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Archived News
2nd November 2004
Cosatu Zim team vanishes
Cosatu delegation to Zimbabwe heads south in a bus
Cosatu leaves Zim 'through back door'
How SA's unions fell out with the ANC
Mujuru edges closer to vice-presidency
Old Nats nodded wisely when Van der Mugabe banned the toyi-toyi
Bennett slapped with 15-month jail term
Bennett arrested
34 MDC supporters arrested for holding meeting
No rule of law in Zimbabwe - Cosatu
SA govt regrets outcome of Cosatu visit to Zimbabwe
Bring Mugabe to order now
Assessing impact of interventions on children
England lose last exit from Zimbabwe tour
Zimbabwean MP jailed for a year after shoving minister
Parliament endorses Bennet's jail sentence
Irate Mbeki faces down Cosatu
China trades guns for market access in Zimbabwe
New twist to Zanu PF probe
A tumultuous week
Tsvangirai's push on Africa
Lawyers to fight Zim MP's case
Civil servants forced to fund Zanu PF congress
Zimbabwe to appeal acquittal of Tsvangirai
Cosatu's Harare venture incenses Mbeki
Cosatu's Harare safari stirs alliance waters
Harare puts squeeze on platinum miners
Zanu PF chefs rush to offload seed
City dwellers try urban farming to fill gaps in the foodbasket
Zanu PF empire a mess
Cleared leader to face appeal in Zimbabwe
Police raid top trade unionist's home
Cosatu, ANC yet to discuss Zim row debacle
Looming NGO lay-offs threat to economy
Police intensify forex searches
Toyi-toying not allowed-minister
Zim journos face Mugabe wrath
Opposition to contest member's jail term
Moyo angers President
Mugabe appears to have manoeuvred Mbeki into a corner over the Cosatu delegation
Zim state press defends 'greedy' Mugabe
Zim polls to go ahead as planned - report
Banking phoenix may burn quarter of Zimbabwe budget
Minister blows $1.5 billion on musical galas
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From The Star (SA), 27 October
Cosatu Zim team vanishes
13 put on a bus to unknown destination by intelligence agents
Harare - The whereabouts of a top-level, fact-finding Cosatu team was unknown for several hours after a stand-off at Harare airport, a threat by Cosatu to block the Beit Bridge border post and a court order against their immediate deportation. Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said last night that all they knew was that the team was on a bus, but that its members had no idea where they were going. Fears were expressed that they were either being driven to the South African border or to a secret place in order to be put on an early morning Air Zimbabwe flight today. Union officials had received a tip-off that the team had reached the town of Chivhu - a six-hour drive from the border - by 11pm, but this could not be confirmed. The 13-member team had been holed up in the international lounge of Harare International Airport after Zimbabwean intelligence officials tried to deport them yesterday morning. By midnight, contact with the team had been lost.
The team's busy day started yesterday morning when intelligence officials swooped on their hotel and ferried them to the airport. A stand-off with police followed, and after Zimbabwe riot squad members began arriving in numbers, Cosatu issued a threat from Johannesburg to block the border."Cosatu warns that if any members of the mission are arrested, attacked or injured, the federation will organise a blockade of the South Africa-Zimbabwe border within 48 hours," Craven said. Meanwhile Cosatu's counterparts from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) launched an urgent High Court application yesterday. The court ordered that the Zimbabwean government must show before 2pm today why the delegation should be deported. By the time of going to press early this morning, the court order had not yet been served on a senior government official.
Earlier in the day, before he was shoved towards the SAA check-in counter, Simon Boshielo, Cosatu's international affairs secretary, shouted: "Take us to prison, we will sit in prison, we are not frightened of jail. We will come back to Zimbabwe." The international departure lounge in the airport's transit section was swamped with riot squad members. A squad of ZCTU leaders were then delegated to "keep watch" over their Cosatu "comrades". On Monday evening, the delegation were held up at immigration counters at the airport for an hour and were asked to sign a guarantee that they would not meet civil rights activists during their visit to Zimbabwe. They refused. Their passports were stamped for a day's visit, and as the South Africans were meeting their ZCTU counterparts, immigration officials and police stormed into their Harare hotel and ordered them to leave Zimbabwe immediately.
Violet Seboni, deputy president of Cosatu and head of the delegation, said last night they were unable to return to SA as Zimbabwean officials had failed to provide them with plane tickets as promised. "When we arrived here yesterday, people who identified themselves as the Central Intelligence Organisation confiscated our passports and promised to issue us tickets to return back home today. They failed to give us those tickets and we ended up missing the flight." The Zimbabwe government said in a statement yesterday: "Some dubious individuals claiming association with Cosatu, and working with Tony Blair's well-known anti-Zimbabwe, pro-Western interests opposed to Zimbabwe's land reforms, last night flew into the country in utter disregard of objections of the Zimbabwean government. This visit ... constitutes a direct and most frontal challenge to the sovereignty of the republic of Zimbabwe." Information Minister Jonathan Moyo continued the attack against Cosatu on Zimbabwe's TV news last night. He claimed the Cosatu officials were "dubious individuals" with "treacherous" intentions. The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation said the 13 Cosatu leaders supported "lawless regimes" and had come to Zimbabwe as latter-day "aristocrats who are pro-capitalist".
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From SABC News, 27 October
Cosatu delegation to Zimbabwe heads south in a bus
Cosatu delegates who were hustled into a bus by Zimbabwean authorities late last night reportedly passed through Chivhu, a small town south of Harare early this morning. The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), with whom the delegation were to have held talks before they were deported, said the 13-strong delegation had not returned to their hotel from the Harare International Airport. "(We) got a call from a delegate who said they were in a vehicle and passing through a place called Chivhu. We suspect they are being taken by road to the Beitbridge border post," Tabetha Khumalo, a ZCTU executive committee member, said. Violet Seboni, the head of the delegation, could not be reached by telephone early this morning. Patrick Craven, a Cosatu spokesperson, earlier confirmed that the members were in a bus, but said they were being kept in the dark about their destination. Zimbabwean authorities sought to deport the delegation yesterday, saying the visit was "a direct and most frontal challenge to the sovereignty of the Republic of Zimbabwe", and claiming they were "working with Tony Blair". However, there were no flights to South Africa available and a high court judge had also ordered the government not to deport the trade unionists. For a while it looked as though the union representatives would be spending the night at the airport, until they were put on the bus. The delegation, which was on a fact-finding mission, had planned to meet with Zimbabwe's labour movement, civil society groups, and had also requested a meeting with the country's government. However, last week the Zimbabwean ministry of public service, labour and social welfare said the mission was "not acceptable" because they planned to hold meetings with groups who were critical about the government of Zimbabwe. Cosatu decided to go ahead with the mission and flew into Zimbabwe on Monday evening.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 27 October
Cosatu leaves Zim 'through back door'
A delegation from the Congress of South Africa Trade Union were travelling from Musina to Polokwane in a minibus taxi on Wednesday morning, after being hustled out of Zimbabwe "through the back door". Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said a vehicle had been arranged to take the 13 to Johannesburg from Polokwane. Craven said the mission was expected back at Cosatu headquarters on Wednesday afternoon and hoped to have them address a media conference. Both Cosatu and an international labour federation strongly condemned the deportation of the 13-member delegation -- which was evicted from the country despite a court order forbidding it, said Craven. He said the Zimbabwean Intelligence Minister's claims that the federation was working with British Prime Minister Tony Blair were "utterly ludicrous". "We reject this with contempt," he said. Zimbabwean authorities first tried to get the 13 members of the delegation on an aeroplane flight back to South Africa on Tuesday night, but there were none available. They then ferried the union representatives to the Beit Bridge border post by bus, without informing them of their destination, and left them there. A minibus taxi from Musina fetched the group at the border.
While the South African Foreign Affairs Department has so far defended Zimbabwe's right to "determine and apply its own immigration laws as it may deem appropriate", Craven said Cosatu planned to put pressure on government to act on the matter. "We feel the government must agree that there is a problem of human rights in a country were a trade union federation cannot send a peaceful, lawful delegation without being deported." The delegation was on a fact-finding mission, intending to meet Zimbabwe's labour movement and civil society groups. It also requested a meeting with the government. However, last week the Zimbabwe Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare said the mission was "not acceptable" because it planned to hold meetings with groups critical of the Zimbabwean government. Cosatu decided to go ahead with the mission anyway, and it flew into Zimbabwe on Monday evening. Delegation leader Violet Shibone said she felt the group had accomplished something in their brief visit. "We spoke to the ZCTU (Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions) and their affiliates. We did not get to speak to any civil groups but it shows that the people shared something with us." Delegation member Simon Boshielo told how the authorities "decided to take us out of the airport through the back door". "Whoever was getting us out of the country, used the army, the intelligence services, and the police," Boshielo said.
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From BBC Focus on Africa, 16 September
How SA's unions fell out with the ANC
By Drew Forrest
In theory, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) are allies in government. But two years ago, relations had deteriorated to the extent that Cosatu president Willie Madisha accused officials from the ANC of the government's National Intelligence Agency of sending anonymous death threats to his mobile phone. Cosatu was locked in an acrimonious struggle with the leadership of the ANC over South Africa's economic direction. The reason was the government's misleadingly named Growth, Employment and Redistribution (Gear) strategy, under which successive ANC governments cut government spending and squeezed the budget deficit to rein in inflation, part-privatised the state telecommunications company, allowed parastatals to shed jobs in large numbers, and insisted that it had no direct responsibility for rolling back chronic unemployment, estimated at between 30 and 40% of the adult population. Cosatu's response to Gear was a steadily escalating protest campaign, culminating in a one-day "anti-privatisation strike" in late 2002.
A furious ANC leadership, with President Thabo Mbeki leading the charge, circulated "briefing notes" to all ANC regions calling for the "ultra-left" activists in Cosatu to be "isolated and defeated". Hostility was scaled down by both sides after the ANC rank and file - in many cases also Cosatu members - made it clear that they expected the two organisations to co-operate. Black labour's close historical relationship with the governing party has been a source of both strength and weakness. One of the ANC's first legislative acts was to pass a series of statutes cementing worker gains from the factory struggles of the 1980s - including the right to strike and collective bargaining. But Cosatu mistakenly thought majority rule would usher in a socialist, or at least a left-leaning economic regime. It expected the ANC to retain and even extend state ownership of key sectors of the economy, and to use its power for the benefit of black workers and the unemployed. It reckoned without Mr Mbeki's fiscal conservatism - essentially modelled on Tony Blair's "Third Way" - and his perspective of African nationalism, which focuses on the creation of a black ruling class.
It would be wrong to accuse Mr Mbeki of callous neglect of South Africa's poverty-stricken millions. National budgets have gradually become more expansionary, welfare spending has risen and an expanded public works programme has been launched to ease joblessness. In part, ANC officials say, the relaxation of earlier fiscal stringencies has flowed from Mr Mbeki's direct experience of township living conditions during the recent election campaign. But it could be argued that the government's focus on building the black political, professional and business classes, and to increase their ownership of the economy, has been far more thoroughgoing. Its policy towards the white business establishment has been cautious, aimed at encouraging racial asset transfers under negotiated industry charters, and the "greying" of corporate management. The foreign investment community and multilateral bodies like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund remain potent shapers of policy, making themselves felt particularly through Mr Mbeki's International Investment Council.
Increasingly alarmed that the policy has simply given birth to a small band of black multi-millionaires, Cosatu has campaigned for "broad-based" black economic empowerment, under which companies improve working conditions while ceding equity to black entrepreneurs. In this scheme of things, the influence of the labour movement has declined. Though still important, its voice has become one among many for a ruling party that sees itself as representative of all social classes. The view of Mr Mbeki and his inner circle, revealed by the 2002 "briefing notes", is that the ANC must provide political leadership, while labour's role is primarily to defend workers' interests on the shop floor. The post-1994 period has been a difficult one for Cosatu in other ways. Its membership has declined from a peak of about two million to 1.7 million, but this conceals a far more radical shift in the character of its organised base. Worker numbers in traditional manufacturing and mining strongholds have fallen sharply as companies, often responding to global market conditions, have slimmed down, restructured and mechanised. Cosatu's recruiting arm has replaced them with members from service industries and a ragbag of new affiliates representing bank workers, musicians and sportsmen, among others.
In theory, South Africa has a highly regulated labour market. Conservative critics, like the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, make much of the sweeping labour reforms of the ANC's first term in office, complaining that they have served to scare off foreign investors. But with massive unemployment and a relatively weak state, the reality on the ground is very different. In line with world trends, there is a marked growth in informal and casual labour in South Africa, which by its nature presents the unions with an organising nightmare. Government statistics suggest that of an economically active population of 15 million, about seven million people are formally employed, five million are jobless and three million are in the informal economy, barely subsisting in such trades as hawking, pavement shoe-mending and pirate taxi-driving. Sympathetic observers say the labour movement's survival may depend, in the first instance, on its ability to render better services to a working population now more preoccupied with living standards than political rights. Currently an uneasy truce, Cosatu's alliance with the ruling party is likely to become more fraught in the years ahead. At some point - particularly if economic conditions worsen - the federation may decide it has more to gain by striking off alone than relying on the ANC to fight its political battles.
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From Zim Online (SA), 26 October
Mujuru edges closer to vice-presidency
Harare - The ruling Zanu PF party women's league will meet next month to formally nominate former guerrilla fighter and long-serving government minister, Joyce Mujuru, for the vacant post of party vice-president. The powerful league is pushing for Mujuru to succeed the late Simon Muzenda as one of President Robert Mugabe's deputies in the party and also possibly in government, in a move observers said was linked to a silently raging battle within Zanu PF for the succession of Mugabe both as party and national president. The league had at its last congress in September announced that it wanted Mujuru to assume the post of vice-president. Mujuru's ascendancy to the vice-presidency would block the party's secretary for administration, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is also eyeing the same post which he reportedly wants to use as a stepping stone to Mugabe's job. A member of the league's national executive told Zim Online that Mugabe had already assured the women's wing that he would accept Mujuru if they nominated her and she was elected by the Zanu PF national congress in December. The congress elects the party's leadership every five years.
"The first step was to sway the support of the president which we managed to do last week. He assured us that he would accept Mujuru if congress agreed and elected her as Zanu PF's second vice president," said the executive, who requested anonymity. Both Zanu PF women's affairs secretary Thenjiwe Lesabe and chairman, John Nkomo, could not be reached for comment on the matter. The special women's assembly, whose date is still to be set, will be attended by women members of Zanu PF's politburo, central committee and members of provincial and district executive committees, sources said. The women's league, which forms the cutting edge of Zanu PF's election campaign strategy, has been pushing for a woman to be appointed to at least one of the ruling party's top four posts. Zanu PF insiders also say Mugabe would back Mujuru's candidature for the vice-presidency because he wanted to use her appointment to the key post as a carrot to curry favour with women voters ahead of a crucial general election scheduled for March. Mujuru is also backed by her husband, Solomon, who is the former commander of the Zimbabwe National Army and wields immense influence in Zanu PF politics.
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Comment from The Cape Times
Old Nats nodded wisely when Van der Mugabe banned the toyi-toyi
By John Scott
When Robert Mugabe's government banned toyi-toying this week, old die-hard Nats in South Africa nodded wisely and remarked: "He's not stupid. He realises that if you let people jump up and down one day, the next day they want to run the country." The opposition MDC had applied in writing to hold a meeting in Bulawayo. The police said yes, so long as there was no toyi-toying and the meeting was held indoors. That's just like the old days in South Africa. Many of the meetings were banned outright, even if you weren't already a banned organisation. But if permission was granted, the meeting had to be held inside a hall. The government knew for a fact that the moment demonstrators were let out, they would march and toyi-toyi, and destroy civilisation as we knew it. "Any fool knows that toyi-toying is subversive," a police captain once told me. Now Van der Mugabe (an honorary title conferred by a friend from England) has decided it is even too dangerous to be allowed indoors, let alone outside on public streets. I asked Max Solinga, my usual informant on official Zimbabwean policy, why toyi-toying was so feared. He explained: "Raising your feet high in an aggressive manner is a threat to the state. You may be clasping all sorts of missiles in your toes, ready to unleash them at the right moment. We could have allowed them to toyi-toyi so long as they kept their shoes on, but not many Zimbabweans can afford to buy shoes these days."
"What about the singing?" I asked. "We don't mind them singing hymns," said Max, "but when they toyi-toyi they sing other inflammatory words such as 'freedom to the people' when the people are already free, and get confused when the MDC tells them they aren't." I told Max that toyi-toying really wasn't all that bad. I remembered how, in the early 1990s, once toyi-toying was officially allowed in the streets of Cape Town, everybody was doing it. One lot of toyi-toyiers would come dancing up Adderley Street in protest against council rent increases, only to be met by another group in Wale Street jumping from one foot to another because of poor pay in the provincial hospitals. The city was alive with the sound of "Hou jou sossie", a sort of general all-purpose chant that meant something else. A middle-class suburban association, Ratepayers in Rebellion, even took lessons in toyi-toying to demonstrate their anger when the rates went up. A man called Abdul "Baby" Babalanga showed little old ladies, retired colonels and yuppies in cravats how to bob rhythmically up and down, punch the air with their fists and sing "down with the council, down". They said it was better than going to the gym. One of these days, when Zimbabwe, too, is democratised, its citizens may again have the right to dance down the streets, if only in celebration.
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 28 October
Bennett slapped with 15-month jail term
Roy Bennett, the Chimanimani Member of Parliament (MP) was yesterday slapped with a 15-month jail term for allegedly assaulting two Cabinet ministers during a parliamentary debate in May this year. Three months of his 15-month sentence were unconditionally suspended. That means the MP would serve an effective 12 months in jail if Parliament approves the committees' recommendation. After the ruling, Bennett was given a day to prepare his response which would be heard today by the Parliamentary Privileges Committee. Allegations against Bennett, a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are that while Parliament was debating an adverse report on the Stocktheft Amendment Bill in May, Bennett attacked Patrick Chinamasa, the Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Didymus Mutasa, the Minister of Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies. Bennett on Tuesday submitted for consideration documents on his Charleswood Estate in Chimanimani and Delport Farm in Ruwa which were seized from the MDC MP by the government under its controversial land reform exercise. Bennett would have no recourse to appeal to the country's courts because Parliament has independent judicial powers. Paul Mangwana, the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, who chairs the committee had earlier said that during his submissions, Bennett, who is one of only three white MPs in the House, said he was being racially discriminated against. Mangwana said Bennett felt Mutasa and Chinamasa should also have been summoned to defend their action, which he deemed contemptuous, before the Committee. But the committee ruled that there was no breach of Bennett's constitutional rights. Other members of the committee are Joyce Mujuru, the Minister of Water Resources and Rural Development, Chief Jonathan Mangwende, Tendai Biti, the MDC MP for Harare East and Bulawayo North-East MP Professor Welshman Ncube, who is the opposition party's secretary general.
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From ZWNEWS, 28 October
Bennett arrested
Roy Bennett, the opposition MP sentenced to twelve months imprisonment, was arrested at Harare airport this morning. Yesterday, the parliamentary privileges committee who investigated the incident in parliament in which Bennett pushed justice minister Patrick Chinamasa to the floor, made public its recommendation that Bennett be imprisoned for fifteen months, three months of which were to be suspended. Bennett was given until today to prepare his defence, with the recommended sentence due to be debated in parliament this afternoon. The parliamentary fracas, in which Chinamasa persistently provoked Bennett by calling him a "mabhunu" - a term of derogatory racial abuse - and accused his ancestors of being thieves, took place in May this year. Bennett, incensed by the insults and the background of the illegal seizure of his Chimanimani coffee estate, lost his temper. Since Bennett and his employees were finally evicted from the Charleswood Estate, it became apparent that ARDA, the government agricultural agency which had been involved in the seizure of the farm, had stolen the remainder of this year's coffee crop, worth US$200 000. Bennett had subsequently traced this stolen coffee crop to a company in Germany, and had been briefing South African lawyers in an attempt to recover the value of the crop.
Although the proposed sentence has been widely known for several weeks among parliamentarians, the parliamentary committee only made it public yesterday. Realising that it would probably be his last chance to speak to his lawyers direct, Bennett planned to travel down to Johannesburg by air, returning in good time for this afternoon's parliamentary debate. He was arrested at the airport, despite travelling with only his briefcase, and being booked to return later this morning. The sentence recommended by the parliamentary committee is excessive compared to the punishment Bennett would have been likely to receive had he been tried in court. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a lawyer said: "What Bennett did, after prolonged provocation, amounted only to common assault. The minister (Chinamasa) did not sustain even the slightest bruise. On similar facts, the heaviest sentence I have seen handed down by the courts is a Z$80 000 fine, or 50 days in prison if the fine was not paid. In the overwhelming majority of similar cases, one would have expected a caution and discharge."
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From Zim Online (SA), 28 October
34 MDC supporters arrested for holding meeting
Bulawayo - Police arrested 34 supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party attending a meeting here, in what the opposition party said was yet more evidence of continued harassment of its members by state security agents. Officials of the opposition party said heavily armed police stormed a community hall in Mpopoma constituency here and force-marched the MDC members who were meeting there to West Commonage police station nearby. Eight of the opposition supporters were still in custody by late yesterday and are expected to appear in court today to answer charges of violating the Public Order and Security Act. Their other 28 colleagues were detained at the police station for several hours but were later released. The eight who were still being held by the police are Sihle Ncube, Daniel Mgundu, Pharaoh Thusu, John Dube, Dumani and Stix. Under the security Act Zimbabweans must first seek permission from the police before they can gather to discuss politics. MDC spokesman in Bulawayo, Victor Moyo, said: "Our supporters were arrested for holding a meeting at Mpopoma Hall. They are expected to appear in court soon. "Our supporters cannot meet and mingle because of the security Act. The Act is an undesirable law. It makes the political playing field very uneven. It goes against the grain and spirit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) norms and standards for free and fair elections." The SADC electoral norms and standards require among other key issues member states to uphold human rights during elections and to afford citizens the opportunity to fully participate in national governance.
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From Zim Online (SA), 28 October
No rule of law in Zimbabwe - Cosatu
"There is simply no law and order in Zimbabwe," declared Cosatu vice president Violet Seboni upon her arrival back in Johannesburg last night after the deportation of her 13 strong delegation from Zimbabwe by the Mugabe government. So tired was Seboni and her colleagues that a Press conference Cosatu had arranged for the team to address upon its arrival was cancelled. The presser was only addressed by Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) general secretary Wellington Chibebe, who launched a broadside at the Mugabe government for showing no signs of relenting in trampling people's rights. The COSATU experience proved the amount of abuses Zimbabweans had to live with on a daily basis, Chibebe, who has been in Johannesburg on other business, said. In a telephone interview from her home late last night, Seboni spoke of hunger, lack of toilet breaks and reckless driving by Zimbabwe immigration officials as her team was transported and dumped at Beitbridge Border Post in defiance of a High Court order that had stayed the deportation.
"A nasty, horrible experience," was how Seboni summed up her ordeal at the hands of the Mugabe government. The consolation for her is that her mind has been cleared now: "There is no respect for labour rights in that country, no respect for human rights and the rule of law," she said. She had never expected it to be all rosy after the Mugabe government had told her delegation that it was not welcome in Zimbabwe before it had even departed, because its mission was "unacceptable". "At least because we had in a way anticipated this, we had no option but to endure the experience." Despite a high court interdict staying the deportations, Zimbabwe officials moved fast to shove Seboni's team into a bus to transport and dump them at the Beit Bridge border post. "Throughout the overnight travel, only one stop for us to relieve ourselves was allowed," said Seboni. "We were not even allowed to go to the toilets as one group. We had to be escorted by CIO officials in groups of three only."
She said the ordeal started after they had finished their first meeting with the ZCTU on Tuesday on the first day of their four-day trip. The police invaded the meeting and told them they had to leave the country immediately following a cabinet directive. A short while later they found themselves deposited at the Harare International Airport where they were to be kept for seven hours while being denied food. When a bus arrived and was parked in the back of the airport, Seboni thought that was the end of the day's travails. They had been kept at the airport because the SAA flight had already left upon their arrival. "We were then told to get into the bus and go back to the hotel. They said we could not sleep in the airport. We duly complied because there were several policemen and soldiers around and we didn't want to cause any trouble.We also thought it made sense to go to the hotel to sleep as we assumed we could only be put in the next morning's first SAA flight to Johannesburg," said Seboni. "We were surprised when the bus started taking a different direction and what then followed was a long long drive through thick bushes. I have never experienced such reckless driving."
Throughout the drive smaller vehicles trailed them. The team was dumped at the Beit Bridge border post where they did not face any immigration trouble. They then hitch-hiked in a taxi to Polokwane where Cosatu officials had arranged a decent bus to transport them to Johannesburg. "We got to know that there was a court judgment in our favour along the way but it was too late. They never wanted us to go to court today (Wed) as had been ordered...They knew they had no winnable case in court and were desperate to get us out," said Seboni. The ZCTU had successfully petitioned the High Court for an interdict staying the deportations. The interdict by Judge Tendai Uchena, of which we have a copy, had ordered the state to report to the court and show cause why it wanted to deport the 13. But as is the norm in Zimbabwe, lawyers had to find officials first on whom to serve the court order. By the time the case was supposed to be heard in court yesterday, at 2pm, the team had long been in South Africa, and the interdict had become of academic interest only. "Instead of breaking us down, the ordeal has made us more confident. We are workers and this kind of shabby treatment can only strengthen our resolve," says Seboni, who sounded tired and worn-out last night. "There is simply no law and order in Zimbabwe," she concluded.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 28 October
SA govt regrets outcome of Cosatu visit to Zimbabwe
The South African government said it regretted the "outcome" of the Congress of SA Trade Union's visit to Zimbabwe but that the country had been within its rights to deport them, the Department of Foreign Affairs said in Pretoria on Wednesday. "We will consult with the Zimbabwean authorities and Cosatu to avoid a reoccurrence," said spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa, following a government debate on the subject in Parliament. He said, however, that the government would continue to engage with the ruling Zanu PF party and the opposition Moverment for Democratic Change to find a solution to the widening rift ahead of next year's general elections. "Our strategic objective is the need to get the political parties to sit down and address the economic and political challenges in Zimbabwe," said Mamoepa. He said that what had to be asked when either government or civil society embarked on any action was "how does it affect this objective". Cosatu has threatened to blockade the Beit Bridge border post between South Africa and Zimbabwe - a vital trade artery for the landlocked neighbour. "Whatever we do as government or civil society we must ask the question of how does it help to advance this goal. This is the acid test," Mamoepa argued.
Mamoepa, however, would not comment on whether government intended applying more pressure on the Zimbabwe government by ordering it to adopt the Mauritian Protocol outlining the Southern African Development Community's requirements for a free and fair election. "When there are two forces seeking to dominate each other, the role of an external force will either accelerate or slow down the process," he said, noting that Mbeki had frequently met with both the Zanu PF and the MDC in recent months. Responding to the government's stance, Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said it would be "excellent" if the government could get the Zimbabwe government to talk to Cosatu. "That is what our delegation wanted to do. But we still reserve the right to talk to other organisations in order to get the full picture," he said. Craven said that by Wednesday evening, the 13 Cosatu representatives were safely back in South Africa after being deported from Zimbabwe on Tuesday. Responding to Zimbabwe state media's description of the delegation as "dubious individuals claiming association with Cosatu," Mamoepa said again that government found it "regrettable".
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From The Star (SA), 28 October
Bring Mugabe to order now
By the Editor
When the Zimbabwean government literally drove the 13 members of Cosatu out of the country, even the most ardent defender of the Mugabe regime had to stagger in disbelief. It's like watching a Monty Python movie where the character falls on his sword again, and again, and again until he gets it just right. Although Cosatu is drifting more towards a political entity than a pure workers' voice, it still represents the vast majority of the South African workforce. Their very obvious ports of call would be with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and to a lesser extent the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The worst their visit would have done was to add to the large number of dissenting voices chastising the Zimbabwean government. The decision by the Zimbabwean authorities to expel the group, and in so doing defy a court order, verifies everything that has become popular rhetoric in the media.
For many who have come to the defence of the Mugabe regime, the argument has never been as clear-cut as the perception of a crazed dictator who perpetrates gross human rights abuses and shows a total disregard for basic civil rights. Rather, for his apologists it has become a battle between the African who is still forced to bow and scrape before his Western master for a bone. For them Mugabe has become a symbol of a defiant African leader who will no longer play to the tune of the colonialists still lurking in our midst and the new era of donor-based economies. When you come from a continent caught in the mire for so very long, heroes are in short supply. And in our desperation, Mugabe, who has systematically destroyed the dreams and hopes of his people, has been given hero status. Our government's response of emphasising that Zimbabwe is a sovereign state once again just does not cut it anymore. South Africa, the Southern African Development Community and the African Union must apply harder, direct pressure on the Zimbabwean government to show that its histrionics cannot be tolerated anymore.
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From IRIN (UN), 27 October
Assessing impact of interventions on children
Johannesburg - Children receiving food aid are often stigmatised and maltreated by guardians, according to the findings of a pilot project in Zimbabwe to assess the impact of food interventions on children. The project was prompted by a lack of "humanitarian accountability to beneficiaries" and the fact that feedback from children had never been considered in the significant number of interventions taking place in Zimbabwe, said Chris McIvor of the UK-Based NGO, Save the Children, which conducted the study. "One of the recommendations of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Task Force on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in Humanitarian Crises, established in March 2002, was that agencies must be more accountable to beneficiary population, including children," he explained. The IASC Task Force was created after allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse of refugees in West Africa. Save the Children set up seven children's feedback committees earlier this year in Mutorashanga in the Zvimba district of Mashonaland West province, where the NGO has been working for the last four years. Fifty children were trained in information gathering to provide feedback, complaints and suggestions from other children to an independent ombudsperson, who provided the core point of contact between the committees and the programme. The ombudsperson in turn reported to a board comprising a representative each from government, the organisation's principal donor, Save the Children and another humanitarian agency, which responded to the feedback. The board also had the mandate to redirect food aid operations in response to the children's reports.
The project provided information of a "nature and quality that may not have been possible through normal post-distribution monitoring visits conducted by international NGOs," McIvor commented. The board learnt that children often had to miss school to access food aid, which led to food aid agencies visiting areas on public holidays or at times convenient to the children, he said. "Marginalisation of orphans by caregivers prioritising their own children at mealtimes," has now prompted "organisations to monitor more closely what happens to food after it is collected from distribution points," McIvor noted. Zimbabwe has a large number of child-headed households as a result of the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS; such families are marginalised in community structures, often leading to their exclusion as beneficiaries from programmes, Save the Children learnt. When child-headed households were included in programmes, they often did not have access to information on their entitlements, roles and responsibilities. "Children indicated that they were unwilling to make complaints either within the community or to agency staff, for fear that food aid might be terminated," McIvor said. Cases of abuse, including sexual exploitation, physical punishment, refusal to support orphans' attendance at school and excessive child labour were also reported to the board. "These generally relate to the vulnerability of children under the care of step-parents or other guardians," he added. Following the success of the pilot project, Save the Children intends to promote the formation of children feedback committees to cover a variety of interventions, including water and sanitation programmes, health delivery projects, and orphan care and support programmes.
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From The Guardian (UK), 28 October
England lose last exit from Zimbabwe tour
Paul Kelso
England's cricketers may withdraw from next month's tour of Zimbabwe if assurances on safety and security from the Zimbabwe government and British Embassy officials are breached. The final hurdle that might have prevented the team's participation was removed last night when the England and Wales Cricket Board said it was satisfied with safety and security arrangements. But Richard Bevan, chief executive of the Professional Cricketers' Association who is just back from an inspection of facilities in Zimbabwe, made it clear that the players could withdraw in the event of trouble. "We are relying on detailed assurances received from all the relevant authorities," he said. "Should such undertakings be breached there will be an immediate review of the players' position." Despite widespread public and political opposition to the tour, ICC regulations permit the ECB to withdraw without penalty on safety grounds only. An inspection tour last week by John Carr, ECB director of cricket, and Bevan found no reason not to tour and England's reluctant tourists will arrive in Harare as planned on November 24. Carr and Bevan met the minister for home affairs, police chiefs in Bulawayo and Harare and the British ambassador, and were assured the team, officials, media and spectators would be safe so long as they adhered to Foreign Office travel advice.
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From The Independent(UK), 29 October
Zimbabwean MP jailed for a year after shoving minister
By Basildon Peta, Southern Africa correspondent
Zimbabwe's most persecuted white MP began a year of hard labour last night after parliament voted to jail him for shoving the Justice Minister during a debate over land seizures. The ruling sparked outrage among lawyers and human rights groups who argued that in a normal criminal court of law, Roy Bennett would have faced a small fine. Parliament voted 53-42 to jail Mr Bennett - one of three white Movement for Democratic Change MPs - for hitting Patrick Chinamasa during a debate in May. The government had moved to seize Mr Bennett's farm as part of President Robert Mugabe's programme to take white-owned properties for landless blacks. The incident came after a heated debate during which Mr Chinamasa described Mr Bennett's white ancestors as "rapists", "murderers" and "thieves" who stole black-owned land. Zimbabwean law empowers parliament to impose sentences of up to two years in jail. It was the latest in a litany of abuses suffered by Mr Bennett, including the abduction and murder of his farm workers.
His lawyer, Arnold Tsunga, said Mr Bennett started serving his sentence last night. He had been arrested at Harare airport while trying to board a plane to South Africa. The authorities accused him of trying to flee and slapped him with an extra charge of trying to obstruct the course of justice. Mr Bennett denied the charge, saying he had never contemplated fleeing but was on his way to South Africa to meet lawyers helping him recover money for coffee stolen from his farm by Mr Mugabe's supporters and supplied to a German coffee trader. Mr Bennett's troubles were worsened by an earlier order by the Speaker of parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa, banning the courts from hearing his application to have the sentence set aside. Mr Mnangagwa said the case should be concluded in terms of parliamentary procedures which insulated the house from judicial scrutiny. Mr Tsunga dismissed the Speaker's argument as outrageous. Before parliament voted, Mr Bennett had been brought by police to appear before it and he had apologised for his conduct in charging at and pushing Mr Chinamasa. "I'm extremely sorry for the disturbances that I caused to this house. I apologise to you Mr Speaker, I apologise to Honourable Chinamasa," Mr Bennett said. But the apology failed to save him.
President Mugabe routinely accuses Mr Bennett of working with Tony Blair to try to topple the government. The MDC issued a statement last night detailing all the abuses Mr Bennett has suffered including the forced seizure of his farm in eastern Zimbabwe by militant war veterans and the army in defiance of four court orders; the rape and murder of his workers; the theft of his crops and livestock; the destruction of his game farm; and the illegal arrests and beatings he has suffered. Before his arrest yesterday, Mr Bennett had vowed never to flee Zimbabwe. "I would rather go to jail if it pleases this regime than flee my country into exile," he said. Mr Tsunga had assembled a team of lawyers last night to try to save Mr Bennett by pursuing what is probably his last remedy - mounting a constitutional challenge at the Supreme Court against powers of parliament to deal with matters which should ordinarily be handled by the courts in line with the doctrine of separation of powers. But with Zimbabwe's highest court now packed with loyalist judges, Mr Bennett's future looks very bleak.
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From Zim Online (SA), 29 October
Parliament endorses Bennet's jail sentence
Harare - Ruling Zanu PF party parliamentarians last night used their majority in the House to impose a one-year jail term against opposition legislator Roy Bennett for shoving Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa during debate in May. A parliamentary committee, also dominated by Zanu PF, had on Wednesday recommended that Bennett be sentenced to a 15-month imprisonment with three months suspended. The matter was debated in the House last night with 53 Zanu PF members voting to commit Bennett to prison against 42 opposition Movement for Democratic Change legislators (MDC), who opposed the motion. It was not clear whether Bennett, who was arrested by police yesterday morning as he attempted to fly out of the country, will immediately go to prison. The opposition MP had appealed to the High Court well before last night's vote in Parliament to have the jail term set aside. But Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday morning issued an order in terms of the Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act barring courts from hearing Bennet's appeal.
But constitutional law experts said the Speaker was wrong in issuing the order which virtually preempts the judicial process and takes away Bennett's rights guaranteed by Zimbabwe's Constitution to seek recourse at the courts. University of Zimbabwe constitutional law lecturer Lovemore Madhuku said: "The whole thing is totally wrong. Unless if it was in the United Kingdom (UK) where there is no Bill of Rights, but Zimbabwe is different from the UK. In the UK there is Parliamentary Sovereignty, but in Zimbabwe we have a situation where the Constitution is supreme. There is something inherently wrong with that decision. This is a judicial matter, not a case of having many numbers in Parliament." Human rights lawyer Brian Kagoro questioned the severity of the sentence saying in an ordinary criminal court, Bennett's case would have qualified as a common law assault case which would not have justified any fine worth more than a few hundred Zimbabwe dollars.
Police accused Bennet of wanting to flee the country when they arrested him at Harare international airport yesterday morning. But the legislator, who was scheduled to fly to South Africa on business and return to Zimbabwe the same day, denied he was fleeing. He said: "I would rather go to jail if it pleases this regime than flee my country into exile." One of only three white opposition members of Zimbabwe's Parliament, Bennet knocked Chinamasa to the floor after the latter had referred to his ancestors as "murderers" and "thieves" who stole Zimbabwe's land from blacks. If he eventually goes to jail, he will become the first MP to be jailed in Zimbabwe's history for contempt of Parliament and the first person in the country to be sentenced outside the court process.
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From News24 (SA), 28 October
Irate Mbeki faces down Cosatu
Willem Jordaan and Deon de Lange
Cape Town - Tension in the governing alliance regarding the Congress of South African Trade Unions' Zimbabwean mission has resulted in President Thabo Mbeki having to crack the whip in the African National Congress caucus. While his remarks in this arena were interpreted as a warning to Cosatu, the organisation has dug in its heels and said it reserves the right to differ with the government and the ANC regarding Zimbabwe. Earlier, Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota also clearly expressed his irritation with Cosatu when he said they did not confer with their alliance partners beforehand and that the fact-finding mission was an embarrassment to the ANC. Mbeki's loyalists in the ANC expressed themselves strongly about Cosatu's action and termed it "irresponsible games which do not contribute anything towards solving the crisis in Zimbabwe". In government circles, Cosatu's decision to continue with its mission in spite of objections by the Zimbabwean government has been described as "unnecessary embarrassment". On the other hand, there was understanding among leftwing ANC members, who had ties with the SA Communist Party and Cosatu, for Cosatu's views. A senior ANC member said: "Cosatu has remained true to its mandate from the workers of South Africa and their comrades in Zimbabwe. This is more than can be said of the Zimbabwean and South African governments."
Three of the most-important ANC heavyweights turned up at the ANC caucus meeting - Mbeki, deputy president Jacob Zuma and Lekota. According to informed sources, Mbeki did not mince his words and said he wanted to know the reasons for Cosatu's actions. In the caucus, Mbeki's words were understood to be a warning to Cosatu. Approached for comment, Mbeki spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said foreign affairs was dealing with the matter and the president had no comment. Asked how he interpreted Mbeki's remarks to the caucus, Khumalo said: "That is an ANC matter." Meanwhile, Cosatu deputy secretary-general Bheki Ntshalintshali said in Johannesburg his organisation had the right to differ with the ANC on how the crisis in Zimbabwe should be solved. He reacted to allegations that Cosatu had acted "irresponsibly" in sending a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe without prior approval from the government. "What does the ANC expect us to do?" asked Ntshalintshali. "There is certainly nothing wrong with trying to establish exactly where matters in Zimbabwe stand, at grassroots level. The ANC and the government have their own ideas on how to deal with the Zimbabwean crisis. However, we do not agree with them." Acording to Ntshalintshali, Cosatu had been invited by their comrades in the Zimbabwean Confederation of Trade Unions (ZCTU) and nothing was done under a cloak of secrecy. "We did not contravene any laws and I cannot understand why the South African government now says that we acted irresponsibly."
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From The Vancouver Sun, 28 October
China trades guns for market access in Zimbabwe
By Jonathan Manthorpe
For three days at the end of last week trains loaded with new military vehicles were seen travelling from the Mozambican port city of Beira to the Zimbabwean border point at Mutare. The vehicles, which eye witnesses say included trucks and personnel carriers mounted with cannon, appear to be part of a US$240 million deal between China and the besieged and impoverished Zimbabwean regime of Robert Mugabe. China has latched on to Zimbabwe as one of the resource-rich African states open to deals because of its international pariah status. Mugabe and his government are subject to United States, European Union and Commonwealth sanctions because of repression of the country's 11 million people.
Beijing's willingness to trade guns for market access in Zimbabwe troubles neighbouring South Africa which is playing unwilling host to tens of thousands of Zimbabweans who have fled across the Limpopo River border. Authoritative U.S. sources say the South Africa minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in 2000 even made a direct but unsuccessful appeal to Beijing to stop supplying arms to African regimes, especially Zimbabwe. The South African government of president Thabo Mbeki has been widely criticized for his softly-softly approach to pressuring Mugabe to come to an accord with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. But China's arms delivery and the expulsion from Zimbabwe on Tuesday of a delegation of South African trade unionists allied to the Mbeki government threaten to bring relations across the Limpopo to a boil.
A 13-member fact-finding mission from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) arrived in the Zimbabwean capital Harare on Monday. According to one of the members of the group, on arrival Zimbabwean government officials ordered them not to talk to human rights or church groups. When they defied the order they were detained by Zimbabwean police on Tuesday night and taken to the Harare airport. But there was no plane available to take them to South Africa and after seven hours in the airport the group was put on a bus and driven to the main border cross point at Beit Bridge. South Africa's current defence minister Mosiuoa Lekota described the incident as "a bit embarrassing". But he added that the Cosatu affair has not yet poisoned relations between the two countries. "There has to be sustained ill-will before we can say relations will be bedevilled." The problem for Mbeki is the close relationship between his African National Congress party and Cosatu. During the prolonged campaign against the white minority apartheid regime in South Africa, which ended in 1994, Cosatu formed the core of the internal resistance movement while most ANC leaders were in prison or in exile.
China's arms shipment to Zimbabwe has raised many eyebrows. The economy is in tatters after years of violent requisitioning by Mugabe's police and hired thugs of land owned by white Zimbabwean farmers. There are questions how Mugabe can pay the US$240 million US for the Chinese weapons, which Zimbabwe's defence minister told parliamentarians in June include a dozen jet fighter aircraft and 100 military vehicles. Inflation in Zimbabwe is around 600 per cent a year and unemployment is about 70 per cent of the adult male population. There are food shortages and the United Nations' World Food Program is feeding about 600,000 Zimbabweans. Investment from traditional Western sources has dried up. When Mugabe needed new AK-47 assault rifles for his soldiers in 2000 in the run-up to the last presidential elections he had to pay China the $1 million US price tag in elephant ivory. There is well-founded speculation that Mugabe has now bartered economic access to Zimbabwe in exchange for Chinese arms.
For months Zimbabwean industries and retail outlets have been complaining that they are being buried under a tide of Chinese cheap, poor quality imported goods and competition from Chinese-owned commercial outlets. Zimbabwe, as well as being an exporter of agricultural products until a few years ago, is rich in mineral resources, some of them of strategic industrial importance such as chrome and platinum. The Mugabe government recently introduced restrictive mining investment laws, but a minister told a South African newspaper Zimbabwe would "find a way to accommodate the Chinese". "Zimbabwe needs the Chinese, but because earlier loans are still outstanding, they have put forward their demands which we will consider in due course."
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From The Financial Gazette, 28 October
New twist to Zanu PF probe
Felix Njini
Twisty investigations into a swathe of Zanu PF companies got a fresh impetus last week after the ruling party's supreme decision-making body - the politburo - gave the bloated probe team extra teeth to get to the bottom of the firms' secretive investments. The latest turn of events, which caught most of the Zanu PF bigwigs unawares, swung attention back to Emmerson Mnangagwa, who had emerged unscathed despite earlier indications that the investigations were aimed at him as the party's immediate past finance chief. Mnangagwa, the feared Zanu PF secretary for administration, was key to the party's investments whose veil of secrecy many hoped would be pierced by the investigations. Party insiders with intimate knowledge of the Zanu PF businesses said the probe into the ruling party portfolio, which, under Mnangagwa's stewardship, grew from zero in 1978 to an estimated $100 billion, had been given a new impetus after new members were co-opted. They said six more names were added to the probe team at last week's politburo meeting. Names of the new members could not be ascertained at the time of going to press.
The dramatic turn of events comes after the first probe produced a watered-down report which party insiders said was deemed a "disappointing whitewash". Before the probe, Zanu PF investments had never been subjected to public scrutiny. Senior party officials claimed that they were not privy to the party's businesses as issues concerning their operations involved a few officials and were always confined to some dark room at the party's headquarters. The insiders said the expanded team, which now has 11 members, got fresh powers to comb through a web of Zanu PF investments in what might worsen tension in the fractious party that has been led by President Robert Mugabe since independence in 1980. Among others, they said, the committee had been given arresting powers and would leave no stone unturned as the race to succeed President Mugabe intensified. They said this meant that the committee could now go into the region probing investments made by anyone who may interest the investigations while the Ministers of State Security and Home Affairs had been ordered to cooperate fully with the committee.
There are heightened fears that the investigations could be an extension of the simmering succession struggles in which whoever is caught on the wrong side of the law may find it difficult to appeal to the electorate. This has been denied by the party but political observers say that the fierce power struggle in Zanu PF could split it right through the middle ahead of the party's decisive congress slated for December at which new leaders would be elected. Joyce Mujuru, wife of retired army general Solomon Mujuru, is tipped to land the vice-presidency left vacant following the death of Simon Muzenda last year. The retired army chief is part of the probe team. Mujuru, the Minister of Water Resources and Infrastructural Development, might face a stiff challenge from Mnangagwa and John Nkomo, who are also linked to the presidency.
Before the latest turn of events, the committee led by Zanu PF secretary for finance David Karimanzira, whose inclusion smacked of conflict of interest, had failed to find anything that sticks against the ruling party bigwigs close to the operations of the companies. The 64-page report, which was discussed at last week's meeting, had also failed to lift the lid off the complex and secretive operations of the companies namely ZIDCO Holdings, M & S Syndicate, First Banking Corporation, Treger Holdings, Ottawa, Catercraft, Zidlee Enterprises, Fribrolite, Mike Appel and the Southern Africa Reinsurance. The probe has since raised the ire of some party gurus who are of the view that Mnangagwa, the former party finance chief, had to all intense and purposes been cleared. Under Mnangagwa's tenure, the ruling party's share in Tregers Holdings alone is now worth $40 billion, while its shares in Mike Appel are also valued at at least $30 billion, with its stake in the enlarged FBC Holdings estimated at $10 billion. This makes the ruling party one of the richest liberation movements on the continent. The African National Congress, which won this year's elections in South Africa, is reportedly worth only two thirds of the empire built by Zanu PF.
"The party's investments were made under the watchful eye of the first secretary of the party, President Mugabe so it boggles one's mind how other Zanu PF members could dare question the presidency," said a source. "It is also unheard of for investigations to open up in a case where it is clear that whoever was in charge of the party's investments actually created greater value for the liberation movement," the same sources said. David Karimanzira, who is chairing the investigating committee, said they would submit a report to the party after finishing investigations. Karimanzira remained mum on the committee's new powers. "We will only report and hand over the to the party' that is our mandate," Karimanzira said. Other members of the initial committee comprise of Mujuru, Matabeleland Governor Obert Mpofu, former finance minister Simba Makoni and Thoko Mathuthu, Zanu PF deputy secretary for transport and welfare. Zanu PF bigwigs hauled before the committee during the initial investigations include Mnangagwa, who was interviewed twice, Nicholas Goche, the Minister of State for Security, Enos Chikowore, the former Public Service and National Housing Minister, Frederick Shava, the director for Zanu PF, Sydney Sekeramayi, the Minister of Defence, Didymus Mutasa, the Minister of Anticorruption, Nathan Shamuyarira, the Zanu PF information chief.
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From IPS, 29 October
A tumultuous week
Ken Ntuli
Johannesburg - In recent years, political developments in Zimbabwe have been as hot a topic of conversation in South Africa as they were in Zimbabwe itself. The past week has not proved an exception to this trend. Thursday saw the head of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Morgan Tsvangirai, give his first major press conference in South Africa since a two-year travel ban on him was lifted. Previously, his passport had been confiscated while he was facing charges of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. Following an acquittal on Oct. 15, Tsvangirai immediately embarked on a tour of South Africa and the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, two key members of the 13-nation Southern African Community Development (SADC) - which includes Zimbabwe. "I have spent the past week engaging political leaders and key players within civic society in the SADC, updating them on the current situation in Zimbabwe," the MDC leader told journalists in South Africa's commercial hub of Johannesburg. Accompanied by the party's secretary-general, Welshman Ncube, Tsvangirai held talks on Monday with South African president Thabo Mbeki, who also heads the SADC organ for defence, politics and security. Two days later he met Mauritian Prime Minister Paul Berenger, the current chair of SADC. The purpose of these discussions was to persuade the two leaders to put pressure on Zimbabwe to implement fully the SADC Protocol on Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. Adopted in Mauritius by regional heads of state in August, the protocol is aimed at ensuring that all polls held in the region are free and fair. Zimbabwe's parliamentary elections in 2000 and a presidential poll in 2002 were marred by widespread violence ahead of voting - the brunt of which was borne by the opposition - and irregularities in the electoral process. State media were biased in favour of the ruling Zanu PF party.
Since then, the situation in Zimbabwe has not improved. The Public Order and Security Act allows police to restrict freedom of assembly, while the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act is widely seen as a bid to muzzle independent journalists. Both laws were enacted after the 2002 vote. The SADC electoral protocol stipulates that all parties contesting a poll should be allowed to campaign freely, while enjoying equal access to state-run media. Amongst other things, it also calls for the establishment of impartial electoral institutions. "We explained how Zimbabwe's democratic deficit continues to widen at an alarming rate, making a free and a fair election impossible under the current circumstances," said Tsvangirai. "Since the SADC Protocol was signed by all member states on Aug. 17 there has been no serious attempt by the Zimbabwe government to implement measures which will ensure full compliance with the new SADC electoral standards," he added. Fearing a repeat of events in 2000 and 2002, the MDC suspended participation in all elections on Aug. 25 - including the next parliamentary poll, scheduled to take place by March 2005. However, the party has left the door open for rejoining the campaign. "We explained (to Mbeki and Berenger) how the timing of our decision was deliberately aimed at giving the government sufficient time to address the severe deficits that exist with regards to complying with the SADC standards," observed Tsvangirai. "Prominent deficits such as the absence of the rule of law, political violence, repressive legislation that curtails basic civil and political liberties and an inaccurate voters' roll cannot be addressed immediately prior to polling day," he said. "They need to be tackled at least six months or more prior to an election if public confidence and legitimacy are to be harnessed to the entire electoral process."
Tsvangirai also painted a gloomy picture of Zimbabwe's economy, putting unemployment at almost 80 percent and inflation at 280 percent. While the country has experienced financial difficulties for several years, matters took a turn for the worse after the start of a controversial land redistribution programme in 2000. Veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s war of independence and government militants began occupying hundreds of farms owned by minority whites in what was originally portrayed as an attempt to rectify racial imbalances in land ownership that dated from the colonial era. However, government critics claimed the farm seizures were orchestrated by Harare in a bid to deflect attention from its track record ahead of the 2000 parliamentary election. The land redistribution programme has since contributed to severe food shortages in Zimbabwe that have affected millions. In May, Harare began cutting down on food aid to the country, claiming that a good harvest was anticipated for Zimbabwe. However, the London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International said in a report earlier this month that local and foreign civic groups believed the government was preparing to use food aid to coerce people into voting for it during the upcoming parliamentary poll. The report in question was entitled 'Zimbabwe: Power and Hunger - Violations of the right to food'. Seven million people, more than half of Zimbabwe's population, now need food aid, according to aid agencies. Tsvangirai's concerns about the economy were echoed by Wellington Chibebe, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, during an impromptu press conference held in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Chibebe said economic decline in Zimbabwe had resulted in a massive, and ongoing exodus of citizens from the country - many of them desperately-needed doctors and nurses. "Five million Zimbabweans are out of the country. This is scary, given the fact that Zimbabwe's population is only 13 million," he noted.
Also caught up in the Zimbabwean quagmire this week was a 13-member fact-finding delegation from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which found itself deported from Zimbabwe on Wednesday. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo described the Cosatu delegation as working for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and anti-Zimbabwean, pro-western interests. Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonizer, is routinely accused by Harare of trying to undermine Zimbabwe. The influential 1.5-million-strong Cosatu is in political alliance with South Africa's ruling African National Congress, which has adopted a policy of "quiet diplomacy" towards Harare. While Tsvangirai commended Mbeki this week for what he termed a more "robust" approach to dealing with events in Zimbabwe, Pretoria's response to the expulsion of Cosatu members was muted. "Zimbabwe is an independent, sovereign state that has an inalienable right to determine and to apply its immigration legislation as it may deem appropriate and in its own interest," said Ronnie Mamoepa, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A visibly unhappy Violet Seboni, leader of the fact-finding delegation, said Thursday, "We respect their (government's) rights of quiet diplomacy, if they think it's the right thing to do." Acting Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven signaled that the organisation would not necessarily follow government's lead, however. "We will not accept (that) we can be banned. This is a normal trade union visit. Trade unions visit countries and they don't need to get permission from government," he told IPS, adding that Cosatu would persist in its efforts to investigate the situation in Zimbabwe.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 28 October
Tsvangirai's push on Africa
Netsai Mlilo
Your decision to suspend participation in next year's election did not have majority support in your party. How do you explain this?
First of all, one has to decide what informed our decision. Obviously, it is the electoral conditions that have been proven over the past five years to be flawed and to affect the sovereignty of the very people who are complaining that they want to participate regardless of the conditions. The people do support the position of the executive. They are anxious to express themselves through an election, but they know the obstacles and the result of participating in an election that has a pre-determined outcome. If [President Robert] Mugabe wants to run a one-party election, let him go ahead. We are very conscious that Zanu-PF may put on this brave face about ignoring national and international opinion. But eventually, they will come on board, because that is the only route to legitimacy and the resolution of the national crisis that we face.
What do you hope to achieve outside Parliament that you haven't achieved in Parliament?
Parliament is one forum of engagement, of struggle. Surely the people are not going to give up their struggle and democratic resistance just because they are not in Parliament? We have been in Parliament when an adverse situation has prevailed, so it's not a platform for resolving what we are talking about. The solution to this national crisis is not just about elections, it's about the traditional mechanism of resolving the power contestations and structure of power beyond the elections.
You haven't had much success in rallying people?
The allegation that the MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] is not mobilising Zimbabweans to fight for their own freedom and relies more on international solidarity is not true. What people should understand is that our capacity is hindered by the response of the state to any expression of discontentment by the people. People should look more at the extraordinary conditions under which the MDC has to mobilise the people in the face of this brute force.
So the withdrawal from the elections is to save lives. Is the MDC refusing to pay the full price for change in Zimbabwe?
When there is no pain, there is no gain - but we know that we have to make a responsible assessment about the risks we take. Any leader who takes a reckless attitude, that people must die to have their freedom - regardless of what price they have to pay - I think would be irresponsible. We are aware of the risks that we have to take and that risk is part of the game for freedom. After all, between 300 and 400 Zimbabweans have died for this cause and tens of thousands have either had their homes burnt down or have been raped. We are paying the price for freedom.
The MDC is widely perceived as an urban-based party that seems unable to crack the rural areas .
The disgruntlement in Zimbabwe transcends the urban and rural divide; it is inconceivable that this discontentment can only be expressed by urban voters. I want to emphasise that the MDC has wide support beyond the urban vote. Our MPs have the whole of Matabeleland, we have some representation in the Midlands, in the rural constituencies, and we have 50% of Manicaland. It is probably a perception because the base of the MDC comes from a labour background. There are no-go areas in Mashonaland province, but I want to tell you that the marginal vote in some constituencies there was narrow - just a thousand difference. So I dispute the fact that the MDC is an urban formation. It is a democratic formation. It is a post-liberation formation and, therefore, a totally new phenomenon.
Other than opposing Mugabe, does the MDC have policy on land and the economy?
Let me dispute the claim that our preoccupation is to remove Mugabe. We believe he is part and parcel of the whole institutional weakness that reflects a decay in our government - removing Mugabe without transforming the institutional base is not going to solve the problem. We know it is not just a change of personality that is required. It is a deeper transformation of the political culture in the country. Our solution lies with our policy programme called Restart, which is a reconstruction programme to ensure that there is sufficient confidence in rehabilitating industry, tourism, the mining sector, manufacturing of basic goods, including food. No one can accuse the MDC of not having policies on land - in fact, Zanu PF reacted to the MDC's proposals that land is an unfinished national agenda and should be tackled. We believe you need a combination of commercial and small-scale farming. All the farms that have been taken away from white farmers are now in the hands of Zanu PF. Again he [Mugabe] has not solved the perpetual problem of inequality.
It is said that your advisers led you into the Ben Menashe trap that resulted in your treason trial. You've not had the smartest advisers, have you?
I have the best of advisers - it was an oversight not to check on the security background but not on advisers. I have the most competent advisers in all fields. I think the question was about an oversight in our security checks.
How do you contest Zanu PF's assertion that the MDC did not participate in the liberation struggle? You can't seem to shrug off your tag as Tony Blair' s messengers.
Well, let's start with the liberation struggle. If somebody monopolises the struggle of the people and turns it into a party struggle, it causes confusion. The struggle for liberation has never been a Zanu PF struggle; it has been a people's struggle. Why do they monopolise it? Because they don't want this liberation tag to be owned by Zimbabwe. I can claim the fruits of our liberation struggle as much as any other Zimbabwean - it is our liberation struggle - not Mugabe's, not Zanu PF's. So this privatising the national liberation struggle and making it a party thing should be dismissed. This is part of the abuse of the patriotic commitment of Zimbabweans to a national cause. It is quite appropriate for Mugabe to demonise us - what else can he criticise us about? He has to find a bogey man called Blair and place it on the MDC. He has not accepted that the current crisis in Zimbabwe is not about Blair, it is not about [United States President George W] Bush - it's about his mismanagement.
You are accused of hankering for the colonial days ...
That we [MDC] are reversing the revolutionary gains of Zimbabwe - that again is untrue. The MDC is pursuing the ideals of the liberation struggle which have been betrayed by Zanu PF - liberty, opportunity for everyone and sovereignty of the people. The MDC has taken the ideals of liberation to a higher plane - that is why we are a social liberation movement. We no longer need to free ourselves from colonialism but from subjugation and manipulation by the ruling elite, while at the same time responding to the social, political and economic needs of the people.
You seem to have changed tack by wooing African diplomats. Are they prepared to turn against an African liberation icon like Mugabe?
I wish he was an icon. He is a demon, because he has betrayed the very same ideals of the liberation struggle - from hero to zero, that is what he has turned out to be. How can a liberation fighter like that turn out to be such a dictator? Yes, we have been to Europe - but if there is any investment that we have done, it has been in the African region, particularly South Africa. We have emphasised the fact that the Zimbabwean crisis is an African crisis. Our engagement with our African brothers is to move away from this complicity with Mugabe to a situation where they must understand the root causes of the Zimbabwe crisis. It is not a land crisis, it is not a colonial crisis; it is a crisis of governance. Obviously this has taken a very long time, because the black-white issue is still very valid. But the real cause is not about white on black oppression, it is about black on black oppression.
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From News24 (SA), 29 October
Lawyers to fight Zim MP's case
Harare - Lawyers for a Zimbabwean opposition MP, who was served a one-year jail term by parliament late on Thursday for shoving justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, are seeking a review of the ruling on the ground that it was biased. The lawyers said they would argue that the special parliamentary committee that probed Roy Bennett's alleged breach of privilege in May, was prejudiced. "We are seeking a review of the case," said lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa. She said a review was being sought before the high court on grounds of prejudice and a "failure to comply with the requirements of basic justice". The five-member parliamentary committee that heard the case comprised three ruling Zanu PF parliamentarians and two opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) deputies. The lawyers also plan to argue that when parliament made the decision after it sat as a court on Thursday following five hours of debate, it voted along political lines.
Under Zimbabwean law, parliament has the authority to sit as a court and impose penalties. But, legal experts say it may infringe the constitutional rights of the accused to receive a fair trial. "If the high court judge agrees there was bias... then the court can re-constitute its own sentence, what it considers as just and fair," she said. Bennett, a commercial farmer and a leading MDC member, was accused of violating his parliamentary privileges when he lost his temper and pushed Chinamasa to the floor after the minister said his ancestors were "thieves" during a debate in May. Bennett was sent to prison straight after the parliamentary vote on Thursday night. The parliament, in which President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF enjoys a comfortable majority, voted in favour of an effective one-year sentence proposed by the investigating committee. The committee recommended a 15-month jail term with hard labour, but said three months would be suspended on condition he did not commit a similar offence within five years. This is the first time the legislature has jailed a sitting MP for contempt of parliament.
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From Zim Online (SA), 30 October
Civil servants forced to fund Zanu PF congress
Harare - The ruling Zanu PF party has deducted $100 000 from each civil servant's October salary in a desperate bid to raise $25 billion to fund the party's watershed December Congress. Zanu PF was thrown into crisis after the party's funds budgeted for the congress were trapped in three financial institutions which were shut down earlier this year as part of the government's clean up exercise in the troubled banking sector. The ruling party needs to raise $25 billion for the congress and has unilaterally sought to raise the funds from members of the army, police, teachers and newly resettled farmers, Zim Online established. Zanu PF secretary for finance David Karimanzira said: "Just like any other sector, we were affected by the closure of banks. We are making efforts to raise the money but I can't disclose the means through which we will do so," Karimanzira said. But a civil servants' representative body confirmed the deductions which were done without their consent.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary-general Raymond Majongwe said the union had received complaints from teachers who had had money deducted from their salaries without their prior knowledge nor consent. "We have received reports from teachers especially in the rural areas, who are being forced to donate money to things they are not aware of or interested in. Some of our members say they had been told the deductions are for the Zanu PF congress," he said. Zimbabwe National Army spokesman Ben Ncube refused to shed more light on the deductions on soldiers' salaries saying the issue was confidential. "That's a confidential matter. We can't discuss why and how money is deducted," he said. Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena also refused to discuss the matter. A farmer based in Mashonaland West, who spoke on condition of anonymity, yesterday confirmed that some farmers were being asked to donate money to fund the ruling party's congress and had already started doing so. Zanu PF has in the past forced civil servants to contribute funds towards its party's activities as well as national events such as independence and heroes day celebrations. The ruling party argues that the civil servants should be grateful for their jobs which it claims are a result of its efforts in winning the liberation war.
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From AFP, 31 October
Zimbabwe to appeal acquittal of Tsvangirai
Harare - Zimbabwe will appeal against the recent acquittal of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on charges of plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe before elections in 2002, a state-run newspaper reported Sunday. The Sunday Mail quoted the government's top lawyer as saying it would appeal in mid-November against the judgment two weeks ago that cleared Tsvangirai of a charge which could have carried the death sentence. "Certainly by the middle of November we would have filed the appeal," acting Attorney General Bharat Patel told the paper, adding that the judgment "has many flaws and we don't think it should stand unchallenged." Two weeks ago the Zimbabwe High Court ruled that the state had failed to prove its case against the 52-year old opposition leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), after a year-long trial in which the state produced around a dozen witnesses. The court found that nowhere in the state's main evidence - a fuzzy, partly inaudible video of a secretly-filmed meeting between Tsvangirai and a Canada-based political consultant - was Tsvangirai heard to request Mugabe's "elimination".
Tsvangirai's acquittal was greeted with jubilation by his party, and the former trade unionist promptly launched a tour of the region aimed at getting the help of other leaders to pressure Mugabe to bring in key electoral reforms. Zimbabwe is due to hold parliamentary polls in March. The MDC says it will not take part without changes to the electoral playing field in line with guidelines set by the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Last week Tsvangirai met with Mauritian premier Paul Berenger, chairman of the influential body, as well as President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who chairs the SADC organ on politics, security and defence. "Fresh trouble for Tsvangirai" announced the headline in the Sunday Mail. It reported that the government would, among other things, challenge part of the ruling that dealt with "what constitutes treason". Meanwhile, the opposition says Tsvangirai is due to travel to several other countries in the region and throughout Africa, according to a report in the private Standard newspaper. The party's secretary general, Welshman Ncube told the paper that Tsvangirai, who is presently back in the country, intended to travel to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania and Zambia.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 31 October
Cosatu's Harare venture incenses Mbeki
Sabelo Ndlangisa and S'thembiso Msomi
Government is to seek an urgent meeting with Cosatu over the federation's controversial visit to Zimbabwe this week which is said to have "embarrassed" President Thabo Mbeki and his Cabinet. Foreign Affairs Department spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said Defence Minister and ANC chairman Mosioua Lekota would form part of the team tasked with discussing the trade union movement's "fact-finding" mission to Zimbabwe. Mbeki and members of his Cabinet are incensed by their alliance partner's visit to Zimbabwe, which, they say could jeopardise Mbeki's endeavours to broker a deal between Robert Mugabe's Zanu PF and the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change. An angry Mbeki is said to have lashed out at Cosatu during the ANC caucus meeting in Parliament on Thursday. Cosatu's controversial trip, which saw their 13-member delegation thrown out of Zimbabwe within 24-hours of their arrival, came at a time when Mbeki's "quiet diplomacy" received a major boost from MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who this week said Mbeki has his "full confidence". According to government officials, Cosatu's actions could have easily hardened Zanu PF's attitude towards Mbeki's efforts, as the federation has close ties to the ruling ANC.
"For us what is important is that, as government, we have to engage with both Zanu PF and the MDC and therefore should not be perceived to be one-sided. The litmus test for all of our actions is whether those actions help in advancing peace and stability in Zimbabwe or not," said Mamoepa. He said that a separate Foreign Affairs delegation would hold discussions with the Zimbabwean government. Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi said yesterday that he was unaware of government's intention to meet the labour federation over the Zimbabwe debacle - but that Cosatu would be willing to discuss the issue. In an article published in the state-owned Chronicle newspaper this week, Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said the Zimbabwean government "would brook no interference from intrusive individuals purporting to represent the interests of local workers". The article went on to describe Cosatu as agents of the British government. Meanwhile, Tsvangirai condemned the expulsion of Cosatu, saying it was absurd of Moyo to accuse Cosatu of being a front for Western interests. Vavi said Cosatu would continue "pledging solidarity" with Zimbabwean workers, and that the organisation would consider blocking Zimbabwe's Beit Bridge border.
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From Business Day (SA), 29 October
Cosatu's Harare safari stirs alliance waters
Trade union federation's abortive visit to Zimbabwe has exposed divisions within SA's ruling-party alliance
Deputy Political Editor
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) may have achieved more with this week's fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe than years of lobbying, pleading and cajoling by civil society organisations for change in that country. Through his actions, President Robert Mugabe has embarrassed President Thabo Mbeki, the Southern African Development Community, Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party and caused divisions in the African National Congress (ANC). Cosatu's mission was aimed at investigating trade union rights in Zimbabwe and whether conditions exist for free and fair elections next year. Harare 's response was to deport the delegation. They were bundled into a minibus and driven to the border with SA on Wednesday. Since Zimbabwe's political instability began a few years ago, fuelled by a badly executed land distribution programme, Mbeki's approach of quiet diplomacy has had support within the tripartite alliance. Mugabe then systematically eroded the rights of Zimbabwe's trade unions to organise , and its civil society organisations to protest, against his government. All of this happened without protest from the ANC's alliance partners. In February last year, the South African Communist Party (SACP) broke ranks, publishing a damning report after a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. The party said it was "deeply concerned at the continued repression of workers, opposition activists and of journalists" and called on government to speak out on human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. Then, members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions attended Cosatu's conference last year and tabled a plea for solidarity and support. The conference called for a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe to help Cosatu make an informed decision on what could be done to alleviate their plight.
Mugabe probably kicked them out because he expected Cosatu's report on the situation in his country to be as critical as the SACP's. The ANC says it would prefer its alliance partners to communicate more about Mbeki's and ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe's initiatives in Zimbabwe. The party has avoided judging or critcising Mugabe's style of governance. Instead, it has sought to facilitate unity in the face of the destruction of Zimbabwe's economy. Two years ago the ANC offered Motlanthe as a chief facilitator for unity talks between Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). However, talks were derailed by the MDC's court challenge to Mugabe's electoral victory, which it claimed was fraudulent. But Cosatu would have risked criticism from its members for failing to carry out conference resolutions if it had not gone to Zimbabwe this week. It had no mandate to take the ANC's positions to that country. Cosatu has managed to throw a spotlight on Zimbabwe's deteriorating political situation on the eve of the parliamentary elections early next year . Now the African Union and the region are once again under pressure to show they are not only concerned, but plan to do something about the intimidation of the opposition and trade unions in Zimbabwe. By expelling the Cosatu mission , the Zimbabwean government may have once again squandered an opportunity to explain its position and to draw on the solidarity of Africans who are willing to constructively support it in this difficult political and economic situation.
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From Business Day (SA), 29 October
Harare puts squeeze on platinum miners
Harare Correspondent
Harare - The Zimbabwean government yesterday abolished offshore accounts held by platinum producers operating in the country, in a bid to shore up its foreign currency position. Zimbabwe's platinum sector is dominated by foreign companies, which include SA's Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum Holdings as well as the London/Australia-listed Aquarius Platinum Holdings. Central bank governor Gideon Gono said during a monetary policy statement third-quarter review yesterday that Zimbabwe, which had the world's second- largest platinum deposits after SA, would now force platinum producers to open local foreign currency accounts. Producers in Zimbabwe used to have a special dispensation in which they retained 60% of their receipts offshore. However, the government said it would take over the marketing of platinum, as it did with gold, because it was "strategic mineral".
The revised mineral marketing plan is designed to ensure forex earned is brought back into the country to boost the heavily depleted foreign currency market. "All offshore accounts for Zimbabwean-based platinum will cease to operate and all previous exchange control dispensations or government approvals allowing for the creation and holding of these accounts outside Zimbabwe are hereby rescinded," Gono said. "Platinum producers will be required to open special local foreign currency accounts in which all proceeds will deposited under a structure that will ensure a smooth transition from the prevailing offshore arrangements." This move is likely to spark jitters among producers, since Zimbabwe has a record of raiding local foreign currency accounts when it gets desperate for hard currency. Gono said he would devalue the battered local currency from Z$5600 to Z$6200 to the US dollar, in order to encourage Zimbabweans abroad to remit more forex. Zimbabwe earned 1,2bn in the first nine months of the year compared with only $250m for the same period last year, representing a 399,4% growth in forex inflows. Gold had been key in this improvement. Gono said he would with immediate effect adjust the gold price from Z$85000 to Z$92000 a gram.
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From The Financial Gazette, 28 October
Zanu PF chefs rush to offload seed
Felix Njini
Startling revelations by Seed Co chairman, Ray Kaukonde, that senior government officials were withholding hybrid seed maize have triggered panic among Zanu PF heavyweights, who have started emptying their stocks. Giving evidence before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands and Agriculture, Kaukonde said Seed Co had the list of top officials who were funded heavily by the company but were deliberately holding on to seed maize and possibly eyeing the more lucrative export market. The rare show of bravery by the Seed Co boss, who himself is the Zanu PF provincial chairman for Mashonaland East, incensed some of the unnamed officials. President Robert Mugabe is said to immediately have demanded to see the full list "of people sabotaging the agrarian reform". But before the purported list could find its way into the public domain, the culprits, whom sources said included members of the Zanu PF supreme decision making body - the Politburo - and some Cabinet ministers, rushed to release the hybrid seed maize they had in stock. The same politicians were accused of side-marketing last year. "Some big chefs have started releasing seed which they were withholding. The threats paid off. Seed maize is coming in now but the late comers are demanding cash on delivery, which is quite unusual, but perhaps it is just a show of anger," said an industry player.
While efforts to get in touch with the Seed Co chairman were fruitless yesterday, a senior company official confirmed the latest development, adding that the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed seed producing concern could continue receiving seed maize until the end of the year. It has emerged that the government, which has previously bullied local producers into accepting sub-economic seed prices, will pay up to $8 million per tonne on imported seed. The government has been haggling with producers over what they deemed uneconomic seed prices until it agreed to pay $5 million per tonne for locally produced seed. The country requires more than 100 000 tonnes of seed in the 2004/05 farming season to produce the projected three million tonnes of maize. Of this, an estimated 70 000 tonnes would have to be imported, players in the industry said. Hybrid seed maize producers, most of them senior government officials, were withholding the seed following a sub-economic government-imposed price. Players in the seed producing industry said ongoing negotiations with government over the prices of seed have failed to secure a viable selling price, putting a damper on prospects of producing adequate seed stocks next season.
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From IRIN (UN), 29 October
City dwellers try urban farming to fill gaps in the foodbasket
Bulawayo - As Zimbabwe's urban population struggles to cope with the high cost of living, residents in the country's second largest city, Bulawayo, have embarked on subsistence farming to alleviate economic pressure. Several hundred urban dwellers, especially those living in high-density areas, have already cleared small patches of land as the planting season approaches. Dingilizwe Siziba, a resident of Sizinda, one of the Bulawayo's oldest suburbs, said supporting his family had become increasingly difficult over the past few years as food prices continued to climb. Although inflation in Zimbabwe has declined in recent months, at Z$1.4 million (about US $250) the average food basket remains out of reach for many households. "Subsistence farming has largely been practiced in rural areas where there is enough land and labour - but things have changed. I don't know whether it's just a liking of farming that has gripped the urban populace, but personally I'm doing it so that I may harvest some maize to supplement my earnings," said Siziba, a truck driver who earns Z$700,000 (about US $124) per month. "Maize-meal is so expensive these days; sugar and bread have become pure luxuries. So if one gets a few pumpkins from his 'fields' and some cobs, you may breath a sigh of relief for some time," Siziba remarked.
Last year urban residents clashed with municipal authorities over tilling undesignated land and their crops were destroyed. Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube, the mayor of Bulawayo, told IRIN: "Urban agriculture is indeed allowed, but there are certain council by-laws that have to be strictly adhered to. For instance, we don't allow people to clear land haphazardly, as this may impact negatively on our town planning. We also don't allow a situation whereby people cultivate crops near streams, as this may cause soil erosion." According to a recent report by Habakkuk Trust, a local NGO, most households in Bulawayo faced food shortages mainly because they could not afford the price of goods at the stores. Low-income earnings were continuously eroded by soaring inflation, the report added. Habakkuk Trust director Dumisani Nkomo said the interest in urban farming revealed the economic hardships households were facing. "Many urbanites are now trying their hands at urban farming," Nkomo noted, "but the problem is that their land is just too small to yield any reasonable harvests, and they don't even have land rights."
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 29 October
Zanu PF empire a mess
Dumisani Muleya
The Zanu PF politburo committee investigating the party's business empire has learnt that its companies, supervised by administration secretary Emmerson Mnangagwa, are a shambles due to gross mismanagement. Zanu PF's Report of the Committee on Party Investments, debated by the politburo last week and this Wednesday, reveals the companies are riddled with managerial corruption and incompetence which could have prejudiced the ruling party of billions of dollars and assets. The report said some of the companies had virtually collapsed, while others had not been audited for years and their financial accounts were a complete mess. A $650 million Tregers Holdings cheque for dividend declared on February 18 2003 for the year ended December 31 2002 cannot be accounted for. The report said it was "inconceivable" that Tregers, in which Zanu PF has a 41,96% shareholding, managed to declare a $1,2 billion dividend in four years when its annual turnover was about $150 billion.
There are further queries over the murky investment of $120 million in the portfolio investment company M&S Investments by Zanu PF's wholly owned investment arm, M&S Syndicate (Pvt) Ltd. Zanu PF has interests in public and private companies held through M&S Syndicate (Pvt) Ltd. The ruling party has invested in Treger Holdings, Mike Appel, Catercraft, Fibrolite, closed last December, Zidlee, which failed to take over Delta in 1989 and now runs duty-free shops, Southern African Re-Insurance Company (Sare), Zidco Holdings and First Bank, whose Congo investment has now collapsed. Another company, NamZim, was "closed due to mismanagement and the property was looted by unknown people", the report says. Zanu PF also had interests in National Blankets, Woolworths and Ottawa Building, which were disposed of in unclear circumstances. Furthermore, Zanu PF separately owns Jongwe Printing & Publishing Company, as well as Jongwe and Nyadzonya farms. Some companies' books, for instance those of Catercraft, have not been audited for at least four years and there have been no board meetings for two years.
Mnangagwa, who was interviewed twice by the probe committee because he holds sway over the party's network of companies, confirmed the chaos in the businesses by admitting most of the companies have no records. "He (Mnangagwa) said that in most of these arrangements there were no written agreements on the formation of the companies and most of these agreements were done verbally between parties," the report says. "Neither was there an agreement for payment of management fees to the Joshi brothers as these companies were operating as one." Mnangagwa, who sits on nearly all companies' boards, supervised M&S Syndicate with Manharlal Chiunilal and Jayant Chiunilal Joshi. The two were linked to Zanu PF by the party's external secretary Didymus Mutasa and former secretary-general Edgar Tekere in 1979. However, the Joshi brothers and Dipak Pandya fled the country in April shortly after the probe began. Several Zanu PF officials were quizzed about their escape. Mutasa said the three ran way from being arrested and were in regular contact with him. He said Jayant was believed to be in Dubai, while Manharlal was in Manchester, England.
Some of the Zanu PF investments such as in Bindura Nickel Mine were also unclear. Zanu PF has a 23% equity in Bindura through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Further inquiries into this investment have been recommended. There are also fears that companies like Tregers could have externalised funds. As a result the report recommends that "police/law enforcements agents should go into further investigations in order establish any prejudice in terms of revenue to the party on its investments". More investigations were required into the shady M&S $120 million investment, Fibrolite and Catercraft operations, the unaccounted for $650 million Tregers dividend and other dividends declared without audited accounts, as well as Mike Appel's dividend declarations. The report says it is surprising Mike Appel declared a $31 million dividend in 2003 but $250 million this year. Sare and shelf companies like M&S Investments, Segmented Investments through which Zanu PF has a 27% interest in First Bank, and Smoothnest Investments, Hutsonville and Amelia Properties, the report says, should also be further investigated. There were also calls for the committee to find out if Zanu PF has interests in Africa Resources, Banco Nationale of Mozambique, DRC Bank in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Shabanie and Mashaba Mines.
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From The New York Times, 1 November
Cleared leader to face appeal in Zimbabwe
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe intends to appeal the acquittal of the nation's political opposition leader on charges of plotting to kill President Robert G. Mugabe, a government-controlled newspaper reported Sunday. The newspaper, The Sunday Mail, quoted the acting attorney general, Bharat Patel, as saying that the acquittal on Oct. 15 of Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, "has many flaws, and we don't think it should stand unchallenged." Mr. Patel said the government would file to overturn the verdict in about two weeks. The newspaper quoted him as saying that among other aspects of the decision, the government would challenge the court's ruling as to what constituted treason. Mr. Patel's statement contradicts an earlier declaration by Zimbabwe's justice minister, Patrick Chinamasa, that the government would accept the court's decision even though its view was that Mr. Tsvangirai had been "wrongly acquitted." Mr. Tsvangirai, 52, was arrested and charged with treason more than two years ago after the government produced a grainy videotape in which he was alleged to have discussed the "elimination" of Mr. Mugabe with Ari Ben-Menashe, a Montreal political consultant. Defense lawyers later said that Mr. Ben-Menashe had been under contract to the Mugabe government at the time and had been hired to frame Mr. Tsvangirai in advance of elections in 2002 in Zimbabwe, which Mr. Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change lost. After a yearlong trial, a High Court judge ruled on October 15 that the government had failed to prove its case. Mr. Tsvangirai said then that he hoped his acquittal would bring about a "national reconciliation" of the country's political crisis. Since then, Mr. Tsvangirai has been barnstorming southern Africa, lobbying regional leaders to press Mr. Mugabe to reform Zimbabwe's electoral process before national elections now scheduled for next March. Mr. Mugabe has waged a campaign to suppress political dissent in advance of those elections.
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From Zim Online (SA), 1 November
Police raid top trade unionist's home
Harare - Police yesterday raided Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) deputy secretary-general Collin Gwiyo's Harare home but did not arrest him because he was not there. Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena could not be reached to clarify what the law enforcement agency wanted Gwiyo for but the trade unionist told Zim Online he believed the police want him in connection with the Congress of South African Trade Unions' (Cosatu) botched up fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. "They simply told my family that I must report to my local police station. I believe this could be linked to the Cosatu mission," Gwiyo said. The trade unionist said he was arranging to present himself to the police with his lawyer either last night or today. Harare deported Cosatu leaders who had come to Zimbabwe to assess the situation in the country ahead of crucial elections next March. The government which angrily objected to the mission accused the Cosatu leaders of working with Britain and other Western countries opposed to its land reforms to topple it from power. Cosatu, which went to Zimbabwe at the invitation of the ZCTU, denies the charge. The government had also indicated it might want to punish ZCTU officials who invited Cosatu against its objections.
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From The Pretoria News (SA), 1 November
Cosatu, ANC yet to discuss Zim row debacle
By Karima Brown
There are no immediate plans for a meeting between trade union federation Cosatu and the ruling African National Congress to discuss the federation's controversial visit to Zimbabwe. Cosatu spokesman Patrick Craven said: "I am sure we will want to discuss these issues, but as far as I am aware there are no immediate meetings scheduled." However, Craven suggested that Zimbabwe could well feature on the agenda of a possible Alliance meeting between the ANC, Cosatu and the SACP.Weekend reports suggested that the government was seeking an urgent meeting with the trade union federation following the deportation of a Cosatu fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. Last week Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said it was "a little embarrassing for the ANC" after the mission got booted out unceremoniously from Harare. Craven declined to be drawn on President Mbeki's reported unhappiness over Cosatu's decision to visit Zimbabwe. "We have only seen what amounts to leaked reports of what the President might or might not have said about Cosatu's action. We did not actually hear for ourselves what he said - so I cannot comment on that." Mbeki is reported to have lashed out at Cosatu during the ANC caucus meeting in Parliament on Thursday. Cosatu's decision to go to Zimbabwe was in fact taken at its national congress attended by prominent ANC figures, Craven said. At the time, no one raised objections and everyone was aware of Cosatu's intention to send a delegation to Zimbabwe. "There was never any controversy; it only arose when our delegation was deported." On whether Cosatu's visit and the subsequent hostile action it provoked from the Zimbabwean government was damaging to President Mbeki's quiet diplomacy initiatives, Craven admitted Cosatu differed with Mbeki's strategy.
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 31 October
Looming NGO lay-offs threat to economy
By Foster Dongozi
15 000 people stand to lose their jobs ZIMBABWE'S economy is expected to experience another meltdown if the Non Governmental Organisations Bill becomes law, officials working with NGOs have said. Jacob Mafume, the co-ordinator of the National Association of Non Governmental Organisations'(NANGO) team working on a response to the Bill, said the full impact of the law was still being assessed. "We are still finalising the full economic and social impact that the bill will have on Zimbabweans but a conservative estimate is that if each of the 3 000 NGOs is employing five people, then 15 000 people will lose their jobs." Mafume said based on the assumption that each of the affected employees had a family of six members; tens of thousands of people would be thrown into poverty. Mafume added: "With the devastating effect of HIV/Aids, many dependants will be left stranded." This comes amid reports that some NGOs were preparing to relocate to other countries within the region s |
