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Archived News
12th October 2004
Army chief shoots down MDC
Speaker of Parliament out to gag media
Zim women's 440km walk to jail
Zimbabwe holds three journalists covering protest
Zimbabwe bankers in custody over fraud allegations
Mugabe's free reign running out: SACC
Suspected mercenary dies in Zimbabwe jail
An alien in Jozi
Minister tables controversial Bills in Parliament
Photographers freed in Zim
High Court judge reverses evictions
Former River Ranch owners want Mujuru, Mudariki probed
Aquarius warns of Zim mine grab
Museveni backs Zimbabwe land seizures and slams Britain
When presidents meet...and quarrel
Civil servants forced to bankroll welcome bash for murder suspects
Mugabe faces protests
The new betrayal
NMB in liquidity crunch
Zimbabwe, foreign firms seal US$60 million fuel deal
CIO interrogate Byo mayor, town clerk
Higher staple prices indicate greater need: FEWSNET
Cheeky thieves strike at Mugabe's rural home
Mugabe dangles 100 000 hectares of land in Museveni's face
Wrong timing for Mugabe support
Only 32% of land ready for planting
Families of former Zimbabwe farm workers face difficulties
Chinese telecoms supplier demands slice of Zimbabwe's mineral resources
IMF'S strange mouthings hit Bob
Zim tightens proposed law for rights groups
Tsvangirai to hear treason verdict this week
Mugabe wins by-election by default
Chief pledges to weed out MDC supporters from area
Msika furious at CIO boss
Desperation drives thousands onto the streets in Bulawayo
Police probe CIO agents
Fresh voters' roll still in shambles
Farm evictions provoke public anger
Zimbabwe's electricity bill doubles
Inter-party dialogue remains elusive
Mugabe spurns food aid again
Settlers beat up police officer
Mugabe's farmers seek first access to cash in ailing bank
Maize seed, fertilizer shortages hit country
New twist to Mawere controversy
San struggling to survive
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 6 October
Army chief shoots down MDC
The commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, General Constantine Chiwenga has brewed a shocker by saying the army will not support any change of government that is "foreign driven". Addressing thousands of people at a prize-giving day at a rural school over the weekend, Chiwenga said the defence forces were there to protect the country's achievements and would not allow anyone to disturb these. "I would not hesitate to go on record again on behalf of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, to disclose that we would not welcome any change of government that carries the label 'Made in London' and whose sole aim is to defeat the gains of the liberation struggle," Chiwenga was quoted in the government-owned daily, The Herald, saying. The Robert Mugabe government has repeatedly claimed the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party is not a "home-grown" party but is driven from 10 Downing Street, which is the residence of British premier Tony Blair.
Chiwenga's statement is a repeat of similar utterances made by the then commander of the defence forces - now retired - Vitalis Zvinavashe in 2002 when he said the presidency was a "straight-jacket" and was not up for grabs. Zvinavashe went on national television just before the presidential election to say the defence forces would not salute anyone who did not participate in the liberation struggle. Analysts viewed his comments then as saying the army would revolt if President Mugabe lost in the presidential race against opposition Movement for Democratic Change president Morgan Tsvangirai. However, it is the repeat of the same statement by Chiwenga that has sent shock waves in a country that is preparing for parliamentary elections in March 2005. Said MDC shadow minister for defence Giles Mutsekwa: "We are not surprised by Chiwenga's remarks. One has to bear in mind that he, like police chief Augustine Chihuri, hold their positions because of one man, Mugabe, and must be seen to be dancing to the piper's tune. His sentiments are not shared by the hierarchy in the defence forces, from brigadier going down. We are in constant contact with the defence forces and know their position as regards the politics of the country," he said. Mutsekwa said the defence forces were supposed to be professional and non-partisan, adding that people like Chiwenga had no place in the "army of tomorrow".
Chiwenga and his wife Jocelyn, achieved notoriety for invading a horticultural farm in 2001. The two are arguably one of the richest couples in the country, having racked in close to 80 million British pounds from illegal export of fresh produce to leading UK supermarkets, among them Sainsburys. The exports were only stopped after the previous owner of the farm sued the couple in the UK and asked Sainsburys to freeze payments. Jocelyn rose to notoriety after she attacked Gugulethu Moyo, the then legal adviser of the banned Daily News in 2003 at a police station in a Harare suburb. Moyo had gone to the station to seek the release of the newspaper's photographer who had been arrested for taking pictures of a public demonstration. Jocelyn then bragged that she was "filthy rich" and said no one could touch her. No action was taken by the police during and after the assault.
Chiwenga over the weekend promised the gathering that they would fund the electrification of both the primary and secondary schools, drill a borehole and set up a market gardening project. He also promised to complete the construction of the secondary school's library and build more classrooms, saying the programme was aimed at helping the schools to develop themselves. The two also offered 20 scholarships to both primary and secondary pupils, sports equipment, which included balls and uniforms, stationery and a trophy. The ZDF Commander also donated cash to various schools in Wedza meant for self-help projects. "My wife and I strongly believe in the old saying that give a hungry man a fish and he will come back for another one as soon as he is hungry again," Chiwenga said. "But give him a hook and a line, teach him how to fish and he will not ask for another fish from anybody again in life. We have given the offer so that the schools can develop themselves."
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From Zim Online (SA), 6 October
Speaker of Parliament out to gag media
Harare - Speaker of Zimbabwe's Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday ordered leaders of the House's portfolio committees that probe government departments to ban the media from covering their investigations. Mnangagwa, who until now had seemed to tolerate media coverage of Parliament and its committees, was also understood to be pressuring the committees not to issue public statements about their work without his permission. "The Speaker has instructed us to seek his permission first before issuing out public statements and he also wants the media gagged and prevented from revealing whatever committees of Parliament are uncovering," said a chairman of one of the House committees. Both Mnangagwa and Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma could not be reached to comment on the new restrictions. The committees of Parliament investigate the work of government ministries and departments and have in the past exposed mismanagement and corruption. For example, two weeks ago the House's Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts unearthed how Zimbabwe's national social insurance scheme, the National Social Security Authority, was two years ago fleeced of US$10 million in a botched information technology upgrading project insiders said involved senior government officials. The committee also revealed how the social insurance scheme could have been prejudiced several millions of dollars when it bought land at an inflated price from ruling Zanu PF party chairman for Mashonaland West province, Philip Chiyangwa. Investigations by the Portfolio Committee on Energy also revealed how Energy Minister July Moyo will by the end of the year have used up to Z$200 million on allowances alone at a time when the ministry did not have cash and was failing to pay its debts. Zimbabwe's media is already severely gagged under the government's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act but had some leeway when covering Parliament.
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From News24 (SA), 6 October
Zim women's 440km walk to jail
Harare - About 30 women who were arrested last week for taking part in a protest march in Zimbabwe were detained again on Tuesday when they presented a petition to parliament opposing a clampdown on human rights groups. Police arrested the women outside the parliament building in central Harare after they presented a petition against a proposed law that would ban international human rights groups and cut off foreign funding to local groups that promote democracy. The women last week staged a protest march from the second city of Bulawayo to Harare to draw attention to the plight of scores of groups promoting civil society in the southern African country. "We have walked 440 kilometres to deliver this petition to parliament and hope and pray that you will hear our cries and not pass this bill," said the petition from the women, most of whom were members of the Women from Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) group. "If the bill is passed in its current form, it will strike at the very existence of us and our families. We do try to survive independently but without help from NGOs (non-governmental organisations), our families and those of us who are ill shall surely fade away and die," said the petition, which was also backed by AIDS support groups. The government of President Robert Mugabe in August made public the bill that has yet to be presented to parliament. Rights activists have mobilised to oppose the clampdown, resulting in several arrests over the past weeks for staging illegal protests under provisions of Zimbabwe's tough security law.
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From SABC News, 6 October
Zimbabwe holds three journalists covering protest
Zimbabwe police yesterday arrested three press photographers covering a demonstration in Harare, in a sweep that also saw more than 50 women protesters detained. Lawyers and witnesses said Howard Burditt of Reuters, Tsvangirai Mukwazhi, a freelance journalist, and Desmond Kwande of the Zimbabwe Daily Mirror newspaper were picked up at a public park opposite Zimbabwe's parliament where the protest was taking place. The demonstration was against a proposed law on non-governmental organisations. "The three (journalists) have not yet been charged, but there are suggestions they could face charges of obstructing police work," said Alec Muchadehama, a lawyer who represents Reuters in Zimbabwe. All three are Zimbabwe citizens. Police were not immediately available for comment. Police in Zimbabwe have arrested journalists on charges of obstructing police work in the past, part of what government opponents say is a broader crackdown on media freedoms. Robert Mugabe's government enacted tough media laws two years ago requiring journalists and media houses to register with a state-appointed media commission and imposing fines and jail terms on anyone convicted of publishing falsehoods.
Critics say the law, which also bars foreign journalists from working in the country, has been used to curtail press freedom with Mugabe facing a political crisis that partly stems from his controversial re-election two years ago. Three newspapers have been shut down, dozens of journalists have been arrested and some foreign journalists have been deported under the law. The Zimbabwe government says the law is meant to bring professionalism to a sector it accuses of waging a Western-sponsored hate campaign against Mugabe. Mugabe (80) and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has attracted international attention over his seizures of white-owned farms for black resettlement and the alleged rigging of his and his party's re-election in the last four years. Government critics say the new bill proposed by Mugabe's Zanu-PF party on non-governmental organisations is aimed at closing down operations of some private human rights groups. Yesterday's demonstration was organised by Women of Zimbabwe Arise, a pressure group that has mounted a number of protests over civil liberties in recent years. Representatives of the group said 54 demonstrators were taken into custody and remained in police hands late yesterday, although no official charges had been filed.
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From Business Report (SA), 6 October
Zimbabwe bankers in custody over fraud allegations
Harare - Two executives of Zimbabwe's troubled Royal Bank have been remanded in police custody without being formally charged by a Harare magistrate yesterday. The two men, chief executive Jeffrey Mzwimbi and executive director Simba Durajadi, are likely to appear in court this week to face charges of fraud. Police allege they defrauded the bank of billions of Zimbabwe dollars. In August, the country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, placed Royal Bank under curatorship and ordered a six-month freeze on all deposits and assets. Royal Bank joins a list of locally owned banks being investigated by the central bank for misuse of funds and undercapitalisation. No comment was available from the police, but it is believed Mzwimbi and Durajadi will ask to be remanded on bail. A crackdown on corrupt officials, bankers and businessmen in Zimbabwe has resulted in several high-profile people being remanded in police cells, including former finance minister Chris Kuruneri, who is still in custody. Kuruneri faces charges of externalising foreign currency to build a lavish mansion in Cape Town.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe's dollar fell against the US dollar at its biweekly currency auction, as the central bank accepted a greater proportion of the bids for foreign currency than at its previous sale. Zimbabwe's currency fell to a year low of Z$5 616.78 to the dollar at Monday's auction, compared with Z$5 616.38 on Thursday as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe sold US$10 million, the same amount it sold at the auction on September 30, the bank said yesterday. The bank rejected 919 out of 1 099 bids, or 84 percent of all bids, compared with 1 659 rejections out of 1 845 offers, or 90 percent, at the previous auction. Zimbabwe has been short of foreign currency for the past four years following a slump in exports after President Robert Mugabe's government seized white-owned commercial farms, among them growers of tobacco, traditionally the country's biggest foreign exchange earners. The Zimbabwe currency traded at Z$4 196.58 to the US dollar on January 12 at the first foreign currency auction the central bank held.
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From SABC News, 5 October
Mugabe's free reign running out: SACC
If the outcome of the Zimbabwean election was not declared free and fair, it could have catastrophic consequences for Africa, the SA Council of Churches (SACC) warned today. Calling for the immediate deployment of observer groups to Zimbabwe ahead of its elections in March next year, the SACC said in Pretoria that if Zimbabwe failed to adopt minimum election standards, it could set a precedent for other countries in Africa. "If this happens it could mean an end to SADC (Southern African Development Community) credibility and war," Molefe Tsele, the SACC general secretary, told reporters. He said it was a known fact that many of Africa's conflicts arose out of disputed elections. Backed by the SA Catholic Bishops Conference, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, and the Institute for Democracy in SA, the SACC said, however, that Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president's, free reign was running out. "We feel that both South Africa and SADC and other African leaders are losing patience with Robert Mugabe and he will feel increasing pressure to ensure that his elections are declared free and fair," said Chris Landsberg, the CPS director.
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From The Star (SA), 6 October
Suspected mercenary dies in Zimbabwe jail
Harare - A South African man held in Zimbabwe over an alleged plot to overthrow the government in Equatorial Guinea has died. Ngave Jarukemo Muharukua (35), one of the 68 men held in a Zimbabwean jail, died yesterday in a Harare hospital, where he had been admitted last week, the state news agency reported. The cause of death was not revealed. "Ngave, a South African citizen, has died," New Ziana quoted an unnamed prison official as saying, without giving further details. A lawyer who has been representing the men could not confirm the death when contacted by reporters. The deceased was one of 70 men arrested at Harare's international airport in March when a plane they were travelling on stopped to pick up weapons from a state arms manufacturer. The men were last month sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to seven years for violating Zimbabwean immigration, firearms and aviation laws, and only two were acquitted. Sixty-seven of them, including the deceased, received prison terms of between 12 and 16 months for breaching immigration laws. German Eugen Nershz, one of the 15 foreigners arrested in Equatorial Guinea in connection with the coup attempt, died several days after his arrest, supposedly from complications arising from cerebral malaria. But Amnesty International said Nershz died "apparently as a result of torture". Meanwhile, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has suggested that the easiest way to deal with mercenaries in Africa is to shoot them. "Mercenaries, you just shoot them. This is a simple matter, it's not a big problem," he said yesterday in Harare, where he is on a state visit.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 5 October
An alien in Jozi
Everjoice Win
'You are so lucky! Oh I wish I was in your shoes, leaving this dreadful country and its problems. I wish I could fit in your suitcase!" So they all said to me. My friends, my family, colleagues in the office, complete strangers at Harare airport immigration. I smiled. I have no words for them because I have been out of the country on long stays twice before. I know what it's like. It is my first day in South Africa and not my lucky day. The fellow at customs orders me to open my baggage. He searches . very ... very slowly. Then he walks away from me, leaving my stuff strewn all over the counter. I repack with tears blinding me. In Johannesburg now and I still don't feel so lucky out on a short trip to buy fruit and vegetables. A South African police car stops right in front of me. I almost fall into it. "Come here!" the white officer barks at me. I move towards him, while the black officer jumps out from the other side to come to me. "ID," the white officer demands. As I hand it to him, he turns away, motions for me to give it to the black cop who grabs it and roughly flips through it. "What you want here? When will you go back to Zimbabwe?" he barks. I am not sure how to answer this question. Does he mean what do I want at Dunkeld West shopping centre? Or does he mean what do I want in South Africa? I point at my two-year visitor's visa. "This not working permit. Sisi, not working permit. Get working permit or we deport you. You hear me?" he asks. I can hear him too loud and too clear. I can feel him too. So menacingly close to my chest.
I feel much luckier later in the day, when a taxi driver asks me where I am from. When I tell him, he gives me R10. "Don't worry my sister, you will defeat him [Robert Mugabe] like we defeated the Boers. Here is a little something for you. Go well, my sister." Luck doesn't seem to stay with me long. I am in a supermarket. Surrounded by what appears to be the entire management of the chain. I am being questioned intensely about the origins of my rand-denominated travellers' cheques, what am I doing here? I try to explain that these are from a local bank. They are legal tender. Nobody is convinced. They reject them. "We have had a lot of problems with many Nig ... I mean people from Africa. Just get proper cash," says the manager. Nigerians, that is what she was about to say. That's the collective name for those of us who are a different species from across the Limpopo. Nothing much has changed since I lived here back in 1999. Occasionally, my sojourn in South Africa makes me feel like an unhappily married woman returning to a union she is not wanted in. I really can't believe my ears, when my own mouth proclaims loudly, "I am doing this for the sake of my children. They will be better off. They will at least have a more normal childhood." There are some good things about my new life in Jozi. Joy of all joys, I am able to listen to the radio. (I couldn't at home because it's all state-run and mostly propaganda.) The same goes for television and newspapers. My Sundays fly past as I devour all the papers. Can someone remind me how I ever survived without a daily newspaper? I'm afraid the state-run Herald didn't cut it.
Political exile. Economic exile. Company transfer. There are so many words to describe why you left your home. I feel all the dislocation of the emigrant. As I walk past happy South Africans having Saturday brunch, a group of men playing chess on the street and listen to their conversations, I am depressed and angry. I am here and yet I am not here. In moments like these I clip on my headphones and listen to one of our exiled singers, Lovemore Majaivana, "Umoya wami bo, ausekho lapha . ngisakhe ngikhumbule ekhaya . Ngabe bona basakhela amafekithali . ukuthi siyesebenza, Gijima gijima mfana, uyetshela abadala, ukuthi mina ngithe ah ah." "My heart is not in this place . I am thinking of home . If only they [our leaders], could build us factories, then we could work, Run, run young man, go tell the old men, . I said no." I am a fish out of water, not a lucky fish.
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From Zim Online (SA), 7 October
Minister tables controversial Bills in Parliament
Harare - Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa yesterday tabled two controversial Bills in Parliament, one seeking to restrict Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe and another proposing electoral reforms dismissed by the opposition as inadequate. Chinamasa, who is also the ruling Zanu PF party's legal affairs secretary and is considered a radical, steered the NGO Bill and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Bill through their first reading in the House. The first Bill seeks to ban civic society from carrying out voter education while those focusing on human rights and governance issues will be prohibited from receiving foreign funding. An NGO council will be appointed by the government to monitor and close down civic groups failing to comply with the proposed law. The Electoral Commission Bill proposes the setting up of a new commission to run elections in Zimbabwe in accordance with norms and standards agreed by Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders last August. The SADC electoral protocol requires among other key issues that independent commissions run elections and that the electoral process must be sufficiently transparent while human and individual rights must be upheld during elections.
The two Bills will now need to go through the second reading, the stage at which they will be debated by the parliamentarians before going through the third reading at which the House will vote to adopt, or reject them. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party which holds 51 seats in Parliament has said it will fight to block the two proposed laws. However, Zanu PF can easily use its simple majority in the House to push through the Bills. The ruling party controls 97 out of Parliament's 150 seats. A smaller opposition holds one seat and another seat is still vacant following the death of veteran Zanu PF politician Eddison Zvobgo. The MDC says the proposed electoral commission will lack independence because Mugabe will appoint its chairman. Civic society leaders say the new restrictions proposed by the government could see humanitarian support to Zimbabwe drying out. Several NGOs are already closing down operations in Zimbabwe and re-locating to neighbouring Botswana and South Africa. Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights that is representing 60 women activists arrested outside Parliament on Tuesday while demonstrating against the NGO Bill, said the women were still in custody by late last night. A lawyer with the organisation, Jessie Majome, said three journalists, arrested while taking pictures of the women being bundled into police trucks, were however released yesterday. The women, who walked 440 kilometres from Bulawayo to Harare in protest against the proposed NGO law, had submitted a petition against the Bill to the Speaker of Parliament before police arrested them.
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From News24 (SA), 6 October
Photographers freed in Zim
Harare - Zimbabwean police on Wednesday released three photographers detained the previous day while trying to cover a demonstration outside parliament by 30 women who were also arrested, their lawyer said. Photojournalists Howard Burditt of Reuters, Desmond Kwande of the local Daily Mirror newspaper and another freelance photographer, Tsvangirai Mukwazhi were released late on Wednesday afternoon lawyer Alec Muchadehama told AFP. "The journalists have been released without charge," said the lawyer, who is also representing the detained women - all members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) - who have not been released yet. The three newsmen were arrested while taking photographs of the WOZA members who handed over a petition against a bill due to be debated in parliament that aims to outlaw foreign human rights groups as well as foreign funding for local rights groups. Meanwhile, the detained women looked set to spend a second night in jail, Muchadehama said. "The police are still trying to find out the appropriate charges" to bring against them, he said. But he maintained his clients were innocent. "They did nothing, absolutely nothing resembling any offence." However, police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena told AFP the women would face charges of participating in an "illegal demonstration". Zimbabwe's security laws forbid people from holding public demonstrations without police permission.
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From The Daily Mirror, 7 October
High Court judge reverses evictions
Patson Matsikidze, Assistant News Editor
High Court judge, Justice Rita Makarau, has ordered that the families evicted from Little England Farm in Mashonaland West last month should return to the property with immediate effect, as the ongoing land eviction saga takes a new twist. The order was handed down in chambers on Monday, in a case in which Percy Masendu and 429 others sought the court's protection from eviction. The applicants had cited Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi and Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri, as first and second respondents respectively. The officer-in-charge of Nyabira Police Station and Stanford Katonha, the Zvimba district government lands officer, were also cited as respondents. The settlers had filed an urgent chamber application in the High Court to have the eviction order nullified. The respondents were ordered to pay the costs of the suit. Makarau ordered: "The applicants and all those claiming through them be allowed to continue staying at Little England Farm until such time as they are properly resettled or evicted by an order of a competent court. "The respondents or any person acting through them or on their behalf be interdicted from interfering with applicants' occupation of Little England Farm by unlawfully evicting them or destroying their dwellings. The respondents jointly, severally and in solidium pay the costs of the suit."
Heavily armed police descended on the Nyabira farm on September 17, 2004, and burnt down homes, destroying property worth millions of dollars. The applicants had been settled at the height of farm occupations in 2000 under the controversial land reform exercise. In their founding affidavit, the applicants argued that their eviction was illegal, citing the Rural Land Occupiers (Protection from Eviction) Act (Chapter 20:26), which protects legal settlers. The applicants said police Deputy Commissioner (Operations), Godwin Matanga, had ignored their pleas to be left alone, against the advice of the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, Simon Pazvakavambwa. They also mourned the destruction of their property and the traumatic experiences which their children, who are expected to write their final Grade 7 and "O" Level examinations this month, underwent.
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From The Financial Gazette, 7 October
Former River Ranch owners want Mujuru, Mudariki probed
Felix Njini
The River Ranch Diamond debacle, in which Zanu PF kingpin retired army general Solomon Mujuru is alleged to have used unorthodox means to wrest control of the mine, has sucked in Anti-Corruption Minister Didymus Mutasa. The former owners of the mine, who now face a court challenge to release crucial mine documents, have accused Mutasa of dragging his feet over investigations surrounding the change in the ownership of River Ranch. Mutasa, they say, has sat on the request for a probe into the issue. "The Ministry of Anti-Corruption has, as yet, failed to resolve the various complaints, but has maintained to Bubye that it (the issue) is 'still under investigation'," said Adelle Farquhar, one of Bubye's associate directors. Bubye Minerals, which took control of River Ranch in 1999, accuses Rani International, Aujan Southern African Development and Kupikile Resources of "unlawfully and forcibly" taking over control of the diamond mine, situated in Beitbridge. Mujuru and former ZANU PF legislator Tirivanhu Mudariki represent Kupikile Resources in the new shareholding structure.
According to court documents, Mujuru, whose wife Joyce is vying to be Zimbabwe's first female Vice-President, is reported to have remarked that "the paper work has been prepared and all he (Mujuru) had to do was to tell the President (Robert Mugabe) to sign." Bubye Minerals, which managed the mine until it was forced out, is accusing the new shareholders of grabbing the company using political connections. Bubye claims it owns a controlling 70 percent of River Ranch. "The Ministry of Mines has not acted to date, claiming it is under instructions from the Ministry of Anti-Corruption not to act without a directive from that ministry," Farquar alleges. "The Ant-Corruption Ministry has released Bubye's confidential documents to the party, which Bubye Minerals is complaining against, which has in turn resulted in the leakage of that document to the press," Farquhar said.
Bubye Minerals is also accusing Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi of acting illegally when he allegedly personally authorised police to assist the new shareholders in raiding and physically taking control of the mine. Mohadi is the Zanu PF Member of Parliament for Beitbridge. Mohadi is reported to have corroborated with the new shareholders when he personally authorised security agents to go and help the new investors take physical control of the mine early this year. In an unprecedented move, River Ranch last month initiated legal proceedings against the ousted Bubye Minerals directors, demanding the release of company documents. In a High Court application filed on September 7 2004, Adel Aujan, chairman of the new board of River Ranch, demanded that the ousted directors account for their dealings and assets of the mine from October 1999 to date. "They will also have to surrender all documents, including the share register, asset register, maps, working papers, core drilling results, original of the Special Grant No.1278 and any geological reports in their possession," the new board said.
The new shareholders are also alleging that Bubye is indebted to the Aujan group of companies as well as Rani to the tune of a total US$1.16 million. "Despite demand for repayment of the loans, Bubye Minerals has failed to repay the amount," Aujan alleges. Bubye was originally given the right to operate River Ranch by liquidator Peter Bailey of KPMG after a lull in production when the original owner, Auridium of Australia, pulled out citing falling diamond prices on the international market. Bubye's associates include Michael Farquhar and his wife Adelle, and Sibonokuhle Moyo, wife to Zimbabwe's ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo. In an opposing affidavit, Adelle Farquhar accused Rani of taking control of the mine fraudently. Farquhar also queried the links between Rani and "politically connected" people such as Mujuru and Mudariki, who were not previously involved in the financial transactions between the two companies. "No court order was obtained by Aujan, Mujuru and Mudariki as a basis for their actions on which minister Mohadi could legitimately act," Farquhar argued.
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From Mineweb (SA), 6 October
Aquarius warns of Zim mine grab
By Gareth Tredway & Jim Jones
Johannesburg - Aquarius Platinum, the London- and Australian-listed miner with platinum interests in South Africa and Zimabwe, appears to be apprehensive about the latest nationalisation, or indigenisation, proposals to emerge from Zimbabwe's government. In a leaked document from Zimbabwe's Ministry of Mines, the government is proposing that all of the country's mines be 20 percent owned by indigenous people (Zimbabweans) within the next two years. The leaked proposals in draft form want 20 percent indigenous ownership within two years of the proposals being turned into official regulations. The level rises to 25 percent within seven years and 30 percent within ten. Aquarius has diplomatically and somewhat ambiguously stated that it views proposals as "achievable subject to funding availability". In other words, Aquarius would appear to want to know whether it will be compensated in hard currency for any loss of property and that new Zimbabwean shareholders will have the available hard-currency funding to complete development of Aquarius's platinum project. The Zimbabwean dollar is in free fall and can only be converted into hard currencies at unofficial exchange rates that are much less favourable than the meaningless officially-quoted rates. "Aquarius Platinum wishes to advise shareholders that it has been made aware that the Government of Zimbabwe's Ministry of Mines has released proposed draft regulations for discussion with the industry that include proposed indigenous ownership levels for mines in Zimbabwe," said a statement released by Aquarius.
Last month, Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe was quoted by one of his government-controlled newspapers as wanting half of all Zimbabwe's mines. Tinaye Chigudu, Zimbabwe's secretary of mines told Mineweb a few days later that the quotes were misreported. Nevertheless, this sort of unofficial kite flying is par for the course in a country where the president is playing every trick in the book to hang on to his virtually-absolute and increasingly-autocratic power. A tactic is to make egregious but unofficial demands that scare mine owners, only to placate them subsequently by coming with a lower but still unpalatable official grab. Earlier this year, for example, another draft proposal was leaked into the public domain, in which government was apparently demanding 49 percent indigenous ownership of all Zimbabwean mines. Many of the country's mines are being forced to close because they are deprived of most of the hard currency derived from their export sales and needed to buy capital equipment and supplies needed to keep production going. The Mugabe government has either grabbed most of the country's previously white-owned commercial farms without compensation or has encouraged its supporters to occupy those farms and force the owners off them. Rather than operating a land-reform programme that would redistribute land to peasants, Mugabe has ensured that the farms have been turned over to his powerful supporters. That binds the new owners to the president through the threat of subsequent dispossession should those new owners waiver in their unequivocal support for Mugabe inside his ruling Zanu PF party.
Analysts at Numis Securities, which is Aquarius's London broker, have said in a note that the proposed percentages could even be lowered after consultation with stakeholders in the industry. "The ownership levels are presumably one of the items available for consultation and so they probably represent the maximum the Government would seek to achieve," said Numis, "After the period of rumour and uncertainty, substantive proposals for negotiation are a positive development." Aquarius is not the only company with interests in Zimbabwe. Anglo Platinum and Impala Platinum, the world's two largest platinum producers, also have operations and proposed projects in the country. So, too, does Rio Tinto, the diversified mining house. Les Paton, an executive director at Impala, told Mineweb that his company's special agreement signed with government a few years ago, requires a 15 percent black economic empowerment participation. He says the company has been in discussions with Zimbabwe's Nkuleko consortium for three years regarding its participation and that the proposal released on Wednesday "reflect the BEE component going forward."
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From The Cape Times (SA), 7 October
Museveni backs Zimbabwe land seizures and slams Britain
Harare: Regime change does not work in Africa and Britain is responsible for some of the continent's troubles, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said yesterday. On a visit to Zimbabwe, Museveni, whose controversial "no party democracy" has scored some success, said he supported the seizure of white-owned farms in that country. "In Uganda we have the same problem created by the British," Museveni said. In a speech supporting President Robert Mugabe against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, he said: "Regime change can't be for black Africa. When I hear these people trying to demonise President Mugabe, I say you can't demonise a leader of the liberation struggle and expect support from us. You are just stupid." Aid agencies warn that a major farming catastrophe is looming with the eviction of as many as 300 000 farm workers who now face unemployment. Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk by over 30% since the Zanu PF rulers embarked on their campaign to seize land. Museveni went on to accuse Western powers of arrogance in the face of Africa's Aids pandemic.
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From The Monitor (Uganda), 6 October
When presidents meet...and quarrel
Andrew M. Mwenda
Event: it is a cold November winter of 1998 in Paris and President Jacques Chirac of France is host of a large conference of African statesmen. The presidents are assembled to discuss continuing armed conflict on the continent and the ever-increasing economic crisis of the countries in the region. In attendance at the French president's residence, the Eiles (sic) Palace are presidents Chirac, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pasteur Bizimungu of Rwanda and Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania. There is also Yama Jame to Gambia, Abdu Diof of Senegal, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Joachim Chisano of Mozambique, Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Frederick Chiluba of Zambia to mention only a few.
The conversation finally settles down of the DRC. Uganda and Rwanda which had helped Kabila have turned against their proxy and organised armed resistance against him after a failed coup. However, Kabila has called in Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia to help bolster his fledging government and it has worked. Kabila accuses Museveni and Kagame of Rwanda of a hidden plot to build a Hima-Tutsi empire. "That Bizumungu you see over there," Kabila spits the words with disdain "he is a Hutu and just a figure head. Real power lies with Paul Kagame, his vice president. So there is no reason for Bizimungu to even sit in this meeting with other heads of state when he is only a personal assistant to Kagame." Museveni interjects saying the meeting should discuss more serious issues. But nobody is real listening; and as matter of fact he has too many contrary minds all over the place, does Museveni.
Mugabe is pissed at this talk of 'more serious issues' and says the threat of a Hima-Tutsi empire is a real and serious issue; in tones that suggest he is convinced it is even the only issue that should be discussed here today. "I have always heard that you are a very intelligent and popular man," Mugabe tells Museveni right into his face, "I now think your intelligence is quite exaggerated." And with that, the old man walks out of the meeting in protest, wagging his finger at Museveni and vowing to "fight to the death" against the "creation of a Hima-Tutsi empire." Jameh of Gambia also interjects, telling Museveni that he thought the Ugandan president was a new hope for Africa, "not an ethnic chauvinist bent on re-creating obsolete pre-historic empires". In the cacophony of voices, one voice is quiet. Chirac is completely taken apart by surprise at this remarkable outplay by Africa's leading statesmen.
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 8 October
Civil servants forced to bankroll welcome bash for murder suspects
Civil servants in Buhera are angry over a decision by the Zanu PF leadership at Murambinda Growth Point to force them to each contribute towards a bash to celebrate the release from jail, on bail, of three ruling party activists who are facing murder charges. Webster Gwama, Morris Kainos Zimunya (better knon as Kitsiyatota) and Johnson Mudzamiri were released on $5 million bail each. They all face two charges of murder. They are alleged to have murdered Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika during the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary election. The three Zanu PF activists together with Joseph Mwale, a top CIO operative, allegedly beat up the two before setting on fire the vehicle they were in. They died as a result of the burns. The three were arrested and arraigned before the courts facing murder charges and were eventually released on bail by High Court Judge, Justice Chinembiri Bhunu. Mwale, is however, still at large although his whereabouts are known. Mwale is widely known to be operating from Mutoko District, 143 km north east of Harare.
After the release of the trio from prison, the Zanu PF leadership at Murambinda ordered that all civil servants contribute ZW$5 000 each for a bash to welcome the alleged murderers. It is not yet clear when the welcome bash would be held. "It is very disappointing," said one civil servant based at the growth point. "We are being forced to part with $5 000 each to bankroll a welcome party for these guys who were released from prison." The civil servant said they had no choice but to contribute because failure to do so could result in dire consequences. "Obviously if you refuse to pay they (Zanu PF members) would see you as a supporter of the opposition. Belonging to the opposition here can be very dangerous." Tension is already mounting in Buhera North ahead of next March's parliamentary poll. Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC leader, lost Buhera North to Kenneth Manyonda, the Deputy Minister of Industry and International Trade, in 2000. Chiminya and Mabika were campaigning for Tsvangirai when they were murdered. The High Court has since nullified Manyonda's victory citing massive intimidation and violence by Zanu PF supporters. Manyonda, however, still sits in the august house because he has appealed against the High Court ruling.
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From The Times (UK), 8 October
Mugabe faces protests
By Jan Raath
Harare - Protesters took to the streets of the Zimbabwean capital yesterday after President Mugabe introduced a battery of laws to project himself as a democrat while he crushes dissent ahead of parliamentary elections due in six months. About 200 pro-democracy demonstrators scattered thousands of protest leaflets across the city, warning of "diabolic" legislation. Passers-by bent furtively to pick them up. Among the controversial new laws is the Non-Governmental Organisations Bill, which will force all charity organisations to register with the Government or be shut down, have officers jailed and assets seized, on the say-so of the state-controlled NGO council. The Government says organisations dealing in "governance" are " harbouring motives on behalf of the British and American government to destroy the country". Parliament, dominated by the ruling party, will then turn to two electoral bills, designed to establish an "independent" commission to take overall control of the March elections. The commission is effectively appointed by Mr Mugabe.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 7 October
The new betrayal
Godwin Gandu
Zanu PF bigwigs are at loggerheads over the eviction of more than 400 families, including war veterans, from 22 farms they occupied during the land grabs that accompanied Zimbabwe's last parliamentary elections. The evictions are taking place under the command of deputy police commissioner Godwin Matanga. Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said the people "illegally settled themselves" on the farms and the government was now "regularising the land reform". "It's an insult to 14-million Zimbabweans," said war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda. "Top government officials own more than one farm. Why target people sharing a farm? That logic alone is an insult. These are simply people who moved from dry land where they were settled by Rhodesians to where the new Zimbabwe laws enabled them to exist," said Sibanda. The war veterans are furious that the "settlers" have been evicted without notice and have urged President Robert Mugabe to put a stop to it.
Writing in the state-run Sunday Mail Lowani Ndlovu, widely believed to be the pseudonym of Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, described the evictions as a "violation of government policy". "They raise more legal policy questions than they provide answers ... They have been callous and unlawful. It smacks of the Rhodesian premier Ian Smith's eviction of blacks. The wrong way of doing the right thing is not just unacceptable, but also dangerous," Ndlovu fumed. But Land Reform Minister John Nkomo is adamant that the move is in line with guidelines and procedures of a commission set up to investigate progress on land reform. He said Mugabe had appointed 12 people to conduct a land audit in May, which produced the Utete report detailing irregularities in land redistribution and its impact on commercial farmers and workers. Constitutional law lecturer Dr Lovemore Madhuku doubts that proper legal process was followed. "It shows Zanu PF is confused. It is a momentary lapse of strategy."
Without food and shelter, the settlers have resorted to squatting in the open veld along the Harare-Kariba highway where they are at the mercy of the rain and chilly evening temperatures. Burnt-out huts, broken pots, empty cattle pens and deserted fields are all that are left at Inkomo farm about 50km northwest of Harare and it is about 60km from Raffingora farm recently allocated to Harare mayor Sekesai Makwavarara after she defected from the Movement for Democratic Change. When the Mail & Guardian visited the settlers temporary home one woman could not hold back her tears as she explained that all they wanted now was food. Another elderly woman was pounding maize and praying that the rains wouldn't destroy the little they had left. Rumour has it that a top government official was moving in with his cattle. Another farm dweller, Wilbert Chimbudzi, believed the settlers had been "stabbed in the back". His two huts were torched leaving his family vulnerable. "We have been left with nothing. Nothing," he said. "We were never given time to prepare. It was so inhumane and we don't know why we are being made to suffer when in the first place it was the government that encouraged us to invade farms."
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 8 October
NMB in liquidity crunch
Shakeman Mugari
One of Zimbabwe's strongest banks, NMB Bank Ltd, was yesterday feared to be lurching into a serious liquidity crisis amid reports that several financial institutions are in dire straits. Market sources said NMB was trying to secure liquidity support from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to avert collapse. The bank, whose founding directors fled to London earlier this year to avoid arrest, has been struggling to get stop-gap finance from the RBZ's Troubled Banks Fund. Sources said NMB was scrounging for $160 billion. There is also trouble at discount house NDH, which was struggling to pay maturities and has not been writing new business. Insiders said NDH was also facing a serious liquidity crunch. The sources said NDH was surviving on overnight accommodation from the central bank. lthough NDH managing director Ernest Matienga was not available for comment, an official confirmed the financial institution was facing a liquidity crisis. "Like any other financial institution, we are facing liquidity problems," said the company official.
The Zimbabwe Independent last night heard that NDH yesterday held a meeting at Royal Harare Golf Club with creditors over sums ranging between $50 million and $500 million to explain the company's liquidity crisis. Sources privy to the meeting said NDH wanted to calm the edgy creditors. The discount house also announced it was restructuring for a possible take-over by First Bank. Despite meeting the RBZ's capital adequacy deadline, many financial institutions are still facing serious liquidity problems. Analysts say the Reserve Bank contributed to the liquidity crisis through its treasury bills. The analysts said in June the central bank forced banks to buy its treasury bills and promised to give them overnight lending. The purchase of the bills wiped out banks' reserves. By Tuesday this week, the market was in a serious deficit of about $300 billion and this has seen most banks scurrying for cover. Almost all banks are under stress and are using the overnight lending facility to stay afloat.
Financial sector insiders say a number of banks this week rushed to the central bank to seek accommodation and funds from the liquidity support scheme. David Hatendi, the NMB chief executive, yesterday said the bank was talking with the RBZ. Panic withdrawals at NMB have been worsened by the booting out of its chairperson, Paddy Zhanda, last week. Last week alone the bank had more than three meetings with Reserve Bank authorities seeking accommodation and liquidity support. Hatendi said: "The market has been in a short position and like any other bank we have been affected," Hatendi said. "In anticipation of this eventuality we did alert the central bank and the talks have resulted in an understanding," he said without giving details of the 'understanding'.
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From Zim Online (SA), 8 October
Zimbabwe, foreign firms seal US$60 million fuel deal
Harare - BP South Africa and another unnamed foreign oil company will supply US$60 million worth of fuel to Zimbabwe in the next three months under a deal that was expected to be signed in Harare yesterday, sources told Zim Online. Zimbabwe, in the grip of an acute fuel shortage for the last five years, will receive 2.4 million litres of petrol and 36 million litres of diesel per month under the deal to be signed between the two oil firms and the Petroleum Marketers Association of Zimbabwe. Sources said BP was going to supply half of the fuel while the unnamed foreign oil firm, which is said to be working with a consortium of Zimbabwean businessmen, will supply the other half. The two foreign companies beat several other international oil firms to win the fuel supply tender floated last month by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on behalf of the petroleum association. The initial three-month supply period is a trial phase which could be extended if Zimbabwe's petroleum association showed it was able to pay foreign suppliers on time and consistently, according to the sources. Association President Masimba Kambarami confirmed the deal but refused to shed more light. He said: "We are finalising the contract which should be operational soon but I cannot release the details of the suppliers at the moment."
The association brings together oil firms in Zimbabwe and is the only one now permitted to import fuel into the country which it then distributes to its members. The oil industry was opened up at the beginning of the year but the government has barred individual oil merchants from importing the commodity after several bogus oil dealers misused close to US$113 million allocated to them by Zimbabwe's central bank for fuel imports. The state-owned National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM) also imports fuel but only for key sectors such as agriculture, health and government departments. Previous fuel supply deals between NOCZIM, which in the past was the only one allowed to purchase fuel for the country flopped because the state firm was unable to raise hard cash to pay foreign suppliers. NOCZIM owes US$171 million to several international oil companies who supplied it with fuel. Another US$60 million fuel facility arranged between Zimbabwe's central bank and British Virgin Islands-registered Saturn Investments collapsed last August after local oil firms, which tapped into the facility, failed to pay back.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 8 October
CIO interrogate Byo mayor, town clerk
Loughty Dube
State security agents and government officials last week descended on Bulawayo executive mayor Japhet Ncube and the city's town clerk Moffat Ndlovu to interrogate the two before demanding an explanation of malnutrition-related death figures compiled by the city's Health department. The interrogation of the two officials follows Information minister Jonathan Moyo's threat that government would deal with Ncube and the city's Director of Health, Zanele Hwalima, for allegedly peddling false information on the city's malnutrition deaths. Six security agents from the CIO and the police's law and order department last week on Tuesday visited the mayor at his City Hall offices and interrogated him on the malnutrition deaths figures before leaving with several official documents from the city health department. The following day Bulawayo acting provincial administrator Edson Mbedzi summoned the town clerk Moffat Ndlovu to his office and quizzed him on how council compiled statistics pertaining to malnutrition.
Ncube confirmed the visit by the state security agents but said he was happy that the issue was well explained to them. "We had a team from the police and the CIO last week and they wanted to find out how we gathered the information on malnutrition deaths and they were shocked to hear that the figures came from government hospitals," Ncube said. Local Government minister Ignatious Chombo has also threatened to deal with the Bulawayo mayor for giving the independent media "false" information on malnutrition-related deaths. Ncube confirmed that Moffat Ndlovu was summoned to the administrator's office and state security agents and the government officials had been made to believe that malnutrition-related deaths records were a council initiative. The Bulawayo council is dominated by opposition MDC councilors and Chombo has been trying to hamstring its activities the same way he has emasculated the Harare City Council. "They were surprised to hear that we compile the statistics from the Registrar of Births and Deaths who collect the information from government hospitals," Ncube said of the investigating officials.
The Bulawayo mayor has vowed not to be intimidated. He said the malnutrition figures helped council plan its child supplementary feeding programmes. The council is running child supplementary feeding programmes for 13 000 children under five years in all its clinics in the city. The interrogation of the two officials came at a time when the council had produced another report detailing more malnutrition-related deaths in the city. The latest report indicates that a further 12 people died of malnutrition in the last month. The latest figure brings to 173 the number of people who have succumbed to malnutrition in Bulawayo alone. The government has in the past hotly disputed that people in the country are starving despite its own initiative to introduce a feeding scheme for needy people in Beitbridge two weeks ago. The government has been involved in a war of figures with international donor agencies on the country's projected harvest for 2004.
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From IRIN (UN), 7 October
Higher staple prices indicate greater need: FEWSNET
Johannesburg - Significant increases in the price of maize, a staple food in Zimbabwe, indicate that needs are likely to be higher than originally projected, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). In its latest monthly report on the food security situation in Zimbabwe, FEWS NET noted that the selling price set by the state's grain monopoly, the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), "is over 34 percent higher than the maize price that the Zimbabwe VAC [Vulnerability Assessment Committee] assumed for this time of year when it made its projections that about 2.3 million rural people would require ... 178,000 mt of food assistance". This meant that food aid needs could be higher than initially thought. "According to various official reports issued in September (by the GMB Chief Executive, and the Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Rural Resources, Water Development and Resettlement), farmers had sold between 294,000 mt and 325,000 mt of maize grain to the GMB. The maize collections reported by the GMB are less than 30 percent of the total amount of maize the government had estimated it would buy from farmers this marketing year," FEWS NET observed. The government of Zimbabwe predicted a bumper harvest this year but independent assessments have warned that this was unlikely. Zimbabwe's parliament has ordered a committee to investigate the matter, as the GMB has yet to receive the predicted grain harvest of 2.4 million mt.
FEWS NET said that in rural areas where most households depend on local maize production, markets have become the main source of the staple. However, "given that the average maize grain prices were between Z$5,000 - Z$8,000 per bucket [equivalent to 18kg] in April, just after the maize harvest, it is clear that already this year there have been significant increases in staple prices," the report warned. Prices ranged between Z$10,000 and Z$12,000 a bucket in mid-September. In the traditional grain surplus rural areas, "most households are still relying on their own production from last season's harvest". But poorer households in grain deficit areas "are unable to buy food due to the limited income options they have; hence, a significant number of these households are already reducing the number and size of meals they eat, as well as attempting to make small amounts of cash in risky and non-traditional ways, such as gold panning," noted. Those with livestock have been selling them to purchase food and, in general, "people have more options in the areas where a good grain and cash crop harvest occurred last year because casual labour opportunities are more readily available". The same was not true for areas where a large community of ex-commercial farm workers was present and no irrigated cropping was taking place, said FEWS NET. "In such areas most ex-commercial farm workers are not gainfully employed and have no reliable means to earn money for food. The food security situation for a significant proportion of the people in these areas is desperate."
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From Zim Online (SA), 8 October
Cheeky thieves strike at Mugabe's rural home
Harare - Daring thieves evaded tight security at President Robert Mugabe's Zvimba rural homestead, 86 kilometres west of Harare, and stole irrigation equipment worth more than Z$75 million, it was learnt yesterday. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena yesterday could neither confirm nor deny the theft and instead referred ZimOnline to Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba. Bvudzijena said: "Please talk to Charamba from the Department of Information and Publicity. He is the person best placed to comment on presidential matters. I am sure he will be able to furnish you with more accurate information." Charamba's office said he was busy the whole of yesterday attending "presidential programmes" and unable to take questions on the matter. Police sources said thieves sneaked into the presidential homestead last week and made away with an assortment of aluminum irrigation pipes, sprinkler systems, centre pivots and water pumps. The thieves, who by late last night were still at large, scaled a perimetre fence around the homestead and evaded armed troops, who keep a 24-hour guard at the home, to steal the irrigation equipment.
Mugabe and his family, who spend most of their time at the presidential palace in Harare and only visit the rural home mostly on weekends, were not at the home when thieves robbed it. The President, however, runs lucrative agricultural projects at the homestead which include wheat production and piggery. Ever security conscious, Mugabe has always ensured maximum security at all his homes including at the multi-billion dollar residence still under construction in Harare's affluent Borrowdale suburb.A multi-million dollar radar security system is under construction at the Zvimba homestead. The radar system sourced from China will be linked to the Borrowdale home and to Mugabe's palace. Crime is on the increase in the country as some hard-pressed Zimbabweans resort to illegal means to survive a grinding economic crisis, which critics say is the result of Mugabe's mismanagement of the economy.
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From Zim Online (SA), 9 October
Mugabe dangles 100 000 hectares of land in Museveni's face
Harare - President Robert Mugabe has offered 100 000 hectares of prime agricultural land to Uganda in order to cement ties between Harare and Kampala, sources told Zim Online yesterday. The land, offered to Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni during his visit to Harare earlier this week, would be allocated to farmers from the east African country wishing to undertake agricultural ventures in Zimbabwe, sources said. "Mugabe told Museveni that he could offer 100 000 hectares to Ugandan farmers immediately in order to cement ties between the two countries and on his part Museveni promised to try and assist in securing fuel for Zimbabwe," said a top Mugabe aide, who did not want to be named. Zimbabwe is in the grip of an acute fuel crisis because there is no hard cash to pay foreign suppliers. Attempts to reach Museveni's Kampala office by phone from Harare for comment on the matter were fruitless yesterday. Zimbabwe's Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge refused to comment directly on the land offer but told ZimOnline that the two leaders had discussed trade and land reform issues. He said: "The discussions (between Mugabe and Museveni) included trade and the land reform issue. That is all I can say."
During his two-day visit to Zimbabwe, Museveni visited black-owned farms in the country. The Ugandan President defended Mugabe's chaotic and often violent land redistribution scheme under which the Zimbabwean leader seized white-owned land without paying and gave it over to landless blacks. This is not the first time Mugabe has attempted to use land seized from white farmers to win friendship and support. About three years ago Mugabe offered 720 hectares of land just outside Harare to Libya's President Muammar Gaddafi in exchange for fuel. Gaddafi was also promised mining concessions before the deal went sour and eventually collapsed last year. Zimbabwe and Uganda fought against each other through proxies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo war. But Mugabe and Museveni appeared to have buried the hatchet with the Ugandan leader voicing full support for his Zimbabwean counterpart.
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Comment from The Monitor (Uganda), 9 October
Wrong timing for Mugabe support
President Yoweri Museveni's statement in support of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's land-grabbing policy has raised eyebrows and set tongues wagging. Museveni can be a skillful diplomat, but it's hard to resist asking what message he thought he was sending to investors with his public avowal of support for Mugabe. Even those who share Museveni's instinct to express solidarity with land-deprived Zimbabweans agree that his stance was unwarranted and a blatant attempt to reconstruct Mugabe's tattered image - not worth the price. Whatever his definitely calculated motive, Museveni's timing could not have been worse. He spoke in support of Mugabe's brutal, anti-investment policy barely a day after the showcase of our campaign to attract investors, the Uganda Manufacturers Association trade fair, opened in Kampala. Potential investors from about 30 countries, with 600 exhibitions, were expected to join local seekers of business opportunity at the weeklong fair that is designed as a one-stop deal-cutting centre.
Unfortunately for the trade fair organisers and the Uganda Investment Authority strategists who have been attempting to lure some of the Mugabe-wary White farmers to Uganda, Museveni appears to have buried the deal. For many Ugandans, recent TV images of Zimbabwean commercial farms being ransacked and handed over to clueless party youth-wingers, were reminiscent of former President Idi Amin Dada's expulsion of Asian entrepreneurs in the early 1970s. Many of us watched with anxiety and pity. We knew what would happen even before that economy started to crumble. So what aspect of the land grabbing policy does Museveni support? Is it the purported empowering of the landless Africans or the forceful deprivation of the white farmers? Is this the price we must pay for what Museveni claims Uganda owes Zimbabwe as "leaders of the liberation movement?" It smacks of the same unprogressive streak that drove Libyan leader, Muamar Gadhaffi, to lecture Ugandans about the rights of revolutionaries.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 8 October
Only 32% of land ready for planting
Augustine Mukaro
A record low hectarage is expected to be put under crop in the 2004/5 season as only 32% of land normally planted has been prepared for planting. Farming experts who carried out a survey recently said less than 200 000 hectares of land had been prepared for planting in the commercial sector while an estimated 220 000 hectares were ready in communal and newly-resettled areas. Under normal circumstances, crop production should take up 1,3 million hectares. The survey by agricultural experts said the fall in land planted would be exacerbated by the high degree of uncertainty prevailing in the sector. It said evictions of both commercial and newly-resettled farmers would result in a substantial decline in the planting of major crops such as maize and tobacco in the coming season. Hectarage in the commercial farming sector has been in decline since the government embarked on the arbitrary land reform programme in 2000. Planted land in newly-resettled areas would also decline as government evicts A1 settlers to make room for A2 farmers throughout the country.
The survey said the 2004/5 season could be the worst in Zimbabwe's agricultural history, as all factors are unfavourable to production. "Tractors available for tillage have slumped from over 30 000 to below 10 000 including those owned by farmers, firms and quasi-government organisations like the District Development Fund (DDF) and the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda)," the survey said. If all the tractors were operational, they could till up to 400 000 hectares but over half of them have broken down and some have been overused. The government's DDF, which normally offers tillage to communal farmers, will not get close to last year's 100 000 hectares due to lack of spare parts for most of its tractors. Tobacco Growers Trust (TGT) past president Thomas Nherera said draught power remains the major stumbling block forcing farmers to reduce the area under crop. "So far TGT has brought 242 tractors into the country and their capacity is a maximum of 10 000 hectares," he said. "The ideal situation would be about 100 000 tractors. All farmers would be assured of access to a tractor to till land. Tobacco farmers alone need to plant up to 75 000 hectares."
The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) estimates that about 500 of its members remain on the land either fully or partially operational out of some 4 500 before the land seizures began. "Reductions in commercial plantings since the beginning of the land reform programme in 2000 are: flue cured tobacco by 72%; maize 72%, cotton 95%, and soyabeans 70% including hectarage planted by A2 farmers," the CFU August report said. "The total area of crops grown has dropped from normal levels of around 530 000 hectares to approximately 220 000 by last season. A further considerable plunge in cropping activities is inevitable this year." With less than a month to go before the first rains are expected, the availability of fertiliser and seed is still dogged by uncertainty. Local manufacturers have for the past three seasons failed to meet demand as foreign currency shortages have hampered imports of vital chemicals. Inputs expected in the market are likely to be inadequate for even half the traditional hectarage put under crop.
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From VOA News, 7 October
Families of former Zimbabwe farm workers face difficulties
Harare - Most of Zimbabwe's farm workers who lost their livelihood more than four years after the country's controversial land reform program was implemented, are still struggling to make a living. It is estimated that 350,000 of the people who worked on white commercial farms lost their jobs when their employers were forcibly removed from their land. While some are now working for the new farmers, there are some who were left without a source of income. A farm worker who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity said most of the about 30 former workers on his farm and their families are facing an uncertain future because of lack of employment. He says that since the departure of his former employer in 2001, he and some of his colleagues have worked on surrounding farms until those commercial farmers were kicked off their land. The man says he now provides for his family of five by taking on occasional part-time jobs. He says he is one of the lucky ones because he got a piece of land, but he lacks the necessary tools to till the land and money to buy seed and fertilizer. It is getting increasingly difficult for workers to provide food for their families. As a result, aid agencies have stepped up their efforts by providing food programs at some of the farm schools. At one school, the headmaster, who also requested anonymity, said for some of the nearly 600 students, the cornmeal/soya blend porridge they receive once a day is often the only meal they have. A 12-year-old pupil at the school agreed, saying food at home was so scarce that sometimes his six siblings and their parents do not have anything to eat.
According to the newsletter of the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe, an organization that looks after the interests of vulnerable groups in farming areas, more than 120,000 children in four of the country's 10 provinces where the Trust operates are benefiting from the program. A spokesperson for another non-governmental organization said it is difficult for such groups to give accurate numbers and the degree of need because they are denied access to the areas by pro-government groups. "They say we are anti-land reform," says the spokesperson who asked not to be named. The government of Zimbabwe has stopped aid agencies from giving the needy handouts, claiming that the country harvested enough grain to feed everybody this year. About half of Zimbabwe's population of 12 million have depended on food aid since 2000. Successive droughts have led to a drop in food production. But, aid agencies also blame President Robert Mugabe's sometimes violent land reform program, in which white commercial farmers' land was taken away and redistributed. Critics of Mr. Mugabe say the land reform program did not benefit poor, landless blacks. Instead, they say, it gave special treatment to those aligned to the ruling Zanu PF party. The president has acknowledged that the program was flawed and has said that those who have grabbed more than one farm will be forced to give up the extra ones.
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From Zim Online (SA), 9 October
Chinese telecoms supplier demands slice of Zimbabwe's mineral resources
Harare - Chinese telecoms supplier Huawei Investments has demanded that it be guaranteed a portion of Zimbabwe's minerals and future tobacco produce before it can supply US$160 million worth of telecommunications equipment needed for a second fixed telephone network, it was learnt this week. Huawei also wants a 20 percent hard cash down payment before equipment is delivered and another 40 percent after delivery. The remainder will be paid in cash, tobacco, chrome or platinum once TeleAccess, a private company licensed to operate the telephone network, finished rolling out the project. TeleAccess, owned by ruling Zanu PF party crony, Daniel Shumba, was given the license to set up a fixed telephone network to rival the existing one owned by the government in January 2003. To date the company, which under telecoms regulations was supposed to have finished rolling out the network by last June, has not even begun work on the project. According to sources, TeleAccess's financial advisers, the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe, last week told Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications that Huawei feared the Zimbabwean firm might not be able to raise hard cash to pay for equipment because of forex shortages in the country.
The bank's managing director, Nyasha Makuvise, is said to have indicated that they were now structuring a deal under which TeleAccess will contract tobacco farmers and mining firms to produce the crop, platinum and chrome which could be exported to generate hard cash to pay the Chinese firm. "Makuvise said the Chinese are very sceptical about TeleAccess' ability to raise enough foreign currency given the shortages being experienced in the country and are not going to supply anything until they are guaranteed the tobacco and minerals," said one source who attended the hearing. Makuvise is also said to have told the parliamentary committee that delays by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulating Authority to allocate frequencies to TeleAccess had at one time also stalled negotiations with Huawei. The Chinese firm wanted confirmation that TeleAccess would be allocated the frequencies before they could commit themselves to supplying equipment. Foreign suppliers wary of the current political and economic crisis in the country now demand cash upfront before delivering goods or services to Zimbabwe. The few international companies still willing to risk supplying Zimbabwe on credit have of late however demanded firm guarantees mostly in the form of tobacco or minerals before releasing goods.
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Comment from The Financial Mail (SA), 1 October
IMF'S strange mouthings hit Bob
Earlier this month, the state media in Zimbabwe quoted an unnamed IMF official as saying that the economic situation in the country had "improved dramatically". But a fortnight later, when the IMF released the report of the mission that visited the country in March, the official line was revised. Addressing the UN general assembly in New York, President Robert Mugabe insisted that the economy was recovering and accused the IMF of "strange mouthings, lies and fabrications about our situation". The report of the IMF - which this week closed its Harare office in a sign of frustration with Zimbabwe's political leadership - is remarkably forthright. It notes that the 30% decline in Zimbabwe's GDP over the past five years - with a further forecast 4,5% fall in 2004 - "mainly reflects the inadequacy of economic policies", while the "disorderly implementation" of the land reform programme has "sharply reduced" agricultural production. The economic decline has had "dire social consequences", the IMF says , warning that unemployment is high and increasing, social indicators have deteriorated and the HIV/Aids pandemic remains "largely unchecked", with one person in four HIV-positive. "Severe food shortages" have caused a "vicious cycle of malnourishment and disease".
Concerns over governance, the rule of law, human rights and property rights have "severely damaged confidence, discouraged investment and promoted capital flight and emigration", the report says. Citing the "disruptive effects" of land reform, the IMF quotes an official report that found that actual resettlement of 134 452 families and 6,4m ha fell far short of government's claimed 350 000 families and 11m ha. Independent reports estimate unemployed farm workers and their families at more than 1m people, or about 9% of the population. Far from praising the "new" monetary policy that Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono launched in December, the IMF details a long list of essential reforms, including tighter monetary and fiscal policies, the phasing out of concessional loans that government is using to keep firms and exporters afloat, and abolition of the overvalued official exchange rate of Z$824/US$ compared with an auction rate of Z$5 616. It criticises the foreign currency auction launched in January, saying it is "heavily managed" and should be changed "decisively" to reinvigorate exports and contain import demand. It shows that exports, which government says have recovered, fell from US$2,3bn in 2000 to an estimated $1,2bn in 2003, and predicts a further decline to $1,13bn in the current year. Foreign arrears have risen fivefold from $400m in 2000 to $2,1bn last year and will increase to $2,6bn by end-2004.
Little of this is new to Zimbabweans, despite the state media's efforts to present a more favourable picture. The IMF says that though the authorities agree with its medium-term recommendations, "they indicated no intention to ease the excessive regulations and economic distortions" that have occurred. It assumes that government will adopt a "more determined" anti-inflation policy after the parliamentary elections next March and that this will set the tone for a medium term recovery. In the interim, however, it expects heavy pre-election spending to result in further declines in the exchange rate and to revive inflation, forecasting year-end inflation next year of 436%, up from less than 200% at the end of this year. In his monetary policy review next month, Gono may be forced to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar again, but he is unlikely to take the IMF's advice and tighten monetary and fiscal policy by phasing out cheap loans and special state support schemes for business.
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From AFP, 9 October
Zim tightens proposed law for rights groups
Harare - The Zimbabwe government has tightened a proposed law to regulate rights organisations operating in the country, according to official documents seen by AFP on Saturday. The Non-Governmental Organisations Bill, which was tabled in parliament earlier this week, seeks to ban international rights groups from operating in Zimbabwe and cut off foreign funding to local groups involved in governance issues. It has provoked widespread condemnation. According to an official notice of amendment, proposed by the social welfare ministry, rights groups targeted by the bill will now include those involved in educating the public on anti-corruption programmes and issues of public transparency and accountability. Previously the bill had not spelled out what activities would be included under the definition of "issues of governance". Groups involved in "furthering and facilitating the interests or activities of a political party" will now also be targeted. There have been fears that hundreds of aid groups will be forced to shut down if the bill becomes law. Independent press reports have suggested that up to 10 000 jobs could be lost. More than 30 women were arrested earlier this week outside parliament for demonstrating against the bill, the third such group protest this month. This week the US state department condemned the proposed law, saying if passed it would jeopardise chances of the southern African country's general elections meeting international standards. Zimbabwe is due to hold elections in March next year.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 10 October
Tsvangirai to hear treason verdict this week
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai will learn his fate on treason charges on Friday. High Court Judge Paddington Garwe and his assessors are due to hand down their verdict on whether Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, plotted to assassinate President Robert Mugabe in December 2001. The charges are based on allegations by Mugabe's Canadian publicist, Ari Ben-Menashe, that Tsvangirai asked for his help to assassinate Mugabe. Tsvangirai claims he was framed. There are fears that if he is convicted the country will plunge into chaos. University of Zimbabwe law lecturer Lovemore Madhuku said that if he was convicted Tsvangirai might not be able to continue as MDC leader. That could trigger political events with far-reaching consequences for the MDC and Zimbabwe. "If Tsvangirai is convicted, that will not necessarily bar him from contesting for political office except for the time when he is serving his sentence," Madhuku said. There have been widespread rumours that the ruling Zanu-PF wants to see Tsvangirai behind bars to stop him running for president in 2008. Parliamentary elections are to be held next March.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 10 October
Mugabe wins by-election by default
Harare - President Robert Mugabe's ruling party held on to a parliamentary seat, winning a by-election by default after the main opposition party boycotted the poll to demand electoral reforms, election officials said on Saturday. Ruling Zanu PF candidate Walter Mzembi was declared the unopposed winner of the by-election in the Masvingo district of southern Zimbabwe, a seat left vacant after the death on August 22 of the ruling party's 69-year-old founder, Eddison Zvobgo. Masvingo constituency registrar Ignatius Mushangwe declared Mzembi (41) the winner after a second candidate from the little-known Zimbabwe Youths in Alliance party failed to submit adequate poll nomination papers by the Friday deadline, state radio reported. Mzembi's entry to the 150-seat Parliament does not change the power balance. Zvobgo had held the seat for the ruling party since independence from Britain in 1980.
It was the second election in a month that Zimbabwe's main opposition party had sat out in protest. In September, the ruling party won an unopposed seat in the Seke district after the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) announced it will boycott all future elections until the government reforms unfair electoral laws, ends political violence and repeals repressive media and security laws. The opposition won 57 of the 120 elected seats in the last national Parliament vote in 2000, but has lost six in special elections since then. Under the Constitution, Mugabe appoints 30 of the 150 lawmakers, giving the ruling party an overwhelming majority. Independent observers said the 2000 election and a presidential vote in 2002 were swayed in favour of Mugabe and his party by intimidation and vote rigging. The Zanu PF party holds 98 of 150 seats in Parliament -- two short of the two-thirds majority needed to amend the Constitution. A tiny opposition group, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Ndonga party, has one seat.
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has demanded the government meet regional electoral standards of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community, which include the formation an independent commission to oversee future polls, replacing the state-appointed body that now organises elections. The government has promised some electoral reforms, but the opposition has dismissed them as cosmetic changes that still allow Mugabe and ruling-party lawmakers to appoint members of the supervisory commission. Zimbabwe has been racked by political and economic troubles since February 2000, when Mugabe was resoundingly defeated in a referendum on a new Constitution that would have entrenched his rule. The seizure of thousands of white-owned farms for handing over to blacks after the referendum disrupted the agriculture-based economy and led to record unemployment and inflation. Mugabe, who says the land seizures were to correct colonial-era land-ownership imbalances, accused white landowners of financing the main opposition party and his opponents in the referendum campaign.
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From Zim Online (SA), 9 October 2004-10-10
Chief pledges to weed out MDC supporters from area
Matabeleland South - A local chief here has ordered his subjects to join the ruling Zanu PF party or face expulsion from his area. Chief Malaki Musuku of Matobo district, about 60 kilometres south-west of Bulawayo, told his subjects at a meeting this week that he and other traditional leaders in the province had been empowered by Zanu PF to remove all opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party supporters from their areas. Speaking at a rally at Natisa rural business centre in the area, which this reporter attended, Masuku also claimed that he was recording the names of all villagers who boycott meetings of the ruling party so they could be punished. Masuku said: "We have been empowered by the government as traditional leaders to chase those who do not want to support it because they are not our good friends. You will follow those whitemen who used to own the farms that you now occupy if you continue acting defiantly." Zanu PF national chairman John Nkomo refused to discuss the matter when Zim Online contacted him to establish whether the party would act to stop the chief from coercing his subjects to join the party. Nkomo said: "Excuse me, is it not you who attended the meeting and heard what they said? I cannot give you any comment on that." The MDC, local and international human rights groups have in the past accused Zanu PF of intimidating villagers in remote rural areas into supporting the party. Self-styled veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s independence war and other Zanu PF militants have also been accused of unleashing violence against MDC supporters in order to force them to abandon the opposition party. Zanu PF denies the charge.
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From The Financial Gazette, 7 October
Msika furious at CIO boss
Njabulo Ncube
Vice President Joseph Msika, the no-nonsense man of Zanu PF politics, has ordered immediate investigations into the conduct of Innocent Chibaya, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) boss in Bulawayo, fingered in allegations of kidnapping, torture and severe assault of four ruling Zanu PF youths last week. The Vice President who, despite strong denials, could be seeing out his last term in office together with his boss, President Robert Mugabe, also wants Assistant Commissioner Charles Mufandaidze, the chief of police in the country's second largest city, investigated after his subordinates failed to act against CIO agents named in the act. This, party insiders said, came after the youths told Msika that they suspected they were brutalised in the presence of Chibaya for supporting a faction vehemently opposed to the political machinations of Jabulani Sibanda, the war veterans' leader based in Bulawayo. They said that the matter, which gives a new twist to the violence that has earned Zimbabwe a bad name internationally, where some countries are ostracised on the basis of poor human rights records, has since been brought to the attention of Nicholas Goche, the State Security Minister and Kembo Mohadi, the Minister of Home Affairs.
The party sources said so shocked was Msika that he immediately summoned the two top security agents to his Gumtree home where the severely injured youths had been taken by disgruntled Zanu PF supporters. The two security chiefs were reportedly given an earful by the mercurial Msika, thought to be the tough man of Zanu PF politics. "The youths named the CIO agents and mentioned that the CIO boss witnessed their torture," said the Zanu PF insider. "They showed Vice President Msika the injuries they sustained. Msika was shocked by the extent of the injuries especially on their private parts and broken bones. Msika was visibly furious. He said Zanu PF was against Zanu PF. He mentioned that it was wrong for people to be beaten even if they did not support Zanu PF," said a source who also witnessed the injuries. Msika confirmed on Tuesday evening that he had asked that the top security brass in Bulawayo be investigated over the alleged torture of the four youths. "The boys were seriously injured. I want a full investigation into the whole thing. I am very concerned and want to get to the bottom of the whole issue because we don't want violence," said Msika who intimated that people should be allowed to freely follow their political convictions. "Who was beaten up and for what reasons. Who authorised that they be beaten and tortured? I want answers and I am going to find out. Those who were involved must account for their actions. The police have to tell us why they did not investigate when the boys reported the matter," he added.
Msika however, could not indicate how far the probe he instigated on Monday this week had gone, except that "nothing will be swept under the carpet". "These are not just normal injuries, these are very serious and a cause for concern," Msika said. The youths, according to impeccable sources, were taken to Msika's residence last Sunday afternoon where about 300 people had converged to offer their condolences to Msika, who lost his brother. Party insiders said the youths, who were struggling to walk, narrated to the Vice President their ordeal at the hands of the CIO agents at Magnet House, the head office of the dreaded secret service in the region. "They sustained serious injuries to their private parts. Vice President Msika asked them to remove their clothes and was shocked by the extent of the injuries," said a source that witnessed the incident. The four Zanu PF cadres were allegedly kidnapped from their homes in Emganwini high-density suburb and driven to Magnet House where they were allegedly tortured for four hours. It is understood that Msika lost his cool when the youths showed him severely injured private parts and broken limbs they claimed were sustained after four hours of being brutalised by the CIO.
All along, Zanu PF had previously been accused of systematic bullying and intimidation against opposition supporters. Up to today, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims that President Mugabe won an election in 2002 tainted by unfair campaigning and violence against its supporters. These reports come as the political battling in Zanu PF and its attendant psychological crises reaches new levels underlying the growing intolerance and confrontation within the ruling party. Of late there has been high incidences of intra-party violence with Zanu PF chiefs squaring up against Zanu PF supporters. Didymus Mutasa, the Anti-Corruption Minister who bounced back into President Mugabe's cabinet last year, is fighting for his political life after he was accused of fanning violence. Mutasa, Zimbabwe's first Speaker of Parliament, was implicated in skirmishes where 20 ruling party supporters, mainly fighters of the liberation struggle that brought Zimbabwe's independence, were severely beaten up in Makoni North as they experienced first hand the ugly face of the Zanu PF attack machine.
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From Zim Online (SA), 2 October
Desperation drives thousands onto the streets in Bulawayo
Bulawayo - Each day Vusa Mkandla commutes to the city centre to do business. He carries with him a torn but durable shopping bag commonly known as "Renkini" after the city's main rural bus terminus where such bags are a common piece of luggage among rural bound travellers. Inside the bag is an assortment of sweets, biscuits and snacks packed in a small sturdy cardboard box that serves as Vusi's display unit. Vusi is one of hundreds of both licensed and unlicensed vendors operating in Bulawayo's Central Business District. The vendors sell a wide range of products that include light bulbs, face creams, scouring powder, imported chicory, soap, tinned foods, fruits and vegetables and trinkets bought cheaply from Chinese wholesalers. Most of the vendors are unemployed youths or retrenched workers trying desperately to earn a living without resorting to crime. The councillor for Ward 1 under which the city centre falls, Phil Lamola says poverty has forced many residents to turn to street vending for survival. "All these people on the streets selling stuff are trying to survive. Some have been retrenched and the only thing that they can think of is buying vegetables, stand at a street corner and sell," notes Cllr Lamola.
When Bulawayo City Council permitted vending in the city centre, the target beneficiaries were vulnerable groups such as unemployed women who were allocated bays at designated points to sell fruits and vegetables. According to the city's by-laws, vending bays are allocated to individuals to sell specific goods. The bays should be manned by the person who is registered with council or a close relative. But, desperation is forcing other groups of residents on the streets especially unemployed youths and retrenched workers to hawk. Some workers are also hiring youths to sell goods for them to try and supplement their meagre incomes. The influx of vendors is however, creating numerous problems for the local authority. Cllr Lamola accuses the vendors of breaking city by-laws by operating from undesignated areas and littering. "The problem is that these vendors are breaking the by-laws and end up playing hide and seek with our security officers." Dumisani Mpofu is an unlicensed vendor who sells watches and watch batteries from his pockets. He recounts the numerous dramatic escapes he has made from municipal police when they swoop down on the vendors and confiscate their wares. Sometimes he is caught but he considers it part of the job. "I lose goods sometimes but that's the price I pay for doing this kind of business," he explains while at the same time trying to sell a watch to a passer-by.
Cllr Lamola says the vendors can reclaim their goods after paying fines. But most vendors say it is a waste of time as there are no records of what goods are taken form individual vendors. Cllr Lamola acknowledges that the system of confiscating goods from vendors is flawed because no records are made of what is taken from individual vendors. Dumisani says he has not bothered to register with council because he would be allocated a bay that is far away from his customers. Dumisani and other vendors who spoke to Zim Online are all not proud to be on the streets but say they are doing it for the money. On average, the vendors make about $40 000 on a good day. One vendor who declined to be named said: "I used to be a general hand in the industries there until I was retrenched two years ago. I had to find something to do or else my family would have starved to death." Additionally, the vendors are blamed for blocking city pavements thus making it difficult for shoppers to move freely and window shop. Cllr Lamola says it would not be prudent for council to build additional vending bays as the number of vendors is bound to fall once the economy picks up. In any case, he points out that the municipality is already cash-strapped and would have problems raising money to build the stalls. "The situation on the streets is reflecting the true political and economic dynamics of the country once the economy picks up and there is employment creation, then we will have fewer vendors on our streets," he says. Until then, it's business as usual on the streets of Bulawayo where residents can buy almost all their basic provisions from street vendors.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 10 October
Police probe CIO agents
By Savious Kwinika
Bulawayo - Police in Bulawayo have opened dockets on Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives, who allegedly kidnapped, tortured and severely assaulted four Zanu PF youths they mistook for Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists, police sources have confirmed. The four Zanu PF youths are Mandlenkosi Sibanda, Madlenkosi Luphahla, Tisunge Botomani and Nkosilathi Gama. All are from Emganwini. On September 30, 2004, the CIO operatives assaulted the youths all over their bodies with sticks, electric cables and belts. They were detained at Mpilo General Hospital overnight for treatment. Impeccable police sources, who spoke to The Standard on condition of anonymity, said Bulawayo police had opened the dockets against the three CIO operatives and that investigations were at an advanced stage. "When the CIO operatives assaulted these youths they thought they were beating up and torturing MDC activists only to be shocked the following day after learning that they were Zanu PF. As police we will act according to the Zimbabwe laws and we hope justice shall prevail," said the police source.
Bulawayo Provincial Intelligence Officer (PIO), Innocent Chibaya, declined to comment referring all questions to Nicholas Goche, the Minister of State Security. "I can't say the allegations are true or false but the right person to talk to is Goche," Chibaya said. Goche could not be reached for comment by the time of going to press. The torture of the youths did not go down well with Vice-President Joseph Msika, who immediately ordered investigations into the conduct of the CIO. Confirming the youths did not belong to his party, MDC Bulawayo spokesperson, Victor Moyo, said there was panic and confusion in the Zanu PF structures as they attacked each other. "Imagine if it was the MDC youths tortured, kidnapped and severely assaulted, do you think the Vice-President would have intervened? "Now that they have mistakenly attacked youth members from their party, they are seeing that violence is unacceptable," Moyo said. Police Spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka yesterday said he was not aware of the incident.
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From Zim Online (SA), 11 October
Fresh voters' roll still in shambles
Harare - Several hundreds of thousands of "ghost voters" still appear on a new voters' roll compiled by Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede for use in next year's parliamentary election, sources at Mudede's office told Zim Online. Mudede met President Robert Mugabe two weeks ago to formally tell him that he had finished compiling the register of voters for the March poll. The registrar also gave Mugabe a copy of the new roll, according to the sources. "Mudede met the President (Mugabe) to appraise him on progress in the compilation of the voters' roll. He told the President he had finished preparing the roll and also gave him a copy of the new voters' roll," said a senior official at Mudede's Makombe Building offices. Mudede confirmed meeting Mugabe but refused to disclose whether they discussed the issue of the voters' roll. He also would not discuss charges that the new roll contains mistakes and names of people who have either died or left Zimbabwe. He said: "I met him (Mugabe) because he is my boss. But I cannot discuss what we met for neither can I discuss issues to do with the voters' roll." There are slightly more than five million names on Zimbabwe's voters' roll. Out of these, two million are names of people who have either fled economic hardships and political violence in the country and are now living abroad or they are names of people who have succumbed to a raging HIV/AIDS epidemic that is killing at least 2 000 Zimbabweans every week.
The Zimbabwe government estimates that more than four million of its citizens are living abroad, mostly in South Africa, Britain, Botswana, United States and Canada. Besides the phantom voters, the registrar, who earlier this year carried out a national exercise to update the voters' register had not adequately factored in the movement of voters between constituencies. As a result several hundreds of thousands of voters, who have since changed location since the last election, are still registered in their old constituencies and may not be able to vote next year. Under laws governing parliamentary elections people can only vote in a particular constituency under which they are registered. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, local and international election observers have in the past accused Mudede, a well known ruling Zanu PF party supporter, of manipulating the shambolic voters' roll to the advantage of the ruling party. The MDC also accused Mudede of concentrating a voter registration exercise at the beginning of the year in areas known to back Zanu PF. Mudede denies the charges of bias towards Zanu PF.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 10 October
Farm evictions provoke public anger
By our own staff
John and Sophia Mudzingwa were among thousands of people who participated in the violent and chaotic land invasions which claimed the lives of scores of commercial farmers and other Zimbabweans since 2 000. The Mudzingwa family left their rural home in Mashonaland West and set up shop at Little England farm about 35km from Harare along Chinhoyi Road. Then they moved all their belongings to the new home. However, four years down the line, the couple and their children have lost all their worldly possessions except for a handful of clothes and a few kitchen utensils. The evictions of thousands of villagers from the farms they occupied have provoked a public outcry and outrage. Human rights, farming organisations and land experts have condemned the evictions of peasants who had settled on farms across the country during land invasions, spearheaded by war veterans and Zanu PF youths. Critics of the evictions say they are ill-timed and will have a negative bearing on the national food output because they are being carried out when farmers are preparing for cropping and when school children are about to write their end of year examinations. The evictions are most prevalent in Mashonaland East and West, Matabeleland North as well as Masvingo provinces.
John said: "We had so much faith in the land reform exercise as we thought after more than 20 years of independence, the government was finally honouring its pledge to give land to the black majority. However, our hopes have been dashed and what is cruel is that the government sent soldiers and policemen to set our houses at Little England on fire." He said as Zanu PF supporters they were disappointed with the government's action. Mudzingwa and his family are not alone in their predicament. Thousands of A1 farmers have had their houses torched by the police with the majority of cases being reported in Mashonaland West province. The official word is that the settlers had moved onto farms ear-marked for A2 model farms. Justice for Agriculture vice chairman, John Worswick, told The Standard in an interview last week: "What happened at Little England is also taking place in Mhangura where A1 farmers are being removed reportedly to make way for some senior people in the security services. Members of the police have already started evicting settlers from the farms. There has been a brief lull because they ran out of fuel. Most of the settlers are from Gokwe and they are being told to go back where they came from."
Social scientist, Professor Gordon Chavhunduka, said the chaos on the farms was an indication that the ordinary people were used to invade farms with the bigger plan being to resettle the elite. "The pattern that has emerged is very clear: only the rich and powerful who have no idea about farming are being given farms. The whole exercise was only meant to benefit a few chosen people. The genuine land hungry people were only used to pave the way for the powerful before being evicted as is happening now." He said the current levels of disgruntlement stemming from the evictions would continue to exist until the land issue was properly resolved. "What the government is creating is a fertile breeding ground of discontent and there could be uprisings in future because of problems associated with land hunger," Chavhunduka warned. Deputy police commissioner, Godwin Matanga was on Friday quoted in the media confirming that he would lead a committee to evict "illegal" settlers.
Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development chairman, Jonah Gokova, said the evictions were causing unnecessary suffering of the people of Zimbabwe, already feeling the pinch because of the current economic meltdown. "People are being forced into a desperate situation motivated by greed. This has caused unnecessary human suffering, which is against Christian principles and it is an abuse of human rights. Gokova said government was inconsiderate of the students who are supposed to write examinations this month as some of them might fail to write. "They are just reckless," he said. Zimbabwe Human Rights Association director, Munyaradzi Bidi also blasted the government for negating its obligations, which include ensuring security of its citizens and also the rights of children. "To a maximum extent, the fundamental rights of children have not been considered. The right to live is inherent, so if one destroys a child's shelter there is no upholding of that right," said Bidi. He said failure by farmers to harvest any crop will not only affect the farmers but also the common people, who rely on their produce. "Many people will not have enough food to last them until the next farming season. This makes us question the intellect of the government because it has forced its people to abandon the primary goal of ensuring that there is enough food in the country," said Bidi.
Roy Chinanga, one of the new farmers from Zvimba in Mashonaland West Province, a victim of the evictions, expressed outrage over the latest evictions. But land expert Professor Sam Moyo said the evictions were necessary to enable proper relocation for the farmers. "Its not all farmers who are being evicted but those who had settled in farms planned for A2 farmers. Apart from that the number of farms is insignificant," said Moyo, who dismissed the argument that the evictions would result in low food production in the country. He said most of those who were being evicted had settled on the farms for residential purposes and not farming. "So there is need to resettle them." Moyo, however, urged the government to assist the displaced families including the school children, who had registered for examinations as well as those who were farming. Zimbabwe Farmers' Union (ZFU) executive director, Kwenda Dzavira shared Moyo's views. He said the evictions were meant to regularise the process of haphazard farm invasions because they were chaotic and uncoordinated. "These evictions are meant to put the whole exercise in order," said Dzavira. He said there was never a time that was appropriate adding that those who have been affected will catch up with others. Davison Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers' Union (ZCFU) refused to comment on the current spate of farm evictions. "I am not in a position to give an opinion on that," said Mugabe, whose organisation is rival to the white-dominated Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU).
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