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Archived News
2nd June 2004
Mugabe’s mansion - gov’t to investigate claim
MDC activist killers on trial
Zimbabwe could extradite 'mercenaries' to SA: Lawyer
White farmer is held for 'killing Mugabe invader'
Stubborn Zimbabwean leader set to face civil disobedience
Zimbabwe tour chaotic: Atapattu
Staring down barrel of a gun
Mawere arrested...businessman challenges extradition
Moyo dismisses Sky News talk on succession
Zim farmer claims self defence
Zim scores badly in Amnesty report
Hungry for the truth in Zimbabwe
Ugandan Matsanga barred from entering Zim
Mawere gets R50 000 bail
Mawere blasts Gono over arrest
Game rancher assaulted
Zim farmer takes land reform to court
Oryx fails to protect its reputation
Torture, brutal executions of DRC revealed in court
UN snubs Zim DRC role
Mrs Kidd's life and safety threatened
Catfight!
Fast buck, slow famine
Chimimba murder probe exposes massive graft
Politicians trade blows in fight for Mugabe's throne
Ousted managers finger Mujuru in Bubye saga
Hungry Zanu PF youths turn on their masters
State moves to block offensive e-mails
Ploy to get hired guns out of Harare
Household access to food a major problem
Who is Mutumwa Mawere?
Mugabe: Out of touch, but in control
E-mail controls loom in Zimbabwe
Shooting survivor insists Manyika shot friend
Zimbabwe's once-proud schools face ruin
Commercial land lies fallow
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From Malaysiakini, 26 May
Mugabe’s mansion - gov’t to investigate claim
Beh Lih Yi
The government was today urged to clarify its involvement in the construction of a £5 million mansion for Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, near Harare. In an immediate reaction, two ministers have said this would be investigated. Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang said this morning that Mugabe’s statement "is shocking". "I call on the government to issue a ministerial statement as we want to know whether we have secretly and unlawfully funded the 25-bedroom mansion," he told a press conference in the Parliament. Mugabe, in an interview with television station Sky News, had denied that the mansion was being financed out of public coffers but said, instead, that the Malaysian and Chinese governments were providing partial funding. However he did not disclose the exact sum involved or when the money had been channelled to him. In the same interview, he said former Malaysian premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad had provided the timber for the structure. Lim asked how, if at all, the Malaysian government could have provided funds since Mugabe has a reputation for dictatorial leadership. "(There is) no moral and political reason for us to do that," he said, pointing out that no audit report has been tabled in Parliament pertaining to the alleged funding, which may involve taxpayers’ money. "We know Mugabe is a good friend of Mahathir... (But) there was no parliamentary approval to fund this rotten and corruptible regime," said Lim, who is DAP chairperson and Ipoh Timor MP. He said it would be an "unprecedented case" for a government to fund another government leader’s mansion, if the claim is proven true.
Speaking to malaysiakini later, Deputy Foreign Minister Joseph Salang Gandum said he is unaware of Mugabe’s statement. "I will check on it. But I don’t think the government would have funded the mansion, (although) we do assist (the Zimbabwean government) in other aspects such as human resources. But it is quite impossible (that we have funded) a mansion," he said at Parliament House. Asked whether an investigation would be carried out, he replied: "Let us check (on this) first." Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mustapa Mohamed - who oversees national economic planning - refused to comment when asked about this yesterday. "We will check, thanks for the information," he said. Meanwhile, corruption watchdog Kuala Lumpur Society for Transparency and Integrity said the government owes the public an explanation for the revelation. "If true, the government must explain why it funded such a luxury for a political head reputed to be a dictator," said its deputy president Param Cumaraswamy in a statement today. Kuala Lumpur Society for Transparency and Integrity is the local chapter of Transparency International. He said Zimbabwe was in serious political and economic disorder, and that the annual inflation rate is 620 percent and climbing. "The unemployment rate exceeds 70 percent. One in four Zimbabweans is HIV positive; 4,000 die every week. Agriculture output has been so ravaged that Zimbabwe now has the highest number of citizens starving to death in Africa," he said. He also cited comments by a spokesperson for Transparency International (Zimbabwe Chapter), who is reported to have said that it has become "absolutely essential" for Mugabe to disclose his sources of foreign currency used to pay for all imported materials for his private mansion.
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From News24 (SA), 25 May
MDC activist killers on trial
Harare - Three men with links to Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party charged with the murders of two opposition supporters have gone on trial in the eastern city of Mutare, the state-controlled Herald newspaper said on Tuesday. Morris Kitsiyatota, Webster Gwama and Bernard Makuwe are accused of being part of a 5-man militia gang that killed opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activist Talent Mabika, as well as the driver of MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, on April 15, 2000. The two were killed when the vehicle in which they were travelling was attacked and set ablaze while campaigning for parliamentary elections in the south-eastern Buhera district, an MDC stronghold. Opposition and human rights figures say the killings sparked a wave of violence against pro-democracy supporters in which up to 300 have died, and have sharply criticised the Mugabe administration for its reticence in bringing the case to court. Gang leader Joseph Mwale, a senior officer in President Robert Mugabe's Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), remains at large in Mutare, where opposition figures allege he is still involved in orchestrating violence. "Mwale is as large as life in Mutare ... and fans violence there. He hasn't stopped since 2000," said MDC legislator Roy Bennett, adding that Mwale is behind a "reign of terror" in the region. "He is fully employed by the CIO and he is protected by them." In June 2000 elections Tsvangari lost to the ruling party candidate in the Buhera constituency, but the result was later annulled by the High Court on the grounds that the double murder had intimidated people into voting Zanu PF. A ruling party appeal against the court's decision has still not been heard by the Supreme Court, effectively barring Tsvangirai from taking his seat.
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From SABC News, 25 May
Zimbabwe could extradite 'mercenaries' to SA: Lawyer
Seventy South Africans held in Zimbabwe on suspicion of planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea might be returned to South Africa for trial if Pretoria made an extradition request, their lawyer said today. Defence lawyers launched a high court action in Pretoria last week to compel the South African government to prevent extradition of the men to Equatorial Guinea from Zimbabwe. They argued they would face an unfair trial in the troubled oil-rich west African country. However, Pretoria said it will intervene only if the men faced the death penalty, which is against its national constitution. Alwyn Griebenow, a lawyer, said he had been told by Zimbabwean prosecutors that they would likely grant any South African request to return the men to their homeland to be tried. "We were told...that if South Africa requested the extradition, people would look favourably upon the request because (South African President) Mr (Thabo) Mbeki is a very respected state president," Griebenow said after addressing the Pretoria High Court on the subject. "We have no reason to doubt them," he added. The South African government will formally put its case before the court tomorrow. The men have been in a high security prison in Harare since March on suspicion of conspiring to overthrow Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea's president, whose government is widely accused of serious human rights abuses. The men have denied they were involved in a plot against Obiang and say they were security contractors headed for an assignment in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Equatorial Guinea authorities detained another 15 men about that time, accusing them of a role in the plot.
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From The Daily Telegraph (UK), 26 May
White farmer is held for 'killing Mugabe invader'
Harare - A white farmer has allegedly shot dead one of President Robert Mugabe's supporters during an attack on his property. Spiro Landos, 48, a farmer of Greek descent who grew vegetables for British supermarkets, was seriously wounded before being detained by police in hospital in Mutare, 160 miles south east of Harare. During the attack he was pinned down by a 30-strong mob. He apparently drew a gun and fired a warning shot in the air. But one man was hit and died. Mr Landos is recovering from surgery and is unable to walk. His relatives fear he will be charged with murdering one of Mr Mugabe's "war veterans" who fought for independence from Britain in 1980. They said they were anxious about his prospects for a fair trial in a highly-charged racial and political environment following Mr Mugabe's anti-white rhetoric during an interview with Sky News this week. Friends said Mr Landos had been asking police to disperse a mob of ruling Zanu PF supporters from his land for a week before the attack on the farm, Riverside, in the Odzi district. When he failed to return to his homestead after dark on Monday a friend found him near the farm gate, semi-conscious and bleeding from head wounds. The incident was the first in which any farmer has fired a weapon since Mr Mugabe ordered the land grab of more than 20 million acres in 2000. Up to 3,000 farmers have been attacked or hounded from their homes. It has been a violent few days for many of the country's remaining white farmers. John Worsley-Worswick, a spokesman for the pressure group Justice for Agriculture, said: "The latest onslaught has been sudden after a relatively quiet couple of months. In all cases the attackers have had a common message that whites must leave and go to Britain." A white manager of a wildlife sanctuary, Anthony Bodington, 35, was abducted and tortured in southern Zimbabwe and is recovering in a private hospital.
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From The Star (SA), 26 May
Stubborn Zimbabwean leader set to face civil disobedience
By Basildon Peta
Zimbabwe's main opposition party and civic groups have begun consultations to launch a major civil disobedience campaign. The decision was taken after President Robert Mugabe slammed the door on negotiations to end the crisis in Zimbabwe. Yesterday, Lovemore Madhuku, chairperson of the National Constitutional Assembly, Zimbabwe's largest civic group, said there was no alternative to a civil disobedience campaign, based on a set of demands, to open the way to democracy in Zimbabwe. "We are in serious consultations and we will announce a comprehensive outcome in three to four weeks' time," said Madhuku. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and civic groups had hoped they could engage Mugabe in dialogue to draw up a new constitution and create a democratic environment, which has been dissipated by draconian security and media laws. They had hoped that, through dialogue, they could achieve an electoral framework to guarantee free and fair elections next year. But after Mugabe's decision to slam the door on any talks - and after South Africa this week reiterated its softly-softly policies on Zimbabwe - the civic leaders said they had no option but to mobilise for a major civil disobedience campaign.
"It seems that the only realistic way of forcing Mugabe to negotiate is by making the country ungovernable. We have mobilised for successful protests before, and this can be done. There is no other way," said a civic leader who preferred not to be named. We cannot look forward to South Africans or other Africans for help. Our salvation can come only from within ourselves, and it is high time we made the sacrifices." MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube said the only option left for his party was to concentrate on "building a coalition of forces to mobilise strongly for the fulfilment of conditions that will guarantee free and fair elections. "We have to mount intensive internal pressure to ensure our rights don't continue being appropriated by the Mugabe regime." Ncube emphasised that everything would be done in terms of the constitutional rights of citizens to express themselves. He reiterated his party's threat to boycott the next elections unless Mugabe agreed to hold them in terms of the Southern African Development Community norms and standards for free and fair polls. The MDC has drawn up a list of 15 demands to democratise the electoral process. These include giving the opposition access to the state media, setting up an independent electoral commission, allowing United Nations supervision of elections, and restoring the rule of law. "It seems that the only realistic way of forcing Mugabe to negotiate is by making the country ungovernable. We have mobilised for successful protests before, and this can be done. There is no other way," said a civic leader who preferred not to be named.
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From The Age (Australia), 26 May
Zimbabwe tour chaotic: Atapattu
Sri Lanka's cricket captain Marvan Atapattu warned international teams visiting Zimbabwe to expect the worst, saying his team's recent visit to the troubled African nation was "fairly chaotic." "The facilities and organisation were probably the worst I have experienced in my playing career," Atapattu was quoted as saying in an interview with the sport's leading portal 'Wisden Cricinfo.' "To be honest, the tour was fairly chaotic. There were a whole lot of things that kept going wrong," he said. "When we arrived, the hotels did not have air conditioning, and then there were problems with the water supply as well. We had to go without a shower until about 10pm after one game, and there was no water in the toilets for an entire night. On the cricket side, there was no communication. When it came to things like net practice, no one took any responsibility. There were no net bowlers and sometimes there weren't even any nets ready. Even the lunch during the last day of the Test match was 15 minutes late. One morning when we were batting, the fourth umpire, who is supposed to ask us which roller we want, used the heavy roller without asking," Atapattu said. Zimbabwe is in danger of being suspended from Test cricket after a revolt by the country's top white players forced two Test matches against world champions Australia this month to be cancelled. Atapattu, whose team played two Tests against a severely weakened Zimbabwe team earlier this month, wished the International Cricket Council (ICC) had stepped in earlier and stopped the matches as had happened in Australia's case. "We should have been treated in the same way as Australia were," the Sri Lankan captain said. "If the ICC agreed to consider stepping in and cancelling the Test series against Australia, then they should have done the same for us. It was difficult to motivate ourselves, but we had to concentrate on our performance and forget what was happening in their camp. It was not an easy tour." The ICC executive board is expected to debate Zimbabwe's future as a Test nation at its annual meeting in London next month. Ricky Ponting's Australians are currently playing three one-dayers in Zimbabwe. England is scheduled to tour there in October.
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From The Times (UK), 23 May
Staring down barrel of a gun
Malcolm Conn in Harare
I came to write about cricket. Instead, I had a bayonet pointed at my chest and was told I looked like a terrorist
Shane Warne has enjoyed the golf courses in Zimbabwe, Matthew Hayden was taken by the fishing, and Simon Katich has raved about his game park visit. It’s a shame about the cricket. The Australia Test players have just spent a week in limbo, attempting to amuse themselves as an Orwellian maelstrom of doublespeak swirled around them. When yet another deal between the duplicitous and hopelessly compromised Zimbabwe Cricket Union (ZCU) and the 15 striking white players collapsed, an increasingly exasperated Cricket Australia chief executive, James Sutherland, said from Melbourne: "We have had repeated assurances and been repeatedly disappointed. It’s got to the stage where we won’t believe anything until we see it." The tentacles of president Robert Mugabe’s regime have now reached into the ZCU, where some board members, who are considered government stooges, regard getting rid of the white players as a victory. The sacking of captain Heath Streak for complaining to the ZCU about racism in selection and the walkout of 14 other white players in support merely sped up the aim of installing a black captain and a largely black team. It was against this backdrop that the fatalistic world champions attempted to carry on as normal in the most abnormal of circumstances, preparing to play Test cricket with no idea who their opponents would be, or whether, as it turned out, there would be any at all.
South Africans laugh when asked about safety in Zimbabwe. Harare, they claim, is nowhere near as dangerous as Johannesburg, but caution is still needed, and the Australian players may not be too unhappy about the fact that they will soon be heading for home. I went for a leisurely stroll around Harare last week, and ended up looking down the barrel of a rifle. Mugabe’s heavily guarded state residence is across the road from the Harare Sports Club, Zimbabwe’s main Test ground. The stone-walled compound, topped with razor wire and security cameras, takes up an entire city block and has several soldiers with semi-automatic weapons pacing the public footpath outside. The soldiers took no notice as I walked past to get to the sports club, but the compound guards in dark-green uniforms on either side of large steel gates were far more interested. Realising there was no easy way around the compound, I doubled back, only to find a bayonet pointing at my chest. "What are you up to? What are you doing? You can’t go there," the guard spat through clenched teeth. "Sorry," I replied. "I’m trying to get to the cricket ground." "You are up to something, you are a terrorist," the guard hissed. Wearing a T-shirt that read "Cricket - a passion not a game", a pair of blue running shorts and trainers, I didn’t feel like a terrorist, and was surprised to hear that I looked like one. Two army officers emerged and began an increasingly uncomfortable 15-minute interrogation. All the while, the guard, his rifle levelled at me, hissed invective: "Don’t let him go, he ’s a terrorist. Lock him up . . ."
With everything in my hotel-room safe, bar a room keycard and a frequent flyer card used to swipe the safe shut, the failure to produce adequate identification made them even less impressed. But little identification was better than the officers finding the compulsory press card from the Media and Information Commission, with which every foreign journalist must register, paying £335 on arrival. The foreign journalist is public enemy No 1 in Zimbabwe for having exposed the oppression and brutality of the Mugabe regime. Eventually I was forced to write my name, hotel address and Australian address on a tatty scrap of office paper and was thoroughly body-searched in some uncomfortable places. When I was finally told to go and turned to leave, the guard with the gun shouted: "Don’t come back, or I will shoot you." The thought of a bullet in my back did not leave my mind as I walked back past the soldiers, who still took no notice. It is clear that Mugabe has turned Zimbabwe into a police state, even at the cricket. During the recent second Test between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka at the Queens ground in Bulawayo, two Australian supporters were arrested and fined for displaying a harmless non-political banner that poked fun at New Zealand. As part of an ever greater attempt to prevent public anger against the government’s human rights abuses, posters have been banned from cricket grounds after isolated protests during last year’s World Cup. The fact that the banner displayed at the Bulawayo Test was irrelevant to Zimbabwe was of no consequence. And neither, it appears, is cricket.
Malcolm Conn is chief cricket writer of The Australian newspaper
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From The Daily Mirror, 27 May
Mawere arrested...businessman challenges extradition
Innocent Chofamba Sithole and Masimba Rushwaya
The government’s blitzkrieg on corruption has claimed its biggest corporate scalp to date following the arrest of South African-based Zimbabwean business mogul, Mutumwa Mawere in Johannesburg this week, the Daily Mirror can reveal. South African police spokeswoman, Mary Martins last night confirmed that Mawere was picked up by Interpol officers in the plush Johannesburg suburb of Sandton on Tuesday afternoon. "He was arrested yesterday at 12:30 pm in Sandton on a warrant of arrest after being declared wanted by Zimbabwean police," Martins said. She said Mawere was nabbed on charges of violating the Zimbabwe Exchange Control Act. But the businessman, who Martins had reported as having been detained in police cells in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, adamantly maintained last night that his arrest had no basis at law as the Exchange Control Act only applied to people resident in the country. He did not say whether he had been bailed out of detention. "How can a person who’s been a non-resident for 15 years be accused of externalisation?" Mawere quipped. He said he had been living outside the country since 1989.
There have been numerous unconfirmed reports that Mawere had allegedly undervalued the quality of exported asbestos, and thus prejudiced the State of lots of foreign currency. Asbestos is one of the major foreign currency earners in the mining sector, with Shabani and Mashava mines officially earning the country an estimated US$40 million per year. "He is due to appear in the Randburg magistrate court for extradition purposes," Martins added. However, local police had last night remained mum on the case, with police spokesman Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka professing ignorance over the arrest of Mawere. Mawere contended that he was not directly involved in the operations of the local companies in which he has interests. "I don’t sit on any boards of Zimbabwean companies. The exporters are the companies, which have legal personas and have their own rights before the law. They are represented by their directors and officials . . . To therefore accuse me of externalisation when I am external, is a contradiction in terms," Mawere said. Mawere said the affidavit provided by the Zimbabwean authorities erroneously claimed he was resident in Belvedere, Harare.
While the businessman claimed his arrest was a result of police confusion over the application of the Exchange Control Act, sources last night revealed that Mawere was being targeted by some influential politicians with whom he had been very close in the past. He becomes by far the most significant victim of the anti-corruption probe. While he conspicuously shied away from political office, he is known to have been intricately networked with the nervous system of political power in the country. Finance minister, Chris Kuruneri and Zanu PF central committee member and businessman, James Makamba are the two other significant personalities - courtesy of the anti-graft crusade - to have been arrested so far. But Mawere’s peculiar political relationships and business history mark him out as the biggest fish in the net. At one time the then Zanu PF secretary for finance and current Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson Mnanagagwa was said to be looking for a new breed of local businessmen whom he could involve in the ruling party’s expansion into mining, manufacturing and banking. Mawere, a Harvard-trained MBA graduate, was working in Johannesburg with the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank offshoot as a senior advisor on African mining and petroleum investments.
Mnangagwa was instrumental in endeavours to lure Mawere back to Zimbabwe and to assist him in his bid to purchase the nation’s largest asbestos mining group that consisted of Shabani and Mashava Mines (i.e. the African Associated Mines). Mawere was said to have bought the two entities for a song as the government simply issued a guarantee for the sale of the two mines to Africa Resources Limited (ARL) from a multi-national company. ARL was to simply pay for the transaction from the proceeds of sales from asbestos. Mawere has over the years been the overseer of the growth of a vast empire that has encompassed companies such as SMM Holdings, Africa Associated Mines (AAM), Zimre, Fidelity Life, Nicoz Diamond, Firstel, Turnall, General Beltings, Tube and Pipe Industries, Hastt Zimbabwe, FSI Agricom, CFI Holdings and First Bank. The growth of his empire was however subject to speculation that he was a front for some senior and prominent politicians.
Observers have hinted that the first sign of cracks emerging between Mawere and his relationship with the party/government was when the Mineral Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) took over the marketing of asbestos from African Associated Mines. Questions were raised as to the rationale and prudence of allowing MMCZ to market the mineral, especially given the negative and ill-conceived perception of the bad effects of the use of the mineral on the international market. SMM Holdings, the parent company of AAM, was given the exception to market its own asbestos in 1998 but in January this year, the ministry of mines announced that the waiver would be removed with effect from April 1 2004. There have been continuous media reports that Mawere was once a protege of Mnangagwa, amid speculation that the two had since fallen out. Mawere has, however, always denied this saying that "I am a businessman not a politician." He always insisted that he was a businessman who had the simple desire to invest in his country. The ruling party’s Masvingo provincial executive in recent months offered Mawere the economic affairs portfolio, which the businessman snubbed, saying he only wanted to make his contribution to national development through business. Through his investment vehicle, UKI Investments, Mawere until recently owned Media Africa Group (MAG), publishers of the Business Tribune and the Weekend Tribune newspapers.
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From The Herald, 27 May
Moyo dismisses Sky News talk on succession
Herald Reporter
The Minister of State for Information and Publicity Professor Jonathan Moyo yesterday said he has never spoken to anyone or Sky News about the succession issue. Commenting on claims by Sky News correspondent Stuart Ramsay during his interview with President Mugabe last week that he had said something about succession, the minister said he had neither spoken to anyone nor Sky News before or after its interview with the President about succession. "I never spoke to Sky News or anyone before and after their interview about succession or anything of the sort in the question. It is a total fabrication typical of British intelligence operatives who masquerade as journalists. "It is a stupid fabrication that was not making any sense when you hear about it or read it. It looks like they were trying to drag me into their charade or someone had planted the stupid question about things I never said in the hope of getting the President to react to a false issue but all that did not work," said Prof Moyo. Ramsay asked the President: "I am asking if you think it is right to stand down. Jonathan Moyo was saying that the discussion about whether the succession issue has caused problems in even elections because those in Zanu PF were considering who would be next . . . "
On the interview Sky News had with the President, Prof Moyo said "it was very disappointing that the questions were either very crude or very stupid." "Whatever the reason for that they failed to achieve their purpose. The questions were needlessly crude, downright stupid and many fair-minded people were left wondering why. Sky News has since said it never intended to do a positive report on Zimbabwe but just wanted to get the interview with the President. Senior editorial staff at Sky News were clear that we were not in the business of giving the Zimbabwean Government favourable reports just to secure the interview. In fact the view was quite the opposite," Ramsay said on the Sky News website. Prof Moyo said Ramsay’s statement raises eyebrows. "It was all premeditated. You cannot help but conclude that it was premeditated malice which did not get anywhere," he said.
Asked on the best way to communicate to the outside world, Prof Moyo said he did not believe there was anything to be gained from communicating through colonial, neo-colonial, imperialist or oppositional mouthpieces. "It is important and far better to always communicate through national media. In any case George Bush or Tony Blair always use their national media to communicate to the world. "You don’t expect them to use Al Jezeera, for example. In the new world of the information superhighway, it is very easy for a national story communicated through the national media to reach global audiences in a matter of seconds." Prof Moyo gave the example of the interview Newsnet had with President Mugabe on his birthday in February saying the interview travelled instantly without being subjected to the stupidity typified by the kind of questions Sky News had. "The fact that the President receives overwhelming positive responses from all audiences across the spectrum whether in elite circles such as United Nations meetings or popular circles such as stadiums in South Africa or Malawi is because his message has been getting across through the Zimbabwean national media."
"The likes of Sky News, BBC, CNN and the apartheid Press which have been demonising the President, Zanu PF and Government have failed in turning their own audiences against the President’s message. In essence, the national media platform has been more consistent and successful. The BBC, CNN, Sky News and their allied colonial and oppositional mouthpieces should not expect to be rewarded for their demonisation job by getting priority over national media," Prof Moyo said. "It’s outdated and no longer relevant to think that the only way of speaking to the world is via Sky News, BBC and other colonial mouthpieces. The experience of Al Jeezera in the Middle East and the Gulf especially over the Iraq story must give all of us some food for thought about the new realities of the media. If there was no Al Jezeera - Sky News, BBC and CNN would have distorted the Iraq story to unacceptable levels of ignorance and prejudice." Prof Moyo said the fact that Sky News did not intend to produce a positive report about Zimbabwe was cemented by a "survey" the news channel supposedly conducted to establish whether people were convinced by the President’s views or not. "They held a false survey in which they said 70 percent of people said the President was not convincing. How do we know that it was accurate. It was consistent with their idea not to do a favourable report. "I have no reason or basis to believe that arsonists like Sky News who have been burning our country through fires of falsehoods are now ready to extinguish the fires by becoming our leading fire brigade. For the same reason they did not support the Second Chimurenga, don’t expect them to support the Third Chimurenga. Unlike in the 60s and 70s now we have plenty alternatives," said Prof Moyo.
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From News24 (SA), 26 May
Zim farmer claims self defence
Harare - A white Zimbabwean farmer has been arrested and charged with murder after he shot dead a settler on his farm in the east of the country, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday. However his lawyer has claimed the fatal shooting was an act of self defence following an attack by a group of hostile settlers. Police spokesperson Andrew Phiri said Spiro Landos had been arrested and was under police guard at a clinic in eastern Zimbabwe, after settlers on his Riverside Farm "meted out instant justice" against the farmer after he shot one settler and wounded another. "Mr Landos has been arrested" said Phiri. "He is facing two charges - one of murder and another of attempted murder." However, the farmer's lawyer said that Landos had fired only one shot, and that he did it in self defence after he was attacked by a mob of axe and stick-wielding settlers on his farm. "It seems a clear case of self-defence against an attack on him by people who were armed" said the lawyer, who asked not to be named. He said his client had suffered serious injuries as a result of the attack, including two fractured forearms, a stab wound in the back and deep gashes all over his body. The incident comes at a time of rising racial tensions in the country following last week's high-profile brawl between prominent white opposition lawmaker, Roy Bennett, and two cabinet members during a heated parliamentary debate. In 2000, black settlers in Zimbabwe began forcibly occupying white-owned land in a move supported by the government, which then embarked on a controversial reform programme to acquire millions of hectares of land from whites and redistribute it to blacks. A small group of about 4 500 white farmers owned 30% of prime farmland before the government launched the programme but now fewer than 400 white farmers remain in Zimbabwe and own just three percent of the country's land.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 26 May
Zim scores badly in Amnesty report
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe last year stepped up attacks on critics of the government, including torture and kidnappings, gagged the media and misused scarce food stocks for political ends, Amnesty International said in a report published on Wednesday. "There was an escalation in state-sponsored attacks on critics of the government, particularly supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)," the report said. The London-based rights watchdog said "perpetrators of human rights violations continued to enjoy impunity, and allegations against state agents were not investigated. The majority of abuses were committed by ruling party supporters and police, security and army officers against opposition supporters," it said. "Police officers were implicated in torture, ill-treatment and unlawful killings, mostly of MDC supporters," Amnesty International said, adding that "hundreds of people were detained for holding political meetings or peaceful political protests". The report also slammed a crackdown on the media following a draconian 2002 law used to close down the popular independent Daily News tabloid, which was fiercely critical of President Robert Mugabe's government. It also evoked the expulsion of a foreign journalist working for a British paper and the arrest of scores of local journalists.
"The authorities and state-sponsored militia continued to deny people access to food aid based on real or perceived political affiliation, and used food aid to buy votes during parliamentary by-elections," it said. "Political manipulation of food aid by officials and supporters of the ruling Zanu PF continued. The food situation remained critical." Aid agencies estimate that Zimbabwe will this year face shortages of up to 800 000 tons of maize meal, a national staple. Some of the agencies blame the country's controversial land reform programme, which saw the seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to new black farmers, for cutting maize production and leading to a crippling food shortage. Amnesty said Harare also reportedly "established training camps throughout the country for youth militia members, increasing concerns about the use of youth militia to carry out serious human rights violations against the government's perceived political enemies". It said a slew of elections held last year were anything but free and fair. "During local council, mayoral and parliamentary by-elections on 30 and 31 August, [ruling party] supporters armed with catapults, stones and iron bars intimidated polling agents and MDC supporters by blocking approaches to the polling stations. "On 3 November the petition filed by the MDC in April 2002 challenging the results of the March 2002 presidential election," won by Mugabe "was heard in the High Court. No ruling in the case had been given by the end of 2003."
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From BBC News, 26 May
Hungry for the truth in Zimbabwe
By Barnaby Phillips, BBC Southern Africa correspondent
After three years of hunger, the government has announced there will be a bumper harvest. To be precise, it says that this year Zimbabwe will grow 2.4 million tons of maize - which, according to UN statistics, would be the fifth highest harvest since independence in 1980. State-controlled television says this shows the success of the land reform programme, and "proves wrong the prophecies of doom". And President Robert Mugabe has told a United Nations crop assessment mission to leave the country. He said the UN should take their aid elsewhere. "We are not hungry," said the president. "Why foist this food upon us?" If Mr Mugabe is right, Zimbabwe has experienced an extraordinary turn-around. Millions of Zimbabweans have been surviving on foreign food aid for years now. Privately UN officials say they believe the country is heading for another small harvest, and that another relief operation will be necessary by the end of this year.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change is even more dismissive, and is not afraid to rubbish the government's predictions. MDC agriculture spokesman Renson Gasela told the BBC: "There is no way the government's figures can be accurate in anyway whatsoever". He says there was a chronic shortage of seeds and fertiliser during the last planting season, and much of Zimbabwe's best land is simply lying fallow. His own prediction is that Zimbabwe will grow a mere 850,000 tons of maize. Is the Zimbabwean government deliberately misleading the world, and its own people? Mr Mugabe, in his emphatic way, says no. He says the land reforms have successfully rid Zimbabwe of "ill-educated" white farmers, and that the new system is much more "enlightened". Mr Mugabe has staked his political reputation on land reform, and he now needs to convince Zimbabweans that the seizure of white-owned farms was worth it.
State-controlled media in Zimbabwe does its best, pumping out with monotonous regularity a jingle which celebrates the taking back of the land. It shows happy people dancing across bountiful fields of maize, and driving tractors. But the president's opponents believe land reform has been a disastrous failure, and that the government is now desperately trying to cover its tracks. "They want to show the success of their reform," said Renson Gasela. "And they told the UN team to leave because they knew they would not concur with their figures." Asking the UN to leave might be one way of obscuring the whole picture. But there may be other ways - like secretly buying grain abroad, and then pretending it was produced at home. Press reports in Britain have linked the Zimbabwean government with a US company, and a secret grain-for-tobacco deal. The American company told the BBC that it is doing business in Zimbabwe, although it denies directly dealing with the government. And Mr Mugabe says he has no intention of buying grain abroad. But his opponents do not take him at his word. They worry that if Mr Mugabe does buy food, he will then determine how it is distributed to hungry Zimbabweans, without the involvement of meddlesome foreign donors. And with parliamentary elections on the horizon, this would help him tighten his grip on power.
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From The Herald, 28 May
Ugandan Matsanga barred from entering Zim
Herald Reporter
Ugandan Mr David Nyekorach Matsanga, who early this month boasted of having facilitated the visit to Zimbabwe by a Sky News team last month, was last week barred from entering Zimbabwe at the Harare International Airport and deported. Mr Matsanga has been in and out of Zimbabwe since the Presidential poll in 2002 for purposes that are unknown Chief immigration officer Mr Elasto Mugwadi yesterday confirmed that officials from his department had ordered Mr Matsanga back to where he had come from last Wednesday. "Yes we ordered him back after he had tried to enter the country but I cannot disclose as of now the reasons why he was not permitted to visit this country," Mr Mugwadi said. Mr Matsanga was coming from the United Kingdom via Kenya. The Sky News crew, which Mr Matsanga had boasted of having brought into the country, entered the country illegally last month before securing accreditation to work as journalists in the country as is required under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and despite advice from the Department of Information and Publicity. The team was then a llowed back in the country and interviewed President Mugabe last week. Mr Matsanga boasts about his "connections" in Zimbabwe and last year boasted to British journalists that he knew everyone in Government and that "all the (Zimbabwean) ministers turn to me for advice. Mugabe is always interested in what I have to say". He runs a company called Africa Strategy which is based in the United Kingdom whose aim, he claims, is to win favourable publicity for the Government. Mr Matsanga is a former spokesman for the Ugandan terrorist group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, which has been accused of abducting children and using them as child soldiers and as sex slaves and has terrorised Ugandans in the northern part of the country for years. In January 1999, a Kampala magistrate issued a warrant of arrest for Mr Matsanga, together with other LRA leaders, for three murders allegedly committed by the terrorist organisation in 1997 in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu. However, Mr Matsanga rejects the charges saying they are politically-motivated.
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From The Daily Mirror, 28 May
Mawere gets R50 000 bail
Innocent Chofamba Sithole and Masimba Rushwaya
South African-based Zimbabwean business magnate, Mutumwa Mawere who was arrested in Johannesburg on Tuesday has been granted a staggering R50 000 bail by the Randburg magistrate court. However, Mawere’s temporary respite comes on the heels of the shock resignation of the chief executive officer of one of his biggest holding companies, SMM Holdings, Hilary Munyati. South African police yesterday said Mawere, who was picked up by Interpol on a warrant of arrest issued at the request of Zimbabwean police, appeared for his initial hearing yesterday. "He appeared today for his first hearing and was granted R50 000 bail. He is due in court again on June 29," said police spokeswoman Mary Martins. Martins also reiterated her statement to this newspaper on Wednesday that Mawere had been detained in police cells in Pretoria but did not say whether he had stayed in custody until his court appearance.
Unconfirmed reports of a political hand behind Mawere’s sensational arrest have risen to a crescendo, although the wealthy businessman attributed his predicament to police confusion on the legalities surrounding his case. Home affairs minister, Kembo Mohadi yesterday declined to disclose details surrounding Mawere’s arrest, saying: "I can only confirm that Mutumwa has been picked up in South Africa. As to how we work with Interpol, I can’t divulge ." Zimbabwean ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo also professed ignorance of the official details on Mawere’s case. I haven’t yet been approached, maybe they’re dealing directly with the (Zimbabwean) police," Khaya Moyo said from his Pretoria base. Meanwhile, the saga in the empire that Mutumwa Mawere built is unfolding in rather intriguing ways. Munyati made the shock announcement of his resignation at the AGM of one of SMM’s subsidiaries, Steelnet, which was held yesterday at a local hotel. Munyati preferred to remain mum on the issue when questioned about his unexpected decision.
"I have resigned as the chief executive officer of SMM with effect from tomorrow and, in effect I am no longer the chairman of Steelnet. "However, Simplicius Chihambakwe has agreed to take over the chairmanship of your company," Munyati told shareholders. Pressed as to why he had made the unexpected decision, Munyati said: "I have resigned, simple and straightforward." The coincidence of his dramatic decision and the emergence of reports of Mawere’s arrest have however, whipped up speculation that equally striking developments could be ahead of us. Munyati was the CEO of undoubtedly one of the epitomes of Mawere’s empire growth. SMM is the holding company of Steelnet, whose operating divisions include BMA Fasteners, Hastt Zimbabwe and Tube and Pipe Industries. SMM holds a 61.05 percent shareholding in Steelnet, and, naturally Munyati was the non-executive boss given his executive position in the holding company. He has also effectively stepped down as the non-executive chairman of asbestos products manufacturer Turnall Holdings, where SMM also held a 61.05 percent.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 28 May
Mawere blasts Gono over arrest
Dumisani Muleya/Augustine Mukaro
Zimbabwean business magnate Mutumwa Mawere, who was released yesterday in South Africa on R50 000 bail after being arrested on charges of externalising foreign currency, has slammed Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono for "displaying venom" in his duties. In an interview, Mawere said Gono was pursuing individuals and companies on trumped-up charges and in the process destroying the foundation of indigenous businesses as well as the economy at large. "It is unfortunate and regrettable that Zimbabwe has sunk so low. For someone like me who has done so much for Zimbabwe to be accused on the basis of trumped-up charges shows that something has gone terribly wrong somewhere," Mawere said. "Whose interests are being served by this crusade is not clear. What is clear though is that it is destroying the foundations of black business in Zimbabwe and replacing them with a RBZ governor who wants to be chief executive of Zimbabwe Inc." Mawere said it was "appalling" to see a country engaged in an act of self-destruction "with Gono exerting more energy in hounding individuals - as if he was a police commissioner - than working on economic recovery. Sound economic policies can never be substituted with a display of venom and arresting individuals. People can try that but they will fail in ensuring economic recovery," he said. "If Zimbabweans spend more time reasoning together on issues than throwing each other into cells it would be better for all of us. RBZ governors in history have been known to focus on core issues than spending time arresting people." Mawere said the allegations against him were largely baseless while some were actually lies.
Mawere was arrested by South African police on Tuesday over foreign currency externalisation charges back home. He was yesterday released on R50 000 bail after appearing in a Johannesburg magistrate's court. Police spokesperson Mary Martins-Elbrecht said Mawere was released on bail after an initial court appearance at a Randburg magistrate's court in the South African commercial capital. "He appeared in court today (yesterday) and was released on R50 000 bail. He was remanded out of custody to June 29," Martins-Elbrecht said. "He is not facing any charges in South Africa because he was picked up on a Zimbabwean warrant of arrest by Interpol." Martins-Elbrecht confirmed that Mawere has dual citizenship - that of Zimbabwe and South Africa - and his extradition to Harare would have to be determined by the courts. "He has dual citizenship and it's up to the courts to determine whether he can be extradited to Zimbabwe or not." Mawere's arrest came as police intensified their blitz on businessmen suspected of corrupt business practices. Mawere has rejected the allegations of externalisation, saying he was not a Zimbabwean resident and did not sit on his companies' boards. It was not possible yesterday to confirm reports that Mawere was exposed by a whistleblower who had met a Zimbabwean investigating team from the Reserve Bank and police. Mawere gained prominence in the mid-1990s after he bought the country's largest asbestos mining conglomerate, Shabani/Mashava Mines, which is part of the huge Africa Resources Ltd, with a sovereign guarantee Mawere's business empire which has tentacles in almost all important sectors of the economy includes Africa Associated Mines. He also has confirmed interests in eight listed companies, General Beltings, Steelnet, Turnall, Fidelity Life, Zimre, Nicoz Diamond, CFI Holdings and First Bank. His firm Ukubambana/Kubatana Investments (UKI) also has large stakes in other listed companies.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 28 May
Game rancher assaulted
Munyaradzi Wasosa
Suspected war veterans brutally assaulted the farm manager of Masapas Game Ranch in the Save Valley Conservancy last Friday, the Zimbabwe Independent has been told. Police in Triangle have since arrested 33 people in connection with the attack on Anthony Bodington and six game scouts on Masapas Ranch. Triangle police confirmed the arrests but referred all questions to the officer-in-charge of Mkwasine police, Inspector Charles Munhungeyi. Efforts to contact Munhungeyi were fruitless. He was said to be attending a soccer match in Chiredzi. The Independent understands the attack was carried out by a group of war veterans, poachers and people illegally occupying part of the ranch. A reliable source said the incident happened while Bodington and his team were patrolling the ranch. "Bodington and the scouts were on a routine joint anti-poaching patrol with workers from Humani and Senuko game ranches when the assailants fell upon them," the source said. The farm is owned by Lowveld game rancher, Peter Henning. One game scout was allegedly stabbed by one of the assailants after they were abducted and held overnight in the bush. The Independent understands that a man only identified as Chirapa, who led the group, is under investigation for an assault allegedly committed against one of the ranch's managers in 2002. The assailants were said to be armed with knobkerries, assegais and machetes. A ZRP Support Unit team rescued the abductees in the early hours of Saturday morning. The assault victims, who sustained severe injuries and lacerations all over their bodies, were taken to Triangle hospital for treatment. One senior nurse at the hospital who preferred not to be named confirmed that Bodington sustained serious injuries. "Mr Bodington came in on Saturday and we treated him for severe injuries he had all over his body as a result of the beating," the nurse said.
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From AFP, 27 May
Zim farmer takes land reform to court
Harare - A white farmer went before Zimbabwe's top court on Thursday to challenge parts of the controversial land reform laws under which his property was seized and given to black farmers. George Quinnell and his wife, who owned a farm north of Harare, have been deprived of their only source of income since they were forced to leave their land in December 2002. They appeared before all five judges in the constitutional court to try to have their eviction order overturned and amendments to the country's land laws declared unconstitutional. Lawyers specifically targeted amendments made in 2002 to the land laws that reduced from 90 days to 45 days the timetable given to farmers to wind up their affairs after receiving an eviction order. The amendments also allow the government to resettle people on the farm and make it a crime for the farmer to interfere in the process. "The act pursuant to the amendments does not meet the constitutional demand for a reasonable notice," said South African lawyer Wim Trengrove, representing Quinnell. The lawyer said Zimbabwe farmers facing an eviction order should be given "a reasonable opportunity to wind up their affairs and adjust their lives to the acquisition of their land."
The case has taken two years to come to court. Since Quinnell started his legal battle in 2000, most of Zimbabwe's white farmers have been evicted from their farms to make way for new black farmers. The number of whites still in farming has reportedly dwindled to fewer than 400 out of an estimated 4 000 four years ago. Before the legislation was amended in 2000, farmers were given 90 days to wind up their business and resettlement could not take place if they challenged the eviction order in court. Trengrove argued that the amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, made two months after President Robert Mugabe won another term in office in March 2002, violated parliamentary procedure because Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa had not yet been sworn in when he introduced them. Neither had Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, who signed Quinnell's eviction notice, the court heard.Mugabe swore in his cabinet ministers three months later, in August 2000. State lawyer Loyce Matanda-Moyo however argued that as Mugabe was an incumbent, the ministers' swearing in was not needed to make the cabinet effective. "The mere fact that they (Quinnell's lawyers) sued them as ministers means they recognised them as ministers," she said. Farmers who lost their land under the land reform programme were notified of the government's intention to acquire their farms two years before receiving an eviction order, she argued. Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku reserved judgement, saying the court needed time to consider submissions made.
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From Tacy (Israel), 27 May
Oryx fails to protect its reputation
Journalists (and also NGOs) find it tricky to write about Oryx Natural Resources as this controversional DRC diamond mining company seems to have a consistent policy of protesting even the smallest nuance it doesn’t agree with and doesn’t hesitate to go to court if it feels it has been defamed. Nevertheless, the company continues to make headlines. According to the authoritative Africa Confidential, "Oryx Natural Resources has finally lost the legal battle to clear its name and dropped its libel action against the London daily The Independent, which accused the company of money laundering, diamond smuggling and lying about its links with the Zimbabwean military in an article in November 2002. It also accused Oryx of bribing Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Speaker, Emmerson Mnangagwa, now under investigation for corruption by the country’s ruling party. The Independent echoed many of the charges made against Oryx by the United Nations Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Mineral Resources in Congo-Kinshasa, in October 2002." The newsletter states that "after vehemently denying The Independent and the UN Panel’s charges and claiming that they would produce documents to refute them, Oryx Directors Thamer al Shanfari and Geoffrey White agreed in February to drop the action against The Independent and pay £175,000 which will help defray the newspaper’s legal costs. Under Britain’s archaic libel laws, this represents a considerable victory for the newspaper. However, The Independent has had to wait for its money. Oryx’s lawyers, Mishcon de Reya, wrote to The Independent on 2 March apologizing for the delay in paying the settlement sum, enclosing a copy of a letter from Geoffrey White claiming Oryx had just exported 36,000 carats of diamonds from Congo to Antwerp to pay the debt. White promised to pay The Independent from his own account the following week."
RAID, the acronym for Rights and Accountability in Development, the NGO that has been entrusted with investigating the UN Panel’s claims, will publish its final report within the next few weeks. Many pages are devoted to the various claims made by Oryx and RAID reluctantly concludes that "significant differences remain, at least in the public domain, between Oryx’s public defense of its conduct and the UN Panel’s allegations." RAID is expected to say that it is up to the relevant NCP (National Contact Point) in the U.K. government’s Department of Trade and Industry to further investigate these issues. It is unlikely that the British Government will ignore the RAID report. If Oryx would have won the case against The Independent or would have made a case by simply supplying the evidence to substantiate its claims - it is conceivable that RAID might well have reached different conclusions. Geoffrey White is an astute businessman who recognizes the importance of reputational issues, especially in the diamond industry. The withdrawal of the claim raises many questions. It is in a way amazing (and puzzling) that the company failed to convince RAID and failed to show the court certain basic things such as the history of the true ownership of Sengamines (the mining company in which Oryx now owns 80%), which according to the Panel was owned de facto by Zimbabwean military players. The UN Panel showed that the Zimbabweans received dividends - certainly an indicator of shareholding. According to Africa Confidential, "Oryx’s legal defeat raises awkward questions about its stake in the Sengamines diamond company in Congo-Kinshasa, part of which it claims to have sold to the Libyan Arab African Investment Company. [Something which was first reported in Diamond Intelligence Briefs. Ed.] Oryx dropped its action after a London court ordered it to produce a share register for Sengamines showing a complete history of the ownership of the shares, and correspondence, including early drafts of audits, with its auditors (PriceWaterhouse Coopers) on the company ’s accounts in 2001 and 2002. Oryx was asked to produce documents proving its claim that the Zimbabwe Defence Force had given up its stake in Sengamines. Oryx declined to produce any of these documents but gave no reasons," says Africa Confidential.
Why are Oryx and Sengamines of continued importance to the diamond industry? For as long as there are clouds over the mine and the company, diamond traders in Antwerp might hesitate to trade with the company. Banks may hesitate to finance the companies that purchase from Sengamines. After all the publicity, the law suits, the UN Panel reports, and the forthcoming RAID report, there is a growing need for the diamond community to get the hard facts not just through kind letters to editors. [We concede that in a normal situation, a letter would be sufficient. In the case of Oryx and Sengamines, the plethora of often contradictory claims needs to be substantiated.] It surely should be in the very best interest of Sengamines and Oryx "to come clean" and the company should have used the suitable setting of a court case to present its case unequivocally if it has a case to present unequivocally. Failing to do so, raises the question why it started legal procedures against The Independent to begin with. We expect that the British Government, the DRC Government, the NGOs led by RAID and others will continue to look for answers. And we, of course, will continue to report on the findings whatever they may be.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 29 May
Torture, brutal executions of DRC revealed in court
Summary executions, torture and mortar bombs exploded in the mouths of captured fighters were among the horrors described to a Zimbabwe court that officially declared dead 47 soldiers who disappeared in Congo's savage five-year war. The hearing on Thursday in the Harare Magistrate's Court, a necessary step before the victims' families can claim state benefits, offered rare and graphic insight into the fighting that claimed an estimated three-million lives -- most through war-induced hunger and disease. Zimbabwe has long been criticised for sending 11 000 troops to fight alongside Congolese government forces against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda when the war started in 1998. President Robert Mugabe likened the operation to helping a neighbour whose house was on fire. His opponents claimed senior military and ruling party officials were more interested in exploiting Congo's vast mineral riches. They said the costly deployment in distant central Africa contributed to Zimbabwe's spiraling economic decline.
Congolese rebels claimed to have killed hundreds of Zimbabwean troops before the country withdrew in 2002. But the Zimbabwe defence ministry has repeatedly refused to divulge details of its casualties. Court records of the hearing convened under Zimbabwe's missing persons law identified 47 soldiers whose remains were never returned home. Many more remain unaccounted for. Only fragments remained of some of those identified Thursday. Others could not be retrieved because of heavy fighting, military commanders testified. Fellow soldiers saw some of them beaten, tortured and executed, as they retreated. Two were killed by ramming mortar bombs down their throats and exploding them, according to testimony. Another was found decapitated, dismembered, his genitals severed and his torso torched. Others were abandoned in the thick of battle. An evacuation helicopter was forced to leave five of them behind when it came under rebel fire, or risk being shot down, court records showed.
The missing also included two suicides. Military officers reported "trauma" among some of their troops, saying "sometimes men get deranged" after close-quarter combat and high casualties, the records said. Officials at the defence ministry were not available to comment on Friday on the testimony. In the past, they have acknowledged that without morgue facilities officers were obliged to bury some casualties in the bush in remote parts of the vast central African country. The government has promised to try to bring their remains home for traditional burials as demanded by customary beliefs. Under a colonial-era law, families of the missing cannot claim pensions and other state benefits until a court formally declares their relatives dead. Congo's war drew in the armies of half a dozen African nations. A 2002 peace deal brokered in South Africa paved the way for a transitional government which took office in July 2003, bringing former rebel leaders to the capital to take up posts in a power-sharing government.
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From The Financial Gazette, 27 May
UN snubs Zim DRC role
Hama Saburi
Zimbabwe, previously seen as key to the resolution of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) crisis, risks being written out of the script ahead of the reconstruction of the diamond-rich country after being excluded from a crucial visit to the sub-region by the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping chief. Diplomatic sources were unanimous that Zimbabwe's exclusion from the week-long visit to the region by the UN under-secretary general for peacekeeping operations, Jean-Marie Guehenno, amounted to a snub by the world body. They said the move belittled the country's role in the DRC war that lasted over three years. During those years Zimbabwe, which sent its troops to the war-torn country in 1998, had always been under pressure to withdraw its soldiers. It however stuck to its guns on the pretext that it had been invited by the legitimate and sovereign government of the late Laurent Kabila, which had just taken over from the eccentric Mobutu Sese Seko. Zimbabwe only pulled its troops out some three years ago.
It had been hoped that Zimbabwe would benefit from reconstruction of the war-ravaged vast central African country. This is now increasingly remote given the new twist. So far intermittent forays by Zimbabwean companies into the DRC have at best produced mixed results. The UN mission in the Congo has defended its decision to exclude Zimbabwe, a key ally of the DRC government, from Guehenno's itinerary. Confirming that Zimbabwe was not part of the tour, a spokesperson for the UN mission in the DRC, Hamadoun Toure, told The Financial Gazette this week: "No doubt Zimbabwe played a major role in the DRC conflict, but its absence from Mr Guehenno's itinerary should not be interpreted in a suspicious manner." Hamadoun claimed the focus was being put on the two neighbours of the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda, in order to give a new impetus to the current process of normalising relations between them and the DRC. "As you might know, last September a high-level meeting was held in New York between the DRC and some of its neighbours, including Uganda and Rwanda. A declaration of principles of good neighbourly relations was accepted. The Kigali and Kampala legs would also be a new opportunity to review the disarmament, demobilisation and repatriation of Ugandan and Rwandan armed groups still present here," he said.
Guehenno arrived in Kinshasa, the capital city of the DRC, on Wednesday last week for a working visit that took him to Rwanda and Uganda, which were assisting rebel forces in fighting the DRC government backed by allied soldiers from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. South Africa, which was reluctant to take the military plunge in the DRC, makes up the last leg of Guehenno's itinerary. "As for South Africa, this country played a key role in the successful organisation and conclusion of the inter-Congolese dialogue, which led to the ongoing transition. When President (Thabo) Mbeki was chairing the African Union, his country hosted the signing of the agreement between Rwandan and DRC governments and President Mbeki, along with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was a member of the Third Party Mechanism put in place to oversee the agreement," added the mission's spokesperson. Guehenno was due to hold talks with Congolese authorities and members of the International Committee to Support the Transition. The under-secretary general was also expected to travel to the DRC troublespots of Bunia, Bukavu and Uvira. He was also scheduled to check on progress on the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces in Ituri and Kivu.
Sources said Zimbabwe, which sent troops to defend the DRC without the ratification of Parliament (which followed some nine months later only as a fait accompli), and its regional allies should be consulted on the deployment of UN troops in the Congo and the world body's progress in bringing lasting peace to the mineral-rich country. It is believed that hundreds of Zimbabwean troops perished in the DRC war, whose funding also hurt the country's fragile economy. There are no official estimates on the Zimbabwean casualties or how much the war cost the country. Analysts said the UN had not been too happy with Zimbabwe's involvement in the DRC following a 2002 report which accused an elite network of Congolese and Zimbabwean individuals and companies of having transferred ownership of at least US$5 billion worth of assets from the state mining sector to private companies under its control in the previous three years with no compensation or benefit for the state treasury of the DRC. A UN Security Council resolution of March 12 2004 repeated its condemnation of the illegal activities taking place mainly in the DRC's mining areas despite an arms embargo imposed in July 2003 and repeated calls for the Congolese government to help end illegal trade in the country's resources. A panel of UN experts reported to the Security Council last October that it had drawn the attention of companies to the disastrous situation in the DRC and the human tragedy occurring in conflict areas. An earlier report made public in October 2002 recommended that financial restrictions be placed on 29 companies based in Belgium, Rwanda, Uganda, the DRC, Zimbabwe and South Africa and that travel bans and financial restrictions be imposed on 54 individuals.
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From Amnesty International, 28 May
Mrs Kidd's life and safety threatened
Amnesty International is gravely concerned for the safety and life of Mrs. Birgit Kidd, a Finnish citizen living in Zimbabwe. According to reports received by Amnesty International, Mrs Kidd was alleged to have been assaulted and taken from her home in Chimanimani, eastern Zimbabwe today, 28 May 2004. A group of people, which may have been several hundred strong, reportedly stoned her home, then dragged her through Chimanimani and forced her to clean up local offices of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The MDC offices were earlier allegedly destroyed by members of the same group who are responsible for the assault, detention and humiliation of Mrs. Kidd. Amnesty International telephoned the local police at 12.30pm (UK time) but they were unable to provide any information. The organization is gravely concerned that the local police may not be taking appropriate action to safeguard Mrs. Kidd. "The Zimbabwe Republic Police should act immediately to ensure the safety of Mrs. Kidd," Amnesty International urged. The organization previously took action, in May 2002, on behalf of Mrs. Kidd's husband, Michael Shane Kidd, who was allegedly assaulted while in police detention in Chimanimani.
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From ZWNEWS, 29 May
Catfight!
Yesterday, The Herald carried a prominent article describing how David Matsanga was last week refused entry to Zimbabwe. It also made allegations against Matsanga regarding his involvement with the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army, and charges brought against him in Uganda. Below is a press release received yesterday from Matsanga:
For the last one month several articles defaming and character assassinating me have appeared in the government paper of Zimbabwe called Herald on the instructions of the owner the paper called gay rant Jonathan Moyo. I have widely consulted with many real men of higher offices in that country and I have been advised not to react impulsively to the statements of gay rants. I have restrained my self for over a month from attacking the author of this hurdy-gurdy ranting of the Herald, which have been repeated several times with trash. I have been a humdinger for Zimbabwe and if this is how Zimbabwe treats African patriots then time will tell. It is said in Philosophy that "when a real man bites a dog it is news but when a dog bites a man it is not news" Those who have followed the story of Matsanga and Moyo will accept that he fears other people's brains.
I will make a lengthy statement in the nearby future as my lawyers in London Victor Evans &co who handled the case with Uganda government in 1999 are preparing a statement. This will include the letter and publication statement of the with draw of the so -called warrant. I did not know that the Uganda government of Museveni to do its PR abroad had hired the government of Zimbabwe. Ironically Zimbabwe can not even beam its ZBC to Victoria Falls for tourists to see or the Herald to be read in Tsolotsho where the infamous homosexual gay rant comes from. For now let me make it clear that I was not a member of the LRA in 1997. When I was asked by the Uganda opposition to assist the LRA, it was not proscribed as a terrorist organisation. In actual sense if Moyo has any material left in his ugly gay face he should know that it was proscribed as terrorist organisation in 2003 four years after my quitting. I resigned from LRA and this matter was announced to the whole world through BBC, CNN, Sky News and all Ugandan and other international media in 1999.
I want to reiterate to the whole World and to Zimbabweans in particular that it is clear the turncoat and quisling junior Minister of State for Information and Publicity whose department is bigger than President Mugabe's shoes has distorted all facts and framed me regarding Sky News. He has used me as a scapegoat to fight imaginary succession crusade .The Sky News matter should be directed to Dr. Nathan Shamuyirira who is the boss of the minister in the party. I don't know whether it is a ploy to fight an innocent man who only helped to remove the isolation of Zimbabwe abroad. Because I respect the President of Zimbabwe I will not react or do anything, which will harm the country at this hour. I still have many friends in Zimbabwe who have valued my work. I will not let them down because of a gay rant. But because of this provocation, I have despatched my personal assistant Dr. Patricia Gwen-Ofwon to Nairobi to research on the social behaviour and investigate Moyo's fraud case with the Ford Foundation in 1990s. As a first precaution, from next week we shall replay all speeches and tirades of Moyo against Mugabe from 1996 to enable the world to judge. The world will see for themselves how the opportunist has sapped the moral authority of a good African President.
I hope in normal democracy the Herald should carry my reply but if it doesn't millions in the world will receive a copy via other outlets.
Thanks
Dr. David Nyekorach-Matsanga
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From Africa Confidential, 28 May
Fast buck, slow famine
US companies help President Mugabe to finance secret food imports
President Robert Mugabe is staking his people’s future on false claims of a bumper harvest. Africa Confidential can reveal that Mugabe’s government has secured financial backing from at least two United States’ corporations, Sentry Financial International and Dimon Incorporated. Dimon, the world’s second largest tobacco-leaf trader, is a public corporation quoted on the New York Stock Exchange. Its backing for Mugabe goes well beyond the secret tobacco-for-maize swap first reported here. We have obtained a letter confirming Sentry International’s offer of credit worth US$700 million, to fund Zimbabwe’s imports of food and other goods. This letter, dated 15 November 2003, is from Jewel Bank, addressed to the Grain Marketing Board’s Acting Director, Colonel Samuel Muhvuti. It begins: ‘The Jewel Bank is pleased to extend to you an offer of US$80 million for the importation of grains’. It goes on to explain that Sentry International is arranging finance, with ‘security being provided by tobacco merchants’ as part of the $700 mn. credit line.
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From The Financial Gazette, 27 May
Chimimba murder probe exposes massive graft
Staff Reporter
Investigations into the gruesome murder of Bindura Nickel Corporation (BNC) boss Leonard Chimimba have taken a new twist amid indications that multinational companies suspected of concealing exports of platinum group metals (PGMs) over the past two decades could be drawn into the imbroglio. Highly placed sources told The Financial Gazette this week that Chimimba, who was gunned down outside his Harare home recently, may have become a great source of unease in ongoing investigations to plug illegal exports of minerals and a spate of natural resource thefts that have hit Zimbabwe of late. Intelligence sources said the BNC chief executive was one of the key officials who had been interviewed by state agencies in connection with allegations that the nickel producer and Rio Tinto Zimbabwe could have concealed PGMs. The sources said the concealment, which was immediately denied by the companies interviewed by The Financial Gazette this week, was being done by way of false export documentation where the PGMs - namely platinum, palladium, iridium, gold and silver, which are by-products in the production of nickel - were exported as copper cement.
Zimbabwe, the sources said, would only be paid for copper exports and not for the PGMs. The so-called copper cement was transported to Switzerland and Germany, where companies (names supplied) would separate the metals. The nickel refinery process is said to yield significant quantities of PGMs and gold as by-products and these are suspected not to have been declared by local mining concerns. Didymus Mutasa, the Minister responsible for Anti-Corruption, confirmed the investigations were ongoing and would not give a time frame as to when they would be wrapped up. Mutasa said: "They (investigations) are ongoing as you know, they involve going to other countries and the actual knowledge of metallurgy to check the values. The investigations will take sometime and as soon as they are concluded, we will let you know." A spokesperson for Rio Tinto dismissed the claims, saying the Empress Nickel Refinery refines metals for a fee and is never the owner of the metals, and cannot buy or sell them.
The refinery, situated in Eiffel Flats in Kadoma, was built in 1968 to refine metal from Empress Nickel Mine and was closed when Empress Nickel Mine closed shop in 1982. However, in 1985 Rio Tinto was able to negotiate toll-refining contracts involving matte from BCL Ltd in Botswana. The refining contracts have operated successfully since 1985, resulting in the refinery being expanded in 1995 to increase its refining capacity to accommodate additional matte from Botswana. The spokesperson said Empress, which produces refined nickel and has earned around US$400 million since 1985, has contracts to refine the metals contained in matte that originates from mines in Botswana. The matte contains nickel and copper and small quantities of cobalt and platinum group metals. Copper is also produced as a refined metal, but the precious metals and cobalt are recovered as residue or other intermediate products.
"All of the recovered products are returned to the owners of the matte...The various contracts were set up with the approval of the Reserve Bank, customs (and latterly the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority). The involvement of these authorities is important as the matte is imported and resulting metals are exported at no value. The only value to Zimbabwe in the business is the refining fee charged and this is small in comparison to the gross value of the contained metals. The fees are charged per tonne of nickel and copper produced, the cost of separating cobalt and precious metals into residues or intermediates is recovered in the nickel and copper fees," said the Rio Tinto spokesperson. Contacted this week for comment, the company secretary for BNC, Fraternity Ndhlela referred all questions to the corporate affairs manager, who could not respond to questions e-mailed to his office at the time of going to press. Assay reports done to analyse the content for minerals in refined metals at some of the mines and independent confirmations have vindicated the findings, said government sources. They say the Zimbabwean authorities are now cracking their heads on how they could recover the lost revenue, which they could achieve either by seeking the co-operation of the companies concerned or recourse through the courts. "This means that billions of dollars have been lost over the past two decades. It's a systematic looting of resources from the developing countries," said a source.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 30 May
Politicians trade blows in fight for Mugabe's throne
Dumisani Muleya
The race to succeed Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe shifted up a gear this week following his recent statement that he had "had enough" and would step down after the next election in 2008. The contest will become even more heated ahead of the December congress of the ruling Zanu PF at which new party leaders will be elected. Zanu PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira said the congress would be a "defining moment" for Zimbabwe. Another senior party official said: "There is no longer any doubt that Mugabe is going to retire and that this will be the last congress he will attend as president. Those with presidential ambitions are now gearing up for nomination and election in December. As Mugabe admitted, there is growing in-fighting and it's getting increasingly dangerous." The succession battle has manifested itself in various forms recently, including a clash this week between Mugabe's spin-doctors, Shamuyarira and Jonathan Moyo. Moyo is Information Minister and acts as presidential spokesman, while Shamuyarira is Zanu PF spokesman and Mugabe's confidant. He is writing the Zimbabwean leader's biography. The two clashed over Mugabe's interview with Britain's Sky News. After failing to prevent the interview from taking place, Moyo attacked Shamuyarira, who facilitated it. Moyo allegedly instigated the banning from Zimbabwe of a Ugandan associate of Shamuyarira's, David Nyekorach Matsanga, who was also involved in arranging the TV interview. Matsanga hit back at Moyo, calling him a "desperate and shallow-minded propagandist".
Moyo has also recently been at loggerheads with Vice-President Joseph Msika over the government's seizure of Kondozi farm, one of Zimbabwe's largest horticultural exporters. Msika, chairman of the Cabinet committee on land reform, opposed the grab of the lucrative farm while Moyo aided and abetted it. Their public confrontation on the issue was seen by many in Zanu PF as a power struggle linked to Mugabe's succession. Although Moyo triumphed with the farm's seizure, Msika said he would not be intimidated by "little immoral boys". Moyo, seen largely as an ambitious but clumsy spoiler in the succession race, has clashed with other Zanu PF heavyweights whom Shamuyarira claimed were the front-runners for Mugabe's job: Zanu PF chairman John Nkomo and the party's secretary for ad ministration, Emmerson Mnangagwa. Moyo last year described Mnangagwa - viewed widely as Mugabe's heir apparent - as a "coup plotter" and "electoral coward", referring to his involvement in plans to ease Mugabe out of office through a power-sharing arrangement involving the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Morgan Tsvangirai. Zanu PF insiders say the succession struggle is now solidifying around Mnangagwa and politburo heavyweight and retired army commander General Solomon Mujuru. Former Finance Minister Simba Makoni and Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono have also been named as contenders.
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From The Financial Gazette, 27 May
Ousted managers finger Mujuru in Bubye saga
Brian Mangwende
Retired army general Solomon Mujuru, who is part of a team probing Zanu PF's octopus-like business interests, could be hauled before the Anti Corruption Ministry to explain his involvement in the recent possession of River Ranch Limited (RRL), a diamond concern in Beitbridge, by a consortium of local and international businessmen. Mujuru, seen as a king maker in the tricky Zanu PF succession debate and former legislator Tirivanhu Mudariki, have been fingered by the ousted mine managers as having used unorthodox and illegal means to take-over the business venture. The retired general and Mudariki were appointed directors of RRL on April 27 following an annual general meeting held by the owners of that company, Rani International Limited (RIL) on the previous day. Other new RRL board members include Adel Abdulrahman Aujan as chairman and former Harare-based Advocate Adrian de Bourbon. Ernst and Young were appointed company secretaries. The reconstituted board replaced the one comprising Australian nationals Peter Rowe and Belben, a Briton Anthony Hamilton, a Canadian Jeremy Kendell and three Zimbabweans William Nyemba, the former Trust Bank boss, John Collins and Barclay Cowper. After the RRL board was reconstituted, Mudariki and the chairman's personal assistant were tasked to repossess RRL which had not been operating for four years with a view to recommence activities at the mine. It is this action by RRL board of directors to physically repossess the mine from the previous managers that has courted controversy. The directors of Bubye Minerals, which used to manage RRL until they were shown the exit last month, accused the new board of illegally taking over the management of the open cast mine. They argued that Mudariki and Mujuru had used their political clout to push Bubye Minerals out of the project and deprive their vehicle of profits that would have been generated had they been running the show.
Bubye's associates include Michael Farquhar and his wife, Adele, Sibonokuhle Getrude Moyo, the wife of Zimbabwe's Ambassador to South Africa Simon Khaya Moyo, Nelson Chadamoyo, George Matenda and Elliot Muswita. Farquhar has since lodged a formal complaint to the Anti-Corruption Ministry alleging the pair had solicited the help of Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi to use the uniformed police to "seize" the mine. The directors of Bubye have since written to the Anti Corruption and Anti Monopolies Minister Didymus Mutasa seeking his assistance to reverse the recent actions by the consortium, which has taken over management control of the mine. Mutasa this week confirmed receipt of Bubye Minerals' complaints saying his ministry needed to investigate the matter before going public. He said: "I received documents from both sides and I need to study them first. We need to find out from Mujuru what his side of the story is before we rush to make public comments on the issue." Bubye was originally given the right by the liquidator Peter Bailey of KPMG to resume operations at the open cast mine after mining had abruptly ceased in 1997 following a decision by the then owners, Auridium Zimbabwe (Private) Limited, to close shop and place RRL under voluntary liquidation. Auridium cited the fall in the price of the precious stone, diamonds, as the key factor for their decision. Bubye then solicited the financial support of RIL a company with strong ties in the Middle East, to invest in the mine and prevent RRL from final liquidation. Operations at the mine re-commenced during the last quarter of 1997 after RIL threw a lifeline to RRL, but in March 2000 Cyclone Eline struck and the open pit at the mine was heavily flooded bringing all activities to a standstill. Currently, the ownership of RRL is vested with RIL and an indigenous partner, Kupukile Resources (Pvt) Ltd. Before the recent moves, two foreign controlled companies Sedna and Cornerstone, both owned by RIL had a 50 percent stake each in RRL.
In a letter to Mutasa, Farquhar alleged that RIL had deprived Bubye of its shareholding for which legal action would be sought. Farquhar alleged that shares had been offered to Mujuru, Minister Mohadi and Mudariki to motivate them into supporting RIL's actions. "Retired general Mujuru and Minister Mohadi have instructed members of Zimbabwe's professional security forces to act unjustifiably in seizing assets without legal right to do so . . . Bubye Minerals have been advised that both general Mujuru and Minister Mohadi have been promised a substantive shareholding in RRL for their efforts," read part of the letter to Mutasa. Mohadi this week dismissed the accusations saying he was not involved in the alleged illegal take over neither was he a shareholder. "What I was told was that there was a caretaker company looking after the assets of the mine," Mohadi said. "Mudariki approached me saying that they wanted to reopen the mine and that since the mine was in my constituency I should assist in providing labour from the locals. I agreed to assist in recruitment and that was that. I'm not a director in that company. I don't know why people would want to drag my name into this." Mudariki confirmed approaching Mohadi to help mobilise workforce adding that the physical possession of the mine was done legitimately. The RRL board said it has been extremely patient with Bubye, but the impasse could not have been allowed to continue. "The asset had been non-performing for four years and this impasse could not be allowed to continue indefinitely. "In April 2004 RIL assisted Bubye again by advancing an unsecured loan of $100 million so it could meet ZESA (Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority) bills and some staff salaries . . . the directors of Bubye have ignored RIL's repeated and urgent requests for an amicable resolution of differences. "RIL's rights and fair entitlement have persistently been rejected. "This attitude could no longer be tolerated. As a responsible and accountable foreign investor in Zimbabwe, RIL realised that the time had come for it to exercise its prerogative and to end this counter productive stalemate. "It has therefore made significant changes to the structure, shareholding, capitalisation and management of RRL with immediate effect," the board said. Efforts to get comment from Mujuru proved fruitless yesterday.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 30 May
Hungry Zanu PF youths turn on their masters
By Richard Musazulwa
Gweru - Street kids and Zanu PF supporters, who had been ferried from resettlement areas to demonstrate against MDC MP Roy Bennett who manhandled two cabinet ministers in Parliament a week ago, destroyed war veterans' offices in Gweru after failing to get the food they had been promised for taking part in the demonstration. After nearly three-hours demonstration, pandemonium broke out at the war veterans' office when close to 3000 tired looking and hungry Zanu PF activists, who had been singing and toyi-toying, found that the food they were promised as inducement to demonstrate was not available. The youths claimed that only senior party officials "feasted" after the demonstration, leaving the rest of them hungry outside the building. "This is the last time I will be used by the war veterans. They promised to give us food after the demonstration, but they did not fulfill their promise," said an elderly woman, who preferred anonymity fearing victimization. Some of the demonstrators, who had been bused into the city from nearby resettlement areas, had to use their own money to pay for bus fare back home after the transport, which had been hired to bring them for the demonstration, did not show up for the return trip. The demonstration by the ruling party was in solidarity with two ministers, Patrick Chinamasa for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Didymus Mutasa, for Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies, who were floored by Bennett after Chinamasa hailed abuse at the MDC legislator. During the demonstration, the youths allegedly went berserk beating up innocent people in the city centre and burning mock coffins and papers near the mayor's offices. The police, who accompanied the demonstrators, watched in silence as the demonstrators took the law into their own hands.
On Monday last week, police officers attached to Gweru Rural Police Station, marched and toy-toyed in the city centre while mimicking the Zimbabwe Television jingle 'Sendekera Mwana Wevhu'. Soldiers have also become a permanent feature on the streets of Gweru most afternoons as they march around the city singing and chanting Zanu PF songs. Contacted for comment, Lyson Mlambo, the MDC Midlands chairperson, said according to the country's constitution, soldiers and police officers are supposed to be non-partisan. He said by singing ruling party songs at parades, police officers were showing that they were partisan and violent. Efforts to get a comment from police spokesperson, assistant commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena were fruitless as his mobile phone went unanswered. Mlambo also hit out at chiefs who agree to be used by Zanu PF and said such traditional leaders risked losing the respect of the people they represent. He said some of the chiefs were only holding their positions because of their "marriage" to the ruling party.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 30 May
State moves to block offensive e-mails
By Caiphas Chimhete
The government is trying to force all Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Zimbabwe to sign a contract that will oblige them to divulge the source or block individual electronic mail (e-mail) messages deemed politically sensitive, objectionable, unauthorised or obscene, The Standard has established. The latest move comes at a time when there are vigorous efforts by President Robert Mugabe's government to feed Zimbabweans with crude propaganda ahead of next year's crucial general elections. According to the contract in our possession, all ISPs would be mandated to ensure that objectionable, obscene, communication infringing copyright laws or those that are inconsistent with the laws of Zimbabwe are not carried by any network. "In particular, provider is obliged to provide, without delay, all the tracing facilities of the nuisance or malicious messages or communications transported through his equipment and network, to authorised officers of TelOne and Government of Zimbabwe/State Government, when such information is required for investigations of crimes or in the interest of national security," reads part of the controversial contract. The contract also forbids the use of the network "for anti-national activities" construed as an offence punishable under the Zimbabwe Law or other applicable law.
However, the ISPs are resisting the government's censorship drive. An official with one of the ISPs said the majority of the service providers had resolved to refuse to sign the controversial contract since it infringes the freedom of expression and could also drive them out of business. "We are saying no because it is illegal," said one ISPs, who refused to be named for fear of reprisals from government. Among the country's leading ISPs are M-web, Zimbabwe Online, Telconet, AfricaOnline, Eco-Web and E-world. Analysts said the move is designed to control the cyberspace, the only free avenue of communication that has remained after government tightened screws on the print and broadcast media. Already, there are widespread fears that the government could be eavesdropping e-mail and telephones despite a Supreme Court ruling last March that declared this to be illegal. In the past few weeks, Internet users have complained about blocked e-mail messages mostly those that carried political information. One such blocked e mail was from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)'s information department destined to several subscribers. "The following mail was blocked since it contained sensitive information," read part of the blocked mail, "Recipient, content filter has detected sensitive e-mails." The e-mail was titled, "Both Roy Bennett and the Minister of Justice must be held accountable for their actions." An information technology expert said it was possible for government to eavesdrop e-mail messages as most of them are routed through TelOne.
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From The Weekend Australian, 29 May
Ploy to get hired guns out of Harare
By Gavin du Venage, Johannesburg
Lawyers for 70 accused mercenaries held in Zimbabwe are seeking to build a criminal case against their own clients in the hope of forcing the South African Government to apply for extradition and avoid having the men face execution in Equatorial Guinea. The accused, all South African nationals, were arrested two months ago after they landed in Harare on a chartered flight, allegedly to buy weapons they were going to use to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea. The Zimbabwean authorities have held the mercenaries in prison but are keen to extradite them to Equatorial Guinea, where they could be executed for plotting a coup. Zimbabwean newspapers reported last week that President Robert Mugabe's cash-strapped Government had concluded a deal with Equatorial Guinea to extradite the men for $US1.2 billion worth of crude oil. Lawyers for the men went to court in South Africa on Wednesday to present evidence they say is enough to put them on trial at home for breaking laws that ban mercenary activities by South African citizens. "They will be shot on sight if they go to Equatorial Guinea," said Alwyn Griebenow, the lawyer representing the accused men. Mr Griebenow said if the mercenaries were extradited to Equatorial Guinea, they would be highly unlikely to get a fair trial - if they went to court at all.
Another 15 men, allegedly a mercenary scouting party, have been held in Equatorial Guinea with no access to lawyers or medical attention since they were arrested two months ago. "The only way to get them back to South Africa is by extradition, and the only way to do this is if South Africa is convinced it has a strong case against them," Mr Griebenow said. Under South African law, its citizens are banned from acting as soldiers outside its borders, and this measure could be used to bring charges against the men. An application for the men's extradition will be launched in South Africa next week. Mr Griebenow said time was running out. "I am very worried they will be put on a plane and sent to Equatorial Guinea without proper legal procedures being followed." The group consists of 10 whites and 60 blacks. Mr Griebenow says the black men's situation is dire, because they were all former special forces soldiers for South Africa's apartheid regime. When the liberation forces were victorious, they were thrown out of the army and many became soldiers for hire. "They have lost everything now," said Mr Griebenow. "Their houses, cars and furniture have been taken from them for non-payment." The court action continues this week.
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From IRIN (UN), 26 May
Household access to food a major problem
Johannesburg - Access to food will be a major challenge for ordinary Zimbabweans in the 2004/05 consumption year, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) has cautioned. "Zimbabwe continues to face a severe food security crisis, characterised by high levels of unemployment and inflation, poor agricultural production over the last four years, drought, and poor government policies, exacerbated by crippling levels of HIV/AIDS," FEWS NET said in its latest food security emergency report. Over the last year more than two-thirds of the population has been food insecure, the report noted. Although some food security indicators had improved in recent months, "many Zimbabweans continue to face conditions of extreme food insecurity". "The most significant food security problem in Zimbabwe is access to adequate food. The purchasing power of both rural and urban households has drastically declined over the past few years, as the availability and value of income options has declined, inflation has risen and unemployment has remained high. Even if food is available on the market, urban and rural households will not be able to purchase it if they do not have the money or other means needed to do so," FEWS NET said. Zimbabwe's inflation rate has hovered around 600 percent and, coupled with poor harvests in recent years, this has led to a significant decrease in househol d purchasing power. "Over the past few years, cereal availability has been a major concern, given poor cereal production and concerns regarding the capacity of the country to import sufficient food to meet needs. Following a poor start, the [current] agricultural season has progressed better than expected, with favourable rainfall in the second half of the season, combined with greater availability of seeds and inputs than expected," the report commented.
With the cancellation of the United Nations-led crop and food supply assessment mission, "there is currently not a consensus on likely 2003/04 maize production", but FEWS NET's preliminary assessment is that production will be close to the last five-year average of about 1.4 million mt. "This is an improvement over last year's very poor season, but lower than the 1990s average, leaving a sizeable import requirement. Based on the country's import record over the past three years, and provided the foreign currency earnings situation remains at least the same as it was in 2001/02, the country could still manage to import, from within the region, the minimum of 500,000 mt needed to close the gap. However, this import performance will need to be periodically reassessed in view of the continuing economic decline and poor export performance," FEWS NET explained. Ensuring household level access to food would therefore be "a major national challenge" in the 2004/05 marketing year. The state Grain Marketing Board (GMB) would have to improve its capacity to "purchase grain surplus from the market and redistribute to the right places at the right time in the right quantities". "With food access of great continuing concern, targeted food aid should continue throughout the country for poor socioeconomic groups. Improved maize availability will not address the famine threat that could occur in some parts of the country this year. Special attention is required for the most vulnerable districts of Manicaland and Matabeleland South provinces," the report concluded.
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From The Sunday Mirror, 30 May
Who is Mutumwa Mawere?
Masimba Rushwaya/Innocent Chofamba Sithole
With most attention now being focused on Mutumwa Mawere, amid official allegations that the business mogul did more wrong than right for his country of origin, not much has been revealed about the rise of the man. While Mawere has denied this, sources say the former World Bank official decided to leave his South African base and return to Zimbabwe in 1996, through the insistence of the Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa. Upon his return, he established African Resources Ltd (ARL), a holding company registered in the British Virgin Islands, and used it to purchase Shabani Mashava Mines (Private) Limited (SMM), the country’s largest asbestos mine. The owners, Turner and Newall, were looking for a buyer of their mines and associate companies Turnall Fibre Cement, Tube and Pipe Industries and Tap Construction, a Zambian based building products supplier. Mnangagwa is said to have taken an active interest in promoting Mawere, who aggressively lobbied Turnall to sell him the mine under the guise of indigenisation. The mine was being sold for US$60 million but he (Mawere) only doled out US$1 with the balance being paid over a year in monthly instalments, from company sales. To protect its interests, Turnall held the company shares in trust until they were paid in full. The deal was approved by both the government and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), as part of its then much vaunted indigenisation programme. This was to be the first negotiated buy-out of a foreign held mine by a single black Zimbabwean. But Mawere last night maintained that his take over of the asbestos mining giant had nothing to do with either Mnangagwa’s assistance or the government’s. "If you want to know how the mine was acquired, I can show you the documents," Mawere said, adding that Mnangagwa does not even know anyone in Turner and Newall. "The acquisition was in 1996 while the government guarantee was in 1998 and was meant to support local banks (United Merchant Bank, Heritage plus one other). The money did not go to the mine, it went to the banks," Mawere said.
In a short three-year period thereafter, Mawere was able, through ARL, to build an empire that covered mining, information technology, manufacturing, insurance, banking and transport. After the success of the transaction, Mawere formed African Resources Investment Limited (ARIL), an investment unit trust that was established by Zanu PF to warehouse shares in companies procured with public funds, ostensibly held in trust for Zimbabwean citizens, and headed by him. Presidents Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe attended the unit trust’s launch at a breakfast meeting in South Africa. However, the success of the trust was limited and it failed to raise the required funds. There was also a general discontent over the management of the limited funds that had been raised. Mawere’s acquisitive appetite continued unabated as in 1997, ARL bought a 21.2 percent stake in the newly formed First Bank Corporation. Zanu PF companies, Zidco Holdings and AM Treger, were also part of the crowd. In addition, ARL had procured Ngezi Mining Company, which owned five small gold mines producing 17 000 ounces per annum.
ARL had also entered the insurance business with a 55 percent share in the newly formed Diamond Insurance Company. Diamond is now part of the Zimbabwe Reinsurance Company (Zimre) brief, which encompasses the now rebranded NicozDiamond, Fidelity Life Assurance, Fidelity Life Asset Management Company, Fidelity Securities, Fidelity Life Medical Aid Society and Zimbabwe Insurance Brokers. ARL had also entered into two joint ventures - one with US-based company, Moving Water Industries, a manufacturer and supplier of solar powered irrigation and rural water supply technology, and one with Batanai Construction, a Zimbabwean firm involved in civil works and mining construction, blasting and drilling. ARL also decided to acquire a 75 percent stake in Acacia (formerly FSI Holdings) and its three subsidiaries - BMA Fasteners, General Beltings and Pigott Maskew. Purchases were also to be made with a 60 percent interest in Cellular Systems Technology (Private) Ltd, a cellular service provider, with a 20 percent share of Net One’s mobile phone business. To manage its newly acquired business empire, Mawere announced in November 1998 that ARL was to be re-organised. He split the holding company into two operating divisions: SMM Holdings, which controlled ARL’s mining and associated building products interests, and African Resources Limited (Private) Limited, which managed Mawere’s banking, insurance, diamond, transport, cellular phone and investment interests.
There have been sentiments that the ARL empire that Mawere has built is not only the result of tactical entrepreneurial skill but that there is something more behind his phenomenal rise to power. These sentiments were to be fuelled further when Mawere, despite being asset rich was cash poor. He then allegedly turned to the ruling party, in order to secure from government a US$60 million loan in off-shore refinancing from the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ). Observers have said that Mawere has personally benefited from his association with Zanu PF from the very start. This fact is more pertinent when one considers Mnangagwa’s involvement in the Turnall transaction deal and the MMCZ loan. Latest information points to the fact that not all is well in the empire that Mawere built. SMM chief executive officer, Hilary Munyati made a surprise announcement last week that he had resigned from his portfolio with immediate effect. The resignation also coincided with Mawere’s arrest by Interpol in Johannesburg this week on charges that he says have not been spelt out to him, although local police say he is wanted for violating the Exchange Control Act. There are reports that the High Court of Witwatersrand Division in Johannesburg (South Africa) had granted a company called Peter Trading of South Africa access to US$18.5 million, Canadian $620 000 and R4.5 million.
These amounts were supposed to be remitted to Zimbabwe by Southern Asbestos Sales (SAS), the marketing arm of African Associated Mines (AAM). The gist of the matter is that Peter Trading, SAS and AAM went to court after AAM failed to pay a debt for equipment and spare parts supplied to AAM. Peter Trading and AAM had an agreement that allowed the former to access funds held by SAS as payment for services rendered. Sources have revealed that as at March 31 2004, SAS owed AAM a total of R127.1 million. However, SAS indicated to AAM that a balance of R52.2 million, which had arisen after paying Peter Trading would be used to pay other AAM debts. Consequently no funds were to be remitted to Zimbabwe. The sources have revealed that on April 29 2004, William Mudekunye, chairman of SMM Holdings, wrote to SAS indicating that Peter Trading’s action was in accordance with an existing agreement and offered no defence against Peter Trading’s desire to access SAS funds. The following day, SAS in turn wrote to Peter Trading indicating that it would not oppose the court application. The crux of the matter is, according to sources, that AAM should have followed Zimbabwe Exchange Control regulations that stipulate that before any payment is made to a foreign company for goods and services, the local partner should seek central bank approval first.
But Mawere says there was no anomaly in these transactions: "For you to generate inflows, you have to spend money. All producers and exporters face the same problems, particularly when they have to deal with a non-viable fixed exchange rate. "Suppliers want to be paid on time and they don’t care about your problems in your country," the businessman said. Mawere has challenged his arrest saying the Exchange Control Act applied only to residents of Zimbabwe. Further, he maintains he does not sit on the boards of any of his companies and should therefore not be dragged to answer charges arising from their operations. "Are they going to get Oppenheimer to answer charges arising from Anglo American operations, or look for the major shareholder in Barclays Bank or any multinational to probe them?" Mawere quipped. "If Mawere is dead, who are they going to extradite to answer to crimes they are saying were committed by Mawere’s companies? Those companies are not Mawere’s companies; they are Zimbabwean companies, with legal rights conferred to them like any natural person. Any moment you undermine the sanctity of such institutions created by men to promote their own interests, that nation diminishes its capacity to exist in the civilised world."
Mawere drew parallels between his case and that of mobile phone company, Telecel. The company was charged with foreign currency externalisation and it was charged in its capacity as a legal person. Its chief executive, Anthony Carter, represented it in court while company chairman, James Makamba was left out of the case as he is a non-executive chairman and is thus not involved in the company’s day to day operations. The businessman, who holds an MBA from George Washington University (and not Harvard as reported in last Thursday’s Daily Mirror) and an Msc in Management from the Arthur Management Education Institute, both of which are in the United States, has been living outside the country for more than 15 years. He applied for South African citizenship while still in the US and relocated directly to Johannesburg. "I am a Zimbabwean citizen by birth, and a South African citizen by choice," said Mawere adding that he was an African and would not mind holding citizenship to all of the continent’s 53 nations. Mawere feels embittered by developments surrounding his current predicament and his recasting in a new role as a saboteur of an economy he has helped to develop. "If creating 19 000 jobs and paying taxes to government is corruption, then Zimbabwe needs a new education . . . You can’t accuse someone of externalisation and then credit that person with building an empire in Zimbabwe. The people who benefit are Zimbabweans; now, if Mawere’s corruption benefits 19 000 people who are not his relatives, then it’s sweet corruption," he said.
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From The Sunday Independent, 30 May
Mugabe: Out of touch, but in control
By Patrick Laurence
Scrutiny of the full text of this week's Sky News interview with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe compels the reader to the conclusion that the veteran politician is describing a society that exists in his mind, not the actual polity over which he has presided for nearly quarter of a century. The question arises whether the 80-year-old Mugabe:
Refuses to publicly acknowledge the almost ubiquitous signs of oppression and distress in Zimbabwe as a political stratagem calculated to mislead television viewers and disrupt the interviewer; or
Really believes that what he says accurately portra |
