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Archived News
18th May 2004
No famine here, says hungry Zimbabwe
Harare shuns aid in face of famine alert
Sky News crew’s accreditation expires
Mining boss shot dead
Zim slams 'barbaric' treatment of citizens
Most Zimbabwean private schools reopen under government pressure to reduce fees
Zimbabwe minister denied bail as a risk
Zimbabwe farmers lease land in Nigeria
Zimbabwe outlaws satirical play
We have too much maize, says Zimbabwe
Cancellation of UN food assessment mission jeopardises future aid to Zimbabwe
MDC supporters arrested in Zimbabwe
Killing of mine chief shocks Zim business
Zimbabwe court refuses to drop 'mercenary' case
Tetchy cross-border relations with Botswana
Ponting's men embark on flight of madness
Threat to expose Harare arms deals
Maize-meal for votes
Zim MDC youth leader arrested
Plot thickens in Zanu PF companies probe
Zims prefer the whip to prison, court president says
Makamba returns externalised forex
Tribal rivalry left behind in united hatred of Mugabe
Food must not be used as a political tool, says Amnesty
It’s not over yet!
Mugabe says to quit in 2008
Govt eyes Mitchell & Mitchell
Zim strikes detainees-for-fuel deal
Zimbabwe forex scam raises more questions
US firm strikes secret tobacco-for-maize deal
Zimbabwe police arrest constitutional activists
Special election in Matabeleland province seen as test of ruling party
Minister implicated in land scandal
British businessman accused of leading role in failed coup
Arrests cast shadow over Zim by-election
Family of slain mine boss blames government officials
Mawere scandal
Zimbabwe loses out on high-profit farm
Barren fields belie Zimbabwe's announcement of bumper crop
Zim fuel debt written off?
Two Australians arrested at Bulawayo test match
Zimbabwe ruling party claims win
Zim inflation dips 78%
The never-ending war of Robert Gabriel Mugabe
Weary Zimbabweans seek better life
Who said it?
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 12 May
No famine here, says hungry Zimbabwe
Harare/Johannesburg - Zimbabwe, where more than five million people face famine, claimed yesterday that it had enough food to feed its population and would not seek aid supplies this year. The claim was dismissed as ridiculous by agricultural experts and aid workers who said it was an attempt by the regime to secure full control over food supplies before next year's parliamentary elections. While there have been relatively good rains this year, the claim by Paul Mangwana, the labour and social welfare minister, flew in the face of all empirical evidence. "We don't need food aid from outside the country," Mr Mangwana said. "We generally believe we produced enough for local consumption, and we have told our international partners about this. There are some areas that would have food deficits, but these would be covered through internal food distribution." Donors would be asked only to assist in development programmes "and if we have good rains again this year, we will kiss goodbye to food imports and donor food assistance". The regime of President Robert Mugabe has a history of exploiting food shortages. In a country where scores have died of starvation in recent months, food is a powerful political tool as the ruling Zanu-PF government has a record of giving supplies only to loyal supporters. Two years ago the head of the air force was ordered by Mr Mugabe to fly to Johannesburg with a bag full of dollar bills to buy food that could then be given to party loyalists.
Paul Themba Nyathi, spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said: "This is typical of Zanu PF. It's callous and cruel as they will distribute the little food we do have for political gain, with no consideration for the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans." The government's claims were dismissed by independent analysts and aid experts who said 5.5 million Zimbabweans, 2.5 million of them in urban areas, needed food assistance. In March, 63 people, including 48 children, were reported to have died from hunger in the second city, Bulawayo. "This is not the right time to come up with a proper decision about food needs as we do not have accurate estimates yet," said Norbert Dube, chairman of the non-governmental organisation Forum in the southern Matabeleland province, where hundreds of thousands of people have been kept alive by donations from the West. Zimbabwe needs about 1.8 million tons of maize a year for its human and livestock needs, and independent agencies estimate a shortfall of 900,000 tons. Once a net exporter of food with its well-designed irrigation system and rich agricultural land, the country has been turned into a food-aid beggar by the economic mismanagement of the regime. By destroying Zimbabwe's commercial farming sector, Mr Mugabe removed an important source of foreign currency as well as a generator of employment that benefited millions. Those people who used to have a steady income now have nothing and are forced to rely on food aid. The announcement yesterday came only days after Mr Mugabe's government suspended the work of United Nations crop assessors who were visiting from South Africa. The UN's World Food Programme said at the weekend that it wanted to assess Zimbabwe's harvest after providing food aid for two years.
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From The Times (UK), 12 May 2004
Harare shuns aid in face of famine alert
From Jan Raath in Harare
Despite warnings of a third successive year of famine, a government spokesman in Zimbabwe said yesterday that the country’s food stocks were sufficient and it would not require relief aid from international agencies. State radio quoted Paul Mangwana, the Minister of Social Welfare, as saying that the Government had "ruled out food imports or receiving aid ...because the country has produced enough food for its requirements." He said that the Government had already informed Western donor agencies, which would be allowed to continue providing food on a much smaller scale. The Government claims that 1.7 million tonnes will be produced, but international experts have dismissed the forecast and say that nearly all the conditions for the alleged "bumper harvest" are absent. "Mangwana is absolutely lying," Archbishop Pius Ncube, Zimbabwe’s most outspoken Catholic cleric, said. "Last year 10,000 people died of hunger, and a quarter of a million more would have died if it were not for food aid."
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From The Herald, 12 May
Sky News crew’s accreditation expires
Herald Reporter
The accreditation of the Sky News crew, which was in the country purportedly to produce a documentary aimed at countering the negative publicity the country has been receiving, has expired, the Department of Information and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet has said. "The Department notes that you claim completion of the first part of your assignment for which you were accredited. This in effect means that your accreditation has expired as of today, 10 May 2004," said the department in a letter to Mr Ben de Pear, a producer of Sky News who was in the country with the crew. The department said a request by the Sky News crew to interview President Mugabe should only be made from the crew’s home country, which is Britain, through the Zimbabwean Embassy in London. The Sky News crew entered the country illegally late last month before securing accreditation and despite advice from the Department of Information and Publicity. The department had strongly objected to the arrival of the crew before agreement on the proposed television documentary project featuring the President and also outside the accreditation rules and procedures under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The case took a new twist last week when it emerged that a Ugandan national, Mr David Nyekorach-Matsanga, and not Zanu PF, was behind the crew. Contrary to media reports that the ruling party had organised the visit by the team, Mr Nyekorach-Matsanga, a Ugandan who has been in and out of Zimbabwe since the presidential poll in 2002 for as yet an unknown mission, claims to be the one behind the news crew. According to sources, Mr Nyekorach-Matsanga had been claiming that it was up to him to decide whether or not the news crew would proceed with the interview they were seeking with the President and senior Zanu-PF and Government officials.
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From The Daily Mirror, 12 May
Mining boss shot dead
In a Mafia-style hit, the chief executive officer of Bindura Nickel Corporation (BNC), Leonard Chimimba was shot dead outside his Harare house on Monday night. The Daily Mirror is informed that the mining executive was shot once through the back of the head as he was driving towards the gate of his place of residence. Chimimba was said to be returning from a series of meetings with some bank executives. While confirming the gruesome murder, the mine’s company secretary, Fraternity Ndhlela said: "I don’t have any details at the moment because I have been running around and so we still haven’t got the finer details." The company’s corporate services director, Isaac Matunhire, sent a bereavement message to BNC workers: "It is with deep shock and sadness that we regret to advise of the tragic death of the chief executive officer Dr L R Chimimba. Dr Chimimba was shot by an unknown assailant at the entrance to his home in Harare on the evening of Monday 10 May 2004, and passed away in hospital shortly afterwards." Mourners were said to be gathered at his home at 29 Hogarty Hill Lane in Hogarty Hill, Borrowdale. Funeral arrangements would be announced in due course.
There were unconfirmed reports that Chimimba was set to meet the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, yesterday before his death. The veracity of the appointment and nature of the discussions could not be established at the time of going to press.Police spokesman, Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka last night confirmed the murder but said investigations were still in progress. "The victim had a gunshot wound in the head and we believe that the incident occurred at around 8.30pm. He was rushed to the Avenues Clinic but died 30 minutes later. The police however managed to recover a spent cartridge and one live bullet at the scene of the crime." Mandipaka appealed to members of the public to advise the police if they knew anything about the shooting. The nickel producing company was in the news for the wrong reasons in early March this year when two trucks carrying a total of 40 tonnes of nickel worth US$600 000 (about Z$3 billion) destined for South Africa from BNC, disappeared. It was rumoured that this was an inside job amid allegations that some locals and foreigners were operating in cahoots with criminals in South Africa.
There were innuendoes that this was part of a well orchestrated Mafia type syndicate operating in South Africa especially given that this had been followed by a similar heist of 36 tonnes of platinum from Zimasco’s Mimosa Mine in Zvishavane, that was also on its way to South Africa. The drivers of the trucks of BNC’s nickel were said to have been held at Alberton Police Station in South Africa, but the case seemed to have died a natural death, as further developments have not been revealed. Leading conglomerate Anglo American Corporation (AAC) was once the major shareholder of BNC but sold its 52,94 percent stake to a consortium, Mwana Africa Holdings for US$8 million in April 2003. Mwana Africa is a consortium of African businessmen from Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa. Kalaa Mpinga, a Congolese and Zimbabweans Oliver Chidawu and Ngoni Kudenga are also said to be directors of the consortium. Chidawu is also reported to have been instrumental in the transfer of other companies in AAC’s stable-namely Bard Discount House and First Merchant Bank to African Banking Corporation. Mpinga chairs the board of BNC with Retired Air Chief Marshall Josiah Tungamirai as an alternate director. Other directors include Kudenga, Muchadeyi Masunda, a Mazula, J Schwarz and T Wadeson. Upon deciding to dispose of its shares in BNC, AAC had cited the restrictive foreign exchange regulations in Zimbabwe that threatened the company’s viability.
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From AFP, 11 May
Zim slams 'barbaric' treatment of citizens
Harare - Zimbabwe has condemned the "barbaric" use of corporal punishment by neighbouring Botswana against Zimbabweans caught on the wrong side of the law in their country, a newspaper said on Tuesday. Relations between Zimbabwe and its western neighbour have been strained in recent years after regular reports that Zimbabweans are harassed, flogged or attacked while in Botswana. Zimbabwe's chief immigration officer Elasto Mugwadi told the state-run Herald after a recent visit to Botswana that the country's use of corporal punishment against Zimbabweans was unfair. "Although Botswana immigration officials indicated they cannot change their custom, we informed them that their custom is archaic and barbaric," said Mugwadi. In April Botswana dismissed the media reports as hostile and distorted. In January Zimbabwe's ambassador to Botswana was asked to investigate reports that 100 Zimbabweans were flogged for illegally entering Botswana. An estimated 125 000 Zimbabweans who have been flooding into Botswana every month to escape economic problems at home have been blamed for an upswing in crime in that country. Mugwadi said that Zimbabweans who break the law in Botswana should pay a fine, be deported or be sent to prison. However, he claimed Zimbabweans arrested in Botswana have their money confiscated and are beaten. "They are left with no choice but to be lashed naked before they are deported," he told The Herald.
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From VOA News, 11 May
Most Zimbabwean private schools reopen under government pressure to reduce fees
Harare - All but one of the 46 Zimbabwean private schools ordered closed last week by the minister of education have re-opened, after they agreed to reduce their fees. It is lessons as usual for the private schools, after they gave in to pressure from minister of education Aeneas Chigwedere to reduce their fees. The only school holding out is the Catholic run St. George's High in the capital, Harare. The education minister last week barred the private schools from re-opening for a new term, accusing the mostly former all-white institutions of hiking fees in an effort to exclude black children. The majority of the 30,000 students in the schools are black. Two of the schools on the minister's hit list are owned by a former commander of the Zimbabwe Defense Forces, General Vitalis Zvinavashe. Most of Zimbabwe's professionals send their children to private schools, which they consider better than state-run schools. The private schools attended by President Robert Mugabe's children and some senior members of his administration are among those that were shut down by Mr. Chigwedere. The schools were accused of breaking the law by hiking their fees above the prescribed 10 percent limit without government permission. The schools said they applied for the increases, which they said were necessary to keep up with the rampant inflation, but have never heard back. A spokesperson for St. George's said it could not afford to stay open if it agreed to tuition increases proposed by the government.
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From Business Day (SA), 12 May 2004
Zimbabwe minister denied bail as a risk
Harare Correspondent
Zimbabwe Finance Minister Chris Kuruneri, who has been detained for almost three weeks on charges of violating foreign exchange and citizenship regulations, was denied bail in the Zimbabwe High Court yesterday. Justice Ben Hlatshwayo ruled that Kuruneri was likely to abscond if given bail as he had "family connections, friends, and abundant means of survival outside the country". "The charges are very serious, and the punishment upon conviction is likely to be so severe as to induce the applicant, who has both substantial means, family, friends and connections abroad, to abscond." Hlatshwayo said the chances that Kuruneri could flee were real because he was facing "very serious charges involving enormous amounts of money and possible severe punishment". Of the five charges relating to the illegal export of funds and holding dual citizenship, the judge said three were "quite strong", and the accused's explanations "very weak or even improbable". Earlier yesterday Kuruneri appeared before a magistrate for a routine remand hearing. He was remanded to May 26. Kuruneri was arrested on April 24 on allegations of exporting large amounts of foreign currency to buy and build properties in South Africa. He was reported to be building a R30m mansion in Cape Town and to have bought a Mercedes Benz valued at R547734. Kuruneri has said he did not export the money but earned it through consulting for foreign companies. He is also accused of holding Zimbabwean and Canadian passports at the same time, which is illegal under Zimbabwean citizenship laws. He said he had never held a Canadian passport, merely becoming a permanent resident after living in Canada for 11 years. Kuruneri's lawyer said he would read the bail judgment before deciding whether to appeal. A number of prominent businessmen, including Zanu PF officials, have been arrested on corruption charges. Several business executives, especially bankers, have fled the country to escape President Robert Mugabe's anticorruption crackdown.
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From AFP, 12 May
Zimbabwe farmers lease land in Nigeria
Lagos - The central Nigerian state of Kwara has agreed to lease farmland to white Zimbabwean commercial farmers who are planning to emigrate to the west African country, according to a government spokesman. "The Zimbabweans were here last week. We held fruitful discussions with them before they left for home. It is true that we have agreed to lease some farmlands to them," state government spokesman Tajudeen Kareem told AFP. Press reports said the state government agreed to lease 15 farms of 1,000 hectares each equipped with basic infrastructure like roads, dams, telecommunications, security and houses to the farmers. The lands are to be leased for between 50 and 99 years with the first batch of farmers arriving the country within four months, reports said. Many white Zimbabwean farmers have emigrated or plan to do so to escape the political crisis in their own country, and in particular President Robert Mugabe's policy of seizing white-owned land for redistribution to blacks. Some have already settled in other parts of southern Africa, while a number of them approached Nigeria for assistance. In March, a delegation from the Commercial Farmers' Union of Zimbabwe visited Nigeria and met with both Kwara State Governor Bukola Saraki and President Olusegun Obasanjo in Abuja.
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From BBC News, 11 May
Zimbabwe outlaws satirical play
A Zimbabwean satirical play about an unnamed African country ruled by an out-of touch president has been banned. Super Patriots and Morons features fuel queues and food shortages, both common problems in Zimbabwe. The play's producer Daves Guzha told the BBC that he planned to appeal and might also go to the courts against the Zimbabwe Censorship Board. Mr Guzha denied that the play was about Zimbabwe but said a society must be able to laugh at itself. "Is this a question of art imitating life or life imitating art?" Mr Guzha said. Mr Guzha said the play had already been performed 20 times last year in Harare. The censorship board has not explained why it banned the play. The president in the play feels that he does not know what the people are thinking, so he sends out an official to find out. The official finds that the people are complaining about shortages of fuel and food. But Mr Guzha said that Zimbabwe was not the only African country to have suffered from such problems. "It's a sad development. It's all about freedom of expression in what is supposed to be a democracy, which is being frustrated," said Shepherd Mutamba, a spokesman for Rooftop Promotions, which produced the play. But he said that the current situation in Zimbabwe, where people have to haggle for cigarettes and sweets, provides excellent material for satirists. "It's an opportunity for any creative mind to put together material," he told BBC News Online.
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From Reuters, 12 May
We have too much maize, says Zimbabwe
Harare - Zimbabwe will produce 2.4 million tons of maize this year, much more than it needs, a final government crop estimate has shown, state media said on Wednesday. President Robert Mugabe's government has told international donors that it will not require emergency food aid for the first time in three years after the bumper harvest, although farmers and aid agencies were sceptical of the new figures. Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said this year's maize harvest would surpass the country's annual requirement of between 1.5 million and two million tons thanks to above-normal rainfall, the state owned Herald newspaper said. "Made said results from the final crop assessment for the 2003/2004 season showed that 2 431 182 tons of maize would be produced this season," the newspaper said. Zimbabwe has battled food shortages since 2001, which aid agencies blame mainly on disruptions to agriculture linked to the seizure of white-owned commercial farms to resettle landless blacks. The Herald quoted Made as saying that the land reform programme had enabled new black farmers to show that Zimbabwe's agricultural productivity was far higher than had been assumed. The country's average annual maize production has been at around 1.3 million tonnes over the past five years, although it fell sharply during 2001/02.
Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), which represents many of the remaining white farmers in the country, was sceptical about the new government forecast. "We think the crop will be similar to last year which is around 700 000 tons. We don't know where these figures are coming from," CFU President Doug Taylor-Freeme said. "Even the seed that was sold does not add up to that (output)," he said. Last week Zimbabwe officials abruptly cancelled crop assessment missions by the United Nations World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organisation, which officials had hoped would deliver a clearer picture of the country's grain balance. Made said if sorghum and millet were included, the country's grain output would total 2.8 million tons, of which 1.2 million tons would be delivered to the state-run Grain Marketing Board. Zimbabwe suffered from severe food shortages in 2002 and 2003, affecting up to seven million people, and recently international aid agencies have estimated that the country might face a shortfall of as much as 900 000 tons of maize this year. Made was not reachable for comment. Zimbabwe's food crisis has been one sign of an economic crisis that has also brought acute shortages of foreign currency and fuel, one of the highest rates of inflation in the world and an unemployment rate of over 70 percent. Critics blame the crisis on mismanagement by Mugabe but the veteran leader denies the charge, and in turn accuses opponents of his land reforms of sabotaging the economy. The government says Zimbabwe's food shortages were largely a result of drought, and that land redistribution was necessary to correct colonial imbalances that left the bulk of Zimbabwe's prime farming land in the hands of minority whites.
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From the UN, 12 May
Cancellation of UN food assessment mission jeopardises future aid to Zimbabwe
By withdrawing its staff from a United Nations food production assessment mission last week, the Government of Zimbabwe has effectively cancelled the mission and UN aid agencies may not be able to rebuild their operations quickly in case of an emergency, a UN official has warned. The Government invited the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to join it in fielding a Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission (CSFAM) "to assess the level of food production for the 2003-2004 agricultural season," UN Resident Coordinator in Zimbabwe, J. Victor Angelo, said yesterday in a statement. "It is with regret and concern that I have to put on record that on 4 May 2004, the Government of Zimbabwe recalled its field officers who were jointly participating in the assessment. Since the CSFAM is only conducted with the agreement and participation of the Government this action effectively cancelled the mission," he said. The Zimbabwean Government had not replied to a request for clarification of its position, Mr. Angelo said.
The CSFAM, which produces credible production figures for planning purposes, was fielded on 30 April and was to have worked until 11 May, he said. The responsibility for providing basic needs to a population lies with its own Government, but "we are concerned that should a food assistance need be identified later in the year and were the Government to issue an appeal at that time, a very rapid response may not be possible," Mr. Angelo warned. The reasons for a slower response could be because the international community might not respond when the UN had had no chance to carry out its assessment at harvest time and WFP would have scaled back its operations in the country, he said. A Food Security Brief last month, produced by a joint UN agency and Government team, estimated that the maize crop would be better than last year's, but only about 67 per cent to 80 per cent of need, "not…sufficient to cover domestic requirements for the coming year." Meanwhile, "high inflation is decreasing real incomes, and high unemployment levels continue to reduce purchasing power for the majority of households," the Brief said.
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From Business Day (SA), 13 May 2004
MDC supporters arrested in Zimbabwe
Harare - At least 64 opposition supporters have been arrested this week in Zimbabwe's western region of Lupane ahead of legislative by-elections at the weekend, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said. A senior party official and lawmaker from a neighbouring constituency, Abdenigo Bhebhe, said 20 were arrested early Tuesday after they clashed with ruling Zanu PF party supporters while they were putting up campaign posters at a shopping centre. "Our members were putting up posters when Zanu PF youths approached them and attacked them with stones and sjamboks (whips)," Bhebhe said. Forty-four others were arrested overnight en route to a campaign rally that was to be addressed by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Wednesday morning, Bhebhe said. "Police impounded their car and arrested all the 44, only to wake up this morning and release 40," he said. Forty were released Wednesday without charge, while four are still being held by police. Police spokesmen in the capital were unable to confirm the arrests. Lupane, about 600 kilometres (360 miles) west of the capital, is due to hold by-elections Saturday and Sunday. The seat was left vacant following the death of an MDC lawmaker David Mpala in February from what the party said were torture wounds. MDC said Mpala's health "deteriorated ... after being tortured and stabbed by Zanu PF supporters" in 2002.
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From The Pretoria News (SA), 13 May
Killing of mine chief shocks Zim business
By Basildon Peta
The murder of one of Zimbabwe's top mining executives has shocked the business community in the embattled country. Police confirmed that Leonard Chimimba, the chief executive officer of Bindura Nickel Corporation (BNC), until recently owned by Anglo American, had been shot as he approached his home late on Monday night. Chimimba died of head wounds in a Harare hospital on Tuesday. Zimbabwe police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said: "Our investigations are in progress but we suspect it was a robbery, because his car was taken by his killers soon after the shooting." But one top business executive suggested Chimimba's murder might have been connected to the recent mysterious disappearance in South Africa of 40 tons of Bindura's nickel worth $600 000 (about R4-million). The high-flying Chimimba was reportedly due to meet the governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono, before his death to discuss the loss of the nickel. Anglo American Corporation owned the nickel mining giant before selling its stake to a consortium called Mwana Africa Holdings for $8-million last year. The consortium is led by a Congolese national. It also has other businessmen from other countries. Anglo sold its majority stake in BNC, complaining that it was no longer viable to run the mine because of Zimbabwe's restrictive foreign exchange regime.
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From SABC News, 12 May
Zimbabwe court refuses to drop 'mercenary' case
A Zimbabwe magistrate today refused to dismiss a case against 70 suspected mercenaries, saying there was evidence to suggest they were part of a plot to topple the president of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe told a special court hearing in a high-security Harare prison that government lawyers had shown that the men - mostly South Africans - should stand trial. "I am satisfied that there is a reasonable suspicion that the 70 suspected persons committed a crime as alleged by the state," Guvamombe said, rejecting a defence bid to have the case dismissed. The men were arrested in March after their plane landed in Harare on what Zimbabwe officials said was a mission to oust president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil producer. The suspects have denied the charges, saying they were heading to the Democratic Republic of Congo to guard mining operations. However, Lawrence Phiri, the state lawyer, told the court today prosecutors had evidence of a contract between one of the detained men, Simon Mann, and Severo Moto, the exiled Equatorial Guinea opposition leader. "There is an existing contract, and we have that contract, to show that Simon Mann and his men were going to be paid a certain amount, with the highest being $15 million for Simon Mann and $3 million for the generality," Phiri said.
Phiri also said the government had a videotape of Mann contracting to buy "dangerous weapons" from state-owned arms maker Zimbabwe Defence Industries during an earlier trip to Zimbabwe. "Any reasonable man, hearing what they did, would conclude that they were terrorists and mercenaries," Phiri said. Jonathan Samkange, a lawyer for the detained men, said the state had not produced any evidence to back up its allegations and urged the court to free the suspects. "The state has got no case to start with," Samkange said. Equatorial Guinea has detained another 15 men on similar charges, saying foreign interests were behind the alleged coup plot. Friends and family members of the men arrested in Zimbabwe have urged South Africa to intervene, saying they fear the men could be executed if found guilty. South Africa, which has laws barring its citizens from mercenary activity, has said it will not get involved in the trial but may attempt to intervene if death sentences are passed.
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From IRIN (UN), 12 May
Tetchy cross-border relations with Botswana
Bulawayo - A packed minibus stops at the Plumtree border about 100 km southwest of Zimbabwe's second largest city, Bulawayo, where the commuters alight and head for the immigration post. A few stride confidently towards the building for a quick passage to the buses that will take them across the Zimbabwe/Botswana border, while the rest amble forward nervously, anticipating hassles by the Batswana immigration officers. "Travelling on weekends is less of an ordeal, when immigration officials are exhausted and less alert," said 28-year-old Pamela Tshuma, a regular traveler who works as a hairstylist and informal trader in Botswana's capital, Gaborone. Pamela plaits hair at 30 pula a head in the suburbs of Gaborone. "If one works hard and is lucky to get customers, it is possible to make 3,000 pula a month, which translates into a lot of money back home," she explains. Zimbabweans have been making shopping trips to Botswana for almost three decades, but the steadily deteriorating economic conditions in their country have caused thousands, both skilled and unskilled, to trek to Botswana's cities, towns and mines in search of jobs. Many enter the country illegally along secret paths in the dead of night.
Although scores of them are deported every week, the desperate Zimbabweans still find it worthwhile to sneak back into the country in search of opportunities and a better life. Recent media reports on the alleged ill-treatment of Zimbabweans by Batswana nationals have soured relations between the two countries. In turn, the Zimbabwean authorities have accused Botswana of hosting a Voice of America radio transmitter that broadcasts "hostile propaganda aimed at regime change by the Americans", beamed at Zimbabwe by exiles. Botswana has denied any wrongdoing. On presenting his credentials to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe recently, Botswana's new envoy to Zimbabwe explained that the radio transmitter had been in operation for the past 25 years, and scoffed at the alleged ill treatment of Zimbabwean nationals. "It is a traditional custom in Botswana for traditional chiefs to flog petty criminals. We don't put people in prison for petty crimes."
Bostwana's presidential spokesman, Jeff Ramsay, accused sections of Zimbabwe's media of "fuelling misguided xenophobia", saying: "Botswana has noted with growing concern openly hostile reports against the government and the people of Botswana, which can only be interpreted as a deliberate and systematic attempt to fuel hatred and xenophobia between our people." Tsokolo Matibeli, a Zimbabwean electrical engineer working in Botswana told IRIN: "It is those people who have no residence permits, those that overstay and the illegal immigrants who face problems with the authorities - like in any other country." Pamela commented: "Naturally, people view foreigners with disdain - that cannot be taken as xenophobia." But Zimbabwean traders and job seekers in Botswana are afraid the recent stand-off between the two countries could jeopardise what has become a lifeline for their families. "I hope accusations do not develop into retaliatory actions. Botswana is the only country in SADC [Southern African Development Community] that does not require entry visas, unlike South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia," observed Nkululi Langa, a Zimbabwean motor spare parts dealer who frequently visits Botswana.
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Comment from cricinfo (UK), 13 May
Ponting's men embark on flight of madness
Christian Ryan
Australians with a mad passion for cricket are pretending it's not happening. Australians with a passing interest in the game are shaking their heads in disbelief. Australians who couldn't care less about cricket are mildly confused because, um, isn't this the footy season? At 10.05 this morning Ricky Ponting and his men boarded a plane for Zimbabwe. It's as if the world has gone completely bonkers. Half an hour before checking in their bags Justin Langer and Jason Gillespie endured possibly the softest three-minute joint interview in breakfast TV annals. It was on Channel 9's Today Show ; Channel 9, of course, being the network with a fistful of opinionated former Australian captains on its payroll. Instead some amiable bloke called Tim Gilbert spearheaded the interrogation. "I understand there's lots of turmoil there at the moment," Langer began, dead-batting Tim's opening gambit back to the bowler. "But it's a fantastic country. About 10 of us had a 13-hour train trip from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls last time - it was one of the great experiences of my life. So I'm really looking forward to getting back to that beautiful country."
There was a bit more of this, some blokey guffawing about poor old Murali, then a dollop of boys-will-be-boys banter about Dizzy's mullet. Finally Tim wished the lads all the best - "have a great time, enjoy your cricket over there" - and threw back to the host Steve Liebmann. "That's Justin Langer and Jason Gillespie, on their way to Zimbabwe," Tim beamed. "Fantastic!" Steve beamed back. Fantastic indeed! Thanks Tim. Thanks Justin. Thanks Steve. Let's recap on exactly what all this means. The team will touch down in Harare tonight, fall into a deep sleep, then spend the next three days trying very hard neither to leave the hotel pool nor read a newspaper. On Monday they will commence a two-day tour match against Zimbabwe A, roughly equivalent in skill level to Footscray W. Then, over the following three weeks, they will play two Tests and three one-day games against Footscray's C-graders, otherwise masquerading as Zimbabwe's national XI. At best, it will be gruesomely one-sided. At worst, it will be truly awfully excruciating. Then they'll come home, maybe feeling a bit sour about the whole business. There will be no joy, only shame and embarrassment and regret.
And let's recap on exactly what's happened in the past month. Zimbabwe's politicians hijacked Zimbabwe's selection committee. Whites were told to bugger off. Heath Streak went on strike. Fourteen white team-mates joined him. Streak and his 14 white team-mates were sacked for not "returning to work". (Is there anyone left, incidentally, who can remember a time when cricket was called cricket and not "work" - a five-day plaything of pay-TV networks, soft-drink companies and the like? And isn't that part of the reason we're in this whole slimy mess?) Back home, meanwhile, Stuart MacGill announced there's no way he's setting foot in Zimbabwe. Nobody, not one team-mate, precisely zippo Australian cricketers, followed suit. The players said it was a matter for Cricket Australia. Cricket Australia said it was a matter for the ICC. The ICC said it was a matter for politicians. The politicians said it was a matter for the ICC. So nobody - except MacGill - did anything. And today a plane flew out from Sydney Airport.
Australia's cricketers might be trying not to read the newspapers right now but that hasn't stopped them from writing for them. In his column in The Australian this morning, Ponting devoted his first 12 paragraphs to discussing security issues (that old chestnut) and his fondness for Zimbabwe on past trips: "There was always plenty of freedom to dine out at restaurants or go on wildlife safaris." That kind of thing. Then Ponting digressed. Australian players are "not oblivious to what is happening beyond the hotels, cricket grounds and airports" but ultimately "we are simply sportsmen, not politicians, and whatever our private feelings we have a duty to promote and enhance the game of cricket around the world". Up to a point, skipper. Cricketers are entitled, should they wish, to turn a blind eye to rape, torture and murder: these comprise a valid but by no means overwhelming justification for cancelling a cricket tour of Zimbabwe. But Ponting has a "duty" to consider this. Had he grown up in Bulawayo or Harare, not Launceston, he'd have been sacked as captain last month because of the colour of his skin.
Too late now. The plane's gone. All we can do is pray for Tim May - currently in Dubai on a last-minute fix-it mission - in a way that we haven't prayed for May since the Adelaide Test of 1992-93, when he and Craig McDermott swished and scrambled 40 for the 10th wicket to put Australia within one run of knocking off the almighty Windies. Knocking off the almighty Footscray 3rds promises to be less rewarding. Every hundred, every five-wicket haul will stand immortalised in Wisden not as an historical landmark but as a lasting reminder, a black cross. The Australian public love their cricketers for the way they play hard and score fast; we loved them for cleansweeping eight straight Ashes series and 16 straight Tests. This time around no record looks safe. This time it's going to be damn hard to love them.
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From Business Day (SA), 14 May 2004
Threat to expose Harare arms deals
An attorney representing the 70 alleged mercenaries held in Harare on allegations of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea says his clients are ready to spill the beans on Zimbabwe's past arms deals. Jonathan Samkange said yesterday that the South African suspects were prepared to expose the state-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI) by showing that it had sold armaments to them before under similar circumstances. "We have documents to show that ZDI has sold arms to the company that had hired suspects to guard mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the past, but no charges were ever raised," he said. "It will be shown that there had been previous deals done without the certificates they are now demanding. Why the change now? "If what happened is a crime, then ZDI must also be charged." The government organisation stands accused of gun running and selling arms to shady groups. The company was believed to have been involved in murky deals, including one with Sri Lanka in 1997, in which a large consignment of arms vanished without trace amid claims that army generals had arranged their disappearance for personal gain. ZDI has also been accused of selling arms to Burundi's antigovernment Front for the Defence of Democracy and to assassinated Democratic Republic Congo president Laurent Kabila's Banyamulenge rebel movement to topple dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997. In a related matter, Samkange said he would also appeal against a magistrate's ruling that upheld charges against the men.
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From Africa Confidential (UK), 14 May
Maize-meal for votes
Zanu PF strategists believe that a new plan to lock out foreign food aid and hold early elections will bring certain victory
The government's order to a United Nations' crop assessment team to leave the country last weekend is part of its strategy to maintain tight political control over food supply and score a resounding win in the coming parliamentary elections. The order effectively blocks UN and European preparations to provide the food aid estimated to be needed by more than 5 million people this year. President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front government didn't want the UN team to produce figures that show that this year's harvest would fall far short of Zimbabwe's food requirement. That would expose the failure of the land reform programme and lead to hundreds of UN and aid agency officials handing out food aid in the run-up to an election. So political insiders now believe that Mugabe's ruling clique has decided to bring forward the parliamentary elections to October, before the food runs out completely. Any shortfall between now and then will be covered be a series of maize-for-tobacco swaps to supply enough food for Zanu PF's loyal supporters and for those supporters whom it believes it can win back from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Die-hard opposition supporting areas are likely to see chronic shortages of food. The lesson to voters will be clearer than ever. Political momentum is on Zanu PF's side. Yet the government may not be able to brazen it out until next March. It is riven by internal disputes.
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From News24 (SA), 13 May
Zim MDC youth leader arrested
Harare - Zimbabwe police have arrested an opposition lawmaker and two other officials from the Movement for Democratic Change's (MDC) youth wing after they addressed a meeting on Aids, their lawyer and the party said on Thursday. The trio, who include MDC lawmaker and national youth chairperson Nelson Chamisa, have been charged with "holding a public meeting without police permission", lawyer Alec Muchadehama said. The opposition said in a statement that the three were arrested after addressing a youth Aids forum in the town of Chitungwiza, near Harare, on Wednesday evening. But police denied the meeting was on Aids, insisting it was political meeting. "They are being charged with failing to notify police of a political gathering," police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said. Under Zimbabwe's tight security laws, public gatherings have to be sanctioned by police. "There is a need irrespective of the situation for people to notify police of such gatherings," he said. Bvudzijena said there had been "political disturbances" in the area which he attributed to "political factionalism". A MDC member was recently shot dead in the town in clashes that broke out between MDC supporters and ruling Zanu PF activists during a by-election in one of the suburbs in the town. The arrested trio are expected to appear in court on Friday, said Muchadehama.
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From The Financial Gazette, 13 May
Plot thickens in Zanu PF companies probe
Hama Saburi and Felix Njini
Investigations to unravel the veil of secrecy covering a swathe of Zanu PF companies, whose mystique had seemingly gained acceptance, has opened a Pandora's box that could reveal how senior party politicians became voracious acquirers of wealth. Impeccable ruling party insiders yesterday said as the crack team tasked to lift the lid off Zanu PF companies pounced on the Bulawayo-headquartered Treger Group of Industries this week, it also emerged that there has been a new twist to the probe. They said that former Zimbabwe African People's Union (PF-Zapu) cadres now want the investigations to cover the companies owned by their now defunct party before the Unity Accord of 1987 that merged PF-Zapu and Zanu PF. The sources said pressure has been rising inexorably on the government to investigate how former senior PF-Zapu politicians ended up owning companies that belonged to the party then led by the late Vice President Dr Joshua Nkomo. They named three senior former PF-Zapu officials who are now also senior Zanu PF members, and some of whom are still serving in government, as the major culprits who used their political muscle to fraudulently take over companies owned by PF-Zapu. The former PF-Zapu cadres, comprising mainly the ex-fighters, wanted the companies to be returned to their "rightful owners". Although the sources could not disclose details on the disputed companies, they indicated that plans were underway to soon dispatch a delegation from Bulawayo to "have an audience with President Robert Mugabe on the issue". Although there had been misgivings about the government's sincerity and commitment to deal with graft, which implicated mostly Zanu PF's top echelons, the former ZIPRA (PF-Zapu's armed wing) soldiers, who had lost hope of recovering the companies they claim belong to them, were encouraged by President Mugabe's pledge that everyone would be in the firing line under the anti-corruption crusade, the sources said.
Initially, sceptics had expressed doubts on whether the government would take the anti-corruption drive to its full expression. They claimed that there was a much more complex story behind the crusade. According to the critics, the anti-graft drive masked a simmering internal succession struggle that had not yet broken out into the open. But President Mugabe has repeatedly said no one would be immune to the government's efforts to deal with corruption. And the arrest of the beleaguered Finance and Economic Development Minister Christopher Kuruneri last month is the clearest sign yet that the government could be serious about curbing graft. The sources expressed fears that this new turn of events could however set the stage for acrimonious in-fighting, with cracks emerging within the ruling party. They said of particular interest was that what at first appeared like a politically motivated deft move to appease a restive populace ahead of the crucial 2005 parliamentary election was increasingly turning out to be a tactical mistake. This was because the demands by the former PF-Zapu cadres could see the net closing in on two (names supplied) of President Mugabe's key lieutenants. The two are still serving in government and the third left in 2000 after he lost his parliamentary seat to the Movement for Democratic Change. Meanwhile, the five-member probe team assembled by the Politburo - Zanu PF's supreme decision-making body - in March this year departed for the city of kings on Sunday and before anyone could suspect its presence, it swooped on Tregers on Monday morning. Highly placed sources told The Financial Gazette this week that the unit, led by Zanu PF finance chief David Karimanzira, targeted three of the six Treger Group subsidiaries suspected to be the hub of murky deals involving the ruling party heavyweights. The Zanu PF committee spent almost the whole of Monday looking into the affairs of Monarch Steel, which manufactures steel window frames, door frames and kitchen units. It shifted its attention to Kango Products on Tuesday, which is into electrical goods, gas stoves and aluminum cookware.
While the managing director of Treger, Berek Davies, could not be contacted for comment as he was said to be away on leave, the group's operations director, Gerald Keyer, confirmed the presence of the team, which departed yesterday. Keyer said the swoop on the group, which has been fined heavily for violating sections of the Exchange Control Act for illegally dealing in foreign currency, was part of a wider probe targeting other Zanu PF investments. "They have been here since Monday as part of their investigations, but I am not aware of any purported disturbances they have caused," he said, dispelling allegations made by some employees to this paper that the team was disrupting production. Since the investigations started a month-and-a-half ago, there has been pandemonium and a dark cloud of uncertainty within the Zanu PF companies and among the party's bigwigs linked to the directors of the companies. The investigations are however, seen as targeted at the Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is the former Zanu PF finance chief. Mnangagwa has twice been called before the committee to explain his involvement in the companies. There is however, apprehension within the rank and file of the ruling party that the outcome could split the party right through the middle. Zanu PF has built a multi-billion dollar empire out of two investment vehicles - M & S Syndicate, which was set up before independence in 1980 and Zidco Holdings, whose board comprises Jayant Joshi, his brother Manharlal, Dipak Padya, Mnangagwa and Defence Minister Sidney Sekeremayi. The two investment vehicles, whose operations have been highly secretive even to some top members of the ruling party, acquired significant stakes in companies quoted on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange. These included First Banking Corporation and the Southern African Reinsurance (SARE). Other investments include Tregers, Zidlee and Catercraft. Padya, the finance chief of Zidco, and the Joshi brothers, skipped the country when the net started closing in on them and have since sought refuge in the United Kingdom.
It also emerged this week that the investigating team, which also includes retired army chief Solomon Mujuru, former Finance Minister Simba Makoni and Matabeleland North Governor Obert Mpofu, had failed to locate documents relating to Smoothnest Investments. Smoothnest Investments, which acquired a significant number of shares from S & M under unclear circumstances, is among a number of other companies that would be looked at by the Zanu PF committee. Smoothnest is now a significant shareholder in SARE after it bought shares from M & S, a Zanu PF investment vehicle. Investigations by this paper revealed that indeed the documents pertaining to the company were nowhere to be found at the Registrar of Companies. The file (File Number 17104/03) detailing the directorship of Smoothnest, said sources, might have been plucked out to tighten the secrecy on the actual owners of the company. Commercial lawyer Edwin Manikai, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, is one of the known partners in Smoothnest. Manikai, of Dube, Manikai and Hwacha legal practitioners, chairs the National Social Security Authority board, among other corporate entities. Speculation has been swirling in the market that some powerful ZANU PF politicians could be behind Smoothnest. The investment vehicle, which sparked controversy when it borrowed $1 billion from First Bank to finance the deal, now owns a controlling 18.92 percent in SARE, which represents 2 350 000 issued shares. M & S Syndicate is the third largest shareholder with 18.43 percent or 23 040 000 shares. Other shareholders include NDH Nominees (11.89 percent) and Barnfords Securities Nominees (8.04 percent).
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From Mmegi (Botswana), 13 May
Zims prefer the whip to prison, court president says
Ryder Gabathuse, Staff Writer
Francistown - A Customary Court president here has said that contrary to popular belief, Zimbabwean criminals prefer to be caned to avoid imprisonment. "In most cases Zimbabweans fear being imprisoned and they prefer to be caned as they always fail to pay fines imposed on them. You will notice that Zimbabweans always prefer corporal punishment over other punishments," said Martin Chilume of Monarch Customary Court. He dismissed allegations in the Zimbabwean press that Botswana uses corporal punishment on Zimbabweans only. He said that in his court he uses the penal code irrespective of nationality. "We are all equal before the laws of Botswana regardless of our nationality," he explained. He said Customary Courts are not "kangaroo courts" as accused persons have a right to appeal. "Corporal punishment is not uniquely a punishment reserved for Zimbabweans," he said. He added that about 90 percent of cases involving Zimbabweans are theft related. "You will notice that even our state prisons are overcrowded in most cases with Zimbabweans and authorities have been complaining about this state of affairs," he said explaining why corporal punishment is sometimes necessary.
The Zimbabwe press has condemned the ‘barbaric’ use of corporal punishment by Botswana against Zimbabwean criminals. Reports in state-run Herald newspaper quoting Zimbabwe’s chief immigration officer Elasto Mugwadi said the use of corporal punishment against Zimbabweans was unfair. But Tatitown Customary Court president, Ludo Margaret Mosojane explained to Mmegi that Botswana laws are clear and they do not discriminate against anybody. "We take our decisions based on the principles of law," she said. Entering Botswana through ungazetted points, overstaying in the country, shoplifting, are some of the offences commonly committed by the Zimbabweans, she added. "At the Customary Courts, our sentences vary depending on the evidence adduced and other factors. We warn, caution and discharge; some face a fine, imprisonment and or both. Another form of punishment is the administration of corporal punishment," she said. She revealed that Zimbabweans shoot themselves in the leg because once they are warned, cautioned and discharged they commit the same offences again. This has necessitated the authorities to impose stiffer penalties.
Mosojane said the allegations raised by the Zimbabwean authorities "ignore the fact that Zimbabweans would have committed offences punishable under the laws of Botswana. Also, they expect us to handle them with kid gloves after committing these offences". She stressed that Zimbabweans shoplift everyday according to the cases brought to her court. "That corporal punishment is ‘barbaric’ is nothing but the opinion of an individual and there is a need for individuals to respect the laws of a host country". Phase Four Customary Court president, Masego Masonya said that there was no difference between punishment meted out to Zimbabweans and Batswana offenders. "When we administer corporal punishment, we do it after a necessary trial as the law dictates. We do not have specific canes reserved for Zimbabweans and separate ones for the locals. "We consider the gravity of offences committed and other factors before we reach a verdict. Zimbabweans are mostly involved in shoplifting and immigration related offences like overstaying, entering the country at ungazetted points, assault common and others. We are not going to be intimidated by these biased observations made by the Zimbabwean authorities. We will continue applying the cane to correct some of the behaviour that is not acceptable within our shores," he said.
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From The Daily Mirror, 13 May
Makamba returns externalised forex
Takunda Maodza
Jailed prominent business mogul, James Chafungamoyo Makamba has repatriated his funds that were abroad and is now seeking bail, the High Court in Harare heard yesterday. It is, however, not yet clear as to the amount of money the prominent businessman and former broadcaster has returned home. Making a bail application before Justice Yunus Omerjee yesterday, George Chikumbirike cited that circumstances had changed and as a result his client was now a suitable candidate for bail. Chikumbirike said the passage of time since the arrest of Makamba on February 9 this year shows that the State’s case against him is weak. He also said that on previous denial to bail, the court had cited that Makamba had vast properties in his name in and out of the country, but the State had failed to prove this beyond any reasonable doubt as the said properties were not in the accused person’s name. Chikumbirike said his client was no longer a holder of foreign accounts as Makamba had already repatriated the funds back home through the Standard Chartered Bank. He said the repatriation of funds by Makamba clears the State’ fears of abscondment as his client was no longer in possession of any funds outside the country and all his properties were now within the State’s jurisdiction.
The State, led by Charles Kandemiri, however, applied for a postponement of proceedings saying it needed time to verify some facts that were raised by the defence. "The respondent is applying for a postponement of the matter to May 14 this year," Kandemiri said, adding that he was only served with the application on the 7th of this month and would need to verify issues raised by Chikumbirike. He said the State wanted to verify issues raised with the assistance of a senior officer, Superintendent Mabunda who is currently out of the country on business. Kandemiri said since the application was based on changed circumstances there was need to verify new factors which the defence alleges have risen. "There is need to verify the documentary exhibits annexed to the application and also to verify with the Standard Chartered Bank on whether the funds have been received in Zimbabwe," said the state. Justice Omerjee deferred the matter to Friday but advised the State to verify the issues raised with emergency and to make proper use of the time that it has been granted.
Makamba is facing charges of externalising millions in foreign currency and has been languishing in remand prison since February 9, the day he was first arrested. Now that Makamba has returned funds from his foreign accounts, circumstances have changed and under the laws of this country, argued Chikumbirike, he is entitled to bail. He said the facts that were raised before previous judges and magistrates have since changed and this has been discovered after their determinations. "It is submitted that since the determination by (Lawrence) Kamocha and (Vernanda) Ziyambi, there are facts that were not placed before the learned judges which facts have arisen and have been discovered after the aforesaid determination," said Chikumbirike in his bail application.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 15 May
Tribal rivalry left behind in united hatred of Mugabe
Zimbabwe's poorest region is bedevilled by the twin plagues of Aids and misrule.
Lupane - Zimbabwe's impoverished and neglected southern region of Matabeleland is witnessing a miracle of sorts. The signs were clearly seen yesterday at an opposition rally when Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, addressed a crowd on the eve of a by-election. The former union leader was hailed as a hero in Lupane, 160 miles south east of Victoria Falls. "Morgan, Morgan, Morgan," they shouted as Mr Tsvangirai spoke from a dusty soccer pitch surrounded by mahogany trees and cattle with clanking bells. Yet the MDC leader is from the majority Shona tribe, while the voters are members of the Ndebele. Mr Tsvangirai comes from a district 250 miles away which many of those listening have never heard of. He speaks a language they do not understand. But for the Ndebele, who have suffered more than any others under the autocratic rule of President Robert Mugabe, any possibility of change generates excitement.
"We cannot be free with Mugabe," said Priscilla Tshuma, 35, eyes glistening with excitement. The mother of three had walked "so far" to see "Morgan" for the first time. "They [Shonas] killed our fathers, uncles, brothers," she says of massacres which began 21 years ago, and lasted until Zanu PF forced the opposition into a government of national unity, a one-party-state, for the next 12 years. It was in Lupane that the worst massacres took place after Mr Mugabe, then the prime minister, ordered his North Korean-trained troops to slaughter, maim and starve people in Matabeleland. The victims, buried in shallow graves or stuffed down disused mine shafts were supporters of the Zimbabwe African Peoples' Union, Zapu, with whom Mr Mugabe had had an uneasy alliance in the final stage of the war to end Rhodesian rule. No one knows how many died, perhaps 20,000. The bloodshed has been less this time as Mr Mugabe uses the courts and parliament to crush the MDC, the first mass opposition party to cross tribal, race and class lines. It came within a whisker of winning the election in 2000 when it was only nine months old. Since then it has been bludgeoned and bankrupted by hundreds of largely trumped up court cases including a farcical two-year treason trial against Mr Tsvangirai and two of his lieutenants.
In rural areas it is now hard to tell whether the MDC has been suffocated or gone underground. It won five times more votes in Lupane in 2000 than Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF. In blatantly rigged presidential elections two years later, largely run by the army, the MDC retained its 14,000 votes, but 3,000 new voters appeared from nowhere in Lupane and its majority was reduced by that number. Now they have to fight to keep the seat and admit that defeat in Lupane, even allowing for cheating and beatings, would be a serious blow. The party has lost one by-election in Matabeleland, where hatred for Mr Mugabe has been constant since before independence in 1980. "I can be free with Morgan," Mrs Tshuma said. "We are not forced to come today, they [MDC] don't want to know our names, to put [us] on lists." Police kept their distance as the crowd, dressed in their best, trickled into the soccer ground and swelled to 1,500. It was a normal day for the MDC. More than 60 MDC youth members were arrested during a fight over campaign posters, one journalist was beaten up, and a woman Zanu PF supporter was stabbed in the backside.
According to the United Nations, more than a million people in Matabeleland, or half the province's population, survived the past two years only because of western food aid. That figure includes 55,000 residents of Lupane. No one at the rally had heard the government's widely derided announcement claiming that the country had enough grain and that foreign food agencies should therefore shut up shop. Mr Mugabe ordered the UN to halt its annual harvest assessment. "They don't want us to see their failure," said a worker from a leading foreign food distribution network. Four years ago, Mr Mugabe, fearful of an MDC victory began evicting 3,500 white farmers and hundreds of thousands of their MDC supporting workers off the land. Most of it now lies fallow. As if the people of Matabeleland were not suffering enough, there is another plague stalking their land. Under a tree, Bestnut Khumalo, 28, said he was in pain around his collar bone. Unable to walk, thin as a wisp, he said. "I don't want to eat. I have much pain. The hospital says I am [HIV] positive. Will I get better? I do not know. When I was younger I dreamed of building a house, but there is nothing in Zimbabwe, so I went to Botswana. My daughter is there. I came home when I was ill."
His uncle who asked not to be named as he is a civil servant, said: "He has this virus. The hospital tried to treat him but it didn't work." Two young women carrying babies on their hips said they and their infants "vomited all the time". A couple of filthy orphans who should have been at school hung around because, their grandmothers said, "fees are now too high". Olivia Ncube, 24, said her daughter, Luba Duba, 18 months, could not walk properly. "She vomits all the time. So do I. I took her to the hospital, but we do not get better." Gertrude Ncube, also 24, said she had TB and her children, Charlotte and Pumzile were ill. Back at the rally, Mr Tsvangirai joked with the crowd and asked: "Why would anyone be stupid enough to vote for Zanu PF?" He knows the answer. The people know the answer. Fear.
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From IRIN (UN), 14 May
Food must not be used as a political tool, says Amnesty
Johannesburg - Rights group Amnesty International on Friday expressed grave concern at the Zimbabwe government's cancellation of a food assessment mission aimed at establishing possible need for relief aid. "The government has told international donors that it will not need food aid this year. On 7 May the government stopped a UN Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission from evaluating the current harvest. This was followed by statements in the state-controlled Herald newspaper, attributed to the Minister for Agriculture, claiming that Zimbabwe has produced more grain than it needs this year," Amnesty said. UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Zimbabwe, J. Victor Angelo, warned earlier this week that the cancellation of the crop and food assessment meant that, should a shortfall be experienced later in the year and the government make an appeal for aid, the UN's response could be limited.
Despite government's projections of a bumper harvest, Amnesty said, earlier predictions by food security monitors, the United Nations, and a crop survey carried out in March by independent consultants for the German-based Friedrich Ebert Foundation, all suggest that the 2004 harvest will fall far short of national requirements. Amnesty International visited Zimbabwe in February 2004, "at which time numerous sources within the agricultural sector confirmed that food production would fall far short of needs in 2004/5". The rights group said both rural and urban populations would be affected by a shortfall. "With unemployment currently at approximately 70 percent and inflation hovering around 600 percent it is increasingly difficult for many Zimbabweans to access adequate food in the marketplace. Amnesty International is gravely concerned that the present actions of the government of Zimbabwe may be an attempt to control food supplies ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for March 2005," said Amnesty.
Should crop production figures for 2004 be "as low as many reliable sources expect then, in the absence of international food aid, a significant proportion of Zimbabwe's population may, later in 2004 and into 2005, find itself reliant on grain controlled by the state-controlled Grain Marketing Board (GMB)". As consequence, Amnesty warned, there was a "risk that food will be used for political ends and [government] food supplies will go first and only to supporters of the ruling party". "Political manipulation of food, particularly state-controlled GMB grain, by officials and supporters of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu PF) has been widely reported over the past two years. Zanu PF has repeatedly used food as an electioneering tool. Viewed against a history of political manipulation of food the government's current actions are a cause for grave concern," Amnesty International alleged. It is unclear how much grain the GMB has in reserve, as there is no independent assessment of GMB stocks. "However, it is unlikely to be sufficient to meet the cereal gap of 500-800,000 mt independent observers predict for the coming year," the rights group added.
Amnesty International reminded the Zimbabwe government that, as a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICSECR), it had an obligation to uphold the right of all Zimbabweans to food. "The UN committee responsible for monitoring the Convention has stated that governments must use all the resources at their disposal, including those available through international assistance. Discrimination in access to food on any grounds, including political affiliation, is a violation of the ICSECR. The committee has also stated that food should not be used as an instrument of political pressure," the rights group noted. Amnesty called on the Zimbabwean authorities to "respect the right of all Zimbabweans to food and to immediately allow the UN to conduct a crop assessment mission, with a view to ensuring that any possible food aid needs are adequately addressed". The organisation also urged the government of Zimbabwe "to take immediate steps to make the operations of the GMB transparent, and open to independent monitoring".
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From The Daily Mirror, 14 May
It’s not over yet!
Innocent Chofamba Sithole
Succession politics threaten Sky News public relations deal
The fallout between the ruling Zanu PF and the Department of Information and Publicity in the Office of the President and Cabinet over the Sky News saga has hit a new low, the Daily Mirror can reveal. Sources close to the furore surrounding the British television crew that had flown into the country to shoot a series of documentaries in an apparent international public relations campaign for the ruling party and government claimed the deal has fallen victim to the ruling party’s internecine succession politics. In a letter dated Monday 10 May, the department of information’s principal press secretary Edward Mamutse told Sky News producer Ben Depear that his crew should now leave the country as they had finished part of their shooting, which, Mamutse said, meant that their accreditation had also expired. "The department notes that you claim completion of the first part of your assignment for which you have been accredited. This in effect means that your accreditation has expired as of today," Mamutse said.
An unnamed senior official in the same department was also quoted in yesterday’s Herald confirming the Sky News crew’s departure on Wednesday afternoon after the department had notified the immigration department to ensure the crew’s departure. As in their earlier reports since the onset of the Sky News saga, the Herald reiterated its claims by curiously anonymous sources that it was not Zanu PF that had brought in the Sky News team. "It emerged last week that a Ugandan national, David Nyekorach-Matsanga and not Zanu PF, was behind the crew contrary to media reports which said the ruling party had invited the Sky News crew," the newspaper reported in yesterday’s edition. However, in an apparent response to these claims, Zanu PF’s information chief, Nathan Shamuyarira yesterday made it abundantly clear that it was the ruling party "and not someone else" that had initiated the Sky News deal. "The Sky News team that has been filming in Zimbabwe in the last ten days was invited to come to Zimbabwe by Zanu PF. The statement given to your readers that they were invited by some one else is not correct," read a press statement from Shamuyarira’s office. "The party and the government agreed that Sky News should come to produce a documentary film on Zimbabwe. That work has started but it is not yet completed," the statement added.
According to authentic correspondence between Shamuyarira and Sky News head of foreign news, Adrian Wells in the possession of this newspaper, the team was also supposed to interview President Robert Mugabe, lands and land resettlement minister and Zanu PF chairman, John Nkomo, Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono, among other leading government officials. "We should grab this chance. Can you clear the arrangement with the President (Mugabe), and instruct Comrades Mamutse and (Stephen) Chidawanyika to line up those to be interviewed, and arrange the programmes in detail," Shamuyarira wrote to information minister Jonathan Moyo on March 17 this year. Chidawanyika, Zanu PF’s deputy director of information and publicity, last night declined to be drawn into elaborating on the press release from the party. However, confidential sources have told the Daily Mirror that the underlying dynamics attendant to the Sky News saga have their genesis in the ruling party’s internecine succession politics. They claimed certain political interests were worried that the documentaries would project some of the interviewees in glossy light to the international media audience, thus advancing their profiles as acceptable candidates in Zanu PF’s succession race.
However, the ruling party’s information department appears determined to have the Sky News programme run to its conclusion. While the party managed to get round the information ministry’s demand that the Sky News crew return to their country of origin and seek accreditation from there, it awaits to be seen whether the Sky News crew would secure the necessary accreditation and the green light to proceed with the presidential and all planned interviews. Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports suggest Sky News has already begun to show some of its documentaries although it could not be ascertained whether or not the coverage was to the ruling party’s satisfaction.
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From Reuters, 15 May
Mugabe says to quit in 2008
Nairobi - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe says he plans to retire when his term ends in 2008 and is looking for a successor. His remarks in an interview this week with Kenya's East African Standard newspaper on Saturday appeared to quash speculation that he might step down before his term ends. "I want to retire from politics. I have had enough. I am also a writer and would like to concentrate on writing after this term of office is over," he was quoted as saying. "I have not even completed this term. I have four more years and I am not so young, you know. I need to rest from politics and do something else like writing." The East African Standard said Mugabe, 80, spoke to its reporters in Zimbabwe after he attended a gathering of traditional elders who urged him to hang on to power and seek re-election. "I know why the chiefs endorsed me," Mugabe said. "It is because they know the consequences the country will face in terms of good and firm leadership should I retire." Mugabe was upbeat about his chances of finding a suitable successor, the newspaper reported. "I don't think I will miss (fail to find) a successor. Out of 30 million people there must be a capable person to take over from me and he will be the chosen one." In 2002 Mugabe won a six-year term in elections pitting him against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Some observers condemned the poll as flawed and unfair.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 14 May
Govt eyes Mitchell & Mitchell
Augustine Mukaro
In a move that could spell doom for horticultural and fresh produce exporting in Zimbabwe, the government is understood to have started making inroads to compulsorily acquire the country's leading horticultural and vegetable exporting concern, Mitchell and Mitchell, in Marondera, the Zimbabwe Independent heard this week. The government is understood to have last week issued a directive to the firm's management that the company should surrender some of its land for resettlement or risk compulsory acquisition. The directive prompted the two parties into meetings to try and solve the problem. Mitchell & Mitchell block is made up of six farms owned by both blacks and white commercial farmers with the processing plant located at Rakodzi Estate in Marondera. The firm also gets some of its produce for export from a number of outgrowers. Mitchell & Mitchell managing director Adrian Zeederberg owns Rakodzi. The other farms which form the block are Sable Ranch owned by Edwin Masimba Moyo; Churchill, Springvale, Sanzara, all in Marondera as well as Charara in Kariba. Efforts to get a comment from Zeederberg were fruitless as he was said to out of the country. "Mr Zeederberg is the only person who speaks to the press but he is out of the country," his personal assistant told the Independent yesterday. Highly-placed sources who attended the meeting on Monday in Harare said government was targeting five of the farms that form the block. "There are indications that Rakodzi could be one of the targeted farms but government hasn't made it clear," sources said. Management at Mitchell & Mitchell told the Independent that some of their farms had been under threat of acquisition for the past two years. "Charara in Kariba was served with a Section 8 in September last year," one Mitchell & Mitchell director said. "Springvale was also invaded in 2003 and we had to go to court to save it, and Sanzara has been subdivided." Mitchell & Mitchell, the only surviving major supplier of horticultural and vegetable products after the violent seizure of Kondozi, is exporting its products to leading United Kingdom-based supermarkets. Among the recipients of the fresh produce are household names such as Sainsbury's, Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Safeway and ASDA, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 14 May
Zim strikes detainees-for-fuel deal
Gift Phiri/Dumisani Muleya
In an unusual diplomatic arrangement, Zimbabwe has entered a US$1,2 billion deal to extradite the 70 suspected mercenaries currently held in Harare to Equatorial Guinea in exchange for fuel. Intelligence sources say President Robert Mugabe discussed the deal with his Equatorial Guinea counterpart, Teodora Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, at their initial meeting in Pretoria with South African president Thabo Mbeki on April 27. Mugabe and Obiang were in South Africa to attend Mbeki's inauguration. The three leaders are said to have met over the mercenaries' saga after Zimbabwe had earlier refused to send the suspects for trial in the oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. Sources said the meeting agreed in principle that Zimbabwe would extradite the suspected mercenaries on agreed terms and conditions. Mugabe and Obiang finalised the mercenaries-for-fuel arrangement at a meeting in Bulawayo the following day. The two leaders met at State House in the second city on April 28. After the meeting Obiang told journalists that they had been discussing the issue of the suspects' extradition. High-level sources said Mugabe agreed to extradite the suspected soldiers of fortune on condition Equatorial Guinea - the third largest oil producer after Nigeria and Angola in sub-Saharan Africa -would supply Zimbabwe with fuel.
The sources said the deal entailed a supply of US$50 million worth of fuel monthly for two years, split between 65 million litres of diesel and 40 million litres of petrol. However, Energy and Power Development minister July Moyo said he was not aware of the deal. "I have no idea at all," he said. The deal is said to be worth more than the one signed between Zimbabwe and Libya valued at US$360 million a year, which has since collapsed. Zimbabwe needs about US$40 million a month to ensure adequate fuel supplies. If the deal goes through Zimbabwe would be able to secure additional fuel worth US$10 million every month to rebuild strategic reserves. Sources said the new deal would start rolling as soon as the mercenaries were extradited. Fifteen other suspects in the same plot are currently held in Equatorial Guinea. The men were arrested on March 7 in Harare after they landed at the airport allegedly to collect weapons bought from the Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI). The suspects were charged for allegedly violating the Public Order and Security Act, immigration, aviation, and firearms laws. They, however, deny all the charges.
If implemented, the deal would provide a temporary relief to Zimbabwe which has been battling with an erratic fuel crisis since 1999. Zimbabwe has tried in vain to secure sustainable fuel supplies from Libya, Kuwait, Sudan, Angola, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, Iran, and other countries due to the country's poor credit rating. However, sources said there were still obstacles to the deal as a result of court developments regarding the suspects. Legal sources said it would be difficult to transfer the men because the extradition treaty between Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe was only formalised on April 23 - about 47 days after their arrest. "Basically you cannot apply legislation in retrospect," said Advocate Bryant Elliot of Gill, Godlonton and Gerrans legal firm. The sources also said the suspects had not committed any offence in Equatorial Guinea. They said Zimbabwe now wanted to extradite the alleged mercenaries to avoid possible embarrassment because their lawyers had indicated that the prisoners would expose their previous arms deals with ZDI, accused of gun-running and selling arms to shady groups.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 16 May
Zimbabwe forex scam raises more questions
Kuruneri withdrew millions from bank during central bank governor Gono's stewardship
Bonny Schoonakker
Evidence before the Zimbabwe High Court this week has raised questions about the role of that country's central bank governor in the forex scandal that led to the arrest of former Finance Minister Chris Kuruneri. According to Judge Ben Hlatshwayo, Kuruneri unlawfully withdrew forex from Jewel Bank (previously the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe) in March 2002 - when Gideon Gono, now governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, was its chief executive. The judge also noted that the money was received by a Cape Town firm of attorneys which handled Kuruneri's investment in the city' s property market. C B Niland & Partners accepted a withdrawal of R5.2-million from Jewel Bank "as payment for the purchase" of a property in Apostle Road, Llandudno. Gono, who left Jewel Bank for the Reserve Bank in December last year, has been credited with saving Jewel Bank from "the jaws of collapse". Kuruneri was promoted to finance minister in February, after serving as deputy to Herbert Murerwa, who has been reinstated since Kuruneri's arrest last month.
The house in Apostle Road is one of three Cape Town properties owned by Kuruneri, who this week lost his appeal to the High Court for bail. He is facing five charges ranging from fraud to violating immigration laws. Hlatshwayo listed the ex-minister 's mansion in Sunset Avenue, Llandudno, among assets unlawfully acquired. The property's true ownership was exposed by this newspaper last month. Since then, the only work on the site has been to paint over graffiti daubed on its walls. Neighbours say the words, which were mostly in Shona, included the phrase "blood money". Hlatshwayo also listed "a Mercedes-Benz worth R547 734" and an apartment elsewhere on the Peninsula. Altogether, Kuruneri's Cape portfolio is alleged to be worth just over R8.24-million, partly funded by the illegal withdrawals made from Jewel Bank from March 2002 to date. Developers of the Llandudno property, however, claim that Kuruneri was planning to spend R30-million on the property. The judge's summary does not explain how the rest of Kuruneri' s property was funded. Hlatshwayo does take note of a submission filed by a Canadian consultancy firm called "Filipe Solano SL", for whom Kuruneri worked between 1976 and 1981. A letter from the firm's president Felipe Solano to the company building Kuruneri's mansion, states that Kuruneri had worked for the company and acquired the funds legally. But the judge accepted the state's argument that that explanation was "inconceivable ".
Kuruneri's lawyer offered an explanation for the transfer of funds from Jewel Bank to South Africa, but this had only "equal weight" to the state's allegations that the withdrawals were unlawful. The Cape Town-based attorney, Lorenzo Bruttomesso, this week declined to comment on the allegations and referred to a statement issued earlier this month on behalf of his firm which said that: "In all matters dealt with on behalf of clients our firm has complied with relevant laws and regulations. " Nevertheless, the Jewel Bank withdrawals have raised serious questions, including some about the role of Gono. According to a member of Zimbabwe's banking industry, Gono's role needs to be examined "as it is most unusual that approval would be granted as this would be considered an externalisation of capital... ie, the remittance was not for the purposes of trade or the production of income. Quite apart from the exchange control questions that need to be answered, the question is, where did Kuruneri get the Zimbabwe dollars for the rand transfers and purchases that he made? He couldn't afford that sort of money on a deputy minister's salary. If this investigation is conducted thoroughly, it will show that Gono has some questions to answer."
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From The Observer (UK), 16 May
US firm strikes secret tobacco-for-maize deal
Anthony Barnett and Patrick Smith
A US financial firm has emerged as central to a secret multi-million dollar plan by Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to bail the country out of a food shortage and prepare the way for his election victory later this year. Last week Mugabe forced the UN's World Food Programme crop assessment team to leave the country fearing that it would expose the dire harvest. Such a disaster would fly in the face of Mugabe's claims of a bumper harvest and prove that his controversial land reforms have failed. There has been a huge drop in production caused by land seizures from white farmers with much of the land lying fallow. Sources claim that Mugabe has struck the secret deal with a group of US firms to provide thousands of tonnes of grain in exchange for tobacco and minerals. Insiders allege one of the US companies involved is Sentry Financial International in Salt Lake City, Utah. Details of hugely profitable tobacco-for-maize swaps, leaked to The Observer, involve Sentry and the state-controlled Grain Marketing Board. Last year Sentry was involved in a deal to exchange 300,000 tonnes of maize and wheat for tobacco and minerals. Sources claim some 70,000 tonnes of grain will arrive in Zimbabwe this month under an agreement shrouded in secrecy because of its political sensitivity. Sentry's vice-president Kirk Heaton said his company was doing business in Zimbabwe but 'the details are confidential'. Zimbabwe needs an estimated 900,000 tonnes of food this year. Opposition politicians claim Mugabe's Zanu PF party will use food to buy votes in forthcoming elections and starve opposition areas.
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From SABC News, 15 May
Zimbabwe police arrest constitutional activists
Police fired teargas and beat activists with truncheons in the central Zimbabwe city of Gweru today as they prepared to hold a meeting on constitutional reform, the coalition organising the gathering said. Police arrested 80 people including Lovemore Madhuku, the group's chairperson, ahead of the meeting, said Ernest Mudzengi, a spokesperson for the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA). The meeting was meant to focus on an economic and political crisis many blame on Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF government. The NCA, a coalition of human rights groups, political parties and student and church organisations, has lobbied for constitutional reforms in Zimbabwe since 1999. "The police assaulted participants with truncheons 20 sustained injuries. We condemn this latest act of police brutality, which we view as part of the Zanu PF regime's increasingly insane strategies of holding onto power," Mudzengi said in a statement. Wayne Bvudzijena, the chief police spokesperson, and senior assistant commissioner, said he was still getting details on the incident. The NCA says major flaws in the constitution make it impossible to hold free and fair elections in Zimbabwe, and have helped Mugabe to tighten his 24-year grip on power. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and some Western countries say Mugabe's re-election to a six-year term as president in 2002 was fraudulent. However, Mugabe, who dismisses the MDC as a puppet of his Western opponents, says he won fairly. Zanu PF, which narrowly beat the MDC in 2000 parliamentary elections, has since wrested away four opposition seats in a series of by-elections, amid charges of an uneven playing field. Zimbabweans in the northwestern district of Lupane cast ballots today in another such poll to replace an opposition legislator who died earlier this year. Victory in Lupane would give Zanu PF 97 seats in the 150-strong legislature and would be a psychological boost ahead of next year's general elections.
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From VOA News, 15 May
Special election in Matabeleland province seen as test of ruling party
Harare - A special election underway in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland province is seen as a test of strength for the ruling Zanu PF party. People in the district of Lupane are electing a replacement for an opposition candidate, who died after his health deteriorated following his reported torture. The special election should be an easy victory for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, but local observers say they are concerned about vote-rigging. The presence of the opposition MDC in most rural areas outside of Matabeleland is hard to gauge. Most political analysts say this is either because its support has waned, or because widespread repression has forced it underground. The opposition has lost four special elections in the last four years. All the elections were supervised by the Zanu PF government. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told an election rally in Lupane last Wednesday that, until there is an independent electoral authority, people should expect the results of the ballot may be manipulated.
Observers point out that, despite a decreasing population in the area, 3,000 more people voted in the 2002 presidential elections than in the parliamentary elections two years before. All those votes were counted as won by the ruling Zanu PF. Still, the opposition scored an easy victory, and it is expected to win this time, as well. Lupane is a poor district with about one out of five people infected with the HIV virus. Hospitals have been reporting a dramatic upsurge in malaria death this year. Most of the people are unemployed, and depend for their livelihood on food aid from Western donors. Twenty years ago, Lupane was the site of Zimbabwe's worst atrocity, perpetrated by government troops against political opposition. The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, which investigated the massacre, estimated between 10,000 and 20,000 people died, and an unknown number of others were forced to flee. Police arrested dozens of youths ahead of the opposition party's rally last week, but kept a low profile during the rally, and released most of the detainees without a charge afterwards. One Zanu PF supporter was reportedly beaten up and taken to hospital. In the first hours of voting Saturday, the opposition reported two of its supporters were taken into police custody and allegedly tortured.
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From The Mirror (Masvingo), 14 May
Minister implicated in land scandal
Masvingo - The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans in Masvingo Province has unearthed a massive land scandal involving Governor and Resident Minister Josaya Hungwe, Chief Fortune Charumbira, the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Stan Mudenge who own more than two farms, defying government policy of one-man-one-farm. The ZNLWVA provincial chairman, Isaiah Muzenda, revealed that some of the top leadership are not taking the issue of multi-ownership of property seriously and the war veterans are taking steps to stop corruption. Topping the list is Governor Hungwe who owns three farms, one of which is in Mashonaland East, a Lowveld sugarcane farm and another In the Sikato area in Masvingo. Mudenge has four farms namely Makanga Farm in Mvuma, Landeni in Gutu, Richmond and Chikore, which he recently acquired in Masvingo while Chief Charumbira, has Acton, Sikato and Cotapax farms in Masvingo. The Chief Lands Officer, Aude Musanhu, who is being accused of facilitating the acquisition of farms to the top officials is also listed as having acquired five farms. Shuvai Mahofa, MP for Gutu South and Deputy Minister for Youth Development, Gender and Employment Creation is also accused of owning two farms. The top leadership has defied President Robert Mugabe’s and Minister of Special Affairs for Land Reform, John Nkomo’s, calls for those who have acquired more than one farm to surrender them. Nkomo has threatened to prosecute those who benefited from the fast track land reform through corrupt means.
The war vets are incensed that three government ministers are trying to remove war vets from farms near town relocating them to distant farms. They said this will benefit the opposition in Masvingo Central because the war vets will find it difficult to come from these areas to campaign in the constituency. "The war veterans’ attention is being diverted to land battles and the opposition is freely campaigning and this is proved by the absenteeism of those members at most of the important functions organised by the party and government," said Muzenda. "It is alleged that the top officials usually use the names of their relatives or children who may be as young as two months old to acquire land. It is disgusting to note that the top leadership, which is supposed to give land to the people, are grabbing the same land. We are definitely going to petition the President to act on the matter or else we are going to occupy the farms and leave the leaders with one farm each or none because of their greediness," threatened the firebrand Muzenda who more than twice led a group to close the Governor’s and Lands Offices alleging corruption. War veterans and war collaborators have joined hands in fighting the land grab by cabinet ministers and have vowed to invade the land. The war veterans are also accusing the leadership of under developing the province through their corrupt practices.
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From The Independent on Sunday (UK), 16 May
British businessman accused of leading role in failed coup
Mercenaries held over Equatorial Guinea plot identify west London consultant as mastermind
By Paul Lashmar and Adrian Gatton
A management consultant from west London has been accused of being one of the masterminds behind a plot to overthrow the government of the oil-rich African state of Equatorial Guinea. The failed coup - strikingly reminiscent of Frederick Forsyth's mercenary tale The Dogs of War - came to light in March with the dramatic arrests of 67 soldiers of fortune at Harare airport in Zimbabwe. Now a witness statement seen by The Independent on Sunday names Greg Wales, 53, an accountant and management consultant, as a key organiser behind the plot. He vehemently denies any involvement. But the government of Equatorial Guinea has confirmed to the IoS that it now wishes to interview Mr Wales, who has homes in Chiswick and Wiltshire and a history of business in Africa. A statement on behalf of the state and President of Equatorial Guinea said yesterday: "The appropriate authorities are anxious to interview Mr Wales in view of his apparent involvement in the attempted coup d'état." British lawyers acting for the government have asked Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch to investigate Mr Wales's role. "We believe attempting a coup against an elected government by the use of force is an act of international terrorism and should be investigated as such," one lawyer said.
Equatorial Guinea is a recently oil-rich but still impoverished country in west Africa whose President, Teodore Obiang, has ruled for 30 years. At Harare Airport on 7 March, Zimbabwean police arrested a former SAS officer, Simon Mann, and 66 South African former special forces personnel on a chartered Boeing 727. They have been charged with plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea. In a series of morning swoops on 8 March, a South African former special forces officer, Nick du Toit, and 14 other men in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, were arrested by local police. Mr Wales denies involvement in the coup. While he says he knows most of the key figures said to be involved in the failed plot, he stressed: "I was not involved in a coup. I do not even believe that there was a coup plot. This is all a deal between [Robert] Mugabe [President of Zimbabwe] and Obiang. If the government of Equatorial Guinea is saying I was involved then it is a joke." But Mr du Toit identifies Mr Wales as a key organiser, in a statement seen by the IoS. It was signed in the presence of a British lawyer working for the government. In the statement he says: "The first person who I spoke to about the coup was Greg. I had not met him before. I do not know how he got my telephone number but this was probably through Simon Mann. I do not know his family name."
The IoS has confirmed that Mr du Toit had Greg Wales's personal mobile number in his notebook. Mr Wales is an old Africa hand and has been involved with Mr Mann over many years; Mr du Toit claims that Mr Wales arranged much of the finance for the coup. At the time, Mr du Toit was based in Equatorial Guinea starting up businesses, including a deep-sea fishing project and an airfreight operation in partnership with ministers. In his statement he says: "He called me and asked me to meet him on 4 January 2004 in Sandton, South Africa. He said he had a business proposition for me ... I decided to see what he proposed." Of the meeting with Mr Wales, Mr du Toit says: "He explained that he had in mind a coup d'état ... and asked if I would help. I said that I had business that I was developing in EG and refused to assist." However it did not stop Mr du Toit attending another meeting: "On 7 January I saw Greg again. This time he was with Simon Mann who I know since 1998." During the meeting Mr du Toit apparently changed his mind. "I agreed to help with the provision of vehicles and guides. Simon asked me to provide assistance to obtain arms. I said I knew people of Zimbabwe Defence Industries in Harare." Mr Wales says he met Mr du Toit around Christmas. But he says they discussed rugby and not a coup: "I do not know why Nick du Toit has named me as being involved in the coup. He obviously has an agenda. He is an Afrikaner and he will be trying not to name friends and associates."
Simon Mann's statement to the Zimbabwe police, also seen by the IoS, says that after a trip to Gabon with Mr Wales in January 2003, he met the exiled opposition leader, Severo Moto, and several supporters: "At this stage, they asked me if I could help support Severo Moto home at a given moment when simultaneously there would be an uprising of both military and civilians against Obiang." According to Mr du Toit, by the time he was recruited it had developed into a full-scale mercenary operation. "I was informed by Simon Mann that when the existing President was deposed, Mr Severo Moto would be in the new government. Simon Mann and Greg said that he was coming from Spain and knew all about the intended coup." Had the coup been successful, he says, the rewards would have been great. "I was promised $1m to be deposited in my Malabo account at CCEI Bank and a guarantee that my business would continue as usual." Over the next few weeks, Mr du Toit claims, he helped to recruit mercenaries from South Africa, Angola and Mozambique. He also flew with Mr Mann to Harare to arrange the purchase of weapons. It was then his job to seize the control tower of Malabo airport and provide guides for the mercenaries as they landed. Mr Wales said yesterday that he first met Severo Moto 18 months ago and most recently a month ago. "I think he would be a far better president that Obiang. He's quite an interesting man ... he and Obiang don't get on too well." Denying any personal knowledge of the coup, he said Mr Mann had got himself in a terrible situation: "I think he was nuts to be in Zimbabwe frankly, because it's a dreadful place. I can't imagine that you could persuade me to go there myself, not as things are now." Mr Wales said he had an interest in Equatorial Guinea because he was going to tender for a US State Department contract to conduct anti-poaching and illegal fishing surveillance for the country.
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From IOL (SA), 16 May
Arrests cast shadow over Zim by-election
Harare, Zimbabwe - Two opposition activists were reportedly in police detention Sunday after trying to lodge a complaint against abduction and torture by President Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF party militants in the northwestern Lupane parliamentary constituency. Constituency registrar Willard Sayenda said 12 173 of the 47 000 registered voters had cast their ballots in the sprawling rural constituency by-election by the end of Saturday. He said 1 189 would-be voters were turned away while over 1 000 were "assisted to vote" claiming illiteracy or other disabilities. Voting ends late Sunday. Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, claims that "assisted voting," permitted under recent electoral law changes, gives the authorities power to punish or reward voters, especially over distribution of food relief. Loss of the opposition-held seat would increase the number of Zanu-PF lawmakers to 98, only two short of the total needed to amend the constitution. Tsvangirai's MDC currently holds 51 and another small opposition party one. The Lupane seat was left vacant by the death of the previous MDC lawmaker, allegedly as a result of ill-treatment received in police detention. The area was the scene of widespread atrocities during 1982-88 post independence unrest and was considered an anti-government stronghold but has recently suffered acute food shortages.
On Friday Amnesty International appealed to Mugabe not to use relief as a political weapon after announcing Zimbabwe needs no further foreign aid. His government predicts a 2,4 million ton bumper harvest but many experts believe only 700 000 tons will be reaped, leaving eight million Zimbabweans at risk of starvation. Opposition spokesperson Nkanyiso Maqeda said party campaigners Demadema Ncube and Luke Sibanda were kidnapped by self-styled former independence war guerillas. They were released Friday night after having been tortured. "When they went to police to report the matter, police said the two were violent against Zanu-PF supporters. They are still in police detention," said Maqeda. Police spokesmen could not be reached for comment Sunday. On Saturday, police arrested constitutional reform campaigner Lovemore Madhuku and 60 other people attending a meeting on strengthening civil society in the Midlands city of Gweru. Firing teargas and wielding batons, riot squad members dispersed the gathering, claiming it lacked advanced official clearance. On Thursday an opposition lawmaker Nelson Chamisa was arrested attending a Harare meeting on HIV/Aids which police deemed illegal. Both Madhuku and Chamisa are still being held in cells.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 16 May
Family of slain mine boss blames government officials
By Valentine Maponga
The family of Dr Leonard Chimimba, the late Bindura Nickel Corporation (BNC) chief executive officer, shot dead at the gate of his Borrowdale house last week, is blaming senior government officials whom they believe were involved in plotting his alleged assassination. Chimimba's family said the geologist was murdered in a hit-and-run operation and some senior government officials were implicated. BNC, the corporation Chimimba headed, is being investigated following the disappearance of truckloads of nickel worth millions of dollars in South Africa during the past few months. Chimimba was helping police and State security agents in the investigations and a close family member disclosed that he had met a team of investigators from the Ministry of Anti-corruption and Anti-monopolies in March. Simon Chimimba, his younger brother, said the family was convinced some senior government officials were behind his murder. "My brother was killed by the so-called big guns and as a family, we are fully aware of who is responsible but we know God will provide the answer," said Simon.
A relative who was in the house at the time Chimimba was shot said there was confusion when they heard the gunshot. "We were all not sure of what to do next Š we later rushed towards the gate and found Dr Chimimba's car parked right outside the gate but with no one inside. "The car keys were not there and the car had swerved plunging into a trench nearby meaning he must have tried to drive away from trouble," said the relative. The Standard saw tyre marks that showed that Chimimba, who was coming from Kamfinsa, had tried to evade two vehicles that had sandwiched his Toyota Landcruiser at the gate before he was shot. Fresh tyre marks seemed to indicate how one of the vehicles overtook and blocked his way while the other vehicle following behind made it impossible for him to reverse. One of the workers who went out to investigate after hearing the gunshot, said he found the car parked just outside the gate with its rear tyres in the drain. It is also understood that he was due to meet the Reserve Bank Governor Dr Gideon Gono on Tuesday, the afternoon he was murdered.
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From The Daily Mirror, 17 May
Mawere scandal
Nkululeko Sibanda
Former City of Kwekwe mayor Johnson Mawere and son Berrington, have been linked to an alleged seizure of a farm belonging to Sables Chemicals in Kwekwe. The farm, identified as Sebakwe Farm, was reportedly invaded last week by a group of people who allegedly told workers at the farm to inform the company’s management to collect its equipment and vacate the property within 24 hours. The invaders allegedly told the workers that the farm had changed hands and was now under the ownership of the city’s former mayor and his son, Berrington. Mawere has however denied the allegations. In an interview yesterday, Sables Chemicals general manager, David Chigodora, told the Daily Mirror that he was informed of the latest developments by telephone. "I am in the capital (Harare) and I would be travelling back to Kwekwe today (yesterday). The people on the ground have just informed me of the latest developments by telephone. They said that the people who invaded the farm had given our company only 24 hours to collect property from the farm so that we would make way for them," said Chigodora. He added that the move to seize the farm would be a big blow for many companies that were dependent on the giant fertiliser manufacturing company for ammonium nitrate. The nitrate is used to produce fertiliser and other gaseous products.
"A number of companies, such as Ziscosteel, ZIMASCO, Dyno Nobel, Wankie Colliery and many others were dependent on Sables Chemicals for the products they use in their operations. This dependency is now under threat following the imminent take-over of the farm that was the company’s flagship. This move means that operations will be affected," Chigodora said. He however explained that the seizure of the farm was a result of an agreement between the company and government. Close to a 100 hectares were put aside for wheat production. "The case here is that the former mayor, Johnson Mawere and his son, Berrington are eyeing the farm as they have seen that this is a lucrative venture. "They are also eyeing the water pumps so that they may use them for the wheat production project," he added. Chigodora was adamant that his company was not going to sit down and watch the seizure take place. "We have taken the issue to the g |
