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Archived News
30th March 2004
SA 'mercenaries' in court
Africa's Mugabe stance slammed
Proposed Electoral Act amendments questioned
Moguls flee as Zim banks close
Benefit from Zimbabwean farmers' expertise - Obasanjo
Zimbabwe's white farmers start anew in Zambia
Another Zimbabwe bank poised to fold
Catholic diocese sued by Zimbabwe govt
My hands are clean - Kuruneri
Zim film maker arrested
Fuel queues back in Zim
Malawian traders head to Zimbabwe - to shop
Anti-foreigner fears hit a high in Zimbabwe
Charles Taylor may have been 'mercenaries' target
Zim's heir apparent in dirty gold deal
Mugabe may quit at year-end
Clampdown on Zim banks
Parliament appoints team to probe Coltart’s conduct
Police raid community radio station
War vets throw weight behind BBC documentary
Zimbabwe start to repay IMF
Govt mortgages tobacco over debt
Presidential salary, allowances increased
Zanu PF squash Mugabe retirement rumours
Zengeza voting
NI missionary faces prison in Zimbabwe over prayers
Ministry forces students to take political course
Minerals plundered
New absentee landlords slammed
Mansion minister has other properties
Clashes mar Zim by-election
New controversy dogs Mugabe's heir
Move to acquire conservancies criticised
Eq. Guinea leader says other states targeted by plot
SAS man tells how coup went wrong
1 dead, dozens injured in violent Zimbabwe election
Mugabe opponent killed in polling
Zanu PF deploys ‘Green Bombers’ in Lupane
Three held over deal with alleged mercenaries
Strange twist to gold case
Harare's tobacco floor to open early, offer less
RBZ too powerful: IMF
Zanu PF fires 'warning shot' at MDC
Zanu PF edges closer to a two-thirds majority
MDC lawmaker arrested
Zimbabwean minister reassures panicky miners
Mampara of the Week: Chris Kuruneri
Can sanctions end Mugabe's rule?
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From The Cape Times (SA), 24 March
SA 'mercenaries' in court
By Moshoeshoe Monare
Harare - The 70 South African suspected mercenaries detained in Zimbabwe appeared briefly in court yesterday and have been remanded until their next appearance on April 13. Defence attorney Jonathan Samkange told the court that some of the accused had been assaulted, refused food, water and telephone access for four days. Clad in khaki prison shorts and shirts, leg-shackled and handcuffed in a two-by-two formation, the 60 black and 10 white men appeared for the first time in public in a makeshift court in Chikurubi maximum security prison, about 20km east of here. The group were formally charged but not asked to plead. Samkange told magistrate Mishrod Guvamobe that he would apply for bail on April 13. Their brief appearance was attended by South African High Commissioner Jerry Ndou, a representative from the British High Commission, a few family members, and a horde of local journalists. The men are facing five charges, which include conspiring to bring about a coup in Equatorial Guinea, contravening the Public Order and Security Act, trying to buy arms without legal certificates and contravening civil aviation and immigration laws. But the primary charge is the contravention of the Public Order and Security Act, which is regarded as high treason in Zimbabwe, and which carries a life sentence.
Simon Mann, Lourens Jacobus Horn and Carlos Jacob Hermanus, who were arrested as an alleged advanced team in Zimbabwe, are facing serious charges of trying to buy firearms. The list of arms they allegedly ordered from a local armaments company included 61 AK-47 rifles, 45 000 rounds of ammunition, 20 light machine guns, 100 RPG rocket launchers, seven anti-tank launchers and 150 handgrenades. Reading out the charges, Chief prosecutor Mary Zimba-Dube said Mann, Hermanus and Horn tried to buy the weapons from Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI). When ZDI realised that Mann was a notorious mercenary, Zimba-Dube said, the company refused to continue with the deal and contacted the authorities. By that time, a cheque for US$180 000 had already been handed over to the armaments company in the name of Nick du Toit, who is currently under arrest in Equatorial Guinea.
The accused appeared to be in high spirits, but when the prosecution read the charges they listened attentively and impassively. Most were wearing sandals, except Mann, who was wearing white sneakers and grey socks. The bespectacled Mann appeared concerned, chewing on something, playing with his fingers and constantly tapping his right foot. Horn and an unidentified accused were not shackled, as they had swollen legs. One court official joked that they were suffering from gout. Most of the men have grown beards, an indication of the time they had already spent in prison. They were escorted by more than 40 policemen, with half of them standing outside the makeshift court. It took more than 30 minutes to get a security clearance from the first security checkpoint to the fifth checkpoint before one could see the shabby looking and dilapidated building serving as a court.
It was hot inside the building, which seemed more like a warehouse than a court of law. One of the woman prison warders said the building was usually used as a function hall for staff members. There was no furniture apart from old benches that had been specially brought in for the prisoners, members of the public and the media. Chikurubi Prison is in the middle of nowhere, hidden behind a curtain of blue-gum trees and mealie fields. One passes through thick bush before reaching the first checkpoint. Then the buildings emerge from behind a security fence, guarded by watchtowers. But the entrance to the maximum prison is colourful, with flowers and a green garden pruned by woman prisoners. As the magistrate left the court, looks of despair and confusion could be seen in the eyes of most of the men, whose fates are now in the hands of the Zimbabwean authorities.
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From News24 (SA), 23 March
Africa's Mugabe stance slammed
Dar Es Salaam - German President Johannes Rau on Tuesday criticised African countries for supporting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe despite his poor human rights record, describing the solidarity as "misconceived democracy." "I understand that it is hard for some African leaders to criticise their neighbours with whom they once fought alongside in the struggle against colonialism, racism and oppression," Rau said in a speech delivered at Mwalimu Nyerere Foundation (MNF) on "Charting Africa's Path into the 21st Century - Reflections from a German Perspective. But those who, like President Mugabe, have nothing but contempt for principles of democracy and rule of law, and who bring their countries disaster and ruin, have in my view forfeited any claim to solidarity with their neighbours," Rau said. "Misconceived solidarity takes a terrible toll on millions, who find themselves victims of new injustice that destroys their hope, their livelihoods and even their lives," Rau added. He said that Germany would continue supporting Africa to enable it live in peace, prosperity and dignity. "To help, where help is needed, is not only morally justified, but a politically stable and economically prosperous Africa is also in our own interest," he said. Zimbabwe's High Commissioner (ambassador) to Tanzania, Chippo Zindonga, who was among the guests in the hall, walked out in protest following Rau's remarks. Rau arrived in Tanzania on Friday on a six-day state visit to the country, leading an 80-member delegation that includes government officials, businessmen and journalists.
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From IRIN (UN), 23 March
Proposed Electoral Act amendments questioned
Harare - Civil society in Zimbabwe on Monday condemned a move by the government to amend the Electoral Act, saying the amendment would undermine next year's parliamentary elections. "The planned changes to the Electoral Act will result in the tightening of the operations of the government-appointed Electoral Supervisory Commission (ESC) and unless there are fundamental changes to the process of holding elections, next year's elections would be easily declared not free and fair," chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN, Reginald Matchaba-Hove, told IRIN. The Electoral Amendment Bill, published in the Government Gazette last week, proposes changes to several clauses, particularly pertaining to voter registration, the voters' roll and postal ballots. In a move perceived as an attempt to elbow NGOs out of voter education, the Bill proposes that only the ESC be allowed to conduct voter education. Funds for voter education would have to be sourced locally, and foreign funds could only be donated to the ESC, which would then distribute them to organisations authorised to conduct voter education. The Bill, expected to be presented to parliament for debate, also says those eligible for postal ballots would include members of the military away on duty, diplomatic staff and staff away on electoral duty.
Matchaba-Hove said the proposed amendments were similar to those sanctioned into law by President Robert Mugabe just before the 2002 March presidential election. Although the laws were later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, they enabled surviving members of the military, like Brigadier Douglas Nyikayaramba, to be appointed chief elections officer, with members of the army, the police and other civil servants conducting the elections. "The planned electoral amendments are in clear violation of the Southern Africa Development Community, (SADC) Parliamentary Forum on norms and standards for holding elections, which states that no civil servants should conduct elections," Matchaba-Hove said. "Civic society has always called for the creation of an independent electoral commission to run elections, while observers and monitors would be drawn from civic groups. The independent commission would be responsible for the entire electoral process, from registration right up to the counting process," he added.
Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Commission, which has been agitating for a new constitution, said there was nothing new about the proposed amendments. "We have had these laws before - they are just reproducing laws that we have had before, and have been thrown away by the supreme court, because they violated certain provisions of the constitution," Madhuku told IRIN. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change has threatened to boycott next year's parliamentary elections, arguing that the playing field was not level. They also alleged that if these elections were held in conditions similar to those of the 2002 presidential poll, it would be easy to rig them. The opposition, along with most Western observers, condemned the 2002 presidential election as flawed.
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From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 23 March
Moguls flee as Zim banks close
Dumisani Muleya
Zimbabwe’s anti-corruption crackdown last week resulted in the closure of five key financial institutions. President Robert Mugabe is vigorously dismantling the country’s deep-rooted economic patronage system in an effort to ensure his political survival. The sweeping clean-up drive has sent business magnates - whose economic power was beginning to threaten Mugabe’s diminishing political influence - fleeing abroad to escape jail. As many as 10 prominent business tycoons have fled the country in recent weeks. Most are said to have sought refuge in London. However, the Zimbabwean president has said the moguls will be found and brought to justice. Financial institutions closed by the Reserve Bank this week included Barbican Bank and Barbican Asset Management. Reports say Barbican Asset Management South Africa, Barbican Holdings Botswana, and Barbican Capital Partners are also in deep financial crisis. The collapse of the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange-listed Barbican Holdings, owned by Mthuli Ncube and others, was preceded a few days earlier by the closure of Intermarket Holdings, one of the local firms owned by Nicholas Vingirai. The group’s major subsidiaries, Intermarket Banking Corporation, Building Society, and Intermarket Discount House, were shut down because of a severe liquidity crisis. Barbican Holdings was closed for the same reason.
But there were also allegations of corruption involving "foreign currency externalisation" and siphoning off of investors’ funds by directors in the form of "loans". Other financial institutions and companies that have been netted in the campaign include NMB Bank, Trust Bank, Century Bank, Century Discount House and Metropolitan Bank. NMB Bank managing director Julius Makoni and his deputy, James Mushore, are believed to have fled to London. Trust Bank, Century, and Metropolitan have had to be rescued by the central bank through its Troubled Banks Fund to protect investors and depositors’ funds, as well as preserve their assets. A number of asset management companies, in particular ENG Capital Asset Management, whose directors have been languishing in jail since December over a Z$60-billion fraud case, and discount houses have sunk as the clean-up tide sweeps across the financial sector. Many other locally owned companies are facing the risk of going under.
When the corrosive banking crisis began affecting the ordinary people Mugabe stepped in, masquerading as their saviour. However, critics point out his disastrous policies helped create the problems. Political analysts and a wide spectrum of Zimbabweans blame Mugabe’s regime for the corruption that has become an integral part of the country’s political system. They have accused Mugabe of maintaining his tyranny through an eclectic mix of coercion, emotional propaganda, patronage and graft. Business moguls have all along been kept within Mugabe’s political realm and at his regime’s service. The business executives provided resources to sustain his rule in exchange for security. However, since September, Mugabe has complained of "unhelpful businessmen", especially bankers, who had been beneficiaries of licences under his government but had shifted their political loyalty. At the Zanu-PF conference in December Mugabe warned the "unhelpful businessmen" and "tricksters" that their days were numbered. Later that month the crackdown started, with the arrest of ENG directors.
Mugabe’s concentrated campaign has been likened to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent clampdown on the "oligarchs" in his country. On October 25 last year Putin ordered the arrest of Russian billionaire oil baron Mikhail Khodorkovsky for tax evasion and corruption dating back to the wholesale plunder of state property during former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost programmes in the early 1990s. Khodorkovsky was using his immense personal fortune to bankroll opposition parties in Russia. This apparently broke an unwritten covenant between the "oligarchs" and the Kremlin leadership committing the moguls to keeping out of politics in return for the state’s protection of their ill-gotten wealth. Mugabe is seen as following the same formula by dealing with Zimbabwe’s "economic mafia" for breaking the cardinal rule of not interfering in politics and funding the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, a party deeply resented in official circles. Zimbabwe’s nouveau riche had accumulated wealth that had given them economic muscle that was beginning to challenge Mugabe’s political power and influence. The entrepreneurs, who admittedly had gained some of their fortune through illicit means, were building up their profiles as an alternative source of political power, and their adventurism as MDC financiers had ruffled the feathers of the powers that be.
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From THISDAY (Nigeria), 24 March
Benefit from Zimbabwean farmers' expertise - Obasanjo
From Josephine Lohor in Abuja
President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday stated that in the spirit of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), Nigeria wants the whole of Africa to benefit from the technical know-how and expertise of Zimbabwean farmers. Speaking when a delegation of the farmers led by the governor of Kwara State, Mr. Bukola Saraki, visited him at the State House in Abuja, the President who said the Federal Government would support everything that the Kwara State government was doing in the area of commercial agriculture, disclosed that government is looking into the Agriculture Credit Guaranty Scheme to make it more farmer-friendly. Obasanjo who said he would not delve into the politics of Zimbabwe "because politics at times do not go together," however, noted that he had "no doubt that we have to gradually move towards commercial and modern agriculture, but the dilemma is, how quickly we move and what we do with the old farmers. We have to move steadily but firmly so that when the 65-year old farmer can no longer farm, he will be replaced by the modern farmer." The president who noted that the visit of the Zimbabwean farmers was an indication of their faith and commitment to Africa, however, added that "we do not want to take away what is good for Zimbabwe from Zimbabwe but we also want you not to leave Africa. I believe that it is in the best interest of Africa that you do not leave."
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From The New York Times, 21 March
Zimbabwe's white farmers start anew in Zambia
By Sharon LaFraniere
Hisamba, Zambia - Douglas Watt is part of a most curious diaspora in Southern Africa: prosperous white farmers, vilified as greedy racists and driven out of Zimbabwe, looking for a home. Mr. Watt left the country of his birth about a year ago after what has become a common sort of encounter there. The husband of a worker in the office of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe politely told Mr. Watt that he was taking over his farm and that Mr. Watt had 90 days to get out. Today Mr. Watt is one of about 140 white Zimbabwean farmers who have relocated to neighboring Zambia hoping, many say, for a mix of racial harmony and political stability that will enable them to prosper and contribute to black Africa. For the farmers and for the Zambian government, the migration amounts to a new experiment on an issue central to the whole region: how do whites fit in?
While Zimbabwe has been uprooting its white farmers in an aggressive effort to redistribute colonial era landholdings, Zambian officials, if a trifle warily, have rolled out the welcome mat. They are hoping that farmers like Mr. Watt will breathe new life into the nation's moribund farming economy, which has been mired at the rake-and-hoe level since the mid-1970's. For their part, some transplanted farmers say they have learned from their experience in Zimbabwe that they need to integrate, not just prosper, if they want to be accepted. Mr. Watt drove around Zambia for three weeks before he found 1,600 acres to lease near this one-street village with a post office, police station and food market north of Lusaka, the capital. Pasture and brush a year ago, the gently rolling land is now five feet high in green tobacco plants tended by 240 workers. Huge yellow sheaves of tobacco are hung to cure in 15 shiny sheds by a new block-long warehouse. Mr. Watt has sunk $900,000 into his new farm, most of it borrowed from a bank and from the Universal Leaf Tobacco Company, based in Richmond, Va. "I have put every cent I have into this," Mr. Watt, 38, said, sitting in the dining room of his new ranch-style house. "I've got more invested here than I ever did in Zimbabwe. We will be an asset to the country."
Mr. Watt's move continues a long pattern of whites, increasingly uncertain of their welcome, who have hopscotched around the southern end of Africa in the last four decades. His shift reverses that of his parents, 40 years ago. Back when this Texas-size nation was still called Northern Rhodesia and chafed under colonial rule, Roy and Ria Watt grew tobacco and corn on 4,000 lush acres. In 1964, when white minority rule crumbled and the country became Zambia, the Watts, fearful of their future under a new black-led government, fled to Zimbabwe. Today their son is convinced that his parents bet on the wrong country. Douglas Watt describes Zambia as everything that Zimbabwe is no longer: racially tolerant, law-abiding and moderate. It had been desperate for investment after disastrous postindependence economic policies reduced the nation to a beggar for foreign handouts and loans. Critics say President Mugabe's policies in Zimbabwe are creating the same conditions for disaster there today. Also unlike Zimbabwe, or South Africa for that matter, Zambia has good land in abundance: about 60 percent of the countryside is arable, but less than 10 percent is actively farmed. In a country of 10 million, there are no more than 450 commercial farmers, including the Zimbabweans.
"We think there is a large vacuum to fill," said Chance Kabaghe, deputy minister for agriculture, in an interview in a dilapidated office building in Lusaka. "That's why we have been so open." Still, he added: "We are encouraging them to respect our norms and mix with the local people. We are watching the situation very closely." For Zambia, the white farmers' money and knowledge may help the nation climb out of the hole it fell into with the decline of its copper mines and nationalization of land after independence. Aided by open government policies on leasing and investment - and by America's tobacco industry, which is underwriting much of the farm-building - farmers like Mr. Watt are already creating a more modest version of Zimbabwe's once mighty tobacco industry, which has been left in ruins after three years of land seizures. Zambia is taking up some of the slack, doubling its tobacco production this year. By 2008, analysts predict, it will produce 82 million pounds of flue-cured tobacco a year. That is twice the yield of that in the mid-1970's, before farmland was nationalized, but still far less than Zimbabwe and Malawi each produce now. Government officials see a new revenue stream of fees and taxes, plus the potential for fertilizer stores, irrigation equipment and maybe even a tobacco processing plant like the one now operating at a quarter of its capacity in Zimbabwe. "We think we have benefited from the farmers who have come in," Mr. Kabaghe said. "We are very proud of them. Our tobacco industry is now booming." At the same time, no official here wants the success of white farmers to be too visible, lest it engender the sort of racial backlash that has helped spur Zimbabwe's land takeovers and that is building in both South Africa and Namibia. Nor do the tobacco companies want to be seen as the benefactors only of whites. Universal Leaf says it wants to develop 40 to 50 smaller, black-owned commercial farms on the periphery of the white-owned farms - a move Mr. Rusch says makes both political and economic sense.
Campbell Dunlop, a 42-year-old farmer, is not certain how it will all work out. He has lived for 18 months next to his tobacco fields in a safari-style hut off a heavily rutted, half-flooded road near Chisamba. But he left his wife and children in Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, calculating that he might eventually go back after turning over his new 395-acre farm to Zambian managers to run. "I haven't got my head around making this home," he said. Like many of his compatriots here, Mr. Dunlop is haunted by his losses in Zimbabwe. He and other migrants say they find comfort as far-flung neighbors, united by their two-way radios, their memories of 90-day eviction notices and their sense of outrage over the lack of world reaction to Mr. Mugabe. A few of their old workers have followed them. Dzingai Kapondoro, 33, worked for 15 years for a white tobacco farmer in Zimbabwe. After Mr. Mugabe's forces evicted the farmer and carved up the farm, Mr. Kapondoro's delighted family were the proud new owners of 25 acres. But while he had skills, Mr. Kapondoro said, he had no equipment to till the land or money for fertilizer and seed. With 25 acres of barren farmland and no income, he finally followed the farm's former white manager to Mr. Dunlop's farm in Zambia. Now he grades tobacco and lives in a thatched hut hundreds of miles from his wife and four children. Douglas Watt says it is a relief, a joy even, to feel welcome again. Barely a year ago, during his final days as a Zimbabwe farmer, he recalled, his own workers barricaded him and his wife in their farmhouse for 18 hours. With shouts and a clamor of drums, they demanded that he make good on the Mugabe government's promise of compensation for the fact that the Watts' forced eviction from their farm would leave them jobless. During his first weeks in Zambia last year, his workers raised a different sort of ruckus. They were celebrating the first time in their lives that many of them had been paid. "You could hear the party across the river," he said. "The drums beat for two days. It was actually a wonderful feeling."
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From Business Day (SA), 25 March
Another Zimbabwe bank poised to fold
Harare Correspondent
Barely a week after the closure of five financial institutions facing a cash crunch in Zimbabwe, yet another bank is under threat. Banking sources said yesterday that Century Bank might be hit by the contagion from collapsed ENG Capital Asset Management, which has already claimed Century Discount House. The discount house closed shop recently after it was allegedly defrauded of Z22bn by ENG. Although the closure of Century Discount House did not immediately affect Century Bank, sources said would it eventually crumble under its 30% exposure to ENG. ENG reportedly bought 350million shares at Z15 a share in Century Bank for Z5,3bn last year. ENG, whose directors have been convicted and jailed for fraud of Z60bn, reportedly owes creditors more than Z100bn. After a meeting held on March 17 between the discount house's liquidators and creditors, it emerged that some creditors intended to file claims against Century Holdings, owner of Century Bank, if ENG and Century Discount House failed to meet their financial obligations.
Century Bank is one of the struggling institutions recently rescued from collapse by the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank's troubled banks fund. The bank received Z30bn in support. Other banks that the reserve bank has moved to rescue are Trust Bank (Z198bn), Metropolitan (Z23bn ) and Barbican (Z6bn). However, Barbican Bank and its asset management company were shut down last week due to a liquidity crunch. Three subsidiaries of Intermarket Holdings a bank, a building society and a discount house met the same fate. Since the government began enforcing a strict monetary policy and cracking down on corruption, the financial services sector which has thrived on speculation in the money and property markets has been in deep trouble. The sector's predicament has been worsened by steep new capital adequacy requirements introduced by the government. An International Monetary Fund delegation visiting the country has said that Zimbabwe needs only seven banks. There are currently over thirty. This has heightened fear of an inevitable collapse Zimbabwe's beleaguered financial sector.
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From Afrol News (Norway), 25 March
Catholic diocese sued by Zimbabwe govt
The Zimbabwean government is pressing charges against the Catholic diocese of Hwange over its alleged involvement in black-market currency exchange. The Catholic Church hierarchy however holds that the reason behind the charges is to be found in the Church's growing opposition to the Mugabe regime. The Hwange diocese was charged this week with involvement in black-market currency exchange. Black-market trading however "has become commonplace" in Zimbabwe, the Catholic newswire 'CWNews' notes in a defence of the diocese, "since the Mugabe government placed strict controls on the use of foreign currency, in a desperate effort to counteract a skyrocketing inflation rate." The ongoing case against the Hwange diocese is only the last in a growing list of institutions charged with illegal currency exchange lately. Also another Catholic institution, the Church-run Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo - Zimbabwe's second largest city - last week was charged with large-scale black market transactions.
For the many institutions established in Zimbabwe having foreign links, using official channels to change the funds received in foreign currencies is a loss operation. Official rates are only a fraction of the real value of the Zimbabwe dollar (Z$), which is established in the black market. Further, keeping larger amounts of Z$ is bound to produce further losses, given the inflation rate of almost 1000 percent. The Harare government and Zimbabwe's Central Bank nevertheless have embarked on a campaign to cripple the ever-growing black exchange market, which is strongly contributing to the country's inflation and the depreciation of the Z$. Also the export of foreign currencies is now strictly supervised and charges are increasingly pressed against violators. According to sources in the Catholic Church, however, the charges against the Hwange diocese for violating currency-exchange laws is politically motivated. President Robert Mugabe is said to have been "at odds with the Catholic hierarchy in Zimbabwe for months, with the bishops persistently criticizing the President's autocratic rule."
The charges are seen as "the latest round of a battle" between the Zimbabwean government and the bishops of the Catholic Church. Earlier this month, Bulawayo archbishop Pius Ncube called on South Africa and the world at large to toughen sanctions against the Mugabe government to cause the President's downfall. "The international community must assist us to force these people," Mr Ncube told the press in South Africa. Catholic Archbishop Ncube, who has yet to comment on the charges against the Hwange diocese, himself holds that the real masterminds of illegal transactions are to be found in the Mugabe government. Mr Ncube earlier this month claimed that religious leaders in Zimbabwe remained divided in their view on the government because President Mugabe - himself a Catholic - had "bought out" many of them. "Mugabe gave them money and farms. He even offered me a farm as part of his evil devices," the Zimbabwean Church leader alleged.
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From The Herald, 25 March
My hands are clean - Kuruneri
Herald Reporter
The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr Chris Kuruneri, in the news for building a property in Cape Town, South Africa, has denied that he acquired the funds irregularly. The newly appointed minister said his hands were clean and that he had acquired the money to build the house by dint of hard work and through proper business transactions. In an interview yesterday, Dr Kuruneri dismissed allegations in the South African Sunday Times - which were regurgitated in the Daily Mirror - implying that he had used 30 million South African rands to construct the property in Cape Town. "The property that I am building in Cape Town is not going to cost 30 million South African rands as reported in the two papers. In fact, it will cost only 7 million rands,’’ said Dr Kuruneri. He said the money he used to acquire the land on which the property is being built was from consultation fees he got from Mobile Systems International and a consultancy firm called Felipe Solano. The two companies were involved in the setting-up of mobile cellular phone networks in different parts of the world. Dr Kuruneri said his association with Felipe Solano dated back to 1992 when he did some consultancy work for the company on economic affairs and environment impact assessments. "Mobile Systems International was one of the losing bidders for a licence in the mobile cellular network systems in Zimbabwe. The company then appointed me as a consultant for sub-Saharan Africa. Through my efforts, Mobile Systems International managed to secure two licences in Malawi and Zambia. The company was not compelled to pay me in Zimbabwean currency because this was not a Zimbabwean project. Besides, the expenses that I incurred, including living expenses and consultation work, were not charged in Zimbabwean dollars,’’ he said.
Dr Kuruneri said the articles that appeared in The Sunday Times and the Daily Mirror contained several falsehoods. "The major falsehood in the article is that I was fronting for President Mugabe in the projects. This is a naked lie because the President has never been involved in the Cape Town project. It is my personal project,’’ he said. "Perhaps my crime is that I do not talk too much. Some people, who achieve very little success, always prefer to show off and blow their own trumpets. But I have chosen to remain quiet and this is the price that I must pay,’’ he said. Dr Kuruneri said the association with the two companies ended when he was appointed Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Development. "I had to terminate my contractual obligation with the two companies for the simple reason that I felt I had a potential conflict of interest now that I was a full-time Government Minister as opposed to being a part-time Member of Parliament. "It is clear that I have not been in violation of any Zimbabwean laws as I could not have externalised resources that did not originate from Zimbabwe,’ ’ said Dr Kuruneri.
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From News24 (SA), 24 March
Zim film maker arrested
Harare - An independent film maker in Zimbabwe was arrested and charged under security laws on "suspicion" he helped to make a recent BBC documentary about the country's controversial youth training camps, his lawyer said on Wednesday. Beatrice Mtetwa said her client Simon Bright was arrested last Friday as he tried to board an Air Zimbabwe plane to London. He was detained for the weekend by police and questioned on whether he worked for "outside broadcasters", Mtetwa said. The lawyer said Bright was asked whether he was involved in making the BBC's recent Panorama programme that claimed thousands of Zimbabwean youths are being trained in special camps to torture and intimidate opponents of President Robert Mugabe's government. "The suspicion is that he was involved in that" Panorama documentary, Mtetwa said, but denied any link. Bright was released on Monday afternoon after being charged under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) for communicating "a statement which is wholly or materially false", Mtetwa added. Mtetwa said that Bright, an established film maker who focuses on development and conservation issues, was taking a tape to clients in London who had commissioned him to make a documentary on a game park in southern Zimbabwe. Mtetwa said police were "unable to say what was offensive" about the tape, adding that various government departments were involved in the making of the documentary. Under Zimbabwe's strict security laws, the communication of false statements carries a fine or a five-year prison term on conviction.
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From The Pretoria News (SA), 25 March
Fuel queues back in Zim
By Moshoeshoe Monare
After a respite of three months, fuel queues have returned to Zimbabwe. According to the country's new private petroleum supply companies, problems in the provision of fuel might take three weeks to resolve. For two days, there was no petrol in most of Harare, with long queues seen at the main filling stations. On Wednesday, there was only one garage with a full pump in the central business district while in Greendale, 10km east of the capital, most stations had "no-petrol" cardboard signs. Other garages were deserted. The association of fuel suppliers said some of its members had failed to acquire foreign currency to buy fuel. Masimba Kambarami, spokesperson for the Petroleum Marketers of Zimbabwe, said the fuel importing companies were turned down at the reserve bank's foreign currency auction floor, leaving them without cash to buy fuel. Sellers decline to sell foreign exchange when the rates, set by the reserve bank, are too low. The fuel business was privatised late last year to allow individuals to buy fuel. The government believed that the move would ease the shortages and shift the burden of imports from the inefficient and corruption-ridden state petroleum parastatal Noczim. "The majority of the bids by fuel suppliers to get foreign currency from the auction were turned down and those that are selling fuel are those who managed to get foreign currency." "Filling stations are charging different pump prices and obviously motorists buy from these stations, creating shortages," he said. Kambarami said as long as the foreign exchange problem persisted, there would be fuel shortages.
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From Reuters, 24 March
Malawian traders head to Zimbabwe - to shop
By Ed Stoddard and Denis Mzembe
Blantyre - Malawian hawkers are making big profits by buying their stock from impoverished Zimbabwe, which manufactures most of the goods which Malawi imports. "There's nothing here (in Malawi). We can't get this stuff here," says 17-year-old Darren as he points to his latest Zimbabwean acquisition - blocks of Butter Cup Luxury Table Margarine. Bingu Wa Mutharika, economic planning and development minister and presidential candidate for the ruling UDF party in May 18 elections, said on Wednesday he wanted his import-reliant nation to begin producing and exporting more goods itself. Few things drive this point home harder than the sight of black-market traders selling goods they had to buy in Zimbabwe - itself suffering a severe economic crisis. Darren's colleagues - who were also selling powdered milk and canned goods - agreed that it was hard to find such goods in Malawi and that anyway they were cheaper in Zimbabwe, where the local currency is in free-fall on the black market. "I make lots of profit," said Darren, adding that he had paid about 3 700 Malawian kwacha (about R200) for a box of 24 packets of margarine and sold them all for about 4 800 kwacha. Another trader said he travelled 600km by bus to the Zimbabwean capital Harare to buy margarine - a grinding, full-day journey over pot-holed roads. Others said they bought their goods from Zimbabwean traders who journeyed to Malawi. "It's not available here," said another trader standing on a street corner over his Zimbabwean margarine. Asked why not, he shrugged and said: "It's not manufactured here."
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From The Star (SA), 25 March
Anti-foreigner fears hit a high in Zimbabwe
By Basildon Peta
Zimbabwe's government has launched a crackdown against foreigners as the paranoia increased over 70 suspected South African mercenaries. Air Zimbabwe and Department of Immigration officials said scores of foreigners, especially East and West Africans, were being rounded up and deported as part of Operation Dzokera (go back). Many foreigners were being denied entry into the country as President Robert Mugabe's government fears that it might itself fall victim to "mercenary activities" such as those the 70 men were allegedly plotting in Equatorial Guinea. All passenger lists of commercial aircraft landing in Zimbabwe were being submitted to the Central Intelligence Organisation. "By the time each plane lands in Harare, the CIO and the police already have the names of all the passengers," said an airport official. British Airways, operated by Comair, as well as South African Airways, are the only major international carriers operating into Zimbabwe. A British Airways spokesperson said last night it was still operating its daily flights. The CIO and the police have been operating permanent bases at Harare International Airport in the past few months. The police have also built holding cells at the airport to detain suspects.
To deal with any security threats, soldiers are stationed at the Manyame air force base, located near Harare International Airport, as well as at other airports. Operation Dzokera a joint operation by the police, the army and the Department of Immigration, comes after 70 suspected South African mercenaries appeared in a makeshift courtroom at Chikurubi Maximum Prison. The state indicated it feared a rescue attempt if it transported them to the magistrate's court 25km from the jail. It said it did not have enough security and appropriate vehicles to thwart any possible rescue attempt. Official sources said that apart from the fears raised by the suspected mercenaries, foreigners were being accused of a variety of crimes. Allegedly, some were sabotaging the economy by dealing illegally in foreign currency, while others were using Zimbabwe for human trafficking. The sources added that others had entered the country on false pretences in order to transit to South Africa, which is harder to enter directly from their own countries. Asians thought to be involved in drug scams were also being targeted. Efforts to get official comment from the police and Immigration Department failed.
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From The Times (UK), 24 March
Charles Taylor may have been 'mercenaries' target
From Michael Dynes in Johannesburg
A saga of claim and counterclaim surrounding suspected African mercenaries continued today when the men’s families disclosed that they had been on a mission to abduct Charles Taylor, Liberia’s former warlord-turned-president. The men, detained in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea, face possible death penalties, having been charged with planning to overthrow the president of the tiny West African country. Seventy suspects have been remanded in custody at Zimbabwe’s top security prison. Fifteen others are incarcerated in Equatorial Guinea, accused of accepting an offer from exiled opposition leaders of $1.8 million (£1m) and oil rights to overthrow the Government. However, family and friends told South African newspapers today that the men were simply planning to use Guinea as a staging post on a mission to capture Mr Taylor. He carries a $2 million (£1.1m) bounty to be paid by America on delivery to the war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone.
The Guinean capital, Malabo, is less than 200 miles from Calabar, the port city in southeast Nigeria where Mr Taylor has claimed asylum. The alleged mercenaries, who are mostly former members of South Africa’s apartheid-era military forces, but are said to be led by Simon Mann, an old Etonian and former SAS officer, had hired two fishing trawlers in Equatorial Guinea. There was also a rubber dinghy among equipment seized along with 64 undeclared passengers on an ageing cargo plane in Zimbabwe. The families insist that the vessels were to be used in a sea-borne assault on the Nigerian port. Taylor was indicted by the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal last June on 17 counts of crimes against humanity for his role in arming and training the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in a decade-long rebellion which left up to 200,000 dead. The court’s chief investigator said that he would welcome anybody, "even a private company", who could deliver Taylor to stand trial.The US Congress has since authorised a $2 million bounty.
Within days of the announcement, Northbridge Services Group, a private company based in London, placed an advertisement on its website offering to "split the profits on the reward" with any partner interested in helping to fund and execute an operation to snatch Taylor from his Nigerian villa. Northbridge has a history of involvement in West African conflicts and is widely reported to have close links with the arrested men. Conflicting claims about their true intentions have been rife since their capture earlier this month. First Equatorial Guinea claimed that the ageing Boeing 727-100 had been flying mercenaries from South Africa to topple its Government. Then the flight operators said that it had been flying experts to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo to provide security and other support services to mining companies. Then Kembo Wohabi, the Zimbabwean Minister of Home Affairs, said that the men were planning to aid a Congo rebel group and had stopped in Harare to buy arms. Zimbabwe has subsequently backed Equitorial Guinea’s claims, a line endorsed by Mann's alleged accomplice, Nick du Toit, who appeared on television in the former Spanish colony and confessed to the plot to topple the leader of the oil-rich country.
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From The Star (SA), 25 March
Zim's heir apparent in dirty gold deal
By Moshoeshoe Monare
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's heir apparent and Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa has been implicated in illicit gold dealings. In a charge sheet prepared by the state, leaked to Independent Newspapers, Mnangagwa has been incriminated for accepting Z$8-million (about R12 300) from an illegal gold dealer. The allegations emerged in a court case involving an alleged "unscrupulous" gold dealer, Mark Mathew Burden, 43, who is appearing in the Zimbabwe High Court for dealing in gold without a proper legal permit. "Upon perusal of the bank documents, police discovered that the accused had made the following cheque payments to ED Mnangagwa. "On September 17, 2003 the accused paid ED Mnangagwa Z$8-million using bank cheque 693803. When asked about these payments, which the police suspected to have been related to gold transactions, the accused could not satisfactorily explain," the state said in the charge sheet. On Tuesday, Burden's attorney demanded that Mnangagwa's name be erased from the charge sheet. The court agreed and gagged the press from revealing the speaker's name.
However, on Wednesday a source leaked the court charge sheet to Independent Newspapers and other Zimbabwean independent journalists showing Mnangagwa's name. In the charge sheet, Burden, the owner of Zimbabwe's Ivan Hoe Mine and eight gold custom mining plants, is accused of milling gold ore from other registered miners, small-scale miners and gold panners around Kwekwe district. "The accused would then buy gold at parallel market rate after milling gold ore from various people. During 2000, detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department received information that the accused was buying gold at a price higher than the one offered by Fidelity Printers and Refiners. (The refinery) is the sole buyer of gold produced in Zimbabwe. That meant the accused was not going to sell gold to Fidelity Printers as he would run (at) a loss. Hence, it was suspected that he was externalising the gold," the charge sheet said.
Police discovered more than 2 000kg of gold at his house during a swoop last year. Burden left for South Africa in November 2003, but was arrested in Kwekwe on his return early this year. "It has been established that the accused dealt with Thedvall Investments and (exchanged) with Thedvall Investments 1,6kg of gold for a front-end loader which the accused was selling for Zim$10-million (about R15 400). On the second occasion, he also exchanged a grader he was selling for Z$1-million (about R1 540) for 120kg of gold. On the third occasion, the accused exchanged a Shell DAF Truck he was selling for Z$5-million (about R7 700) for 270kg of gold." He is also accused of exchanging 69 000 litres of diesel for six kilograms of gold. "On all these occasions, the accused declined to accept cash and preferred gold," the state alleges.
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From The Star (SA), 26 March
Mugabe may quit at year-end
By Moshoeshoe Monare
Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe will announce his retirement in December during Zanu PF's national congress. This was announced by a senior party executive yesterday. Dr Nathan Shamuyarira, Zanu PF's secretary for information, said in an interview that the December congress would see the final decision about Mugabe's future. But he said it was not clear whether Mugabe would announce an immediate departure or a date for relinquishing power. "The congress of the party (will be) held in December ... and you can say that it is at that point that Mugabe will indicate his view of his role in the future," Shamuyarira said. He said that, depending on how Mugabe quits, a leadership tussle in Zanu PF will ensue. "John Nkomo (party chairperson) is on par with Emmerson Mnangagwa (parliamentary Speaker). It depends very much on how Mugabe quits. If Mugabe at the December congress says 'I am quitting now', Joseph Msika (the vice-president) will (automatically) take over. "It will be very difficult for anyone to oppose him. But if Mugabe says 'I will be retiring in a year's time', then there will be in-fighting between Mnangagwa and Nkomo." Mnangagwa is currently implicated in illicit gold dealings. Other frontrunners for the job include Minister of Anti-corruption Dydmus Mutasa and Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi.
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From News24 (SA), 23 March
Clampdown on Zim banks
Blessing Mambara
Harare - Zimbabwe's financial sector is falling apart and corrupt bank bosses are fleeing the country to escape police enquiries. Four banks have already closed their doors and have been placed under curatorship since Gideon Gono was appointed governor of the Reserve Bank in December last year. Two more banks, Barbican Commercial Bank and Intermarket Building Society, were closed last week and were placed under curatorship by Gono in an attempt to "clean up" the banking sector. Corrupt bank bosses, some of whom have government contacts, are apparently fleeing to London to escape arrest. Mthuli Ncube, Barbican's chief executive and Nicholas Vingirai, Intermarket's CEO, have both fled to London, as well as the heads of the National Merchant Bank, Dr Julius Makoni and James Mushore.
"Cyclone Gono", as the new governor of the Reserve Bank in Harare is known, is even mentioned as a possible successor to president Robert Mugabe. Gono says that at the end of this year inflation shouldn't be higher than 200%. Many Zimbabweans are supporting him, but analysts say without political reform, his plans won't amount to much. Mugabe has given Gono carte blanche, but questions are already raised about how far the president will allow him to go and if he will allow Gono to question his confidants, who are allegedly also involved in questionable transactions. Zimbabwe's financial sector has been considered for years as the big success story of Mugabe's black empowerment policy. But the industry is collapsing because of widespread fraud and corruption. Inadequate regulation and nepotism with the awarding of bank licences are apparently behind the collapse. "Closed by order of the Reserve Bank" is often seen by ordinary Zimbabweans who have savings in one of the country's many banks.
Fighting corruption is one of the main slogans in government circles these days and the government-controlled media reports daily about the government's "successes". Economists say the Reserve Bank's quest will have far-reaching consequences, because the activities of many companies are now exposed and others can't find resources for production. Political analysts are viewing the actions against certain banks and individuals as wrestling with the "soul" of Zanu PF. The governing party is divided into several factions, all hoping to gain power when Mugabe decides to retire and the criminal activities of competitors are reported in an attempt to enlarge and entrench their power base. Financial services companies have also been adversely affected. The registration of more than ten asset management officials have been turned down and others have been de-registered because they didn't meet the Reserve Bank's requirements of having sufficient deposits to carry on with activities.
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From The Herald, 25 March
Parliament appoints team to probe Coltart’s conduct
Herald Reporter
Parliament has appointed a committee to establish whether Bulawayo South MP Mr David Coltart (MDC) was in breach of the Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act when he tabled a list of Zanu PF MPs allegedly in possession of more than one farm in January. The Speaker of Parliament Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa told the House on Tuesday that the Standing Rules and Orders Committee had appointed a five-member committee to look into the issue. The committee, he said, was made up of Harare East MP Mr Tendai Biti (MDC), the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Cde Chris Kuruneri, the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Cde Paul Mangwana, Chief Jonathan Mangwende and Bulawayo North-East MP Professor Welshman Ncube (MDC). "The committee is expected to report back its findings to the House by April 30," Cde Mnangagwa said. Mr Coltart presented the list during a debate on the Land Acquisition Bill, which is now law. He said Zanu PF MPs on the list should not debate the Bill as they had an interest in its passage or not. This caused a furore in the House with business being disrupted for about 40 minutes as the situation degenerated into a slanging match between Zanu PF and MDC legislators. Parliament observed a minute of silence in honour of the late Lupane MP Mr David Mpala (MDC) who died last month, when it resumed on Tuesday.
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From VOA News, 25 March
Police raid community radio station
Tafi Murinzi
Four officers, dressed in regular clothes, arrived at Bulawayo Agenda’s offices after lunch, saying they represent the Law and Order section. Coordinator of the pressure group, Gorden Moyo, says the men showed him a search warrant before they confiscated books, letters, documents and video recordings of the organization’s public meetings. Mr Moyo says the men returned later, only to take the group’s 23-yeard-old administrator, Sibusiswe Ndlovu, with them. Her current whereabouts have not been confirmed. Mr Moyo says he thinks she’s still in custody. Mr Moyo added he has no idea what the police were after. He suspects, however, that there may be a link between the search and a recent police directive prohibiting public meetings after 5pm. The marketing manager of Radio Dialogue, Kholiwe Nyoni, says five men appeared at the station’s Pioneer House offices just before lunch. They also had a search warrant. The document was authorized by a chief superintendent Paradzai, who is believed to be the head of the police’s Law and Order section. Ms Nyoni ads the officers took documents from different offices, including invitations to an upcoming arts festival. She says she thinks the raid may have been motivated by the station recently starting "in house broadcasting", which is aimed at orienting staff with broadcast equipment. Since its formation four years ago, the community station has been pushing for independent broadcasters to be allowed to operate. As part of this campaign Radio Dialogue co-produced a protest "Free the Airwaves" CD with the Media Institute of Southern Africa, or MISA.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 26 March
War vets throw weight behind BBC documentary
Loughty Dube
The Zimbabwe Liberators Peace Initiative (ZLPI), a grouping of former freedom fighters, has thrown its weight behind the Panorama documentary screened by the BBC earlier this month on the country's youth militia camps. ZLPI president Max Mnkandla this week told the Zimbabwe Independent his organisation agreed with most of the details contained in the BBC documentary which was also screened in Zimbabwe this week. "We have interviewed and spoken to some of the youths who deserted these camps and what we have established is exactly what was highlighted in the BBC programme," Mnkandla said. The screening of the documentary by the BBC earlier this month angered local authorities who lashed out at the broadcaster and charged that the documentary contained false information aimed at tarnishing the image of Zimbabwe. Mnkandla said the ZLPI was disturbed by the course content at the youth militia camps and said the camps were designed as a recruitment base for the army and other state security institutions. "As a peace-building organisation we understand that some of their lessons include re-orientation in Zanu PF history, jogging, toyi-toying drills and long distance running and all these subjects fit well to prepare someone who will be joining any division of the armed forces," Mnkandla said. Last year a dozen youths who deserted the training camps told harrowing tales of events at the camps during a prayer session led by the Bulawayo Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube. Mnkandla said the subjects taught at the camps were not related to any vocational education that would be put to good use by the youths after completing their so-called "vocational training". "The subjects taught at the Border Gezi institutions have nothing to do with building, farming, and motor mechanics, and the question we always ask is who is a better person to teach history between a trained school teacher and a war veteran instructor who cannot even write his own name?" Mnkandla said. He said Zanu PF has turned the National Youth Service into a military youth wing to terrorise opposition members and said the youths should stop using military uniforms while government should disband the youth camps.
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From Business Day (SA), 26 March
Zimbabwe start to repay IMF
Harare - Zimbabwe has started to repay its debt of more than $200 million to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in a bid to avoid expulsion from the body, the state-run Herald reports. The paper quoted Finance Minister Chris Kuruneri as saying Zimbabwe had so far paid $4.5 million out of a total debt of $273.9 million over the last three months. The report comes as a seven-member IMF research team, led by Doris Ross, is visiting the embattled country to assess the economic situation, following moves last year by the fund to expel Zimbabwe for unpaid debt and lack of co-operation. Zimbabwe is currently in the grip of severe economic hardships, with inflation at more than 600%, 70% unemployment and chronic shortages of fuel, food and foreign currency. "The IMF staff expressed concern that inflation levels of above 600% were too high and there was need to reduce the figure," Kuruneri told the paper. He added that the IMF team was also concerned by the government's monopoly over the buying and selling of grain, and had advised that the sector be deregulated. It had also taken the government to task over the country's exchange rate, determined through a twice weekly auction, which they said was promoting imports but hurting the export sector. "Most (exporters) are unhappy for being asked to surrender their foreign currency at the official rate of 824 Zimbabwe dollars per greenback yet the selling price at the auction is averaging around 4,000 to the greenback," Kuruneri noted.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 26 March
Govt mortgages tobacco over debt
Shakeman Mugari
In a desperate bid to pay off its US$273 million debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the government has mortgaged this year's tobacco crop to a tobacco marketing company, Mashonaland Tobacco Company (MTC). Sources said this week the government has made a forward sale of 35 million kg of tobacco worth US$86 million, more than half this year's expected yield. Between 45 million and 60 million kg is expected this year. The US$86 million, sources said, would be used as part payment of government's mounting debt to the IMF. Agriculture minister Joseph Made is understood to have signed the deal on behalf of the government. Also present at the series of meetings that culminated in the deal were officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). Contacted yesterday, Made would neither confirm nor deny the deal. He switched off his mobile phone as soon as the Zimbabwe Independent put the question to him.
The Independent heard this week that the arrangement also allows MTC to purchase tobacco directly from farmers. Highly-placed sources say the government and the MTC signed the sale agreement on March 10 and finalised the logistics at a meeting held this week. MTC sales and administration director Rob Hacker could not confirm the transaction but said the company had been issued with a "special licence" two weeks ago. "We have been awarded a special licence to purchase tobacco directly from farmers. Unlike other licence holders, MTC does not need to have supported the farmers in order to buy from them," said Hacker. Asked for details of the deal and what it entailed, Hacker said his hands were tied and he would rather wait for a statement from the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) before commenting. "Those figures (US$86 million) are substantial," he said. "We have an arrangement with government but surely we would not want to buy all that tobacco. It's unfair to other merchants. We would rather have the TIMB comment first." He however confirmed that talks between the company and government over "some arrangements" had been going on for some time. But he could not say whether the deal represented a mortgage on the national tobacco crop for this year.
Experts in the industry say the deal means government has already ensured that MTC becomes the biggest buyer of tobacco this year. TIMB general manager Stanley Mutepfa was evasive. "We will be issuing a statement on that today (yesterday) or Friday," he said. "That statement will explain the issue better. Phone me then," said Mutepfa. Analysts see this as part of government's attempt to entice the IMF to give the country financial support. Zimbabwe urgently needs balance-of-payments support from the IMF. The IMF team is in the country for annual consultations. But analysts are sceptical about it yielding much due to government's poor governance record. Economist John Robertson said the system of forward purchase has been used in Brazil but it hinges on guarantees of quality and the track record of both buyer and seller. "The forward sale will only bring in money sooner but it will not change the debt situation," he said. "That situation is likely to be the same." The figure of US$86 million for 35 million kg was quite a "brave" figure to attach, he said, because it was based on the assumption that the quality of Zimbabwe's tobacco was going to be high enough to fetch US$2,39 a kg. "Judging by the quality this year it is highly unlikely they will get that amount," Robertson said. Last year tobacco sold for an average US$2,30 a kg.
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From The Herald, 27 March
Presidential salary, allowances increased
Harare - The Government gazetted a new salary and allowances for the President or Acting President with effect from January this year. According to a statutory instrument published in yesterday's Government Gazette, the President or Acting President now earns $73,7 million a year up from $20,2 million. In addition, the President and Acting President would get a Cabinet allowance of $2,8 million a year, up from $1,4 million and a general allowance of $1,6 million up from $840 000. The President would get a housing allowance of $3,024 million a year, up from $1,5 million and annual gratuity equivalent to the monthly salary with effect from January. The President or Acting President's salary was last reviewed in July last year. Vice President's annual salaries were last year increased from $2,7 million a year to $18,4 million while the Speaker of Parliament's salary was hiked from $2,5 million to $17,3 million a year. Cabinet ministers salaries went up last year to $16,5m a year, up from $2,4m while provincial governors and Ministers of State had their salaries increased from $2,4m to $16,2m per annum. General allowances for Vice-Presidents, Cabinet ministers, Provincial Governors, the Speaker of Parliament and MPs were not increased.
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From Reuters, 26 March
Zanu PF squash Mugabe retirement rumours
Harare - Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party denied a report in The Star newspaper on Friday that embattled President Robert Mugabe would announce at the party's congress in December when he planned to step down. Zanu PF Information Secretary Nathan Shamuyarira, who was quoted by the Johannesburg daily in the report, denied it. "It's not true. What I told the reporter was that we are having a congress in December where all leaders of the party are elected. We have an election of all party leaders every five years," Shamuyarira said. "The reporter asked me if the president will be re-elected and I told him that I don't know," he added. Mugabe, who has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has come under pressure to step down from domestic and international opponents, who blame him for the country's economic and political crisis. Mugabe, 80, has previously denied speculation he would leave office before the end of his current term in 2008.
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From ZWNEWS, 27 March
Zengeza voting
Voting began today in the by-election for the parliamentary seat of Zengeza, amid renewed allegations of violence and fraud by the MDC. The opposition party reported that two busloads of Zanu PF militia arrived in Harare by train from Bulawayo last Tuesday in preparation for the poll. On Friday afternoon, the opposition campaign headquarters, based at the Zengeza home of its candidate James Makore, was attacked by a group of around 100 Zanu PF militia. Ten opposition supporters were injured and had to be hospitalised. A similar attack on the house on Thursday was repulsed. Makore's home was also attacked last week. Earlier today, there were reports that Zanu PF militia had sealed off the polling station at Zengeza 8 primary school, and were throwing stones at voters arriving early for the 7 am start of voting on first day of the by-election. The MDC also alleges that voters have been bribed with cash payments. The Zengeza seat was left vacant after the resignation of Tafadzwa Musekiwa, who won the poll in the constituency in 2000, and subsequently fled the country in fear of his life. Makore faces Zanu PF’s Christopher Chigumba, Tendai Chakanyuka of the National Alliance for Good Governance and Gideon Chinogureyi of Zanu.
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From The Belfast News (UK), 26 March
NI missionary faces prison in Zimbabwe over prayers
A Northern Ireland clergyman is facing prison in Zimbabwe for holding a street prayer meeting. The Rev Noel Scott, who has been a missionary in Bulawayo for more than 30 years, could be jailed for two years for breaching the Public Order and Security Act when he stands trial next month. The retired Anglican priest was arrested and briefly imprisoned with three other church leaders for praying on the pavement on their way to a prayer meeting for peace two years ago in the run-up to a presidential election. However, magistrates threw out the summons over a year ago as "defective" and "out of the blue". Mr Scott has now received a new summons and will stand trial on renewed charges of breaching Zimbabwe's controversial security law which prohibits the holding of certain types of public gatherings or marches that have not been sanctioned by the police. In a letter to the Church of Ireland Dean of St Patrick's in Dublin, Mr Scott revealed how he has been on remand since he was first arrested. "Since then I have made seven or eight appearances in court," he said. "Thousands of people are on remand and the magistrates keep on postponing their cases. It's a reflection on the general lawlessness here and is a form of intimidation." Mr Scott, who was ordained in 1960 for the assistant curacy of Ballymacarrett in the Diocese of Down, has been offered sanctuary by the Church of Ireland but he is refusing to leave the community he has given his life to help. Despite being retired, the shortage of clergy means he is "not short of work," he told Dean Mac-Carthy. "I'm also very involved with Christians Together for Justice and Peace of which I'm a founder member with Archbishop Pius and others and we do what we can within the limits imposed." David Coltart, a lawyer and Member of Parliament for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the pastors and church members had been charged under the draconian new security laws with "disobeying the command of a police officer".
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 25 March
Ministry forces students to take political course
Itai Dzamara
In what is seen as a bid by government to advance its political agenda, the Ministry of Higher Education has introduced "National and Strategic Studies" as a subject in institutions of higher learning. The ministry has ordered polytechnics, teachers' colleges and universities to make the subject compulsory. It appears to have been adapted from the controversial National Youth Training Service programme. Students who fail to pass the National and Strategic Studies course cannot graduate. Sources in the Ministry of Higher Education confirmed that the subject was compulsory at all colleges and polytechnics. The Zimbabwe Independent this week spoke to a number of students at the Harare Polytechnic who face the possibility of being denied graduation in August after refusing to sit for the National and Strategic Studies exams. A question paper for this year's final exams currently underway contains questions such as: "Which political party in Zimbabwe represents the interests of imperialists and how must it be viewed by Zimbabweans?" Another question asked is: "African leaders who try to serve the interests of imperialists are called what and how do you view patriotism?" The National and Strategic Studies department at the Polytechnic has three permanent tutors. However, students said they had been boycotting most of the lessons, inviting the ire of authorities who have vowed to deny those who fail their certificates. Head of the National and Strategic Studies department at the Harare Polytechnic, a Mr Gavi, could not be reached for comment this week.
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From The Financial Gazette, 25 March
Minerals plundered
Nelson Banya
Thirty-six tonnes of Zimbabwean platinum concentrate disappeared without trace in South Africa on Monday last week as it emerged that in a flush of impatience with the spate of mysterious robberies, the government’s anti-graft crusade will have its radar locked on the goings-on in the key mining sector. Impeccable industry sources, who indicated that there was a whiff of panic within the government over the recurring robberies, said the latest victim of the unfolding mineral hijack mystery was Zimasco’s Mimosa Platinum. A truck carrying the 36 tonnes of platinum, whose monetary value could not be immediately ascertained, was en route to a South African refinery when the thieves pounced. Details of the latest heist, which follows last month’s theft of 40 tonnes of nickel belonging to Bindura Nickel Company (BNC), are still sketchy as company officials at the mine, which is jointly owned by Zimasco Consolidated Enterprises and South Africa’ s Impala Platinum Holdings, remained tight-lipped on the issue. Both Zimasco chief executive officer William Smart and Mimosa mine general manager Alex Mhembere were unavailable for comment. Zimasco public relations consultant Jill Day said the company’s official statement on the matter would only be made tomorrow.
The hijackings, which mainly target platinum and are quite frequent in South Africa, have forced police in that country’s North West province - dubbed the Platinum province - to crack down on platinum thieves. The provincial police force’s specialised investigation unit has so far netted 13 gold and platinum thieves since the clampdown began in the last week of February. Almost two tonnes of platinum and gold concentrate worth 41 000 rands (about $27 million) were recovered. The theft of the Mimosa cargo brings to four the hijackings of Zimbabwean mineral cargo in South Africa in the past five months as speculation swirled in the market that the robberies could be the work of organised syndicates. Zimbabwe Platinum Mines’ (Zimplats) Makwiro lost 56 tonnes of converter matte in October, while gold and nickel producer Rio Tinto also lost mineral cargo late last year. It is, however, understood that the Mimosa cargo was on its way to Impala Refinery Services (IRS) in Rustenburg. IRS official Angie Isaacs declined to give details on the matter and referred all questions to Implats’ Johannesburg head office. "I do not have the privilege of talking to the press, you better talk to officials at head office about that subject," Isaacs said.
Although the value of the stolen mineral could not be ascertained, industry sources indicated that the platinum, which was in concentrate form, could not have been anywhere near the US$2 million that Zimplats lost when 54 tonnes of platinum matte from Makwiro Platinum Mines were intercepted by impostors in October last year. Zimplats has since received a US$1.8 million payout from its insurers after investigations absolved the company of any negligence. "We understand the cargo was mainly made up of platinum concentrate, which means the bulk of it was ore, largely made up of nickel, sulphur, copper, iron, with the platinum group metals, platinum, gold, palladium and rhodium making a tiny percentage of the cargo. But then, the robbers might have thought there was value in the cargo," a source said.
Typically, large bodies of concentrate, in excess of 90 000 tonnes, are smelted to produce as little as 3 000 tonnes of converter matte, which has a higher value. Authoritative mining sources have also indicated that the matte, as a product, had no known use unless it found its way to a refinery for further processing to separate the various minerals forming the composite. "The process of separating the metals is extremely difficult and recovery of the individual minerals is only possible through use of hi-tech refinery facilities and fundamentally, South Africa has three places where white matte can be treated and these are all reputable," the source added. Since inception in 1995, Mimosa has enjoyed a concentrate offtake agreement with IRS. Initial processing is conducted on-mine, with the concentrate being shipped via road to IRS’ facility in Rustenburg. Mimosa, which is located 125 kilometres to the east of Bulawayo, is a shallow underground mine with a depth of about 200 metres on a well-defined orebody. The mine, which is expected to ramp up production to 65 000 grammes of platinum by the end of this quarter, is reported to have some of the lowest production costs in the world.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 25 March
New absentee landlords slammed
Munyaradzi Wasosa
Absentee landowners, especially government officials, have been criticised for failing to fully utilise the land they acquired under the land reform exercise. Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) Vice President, Wilfanos Mashingaidze, made the criticism at a tobacco field day organised by the Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company (ZFC) in Chiweshe last Friday. he comments follow countrywide reports that many government officials and politicians are underutilising vast tracts of land they grabbed from white commercial farmers since 2000. "The land reform programme is being pulled back by absentee landlords," Mashingaidze said. "Those people like government ministers in the party, who have offices in town and live there, should employ managers to ensure full land usage," he said. Some small-scale tobacco farmers said they were not benefiting from government loans to finance their farming activities. A small-scale burley tobacco farmer in Chiweshe, Kahma Mukawu, who won the 2003 burley tobacco grower of the year award, said government was not providing funding to small-scale farmers. "The government is preferring to help large-scale farmers instead of uplifting us, yet we are doing well," he said. "The land reform programme in my area was carried out by corrupt officials, as a result we did not get (much) land."
Agribank loans to farmers fall under three categories. For communal farmers, a loan of up to $5 million is granted subject to a letter from the district administrator as proof that the farmer is indeed the owner of a piece of land and that the farming venture is viable. Farmers who fall under the A1 model can get loans of up to $10 million, while A2 "key" farmers can access loans of up to $30 million. Government loans attract 30% annual interest, while an Agribank commercial loan attracts a prohibitive 92% annual interest. Despite the introduction of government-supported agrobills, the agricultural finance system continues to marginalise small-scale farmers. Large-scale farmers use their implements and machinery as collateral security for loans, and banks can repossess them if farmers default in debt servicing. Communal farmers, most of whom do not own essential implements like tractors, are thus unable to access these loans. One small-scale farmer at the field day criticised the local MP for Mazowe East, Chen Chimutengwende, for neglecting his constituency. "We last saw him in 2000 during the elections. If election was all he was after, next time we will not vote for him," said the farmer.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 28 March
Mansion minister has other properties
Bonny Schoonakker
Zimbabwe Finance Minister Chris Kuruneri, whose Llandudno mansion made headline news last week, has property investments worth millions of rands more than the home he is building in the exclusive Cape enclave. This week a family renting his second Llandudno property spoke of their horror at discovering that their home was part of a property portfolio owned by one of President Robert Mugabe's key ministers. One member of the family, who asked not be identified, said this week that "we cannot wait to move into our new home", being built in Hout Bay. She, her husband and children live at 17 Apostle Road, a large mansion on the upper levels of Llandudno with a spectacular view over the Atlantic and high above 38 Sunset Avenue, the new home being funded by Kuruneri. She said: "We felt absolutely dreadful" to discover that their home was funded by a minister from a country in rapid economic decline. Their monthly rentals on the property, she believed, should rather go to the thousands of Zimbabwe pensioners made destitute after their benefits dried up months ago. For now, rent for 17 Apostle Road is paid to Hout Bay businessman Chris Hayman, whose company, Venture Projects & Associates is overseeing the construction of Kuruneri's house on 38 Sunset Avenue.
Although he has rented out the house, Kuruneri continues to list 17 Apostle Road as his official residence in South Africa. His ownership of the property means that his Cape investment portfolio is worth far more than the R30-million value ascribed to his new home. Kuruneri bought 17 Apostle Road in 2001 from an Italian businessman, Gianfranco Lovisolo. The purchase price is listed as 563-million lire, which at the time was some R2.069-million. The sale of the property was arranged through Cape Town lawyer Lorenzo Bruttomesso, a member of the Cape Town firm C B Niland & Partners. Bruttomesso (according to a former Venture Projects employee) has been given power of attorney by Kuruneri to conduct a wide range of business deals in Cape Town. Kuruneri also has a substantial (though undisclosed) stake in an upmarket seaside apartment block in Sea Point, which estate agents say is "easily" worth R20-million. Amassing this investment, whether on his own behalf or that of others, has kept Kuruneri busy over the past two years. An official record of his travels into and out of South Africa shows that he has visited Cape Town 14 times since April 19 2002. This week, in response to the outrage about his Llandudno mansion, Kuruneri claimed that the house was being paid for with money which he had earned abroad.
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From News24 (SA), 27 March
Clashes mar Zim by-election
Chitungwiza - Voters in the Zimbabwean town of Chitungwiza went to the polls Saturday in a tense two-day parliamentary by-election for a seat previously held by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). The outcome of the legislative poll is expected to be a litmus test of the leading opposition party's hold on the urban electorate. The urban areas had since the last elections in 2000 been opposition strongholds, but the MDC has lost a number of seats in recent by-elections. Clashes broke out on Saturday between the supporters of the MDC and the ruling Zanu PF as voting opened in Zengeza constituency, about 25km southeast of the capital. Electoral Supervisory Commission spokesperson Thomas Bvuma said groups of around 100 youths from the main parties hurled stones at each other outside a polling station in the constituency. "There were skirmishes between Zanu PF and MDC supporters in the morning. There was stone-throwing but there were no injuries. This happened outside a polling station," Bvuma told reporters. The MDC alleged that Zanu-PF supporters tried to bar some voters from accessing the polling station earlier. "In places like Ndangariro, there were some small groups of people on the roads from both parties. We have asked the police to disperse such groups," Bvuma said. A reporter saw police driving away about a dozen youths from a polling station at Zengeza 4 primary school early on Saturday. Bvuma said the clashes had occurred outside a polling station located near the house of MDC candidate James Makore, which was also being used as an opposition campaign centre. President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF is seeking to take the seat from the opposition, whose lawmaker Tafadzwa Musekiwa - citing fears of political persecution from pro-government supporters - fled to Britain in late 2002. He formally resigned from parliament last year. The opposition, which won the seat in the 2000 general elections, also alleged that the house of its candidate was attacked by Zanu PF militias on Friday afternoon. A victory for the ruling party would boost its morale ahead of elections due in 2005, when it has vowed to wrest all urban seats from the MDC. The MDC stormed onto the Zimbabwean political scene in 2000 parliamentary elections, clinching 57, predominantly urban constituency seats out of the 120 contested seats. The ruling party got 62, and it still holds the majority. Mugabe appoints 30 other non-constituency legislators to parliament, but his party still does not enjoy the two-thirds majority required to make any constitutional changes in parliament.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 28 March
New controversy dogs Mugabe's heir
Sunday Times Foreign Desk
Emmerson Mnangagwa's chances of taking over the job of his boss, President Robert Mugabe, were dealt another blow this week when a dramatic court case implicated him in a gold scam, further smearing his reputation. The case is the latest in a series of setbacks for Zimbabwe's controversial Speaker of Parliament, regarded by many as Mugabe's anointed political heir. Speculation around Mugabe' s successor reached fever-pitch this week after one of his closest lieutenants announced that the 80-year-old president would step down at the end of the year. In a sensational courtroom twist, the magistrate in the gold-scam trial banned reporting on Mnangagwa's links with the accused, saying the links were irrelevant to the case. However, foreign newspapers ignored the ban and the allegations against Mnangagwa were widely reported outside Zimbabwe. The allegations came amid speculation that Mugabe would call crucial presidential and parliamentary elections early next year. Although the president has said he will retire in 2008, his close aide Nathan Shamuyarira dropped the bombshell on Friday that Mugabe could depart much earlier.
The State alleged in court this week that Mnangagwa was involved in illicit gold dealings with illegal gold traders. The accusations emerged during the case of "unscrupulous" gold dealer Mark Mathew Burden, who is facing allegations of dealing in gold in violation of Zimbabwe's Gold Trade Act. It is alleged that Mnangagwa received a total of Z16.7-million from Burden, who owns Ivan Hoe Mine and eight gold milling plants, through bank cheques. The State says the payments to Mnangagwa were unearthed during an investigation of Burden's Standard Chartered bank account. The State says that "upon perusal of the bank documents, police discovered that the accused had made the following cheque payments to E D Mnangagwa" between September 2002 and August 2003: Z700 000, Z2-million, Z3-million and another of Z3-million, followed by an amount, paid on September 17 2003, of Z8-million. When asked about these payments - which police suspected were related to gold transactions - Burden could not give a satisfactorily explanation. Mnangagwa is also reportedly under investigation by police over mineral deals he was involved in during the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 1998 and 2002. The United Nations also investigated these allegations. Mnangagwa has since denied any wrongdoing. A few years ago he was implicated in an airport construction scandal.
The fresh allegations against Mnangagwa came as Shamuyarira, Zanu PF secretary for information and publicity, suggested on Friday that Mugabe would announce his retirement during his party congress in December. "The congress of the party [will be] held in December... and you can say that it is at that point that Mugabe will indicate his view of his role in the future," Shamuyarira was quoted as saying. He added that a power struggle in Zanu PF was likely to erupt, depending on how Mugabe departed. "John Nkomo [the party chairman] is on par with Emmerson Mnangagwa. It depends very much on how Mugabe quits. If Mugabe at the December congress says, 'I am quitting now', Joseph Msika [the vice-president] will [automatically] take over," said Shamuyarira. "It will be very difficult for anyone to oppose him. "But if Mugabe says, 'I will be retiring in a year's time', then there will be in-fighting between Mnangagwa and Nkomo." Mnangagwa, Nkomo, Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi and former Finance Minister Simba Makoni are being touted as the frontrunners for Mugabe's job. However, as Mnangagwa falters and with his reputation in tatters, the odds are increasingly being staked in Nkomo's favour.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 26 March
Move to acquire conservancies criticised
Godfrey Marawanyika
The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) has criticised government plans to acquire all privately-owned game parks and conservancies, saying the move is tantamount to punishing farmers who provide sanctuary for animals. WWF has since made an appeal to the Presidential Land Resettlement Committee, saying land acquisition should be based on sound ecological and business principles. Rhino Conservancies Project official Raoul du Toit said taking private parks would have a bearing on other projects being financed by overseas donors. "Some aspects of the draft policy document convey an impression of punitive measures against the existing conservancy members, rather than the straightforward implementation of equitable land reform measures, so both constitutional rights and investor safeguards need on-going consideration as this policy is finalised," du Toit said in the WWF's submission to the Land Resettlement Committee. "Some of the investments in wildlife were funded by loan agreements, notably the loan that Save Valley Conservancy secured from the International Finance Corporation for restocking the conservancy."
In the February report, du Toit said wildlife assets constituted the repayment guarantee for the loan, adding that obliterating the current asset value of the restocked wildlife resources through "draconian policy" would create problems. He said the policy would affect the willingness of World Bank institutions (including IFC and GEF) and other funding agencies to provide future financial support for wildlife restocking. The government has come up with a policy which seeks to declare all conservancies and ranches state land that should be administered by the Parks and Wildlife Authority. Government says this will enable resettled farmers and other indigenous people to venture into the wildlife business. Under the envisaged arrangement all land and wildlife will belong to the state and be regulated through the Ministry of Environment and Tourism or its agencies.
In the report, du Toit noted the increased problem of poaching in the conservancies, saying that could not be ascribed to resource alienation. "Far from being alienated, informally-settled occupiers of many properties have assumed full rights of resource utilisation and making the best of latitude that they currently enjoy to reap these resources," du Toit said. "It could be argued that the official tolerance of invasions into conservancies and into Gonarezhou National Park has served to give the go ahead to settlers to extract 'their' wildlife with few or no checks and balances." Du Toit called for the creation of opportunities to utilise the wildlife, and controls on the levels of offtake and loss of habitats. He said the WWF was prepared to assist the government in coming up with a proper working plan. "It is a matter of reality that the WWF has recently been confronted with a range of serious allegations of impropriety in Zimbabwe's hunting industry, particularly in Dete-Gwayi-Matetsi area where problems of resources pillaging were highlighted ..." he said. "If the allocation of rights to resources utilisation in the conservancies gives rise to the same level of controversy that has arisen in north-western Matabeleland, then WWF will be under extreme pressure from our international constituents to join calls for serious sanctions, notably the imposition of a ban on the importation of safari hunting trophies to the United States.
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From Reuters, 27 March
Eq. Guinea leader says other states targeted by plot
Yaounde - Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has said mercenaries who plotted to overthrow him had also been planning coups in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sao Tome and Principe. Both Obiang's government and Zimbabwe earlier this month detained men they say were mercenaries preparing a coup in the oil-rich West African state. An exiled opposition leader has denied Obiang's accusations that he was involved. "The attempt at destabilisation was not only directed against Equatorial Guinea, but against all African countries," Obiang, who has ruled since seizing power from his uncle in 1979, told reporters at the end of a visit to Cameroon. "We have learned that after Equatorial Guinea, the mercenaries also wanted to overthrow the governments of Sao Tome, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and maybe other countries," he said on Friday evening. Sao Tome and Principe is a tiny archipelago where substantial crude oil reserves have been discovered. It is hoping for an oil-fuelled boom like the one enjoyed by Equatorial Guinea over the past decade, although Obiang's critics say the wealth has largely remained in the hands of the president and his clan.
Equatorial Guinean authorities launched a crackdown on foreigners working on its territory after the coup allegations, raising tensions with states such as Cameroon who said many of their nationals had been unfairly detained and expelled. Human rights groups have long criticised Obiang's rule, saying his opponents have been locked up and tortured. Obiang did not comment on the expulsions but said Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea should set up a joint commission to deal with any problems that arise between them. "We have to consult with each other when there is a problem," he said. The alleged coup attempt first came to light after Zimbabwe impounded a plane on its territory on March 7 and detained some 70 men it said were mercenaries. Equatorial Guinea says it has detained an advance party of 20 mercenaries and has shown one of the alleged leaders in public confessing to a plot. The firm operating the grounded plane has said the men - mainly South Africans, Angolans and Namibians - were going to do security work for mining companies in mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo.
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From The Sunday Times (UK), 28 March
SAS man tells how coup went wrong
Tom Walker
A former SAS soldier languishing in a Zimbabwean jail has confessed to numerous failures in his attempt to lead a group of mercenaries in overthrowing the president of Equatorial Guinea. In a 13-page handwritten statement, Simon Mann describes how he hoped to convince the Harare authorities to let him and his men pass through Zimbabwe. He pretended to back a rebel army in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that could have helped Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean leader, to secure diamond rights for his bankrupt regime. The operation would have been a smokescreen: after dumping off arms for the rebels, Mann and his fighters would have flown on to their real target, oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. The operation, launched on March 7, foundered when the Zimbabwean authorities impounded Mann’s plane after it landed at Harare airport to pick up weapons. Mann and 69 men, mainly South Africans, Angolans and Namibians, were last week charged with conspiring to overthrow Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the president of Equatorial Guinea. They face life imprisonment if found guilty. In his statement Mann says that he was introduced early last year to Severo Moto, a prominent Equatorial Guinean opposition leader exiled in Madrid. If Moto returned, "there would be an uprising of military and civilians" against Nguema, he says. Mann, 46, writes that he ordered weapons from Zimbabwe Defence Industries in January: "Naively, I believed that by dealing with ZDI I was dealing with a high level and would be ‘covered’." However, he encountered a string of misfortunes, including a bird strike to the engine of his Russian Antonov 12. When the rebels he was pretending to help failed to secure an airstrip at Kolwezi, in southern DRC, as planned, the operation was postponed. By mid-February he was planning another run but this ended in the group’s arrest.Mann, an old Etonian, insists he was not working with the connivance of western intelligence, as has been alleged.
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From VOA News, 28 March
1 dead, dozens injured in violent Zimbabwe election
A crucial parliamentary by-election in Zimbabwe became increasingly violent when at least one opposition supporter was shot dead, and others were injured by gunfire. Doctors at a city center private clinic confirmed that a young man, believed to be a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change was pronounced dead at the hospital. Two more men, in the same ambulance, were treated, and one was admitted for further treatment for gunshot wounds. Members of the medical staff at the clinic, who asked not to be identified, said they had treated about 75 people for injuries since Friday, with the largest number on the first day of voting, Saturday. All claimed to be opposition supporters, and say they were attacked by ruling party supporters. The non-governmental organization, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, said it had observed the by-election in the Zengeza constituency, about 15 kilometers south of Harare. The organization's director Reginald Matchaba-Hove said there was violence before and during the voting. He cited several key violations of the Electoral Act, and said initial reports indicated that most of the violence was committed by young members of the ruling Zanu PF party. He also said he was surprised at how many young people needed assistance with casting their votes, claiming to be illiterate. He also said voter turnout was low compared to the last election in June of 2000. Movement for Democratic Change secretary-general Welshman Ncube deplored the death of the party supporter and the injuries of the other party loyalists. He blamed Zanu PF. Campaign staff and the Zanu PF candidate were not available for comment. The seat became vacant when the former member of parliament fled to London, saying he feared for his life. He is a member of the Movement for Democratic Change. Zanu PF, which was the only party given any airtime on the national electronic media, said it would show in this by-election that it has begun its campaign to win back urban seats which were won by the opposition in 2000.
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From The Times (UK), 29 March
Mugabe opponent killed in polling
From Jan Raath in Harare
A young activist was shot dead and ten were wounded yesterday as President Mugabe fired up his electoral machine to obliterate the opposition in a parliamentary by-election near Harare. Francis Chinozvinya, of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), was declared dead on arrival at hospital after being hit in the chest by a shot fired from a ruling Zanu PF party gang at the home of the MDC candidate in Zengeza township on the southern outskirts of Harare. Independent election observers said that the assault was led by Eliot Manyika, the Minister Without Portfolio in Mr Mugabe’s Cabinet. It was not clear, however, who had fired the shots. Ten MDC supporters were taken to hospital after being beaten with iron bars, doctors at the private Avenues Clinic said. Zengeza is a fiercely pro-MDC constituency, as are all of Zimbabwe’s restive urban areas, and is Mr Mugabe’s chief target in his attempt to break the Opposition’s support ba se before parliamentary elections next year. On state television recently Mr Manyika declared that the Zengeza by-election would be the crucial test of the ruling party’s chances in the elections. Late yesterday, Thomas Bvuma, the head of the state-appointed Electoral Supervisory Commission, was still saying on state radio that the election had been "peaceful".
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 28 March
Zanu PF deploys ‘Green Bombers’ in Lupane
By Savious Kwinika
Bulawayo - Zanu PF has deployed the notorious "Green Bombers" in Lupane constituency ahead of a by-election set for May 15 and 16, The Standard can reveal. The deployment of the Zanu PF militia comes barely a week after the opposition MDC publicly announced a candidate for the Lupane by-election. The MDC will be represented in the by-election by veteran educationist, Njabuliso Mguni, who is pitted against Zanu PF’s Martin Khumalo. Contacted for comment this week, Zanu PF, war veterans and the militia admitted that they were now in Lupane but said they were in the area to help uplift the standard of living for the poor and school leavers. Jabulani Sibanda, the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association (ZNLWA) president, said some war veterans, Zanu PF militia and members of the youth wing were operating in Lupane but in a peaceful manner. "I have an appeal to make to those already in Lupane to desist from violence, thuggery, intimidation and threats. Elections are called elections because people and individuals will be competing for certain positions," said the war veterans’ leader. He said he would be travelling to Lupane next week to assess first hand what exactly is happening in the constituency left vacant following the death of MDC legislator David Mpala. However, MDC said in a statement that "Green Bombers" from Matebeleland provinces were being bused into Lupane Constituency to register as voters for the forth-coming by-election. "Zanu PF has refined its rigging tactics for the Lupane by-election. Youths from areas such as Jambesi, Kamativi and Wankie are reportedly being bused into Lupane where arrangements are made by Zanu PF officials for them to get recommendation letters from the local chiefs and headmen to enable the youths to get registered as voters so that they vote in the Lupane by-election," said MDC spokesman Paul Themba Nyathi. At Lupane business centre where the youths are reportedly booked at the guest house until April 27, more than 300 youths were registered between Monday and Wednesday last week, said Nyathi.
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From The Sunday Argus (SA), 28 March
Three held over deal with alleged mercenaries
By Moshoeshoe Monare
Zimbabwean armament officials have been arrested in secret for collaboration with the band of alleged mercenaries being held in Harare. The officials agreed to sell arms to the men in a bid to get access to scarce foreign currency and boost Zimbabwe's arms parastatal's business, security sources have revealed. A Zimbabwean criminal investigation official has confirmed that three Zimbabwean Defence Industries (ZDI) officials have been held secretly here over their involvement with the deal with the "mercenaries". While the group of 70, made up mostly of South Africans, appeared in a makeshift court in Chikurubi Maximum Prison this week, there was no word or sign of ZDI officials. The state has charged the alleged mercenaries with buying arms from ZDI and having made an initial payout of $90 000 (about R630 000) as an upfront transaction for the balance of $180 000 for armaments. The investigating officer refused to disclose the progress and details of charges brought against ZDI officials who were involved in the deal. The deal involved buying arms that included 61 AK-47 assault rifles, 45 000 rounds of ammunition, 100 rocket propelled grenade launchers and 20 light machine guns. A diplomatic source said the ZDI had no business in selling arms to individual private citizens. "It should be selling arms to the government and in terms of prescribed rules and laws. It's like (in South Africa) Denel cannot sell (arms) to individuals or governments that are involved in conflict. We are worried about ZDI's conduct that it has intended to sell arms to these individuals. The fact that they had met (alleged mercenary leader Simon) Mann and concluded the deal leaves much to be desired."
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 28 March
Strange twist to gold case
I was tortured to implicate Mnangagwa, Moyo, says Burden
By our own Staff
Arrested gold dealer Mark Matthew Burden has claimed that police tortured him to implicate Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa and Mines Minister July Moyo in his illegal gold dealings. In a sworn affidavit made on Friday, Burden makes sensational allegations of how - on February 20 - police used electrical shocks to his genitals to force him to admit to the involvement of both Mnangagwa and Moyo in his illegal gold deals. "The pain was excruciating, consistent, persistent and unending. He indicated that this torture would continue until such time that I confessed the Honourable Speaker and the Honourable Minister’s involvement," Burden says in the affidavit made available to The Standard, of the man who tortured him. "Despite the torture I could not betray the truth as these two honourable members were never at any stage whatsoever involved in my gold business," Burden says. Burden claims the torture occurred at Harare Central Police Station, saying it had lasted an hour and was preceded by 13 hours of interrogation. Police re-arrested Burden months after a Kwekwe magistrate controversially released him. Burden is facing 46 counts of breaching the Gold Trade Act. Police accuse him of illegally buying and selling gold and that he also illegally exported the precious metal from his Ivan Hoe Mine in Kwekwe, where he also runs eight gold mills.
The gold dealer says he was transferred from Marlborough Police Station cells to Harare gold squad where the interrogation began at 10 am on the day he was arrested. He was then taken to the Harare Central’s homicide section after 4 pm, where the interrogation continued up to 8 pm, only to be interrupted by a two-hour break his alleged interrogators took between 4 pm and 6 pm. One of his interrogators, Burden claims, left shortly after 8 pm threatening to "come back later with more valour". The unidentified officer returned at around 11 pm visibly drunk, Burden further alleges, and ordered that his clothes be removed and that his hands be cuffed behind his back. The officer then produced a "military jersey" which was wrapped tightly around the head so that breathing became difficult, says Burden. "He proceeded to force my legs open and thereafter fitted a round clamp on the foreskin of my penis. He then tied an electrical cable around my right big toe. Having done that he started questioning me about the Honourable Speaker ED Mnangagwa and the Honourable Minister July Moyo’s involvement in my gold dealing business," Burden says. Burden says "the more I denied their involvement, the harder he cranked the electrical current". The torture only ended after the officer felt Burden’s heart was beating too fast.
Police Spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena yesterday said if Burden had any complaints against the police, he should inform the courts. "There is a trial that’s going on", Bvudzijena said. "So he can present his case to the magistrate". Burden claims he "painfully narrated" his ordeal to his lawyer George Chikumbirike but says he had "begged him (Chikumbirike) not to disclose the incident to any other person whatsoever as I feared for my life". Yesterday Chikumbirike denied knowledge of either Burden’s alleged torture or the affidavit, saying his involvement with Burden did not extend outside the ongoing criminal trial. "I was not a participant in the drafting of the affidavit. I only represent him in the criminal trial. Anything else, I don’t know", Chikumbirike told The Standard. However, Burden’s Kwekwe lawyer Josiniah Maupa confirmed that the affidavit in the possession of The Standard was authentic. A Harare magistrate hearing Burden’s trial last week interdicted the Press from revealing the identity of a leading political figure named in court proceedings.
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From Business Report (SA), 29 March
Harare's tobacco floor to open early, offer less
Harare - Zimbabwe's annual tobacco trading season opens tomorrow but would offer a much smaller crop than last year's already record low, industry officials announced on Friday, blaming high input costs and the country's sky-high inflation rate. The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (Timb) estimated that about 60 million kilograms of the lucrative flue-cured tobacco crop would be on offer this year, a 25 percent drop from 80 million kilograms sold last year. The figure, a record low in the 24 years since Zimbabwe's independence, was about a quarter of the record high of 237 million kilograms produced and sold in 2000. Last year the crop - normally the country's top foreign exchange earner - suffered a deep slump in production, recording a more than 50 percent decrease on the previous year's output. In 2001, farmers produced 201.7 million kilograms, dropping the following year to 165 million, 80 million in 2003 and finally 60 million this year. Godfrey Guka, deputy general manager of Timb, attributed the huge slump in production to the high costs of inputs in a triple-digit inflation environment. "The major reason [for the drop in crop size] is the cost of production," he said. Zimbabwe's inflation rate is currently at about 602 percent. Rodney Ambrose, a director with the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA), said: "It's a question of viability. With interest rates of between 250 percent and 300 perce |
