We would like to introduce you to the Luxurious Development (attached image) taking place on the site of the present Kei Mouth Beach Hotel.
For those who have already stayed at our Hotel, we need not tell you of the pristine location of the site on this beautiful part of the Wild Coast.
The tar road to Kei Mouth is nearing completion and the contractors have to finish by the end of September 2006, making this an easily accessible location with a travelling time of approximately 45 minutes from East London.
We will be closing the Hotel at the end of July to prepare for construction which is due to start at the beginning of September. Estimated completion date is November 2007.The Development will consist of 24 two and three bed roomed sectional title Apartments, 10 Penthouse apartments and 16 Hotel Room’s/Bachelors flats. Apartments vary in size from 103.6 m2 to 141.4 m2, Hotel Rooms/Bachelors flats will be 52 m2. All units will have luxury finishes such as solid wood cupboards, granite tops, stainless steel appliances, build in braai place etcEach unit will have exclusive use of one secure basement parking.
Apartments will be in the same complex as the Hotel and Restaurant.
We will not divert from the ambiance and warmth that so many friends and clients have experienced here with us at the old Hotel over the years, and will maintain that atmosphere in the new Hotel.
Owners of units will be able to make their Apartments available to the rental pool to generate income from their investment.
Our marketing campaign officially commences on the 20th July, but we are giving you a pre-launch advantage.
For further information on this unique investment opportunity on the Wild Coast please feel free to contact us or visit our development website.
Kind regards,Cliff Haddad
cliffh@hadcom.co.za
michael@hadcom.co.za
0825565570 (C)
0834612850 (C)
043-8411017 (T)
043-8411157 (F)
www.milkwood.bz
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Chinamasa tells UN to ban NGO funding
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
Chinamasa tells UN to ban NGO funding
MEDIA CORRESPONDENT
HARARE – No claims are too exaggerated, no lies too big for the Zanu (PF) administration. The latest prime example was the address by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Some may have thought Chinamasa had a nerve to turn up, let alone demand that the newly established council “prohibit” Western funding to human rights Non-Governmental Organisations in Zimbabwe. The reason, Chinamasa explained, was that NGOs sought to destabilise what he unblushingly described as “their popularly elected government,” as well as helping “opposition groups that have no local support basis.”
“Such unlikely claims and his brazen attempt to seek universal endorsement of government’s determination to further erode civil society’s democratic space serves to expose the authorities’ fear of having their undemocratic conduct subjected to scrutiny,” the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) said in its report covering June 19-25.
Coinciding neatly with Chinamasa’s Geneva appearance, the independent media carried six fresh cases of rights violations in Zimbabwe. MMPZ said that these included arrests of Women of Zimbabwe Arise members; barring and disruption of opposition MDC gatherings; and Bishop Levee Kadenge driven into hiding after a death threat from a CIO operative.
In what the monitors called a further illustration of the “extent to which the country had become a police state,” The Standard newspaper cited other incidents of state security agents threatening student and workers’ leaders not to stage anti-government protests.
The state-run media’s coverage of the chaos in agriculture and the economic crisis followed its usual pattern of piecemeal stories with no context or examination of why things get worse and worse, plus glowing and unsubstantiated reports that the regime’s latest so-called economic revival plan is working well.
For example, state newspapers carried stories muddling the extent and reasons behind the under-utilization of land seized from white commercial farmers, choosing to focus on the authorities blaming resettled farmers for their failure to produce.
“There was no attempt to reconcile the farmers’ alleged failure with the authorities’ own policy shortcomings, characterised by poor support schemes for the farmers and continued farm invasions,” MMPZ said in its report.
Similarly, the state broadcasters handled the deeply serious grain shortages with some blame-game quotes from the Grain Marketing Board, on one hand, and farmers on the other. “None of the stations,” the monitors reported, tried to establish the truth of the matter or view the low deliveries as an affirmation of independent observers’ projections that the country had produced half its annual grain requirement.”
The private media, however, continued to ascribe the economic crisis to poor governance, and gave a clearer picture of the state of the economy and its dim future.
The Zimbabwe Independent noted that the state ended last year with an outstanding “external debt of US$3.9 billion against export receipts of only US$1.7 billion.”
Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa both predicted ever higher inflation, the latter quoting economist Eric Bloch as saying that by December a family of six will need Z$180 million a month to survive. Economist John Robertson said the authorities would soon be unable to print money fast enough to keep pace with rising prices resulting “in a massive cash crisis.”
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
Chinamasa tells UN to ban NGO funding
MEDIA CORRESPONDENT
HARARE – No claims are too exaggerated, no lies too big for the Zanu (PF) administration. The latest prime example was the address by Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Some may have thought Chinamasa had a nerve to turn up, let alone demand that the newly established council “prohibit” Western funding to human rights Non-Governmental Organisations in Zimbabwe. The reason, Chinamasa explained, was that NGOs sought to destabilise what he unblushingly described as “their popularly elected government,” as well as helping “opposition groups that have no local support basis.”
“Such unlikely claims and his brazen attempt to seek universal endorsement of government’s determination to further erode civil society’s democratic space serves to expose the authorities’ fear of having their undemocratic conduct subjected to scrutiny,” the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) said in its report covering June 19-25.
Coinciding neatly with Chinamasa’s Geneva appearance, the independent media carried six fresh cases of rights violations in Zimbabwe. MMPZ said that these included arrests of Women of Zimbabwe Arise members; barring and disruption of opposition MDC gatherings; and Bishop Levee Kadenge driven into hiding after a death threat from a CIO operative.
In what the monitors called a further illustration of the “extent to which the country had become a police state,” The Standard newspaper cited other incidents of state security agents threatening student and workers’ leaders not to stage anti-government protests.
The state-run media’s coverage of the chaos in agriculture and the economic crisis followed its usual pattern of piecemeal stories with no context or examination of why things get worse and worse, plus glowing and unsubstantiated reports that the regime’s latest so-called economic revival plan is working well.
For example, state newspapers carried stories muddling the extent and reasons behind the under-utilization of land seized from white commercial farmers, choosing to focus on the authorities blaming resettled farmers for their failure to produce.
“There was no attempt to reconcile the farmers’ alleged failure with the authorities’ own policy shortcomings, characterised by poor support schemes for the farmers and continued farm invasions,” MMPZ said in its report.
Similarly, the state broadcasters handled the deeply serious grain shortages with some blame-game quotes from the Grain Marketing Board, on one hand, and farmers on the other. “None of the stations,” the monitors reported, tried to establish the truth of the matter or view the low deliveries as an affirmation of independent observers’ projections that the country had produced half its annual grain requirement.”
The private media, however, continued to ascribe the economic crisis to poor governance, and gave a clearer picture of the state of the economy and its dim future.
The Zimbabwe Independent noted that the state ended last year with an outstanding “external debt of US$3.9 billion against export receipts of only US$1.7 billion.”
Studio 7 and SW Radio Africa both predicted ever higher inflation, the latter quoting economist Eric Bloch as saying that by December a family of six will need Z$180 million a month to survive. Economist John Robertson said the authorities would soon be unable to print money fast enough to keep pace with rising prices resulting “in a massive cash crisis.”
CULTURE IN ZIMBABWE IS ALIVE AND WELL!
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
CULTURE IN ZIMBABWE IS ALIVE AND WELL!
By Dorothy Bowman
BULAWAYO - I’m in a spin! Today is the morning after the last evening – the final performance – of the 5th Bulawayo Music Festival and I’m on a high with the strains of Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals still going round in my head. It will take days to recover from the awesome experience of the past five days. It’s a curious feeling of fulfillment and exhaustion - from determination not to miss anything! It was a strenuous, exciting, tremendous, exacting, stupendous, mind-boggling, not-to-be-missed five days.
How can one possibly put into words the terrific impact that this wonderful happening has had on our lives? We have gone through so many emotions and pleasures. These last few days have been like none other and it’s hard to imagine “Life after the Festival”. But all good things come to an end and we were getting near to utter exhaustion anyway!
How the performers themselves kept going through five days of a rigorous and demanding programme is a mystery. The energy and enthusiasm, quite apart from the technique and skill of producing this intense musical immersion, is staggering. And their magnetic personalities and constant good humour captivated the audience from beginning to end. It has left us all with a tremendous appreciation of being in the right place at the right time!
Michael Bullivant, appointed Director of the Academy of Music in January 2006, is the indefatigable driving force behind all this. And how blessed we are to have such a feast of culture and enjoyment right here, especially when almost everything around us is stressful and uncertain. It’s been like a shot in the arm to all those music lovers who attended, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more determined and indomitable lot of followers anywhere!
The visiting performers – Leslie Howard (pianist from Down Under); Benjamin Nabarro (British violinist) and his wife, Russian-born Ania Safonova (viola) and Matthew Sharp (British cellist and baritone) along with our local homegrown talent (of whom there were so many), mingled freely with the public so that by the end of the five days we felt we knew them all fairly well - quite unlike artists in other countries who are generally admired and appreciated “at a distance”!
The warmth and friendliness of people in Bulawayo makes our visitors instantly and completely at home – to the benefit of everyone concerned. I mean, where else would you rub shoulders with famous musicians and actually observe them pitching in doing “menial” jobs like moving chairs from one area of the Academy to another and shifting pianos across stage.
And what talent was on show for us. I prefer to leave the analysis to the experts but I think it’s safe to say that all of us in the audience were completely enthralled from start to finish – from the opening Rachmaninov to the brilliant orchestral concert on Sunday - and the memorable grand finale with Martin Sharp’s fine rendition of Flanders and Swan’s Hippopotamus Song with the audience joining in the chorus of “Mud, Glorious Mud”. Better than the last night of the Proms! What a privilege and what a Festival!
The famous couple of Benjamin Nabarro and Ania Safonova, two of Britain’s contemporary violinists, were in Zimbabwe recently for the fifth edition of the Bulawayo Music Festival.
“This was a different festival. We have been to many parts of the world but the Bulawayo Music Festival had a unique quality to it. As artists we had this interactive freedom to mix and mingle with the audience,” they said. Benjamin and Ania play the same instrument – the violin - but each has a unique mastery of it.
Howard’s world premiere
By Tins Magaba
BULAWAYO - Acclaimed pianist Leslie Howard was in Zimbabwe for the Bulawayo Music Festival. A man of high distinction, he has accomplished a feat unequalled by any solo artist in recording industry – his 97 CD survey of the complete piano music of Franz Listz. That alone speaks volumes for the man’s passion for the piano and the music it produces. With numerous awards to his credit, Howard is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, especially for the Listz project.
A widely travelled man, he has toured different parts of the world giving recitals and master classes. Last year he received rave reviews from the New York Times for his performances at the International Keyboard Institute & Festival in Manhattan.
He made Bulawayo the scene of the world premiere of his recent work, Intermezzo, part of a larger work, Quintet for piano and strings, Opus 42, which is still in progress.
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
CULTURE IN ZIMBABWE IS ALIVE AND WELL!
By Dorothy Bowman
BULAWAYO - I’m in a spin! Today is the morning after the last evening – the final performance – of the 5th Bulawayo Music Festival and I’m on a high with the strains of Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals still going round in my head. It will take days to recover from the awesome experience of the past five days. It’s a curious feeling of fulfillment and exhaustion - from determination not to miss anything! It was a strenuous, exciting, tremendous, exacting, stupendous, mind-boggling, not-to-be-missed five days.
How can one possibly put into words the terrific impact that this wonderful happening has had on our lives? We have gone through so many emotions and pleasures. These last few days have been like none other and it’s hard to imagine “Life after the Festival”. But all good things come to an end and we were getting near to utter exhaustion anyway!
How the performers themselves kept going through five days of a rigorous and demanding programme is a mystery. The energy and enthusiasm, quite apart from the technique and skill of producing this intense musical immersion, is staggering. And their magnetic personalities and constant good humour captivated the audience from beginning to end. It has left us all with a tremendous appreciation of being in the right place at the right time!
Michael Bullivant, appointed Director of the Academy of Music in January 2006, is the indefatigable driving force behind all this. And how blessed we are to have such a feast of culture and enjoyment right here, especially when almost everything around us is stressful and uncertain. It’s been like a shot in the arm to all those music lovers who attended, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more determined and indomitable lot of followers anywhere!
The visiting performers – Leslie Howard (pianist from Down Under); Benjamin Nabarro (British violinist) and his wife, Russian-born Ania Safonova (viola) and Matthew Sharp (British cellist and baritone) along with our local homegrown talent (of whom there were so many), mingled freely with the public so that by the end of the five days we felt we knew them all fairly well - quite unlike artists in other countries who are generally admired and appreciated “at a distance”!
The warmth and friendliness of people in Bulawayo makes our visitors instantly and completely at home – to the benefit of everyone concerned. I mean, where else would you rub shoulders with famous musicians and actually observe them pitching in doing “menial” jobs like moving chairs from one area of the Academy to another and shifting pianos across stage.
And what talent was on show for us. I prefer to leave the analysis to the experts but I think it’s safe to say that all of us in the audience were completely enthralled from start to finish – from the opening Rachmaninov to the brilliant orchestral concert on Sunday - and the memorable grand finale with Martin Sharp’s fine rendition of Flanders and Swan’s Hippopotamus Song with the audience joining in the chorus of “Mud, Glorious Mud”. Better than the last night of the Proms! What a privilege and what a Festival!
The famous couple of Benjamin Nabarro and Ania Safonova, two of Britain’s contemporary violinists, were in Zimbabwe recently for the fifth edition of the Bulawayo Music Festival.
“This was a different festival. We have been to many parts of the world but the Bulawayo Music Festival had a unique quality to it. As artists we had this interactive freedom to mix and mingle with the audience,” they said. Benjamin and Ania play the same instrument – the violin - but each has a unique mastery of it.
Howard’s world premiere
By Tins Magaba
BULAWAYO - Acclaimed pianist Leslie Howard was in Zimbabwe for the Bulawayo Music Festival. A man of high distinction, he has accomplished a feat unequalled by any solo artist in recording industry – his 97 CD survey of the complete piano music of Franz Listz. That alone speaks volumes for the man’s passion for the piano and the music it produces. With numerous awards to his credit, Howard is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, especially for the Listz project.
A widely travelled man, he has toured different parts of the world giving recitals and master classes. Last year he received rave reviews from the New York Times for his performances at the International Keyboard Institute & Festival in Manhattan.
He made Bulawayo the scene of the world premiere of his recent work, Intermezzo, part of a larger work, Quintet for piano and strings, Opus 42, which is still in progress.
Letters to the Editor
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
Youths must unite
EDITOR - The latest images from Amnesty International show how people have been severely affected by the government’s devastating policy of demolitions (Operation Murambatsvina). The government shows total lack of compassion and mercy by crushing peaceful protests using armed police, soldiers and militia to silence hungry and angry innocent civilians. Who will save Zimbabwe? It’s our house which is dirty and it’s our duty to clean it. Let’s all unite regardless of race, tribe or sexuality, and restore political sanity and dignity to the once bread basket of Africa. Come on young people, it’s up to us.The diaspora plays a major role in pushing for political transformation and to lobby for international intervention in the Zim crisis.
ALOIS PHIRI, FreeZim
Massive cost to SA
EDITOR -
The Zimbabwe economy is closing down - literally. We have inflation now at nearly 1200 per cent per annum. GDP is down about 50 per cent, exports by two thirds. In recent weeks the reports of accelerated decline have poured in - gold output down by a third on last year, winter cropping down 50 per cent, electricity supplies down to 70 per cent of demand and threatening economic activity across the board. The tobacco crop down by a third and prospects that the coming crop could be very small - perhaps less than 20 000 tonnes. Industrial activity is shrinking fast and, if it was at all possible, the numbers of foreign tourists still dropping.The sheer lunacy of the Mugabe regime’s management of the economy is highlighted by the maize situation. Just look at these numbers. We require 5 000 tonnes of maize a day to feed the country. Of this 3 600 tonnes is for human consumption as maize meal. Last year the State imported 1 million tonnes of this product into the country and in addition donors supplied basic foods for over 3 million people every day. As I write, some 2000 tonnes of white maize is coming into Zimbabwe from South Africa every day. This costs about R1200 per tonne (at least) and on top of this you must add another R160 per tonne for administration. So we are talking about a product that costs R1360 per tonne - perhaps even R1400 per tonne when it is finally sold to the local millers.
The selling price charged by Zimbabwe's Grain Marketing Board is just R12 per tonne at market based exchange rates, R37.50 at the bank rate. Whatever they sell it for, the loss on the product is well over 99 per cent of its cost. The numbers are just staggering - at official exchange rates (which bear no relation to reality) the loss is Z$22,4 million a tonne or Z$44,8 billion a day!How do they manage this? They don't. I must assume that the South African government is in fact providing the maize on credit to Zimbabwe in an effort to keep the Mugabe regime afloat. This means that, at last years rate of imports South Africa is building up debt with Zimbabwe at the rate of R3 million a day. Add that to the power subsidies being ploughed into the Zimbabwe economy at the same time - also through another bankrupt parastatal and you come to the total debt build up of some R2 billion a year at the very least (US$350 million). In other areas the South Africans are also covering up the real facts. Illegal migration to South Africa via Botswana has been estimated at 500 people per day and via the Limpopo border with South Africa at 2 500 a day -that is one million new illegal migrants a year.
Some are caught and returned, but most disappear into the murky depths of South African slums and townships. The cost of all this to the South African economy is huge. And with an extra 1 million illegals a year- that is on top of the estimated 3 million that are already here- it can only get worse.
Please help us stop this lunacy by sending a donation to Zimfund - Nedbank Account Number 1589406079 - Branch Code 158952.
Your money will be well spent.
SAVE ZIMBABWE, Johannesburg
Forsaking the legacy of Kings
Open letter to Japhet Ndulini Mayor of Bulawayo
Your Worship,
World Refugee Day 20 June Campaign – “We are refugees in our own country. Our lives have been stolen but the flame of hope still burns. We demand the right to earn a living.” We are writing to thank you for granting us an audience on 14 July 2006 and for listening to our requests with such respect. The issue that brought us to your offices during our World Refugee Day campaign was Bulawayo City Council involvement in Operation Murambatsvina activities being conducted by a Government that no longer cares for its citizens. We had noted that when the Operation was launched, your office and Council were lonely voices speaking out and trying to defend the right to trade of the long-marginalized people of Matabeleland.
However we have noted that in the last few months, Council has been at the forefront of harassing parents trying to put food into the mouths of their children. Children who cannot now even access affordable education and thereby a better future. We also notethat previous concessions to freely trade during weekends and holidays have also been withdrawn. We also remind you that we informed you that the process of registering for vending licenses has become politicized and that we are therefore not able to register and refuse to allow the right to earn a living to be only for those carrying Zanu PF partycards. Some of our members noted the Bulawayo Upcoming Traders Association court order barring the council and the police from raiding until a solution could be found. Bulawayo City Council has ignored this. After our visit we resolved to observe the situation to see if there would be any change, but there has been no change. We then saw Council being quoted through spokesman, Pathisa Nyathi on June 28 2006 in ZimOnline saying Council will continue to raid vendors.
We are now writing to ask you the following questions.
1.Where is the spirit of Ubuntu you spoke to us about?
2. Are you forsaking the legacy left behind by the Kings this city is named for – Mambo, Mzilikazi and the King of the Kalanga people?
3. We demand you call a full Council meeting and withdraw from any Operation Murambatsvina activities until a solution is found that.
All we are asking for is our right to earn a living because without that right and the right to keep what we earn, there is no right to life.
See the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, Article 22: 1. All peoples shall have the right to their economic, social and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity….2. States shall have the duty ... to ensure the exercise of the right to development. See Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Article 14: “State parties shall take appropriate measures ….that they participate in and benefit from rural development and ensure the right: (e) to organise self-help groups andco-operatives in order to obtain equal access to economic opportunities through employment or self employment.”
WOZA, Zimbabwe
Ncube to retire
EDITOR
I read with interest Prof. Welshman Ncube's intentions to quit mainstream politics in 2010 (The Zimbabwean 15-21 June, 2006). How does he justify his desire to quit politics at his age when a normal political career should be reaching its peak? Is he admitting failure or does he possess some supernatural ability to foretell that the struggles of ordinary Zimbabweans against dictatorship will be over and so he can retire Prof, let me tell you one thing, true leaders do not retire from the struggle, but endure all the way to the end, unless freedom of the ordinary Zimbabwean was never your agenda.
If that is the case, please identify all those in the current leadership who are like-minded ELISHA MASHUMBA, Cape Town
Nkomo turning in his grave
EDITOR
I think the way the hosts Joburg Joshua Nkomo gala conduct their business can not go without a comment, especially from us who live in South Africa and are patriotic. To tribalise or regionalise a gala for nationalist like Dr Nkomo is not fair treatment to such a veteran nationalist and father of the nation.
He was neither a regionalist or a tribalist, as was proved by his (PF) ZAPU that had structures in all provinces and districts are garnered a number of votes in every constituency at elections in 1980 before Mugabe suffocated and tribalised his influence.
That’s why you found Shonas like Joseph Msika holding a very high post in the party.
Solomon Mujuru also held a very high post in the military wing ZIPRA before the integration of the forces.
Also the naughty war veteran Chenjerai Hunzvi was in the diplomatic service in Poland on a ZAPU ticket. This proves the type of person Dr Nkomo was. Furthermore, Dr Nkomo was not Ndebele, although he came from Matebeleland. He was a Kalanga - an ndebelised shona according to the historical background. And if we want to believe a shona proveb which says "manyurusi anozivakwazvo kuti madzitateguru awo aiva mahachi" that means Dr Nkomo knew very well that his ancestors were Shona. Thus Dr Nkomo was not a divider of the nation on tribal, regional or language. So I think tribalising or regionalising anything in his name might make him turn in his grave.
On the issue of the Ndebeles being called newcomers in Zimbabwe, that is utter rubbish that needs to be treated with the contempt it deserves. Xenophobia and segregation are products of a lack of knowledge about the history of the human race. Come to your senses guys and see reason.
LOVEMORE CHIKANDIWA, MDC
Pretoria 6 JULY P 16
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
Youths must unite
EDITOR - The latest images from Amnesty International show how people have been severely affected by the government’s devastating policy of demolitions (Operation Murambatsvina). The government shows total lack of compassion and mercy by crushing peaceful protests using armed police, soldiers and militia to silence hungry and angry innocent civilians. Who will save Zimbabwe? It’s our house which is dirty and it’s our duty to clean it. Let’s all unite regardless of race, tribe or sexuality, and restore political sanity and dignity to the once bread basket of Africa. Come on young people, it’s up to us.The diaspora plays a major role in pushing for political transformation and to lobby for international intervention in the Zim crisis.
ALOIS PHIRI, FreeZim
Massive cost to SA
EDITOR -
The Zimbabwe economy is closing down - literally. We have inflation now at nearly 1200 per cent per annum. GDP is down about 50 per cent, exports by two thirds. In recent weeks the reports of accelerated decline have poured in - gold output down by a third on last year, winter cropping down 50 per cent, electricity supplies down to 70 per cent of demand and threatening economic activity across the board. The tobacco crop down by a third and prospects that the coming crop could be very small - perhaps less than 20 000 tonnes. Industrial activity is shrinking fast and, if it was at all possible, the numbers of foreign tourists still dropping.The sheer lunacy of the Mugabe regime’s management of the economy is highlighted by the maize situation. Just look at these numbers. We require 5 000 tonnes of maize a day to feed the country. Of this 3 600 tonnes is for human consumption as maize meal. Last year the State imported 1 million tonnes of this product into the country and in addition donors supplied basic foods for over 3 million people every day. As I write, some 2000 tonnes of white maize is coming into Zimbabwe from South Africa every day. This costs about R1200 per tonne (at least) and on top of this you must add another R160 per tonne for administration. So we are talking about a product that costs R1360 per tonne - perhaps even R1400 per tonne when it is finally sold to the local millers.
The selling price charged by Zimbabwe's Grain Marketing Board is just R12 per tonne at market based exchange rates, R37.50 at the bank rate. Whatever they sell it for, the loss on the product is well over 99 per cent of its cost. The numbers are just staggering - at official exchange rates (which bear no relation to reality) the loss is Z$22,4 million a tonne or Z$44,8 billion a day!How do they manage this? They don't. I must assume that the South African government is in fact providing the maize on credit to Zimbabwe in an effort to keep the Mugabe regime afloat. This means that, at last years rate of imports South Africa is building up debt with Zimbabwe at the rate of R3 million a day. Add that to the power subsidies being ploughed into the Zimbabwe economy at the same time - also through another bankrupt parastatal and you come to the total debt build up of some R2 billion a year at the very least (US$350 million). In other areas the South Africans are also covering up the real facts. Illegal migration to South Africa via Botswana has been estimated at 500 people per day and via the Limpopo border with South Africa at 2 500 a day -that is one million new illegal migrants a year.
Some are caught and returned, but most disappear into the murky depths of South African slums and townships. The cost of all this to the South African economy is huge. And with an extra 1 million illegals a year- that is on top of the estimated 3 million that are already here- it can only get worse.
Please help us stop this lunacy by sending a donation to Zimfund - Nedbank Account Number 1589406079 - Branch Code 158952.
Your money will be well spent.
SAVE ZIMBABWE, Johannesburg
Forsaking the legacy of Kings
Open letter to Japhet Ndulini Mayor of Bulawayo
Your Worship,
World Refugee Day 20 June Campaign – “We are refugees in our own country. Our lives have been stolen but the flame of hope still burns. We demand the right to earn a living.” We are writing to thank you for granting us an audience on 14 July 2006 and for listening to our requests with such respect. The issue that brought us to your offices during our World Refugee Day campaign was Bulawayo City Council involvement in Operation Murambatsvina activities being conducted by a Government that no longer cares for its citizens. We had noted that when the Operation was launched, your office and Council were lonely voices speaking out and trying to defend the right to trade of the long-marginalized people of Matabeleland.
However we have noted that in the last few months, Council has been at the forefront of harassing parents trying to put food into the mouths of their children. Children who cannot now even access affordable education and thereby a better future. We also notethat previous concessions to freely trade during weekends and holidays have also been withdrawn. We also remind you that we informed you that the process of registering for vending licenses has become politicized and that we are therefore not able to register and refuse to allow the right to earn a living to be only for those carrying Zanu PF partycards. Some of our members noted the Bulawayo Upcoming Traders Association court order barring the council and the police from raiding until a solution could be found. Bulawayo City Council has ignored this. After our visit we resolved to observe the situation to see if there would be any change, but there has been no change. We then saw Council being quoted through spokesman, Pathisa Nyathi on June 28 2006 in ZimOnline saying Council will continue to raid vendors.
We are now writing to ask you the following questions.
1.Where is the spirit of Ubuntu you spoke to us about?
2. Are you forsaking the legacy left behind by the Kings this city is named for – Mambo, Mzilikazi and the King of the Kalanga people?
3. We demand you call a full Council meeting and withdraw from any Operation Murambatsvina activities until a solution is found that.
All we are asking for is our right to earn a living because without that right and the right to keep what we earn, there is no right to life.
See the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, Article 22: 1. All peoples shall have the right to their economic, social and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity….2. States shall have the duty ... to ensure the exercise of the right to development. See Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Article 14: “State parties shall take appropriate measures ….that they participate in and benefit from rural development and ensure the right: (e) to organise self-help groups andco-operatives in order to obtain equal access to economic opportunities through employment or self employment.”
WOZA, Zimbabwe
Ncube to retire
EDITOR
I read with interest Prof. Welshman Ncube's intentions to quit mainstream politics in 2010 (The Zimbabwean 15-21 June, 2006). How does he justify his desire to quit politics at his age when a normal political career should be reaching its peak? Is he admitting failure or does he possess some supernatural ability to foretell that the struggles of ordinary Zimbabweans against dictatorship will be over and so he can retire Prof, let me tell you one thing, true leaders do not retire from the struggle, but endure all the way to the end, unless freedom of the ordinary Zimbabwean was never your agenda.
If that is the case, please identify all those in the current leadership who are like-minded ELISHA MASHUMBA, Cape Town
Nkomo turning in his grave
EDITOR
I think the way the hosts Joburg Joshua Nkomo gala conduct their business can not go without a comment, especially from us who live in South Africa and are patriotic. To tribalise or regionalise a gala for nationalist like Dr Nkomo is not fair treatment to such a veteran nationalist and father of the nation.
He was neither a regionalist or a tribalist, as was proved by his (PF) ZAPU that had structures in all provinces and districts are garnered a number of votes in every constituency at elections in 1980 before Mugabe suffocated and tribalised his influence.
That’s why you found Shonas like Joseph Msika holding a very high post in the party.
Solomon Mujuru also held a very high post in the military wing ZIPRA before the integration of the forces.
Also the naughty war veteran Chenjerai Hunzvi was in the diplomatic service in Poland on a ZAPU ticket. This proves the type of person Dr Nkomo was. Furthermore, Dr Nkomo was not Ndebele, although he came from Matebeleland. He was a Kalanga - an ndebelised shona according to the historical background. And if we want to believe a shona proveb which says "manyurusi anozivakwazvo kuti madzitateguru awo aiva mahachi" that means Dr Nkomo knew very well that his ancestors were Shona. Thus Dr Nkomo was not a divider of the nation on tribal, regional or language. So I think tribalising or regionalising anything in his name might make him turn in his grave.
On the issue of the Ndebeles being called newcomers in Zimbabwe, that is utter rubbish that needs to be treated with the contempt it deserves. Xenophobia and segregation are products of a lack of knowledge about the history of the human race. Come to your senses guys and see reason.
LOVEMORE CHIKANDIWA, MDC
Pretoria 6 JULY P 16
How do you deal with calamity?
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
The faith of many Zimbabwean Christians is being sorely tested by events in the country. What is God doing? How can such calamity happen to us? What is the purpose of it all? These are all valid questions for those who, like Job in the Old Testament, have lost much – homes, families, livelihoods, wealth.
We talk about the farm invasions and somehow the true horror of what went on in those days fails to register. We forget that the men and women who owned those farms, in many cases, had moved onto them when they were just empty bush. They had worked together to carve them out of the bush living in pole and mud huts and
cooking over wood fires before gradually getting onto their feet and building beautiful homes and raising families.
The stories are legion – gaining experience by working for other farmers, then buying your own place with borrowed money and the struggle – over many years, even decades to get out of debt and to build up what was eventually a productive farm in a remote area with dams, irrigation and all the other things that are needed to make a real go of modern farming today. To then go through UDI with 14 years of mandatory UN sanctions and then eight years of civil war.
Then after Independence in 1980, thinking that this was a new day – no more ambushes or land mines on the farm road, time to get back to real farming. Accepting the new realities and national leadership. Growing your enterprise to the point where you were making an impact across the world. Employing hundreds, providing a decent living for their families. Building schools and clinics.
Then out of the blue, the systematic, wholesale and brutal theft of your assets and livelihood and way of life – on a purely racist and corrupt basis. Some 4 000 farmers and their direct employees were affected by this act together with 350 000 farm workers, managers and skilled employees. At the time there were 10 000 white men on those farms – all armed, all trained and experienced and all determined people. But not a shot was fired, they accepted what was being done to them without violence and resorted to the law as a defence, only to finds that this line of defence had also been torn away from them by the State.
What we do not appreciate is the trauma that this process involved – for the men, their families and all those families dependent on them. The loss of everything they had worked for – sometimes for three or four generations, the loss of homes and all security. The loss of community and sense of belonging; these are the real losses. The rest we can replace – if not here then elsewhere, but the intangibles are lost forever.
How does anyone get over such trauma? What do you do when confronted with
such circumstances? Nobody ever said that the world was a fair place – Jesus
himself said that “in the world you will face tribulation”, not maybe, will. So this is not an uncommon experience. We are not the first community to go through such circumstance; how we handle these situations is what sets us apart.
Remember that story in the New Testament where the disciples were crossing a lake in a small boat and a storm came up – ever been on Kariba when that happens? It is fast and nasty. Jesus came to them walking on the water. Peter saw him and asked, “If that is you, can I come and walk on the water with you?” Jesus said yes and Peter got out of the boat in the storm and walked towards Jesus. Then his mind told him this could not be happening – he looked at the stormy waters and began to sink.
When life deals us a bad hand and we are faced with stormy, angry, water we can do a number of things – we can stay in the boat and hope we survive, we can get out of the boat and walk on the water. When done by faith we then find that we can indeed walk on the water, there is life after all that has happened. That was the experience of Job - it can be our experience as well.
Jesus finished that earlier saying about tribulation by saying, “but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” When we step over the gunwale we can find that this is also true. We do not forget the past, it still hurts, but we find comfort and new pleasure in the experience of walking on the stormy waters of life.
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
BY OUR CORRESPONDENT
The faith of many Zimbabwean Christians is being sorely tested by events in the country. What is God doing? How can such calamity happen to us? What is the purpose of it all? These are all valid questions for those who, like Job in the Old Testament, have lost much – homes, families, livelihoods, wealth.
We talk about the farm invasions and somehow the true horror of what went on in those days fails to register. We forget that the men and women who owned those farms, in many cases, had moved onto them when they were just empty bush. They had worked together to carve them out of the bush living in pole and mud huts and
cooking over wood fires before gradually getting onto their feet and building beautiful homes and raising families.
The stories are legion – gaining experience by working for other farmers, then buying your own place with borrowed money and the struggle – over many years, even decades to get out of debt and to build up what was eventually a productive farm in a remote area with dams, irrigation and all the other things that are needed to make a real go of modern farming today. To then go through UDI with 14 years of mandatory UN sanctions and then eight years of civil war.
Then after Independence in 1980, thinking that this was a new day – no more ambushes or land mines on the farm road, time to get back to real farming. Accepting the new realities and national leadership. Growing your enterprise to the point where you were making an impact across the world. Employing hundreds, providing a decent living for their families. Building schools and clinics.
Then out of the blue, the systematic, wholesale and brutal theft of your assets and livelihood and way of life – on a purely racist and corrupt basis. Some 4 000 farmers and their direct employees were affected by this act together with 350 000 farm workers, managers and skilled employees. At the time there were 10 000 white men on those farms – all armed, all trained and experienced and all determined people. But not a shot was fired, they accepted what was being done to them without violence and resorted to the law as a defence, only to finds that this line of defence had also been torn away from them by the State.
What we do not appreciate is the trauma that this process involved – for the men, their families and all those families dependent on them. The loss of everything they had worked for – sometimes for three or four generations, the loss of homes and all security. The loss of community and sense of belonging; these are the real losses. The rest we can replace – if not here then elsewhere, but the intangibles are lost forever.
How does anyone get over such trauma? What do you do when confronted with
such circumstances? Nobody ever said that the world was a fair place – Jesus
himself said that “in the world you will face tribulation”, not maybe, will. So this is not an uncommon experience. We are not the first community to go through such circumstance; how we handle these situations is what sets us apart.
Remember that story in the New Testament where the disciples were crossing a lake in a small boat and a storm came up – ever been on Kariba when that happens? It is fast and nasty. Jesus came to them walking on the water. Peter saw him and asked, “If that is you, can I come and walk on the water with you?” Jesus said yes and Peter got out of the boat in the storm and walked towards Jesus. Then his mind told him this could not be happening – he looked at the stormy waters and began to sink.
When life deals us a bad hand and we are faced with stormy, angry, water we can do a number of things – we can stay in the boat and hope we survive, we can get out of the boat and walk on the water. When done by faith we then find that we can indeed walk on the water, there is life after all that has happened. That was the experience of Job - it can be our experience as well.
Jesus finished that earlier saying about tribulation by saying, “but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” When we step over the gunwale we can find that this is also true. We do not forget the past, it still hurts, but we find comfort and new pleasure in the experience of walking on the stormy waters of life.
State targets church
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
‘The best that can be expected from talks is a zhing zhong agreement - one that falls apart when you try to use it’
HARARE – To cancel the National Day of Prayer held annually on May 25 and to replace it with a government-sponsored event is just another step in Zanu (PF)’s efforts to divide or neutralise the Church, having suppressed most other independent voices.
Attendance at this event was no more than 5000, including the party faithful who were bussed in free. Government had planned for 20,000, so this can hardly be called a success. They blame the Christian Alliance for the low turnout, but most ordinary church members felt so unenthusiastic there is no need to create conspiracy theories.
Getting leaders of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) and the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC) to talk with the government is another step in this direction. Subverting the leadership of any organisation is usually easier than fooling the mass of the membership, but even here government are labouring.
The CIO’s harassing of Methodist Bishop Levee Kadenge after a pastors’ meeting in Highfield on June 22 was a sign that they are worried. That meeting invited the leaders of ZCC, EFZ and ZCBC to a further meeting on June 28, to explain their position in the reported negotiations. The National Pastors’ Conference were curious and somewhat worried, but recognised that what they heard from the media could well have been distorted.
The 28 June meeting was prevented by unidentified men who threatened the minister of the church where it was supposed to be held, New Highfield Methodist church, with what they could do to his church (and his own house is in the church compound) so he decided it was safer not to hold the meeting.
Clearly someone does not want open communication between church leadership and the rank and file, even rank and file ministers of their churches. The CIO had accused Bishop Kadenge and others of trying to start a new political party, but they had their agents in the meeting who could testify that this was not true.
Presumably they are up to the old trick of isolating those they want to fool. Some senior churchmen do look less resolute than they were, and some have been praise-singers of the regime for years, but there is still hope that the majority maintain the position that no dialogue can be expected until the regime shows a changed spirit, the country has a people-driven constitution and the perpetrators of violent political crimes since 2000 repent.
Some church leaders seem to believe that they can talk in the hope that this stage will be hastened by their talking. The ordinary church members hope that, if the leaders try this, they remember that he who sups with the devil needs a long spoon. Otherwise, the best that can be expected from talks is a zhing zhong agreement - one that falls apart when you try to use it.
More likely the talks would lead to inescapable entanglements. Zanu (PF) are experts at that. They don’t need to fool or co-opt the whole leadership: splitting them or dividing them from their followers would significantly weaken the Church. We wait to see what the next few weeks bring.
On the other hand, the regime is getting more desperate. This might be the last kick of a dying horse, in which case the church leaders should certainly keep their distance.
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
‘The best that can be expected from talks is a zhing zhong agreement - one that falls apart when you try to use it’
HARARE – To cancel the National Day of Prayer held annually on May 25 and to replace it with a government-sponsored event is just another step in Zanu (PF)’s efforts to divide or neutralise the Church, having suppressed most other independent voices.
Attendance at this event was no more than 5000, including the party faithful who were bussed in free. Government had planned for 20,000, so this can hardly be called a success. They blame the Christian Alliance for the low turnout, but most ordinary church members felt so unenthusiastic there is no need to create conspiracy theories.
Getting leaders of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC), the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) and the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference (ZCBC) to talk with the government is another step in this direction. Subverting the leadership of any organisation is usually easier than fooling the mass of the membership, but even here government are labouring.
The CIO’s harassing of Methodist Bishop Levee Kadenge after a pastors’ meeting in Highfield on June 22 was a sign that they are worried. That meeting invited the leaders of ZCC, EFZ and ZCBC to a further meeting on June 28, to explain their position in the reported negotiations. The National Pastors’ Conference were curious and somewhat worried, but recognised that what they heard from the media could well have been distorted.
The 28 June meeting was prevented by unidentified men who threatened the minister of the church where it was supposed to be held, New Highfield Methodist church, with what they could do to his church (and his own house is in the church compound) so he decided it was safer not to hold the meeting.
Clearly someone does not want open communication between church leadership and the rank and file, even rank and file ministers of their churches. The CIO had accused Bishop Kadenge and others of trying to start a new political party, but they had their agents in the meeting who could testify that this was not true.
Presumably they are up to the old trick of isolating those they want to fool. Some senior churchmen do look less resolute than they were, and some have been praise-singers of the regime for years, but there is still hope that the majority maintain the position that no dialogue can be expected until the regime shows a changed spirit, the country has a people-driven constitution and the perpetrators of violent political crimes since 2000 repent.
Some church leaders seem to believe that they can talk in the hope that this stage will be hastened by their talking. The ordinary church members hope that, if the leaders try this, they remember that he who sups with the devil needs a long spoon. Otherwise, the best that can be expected from talks is a zhing zhong agreement - one that falls apart when you try to use it.
More likely the talks would lead to inescapable entanglements. Zanu (PF) are experts at that. They don’t need to fool or co-opt the whole leadership: splitting them or dividing them from their followers would significantly weaken the Church. We wait to see what the next few weeks bring.
On the other hand, the regime is getting more desperate. This might be the last kick of a dying horse, in which case the church leaders should certainly keep their distance.
Letter from Home: The sovereign state
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
Dear Family and Friends,
There has been much talk in the state-owned media this week about the fact thatZimbabwe is a sovereign state and will not be dictated to or colonized by anyone, from anywhere, ever again. 99% of news readers on ZBC radio and TV are unable to pronounce the words sovereign and sovereignty and no one corrects them and so now a whole generation of young Zimbabweans are talking about protecting our sov-er-wren-ity. Adhering to the meaning of the term, however, seems as elusive as the pronunciation because every day now we hear about the involvement of other countries in the basic nitty gritty's of our day-to-day affairs. We have a rash of cheap Chinese products ranging from clothes to luggage and tools all over the country already and have Chinese aeroplanes and minibuses moving us around.
Last week there was talk of Chinese interest in our thermal power stations and this week we hear of pending "joint ventures" with the Chinese in regard to Tel One (our telephones) NRZ ( our railways) and Hwange (our coal mines). It's not clear yet what benefits the Chinese will gain from all these joint ventures but so far we hear of pay back involving cobalt and other minerals still buried in our sovereign soil.
Trying to come to grips with it all - the podium banging, the selling of our essence and the mortgaging of our soul - is overwhelming and exhausting, as is our daily life. It is a daily life in Zimbabwe that is so ridiculous that a nervous breakdown seems precariously close almost all the time. It is a daily life dominated by rubber bands - to hold stacks of money together in one, two, five or ten million dollar bundles. A daily life swamped with electricity power cuts - two, four or five hours at a time - sometimes twice a day. A daily life suffocated by a rash of new rules and regulations, bills and prices.
This week we received our second telephone account for this month. The secondbill arrived just 10 days after the first one and printed on the top, surrounded by a line of stars, was the legend: "Tariffs have been increased per unit to $18,895.50 W.E.F. {with effect from} 14/06/06. You will receive 2 bills for June 06." There are no apologies offered - this a government owned company and there are no other fixed line telephone companies in the country so it is simply a case of pay up or get cut off. For the second time in a month the queue snaked out of the door as all the receipts were being written out painfully and laboriously by hand as there was yet another power cut. Emerging from the freezing cold queue after paying my second phone bill, the sight of what should have been a bustling town on a busy Friday morning at month end was surreal. Almost the entire town had stopped. Sitting on roadsides and pavements, lying on grassy patches, leaning against walls - the whole town was just waiting ever so patiently for the power to come back on. The electricity had been off since 6.30am and finally at 11 am it came back on. Everywhere people started running - to get back into queues for photocopiers, for passport processing, for cash machines, for computers. Life had suddenly been kick started again....and so we stagger on....again.
Until next week, thanks for reading, ndini shamwari yenyu.
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
Dear Family and Friends,
There has been much talk in the state-owned media this week about the fact thatZimbabwe is a sovereign state and will not be dictated to or colonized by anyone, from anywhere, ever again. 99% of news readers on ZBC radio and TV are unable to pronounce the words sovereign and sovereignty and no one corrects them and so now a whole generation of young Zimbabweans are talking about protecting our sov-er-wren-ity. Adhering to the meaning of the term, however, seems as elusive as the pronunciation because every day now we hear about the involvement of other countries in the basic nitty gritty's of our day-to-day affairs. We have a rash of cheap Chinese products ranging from clothes to luggage and tools all over the country already and have Chinese aeroplanes and minibuses moving us around.
Last week there was talk of Chinese interest in our thermal power stations and this week we hear of pending "joint ventures" with the Chinese in regard to Tel One (our telephones) NRZ ( our railways) and Hwange (our coal mines). It's not clear yet what benefits the Chinese will gain from all these joint ventures but so far we hear of pay back involving cobalt and other minerals still buried in our sovereign soil.
Trying to come to grips with it all - the podium banging, the selling of our essence and the mortgaging of our soul - is overwhelming and exhausting, as is our daily life. It is a daily life in Zimbabwe that is so ridiculous that a nervous breakdown seems precariously close almost all the time. It is a daily life dominated by rubber bands - to hold stacks of money together in one, two, five or ten million dollar bundles. A daily life swamped with electricity power cuts - two, four or five hours at a time - sometimes twice a day. A daily life suffocated by a rash of new rules and regulations, bills and prices.
This week we received our second telephone account for this month. The secondbill arrived just 10 days after the first one and printed on the top, surrounded by a line of stars, was the legend: "Tariffs have been increased per unit to $18,895.50 W.E.F. {with effect from} 14/06/06. You will receive 2 bills for June 06." There are no apologies offered - this a government owned company and there are no other fixed line telephone companies in the country so it is simply a case of pay up or get cut off. For the second time in a month the queue snaked out of the door as all the receipts were being written out painfully and laboriously by hand as there was yet another power cut. Emerging from the freezing cold queue after paying my second phone bill, the sight of what should have been a bustling town on a busy Friday morning at month end was surreal. Almost the entire town had stopped. Sitting on roadsides and pavements, lying on grassy patches, leaning against walls - the whole town was just waiting ever so patiently for the power to come back on. The electricity had been off since 6.30am and finally at 11 am it came back on. Everywhere people started running - to get back into queues for photocopiers, for passport processing, for cash machines, for computers. Life had suddenly been kick started again....and so we stagger on....again.
Until next week, thanks for reading, ndini shamwari yenyu.
Idling and dancing on the land
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
BY MAGAISA IBENZI
WARD 12, PARIRENYATWA HOSPITAL, HARARE – I would have thought it would be rather risky for Mugabe to pray for divine intervention to sort out Zimbabwe’s problems. But that is what he did. No answer so far!
My friend Mujubheki came to me the other day looking quite serious and said he had been thinking – again. That worries me a lot. But I was quite impressed when he told me he had discovered a remarkable new mental illness in Zimbabwe. The symptoms are getting enthusiastic about one thing and taking it very seriously for a few hours, and then making a U-turn and doing everything possible to undermine, contradict and counteract the thing that made one enthusiastic in the first place. And finally blaming everyone else for the ensuing confusion. We decided to call it the Mugabe Syndrome.
The events of the past few weeks certainly give his theory a lot of weight. Many people thought Mugabe had come to his senses by praying to God for deliverance for Zimbabwe at the national day of prayer – never mind that the day had been hi-hacked from the original organisers by Zanu (PF) and turned into a party thing. God was still listening, I’m sure, although most Zimbabweans had better things to do, like watching soccer or going kwaMereki.
Anyway … Even I thought Wow! At last the man has come to his senses. I thought he had finally accepted that we have a very serious situation on our hands – and some really big help is needed.
He started off well, praying for the country, for forgiveness and even promised cabinet approval to declare a national day of prayer every year. But then he went off the track again. He said he wanted the day of prayer to send a message to the people that they should thank God for Zanu (PF)’s land reform programme. Does he think God doesn’t know that the land is stolen property? Has he forgotten that it was God who said Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s property?
I was also shocked to hear him using the holy occasion to issue threats to men of the cloth such as Archbishop Pius Ncube. He warned Ncube not to interfere in politics, saying something we had known all along – that he (Mugabe) was vicious when it came to politics.
In the same breath he then invited churches to point out the government’s sins of commission or omission. Isn’t that what Ncube and other church leaders have been trying to do?
After this, I wasn’t surprised when he proceeded to his usual land reform diatribe – but I was amazed that he seems to think it is alright if people decide to “idle and dance all day” on the land. Really? No wonder we are hungry if this is what he thinks.
I hear the army has got a very different interpretation of this – must be a severe break- down in communication somewhere along the line. I have had a number of disturbing reports recently about what is going on Matabeleland South in particular – where people are being beaten for not working hard enough on their lands.
Several irrigation schemes have apparently been targeted by the army and the plot owners forced to reap their maize in a hurry and leave it piled at the side of the fields while, under threat of beatings, they are made to plant winter wheat. One man was thoroughly beaten for daring to suggest that the winter wheat planting season was long past and the late planting would not be successful. A woman I know was beaten for being absent from her field – when she had gone to a funeral.
Vice-president Joseph Msika also appears to have received the wrong information. He seems to be concerned that re-settled farmers are not utilising the land diligently enough – the first sensible thing he has said for a long time.
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
BY MAGAISA IBENZI
WARD 12, PARIRENYATWA HOSPITAL, HARARE – I would have thought it would be rather risky for Mugabe to pray for divine intervention to sort out Zimbabwe’s problems. But that is what he did. No answer so far!
My friend Mujubheki came to me the other day looking quite serious and said he had been thinking – again. That worries me a lot. But I was quite impressed when he told me he had discovered a remarkable new mental illness in Zimbabwe. The symptoms are getting enthusiastic about one thing and taking it very seriously for a few hours, and then making a U-turn and doing everything possible to undermine, contradict and counteract the thing that made one enthusiastic in the first place. And finally blaming everyone else for the ensuing confusion. We decided to call it the Mugabe Syndrome.
The events of the past few weeks certainly give his theory a lot of weight. Many people thought Mugabe had come to his senses by praying to God for deliverance for Zimbabwe at the national day of prayer – never mind that the day had been hi-hacked from the original organisers by Zanu (PF) and turned into a party thing. God was still listening, I’m sure, although most Zimbabweans had better things to do, like watching soccer or going kwaMereki.
Anyway … Even I thought Wow! At last the man has come to his senses. I thought he had finally accepted that we have a very serious situation on our hands – and some really big help is needed.
He started off well, praying for the country, for forgiveness and even promised cabinet approval to declare a national day of prayer every year. But then he went off the track again. He said he wanted the day of prayer to send a message to the people that they should thank God for Zanu (PF)’s land reform programme. Does he think God doesn’t know that the land is stolen property? Has he forgotten that it was God who said Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill and thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s property?
I was also shocked to hear him using the holy occasion to issue threats to men of the cloth such as Archbishop Pius Ncube. He warned Ncube not to interfere in politics, saying something we had known all along – that he (Mugabe) was vicious when it came to politics.
In the same breath he then invited churches to point out the government’s sins of commission or omission. Isn’t that what Ncube and other church leaders have been trying to do?
After this, I wasn’t surprised when he proceeded to his usual land reform diatribe – but I was amazed that he seems to think it is alright if people decide to “idle and dance all day” on the land. Really? No wonder we are hungry if this is what he thinks.
I hear the army has got a very different interpretation of this – must be a severe break- down in communication somewhere along the line. I have had a number of disturbing reports recently about what is going on Matabeleland South in particular – where people are being beaten for not working hard enough on their lands.
Several irrigation schemes have apparently been targeted by the army and the plot owners forced to reap their maize in a hurry and leave it piled at the side of the fields while, under threat of beatings, they are made to plant winter wheat. One man was thoroughly beaten for daring to suggest that the winter wheat planting season was long past and the late planting would not be successful. A woman I know was beaten for being absent from her field – when she had gone to a funeral.
Vice-president Joseph Msika also appears to have received the wrong information. He seems to be concerned that re-settled farmers are not utilising the land diligently enough – the first sensible thing he has said for a long time.
Misguided African brotherhood
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Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
South Africa has always maintained that there is no problem in Zimbabwe. Official policy there has been to turn a blind eye to even Mugabe’s grossest human right abuses. Desperate Zimbabwean asylum seekers, flooding south to escape torture, starvation and the total breakdown of law and order, education and health systems have been forced to queue for days, subjected to corrupt and abusive behaviour in many cases by the authorities and the police force and then penned by their thousands in the filthy, overcrowded Lindela holding camp.
Until recently the vast majority of Zimbabweans trekking across the border in search of safety and a better life have largely operated within the law. They have queued patiently, worked like slaves, lived in crowded tenements and church basements and sold their bodies and their children in order to keep body and soul together.
But now, with the exodus of rank and file members of the army and police, the situation is turning ugly. These people are different. They have been trained in the use of firearms. Violence is their way of life. They have no other training. Shooting, killing, beating, handling weapons - that’s all they know how to do.
In recent weeks this newspaper has carried reports on the increasing numbers of soldiers resigning and deserting as the country’s economy crumbles. Prosperous neighbouring South Africa is an obvious magnet for them.
Last week’s armed robbery at Honeydew and the ensuing fire fight with South Africa police, during which four policemen and eight robbers were killed, is a foretaste of what Thabo Mbeki can expect his country to go through if the Zimbabwean situation is not resolved quickly.
Former Zimbabwean soldiers have been involved in armed robberies in South Africa since 2002 – but such incidents are becoming steadily more commonplace.
It is equally disturbing, or it should be, that the SA authorities are getting no cooperation from the Zimbabwe government, as reported in the Joburg-based Sunday Times this week.
An intelligence officer told the newspaper that “a number of soldiers are leaving the Zimbabwean army and coming here. Last Sunday’s shooting involved people with serious military training”.
South Africa is beginning to reap the whirlwind of six years of unproductive quiet diplomacy concerning its northern neighbour. We would have thought it would be in that government’s interest to use whatever methods necessary to force Mugabe to the negotiating table. It is almost too late, but better late than never,
The fact that Mbeki appears to be prepared to allow his country, his people and his economy to suffer so severely because of some misguided feelings of African brotherhood towards one of Africa’s formerly respected liberation heroes, who has gone rotten, is beyond our comprehension.
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
South Africa has always maintained that there is no problem in Zimbabwe. Official policy there has been to turn a blind eye to even Mugabe’s grossest human right abuses. Desperate Zimbabwean asylum seekers, flooding south to escape torture, starvation and the total breakdown of law and order, education and health systems have been forced to queue for days, subjected to corrupt and abusive behaviour in many cases by the authorities and the police force and then penned by their thousands in the filthy, overcrowded Lindela holding camp.
Until recently the vast majority of Zimbabweans trekking across the border in search of safety and a better life have largely operated within the law. They have queued patiently, worked like slaves, lived in crowded tenements and church basements and sold their bodies and their children in order to keep body and soul together.
But now, with the exodus of rank and file members of the army and police, the situation is turning ugly. These people are different. They have been trained in the use of firearms. Violence is their way of life. They have no other training. Shooting, killing, beating, handling weapons - that’s all they know how to do.
In recent weeks this newspaper has carried reports on the increasing numbers of soldiers resigning and deserting as the country’s economy crumbles. Prosperous neighbouring South Africa is an obvious magnet for them.
Last week’s armed robbery at Honeydew and the ensuing fire fight with South Africa police, during which four policemen and eight robbers were killed, is a foretaste of what Thabo Mbeki can expect his country to go through if the Zimbabwean situation is not resolved quickly.
Former Zimbabwean soldiers have been involved in armed robberies in South Africa since 2002 – but such incidents are becoming steadily more commonplace.
It is equally disturbing, or it should be, that the SA authorities are getting no cooperation from the Zimbabwe government, as reported in the Joburg-based Sunday Times this week.
An intelligence officer told the newspaper that “a number of soldiers are leaving the Zimbabwean army and coming here. Last Sunday’s shooting involved people with serious military training”.
South Africa is beginning to reap the whirlwind of six years of unproductive quiet diplomacy concerning its northern neighbour. We would have thought it would be in that government’s interest to use whatever methods necessary to force Mugabe to the negotiating table. It is almost too late, but better late than never,
The fact that Mbeki appears to be prepared to allow his country, his people and his economy to suffer so severely because of some misguided feelings of African brotherhood towards one of Africa’s formerly respected liberation heroes, who has gone rotten, is beyond our comprehension.
Detention Watch from Zimbabwe Association
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
LONDON - Breaking the silence at the 26 June Service in Support of Torture Victims last week were four brave people who stunned the congregation with their personal testimonies. A wave of goodwill and pledges of future support for them have been received from groups who were present. Many of those at the service, who showed their endurance and spirit by participating in the choir, exhibiting art work and assisting with the service, were themselves survivors of torture. The joining together of Zimbabweans and Sudanese in such an act of remembrance was very welcome and gives great hope for future solidarity.
Earlier on 26 June members of the ZA attended an event at the House of Lords hosted by Baroness D’Souza, to commemorate the victims of organised violence and torture in Zimbabwe. It was a privilege to listen to presentations by Arnold Tsunga and Ahmed Motala. The spirited question and answer session following these speakers left us all with a lot to think about.
After a hard week it was a treat to attend a performance of Qabuka on Friday evening. We laughed. We cried. The return of Patson, with an ever more outlandish fashion style, had the audience shaking in their seats. Qabuka is a show filled with sunshine and darkness, a performance that touches one’s nerves. Don’t miss it. It’s at the Oval House theatre near the Oval cricket ground (nearest underground Oval) on Tuesdays to Saturdays until 15 July.
Six more sessions of the Advice Line have been arranged on the dates given below. Use these opportunities to find solutions to the problems that have been plaguing you. As we requested in last week’s column, please will those who have already used this service let us have feedback on how useful they found it, and whether they have any suggestions that might improve it.
By the time this column comes out the AA hearing will be at an end, and we should have a date for the Judges’ ruling. Keep praying everyone for a positive outcome.
A sad end to the week was the departure from the UK of Katrina who has been with the ZA for five years. Although she’ll still be involved with ZA via the internet, we’ll miss her presence greatly. Our thanks for all she has done. We wish her well.
We can be contacted at the office on 020 7549 0355 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, messages may be left on the answer machine at other times, or by fax 020 7549 0356 or email: zimbabweassociation@yahoo.co.uk.
ADVICE LINE: Wednesday 2 – 5 pm
Asylum queries: 19 July, 15 August, 13 September
Support queries: 1 August, 30 August, 27 September
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
LONDON - Breaking the silence at the 26 June Service in Support of Torture Victims last week were four brave people who stunned the congregation with their personal testimonies. A wave of goodwill and pledges of future support for them have been received from groups who were present. Many of those at the service, who showed their endurance and spirit by participating in the choir, exhibiting art work and assisting with the service, were themselves survivors of torture. The joining together of Zimbabweans and Sudanese in such an act of remembrance was very welcome and gives great hope for future solidarity.
Earlier on 26 June members of the ZA attended an event at the House of Lords hosted by Baroness D’Souza, to commemorate the victims of organised violence and torture in Zimbabwe. It was a privilege to listen to presentations by Arnold Tsunga and Ahmed Motala. The spirited question and answer session following these speakers left us all with a lot to think about.
After a hard week it was a treat to attend a performance of Qabuka on Friday evening. We laughed. We cried. The return of Patson, with an ever more outlandish fashion style, had the audience shaking in their seats. Qabuka is a show filled with sunshine and darkness, a performance that touches one’s nerves. Don’t miss it. It’s at the Oval House theatre near the Oval cricket ground (nearest underground Oval) on Tuesdays to Saturdays until 15 July.
Six more sessions of the Advice Line have been arranged on the dates given below. Use these opportunities to find solutions to the problems that have been plaguing you. As we requested in last week’s column, please will those who have already used this service let us have feedback on how useful they found it, and whether they have any suggestions that might improve it.
By the time this column comes out the AA hearing will be at an end, and we should have a date for the Judges’ ruling. Keep praying everyone for a positive outcome.
A sad end to the week was the departure from the UK of Katrina who has been with the ZA for five years. Although she’ll still be involved with ZA via the internet, we’ll miss her presence greatly. Our thanks for all she has done. We wish her well.
We can be contacted at the office on 020 7549 0355 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, messages may be left on the answer machine at other times, or by fax 020 7549 0356 or email: zimbabweassociation@yahoo.co.uk.
ADVICE LINE: Wednesday 2 – 5 pm
Asylum queries: 19 July, 15 August, 13 September
Support queries: 1 August, 30 August, 27 September
Letters
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
Youths must unite
EDITOR - The latest images from Amnesty International show how people have been severely affected by the government’s devastating policy of demolitions (Operation Murambatsvina). The government shows total lack of compassion and mercy by crushing peaceful protests using armed police, soldiers and militia to silence hungry and angry innocent civilians. Who will save Zimbabwe? It’s our house which is dirty and it’s our duty to clean it. Let’s all unite regardless of race, tribe or sexuality, and restore political sanity and dignity to the once bread basket of Africa. Come on young people, it’s up to us.
The diaspora plays a major role in pushing for political transformation and to lobby for international intervention in the Zim crisis.
ALOIS PHIRI, FreeZim
Massive cost to SA
EDITOR - The Zimbabwe economy is closing down - literally. We have inflation now at over 1300 per cent per annum. GDP is down about 50 per cent, exports by two thirds. In recent weeks the reports of accelerated decline have poured in - gold output down by a third on last year, winter cropping down 50 per cent, electricity supplies down to 70 per cent of demand and threatening economic activity across the board. The tobacco crop down by a third and prospects that the coming crop could be very small - perhaps less than 20 000 tonnes. Industrial activity is shrinking fast and, if it was at all possible, the numbers of foreign tourists still dropping.
The sheer lunacy of the Mugabe regime’s management of the economy is highlighted by the maize situation. Just look at these numbers. We require 5 000 tonnes of maize a day to feed the country. Of this 3 600 tonnes is for human consumption as maize meal. Last year the State imported 1 million tonnes of this product into the country and in addition donors supplied basic foods for over 3 million people every day.
As I write, some 2000 tonnes of white maize is coming into Zimbabwe from South Africa every day. This costs about R1200 per tonne (at least) and on top of this you must add another R160 per tonne for administration. So we are talking about a product that costs R1360 per tonne - perhaps even R1400 per tonne when it is finally sold to the local millers.
The selling price charged by Zimbabwe's Grain Marketing Board is just R12 per tonne at market based exchange rates, R37.50 at the bank rate. Whatever they sell it for, the loss on the product is well over 99 per cent of its cost. The numbers are just staggering - at official exchange rates (which bear no relation to reality) the loss is Z$22,4 million a tonne or Z$44,8 billion a day!
How do they manage this? They don't. I must assume that the South African government is in fact providing the maize on credit to Zimbabwe in an effort to keep the Mugabe regime afloat. This means that, at last years rate of imports South Africa is building up debt with Zimbabwe at the rate of R3 million a day. Add that to the power subsidies being ploughed into the Zimbabwe economy at the same time - also through another bankrupt parastatal and you come to the total debt build up of some R2 billion a year at the very least (US$350 million).
In other areas the South Africans are also covering up the real facts. Illegal migration to South Africa via Botswana has been estimated at 500 people per day and via the Limpopo border with South Africa at 2 500 a day -that is one million new illegal migrants a year. Some are caught and returned, but most disappear into the murky depths of South African slums and townships.
The cost of all this to the South African economy is huge. And with an extra 1 million illegals a year- that is on top of the estimated 3 million that are already here- it can only get worse. Please help us stop this lunacy by sending a donation to Zimfund - Nedbank Account Number 1589406079 - Branch Code 158952. Your money will be well spent.
SAVE ZIMBABWE, Johannesburg
Forsaking the legacy of Kings
Open letter to Japhet Ndulini Mayor of Bulawayo
Your Worship,
World Refugee Day 20 June Campaign – “We are refugees in our own country. Our lives have been stolen but the flame of hope still burns. We demand the right to earn
a living.”
We are writing to thank you for granting us an audience on 14 July 2006 and for listening to our requests with such respect.
The issue that brought us to your offices during our World Refugee Day campaign was Bulawayo City Council involvement in Operation Murambatsvina activities being conducted by a Government that no longer cares for its citizens. We had noted that when the Operation was launched, your office and Council were lonely voices speaking out and trying to defend the right to trade of the long-marginalized people of Matabeleland.
However we have noted that in the last few months, Council has been at the forefront of harassing parents trying to put food into the mouths of their children. Children who cannot now even access affordable education and thereby a better future. We also note
that previous concessions to freely trade during weekends and holidays have also been withdrawn. We also remind you that we informed you that the process of registering for vending licenses has become politicized and that we are therefore not able to register and refuse to allow the right to earn a living to be only for those carrying Zanu PF party
cards.
Some of our members noted the Bulawayo Upcoming Traders Association court order barring the council and the police from raiding until a solution could be found. Bulawayo City Council has ignored this. After our visit we resolved to observe the situation to see
if there would be any change, but there has been no change. We then saw Council being quoted through spokesman, Pathisa Nyathi on June 28 2006 in ZimOnline saying Council will continue to raid vendors.
We are now writing to ask you the following questions.
1.Where is the spirit of Ubuntu you spoke to us about?
2. Are you forsaking the legacy left behind by the Kings this city is named for – Mambo, Mzilikazi and the King of the Kalanga people?
3. We demand you call a full Council meeting and withdraw from any Operation Murambatsvina activities until a solution is found that.
All we are asking for is our right to earn a living because without that right and the right to keep what we earn, there is no right to life. See the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, Article 22:
1. All peoples shall have the right to their economic, social and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity….
2. States shall have the duty ... to ensure the exercise of the right to development. See Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Article 14: “State parties shall take appropriate measures ….that they participate in and benefit from rural development and ensure the right: (e) to organise self-help groups and
co-operatives in order to obtain equal access to economic opportunities through employment or self employment.”
WOZA, Zimbabwe
Ncube to retire
EDITOR - I read with interest Prof. Welshman Ncube's intentions to quit mainstream
politics in 2010(The Zimbabwean 15-21 June,2006). How does he justify his desire to quit politics at his age when a normal political career should be reaching its peak? Is he admitting failure or does he possess some supernatural ability to foretell that the struggles of ordinary Zimbabweans against dictatorship will be over and so he can retire Prof, let me tell you one thing, true leaders do not retire from the struggle, but endure all the way to the end, unless freedom of the ordinary Zimbabwean was never your agenda.
If that is the case, please identify all those in the current leadership who are like-minded
ELISHA MASHUMBA, Cape Town
Nkomo turning in his grave
EDITOR - I think the way the hosts Joburg Joshua Nkomo gala conduct their business can not go without a comment, especially from us who live in South Africa and are patriotic. To tribalise or regionalise a gala for nationalist like Dr Nkomo is not fair treatment to such a veteran nationalist and father of the nation.
He was neither a regionalist or a tribalist, as was proved by his (PF) ZAPU that had structures in all provinces and districts are garnered a number of votes in every constituency at elections in 1980 before Mugabe suffocated and tribalised his influence.
That’s why you found Shonas like Joseph Msika holding a very high post in the party.
Solomon Mujuru also held a very high post in the military wing ZIPRA before the integration of the forces.
Also the naughty war veteran Chenjerai Hunzvi was in the diplomatic service in Poland on a ZAPU ticket. This proves the type of person Dr Nkomo was.
Furthermore, Dr Nkomo was not Ndebele, although he came from Matebeleland. He was a Kalanga - an ndebelised shona according to the historical background. And if we want to believe a shona proveb which says "manyurusi anozivakwazvo kuti madzitateguru awo aiva mahachi" that means Dr Nkomo knew very well that his ancestors were Shona. Thus Dr Nkomo was not a divider of the nation on tribal, regional or language. So I think tribalising or regionalising anything in his name might make him turn in his grave.
On the issue of the Ndebeles being called newcomers in Zimbabwe, that is utter rubbish that needs to be treated with the contempt it deserves. Xenophobia and segregation are products of a lack of knowledge about the history of the human race. Come to your senses guys and see reason.
LOVEMORE CHIKANDIWA, MDC Pretoria
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
Youths must unite
EDITOR - The latest images from Amnesty International show how people have been severely affected by the government’s devastating policy of demolitions (Operation Murambatsvina). The government shows total lack of compassion and mercy by crushing peaceful protests using armed police, soldiers and militia to silence hungry and angry innocent civilians. Who will save Zimbabwe? It’s our house which is dirty and it’s our duty to clean it. Let’s all unite regardless of race, tribe or sexuality, and restore political sanity and dignity to the once bread basket of Africa. Come on young people, it’s up to us.
The diaspora plays a major role in pushing for political transformation and to lobby for international intervention in the Zim crisis.
ALOIS PHIRI, FreeZim
Massive cost to SA
EDITOR - The Zimbabwe economy is closing down - literally. We have inflation now at over 1300 per cent per annum. GDP is down about 50 per cent, exports by two thirds. In recent weeks the reports of accelerated decline have poured in - gold output down by a third on last year, winter cropping down 50 per cent, electricity supplies down to 70 per cent of demand and threatening economic activity across the board. The tobacco crop down by a third and prospects that the coming crop could be very small - perhaps less than 20 000 tonnes. Industrial activity is shrinking fast and, if it was at all possible, the numbers of foreign tourists still dropping.
The sheer lunacy of the Mugabe regime’s management of the economy is highlighted by the maize situation. Just look at these numbers. We require 5 000 tonnes of maize a day to feed the country. Of this 3 600 tonnes is for human consumption as maize meal. Last year the State imported 1 million tonnes of this product into the country and in addition donors supplied basic foods for over 3 million people every day.
As I write, some 2000 tonnes of white maize is coming into Zimbabwe from South Africa every day. This costs about R1200 per tonne (at least) and on top of this you must add another R160 per tonne for administration. So we are talking about a product that costs R1360 per tonne - perhaps even R1400 per tonne when it is finally sold to the local millers.
The selling price charged by Zimbabwe's Grain Marketing Board is just R12 per tonne at market based exchange rates, R37.50 at the bank rate. Whatever they sell it for, the loss on the product is well over 99 per cent of its cost. The numbers are just staggering - at official exchange rates (which bear no relation to reality) the loss is Z$22,4 million a tonne or Z$44,8 billion a day!
How do they manage this? They don't. I must assume that the South African government is in fact providing the maize on credit to Zimbabwe in an effort to keep the Mugabe regime afloat. This means that, at last years rate of imports South Africa is building up debt with Zimbabwe at the rate of R3 million a day. Add that to the power subsidies being ploughed into the Zimbabwe economy at the same time - also through another bankrupt parastatal and you come to the total debt build up of some R2 billion a year at the very least (US$350 million).
In other areas the South Africans are also covering up the real facts. Illegal migration to South Africa via Botswana has been estimated at 500 people per day and via the Limpopo border with South Africa at 2 500 a day -that is one million new illegal migrants a year. Some are caught and returned, but most disappear into the murky depths of South African slums and townships.
The cost of all this to the South African economy is huge. And with an extra 1 million illegals a year- that is on top of the estimated 3 million that are already here- it can only get worse. Please help us stop this lunacy by sending a donation to Zimfund - Nedbank Account Number 1589406079 - Branch Code 158952. Your money will be well spent.
SAVE ZIMBABWE, Johannesburg
Forsaking the legacy of Kings
Open letter to Japhet Ndulini Mayor of Bulawayo
Your Worship,
World Refugee Day 20 June Campaign – “We are refugees in our own country. Our lives have been stolen but the flame of hope still burns. We demand the right to earn
a living.”
We are writing to thank you for granting us an audience on 14 July 2006 and for listening to our requests with such respect.
The issue that brought us to your offices during our World Refugee Day campaign was Bulawayo City Council involvement in Operation Murambatsvina activities being conducted by a Government that no longer cares for its citizens. We had noted that when the Operation was launched, your office and Council were lonely voices speaking out and trying to defend the right to trade of the long-marginalized people of Matabeleland.
However we have noted that in the last few months, Council has been at the forefront of harassing parents trying to put food into the mouths of their children. Children who cannot now even access affordable education and thereby a better future. We also note
that previous concessions to freely trade during weekends and holidays have also been withdrawn. We also remind you that we informed you that the process of registering for vending licenses has become politicized and that we are therefore not able to register and refuse to allow the right to earn a living to be only for those carrying Zanu PF party
cards.
Some of our members noted the Bulawayo Upcoming Traders Association court order barring the council and the police from raiding until a solution could be found. Bulawayo City Council has ignored this. After our visit we resolved to observe the situation to see
if there would be any change, but there has been no change. We then saw Council being quoted through spokesman, Pathisa Nyathi on June 28 2006 in ZimOnline saying Council will continue to raid vendors.
We are now writing to ask you the following questions.
1.Where is the spirit of Ubuntu you spoke to us about?
2. Are you forsaking the legacy left behind by the Kings this city is named for – Mambo, Mzilikazi and the King of the Kalanga people?
3. We demand you call a full Council meeting and withdraw from any Operation Murambatsvina activities until a solution is found that.
All we are asking for is our right to earn a living because without that right and the right to keep what we earn, there is no right to life. See the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, Article 22:
1. All peoples shall have the right to their economic, social and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity….
2. States shall have the duty ... to ensure the exercise of the right to development. See Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Article 14: “State parties shall take appropriate measures ….that they participate in and benefit from rural development and ensure the right: (e) to organise self-help groups and
co-operatives in order to obtain equal access to economic opportunities through employment or self employment.”
WOZA, Zimbabwe
Ncube to retire
EDITOR - I read with interest Prof. Welshman Ncube's intentions to quit mainstream
politics in 2010(The Zimbabwean 15-21 June,2006). How does he justify his desire to quit politics at his age when a normal political career should be reaching its peak? Is he admitting failure or does he possess some supernatural ability to foretell that the struggles of ordinary Zimbabweans against dictatorship will be over and so he can retire Prof, let me tell you one thing, true leaders do not retire from the struggle, but endure all the way to the end, unless freedom of the ordinary Zimbabwean was never your agenda.
If that is the case, please identify all those in the current leadership who are like-minded
ELISHA MASHUMBA, Cape Town
Nkomo turning in his grave
EDITOR - I think the way the hosts Joburg Joshua Nkomo gala conduct their business can not go without a comment, especially from us who live in South Africa and are patriotic. To tribalise or regionalise a gala for nationalist like Dr Nkomo is not fair treatment to such a veteran nationalist and father of the nation.
He was neither a regionalist or a tribalist, as was proved by his (PF) ZAPU that had structures in all provinces and districts are garnered a number of votes in every constituency at elections in 1980 before Mugabe suffocated and tribalised his influence.
That’s why you found Shonas like Joseph Msika holding a very high post in the party.
Solomon Mujuru also held a very high post in the military wing ZIPRA before the integration of the forces.
Also the naughty war veteran Chenjerai Hunzvi was in the diplomatic service in Poland on a ZAPU ticket. This proves the type of person Dr Nkomo was.
Furthermore, Dr Nkomo was not Ndebele, although he came from Matebeleland. He was a Kalanga - an ndebelised shona according to the historical background. And if we want to believe a shona proveb which says "manyurusi anozivakwazvo kuti madzitateguru awo aiva mahachi" that means Dr Nkomo knew very well that his ancestors were Shona. Thus Dr Nkomo was not a divider of the nation on tribal, regional or language. So I think tribalising or regionalising anything in his name might make him turn in his grave.
On the issue of the Ndebeles being called newcomers in Zimbabwe, that is utter rubbish that needs to be treated with the contempt it deserves. Xenophobia and segregation are products of a lack of knowledge about the history of the human race. Come to your senses guys and see reason.
LOVEMORE CHIKANDIWA, MDC Pretoria
Unnatural wonders of the world
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
One can only try to imagine what David Livingstone’s expectations were when he paddled down the Zambezi for the first time to view what was then known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya, the ‘smoke that thunders’.
Now known as the Victoria Falls, this is the largest single sheet of water in the world, falling over 100 meters tall in parts and over one mile wide. The diverse range of activities that can be ‘discovered’ today is certainly a far cry from what Livingstone first laid eyes on - and almost as impressive as the Falls itself!
For adrenalin junkies the challenge awaits to push the limits of the mind and test the edge of fear by leaping off the impressive Victoria Falls Bridge with the Falls as a backdrop, and the mighty Zambezi below, free falling 111 metres to be brought to a gradual stop by an elastic band.
Alternatively, one could try the newest in adrenaline adventures on offer with a range of unique and hair-raising activities all guaranteed to get the heart rate racing. Try an exhilarating gorge swing, the longest cable or ‘foofie’ slide in the world “flying" over the Batoka gorge or abseiling down a sheer cliff and rapp-jumping (walking down the gorge face forward). These activities even make bungi jumping look tame.
The Victoria Falls however is not all about testing your heart’s pumping ability! There is also an amazing cultural side to be explored. Within the Cultural Village, traditional dancers perform various dances in amazing regalia all with unique meanings and twists. If this does not get your attention, maybe the stilt dancers will - prancing around with an amazing sense of balance on 6ft poles. Or marvel at a dancer lifting a 40kg iron bar with his teeth.
One of the most popular wind-downs for visitors to the Falls area would be to take a sedate trip up the Zambezi river on a sundowner cruise, viewing the wildlife and sipping cocktails while gazing at the amazing African sunset.
So our advice to you is to go out and really explore the Falls on your next visit. Make the most of your holiday there by taking advantage of the various activity package deals offered by several operators. Let the white waters and the good people refresh you. - Venues@zol.co.zw Venues4Africa.com
At home in the African Bush – Lodge of the Month
Any African who has not been home for some time will start to yearn for that feeling of being totally surrounded by the African bush, with its perpetual symphony of sights, sounds and smells, all blending in to make you feel at home.
The Victoria Falls Safari Lodge is a venue where this feeling is almost guaranteed. Set high on a natural plateau, the westward-facing Victoria Falls Safari Lodge borders the Zambezi National Park and is just four kilometres from the thundering Victoria Falls, Southern Africa’s foremost attraction. Enjoying uninterrupted views of spectacular African sunsets over the unspoilt bushveld, and year-round game at its on-site waterhole, the Lodge is ideally positioned to offer the most discerning traveller a taste of Africa at its best.
Appointed in the utmost luxury, the lodge is a wonderful example of how modern hospitality can be melded with an authentic wildlife experience. Of course, it’s also an ideal base for the Falls itself and the many nearby attractions, offering guests a complimentary shuttle service to one of the true natural wonders of the world. Of the 72 bedrooms, six are split-level suites with a lounge cloakroom and balcony on one level and a bedroom and en-suite bathroom upstairs. Decorated in lavishly coloured ethnic fabrics and fittings, all rooms boast the highest level of sophistication and comfort. Each has its own private balcony overlooking the unfenced Zambezi National Park while most look onto the central waterhole. In the Buffalo Bar, Makuwa-Kuwa Restaurant and pool deck, the renowned friendliness of our Zimbabwean staff is apparent as they offer excellent service and outstanding cuisine.
Victoria Falls Safari Lodge is offering readers of The Zimbabwean a special Holiday for the Homeless package, which includes 2 nights bed and breakfast and 2 dinners. The first dinner is at the Boma Place of Eating, an awesome African experience of food, culture, entertainment, drumming and fun. The second is at The Makuwa-Kuwa restaurant, an a la Carte restaurant overlooking the flood-lit water hole at the lodge. Also included is a Zambezi River sunset cruise and guided tour of The Falls and the Rain Forest.
The package is US$399 per person sharing. Please call Amy on +263 4 706 109 or email Martin at venues@zol.co.zw to book.
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom
One can only try to imagine what David Livingstone’s expectations were when he paddled down the Zambezi for the first time to view what was then known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya, the ‘smoke that thunders’.
Now known as the Victoria Falls, this is the largest single sheet of water in the world, falling over 100 meters tall in parts and over one mile wide. The diverse range of activities that can be ‘discovered’ today is certainly a far cry from what Livingstone first laid eyes on - and almost as impressive as the Falls itself!
For adrenalin junkies the challenge awaits to push the limits of the mind and test the edge of fear by leaping off the impressive Victoria Falls Bridge with the Falls as a backdrop, and the mighty Zambezi below, free falling 111 metres to be brought to a gradual stop by an elastic band.
Alternatively, one could try the newest in adrenaline adventures on offer with a range of unique and hair-raising activities all guaranteed to get the heart rate racing. Try an exhilarating gorge swing, the longest cable or ‘foofie’ slide in the world “flying" over the Batoka gorge or abseiling down a sheer cliff and rapp-jumping (walking down the gorge face forward). These activities even make bungi jumping look tame.
The Victoria Falls however is not all about testing your heart’s pumping ability! There is also an amazing cultural side to be explored. Within the Cultural Village, traditional dancers perform various dances in amazing regalia all with unique meanings and twists. If this does not get your attention, maybe the stilt dancers will - prancing around with an amazing sense of balance on 6ft poles. Or marvel at a dancer lifting a 40kg iron bar with his teeth.
One of the most popular wind-downs for visitors to the Falls area would be to take a sedate trip up the Zambezi river on a sundowner cruise, viewing the wildlife and sipping cocktails while gazing at the amazing African sunset.
So our advice to you is to go out and really explore the Falls on your next visit. Make the most of your holiday there by taking advantage of the various activity package deals offered by several operators. Let the white waters and the good people refresh you. - Venues@zol.co.zw Venues4Africa.com
At home in the African Bush – Lodge of the Month
Any African who has not been home for some time will start to yearn for that feeling of being totally surrounded by the African bush, with its perpetual symphony of sights, sounds and smells, all blending in to make you feel at home.
The Victoria Falls Safari Lodge is a venue where this feeling is almost guaranteed. Set high on a natural plateau, the westward-facing Victoria Falls Safari Lodge borders the Zambezi National Park and is just four kilometres from the thundering Victoria Falls, Southern Africa’s foremost attraction. Enjoying uninterrupted views of spectacular African sunsets over the unspoilt bushveld, and year-round game at its on-site waterhole, the Lodge is ideally positioned to offer the most discerning traveller a taste of Africa at its best.
Appointed in the utmost luxury, the lodge is a wonderful example of how modern hospitality can be melded with an authentic wildlife experience. Of course, it’s also an ideal base for the Falls itself and the many nearby attractions, offering guests a complimentary shuttle service to one of the true natural wonders of the world. Of the 72 bedrooms, six are split-level suites with a lounge cloakroom and balcony on one level and a bedroom and en-suite bathroom upstairs. Decorated in lavishly coloured ethnic fabrics and fittings, all rooms boast the highest level of sophistication and comfort. Each has its own private balcony overlooking the unfenced Zambezi National Park while most look onto the central waterhole. In the Buffalo Bar, Makuwa-Kuwa Restaurant and pool deck, the renowned friendliness of our Zimbabwean staff is apparent as they offer excellent service and outstanding cuisine.
Victoria Falls Safari Lodge is offering readers of The Zimbabwean a special Holiday for the Homeless package, which includes 2 nights bed and breakfast and 2 dinners. The first dinner is at the Boma Place of Eating, an awesome African experience of food, culture, entertainment, drumming and fun. The second is at The Makuwa-Kuwa restaurant, an a la Carte restaurant overlooking the flood-lit water hole at the lodge. Also included is a Zambezi River sunset cruise and guided tour of The Falls and the Rain Forest.
The package is US$399 per person sharing. Please call Amy on +263 4 706 109 or email Martin at venues@zol.co.zw to book.
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