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Archived News
25th November 2003
ZCTU protests, leaders arrested
MDC Statement on Zimbabwe Budget
Mugabe arrests more than 100 opponents
'Many of us are badly wounded'
Mugabe steps up pressure to attend summit
Bad boy Banana won't be buried in Heroes' Acre
Zimbabwe's inflation rate reaches new levels
Zanu PF officials switch off plans to set up Manicaland’s first intenet cafe
Zim unions call strike over arrest of leaders
Fresh protests loom
Workers cannot take it any more
Let us in says Zimbabwe
South Africa funds Taylor's asylum with N140m
Government denies supporting Charles Taylor financially
Zimbabwe releases 52 detainees
Zimbabwe activists halt strike
Photojournalist assaulted, equipment destroyed
Inflation at 700% and halved output predicted
Zimbabwe signs African Union treaties
Patients stranded as foreign doctors steal medicine
Zambia exports fuel to Zimbabwe
Zim drops charges against 52 union protestors
Arrests over anti-Mugabe e-mails
Obasanjo angry over failed meeting
Abuja is not the issue
A damp squib
Zimbabwe court quashes attempt to publicise alleged 1980s army atrocities: report
Hospitals collapse
Mugabe at Commonwealth: No decision yet
Zim outlaws black market fuel
Govt tightens grip on GMB
Zambia: Zimbabwean farmers increase production
Moyo booed in Gweru
We don’t need IMF, declares minister
Tsvangirai files for Mudede's arrest
MDC seeks to nullify Chinhoyi mayoral election
Marching to Masvingo
Soldiers missing in DRC to be declared dead
Radio Free Zimbabwe
Daily News court hearing postponed
Army nurses deployed in Zim
Cholera, poverty: hand in hand in Zimbabwe
Severe bread shortages loom
Massive grain shortfall
The Knights of the Free Lunch
Mugabe may finally be left in the cold
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From The Guardian (UK), 19 November
Mugabe arrests more than 100 opponents
Riot police go into action against demonstrators
Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria
More than 100 leading trade unionists and civic leaders in Zimbabwe were arrested yesterday when riot police broke up groups countrywide who were peacefully demonstrating against Robert Mugabe's increasingly autocratic rule. Hundreds of officers, many armed with automatic rifles, took up positions across the capital, Harare, in anticipation of the protest, which was organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZTCU) ahead of the government's budget tomorrow. Police arrested eight union leaders yesterday morning in a pre-emptive strike to try to stop the demonstrations. But more than 100 people gathered in Harare's city centre and took off their shirts to reveal ZCTU T-shirts. Police immediately arrested them before they could march more than a few metres. In Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, an estimated 50 trade union members were arrested and many were assaulted by police, according to witnesses. Labour movement protesters were also arrested in the industrial city of Gweru, in Zimbabwe's midlands, as well as in the eastern border city of Mutare, and at Victoria Falls in the west.
Yesterday's action was to protest against the government's disastrous economic policies, which have led to an inflation rate of 525%, one of the world's highest, and an unemployment level of 70%. The demonstrations were also against the persistent abuse of trade union and basic human rights by the government of President Mugabe. "These arrests are proof of the charges by Zimbabwean civil society and others in the Commonwealth that there is no rule of law in Zimbabwe," said Tawanda Hondora, a lawyer, who was working to get the arrested unionists released yesterday. "There are gross human rights violations here. We are under a state of siege. Union members cannot engage in any form of public expression. They are arrested and brutally beaten and illegally incarcerated." Mr Hondora said that he and other lawyers were being illegally prevented from seeing those arrested. The demonstrations were also a clear warning to the finance minister, Herbert Murerwa, not to raise taxes and prices in his budget statement. Protesters in Harare plan to converge on parliament, where Mr Murerwa is due to make his speech.
Police warned that anti-government protests would not be tolerated and accused "rogue elements" of trying to disrupt the economy. Officers have also broken up meetings of the labour union's general council, declaring them illegal political gatherings under the country's stringent security laws. These outlaw public gatherings of more than three people without police approval. The ZCTU labour federation is closely allied to Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. The two groups have succeeded in holding national strikes to protest about economic mismanagement, and acute shortages of food, fuel, local cash and other essentials. Once known as "the breadbasket of southern Africa" for its harvests, Zimbabwe now depends on international aid to feed nearly half of its 13 million people, following seizures by the government of thousands of white-owned farms. Rather than redistributing land to poor black farmers, as Mr Mugabe claimed happened, the government gave many of the best farms to leaders of the ruling party, Zanu PF. Most of the seized farmland now lies fallow because of acute shortages of seeds and fertilisers.
Those still in jail last night included the secretary-general of ZCTU, Wellington Chibhebhe; Lovemore Matombo, the group's chairman; Raymond Majongwe, a teachers' union leader; Lovemore Madhuku, head of the National Constitutional Assembly; Brian Raftopoulos and John Makumbe, of the Zimbabwe in Crisis Coalition; and Andy Moyse, of the Media Monitoring Project. Despite continuing fears about the tactics of the Mugabe regime, the president has insisted the country's suspension from the Commonwealth is not valid. He said on state television that it was only "white racists" in the Commonwealth who were preventing his attending the summit in Nigeria.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 18 November
'Many of us are badly wounded'
Harare - Zimbabwe police arrested scores of trade unionists and rights activists on Tuesday as they gathered to stage protests across the Southern African state against alleged rights abuses and the sky-rocketing cost of living in Zimbabwe, witnesses said. In the second-largest city, Bulawayo, riot police moved in immediately to disperse about 2 000 people who had gathered outside government offices to hand over a petition to the governor of the province. The protesters held running battles with riot police, and several people were injured, according to a witness and an official from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), which organised the protests. "The people just massed," the union official said via cellphone, adding that the police had initially failed to prevent the protesters gathering. But minutes later police could be heard breaking up the demonstration. They also made an unknown number of arrests. Jenni Williams, a spokesperson for the rights group Women of Zimbabwe Arise, who took part in the demonstration, said she had been briefly handcuffed and arrested in the police crackdown. The "peaceful demonstration" was broken up by police with batons and dogs, she said. "They were forcing us to run by beating us so they could set the dogs on us," she asserted via cellphone from Bulawayo. "Many of us are badly wounded by baton sticks," she added.
In the capital, Harare, the ZCTU had announced plans to march to government offices to hand over a petition to the Finance Ministry, but groups of baton-wielding riot police stood guard on every street corner. About 40 rights activists and union leaders were arrested as they gathered outside the town hall in central Harare for the protest, one of those arrested said by cellphone from the police station. Lovemore Madhuku, a prominent constitutional lawyer, said top officials of the ZCTU, the largest labour grouping in Zimbabwe formerly headed by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, were among those arrested. The ZCTU had last week called for nationwide demonstrations to protest at deteriorating living conditions and alleged rights abuses under the government of President Robert Mugabe. The labour group's secretary general and president, Wellington Chibebe and Lovemore Matombo, were arrested in the police swoop in Harare, according to Madhuku. Photojournalists were also among those arrested, according to an eyewitness.
Earlier on Tuesday nine officials of the union's general council were arrested at a hotel in central Harare as they held a meeting, ZCTU spokesperson Mlamleli Sibanda said. Sibanda said those arrested included the labour grouping's vice-president, Elias Mlotshwa, and the head of a teachers' union, Raymond Majongwe. Eight more union officials were arrested in the central city of Gweru, another in Bulawayo, and one in Gwanda, a southern Zimbabwean town, Sibanda said. He claimed one person was struck and injured by a lorry as he tried to flee the police in Bulawayo. Police were not able to immediately confirm the arrests, but they had declared the planned nationwide protests illegal and threatened to clamp down on any such action. On Monday a defiant Chibebe vowed that the protesters would not be deterred. He said Mugabe's government should not "interfere with bona fide trade union work and [should] let the workers of Zimbabwe express their feelings over the mess the economy is in". Zimbabwe is in the throes of severe economic hardship, with the annual inflation rate above 525%, 70% of the work force unemployed and chronic shortages of food, fuel and medicines due to a lack of hard currency to import them. Those Zimbabweans who do have jobs have seen take-home wages eroded to levels that barely cover monthly transport costs. Last month close to 200 ZCTU activists and officials, including Chibebe, were arrested for holding demonstrations in cities around Zimbabwe.
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From The Times (UK), 19 November
Mugabe steps up pressure to attend summit
By David Charter and Jan Raath in Harare
President Mugabe is lobbying hard for an invitation to the Commonwealth leaders’ summit next month, despite the ban imposed on him after his violent presidential election campaign. Mr Mugabe used a visit to Zimbabwe by President Obasanjo of Nigeria, the summit’s host nation, to declare that he was looking forward to attending the gathering, from December 5 to 8. However, although Mr Obasanjo did not publicly contradict him, Mr Mugabe’s case was not helped by the heavy-handed response yesterday to demonstrations against state repression and the country’s 525 per cent inflation rate. The Commonwealth Secretariat confirmed that Mr Mugabe, 79, was not invited to Abuja and said that it was unprecedented for the leader of a nation suspended from the counsels of the Commonwealth to attend. Pakistan is similarly suspended. A spokesman said: "My understanding is that Nigeria has always been very keen to follow Commonwealth precedent." Nevertheless, concern is rising that Mr Obasanjo is seeking a way to get Mr Mugabe to the summit "through the back door". At a press conference attended by the two men on Monday, Mr Mugabe said that Mr Obasanjo had agreed that Zimbabwe had "no case to answer" over its human rights record. Around 400 people, including unions and civil rights leaders, were arrested in the crackdown on demonstrations yesterday. In Bulawayo, police fired teargas at and baton-charged a crowd of protesters. Three hundred people were arrested in the eastern city of Mutare. Police had declared the protests illegal and promised to deal with "rogue elements . . . targeting peace and stability".
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 18 November
Bad boy Banana won't be buried in Heroes' Acre
Harare - In an unprecedented move, President Robert Mugabe's government has refused burial at Heroes' Acre to former president Canaan Sodindo Banana, who died last week in London after a long illness, an official spokesperson said on Tuesday. Since Banana's death at age 67, state media have devoted extensive coverage to the repatriation of his body in expectation he would receive a state funeral. At the time of his death, Mugabe paid tribute to Banana, describing him as "a rare gift to the nation." However, when Mugabe's elite policy making body, the 30 member politburo, met on Monday it refused to grant Banana hero status. It was the first time this has happened since Mugabe instituted the system at 1980 independence, when Banana became figurehead president for seven years.
Politburo secretary for information and publicity Nathan Shamuyarira told state radio on Tuesday this was because Banana set a "bad example to youth" with his 1998 conviction for homosexual offenses against junior State House staff. "They (the politburo) could not accord Banana hero status as a matter of principle," said Shamuyarira. "Canaan Banana will be given a state-assisted funeral in his home area befitting a former head of state." He said full military honors would be according Banana at a ceremony at his birthplace, Esigodini, outside the western provincial capital of Bulawayo. The date for this has yet to be announced. Black bordered editions of the official daily, The Herald, and precedence given news of pending funeral arrangements led diplomats here to believe honours accorded Banana were meant to set a pattern for Mugabe himself, now 79 and dogged by reports of ill health.
Exposure of Banana's crimes against young men gravely embarrassed the regime in 1997, coming within months of Mugabe's denunciation of homosexuals and exhortation to Zimbabweans to arrest any they saw. The High Court heard evidence Mugabe's politburo were party to a 17-year cover up of Banana's activities. He was eventually sentenced to 10 years imprisonment but served only six months in a newly constructed "open prison" which allowed him shopping trips to Harare. Until the politburo refusal of honours, official reports stressed Banana's encouragement of talks that led to the December 1987 unity pact between Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party and another party led by the late vice-president Joshua Nkomo. In addition to burial at the National Shrine outside Harare amid pomp and political speeches, those accorded hero status are exempted from estate duties on their business empires. Their families are assured free medical attention, education and pensions regularly adjusted to keep pace with 455% runaway hyperinflation. Some 90 people have received the coveted honour.
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From The Pretoria News (SA), 19 November
Zimbabwe's inflation rate reaches new levels
Zimbabwe's annual rate of inflation, the highest in the world, soared to new levels, reaching 526 percent in October, according to figures issued on Tuesday by the state Central Statistical Office (CSO). Compared with prices a year ago, the cost of living went up 525,8 percent, against September's annual rate of 456 percent. Calculated on a monthly comparison of prices, inflation in the month to the end of October was 25,3 percent, the highest ever in a single month. The CSO said that the biggest contributors towards the sharp rise were increases of 1 179 percent for telephone charges, 983 percent for vehicle running costs, 952 percent for school textbooks and 913 percent for shoes. Economist John Robertson said the CSO's figures gave an appearance of inflation much lower than the real rate. "It is evident that the recent steep increases in rates and rentals in the Harare area have not been captured, and that education and health fees recorded are being drawn from a narrow sample of state-run facilities," he said. The CSO also used the controlled prices of basic commodities, like maize meal, the national staple food, flour, sugar and fuel, which are ignored by retailers who charge far higher prices.
Economists say misguided economic policies, such as price controls, a regime of rock-bottom interest rates and unchecked state spending, account for the uncontrolled escalation in prices. President Robert Mugabe accuses "British interests" and "greedy hoarders" for the crisis. Zimbabwe is described as having the fastest-shrinking economy in the world, with gross domestic product having fallen 40 percent in the last four years, and estimated to drop 18 percent this year alone. Export earnings have plummeted to 1977 levels, largely as a result of the destruction of productive agriculture following Mugabe's seizure of white-owned commercial farms. Stricken by the sudden evaporation of hard currency earnings, mining and manufacturing have recorded similar falls, while the value of the national currency has fallen from Z$12 to the US dollar in 1997 to Z$6 500 to the US dollar on the semi-official parallel market now.
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 19 November
Zanu PF officials switch off plans to set up Manicaland’s first intenet cafe
Senior ruling Zanu PF officials in Rusape have allegedly foiled plans to open the Manicaland province town's first internet cafe, accusing its owners of being linked to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, it was learnt this week. Sources close to the matter said senior officials last Friday ordered Zanu PF youths to beat up Rusape town engineer Gift Chibongore for allegedly approving plans for the internet cafe. According to witnesses and informed sources, the officials accused Chibongore of inviting a Mutare businessman to set up the internet cafe. Witnesses said the ruling party officials first sent about five Zanu PF youths to forcibly march Chibongore to the town's Zanu PF offices to respond to the allegations. "Chibongore refused to accompany the youths to their office," one source said. But the sources said the Zanu PF gang went into Chibongore’s office, dragged him out and took him to the ruling party’s offices for "questioning". Under questioning, he told the ruling party officials that there was a city council resolution sanctioning the opening of the internet cafe. Town secretary Obert Muzawazi would neither confirm nor deny the reports. He would only say: "I was not there. You can speak to Chibongore and get the details." But Chibongore refused to comment, saying "everything has been resolved". An official with internet cafe firm One Up said the company had taken the matter up with the provincial administrator’s office. "We have nearly 15 computers which have to be set up in Rusape, but politicians are currently causing some problems," the official said. "We hope it will be resolved amicably. Any further delays would deprive Rusape residents of employment opportunities and internet facilities."
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From Reuters, 19 November
Zim unions call strike over arrest of leaders
By Cris Chinaka
Harare - Zimbabwe's main labour movement has called a two-day strike from Thursday to demand the release of union leaders and rights activists arrested this week during protests against the government's economic policies. The strike will coincide with Thursday's budget speech by Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa, in which he will unveil a plan to tackle chronic food and fuel shortages, unemployment estimated above 70 percent and inflation topping 525 percent. Riot police arrested Zimbabwe's main trade union leaders and dozens of rights activists around the country on Tuesday as they broke up marches called to protest against the economic crisis. Police said they detained 88 people who would be charged with staging illegal demonstrations. But the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said more than 360 people had been arrested in the capital Harare and several other towns.
The ZCTU said in a statement people should stay at home to press President Robert Mugabe's government to cut taxes, respect human and trade union rights and to keep transport and consumer prices at affordable levels. "As you are aware that ZCTU leaders and other civic society leaders were arrested for protesting, we are therefore calling for a stayaway to be held tomorrow, Thursday 20 November and Friday 21 November, 2003," acting ZCTU secretary general Collen Gwiyo said in a statement. "We demand the immediate release of ZCTU and other civic society leaders," he said. Alec Muchadehama, a lawyer for the arrested officials, who include ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo and secretary general Wellington Chibebe, said authorities had not formally charged the detained men and women. "I think we can safely say they are going to spend another night in detention. The police say they are still working on their papers and say they will charge those they are holding within the legally prescribed time," Muchadehama told Reuters. The police can hold people for up to 48 hours before bringing them to court, but government critics say this rule has sometimes been abused to punish suspects facing minor charges.
Mugabe's opponents accuse him of economic mismanagement and blame the country's woes partly on land reforms under which landless blacks took control of white-owned commercial farms. Mugabe says his land reforms are designed to redress an injustice of British colonial rule and accuses opponents at home and abroad of sabotaging the economy. The ZCTU, a political ally of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), says the government must urgently tackle inflation to help stabilise consumer prices. Zimbabwe's economy is in its fifth year of recession and many Zimbabweans are struggling to cope with severe fuel, food and foreign currency shortages. Prices for some foodstuffs and public transport have risen ten-fold in the past year. Economic analysts said Murerwa's 2004 budget was unlikely to contain many answers, however, as Zimbabwe's political problems keep foreign aid donors at bay and the government continues to borrow heavily to finance domestic expenditure.
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 20 November
Fresh protests loom
Zimbabwean labour leaders were yesterday organising further mass demonstrations for today and tomorrow, while about 88 people arrested on Tuesday for organising street protests were still being held by the police. Zimbabwe's labour watchdog, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), is attempting to organise mass protests against high taxation, rising poverty and human rights abuses. The demonstrations, which were supposed to start on Tuesday, have so far been hampered by the police, who arrested labour leaders and heads of several civic groups involved in the protests. It was not possible to establish yesterday whether those arrested would appear in court. However, ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe indicated yesterday that none of the protesters had been charged and that no statements had been recorded from them.
A senior official in the ZCTU said the labour body was still organising demonstrations scheduled for today and tomorrow. "We believe our colleagues will not be released, but we are putting in place mechanisms to continue to ratchet up pressure by holding the demonstrations tomorrow (Thursday) and Friday in all the major cities," the labour official said. The official declined to give further details on the planned demonstrations, which are set to coincide with the presentation to Parliament of the 2004 national budget. Civic leaders arrested on Tuesday include ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo and National Constitutional Assembly chairman Lovemore Madhuku. Also arrested were Tabitha Khumalo, a senior ZCTU official, Zimbabwe Progressive Teachers' Union secretary-general Raymond Majongwe, John Makumbe, the chairman of the Zimbabwe chapter of Transparency International, and Crisis Coalition head Brian Raftopolus.
Chibhebhe said the police had told him that they were punishing him for being too vocal, embarrassing the government and for undermining its authority. He said: "We are just fine. We will continue to persevere as far as we can and the struggle continues. There is no going back because we know things will come right. "We are in the fourth gear and we hope to get into the fifth one very soon." He said the detained protesters were bundled into an open police vehicle when they were arrested on Tuesday, enabling them to attract public attention by singing and waving placards. "People saw us doing exactly what we intended to do and we were determined. They (police) stopped us from marching, but they helped us to demonstrate from their vehicle on our way to the police station," said Chibhebhe.
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From IPS, 18 November
Workers cannot take it any more
Chris Anold Msipa
Harare - Zimbabwe's economy is headed for deeper crises as labour leaders and civil society groups clashed with government Tuesday over rising costs of living. At least 50 activists, including the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leader, Lovemore Matombo, were arrested in the capital, Harare, Tuesday. Reform activists Brian Raftopoulos and Lovemore Madhuku were also picked up by police as they left a meeting in a Harare hotel, a ZCTU spokesperson said. Witnesses said running battles were also fought with the dreaded riot police in the second city, Bulawayo. Zimbabwe's runaway inflation of over 500 percent, which is at the centre of the strike, has rendered the local currency worthless. Once a success story in Africa, Zimbabwe is now suffering from shortages of banknotes, fuel and foreign currency. Political commentators say the government of President Robert Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, is likely to face resistance in the coming months, because the masses cannot take it anymore. "What we are seeing now is a country without a central administration, where things simply happen like the current price increases," said an academic with the University of Zimbabwe, who refused to be named. He said Tuesday's confrontation with the government would not solve the problems besieging the Southern African nation since the invasion of white-owned farms three years ago. The government cannot, he said, restore sanity in the economy because it has lost control, which now rests with individuals. The rule of supply and demand will see things stabilise as consumers and traders come to a compromise, he added.
Elliot Kadunge, a resident of Glenview, a low-income suburb of Harare, said common sense should prevail among the politicians for life to return to normal in Zimbabwe. "Workers in most urban areas have for the past three years endured steep increases in prices. The government seems not to care at all, when it spends billions of Zimbabwe dollars on posh vehicles for its senior personnel," he said. President Mugabe should, said Kadunge, stop "politicking" and address the problems facing Zimbabwe, without pointing fingers at Britain and the opposition, when he fails to deliver. "If the difficulties are due to sanctions (imposed by the European Union and the United States), Mugabe should show his ability as a leader. Was he just able to rule well with the support of the former colonial masters?" he wondered. "The current economic hardships have left all recreational places like drinking places deserted. Prices of everything have gone wild. So, who is in control? You can't blame the people if they protest," said Kadunge. Before Tuesday's demonstration, one weekly newspaper quoted ZCTU Secretary-General Wellington Chibhebhe as warning: "The struggle is now into the fourth gear, and the vehicle has five gears. The government may crush the demonstration, but the spirit is very high."
The protests were scheduled to begin in Harare, with a march to the ministry of finance to hand over a petition proposing tax relief measures to minister Herbert Murerwa, ahead of his 2004 budget announcement Thursday. Another procession to government offices was expected in Bulawayo. The government threatened unspecified action against the demonstrations, which, it warned, were illegal under the Public Order and Security Act. The legislation, derived from the colonial 'Law and Order Maintenance Act', was introduced to suppress black uprising against the minority white rule before independence. State media say police chief Augustine Chihuri plans to present before parliament a bill that will, if it becomes law, require criminal courts to refuse bail to suspects arrested for offences likely to cause public unrest until they have been tried. Lawyers have condemned the plan as further suppression of human rights, which, after all, made the Commonwealth to suspend Zimbabwe. The commonwealth is an organisation of about 53 independent states which were formerly parts of the British Empire, established to encourage trade and friendly relations among its members.
Last week some striking doctors, protesting a court order to return to work, resigned. The police arrested their leaders, who were later freed. Apart from the 12 doctors, who have resigned, there are reports of massive exodus of staff from the public service, with some ministries operating on skeletal staff. Civil servants complain of the poorest pay in Southern Africa, coupled with one of the highest taxation scales in the world. Yet members of parliament, the president, ministers and senior officials enjoy tax-free salaries and benefits. Medical doctors earn between 64 and 90 U.S. dollars per month, compared with 6,000 U.S. dollars earned by their expatriate Cuban colleagues. A senior employee of Air Zimbabwe says the national airliner is also likely to plunge into a predicament as workers are planning to down tools anytime soon due to poor salaries and working conditions. "It's not long before the airliner is in trouble. We can't continue to toil for peanuts while other people enjoy the fruits of our work. Our boss recently received an international award for civil aviation excellence. And he had the guts to say that 'I thank my staff for this' when he doesn't even care," said the employee, who requested anonymity.
Martha Mudziki, a Harare businesswoman, urged the government not to prevent people from demonstrating, so it can listen to their problems and find solutions. She says she sees the country as being in need of divine power if it is to come out of its dilemma. "Our problem dates back to the time of independence, when we got too excited and forgot that it was God who led us through the war of liberation. We, instead, turned to our ancestral spirits, brewed beer and celebrated, forgetting our forefathers are not greater than God who created them. It's time to turn to Him now," she said. The delayed dialogue between the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to restore the rule of law in Zimbabwe is also denting the image of the sub-region, internationally.
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From Business DAY (SA), 20 November
Let us in says Zimbabwe
Harare - Zimbabwe's foreign minister insisted yesterday that the country was entitled to attend next month's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). The minister, Stan Mudenge, maintained that Zimbabwe was back as a full member of the 54-nation organisation, saying its 12-month suspension from the Commonwealth council had lapsed on March 19 despite an announcement by Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon on March 16 that it had been extended for a further nine months. Mudenge told parliament that the troika - Australia, Nigeria and South Africa - which slapped the country with the year-long suspension had not renewed it. Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth councils after presidential elections in March last year were declared neither free nor fair by many international monitors. "Zimbabwe is now back as a full member and is therefore entitled to attend the (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) CHOGM in Abuja in December 2003," Mudenge declared. He said Zimbabwe's suspension need not be reviewed because it was for a specified period and when that expired, the country automatically became a full member again. "The suspension was finite. To continue with it required a fresh decision. Such a fresh decision was never made," he said in a special statement to lawmakers, just two days after Nigeria's president and this year's host of the CHOGM, Olusegun Obasanjo, visited Zimbabwe for talks with President Robert Mugabe on the issue.
Mudenge said McKinnon's statement on March 16 was "based on falsehood and therefore without effect" because South Africa and Nigeria had rebutted his claims. "Put blatantly the secretary general lied," said Mudenge, accusing Australian Prime Minister John Howard and McKinnon of "breathtaking arrogance" and of being "consumed by racist emotionalism". "There are many who regard Mr Howard as a notorious international outlaw who was recently involved in the illegal invasion of Iraq, murdered innocent women and children and effected unauthorised regime change. "In fact they believe that he should be told clearly and firmly that 'regime change' is not a Commonwealth policy or principle and that he must stand trial at the Rome International Criminal Court for his crimes," said Mudenge. Obasanjo, after talks with Mugabe on Monday, said he was still "consulting" on whether to issue an invitation to Mugabe. Howard, McKinnon and Britain do not want to see Mugabe at the summit while most black Commonwealth countries support Zimbabwe. It is feared that continued disagreement over Zimbabwe could widen the rift between African Commonwealth members, led by Nigeria and South Africa, and the so-called "white Commonwealth".
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From The Daily Champion (Nigeria), 18 November
South Africa funds Taylor's asylum with N140m
Achilleus Uchegbu
Lagos - Exiled former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor, is alleged to be staying in Nigeria on a $1 million (about N140 million) annual lifeline from the South African government. A competent Presidency source, who disclosed this to Daily Champion in Lagos, said the lifeline was part of agreement reached between Taylor and South African President Thabo Mbeki to enable the former go into exile in the first place. According to the source, Nigeria was mandated by African leaders to, among other things, ensure the provision of "a very comfortable accommodation" for the former Liberian warlord. The source said that the pact is part of a mechanism worked out by the African leaders to ensure peace, security and good governance on the continent. According to the source, Taylor could have refused to go on exile and instead stay back and fight it out, but for pressure from other African leaders, leading to the provision of the lifeline by President Mbeki as a lure.
The source, who pleaded anonymity, added that efforts are under way by the African leaders to make President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe agree to go on exile in order to ensure peace and stability in that country. Mugabe has been under severe pressure from Britain, the United States (US) and the opposition over some of his policies. According to the source, African leaders will not allow Taylor answer to criminal war crime charges at the United Nations (UN) special court in Sierra Leone as that would amount to reneging on conditions agreed upon for the exile to materialise.
Daily Champion also gathered that it was in view of ongoing efforts to ensure good governance on the continent that President Olusegun Obasanjo, is billed to visit Zimbabwe today to continue consultations with President Mugabe on options open to him to ensure that country's reintegration into the Commonwealth. Three prominent African leaders had soon after Taylor went into exile, held a meeting with Mugabe in which the exile option was sold to him. At that meeting, Daily Champion gathered Mugabe was told to nominate a successor to the office, who the three leaders agreed to help sell to Europe and the world as a suitable replacement. The leaders reportedly also agreed to fund a world tour by anybody nominated by Mugabe, and also make funds available to him for campaigns and election in the country.
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From SABC News, 19 November
Government denies supporting Charles Taylor financially
The South African government has denied allegations that it is providing Charles Taylor, Liberia's ex-president, with a lifeline of R7 million a year while he is in exile in Nigeria. Nigerian daily newspaper, the Daily Champion, reports that the multi-million rand lifeline was part of an agreement reached between Taylor and President Thabo Mbeki to enable Taylor to go into exile. Graham McIntosh, the DA spokesperson on Africa, who distributed copies of the newspaper, asked the Department of Foreign Affairs to explain what he termed an extremely disturbing report. Kinsley Mamabolo, the department's Deputy Director-General for Africa, has denied the report and promised to investigate its origin. It is also reported that shortly after Taylor agreed to go to exile, Mbeki and his colleagues from Nigeria and Malawi met Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, and made the same offer to him to go into exile. It says the three leaders told Mugabe to nominate his successor. They allegedly promised they would sell the nominee to Europe and the world as a suitable replacement and also make funds available to him to campaign in the next election in Zimbabwe. Mamabolo has also denied these claims, saying they are a mere fabrication.
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From IOL (SA), 21 November
Zimbabwe releases 52 detainees
Harare - A magistrate freed 52 people, including 14 labour leaders, two days after their arrest during nationwide demonstrations against President Robert Mugabe's autocratic rule and the country's economic hardships. Nearly 90 people were arrested on Tuesday, including 52 people arrested in the capital - among them the four top leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. The 52 detainees made their first appearance on Thursday before Magistrate Sukai Tongogara. Tongogara released them on the condition that they return on Friday to face charges of violating the nation's strict security laws by organising an illegal political demonstration, said their attorney, Alec Muchadehama. The offence is punishable by up to six months in jail. Union officials said the group's release was delayed by confusion among police and state attorneys about what charges to bring against them. Some members of the group were told Wednesday they would be charged with the lesser offence of obstructing traffic in downtown Harare. Labour leaders called for a nationwide strike to protest Tuesday's arrests, but it failed to take hold on Thursday. Mlamleli Sibanda, a federation spokesman, said there was insufficient time to mobilise workers.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of economic and political crisis with official inflation running at 526 percent, one of the highest levels in the world. Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa gave an even bleaker forecast Thursday as he announced the annual budget, warning inflation could rise to a high of 700 percent in the first quarter of next year before starting to dissipate. Murerwa said government services like health and education declined sharply this year; industry was running at below 50 percent capacity, and most of the country's infrastructure was crumbling. The country also faces a record 13.2 percent decline in the gross domestic product. Opponents blame Mugabe's authoritarian rule, including the often-violent seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to impoverished blacks. Murerwa said the government aims to introduce a series of fiscal measures, including government belt-tightening. "The challenges are surmountable," Murerwa said. "It is .. imperative we avoid aborting painful measures" toward recovery.
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From The Guardian (UK), 21 November
Zimbabwe activists halt strike
Zimbabwe's trade union congress called off a two-day national strike yesterday after the authorities freed on bail 52 activists who had been detained for trying to organise street protests against President Robert Mugabe's government. "Since we are safely out of police custody there is no longer any need for the stayaway to continue tomorrow," the congress president, Lovemore Matombo, who was among those detained, said. The strike drew a lukewarm response yesterday, with most workers turning up for work. Union officials blamed the poor response on a delay in sending out the strike call. Alec Muchadehama, a lawyer for the union, said the activists were charged with contravening security laws on Tuesday by trying to stage a march against Mr Mugabe's economic policies. The strike was meant to coincide with the finance minister's budget speech to parliament and spotlight food and fuel shortages, 70% unemployment and inflation above 525%.
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From MISA (Namibia, 20 November
Photojournalist assaulted, equipment destroyed
On November 18 2003, Shadreck Pongo, a photojournalist with the Standard newspaper, was severely assaulted and injured by the police in Harare while covering a nationwide demonstration organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). Riot police apprehended him while he was shooting photographs of demonstrators and pulled him into a police truck where they severely assaulted him with police batons. The police seized the camera and destroyed it before dumping Pongo on the periphery of the city centre. Pongo was rushed to the Avenues Hospital in Harare hospital where he is receiving medical attention. Contacted for comment on the incident, police Spokesperson Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said that the it is difficult for the police to distinguish between journalists and demonstrators adding that media workers tend to make themselves part of the demonstrations. When told that some of the journalists and media workers display their accreditation cards but still get beaten and/or arrested, he said that the media workers must distinctly separate themselves from demonstrators. He said that the police would want to know clearly that journalists are merely observing. Meanwhile, Andrew Moyse, the director of Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ), and seven other civic leaders were also arrested during in the demonstration. They were detained at the Harare Central Police Station and are expected to appear in court today, November 20. MISA-Zimbabwe notes with concern that despite the accreditation by a government appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC) journalists and photographers are still being beaten and denied access to areas where they need to cover events. The police have so far refused to identify the accreditation cards and have mostly targeted journalists from the private media.
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From The Financial Times (UK), 21 November
Inflation at 700% and halved output predicted
By Tony Hawkins in Harare
The extent of Zimbabwe's economic collapse became even more apparent yesterday, with government budget forecasts showing that the country's output will have almost halved in real terms by the end of next year from its peak five years ago. Herbert Murerwa, finance minister, said gross domestic product would fall 13.2 per cent in 2003, nearly double his prediction a year ago of a 7.2 per cent reduction, and forecast a further 8.5 per cent decline in 2004. This would take to 48 per cent the cumulative fall in output since the crisis started in 1998, precipitated by the government's plans for taking over commercial farmland. Mr Murerwa also conceded that inflation would reach 600 per cent by next month, compared with his prediction of 96 per cent a year ago. He expected inflation to move above 700 per cent in the first quarter of 2004 before slowing. Yesterday's annual budget presentation coincided with the first day of a planned general strike, which met little response. The strike was called to demand the release of labour and civil leaders arrested on Tuesday in protests against President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian regime. State-owned media failed to report the strike plan, however.
Mr Murerwa presented a largely standstill budget, extending temporary tax relief to the lowest paid and promising tighter fiscal and monetary policies to tackle inflation next year. As expected, he raised the threshold for income tax from Z$180,000 a year ($220 at the current official exchange rate) to Z$2.4m ($2,900). The top 45 per cent tax rate which used to cut in at incomes of Z$1.5m will now take effect from Z$4.5m. In the shortest budget address since independence in 1980, Mr Murerwa gave sparse information about the state of the economy. He made no mention of the performance of the main sectors, nor of the balance of payments, although he did promise to launch an industrial development strategy, without giving details. Government spending in 2004 was set to rise six-fold to Z$8,740bn and revenues to increase by a similar margin to Z$6,900bn. But because monetary gross domestic product was also expected to rise six-fold to Z$24,600bn, the budget deficit of Z$1,850bn was projected to stay at its 2003 level of 7.5 per cent of GDP.
Most of the tax adjustments were essentially minor, reflecting inflation indexation rather than any policy shift. But value-added tax, which has been promised for years, is to be introduced on January 1, at 15 per cent - the same rate as existing general sales tax. Mr Murerwa also imposed a 5.5 per cent duty on diesel and petrol to meet the debt-servicing costs of the state-owned National Oil Company. The main surprise of the speech was the absence of any reference to exchange rate policy. Mr Murerwa had been expected to devalue the so-called export support rate to boost exports. However, he promised a monetary policy statement by Gideon Gono, the recently appointed central bank governor, which businessmen hoped would include effective devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 20 November
Zimbabwe signs African Union treaties
Addis Ababa - Zimbabwe has signed five African Union treaties, including pacts on human and women's rights, corruption and the environment, the AU said on Thursday. The Southern African country's permanent representative to the AU, Andrew Mtetwa, also signed protocols on Tuesday on the 53-member body's proposed court of justice and an amendment of its constitutive act, the AU said in a statement. Mtetwa pledged his country's "appreciation to the AU for continued support, particularly with regard to the assistance rendered by the former Organisation of African Unity [OAU] during the country's [1970s] liberation struggle," the statement noted. The Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa has been the headquarters of the AU since its formation in July 2002 to succeed the OAU, which was also headquartered there from its formation nearly four decades ago. The new body, loosely modelled on the EU, is to have a Pan-African parliament from mid-December and eventually a peace and security council, a common court of justice and a common African currency.
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From Mmegi (Botswana), 21 November
Patients stranded as foreign doctors steal medicine
Chandapiwa Baputaki
Government chief pharmacist Emmanuel Molosiwa said that foreign doctors stealing medicine to sell in their countries might be a bigger problem than they expected. "We cannot rule out the possibility that medication is being stolen by foreign doctors and nurses, even local ones," he said. He was responding to questions after it was alleged that medication was being stolen at clinics and hospitals and sold at cheaper prices elsewhere. He even confirmed a case where one doctor was reprimanded at the Ramokgwebana Border Gate with heaps of stolen medication two months back. He explained that the accused doctor used to order medication from the pharmacy for patients in the wards at Thamaga Hospital but would then take some and sell in his country. "He came to steal the medication and sold it in Zimbabwe every two weeks. The nurses at the hospital knew what was going on and started whispering," explained Molosiwa.
He further said that the stealing of medication by nurses was an ongoing thing as can be seen by the issue of wintergreen, which is now being supplied in very small amounts. "The medical stores discovered that the nurses were stealing wintergreen and selling it to people who wanted to strengthen their hair and enhance the growth. Now patients who are in-need of wintergreen are suffering because it is not easy to get it from hospitals and clinics," noted Molosiwa. He added that if people were caught stealing medicine their contracts would be terminated. "It is not something we take lightly. We will give it serious attention. "We cannot stand back while patients suffer and there are people defrauding government resources." Accor ding to Molosiwa, records are closely monitored and medication has been computerised.
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From Reuters, 19 November
Zambia exports fuel to Zimbabwe
Lusaka - Non-oil producing Zambia has begun fuel exports to Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and will spend US$73.4 million improving crude storage and processing facilities, senior government officials has said. Separately, the oil minister said Zambia hoped to build a pipeline from the Copperbelt town of Ndola to Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo to improve exports of petroleum products to the vast central African country, possibly with help from Iran. A senior government official said Zambia was exporting fuel to Zimbabwe to help that country to avert a fuel shortage that is crippling economic activity in Zimbabwe as it faces an unprecedented political and economic crisis. "Zambia started to export petrol to Zimbabwe in August at the request of that country's government officials," said the official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. The official did not give details on how much petrol had been exported to Zimbabwe. But Energy and Water Development Minister George Mpombo told parliament late yesterday that Zambia had exported five million litres of petrol in October alone to the Democratic Republic of Congo and "other neighbouring countries." "In October we exported five million litres of petrol to the Congo and other neighbouring countries," Mpombo said. "Iran wants to help us to put up a pipeline from Ndola to Lubumbashi," Mpombo added, but gave no further details.
Zambia meets all of its fuel needs by importing crude and refining it at Indeni, the country's only refinery, which is 50 percent owned by France's Total TOTF.PA . It also exports surplus supplies. Mpombo also said Zambia would rehabilitate crude oil storage and pumping facilities. "The facilities for handling crude oil and processing feedstock are in poor state ... a lot of rehabilitation and replacement works need to be done and we need US$63.4 million for Tazama," Mpombo said. The state-owned Tazama stores and pumps Zambia's crude oil imports via a pipeline from the port of Dar-Es-Salaam to Ndola, where another state firm, Indeni Oil Refinery refines the crude oil. "We are sourcing funds through bilateral and multilateral arrangements ... similarly for Indeni there need to rehabilitate a number of very important equipment at the refinery. "It is estimated the refinery needs an injection of $10 million," Mpombo said. Mpombo said Iranian state oil utility, Naftiran Intertrade Company (NICO), would start to supply Zambia with crude oil after signing a one-year contract, with the first consignment of 90 000 tonnes expected in January.
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From IOL (SA), 21 November
Zim drops charges against 52 union protestors
Harare - State prosecutors dropped all charges on Friday against 52 trade unionists and their supporters, arrested during nationwide demonstrations against President Robert Mugabe's autocratic rule and mounting economic hardships. State attorneys informed Harare magistrate Sukai Tongogara that they had insufficient evidence to press charges against the group under Zimbabwe's sweeping security laws. Nearly 90 people, including 14 labour leaders, were arrested on Tuesday in demonstrations called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and political reform activists. Police had declared the protests illegal. The 52 arrested in the capital, including the federation's top four leaders, were held for two days before they were brought to court. Tongogara released them on condition they appeared in court on Friday to face charges of organising illegal demonstrations, which were later dropped. Brian Raftopoulos, a spokesperson for those released, said the group will consider filing suit against the police for wrongful arrest and detention. He accused police of using the country's Public Order and Security Act for political ends. "They succeeded in stopping our demonstrations and kept us in detention and off the streets, and maybe that is the aim at the moment," said Raftopoulos, head of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, an alliance of reform groups.
On Thursday, nine protesters were charged with organising an illegal demonstration in the country's second city, Bulawayo, federation officials said. They were released on condition they appear for trial on December 3. More than a dozen others were released without charge on Thursday in the eastern border city of Mutare. Thirteen protesters remained in custody on Friday in the central industrial town of Gweru, as police and prosecutors tried to decide whether to charge them, federation officials said. Zimbabwe is in the throes of economic and political crisis, with official inflation running at 526 percent and critical shortages of food, gasoline and other imports. The often-violent seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to impoverished blacks has crippled the agriculture-based economy. Mugabe's government has also stepped up a crackdown on dissent, arresting political opponents, harassing labour groups and shutting down the country's only independent daily newspaper.
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From BBC News, 21 November
Arrests over anti-Mugabe e-mails
Fourteen people have been arrested in Zimbabwe for circulating an e-mail calling for protests to oust President Robert Mugabe, state media reports. The government-controlled Herald newspaper says the e-mail urged people to take part in marches on Monday. It is not clear how the police found the e-mail but the state security services have been trying to acquire high-tech snooping devices. The 14 have all been released on bail, the paper reports. The e-mail allegedly called on people to take part in "violent demonstrations and strikes to push Robert Mugabe out of office". It complained, among other issues, of hyper-inflation, high income tax, unemployment, shortages of goods and services, and "propaganda on the radio, TV and newspapers". Since the closure of the only non-state-owned daily newspaper in September, it has been difficult for opposition groups to spread their message as the government controls all radio and television stations. Among those Zimbabweans rich enough to have access to computers, this has left e-mails as one way to carry on political activity.
A senior official from a Zimbabwean internet service provider (ISP) told BBC News Online that he did not believe the security services had obtained the cyber-monitoring equipment they have been seeking. He said the e-mail had probably been forwarded to someone who had sent it to the authorities. But he also said that it would be easy for an ISP to monitor any e-mails it sent and state-owned companies might be coming under pressure to help the government track down opposition activity in cyberspace. Some 90 people were arrested on Tuesday for taking part in a union-organised march against the worsening economic situation and alleged state harassment. A strike called to protest at the arrests failed to take hold on Thursday and Friday and unions said one reason was the "news blackout". As the economic and political situations have worsened, the government has passed a series of tough laws to clamp down on protests. President Robert Mugabe's opponents accuse him of economic mismanagement, and blame the country's woes partly on the seizures of white-owned farms. Mr Mugabe says his land reforms are designed to redress an injustice of British colonial rule, and accuses opponents at home and abroad of sabotaging the economy.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 21 November
Obasanjo angry over failed meeting
Dumisani Muleya
President Robert Mugabe on Monday sabotaged his prospects of attending next month's Commonwealth summit when he refused to meet opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Senior diplomatic sources said Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo had come to offer Mugabe, who is desperate to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Abuja, Nigeria, a last-minute opportunity to secure an invitation but left the country angry and exasperated. Sources said Mugabe rejected Obasanjo's attempt to organise an emergency meeting with Tsvangirai to break the political impasse, claiming he needed to consult his party first. The meeting would have helped Obasanjo to claim he had brokered a breakthrough between the two sides and thereby opened a door to Mugabe at Abuja.
Obasanjo had ostensibly planned to meet Mugabe to formally tell him why he had not been invited to the Chogm, but later saw an opportunity to try to break the political impasse. When he arrived in the country on Monday, he first met Mugabe before seeing Tsvangirai later in the morning. Sources said Mugabe briefed Obasanjo on the situation and claimed he was a victim of a racist campaign by the "white Commonwealth" angered by his land reform programme. Mugabe claimed he was trying to address the economic situation. He also said there had been informal talks between Zanu PF and the MDC. After meeting Mugabe, Obasanjo went to see Tsvangirai for a briefing. Sources said Obasanjo's first words were: "What's happening Mr Tsvangirai?" to which the MDC leader replied: "Since your last visit to Zimbabwe (with South African President Thabo Mbeki in May) nothing has changed, except for the worse." "Obasanjo looked surprised because Mugabe had given him the impression there was progress," a source close to the talks said.
Tsvangirai then went on to chronicle events from last year up to now. Sources said Tsvangirai started with Colonel Lionel Dyck's purported mission last December, followed by the visit to Zimbabwe of Cape Town Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane in March and then the meetings between Patrick Chinamasa and MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube. Tsvangirai also spoke about the church leaders' initiative and secret meetings with Zanu PF chair John Nkomo in September in an effort to secure a meeting between Mugabe and himself. "It was an extensive briefing by Tsvangirai and Obasanjo was impressed," a source said. "After that Obasanjo went back to Mugabe at State House hoping to arrange a meeting between the two. But when he came back to Tsvangirai from State House he was visibly disappointed because Mugabe had refused an immediate meeting with Tsvangirai. Mugabe said he wanted to first consult his party and gave February or March next year as dates for a possible meeting."
The sources said after Obasanjo's experience on Monday, there would be no invitation to Mugabe "unless something dramatic happens" between now and the opening of the conference on December 5. Obasanjo is on record as saying Mugabe would not be invited unless there was a positive "sea change" in Zimbabwe. His insistence on Monday that "we are still consulting" suggested he had not found any "sea change" during his visit. Tsvangirai told Obasanjo Mugabe had failed to address Commonwealth concerns raised when Zimbabwe was suspended from the club in March last year. The issues include political reconciliation and democratic reforms. Australian Prime Minister John Howard and officials at the Commonwealth secretariat in London said after Obasanjo's visit this week that Mugabe remained uninvited.
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Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 21 November
Abuja is not the issue
Benhilda Chanetsa
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe may or may not have squeezed his way into the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) set for Abuja, Nigeria, early next month after talks with Chogm host President Olusegun Obasanjo this week. But his attendance is irrelevant to the real struggle going on inside the country, say Mugabe watchers. A day after Obasanjo’s visit, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and its civic partners took to the streets to protest continued human rights abuses and the deteriorating economic situation - one that has seen inflation rise to 525% (see story below), unemployment to 80% and a foreign currency crisis that has led to a clampdown on illegal forex and gold dealers but without netting sufficient forex resources for fuel and other requirements. A paltry $2-million worth of forex is said to have been received in early November, while about 40% of the gold being produced is currently coming in.
The demonstration led to more than 400 arrests, including those of top ZCTU and civic group leaders who were charged with violating the notorious Public Order and Security Act, which seeks to stifle perceived anti-Mugabe protests by requiring that they receive police sanction. There were reports of beatings by police during the arrests and these, the ZCTU said, demonstrated the continuing internal crisis. Said Colin Gwiyo, the deputy secretary general of the ZCTU: "The demo takes our message further. Abuja is not a big issue. With or without Obasanjo, human rights are being violated. Whatever happens, the situation is here, now." The ZCTU has called for a two-day strike on November 21 and 22 to demand the release of those arrested. The start of the strike will coincide with Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa’s Budget speech. More protests are planned for Human Rights Day on December 10, when the crisis is expected to have worsened. The protesters are also expected to target the National Youth Service Programme believed to be churning out youths responsible for much of the election violence.
Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth for a year after Mugabe’s March 2002 presidential election victory, dubbed fraudulent by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the Commonwealth and Western nations, but largely endorsed by Asian and African countries. The suspension has remained in place because of reports of continued human rights abuses such as those reportedly perpetrated against demonstrators this week. However, Mugabe still views Zimbabwe’s suspension as "a racist plot" cooked up by the white Commonwealth because of his seizure of white-owned farm land. Mugabe’s attendance at Chogm is still far from certain, however. Although he confidently informed the state media "we look forward to attending Chogm, Abuja", Obasanjo was more circumspect. After talks with Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai he announced that he would seek wider consultation before a decision could be taken on Zimbabwe’s attendance.
Professor Heneri Dzinotyiwei of the University of Zimbabwe said: "It’s not obvious, really, that he [Mugabe] will be invited. It’s still very much hanging in the air, but [President Thabo] Mbeki and Obasanjo would wish for Zimbabwe’s problems to be settled internally rather than externally." He added that it would be to the MDC’s advantage to focus on the internal crisis. MDC party spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said Mugabe’s attendance at Chogm was of "no consequence", that the real struggle the MDC was concerned with was "for the people of Zimbabwe" and the "piles and piles of applications" it was receiving daily were testimony to the party’s growing popularity among the people. He said the MDC was continuing as before and nothing had changed. "Mugabe’s attendance is not the issue [the issue is] rather the inflation, the unemployment, the fact that one in three have no access to anti-retrovirals and the government’s failure to provide maize seed. These are the issues of immediate concern, not Abuja, which is 6 000km away," he said, adding that his party had in no way been weakened by the Obasanjo visit.
The state-owned Herald newspaper reported that Obasanjo had in talks with Mugabe mentioned that he had witnessed a "changed, mellow" Tsvangirai. However, when contacted for comment, Tsvangirai denied that he was softening towards the idea of a government of national unity and insisted that the MDC would continue as before with its court challenge: "How can there be a government of national unity when we have not negotiated?" he asked. The MDC ’s court petition against Mugabe’s 2002 election victory began on November 3, but was temporarily put on hold the following day to give the judge time to study the initial submissions. David Coltart, the MDC secretary for legal affairs, believes that it was placed before the courts "overwhelming arguments. There is no other peaceful lawful action at our disposal. As we’ ve said in the past, if there’s meaningful progress, we will consider suspending the court proceedings, and if the discussions yield a final agreement which is irreversible and endorsed by the international community".
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Comment from The Financial Gazette, 21 November
A damp squib
Hama Saburi
Budget skirts pressing issues; Silent on turnaround strategies
Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa yesterday unveiled an unimaginative standstill $8.74 trillion budget that is thin on detail in terms of strategy to turn around what is now widely seen as an economic basket case. In a marked departure from tradition, the baritone economics supremo who many admitted walked a tightrope ahead of the announcement of the budget, did not address three key issues, namely the skewed exchange rate, runaway inflation and the unrealistic interest rate regime. With very slim margins to manoeuvre, Murerwa did not show any positive attempt to bring down biting inflation by identifying methods to curb the scourge, indicating that government, blamed for reducing the economy into a recessionary heap, has not yet moved from mere rhetoric to action. He was also not assertive on incentives which would either bolster the country’s faltering export sector or act as a stimulus for economic productivity, although he made a passing reference to the two issues. All Murerwa, whose flat budget observers said was a tacit admission that the government was incapable of tackling the complex economic woes besetting Zimbabwe today, could say was that inflation, interest rates and the exchange rate would be addressed in monetary statements which would be issued by the incoming Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Dr Gideon Gono.
Observers were unanimous that the shift by Murerwa, while raising questions on whether the incoming central bank governor had been consulted on the budget, would place incredible responsibility on the shoulders of Gono as the head of the country’s monetary policy. "Yes, as governor-designate, I have been fully consulted and involved in the compilation of the 2004 budget," said Gono, who hopes to be a symbol of Zimbabwean economic preeminence when he takes over at the central bank in December. "I am fully in the picture regarding the intentions of the minister as contained in his budget speech and the direction of his fiscal policies and proposals. Our interpretations of same and their implications on monetary policies are not vague. The obligation and responsibility placed on the central bank are also fully understood and appreciated...Monetary policies will be announced by the second or third week of December and I am committed to ensure that this deadline is met," Gono said.
Despite its lack of imagination, observers said, in a way, the budget marked a U-turn in government’s populist policies by ushering in a new era where public enterprises that had benefited from subsidies for decades would now charge break-even prices. The new pricing policy, which will benefit perennial loss-making parastatals namely the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, Air Zimbabwe and National Railways of Zimbabwe, whose fortunes had nosedived due to uneconomic prices, could thaw Zimbabwe’s relations with the International Monetary Fund which dumped Zimbabwe in 1995 over policy differences. Murerwa also said that with effect from November 1 2003, workers will take home more cash following the widening of tax bands on bonuses but would pay more on dispensing cash from the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and the use of cheque books, which had become fashionable because of the biting cash crunch. Income not subject to taxation has been raised from $180 000 to $2.4 million per annum with effect from January 1 2004 to give workers more money to spend. But analysts were quick to point out that this just showed the extent to which government had lost touch with reality because that amounted to nothing if put against the intensifying inflationary pressures.
Murerwa expects the widening of tax brackets and the freeing of more bonuses to release an additional $1.2 trillion and $14.4 billion of taxpayers’ money into an economy fast collapsing into a recessionary heap. Pensioners, who had been dealt a hammer blow by high levels of inflation got a temporary relief, but the benefit is likely to be wiped out soon by inflation, which is projected to rise to 700 percent by March 2004. He increased the allowable tax free pension contribution from $90 000 to $720 000 per annum, while the tax free portion on a commutation is up $750 000 to $1 million or one third of the lump sum, whichever is greater, all with effect from the beginning of next year. Given the spate of retrenchments hitting industry and commerce, tax on severance packages has been eased a bit from $300 000 to $1.5 million or a third of the severance package.
But in the process, the Finance Minister had to raise carbon tax, tax on ATMs and stamp duty on cheques among other things to enhance revenue collection, which is expected to improve with the introduction of the Value Added Tax system in January. Vehicles with engine capacity up to 1500cc will pay $20 000, 1501cc to 2000cc ($35 000), 2001cc to 3000cc ($50 000) and $100 000 for 3000cc and above. It now costs $50 for an ATM transaction up from $5. The stamp duty for cheques and marketable securities goes up from $5 to $50 and from $1 for every $100 to $5 for every $100 respectively. Companies were also given benefits in the 2004 budget by way of reduction on capital allowances on vehicles, staff housing, schools and hospitals and allowable expenditure on convention attendance. "It is also imperative that we avoid reversals on agreed policy positions and aborting painful measures mid-way through implementation," he said. "It is vital that measures to revive domestic production and exporting are expeditiously implemented. Confidence building, policy consistency and political commitment in policy implementation, re-engagement of partners within the TNF (Tripartite Negotiating Forum) are also critical in fighting inflation and stabilising the economy," he said.
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From AFP, 22 November
Zimbabwe court quashes attempt to publicise alleged 1980s army atrocities: report
Harare - Zimbabwe's top court has quashed an attempt by human rights groups to force President Robert Mugabe's government to make public the contents of an enquiry into alleged atrocities by the army 20 years ago, a newspaper said Saturday. The atrocities were allegedly committed by the army during a security clampdown in southern Zimbabwe shortly after independence in 1980, against dissidents committing armed banditry in the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces. In 1983 the government created a commission to investigate atrocities allegedly committed against civilians during the operation, but the findings were never made public. Human rights groups say the commission was given proof of widespread rights abuses by the army from hundreds of witnesses. Mugabe, who was prime minister when the commission was set up, was cited as the first respondent in the recent Supreme Court application, the state-run Herald reported Saturday.
But the Supreme Court dismissed the application, which had been filed by the Legal Resources Foundation and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights group. The paper did not say when the judgement was handed down. Justice Misheck Cheda ruled that Mugabe could not be compelled to reveal the findings contained in the report. "As long as the first respondent declines to publish the report on the basis of the interest of the state and safety of other persons, he cannot be compelled to publish the reports," Cheda was quoted as saying. Thousands of civilians are believed to have died during the army operation, codenamed Gukurahundi, which the government said was aimed at suppressing an armed uprising by ex-guerrillas loyal to Mugabe's former political rival, Joshua Nkomo.
In their application the human rights lawyers also wanted Mugabe to reveal the findings of another commission tasked with investigating an uprising in 1980 by members of one of two Zimbabwean liberation armies that defeated white minority rule and brought about independence earlier the same year. Members of the Zimbabwe Peoples Revolutionary Army, loyal to Nkomo, were accused of going back to the bush shortly after independence and fighting a dissident war against the government. In 1997 the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, together with the Legal Resources Foundation, released its own report on the Matabeleland disturbances entitled "Breaking the Silence". It chronicled atrocities that took place between 1982-1988 that included murder, rape, destruction of homesteads and torture on a large scale. The Herald said five judges had heard the application from the rights groups, who had argued that after 20 years it was no longer necessary to keep the two reports confidential.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 23 November
Hospitals collapse
By Valentine Maponga
Government hospitals are on the brink of total collapse after senior doctors and thousands of nurses yesterday downed tools to join junior doctors who have been on a protracted job action that has virtually paralysed the entire public health system. State nurses, the backbone of the public health delivery system, went on strike at the weekend after the government failed to honour pledges that it would hike their salaries by up to 800 percent translating to $1,6 million each per month. "Our pay day was on Thursday and we were really shocked to find out that nothing was added on our November salaries. In fact, an allowance we have been getting has been cut. We feel cheated," said a nurse at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare, who refused to be named. Other nurses who spoke to The Standard on condition of anonymity, said they were "shocked" to find that the new salaries they were promised last month were not reflected on their payslips on Thursday. At a meeting held at the Zimbabwe Nurses' Association house on Friday, the nurses agreed that they would embark on the job action until the Public Service Commission (PSC) addressed their grievances.
When The Standard visited Parirenyatwa, Harare and Chitungwiza hospitals yesterday, not even a single nurse was on duty except sisters-in-charge and student nurses, who kept themselves busy trying to normalise the situation. Some patients waited hopelessly at the outpatients department at Harare hospital. Other patients whose conditions were deemed "not very serious", were turned away while foreign doctors attended to serious emergency cases. Chitungwiza hospital acting medical superintendent, Leslie Mtariswa, confirmed that the strike had virtually paralysed the system. "We have no staff right now and we are not in a position to take in new patients. The strike has virtually paralysed the whole system, we always rely on the assistance of nurses in order to execute our duties. We only hope that the strike ends as soon as possible as the situation is not sustainable," said Mtariswa. At Bulawayo's Mpilo and United Bulawayo Hospitals, nurses and doctors yesterday reported for duty but were keeping their "ears to the ground" about the strike. "We are not on strike. I hope we will join the strike on Monday," said a nurse at Mpilo.
David Parirenyatwa, the Minister of Health and Child Welfare, yesterday said he had not been informed about the latest developments at government hospitals. "I have not yet been informed about that, usually when people go on strike we are normally informed," said Parirenyatwa. "I just hope nurses do not go on strike again as this might cause a lot of suffering in most of our hospitals. This is a very undesirable situation in the health sector as junior and middle doctors are already on strike," he said. He added that the issue of doctors' and nurses' salaries was determined by the PSC and in his role as a minister, he was determined to see that his employees were satisfied. "I want all of them to get better remuneration, given how the economy is right now but I think the solution is not to go on strike. We need to sit down and negotiate on all the problems that are affecting our employees. Nurses and doctors should always put the health of patients first before anything else," said Parirenyatwa.
Official sources say specialist doctors, who have been working during the junior doctors' strike, had also joined the job action. According to the sources the doctors were only waiting for their November salaries before joining the strike, which has now effectively shut the public health system. Among the senior doctors' grievances, say hospital sources, are that they no longer get allowances such as fuel to drive to and from work. Zimbabwean nurses and doctors, who have fled the country in their droves for hospitals in the UK, South Africa, the US and the Middle East, say their salaries and working conditions are the poorest in the region and need to be improved. They accuse President Robert Mugabe's bankrupt administration of procrastination and failing to honour pledges when confronted with demands for salary reviews.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 23 November
Mugabe at Commonwealth: No decision yet
Lagos - There has been no decision taken yet about the participation of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in next month's Commonwealth summit to be staged in Abuja, Nigerian presidential spokesperson Remi Oyo said on Saturday. "There is nothing definitive yet about his invitation or participation. Consultations are still going on with leaders of Commonwealth countries on this issue," she said in a telephone interview from Abuja. This year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) is scheduled to take place in the Nigerian capital Abuja from December 5 to 8, but Zimbabwe has been suspended from the Commonwealth's councils for the past 20 months because of a controversial presidential election. Obasanjo, speaking after the two presidents met on Monday in Harare, did not rule out the possibility of an invitation to Mugabe despite fierce opposition from mainly white Commonwealth countries, and said he is consulting as widely as possible on the question. "I am consulting," he said when asked whether Zimbabwe would attend the meeting. "I have undertaken to consult as widely as possible. One has to learn from first hand what exactly the situation is here in Zimbabwe," said Obasanjo, adding that he is consulting "with Commonwealth leaders as to what should be the line of action before CHOGM, during CHOGM or after CHOGM".
Nigeria is yet to invite Mugabe to the summit, a top official of the Nigerian Foreign Ministry who did not wish to be named said on Saturday. "It is a sensitive issue, considering the fact that Nigeria, the host, was also suspended from the Commonwealth in 1995 following the execution of writer and minority rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa." Saro-Wiwa, president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, was executed along with eight of his companions after a military-led special tribunal convicted them of the murder of four Ogoni personalities. Saro-Wiwa always insisted he was innocent. Meanwhile, Obasanjo on Saturday in Abuja inspected venues and facilities to be used for the Commonwealth summit and the visit of the head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II, officials said. Among those he visited were the international conference centre, the building where the queen will be accommodated, a public "millennium" park, media centre, banquet and reatreat hall, as well as Nasarrawa, a Nigerian state near Abuja that the queen will visit, they said.
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From News24 (SA), 22 November
Zim outlaws black market fuel
Harare - Zimbabwe police have arrested more than 200 people in an ongoing crackdown on black market trading in scarce commodities such as fuel, the state-run Herald reported Saturday. The newspaper reported that 204 people had been arrested around the country for a variety of offences, including selling fuel on the black market, and illegally dealing in gold and foreign currency. The news comes a day after state television reported that 3 000 people had been arrested in the second city of Bulawayo for engaging in black market foreign currency trading. Zimbabwe is in the throes of severe economic hardships, mainly stemming from a critical shortage of foreign currency needed to import vital commodities such as fuel, medicine and food. The shortages have resulted in a burgeoning black market for scarce commodities and foreign currency where the US dollar fetches up to eight times its official rate of one US dollar: 824 Zimbabwe dollars. The Zimbabwe government has also outlawed the selling of fuel on the black market, the Herald reported on Saturday. According to the paper the new regulations published by the government on Friday state that "no person other than a licensed petroleum products outlet would sell petroleum products to private customers." Few of Zimbabwe's motorists obtain their fuel from regular service stations, many of which have not had deliveries for months. However, the amount of traffic still plying Zimbabwe's roads points to a growing black market supply of fuel.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 21 November
Govt tightens grip on GMB
Augustine Mukaro
Government has tightened its grip on the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and grain distribution by appointing Zanu PF stalwarts to all key posts in the parastatal's administrative structures, the Zimbabwe Independent heard this week. Sources say politicising of the GMB started at head office in Harare before it spread to provinces when government appointed provincial managers in August. The first move was government's appointment of a taskforce to coordinate grain distribution to starving people in 2001 and then the appointment of Colonel Samuel Muvuti as GMB chief executive officer. In September government appointed Zanu PF losing candidate in the Harare Central parliamentary election in June 2000, Winston Dzawo, as GMB operations director. Government has also politicised GMB provincial structures by appointing ruling-party henchmen as the parastatal's provincial managers. The provincial managers have been vested with powers to control the distribution and movement of grain to the populace in the countryside. Highly-placed sources said all the appointees had links with the ruling party in one way or another. In Mashonaland Central, government appointed Temba Mapuranga, a known Zanu PF member who is understood to be vying for the provincial chairmanship in the elections to be held tomorrow in Bindura. Contacted for comment, Mapuranga, who was in Masvingo, said he would only comment next week. "Contact me next week," he said. An S Chatikobo was appointed provincial manager for Masvingo, John Mafa for Mashonaland West, and Podiso Mafa for Matabeleland North. Mafa referred all questions to GMB head office. "All press issues are handled by our operations director," she said. Norman Sobuza was appointed provincial manager for Matabeleland South while a G Shiri was made responsible for the Midlands province.
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From IRIN (UN), 21 November
Zambia: Zimbabwean farmers increase production
Johannesburg - The fast-track land redistribution programme in Zimbabwe has forced many commercial farmers to seek greener pastures elsewhere, and Zambia is one of the neighbouring countries that has opened its arms to them. However, fewer Zimbabwean farmers than was previously reported have been granted permission to farm in Zambia. The Zambia Investment Centre (ZIC) told IRIN this week that since the beginning of Zimbabwe's land reform programme in 2002, a total of 41 Zimbabwean farmers had registered with the centre. ZIC issued investment certificates to just 31, allowing them to begin commercial farming. "All the Zimbabwean farmers granted investment certificates to set up farming operations in Zambia are farming. They are engaged in [farming] tobacco, maize, wheat, etc," the ZIC said. Despite their limited numbers, there had already been "an appreciable increase in the quantity of tobacco production this year", the agency noted. "They have what it takes to undertake their various farming enterprises - there is in place an internationally backed financing arrangement, involving international banks and tobacco dealers," a ZIC spokesman told IRIN.
ZIC was expecting to receive many more applications from Zimbabwean farmers. "Zambia has the potential to accommodate a lot more farmers, due to her abundant land and water resources, than we currently have," the organisation said. Forty-seven percent of Zambian land is arable and "suitable for various types of crops". "We therefore anticipate that more farmers will come and invest in Zambian agriculture, given the profile the sector has attained and [the] enabling environment being created by government," the ZIC said. Agriculture has been designated a priority area by the Zambian government. "The Zambia Investment Centre would therefore like more farmers of the calibre of Zimbabwean farmers to invest in Zambian agriculture," the organisation said. The ZIC plays a facilitation role for potential investors, providing assistance to those issued with investment certificates in obtaining immigration permits and other necessary documents.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 23 November
Moyo booed in Gweru
By our own Staff
Gweru - Minister of Information Jonathan Moyo recently met a baptism of fire when he tried to address students at Gweru's Midlands State University. Before he could start on his official speech, Moyo was stunned when students unveiled placards with the words: "We are hungry. Are you hungry, Prof?" Moyo stammered with no satisfactory answers and tried to tell the students that "he was also hungry" and that the food shortages were affecting everyone in Zimbabwe. His answer was not well received by the students who booed at him. He was only saved from further humiliation by the intervention of the university's Acting Vice Chancellor, Peter Gwatidzo, who threatened to expel the students for not according proper respect to Moyo. As expected, Moyo then took the opportunity to blast Britain and the US for allegedly causing Zimbabwe's economic collapse. Moyo has been visiting Gweru in a bid to open a radio station for New Ziana and also to resuscitate the Midlands ZBC Newsnet desk, which had ceased to operate. ZBC Newsnet Midlands bureau chief Zvikomborero Sibanda was called to Harare after the camera for the province broke down three months ago. Moyo was in Gweru with his own entourage of State media personnel who follow him to report on his every move.
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From The Financial Gazette, 21 November
We don’t need IMF, declares minister
Givemore Nyanhi
A cabinet minister, for whom the bell tolls in the forthcoming cabinet reshuffle, has trashed efforts by his colleagues to woo back the International Monetary Funds (IMF) and the World Bank, saying the country should instead seek to enhance its relationship with Asian countries and those in the far East. "Zimbabwe should forget about the Bretton Woods institutions because we do not need them anymore," Samuel Mumbengegwi, the Minister of Industry and International Trade, told a business meeting to familiarise local businessmen on business opportunities that exist in China. "The international community now refers to emerging Asian countries as well and does not only include the Western countries. The Chinese are happy with Zimbabwe and they are willing to support this country," said Mumbengegwi, seemingly oblivious of the fact that the look-east policy adopted by the government a couple of years ago has, at most, brought mixed results and at worst, nothing.
Mumbengegwi’s statement underlines the extent to which government ministers are so out of tune at a time when they should be singing from the same song sheet. It comes within a week of calls by Finance and Economic Development Minister Herbert Murerwa to engage the IMF and the World Bank, which slammed the door on the country in 1995 after their patience ran thin over Zimbabwe’ s stop-go implementation of the failed economic reform programme. Two senior World Bank officials on the continent visited Harare last week and held consultative meetings with government officials, including Murerwa, as well as captains of industry and commerce. John Nkomo, the Minister of Special Affairs in the President’s Office, also told the National Economic Consultative Forum meeting in Harare recently that Zimbabwe needed to re-engage the Bretton Woods institutions. "Zimbabwe’s sovereignty is not for bargaining, but we are ready to engage in mutually beneficial relations with the outside world in the capacity of a free and sovereign nation, governed by its laws and national constitution," Nkomo said. The Finance Ministry permanent secretary, Nick Ncube, among other senior government officials, also attended the meeting addressed by Mumbengegwi.
The IMF withdrew crucial balance-of-payments support in 1999, citing economic mismanagement and other governance issues. Major donors, taking their cue from the Bretton Woods institutions, have also cut off aid to Zimbabwe. China, with the world’s largest population of 1.3 billion, is one of the world’s fastest growing economies and is expected to outstrip Germany and Britain in growth in the coming years. Chris Mutsvangwa, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to China, aided Mumbengegwi’s assault, saying the West, including the United Kingdom and the United States, were essentially interested in exploiting Zimbabwe and not developing it. "Any trade relations with the West are not the same as those with the East. The West has a colonial mentality of exploitation. Relationships that started with rape are very difficult to turn into a happy marriage whereas with China the business relationship will be complementary," said Mutsvangwa. "China has more than US$400 billion in foreign currency reserves, which represent the second highest in the world after the United States and Zimbabwe can receive foreign direct investments from China if it works closely with that country." Observers, however, said government should have an organised and agreed line which every minister should toe. "We should have a government position that is consistent because whatever ministers say affects trade and it affects economic growth and investment into the country," said Jonathan Kadzura, an economic commentator. "The government should also learn to engage the whole world, not just a section of the world. The international community also wants to buy our products and there is no way we can engage one section while ignoring the other," Kadzura said.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 21 November
Tsvangirai files for Mudede's arrest
Vincent Kahiya
Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday filed a High Court application seeking Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede's imprisonment for contempt of court over his alleged refusal to transfer ballot boxes to Harare. Tsvangirai has for the past year been engaged with Mudede in mortal combat over the outcome of last year's presidential poll won by President Mugabe. Tsvangirai, whose election petition was heard in court two weeks ago, believes that Mudede's conduct in the poll swayed the result in favour of Mugabe. Mudede is cited in the case in his personal capacity as the second respondent while his office is cited as the first. "I am bringing this application seeking an order from this honourable court that the respondents are in contempt of this honourable court and that they are in fact in contempt in a most serious and grave manner," said Tsvangirai in his affidavit.
The contentious issue has been the failure by Mudede to move to the capital from various parts of the country electoral material from the 2002 poll. This is despite numerous High Court rulings compelling him to abide by Section 78 of the Electoral Act. The section compels the registrar-general to move all counted and rejected ballot papers together with counterfoils and used voters' rolls in sealed packets to a specified place for safekeeping. The latest such ruling compelling Mudede to follow the law was by Justice Moses Chinhengo on October 15. Chinhengo ordered that the electoral material should be kept at the offices of the Registrar of the High Court. Mudede has for the past year pleaded that he has no funds to move the electoral material. But Chinhengo, who said Mudede had a statutory obligation, quashed this argument. "It must be clear therefore that the request that the ballot papers not be brought to Harare because of the alleged lack of funds is an attempt by the respondent (Mudede) not only to disregard the order of this court but more importantly it is an attempt by him to have this court revisit its earlier decision," Chinhengo said.
Meanwhile, the Administrative Court will on Monday hear an application by Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe to effect an October 24 ruling which declared that the publishing company should be declared registered by November 30. The Administrative Court also ruled that the Media and Information Commission (MIC) was improperly constituted and that its chairman Tafataona Mahoso was biased against ANZ, publishers of the Daily News. Mahoso has already noted an appeal against the Administrative Court's ruling. The ANZ is seeking a confirmation order of the October 24 ruling so that it can resume publishing after it was closed by government following a Supreme Court ruling on September 11 that the company was operating outside the law.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 21 November
MDC seeks to nullify Chinhoyi mayoral election
Blessing Zulu
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has filed papers in the High Court seeking to nullify the Chinhoyi mayoral election won by Zanu PF without a ballot paper being cast. MDC mayoral candidate, Edeline Chivimbo Huchu, has filed the election petition. Those cited as respondents are Zanu PF candidate Ray Kapesa, the Registrar-General, the constituency registrar for Chinhoyi and the director of the Civil Division of the Attorney-General's office. The petition follows a declaration by the Registrar-General last month that Kapesa had been duly nominated mayor as no other candidate had filed papers to contest the election. The election was due to be held at the end of the month.
In her affidavit, Huchu said she had filed papers with the nomination court on October 24 and 27. She said what remained was payment of $500 which her agents took to the nomination court on October 28. "That my papers were submitted in advance was clearly stated by the Registrar of Elections, the third respondent, who indicated that the papers disappeared from his custody on the day of nomination after the court was 'invaded' by criminal elements during the commotion which lasted almost 30 minutes," Huchu said. In her papers, Huchu said the Zanu PF candidate did not have the required qualifications. "The first respondent does not have five 'O' levels as required by the Act. I am informed that he possesses a Grade 'E' in English at 'O' level and this is not the pass envisaged by the Act as it is embarrassingly next to nothing," Huchu said. Kapesa is also said not to have done tertiary education as envisaged in the Act.
Huchu said there was violence in the area prior to the sitting of the nomination court. She said she was attacked by a group of about 15 people including four members of the "Top Six" gang who wanted to confiscate her nomination papers. "One of them put a stone under my neck as I lay helplessly on the ground while the other savagely stepped on my neck with his feet squeezing it against the stone and seriously hurting me," Huchu said. She said she received treatment at Chinhoyi Hospital and the Avenues Clinic. She said five of her assailants were apprehended and released on the same day. "However, as has become the norm in Chinhoyi in respect of these notorious 'Top Six' gang pampered heavily by senior Zanu PF and government officials in the province, the five were clandestinely released from police custody despite numerous pending cases against them at the police station," she said.
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From Africa Confidential (UK), 21 November
Marching to Masvingo
President Mugabe's exit plans are prompting unrest ahead of the Zanu PF party congress
History is catching up with President Robert Gabriel Mugabe ahead of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front's congress in Masvingo next month: he is expected to make clear his exit plans and find reliable candidates for two key posts: the vice-presidency of Zanu PF to replace Simon Vengesayi Muzenda, who died on 20 September, and a Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Force to replace 60-year-old General Vitalis Zvinavashe, who retired this month. Who takes these positions now will be critical to the post-Mugabe transition. The battle for the vice-presidency and for the Mugabe succession is between the big battalions:
The Zezuru group: former ZDF Commander Lieutenant Gen. Tapfumanei Solomon Mujuru ; his wife Joyce Mujuru; the Air Force Commander, Air Marshal Perence Shiri; Minister of Defence Sydney Sekeramayi.
The Karanga groups: one led by ailing firebrand Eddison Zvobgo and Air Marshal Josiah Tungamirai and the other, bigger and richer, led by parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zvinavashe and Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge.
The strongest contenders are Sekeramayi and Mnangagwa. Sekeramayi owes his ascendancy to his friends and backers, particularly Mujuru, as much as his political skills. Mugabe still favours Mnangagwa (reflected in his sobriquet, 'Son of God'). Mugabe's enthusiasm is tempered, though, by party sentiment: Mnangagwa, despite intensive lobbying and sponsorship of rising provincial politicians, is feared rather than loved.
Breaking the Silence - ZWNEWS
Last Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed an application to force the government to publish the reports of two commissions of enquiry. One of the reports covered the fighting that erupted between Zipra and Zanla guerrillas in two military camps in Bulawayo shortly after independence. The second report covered the massacres which took place in the Midlands and Matabeleland in the 1980's, during the deployment of 5 Brigade in what became known as Gukurahundi. The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace also published its own substantial report - Breaking the Silence - into the Gukurahundi massacres. If you would like to read the summary version of Breaking the Silence, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message. Please specify whether you would like to version with pictures (approximately 40 times the size of the average daily ZWNEWS), or the version without pictures (approximately 4 times the size of the average daily ZWNEWS).
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 23 November
Soldiers missing in DRC to be declared dead
By Caiphas Chimhete
The government is seeking the go-ahead to declare dead at least 67 soldiers who went missing in action in the then war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where they had gone to prop up the administration of the late President Laurent Kabila from 1998. Official sources said the Ministry of Defence will soon publish scores of names of soldiers who went missing in the vast central African country as government seeks to declare all those that it cannot account for in the DRC as dead. On Friday, The Herald published notices of 67 names of missing soldiers suspected to have perished in war in the DRC, where hundreds of Zimbabwean soldiers died in combat against rebels supported by Uganda and Rwanda. A worker in the newspaper's classifieds section yesterday said The Herald's Friday advertisements, which had the names of the missing soldiers, were billed under the Police General Headquarters' account.
Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena, professed ignorance on why the legal notice of missing soldiers was billed under the PGHQ account. Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi said he could not comment on the legal notice because he had not seen it. He also declined to divulge the total number of Zimbabwean soldiers who died in the vast central African country. The legal notices read: "Application has been received for an order presuming the death of (names of soldiers supplied and address). An inquiry will be held in terms of section 5 of the above Act (Notice of Application Missing Persons 1978)." Despite its denials, international media reports say Zimbabwe lost hundreds of soldiers in the five-year military campaign that saved the Kabila regime. Apart from the loss of many lives, the DRC war also gobbled billions of dollars. At one time, it was estimated that the war was costing the country about $30 million a day. War in the DRC officially ended last year after five years of intense fighting, which drew in six African countries including Zimbabwe.
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From The Guardian (UK), 24 November
Radio Free Zimbabwe
From a grimy suburb of London, exiled radio superstars are beaming out the only opposition voice to Mugabe's regime. Douglas Rogers meets the resistance.
In the foothills of the Bvumba mountains near the Mozambican border in eastern Zimbabwe, a group of villagers are gathered around a small portable radio waiting for the daily broadcast of their favourite station. Their battery-powered short-wave transistor is tuned to the 49m band and, as the evening sun dips below the msasa trees, a song from Zimbabwe's musical superstar Oliver Mtukudzi jangles to life. The Shona track Wasakara - "You are old, you are spent, it is time to accept you are old," - is a thinly veiled reference to ageing president Robert Mugabe and is banned from state radio, but the villagers know it well and some even sing along. As the chorus fades, the deep, chocolate-smooth voice of Zimbabwe's legendary music DJ John Matinde crackles through the static. "This is SW Radio Africa, Zimbabwe's independent voice." For the next three hours, these and hundreds of thousands of other Zimbabweans will tune in to hear music, news and political interviews about their country that state-run radio and television would never broadcast. And every evening, ordinary Zimbabweans will speak to the station about the brutality and hardship of life in the country. Tonight a woman tells Matinde how her activist husband has been beaten by the feared youth militia; a truck driver on the South Africa-Zimbabwe border calls to say that girls as young as 13 are prostituting themselves to buy food. The callers speak in a mixture of Shona, Ndebele and English, and rarely use their real names for fear of retribution. Some even whisper, afraid that they will be overheard by the police. In a country where Mugabe's regime ruthlessly controls all radio and television output, and where the only independent newspaper has recently been shut down,
SW Radio Africa is the only independent voice. It broadcasts not from Zimbabwe but from the third floor of an office block in a grimy suburb of north-west London. And it is run not by hardened political hacks or opposition party activists, but by a group of DJs turned journalists, most of whom made their names playing pop songs on Zimbabwean state radio in the 1980s and 1990s. "I'd rather be playing Led Zeppelin," says Gerry Jackson, 49, the station's founder, a veteran of 25 years' broadcasting in Africa. "But as Zimbabweans we have other responsibilities now." A former DJ on ZBC's music station Radio 3, the equivalent of the BBC's Radio 1, Jackson was fired for "insubordination" after airing live phone calls from people being beaten by police during food riots in Harare in 1997. In 2000 she fought and won a legal battle in the Supreme Court to set up Zimbabwe's first independent radio station, Capital FM, and began broadcasting with a transmitter set up on a hotel roof in Harare. Within six days it was raided by soldiers wielding AK47s. They smashed the studio equipment while Jackson's two employees escaped in the hotel lift. "Mugabe issued a presidential decree closing us down - and we only ever played music!" Jackson decided then to broadcast from outside Zimbabwe and after a year raising funds and putting a team together, moved to London, launching the station in December 2001. With an estimated 500,000 Zimbabweans living in the UK, back home people jokingly refer to London as "Harare North." The eight staff at the station reflect London's democratic "New Zimbabwe" mix: four black and three white Zimbabweans, plus a British website designer.
It's 4pm in the smart but cramped offices and the studio clock reads 6pm - Zimbabwe time. Matinde and Mandy Mundawarara, the first-ever black voice on Zimbabwe-Rhodesia radio back in 1979, are about to go on air. Without a budget to pay correspondents, and with journalists continually being arrested or expelled, the station relies on ordinary Zimbabweans to file stories. The news desk has a team of "informal correspondents" with mobile phones, among them a travelling salesman and a member of the Zimbabwean police, who file under false names. "They are as good as trained reporters," says Jackson. "Erudite and observant, never irrational or rabid or calling for the overthrow of the government." Stories can run for more than 20 minutes and correspondents, who speak in whatever language they like, are never interrupted or told to hurry up. "It's open-forum, no-format, free-thinking radio," says Jackson. Today's main story is about a demonstration in Harare by the National Constitutional Assembly, a group calling for constitutional reform. The report is filed by a demonstrator who describes police with batons beating and arresting protesters. The station has sat in on land invasions, taking calls from white farmers hiding in their homes while their property is ransacked. One recent interview was with a war veteran enraged that a government minister was taking his farm. The interviewer, Violet Gonda, reminded the war veteran that months before he himself had taken the land from a white farmer. Some of the hardest-hitting interviews have been by Georgina Godwin. A few years ago Godwin, 36, was Zimbabwe's Sara Cox, a celebrity DJ with her own morning drive-time show and newspaper gossip column. Today she finds herself interviewing presidents, foreign ministers and dignitaries such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu. She recently broadcast a threatening rant at her by Jocelyn Chiwenga, the firebrand wife of the head of the Zimbabwe National Army. Godwin had ensured that a prize awarded by a Spanish-based organisation to Chiwenga - who has personally conducted farm invasions and once told a white farmer, "I haven't tasted white blood in 22 years" - was withdrawn. "She called me in a rage," says Godwin proudly, "and I put the call on air." Such exposure of the regime has outraged Robert Mugabe. After trying to jam the signal the government has now simply stopped Zanu members from speaking to the station. It has also banned six of the station's staff from returning to Zimbabwe. "They would be welcomed back," justice minister Patrick Chinamasa told parliament. "Welcomed back to our prisons."
The programming is not entirely unstructured. There are regular reports on the economy and Aids, a weekly Letter from Zimbabwe by white farmer and author Cathy Buckle, and a weekly Letter from America by Indiana University-based Zimbabwean academic and journalist Professor Stanford Mukasa. The |
