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Archived News
20th July 2004
Churches raise doubts on fair Zimbabwe poll
Zim archbishop appointment 'not political'
Mugabe bans red in curb on opposition
Nkala case ends
"Patriotic guards" for Mugabe and other dignitaries
Zimbabwe's colour TV may also ban pink, purple, white and green
Unmasking the double-dealer who blew whistle on Mawere
Zim never set deadline for AU report -State
Desperate refugees pull down electric fence
SADC tightens screws on Zim
Zim inflation slows down
Journalists suffer in the wake of newspaper shutdowns
M&G is Zim government's latest target
Zanu PF to rope in regional parties for victory
Zuma tantrum hints at tougher Zim stand
Ex-army officer to run polls
Sunshine City falls into darkness
Zimbabwe police in turmoil
Hunger claims 12 more in Bulawayo
Government denies top officials own more than one farm
Runaway prices hit hard in Zimbabwe
Burial: To high a price to pay in Zim
Ranger implicated in $55m bribery
Mugabe said to use law as political tool
Dictator sues British 'coup plotters'
Archbishop blasts African Union for pandering to Mugabe
Zanu PF chefs in dirty media war
Zimbabwe charities face being outlawed
Daughter fears for parents on mission
Danville doctor awaits arraignment in Africa
Multiple farm owner's defiance deep-seated
Zimbabwe consumer inflation at 394.7%
NGOs slam moves to introduce tighter controls
A bounty of food relief sits unused in Zimbabwe
Kwashiorkor on the increase
Zimbabwe athlete sings own anthem
Nothing wrong with timber gift to Mugabe: Abdullah
Goldenberg scandal: How Kenya lied to the UN
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From Business Day (SA), 14 July
Churches raise doubts on fair Zimbabwe poll
The South African Council of Churches (SACC) added its voice to growing disquiet about human rights abuses in Zimbabwe yesterday, saying it was doubtful next year's general elections in that country would be free and fair. The SACC's concern about the situation in Zimbabwe follows criticisms by two other top southern African clerics and signals the church's intention to play a bigger role in pressuring the South African government to act. SACC spokesman Reverend Joe Mdhlela said yesterday the church was particularly perturbed by the suppression of press freedom in Zimbabwe. He said if the current "muscling" of the opposition by the ruling Zanu PF continued unabated, next year's election outcome would lose credibility. The SACC yesterday discussed a report compiled by a delegation it sent to Zimbabwe last year to study the political and economic situation in that country. The report is said to be filled with detailed incidents of human rights abuses. The findings of the report, together with other resolutions, will be announced today. Catholic archbishop, Cardinal Wilfred Napier and his Zimbabwean counterpart, Bishop Pius Ncube, recently hit out at SA's government and the African Union for failing to take tough action against the repressive Zimbabwean government. Meanwhile, Mdhlela also said SA should move fast to resettle its landless people. He said the Diepsloot crisis a week ago was symptomatic of the frustration of landless people in the country. The church, which owns vast tracts of land, also had to relinquish ownership for this purpose, Mdhlela said.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 13 July
Zim archbishop appointment 'not political'
Harare - The Vatican's diplomatic envoy in Zimbabwe has dismissed charges that the appointment of the new archbishop of Harare, Robert Ndlovu, a member of the minority Ndebele ethnic group, is "irregular" and "politically driven". The appointment of 49-year-old Ndlovu, currently bishop of Hwange in western Zimbabwe, to the highest clerical position in the country has been criticized by government figures and even senior churchmen, who argue that the new archbishop should be a member of the majority Shona ethnic group from central and eastern Zimbabwe. The state-controlled daily Herald newspaper said on Monday that unnamed "influential Catholics", including an unidentified cabinet minister, had written to Father Edward Adams, the Papal Nunciature in Harare, to protest the appointment of Archbishop Ndlovu. The newspaper said there was suspicion that the appointment was "unprocedural". However, in a statement published in Tuesday's Herald, Adams said Ndlovu's appointment "has nothing to do with politics" and that "he comes to Harare in obedience of the express wish of the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II". The move is seen by many as an effort by the pontiff to distance the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe from the regime of President Robert Mugabe, who draws the bulk of his support from the Shona majority. The second archdiocese of Bulawayo, in western Zimbabwe, is headed by the fiery Archbishop Pius Ncube, also an Ndebele and among Mugabe's fiercest critics. Critics have accused the church of being largely silent over human rights abuses in the country, including the massacre of at least 20 000 Ndebele civilians by Mugabe's security forces in western Zimbabwe during the early 1980s.
Ndlovu succeeds former Harare archbishop Patrick Chakaipa who died last year, and who was regarded as a confidante of Mugabe's. He was instrumental in obtaining a special papal concession for the 80-year-old leader to marry his wife, a divorcee 40 years his junior. Ndlovu is regarded as an uncontroversial, humble figure. "He is deeply spiritual, very prudent, very mature and very transparent," Ncube said shortly after Ndlovu's appointment. "He will not make headlines." However, an indication that Ndlovu is more likely to take a more critical position against the government came earlier this month when his office issued a public apology over a group of nuns who had attempted to seize a white-owned farm. In remarks seen as critical of Mugabe's campaign to drive nearly all the country's white farmers off their land, the new archbishop insisted that land redistribution should be "in accordance with the laws of the country, transparent and above all, just." Friar Nigel Johnson, an outspoken Jesuit priest in the western city of Bulawayo who has been arrested for taking part in demonstrations against the government's human rights abuses, has said that the Vatican "might have got it right and appointed the best man for the job".
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From The Independent (UK), 14 July
Mugabe bans red in curb on opposition
President Robert Mugabe's government has banned the colour red from Zimbabwe television because it is the symbol of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The MDC encourages its supporters to flash football-style red cards, to tell Mr Mugabe that he is no longer wanted on Zimbabwe's political field. But as Mr Mugabe prepares for next year's elections, the Ministry of Information and Publicity has ordered the state broadcaster not to show the colour red. The immediate casualty is the red ribbon, the internationally recognised HIV and Aids awareness symbol. Producers of Zimbabwe's weekly HIV and Aids discussion programme, Perspectives, ordered participants to remove their red ribbons before filming could begin, according to a report carried by the Zimbabwe News Service, a news agency created by journalists left jobless by Mr Mugabe's decision to ban three newspapers. "We were told to take off our red ribbons. When we asked why, we were told it's because of the colour," Martha Tholanah, an Aids activist, said. Zimbabwe Television workers, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals, confirmed the incident. A producer said they were under instructions "not to give unnecessary publicity to the opposition" by using the colour red on screen. The ZTV workers told The Independent that they were not allowed to wear red before going on screen. "Unfortunately, they [the government] did not give me money to renew my wardrobe," said one staffer. The ZTV is the sole broadcaster and independent broadcasting is banned in Zimbabwe.
In a separate development, Mr Mugabe's government, which faces acute foreign currency shortages and a collapsing health sector, has introduced ox-drawn ambulances to ferry ill people to health centres in rural areas. The MDC said this was yet another indication of the "continuing collapse of institutions". An MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi said: "As long as we have Robert [Mugabe] and his gang around, we will not only end at ox-drawn ambulances, but we will see further deterioration in all aspects of life ... Mugabe has taken us back to the stone age." Modern ambulances are a scarce commodity at Zimbabwe's state hospitals which haven't got the most basic drugs except the Panadol painkiller. Most hospitals have gone without ambulances for years. South Africa's top Roman Catholic bishop, Cardinal Wilfred Napier said he was puzzled as to why South Africa was not considering sanctions against Zimbabwe when these were very effective in ending apartheid. Bishop Napier said he did not understand why President Thabo Mbeki's government was not prepared to impose sanctions. He said no progress had been made in attempting to negotiate with P W Botha, the second-last white president, during apartheid. Most churches had thus supported the African National Congress's call for sanctions against South Africa. "Sanctions in South Africa brought us a quicker end to the oppression," said Bishop Napier, who is the president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference.
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From ZWNEWS, 14 July
Nkala case ends
The trial of six opposition supporters accused of the murder of war veterans ' leader Cain Nkala finally closed in the Bulawayo High Court yesterday. The six - Sonny Masera, Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, Army Zulu, Remember Moyo, Kethani Sibanda, and Sazini Mpofu - have been on trial since February 2003. Stephen Musona, the state's lawyer, closed the case for the prosecution, and the defendants' lawyers immediately applied for charges against the accused to be dropped. The state did not oppose this application with regard to five of the men - Masera, Dulini-Ncube, Zulu, Moyo, and Mpofu. A lawyer who has been following the case said that the state's lawyers had effectively admitted defeat by not opposing the applications for acquittal. "They could have dropped the charges themselves, but no-one from the prosecution wants to be seen doing that, so they will leave it to the judge." The state's lawyers, however, continued to argue that Kethani Sibanda had a case to answer. The evidence against Sibanda rests largely on a broken shovel handle found on Nkala's grave, which the state says is linked to Sibanda. Sibanda's lawyer argued that this evidence was planted: "The State cannot expect the court to put accused on his defence, when it had made a finding in the trial within a trial that the police conducted themselves in a shameless way. The Attorney General's Office should have abandoned this case months ago." Justice Sandra Mungwira, who is hearing the case with two assessors, delivered a damning judgement in March this year in a trial-within-a-trial to determine the admissibility of police evidence. In that judgement, she labelled some state witnesses as liars, others as patently unreliable, and the state's evidence as a whole as a work of fiction. Justice Mungwira reserved judgement to a later date.
The Cain Nkala saga dates back over four years to 19 June 2000, a week before the last parliamentary elections, when Patrick Nabanyama, an opposition polling agent for opposition MP David Coltart, was abducted from his home in Nketa, Bulawayo by war veterans. Nabanyama has not been seen since his abduction, and it is now almost certain that he was murdered. The war veterans, whose identities are all known, were arrested in 2000 and charged with kidnapping. In 2001, the State changed the charges to murder. One of those accused, Cain Nkala - then chairman of the war veterans in Bulawayo - protested himself innocent of murder, and there were strong indications at the time that he was threatening to reveal who, at a senior level, had ordered the kidnapping and subsequent disappearance of Nabanyama. On 6 November 2001, Nkala himself was abducted from his home in circumstances very similar to Nabanyama's abduction. The police began an urgent investigation, and on 11 November several MDC workers were arrested. That evening, vice president Msika appeared on state television accusing Coltart of being behind the disappearance of Nkala. Simon Spooner, Coltart's campaign manager, was arrested the next morning. He subsequently spent five weeks in solitary confinement. On the morning of 13 November, two of the MDC workers who had been arrested - Khethani Sibanda and Sazini Mpofu - were shown on state television "indicating" to the police the place where Nkala's body had been buried. On 15 November, a private aircraft in which Coltart was travelling from Harare to Bulawayo was forced down, and Coltart and the pilot were detained for some time by armed police and members of the CIO. Coltart and his family were forced to leave their home after threats that it would be attacked.
The following day, a mob of Zanu PF militia, led by a former Zanu PF cabinet minister, Dumiso Dabengwa, who had lost his Bulawayo seat in the 2000 parliamentary elections, and escorted by police, marched through the streets of Bulawayo. The MDC offices in the city were burnt down. The fire brigade was prevented by the mob from attending the blaze. MDC supporters retaliated, clashing with riot police and setting fire to a building belonging to a senior Zanu PF official, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu. Another Bulawayo opposition MP, Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, was arrested. He was held in atrocious conditions, denied treatment for his diabetic condition, and as a result later had to have one of his eyes surgically removed. In May 2002 the remaining war veterans who had abducted Nabanyama were put on trial for murder. In court, their defence was that while they had kidnapped Nabanyama, they had then handed him over to Nkala. Since Nabanyama's body has never been found, since Nkala was dead, and since there was no other evidence linking them to Nabanyama's murder (as opposed to his kidnapping) they were acquitted. They were never again charged with kidnapping Nabanyama.
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From Zim Online, 14 July
"Patriotic guards" for Mugabe and other dignitaries
Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, other senior government officials and diplomats will in future be guarded by youth militias from Zanu PF's National Youth Training Service. Police officials said, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has replaced over 300 policemen from the Police Protection Unit (PPU) with youth militias. Zim Online interviews with several inside sources have confirmed that the police have removed virtually all officers in the unit from their posts to create a loyalist guard out of the militia youth instead. "Most of these police officers in the PPU were seen as being of questionable allegiance to the President and the government," a senior police official, who cannot be named, told Zim Online. Police officials said the move was a result of a "serious security paranoia" that had gripped Mugabe who also recently ordered that members of his Zanu PF politburo, the party's highest policy implementation body, be searched before going into meetings. "This (the PPU) is a sensitive unit and the highest authorities want it to be manned by people of unquestionable loyalty," the official said.
Highly placed police sources said a specially recruited and trained group of youth militia underwent training at a police camp situated at a farm in Shamva, about 100km north-east of Harare last year. The first batch of 250 underwent training for six-months from January to June last year while a similar number undertook their training from July to December last year. The sources said there were plans to send some of the youths for further training in "friendly countries such as Libya". Police recruits are normally trained at Tomlinson Depot in Harare. Sources said the clean up was spearheaded by PPU commandant Winston Changara. "Changara personally oversaw the whole recruitment, training and deployment exercise. He said he wanted patriotic people in his unit," said another officer. "Normally policemen are deployed to various units, including the PPU upon completion of their training or by transfer, but Changara said he wanted to do his own selection. Basically Changara is suspicious of policemen who came through the normal channels".
Changara refused to comment on the matter and referred questions to police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena. "You want me to talk to the media about the operations of such a sensitive department. You must be crazy. Anyway phone Bvudzijena," said Changara before he slammed down the phone. Bvudzijena dismissed the story: "That is ridiculous. We are not targeting anyone and there is no special recruitment or transfer process for anyone. Police officers can be transferred to any station in Zimbabwe at any time. That has always been the case, " he said. "You should also know that it is the prerogative of the police commanders to transfer their manpower at any given time. The command itself can also be transferred. It is a normal police procedure." According to police sources, the youths were first deployed in other units to familiarize them with "normal police operations" before being deployed to the PPU. "The kind of training we gave them was different from what we normally teach at Tomlinson Depot. The emphasis here was on firearms handling and physical training while theoretical subjects such as Law and policing procedures were peripheral. So they had to be initiated on other police duties before commencing duty at the PPU," another police source said. "The idea was also not to deploy the whole 500 youths to the PPU at once as this would have caused logistical problems. There has to be some continuity," said the police source, who was involved in both the selection and training of the militia youths.
He said recruits applied for the training through the various national youth training centres. He added that the selection criteria had been heavily biased on ethnic grounds with the majority of recruits coming from Zanu PF stronghold provinces Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland West. "We recruited only five Ndebeles for the two training programmes and out of these, two dropped out, possibly because of tribally influenced harassment," he said. Mugabe has in the past been accused of creating a loyalist youth terror squad through the national youth training service. He has denied the allegations saying he is only teaching youths to be patriotic. Despite mounting criticism on the national youth training programme, reports indicate that the government intends to spend Zimbabwe $1 billion on re-opening three more youth training centres.
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Comment from The Cape Times (SA), 14 July
Zimbabwe's colour TV may also ban pink, purple, white and green
By John Scott
"Red is just the start," said Solly Solinga, spokesperson for Zimbabwean Television, when I phoned him about the decision to ban that colour from the country's TV screens because it symbolised the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party. "We have other colours in mind, too." "But there is red in so many things," I argued. "You can't simply ban it out of the spectrum." "We can do what we like with the spectrum, whatever that is," said Solly. "We are not bound by Western concepts. Besides, red also signifies other hateful things to our revered president. It is the colour of London buses, so beloved by our former colonial oppressors. There is also the red herring of human rights abuses, when everyone knows our people have never been happier. Worst of all is when our enemies claim our national finances are in the red, so envious are they of our favourite colour, black." "What about red carpets?" I asked. "The president is prepared to make an exception in the case of red carpets, so long as they are for him," said Solly. "Pink is also banned. It reminds the president of homosexuals."
"You mentioned other colours," I reminded Solly. "Purple is out," he said. "It's the colour of archbishops. Yours were bad enough, but now our own Pius Ncube is going round treacherously calling for sanctions against Zimbabwe with the false allegation that the rule of law is being violated. Believe me, anyone who pitches up on TV in purple won't be seen again." "But the rest of the spectrum is okay, is it? I mean the colours in it." "Is white in this spectrum of yours?" asked Solly. "Because if it is, we are probably going to remove it from our TV programmes, too. It is the colour of racism. No one with a white face will in future be allowed to infect our nation on screen, and that includes cricketers in white clothing." "But in the one-day internationals your chaps wear red." "That shows how closely the two colours are horribly related," said Solly. "Did I mention green?" "Not yet." "Green is the colour of the Greenies, the imperialists who were opposed to our government's decision to nationalise all wildlife conservation areas and who claimed that this spelt the end of game protection. If they think their colour will appear on TV again, they have as much hope as a red-light district for gays in downtown Harare." "You might as well revert to black-and-white TV," I commented. "Except for the white," Solly reminded me. "Viewers will be happy with lighter shades of black, once we explain it's for their own good that we are keeping them in the dark."
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From The Financial Gazette, 15 July
Unmasking the double-dealer who blew whistle on Mawere
Nelson Banya
Beleaguered businessman Mutumwa Mawere, who was specified by the government last week, has come out fighting, accusing the whistleblower who fingered him of being embittered after failing to get work within Mawere's empire. Mawere this week revealed how John Rushton, who is reportedly in line for a $30 billion windfall from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) for blowing the whistle on several prominent businesspeople over suspected corrupt practices, wrote to him in April, looking for a job. It has been established that at the time of the correspondence, Rushton had already started giving the police, RBZ officials, state security agents and the Anti-corruption Ministry information on a host of alleged corrupt activities by several businesses. In the letter, a copy of which is in the possession of The Financial Gazette, Rushton, who has extensive experience in the transport and logistics industry, canvassed for employment "in RSA or Zimbabwe". "As per our telephone conversation this date in Zimbabwe - I am writing to you for consideration for employment in RSA. I have been working in Benoni for almost a year for Cecil Muderede - but he was unable to pay for the transport company and offices that he agreed to purchase - Nemini Carriers - I have found it difficult to settle back in Zimbabwe and I have (a) British Passport. I was offered a position by the RBZ but was never paid by them, I would like to return to RSA if you had (sic) need for a manager of 24 years in cross border transport, I have an impeccable record and much experience in investigations too," Rushton wrote. He also wrote another letter to Mawere in May.
Rushton, 59, is believed to have blown the whistle on Mawere, based on his time as general manager at Petter Holdings, a company that held a transport contract with Shabanie and Mashava Mines, run by Mawere's SMM Holdings. Mawere accused Rushton of desperation, saying the whistleblower had turned to him after his association with the authorities did not yield the desired result. "I met the gentleman at the airport and he told me he was working for the Reserve Bank to carry out some investigations, and I believe he did work with them between January and February, during which time, I think, they discovered that his information was confusing. How does a transport guy know the intricate details of mining operations? The fact that he was now looking for work from a company that he was accusing of illegal conduct shows what kind of a person the authorities were relying on. Can you imagine that he could meet the President?" Mawere said.
As part of the ongoing efforts to combat graft and economic crimes, the government, through the RBZ and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, has come up with funds for informers who blow the whistle on offenders. The whistleblowers are entitled to 10 percent of the total amount recovered following successful prosecution of the alleged guilty parties. Mawere joined the growing band of businessmen whose assets have been frozen by the government after he was specified last week. The move came after the government failed in its efforts to bring the businessman, who has been resident in South Africa since 1995, back to Zimbabwe to face charges of violating the country's exchange control regulations. The government wants Mawere, who has built a formidable multi-billion-dollar empire straddling virtually every economic sector, to face trial for alleged fraud cases involving up to $300 billion.
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From The Daily Mirror, 13 July
Zim never set deadline for AU report -State
Mirror Reporter
The Government of Zimbabwe, contrary to reports that it had set itself a deadline to respond to a damning African Commission on Human and People's Rights report, did not make such a commitment, the Daily Mirror has established. Reports which emanated from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, insinuate that the Foreign Affairs minister, Stan Mudenge had on July 3, said Harare would respond to the report within a week, when he addressed the African Union (AU) council of ministers when the bloc o f African states met for its annual summit. Government spokesman, George Charamba told the Daily Mirror last night that Mudenge was mischievously quoted. "Setting the record straight, Minister Mudenge said it would not take the Zimbabwean Government not even a week to respond to the contents of the report, assuming that it had been given the right of reply. And, indeed, it did not take him even an hour to respond," said Charamba. This was in reference to Mudenge's statement that the government had not been availed with the report to peruse for it to make a response at the summit, as stipulated by AU procedure.
The African Commission on Human and People's Rights report was compiled in 2002, after the presidential election that was won by President Robert Mugabe. The commission, which is an AU organ, reported that the government had launched a systematic clampdown on its opponents, among other abuses during the run -up to the elections. "After all," added Charamba, "why bother to make a response now to a report that was made in 2002, when in less than a year we will be going to other elections?" The report, according to set AU protocol, is supposed to be forwarded to a concerned government via a relevant ambassador and should contain the response of that particular government before it is brought to the council of ministers for subsequent tabling at an AU summit. Mudenge claimed that he only set sight on the document when he went to Addis Ababa. He also said a Tunisian former member of the commission told him the report was not drafted by commission members but by a British-backed non-governmental human rights organisation in Zimbabwe that pushed for its endorsement with the help of one unnamed member of the commission. There is a prevailing view in Zimbabwe that the commission 's report should be rejected not only in the case of Zimbabwe, but other countries that have been put under scrutiny.
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From Zim Online (SA), 15 July
Desperate refugees pull down electric fence
Francistown - The 500 kilometre electric fence erected by Botswana last year along its border with Zimbabwe at huge cost is not serving its purpose - to keep out refugees. Botswana has officially maintained that the fence is meant to curb the movement of animals from Zimbabwe and contain foot and mouth disease. However, the fence was also erected to try and keep border jumpers at bay. But the border jumpers have started destroying the barrier and are finding their way into Botswana territory regardless. Botswana's Vice President Seretse Khama Ian Khama this week expressed disappointment that his government's efforts to electrify the border fence had borne no fruit as people cut the wires and stole solar panels. Addressing a meeting of traditional chiefs near the Botswana border with Zimbabwe, Khama said strategies to control the destruction of the fence were now being developed. The Vice President called on Botswana chiefs in villages along the border to urge their communities to be "vigilant against people who destroy the fence". Last month Minister of Local Government Michael Tshipinare encouraged locals living along the border to form vigilante groups and track down illegal immigrants who tampered with the fence. He told police officers in Tshesebe, a few kilometres from the Zimbabwe border, that illegal Zimbabwean immigrants posed "a major security risk". The minister said police officers were overwhelmed by the high number of illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe. A Zimbabwean resident, Tendai Dzimiri, blamed the situation on President Robert Mugabe's government. "We have been made refugees in other countries. We risk our lives entering this country illegally to try and make ends meet," Dzimiri told Zim Online. Zimbabweans who cut the electric fence risk their lives as they might be electrocuted. Zimbabwe protested the construction of the fence last year comparing it to the wall Israel is erecting along its eastern border with the West Bank.
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From The Financial Gazette, 15 July
SADC tightens screws on Zim
Njabulo Ncube
Pressure is inexorably rising on the increasingly ostracised Zimbabwe government to overhaul the country's electoral process in line with regional norms and standards, following the drafting of a revised set of regulations by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), to be considered at next month's summit to be held in Mauritius. The revised principles and guidelines governing democratic elections among SADC's 14 member states is seen as specifically designed to force Zimbabwe to adhere to regional norms and standards when conducting elections, which have been tainted by procedural and legal irregularities. The new guidelines come in the wake of a chorus of angry voices from the opposition and civic groups accusing President Robert Mugabe's government of taking advantage of flawed electoral procedures to rig successive parliamentary and presidential elections. It has been charged that the most powerful weapon that the government, which has been using the power of incumbency, has is deceit. Independent observers in the last presidential election claim that the voters' roll had in excess of 800 000 dead people registered as voters while 700 000 were not known at the addresses under which they were registered. The new principles and guidelines, to be tabled at the heads of state and government summit in Mauritius, come against the back cloth of largely sterile diplomatic manoeuvres by South African President Thabo Mbeki to break the political impasse in the southern African nation. Mbeki has been at the centre of the delicate arbitration between Zimbabwe's feuding political parties, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the ruling Zanu PF. His efforts have however so far drawn a blank although he is still in touch with both parties which he continues to meet regularly for consultations.
African states and institutions, which previously steadfastly refused to censure Zimbabwe for the deteriorating political and economic situation, have, in recent months, brought pressure to bear on Harare. Only last week, Zimbabwean government officials made frantic efforts to avert the adoption by the African Union (AU) heads of state and government of a damaging report on human rights violations, prepared by the AU's Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) and circulated in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Although the government has, in recent weeks, proposed changes to the country's electoral laws which currently favour the ruling Zanu PF, opposition groups and critics have argued that these were insufficient as they focused primarily on the monitoring of elections, not the process itself. While the proposed changes, which were approved by the Zanu PF politburo, will mean, among other things, that voting will be conducted in one day and that translucent ballot boxes will be used, they do not address fundamental issues such as equal access to public media by all parties. The ruling party has maintained an iron grip on the state media to the exclusion of all dissenting voices. However, the SADC draft, which was produced on June 9, is expected to stir a lot of debate at the Mauritius summit, which opens on August 9 and ends on August 17, as it seeks to address some of these contentious issues. Political analysts and opposition political parties that have perused the draft proposals were yesterday adamant the measures were part of diplomatic tactics being employed by SADC heads of states, disappointed by the unresolved political crisis in Zimbabwe, to nudge President Robert Mugabe to return the country to normalcy.
"It is a way of trying to solve Zimbabwe's political crisis by using SADC. Heads of state in SADC have failed using other avenues. Now they are using the principles and guidelines governing democratic elections as a way of forcing President Mugabe to at least ensure free and fair elections," said a diplomat. "President Mbeki has failed dismally with his quiet diplomacy. It is thought that he has found a way to short-circuit the process of solving Zimbabwe's problems. Maybe if there are free and fair elections whose outcome is accepted by everyone, including the opposition, the problem will disappear," added the diplomat. The draft states that SADC member states holding elections should ensure that polling stations are situated in neutral places and counting of the votes is carried out at the polling stations. It also emphasises the use of translucent ballot boxes, among other conditions necessary in holding elections in a democratic state and that SADC observer missions should be deployed at least two weeks before the voting day. Authors of the draft, viewed as taking a sterner stance on regional states with democratic deficits, want member states to adhere to seven principles to ensure the conduct of democratic elections. Some of the proposed principles include the full participation of the citizens in the political process, freedom of association, political tolerance, equal opportunity for all political parties to access the state media and equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for. The draft says there should be independence of the judiciary and impartiality of the electoral institutions and voter education in member states conducting elections in their respective countries, aspects analysts and the opposition say are non-existent in present day Zimbabwe.
To determine the nature and scope of election observation and monitoring, the draft says SADC member states should be guided by constitutional and legal guarantees of freedom and rights of the citizens, a conducive environment for free and peaceful elections. It advocates non-discrimination in voters' registration and existence of updated and accessible voters' roll. The announcement of the election dates should be timeous, and where applicable, funding for political parties must be transparent and based on agreed thresholds in accordance with the laws of the land. Member states conducting elections should facilitate the establishment of the mechanism for assisting the planning and deployment of electoral observation missions. The draft also outlines the code of conduct for elections observers and monitors that are consistent with those of the OAU/AU Declaration on the Principles Governing Democratic Elections in Africa. These include the principle that the observer missions must comply with all national laws and regulations and shall maintain strict impartiality in the conduct of their duties. Responsibilities for the member state holding elections would entail establishing "impartial, all-inclusive, competent and accountable national electoral bodies staffed by qualified personnel, as well as competent legal entities including effective constitutional courts to arbitrate in the event of disputes arising from the conduct of elections". Zimbabwe's electoral bodies, solely appointed by President Mugabe, were compromised in this regard. The draft further states that member states must safeguard the human and civil liberties of all citizens including the freedom of movement, assembly, association, expression and campaigning, prevent fraud, rigging or any other illegal practices throughout the whole electoral process and ensure adequate security is provided to all parties in the election race, among other acceptable conditions in a democracy.
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From Zim Online (SA), 15 July
Zim inflation slows down
Harare - Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate slowed to 394.6 percent in June from 448.8 percent in May, according to figures released by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) yesterday. The fifth consecutive slowdown in inflation, after hitting a record peak of 622.8 percent in January, offers a glimmer of light for a country grappling with an economic crisis widely blamed on years of government mismanagement. Central bank govenor, Gideon Gono, has vowed to reduce the inflation rate to 200% by year end. The authorities have attributed the slowdown to stabilising commodity prices and a steady Zimbabwe dollar, which tumbled to around 7,000 per greenback last December, before the central bank moved to suppress a thriving black market for scarce U.S. dollars. Analysts nonetheless say new price increases are likely to begin soon in tandem with the local currency, which has steadily weakened to 5,352 against the dollar on increased import demand at bi-weekly central-bank controlled currency auctions introduced in January. The Zimbabwe dollar traded around 4,200 when the auctions started. "We are going to see inflation going up in the second half of the year because we have already seen prices of bread, sugar and drinks go up and there's also going to be pressure from July wage adjustments," said David Mupamhadzi, group economist at Trust Bank. "The govenor, Gideon Gono, is going to have to come up with more incentives for exporters to increase inflows into the auctions when he presents his next monetary policy review next week," Mupamhadzi said. The decline in the inflation rate might also be short lived if the company studying the country's electricity sector recommends that power utility Zesa, hikes its tarriffs. The study is being conducted by Sad-elec, a South African based firm.
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From IRIN (UN), 12 July
Journalists suffer in the wake of newspaper shutdowns
Harare - Former employees of three independent Zimbabwean newspapers shut down by the Media and Information Commission (MIC) are struggling to make ends meet. The Supreme Court ruled in September that Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, publishers of the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday, was operating illegally because it was not registered with the Commission as stipulated by the controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. Another independent newspaper, the Tribune, which came into being after the Business Tribune and Weekend Tribune merged, was shut down in June 2004 when the MIC suspended the paper's licence to operate because its owners had failed to notify the Commission of a change in ownership. "The situation of journalists and other members of staff who were affected by the closure of the papers is pathetic. We have established that a substantial number of them are living in near destitution," the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists' president, Matthew Takaona, told IRIN. He said the union had found many married journalists from the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday had fallen victim to stress-related illnesses because they were failing to cope with being unemployed. "What makes the situation even more tragic is that they do not have money to seek medical attention, since they are no longer on medical aid. The issue of income can never be over-emphasised because once they fall ill, they cannot afford to sustain themselves on a good diet because, again, they cannot afford it," said Takaona. "In some cases the children of these people [the affected staff] have had to drop out of school or have been sent to poor schools in rural areas," he added. Takaona said some of the journalists had moved to neighbouring countries in search of employment.
Stephen Chaka (not his real name), a former Daily News reporter, earned Z$200,000 (US $37) a month before the paper closed - now he is unemployed and depends on financial benefits accrued while he was working, but the payments are irregular. "Over the last three months I did not receive anything," Chaka told IRIN. His wife is pregnant and he has had to turn to his brother, who is employed as a teacher, to meet her medical needs. "My brother has been helpful but it is humiliating for me, as my primary responsibility is to look after my own wife, who unfortunately is not employed. I shudder to think how I will cope when she delivers in about two months' time," he said. Takaona, who was fired from the government-controlled Sunday Mail for addressing staff members of the Daily News and its sister paper after the publications were closed down, claimed that more journalists from the state media had fallen foul of the government's "systematic victimisation of those it perceives to be enemies or potential threats". Zimbabwean government spokesperson Edward Mamutse refuted the allegation, saying, "There is always a lot of movement in the media circle - journalists are at liberty to resign from their positions for opportunities elsewhere. How can we be held responsible for their decision to leave?" A University of Zimbabwe media lecturer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the MIC and the government should have found an amicable way of dealing with the problems at the three newspapers. "Many people will be forgiven for thinking that the shutting down of the newspapers was political, considering how critical of the government they were," he told IRIN. According to an annual survey by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), Zimbabwe is allegedly the most repressive country in Southern Africa in terms of media freedom. Last year media freedom alerts originating from Zimbabwe represented 54 percent of the total recorded by MISA in 10 countries.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 16 July
M&G is Zim government's latest target
Mail & Guardian reporter
The Zimbabwean government this week stepped up efforts to crack down on the Mail & Guardian. The police served a subpoena on the security manager of Century Bank in Harare summonsing information about the newspaper's bank account, including records of cheque transactions, since the beginning of the year. The subpoena was obtained from a magistrate's court on the basis that there is reasonable grounds to suspect the M&G was violating the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Act by externalising foreign currency. The Reserve Bank, in a statement on Wednesday, said it was not aware of any investigation and had no reason to suspect the M&G was in breach of the RBZ Act. "From our records and pending cases, the RBZ has not had any reason or cause to investigate the M&G for the alleged misdemeanours. Maybe the police can shed more light on this issue," said the bank. M&G CE Trevor Ncube slated the latest move on the paper as "a fishing expedition and an invasion of privacy under the pretext of investigating externalisation of foreign currency. As a law-abiding corporate citizen in the countries where we operate we welcome any scrutiny from the authorities."
Century Bank officials declined to disclose details of the police visit, citing "confidentiality agreements with clients". Sources at the bank, however, told our sister paper, the Zimbabwe Independent, that two officers from the Commercial Intelligence Unit "took bank statements dating back to January and a document advising the addition of Raphael Khumalo [Zimbabwe Independent group GM] as a signatory to the account". Ncube believes the latest incident "is a pretext for action against the M&G in Zimbabwe. It has become obvious over the past few weeks that certain people in government have become uncomfortable with our coverage. Since they are unable to find fault with the paper's reporting the intention now is to find something, anything in fact, to give them reason to stop the Zimbabwean public from reading the M&G."
Last month the state-controlled The Sunday Mail - usually a mirror of the government's views - published a story accusing the M&G of using "unaccredited journalists" and questioned why the paper was being circulated in Zimbabwe. This attack was backed by the chairperson of Zimbabwe's Media and Information Commission - a quasi-judicial body - Tafataona Mahoso, who claimed the M&G was violating the Access to information and Protection of Privacy Act. Under the Act it is an offence for a journalist to practise in Zimbabwe without a licence. These attacks come in the wake of visits to the M&G's couriers and distributors by the Zimbabwean authorities. Ncube is, however, "confident the moves will fail to uncover any evidence of impropriety. This episode represents yet another attempt by the Zimbabwean authorities to curtail press freedom. As the regime feels increasingly cornered by its critics we can expect it to clamp down on the country's remaining sources of independent information. The M&G is clearly the latest target."
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 July
Zanu PF to rope in regional parties for victory
Dumisani Muleya
The ruling Zanu PF is trying to rope in governing parties in the region to help it win next year's crucial parliamentary election. Zanu PF, which is under serious threat from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), reportedly wants an absolute majority to enable it to change the constitution to consolidate its grip on power. Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira said on Wednesday that his party was determined to remain in power "because there is nothing wrong with that". "Is there anything wrong in us trying to keep power? Would you give away power if you had it? No one would want to lose power when they have it," Shamuyarira said. "If you want to keep power and you can do it by seeking the support of friends, there is nothing wrong. We have a close relationship with the ANC (African National Congress) and other parties in the region." Zanu PF recently hosted a congress of former liberation movements in the region in a bid to forge closer ties and ensure their support for President Robert Mugabe's beleaguered regime.
Shamuyarira said Zanu PF would hold a number of meetings with ruling parties in the region to "keep power". Mugabe is on record as saying "as clear as day follows night.Zanu PF will rule forever". ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma said in April that his party would remain in power "until Jesus comes back". Top ANC officials led by President Thabo Mbeki held a meeting with a Zanu PF delegation led by the party's chairman John Nkomo last month to strengthen ties. Besides Mbeki, other ANC heavyweights who attended the meeting include Zuma, secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe, treasurer-general Mendi Msimang and chairman Mosiuoa Lekota. Zanu PF reportedly wanted the ANC to help it secure a sweeping majority in the poll due in March next year. The ANC, which clinched an overwhelming majority in the April election, is said to have agreed. The party however denied it.
Zanu PF only secured 51% of the vote in Zimbabwe's controversial parliamentary election in 2000. The MDC, only formed a few months before the election, won 57 seats, while Zanu got 62. The MDC mopped up all seats in towns, banishing Zanu PF to rural areas. However, Zanu PF maintained its parliamentary majority through 20 MPs directly appointed by Mugabe and 10 legislators appointed by the Zimbabwe Chiefs' Council which is obliged to support Zanu PF. The MDC contested 38 of Zanu PF's victories in the courts and has so far won several cases. But they are on appeal. Mugabe won the hotly-disputed 2002 presidential election amid accusations of vote-rigging, violence and intimidation. Mugabe's victory is also under legal challenge by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai. The ANC endorsed both elections as "legitimate" despite admitting that they were profoundly flawed and thus not free and fair.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 16 July
Zuma tantrum hints at tougher Zim stand
Jean-Jacques Cornish
The angry response of Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to the Mail & Guardian's report on the African Union summit last week gave a signal that the South African government is hardening its stance on Zimbabwe. Zuma denied supporting Zimbabwe's move to stifle a report by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights critical of that country's human rights record. However, sources who attended the meeting of foreign ministers insisted that Dlamini-Zuma had supported Zimbabwe's call for the report not to be tabled at the AU's heads of state summit on "technical grounds". These were that the report had not been seen by the Zimbabwean government. The fact that she now denies supporting Zimbabwe amounts to unprecedented public censure of President Robert Mugabe's government. Her statement emphasises her uncompromising stance in bold letters.
Zimbabwe's Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge said at the meeting that his government needed seven days to respond to the report, which was compiled by South African academic Barney Pityana and Gambian Jainab Johm, who visited his country after the controversial 2000 parliamentary and 2002 presidential elections. That deadline has come and gone without a word from Zimbabwe. This means they evaded discussion of the matter at the AU summit. The statement by South Africa's Department of Foreign Affairs said Dlamini-Zuma "did not speak when the report was tabled, as suggested by the M&G, but to her credit, towards the conclusion of the discussion she insisted on the report being forwarded to the heads of state and government for discussions. When a suggestion was made that the executive council should not forward the report on procedural grounds to the heads of state and government for discussion, Minister Dlamini-Zuma objected and insisted the executive council could not pretend that it did not receive nor discuss the report. In this regard, Minister Dlamini-Zuma insisted the executive council forward the report to the heads of state and government with recommendations from the council."
However, reliable sources present at the meeting of African foreign ministers gave a different account, saying Dlamini-Zuma had stepped up to the plate for Mudenge. Senior officials close to Dlamini-Zuma told the M&G "we are sick and tired of the Zimbabwe government embarrassing our president by leading him to believe they are engaged in talks with the opposition when in fact there is no movement. The Zimbabweans lie when it suits them. In forums like the AU executive council Minister Dlamini-Zuma is one of their toughest critics. In Addis she was the strongest critic of Zimbabwe. She received a note from one of her African counterparts thanking her for this and saying few other African countries would dare do it. I have sat in another meeting when she told Stan Mudenge that if his government is planning to execute the suspected South African mercenaries being held in Zimbabwe, the South African government will have something to say about it."
If Dlamini-Zuma has been criticising Zimbabwe behind closed doors, not a scintilla of this has emerged in public. The statement attacking the M&G report is the first suggestion that all is not well. In Addis Ababa South African officials briefed reporters about why Zimbabwe's technical opposition to circulating the human rights report deserved support. It was this technical point that led the foreign ministers simply to note the report and suspend its publication pending Zimbabwe's reaction, rather than adopting it. Dlamini-Zuma was available to reporters at Addis Ababa. When the M&G asked her about the treatment of the report by the foreign ministers she said it was being treated as a technical matter. She gave no hint of the tough line she claims to have taken towards Mudenge or that she had insisted that the report be put before the heads of state. None of the South African journalists at the summit was given any indication of a change in South Africa's approach. In addition, sources inside the foreign ministers' executive council said Dlamini-Zuma had gone in to bat for Mudenge.
Back home, the South African government continues to draw flak for appearing to support Mugabe. The African National Congress denied a weekend report that it was lending expertise and technical support to Zimbabwe's ruling party, Zanu PF, ahead of next year's general election campaign. Catholic Bishops' Conference chairperson Cardinal Wilfred Napier this week called for intelligently applied sanctions against Zimbabwe, saying this measure had been effective when used against the apartheid system. In Harare on Sunday Mugabe urged Zanu PF youth to wage a "vigorous campaign" in next year's general election and warned that he would hold them answerable for any defeat. The youth wing of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change said there was no doubt the rhetoric implied a campaign of violence by a government prepared "to use the youth as an instrument of oppression against its opponents". In addition, participants in a Zimbabwe television panel discussion on HIV/Aids were instructed to remove their red Aids campaign ribbons, as red was the colour of the MDC. The government has denied the allegation.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 July
Ex-army officer to run polls
Dumisani Muleya
Government has appointed retired Lieutenant Colonel Kennedy Zimondi as the new chief elections officer on the Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC). Official sources said Zimondi was appointed in April to replace Brigadier Douglas Nyikayaramba who was brought in to run the hotly disputed 2002 presidential poll. ESC spokesman Thomas Bvuma confirmed Zimondi's appointment but said the electoral body's commissioners appointed him. However, sources said government instructed the ESC to appoint Zimondi. Although Zanu PF recently indicated it would want to adopt electoral law reforms, Zimondi could still be involved, together with others on the current election bodies, in running next year's general election. Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa earlier this month told a Zanu PF politburo meeting that he proposed the transfer of current electoral officers, in particular those in the Registrar-General's office, to the envisaged Zimbabwe Electoral Commission. This could result in the new agencies staffed with the same people, including Registrar-General Tobaiwa Mudede who has been widely accused of bias. The ESC, based on the fifth floor of Hardwicke House where intelligence agents also operate from, was laden with army officers before the 2002 election. Reports have indicated that the army played a decisive role in determining the outcome of the controversial election. The ESC is chaired by Sobusa Gula-Ndebele, a former military intelligence officer.
Despite the proposed electoral changes, voter registration for next year's general election is still being conducted by the current compromised institutions. As a result, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has complained that the exercise is "seriously flawed and may well impede the rights of the people to vote". MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube last month wrote a letter to Gula-Ndebele citing irregularities in the mobile voter registration exercise. The ESC supervises voter registration and elections. Ncube said people were being "deliberately and systematically disenfranchised and as a result denied the right to participate in the governance of their country". "Of great concern is the lack of publicity and the confusion surrounding the mobile voter registration programme," Ncube said. "A lot of potential voters are not being given adequate opportunity to register for lack of knowledge and information." The ESC replied to Ncube's letter, admitting there had been "a number of administrative and logistical problems" in the exercise. It then asked the Registrar-General's office to extend the exercise to July 30. However, it is understood this has not been done notwithstanding the ESC's advice and admission that potential voters could be disenfranchised.
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From SAPA, 15 July
Sunshine City falls into darkness
Harare - Living in the Zimbabwean capital Harare is getting harder as weary residents battle with frequent power cuts, water shortages and the ever-rising prices of basic goods. Harare once boasted the nickname "Sunshine City" but in the depths of the Zimbabwean winter, it's looking less and less that way for all residents, regardless of their income levels. Last week the state-run power utility, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) announced it was introducing power cuts at peak periods due to increased demand from the cold weather and Zimbabwe's inability to find additional sources for power imports from outside the country. Zimbabwe imports 30 percent of its power, much of it from neighbouring South Africa, but has in the recent past reportedly had problems settling its bills. Coinciding with the power cuts, Zesa has started broadcasting adverts every half hour on state radio, proclaiming "Zesa: power to the people." "While we sit in the dark with candles waiting for the power to come back on and women stream out of the bush with firewood on their heads because they can't afford electricity, the jingles go on and on and on," says Zimbabwe writer Cathy Buckle in her weekly commentary.
In several suburbs of the capital, streetlamps and house-lights flicker off at 6pm at night - to be restored three hours later. There are also cuts scheduled for three hours in the mornings. "It's every night," moans one elderly resident of the relatively well-heeled Avondale suburb, near Harare's main hospital. "It was Thursday, Friday and then again at half-past six on Saturday," she complains. She adds that she keeps her bath "half-full" to be ready for water cuts - usually advertised in the state-run Herald newspaper and on public radio. In June some suburbs had no water for almost three weeks. The authorities blamed pump failures at the ageing Morton Jaffray water plant, as well as a lack of crucial aluminium sulphate used to treat the water. A so-called "water demand management system" was brought in: this meant cutting off supplies to other suburbs for 24-hour periods. Harare's opposition-led city council says it does not have the funds to maintain infrastructure. But efforts to hike rates have been blocked by Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo, who has also dismissed Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) Mayor Elias Mudzuri. A member of President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, Chombo last month declared previously approved increases "unjustified" and ordered a freeze. The Harare city council has only held two meetings in the past six months, says Jameson Gadzirai of the Combined Harare Residents Association, leaving residents concerned that civic governance is being frustrated by party politics. "What the residents are feeling now is that council decisions are not being implemented because of a broader agenda being pushed by the (local government) ministry," Gadzirai said.
There are other concerns. Public hospitals in the city are faring badly. The privately owned Standard reported this month that corpses at Harare's Central Hospital were being rolled down the stairs from wards to the mortuary because there was no money to repair the lifts. Health delivery has been one of the biggest casualties of Zimbabwe's four-year old economic downturn. Cases of kwashiorkor - a sometimes fatal illness usually associated with times of war and famine - have resurfaced. At least 621 were treated last year in the city's clinics, according to a report by the council's director of health, Lovemore Mbengeranwa. Price hikes too are a worry. Although inflation rates have fallen, from more than 600 percent at the end of last year to just below 400 percent, prices of foodstuffs and many basic goods continue to rise. Faced with an outcry, the country's energetic Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono last week said that "the thinking that prices ought to come down because inflation is coming down is fallacious", the state-run Ziana agency reported. Gono told the conference that prices should still be going up by about six percent. But his figures do not square with prices on shop shelves: bread has more than doubled in two months from around Z$1 200 a loaf to Z$2 900. Meanwhile fuel queues resurfaced last week. A wearying fact of life for many Zimbabwean drivers over the past three years, the queues seemed to have disappeared after the authorities removed price controls. State radio said last week's queues were due to "logistical" problems in fuel distribution.
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From Zim Online (SA), 17 July
Zimbabwe police in turmoil
Harare - The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) is in turmoil after the dismissal of a top cop who had linked police commissioner Augustine Chihuri and other ZRP top brass to corruption scandals. A document in possession of Zim Online shows that the man in charge of all ZRP investigations Chief Staff Officer (Internal Investigations), Senior Assistant Commissioner Ngonidzaishe Gambiza, was dismissed from his post on June 30 2004. The document sent to all police stations and signed by the ZRP Deputy Commissioner ( Operations), Godwin Matanga, reads: "May addressees be advised that Senior Assistant Commissioner Gambiza (Chief Staff Officer Internal Investigations) has been discharged from the force (ZRP) with effect from 30 June 2004. Repeat 30 June 2004." It goes on to warn police departments against doing any business with Gambiza. "Addressees are advised that the former senior officer is no longer associated with the ZRP and this understanding should now govern addressees' relationship with him in terms of access to police benefits and resources. Any agreement or arrangement entered into between him and individuals or organisation will be treated as private and the organisation will not be held accountable," read the memorandum.
A Chief Superintendent at the Police General Headquarters in Harare said Gambiza had been fired for "stepping on the toes of his superiors". "He was driven out of his office on June 30 in the morning. Members of the riot police force marched him to the gate," said the Chief Superintendent who spoke on condition of annonymity. A second message sent out to all police stations on July 1 said Gambiza had been dismissed because "he was unfit" for police duties. Police officers said it was unbelievable that someone who had risen through the ranks to his elevated position could suddenly be deemed unfit for police duties. "His post as head of internal investigations showed his true pedigree... he was a man to be trusted," said one officer. Authoritative sources said Gambiza's dismissal had thrown the ZRP into turmoil because it had not been sanctioned by President Robert Mugabe as required under the Police Act. According to section 49 (b), a senior officer can only be fired by the president on the recommendation of the Minister of Home Affairs with the input of the Police Commissioner. They said Gambiza had stumbled upon information implicating Chihuri and other senior officers in a car theft racket. Gambiza had been investigating the racket when Chihuri's name surfaced. Apparently, dozens of top of the range stolen vehicles have mysteriously found their way into Zimbabwe from neighbouring countries over the past year.
Apart from linking Chihuri to some car jacking syndicates terrorising the people of Harare, Gambiza's probe had also uncovered the alleged diversion of police resources to the construction of properties privately owned by the top brass. Gambiza had since threatened to challenge his dismissal in court and spill the beans about what he had uncovered, the source said. This had thrown the police general headquarters into turmoil as top brass were trying to cover their tracks. To avoid any embarassing fall out from the saga, some officers had suggested bringing Gambiza back into the force and cancelling his dismissal to stop him from going to court. Authoritative sources said the investigation into the car theft racket could have brought down Chihuri if it had been completed. Chihuri has served as police commissioner for about 11 years and is a close confidante of President Robert Mugabe. He has been a controversial figure in the police force over the years. In 2000 he caused a storm when he publicly confessed his support for Zanu PF. He said he was ready to quit if another party came to power as it would be free to appoint its own commissioner. His statement was widely condemned as being in contravention of the Police Act which requires the police to remain apolitical. No reaction could be obtained from Chihuri. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena refused to comment, saying the Zim Online journalist was not accredited with the state appointed Media Commission.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 July
Hunger claims 12 more in Bulawayo
Loughty Dube
Despite claims by the government that the country has adequate food to last up to the next harvest, 12 more people died of malnutrition in Bulawayo alone in the last month. The latest deaths come at a time when the government and international donor agencies are embroiled in a row over the food situation in the country. Figures from the Bulawayo City Council Health department show that 10 children, four boys and six girls, under the age of 14 died last month of hunger. Two male adults aged 29 and 30 years also succumbed to malnutrition. The deaths came barely two months after 38 people died of starvation in Bulawayo. Government has said it expects a bumper harvest despite estimates to the contrary by independent crop forecasters. Zimbabwe Liberation Peace Initiative president, Max Mnkandla, whose organisation has been vocal against political discrimination in the distribution of food in rural areas, said government was misleading the nation and the international community on the food situation in the country. Mnkandla said it was hypocritical for government to claim there was enough food when people were dying of malnutrition. "Joseph Made and President Mugabe must stop misleading the nation and the international community because there is hunger all over," Mnkandla said. "Right now they are saying the country has enough food but they are failing to tell the nation and the international community the exact tonnage the country has in its granaries."
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From IRIN, 16 July
Government denies top officials own more than one farm
Johannesburg - The Zimbabwean government has denied that any of its ministers was allocated more than one farm during the country's controversial land reform programme. The official newspaper, The Herald, reported on Thursday that the Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement had written to several ministers inquiring about their alleged ownership of more than one farm. Speaking to IRIN on Friday, government spokesperson Steyn Berejena confirmed that letters had been sent to the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Ignatius Chombo, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Joseph Made, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of Information and Publicity, Jonathan Moyo, and the Minister of Transport and Communications, Christopher Mushohwe. "But none of them owned the farms. It turned out that a relative of minister Mushowe's, who also has the same surname, owned a farm. Minister Made's brother, Ambrose Made, who works for the United Nations Development Programme, owns a farm. The ministry [of lands] mistakenly assumed that these ministers owned the farms," Berejena explained. He said the fact that these letters were sent out indicated that President Robert Mugabe's government "was committed to redressing any anomalies that might have taken place while the land reform process was being fast-tracked." Berejena reiterated that the issue of multiple ownership was a serious one, and the government would continue to pursue it. He confirmed that the ministry of lands had identified cases of multiple ownership and had rectified them, but was unable to provide the numbers. Prior to his appointment to the ministry of lands in February this year, John Nkomo was minister of special affairs and headed a presidential enquiry into serious irregularities in land reform. He was charged with following up on the recommendations of a land audit commission led by Charles Utete. The Utete commission's report, issued late last year, revealed serious violations of the one-man one-farm policy by top government and ruling party officials, which, in some cases, had disenfranchised the small-scale farmers that land reform was supposed to benefit.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 17 July
Runaway prices hit hard in Zimbabwe
Pensioners buy a single egg when they shop. School numbers are falling because parents can't afford to feed their children, let alone educate them. One desperate man who couldn't make ends meet chose to pay with his life. Runaway prices are changing, perhaps for generations, the way people live and die in Zimbabwe, a once relatively prosperous nation now ravaged by the world's highest inflation rate. Economists and international donors say mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian regime - especially economic disruption related to his controversial policy of seizing white-owned farms - is behind an annual inflation rate now close to 400%. The government points the finger elsewhere, at culprits including falling commodity prices. What's beyond dispute is that the human cost continues to rise. Zimbabwe once boasted one of the best education systems in Africa. But enrolment is down 30% since 2000, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, because parents are struggling just to feed their children, increasing numbers of whom are forced to work, beg or turn to prostitution.
Mildred Chizema, a secretary, said she and her two children live on what she calls the "zero, zero, one diet" - no breakfast, no lunch, just one evening meal. She dreads staying home on weekends. "The kids just gaze at me hoping for something more to eat," she said. She earns the equivalent of about R450 a month. The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe estimates an average family of four needs at least double that to provide for an adequate diet, basic shelter, clothing and food. Salaries and pensions are being left behind by galloping prices. Zimbabwe's official inflation rate was 394,6% in June. That's down from a peak of 600% earlier this year but remains the highest in the world, with Turkey a distant second at 60%, said Harare economist John Robertson. As recently as 1997, inflation in Zimbabwe was 18%.
With the help of white-owned commercial farms, Zimbabwe prospered and developed into a regional breadbasket after Mugabe led the country to independence from Britain in 1980. But the economy began to falter in the late 1990s and has teetered near collapse since 2000, when political violence and often-violent farm seizures disrupted agriculture and tourism. The land seizures, coupled with erratic rains, have crippled Zimbabwe's agricultural sector, which once accounted for a third of its foreign-currency earnings. Unemployment is estimated at 70%. The government blames declines in commodity prices, corruption in the private sector and negative reporting by the international media, which it says has led to the destruction of tourism. Authorities say they are fighting hyperinflation by cracking down on corruption and black-market currency sales. But analysts predict things will get worse unless the government can reduce spending and reassure spooked investors. "We cannot expect price increases to decline," Robinson said. "With continuing foreign currency shortages, there will also be scarcities of goods to drive up prices."
The very young and the very old are suffering the worst in Zimbabwe. Doctors report increasing numbers of retirees are suffering from vitamin deficiency because they can't afford fruit, a basket of which can cost more than a monthly pension. Those who retired a decade ago - when $1 bought Z$7 instead of Z$5 300 today - have seen the value of their pensions decline at least twentyfold. Food stores sell a single egg to those who can't afford a carton - for about Z$1 000, or a fifth of average daily income in Harare. A women's tennis club in Harare has begun delivering free meals to impoverished pensioners. One of the beneficiaries of the project, a widower, shot himself earlier this year. He had worked for the government for 40 years planning public works projects. "After a long working life, he couldn't go on. His pride was hurt," said a family friend who asked not to identified. Other countries such as Argentina that have experienced hyperinflation brought prices down through fiscal discipline and devaluation, said Robinson, the economist. But Zimbabwe remains deep in the hole. It has been $290-million in arrears to the International Monetary Fund since 2001 and risks being expelled next year. The government has offered to pay $1,5-million a month. Bride price, a custom in traditional African marriages, has soared to millions of Zimbabwe dollars in cash and gifts. A driver with a Harare legal firm paid Z$1 000 to his bride's parents soon after independence from Britain in 1980 - a considerable sum then. "She gets angry when I say today she is only worth four slices of bread," he said.
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From Zim Online (SA), 17 July
Burial: To high a price to pay in Zim
Harare - Doreen Kupe is crying as she stands, somewhat forlornly, in a deserted corridor of Harare's Parirenyatwa hospital. Her sister died two months ago. Briefly touching her hat Doreen glances at the floor and then, barely audibly, explains she is not mourning her beloved sibling's death as much as she is mourning the family's inability to give her "a decent burial". Doreen lives in the high-density suburb of Glenview. She says despite the family's desire to lay their relative to rest appropriately - they simply cannot afford it. When asked if she has seen the adverts in The Herald newspaper, urging Zimbabweans to come forward and claim bodies of relatives at mortuaries, she nods. But she cannot do this, explains Mrs. Kupe. The family has decided that her sister will receive a pauper's funeral. In another part of the capital a distraught family hovers outside Harare Central hospital. Six figures, clearly upset, huddle around one another, as a car speeds away. Shabbily-dressed Namatai Jumbe says her father passed away while admitted at the institution. Then she, too, begins crying as she explains the surviving members of the family could not afford to pay a driver to transport their father's body to their rural home in Musana, about 30 kilometers from the capital. "We have to go home and sell cattle, so we can raise the amount needed to transport the body", says Namatai, wiping her cheeks.
Hospital mortuaries all over Zimbabwe are overcrowded as increasing numbers of Zimbabweans fail to claim and collect the bodies of their departed loved ones. "Some", says Harare Central's medical superintendent Dr. Chris Tapfumaneyi, "are poor and abandon the bodies on purpose, hoping the city will lay their relatives to rest. Others are the bodies of dead vagrants, discovered by police." In the hyper-inflationary environment that shades many aspects of life in Zimbabwe the price of death has also risen. A routine burial - including cemetery, grave fees, a modest wooden casket and transportation - costs at least Z$2 million. This amount is more than the annual minimum wage and way beyond the reach of the at least seventy percent of the country's population who are unemployed. As prices climb, so does the number of unclaimed corpses crowding mortuaries.
Parirenyatwa hospital's executive officer, Thomas Zindoga, confirms there are currently 66 bodies at his institution's mortuary. While walking through its corridors it is impossible to ignore the odor emanating from the mortuary, whose cooling and refrigeration system packed up earlier this week. Once inside, one is greeted with the ghoulish sight of bodies stacked on top of one another. Aside from the upsetting vision of infants' tiny corpses there are lifeless figures covered by either canvas or cotton sheets. Some have been placed on gurneys, others lie on the floor. Residents of rural areas are fortunate in the sense that they bury their dead on family plots, according to spiritual traditions. But city folk are finding it increasingly difficult to follow their beliefs. The HIV/AIDS death toll is increasing the demand for graves. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 3,000 Zimbabweans die of AIDS-related illnesses every week. While this increases the need for burial space there is no matching supply; the capital's cemeteries are already overcrowded.
Secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Association of Funeral Assurers, Phillip Mataranyika, describes the situation as "desperate", adding city fathers should allocate more land. The local authority's public relations manager, Leslie Gwindi, declined to comment. Mataranyika predicts more families may consider cremation, despite their preferring a regular burial. In June, however, the cash-strapped council ran out of the imported inflammable gas used at its only crematorium. An employee of one Harare undertaker, who asked not to be named, says private funeral homes in the city are storing at least 100 bodies, all due for cremation. A dozen have, however, been transported to the second largest city, Bulawayo, which has a diesel-fired crematorium. But diesel fuel - like regular gasoline - is also scarce. If death were not such a serious and grave subject one could be forgiven for mistaking the sequence of events as a comedy of errors. There may be a temporary solution. A leader of Harare's Hindu community, who spoke to Zim Online on condition of anonymity, says they may waive strict religious rules to allow non-Hindus to be cremated in their small diesel-fired crematorium. This may offer some families an alternative - if not ideal means - to bid farewell to relatives. For others, including the Kupe and Jumbe families, there is no erasing their humiliation or lack of closure.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 16 July
Ranger implicated in $55m bribery
Godfrey Marawanyika/Ndamu Sandu
A senior National Parks game ranger has been implicated in a bribery case involving $55 million to allow a South African firm to conduct illegal hunting. Documents in the possession of the Zimbabwe Independent show that Thomas Chimedza was paid $55 million by Out of Africa, a South African-registered firm, which wanted to conduct hunts in Matetsi Unit 1, Gwayi and Hwange area. National Parks authorities have investigated the case and concluded that Chimedza was bribed to allow the illegal hunting. Chimedza, however, denies the charge. The documents reveal that on May 13, principal warden for investigations and security, Leonard Nhidza, wrote a report to the acting director-general informing him of the findings of investigations. "In view of the investigations currently under way in relation to the bribery allegations against senior ranger Chimedza, in Matetsi, it has been established that the officer seriously compromised himself by accepting money from Out of Africa," Nhidza wrote. "The investigations have secured documentary evidence to the effect that Chimedza received money in cheque form and cash from Out of Africa."
The report said that as a result of the bribes, Chimedza allegedly allowed the South African firm to use electronic lion calls at night, spotlights and trophy laundering. "Through trophy laundering, the South Africans were allowed to hunt on Matetsi Unit 1 but the hunting returns would reflect as if the animals were hunted on some other private properties," Nhidza said. "This would prejudice the Parks Authority of trophy fees and other related charges." But Chimedza has denied any wrongdoing, saying the payments were made for hunting activities he conducted for the Safari company. Meanwhile, the chief warden of the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, Lovemore Mungwashu, has stepped down after 23 years of service due to alleged interference in day-to-day running of his department by the chairman, Buzwani Mothobi. "Things came to a head a fortnight ago when the chairman dressed him down in front of juniors during a meeting," officials said. But Mothobi said that the allegations against him were unfounded. "The only thing I can say on those allegations is that they are a load of rubbish, that is the best I can say about them," he said.
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From The Washington Post, 18 July
Mugabe said to use law as political tool
Dissidents face Zimbabwe's justice system
By Craig Timberg
Bulawayo - Remember Moyo, a burly man with sad, withdrawn eyes, was arrested on Nov. 11, 2001, and beaten repeatedly and savagely over the next several days. He was charged with murder. The day after the arrest, Moyo said, police pummeled and stomped him by the side of a road. At a police station outside this southern city, he was stripped, his hands were tied behind his back and his feet were shackled to a metal ring hooked to a wet cell floor, he said. Several times, he said, thugs let themselves in at night and beat him bloody and mute. "This thing, you cannot forget," said Moyo, who had been an intelligence official and bodyguard for Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. "You can try, but it just sticks." The beating Moyo suffered and the murder charges against him and several other men were part of an attempt to cover up two killings ordered by officials of President Robert Mugabe's ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, or Zanu PF, according to human rights activists, opposition members and church leaders. The case, they contend, underscores how Mugabe has used the law as a weapon against his political opponents.
Moyo, who spent more than two years in prison without bail, was released in April. On Monday, prosecutors acknowledged that they no longer had a case against Moyo and five others charged with him. In the first years after white rule ended in Zimbabwe in 1980 and Mugabe assumed power, this landlocked southern African country of 12 million was largely regarded as a beacon of democracy and prosperity on a troubled continent. But in recent years, Mugabe's government has curbed the right to public assembly, shut down newspapers, expanded police authority to detain suspects without charges, put the main opposition leader on trial for treason and taken control of thousands of private farms. Amnesty International and other human rights groups have chronicled the decline of the rule of law, saying Mugabe uses the criminal justice system to punish his rivals and protect his allies, and that to oppose him is to invite false arrest, torture and even death. "These people are innocent," said the city's outspoken Catholic archbishop, Pius A. Ncube. "That's what they do all the time in Zanu PF.We're dealing with such a devilish government here, all to defend one man: Robert Mugabe."
The government has consistently disputed such claims, blaming them on what it has termed treachery by its opponents, dishonest journalists and meddling from the British, the country's former colonial rulers. Mugabe and other officials have characterized Moyo and his co-defendants as terrorists out to undermine Zimbabwe's peaceful democratic system. The roots of Moyo's case, as detailed by human rights activists and in court documents and news reports, can be traced to the national election in 2000. It was the first contest in many years in which Mugabe's party faced significant opposition - from the Movement for Democratic Change, which had been formed the year before. The new opposition drew support from human rights lawyers, farmers, civic activists and some former members of Zanu PF. One of them was Patrick Nabanyama, a Zanu PF activist who believed that the ruling party had grown corrupt. In the parliamentary race in June 2000, Nabanyama made a public break with the party and backed an opposition candidate, David Coltart, a white lawyer. As the election neared, Nabanyama said he began receiving death threats. The culprits, he said, were so-called war veterans, a loosely organized force loyal to the government and consisting mostly, but not entirely, of former guerrillas in Zimbabwe's war against white rule in Rhodesia, as the country was then known, in the 1970s.
"I have been subjected to several death threats since last month by pseudo war vets," Nabanyama wrote in a letter dated June 19, 2000, addressed to the Daily News, an independent newspaper since closed by the government. "Killing me will not stop the change. Instead, MDC is daily gaining support." That afternoon, before Nabanyama got a chance to mail the letter, a gang of men seized him at his house and bundled him into a waiting vehicle as his wife and daughter looked on. The abduction initially drew little attention from authorities. But Coltart and other opposition members organized vigils to keep pressure on the government to investigate. Over the next few months, authorities arrested 10 war veterans in connection with Nabanyama's disappearance, including Cain Nkala, a Mugabe loyalist and the local head of a war veterans association. After Nabanyama had been missing for a year, prosecutors upgraded the charges to murder. Nabanyama's body has never been found. As the trial date approached, reports reached opposition leaders that Nkala intended to implicate top officials from the ruling party in Nabanyama's killing. He never got the chance. On Nov. 5, 2001, a gang abducted Nkala in much the same style that Nabanyama had been taken, bundling him into a waiting vehicle as his wife watched. Nkala has not been seen since.
Coltart, Archbishop Ncube and others said they believed that Mugabe's party was involved in Nkala's kidnapping, which they described as an attempt to eliminate him before he could implicate party leaders in the killing of Nabanyama. But the police and the government put the blame for Nkala's disappearance on the Movement for Democratic Change. "The MDC and their supporters should know their days are numbered," Mugabe said at Nkala's funeral, according to news accounts. "The time is now up for the MDC terrorists, as the world has been awakened by the death of Nkala." Moyo, now 36, was arrested as police began a highly publicized roundup of more than a dozen opposition activists in connection with Nkala's killing. Two other opposition activists who were arrested in connection with Nkala's murder, Sazini Mpofu and Khethani Augustine Sibanda, were shown on state-controlled television seemingly directing police to Nkala's body, at a site a few steps off a road outside the city. The grave was so shallow and obvious that Nkala's toes stuck through the dirt. Prosecutors charged Moyo, Mpofu, Sibanda and three other opposition activists with Nkala's murder. Court proceedings began soon afterward, and remained front-page news in Zimbabwe for the next 2 1/2 years.
But in court, where some independent judges remain even after years of Mugabe's efforts to consolidate power, the government's case began to unravel. Mpofu and Sibanda said police threatened and beat them, then dictated confessions that the two were forced to write and sign. Sibanda said agents from the Central Intelligence Organization had abducted him and compelled him, through torture and threats, to participate in a plot to frame the others for the murder. Cross-examination of police officers also revealed numerous inconsistencies in their accounts, according to a ruling in March by the trial judge. Perhaps the most damning was the inability of police to explain why their own investigation diary recorded that Sibanda supposedly pointed out the location of Nkala's body to police hours before the diary showed he was taken into custody. The trial judge rejected police explanations that the illogical diary entries were merely mix-ups. The diary also revealed that officials from Zanu PF and Mugabe's office directly intervened in the case to deliver intelligence two days after Nkala's disappearance. That same afternoon, police raided opposition headquarters. What the diary described as an undercover "ferret team" started developing leads tying the activists, including Moyo, to Nkala's disappearance. Accounts of beatings and torture also emerged during the testimony.
After hearing these and other stories, High Court Justice Sandra Mungwira ruled that the confessions and the police testimony were so tainted as to be inadmissible. "In conclusion I would comment that overall the evidence of the State witnesses who are police officers is fraught with conflict and inconsistencies," the judge wrote in March. "The witnesses conducted themselves in a shameless fashion and displayed utter contempt for the due administration of justice to the extent that they were prepared to indulge in what can only be described as works of fiction." Mungwira also held open the possibility that, as the defense claimed, government agents - whom she called a "third force" - had twisted the case to their own ends. The following month, Moyo, Mpofu and Sibanda - who had been denied bail for more than two years - were freed from prison. The three other suspects had been given bail earlier. Then, this week, prosecutors told the judge that they had no case remaining against five of the suspects, including Moyo. The sixth, Sibanda, still faces the possibility of prosecution when the case resumes on July 26. Attorneys for all the defendants, however, say they are confident that their clients will soon be exonerated. If that happens, no one will have been brought to justice for the killing of either Nabanyama or Nkala. Coltart, now a member of parliament, said: "This is the history of Zanu PF in microcosm. They've used violence to achieve political objectives.They have killed their own and portrayed it as an attack on their own by others." Moyo is broke and sick, suffering from a variety of maladies including dizziness, weakness and headaches that he blames on the beatings he endured in police custody. He fears more violence leading up to the national elections in March. "This next coming election will be the killing election," Moyo said. "People will die."
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From The Sunday Telegraph (UK), 18 July
Dictator sues British 'coup plotters'
By Miranda Mclachlan, Philip Sherwell and Jane Flanagan
A former SAS officer and three other men alleged to have been behind a plot by mercenaries to stage a coup in Equatorial Guinea are being sued in the High Court in London by the government of the West African state. British lawyers acting for Equatorial Guinea and its president, Teodoro Obiang, say that they are seeking millions of pounds in compensation on the rarely-cited legal grounds of civil conspiracy. Court documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph name Simon Mann, an Old Etonian scion of the Watney brewing family and a former Scots Guards officer, who is being held in jail with 70 other alleged mercenaries in Zimbabwe. They were allegedly en route to overthrow the regime in Equatorial Guinea, but they insist that they had been recruited as security officers at a Congo diamond mine. Also named in the documents are Eli Calil, a Chelsea-based oil tycoon; Greg Wales, a London businessman; Severo Moto, the exiled opposition leader; and two of Mr Mann's companies.
Lawyers for Mr Calil and Mr Wales, on whom the papers were served last week, denied the accusations. Mr Calil's solicitor, Imran Khan, said that he would be offering "a vigorous defence". "There is no substance to the claim," Mr Khan said. Sarah Webb, representing Mr Wales, also said that the "proceedings will be defended vigorously". Her client said: "What is going on here is the attempt by President Obiang to hang on to power." Mr Moto, who is based in Madrid, told The Sunday Telegraph that he had spoken to Mr Mann about arranging "protection" for him on a planned trip to Equatorial Guinea in March but said that he was not aware of any coup plot. He said Mr Calil was a good friend. Mr Mann is a neighbour and friend of Mark Thatcher, son of Baroness Thatcher, in the exclusive Cape Town suburb of Constantia. He was involved with Executive Outcomes, the South African mercenary company, and Sandline International, the outfit at the centre of the arms-to-Africa scandal in Sierra Leone.
The unusual legal action in London comes as Mr Mann and his South African co-accused, who were arrested at Harare airport in March, face key court cases in Johannesburg and the Zimbabwean capital this week. Deep fault lines have opened up between Mr Mann and his fellow defendants. The other men, many of whom are black soldiers who served in the apartheid-era South African army, believe that their legal prospects would be better there than in Harare. The South African government, however, has refused to seek their extradition from Zimbabwe. Mr Mann has now dropped out of their joint appeal against that decision, to be heard tomorrow in the Johannesburg constitutional court, and has appointed a new legal team to seek his transfer to Britain. At present, he is in solitary confinement in Chikurubi maximum security prison. The move has angered relatives of his fellow defendants. "Simon Mann is the linchpin of the whole operation," said Marge Pain, whose 60-year-old husband, Ken, was the flight engineer on the seized plane."He got my husband and all the other guys into this mess and now he seems to be cutting and running. It's not right."
Criminal proceedings begin in Harare on Wednesday, when Mr Mann will face four charges relating to immigration and aviation offences, and possession of dangerous weapons. His legal representative said last week that Mr Mann "absolutely denies" the allegation that he was leading a coup. "The idea that some 70 or 80 men could mount a successful coup against any government is militarily laughable and amounts to Boys' Own propaganda," he said. Despite Mr Mann's new legal ploy, Zimbabwe is widely expected to extradite the men to Equatorial Guinea in return for a deal to supply oil at discounted prices to prop up the country's collapsing economy. In London, the statement of claim on behalf of President Obiang and his government has been lodged in the Queen's Bench division of the High Court and was served last week on Mr Calil and Mr Wales. The solicitors are seeking court permission to serve the documents on Mr Moto in Madrid and Mr Mann in jail in Harare. Mr Calil is also under investigation by a French judge over allegations of illegal payments involving the oil giant Elf-Aquitaine. An ethnic Lebanese entrepreneur with British citizenship who lives in a mansion off the Kings Road in London, he made his millions as an oil trader in Nigeria. His actor son George appears in Holby City. He has hired Lord Bell, once Margaret Thatcher's public relations adviser, to put his case.
The documents claim that the alleged conspirators met in London, Madrid and South Africa to plot a coup with Mr Mann and Nick du Toit, a South African businessman now in jail in Equatorial Guinea. Mr Wales, an old Africa hand whose business interests have ranged from a mine clearance operation in Somalia to consultancy work with Executive Outcomes, said that he had met Mr du Toit to discuss legitimate business deals in Equatorial Guinea. He denied that he was involved in any coup attempt, but said that there were frequent rumours of such plots. "Equatorial Guinea is the sort of place where if you don't hear that a coup attempt is being planned, then there's something wrong," he said. The South African government has been determined to clamp down on mercenary operations being run from its soil. The Sunday Telegraph has been told that its intelligence services had been tapping Mr Mann's phone and monitoring his activities in the run-up to March's events. Equatorial Guinea is a small, malaria-infested country on the Gulf of Guinea which has been ruled by Mr Obiang since he overthrew his uncle in 1979. It is enjoying an oil boom following the discovery of large deposits in the mid-1990s - daily barrel production is slated to rise from the current 450,000 to 750,000 - but the proceeds have mainly been pocketed by the small ruling elite. America aims to obtain at least five per cent of the oil it needs from Equatorial Guinea over the next few years as it seeks to lessen its reliance on Middle East supplies. The US state department, however, has been extremely critical of the country's human rights record. Last week, Senate investigators issued a highly critical report linking the Obiang family to secret accounts valued at about £500 million at Riggs Bank in America.
Additional reporting by Kim Willsher in Paris
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From The Tablet, 16 July
Archbishop blasts African Union for pandering to Mugabe
Ellen Teague
A Zimbabwean archbishop has accused the African Union (AU) of caving into the regime of Robert Mugabe by blocking a report that it commissioned on human rights abuses in the country. Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo said Africa's leaders, who met in Ethiopia last week, "fear facing the facts but they know very well there are so many injustices in Zimbabwe". Archbishop Ncube was angry that the AU had suppressed the damning report following complaints from Mugabe's Zanu PF Government. "All they do is back each other up and drink tea together," the Archbishop told the BBC following the three-day AU summit in Ethiopia. The AU, which has 53 member nations, was intended to be a more robust body than the Organisation of African Unity, which it succeeded in 2002. In a separate interview with a Johannesburg newspaper, Business Day, on 8 July Archbishop Ncube called specifically on President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa to halt what he called his support for Mugabe.
The report was compiled and submitted to the AU heads of state by its Commission on Human and People's Rights. It was based on evidence gathered during a 2002 fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe which highlighted serious human rights violations. But the report was shelved after Zimbabwe's Foreign Ministry complained that it had not seen the report first. A coalition of Zimbabwean human rights groups insisted that the report had been delivered to the Justice Ministry on 5 February. Archbishop Ncube also reiterated accusations he made last month that Mugabe is planning to use food aid as a political tool to win elections next year. "It is clear that they want to use starvation as a tool to get people to vote for them," he said of the ruling Zanu PF party. The Zimbabwe Government is predicting bumper harvests this year after three years of food shortages, but has denied the United Nations access to make an independent assessment of food needs.
Meanwhile, there are signs that the Government fears that new appointments within the country's Catholic hierarchy have made the Church bolder in speaking out on human rights violations by the Government. The Herald, a Zanu PF-controlled newspaper, in an unsourced report on 12 July, alleged that a rift had emerged within the Church over the recent appointment of Bishop Robert Ndlovu as the new Archbishop of Harare. Bishop Ndlovu replaced Archbishop Patrick Chakaipa, who died last year. The new appointment means that Zimbabwe's two archbishops are both Ndebele from Matabeleland. Archbishop Chakaipa had been from the Shona ethnic group, as is Mugabe, and the two were close friends. "Some devout Catholics from the Mashonaland provinces view the appointment of Archbishop Ndlovu, who was previously based in Hwange, as a slap in the face," suggested the newspaper, which went on to claim that "influential and concerned Catholics" had written a letter to the Apostolic Nuncio in Zimbabwe hoping the decision would be reversed. Fr Alouis Munyaradzi Chaumba, the Director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace told The Tablet on Tuesday from the Bishops' Conference Offices in Harare that "there is no such rift". This was confirmed by other sources in Zimbabwe who asked not to be named. "This is a staged issue by the Herald," said one of them, who added that he was "quite certain that Zanu PF ministers were behind the article".
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 18 July
Zanu PF chefs in dirty media war
By our own Staff
The tussle to succeed President Mugabe has spilled into the newsrooms of the State-controlled Zimpapers and the Zanu PF mouth-piece, The Voice, sources have revealed. They said a senior official in the Department of Information and Publicity in the President's Office has ordered journalists at The Herald and The Chronicle and the Sunday publications - The Sunday News and The Sunday Mail - to stop publishing stories that portray some veteran Zanu PF politicians in positive light. Those being targeted include Zanu PF vice president Joseph Msika, chairman John Nkomo, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the party's secretary for administration and Nathan Shamuyarira, its secretary for information and publicity. Nkomo and Mnangagwa are tipped as the most likely to fight out the battle to succeed President Robert Mugabe when he eventually retires. According to sources, the camp which has issued instructions to sideline the veteran politicians has in its ranks the likes of younger Zanu PF politicians Jonathan Moyo, Patrick Chinamasa and Joseph Made. The so called Young Turks' association with Information Minister Jonathan Moyo has resulted in them getting favourable publicity in Zimpapers ' newspapers which are controlled by Moyo.
Nkomo, Mnangagwa and other senior Zanu PF heavy-weights have resorted to using the little read Voice to get some good publicity because Zimpapers has become a no go area for them. The Voice is run by Shamuyarira, Moyo's boss in the ruling party. In Bulawayo, senior journalists at The Chronicle said they were under strict orders to write little or no reports on political gurus in the region except Andrew Langa, the deputy minister of transport who is not regarded as a threat by the Young Turks, sources said. "We have been instructed that except when it is absolutely unavoidable, photographs of political heavyweights in Matabeleland like Dumiso Dabengwa or Bulawayo Governor Cain Mathema should not be used on the front page of the newspaper," said one senior journalist. "We have been told that they belong to the inside pages and can only appear on the front pages when being portrayed in a negative light," the senior journalist at the newspaper claimed. He said only Mugabe, Moyo, Made and Chinamasa as well as Reserve Bank Governor, Gideon Gono, were guaranteed good coverage.
Mnangagwa has generally been ignored by the State controlled media while Nkomo, Msika, and Shamuyarira have recently been lampooned by newspapers from the Zimpapers stable. Nkomo now depends on his weekly column in The Voice to announce party programmes. Mugabe himself has not been left untouched by the media war. A day after addressing the Zanu PF Youth Conference last week, Mugabe's photograph - as is the tradition - did not grace the front page of The Sunday Mail or The Herald on Monday. Instead, the publications had photographs of Moyo and his coterie of associates launching his pet musical project, Back2Black double CD, in Victoria Falls. Among those invited to the Victoria Falls jamboree were fellow political greenhorns, Francis Nhema, Made, Christopher Mushowe, Ignatious Chombo, Chinamasa and Flora Bhuka. The entire leadership from Matabeleland, including the three governors, were snubbed.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 19 July
Zimbabwe charities face being outlawed
Harare - Zimbabwe's human rights groups and aid organisations are in increasing danger after the government threatened yesterday to use banning orders and arrests to force them to register with the state.The threat appeared in the state-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper, a week before laws controlling non-governmental organisations are due to be presented by President Robert Mugabe to the last session of parliament before a general election next March. All NGOs have had to be registered since 2002. But the Sunday Mail quoted Lancaster Museka, the permanent secretary in the welfare ministry, as saying: "Any organisation found operating without registration will be closed and employees arrested." His statement followed threats from Paul Mangwana, the welfare minister, that there was "too much room for NGOs to engage in politics". The proposed law will make it illegal for hundreds of human rights groups and community organisations to continue to operate as trusts, answerable only to boards of trustees and members. Trustees of several pro-democracy trusts said they believed that if they had applied for registration as NGO's under the existing law, their applications would have been turned down. Brian Kagoro, co-chairman of human rights group the Crisis Coalition, said: "I have seen a draft of the new NGO bill and it is terrible. It will make it illegal for trusts to continue."
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From Associated Press, 17 July
Daughter fears for parents on mission
Zimbabwe might be censoring letters from Danville man
Danville - The daughter of a doctor who traveled to Zimbabwe for missions work has become concerned for his safety, saying his correspondence has been censored and she thinks he has been detained by government officials. Dr. Ed Montgomery, 57, had recently retired from his practice and a 27-year career with a Danville hospital. Montgomery had been chairman of the department of surgery at Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center and president of the medical staff, and he had served on various other hospital committees. Family members told The Advocate-Messenger of Danville that Montgomery and his wife, Sara Jane, have been in the capital city of Harare for about two weeks. They left Danville in June and had been in South Africa before traveling to Zimbabwe. Ashley Montgomery, of Lexington, said she thinks her father may be under some type of house arrest. "There has been very little contact," said Ashley. "Everything I know is very censored, and I have had no direct contact with them." She said it appears that parts of letters had been cut out. "You have to guess at what they were trying to say," said Dr. Chris Jackson, who has accompanied Montgomery on other mission trips.
Doctors at the Danville hospital said that since he got to Africa, Montgomery contacted the hospital and other professionals with requests that they send proof that he was a urologist in good standing and a U.S. citizen. With assistance from the U.S. Embassy, the Montgomerys have obtained a lawyer, Ashley Montgomery said. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Darla Jordan told the Danville newspaper she couldn't release any information on Montgomery because neither he nor his family had signed a privacy waiver. Zimbabwe is on a list of countries for which the U.S. State Department has issued travel warnings to Americans. The latest warning was issued July 2, but others had been in effect before that. The country "is in the midst of political, economic and humanitarian crises with serious implications for the security situation," according to the State Department. The Montgomerys had participated in similar mission trips, without incident, in Haiti, Kenya, China and Europe and were looking forward to their Zimbabwe mission, Ashley Montgomery said. "I think Dad felt like it wasn't America, but it was safe, and he could provide services that were needed ... and it was a good risk," Ashley Montgomery said.
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From The Danville Advocate, 18 July
Danville doctor awaits arraignment in Africa
By Emily Burton, Staff Writer
More details are emerging on the plight of a retired Danville urologist who was detained in Zimbabwe, and a State Department official is hopeful charges against him will be dropped. Dr. Ed Montgomery was arrested July 5 on charges of practicing without a license while working at a regional hospital in Zimbabwe, located just north of South Africa, said Jason Sauer, a spokesman for Congressman Ben Chandler. Chandler's office has been in contact with an unnamed State Department official who is familiar with the situation, Sauer said. Montgomery and his wife, Sara Jane, a nurse, had been on a missionary trip in Zimbabwe for about two weeks when the doctor was detained. Both Montgomerys were stripped of their passports and have been unable to make regular contact with family members. The Montgomerys, veterans of several mission trips around the world, were traveling with friends and fellow missionaries when the doctor was arrested. According to the State Department official, the doctor has since been released from custody and is tentatively scheduled for arraignment on Thursday. Sauer said the source indicated there was "a good possibility" the charges against Dr. Montgomery could be dropped. The Montgomery's eldest daughter, Ashley Montgomery, has been serving as a spokeswoman for the family. According to Ashley Montgomery, her mother first e-mailed her about the arrest last week but subsequent letters have been censored and undated. "It's been a stressful situation," Ashley Montgomery said. Dr. Montgomery has been a prominent member of the Danville medical community, even after his recent retirement. His career includes a lengthy service with Ephraim McDowell Health, where currently he is a board member. He is a founding director of the Kentucky Trust Co. and has served as the medical director for Central Kentucky Physicians Inc.
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From The Sunday Mirror, 18 July
Multiple farm owner's defiance deep-seated
Innocent Chofamba Sithole/Kuda Chikwanda
There is deep-seated defiance within government and the ruling Zanu PF party to President Robert Mugabe's renewed clampdown on multiple farm owners, recent developments have shown. The president has grappled with the issue of multiple farm ownership, a land reform plague prevalent among the country's top leadership, for exactly a year now, but with limited success. Observers have noted that |
