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Archived News
23rd March 2004
MDC Weekly Brief, March 16, 2004
Zimbabwe at the UN Commission on Human Rights
Tsvangirai message to Zimbabwe people, March 16
‘Mercenaries’ in Harare charged with murder plot
A murderous dictator, his rapper son and a $700m-a-year oil boom
IMF team in Zimbabwe for economy review
Zimbabwe not able to pay IMF
Buthelezi declines visit to Mugabe
'Mercenaries' may appear in court today
67 won't face coup charges in Africa plot, Zimbabwe says
Zimbabwe arms saga raises questions over govt role
Panic withdrawals hit financial institutions
Short-lived freedom
Mbeki lifts veil on hush Harare talks
More charges against SA men
Zimbabwe may try "mercenaries" in prison
Held SA men 'were hired as paid soldiers'
Mutasa for presidency
University faculty in Zimbabwe reject pay raise offer
SA men in Zim jail 'seem ok'
Tough for Zim to rejoin Commonwealth
Govt moves to acquire private conservancies
More bad news for the banking industry
Gideon's bible
Where coup plots are routine, one that is not
Mugabe man builds R30m Cape palace
Alleged mercenaries hit with 6th charge
ZNA seals off local airports
ZDI's murky arms dealing exposed
Mutare mayor accuses GMB, governor of blocking food aid
Move to amend Electoral Act
Mugabe newspaper slams SA over 'mercenaries'
Zim 'looks East' for military training/hardware
Bankers now call for an amnesty
Fury over mansion for one of Mugabe's men
Zimbabwe's 70 alleged mercenaries and one truck
Date in prison court for alleged mercenaries
Zimbabwe could ban graffiti
Increase in malnourished children at clinics
Mugabe orders probe into minister's new home
Makamba in court on fresh charges
Llandudno residents' small sacrifice is the Zimbabwe nation's gain
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From The Times (UK), 17 March
‘Mercenaries’ in Harare charged with murder plot
From Jan Raath in Harare
Zimbabwean Government lawyers sprang a surprise yesterday on the 70 men arrested over an alleged attempt to stage a coup in Equatorial Guinea and charged them with plotting to murder the country’s President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The new allegations came as an apparent afterthought and were announced to the prisoners, including Simon Mann, a former British SAS officer, in Chikurubi prison outside Harare. On Monday they were formally charged over the illegal purchase of weapons and for violating immigration regulations when they flew into Harare on Sunday last week. All 70 are to appear in court today, Jonathan Samkange, one of their lawyers, said. The Government has been struggling for more than a week to find what it believes will be appropriate legislation to deal with the 70 men, other than with what are offences classed almost as misdemeanours under firearms control and immigration laws. The group charged with the murder plot includes an advance party of three, the 64 men on board the Boeing 727 that flew to Harare from South Africa, as well as the crew of three. They were arrested shortly after landing at Harare international airport. Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea say that the men were about to load up a consignment of AK47 rifles, light machineguns, pistols, rocket-launchers, mortars and hand grenades allegedly bought in Zimbabwe by Mr Mann, and then planned to fly on to the oil-rich West African country and overthrow President Mbasogo. President Mugabe’s Government appears determined to deliver what Stanislaus Mudenge, the Foreign Minister, said last week would be "the severest punishment in our statutes, including capital punishment". "It’s very original," one lawyer said, "but the State is going to have great difficulty with jurisdiction over the conspiracy that appears to have taken place in so many countries."
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From The Independent (UK), 16 March
A murderous dictator, his rapper son and a $700m-a-year oil boom
The grounding of a mystery plane, allegedly carrying mercenaries, has focuses attention on the West African state of Equatorial Guinea and its despotic leader. Declan Walsh reports on a would-be coup that sounds like a plot from Dallas.
On the steamy shores of West Africa, oil seldom brings good tidings. Equatorial Guinea, the nugget-sized nation at the heart of last week's bungled apparent coup attempt, is no exception. A despotic leader, his playboy-rapper son, scheming relatives and thousands of American oil men are the characters of a twisted plot that reads like Dallas set in equatorial Africa. And although attention has focused on 67 alleged mercenaries arrested in Zimbabwe, a far greater intrigue swirls around the dictatorial regime of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Mr Obiang, who came to power by overthrowing his uncle and shooting him, has survived 25 years in power by stuffing the government with relatives, torturing opponents and rigging elections. His would be a perfect banana republic, if it had bananas. Instead it has oil - lots of it. Mr Obiang's iron fist turned to gold in the mid 1990s when US oil firms made massive offshore discoveries. Overnight, the former Spanish colony shot from poverty-stricken obscurity to fabulous wealth, becoming known as the "Kuwait of Africa". Large oil companies, led by ExxonMobil, invested $6bn in operations that now pump 350,000 barrels of oil a day.
More than 3,000 US oil workers are manning the pumps, and business is so brisk there are direct flights from Houston to the island's capital, Malabo. Equatorial Guinea has become Africa's third-largest oil producer, after Nigeria and Angola, and its fastest growing economy. "The oil has been for us like the manna that the Jews ate in the desert," Mr Obiang told CBS last year. The vast majority of Guineans, however, have yet to taste that sweet bread. The majority of the vast state oil revenues - up to $700m this year - has been salted into foreign bank accounts. Many are controlled by Mr Obiang. Most of the country's 500,000 people scrape by on $2 a day, and human development indicators have barely budged since oil was struck. "There is no evidence that any of the oil wealth has gone to the people," said Sarah Wykes of the lobby group Global Witness, which later this month will release a report linking the Obiang regime to large-scale corruption and drug trafficking. The US oil companies appear unconcerned by the allegations. Last year ExxonMobil threw a party in Washington in Mr Obiang's honour - one year after he held presidential elections that gave him 97 per cent of the vote. The result suggested a slight fall in popularity over the previous poll, in which he won 99.2 per cent.
Western business has followed on the heels of the Texan oil men with gusto. Only 15 years ago Malabo had just one hotel with no electricity, food or running water. Two cars in the street was a traffic jam, and the phone directory had just two pages, listing subscribers by their first name. The airport terminal was a tin-roofed shack that received just one international flight. Today, however, the French have built a mobile phone network, sports utility vehicles whizz through the streets, and several international carriers service the smart new airport terminal. Prostitutes clamour around the gates of several new hotels. The US re-opened its embassy in October last year, following an eight-year closure in protest at torture and other human rights abuses. At around the same time the Dutch carrier KLM renamed one of its planes after Mr Obiang, to mark the opening of the new airport terminal. "It was like calling a plane Pol Pot," said one analyst. A campaign against US involvement in Equatorial Guinea is building. The influential US news programme 60 Minutes criticised the pact between Mr Obiang and the oil companies last autumn. The latest State Department human rights report, released last month, cataolgued an array of police torture, arbitrary arrest and detention and the failure of the courts to administer justice. In Washington, the FBI has started investigating a $700m bank account at the Riggs Bank, of which Mr Obiang is apparently the main signatory. One bank employee has already lost his job over the scandal.
But the greatest threat to Mr Obiang's dictatorial dominance comes from his own family. The president has been sick, reportedly from prostate cancer, and tensions have arisen among the ruling clan over his succession plans. Some are worried over apparent plans to hand power to his son Teodorin - a government minister, rap music entrepreneur and international playboy. The 30-something Teodorin parties in Rio de Janeiro, does business in Hollywood and lives at five-star hotels in Paris, where he drives in Bentley and Lamborghini cars. Some years ago he invested several hundred thousand dollars to start his own rap label, TNO Entertainment, standing for Teodorin Nguema Obiang. It apparently failed to release any records, but according to Hollywood gossip he has had a relationship with the American rap star Eve. Teodorin is also fond of female company from other countries - according to one associate, he once turned up for a meeting in Paris accompanied by several Russian women. He is a keen property investor, owning a $6m mansion in Bel Air. But when he tried to buy a multi-million dollar apartment in New York - in a building where the arms superdealer Adnan Khashoggi once lived - the board of management rejected his application.
His frequent absences have called into question his ability to run the Ministry of Infrastructure and Public Works, although he did head up his father's extraordinarily successful 2002 election campaign. The president is reportedly worried about his son's partying and has appealed to confidantes to help temper his wilder excesses - presumably to help pave the way for a leadership succession. This worries Mr Obiang's relatives, who hold the top positions in the government and military. In particular it has bothered the president's brother, Armengol Ondo Nguema, the national security chief. According to documents obtained by The Independent, Armengol has close links with Nick du Toit - the 48-year-old South African mercenary who last week admitted to helping plan the putative coup. Both men are shareholders in Triple Options, a joint venture company established last October to provide "security services" to Mr Obiang, but which the government now says is implicated in the plot to topple him. Africa sleuths remain mystified about who is behind the coup plot - if there ever was one at all.
Suspicions have been raised by Mr du Toit's appearance on national television to admit his complicity in the apparent coup, only hours after the plane of 70 mercenaries was arrested in Harare. Appearing relaxed and composed, he enjoyed a more peaceful fate than most failed putchists in Equatorial Guinea, who might expect to have their toenails removed over several days before being allowed to speak in public. Mr du Toit said he planned to force Mr Obiang into exile, allowing the opposition leader Severo Moto Nsa to seize power. Mr Moto, who lives in exile in Spain, has denied any involvement in the plot. The task of finding the culprit is complicated by the almost universal unpopularity of the Obiang regime. It is involved in high-profile border disputes with neighbouring Gabon and Cameroon over remote and possibly oil-rich areas; and most of the opposition is jailed or in exile. Last month an American human rights lobby group put Mr Obiang at sixth place in its gallery of the world's 10 worst dictators. In 2002, for instance, he had more than 70 political opponents jailed. Some were hung in positions designed to break their bones, and at least two died. Those who have not fled into exile in Spain have been detained at the notorious Black Beach prison, where opponents say they have been tortured by Obiang family members. "If you've ever seen a person limp on both legs, you know you're in Equatorial Guinea," said the former US ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, John Bennett.
The government is also tainted by allegations of drug trafficking. In 1997 a former Information Minister, Santos Pasqual Bikomo, was arrested in Madrid with 14 kilos of heroin, allegedly from Pakistan. Currently serving a nine-year sentence, he alleges that other government figures were involved in the drugs trade. According to research by Global Witness, which specialises in investigating oil corruption, at least 10 Equatorial Guineans travelling on diplomatic passports have been arrested on drugs trafficking charges since the late 1980s. The independent press has been beaten into silence and even the foreign press is not safe. A local correspondent for the French news service AFP was jailed for eight days in November last year after writing "scurrilous" stories. Instead, the state media bring greasy sycophancy to new depths. Mr Obiang has "all power over men and things", state radio said last year, adding: "He can decide to kill ... because it is God himself, with whom he is in permanent contact, who gives him this strength." US interest in censoring Mr Obiang's abuses has waned in tandem with the flood of investment. For example, after the sham 2002 elections the European Union issued a stern condemnation. In contrast the US State Department reaction was notably muted. The US increasingly sees West Africa as a "safe" source of oil, far from the Muslim world and OPEC price controlling countries. Sub-Saharan African already supplies 15 per cent of US imports, which the Bush administration hopes will rise to 25 per cent in the coming decade.
Other countries have more mixed relations. The South African president Thabo Mbeki recently strengthened relations, and the Spanish foreign minister Ana Palacio visited in November last year. However yesterday Equatorial Guinea threatened to recall its ambassador to Spain over allegations the Spanish government was behind the coup plot. The 67 alleged mercenaries detained in Zimbabwe are due to make their first court appearance today. Led by the former SAS commando and Old Etonian, Simon Mann, they are accused of acting like characters from the Frederick Forsyth novel, The Dogs of War - a thriller about a mining executive who hires a group of mercenaries to overthrow an African government and install a puppet dictator so he can mine platinum. But the alleged mercenaries give a different explanation - that they en route to Eastern Congo to protect an unnamed mine as part of a legitimate contract. "It is all a dreadful misunderstanding," said Charles Burrow, an executive with the Channel Islands-registered company that owns their impounded Boeing 727 plane. However Africa Confidential, a respected newsletter, says that they had in fact stopped to pick up weapons for a planned coup. According to a quoted contract, the team had already paid $180,000 to Zimbabwean army officers for a consignment of AK-47 guns, mortars and 30,000 rounds of ammunition. Whatever the truth, when their plane landed in Harare their plans went disastrously wrong. The coming trial may shed further light on their bizarre adventure and - just perhaps - on the intrigues of a tiny oil-rich yet fragile nation 2,000 miles away.
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From Reuters, 16 March
IMF team in Zimbabwe for economy review
Washington - An International Monetary Fund team is in Zimbabwe for a routine economic assessment and consultations with the government, struggling to pay overdue debts to the global lender, an IMF source said on Tuesday. The visit is part of Article IV economic consultations, the source said, which refers to annual reviews of IMF member country's to assess economic and financial stability and policies. "The discussions with the authorities will cover everything," the source said. In December the IMF began procedures to expel the southern African state as a member for failing to pay its debts to the fund. It also said President Robert Mugabe's government had not adopted "comprehensive and consistent policies" to address Zimbabwe's growing economic crisis. The IMF said Zimbabwe has been in continuous arrears since February 2001, with arrears amounting to $273 million or about 53 percent of its IMF quota as of November 2003. The IMF source said Zimbabwe had resumed quarterly payments to the fund since the December meeting of the 24-member executive board. According to the IMF Web site, Zimbabwe made $1.48 million in payments to the fund this year. "The payments have not been at a level that can change the course of action," said one IMF official said. The IMF and the World Bank led Western donors in halting lending and balance of payments support to Zimbabwe in protest against government policies, including its seizure of white-owned land for redistribution to landless blacks. The IMF said in December that economic and social conditions in Zimbabwe, once the region's breadbasket, had deteriorated, with gross domestic product falling by about 40 percent between 1999 and 2003 and inflation at about 526 percent in October 2003. Mugabe has accused the financial institutions of pandering to the whims of the West, which he says have sabotaged Zimbabwe's economy over the land reforms, leading to record inflation and unemployment, as well as shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food.
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From SABC News, 17 March
Zimbabwe not able to pay IMF
Eric Bloch, a Zimbabwean economic commentator, says Zimbabwe does not have the ability to pay off the money it owes the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "It's only able to make some very token gesture payments, as a gesture of good faith," Bloch said this morning. This follows reports that a seven-member team from the IMF is in Zimbabwe for a two-week routine visit to assess the country's economic situation. The visit comes after an announcement by the Zimbabwean government that it wants to settle its debt with the IMF and other international lenders, estimated at around $4.5 billion. Last year the IMF began initiating the compulsory withdrawal of the Southern African country due to lack of cooperation and unpaid debt. It notably cited arrears of more than $270 million running back almost three years. Bloch said it would take many years before the country could clear all its arrears. Bloch said Zimbabwe owes the IMF alone a total of $680 million, with the $270 million being the longest standing arrears. "But even that portion of the debt is beyond Zimbabwe's means until there is a dramatic change to the Zimbabwean economy." He said the country aims to negotiate with the IMF to settle the debt progressively. "In fact they have made the first very nominal payment to the IMF of $2 million which is below 2% of the arrears."He said the country did not even have enough foreign exchange to meet ongoing essentials such as fuel, electricity, medications, water and raw material for industry. The government of Robert Mugabe is widely blamed for sub-standard economic policies and corruption which has seen an unprecedented decline in the country's economy in the past few years.
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From iafrica.com (SA), 17 March
Buthelezi declines visit to Mugabe
Donwald Pressly
Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Wednesday that it had been suggested to him that he visit the troubled country of Zimbabwe to talk to President Robert Mugabe, but he had declined. At a joint rally with official opposition Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon at the University of Stellenbosch on Tuesday - as part of their joint "Coalition of Change" - Buthelezi was asked about his party's stance on the deteriorating situation in that country. Buthelezi said that one should have no illusion that South Africa's economy "is strong and the most developed country in Africa," but Zimbabwe too had been viewed as "a jewel" of Africa "until recently". He did not spell out the metaphor further, but he said it was easy "to (go down) the slippery path taken by those who are running a country... very easy to destroy a country as is the case in Zimbabwe. Some people suggested to me when people were to-ing and fro-ing from Zimbabwe that because I was at university (Fort Hare, Eastern Cape) with (President) Mugabe I should go and see him too (to help mediate in the economic and political crisis). I declined. I said I did not want to go to Zimbabwe and be feted by the president. He is very warm when he sees me. I said I did not want to return to say to the press at the airport: The president (Mugabe) explained to me and I understand." There was a loud roar of approval from the crowd.
Leon was specifically asked by an English-speaking student if he thought South Africa "would go the same way (as Zimbabwe)" if there was no change of government in South Africa. The opposition leader said that conditions in South Africa and Zimbabwe were different. However, when the opposition led by Joshua Nkomo's Zapu PF (the Zimbabwean African People's Union) - joined to form one party with Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu PF) "at that moment the opposition died in Zimbabwe". This had followed on the heels of the bloody massacre of Matabeleland "instigated by Mugabe and the (current Zimbabwe parliament Speaker) Emmerson Mnangagwa". It had taken 17 years after democracy in Zimbabwe for the current opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai to leave the trade union movement and form the Movement for Democratic Change. Leon said that the transition from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe "was a positive affirmation of what reconciliation was about" at the time of independence in 1980. But Mugabe and Zapu PF had been in power too long. "What I can tell you is give one man and one party power for too long, it ends up in a one-party situation. (If a similar situation occurred in South Africa) the Zimbabweanisation of South Africa becomes a possibility. You would expect me to say that." But he pointed out that African National Congress MP and deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party, Jeremy Cronin, had already warned against the "Zanufication" of the ANC - the strangulation of debate within the ruling party's ranks.
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From Business Day (SA), 18 March
'Mercenaries' may appear in court today
Harare - A fourth set of charges - this time under draconian state security legislation - has been brought against 70 alleged mercenaries said to have been part of a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea, lawyers said on Wednesday. "There are now charges on four counts," defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange said after spending a seventh successive day at Chikurubi central prison where the 70 men are being held, just outside Harare. He said police recorded "warned and cautioned statements" from all 70 in which they were charged under the Public Order and Security Act with "conspiring to possess dangerous weapons." The 70 have been in detention for more than 10 days since they were arrested at Harare international airport and accused of planning to overthrow Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Mbasogo. The other charges against them are for plotting the murder of Mbasogo, violating firearms control laws and for committing offences under immigration regulations. Samkange said police told him that the group would finally be brought to court today. "We have been told that every day this week," he said. "I don't believe police are ready with the charge yet. I think it would be more accurate to say they will appear some time this week."
Announcements last week from Harare and Malabo, the tiny West African state's capital, claimed that 64 "mercenaries" and three crew flew in a Boeing 727 from South Africa on March 7, stopped at Harare to collect a consignment of military weaponry organised by an advance party and then were planning to fly on to stage the coup d'etat in Malabo. Officials here have claimed that the "advance party" was arrested in a "sting" operation after they came here first in February and allegedly negotiated with the state-owned arms manufacturer, Zimbabwe Defence Industries, to buy AK47 automatic rifles, light machine guns, mortars, rocket launchers, pistols, hand grenades and ammunition. Harare claimed that British and American intelligence were backing the alleged plot. Simon Mann, the alleged leader of the operation, has been described as a former British Special Air Services officer and a founder member of Executive Outcomes, the now defunct South African mercenary recruiting company.
"The law says it is illegal to possess specified dangerous weapons. No weapons were delivered," Samkange said. "The law says nothing about 'conspiring' to possess weapons. None of this makes sense." Senior legal sources said President Robert Mugabe's government appears to be determined to find a law that it can use to deliver what foreign minister Stan Mudenge said last week was "the severest punishment in our statutes, including capital punishment," against the 70. However, earlier this week acting attorney-general Bharat Patel and defence lawyers agreed there was nothing in Zimbabwean law for the 70 to be charged with other than offences under immigration and firearms control legislation, and nothing that could be use to execute them. Lawyers for the 70 "mercenaries" now being detained say none of their clients have reported ill-treatment.
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From The New York Times, 18 March
67 won't face coup charges in Africa plot, Zimbabwe says
By Michael Wines
Malabo, Equatorial Guinea - A lawyer for 67 men being held in Zimbabwe and accused of a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea said Wednesday that the men had been charged with conspiring to murder a foreign leader. But Zimbabwean prosecutors denied that, saying their country's laws did not cover such an offense. The confusion over the charges was the latest twist in a bizarre case that began when a Boeing 727, its cabin lights darkened, landed at Harare's international airport 10 days ago. Officials from Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea have accused the men aboard, mostly from southern Africa, of plotting to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea in exchange for oil rights and $1.8 million. By some accounts, the group stopped in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, to buy weapons from the state-owned Zimbabwe Defense Industries. Zimbabwean officials said that an ex-British officer led the group and that American, British and Spanish intelligence agencies had backed the coup attempt - charges the United States and Britain strenuously denied. The lawyer for the men, Jonathan Samkange, said the conspiracy charges were filed Tuesday. But Zimbabwe's attorney general, Bharat Patel, said the only charges the men faced were violating firearms, immigration and public order statutes. The most serious of those charges carries a prison term of 10 years. Mr. Patel said the county had no legal power to prosecute mercenaries who plot against foreign leaders.
At a news conference today in the Moorish-style Palace of the Peoples in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, said that the coup attempt remained under investigation.Fifteen men, said to be the coup's advance brigade, were arrested there about two weeks ago. Mr. Obiang said security, already among the tightest in Africa, had been further strengthened after the attempted overthrow. He played down suggestions that the United States or France had backed a coup attempt, saying his country would make no accusation of guilt unless it had solid evidence. But he repeated claims that an opposition leader now living in Spain, Severo Moto Nsa, was involved in the plot. And he expressed anger that Spain, which ruled Equatorial Guinea as a colony until 1968, had so far refused to turn over Mr. Moto. "We have certainly mentioned Spain," he said. "And it is because the known terrorist Severo Moto who is behind this plot resides in Spain." Mr. Obiang, who has weathered a number of coup attempts in recent years, said he was unruffled by what appeared to be another one. "I am very fine. I am happy," he said. "My morale is high."
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From Reuters, 17 March
Zimbabwe arms saga raises questions over govt role
By John Chiahemen
Johannesburg - The planned trial of suspected mercenaries in Zimbabwe could raise embarrassing questions for the government over their alleged bid to buy weapons illegally from the state, defence analysts say. The key question will centre on what role President Robert Mugabe's senior aides played in any plans to procure weapons from state-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI), a cash-strapped agency under the firm grip of the government. The analysts told Reuters on Wednesday that proceedings against the 70 men, who were charged on Tuesday, could throw a spotlight on what one called "the murky operations of the ZDI". "Certainly it does raise some questions and it might expose some more about the activities of the ZDI that the government will regret later," said Richard Cornwell, head of the Pretoria-based Africa Security and Analysis Programme. The group of South Africans, Namibians, Angolans, Congolese and a Zimbabwean are charged with conspiring to murder the president of Equatorial Guinea in an alleged plot to topple the government of the oil-rich African state. They also face charges under Zimbabwe's immigration and firearms laws after authorities seized their plane in Harare on March 7 and said they tried to procure weapons from the ZDI. The authorities have not elaborated on the arms procurement allegations.
Experts said it was difficult to imagine the ZDI would agree a deal to sell arms without the approval of senior government or party officials or without an end-user certificate specifying the final destination of the weapons. "There is no way they are going to be able to sell it to anybody without an end-user certificate or at least some government backing," said Herman van der Linde of private think-tank Executive Research Associates, also in Pretoria. Interior Minister Kembo Mohadi has suggested that Zimbabwe authorities had monitored the alleged procurement deal and moved in on the group after suspecting "a sinister motive". He did not elaborate but legal experts said that suggestion could be put to the test in court. Cornwell said the trial could lead to public scrutiny of other activities of the ZDI, mainly in its role in arms brokerage and dealings across Africa and elsewhere. "ZDI is involved not only in the manufacture of arms but also in a significant amount of brokerage of third-party arms," Cornwell told Reuters. The Zimbabwe government used the ZDI to provide the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe soldiers with military supplies when Mugabe sent thousands of troops to back the late President Laurent Kabila against rebels in 1998. ZDI has been in financial straits since the Kinshasa government failed to come up with promised payments for the support, military analysts said.
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From The Herald, 18 March
Panic withdrawals hit financial institutions
Harare - Panic withdrawals hit some indigenous financial institutions yesterday as members of the public continued to lose confidence in the banking sector. Long queues could be seen at several banking halls within the city as clients desperately tried to withdraw remaining funds from their accounts. Most said they were contemplating opening accounts with traditional banks where they believed their funds would be secure. There were fears that some of the financial institutions would run out of cash and unconfirmed reports said that some had started limiting cash withdrawals to clients. Some people had reportedly started hoarding cash and a shortage of notes appeared imminent. Efforts to get a comment from the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe regarding the latest developments failed last night.
Senior bank officials, however, tried to downplay the developments. They argued that there was nothing unusual as some people were withdrawing their salaries. However, bank tellers who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that there were massive withdrawals in recent days. "We have been very busy throughout the whole week. It appears as if it's the end of the month to us. People have been withdrawing all the remaining amounts in their accounts. "We anticipate business to continue on an upward trend in the coming weeks," said a bank teller with one of the financial institutions. Others said the panic was ignited by the closure of the Intermarket Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries - Intermarket Building Society, Intermarket Banking Corporation and Intermarket Discount House - by the central bank. "The situation was further worsened by the closure of Barbican Asset Management Company and Barbican Bank. "People are fearing that their bank may be the next to close. There is uncertainty in the market which has obviously led to panic withdrawals," said another bank teller.
The central bank ordered the closure of the two financial institutions in the past few days after discovering that their books were in shambles. The move was meant to protect depositors' funds. The two financial institutions have already been placed under curatorship for six months. It emerged yesterday that one of the leading financial institutions, Kingdom Financial Holdings, is likely to lose close to a billion dollars if one of the financial institutions that has been placed under curatorship fails to recover. Kingdom Holdings official, Mr Mark Woods, told a media and analysts' briefing yesterday that the financial institution was exposed to at least one of the banks. He, however, refused to provide the name of the financial institution. "We can confirm that we have at least $176 million in one of the financial institutions in question . . . but I am not in a position to disclose which of the banks owes us the money," said Mr Wood.
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From The Herald, 18 March
Short-lived freedom
Court Reporters
Businessman and politician James Makamba, in remand prison since February 9 on allegations of externalising billions of dollars in both local and foreign currency, was yesterday released by a Harare magistrate but was immediately re-arrested after police obtained a warrant of arrest from another magistrate. Ms Judith Tsamba released Makamba and declared his arrest and further detention illegal. But Makamba’s freedom was short-lived as he was re-arrested inside Harare Remand Prison, hours after the court ordered his release just before lunch yesterday. Police obtained a fresh warrant of arrest against him from a provincial magistrate In a statement, police chief spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said an appeal had also been noted against Ms Tsamba’s judgment. Asst Comm Bvudzijena said Ms Tsamba’s ruling was based on the High Court judgment by Justice Charles Hungwe, who ordered the release of Cecil Muderede on the submissions by the defence that police needed to obtain a warrant of arrest first before effecting arrest for offences under First Schedule. He said the State was noting an appeal against Justice Hungwe’s judgment.
"Justice Hungwe, according to magistrate Tsamba’s judgment, clearly stated that such persons could be re-arrested on the strength of a warrant of arrest. It is on this basis that Makamba and Muderede have been arrested. There have, however, been a series of appearances by James Makamba in court and it has been indicated that one of the charges Makamba is facing is fraud, which is a First Schedule offence whereby police do not need a warrant to effect an arrest," he said. He said on Makamba’s initial arrest and subsequent court appearances, the legality of his arrest was not an issue until the case was brought before Ms Tsamba. "Various bail applications have been made and the courts including the High and Supreme courts have accepted that the State has prima facie cases against Makamba which caused the courts to place him on remand." Asst Comm Bvudzijena said police were disturbed by a number of issues arising from Muderede and Makamba’s recent court applications. "These issues arising from the court decisions are firstly the interpretation of what constitutes a statutory First schedule offence whereby the police may arrest an offender without a warrant. Where the statutory offence calls for imprisonment for a period in excess of six months with or without the option of a fine then that offence is a First Schedule offence. Makamba’s offences fall within this category hence it is a First Schedule offence."
"Secondly, we have failed as the State to timeously obtain Justice Hungwe’s judgment on Muderede’s application by the defence handed down on March 12 2004 despite several visits and inquiries by both the State counsel and the police investigating team. What has happened in such situations is that accused persons have often absconded to some countries where they have sought political asylum and it is difficult to have them extradited back to Zimbabwe to face trial," he said. He said both Makamba and Muderede were facing serious economic crimes involving fraud, externalisation and in dealing in foreign currency involving large sums of money. "The prevalence of such crimes has had a serious negative impact on the country’s economy and national security especially on commodities, medicinal drugs and even local currency shortages. The police would like to assure the public that the force is determined to ruthlessly deal with all forms of economic deviancy and we continue to appeal to the public to supply us with information as regards such crimes," said Asst Comm Bvudzijena.
Makamba was whisked away from the remand prison complex in a white VW omnibus with tinted glass windows that was being escorted by a Mazda pick up and a Mazda 323 at about 4. 30 pm. This happened shortly after his wife was called in to give him some clothes. Soon after Makamba was whisked away, his lawyer Mr George Chikumbirike of Chikumbirike and Associates told his wife, relatives, friends and sympathisers who were patiently waiting outside the Harare Remand Prison gate that police had re-arrested the businessman. Amongst Makamba’s relatives and friends who had thronged the remand prison were the Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Mirror Dr Ibbo Mandaza and lawyer Mr Thekor Kewada of Scanlen and Holderness. However, the two, who came separately left before Makamba was taken away. "They have taken him. They are saying he is being taken to PGHQ (Police General Headquarters)," Mr Chikumbirike told Makamba’s friends and relatives. Mr Chikumbirike later told The Herald that he had followed the police vehicle in which Makamba was up to Morris Depot but was refused entry. "It is unlikely that I will do anything today (yesterday) in view of time, but tomorrow (today)," said Mr Chikumbirike.
Makamba was arrested on February 9 and remanded in custody after the State invoked provisions of the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Amendment of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act) Regulations of 2004. On Monday, Makamba, who was ditched by his lawyers Scanlen and Holderness who represented him from the start, engaged the services of Mr Chikumbirike who made an application challenging his arrest when he appeared at Rotten Row Magistrates Courts for his routine remand hearing. In his court application, Makamba had said his arrest and further detention were illegal and unjustified. The State represented by law officer Mr Chengetai Gwatidzo opposed his request saying the lower court could not entertain the application, which was pending in a superior court. But Ms Tsamba in her ruling said: "The State did not make any meaningful submissions, which would assist the court in coming up with a decision based on the application made." She said instead, the State concentrated on the bail applications in the High Court yet the application before her court was not a bail application. "Accordingly from the aforesaid and submissions made by both counsels, the court rules that the accused’s arrest was illegal as the offence he is being charged with does not fall within section 25 (1) (b) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act chapter 9:07,’’ she said. Ms Tsamba said in the circumstances Makamba should have been put on remand by means of a warrant or by way of summons. She said the court had found that Makamba’s case was similar to that of Muderede, which the defence based their application on.
Muderede, who is facing similar charges of externalising foreign currency, was last week released by the High Court after it declared his arrest and detention illegal. But he was also re-arrested soon after his release on fresh charges of fraud. "The case of Cecil Muderede and another versus Mishrod Guvamombe and the Attorney General, High Court 2815 of 2004, which has been cited by the defence is authoritative and the State failed to comment on the said case," Ms Tsamba said. Soon after the judgement Makamba, who was clad in khaki prison garb and stood in the dock remained unmoved as he could not believe that he was a free man after enduring about 31 days at Harare Remand Prison. Makamba appeared numb and stared at the ceiling as if in supplication. Overcome with emotion, Makamba’s wife embraced Mr Chikumbirike for ‘successfully’ representing her husband and thanked him for the job. Outside the court, jubilant relatives and sympathisers waited patiently for Mr Chikumbirike who remained inside the court building to sort out Makamba’s liberation papers. They left crestfallen after hearing that the businessman had been re-arrested.
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From Business Day (SA), 19 March
Mbeki lifts veil on hush Harare talks
Proximity talks' held in Pretoria
International Affairs Editor
President Thabo Mbeki presented an upbeat picture of prospects for the start of formal talks in Zimbabwe yesterday, saying an agenda was being formulated by the main parties on the way forward. Mbeki's growing optimism comes after it emerged from sources close to the presidency that SA has in recent weeks hosted "proximity talks" between delegations from both the ruling Zanu PF and the main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), in Pretoria. These talks, in which the two sides in Zimbabwe did not actually meet, have raised hopes that direct negotiation between them will finally bring an end to Zimbabwe's spiralling political and economic crisis. If achieved, it will substantially bolster Mbeki's international reputation, after he predicted that a political solution would be reached in the country by June this year. Campaigning in KwaZuluNatal, Mbeki said informal talks now under way (it is assumed he was referring to the Pretoria proximity talks) would set the agenda for a quick resolution of Zimbabwe's increasingly urgent problems once formal talks begin. Rather than deny that there are informal talks under way as it has done since January when Mbeki said formal talks were imminent, the MDC said yesterday it could not comment on the matter. The MDC has previously said that there have been no formal talks since July last year and that there have been no negotiations since then. The MDC says it was willing to talk if Zanu PF no longer insisted on preconditions for talks. Mbeki said one issue in the talks had been the timing of parliamentary and presidential elections. Both camps had now, however, agreed that the two elections should take place at the same time. Earlier this year, Zimbabwe's government said it would hold parliamentary elections in March next year, but it has given no indication of when the presidential elections will be held. The MDC would like to see the presidential poll scheduled for 2008 brought forward. Together with most foreign election observers, the MDC insists that the March 2000 presidential poll was stolen by Zanu PF. Mbeki was also critical of South Africans insisting on an immediate resolution of Zimbabwe's political and economic problems. He said Palestine and Northern Ireland had been riddled with conflict for decades. "Palestine has had problems since the 1940s, but nobody complains," he said.
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From News24 (SA), 18 March
More charges against SA men
Harare - Zimbabwe authorities on Thursday stunned defence lawyers and their clients, 70 men said to be plotting the overthrow of the government of Equatorial Guinea, when they came up with a fifth new charge against them in as many days. Lawyers said they arrived on Thursday at Chikurubi Prison just outside Harare where the group is being held, expecting to make arrangements for them to be taken to court for their first appearance before a magistrate since they were arrested 11 days ago. "There was another charge," said lawyer Chris Venturas. "They are shopping for charges." The latest was for "attempting to overthrow a foreign government", under the Foreign Subversives Organisations Act that was passed by the former white-minority Rhodesian government in 1963, he said. In the previous four days they have been successively charged with "conspiring to possess lethal weapons", plotting to murder the tiny West African state's president, Teodoro Mbasogo, and violating firearms control legislation and contravening immigration regulations. Venturas said: "I hope we will go to court tomorrow (on Friday)." The constant addition of charges was "good at the end of the day because any magistrate will see through it". However, the 70 detainees were "absolutely frustrated and confused", he said. "Most of them don't speak English. There have been translators, but with the sheer force of numbers, you cannot explain to everyone what is going on." On Thursday, they had no translators, he said.
The group is of made up of South Africans, Angolans, Namibians, Democratic Republic of Congo nationals and a Zimbabwean, although all of them carry South African passports, said the lawyers. The governments of both Zimbabwe and the former Spanish colony have said that 64 "mercenaries" and three crew flew in a Boeing 727 from South Africa on March 7. They stopped at Harare to collect a consignment of military weaponry organised by an advance party and then meant to fly on to Malabo, the capital of Equatorial guinea, to carry out the coup. Harare says an "advance party" was also arrested at Harare international airport on Sunday last week after a "sting" operation. It is claimed they came to Harare first last month to negotiate the purchase of AK-47 automatic rifles, light machine guns, mortars, rocket launchers, pistols, hand grenades and ammunition from the state arms manufacturer. Legal observers say the government appears determined to find a serious offence with which they can charge the "mercenaries". Foreign minister Stan Mudenge last week said they would face "the most severe punishment", including hanging. However, state lawyers have said there is little more that they can be accused of, other than lesser offences under firearms control and immigration laws.
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From Reuters, 18 March
Zimbabwe may try "mercenaries" in prison
By Cris Chinaka
Harare - Zimbabwe's trial of 70 suspected mercenaries charged with plotting to kill the president of Equatorial Guinea may begin in the top-security prison where they are held, government sources say. But a lawyer representing the detained men said he would make an urgent court application if necessary to ensure the men were brought to an ordinary open court. Lawyer Jonathan Samkange said the state had laid fresh charges on Thursday against the 70 under the Foreign Subversive Organisation Act which criminalises activities that seek to overthrow governments of states recognised by Zimbabwe. Samkange said the charge was "obsolete"' in the present case. The men - from South Africa, Angola, Namibia, Democratic Republic of Congo and one from Zimbabwe - were arrested on March 7 after their U.S.-registered Boeing 727 plane landed in Harare and was seized by Zimbabwean authorities. The men say they were heading to Congo to guard mines. But Zimbabwe maintains they were on a mission to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea and has charged them with plotting to murder him and his bodyguards. Samkange has dismissed the coup charge as "fictional" and questioned whether it can be brought under Zimbabwean law.
The state also charged the men under immigration and firearms laws over accusations their plane landed in Harare with a false declaration and that they intended to pick up weapons from state-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI). These charges attract a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail, although Zimbabwe officials have indicated the men could face more severe penalties - including death - under other charges being considered, including possible charges brought under tough security laws. Zimbabwe's Public Order and Security Act, enacted in 2002, provides for a variety of charges relating to crimes deemed to threaten state security, and the southern African country's acting chief prosecutor has said other charges might follow. On Thursday, government sources said the state might decide to send a magistrate to Zimbabwe's maximum security prison where the men are held to hear charges against them. "This a case of terrorism, a case involving sensitive security issues... and it might be best at this stage to charge the men where they are being held," one source told Reuters.
Samkange said defence lawyers had rejected the proposal on Thursday, and would file an urgent application the next day if the state did not agree to an open court appearance. "This is not a court martial... there is no basis for not bringing them to an open court. This case has aroused a lot of interest and we have an obligation to see that these guys get a fair trial in an open court," Samkange told Reuters. Under Zimbabwe's immigration laws, the men can be held for two weeks before a court hearing. Samkange said state lawyers had indicated the suspects had only been served with a warrant of detention four days after their arrest, meaning they could be held until next Thursday. Regional defence analysts say the planned trial of the suspects could raise embarrassing questions for the government over their reported bid to buy weapons illegally from the state.
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From The Star (SA), 19 March
Held SA men 'were hired as paid soldiers'
By Bruce Venter
Two weeks before being arrested in Zimbabwe, some members of the group of former South African Defence Force soldiers being held over an alleged coup plot in Equatorial-Guinea had their aircraft turned back to South Africa from Ndola in Zambia. They had been attempting to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was confirmed last night by a source in the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), who refused to disclose the reasons why the aircraft was turned back. But former 32 Battalion member Rui Pedro, who served with the men being detained in Harare, said his colleagues had been recruited for "mercenary work" in the DRC. He confirmed what the NIA source had said about the plane being turned back from Ndola. "They were not employed to work on mines, oil installations or to guard anything else. They were recruited to protect the interests of their employer, violently if necessary," he said. According to Pedro, the men were recruited by an agent representing Logo Logistics, which had connections with the now defunct Executive Outcomes, a private security company owned by former SADF intelligence officer Eben Barlow. The recruiting agent is known to be a former 32 Battalion sergeant. Executive Outcomes is now operating under the name of Saracen and has close links with Logo Logistics. It is based in London.
"Baptista Adriano (in custody in Zimbabwe) said he was going to the Congo to work as a security guard. He never knew he was actually being recruited to act as a mercenary," Pedro said. He added that Adriano's colleague, Ziami Route-Hendrik, was also led to believe he was being employed as a security guard. "They were offered R16 000 a month to work in the Congo as security guards, but they were lied to," Pedro said. Both men knew Barlow and had served with him while he was a member of 32 Battalion, according to Pedro. A former reconnaissance operator, who asked not to be named, said it was true that former SADF members were being recruited by agents to carry out mercenary activities. "Perhaps these men were misled, but private security companies operating in Africa do not recruit black members of 32 Battalion to act as guards. They are recruited to do what they do best; and that is to fight," he said. He said the men in custody in Zimbabwe had spent many years in 32 Battalion and they were highly trained combat soldiers. "They have a wealth of battlefield experience. Why take them to a conflict zone and employ them to guard a house?" he asked. According to the Department of Foreign Affairs, negotiations were under way yesterday to have the men returned to South Africa. However, the NIA source denied that this was the case.
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From The Financial Gazette, 18 March
Mutasa for presidency
The fears, which underscore the potential for fissures within the ruling party, have reportedly set Zanu PF bigwigs on a collision course. The internal feud was precipitated by the elevation of Mutasa, 68, into President Mugabe's election Cabinet during the recent reshuffle. With the ink barely dry on his appointment letter, Mutasa has already started wielding the axe on corrupt leaders in both political and business circles. Mutasa, who many thought was in the twilight of his political career dating back to the days of the liberation struggle, was thrust at the centre of the anti-corruption crusade when he was appointed the Minister of State responsible for Anti-Corruption. This was in line with the government's new found quest to deal with the all-pervading graft in what is widely seen as a thinly veiled move to soothe voter anger and fear of deprivation ahead of the crucial 2005 Parliamentary elections. The appointment, which caught many by surprise, is seen as a deft move to enable Mutasa to exert his influence and dominance among his Zanu PF colleagues who rank among the country's most voracious acquirers of wealth through corruption and political patronage. The public, which all along had been made to believe that for the rich and powerful, justice is both blind and cheap, however remains largely sceptical whether Mutasa would pursue the anti-graft crusade to its full expression. Although he has a power base of his own, it remains to be seen whether he has or will get sufficient political backing in his efforts to rid the country of corruption. Sources within and outside Zanu PF were unanimous that President Mugabe was tactfully heaving Mutasa, who became Zimbabwe's first black Speaker of Parliament in 1980, to the post of vice-president left vacant after the death last year of the ruling Zanu PF's godfather in Masvingo, Simon Vengai Muzenda.
Mutasa, the founder of the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) Birmingham branch, had long coveted the number two job. Recently he openly declared his interest in the post of vice-president, but the feeling within the ruling party is that whoever fills that slot would stand a better chance of succeeding President Mugabe. Mutasa was at one time tipped for the vice-presidency during the run-up to the party's national conference in 2001 after the late vice-president Muzenda had indicated that he wanted to resign. This move however flopped after Muzenda had a change of heart on the pretext that he wanted to see through the controversial land redistribution exercise. High-ranking Zanu PF sources said most senior party members were baffled at Mutasa's appointment and discussion on his role in the whole anti-graft crusade was taking place in dark rooms. This had caused confusion and friction among party heavyweights in the succession race. Still, jockeying was now intensifying, as it was widely believed in the ruling party that President Mugabe, who had previously insisted on a distant departure date, was now seeing out his last term of office. But seemingly unperturbed by his colleagues' manoeuvres, Mutasa, a known loose and provocative political tongue, told The Financial Gazette this week that the other Zanu PF cadres were free to discuss whatever they wished. "You probably have to ask the President (Mugabe) about that one," Mutasa said jokingly. "But on a serious note, I am not an individualist and I will accept any position of power bestowed upon me by either the President or my colleagues as long as I see that I am suitable and up to the task. Let them continue discussing my appointment. They are free and are at liberty to do so." Pressed to state categorically whether he was still interested in the post of vice-president, Mutasa retorted: "The decision lies with the people of Zanu PF whether they want me there or not." But last year the veteran politician did not mince his words. Then the government-owned media quoted him saying: "If anyone proffered my name for that position, I would first thank that person and readily accept the offer." This was interpreted to mean that he might have known that he was poised to be appointed to the key position.
Last month, President Mugabe poured cold water on speculation on his likely chosen successor when he deliberately did not appoint a second vice-president in his cosmetic Cabinet reshuffle, turning the succession race into a fierce internal battle. Instead, the President threw a political lifeline to old colleagues like Mutasa, who had spent almost nine years in political oblivion. Already a number of politicians and bankers perceived to have strong links to the President's perceived choice of successor, Parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, have been quizzed by the police in the ongoing corruption blitz that has sent shivers down the spines of Zanu PF bigwigs. Sources said most senior party members were baffled at Mutasa's appointment and discussion on his role in the whole anti-graft crusade was taking place in dark rooms. "It's now a whole new ball game after Mutasa was incorporated into the Cabinet," the source said. "His position to look for skeletons in other people's closets may see some of those eyeing the post being caught up in this whole corruption thing. But what remains to be seen is whether Mutasa himself will not be caught up as well." Another source said the contentious succession debate was likely to turn nasty ahead of the planned Zanu PF congress slated for December as party members were now bent on digging dirt on each other to please President Mugabe. "Already there is friction among party members," the source said. "But I think as a tradition the President has always tried to please all provinces by appointing senior members of the provinces into the Cabinet. But it's going to be a dog eat dog situation this year before the Congress in December." Names being bandied around as the front-runners for the late Muzenda's post include Mnangagwa, Minister of State responsible for Lands John Nkomo, and Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi. It is also being speculated that incumbent vice Ppresident Joseph Msika, who has been flexing his muscles lately, will retire together with President Mugabe, paving way for Nkomo, who holds the third most senior party position as national chairman.
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From VOA News, 17 March
University faculty in Zimbabwe reject pay raise offer
Tendai Maphosa
The faculty at Zimbabwe's leading state university has rejected a government offer of a pay increase and decided to continue a strike that has shut down the university for weeks. The strike has crippled the University of Zimbabwe, the country's oldest institution of higher learning, for well over a year, and it is spreading. The faculty decision not to go to work was made at a meeting Wednesday, two days after the ministry of education granted the teachers a 280 percent pay raise and other allowances backdated to January. The on-again-off-again strike started in late 2002 with the lecturers demanding substantial pay increases to cushion them from the country's spiraling inflation, which stands at more than 600 percent. In 2003, the university failed to open at the beginning of the academic year after the lecturers did not turn up. They went back to work only after a panel was appointed to look into their demands. But the government did not follow the panel's recommendations on pay and the faculty went back on strike. The lecturers say the government's 280-percent pay raise offer falls far short of the panel's recommendations. A spokesman of the Association of University Teachers, James Mahlaule, says non-academic staff, which is also on strike, rejected the pay offer as well. The strike has spread to four other state universities. The University of Zimbabwe employs about 12 hundred teaching staff, but according to Mr. Malhaule, about three quarters of the lecturers have left the institution. He said some went to work in the private sector and others joined the exodus of thousands of Zimbabweans seeking a better life abroad.
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From News24 (SA), 20 March
SA men in Zim jail 'seem ok'
Deon de Lange
Johannesburg - The legal representatives of a group of South Africans being held in Zimbabwe brought an urgent appeal in the Harare High Court on Friday in a bid to force that country's government to allow the men to appear in court. The men have been held in the Chikurubi maximum security prison without appearing in court since their arrest two weeks ago. Deon van Dyk, the legal representative of the flight crew of the Boeing 727-100 in which the men were transported to Zimbabwe, upon his return from Zimbabwe on Friday described the situation in Zimbabwe as "very frustrating". "I couldn't privately consult with my clients. We were constantly being watched by investigating officers and members of the security services." He said the men seemed to be in good health and as if they were getting enough to eat. Van Dyk said the legal team opposed a suggestion by the Zimbabwe to hold the hearing in prison. "How can we expect a just trial in a maximum security prison? We want a transparent trial in a civil court, where the international community can see to a just trial." Meanwhile, another charge has been added to the growing charge sheet. In addition to charges regarding alleged violation of immigration, firearms and public safety laws, the men will also face a charge of "conspiring to international terrorism". "It is frustrating that the charge sheet has not been finalised." Van Dyk said the South African embassy was most supportive. "Jerry Ndou [South African ambassador to Zimbabwe] was particularly helpful."
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From AFP, 19 March
Tough for Zim to rejoin Commonwealth
Eileen Ng
Zimbabwe's democratic institutions have deteriorated further in the past two years, making it more difficult for the country to rejoin the Commonwealth, Secretary General Don McKinnon said in an AFP interview on Friday. Zimbabwe was suspended because the 2002 presidential election was deemed unfair, "but since then we have seen a deterioration in those democratic institutions related to things like freedom of the press, freedom of the judiciary," McKinnon said. "We hope to see Zimbabwe back in the Commonwealth. The issue is, is Zimbabwe prepared to listen to Commonwealth leaders? The nerve endings are rather raw right now, so until the issue settles down a little bit, it won't be easy." President Robert Mugabe (80) pulled Zimbabwe out of the Commonwealth, a club of mainly former British colonies, in December in protest over his country's suspension. McKinnon rejected Zimbabwe's claims that a racial divide in the Commonwealth pitted small African countries against rich white nations, saying the "vast majority of African countries do not support Zimbabwe." Zimbabwe's return to the group would be "certainly not in the immediate future" because "positive, fruitful dialogue" between Mugabe's ruling party and his arch-foe Morgan Tsvangirai's party was unlikely to take place soon, he said. Mugabe last month slammed the door on proposed negotiations with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to resolve a long-running political crisis. He has accused Britain of bankrolling the MDC in a bid to oust him from power.
McKinnon said Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, had done a "marvellous job in the early days" of his rule in Zimbabwe, once the region's breadbasket, but land reforms had led to economic decline. McKinnon acknowledged that land redistribution was necessary in a country where the tiny white minority owned the best farmland, but said the way it had been done had created difficulties "for a lot of people, particularly the two million farm workers whose grandparents came from Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. "They ended up without anything at all because they have lost their jobs on the farms, they don't have rights as Zimbabwean citizens. We are dealing with economic collapse of the country so a lot of things have got to change." Zimbabwe's economy has nose-dived, with international support drying up and the inflation rate skyrocketing to record highs of more than 600 percent. Washington earlier this month renewed sanctions imposed on Mugabe and other government officials, including freezing their assets in the US. McKinnon said there was little that the Commonwealth could do for Zimbabwe because Mugabe had refused to listen to African leaders and had rejected its overtures. "If a country doesn't want to be persuaded, then how do you do it? Mugabe doesn't feel very happy about the Commonwealth right now, so we will take a backseat for a while. We will watch events and we will listen to other African leaders," he said.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 March
Govt moves to acquire private conservancies
Godfrey Marawanyika/Augustine Mukaro
Government plans to acquire all privately-owned conservancies and game ranches, a move that could mark the end of private land ownership in Zimbabwe, it became clear this week. The move however faces stiff resistance from the Zimbabwe Conservation & Development Foundation (ZCDF) and other stakeholders involved in the wildlife business. A government document, Wildlife-Based Land Reform Policy, first released in July 2002 and revised last month, seeks to declare all conservancies and ranches state land that should be administered by the Parks and Wildlife Authority. Government says this will enable resettled farmers and other indigenous people to venture into the wildlife business. "All farms, including those that constitute conservancies that are acquired and designated as core wildlife production zones, may be declared state land to be administered by the Parks and Wildlife Authority for the benefit of the indigenous people," the document says. In the report government outlines two proposals for dealing with game conservancies. The first is to convert all acquired land and assets into shareholding, which would allow the current owners to retain 50% while the new entrants get the remainder. Alternatively, it is proposed, the current owners can relinquish 30% of their 50% shareholding to new beneficiaries selected from current occupiers and neighbouring conservancies. The remaining 20% of current owners would be reduced over a period of five years.
Under the new arrangement all land and wildlife belong to the state and will be regulated through the Ministry of Environment or its agencies. "Ministry of Environment and Tourism will provide the leadership and be recognised as such in profiling wildlife and natural resources management in the land reform process. Further, the ministry will be part of the vetting process for all applications pertaining to wildlife-based land reform," says the document. It says government will mobilise support groups, including the private sector, non-governmental organisations and government departments, in implementing the programme. The document concedes that land reform has been a failure in terms of wildlife management policy. "Whether planned or not, virtually all resettlement has been based on use of land for agriculture," it says. "This emphasis on crops and livestock effectively undermined wildlife production as a legitimate land-use option on newly resettled farms. Ultimately this fuelled poaching, habitat degradation and woodland loss on newly resettled farms." The wildlife industry is challenging government's proposals to nationalise all privately held wildlife properties. "There is one perilous predicament facing the private wildlife industry of Zimbabwe at this crucial time," the ZCDF said in a statement. "There is need for the formation of a representative group mandated to vigorously protect and fight for the direct interests of wildlife stakeholders." The ZCDF said the net result of the on-going acquisition of commercial farmland was the unprecedented destruction of Zimbabwe's all-inclusive socio-ecological structures. The ZCDF called for an action forum to bring together experience to uphold the interests of the industry in the face of looming threats. The players proposed the formation of an alliance that includes Justice for Agriculture, Safari Club International, Africa Indaba, Hunting Report and the international community to stop the rot.
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From IRIN (UN), 19 March
More bad news for the banking industry
Harare - The collapse of two banks in Zimbabwe in the last week has spelled more bad news for confidence in the troubled industry, economists have warned. The country's second largest building society, Intermarket Building Society, was closed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) on Friday last week, with officials from the central bank saying they wanted to protect depositors, preserve the assets of the group, and protect the financial system. This was followed by the closure of a commercial bank, Barbican Bank, four days later, with RBZ officials saying they had moved in when it emerged that the bank had liquidity problems after it allegedly externalised large amounts of foreign currency. "Depositors are fast losing confidence in the financial sector as a result of the commotion taking place. With the closure of two banks, depositors are bound to panic and withdraw all their savings, and this has the capacity to cause cash shortages," said Witness Chinyama, group economist for Kingdom Financial Holdings. He added that the confusion in the banking sector was also being fuelled by the fact that problems in the industry were being discussed openly in the press. "The press seems to have contributed to the crisis in the banking sector because the public is no longer sure what is happening in the sector, as there are many reports which could confuse members of the public. As a result of the confusion, depositors are likely to just come up with their own interpretations and withdraw all their savings," Chinyama told IRIN.
John Robertson, an economic consultant, said he was concerned by the possibility of a domino effect taking hold. "We could quite easily see many more banks closing down because of the declining confidence in the banking sector," he told IRIN. According to Robertson, "The banks are now collapsing because they should not have opened in the first place. A lot of people were given banking licences to compete against international banks like Barclays Bank and Standard Chartered, but they were very weak and could not survive in a climate where the economy was shrinking." Intermarket Building Society and Barbican Bank have been placed under curatorship for six months, during which time all transactions will be frozen. Tens of thousands of depositors receive their monthly salaries through the building society, including teachers, soldiers and policemen. Protestors besieged the institution this week demanding their salaries. The curator for Intermarket Building Society, Ngoni Kudenga, said efforts were underway to ensure that depositors would be able to access their pay. "Salaries shall be processed as soon as we finish working out some details. There might be delays but, ultimately, people will be able to get their money," he was quoted as saying by the official newspaper, The Herald.
The executives of the two banks were reported to have skipped the country, joining senior officials from the National Merchant Bank, who fled two weeks ago after their bank was accused of externalising funds. Under Zimbabwe's new anti-graft laws, suspects accused of externalising money can be detained by police for 21 days without bail. On 1 December, the new RBZ governor, Gideon Gono, began his official duties with a mandate to end the crisis in the financial sector, which had been suffering the effects of cash shortages, high inflation, a weak local currency and under-capitalisation. "The curtain is being drawn against the era for the proliferation of weak, poorly managed financial institutions dependant on cheap and unlimited central bank credit," Gono said when announcing his new monetary policy. With the prospect of the collapse of several banks imminent, the RBZ stepped in with an injection of funds, on condition that the rescued banks made changes to their management, and the central bank was given better oversight of their operations.
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From Africa Confidential (UK), 19 March
Gideon's bible
The central bank governor's anti-corruption drive may be part of a bigger plan
To the surprise of sceptics, Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono is enforcing new disciplines in the economy and catching out some well connected business people. Several of those arrested since January are political heavyweights and the money involved is substantial. Gono, an ardent born-again Christian and an in-law of President Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s, was appointed to the governorship in November. Several businesses loyal to the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front have been targeted so far, but oppositionists fear that their business backers - such as cellular phone millionaire Strive Masiyiwa - could be the eventual targets. Zanu PF insiders point out that most of the victims were already out of favour with Mugabe’s clique. Gono’s onslaught is supposed to back the Reserve Bank’s fight against inflation and for stabilisation of Zimbabwe’s currency. It might also improve relations with the International Monetary Fund, whose officials were in Harare last week to assess whether Zimbabwe should be expelled for non-payment of its growing arrears to the fund.
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From The New York Times, 20 March
Where coup plots are routine, one that is not
By Michael Wines
Malabo, Equatorial Guinea - This malarial West African dictatorship quashed another coup attempt this month, which is like saying the corner 7-Eleven served up another Slurpee. Quashed coups (five since 1996) are a political staple here, so routine that some say the government stages and then quashes them to burnish its image of invincibility. But the coup this month was different. Nobody could make this coup up. The coup attempt of 2004 features a dysfunctional ruling family, a Lamborghini-driving, rap-music-producing heir apparent and a bitter political opponent in exile who insists that Equatorial Guinea is run by a gonad-eating cannibal. It is said to involve a Lebanese front company, a British financier, an opposition figure living in exile in Spain and some 80 mercenaries from South Africa, Germany, Armenia and Kazakhstan. Its messy denouement unfolded not in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea's capital, but 2,100 miles away, aboard an American jet in Zimbabwe.
With such a polyglot cast, this whodunit has become almost a parlor game among Africa watchers. Not since Christmas 1975, when Moroccan palace guards shot 150 suspected plotters in the city soccer stadium to a band's rendition of "Those Were the Days, My Friend" has a botched takeover set tongues wagging so briskly. "Normally, the people involved are just rounded up, paraded before the state media, and then they disappear forever," said Patrick Smith, the editor of the London-based newsletter Africa Confidential, which has scooped competitors on the coup's juiciest details. "This one is the most extraordinary ever." Until lately, few cared. Equatorial Guinea, a Spanish colony for 190 years, was seen as a sweltering backwater, so destitute that many citizens foraged for food. But in the mid-1990's American drillers struck oil, and everything changed. Today, this Maryland-size nation has $5 billion in American oil rigs and drilling gear parked offshore, pumping 350,000 barrels of petroleum a day. Washington is reopening an embassy closed in the mid-1990's after the ambassador, a vocal human rights critic, began getting death threats.
Most Equatorial Guineans remain subsistence-level survivors. But the president since 1979, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, owns mansions in Maryland and Virginia and banks up to $700 million a year in oil revenues in personally controlled accounts. As Mr. Obiang said at a news conference on Wednesday in his meticulously restored ceremonial palace, having money is a mixed blessing, seeing as so many people want to take it away. Participants in this month's quashed coup were promised a share of the oil wealth if their takeover had succeeded, he said. Instead of benefiting those it is supposed to, "it is causing them a lot of problems," he said through an interpreter. Yet, toppling Equatorial Guinea's government would be no mean feat, because removing the president would barely scratch the surface. The military is peppered with Mr. Obiang's cousins and nephews. One of his sons is the natural resources minister. A brother-in-law is ambassador to Washington. A brother, Armengol Ondo Nguema, is a top internal security official and, according to a 1999 State Department report, a torturer whose minions urinated on their victims, sliced their ears and rubbed oil on their bodies to lure stinging ants. Finally, a second son, Teodoro Nguemo Obiang, is the infrastructure minister and his father's anointed successor. To the dismay of some relatives, he also is a rap music entrepreneur and bon vivant, fond of Lamborghinis and long trips to Hollywood and Rio de Janeiro, who shows few signs of following his father's iron-fisted tradition.
On its face, this month's coup seems to threaten none of these leaders. Indeed, the 80-odd mercenaries said to be the coup's advance force are now in prisons in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea where, if human rights reports are any guide, it is possible they will face torture, if not execution. Equatorial Guinea's government said Wednesday that one captured mercenary, a German held in a Malabo jail, had died of cerebral malaria in a local hospital. But this is among Africa's most opaque regimes, and long one of its most repressive. The only real constant is that appearances are deceiving. The outside world first learned of the coup attempt on March 6, when Zimbabwe officials said they had seized an old Boeing 727 jet with American markings after it stopped in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, on a flight north. Inside and waiting on the tarmac outside, the government said, were 67 mercenaries, mostly South Africans and Angolans. They were said by Zimbabwe to have landed in Harare to pick up a cache of weapons illicitly purchased from government weapons makers.
Mr. Obiang's security men then announced that they had arrested 15 more people - Germans, Kazakhs and others - in Equatorial Guinea, thwarting a plot to kill the president and take over the government. It soon became clear that the flight had originated in South Africa, and that intelligence officials there, in Zimbabwe and in Angola had tipped Mr. Obiang to the impending coup. Two mercenaries stood out. In Zimbabwe, the plane had been met by Simon Mann, a British expatriate and onetime aide to senior British military leaders. Mr. Mann is a flamboyant soldier of fortune, a figure in books and even a cameo actor in a war movie. In the 1990's, two now-defunct companies tied to him, Executive Outcomes and Sandline International, reclaimed Angolan oil fields and diamond mines from rebel armies and imposed peace in war-racked Sierra Leone in the absence of a United Nations force. In Equatorial Guinea, the crucial plotter was identified as Nick du Toit, a South African special forces veteran who once worked for Executive Outcomes. This time, Mr. du Toit worked for Mr. Mann in a company called Logo Logistics. An official in that company, who goes by two names, has told reporters that it bought the Boeing 727 in Kansas this year as part of an innocent contract to protect gold miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo - not to overthrow a government.
Whatever the truth, Mr. du Toit appeared on state-controlled television in Malabo last week to make a dramatic, seemingly case-closing confession. The entire plot, he said, was hatched by Severo Moto, an Equatorial Guinean opposition figure and longtime fomenter of quashed coups who lives in exile in Madrid. Mr. Moto's coup was said to be financed by $5 million from a British businessman, washed through a front company in Lebanon. "It wasn't a question of taking the life of the head of state, but of spiriting him away, taking him to Spain and forcing him into exile," said Mr. du Toit, who has not been seen since. Mr. Moto makes no secret of his hatred of President Obiang: on Spanish radio this month, he called him a demon who "systematically eats his political rivals." "He has just devoured a police commissioner. I say `devoured,' as this commissioner was buried without his testicles and brain," he said, adding that Mr. Obiang hungered for his body parts as well. "We are in the hands of a cannibal," he warned. That said, Mr. Moto also told Spanish radio that he had played no role in the latest coup against Mr. Obiang. In turn, his denial underscored an intriguing omission in Mr. du Toit's own confession.
According to Africa Confidential, Mr. Smith's London-based newsletter, the same Mr. du Toit who is accused of plotting to overthrow the government held a contract with that same government to train Equatorial Guinea's paramilitary and customs forces. The contract was reported to have been signed by Armengol Ondo Nguema - President Obiang's half brother, the head of internal security and perhaps the nation's most feared man. Some Guinea watchers say Mr. du Toit played a deadly game clumsily, trying to penetrate Equatorial Guinea's inner leadership as part of the coup plot, and lost. Others find it inconceivable that the wily Mr. Armengol did not know what Mr. du Toit had up his sleeve, and say he was either a willing participant or was stringing Mr. du Toit along. There is nothing to indicate that Mr. du Toit's contract to train the military of the government he sought to overthrow is untoward. Indeed, President Obiang said at Wednesday's news conference that he knew "for sure" that his brother was not involved in any way with any venture involving Mr. du Toit. "I think it's not true," he said. "Because if it was like this, I would have known." Still, a jefe in a place like this always looks over his shoulder. After all, the sole successful coup here occurred in 1979, when Mr. Obiang himself, then a lowly lieutenant colonel, overthrew and executed the self-proclaimed "Unique Miracle," Francisco Macias Nguema. Mr. Nguema was his uncle. It was a family affair.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 21 March
Mugabe man builds R30m Cape palace
Finance minister regularly doles out cash for seaside super-mansion
Bonny Schoonakker and the Sunday Times Foreign Desk
One of Robert Mugabe's most trusted senior ministers has been secretly visiting Cape Town to fund the construction of a spectacular seaside mansion, fuelling speculation that he is actually over seeing the palace on behalf of the Zimbabwean president. Christopher Kuruneri, promoted to finance minister during Mugabe's Cabinet reshuffle last month, has been paying for the multimillion-rand project in cash despite strict rules in Zimbabwe that limit the export of foreign exchange. Several sources close to the project say its cost is about R30-million. Kuruneri has strenuously denied breaking Zimbabwe's foreign exchange rules. He said this week that the house was his and that he was not acting on behalf of anyone else. At the time of the reshuffle on February 9, Mugabe announced that Kuruneri (until then deputy finance minister) would "spearhead" the country's economic recovery. Since Kuruneri's promotion, several Zimbabwean businessmen have been arrested on charges of "externalising" foreign currency. Two of them, James Makamba and Cecil Muderede, are still awaiting trial. This week, several financial institutions were shut down on suspicion of illegally exporting currency from Zimbabwe, among other charges.
Kuruneri has been paying monthly visits to Venture Projects & Associates, the company that is building the Llandudno mansion. Venture Projects is the trading name of C J H Joint Venture, a close corporation established in 1991 by Chris Hayman and Brian John Gelling. Hayman said this week that the company's main business was project-managing the construction of residential properties. He confirmed that Kuruneri was a client but refused to discuss their business relationship. Information registered with public bodies confirms that Kuruneri has bought two properties in Llandudno and is funding the construction of a mansion on one of them. Information at the Deeds Office in Cape Town states that the owner of 17 Apostle Road and 38 Sunset Avenue is Choice Decisions 113 (Pty) Ltd, a so-called "off-the-shelf company". According to information lodged with the Department of Trade and Industry, Christopher Tichaona Kuruneri is the sole director of Choice Decisions, which bought 17 Apostle Road on March 9 2001 for R2 069 852 from Gianfranco Lovisolo. This property is rented out at present. Just over a year later, on April 22 2002, Choice Decisions bought 38 Sunset Avenue for R2.7-million from Albert Robert Louis Bertrand.
Work on the house, designed by Cape Town architect Stephen J Forster, began in the middle of last year. Forster said his brief was to build a three-storey, eight-bedroom house with a floor space of 1 000m². The house will have eight bathrooms and a dining room that can host 20 people. It will have a triple garage and provision for two lift shafts. Forster said he expected the house to be completed in November. A source close to Hayman's company said this week that Hayman's services to Kuruneri included the safekeeping of large amounts of US dollars. "There are people in the company who don't like what's going on," the source said. "Mr Kuruneri comes in with little warning, gives Chris [Hayman] cash to pay the contractors, inspects his properties and then flies back to Harare. If he can get on a flight back the same day, he does. No one is allowed to contact Mr Kuruneri in Zimbabwe. Only Chris speaks to him when he arrives in South Africa. On one occasion Chris walked into the office with a huge wad of US dollars in his hand." This week Kuruneri claimed that the R30-million price tag on the house was "super-nonsense". When it was put to him that he was overseeing the property for Mugabe, he described the claim as " completely false". Kuruneri said he had raised the money for the mansion while living in Canada and also through his work as a consultant for several multinational companies. He said he had never contravened Zimbabwe's strict exchange rules as he had never brought the money earned overseas back into Zimbabwe. Meanwhile, back in Llandudno this week, the foreman on the building site said he had been told that the house was intended for "the head of the African section of the World Bank".
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From AFP, 21 March
Alleged mercenaries hit with 6th charge
Zimbabwean police on Saturday slapped a sixth charge of "conspiring to commit international terrorism" on some 70 suspected mercenaries linked to an alleged coup plot in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, their lawyer said. Defence lawyer Jonathan Samkange said the police were charging the men with "contravening UN (United Nations) resolution 1373 (2001) and UN resolution 1456 (2003)". The move came as the country's acting attorney general Bharat Patel told the government-run news agency ZIANA that the state wanted the men to be tried in a top security Harare prison, which is being vehemently opposed by the defence. "We have no problems with members of the public and press attending, except we want the hearing to take place in prison," ZIANA quoted Patel as saying. The charge sheet filed against each of the detainees on Saturday reads in part "from June 2003 and 7 March 2004 in the Republic of South Africa, I conspired and agreed with 69 others to oust the president of Equatorial Guinea ... from power in a coup d'etat." Samkange has said the 70 cannot be charged with international terrorism because it falls outside the scope of Zimbabwean laws.
The accused have been linked to 15 alleged mercenaries detained in the small West African state of Equatorial Guinea, one of whom has died due to cerebral malaria, according to authorities in Malabo. "What this boils down to is that they don't have any charges against these men," defence lawyer Samkange said. So far the accumulated charges against the 70 men are: conspiring to possess weapons of war, conspiring to murder the long-serving president of Equatorial Guinea and his bodyguards, possession of weaponry, violating Zimbabwe's immigration laws and attempting to overthrow a foreign government. The 70 accused were detained on March 7 after their plane was impounded at Harare International Airport, allegedly on its way to Equatorial Guinea where Harare says they were planning to stage a coup.
Zimbabwe security authorities say the men stopped in Harare to pick up weapons including AK-47 assault rifles, rocket launchers, hand grenades and ammunition to be used in the alleged putsch. But the accused say they were hired in South Africa to be security guards on a diamond mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some of the charges carry a maximum jail sentence of up to 10 years, but Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge has said the accused could face the death penalty. Under Zimbabwe immigration laws, a suspect can be held for up to 14 days after which he has to be released or deported, according to defence lawyer Samkange. Sunday will be two weeks since they were arrested and Samkange said "if they (the authorities) do not do something by tomorrow, then their detention will be unlawful and the chief immigration officer must release them or deport them". A row over the venue of the initial court appearance for the men forced the defence to seek a high court order to bar the state from holding the hearing at the capital's top security prison. The defence says it wants the trial to be in an open and ordinary court but the state argues that security concerns have to be considered and is cumbersome moving the 70 across the city to the magistrate's court.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 21 March
ZNA seals off local airports
By Savious Kwinika
Bulawayo - The Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) has deployed heavily armed soldiers to seal off all domestic airports in the country for fear of a possible attack from so-called mercenaries and terrorists. Aviation sources revealed that soldiers are closely guarding airports at Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park, Buffalo Range in Chiredzi, Kariba and Bulawayo’s Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo. "It is true that soldiers have been deployed here but they have nothing to do with the travel of tourists. They are basically there to do their job of securing the terminals. We, as the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) are also doing our work without interfering with the soldiers," said an official at Hwange airport. In Kariba, another CAAZ employee, who asked for anonymity for fear of victimisation, said there were soldiers at the terminal but pointed out that they were just manning the area. A soldier from Chiredzi’s Buffalo Range Airport, who also requested anonymity, said they were now more of them guarding the airport in the Lowveld. "Remember this is the area in which the MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai used when he escaped the road blocks while coming from South Africa, so we are heavily armed and making routine checks." He added: "After all we have a base at the Buffalo Range Airport, so there is nothing sinister about soldiers being deployed in all domestic airports when the country is under threat from terrorists." ZNA spokesperson, Mbonisi Gatsheni, declined to comment on the matter saying he was off duty before referring The Standard to a Lieutenant Colonel Ben Ncube, who could not be reached on his mobile.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 March
ZDI's murky arms dealing exposed
Dumisani Muleya
More details emerged this week of the murky arms deal in which Zimbabwe Defence Industries sold a large consignment of weapons to the alleged mercenaries currently held in Harare. This raises potentially embarrassing questions about the state arms manufacturer's role in their capture. It is also understood that the South African Secret Service had been monitoring the men's movements ahead of their arrival in Harare. While there has been no public admission that ZDI sold the weapons to trap the alleged mercenaries, the firm's involvement in the Sri Lankan arms disappearance case in 1997 has fuelled suspicions that this latest episode could be another deal gone bad. A ship carrying a ZDI consignment of 32 398 81mm mortar bombs disappeared in 1997 allegedly on its way to Sri Lanka with arms for that country's army under a US$6 million government-to-government deal. However, investigations into the fate of the vessel Stillius Limasol, which was supposed to be carrying the consignment of mortars and other military hardware, revealed that there was no ship registered by that name. Claims that the Tamil Tigers, who are fighting for a separate homeland, intercepted the weapons, failed to stick. In the end officials in Colombo accused senior officers in the Sri Lankan army and ZDI of arranging the disappearance in order to defraud the Sri Lankan government. ZDI denied the charge.
Questions are being raised over the sale of arms to the 67 suspected mercenaries arrested at Harare airport on Sunday, March 7, which official sources say was part of the trap. The Zimbabwe Independent has now established that ZDI - which supplies army uniforms, field equipment and ammunition - sold the mercenaries a consignment of 61 AK-47 assault rifles and 45 000 rounds of ammunition, 10 Browning pistols and 500 x 9mm rounds of ammunition, and 20 PKM light machine guns plus 30 000 rounds of ammunition. It also sold 100 RPG7 anti-tank weapons, 2 x 60mm mortar tubes, 80 x 60mm mortar bombs, 1 500 hand grenades and 20 Icarus flairs. Acting Attorney-General Bharat Patel said this week that the suspects would be charged, among other things, with violating the Firearms Act for buying arms without an end-user certificate. He also said they would be charged under the Public Order and Security Act for illegal possession of weaponry which is not covered under the Firearms Act.
It is understood government hatched the trap after Simon Mann, one of those detained, came to Zimbabwe in February with colleagues trying to buy arms. The trap was said to have been finalised when Mann and associates came back on March 5 to wait for the now-impounded plane that was due to collect their consignment two days later. Their movements were monitored, the Independent has been told, by South African intelligence officers who booked into a local hotel on March 5. They trailed Simon Mann and two colleagues who arrived in Zimbabwe the same day to await the plane. The plane was impounded on March 7. It is understood to have arrived in South Africa from Sao Tomé and Principe the day before. On March 7, the plane departed Lanseria airport in Johannesburg at 6:55am with four crew members and headed for Wonderboom in Pretoria. It left Wonderboom at 4:07pm with 67 passengers heading for Polokwane where it landed at 4:35pm. It then departed Polokwane at 6:24pm for Harare where it landed at 7:30pm before it was seized.
Mann and his associates, who are among the detained suspects, were already in the country to collect arms they had bought from Zimbabwe Defence Industries. The South African intelligence officers were at the airport when the plane was impounded. Sources say they did not stop the plane in South Africa because they wanted the suspects to fall into the trap. The ZDI arms consignment was the evidence they needed. Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi, who has said the mercenaries were going to Equatorial Guinea to stage a coup against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, yesterday said he could not clarify ZDI's role. "It has been said in the press that they (the alleged mercenaries) had arranged to buy arms from ZDI but for details on that you can contact ZDI," Mohadi said. Persistent efforts to get comment from ZDI yesterday failed as all senior officials were reportedly out of their offices. On reports that some ZDI officials had been arrested over the arms deal with the mercenaries, Mohadi said: "I can't confirm that. I haven't received any such reports." Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi also refused to comment on the issue. "The Minister of Home Affairs is handling those matters," he said.
Analysts said the transaction between ZDI and the alleged mercenaries raised potentially embarrassing questions. "Certainly it does raise some questions and it might expose something about the activities of ZDI that the government will regret later," Richard Cornwell of South Africa's Africa Security and Analysis Programme told Reuters. Research Associates' Herman van der Linde said: "There is no way there were going to be able to sell arms to anybody without an end-user certificate or at least some government backing". President Thabo Mbeki is said to have been instrumental in exposing the alleged coup against Obiang. Mbeki met with Obiang in Pretoria on December 1 and the two discussed a range of bilateral issues, including security matters. Their gathering came at about the same time as Mann's reported meeting with Equatorial Guinean exiled rebel leader Severo Moto and Western intelligence agents over the coup plot. It is understood Mbeki and Obiang discussed the coup plot and Mbeki agreed to monitor the movement of possible mercenaries.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 21 March
Mutare mayor accuses GMB, governor of blocking food aid
By Kumbirai Mafunda
Mutare executive mayor Misheck Kagurabadza has accused the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and the Manicaland Provincial Governor, Mike Nyambuya, of blocking his bid to buy maize from the GMB to feed starving residents. In an interview with The Standard last week, Kagurabadza - who was elected on an opposition MDC ticket last year - said the GMB had instead opted to give the maize to ruling party officials who use it as a campaign tool in rural areas ahead of next year’s general elections. The mayor had tried to buy five tonnes of maize from the parastatal to feed more than 1 000 starving families in the eastern border town. "It is disturbing that the GMB finds it fit to deny innocent starving residents maize but can take the grain to rural areas where it is being used as a political campaign tool and is being distributed on party lines," charged Kagurabadza. Repeated efforts to get a comment from GMB Mutare Depot Manager Dousy Kajaridzire were fruitless. An official at the depot, who refused to be named could only say: "Your questions are difficult to answer." Nyambuya, a retired major general in the Zimbabwe National Army, denied the allegations levelled against his office. "I don’t control the GMB. The normal government system is there where the Department of Social Welfare is involved. We treat hupenyu hwevanhu with sanctity," said Nyambuya.
But Kagurabadza maintained that the GMB and Nyambuya had frustrated council efforts to help the needy in the city. He said since December last year, the council had made four appeals to the GMB to release the maize and had followed up these requests in writing last month. Similar appeals have been made to Nyambuya to facilitate the sale of the maize to the council but no response has been forthcoming, said Kagurabadza. The Standard is in possession of the letters written by Kagurabadza to both GMB and Nyambuya. In one of the letters to the GMD dated February 5 2004, he wrote: "I write to request for the purchase 955 - 5kg packets of mealie meal to be donated to the elderly and orphans in Mutare by the Mutate Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Fund." Kagurabadza said it was sad that although the money was available, it could not be used because GMB has chosen to be biased in distributing grain while people starved. "I have moved around the high-density areas and I am saddened by the level of poverty among the residents," said Kagurabadza. "Ironically, the governor is also supposed to look after the welfare of the very same residents we are trying to feed. Nyambuya has said that he doesn’t want anyone in the town to die of hunger but his actions are contradicting his own pledge. It is a sad scenario," he said.
GMB is the country’s sole authorised grain dealer and the government has in the past been accused of hijacking the parastatal’s food reserves for the benefit of Zanu PF cadres. Attempts by the MDC and another civic group, Feed Zimbabwe Trust, to bring in maize sourced from international donors were last year thwarted by the government, which refused to grant the two organisations with grain import licences. The World Food Programme (WFP), an arm of the United Nations, has said at least seven million Zimbabweans need urgent food assistance. In its recent findings, the WFP - Zimbabwe’s major food donor - said more people in urban areas were now in need of food assistance as starvation begins to take its toll in the towns.
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From The Herald, 22 March
Move to amend Electoral Act
Herald Reporter
The Government has proposed a number of amendments to the Electoral Act ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections. This comes in the wake of wide debate on the pending general elections, with the opposition MDC threatening to boycott the polls. The Electoral Amendment Bill, which was published in the Government Gazette released last Friday, proposes to amend a number of clauses concerning issues such as voter education, the voters’ roll and postal ballots, among others. It seeks to insert a new part in the principal Act, which deals with voter education. This clause will empower the Electoral Supervisory Commission with the function of supervising voter education. The commission shall provide accurate and unbiased voter education and ensure voter education provided by persons other than political parties is adequate and not misleading or biased in favour of any political party. It may appoint any person to assist it in providing voter education. No person other than the commission or the person it appoints shall provide voter education unless such person is a citizen or permanent resident of Zimbabwe or an organisation consisting of Zimbabwean citizens or permanent residents.
Such persons or organisations will conduct voter education in accordance with a course or programme of instruction furnished or approved by the commission. The voter education of such persons or organisations must be funded by local contributions or donations. The commission may, in writing, require any person, other than a political party, providing or proposing to provide voter education, to furnish it with all the voter education materials proposed to be used and details of the people to conduct the voter education as well as disclose the manner and sources of funding of its proposed voter education activities. Any person who fails to comply with the requirements of the commission shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or both. No foreign contribution or donation for voter education shall be made except to the commission, which may allocate such funding to those allowed to conduct voter education. The Bill allows the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to assign any person in the employment of the State to perform secretarial and administrative functions for the commission. It has a clause which seeks to permit any member of the public to inspect the voters’ roll and make any written notes of anything contained in the roll.
The Bill also seeks to permit the Registrar General to strike a voter’s name off the voters’ roll or reject his claim for registration without prior notice to him/her if such notice stating that he/she has ceased to be a citizen of Zimbabwe has been published in the Government Gazette or newspaper circulating in that area. Another clause seeks to permit the Registrar General and constituency registrars to effect transfers of applicants seeking transfer to a constituency in which they are either resident or non-resident upon satisfying that they are entitled to such transfer. Any person who wishes to be registered as a voter in any constituency shall complete the appropriate prescribed claim form and lodge it in person with, or despatch it by registered post, to the constituency registrar or any such person designated by the Registrar General. The Registrar General or constituency registrar may demand from those seeking to register as voters proof of identity or residence in the constituency or both. Proof of identity means a valid Zimbabwean passport or identity document issued in terms of the National Registration Act. Proof of residence in relation to the constituency means proof by way of a receipt or demand for payment of any rate in terms of the Urban Councils Act or levy in terms of the Rural District Councils Act, or electricity bills in the name of the owner of the property or in the case of an occupier other than the owner, such receipt accompanied by a sworn statement from of the owner confirming the occupation of the property.
Proof of residence can also be done by way of a sworn statement by the employer of the voter confirming the voter’s claim of residence, a bank statement or hospital bill with a postmark bearing the name of the voter and the voter’s place of residence. A sworn oral or written statement by the chief, headman or village head of the area and village where the voter resides confirming they reside in the area can also be used as proof of residence. Under the Bill, an applicant whose application for registration is rejected can lodge their objections with the magistrates’ court. It also empowers the Registrar General to correct errors on the voters’ roll or change names and addresses of voters where this becomes necessary to do so. The Bill also has a clause that restricts the classes of persons who may apply for postal ballots to those away on duty in the military or diplomatic service or on duty as electoral officers and to the spouses of those persons. When an election in a constituency is to take place, a voter ordinarily resident in that constituency or was within 12 months of the polling day resident in the constituency, may apply to the Registrar General for a postal ballot paper if they have good reason to believe that they will be absent from the constituency or unable to attend at the polling station because of the above reasons. The Bill also seeks to create the new offence of defacing property for political purposes to the effect that anyone guilty of such an offence will be liable to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years or both. The Bill will be presented to Parliament for debate and approval.
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From The Mercury (SA), 22 March
Mugabe newspaper slams SA over 'mercenaries'
By Moshoeshoe Monare and Basildon Peta
Harare - South Africa allows "terrorists" to operate freely and with impunity from its soil, a state-owned Zimbabwean Sunday newspaper has charged. The Sunday Mail, in an editorial on Sunday about the detention of 70 alleged mercenaries in Harare, asked: "Why is it that mercenary outfits like the notorious Executive Outcomes operate freely in South Africa when they are known to be there to destabilise the peace of other countries? "What kind of a democracy is this that nurtures terrorists and allows them to train, buy arms and take off from the airport of this supposedly security conscious country? However, the paper said the incident was an "embarrassment for South Africa, though they did well in part in later thwarting the coup". The suspected mercenaries, all of whom carried South African passports, have been linked to an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea. They were arrested when their aircraft landed in Harare earlier this month, after a tip-off from South Africa.
Meanwhile, the Zimbabwe High Court will hear an application on Monday to have the suspected mercenaries tried in open court, as reports emerged that they had initially been assaulted by Zimbabwean soldiers. The 70 men, in custody since March 8 after their arrest at Harare International Airport, have not appeared in court. The state has repeatedly postponed their court appearances. The men had been widely expected to appear in court last week, but their appearance was delayed. Counsel argued the state could not bring them to court for security reasons and would rather have them tried by a private court at Chikurubi Maximum Prison. Their lawyers vehemently opposed this, and went to the High Court for an order that they appear in a normal public court. Lawyer Jonathan Samkange said the application would be heard on Monday before High Court Judge Tadius Karwi. The privately owned Standard newspaper reported its investigations showed some of the 70 men had been "seriously assaulted" and some of them might even have been tortured.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 19 March
Zim 'looks East' for military training/hardware
Augustine Mukaro/ Shakeman Mugari
Zimbabwe's military has decided to "look East" in line with official policy as it acquaints its officers with new equipment acquired from China, the Zimbabwe Independent has gathered. Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander General Constantine Chiwenga was in China this week to sign agreements for military exchange programmes between the two countries. China's Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday reported that Chinese Defence minister Cao Gangchuan met Chiwenga in Beijing on Tuesday. "Cao promised that the Chinese army will continue its efforts to enhance the friendly cooperative relations with Zimbabwe's armed forces," the agency said. Cao, also vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission and a state councillor, made the remark in a meeting with CG Chiwenga, commander of Zimbabwe's defence forces. The agency reported Cao as saying that China and Zimbabwe had carried out fruitful cooperation in various fields since they forged diplomatic relations.
Chiwenga is understood to have held talks with the Ch |
