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Archived News
9th September 2003
MDC shines in Zim polls
Zimbabwe opposition set to win city elections
Mugabe's man claims top reserve for 'hunting'
Zimbabwe lawyers tell of harassment
SADC rallies behind Mugabe, but that won't make the pain go away
UN forced to close provincial field offices
MDC makes gains, despite low turnout
Lawsuit threat forces police to return seized cash
Corpses of Zimbabweans unclaimed
Manicured, pedicured, but still fighting
Losses give Mugabe's party 'rude wake up'
MDC seals poll victory
Mugabe seriously ill
Mugabes assaulted
Zimbabwe government in bid to boost maize production
Harare to pound out dollars
CIO unleashed on banks
Jail for Zim black marketeers
Zim downs tools in cash crisis
Resettled farmers returning to communal areas
On the rampage
Young Zimbabweans admit militia crimes
VP Muzenda on way to recovery
Economic outlook gloomy
Lions facing starvation as Mugabe men seize famous wildlife park
Ruling party holds key to ending crisis
ZCTU protests over barring of paying workers in cash
Former youth militia members
Youth militia victims
It's a lesson to Dr Mugabe
Zanu PF prepares for Mugabe exit
MDC to send envoys to brief African states
Keep quiet: clergy warned
Bizarre Mugabe move has ecologists up in arms
Sex assault now a political act in Zimbabwe
Zimbabweans seek US shelter
Abuja failure highlighted
Strike shuts Zim university
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From News24 (SA), 2 September
MDC shines in Zim polls
Harare - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change party overcame violence and fraud to seize control of most urban councils, according to results available on Tuesday. The party won the majority in 10 urban areas, including the country's major cities and towns, while the ruling Zanu PF won six, only one of them a sizeable town. Nine of the country's mayors are MDC, including the country's only white mayor, in the northern lake resort town of Kariba. The ruling party has been reduced to only one mayor. Official results are expected later. Observers said the elections consolidated the opposition party's hold on the country's urban areas, home to better-educated and more-critical sections of the population. The Zimbabwe Election Support Network, before the elections began, expressed serious misgivings about the possibility of the elections being declared free and fair, because of President Robert Mugabe's campaign of repression and rigging. It said that in the Makonde by-election, violence had ruled out "any meaningful campaign" by the MDC.
"The people have shown they have confidence in the MDC's ability," said the party's elections director, Remus Makuwaza. "The results must send a clear warning to the government that the people are quite clear about which party they want to govern them." In Bulawayo, Zanu PF failed to win a single council seat. The only sizeable urban area to be controlled by Zanu PF is Kwekwe, in the country's Midlands, where the ruling party won all council seats and the mayoral post. The results are expected to come as a shock to Mugabe and his officials who have built up a powerful apparatus of electoral manipulation in a determined bid to destroy the four-year-old opposition party. The MDC narrowly missed beating Zanu PF in parliamentary elections in 2000. In the presidential election last year, Mugabe was declared the winner in a poll that the MDC and international election observers alike said was the result of a comprehensive fraud. Mugabe, who turns 80 in February, is seen as clinging to power by deepening his control over the country after 23 years of ruinous rule that has brought inflation now of 400%.
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From The Financial Times (UK), 2 September
Zimbabwe opposition set to win city elections
By Stella Mapenzauswa
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party looks set to beat President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF in key urban council elections, official results broadcast on state radio show. The MDC has emerged as the biggest threat to Mugabe's 23-year grip on power as Zimbabwe grapples with a worsening economic crisis which critics blame on government mismanagement. Earlier partial official results on Monday had given the lead to Zanu PF but the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claimed victory late on Monday and the latest figures on Tuesday showed the lead swinging to the opposition. State radio said the MDC was ahead with 106 of the 222 council seats up for grabs, with 70 for Zanu PF. The MDC also won six of seven mayoral seats including northern Kariba, where its candidate was set to become Zimbabwe's first post-independence white mayor. Political analysts had said apathy could give the ruling party better-than-expected results as Zanu PF activists turned out to vote. Final results were due later on Tuesday. State radio said the MDC and Zanu PF retained their Harare Central and rural Makonde parliamentary seats respectively in by-elections also held at the weekend.
The privately-owned Daily News called the low turnout a "national disgrace" as the country faces critical shortages of food, fuel and local banknotes, and one of the highest rates of inflation in the world at 399.5 percent. "It would seem that a large number Zimbabweans cannot or are unwilling to appreciate that it is specifically when things are so bad that they need to come out in their millions to exercise their right to vote," the paper said in an editorial. Victory would expand the MDC's politically symbolic grip on major towns, although the government still has control through powers held by the local government affairs minister. The MDC alleged violence in some areas and private newspapers reported government supporters tried to buy votes with cash and promises of food handouts. Zanu PF dismissed the charges and electoral officials said they were unsubstantiated. Advocacy group Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (ZESN) said the polls were also characterised by what it called intimidation and obstruction of the electorate. "ZESN re-emphasises the need for a single independent electoral body mandated with managing elections in the country," it said in a statement. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is legally challenging Mugabe's re-election in polls last year which both the opposition and Western powers said were rigged. Mugabe insists he won fairly. Mugabe, 79, denies he has misruled the country and says the economy has been sabotaged by opponents of his controversial seizure of white-owned farms to give to landless blacks.
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From The Mercury (SA), 1 September
Mugabe's man claims top reserve for 'hunting'
By Gustav Thiel
Amid weekend reports that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is building a R60-million retirement mansion, it has emerged that one of his closest allies has claimed the world-renowned Hwange Wildlife Estate to be used for hunting purposes. The estate is home to the "presidential herd" of about 500 elephants, which were given special presidential protection in a decree issued by Mugabe in 1991. Johnny Rodrigues, chairperson of the Zimbabwean Conservation Task Force, said on Sunday that the governor of Matabeleland, Obert Mpofu, "has just simply taken the Hwange estate". "The land will now be a free-for-all for poachers and for him (Mpofu) to allow hunters to kill the animals," he said. The Hwange Wildlife Estate is state-owned and comprises 14 000ha of prime land. Rodrigues said he "would not be surprised if he (Mpofu) next moves to claim land in the Hwange National Park for his own purposes" because there were no fences separating the estate from the park. Hwange National Park is Zimbabwe's biggest game reserve at 14 650km2. Rodrigues added that people like Mpofu "are putting a death sentence on the future heritage of the country and the benefits that wildlife conservation would have had for the people of the country".
It has been estimated that more than $400-million (about R2,9-billion) has been lost in Zimbabwe's southern region because of rampant poaching. Bambo Kadzombe, chairperson of the Zimbabwe Wildlife Advisory Council, said: "Three thousand animals have been poached so far on commercial game farms and Zimbabwe's conservancies, mainly at Save Valley, Mahenye, Bubiyana conservancy, Bubye Valley and Chiredzi River conservancy." In 2002, more than 100 poachers had been arrested and Kadzombe said that if the poaching continued species could become extinct. Rodrigues said it was with that in mind that Mpofu should understand the "folly of allowing hunting at Hwange". He said over the past five years more than 300 of the remaining black rhino in Zimbabwe had been killed. A wildlife researcher based in Zimbabwe said the taking of the land by Mpofu could jeopardise the inclusion of Zimbabwe's Gonarezhou Park in the Limpopo Transfrontier Park, combining three national parks in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa.
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From The Sunday Times, (SA), 31 August
Zimbabwe lawyers tell of harassment
Dingilizwe Ntuli
Zimbabwean civic leaders have attended a symposium in Johannesburg to discuss abuses of human rights and justice in their country. Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum chairman Albert Musarurwa said the situation was so serious that concerted efforts to solve it were required at regional level. Musarurwa said human-rights activists were living in fear. "Human-rights activists in Zimbabwe are vulnerable and can be easily targeted and arrested at will. The police are actually at the forefront of harassing human- rights activists," he said. He said the arbitrary conduct of war veterans and the ruling Zanu PF's youth militia, coupled with police inaction, made it difficult for activists to reach victims of abuses, particularly in rural areas. War veterans and the youth militia took note of everyone who visited villages they operated in, he said. In cases where activists manage to disguise themselves and approach victims, the latter were reluctant to open up because of the traumatic experiences they had been subjected to. "Even if you get access to these individuals or communities, there is always the problem that they will not be able to open up. That's how haunted these communities are. They don't feel secure to tell you the nature and the extent of the abuse they have suffered. Most of them know of some people who have been killed while attempting to exert their right to draw attention to their concerns through peaceful assembly," said Musarurwa.
The intimidation also affected lawyers who represented victims of state abuse. Nokuthula Moyo, chairman of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, said the intimidation and abuse her colleagues faced were serious. She said threats had been made against her colleagues for representing "enemies of the state". The police had become politicised and did not appreciate that lawyers were professionals who could represent anyone, irrespective of his or her political affiliation. She said it had now become common for lawyers to be threatened, assaulted or even locked up whenever they sought access to their clients at police stations. Moyo said the police often refused lawyers access to clients or simply moved them from one police station to another, making it difficult to find them. "You will never know where your client is being held and it can take up to two days to find them, having been made to drive to several police stations. But you don't face the same problem when representing a common criminal, whom you easily have access to compared to political victims," said Moyo.
When a lawyer eventually established where the victims were being held, Moyo said the problem became getting in as the police sometimes locked the gates at police stations. She said station commanders sometimes professed ignorance about the detention of people, saying they had been arrested not by their officers but by the "law and order section". "They tell you that they have no right to interfere in arrests carried out by the law and order section and their stations have nothing to do with the victims except to accommodate them on behalf of their counterparts. Even if you get a court order compelling them to allow us access, it doesn't change anything. The relevant police officers also evade lawyers to avoid being served with papers compelling them to grant us access." Moyo said the courts also hindered lawyers, particularly when they filed urgent applications. She said lawyers sometimes found it difficult to locate the court registrar to facilitate the hearing of the application. When they did, it took a long time for judgment to be given on matters that needed quick relief.
The government's undermining of the independence of the judiciary had also severely curtailed any possibility of redress for wrongs done to citizens. "The worst problem, though, is the sheer disregard of court orders by the government and its agencies. You get a court order granting relief to your client, but you never get the relief served because the government decides that it's not going to obey a court order and doesn't recognise it as binding." Moyo said lawyers also encountered difficulties with the judiciary, as most judges were new to the Bench and took longer to research and deliver judgments. "We hope that changes in the political scenario will bring a certain degree of relief to our situation because most lawyers are leaving the country due to the frustrations of sheer disregard of the law," Moyo said.
Law Society of Zimbabwe president Sternford Moyo said his organisation had managed to remain united and professional despite the harassment of lawyers who represented opposition officials and sympathisers. He said his society had always condemned attacks aimed at discouraging lawyers from conducting their duties or from representing particular individuals. "A number of lawyers were attacked because of their representation of clients during the last two years. Such attacks work against the interests of justice because an effective administration of justice is impossible to achieve unless a country has independent lawyers who are free to represent any client without fear or favour. A lawyer's office is the first stopping point in the enforcement of any rights and liberties which are guaranteed by the constitution," Moyo said. He said when lawyers were not free to represent clients without fear, the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the constitution of a country were reduced to pious declarations.
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Comment from The Sunday Times (SA), 31 August
SADC rallies behind Mugabe, but that won't make the pain go away
Zimbabwe's turmoil is damaging all of Southern Africa, says Ranjeni Munusamy
During a closed-door session at this week's Southern African Development Community summit in Tanzania, President Thabo Mbeki drew the attention of his counterparts to an article that appeared in a Zimbabwean newspaper last weekend. The Daily News on Sunday piece gave the impressions of German parliamentarians who were on a one-week visit to Zimbabwe. They said they were "pleased Zanu PF and the Movement for Democratic Change had agreed to talk and find solutions to the country's political and economic crisis". The delegation met MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, his deputy, Gibson Sibanda, and four MDC MPs. On the government side, they met the Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and a number of MPs. The article went on to quote one of the German MPs as saying they had been told the parties had agreed on a number of issues. He was optimistic the talks would be fruitful.
Mbeki told the 12 other African leaders in the room, including Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, that the article - which ironically had appeared in an opposition-aligned newspaper - was testimony to real progress. That much was being acknowledged by people who had taken a hard-line position on Zimbabwe. The onus was therefore on African nations, particularly the Southern African neighbourhood, to lend support to Zimbabwe and help it out of the doldrums, he said. Mugabe and his delegation happily read that as affirmation by Mbeki. Mbeki's strategy, however, was to get the region, which so far has been disgracefully inactive on the Zimbabwean issue, to goad the government towards formal talks. The incentive for Mugabe would be a pledge of solidarity from his neighbours and a promise to step up the campaign to end Zimbabwe's international isolation. But that was difficult to read at a summit shrouded in semantic codes.
At the opening ceremony, the double round of applause for Mugabe was spontaneous and somewhat inexplicable. Most of the people at the function were government officials from the 14 SADC member states and the who's who of Tanzanian society. In the corridors, these people whisper about Mugabe's eccentricities, yet, in his presence, they were swept away by him. Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, in his maiden speech as the new SADC chairman, used the opportunity to press for the suspension of sanctions against Zimbabwe. "It [the application of sanctions] has not worked, it will not work and it only makes the life of the ordinary people of Zimbabwe unnecessarily difficult. Those sanctions should now be lifted," said Mkapa. Bold words. Except that they were almost verbatim what the SADC executive secretary, Prega Ramsamy, had said a few days earlier: "Sanctions on Zimbabwe are hurting the people of Zimbabwe and should be lifted." That suggests that the decision by the SADC to press for the easing of pressure on Zimbabwe was a position canvassed ahead of the summit.
Despite being denied next year's chairmanship of the SADC, Mugabe left Dar es Salaam in high spirits. The summit's final communiqué was an unequivocal pledge of solidarity by the region: "Summit committed itself to continue opposing the Commonwealth, the European Union and the US sanctions as they hurt not only ordinary Zimbabweans but also have profound social and economic implications on the region as a whole. In this regard, Summit urged SADC International Co-operating Partners, particularly the Commonwealth, the EU and the US to lift the sanctions and engage in a constructive dialogue with Zimbawbe." But not all members were ecstatic about the newfound brotherhood. With the SADC transforming itself from a political structure into an economic one, there is more of a focus on positions that make economic sense and draw investment to the region. Some countries, like Botswana, argue that the decision on Zimbabwe is out of sync with this line of thinking. The region has already lost millions in donor aid because of Zimbabwe's pariah status, which, among other things, has led to a regional peacekeeping training centre being put on ice.
Until there is tangible evidence of progress, not simply contact between the Zimbabwean government and the opposition, it makes no sense to stick the SADC's neck out, they say. And at what stage does the region have a straight talk with Mugabe and spell out how he is damaging the neighbourhood? A country like Botswana, as an immediate neighbour, is feeling the pinch, having to repatriate about 2 200 refugees to Zimbabwe every month. Mbeki's pain also endures. He has been elected deputy chairman of the SADC organ on politics, defence and security. At the same meeting, it was decided that the organ should now deal with the Zimbabwe issue. When the Commonwealth meets in December, Mbeki will shed some of the burden as a member of the Commonwealth troika on Zimbabwe. But Mugabe will remain his problem for a while yet.
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From IRIN (UN), 2 September
UN forced to close provincial field offices
Johannesburg - The United Nations Relief and Recovery Unit (RRU) in Zimbabwe has been forced to close its provincial field offices, which coordinate and monitor the use of donor-funded humanitarian aid. In the latest Zimbabwe Humanitarian Situation Report released this week, the RRU said the government had requested that its "field offices be closed from mid-August". "The government of Zimbabwe's position is that not all procedures for the establishment of this field presence had been properly followed. All RRU field staff have been recalled to Harare while negotiations proceed," the situation report said. It noted that "the provincial field units are mandated to provide support to provincial and district-level coordination structures in the humanitarian fields. They are also supposed to monitor, from an independent perspective, assistance provided with donor resources".
A UN official told IRIN that while the situation was not ideal, "field staff are being allowed to go out into the field from Harare". "Two teams left yesterday [Monday], one to Matabeleland South and the other to Midlands province. So, although it would be better to have the staff based in the provinces, and that is still the desire of the UN [Humanitarian] Coordinator, their work will still be going on as planned," the official added. Zimbabwe will have about 5.5 million people in need of food aid by January 2004. Last month the government released a new policy directive that withdrew responsibility from the World Food Programme (WFP) for the selection of beneficiaries and the distribution of food aid, and replaced the agency with local government structures and village authorities. NGOs would perform only a monitoring role.
Although the government later gave an assurance to WFP country representative Kevin Farrell and UN Humanitarian Coordinator Victor Angelo that WFP would remain in control of food distributions, the directive has not been withdrawn. Critics have protested that it opens the door to the potential politicisation of food aid. In the case of the RRU, which falls under the office of the humanitarian coordinator, the situation report noted that "at all stages the RRU and its field officers have worked in collaboration with the appropriate government of Zimbabwe authorities at field level". "The governors' and provincial administrators' offices have been kept informed of all activities, and have also invited RRU to participate in some of their activities and programmes where appropriate." It was therefore hoped that the closures "are only a temporary measure while the protocols and procedures needed to carry out field activities are regularised," the RRU said.
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From IRIN (UN), 2 September
MDC makes gains, despite low turnout
Harare - Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), made a strong showing in weekend municipal elections, but the polls were marred by a low voter turnout among weary Zimbabweans. The MDC won six out of the seven contested executive mayoral posts, but in a result which it has threatened not to recognise, lost in the Midlands town of Kwekwe, where high levels of intimidation and violence were reported by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, an independent election observer body. The MDC won 137 out of 222 council wards up for grabs in 21 towns and cities, while the ruling Zanu PF took 87. However, even before the elections began, Zanu PF already had 44 council wards under its belt, and the executive mayoral post in Bindura, about 80 km north of Harare. The MDC said its candidates had been intimidated out of standing in those wards by ruling party thugs. In one example in Chegutu town, which voted for an MDC mayor last year, all 11 aspiring MDC councillors were prevented from registering as candidates, allowing Zanu PF to win "unopposed".
Turnout in the elections was just 11 percent. Political scientist Eldred Masunungure suggested voter apathy was related to a lack of trust in the electoral process which, since the emergence of the MDC, has been characterised by high levels of violence and alleged rigging. Come polling day, Zimbabweans felt they had better things to do than stand in line to cast a ballot. "Zimbabweans are now frustrated because they don't think the electoral process is the proper avenue to use in order to solve their problems. That is why Zimbabweans are prepared to queue for hours to get cash or fuel, but they will not have the patience to queue in order to cast their vote," Masunungure told IRIN. As a result of the elections, the MDC will now have executive mayors in the resort towns of Victoria Falls and Kariba. It also has elected mayors in the Midlands province capital of Gweru, in the capital of Manicaland province, Mutare, as well as Gwanda, the capital of Matabeleland South province, and the small steel-mining town of Redcliff, also in the Midlands.
Before the weekend poll the MDC already had executive mayors in the capital, Harare, the second largest city, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's oldest town, Masvingo, in Chitungwiza, 35 km from Harare, and Chegutu, about 250 km southwest of Harare. Zanu PF, however, consolidated its power in the small towns, which are influenced heavily by rural communities surrounding them. Zanu PF swept all the nine wards in Karoi, Marondera and Norton in Mashonaland province. The ruling party also retained the rural Makonde constituency by a large margin, with journalist- turned-politician, Kindness Paradza, winning the by-election with 11,223 votes to his MDC rival's 1,769. However, it lost the Harare Central constituency to the MDC by 2,707 votes to 1,304.
Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira said on Tuesday he was pleased with the results. "They show that the MDC does not control all the urban centres but that Zanu PF still has some support in the towns." This assertion was denied by MDC spokesman, Paul Themba Nyathi. "What is becoming clear is that Zanu PF has become confined to little growth points, because they have been banished from strategic and important areas like Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Masvingo and Gweru. The only reason why the ruling party is able to control the small settlements is because they are able to exert pressure on the electorate by using food to buy votes, while employing barbaric tactics of beating and raping people to cow them." Masunungure said although the power of the councils and mayors was limited by the influence of the minister of local government, the MDC's showing had nonetheless been significant. "The election outcome has actually strengthened the hand of the MDC on the issue of negotiating a settlement to end the problems afflicting Zimbabwe. The elections confirmed that with its huge following, the MDC will have to have a say on the way forward," he observed.
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From The Daily News, 2 September
Lawsuit threat forces police to return seized cash
Staff Reporters
The government last week agreed to return nearly $10 million it had seized from five Harare residents, while the High Court in Bulawayo yesterday gave the state up to Thursday to reach a settlement with foreign currency dealers suing it after their money was seized by the police. The government, grappling with an unprecedented shortage of bank notes, has launched a crackdown against people suspected of hoarding cash. But legal experts, human rights groups and ordinary Zimbabweans have complained against what they say are high-handed and arbitrary arrests by police and state officials who are seizing cash from people, even those holding less than the $5 million maximum Zimbabweans are permitted to hold in cash under a controversial new law gazetted last month. The state backtracked to reach an out of court settlement under which it agreed to return the about $10 million to Precious Nyakujara, Ivy Gwishiri, John Mukorera and two others on condition that the Harare informal traders withdrew an urgent application the had filed with the High Court to recover their money. In the application filed last week, the traders had cited Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and a Chief Superintendent Murwira, who is in charge of police in Harare, as the respondents. Harare lawyer Charles Selemani, who was representing the five traders, yesterday told the Daily News: "The matter had been set for hearing on 27 August but AG (Attorney-General)’s Office negotiated that we withdraw the case and get the money back." Selemani had argued in papers submitted to the court that the police’s action in arresting his clients, some who were carrying amounts of money much less than $5 million was arbitrary and malicious. "The police operation was arbitrary, unreasonable and not in accordance with due process, activated by malice and not pursuant to any known law that prohibits the carrying of large sums of cash," Selemani wrote in papers filed with the court.
The police have gone on a blitz since storming business and conducting spot-searches in a bid that economists, however, say will fail to stop the hoarding of cash or restore confidence in the country’s troubled banking sector. In an affidavit to the court, one of Harare informal traders, Nyakujara, recounted how she was at a public bus terminus where she intended to board a bus to Chinhoyi. Nyakujara, a self-employed dressmaker, said the police seized from her $2.2 million which she had wanted to use to buy cloth for her business. But the police, in a surprise turn of events instead charged under a by-law which forbids obstructing pavements and sidewalks. Gwishiri, who runs a commodity broking, knitting and sewing enterprise, said she was stopped at the intersection of Harare’s Enterprise and Robert Mugabe roads by police officers who searched her bag and found $1 274 500. The police took her to Harare Central Police Station where they charged her for obstructing pavements and sidewalks and confiscated her money. Mukorera, a trucker, said he was stopped by five police officers along George Silundika Avenue in the capital city. The police officers seized $2.3 million which he said he wanted to use to buy truck tyres.
In Zimbabwe’s second largest city of Bulawayo, lawyers representing informal foreign currency dealers yesterday filed an urgent chamber appeal in the Bulawayo High Court seeking the court to order the police to return money seized from their clients. But the court deferred hearing the matter to Thursday to give both parties a chance to reach an out-of-court settlement. Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, Chihuri and another senior police official, were cited as respondents. Although only four foreign currency dealers have so far challenged the seizure of their money by the police, several hundreds more have lost their money to the law enforcement agency and more are expected to come forward to sue for compensation. Meanwhile, the police on Friday raided the Harare offices of the country’s biggest fast-food chain, Innscor Africa Limited, and confiscated about $30 million. Innscor’s marketing director, Mayor Mangeya, yesterday denied any knowledge of the raid. "I am not aware of any money which was confiscated by the police," he said. But police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed the law enforcement agency had raided the fast-food chain, warning that the crackdown against foreign currency dealers would be intensified in the weeks ahead. Bvudzijena said: "The money is now at the Reserve Bank and police will soon prosecute all defaulters. It is not limited to Innscor only. We will be intensifying the raids on these traders to make sure that they deposit their money with banks as required by the law. It is an ongoing exercise and we have already have our targets." Zimbabwe has been experiencing severe shortages of bank notes that have been blamed on the lack of foreign currency to import special ink and paper needed to print money.
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From Business Day (SA), 3 September
Corpses of Zimbabweans unclaimed
Gaborone Correspondent
Botswana's government is to bury 12 unclaimed corpses of illegal Zimbabwean immigrants in a mass grave as tension between the two neighbouring countries mounts. Francistown district commissioner Sylvia Muzila said yesterday that "hordes of unclaimed corpses of illegal immigrants are jamming the government mortuaries in the country and they will be buried in a mass grave". She said some of the corpses had not been claimed for more than a year. The number of bodies was later found to be 12, of which 11 were Zimbabweans. "The costs for dignified burial are too high and the best thing that we can do is to have a mass burial." Muzila said she had appealed to the Zimbabwean authorities to get relatives to come and claim the corpses, but the process was hampered by the fact that the illegal immigrants had not been identified. "Most of the illegal immigrants were admitted into the hospitals through different ailments and they are largely of sexually active age," she said, suggesting that some might have died of HIV/AIDS.
This comes at a time when diplomatic temperatures between the two countries have risen following Botswana's move to erect a 500km electric fence along their border. The Zimbabwean government claims Botswana is trying to erect a fence along "Gaza Strip" lines, targeted at Zimbabweans. However, Botswana's agriculture ministry was defiant yesterday, saying it was going ahead with the fence despite objections from its northern neighbours. "It is 500km and 2,4m high, starting from Tuli Circle to Zibanana and designed to control animal diseases," the acting director of veterinary services, Musa Fanakiso, said. "We are going ahead with the construction as planned."
Botswana has had two footand-mouth outbreaks in less than two years in the northeastern part of the country and their source was traced to Zimbabwe. The outbreak led to the closure of the northern abattoir, temporary layoffs and the suspension of beef exports to European Union markets. Botswana says it is experiencing its biggest immigration problem since independence in 1966 as thousands enter the country, fleeing economic meltdown in Zimbabwe. The immigration department said it been overwhelmed by the problem and had joined police and army patrols enlisted to fend off the influx. "We have recently started joint border patrols," said the immigration officer responsible for the northern region, Oliver Toteng. "We are repatriating at least 2500 illegal Zimbabweans a month." The government has expressed concern that the repatriation exercise is likely to cost more than $1m this year.
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Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 2 September
Manicured, pedicured, but still fighting
Thandi Chiweshe
The first time I met Rana from Palestine, she looked as though she had just stepped out of a beauty parlour. Her hair was newly and nicely permed, her nails perfectly manicured and her toes were a beautifully pedicured, deep purple. I kept staring at her, long after she had introduced herself. This could not be a woman straight out of the battle-scarred Palestine. Where and when do women have their hair done in the midst of conflict? Okay, I could understand the hair — perhaps done in a makeshift salon at the back of someone’s house. But not the manicure and the pedicure. How can one be pedicured and still find time to dodge the war planes? What would Rana have said if the Israeli military had found her feet immersed in a foot spa? "Excuse me, major, while I soak them. Oh, mind my fingers, please, this polish takes a long time to dry!" When it became obvious to Rana that I was staring at her, she felt compelled to tell me so. I explained to her exactly why. She laughed hard. "You watch too much TV! We still manage to get on with our lives, even in the midst of all that. We have to have hope and faith. For me the beauty parlour is a place I go to find some pleasure and peace. I know the planes may come any time. But why deny myself the chance to live when I still have it?" I was a very green activist then. I tried hard to understand this wisdom from my new friend from a war zone. But I couldn’t. Zimbabwe had just completed its first decade of independence. We had barely entered the disgruntlement era. How could I ever understand what it was to live in an occupied territory? Zimbabwean TV had done a lot to make many of us aware of the horrors of Palestine. Hence my thinking that the whole place was one huge battlefront, and that there were no beauty parlours. Rana was a feminist fighter par excellence. As I got to know her over the three weeks in the year that we, together with other feminists, launched the first 16 days of Activism Against Violence Against Women, I came to admire her. She related how, in Palestine, they organised as women in the camps and on the streets. She spoke passionately about freedom for women. Since that year, 1991, I have wondered whether Rana is still alive. Those were the days before e-mail - for both of us, at least. I sent her a number of "snail mail" letters. I never received a reply.
Today I find myself living in my own kind of Palestine. A different one, but a nation in conflict nonetheless. I get a number of breathless phone calls, e-mails and surprised greetings from my friends around the world: "Are you all right? How are you coping? Are you sure you are okay? You look so well, have you moved from Zimbabwe?" Read this with all the breathlessness that you can muster in a British, American, Indian or South African accent. Sometimes I get irritated. Like Rana, I don’t understand why people genuinely think there is something incongruous between my manicured nails, my waxed eyebrows and the politics I speak. I understand that sometimes they mean well. Like Rana, I have chosen to enjoy the little pleasures of life when and if I still can - damn this conflict. Like Rana, I have also chosen to fight the good fight for my country, and for my rights and those of other women. I could easily wallow in my little world and abandon this struggle for freedom. I am part of that small minority that can still afford to live fairly comfortable lives: meet for lunches at the fabulous Amanzi restaurant, have dinner at the Meikles, lie down for two-hour massages and fill trolleys in the supermarket. We, the self-chosen few, can easily count our blessings and thank our various gods that we are still on our feet where others have drowned. Our children can listen to the distant rumble of trouble in their land of plenty and wonder on which planet wahala, as the Nigerians call it, would be happening. I read it in my daughter’s eyes a few months ago. She, at the glorious age of 17, could not understand why I was forever stressed, angry, and running hither and thither to "political meetings". She flicked through the DStv channels looking for the fun stuff, not mum’s weird current-affairs channels.
My aunt’s daughter Shirley died a week ago. Wonderful, full-of-life Shirley. I still can’t imagine her dead. I was not around to see her buried, so I am still in denial about her death. For two days she lay in Parirenyatwa Hospital. No qualified doctor ever saw her. Just a group of medical students trying to figure out why she had gone comatose from flu. There are few doctors left in Zimbabwe. Most of the good ones have gone to other pastures. I don’t know whether they are necessarily greener. What I do know is that they have gone to hospitals where there is medicine to give patients. Where there are systems that govern how patients are cared for. Shirley might have had pneumonia, as they told us after the fact. But she died of neglect. My family are angry about all this. I don’t blame the doctors. They are doing the best they can with what is available. As the "Rhodesians" like to say to us when they are angry, "Go and tell your [Robert] Mugabe." I blame him and his henchmen (yes, men) for Shirley’s unnecessary death. The chain of events surrounding it serve as reminder of the rottenness of the state of Zimbabwe.
We could have put her in a private hospital, but we could not access the cash that was needed to pay the deposit. By the time we factored in all the basics, we needed about half a million dollars in cash just to get her in through the door of a decent hospital. They wouldn’t take bank-certified cheques because there has been too much fraud. At Parirenyatwa, there were no specialist doctors to see her. We kept her there because we eventually found a matron who promised us that she would help us because, as she told us, "here it is a matter of who you know". My cousin knew too few people, too late. Shirley died while waiting for X-rays and a head scan. Pari, as we call it, is the hospital of choice for the middle and lower-middle classes. Until recently it was the place to go if you had a basic medical aid or a bit of cash. It was also a referral hospital for the lower classes with even less money and life-threatening illnesses. Now you have to "know somebody" to live? I sincerely hope all my middle-class friends and relatives know enough "somebodies" to save their lives. I hope, too, that all the people I work with in international NGOs and in the private sector who keep silent about the crisis in this country have enough of everything under their mattresses for all sorts of emergencies: cash, fuel, doctors, nurses, food, coffins and whatever else.
The problem, though, is that there is a limit to how much cash or fuel you can stock up on. There are too few doctors for them to be on personal call to all of us. After Mugabe and the chiefs have had their share, we are left with the crumbs of these basic needs. What should be a basic right and necessity has become a mammoth favour from those we "know". When you get a passport, as my friend Noma did after paying her way through several doors last month, you thank your ancestors. We go around the world showing immigration officials where to stamp in our passports, just in case we run out of space. Sooner or later we’ll run out of space and out of the people we "know". We can get manicured all we want, but as long as the rest of this country is not at peace, our nail varnish will never dry. The reality of repression keeps barging into our false little spaces. That is why we must fight for what we are entitled to as human beings and as citizens of this country. While I can forgive foreigners who breathlessly wonder how things are in Zimbabwe, I find the attitude of some of us who live and work here unforgiveable. I find the outlook of those who talk about development, rights and good governance quite incomprehensible. Granted, not all of us can go throw stones at State House. But do we ever get angry enough to want to go and find the stones? The day the upper and middle classes in Zimbabwe realise that cheque books and credit cards will not buy us the freedoms we need, is the day we will be like Rana. Manicured and pedicured, yet still standing up for Zimbabwe.
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From The Guardian (UK), 4 September
Losses give Mugabe's party 'rude wake up'
Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria and AP in Harare
President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party conceded yesterday that opposition gains in Zimbabwe's municipal elections last weekend had given it "a rude wake-up call". The information minister, Jonathan Moyo, speaking for Zanu PF, said the Movement for Democratic Change's victory in most of the contested towns was sobering and the party needed to examine the reasons for its losses. "We should have seen it coming. The writing was on the wall, but somehow we did not read it," he said in the Herald, a government mouthpiece. The MDC won control of 10 town councils, and hailed its victory as a sign that people were dissatisfied with the authoritarian government and economic hardships. Independent observers said the MDC had won despite violence, sponsored by the state, against its supporters, and Zanu PF's use of food to buy votes.
The MDC kept its parliamentary seat in a byelection in Harare Central. Zanu-PF held its seat in Makonde. The MDC won six of the seven contested executive mayoral posts, but it lost in the midlands town of Kwekwe, where widespread intimidation and violence were reported by the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, an independent observer group. The MDC also won 137 of the 222 council seats contested in 21 towns and cities. Doctors confirmed that they had treated a large number of injured opposition supporters. Diplomats said they saw food being used as a bribe for votes: millions of Zimbabweans are short of food. "We saw the ruling party operate stands very close to polling stations where maize was sold at very low prices to people with Zanu PF cards," said a diplomat who observed the voting in Manica province. "It was in clear violation of voting regulations and a cynical ploy to buy votes from hungry people. We also witnessed ruling party supporters being given preference in the voting queues."
The low turnout at the weekend ranged from below 30% of registered voters to just 11% in some areas. Political analysts said this was a worrying trend, since it showed that people were losing faith in the democratic system. Zanu PF won a particularly dubious victory in the central city of Chegutu - near Mr Mugabe's birthplace, Zvimba - where all the council seats were uncontested because the opposition candidates were beaten and prevented from handing in their nomination papers. Human right groups said Zanu-PF had won most seats in areas where the violence against the opposition was most prevalent - in Norton, Marondera and Kwekwe: "areas where we have received large numbers of reports of violence from doctors who treated victims", a rights activist said. "To a certain extent violence does work, but even in most areas where violence was widespread, Zanu PF still failed to win a majority of the seats," the activist added. The strong showing by the MDC will strengthen its position in forthcoming negotiations with Zanu PF about Zimbabwe's future.
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From The Daily News, 3 September
MDC seals poll victory
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won three more mayoral seats and the majority of council seats in Redcliff, Mutare and Gweru to seal a major victory against the ruling Zanu PF party in urban council elections held last weekend. The latest results, announced yesterday, mean that the opposition party has won six out seven mayoral posts contested at the weekend, bringing the total number of opposition executive mayors throughout the country to 11 against the ruling party's four mayors in Kadoma, Kwekwe, Marondera and Bindura. In Mutare, Misheck Kagurabadza of the MDC polled 13 064 votes against Zanu PF's Ellen Gwaradzimba's 6 707 and independent candidate Patrick Matsanga's paltry 793. The opposition party won 17 of the city's 18 wards. Said Kagurabadza after the announcement of the results: "We will now immediately embark on a programme to revamp services and amenities such as health and housing that had been so neglected. We will also go on an investment drive now that the city is in the hands of a progressive and results-driven regime." Cecilia Gambe, a Zanu PF candidate for Mutare's ward two, bolted out of the counting centre after she lost the election and threatened to deal with voters who benefited from her feeding programmes. "I will deal with all those who betrayed me. I gave these people a lot of maize and they betray me like this? I will hunt them down," she said as she walked out of the room just before midnight on Monday.
In Gweru and Redcliff, council matters fell in the hands of the opposition after Zanu PF took a single ward in each of the towns. Sesel Zvidzai of the MDC was declared executive mayor of Gweru after he outclassed Tsitsi Muzenda of Zanu PF, polling 12 105 votes to Muzenda's 7 757. The opposition party also won in 16 of the 17 contested wards in the city and Zanu PF got one ward, which ironically was previously held by the MDC. In Redcliff, Rodger Sonny Chisi of the MDC triumphed over the incumbent executive mayor, Charles Danha, when he garnered 4 611 votes against 2 796 votes won by Danha. Zanu PF also lost all but one of the nine contested wards in the small mining town. However, the ruling party retained all the 15 contested seats in Kadoma where the opposition party complained of massive voter intimidation ahead of the polls. On Monday, the MDC snatched the Gwanda, Victoria Falls and Kariba mayoral seats when initial results were announced. Out of the contested 224 council wards in various towns across the country, the MDC won 137 while the ruling Zanu PF party won in 87 wards. The MDC already has executive mayors in Harare, Bulawayo, Masvingo, Chegutu and Chitungwiza. In the Makonde parliamentary by-election, Zanu PF's Kindness Paradza polled 11 223 votes against 1 769 votes for his MDC counterpart Japhet Karemba.
Commenting on the results of the weekend polls, MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai said: "We are moving fast towards the establishment of a democratic dispensation in which justice, freedom, solidarity and development become a lifelong goal." Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira said: "We are happy with the results because they show that the MDC does not control all the urban areas. We are in charge of some of the towns as well and we are pleased with that. We are now working on improving on this good showing so that we completely wipe out MDC dominance in urban areas in the next elections."
FINAL WEEKEND ELECTION RESULTS AT A GLANCE
ZANU PF MDC
Bulawayo 0 27 (Two uncontested - went to MDC) ; Bindura 11 0 (Not contested - all Zanu PF) ; Chegutu 11 0 (Not contested - all Zanu PF) ; Norton 9 3 ; Kwekwe 14 2 ; Shurugwi 12 0 ; Zvishavane 5 5 ; Marondera 6 0 (five not contested - went to Zanu PF) ; Ruwa 5 3 ; Karoi 4 0 (five not contested - went to Zanu PF) ; Hwange 2 5 ; Victoria Falls 3 8 ; Gweru 1 16 ; Kadoma 15 0 ; Redcliff 1 8 ; Mutare 1 17 Chitungwiza 5 19 ; Kariba 3 7 ; Gwanda 3 9 ; Masvingo 2 8 ; Total (224) 87 137
Mayoral 1 6
Parliamentary by-elections
Harare Central 1 304 votes 2 707 votes (Wilson Nhara) (Murisi Zwizai) ; Makonde 11 223 votes 1 769 votes (Kindness Paradza) (Jephat Karemba)
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From News24 (SA), 2 September
Mugabe seriously ill
Erika Gibson
Pretoria - President Robert Mugabe and vice president Simon Muzenda's deteriorating health could cause a leadership crisis in Zimbabwe sooner than expected. Mugabe is apparently about to undergo urgent medical treatment for a urological complaint. Sources in Harare say his urologist will accompany him when he goes to Iran for treatment. He was previously treated for the same problem in Malaysia after receiving throat cancer therapy in Spain. Meanwhile, Muzenda has apparently been on life support machines since the weekend and will remain so until Mugabe's return. Mugabe, who is apparently attending the United Nations conference on desertification in Cuba, is expected to travel to Iran afterwards for treatment. Sources say Muzenda is already brain dead but the machines will only be switched off after Mugabe's return, when the time would be ripe for a hero's funeral. Meanwhile, factions inside the ruling Zanu PF party are apparently locked in a fierce struggle to put up candidates for Muzenda's post. Joseph Msika, the other vice president, is not considered a possible successor to Mugabe.
Parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, and Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi are regarded the most likely candidates for the post of vice president. The last time they stood as Zanu PF candidates in their respective wards, the three either barely won the elections, or lost. The Financial Gazette in Zimbabwe said Zanu PF's politburo, the party's decision-making body, confirmed it would convene soon to discuss Mugabe's successor for the first time since independence. Inner circle party struggles will probably peak during this meeting and the possibility of a split in the party remains a possibility. The finality of appointing a successor could reportedly lend more dynamism to negotiations with the Movement for Democratic Change, currently being undermined by uncertainty.
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From The Daily News, 3 September
Mugabes assaulted
Precious Shumba
Disgruntled settlers ordered by the government to vacate a farm to pave way for President Robert Mugabe's kin on Friday severely assaulted the relative, Marjorie Winnie Mugabe, and her two sons, Jongwe and Hugh, the Daily News learnt yesterday. Winnie is the widow of Mugabe's late nephew, Innocent, who died two years ago. It could not be immediately established why the settlers at Little England Farm near Zvimba, Mugabe's rural home, in Mashonaland West province attacked Winnie and her sons. But Winnie has clashed with the about 1 000 families at the farm after the government gave the families up to last Sunday to leave the prime farm to pave way for her and 68 other selected new settlers. Winnie has already moved onto the farm, where she is occupying white former farmer Graham Smith's house. The settlers, who illegally occupied the farm encouraged by ruling Zanu PF officials at the height of the often-violent farm invasions in 2000, have vowed to remain on the farm despite what they allege are attempts by government security agents to intimidate them off the property. Winnie could not be reached last night for comment on the latest clash with the farm settlers.
Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena yesterday said that he was unaware of the attack on the President's relatives. He said he would check with Nyabira police station - in charge of the area - but had not given feedback at the time of going to press. Zanu PF Mashonaland West chairman Phillip Chiyangwa, however, confirmed Winnie had been attacked by "these lawless people". Chiyangwa said: "They assaulted Marjorie and her two sons. They are savages. Why are they campaigning through newspapers to demonise others? I have declared them illegal and they will sink if they think they will be legitimate somehow." The settlers, who are still occupying Little England despite expiry of the deadline to leave the farm, accuse senior Zanu PF and government officials of corruption and of wanting to push them off the farm so as to take it up themselves. They say they will resist any attempt to evict them in order to expose corruption in the government's controversial fast-track land reform programme.
But the government says the families must leave the farm because they were improperly settled there in the first place. State land officials say the farm has been allocated by a government land committee to Winnie and 68 other people. Meanwhile, war veterans settled at Chabwino Farm in Goromonzi on Sunday ordered nearly 7 000 former workers of evicted white farmer Peter Howson to vacate their houses to pave way for the former freedom fighters. The farm workers yesterday said they have been without clean drinking water at the farm for the last three weeks after the former fighters allegedly vandalised the farm borehole in a bid to push the workers out of the farm. Christine Mudoni Majone, a representative of the workers at Chabwino Farm, yesterday said the war veterans had constantly threatened them with expulsion for allegedly refusing to work for them. The former farm workers have vowed to remain on the farm.
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From Business Report (SA), 3 September
Zimbabwe government in bid to boost maize production
Harare - The Zimbabwe government has more than doubled the price it will pay for maize and wheat in a bid to boost production in the famished southern African country, a newspaper said Wednesday. According to the state-controlled Herald maize will now be bought for 300,000 Zimbabwe dollars (about R2660) a tonne, up from 130,000 dollars, while wheat will now fetch a price of 400,000 Zimbabwe dollars (about R3545) a tonne, up from 150,000 dollars. Millet and sorghum will be bought at the same price as maize, the paper said. It is the second time this year that the government, which is the sole legal buyer of grain, has hiked the producer price for wheat and maize, amid reports that farmers were holding on to their harvests because of the poor prices offered. However, the government-run Grain Marketing Board (GMB) will continue to sell maize and wheat to millers for less than the buying price, the newspaper said. Zimbabwe is critically short of food due to poor harvests which the government blames on drought but which aid agencies blame partly on a controversial government land reform programme. Under the reforms, launched in 2000, land was taken from white farmers and redistributed to landless black people, often with little or no farming experience, causing production levels to plummet. The UN's World Food Programme estimates that 5.5 million of Zimbabwe's 11.6 million people will require emergency food aid by the end of the year.
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From The Star (SA), 4 September
Harare to pound out dollars
Harare - Zimbabwe is to issue new banknotes in an effort to end the cash crisis that has seen thousands going without pay. New Z$500 and Z$1 000 notes will emerge at a staggering rate of Z$2,5-billion a day until December, the central bank said yesterday. While the Z$1 000 note will be new, the Z$500 will replace an existing note. In an effort to quell rumours that the reserve bank had failed to pay foreign printers for the new Z$1 000 notes, a central bank spokesperson said: "Technology to print the notes locally is available and the whole supply of the Z$500 note will be met through local production. Some of the Z$1 000 notes needed are being printed outside the country." A Z$500 bill is worth R1 on the black market. Economists say only a Z$100 000 note would end the crisis.
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From The Financial Gazette, 4 September
CIO unleashed on banks
Hama Saburi, Deputy Editor-in-Chief
The country’s spy agency, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), has reportedly been unleashed onto the local currency market to sniff around for those flouting exchange control regulations in what could turn out to be a deeply embarrassing debacle for the government whose needle is well and truly stuck in the midst of the still unfolding crippling exchange rate mayhem. The latest development comes in the wake of an external audit conducted by the central bank, which controls the country’s financial levers. The audit, among other things, included compliance inspections of all banks’ foreign currency trading activities and was completed by the last quarter of last year. The audit is said to have unearthed rampant Exchange Control Regulations by several banking institutions.
The move, which will certainly put the RBZ on a collision course with most banking institutions, comes as it emerged yesterday that the central bank had on Monday moved to freeze individual foreign currency accounts and immediately review mining houses’ Offshore Trust Accounts whereby mining companies could keep their export earnings offshore and remit only that portion required to meet operational costs. A banking source said individuals whose accounts had been frozen had since been advised in writing. Impeccable banking sources yesterday said the spy agency was unleashed on the market on Friday last week. Two major banks, a commercial bank and a merchant bank, immediately suspended trade in foreign currency after getting wind of the two-pronged swoop supported by the police last week. Officials at the two banks said they would resume trade after two weeks. Except for a few banks that steered clear of the illegal parallel market which is now handling an estimated 90 percent of Zimbabwe’s foreign currency transactions, the other banks have gone on full alert to thwart sporadic raids amid intensified compliance monitoring inspections by the central bank.
Even the RBZ itself, which seems stymied as to what do as the foreign currency mess has turned into something more akin to a puzzling and confusing crossword puzzle with only half the clues and no black squares, is also implicated. Bankers miffed by the latest turn of events felt that the government’s desperate measures would not have any appreciable effect on the deep-seated foreign exchange crisis. "The RBZ itself is also part of this so-called illegal or parallel market which in fact is now the real market. It has sanctioned transactions in the market at above the official market rate, eg the tobacco proceeds that the banks have been directed to sell to fuel procurement companies at a rate of US$1 to Z$1 600," said one livid banker. He hinted that the latest action by the RBZ, roundly condemned for failing to handle the cash crunch, could open a Pandora's box in the banking sector amid threats by some senior banking executives that they could expose unholy alliances between named top RBZ officials and some banking institutions. A series of crisis meetings have been held over the past few months between the RBZ and bankers and other stakeholders to trawl through a list of possible escape options from the hard currency woes.
The foreign currency shortages have however persisted sparking off nightmares of fresh waves of commodity price increases at an unprecedented scale. Previously the central bank would wade into the local currency markets to sell the US$, which is in demand worldwide as a reserve currency, to shore up the battered local unit. But it now has run dry as it does not have reserves to weather the currency run after the dollar, still trying to find a bottom, touched of an as yet to end terrifying swift plunge. Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa, who was down with a bout of flue, told The Financial Gazette on Tuesday that acting RBZ governor Charles Chikaura, who could not be contacted for comment yesterday, was better placed to discuss the issue. Chikaura was said by his secretary to have gone for a meeting with the Cabinet. "I am so sick that I cannot discuss it at the moment. Try Chikaura, he is at the centre of it. We are trying all things. It is a matter of restoring confidence in the banking sector because people are not banking and it requires that we all put our money in the banks," he said. State Security Minister Nicholas Goche, who had earlier promised to give this reporter an interview, changed his mind yesterday. "Taura naMurerwa, he is the Minister of Finance (Talk to Murerwa, he is the Minister of Finance)," Goche said before switching off his mobile phone.
As late as Tuesday this week, there were attempts in banking and political circles to cow the RBZ against instituting further action on other banks found to have violated the Exchange Control Act amid fears that a continued crackdown on banks could worsen the shortage of foreign currency. Parallel market rates, which had gone past Z$6 000 against the American dollar, have also reacted to the latest development that has since crippled a department within the high-profile NMBZ Holdings which was slapped with a 12-month suspension for contravening exchange regulations. Rates were quoted as low as Z$5 100 against the greenback yesterday. The Julius Makoni-led bank, whose share price has since tumbled on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, is among the nine banks accused by the central bank of flouting exchange control requirements. The RBZ said it is owed amounts from as little as US$40 000 and as much as US$350 000 by various banks. Most of the banks are however understood to have written back to the RBZ rejecting the claims. "There are also cases where the Reserve Bank has failed to interpret its own regulations, not to mention calculation errors. We (bankers) are also questioning the inconsistencies in the application of justice. We have said it before that the swap arrangement introduced by the Reserve Bank undermines the whole issue and we wonder why it has not been dealt with," said a source in the banking sector.
Zimbabwe, whose export sector is teetering on the verge of collapse, is sitting on a ticking time bomb in the form of a crippling foreign currency crisis dramatised by the failure to service external debts and reduced imports of critical commodities such as fuel and electricity. External arrears stood at US$1.6 billion (Z$1.32 trillion) as at July 18 2003. The government’s reluctance to move the exchange rate beyond $824 to the greenback has given rise to an active parallel market that has also mopped up cash from official banking sources.
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From News24 (SA), 4 September
Jail for Zim black marketeers
Harare - Illegal foreign currency dealers in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo are to be sentenced to jail with hard labour as part of a clampdown on thriving black market deals, state television said on Thursday. Twelve dealers have already been sentenced to two months in prison with one month suspended, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) reported. Bulawayo is a key centre for unauthorised foreign currency deals, many of them arranged by female members of an apostolic church sect. Previously offenders were fined. "We want at all costs to clean the city of Bulawayo of these (dealers)," police spokesperson Smile Dube told ZBC. Zimbabwe is suffering from a critical shortage of foreign currency on the official market where rates are much lower than on the streets. Last month the US dollar reached a reported height of Z$6 500 on the parallel market. The official government rate is Z$824 to the greenback. The government of President Robert Mugabe is trying to stamp out the black market and last month withdrew the foreign currency trading licence of a local merchant bank, accusing it of carrying out illegal deals.
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From News24 (SA), 4 September
Zim downs tools in cash crisis
Harare - The main labour body in Zimbabwe is planning mass action against the government over chronic cash shortages gripping the country, a top labour official said on Thursday. Over the past few months banks have been unable to supply people with cash, workers have been unable to cash their pay cheques and people have resorted to sleeping in bank queues. Lovemore Matombo, the president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said the labour body was planning mass action to protest the "inactivity of the government" in overcoming the shortages. He could not give any firm dates for the action, saying it awaited the approval of the labour body's general council. But he was confident the mass action would be approved. "We want to force them (the government) to act on the crisis," Matombo said. The private Daily News newspaper quoted unnamed ZCTU sources as saying the mass action would kick off on September 29 and would include a week-long strike and protest marches by workers.
The government has said it is printing new money and has promised to pump billions of Zimbabwean dollars into the economy on a daily basis after September 26. Matombo said his union, which represents about 250 000 workers, was unconvinced and wanted direct assurances. "We cannot go by what we read and hear in the print and electronic media," he said. The Zimbabwe government blames the cash shortages on people hoarding the country's highest denomination Z$500 (about R4) note. It plans to withdraw the old notes from circulation at the end of September and replace them with new Z$500 and Z$1 000 bills. Last month it outlawed companies and individuals from holding more than Z$5-million in a bid to release cash into the market. But there has been no let-up to the crisis. Late on Wednesday the state Ziana news agency interviewed a 48-year-old woman from rural Zimbabwe who had spent a week queuing outside a bank in central Harare in an attempt to draw her pension.
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From IRIN (UN), 4 September
Resettled farmers returning to communal areas
Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform programme is meant to benefit landless people forced to live in congested communal areas, but many of the supposed beneficiaries are turning their backs on their new land. The Dorset resettlement area, 40 km south of the Midlands capital of Gweru, is an example of the shortcomings of President Robert Mugabe's accelerated land redistribution programme - which was meant to reverse the legacy of a century of colonial land policy. When the fast-track land reform programme commenced in 2000, self-styled war veterans led hundreds of land-hungry Zimbabweans into the Dorset area. The landscape, on the borders of Gweru and the ghost mining town of Shurugwi, is arid and dotted with acacia thorn trees, and had mostly been used for cattle-ranching by white commercial farmers. New settlers, who numbered about 6,000 at the peak of the land invasions, generally refer to the area as "Kujambanja" - slang for "a place of violence" in the local Shona language. Most of the new farmers came from the Midlands province, while the rest trekked from Matabeleland South.
When IRIN visited the area, at least half the families that had invaded the ranches were now wanting to go back to their original homes, with a significant number uncertain about their future in Dorset. In the settlements, hastily constructed pole and mud huts were falling apart, with hardly any signs of tending the land as the rainy season approached. A few goats and cattle roamed between small patches of fields cultivated in the last three years. Machinda Furusa, from Chachacha, 17 km south of Shurugwi town, said he has opted to go back to his original home out of disillusionment. "I went to Dorset in 2001, during the height of farm invasions. At first I was sceptical about Kujambanja, but when I saw a significant number of my neighbours leaving, I decided to join the trek," Furusa told IRIN. During the early days of the fast-track programme there had been a sense of euphoria "about farm invasions, and I genuinely believed that, at last, I would be a proud owner of my own piece of land". "[But] I discovered that the area we had been made to move into did not have good soils, having been reserved for cattle ranching. In addition to last year's insufficient rains, there is no way in which the new farmers there could get good harvests owing to the poor soils, which are just as bad as where I come from," added Furusa.
Since he had only two head of cattle for draught power, he said, preparing his plot was proving too difficult - a situation that left him with no option but to return to his father's home, where he could pool resources with his extended family. The father of three charged that by moving thousands of people to unsuitable land, veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war and the government were only interested in getting their votes in the parliamentary and presidential elections (in 2000 and 2002, respectively). Like the other settlers turning their backs on Dorset, Furusa complained that schools were very remote and it would be difficult for his two school-going children to travel the distance. The Dorset resettlement area also lacks proper health facilities, and transport is mostly by ox-drawn cart. Furusa said a significant number of the land occupiers who had moved to Dorset and nearby farms were resorting to gold panning in the Mutevekwi River, which runs close to the small town of Shurugwi, to survive.
A Midlands provincial lands committee member, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted that soils in the Dorset area were poor. "In fact, the problem of poor soils is not peculiar to farms in the Dorset area alone. Since the beginning of the fast-track land redistribution exercise, acquiring sufficiently fertile land in our province has been a headache for us," he told IRIN. The land committee member said he hoped the government would use some of the land currently being listed for seizure from commercial farmers to resettle the disgruntled new settlers. However, the black farmers should not solely blame the government for their current situation. "No-one was forced to go to Dorset, or any other poor area in the province. It is thus unfair to say the ruling party wanted to attract votes by giving a semblance of land redistribution. After all, that was the kind of land available, and we did our best in identifying the areas [where we could place] land-hungry people," he explained.
Observers and traditional leaders said the return of settlers would result in added pressure to the exhausted communal lands. Headman Samero Mashuku, also from Chachacha, said there was hardly any evidence that the land resettlement programme had eased congestion in his area. "The situation here, and in neighbouring villages, remains largely the same. We were relieved to some extent when some of our sons decided to go to the resettlement areas, but now that they are returning we will have another headache of finding space to stay," he said. A Human Rights Watch report last year decried "the lack of structured support for new settlers", while the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) told IRIN recently that the lack of subsidised agricultural inputs, and the sky-rocketing prices of inputs on the market, were serious obstacles to the success of new farmers. Tafireyi Chamboko, the chief economist of the ZFU, told IRIN that "there's a shortage of some of the inputs. In terms of maize seed, we'll probably get about 50 percent of the requirement from local [seed] production". Although the government had been trying to supply inputs to new farmers through an inputs credit scheme, "there are not enough inputs to meet the requirements", he complained.
Recently there have also been reports of the forced eviction of thousands of resettled people to make way for government officials and ruling party stalwarts. At the Windcrest farm near Masvingo city, about 1,000 resettled farmers' homes were torched when they were removed to make way for an official in the foreign affairs ministry, the privately owned The Daily News reported. Masvingo provincial administrator Alphonse Chikurira defended the eviction, saying it was "illegal to occupy or invade a farm owned by a black man". The settlers, who had occupied the farm in 2000, were angered by the torching of their houses, belongings and crops. They also expressed dismay that no arrangements were made for them to move their livestock. The Windcrest incident is the latest in a wave of similar evictions. In mid-August, the government reportedly ordered 1,000 settlers to vacate Little England Farm in Mugabe's rural home area, to make way for Winnie Mugabe, the widow of the president's late nephew. The settlers are currently involved in running battles with the widow - news reports on Thursday said the disgruntled settlers had assaulted her, and her two sons, Jongwe and Hugh. There have also been reports of forced evictions of new settlers in Mashonaland Central, Manicaland and Mashonaland East provinces.
Land reform minister Flora Buka last year headed a land audit team, whose investigations revealed gross violations of the "one man, one farm" principle, with prominent politicians allegedly having grabbed several farms for themselves. The results of her report were never made public by government, but the document was leaked to the local and international media. Robert Mugabe recently called on his lieutenants to surrender the excess farms they had grabbed. However, only one provincial governor was reported to have surrendered any property. A land review committee, formed at the behest of Mugabe to carry out a follow-up land audit, is understood to have finished its work. However, this committee, led by Charles Utete, the former secretary to the president and cabinet, has yet to release its findings.
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From Radio Netherlands, 5 September
On the rampage
Church leaders in southern Africa have accused the Zimbabwean government of sacrificing an entire generation of young people to maintain its grip on power. In a chilling report, the Solidarity Peace Trust documents how children as young as 10 are being drafted for military training. A Radio Netherlands' reporter has just returned from Zimbabwe. He travelled there undercover - due to the severe restrictions the authorities place on foreign journalists - and spoke to former youth militia members and their victims.
Two years ago, Zimbabwe's Zanu PF government established the so-called National Youth Service Training. The programme was designed to provide job skills to young people and instil in them a sense of national pride and history. Instead, the young people are being brainwashed to intimidate the opposition MDC or Movement for Democratic Change, says John, a 25-year-old youth militia defector. "We were taught that the MDC is bad. I think we were being prepared for war against the MDC. We were told not to think. Our leaders would think for us. We were Zanu PF's armed-wing. We were free to do whatever we wanted and nobody questioned us." Before being deployed, the youth militia, both male and female, spend six months in training camps with up to 25-hundred recruits. Sexual abuse and rape are rife in the camps. Girls and young women speak of being raped repeatedly, often daily, for months on end.
Archbishop Pius Ncube of the Solidarity Peace Trust is incensed that the government is knowingly allowing this to continue, particularly since Zimbabwe has one of the world's highest HIV rates. "These ministers are absolute hypocrites, Mugabe included, because none of their daughters are put in these camps. It's deliberately being done. It just shows how evil Mugabe's regime is, how they are destroying the lives of these young people, for their own interests, just to remain in power." Often drugged or intoxicated, the youth militia operate in groups attacking anyone they suspect of being an MDC supporter. Since they were first deployed in January 2002, the youth militia have been responsible for a significant portion of the human rights abuses being committed in Zimbabwe, including murder, torture, rape and the destruction of property. The victims speak of random persecution. Ignatious Chaitezvi, for instance, was attacked by five youth militia. "They started assaulting me, accusing me of selling them out to the MDC. They beat me. And then they hit me with an axe. They were aiming for the back of my skull, but I turned, so they hit my eye. I lost my eye, but I think it's God who did that for me. It's better to lose an eye than your life."
The government of President Robert Mugabe has decreed that all Zimbabweans between 10 and 30 years of age must take part in the National Youth Service Training. Young people who do not will be barred from tertiary institutions, such as universities, colleges, nurse training and teacher training schools. It has been reported that in future youth militia members will be posted in classrooms in all institutions of higher education, presumably to ensure that professors and students toe the ruling Zanu PF party line. The youth service includes military training. Two months ago, the Ministry of Defence announced plans to use the children and young people as a reserve force to defend the nation. Since many of the recruits are under 18 years of age, this in effect amounts to State training of child soldiers. So far, 50,000 children and young people have gone through the National Youth Service Training. Archbishop Pius of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second biggest city, is extremely concerned about the impact on his nation's youth. "The government is politicising young people," he says, "brainwashing them into Mugabe's party ideology so that these young people become like robots. Even if the Zanu PF government were to be replaced today, say human rights groups, the youth militia will leave a lasting scar on Zimbabwean society. "The social fabric is going to be in ruins at the end of this," says an anonymous human rights worker. "Unfortunately the youth militia have often tortured in the very communities in which they were raised. How do we re-integrate them?"
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From AFP, 6 September
Young Zimbabweans admit militia crimes
By Philippe Bernes-Lasserre
Johannesburg - Young Zimbabweans who fled recently to South Africa yesterday recounted, shamefaced, the savage crimes they committed as members of pro-government youth militias. Speaking in the presence of Zimbabwean and South African bishops who denounced the atrocities committed by the National Youth Service, they talked in low voices, their gaze fixed on the floor, of how they killed, burned and raped. Invariably, after a few moments, the stream of words faltered as they started to sob. Opposition parties in Zimbabwe have long accused the militia of large numbers of attacks on critics of President Robert Mugabe, who won a disputed re-election in 2000. The bishops, releasing the results of a no-holds-barred probe into the Zimbabwean program, said that the 30,000 to 50,000 youngsters in the service - some as young as 11 - are themselves maltreated. "The youth militias so created are used as instruments of the ruling party, to maintain their hold on power by whatever means necessary, including torture, rape, murder and arson," the report said.
Debbie, 22, one of the former members of the militia, held her year-old daughter Nothula ("Peace" in Sindebele) on her lap at the press conference. "I was raped by so many different men, I don't know whose baby it is," she said. Debbie, who gave only one name, said the female members used to share a room with boys at the training camp at Ntabanzinduna, near the western Zimbabwean city of Bulawayo, "and at night they would rape us." She said she has tested positive for HIV, the AIDS virus. Thabo, 21, said he learned to make gasoline bombs at the training program. In the camp where he spent 10 months, he said he had raped several of the girls who slept in the same dormitory. Thabo, who also gave only one name, said in January last year he joined some 50 militiamen in invading the home of an opposition politician. "We twisted his head, we beat him with sjamboks [long leather whips], iron bars, crowbars, in front of his wife and seven children - they were crying. ... Then we left his body by the river." Thabo said the militia leader used to give the youth beer and marijuana before they went out on an operation. "When we got back to the camp we would have a party." Wesley, 19, said: "There are many things we did ... some of them, if I think of them, make me feel like crying." When he joined, he said, he was promised money, comfort, land for his family - but was left empty-handed.
The three youths, who are seeking political asylum in South Africa, are among hundreds who have fled the youth service. Isolated and penniless in Johannesburg, they dream about returning one day to their homeland. "If my country is going to be OK, I'm going back," Thabo said. The bishops, whose report criticized Mr. Mugabe's party for using its youth service to carry out brutal crimes aimed at "inculcating blatantly antidemocratic, racist and xenophobic attitudes," predicted that returning would be difficult. "Our youths have been turned into vandals and have become a lost generation in the process," they said.
From ZWNEWS: If you would like to read the report referred to above, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment - total size 850 Kb.
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From The Herald, 5 September
VP Muzenda on way to recovery
Harare - Vice President Muzenda, who was hospitalised last month for an undisclosed illness, is making remarkable recovery, the Department of Information and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet said yesterday. "He is very much alive and on the way to recovery," said a spokesman from the department. He dispelled as mischievous, stories in the South African Press and on the Internet claiming that Vice President Muzenda was in a critical condition. "Anybody who would have wanted to verify this would have checked with the relevant authorities. We are surprised that they proceeded in the manner they did without bothering to cross-check," he said. The spokesman also dismissed South African newspaper reports that President Mugabe was unwell. "Nothing can be further from the truth. The President left on Sunday for Havana, Cuba, in good health and good spirits and attended the sixth session of the UN Convention on Desertification and Drought which he addressed on Monday. As far as we are concerned, the President will come straight home from Havana," he said.
In Havana, Zimbabwe's ambassador to Cuba Cde Jevan Maseko denied reports in the South African Press that President Mugabe was to be flown from Havana to Iran for treatment after falling sick. He dismissed the stories run by ETV and Radio 702 as the usual false reports the South African and Western media always peddled at certain times to mislead the world about the President's health. "We know that the South African press is lying about the President's well being. He is very strong and healthy. He is still here in Cuba," said Ambassador Maseko. He added: "They (the SA press) are trying to deceive the people of Zimbabwe and cause despondency among them." President Mugabe joined 13 other leaders from developing countries at the two-day heads of state and government's sixth conference of parties to the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification held on Monday and Tuesday. On Tuesday, he held bilateral talks with his Namibian counterpart President Sam Nujoma before meeting Zimbabwean students and President Castro on Wednesday night. Cde Mugabe and his delegation, which included the First Lady Mrs Grace Mugabe, the Minister of Environment and Tourism Cde Francis Nhema and senior Government officials, were expected to leave Havana for Harare yesterday.
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From IRIN (UN), 4 September
Economic outlook gloomy
Johannesburg - It is unlikely any significant progress will be made in resolving Zimbabwe's political crisis this year, says The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which predicts that the country's economy will continue to contract. "As a result of the political crisis and poor economic policy, we forecast that real GDP will contract by 13.1 percent in 2003 and 6.1 percent in 2004; inflation will continue to soar, averaging 368 percent in 2003 and 444 percent in 2004," the EIU said. Although a negotiated end to the political crisis would eventually emerge, the process of organising formal talks between the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was slow and suffered periodic setbacks, the latest of which revolved around attempts to draw up an agreed agenda for talks. The difficulties in getting the two parties to the negotiating table have been aggravated by the fact that President Robert Mugabe had split international opinion on how to deal with his government, the think-tank said.
"To date Mr Mugabe has played a clever hand on the international front... The key to his success has been to keep the international focus on the land redistribution issue. He has argued that his land redistribution policy is needed to correct a historical injustice - an argument that receives a sympathetic hearing from leaders in Africa and other developing countries. Coupled with his depiction of his government as one that is willing to stand up to Western powers and neo-colonialism, this has shifted the international focus away from the conduct of the 2002 presidential election, human rights abuses and the undermining of the rule of law and democracy," the EIU noted. "Mr Mugabe has also proved adept at offering concessions when needed, and then not implementing them when political pressure subsides. The net effect has been a lack of international consensus on how to handle his regime, although the attitude of some African leaders against Mr Mugabe appears to be hardening," the EIU added. As a result "any talks are unlikely to yield concrete results until 2004". "Meanwhile, food and fuel shortages are worsening, prices are rising rapidly and the economy is collapsing. Rising political tensions due to the repression of the MDC by the government and strikes organised by the MDC could easily erupt into violent clashes between opposition supporters and the security forces," the EIU warned.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 6 September
Lions facing starvation as Mugabe men seize famous wildlife park
Harare - Five-week-old lion cubs have become the latest victims of President Robert Mugabe's lawless land grab in Zimbabwe. Their rescuers, Brendon and Lana Snook, had only minutes to load the cubs into their car, along with their son, three dogs and a few possessions, when the president's supporters invaded a wildlife sanctuary outside Harare. The family, along with the animals, found refuge with relatives in the capital, but the fate of the cub's parents, another 34 lions and hundreds of other animals remains in the balance after the seizure of the Lion and Cheetah Park. Although not a farm and with no government notices issued for its acquisition, the 1,100-acre property was taken by a retired colonel, K Makavanga, accompanied by a group of Zanu PF militia. The Lion and Cheetah Park, established in 1968 by the Bristow family as a wildlife sanctuary for orphaned animals, is one of Zimbabwe's oldest privately owned sanctuaries. Until its seizure it was home to 46 lions, three cheetahs, small herds of elephants and giraffes, hundreds of impalas and other antelopes as well as jackals, crocodiles and numerous smaller animals. The animals are known internationally for appearing in major films and documentaries filmed in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Kenya. Their credits include Mountains of the Moon, the story of Burton and Speke's search for the source of the Nile, King Solomon's Mines, with Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone, and A Far Off Place, starring Reese Witherspoon. The park also encourages a wider understanding of conservation by subsidising the visits of over 3,000 schoolchildren a month.
Col Makavanga had approached the park's management with the idea of expanding its operations into surrounding farms. He claims that instead of responding to the proposal, Mr Snook, the park manager, incited the workers to attack a passing "war veteran" and other militants then came to his aid. Mr Snook denies this version of events, saying the proposal submitted by Col Makavanga was unworkable and this prompted the colonel and his supporters to invade the park. Mr Snook's version was backed up by staff members who spoke to The Telegraph. Although Col Makavanga has expressed an interest in continuing the operations of the wildlife park, its owner, Viv Bristow, 58, fears for the welfare of the animals. "Running a park of this nature is a complex and costly operation," he said from South Africa, where 10 of his lions are being filmed. You need to understand the physiological needs of a wide range of animals, you must be licensed to use dangerous drugs, and know how to prepare food and care for the animals." Thousands of wild animals on private land have been killed, poached or died of neglect since the land redistribution programme began in 2000. Mr Snook, 40, said a request to move the animals off the land had been denied by Col Makavanga. "If we cannot get them off or get food to them soon, they will begin to die," he said. "More worryingly, once the lions get hungry they will easily find a way out of their enclosures and there is a lot of human settlement adjoining the park." The animals are at present being cared for by the staff of the park despite threats of beatings and having their houses burnt down. "If these war veterans take this place, the animals will be killed or will die and we will lose our jobs," said one of the workers. "All around us are derelict farms that have been destroyed by these people and this park is more difficult to run than a farm."
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From IPS, 5 September
Ruling party holds key to ending crisis
Frank Phiri
Blantyre - Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change has held talks with Malawi's President Bakili Muluzi to try and chart a roadmap to resolving the deepening crisis dogging the southern African country. The talks, held in the Malawian commercial hub, Blantyre on Thursday, were to assess progress made by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and ruling Zanu PF in complying with a request by three African leaders in May to resume talks. Muluzi, along with Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo and South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, has been tasked with restoring law and order to Zimbabwe. Briefing journalists after the talks, MDC Secretary General Welshman Ncube said, despite resuming talks, the MDC leadership still does not recognise the Zanu PF government. Ncube, who was accompanied by MDC chairperson Isaac Matongo, accused Zanu PF of impeding efforts to resolving Zimbabwe's problems by sticking to 'pre-conditions'. "The major problem to deal with is to remove the pre-conditions that the Zanu PF continues to insist upon. We hope that with the help of Muluzi we could overcome those issues," said Ncube. Ncube said he had briefed Muluzi on progress made, so far, in kick-starting the dialogue with Zanu PF, which is still at low level, and efforts by the MDC to contribute to curbing political and economic crisis rocking the country.
Malawi's Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Minister Lilian Patel said Muluzi had assured the two sides that he, Mbeki and Obasanjo would continue to engage Zimbabweans. But she warned that the onus to resolve the crisis lies in the Zimbabweans themselves. "Much as other countries may try to help resolve the problems in Zimbabwe, solutions to those problems remain with Zimbabweans themselves," she said. The MDC has been challenging in court the legality of President Robert Mugabe's poll victory last year, claiming it was fraudulent. The crisis in Zimbabwe erupted in 2000 after Mugabe began seizing farms from 4,500 white commercial farmers for redistribution to landless blacks. At least 300 people, majority of them MDC members, have died, since 2000 in politically-motivated violence, according to human rights groups.
Upon his return from a regional summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, last week, Muluzi said, contrary to claims by civil society, the 14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) was not sitting idle over the Zimbabwe crisis. "We're doing something about their problem. Quiet diplomacy can help rather than public condemnation because you agitate anger," he said. Muluzi accused the international community of making life difficult for ordinary Zimbabweans by imposing sanctions on the country. The United States imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2001, followed by the European Union (EU) in 2002. Both have said they would lift the sanctions only after the government restored law and order in Zimbabwe. Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, blames the crisis in his country on opponents of his land-reform programme. More than half of Zimbabwe's population needs food aid. To further compound their woes, the government this week stopped aid agencies from distributing food to the hungry. The decision comes as ordinary Zimbabweans are feeling the costs of living, with inflation running at 400 percent. And there is acute shortage of fuel and local banknotes.
Yet Mugabe, 78, appears unmoved. He says the MDC is a British puppet. And that Britain is using it as a conduit for recolonising Zimbabwe. But the MDC, formed in 2000, is consolidating itself, thanks to Zimbabwe's deepening economic crisis. At the weekend, the MDC defeated Zanu PF in local government elections by grabbing 137 council wards as against Zanu PF's 100. MDC won six of seven mayoral seats, including the resort town of Kariba where its candidate - John Houghton - was set to become Zimbabwe's first post-independence white mayor. MDC also holds 57 of the 150 seats in parliament. Voters' show of faith in the MDC, say political commentators, should nudge Mugabe into talks to find a political settlement to the country's deepening crisis.
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From The Daily News, 6 September
ZCTU protests over barring of paying workers in cash
Staff Reporter
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) yesterday wrote to the government expressing concern about a Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) directive barring local companies from paying their workers in cash because of severe bank note shortages. Some firms have resorted to paying workers in cash instead of depositing salaries with banks, so that employees do not spend most of their time queueing for cash at banks. Financial institutions are rationing money because of cash shortages, forcing workers to visit their banks every day in search of cash. "It is unclear what the motive of the RBZ is, but this move would definitely cause consternation (sic) among workers against their employers as some might not be able to get their salaries from the bank at the end of the day," ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe said in a letter to Labour Minister July Moyo. Moyo could not be reached for comment yesterday, but an official in the ministry confirmed receiving the letter. The RBZ has not responded to questions sent by the Daily News last month on the matter. Meanwhile, the ZCTU general council will today hold a special meeting in Harare to discuss ways of forcing the government to address the shortage of cash, which has affected the country since late April. "The decision on what sort of action to take and the date (of the action) will be decided by the ZCTU general council at a meeting tomorrow," Chibhebhe said yesterday.
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From Radio Netherlands, 5 September
Former youth militia members
Zimbabwe's Minister of Youth, Gender and Employment Creation, Border Gezi, established the National Youth Service after the 2000 parliamentary elections.
Among the official objectives were to:
Develop vocational skills Reduce teenage pregnancies Reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS Reduce alcohol and substance abuse Promote gender equality and equity
"We were told not to think. We were told we couldn't do anything until we received orders from the top." Former youth militia member
Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party initially used the youth militia as a strategic election weapon in the run-up to the 2002 presidential elections. The poll was won by the incumbent, Robert Mugabe, who has ruled the nation since independence in 1980. International observers described the election as "not free or fair". The youth militia's success in intimidating the opposition Movement for Democratic Change or MDC has led to their further deployment in the country. 150 youth militia camps have been established throughout the country, many of them in areas where there is strong support for the MDC. Up until recently, most recruits were single mothers, girls, street kids and orphans. "That sounds very appropriate and kind," says an anonymous human rights worker, "because these are the very parts of society that are most disadvantaged and poorest. They are also the ones who have the least defence, who don't have relatives, who don't have family who are going to complain when they are brutalised in the camps."
The recruits, both male and female, from 10 to 30 years of age, undergo "orientation" during their six months of training. According to the Solidarity Peace Trust report, "all training materials have consisted exclusively of Zanu PF campaign materials and political speeches. This material is crudely racist and vilifies the MDC." John, a 25-year-old youth militia defector, was taught, for instance, that "whites came into the country in the 19th century and robbed King Lobengula of his riches. They seized the land and they let wild animals roam so they could start their safari operations. When hunters came, the Zimbabwean government and people did not benefit from the royalties. So we were taught it was good for Zimbabweans to seize land from the whites."
The recruits undergo rigorous vigorous physical training, says Debbie, a 21-year-old former member. "We woke up at 3:30 in the morning and had to run 20 kilometres. Afterwards we had to sing the national anthem and we learned slogans about President Robert Mugabe. Then we had to do 200 press-ups. Those who couldn't were beaten." When the youth militia finish the training, they are sent out on operations. The six months of training turn many of them into very angry young people. "We had a very negative view of everything," says John. "We wanted to take revenge because we had been treated so badly in the camp. Whenever we had a smile on our face there, we'd be punished and tortured. We wanted to vent our anger on people, particularly those who were powerless."
Many youth militia members find solace and courage in alcohol or marijuana. "We got the money from the raids we carried out," says John. "We'd smoke and drink in the evening. During the day we would go out into the community. Informers would tell us that so-and-so is badmouthing the youth militia. We'd be forced to go and attack. At times we even did it when we were sober. We just got into the habit." In Debbie's camp, 1000 children and young people slept together. "The boys and commanders constantly raped the girls," she says. "I was raped every night. Girls who cried were beaten. I went to the desk commander to complain, but he beat me too." Many girls and young women suffer the same fate. A third of Zimbabwe's adult population carries the HIV virus. The figures are probably even higher in the youth militia camps.
Debbie became pregnant in the camp. Later she discovered that she was HIV positive. She still doesn't know whether her 11-month-old daughter also carries the virus. When she thinks back on her 7 months in the youth militia camp, she says, "I cry. I think about dying. These people should be punished, but they won't arrest these people. I filed a complaint to the police, but the commander simply bribed the policeman." The youth militia better known among ordinary Zimbabweans as Taliban or Green Bombers, because of their uniforms know they can act with impunity. "When we beat people up and they called the police," says John, "they would take us aside. They would tell us to say that we had been provoked. And then the police would encourage us to beat the people up even more. We realised that we were free to do whatever we wanted."
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From Radio Netherlands, 5 September
Youth militia victims
It is difficult to fathom the random violence which the Zimbabwean government has unleashed on its own people. Victims speak of being attacked even in broad daylight because the youth militia suspect them of backing the Movement for Democratic Change, MDC. Even months later, they still seem dazed, unable to understand how their own government could attack, beat and torture ordinary people like themselves. It's not only MDC supporters who are threatened. As a youth militia member put it, "sometimes we attack people because we don't like the way they look".
Thomas' story
Thomas, his wife and eight children used to live in Kamativi in western Zimbabwe. In 2002, the government decided to establish the biggest youth militia training camp there. The town was divided in two, and half the residents were evicted. "In late 2002, Zanu PF officials gave my name and the names of other people to the youth militia because we weren't attending ruling party meetings. In January 2003, the youth militia came to my house and told me to leave the house immediately. They said a war veteran wanted my house, even though he already has two other houses in the country. I tried to plead with them, but the decision was final. I was given 24 hours to leave. They told me I had to take all my belongings or they would throw everything out of the house. I didn't have a cent on me, so we had to leave our home with only the clothes on our backs. Together with 7 or 8 other families, who had also been evicted, we found some alternative accommodation a few kilometres down the road. On June 13 at 11 p.m., the youth militia returned. They had just attended a Zanu PF rally in a nearby town and on their way back to Kamativi, they stopped at our place. They broke down all the doors. Everyone was dragged out, taken to an open space and we were made to lie down. They started hitting us at random with sticks and belts. They said we had been holding meetings with the local MDC MP, which was not true. Everybody was beaten, even my children. It lasted for about an hour. Everyone was crying. I was crying. My wife's jaw and several of my ribs were broken. We left our homes and spent that night together around a bonfire. The next day, we all went to another town. Then, on July 14, we were attacked again. Exactly the same thing happened: they broke the doors of our homes down, rounded everyone up and started beating people again. Everyone ran off in different directions. Now my 8 children are scattered all over the country. I really don't know what's going to happen now. I haven't been able to join bits and pieces yet. I have no income. I have nothing left. These youth militia are cruel. They're very, very cruel. I wish somebody greater than myself would crush them. We can't do anything. We can't fight Mugabe. That's the truth about it."
Ignatius' story
Ignatious Chaitezvi was employed by the Zimbabwe Republic Police from 1999 to January 2002. His problems began in January 2001. "I and four of my colleagues were assigned to guard the MDC offices in our town. We were seen by CIO [Central Intelligence Organisation] agents. In December 2001, we were called in by the provincial police head. He asked us why we were at the MDC offices. We told him that our superior had assigned us to guard the building. He told us we weren't supposed to be there. Then he asked us to resign. The CIO had told him that we had to resign immediately. We tried to explain that we had just been following orders, but no one wanted to listen. The pressure continued to increase and on January 6th, 2002, we were forced out. On March 10th [on the eve of the disputed presidential elections], we were called back by the police. We thought we were going to receive our pension, but we were given envelopes with ballot papers inside. We were asked to put an X. It was obvious where to put the X. In front of our former superior, we put an X in front of the Zanu PF. Then we were asked to go. When voting day came, we went to vote again. Former colleagues saw us and they asked, 'why are you voting again?' I answered, 'I'm different from you now. You have to abide by your superiors' orders, but I would rather vote for the candidate of my own choice.' A few days later I left for the rural areas because I had no money and couldn't pay the rent. On October 17th, I came back to the city to look for work. The next day, as I was coming home from the shops, I was attacked by 5 youth militia. They started assaulting me, accusing me of selling them out to the MDC. They said, 'you know everything about the government. We want to kill you'. They beat me. There were too many of them for me to retaliate. There were two police officers, former colleagues, near the scene, but they couldn't do anything. They were too afraid of the youth militia because they control everything.
"I finally managed to escape and walked back home. When I was about to reach my house, I was hit in the neck by a stick. I fell down. The youth militia had followed me. They started beating me again with sjamboks and sticks. And then they hit me with an axe. They were aiming for the back of my skull, but I turned, so they hit my eye. I lost my eye, but I think it's God who did that for me. It's better to lose an eye than your life. I pretended I was dead and then they ran away. I finally got to the hospital, where I thought they would treat me. But they just registered me and left me there for five days. [Editor: MDC supporters are regularly denied medical treatment.] Finally I got a hold of my brother who's a doctor on the other side of the country. He treated me and I went back to my rural home. In June 2003, I went back to the city. The same five youth militiamen attacked me again. They said, 'this time we want to kill you'. They had knives and tried to stab me in the heart. I blocked the knife with my hand. Then they tried to stab me again and they pierced my other hand. I fought their leader and when he was down, I managed to run away. "Five of us were dismissed from the police force. My colleague, my best friend, is now crippled. His legs were cut off by the same type of guys, militias. Another colleague was beaten to death. The other two received threats and ran away to the U.K. Fortunately their family is rich. I ran away from home and came here to Johannesburg. I had to leave my wife and children back in Zimbabwe. My wife is not working nor am I. This is painful. They are suffering. I am the father of those kids. I was working. I am a man. I am educated, but now I have nothing. I don't know what to do. I can't go back to Zimbabwe because my life is in danger."
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Comment from The Nation (Kenya), 5 September
It's a lesson to Dr Mugabe
Nairobi - As was probably true of the Moi regime, when you have been in power for so long, you may no longer imagine yourself out of it. For you forget that your protracted stay was a result of political fraud. You come to think of your manipulations of the electoral machine as the natural order of things. An election defeat may prove shocking. Following the historic defeat of Dr Robert Mugabe's party in local polls on Wednesday, a central spokesman for the ruling Zanu PF party has admitted as much. Said Information minister Jonathan Moyo: "It was a rude wake-up call... The writing was on the wall, but somehow we did not read it." The frankness is refreshing from a government for so long associated with prevarications. Indeed, Harare is to be commended for allowing, for a change, a relatively free ballot and for not tampering with the counting.
This is one thing we can say for Mr Moi. A time came when any elaborate rigging of the vote-machine would almost certainly have landed Kenya into prolonged bloodshed. President Moi's party was defeated, handed over power willingly and with dignity, and thus saved the country the kind of civil war that has torn asunder so many similarly situated African countries. We agree that the international rapporteurs of the Zimbabwe conflict are party to the conflict and, therefore, cannot be detached chroniclers of it. The cinch is that the British media exaggerate things against Dr Mugabe to whip up world opinion in Britain's favour. Certain usually disinterested observers affirm, nevertheless, that the Mugabe regime has become too regimented and too undermined to serve popular needs any more. Hence the urgent need for it to call it a day. That is the lesson we hope it has learnt from the "wake-up call" - to conduct the freest possible General Election and get out of it defeated.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 7 September
Zanu PF prepares for Mugabe exit
By John Makura
The ruling Zanu PF party will at the end of this month start holding district and provincial elections throughout the country, in a move party insiders say could be aimed at consolidating the party’s structures before President Robert Mugabe leaves office, The Standard has learnt. Insiders say President Mugabe is keen to see his party rejuvenated before he engages in any dialogue with the MDC, which could possibly lead to fresh elections pitting his party, without him, and the opposition party. A circular addressed to all provincial chairmen, which is in The Standard’s possession, confirms that the minister of Youth Development, Gender and Employment Creation, Elliot Manyika, who is also Zanu PF’s national commissar, has already directed that elections be held throughout the country to choose a new party leadership in a few weeks’ time. This comes hardly three years after his predecessor and ‘homeboy’, the late Border Gezi, restructured the party in an exercise that earned him many e |
