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Archived News
29th July 2003
US black criticism of Mugabe provokes division
MDC to attend opening of Parliament in Harare
Amnesty International - Campaign Against Torture - Together Against Torture: Human rights lawyer tortured in Zimbabwe
Mugabe says will woo Third World to end isolation
Condom factory rearing to go
MDC calls off Mugabe walkout
Opposition under continued harassment
Church apology not enough, says rights activist
Admissions of guilt
State targets colleges, NGOs for crackdown
Zimbabwe plans black ownership bill, official says
Panicking Zanu PF 'chefs' strip country of assets
Leading firms 'handle loot of farm squatters'
Tycoon faces retrial over killing
Printing cash isn't going to help
Zimbabwe political tension eases, but no talks yet
Mugabe set to meet Tsvangirai for talks
MDC about-turn a sign Mbeki is on right track
Zimbabwe formally appeals for food aid
Call for 350 000 tons of food to feed Zim
Zim assures Libyans of fair fuel deal
Zim to deregulate fuel system
Zim detainees include babes in arms
Mugabe ready to quit Zanu PF leadership
Call for assistance to displaced farm workers
NGOs fear clampdown
Fuel deal collapses
Tension mounts as Zim runs out of cash
Tsvangirai ruling delayed
Zimbabwe releases jailed women protesters
Zimbabwe church leaders meet Mugabe over crisis
Zanu PF plays down Harare Central by-election
Central bank rapped
Enough madness
Tales from a broken country
Zimbabweans rush for last banknotes
Zim churches press for talks
Violence in Zim on the rise
Moyo axes Mopani Junction off air
Raising false hopes
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From Reuters, 22 July
Mugabe says will woo Third World to end isolation
By Cris Chinaka and Stella Mapenzauswa
Harare - President Robert Mugabe said on Tuesday Zimbabwe would woo friends in the Third World to break out of international isolation and warned his domestic political opponents against seeking to destabilise his government. In an address marking the official opening of parliament, Mugabe said the crisis-torn country faced a global environment as ''dangerous as it is unjust'' -- an apparent reference to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The West shuns Mugabe, accusing him of human rights abuses and criticising his seizure of white-owned farms for distribution to landless blacks. But African states led by South Africa have resisted calls to isolate him further. ''We have to recover lost alliances, resuscitate those that are dormant, and reconstruct those we may have neglected because it has become clear that the evolving global environment is unkind to the small, dangerous to the weak and the isolated, and tempting to the greedy,'' Mugabe said. He said his government would cultivate links with Third World nations and that his election this month as a deputy chairman of the African Union was a sign of confidence in his rule. ''Such an election was meant to send an eloquent message to those who have spitefully sought our isolation and ruin,'' said Mugabe, 79, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain 23 years ago.
The West has slapped a variety of sanctions on Mugabe and his officials but South Africa says it prefers to use ''quiet diplomacy'' to deal with its northern neighbour. For the first time in four years, opposition lawmakers did not boycott Mugabe's speech, and even Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai attended the session. The main opposition MDC, which holds just over a third of the 150 seats in parliament, said it had decided to attend to create an environment for political dialogue - although Mugabe made no mention of this possibility in his speech. Instead, Mugabe brandished his usual warning to his political opponents, saying his government would not tolerate any attempt to destabilise it. ''I wish to reaffirm my message of peaceful and non-violent election campaigns and strongly warn that those who seek to indulge in illegal activities or attempts to create political instability will face the full wrath of the law,'' he said. The MDC accuses Mugabe of rigging his re-election last year and says he has mismanaged the economy, leading to record unemployment of over 70 percent and one of the highest rates of inflation in the world. In a 30-minute speech, Mugabe vowed to clamp down on corruption and warned of tough measures against smuggling scarce foreign currency out of the country.
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From News24 (SA), 21 July
Condom factory rearing to go
Nelspruit - A Malaysian business consortium has invested R30m in a condom-making factory in Mpumalanga that is now rearing to go. Chief executive officer of the Mpumalanga Investment Initiative (MII) Musi Skhosana said this week that Mpumalanga came up trumps when the economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe forced the Malaysians to look elsewhere to build their factory. "[Condoms] are a product not easily produced in Third World countries and we jumped at this opportunity to bring wealth into the province and of course play a role in fighting HIV/Aids," Skhosana said. Governments all over the world are encouraging their citizens to use condoms to curb the spread of HIV/Aids, which is most rampant in Sub-Saharan Africa. The fully equipped condom factory in Ekandustria near Bronkhortspruit, Karex Pty Ltd, is ready to produce and distribute the condoms and has created 150 direct jobs so far. Skhosana added that MII would encourage the Malaysians to help black empowerment companies land the contracts to distribute the condoms. Last year, the MII facilitated projects worth more than R400m in the province and projects worth R800m are in the pipeline this financial year, said Skhosana. "If you include projects not initiated by the MII, investment worth R4bn was made in the province in the 2002/2003 financial year," Skhosana said. Meanwhile, a delegation of Thai business people met Premier Ndaweni Mahlangu, his cabinet and MII on Wednesday last week during an exploratory visit. The delegation, led by Royal Thai Embassy's deputy chief of mission in Pretoria Charm Jullamon, indicated that there were potential investment opportunities in the agriculture and eco-tourism sector. Mpumalanga has also attracted investment from another Far East country, China.
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From News24 (SA), 22 July
MDC calls off Mugabe walkout
Harare - A top Zimbabwean opposition MP was arrested on Tuesday soon after his party announced MPs would not walk out on President Robert Mugabe's annual parliamentary opening speech. Movement for Democratic Change spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi, the MP who was arrested, said before he was taken away that the decision was aimed at "reducing political tensions". He said this was "so that an atmosphere conducive to dialogue can be created, with a view to amicable negotiations for a dignified exit for Mr Robert Mugabe". In return, the MDC expected Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF to end its harassment of their party, stop its campaign of violence and to restore law and order. Immediately after he issued his statement, Nyathi was ordered to present himself at Harare central police station where he was detained under recent legislation for allegedly ridiculing Mugabe, said David Coltart, the party's secretary for legal affairs. Nyathi was accused of publishing a disrespectful cartoon last month ahead of a five-day national strike to protest against Mugabe's rule. The cartoon showed a terrified Mugabe fleeing a mob of angry people. "Our decision (on Monday) was meant to be the test for Zanu PF to respond to our gesture," said Coltart. "It's ironic that Paul should be arrested the very next day."
The arrest came as heavily-armed paramilitary police ringed the city centre hours before the 79-year-old president was due to preside over the ceremonial annual opening of parliament. The MDC's gesture was made amid mounting international diplomatic pressure on both parties to begin negotiations to end the country's crisis. Pressure was stepped up sharply on July 9 when United States President George Bush visited South Africa. He and President Thabo Mbeki agreed to make "urgent" efforts to end Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis. The day before the opening of parliament, the MDC said, 11 of its candidates had been forcibly stopped by ruling party militias from registering for local government elections in urban areas around the country. Three would-be candidates, one of them with a broken neck, were in hospital after ruling party youths attacked them when they tried to register. In other areas, Mugabe supporters blocked roads leading to registration offices. The seats were then allocated to ruling party candidates because the MDC had "failed to contest them", Nyathi said in a statement on Monday night.
The MDC, which has holds 54 seats in the 150-seat chamber against the ruling party's 64, was due to boycott Mugabe's address for a second time in two years, after his widely disputed victory in presidential elections in March last year. The MDC said the boycott was a symbolic refusal to recognise Mugabe, whose presidency the MDC, most western governments and international election observers had said was won through fraud, violent intimidation and laws that gave the ruling party almost total control of the running of the election. Nyathi said the decision by the MDC to drop its walk-out "does not in anyway change our position that Mugabe's position is disputed". A reception for MPs, leading national figures and the diplomatic corps, traditionally held at State House, Mugabe's official residence, the day before the opening of Parliament, was cancelled on Sunday with no reasons being given. It was also expected to be marred by a boycott by opposition MPs and western diplomats. MDC sources said the party's decision to sit in the chamber through Mugabe's speech had been reached after lengthy negotiations between MDC vice-president Gibson Sibanda and justice minister Patrick Chinamasa. The sources said Chinamasa had agreed authorities would stop arresting opposition MPs and allow them to attend report-back meetings in their constituencies. Most of the MDC's MPs have been arrested by police in the three years since they were elected, but in no cases have there been any successful prosecutions. In most cases, courts have dismissed the charges before trials could begin. Nyathi was last arrested in April for allegedly plotting to overthrow Mugabe.
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From IRIN (UN), 22 July
Opposition under continued harassment
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Tuesday said it would contest the results of local elections due later this month, following reports that a number of its candidates had been prevented from registering for municipal and mayoral polls in some constituencies. The MDC alleged that 11 of its candidates who arrived on Monday at the nomination court in Chegutu, about 100 km southwest of the capital, Harare, were attacked by around 400 youths from the ruling Zanu PF party."The intimidation started on Sunday evening when a number of Zanu PF supporters went from home to home in Chegutu inquiring after MDC supporters. In one instance they ransacked the home of a prospective MDC candidate and confiscated his nomination papers, national identity document and birth certificate. They knew that without these documents it would impossible for the candidate to register," MDC information officer, Maxwell Zimuto, told IRIN. Despite police assurances that security would be provided for the MDC candidates on Monday, they were prevented from entering the nomination court. "Two of the men were severely beaten, and suffered facial cuts and head injuries. We have received reports that some of our candidates in other towns across the country have faced the same intimidation. In Marondera (70 km east of Harare) a prospective candidate has been hospitalised and his x-rays show several broken ribs," Zimuto reported.
Meanwhile, as a gesture of goodwill, the MDC on Tuesday attended the official opening of parliament. Opposition MPs last year boycotted the occasion, saying they did not recognise the legitimacy of President Robert Mugabe as the head of state. "Our action is calculated to reduce political tensions in the country so that an atmosphere conducive to dialogue can be created, with a view to amicable negotiations for a dignified exit for Mr Robert Mugabe from the political scene," MDC secretary for information and publicity, Paul Themba Nyathi, said in a statement. In a related development, the High Court has set 3 November as the date for a presidential election petition, in which the opposition is challenging the legitimacy of Mugabe's victory. The MDC said the polls held in March 2002 were marred by violence, intimidation and vote-rigging. Meanwhile, the United States has 'blacklisted' Zimbabwe, along with five other countries accused of oppression and human rights abuses. President George W. Bush accused the Harare government of "violence, corruption, and mismanagement", Associated Press reported on Friday. Zimbabwe's ruling party reacted angrily to a call by US Secretary of State Colin Powell last month for the urgent removal of Mugabe and his "cronies". Minister of State for Information Jonathan Moyo called Powell's statements false, and linked the US call for a regime change in Zimbabwe to its invasion of Iraq.
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From IRIN (UN), 22 July
Church apology not enough, says rights activist
Johannesburg - The Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) has apologised for "not having done enough at a time when the nation has looked to us for guidance" during the current crisis. A news release on the website of Christian Aid, a ZCC partner organisation, said the ZCC was apologising for "standing by while its country's people have starved to death due to food shortages, and while violence, rape, intimidation and torture have 'ravaged the nation'". According to Christian Aid a communiqué issued at the council's annual general meeting earlier this month said the churches "have watched as children have been forced onto the streets out of poverty". It quoted the communiqué as saying that "while the church has noted all these developments, and while we have continued to pray, we have not been moved to action ... We as a council apologise to the people of Zimbabwe for not having done enough at a time when the nation has looked to us for guidance".
But the churches' apology has left some commentators under-whelmed. "We've heard many apologies before," said human rights activist Brian Kogoro. As to the significance of the churches' statement, Kogoro commented: "After the Matabeleland massacre [in the 1980s] the churches issued an apology and condemned the genocide, so for those of us who have been monitoring church involvement in socio-economic, political and justice issues, we are waiting to see something more than just an apology. "We are waiting to see what practical steps aimed at dealing with the current situation [will be taken]. We are waiting to see the church taking a decisive position on human rights; a tough position on the issue of political transition and repressive legislation." He added that "whilst the apology might serve to soothe their moral and religious sense of duty", it did not ease the circumstances of ordinary Zimbabweans.
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Comment from ZWNEWS, 23 July
Admissions of guilt
By Michael Hartnack
The general response by black Zimbabweans to the dire conditions in which they try to survive, and to the hate-speech against minorities with which they are daily bombarded, must constitute final, irrevocable proof that apartheid was unjustified and unjustifiable. The overall refusal by Zimbabweans to give way to hate-crimes against officially-designated scapegoats - whites, Jews, Asians, homosexuals - is the great "positive" news, to which we, the media, do not give sufficient prominence. Indeed, thanks to the fortitude and the spirit of the people, it is clear to most Zimbabweans that this is only what Shakespeare might have called "A Time of Needful Woe". How long it will take for this phase to pass, and for us to recover from it, is another issue. This past week, inflation officially reached 365,4 percent. Two undertakers were arrested for hiring out bodies to conmen to obtain emergency supplies of diesel through bogus rural burial orders - my garage has had fuel once in three months. A company belonging to a ruling Zanu PF party member of Parliament is openly selling "coupons" to buy a minimum 200 litres of petrol from his filling stations. His pumps are marked: $450/litre (the controlled price), but attendants will serve no one without the coupons. Police "invited" four major bakeries to pay $20 million Admission of Guilt fines for charging $700 a loaf for bread (instead of the hopelessly below cost of production $255 controlled price). Others still sell loaves for $1 000-$1 200.
An extraordinary Admission of Guilt, but of a different kind, was signed by the Zimbabwe Council of Churches just as Zimbabweans might again have been asking themselves: "How did we get in this mess? 'Who sinned?'" The ZCC admitted its own sinfulness but in language so guarded that it exposed itself to further censure. The ZCC also associated itself with a bizarre statement issued with the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe. The ZCC, Catholic bishops and the Evangelicals made no attempt to attribute blame for violence, corruption, or economic collapse. Instead, they urged Christians to pray for a resumption of dialogue between Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (which assumes South African President Thabo Mbeki was wrong in telling President George Bush talks are taking place now). However,the ZCC, the Catholic bishops and the Evangelicals told "the press to desist from manipulative and speculative reporting.'' "The Church," it declared (as if there were only one) "remained united in its resolve to pursue the route of a peaceful, mediated settlement, which will bring about normalcy to our nation. Once this has been arrived at, the church will inform its constituency as well as the nation at large." The Catholic bishops include six prelates who have sat on their chasubles these past four years while death threats have been issued against their colleague, Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, for daring to say agitation for land reform is a smokescreen for intimidation of opposition. The Anglican Bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, declares his devotion to Mugabe and has desecrated memorials to black and white soldiers killed in World War II.
The ZCC, in which none of these reverend clerics holds sway, appealed in its own private statement for "forgiveness". "We have with our own eyes watched as violence, rape, intimidation, harassment and various forms of torture have ravaged the nation. We have been witness to and buried our own people who have starved to death due to food shortages. While we have continued to pray we have not been moved to action," said the ZCC statement. "We as a council apologise to the people of Zimbabwe for not having done enough at a time when the nation looked to us for guidance.'' It added that some of the perpetrators of human rights abuses had been "set free" - but dodged saying who they are. Meanwhile, the bakers' attempt to cloak their nakedness before the inspectors by marketing bread as "Swedish Loaves", "Health Loaves" and "Twist Loaves" in order to charge a realistic price. "What is being "'twisted'? The dough or the customer?" I asked an assistant. We both had a good laugh as I handed over my $700 (19 pence at the black market rate) knowing I was extraordinarily fortunate to be one of the few with the money.
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From The Daily News, 23 July
State targets colleges, NGOs for crackdown
By Columbus Mavhunga, Staff Reporter
The fourth session of Parliament will be asked to amend legislation governing non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and institutions of higher learning, in a move that analysts yesterday said could empower the government to clamp down on NGOs, students and lecturers. Opening the fourth session of the fifth Parliament, President Robert Mugabe said: "In order to ensure that the operations of Non-Governmental Organisations are consistent with and supportive of government policies and programmes, the Non-Governmental Organisations Bill will amend the current Act and broaden the definition of NGOs to include Trusts," he said. This Bill is also intended to prevent foreign interests from using NGO structures to subvert our sovereignty." Mugabe said the National Council for Higher Education Act would be amended "with a view to improving the operations of institutions of higher learning by investing council with certain disciplinary powers over students and lecturers". He added that armed forces, accused of using excessive force against anti-government protesters, would continue "to maintain law and order when called upon to do so", and that any attempts to "create political instability will face the full wrath of the law".
Analysts said if approved by Parliament, the proposed amendments would enable the government to exert greater influence over the operations of NGOs, students and lecturers. NGOs operating in Zimbabwe have come under fire from the government in the past two years, with the government accusing them of "meddling in politics" by allegedly promoting foreign interests and those of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The government last year ordered NGOs to register under the Private Voluntary Organisations Act, a law that civil society groups have criticised as "undemocratic" and inadequate to create a conducive environment for NGOs. Many NGOs resisted the move to compel them to register under the Act, saying they were operating as trusts and were, therefore, not governed by the legislation. Analysts said using the Non-Governmental Organisations Bill to broaden the definition of NGOs to include trusts would allow the government to rope in those NGOs that had used loopholes to evade its control. They said giving the National Higher Education Council the power to discipline students and lecturers in colleges and universities would also allow the government to rein in two groups that are perceived to be highly critical of it.
Brian Kagoro, the co-ordinator of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, which represents civic groups, said the government wanted to suppress dissent. He told the Daily News: "Basically, what Mugabe wants is to silence all dissenting voices be it the Press or the opposition so that his successor will not be opposed. We saw this happening in the 1980s when Zanu PF started pouncing on students, later the workers, white commercial farmers and the economy through silly policies all under the guise of ‘protecting our sovereignty’." Parliament has already passed legislation that critics say has curtailed free speech, movement and assembly. The Public Order and Security Act and the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act have been used against the independent Press, opposition party supporters and officials as well as individuals perceived to be anti-government. Mugabe is reported to have promised regional leaders that the government would amend the repressive legislation to restore freedoms enshrined in Zimbabwe’s Constitution. However, apart from the Non-Governmental Organisations Bill that analysts say could adversely affect NGOs, students and lecturers, the government is proposing legislation that would enable Parliament to dock the pay of legislators who boycott Mugabe’s speeches. Meanwhile, the President said HIV/AIDS remained the greatest challenge confronting Zimbabwe. The pandemic is said to be killing about 5 000 people every week.
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From CNN, 24 July
Zimbabwe plans black ownership bill, official says
Harare - Zimbabwe plans to introduce a bill giving workers part ownership in local industries as part of a black empowerment drive, a senior government official said on Wednesday. President Robert Mugabe said in a speech on Tuesday that his government would redouble work to ensure that companies allocate a minimum 20 percent shareholding to workers. On Wednesday an official at the Industry and Trade Ministry said it was putting together the bill this year to make this law but could not give details. Mugabe's government says the economy remains in the hands of minority whites despite blacks' assumption of political power in 1980 and has been on a drive to promote black ownership. Mugabe has accused whites and foreigners led by former colonial power Britain of sabotaging the economy to retaliate for his seizure of white-owned farms to redistribute to landless blacks. Critics say the black ownership programme has been slowed by a patronage system which has benefited Mugabe's cronies. On Tuesday, Mugabe said the government would also amend the Mines and Minerals Act to "break the stranglehold by multinational companies on the mining industry" which contributes four percent to Zimbabwe's gross domestic product and 30 percent towards export earnings. The southern African country is mired in its worst crisis since independence, with crippling shortages of foreign currency, fuel, food and an inflation rate expected to top 450 percent by the end of 2003. Critics say Mugabe is to blame because of skewed policies like the land reforms which they say have undermined the key agriculture sector.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 20 July
Panicking Zanu PF 'chefs' strip country of assets
Kumbirai Mafunda
Panicking high ranking officials of the ruling Zanu PF party are allegedly systematically stripping down the country of most of its valuable assets as they realise that President Robert Mugabe's reign is coming to an end, it emerged last week. Economic experts said the entire country was being methodically plundered by high-ranking Zanu PF and government officials who plan to eventually flee the country and retire in comfort with their offshore holdings. In separate interviews with Standard Business, government critics said some Members of Parliament and Cabinet ministers were on a massive looting spree. "Asset stripping is a process when regimes are preparing to depart from government. It is a key aspect of a failed government and is taking place on a day-to-day basis," said Tendai Biti of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "It is a process in which public assets are transferred to private hands, the private hands being the very same cronies that have been controlling the public sector," charged Biti, the MDC's secretary for economic affairs. The black Zanu PF cronies have graduated from petty middle-class businessmen to real bourgeoisie owners of the means of production," he added. He said asset stripping was taking place in various forms with the government's haphazard land grab exercise providing new scope for the scam.
Biti said recent reports of Zanu PF officials owning vast tracts of land at the expense of the landless was testimony to the asset stripping exercise. He said certain quarters with government links had muscled in on strategic national utilities. "Asset stripping is taking place in many forms. We saw that with the land reform programme where we have Zanu PF MPs, government ministers and governors owning about seven farms each," Biti said. Biti, the MDC legislator for Harare East, said another form of asset stripping had emerged in the form of forced asset transfers, especially those belonging to state enterprises. Government ministers and ruling part legislators have recently acquired significant stakes in public and private quoted companies as part of the government's privatisation process. "There is a strategic and deliberate attempt within the ruling elite to amass as much wealth cutting across as many sectors of the economy as possible. They are establishing a monopoly that guarantees control even in the event that they lose political power," said one independent economic commentator.
A civil society spokesperson said senior Zanu PF officials had already taken positions in the ownership of the media, telecommunications, banking, real estate and farming. "In farming they have literally taken over the entire agro-industry," he said. "They understand that transition or political change is inevitable so they want to underwrite and predetermine the course of that political change." The spokesperson said civic organisations were currently compiling a dossier of some of the underhand deals and forced sales of shares to make reports to Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ). TIZ chairman, John Makumbe, said corrupt Zanu PF officials were finding safe havens for offshore banking in neighbouring SADC countries such as South Africa, Namibia and Botswana where they have non-resident accounts. Other state assets had already been sold to Libya and companies such as its Tamoil, a Libyan firm involved in fuel deals with Zimbabwe. "Nobody actually knows what has been sold to Libya, the number of farms and the percentage of shares Libya holds in Zimbabwean firms is a mystery," Makumbe said. Zanu PF refused to comment on the allegations levelled against its members. Party secretary for information, Nathan Shamuyarira, said he had nothing to say.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 23 July
Leading firms 'handle loot of farm squatters'
Chiredzi - Two South African corporate giants are under fire for allegedly handling large consignments of produce stolen from Zimbabwe's white farmers by supporters of President Robert Mugabe. The mining group Anglo American, a London-listed FTSE 100 company, and the sugar company Tongaat Hulett are both accused of processing sugar cane stolen from white farmers who are under threat of dispossession under Zimbabwe's chaotic "land reform". Farmers in south-eastern Zimbabwe say Mr Mugabe's "settlers" are routinely stealing their crop and sending the cane to mills owned by an Anglo American subsidiary, Hippo Valley Estates, and by Triangle Ltd, owned by Tongaat Hulett. The farmers claim they have repeatedly reported the theft to the two companies and to the police in Chiredzi, 300 miles south-east of Harare, who they claim refuse to take action. "We are victims of the government's madness over land, and now British and South African companies are processing cane stolen from us," said Peter Henning, 63, a farmer whose land has been "listed" for nationalisation. In their defence, the companies say it is pointless to let the cane just rot, and say they are bound by Zimbabwean law to process the produce.
The crux of the issue is that when farms are "listed" for government take-over, a lengthy legal process is triggered before the Zimbabwean government can claim the deeds. The government says just 300 white-owned farms out of 6,000 listed have been processed to finality. But in the meantime, Mr Mugabe's supporters are helping themselves to the fruit of the land regardless, farmers claim. None of the 50-odd white-owned, 240-acre sugar cane farms adjacent to Hippo Valley Estates has been legally taken over, but white farmers say they cannot harvest their crop because their workers are kept away by the threat of physical violence. In its defence, Anglo American says it is an innocent party caught in the middle of the land tug-of-war, and denied that it was using the legal tussle for its own profitable ends. "We are stuck in the middle of a very difficult legal dispute," said its external relations director, Edward Bickham. "We are obliged to accept cane under Zimbabwean law, because it goes off if you don't." Anglo American added that it had not paid for cane if ownership was disputed, but had asked the courts to determine who should receive payment. It also said the sums involved were not millions of pounds, and that Hippo Valley had sent letters of support to farmers trying to have their farms delisted for takeover.
Hippo Valley had provided sanctuary to 10 evicted commercial farmers and their families, and fuel to others, it added - although farmers said they had been charged commercial rates in both cases. "This is a complex matter, and we will resolve it through the courts," said Anglo American's Zimbabwe chairman, Godfrey Gomwe. Triangle's managing director, Simon Cleasby, who takes the same position, said it was against the law to refuse cane delivered by a "licensed grower". But a barrister in Zimbabwe, Adrian de Bourbon, said the "licensed growers" were the white farmers, not the settlers, and added that the law allowed mills to decline to accept cane if they had "reasonable cause". "The disputed ownership of the cane is a reasonable cause," he said. Eric Le Vieux, 38, another farmer involved, said the two companies had been sent letters from lawyers insisting that trade in the stolen cane stop. "They have said we can see them in court," Mr Le Vieux said. "The system has brought chaos to Zimbabwe." Crops and livestock have been stolen from hundreds of former white farmers violently evicted from their homes in the last three years. But according to the pressure group Justice for Agriculture, the sugar cane saga is the first in which corporates are accused of handling stolen produce. Its spokesman, John Worsley-Worswick, said: "Farmers and their workers in the Chiredzi area have been beaten, arrested, lost their homes and livelihoods and their future prospects."
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From The Guardian (UK), 24 July
Tycoon faces retrial over killing
Jeevan Vasagar
The property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten faces a retrial for manslaughter after appeal court judges yesterday quashed a conviction for killing a former business associate. Mr van Hoogstraten, 58, was convicted of the manslaughter of Mohammed Raja at the Old Bailey last year, but the verdict was overturned yesterday for legal reasons which cannot be reported until after the retrial. Mr Raja, 62, was stabbed five times and shot in the head at his home in Sutton, Surrey, in July 1999. Robert Knapp, 55, of Co Limerick, and David Croke, 60, of Moulsecoomb, Brighton, were convicted of murdering Mr Raja, while Mr van Hoogstraten was convicted of hiring the pair to act as hitmen. The prosecution claimed he ordered the killing after Mr Raja threatened to take the tycoon to court in a row over property deals. Mr van Hoogstraten denied involvement in the killing, but was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in prison last July. He was remanded in custody yesterday, will be charged with manslaughter within 28 days and will return to court for a plea hearing within two months.
Mr Van Hoogstraten, who sat in the dock flanked by prison officers, remained impassive as the conviction was quashed, but members of Mr Raja's family burst into tears. Outside court, the family's lawyer, James Lightfoot, said they were in shock and were too upset to comment. Knapp and Croke, who are serving life sentences for murder, are also challenging their convictions. When he was jailed, Mr Van Hoogstraten was in the process of building a £40m country home on his estate in East Sussex. Earlier this year ramblers celebrated winning a 13-year battle to use a public footpath across the estate. Mr Van Hoogstraten had described the ramblers as "scum, riff-raff and the great unwashed" for wanting to use the footpath. But in February, Kate Ashbrook, chairman of the Ramblers' Association's access committee made the symbolic first cut through barbed wire blocking the path before a digger began removing obstacles. Mr van Hoogstraten's retrial is not expected to take place before March next year.
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From The Economist Intelligence Unit, 23 July
Printing cash isn't going to help
The government's July 18th injection of Z$12bn (US$14.6m) into Zimbabwe's financial system - and the announcement that a Z$1,000 banknote is to be printed for the first time - is likely to create as many problems as it solves. There is no doubt that the shortage of banknotes is creating increasing difficulties for Zimbabweans. Banks are unable to supply notes to their customers; ATMs work only in the city centres; and there are long queues at the banks and building societies as people wait for cash to be deposited by other customers before they can withdraw money. However, with inflation already running at 365%, the move will have little impact on cash availability. It is also likely to exacerbate inflation, which has risen from 199% at the end of 2002. Huge food - and fuel - price increases are imminent. As it is, it is virtually impossible to buy petrol or diesel at filling stations at the office price of Z$440 (5.3 US cents) a litre. With the exception of commuter bus operators, which are allowed to buy diesel at the official price when it is available, people are either paying a black-market price in Zimbabwe dollars or using foreign currency to pay an importer. The government has agreed in principle to allow the oil multinationals to import fuel and sell it at market prices, but the scheme has still be finalised. When it is, petrol prices will treble, with far-reaching knock- on effects for the rate of price rises.
At the same time, huge increases in the price of maizemeal, the food staple, and wheat are imminent. In the black market, the price of bread has more than doubled in the past month, while coal prices have also doubled. All of which suggests that inflation will be well above 400% by August, or possibly even the end of this month. Economists are divided over how long it will take the rate of price increases to reach four- digits, but even the optimists expect inflation to reach 700-750% by year- end. Devaluation is also very much on the agenda - despite official denials. Towards the end of July business and government will meet to discuss further devaluation from the current rate of Z$824:US$1 to around Z$1,400:US$1. Representatives of Zimbabwe's main export industry, tobacco, says that the sector needs a rate of at least Z$1,600:US$1, as farmers are getting Z$4m for every hectare of tobacco they produce--half their production costs. By October, when the next crop is planted, costs will have reached Z$10m a hectare. Without rapid--and substantial--devaluation tobacco production, already running at one-third of its peak levels, will fall further from an estimated 90m kg in 2003 to 60m kg in 2004. All of this is grist to the mill of the South African and US presidents, who discussed the Zimbabwe "issue" early in July. The greater the economic pressure on Mugabe, their argument runs, the easier it will be to get the intransigent 79-year-old to step down and head off for political asylum. However, that assumes a much greater recognition of economic reality in Harare than is, in fact, the case. Being in, or close, to government is paying handsome dividends for a large number of senior officials in the ruling Zanu PF. Corruption and crony capitalism is serving them very well - why should they want to change a winning streak?
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From Reuters, 24 July
Zimbabwe political tension eases, but no talks yet
By Cris Chinaka
Harare - Political tension between the Zimbabwe government and the opposition eased this week after reconciliatory gestures from both sides, but officials said on Thursday the parties have not yet resumed substantive talks. Zimbabwe is grappling with a deep political and economic crisis blamed by many on President Robert Mugabe's government. The crisis has worsened since Mugabe's controversial re-election last year in a poll rejected as fraudulent by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. South African President Thabo Mbeki and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo have been trying to get Mugabe and Tsvangirai's parties to the negotiating table to ease a political crisis manifesting itself in often violent electoral contests, isolation by Western powers and withdrawal of international aid.
In what many hailed as positive gestures, this week, for the first time in three years, opposition lawmakers did not boycott Mugabe's speech on Tuesday marking the opening of parliament. Even Tsvangirai, who is on trial for allegedly trying to have Mugabe assassinated, attended the session. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which holds just over a third of the 150 seats in parliament, said it had decided to attend to create an environment for political dialogue. Mugabe made no mention of this possibility in his speech. Although Mugabe issued his usual warning to his political opponents that anyone who tried to destabilise his government would face the ''full wrath of the law,'' analysts said by his fiery standards his speech was very restrained. The 79-year-old former guerrilla leader, who dismisses Tsvangirai as a "pathetic puppet," did not call the opposition any names in the main speech and in a subsequent statement at a state banquet for legislators. Instead, he said parliament should be treated as an "honourable house" for all political players, and that the MDC MPs' presence during his address augured well for the country.
The tightly controlled state broadcaster ZBC has since Tuesday put a positive spin on what it calls a ''sign of thawing of relations and that talks are possible.'' But the chief spokesman for Mugabe's Zanu PF party said "substantive negotiations" could only take place when the MDC drops its legal challenge and recognises Mugabe's government. Mugabe's government walked out of political talks with Tsvangirai's MDC in April 2002 after the opposition went to court to challenge the election result, saying the South African and Nigerian mediation efforts must wait until the courts have ruled on the case. The election petition has been set for hearing in November. "The ball for substantive talks to take place are in the court of the MDC. They have to recognise President Mugabe's election and the government as legitimate,'' said Nathan Shamuyarira told the state broadcaster. The MDC said this week it was working to resume talks with Zanu PF and that Tsvangirai had strengthened a negotiating team led by MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube in readiness.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 25 July
Mugabe set to meet Tsvangirai for talks
Itai Dzamara
Father Fidelis Mukonori of the Catholic Church says President Mugabe will soon meet MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai to break the political impasse gripping the country. In a wide-ranging interview with the Zimbabwe Independent this week, Mukonori, who has been involved in shuttle diplomacy between Mugabe and Tsvangirai, said he had made contact with Zanu PF and the MDC to find a solution to the "agonisingly multifaceted" Zimbabwean crisis. "Indeed Mugabe and Tsvangirai will be meeting soon," he said. "Why can't they meet when they are both Zimbabweans? They still have a key role to play in the quest for a solution to the current problems." He declined to divulge details of the meetings saying it would compromise his "role as an honest mediator". He however said Mugabe and Tsvangirai would be meeting soon.
The tough-talking Jesuit priest said he had a long history as a mediator. "Since 1974, I have always been involved in social communication and social justice as a mediator or in other capacities, and I still perform that role," said Mukonori. "I am involved in efforts to make Zimbabweans bury their differences, become mature and find solutions to this agonising crisis," he said. Mukonori said the resumption of dialogue between the two political rivals would set the stage for an end to the crisis. "The solution will come as soon as we as Zimbabweans want it, as soon as people put the country ahead of everything and share the same spirit of love and understanding," he said. "Finding a solution is much easier when people have the same perspective. Everyone, right across age, political divide, culture and social status should be involved in solving this crisis. We have done it before and nothing can fail us." Talks between the two parties collapsed last year due to bickering over issues to be discussed. Zanu PF has insisted that the MDC drop its court challenge to Mugabe's controversial re-election last year. On the other hand the opposition wants the issue of Mugabe's illegitimacy to be tackled as a way forward.
On the nature of settlement envisaged between Zanu PF and the MDC, Mukonori said it would be up to the politicians. He however mooted the possibility of a government of national unity as a first step to a transitional mechanism. "It is up to them (Mugabe and Tsvangirai). It is possible to establish a government of national unity. In life there are no permanent enemies. As Zimbabweans they will meet one day," he said. Mukonori said Zimbabwe's crisis was a result of economic, political and social failures. As such, he said, the search for a solution must focus on all these. "The agony which we are suffering resulted from many causes. There are issues of economic policies, governance and historical perspective," he said. "Indeed, the land issue has always been part of the problem and still is. It is yet to be finalised. We don't have to focus on one person or problem in our search for solutions. We have to tackle all the problems in our focus." Mukonori played a major mediating role during the liberation struggle under the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace. He was also instrumental in brokering the 1987 Unity Accord between Zanu and PF-Zapu to end an orgy of civilian massacres in the Midlands and Matabeleland in the early 80s.
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Comment from The Star (SA), 25 july
MDC about-turn a sign Mbeki is on right track
By Peter Fabricius
Something is moving in Zimbabwe. Two weeks ago, President Thabo Mbeki announced at a joint press conference with visiting US President George Bush that the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change were talking to each other. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai angrily denied this, suggesting Mbeki was creating a false impression that negotiations were taking place, as a way of relieving international pressure on Mugabe. The next day he effectively retracted that statement and acknowledged that though no direct talks were taking place, there were indirect, preparatory talks being conducted by South Africa's High Commissioner to Harare, Jeremiah Ndou, and by churches and NGOs. . In other words, it seems that it was "talks about talks", rather than talks proper, that were taking place. This week, the MDC gave further signs of rapprochement when it decided to attend President Robert Mugabe's official opening of parliament. It had been boycotting all functions officiated by Mugabe since the presidential elections of March 2002, which the MDC accused Mugabe of stealing. It had filed a court challenge to Mugabe's victory in the elections, which is still pending. The MDC boycott of Mugabe functions was an expression of its refusal to recognise his legitimacy.
The lifting of the boycott may thus be interpreted as an expression of recognition. The MDC's David Coltart said as much this week - but stressed that the recognition was provisional on the outcome of the court challenge. Zanu PF chairman John Nkomo publicly welcomed the MDC's change of tactics, saying the two sides were "getting to a point where we will all focus on resolving the problems that are affecting our country". It is not clear exactly what all this signifies, though it certainly looks promising. The MDC's legal challenge to the elections had been the main obstacle to Zanu PF participation in talks. Mugabe said the challenge meant that the MDC did not recognise him as president and, until it did so, he would not talk to them. The MDC refused to drop the challenge. Mbeki's proposed compromise was for the MDC to recognise Mugabe provisionally, pending the outcome of the challenge. Zanu PF appeared to be sitting on that compromise proposal, effectively stalling the discussions. This may have been why Tsvangirai rejected Mbeki's claim that talks were taking place. It may have been a question of definition. If a car's engine stops for a few seconds, it is stalling; a little bit longer and it has stopped.
The MDC's gambit this week in ending its boycott and - according to one report - deciding to throw all its efforts into negotiations, suggest one of two basic possibilities. If Coltart is right that the MDC is only prepared to suspend and not entirely drop its court challenge, then perhaps Zanu PF has finished mulling over Mbeki's compromise proposal and has decided to accept it. In which case we should soon see a real resumption of official direct talks - rather than just talks about talks. Or Zanu PF has not accepted the Mbeki compromise. And the MDC has merely changed its tactics and is now actively seeking the moral high ground - and trying to recover the favour with Mbeki that Tsvangirai lost by questioning his integrity. One hears that some MDC leaders felt that attack had been a big mistake. Either way, it seems Mbeki's much-maligned diplomacy is making some headway after all. Does this mean those who criticised him for being too soft on Mugabe were wrong? That remains obscure since we don't know what Mbeki is telling Mugabe in private. If he has told him to accept the compromise and talk to the MDC - even while the court challenge remains on the roster - and even more so if, as some reports suggest, he has persuaded Mugabe to stand down next year, then perhaps it is Mbeki himself who has changed, toughening up his diplomacy. We shall no doubt soon see.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 24 July
Zimbabwe formally appeals for food aid
Harare - The Zimbabwe government has made a formal appeal for new international food aid to stave off starvation faced by some 5,5-million people, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday. "We now have the appeal in hand and certainly it has been a bit of a while in coming," said WFP country director for Zimbabwe Kevin Farrell. He said the government forecast a grain deficit of 711 000 tonnes until the next main harvest in early 2004. The government has estimated a production total this year of 900 000 tonnes of the staple maize, and state reserves total some 284 000 tonnes. "It (the appeal) says government will need to import 711 000 tonnes of maize grain in order to make up for the maize grain deficit," Farrell said. The WFP received the government appeal on Tuesday and will forward it Thursday, he said. "We are trying to resource 350 000 tonnes on top of the carryover that we have of a little over 100 000 [tonnes]," he told reporters. With an average one person in two facing food shortages, Zimbabwe is the largest recipient of humanitarian aid in southern Africa for a second year running. UN food agencies meeting in South Africa last month concluded that the dire situation in Zimbabwe was caused by drought and the "current social, economic and political situation". Zimbabwe embarked on a controversial and sometimes violent land reform programme in early 2000 that has seen some 14-million hectares (42-million acres) of formerly white-owned land being seized to redistribute to landless blacks.
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From The Mercury (SA), 25 July
Call for 350 000 tons of food to feed Zim
By Brian Latham
Harare - The World Food Programme will appeal on Friday for 350 000 tons of food, mainly maize, to feed about 5,5 million Zimbabweans who will need emergency food by December. WFP country director for Zimbabwe Kevin Farrell said the appeal, which could only be made after the Zimbabwean government provided crop estimates, might not stave off shortages at the end of August when the UN agency's stocks would run dry. "We're looking at our food pipeline breaking at the end of August. Obviously, we're in discussion with donors and it's too early to say more than that we're hopeful that a couple will come through in time," Farrell said. Still, he said the situation was extremely urgent. "There now seem to be increasing levels of hardship in both rural and urban areas. We're getting people begging and pleading to be registered as WFP beneficiaries. Far more people than we can supply," he told journalists in Harare. Farrell added that the state-owned Grain Marketing Board, which had a monopoly on the trade of maize and wheat, was possibly not managing to supply food needs not met by donors.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 25 July
Zim assures Libyans of fair fuel deal
Dumisani Muleya
The Libyans who were recently in the country to negotiate the stalled US$360 million fuel deal with Tamoil Trading Ltd have left with assurances that they will acquire a significant equity of the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) in Petrozim. Official sources said government had allowed the Libyans to buy 25% of Noczim's 50% equity in Petrozim which is jointly-owned by Lonrho and the state fuel procurement agency. Sources said fuel from Libya was now on its way but that steady supplies would depend on Noczim's ability to pay US$5 million to Tamoil every month. Zimbabwe needs US$40 million a month to buy fuel but government has failed to raise this amount to stem the four-year-old fuel crisis. Efforts to source fuel from Kuwait, Angola, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Iran as well as South Africa, Nigeria and Botswana have failed due to government's failure to pay. Noczim and Tamoil have of late been deadlocked over the prices of the state's petrol-chemical industry assets that the Libyans want to buy. The Libyans are trying to buy Petrozim's pipeline between Mutare and Harare and storage tanks in Msasa before they can resume fuel supplies. The Mutare-Harare pipeline supplies fuel to Zimbabwe from Beira in Mozambique.
Although the Libyans have been promised Noczim's 25% shareholding in Petrozim, the deal has not yet been sealed as Lonrho, a key stakeholder in Petrozim, must approve the sale. Lonrho has pre-emptive rights in Petrozim. As reported in the Zimbabwe Independent two weeks ago, government has agreed with the Libyans that the price for the pipeline is US$60 million. Initially the Libyans offered US$48 million while government valued the pipeline at US$100 million. Sources yesterday said there was a possibility that Lonrho would come up with its own price for the pipeline. This could scuttle the deal. The Libyans were reportedly prepared to take over the whole Lonrho shareholding to gain control over Petrozim. After acquiring the assets that they need, the Libyans want to establish a joint venture company, Tamoil-Zimbabwe, with Noczim to enter the market on a stronger footing. The Libyans want to acquire the fuel pipeline, storage facilities, service stations and rail loading facilities at Feruka to make Zimbabwe their distribution centre in southern Africa, currently dominated by Iranians, Saudis and Kuwaitis.
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From News24 (SA), 24 July
Zim to deregulate fuel system
Harare - President Robert Mugabe's government said on Thursday it was deregulating the country's fuel distribution system, but industry officials said the move would only legalise the black market fuel system controlled by ruling Zanu PF party loyalists. The daily Herald newspaper quoted Deputy Energy Minister Reuben Marumahoko as saying that the country's private sector "will be importing its own fuel for service stations", while the government-owned fuel procurer would import fuel for state departments. However, economists said the announcement only deepened the chaos surrounding the country's fuel situation, which has been in critical short supply for nearly four years because the government has run out of foreign exchange to pay. Ruling party members have apparently been importing fuel and openly selling it for the last two months at about four times the official controlled price per litre, without any attempt by the government to prosecute them. The official controlled price for petrol is Z$450 (about R4.30) per litre and diesel Z$200 (about R1.90) a litre.
However, multinational oil companies - BP, Caltex, Mobil, Shell and Total - who own 90% of service stations around the country would not dare do the same, said James Jowah, an economist for the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce. "If they tried it, they would be pounced on," he said. "The government doesn't see the violations by the 'indigenous' (ruling party) people. They can violate the law because they are on the right side. It's like the farm invasions," he said. Mugabe opened parliament on Monday saying that the state-owned National Oil Company of Zimbabwe would be "competing with private oil companies in the importation and distribution of fuel", and a "dual pricing structure" would be established. The deputy minister, Marumahoko, said: "I do not want to say there will be two prices," he said. "Fuel will definitely cost the same." He said the new system would be established soon.
Jowah said: "This is already what is happening on the ground, although it is informal. Companies are getting fuel from outside the country and charging about Z$1 700 (about R16) a litre." Changes in legislation last year allowed companies to import oil provided they were issued with a permit, but Jowah confirmed it was still illegal to sell fuel above the controlled price. Fuel queues that used stretch from most service stations have all but disappeared, as multinational-owned service stations say they have received almost no fuel in nearly two months. The government set up a system last month to issue coupons allowing urban commuter minibuses to buy fuel at controlled prices, but the system proved too unwieldy to implement. Queues of bus operators jammed government offices for days, while forged coupons were soon on sale in the capital's crowded townships.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 25 July
Zim detainees include babes in arms
Harare - A group of 48 women demonstrators, four of them with babies, were facing a second night in police cells in the western city of Bulawayo on Friday for allegedly being part of an "unlawful gathering". Lawyers were trying to secure the release of the women and the infants but relatives said they feared that they would continue to be held throughout the weekend. They were arrested in Bulawayo on Thursday after protesting against draconian legislation that legal experts say gives the government powers almost identical to a state of emergency, including random arrest, outlawing demonstrations and jailing journalists for criticising the regime. Eyewitnesses said the police first arrested a few of the leaders of the demonstration, organised by Concerned Citizens of Zimbabwe, a coalition of civic organisations. Many of the other demonstrators then voluntarily handed themselves over to police, some of them climbing into police vehicles to join their arrested colleagues.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said ruling party vigilantes in the last three days had embarked on a campaign of violent intimidation in urban areas around the country to force opposition candidates to withdraw from local government elections next month. MDC spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said candidates' homes in the towns of Kariba in remote northern Zimbabwe and in Marondera had been attacked, and candidates had been threatened with death. Earlier this week three MDC candidates were in hospital, one of them with a broken neck, after ruling party militiamen forcibly barred them from registering as candidates. The incidents came amid growing international pressure on President Robert Mugabe's government and on the opposition MDC to begin negotiations to end the country's political and economic crisis. Observers also said that signs of hope for talks emerged mid-week when the pro-democracy party called off a scheduled walk-out of Mugabe's annual address at the opening of Parliament, which was followed by a cautious welcome by Mugabe, who spoke of "our brothers and sisters in the opposition". Human rights organisations say random arrests, violent suppression of opposition supporters and denial of the protection of the law for victims of state-driven violence is the order of the day as 79-year- old Mugabe clings to power after 23 years in office.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 25 July
Mugabe ready to quit Zanu PF leadership
Dumisani Muleya
President Robert Mugabe is ready to relinquish the Zanu PF leadership in December or to hand over power to a transitional authority if a deal is reached with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), it was heard this week. Sources said Mugabe assured South African President Thabo Mbeki that he could quit the Zanu PF leadership in December during the party's annual conference or formally announce to his party to start looking for a successor ahead of the congress next year. Mugabe gave Mbeki these assurances ahead of United States President George Bush's first visit to Africa early this month. Mugabe also gave the same promises to Mbeki's deputy Jacob Zuma during an Aids conference in Lesotho a few days before Bush arrived in South Africa. Zuma has been working on the Zimbabwe issue of late. On June 4 he met with Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon and his delegation at Tuynhuys in Cape Town to discuss Zimbabwe. Zuma and Leon agreed the situation could only be resolved through dialogue between the MDC and Zanu PF. Zuma emphasised that Pretoria wants the two parties to meet soon.
Sources said Mugabe met with Zuma in Lesotho to reaffirm the position he had already given to Mbeki. Mugabe apparently spoke to Mbeki before and after the Bush visit and during the African Union meeting in Mozambique. Mbeki met with Bush in Pretoria on July 9 where he reportedly told his counterpart that Mugabe had indicated his willingness to retire. However, Mbeki, who recently said Zanu PF was engaged in "leadership renewal" and that talks between Zanu PF and MDC were on, last week denied this. "There is no such thing," he said. "I don't know where that comes from. There was no discussion at all about anybody stepping down." But American diplomatic sources insist Mbeki conveyed Mugabe's promises to leave to Bush. After the Bush/Mbeki meeting, the US delegation hosted a dinner in Pretoria where the substance of the private talks was leaked. Sources said Mbeki gave Bush two assurances: Mugabe is prepared to quit in December if a transitional authority deal is struck with the MDC, but if no deal is in place he is prepared to hand over power to his own successor in March before elections in June. Either way, sources say, Mugabe is going and this is what Bush was told. Sources said MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai was also briefed about the issue by US Assistant Secretary of State Walter Kansteiner by telephone.
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From IRIN (UN), 25 July
Call for assistance to displaced farm workers
Johannesburg - More than 500,000 Zimbabweans have been forced to leave their homes since the start of the government's controversial "fast track" land reform programme, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has claimed. In a recent report, "Displaced and forgotten: Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Zimbabwe", the NRC estimated that since the government's takeover of commercial farms began almost three years ago, some 240,000 farm workers had lost their jobs. Although some ex-commercial farm workers had been able to continue living in farm compounds, "many of those without resources have become internally displaced". Food security was a key concern, since large numbers of farm workers had no access to land during the 2002/2003 season, while internal displacement had taken its toll on the most vulnerable members of the farm worker population. "These are, in particular, people who are unattractive as labour for the new farmers and who do not have the resources required to find long-term resettlement opportunities. It includes, among others, the elderly, female-headed households, orphans and people in poor health, e.g. HIV/AIDS victims," the report stated.
Farm worker representative groups told IRIN that in some cases former farm workers found themselves drifting from farm to farm seeking temporary shelter and employment. "We have noticed that people have found ways of coping. Gold panning is a major activity in some parts, but also, families have resorted to selling firewood and even their own personal assets. Unfortunately, there are those who have turned to commercial sex as way of making money to buy food," Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ) director Godfrey Magaramombe said. Initially the situation was made all the more precarious as many labourers were excluded from food aid programmes. "That situation has been slightly remedied as donors have been forthcoming. We are feeding about 100,000 ex-farm workers and about 160,000 children. But our capacity is limited and we can only manage so far with the little resources," Magaramombe said.
While farm workers were the majority of the casualties of land reform in Zimbabwe, political activists, "especially during elections periods", also faced continuous displacement, the NRC said. "While in the past the [ruling] Zanu PF youth militias and the war veterans focused much of their violence on rural areas, since 2002 the capital, Harare, and its suburbs (often opposition strongholds) as well as other major cities have become the focus for the ruling party's campaign to suppress the opposition," the NRC claimed. IRIN was unable to obtain comment from the government on Friday. Among its recommendations the refugee NGO called for a countrywide survey to assess the needs and coping mechanisms used by ex-farm workers. However, before such an assessment was conducted, the NRC called on the government and the humanitarian community to agree on how to include farm labourers in their food aid programmes. There was also an urgent need to give ex-commercial farm workers access to land and farm inputs before the 2003/2004 agricultural season. "This could include more ex-farm workers being included in the government's land distribution scheme as well as finding temporary solutions to use the largely under-utilised land allocated for commercial farming." the report said.
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From IRIN (UN), 24 July
NGOs fear clampdown
Activists feel the legislation will be used to further impede their work
Johannesburg - Civil rights groups in Zimbabwe are concerned that their operations could be further curtailed following reports that the government is to amend legislation governing NGOs. "In order to ensure that the operations of Non-Governmental Organisations are consistent with, and supportive of, government policies and programmes, the Non-Governmental Organisations Bill will amend the current act and broaden the definition of NGOs to include trusts," the local Daily News reported President Robert Mugabe as saying at the opening of parliament this week. Rights activists and NGOs allege that the legislation is the latest attempt by the government to crack down on dissent in the country. Over the past two years the government and rights organisations have been at loggerheads, with the authorities accusing NGOs of furthering foreign interests. "We are not shocked by the news and, in fact, this has been on the cards since the early 1990s. However, this is the first time that it looks like the legislation may actually come before parliament. This signals to civil society that the government is running scared, afraid of criticism. Our major concern is that our work, especially in rural areas, will be further impeded. Already members of civil rights groups cannot go into certain areas to conduct interviews regarding human rights violations," Crisis in Zimbabwe spokeswoman Everjoice Win told IRIN.
Last year NGOs resisted a government order to register under the Private Voluntary Organisations Act, saying they were operating as trusts and were, therefore, not governed by the legislation. "If the bill is approved by parliament, the government will have unfettered access to the operations of NGOs. Authorities will have the right to investigate who our funders are and, if they choose, may even deregister some of the groups," Win said. But, one analyst told IRIN, if the move was indeed an attempt to muzzle opposition, the government may find itself faced with several legal challenges. "It is really an exercise in futility since there are several groups registered as trusts and as private companies. Existing legislation prohibits any government interference," senior political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe John Makumbe said. Meanwhile, the government also announced plans to introduce legislation giving workers part-ownership in local industries as part of a black empowerment drive. But critics say the initiative was politically motivated and aimed to convince domestic investors to remain in Zimbabwe. It is estimated that foreign investors pulled out Zim $17.3 billion (US $20 million) from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) in the first six months of this year, more than five times the amount of funds withdrawn by foreign businesses last year. "The promise of greater shares in the economy is directed at those who already have money. So, black economic empowerment will not make any significant difference, especially since the economy is in free-fall," Makumbe said.
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From The Financial Gazette, 24 July
Fuel deal collapses
Hama Saburi, Deputy Editor-in-Chief
A US$360 million ($296.6 billion) fuel procurement deal cobbled up this month by the Petroleum Marketers Association (PMA) as a last-ditch attempt to help Zimbabwe out of its three-year crippling fuel crisis has hit a brick wall after banks rejected the exchange rate to be applied for them to bankroll the deal. The still-born deal, which would have required monthly foreign currency allocations of US$30 million, came unstuck after financial institutions, which were expected to provide the scarce foreign currency, refused to buy into the arrangement unless the central bank accepted to review the country’s exchange rate regime. Impeccable fuel industry sources privy to the ill-fated arrangement disclosed this week that the deal, which could have been concluded by now, ran into difficulties in the last stages of protracted negotiations following disagreements over the exchange rate to be applied. The haggling over the exchange rate came to a head after bankers remained adamant that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which controls the country’s financial levers, should increase the price of the greenback from the current Z$824 to around $2 200 to make the deal profitable.
Tough-talk from banks meant that the deal had been put in the deep-freeze, at least for now, the sources said. They however, indicated that despite the glaring differences, negotiations were set to resume today between banks and fuel industry players. The proposal by the banks to devalue the local unit, which is still trying to find a bottom against the greenback, would have the net effect of raising the pump price of petrol from $450 per litre to $1 022 with that of diesel shooting up from $200 to $948, industry sources said. This could spark a fresh wave of sensitive price hikes. The central bank, the sources said, was however understandably ducking the issue knowing fully well that it would put it on a collision course with the government, which was likely to shoot down any proposals to devalue the dollar. Despite excessive pressure, President Robert Mugabe has publicly stated that devaluation of the local unit was not an option for his government. In fact, the 79-year-old leader has in the past hit out at attempts to weaken the troubled currency through "the back door." The RBZ’s dilemma was compounded by the fact that if it gave in to the demands by banks it would also come under immense pressure to make concessions to exporters who have been vociferously pressing for the devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar which they feel is over-valued. Charles Chikaura, the acting RBZ boss, was said to be in a meeting when contacted for comment yesterday.
Bankers Association of Zimbabwe president Washington Matsaira told The Financial Gazette yesterday that his vice-president, Jerry Tsodzai, was handing the issue. Tsodzai could not be contacted for comment as he was said to be out of the country. "There is no way we can finance fuel at uneconomic prices. The price has to be right for us to extend both the foreign currency and the Zimbabwe dollar facilities. The RBZ will come down hard on us if we proceed with the deal without its blessings. Look, most banks have been penalised of late for trading at exchange rates higher than the official one," said one banker. Banks have since been requested to indicate the amount of foreign currency and Zimbabwe dollars they could source as well conditions applying to the facilities. "To fund the purchase of this forex (foreign exchange), at the existing exchange rates, credit facilities of about Z$30 billion per month are required. While it was agreed before that the fuel companies may approach banks on an individual basis, we feel that the difference in funding structures for banks will lead to the fuel having different cost structures and ultimately different pricing structures for the final product. This is the situation the PMA is trying to avoid. We therefore, suggest syndicating the credit facilities so as to closely co-ordinate the Zimbabwe dollar funding of this programme," read the letter circulated to banks.
Under the arrangement, the fuel industry would operate a yet-to-be established consortium that would procure, distribute and sell fuel to participating oil companies which would be required to pay up-front for incoming fuel. Splits have however emerged within the PMA with some members wanting to invoice fuel in United States dollar terms. The government has also made it clear that it would not accept the "dollarisation" of the economy, referring to the use of another country’s currency as a legal purchasing tender. In a document sent to Energy and Power Development Minister Amos Midzi, the PMA expressed concern at the current fuel procurement system. It said: "The current totally chaotic, disorganised and highly dangerous practice of private importation, not withstanding the unacceptable charges, is unsustainable and can go no way to satisfy the needs of the entire nation, which is trying desperately to normalise its modus operandi." The association said the oil pipeline from Beira, Mozambique should operate on a 24-hour basis to sustain the 75 percent carrying capacity that adequately covers Zimbabwe’s supply requirements. It is estimated that 33 million litres of petrol and 44 million litres of diesel would have to come through Beira, while Beit Bridge border post would be a conduit for 11 million litres of petrol and 15 million litres of diesel. "Without an upgrade to said pipeline, throughput is limited and of necessity the balance must be overland by a mixture of rail and road through Beit Bridge," it said. Zimbabwe is going through a critical fuel crisis blamed on critical shortages of foreign currency emanating from poor economic management and falling exports, among others. Corruption at the debt-laden National Oil Company of Zimbabwe where some officials have since been arraigned for pushing the envelope too far, has also played havoc with the fuel supply situation in the country.
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From Sapa (SA), 26 July
Tension mounts as Zim runs out of cash
Harare - Queues of angry people continued to crowd the pavements around Harare's banks for a fourth day on Saturday as the troubled country's latest shortage - banknotes - pushed Zimbabweans' frustrations to new levels. Two flustered private security guards were trying to calm down shouting people outside a building society branch in Harare's Avondale shopping centre on Saturday morning. Nervous clerks peered from behind their counters as the crowd of about 300 outside forced the locked glass doors towards breaking point. "This confusion is terrible," said teacher Josiah Garabwa as he abandoned the queue. "The money arrived late and they are only giving out a maximum of Z$5 000. With that I can buy two loaves of bread and a couple of beers. I've got to pay rent, school fees, transport. We can no longer live." Police had to fire tear gas in the shopping centre on Friday to disperse the crowds when the banks ran out of cash and closed their doors. In the city centre, riot police also struggled with queues, many of which started at 4am. On Wednesday an unidentified woman in a branch of Barclays Bank in Harare began stripping off her clothes in frustration after she was turned away from a teller, said an official who asked not to be named. The woman assaulted staff who went to restrain her, he said. In the eastern city of Mutare a crowd burst through the doors and plate-glass windows of a bank on Friday but were beaten back by riot police, reported the independent Daily News.
Banknotes have been growing increasingly scarce over the last three months as inflation, now running at 365 percent, created a surge in the demand for cash. Z$500 notes, the biggest denomination, are in critical short supply, so banks manage by paying out in smaller denominations - which shoppers have to carry around in swollen bags. Bank officials say the central bank is supplying them with 10 percent of their requirements. The dwindling supply of cash has created a sudden big demand for cheque books - so big that banks now take a month to provide a new book that would normally take 24 hours to be delivered. In the country's worsening economic crisis, Zimbabweans have endured severe shortages of basic commodities like fuel, bread, milk, sugar and salt - items that are now unaffordable to most ordinary Zimbabweans. The government has said it would soon start printing Z$1 000 notes to ease the problems. But the drying-up of exports in the world's fastest-collapsing economy has caused the near-disappearance of hard currency earnings, which means there is no hard currency to import the special ink and paper needed to print banknotes. Economist John Robertson said this week it was obvious that the state's printing works could not print notes quickly enough to keep up with demand. "They need to print over a million Z$500 bank notes a day," he said. "The problem is they can't do it. This is just the beginning, and it's bound to get worse. We had Z$100 billion worth of notes and coins in circulation in December. Prices have doubled since then, so we need Z$200 billion now. And that's impossible."
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From News24 (SA), 26 July
Tsvangirai ruling delayed
Harare - A ruling on an application by Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to have treason charges against him dropped will not be handed down on Monday, a lawyer said on Saturday. The Harare High Court was due to make a ruling on Monday following an application made earlier this month by opposition lawyers who said the state had not proved its case against him. But Tsvangirai's lawyer, Innocent Chagonda, said Judge Paddington Garwe had postponed the matter. "He's not giving a judgement on Monday. He will let us know when he's giving that judgement," Chagonda said. Tsvangirai and two senior officials of his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party are on trial for allegedly plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe last year and stage a coup. The state's case hinges on meetings Tsvangirai held with Canada-based political consultant Ari Ben Menashe in late 2001, at which he is alleged to have requested Ben Menashe's help in carrying out the plot. The three MDC officials deny the charges, and claim they were set up by the government in order to discredit Tsvangirai and the party ahead of last year's presidential poll. The trial has so far dragged on for six months. State lawyers say the defence has failed to establish any basis for a discharge. They want to cross-examine the three opposition officials.
From ZWNEWS: If you would like to read the defence lawyers' case for the dismissal of the treason charges against Tsvangirai, Ncube and Gasela, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message - total size approximately seven times the size of the average daily ZWNEWS. It is a large document, but a compelling read.
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From VOA News, 26 July
Zimbabwe releases jailed women protesters
Harare - More than 40 women, four of whom had babies with them, were reported released Saturday in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, after spending two days in police cells. The women had been protesting against security laws that were introduced before last year's disputed presidential election. The jailed women were part of a group who demonstrated against the Public Order and Security Act. Legal analysts say this clutch of security laws is even tougher than those they replaced, which were brought into force during the colonial era. After independence from Britain in 1980, President Robert Mugabe never abolished the Law and Order Maintenance Act, under which he himself had once been detained. When the colonial law was thrown out last year, it was immediately replaced by new security legislation designed by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa. Mr. Chinamasa has emerged from within the ruling Zanu PF party as Mr. Mugabe's front man to establish peace talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Opposition groups say there can be no political solution to Zimbabwe's political crisis while this legislation remains on the statute books. Thousands of people have been arrested since the legislation was passed into law shortly before violence-marred presidential elections in March 2002. Human rights groups claim that more than 95 percent of those arrested were supporters of opposition groups. One section of the law makes it an offense for more than three people to hold a public meeting, without prior permission from the police.
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From Reuters, 26 July
Zimbabwe church leaders meet Mugabe over crisis
Harare - Three prominent Zimbabwe bishops met President Robert Mugabe as part of ongoing efforts to ease political tension between the government and the main opposition, state television reported on Saturday. Zimbabwe is grappling with a deep political and economic crisis which has worsened since Mugabe's controversial re-election last year in a poll rejected as fraudulent by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation said on Saturday that Bishops Sebastian Bakare of the Zimbabwe Christian Council, Patrick Mutume of the Catholic Bishops Conference and Trevor Manhanga of the Evangelical Fellowship met Mugabe and senior members of his ruling Zanu PF party on Friday to discuss how the church could mediate in the crisis. Although the three church leaders have been vocal on Zimbabwe's problems they have adopted a politically neutral stance.
''The meeting went extremely well. It became a meeting of people who were at one in terms of the appreciation of the state of affairs in the country and the desire to bring about normalcy,'' the ruling Zanu PF party's national chairman John Nkomo said on television. Bakare said the meeting was a continuation of discussions between Zanu PF and Tsvangirai's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change which he said had been going on ''at different levels, different groups, different contexts.'' ''People are trying very hard to find a way to...talk together as one,'' Bakare said on television. Mugabe's government walked out of political talks with the MDC in April 2002 after the opposition went to court to challenge the presidential election result, saying mediation efforts must wait until the courts have ruled on the case. A hearing has been set for November.
The MDC accuses Mugabe of mismanaging the economy over the last 23 years, leading to record unemployment of over 70 percent and one of the highest rates of inflation in the world. Mugabe, 79, denies this. He says the economy has been sabotaged by his local and foreign critics in retaliation for his controversial programme to seize white-owned farms for distribution to landless blacks. For the first time in three years MDC legislators decided not to boycott Mugabe's speech marking the opening of parliament this week. The MDC, which holds 54 of the 150 seats in parliament, said it had decided to attend to create an environment for political dialogue. Mugabe's speech to the house omitted his usual verbal attacks on the MDC, which he has denounced as a puppet of Western countries led by former colonial power Britain.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 25 July
Zanu PF plays down Harare Central by-election
Itai Dzamara
The ruling Zanu PF party has all but given up hope of winning the Harare Central by-election set for the end of next month and will commit resources to retaining the rural Makonde constituency. Sources within Zanu PF said a meeting attended by members of the commissariat and the party's central committee last week resolved not to waste resources on Harare Central. It was agreed that instead more resources should be channelled to Makonde where Zanu PF holds sway. Senior members of the party who were approached, all declined to stand in Harare Central until William Nhara, who of late has been masquerading as an independent social commentator, was slotted in as a pawn. When contacted for comment yesterday, Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira was evasive and accused this paper of always misquoting his party. "That is not true. This is all I can say. You people always write what we haven't said," said Shamuyarira.
Nhara will battle it out against Murisi Zwizwai of the MDC in the by-election that was necessitated by the resignation of MDC's Mike Auret due to poor health. Journalist-cum-politician, Kindness Paradza, will stand on the Zanu PF ticket in Makonde whilst the MDC will be represented by Japhet Karemba. The political trend over the last two years has proved that Zanu PF has wafer-thin chances of winning support in urban areas. Sources this week said the ruling party would soon descend on Makonde, with a delegation comprising war veteran Joseph Chinotimba, Youth minister Elliot Manyika and Information minister Jonathan Moyo to campaign for Paradza. In the by-elections held over the last two years, Zanu PF has won the rural constituencies whilst the MDC maintained a stranglehold in most urban constituencies. Protracted efforts through the use of food aid and violence failed to carry the day for Zanu PF in the Highfield and Kuwadzana by-elections in April. The MDC romped home with wide margins.
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From The Herald, 28 July
Central bank rapped
Herald Reporter
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe stopped the normal printing of money 12 months ago and failed to take corrective measures in March when the total amount of money in circulation was only $145 billion despite warnings of a galloping inflation and huge salary increases that were expected in July. Highly placed sources said the central bank failed to make adequate provisions for the supply of money even though inflation was expected to grow from 225 percent in March to the present 365 percent. The collective bargaining exercise for both the Government and the private sectors was predicted to result in over 100 percent salary increments, which would entail that the amount of cash in circulation should have at least doubled to over $300 billion. Prices of most goods and services have gone up by over 100 percent with most people requiring not less than double the amount of money they needed in March to pay for their basic requirements. Sources close to the central bank said there was need for at least $200 billion to be printed, which is a far cry from the bank’s plan to inject a paltry $24 billion into the economy.
Questions were being asked on why the central bank was not putting people at retail outlets that will collect money everyday and ensure that it is banked and circulated. Examples were cited of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, which has taken drastic measures of placing its people at some of the big wholesale and retail outlets to ensure that tax was being paid for goods being purchased. "Why is the Reserve Bank not doing anything when its job is to supervise all financial transactions and know which points deal in cash?" asked the source. Other sources claimed that the normal printing of money was stopped to coincide with the "final push" by the opposition MDC, which failed but had now left a cash crisis. "This is a very dangerous political game being played," said one source. "The crisis started in March when the bank realised that there was only $145 million in circulation. This would have given them enough lead-time to deal with the July scenario of the huge salary increments and galloping inflation. "The bank knew this and decided not to take any action," said the source.
He dismissed claims that the bank was trying to control money supply and inflation by starving the market of cash, which was largely being used for speculation in foreign currency deals or that the central bank did not have enough foreign currency to buy ink and paper to print money. "That is absolutely rubbish because they are the custodians of foreign currency. Their primary responsibility is to manage money," he said. He accused the central bank of fuelling the parallel market as it entered into "swap" deals with some banks to raise foreign currency on the black market and was willing to pay them using similar rates. There were fears that the near riots that almost occurred at the weekend as bank clients scrambled for cash at most banks and building societies in Harare, could continue as more people received their salaries. Irate callers who phoned The Herald yesterday said officials at the central bank should either resign or solve the cash crisis immediately. "How can you have a central bank whose supreme responsibility is monitoring the supply of money, fail to make adequate provisions for the country’s requirements. "It is their responsibility and duty to monitor all financial transactions but they have so far failed to take action to ensure that even the money being collected by supermarkets, wholesalers and other traders is being channelled through the banking system." "This can only be deliberate sabotage or gross incompetence," said one caller who declined to be named.
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Comment from The Daily News, 26 July
Enough madness
Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans yesterday endured long queues yet again to try to get a little part of their July pay from cash-starved commercial banks in the most profound indicator to date of the country’s painful collapse. As the latest bout of unmitigated madness continues without any sign of an end, all the bungling central Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) can tell tormented Zimbabweans is that more cash has been injected into the local banking system. A cursory check with most commercial banks reveals that very little money is being given to the financial institutions by the RBZ, which must surely have long foreseen the cash crisis that has now paralysed Zimbabwe’s normal economic activity. Zimbabwe's hyper-inflationary climate must have long sounded alarm bells to anyone, even to voodoo financial economists, that disaster was waiting to strike any time unless urgent action was taken to tame the country’s galloping inflation. Because the RBZ is controlled by the government, which refuses to cut its runaway spending that is fuelling inflation, the central bank did nothing to stem the inflationary spiral, afraid that painful measures needed to stop the gravy train would hurt most the so-called chefs in our midst the shorthand for economic looters and saboteurs.
The predictable chaos, dramatised by the cash crisis, makes any right-thinking person wonder whether there is still anyone in charge of the country, let alone of the RBZ. Long-suffering Zimbabweans have now come face to face with the height of economic mismanagement and madness just when they have no food, no foreign currency, no fuel, no electricity on some days...The list is endless. The reality of Zimbabwe’s hyper-inflation is that the phenomenal price increases of every product are now feeding on the inflationary spiral. But nothing more graphically illustrates Zimbabwe’s total descent into the Stone Age than the failure of the RBZ indeed of the government to have adequate cash to allow Zimbabweans to get their own hard-earned money from banks. In a tragic replay of Argentina’s economic upheaval a few years ago, ordinary Zimbabweans now find themselves unable to pay for even the most basic of goods and services, courtesy of the RBZ’s non-action, on top of the many crises that already afflict them on a daily basis. This is unacceptable, and God knows how long this gross irresponsibility and dereliction of duty must be allowed even in a crisis-inured nation such as Zimboland.
The government must act now it always waits until there is a crisis that diverts the nation’s attention from bread-and-butter issues to appoint a substantive governor of the RBZ, which must also be given full independence from state control so that it can be made fully accountable for its actions or non-actions. The government’s refusal to free the RBZ from the state clutches has meant that it is only in Zimbabwe where the central bank allows interest rates to lag behind record high inflation of nearly 400 percent, and yet the same bank wants Zimbabweans to invest their money at a loss of more than 200 percent. Such madness there is no other word that aptly describes this deliberate economic sabotage has distorted the economy to such an extent that it will probably take two decades to correct the economic fundamentals of this country. Yes, we can hear voices of pro-government economists and scholars proclaiming that interest rates must be kept low despite the high inflation to kick-start economic growth, and yet there is no iota of evidence out there to support this fundamentally flawed and unworkable plan. Zimbabweans are fed up with voodoo economists who are trying to experiment with their precious lives. These economists must keep their dangerous theories and ideologies to themselves. Zimbabweans live in a real world and expect their rulers and administrators to understand the economic forces that drive the global village in which all humanity lives. We simply cannot go on like this, as if the entire nation has gone berserk!
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Comment The Mail & Guardian (SA), 25 July
Tales from a broken country
Thandi Chiweshe
My son is not coming home for his vacation. The major told him so. All leave was cancelled so that the army could "quell the riots". I am upset. So is my son. This is the third time in as many months this has happened. I regret sending my young son into the army. But what other options are there for a young man without any "connections" in the right places? It was either the army or adding to my list of dependants. I had watched my son’s "growth" in the army with trepidation at first, but now with anger, sadness, amusement and sometimes guilt. His first assignment was to the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was very excited about this. Lots of United States dollars (in his young mind). After a year, he had saved enough to buy a little two-roomed house in the townships. His loyalty to President Robert Mugabe grew. We quarrelled many times. He didn’t understand why so many of my friends and I are active in civil society (which, he was told, is the same as the opposition) or why I didn’t read the state-controlled Herald.
It is not easy to describe life in Zimbabwe today. I have several, sometimes conflicting, identities. The vastly different worlds that I inhabit in any one week make my life a mosaic. The foray into the Congo is over. My son is back to earning peanuts. Just like all other ordinary Zimbabweans. The ambitious little house extension project has been stalled. At roof level. He has been to his army superiors’ farms to do all sorts of menial jobs - dipping the cattle, slaughtering the pigs and repairing fences. He has seen their wealth and comforts. The majors’ and the colonels’ houses are growing in size and in numbers. My son’s eyes have been opened. Thanks to own goals by the regime. He now reads the Daily News and the Zimbabwe Independent. I am actively aiding and abetting this transformation. I have taken over the house extension. I am an NGO worker for most of the day and, during the other part, a foreign-currency dealer. On occasion I deal in petrol too. That is where the proceeds to extend my son’s house will come from. Like a privileged few, I earn my salary in British pounds. "What is the rate this week?" seems to be the main concern of my peers in the international NGO community. We are occasionally worried about the price of food or the scarcity of bank notes. We are irritated by the amount of time we spend in the queue at our "diplomatic garage". But it’s only an irritation because we know we will get it before the day is over. Many of us with access to forex can afford to buy our own fuel from the many garages that import fuel on our behalf. It’s overpriced, but at least it’s better than the stuff mixed with water that you buy from some ruling party functionary, or what the police "liberate" and sell at roadblocks. Some with forex resell what they buy from garages. After paying US$1 a litre, you can resell at US$2!
None of this makes me a millionaire. It only makes me a one-woman donor agency. Mother Bountiful. An aunt across town needs Z$5 000 to go to a doctor. A sister in another town needs anti-retrovirals. And the one I have been supporting for a while is out of immune-boosting vitamins. The reality of HIV/Aids is still part of the national crisis. But these days it has been forgotten, as they focus only on the politics. Saying hello to a doctor now costs Z$5 000. If she gives you a prescription you can expect to pay nothing less than Z$8 000 for basic painkillers. I have postponed seeing a doctor for the skin rash I have. My health seems to be a small concern compared to what others have to deal with. I shell out school fees, bus fares and rent for nieces, nephews, distant cousins and Lord knows who else’s relatives. By the time I have paid for complete strangers’ groceries, paid visa fees for a desperate friend of a friend’s cousin who needed to flee, and listened to everyone’s tales of woe I am exhausted. I go round with a wad of cash. Just in case I bump into yet another long sad story. I keep more wads in the linen cupboard. By the end of the week I can’t account for Z$300 000. My friend calls to say she needs help dealing with the "refugees" at her house. About a dozen women who were displaced from the township after last month’s mass action. Clothes, food, medicines or whatever we can give. The women are traumatised. Several were raped. They want to tell me their stories. I drop off the food and money and disappear. Afraid to embrace their pain. Guilty that this is a product of my son and his troop’s "quelling mass action". I am still dealing with the horror I saw at a clinic last week. Burnt arms, singed hair, scarred buttocks, lacerated vaginas. I can’t sleep without taking tablets anymore. When the pain is too much I avoid answering the phone. Tell the kids to say I am not around. How long does it take before one becomes a basket case?
Standing in a supermarket queue in Mount Pleasant just before the Movement for Democratic Change’s "final push", I was struck by the differences in shopping baskets. In front of me was a gardener’s small family. Huddled around a basket with three items in it: the smallest tube of toothpaste, the smallest bar of soap and the smallest bottle of cooking oil. They argued about whether to buy sugar beans or dry kapenta. In the end they could not afford either. Behind me, two funkily dressed young women and their over-dressed but well-heeled male partners. You can always smell them from a mile off, these nouveau riche. They have too many cellphones, make deals loudly on them so that we can all hear about the millions they are making and their clothing definitely shows they have failed to buy class. These four had among them five trolleys carrying imported wines, crates of beer, tonnes of meats of all kinds, cakes to die for and enough Italian bread rolls to feed a small regiment. They argued over chicken or fish. "We need more foam bath. Take some of those apples they look delish … Oh in case this stayaway lasts longer shouldn’t we get more wine?" Blessed are they who live in this rarefied stratosphere. It is easy to stay cocooned in this stratosphere. I tried to tell an office colleague about some of the things I have seen in my after-hours role. His eyes glazed over. Disbelief? Fear? Nonchalance? This side of Samora Machel Avenue, the horror stories of our national crisis are best left in the newspaper pages.
However, Zanu PF’s madness now knows no bounds. Ugly reality has begun to penetrate every strata of Zimbabwean society. An international aid worker was butted on the head with a rifle for smiling "cheekily" at a police officer at a roadblock in the leafy suburb of Borrowdale. A business executive relative was made to sit on the ground and sing "I will never go round without my national ID again". And of course good old Jonathan Moyo assaults our eyes and ears on the national airwaves each day. Dreadful as it sounds, I am glad the smell has now hit suburbia. Keeping one’s head down is the worst thing to do in Zimbabwe. Either leave the country, or you stay and fight. Even if you don’t go looking for trouble, it will come looking for you. I have been heartened by my son’s transformation. He hasn’t led a mutiny yet, but I know he is not following orders blindly anymore either. I have been encouraged by the young women I saw lying in hospital - raped, beaten. "We are just waiting for this to heal so we can get out and organise some more actions. We won’t rest until Mugabe has gone," they told me. I have been inspired by the erstwhile "non-political" mothers’ union in my church, praying to God to "remove this pharaoh from our land. Help us to be strong like David as he faced Goliath." As I dance to the very meaningless but melodious Rambai Makashinga (Stay Strong - a ruling party-sponsored jingle played every 30 minutes on all radio stations), I am energised and glad to be part of the rewriting of Zimbabwe’s history.
Thandi Chiweshe is a Harare-based feminist activist.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 29 July
Zimbabweans rush for last banknotes
Harare - Zimbabwe's banks were fast running out of money yesterday. As thousands of desperate workers endured lengthy queues to withdraw their salaries or pensions, riot police flooded the centre of the capital, Harare. Economists said it was the worst crisis to hit the country in three years of chaotic mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe's regime. Zimbabwe is now the world's fastest-shrinking economy. "We can never recover from this," said a 72-year-old man queuing outside the main branch of Zimbabwe's largest building society. He was trying to draw his small retirement benefits, while around him hundreds of civil servants and soldiers lined up to try to obtain their pay. Tellers have been told to hand out only the equivalent of £3.50 to each customer. "If this is not dealt with quickly, it will have grave repercussions," said Eddie Cross, an official of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. "This is an emergency of the highest order."
The problem has its roots in the country's soaring inflation rate. Government forecasts of a 96 per cent rate have already been breached, as official price rises soared past 360 per cent. In reality, the rate is estimated to be more than 700 per cent, meaning that many more notes are required to buy the same quantity of goods. Most nations facing economic meltdown opt to print more notes, but the only press producing the highest denomination note, of Z$500 (35p), is already working 24 hours a day. Plans to produce larger notes have had to be abandoned until the country can find the foreign currency to import more ink. As ever, the worst affected by the disappearance of cash are the poor. "This is my third day here," said a 54-year-old woman from Buduriro, a township west of Harare. "I got Z$10,000 [£7 at official rates] on Friday to pay rent, but now I need money for food. I spent more time here in the queue than at work." She has been a cleaner at the School of Social Work for 20 years, and earns Z$20,000 a month. A loaf of bread, when available, costs about Z$1,000, or 70p.
Several hundred people stood in the orderly queue outside the main branch of the Central African Building Society, but three hours after opening it had not received cash from the Reserve Bank four blocks away. The building society's glass doors remained shut, guarded by police, and the queue grew and snaked along the crumbling pavement around the corner into a side street. A professional assistant at a clinic run by Harare municipality, who earns Z$70,000 a month, started weeping quietly. "We can't believe things will get worse. But each time they get worse. Will it ever end?" The British bank Standard Chartered was allowing depositors, including companies, to withdraw only Z$5,000 (£3.50) each. A teller said a recent injection into the economy of Z$24 billion in Z$500 notes had made no difference. "These new notes are not coming back to the bank, people are keeping them." Police fired teargas on Saturday to disperse people quarrelling in a queue for money on the edge of the city. Yesterday security guards broke up a fractious crowd outside the Kingdom Bank in the city centre. But most Zimbabweans say they are too tired to do more than wait and hope. Peter Robinson, a development economist, said: "The cash crisis is the worst moment in the economy so far." He said the black market in banknotes had now become established, with note traders selling cash for cheques at 15 per cent more than its face value. "Why put cash in the bank when you can trade it in the street for instant profit?"
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From News24 (SA), 28 July
Zim churches press for talks
Harare - Top church leaders met with Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai Monday in a bid to get his party talking to President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, one of the leaders told AFP. Trevor Manhanga, the head of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, said he and other church leaders, including Sebastian Bakare of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and Patrick Mutume of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference met the MDC leader to discuss "issues of mutual concern". Their meeting with Tsvangirai was made just days after the three met with Mugabe and offered to mediate between the MDC and the ruling Zanu PF in the politically-divided country. "The framework has not yet been set for dialogue," Manhanga said. "We will still need to go back to both parties." Zimbabwe's political landscape is deeply divided between the MDC's urban-based supporters, and Mugabe's mainly rural backers. Fledgling talks between the MDC and Zanu PF were scuppered last year when Tsvangirai filed a petition in the Harare High Court challenging Mugabe's victory in the 2002 presidential poll. Tsvangirai rejected Mugabe's victory, claiming the poll was marred by violence, intimidation and electoral irregularities. Mugabe in turn has ruled out talks with the MDC unless they recognise his presidency. Manhanga said meetings with the two rival parties had succeeded in identifying areas of "convergence and divergence". But he added: "We are pleasantly optimistic we can move the process forward." A November date has been set for Tsvangirai's court challenge against Mugabe's disputed election victory. The opposition l eader is already on trial for treason, which carries a death penalty here. He was charged with a second count of treason following anti-government protests organised by his party last month.
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From News24 (SA), 28 July
Violence in Zim on the rise
Bulawayo - State-sponsored political violence increased with 113 cases of torture, assault and other human rights violations recorded in June, according to a report released by Zimbabwe Human Rights (ZimRights) on Monday. The opposition believes political violence is expected to escalate in the next few weeks ahead of next month's municipal elections. ZimRights, a human rights watchdog, said the country's human rights record had deteriorated to "pathetic" levels as ruling Zanu PF supporters continued to terrorise perceived opposition Movement for Democratic Change supporters. "In continued contravention of Section 21(1) of the Zimbabwean Constitution, citizens are being routinely targeted on the basis of genuine or perceived political affiliation," said ZimRights. The report fingered state security agents as the main perpetrators of violence apparently pandering to the whims of President Robert Mugabe to consolidate his power.
The retribution campaign also spilt over to learning institutions as they were viewed by the government as the breeding ground for opposition politics, said the report. "State agents have reportedly been witnessed engaging in organised violence and torture and intimidatory activities at institutions of higher learning and medical facilities. "Students from the University of Zimbabwe were among those victimised by state agents, on suspicion that they were convening meetings in support of the 'final push'," read the report. The MDC last month called for street demonstrations, dubbed the "final push", which they said were aimed at forcing Mugabe to the negotiating table to hatch a solution to the ever-worsening socio-economic and political crisis in the country. The protests were violently quelled by heavily armed riot police, while hundreds of angry protesters were nabbed, including the opposition party leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
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