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Archived News
13th July 2004
Harare lied
Bulawayo saga continues - Sibanda elbowed out of chairmanship race
Censors hoist on their own petard
Regional cereal production down
Robert Mugabe's reign of terror
AU to suppress report on human rights in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe's harvest insufficient
Record wage hikes in Zimbabwe spell problems
Flavour is fading from Zimbabwe tobacco
How SA backed Zim lie
Mugabe harvests lies as Zimbabwe faces shortages
IMF grants Zimbabwe 6-month reprieve on expulsion
Sharp dip for tourism in Zimbabwe
Calling those with deep pockets, and vast patience
Whistle blower demands $30b
Bob wants Zim to be 'anti-Blair'
$500m for youth camp renovations
BNC courts DRC's Gecamines
Saying 'no more' to bullies
Mbeki cements ties with Zanu PF
Trial of Zim 70 postponed - lawyer
Coup 'confession' may doom Briton
Zimbabwe races to answer repression charges
Zimbabwe finds millions to launch minister's album
Massive turnout at Pax-Afro launch
Mugabe denounces greedy elite who took more than one farm
Commercial farmer under siege at farm
Zimbabweans are starving
MDC candidate charged under POSA
Affair with president's wife costs Zim tycoon
Mampara of the Week: Stan Mudenge
Top bishop moots Zim sanctions
Zanu PF slates Zim bishop
Zimbabwe's messenger
We are being dragged back to the stone age
Zim newspaper directors back in court
Briton accused of plotting coup drops legal team
A farm disaster of a different color
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From News24 (SA), 6 July
Harare lied
Harare - President Robert Mugabe's government which tried to block issuing a report by the African Union's human rights watchdog by saying it had not been given the document, in fact, had had it for five months, Zimbabwe's main human rights organisation said on Tuesday. The report by the African Commission for Human and People's Rights condemning "flagrant human rights violations" in Zimbabwe caused an uproar at a meeting of the AU council of ministers meeting. It was the first time in the past five years of violent political repression in Zimbabwe than any AU organisation has openly criticised Mugabe's regime. Observers say the report represents a major diplomatic defeat for 80-year-old Mugabe, who has secured until now almost total African backing for his rule condemned by the Western world. Zimbabwe foreign minister Stanislaus Mudenge was quoted on Tuesday by the state-controlled daily Herald in Harare as saying in Addis Ababa that Zimbabwe "had not been afforded the right of reply", and the report could not be forwarded to the full AU summit for discussion. The newspaper claimed that "the hand of the British" was behind the report.
However, a statement issued on Tuesday by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Non-Governmental Organisation Forum, said the African Commission had sent a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe in June 2002 immediately after presidential elections, which were won by Mugabe. The report was debated and formally adopted in November last year. "The forum was reliably informed on February 5 that the fact-finding mission report was with the government of Zimbabwe," it said. The document would be published "together with the comments of the government as soon as this was received". The government has made no mention of receiving the document, although the Herald, regarded as the government's official mouthpiece, admitted the justice ministry received a copy. The justice ministry was the commission's official host in 2002. "This was dismissed because, in terms of protocol, the commission should have sent the report through the ministry of foreign affairs," the Herald said. But the forum statement said the "rules of the commission are silent on the ministry to which a mission should be submitted". Reports were to be submitted to "member states," it said. "The forum is therefore of the view that the requirement by the African Commission to present the report to the government... was adequately satisfied." It was unclear on Tuesday whether the report would be forwarded to the AU summit, after Mudenge mounted sustained objections.
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From The Daily Mirror, 7 July
Bulawayo saga continues - Sibanda elbowed out of chairmanship race
Nkululeko Sibanda
Following weeks of disconcerting brinkmanship, war veterans national chairman and former Zanu PF Bulawayo provincial chairman, Jabulani Sibanda surprisingly withdrew his candidature from elections to choose a new chairman for the party's province at the weekend. Themba Ncube, a war veteran, won the chairmanship in a contest that was spared the certain apprehension over factional conflicts Sibanda's participation portended. The Daily Mirror understands that the withdrawal by Sibanda was meant to appease and slow down the anger that was simmering in the party's top leadership who had been demonised by Sibanda in the media, describing them as "the old and rusty guard" of the province. The heavies include Dumiso Dabengwa, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, both former cabinet ministers, Thenjiwe Lesabe, and Vice President Joseph Msika. The source also said the heavyweights were vowing they would work hard to whip Sibanda into line and also cut him to size, as he had grown too big that he needed to be disciplined. "These are big guys who cannot just take such criticism like the one they were subjected to by Sibanda, lightly. Also consider they are the ones that helped him to his current standing in the war veterans association and he knows very well that should he fall out of favour with them, then he is dead and buried, for they hold the fort of the party in the province."
In an interview, Sibanda acknowledged that he had pulled out of the running for the post, but was quick to point out that this was due to the fact that he wanted progress to prevail in the province. "Yes I withdrew from the elections. It was after the old men (the bigwigs) told me that I was not eligible to contest the elections as I still had a case that was pending in the central committee," he said. The former Bulawayo provincial chairman was suspended for indiscipline and is yet to be cleared by the party's central committee. Sibanda added that he, after the refusal by the party's provincial leadership to grant him the go-ahead to contest the elections, "decided to let them do as they please". He said that he would contemplate his move after the outcome of his disciplinary hearing. "I am tired of being insulted as is the case by these old men and I think it is high time to take a rest and let those that think they can deliver do as they please," he said, sarcastically. Other members of the newly elected executive include George Mlala (secretary for administration), Mkhululi Dube (commissariat), Canaan Ncube (treasurer) and Antony Dube (security).
A source in the party disclosed that Sibanda, who was expected to do battle for the chairman's post with other candidates, failed to turn up for the elections until the elections directorate decided to proceed without him. "We expected that Jabu (short for Jabulani Sibanda) would join us for the elections as he had initially shown interest in the chairman's post and that as far as we knew, he was the front-runner for that post. "It was a surprise when the time for the elections came and he was nowhere to be seen, forcing the elections directorate, that composed of the party's bigwigs, political commissar Elliot Manyika and others, to continue without Sibanda's candidature," the source said. It was also revealed that Sibanda only phoned later after the elections had been completed and told the party leadership that he was no longer able to contest in the elections as he was tired of the mudslinging that had rocked the party as a result of his candidature. "He told the party leadership that he was withdrawing from the race as part of efforts to contribute to continuity in the party and because he wanted to wait for the outcome of the hearing of his suspension case. "To others, this was not the reason why he had decided to withdraw as he has been under incessant pressure from the party leadership to briefly hang his aspirations for the chairmanship until his case is concluded by the central committee," the source added.
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From The Globe and Mail (Canada), 7 July
Censors hoist on their own petard
For the past five years, the government of Zimbabwe has coupled attacks on the political opposition with a systematic clampdown on the independent media. Authorities have censored press outlets, arrested dozens of journalists on spurious charges and allowed ruling party supporters to attack and harass reporters with impunity. For the past two years, Zanu PF has used a media-licensing regime to rigidly control the country's press. The government gets to decide who can be a journalist and which media can operate. Last September, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, Zanu PF's feisty spin-doctor, used a licensing pretext to shut down the Daily News, Zimbabwe's most popular newspaper and a vocal critic of President Robert Mugabe's regime. Last year, the government capped its effective ban on foreign journalists when it defied a court order and forcibly expelled veteran Guardian reporter Andrew Meldrum from the country. Mr. Mugabe's government has remained impervious to criticism from the international community about its treatment of the media. What quiet diplomacy has been tried by the country's African neighbours has caused little stir in the ranks of the ruling Zanu PF. But what may have a bearing on the future of Zimbabwe's media are the growing tremors within Zanu PF itself.
Last month, the country's Media and Information Commission, a government-controlled media licensing and regulatory body, closed a private weekly named The Tribune. The MIC told the newspaper that its licence would be suspended for one year for multiple violations of the country's draconian press law. The Tribune's crimes? Failing to inform the MIC that the paper had new owners, a new title and was now publishing once a week instead of twice. Given the Mugabe government's distaste for the private media, it should come as no surprise that authorities would shutter another newspaper with little provocation. But there is something different about this closure, something seemingly nonsensical. The Tribune is owned by a Zanu PF legislator. Why would the government turn against one of its own? Zimbabwean journalists say The Tribune's closure is related to Zanu PF internal politics. Since Mr. Mugabe announced to Kenyan journalists in May that he planned to retire when his current term expires in 2008, the latent factionalism in the ruling party has intensified, becoming an apparent succession struggle. In these power scuffles, Jonathan Moyo has been pitted against some of Zanu PF's veteran old guard, including his immediate party superior, Secretary for Information and Publicity Nathan Shamuyarira.
The battle between the two officials became public after Mr. Shamuyarira invited a British Sky News team to Harare to interview Mr. Mugabe in May. Mr. Moyo, who saw no reason why "imperialist mouthpieces" such as Sky News should get to talk to the President, vociferously criticized the decision and almost thwarted the interview by trying to have the journalists deported. Mr. Shamuyarira is known to be a friend of The Tribune's publisher and Zanu PF MP Kindness Paradza. It is widely believed that Mr. Paradza entered the party through Mr. Shamuyarira's patronage. Mr. Paradza is also a veteran independent journalist, and during his maiden speech in parliament in March, he criticized the country's repressive press law, an unheard-of gesture from a member of the ruling party, and one that clearly provoked the ire of the pugnacious Mr. Moyo. The Tribune has also carried some articles that indirectly criticized Mr. Moyo, such as one implying that he had used state agencies to appropriate a lucrative farm for himself. Mr. Moyo has used the state media to issue thinly veiled attacks on his opponents within the party, and the Tribune articles would easily have been perceived as retaliation. In this context, it is easy to see why Mr. Moyo would use his pet media commission to silence the newspaper.
With Mr. Mugabe's retirement on the horizon and elections due next year, the internal jostling for power in Zanu PF is likely to heat up. But senior party officials who oppose Mr. Moyo's high ambitions are sure to face a communication problem, since Mr. Moyo has a stranglehold on all state media. Utilizing the few remaining private media to voice their positions is impossible for these officials, as it would be seen as colluding with the enemy. And besides, Mr. Moyo can freely revoke the licences of media that criticize him. It appears that, except for Mr. Moyo, Zanu PF's leaders have become victims of their own repressive media policies. Perhaps these same officials, who have worked so assiduously to stamp out press freedom in Zimbabwe, will understand its value now that they have to cope with the consequences of their actions. It is unlikely that appeals for greater press freedom will find many sympathetic ears in the government just yet. While Zanu PF remains preoccupied with defeating the country's political opposition, it will continue to rebuff international criticism of its human-rights violations. The African Union summit of heads of state is taking place this week in Addis Ababa, but it is unlikely to do more than gloss over Mr. Mugabe's penchant for censorship. Nonetheless, the international community still has a duty to protest the Zimbabwean government's abuses, and to pressure Zanu PF to scrap its stifling licensing regime - not in order to gain converts among self-serving politicians who would view greater press freedom as politically expedient, but on behalf of Zimbabwean citizens, who are increasingly losing their ability to speak out against Mr. Mugabe's repressive tactics.
Adam Posluns is the research associate for the Africa program at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an international press freedom watchdog based in New York
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From IRIN (UN), 6 July
Regional cereal production down
Johannesburg - Overall cereal production in Southern Africa this agricultural season had declined, but some countries have enjoyed increased yields, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). The production of maize, a staple crop in the region, decreased by 9 percent from the previous year, to 14 million mt, reflecting the delayed, erratic and inadequate rainfall pattern during the first half of the 2003/04 season in several countries, FAO said in a press release on Tuesday. Favourable rains in Angola boosted cereal output to 13,000 mt, up 9 percent from last year and 27 percent over the previous five-year average. The picture in Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia was also generally positive. In Zambia, the 2004 maize crop was forecast to reach a record 1.4 million mt, mainly due to good weather and the government's assistance packages to small-scale farmers. In Mozambique maize output increased substantially reflecting a recovery of production in the southern provinces. Mozambique's ministry of agriculture reported that good rains earlier this year not only facilitated the recovery of some drought-resilient crops, such as cassava, sweet potatoes and cowpeas, but also allowed for new plantings of maize, rice and beans, which had been developing reasonably well due to continued favourable growing conditions.
There were, however, concerns over the shortfall in cereal output in Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. "Lesotho continues to reel from the effects of drought. Its estimated 2004 cereal production is less than half of last year's, necessitating emergency food assistance to large numbers of people," FAO said. Some 1.26 million people in the south and some central regions of Malawi will require food aid because of the down-turn in production, FAO said. Cereal production in Zimbabwe was estimated at just over 950,000 mt. FAO noted that a population level of 11.9 million would mean that total cereal usuage should be almost 2.35 million mt. "This implies a potentially large national cereal import requirement; nearly 1.3 million mt," the agency concluded. It attributed the poor harvest mainly to the below average and unevenly distributed rainfall in the important maize growing Mashonaland Provinces. Other factors included shortages of draught power, quality seeds, fertiliser, labour, and the difficulties newly-resettled farmers.
FAO, which was unable to complete a crop assessment mission along with the World Food programme this year, said an estimated 30 to 40 percent of Zimbabwean farmers may run out of food from their own production within two or three months (end of June or July). "The ongoing economic crisis, with inflation remaining at around 600 percent annually, will inflict further hardships on the poorer groups, including the urban unemployed and under-employed. Household members from these categories of population are likely to require assistance on an urgent basis," FAO said. A recently issued Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (VAC) report indicated that 2.3 million rural people will not be able to cover their food needs in 2004/05. Late in 2003, the Zimbabwe VAC had also estimated that 2.5 million people in urban areas were food insecure. The government has, however, insisted that it expects a record maize crop of 2.4 million mt.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 8 July
Robert Mugabe's reign of terror
Terry Leonard
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's government continues to step up its crackdown on dissent, using new repressive laws and state-sponsored violence to create a pervasive atmosphere of terror, critics said on Wednesday. Archbishop Pius Ncube, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe's western Matabeleland, told a news conference that the new repressive laws show "Mugabe's regime has made sure they can beat anyone into submission". Ncube, reverend Kumbukani Phiri of the Zimbabwe Pastors Conference, Jonah Gokova of the Ecumenical Support Services and Jacob Mafume of Lawyers for Human Rights urged the international community to pressure Zimbabwe to restore the rule of law. Inside Zimbabwe, government opponents - including the opposition Movement for Democratic Change - had been too passive and must now step up pressure on the regime, the four said. Ncube bitterly accused South African President Thabo Mbeki of making repression worse in Zimbabwe by backing Mugabe "hook, line and sinker." South Africa should publicly recognise the injustice in Zimbabwe, the violations of human rights and insist on lawful conduct by the Zimbabwean government, Ncube said.
Ncube also blasted the African Union, which is holding a heads of state summit in Ethiopia, for doing nothing to end the repression in Zimbabwe. "All they do is back each other up and drink tea," Ncube said. The four predicted the violence in repression in Zimbabwe would escalate as the country moves closer to general elections next March. "We are dealing here with very deceitful people and there is no way we are going to have free and fair elections," said Ncube. The four men pointed out that the government refused to release voters rolls to the public or opposition parties ahead of the 2002 presidential election. However, they said they managed to obtain the rolls for four constituencies, representing 3%of total voters. They said an analysis of those rolls showed 35% of the names represented voters who didn't exist. They said there were 840 000 dead people listed on the four roles, 600 000 duplicate names, more than 700 000 were voters "not known" at the given addresses and that the official results inflated the number of people registered by three percent. Mafume said it would be fruitless for the opposition to contest the next elections. He said the new laws prevent them from campaigning and deny them access to money and state media. "The result is a foregone conclusion," he said.
Ncube said the government was moving to close down aid agencies that have been distributing food in Zimbabwe, indicating they will use food as a political weapon in the next election. "They want to starve the people so the people will have to vote for them [to receive food]," he said. "They want to starve people as a political tool, the whole thing is vicious." The government, they said, armed with its new public security laws, has become bolder about using police and its youth and ruling party militias to intimidate people and crush dissent throughout the country. New security laws make it illegal for two or more people to meet to discuss politics or to organise any protest or demonstration without prior police approval. Police have used the laws to arrest critics and even to prevent prayer meetings. At the same time, pro-government groups and militias carry out acts of intimidation against the opposition with impunity. "Youth militias go to villages and say, `If you don't vote for us,' we will come back and burn your homes," said Ncube. He also said opponents of the government now estimated that one out every 50 Zimbabweans is now a government informant. He said they have infiltrated all kinds of organisations, including churches, to help the government crush dissent. "He [Mugabe] has created a pervasive atmosphere of terror that does not allow democratic discourse," said Mafume. Ncube said the government, in an attempt to stifle his criticism, even offered him one of the farms it seized in its controversial land reform programme. He rejected the offer.
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From AFP, 8 July
AU to suppress report on human rights in Zimbabwe
Addis Ababa - The African Union (AU) was Wednesday set to suppress one of its own reports critical of Zimbabwe's human rights record, in the wake of protests about procedure and claims that the two-year-old assessment was "smuggled" onto the agenda of this weeks AU summit. Foreign ministers have advised their heads of state meeting in Addis Ababa to "suspend the publication" of an annual report by the AUs Commission on Human and People's Rights until concerned countries could include their comments, according to an official record of the ministers decisions, which tend to be adopted at AU summits. Ministers engaged in heated discussions earlier this week over a part of this document that covered a visit to Zimbabwe by the commission in June 2002. The row comes at a time when the AU is trying to promote good governance and respect for human rights, and to distance itself from the crippling non-interventionism that characterized its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
During its trip to Zimbabwe, the commission found evidence of "political violence... torture... and arbitrary arrest... of opposition members of parliament and human rights lawyers," according to the summary of its findings annexed to the annual report tabled at the AU summit. "There were allegations that the human rights violations that occurred were in many instances at the hands of (the ruling) Zanu PF party activists," the commission said, adding however that it was unable to say that this was part of an orchestrated government policy. "By its statements and political rhetoric, and by its failure at critical moments to uphold the rule of law, the government failed to chart a path that signalled commitment to the rule of law," it added. The AU body also noted "a flurry of legislation" that undermined freedom of expression. "Zimbabwe said it was not the time" to formally adopt the report, said one delegate present at the AU ministers meeting. "They said the report should not been presented in this form and that it lacked objectivity. They said this was the first time they had seen the report," the official told AFP, adding that Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge had made his points very forcefully.
"It wasnt only Zimbabwe that objected," said an AU official following the affair, explaining that Tunisia was among the objecting states. "The issue was about procedure. The Commission was expected to submit the report to all concerned parties. This has not happened. Regulations were not adhered to," he added. Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo on Wednesday accused the opposition Movement for Democratic Change of "smuggling" the report onto the AU agenda at the behest of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. There was no sign of MDC officials at the Addis meeting. On Tuesday, the MDC welcomed the report's exposure of alleged human rights violations by the government. "We call upon the AU to take concrete steps to ensure that the Zimbabwean government corrects its appalling record on civil liberties, freedom of speech and human rights," the party said in a statement. The archbishop of Buluwayo, Pius Ncube, separately slammed the AU's apparent decision to back away from tackling the report during the summit. "I heard yesterday (Tuesday) that the AU has failed to endorse the report because Zimbabwe said they have not seen it but they've had it for two years," he said at a breakfast meeting in Johannesburg. "That's the sad thing about African leaders, they go there (to the summit) just to support each other. I'm terribly disappointed, my heart is really down," Ncube added.
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From BBC News, 8 July
Zimbabwe's harvest insufficient
Zimbabwe's harvest will not meet the country's food needs and it will be forced to import food, the UN says. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says the country faces a shortfall of 325,000 tons of cereals this year. The Zimbabwean government has predicted a record harvest of 2.4 million tons of maize. But FAO says it expects the harvest to be less than half that figure - around a million tons of cereal crops. It says erratic rainfall, a shortage of quality seeds, deep poverty and a mismanaged land reform programme are behind the poor harvest. In a new report, the UN food body warns that between 30% and 40% of farmers may run out of food from their own production by the end of July. FAO's report comes days after a survey said 2.3 million rural people would need food aid in the next year. Experts from FAO were ordered to leave the country before they completed their mission, but they visited the major cereal-growing provinces of Mashonaland, Manicaland and Matabeleland.
FAO's Henri Josserand, head of the Global Information and Early Warning System, told BBC News Online that he thought the country would be forced to import food to make up the shortfall. "If they bring all the food that is missing, they have the resources, but what will they do with the food - do they give it for free? Do they sell it? Will people be able to afford it?" Mr Josserand said. "Some [people] won't have enough money - those are the ones that we are concerned about - unless the government can give food for free, they will go without." FAO predicts a total harvest of some 950,000 tons of cereals - mainly maize, sorghum and millet. With its population of nearly 12 million, Zimbabwe needs a total of 2.35 million tons of cereals for the coming year, leaving a shortfall of 1.3 million tons. Almost a third of a million tons will not be covered by existing cereal stock or incoming orders and will probably be imported, FAO says.
A dramatic land reform plan by President Robert Mugabe has also affected harvests. Mr Mugabe's programme to reform land tenure and redistribute white-owned land to black people has contributed to a plunge in agricultural production. Zimbabwe has been transformed from being one of the region's breadbaskets to supporting millions with food aid. "The way land reform has been managed has made it difficult for people," Mr Josserand said. "When there is a lack of tenure, a lack of credit, it's very difficult for people who have been allocated land to produce on a large scale, the system hasn't been followed through," he added. FAO says farmers are so desperate for seeds that they have been planting maize grain supplied as food aid.
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From VOA News, 7 July
Record wage hikes in Zimbabwe spell problems
Harare - The latest round of collective bargaining in Zimbabwe has produced large wage hikes for private-sector workers. But economists say the increases are unlikely to lift most workers above the poverty line and could hurt the employers who are already reeling from the weak economy. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions predicted Wednesday that most private sector workers will almost double their wages as a result of the latest round of collective bargaining between labor unions and private sector companies. According to U.N. calculations, the wage hike will bring salaries to about half the minimum required for basic survival. The U.N. estimates nine out of 10 Zimbabweans live below the poverty line. The government still has to approve the results of the wage negotiations. If it does, the lowest paid industrial worker in the private sector will now earn about $50 a month. Godfrey Kanyenze, director of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union's research institute, said employers, who have been struggling in Zimbabwe's flagging economy will find it even more difficult to survive with the new wage hikes. An executive from an engineering firm predicted that, as a result of the pay increases, employers may have to cut payrolls by as much as a third, worsening Zimbabwe's unemployment problem. The jobless rate in Zimbabwe is close to 80 percent. International aid agencies estimate that at least three million people, or a quarter of the population, will need food aid this year.
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From Business Report (SA), 8 July
Flavour is fading from Zimbabwe tobacco
By Jan Raath and Antony Sguazzin
Johannesburg - Zimbabwean tobacco, considered by buyers to rival US varieties, might be excluded from blends used by the biggest cigarette makers if the crop declined for a fifth year and quality continued to deteriorate, a growers' group said yesterday. The crop this year would plunge to an estimated 65 million kilograms, a 33-year low, said Rodney Ambrose, the chief executive of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association in Harare. The country harvested a record 237 million kilograms in 2000, when it was the world's second-largest exporter. The decline began in 2001, after President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned commercial farms for distribution to Zimbabweans who were deprived of land during white rule, Ambrose said. While the number of small-scale farmers had increased, less of the top-quality "lemon tobacco", which is used to flavour cigarettes, was being grown, he said. "Flavour tobacco is in short supply," he said. "The longer we decline the more we will be taken out of the flavour formula."
By Tuesday, 34.2 million kilograms of tobacco had been sold in the first 67 days of the sales season at an average price of $1.996 (R12.50) a kilogram, down from 41.6 million kilograms at an average price of $2.115 a year earlier. On Tuesday, 700 841 kilograms sold in Zimbabwe's three auction floors for an average price of $1.98 a kilogramme. US-based buyers Standard Commercial, Universal and Dimon have traditionally bought the bulk of Zimbabwe's crop to flavour cigarette brands such as Marlboro and Camel. British American Tobacco, the biggest maker of tobacco in Zimbabwe, fired 170 workers in the country because of the dwindling crop, the Financial Gazette reported last week, citing unidentified people at the company's Zimbabwean unit. A company spokesperson did not return calls. The declining quality of Zimbabwe's tobacco crop is reducing the country's share of the European market.
China, which in the 1990s bought as much 30 million kilograms of lemon style tobacco from Zimbabwe each year, would buy only 5 million kilograms this year, Ambrose said. And next year's crop would probably fall further. "Nobody wants to start investing if there is a good chance you will be given 48 hours to get off your farm," Ambrose said. "There is no security." The decline in the tobacco crop, once Zimbabwe's biggest source of foreign exchange, has deepened an economic recession that is in its sixth year. Zambia and Malawi have benefited as some farmers relocated there. Zambia last month said it aimed to triple tobacco plantings by 2008. Some Zimbabwean farmers have moved as far as China. "There are about 600 growers just sitting in Harare doing nothing," Ambrose said. "People are just picking the skills from Zimbabwe."
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 9 July
How SA backed Zim lie
Jean-Jacques Cornish and Nazeem Dramat
South African Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma backed Zimbabwean government moves to stifle an explosive report on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa. At the same time, there is mounting evidence that Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge lied when he claimed his government had not seen or had a chance to respond to the report, prepared by the AU's Commission on People's and Human Rights (ACPHR). Summit sources said that at a meeting of African foreign ministers last week, Dlamini-Zuma had stepped up to the plate for Mudenge when he angrily insisted the report be suppressed before it reached the assembly of AU heads of state, as his government had not seen it. She later told the Mail & Guardian it had been agreed to hold the report until Zimbabwe could comment. It would not be correct to circulate the document - which also covered other countries - without the official reaction of those states.
Mudenge's claim began to look threadbare this week. One of the report's authors, South African churchman and academic Barney Pityana, told the M&G he could not believe the report had not been made available to President Robert Mugabe's government. Pityana pointed out that he and the senior vice-chairperson of the ACPHR, Gambian Jainab Johm, had finalised the report in 2002. The commission's practice was to present its findings to the relevant African state as soon as they were completed. He said he was proud of the report's even-handedness. This chimed with the Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube's, criticism of the AU's apparent decision to back away from tackling the report during the summit. The Zimbabwean government had had the report for two years, Ncube insisted. In addition, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum said the Zimbabwean government was given a copy of the report in February this year. And a senior Southern African Development Community delegate told the M&G: "If the Zimbabweans arrived here ignorant of the report, they were the only delegation in that position. We have reason to believe the report reached Harare at least six months ago." Zimbabwe has agreed to react to the report within seven days.
To the chagrin of the AU's heads of state, Mugabe's run-in with the fledgling organisation dominated its third summit in the Ethiopian capital. They had wanted to concentrate on the mission, vision and strategy presented by the AU commission chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare, and avoid dealing with the Zimbabwean president, as they had managed to do at previous summits. But when the ACPHR's findings found their way into the public domain a week ago, their options ran out. The normally soft-spoken Mudenge went ballistic when the report was presented to African foreign ministers in the executive council. He warned that if it was not stifled in that forum it would overshadow everything else in the assembly of heads of state. "It's just a question of where the blood flows, here or in the summit," he is said to have told the council. Mudenge was apparently pulled up for his threatening behaviour by Nigeria's Foreign Minister, Oluyemi Adentji, who was chairing the meeting. Adentji was disinclined simply to throw the matter out at Mudenge's behest. But in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the council accepted Mudenge's word that the ACPHR accusations came as a surprise to his government. Asked how long he would need to reply, Mudenge said: "Once we have studied it - no more than seven days." He then attempted to mollify his peers by thanking the AU for helping to "recover more than 11-million hectares of stolen land without paying one cent". For this he was rewarded with a round of applause. But the foreign ministers were having none of his appeal to shelve the report - not even when Dlamini-Zuma climbed into the ring to support him.
Dlamini-Zuma's defence of Zimbabwe may have come as a surprise to some of the other African ministers at the summit. Executive director at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Charles Villa-Vicencio, argues that South Africa had a hand in the drafting of the report and would have wanted the AU to have adopted it as part of a broad African effort to deal with the crisis in Zimbabwe. However, faced with Mudenge's - and probably Mugabe's - fierce reaction to the report, the South Africans may have decided to back down and let Zimbabwe off the hook. The report relates to events after the Zimbabwean parliamentary and presidential elections in 2000 and 2002. It was not presented to last year's summit in Maputo ostensibly because it was not translated into French. "It has been out there a long time and it simply cannot be hidden away any longer," commented one delegate. he council thus "noted" the report. It also noted that mission reports on specific countries - without naming Zimbabwe - were circulated without comment by the states concerned. It urged the commission to see that this did not happen again.
From ZWNEWS: If you would like to read the executive summary of the AU report, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message, approximately twice the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.
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From The Times (UK), 9 July
Mugabe harvests lies as Zimbabwe faces shortages
From Jan Raath in Chirundu River Bridge
A large baboon in the dusty lorry stop near Zimbabwe's border with Zambia daily lays bare the origin of President Mugabe's purported "bumper harvest". Squatting on top of a bulky trailer, he rips open the heavy tarpaulin cover and stuffs his cheeks with maize until he can push no more in. Drivers here say that every day for more than a month up to 30 heavy trucks have been crossing from Zambia with 30-tonne consignments of maize bound for government silos. Grain trade executives report that at least 400,000 tonnes are on order - some of it almost certainly grown by white Zimbabweans who moved to Zambia after being driven from their farms by Mr Mugabe's land seizures. "That man (Mr Mugabe), he made a big mistake to chase the white man," said Kennedy Phiri, a truck driver who was driving a load of maize. Similar cargo is crossing the Beitbridge border post with South Africa. The South African Grain Information Service says that 168,000 tonnes of American, Argentine and South African maize, and more than 50,000 tonnes of wheat, has been shipped into Zimbabwe this year.
How Zimbabwe's bankrupt Government pays for these surreptitious imports is a state secret, but they give the lie to its claim that the country's farmers will produce a record harvest of 2.4 million tonnes of maize this year. In a recent interview Mr Mugabe even suggested that the World Food Programme should redirect its efforts to other countries. "Why foist this food upon us? We don't want to be choked. We have enough," he told Sky News. By contrast, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation predicts a maize harvest of barely 900,000 tonnes, and estimates that 2.3 million people in Zimbabwe' s rural areas face starvation. Mr Mugabe's opponents have no doubt why he is importing such large quantities of grain, while rejecting the help of international aid organisations whose food distribution programmes he cannot control. They say that he intends to reward supporters with food before next year's parliamentary elections, and withhold it from famine-stricken areas that support opposition parties until they cave in through hunger. "They have a plan to starve people to death for political ends, to get everyone aligned to their party at all costs," Pius Ncube, the Catholic Archbishop of Western Zimbabwe, said this week. Indeed, Mr Mugabe once remarked that "absolute power is when a man is starving and you are the only one able to give him food".
In truth, the emptiness of Mr Mugabe's claims about Zimbabwe's food production - and of the state radio propaganda jingle that "Our land is our prosperity" - is everywhere apparent. A tour of what was once Zimbabwe's most intensive farming region shows that Mr Mugabe's mythical agrarian revolution has instead reduced what was once the breadbasket of southern Africa to subsistence agriculture and desperate poverty. In July the land around Banket, about 70 miles north of Harare, used to be a panorama of stunning green winter wheat. Today there are a handful of green patches, the work of the two white farmers still able to farm, and a few black "A2 settlers" - state and ruling party officials who have taken over white-owned land. Ben Hlatshwayo, the High Court judge who last month dismissed the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's challenge to Mr Mugabe's fraudulent election victory in 2002, occupies the lands and homestead of Vernon Nicolle, formerly one of the biggest wheat and barley producers in the country, who is now in Australia. The judge's summer crops consist of a patch of stunted maize and sunflowers. He has planted barely any winter wheat.
Massive rotating watering systems stand gaunt above fields of maroon buffalo weed and elephant grass. The 1,000-tonne steel grain bins are empty and vandalised, their function usurped by the rickety wooden cribs of peasant farmers holding perhaps a tonne of maize cobs. "Some of them have made it, but they are few and far between," said a white farmer who asked not to be named. "They don't have capital or know-how. The Government hasn't delivered the fertiliser, seed and fuel it promised. They farm at weekends. They planted late and their yields will be hopeless. They will be able to feed themselves, but that's all. There will be no profit to farm with next season. It's poverty replicating itself." Nearby, the tattered plastic sheeting over the ribs of a desolate 30-acre horticulture greenhouse flaps in the wind. Six months ago the owner, a widow, was forced off by soldiers with AK-47s. Other agricultural sectors are in similar straits. Zimbabwe was the biggest exporter of tobacco in the world, producing 245,000 tonnes in 2000. This year's crop will be a quarter of that. At the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in April in Bulawayo, the heart of the country's cattle industry, the sole entries in the livestock section were two donkeys. There are about 300 white farmers still able to farm, says John Worsley-Worswick of the Justice for Agriculture organisation, but the Government has recently passed laws to seize farmers' machinery and to hasten the procedure of "compulsory acquisition". Lists of farms for seizure are published with increasing frequency. "We're losing one or two farmers every day," said Mr Worsley-Worswick. "It's a very real possibility there will be no white farmers by the end of the year."
FAILING CROPS
Tobacco 2000: 245 million kg; 2004 (forecast): 65 million kg
Maize 1995: 2.1 million tonnes; 2004: 900,000 tonnes
Cotton 2000: 353,000 tonnes; 2004 (forecast): 228,000 tonnes
Wheat 2001: 314,000 tonnes; 2003: 50,000 tonnes;
Milk 2001: 160,000 tonnes; 2003: 100,000 tonnes
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From Reuters, 8 July
IMF grants Zimbabwe 6-month reprieve on expulsion
By Laura MacInnis
Washington - The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said it has given Zimbabwe a six-month grace period before considering its expulsion from the fund due to huge arrears. The IMF Board of Directors said it granted the reprieve to give the southern African country time to consolidate its economic turnaround, and to resolve its financial obligations. Zimbabwe is reeling from its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, blamed partly on the government's seizure of productive white-owned farms for the resettlement of landless blacks. It has been in continuous arrears with the IMF since February 2001, with arrears amounting to $295 million or about 56 percent of its IMF quota as of June 2004. The IMF said the decision to delay recommending a withdrawal - the last step of measures the fund uses against delinquent members - reflected "the severity of the decision at hand as well as the resumption of some payments from Zimbabwe and limited improvements in economic policy." Zimbabwe's central bank has recently sought to turn around its economy, now in its fifth year of recession. Its consumer price index rose at an annual rate of 450 percent in May, down from a 623 percent peak in January, after Harare targeted a black market for foreign currency. The IMF urged Zimbabwe to adopt sweeping reforms to improve socioeconomic conditions, restore confidence and donor support, and to restart economic growth. It also asked Zimbabwe to increase payments due to the IMF, noting the country has paid in about $9 million in 2004. The IMF said it will reconsider the question of Zimbabwe's expulsion from the fund within six months. Zimbabwe has been without IMF aid since 1999, and several Western donors suspended help following President Robert Mugabe's controversial reelection in 2002.
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From SAPA, 8 July
Sharp dip for tourism in Zimbabwe
Harare - Tourism has dropped dramatically in troubled Zimbabwe, especially among affluent visitors from Europe and the United States, according to government figures released on Thursday. The government's Tourism Authority said 348 946 tourists visited Zimbabwe in the first three months of the year, about half the number that came in the first quarter of last year. Of those, four percent came from the United States, nine percent from Europe, the authority said. Zimbabwe is suffering its worst political and economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, with spiralling inflation and unemployment and acute shortages of hard currency, food, gasoline, medicines and essential imports. Political violence has claimed at least 200 lives since the government launched an often violent programme in 2000 to seize thousands of white-owned farms, crippling the agricultural-based economy. The United States and European governments have warned their nationals about the dangers of visiting Zimbabwe. In 1999, tourism earned the country nearly $200-million. Tourism receipts last year fell to about $44-million. Tourism was Zimbabwe's third largest hard currency earner after agricultural exports, including tobacco, and mining.
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From IPS, 8 July
Calling those with deep pockets, and vast patience
Wilson Johwa
Bulawayo - Political office has never been for the faint-of-heart. Getting into office is often a dirty business, and staying there a trying one. There's no denying, however, that legislators from developing countries - in the case of this article, Zimbabwe - face a particularly challenging set of circumstances. The only woman councilor in Zimbabwe's second-largest city of Bulawayo, Stars Mathe, is well acquainted with the pressures of political life. On the evening that IPS interviews her, she arrives home at a modest house in the working class area of Cowdray Park, only to have two women visit shortly afterwards. While they appear to be older than Mathe, they call the councilor "mother". One bluntly tells Mathe that she doesn't have anything to cook for her family, and would like Mathe to provide her with assistance. Without losing her poise, and clearly accustomed to such requests, Mathe politely turns them away. The moment she does so, however, she discovers a note, pushed under her door, requesting her presence at a nearby funeral. "When they tell you this, they usually expect financial assistance," she remarks wearily, while preparing to go.
Legislators from industrialized countries may well claim to have a "hands on" approach to dealing with those in their constituencies. In the poorer areas of Zimbabwe however, especially rural settlements, a good representative is required to be nothing less than a dependable parent-figure: someone who is readily available to help individuals solve private matters, and dig into their personal resources to do so. At the moment, there is no shortage of needs in the country. Farm occupations to redistribute land from minority whites, political violence, periodic fuel shortages and triple-digit inflation have combined to undermine Zimbabwe's economy, impoverishing a substantial part of the population. However, certain observers are sparing in their admiration of officials who take on the role of "provider-of-last-resort". Instead, they criticise them for creating or perpetuating a "donor-recipient" relationship with their constituents. "It is because when they campaign, they use money," says journalist and feminist Miriam Madziwa. Sheba Dube, who runs the League of Women Voters, observes "It's a disease of the politicians." This body is a pressure group modeled along the same lines as its American parent organisation. Dube says many Zimbabwean voters hardly know what to demand from, or expect of, a political leader. If they did, she adds, they would not support a leader on one day - then vote them out the next, with scant regard for performance.
Still, it seems the situation is sometimes more complex than these explanations suggest - and that Zimbabwe's democratic institutions are maturing. If money is all that is required to secure political victory, then Sikhanyiso Ndlovu would not have lost his parliamentary seat in 2000, when the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) stormed onto the political scene. During the preceding five years, this well-heeled entrepreneur had no qualms about spending money in his constituency, also a working class area. He established a scheme through which residents could buy reconditioned "kombis" (mini-vans) imported from Japan. These vehicles were used to set their owners up in taxi businesses. Ndlovu also organised an annual fair where women's groups he supported could display the products of their home industries. Towards the end of his term, the politician - a senior member of the ruling party - even arranged for a "constituency ambulance". Ndlovu says he's willing to stand in the next parliamentary election, scheduled for Mar. 2005, but will only put his name on the ticket if people ask him to. "They shouldn't expect me to keep pumping my own monies," he adds, "It's not fair to want me personally and not want the (ruling) party."
Janah Ncube, who heads the lobby group, Women in Politics Zimbabwe (WIPZ), describes the expectation of financial help from leaders as a "developing world problem", engendered by poverty. "I'm not a political leader, but as a public face I still meet people who expect me to help them in one way or another," she notes. Voter demands also result from a "distorted image of what a parliamentarian is," she adds. Constituents might be uncertain about what a candidate stands for - although they do have high expectations in other respects. "We actually expect them to eat and look better than us, regardless of how poor we ourselves are," Ncube observes. Due to their general disempowerment, women are much more disadvantaged than men in what Ncube calls "this whole psyche that's bought by money". It is perhaps not surprising then that women - with fewer resources - have also failed to make great inroads into Zimbabwe's parliament. Of the 150 legislators, only 16 (or 10, 6 percent) are women, a decline of three percent from figures registered for the previous parliament. The Southern African Development Community, of which Zimbabwe is part, has set a target of having 30 percent of legislative seats in all member states occupied by women, by 2005.
Ncube says WIPZ intends to provide women candidates for the 2005 poll with advice on "image-building", as well as assistance of a material nature. But, she claims the largest obstacle to women's participation in politics remains a lack of political will in the two main parties (the ruling Zanu PF and the MDC) to have equal representation in their ranks. Just as important, says Dube, is voter education to make Zimbabweans aware of what they should expect from their representatives. Unfortunately, this type of education has only been carried out shortly before the country's previous elections - rather than on an ongoing basis, as it should be. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that conduct voter awareness initiatives have also received a hostile reception from the ruling party, which equates such education with campaigning for the opposition. Only last month, the director of a Danish NGO (MS-Zimbabwe) was ordered to leave the country. Although a Danish citizen, Paul Eklof had lived in Zimbabwe for two decades while overseeing the organisation's programmes, staff and training. Another employee of MS-Zimbabwe, who requested anonymity, told IPS that the deportation order included accusations that the Danish group had spread "political messages" via its voter education programmes in rural areas, particularly those in Matabeleland and near Binga. The independent Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network has pressed ahead with its voter education campaigns, although a network official - who also asked not to be named - said the work was frequently (and illegally) disrupted by the police or local politicians. "There are some people with certain powers, in certain areas," she added.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 9 July
Whistle blower demands $30b
Vincent Kahiya
The man who blew the whistle on key business and political figures resulting in their arrests this year is demanding more than $30 billion from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) for his efforts. He claims the RBZ has been withholding his bounty after he helped the police to nab high profile individuals. The estimated prejudice to the state as a result of their alleged fraudulent activities amounts to $310 billion. The whistle blower is entitled to 10%. The elderly man, whom the Zimbabwe Independent cannot name, said he had to leave South Africa where he was based to avoid harm following his disclosures. He worked for one of the accused, Cecil Muderede, at a transport company called Nemini in South Africa between April last year and February this year. He also worked for Africa Resources Ltd's transport division, Petter International, as a senior manager until October 2001. Yesterday RBZ governor Gideon Gono's spokesman Fortune Chasi confirmed the central bank had indeed received information from the whistle blower. "With regards to the individual in question, we do confirm that he has been a substantial source of high-profile information which has led to the situation currently receiving attention by the police and other law enforcement agents," said Chasi. He said the RBZ would pay the whistle blower as soon as the cases in the courts were finalised. "We are as anxious to get to the finality of the matters as he (the whistle blower) wants to get payment," he said. "We however request him to be patient with us until the cases have been finalised," he said. Senior RBZ officials this week said the man had an "arsenal of information" which he passed on to the police, the Central Intelligence Organisation and the central bank. "Most of the information he gave us was credible," a senior RBZ official said. "The RBZ has a mandate to help police to verify and cross-check such information. We found the information to be useful."
The man, who is now in the United Kingdom, claims to have blown the whistle on businessman and Zanu PF Central Committee member James Makamba and his cellphone company Telecel. Makamba is currently in remand prison on charges of externalising US$133 000, £225 650 and 52 956 euros. The informer said he was also the whistle blower in the Mutumwa Mawere case resulting in attempts to extradite the businessman from South Africa on charges of externalising $300 billion. He blew the whistle on Muderede, who is being jointly charged with Irvin Mereki and Terrence Mutasa for externalising more than US$1,3 million and R700 000. Muderede is also facing 21 counts of defrauding the Grain Marketing Board of 7 915 metric tonnes of grain valued at more than $63 million. In his monetary policy statement on December 18 last year, Gono announced the setting up of a whistle blower's fund from which informers with credible information would get 10% of the amount recovered by the state in commercial crime cases. The man said he came to Zimbabwe on January 14 this year and met with Gono, Anti-Corruption minister Didymus Mutasa and senior police officers. He claims to have been booked into Meikles Hotel. He said Gono's personal driver picked him up from the hotel the next day for a meeting with the governor. He claims to have met President Robert Mugabe on January 16 to present startling revelations about suspected foreign currency violations by prominent figures. He returned to Zimbabwe on February 12 and met Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri and State Security minister Nicholas Goche. The meetings, he said, resulted in the dispatch of a team of police officers to South Africa. "Gono only gave me $4 million in cash and nothing else," he said.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 10 July
Bob wants Zim to be 'anti-Blair'
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Friday told hundreds of young supporters of his ruling party that the parliamentary elections due next year would be a "fight" against British Prime Minister Tony Blair, state television reported. "We are fighting Blair. It is an anti-Blair election and we must win it and demonstrate to him that Zimbabwe shall never be a colony," Mugabe told a conference in Harare of the youth wing of his Zanu PF. Zimbabwe was a British colony between 1923 and 1980. "They (Britain) have been making threats against us," Mugabe said to applause. "Let them come. We have said, sure, some people will die. But they can never conquer us. Never." The ruling party was angered recently when Blair told the British Parliament his government was "working closely" with Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Last week the Zimbabwean Parliament, which is dominated by Zanu PF MPs, approved a motion to investigate the MDC's alleged "treasonous" links to Britain. The opposition denies the charges. Friday's conference was held at the University of Zimbabwe and reportedly attended by 2 500 ruling party supporters from around the country. The party's deputy youth secretary, MP Saviour Kasukuwere, earlier told state radio the youth wing was already preparing for next year's parliamentary elections. "We want to be ready and to make sure that once and for all we lay this MDC ghost to rest," he said.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 9 July
$500m for youth camp renovations
Shakeman Mugari/Augustine Mukaro
The government is currently expanding and renovating the controversial youth training camps at a cost of $500 million ahead of next year's general election. Sources said government was already extending and revamping Kamativi, Vumba and Mushagashe camps in preparation for the poll in March. The training camps are expected to churn out more than 6 000 youths who could possibly be deployed to strengthen Zanu PF's electoral machinery. The sources said government would use the camps as militia bases during the election period. The camps would also house the Zanu PF youth wing during the elections. The Zimbabwe Independent is reliably informed that an unbudgeted $500 million would be used for renovating and extending the three camps. The Independent has had sight of the preliminary expenditure proposal for the project. The papers show that the government has set aside $360 million for the extension of Kamativi training camp in Matabeleland North, the biggest militia base in the country.
Mushagashe in Masvingo and Vumba in Manicaland would also be extended at a total cost of $150 million. Vumba, an all-female youth camp with an original capacity of 500 occupants, is now expected to have more than 800 inmates at a time. Mushagashe would also increase its intake from the current 1 000 to about 1 300. There are plans, sources say, to have a crash programme for the next youth intake. A senior training officer in the Ministry of Youth, Gender and Employment said the camps would have four intakes over the next seven months. "Yes the renovations have started. The next intake will be at the end of this month. The plan is to make up for the time lost during the reconstruction," said the official. Meanwhile, reports say Zanu PF has turned Rusape into a no go area for the opposition deploying graduates from the national youth training centres to harass any suspected MDC supporters. One of the victims who preferred to be identified only as Brighton for fear of victimisation said he was detained and tortured for four days for allegedly possessing independent newspapers. Brighton said he had just disembarked from a bus from Harare when a well-known graduate from Border Gezi youth camp living in Rusape approached him, accusing him of reading newspapers sponsored by British premier Tony Blair. He was holding the Zimbabwe Independent and the Financial Gazette.
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From The Financial Gazette, 8 July
BNC courts DRC's Gecamines
Felix Njini
Harare - Zimbabwe's nickel giant Bindura Nickel Corporation (BNC), which recently announced plans to sink US$90 million into a new nickel mining project, is courting the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Gecamines in a bid to strike nickel mining joint venture deals. A senior official with the company said the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE)-listed nickel producer was exploring the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) jungles where it has discovered some potential nickel deposits. BNC said it would inject US$90 million to develop its Hunters Road nickel project based in the country's Midlands town of Gweru. Company insiders however maintained that BNC had planned a massive US$500 million for the Hunters Nickel project, where initial studies have indicated a 25-year lifespan. Sources within the corporation also said BNC had made rich discoveries at its Trojan Mine, the company's mainstay, and has already splashed US$20 million into the deepening of the shaft.
BNC has been holding intense negotiations with DRC-based Gecamines for the past few months exploring joint venture possibilities in nickel mining and negotiations are said to be "progressing well". Formerly Anglo American Plc-owned, BNC was bought by a consortium of intrepid continental investors - Mwana Africa Holdings - comprising of Zimbabweans, South Africans, Zambians and some Congolese last year for US$8 million. The DRC-born but Johannesburg-based BNC chairman, Kalaa Mpinga, said the nickel producer, which has suffered a run of bad luck in Zimbabwe's deteriorating economy, was taking a giant step in tapping the region's immense mineral resources. BNC, whose gross nickel production for the year 2003, at 10 105 tonnes, was down nine percent (11 165 tonnes) on the 2002 output is staking its future on new discoveries on the Hunters Road project and its forays in the mineral rich DRC, Mpinga said.
BNC, the holding company for Trojan and Shangani Nickel Mines, has been underutilising its smelter capacity over the years. To fully utilise the smelter, situated at the main mine in Bindura, the company has had to toll refine nickel from Botswana and South Africa, according to Mpinga. In 2003 alone, the Bindura smelter toll refined about 3.694 tonnes of nickel. He said one the reasons for their forays into the war-torn Central African country was to find enough nickel and be able to fully utilise the Bindura smelter. Mpinga said the company was carrying out tests to determine the best way of extracting the low-grade nickel deposits at the Hunters Road project. The negative investment climate currently prevailing in Zimbabwe has dampened prospects for the nickel project coming on board not later than 2006, analysts noted. Mining firms in Zimbabwe have also been disenchanted by huge electricity bills, which are sometimes quoted in hard currency as government strives to find hard currency to foot food, electricity and medicines import bills.
"The nickel is low grade and if influenced by electricity supply and with the current tariffs in Zimbabwe, it would be uneconomical to start mining now. But feasibility studies carried out so far indicate that US$90 million is required to kick-start mine development but the process takes time. "We will negotiate with the government when the time comes but early next year we will be in a better picture when mine development is going to start. "We have, however, started some explorations in the DRC for base metals. In addition we have been discussing with Gecamines for possibilities of joint ventures in some of our nickel deposits and the discussions are progressing well," Mpinga said. Analysts noted that BNC, which enjoys a two percent market share in the international nickel market, was intent on leveraging its regional expansion initiatives on firming international nickel prices and demand. Nickel demand is expected to remain strong in the short term with prices staying firm.
In 2003 alone, nickel demand grew by 6.2 percent. Nickel prices firmed steadily during the course of the year from US$3.72 per pound in January to a high of US$7.50 per pound in December 2003. World consumption of primary nickel grew by 6.2 percent in 2003, reflecting the rapid growth of Chinese stainless steel demand. During the period under review BNC, whose fortunes have taken a turn for the worse due to the country's hyperinflationary environment and foreign currency shortages, enjoyed an average price of US$4.23 per pound, a 38 percent improvement from the 2002 price. The company, which achieved an after-tax profit of Z$74 billion, had also been adversely affected by high production costs in United States dollar terms. Production costs, at US$2.45 per pound, were 17 percent higher than in 2002. In addition to exchange rate fluctuations, the increase was also driven by high electricity charges and prices of input materials. BNC remains concerned about the country's high inflation, which is exerting pressure on costs. "This has been exacerbated by a massive increase in electricity and rail tariffs and in import duty. Current revenue from exports, when translated into Zimbabwean dollars, is not adequate to sustain the business in the long term," Mpinga said. The local unit is controlled by the monetary authorities at around Z$5 300 to the United States dollar under the foreign exchange auction system introduced late last year by new Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono. Mpinga poured cold water on market speculation that BNC would be shifting its base to some regional country because of the negative investment climate prevailing in Zimbabwe.
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Comment from The Mail & Guardian (SA), 9 July
Saying 'no more' to bullies
Many of us would feel a lot better if President Thabo Mbeki, the most credible and influential leader in the region, would phone Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and give him a firm and irrevocable deadline to move out of office. It would enable us to feel that the fundamental human rights values,for which we fought in the struggle against apartheid, are alive and well. The problem is that South African foreign policy does not work like that. There nevertheless comes a time when one needs to say to those responsible for sustained and vicious abuse of their own people, "No more" - even where the person responsible has the kind of support that Mugabe has in parts of Africa, not least because of his capacity to exploit the residue of anti-colonial feeling. He needs to be told: "Hear the cry of your own people." The difficulty is that Mbeki is probably not sure if loud diplomacy will work any better than quiet diplomacy. What could he reasonably do to back any publicly declared ultimatum? How much support would Mbeki get from other African leaders if he were to take unilateral action against a senior African liberation leader?
Opposition forces in Zimbabwe are being terrorised and this threatens to render the Zimbabwean elections unfree and unfair before they are declared. It will be difficult for South Africa to suggest that elections are credible in the present climate. Some talk of the need to turn off the electricity, close the border and impose economic sanctions. "Don't talk to us about civil war, famine and political chaos, we will take our chances," a senior Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader noted. It is all a bit like the South African debate between liberation movement supporters, who bore the brunt of government jackboots in the townships and neighbouring countries, and those in more comfortable places who counselled restraint and constructive engagement. Clearly, there are differences between the situation that prevailed in South Africa and the one presently unfolding in Zimbabwe. These need to be taken into account in any initiative devised to assist Zimbabweans in dealing with their crisis. Opposition forces, for a variety of reasons, are simply not as organised there as they were in South Africa in the 1980s. Their strategic goals to counter government domination are simply not clear to all who would like to offer the kind of solidarity that is needed. The threatening famine, resources crisis and the apparent divisions within Zanu PF are not being exploited to the benefit of the opposition.
The MDC has not managed to convince Mbeki or other African leaders that it is a government-in-waiting. International support for the forces of opposition is not (again for a variety of reasons) anywhere near the level anti-apartheid movements enjoyed in the countdown to the beginning of political change in South Africa. The "ifs", "whys" and "buts" of all this can be debated. The question is how to intervene meaningfully in the situation to effect real change, rather than simply to ensure that we all feel morally vindicated by Mbeki giving Mugabe an ultimatum. The June 30 deadline Mbeki cited to end the Zimbabwean impasse a year ago at the World Economic Forum summit in Durban has produced no results. This has been publicly acknowledged by presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo. The recent talks between MDC leaders and Mbeki in Pretoria suggest an adjustment to the president's Zimbabwe strategy, although clearly his contacts with opposition leaders have been maintained. The most significant development in this regard is the report presented to the African Union executive council on the Zimbabwean situation.
After a strong indication that the report had been adopted by the full executive, its adoption was apparently blocked as a result of a Zimbabwean government intervention. The report slams the government for arrest and torture of opposition members of Parliament, human rights lawyers, the arrest of journalists, the stifling of freedom of expression and clampdown on other civil liberties. The words of the report leave little doubt as to the views of its drafters: "By its statements and political rhetoric, and by its failure to uphold the rule of law, the government failed to chart a path that signalled a commitment to the rule of law. "The land question is not in itself the cause of division. It appears that at the heart is a society in search of change, and divided about how best to achieve change after two decades of dominance by a political party that carried the hopes and aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe through the liberation struggle into independence." The hand of the South African government in the drafting of the report can be discerned. The nature of the intervention suggests Mbeki-style foreign policy, not least regarding the African continent. It is one that is multilateral, regional and inclusively African. To the extent that the report promotes the beginning of regional consensus (despite the apparent wavering response to its adoption), it is a signal of mounting African frustration with Mugabe. The report suggests a growing realisation that Zimbabwe is an increasing threat to political stability in the region, capable of undermining the credibility of the African Charter and the capacity of the AU to deal with rogue nations.
There are indications that Mbeki is feeling the need to change tactics. African leaders are frustrated, maybe even a little embarrassed. Several Zanu PF leaders are increasingly unsure whether Mugabe can give them a few more years in the comfort of material and political power. The MDC has got to know that it is, perhaps, now or never. The political landscape in Zimbabwe could be about to undergo a shift that will demand adjustment from all the players involved if progress is to be made. For this to happen, it is time for Mbeki and other African leaders to provide the kind of regional leadership that is required before Zimbabwe takes the final tip into the abyss that desperate people are often unable to prevent. It is time for African leaders to take a stand.
Charles Villa-Vicencio is executive director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 11 July
Mbeki cements ties with Zanu PF
Zimbabwe's ruling party asks ANC for help with election at secret meeting
Brendan Boyle and Harare correspondent
Top ANC officials led by President Thabo Mbeki recently held a top-secret meeting with leading members of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF to forge closer political ties. The June meeting was confirmed yesterday by ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe and Zanu PF's chairman, John Nkomo. The meeting took place at the ANC's headquarters in central Johannesburg on the eve of this week's African Union summit, where an official report critical of Zimbabwe's human-rights abuses was circulated for the first time and as Mbeki's self-imposed June deadline for resolving the Zimbabwean crisis loomed. Besides Mbeki, other ANC officials who attended the meeting include Motlanthe, ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, treasurer-general Mendi Msimang and chairman Mosiuoa Lekota. The Zanu PF delegation was led by Nkomo. A Zanu PF politburo member told the Sunday Times that his party had asked the ANC to help it secure a convincing majority in Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections due early next year. The ANC endorsed Mugabe's hotly disputed re-election in 2002 and Zanu PF's controversial 2000 victory. Zanu PF officials said the party now wanted the ANC to go further than "just mere endorsement" of elections and help it win at the polls. They said the ANC had agreed in principle to deploy between four and six election strategists to Zimbabwe ahead of the election to help Zanu PF prepare a winning campaign.
Senior members of the Zanu-PF executive were briefed about the meeting by Nkomo. "Zanu PF has asked for the ANC to help to win next year's election and my understanding is that the ANC has in principle agreed to send between four and six 'strategists' to assist it during the forthcoming election," a senior official said. Motlanthe said yesterday that no such agreement had been made, but added that there was an "open invitation" to Zanu PF to study the South African party's success. He confirmed that a Zanu PF delegation had visited the ANC headquarters "on a Monday" in June, holding discussions for about three hours until noon with the top six ANC office-bearers, including Mbeki. "I was at that meeting. I am not at liberty to say what we did talk about, but it is true they were here to congratulate the ANC, not to ask for help. I am sure they will do that when it comes closer to the election," said Motlanthe. Asked whether the ANC had agreed to make strategists available, he said: "There is no truth to that. We did not agree to that." Nkomo, widely regarded as a possible successor to Mugabe, said Zanu PF and the ANC had "close ties and shared vision in the region". He said the ANC had done better than expected by winning 70% of the vote in South Africa. He added that Zanu PF had also come to congratulate the South Africans on winning the rights to host the 2010 World Cup.
Mugabe attended Mbeki's inauguration in Pretoria on April 27 and was wildly cheered by the crowds at the ceremony. Already the oldest leader in Africa, Mugabe, 84, has said he will retire when his term ends in 2008. "Mugabe is desperate to win the election because if his party loses he will have to resign or rule for three years with an opposition-dominated and effectively hostile parliament," a South African government official told the Sunday Times. Nkomo said: "We wanted to congratulate them [the ANC] on their election victory. We were not there necessarily to borrow election strategies because their situation is different from ours... but, of course, it would be expected that they would tell us how they did it. The ANC is a sister party and our relations date back many years ago when the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo was in South Africa [in the 1940s] and also during our liberation struggles," he said. "We sent delegations before and after the election to South Africa. The first one was there to monitor the election and the second went to congratulate our sister party." Zanu PF failed to secure 50% of the vote in parliamentary elections in June 2000, taking 62 seats to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's 57 seats. The ruling party's majority was increased by presidential nominations and seats for traditional leaders, but the result shook Mugabe's confidence.
Motlanthe said Zanu PF delegations regularly visited the ANC to study organisational and strategic issues. "The sister parties always have access to the ANC. They send people. Some go to the provinces, some go to headquarters," Motlanthe said. The ANC hosted a conference of liberation movements and parties outside Johannesburg in 2000 to share experiences of a series of multi-party elections across the region. Among the issues discussed were ways to prevent former liberation movements being ousted by parties perceived to have close ties with Western nations. Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change, often attacked by Mugabe as a "British-sponsored puppet party", has accused the ANC of colluding with Zanu PF in the stop-start inter-party talks intended to resolve the country's deep political and economic crisis. Motlanthe said the ANC had sent a 10-member delegation to the 2000 election in Zimbabwe and would probably send a similar or larger delegation to next year's election to "gather first-hand information".
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From AFP, 10 July
Trial of Zim 70 postponed - lawyer
The trial of 70 suspected mercenaries detained in Zimbabwe for allegedly plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea, has been postponed to allow for a South African court to hear an appeal for their expatriation to Pretoria, a lawyer said on Saturday. The trial had been due to open at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on July 19, but will now start on July 21, Alwyn Griebenow told AFP. "The date has been shifted... so we will go on trial on 21 July," Griebenow said. He said the delay was so that he could lodge an appeal on behalf of the men - who were all travelling on South African passports - in South Africa's Constitutional Court for them to be extradited to face trial there. The 70 were arrested on March 7 at Harare International Airport when their Boeing 727 landed in Harare to pick up weapons from Zimbabwe's state-run arms manufacturer. The authorities in Harare claim they were on their way to topple President Teodoro Obiang Nguema's government in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, charges the men deny. They say they were on their way to guard diamond mining operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The men have been charged with breaching Zimbabwe's security, firearms, aviation and immigration laws. If convicted lawyers say the men could face a fine or a five-year prison term. Defence lawyers are keen to have the men stand trial in South Africa, as they say they face the possibility of extradition to Equatorial Guinea from Zimbabwe, as well as an unfair trial there and possible death sentence. Griebenow said that state lawyers in Zimbabwe had agreed to the slight postponement of the long-awaited trial. The men come from South Africa, Angola and Namibia but were all travelling on South African passports.
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From The Sunday Times (UK), 11 July
Coup 'confession' may doom Briton
Tom Walker
A confession by Simon Mann, an Old Etonian mercenary accused of an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea, could put him in jail for up to 15 years, say lawyers acting for the west African oil state. The buccaneering Mann, 51, is currently languishing in Zimbabwe's notorious Chikurubi prison, having seen his alleged coup attempt last March get no further than the tarmac of Harare 's international airport. His trial on public order, arms and aviation charges is scheduled to begin in Harare next week. After that, lawyers expect him to be extradited to Equatorial Guinea where he will face trial as a mercenary. How long Mann's transfer between the two pariah countries takes may depend on whatever secretive deal is struck by their presidents, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Diplomats watching the drama believe Mugabe will want guarantees of fuel supplies from Nguema before he hands over Mann and his 69 co-defendants. Mann's confession - disputed by his lawyers - gives an account of his involvement in the alleged plot, and is partly backed by the confession of his alleged accomplice, Nick du Toit. He is a former South African special forces soldier currently held in Black Beach prison in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea.
The country's government has accused Mann and du Toit of acting on behalf of Severo Moto, an exiled opposition leader. Moto denies any connection to the alleged coup. Du Toit is said to have led an advance party identifying targets. Mann was to pick up weapons in Harare and then fly to Malabo with the main group of mercenaries. In his confession, Mann describes Moto as a "dearly good and honest man", who had been banished by Nguema after trying to mount an earlier coup in 1997. "I was also struck by just how bad Nguema is," he continued. He claimed Moto depicted his rival as a cannibal determined to preserve the family dynasty through Teodorin, his playboy son. In a subsequent meeting, Mann said in his confession that Moto introduced him to an Equatorial Guinea general who claimed he had been forced to watch Nguema raping his wife. "They asked me if I could help escort Severo Moto home.when simultaneously there would be an uprising of the military and civilians against Nguema," he is quoted as saying. "Given the above, this seemed a necessity and I agreed to try and help the cause." Why Mann, a scion of the Watneys brewing empire who made millions from a previous mercenary venture, Executive Outcomes, would have been tempted by such a risky operation is unclear. He owns Inchmery, a former Rothschild estate on the banks of the Beaulieu river in Hampshire, and a substantial home in Cape Town, where he socialised among a select, monied group. Amanda, his wife, is expecting their fourth child.
Family friends have hinted, however, that he needed one more payday to cover his lavish lifestyle. Those same friends also suggest that he has been tortured in jail and lawyers for Mann (their fees paid for by the sale of his Aerostar jet) insist his confession was obtained under duress. That confession goes on to state how last summer Mann asked du Toit to help in recruiting mercenaries. It also gives details of how the pair tried to get weapons from the Zimbabwe state arms maker, Zimbabwe Defence Industries. "Naively I believed that by dealing with Zimbabwe Defence Industries I was dealing at a very high level and would be fully covered," Mann said. Mann's confession finishes with details of how Spanish civil guards would be sent to prop up the Moto administration after it was installed. Spain has denied any involvement. Du Toit's confession describes how his small band of mercenaries would take over Malabo airport's control tower and establish communications with Mann's incoming aircraft from Harare. Afterwards the force would split, with one group picking up a government minister who would lead them into the presidential palace to capture Nguema. The attempt, he said, "was planned with minimum force to be used, but in the event of resistance, bloodshed was inevitable". In reality the Boeing 727 that Mann arranged to fly into Harare from South Africa on March 7 to pick up weapons was impounded before it could take off for Malabo; he and the 69 on board were arrested. The following day du Toit and the rest of his party suffered the same fate.
Who rumbled whom is unclear: some security experts claim South African agents infiltrated the group, while others believe intelligence officials close to Mugabe, when they discovered the arms deal, jumped at the chance of betraying white mercenaries. American embassy officials in Malabo have reported that du Toit and the six other members of his group are being held in good conditions in Black Beach. Defence lawyers, though, contest this and oppostion sources claim that a fellow German mercenary who perished at the prison in March died not because of malaria but through injuries sustained during torture. The Equatorial Guinea lawyers claim that any trial in Malabo will meet international standards. Those close to the defence teams for Mann and du Toit doubt this, and say there is insufficient evidence to convict either of a coup attempt. "Without corroborating evidence, like contracts or bank transfers, confessions extracted in this way are surely not worth the paper they are written on," one Africa expert said. Mann and du Toit are set to face courtroom dramas with a plot so murky it springs straight from the pages of a Frederick Forsyth novel. And diplomats preparing to monitor the trials have noted that Forsyth's Dogs of War was based on just such a coup attempt - in Equatorial Guinea.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 11 July
Zimbabwe races to answer repression charges
S'Thembiso Msomi and Sunday Times Foreign Desk
Zimbabwe was on Friday rushing to beat a self-imposed deadline to respond by yesterday to a damning African Union report that condemned political repression and human-rights abuses in the troubled country. Official sources said Foreign Affairs Minister Stan Mudenge was hurrying to meet the seven-day deadline he set for himself on July 3 in a bid to ward off pressure from the AU executive council during a debate on the report. The report, compiled by the African Commission on Human and People's Rights, calls for the disbanding of the Zimbabwean police's law and order unit, which it accuses of operating under political instruction from the ruling Zanu PF. Zimbabwe's foreign affairs spokesman, Pavelyn Musaka, confirmed the government was replying to the report, which dominated the AU executive council meeting in Ethiopia. "I can confirm the government of Zimbabwe is studying and working on a response to the report in line with the commitment made at the AU summit," Musaka said. The African Commission went on a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe in June 2002 after widespread reports of human-rights abuses. It found "enough evidence" that human rights were being abused. The report is particularly critical of the police, the country's ombudsman, Beatrice Chanetsa, and the Electoral Supervisory Commission.
Chanetsa, although supposed to be independent by law, has shown signs of being biased in favour of the ruling party. When the commission visited her, she claimed to have received no reports of human-rights abuses. "That did not surprise the mission, seeing that in her press statements following our visit, and without undertaking any investigations into allegations levelled against them, the ombudsman was defensive of allegations against the youth militia," says the report. It calls for the dismantling of the youth militias. "The activities of youth militia trained in the youth camps has been brought to our attention. Reports suggest that these youths serve as party militia engaged in political violence." The report was supposed to have been made public at the AU summit in Maputo last year but was not as it had not been translated into French. This year, Zimbabwe managed to prevent the report from being presented at the summit. Much to the shock of his colleagues, who had read the report, Mudenge claimed he had not seen the report, which was submitted to the government in February. The situation was worsened by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's attack on long-serving dictators, and by implication President Robert Mugabe.
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From The Scotsman (UK), 10 July
Zimbabwe finds millions to launch minister's album
Harare - Cash-strapped Zimbabwe might be dogged by chronic food shortages, power blackouts, water cuts and fuel queues, but the government is putting its money where its mouth is - into its latest propaganda album. Back2Black, a CD of pro-land reform songs written by Zimbabwe's outspoken information minister, Jonathan Moyo, is being launched today amid pomp and fanfare at the country's once-buzzing Victoria Falls luxury resort. Guests, many of them from president Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party, and approved reporters are said to be booked on flights this morning from Harare to Victoria Falls. Mr Moyo's Department of Information and Publicity is believed to be footing much of the cost of the launch, estimated at several million Zimbabwean dollars. Guests are being offered lunch and dinner at the five-star Elephant Hills Hotel, one report said. The 26-song double album, featuring tracks supporting Mr Mugabe's controversial land reform programme, will be launched during a river cruise at noon, the privately owned Standard newspaper reported, with the video being launched at 8pm. State-run television, which Mr Moyo controls with an iron grip, has been gushing in its praise of the new release. The album is a "delight and should capture the ear and heart of a wide audience", the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation said in a news bulletin on Thursday. Regular viewers of Zimbabwean television might beg to differ. During his four-year stint as information minister, Mr Moyo has churned out numerous propaganda songs - and, it seems, charmed his way into Mr Mugabe's heart. The catchy tunes are usually aired every half an hour on state radio, up to 72 times a day.
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From The Sunday Mail, 11 July
Massive turnout at Pax-Afro launch
From Garikai Mazara in Victoria Falls
BACK2BLACK, the much-awaited 26-song double CD compilation by Pax-Afro, was yesterday launched amid pomp and fanfare - probably to the extent never seen before in Victoria Falls. Though the event proper was scheduled for Victoria Falls, events got into the groove at the Harare International Airport. The departure lounge of the domestic terminal burst into life as early as 8am. Besides the scheduled flight to Victoria Falls, which stops over in Bulawayo, Air Zimbabwe had to add another, which flew directly to the resort town. Upon arrival, the invited guests, including several Government ministers, were welcomed by the Victoria Falls-based traditional ensemble Amazulu. From the airport the entourage proceeded to the majestic Elephant Hills Hotel for check-ins before going to the Azambezi Hotel for lunch. The official launch ceremony followed soon after. Such was the massive turnout for the launch that organisers had, at the last minute, to hire another houseboat to complement the two already in place. The first part of the official launch ceremony took place during the three-hour cruise. During the cruise, the invited guests listened to music from the album and had an opportunity to choose their top five songs. A draw to the competition held during the cruise was held last night. During the second part of the official ceremony, incorporating a video launch of the album, guest of honour Cde Francis Nhema, the Minister of Environment and Tourism, officially launched the double CD album, clothing line plus website.
What is particularly peculiar about the Pax-Afro project is that it is the first time in the history of Zimbabwean music that a 26-song compilation is launched. As well, it must be mentioned that no musical group has four websites, www.paxafro.com; www.paxafro.biz; www.back2black.net; www.paxafro.co.zw. * What is also commendable about Pax-Afro is that it is made up of musicians from diverse backgrounds. The Mahendere Brothers, Micheal and Misheck, come from a gospel music background; Isaac Chirwa is a veteran of immense talent whereas Tendayi Manatsa is the son of the legendary Zex Manatsa. Judith Ndlovu is virtually an unknown but Gideon Zamimba and Leonard Musena have extensive backgrounds so has Munyaradzi Hapatongwe. What is also commendable about the double CD is that it covers a number of topics, from love to Africanness as well as incorporating love rhythm and danceable tunes. But it would be a miscarriage of justice not to mention the fun that was in the houseboats, particularly the dancing skills of Ndumiso Gumede, who had all the three boats in applause. Meanwhile, Pax-Afro, a word which means peace Africa, is scheduled to stage its first and only live performance for the year in October at the Harare International Conference Centre.
* From ZWNEWS: Actually, so far only one website. Three of the web addresses took us to the websites of hair-loss clinics in central London.
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From Business Day (SA), 12 July
Mugabe denounces greedy elite who took more than one farm
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has spoken out against greedy members of his ruling party who helped themselves to more than one farm during the implementation of his controversial land-redistribution policy. Speaking on Saturday at a two-day conference of his party's youth league held at the University of Zimbabwe, Mugabe lashed out at high-profile members of his party who took more than one farm for themselves. The official Sunday Mail reported that in unusually strong criticism of senior officials of his ruling party, Mugabe said that he had received many complaints about political heavyweights who had taken more than one farm . "As per our tradition, a man can have as many wives as he wants as long as he can look after them," Mugabe said at the close of the conference . "Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about farms." Four years ago the Zimbabwean government launched its fast-track land-reform programme, which has resulted in thousands of new black farmers being given farms that were previously owned by whites. But the scheme has been dogged by controversy following allegations that top politicians had taken many of the best properties. "Those with more than one farm must surrender the rest and remain with one farm," Mugabe said.
He also said he would hold the Zimbabwean youth answerable for any election defeat, the newspaper reported yesterday. "If we lose the elections, I will expect you in the youth league to be answerable," Mugabe told hundreds of young supporters of his Zanu PF, according to a report in the newspaper. The Zimbabwean president told the 2400 youths meeting in Harare to "mount a vigorous campaign across the country to push (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair's midgets out", referring to legislators from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Mugabe and his party allege that the five-year-old Zimbabwean opposition party is a "puppet" of former colonial power Britain. A national youth training scheme, set up in 2001, has been criticised for allegedly indoctrinating its members against the opposition and the west. However, the authorities deny this allegation. The opposition has called for the disbanding of the youth training camps ahead of next year's polls. Opposition members claim that trainees use violence to campaign for the ruling party.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 11 July
Commercial farmer under siege at farm
By Walter Marwizi
Chiredzi - About US$1 million worth of oranges meant for the Russian market stand to be wasted in Mkwasine where Zanu PF militias have camped at a citrus farm for two weeks in a spirited effort to evict its owner, a white commercial farmer, in contempt of a court order. The militias, operating on the orders of two suspected Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives and a policeman based in Harare, who have earmarked the lucrative property for themselves, have given the family of Eric Harrison today (Sunday) as the deadline for them to move out of the farm or be physically evicted. Over the past two weeks they have laid siege at the farm looting oranges and also turning away haulage trucks coming to pick up the fruit destined for export. They also chased away the farm workers, making it impossible for the citrus orchards to be irrigated. Apart from that, they have also rendered the farm unsafe for the Harrison family who say they now live in fear of being attacked. According to the family, the invaders who are sometimes accompanied by police officers during the day, every night bang at their doors, singing and shouting obscenities at the family. Yesterday, at one point, Harrison (64) and his son Russell (32) had to hide in their locked house with all the curtains closed as the militia surrounded the property threatening to "deal" with them. Interviewed by The Standard while holed in the house, Harrison said he feared anything could happen to them and had already requested friends to come to their assistance. "We are in a difficult position. We have no arms. We can't defend ourselves. They seem to be everywhere outside," said Harrison sounding distressed. The two only came out when they realised that the militias had left the house and were busy looting large quantities of their maize and sugar.
Their ordeal started about two weeks ago when three people who identified themselves as "A2 farmers" arrived at the farm in a pick up truck with two policemen and informed them that they were the new owners of the property. They (intruders) left shortly afterwards but returned armed with iron bars and chased all the workers from the shed where the oranges are graded and packed, effectively bringing work to a halt. Clements Kwirira, Harrison's lawyer said realising the gravity of the matter they sought an interdict to stop the intruders from disturbing operations at the farm. The lawyer said the police had assured him that no one was going to set foot on the farm but what was happening was contrary to the undertaking given by the Officer Commanding Chiredzi. "We went to the courts seeking prohibitory and mandatory interdicts and these were granted by the courts and I do not know what is happening now," he said. Police Spokesperson Andrew Phiri last night said he could not comment on the issue as he was yet to get in touch with Chiredzi police to get an appreciation of the situation on the ground.
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From News24 (SA), 9 July
Zimbabweans are starving
Blessings Mambara
Harare - Thousands of Zimbabweans are starving while government turns a blind eye, writes Blessings Mambara. The Hwedza rural development initiative does not mean much to Zimbabweans in this part of the country. Although the mountains and fertile valleys create the impression that the land is being cultivated, people are going hungry every day. Hwedza, about 150km east of Harare, has one thing in common with other rural areas in Zimbabwe: poverty. Each week, war veterans tell pupils at the Makanda Primary School in the area to inform their parents that only card-carrying members of the governing Zanu PF party will receive free food aid, and only if they attend Zanu PF rallies. Meanwhile, the government claims that it banned foreign aid organisations from the country because these became "too involved in politics". Jestina Mazano from Makanda says there were never any political messages or slogans at these food distribution points. "Nobody with a T-shirt or any other emblem of a political party was allowed at these points. We opened meetings with prayer and no slogans were allowed," says the mother of four. Like millions of other Zimbabweans who survive only because of food aid, Mazano is uncertain about the future. She harvested only two 90kg of maize this season.
Yet, government maintains that the country has enough food. President Robert Mugabe recently told Sky News that the country produced "more than enough food" this year to meet domestic need. He said the World Food Programme should rather help 'those hungrier, hungrier countries than ours". Government maintains previous food shortages were caused by drought and "sanctions" by the West. Agriculture minister Joseph Made repeatedly supported Mugabe's statements that there was no food shortage. However, cracks are forming in the government's position and controversy is mounting among officials of this country that used to be described as the breadbasket of Southern Africa. It is becoming increasingly clear that the situation at grassroots level does not correspond with the picture the Mugabe government paints. The situation deteriorated in May when a United Nations (UN) team was prevented from continuing its work in rural Zimbabwe. Tensions between Zimbabwe and the UN mounted when James Morris, chief executive of the World Food Programme, was shown the door at the end of June before he even set foot in the country. The government maintains that the country's Grain Marketing Board (GMB) will supply at least 2.4 million tons of grain, but independent figures predict a shortage of at least 1 million tons.
Despite its public statements, the Mugabe government is apparently well aware of the problem and is actually "secretly" importing maize. The government-controlled GMB admitted recently that the country was importing maize after details leaked about a contract with an American company, Sentry Financial International, to deliver grain to Zimbabwe. However, the GMB claimed this contract was signed last year and involved small quantities. Zimbabwe will apparently pay for the maize in tobacco - an arrangement that amounts to little more than barter. Still, the board claims that Zimbabwe will have a better harvest this year than last year. Meanwhile, GMB officials are scouring the countryside, demanding that all maize be handed over to the GMB. It is now a crime to sell maize to private companies or individuals. Despite government rhetoric, Zimbabweans know that the country cannot survive without food from outside its borders. More than half of its citizens have been dependent on food aid since 2001.
In defiance of the government's claim that drought is responsible for the shortage, observers point out that both Mozambique and Zambia overcame the problems of the drought that gripped the region two years ago. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims Zanu PF will increasingly use food as a political weapon in the run-up to the 2005 elections. The MDC wants to address the food issue through parliamentary structures. On June 17 it managed to convince parliament to allow the portfolio committee for agriculture and land reform to conduct its own investigation into the food situation, Reson Gasela of the MDC said. Made unsuccessfully tried to railroad the decision. The investigation will not be completed before the end of the current session this week. "The government is cheating with the figures because they want to prove that land reform was a success while it was catastrophic," Gasela said. "Obviously there is an election coming up." The food crisis is not limited to rural areas. Unemployment, the high incidence of HIV/Aids and hyperinflation have cut incomes in the cities and many urban families urgently need food. A nurse at Harare Central Hospital claims at least 20% of child patients at the hospital are treated for malnutrition. While politicians are cooking up plans to win the elections and hold on to power, the majority of Zimbabweans are facing starvation.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 11 July
MDC candidate charged under POSA
By our own Staff
An aspiring Movement for Democratic Change candidate for Hwedza constituency, Teresa Makoni, is being charged under the draconian Public Order and Security Act (POSA) for attending a National Constitution Assembly (NCA) meeting. She is being charged together with Ewet Mukova, the NCA's regional deputy chairperson for Mashonaland East and Francis Chikadaya, chairperson for Hwedza. It is alleged that the three organized and went on to hold a public meeting at Sanganai Business Centre in Hwedza without notifying the police as required under POSA. The state further alleges that Makoni, in her address, talked to the gathering of over 100 people about food shortages. During that process, she told the gathering that she was going to source the food herself and not the Zanu PF government, the State says. Makoni is denying the charges. In her warned and cautioned statement, Makoni said she only attended the meeting after an invitation from the NCA leaders in the region. "I never went to the meeting for campaigning purposes and when I was there I never delivered any speech. There is no way I could have organized an NCA meeting," said Makoni. Chris Mhike of Atherstone and Cook, who is representing Makoni said the charges were baseless and were based on a bad law.
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From Zim Online (SA), 9 July
Affair with president's wife costs Zim tycoon
Harare - James Makamba, one of Zimbabwe's richest businessmen and a top ruling Zanu PF official, who has been held in a Zimbabwean jail since February, could be paying a heavy price for his adulterous affair with President Robert Mugabe's young second wife, Grace (39). Makamba (51) was charged with having externalised several millions of pounds and about US$ 1 million, and illegally buying properties abroad in contravention of foreign exchange regulations. Up to now Makamba has been denied bail for at least 13 times. Top government and Zanu PF officials as well as Makamba's relatives and friends have confirmed that while Makamba could be guilty of some of the charges levelled against him, his ordeal is not all a result of "foreign currency dealings". A relative of Makamba told Zim Online that some family members feared for his life. They now believed going public with his case could be the only way to save him. "Unfortunately, the press in Zimbabwe can't touch the issue because of the routine arrests of journalists for any soft reasons......", said the relative.
Sources say that operatives from the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), who are seconded to guard the First Lady, told Mugabe about the "unusually frequent and suspicious meetings" between the two at private places. The sources say that Makamba also "did himself great harm" by sending flowers and presents to Grace Mugabe through intermediaries. Some of the flowers were received on behalf of the First Lady by the CIO security men. The First Lady is said to have explained her meetings with Makamba as concerning business and agricultural matters: The First Lady had seized a white-owned farm in Mazowe near Makamba's farm. Mrs Mugabe has also paid several visits to South Africa over the last two years. Makamba owns a property in Sandton and regularly visits South Africa. Zim Online can confirm that on at least one occasion Makamba visited Mrs Mugabe in a Johannesburg hotel for a long period one night. Her security detail recorded the incident and later advised her husband. One intelligence official said: "Maybe they (Makamba and Mugabe) got too careless....The two had several meeting points and the secret could not have remained forever."
Makamba surrendered himself to the authorities in February after the flighting of TV advertisements by the police saying they were looking for him over allegations of illegal foreign currency dealings. Mugabe immediately decreed a new law dubbed the "Makamba law" after the businessman's arrest. The law empowered police to detain for a month without trial. Makamba became the first victim of the law believed to have been crafted with him in mind. A month lapsed but Makamba was again denied bail, although the charges against him had been reduced to those of selling foreign currency without authority and "externalising" 220 000 pounds to buy a house in Harare. Makamba denied the latter charge saying he could not externalise money to buy a property in Harare. He however pleaded guilty to charges of selling foreign currency worth US$130 000 to his mobile phone company, Telecel.
This happened at the time of Zimbabwe's worst foreign currency crisis when almost all foreign currency transactions took place on the black market. State enterprises like National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM), Air Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), resorted to the black market and pushed rates ever higher. Recent press reports say that Grace Mugabe had black market foreign currency purchased on her behalf, during the same period, by Gideon Gono, now the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor. Unlike Makamba, executives of parastatals and many others who bought money on the black market, have not been prosecuted. Lower courts twice granted Makamba bail but the judgments were overruled by higher courts. During one such hearing, High Court Judge Lawrence Kamocha found that Makamba's case was not as serious as claimed by the state. He noted that the state had not backed all its original allegations against Makamba with evidence. He also noted that Makamba owned properties worth several million US dollars in Harare and was unlikely to abscond. The state immediately appealed to the Supreme Court which has been sitting on the case.
"We now fear that they might just kill him in prison and attribute it to some disease or jail him for a long prison sentence.....The viciousness and heavy handedness they have exhibited against him is legendary," said a relative citing the example of another businessman, Peter Pamire, who died in a mysterious accident in 1997 after also being linked to Mugabe's wife. Sources say Makamba's case has not been helped by the fact that he dated Grace long before she married Mugabe. She was working as a junior secretary in Mugabe's office when she started a well reported adulterous affair with the President. They had two children while Mugabe's first wife, Sally, battled a terminal kidney problem which eventually claimed her life in 1996. Grace was at the time legally married to Stanley Goreraza, an Airforce of Zimbabwe official. They divorced and Mugabe posted Goreraza to Zimbabwe's embassy in China. According to sources, Mugabe had always disliked Makamba because of the businessman's history with his wife. When Makamba overwhelmingly won ruling party primaries to contest the mayorship of Harare on a Zanu PF ticket in 1998, Mugabe cancelled the election and imposed his friend Solomon Tawengwa. Makamba is currently a central committee member of the ruling party and has served as a legislator and provincial chairman of the party's Mashonaland West provincial executive committee, among other party positions.(ZNS).
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From The Sunday |
