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Archived News
13th January 2004
Tatchell asks court to issue arrest warrant for Mugabe
Imposters from El Salvador hold Zimbabwe
Running on empty
First case of political violence in Zimbabwe in New Year
Children dying of hunger
ENG saga: Chiyangwa implicated
Zimbabwe crisis may give surprise lift to SA's banks
Bleak Christmas for Zim retail
More media restrictions on the way
FG woos southern African farmers
$61bn Zim fraud: 2 held in jail
Will Zim's cash crisis bite Mugabe's backers?
Victory for Daily News
Zimbabwe opposition leader remanded on treason charges
Muchena, Mahofa compete for hearts
Battle for control of Kondozi turns ugly
Luxury wine estate for Bob
President has no properties outside Zim: Government
Zimbabwean editor jailed
Mugabe grabs plane for Far East holiday
Mugabe's financial ally arrested
Innocent Chofamba-Sithole, Editor
Zim paper fails to appear despite ruling
Journalists arrested over Mugabe plane story
10,000 'died of hunger' in Zimbabwe
Concern over whereabouts of abducted Rusape teacher
Police shoot 12 year old boy
Bale-out plan to avert meltdown at Harare banks
Chiyangwa lives up to his ‘Bugs Bunny’ title
Zimbabwe introduces forex auctions
Zanu-MDC talks: The stumbling blocks
Zanu PF man stays behind bars
Zimbabwe court grants bail to 3 journalists accused of defaming Mugabe
Zimbabwe's auction rattles a few cages
Humanitarian agencies watch forex auction anxiously
Cash shortage for Zimbabwe banks
Mugabe, Tsvangirai talks this month
Zimbabwe ruins African unity
Zimbabwe meltdown worries SA's banks
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From Business Day (SA), 8 January
Zimbabwe meltdown worries SA's banks
Standard, Absa and Nedcor say they are keeping an eye on unfolding crisis
Financial Services Correspondent
As alarms sound over the escalating crisis in Zimbabwe's banking sector, three South African banks with major shareholdings in Zimbabwean banks Absa, Nedcor and Standard Bank have admitted to concerns over the stability of that country's banking environment. With inflation rocketing past 600%, Zimbabwe's banking system is showing cracks after Zimbabwe Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono said last month he would cease baling out troubled banks with inadequate liquidity. This sparked interest rate hikes and, last week, six of Zimbabwe's 16 banks were suspended from the country's settlement system for interbank debt because of concern that they could not pay the other banks. As public jitters over bank cheques grow, at least three major companies are now refusing to accept cheques from any Zimbabwean banks, according to a Zimbabwean bank source.
Amid criticism of President Thabo Mbeki for his policy of quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe's humanitarian and economic woes, this is a clear indication that the fallout has had a major effect on SA's business sector. And for SA's three banking giants with a stake in Zimbabwean banks, the crisis is a worry even though they say their institutions are safe from harm. Standard Bank owns Stanbic Bank Zimbabwe, and Greg Brackenridge, Stanbic director for Africa, said yesterday his bank was worried about the stability of Zimbabwe's banking system. "Clearly, we have an interest in a stable financial system in Zimbabwe so this current issue is a concern for us on that level. But as an individual bank, we feel we have conservative lending policies so we don't feel we are at risk at the moment." But Brackenridge said that with banking sentiment such a volatile and sensitive matter, he was keeping an eye open for signs that systemic risk could be infiltrating the banking environment.
Absa owns 26% of Commerce Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) and Absa director Louis von Zeuner said he too had concerns. "Although we are perfectly comfortable with CBZ at the moment, we are certainly concerned about the banking environment. But what is making this worse is that rumours and speculation are adding more risk to an already tense situation." Von Zeuner said CBZ had not yet experienced any interbank loan defaults, "although we are monitoring this situation extremely closely". Colin Drew, GM of Nedbank Africa, which owns 28% of the Zimbabwe-based Merchant Bank of Central Africa (MBCA), said the country was in the grip of a banking crisis. Drew said that although MBCA had been exposed to most of the other banks through interbank loans, "we have managed our exposure carefully and have been positioning our bank for a crisis for some time, given what is happening in other parts of the Zimbabwean economy". "We don't anticipate that this crisis will spread to affect us, although we are monitoring the situation closely," he said.
Drew said part of the problem was that the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank had introduced a real-time settlement system for interbank loans in November that revealed liquidity problems in frailer banks. Whereas in the past there was a delay in the time taken for banks to settle interbank loans, the real-time system exposed any liquidity deficiencies. Standard Bank economist Robert Bunyi said Zimbabwe's bank crisis had been "a time bomb waiting to explode". Until December, the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank had kept interest rates at about 150%, yet inflation was running at more than 500% prompting people to borrow relatively cheaply to buy assets to sell at a profit. "But now (Gono) has tightened the screws on lending between the reserve bank and commercial banks, the banks have raised their interest rates on interbank lending and this has filtered through to an increase in the interest rates charged to consumers on their loans," he said. In November, the nominal interest rate was 150%, but this has increased to 375%- 450% at big banks, and to 600%-700% at small banks.
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From The Guardian (UK), 8 January
Tatchell asks court to issue arrest warrant for Mugabe
Tania Branigan
A British court yesterday began considering whether to issue an arrest and extradition warrant for the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, on charges of torture. Peter Tatchell, a human rights campaigner who has twice tried to carry out a citizen's arrest of Mr Mugabe in Europe, lodged the application at Bow Street magistrates court in London. He alleged that Mr Mugabe had "intentionally authorised, condoned and acquiesced in" torture, breaching the Criminal Justice Act 1988, which incorporates the UN convention against torture into British law. He said he had brought the case in the UK because the president's repressive regime protected him from prosecution in Zimbabwe. Mr Tatchell told Judge Timothy Workman it was "inconceivable" that Mr Mugabe was unaware that his police, military and intelligence services had tortured thousands of Zimbabweans. He produced affidavits from two exiled torture victims and reports by human rights groups and the international media as evidence of such abuses, adding: "[Mr Mugabe] has taken no steps to halt it and so must bear responsibility under UK and international law." He also cited the precedent of Chile's former president, Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested in London four years ago on a warrant issue under the Criminal Justice Act. Mr Tatchell accepted that a 2002 ruling by the international court of justice stated that serving heads of state should have full immunity from prosecution, but said that the judgement did not affect UK law. "What is the point of having human rights laws if the main abusers, the heads of state, are exempt from prosecution?" he asked. Mr Tatchell also pointed out that the former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor of Liberia were indicted while serving as heads of state. More than 100 countries - including several visited by Mr Mugabe recently - have extradition agreements with Britain. Judge Workman adjourned the hearing until January 14. Mr Tatchell failed to win an arrest warrant for Henry Kissinger on charges of war crimes two years ago.
From ZWNEWS: If you would like to read Tatchell's submission to the court, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message, total size 150 Kb, or approximately 3 times the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.
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From AFP, 7 January
Imposters from El Salvador hold Zimbabwe
San Salvador - It has been called 'one of the great frauds in the history of football' by Zimbabwean newspaper The Herald. A group of imposters pretended to be the national El Salvadorean team in the 0-0 draw with Zimbabwe last Sunday, according to the El Salvador Football Federation. The news was splashed across newspapers in the two countries. Italian sportswear giant EL-Sporto has been linked to the fiasco. The federation's president, Humberto Torres, told a press conference he would be investigating the matter as the fake El Salvador national football team fled the country yesterday, three days before their scheduled departure, after they were sensationally exposed as imposters. 'This is a serious matter,' Torres said. 'That could cause us problems with Fifa as they might believe we had authorised this team to represent us as the national side. These players did not have this authorisation, and we are going to study this matter in fine detail.'
He admitted the federation were aware of a match in Zimbabwe concerning a Salvadorean First Division side Isidro Metapan, but in no sense of the word was it the national side. Salvadorean daily Diario de Hoy, citing Zimbabwean press reports, claimed three of the players did not actually have a club and the remainder played for several different teams and were coached by former national coach Ricardo Guardado. The match was the beginning of the hosts' preparations for the African Nations Cup, which runs from Jan 24 to Feb 14 in Tunisia. Zimbabwean football association chief executive Edgar Rogers said a match scheduled for Tuesday was cancelled as the Latin Americans feared for their safety at Harare's Rufaro Stadium. He said: 'The El Salvador team is very temperamental and have said they are unhappy with the media coverage they have been getting. 'They said it was very negative and felt it is not conducive to play another friendly football match during the evening at Rufaro.' El-Sporto officials, who organised the international friendly and misled Zimbabweans that this was the El Salvador national team, have been tightlipped since the scandal broke out. Fans were made to pay the equivalent of S$155 for the VIP seats to watch a fake team while the Minister of Education, Sports and Culture, Aeneas Chigwedere, was invited as the guest of honour for the occasion.
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Comment from The Independent (UK), 8 January
Running on empty
Zimbabwe has expelled nearly all foreign journalists, so its slide towards starvation is largely hidden from the eyes of the world. Ludger Schadomsky gained rare access to witness the unravelling of a nation.
A yellowing poster in the arrivals hall of Bulawayo Airport welcomes you to "Zimbabwe - Africa's Paradise". If there's an advertising-standards authority here, it's clearly neglecting its job. A sign cautions customs officials to be on the lookout for "Chechen and Peruvian" nationals. Luckily, my German passport awakens no suspicions, and I'm able to slip into the country unnoticed. Nearly all foreign journalists have been expelled from Zimbabwe by the notorious "Dr Mo", the information minister, Jonathan Moyo. Zimbabwe was once renowned as the "bread basket" of Africa. When independence was declared in 1980, the new president, Robert Mugabe, confidently announced that his country would never want for food. Those days are long gone. Twenty-three years later, Mugabe is still in power, but in the hunger stakes, Zimbabwe now ranks alongside Ethiopia and Sudan. Two thirds of the population are now dependent on handouts from Western donors. I travelled with the German non-governmental aid agency Help to Matabeleland, the region on the south-western border with Botswana. This is the heartland of the Ndebele people - literally, "Those with Long Spears", descendants of South Africa's famous Zulu warrior tribe. Matabeleland has long been a centre of opposition, first to 19th-century British exploitation, then to the Mugabe regime. In the early 1980s, some 20,000 Ndebele were slaughtered by Mugabe's North Korea-trained Fifth Brigade in the culmination of a power struggle between Mugabe's Shona-speaking Zanu PF party and the Ndebele-dominated Zapu party of Joshua Nkomo, who later became vice-president. Now, the people here are on the verge of starvation, but no one expects the government to help them. Aid organisations are their only hope.
Zimbabwe is no stranger to drought - there was a very bad one back in 1992. But the situation now is far worse. Several hundred people were already waiting for us when we arrived in a village to distribute food. One hundred kilos of maize, 16kg of beans, 1.5kg of salt and two litres of vegetable oil have to last a family a whole month. Help also distributes seeds: maize, sorghum, beans and millet. This dual approach aims to prevent farmers from eating the harmful seeds out of sheer desperation, instead of planting them. The recipients are mostly households headed by women whose husbands have succumbed to the Aids pandemic now ravaging Zimbabwe. Under a scorching sun, women and children wait patiently to have their names registered. Despite its denials, Mugabe's government is using food as a weapon, withholding supplies to punish opposition areas. Help has therefore enlisted the assistance of local churches to identify the most needy. The NGO also provides training for small-scale farmers - something notably absent from the government's self-proclaimed resettlement programme. "Help People Help Themselves" reads the sticker on the agency's 4WD vehicle. But ask the Zimbabweans what would become of them if the foreign aid organisations weren't there to help them, and they answer, "We would starve".
Mugabe introduced his contentious land distribution programme in 2000. Since then, 4,000 white Zimbabwean farmers have been driven from their land, along with 300,000 black Zimbabwean farm workers. The "white farms" were redistributed among landless black supporters of Mugabe's Zanu PF party and so-called "war veterans". These must have displayed an extraordinary precocity since, at the time that Zimbabwe was struggling to gain independence from Britain, many of the "veterans" were still in nappies. These fighting prodigies have, however, no understanding of agriculture, and although Mugabe rewarded them with farms, he provided them with neither equipment nor seeds. Even the government has now admitted that at least 40 per cent of the farms that kept Zimbabwe in such abundance are now lying fallow, with the rest producing far less than their potential. The lack of food is a man-made, not a natural disaster. None the less, Mugabe looks bent on continuing with his policy of land reform. Legislation is to be passed soon to speed up the process of land acquisition. This will be welcome news to the ruling élite: Jonathan Moyo, the former union heavyweight-turned-information minister, is said to have acquired at least three of the farms expropriated by "war veterans". Moyo, however, may have other problems at the moment. During his union days, he published a book, Voting for Democracy, which lambasted, of all things, Mugabe's land-acquisition programme. Much to the author's embarrassment, the book is supposed to be a bestseller in Zimbabwe - among those who can still afford to buy a book, that is.
The Zimbabwean dollar has become virtually worthless. It has been pegged to the US dollar for the past nine months at 824 to one, but $1 now fetches up to Z$6,000 on the black market. Inflation has reached 619 per cent, and even the finance minister admits that it's about to get a lot worse. Prices are so ludicrous that ordinary Zimbabweans are unable to buy even basic items. Bread is Z$2,500 one morning, Z$3,000 the next. In November, the price of a pair of glasses was Z$1.2m, 10 times what it was a year ago. If you manage to find petrol at all, a litre will set you back a staggering Z$4,000. It used to be Z$65. Around 70 per cent of the population are unemployed, and those who don't lose their jobs are forced to give them up because their wages barely cover the bus fare. Galloping inflation depreciates the value of salaries, and pushes even low-income employees into the highest tax bracket of 45 per cent. In fact, when a rumour started that the security thread in the Z$500 note contained traces of platinum, thousands cut them up and smuggled the supposedly valuable metal over the border to South Africa. I took a plane to the Victoria Falls. The regular bus service had been suspended because of the fuel shortage. I had to carry my money hidden on my body, as police stationed at random road blocks were confiscating foreign currency. The Falls were once Zimbabwe's biggest tourist attraction, but tour operators there told me that business is down a staggering 70 per cent. The "traditional dances" performed outside Vic Falls airport smacked of a government-orchestrated exercise in damage control.
Faced with the utter ruination of their country, Mugabe and Co comport themselves with brazen cynicism. Their policies are driving Zimbabwe ever deeper into bankruptcy, but ministers and administrative officials are earning a fortune by buying dollars at the official exchange rate and trading them on the "parallel" market. To get around the problem of the useless banknotes, the government has invented so-called "bearer cheques", a kind of Monopoly money. But there is a snag: the money is only valid until early 2004. Zimbabweans, who have cultivated a particularly bleak sense of humour, have another name for them: "burial cheques". As puns go, this one isn't very funny when you consider that for Zimbabweans, burials have become an all-too-frequent ritual. A recent study found that in the past year, 90 per cent of all households had cared for a terminally ill person. The HIV-Aids epidemic in Zimbabwe has reached horrifying proportions: every week it is estimated to kill between 3,000 and 4,000 people. The health-care system has effectively collapsed, with trained Zimbabwean medical personnel fleeing the country for greener pastures in the UK and elsewhere. Hundreds of thousands of children have been orphaned by the disease, and no one knows who will look after them. Whoever doesn't die of Aids or starvation runs the risk of becoming a victim of political violence. The day I arrived in Bulawayo in late November, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions had called for marches across the country to protest against the government's economic incompetence. Nurses were demanding an 8,000 per cent pay rise. The marches were declared illegal well in advance; Zimbabwe's strict security laws prohibit any kind of protest without police permission. The unions went ahead anyway, and the demonstrations were broken up by riot police. Several hundred protesters and trade union leaders were arrested in Bulawayo, Harare and other major cities. I spoke to a doctor who has treated victims of torture. He described how alleged opposition supporters come to him with their soles beaten to a pulp. Women are repeatedly raped by the infamous "Green Bombers'", self-styled militia gangs that are wreaking havoc on communities. Even children are punished - in government hospitals, doctors refuse to vaccinate the children of opposition supporters.
"Mugabe has destroyed our country," declares Pius Ncube, the Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo. At first glance, the priest seems reserved, almost shy; but appearances are deceptive. The tall man with the thick horn-rimmed glasses is a relentless campaigner for human rights, and the most prominent Zimbabwean critic of the Mugabe regime. When news spread that Ncube had suffered a stroke, people rushed to his residence, sick with anxiety. We've arranged to meet at a retreat two hours' drive from Bulawayo, and I'm beginning to wonder whether "they" have found out that I'm a journalist when police stop our car for the second time. But we get through, and when I arrive at the rendezvous, Ncube is in high spirits. "The government wanted to bribe me with a farm as well," he jokes, "but I was able to resist the temptation." He continues on a more sober note. "Here, people disappear overnight. Others are tortured, the press is under siege, and the freedom of assembly is restricted. In the first four months of this year, 180 people starved to death in my diocese alone. Young girls and boys are turning to prostitution simply in order to survive." The archbishop is a thorn in the side of the government. Jonathan Moyo tries to discredit him by calling him a "crazy priest", and a "very troubled soul". But the government can't ignore Ncube because he refuses to keep quiet. "Yes, I get threats," he admits. "But they've silenced everybody else. Someone has to speak for the people." Ncube's uncompromising stance has earned him a reputation as "the voice of the voiceless". But although he is highly regarded in the West, his appeals to Zimbabwe's neighbours fall on deaf ears. In September he gave a press conference in Johannesburg alongside former members of Mugabe's youth militia. The ex-militiamen described how they had participated in the rape, torture and murder of the government's opponents. Ncube accused African leaders of being blind to human- rights abuses in Zimbabwe: "African leaders are a club of rich men who don't care about their own people."
However, Mugabe waited in vain for an invitation from the Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo to attend the recent summit of Commonwealth heads in Abuja. Zimbabwe was suspended from the Commonwealth after the farcical general election in March 2002, in which Mugabe clung to power for the fifth time amid accusations of violence, intimidation and electoral fraud. In December, despite the opposition of some of Zimbabwe's neighbours, the Commonwealth voted overwhelmingly in favour of extending the suspension. As a result, Mugabe announced the withdrawal of his country from the organisation. The dispute over how to deal with Zimbabwe has shaken the Commonwealth. Although several African and Asian countries also voted against him, Mugabe and others are playing the race card and accusing "white" countries of hijacking the organisation. His petulant decision can, however, only increase his country's isolation - and the suffering of the Zimbabwean people.
Ludger Schadomsky and Charlotte Collins
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From VOA News, 8 January
First case of political violence in Zimbabwe in New Year
Harare - One opposition activist was killed and at least two more injured in the first reported case of political violence this year in Zimbabwe. Victims say they were attacked by members of the ruling Zanu PF party. The dead man has been identified by his friends as Alexander Chibega, a peasant farmer who returned to his home area 40-kilometers north of Harare a month ago. He was reportedly buried immediately after his body was found by people in the area. His neighbors say he was a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and has been living in Harare since violence erupted in his home district shortly before the 2002 presidential election. According to two of his friends, now in a Harare hospital, Mr. Chibega and others were attacked late Monday by a crowd of about 40 ruling-party youths. The dead man's wife was taken to a nearby government hospital. One of the injured, 60-year-old Enias Mutsonobaya, was taken to a private hospital in Harare, where he underwent surgery. Human-rights monitors and medical staff treating him and at least one other person injured in the same attack, say Mr. Mutsonobaya had also recently returned to his village, Madziwa, that he fled for safety reasons two-years ago . Because of political violence, the area where the dead man and his injured friends come from is considered a no-go area for many reporters and human-rights workers. Assistant commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena says police are investigating the incident.
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From News24 (SA), 8 January
Children dying of hunger
Bulawayo - Sixty-five people, most of them children under the age of five, have died of malnutrition and other hunger-related causes in the Zimbabwean city of Bulawayo over the past five months, the city authorities said. In a report released this week, the Bulawayo City Council said 43 people died of malnutrition between August and September last year while 22 others succumbed to hunger between October and December. The report says the highest number of malnutrition deaths in the city, the country's second largest, were of babies and children between the age of one month and five years. Among the dead were three adults aged between 60 and 70. The deaths come just before expected publication by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee, a coalition of humanitarian aid agencies, of its assessment of the food situation in urban areas. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that the food situation is becoming critical in the country's urban areas, which have not been spared food shortages and drought. Last June the WFP launched an international appeal for $197m to feed more than five million people facing starvation in Zimbabwe but there is still a $111m shortfall. A Market Assistance Pilot Programme launched last year by the US Agency for International Development to provide urban dwellers with cheaper sorghum meal has benefitted only some of them, the authorities say.
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From The Financial Gazette, 8 January
ENG saga: Chiyangwa implicated
Zhean Gwaze
Maverick business magnate and Zanu PF chairman for Mashonaland West Province, Phillip Chiyangwa, has been caught up in Zimbabwe’s worst financial scam that exploded recently at ENG Capital Asset Management involving a massive Z$61 billion. The controversial legislator is being accused of interfering with one of the complainants in the unfolding ENG saga, which has seen two of the asset management company’s directors arraigned before the Harare magistrates courts. Chiyangwa, known as a fierce proponent for black economic empowerment, allegedly tried to persuade a director of Elan Sussie Financial Advisory Service to withdraw charges preferred against ENG and settle the matter out of court. Elan Sussie Advisory Service claims to have been defrauded of over $259 million invested with ENG. Contacted for comment yesterday, the Zanu PF legislator said he only tried to arrange a "deal" with Patrice Dhliwayo, one of the directors of Elan Sussie over their $259 million debt before the arrest of the ENG bosses, Nyasha Watyoka (28) and Gilbert Muponda (32).
Appearing in the Harare magistrates courts yesterday, Chiyangwa said Watyoka sent a message on his mobile phone on December 27 2003 at 8:37pm indicating that ENG directors were having a meeting at Chiedza House, Harare with the directors of Elan Sussie, who had brought in Central Intelligence Organisation officers. The legislator had to pass his mobile around for court officials to view the message he had saved. At that time, Chiyangwa said, they were demanding $18 billion, which they had invested in ENG. Chiyangwa went to the place and advised the directors of both Elan Sussie and ENG to settle their scores at the police station. He later followed them to the Harare Central Police Station where the legislator spoke to the officer-in-charge after he found both parties arguing outside. The court had to be adjourned before Chiyangwa finished his presentation because court officials had to make transport arrangements for the accused ENG directors.
Sources interviewed by The Financial Gazette yesterday said it was puzzling that the police claimed to have recovered two cars belonging to the two ENG directors at Chiyangwa’s home. It is suspected that Chiyangwa had also tried to assist ENG directors in getting the regulatory approvals for Century Discount House, which they acquired from Century Holdings for Z$1.5 billion. It was not immediately clear whether the legislator was offering his services for free. Chiyangwa told The Financial Gazette that Muponda and Watyoka had left their two cars, and not eight, when they were picked up by police at his home. "The two cars were fetched from my house by the police and it is in their statements that the number of cars was two. The guys never stayed at my house and these reports are only meant to dramatise the issue. Those are irresponsible remarks by the prosecutor because I am a Zimbabwean and politician, what is so funny about my association with anyone?" he asked.
A Criminal Investigations Department Inspector Magwenzi confirmed in court that the police had found two vehicles at Chiyangwa’s house. "We were told by the accused that Chiyangwa had three cars and we persuaded him to surrender the cars, but he refused. Muponda was then given a chance to phone Chiyangwa by some of the officers and he said ‘mudhara vapei mota iyoyo’. We phoned Chiyangwa again and told him he was interfering with the court of justice and he indicated that the other vehicle was with Vivian Mwashita," Magwenzi said. The other car was found parked at Chiyangwa’s house, while the other was being driven by Chiyangwa’s son. Watyoka and Muponda also left some Century Holdings share certificates, which they had brought with them to discuss their deepening predicament. Chiyangwa said he was only trying to assist the ENG directors because of his political connection with Watyoka. "Watyoka comes from Mhondoro in my province and his uncle is the one who stepped down for me to get a provincial seat. It was when the young men were briefing me about their problems that I decided to assist them because I noted that Watyoka had an affiliation to the Zanu PF ruling party. That is how politics works," he said.
He said his association with the Watyokas dated back to the Zanu PF congress in 1999 held in the capital during which the party’s politburo blocked Chiyangwa’s nomination to the central committee on the grounds that he did not hold a party provincial post at the time. Levi Watyoka, he claimed, stepped down from the Mashonaland West provincial executive to pave way for Chiyangwa as the province pressed on with his failed nomination. The flamboyant businessman said Watyoka and fellow ENG director Muponda phoned him just before their arrest on new year’s eve seeking assistance on how to solve their mounting problems. He said he had associated with the directors because of his history as a champion of black empowerment and he had assisted them in negotiating out-of-court settlements with some of the disgruntled investors. He however, refused to name them. The names of the investors who had agreed to an out-of-court settlement were handed over to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe before the arrest of the directors, according to the legislator.
Chiyangwa revealed that he had also brokered a truce between ENG and the African Banking Corporation (ABC) when the two had a fallout involving $1 billion in 2002. The legislator described as alarmist and sensationalist the assertion by the state media that eight cars belonging to the troubled ENG were found parked at his Borrowdale home. Chiyangwa said he could have averted the arrest of the two, but their lawyers took over the case and sidelined him in the process. "It is hysterical to criminalise matters of money because the directors of Unibank (Universal Merchant Bank) and ZBS (Zimbabwe Building Society) were not arrested when they had problems. We are the ruling party and the policies we make should determine our pace. It will not help me recover my money to go to the police or court."
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From Business Day (SA), 9 January
Zimbabwe crisis may give surprise lift to SA's banks
Tight regulation may be unexpected benefit
Financial Services Correspondent
Despite Zimbabwe's escalating banking crisis, South African and foreign banks have no plans to pull out of the country and could, in fact, even benefit from the fallout in the sector. Seven of the 16 banks in Zimbabwe are now suspended from using the country's system for settling interbank debt because of concerns that they could not pay other banks. While some companies are now refusing to take bank cheques, panic has caused many depositors to remove their money from more vulnerable banks. Absa, Nedcor and Standard Bank have major stakes in three Zimbabwean banks while Standard Chartered and Barclays also own banks in the country. While these foreign banks say their Zimbabwean banks are safe, they have voiced concern that the crisis could destabilise the entire banking sector. SA's opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) said yesterday that Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni and registrar of banks Errol Kruger should "urgently launch an inquiry into the impact of the Zimbabwean banking crisis on the banks in SA that have major equity stakes or subsidiaries active in Zimbabwe". DA finance spokeswoman Raenette Taljaard said "legitimate fears exist that the escalating inflation and banking sector crisis in Zimbabwe will have severe spillover effects into SA's highly concentrated banking sector".
However, Barclays, Standard Chartered, Absa, Standard and Nedcor all confirmed this week they had no plans to pull out of Zimbabwe. One analyst in Zimbabwe said the crisis was actually benefiting large foreignowned banks as panicked depositors shifted money to them, perceiving them to be less vulnerable. John Kivits, Standard Chartered's CEO in SA, said yesterday that stable foreign players could benefit from the crisis: "In a situation such as the one in Zimbabwe, there is a tendency for a flight to quality and that is apparently what is happening. We expect the long-established banks to be the recipients of this." Barclays Africa head of retail Andy Rigg said Barclays was "extremely concerned" about the stability of the banking environment but said "we have experienced people both taking money out and new deposits coming in, so hopefully we will get stronger through this". For a number of banks in Zimbabwe, however, the situation is on a knife-edge. The seven banks suspended from settling interbank debt because of liquidity concerns are believed to be the Trust Bank, Time Bank of Zimbabwe, Metropolitan Bank, Century Bank, the Agricultural Bank of Zimbabwe, Royal Bank and the Barbican Bank which have combined assets of Z$501bn. A Zimbabwean banking source said there could be "financial sector casualties" with some banks failing, as Zimbabwe's reserve bank said it would not bale out banks with liquidity problems.
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From News24 (SA), 8 January
Bleak Christmas for Zim retail
Harare - Prices of some commodities, particularly furniture and electrical goods, have started dropping drastically in Zimbabwe, but a crisis in the banking sector continues to hound depositors. Economists say businesses are trying to raise as much cash as they can to invest on the money market, where interest rates have shot to more than 700%. Retail shops, awash with goods that had been stocked up last year in anticipation of huge Christmas sales which did not materialise, have started reducing their prices. A leading furniture retail group with more than 30 shops across the country, this week started offering a 40% discount on all its merchandise on sale, a move not seen in the country in recent years. Zimbabwe's prices have been on an upward trend since the 1990s, with inflation galloping from around 50% 30 months ago to more than 600% now. Some retailers are reducing prices due to the introduction on January 1 of a value added tax (VAT) which is seeing some goods that were taxed at 25% under the old sales tax system now attracting a lower rate of 15%. Foreign exchange rates on the parallel market - on which virtually all foreign currency business is traded - have plunged with one greenback now buying about Z$4 500, compared to 6 200 early last month.
Meantime the banking sector, which has been gripped by a crisis since the closure on New Year's Day of a leading asset management firm which allegedly defrauded its clients of billions of dollars, has left many current account holders in the cold as their cheques are no longer accepted for payment of goods and services. Supermarkets, companies and the capital city's municipality have blacklisted at least six recently established commercial banks, rejecting cheques drawn on them. Several banks have been experiencing liquidity difficulties in recent days after the central bank recently launched a probe into their operations believing they were involved in clandestine speculative activities. The liquidity crisis comes just months after a severe four-months-long shortage last year of bank notes that forced the government to introduce several forms of payment, including bearer cheques and local traveller's cheques. The central bank has predicted the rate of inflation to initially rise to more than 700% in the first quarter of this year, but has targeted it to drop to 200% by year end.
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From The Financial Gazette, 8 January
More media restrictions on the way
Staff Reporter
In what could provoke widespread concern, Zimbabwe’s media regulatory authorities are reportedly mulling plans to tighten the current registration requirements as the future of The Daily News and its sister weekly, The Daily News on Sunday, increasingly appear perilous. Impeccable government sources said the Media and Information Commission (MIC) and the Department of Information and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet were formulating amendments to the law in order to tinker with the registration requirements. The sources said an additional requirement that a majority shareholder in a media house should also be a resident of Zimbabwe could be included. Currently the law only states that a majority shareholder should be a citizen of Zimbabwe, but the new amendments could see the majority shareholders being required to be resident in the country as well.
"There was a meeting last week to discuss possible changes to registration requirements and one change that is likely to be introduced is the requirement that the majority shareholder of a media organisation should be a permanent resident of Zimbabwe," a source told The Financial Gazette this week. "This would be over and above the requirement that the majority shareholder should be a citizen of Zimbabwe . . . in other words, one has to be a citizen of Zimbabwe who is a permanent resident of Zimbabwe." The ANZ, which publishes The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday, is battling to get registered after it was forcibly closed by the government in September last year for allegedly operating without a licence after it lost its Supreme Court challenges to the requirement that it registers with the MIC. The ANZ’s majority shareholder, Strive Masiyiwa, resides in South Africa. The executive chairman of the MIC, Tafataona Mahoso, pleaded ignorance of any such moves, saying that if there were any, there could be taking place in the law-making process of which the MIC is not part to. "It is ridiculous to ask me about such things because laws are made by Parliament . . . all we are there for is to implement the laws not to make them," Mahoso said. "There is no Parliament here (at the MIC)."
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From ThisDay (Nigeria), 7 January
FG woos southern African farmers
From Andy Ekugo in Abuja
There were indications yesterday that the Federal Government may have given its approval for fleeing farmers from the Southern African sub-region to come to Nigeria to invest in what has been described as large scale integrated farming. This was the issue before the meeting of a Committee which was formed to work out the modalities "on Southern African farmers and investment opportunities in Nigeria" hosted by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Malam Adamu Bello, in Abuja yesterday. The meeting was at the instance of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Members of the Committee are governors of Oyo, Ogun, Nasarawa, Kwara, Kaduna, Ebonyi, Cross River, Benue and Adamawa. The rest are the National Security Adviser (NSA) Lt. General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau (rtd), who was absent and the Economic Adviser to the President, Prof. Charles Soludo. Bello in his speech at the opening ceremony said "these large scale farmers are leaving the Southern African sub-region and seeking investment opportunities elsewhere and some of them have identified Nigeria as a possible place for investment." He added that the forum was for an articulated "discussion on the opportunities and to coordinate our positions and take a collective decision on the best approaches."
ThisDay investigations, however, reveal that the Southern African sub-region farmers who are interested in settling and "investing" in Nigeria are mostly those who were expelled from Zimbabwe. They first came to Nigeria in the initiation of Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, after which the Federal Government took over the initiative. The meeting also explored possible advantages derivable from the expected influx of those farmers more especially in the area of technology transfer since according to Bello, Southern African sub-region farming is "highly mechanised and profit oriented with effective cooperative system." Areas that the farmers are interested in are in the livestock sub-sector under which are dairy production and processing, beef production and processing, veterinary drugs and vaccines production, small ruminants-sheep and goat production, animal feed production and day-old chick production. Others include poultry eggs processing for mayonnaise and ice cream production, ostrich and quail farming. Under the crop sub-sector, the interests are mostly on rice and maize production, roots crops processing, oil seed production and processing, cocoa production as well as rubber and sugar cane production and processing. Also areas of interest expand to the fisheries sub sector, which include industrial fishing and canning and aquaculture development under which ornamental fish and fingerling productions are of major interests. Furthermore, the Committee would also work out the modalities for the advantages of rural development, which was highlighted as rural energy supply.
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From News24 (SA), 9 January
$61bn Zim fraud: 2 held in jail
Harare - Two top Zimbabwean company directors, accused of stealing millions of dollars in investor funds, will stay in jail until their trial is over, a magistrate's court ruled Friday. Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe turned down an application by Gilbert Muponda and Nyasha Watyoka - accused of defrauding several clients of more than Z$61bn (about R515m) - to be released from police custody on bail. The two allegedly diverted clients' money, which was intended for investment on the money market, to buying properties in Zimbabwe and overseas, as well as to import luxury vehicles. The magistrate said: "It is not in the interest of justice to grant the accused bail at this stage. The court is satisfied that clearly an offence was committed." The magistrate said the two, who had assets overseas, were likely to abscond if freed on bail because of the seriousness of the charges they faced. He cited international corporate scandals such as the Enron case in the United States and Parmalat in Italy, saying it was the responsibility of courts worldwide to ensure depositors' funds were protected. The fraud case has sparked a crisis in Zimbabwe's financial sector that has seen a run on deposits by panicky investors. The two were directors of ENG Asset Management that was running Century Discount House, which was closed by the central bank on New Year's Day. Police seized 18 high-priced, late-model vehicles apparently owned by the businessmen, both aged 32, during the investigations into the scandal.
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From Reuters, 9 January
Will Zim's cash crisis bite Mugabe's backers?
By Cris Chinaka
Harare - A financial crisis unfolding in Zimbabwe's banking sector is threatening the political careers and wealth of some of President Robert Mugabe's top supporters in the business community, analysts said on Friday. A week after police arrested two company directors accused of defrauding billions of dollars in investor funds, Zimbabwe is awash with speculation that a central bank drive to clamp down on speculative activity, and its vow not to bail out banks in trouble, could take down the propertied and powerful. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) drive has already seen a run on deposits on six mainly black-owned banks, some owned by members of Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party who regard themselves as champions of his government's black empowerment programme. Police and local media allegations that Philip Chiyangwa - a flamboyant businessman, member of parliament and Zanu-PF provincial chairperson - tried to block the detention of the two directors of asset management firm ENG Capital has fed the gossip about who might be heading for a fall. The two directors appeared in court on Tuesday on fraud charges involving more than Z$61-billion (about R490-million) in investor funds, becoming the first legal casualties of a crisis analysts say could push some companies to collapse. Chiyangwa has gone to court as a defence witness supporting the two men's release, saying he has no business interests in the firm but wants a political and legal arrangement that does not endanger black economic advancement.
But analysts say Chiyangwa's reaction reflected worries among the political-business elite that the central bank's tighter supervision of banks and asset management firms could cut into their fortunes, made partly from illegal foreign currency deals. "If the Reserve Bank continues on this path, those who have been building their wealth on illegal deals, or by acting as brokers, are going to go down," said Zimbabwe political analyst Professor Heneri Dzinotyiwei. Dzinotyiwei said it was too early to be certain, but it looked like Mugabe - battling a severe economic crisis blamed on government mismanagement - was cracking down on corruption to ease political pressure on Zanu PF before general parliamentary elections next year. "Some of his supporters and officials might get ruined in a crackdown on corruption, and in his efforts to try to bring order into the economy but from a political point of view, the crackdown would be popular with the people," he told Reuters. And Mugabe has shown he is not afraid to bring down the rich and powerful, if it means securing his own position. Dzinotyiwei recalled how in 1989 Mugabe, facing a fierce electoral challenge the next year from his former political lieutenant Edgar Tekere, undermined Tekere's charges that he was soft on corruption by purging cabinet ministers and state officials accused of selling cars on the black market. "It's too early to say, but we might just be seeing the start of another purge," Dzinotyiwei said. The financial crisis has triggered an 18 percent drop in the Zimbabwe stock market in the past week as investors balk at financial stocks which have driven the bourse in recent years.
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 9 January
Victory for Daily News
The High Court on Friday ordered the police to vacate the premises of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), enabling the publishing group to resume printing its two newspaper titles. ANZ, publisher of the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday, had filed a spoliation application, asking the court to compel the police to vacate its town office and printing factory. The police have been stationed at the company's premises since 19 December, when the Administrative Court granted it an order allowing it to resume publishing. ANZ has been barred from publishing its newspapers since September. Friday's order was granted by High Court judge Justice Tendai Uchena, and, according to ANZ legal representative Advocate Eric Matinenga, 'means the newspaper can start publishing'. Fatima Maxwell, the chief law officer in the Attorney General's Office, who represented the police, had initially sought a postponement of the hearing, saying she had not received instructions from her clients. She changed her mind after the arrival at Justice Uchena's chambers of respondents Chief Inspector Ndlovu, Inspector Crispen Makedenge and Inspector Dhliwayo from Harare Central Police Station's Law and Order Section. Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri was the fourth respondent but he did not file an affidavit in the matter.
Chihuri's three junior officers brought two-page affidavits each to the hearing, in which they said they were preventing the publication of ANZ's newspapers because the Media and Information Commission (MIC) had lodged a complaint with the police. The government-appointed Commission is tasked with registering all journalists and media houses in Zimbabwe. Maxwell on Friday concurred with Matinenga that her clients had "misdirected themselves" when they occupied ANZ's premises. Matinenga told the court that the police had no legal right to occupy ANZ's premises, and that they were defying court orders which gave the company the right to publish. Friday's court victory was the publishing group's fourth since September last year, when the Supreme Court ordered it to register with the MIC. ANZ had made the decision not to register with the MIC, and instead had challenged the constitutionality of sections of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which requires media houses to register with the Commission. The Supreme Court, however, indicated last September that it could not hear the constitutional challenge until ANZ complied with the law. When ANZ attempted to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling, the MIC denied it a licence. However, the Administrative Court has twice said the publishing group should be licenced and allowed to resume publishing, orders which have been ignored by the police.
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From AFP, 10 January
Zimbabwe opposition leader remanded on treason charges
Zimbabwean Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai appeared briefly before a Harare magistrate on Friday, for a routine remand hearing on treason charges arising from mass anti-government protests he organised last year. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader was remanded to March 19 on accusations that he urged Zimbabweans to oust President Robert Mugabe during the June protests. Mr Tsvangirai told AFP he had been further remanded but would not elaborate. The state accuses Mr Tsvangirayi of inciting his supporters to overthrow the government and inciting public violence. The Opposition leader, who faces other treason charges, denied that the strikes and street marches were aimed at removing the long-time leader from power. He said they were a demonstration of public anger toward economic and social strife that people were going through last year. Zimbabwe last year experienced acute shortages of food, fuel and bank notes. Mr Tsvangirai faces another treason charge arising from his meetings with a Canadian political consultant, Ari Ben Menashe, in which he is accused of plotting to kill Mr Mugabe ahead of presidential elections in 2002. That case, which adjourned last month, resumes on January 19, when the Opposition chief is expected to take the witness stand for the first time since the high-profile trial began in February last year. Treason carries a death penalty in Zimbabwe.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 9 January
Muchena, Mahofa compete for hearts
Itai Dzamara
Zanu PF MPs Olivia Muchena and Shuvai Mahofa of Mutoko South and Gutu South respectively have threatened to stop donors from distributing food relief in their constituencies, as villagers no longer attend party meetings and rallies. There are however good turnouts when donors come in to distribute food in the constituencies. Sources said Muchena addressed a meeting at Nyamakosi Village in her constituency last month at which she threatened to stop donor agency World Vision from distributing food aid in the area. People had stopped participating in Zanu PF activities and had defected to the donors, Muchena is reported as having said. Muchena, who is also the Minister of Science and Technology, yesterday denied making the threat and said there were people putting words into her mouth. "That is not my language. I am having problems with people who are putting words into my mouth," said Muchena. "Definitely not me. I can't respond to those who are saying that I am not doing anything for my constituency, let them tell you. But I am doing my work just like I have done in the past nine years."
This paper witnessed Mahofa trying to hijack a meeting between villagers and Care International at Mutanga Business Centre in Gutu South and convert it into a rally just before Christmas. The embattled Zanu PF MP arrived at the business centre with an entourage of supporters and tried to take over from the donor agency's officials who were preparing to distribute food relief to the villagers. "I am not happy with the approach you have towards party meetings and activities," said Mahofa. "It appears your hearts have been taken away by these donors. We will stop them if they make you forget where you are coming from or going," said Mahofa. However, the villagers dispersed in all directions as soon as Mahofa took over the meeting, with some hurling abuse at her. Efforts by Mahofa's helpers to stop the crowd from moving off were unsuccessful.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 9 January
Battle for control of Kondozi turns ugly
Augustine Mukaro
The battle to control the multi-billion dollar Kondozi farm in Odzi turned ugly this week when Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) workers supported by Zanu PF youths violently clashed with farm workers. The Arda workers and Zanu PF supporters wanted to evict Kondozi staff to take control of the farm. Three people were reportedly injured in the scuffle. The 224-hectare horticultural products project with a turnover of US$15 million and employing around 5 000 workers has been at the centre of controversy with Lands and Agriculture minister Joseph Made spearheading its invasion on Christmas day. The property is registered as an Export Processing Zone farm and is only second to Mitchell & Mitchell of Marondera in horticultural production.
Highly-placed sources at the farm told the Zimbabwe Independent there was a shooting incident at Kondozi farm on Tuesday as Arda staff tried to evict workers. "More than three shots were fired as an 11-member-gang of Zanu PF youths led by an Arda employee, only identified as Zuze, fought running battles with Kondozi workers," officials at Kondozi said. Sources said Zuze was armed during the invasion and is understood to have fired the shots. Kondozi farm owner Edwin Masimba Moyo confirmed the incident. "A group of 11 people, comprising Arda employees and unemployed youths, attempted to forcibly grab office keys from our management team," Moyo said. "Sensing danger, the management sounded an alarm to which all our workers responded resulting in a scuffle with the invading group. Zuze fired at our workers. Three of our workers were injured in the process," he said. He said the case has been reported to Mutare police.
Moyo said he was not contesting the acquisition of the farm but wants permission to remove his equipment. "Even in my High Court case, my argument was never about the land but how I should remove my equipment. "Arda, acting on instructions from Made, is stopping us from taking our equipment and for as long as they are standing in my way the battle is still on," he said. Moyo said he wanted to give the equipment to the out-growers so that they can continue supplying products for the export project. This week government in a story carried by the Herald quoting an unidentified government source, labelled Moyo an Uncle Tom who was a front for Piet de Klerk from whom he is leasing the farm. Moyo this week said he is the major shareholder in the project with a 52% stake while de Klerk and Adrian Zeederberg own 24% apiece.
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From ZWNEWS: The following article appeared in the print edition of the Mail & Guardian of 1-8 January, in the section entitled Not the Mail & Guardian. Below it is the response from The Herald. Make of it what you will...
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 1-8 January
Luxury wine estate for Bob
Not the M&G reporter
Sources close to Not the Mail & Guardian have revealed that a luxury wine estate near Stellenbosch, including it's winery and classic Cape Dutch homestead, has been acquired by the Department of Foreign Affairs. The estate and it's building are being prepared and will be set aside as a retirement home for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. It is understood that certain alterations and additions, mainly to do with increased security, are being installed. These are believed to include the erection of a 6 metre high-tension electric fence and armed sentry posts. The reported cost of the estate Rust Ain Kalmheidt (Original High Dutch for rest and calmness) was in excess of R32-million. The purchase was approved by the Cabinet as a "gesture of goodwill to one of Africa's bravest fighters and most strident voices against the evils of colonialism". It is believed the Cabinet was unanimous in it's decision to purchase the property.
By the time the Not the M&G went to the press there had been no response to questions put by fax to the Department of Foreign Affairs. One of these questions was whether the purchase of a retirement residence for Mugabe was necessary in the light of his already having commissioned a R72 - million rand luxury retirement palace outside Harare. A Not the M&G reporter telephoned the Department of Foreign Affairs. A man identifying himself as a junior member of the department, said he had picked up a phone entirely by mistake when he heard it "going on and on ringing". Asked about the purchase of the wine estate he said he had no clearance to speak on behalf of the department or the minister. "all the important foreign affairs people are overseas on another one of Thabo Mbeki's state visits. We haven't see them for months."
Pressed, he said that, speaking entirely off the record, he understood that the opinion in the department was that in Zimbabwe there would always be a threat to the personal safety of Mugabe from "those traitorous elements in Zimbabwe society who refuse to acknowledge the statesmanlike and visionary leadership of Mugabe", Who he describes as "a titan of the African soil." There had to be somewhere completely safe for him, and of a style appropriate and fitting for his eminence among world leaders. The foreign affairs staff member refused to give his name. Asked to comment on the purchase of the wine estate, Douglas Gibson of the Democratic Alliance said he would do so as soon as he'd got in a new supply of Extra Strength Prozac.
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From The Herald, 9 January
President has no properties outside Zim: Government
Harare - President Mugabe has no properties outside Zimbabwe and is not setting up any in South Africa or anywhere else in the world, the Government said yesterday. In a statement yesterday, the Department of Information and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet dismissed a report in the South African Mail and Guardian of January 1 to 8 which alleged that a luxury wine estate in Cape Town was being prepared for Cde Mugabe when he retires. "The New Year edition of the South African Mail and Guardian 1-8 January 2004 greets its readers with the uninspired, old and jarring song about President Mugabe owning properties across Zimbabwe's borders. Faithful to its mission to attack Zimbabwe's resounding and irreversible land acquisition through petty and fictitious denigration of the President, the newspaper alleges that a luxury wine estate in Cape Town is being prepared for the retirement of the Zimbabwean President. The Department of Information and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet wishes to dismiss this latest fib from the Mail and Guardian with utmost contempt."
The department said the President has previously denied that he owns any property outside Zimbabwe. "He has said so times without number! The Mail and Guardian and its sister newspapers in Britain have tried to concoct stories suggesting that President Mugabe possesses mansions, castles and chateaus in Scotland and France. None of these allegations has been substantiated by anyone including the British government." The department said the President had not only denied owning such properties but had also tirelessly challenged those making the claims to identify and produce proof of such ownership. He has also repeatedly stated that if any property was found to belong to him, it should be sold by the relevant authorities and the proceeds given to charity. "The Mail and Guardian, like all white-owned and apartheid tainted South African newspapers, may continue to make headlines against President Mugabe but they will not take away the passionate and emotional admiration that the President enjoys amongst the black masses of South Africa. The department said the popular applause that greeted the President's address at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 was the only one of the many instances that bear testimony to the respect given to him by the majority of South Africa's black population. "There can be no greater futility for any South African media, however, steeped in apartheid, than to try and attach blemish to the Zimbabwe land reform."
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 10 January
Zimbabwean editor jailed
Staff report and agencies
Harare - Police arrested the editor of Zimbabwe's leading independent weekly newspaper on Saturday and two of his journalists after the paper allegedly insulted President Robert Mugabe, the editor's lawyer said. Iden Wetherell, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, a respected business and political weekly, was expected to be charged with criminal defamation of Mugabe, said their lawyer Linda Cook. The paper reported on Friday that Mugabe commandeered one of the heavily indebted national airline's jets for a vacation with his family and a small party of aides in Asia. It was as recent as Wednesday that the Mail & Guardian Online published a "By Invitation" column by Wetherell in which he laments the repressive conditions under which Zimbabwe's independent press operates. Cook said Wetherell (55) was arrested at his Harare home and taken to the main Harare police station. She said reporters Dumisani Muleya and Vincent Kahiya were arrested later and police were looking for a third Independent reporter, Itai Dzamera. Trevor Ncube, CEO of the Mail & Guardian’s holding company, M&G Media, and owner of the Independent, on Saturday night told the Mail & Guardian Online the arrest was a "very clear indication of the kind of repressive regime that Zimbabweans are having to deal with. As the regime gets desperate you’re going to see more and more of this." Ncube said his lawyers had visited the men in the Harare Central Prison on Saturday evening and it seemed Wetherell and the journalists would only be released on Monday. Ncube said his staff would continue to carry out their responsibilities as journalists in Zimbabwe and that the arrest had fortified their resolve. "We need to do the right thing … it exposes the lie of Robert Mugabe’s regime," said Ncube.
Headed Mugabe grabs plane for Far East holiday, the report said many passengers booked on the Boeing 767's scheduled flights to London were stranded in Harare while alternative flight arrangements were made. Mugabe has taken several vacations in Southeast Asia with his new wife Grace and their children since he and other ruling party leaders were barred from visiting Europe and the United States under visa restrictions imposed after disputed presidential elections in 2002. Independent election observers said the polls, narrowly won by Mugabe, were swayed by political violence, corruption and vote rigging. Mugabe was in Indonesia on Wednesday and paid a courtesy call on President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Zimbabwe Information Minister Jonathan Moyo described the Independent's report as "blasphemous," the state Herald reported on Saturday. Moyo, who is also acting transport minister, denied Mugabe personally phoned Air Zimbabwe, as implied in the report, but did not deny the airplane was diverted from its regular schedules for more than five days. Moyo said "this was not the first time the paper has written lies that are blasphemous and disrespectful of the president." Last month, the paper reported Mugabe took an airliner for nine days for a UN meeting in Geneva and a visit to Egypt, forcing the national airline to charter another jet for more than US$1-million. Mugabe does not have his own presidential jet and has often thrown the national carrier's schedules into disarray by commandeering its planes. Moyo said Wetherell and his two reporters faced up to two years' imprisonment for allegedly defaming Mugabe.
Meanwhile, police in Harare on Saturday continued to defy a High Court order issued on Friday to allow the only independent daily newspaper, banned in September, to resume publication. Police blocked entry to the Daily News offices and printing plant for a second day. The government has ignored three similar orders since police shut down the paper on September 12. Since its launch in 1999, the Daily News has been a platform for criticism of Mugabe's 23-year rule. The state controls the country's two other dailies, and the only television and radio stations. Under sweeping media and security laws passed in 2002, at least 18 independent journalists have been arrested and held in police cells, usually for about 48 hours. No-one has yet been convicted. Opposition and labor leaders have frequently been arrested for criticising the government. Few foreign journalists are allowed to enter Zimbabwe, and four have been expelled since 2002.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 9 January
Mugabe grabs plane for Far East holiday
Itai Dzamara/Dumisani Muleya
After commandeering an Air Zimbabwe aircraft to attend a summit on the Information Society in Geneva, Switzerland, last month, President Robert Mugabe this week once again took advantage of the national airline's depleted fleet to ferry him around the Far East. Mugabe, who is on his annual leave, took possession of the same Boeing 767-200 plane while he was in Malaysia to travel to Indonesia and Singapore. The aircraft, an Air Zimbabwe cash cow, plies the Harare-London route and generates about $3 billion a week for the troubled national carrier. High-level sources said Mugabe left the country early last week on an Air Zimbabwe plane to Johannesburg on his way to Malaysia for both a holiday and business.
He left the Air Zimbabwe plane in Johannesburg and proceeded on a commercial flight to Kuala Lumpur. After vacationing for a few days in Malaysia, Mugabe, who is travelling with his family, met the country's new Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for a 30-minute courtesy call on Tuesday. The two leaders discussed trade and investment issues. Badawi recently succeeded Mugabe's close ally, Mahathir Mohamad. Mugabe on Wednesday also met Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri for talks that centred on enhancing economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. Indonesian Foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda said his country could soon send a delegation to Zimbabwe to discuss trade and investment issues. During the meeting, Megawati invited Mugabe to attend the 50th anniversary of the historic Asia/Africa Conference next year. Mugabe said Zimbabwe has decided to open an embassy in Jakarta by the end of this year. Observers in Jakarta said statements by both Wirajuda and Megawati appeared carefully measured to avoid any blanket endorsement of Mugabe.
Sources said Mugabe on Monday called Air Zimbabwe while still in Malaysia to send the 767-200, which had to be dispatched immediately to take him to Jakarta. "He called on Monday and demanded the plane and it was sent to Malaysia immediately," a source said. "The plane left with a number of big containers in it apparently to carry his goods and was due to be away for five days. A lot of passengers travelling between Harare and London who use that plane were left stranded." Mugabe is expected back home today or tomorrow from Singapore where he made his last stop during his trip to the now preferred Far East holiday destinations. Over the past three years Mugabe has taken his holidays in the Far East following the closure to him of European destinations. Early last year the First Couple went to Singapore and brought back large quantities of personal goods. Although he returns to work in early February, Mugabe was understood to be coming home early because his children are due back at school next week. Mugabe's habit of commandeering Air Zimbabwe planes for his personal use has been costing the beleaguered national airline billions of dollars in lost revenue. "Air Zimbabwe will lose more than $3 billion during the five days that he has the plane because this time around we had many passengers travelling to London," a source at the national airline said.
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From Reuters, 10 January
Mugabe's financial ally arrested
Harare - Zimbabwean police have arrested a senior member of the ruling party on charges he tried to prevent the arrest of two company directors accused of defrauding investors of billions of dollars, state television said. "Police have arrested prominent businessman and Chinhoyi member of parliament Comrade Philip Chiyangwa on allegations of obstructing the course of justice in the ENG saga," the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said. Businessman Chiyangwa is a provincial chairperson for President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party. Local media reported this week that he tried to block the arrest of two directors of asset management firm ENG Capital on fraud charges involving over $73-million (about R485-million). ZBC said the flamboyant champion of the government's black economic empowerment drive would also be questioned on charges he threatened a policeman probing his involvement in the case. Police chief spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said he could not immediately confirm the arrest.
On Friday a Harare magistrate rejected the ENG directors' bid for the case to be dropped and denied bail on the grounds they might abscond due to the gravity of the charges. Chiyangwa took the witness stand in court to support the two men's bid for release, but denied having business interest in ENG or trying to interfere with police investigations. He said he had merely tried to facilitate a political and legal settlement to the matter which would not damage black economic advancement. The ENG directors are the first legal casualties of a crisis that has seen some banks grapple with liquidity crunches after a run on deposits by investors scared they might not survive a central bank crackdown on speculative currency trade. Analysts say the crisis threatens the political careers and wealth of some of Mugabe's top backers in the business world. They say the veteran leader, battling an economic crisis blamed on government mismanagement, could crack down on corruption, including within Zanu PF, to ease pressure on the ruling party ahead of parliamentary elections next year. The state Herald reported on Saturday that Vice President Joseph Msika had warned the government would deal sternly with "errant politicians who abuse their positions and threaten law enforcement agents". Mugabe argues the economy has been sabotaged by local and foreign opponents of his drive to redistribute large tracts of white-owned commercial farms among landless blacks.
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From The Sunday Mirror, 11 January
Innocent Chofamba-Sithole, Editor
It never rains but pours for beleaguered Harare businessman and Chinhoyi legislator, Philip Chiyangwa. As news of his arrest and detention at Harare Central Police station emerged yesterday, the Sunday Mirror also learnt of an attempt by the boisterous politician to extort about $400 million from FSI Agricom Holdings as annual rentals for a farm he was illegally leasing to the company in Chinhoyi. Chiyangwa has also allegedly hired thugs to assault FSI Agricom staff and stop them from removing their equipment from the controversy-ridden farm. FSI Agricom’s group human resources director, Edgar Mbwembwe on Friday informed the Sunday Mirror that earlier that day, thugs from the dreaded "Top Six" gang in the town had descended on Old Citrus and assaulted staff who were in the process of removing the company’s equipment from the farm. "FSI Agricom has been in the process of removing its equipment bought well before Mr. Chiyangwa was allocated the farm. The process has been smooth until today 9th January 2004 when a mob violently prevented us from removing our centre pivots," Mbwembwe said. In the ensuing melee, Mbwembwe said, FSI staff, including the general manager, were seriously assaulted. The company has since reported the case to Chinhoyi police and a Superintendant Marisa is handling the matter, although no arrests have been reported yet. "We are reliably informed that the assailants were acting on instruction from Mr. Chiyangwa," Mbwembwe said.
Old Citrus farm formerly belonged to the Nicolle family. Flexing his muscle as Zanu PF provincial chairman in the farmland-rich Mashonaland West province, Chiyangwa evicted the Nicolles in late 2002, notwithstanding the fact that it was their last remaining property and not in line for designation, in keeping with the one man, one farm policy. Also curiously irregular is the fact that Chiyangwa had earlier taken possession of a certain farm in the province but soon discarded it for Old Citrus towards the end of 2002, by which time the farm was already being operated by FSI Agricom under a lease from the Nicolle family. He allegedly told FSI that he was the new landholder and as such, the company had to pay rentals to him. "We paid him $50 million for the previous season. But we also lodged a complaint with the President’s Office when he made these demands," FSI managing director Ivan Savala told the Sunday Mirror on Friday. But Chiyangwa, apparently unperturbed by the lawlessness of his demands, wrote to the company requesting rentals of up to $400 million for the current agricultural season, which FSI refused to pay.
Chiyangwa was not available for comment as he was reported to be in detention at Harare Central Police station yesterday. "VaChiyangwa vasungwa shamwari, vakatovharirwa kutaura kuno (Mr. Chiyangwa has been arrested, he is right now in police custody)," a man who answered the legislator’s mobile phone said, without giving his identity. FSI has ceased operations on Old Citrus farm and is in the process of relocating its equipment to its other operations dotted across the country. "Our decision to move had to do with the fact that it was not permissible under the laws of the country for a beneficiary of land reform to lease a farm, which is state land acquired free of charge," Savala explained. According to Savala, Chiyangwa was now blocking FSI’s removal of its equipment from Old Citrus ostensibly on the basis of the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Acquisition of Farm Equipment or Material Regulations. The recently gazetted Statutory Instrument is intended largely to bar former white commercial farmers from either stashing away farm equipment or transporting it out of the country. "Chiyangwa is using a convenient interpretation of the law to suit his own interests," Savala charged. FSI bought the equipment from Clive Nicholle for $700 million.
Clarifying the policy on leasing state land, Minister of Special Affairs in the Office of the President and chairman of the land implementation committee, John Nkomo said no one was allowed to lease land acquired under the land reform programme. "Once acquired, the land becomes state land. A beneficiary is given a lease by the state, and there obviously are conditions attached to it. But nobody is allowed to lease the land," Nkomo explained. Nkomo would, however, not be drawn into commenting on whether his committee had encountered such cases where beneficiaries of land reform were apparently reaping super profits from leasing state land allocated to them. "With regards such cases, the policy is again as I have explained," he said. However, while the policy appears clearly pronounced, the reality on the ground betrays a disturbing level of confusion and haphazardness. Concern has been raised over the morality of beneficiaries of free land who, instead of engaging in productive activities on the farms as reflected in their applications for land, go on to lease them to third parties for extortionate amounts. Influential politicians, some of whom were the chief authorities in the allocation of land in the country’s provinces, apparently used their political and bureaucratic authority and influence to grab choice farms for themselves which they have gone on to lease to others.
In the wildlife-rich Sikumi Valley in Hwange district, Matabeleland North governor Obert Mpofu has occupied Railway Farms 40 and 41. Viable billion-dollar investments have existed on these lands for years, conducting non-consumptive safari operations which have raked in millions of foreign currency for the country. But last week Mpofu summarily expelled one of these, Touch the Wild safaris, a subsidiary of the Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG), from Kanondo and Khatshana lodges on Farm 40 after the group refused to pay him monthly rentals of up to US$1 500. Earlier, Mpofu had demanded a similar amount from a crucial non-profit making wild dogs conservation project operating on land between farms 39 and 41. The conservation project is the only one of its kind in Zimbabwe and it caters for about 700 of the world’s last remaining 3 500 wild dogs. According to the latest information from Bulawayo, however, Mpofu has whittled down his demand from US$1500 to $1.5 million for the wild dogs project.
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From AFP, 10 January
Zim paper fails to appear despite ruling
Harare - Zimbabwe's largest private newspaper - a fierce critic of President Robert Mugabe - failed to appear on the newsstands Saturday despite a High Court ruling that police halt their interference with its publication. "The police did not comply with the order," said Sipepa Nkomo, the chief executive officer of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), which publishes the Daily News. "We had a lengthy session with the... police and served them with the order but they said they had not received any instructions from their bosses. So they physically prevented us from going into our printing premises." The state-run daily newspaper The Herald on Saturday quoted acting attorney general Bharat Patel as saying government would appeal against the order, delivered on Friday. Nkomo said he had been served papers Saturday morning but had not seen them. "I understand they have appealed against the order, I have not seen the papers. I am told they have dropped them at my house. Our lawyer will take up the matter on Monday. We will have to sue for contempt of court," he said.
The Herald also quoted Media Information Commission lawyer Johannes Tomana as saying the order did not mean the Daily News could resume operations. "Nothing in the order says it should resume operations, It's about the police being asked to vacate ANZ premises," he said. "The question of compliance is still to be determined by the Supreme Court." The Friday High Court order was the latest in a series of court battles launched by the embattled paper in its relentless fight for its right to get back onto the newsstands since it was shut down in September. Gugulethu Moyo, legal adviser for the Daily News, said the state attorney had acknowledged in court on Friday that the police action was indefensible. "We have to oppose the latest appeal by government. I don't know how many orders it will take us to make the police to comply," she told AFP Saturday. The Daily News was the country's most popular Daily and had a readership of 900 000. There are three other dailies - two state run dailies, the Herald and The Chronicle - and a small private daily, the Daily Mirror.
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From Business Day (SA), 12 January
Journalists arrested over Mugabe plane story
Harare - The editor of a leading Zimbabwean weekly newspaper has been arrested along with Business Day correspondent Dumisani Muleya and a third journalist, over a story alleging that President Robert Mugabe commandeered a national airline jet to fly him around Asia for his annual vacation. Iden Wetherell, editor of the Zimbabwe Independent, reporter Vincent Kahiya and Muleya were arrested on Saturday and are being held by police in Harare on charges of criminal defamation, said their lawyer, Linda Cook. They deny the charges, and are due to appear in court today. Earlier, police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena had indicated the trio might also be charged for "publishing of falsehoods". The Zimbabwe Independent reported on Friday that Mugabe commandeered a Boeing 767-200 Air Zimbabwe aircraft to "ferry him around the Far East". According to the article, although Mugabe and his family had flown to Malaysia from Johannesburg last week on a scheduled commercial flight, and flown Air Zimbabwe to SA from Harare, he had called for his own plane while in Malaysia. The paper cited an unnamed Air Zimbabwe source who said an aircraft was immediately dispatched from Harare with big empty containers and was going to be away for five days. It alleged that passengers between Harare and London had been left stranded while the plane was away. The government has denied the story, dismissing the account as "lawless and fictitious claims". Air Zimbabwe MD Rambai Chingwena said yesterday that the aircraft Mugabe was using was not scheduled to operate and so its use had not inconvenienced anyone. Cook said neither the government nor Air Zimbabwe was denying Mugabe was using the aircraft in Asia. "These are legitimate matters of public interest which newspapers are entitled to publish. These are matters where public scrutiny is very important."
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From The Observer (UK), 11 January
10,000 'died of hunger' in Zimbabwe
Catholic archbishop warns of famine as journalists are held over report that Mugabe was taking a winter break
Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria
Amid claims that up to 10,000 Zimbabweans have died from malnutrition in the past year, President Robert Mugabe has been accused of raiding his country's dwindling coffers to fund an extended holiday in Asia. The charges against Mugabe came as police yesterday arrested three senior journalists from the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper for reporting his winter break. Editor Iden Wetherell, news editor Vincent Kahiya and senior reporter Dumisani Muleya are being held on charges that the newspaper criminally defamed Mugabe by reporting that he commandeered an Air Zimbabwe jet for his three-week trip. 'I told police that we stand by our story,' Wetherell said when reached by mobile phone while in police custody. 'The police say the plane was chartered by Mugabe.' The news comes amid warnings that famine has contributed to the deaths of 10,000 Zimbabweans last year. The claim is made by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of the southern Matabeleland area, Pius Ncube. 'There are people who sit four or five days without any food,' Ncube said, adding that malnutrition was exacerbating Aids-related diseases, which accounted for a third of the deaths. The seizure of thousands of white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks, coupled with erratic rains, have crippled the agriculture of a nation that was once a regional bread basket. The World Food Programme (WFP) cut its maize meal rations for 2.6 million Zimbabweans by half at the end of last year because of insufficient donations. Oil and pulses have been cut out altogether. As many as six million people could need food aid in the first three months of this year, according to the independent Famine Early Warning Systems. The WFP has also warned that the food situation in urban areas is getting critical. It is facing a $111 million shortfall from a $197m international appeal it sent out in June.
The arrest of the three journalists has come amid evidence of mounting human rights abuses against opposition party members and a resurgence of violence. In the latest reported incidents, Mugabe's youth militia beat to death a member of the opposition MDC and seriously injured two others, one of whom suffered fractured fingers and toes. MDC supporter Alexander Chigiga, a farmer, was beaten to death at his home in Shamva, north of Harare. He had returned to Shamva during the Christmas holiday, after spending nearly two years in hiding. A gang of 40 youths attacked Chigiga at his home after midnight on 5 January, according to the reports. Several MDC supporters' homes were raided that night and a number of people sustained serious injuries. Assistant Police Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said police were investigating. In another incident, a village headman has been abducted in the Lower Gweru area. Shadreck Sikombingo was still missing yesterday after being kidnapped by a group of 27 'war veterans' and Zanu PF youths on Monday. According to the headman's family, Sikombingo had been warned by Zanu PF officials the previous week that he would be 'dealt with'. Zanu PF supporters have resumed illegal roadblocks, along with patrols, in Gweru with a view to identifying opposition supporters, who are then taken away and tortured, according to local reports. MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi deplored the re-emergence of state violence. 'Despite claims by Zanu PF and the Mugabe regime that there is peace in Zimbabwe, these incidents demonstrate beyond doubt that lawlessness prevails. The law-enforcing agents have become part of the instruments for lawlessness and violence.' Nyathi added: 'Suppressing opposition political parties has no place in a democratic Africa.'
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 11 January
Concern over whereabouts of abducted Rusape teacher
By our own staff
A Vhengere Secondary School teacher, Tawanda Mtomba, was allegedly abducted in Rusape on Wednesday by suspected CIO operatives and Zanu PF militia, barely three months after he was severely assaulted by ruling party youths for laughing at war veterans’ leader Joseph Chinotimba. The Standard reported the incident in which the teacher was brutally assaulted for laughing at the appearance of Chinotimba on TV during a live soccer match between Zimbabwe and Mauritania. In the latest incident, he was allegedly approached by seven Zanu PF youths last week who bundled him into a metallic blue Toyota truck - registration number 640-522T - while at Jena butchery in Vhengere, Rusape. Mtomba’s whereabouts remain unknown, raising fears that he could have been taken to any one of the numerous Zanu PF torture bases in Rusape. Eyewitnesses said two CIO operatives (names supplied) from Rusape and a driver directed proceedings during the abduction, carried out in broad day light at around 10 AM. Mtomba has had a stand-off with the local Zanu PF youths since October last year when he was beaten up for laughing at Chinotimba’s appearance on television. Problems continued to befall him after the story was published in The Standard and broadcast on SWRadioAfrica, an independent radio station based in the United Kingdom. The Rusape based teacher is reported to have had his home searched on several occasions last year because the local Zanu PF leaders believe he is either involved with the opposition MDC or a pressure group called Zvakwana-Sokwanele.
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From The Zimbabwe Stanbard, 11 January
Police shoot 12 year old boy
By Richard Musazulwa
Gweru - An orphan Admire Hungwe, who recently finished his Grade Seven at Ntabeni Primary School in Bulawayo, was shot dead in cold blood in Athlone here by a police officer at a relative’s house on Thursday afternoon in circumstances that have left city residents in shock. Police confirmed that Admire (12), whose late father was an officer in the presidential guard, had just been invited by his niece Angela Ncube to start Form One in Gweru when schools open on Tuesday. The boy, who died on his way to Gweru General Hospital, was shot dead with a pistol from behind by a Kwekwe police officer in the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) who was accompanied by five other colleagues when they came to the house. The bullet ripped through the boy’s shoulder before striking two other people at the house, Abedinego Sibanda and Innocent Ncube. Midlands police spokesman Assistant Inspector Raphael Mukwiza said the shooting was accidental. "I confirm the shooting incident and the gun accidentally discharged while the officer was trying to evacuate the people out of the house as they wanted to look for Runesu Ncube, the owner of the house who is wanted in connection with attempted murder," said Mukwiza. A visit by The Standard to the deceased relative’s house at Number 49 Simon Mazorodze Road in Athlone on Friday evening however revealed a different version of the shooting incident altogether. Admire’s niece, Angela, who is the wife of the wanted businessman, said the shooting of Admire was deliberate because the family had received numerous death threats from the same CID officer investigating an alleged attempted murder case against her husband. Angela said Mahlangu, after failing to locate her husband, force marched everyone out of the house and ordered them to stand beside the swimming pool with their backs facing the officers. They were held captive for at least five minutes before Mahlangu took a pistol and fired a shot at Admire, she said.
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From Business Day (SA), 12 January
Bale-out plan to avert meltdown at Harare banks
Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank governor stepped in at the weekend to stem the country's escalating banks crisis, which expanded to include the arrest of a senior Zanu (PF) member in relation to an alleged Z60bn fraud in the financial sector. With Zimbabwe's frail economy battered by inflation of more than 600%, the banking sector has came close to meltdown and six of the country's 17 banks have experienced liquidity crunches. But new reserve bank governor Gideon Gono said at the weekend that the central bank would provide liquidity support for these banks through a "troubled banks fund", ring-fencing them and preventing the crisis spreading through the sector. The banks that call on this fund will have to show a plan to correct their liquidity position, as well as repayment plans. This appears to be a shift from Gono's policy statement last month in which he warned "the curtain has been drawn against the era for the proliferation of weak, poorly managed financial institutions dependent on cheap and unlimited central bank credit", raising fear banks would find it difficult to get liquidity support. The reserve bank would also provide liquidity support to Trust Bank, the country's biggest bank by assets, which had lost up to 30% of deposits as customers panicked and withdrew their funds over the past few weeks.
This follows a dramatic move on Friday in which the Trust Bank board sacked the top three executives and appointed a new MD. Because of the liquidity crunch, many companies had stopped accepting bank cheques, but yesterday's Zimbabwe Sunday Mail quoted the reserve bank as saying it would ensure cheques issued by these troubled banks would receive "final and irrevocable settlement". Gono's efforts eased the concern of Global Credit, the only ratings agency covering the Zimbabwean banks, which placed all the banks it covers on a ratings watch last month. Meanwhile, the financial sector crisis is now threatening to topple even senior officials close to President Robert Mugabe as the scandal unfolds. Zimbabwean state media reported at the weekend that police had arrested Zanu (PF) Mashonaland West provincial chairman Philip Chiyangwa for allegedly obstructing the course of justice in a case involving the first of the big financial houses to have been hit by the banking crisis, asset management firm ENG Capital. Chiyangwa is alleged to have tried to block the arrest of two ENG directors on fraud charges involving more than Z60bn (officially about $73m) after they sought his protection. State media said he was being questioned on threats he made to a police investigating officer when giving evidence in court this week.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 11 January
Chiyangwa lives up to his ‘Bugs Bunny’ title
By our own Staff
If anyone had questions as to why President Robert Mugabe calls Philip Chiyangwa "tsuro magen’a" - the local folklore’s answer to Walt Disney’s Bugs Bunny - then they should have been in court on Thursday to find the answer. He hopped into court, a natty designer suit draped over a checkered shirt and a maroon tie. His hard leather bag was perched on the wooden platform - where all of us mere mortals could see it. He had obviously planned this one out. They were going to get it, all of them: State prosecutor Joseph Jagada, Harare magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe, the Press, the police, the gallery - the whole lot of them. Obviously Nyasha Watyoka and Gilbert Muponda - the two ENG directors — had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they ran into Chiyangwa’s arms for shelter when their troubles began. "Ndakavati vapfana taurai kuti makarova marii mutown umu," Chiyangwa told the court provoking embarrassed grins in the dock. Defence looks like it wants to duck under the table. "I’m glad those boys are in custody. At least they will be safe (from creditors). Out there, they will have no peace." More embarrassed grins.
Then arrived the mineral water - a whole plastic bag full of the stuff. "Can I have it (the water) near me, your worship," pleaded Chinhoyi’s finest. Granted, nodded the magistrate. But then: "Maybe I shouldn’t drink it. Maybe someone put some poison in it. That’s why I sent my lawyer to buy it. Anyway, I trust everyone here, but I am still in doubt. I can’t drink it." He eventually drank from the bottle - only when he wasn’t giving "young man" Jagada free tips on the legal art of cross-examining a witness. Was he aware that the two had told the police he was in possession of three - and not two - cars, he was asked? The play swung to downright dirty. "How can I know what they talked about. Looking at me, can you tell if I have HIV or not?" Of course not, came the reply. "Then don’t ask me, I wasn’t there." Then there was the matter of his house. "I was not hiding anybody. Your worship my house is very significant, everyone can see who’s going in and out." Then the cars and the money. "I have my own money. I don’t need their money. Your worship, I am very wealthy." Then the business about dealing with nosy cops. "The policeman who said eight cars were found at my house, I will deal with him later," roared Chiyangwa, waving away the magistrate’s demands the he withdraw the threat.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 12 January
Zimbabwe introduces forex auctions
Harare - Foreign currencies will be traded in Zimbabwe from Monday in a controlled auction system set up by the central bank in a bid to narrow extreme differences between the official and parallel rates. The auctions are aimed at bolstering foreign exchange inflows to the official market and eradicating the parallel market, which had been blamed in part for skyrocketing inflation, currently over 600%. The US dollar is currently worth some 6 000 Zimbabwe dollars on the parallel market but just 800 at the official rate. The run-up to the auction saw the US dollar parallel market rates tumble by about 50 percent as nervous dealers flooded the market with foreign cash they had been hoarding in anticipation of high demand in the new year. Under the new system, exporters will be allowed to trade 25% of their foreign currency earnings at an auction supervised by the central bank. Another 25% will be "surrendered to the Reserve Bank, at the current (official) exchange rate of 824 per US dollar for critical imports and other government requirements", the Reserve Bank said. The remaining 50% will be retained in the exporter's account but for a maximum of just 21 days. Zimbabwe has long been experiencing a shortage of foreign currency as external debts have accumulated, while the government has failed to import adequate vital commodities such as fuel, food and medicines. Traditional top foreign currency earners such as tobacco and tourism have nose-dived in recent years due to a controversial land reform programme and political tensions. Zimbabwe is currently in the throes of its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, with unemployment standing at 70%.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 9 January
Zanu-MDC talks: The stumbling blocks
Paul Stober
Even though informal contacts between Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) have produced a number of detailed options for ending the country’s political and economic crises, the two sides remain a long way off from the formal talks necessary to save Zimbabwe from collapse. And MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube, who is leading the informal talks for his movement, insists that until both parties commit themselves to binding negotiations, the contacts mean nothing. "The MDC position is that the informal contacts about process cannot be described as talks because they are not binding and they are exploratory in character. Even if they stray to substantive matters, they don’t amount to talks because they are only exploratory. The informal talks between myself and [Zimbabwean Minister of Justice Patrick] Chinamasa, to find a gateway to dialogue, are exploratory," he insisted. Ncube is of the view that once binding talks start an agreement could be quickly hammered out and an election held soon after. "Our view is that once political talks begin there would be more than enough time to prepare for an election, which can be held well before those scheduled for 2005," he said.
In a nutshell, the informal talks have identified four stumbling blocks to a political settlement in Zimbabwe. The MDC is insisting the Zimbabwean government allow the paper, The Daily News, to begin publishing again. The Zimbabwean government has repeatedly violated court orders which gave The Daily News the right to publish and forcibly closed the paper down. The opposition movement is also demanding the disbanding of Zanu PF militias, widely accused of unleashing a reign of terror in the country in an attempt to intimidate opponents of the ruling party. The two sides are also wrangling about amendments to Zimbabwe’s Access to Information and the Protection of Privacy Act and the Public Order and Security Act. The MDC and many local and international human rights groups insist the legislation stifles free speech and free political activity.
Zanu PF and the MDC seem to have a good idea of what amendments may have to be made to the Zimbabwean Constitution to facilitate a political settlement in the country. The MDC would like a limited review of the Zimbabwean Constitution as a way of levelling the political playing field in the country before the next round of elections. "Interim constitutional changes would include the creation of an independent electoral commission and a much more open electoral framework," says Ncube. He confirmed that there have been informal talks between the movement and Zanu PF around possible constitutional amendments. However, there are differences between the two over a date for an election under an amended Constitution. Ncube also insisted that any comprehensive review of the country’s Constitution would have to wait until after political settlement has been reached - so that those talks could take place in an atmosphere of free political activity.
There is no indication that formal talks between the MDC and Zanu PF will start any time soon. "We are waiting. We have not heard anything from Zanu PF, or the office of South African President, Thabo Mbeki, who we understand has a commitment from Zanu PF for unconditional dialogue," says Ncube. Zanu PF spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira refused to comment on the informal talks or the status of contacts between Zanu-PF and the MDC. Some analysts in Zimbabwe point out Zanu PF is not likely to make any move on the talks until Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe returns from a private visit to South East Asia. In a further sign of Zimbabwe’s disintegration, the country’s banking system is showing signs of failing, arguably the first sign of the collapse of the formal economy. This week, six of Zimbabwe’s 11 banking institutions have stopped paying their debts to other banks because they did not have the money. The country is already suffering from inflation of 620%, unemployment of over 70%, a shrinking economy and drought and famine. Economists say that until there is an end to the political crises, there is no chance of saving the economy.
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From News24 (SA), 13 January
Zanu PF man stays behind bars
Harare - Outspoken Zimbabwean businessman and senior ruling party lawmaker Phillip Chiyangwa, arrested at the weekend for obstructing the course of justice in a fraud probe, is to spend a third night in jail on Monday after a court failed to hear his request for bail. Chiyangwa, chairman of the ruling Zanu PF party in Mashonaland West province, was arrested during investigations into the ENG Capital asset management company. Two of the company's directors were arrested last week, and are accused of defrauding clients of more than Z$61bn. Chiyangwa is accused of giving protection to the directors. A magistrate failed to decide on Monday on the politician's fate because he was taken to court long after the court's normal operating hours. "The court will make a ruling tomorrow in view of the time. It is too late to hear a bail application," said magistrate Sukai Tongogara. Police ignored a High Court order issued on Sunday night for his release from custody, arguing that the order was defective and not served properly. But defence lawyer Happias Zhou complained that Chiyangwa's continued detention was unlawful, and alleged that the police force being used as a "political muscle". Chiyangwa's arrest "followed an article in a newspaper in which the accused was threatened by the acting president (Vice President Joseph Msika)," said Zhou in court. The lawyer said the state's hands were "dirty" and that it was acting in contempt of court. The prosecution countered that the police were treating the case as a pure criminal offence. Charges against Chiyangwa arise from his alleged protection of the ENG directors during police investigations and threats he issued to a police officer. ENG Capital Asset Management owned Century Discount House, which was shut down and had its banking licence cancelled by the central bank after failing to pay funds owed to investors.
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From VOA News, 12 January
Zimbabwe court grants bail to 3 journalists accused of defaming Mugabe
Tendai Maphosa
Harare - A Zimbabwe court has released on bail three journalists arrested Saturday for publishing an article the police allege criminally defamed President Robert Mugabe. The three who were in custody since Saturday were released, each on less than $5 bail, at the widely used unofficial parallel market rate. Editor of the Zimbabwe Independent weekly newspaper, Iden Wetherell, news editor Vincent Kahiya and reporter Dumisani Muleya were arrested for the publication of an article that said President Mugabe, who is on annual vacation in the Far East, had requisitioned an Air Zimbabwe plane for part of his trip. The privately-owned weekly wrote that the president's use of the plane had disrupted the national airline's schedule and inconvenienced many passengers. Information minister Jonathan Moyo described the story as criminally false and warned that its authors and editor will be held to account for what he called their lawless and fictitious claims. This is one many arrests of journalists under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act enacted in 2002. The law has been widely criticized by journalists and human rights organizations as violating the freedom of expression. The state has lost every one of the cases. That's why, explains defense lawyer, Linda Cook, the state, while arresting the journalists under the Privacy Act, charged them with a criminal offense. A defiant Iden Wetherell said his paper would not be intimidated by the arrests. "This treatment by the regime will not silence us; newspapers have a duty to subject leaders to public scrutiny: they use public funds, and if newspapers do not do that who will?" The three journalists will appear in court to answer charges of criminal defamation on January 21.
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From Business Day (SA), 13 January
Zimbabwe's auction rattles a few cages
Financial Services Correspondent
Zimbabwe's first foreign currency auction took place yesterday as the country's Reserve Bank tried to curb the black market for foreign money, but the auction could get buyers for only 10% of the $5m on offer. The auction came as the country struggled to tackle a crisis that threatened to cause a meltdown in its banking sector, partly caused by some banks speculating on the parallel markets for selling currency. This parallel market means that while the official exchange rate is Z$824 to the dollar, the rate on the thriving black market is between Z$4500 and Z$5000 to the dollar a huge gap that Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono wants to eradicate. Gono was hoping to short-circuit the black market through this auction, which would provide Zimbabwean businesses that need foreign currency with access to dollars without having to use the black market. But the response at yesterday's first currency auction underlined the extent to which the official exchange rate of Z$824 to the dollar does not come close to reflecting the market value of the Zimbabwean dollar. The average bid was placed at Z$4196,58 nearly six times the official exchange rate but in line with the black market rates. In all, $5m was put on offer but only $477557 was bought, representing a lukewarm response to the first such auction.
Standard Bank economist Robert Bunyi said the fact that less than 10% of the available dollars were bought indicated the Reserve Bank appeared reluctant to accept bids that were too high. "The Zimbabwe market could also have adopted a wait-and-see attitude to the auctions, or possibly the administrative process of securing foreign exchange control clearance was too slow, (but) I would expect the demand at the auctions to pick up," he said. At first the Reserve Bank wanted to hold daily auctions, but it would now hold them twice a week. Gono has nonetheless succeeded in rattling the cages of black market currency traders. Sources in Zimbabwe said that black market trading was down markedly last week in anticipation of this auction, which represented a chance for business to get foreign currency through legal channels. Until last week, R1 cost as much as Z$900 on the black market, but this has fallen to about Z$500 a major drop that could continue under the new regime.
While in the past, some of the banks had speculated on the currency by buying and selling dollars through the parallel markets, Gono's recent efforts to crack down on errant behaviour have made it harder for the banks to continue doing this. One banker said the market was "desperate to see the system work", and the banks would be supporting the auctions. "This is now a legitimate way for business to get foreign currency. We fully expect to see the black market system take a knock with the auction," he said. But other commentators were less convinced, noting with concern that the Reserve Bank had turned down the higher bids at the auction. Analysts said unless the auctions were able to deliver exchange rates consistently similar to those available on the black market, the parallel system would remain very much alive.
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From IRIN (UN), 12 January
Humanitarian agencies watch forex auction anxiously
Johannesburg - The lack of local currency in the Zimbabwean market ahead of the country's first auction of foreign exchange on Monday has caused some anxiety among humanitarian aid agencies. The World Food Programme (WFP) reported that in the past week local currency has only been available at the official Central Bank exchange rate, and NGOs have been unable to make payments to staff and other service providers. Financial aid coming into Zimbabwe will also face the impact of Zimbabwe's new official exchange rate, set at Z$4,196 to US $1 by Monday's auction. The new foreign exchange rate is much lower than the value of the US dollar on the parallel market, where it trades at Z$6,000. The new rate emerged from the first auction of foreign exchange conducted by Zimbabwean authorities in their attempt to control the gap between the official and informal parallel foreign exchange markets. The auction system replaces the state's fixed exchange rate. There has been widespread concern over how the new system - should it bring about sharp fluctuations in |
