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Archived News
10th May 2005
Zimbabwe must allow foreign aid in, says UN
Milling firm scales down operations as power, maize shortages bite
Attorney General defends harsh press law
Banned Zimbabwe newspaper gets set to rise from ashes
Zim has conscription plans
SA spy 'held for questioning'
Zimbabwe keen to sell thousands of elephants
Government seeking to prevent black market, food shortages
Govt assessing needs before calling for food aid
Mugabe orders new planes from 'Asian ally'
S.Africa's Ramaphosa says action needed in Zimbabwe
Spy case yakes new twist
Mercenaries hope for Tuesday release
UN agency says unable to immediately feed starving Zimbabweans
Knives out for Gono
South African ‘master spy’ named
Zimbabwe’s economy running on empty
No food, no fuel - but a glut of elephants for sale at £1,000
MIC demands more info from Daily News
SA waiting for dust to settle in Zimbabwe
Mugabe turns police force into an arm of Zanu PF
Beleaguered parastatals warn of impending food crisis
Parallel market flourishes as shelves empty
UN chief headed for Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe in fuel crisis
Huge wheat shortfall forecast
Unease, ethnic tension hits post-election Zimbabwe
Govt raids hotels
Cops arrest hundreds of black market vendors
New farmers appeal for food aid
Mugabe steps up militarisation of state institutions
Zim church advocates 'one man, one wife' to help the fight against Aids
ZESA pays off Eskom
Zimbabwe vice-president to seek treatment in South Africa
Rights abuses unabated since Zimbabwe poll-Amnesty
Confidence all but disappears
Zim uncovers visa scam
Soccer diplomacy to help ease political rift
Campaigner takes anti-Aids message to Zim men
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From Reuters, 4 May, 2005
Zimbabwe must allow foreign aid in, says UN
By Peter Apps
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe must allow a massive United Nations humanitarian food aid operation or many may die as 5.5 million people face serious food shortages after a regional drought, the United Nations agency Unicef said on Tuesday. UN food agencies cut back operations in 2004 after President Robert Mugabe said the country had more than enough food, but reports of shortages have continued and aid workers say drought across southern Africa has all but destroyed the 2005 harvest. "I would be very surprised if the government didn't take a different line this year," UN children's agency Unicef southern and east Africa regional co-ordinator Per Engebak told Reuters. "It's quite clear that what we're seeing this year affects almost the entire region." Food was a major issue in Zimbabwe's recent parliamentary election, won by Mugabe's Zanu PF party but widely criticised by western nations as not free and unfair, with the opposition demanding the government appeal for aid. Some aid workers and observers have accused Mugabe's government of destroying Zimbabwe's farming sector with chaotic and violent seizures of white-owned farms for landless blacks. Neighbouring Zambia, Mozambique and Botswana have also seen staple maize crops seriously damaged by drought, while the HIV pandemic has left many farmers dead or sick and unable to farm.
Zimbabwe's government has only allowed the UN World Food Programme to continue targeted feeding programmes reaching just under a million people, mainly Aids orphans and other at-risk groups. Agencies say they have long hoped to be allowed to enlarge their operations, but with little joy. In a telephone interview, Engebak said people would likely starve to death if the government did not allow in UN assessment missions and then food aid. "If the international community, backed and supported by the UN, is not in a position to effectively help to mitigate the effects we will be allowing scenes of that nature," he said. "Absolutely," he said, asked if that meant people might die. Last week, Zimbabwe's state media reported the government-run Grain Marketing Board would buy 1.2 million tonnes of maize for the country after Mugabe admitted publicly the country faced shortages but promised no one would starve. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says the country lacks the foreign exchange for such a purchase, and South African traders say Zimbabwe has defaulted on past purchases. In March, Public Service and Social Welfare Minister Paul Mwanga told Reuters Zimbabwe would seek donor assistance only if food needs exceeded the budget the government had set aside.
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From Zim Online (SA), 4 May, 2005
Milling firm scales down operations as power, maize shortages bite
Harare - Zimbabwe’s biggest milling firm, National Foods Holdings (NFH), says it has shut down some of its plants and is operating at five percent of capacity because of severe shortages of both maize and electricity. More than 2 000 jobs could be permanently lost if the closed milling plants are not reopened and capacity utilisation increased. In a statement accompanying its annual report, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange listed NFH said it had shut down operations in the cities of Masvingo, Mutare and Gweru because there was no maize to mill at the plants. Operations were still running at plants in Bulawayo and Harare but at five percent of capacity because of a shortage of maize and erratic power supplies, NFH chairman Todd Moyo said in the statement. "Small allocations of maize have been received by our maize mills in Harare and Bulawayo and our monthly capacity utilisation in these two mills have not exceeded 5 percent," Moyo’s statement reads in part. The closure of NFH mills is yet another clear example of the severity of maize shortages in Zimbabwe threatening the southern African nation with famine unless food aid is urgently made available.
President Robert Mugabe, who until a few weeks before a parliamentary election last March had denied the country was facing starvation, says he will not go begging for food insisting his hard cash-strapped government has enough resources to ensure no one starves. But non-governmental organisation reports indicate signs of starvation and malnutrition are already noticeable among several families in some parts of the country worst affected by food shortages. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, which last week said it had secured about 200 000 tonnes of maize from outside the country but still needed government permission to bring it in, has called on Mugabe to swallow his pride and appeal for help from the international community. Mugabe last August told international food agencies to take their help elsewhere because Zimbabwe had enough to feed itself. Once a net food exporter, Zimbabwe has since 2001 survived largely on handouts from international food aid groups after Mugabe’s chaotic and often violent land reforms destabilised the agricultural sector causing a 60 percent drop in production.
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From Zim Online (SA), 4 May, 2005
Attorney General defends harsh press law
Harare Zimbabwe’s Attorney General (AG) Sobuza Gula-Ndebele last night defended the country’s harsh media laws as necessary to ensure journalists "operated within the laws of the country." Addressing journalists gathered at the national press club in Harare to mark World Press Freedom Day, Gula-Ndebele said the government’s draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) may not be perfect but it was necessary to ensure law and order in the media. "AIPPA provides limitations and guidelines which are necessary to make the media operate within the laws of the nation," Gula-Ndebele said, virtually pouring cold water on recent optimism among journalists for a less restrictive operating environment after new Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya said last month that he was keen to foster a new relationship between the Press and the government. AIPPA, under which journalists could be jailed for up to two years for operating without being registered with the government’s Media and Information Commission (MIC), is the main instrument that the state has used to repress and silence the country’s independent media and other dissenting voices. Gula-Ndebele, a qualified lawyer and a former Zimbabwe army officer promoted to attorney general by President Robert Mugabe last year, urged journalists to lobby the government and Parliament if they wanted any laws that negatively affect their work changed or repealed. But Gula-Ndebele ominously warned journalists to observe AIPPA and the Public Order and Security Act that outlaws criticism of Mugabe because "a law is a law whether it is bad in your opinion."
The AG said he was not opposed to journalists setting up a voluntary regulation council but said such a body could and should exist alongside the government media commission, blamed for closing four newspapers in the last three years and causing the arrest of more than a hundred journalists. Gula-Ndebele refused to discuss when the banned Daily News could be allowed back on the streets only saying the paper was shut down in the first place because it had breached the law. The Supreme Court has since asked the state media commission to review the banned daily’s application for an operating licence but it remains unclear when the commission will allow the paper back. Zimbabwe is ranked by international media rights watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists, as one of three countries in the world with the most dangerous environments for journalists. The other two are Iran and former Soviet republic Uzbekistan. Meanwhile, Gula-Ndebele also promised to prosecute state agent Joseph Mwale accused of murdering opposition activists Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika in the run-up to the 2000 general election. Responding to a question, Gula-Ndebele said: "We have opened a docket on Joseph Mwale and everyone connected with that case will be prosecuted."
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From The Mercury (SA), 4 May, 2005
Banned Zimbabwe newspaper gets set to rise from ashes
Harare - Once Zimbabwe's best-selling newspaper, The Daily News is getting ready to return to the stands after a long ban, even though its editors say the independent daily's troubles are far from over. World Press Freedom Day was marked on Monday and Zimbabweans long for the return of the paper banned by President Robert Mugabe's government nearly two years ago for breaching media laws that rights activists say are among the most restrictive in Africa. "Press freedom is in great peril in Zimbabwe, but we believe there will soon come a time when The Daily News will be back on the newsstands," said Deputy Editor Bill Saidi. The newspaper was shut down on September 12 2003 when rifle-wielding police barged into its offices in Harare and ordered it shut for refusing to register with a state media commission. The Daily News's 300 staffers, including 20 journalists, were left jobless and some meet occasionally in the one room that the newspaper now occupies in Harare's central business district to give one another solace.
In its heyday, The Daily News, which was founded in 1999, had a circulation of 150 000 and offered an alternative voice to the state media, even though sales were restricted to cities and major towns as vendors were often barred from travelling to rural areas to sell the tabloid with its distinctive white-on-blue banner. Saidi said The Daily News would maintain the line that earned it the tag from government officials of "British-sponsored opposition newspaper" and often put its journalists on a collision course with Mugabe. "We are satisfied our path was the correct one and we believe our readers were in favour of our stance. That is why we were selling better than The Herald," he said, referring to the state-run newspaper. "When we get the licence we know we will continue to have the problems we had in the past with the flawed laws," Saidi said. After years of legal battles, Zimbabwe's Supreme Court on March 14 quashed the government commission's decision to ban The Daily News and its sister paper The Daily News on Sunday.
The Daily News editors say they have been meeting government officials to discuss their application for a licence and the newspaper could be out again in coming weeks. "Everyone is asking us when the newspaper is coming back to the streets," said vendor Shadreck Mbwera. The Daily News took an uncompromising anti-government line, breaking stories on Mugabe's wife, Grace, who indulged in shopping sprees in South Africa while millions of Zimbabweans were suffering from food shortages. It was also first to publish a report on the construction of Mugabe's luxury retirement mansion in Harare and on the murder of white farmers during the land seizures in 2000. The newspaper gave voice to the country's civic society movement and opposition including the then fledgling Movement for Democratic Change.
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From News24 (SA), 3 May
Zim has conscription plans
Harare - The government said on Tuesday it plans to make its controversial national service programme mandatory for students at all educational institutions from primary schools to universities. State radio said deputy youth minister Savior Kasukuwere toured a training camp for youth militia and said the government is determined to introduce national service that would give all Zimbabwean youths "proper orientation." Human rights groups, opposition politicians and some Western governments accuse the government's youth militia, known as the "green bombers" because of their military style uniforms, of being at the forefront of political violence and intimidation directed at opponents of President Robert Mugabe. According to the latest figures, 11 000 youths between the ages of 15 and 20 have passed through training depots around the country since 2001. Graduates are given preference in state employment and in admission to tertiary institutions, such as teachers' colleges. "There is need to introduce aspects of national service in all schools from primary to tertiary and university level," Kasukuwere was quoted saying. His ministry had resolved to merge national youth service programmes, teaching patriotism and ideological orientation, with skills training at service centres. Deserters from the programme have told church-organised press conferences in South Africa of indoctrination and abuse of female recruits at centres. In last year's national budget $38m was allocated to the youth ministry.
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From News24 (SA), 3 May
SA spy 'held for questioning'
Barnabas Thondhlana
Harare - The South African spy that was apprehended in Zimbabwe in December is not under arrest but is being held for "questioning". Zimbabwe's director of public prosecutions in the office of the attorney general, Joseph Musakwa, said the 48-year-old "white man is a witness". This is contradictory to earlier reports that claimed the man was a top spy in an espionage network. "He (the South African) is a witness and is still giving testimony. Why would a witness be under arrest?" Musakwa said in an interview with the Sunday Mirror. The South African was entrapped on December 15 last year in an operation that led to the arrest of several prominent Zimbabweans. Philip Chiyangwa (Zanu PF's provincial chairperson), Godfrey Dzvairo (Zimbabwe's designated ambassador to Mozambique), Tendai Matambanadzo (a banker) and Itai Marchi (Zanu PF director of foreign affairs) were charged. Kenny Karidza, security director of Zanu PF, was also questioned. The men were later charged with espionage. The South African was allegedly lured to Zimbabwe by that country's central intelligence organisation (CIO), where he was apprehended. He apparently later gave the CIO information that led to the arrest of the other five.
In a trial that took place in camera, Dzvairo was sentenced to six years in prison and Matambanadzo and Marchi to five years each. Chiyangwa was temporarily released but could be charged again later. Erasmus Moyo, a Zimbabwean diplomat in Geneve, was also implicated by the five. Moyo disappeared from an airport in Switzerland shortly before he could be extradited to Zimbabwe. There has recently been a twist in the case against Karidza when he objected to the admissibility of certain of the evidence against him. Musakwa said a trial within a trial was now taking place before any of the espionage charges could be dealt with. Further "unforeseen complications" have also arose that can delay the case even further. At one stage during the trial, Karidza was apparently so weak because of the methods of questioning employed by the CIO that he could not walk or eat. The men allegedly sold political and economic information about Zimbabwe. Chiyangwa allegedly received up to R65 000 a month from his South African handler. The five apparently also sold some of the top secret decisions taken by Zanu PF's inner circle.
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From The Cape Times (SA), 4 May, 2005
Zimbabwe keen to sell thousands of elephants
Harare - Zimbabwe's Parks and Wildlife Authority is looking for private buyers for thousands of elephants because its game reserves are overcrowded. Notices inviting tenders for the purchase of elephants were published in the government controlled daily, The Herald, yesterday. State radio said the elephants are not for export but for wildlife farming by local farmers. It said they would be taken from areas where there were "excessive concentrations". A parks official told the radio station it aimed to encourage the black recipients of 5 000 former white-owned farms "to venture into wildlife production". He said game sanctuaries, that cover a fifth of the country, could only carry 45 000 elephants without environmental damage, but currently had 80 000 to 100 000. Would-be buyers will have to pay Z$1 million (US$164) just for a tender form, and must prove they have sufficient land. The average size of larger commercial units allocated to landless blacks is 250 hectares but experts say each elephant needs a grazing and browsing range of approximately 1.7km2. Prospective owners also have to prove they are able to move the two- to five-ton pachyderms safely to their new homes - a process involving the hire of specialist veterinary surgeons, drug darting teams and large teams of labourers, as well as low-loading trucks and special crates. The advertisements gave no guidelines for prices but at the last auction for trophy elephants, bulls fetched Z$140m to Z$155m (US$22 950 to US$25 400) each. The closing date for tenders is May 27. The total number of elephants to be auctioned was not disclosed. After years of controversy, Zimbabwe, in 1999, obtained permission from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to sell limited and strictly monitored supplies of ivory to Japan. It has so far held back from culling its annual 500-elephant quota, in deference to vocal international animal welfare lobbyists. Kenya led opposition to any resumed trade in elephant products, saying this encouraged smuggling by poaching syndicates.
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From Associated Press, 4 May
Government seeking to prevent black market, food shortages
Harare - The government on Wednesday said it tripled what it was paying for corn, seeking to prevent farmers from selling their grain on the black market amid fears of serious food shortages. Corn meal, the staple in this country of 12 million, currently is unavailable at stores largely because farmers have been selling their grain on the black market where they can make 30 percent more than when they sell to the Grain Marketing Board, the country's grain monopoly. The government said Wednesday it would maintain a price of 600,000 Zimbabwe dollars (US$98) a metric ton to millers, but will pay 2.248 million Zimbabwe dollars (US$369) a ton to farmers who have made deliveries since April 1. That price is three times more than the 750,000 Zimbabwe dollars (US$123) it paid at the beginning of the season. "There is no way the country can afford it," said local independent economist John Robertson. "We can't afford the subsidy and we can't afford to import," he said, noting Zimbabwe's dwindling foreign currency reserves.
Zimbabwe is in the midst of its worst economic and political crisis since independence in 1980. Following the seizure of 5,000 white-owned farms over the past five years, output has dropped for all crops, including tobacco, once the country's major foreign currency earner. Donor governments believe that up to 2 million Zimbabweans will need food aid to survive to the next harvest in 2006. The government at first angrily rejected donor predictions of food shortages, but Col. Samuel Muvuti, the head of the Grain Marketing Board, disclosed last week the board was hurriedly importing 1.2 million metric tons of maize. Before March 31 parliamentary elections in which the ruling ZANU-PF party claimed a massive victory, President Robert Mugabe insisted a "bumper" 2.5 million ton harvest was being reaped, nearly twice the nation's annual consumption needs, and told international relief agencies to leave the country. His principal human rights critic, Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of Bulawayo, accused Mugabe of using the state grain monopoly to intimidate voters, by denying supplies in opposition areas. Agriculture Minister Joseph Made announced the new maize producer price through the state media, and offered the same for millet and sorghum, grown in drier areas and used for brewing and animal feed.
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From IRIN (UN), 4 May
Govt assessing needs before calling for food aid
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe authorities say the results from a second round of government-run crop assessments will determine whether the country will appeal for international food aid. Chairman of the National Taskforce on Food Security, Didymus Mutasa, said on Wednesday that the government was on top of the situation, and refused to comment on media reports of dwindling stocks and rising food prices. "All I can say is that there are multisectoral food needs assessments going on, but I cannot give you details about what we are looking for. These are security issues, and ... we cannot make public statements on such issues. We are watching the situation and taking corrective measures," Mutasa told IRIN. So far, officials have maintained that 1.5 million Zimbabweans were in need of food assistance, based on a government crop assessment undertaken between December and January. However, this figure contrasted sharply with some international relief agency estimates that up to 4.5 million people urgently needed food aid.With all the indicators suggesting that crop output this year has once again fallen far short of consumption needs, the government has been under increasing pressure to allow a transparent audit, which would allow the international community to rapidly respond with aid if required. The issue of food needs has become politically highly charged in Zimbabwe, with the opposition during campaigning in the March legislative elections accusing the government of mismanaging the situation. The US-funded Famine Early Warning System has called for an "objective" crop assessment to determine the extent of food insecurity in the country, and whether outside assistance was required to close the food gap. Zimbabwe needs 1.8 million mt of grain annually to meet domestic consumption requirements, and the 2004/05 harvest is believed to be well below the 2.4 million mt predicted by the government after it cancelled a UN-led crop assessment in April last year.
Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Nicholas Goche confirmed last week that about 150,000 mt of grain had been received from South Africa over the past month, and the country was now turning to Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania for supplies, as the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) sought to restock maize and wheat holdings. FEWS NET has predicted a temporary improvement in food availability as the new crop is harvested, but described the "inefficient grain distribution system" of the state-owned GMB as having previously "exacerbated the situation" of shortages. "The major food security problem at the national level remains the inability of a significant proportion of poor households to generate enough income to buy adequate food to satisfy their dietary needs," FEWS NET noted in a report released in March. Responding to the calls for the government to reveal the extent of the country's food needs, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Joseph Made stressed that Zimbabwe would only seek external aid if there were a need to do so. "The government has the capacity to make its own assessments through various provincial and district food committees. Our teams are already out updating the records, and in two months' time we will have a clear picture," Made said. "So far, we are aware of food deficits in seven provinces of the country, and that forms our basic guide for food distribution. Any new areas of need will be recorded and provided for accordingly," he noted. The seven traditionally food deficit regions include the northern Zambezi Valley, and the provinces of Matabeleland South, Mashonaland East and West, Manicaland, Masvingo and Mashonaland Central. Apart from imports, Made said, the country still had internal food-security safety nets, including the winter wheat farming season, which begins this month.
The government confirmed that it was prepared to accept the findings of an upcoming survey by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZIMVAC), provided the results were credible and reflected the country's "national situation". The ZIMVAC, scheduled for later in May, is a collaborative effort by United Nations agencies, the government and donors, to gain a clearer picture of household vulnerability. "If the assessors carry out their duty diligently, we will accept only what we see as portraying our national situation - allowing international organisations to carry out the assessment does not mean we cannot do it; this is our country and we know its needs better than any foreigner," Mutasa insisted. Meanwhile, the donor community said the longer the wait for credible figures, the greater the delay in launching a humanitarian response if one were required. "At the moment it is a wait-and-see situation - we are working on contingency plans with other humanitarian partners in the event the government does decide to call on us for assistance," European Union food security coordinator, Pierre-Luc Vanhaeverbeke, told IRIN. "We must stress that there are many people who are already facing food shortages, and to wait until July [when the government's assessment results are due] could be dangerous," he added. Food insecurity has been exacerbated by the country's economic crisis, in which the minimum wage covers only about 40 percent of basic household expenditure.
According to FEWS NET, poor families have so far survived by "borrowing, reducing the number and size of meals and skipping meals on some days". Vanhaeverbeke explained that if the EU was asked to respond, it would need "sufficient time" to source funds and set up food distribution networks. "Preparations for general food distribution do not happen overnight, and are extremely costly. We need to rebuild capacity on the ground and that takes time, so we would appreciate some forewarning. We are not saying that we do not trust food need assessments undertaken by the government, but we remain open to assessment figures that are credible, and that other important stakeholders, such as FAO [Food and Agricultural Organisation] confirm as a reasonable reflection of the food security situation," Vanhaeverbeke said. International food aid programmes provided much-needed relief until mid-2004, but these were stopped when the government told the UN and donors that the country had had a "bumper harvest" and no longer needed assistance.
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From Sapa, 4 May
Mugabe orders new planes from 'Asian ally'
Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday commissioned two of three passenger planes bought from China, praising the Asian nation for standing by his country, which has been cut off from its former friends in the West. "The delivery of the two aircraft is symbolic of our resolve to foster even stronger ties with our friends who have supported our cause," Mugabe told hundreds gathered at Harare's International Airport to see the planes off on their maiden flight to the resort town of Victoria Falls. "They supported us during our liberation struggle... they have continued to extend a hand of solidarity. The Republic of China is steadily becoming the largest foreign investor in Zimbabwe and our biggest trading partner." Following sanctions and isolation by western countries over the political crisis in the country, Zimbabwe has adopted the "Look East" policy, fostering new relations with Asian countries, particularly China, Malaysia, Singapore. Air Zimbabwe bought the MA60 52-seater planes from the Chinese state-owned AVIC aircraft manufacturer and received a third plane as a gift from the Chinese government. "We are proud that our national airline is responding to our burgeoning 'Look East' policy," Mugabe said. "Look east, we say, where the sun rises." The purchase by Air Zimbabwe comes just weeks after the southern African country took delivery of six Chinese-made Karakorum 8 (K-8) military trainer jets. The 60-seater propeller planes will take on domestic and regional routes that have been serviced by long-haul Boeing aircraft. Last month Zimbabwe's national passenger bus company took delivery of 50 commuter buses bought from First Automobile Works in China.
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From Reuters, 4 May
S.Africa's Ramaphosa says action needed in Zimbabwe
Johannesburg - A leading South African businessman with strong ties to the ruling African National Congress said on Wednesday intervention was needed to rescue the Zimbabwean economy from an acute recession. "It's (Zimbabwe's economy) under so much stress it needs some kind of intervention," Cyril Ramaphosa told an African investment conference in Johannesburg. He gave no indication of what kind of action should be taken to remedy the situation in Zimbabwe, which is suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and hard currency blamed by many on mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe's government. "We do not want the economy going south (downwards)," said Ramaphosa, one of South Africa's richest black men and a senior member of the ANC's National Executive Committee. ANC leaders, including President Thabo Mbeki, have acknowledged Zimbabwe's economy is in crisis but have been criticised in some quarters for their perceived support of Mugabe, who is accused by western governments, the domestic opposition and church and labour groups of human rights abuses. Mugabe is also accused of driving Zimbabwe's once vibrant economy into the ground, in part by adopting a controversial land policy that gave white-owned farms to landless blacks. He blames western governments, which have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe. Mbeki himself has come under persistent criticism from analysts and the Zimbabwe opposition for his "quiet diplomacy" style in trying to resolve the Zimbabwe crisis, saying that Mugabe has simply ignored all overtures from Pretoria. Ramaphosa's were some of the strongest comments to date from a senior ANC official on what needs to be done in Zimbabwe. "Instability and conflict within one African country has a destabilising impact on its neighbours and an unsettling effect on potential investors," said Ramaphosa, a former trade unionist who helped negotiate South Africa's transition to democratic rule from decades under apartheid.
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From The Sunday Mirror, 1 May
Spy case yakes new twist
Kuda Chikwanda, Chief Writer
The on-going espionage trial involving former Zanu PF security director, Kenny Karidza, has taken a new twist, following the revelation that there is now a "trial within the trial", in which he is disputing the admissibility of revelations he made to investigating officers. Karidza is on trial facing charges of espionage and if convicted, could receive any sentence from five years to 20 years in prison. According to the director of prosecutions within the Attorney General’s office, Joseph Musakwa, the State’s case against Karidza had been slowed down owing to the admissibility of Karidza’s statements. "Right now, Karidza is contesting the admissibility of statements he made to investigators. So I could say that there is ‘a trial within the trial’, where the court first has to resolve the issue of admissibility, before going further to try Karidza on the main trial, that of espionage," said Musakwa. Commenting on the trial, which has dragged over four-and-a-half months since Karidza was arrested last December, Musakwa said that other unforeseen developments had arisen in addition to Karidza’s disputing the permissibility of his statements. He, however, refused to divulge the nature of the circumstances that were responsible for the lengthening of the trial.
Karidza’s trial is being held in camera and both the defence and the prosecution have not commented about the proceedings. At one time, Karidza a war veteran renowned for his toughness was reported to have been seriously affected by the methods of interrogation to the extent that he was unable to walk or eat. Others to be nabbed in the same case as Karidza, though tried separately, were former Zanu PF Mashonaland West province chairman Phillip Chiyangwa, ambassador-designate to Mozambique, Godfrey Dzvairo, prominent banker, Tendai Matambanadzo, and Itai Marchi, the ruling party’s director for external affairs. The five men were accused of selling political and economic information on the country, with Chiyangwa allegedly reported to have received US$10 000 ($62 million) monthly retainer fee from his South African handler. Sources claimed that Dzvairo, who was stationed in South Africa since 1994, had been under surveillance for the past decade as Zimbabwean authorities suspected him of espionage, but were failing to get any tangible evidence to nail him. It was alleged that Dzvairo recruited Chiyangwa, who in turn recruited Matambanadzo (a relative to his wife), Marchi and Karidza. Having spent over a month in prison, Chiyangwa was granted refusal of remand by the High Court, as the State was yet to gather sufficient evidence to incriminate him.
Dzvairo was jailed for six years, Matambanadzo and Marchi got five-year terms each. The State has since indicated in Chiyangwa’s case that it intends to appeal once enough evidence has been gathered. Speaking about the South African at the centre of the spy ring, Musakwa classified the 48-year-old white male as " a witness", contrary to earlier media reports that had labelled him a spymaster. "He (the South African) is not in custody. He is a witness and he is still giving evidence. Why should a witness be placed in custody?" said Musakwa. The South African citizen was nabbed on December 15 in a sting operation that also saw Chiyangwa, Matambanadzo, Dzvairo, Marchi and Karidza disappearing for over a week, before it later emerged that they were in custody and awaiting trial on charges of espionage. Reports had claimed that the South African operative was lured into the country early December last year by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) head of counter intelligence, and once arrested, he spilt the beans on his contacts in the country leading to the arrest of the five men. In related developments, Musakwa also admitted that Zimbabwean authorities were at a dead end as to where Erasmus Moyo, the Zimbabwean diplomat based in Geneva, Switzerland, could be. Said Musakwa: "He remains unlocated. There have been no developments to date on his whereabouts." Moyo, who was also implicated in the spy ring affair alongside the five, skilfully escaped from authorities at an airport in Switzerland.
This is the second high profile case which has resulted in a "trial within a trial" following the highly publicised trial of the four suspects indicted on charges of murdering war veteran Cain Nkala. The four suspects, who were later acquitted of any wrong-doing late last year, disputed the State’s case, which was based on evidence allegedly given by the suspects. As in the Karidza trial, the trial dragged because there were disputes on the admissibility of written confessions by the alleged murderers, with the suspects arguing that they had made the confessions under duress, and thus arguing that the confessions could not be used in the trial. The five were accused of selling Zanu PF secrets made by the ruling party’s powerful inner circle, the politburo. The State argued that, by virtue of Zanu PF being the government of the day, any Politburo secrets sold by the accused individuals were State secrets as this was where political decisions affecting government policy were tabled and decided on.
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From Sapa, 5 May, 2005
Mercenaries hope for Tuesday release
The 62 South African alleged mercenaries in Zimbabwe may be released next Tuesday after 12 months in Chikurubi prison in Harare, their lawyer said on Wednesday. Lawyer Alwyn Griebenow said he was not sure if the men would be released on the due date, but he would fly to Harare to find out what the situation was. The men were still awaiting the outcome of an appeal lodged by Zimbabwe's attorney-general, Sobuza Gula-Ndebele, against the reduction of their sentences which would have seen the men released in early March. "No date has been set for the appeal which will only be of academic value as the men will be back in South Africa already," said Griebenow. Zimbabwean court officials confirmed on March 2 that the men were scheduled for immediate release after a successful appeal against their sentences in the high court. A week later, with all the paperwork completed, their lawyer and families waited in vain for their return which was delayed when Gula-Ndebele filed an application to appeal against the high court's decision. "The suspension of a sentence for early release of a prisoner only applies to Zimbabwean citizens," Gula-Ndebele said at the time.
Griebenow said the appeal would only be of value to two pilots who had received 16 month sentences for their role in the alleged plot to topple the government of Equatorial Guinea. "If judgment is given in their favour they won't have to wait until September 1 to be released," he said. Two of the men due for release on Tuesday were ill with tuberculosis (TB), Griebenow said. As the men had been "well and fit" when they were arrested, they presumably picked up the illness in prison, he said. Francisco Marcus who has been in hospital for more than six months was "already very weak and can barely walk", while Melane Moyo had been in and out of the prison hospital. Accusations of mistreatment of the prisoners had surfaced during their imprisonment, with Griebenow saying their living conditions were "horrible". Their prison food had little nutritional value, they slept on the floor, and sometimes weeks went by without running water, he said. He claimed the prison authorities have refused permission to hand over jerseys knitted especially for the men in conformance with prison uniform regulations. The South African embassy in Harare did not dismiss the claims, but said the allegations had not been brought to the embassy's attention. The group was arrested at Harare International Airport when they apparently landed to refuel and pick up military equipment. Zimbabwean authorities said they were on their way to join 15 other suspected mercenaries - including eight South Africans - arrested in Equatorial Guinea around the same time. They were convicted of breaching Zimbabwe's aviation, immigration, firearms and security laws.
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From Zim Online (SA), 6 April
UN agency says unable to immediately feed starving Zimbabweans
Harare - The World Food Programme (WFP) is unable to immediately supply hundreds of thousands of tonnes of maize to feed four million starving Zimbabweans because nothing had been reserved for the country after Harare said last year it had enough food. A paltry 18 000 tonnes of maize - far short of the 1.2 million tonnes of the staple grain required to avert starvation - was this year allocated to Zimbabwe from the WFP’s unallocated emergency window, a food reserve facility into which the aid agency taps in to meet additional and emergency requirements such as is the case with Zimbabwe. According to a WFP document entitled, "Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation - Southern Africa Regional PRRO 10310.0" which was shown to Zim Online yesterday, the WFP’s emergency food facility holds 100 000 tonnes of maize. But Zimbabwe must share the reserve food facility with five other southern Africa countries facing food shortages.
The document reads in part: "As a contingency, an unallocated emergency window (UEW) OF 100 000 metric tonnes was built into the regional programme to allow flexibility in responding to additional needs such as those from Zimbabwe. Following some indication from Government that they would welcome continued support for specific targeted interventions, regional director approved an urgent allocation of 18 498 metric tonnes from the UEW to cover Zimbabwe requirements. It is not practicable to make further allocations from the UEW at this time in view of the relatively large volume of food required. This would leave only a small balance for the other five countries." The WFP, which has been at the forefront of fighting hunger in Zimbabwe for the last five years, can raise more food aid for the country but such an effort would require approval by the UN organ’s board at its meeting in November this year. "Should WFP respond through the PRRO modality, it is expected that the food costs would be of such magnitude as to require approval by the Executive Board, probably at its November 2005 SESSION," the document reads.
President Robert Mugabe told the WFP and other international donors to take their help elsewhere because Zimbabwe had enough food. A food and hunger vulnerability study that was being carried out jointly by the WFP and the government was called off last year because there was no need for such a survey after Mugabe and his Agriculture Minister, Joseph Made, said Zimbabwe was going to reap 2.4 million tonnes of maize from the 2003/2004 season. The country consumes 1.8 million tonnes of maize annually. But the UN and several food aid organisations warned that Mugabe and Made’s claims of a bumper harvest were exaggerated and said that it would be difficult to mount a large scale food relief operation at short notice should the government realise it was wrong about the food situation. Mugabe has since last month admitted that Zimbabwe is facing serious food shortages but he said he was not going to go begging for aid because his cash-strapped government had enough resources to ensure no one starved. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party last week called on Mugabe and his government to swallow their pride and appeal for food aid to stave off hunger.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 6 May
Knives out for Gono
Dumisani Muleya
Knives are out for Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono currently under intense pressure to quit after becoming entangled in the ruling Zanu PF’s power struggles. Official sources said Gono, who has almost buckled under political and work-related pressure to leave his job although he has denied the reports, is exasperated by government’s failure to back his monetary policies with anything other than rhetoric. Zanu PF hawks opposed to his policies such as currency devaluation and economic re-engagement with the West, are baying for his blood. "He has been frustrated by factional politics and economic policies that he does not influence," a source said. "He has no free hand to do what he thinks works to ensure economic recovery. He is still looking West, while President Mugabe is facing East." The sources say Gono is disappointed by lack of political support for his initiatives. They said Gono and his team boycotted the just-ended Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo as the row reached fever pitch last week. Gono has been roped into Zanu PF’s factional dogfights. He has been linked to a camp widely seen as led by Rural Housing minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. It is understood he had a stormy meeting with Vice-President Joice Mujuru last week over monetary policy and closed banks. Gono, observers say, is isolated after government dumped his recovery programme after the election. At the height of the election campaign Zanu PF bigwigs rallied behind Gono’s "turnaround" mantra but have since offered no practical support for his endeavours. "With shortages all-round and no real evidence of recovery, Zanu PF is slowly pulling away from Gono," a senior Zanu PF official said. "Those in the party who have always opposed his thrust and overbearing behaviour have taken the initiative to start to undercut his ascendancy," the official said. Sources said Gono has been anxious to secure reassurance from President Robert Mugabe on his security of tenure against this fraught background.
It is said Gono is under severe attack from Zanu PF and government hardliners who accuse him of leaning towards the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank - Western institutions - at a time when the country is supposedly facing East. Harare has been given a second six-month grace period by the IMF to put its house in order. Mugabe has never hidden his hostility for the IMF, which had been expected in the country this week to assess the economic situation and discuss Zimbabwe’s debt repayments. However, Gono, who visited the IMF in Washington last June, has been desperate to repair damaged relations with the West and access balance-of-payments funding - seen as crucial to the country’s recovery. These and other actions are viewed by Mugabe as off-mission, although the two have not clashed openly. Gono has also been blocked on several occasions by Mugabe’s adherents from devaluing Zimbabwe’s battered currency in the face of a widening gap between the official and the black market exchange rates. Former Finance minister Simba Makoni was in 2003 ejected from cabinet over devaluation. "Devaluation is one of the policy issues in which he is frustrated," a government source said. "Gono would ideally like to consult as widely as possible but on this issue he has been restricted by government rigidity. He wants to relax the exchange rate to close the gap but cabinet has not given him the go-ahead to do so. He can’t devalue on his own because devaluation is a policy matter." Despite a clear fundamental disequilibrium - a serious imbalance in the balance-of-payments which justifies devaluation - Gono has been blocked from adopting the economically rational policy measure. He has also been frustrated over the burgeoning budget deficit, subsidies to farmers, handouts to ex-detainees and a bloated cabinet. "His monetary policy went up in smoke on March 31," one economist said this week.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 6 May, 2005
South African ‘master spy’ named
Staff Writer
The South African Secret Service (SASS) officer being held in Zimbabwe in connection with the ongoing spy saga has been identified as Aubrey Welken. Zimbabwean and South African authorities have consistently refused to name the alleged agent - described by the director of public prosecutions Joseph Musakwa as a state witness and by the media as a "master spy" - supposedly for security reasons. But intelligence sources this week identified the SASS officer in question as Welken and said he had been on the "Zimbabwe beat" for some time. SASS is responsible for non-military foreign intelligence. It has counter-intelligence and internal security branches that gather, correlate, and analyse foreign intelligence. Welken was arrested by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) in December last year in a sting operation and has been in detention since. His arrest was said to have led to the detention of five alleged Zimbabwean spies. These include Zimbabwe’s ambassador-designate to Mozambique Godfrey Dzvairo, Zanu PF foreign affairs director Itai Marchi, former Metropolitan Bank company secretary Tendai Edgar Matambanadzo, Zanu PF deputy security chief Kenny Karidza, and former Zanu PF MP Phillip Chiyangwa, who has now been released.
Intelligence sources said a senior CIO officer named as Miya Meki - who is related to former Intelligence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa - was also arrested at the same time. He has appeared in court in camera facing separate charges and is out on bail. The sources said Meki was accused of failing to report to his bosses a secret meeting he held with a South African undercover agent who botched a plot to recruit him. A Switzerland-based Zimbabwean diplomat, Erasmus Moyo, was said to have escaped arrest by disappearing at Geneva airport last year. There were allegations that cabinet ministers were involved in the case. Former State Security minister Nicholas Goche has denied reports linking him to the case. Dzvairo, Marchi, Matambanadzo, Karidza, and Chiyangwa were charged with violating the Official Secrets Act and faced 20 years in jail. Dzvairo, Zimbabwe’s former consul-general to South Africa, was sentenced to six years, while Matambanadzo and Marchi were jailed for five years each. Chiyangwa was recently released by the High Court but the state said it has not dropped the case. Karidza is still on trial and Welken is the chief witness against him. However, Karidza is objecting to that and a trial within a trial on the admissibility of statements he allegedly made to CIO investigators is now taking place in camera. Musakwa has said the espionage case could not proceed due to the trial within a trial. He also claimed last week Welken was not a prisoner but a key witness. Although the South African government has been making frantic efforts to gain access to Welken to secure his release, it is understood Zimbabwe has been unwilling to cooperate. However, sources say Welken’s wife and son flew to Zimbabwe last Tuesday and managed to see him.
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From BBC News, 5 May
Zimbabwe’s economy running on empty
By Grant Ferrett
Power cuts along with fuel and water shortages have become common occurrences in Zimbabwe. Critics of President Mugabe's Zanu PF party say his policies have crippled a once vibrant economy and that things have got worse since the party's re-election in March 2005. Former Zimbabwe correspondent Grant Ferrett returned to the country to find out. I'd been in Zimbabwe just a few minutes when President Robert Mugabe's face appeared. I was in an airport lounge, and state-run television was broadcasting archive footage of Mr Mugabe. But each time his picture came on, a young shop assistant held up her hand in the flat-palm sign of the MDC opposition over the television screen, obscuring the view of the 81-year-old leader. It was a very public expression of defiance in a country where criticising the president is a criminal offence and where many people live in fear. She didn't have to keep up her show of disapproval for long. The electricity in the airport failed and the television screen went blank. Power cuts have become a common occurrence in Zimbabwe, an indication of the country's economic demise.
Another sign was provided by the cost of just a short taxi journey into the centre of the capital, Harare, which came to 250,000 Zimbabwe dollars. When I first arrived in Harare seven years ago, the exchange rate was 38 Zimbabwe dollars to the pound. The unofficial rate is now about 25,000 to one. The plunging value of the local currency and the correspondingly breathtaking rise in inflation - currently down, officially, to a relatively modest 130% a year - has made life very complicated, as well as very expensive for most Zimbabweans. For a start, it is difficult to keep track of prices which are constantly changing and you have to carry wads of notes. One celebrated cartoon shows robbers holding up a man who is pushing a wheelbarrow full of cash. The attackers demand that their victim throw out the worthless banknotes and hand over the wheelbarrow. The introduction of a 20,000 dollar note reduced the inconvenience. But close examination reveals that the notes, known as bearer cheques, have an expiry date of 31 December 2004. They were clearly intended to be a temporary measure, but because Zimbabwe's economic collapse has continued, they are still needed. They also have the number 50 written in the corner. They were introduced in such a hurry that the authorities simply used the template of the old 50 dollar note.
In what used to be my local shopping centre in Harare, there were empty shelves. Shortages have afflicted the country for the past five years. The staple food, mealie meal, was available, but only the more expensive variety, which is beyond the means of many Zimbabweans. There was no sugar, even though there are vast sugar plantations in the south of the country. Uneconomically low, government-controlled prices ensure that much of it ends up being sold at a higher price outside the country. And yet, if the official results are to be believed, Zimbabweans voted in favour of more of the same in the parliamentary elections. Despite presiding over the world's fastest-shrinking economy, the ruling Zanu PF party apparently received a bigger share of the vote than in the last such polls five years ago. President Mugabe can claim little support in the capital. A widely circulated phone text message asked why it was the Pope who had died rather than the Zimbabwean leader. "I said please take Bob," says the message, "not the Pope."
It was impossible for me to tell if the ruling party had much support in rural areas. I was working as a journalist in Zimbabwe without accreditation, an offence punishable by two years in prison. I had hoped to visit some of the previously white-owned farms which had been redistributed over the past few years, but was advised that the risks were too great. I did speak to some unemployed farm workers, who had been without jobs since their farm was reallocated three years ago. There are hundreds of thousands in a similar position. I also interviewed a friend who is a successful black commercial farmer. He bought his farm legally, long before the government's redistribution programme. When I phoned to suggest I visit him at home, he quickly dismissed the idea. He said he was being watched on his farm, his new neighbours apparently didn't trust him. He is viewed as an ally of the white farmers who used to live in the area. So instead he came to meet me in the anonymity of the capital. Sitting in a borrowed car, I spent much of the time glancing in the mirror hoping no passers-by had noticed the microphone. He was anxious, too, and told me that he was thinking of spending some time away from the farm in the hope that things would calm down. He said there was still a lot of intimidation by ruling party supporters. This man, who told me five years ago that he wanted to be a role model for aspiring young Zimbabwean farmers, is even wondering if he will be able to farm at all in another five years' time. It is a terrible comment on President Mugabe's government, and shows perhaps why one young Zimbabwean tried to prevent Mr Mugabe's face appearing on television.
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From The Times (UK), 6 May, 2005
No food, no fuel - but a glut of elephants for sale at £1,000
By Jonathan Clayton
Zimbabwe, which is struggling with chronic shortages in everything from fuel to food, claims that it has at least one huge surplus - elephants. The Government’s wildlife and parks department says that there are 60,000 more elephants than can be sustained in the wild and has invited local farmers to buy them to populate remote ranches and private game reserves. Wildlife experts dispute the Government’s figures and say that the proposed sale is a ploy to create the impression that the country’s game parks, which have been devastated by poaching and mismanagement over the past five years, are well run. Maurice Mutsambiwa, director of the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, said that Zimbabwe now had 100,000 elephants, against a sustainable population of 45,000, and gave a warning that if current trends continued the country faced a major ecological disaster. "Ideally we should have one elephant on 1sq km (0.4sq ml) but we have a situation in places like Hwange National Park, the Zambezi Valley and Gonarezhou National Park where we have four elephants per sq km," he said. Mr Mutsambiwa said that because of their heavy concentration in certain areas the elephants were damaging vegetation and driving other species to extinction. "Vegetation will be destroyed and water will run out in the parks," he said. His authority is inviting tenders from farmers interested in buying elephants.
But the move has angered conservation experts, who cast doubt on the Government’s claims. There has been no proper count of the elephant population for many years. They said that there was a real danger that small-scale farmers would buy the elephants on the cheap and then allow the animal to be poached on their land. "If they allow an illegal hunter to kill it, the going price is about £4,000. Or they could use it for meat. There is no way a farmer with some 2,000 hectares can support elephants on his land," Johnny Rodrigues, of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said. John Worsley-Worfwick, of the Justice for Farmers campaign group, said: "They (the Government) are trying to give the impression there is a healthy situation. The food situation is so bad here that people have been killing elephants for meat, and officials have been dealing in ivory on the side." He added: "There are no private individuals who want an elephant in the back yard. It is nonsense." The Standard, the Zimbabwean newspaper, has reported that one national park was instructed to slaughter elephants in order to feed villagers at Independence Day celebrations last week. President Mugabe’ s Government, which won re-election last month in a poll that the Opposition and Western governments maintain was rigged, reacted angrily to suggestions of a food shortage, but has admitted plans to import 1.2 million tonnes of maize in the next few months. Elephants have been protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) since 1989, but in 1997 rules were relaxed to allow Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to cull a limited number and sell a portion of the resulting ivory stocks under regulated trade. "Culling is a very scientific process. They just don’t have the ability to do it properly any more. They just want to try and hide what is really happening out there," Mr Rodrigues said.
Southern African nations, where game parks and reserves are traditionally well run and the animals protected, have long argued for a relaxation in CITES rules to allow them to trade in ivory stocks built up from large-scale culling. Many also want to make private hunters pay "trophy" charges for killing the unwanted animals. Mr Rodrigues said that individuals can pay up to £5,400 each for an elephant "trophy", but that Zimbabwe - one of only a handful of countries which allows licensed hunting - was now trying to fix the price to the hunter at more than £12,000. Meanwhile, he said that it was possible for a farmer to "buy" a Zimbabwean elephant for just over £1,000. "The potential exists for huge profits and abuse, but we will have to see what happens when the tenders come in. I do not think they are serious about this. Our herds have been hit by poaching and mismanagement. They want CITES to give them permission to cull many more, saying they have tried everything else." Ivory poaching devastated Africa’s elephant population between 1979 and 1989. In some countries, notably Sudan, Mozambique and Angola, elephants were almost wiped out. Today, the total African elephant population is put at between 500,000 and 600,000, but the herds have recovered much more quickly in southern Africa.
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 6 May
MIC demands more info from Daily News
Harare - The Media and Information Commission (MIC) on Thursday night demanded more information from the banned Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd (ANZ) before they can resume publishing their flagship The Daily News and the Daily News On Sunday. Sitting as a full board, the MIC, chaired by Tafataona Mahoso, asked the ANZ to submit a bank statement up to April 2005, updated financial projections, a market analysis report and the details of ANZ shareholders. The MIC board comprises Mahoso, Mrs Tomana, the wife of MIC’s lawyer Johannes Tomana, a Mr Mlambo from Gweru, Happinos Makoni, Jonathan Mapenduka and Rino Zhuwarara, the chairman of the State-controlled Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH). According to Sam Sipepa Nkomo, the ANZ chief executive officer, the MIC also wanted to know if they were going to relaunch their flagship or rebrand it. "They wanted to know whether or not we were going to rebrand the Daily News," he said. "We told them the paper would remain the colourful blue on white. The Daily News would maintain its probing stance and would not be compromised. Our resolve is to continue to serve the interests of our readers and advertisers."
The latest setback in the ANZ’s quest to return to the streets came nearly two months after the Supreme Court ordered the MIC to reconsider its application, submitted in 2003. It also came hardly a week after the MIC postponed the hearing because some of its officials wanted to attend the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) which was held in Bulawayo. Journalists and human rights groups around Zimbabwe and in the international community were yesterday anxious to know the outcome of the MIC ruling. John Gambanga, the editor of The Daily News last night said: "Everyone wanted to know the outcome. I received five international calls from journalists and media organisations wishing to know the outcome of the MIC hearing." He said the MIC ruling was disappointing as it meant that he and the rest of the ANZ workers would continue to wait for a favourable ruling. The ANZ titles were banned on September 11, 2003 after the Supreme Court ruled that the publishers were operating illegally without accreditation from the pro-government MIC, as required by the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). According to Nkomo, the ANZ had not much control over its shareholders. He said their major shareholders were the Independent Media Group (IMG) and AMIZ (Private) Limited, a British media group, registered in Zimbabwe under the country’s investment laws. AMIZ (Pvt) Ltd was registered through the Zimbabwe Investment Centre in 1998.
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From Sapa, 6 May
SA waiting for dust to settle in Zimbabwe
Pretoria - South Africa would wait for emotions in Zimbabwe to settle before they attempt to find solutions to the economic crisis in the country, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad said on Friday. Addressing reporters attending the International Relations, Peace and Security cluster meeting in Pretoria on Friday, Pahad said: "We are waiting for the dust to settle." He explained that in the aftermath of the recent elections, emotions between the ruling Zanu PF party, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and South Africa were quite high. Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe described the MDC as having been relegated to the dustbin of the past after the recent elections, while MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai broke ties with South Africa, claiming it had not done enough to promote free and fair elections. Pahad declared he was still optimistic that the two Zimbabwean parties would find ways of working together and that South Africa would assist if asked.
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From Zim Online (SA), 7 May, 2005
Mugabe turns police force into an arm of Zanu PF
Buchwa Mine - Fifty-two year old police Assistant Inspector Michael Chikuni stands still during morning parade. In front of him is a bulky police instructor bellowing instructions at the group of senior officers undergoing "ideological re-training" at Buchwa, more than 200km west of the capital, Harare. At 52, Chikuni can barely cope with the physical demands of the training regime at the camp. But he has no option. Any excuses would be deemed an act of defiance and insurbodination punishable by instant dismissal. With retirement looming on the horizon, Chikuni cannot afford to risk losing his pension by defying the authorities. And so he plays ball. Senior police officers who have gone through the re-training programme, speaking in hushed tones, say life at the centre is no bed of roses. "We were constantly subjected to daily torture. We would wake up as early as 4am to scale nearby steep mountains while singing war songs in praise of the ruling party and denigrating opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Tony Blair (British Premier). "When you are found not to be singing due to fatigue or some other reason, you are labelled an MDC supporter and punished severely. From then on, you would have to deal with the resentment that would follow," said one police officer who went through the six-week training programme at the centre.
After the rigorous physical exercises, it is back to the barracks where they have to imbibe the Zanu PF hate doctrine. They are told to safeguard the country's sovereignty by bludgeoning into submission anyone "who is seeking to reverse the gains of the liberation war." President Robert Mugabe’s government, which accuses the MDC of seeking to reverse the gains of the liberation struggle, initiated the re-training programme for the police in 2000 to "instill patriotism" in the officers after the ruling Zanu PF party received a bloody nose at the polls from the then nine-month old MDC. Human rights activists accuse Zimbabwe’s police force of applying the law selectively in favour of Zanu PF. The police have also been accused of using the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) to disable the opposition and render it impotent in battles for political supremacy. The police deny the charges. But it is at Buchwa, an abandoned mining settlement, that the government has sought to brainwash the police officers in a new programme of political re-orientation.
Senior police officers who attended the programme criticised the crude training methods at the camp. With no running water and an obsolete sewerage system, they say the place poses great danger to the officers' physical existence. They say the police training is a replica of the controversial national service training programme initiated by the government in 2000. The programme has been blamed for churning out violent youths who have terrorised opposition supporters since 2000. "There is nothing special with the training other than that it is a mere indoctrination exercise where Zanu PF fodder is forced down our throats so that we would teach it to our junior members," said another police officer, also on condition of anonymity. He added that they were being taught various methods to suppress the activities of the MDC, accused by Mugabe of a being a front for the West to effect regime change in Zimbabwe. Political observers argue that the aim of the controversial exercise is to force an increasingly despondent police force, which is supposed to be apolitical, to support Zanu PF.
Mugabe, the only leader Zimbabweans have known since independence, is accused by his critics of wreaking what was one of Africa’s successful economies. Inflation stands at 123.7 percent and unemployment is at 70 percent. The health delivery system is in a mess and 5.5 million Zimbabweans need immediate food aid to avert starvation. Mugabe also stands accused of serious human rights violations. The African Union last year criticised Zimbabwe’s police for behaving like a Zanu PF militia. The 81-year old Mugabe denies charges of mismanagement accusing the West of sabotaging his government. "We have now lost faith in the police force. They have sacrificed professionalism on the altar of political expediency," said Felix Mafa of the Post-Independence Survivors Trust (PIST) a Bulawayo-based pressure group. Asked to comment on the allegations, chief police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena refused to speak to Zim Online, accusing our reporters of lying about the police force. "You are always writing lies about us, I cannot talk to you," he said before switching off his mobile phone.
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From IRIN (UN), 5 May
Beleaguered parastatals warn of impending food crisis
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's key production and distribution parastatals have warned of major food shortages in the near future unless government provides immediate funding to restore viability to these businesses. Their concerns surfaced amid reports that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has so far failed to make available the Z$10 trillion recapitalisation package for rescuing 16 ailing but crucial state-owned companies, as pledged in January this year. Under the Parastatals and Local Authorities Re-orientation Programme, the RBZ promised financial support to revive production in the parastatals, and revitalise declining standards of service provision in local government councils. Five months later, the central bank has failed to disburse the money, citing a scarcity of foreign currency. In the face of worsening nationwide shortages, the bank said it had been forced to limit its foreign currency allocations to importing food and fuel, ahead of other capital expenditure commitments.
The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), the nation's sole power supplier, warned of an impending power crisis, just as government said it had pinned its hopes for a successful winter wheat farming season on the country's few electrified irrigation schemes. Addressing business delegates at the Zimbabwe International Trade fair last week, ZESA's chief executive officer, Sydney Gata, said the company might "sound alarmist", but it was true that the country would face serious power supply problems as long as the foreign currency crisis persisted. "We might sound alarmist but, yes, there is a serious, nationwide power supply problem looming," said Gata, noting that ZESA needed at least US $2 billion to avert a major power supply crisis between this year and 2010. ZESA relies heavily on imports from South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to satisfy the national demand, but Gata said the company was currently operating at well below normal capacity, and production would continue declining as more equipment broke down. The country has been facing worsening power cuts for the last three months, and it is feared that the electric irrigation schemes set aside for the winter wheat farming programme could fail to deliver a decent harvest due to power shortages.
National Foods Holdings (NFH) is the sole producer and distributor of all basic food commodities in Zimbabwe, and also mills maize and wheat purchased from the state-controlled broker, the Grain marketing Board (GMB). In its annual statement, submitted to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange last week, NFH said future food availability in the country was under threat because of cash flow problems. It noted that over the years the company had been forced to import up to 70 percent of the annual national food requirement at high costs, and forex shortages now hampered its ability to acquire external supplies. A senior company executive told IRIN that government-imposed price controls on basic food products had the net effect of destroying profitability, and ultimately the future availability of food in the country. "The company faces serious viability problems in trying to maintain the balance of optimising service provision, and at the same time increasing profits. The price control regime (which applies to all NFH products) is unsustainable, as it compels the company to produce or import at market rates, but sell at well below market value," the executive explained. NFH also called on the government to take restorative measures to increase its production capacity, and warned that the net effect of its collapse would "seriously impact on the availability of basic commodities in the domestic market". Only two of its five milling sites, Bulawayo and Harare, were still operating, but at only five percent of their monthly production capacity as a result of the crippling shortage of foreign currency. Its remaining 2,000 workers were facing retrenchment.
The Cold Storage Commission (CSC) is in charge of the livestock and beef industry - previously a key contributor to foreign currency earnings - and also provided a pool of draught power to thousands of communal farmers. It had hoped to get enough financial support to control a four-year epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease and resume its lucrative exports to the European Union, but said efforts to restock the depleted herds on its ranches had fallen by the wayside because of a shortage of funding. "We are facing serious difficulties, as the funding has not been availed. We applied for funds for a short- and long-term livestock rearing programme, as part of the national restocking exercise, but we still have to wait," the CEO of the Cold Storage Commission, Ngoni Chinogaramombe, told the official Sunday Mail. Besides ZESA, NFH and the CSC, the 16 loss-making parastatals targeted by the RBZ's ambitious recapitalisation programme include national coal supplier Wankie Colliery Company, the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company, national milk supplier Dairibord, National Railways of Zimbabwe and the GMB. Economists Erich Bloch and Eddie Cross said the country was indeed facing a serious round of shortages if production in the key parastatals was not restored. "The RBZ has no choice but to prioritise food and fuel, as it is the only national institution that can do that. Major job losses are looming in all the national parastatals because of lack of capital funding, and detrimental command economy policies like price controls," Cross commented. The government has only recently admitted that there was a need to import at least 1.2 million mt of maize and 200,000 mt of wheat to cover the country's cereal deficit. State-subsidised parastatals play a dominant role in all the strategic sectors of the Zimbabwean economy.
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From IRIN (UN), 6 May
Parallel market flourishes as shelves empty
Harare - The general shortage of commodities in Zimbabwe has created a burgeoning parallel market, which is limiting access to basic items for most of the poor. Tonderai Mukerezi, a public relations officer for the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ), told IRIN: "The emergence of the black market is a sad development and will affect the consumer, because goods are sold at unbelievably high prices, and the cost of living will soar." An informal survey carried out by IRIN around the capital, Harare, revealed that most shops had run out of basic commodities, such as sugar, maize-meal, flour, cooking oil, toothpaste and margarine. Almost all these commodities are readily available on the parallel market and in backyard kiosks, where they are being sold at prices up to three times the official rate. In Mbare, a poor suburb with abundant unofficial market activity, a 10 kg bag of maize-meal sells for Z$90,000 compared to the official price of Z$35,000, while a 2 kg packet of sugar is available for Z$15,000, instead of the gazetted Z$7,500. A 750 ml bottle of cooking oil fetches Z$22,000, almost double the official price of Z$13,000, while a tube of toothpaste sells for Z$20,000, which is Z$13,000 more than the official price.
The government introduced price controls on basic commodities in November 2001 in a bid to protect consumers from rising costs on basic commodities. In November 2002 price controls were extended to cover a wider range of goods, despite protests from manufacturers who complained that they could not cover their production costs. Harare resident Timothy Musa told IRIN that despite the higher prices of commodities on the parallel market, he was happy that he had finally managed to purchase maize-meal at Mbare. "We had gone for a whole week without maize-meal because it is not there in the shops. A neighbour tipped me [off] to come here [to Mbare], and despite the high price, I am relieved that my family will have something to eat this evening," said Musa. Before paying for the 10 kg bag, Musa insisted on the trader opening it for inspection, as they have been known to cheat by adding sand. "Life has become so difficult for me - just imagine ... I had to lie to my employer that I was not feeling well, in order to come and look for the maize-meal here. To make matters worse, the commodity is being sold at a price I can hardly afford," said Musa, who works as a school cleaner.
A thriving black market for fuel has also mushroomed - in downtown Harare motorists queue along the streets of the central business district instead of at fuel stations. Along one such street, overlooked by the head office of the state-controlled National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM), young men drain petrol and diesel from old, non-running cars to sell to waiting clients. The fuel is sold in five-litre containers at Z$14,000 per litre, as opposed to Z$3,450 for petrol and Z$3,600 for diesel. Private procurers and NOCZIM cannot meet the demand because they lack the foreign currency to import fuel. At the CCZ Mukerezi said the parallel market, which flourished in 2003 during another wave of shortages, had re-emerged recently because of a variety of factors, chief among them the scarcity of foreign currency. "The reasons for the emergence of the black market are varied: there are companies that are genuinely experiencing foreign currency problems, with which to import essential ingredients used in the manufacture of products," he told IRIN. "As a result, some producers have scaled down their operations, leading to shortages in the market." Mukerezi also blamed some wholesalers and retailers for causing artificial shortages by conniving to divert goods to the black market. "We have noticed that there are some unscrupulous entrepreneurs, who are exploiting the situation to charge the prices they want; hoarding by both producers and consumers is fuelling the black market," he alleged.
A manager at a leading manufacturer of oil products told IRIN that the shortage of foreign currency was making it difficult for his company to produce goods subject to government price controls. "Without forex it is difficult for us to keep on manufacturing products, since most of our raw materials are imported. In order to remain viable, we have had to produce non-controlled goods, which we then sell at profitable rates, and that is why you see there is a shortage of such things as cooking oil," he explained. The US dollar currently fetches about Z$18,000 on the parallel market, against the official rate of Z$6,117. Everton Mpambwa, a Malawian truck driver who regularly travels between Harare and Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi, makes extra money by trading US dollars on the parallel market. He then uses the local currency to buy commodities at official prices, which he sells in Malawi. "You get lots of Zimbabwean dollars when you go to the black market - that means you will buy goods this side [in Zimbabwe] at cheap prices, and then sell them again in Malawi," Mpambwa told IRIN, adding that he hides the commodities among the items he transports to his company in Lilongwe.
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From The Sunday Times (SA), 8 May
UN chief headed for Zimbabwe
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to meet Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in Harare at the end of the month over the country’s political and economic crisis. Senior government officials in Zimbabwe said Annan had been in touch with Mugabe and plans were afoot for a meeting in the next three weeks. They said Annan had indicated to Mugabe that he wanted to discuss the prevailing food shortages and other humanitarian problems. "If current arrangements go according to plan, they should have a meeting at month end," a government official said. He said that if Annan was not able to visit, an envoy would come in his stead. UN agencies have stopped distributing food aid to the country due to political problems. Zimbabwe admits it will need to import 1.2 million tons of maize to make up for a 600 000 ton shortfall this year.
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From The People’s Daily (China), 8 May, 2005
Zimbabwe in fuel crisis
The past week has seen tablets of "no fuel" at most petrol filling stations in Zimbabwean capital Harare, and there was virtually no petrol at service stations outside the capital. Zimbabwe is now facing a serious fuel crisis due to shortage of foreign currency and low prices of petrol. On Friday afternoon it was said that there was fuel at a petrol filling station at Fourth Street, where cars were immediately seen queuing for this precious liquid, which has increasingly become scarce. In a few minutes, a fuel delivery tanker arrived. It off-loaded about 20,000 liters of fuel and vehicles began to assemble in a single line and the police were soon called in to calm the possibly explosive environment. Two hours later, the service station management announced that the fuel has run out and grumbling drivers began to disperse. Was it true that 20,000 liters of fuel have been sold already? There comes the answer of some drivers. The fuel was still available, but would be sold to dealers who will in turn sell it on the thriving "black market" at inflated prices, although selling fuel on the black market and demanding bribes from desperate motorists is a criminal offence in Zimbabwe.
The government price for petrol and diesel is currently 3,600 Zimbabwean dollars (about 58 US cents at the official rate) a liter. In South Africa, the forecourt price of both petrol and diesel is around 5 rand (84 US cents) a liter, hich can be translated into 5,000 Zimbabwean dollars at the official rate and more than 15,000 Zimbabwean dollars a liter at the parallel market rate. The wholesale price of petrol in South Africa is 4.61 rand, or 4,610 Zimbabwean dollars at the official rate. The fuel service station manager told Xinhua that after factoring in transport costs, fuel could be landed in Zimbabwe at around 5,000 Zimbabwean dollars if foreign exchange secured at the official rate was used. "The government is therefore paying almost 1,500 Zimbabwean dollars (about 24 US cents) to subsidize every liter of fuel sold at service stations," the manager said. He added that Zimbabwe normally consumes two million liters of fuel daily. So skewed is the pricing structure in the country that a liter of fuel is cheaper than a bottle of mineral water which stands at 9,000 Zimbabwean dollars (about 1.45 US dollars at the official rate). The manager said the price of fuel should be reviewed immediately. "What the depressed price has done is to make our margins small and forecourt business unviable," he said.
"Between October and March, there was about 4 million US dollars a week for fuel imports which was distributed between National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZ) and the Petroleum Marketers Association of Zimbabwe (PMAZ)," he said. Now there was no foreign currency to import fuel and there was no petrol in reserve at the NOCZ's holding tanks so that the situation was degenerating fast. It is said that because of the country's poor credit rating, Zimbabwe has in the last five years failed to secure lasting lines of credit to pay for fuel imports. Currently, the country is doing "spot purchases" from ships anchored off the Mozambican coast. Zimbabwe's fuel is grossly under-priced and the government has been paying billions of Zimbabwean dollars weekly in subsidies in a bid to suppress price increases of the commodity. A rise in the price of fuel is considered inflationary and could negate the government's economic turnaround efforts. It is also heard that the centralized procurement of fuel through the PMAZ and the strict surveillance of import license holders meant that individuals could not organize their own foreign exchange and bring in fuel. The manager said "in the past one could go onto the parallel market, buy foreign exchange and then import fuel." "That explains why last year fuel was available but at different prices. That is no longer possible. If importers were given the go-ahead to import as individuals, fuel would become readily available again," he added.
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From The Zimbabwe Independent, 6 May
Huge wheat shortfall forecast
Augustine Mukaro
Another serious wheat shortfall is looming this year as the area prepared for the winter wheat crop over the past four years continues to shrink. In the current season, only an estimated 45% of between 65 000 and 85 000 hectares that are normally put under irrigated winter wheat is likely to be planted due to a shortage of seed, fertilisers and low levels of water for irrigation. Information to hand shows that the remaining white commercial farmers across the country are likely to plant around 15 000 hectares while the other 25 000 hectares will be taken up by newly-resettled farmers. Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) crops section spokesman George Hutchison said farmers would be forced to further reduce winter wheat hectarage this year because of the shortage of water for irrigation. "Over and above the unavailability of inputs, there is very little water to irrigate the crop this year," Hutchison said, adding that "most farm dams have no water to irrigate the wheat." Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) past president Thomas Nherera however said an estimated 50 000 hectares would be put under winter crop. "Though farmers are showing the zeal to plant over 80 000 hectares this season, water availability is the limiting factor," Nherera said. "Current dam levels cannot support more than 50 000 hectares."
Zimbabwe has an annual wheat consumption of 400 000 tonnes excluding 80 000 tonnes of hard wheat required to blend with the local product. Gristing wheat has always been imported. Agricultural experts said wheat production this year was projected to slump to an all-time low because of lack of funds to finance the crop. Agribank, government’s agricultural ventures financing arm, was this week issuing farmers with vouchers to purchase seed, fertiliser and chemicals, amid revelations that government is still sourcing funds. Experts said irrigation facilities had been vandalised over the past four years of the chaotic land reform programme. Under optimum conditions with the use of irrigation facilities, a maximum of six tonnes of wheat are produced per hectare. It is estimated CFU members have irrigation equipment covering only 18 000 hectares, down from the 85 000 hectares that could be irrigated before the inception of the land reform programme.
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From The Daily News Online Edition, 5 May
Unease, ethnic tension hits post-election Zimbabwe
London - Unease is mounting after the Zimbabwe parliamentary election in spite of declarations of support from the region and a seal of approval from the Southern African Development Community. Many analysts, domestic and regional, foresee a period of instability in a society now sharply divided between urban and rural communities and between ethnic groups, with popular legitimacy still evading the government after the poll. In particular analysts say President Robert Mugabe may be unable to recreate the balance between tribal groups that held the ruling Zanu PF party together. Here the key concern is whether, with the election storm passed, he is able to begin co-opting again the Karanga leaders he ditched some months earlier. Mugabe has moved quickly to neutralise the potential threat. He created a new Ministry of Rural Housing, to be run by former parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, the leading Karanga in parliament. Mnangagwa was named among Zanu PF's 30 nominated members of the 150-seat parliament. Compared to his former influential post this is a substantial downgrading, but his calculation must be that it will continue to allow him a political toehold in Zanu PF politics.
Mnanagagwa, the wealthy and powerful former head of the secret police, was seen as the key representative of the southern Karanga majority ethnic group, now generally displaced by Mugabe's Zezuru confidantes. Mnangagwa, one of the richest men in Zimbabwe, failed to gain a seat in the election after his break with Mugabe at the time of the Zanu PF conference late last year. Then he was alleged to be plotting a palace coup in the "Tsholotsho Declaration" group, named after the venue for the meeting of dissident Zanu PF leaders. He had been tipped as a potential presidential successor and last year made an abortive bid for a vacant vice presidential post. This went to Joyce Mujuru, wife of retired army commander Solomon Mujuru, whose close associate Sydney Sekeramayi remains defence minister - all in this key security group are Zezuru. Mugabe loyalist Didymus Mutasa, 70, took over control of the Central Intelligence Organisation as minister of state for national security.
Another Zezuru, former diplomat Tichaona Jokonya, was named information minister, a post held from 2000 to 2005 by Jonathan Moyo, who was expelled by Zanu PF but won a seat as an independent last month. Herbert Murerwa was named finance minister to succeed Christopher Kureneri, who was arrested last year on charges of smuggling more than US$1 million out of the country and violating nationality laws. Murerwa had been minister of higher education and was acting in charge of finance since Kureneri's arrest. He presided over the 1998 collapse in the value of the Zimbabwean dollar, when Zimbabwe intervened in the DR Congo. As anticipated Foreign Minister Stanislaus (Stan) Mudenge, a Karanga, was sidelined to higher education while Zimbabwe's high commissioner in London, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, a Karanga, took over the foreign ministry. In a sign of defiance to Western opinion Mugabe named Willard Chiwewe, former permanent secretary in the foreign affairs ministry, among 10 provincial governors. Chiwewe caused a diplomatic flurry during the take-overs of white-owned properties when he issued a statement warning diplomats they would share the same fate as Mugabe's opponents if they associated with them. This was after Canadian ambassador James Wall was roughed up by war veterans at a Canadian aid agency.
Mugabe's nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, has been made deputy minister of science and technology. His older brother Leo Mugabe also won a parliamentary seat. He is the son of Mugabe's sister Sabina, who was also elected in the rural constituency of Zvimba South. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is challenging Zhuwao's victory in Manyame, pointing to a 10 000-vote discrepancy between the number of votes cast and the final tally announced by the electoral commission. Enos Chikowore, a former minister who failed to get a job in the new cabinet, was reported to have killed himself shortly after meeting with Mugabe. He was in severe financial difficulties and was seeking reinstatement in the cabinet as a way out, according to local reports. Mugabe was meanwhile reported to have turned down the resignation of Reserve Bank chairman Gideon Gono who objected to the president's plans to expand spending through payouts to Zanu PF loyalists.
The official results gave Zanu PF 78 of the 120 contested seats in the March 31 elections, the Movement for Democratic Change 41 and an independent (former information minister Jonathan Moyo) one seat - but the opposition claims it actually won as many as 94 seats. International analysts said that the election and the support given Mugabe by the rest of the region had significantly set back plans for more aid and other support from the US and European Union - it has made African pledges on good governance much less credible, they say, and that much harder to convince donor nation electorates. The SADC monitoring team, led by a SA government minister, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, and a SA team led by the country's labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana, set the seal of approval on the election, as expected, but SADC's approval seemed more a verdict on its code of conduct for elections than on the Zimbabwean poll. South Africa has officially described the Zimbabwe election as reflecting the will of the people, but has not called it 'free and fair'. Addressing reporters after cabinet's fortnightly meeting earlier this month, government spokesman Joel Netshitenzhe said the question of whether the elections were free and fair did not arise in cabinet. However, "Government agreed that it reflected credibly the will of the Zimbabwean people," he said. Cabinet was pleased by the "convergence" by all parties to a new constitutional dispensation, Netshitenzhe said. But the African Union (AU) observer team issued only cautious approval and stopped short of endorsing the actual results as charges surfaced of massive rigging by Mugabe supporters.
A statement issued by team head Kwagwo Asari-Gyan said that at the "point of ballot" the vote was conducted in a "peaceful and orderly manner". However, he stopped short of declaring that the poll was free and fair, claiming that the AU team could not comment on this as it had not witnessed the full electoral process. The poll has again widened the split between African leaders and the developed countries, just when they appeared to be moving closer. The US, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union refused to recognize the elections as democratic while elsewhere African voices are being raised in favour of bringing Zimbabwe back into the international fold. The UN, too was qualified in its approval. Secretary general Kofi Annan's spokesman said in the statement that "that the electoral process has not countered the sense of disadvantage felt by opposition political parties who consider the conditions were unfair" and he called on the government to work for "national unity and economic recovery".
But in his victory statement, President Robert Mugabe urged the opposition to accept defeat, saying they should "not look for all kinds of excuses which might complicate relationships." In South Africa there has been considerable anxiety and dismay following the poll. The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) called for investigations into the allegations of fraud and said it believed the elections took place in "a flawed political and legal context." The SA Communist Party commented as the polls opened that "the situation is poised on a potential knife-edge, to a degree that is perhaps not fully appreciated". "The danger lies not in today's actual poll, but in what the coming days and weeks may produce," it said in a statement. But to emphasise the African nationalist line that Mugabe represents to many Black South Africans, the small Pan Africanist Congress congratulated Zanu PF "for being the party of choice for the sixth time by the people of Zimbabwe".
However, it was clear that the overall climate did not allow a free poll in the rural areas villagers were cajoled and threatened, food was used as a political lever, in some constituencies there was outright rigging, civil society organisations and the media were cowed, and potentially critical monitors were vetoed. Pius Ncube, the outspoken Catholic archbishop for Bulawayo , south of Zimbabwe, slammed what he described as the "evil and systematic denial of food to hungry people" - incidents were reported mainly in Matabeleland, in rural districts giving support to the opposition MDC. Ncube called for civil disobedience. The election outcome was always clear - as one commentator in the Financial Gazette noted, with heavy sarcasm, "Yes, a resounding victory for Zanu PF because it is so serious when it comes to elections that it does not leave anything to chance ...". The constitutional weighting towards Zanu PF meant it already had 30 seats in the bag, and some weeks earlier the government disenfranchised the entire expatriate voting population - on one estimate 20 percent of possible voters, probably all opposition supporters.
Yet in the main towns the MDC still held onto its seats, emphasizing again the class-based rural-urban split and also the vulnerability of rural voters. They have little access to outside information except through the state radio, and are more susceptible to pressure from the ruling party. Contact of rural families with relatives in the cities has been progressively weakened over the years of the crisis because of the cost of local travel. Even so there was some inexplicable rural voting. In one constituency nearly all the voters suddenly switched from their usual support for the small Zanu-Ndonga party to Zanu PF - the independent media saw this as just one example of wider rigging. While at one level the battle between Zanu PF and the MDC showed itself as one between an entrenched remnant of the liberation struggle basing its power on patronage politics, and a modernising sector based on a new middle class, a parallel ethnic politics has also been coming prominently into play.
Mnangagwa was the most senior representative in government of the Karanga tribe, the biggest ethnic group among the majority Shona, and comprising over a third of the population. They now have almost no senior officials while Mugabe's smaller Zezuru tribe, comprising around a quarter of the total population, has taken the top posts. By putting out into the cold all the top Karanga leaders in favour of his clan Mugabe was storing up trouble, say analysts, and his move to give space again to Mnangagwa indicates he knows this, though his offer may be too little. His record shows an ability to balance tribal forces astutely, but the collapse of the system at the party congress four months ago indicates that strains have now become very difficult to handle. In addition the Zimbabwe economy is too weak to allow the government large-scale resources for patronage to oil the way for co-option of leaders. Mugabe's key card here has been the former white farms, which he has doled out as rewards for loyalty to his largely Zezuru supporters. There has been speculation that Mnangagwa and Moyo, who won his seat in Tsholotsho despite an intense public campaign against him from Zanu PF and Mugabe, will seek to form a "third force" between the Movement for Democratic Change and the ruling party.
The offer to Mnangagwa seemed aimed at blocking that. In an ethnic scenario Moyo would bring in Ndebele support - he recently publicly re-discovered that his family had been persecuted in the Zanu PF Matabeleland pogrom in the early 1980s. Mnanagagwa would bring along the Karanga and smaller tribes such as the Manyika, whose Zanu PF representatives voted for him in the party congress and suffered the political consequences - the Manyika provincial chairman of Zanu PF, Mike Madiro, was expelled from the party along with five other non-Zezuru provincial chairmen for backing Mnangagwa. In addition to creating a senate, Mugabe is planning to scrap separate presidential and parliamentary elections, he said in an interview after the election. He also intends boosting the number of members of parliament from 150 to about 200. The changes would be along the lines of the draft constitution rejected in a referendum in January 2000, a popular verdict that for the first time signaled to him Zanu PF's loss of support and galvanized him into a taking over the white commercial farms.
The MDC has also called for "an entirely new" constitution and system of government; without this there cannot be free and fair elections, it says. Meanwhile Zimbabwe's main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, decided to take up the 41 seats it won in last month's parliamentary elections, which it claims were rigged. The move has been seen as a sign of rapprochement in the political elite. MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube said at a press conference in Harare, "We must defend and occupy all the democratic space which we have won." But the MDC remains in a quandary about its future course. Ncube said one suggestion was to convene an alternative "people's parliament" based on the correct election results, but this faced likely suppression by Mugabe if it tried to meet within Zimbabwe's borders. The MDC maintains the party would have won 94 seats in a free election, while more conservative estimates suggest at least 60.
The party is lodging token objections in court to results in 13 of the 120 elected constituencies as a public demonstration of the prevalent irregularities, he said. In addition to legal action, the MDC would "engage in wide ranging consultations" but Ncube refused to detail what might be considered. Backing for the party has come from urban workers and middle class people, and from the white farming community - all those in fact who were outside the charmed Zanu PF circle. The white commercial farmers have now fallen away. For many of the others in the MDC the emigration route will now seem the most realistic option. This human resource drain will make social or economic revival in Zimbabwe even less likely. The poll has left a dismal sense in Zimbabwe that little will change until Mugabe goes. Again, the Financial Gazette commentator noted that change would come "on its own like the sun, whether there is rigging and/or violence, because its time will be ripe. No one can stop it - just as no one could stop the Pope from dying ..."
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From The Zimbabwe Standard, 8 May
Govt raids hotels
By Kumbirai Mafunda
Fears of a total collapse in Zimbabwe's multi-billion dollar hospitality sector mounted last week following a countrywide blitz on hoteliers unleashed by the dreaded surveillance and investigation arm of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) in a desperate bid to scrounge around for foreign currency. As Zimbabwe's five-year old foreign currency problem worsens the central bank moved on hoteliers carrying out vigorous inspections and spot checks on hotel books to confirm that hotels forwarded their foreign currency earnings to the RBZ as required by law. The crackdown, sources indicated, was precipitated by the drying up of the central bank's foreign currency coffers. The central bank, which has mounted similar clampdowns on financial institutions, accuses hoteliers of sitting on massive amounts of foreign currency allegedly earned during the March parliamentary elections. The central bank fears hoteliers could have off-loaded the badly needed hard currency onto the parallel market for higher returns. The Zimbabwe dollar has dramatically crashed from Z$12 000: US$1 to Z$28 000: US$1 in the period after the elections. But on the less attractively managed foreign currency auction US$1 officially trades at Z$6 200.
The central bank says despite an influx of regional and international observers that toured the country to observe Harare's sixth parliamentary election, no sizeable improvement had been recorded in foreign currency inflows. Zimbabwe's March elections, which were controversially won by the ruling Zanu PF party attracted 7 000 international observers and hordes of journalists. It is this statistic that has incensed the central bank, which is saddled with a ballooning import bill ranging from grain, electricity, fuel and medical drugs. Officers from the central bank's Financial Sector Inspectorate which falls under the Exchange Control Division and backed by officers from the Bank Use Promotion and Suppression of Money Laundering Unit began descending on hotels and lodges a fortnight ago carrying out spot checks. "They want to find out whether all observers paid in foreign currency or not," said one hotelier. By late Friday, the probe unit was at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge. "We have just had a visit about 30 minutes ago. They are tracing foreign guests and how they paid," said an official at the hotel who requested not to be named. "Every month they do it but this time they are looking at observers," the hoteliers said. They are checking the folio at the country's airports and then follow up where the observers were staying. But this is a low season in tourism and earnings will only rise in August."
Zimbabwe Council for Tourism (ZCT) President and leading hospitality and leisure group Zimsun's chief executive, Shingi Munyeza, confirmed the central bank's raids at member's properties but downplayed them as normal visits. Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) chief executive Chipo Mtasa also confirmed the inspections. "They went to individual properties directly on routine inspection," Mtasa said. Environment and Tourism Minister Francis Nhema confirmed the checks. "It is a committee or team that has been going around," Nhema said. "It is desperation. They are so eager to lay their hands on foreign currency. The bill for food imports is pressing them to look for money," said John Robertson economic consultant at John Robertson Economic Information Services. Central bank sources disclosed last week that foreign currency reserves had reached precarious levels as illustrated by the failure to fix the five-year-old fuel crisis. "Foreign currency is drying up at every angle. There is a squeeze," the sources said. Zimbabwe is in the throes of a biting foreign currency crisis, which has seen it accumulating large debts to international moneylenders. The country currently owes the International Monetary Fund (IMF) US$306 million and is also indebted to institutions such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank among other creditors.
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From Sapa, 9 May
Cops arrest hundreds of black market vendors
Harare - Police in the Zimbabwean capital Harare arrested 400 street vendors last week for selling basic goods at inflated prices as President Robert Mugabe's government battles to contain food shortages, the state-run Herald newspaper reported on Monday. The owners of 28 supermarkets were also fined for overcharging and hoarding basic foodstuffs, the paper added. Zimbabwe has been hit by shortages of goods like sugar, maize, cooking oil, soap and toothpaste since parliamentary elections at the end of March, won by Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party. There are price controls on many basic commodities but manufacturers say wage bills and the rising cost of transport and packaging are making it difficult for them to produce goods at the recommended prices. Police spokesperson Whisper Bhondayi told the paper that police were cracking down on the "illegal sale of basic commodities on the parallel market, overcharging and hoarding".
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From Zim Online (SA), 9 May
New farmers appeal for food aid
Harare - Some black families resettled on land seized by the government from white farmers five years ago are appealing for food aid or they will starve. In yet another example of how President Robert Mugabe’s chaotic and often violent land reforms are hurting the people they were supposed to benefit, the families in Odzi district in the eastern Manicaland province last week petitioned Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche to ask non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to give them food. The families said they had approached Goche because NGOs were shunning them preferring to assist displaced groups such as former workers at the white farms who lost their jobs when the farms were taken and other food insecure groups. A petition submitted to Goche’s office by the resettled families last week reads in part: "Your ministry should instruct NGOs to give priority to new (resettled) farmers in their relief programmes. Most farmers have not harvested enough crops due to the persistent drought and need food assistance. Unfortunately most NGOs have a bias towards former farm workers ahead of new farmers."
One of the resettled farmers, Lovemore Mutema, told Zim Online last week: "Many of us here have no food and are starving. The NGOs tell us that we have been empowered by the government, so we do not qualify for their food." Goche could not be reached for comment but an official at the Social Welfare Ministry said the ministry could not tell NGOs to divert food to the starving families on former white farms because the government has allowed donor groups to help feed specific groups only such as orphans, the elderly, displaced people. "These NGOs are currently (allowed to feed) vulnerable and displaced people because they are banned from engaging in general food relief …while it is general knowledge that new (resettled) farmers are starving, we cannot force the NGOs to include the new farmers on their programmes at the moment," said the official, who did not want to be named. Mugabe last year banned relief agencies from distributing food aid across the country telling them to take their food elsewhere because Zimbabwe had enough to feed itself. The World Food Programme and a few other groups still running relief operations in Zimbabwe are strictly limited to providing help to vulnerable groups and not to the general populace.
The Zimbabwean leader belatedly admitted the country was facing serious food shortages just before the March general election but he vowed he would not be going around with a begging bowl because his hard-cash-strapped government had enough resources to ensure no one starved. But food agencies warn that malnutrition-related illnesses are increasingly occurring across the country as about four million or a quarter of the country’s 12 million people fail to find adequate food. Zimbabwe has virtually survived on food handouts from international food relief agencies in the last five years after Mugabe seized large commercial farms from whites for redistribution to landless blacks. The resettled black farmers resettled on the farms have failed to maintain production because they were dumped on farms without farming inputs or backup skills training support.
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From Zim Online (SA), 9 May
Mugabe steps up militarisation of state institutions
Harare - President Robert Mugabe has ordered the redeployment of more than 2 000 soldiers from the army to the civil service as he continues militarising state institutions, Zim Online has established. Graduates of the government’ s controversial national youth service training will also join the soldiers in the civil service, sources said. Some of the soldiers and the youth militias have since the end of last month been receiving induction training in government policy and functions at various centres across |
