|
Archived News
20th July 2004
Top Mugabe cronies escape anti-corruption net
Booming parallel market pushes up forex rates
Doctor released in Zimbabwe, charges dropped
Zambia gains as Zimbabwe loses out
Heard the one about Zimbabwe's revival?
Caine prize winner announced
Ex-Judge offered farm to shut down Daily News
Food manipulation warning
Minister ignores pleas for food aid from provincial governors
Zimbabwean newspaper loses court battle
MDC legislator dies - Death increases pressure on opposition party
Another spat in Zim for outgoing British envoy
Tycoon threatens judges after win
Food aid: WFP prepares for the worst
Where 'Final Edition' is a fateful term
Mugabe gears up for poll
Tsvangirai ruling deferred
Foreign currency shortage hits Zimbabwe's central bank
SADC talks at Sun City should show if SA is backing down on quiet diplomacy
Zanu PF cons farm workers into joining it
'I'm not going to be bullied by Mugabe'
Govt guns for Mawere properties - takes over agro-processor FSI Agricom's farms
Tsvangirai fights on for fair polls
'These elections, I really wish we never held them!'
Hwedza violence
Zambians are told to presume again
Zim and the victim condition
Calls for a new voters' roll in Zimbabwe
MDC blames Zanu PF for MPs death
Rights groups must not be banned, says Amnesty
Humanitarian access denied to increasingly vulnerable former farm workers
Waiting - the war fought at home
Top
From Zim Online, 21 July
Top Mugabe cronies escape anti-corruption net
Harare - President Robert Mugabe's much vaunted anti-corruption crackdown has lost steam amid allegations that a list of top government officials targeted for investigation over their involvement in various corrupt schemes has been trashed. The list of 30 was originally compiled early this year by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and is said to have been topped by Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander Constantine Chiwenga and his wife Jocelyn. The police compiled the list after having gathered prima facie evidence that the individuals concerned could indeed have been involved in illegal foreign currency dealings. Authoritative sources said Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri moved to stop the investigations in all 30 cases despite President Robert Mugabe's assurances that no one would be spared in the anti-corruption crackdown. The police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) had compiled the list earlier this year, consisting of 30 ruling party and government officials alleged to have been externalising foreign currency as well as involved in forex dealing. This followed President Mugabeís repeated calls for a crackdown on corruption and the contribution of whistle blowers. Zim Online heard from sources within the CID that the long list disappeared after the top chefs had swiftly sought cover. "There was a lot of euphoria at first and it appeared the chefs initially tried to get rid of their foes or settle personal scores through the corruption blitz. They tried to use some whistle blowers to implicate each other," one senior police source said. "One clear example is that of Mnangagwa. There are three CID members who were actually dismissed after revealing that they had been bribed to close in on Mnangagwa. Remember as well the testimony in court by that gold dealer, Mark Burden, saying he had been tortured by the police to implicate Mnangagwa."
The sources said a whistle blower, who worked for the Chiwengas at one of their companies, had revealed to police that the army commander and his wife had two houses in South Africa and one in Britain bought over the last two years. The whistle blower had also alleged that they had accounts in these countries to which they sent money regularly. When contacted for comment yesterday, Jocelyn said 'I don't have time to waste speaking to you. If you write your nonsense I will deal with you." Other officials who were also named by whistle blowers in forex externalisation and illegal dealing scandals included MPs Phillip Chiyangwa, Saviour Kasukuwere, Sydney Sekeramayi, Oppah Muchinguri, Obert Mpofu, Cephas Msipa, and Shuvai Mahofa. Mugabe's chief propagandist, Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, was also alleged to have externalised foreign currency to build a house in South Africa and Kenya, the sources said, and was included on the list. Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri had the list but, the sources said, he ordered that it should not reach Mugabe before his authorisation.
The CID sources revealed that individuals in Zanu PF and government who were on the list made energetic efforts to have their names removed, which included bribing the police as well as intimidating top officials in the police force. Eventually, the list disappeared and after what the sources described as a "compromise" by the heavyweights, a few individuals such as businessman James Makamba and Finance Minister Chris Kuruneri were chosen for sacrifice. Makamba is still in remand prison since 9 February when he was arrested on allegations of forex externalisation and dealing. Kuruneri was arrested on 24 April over allegations of externalisation of foreign currency for the construction of a property in South Africa. It has since emerged that Makamba was targeted for other reasons. Other top chefs on the list include Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was suspected of having taken part in illegal gold and forex dealings. Mashonaland West Zanu PF chairman Phillip Chiyangwa had to beg for pardon from the "top brass", sources said, for him to be let off the hook after being initially arrested over allegations of trying to interfere with investigations into a corruption scandal. Investigations into allegations of externalisation as well as dealing in foreign currency by Chiyangwa had already reached an advanced stage before the flamboyant businessman promised to toe the party line and the top brass ordered that he be spared the axe. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said there was no way he would comment on police investigations "because they are not done in public".
Top
From Zim Online (SA), 21 July
Booming parallel market pushes up forex rates
Harare - The exchange rate on the parallel market, which has been rising steadily, yesterday hit Z$7000 to US$1 dollar, a huge blow to Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono's forex auction system, on which the greenback was trading at $5300. Last week Gono visited Bulawayo's thriving "Vapostori" foreign currency dealers and made the shock discovery that the US dollar was selling for Z$6600 when he thought his auction rate was the highest and was dictating the dynamics on the forex market. Zim Online yesterday visited Harare's popular Roadport bus terminal and established that there was brisk black market forex trade. "The rate was at Z$6800 (to US$1) yesterday but today it has started off at Z$7000 and is likely to rise as you can see due to the massive bidding. It could be at Z$7500 by end of day," a forex dealer at Roadport said yesterday. Reports from Bulawayo said the greenback was trading at Z$7200 yesterday on the parallel market. There has been very little activity on the auction system this week. Zim Online has established that volumes have been gradually returning to last year's levels when the bulk of forex was traded on the parallel market. "There has also been a drastic fall in the inflow of foreign currency through the Homelink system. It would appear things are going back to that previous situation when the parallel market used to handle more than 70% of the forex coming into the country," said an RBZ source.
Efforts to obtain comment from Gono were unsuccessful. An official in the central bank's public relations department, who refused to reveal her name, said the RBZ governor was working on measures to curb the parallel market following his trip to Bulawayo last week. RBZ corporate affairs manager Charity Tambandini said that the central bank would soon be issuing a statement regarding the matter. He added that Gono had requested the police to cooperate by smashing the parallel market. Gono has been battling to control the parallel market. At the beginning of this year he introduced the auction system, seen by many as a mere duplication of the parallel market. Economist John Robertson said: "The rigidity of the exchange rate (on the auction system) ever since the end of April has made the people selling foreign currency unhappy and hence the revival of the parallel market. The foreign currency is still scarce and that makes traders look for a viable market and this has seen more activity on the parallel market and the auction system."
Top
From Associated Press, 21 July
Doctor released in Zimbabwe, charges dropped
Danville, Kentucky - A Danville doctor arrested this month in Zimbabwe on charges of practicing without a license while on a mission trip has been released. Senator Mitch McConnell's office confirms Dr. Ed Montgomery and his wife, Sara Jane, have both been given back their passports. The two had been relieved of their passports some two weeks ago while on a medical mission trip in the African country. A retired urologist, Dr. Montgomery and his wife had participated in several other medical missions around the world. McConnell aide Julie Adams has told the Danville Advocate Messenger that the doctor worked with the U-S embassy and Zimbabwe officials to obtain a license to practice in that country. That's what resulted in charges being dropped.
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 19 July
Zambia gains as Zimbabwe loses out
Livingstone - As one gapes in awe from the Zambian side at the mighty Zambezi River cascading over the Victoria Falls, roaring at a rate of about 900 cubic metres per second, it is not difficult to understand why the locals believe that the falls -- regarded as one of the seven natural wonders of the world -- embody the soul of a powerful deity whom they refer to as Nyaminyami. And as one glances around at the growing number of foreign tourists -- a veritable mini league of nations -- also taking in this magnificent sight, one cannot help but wonder whether this great river god is perhaps not favouring the Zambians over their troubled Zimbabwean neighbours. While the Zambian hotels and resorts fronting the river and falls - which form the border between the two countries once known as the Rhodesias - are teeming with tourists, it is relatively quiet on the other side of the river. "Zimbabwe's political and economic woes have benefited us tremendously," explains one of the locals, adding that tourism has probably been the biggest benefactor. Because of all the problems there, people are just too scared to go to Zimbabwe these days, so they're coming here to Zambia instead. Not that it's really so bad in the tourist areas there. In fact, they're relatively safe. But the perception exists that it's not a safe place to go to, so the tourists are coming here instead. As a result, tourism and the economy are really beginning to pick up here in Zambia," he says.
Evidence of this is reflected in the ubiquitous foreign-exchange bureaux that dot the main streets of Livingstone and the growing number of tourist resorts springing up in and around the former capital, which is just a stone's throw from the almost 2km-wide falls the locals refer to as Mosi-oa-Tunya - "the mighty smoke that thunders", a reference to the smoke-like spray rising hundreds of metres above the falls, which can be seen from several kilometres away. Not surprising, many of the tourist operators are Zimbabwean, many of whom still live on the Zimbabwean side of the river in the town of Victoria Falls, traversing the border back and forth at the start and end of each day. "It's ironic. A few years ago, Zambians were pouring into Zimbabwe to look for work. Now it's the other way around," my self-appointed guide points out. "And agriculturally, we have also benefited. We have opened our doors to many of the white Zimbabwean farmers who have been booted off their land and have even allowed them to bring their Zimbabwean work forces with them because we know that they will help boost our economy and create more jobs in the long run," he adds. Zambia's tobacco production is expected to reach about 18-million kilograms this year compared with just seven million kilograms last year and only three million kilograms in 2002 - thanks chiefly, analysts say, to the efforts of just 75 former Zimbabwean tobacco farmers, who were apparently given farms by the Zambian government as well as 10-year loans by a locally based foreign bank to buy farming equipment. Zambia is also expecting a massive expansion in maize and wheat production.
The pick-up in tourism and the growth in agriculture after a severe drought in 2002, which resulted in food shortages, is good news for an economy that has long been overly dependent on mining. While the country remains heavily dependent on copper and cobalt mining - boosted by the recent surge in the copper price - and its efforts to diversify its production base towards a bigger manufacturing sector have not proved very successful, its economic growth is encouraging. In 2002 Zambia's economy grew by 3,3% and in 2003 by 4,2%. This year, it is expected to grow by 3,5% and next year by 4,5%. Historically, Zambia has suffered from high inflation, which reached hyper-inflationary levels in the early 1990s. But, in recent years, it has fallen to more manageable levels, albeit - as one analyst points out - just above 20%. Encouragingly, the International Monetary Fund expects consumer inflation to average 18,5% in 2004 and 17,5% in 2005. The Bank of Zambia, the country's central banker, has set an ambitious year-end target of 15%. On the negative side, the country has suffered a persistent deficit on the current account of the balance of payments. In 2003, the current account deficit exceeded $600-million, according to the central bank. Despite a booming copper price, the country registered a negative trade balance of $242-million in 2003 - essentially because of imports of machinery and capital equipment for the mining industry and high oil prices. Zambian copper exports rose by 25,7% to $269,9-million in the second quarter from the first quarter of this year. Despite the increase, Zambia's foreign trade deficit rose to $86,8-million from $71,4-million as the 11,4% rise in non-copper exports to $152,6-million failed to keep pace with the 20,4% increase in imports to $509,3-million. On the positive front, non-traditional exports, such as horticulture and floriculture products, have risen over the past decade and now represent an increasing share of the country's merchandise exports. And earnings from tourism, which received a boost from the solar eclipse in 2001, are expected to contribute strongly to future income - thanks in large measure to Zimbabwe and its economic woes.
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 20 July
Heard the one about Zimbabwe's revival?
Harare - President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday declared that Zimbabwe was undergoing an economic "revival" as he addressed the opening of the last session of Parliament before key elections next year. Mugabe arrived at the Parliament building in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce under heavy police and army escort, and accompanied by his smartly dressed wife Grace. "We have money to reap a good harvest ... to ensure we meet our needs and food requirements. What enhances this ... is the evident revival of our economy," Mugabe told Parliament. His statement stood in stark contrast to assessments by non-governmental organisations and UN food agencies who say millions of citizens, especially in rural areas, need urgent food aid. The southern African country has been hit by consecutive drought seasons but the situation has been exacerbated by Mugabe's controversial land reform programme that saw most white farmers forcibly evicted from their land. Mugabe however said the land programme would continue. "A number of issues related to land reform remain outstanding," he said. "The demand for land remains and ongoing land acquisition should be able to meet it. Government policy remains ... Whatever irregularities have occurred in the process of land reform are now being attended to," Mugabe said. At a state dinner on Monday night, Mugabe called on Parliament to be "patriotic" and guard against outside interference, the state-owned Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday. "Never shall we allow foreigners to interfere in our domestic affairs and the charter of the United Nations prohibits interference in the affairs of another country. "Parliament should be inspired by the patriotism that bids us to stand up and say we will not accept this interference," Mugabe said.
Top
From The Guardian (UK), 20 July
Caine prize winner announced
Michelle Pauli
This year's 'African Booker' has been won by Brian Chikwava from Zimbabwe, it was announced today. He is the first writer from the country to receive the award. The Caine Prize for African Writing, which is worth $15,000, is awarded to a short story published in English by an African writer whose work has reflected African sensibilities. Chikwava's story, Seventh Street Alchemy, was praised by the judges' chairman, Alvaro Ribeiro, as "a triumph for the long tradition of Zimbabwean writing in the face of Zimbabwe's uncertain future." He added that the story was marked out by "a very strong narrative in which Brian Chikwava of Zimbabwe claims the English language as his own." The 32-year-old writer and musician was born in Bulawayo but grew up in Harare, where he performed regularly at the Book Cafe's poetry evenings and discussions. He studied at Bristol University and currently lives in south London. Chikwava said he was very pleased but also surprised at his win. "I'm in shock," he said. "A few months ago it was not something I had in my blood at all. My head is spinning - it's very exciting." He added that he is planning to consolidate on his Caine success and is working on a novella, Bubble Wrapping Artificial Shit, and a blues album, Jacaranda Skits. The other writers on the shortlist were Doreen Baingana (Uganda) for Hunger, Parselelo Kantai (Kenya) for The Story of Comrade Lemma and the Black Jerusalem Boys Band, Monica Arac de Nyeko (Uganda) for Strange Fruit and Chika Unigwe (Nigeria) for The Secret. The prize judges included Nigerian playwright Biyi Bandele and Booker-winning novelist Bernice Rubens. The four African winners of the Nobel prize for literature - Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, Naguib Mahfouz and JM Coetzee - are patrons of the prize. Last year's Caine prize winner was Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor from Kenya. Her winning story was published in Kwani?, Kenya's only literary magazine, which was set up by Binyavanga Wainaina, winner of the Caine prize in 2002.
Top
From The Daily News Online Edition
Ex-Judge offered farm to shut down Daily News
Michael Majuru, a former senior Zimbabwean judge has said that Enock Kamushinda, a local businessman with strong links to the government and a CIO operative offered him a farm if he upheld a government decision to close down the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of the Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday. Majuru, an Administrative Court Judge President until he fled Zimbabwe last year talked of how the government used a carrot and stick approach to force him to rule in favour of the government. In an interview with the Daily News Online on Friday, the self- exiled former judge opened up and narrated how justice minister Patrick Chinamasa directly and indirectly exerted pressure on him to delay the ANZ case and subsequently throw the case out. The former judge also talked about how the members of the dreaded spy agency, CIO, became part of his convoy wherever he went. Majuru presided over the case in which the ANZ sought to have the Media and Information Commission (MIC)'s decision to deny the newspaper a licence nullified. But the former judge was later forced to recuse himself in November after government-controlled media alleged that he had told a member of the public that he would rule in favour of ANZ.
A month before that, on October 24, 2003, Majuru had ruled that the MIC should issue a licence to the Daily News by November 30, failing which the paper would be deemed to have been registered. Majuru had been presiding over one of the numerous cases involving the ANZ which has appealed several times against government orders that it be shut down. That decision was set aside when the commission appealed against the ruling, but the Daily News went back to the administrative court to have it enforced. It was that anticipated ruling, seeking the enforcement of the earlier order, which saw the judge accused of unprofessional conduct. He recused himself from the case and another judge, Selo Nare, took over, who also ruled in favour of the Daily News. "Three days before the judgment, Kamushinda called me to his office through a CIO operative saying he had some business to discuss with me. But when I got there he started talking about the Daily News. He asked me whether I had a farm and when I responded in the negative he said he could organise a farm for me and that the government had promised to provide me with inputs and money to finance the venture.
"But this would be on condition that I ruled in favour of the MIC. I told him that I could not discuss the issue of the Daily News with him as this would be unethical. But he persisted, saying that he had a lot of influence and that the government had already identified a farm that was complete with a farm house and equipment for me. I refused his offer," said Majuru. Majuru said it was after he had refused Kamushinda's offer that Chinamasa stepped in and asked him to delay the ANZ case by three months. "On 23 October, Chinamasa called me from Bulawayo where he was attending a pre-budget seminar and asked me what the judgment on the ANZ case would be. He said he was concerned that my judgment could land him in trouble and added that it was not yet appropriate for the Daily News to publish. He said the government wanted the newspaper to resume operations in January 2004, time which he thought Zanu PF would have reached an agreement with the MDC. I received another call from Chinamasa on Friday 24 October after I had delivered judgment and he was shouting at me and accusing me of basing my judgment on other reasons that had nothing to do with the law. I switched off the phone after it became apparent that he was being abusive," added Majuru.
Both Chinamasa and Kamushinda were unreachable for comment on Friday. Kamushinda was the chairman of the Grain Marketing Board and Zimbabwe Newspapers, both state-owned entities. A recent report by the African Union' s executive committee accused the Zimbabwean government of undermining the independence of the judiciary through interference. Several international bodies have also lambasted the Harare regime of meddling in judicial matters. Close to 10 judges, including former chief justice Anthony Gubbay, have left the bench over the last four years because of harassment by government ministers and officials. Majuru said real trouble started when the ANZ came back to the Administrative Court to have his earlier judgment enforced. He said Chinamasa started calling him again and also used another judge at the same court to tell Majuru that the government expected a favourable ruling from him. "This was when I noticed that I was under surveillance. CIOs were trailing me all over I went and I was feeling very uncomfortable. Chinamasa called me one Monday night, a day before hearing the second application and demanded to know the judgment. I told him that it was not normal for judges to pass judgments before hearing the arguments and as a lawyer himself he ought to know that. He then said that he had received information that I was working with British agents to bring back the Daily News and destabilise the country and warned me to be careful," said Majuru.
But Chinamasa was not done: "Immediately after I spoke to him, a fellow judge called me and said she had been told by the minister to instruct me that he wanted a favourable judgment. "In fact he wanted to know the judgment before attending a cabinet meeting at 9am where he had to brief his colleagues on the matter. Fifteen minutes after talking to my fellow judge, Chinamasa called again and said he wanted to meet me in his office at 8.30 am on Tuesday before he attended a Cabinet meeting. This was the same day I was going to hear the ANZ case as well." Majuru said it was in Chinamasa's office that he offered to recuse himself after the minister showed him newspaper reports alleging that he had told members of the public that he would rule in favour of ANZ. I knew it was all cooked up to tarnish my name but then I also thought that the harassment would stop once I recused myself from the case. What worried me was that even after dropping from the case I continued to see CIO agents trailing me on my way home. I was no longer clear of their intentions and I was worried that they could harm me or my family, especially with those guys' track record. I thought the best thing would be for me to just leave the country," said the former judge.
Top
From ZWNEWS, 22 July
Food manipulation warning
Zimbabwean Archbishop Pius Ncube, who is visiting Britain, on Wednesday accused Robert Mugabe of planning to starve the suffering electorate into submission at elections next year with his ban on food aid from international organizations. "I estimate personally that were it not for the (UN) World Food Programme aid, 500 000 Zimbabweans would have perished from hunger," Ncube told a news conference in London. "Now Mugabe is saying there is enough food.it means they are planning to starve people into submission." Ncube, the Catholic archbishop of Bulawayo who has gained international admiration for his courage as an outspoken critic of Mugabe, highlighted the panoply of laws which make free and fair elections impossible: the crushing of freedom of association and speech; omnipresent spying, politicisation of the judiciary, police and army; brutality against and harassment of opponents, the regime's refusal to publish the voters' roll, which contains an estimated 1.4 million dead or duplicated voters, and the general climate of fear. The archbishop is also in Britain to promote the Zimbabwe Defence and Aid Fund UK and the Zimbabwe Benefit Foundation, of which he and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu are patrons. Modelled on the apartheid era International Defence and Aid Fund, these two sister organisations aim to pay legal expenses for people arbitrarily arrested, often beaten up, but far less often charged with anything, as part of the regime's tactic of exhausting and financially bleeding opponents, as well as providing more general practical assistance for these people and their families.
The archbishop's current trip contrasts with his last visit to Britain in 2003 when publicity was avoided. On this visit, Ncube is speaking to reporters, including giving radio and TV interviews, and generally has a full programme of meetings with church leaders and others concerned about Zimbabwe. This coming the weekend he will visit the vigil held each Saturday outside the Zimbabwe Embassy in the Strand in London in protest against abuses by the regime. Organisers pledge to continue the vigil until internationally monitored free and fair elections are held. The archbishop, who argues for peaceful change, said Zimbabweans were terrified, but also desperate and angry, and he feared rioting which Mugabe would suppress by ordering slaughter by the police and army. "It would be tragic if all of a sudden people went violent," he said. "Mugabe will call the army . he is a cruel man." Personally, the archbishop's phone is tapped, and state intelligence agents infiltrate his services.
A report released this week by the Solidarity Peace Trust - Disturbing the Peace - said more than 1,200 people were arrested between February 2003 and January 2004 under the draconian Public Order and Security Act, which makes it virtually impossible for opposition or civil society groups to hold meetings, and various other laws suppressing democratic rights. The arrests analysed were those reported by 27 law firms taking part in the survey, and so did not include the larger number of cases where there was no legal representation. In none of the cases surveyed was there a prosecution and guilty verdict, while 73% "remain hanging over the heads of the victims of this policy of vexatious arrest," the report said. `"This means repeated court appearances at considerable expense." The archbishop called South African President Thabo Mbeki, who refuses to criticise Mugabe and effectively props up the regime, a "disappointment." And he urged that Britain should confront Mugabe's tactic of setting up Prime Minister Tony Blair as a No. 1 enemy and blaming Britain, or the West generally, for the country's ills. "Secretly I think he admires the British," the archbishop added with a smile. "His accent is quite unique among Africans. He had a good Catholic education. He knows full well what is right but he is too embarrassed, too proud to own up that he is causing suffering to his own people."
For more information on The Zimbabwe Defence and Aid Fund UK and the Zimbabwe Benefit Foundation, please contact zdaf@zdaf.org .
If you would like to read Disturbing the Peace, please let us know. It will be sent as a Word attachment to an email message, approximately three times the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.
Top
From Zim Online, 22 July
Minister ignores pleas for food aid from provincial governors
Bulawayo - Four provincial governors have written to the government asking it to authorize non-governmental organizations to resume feeding programmes and avert mass starvation. But Paul Mangwana, the minister of public service, labour and social welfare, has not responded to the letters, some written a month ago, despite mounting starvation in rural and urban areas, government sources said yesterday. According to the government's new policy on food aid, donor agencies can only operate in specific areas upon receiving authorisation letters from the ministry of public service, labour and social welfare. The ministry acts on recommendations from provincial governors. The governors of Masvingo, Matabeleland North and South and Bulawayo had told the minister that people in their provinces were starving and in urgent need of food aid, the sources said. But Mangwana, in keeping with the governmentıs assertion that there would be enough food for Zimbabwe, had largely ignored the governorsı letters. Bulawayo governor Cain Mathema wrote to the Minister a month ago asking him to authorize World Vision to resume the urban feeding programme, said a senior official in his office. Neither Mangwana nor Mathema could be reached for comment.
While the government claims that the country has experienced a bumper harvest enough to supply all its citizens' needs, United Nations assessment reports indicate that 2,3 million Zimbabweans will need food assistance this year. ZIMVAC, which comprises NGO and government representatives, has also indicated that the country did not harvest enough crops to feed its population. Although Zim Online could not get copies of the letters, Masvingo governor Josiah Hungwe confirmed that he had written to central government saying that he needed donor organizations to resume feeding people in his province.. However, Hungwe said, this was because farmers had been duped by donor organizations into planting the wrong varieties resulting in low yields. "Care International has acknowledged that it gave my people the wrong seed. So the hunger here has nothing to do with land reform. Care (International) should come back and feed the people because it was wrong in the first place to give people the wrong seed. We need food, yes, but the need is not of our own making. I have informed the relevant government minister about our problem here," said Hungwe.
World Vision Zimbabwe and the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) have been forced to delay the implementation of an urban feeding programme called the Market Assistance Program (MAP), worth over $10 billion, in Bulawayo, peri-urban Harare and Chitungwiza as a result of governmentıs reluctance to issue the necessary authorization letters. About 1 million people, including malnourished children, were supposed to benefit from the programme, which sought to provide cheap sorghum to urban dwellers and was supposed to be launched two weeks ago. Jean Claude Mukadi, the World Vision director for relief, denied that his organization was facing problems in implementing the programme. "We have not experienced any challenges with the ministry. It granted us authority early last year to set up the programme and World Vision is only taking over from CRS, which are set to implement a similar programme in Chitungwiza (a dormitory town near Harare)."
But authoritative sources within the organization insisted that World Vision had been asked to seek fresh approval for their project, as had CRS for its Chitungwiza project, the sources said. World Vision was asked by the government to go and collect letters from respective Governors giving testimony that they really wanted the organisation to continue with food aid, and the governors submitted these letters to the ministry which should have given the go ahead. To date World Vision is just sitting on tons and tons of sorghum because the government has not acted on the governors' letters. Added a top official with the UN food agency arm, the World Food Programme (WFP): "They (government officials) might delay but they will come back to us for assistance. People are starving, really starving and no-one, even those turned insane by politics, will contest that Zimbabwe is in dire need of food aid. But for any meaningful food assistance to come to Zimbabwe then there be will be need for a new MOU (memorandum of understanding) and the government doesnıt seem to be in a hurry." The official said the forecast figure of 2,3 million was expected to rise due to increased poverty in urban areas. A number of city councils have already started feeding programmes of their own because of rising urban poverty. Bulawayo City Council has reported 65 starvation related deaths this year alone. The United States government on Tuesday accused the Harare regime of trying to curtail donor activity in the country. Said US state department spokesman Richard Boucher: "We've been deeply concerned the Mugabe government is using its monopoly on food distribution to manipulate food availability for political ends, and ... there needs to be another track of food distribution available to people.
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 21 July
Zimbabwean newspaper loses court battle
Harare - Zimbabwe's independent Tribune weekly on Wednesday lost its court bid to return to the newsstands, a month after it became the third newspaper to be shut down in a year. Justice Tendai Uchena of the Harare High Court ruled that the Tribune had committed irregularities and that the official media commission was entitled to revoke its licence. "The first applicant [the publishers of the Tribune] committed two offences for which the penalty of cancellation could be imposed," Uchena ruled, adding that the decision by the Media and Information Commission "is within its discretion". The state media commission, which registers all newspapers and journalists in the country, cancelled the Tribune's publishing licence on June 10 for a year. It accused the paper's new owners of breaching the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act by failing to report ownership changes to the commission, as well as employing an unregistered journalist.
The Tribune appealed against the commission's decision, saying it had shown bias and that the breaches of the law did not warrant such a hefty penalty. But the judge noted that the commission is "expected to punish and control those who contravene provisions of the Act". Under Zimbabwe's strict press laws, all journalists and newspapers have to be registered and the media commission has to be notified of ownership changes. The Tribune is the third Zimbabwean newspaper to be shut down in less than a year. The decision means that the Tribune's 60 full-time staff and 200 street vendors will be out of a job. Last September, the Daily News, a popular newspaper that was a harsh critic of President Robert Mugabe's government, and its Sunday edition were shut down for operating illegally. The Tribune's publisher, Kindness Paradza, who is also a Zanu PF lawmaker, had described the action by the media commission as "unjustified and unlawful". Zanu PF is President Robert Mugabe's ruling party.
Top
From Zim Online (SA), 24 July
MDC legislator dies - Death increases pressure on opposition party
Harare - Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party legislator Ben Tumbare Mutasa died Saturday morning at Harare's Saint Annes Hospital. Tumbare Mutasa, who was Member of Parliament (MP) for the peri-urban Seke consituency, was suffering from pneumonia. The MDC, which now controls 51 seats in Zimbabwe's 150-member Parliament, confirmed the MP's death in a statement. The opposition party has lost to the ruling party in five previous by-elections in the last three years. The MDC stopped President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party from clinching a vital two-thirds parliamentary majority when it won 57 seats of the 120 contested seats in the 2000 parliamentary elections. ZANU PF won 62 seats and another minor oppositon party, Zanu Ndonga, won one seat. But Mugabe's party enjoys control of another 30 seats occupied by non-constituency MPs handpicked by Mugabe. If Zanu PF wins the latest by-election which Mugabe is constitutionally obliged to call within 90 days of Tumbare Mutasa's death, then his party will be left needing only one seat to achieve a two-thirds majority giving it power to unilaterally change Zimbabwe's constitution. After failing to win approval for a new constitution, drafted by Mugabe's handpicked Constitutional Commission in February 2000, Mugabe's government insists that any changes to Zimbabwe's flawed constitution must be done by Parliament. Tumbare Mutasa was among several MDC legislators who had been in and out of prison on several occasions over a variety of charges. Opposition MPs often accuse the police of severely assaulting and torturing them while in jail. Police deny the charges.
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 24 July
Another spat in Zim for outgoing British envoy
Harare - Britain denied on Friday that its outgoing ambassador snubbed President Robert Mugabe by slipping quietly out of Zimbabwe and failing to observe diplomatic protocol with a farewell visit. Sir Brian Donnelly left Harare on Sunday after completing a three-year assignment in Harare dominated by diplomatic spats. Zimbabwe officials had claimed Donnelly was campaigning for Mugabe's ouster and led covert British operations against the government. Alison Blackburne, Donnelly's deputy at the British embassy, said British officials told Zimbabwe's Foreign Ministry of the ambassador's planned departure weeks in advance, asking for "the usual courtesies" to be observed. "The usual courtesies would normally include a valedictory call on the head of state. We received no response," she said. She also denied reports in the state-owned Herald newspaper that Donnelly recently traveled to Australia to coordinate support for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and raise funds to bankroll opposition campaigning for parliamentary polls next year.
The Herald also alleged Donnelly instructed opposition lawmakers to boycott a reception on Monday hosted by Mugabe of the eve of his ceremonial opening of Parliament. Blackburne said Donnelly neither visited Australia during his three-year assignment in Zimbabwe nor held discussions with opposition lawmakers about Monday's party at Mugabe's State House. Opposition lawmakers have routinely boycotted Mugabe's lavish cocktail parties, accusing him of leading the nation into economic ruin and deepening poverty. The Herald's cartoonist showed Donnelly being hidden in a wooden crate bound for London marked "diplomatic cargo." The paper said Donnelly left Harare a bitter and disillusioned man after failing to "do a Milosevic" on Mugabe and bring about "regime change" in Zimbabwe, referring to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic toppled in 2000 by a pro-Western coalition and now facing charges of genocide and war crimes at a United Nations tribunal. Donnelly came to Zimbabwe from the former Yugoslavia.
In a farewell speech at one of several high-profile diplomatic functions before his departure, Donnelly irked the government by saying the former Yugoslav dictator did not fall until he tried "to steal one election too many, and Yugoslavs themselves decided they had had enough." "To all Zimbabweans who want to see political tolerance and economic growth restored in this country, I would simply say: do not give up hope. The tide of democracy will prevail," Donnelly said. Britain, the former colonial power, the United States and independent election monitors said Zimbabwe's 2000 Parliament elections and a 2002 presidential poll narrowly won by Mugabe had been swayed by vote rigging as well as political violence and intimidation blamed mainly on ruling party militants. Mugabe has vowed to allow only African observers to monitor next year's parliamentary poll. Christopher Dell, designated as the next US ambassador, has already become the frequent target of attacks in the state media more than a month before his scheduled arrival in Harare. Dell told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month he wanted to see Zimbabwe re-emerge "as a country with a legitimate, democratically led government that respects the rule of law and human rights." Dell was evidently out to smear Zimbabwe with his "repugnant sentiments" and work for a change in government, a Herald columnist wrote on Wednesday. "Zimbabweans should never let him succeed where his predecessor and British cousin have failed," the columnist wrote.
Top
From The Times (UK), 23 July
Tycoon threatens judges after win
By Michael Horsnell
The notorious property tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten celebrated his legal victory over the family of the man he was once accused of murdering with a scarcely veiled threat against the judiciary yesterday. Mr van Hoogstraten, who now lives in Zimbabwe, warned some of the judges presiding over the criminal and civil cases in which he has been involved never to set foot in his adopted country. "I hope one of those bastards sets foot in southern Africa one day - they'll never see the light of day," he said after overturning a £5 million damages award against him by the sons of Mohammed Raja, 62, the business associate who was shot and stabbed to death on the doorstep of his home in Sutton, Surrey, in 1999. The Court of Appeal allowed his appeals against rulings by the High Court in 2002 that led to the seizure of his assets, sequestration of his property, and the imposition of more than £1 million in fines for contempt of court. Mr van Hoogstraten, 59, had been sentenced to ten years in jail earlier that year for manslaughter, but the conviction was set aside by appeal judges last year. Mr Raja's family, which had sued him before Mr Raja was murdered, continued the civil action.
Top
From Zim Online (SA), 24 July
Food aid: WFP prepares for the worst
Harare - The World Food Programme (WFP) has asked the Zambian government to put aside a reserve of 100 000 tonnes of maize to be bought by the WFP for Zimbabwe if need be. Zim Online has established that despite repeated claims by President Robert Mugabe and his government that their country had a bumper harvest, the WFP has resolved to proceed with efforts to provide aid to assist Zimbabweans who will face starvation. The United Nations recently said that 2,5 million Zimbabweans will require food aid. An WFP agent last week held talks with Zambia's Ministry of Agriculture requesting the reserve. Zambian agriculture minister, Mundia Sikatana confirmed to Zim Online that WFP officals had asked Lusaka to reserve some of its surplus maize for Zimbabwe and three other Southern African countries, Angola, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. "We met an WFP official last week who requested that we consider reserving 100 000 tonnes of maize for our neighbours in Zimbabwe. We are still considering the request and will give a position to the WFP,' Sikatana said.. The WFP office in Harare said in response to Zim Online enquiries that it would release a statement soon on the situation in Zimbabwe in regard to humanitarian assistance and its plans in view of government's claims that there was enough food.
Mike Huggins, WFP's Southern Africa regional public affairs officer, recently said the WFP was currently providing food aid to 700 000 Zimbabweans in both rural and urban areas through a targeted assistance programme. Surveys by independent bodies including the Southern African Crop Assessment Programme and the locally based Zimconsult indicate that Zimbabwe will require food aid to see the country through to the next harvest beginning around March next year. Mugabe maintains the country has more than enough food and has repeatedly told food relief agencies to take their aid elsewhere. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) accuses Mugabe and his ruling Zanu PF party of wanting donors out of Zimbabwe so they can monopolise food aid distribution for political gain. Zanu PF, which in the past has been accused of using food to buy political support, denies the charge.
Top
From The Washington Post, 23 July
Where 'Final Edition' is a fateful term
Zimbabwe paper alert to state's animosity
By Craig Timberg
Harare - The journalists at the Zimbabwe Independent gather each Monday morning to discuss the stories they are planning for the coming week and attempt to ignore, as best they can, the unsettling fact that any one of their articles could be their last. Their dilemma: To write skeptically about President Robert Mugabe or his ruling party is to court the wrath of a government that has shut down two other newspapers in the past year, they say. But failing to write skeptically would be to betray the paper's mission and drive away readers who have rewarded it with a growing circulation as competitors have been closed. Members of the Independent's staff have learned, they said, that in a country where the government uses the courts to punish its enemies, the only thing more dangerous than a story critical of the government is a story critical of the government that contains errors or other flaws. "The state is like a fox watching," said Iden Wetherell, who recently moved from being editor of the Independent to a new position overseeing projects there and at its sister paper, the Standard. "We know they're out to get us."
The Independent, a weekly with a circulation of 25,000, operates out of a dingy, one-floor newsroom about the size of a fast-food restaurant. Across the street, gleaming in modern splendor, is the skyscraper housing the headquarters of Mugabe's party, Zanu PF. From the windows of the newsroom, Mugabe and other senior party leaders, who have run the country with nearly absolute power for the past 24 years, can be seen coming and going, past increasingly squalid streets, in motorcades of black Mercedes-Benzes. Party officials control the information that Zimbabweans receive on the radio, television and in most newspapers. The ruling party exerts outright control over all broadcasting and runs daily newspapers in the capital, Harare, and in Bulawayo and Mutare. The government media tell Zimbabweans that Mugabe and his government are unfailingly benevolent and wise and that their main opponent, the Movement for Democratic Change, is a dangerous terrorist group that operates as a front for British efforts to reestablish Zimbabwe as a colony.
When British Prime Minister Tony Blair said in London that he was working with opposition leaders in Zimbabwe in hopes of ending Mugabe's rule, government newspapers and television stations repeated the comment for weeks. The editorial page of the Herald, the government-run daily in Harare, ran a column and a picture of Blair with the headline: "World now knows the truth about Zimbabwe. Speculation as to who is at center of 'problems' is closed." "This kind of constant messaging is what Zimbabweans have to endure," said Brian Raftopoulos, a political commentator who contributes opinion pieces to the Independent. "The public debate is severely curtailed." Zimbabweans once had more options. The only independent daily newspaper in Zimbabwe, the Daily News, was firebombed, then raided and looted by police before finally being closed by court order in February. At its peak, it sold 100,000 copies. The Tribune, a weekly owned by Kindness Paradza, a member of parliament from the ruling party, was closed by the state media commission in June after several months of increasingly skeptical coverage of the government. Paradza was expelled from the party for criticizing the media law that led to his paper's demise.
The editors at the Independent say the closures have made them more careful to avoid the type of actions the government used as pretenses against the other papers. Owners of the Daily News, for example, had refused to register the newspaper under a new media law it was challenging in court. The Tribune changed the name of its corporate parent but failed, according to the media commission, to notify it of the change in a timely manner. The owner of the Independent, Trevor Ncube, has instructed his editors and business managers to rigorously comply with any law that does not violate journalistic ethics. "I've insisted to my management, let's play by the rules," Ncube said. "Let's not create any excuse for them to come for us." He added that his caution did not affect news judgment. "I'd sleep very, very soundly if we get banned because we published an article the government doesn't like," he said. Three newspapers remain that are not controlled by officials of the ruling party. Two of them are owned by Ncube.
The Independent has experienced several close calls, Ncube said. The newspaper has published six stories that have prompted attempts by the government to prosecute it under a two-year-old media law that criminalized the reporting of inaccurate information. Police detained Wetherell, a second editor and a reporter for 48 hours after one of the stories - about Mugabe's use of an Air Zimbabwe jet for a vacation to Indonesia with his wife - was published in January. On a recent Monday, the top editors were called to appear in court over the story. The government has not disputed the central facts in the story but has said that Mugabe did not personally call for the airplane and that to use the word "commandeered" in the article amounted to a criminal defamation of the president. The government dailies often ridicule the Independent and its editors in articles and columns. Wetherell, who is white, has drawn particularly vicious attacks. A Herald columnist last month called Wetherell a "bitter colonial relic." In January, the Herald called Wetherell "our willy-nilly neighbour, a fellow Zimbabwean by statute" who "we the sons of this black African soil have to suffer until the scythe of time makes its remedial harvest."
The government's willingness to allow the Independent to publish is a source of anxious conversation among journalists in Zimbabwe. Many former reporters and editors of other newspapers lost not only their freedom to publish but also their jobs, in a country where unemployment is estimated to be as high as 70 percent. Efforts to start online newspapers have begun, but Internet access remains slow and limited and is heavily regulated by the government. "The freedom of expression is dead," said Sam Nkomo, publisher of the Daily News, who is battling criminal prosecution but trying to get the courts to allow the newspaper to resume publishing. Nkomo said one of the few things he could imagine worse than losing his fight to reopen the Daily News would be the closure of the Independent. "Then," Nkomo said, "the country would have gone to the dogs."
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 22 July
Mugabe gears up for poll
Dumisani Muleya
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is wavering between piecemeal reforms and panicky repression as he struggles for survival ahead of next year's crucial general election. Mugabe said during the opening of Parliament this week that his government would adopt electoral reforms, but at the same time warned of looming legislation to gag telecommunications and NGOs. In a speech dominated by promises of a variety of populist legislative changes, Mugabe told the House of Assembly the sweeping electoral reforms were designed to level the rigged playing field that opposition parties had been complaining about for years. "On the basis of both the national debate and, of course, our experiences in running elections since 1980, government is proposing far-reaching reforms to our electoral law," he said. "These proposed changes, which also take into account ongoing regional consultations on developing electoral norms and standards for the Southern African Development Community [SADC], envisage the creation of an independent electoral commission as the principal player in running all our elections." The new electoral legislation is likely to come under scrutiny at the SADC organ on politics, defence and security cooperation now under way in South Africa.
Mugabe, who is clinging to power amid rising popular discontent over economic failure, also said the modifications would include reducing the voting period from two days to one. Counting of votes would be done at polling centres instead of at the controversial national command centre. Zimbabwe has the most archaic electoral system in the region. Election officers, some of whom are retired army officers, are still appointed by Mugabe without adequate checks and balances. Opposition Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai said that while his party welcomed the changes, there was a need to "clean the poisoned political environment to ensure free and fair elections". "Electoral reform is a central part of political and democratic transformation. Electoral reform, in the case of Zimbabwe, is a serious constitutional matter," he said. "To be effective, electoral reforms need a solid backing of independent institutions - dealing with electoral disputes, handling political excesses and taking care of the whole electoral process."
Tsvangirai said Mugabe's Zanu PF militias, who have been accused of causing violence, must be disbanded; the police must be non-partisan; the army excluded from elections; the ruling party must desist from using food as a political and electioneering weapon; and international observers must be given free access to monitor the polls. Constitutional lawyer Lovemore Madhuku described the reforms as "old wine in new bottles". While brandishing the largely cosmetic reforms, Mugabe proposed new security legislation affecting the Internet, telephones and NGOs. Mugabe said his government would introduce a Security of Communications Bill to control the Internet and telephones. This law, he claimed, would "bolster the security of our nation". He also said that NGOs needed to be controlled because they interfered in politics. As a result a new law would be introduced to regulate them. "We cannot allow them to be conduits or instruments of foreign interference in our national affairs," Mugabe said.
The NGO legislation would give the government powers to refuse to register organisations or to ban those deemed objectionable. The General Secretary of the SADC NGO Council, Abie Ditlhake, says the council will have to scrutinise the laws to see "if it is contrary to the Memorandum of Understanding [we] have signed with the SADC Secretariat". He says SADC member states "committed themselves to creating an enabling environment for NGOs to operate freely". The convenor of the South African chapter of the African Union's civil society structure, Eddie Makue, described Mugabe's statement as "problematic". On Mugabe's references to foreign donors driving the NGO agenda, he said it was embarrassing that African governments were not doing much to break the reliance of African NGOs on foreign funding. Makue says NGOs "derive their agenda from the social context within which they operate and the communities they serve".
Analysts described the proposed laws as part of Mugabe's broad campaign of repression, which has led to the closure of newspapers, persecution of free press journalists, purging of the judiciary and endless attacks on opposition and civic activists, as well as the perpetration of human rights abuses. Venturing into familiar territory, Mugabe said his regime remained "patently opposed to the current mutant strain of imperialists who have arrogated to themselves the role of patrons of democracy and human rights, which they shamelessly trampled in pursuit of bloated self-interest". Mugabe also said his regime is determined to root out corruption. The continuing anti-corruption crackdown seems to be the centrepiece of his rumbling electioneering in the run-up to the poll that he has dubbed the "Anti-Blair" election, or "Operation Anti-Tony Blair", as Zanu PF political commissars would like to put it.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 23 July
Tsvangirai ruling deferred
Gift Phiri
The High Court yesterday postponed indefinitely judgement on the treason trial of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is facing charges of plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe. Justice Paddington Garwepostponed judgement after taking into consideration concerns by assessors Major Misheck Nyandoro and Joseph Dangarembizi. The judgement was supposed to be handed down next Thursday. Defence lawyer Innocent Chagonda yesterday said: "Assessors have asked for a transcript of the proceedings, once they are ready they will let us know." Tsvangirai was charged with treason in February last year for allegedly plotting to assassinate Mugabe ahead of the 2002 presidential election. The charges hinge on a secretly videotaped meeting between Tsvangirai and Ari Ben-Menashe, president of a Canadian-based public relations firm, Dickens and Madison, in which the idea of "eliminating" Mugabe was brought up. Defence lawyers have argued since the opening of the trial that the videotape on which the alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe was based was defective and could not be relied on. They also point to the suppression of the audiotape and transcript that was presented in court. Defence lawyers also argue that the tape was missing its first 10 minutes, a defect that the state blamed on a faulty battery. Tsvangirai says the government trumped up the treason charges against him in a bid to discredit him ahead of a presidential election in 2002. Tsvangirai is also facing another treason charge arising from organising the "final push" in the middle of last year. He is on remand on that charge.
Top
From VOA News, 23 July
Foreign currency shortage hits Zimbabwe's central bank
Black market currency trading, which disappeared in January, has reappeared with a vengeance. The U.S. dollar is selling more than 30 percent higher than at legal auctions at the Central Bank. The shortage of foreign currency for the private sector is now at an all time high. The U.S. dollar was selling for 5,355 Zimbabwe dollars at the Central Bank auctions on Thursday. On the street Friday among informal traders, the rate was 7,000 Zimbabwe dollars. Economists say the sudden reappearance of what is called the parallel market is shown by the ever-rising demand for foreign currency. Central bank statistics published Thursday show it only had $9.5 million U.S. for sale, while, at the same time, it recorded a demand of nearly $38 million U.S. Every week since shortly after foreign currency auctions began in January, the gap has widened, with supply falling farther and farther behind demand. The Central Bank presently only allows bids in the range of about $5,300 Zimbabwe dollars to $1 U.S., even though the system is called an auction. The number of bids it rejects has also been on the increase each week. One of the changes introduced by a reformed central bank in January was to allow Zimbabweans living abroad to exchange foreign currency sent home to families at the best rate through official channels. The central bank went to the United States, Britain and South Africa to persuade millions of Zimbabweans in the diaspora to send their money home through official channels. Several economists say that the return of the parallel market will see Zimbabweans working in hard currency countries, reconsidering decisions on whether to send money home to support their families. They are not the only ones looking at the official channels with alarm. Many in the private sector say they will be forced to take the risk and return to the parallel market to source raw materials, because their bids are regularly turned down at the auctions. The government says Zimbabwe is experiencing an economic revival, but many economists say the optimism should be tempered by the reality on the ground, where food prices are rising sharply and the private sector continues to contract.
Top
From Business Day (SA), 24 July
SADC talks at Sun City should show if SA is backing down on quiet diplomacy
Ministers expected to toughen development community's stance on Harare
International Affairs Editor
An indication of the extent to which the region has toughened its stance towards Zimbabwe could emerge from two days of talks between Southern African Development Community (SADC) ministers of defence and foreign affairs that begins in Sun City today. In considering a new draft of tougher SADC principles and guidelines governing democratic elections, the ministers could send a message to Zimbabwe that it should ensure free and fair polls. It would also be a signal to the international community that SADC is intent on living up to principles it has already adopted. The meeting of the ministers, under the auspices of the SADC organ on politics, defence, and security co-operation, is most unlikely to result in public criticism of Zimbabwe. A former participant in these talks says they "are the most secretive you will come across." Nevertheless, this former participant says that Zimbabwe is likely to face private criticism during the Sun City meeting.
The recommendations of the meetings will feed into briefing notes for SADC heads of state, who will be holding a summit in Mauritius next month. Speculation has mounted since a report criticising Zimbabwe's human rights record was put before, but not considered or adopted by, African Union (AU) foreign ministers ahead of its recent summit in Addis Ababa. In what has been viewed as a possible signal of a shift towards a tougher stance, Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma earlier this month denied that she had thwarted consideration of the report at the AU meeting. Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad's meeting this week with South African Council of Churches general secretary Molefe Tsele, has also been viewed as an indication of a possible shift. The council has criticised SA's policy of quiet diplomacy. But Pahad's remarks after the meeting, that Zimbabwe is indeed working towards free and fair elections, could indicate that no shift is taking place, at least in SA's public posture.
Ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for March next year, Zimbabwe is about to change its electoral laws to try to persuade the international community that the process will be both free and fair. The changes include the possible introduction of transparent ballot boxes and the establishment of an independent election commission. But the country's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, as well as human rights groups, say that an electoral bill will severely hamper campaigning by restricting access to the voters roll. These groups also claim that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government has practised widespread intimidation, particularly with threats in rural areas to burn down homes if the vote does not go their way in a constituency, and that it is assured of a wide margin of victory. Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, Pahad and his fellow deputy foreign minister Sue van der Merwe will be attending the Sun City talks. Dlamini-Zuma, who is currently on official visits to Mali and the Gambia, will not attend.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 25 July
Zanu PF cons farm workers into joining it
By Caiphas Chimhete
The ruling Zanu PF party has taken its recruitment drive into commercial farms and resettled areas, where it is deceptively telling farm workers to join the party's structures or risk being excluded from voting in next year' s parliamentary election, The Standard has learnt. Sources said the deception, which is rampant in the Midlands province, has spread to most resettled areas in Mashonaland West and East provinces. They said Zanu PF is targeting gullible farm workers and people who received land under the government's controversial resettlement programme, who fear losing their allocated land. "I feel this should be exposed because a lot of people are going to be prejudiced of their right to vote. Apart from that, the recruitment exercise is intimidatory to the extent that everyone is joining for fear of victimisation," said a source, who was part of the recruitment drive in Midlands. In the past two weeks, Zanu PF youths visited several farms in Midlands' Patchway Mine area including Odowf Farm, Tinashe Farm, Grandon Farm, Bineth and Dixie Farm. They also visited a small-scale mining area, popularly known as KwaJames, where illegal gold panners live. Only gold panners who show allegiance to the ruling party are allowed to go about their business. Apart from that, residents have also been forced by the local Zanu PF youth militia to attend political meetings, particularly on Sundays.
Gift Miti of the General Agricultural Plantation Workers' Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) said his organisation had received reports that some Zanu PF officials were forcing people to join the party but he was still to carry out independent investigations. "We have received a number of reports from places such as Gweru and Karoi. Vanhu vari kuti dziya politics dzadzoka zvakare mumapurazi (People are saying that yesteryear's politics of brutality has returned to the farms once again). We gather in some areas workers are being forced to attend political meetings," said Miti, who will this week visit the affected areas to institute independent investigations. By last week, Zanu PF set up 22 branches in the area between Kadoma town and Patchway Mine and the exercise was still going on in other farming communities in the district. "The youths are moving from one farm to the other telling farm workers that if they do not join Zanu PF structures they will not vote in next year's parliamentary elections," said another source.
Opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) elections director, Remus Makuwaza said: "That is expected of Zanu PF, but we are educating people to inform them of their rights." He said the MDC was conducting a voter education exercise to explain to people the proposed electoral reforms and their possible impact on next year's elections. One of the sources said the deceptive recruitment drive has been going on since July 11, when Zanu PF MP for Kadoma West, Zacharia Ziyambi, had addressed a political meeting in the area. Ziyambi confirmed holding "a stock-taking exercise" meeting two weeks ago in his constituency but denied forcing people to join Zanu PF. "It had nothing to do with voting at national level. We were just taking stock of our members ... to see the number of people we have or whether they really do exist on the ground. We were looking at our cells and branches," said Ziyambi, who also denied forcing people to attend Zanu PF meetings. Since last year, Zanu PF political commissar, Elliot Manyika, has been trotting from province to province overhauling the party's structures ahead of next year's poll.
Top
From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 24 July
'I'm not going to be bullied by Mugabe'
By Anton La Guardia
Archbishop Pius Ncube speaks slowly and softly, yet this Zimbabwean priest has become the loudest voice of defiance against the injustices of Robert Mugabe. The Zimbabwean president's political rivals are harassed, imprisoned and tortured; independent newspapers have been closed down; the population as a whole is being cowed by economic collapse and food shortages. But the 57-year-old Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulawayo has become ever more outspoken - not only in Zimbabwe but, increasingly, abroad. His arrival this week in Britain - Zimbabwe's former colonial ruler - seems almost calculated to infuriate President Mugabe, who likes to blame all of his country's woes on Tony Blair and his cabinet of "gay gangsters". "Mugabe uses this Tony Blair blame game as an excuse," says Archbishop Ncube. "Tony Blair has not destroyed the economy of Zimbabwe. It's Robert Mugabe who has destroyed it. He is tricky and deceitful." But was he not playing into Mugabe's hands by coming to Britain? "I'm not going to be bullied," replies the archbishop, as we sit in the garden of his Kensington hotel. "If I stayed away, he would have me where he wants me. I am free. That freedom is not given to me by Mugabe. He is not my God. I have one true God."
Dressed simply in a grey suit, a dog collar, crucifix and large plastic spectacles, Archbishop Ncube looks more like an unprepossessing village priest than purple-clad prelate. He is, though, the archetypal turbulent priest. President Mugabe has not yet asked his barons to get rid of him, but they have tried almost everything short of killing him. Archbishop Ncube's telephones are tapped, government agents monitor his every sermon and he has been told he is on a secret police "death list". The state-controlled press is filled with diatribes and sordid tales about Archbishop Ncube. Among the accusations are claims that he has raped nuns, fathered bastard children and indulged in homosexual acts with prisoners. The latest abuse came earlier this month, after the archbishop chastised Mugabe during a trip to South Africa. Nathan Shamuyarira, one of Mugabe's lieutenants, said: "The archbishop is a paid propagandist who works for the racist imperialist governments to undermine the Zimbabwe government." Archbishop Ncube carefully reads these words in a newspaper cutting, but seems untroubled. "Anyone who speaks the truth must be abused and attacked and denigrated. Let them get on with it." President Mugabe is on record as describing Archbishop Ncube as "an unholy man". But the archbishop's international profile is both the cause of the president's fury and a shackle on his ability to take more drastic action. About a month ago, Mugabe vented his frustration to a Catholic priest, telling him: "Archbishop Ncube should take off his priest's robes and become a proper politician. Then I will deal with him properly."
Pius Ncube was born near Gwanda, in southern Matabeleland. He was one of four children. He was educated in mission schools - first by Presbyterians and then Catholics - where he went by the anglicised name of Alick. He was baptised a Roman Catholic at the age of 14, adopting the papal name of Pius. At 17, he felt a calling to the priesthood and trained under an English Jesuit missionary in Salisbury, the Rhodesian capital that has since been renamed Harare. He studied in Rome during the early years of Zimbabwe's transition from white minority to independence under Robert Mugabe. Soon after Fr Pius returned to Bulawayo in 1983, conflict broke out between the new government and supposed "dissidents" in Matabeleland. Mugabe despatched his army - particularly the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade - to wage a campaign of suppression, known as the Gukurahundi, meaning the rain that washes away the chaff before the spring rains. According to researchers, between 2,000 and 8,000 people were killed in a series of atrocities, at least 10,000 were arrested and 7,000 beaten or tortured. Hundreds of homes were burnt down. The Gukurahundi was Fr Ncube's first encounter with the brutality that Mugabe was capable of inflicting on his perceived enemies. "Awful things were being done that the state media was not reporting. People were buried alive, mothers were raped in front of their daughters, people were herded into a hut and burnt or shot if they tried to escape. People were dropped into disused mines. This man is really evil."
After years of grooming, Fr Ncube was appointed archbishop of Bulawayo in 1997 and became freer to speak his mind. The last straw came in early 2000, when Mugabe ordered the "war veterans" to invade white-owned farms after his defeat in a constitutional referendum. One of the provisions of the new constitution was an obligation on Britain to pay compensation to commercial farmers for land expropriated by the government. The crisis was presented as an attempt to right the injustice of whites holding the lion's share of the best land. But for Archbishop Ncube, the land grab was not an attempt to help the landless, but a move to hold on to power. The result was that Zimbabwe's agricultural-based economy was shattered. "They have distributed only two per cent of the land to farmers. A lot has been given to ministers and Mugabe's friends. There is no honesty," says Archbishop Ncube. The land invasions were an important tool during the parliamentary elections in June 2000, and the presidential ballot in March 2002. The war veterans intimidated black farm workers, who were likely to vote for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, and emasculated the white farmers, one of the most organised groups in the country.
By portraying the crisis as a colonial question, Mugabe stifled any real criticism from fellow Africans. For Archbishop Ncube, other African leaders have proved to be "blind". The inaction of President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa - the one man who might be able to force Mr Mugabe to change - has been a special "disappointment". Zimbabwean church leaders have proved to be less than vocal, and some bishops are believed to have taken former white farms. But Archbishop Ncube takes a charitable view of his fellow prelates: "They are looking for a more diplomatic way. I have become more confrontational. They do a lot of things quietly, trying to assist the sick and poor, assisting development projects." But it is clear that Archbishop Ncube wishes they took a more public position. "The government has silenced everybody. They want to give the impression that everything is normal when, in fact, it is grossly abnormal. They are full of lies and deceit. To be quiet is a disservice to the people of Zimbabwe and disloyal to Christ."
Archbishop Ncube says he is inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Oscar Romero, the El Salvadorian archbishop who was assassinated by a Right-wing death squad in 1980. Saying he has a "mission" to speak out against Mugabe, he explains his actions by quoting a passage from Luke 4:18 in which Jesus, in turn, quotes Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." Archbishop Ncube is reluctant to speak about himself, but deals with personal questions as the price to be paid for publicising his latest project - the launch of the Zimbabwe Defence and Aid Fund, which aims to fund legal costs of Zimbabweans being prosecuted under oppressive legislation, provide aid to victims of human rights abuses and those infected with the HIV virus.
He speaks in a slightly distracted manner, often sighing, constantly scanning his notes. He clearly wants to get to his main message about conditions in Zimbabwe, and takes every opportunity to rattle off facts and figures. He notes that 3.4 million Zimbabweans are living outside the country; inflation is running at 500 per cent; unemployment stands at 80 per cent; half the children are suffering malnutrition; one in four adults are infected with the HIV virus or have Aids; there have been 300 reported cases of political violence and intimidation this year alone. The litany goes on and on. At the end of his notes, I notice the words, written in bold capitals, "policy of starvation". Archbishop Ncube says between five and eight million Zimbabweans will need food aid this year, despite the government's claim to have enough food. This, he maintains, is evidence that President Mugabe will use food shortages as a political tool to starve opponents into submission. Archbishop Ncube wants Zimbabweans to stand up to their rulers, saying: "They cannot imprison the whole country." At the same time, though, he fears that desperation will lead to another African civil war. "It would be a tragedy if, all of a sudden, people went violent. Mugabe's last card is to call the army and say: `Shoot them'. He is a cruel man." I ask the archbishop whether President Mugabe has retained any of the moral teachings of his Jesuit education. "He knows what is right and what is wrong," he says. "But for him, power has become a God. He has become blind to divine principles. He has become a megalomaniac." Is it not just a matter of a few years before Mugabe, an octogenarian, will be forced to step down? "I cannot foresee the future," he replies. "Some of these dictators live long. Look at Pinochet. What I know is that, by the time Mugabe dies, he will have carried with him tens of thousands of people who will have died because of his callousness."
Top
From The Sunday Mirror, 25 July
Govt guns for Mawere properties - takes over agro-processor FSI Agricom's farms
Mirror Reporters
In a development that smacks of vindictiveness following its failure to extradite business mogul Mutumwa Mawere from South Africa last month, the government is expropriating farms owned by the beleaguered businessman's agro-processor, FSI Agricom. FSI Agricom is understood to have decided to focus their attention on cotton procurement and sponsoring outgrowers after government made a decision to acquire its farms. The apparent bid to stall FSI Agricom operations comes in the wake of reports of other attempts to take over concerns in which Mawere, who the Zimbabwean police want in connection with allegations of externalising of foreign currency, is said to have interests. The Zimbabwean government recently specified the business tycoon, who has since 1995 been resident in South Africa where he obtained that country's citizenship. The Sunday Mirror is reliably informed that the board of the farming concern met close to a fortnight ago where the way forward for the company was discussed in light of the expropriation of its farms by the government.
"The board is said to have discussed the way forward for the company and ways to keep the company operational after its negotiations with the government to de-list its farms failed to yield positive results", the source said. He also added that the move has caused panic among the employees of the group amid speculation that the organisation may fail to raise funds for retrenchment packages. The government designated four farms owned by FSI Agricom under the Land Acquisition Act in a move viewed as the beginning of the expropriation of assets owned by Mawere, who was specified under the Prevention of Corruption Act. FSI ran a number of agricultural projects countrywide and is set to sever links with various traders it had business with. Although FSI managing director Ivan Savala refused to shed light on the latest development, the Sunday Mirror has it from a well-placed source that the company has already advised various firms with which it had entered into contracts of its impending closure.
Last week a company spokesperson confirmed government had acquired four of the company's highly mechanised farms measuring a total of 4 305 hectares. But Zimbabwean police still intend to interrogate Mawere in connection with fraud of Z$300 billion involving African Associated Mines (AAM), the owners of Shabanie and Mashava Mines, where the mogul has a direct interest. But Mawere denied that he was involved in the day to day business at AAM and was just a shareholder. Zimbabwean authorities contend that Mawere, through AAM and a South African based company also owned by Mawere, Southern Asbestos Sales (SAS), had "for years defrauded the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe by producing falsified documents and failing to repatriate foreign currency earned via Zimbabwean exports in violation of the Exchange Control Act". SAS is said to have imported asbestos from AAM at a lower price than should have been the normal case arguing that the mineral was of a low and inferior grade. SAS would then allegedly re-export the commodity to other markets at the real price.
Top
From AFP, 26 July
Tsvangirai fights on for fair polls
Harare - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai faces a possible death sentence but that and severe restrictions on electoral campaigning have not dampened his hopes for a free and fair poll next year. The biggest political rival to President Robert Mugabe, who came to power more than two decades ago, Tsvangirai says his opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) will press on for electoral reforms ahead of the elections in March. "We want to participate in the elections but we are very sceptical about putting legitimacy to a process which is flawed. Hence our demands that the playing field be levelled," he told AFP in an interview. "Hopefully at the end, when these standards are achieved, it will give us sufficient confidence to participate." Mugabe's Zanu PF government has imposed a slew of laws that may drastically limit the MDC's hopes of being on a par with the ruling party during the run-up to the elections and on polling day. The MDC does not have access to any broadcasting media and the government has closed down three independent newspapers. No public meetings or election rallies can be staged without police permission. Anyone can be arrested if authorities believe they "threaten state security" and can be detained for up to 23 days without charges being brought.
Tsvangirai, a former secretary general of the powerful Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, launched the MDC in September 1999. In general elections a year later, the nascent party took almost half the seats in parliament, posing the first real challenge to Mugabe's hold on power. Since then Zimbabwe has spiralled into political, social and economic chaos, fuelled largely by Mugabe's controversial land reforms programme and sky-high unemployment and inflation. In 2002, Tsvangirai lost the presidential polls which were slammed by international rights groups as unfair and is challenging the outcome in court. In the meantime, he also faces treason charges for allegedly plotting to eliminate Mugabe. If convicted, he can be sentenced to death. The verdict was due to be handed down next week but the state has postponed it indefinitely without giving a reason. He however remains unfazed. A relaxed Tsvangirai said: "It's a political trial and one has to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. I'm anxious, but not scared," and repeated a call for some pre-conditions to be met before the next elections.
He wants guarantees against voter intimidation or manipulation of the electoral roll, an independent electoral commission and access to public media for all. "There is a lot of international pressure. Let's hope the next election will be sufficiently free and fair to produce a legitimate outcome," he said. But the going may be tougher. "I wouldn't be as optimistic as Mr Tsvangirai. If these laws are not changed, the elections will never be free and fair," said political analyst John Makumbe from the University of Zimbabwe. "An election is a process and it takes months and months. Whether it's free and fair relates to the whole process of electioneering, not just the voting day." Zimbabwe last month announced plans to change the current electoral system and appoint an electoral commission "independent of government". It said it would hold elections on one day instead of two, would replace wooden ballot boxes with translucent ones and would do the counting at voting stations. And Mugabe this week pledged electoral reforms to make voting more transparent. He called for peaceful elections and urged the police to take strong action against "illegal activities" during campaigning. "I wish to strongly warn those who are bent on indulging in violent and any other illegal activities, with the view of tarnishing the country's image, that the full wrath of the law will descend upon them," Mugabe said.
Top
From Zim Online (SA), 24 July
'These elections, I really wish we never held them!'
More violence feared before March 2005 poll
Tsonzo, Manicaland - Sixty-year old Mavis Mashingaidze sheds a tear every time she looks at the remains of what used to be the pride of her homestead.. Although it was only a four roomed house, she was proud of it as she could comfortably accommodate all her six grandchildren. But that was before mobs of suspected ruling Zanu PF militants burnt and destroyed the house here in Tsonzo village in Chief Mutasa's area, more than 300 km east of Harare. The house was burnt down during the run up to the 2002 presidential election to punish Mashingaidze for allegedly supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Today, three years down the line, news that yet another election is around the corner, or eight months away to be exact, makes Mashingaidze, a widow who lives alone here with her grandchildren, tremble with fear. Mashingaidze says her husband Trainos was killed during Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation war by soldiers of Ian Smith, the ruler of the renegade British colony of Rhodesia before it became independent Zimbabwe in 1980. Her only child, Joseph, who was an MDC activist, died of AIDS in 2000 and his widow followed a year later.
'They burnt my house. I was harassed and denied food. Now I have been working hard to rebuild my house but it has not been easy," a tearful Mashingaidze told Zim Online."But my worry now is that with the elections approaching they (Zanu PF supporters) will come for me again soon. These elections, I really wish we never held them!" As the country braces for yet another election, thousands of Zimbabweans, particularly those suspected of supporting the opposition, are still counting the losses they suffered during the previous polls. 'I lost everything I had. The youths came and looted my belongings. My sewing machine, my plough, everything. And then they burnt my house,' recalls Mashingaidze. Her crime: she had not been attending Zanu PF meetings held in her village. The fact that her late son was a well known activist of the MDC made the case against her even worse. Old age did not save her. Most victims of political violence like Mashingaidze have failed to shake off the 'MDC sellout' tag stuck on them since the 2000 parliamentary and 2002 general elections. Now they fear the worst. Mashingaidze said: 'A lot of Zanu PF supporters in this area, including my neighbours, still view me with suspicion. I don't know what they will do to me now. They took my livelihood. I am afraid they might come for my life this time around. But I fear for my grandchildren more than anything else.'
With the potentially historical 2005 parliamentary election beckoning, both Zanu PF and the MDC have stepped up their campaigning for the ballot. In an address to youths of his Zanu PF party in Harare this week President Robert Mugabe ordered them to 'vigorously campaign for the party' warning that he would hold them responsible if the party lost the election. Probably uncompromising but still a harmless statement of encouragement from a leader to his followers, some might say. But to many political observers Mugabe's call on the youths, most of whom have in the past been accused of spearheading political violence, could mean a rise in political violence against opposition supporters. Zimbabwean human rights lawyer Gabriel Shumba, who fled the country last year after being tortured by government agents, said: "That kind of talk from Mugabe points to one thing and that is violence. We should brace for a lot of it. Sadly a lot of people have not recovered from the effects (of political violence) in 2000 and 2002 and we can't afford any more deaths, injuries and displacements (of people)."
Thousands of people in rural and farming areas were displaced during the 2000 and 2002 election campaigns while non-govermental organisations say close to 1000 people have died from politically-motivated violence since 2000. While in some cases supporters of the MDC have been accused of committing acts of violence, local and foreign political analysts and election observers blame Zanu PF for routinely using violence to maintain its stranglehold on power. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights director Arnold Tsunga said: "Political violence has gone on from 2000 and Zimbabwe has not known peace since. People can't be integrated into normal life when such things continue happening. Until the government ensures that there is tolerance towards opposition supporters, it's unlikely that we will witness peace in this country in the foreseeable future." Mavis Mashingaidze continues to live in fear.
Top
From ZWNEWS, 26 July
Hwedza violence
The opposition candidate for the Hwedza constituency in next year's parliamentary election and her brother-in-law cam under attack on the weekend, the MDC said yesterday. The party said that Bob Makone was abducted on Saturday by a group of Zanu militia and taken to a rally held by Aeneas Chigwedere, the minister of education. Bob is the younger brother of Ian Makone, who is an MDC official and the husband of Theresa, the aspirant MP. Bob Makone was held and tortured overnight, before being released on Sunday morning. Chigwedere's rally had originally been scheduled to have been held at Makarara, but the venue was changed to Musavadye School, which is very close to the homesteads of the Makones. The group who had abducted Bob Makone later returned to the Makone homesteads threatening Theresa Makone with death for daring to stand on an opposition ticket.
Top
From The Times (UK), 26 July
Zambians are told to presume again
By Shirley English
Zimbabwe has turned down a request to move a statue of the missionary explorer David Livingstone across the Zambezi River to Zambia. The statue, which was vandalised two years ago by supporters of President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, stands overlooking Victoria Falls, in the eponymous Zimbabwean tourist resort. A request was made recently for the statue to be moved to the Zambian side of the river to mark the actual spot where the Scottish explorer first saw the waterfall in November 1855. It was hoped that the move would coincide with Zambia's celebrations next year to mark the 150th anniversary of the sighting by Livingstone - who named the falls after Queen Victoria - and 100 years since the town of Livingstone was established. Donald Chikunbi, director of the Zambian National Heritage Conservation Commission, said: "The people of Zambia feel the statue should be in its proper place where Livingstone first saw the falls. But officials from the Zimbabwe Government have refused our request to have the statue moved. It is disappointing as the statue would have formed the centrepiece of our anniversary celebrations to mark Livingstone's life next year." The falls were known locally as Mosi-oa Tunya (the smoke that thunders) before being renamed by Livingstone in 1860. The explorer, who was born in Blantyre, outside Glasgow, spent 30 years exploring almost a third of the African continent. In 1871 in the village of Ujiji, east of Lake Tanganyika, he famously encountered the American newspaper reporter Henry Stanley, who greeted him with the phrase: "Dr Livingstone, I presume?" He died in Africa in 1873 after a long illness.
Top
Comment from The Financial Mail (SA), 26 July
Zim and the victim condition
By Itumeleng Mahabane
A friend I respect and admire intellectually recently said to me quite casually , "Bob (Robert Mugabe) gave me free, quality education, which is why I can be here in SA and be successful." It is a disturbing yet understandable explanation of why the black Zimbabwean middle class is muted in its condemnation of Mugabe. Frantz Fanon, the most academically influential anti colonial activist, would probably see that as the consolidation of urban middle-class interest that occurs in most postcolonial societies. However, this self-serving attitude does not explain the tolerance of many black South Africans of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Nor does it explain their crude and crass celebration of Mugabe (Joseph Stalin, too, was once a valorous comrade). If it is not out of class self-interest that many South Africans seemingly cannot or will not consider the plight of the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, how else do we explain the cheering for the man - for example, for his supposed courage in putting Tony Blair, the "colonialist", in his place?
The unfortunate answer may be race - or rather, what is better described as the "victim condition". It would be naive to pretend that racism, including the subliminal sort, does not exist. Indeed, discrimination or prejudice against blacks is an enduring bigotry. This is why black people find themselves in a situation where they define themselves only in terms of race and as historical victims of racism. We react, justifiably, with outrage when whites ask, "Why is it always about race?" Our interaction with the world is primarily driven by exactly that, race. Most South Africans who implicitly support Mugabe, without stopping to think about his ultimate victims, are completely focused on the idea of an African leader standing up to whites or imperialists . The danger with race as a definitive prism is that one becomes primarily and even wholly fixated on remnants of racism to the exclusion of all else. In the case of Zimbabwe, it is to the exclusion of the indignity visited upon fellow blacks which, were it being done by whites, we should certainly be up in arms over.
We have internalised race and racism, something that Fanon predicted, just as he predicted that the consolidation of urban middle-class interest could see black leaders become as abusive of their citizens as the colonialists were. There is reason for our emerging young democracy to be concerned about this. An obsession with race and, consequently racial justice, should not consume us to the point where it obfuscates other critical concerns and allows the emergence of a self-serving middle class. Friends responded to a question I posed in this regard by saying the primary agenda for SA should be to replace white people who remain in positions of power. Questioned further, they suggested that this was because white people in power were proving to be an obstacle to true transformation. If that were the case then surely their removal would be necessary for transformation to occur, but not its fundamental objective. My friend's earlier assertion sounded like the consolidation of a middle-class interest under the cover of racial justice. The danger is that this self-interest can easily be carried over into policy and government. Then the jump to a situation where suddenly we all become victims of that self interest becomes frighteningly easy.
Top
From Zim Online (SA), 27 July
Calls for a new voters' roll in Zimbabwe
Harare - Civil society groups and the opposition in Zimbabwe are calling for a fresh voter registration process to create a new and reliable voters' roll, following last week's announcement by government of a reform of electoral laws. Reginald Matchaba-Hove, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), said civic society and the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) must pressurise President Robert Mugabe to order the preparation of a new voters' register. Matchaba-Hove said it was impossible, even under new electoral laws, to hold a truly free and fair election next year because of the serious defects in the present voters' register. "Once the independent electoral body is in place, a new voter registration exercise has to start and delimitation of constituencies would follow to avoid allegations of vote rigging." The Registrar General's Office still in charge of preparing elections - has been registering voters across he country but civic groups and the MDC say the process has deliberately focused on areas where the ruling Zanu PF enjoys more support while excluding opposition areas. The Registrar General, Tobaiwa Mudede, denies the charge.
A new voter registration process would require millions of dollars and may cause the postponement of the general election scheduled for March 2005. Crisis Coalition of Zimbabwe (CCZ) chairman Brian Kagoro backed Matchaba-Hove's call for a new voters' roll. The CCZ is a a coalition of churches, labour movement, lawyers, human and civic rights groups and non-governmental-organisations. Kagoro said a fresh voter registration exercise must also capture the more than three million Zimbabweans living and working abroad. The Registrar General's Office had excluded the Zimbabwean diaspora, seen as pro-opposition, from his registration efforts. Kagoro said the government must also repeal repressive legislation hindering democratic activity in the country. MDC spokesman Paul Themba-Nyathi said that the call for a new register 'is a logical requirement. If we are going to have a free and fair election, it is the whole electoral process which makes it legitimate. We want a clean electoral exercise, from voter registration onwards." Neither Mudede nor Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira could be reached for comment.
Top
From The Daily News Online Edition, 26 July
MDC blames Zanu PF for MPs death
The late MDC Member of Parliament for Seke Rural, Ben Tumbare-Mutasa, who died on Saturday will be buried in Harare tomorrow. The MDC has alleged that the systematic torture of its MPs by the government agents had led to the death of several of its legislators. Job Sikhala, who is co-ordinating Tumbare-Mutasa's funeral arrangements on behalf of the MDC said the late MP will be buried at Granville cemetery at 2pm tomorrow. Tumbare-Mutasa, 48, who was admitted to hospital on Thursday after collapsing at his home, died of lung failure, said Sikhala. Meanwhile, MDC spokesman Paul Themba-Nyathi has alleged that most of the MDC MPs who have died so far, succumbed to torture and beatings from government agents and ruling party supporters. Nyathi told the Daily News Online this morning that the government was on a mission to reduce the number of MDC MPs in parliament through systematic torture that led to death. "Our observations have shown that there has been routine torture of our MPs since 2000. We have learnt that the idea behind this torture is to reduce the number of our MPs in parliament. Our presence in parliament has stopped Zanu PF from effecting any constitutional changes. The idea from 2000 has been to severely torture our MPs and then rig the by-elections," Nyathi said. Nyathi said his party had raised this concern with both the African Union and Sadc.
In March this year, Mutasa was assaulted by suspected members of the Central Intelligence Organisation before being detained in police cells for several days. The late MP complained that he had been severely tortured while in police detention. Other opposition MPs whom the party claims succumbed to torture and mob assaults by Zanu PF supporters and state security agents are George Ndlovu (Insiza), who died mysteriously in 2001, David Mpala (Lupane) who died last year and Kadoma's Austin Mpandawana who also died in 2003. Before his death, Mpala had been abducted by suspected ruling party youths and war veterans who beat him up and dumped him unconscious about 60 km away from his home. Ndlovu and Mpandawana, like several other MDC MPs, officials and supporters were victims of political violence before their deaths. But the opposition party now controls 51 seats in the legislature after losing the other by-elections to Zanu PF since 2000. The ruling party now needs one more seat to have a two-thirds majority that will enable it to make constitutional changes. Mugabe has already said that he wants any amendments to Zimbabwe's laws to be done through parliament. It was not possible to get a comment from Zanu PF yesterday.
But the ruling party has in the past denied allegations that it has been using state agents and its supporters to fan violence against the opposition. Instead, the ruling party accuses the MDC of being at the forefront of sponsoring political violence in the country. Said Themba-Nyathi: "We have catalogued the attacks on our MPs and supporters by government agents and Zanu PF supporters. We have taken the evidence to Sadc and the AU but we have not received a specific response. But we are worried at the rate at which our MPs are succumbing to state-inspired torture. We need the African bodies to pressure Zanu PF to stop the assault on our MPs." Sikhala, a victim of torture by state security agents echoed Themba-Nyathi's allegations: "The kind of torture that they mete on you will ensure that you are maimed for life. In fact the agents actually told me that I was not going to live and that they were under instruction to kill MDC MPs who passed through their hands. They promised me that I will die a slow death. Tumbare-Mutasa started experiencing health problems after he was beaten up by Zanu PF thugs."
Top
From IRIN (UN), 26 July
Rights groups must not be banned, says Amnesty
Johannesburg - Rights group Amnesty International has expressed concern at reports that the Zimbabwe government intends to ban international human rights groups as well as foreign funding for local NGOs. "The measures are reportedly contained in a draft bill governing the operation of NGOs," Amnesty said. The Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) and Churches Bill is expected to be tabled in parliament soon. IRIN reported earlier that various Zimbabwean civil rights groups had slammed moves to introduce the bill, as it would give the government greater control over the operations of NGOs and churches. "These reports indicate that, as with other legislation introduced in the past two years, the government will use this new bill to silence critical voices and further restrict the right to freedom of expression. It is a clear attempt by the government to suppress dissenting views as parliamentary elections scheduled for March 2005 draw closer," Amnesty International said. The rights group called on the government of Zimbabwe to "immediately repeal or amend all legislation which violated the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, and bring national legislation in line with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter and other international human rights standards".
Over the past three years NGOs have come under increasing fire, with the authorities accusing them of promoting foreign interests and supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In September 2002 the government ordered NGOs to register under the Private Voluntary Organisations Act, a law also lambasted by rights activists at the time. At the opening of parliament on 20 July, President Robert Mugabe confirmed that a new bill governing the operation of NGOs would be introduced to replace the Private Voluntary Organisations Act. SAPA-AFP quoted Mugabe as saying that "NGOs must work for the betterment of our country and not against it". "We cannot allow them to be conduits or instruments of foreign interference in our national affairs," Mugabe reportedly said, adding that the new bill would "ensure the rationalisation of the macro-management of all NGOs".
Top
From Refugees International (US), 26 July
Humanitarian access denied to increasingly vulnerable former farm workers
In Zimbabwe economic disruption and political intimidation and harassment have caused 150,000 former farm workers to become internally displaced. As conditions for the former farm workers deteriorate, the Government of Zimbabwe is imposing restrictions and preventing humanitarian agencies from providing them assistance, resulting in a hidden crisis of internal displacement in the country. Since 2000, the economic situation of Zimbabwe has progressively deteriorated: production of food has dropped and inflation has skyrocketed to more than 400 percent annually. Unemployment has spread rapidly. An estimated 78% of farm workers, who represented 25% of the national active working force, have lost their jobs. This crisis has been caused by the poor implementation of the Fast Track Land Reform program by the Government of Zimbabwe, compounded by regional droughts that have effected crop production. The crisis has a political dimension as well, as the ruling party, Zanu PF, has targeted the farm workers as a potential political base for the opposition. The government has implemented special political re-education programs while impeding humanitarian access to organizations deemed to be part of the political opposition to consolidate their political strength in anticipation of upcoming parliamentary elections.
Many of the commercial farms that were marked for acquisition under the Fast Track Land Reform were seized violently. A farm worker interviewed by Refugees International described it by saying, "The war veterans came with soldiers and guns and threw tear gas to threaten us when they seized our farm." Farm workers, accused of supporting the former farm owners, were ordered to leave their houses instantly, unable to collect even their belongings. The war veterans destroyed houses to push farm workers off the land and to ensure that they could not return. In some cases, people were ferried to communal areas or dumped at road sides. Not all of the former farm workers have been displaced due to violent eviction. Displacement is also due to economic conditions on the former commercial farms. Some of the new settlers have been unable to farm their allotment of land due to lack of financial capital or lack of essential agricultural inputs. Many of the new settlers refuse to or cannot pay minimum wage to farm workers. The current minimum wage is Z$72,000 per month but most of the farm workers told us that the new settlers only pay them about Z$15,000 per month. The former farm workers accuse them of using intimidation, hunger, and other methods to get the farm workers to work for them in "slave labor" conditions. In some case, new settlers ban access to NGOs that provide food assistance telling farm workers, "If you are getting food, you will be sent out of the farm".
The majority of former farm workers have opted to stay on the farms or remain "trapped" on the land. Those who have remained have few livelihood options and turn to other activities such as gold panning and hunting of game for commercial sales. "My wife works for the new settlers to keep the peace and I pan for gold," said one farm worker. "Life on the farm is not good but I have nowhere else to go." Some find themselves near starvation with no access to food or services. Due to lack of options, many eventually end up working for the new settlers at drastically reduced wages or in exchange for goods, such as food or school uniforms for their children. Lack of sufficient food and access to basic services such as water and sanitation, healthcare and primary education have made the former farm workers that are trapped on the farms increasingly vulnerable. Decreased access to healthcare services has greatly increased the susceptibility of former farm workers to HIV/AIDS and other diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria. Former farm workers complained that there had been an outbreak of malaria on the farm as they did not have equipment to drain standing water. They told us, "The former farmer used to do this but they broke his equipment when they chased him off the farm." Lacking money to go to the clinic, some of the children had died, but there was a former health worker on the farm who negotiated with the clinic workers for free medicine that the farm workers could not afford to buy.
The high rate of HIV/AIDS infection has caused a very high orphan population on most of the farms. It is estimated that there are 900,000 to 1.2 million orphans in Zimbabwe and an average of 12 orphans per commercial farm. Both orphans and children of former farm-workers are particularly impacted by the economic problems. Besides insufficient food, children lack money for uniforms, supplies, and transport to schools. Some children have to work as casual labor on farms, performing tasks such as picking cotton or weeding crops to help support their families. Orphans are usually the first to drop out of school for lack of funds. These orphans are vulnerable to exploitation as child labor. RI interviewed a 14-year-old girl who told us, "I was paid Z$2500 a day to weed maize fields. I did this to earn the money that I needed for a school uniform. They will not let you in the school if you do not have a uniform." Older orphans are drifting to towns to add to the expanding street child population and to work as prostitutes. to work as prostitutes.
In the face of these rapidly growing levels of vulnerability, the Government of Zimbabwe, both at national and local levels, is setting barriers to access for humanitarian agencies. By progressively reducing the operational space of humanitarian agencies, the government is preventing assistance from reaching those who need it. The government has begun instituting new administrative requirements such as signing new memorandums of understanding that restrict access, demanding two weeks advance notice for field visits, and requesting personal details on staff, including residential addresses. Many operational agencies are treated with suspicion by the government and their access is blocked. NGOs that receive funding from "unfriendly" foreign countries (countries who have criticized the Government of Zimbabwe's actions) or are perceived as sympathetic to the political opposition find themselves facing barriers to their work. Some NGOs claim that they are targeted for harassment because their work with displaced populations threatens to show that the land reform program has been unsuccessful in addressing inequity in land ownership.ed populations threatens to show that the land reform program has been unsuccessful in addressing inequity in land ownership.
Top
From Zim Online (SA), 27 July
|
