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Archived News
20th April 2004
Hold Mugabe accountable for 'crimes against humanity'
'Mercenaries' to stay in jail
Zim's hidden landmines remain lethal
Lightning can strike twice
Twelve players call for mediation in Zimbabwe cricket crisis
Armed police, security agents take over top Zimbabwe farm
Staff tossed off Zimbabwe farm
5 assaulted on Charleswood
Harare 70 may face trial in SA
Zimbabwe rebels go public
Top Zimbabwe officials bow to cricket rebels
Zim prostitutes: Blessing for hot-blooded men in Botswana
Zim, Zambian sex workers in wrangle over rates
Zimbabwe set for gala bash
Four more Zimbabwean banks up on forex charges
Nedcor in talks on bank merger in Zimbabwe
'Mercenaries' want freedom
Zimbabwe woos new Asian tourists
ZNTB benefits from Zimbabwe disturbances
Zimbabwe descend into state of anarchy over sacking of 13
Zimbabwe government says it does not need more food aid
Fresh moves against Mudzuri
Harare mayor from opposition sacked by Zimbabwean govt
Kondozi seized in latest farm raid
'Ghost'of genocide prevails
'No action' vote by South bloc defeats human rights resolution
Streak's rebels head for court
Harare mayor fears for his safety
Mugabe dismisses Harare's opposition mayor
The Wasteland
At the mercy of Mugabe's secret police
Zimbabwe ease deadline
More controversy in Zengeza murder case
Mugabe calls on Zimbabweans to close ranks
Made in farm equipment mystery
Fresh farm invasions to keep land issue alive
A tour to be sealed with false bonhomie
Chiefs get hefty allowances
State lifts ban on food for suspected mercenaries
Zimbabwe to be grilled on boycott
SA players urge ICC intervention in Zimbabwe
Local side with a nationalist agenda
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 13 April
Hold Mugabe accountable for 'crimes against humanity'
Cape Town - Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe should be held accountable for crimes against humanity, delegates attending the Second World Bar Conference of the Forum for Barristers and Advocates heard in Cape Town on Tuesday. "What is happening there could be summed up as a gross violation of human rights and Robert Mugabe and his henchmen must be made accountable for crimes against humanity," said Dato' Param Cumaraswamy, the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. Cumaraswamy, who spoke on the rule of law in Africa, was delivering the opening address to the forum, a specialist body within the International Bar Association comprising some 20 000 legal practitioners across the globe. He said the immediate challenge for the African Union and its watchdog Peace and Security Council was how it will deal with Zimbabwe and restore respect for the rule of law and human rights.
"Any positive change in that country will enhance confidence in the African Union domestically, regionally and internationally. In any event it must see to it that the likes of Robert Mugabe and his henchmen are never allowed political office on the African soil again," said Cumaraswamy in a speech prepared for delivery. Cumaraswamy said during his nine years as the UN special rapporteur he intervened in more than 100 countries including a large number in Africa, where most of his concerns were political interference with the judiciary. "Today the continued deterioration of the rule of law and human rights protection in Zimbabwe are matters of grave concern. Not just the well-being of its own citizens... but the developments there must be seen as a threat to the rule of law for all Africa," he said. Cumaraswamy said when the executive organ of a state refused to comply or defied orders of the judicial organ there was no hope for the rule of law, neither for judicial and lawyers' independence. He said so far African diplomatic efforts have not brought any change to Zimbabwe - instead the situation was worsening.
Turning to the continent, Cumaraswamy hailed promising developments such as the provision in the AU for other organs including a Parliament and a Court of Justice. The establishment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development with its peer review system was also commendable. "A significant development for the rule of law in Africa is the establishment of the African Court on Human and People's Rights... Africa will soon rank as the third region to have a regional court on human rights after Europe and the Americas." Cumaraswamy said the new mechanisms were promising and augured well for Africa to progress and develop towards a rule of law and human rights regime. However, he pointed out that merely structuring institutions and mechanisms on models found in advanced regions needed to have adequate financial and human resources to effectively activate them. "There certainly is need for substantial assistance from the international community... [but] that can only be achieved if political leaders in Africa are seen to be service orientated to the people and committed to transformation of the region based on respect for the rule of law and human rights."
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From News24, 13 April
'Mercenaries' to stay in jail
Harare - Seventy suspected mercenaries detained in Zimbabwe on charges of plotting to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea were ordered to remain in custody for another two days during a brief court appearance on Tuesday. Magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe remanded them in custody to Thursday during the hearing at the country's maximum security prison. Guvamombe also granted a request from defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange that some of the men be allowed to meet with family members privately following the hearing. The men, dressed in khaki prison garb, were escorted in pairs, shackled and handcuffed, into the makeshift prison court. Some of their relatives were allowed to attend the hearing, the second since their arrest five weeks ago. Zimbabwe authorities arrested a group of 67 suspected mercenaries on March 7 when their plane stopped over at Harare International Airport to pick up arms from the state-run Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI). State lawyers say the men, mainly from Angola, South Africa and Namibia, were on their way to stage a coup against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. Three other suspects, including alleged ringleader and former British special forces member Simon Mann, were arrested when they went to the airport to meet the plane.
The men have been charged with a variety of crimes under Zimbabwe's laws, including conspiring to possess dangerous weapons and breaching aviation and immigration laws. The 70 men have been linked to 15 suspected coup plotters who were jailed in Equatorial Guinea on Africa's western coast, but they deny this. Some of the men detained in Harare have claimed they were hired in South Africa to be security guards on a diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. All court proceedings are due to take place at the Chikurubi Maximum Security prison on the outskirts of the capital. The state cited logistical problems as the main reason for holding the court proceedings in prison, and also claimed that the men had powerful backers who could try to rescue them. Last week Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the authorities would investigate claims by 18 members of the group that they were beaten by prison officers while in custody.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 13 April
Zim's hidden landmines remain lethal
Stanley Karombo
Harare - Rumbidzai Zulu, a woman in her early twenties, stares at the freshly bandaged stump that used to be her leg. A landmine blew off the limb while she was looking for firewood in the bush - also claiming the life of her unborn child - and she is struggling to come to grips with the trauma. Hundreds of people have been killed, maimed or injured by mines that were planted by government troops and their opponents in the 1970s, during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. A toll has also been taken on domestic and wild animals. It is estimated that Zimbabwe is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world, its borders with Mozambique and Zambia being virtually impassable in certain stretches. Anti-personnel mines used by authorities in what was then Rhodesia included the R2m2, RAP Carrot, M972 and VS50 devices, which were strategically planted to deter rebel fighters from crossing into the country from surrounding states. Twenty years later, the mines continue to wage war against unwitting civilians. According to demining analysts, more than $500-million are needed to conduct a comprehensive clearance exercise along the borders. However, Zimbabwe’s cash-strapped government lacks the funds to provide even basic health care to its citizens - and demining appears certain to remain on the back burner for some time to come. In addition, a new battle - the political war of words between Zimbabwe and donor countries - has badly affected clearance operations. Relations between Harare and several developed countries have been strained since the start of farm occupations in Zimbabwe in 2000. Reports of ongoing human rights abuses at the hands of officials and government-backed militias have deepened tensions, as have claims that parliamentary and general elections were marred by violence and vote-rigging.
The Director General of Operations and Planning in the Ministry of Defence, Trust Mugoba, says Washington has withdrawn funding for demining projects in the northern areas around Victoria Falls and Binga. "Unfortunately, the military has not been spared by the politics between Zimbabwe and the United States government. The US government stopped funding [for the demining project] project in 2000." According to Mugoba, the US had contributed $5-million to the project since the 1990s, which resulted in several kilometres of land being cleared of mines. It also trained 120 engineers from the Ministry of Defence and provided funding for equipment and machinery used in the demining process. The European Union has also withdrawn funds for mine clearance. As a result of the danger posed by landmines, large tracts of arable land remain largely uncultivated - a profound irony in a country so marked by disputes around land ownership and availability. A communal farmer from the Dande Valley that lies along Zimbabwe’s border with Mozambique, Brain Mutsago, says people there live in fear of the anti-personnel mines. "It is a dangerous thing to try to cultivate in the area, as one can be blown up in any time," he said. Jennifer Cohen, director of operations for Mine-Tech - Zimbabwe’s only private company specialising in mine clearance - says the weapons also continue to pose a danger to people who cross the country’s borders illegally. Mine-Tech’s expertise has been used in operations in neighbouring Mozambique - as well as Angola, Kosovo and Sri Lanka. The landmine problem was exacerbated two years ago after rains induced by Cyclone Eline caused many devices to be unearthed.
The plight of mine victims in Zimbabwe may be highlighted at the Nairobi Summit on a Mine-Free World, which takes place at the end of November and beginning of December this year. This conference will review the progress made in implementing the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction - the so-called Mine Ban Treaty. Zimbabwe is a signatory to this agreement, which entered into force in March 1999. The convention has set 2009 as the date by which countries that had endorsed it in 1999 should have completed mine clearance. More than 140 states have signed up to the Mine Ban Treaty - although the US, China and Russia have yet to come on board. According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), a Washington-based group that has played a leading role in pushing for mines to be outlawed, up to 20 000 mine-related casualties are reported every year -- with most victims being civilians (children account for 23% of the casualties). Many wait years before being given the artificial limbs that will allow them to resume a relatively normal life. However, the ICBL also notes that that more than 50-million stockpiled mines have destroyed in recent years. The group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its efforts to combat the scourge of landmines.
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From Islam Online (Qatar), 13 April
Lightning can strike twice
By Wilson Johwa
The sight of dark cumulonimbus clouds building up over drought-prone areas of Zimbabwe is enough to raise hopes of a better cropping season. In late October when the first rains break, the long, dry months are quickly forgotten as the sparse, golden brown stubbles of grass turn a resplendent green. However, the onset of the rainy season brings with it a frightening phenomenon that claims dozens of lives until the season ends in April. Zimbabwe is one of the world’s most lightning-prone countries: the holder of a world record in lightning-related fatalities. During the rainy season, lightning strikes normally kill up to 100 people, mostly rural children. Many more people are maimed and countless livestock lost. Yet the Meteorological Services Department of Zimbabwe says it is possible that lightning deaths in the country might actually be under-reported by 20 to 30 percent and lightning injuries by more than 40 percent, as many deaths and injuries go unreported.
"The high number of lightning confirmation claims forwarded to the Department for processing by property insurance companies, confirms that damage to equipment supplying electric power and telecommunications services, as well as to business and domestic premises is quite immense," says meteorologist Desmond Manatsa. Zimbabwe has the uncanny distinction of being one of lightning’s most favorite places. It is even cited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the country where a single bolt of lightning claimed its largest number of victims. This occurred in a village near the eastern border town of Mutare in 1975 when 21 people were killed while sheltering in a hut. The majority of lightning-related fatalities and injuries in the country are usually recorded in rural rather than urban areas. This is simply because large buildings provide protection for those within due to the metal frame of the building and specially designed lightning conductors. People in buses and cars are also safe because of the metal frames around them.
Lightning has continued to be a worrying blight in the country. For instance, it struck and killed 10 people attending a church service on a Sunday afternoon in November 2002. Sixty-one others attending the service in the town of Chitungwiza, 35 kilometers south of the capital Harare, were hospitalized with burns. The dead and injured were members of the Johane Masowe sect, the country’s largest religious group, which normally conducts meetings in the open air, often under trees. So far in the current season, 39 deaths attributed to lightning have been reported. Police say most of the dead are children sheltering under trees. Study results released by the University of Zimbabwe in 1991 after research spanning seven years showed that lightning fatalities in the country average 90 to 120 per annum. Of all the districts, Gutu, which is quite populous, led with about 10 fatalities per annum. Binga, Marondera and Rusape follow a long way behind with three to four deaths per annum.
Amazingly, lightning figures recorded in Zimbabwe (150,873 sq. miles- 390,761 sq. km.) were higher than those recorded in the whole of the USA. (3,537,441 sq. miles- 9,161,972 sq. km.) where, according to the Lightning Safety Tips Board of America, the phenomenon kills an average of 73 people per year. Since the surface area of Zimbabwe is many times smaller than that of the United States, these statistics stick out prominently on the global scale. "Even when comparing us to our neighboring South Africa, whose storms are just as fierce as ours, we still find that it has a record of a total of 400 fatalities in 10 years," Manatsa says. The high lightning toll in Zimbabwe can be explained by the prevalence of granite outcrops all over the country. The University of Zimbabwe established that granite is radioactive and discharges gamma rays up to the cloud, thus ionizing the air molecules. Abundant granite outcrops, together with soot from the numerous kitchen huts, offer the much-needed opposite charge on the ground, while tall objects offer the easiest route for electrical discharges to steer its way to the ground.
Manatsa says a point was also found in the Rhino and Lion Game Reserve in northeastern South Africa where lightning struck repeatedly and had been doing so since the beginning of time. Here, unusually high concentrations of dolomite rock draw 15 lightning strikes a month. In 1996, lightning struck and killed an 18-foot (5,5m) tall giraffe while standing on a hill in the reserve. A year later, lightning electrocuted his mate. Shortly afterwards, lightning struck and injured a young giraffe in the park. Consequently, the reserve sold its last giraffe in 1998 and turned down more. An additional explanation of the high number of deaths attributable to lightning is the effect deforestation has had on leaving huts and standing people as the highest objects around. The Zimbabwe power corporation has, as a result, designed a simple, cheap lightning conductor to protect huts and small buildings. The high lightning incidence in Zimbabwe has its own traditional explanations. Among the Shona-speaking people, the traditional belief is that healers can control the phenomenon, directing it to foes as they please. Samuel Moyana is one such traditionalist who believes lightning is not just a force of nature. He says lightning does not kill anyone without having been sent by an adversary. "God’s lightning, which is normally accompanied by a storm," he explains, "does not attack people but will strike a tree."
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From Associated Press, 13 April
Twelve players call for mediation in Zimbabwe cricket crisis
Harare, Zimbabwe - Twelve Zimbabwean Test cricketers called Tuesday for mediation with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union in a dispute that could decimate the national squad as Sri Lanka comes for a tour. The 12, all white, are veterans who form the core of the Test squad. They previously indicated they could quit over the dispute involving the firing of captain Heath Streak by Zimbabwe cricket officials. Streak demanded changes to the selection panel of the Zimbabwean national team. His demands were rejected, and Zimbabwe Cricket Union chairman Peter Chingoka announced a decision to remove Streak "by accepting his resignation" as captain. Streak insists he has not resigned. With Streak ousted as captain, the players would be led by 20-year-old new captain Tatenda Taibu, who would be the youngest captain in international cricket history. If the 12 white players leave the squad, those remaining would be inexperienced black players except for Taibu and seam bowler Douglas Hondo.
On Sunday, the crisis deepened with a report that union director Ozias Bvute fired some contracted senior white players for failing to show up at a first-class match in the central town of Kwekwe. Four of the players failed to show up for the match, and a fifth, fast bowler Andy Blignaut, had been dropped by the selectors of his provincial team despite his status as a top international player. Attempts to reach Bvute for comment were unsuccessful, and union chairman Peter Chingoka refused to discuss the matter. In a letter to the union Tuesday, the 12 players said they want discussion of the basic issues, such as Streak's objections to selection panel personnel, conducted by an independent mediator at a neutral venue. With Sri Lanka arriving Saturday for a tour that begins Tuesday with a one-day international in Bulawayo, the mediation demand leaves little time for talks. The 12 white players are Streak, batsman Craig Wishart, spinner Ray Price, all-rounders Travis Friend and Sean Ervine, batsman Grant Flower, Mark Vermeulen, Gary Brent, Barney Rogers, Stuart Carlisle, Trevor Gripper, and Blignaut.
There was no immediate comment on the players' letter from the board of directors. Union chief executive Vince Hogg refused to discuss the letter when he showed up for an unrelated meeting later Tuesday. The International Cricket Council, the governing body of world cricket, said Tuesday the dispute was an internal matter for Zimbabwe, but it urged all involved to act on behalf of the game. "I believe that everyone involved in international cricket from players to administrators has a duty to act in the best interests of the game at all times and I hope in this current situation the stakeholders involved can use this unity of purpose to reach a sensible solution," ICC president Ehsan Mani said in a statement. Chris Venturas, the lawyer for the players, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that the letter was intended to show the players were willing to talk in a calm and neutral atmosphere to resolve the situation. Venturas said the players don't want to quit, but to continue playing and helping develop cricket in Zimbabwe. He indicated a deal was possible, with Streak accepting the loss of his captaincy if his selector changes are adopted. "They are quite prepared to do their best under Taibu, and so is Streak," Venturas said. "But they really do want and need to see changes in the ZCU administration, including a proper selection panel."
Streak had complained that two of the selectors for the national side lack first-class cricket experience. "They quite reasonably want to see two of the present ones replaced by others with Test match experience," Venturas said. "Their choice would be Ethan Dube and Mpumulelo Mbangwa. "This is most reasonable in view of the present panel's selection record and the fact that two of them have not even played first class cricket, let alone at international level," he noted. "Selections recently have been sloppy to say the least." Venturas also echoed previous comments by Streak that union officials were belligerent when he, Streak and two other players met with them last week. "We went there to try and negotiate, but we had the door slammed in our faces, and the fact is we can no longer talk to the Zimbabwe Cricket Union," Venturas said. "There has to be some other way. That is essentially what we have told them in the letter."
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From VOA News, 14 April
Armed police, security agents take over top Zimbabwe farm
Harare - A huge farm in eastern Zimbabwe that supplies vegetables to top British and South African supermarkets has been overrun by armed police and security agents, and thousands of workers and their children are reported to have been evicted from their homes. The farm is probably the biggest vegetable exporter in Africa and thousands of workers depend on it for survival. The latest move on the farm, known as Kondozi, about 220 kilometers southeast of Harare, began on last Friday. Millions of dollars' worth of farm equipment and computers has been reported looted. The farm's managers said they were barred by police roadblocks from getting to Kondozi. They also said reports filtering from the vegetable produce and packaging complex indicate that most employees there had been forced out of their houses and had fled for safety in nearby hills. The managers said others had sent messages saying they have been ordered to work for the government. The majority shareholder in the Kondozi complex, Edwin Moyo, is currently in Britain. The company not only grows vegetables on its own land, but also assists peasant farmers in the district and buys their produce, packages it, and sends it to Britain and South Africa. The farm is the largest employer in Manicaland Province and reportedly earns at least $15 million a year at a time when Zimbabwe cannot afford to pay its foreign debt. Most of Kondozi's management employees were evicted from their homesteads last year by supporters of Zimbabwe's transport minister, Christopher Mushowe. Zimbabwe's ongoing seizure of most commercial farmland is seen as having helped lead to the worst economic crisis in the country's history. The minister of agriculture was not available for comment, but a government spokesman, George Charamba, said the land was needed by the government.
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From Business Day (SA), 15 April
Staff tossed off Zimbabwe farm
Harare Correspondent
More than 1500 farm workers and their families have been evicted by the Zimbabwe government from an export-processing farm in eastern Zimbabwe. The farm workers were thrown off Kondozi farm over the Easter weekend by police, who claimed that the property belonged to a state-owned land agency. The raid came a day after Information Minister Jonathan Moyo threatened that the farm would be taken from the private owner, despite a high court ruling in the farmer's favour. A senior manager, who preferred anonymity, said yesterday that the evicted labourers were stranded in the open. He said the scene was reminiscent of events at the height of state-instigated farm invasions three years ago. "Some state agents came to the farm last Thursday accompanied by antiriot police," the manager said. "They ordered us out and over the Easter holiday they came again to evict farm workers from the compounds." Farm workers were now said to be "out in the open" with no food and water. Kondozi farm is a 224ha horticultural product exporting concern with an annual turnover of 15m. It is registered as an export-processing farm and is second only to Mitchell & Mitchell of Marondera in terms of horticultural production. "We have approached the Red Cross for humanitarian assistance on food and accommodation for (the farm workers) but it has been prevented from helping out by the Manicaland provincial administrator," the manager said. Moyo claimed last week that the seizure was in the "national interest to ensure Agricultural and Rural Development Authority gets on with the business of making that farm more productive".
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From SW Radio Africa, 14 April
5 assaulted on Charleswood
At least five Charleswood Estate farm workers were severely assaulted when soldiers took over the farm on Easter Friday. Reports from the farm say the five are being denied access to medical facilities as this would expose the brutal beatings that took place during the farm take over. Over 150 soldiers, aided by riot police and the police dogs took part in the early morning raid that resembled a military offensive. Soldiers at the farm have made it clear that they will not entertain any questions from anyone and that if anybody needed an answer they should ask Robert Mugabe or General Mike Nyambuya. Charleswood Estate operations manager, James Mukwaya said there has been a news blackout of the take over.
Another tragic situation is developing on a farm in Odzi. Last night control water cannons were taken on to Kondozi farm by state forces and used against the workers there. This was to aid the take over of the land by the Agricultural Rural Development Authority, ARDA. Information is patchy as the whole area is ringed by roadblocks and communication equipment has been removed. Kondozi farm grows vegetables for export to major supermarkets in Britain and South Africa. The farm itself supports 3000 people - the workers and their families. It also has an outgrower scheme, which means that in total about 8000 families in Manicaland depend on the farm for their livelihood. Last year Chris Mushowe, the local MP and deputy transport minister, seized one of the homesteads on Kondozi, after part owners Jacobus de Klerk and his family were beaten up, barricaded for four days inside their house and finally violently evicted. Nothing is now grown on that part of the land.
It is alleged that Agriculture Minister Joseph Made wants the business, which is worth US$15 million a year, for himself. On Christmas day, Made arrived at the farm with colleagues and ordered the workers off the land. They refused to leave. Made sent in reinforcements at the beginning of February and 200 workers on the farm , mostly women, fought back. Allegedly shots were fired, but the ZANU (PF) thugs retreated. Of the 600 or so workers on the farm, some of them are now new settlers, who have been moving onto the property over the last four years. The owners taught the settlers to grow crops to European Union standards which enabled them to be registered as outgrowers. These crops are then bought by Kondozi and exported. The majority shareholder in the farm is Edwin Moyo. Moyo has said that he believes ARDA is a front for Joseph Made.
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From Business Day (SA), 14 April
Harare 70 may face trial in SA
Harare Correspondent
The 70 suspected mercenaries held in Zimbabwe on charges of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea were remanded to amid speculation they may be extradited to SA for trial. The suspects were remanded in custody on Tuesday after they appeared briefly in the Chikurubi Maximum Security prison's makeshift courtroom where they first appeared three week ago. Defence lawyers and the prosecution agreed on a further remand, saying they were still engaged in negotiations to thrash out several key issues. An official source following the case said that the suspects were "most likely to be sent to SA for trial". "Zimbabwean authorities have been debating this issue for some time and the popular view now is that they must undergo trial in SA," the source said. "As you know, SA has precise legislation to deal with mercenary activities as compared to Zimbabwe. Those who initially wanted them tried here now understand this." Zimbabwe had to scrounge for legal grounds to find charges against the alleged soldiers of fortune, who were arrested on March 7. After several delays, government finally came up with six charges, including allegations of possessing "dangerous weapons" and plotting a coup against an elected government. The suspects, from SA, Namibia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe, were allegedly hired by exiled Equatorial Guinea rebel leader Severe Moto to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Dressed in prison garb, the suspects were brought before the court for a 10-minute remand hearing in pairs shackled to each other at the wrists and ankles. Relatives, journalists and security men were also present.
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From AFP, 14 April
Zimbabwe rebels go public
From correspondents in Harare
Zimbabwe's rebel cricketers have released an open letter in which they accuse some members of the country's ruling body of intimidation and of offering one white player cash to stand aside to allow a black teammate to take his place. The extraordinary statement details their nine points of disagreement with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) which have threatened to tear the sport apart since skipper Heath Streak was sacked last week. Streak wanted a shake-up of the selection process and complained of political interference in the team. The statement, issued today, was signed by 13 white players - Streak, Stuart Carlisle, Grant Flower, Craig Wishart, Andy Blignaut, Raymond Price, Gary Brent, Sean Irvine, Travis Friend, Barney Rodgers, Trevor Gripper, Richard Simms and Niel Ferreria. "We have been concerned for some time about what we consider to be the unprofessional manner of selection. There has been interference of a non-sporting nature," said the statement. "There has, in our view, been racial and ethnic discrimination in the selection of the national team. We believe that problems of this kind can be rectified if minimum qualifications for selectors were introduced, as we have suggested.
"We should also stress that the minimum qualifications proposed by the players are not discriminatory and indeed it would in our view be easy for a selection panel to be established with a majority of qualified black Zimbabweans. Names that come to mind would be Ethan Dube and Mpumelelo Mbangwa (providing he is willing to give up his media commentary) both of whom are qualified, ex-national players." The players also angrily denounced 'intimidation of players and a journalist'. "We have been made aware that at least one black journalist and at least one black player (who has asked us not to reveal his name for his own safety) have been threatened by a member of the board not to side with Heath. We suspect that other black members of the team have been phoned and threatened in the same manner. Once again, we have been reliably informed that a board member suggested during a selection meeting that Mark Vermuelen be offered a double match fee, NOT to play (in the fourth one-day international against Bangladesh). The suggestion was made to try and pave the way for Stuart Matsikanyeri, who had been dropped, to play."
In conclusion, the players insisted that their criticisms are not racially-motivated. "We are deeply aware of the fact that this document may only be signed by white players who are less susceptible to these threats and that our action will be portrayed as racist," it said. "Nothing could be further from the truth. We are all deeply patriotic to all our colleagues and to Zimbabwean cricket supporters of all races. However, we refuse to bow to this unacceptable conduct and we trust that reasonable members of the Board and the ICC will support our stance. Cricket is our entire life and we all consider it a great honour to have been able to represent our country. However, if we do not make a stand in support of our captain and the team we believe that incalculable damage will be done to the game. We are deeply conscious of the effect that non-closure would have on the game not only in Zimbabwe but also throughout the world, and believe that unless we take action the cancer that is eroding the game in Zimbabwe will not be dealt with."
From ZWNEWS: If you would like to read the cricketers' statement, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment, size approximately the same as the average daily ZWNEWS.
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From AFP, 15 April
Top Zimbabwe officials bow to cricket rebels
Harare - Zimbabwe's besieged cricket authriites last night made the first concession in their attempts to solve the crisis which is tearing the sport apart. The Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) changed the make-up of its selection panel which had been one of the key demands set down by former skipper Heath Streak who was sacked as national captain. The new panel is: Peter Mangongo (convenor), Mpumulelo Mbangwa, Max Ebrahim and Richie Kaschula. Mangongo and Ebrahim have been retained but Mbangwa, one of the names suggested by Streak as a replacement, is knowledgeable and popular among all races, while Kaschula was a noted spin bowler for Rhodesia in the 1970s. The alterations to the panel, which were demanded by Streak and his 12 fellow rebels, are aimed at achieving a breakthrough following almost two weeks of tension. Earlier, Zimbabwe's rebel cricketers released an open letter in which they accused some members of the country's ruling body of intimidation and of offering one white player cash to stand aside to allow a black teammate to take his place. The extraordinary statement details their nine points of disagreement with the ZCU which have threatened to tear the sport apart since Streak was sacked last week. Streak wanted a shake-up of the selection process and complained of political interference in the team. The statement, which was issued yesterday, was signed by 13 white players - Streak, Stuart Carlisle, Grant Flower, Craig Wishart, Andy Blignaut, Raymond Price, Gary Brent, Sean Irvine, Travis Friend, Barney Rodgers, Trevor Gripper, Richard Simms and Niel Ferreria. "We have been concerned for some time about what we consider to be the unprofessional manner of selection. There has been interference of a non-sporting nature," said the statement.
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From Mmegi (Botswana), 14 April
Zim prostitutes: Blessing for hot-blooded men in Botswana
Meekaeel M. Siphambili
Despite resentment from their local counterparts, Zimbabwean commercial sex workers are a blessing to hot-blooded men in Botswana looking for some quick action for pay. In Palapye, the place to find these sisters is the junction next to the Supreme Furniture shop. Late after sunset, the Zimbabwe women come out in hordes to wait for their clients next to the Gaborone/Francistown road. This is a suitable spot where all people alighting from the buses pass through to get to the bars. Every male who passes is greeted and this can result in a conversation leading to paid sex. A woman who gave her name as Anna, refused to give her age saying "what has age got to do with it, if you are interested in me, you simply pay, no strings attached, you are not going to marry me." Anna, a married woman says she has no choice because of the situation in Zimbabwe. "Things are tough back home, I have no choice at all, and I have three children and a husband who is working as a bank teller. My husband and children think I am here in Botswana to sell goods like crafts and clothes which I order in Zimbabwe but in small quantities just to mislead them and I bring money home to supplement my husband’s salary. At times, I tell them that I am coming to collect debts from people who owe me money here in Botswana," Anna says without showing any shame.
She says she comes to the country as a visitor and she goes back when her visiting days are over. "I target the month ends because these are the days when you can make a killing. You can make anything from P150 to P400 on a busy night." "A short time or ‘quickie’ will cost you P20 and the whole night is P50 and you will have to pay me the money before we go because I don’t want to do the job for nothing," she says. The tall middle-aged woman says she does not care who she sleeps with as long as they have the money to pay for the services. Her clients range from businesspeople on trips, truck drivers and most of the men leaving bars after a drink. "I rent a one-roomed house where we can go and you will have to pay for the taxi for us to get there". At times the ‘quickie’ is taken in any comfortable spot in the bushes or any other place where nobody will pass by. Anna says she knows about HIV/AIDS but she needs the money for her children and her husband back home. "I make sure I use condoms all the time and I will not give in even for more offers of money. It is quite tempting but I have children at home to think of. they need me to be alive and healthy," she says.
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From The Lusaka Post (Zambia), 14 April
Zim, Zambian sex workers in wrangle over rates
Ruth Banda
Lusaka - Livingstone town clerk George Kalenga yesterday disclosed that a wrangle has erupted between Zambian and Zimbabwean commercial sex workers who cross into Livingstone. In response to a question from Livingstone councillor Harrington during the councillors' capacity building workshop at Wasawange Lodge, Kalenga said there was a wrangle because Zimbabwean sex workers offered lower rates than their Zambian counterparts. Harrington wanted to know why the HIV/AIDS rate remained high in Livingstone despite having a lot of non-governmental organisations working to fight the disease. "A wrangle has broken out in Livingstone between Zambian commercial sex workers and Zimbabwean commercial sex workers who are now crossing over into Livingstone and offering lower rates," Kalenga said. "Our local commercial sex workers have mobilised themselves and are chasing away the international sex workers to compounds and suburbs, while they hold authority in town."
Without revealing his sources, Kalenga said the Zambian commercial sex workers have complained that men preferred Zimbabwean sex workers who offered lower rates. He said most of the Zimbabwean sex commercial workers crossed into Zambia as marketeers and their influx has continued despite Livingstone City Council charging them K10,000 as a deterrent. And Livingstone district AIDS task force chairperson Michael Biemba said Livingstone's geographical position also contributed to the high rate of HIV/AIDS. Biemba said the city is close to Victoria Falls town in Zimbabwe which has a 55 per cent rate of HIV/AIDS, adding that Kasane in Botswana and Katima Mulio in Namibia which were only a few hours away, also have a high rate of HIV/AIDS. Former Livingstone mayor Frederick Mwendapole said the poverty that has resulted from the closure of more than 60 industries in Livingstone has left many residents with no option but to engage in whatever would earn them a living. "That is why most women are engaged in cross border trade where they sometimes have to use truck and taxi drivers to smuggle their merchandise into their country, which makes them vulnerable," said Mwendapole.
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From News24 (SA), 16 April
Zimbabwe set for gala bash
Harare - As Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's party prepares for a spectacular bash on Sunday to fete the country's 24th independence anniversary, the opposition and many Zimbabweans have little to cheer about. Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party remains firmly in control despite crippling economic problems. The once-prosperous nation is in its fifth year of recession. Now 70% of Zimbabweans are unemployed, inflation is more than 600% and 80% of the country's 11.6 million people live in poverty. Mugabe, an 80-year old former guerrilla leader who spent 10 years in prison under the white minority regime of Ian Smith saw his hold on power threatened by the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) five years ago. The party of Morgan Tsvangirai won nearly half of all contested seats in general polls in 2000, many of them in the cities. But following Mugabe's controversial re-election in a presidential election two years ago, the MDC has lost ground. In the last four years Zanu PF has won back four seats. The party has also enjoyed significant victories in recent urban council elections, despite a crippling economic crisis that critics blame on the party. Last month Zanu PF took a crucial parliamentary seat in the town of Chitungwiza in polls marred by the fatal shooting of an opposition supporter.
"We stand united as we head towards a resounding victory in the 2005 elections against reactionaries and puppets of the western world who have already started scampering for cover," Zanu PF chairman John Nkomo wrote in a special Independence editorial column in The Voice, the party's paper. Analyst John Makumbe said it was "time for soul-searching" for the main opposition MDC, which had to decide whether to boycott next year's elections or "dance on an uneven floor". Makumbe said the MDC was starting to recognise that "dictators are not removable by democratic means". The ruling party denies being the villain, and instead accuses the opposition of being Western stooges bent on returning Zimbabwe to colonial bondage. State radio and television have been broadcasting a daily countdown to Independence Day, chronicling the sacrifices made by the country's nationalists, many of whom are members of the ruling party. MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube accused Zanu PF of trying "to appropriate independence for itself." "We don't accept for a moment that people now in the MDC did not bring about our independence," adding that party members were detained by the former white regime and many others were commanders and fighters against minority rule. In 1963, a constitution was chalked up favouring whites in power. Two years later, the government unilaterally declared independence from Britain. UN sanctions and a guerrilla uprising then led to free elections in 1979 and independence - and the renaming of Rhodesia as Zimbabwe - a year later.
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From Business Day (SA), 16 April
Four more Zimbabwean banks up on forex charges
Harare - Four more Zimbabwean commercial banks have been accused of breaching exchange control regulations. Representatives of National Merchant Bank, CFX Merchant Bank, Trust Merchant Bank currently engaged in merger talks with SA's Nedcor and African Banking Corporation, have appeared in court to face charges of foreign exchange dealing on the black market. The latest accusations follow the charging last week of Barclays, Kingdom and Interfin banks for the same offence. Although banks were given a reprieve by the Reserve Bank to desist from black market trading, the state has continued to pursue alleged offenders. The state alleges that NMB sold about $365 000, £50 000, and R2,4m to Treger Group Holdings. The bank is accused of transferring forex to Treger Group Holdings' sister companies, Ger and Co Switzerland, Ger and Co UK and Monarch Marketing in SA. The money was said to have been sourced in the illegal parallel market. CFX allegedly sold about $515 000 to Treger. It is further alleged the bank transferred the money into Ger and Co Switzerland in breach of foreign exchange regulations. Trust Merchant Bank is accused of selling $100 000 and R500 000 to the same company, while African Banking Corporation has been accused of illegally trading in $250 000 and more than R1,3m. If found guilty, the banks face a hefty fine. Telecel, a local cellular phone company, was recently fined Z$374m for breaching exchange control regulations. Zimbabwe's financial institutions are currently reeling from a fierce anticorruption crackdown. A number of business executives are in jail after being arrested for corruption, while several moguls have of late fled the country to escape the clampdown on graft.
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From Business Day (SA), 16 April
Nedcor in talks on bank merger in Zimbabwe
Deal planned with ailing Trust Bank
Financial Services Editor
Nedcor has confirmed that it is in talks to merge its Zimbabwe operations with that country's ailing Trust Bank. Nedcor subsidiary Nedbank and Old Mutual Zimbabwea, which together control Merchant Bank of Central Africa (MBCA), have agreed to start negotiations with Trust Holdings, with a view to merging its 100%-held Trust Bank and MBCA. Nedbank holds almost 39% of MBCA, while Old Mutual Zimbabwe owns just under 23%. If all works out, they expect to take a controlling shareholding in the new group, and will include staff and black economic empowerment interests among the balance of the shareholding. Trust Bank is one of five banks that have been baled out by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe's Troubled Banks Fund. Nedcor sees the two as a good fit as both are strong in corporate and commercial banking with similar client bases. Although Trust also has a retail client base, Nedcor says this would not be an area of focus for the group. MBCA was recently awarded a commercial licence. Prior to the crisis, Nedcor says, Trust Bank was one of Zimbabwe's top rated local banks. "It's an opportune time to do a merger like this," said Nedcor spokesman Don Bowden. "The Zimbabwean minister of finance would welcome consolidation as the country has too many banks. Mergers are going to happen. You can't wait for a couple of years and then do it. You have to be in on the ground as soon as possible."
Bowden said MBCA was one of the banks to benefit during the banking crisis late last year as banks with strong controls and foreign shareholder support continued to attract money. "At one point they had to stop taking new business. There was a flood of money to banks that were predominantly owned by foreign banks," said Bowden. He said little funding would be required for the merger and that it could be financed from resources held in Zimbabwe by both Nedbank and Old Mutual. Analysts said Old Mutual would probably be more involved on the ground in Zimbabwe, given the extent of its operations and expertise in that country. "A deal makes sense as long as it doesn't involve a lot of capital outlay, and management and technical time to be drawn from SA, where it's needed more," said one analyst. There could be some opposition to the deal from Trust Holdings' strategic partner, First Mutual, however. First Mutual owns 25% of Trust Holdings and is one of Old Mutual's biggest rivals in the local asset management industry. Although there has been speculation that First Mutual could step aside if a deal with Old Mutual were to take place, Zimbabwe's Financial Gazette has quoted its chairman as denying this. First Mutual put its resources up as security for the liquidity support provided to Trust Bank by the reserve bank. No timetable has been set for the negotiations to be completed.
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From News24 (SA), 15 April
'Mercenaries' want freedom
Harare - Seventy suspected mercenaries held in Zimbabwe on charges of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea will next week ask a court to drop all charges against them, a lawyer said on Thursday. The 70, who made their third appearance at a special court in a top security prison in Harare where they are detained, were remanded until April 23. "We intend to make an application on the 23rd for this court to refuse to place the accused on remand on the grounds that there is no reasonable suspicion for them to be placed on further remand," defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange said in court. "We want to know why they are keeping them here," Samkange later told reporters. The men have been charged with a variety of crimes under Zimbabwe's laws, including conspiring to possess dangerous weapons and breaching aviation and immigration laws. "We are saying there is no basis for them to be placed on further remand," he said, adding that if the request is granted "they will all go home ... and (the case) is dropped." Zimbabwe authorities arrested the men on March 7 when their plane stopped over at Harare International Airport to pick up arms from the state-run Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI). The state argues that the men, mainly from Angola, South Africa and Namibia, were on their way to stage a coup against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. They have been linked to 15 alleged putschists detained in that country, of whom one has died of cerebral malaria.
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From BBC News, 13 April
Zimbabwe woos new Asian tourists
Zimbabwe is seeking to boost the number of visitors from Asia, to make up for the collapse in European tourism, an official says. Asia was the biggest tourist growth market last year, state media reports. Some 40,000 people, mostly from China, India and Japan visited in 2003, an increase of 40%. Tourism used to be one of Zimbabwe's biggest industries but traditional markets in Europe, especially the UK, have collapsed due to security fears. Zimbabwe is home to the world famous Victoria Falls and has a number of game parks. Zimbabwe Tourism Authority head Tichaona Jokonya said that Asia was "a huge untamed tourist market," reports state news agency Ziana. "We are planning to develop this market, which in time can be the largest market for tourists for Zimbabwe, and other countries in the region," he said. Ziana said that 2.2m tourists visited in 2003, a slight increase from the previous year. However, earnings were down from $76m to $44m. Zimbabwe and China have recently signed a tourism deal, while Air Zimbabwe is considering starting flights to China, reports the Chinese state Xinhua news agency. The European Union and the United States have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe's leaders, accusing President Robert Mugabe of rigging elections and using violence against his opponents. Faced with isolation from the west, Mr Mugabe has also tried to seek the political and economic support of Asian countries. Last year, land seized from white farmers was reportedly given to a Chinese state company to develop.
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From The Times of Zambia, 12 April
ZNTB benefits from Zimbabwe disturbances
Times Reporter
Zambia National Tourist Board (ZNTB) managing director Charity Lumpa says the confusion in Zimbabwe has given Zambia an advantage over the exploitation of the Victoria Falls to enhance tourism. Ms Lumpa said last night on ZNBC television Sunday Interview programme that since Zimbabwe started experiencing problems, there had been a marked increase in the number of tourists coming on the Zambian side. She said ZNTB was utilising the opportunity especially that the larger portion of the falls was on the Zambian side although Zimbabwe had in the past received more tourists. She said ZNTB's one year plan would concentrate on advertising Livingstone and the Falls as a way of inviting more tourists to visit even other attractions. She added that Northern and Western provinces had good waterfalls although they had not been developed to attract tourists. She urged people involved in tourism business to concentrate on investing in infrastructure of high standards to help the sector. Asked why most Zambians had not invested in tourism, Ms Lumpa said the sector required long term investment which most people did not have, thereby leaving room to foreign investors who had come in the country. She refuted reports that foreign investors in the tourism industry had been mistreating Zambian workers saying the board had never received such complaints. She also urged organisers of traditional ceremony to attach tourism aspects to the events so that the country could earn more forex.
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From The Times (UK), 16 April
Zimbabwe descend into state of anarchy over sacking of 13
By Geoffrey Dean
Zimbabwean cricket slipped closer to the abyss yesterday after it emerged that the 13 white players who aired their grievances in a statement on Wednesday are to have their contracts terminated by the Zimbabwe Cricket Union. The ZCU, which is expected to release the news today, is ready to sue the players for breach of contract. As a result, a 14-man squad of largely untried, woefully inexperienced youngsters has been picked for the first two one-day internationals against Sri Lanka in Bulawayo next week. The group of 13, led by Heath Streak, the former captain, heard of their fate "on the grapevine" yesterday, as one of them put it. "The lawyers are dealing with it now," the player, who wishes to remain anonymous, said. "I’ve been told the ZCU are taking legal action and we’ll have to decide if we counter-claim." Unable to tolerate any further what they described as "racial and ethnic discrimination in the selection of the national team", the group, among other things, called in their statement for the replacement of selectors who are without the requisite cricketing experience. Without any question, they were referring to Max Ebrahim and Stephen Mangongo, two politically motivated individuals with minimal cricketing backgrounds. Mangongo was instrumental in getting Henry Olonga thrown out of his club side, Takashinga, after the joint statement with Andy Flower 14 months ago deploring the "death of democracy" in Zimbabwe.
Not altogether unsurprisingly, the ZCU yesterday replaced not Ebrahim and Mangongo but the three selectors who are properly qualified - the convener, Ali Shah, a former national player, John Brent, once a provincial player, and Geoff Marsh, the coach and former Australia opening batsman. In their place, Mpumelelo Mbangwa, the former Test bowler, and Richie Kaschula, who played for Rhodesia in the 1970s, were named, although Mbangwa was unaware of his new post until he read about it on the internet. He declined it, citing "conflicts". The new "appointments" were welcomed by the 13 rebels, who reiterated their opposition to the two "politicos". They also issued a new statement with several demands, notably that the ZCU acknowledges, in a public statement, certain "transgressions", including the financial carrot offered to Mark Vermeulen to give his place in the team for a recent one-day international to a non-white player. Streak’s reinstatement as captain was also called for. "Heath was representing our collective grievances," the statement read, "and we feel he was unlawfully dismissed from his playing duties in retaliation to our stance, and that the board has been vindictive."
Peter Chingoka, the ZCU chairman, dismissed any possibility of Streak being reappointed, saying that he had stepped down voluntarily and that his "resignation" had been accepted. "There is no business in the world that can possibly operate under threats from employees - and that is what they are," he said. "We simply cannot be dictated to." One of the rebels said yesterday that some of the black players picked against Sri Lanka "do not want to play and are supporting our cause". He added: "We’re not having any more meetings. We have been in meetings for two weeks. We are sick of meetings. It’s getting dirty. Everything’s coming out. I have no idea what the consequences are going to be but we are not budging until they meet these fair demands of ours. It’s been very tough for everyone. It goes deeper, your families, wives, girlfriends - they are all affected and the last week has been very tough for them. We’re willing to be unemployed from next week onwards and we’re willing to risk legal action . . . to save Zimbabwe cricket. We also know that some of the provinces are very upset with the ZCU."
There was no statement from the International Cricket Council (ICC) last night, despite the prospect of a farce next week when Zimbabwe put out what one rebel’s father predicted would be "a bunch of schoolboys". Tatenda Taibu, 20, will become the youngest captain in Test-match history against Sri Lanka, starting on May 6. "The ICC will do absolutely nothing," the rebel’s father said. "The ZCU have got what they wanted - to get rid of the whites in the side - but a bit earlier than they expected. They thought a few hollow concessions would persuade the rebels to play in the series against Sri Lanka and Australia (in May)." The player sent a text message to his father last night, urging him not to worry and saying that he would come out of the experience stronger. Zimbabwean cricket cannot possibly do.
TIMETABLE OF TURMOIL
Apr 2: Heath Streak says that he would "consider his position" as captain if his demands are not met. The ZCU claims Streak had given them ultimatum to cut the number of selectors from five to four and demands that selectors all had to have first-class experience. It treats his position as a resignation and announces the appointment of Tatenda Taibu as captain.
Apr 5: Streak denies resigning and is seeking legal advice, his father, Dennis, says.
Apr 8: Senior cricketers consider striking after union refuses to back down.
Apr 11: Reports that four members of the Test squad - Sean Ervine, Travis Friend, Ray Price and Craig Wishart - have been dismissed.
Apr 13: Open statement is released by Streak and 12 other named white Zimbabwe cricketers, criticising the "cancer" of politics that is "eroding the game in Zimbabwe".
Apr 14: Union proposes a compromise. A team of selectors will include two men favoured by Streak, but two that he has opposed.
Apr 15: Thirteen players refuse to play in the home series against Sri Lanka, due to begin next week.
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From VOA News, 16 April
Zimbabwe government says it does not need more food aid
According to a new report, the Zimbabwe government says it does not need more food aid this year and that even if there is a shortfall in cereal production, it will be able to afford imports to make up any deficit. The claim is contained in the report published this week by the long-established regional Famine Early Warning System, FEWSNET, which closely monitors food production. In its latest report, FEWSNET says the Zimbabwe government is estimating its maize harvest at between 1.2 and 1.7 million tons. If the lower prediction figure is accurate, it will be only 500,000 tons short of the country's annual need. FEWSNET also said the government is insisting that regardless of the size of the harvest, it will be able to finance any shortfall. The network adds that the crop estimates need independent verification. But it says that Zimbabwe's only cereals trader, the government's Grain Marketing Board, cannot cope with the management and distribution of the nation's maize needs. FEWSNET's report warns that inflation running at more than 600 percent means that a majority of Zimbabweans are unable to eat properly and that donated food kept more than four million people alive in the past year. For the first time since independence in 1980, Zimbabwe needed massive food aid for more than two years. It was one of the largest emergency relief operations in the region in more than a decade. The United Nations says the disaster was caused by drought and massive disruptions of commercial agriculture after the Zimbabwe government seized 90 percent of productive white-owned land for resettlement. Most of the food distribution was handled by the United Nations World Food Program. WFP's Zimbabwe director, Kevin Farrell, said Friday the United Nations will do its own calculating of the food production harvest at the end of the month and expects to have its statistics ready in May. Mr. Farrell also said that if the Zimbabwe government's predictions were wrong, and if it asked for emergency assistance, the WFP would be ready to respond with small quantities later in the year.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 April
Fresh moves against Mudzuri
Augustine Mukaro
Government is making frantic efforts to force suspended Harare executive mayor Elias Mudzuri to resign his post so that fresh polls can be held at the same time as the general election in March next year, the Zimbabwe Independent heard this week. Highly placed sources in government said Local Government deputy minister Fortune Charumbira had been tasked to convince Mudzuri that resigning would be the best way forward. "Cabinet has already resolved that Mudzuri must be fired and he could be served with the dismissal letter anytime," sources said. "The only stumbling blocks are the court cases that are still pending. If he resigns the cases before the courts will automatically fall away and government would have found the best way to sideline him without justifying its actions in court." The sources said Charumbira made the overtures two weeks ago when he invited Mudzuri to his office. Mudzuri was reportedly spotted entering Charumbira's office and leaving 30 minutes later. Attempts to lure Mudzuri to quit come at a time when three Harare councillors have resigned from the opposition MDC. The MDC alleges the councillors were paid millions of dollars by Zanu PF as bribes for them to resign from the opposition. Contacted for comment Mudzuri said he could not discuss his meeting with Charumbira. "The meeting was a private one so I can't give you details," Mudzuri said. "However, to set the record straight, I am not considering resigning until the people who elected me ask me to do so. Above all I am prepared for a public hearing anytime as long as government avails the necessary documents for my defence." Mudzuri conceded that council service delivery has reached record low levels but blamed Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo for interference in the running of the city. "Chombo is stopping councillors from holding meetings at which they should make decisions on how service delivery could be improved," he said. Charumbira could not be reached for comment.
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From Xinhuanet (China), 16 April
Harare mayor from opposition sacked by Zimbabwean govt
Harare - The Zimbabwean government on Friday officially sacked the opposition mayor of Harare, Elias Mudzuri, followed the findings of an inquiry against him, state radio reported. The Harare mayor had been dismissed "followed the findings andrecommendations (of) an inquiry into allegations of misconduct leveled against Mudzuri," the report said. Mudzuri himself confirmed the news by telling the press that he had received a letter late on Friday afternoon from Minister ofLocal Government, Public Works and National Housing Ignatius Chombo, which said "the president (Robert Mugabe) has directed that you vacate your office with immediate effect." Mudzuri, as Harare's first ever opposition mayor, was elected in March 2002 and was suspended from his duty by the government inApril last year on allegations of misconduct, mismanagement, defiance of ministerial directives and support for two anti-government national strikes. The allegations leveled against Mudzuri also included failure to deliver and publicize a strategic turn-around plan for the city. Sekesayi Makwavarara, Mudzuri's deputy, became the acting mayorof Harare after Mudzuri was suspended. Both are elected as on the tickets of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 April
Kondozi seized in latest farm raid
Vincent Kahiya/Augustine Mukaro
As the government steps up its seizure of all productive farmland, police were on Tuesday sent in to Kondozi Farm in Odzi which has been the target of ministerial threats. Over Easter MP Roy Bennett's Charleswood Farm in Chimanimani was occupied by the army. The government announced this week that it was acquiring 49 sugar estates in the Lowveld which form part of Hippo Valley Estates. A humanitarian crisis is looming in the Odzi area after riot police and Zanu PF supporters kicked more than 5 000 farm workers and their families off the export-based Kondozi Farm. The raid came a week after Information Minister Jonathan Moyo threatened "decisive and final corrective measures" on Kondozi despite a high court ruling in the owners' favour. The desperate situation at Kondozi has touched the hearts of chiefs in Manicaland who yesterday met Vice-President Joseph Msika to express their displeasure at the eviction of the workers. A 70-member delegation made up of 28 chiefs and their headmen was at Munhumutapa Building yesterday seeking a reversal of the Kondozi evictions. Sources close to the deliberations said the chiefs demanded that the lucrative Kondozi estate should revert to the current owners led by Edwin Moyo. The chiefs are also said to have expressed displeasure at the treatment of displaced farm workers and their families.
The Zimbabwe Independent on Wednesday visited Odzi which was a scene of desolation as the evicted workers, including children and the elderly, sat on the roadside after being kicked off the farm by Zanu PF youths, riot police and officials from Arda. As the hundreds of workers gathered at Odzi business centre and along the road to Mapembe with their life's possessions, mostly crockery and rickety furniture, riot police wielding AK-47 assault rifles patrolled the area. Farm workers who spoke to the Independent said police beat them with rubber truncheons while children and the infirm were trampled in the melée. As other farm workers loaded their possessions onto farm trailers to unknown destinations, Mbuya Bhurandi, who is lame, could only watch in confusion the scenes unfolding around her. She can no longer walk but has been living on a small pension from the farm. She was forced out of the farm compound and dumped on the roadside near Fakamoto Store with her bundle of clothing, a metal drum and two blankets.
Meanwhile, government trucks and police vehicles made regular trips from the direction of Mutare to Kondozi where a guard told the Independent that Arda had taken over. "Arda is already operating the business," the guard said. "Arda personnel have taken over and are reaping the sweet corn and packaging other products preparing it for export as well as local markets. But for more details you can go to the main gate," the security guard said. Riot policemen at the main gate refused the Independent entry into the Kondozi business operations area. "You need to get clearance from the governor before we can allow you in," one police officer said after five minutes of scrutinising our reporter's accreditation card. On Tuesday morning police announced through loud hailers that those who wanted to work for Arda should register by yesterday. If they failed to do so that would be forced out of their homes. The deadline was later moved forward to Tuesday 12 noon when evictions began.
"The workers are not willing to work for Arda because they are aware that the parastatal is in financial problems," one worker who identified himself as Mapombere said. "Arda is proving to be a failure in its Transaau Nursery Estate next door to us here. It's failing to pay its workers who sometimes get meat and mealie-meal rations instead of money. For us to commit ourselves to work for such an organisation would be disastrous," he said. Kondozi farm was at the centre of controversy on Christmas Eve when Agriculture minister Joseph Made, Transport minister Christopher Mushohwe, and Arda CEO Joseph Motovanyika together with Arda employees occupied the farm. The property is registered as an EPZ and has a turnover of US$15 million and employs around 5 000 workers. The Independent heard that Kondozi management approached the Red Cross for food and accommodation for the farm workers but it has been prevented from helping out by the Manicaland provincial administrator. Moyo said last week that "action must and will be taken in the national interest to ensure Arda gets on with the business of making that farm more productive".
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 16 April
'Ghost'of genocide prevails
Wilson Johwa
At first glance Lupane seems no different from other rural districts in Zimbabwe. Its tranquillity, coupled with a canopy of luxuriant forest, gives no indication of the recurring droughts that plague the area. Situated 170km south-west of Bulawayo, it is a place where appearance masks, rather than reflects, reality. Ironically, it is the district’s lesser revealed life and issues that the media and politicians are now interested in. So, too, are observers and human-rights officials, who have zoomed in on the district as the upcoming parliamentary by-election - scheduled for May 15 and 16 - draws near. Their sudden examination of the constituency is likely to reveal, among other things, a broken community disheartened by poverty. Some residents seem bemused by the ruling party’s vigorous courtship, aimed at raking in votes. Their apathy is unlikely to affect the efforts of Zanu PF, the ruling party. The government of President Robert Mugabe is determined to win this one seat after it lost all eight in the province to the opposition in the 2000 parliamentary elections.
Since independence from Britain in 1980 the ruling party has been unable to count on the south-western province of Matabeleland North, of which Lupane is the capital, as part of its traditional rural support base. The key to understanding this phenomenon lies buried in the history of the early 1980s, when the new government launched a brutal counter-insurgency operation. It was aimed, officially, at flushing out renegade elements of a rival opposition party rooted in the province, and two adjoining ones. An estimated 20 000 men, women and children were killed, violated and tortured in a bizarre military operation. Several human rights organisations, such as the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Organisation, have described the massacres as "ethnic cleansing", targeting southern Zimbabwe’s minority Ndebele-speaking community. Such a military operation has had far-reaching effects, extending across generations and communities.
Catholic priest Gabriel Silonda says some Lupane residents are still battling to find their parents’ remains. Others, born during this period, have not been able to secure birth certificates because of missing fathers, or a belief that they were the offspring of the perpetrators of violence. The cleric says that pent-up anger is preventing villagers from carrying on with their lives. This, in turn, has allowed underdevelopment to take root. "People here need some form of healing because they have been brutalised," he adds. Unable to put the past behind them, many also feel they are yet to enjoy the fruits of independence. Activist David Nyathi says that among the major grievances is the exploitation of the district’s abundant timber resources. "We don’t know where it’s going," he says. "Since independence, there is nothing of a government project to brag about."
But there are some signs of development in the town, which has been demarcated as a "growth point" by authorities. While streets simmer in the midday heat, Chinese engineers stand next to the foundations of a building. It is destined to become a government office complex. Several blocks down, a registry office is nearing completion. But these efforts do not impress Nyathi, who says the impetus is the result of the opposition’s strengthening in the region. Late last year the government announced that it would build a provincial university, with the first intake expected later this year. The proposed institution has not been met with applause. Residents have dismissed it as a grandiose project, particularly as the district lacks quality schools to provide the university with students. The smell of fresh cement and the sense of hope, ignited by the construction, contrast sharply with pervading fear of election-related violence. In February local MP David Mpala succumbed to injuries he sustained months after being abducted and severely assaulted by Zanu PF members. His seat is now vacant and two candidates will be competing for it in next month’s by-election.
The election is coming a month after the opposition lost a similar one in its urban stronghold, where extreme violence, intimidation and alleged rigging characterised voting. However, Silonda says Lupane is a place where the ruling party does not need to rely on force to win because "they have a saleable candidate" who is widely respected. "He’s sensitive and no pushover, I could vote for him as a person," Silonda says. Political analyst John Makumbe says Lupane is a key seat for the ruling party. If they secure it, they will be one seat short of a two-thirds parliamentary majority, which the party will not hesitate to use to amend the Constitution to suit its needs, even before next March’s legislative elections. Makumbe says "the ghost" of the 1980s military operation will "seriously" affect the outcome of the election. But Zanu PF is no longer "scared" of it as before.
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From IRIN (UN), 16 April
'No action' vote by South bloc defeats human rights resolution
Johannesburg - A Zimbabwean human rights body has criticised an African-Asian grouping which shot down a draft resolution on the human rights situation in Zimbabwe for the second year at the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) in Geneva on Thursday. The draft resolution, mooted by the European Union and supported by the United States, would have expressed "deep concern" at what it said were "continuing violations of human rights in Zimbabwe, in particular politically motivated violence, including killings, torture, sexual and other forms of violence against women, incidents of arbitrary arrest, restrictions on the independence of the judiciary, and restrictions on the freedoms of opinion, expression, association and assembly". The proposed resolution also expressed concern over the "failure to allow independent civil society in Zimbabwe to operate without fear of harassment or intimidation" and "urged the Government of Zimbabwe to take all necessary measures to ensure that all human rights were promoted and protected".
However, an African group of 15 countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sierra Leone, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland and Nigeria backed a no-action motion on the draft resolution. The motion against the resolution was carried by 27 votes against 24. It received the support of 10 Asian countries, Cuba and the Russian Federation. "It is disheartening to note that a matter related to the human rights of the people of Zimbabwe has been reduced to the flexing of muscles between the global South and the global North," said Brian Kagoro, national chair of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum. "The tragedy of Zimbabwe is that there is so much haggling over the racial contortions of the crisis here. The fact that the lives of Zimbabweans have been reduced to mere votes makes the entire issue totally meaningless," he added. The Zimbabwean minister of foreign affairs, Stan Mudenge, was quoted in the official Herald newspaper as saying that the country "was pleased with the outcome of the vote and grateful to the international community and the country’s friends, particularly from Africa, for supporting it for the second year running".
During the debate on the no-action motion, Roger Menga, the DRC representative, said the Zimbabwean government had been "demonised because of its redressing of the uneven distribution of land that had been perpetuated since colonial days", a UNHCHR statement said. The African group urged the authors of the draft resolution "to open real negotiations with Zimbabwe and to avoid this path of confrontation. It was recognised that Zimbabwe had some problems, but those issues should be addressed nationally and, possibly, regionally or at the continental level," said the press release. The United States representative at the Commission, Richard Williamson, said no-action motions "amounted to approval of the human rights abuses being perpetrated by nations that disregarded the fundamental principles of the Commission. The world community should resolutely condemn the repressive policies of the [President] Mugabe regime that denied the Zimbabwean people their inalienable human rights, and should publicly express its support for and solidarity with the Zimbabwean people".
The Zimbabwean representative, Chitsaka Chipaziwa, was quoted in the UNHCHR release as saying that whenever a similar resolution had been mooted, the Commission had wisely rejected these "dreadful beasts dressed as cuddly lambs". He also said "any human rights problems in the country were not out of the ordinary and allegations on that front should not take up any more of the Commission's attention". Nigeria said it was committed to "a peaceful solution for the country, both at the Commonwealth and African level. All [countries] should join hands in the dialogue with Zimbabwe and avoid any action that might continue the isolationist trend related to the country. In the light of these views, and without prejudice to Nigeria's commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms, Nigeria would endorse the position of the African Group on the no-action motion". Nigeria, host of the Commonwealth summit in its capital, Abuja, in December 2003, was among the countries which voted for Zimbabwe's continued suspension from that body. Zimbabwe was initially suspended from the Commonwealth in 2002 following allegations that Mugabe had won the presidential elections by vote-rigging and intimidating the opposition.
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From The Guardian (UK), 17 April
Streak's rebels head for court
Telford Vice in Durban
The battle for Zimbabwean cricket threatened to rumble into the courts yesterday when the board and the rebel players began legal action against each other. Each has accused the other of breach of contract, and the parties have 21 days to settle their differences. If they do not the matter will be dragged into court, where the passions that have led to this impasse can only be inflamed. "This could get ugly," a player said with almost comical understatement. The first salvo in the legal war was fired yesterday morning after the former captain Heath Streak and his 12 rebels failed to turn up, as ordered, to a training session in Harare. "The next stage is letters to the individuals asking them to remedy their breach [of contract]," the Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) managing director Vince Hogg said after rain prevented the training session from going ahead.
A player said the rebels were dissuaded from an attempt at reconciliation by a conversation between the opposing lawyers. "We were going to pitch up at the practice, not to practise but to walk into Vince Hogg's office and have a discussion," the player said. "We were going to act in good faith to try and solve the crisis. But we received the letter at 8.45am saying that if we didn't arrive at 10am we would be in breach of contract. Our lawyer called their lawyer, who said the ZCU were not going to budge on any of our demands. So what was the point of us going there? They have closed the door on us." The players' lawyer, Chris Venturas, is confident they have a case. "I feel we have enough to allege a fundamental breach of their contract," he said. "It's an implicit term of a contract that you have a reasonable board of selectors. I believe there is consensus that that hasn't happened." The 13 players have refused to play in the imminent series against Sri Lanka, and on Thursday the ZCU named an inexperienced squad for the first of five one-day internationals, in Bulawayo on Tuesday. The expectation is that Sri Lanka will rout Tatenda Taibu's team, but if the visitors fail to do so it will reduce the rebels' bargaining power. "How those games go could make us or break us," a player said.
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From ZWNEWS, 18 April
Harare mayor fears for his safety
The deposed mayor of Harare, Elias Mudzuri, said last night that he had been tipped off "by a very reliable source", that the government intended to arrest him. "I have done nothing wrong, but just as with my dismissal which was illegal and groundless, being innocent is no longer any protection in this country," he said. Mudzuri, who has been given seven days to vacate the guest cottage in the grounds of the mayoral mansion in the Harare suburb of Gun Hill, said he had no where to go. "My own house in Milton Park where I was living before I became mayor is now rented out and I cannot remove the tenants at short notice," he said. "But now I have been told that the state is not even willing to wait the seven days. They want me out of the cottage now and I have good reason to believe that they will mount a raid here anytime now under cover of a search warrant. Their usual tactic is to plant something during the search and then carry out an arrest. If I am taken to jail, I really fear for my safety." Mudzuri said that, in the event of his arrest, he hoped that all those cared about freedom in Zimbabwe would campaign for his immediate release. "If I am arrested, I also hope that all regional leaders will also raise their voices in protest," he said. "There is no law here any more, but they do still sometimes react to pressure."
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From SAPA, 17 April
Mugabe dismisses Harare's opposition mayor
Harare - President Robert Mugabe has "dismissed" the elected opposition mayor of the capital city of Harare on allegations of corruption and abuse of power, the state press reported on Saturday. A letter from Mugabe to mayor Elias Mudzuri said he had been directed to "vacate your office with immediate effect," according to the state-controlled daily Herald newspaper. Mudzuri was elected in March 2002 as the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's candidate, and swept 75 percent of the ballot, as residents voted in a new council in which all but one of the 46 councillors were supporters of the pro-democracy opposition. However, almost immediately he came under constant harassment by Mugabe's government. His council was denied loans by state financial institutions, he was barred from addressing meetings, and early last year was arrested, assaulted by police and held for a weekend in police cells, without any charges. His dismissal followed a hearing by commission in which he was refused permission to see details of the charges against him. When he refused to attend, the commission, led by a leading figure in Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party, declared that he was "not fit to be mayor." Another six MDC councillors were fired by local government minister Ignatius Chombo late last year. Mudzuri was suspended on allegations of corruption last year, around the same time that he began an investigation into massive corruption under the previous 20-year administration of Harare by Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party, including the handing out of valuable real estate to members of the ruling elite, including chief justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, and the issue of council tenders to members of Mugabe's family.
"People are not fooled by this campaign against Mudzuri," said Mike Davies, chairman of the Combined Harare Residents' Association. "Every time he tried to address the situation, they would stomp on him. But the real story is that this is the end of the road for local government as a route to democracy. Zanu PF just shut everything down." The MDC has overwhelmingly won nearly every parliamentary and local government election in the country's urban areas since 2000, a pattern seen as evidence of the severe unpopularity of the ruling party after nearly two-and-a-half decades of corrupt and autocratic rule by the 80-year-old Mugabe. What was once one of Africa's most successful economies is now stricken by famine, has the highest inflation and the fastest shrinking gross domestic product in the world. About a quarter of the population has fled abroad. In the last three years, however, Zanu PF has mounted a campaign of violent repression to seize back the territory it had lost to MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and his party. A parliamentary by-election three weeks ago in a Harare constituency, regarded as a safe MDC seat, was won by Zanu PF after a weekend of bloodshed and allegations of blatant fraud. An MDC supporter was shot dead, and witnesses said they identified a government minister as the killer.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 18 April
The Wasteland
State instigates more violent raids on prime Zimbabwean farmland, leaving thousands of workers destitute
Sunday Times Foreign Desk
Mbuya Bhurandi sat dazed and traumatised on a patch of veld, some of her meagre belongings scattered around her. With nowhere to go and nothing to eat, the grandmother was a pitiful sight: one of the latest victims of Robert Mugabe's so-called land reform. Bhurandi is one of hundreds of farm labourers left homeless and abandoned as state-instigated raids on Zimbabwe's troubled farming community resurface. This week alone a government minister seized one of the most lucrative farms on the continent and targeted 49 sugar estates. Government agents, backed by anti-riot police brandishing AK-47 assault rifles, grabbed the Kondozi farm in Odzi district, about 220km southeast of Harare. Kondozi is a 224ha farm which produces and packages horticultural products for export, with an annual turnover in the region of R96-million. A senior manager said the eviction was violent and ruthless. He said the scene was reminiscent of those at the height of farm invasions three years ago when more than 350 000 farmworkers were left homeless. "An advance party of state agents came to the farm last week on Thursday accompanied by anti-riot police," he said. "They ordered the managers out. On Good Friday they came again to evict farmworkers from the compounds." Armed police beat farmworkers with truncheons during the raid, resulting in a stampede that saw children and elderly people being trampled. After the eviction, the farmworkers were left on the roadside, forced to live in the open without food and water.
The Easter-holiday raid was similar to the Christmas Day invasion of the same farm last year. Then, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made invaded the farm, claiming it belonged to the state-owned Agricultural and Rural Development Authority. Made and his accomplices threw a big party at the farm and declared it theirs. They said labourers who accepted their authority could stay on the land. This week they broke that promise. Efforts by the Red Cross to intervene in the Kondozi crisis were thwarted by Manicaland provincial authorities. Asked by journalists earlier in the week about the takeover, government spokesman George Charamba's only comment was: "So, are British supermarkets going to be short of beans? We need the land." Alarmed by the plight of the farmworkers and their dependents, traditional leaders arranged an emergency meeting with Vice-President Joseph Msika. A 70-member delegation of chiefs and headmen met Msika on Thursday in Harare and it was resolved that the invasion had to stop. Sources said Msika told senior government officials to stop inciting chaos at the farm. He ordered the police and army to stop interfering in the situation. However, Zanu PF militants on Friday refused to budge and mounted roadblocks on routes to the farm.
Msika was understood to have also ordered state security agents to vacate Charleswood Estate in Chimanimani which Manicaland provincial governor Lieutenant-General Mike Nyambuya has been trying to grab from Roy Bennett, an opposition Movement for Democratic Change MP. At least five Charleswood Estate farmworkers were assaulted severely when soldiers invaded the farm on Good Friday. Reports said the victims were denied access to medical attention. More than 150 soldiers, aided by riot police and dogs, took part in an early-morning raid which resembled a military offensive into enemy territory. Meanwhile, Mugabe's government said it would seize 49 sugar estates in the Lowveld around the huge Hippo Valley Estates, owned by mining giant Anglo American. Authorities have been accused of inciting trouble in the area in a bid to justify compulsory acquisition of the estates. The government also said it would take over by force "idle equipment" which belonged to evicted white commercial farmers. The targeted equipment included 140 tractors, 14 trailers, 3 262 irrigation pipes, 34 implements and seven combine harvesters. Some equipment has reportedly been pillaged from farms by ministers and senior Zanu PF officials. Ministers are refusing to return seized farms and equipment despite official pressure for them to do so. Farmers say equipment worth tens of billions of dollars has been looted and vandalised during the protracted farm disturbances.
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From The Weekend Argus (SA), 17 April
At the mercy of Mugabe's secret police
By Douglas Carew
The South African tourists who endured a day of hell in Zimbabwe where Robert Mugabe's secret police interrogated them as suspected mercenaries, have given a gripping account of their ordeal. The official line from the Zimbabwean government is that the tourists, mainly from Cape Town, were held for questioning because they did not have permits to operate motorised rubberducks in the environmentally sensitive Mana Pools National Park. But two of the tourists told the Weekend Argus that it was clear that they were held on suspicion of being on a mission to rescue 67 men arrested in Zimbabwe last month on charges they were mercenaries plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea. The nine South African tourists were on a 2 400km trip along the length of the Zambezi River from its source in Zambia to its mouth in Mozambique when they were rounded up by Zimbabwean National Parks employees armed with AK-47s on Wednesday, March 31. The following day, two of the team were left to look after the boats and equipment while the remaining seven were taken away and subjected to repeated rounds of interrogations and human rights abuses by various officials, including members of the secret police. The trip was essentially an adventure holiday for the tourists but it was also meant to raise funds to combat malaria in Zimbabwe. The tourists arrived back in Cape Town on Sunday, April 11 and the official line from Old Mutual, one of the trip's sponsors, was that the team had suffered a "minor setback when they were detained by police for a short period in Zimbabwe". But a Weekend Argus interview with one of the tourists uncovered far more disturbing details of how seven of them had endured hours of interrogations by armed men who denied them their basic human rights. One of them, Cape Town lawyer Bob Groeneveld, now safely back with his wife and three young children in Hout Bay, made it clear that all their permits had been in order. Expedition leader Andrew Weinberg confirmed that the interrogations had nothing to do with permits for motorised boats. "We were held on suspicion of being mercenaries," Weinberg said.
The trip started in Zambia and turned into a holiday from hell when the team neared the Mana Pools in north-east Zimbabwe. "An hour before we reached the pools we were approached by two barefooted National Parks guys who appeared out of the bushes. They carried AK-47s and asked to see our permits. We showed them and they said fine," Groeneveld said. But when the team got about 100m from the campsite at the pools, they were met by a boat carrying four National Parks men with AK-47s. "They asked us to follow them in and we didn't think too much about it." Again they were asked to show their permits and one of the National Parks employees said he would have to contact his superiors but the phone lines were down. The following day five men arrived including one "in a big uniform with lots of badges". "He was the local chief of police and said we had to go to Chirundu (on the Zambian border) for interviews." The team initially said no, but in the end agreed that seven of them would accompany the police chief and two members would remain and look after the equipment. "Then 17 more guys with AKs arrived and at that point we realised things did not look rosy. One of the guys in our team had a digital camera and I told him to take photos of all our permits so that if they disappeared we would have proof that we had them." The seven were made to sit on the floor of a truck for the three-hour trip. "At about 6pm the questioning started. I asked if we could phone the South African Embassy and an attorney but they said 'no'." At one point an interrogator slapped Groeneveld on the back and said there was no need to worry because the National Parks officials had made a mistake. "They said they would arrange transport back to our gear. We waited an hour and nothing happened. Then we were told there would be more interviews at Karoi (a town two hours away on the road to Harare)." At no stage were the seven told why they were being held. "When we asked they would just shrug their shoulders." The seven were then told that the secret police were coming to fetch them. "It was about 9pm now and things were escalating. They did not know that we had cellphones so I phoned a colleague in Cape Town (at the law firm Fairbridge Arderne and Lawton) and told her that I thought we were being held on suspicion of being mercenaries." The police then confiscated the cellphones, except for one that Athol Moult slipped into the side of his shoe.
At 10.15pm three men in black trenchcoats arrived. "They looked exactly the way bad guys do in the movies." The seven were packed into the back of a Land Rover for a two-hour journey to Karoi in the rain. "We were dressed in shorts and T-shirts and froze our b*lls off." At Karoi they were herded into a room. "They then took us out, two at a time, to a room for questioning. Then they took four of us, loaded us on the back of a bakkie with about 13 guys in trench coats and drove off. This was two in the morning and we got no explanations." Groeneveld expected the worst. "I quietly said a few prayers and made my peace." The bakkie stopped outside a building with three interrogation rooms. "We were taken in one at a time and questioned by five guys." At every place of interrogation they had seen posters detailing the rights of prisoners, but when Groeneveld stopped to read a poster he was told: "That doesn't apply to you. Don't read it." There were several rounds of interrogations and at one point an interrogator said: "This is s**t. I should be in bed with my wife." At 4am a second group of interrogators arrived. "We endured another series of questions, especially about any military training. When and how did you serve? Your favourite weapon? That kind of crap."
At 5am the seven were told that everything was OK and they would be released at 6am. "It was all smiles." Again nothing happened. "The next thing military intelligence guys arrived from Harare. An evil bunch. I asked if they suspected us of being mercenaries and they said 'yes'." The interrogations continued and by 10am the seven still had no indication that anyone in the outside world had any idea where they were. "We were told we could be held for 30 days and not to worry because we only had 29 to go." Then a young farmer walked into the police station and Groeneveld managed to slip him a business card. "I asked him to tell my firm to get us an attorney." Groeneveld also decided to risk using Moult's cellphone. He made the 30m walk to the toilet under armed guard and then tried to SMS the law firm. He was unable to send the SMS and decided to turn the phone off. "This guy with an AK-47 was standing right outside the toilet door and I figured the worst thing that could happen was for the phone to ring." Another farmer arrived, took one look at the state of the seven lying on the floor of the police station and went to buy them Cokes and pies. "He was a real life-saver." Groeneveld also managed to slip a business card to this farmer. Then four more interrogators arrived from Harare and the questioning started again. "These guys would circle you for three or four minutes, not saying anything. Then they would ask your name and give you the evil eye again for several minutes." In the meantime the two farmers had both called the law firm and a Zimbabwean attorney arrived at 1pm and told the seven that the firm had launched an application in an Harare court to have them released. At 2pm there was a call from authorities in Harare to release the men. "But the police chief just kicked our attorney out of his office and out of the police station. And there we sat." About 90 minutes later the attorney returned to say the South African High Commissioner had been denied permission to leave Harare to visit the seven.
Everything changed at 3.30pm when an official fax came through informing the police chief to release them. "He gave us this long speech saying it was all a misunderstanding. He hoped we would visit again and that there were no hard feelings." The men were also asked to pay an admission of guilt fine for not having permits for their motorised rubber ducks. "We said forget it. We had been through seven rounds of questioning and we had done everything by the book. The police chief said 'if you don't want to sign that's fine' and handed us back our passports and cellphones." The seven were packed onto the back of a bakkie and taken to their camp at the pools where they arrived at 9pm and were re-united with the two remaining team members. "We went to the National Parks warden and said we would be leaving the next morning. We asked him if he wanted us to paddle out of the pools but he said 'no problem, just go'. All that s**t about motorised boats was just that - s**t." The nine men set off at 6.30am and ultimately finished their expedition at the mouth of the Zambezi about 250km north of Beira. They flew to Johannesburg and then back home to their families in Cape Town on Sunday. Groeneveld put the Zimbabwean authorities' heavy-handed approach down to fears that people would try to rescue the alleged mercenaries. "I guess tourists in Zimbabwe do look suspicious, because who the hell would go on a holiday there now."
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From BBC News, 17 April
Zimbabwe ease deadline
Zimbabwe cricket authorities have set a deadline of 8 May for a group of dissident players to return. The group are boycotting the home one-day series against Sri Lanka, demanding captain Heath Streak's reinstatement. The Zimbabwe Cricket Union has backed down on an earlier threat that "action would be taken" if they did not show up for practice on Friday. Streak was replaced by 20-year-old Tatenda Taibu after calling for changes to the selection panel. The group sent a statement to the ZCU on Friday, claiming Streak had been "unlawfully dismissed" and accusing officials of a "vindictive and high-handed" approach. "We are patriotic Zimbabweans and are very honoured to play for our country," the statement adds. "However, we cannot carry on being treated as we have been and tolerate the abuse we have been subjected to any longer. ZCU chief executive Vince Hogg on Saturday denied British newspaper reports that the two sides have each begun legal proceedings. Meanwhile a second-string Zimbabwe squad arrived in Bulawayo to prepare for Tuesday's opening match against Sri Lanka. The tourists held their first warm-up session at the Queens Sports Club on Saturday. Former Test player Mpumelelo 'Pommie' Mbangwa is believed to have refused to serve as a selector. He has the backing of the rebel players but is unwilling to give up work as a TV commentator.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 18 April
More controversy in Zengeza murder case
By Valentine Maponga
The controversy surrounding the death of Francis Chinozvina - an MDC activist shot in the chest three weeks ago during the recent Zengeza by election - deepened last week amid revelations that his family was kicked out of a Harare courtroom where the man charged with murdering him was appearing. Francis's relatives, including his father and two siblings, were ordered out of Court Six at the Harare Magistrates' Court on the basis that they were not related to the accused, an Acturus man identified as Ernest Matsotso. Matsotso is accused of shooting to death 22-year-old Francis Chinozvina during the Zengeza by-election. He appeared in the packed courtroom at around 2:30 PM on Tuesday and everyone who was in court - except Matsotso's relatives - were ordered out by an office orderly. A bitter Arthur Chinozvina, the father of the slain MDC supporter, said he had arrived at the Harare Magistrates' Court along with Francis's young brother and sister early on Tuesday for proceedings to start. "We arrived at Rotten Row Courts and waited in court for more than six hours but to our surprise we were told to get out without hearing anything," said Chinozvina. He said as everyone went out of court he remained seated on the basis that it was his son who was allegedly killed by the accused, but the court orderly was uncompromising. "He asked us one by one how we were related to the accused. I tried to argue with him that I was no ordinary relative of Francis but his real father. He wouldn't hear any of that," said Chinozvina. "Why are they now keeping trying to keep this trial a secret? I just want to know who killed my son," said Chinozvina.
Matsotso was arrested by police two weeks ago amid controversy over who actually shot and killed the MDC youth who was at the house of the party's losing candidate for Zengeza, James Makore. Matsotso is being charged with murder, attempted murder and contravening the Firearms Act. He first appeared before Magistrate Peter Matsanhure, for an initial remand which Chinozvina and many other people were allowed to witness. Sources who were in court however later told The Standard that Matsotso on Tuesday disowned his initial statement that he made to the police admitting involvement in the shooting. "Matsotso told the court that he had made that statement under duress and also before he had consulted his lawyer. He said he fired into the air and is not sure if he shot anyone in the process," said a source. Chinozvina said the move by the court official to chase them away from Matsotso's trial had made the family more suspicious about how Francis died. "Justice is not being done by arresting only one suspect because we know two different guns were fired from the car and how are they going to fully investigate the case with only one suspect," he said.
Chinozvina told The Standard that soon after Francis was killed some police officers from St Mary's Police Station - led by an Inspector Mbedzi - assured him that it would not be long before the perpetrator was brought to book. "They told me that they had taken some statements from five witnesses who were present at the scene of the shooting. They told me it was going to be very easy to find my son's killer," Chinozvina said. He said following the shooting, his family now lived in fear and no longer felt free to venture outside their home. "Things just changed after my son was shot and killed. There is the feeling that any one of us can be attacked anytime just like what they did to my son," he said. Gift Chimanikire, MDC's deputy secretary general, said the opposition party had now taken some of the witnesses who signed affidavits to a safe house as precautionary measure and for their safety. "We took them to safe houses after they were threatened with death by some unidentified people," Chimanikire told The Standard yesterday. He said Makore had also filled a petition in court challenging the results of the Zengeza by-election won by Zanu PF's Christopher Chigumba.
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From SABC News, 18 April
Mugabe calls on Zimbabweans to close ranks
Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, marked the country's 24th anniversary of independence today with a grim refusal to acknowledge any change in political direction toward relieving the economic and humanitarian disaster enveloping the once-prosperous nation. Instead, he delivered a call to Zimbabweans to reject the Western world, which he said was waging a "bloodthirsty" onslaught to "recolonise" the country, and even suggested that traditional medicine could be used to deal with the crisis. "Zimbabwe will never be a colony again, never, never, never," he said during his 30-minute speech before a near-capacity crowd in the 60 000-seat National Sports Stadium on the capital's outskirts. "We will not compromise our principles of freedom and national sovereignty, no matter who gets upset," he said in an address that was interspersed with derogatory references to Tony Blair, the British prime minister, and George Bush, the American president. "Tony Blair thinks he owns Zimbabwe," he said amid a constant loud hubbub from a disinterested audience that at times drowned out his speech. "We are asking, didn't he do geography at school? We belong to Africa."
His address came as the country entered a quarter century under his rule with the country devastated by economic collapse, subjected to international isolation, with half its 12 million population starving, and in the grip of violent political repression meant to crush his opponents and to ensure he stays in power. He attempted to put a positive spin on the crisis, asserting that inflation - running at over 600% - was "slowly beginning to decline," and read out a long list of promises to improve conditions, from housing to health care. He declared that "affordable anti-retroviral drugs (for HIV/Aids sufferers) are now available in our hospitals," contradicting a report today in the state-controlled Sunday Mail which quoted health ministry officials and Aids activists as saying that the drugs for the widely publicised campaign "have not even arrived yet." Yet, when he diverted from his written speech and spoke off-the-cuff in the vernacular, Shona, he indicated some acknowledgement of the national crisis, including the exodus of an officially estimated 3.5 million, mostly to South Africa and Britain. "Some of our people are running away to wash the bodies of elderly people in England," he said, referring to the large numbers of Zimbabweans there who work as carers for the elderly. He added: "Yet we are giving farms to people here. What are you running away for? Zimbabwe's problems can only be solved by Zimbabweans, not by foreigners," he said. "We have got medicine to sort out our problems, we have got traditional healers."
Mugabe rejected outside intervention by organisations like the United Nations, declaring that "we will never allow our membership of these organisations to be used against our interests." The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said it had received invitations from the government for two "senior officials" of the party to attend. Paul Themba Nyathi, the spokesperson for MDC, said Morgan Tsvangirai, the party leader, would not attend, but attempts were being made "to ensure the party is represented at the highest level." The stadium was dotted with posters that declared "Viva President Mugabe," and others that denounced foreign currency dealing and black market trading as "the axis of evil," a reference to the government's controversial crackdown on financial corruption. "These fraudulent and dishonest people are the real enemies of our people," Mugabe said. "No person who robbed country this should be allowed to get away with it." Critics say that the "anti-corruption drive" which has brought down a clutch of major financial institutions, is being used to target figures within the ruling Zanu PF party who are seen as challenging Mugabe's authority. There were significantly more people at the stadium than in previous years, but it was apparent that many were bused in for the event. Scores of buses, some with passengers on their roofs, were seen offloading people outside the stadium.
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From The Sunday Mirror, 18 April
Made in farm equipment mystery
Takunda Maodza
Controversy surrounds the fate of farming equipment worth billions of dollars that have been stoc |
