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Archived News
16th November 2004
Zim tightens press laws
Pandemonium in parliament
Escalating prices restrict access to food
Mayor faces the boot
Reserve Bank governor warns against grants
President invited to mediate in Saharawi conflict
Morocco denies Mugabe request
Here we go again
Only 500 000 tonnes of maize to be in silos by December
Jailed Zimbabwean MP seeks court appeal
Speaker challenges MDC in Bennett case
Mugabe in $10 billion Chinese arms deal
Mnangagwa bares all
Urban poor take to farming cemetery plots
US$60 million fuel deal collapses
Zimbabwe parliamentary committee contradicts Mugabe on food crisis
Legal committee says electoral Bill unconstitutional
Six personal stories about life inside President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
Vaughan only touring 'out of duty'
Zim to open more controversial youth camps
Zanu PF busts embargo
Nkala accused dies of prison-induced ailment
Consumers may soon be forced to buy bread on the black market
Zimbabwe annual inflation drops to 209%
Questions that will jolt Vaughan's conscience
Mugabe congratulates Bush
Controversy over Mnangagwa's bid
Cosatu plans 'jambanja'
Jonathan Moyo faces the music
Fake US dollars hit Zimbabwe
Thorpe slams ECB over Zimbabwe
Nigeria rolls out red carpet for Tsvangirai
This country could soon be despised across Africa
SA churches blast Zim leaders
Crisis in blistering attack on Mugabe
The flotsam and jetsam of Aids
Gough hits out over Zimbabwe trip
Test star's blast stings cricket top brass
Zim minister's R10m shopping spree in city
Tsvangirai in Europe to heap pressure on Mugabe
Judge president, police commissioner fail to hand over seed maize
Hungry Earth calling planet Pahad
Observer 'Zim violence veteran'
Mugabe's successor could be revealed
Moyo blocks electronic media from covering Econet-sponsored soccer final
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From News24 (SA), 10 November
Zim tightens press laws
Harare - Zimbabwe's parliament has tightened tough media regulations that could see unlicensed journalists jailed for two years, state radio reported on Wednesday. The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Bill was passed late on Tuesday, following several weeks of tense debate and stiff resistance from opposition legislators. Under the new regulations journalists who work without a government licence now face a two-year jail sentence or a fine or both. The new provisions tighten a law originally passed following President Robert Mugabe's victory in presidential polls two years ago under which two independent newspapers have been shut down and several journalists arrested. Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo has said the amendments are intended to "protect the state from attacks by enemies of the country". The original Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) bars foreign journalists from working permanently here, and says that only local reporters licensed by a state-approved media commission can operate. It was criticised by media watchdogs and human rights groups after it was passed, but the government has defended it, saying both it and the amended law are constitutional and aimed at instilling media ethics. During debate last month oppositon lawmakers were strongly critical of the proposed amendments, alleging that the information minister wanted "complete control" of the media. Another amendment brought in by the bill is that only one organisation, instead of two, has to nominate members to sit on the Media and Information Commission (MIC), the body responsible for registering and deregistering journalists and newspapers. Opposition legislators argued that this will mean only the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), which is dominated by journalists working for state-controlled media, will be consulted.
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From The Daily Mirror, 10 November
Pandemonium in parliament
Clemence Manyukwe
There was chaos in parliament yesterday after Zanu PF and MDC legislators clashed on the appropriate voting procedure on the despised Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Bill. The legislative assembly's business came to a halt for close to 30 minutes as legislators traded insults before the Bill finally sailed through, with 41 Zanu PF legislators voting in the favour, while 37 MDC members voted against the amendment. Trouble started when opposition members demanded that voting should commence at a time when Zanu PF members appeared to be out numbered - a development that would have resulted in the amendment being rejected - soon after dividing the house. The majority of Zanu PF members were still outside the legislative assembly, well after the bells summoning them to come into the house and vote had stopped toiling. According to Parliamentary procedures, those in the House within a stipulated time after the bells have rung can vote, while those outside should not be allowed in. When Parliament staff stood at the three entrances to block those who were outside, pandemonium broke out - Zanu PF MPs charged that they had not been given enough time to troop in. Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo could be seen pointing and shouting at close range to Parliament clerks, responsible for ringing the bells, a development that drew the ire of Harare South legislator, Gabriel Chaibva. "Don't threaten employees of Parliament. Why are you threatening them?" asked Chaibva. Moyo shot back: "I will threaten you also. What can you do?"
Harare Governor Witness Mangwende, who was in the chair, said the correct procedure had not been followed and that there had been a mistake which had resulted in ruling party members being trapped out. When calm returned, the MDC chief whip, Innocent Gonese said they were voting in protest as Zanu PF members who were not supposed to vote, had been brought in. "There are members who were not present. They came into the House after four minutes. Even you (Deputy Speaker of Parliament Edna Madzongwe) should have remained outside, and Mangwende should have proceeded with the vote," Gonese said. Gonese and the ruling party's chief whip, Joram Gumbo went on to submit a list of names of MPs they said should not have voted. The three amendments to AIPPA seek to provide a penalty provision to the principal act, which is presently absent. Under that provision anyone who practices without accreditation "shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine, imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or both." The other clause seeks to set up a disciplinary committee to determine whether any member of the Media and Information Commission who would have been suspended by the Information Minister should be dismissed. The other amendment seeks to amend Section 40 (2) of the principal act, which deals with the appointment and composition of the MIC. The AIPPA Amendment Bill now waits presidential ascend to become law.
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From IRIN (UN), 9 November
Escalating prices restrict access to food
Johannesburg - Estimates of food aid needs in Zimbabwe should be revised as maize prices have climbed well above anticipated levels, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has warned. "Due to much higher than expected maize prices, and no evidence of commensurate increases in rural incomes, the rural population in need of food aid is almost certainly higher than that originally estimated by the ZimVAC [Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee] in May 2004," FEWS NET said in its latest food security report. Meanwhile, increases in general prices "continue to limit the ability of poor urban households, who make up close to 70 percent of Zimbabwe's urban population, to buy the food they need," the report noted. The ZimVAC had estimated that about 2.2 million rural people would need about 50,000 mt of cereal food aid between August and November 2004. The figure was based on the assumption that grain would be available from the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) at Z$471 per kilogram. "However, maize grain prices, which are normally expected to start rising in the December-January period, started increasing soon after the harvest in May-June, and are now at least Z$720/kg in GMB markets. They have risen to as high as Z$1,000/kg in some of the parallel markets," the report noted. "The initial ZimVAC estimates [for food aid requirements in rural areas] need to be revised in line with the higher prices," FEWS NET said. In urban areas the impact of high inflation on food security has been severe. "The annual food inflation rate for September is at 264.8 percent, as reported by the Central Statistical Office. Despite a steady decrease from the high of 622 percent in January 2004 to the September annual rate of 251.5 percent, the inflation rate remains amongst the highest in the world," the report said. It noted that "the annual inflation rate in neighbouring South Africa, a major regional trade partner, was just 3.7 percent in September 2004". According to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe's (CCZ) monitoring system, a family of six required about Z$1.4 million to purchase sufficient basic commodities and other essential services in August this year. In September the same family would have seen an increase of 6.6 percent in the cost of the minimum basket to just under Z$1.5 million. FEWS NET said the incomes of poor urban households continued to lag behind the cost of the monthly needs basket, with minimum monthly wages for commercial employees averaging Z$437,500 in September 2004.
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From Zim Online (SA), 10 November
Mayor faces the boot
Bulawayo - The government is understood to be considering dismissing Bulawayo Executive Mayor Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube for revealing that 162 people had died of hunger-related illnesses in the city so far this year, it was learnt last night. Ndabeni-Ncube belongs to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party and has since his election three years ago battled with the government for control of Zimbabwe's second largest city. Well-placed sources said two committees, one set up by Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, and another by state-appointed governor of Bulawayo, Cain Mathema, had recommended that the mayor be suspended and eventually dismissed for claiming people had died of hunger in the city. "The reports (by the committees) are damning to say the least and the government is already moving to suspend the mayor and eventually dismiss him either by the end of the year or early next year," said one source, who did not want to be named. Chombo, who under the Urban Councils Act can fire city mayors, could not be reached for comment on the matter last night. Chombo earlier this year restored government control of the capital, Harare, after dismissing opposition mayor, Elias Mudzuri. Mathema refused to speak on the matter saying he would only do so after reviewing the report compiled by his team. Ndabeni-Ncube told ZimOnline he was right in revealing that people were dying of hunger and vowed to resist attempts to dismiss him from his job. "I am ready to fight them over that, I cannot be victimised for doing my job, there is no room for that ouster," he said. About three months ago, Ndabeni-Ncube told the press hunger was worsening in Bulawayo contrary to claims by the government that Zimbabwe had enough to feed itself. The mayor, who said the information was obtained from the government's own death registry office, said more people could die because of hunger-related sicknesses unless food agencies stepped in with food donations.
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From IRIN (UN), 8 November
Reserve Bank governor warns against grants
Harare - Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, has warned the government against awarding grants to former liberation war activists, saying this would throw plans to reduce inflation off course. Inflation currently stands at 350 percent, which Gono hopes to slash to 150 percent by the end of December. When he was appointed governor in December last year, inflation had leapt to more than 600 percent. Thousands of people who were detained, restricted or imprisoned by Ian Smith's regime will receive money under the Ex-Political Prisoners, Detainees and Restrictees Bill, running into trillions of Zimbabwean dollars. The number of registered former prisoners jailed before independence is conservatively estimated to be below 10,000, but there are reports that former detainees who did not register with the association are now scrambling to register, which is expected to push the number of beneficiaries to 25,000. During his third-quarter review of monetary policy last week in Harare, the capital, Gono told businessmen: "The declining inflation rate should be bolstered through containment of expenditure levels to budgeted thresholds, avoidance of supplementary budgets and avoiding ... unplanned benevolent or gratuity payments that are unrelated to current production activities or real economic growth."
In addition to awarding the proposed US $10 million once-off grant, beneficiaries will receive a monthly pension. A monthly survivor's or child pension will also be paid to the dependants of deceased former political prisoners. Economists said that while it was noble to reward the former activists for their role in the war of liberation, the economy was too fragile to withstand the pressure of doling out unbudgeted funds. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change said the move was a vote-buying gimmick by the ruling party, ahead of the elections in March 2005, a charge the government has denied. The government in 1997 had paid out hefty sums to war veterans - a move that was blamed for slowing down the country's economy. The economy took another knock the following year when the country was sucked into the vortex of the Democratic Republic of Congo civil war, followed by the fast-track land reform programme in 2002.
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From The Herald, 9 November
President invited to mediate in Saharawi conflict
Harare - Morroco yesterday extended an invitation to President Mugabe to help mediate in the conflict over the Saharawi, the only remaining colony in Africa. Moroccan Foreign Affairs and Co-operation Minister Mr Mohammed Benaissa extended the invitation through a special message from King Mohammed VI during a courtesy call on the President at Zimbabwe House. Speaking soon after meeting the President, Mr Benaissa said although the United Nations had intervened in the conflict by passing several resolutions through the Security Council, there was still scope for African leaders to come in and bring the parties involved to the negotiating table. Zimbabwe - under the leadership of President Mugabe - has successfully mediated in other conflicts on the African continent before. In the 1990s, Harare played a key mediating role which saw the Mozambican government and the Renamo rebels come to the negotiating table to end years of civil war in 1992. President Mugabe, together with former Kenyan and Botswana leaders Mr Daniel arap Moi and Sir Ketumile Masire respectively, and the St Edigio Community of Italy, played a pivotal role in bringing about peace in Mozambique.
Mr Benaissa said his country was ready to sit down and negotiate for a peaceful settlement to Western Sahara's long-standing conflict, which he said, was artificial. The Western Saharan conflict is a culmination of efforts by the Saharawi people to fight for their independence since 1975 when their former coloniser, Spain, handed their territory to Morocco and Mauritania. This was in defiance of a UN demand that the then 74 000 Saharawi nationals give their own views in a referendum. From then until 1991 the Saharawi people under their guerilla force, the Polisario Front, fought a bitter war of liberation against Morocco and Mauritania. The Mauritanians were driven out by 1979 but the Moroccans remained defiant. In 1991 both sides agreed to implement a UN peace plan to be monitored by UN peacekeepers. They also agreed to hold a referendum on independence or integration into Morocco.
Human rights activists claim that since 1975, hundreds of pro-independence Saharawis have "disappeared" over the years. But Morocco claims that Polisario have tortured and imprisoned dissenters. Western Sahara, a small country which lies to the north of Mauritania, the south of Morocco and the west of Algeria, is the last remaining colony in Africa. Apart from the Western Sahara conflict, Mr Benaissa said he also discussed bilateral relations between Zimbabwe and Morocco with the President. He said that he had expressed his country's commitment to ensuring that the relations are further developed through the strengthening of partnerships in all fields. "We know that Zimbabwe is developing at different speeds and we believe that there is room for development through our co-operation," he said. Mr Benaissa said they had also discussed other conflicts in Africa and problems afflicting the continent.
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From BBC News, 10 November
Morocco denies Mugabe request
Morocco's foreign ministry has denied reports saying it had asked Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to mediate in the Western Sahara dispute. State TV in Harare had earlier said that visiting Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohammed Benaissa had made the request. The Polisario Front has been fighting for ind ependence since the area was annexed by Morocco after Spain withdrew from its former colony in 1975. United Nations attempts to resolve the dispute collapsed earlier this year after Morocco rejected a peace plan. Zimbabwe has previously supported the Polisario's cause. In September, South Africa opened diplomatic relations with the region, which has angered Morocco. South African President Thabo Mbeki urged Africans to support self-determination for Western Sahara. The Moroccans recalled their ambassador to South Africa for consultations. The UN-backed plan included a referendum on self-determination for the Saharawi people, but Morocco refused to accept any loss of sovereignty over the area. Former mediator James Baker resigned in June, and his successor has said that he will pursue the same policy. The UN has spent more than $600m on peacekeeping efforts in Western Sahara as it has attempted to resolve the issue over the last 13 years.
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Comment from The Guardian (UK), 9 November
Here we go again
Lawrence Booth
In a week's time a group of English cricketers will fly to Windhoek in Namibia in preparation for their five-match one-day series in Zimbabwe. It is a tour which no one in the English cricket community wants, but which the politics of the ICC - if that isn't a contradiction: remember, the ICC believe that sport and politics shouldn't mix - have insisted must go ahead. Around the time of the fourth and fifth games, on December 4 and 5 at Bulawayo, Amnesty International will be holding marches in the four countries that touch Zimbabwe: Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. The marches will end at the Zimbabwean border and will "express their concern about the continued violation of basic fundamental freedoms of the people of Zimbabwe". Cricket will turn a magnificently blind eye and England, forced to tour because of the vague threat of sanctions, will wrap up their most hollow series victory in modern times. The contrast between the marches and the matches will be excruciating.
Since England last had misgivings about going to Zimbabwe, during the World Cup in February 2003, little has changed, although the Zimbabwe Cricket Union is now called Zimbabwe Cricket and has a shiny new logo. Oh, and the ICC recently agreed with the findings of an inquiry that found no evidence of racism in Zimbabwe cricket, which, if you consider the language, could be akin to saying that the murder never took place in the forest because no one could hear the screams. There are some who argue that England would only have had reason to pull out of the tour if evidence of racism had been found, and that the views of, for example, the senior England player who last week told the Spin that the majority of the team did not want to go, are little more than moral showboating. They also argue that England should not have hosted Zimbabwe a few months after that World Cup. The second point is far stronger than the first, but the problem is that England's standing in international cricket diplomacy is at a low ebb - ethical conundrums are all too easily passed off as Pommie whingeing or colonial muscle-flexing.
Anyone who has read Nasser Hussain's account of the events leading up to the cancellation of England's World Cup fixture in Zimbabwe last year will know that the situation is more complex than that. Already under pressure from politicians and public opinion back home, the players then received a death threat from a group calling themselves the Sons and Daughters of Zimbabwe. But, according to Hussain, Malcolm Speed, the chief executive of the ICC, was interested only in keeping the show on the road. Speed's recent response to Hussain's autobiography - first claiming that he hadn't read it, then saying Hussain has a lot of anger inside him - was infuriatingly smug. Is it any wonder the Zimbabwe situation continues to be swept under the carpet? Cricket has to ask itself a simple question: is it willing to play ball with a country that continues to oppress its people? The answer should be obvious.
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From Zim Online (SA), 11 November
Only 500 000 tonnes of maize to be in silos by December
Harare - Zimbabwe will have about 500 000 tonnes of maize by year-end and most of it imported and still much less than the 2.4 million tonnes of the staple grain the government claims was harvested last season, a parliamentary committee said yesterday. In a report exposing gross untruths and understatements by President Robert Mugabe and his Cabinet on Zimbabwe's food supply situation, Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Agriculture told the House the country harvested far less than national consumption requirements. The committee chaired by ruling Zanu PF legislator Daniel Mackenzie Ncube urged the government to admit that the country did not have enough to feed itself and to start preparing relief operations in some areas already short of food. Mackenzie-Ncube said: "Your committee failed to understand the huge gap between current deliveries to the GMB of 388 558 tonnes and the (government's) national crop forecast of 2.4 million tonnes of maize considering the fact that the delivery peak period has gone past. Your committee was informed that the government was in the process of importing maize, with 141 521 tonnes of maize already purchased and paid for. Apart from the above stated figure, your committee was also informed that government had signed contracts for the purchase of additional imports of maize amounting to 222 554 tonnes. The rate at which inflows are coming through to GMB, your Committee believes that by end of the year, GMB would have received about 500 000 tonnes of maize."
The committee was set up four months ago to establish Zimbabwe's food situation following conflicting reports with the government claiming the country had a bumper harvest of the staple food. The government also cancelled earlier in the year a joint survey with the World Food Programme to establish the number of families requiring food assistance saying this was no longer needed because of the good harvests. In August, Mugabe told food aid groups to take their help elsewhere because Zimbabwe had enough to feed itself. But agricultural experts and food agencies insisted that although harvests had improved from the previous season, the country would still face a shortfall of about 800 000 tonnes of maize. Political analysts have accused the government of falsely claiming there was enough food in the country in order to elbow international food agencies out of the country and leave the government to manipulate food relief for political gain ahead of a crucial parliamentary election scheduled for next March. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change party has in the past accused the government of denying its supporters food as punishment for backing the party. The government denies the charge.
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From Business Day (SA), 11 November
Jailed Zimbabwean MP seeks court appeal
Harare - A Zimbabwean opposition legislator imprisoned for assaulting two cabinet ministers is asking for a court hearing to challenge the sentence imposed by parliament, his lawyer said yesterday. Roy Bennett was sentenced to 15 months of hard labour, with three months suspended, for a May 18 scuffle in which he traded blows and knocked down Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Didymus Mutasa, the minister responsible for fighting corruption. House speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa has said parliamentary privilege would keep the courts from reviewing Bennett's case. Bennett is being held in Harare Central prison under what his lawyers describe as "degrading" conditions. The lawyers said Bennett had been stripped naked and then given soiled, torn clothing when he was imprisoned. Bennett is Zimbabwe's first legislator to be imprisoned by the parliamentary privilege committee, which is dominated by the ruling Zanu PF and has the power to arrest and imprison legislators for breaches of conduct in the house.
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From The Financial Gazette, 11 November
Speaker challenges MDC in Bennett case
Njabulo Ncube
The Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangangwa has issued a fresh certificate requesting the courts not to entertaining arguments by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) that Parliament is not a court of law. The certificate, the second such document to be issued by Mnangagwa in as many weeks, comes amid concerns by the MDC that the legislative assembly, which last month sentenced Chimanimani Member of Parliament, Roy Bennett, to one-year imprisonment, had no jurisdiction to pass the sentence. Bennett was jailed for shoving Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa during a heated debate in the august House. "They (MDC) are saying Parliament is not a court of law, but when you look at the law, it is such a frivolous argument because Parliament is a court. I have since issued another certificate requesting the courts to throw out the MDC's argument," Mnangangwa told The Financial Gazette.
The MDC has stated that it would appeal against the judgment. It emerged this week that the opposition party has set up a sub-caucus committee to explore legal avenues of freeing the embattled lawmaker who on Tuesday lodged an application with the High Court seeking bail pending review of his sentence by Parliament. Mnangangwa said: "They can appeal to the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the case where they feel Parliament has breached procedures. What I saw is that they are asking the High Court to grant bail pending application. On what grounds, I don't know. But the High Court cannot entertain any application which interferes with Parliamentary decisions." During the debate in Parliament on May 18 this year, Chinamasa called Bennett's forefathers "thieves and murderers" and said the Chimanimani legislator deserved to lose his farm because he had benefited from the British colonial rule that robbed blacks of their land. A court attempt by the MDC to bar the Zanu PF-dominated parliamentary privileges committee from handing down its judgment was blocked by Mnangangwa who issued an order in terms of the Privileges, Immunities and Power of Parliament Act barring the courts from hearing Bennett's case.
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From Zim Online (SA), 11 November
Mugabe in $10 billion Chinese arms deal
Harare - President Robert Mugabe has ordered Z$10 billion worth of arms and anti-riot equipment from China, Zim Online has learnt. Well-placed sources said Mugabe negotiated the arms supply deal when he met a joint delegation of government and private business representatives from Beijing in Harare two weeks ago. The Chinese delegation returned home last week. Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi, who helped Mugabe negotiate the deal, last night confirmed that the government held defence and trade talks with the Chinese. But he would not be drawn to disclose the details of the negotiations. Sekeramayi said: "There were discussions which centred on co-operation in areas of defence strategies and trade. But we cannot discuss those issues in detail in the Press." At the official exchange rate of Z$6 200 to one greenback, Z$10 billion is equivalent to about US$1.6 million, which is enough to buy about 13 000 tonnes of maize for one million starving Zimbabweans per month. A tonne of maize costs about US$120 on the international market. Zimbabweans, about 90 percent of whom eat maize as their staple food, consume about 150 000 tonnes of the grain per month.
According to the sources privy to the arms deal, the Chinese representatives offered to supply Zimbabwe's armed forces with weapons at preferential prices. Mugabe accepted the offer saying Zimbabwe, which is under a European Union and United States arms embargo, needed to beef up its arms reserves. The Zimbabwean leader is said to have also further requested the Chinese to supply Harare with anti-riot gear which the Chinese undertook to deliver well before a crucial parliamentary election scheduled for next year. "The President took up the Chinese arms offer which he said would beef up the country's weapons reserves. He also asked the Chinese to supply the police with anti-riot equipment," said one military officer, who did not want to be named for fear of victimisation. According to the military official, the first consignment which should comprise military, police vehicles and water tankers used to smoother riots was expected to arrive in the country by next month. The Zimbabwe police already have several Israeli-made water tankers which they have used in the past to crush demonstrations by opposition supporters. Beijing is understood to be supplying Harare with advanced aircraft under a larger and separate military supplies deal.
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From The Financial Gazette, 11 November
Mnangagwa bares all
Hama Saburi
Emmerson Mnangagwa, Zanu PF's crafty schemer whose political future only recently appeared in jeopardy after a protracted drama of intriguing political gamesmanship within the governing party, this week revealed that he is prepared to be the country's co-vice president if nominated. This comes after Zimbabweans had indulged in an orgy of speculation about his political future in the face of investigations into Zanu PF businesses which many felt were targeted at the Speaker of Parliament. By officially throwing his hat into the ring, Mnangagwa, who almost retired from active politics in June 2000 after losing the Kwekwe seat to little-known Blessing Chebundo of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has added a new twist to the tight race to occupy Zimbabwe's second most powerful office. Ironically, it was the late vice-president Simon Muzenda - whose death in September last year created the vacancy - who coaxed the Zanu PF secretary for administration to take over from Cyril Ndebele as the Speaker of Parliament in July 2000.
In an exclusive interview with The Financial Gazette, Mnangagwa, who also spoke on his alleged involvement in the Matabeleland massacres in the 1980s and his involvement in the volatile Democratic Republic of the Congo, said he would not shy away from any challenge - the vice-president's post included. "From past experience, provinces don't ask whether you want to be nominated or not. They just decide. I think every committed Zanu PF cadre, when nominated, unless there is ill-health or mental deficiency, I can't see one failing to accept the challenge. I am among those who would take up the challenge," said Mnangagwa. The vacancy, which is likely to be filled after the ruling party's national congress slated for next month, has created anxious moments within Zanu PF as heavyweights jostle to position themselves in the tricky succession race. It is widely expected that whoever emerges to fill Muzenda's post will be strategically positioned to replace President Robert Mugabe when he bows out in 2008. Although the Constitution allows President Mugabe to go for another term in office, the Zimbabwean leader, who has led the country from independence in 1980, has since hinted that he could be seeing out his last term.
Before the Zanu PF Women's League national conference held in August this year, the contest for the high-pressure job had been restricted to the party's national chairman, John Nkomo, Mnangagwa, retired army general Vitalis Zvinavashe and Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies Minister Didymus Mutasa. The race took an interesting turn when the women's league resolved to push for the overhaul of the party's constitution to allow its candidate to land the top post through affirmative action. Joyce Mujuru, wife of retired army general and Zanu PF kingpin Solomon Mujuru, has since emerged as the favourite. This move is however reportedly being fiercely resisted by some Zanu PF bigwigs, who feel that the idea should have come from the provinces rather than from the women's league national conference. Mnangagwa, who many thought was balancing on political knife-edge in the face of a subtle but fierce succession struggle in the ruling party said while the powerful Zanu PF Women's League's request was "legitimate", the mechanism of achieving it was still to be resolved. He said: "Currently, the Zanu PF constitution requires whoever is interested in the position to have the support of six provinces, voted for by the provincial executives of the six provinces. And whoever gets that support is nominated. So the Women's League, unless it (the constitution) changes, has to follow the provisions of the Zanu PF constitution."
The feared Zanu PF secretary for administration, who has since set his campaign machinery in motion for the Kwekwe seat ahead of the March 2005 plebiscite, however vehemently denied any presidential ambitions. President Mugabe who observers say is the stabilizing influence in the faction-riven party has refused to name a successor insisting that he is for a successor "who will come from the people." "The press has been pursuing this issue many times and may answer has not changed. The President has never come to the Politburo and said people should contest for the position. We don't get instructions from the press. As of now, every true ZANU PF cadre knows that we have a President whom we elected and when he chooses to stand, we will all support him," he said. Asked what would happen should President Mugabe, 80, opt to step down, Mnangagwa said: "When he does that, he will come to the Politburo and we will be guided by the leadership. That office is not one people should dream about. I for one, feel I have saved the country well. The Speaker of Parliament is certainly one of the highest offices in the country and I am gratified with this achievement."
Pressed further, he could only said; "It is a crime to conceive the exit of the head of state. I love my leader and I am committed to him. I would love him to continue until death. As the Zanu PF secretary for administration, I don't think there is anybody in the party struggling for the presidency. The only vacant office is that of the vice-president." Of late, press reports have suggested a fall-out between the Speaker of Parliament and his boss for many decades, President Mugabe. Reports that the feared politician had been snubbed- reportedly at the behest of President Mugabe- by the Midlands State University where he was due to be conferred with an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, seemed to give credence to the speculation.Even more, critics felt that President Mugabe should at least have protected Mnangagwa from the investigations into the operations of Zanu PF companies, given that as former ruling party finance chief, he was the chief architect of the investments. It is speculated that other political bigwigs have since hijacked the investigations into party investments to settle their personal scores with Mnangangwa. Critics have go insofar as saying the anti-graft probe at the ruling party's businesses masked a simmering internal succession struggle that had not yet broken out into the open.
"I have worked with President Mugabe for 41 years. We have an honest relationship, where he tells me where I go wrong. I am not shy to seek clarification on issues that are not clear. We have gone through thick and thin together and danger to our lives together," he said. Does this mean that, contrary to reports that the political backing he used to enjoy from the-powers-that-be has evaporated, nothing has changed as regards his relationship with President Mugabe. "It is a practical relationship, not warm", quipped Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa is widely believed to be a long time associate and confidante of President Mugabe but his current trial and tribulations seemed to suggest that he had fallen out of favour. Observers point out that it is possible that his (Mnangagwa) enemies could be taking the probe into Zanu PF's myriad investments, now estimated to be worth $120 billion, as a way of getting at him. The shrewd schemer with a controversial political career admitted as much that political vultures could be circling. "I believe that those who have an agenda against me are firing their salvo through this umbrella of the need to inform the Politburo of the extent to which Zanu PF investments have spread. Not that the leadership is unaware because accounts were distributed every year," he said.
Mnangagwa said Zanu PF has no total control over the investments made over the years as most of them were either through partnerships or investments into already existing firms. "It is either a mere design or agenda to misinform the public and tarnish a targeted person or that people who write these articles are ignorant of how companies operate. I don't think they have seen the Companies Act, a Memorandum Articles of Association or Articles of Association," he said. Mnangagwa who, if he emerges unscathed from the current probe would have weathered probably one of the most violent political storms in his life, seems to take solace in the fact that falsehoods travel round the world while the truth is still tying its shoes. "The truth is slow, but will be proved. Rumour rushes in front, but the truth walks slowly, but sure footed and these people will take cover when the truth is told," said Mnangagwa before adding: "You must know that small minds will always be vicious to supplement intellectual inability".
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From IRIN (UN), 10 November
Urban poor take to farming cemetery plots
Harare - It is midday at the Mabvuku cemetery on the eastern outskirts of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, and a funeral is in progress. A few metres away, groups of people are preparing patches of land for planting maize and sweet potatoes. Farming in cemeteries has been a lifeline for many Harare residents struggling to cope with the ongoing economic crisis and spiralling prices. Lucky Marime, one of the cemetery farmers, told IRIN it was common practice to grab unused council land for farming, which then remained "in the family" until the council claimed it back. At Mabvuku, most idle land outside and inside the cemetery had already been claimed for urban farming. "There is no space for newcomers here. If you see a piece of land not yet prepared, it does not mean it is free - it has already been booked but the owner has just not started his preparations yet," Marime explained. Although he did not have any land in the cemetery himself, he was often hired to prepare and till land for others, he added.
Similar land encroachment is evident at two larger cemeteries in the capital, Warren Hills on Bulawayo Road and Granville on Harare's southern edges, despite the presence of council officers at all burial grounds. Council spokesman Leslie Gwindi told IRIN that the practice of cemetry agriculture would no longer be tolerated. "What they are doing is illegal. We do not care if it has been happening for 10 years, we will nip it in the bud - cemeteries are not for agriculture. Culturally it's not right to grow foodstuffs where there are dead people," he said. Keeping the cemeteries free from intrusion and "beefing up security" would be part of a general "cleanup" campaign currently underway in Harare's central business district, he said. Policing large far-flung cemeteries with little or no security fencing is likely be a mammoth task - Grenville cemetery, the country's newest and largest, stands on 250 acres of former farmland, most of it unprotected. Land grabbers and other intruders, including vendors, gain access through a number of entry points. The vendors can be seen trotting after a funeral cortege and then waiting at a respectful distance to be approached for service. "Sometimes the council workers chase us away, but we keep coming back," Mavis Garande, an 18 year-old vendor told IRIN.
Dr Gordon Chavunduka, president of the Zimbabwe Traditional Healers' Association, described cemetery agriculture as "culturally wrong", but added that simply flushing out the farmers was not the answer. "People are desperate - council must assist them to look for alternatives. The government and the people, together, must deal with the economic problems," he told IRIN. A survey conducted by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe in September revealed that a low-income urban family of six needed Z$1.5 million a month for basic commodities, and a number of low-income workers, many of them living in areas bordering the cemeteries, earned less than Z$750,000 per month. Unemployment in Zimbabwe currently stands at 70 percent. But the HIV/AIDS pandemic may eventually force the cemetery farmers out. According to recent estimates, more than 2,500 people die every week of AIDS-related causes in Zimbabwe and the cemeteries are filling up fast. "Last year some people's maize had grown a metre tall when it was destroyed to make way for the graves," Marime at Mabvuku cemetery told IRIN. Grenville opened less than 10 years ago and was expected to provide sufficient burial space for 40 years but is already more than half full.
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From Zim Online (SA), 12 November
US$60 million fuel deal collapses
Harare - Zimbabwe faces a dry festive season with reports that a US$60 million fuel supply facility with BP South Africa and another unnamed foreign oil firm has stalled because the country has no hard cash to pay for supplies. Under the deal, secured in September, the foreign oil firms were to supply local oil companies under the umbrella of the Petroleum Marketers Association of Zimbabwe (PMAZ) with 2.4 million litres of petrol and 36 million litres of diesel per month. Well-placed sources told Zim Online that the fuel facility came unstuck after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), that initiated the deal in the first place, failed to guarantee payment in hard cash to the foreign suppliers. BP South Africa and the oil foreign firm now want hard cash upfront, a demand foreign currency-strapped Zimbabwean firms cannot meet. Another US$20 million oil tender floated last week is also understood to be in a glitch with foreign firms that had been short-listed for the contract now backtracking because the RBZ will not guarantee they will be paid in hard cash.
A senior state energy official, who spoke anonymously, said: "Nothing has happened since the first tender was awarded because the companies especially the foreign firms wanted an express RBZ guarantee that they will be paid in hard currency. "They have been studying the trends on the foreign currency auction market which have indicated that hard currency is in short supply." Both the PMZA - which groups local fuel companies - and Energy Minister July Moyo were mum on the latest fuel crisis. Reports of difficulties with the fuel supply deal, that had been expected to ensure supplies throughout the festive period, comes as the country ran dry with most filling stations across the country reporting they had run out of fuel or were selling their last stocks. In Harare and in the second largest city of Bulawayo, long queues of motorists waiting to fill up their cars could be seen at the few garages that were still selling fuel. Fuel is only one of several vital commodities that also include electricity and essential medical drugs in short supply in Zimbabwe because the country has no hard cash to pay foreign suppliers.
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From The Cape Times (SA), 12 November
Zimbabwe parliamentary committee contradicts Mugabe on food crisis
Harare - A Zimbabwe parliamentary committee has warned that the country will run out of food in the next four months, contradicting President Robert Mugabe's assertion that Zimbabwe has surplus food. A committee of both ruling party and opposition MPs said it found official forecasts of a record harvest of 2.4 million tons of maize, the national staple food, difficult to believe. In a report issued yesterday, the committee said that the country is likely to run out of maize before the next harvest in 2005. It warned that misleading official statements of grain output will plunge the country into a serious crisis which will impact adversely on the national economy and national security. The report is a major embarrassment to Mugabe, whose illegal seizures of white-owned commercial farms since 2000 are reported by independent agricultural organisations to have destroyed what was until then one of Africa's most robust agricultural industries. After two years of famine, the government announced in May that a bumper harvest of 2.4 million tons would ensure not only ample food supplies but also a surplus for export. It said there would be no imports of food this year. The World Food Programme, the United Nations' famine relief arm, was ordered to stop distributing food. Mugabe told the agency to take their food to countries that are hungry, asking: "Why do they want to choke us with their food?"
The committee said that it failed to understand the huge gap between the forecast of 2.4 million tons and the fact that the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), the state grain monopoly, only had 389 000 tons delivered to it by last month, well after the end of the 2003/2004 harvest. It said it was uncomfortable with the GMB's assertion that farmers were retaining up to 75% of the crop. The committee also reported that the government had signed contracts for 365 000 tons of maize to be imported, contrary to assertions by the government that there would be no imports. Observers say the government has gone to great lengths to block contrary reports by independent researchers of a third successive year of famine. In May, a UN crop assessment team was ordered home soon after it had started its work, and the government has repeatedly denounced the opposition-controlled council of Bulawayo for reporting 162 deaths by hunger there this year. The likelihood of another year of famine was reinforced yesterday by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet), a respected crop monitoring agency, which said in its latest bulletin that the 2.2 million people forecast earlier by the UN to be in need of famine relief late this year would rise because of food prices that have more than doubled in five months. There is also growing alarm over the next planting season. A committee in Mugabe's cabinet concerned with farm inputs was quoted in the state press this week as saying that only 14% of the maize seed needed for planting the 2004-2005 crop had been delivered to farmers, who had also received only 1% of their fertiliser requirements.
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From Zim Online (SA), 11 November
Legal committee says electoral Bill unconstitutional
Harare - Parliament's Legal Committee has said proposed regulations banning civic bodies from carrying out voter education or accepting foreign funding for voter information programmes are unconstitutional. In a major blow to government claims that the proposed Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Bill conforms with new regional norms and standards for democratic elections, the committee said the Bill also violated Section 18 (1) of the Constitution guaranteeing protection from the law. Under parliamentary procedures and regulations the committee, headed by constitutional law expert and opposition legislator, Welshman Ncube, reviews draft legislation before the House to ensure it complies with the Constitution. In the past the government has amended Bills to incorporate the views of the committee although this is not a legal requirement. The government could still use its simple majority in Parliament to push through the legislation, ignoring the committee's views.
In a report to Parliament earlier this week, Ncube, said: "In the opinion of your committee, the provisions of paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) of clause 11 and clause 12 of the Bill would, if enacted, be in violation of Section 20 of the Constitution, while the provisions of clause 11(3) are in violation of Section 18 of the Constitution." Clause 12 of the Bill prohibits civic groups from receiving foreign funding, including from Zimbabweans living and working abroad, to carry out voter education. Under the same clause, only a state-appointed Zimbabwe Electoral Commission shall run voter enlightenment programmes with NGOs and individual citizens wishing to help required to channel support to the commission. The committee said that by barring Zimbabweans from mobilising resources for voter education, the proposed law would infringe on citizens' right to freedom of expression guaranteed under the Constitution. "The right to freedom of expression should be understood to encompass the right to employ one's resources available for disseminating the ideas that one subscribes to," Ncube told the House.
Under clause 11 (3) of the draft electoral law, any group wishing to carry out voter education must provide the government commission with details of the information to be disseminated and the source of funding for the intended educational exercise. The group must also disclose the names and physical addresses, citizenship or residence status and qualifications of its workers who will carry out the voter education exercise. Even if a civic group merely expressed a wish to carry out voter education and then aborts the idea and actually never carries out the exercise, it must still submit all the information required by the government commission. And failure to do so would constitute a criminal offence punishable by up to two years in jail. Ncube said the Bill violated citizens' right to protection from the law because it sought to punish, "a person who has actually not provided voter education but who merely proposes or intends to do so (if they fail) to furnish the commission with information." Parliament will now debate the report by Ncube's committee after which it may refer the Bill back to the government for refinement before resubmission in the House. The government has insisted that the regulations proposed under the Bill are in line with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) norms and standards. The SADC electoral regulations call for independent commissions to run elections. Human and individual rights must also be upheld during elections while governments must facilitate the full participation of the citizenry in national governance.
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Life in Mugabe's Zimbabwe
Six personal stories about life inside President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
Chenjerai Hove, poet and novelist
Chenjerai Hove is an award-winning Zimbabwean poet and novelist, now in exile. He once shared Robert Mugabe's vision of land resettlement and independence from colonial Britain, but was critical of Mr Mugabe and the way land redistribution was conducted after the year 2000: "First the government offered me a farm so that I would shut up. But I said I was not a farmer and I am not in the habit of receiving stolen property. "Every day, my family and I received death threats and it became unbearable. I had to leave. The government does not care anymore. It has no sense of shame. They want zombies. They want people who are yes-men and flatterers. Mugabe actually believes now that he is a god or demi-god and he can do whatever he wants and nobody can challenge him. He is the power. He has completely degenerated in office to the point where he is absolutely dangerous, to himself and also to those he rules. I have not given up [on my dream of Zimbabwe]. I have not given up because I still have hope, as long as the people of Zimbabwe - they and I - still have a vision of the country as a place where we can live positively and with respect."
Beatrice Mtetwa, human rights lawyer
Beatrice Mtetwa is a fearless campaigner who has defended some high-profile cases in Zimbabwe. She has spoken out on controversial legislation such as the Public Order and Security Act and the proposed NGO (non-governmental organisation) Bill, which has attracted criticism from around the world: "The NGO bill means basically civil society as we know it will simply not be there. "There would be nobody to record the excesses of government, there will be nobody to help your ordinary person in the street understand their rights. There will be nobody to feed the poor, there will be no other voice other than the government's voice and this includes churches. So the bill is basically seen as closing the democratic spaces, the same as shutting down newspapers, the same as making sure that only one voice is heard. Every normal human being has an obligation to stand up and fight that bill because it has far more serious implications, especially for the poor. The poor in Zimbabwe depend entirely on food aid from the NGOs and if you stop that, as the government has done, you are killing innocent poor people whose day-to-day living is about worrying about where their next meal is coming from. [The laws] are only applied to persons who are deemed to be against the government or opposition members of parliament. So there is selective application of the law. If, for example, ruling Zanu PF Party youths decide to go on a march, the police will escort them to wherever they want to go and make sure they get to do what they want to do. That would not happen to those persons who are seen to be government opponents. That is selective application."
Alexander Kanengoni, writer
Alexander Kanengoni is a Zimbabwean writer and Mugabe supporter who was allocated a farm in the controversial new land reform: "Robert Mugabe has always been guided by his beliefs and visions. "The rallying point for all of us who fought in the war of independence was the issue of the land. In the 1960s and 70s our rallying slogans were all about land. I write about land. It is from the land that we get everything, our food, our sustenance. The relationship between us and the land is almost spiritual actually. My father had his own land, we grow up living on and knowing the land. I believe that this relationship is so strong that to try to break it is almost like trying to kill one part of a people. When you look at the details [of the land reform] there are a lot of problems. For example, such a radical change could not be implemented over such a short time. Unfortunately there were no adequate resources, the people were not trained, and poor rainfall patterns compounded the situation. I would certainly not call myself a farmer yet. I am new to the job and have lots to learn, but I work together with a white farmer who is very experienced. He is an amazing man. My first crop was about eight hectares of sugar beet. He came with his truck and tilled the land for me and planted the beet for me. This year we are having good harvests. Some of the things that are said about [hunger and starvation] are exaggerations of the truth."
George Shire, academic
George Shire is a London-based Zimbabwean academic who is close to Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF Party. As Crossing Continents was refused government interviews or statements, the programme spoke to George Shire and found he was very supportive of the NGO (non-governmental organisation) bill: "The bill the government is introducing is not going to throw NGOs out. This bill establishes the relationship between NGOs and the state. Now, if the function of NGOs is to assist people, then they will be able to continue to do so. They are not being excluded from working because they receive foreign funding, they will only be excluded from Zimbabwe if they work outside their remit. So the key word is 'assist'. NGOs must come clean and say why it is that they want to move away from their duty to assist into this very problematic realm of intervention. The argument I am using is this: You have to go back to those keywords - assistance or intervention. NGOs must assist, not intervene in the working of a country. It is not the function of non-governmental organisations to intervene in the working of a country where they are only accountable to their funders and not to the people."
Jenni Williams, NGO worker
Jenni Williams is the president of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, one of thousands of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in Zimbabwe. The government has introduced a controversial bill which seeks to register and vet NGOs, while outlawing foreign-funded organisations involved in political governance and human rights issues within Zimbabwe: "In Bulawayo we know of people who have died of starvation. Someone who is having one meal a day, as far as we are concerned, is already malnourished. We are very concerned at the increase in the amount of orphans we see, the amount of households that have an extra five or 10 children. There are now one million orphans due to Aids in Zimbabwe. There are large numbers of people who are leaving their jobs, who cannot get through the month because of the transport costs. The economy is basically in free fall, you can no longer budget every month. Up to 80% of people have no jobs. Over six million Zimbabweans need food aid, we need the international aid community, we need the NGOs."
"To protest against the NGO bill, we marched from Bulawayo to Harare. Thirty-five of us intended to walk all the way. "We were joined along the way by other groups of people. Then there were about 70 of us. We covered 440km (275 miles) in just over a week. [But] they finally got 52 of us. Just outside one small town, the police descended in full riot gear with tear gas at the ready, baton sticks, and arrested them. These were the first indications that the regime believed we were marching to overthrow the government. However, they were well aware that it was the Woza protest and that we would be handing over a petition. The women were eventually released. In our petition we are calling on the parliamentarians on behalf of Zimbabwe, be they [ruling party] Zanu PF or [opposition party] MDC, to realise that we need the NGOs to be a large force in Zimbabwe at this time. If they pass this bill we shall surely find many people fading away and dying."
Roy Bennett, imprisoned MP of the opposition MDC party
On 4 November, Roy Bennett, a prominent landowner and MDC MP, was sentenced to one year in jail and hard labour for contempt of parliament, after he pushed the justice minister to the ground. Here he is speaking before his arrest to SW Radio Africa, a Zimbabwean radio station based in London: "The first thing I would like to do is say that what happened is regrettable. Unfortunately, for three years now, I, in my personal capacity, and those loved ones near and dear to me have suffered at the hands of this regime. It was very unfortunate what happened in parliament, but the speaker should have stopped the abuse thrown at me, a diatribe of the most racial and personal insults. That is coupled with all the events that have taken place over the last three years. I am a human being, I have got blood running through my veins. I saw red, I said [to the minister]: 'You have gone too far,' and I pushed him, and he fell over. No-one was kicked. No fists were thrown, it was two pushes. The whole of parliament was a witness. But I honestly believe that we are at the end of the road now, the people have had enough of the totalitarian rule of Robert Mugabe and [his party] Zanu PF and they will speak out and I am absolutely proud to be one of those people who have stood by democracy and justice for the people of Zimbabwe."
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From The Independent (UK), 12 November
Vaughan only touring 'out of duty'
By Jon Culley
England cricket captain Michael Vaughan last night added his voice to the controversy over the forthcoming visit to Zimbabwe by admitting he would have pulled out of the five-match tour had he not felt a duty to lead the side. Vaughan revealed he had been offered the chance to sit out the five-match trip, which goes ahead later this month in spite of widespread opposition to it on moral grounds, but said he "did not want to pass the buck" by forcing another player to travel as captain. Without referring specifically to the regime of Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, whose record of human rights abuses has been at the root of failed attempts by the England and Wales Cricket Board to have the tour scrapped, Vaughan has made clear his personal opposition to playing cricket in the strife-torn African nation. "We leave on Monday and I think it is clear we are making a stance in itself because we are not going to Zimbabwe until 24 November," he said. "We go to Namibia for our preparation and fly to Zimbabwe before the first one-day game. It is not a great position for either the board or players to be in but personally I did not want to pass the buck by not going. "I am going there to lead the team but it's not a tour I am particularly looking forward to. I am looking forward to it being over and getting to South Africa for a real tough Test series."
The first of the five one-day internationals England are scheduled to play is on 26 November. Vaughan and his players will remain in the country for 12 days before moving on to neighbouring South Africa for five Tests. Although the England party were told they could decline to take part in the Zimbabwe leg and not face penalties, only fast bowler Steve Harmison has withdrawn on political grounds. However, all-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who took the option to rest that Vaughan declined, said he would not have wished to go in any event. Opening batsman Marcus Trescothick is the other player who accepted coach Duncan Fletcher's invitation to rest. Despite opposition from the British Government to the tour taking place, England have been forced to honour their commitment to the international calendar by the International Cricket Council, the game's world governing body, or face heavy fines and possible suspension. However, despite 10 months of wrangling, the tour was not finally confirmed until last month, after an ECB delegation somewhat reluctantly accepted that the only grounds on which they could pull out without penalty - if there were safety and security issues - could not be made to stand up.
England boycotted their World Cup trip to Zimbabwe last year for safety reasons but since then Australia and Sri Lanka have toured the country without incident. Last month, the ECB sent their director of operations, John Carr, and the players' union boss, Richard Bevan, to assess the situation. They met Zimbabwe's Minister of Home Affairs, police chiefs, security officials and members of the Zimbabwean opposition, but found no reason why the tour should not take place. Bevan and ECB chairman David Morgan will accompany the team throughout the tour, to enable them to respond quickly to any major developments. Echoing the words of new ECB chief executive, David Collier, Bevan emphasised that the decision to tour did not amount to an endorsement of the Mugabe regime. "It in no way indicates that players are seeking to condone the situation in Zimbabwe," he said. "The British government has not intervened on this issue and therefore we are relying on detailed assurances received from all the relevant authorities, including the British Embassy. Should those undertakings be breached, however, there will be an immediate review of the players' position."
The ECB took their concerns to the ICC as long ago as last January but were warned they faced a minimum fine of £600,000 and the far costlier prospect of suspension from international cricket should they pull out for any reason other than security and safety issues. The Blair administration expressed moral misgivings about the tour but stopped short of ordering it to be cancelled, leaving the matter to the ECB and the players. The itinerary was scaled down in June, when the ICC announced the Zimbabwean Cricket Union, locked in a dispute with senior players, had agreed to postpone all its Test matches for the remainder of the year. But the ICC has remained determined throughout that the one-day games would go ahead as planned.
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From AFP, 13 November
Zim to open more controversial youth camps
Harare - The Zimbabwean government is to open more of its controversial youth training camps after the National Youth Service programme was made an official government department, a newspaper reported on Saturday. The state-run Herald said the National Youth Service would now be funded from state coffers. This follows reports last month that the camps, which the opposition claims are used to indoctrinate youths against them, would close due to cash shortages. Youth Minister Ambrose Mutinhiri was quoted by the Herald as saying two new camps would be opened in the first three months of next year, bringing to 10 the number of camps countrywide. "The two provincial training centres, to make 10, will be opened in Mashonaland West and Mashonaland East provinces within the first quarter of 2005," Mutinhiri said. Both provinces traditionally back President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF. The opening of more centres, which will coincide with the run-up to general elections due in March, is likely to be viewed with suspicion by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The party claims the programme is used to indoctrinate youths and train them in quasi-military tactics to intimidate and attack opposition supporters. But the government has dismissed the opposition party's claims. It insists the programme, which has so far produced 21 500 graduates, is designed to instill patriotism and impart skills to the country's youths.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 12 November
Zanu PF busts embargo
Vincent Kahiya
In a bid to beat targeted sanctions, Zanu PF has formed shelf companies to warehouse its shares in various corners of the economy, the Zimbabwe Independent can reveal. The Zanu PF empire, which is crumbling from years of mismanagement and corruption, is moving funds from well-known party firms to lesser-known shelf companies to secure its investments. Zanu PF investments are in the main held by two companies - Zidco Holdings and M&S Syndicate. The investments, especially in companies listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, are no longer held by the two entities but through briefcase companies formed to disguise Zanu PF's involvement. Listed companies in the financial sector carry out business with European banks and the involvement of Zanu PF in the firms is now considered a liability. The party's interests stretch from banking, manufacturing, farming, and printing and publishing to real estate. The reasons for transmutation of M&S Syndicate and Zidco Holdings into diverse shelf companies are contained in the politburo committee's report on Zanu PF investments, which is currently being discussed by the party's leadership. The Independent first disclosed details of the report on October 29. The committee was set up by the party to investigate alleged graft in Zanu PF's business entities, some of which have been operating without a profit since Independence in 1980. Scrutiny of Zanu PF firms increased when the international community reacted to President Mugabe's repressive policies with targeted sanctions two years ago. The party sought to mask its businesses using shelf companies.
"During the embargo on all companies and banks linked to Zanu (Patriotic Front), the party formed a company called Segmented Investments," the report says. "Zidco also formed other briefcase companies and staff shares were also created." Briefcase companies which have been set up include Sovereign, Hustonville, Tescrom, Amelia, Ryobi, Prinfit and M&S Investments (as distinct from M&S Syndicate). Records at the companies registry show that the companies were registered between August and September last year. Some of them list prominent lawyer Edwin Manikai as director. The so-called briefcase or shelf companies now have a combined 32,05% stake in First Banking Corporation Holdings (FBCH) which controls First Bank, Southern Africa Reinsurance (Sare), and troubled NDH. The shareholding in FBCH is distributed as follows: Segmented Investments 13,76%, Hustonville 4,36%, Amelia 3,54%, Tescrom 3,54%, M&S 3,06%, Smoothnest 3,06% and Ryobi Investments 0,82%. Before the transformation Zanu PF was represented in First Banking Corporation through AM Treger and Zidco Holdings, which held 13,5% each.
In July M&S Investments and Smoothnest Investments had a combined shareholding of 37,84% in Sare, split equally between the two shelf companies. The companies now appear to be conduits for siphoning money and the probe has recommended that they be investigated. On the formation of First Bank the report says: "The party wanted a bank to rely on whenever they (sic) wanted to borrow money. It used to borrow money from the CBZ, which is now under Absa, and it decided to open its own bank, which is First Bank." Its representatives in First Bank were Jayant Chiunilal Joshi standing in for AM Treger and Dipak Pandya for Zidco Holdings, a company in which Zanu PF has an interest. First Bank had a management contract in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has since collapsed. The report says the management contract in the DRC was cancelled after its Congolese partners failed to raise enough money to operate the bank. First Bank had a 50% stake in the project and the Congolese 50%. The directors of First Bank DRC were Zanu PF secretary for administration Emmerson Mnangagwa, Livingstone Gwata, John Mushayavanhu, Webster Rusere and Dipak Pandya.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 12 November
Nkala accused dies of prison-induced ailment
Itai Dzamara
Nicholas Masera, one of six Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) officials who were acquitted after being detained in prison for two and a half years over the murder of Zanu PF's Cain Nkala, died last week. Masera, who had developed chest complications whilst in detention, died last Thursday and was buried on Sunday in Bulawayo. He had been in and out of hospital since release from remand prison in August when Justice Sandra Mungwira acquitted the accused MDC officials. Josephat Tshuma of Webb Low & Barry who represented the accused MDC officials in the murder case confirmed the death of Masera. "He died last week. He never recovered from the illness that started troubling him whilst in remand prison." Mungwira acquitted Masera and five others, who included MDC MP for Lobengula/Magwegwe Fletcher Dulini Ncube, in August. The other accused were Sazini Mpofu, Army Zulu, Kethani Sibanda and Remember Moyo. The MDC officials were arrested in November 2001 after the discovery of Nkala's body in a shallow grave outside Bulawayo.
They were denied bail on several occasions and in some instances were held in solitary confinement at Khami Prison, leading to the deterioration in Ncube's health. He had to undergo surgery to have one eye removed. Nkala, who was the Bulawayo war veterans chairman, suffered a gruesome murder after unknown people kidnapped him from his Bulawayo home. The ruling Zanu PF immediately embarked on a blitz to blame the murder on the MDC ahead of the 2002 presidential election. An anti-MDC propaganda campaign, dubbed "war against terror", was launched. Sensationalised reports in the state media implicated Ncube and the other MDC members in the murder of Nkala, who was declared a national hero. A ZTV news crew covered the "discovery" of Nkala's body in a shallow grave outside Bulawayo and its exhumation. The footage was repeatedly replayed. However, Justice Mungwira dismissed the allegations saying the witnesses, mainly police officers, lined up by the state were producing works of fiction. "The witnesses conducted themselves in a shameless fashion and displayed utter contempt for the due administration of justice," she said.
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From Zim Online (SA), 13 November
Consumers may soon be forced to buy bread on the black market
Harare - Looking as carefree as any child her age, 10-year old Munashe Masimba munches into a thick slice of bread. For her and many of her friends here in Harare's low-income suburb of Mbare, the day never begins until she has munched at least three slices of bread, washed down with a cup of tea. But that may soon change with bread likely to be in short supply in Zimbabwe in a few months' time because the country's farmers, for the third year running, have failed to produce enough wheat to meet national consumption. As with everything else in Zimbabwe, wheat production has steadily declined in the last three years after the government launched its often chaotic land reform programme. The decline in agriculture is also attributed to a severe shortage of inputs. For example, only 50 percent of the 85 000 hectares that are normally put under wheat crop every year were under cultivation last winter. Zimbabwe produces most of its wheat under irrigation during its dry and cool winter season.
Farm production statistics indicate that the few remaining white commercial farmers - once the main producers of the vital crop - planted around 15 000 hectares while blacks resettled by the government on former white-owned farms planted about 25 000 hectares of wheat. The total hectarage of wheat this year will at most yield about 250 000 tonnes, almost about 50 percent less than the 450 000 to 500 000 tonnes of wheat Zimbabweans consume annually. The government must raise US$126 million to import the shortfall including about 80 000 tonnes of higher grade wheat the country normally imports to mix with local wheat for better quality flour. But with foreign currency shortages gripping the country, shortages of wheat and bread are inevitable. According to independent agricultural experts, besides instability caused in agriculture by government land reforms, wheat production was also affected because of shortages of fuel and other inputs.
Delays by the government's Grain Marketing Board in releasing seed and other inputs to black villagers resettled on white farmland and who do not have money to buy these only helped worsen the situation. Traditionally the wheat planting season ends by mid-June but most of the new black farmers only began planting as late as July and early August because they had no seed. And now another crisis looms in the clouds for Zimbabwe's wheat sector - the rains. With the Meteorological Services Department warning that heavy rains should be expected anytime soon, crop scientists fear that fifty percent of the crop still on farms could be ruined. Bakers' Association of Zimbabwe chairman Armitage Chikwavira said he would need to consult with the GMB first before speaking about the impending wheat and flour shortage - a sensitive political issue as Zimbabwe heads for a critical election next March. "I will need to consult other stakeholders in the baking industry and the GMB," Chikwavira told Zim Online.
Private baker, Eddie Cross, who is also a senior official of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party, said hard-cash-strapped Zimbabwe would have to double wheat imports this year to avert shortages. He said: "Last year's crop was better than this year's because we did not have early rains then. We have to import between 65 percent and 85 percent wheat and flour products if we are to avert a serious shortage in the next few months." According to Cross, most bakeries were already operating at 50 percent capacity because of the critical situation of flour supplies from major milling firms as the country's wheat reserves dwindle. "Most of us have scaled down operations to reduce exposure because there is no flour owing to the shortages of wheat," Cross said. A similar shortage of wheat and flour early last year gave rise to an illegal black-market for bread where the life-saving commodity was fetching about thrice its normal retail price. The black-market, which already can easily supply scarce foreign currency, fuel or even HIV/AIDS anti-retroviral drugs, will probably in a few months' time also be supplying bread for little Masimba in the poverty-stricken suburb of Mbare.
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From Business Day (SA), 13 November
Zimbabwe annual inflation drops to 209%
Harare - Zimbabwe's annual rate of inflation last month dropped to 209%, edging closer to a year-end target of 150% from a peak of 622.8% in January, a newspaper reported on Saturday. The state-run Herald quoted figures from the Central Statistical Office (CSO) saying the annual rate of inflation for October had declined by 42.5% against September's inflation figure of 251.5%. Last year the central bank launched a radical monetary policy that aimed, among other things, to tame hyper-inflation which has been declared the southern African country's "number one enemy". The bank now estimates that inflation, the highest in southern Africa and also one of the highest in the world, will decline to between 150 and 160% by the end of the year. However, monthly inflation figures are continuing to rise, the paper said. "October's month-on-month figure rose to 10.1% from 5.9% in September due mainly to substantial increases in the prices of meat, beverages, fruits and vegetable, postal and telecommunications (rates) over the past month," the paper noted. However, the price jumps are considerably lower than those experienced this time last year, resulting in a lower annual inflation figure, the paper said. Ordinary Zimbabweans have been hit hard by price increases, and this week a regional famine watchdog estimated that more than 2.2 million rural Zimbabweans would need food aid because prices of the staple food maize were rising beyond the reach of many of the country's 11.6 million people.
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From The Independent (UK), 13 November
Questions that will jolt Vaughan's conscience
James Lawton
Pity Michael Vaughan if he ever has to explain to a grandson the concept of "duty" forced upon him when he led a team of English cricketers to Zimbabwe in the benighted year of 2004.Maybe it would go something like this...
Duty to what, grandad? The duty of following your own instincts, not as a sports star, perhaps, but an ordinary man? Not really, boy, I hated the idea of being in a country where human rights had been driven into the ground. No, I did it because if the game I played had any kind of future in our country and if it was to go on providing me with a living good enough to provide your dad and his brothers and sisters with a decent education and a good life, it was clear the team had to go. But why did you have to go, grandpops, couldn't you have said, gentleman, include me out? Well, some of us had to go and I was the captain. I couldn't stay at home and then expect to take over the job again when the team moved to South Africa to play the five big Test matches. You spend most of your life working towards a goal and then when you achieve it it is not so easy just to walk away.
What was so wrong about playing cricket in Zimbabwe? The feeling was that it would give something known as aid and succour to one of the most loathsome governments on the face of the earth, which at the time was saying quite a lot. Two of Zimbabwe's best cricketers, Andy Flower and Henry Olonga, were very much against it. They risked a bad conversation in the night by wearing protest armbands against the situation inflicted by the government of Robert Mugabe. Everyone, and especially our government, was very impressed by their bravery, at least at the time. What did Flower and Olonga say was so wrong about that situation? Well, they said that democracy and most other forms of decency had been put to death in their country. What did our government say about this? Oh, quite a lot. Basically they agreed with Andy and Henry. They said we shouldn't go. We would be doing that aid and succour thing.
Didn't they order you not to go? No. They said they would leave it to our consciences. Why didn't they say, look gentleman, this just isn't on? You can't go there aiding and succouring a government that has turned a rich and fertile country back into the stone age, a regime which, in some ways, is as viciously racist as the South African one which was treated as a pariah for many years and, in the end, with excellent results. For one thing, couldn't the government have said, we're not going to let you? They couldn't do that. In fact if you had suspended every individual cabinet minister over a vat of boiling oil it seemed you couldn't persuade them to do it. Grandfather, on what point of arcane principle did they stand? It would have been far too expensive. The International Cricket Council - the game's ruling body - had said that if we didn't go to Zimbabwe we would be suspended from international cricket, and that would have been very costly indeed. How expensive? Well, when you added up all the lost revenue from TV fees and sponsorships, it would have been £50m in old British currency, and just for starters. Furthermore, one of the greatest incentives for my generation of English cricketers, a possible victory over the great Australian team the following summer, would have been swept away.
But, grandad, didn't that particular government of ours cough up mounds of taxpayers' money on failed bids for World Cups and Olympic games and continue with the despised Tory practice of flogging off school playing fields? Didn't they squander vastly more on the building which used to stand on that waste ground on the banks of the Thames? And didn't they whip up huge parades and receptions whenever any of our sportsmen and women, rising above one of the poorest sports infrastructures in the developed world, managed to win something? One small problem was that the government couldn't very well order us not to play cricket in Zimbabwe, and provide compensation, if they were not prepared to do that to an army of businessmen still eager to do trade with people underpinning Mugabe's regime. So you didn't pack up your togs and go off to Zimbabwe with any real appetite for the ensuing action? No, not at all. In fact I said at the time: "We leave on Monday and I think it is clear we are making a stance in itself because we are not going to Zimbabwe until 24 November. We go to Namibia for our preparation and fly to Zimbabwe before the first one-day game."
As stances go, grandpa, it maybe wasn't quite on the same level of the Spanish Nationalist general who, when told that the Republicans held his son and were about to shoot him if the garrison wasn't surrendered immediately, spoke down the telephone to his first-born, saying, "Commend your soul to God and cry Viva España." Well, grandson, the Spanish are quite a passionate people. Those were different times. But don't you wish you had felt a little rush of the blood, that you had told the ICC where to go with their blackmail, and also told the government that if they weren't prepared to react meaningfully to the difference between right and wrong as long as it wasn't spelled down the hot-line from Washington, there were still a few English cricketers who were? When you put it like that, maybe I do. But then one day, you'll be an old man, too, and perhaps everything will not seem so wonderfully straightforward. In the meantime, while we're talking about cricket, how many times do I have to tell you to get your head in line with the ball?
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From News24 (SA), 13 November
Mugabe congratulates Bush
Harare - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has congratulated United States President George W Bush on his re-election last week, saying he looked forward to enhanced co-operation between the two countries, a statement issued late on Friday said. "On behalf of the government and people of Zimbabwe, and on my behalf, I convey to you our congratulations on your re-election as president of the United States of America," Mugabe said. "Your re-election to this high and esteemed office is ample testimony to the trust reposed in you by the people of the United States of America," the statement issued to New ZIANA news agency said. Mugabe has often been a staunch critic of the US, accusing it of working hand-in-hand with Zimbabwe's former colonial power Britain and supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). "I look forward to working with you to enhance co-operation between Zimbabwe and the United States as well as helping to build a safer, more peaceful and more prosperous world in which the prosperity of small countries will also be the concern of the United States," Mugabe added. Bush was re-elected on November 3 after his main challenger John Kerry conceded defeat in what was one of the tightest electoral contests in the US for decades.
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From The Sunday Mirror, 14 November
Controversy over Mnangagwa's bid
Credentials for VP post questioned
Staff Writers
Utterances by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Speaker of Parliament and ruling party secretary for administration, in a local privately-owned weekly that he would accept the post of Vice-President if nominated, have thrown the veritable Pandora's box of the succession debate wide open. This has elicited controversy within the Zanu PF power echelons, and raised the ire of former members of PF Zapu, who are questioning his leadership credentials, ahead of the Zanu PF National People's Congress in December. After years of playing the cautious game and manoeuvring his way into a strategic position, Mnangagwa reportedly said: "I think every committed Zanu PF cadre when nominated, unless they are suffering from ill-health or mental deficiency, can't fail to accept the challenge. I am among those who will take up the challenge." His detractors and those critical of his suitability feel otherwise. They argue that despite the fact that Mnangagwa has held the posts of Justice minister, State security chief and party head of administration, among others, "no one has ever bothered to check his credentials as a leader, both within and outside the party". The critics are up in arms over what they perceive to be Mnangagwa's attempts to discredit his rivals, particularly Joyce Mujuru, as well as his deft attempt to absolve himself of all blame in the Matabeleland Gukurahundi incidents of the 1980s. In so far as the Mujuru factor in the race for the VP post is concerned, the Speaker also appeared to be positioning himself, by implication, for a battle with Joyce Mujuru, who in recent weeks has emerged as his strongest challenger, when he implied that women should not be accorded an unfair advantage over other candidates. "Women have a legitimate issue of representation at a high level. As policy, Zanu PF accepts it, but the mechanism of achieving it has not been resolved. Currently, the Zanu PF constitution requires whoever is interested in the position to have the support of six provinces, voted for by the provincial executive of the six provinces. Whoever gets that support is nominated. So, the Women's League, unless it changes, has to follow the provisions of the Zanu PF constitution," Mnangagwa is quoted as having said.
Sceptics have viewed this as a way of trying to neutralise the Joyce Mujuru threat. They point out that it is an argument that fails to achieve its goal, since even though Mujuru candidature is being pushed for by the Women' s League, there is strong evidence on the ground that seven provinces clearly support her. To win the vice-presidency, a candidate has to win at least six of the ten provincial votes at the Congress. Mashonaland Central Provincial chairman, Chen Chimutengwende, has since indicated that their vote will go to Water Resources Minister Joyce Mujuru. However, Midlands Provincial chairman, July Moyo, said he was not in a position to comment as he was in a meeting. Philip Chiyangwa, the Mashonaland West ruling party chairman, refused to divulge where their vote would go, saying he would not talk about the vice-presidency. "I can't comment. I will not comment. And I shall never comment. I only support President Mugabe, whom we elected," he said. Former Zanu PF stalwart Edgar Tekere, who has in the past expressed his support for Mujuru, refused to comment on Mnangagwa's suitability for the vice-presidential post.
In 2000, Mnangagwa lost the Kwekwe parliamentary seat to unheralded Blessing Chebundo of the MDC. Mnangagwa was beaten to the powerful post of Zanu PF national chairman by John Nkomo and had to settle for the post of secretary for administration. Consequently, it was said by some that his elevation to Speaker of Parliament was meant as a consolation for a man regarded as President Mugabe's first choice and heir apparent - a consolation that came courtesy of the intervention of the late Vice-President Simon Muzenda, effectively throwing Mnangagwa a political lifeline. Mujuru, on the other hand, is seen as having strong credentials and, unlike Mnangagwa, has the potential to attract the votes of people from across ethnic and ideological divisions. Another disadvantage Mnangagwa has is the fact that he has no popular power base, while Mujuru's relative greater popularity is evidenced by the fact that she is an elected Member of Parliament representing Mt Darwin North, which is augmented by seniority in the party and liberation struggle. Said one observer: "In reality, I do not think that he is among the most senior party members. What has he got over the likes of (Rugare) Gumbo, for example? I think he is no more senior than (Witness) Mangwende and (Stan) Mudenge but he is no doubt a junior to Mujuru, who carried a gun and became Minister of Defence. Mnangagwa was not even a member of the general staff in Zanla, having come straight from university as a personal assistant to the president of the party in 1977. Mujuru has a proven track record from the time she joined the struggle in 1972, becoming a commander over the years, joining the general staff, the high command and being a long-standing member of the Politburo."
Mnangagwa, the observer said, was banking on support from fellow members of the sub- ethnic Karanga group, though there are Karangas more senior to him, like Gumbo and Josiah Tungamirai. Another ruling party insider, speaking on condition of anonymity because of "fear of his wide-ranging powers in Zanu PF", questioned Mnangagwa's claim to the mantle. "There are people who are far more senior than Mnangagwa in the party. He has survived on the President's patronage. As far as many of us know, Mnangagwa came to the fore as the President's personal assistant during the war years." Mnangagwa's career as a politician and businessman has been characterised by allegations of corruption, especially pertaining to alleged illegal dealings in the Democratic Republic of Congo, although nothing has been publicly substantiated. The same weekly that broke his veiled interest in the VP post wrote, a few months ago, that he had come out clean from the scandal. But the general feeling is that in Zanu PF, a number of people appear to be opposed to his succession to the post of vice-president as this would be an obvious stepping stone to the presidency. Furthermore, his utterances concerning Gukurahundi might have earned him a new set of enemies rather than friends. Mnangagwa told the local weekly he "never carried a gun" and never commanded any section of the police, army or Support Unit. He said that his role in that troubled period was simply to supply intelligence information as to where arms caches were hidden. "Politically, if the Zapu leadership had accepted that they had lost the elections and that the number of seats they had were equal to their popularity and convey that message to their forces, then it could not have happened. "It was necessary for them to have accepted democratic decisions," Mnangagwa said.
At the time of the operation codenamed Gukurahundi - which President Mugabe later labelled a "moment of madness" - Mnangagwa was at the helm of national security. The observer said that it was obvious that Mnangagwa had begun campaigning although his stance on Gukurahundi was unfortunate since it deviated from the notion of collective responsibility for an operation, which in principle had national security at the heart of it. The observer said that in as much as the US had gone to war in Iraq on the basis of information supplied by the Central Intelligence Agency, Zimbabwe's security forces would not have acted without input from the intelligence services. Some former members of PF Zapu, expressed dismay at the Speaker's claims, saying they were an "attempt to legitimise the killings". One Politburo member, who declined to be named, said: "Personally, it was saddening to hear him speak like that. He is trying to justify the unjustifiable. "How can he expect to win the Matebeleland votes when he is saying the things he is saying in the media?" Mnangagwa was recently in Gwanda where he made a donation to a school there in a move many have labelled as the launching of his campaign trail, designed to dispel the widely held and long-standing perception that as Minister of National Security he was at the heart of the Gukurahundi incidents. Another Politburo member said that he could not as yet comment publicly and would only do so after consulting with his colleagues and coming up with a common stand on the issue. Vice-President Joseph Msika said he would not comment on the Matabeleland massacres, adding that it was up to the people to decide if they wanted Mnangagwa as their second VP. Mnangagwa led the first batch of Zimbabwean troops to be trained in China during the liberation struggle and was incarcerated by the Smith regime. Amidst all the controversy, the battle for the vice-presidency is a macrocosm of the battle that no one is willing to talk about openly - who will take over from President Mugabe if he resigns when his current term comes to an end in 2008? According to Mnangagwa, "It's a crime to conceive the exit of the head of State."
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 14 November
Cosatu plans 'jambanja'
By our own Staff
The Central Executive Committee of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), will next week hold a crucial meeting in Johannesburg to decide appropriate action to take against Zimbabwe authorities after Harare deported its representatives three weeks ago. A 13-member fact finding Cosatu mission that arrived in Zimbabwe despite a ban imposed by the government was bundled into a bus and dumped at Beitbridge in the early hours of the morning of October 26, 2004. That was after they had been arrested, threatened physically and mentally abused, according to their secretary general, Zwelinzima Vavi. Cosatu Secretary for International Relations, Simon Boshielo, told The Standard in an interview from Pretoria on Friday that a position would come out of the meeting to be held by the central executive committee in Johannesburg. "It is not untrue that Cosatu will respond to how its delegation was treated in Zimbabwe. The issue though will be decided by the central executive committee," Boshielo said. Asked about threats to blockade borders leading into Zimbabwe from South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Zambia, Boshielo said: "All I can tell you is that it was Cosatu members who blockaded Swaziland in 2001 during a general strike. Truck drivers who bring goods to Zimbabwe belong to the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, an affiliate of Cosatu. Police and immigration officers stationed at the country's borders belong to unions affiliated to Cosatu."
Cosatu is credited with contributing to the capitulation of the apartheid regime after it staged a series of crippling strikes in the 1980s. The labour union has more than two million members. Boshielo could not say if they had discussed their treatment with unions in Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique. "The world is now a global village. We don't have to physically inform our comrades if something happens to us. Everybody knows what happened to us in Zimbabwe and there have been many letters of protest written to the Zimbabwean government by unions from the region and around the world." The Cosatu delegation, which was hoping to meet members of the civil society, was initially barred from visiting Zimbabwe. But the delegation defied the ban and flew into Harare. The South Africans came at the invitation of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and were also expected to hold discussions with Zanu PF, the opposition, MDC, representatives from Crisis Coalition, the National Constitutional Assembly and Zimbabwe Council of Churches, among other civil society organizations. Zimbabwe deported the delegation saying their mission was not acceptable because it was "political". Cosatu is also a key ally of the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party in South Africa.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 14 November
Jonathan Moyo faces the music
Zimbabwe's Information Minister Jonathan Moyo is under fire for using billions of taxpayers' money to sponsor his band. Moyo has squandered at least Z$2 billion of public funds in recording and launching music group PaxAfro's first CD, and in hosting music concerts aimed at sprucing up the Zimbabwean government's battered image. Moyo told parliament recently that he had spent close on Z$3 billion to set up and promote PaxAfro and to arrange various music concerts. He conceded that the music shows had only raised Z$900 million, resulting in a loss of almost Z$2 billion. Moyo said the money was used for the payment of musicians, the booking of venues, accommodation, lighting systems, stage costs and broadcast charges for when concerts were broadcast live on television. Some of the money, he added, was used for production costs, transport and merchandising. PaxAfro's album Back2Black was launched amid pomp and fanfare in July at Victoria Falls. The album's songs were composed and produced by Moyo. And there's no escaping them as they saturate Zimbabwe's airwaves. State-owned radio and televisions stations have been instructed to play them incessantly. Defending his use of the money, Moyo told parliament that while he wrote the songs, he would not collect royalties from sales of the music because he wanted to develop local music. "Although I happen to have composed all the songs on the project, I collect no fees that I'm entitled to as an individual composer," Moyo told parliament. "This is entitlement I have decided to forego, wishing instead to develop the artists and the industry," he said.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 14 November
Fake US dollars hit Zimbabwe
Godfrey Marawanyika
Zimbabwe's Criminal Investigations Department (CID) last week told parliament that there was a flood of counterfeit American dollar notes - coming mainly in the three largest denominations - allegedly traded by east and West Africans. Giving testimony before a foreign and industrial affairs parliamentary committee, the CID's Senior Assistant Commissioner Steven Mutamba said there was a new way of forging United States dollars, whereby offenders use "a special kind of paper" and ink to make US$20, $50 and $100 bills. "For them (racketeers) to win your confidence, they pour a special kind of liquid on equally deceptive money making paper and you can get US$50, US$20, US$100 notes," Mutamba told the Phillip Chiyangwa-led committee. He noted that the fake notes "appeared so genuine" that some gullible banks and members of the public had fallen for the con and accepting them as real changeable tender. "Some of our bank tellers have fallen victim to this scam. Others have even taken money from their (bank) tills hoping to make money quickly," the police investigative chief said.
Further quizzed by the "state of foreign goods", immigrants and residence status committee on how the paper "inexplicably" turns into real money and where it could be emanating from, Mutamba failed to offer an explanation, emphasising though that a number of people including MPs had been ripped off. He could, however, not rule out that the paper could have been stolen from money printers internationally. Apart from failing to prove an inherent link between offenders of the Banking Act, particularly those dealing in foreign currency illegally, and at-large members of the international ring, Mutamba conceded defeat in the Zimbabwean police's efforts to nab any US dollar contraband suspects. Instead, Mutamba's troops claimed to have recently seized a US$5 000 bounty in Harare - of genuine notes - meant for the pesky unofficial market of foreign cash.
The police chief would also not quantify how many fake greenbacks were in circulation, although the scourge is rife regionally and notably in diamond-rich Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. And in remarks set to trigger diplomatic rancour and scotch Zimbabwe's rallying cries about alleged Botswana and South African xenophobia, Mutamba ascribed the proliferation of this economic crime to Congolese, Liberian, Mozambican and Senegalese nationals, whose local habitation status could not be readily ascertained. Mutamba said those found in breach of Zimbabwean banking laws, particularly holders of fake bearers' cheques and legal tender, were fined a measly $5,2 million. To bolster his charge, which he said was also being helped by Zimbabwean accomplices, Senior Assistant Commissioner Mutamba said there has been an increase in crimes committed by foreigners this year and that his department stands ready to provide statistics. In addition to financial crimes, outsiders were also involved in drug and narcotics peddling. Noting that close to 600 foreign nationals apply for citizenship annually, Mutamba rallied home affairs officials to be more stringent on vetting and asylum granting measures. People from as far afield as Pakistani seek residence status in Zimbabwe.
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From The Scotsman (UK), 14 November
Thorpe slams ECB over Zimbabwe
Graham Thorpe has hit out at the England and Wales Cricket Board over their decision to go ahead with the forthcoming trip to Zimbabwe. England will play five one-day internationals in the crisis-torn African country ahead of their tour of South Africa. Thorpe will not be travelling to Zimbabwe as he has retired from limited-overs internationals, but will join up with Michael Vaughan's squad for the five Tests in South Africa. He told the Mail On Sunday: "When England pulled out of the World Cup match in Harare last year, the ECB promised the players that they would never again be placed in the position of having to go to Zimbabwe against their own moral judgement. "Here we are, 20 months later, and the players have been left in exactly that position. Players are deeply concerned over the political situation in Zimbabwe. They do not want to be at the centre of protests that could lead to opposition supporters being arrested and mistreated. And they cannot understand a logic that says it was right to pull out of the World Cup match in Harare last year but wrong not to travel now." Thorpe accuses the ECB of having "allowed themselves to be bullied by the ICC" and claims they in turn "have bullied the players psychologically with threats of what will happen to the game in this country if they don't tour". The Surrey batsman is especially critical of the decision to insist that Vaughan leads the one-day squad rather than allowing him such much-needed rest. Vaughan has already stated this week that his side "just want to get it over with". Thorpe adds: "It is clear that the captain is going against the wishes of the coach, Duncan Fletcher, who wanted to rest him along with other senior players. "If England were sending a one-day side anywhere else in the world at this time and Fletcher wanted Vaughan to take a breather, there wouldn't be a problem."
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 14 November
Nigeria rolls out red carpet for Tsvangirai
By our own Staff
Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo last week rolled out the red carpet for Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirai as it emerged that the Nigerian government had denied a Zimbabwean government delegation visas to travel to Abuja. Tsvangirai was leading a delegation, which included MDC vice president, Gibson Sibanda and the party's national chairman, Isaac Matongo. The MDC delegation met the Nigerian president and voiced their concerns about the political violence and anomalies in the electoral process in Zimbabwe. After three hours of discussions, Obasanjo invited the MDC trio to his farm. During the tour, sources said, the Nigerian leader personally drove his guests around the farm where there are wild animals that were donated to Obasanjo by the Zimbabwean government several years ago. Then the Nigerian leader was fondly regarded as "Big Brother Obasanjo" by the Zimbabwean authorities. After the Nigerian visit, the opposition party's delegation flew to Accra, Ghana, where President John Kuffour welcomed them. The West African diplomatic offensive ended in Ouagadougou, with a meeting with President Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso. Unconfirmed reports said a government delegation, which wanted to "counter" the discussions at the Abuja meeting between Obasanjo and the MDC was denied visas. "A senior government official who wanted to as usual cause some commotion about the meeting was denied a Nigerian visa. He was told to apologise after the government media under his control falsely claimed the Nigerian government was funding the opposition," said an official close to the developments. Zimbabwe and Nigeria had a fallout last year as the West Africans refused to support the re-admission of the southern African nation into the Commonwealth. Tsvangirai was yesterday in Botswana where he was scheduled to meet recently re-elected President Festus Mogae. Tsvangirai and his delegation have also been to Mauritius and South Africa.
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From The Star (SA), 15 November
This country could soon be despised across Africa
Ancini Yokojoma, a 26-year-old Zimbabwean journalist, speaks about his arrest by police and his experience at Lindela. I was arrested in August because I didn't have an inoculation mark. That's how I was identified as a Zimbabwean. I have seen donkeys being identified with their marks, not people. In the United Kingdom, the moment you are arrested as an illegal, you are given access to a lawyer. That doesn't happen here. I have a valid three-year work permit but they refused to release me. We were crammed into trucks and sprayed with pepper and teargas. We also saw some guys being chased like dogs by armed policemen. Some women were promised freedom for sex, which they never got. Some guys had their IDs confiscated and to have them returned, they had to pay R100; some lost their asylum papers in the process. I got ill within three days of arriving at Lindela because the place is so overcrowded. In a cell, which was supposed to accommodate only 15 people, we were packed to 70 - made to sleep two to a bed, with some sleeping on the floor where water from a leaking toilet would wet mattresses. I was denied medical attention throughout my stay there and threatened with a thorough beating if I complained. I had flu, tonsillitis and sinus pains. Without medical attention you die. One night some guys in the room next door tried to escape. They were caught and the ring- leader was beaten by the guards. I saw him pass out as they continued to beat him. A security guard I befriended told me they usually switch off the CCTV cameras when they beat people and if you die, they would say you fought with others. They would check if you had had any visitors; if not, they just bury you silently.
For me, with the right documents, relatives had to fork out R2 000 to pay a lawyer to secure my release. I agree that laws have to be upheld but it seems in South Africa, harassing, torturing and deporting foreigners has become a lucrative business. Regarding repression and human rights abuses, Robert Mugabe could actually learn from South Africa how to mistreat and break people. My parents left Zimbabwe to live in Ulm, a very conservative German town, but they've never experienced anything like this. Americans are despised across the world. Would South Africa want its citizens to be despised across Africa? It won't be long before that happens. Papa Leshabane of Lindela responds: There is no way a person can be assaulted by our staff without the control room picking it up. On switching off of cameras, the control room is monitored by a National Control Centre at our head office and another check is done in an office in the centre. This is to ensure that the people in the control room know they are being watched. No one is buried at the facility. The clinic is available for all, and it's not true he was denied access to medical facilities. The facility is very clean. No male official |
