Once second in Africa only to South Africa's economy, Zimbabwe now has the highest inflation rate in the world and its fastest falling gross domestic product.
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From The United Nations, 17 December
Food prices spike beyond reach of average Zimbabwean family, UN says
As drought, deaths from HIV/AIDS and a general decline decimate the Zimbabwean economy, the prices of basic foods have risen by nearly half again in the last month, putting them out of the average family's reach, the United Nations warned today. This spike in the prices of maize, sugar and flour comes during a period between harvests, when UN agencies expect families to be most in need of food aid, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. Agricultural production is hampered by an estimated 43 per cent HIV prevalence rate among farm workers that is killing the labour force or leaving people too sick to work. Areas under crops declined by 39 per cent in 2003, while yields dropped by almost 60 per cent. With foreign currency to buy spare parts and purification chemicals in short supply, urban water and sewerage systems have been declining rapidly, OCHA said. This lack of safe water heightens the risk of disease. In addition, rural water supplies are in critical condition. "There have already been serious cholera outbreaks in the Zambezi Valley, one of the poorest regions of Zimbabwe."
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From Botswana Press Agency, 17 December
Botswana police intensify patrols along Zim border
Botswana police have intensified patrols along the Botswana/Zimbabwean border after an upsurge in stocktheft cases and damages to the newly built electrified fence between the two countries. Senior superintendent Boikhutso Dintwa of Francistown police said that some Zimbabwean had been jailed after they were found with gumpoles stolen from the fence and fresh meat of livestock they snared in Botswana. He said one Zimbabwean had a pending case of allegedly stealing four donkeys and driving them across the border into Zimbabwe. Vandalism of the electrified fence was common between Matsiloje and Ramokgwebana villages, Dintwa said, adding that some culprits had been arrested with the help of Zimbabwe police. Meanwhile, a resident of Jackals II, Bagisamang Keakantse, blamed Zimbabwean illegals for the rise in house breaking and theft cases, as well as snaring of domestic and wild animals in Tshelagabedi and Jakaclas II areas. Keakantse said the illegals cross into Botswana by cutting the electric fence, snare animals and skin them, before returning to their country with the meat. Zimbabweans are always armed and sometimes use dogs to hunt wild animals. Keakantse said in some case animals were driven across the border, especially at Jackalas II, Siviya, Senyawe and Jackalas One villages.
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From The New York Times, 19 December
South African leader visits Zimbabwe to urge talks
By Sharon LaFraniere
Johannesburg - Under growing pressure over his reluctance to condemn the authoritarian government in Zimbabwe, South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, flew there on Thursday to try to persuade President Robert G. Mugabe to negotiate with the democratic opposition. Mr. Mbeki is perhaps Mr. Mugabe's most visible ally among foreign heads of state, but there was little expectation that this visit, the latest in a series of appeals by Mr. Mbeki in the past year, would bring any change. Mr. Mugabe, 79, has governed Zimbabwe for 23 years. He is widely accused of assuming dictatorial powers, and his policy of seizing productive commercial farms from white farmers, ostensibly to redress past oppression, has wrecked the economy. Mr. Mugabe says his critics are tools of racist Western leaders. On Thursday, Mr. Mbeki stood solidly with Mr. Mugabe in public. Speaking to about 200 supporters of Mr. Mugabe's governing Zanu PF Party, Mr. Mbeki emphasized their countries' history of white minority rule. "In the African revolution, we shared the trenches together," he said, according to Zimbabwean state radio. "President Mugabe can assist to confront the problems we have in South Africa. We can assist you to solve the problems that face Zimbabwe."
Mr. Mbeki also met with Zimbabwe's main opposition group, the Movement for Democratic Change, Reuters reported, and according to the group, Mr. Mbeki backed its call for negotiations with the government to end the political crisis. Some say Mr. Mbeki will keep his pressure on Mr. Mugabe private to avoid pushing him and his country further from the democratic fold. But the costs of that approach are rising. Mr. Mbeki was the foremost loser earlier this month in a battle to forestall Zimbabwe's departure from the 54-nation Commonwealth. Opponents of Mr. Mbeki say he is tarnishing the record of his party, the African National Congress, as a champion of rights and democracy. Richard Calland, a senior analyst with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, an independent nonprofit group, said Mr. Mbeki's policy seemed to make sense when there was a chance Mr. Mugabe would either share power or step down. "But over the past year, I think the balance has tipped the other way," Mr. Calland said. "To the external world, the impression is created that South Africa, and its president, is an appeaser of a repressive regime."
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From The Star (SA), 19 December
Mugabe agrees 'to be serious' about talks
Zimbabwe's government and opposition are ready to hold "talks about talks" on the crisis in the country. The formula was thrashed out on Thursday in a 45-minute, unscheduled meeting between President Thabo Mbeki and the Movement for Democratic Change. Mbeki, meeting MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition officials in Harare for the first time, told them he had a commitment from President Robert Mugabe to be serious about dialogue, according to impeccable sources. Mbeki had earlier held three hours of talks with Mugabe during his one-day visit to Zimbabwe. He was on his way to the C omoros, where he is to discuss a power-sharing agreement in that country on Saturday. According to the sources, Mbeki told Tsvangirai that he had come to unlock the dialogue between the MDC and the ruling Zanu PF party. He wanted to know whether the opposition would agree to talks. Tsvangirai explained that the MDC had always been ready for dialogue. The meeting then agreed upon a "mechanism" through which Zanu PF's Patrick Chinamasa and the MDC's Welshman Ncube would "design a method and agenda for talks". Chinamasa is the minister of justice and also Zanu PF's secretary for legal affairs. Ncube is the secretary-general of the MDC.
The sources said Tsvangirai had suggested a foreign convener - such as South Africa - for such meetings, but Mbeki was uncomfortable with the idea. He felt they should try the talks-about-talks option first and "see where things go". Tsvangirai also told Mbeki he had doubts about Mugabe's sincerity, after which Mbeki assured him that he had Mugabe's commitment. The sources said Mbeki did not touch upon issues likely to be on a talks agenda. "Substantive" matters such as a rerun of the presidential election and Mugabe's resignation "did not come up". Sapa reports that diplomats said the meeting with Tsvangirai appeared to have been an afterthought. Mbeki's officials said before he arrived that a meeting with the Zimbabwean pro-democracy leader would only take place "if necessary", and the MDC leaders were only called to Mbeki's hotel well into the afternoon. MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi told reporters that the meeting was a courtesy call. He said Mbeki had sounded out the MDC's views on how to end the crisis, and pledged his continued support for efforts to reach a negotiated settlement. Mbeki had produced no new initiatives, he said. "I have a feeling he came here to test the waters, seeing that this meeting took place so soon after the Commonwealth summit," Nyathi said.
Last week, Zimbabwe withdrew from the Commonwealth after being suspended over its poor governance record. Mbeki spent about three hours with Mugabe at his official residence. Reuters reports that Mugabe told reporters after the meeting: "I cannot say accurately where we are regarding formal talks."State radio quoted him as saying that informal talks were being held between Zanu PF and the MDC. When formal talks began, the public would be informed, Mugabe said, according to state radio. Nyathi said the MDC had been expecting serious initiatives after the Commonwealth dust had settled. The Commonwealth first suspended Zimbabwe in April last year in response to Mugabe's victory in presidential elections a month before, which the organisation said had been rigged. Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo have been trying ever since the elections to bring Mugabe and Tsvangirai together to negotiate an end to the violence, lawlessness, famine and economic collapse that have devastated the country for the past four years. A first round of two weeks of talks last year collapsed when the MDC launched a legal challenge to Mugabe's disputed election win, and since then only informal discussions between officials of the two parties have taken place.
Mbeki last week returned from the Commonwealth summit in Abuja, Nigeria, enraged after failing in his bid to get the organisation to readmit Zimbabwe. He shocked many colleagues in South Africa last week when he accused Britain of opposing Zimbabwe's return so that it could protect "its white, colonial kith and kin". He also said Western nations' demand for democratic reform in Zimbabwe was a disguised bid to get rid of Mugabe. Mbeki indicated support for the Harare regime's seizure of white-owned farms when he said the four-year expulsion of about 4 000 white farmers was "perhaps inevitable". Mugabe's withdrawal from the Commonwealth has cast him into deeper isolation than ever before. The country has the highest rate of inflation in the world, running at 620 percent, the fastest-shrinking gross domestic product anywhere, and a second year of famine is expected.
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From ZWNEWS, 19 December
Daily News given permission to publish
The Administrative Court has again delivered a judgement in favour of the Daily News, giving it permission to publish. Judge Selo Nare yesterday endorsed a previous decision by the court, which ruled that the government-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) should grant the paper a licence before 30 November. The Daily News was first shot down in September, for failing to register with the MIC under new media laws. The paper won a challenge in the Administrative Court, in which the MIC was also ruled as having been improperly constituted. That ruling was appealed by the government to the Supreme Court, and after producing a single issue, the Daily news had its equipment seized and was shut down by armed police. The Daily News again went to court, but judge Michael Majuru, who had been due to deliver a judgement, was forced in dubious circumstance to recuse himself after having being accused in the state press of having discussed his ruling with a member of the public before he delivered it. Information minister Jonathan Moyo today attacked the new ruling, calling it a "backdoor attempt" to grant publishing rights to the paper. Daily News staff were last night reported to be preparing another edition of the paper.
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From IOL (SA), 18 December
UN: More aid needed for Zim crises
Harare - The United Nations warned on Thursday that it would have to extend its famine relief plans in Zimbabwe for another six months as a result of a worsening of food shortages and the growing risk of cholera outbreaks in the country's cities and towns. The United Nations' Relief and Recovery Unit said in its latest report issued this week that not only would there be "severe food shortages" in the first three months of next year, but warned that in the following months, when Zimbabweans normally reap their summer grain crop, famine would continue because of a "sharp decline" in crop production. Failure by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government to provide seed and crop chemicals meant "a large proportion" of households were unable to farm. The report said water and sewerage systems in urban areas were in "rapid decline" because of the critical shortage of hard currency to buy water purification chemicals and spares for pumping systems. It forecast "severe" breakdowns of urban water supplies, especially in poor townships, and the likelihood of epidemics of cholera and dysentry. Nineteen people have died in the last month in a still continuing cholera outbreak in the remote northern district of Binga. A UN appeal for Zimbabwe launched last year for $264-million has so far attracted only $105-million, amid reports of Western donors' reluctance to be involved with Mugabe's regime as a result of the widespread use of the government's own food aid programme to force people to support Mugabe's ruling party.
Meanwhile, in Harare new Central Bank governor Gideon Gono issued a "monetary policy roadmap" in which he pledged that inflation, currently at 620 percent, would be brought down to 200 percent by next year and to "double digits" the year after. He announced changes to the exchange rate system, which would allow exporters to change 25 percent of their foreign currency earnings through a currency auction system, while they would be allowed to keep another 50 percent in locally-held foreign currency bank accounts and the remaining 25 percent would have to be sold to the central bank at the official rate of $1 to Z$800. The US dollar currently earns Zimbabwe dollars about 7 500 on the semi-legal parallel market. Under the current system, exporters lose half of their earnings to the Central Bank at the official rate. He said a "whistleblowers' fund" would be set up in terms of which anyone who provided "quality information" on illegal currency dealings would be paid 10 percent of the value of the deal, in hard currency. "You can no longer trust your export clerks who will overhear what you say. It will give them the chance of a first-time holiday outside the country," he said.
He also announced a dual interest rate system which would see borrowers paying "unsubsidised" market rates - now running at nearly 650 percent - while "institutional and development" borrowing would attract only 30 percent. Gono also said he would try to "re-engage" with Western financial institutions to access balance of payments support, lines of credit and foreign direct investment. Zimbabwe has been cut off from bilateral and multilateral international finance over the last five years, as a result of its failure to meet debt repayments, the lack of any action to try and restore economic viability in what was until recently one of Africa's strongest economies and the climate of repression of Mugabe's opponents. Zimbabwe external debt stands at $5,4-billion and it is in arrears of $2-billion. "We will seek to repay all our debts in the fullness of time and will try to show initiative and commitment towards repayment at the earliest opportunity," said Gono. In the meantime, he went on, "I appeal to donors to display sensitivity and where possible to offer us terms and conditions that will not militate against our turn-around programme."
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 December
Bearer cheques/$500 notes to stay
Ngoni Chanakira
Zimbabweans are stuck with "popular" bearer's cheques until December next year in clear signs that the central bank has failed to print new notes to inject into the cash-starved economy, it emerged yesterday. This is despite assurances to parliament by Finance and Economic Development minister Herbert Murerwa - firstly when he presented the $672 billion Supplementary Budget and then in his $7,7 trillion 2004 National Budget Statement - that the days of a cash crisis were over. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono yesterday spilled the beans when he told the nation that bearer's cheques "will be with us in the short-term and their validity will be extended". "We recognise the need for an early return to normalcy in this area and are working around the clock to achieve that status," Gono said.
"While bearer's cheques have served us well thanks to public understanding, it is not part of our monetary policy vision to want to perpetuate their existence one day longer than is necessary. In this regard I wish to advise that these bearer's cheques will be with us in the short-term and their validity will, and is hereby, extended to December 31 2004. At the same time the previously intended withdrawal of the $500 notes by December 31 will not take place. That action is hereby postponed until further notice." The governor said an appropriate notice to that effect would appear in newspapers today on the issue. "As monetary authorities we will work to increase the quantum of proper bank notes in circulation as soon as it is feasible but during the course of the year," he said. "A regular update of the situation will be made and the public notified." Insiders yesterday told business digest that this was clear evidence that the RBZ did not have any foreign currency to continue printing notes. They said Zimbabwe was stuck with bearer's cheques "probably forever".
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From The Times (UK), 19 December
Harare ‘inciting hatred’
From Jan Raath in Harare
Zimbabwe's state-run media are whipping up hatred and violence in a way that echoes Rwanda radio in the genocide there, according to a report. The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and the Herald daily had been accomplices in "the theft of a nation’s democratic rights" and "accomplices to murder" over the past three years, the report said. As in Rwanda in 1994, when Libre des Milles Collines radio - known as "Radio Machete" - beamed anti-Tutsi propaganda, journalists in the state media had "abandoned the most elementary standards of truthfulness" to create stories that "seemed calculated to incite a violent response to the Government’s opponents", according to the report by the local Media Monitoring Project. "No longer is it adequate to say they are politically biased," it added. The 203-page report is the first to dissect the controlled campaign of incitement to violence that has successfully instilled a climate of "fear and panic" to buttress President Mugabe’s dictatorship. At least every half hour, state radio broadcasts a jingle urging Zimbabweans to adopt "liberation" values and repeats the word "war" five times.
The state media had made no attempt to report reality. Their aim was to "fire up" a hard core of ruling party militants against the opposition, as Radio Machete mobilised a relatively small group of Hutus to genocide, the report said. This month the International Criminal Court for Rwanda, sitting in Arusha, Tanzania, passed life sentences on two of the station’s journalists and a 35-year sentence on another. It was the first time since the Nuremberg trials that journalists had been convicted of crimes against humanity. "The Zimbabwean echo is so uncanny, it would hardly be surprising to find a copy of the (Radio Machete) manual on Jonathan Moyo’s (the Information Minister) bookshelf," the report said. "When, one day, the perpetrators of violence are held to account, those who incited them with ‘hate speech’ should not be forgotten." The media issued a barrage of reports and commentaries that hammer out the myth of a British conspiracy to overthrow Mr Mugabe and return the country to white rule.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 December
Editor responds to threats
Staff Writer
The Editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, Iden Wetherell, has responded to claims by two Kwekwe Zanu PF officials that they had each filed a $300 million lawsuit against this paper for publishing a story claiming they were used as fronts by Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa in illegal gold dealings. "We will not be silenced by Zanu PF officials threatening us through government mouthpieces like the Herald," Wetherell said. "If they had a grievance against this newspaper they should have informed us through their lawyers. Instead, one of the two named as taking legal action against us, George Makombe, phoned our newsroom on December 8 and threatened our reporters." Makombe told reporter Blessing Zulu: "I will come to that paper and shoot everyone. I will make sure that the paper is closed."
Makombe denied that he was a Zanu PF official. He then called news editor Vincent Kahiya who referred him to reporter Shakeman Mugari who had co-authored the story with Zulu. After a few minutes Mugari handed the phone back to Kahiya saying Makombe was threatening him. Makombe told Kahiya that he had never spoken to Mugari on Wednesday, December 3, a day before the story was compiled. He said he was in Masvingo at the time preparing for the Zanu PF conference. Mugari has a record of their conversation on December 3. Makombe asked Kahiya where Mugari lived and how old he was. He said he had liberated this country and had spent years in the bush "dodging bullets". "I liberated this country," said Makombe. "You are lucky that I am in Kwekwe. If I was in Harare I was going to come there and shoot everybody. How old is that young man? Does he know that I can destroy him completely? I can inflict violence on him," he said. Kahiya reminded Makombe that he was making threats on the phone, which was an offence, to which Makombe replied the story in the paper was a bigger offence. He said that MDC Kwekwe MP Blessing Chebundo had passed on the information to the Independent because his party had lost the Kwekwe mayoral election in October. "You have to ask yourself why Chebundo lives in Kadoma when he is the MP for Kwekwe," said Makombe. "I chased him out of Kwekwe. You can ask him. He knows all about me and the terror I can cause," he said. In the Independent's report of December 5, Mines minister Edward Chindori-Chininga said the three men named had not been authorised to issue gold licences. "Those three officials are illegal and their syndicates are also illegal," he told this paper. Mnangagwa denied any involvement.
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From News24 (SA),19 December
Daily News raided, again
Harare - Hours after a Zimbabwe high court judge ruled that the independent Daily News be allowed to publish, the country's police raided the newspaper's premises. "We had prepared a special eight-page edition for Saturday," said editor Nqobile Nyathi. "Then riot police sealed off the printing works and told the staff to leave." Judge Selo Nare, under threat of violence, ruled that the Daily News be allowed to publish again after being banned by authorities since September. Within hours police had illegally raided the newspaper's premises, driven out journalists and technicians, and stopped them from producing the first edition of the newspaper since October when brief reprieve supplied by the courts allowed them to publish for a single day before being silence by authorities. The newspaper was first banned in September when a state commission refused to issue it with a "licence" to publish. Police then occupied the Daily News in the city centre and drove out journalists there. "It's nothing but lawlessness," said Sam Nkomo, chief executive officer of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe that owns the Daily News.
Earlier on Friday, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said the court action was "clearly political and will be resisted by all available legal means in the interest of upholding the rule of law." Lawyers attempted to make an urgent application to the high court in Harare for an interdict against authorities, but were frustrated by court officials who refused to allow any process until Tuesday, at the end of the long weekend, with Monday as a public holiday. Lawyers say the police action is the latest in a saga of repeated violations of court orders as authorities, who admit acting on "orders from the top," trample on the country's laws to ensure the silence of the courageous tabloid that has provided Zimbabweans with detailed coverage of Mugabe's repressive rule since it was founded early in 1999. Earlier on Friday Nare, head of the administrative court, a branch of the high court, ordered the government to obey a high court instruction made in October by another court in Harare which overturned a state banning order on the paper. Nare said in his judgement that his decision to allow the newspaper to publish again applied "notwithstanding any appeal that might be lodged."
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From The Scotsman (UK), 19 December
Mugabe's men defy death threat judge over media freedom
The Zimbabwe government today defied a court order to allow the country’s only independent daily newspaper to resume publishing and sent riot police shut down its printing plant. And the judge who made the order asked for police protection after he received a death threat. The editor of the Daily News, Nqobile Nyathi said that after a court ruling earlier today permitting the paper to reopen, the staff were preparing an eight page edition. But armed riot police sealed off entrances to the printing works in western Harare and ordered all staff to go home, Nyathi said. "We are trying to sort it out but it doesn’t look as if there’s much hope," she said. Scores of staff were cleared from the plant. There were no arrests. Police and government spokesmen were not immediately available for comment. Earlier a judge ordered Zimbabwe authorities to allow the newspaper, banned in September, to resume publishing. Judge Selo Nare, presiding over an appeal against the closure of The Daily News, upheld a ruling by the Administrative Court that the newspaper be allowed to reopen. That ruling was not enforced while the state lodged its appeal. Nare said the earlier ruling stood, even if state lawyers launched a fresh challenge. Judge Nare said he was seeking police protection after receiving a threatening letter. He gave a copy of the hand written letter to the newspaper’s lawyers. The letter accused him of bias "against our good government" and of having been "bought to sell out our mother country." It warned a ruling in favour of The Daily News "will result in serious suffering by you personally and members of your family." "Take this as a mere threat at your own peril," said the letter purporting to be from "War liberators and sons and daughters of the soil."
Ruling party militants and veterans of Zimbabwe’s independence war that led to independence in 1980 have been blamed by independent human rights groups for much of the political violence that has wracked the country. "We are watching you closely and will not stand idle if you collaborate with sell-outs like The Daily News," the letter said. Nare was assigned the appeal case when another Administrative Court judge withdrew after a state newspaper also accused him of bias against the government. During a three year crackdown against the media and the judiciary, several independent-minded judges have been forced to resign. Veterans of the liberation war and ruling party militants stormed the Supreme Court in 2000, accusing it of favouring opponents of the government’s often violent programme to seize thousands of white owned farms. None of the attackers, who sent judges fleeing, were arrested. Police shut down The Daily News and seized its equipment in September after it was banned under strict media laws imposed by the government last year. Since its launch in 1999, the Daily News has been a platform for criticism of President Robert Mugabe’s 23 year rule. The state controls the country’s two other daily newspapers, and the only TV and radio stations. In January 2001, The Daily News presses were destroyed in a bomb attack hours after Information Minister Jonathan Moyo described the paper as "a threat to national security which had to be silenced."
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 20 December
Kidnapped accountant made to drink acid
The chief accountant for a British-owned tea estates in Zimbabwe's eastern mountains died early yesterday after he was abducted and forced to drink acid. Phillip Laing, who was married with two young children, was found chained to a tree in the bush yesterday and it is not known whether he died during the night or instantly. At least four of his co-workers from the Eastern Highlands Plantations Pvt Ltd, in the Manicaland Province, about 40 miles north west of Mutare, were also abducted and attacked with acid, according to businessmen in the province. It is not known whether the murder and attacks were political or criminal. Police were not available for comment. Last month, President Robert Mugabe sacked Opprah Rushesa, the governor of Manicaland province, who was accused of being too friendly to the handful of white farmers still on their land, and replaced her with Lt-Gen Michael Nyambuya, a recently retired military officer who was in charge of Zimbabwe's troops in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The province had, until the new governor arrived endured relatively less violence on the former white owned commercial farms than other parts of Zimbabwe. The tea estates were founded by James Findlay, a Scotsman, more than 50 years ago. Mr Laing's wife flew back from Australia yesterday.
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From News24 (SA), 19 December
MDC gets ready to talk
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party will hold a national conference this weekend to discuss, among other issues, dialogue with President Robert Mugabe's party. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will hold the conference, the second since the party was founded in 1999, under the title "Courage and Hope Overcome Fear", according to an agenda. Secretary General Welshman Ncube, who heads a team tasked with negotiating with Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF, is expected to present a report on the contentious issue of inter-party dialogue. Since the MDC stormed onto Zimbabwe's political stage, the country has been deeply politically divided. Party leader Morgan Tsvangirai is currently on trial for treason for allegedly plotting to assassinate Mugabe ahead of 2002 presidential elections. Tsvangirai denies the charges, and says they were trumped up. Tsvangirai is expected to deliver a keynote address on Saturday.
Talks brokered by Nigeria and South Africa between the two political sides fell apart last year after Tsvangirai mounted a court challenge against Mugabe's disputed victory in presidential elections in March 2002. While low-level talks are known to be going on between representatives from the two parties, Mugabe has ruled out convening official talks with his political opponents until they recognise him as president. But the opposition says it will not drop its challenge. The opposition party's conference will take place two weeks after a similar one by Zanu-PF mandated Mugabe to pull the country out of the 54-nation Commonwealth grouping of mainly former British colonies. Mugabe took the step on December 7 over what he said was an unfair decision by the Commonwealth to prolong Zimbabwe's 20-month long suspension from the group over charges the Zimbabwean leader used vote-rigging and violence to win a fifth term in office. Zimbabwe is currently in the grip of severe economic problems, with inflation at 620%, 70% unemployment and chronic shortages of hard cash to import food, medicine and fuel. The MDC, which holds 52 parliamentary seats to Zanu PF's 67, says its conference will also look into ways of addressing the country's social and economic problems.
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From Reuters AlertNet, 18 December
Zimbabwe's food crisis spreads to cities
Bulawayo - Relief agencies, long experienced in channeling food aid into Zimbabwe’s rural areas, are increasingly turning their attention to the country’s towns and cities as harsh economic conditions make staple foods unaffordable. "There is an undoubted real need for more assistance in the urban areas," Horace Ndubiwa, chairman of the Bulawayo Welfare Society, told AlertNet. "The number of people needing food assistance has as a result more than trebled as life becomes very difficult to sustain, more so in the urban areas." The Bulawayo Welfare Society currently helps about 1,400 people on food aid in Zimbabwe’s second-biggest city - a fraction of the total number of people in need. Severe drought and low agricultural productivity during the past year have hit Zimbabweans hard, prompting government appeals for international assistance through the World Food Programme (WFP). The response has not been overwhelming. Several donor agencies have launched food aid programmes and provided humanitarian support for children and other vulnerable groups in the countryside, but little attention has been paid to the new urban needs.
More than five million people around Zimbabwe currently need food aid. The government claims the situation is under control, but experts say the situation will deteriorate if the drought continues. In an apparent admission that the crisis is growing, the government last month launched a nine-week survey to determine the levels and distribution of poverty throughout Zimbabwe. The latest report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, estimates the rural population in need of food aid at 4.1 million between October and December, and 5.1 million in the January-to-March period next year. The trend is also getting worse in the cities. "The role of the Welfare Society of Bulawayo will in the year ahead be more critical than it has ever been, given the current situation," Ndubiwa said. "Economists predict the further decline of the agricultural sector by 50 percent next year, amidst the government’s inability to finance the 2003/2004 season. If the Almighty does not bless us with abundant rains, 2004 is set to be another and more difficult year in which lives are more than likely to be lost due to hunger and starvation."
Run mostly by volunteers and social workers employed by the Bulawayo City Council the society launched a pilot food aid programme in May with the help of international donations. Under the project, many households in the city receive 25 kg of mealie meal - finely ground maize - five kg of beans, 25 kg of porridge and two litres of cooking oil distributed through the housing offices of the local council. NGOs operating in the Matabeleland region have launched fresh appeals for international aid in an effort to meet needs in urban areas. "There is a definite need for food aid in urban areas as people cannot afford a square meal due to the difficult economic times we are facing," said Norbet Dube, chairman of a consortium of NGOs in the region.
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From Mmegi (Botswana), 15 December
Zim illegals have nowhere to go
Ryder Gabathuse
Francistown - A 24-year-old Zimbabwean woman - completely in a world of her own - sits on her huge black luggage bag at the Francistown-Ramokgwebana taxi stop. She ponders deeply as to what has happened to her two friends. "Our plan was to leave in the morning by bus for Bulawayo. I have been waiting here for the past four hours and my friends are nowhere to be seen," said a worried Sarah Ndlovu. The last time Sarah and her friends crossed the Ramokgwebana border at the gazetted point of entry was about six months ago. The three women have regularly illegally crossed the border into Botswana from Zimbabwe to find menial jobs. Mostly they go unnoticed. The police, who "trouble illegal Zimbabwean" have never managed to round up Ndlovu and her friends. "I suspect that my friends could have been nabbed by police when they left the houses where they had been temporarily employed as housemaids," contemplated Ndlovu. She added that the three of them have been hired by some teachers at a local secondary school to cook, wash clothes and sometimes to baby-sit.
They have been renting a one-roomed house in town and shared it to be able to afford the rent. Their employers have told them to leave because the schools have closed. Wednesday morning was another chance to escape unnoticed. As tough luck would have had it, Ndlovu fears that the police nabbed her mates and took them to the centre for illegal immigrants where border jumpers are kept while awaiting deportation. She finds herself in a serious dilemma. She cannot go back to the house they rented because she could fall in the trap of the police. "I have seen a number of Zimbabwean illegals bundled into police vans before. We have been very lucky ourselves - until today's incident," she said. When brought to her attention that she had broken the law, she had no qualms. "My brother, have you ever been to Zimbabwe, or read about Zim. Millions of people in our country are literally starving", she explained. She claims to have been a teacher at a primary school in Zimbabwe before, but was driven by hunger to Botswana in the hope that things would work out here. "Prices are soaring everyday while the value of the Zim dollar plunges almost daily. This is a sad reality isn't it?" she asked.
She said that she breaks the law to survive. She finds herself in a fix because her passport shows that she has an entry stamp from the Immigration Department but that she has overstayed. "I cannot risk going into the bush with people I don't know and trust. I would rather hand myself to the police so that I join my mates at the centre until we are driven back home." Ndlovu is one of the many Zimbabwean illegals that are arrested daily. She finally stated that she would rather hand herself over than risk her life. Zimbabwean illegal immigrants fleeing economic realities back home, flock to the city in the hope of getting menial jobs. Daily they traipse the streets and residences in search of jobs. Most of them are women. Male illegal immigrants mainly flock the industrial sites in search of "piece jobs". Most of them are qualified, but because they cannot be absorbed into the labour force back home, they find themselves moving from yard to yard in search of opportunities. They are mostly cheap to hire and are employed at cattle posts and jobs shunned by Batswana. The Francistown Commanding Police District Officer, Boikhutso Dintwa, has seen the many faces of illegal immigrants. His officers have even set up special operations to nab Zimbabwean illegals. "The situation is just like before. We still have them living amongst us and we still arrest them almost on a daily basis," explained Dintwa. The police are worried that their budget for feeding awaiting-trial prisoners while they are locked up, has been under strain because they feed many illegals before handing them over to the Centre for Illegal Immigrants. Government vehicles also transport them, which further puts strain on the budgets.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 December
Muckraker - Choice channels for the First Family
During the recent postal strike DStv had difficulty getting copies of its Dish magazine to customers. People were encouraged instead to go to DStv offices to collect their copies. But postal addresses had already been stamped on the packets so customers got somebody else’s copy. Which is how Muckraker ended up with a copy addressed to Hon RG Mugabe, Zimbabwe House, 7th Avenue, Harare. We don’t know whose copy Hon RG Mugabe has, but if he would like the one belonging to him he is free to call Muckraker and ask for it. What intrigues us about this is why the president should want to subscribe to satellite television, with all its subversive British and American stations transmitting "lies" about Zimbabwe, when he could be watching ZTV with its good news about the success of the land programme, not to mention its entertaining gyrating jingles. Zimbabweans will be curious to learn that after a hard day’s work, Bob and Grace like nothing better than to put their feet up and watch Will and Grace, and other American or British TV programmes. Perhaps they just have it for the kids, switching across to Newshour once the little ones have gone to bed? Somehow we doubt it. It looks as if, like the rest of us, they can’t stomach ZTV! What’s the betting they watch BBC World, Star Trek, Outer Limits, The Drew Carey Show, and CSI Miami? Who knows, Grace may even pick up a few tips from Nigella Lawson on the Food Channel!
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From The Sunday Tribune (SA), 21 December
Churches slam Mbeki over Zimbabwe stance
By Brett Horner
In the wake of President Thabo Mbeki's highly controversial visit to Harare, church leaders across denominations on Saturday night slammed the South African government's softly-softly stance on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, which they likened to regimes of apartheid hardliners such as Hendrik Verwoerd, BJ Vorster and PW Botha. In an unprecedented show of unity, Johannesburg-based church leaders - from Anglican and Catholic to Dutch Reformed and Greek Orthodox - on Saturday night issued a hard-hitting statement condemning Mbeki's policy on Zimbabwe. "We are appalled by the witness given to us concerning the extent of torture being meted out on Zimbabwean citizens who flee to this country for nothing less than fear of death," the leaders said. The statement comes on the heels of Mbeki's visit to Zimbabwe, and his comments that South Africa "could learn" from its beleaguered northern neighbour on how to solve similar problems - a statement which sparked a regional and international outcry. The church leaders' statement will pile more pressure on Mbeki to take a hard stance on President Robert Mugabe. It also follows Archbishop Desmond Tutu's criticism of Mbeki's refusal to speak out against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.
Government spokesmen have downplayed the potential damage of Mbeki's remarks to South Africa internationally. "President Mbeki should not be taken literally," said a senior government spokesman last night. "Rather his remarks should be seen as tactical and in line with diplomacy, to ensure that the Zimbabweans continue listening to us." In the statement, the church leaders said: "To remain silent any longer renders us complicit in the brutality being visited by Zimbabwean authorities on their own citizens. We cannot and will not remain silent any longer. To do so would be to be unfaithful to and discredit the history of our own transformation. We are confused by the constant call for moral regeneration within our own country, by leaders who appear to defend or overlook moral corruption in neighbouring states. We have heard accounts of people having red-hot needles pushed under their armpits and through their shoulder blades and frequent electrifying of fingers, soles of feet and genitals. Legs have been broken." Earlier in the week Tutu said: "What has been reported as happening in Zimbabwe is totally unacceptable and reprehensible and we ought to say so".
Bishop Ndanga Phaswana of the Lutheran Church in Gauteng told the Sunday Tribune: "The violation of human rights in Zimbabwe makes a mockery of democracy in South Africa, especially if we keep quiet and say we are not involved." Inundated with refugees seeking counselling and a safe haven across the border, religious organisations have received alarming versions of brutality meted out by Mugabe's mobs. Fear of death hangs over the heads of fleeing refugees. One church leader told the Sunday Tribune there were indications of Mugabe loyalists orchestrating their reign of terror on refugees through networks in South Africa. The church leaders have called for the government to clarify its stance on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, to speed up asylum applications and investigate first-hand accounts of bribery in home affairs. Taking government to task on alleged corruption in the department, the statement refers to "bribes and bureaucratic ineptitude" that are wreaking havoc with the lives of Zimbabwean asylum seekers.
Phaswana, who witnessed the terror in a trip to Zimbabwe in August, described its human rights situation as "appalling". "I spoke to people who had been sjambokked to vote for the ruling party in the last elections. Many people were going to bed on a drink of water and no food," he recalled. "You can touch the intensity of fear in people who are regarded as political opponents to Mugabe." For these reasons, he felt Mbeki's approach to quiet diplomacy was not working in Zimbabwe. "If you talk to ordinary Zimbabweans they will tell you that if South Africa can tell Mugabe to stop what he is doing, he will. Quiet diplomacy is viewed by oppressed Zimbabweans as a sign of South Africa's support." He said the most important thing Mbeki could do to restore order to the beleaguered country is publicly reprimand Mugabe. "If that doesn't work, South Africa should go the Commonwealth way and impose economic sanctions," he added. Reverend Gift Moerane of the Gauteng Council of Churches was equally critical. "Why are we not seeing the leaders sitting down to resolve the problems of the poor people?" he asked. Outspoken Methodist Bishop, Paul Verryn, said: "We cannot keep quiet anymore. It is good that we are now speaking out." Verryn has personally counselled many refugees and seen the effects of brutality, like genital mutilation, carried out by Mugabe's regime. "I cannot understand how a government that received asylum in the worst possible times during apartheid can ignore what is going on. They are doing nothing for Zimbabweans in our country. In fact, they are making it worse," he said.
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From IOL (SA), 20 December
MDC aims to bring Mugabe to negotiating table
Harare - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday promised to create a "broad alliance" with other pro-democracy organisations that he said next year would force President Robert Mugabe's government to negotiate an end to the country's political crisis. At the same time, his Movement for Democratic Change said in an official report to the party's annual conference in Harare that informal talks with Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party had so far "yielded nothing" and that the two parties "are as far apart as the North and South Poles are". Tsvangirai told about 1 000 enthusiastic delegates that the conference would produce "resolutions to ensure that a broad alliance of democratic forces is born. "The alliance will engage the regime. The alliance will intensify the pressure on the regime and force it to come to the negotiating table." He did not elaborate, but MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said Tsvangirai was referring to forming a coalition with civil rights groups, like the country's powerful labour, church and human rights organisations. "In the past, organisations like the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (the national labour movement) have gone out on their own. We have to seek to synchronise and consolidate our struggles," he said.
The conference was held under the theme, "courage and hope overcome fear," an attempt to rally what is seen as sliding morale in the party after four years of unrelenting repression meant to destroy the opposition party that was founded in 1999. Tsvangirai described the government as "a regime that behaves like a foreign occupying force". "We have been brutalised, tortured, raped and murdered by a regime that was supposed to protect us. The people have been under siege," he said. The MDC holds nearly half of the 120 elected seats in parliament, won in the face of bloody intimidation and rigging, and controls the councils of nearly all the country's urban areas. Tsvangirai also made a point of trying to improve relations with South African president Thabo Mbeki, now seen as one of the few international figures with sufficient rapport with Mugabe to broker negotiations to try and end the country's crisis. Mbeki's government has been pressing ahead with his policy of "quiet diplomacy" with Mugabe's regime, and is seen as keeping the MDC at arm's length. In a visit on Thursday, Mbeki talked with Mugabe for about three hours, but held only a 45-minute unscheduled "courtesy call" with Tsvangirai.
"We urge President Mbeki to continue with his efforts," Tsvangirai said on Saturday. "We understand the difficulty he faces. Mugabe has misled him all this time, and he has betrayed the trust of President Mbeki." However, the party's report on the issue of dialogue between the MDC and Zanu PF also indirectly slammed Mbeki, who this week declared that the two parties were making considerable progress in talks. "Reports from some sections that the parties are negotiating and are close to some agreement are completely without foundation," it said. As gestures of willingness to compromise with the ruling party, it said, Tsvangirai attended Mugabe's annual opening of parliament speech in July and MDC leaders attended the funeral of vice-president Simon Muzenda in September. "To date there has been no reciprocal action by Zanu PF and no evidence that the party is interested in principled dialogue to bring about a speedy resolution to the crisis in Zimbabwe. The impasse continues."
Immediately after Mbeki left on Thursday, ruling party spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira ruled out any chances of accommodation with the MDC. Mugabe said that "perhaps at some stage" the two parties could hold formal talks. With the 79-year-old Mugabe in his 24th year of rule, Zimbabwe is characterised as having the fastest shrinking economy in the world and the highest inflation, at 620 percent, while it UN agencies say it is about to go into its third year of famine after Mugabe destroyed the country's thriving agriculture industry with a poorly managed land reform programme that has effectively seen the country's productive white farmers driven illegally from their land. Mugabe has said he will only consider stepping down after he completes his current term of office in 2006 when he will be 84.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 21 December
MDC's plan for reviving Zimbabwe
Sunday Times Foreign Desk
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is expected to unveil a comprehensive economic recovery programme today at the end of its two-day conference in Harare. The MDC will release its blueprint, Reconstruction, Stabilisation, Recovery and Transformation (Restart), which it plans to implement over five years to arrest the dramatic economic decline and foster recovery if it eventually gets into power. A working draft of Restart, seen by the Sunday Times, says the MDC will adopt a holistic approach and a package of measures to be implemented within a workable economic policy. "Macro-economic policies of the current regime . . . had disastrous results: hyperinflation; a crash of the Zimbabwean dollar; shortages of foreign currency, cash, production inputs [and] spare parts for machinery; bottlenecks and shortages in the economy; unemployment; and poverty," the draft says. "The MDC programme seeks to revive the economy by reversing years of consecutive GDP decline, attracting domestic and foreign investment, creating more jobs, lowering inflation and interest rates, generating foreign currency and reducing poverty."
To combat inflation - which surged this week from 525.8% to 620% - the MDC would reduce the growth in money supply emanating from unproductive and speculative lending. Zimbabwe's hyperinflation is expected to rise to 700% by next month and climb towards the 1 000% mark. Containing money supply also demands an interest-rate regime that rewards savers by compensating them for losses arising from inflation, the MDC says. "We will adopt an exchange-rate-based stabilisation approach to deal with inflation. We will remove foreign currency surrender requirements to allow exporters to retain all their forex earnings, unify the foreign exchange market with a single rate applying to all transactions, and adopt fiscal measures to complement the broader recovery agenda." Public sector borrowing requirements will be targeted at such sectors as agriculture, infrastructure development, social services delivery and productive activities. There would also be incentives for mining, manufacturing and other key sectors of the economy. Agricultural recovery would be given a priority.
"There is an urgent need to pull Zimbabwe out of the deep crisis in which it was plunged due to leadership and policy failures," the blueprint says. " The programme entails a package of fully co-ordinated fiscal, monetary, exchange rate [and] sectoral trade policies carefully designed to address the skewed macro-economic fundamentals." The MDC says the overall objective is to "reconstruct the social fabric and economic infrastructure, stabilise the macro-economic imperatives, recover savings, investment and growth and begin to transform the economy". It goes on: "Macro-economic stabilisation will not be an end in itself but a means to achieve the restoration of positive economic growth, employment creation and the reduction, if not eradication, of poverty. Our economic programmes will be premised on a completely changed political environment." The MDC says it will also deal with privatisation, restructuring of loss-making state enterprises and commercialisation of non-performing government companies.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 December
Land reform seen as vote-buying gimmick
Itai Dzamara
Most Zimbabweans still view President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme as a vote-buying exercise which has failed to gain credibility among members of the public, a survey has revealed. The survey, conducted recently by the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI) and titled Zimbabwe's Land Reform, An Audit of the Public Perception, was compiled between August and last month with input from over 1 400 people across the country. Funded by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the survey shows that although awareness of the land reform was very high, this was not matched by access to land itself. Respondents acknowledged the debilitating effects of the reform process on the country's socio-economic fabric.
More than 96% of those interviewed said they were aware of the land reform programme, but only 14% had access to land which was monopolised by Zanu PF followers. "Awareness of the programme is nationwide (96,2%) but is not matched by access to land (14%)," the report says. The report attributed the low percentage of access to land by the general populace, especially in congested communal areas, to politicisation of the programme. "Considering that one of the objectives of land reform was to decongest the rural areas, it is important to note that the people who benefited from the land allocations are the elite or people with political connections to the ruling party," said the report. The majority of Zimbabweans have understood the intention of government to use the land reform programme as a vote-buying gimmick, the survey established. "The land reform programme as conducted by government is viewed by significant percentages as a vote-buying exercise that is likely to fail. People feel that the exercise was hurried and unplanned."
The survey also established that there were fears of worsening food shortages due to the instability and uncertainty brought about by the land programme. It emerged through the survey that less than 65% of households allocated land had occupied it, with even fewer engaged in any meaningful production. "One of the strongest criticism of the land reform process is its negative effect on production. Respondents point to the lack of equipment and inputs as stumbling blocks," the report said. Those interviewed also lambasted government for subverting the rule of law in the implementation of the land reform for political gain. The controversy about the number of people resettled also came out strongly during the survey. "There is considerable controversy on the number of people who have been allocated land. The government claims that over 300 000 people were allocated land yet reports from governors submitted to the portfolio committee dealing with land recorded about 129 000 people and the Utete Committee recorded a figure of 127 000. The discrepancies over the actual figures of people allocated farms point to the irregularities surrounding the allocation of farms."
The majority of the beneficiaries are aged over 31 years and more between 41 and 50 years. The youth appear to have been sidelined and yet they are the future of this country, the report noted. President Mugabe unleashed his supporters onto white-owned farms in February 2000 after the rejection of the government-backed draft constitution. An orgy of violence ensued and Mugabe converted the chaotic occupations into a process aimed at redressing historical land imbalances, characterised by subversion of the rule of law. Coupled with drought conditions in the region, the chaotic land reform has resulted in massive food shortages.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 December
Mugabe's Geneva jaunt gobbles over $2b
Dumisani Muleya/Itai Dzamara
President Robert Mugabe's nine-day junket to Switzerland and Ethiopia last week gobbled over $2 billion in travel and accommodation expenses, as well as allowances for his large entourage, investigations by the Zimbabwe Independent have revealed. The investigations show that Mugabe took a delegation of 23 government officials and state security agents who were paid US$400 daily for nine days in allowances. Official sources said the Air Zimbabwe 60-tonne Boeing 767-200 aircraft which he commandeered for his hastily arranged jaunt to attend the United Nations World summit on Information Society in Geneva, Switzerland, last week used 150 000 litres of Jet A1 fuel.
"The aircraft was filled up with 50 000 litres in Harare before it left last week. However, it stopped in Cairo, Egypt, for refuelling," a source said. "On the way back from Geneva it stopped again in Cairo to fill up with 50 000 litres en route to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where Mugabe attended the Sino-Africa summit." Sources said $150 million was spent in filling up the aircraft in Harare before its departure on Monday last week. Jet A1 costs $3 000 a litre on the black market from where the fuel was accessed. In Cairo the plane's further 50 000 litres at US$0,50 a litre cost US$25 000. On the way back from Geneva, the plane refuelled in Cairo at the same cost. In total it is estimated Mugabe's trip cost $450 million on fuel alone.
The sum of allowances received by each member of Mugabe's entourage during the tour was about US$3 600, bringing total allowances to the delegation to US$82 800 ($496,8 million). While in Geneva, Mugabe and his delegation stayed at one of the city's plushest hotels, La Réserve, a country club-style spa on the shores of Lake Geneva. The hotel has 86 rooms and offers royal, presidential, executive and deluxe suites. Rates start at £380 a night, with the presidential suite reportedly costing £4 500. Mugabe and his wife Grace would have spent $135 million on their accommodation during their three-day stay in Geneva, while the other 21 members of the entourage spent $239,4 million, bringing the total accommodation expenses to $374 million. Overall, Mugabe's delegation got through about $2 billion, including expenses during their five-day stay in Ethiopia. Air Zimbabwe had to lease an aircraft from a British airline, My Travel Airways, for US$1 million during Mugabe's trip. The plane was used to ply the Harare-London route in the absence of Air Zimbabwe's Boeing 767-200.
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From The Sunday Independent (SA), 21 December
SA moves to dampen furore over Zimbabwe
By John Battersby
The South African government has moved to dampen the row that followed remarks by President Thabo Mbeki in Zimbabwe suggesting that the country could learn from Zimbabwe in dealing with its "common problems". The government says that Mbeki's remarks should not be taken literally. Mbeki's remarks attracted attention in the local and foreign media and some market traders suggested that the widely reported comments had played a role in the softening of the rand against the US dollar. "President Mbeki should not be taken literally," said a senior government spokesperson. "Rather his remarks should be seen as tactical and in line with diplomacy to ensure that the Zimbabweans continue listening to us." The spokesperson was referring to remarks made by Mbeki to supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF party at Harare airport on Thursday before returning to South Africa after a lengthy meeting with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, and a shorter one with Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Mbeki said: "Our countries have shared common problems. As they shared the common problems of oppression, they share common problems today. President Mugabe can assist us to confront the problems we have in South Africa so that we can assist you to solve the problems that face Zimbabwe." The government fears that the remarks could be used by some currency traders to begin a run on the rand, which many believe has risen too much in recent months. A report in the Daily Telegraph in London, for instance, interpreted his remarks as a sign that South Africa could follow the same land seizure policy as Zimbabwe that had led to the country's current political and economic crisis. But the South African government has repeatedly ruled out any form of action that would undermine the rule of law and has criticised Zimbabwe for doing so, delivering diplomatic protests against the violent repression of political dissent in that country.
Since South Africa led a protest against the decision by the Commonwealth summit in Abuja two weeks ago to extend the suspension of Zimbabwe, the country has come in for widespread international criticism for taking a pro-Mugabe stance. Nobel peace prize laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who seldom makes public statements, denounced Mbeki's policy on Zimbabwe this week, warning that it could lead to human rights abuses taking place in South Africa soon unless it was changed. But Mugabe's decision to withdraw from the Commonwealth has left Mbeki as the only African leader with influence over the defiant Zimbabwean leader. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was mandated by the Commonwealth to visit Harare, is unlikely to be received by Mugabe as chairperson of the Commonwealth and is not likely to be able to exercise much influence over the Zimbabwean president. Government sources have repeatedly insisted that the ruling Zanu PF party and the MDC in Zimbabwe had been meeting over a period of months and had reached a consensus on a new constitution for the country while sticking on other issues relating to a transitional government that would rule until new elections are held in two years' time.
Government sources said it was significant that Mugabe had used Mbeki's visit to acknowledge, for the first time, that talks between the two parties had been taking place, although Mugabe and Tsvangirai, who is on trial for treason, had not yet had a face-to-face meeting. They also pointed to the fact that the Reverend Frank Chikane, director-general in the presidency, had been in communication with the MDC for some time and that the first substantive meeting between Mbeki and Tsvangirai this week could go some way to unlocking the stalled talks between the MDC and Zanu PF. Both Tsvangirai and Welshman Ngcube, the MDC secretary-general, made upbeat remarks following the unscheduled contact with Mbeki on Thursday. It is understood that there had been growing frustration in Pretoria with the refusal by either the MDC or Zanu PF to acknowledge that talks were under way. Some officials argued that it would be difficult to make any agreement between the two parties stick unless the Zimbabwean people were informed and prepared for the changes.
In terms of the consensus on an interim constitution, the next presidential election, only due in 2008, would be brought forward to 2005/06 to coincide with the next parliamentary elections. But the parties are deadlocked over a set of demands by Zanu PF, which insists on amnesty for party officials, an assurance that the land seizures will not be reversed, and that the so-called "Green Bombers" - the militant youth wing of Zanu PF that perpetrates many of the atrocities against political opponents - will not be disbanded. Another sticking point is the lack of agreement within Zanu PF over who Mugabe's successor will be. In recent months, it appears that the fortunes of the recently retired head of the Zimbabwean Defence Force, Vitalis Zvinavashe, is emerging as a serious contender in the complex and troubled succession stakes. Pretoria officials are urging the parties to adopt a more tactical approach to the negotiations and focus on the prize of reconciliation, which would allow the country to deal with its growing political and economic crisis. With Mugabe already feeling growing international and African pressure, government officials are hoping that the open line to the MDC will assist in providing an incentive for Tsvangirai's opposition party to adopt a more conciliatory tone in the negotiations.
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From Business Report (SA), 22 December
Mbeki stance an excuse to sell
By Reuters
Johannesburg - The rand wobbled late on Friday, with offshore speculators seizing on President Thabo Mbeki's perceived support for Zimbabwe as an excuse to test its weakest levels in more than a month, traders said. By 5pm in Johannesburg the rand was at R6.7468 to the dollar, almost 8c weaker than its Thursday close, after touching R6.78, its lowest since November 13. A local dealer said: "It's an extremely thin market and there's good dollar demand out of Europe. The Zimbabwe situation is not adding a lot of confidence." Another dealer said: "People are just looking for any excuse to sell the rand. They've discovered the topside is vulnerable in the late afternoon when locals go home. It's pure speculation." Mbeki said on Thursday, during a visit to Harare, that the two countries shared "common problems", which Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe could help South Africa solve. Foreign investors see this as unsettling, given Mugabe's support for the seizure of white-owned farms. But Mbeki and other South African officials have repeatedly said they would not tolerate illegal land grabs. The rand's losses of more than 6 percent in the past week have prompted speculation that its heady two-year rally is over. But some said it was too early to jump to this conclusion before holiday-thinned markets returned to normal next month. Local bonds were little changed on Friday, with the R153 rallying 2.5 basis points to 8.92 percent and the R150 strengthening 1 basis point to 7.95 percent.
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From Business Day (SA), 22 December
MDC seeks clarity on Zanu PF conditions
International Affairs Editor
Church groups in SA deliver broadside against quiet diplomacy' on Zimbabwe
The main opposition party in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), wants to know from either President Thabo Mbeki or Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe whether the ruling Zanu PF is continuing to insist on preconditions for talks. If Zanu PF continues to insist on the conditions, the MDC says there is little point in discussions, although it is ready for them. Mbeki's visit to Zimbabwe last week gave rise to speculation that a new round of talks between Zanu PF and the MDC may be in the offing, but there is little hard evidence to suggest this. The MDC's secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, who led the party's two-man team in the last round of exploratory talks, said yesterday his party would like to know as soon as possible if Zanu PF's preconditions remained. They are that the MDC drop its court challenge over the legality of last year's presidential elections and accept Mugabe's legitimacy . This came as SA's policy of quiet diplomacy towards Zimbabwe faced increasingly fierce attacks from the church, beginning with Archbishop Desmond Tutu's broadside earlier this month.
Yesterday the policy was condemned by Johannesburg church leaders who said they were "confused by the constant call for moral regeneration within our own country by leaders who appear to defend or overlook moral corruption in neighbouring states. We are familiar with attempts to dismiss any criticism as stemming from ignorance or racism. We reject this with contempt," read a statement from the church leaders. Since Mbeki's one-day visit, during which he met Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the climate for talks may have deteriorated considerably as Zimbabwean police this weekend continued to prevent printing of the country's only independent daily newspaper . This was despite a court ruling that the paper was licensed and giving it the go-ahead to publish. It also coincided with the MDC's annual conference. The crackdown on the Daily News was greeted by widespread international outrage. But a spokesman for the foreign affairs department said SA's approach had been to urge dialogue, and that it was hoped that this would, "lead to a resolution of all other consequential issues". While members of parliament from the two Zimbabwean parties talk regularly and there have been informal meetings, there have been no discussions since July aimed at bringing about a political settlement. These "talks about talks" covered a number of issues including Zanu PF's preconditions and an agenda . Other issues touched on were the timing of an election. The parties remain at odds about Mugabe completing his term in office, as the MDC, the European Union, and the Commonwealth observers do not believe the election was free and fair.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 22 December
Zimbabwe workers forced to drink acid
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare
Two men were in intensive care yesterday after they were forced to drink paint thinners and acid by armed attackers dressed as soldiers who abducted them from a tea estate in eastern Zimbabwe. Ernest Pfumbi, 44, and Maphion Njopera, 35, are accounts clerks, at a British-owned tea company, Eastern Highlands Plantation, in the scenic Honde Valley, 188 miles east of Harare. The company's chief accountant, Philip Laing, 48, an Australian, died after being beaten and then tortured into drinking acid. He was found handcuffed to a tree the next morning. Police were told that four men in camouflage uniforms arrived at the company's offices and told staff they wanted to "look for foreign currency and evidence of involvement with the opposition" [the Movement for Democratic Change]. When they found nothing they took Christmas wages for the company's 8,000 workers and kidnapped seven people, including two women. But a security guard escaped and raised the alarm. It took a whole night to find the victims handcuffed together 50 miles from the company's offices.
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From The Sunday Mirror, 21 December
Striking doctors acquitted
Mirror Reporter
Seven doctors who were arrested by the police and dragged before the courts last month for engaging in the illegal job action have been acquitted. The doctors, who are all members of the Hospital Doctors Association, include the association’s president Phibion Manyanga, his vice Akim Mashoko, the secretary Tapuwa Musuka, Treasurer Tozivepi Muchenje and other members, Leolin Katsidzira Tinashe Forb |
