Aluta continua...

We're making Vic Falls better says Legacy

2006-12-06T20:53:00.000+02:00

07 December 2006

THE environment may be better off with the 220-hectare Mosi oa Tunya Hotel and Country Club golf development in the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site, says Legacy chief executive, Bart Dorrenstein. ( Tel: +27 11 806-1200 Fax: +27 11 234-1828 E-mail: cklostermann@legacyhotels.co.za)

The site is presently used by picnickers and is being damaged through the indiscriminate cutting of trees, as well as the increased population of elephant crossing the river from Zimbabwe, Dorrenstein told Travel News Now recently.

According to the hotel group, bird life, flora and fauna on the site will be enhanced by the development, and game, once evident in the park, will be reintroduced. "These are all pluses for the area and environment," said Dorrenstein, who blames local stakeholders with their "own agenda or conflicting interests" for fanning the flames of outrage around the development.

The real issue, says Dorrenstein, is whether the environment on the Zambian side of the Victoria Falls will be better or worse off with the development. Legacy, he says, believes the development could be a model for others to follow, "one which sets the standard for how man, nature and wildlife can live together."

Meanwhile, the controversy surrounding the development is growing, with international and local mainstream media having added their voices to the outrage. But, as Legacy points out, this is not the first tourism development to have been built in the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site. "We are surprised to note that none of the other developments on the Zambian side seem to have been attracting any of the attention ours has," says Dorrenstein.

Ian Manning, steering committee member of the Natural Resources Consultative Forum of Zambia, says there was similar controversy around these developments, including the Sun International site. "Zambia has always suffered from a weak environmental lobby. Efforts were made to fight the Sun International development at the time, but the development was pushed through by the Zambian Vice President," says Manning.

Natalia Thomson
(nataliat@nowmedia.co.za)

Well, so what : Zimbabwe's Victoria Falls could go on UN worry list...

2006-12-06T18:11:00.000+02:00

According to an article just in from Reuters "Zimbabwe's premier tourist destination, Victoria Falls, could be listed as an endangered world heritage site by UNESCO because it is not being properly managed, official media reported on Wednesday."

Gosh.

"Even the attraction of the Victoria Falls has failed to reverse the fortunes of a tourism industry hit hard by an unprecedented economic crisis largely blamed on President Robert Mugabe's government's seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

Western visitors, who have traditionally topped arrival numbers, have shunned the southern African state mostly over safety fears following the often violent land grabs.

Earnings from the industry plunged by more than 70 percent to $98 million last year from $340 million in 1999, just before the land reforms started."

Gosh.

Victoria Falls & Zambezi River developments should be halted!

2006-12-06T13:36:00.000+02:00

The difference between ownership and responsibility is one that few seem to grasp in today’s world of quarterly stock price reviews, Moore’s Law and Global Warming.

Ownership implies responsibility. Responsibility implies much more than simple ownership.

There have been conflicting efforts throughout the years to protect the environment. Jack Curtis, of Kasaba Bay fame, built the paths through the rain forest, with much regret, in order to protect the plants on the edges of the muddy paths.

I remember the outcry when, in contravention of Township regulations, the Casino Hotel went above tree level in height. Of course, that was before the blogosphere and instant global outrage. The casino stayed up.

Then the Sheraton, (was it?) ruined the Zambian skyline.

Then on a sacred hill overlooking the wide, lazy stretch of the Zambezi above the Falls, the Elephant Hills Hotel was i) built; ii) torn down; iii) rebuilt; iv) hit by a Sam 7 heat seeking missile; v) rebuilt; and vi) nearly burnt down again. And of course vii) rebuilt again. You’d think we’d learn.

In the meantime, Gary Player’s Golf Course gave elephant and hippo, buck and warthog an upmarket open zoo to wander through. Hardly natural, but the animals coped with change in the environment.

As they coped with Bungy jumpers, canoe safari’s, white water rafters, helicopters and booze cruises. They even occasionally got in a bite in revenge.

But let’s get real about the situation at the Falls. The animals are already too enclosed. We need to improve land planning, increase profits and give back to the animal’s land that is under used.

Move people from the numerous poverty-stricken villages that surround the area into the urban space and build an infrastructure designed to repair the damage with tree planting, intensive agriculture and other suitable sustainable activities.

Fence off the suburbs and restrict travel at night.

Hah, fat chance,

Changes coming make our stewardship more difficult. And our record so far with the Falls environment has been, lets face it, pretty appalling.

So what is to be done?

· ALL development should be stopped.
· Hotel and tourism prices should be doubled, tripled and more!
· Quality in all services should be improved until visitors get value for money.

Hah. Even fatter chance!

Too simple? One person who thought a great deal about the future of tourism in Africa was the late, great, much missed Dave Kauffman of Bulawayo. He came up with two visions, it must have been 20 years ago.

His one idea was to only let into Zimbabwe very rich people and backpackers. No tours, no groups, only small parties. But why backpackers? Because they have a light footprint and will come back as very rich people.

His other idea to save the true heart of Africa was to provide people who now couldn’t afford the outrageously expensive visit with a virtual reality experience that would make the environment and grandeur of the “Smoke that thunders” available and real to everyone.

Bit ahead of his time, but now the time is here, I hope the reality is still worth saving.

Check out http://victoriafallsheritage.blogspot.com/2006/12/kk-advises-government-on-legacy.html for something to do to help.

And as Nick Drake said, “if you aren’t part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”

Freedom In Our Lifetime ~ Zimbabwe Solidarity Festival, Joburg, 9 Dec

2006-12-01T14:42:00.000+02:00

Uhuru Network Presents

THE FREEDOM IN OUR LIFETIME FESTIVAL ~ A RESISTANCE MUSIC FESTIVAL IN SOLIDARITY WITH ZIMBABWE

XARRA BOOKSHOP QUAD, NEWTOWN, JO'BURG
SATURDAY 9 DECEMBER
12 MIDDAY - 7PM

FEATURING:
- FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN (HIP HOP - SA)
- COMRADE FATSO & CHABVONDOKA (HIP HOP-POETRY-CHIMURENGA FUSION - ZIMBABWE)
- SOUNDS OF EDUTAINMENT (POETRY - SA)
- TOYI TOYI ARTS KOLLEKTIVE (HIP HOP - ZIMBABWE)
- JOSH MECK & MAONERO (AFRO-JAZZ - ZIMBABWE)

STALLS BY ZIMBABWEAN ORGANISATIONS AND MOVEMENTS ~ ARTS AND CRAFTS ~ COLD BEER

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR

INFO: UHURU_NETWORK@HOTMAIL.COM

DON'T MISS THIS EXPLOSIVE FESTIVAL OF THE MOST REBELLIOUS TALENT ON BOTH SIDES OF THE LIMPOPO!

FREEDOM! ~ NKULULEKO! ~ UHURU! ~ RUSUNUNGUKO!

............................................................................................

ABOUT THE FREEDOM IN OUR LIFETIME FESTIVAL
The Freedom In Our Lifetime Festival aims to raise awareness on the oppression faced by Zimbabwean people today. We hope the festival can unite the Zimbabwean Diaspora and South Africans in coming up with creative solutions for freedom in Zimbabwe. Music is the key as we bring together rising, outspoken artists from both countries. Artists whose message and music are both rebellious and new, truthful and innovative.

Fire on the Mountain are one of South Africa's most respected grassroots hip hop movements, uniting dozens of MCs across the country. Samm Farai Monro, better known as Comrade Fatso, is amongst Zimbabwe's top resistance poets
mixing poetry, hip hop and chimurenga to create a funky, anarchic afro-beat sound with his band Chabvondoka. Sounds of Edutainment are a diverse movement of poets that bring together voice and percussion in a powerful way. Like Comrade Fatso the Toyi Toyi Arts Kollektive are also part of the Uhuru Network and are Zimbabwe's fastest rising Shona-language hip hop group as they merge tradiion and street culture. Josh Meck and Maonero are one of the freshest jazz groups in the Harare jazz scene, combining beautiful melodies and deep afro-jazz basslines.

ABOUT THE UHURU NETWORK
The Uhuru Network is a network of Zimbabwean community youth struggling for social justice. Based in Harare's townships the network uses creative ways of mobilising ghetto youth to fight for their rights, ways ranging from
radical arts performances to community medai intiatives, from street clean-ups to subversive soccer battles. Uhuru has recently infected Jo'burg where it now has an Uhuru Solidarity Desk which distributes democracy material and raises awareness about the Zimbabwean struggle. The Freedom In Our Lifetime Festival is one such intiative.

SW Radio Africa is International Radio Station of the Year.

2006-11-24T07:52:00.000+02:00

SW Radio Africa has won the award for International Radio Station of the Year from the AIB, the Association for International Broadcasting. Other winners included the BBC World Service.

Mandisa Mundawarara was highly commended in the award category, International Radio Presenter of the Year.

These non commercial awards offer peer review of output, personalities and technology - they are the only awards that celebrate excellence in international cross-border broadcasting. The 2006 awards have been judged by an international panel of broadcasting experts, including professional TV and radio critics from leading newspapers.

See links:

http://www.aib.org.uk/

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/article/221106/bbc_and_sky_win_broadcast_awards

Who is marching from Norwood?

2006-11-15T07:44:00.000+02:00

ANGRY ABOUT CRIME IN SOUTH AFRICA

Hi all South Africans

My name is Lorraine, In April 2006 one of my best friends Richard Bloom and his best friend Brett Goldin were murdered in Cape Town. As a South African I have decided to make a difference and March to give a memorandum to our president. Please help me to make this a success. If we all don’t stand together, nothing will ever be done. March with me – let’s be seen and heard

70 people are murdered in South Africa every day. This number excludes the other evils of crime such as rape, robbery and hijacking.

South Africa is at war. Crime is out of control, Now, more than ever before in our history, the people of South Africa need to stop doing nothing. We need to prevent the evil of crime from spreading any further.

Do you feel safe in your own home? Is your family safe? Have you personally experienced the evil of crime in South Africa? Are you satisfied that your President cares about your safety and well-being? Are you angry about crime?

On 24th November 2006, at 10.30 am the people of South Africa will come together to say to our President that we are angry about crime and we want action. No more talking, no more denial, we want action and we want it now.

If you believe in South Africa and want to live a long and happy life in this beautiful country of ours, take time out for yourself and the ones you love and let us march together from Wits University Empire Road entrance and gather outside the SABC to deliver a message to our President that all is not okay. We are angry about crime and demand action now.

PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY .

March on the 24th NOVEMBER 2006 at 11.00pm

Bring lots of water and sun block

No littering

ZIMBABWE: Doctors protest condition of health system

2006-11-11T21:40:00.000+02:00

BULAWAYO, 10 November (PLUSNEWS) - Doctors in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo, have gone on strike to protest against deteriorating health services characterised by widespread shortages of drugs, food and equipment.

The stayaway, which started on Monday, is expected to spread to other parts of the country during the course of the week.

"It has become very difficult to work with basically nothing to use in all departments; it is disappointing to watch patients deteriorating in a hospital, as no help can be given to them," medical practitioners at the city's two main referral centres, Mpilo Central Hospital and United Bulawayo Hospitals, said in a statement.

"Doctors took an oath to save lives, and do not want to continue lying to patients that they can do something for them when they know very well there is nothing they can do, as the hospitals can no longer function."

The striking doctors said there was virtually nothing to administer to patients at the two hospitals, and the situation was the same in government-owned health institutions across the country.

Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, an NGO, indicated in a recent statement that the country's health facilities had "in fact become death traps, as patients continue to die unnecessarily due to drug shortages." In some instances hospitals had no running water.

Officials have acknowledged shortages of key drugs in the recent past.

The health delivery system has virtually collapsed in the last seven years due to lack of foreign exchange to purchase medical requirements and a shortage of qualified personnel, who have fled low pay and poor working conditions for greener pastures in other countries.

Zimbabwe is going through a severe economic crisis, with serious fuel and food shortages brought on by recurring droughts and the government's fast-track land redistribution programme, which have disrupted agricultural production and slashed export earnings.

Doctors in the Bulawayo hospitals were also concerned about the quality and quantity of food being given to patients, and claimed that malnutrition was rampant in government health institutions. At least five patients at the Ingutsheni Hospital for the mentally challenged in Bulawayo died last month after allegedly being diagnosed with malnutrition.

The Zimbabwean deputy health minister, Edwin Muguti, confirmed the five deaths at the hospital, but said the authorities had yet to establish the cause.

"There is basically no food to feed the sick, yet it is only natural that patients need to eat for their conditions to improve. This is worrying us so much, and we demand that government sets its priorities right and starts working towards rebuilding the health sector," the doctors said.

There was no comment from the Zimbabwe Doctors Association, which officially represents the country's medical practitioners.

nn/jk/he/oa

At large with John Makumbe: ALOOTER CONTINUA

2006-11-10T08:25:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

John Makumbe

‘Matsotsi haagerani (Thieves look after each other)’

Media reports on the recent, and not so recent, looting of Zisco finances by Zanu (PF) officials confirm what most Zimbabweans have long suspected - that the level of asset stripping taking place under Robert Mugabe’s watch has risen to astronomical proportions. It is unfortunate, however, that he sits there like a zombie, incapable of stopping the rot, let alone arresting and prosecuting any of the perpetrators of these heinous crimes. In the past, government and ruling party officials used to be so frightened of what Mugabe would say that they would be panic-stricken whenever they did something that the “dear leader” disapproved of. Today, they carry on looting regardless of his remonstrations and much fist-shaking from the spent force that is Mugabe.

But there have to be good reasons for this reckless disregard for presidential authority by Mugabe’s minions as demonstrated through the Zisco stories. It is possible that the looters are aware that Mugabe has become so impotent that his bark is much worse than his bite. He threatens what he has neither capacity nor interest to undertake. It is therefore quite safe just to ignore him and carry on looting. After setting up the much-touted Anti-Corruption Commission, Mugabe and Zanu (PF) proceeded to uproot the commission’s teeth, thereby making it harmless to the looters.

A second possible reason for Mugabe’s impotence may be that he himself has long ceased to be “holier than thou”, and has small and big “sins” that he has committed as well. Some of his underlings are aware of these, and will not hesitate to disclose them should they be threatened by the old man. We have not forgotten that some time last year Mugabe threatened senior Zanu (PF) and government officials who had acquired more than one farm from the grand invasion with punishment. Recently, it has been disclosed that there are still numerous such cases, and none of them has been punished. It is possible that after making the threat, Mugabe, given his age, went to sleep on the job and forgot all about the threat. But it is equally possible that he himself has more than one farm and cannot challenge fellow looters in this regard.

Was it only last year that Mugabe was ranting and raving about lacklustre performance by some of his ministerial “wives”? The media then speculated that a cabinet reshuffle was imminent. Twelve moons down the road, nothing has happened. Good old Joseph Made, minister of Agriculture, has sweated himself sick after Mugabe specifically mentioned his ministry as a non-performer. I shudder to think of how much he may have spent on traditional healers to safeguard his position. The “muti” (magic) seems to be working; Mugabe has forgotten all about the matter.

But back to the Zisco looters, they seem to have used every trick in the book to illegally get at the parastatal’s resources. According to the story published in The Zimbabwe Independent (3-9 Nov. 2006), they used such corrupt methods as claiming large unaccounted for allowances, dubious contracts, supplies over-pricing rip-offs, non-competitive procurement procedures, as well as unwarranted sitting fees for managers, and fees for public relations campaigns. The list could easily be endless.

Corruption demands that its perpetrators be highly innovative, and this comes easily to an evil mind. Efforts are underway to suppress the truth from being exposed. It is feared that the Zisco scandal could scare away foreign and local investors. That is actually ridiculous since there are none on the horizon given Zimbabwe’s continued deterioration as an investment destination. Will anyone be arrested and prosecuted for this corruption? I have my doubts. Matsotsi haagerani (Thieves look after each other).

More new cars for senior officers

2006-11-10T08:22:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

HARARE - President Robert Mugabe, already being blamed for the country's seven-year economic rot, has once again broken the bank by pampering top police and army officers with new Mazda vehicles, while allowing them to buy at giveaway prices the Peugeot 306 and Nissan Almeras his government bought for them last year.
The influential police officers, ranking assistant commissioners and army lieutenants, were sold the 306s and Almeras at $30 000 each, while they were promised they could take the new vehicles home when they retire.
Sources from within the police and army this week told The Zimbabwean that the officers received more that 80 new Mazda 3 vehicles and Peugeot 406 vehicles, costing over US$1,6 million.
"They received the new cars in mid-October and were sold the ones they have been using at the end of the month. Most of them have ceded the old cars to their wives, and now drive around in the new vehicles. They have also been promised to take home the new vehicles in the event that they want to retire," said a police source.
Police national spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena, himself a beneficiary of Mugabe's generosity, refused to comment on the issue saying it had nothing to do with the press.
"I have nothing to tell you on that because it is an internal police matter. Where is your interest coming from?" he said before switching off his mobile phone.
However, Home Affairs Minister, Kembo Mohadi, in charge of police and his defence counterpart, Sydney Sekeramayi, who is overall in charge of the Defence Forces, both admitted the purchases, which they said were part of the benefits of the senior security officers.
"We are not the first ones to do this. Every other country is doing it, including your own foreign masters that make you turn against your country. Why is it an issue when it is done by Zimbabwe? Go to Britain and you will see things are not different there," said Sekeramayi.
However, government critics have observed this as another attempt by Mugabe to retain loyalty among the influential chefs in the uniformed forces - on whom he is dependent for protection from mass uprisings by a population in crisis since the government's watershed decision in 2000 to expropriate white owned farms for redistribution to political cronies. – Own correspondent

UK supports ZCTU - Triesman

2006-11-10T08:21:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

LONDON - The British government is becoming increasingly worried about European Union solidarity on the Zimbabwe issue according to Lord Triesman, Minister for Africa. He was speaking at a meeting in London arranged by ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa, the successor to the Anti-Apartheid Movement) in support of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).
The meeting was attended by Lovemore Matombo, one of the ZCTU leaders who was beaten up with his colleagues by Zanu (PF) thugs after their recent pro-democracy protest. Also attending was Kate Hoey, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Zimbabwe, who was warmly praised for her work by the Minister.
Lord Triesman said targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his supporters must be maintained, yet there were signs of wavering from France and Portugal. President Chirac of France wanted to host a conference for African leaders, including Mugabe, in defiance of the EU’s policy. The French were supported in this by Portugal, which takes over the EU Presidency in July next year and wants to host a meeting with the African Union.
Lord Triesman said the EU sanctions were due to be renewed in February and trade unions and others should press for them to be continued.
In a remarkably outspoken speech, he said that Zimbabwe was a failing state which faced all its problems with brutal suppression.
He said the UK Government unequivocally supported the ZCTU and the Zimbabwe Ambassador had been called in to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and asked to account for his government’s actions.
South Africa had genuine dilemmas about the situation in Zimbabwe but there were signs of increased willingness by Pretoria to confront the issue. It was crucial, he said, to continue to apply pressure on South Africa.
Lord Triesman said his government couldn’t stand aside while Zimbabweans starved and had spent £38 million on food aid for Zimbabwe in the last financial year. It was also pressing the UN to engage the Zimbabwe issue as well as putting pressure on other African governments. – Zim Vigil

Britain ready to help, but only if property rights respected

2006-11-10T08:20:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

BY GIFT PHIRI

HARARE - Britain is ready to help fund an equitable land reform programme in Zimbabwe, but only once President Robert Mugabe stops using arbitrary presidential powers to ride roughshod over Parliamentary laws protecting individual property rights, Britain’s ambassador to Zimbabwe has said.
“The UK remains a strong advocate of land reform and has, since 1980, provided 44 million Pounds for land reform, and 500 million Pounds in bilateral support – more than any other donor – for development in Zimbabwe,” British envoy Andrew Pocock said in a statement.
“The UK has honoured its commitments, from Lancaster House onwards, and remains willing to contribute to an equitable land reform programme. Its objections are to the arbitrary seizure of property, the use of that property as a means of political patronage rather than to benefit the needy, the use of violence; and the destruction of Zimbabwe’s agricultural productivity – and therefore its economy – in the interests of the few and at the cost of the many.”
Pocock’s comments came amid a flurry of “disingenuous” reports in the official media rallying behind President Mugabe, calling for international funding for the agrarian reform to end the country’s escalating crisis.
State security minister responsible for land reform Didymus Mutasa told the official media weekend that Western governments should make good on their promise at a 1998 donor conference to fund the redistribution of farm lands mainly owned by whites.
“British colonial settlers took the land by force, and black Zimbabweans are entitled to reclaim their property by any means. If Britain wants its white children to be compensated for their loss, Britain must pay,” Mutasa said.
Pocock said Britain had never opposed land resettlement and money was available for the agrarian reform but that the settlement scheme must be “transparent, just and fair”. He said between 1980 and 1985, the UK provided £47 million for land reform: £20 million as a Specific Land Resettlement Grant and £27 million in the form of budgetary support to help meet the Zimbabwe government’s contribution to the programme. By 1988, the Land Resettlement Grant had been substantively spent.
“But what happened from 2000 triggered so much destruction – of agricultural productivity, asset values, employment, foreign exchange earnings – and had so many consequences – social dislocation, food insecurity, scarcity, inflation – that it is important to get the history right,” said Pocock.
Mutasa said the violent invasions of white owned farms were just the “symptom” of the problem. The real cause is British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s refusal to accept the solemn commitment to pay for land made by his Tory predecessors, Mutasa claimed.
He said all other issues - such as government corruption, the allocation of land to cronies, violence on the farms, democracy and the systematic intimidation of the opposition - are internal Zimbabwean matters to be solved by Zimbabweans.
Pocock said: “If we are to build bridges, we need to begin laying stable foundations. We need a common analysis of the real causes of Zimbabwe’s difficulties. These do not include EU economic sanctions – there are none, nor, after a record rainy season, drought. We are ready to talk sensibly. We are ready to do more than this, to drill through the rhetoric to the bedrock reality. But we need evidence of serious intent and capacity to contemplate and deliver change.”
Mutasa said Britain the coloniser couldn’t teach democracy to the colonized.
But in Zimbabwe the obsession with colonialism is wearing very thin, especially among the growing number of young urban Zimbabweans who have known no other leader but President Mugabe.
Political analysts said the majority of Zimbabweans were no longer interested in the history of colonialism, but in their future in an independent Zimbabwe.
They said Mugabe was not concerned in solving the land question, but was more interested in stoking the fires of land grievances and conflict with Britain.

Residents need to understand their role in a struggle

2006-11-10T08:18:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

RESIDENTS have a lot of work to do before they can become the key factor in how Central Government treats local governance. The absence of key provisions in the Urban Councils’ Act (Chapter 29:15) that deals directly with residents’ participation must be viewed as opportunities for greater involvement by the grassroots.
Presently, residents are only being brought in to participate in areas of local governance through voting for their respective councillors and mayors. Annual city budgets are drawn up by manipulative municipal departments, only eager to increase revenue that the respective local authority can generate through levying residents. The residents’ interests are only treated as minor through legislative provisions that requires the budget to be advertised and objections lodged.
This presents an opportunity for residents’ groupings like the Combined Harare Residents’ Association (CHRA), the Bulawayo Residents’ Association (BURA), the Mutare Residents Association (MURA) and all other progressive residents’ bodies to set a clear agenda of dealing with such retrogressive provisions of the Act that gives too many powers to ministers like Ignatius Chombo.
The agenda for collective resistance must be defined from the experiences of residents in their daily lives. Residents understand first-hand what it means to go for days without water, they appreciate the meaning of an inflated bill and they can tell you without fear what they went through during the satanic Operation Murambatsvina, beginning 18 May 2005.
At a public meeting held in Mbare on October 19 and 02 November 2006, the residents categorically denounced Zanu PF for being a bully in their lives. They fail to access the market stalls because the Zanu PF structures think it is wrong for an opposition activist to make money.
The myths of a Zanu PF backlash were demystified. Residents felt encouraged to discuss how best to deal with a vindictive ruling party. For this to occur, an enabling environment has been created. Mbare residents have for long been subjected to intense intimidation, harassment, illegal detentions and arrests. This has been at the instigation of the Chipangano clique in Zanu PF, collaborating with some illiterate policemen.
More residents are beginning to open their mouths to castigate the government for its abuse of the local governance system. They want to know why their bills are inconsistent, why Minister Chombo does not want to hold elections in Harare, and also why the commissions in the capital is not fired yet it has failed to deliver on water and service delivery.
Residents of Dzivarasekwa are a clear example of an awakening CHRA membership that will no longer let Zanu PF thugs, masquerading as policemen to bully them and steal their wares. We received a sad report that six armed ‘policemen’ pounced on vendors and fled with their wares after firing gunshots in the air, a clear testimony of the lawlessness that abound in Zimbabwe.
CHRA’s thrust has been to have its values and vision clearly understood by the individual member to the Association’s leadership. Every person who drives the CHRA agenda must understand the reasons for engaging in any of our actions from street action, petitions to legal battles.
We do not want a situation where people engaged in an action do not know why they have signed a petition, why they are on the streets or why CHRA takes matters to the court.
By Precious Shumba, Information Officer

Logistics, corruption could hamper 99 year lease scheme

2006-11-10T08:17:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

HARARE – In a bid to boost food production, the Zimbabwean government will give 99-year leases to the first batch of resettled black commercial farmers this week.
Ngoni Masoka, permanent secretary in the ministry of lands, said in a statement that the leases would demonstrate the government's commitment to empowering black farmers who had benefited from the government's controversial fast-track land reform programme.
The leases will provide resettled commercial farmers with security of tenure, which could serve as collateral for loans to procure inputs. They have cited their inability to raise money and uncertainty about their future as reasons for the drop in production.
The leases will be issued to farmers who have been on their plots for at least three years, and have been vetted by the National Land Board for competence and commitment to farming.
Land expert and former head of the technical unit of the presidential land review committee Sam Moyo said the 99-year leases would increase the confidence of farmers. "Generally, many farmers falling under the A2 [commercial] scheme perceive having leases as a reason for them to feel more secure and, hopefully, to increase production."
However, the group of beneficiaries could be small. "Given that there is a need to survey the farms, the numbers of farmers might not be large, since the capacity to survey the land seems limited. I doubt if the figure will go beyond 1,000." Moyo added that the vetting process by the land board, while desirable, "might tend to be cumbersome".
He said there was also concern that influential people could take advantage of their positions to get the leases ahead of the intended beneficiaries. At the height of the fast-track programme, many top politicians were accused of grabbing multiple farms in violation of the land policy, which stipulated that a person was entitled to only one farm.
Since the land would remain state property, there was a need for the government to clarify whether farmers could use their farms as collateral, said Moyo. "It is not yet clear how the government will deal with cases whereby a farmer goes to borrow from a bank and defaults: will the bank be able to repossess the farm and sell it? Because for as long as the plots remain state land, the government would still be involved." - IRIN

Enormous cost of bearer cheques shocks MPs

2006-11-10T08:15:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

HARARE - Deputy Finance minister David Chapfika has been forced by Parliament to defend government’s decision to blow Z$8,6 billion (revalued) printing bearer cheques that have dismally failed to tame Zimbabwe’s rampaging hyperinflation.
Chapfika was challenged by Mberengwa West MP, Joram Gumbo to respond to opposition allegations that government had become the laughing stock for its profligacy in printing lower denomination bearer cheques in the vain hope that it could slow inflation.
Responding during a question and answer session in Parliament, Chapfika said the central bank blew $8,6 billion during the one-month countrywide operation.
“The operation cost $8,6 billion revalued, $4,6 billion of which was for capital expenditure and $ 4billion for printing of new bearer cheques and other operational expenses,” Chapfika said.
Opposition MPs said they were horrified at the cost of the operation and the decision to print a 1cent bearer cheque.
Chapfika told Parliament that as at August 22, 2006, which was the cut off date for the changeover, at least $35,1 billion had been collected from the public while at least $10,6 billion worth of old bearer cheques could not accounted for from various government ministries and departments.
There were howls of protest when Chapfika told the House that the central bank had subsequently written off that amount from its books, adding it had the technical effect of writing off costs incurred during the operation.
He also stated that 304 vehicles had been purchased for the operation.
The currency reforms saw the central bank lopping off three zeroes from the local unit to accommodate IT systems that had breached their digital handling capacity ceiling. People were given three weeks to swap their money to the new cheques and no one was allowed to carry more than $100,000 in cash in the course of doing so. Police set up roadblocks and literally seized anything over that amount - no receipts given. – Own correspondent

Detention Watch from Zimbabwe Association

2006-11-10T08:14:00.000+02:00

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LONDON - Welcome news received last Saturday is that the Court of Appeal has granted AA permission to appeal. The court directed that the appeal should be heard "if possible this term [which ends on 19 December]". The suspension on forced returns will continue until the outcome of AA's appeal is known. For those of you who have been dreading going to report, there should be little danger of being detained until AA’s appeal has been heard.
While many Zimbabweans can breathe more easily we were distressed to learn that one man was detained when going to report last Friday and is now facing removal to Malawi. Zimbabweans who have travelled on other passports such as South African or Malawian passports are in a different category to most Zimbabweans unless the Home Office has accepted that they are Zimbabwean.
At the end of a tiring day of waiting at Yarls Wood Hearing Centre we were delighted to witness bail being granted to two ladies who have been in detention for a very long time. To see the slow smile spreading all over L’s face was a sight to behold and something to warm the heart for many a day. Equally moving was poor D, who collapsed sobbing with the relief of knowing that she was getting out. Our tributes to all their friends and relatives who made long journeys and patiently submitted to intensive questioning by the Home Office representative before they were accepted as being suitable sureties.
What was disturbing about the day was watching a representative from the Home Office smoothly claiming to the judge that removals to Zimbabwe were ongoing. It took timely intervention from friendly lawyers to get a letter to the judge disproving this assertion in the case of failed asylum seekers. Without the letter those ladies would still be in detention. We hope they had a great weekend! Four Zimbabweans known to us were released from detention during the week so that’s something positive to ponder on.
ZA members participated in The Way Forward meeting later the same day and we understand it was a successful and positive occasion. The following day saw us going to hear Lovemore Matombo speak at the Actsa event in support of the ZCTU at Congress House, along with so many others. It was interesting to hear from some speakers (whose own families had suffered colonial oppression) how very difficult it had been for them and so many left-leaning people to stop viewing Mugabe as the hero he once was, and to see him as the oppressive dictator he had become.
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. We also have a website at www.zimbabweassociation.org

Econet fights for right to communicate

2006-11-10T08:13:00.000+02:00

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HARARE – Zimbabwe’s already hard-pressed citizens will be forced to pay for cellphone calls in foreign currency under a new plan signed into law by President Robert Mugabe last week in which the country’s largest mobile phone operator will be forced to pay for outgoing traffic in hard currency.
The directive, which Econet Wireless is challenging in the Supreme Court, would remove the right of many Zimbabweans to communicate with their exiled colleagues and family members in the diaspora and will make access to international calls a privilege of only a few.
The directive has been condemned by business groups as potentially damaging to the Zimbabwe economy. Judge President Rita Mukarau on Monday suspended the regulation saying the Supreme Court – sitting as a constitutional court - needed to hear the case first.
The government has fought since 1995 to defend a cherished monopoly in the telecommunications industry.
Econet Wireless, which enjoys about 57 percent of the local subscriber share,
competes with privately owned Telecel Zimbabwe, which has 17 percent of
the local market, and state-run Net*One with 26 percent.
Under statutory instrument 70/06, which came into force on November 01 through a presidential decree, the State-owned Net*One would charge US$0,15 while Econet will be forced to pay US$0,20.
Econet Wireless in its court papers contends that Mugabe’s government is attempting to reintroduce Tel*One’s monopoly “through the back door” and this was in violation of a 1995 Supreme Court order that granted it “unrestricted right to move traffic within, into and from Zimbabwe”.
The directive comes at a time when Econet has announced the launch of third generation (3G) cellular services next year. 3G offers high-speed data transmission and allows callers to see real-time video images of each other.
Econet contends in its court papers that government is attempting to make it submit to draconian measures, designed to curtail one of the last arenas of free speech left in Zimbabwe. – Own correspondent

Editorial: Toothless anti-corruption commission deep in slumber

2006-11-10T08:12:00.000+02:00

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Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in Africa, indeed in the world, with an anti-corruption commission and a minister in charge of anti-corruption. Fantastic.
But every time a major corruption scandal breaks, the minister and his commission seem to be oblivious and unconcerned. Each new revelation is simply greeted by a deafening silence.
A case in point is the Zisco scandal, happening under their noses right now. The allegations of wholesale looting of this invaluable, and highly strategic, parastatal have been investigated by a government agency.
Names have been named. We understand the list of names of those high-ups involved is eye-popping to say the least. All the groundwork has been done. The report has been produced.
All that remains is for the minister and his commissioners to wake up and do something. Authorise the police to pick up those named and get them to a magistrate.
The minister of trade and industry, himself, has admitted the existence of the report to a parliamentary committee of inquiry. After promising to give the report to the committee, he mysteriously changed his mind. Nobody has seen the report.
There are various rumours of a leak but nothing substantive has so far come to light. We understand that Mugabe himself ordered the report to be suppressed, and furthermore that he himself is implicated.
As with so many reports before, the government shredders are no doubt working overtime. And so the corrupt ministers and politburo members, already obscenely wealthy, get away with it once again.
We sincerely hope that somebody has had the foresight to keep a copy. Given the machinations in the top echelons of Zanu (PF) as the succession struggle continues, we have no doubt that somebody must have a copy tucked away carefully somewhere.
The best thing they can do is to make this available to the people of Zimbabwe who have a right to know just who is looting their children’s future.
If anyone is brave enough to get a copy to us, we will surely publish it.
Meanwhile, the anti-corruption minister and his band of merry commissioners continue to draw their fat government salaries, and do nothing.
Roll on accountable government for Zimbabweans.

Word for Today 44
“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed
and broken. We are perplexed, but we dont give up and quit. We are
hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we
get up again and keep going.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NLT)

Human rights watch: Militants move onto white-owned farms

2006-11-10T08:11:00.000+02:00

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HARARE - The looming risk of mass starvation in Zimbabwe worsened this week as militants moved on to more white-owned farms, beating one worker for refusing to shout ruling party slogans and forcing hundreds of others to stop work.
On Sunday three white farming families were barricaded in their homes after scores of militant supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party, gathered on four farms in Guruve, 125 kilometres north of Harare.
Despite an official announcement that the land reform was a “done deal”, the occupiers told farm workers they had to make room for new black settlers on the land.
The continuing violence threatens to worsen already critical food shortages in Zimbabwe. Farming experts have predicted a 40 per cent fall in agricultural output this year due to the communalisation of commercial farming. The country needs to import at least 700,000 tons of wheat and maize, but has no foreign currency to buy it. A recent report said nearly three million villagers had registered for food aid with the government. The worst hit people had already started eating tree roots and leaves for lack of other food.
Conceding that a quarter of Zimbabwe’s 12.5 million people were now living in abject poverty, the Finance Minister, Hebert Murerwa, warned last week that the country urgently needed aid from abroad. But analysts say President Mugabe will remain the major hurdle to efforts by some of his more moderate ministers to normalise ties with the donor community. While Murerwa was urging ties with donors, the Foreign Minister, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, a close ally of Mugabe, was summoning British and EU diplomats in Harare to censure them for their stance on Zimbabwe. Mumbengegwi is said to have expressed dismay at the EU’s “confrontational attitude” towards Zimbabwe.
He also launched a broadside at Britain claiming it was mobilising negative international opinion against Zimbabwe. But, in private, Zimbabwe has asked the United Nations Development Programme to help mobilise food aid worth £200m. The president sent the Finance Minister to hold urgent private talks with Agostinho Zacarrius, the UNDP resident representative in Zimbabwe, reports said last week. – Own correspondent

Govt not serious about SADC: Politics of violence and vengeance at work

2006-11-10T08:10:00.000+02:00

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BY GIFT PHIRI

HARARE – Serious electoral irregularities in rural district council elections held last week bore clear testimony that the Zimbabwe government is not serious about conforming to the SADC protocol on free and fair elections, a coalition of civic groups said this week.
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition noted in an election synopsis that the rural elections saw the recurrence of the politics of violence and vengeance targeted at opposition candidates. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which is responsible for administering elections, remained conspicuously silent and there has been no investigation into allegations of electoral malpractice, including political violence, to date.
“The just ended elections depict a flawed electoral system run through de facto institutions being headed by ex-army officials and divorced from the SADC elections framework,” Crisis Coalition said.
According to ZEC, Zanu (PF) garnered 765 wards, while the Tsvangirai led MDC polled 54 and the Mutambara-led faction won 42.
The civic group said in the run up to the RDC elections, opposition candidates were not allowed to campaign freely in their respective constituencies adding the public media relegated the opposition to the peripheries of media coverage.
“When ever they got air play, the opposition was being caricatured and subjected to hate messages,” the report said. “In the just ended elections, the electronic media was not opened to opposition contestants. This is part of the state’s instruments of gagging dissenting voices.”
Crisis Coalition said opposition supporters faced a wave of politically-motivated violence and discrimination.
“In areas such as Buhera, Mutoko, Mudzi and Gokwe, MDC supporters had their homes reduced to ashes by Zanu (PF) youth militia.”
In Chitungwiza, a magistrate barred the MDC candidates from campaigning and addressing their constituencies on the grounds that they had failed to pay certain electoral fees, which the court could not substantiate.
“It is in this light that the courts are aiding in the shrinkage of democratic space by failing to execute their duties with impartiality and objectivity.”
Crisis Coalition said the elections were characterized by poor voter education processes resulting in more than 1000 people being turned away from the polls for failing to comply with the voting requisites such as proper identification details.
Opposition parties were denied the right to converge in constituencies they were campaigning in before registering with the Zimbabwe Republic Police (Z.R.P) for clearance. The report states that the MDC was refused permission to hold rallies in Gokwe, Mudzi among other areas before the elections
“The nefarious Public Order and Security Act (POSA), remains a barricade for the full democratization of the Zimbabwean socio-political and economic environment,” Crisis Coalition said.
According to a report by the Zimbabwe Elections Support Network, thousands of prospective voters were turned away for various reasons.
“Disturbing figures were noted in Mashonaland Central. For instance, at Rusununguko Primary School in Chaminuka District, Shamva, by 1000hrs on the voting day at least 120 voters had cast their vote and 81 had been turned away. In Manicaland, at Govingo Business Centre, by 1445hrs, 344 voters had voted and 92 had been turned away. In addition, in Mashonaland West, at Sanyati Welfare Centre polling station, ZESN observed that by midday, 124 voters had cast their votes whilst 61 were turned away. At Msitha polling station in Matebeleland South, by close of poll, 507 voters had cast their votes whilst 100 were turned away.”

Family fears for Hitschmann’s health in custody

2006-11-10T08:09:00.000+02:00

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HARARE - The family of a man accused of masterminding a plot to topple President Robert Mugabe in the eastern city of Mutare have spoken of their anger and anguish over a court ruling to keep him in jail until March.
A family spokesperson said the family felt grief and bitterness over the continued detention of Peter Hitschmann, who appeared in court last week looking famished, and intermittently breaking into uncontrollable coughing spasms.
“We find it difficult to understand why a judge who has been selected for his wisdom and expertise would refuse to grant bail on medical grounds when it is blatantly obvious that his health is failing and any further detention could result in his death,” he told The Zimbabwean.
Judge Alfas Chitakunye opposed bail on the grounds that the charges Hitschmann was facing were grave and that he was likely to abscond if he was granted bail.
Hitschmann’s lawyer Trust Mhanda said he had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court for bail because he could not wait for March 2007 for the trial to re-open the next time the High Court will be on circuit in Mutare.
Police nabbed Hitschmann in March, leading to the arrest of opposition lawmaker Giles Mutseyekwa and six others who were charged but later released on bail.
The eight men including four police officers were charged under Zimbabwe’s tough security laws of possession of weapons to carry out an insurgency, sabotage or terrorism.
The prosecution claimed Hitschmann was working for a shadowy organisation called the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement (ZFM) based in Britain, which it said was seeking to overthrow Mugabe’s government.
Government’s star witness, a military intelligence official, Israel Phiri, told the High Court that Hitschmann was part of a goon squad working for ZFM. He claimed he had gone undercover for three months investigating the case. – Own correspondent

FOCZ to challenge govt “theft” of companies

2006-11-10T08:08:00.000+02:00

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FOCZ to challenge govt “theft” of companies

JOHANNESBURG – The Friends of Zimbabwe Coalition (FOZC) has embarked on a massive membership drive in a move aimed at giving voice and demanding an urgent stop to property, land and company invasions by the marauding Zanu (PF) government.

Chairman of the Friends of Zimbabwe Coalition, Sox Chikohwero, announced the opening of new chapters in Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth (PE) Wit bank, Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg) and Pietermaritzburg.

He said Zimbabweans must say a “BIG NO” to company seizures, invasions and persecution of local citizens under flimsy allegations aimed at justifying theft of property, companies and land. “FOZC is apolitical and we are indeed friends of Zimbabwe. The response we have received so far is overwhelming,” he said.

The membership drive was not only targeting Zimbabweans but anyone within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.

Echoing same sentiments was Mukhachana Mahenye of Giyani-Malamulele, South Africa, who said the initiatives by the FOZC needed the regional support in order to stop company and property seizures in Zimbabwe.

“Zimbabwe must preserve the little resources left in the country by coming together and challenge this monster called the Reconstruction of State-Indebted Insolvent Companies Act,” he said. - CAJ News

News from Jozi

2006-11-10T08:06:00.001+02:00

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CIO agents still stalk me – Moyo

JOHANNESBURG - Former opposition Movement for Democratic Change security chief in Bulawayo, Remember Moyo, who is now exiled in South Africa says Zimbabwe government’s psychopathic agents of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) castrated him during torture sessions in 2003.
Moyo fled to South Africa soon after the High Court in Harare acquitted him and his MDC colleagues of kidnap and murder charges. He was arrested by the CIO agents after the kidnapping and eventual murder of Bulawayo war veteran leader Cain Nkala in 2003.
Moyo has been in hiding in Johannesburg since he fled to South Africa. But he recently came out of his hiding for the first time and gave an interview to Voice of the People, VOP, one of Zimbabwe’s two independent radio stations operating from exile.
Speaking in his native Ndebele language, Moyo told VOP that severe torture to his genitals had left him impotent.
“My brother, I am no longer a man. Women have left me because they can not stay in a home where there is no sex,” Moyo told the radio station .He blames Robert Mugabe for all his troubles and has vowed to bring his government down.
“I would rather die in the battle fighting Mugabe than to die of hunger and frustration,” he said. Moyo also told VOP that CIO agents who tortured him were recently spotted in the bustling streets of Jozi. He says they are still after his head. - Themba Nkosi

Letter from America

2006-11-10T08:06:00.000+02:00

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Letter from America

Economic growth without democracy

‘China has become Mugabe’s handmaiden in the repression of Zimbabweans’

BY STANFORD MUKASA

WASHINGTON - China’s “economic growth without democracy” policy is spoiling African dictators like Mugabe.
The announcement by President Hu Jintao that China will double its aid to Africa to the tune of US$5 billion over the next three years will have some implications on efforts by Zimbabwean civil society and church leadership to negotiate with Mugabe and Zanu (PF) a return to democracy and the rule of law.
The excessive generosity with which China has assisted Mugabe and other dictators of the world makes Mugabe and Zanu (PF) scoff at any appeals for human rights or democracy.
Against this background, the document by a section of Zimbabwean church leaders and which was handed to Mugabe last week will probably carry little, if any, weight with Mugabe and Zanu (PF) who feel their Look East policy will soon bear fruit.
China’s policy of economic progress without democracy has historically been a model and a source of great inspiration for dictators in Africa. Virtually all appeals to the Chinese by the international community to bring pressure to bear on Mugabe have been ignored.
Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe, Zhang Xianyi, recently spelt out the principles governing Chinese policy towards Zimbabwe, namely, what he called equality, mutual benefit, solidarity and common development.
The ambassador said China’s bilateral trade with Zimbabwe would increase by 11.5 percent to US$500 million in 2008. In 2005 the figure was US$283 million.
Overall, China’s trade with Africa in the past 10 years increased 10 times to about $40 billion last year.
China has also announced it will forgive debts owed to it by the poorest African countries. President HU also announced other measures by China to boost trade with Africa.
At a recent meeting of the American Enterprise Institute it was noted that:
• More exports from Africa to China will receive tariff-free status.
• China will train 15,000 African professionals.
• China will build schools, hospitals and anti malaria clinics.
• China will send experts and youth volunteers to Africa.
• China will double the number of scholarships to African students to 4,000 by 2009.
China is an emerging world economic power and the second largest consumer of energy and petroleum products. To meet internal demand China has invested heavily in oil resources in Nigeria, Sudan, Angola, and Gabon as well as in copper purchases mainly in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In Zimbabwe China is eyeing the country’s untapped platinum resources reported to be the second largest in the world. Zimbabwe has also other mineral resources like uranium, gold, silver and copper that China would like to tap into.
In its aggressive quest for increased trade China has totally ignored the human rights implications of its economic growth without democracy policy.
This may well explain why Mugabe is dragging his feet on any pressures to negotiate a resolution of the country’s crisis of governance with the opposition and civil society.
Mugabe’s survival can be attributed to number factors including a strong military and generous looting of the national resources to reward his cronies, notably top party and government officials as well as the army. But the China factor is increasingly becoming a significant lifeline for the aging dictator.
According to reports China has extended generous financial and other forms of assistance to Mugabe and Zanu (PF) in exchange for the wholesale mortgaging of national resources to China. Some people are calling this Look East policy a new colonialism from China, and China has become Mugabe’s handmaiden in the repression of Zimbabweans.
The opposition movement and civil society leadership must come to grips with the fact that Mugabe has in China a real and substantive promise of support – whether or not China will actually deliver on all promises made to Mugabe. Strategies for confronting Mugabe must factor this reality.

We need government in exile

2006-11-10T08:03:00.000+02:00

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We need government in exile

BY MAGAISA IBENZI

SOMEWHERE IN SOUTH – I have been absolutely delighted with the news from England about the Free Zim youths who gave south Africa’s foreign minister Amai Zuma a hard time when they heckled her while she was trying to convince Londoners about South Africa’s solidarity with other struggling Africans. Bravo! Well done Free Zim.
We need more of this from you young boys and girls of ours. We are proud of you. This is why we, your parents, suffered so much to educate you. Why has it taken you so long to get started. You have shown the way to other Zimbabweans around the world. This is what they should do whenever South African officials visit. This type of activism should also be extended to other SADC officials who are also backing Mugabe.
I was particularly pleased that the first target was Nkosazana Zuma, who herself spent many years living in London during the apartheid years. She was a member of the South African diaspora. But now she tells those in the diaspora that they should keep quiet. Hah! It was actually South Africans in the diaspora who successfully lobbied the international governments and media to put the squeeze on the apartheid regime.
I appeal to all Zimbabweans wherever they are in the diaspora to completely ignore the comments of Zuma and her ilk.
We all know very well that the ANC supports Zanu (PF). They care nothing for the suffering people of Zimbabwe – all they care about is propping up the façade of a fellow liberation movement. Despite their fancy constitution, human rights really means nothing to Mbeki and his crowd, Zuma included. Even the youngsters in the ANC have been brainwashed as we saw last week. It’s really a very worrying situation.
I therefore appeal to our young Zimbabweans, and the old ones out there, you are all needed. Please step up this campaign of confrontation, to include all visits by South African government officials to anywhere in the world. And please extend this campaign to cover all SADC leaders because they are all complicit in the crimes against the Zimbabwean people through their silence.
It is not that they don’t know the real situation. The life expectancy of Zimbabweans has been reduced in six years from 60-something to 30-something. And that is not simply because there is an AIDS pandemic in the region. People are dying from hunger, malnutrition, malaria and many other preventable diseases that even the least developed Third World country should be able to prevent. The people of Zimbabwe are dying from cruelty by one man.
But I digress. Zimbabweans in the diaspora constitute a sizeable force. More than a quarter of Zimbabweans live outside their own country. We are all denied our right to vote. We did not vote for Zanu (PF). We were not allowed to vote. Why don’t we have our own government in exile, to represent our interests, to look after ourselves? We could be a focus for those wanting to help our nation and channel resources back home. At the moment we have nobody to represent us. Our embassies in the countries where we live are there for Zanu (PF) – not for us. In fact they spy on us.
I would like to hear from your readers, Mr Editor, about how we can take this idea forward. – write to magaisa@thezimbabwean.co.uk

The black spot

2006-11-10T07:06:00.000+02:00

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BY CHIPO, grade 6D, Mvurwi

It was on the 20th of July 2002 when I was admitted to Parirenyatwa Hospital because of a black spot, which was developing, on my left eye. I was admitted in the Hospital for one week, my mother was worried about it.
When the ambulance came to take me, I was scared, I arrived at the hospital and the doctor gave me some medicine, which I would take while at home. After two weeks, we went back to the hospital. The specialist took me into a small room, which was tidy. In the room, I was asked to look on a white chart, which was glued on the wall with alphabet letters on it. The specialist told me to read the alphabet using the eye with a spot, whilst the other one was closed. I managed to read all the letters from A to Z, but the doctor told me to stay in the hospital since the spot was becoming bigger and bigger as the days passed by.
I stayed in the C3 ward with ill strangers and I was afraid of them. My mother visited me every visiting hour; at times she brought bananas, oranges and cascade drink. After a couple of days I was used to the hospital life though I was missing my friends and family members. In the morning, porridge would find its way down our throats and in the afternoon, sadza would be dished to us with cabbage.
After a week the doctor said we had to go for an operation. I became very worried but my mother raised my faith when she told us to kneel down and pray. We sang a hymn and prayed to the almighty. I was taken to the theatre though I was afraid of past information of people who died because of unsuccessful operations. Four people entered the room wearing white dustcoats. I knew these men were surgeons because I had read about them at school. My life was in the hands of these four men and I trusted that they knew what they were going to do. The anesthetist gas me a special gas to breathe and I immediately fell asleep. After a long while, I woke up. The operation was over and was successful. We gave thanks to God for answering our prayers.
I will not forget my experience at Parirenyatwa Hospital, the nurses and doctors were kind and knew their job for the black spot was completely removed and I trust it will never resurface again.

The merciless nature of AIDS

2006-11-10T06:37:00.000+02:00

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BY BRADLEY, Grade 5, Bulawayo

For six months, my young sister lay on her deathbed, with sores all over her body. She looked pale and thin and to this day, that haunts me although she passed away last year.
I questioned myself, “why is it that AIDS is merciless even to the young and innocent like my young sister. Why her specifically, who lay crying in agony every day, itching and scratching with a body full of blisters and sores.” First of all, I blamed my mother and accused her of being unfaithful to my father but as time passed, I discovered my father’s promiscuity.
My father sleeps everywhere with everyone and feels unashamed. He is merciless in the sense that he even goes for young girls who want to live the life they cannot afford. Right now, my father is going out with a student nurse at Mpilo general hospital. The lady is exceptionally beautiful and young. At times, I feel like telling her of about my father, but I am afraid he might ruthlessly beat me.
I feel very sorry and this torments my soul every day, especially if I remember my young sister whom I saw suffering up to her last breath. To her I say “ rest in peace my dearest sister and to the young nurse, please drop my father before it is too late and pray to God for redemption.”
AIDS is one of the dangerous and evil killer diseases which even tortures the young ones. Personally, If I had money, I would go behind my parents’ back and have a medical check up even though I look healthy. I assume that I was born before my mother was infected with the virus.

Human Rights Watch : New constitution or else - NCA threatens

2006-11-10T06:36:00.000+02:00

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BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

HARARE - A pro-democracy group is threatening more protest action against President Robert Mugabe if steps are not taken to start meaningful constitutional reform.
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), an ad-hoc pro-democracy alliance of trade unions, human rights and legal support and advocacy groups, has given President Mugabe until early next month to respond to their concerns or face a "peaceful march" to Munhumutapa Building, Mugabe’s Office on Samora Machel Avenue.
The NCA's direct demand to Mugabe comes after the organisation delivered a petition to Parliament last week in a demonstration, which was broken up by riot police in Africa Unity Square.
The theme of the demonstration demanding constitutional reform was: "The Supreme Law of the Land is Illegitimate".
Previous attempts by pro-democracy reformers and other organisations, such as student and labour unions, to air their grievances have been broken up by riot police.
The NCA is currently embroiled in a High Court action challenging the legitimacy of the 17 times amended constitution which has given Mugabe ultimate executive, judicial and legislative control of government, thus entrenching the prevailing political status quo.
The alliance petition included demands to investigate torture of labour leaders in police custody and to respect the rule of law.
A recent report by Amnesty International cited numerous instances of torture and abuse by the police and the military, resulting in the serious injuries of several suspects.
Political analysts, who declined to be identified, said the petition was designed to put the government on the defensive about its track record of ignoring court decisions that it disliked.
“Government will probably not respond to the NCA's list of demands by next month, and probably not ever. Any attempt by NCA to see the President will be broken up by police. The NCA strategy appears to be one of casting a spotlight on rule of law and human rights in the country, lest the international community become complacent about the situation in Zimbabwe,” said one analyst.
Most of the NCA's grievances deal with demands for a new constitution, which Mugabe rejected last week Friday following the launch of a National Vision document by church leaders in Harare.
“We need an all-inclusive, people-driven process,” said the NCA in the petition .
Opposition parties have been harassed ever since the rejection by Zimbabweans in 1999 of government’s proposed draft constitution.

China pledges billions to Africa

2006-11-10T06:34:00.000+02:00

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China pledges billions to Africa

LONDON - The China-Africa Forum which ended Sunday in Beijing was attended by at least 50 African countries including heads of state and business officials. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that 16 deals worth US$1.9 billion were signed between the Chinese and African governments and companies.
During the opening ceremony the Chinese President Hu Jintao said China would double aid to Africa by 2009, pledging US$3 billion in loans and $2 billion in export credits. A $5 billion fund will be established to encourage Chinese investment in Africa. Jintao also promised to cancel any debts owed by the poorest African countries.
Among the invited guests were Robert Mugabe and several controversial leaders who have been criticised for serious human rights abuses against their own people. The host country China is accused of protecting these figures on the global stage, flooding Africa with cheap products, destroying local businesses, and ignoring environmental standards. At the forum Chinese officials repeatedly said they were making major efforts to address all concerns. They also argued that China’s huge market was opening up to Africa and this would mean growth for African businesses. – SW Radio Africa

Free Zim Youth to meet SADC chair

LONDON - The diligence and determination of the energetic UK-based pressure group, Free Zim Youth, has resulted in them being granted a meeting with Southern African Development Community (SADC) officials here this week. They will urge SADC to change its policy on the political and economic meltdown in Zimbabwe. This was significant because Lesotho’s Prime Minister Pakalitha Musisili is the current co-chairperson of SADC, said spokesperson Alois Mbawara.
The youth activists said in a statement; “This is a follow up to the just ended SADC finance protocol summit in South Africa in which we feel member states are mocking our suffering by signing Zimbabwe to the trade protocol. They know there is no economy to talk about due to bad policies, with no balance of trade.” – SW Radio Africa

UN selection unfair say cops

HARARE - There are allegations that Police Commisssioner Augustine Chihuri is excluding officers from United Nations peacekeeping duties because they sympathise with the opposition MDC.
Press reports say he has barred about 150 junior officers from taking part in lucrative peacekeeping duties in Kosovo because of their ‘questionable loyalty’ to Robert Mugabe’s regime.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police has been participating in UN peacekeeping missions for the last 15 years. ZRP officers have served in Angola, and currently they have personnel keeping peace in Liberia, Sudan and East Timor.
It is believed the commissioner has also warned officers during pre-deployment briefings not to make any negative statements about Zimbabwe while abroad. – SW Radio Africa

News briefs: Rotary award for SPCA’s Harrison

2006-11-10T06:33:00.000+02:00

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HARARE – The SPCA’s Meryl Harrison has been honoured by Borrowdale Brooke Rotary Club for her work to help alleviate the suffering experienced by animals during the farm invasions.
Farm animals in Zimbabwe were subject to the most horrific suffering during the invasions. There were reports of men cutting off the legs of every cow on the farm, locking horses in corrals and lighting them on fire and farmers’ pet dogs being hung alive on their former properties. Meryl Harrison and her team at the SPCA went on to farms often at great personal risk to rescue and minister to animals suffering from neglect and abuse.
“Some of the sights I saw on the farms involving the animals, I will never forget,” said Harrison. “But we had a job to do so we just had to get on with it.”
She believes the animals “bore the brunt of the viciousness of the land invasions - they were the silent victims - innocent and uncomprehending.”
This is the second time Harrison has been awarded The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International Paul Harris Fellowship, which is almost unheard of. It is the highest award that can be bestowed upon a non-Rotarian.
Harrison, who moved to the UK recently, said: “I feel very honoured to have been made a Paul Harris fellow twice.” She has had “a few heart problems” which her cardiologist has told her are due to the stress of the last few years. - KJW

HR Foundation targets Zim refugees

JOHANNESBURG - The Human Rights Foundation of South Africa, in conjunction with the Aids Consortium, has poured several thousands of rands into training Zimbabwe refugees about the dangers of HIV/AIDS.
The disease claims over 800 lives per day in SA. Among other issues, the Aids Consortium said they targeted refugees from Zimbabwe simply because they were being neglected, and many had been forced to embark on unprotected sex in order to earn a living.
In an interview after the workshop held at Braamfontein this week, Aids Consortium Media and Communications Manager, Rhulani Lehloka, said the workshop was to encourage responsible behaviour among Zimbabwean refugees.
She said the workshop was necessitated by the need to make Zimbabweans aware of how they could access Anti-Retrovial Drugs (ARVs) and how best they could access self-sustaining projects for their livelihood whilst in exile in South Africa.
"We have targetted the Zimbabwe group of refugees because are the ones so vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. We are also conducting another workshop on women, who don't have access to ARVs. We really know that the South African government is not doing anything to the Zimbabwe refugees but we have to address that because HIV/AIDS knows no boundaries," said Lehloka. - CAJ News

Zim$ continues to dive

JOHANNESBURG - As importers struggle to raise the much-needed foreign currency to continue their business operations, the Zimbabwean dollar continues tumbling downwards on the parallel market.
A foreign currency dealer, Scott Philips, speaking to CAJ News from Johannesburg where he was attending an Economic Forum Workshop, pointed out that there was no serious business and activity on the official exchange market in Zimbabwe.
He said this was a result of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe directive, which demanded that movements had to be volume-linked.
”The past few weeks have witnessed insignificant transactions to move the rate on the official exchange market, prompting exporters to hold on to their receipts,” said Philips.
The British Pound made significant gains against the Zimbabwe dollar and is now fetching way above Z$3 000 up from Z$2 700, and the US$ is now trading at Z$2 000 up from Z$1 500.
The official rate remained fixed at Z$250 against the US$ and Z$474 to the British pound.
Last year the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introduced the auction system, which was meant to restore stability in the foreign exchange market.
However, this was soon overtaken by the parallel market.The exchange rate on the auction system is adjusted periodically, but critics argue that this is of little benefit to exporters because the adjustments are not realistic and do not allow exporters to break even.
RBZ governor Gideon Gono said the move behind the re-introduction of the interbank trading system was to promote the “allocative efficiencies in the foreign exchange market”. - CAJ News

Politics: Voters commended for courage

2006-11-10T06:29:00.000+02:00

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BY PAUL THEMBA NYATHI

HARARE - MDC (Mutambara) expresses its gratitude to the people of Zimbabwe for coming out to vote during the just ended rural district council elections. MDC is conscious of the immense economic burden associated with hunger and starvation which the people of Zimbabwe are enduring as a result of a crisis of mis-governance and corruption in the country caused by Zanu (PF) and the Mugabe government.
We are also mindful of the threats of violence, threats of denials of state supplied agricultural inputs and threats of denials of food assistance that the people of Zimbabwe were subjected to by the ruling party during the election campaign. In spite of all these pressures the people of Zimbabwe were still able to come out in numbers to vote for their preferred candidates. For this we salute them for their courage and resilience.
Not withstanding the uneven electoral playing field, which favours the ruling party, MDC (Mutambara) is pleased with the party’s performance in which it won in 45 contested wards. We note the Tsvangirai group won in 35 contested wards. We congratulate them for their efforts and victories. We hope that these results will demonstrate once and for all that we are a definitely not a splinter group with no grassroots support. The truth of the matter is that in this national election we won more contested seats than the Tsvangirai-led MDC.
(According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Zanu (PF) garnered 765 wards, while the Tsvangirai-led MDC polled 54 and the Mutambara-led faction won 42.)
We are also pleased with our improved performance in light of the statistics which show that in the 2003 rural district council elections the united MDC only managed to win no more than 15 wards throughout the whole country.
We as the MDC strongly believe that our concern should be to come up with strategies of dislodging the Zanu (PF) regime and rescuing the people of Zimbabwe from hunger and dehumanizing abuses by the regime.
We recognize that there is still a lot of work ahead in removing the corrupt and dictatorial regime of ZANU PF and to that extent we as a party are prepared to go the extra mile in our struggle against the regime. – Nyathi is Director of Elections for the MDC led by Arthur Mutambara

Media forum launched

2006-11-10T06:19:00.000+02:00

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PRETORIA - The Friends of Zimbabwe Coalition has set up a media forum that will act as a media watch for all socio-economic and political developments taking place in Zimbabwe.
The Media Forum’s Organizing Secretary, Nowell Marufu, a Zimbabwean journalist living in exile in South Africa, said the new body had been necessitated by the need to create a space where all concerned friends of Zimbabwe could air their views with respect to redressing the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe.
“We have set up the forum to facilitate public discourse on all matters that are affecting Zimbabwe, and it is our sincere hope that all Zimbabweans at home and in the Diaspora will make use of this platform on how best we can help Zimbabwe out of the many crises that are bedeviling the country,” said Marufu.
The Organizing Secretary indicated that they would liaise strongly with partners in the print media and some Zimbabwean websites.
“Zimbabweans have to make use of this forum if they intend to have their concerns heard, and we encourage all those who have some positive comments to help re-build the image of Zimbabwe to come forward and utilize this space,” said Marufu. - CAJ News

Saving a stranger

2006-11-10T06:18:00.000+02:00

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LONDON – A new Community Channel documentary appealing for Asian and Black minority groups to save lives by joining the bone marrow register will broadcast in the UK during November.
Saving a Stranger is a powerful, heart-wrenching documentary that highlights the suffering of the thousands of people waiting for bone marrow transplants in the UK.
The film introduces the12-year-old Yvette Gate from Bristol, whose only chance of survival is a bone marrow transplant. Yvette suffers from aplastic anaemia. Her bone marrow has stopped functioning, which means she cannot produce her own blood, and has to rely on transfusions to say alive. Yvette originates from the Gambia and is more likely to find a match from someone of the same ethnic origin. But there is a desperate shortage of all bone marrow donors and a particular shortage of donors from black and ethnic minority groups.
The film also concentrates on the inspiring Asma Meer, who lost her three-month old son Ibrahim because they couldn’t find a match for a bone marrow transplant. Asma is now a dedicated campaigner, raising awareness and trying to recruit more donors onto the bone marrow register. The register is administered by the Anthony Nolan Trust. Participating individuals need to be 18-40 years old in good health and fully committed to undergo the donation procedure if required. The Anthony Nolan Trust specifically needs to recruit more young male donors. - www.anthonynolan.org.uk or visit www.communitychannel.org

Background to the News: Excessive abuse of presidential powers

2006-11-10T06:16:00.000+02:00

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BY GIFT PHIRI

HARARE - President Robert Mugabe is now running the country under an undeclared state of emergency by invoking sweeping presidential powers, openly encouraging violence with rhetoric invoking war and depicting opposition and civic groups as traitors, analysts said this week.
Political analysts said there was shocking judicial tampering and legislative engineering through the circumvention of Parliament by Mugabe’s excessive abuse of his presidential powers. Analysts said Mugabe’s continued use of the police to harass and torture opponents had effectively imposed a state of emergency through the backdoor. In this culture of impunity, violent threats against the country’s core democratic institutions, including the judiciary, have become commonplace.
“In almost every way, Mugabe is now running this country under an undeclared state of emergency,” said Dr. Lovemore Madhuku, a constitutional law lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ).
Madhuku, who is also chairman of the militant pressure group National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), was interviewed as he led a democracy march demanding a new constitution last week.
“Mugabe is using the Presidential Powers Act to amend existing laws and create new ones without having to put them to Parliament. The way he is operating, he does not need to declare a state of emergency,” he noted.
Mugabe has invoked his presidential powers three times this year alone. In July he signed into law a statutory instrument granting immunity to security officers, including the notorious youth militia, tasked with seizing currency and merchandise from innocent citizens. The cash search and seize operation, ostensibly aimed at crashing the black market, was widely condemned by countless human rights bodies as patently unconstitutional and illegal. But caution was thrown to the wind.
Mugabe is currently crafting a statutory instrument, which will further postpone the eagerly awaited Harare mayoral and council elections. His ruling Zanu (PF) party’s supreme decision-making body, the Politburo, has also unanimously adopted a resolution to use its two-thirds parliamentary majority to amend the constitution and delay presidential elections from 2008 to 2010.
Professor Greg Linington, a UZ constitutional law expert, said Zimbabwe was now under an unofficial state of emergency because of the way Mugabe abused his presidential powers.
“It is a very sad situation. The Presidential Powers Act enables President Mugabe to do exactly the same things he would do under the Emergency Powers Act in an official state of emergency,” said Linington.
“All regulations created by President Mugabe under the Act are unconstitutional,” said Linington, adding that he saw no reason why Zimbabwean courts should not adopt the South African constitutional court’s view of the presidential powers.
Prof. Welshman Ncube, another leading local constitutional law expert, said Mugabe was relying on the use of violence and coercive tactics to consolidate and maintain his iron-fisted 26-year rule. He said there was also a strong repressive backlash towards the opposition and its supporters in reaction to shows of discontent.
Ncube said Zimbabweans were now at the mercy of Mugabe and he could do whatever he wanted to trample on their fundamental rights.
“The Presidential Powers Act permits Mugabe to make whatever regulations he wants and even to repeal primary legislation instituted by Parliament. The safeguards against the abuse of the Act are so ineffectual as to be any safeguards at all,” said Ncube, who is also a senior official of the Mutambara-led faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Analysts said Mugabe has also increasingly circumvented Parliament, ordering troop
deployments, ruling by decree and branding critics as “terrorists.”
In the past Mugabe has used the Presidential Powers Act to pass legislation banning private radio stations and regulating other broadcast media.
The same Act has banned strikes and been used to pardon perpetrators of political violence, most of them members of his ruling Zanu (PF) party. A ruling made under the Presidential Powers Act is valid for six months before it can be turned into draft legislation and put to Parliament.
Mugabe has also used the Act to take away the rights of white farmers to facilitate his
controversial land acquisition drive for black resettlement that he conveniently used as his re-election ticket.
His government recently announced plans to bulldoze through the House legislation that will empower him to snoop on private communications of citizens.
MDC legislator David Coltart urged the international community to start planning for the consequences of Mugabe postponing the elections.
Coltart said the Harare authorities have already made it clear that they would postpone elections to 2010.
Last week, Mugabe told off U.S. President George Bush and Britain Premier Tony Blair for “lecturing” him on human rights and the rule of law.
The EU, which Mugabe has accused of being a “Goliath”, has already set in motion a process leading to the Zimbabwe crisis being put on the UN Security Council agenda.

Zim student heckles Mabuza

2006-11-10T06:15:00.001+02:00

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BY LANCE GUMA

LONDON - Lindiwe Mabuza, the South African High Commissioner to the UK, was heckled by a Zimbabwean student during her visit to Oxford University last week. Mabuza was delivering an address on the state of post apartheid South Africa at Oxford’s Exeter College when an unidentified student managed to take over the question and answer session.
The student is said to have questioned South Africa’s foreign policy in terms of its perceived success in the Ivory Coast, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and yet the Zimbabwean crisis remained unresolved. Before Mabuza could respond, the student declared, ‘I have a present I would like to give you on behalf of all Zimbabweans.’ He reached inside his satchel and produced a placard, on which “Shame on South Africa” was emblazoned.
Although the student tried to walk out of the venue the commissioner asked him to sit down so she could answer his queries. This was in stark contrast to Zuma’s outbursts in London after she was heckled and declared that Zimbabweans were busy sitting in the diaspora doing nothing. Mabuza decided to respond and said, “There has been loud diplomacy from critics of Zimbabwe other than South Africa and what has loud diplomacy achieved?”
The student quickly responded by saying, ‘And what has six years of South African quiet diplomacy achieved?’ Mabuza is said to have angrily replied “Zimbabwe is not South Africa’s tenth province, we will not send our army into Zimbabwe and neither will we apply economic sanctions because we believe Zimbabweans should solve their problems by themselves. Only Zimbabweans can solve Zimbabwe’s problems. “Zimbabweans in the Diaspora must shame South African officials whenever they are out and about making hypocritical utterances of an African Renaissance. I am calling on all of them to maintain the precedent that has been set in the last two weeks,” declared the student, believed to be a member of the activist group, Free Zim Youth. – SW Radio Africa

SA govt supports Mugabe – Leon

2006-11-10T06:15:00.000+02:00

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BY FRANCO HENWOOD

LONDON - The South African government has a de facto policy of support for the Mugabe regime said the main opposition Democratic Alliance party leader Tony Leon in London last week.
He said President Thabo Mbeki’s policy of ‘silent diplomacy’ was in reality a policy of ‘silent approval.’
“Mbeki’s own deadline for the policy to have delivered results by 2004 – the staging of free and fair multi-party elections in Zimbabwe – came and went. Mbeki’s self-proclaimed policy failed, yet his credibility survived unscathed. Why then the absence of pressure from below to make good his assurances?” said Leon.
He attributed this to a variety of factors: South Africans are weary of Zimbabwe. They perceive the crisis to be hopeless and intractable, perceptions reinforced by the MDC’s recent split. For these reasons the country has slipped off the news agenda.
Controversially, Leon noted that many South Africans question why Zimbabweans do not do more to emancipate themselves. He conceded that Mugabe was ruthless – there would be ‘cost and consequences’ for those standing up to him – but no less perhaps than borne by those resisting apartheid in the 70s and 80s.
“None of this belittles the heroic efforts to diminish the heroic efforts made by organisations like Women of Zimbabwe Arise and the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions. It is easy for those in the comfort zone to exhort those on the front line to do more,” said Leon.
In the days of the anti-apartheid struggle, those in the diaspora made a critical contribution. The disinvestment campaign which removed the apartheid regime’s financial prop was on account of massive lobbying efforts by the diaspora.
Leon said, considering the size of the Zimbabwean diaspora in South Africa, it was astonishing that Zimbabwe was off the news agenda in the one country where it ought to matter most.
“If salvation is to come from the South Africans, then it will come through the efforts of the diaspora. If the diaspora does not stir itself, then this prospect is dim indeed,” he added.
Leon acknowledged the post-apartheid government success in maintaining stable macro-economic policy, and said indications of a deepening trend towards authoritarianism and corruption in the governing ANC threatened the consolidation of post-apartheid democracy. – Franco Henwood writes in his personal capacity

Vermeulen faces arson charges

2006-11-10T06:13:00.000+02:00

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HARARE – Zimbabwean cricketer Mark Vermeulen is facing arson charges following a fire (see photo p23) which destroyed the offices and pavilion of the country's cricket academy last week.
Vermeulen, 27, who played eight Test matches and 32 one-day internationals for Zimbabwe, has been described by friends as "depressed" following a recent car accident in which he suffered serious head injuries. He also suffered head injuries after being struck by a cricket ball in two separate incidents in 2003 and 2004.
Zimbabwean police spokesman Andrew Phiri said Vermeulen was being held in
custody and was scheduled in court Friday. He could be jailed for at least
two years.
Zimbabwe Cricket, the sport's governing body, quoted witnesses saying
Vermeulen was seen near the site of the fire that razed the two-storey straw
thatched building in eastern Harare.
SW Radio Africa reporter Tichaona Sibanda said: "Vermeulen allegedly
confessed to the police that he was responsible for the attacks and was seen
on Thursday in the company of detectives at the burnt-out academy showing
them how he carried out the attack."
The fire destroyed national squad equipment including kit used by players
preparing for a trip to Bangladesh, computers and files in offices at the
pavilion. There were no reports of injuries.
In September, Vermeulen was banned from playing in England for three years after throwing a ball at and brawling with spectators. Two of the three years were suspended.
Vermeulen was rumoured to have returned to Zimbabwe to fight for a place in
the team for next year's World Cup and may have been rebuffed by officials.
He was briefly arrested last month after demanding an interview with President Robert Mugabe at his heavily guarded official residence in Harare.
"He loves cricket, and loves playing the game but he clearly looks slightly
unbalanced. He deserves our help than condemnation," said Sibanda.
* Meanwhile, the ICC looks set to re-instate Zimbabwe as a Test-playing nation next year, provided it can improve its internal structure.
The ICC said Zimbabwe could return by November 2007 if it can establish a competitive first-class domestic competition, and play several 'A' sides in the next 12 months.
The announcements came after ICC president Percy Sonn and chief executive Malcolm Speed went on a fact-finding trip to the African nation earlier this year.
Zimbabwe withdrew from Tests in January after two years of playing a second-string side because of the retirement and defection of most of its first team after Heath Streak was dismissed as captain in April 2004. – Sports reporter

Zimbabwe Vigil Diary – 28th October 2006

2006-11-10T06:10:00.000+02:00

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Vigil supporters sent out a clear message to the South African government this week: we will harass you until you stop supporting Mugabe. Both Alois and Wellington were booted out for interrupting a lecture in London on Wednesday given by the South African Foreign Minister, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. Alois said “We were sickened to hear Dr Zuma talk about international solidarity when her government is refusing to show solidarity with the persecuted people of Zimbabwe.”
We were pleased to have with us today young Tatenda Tsikire whose mother is to be released from prison just before Christmas. In the Vigil diary of 30th September, we wrote that she had been imprisoned for working with bogus papers and appealed to the British government to allow asylum seekers to work. It was a joy to watch Tatenda dancing as previously he has been so withdrawn. Congratulations to Obey – we have a new Vigil baby, his daughter, Florence. For this week’s Vigil pictures: http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw. FOR THE RECORD: 69 signed the register.

WOZA members walk free

2006-11-10T06:06:00.000+02:00

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* Officers threaten severe beatings *8th court victory

BULAWAYO - One hundred and fifty-two members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise, (WOZA) including 30 members of Men of Zimbabwe Arise, walked free from court on Tuesday. The state, represented by rosecutor, Mr Manata, withdrew charges before plea citing lack of evidence to support the case. Magistrate Msipha presided over the case.
The members were being charged under Chapter 37 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act – ‘participating in a public gathering with the intent to cause public disorder, breach of peace or bigotry’.
WOZA said the prosecutor was overheard bearing down on the state witnesses just before the trial, for writing ‘useless’ statements, which he said, were too watery and could not be used to pin down WOZA.
The frustrated Law and Order officers were later heard devising strategies to be employed to stifle future dissent by WOZA members, among which were thorough beatings to cow the members. Another officer replied saying ‘ but these do not run away, they will just sit down and wait for us to stop’.
Riot police arrested WOZA members as they were marching towards the RBZ offices where they intended to hand over an open letter to Gideon Gono. The peaceful protest started at 11am at the Post Office in Main Street. As the procession turned into Leopold Takawira St, to go to the Reserve Bank, police appeared and stopped the march, arresting the members. Over 20 members, many of them minors were subjected to different forms of torture whilst in the offices of the Law and Order Department. They were made to sit on ‘air chairs’ and beaten under their feet.
Advocate Perpetua Dube, a member of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, defended the women. This is the eighth court victory for WOZA members.
The organisation’s leadership declared it a victory for economic reforms. “By withdrawing charges against us, we take it that it is a confirmation that Gono has a case to answer. We marched to demand economic reforms not just a slashing of zeroes and we have been vindicated. You cannot criminalize the speaking of the truth. So we say once again to Gideon Gono – if you want to be a hero you must slash more than a zero!” they said. – Own correspondent

Spring has sprung in Grant Avenue!!

2006-11-01T08:40:00.000+02:00

I must say to start off, that last Sunday’s Traffic Free Day on Grant Avenue was a sign of the new times around here. Changed shop fronts and the occasional builders rubble littering the sidewalk seem to be a regular feature.

The Traffic Free day certainly made its target. According to an email I got from Marcelle Ravid, the organiser and Counciller for Ward 73 of Johannesburg, “The aim was an awareness of pedestrians rights, air and noise pollution from cars and transport issues in this being Transport Month in Johannesburg.”

As someone who actually lives on Grant Avenue, I can’t tell you what a pleasure the street was on Sunday. It looked great, chairs, tables and umbrella’s up and down the Avenue. Turnout from the Public was low, but it did give pause for thought about the possibility of doing this once a month.

As Marcell said, “Should the traders wish to do this again, the ball is now in their court, to organise themselves, raise money to do marketing and advertising and really go all out to attract people to Grant Avenue.”

But changes are afoot in Grant Avenue anyway.

Starting from the north which signalled the changes with the conversion of the Grub Store into Chuckleberrys. La Concorde, that very popular meeting spot, has just put in a whole new kichen, so their meal range has improved even more.

Further South, there are three new restaurants opening, including the renovation of Mo’s café into a Jazz bar. I’m sure that all Grant Avenue regulars will agree that the new Sunday night sound of a lonesome saxophone wailing into the street makes a welcome change from the broken bottles and street fights of the previous operation.

Its been interesting watching the conversion of the Fishmonger into a really well fitted out restaurant with open kitchen.

To make things even more exciting for jazz lover’s there is another new jazz bar, featuring a grand piano and quality food, opening up opposite Debonairs.

These last two are due to open in the next few weeks, so it looks like the festive season is going to be festive.

That will make four live music venues in the area, if you include 88 and the Radium. All kinds of jazz for all tastes.

Many people will have made their Christmas bookings already, but if you haven’t, Norwood might be a central place to meet. But do make your bookings soon for Christmas parties. Johannesburg closes for the season, as we all know, so finding a place for New Year can be tricky at the last moment.

This was emphasised to me by Dimitiri, the owner of the New York café, who will be open all of December. He’s done an amazing job of picking up the New York Café and is one of the few places that stayed open late all through winter,

Its great to say that advertising is starting to pick up on the GrantAvenue.co.za website. The New York Café and Red Carpet Movies are the most recent two advertisiers. Oh, and if you’re looking for signs that Norwood is rebuilding, check out the new extension to the RedCarpet shop.

And then I’m expecting the art work from Huizemark and Pam Stein Properties, so that’s a good sign.

Finally, a moment for unashamed website promotion. I put up a beta of a website yesterday at http://NoWellFine.2bctnd.com

NoWellFine is intended to give you more information about the Road Traffic legal situation in Johannesburg.

Did you know that about 20% of the fines written out in South Africa are incorrect and thus invalid? If you received a ticket recently, then you may want to drop by nowellfine.2bctnd.com and run a check on your ticket.

It will cost you R45 and amongst other things, we’ll check the correlation of quoted regulations, the wording of the fine and the amount of the fine. If these three don’t correlate, the ticket is invalid.

I’m fighting with my ISP’s DNS settings so haven’t got a domain up for it yet so http://NoWellFine.2bctnd.com will have to do for beta testing Use the code blog_1 for a 20% discount. And I’d really appreciate the feedback.

Enough! More news as Grant Avenue continues to wake up for the season.
Happy days
tm

New generation Hyper will anchor Norwood

2006-10-27T08:32:00.000+02:00

"The general merchandise range (products like CD’s, fridges, microwaves and electronic goods) will be improved with focus on certain categories where we have enhanced our offering. The way that the store integrates between food and general merchandise will be much improved over the current store,” said Izak, Pick 'n Pays' property director.

“We have innovated quite a lot on the food and grocery side in general, but especially on the fresh food side of the business and these innovations will come through in the new Hypermarket both in terms of range and presentation.”

In the design of the new store there will be a focus on certain categories such as health and beauty, where once again there will be an improved range and presentation.

The construction of the new centre, which will be enlarged from its current 25,000m2 to 35,000m2, will be effected in two phases, each facilitating the isolation of the construction area from the trading area of the mall and thereby minimising inconvenience to shoppers.

The first phase has commenced and will continue to August 2007 and the second phase will run from September 2007 to July 2008 when the project will be completed and the entire new centre will be open for trade."

Thanks to James of Avantu.com for the heads-up.

Coming in at #4, Kabwe, Zambia in the "World's Worst Polluted Places"

2006-10-21T01:08:00.000+02:00

So, if you think the problems of Africa are simply keeping the wildlife alive then have a look at this list. We're beyond that.

Be interested to see a comparison with Hwange or the areas around the mines of Johannesburg.

KABWE, ZAMBIA
Potentially affected people: 250,000

Type of pollutants: Lead, cadmium

Site description: Kabwe, the second largest city in Zambia is located about 150 kilometers north of the nation's capital, Lusaka. On average, children's' blood levels in Kabwe are 5 to 10 times the allowable EPA maximum. It is one of six towns situated around the Copperbelt, once Zambia's thriving industrial base. In 1902, rich deposits of lead were discovered here. Ore veins with lead concentrations as high as 20 percent have been mined deep into the earth and a smelting operation was set up to process the ore. Rich deposits of sulphide ore consisted of silicates, oxides and carbonates of lead, which averaged 34% in lead concentration. Mining and smelting operations were running almost continuously up until 1994 without the government addressing the potential danger of lead. This smelting process was unregulated during this period and these smelters released heavy metals in dust particles, which settled on the ground in the surrounding area. The mine and smelter is no longer operating but has left a city poisoned from debilitating concentrations of lead in the soil and water from slag heaps that were left as reminders to the smelting and mining era. Some of the lead concentrations in soil have been recorded at 2400 mg/kg. In one study, the dispersal in soils of lead, cadmium, copper, and zinc extended to over a 20 km circumference from the smelting and mining processes. The soil contamination levels of all four metals are higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization.

In the U.S., permissible blood levels of lead are less than10 mcg/dl. Symptoms of acute poisoning occur at blood levels of 20 and above, resulting in vomiting, diarrhea, and leading to muscle spasms and kidney damage. Levels of over ten are considered unhealthy and levels in excess of 120 can often lead to death. In some neighborhoods in Kabwe, blood concentrations of 200 or more micrograms/deciliter have been recorded in children and records show average blood levels of children range between 50 and 100 mcg/dl. Children who play in the soil and young men who scavenge the mines for scraps of metal are most susceptible to lead produced by the mine and smelter. A small waterway runs from the mine to the center of town and had been used to carry waste from the once active smelter. There is no restriction to the waterway, and in some instances local children use it for bathing. In addition to water, dry and dusty backyards of workers' houses are a significant source of contamination for the locals. One of the most common ways that workers and residents become exposed to toxic levels of lead is through inhalation of contaminated soil ingested into the lungs.

Cleanup Activity: After decades of contamination, the clean-up strategy for Kabwe is complex and in its primary stages. The first step is to educate the community about the risks of lead poisoning and their susceptibility to the pollutant. Precautionary measures have been taken in order to educate the population about the problem and to provide simple, concrete advice to avoid poison (such as to prohibit children from playing in the dirt and to rinse dust from plates and food etc.). Some areas of Kabwe require drastic remediation in which some entire neighborhoods may need to relocate.

Blacksmith has helped Kabwe's environment by establishing a local NGO, Kabwe Environmental and Rehabilitation Foundation (KERF) whose role is to bring educational services into each community with nursing support and expertise to locals as well. As a result of Blacksmith's local initiatives and involvement, the World Bank has stepped in. The Bank approved a $20 million grant to clean up the city and has just completed the scoping study that will lead to initial clean-up activity beginning in 2007.

Let them eat bark and grass.

2006-10-19T14:10:00.000+02:00

What happens when all the food has been stolen from the shelves and wholesalers?

From: egcross [mailto:egcross@africaonline.co.zw]
Sent: 19 October 2006 11:00
To: egcross@africaonline.co.zw
Subject: Arrests

There have been many arrests in Bulawayo - virtually every major wholesaler and retailer has their management in Jail this morning. The arrests seem to have been part of a sweep conducted yesterday by people who refused to identify themselves. The majority I have spoken to today suggests CIO.

The reasons given are arbitrary to say the least - at one wholesaler they found that certain items did not have shelf talkers! When the business concerned has billions of dollars in stock with a very rapid turnover that is not surprising. In another stock that was on pallets awaiting collection had no prices displayed (the product had been sold) and the manager was arrested.

Legal services are being provided by the companies concerned and all outlets are open but business is very subdued. People are angry and upset over this action.

Eddie Cross
19th October 2006

CAR FREE SUNDAY IN GRANT AVENUE, NORWOOD on 29TH OCTOBER 2006

2006-10-19T13:41:00.000+02:00

PRESS RELEASE BY COUNCILLOR MARCELLE RAVID
19TH OCTOBER, 2006

Within the framework of the City of Johannesburg’s Public Transport Month and with the support of the Norwood City Improvement District Steering Committee and the Norwood Orchards Residents Association, Grant Avenue will experience a popular international phenomenon on Sunday 29th October, 2006 when the street will be closed to vehicles and opened to people.

Car free Sundays have been successfully implemented by many cities worldwide with resultant improved air quality, reduced congestion and increased awareness of all forms of transport and pedestrian rights.

The closure will occur from 9am-5pm and will extend from William Road (excluding William) up to Iris Road. Restaurants are encouraged to place chairs, tables and umbrellas in the road for the duration of the day.

The necessary permission has been obtained for this from Metro Police by the Transportation Department of the City and will be monitored by Metro Police Officers.

“We are looking forward to heightened awareness of Norwood’s uniqueness and a wonderful sense of community on the day,” says City Councillor for the area, Marcelle Ravid. “This is also an excellent way of informing people of the hard work going on behind the scenes for the improvement of Grant Avenue when it becomes a City Improvement District, and has its own management company.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Marcelle Ravid
Councillor, Ward 73
City of Johannesburg
Cell: 084 355 0826
Tel: 728 6338
Fax: 728 6164
E-mail: mravid@axxess.co.za

Tackling the dictator

2006-10-19T11:12:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

At large with JOHN MAKUMBE

‘Presidents of classic banana republics are laughing at our senile dictator’
‘You cannot rig the economy – it operates strictly on the basis of the truth’

HARARE - Full points to the ZCTU for, once again confronting the evil regime of Robert Mugabe through the street demonstration a few weeks ago. That was a clear demonstration of courage and commitment to the freedom of all of us. It was a selfless act. There are those who think that the demonstration was not successful. I am of the view that the demonstration was highly successful because it forced the dictator to show his true colours for all to see.
I suspect that just before the demonstration there were a few local and international elements that were beginning to believe that Mugabe is not as evil as civil society and the MDC seem to portray after all. Thank God for the ZCTU demo, this fallacy was projected in graphic style. The dictator’s praise for the Zanu (PF) Repressive Police (ZRP) when he arrived back from abusing the West was so unstatesmanlike that even presidents of classic banana republics are still laughing at our senile dictator.
Having said all this, it must be admitted that there is now an urgent need for civil society to re-group and re-strategise for the purpose of effectively tackling the dictator head on. In my opinion, the ZCTU approach, which is also commonly used by the NCA, can only make but small dents to the armoury of the dictator. There has to be a revisit to that strategy in order to re-order it in relation with the current circumstances that the nation is now facing.
We must not forget, for example, that the evil regime is far more desperate now than it was only three or so years ago. Now why is that? First, the Zimbabwe economy has declined so badly that even the very rich are watching their ill-gotten wealth virtually spirited away each time Gono gets close to a microphone. I have always held the view that the economy is the fear factor that is going to knock the dictator down for six.
So how do you hit at the economy in order to hurt the dictator? Some people have argued against stay aways as ineffective. I personally think otherwise; I think in the face of a vicious dictator who has perfected the art of inflicting pain on the ruled, it is necessary to involve the people in carefully orchestrated job boycotts. This can start with one day per week for three weeks, and then escalate to two days per week for another three weeks.
The best will be a full five days of no work, no school and no public transport on the roads. This is bound to result in two major developments. First, it will get the people confident that they can defy the regime and live to tell the story. The people will begin to believe in their power once again. Second, this will send the economy into spasms of failure that the regime will hate to experience. It is essential for progressive forces to make governance of this nation a very costly affair.
The ZCTU alone, or the NCA alone cannot accomplish this difficult task. It is therefore necessary to combine forces to include all civic bodies and their memberships, all the churches, student bodies, as well as professional bodies in the stay aways. Public transport operators will have to be persuaded to keep their buses of the road on the designated days. Civil servants will have to be advised to fail to get transport to get to work.
If necessary they may have to be threatened to stay away from work. It is only after such a series of civic disobedience activities that a nationwide demonstration can be called and it will be successful. The Christian Alliance, in my view, is best placed to coordinate such a thorough national effort. Freedom is not free; there is a price to be paid. Are we willing to pay it?

A plea for Church unity

2006-10-19T11:11:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

BY NICHOLAS MKARONDA

Now that The Church has been touched by the wounds and pains of the people of Zimbabwe, it brings glory to God by being one rather than fragmented.

A group of national ecumenical church bodies comprising the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches have come together to form what they call The Church in Zimbabwe. In defining and identifying themselves, they have distinguished and disassociated themselves with what they call some Christians in Zimbabwe.
Their point of departure is that The Church has remained untouched in the current crisis facing the nation, and now The Church has come together with one voice for constructive engagement with the government of Zimbabwe in resolving the crisis. The Church distinguishes and disassociates itself from some Christians whom it accuses of destructive engagement with the government.
“The Church in Zimbabwe is only beginning to wake up to its role in the social, political and economic affairs of Zimbabwe in a more comprehensive way. As opposed to non-engagement some Christians have chosen the path of aggressive engagement or confrontation with the government. The three umbrella bodies have, however, chosen the path of constructive engagement,” says the document.
Since The Church has identified itself by naming itself, it is important that we bring to the fore some of the Christians being accused of destructive engagement with the government so that they do not remain some ghostly bodies. We have Archbishop Pius Ncube of the Roman Catholic Church in Bulawayo, the Zimbabwe National Pastors Conference, a thousand-plus forum of pastors, the Christian Alliance being convened by Bishop Levy Kadenge of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe, Women Together in Prayer for Zimbabwe, the Student Christian Movement of Zimbabwe and the churches in Bulawayo.
This response simply wants to inform The Church and its new-found allies in government and would-be allies from the international community that while The Church remained untouched by the crisis, “some Christians” have been touched for so long that they have wept like the children of Israel in Babylon when they think of Zimbabwe.
It is regrettable that The Church finds the holy anger expressed by ‘some Christians’ as destructive.
It is clear from The Church that the church in Zimbabwe is divided and polarized. One gets the sense that The Church refers to church leaders who occupy certain spaces of power and authority within the confines, structures and rigidities of the EFZ, ZCC and ZCBC; and that ‘some Christians’ refers to the powerless who have been rendered voiceless by The Church that wants to be seen as the voice of those whom it has silenced, and when these refuse to be silenced they are criminalized and demonized as destructive elements in The Church.
It is mischievous for The Church to talk about the strides of the first 15 years of Independence without reference to the orchestrated violence that was meted in Matebeleland and Midlands against unarmed and powerless civilians in search of some 120 or so dissidents. It is mischievous because at the end of the paper, The Church argues that it is in touch with people, it knows how they feel and is perhaps the only body that can represent the people. Not only was The Church quiet when these state atrocities were committed, it remained quiet even when the Catholic Commission on Peace and Justice together with the Legal Resources Foundation made public their findings of the atrocities.
My understanding of the crisis in Zimbabwe as a Christian is that of Jesus who is crucified in Zimbabwe and the challenge of the resurrection. My understanding of why Jesus was crucified in the first century is that he was (and remains) the way, the truth and the life.
As the Way, Jesus illustrates to us God’s interaction with humans and creation – he eats and lives with sinners not only to show them that God cares but to bring them to new life. Sadly, in Zimbabwe, relationships have broken down and those in dominant and powerful positions, be it the secular or the religious, propel their existence by sustaining the broken relationships.
As the Truth, Jesus reveals the omniscient God who knows that which is deep within us, pricks our conscious, lets us make our choices, but exposes those choices for what they really are. For this Jesus is crucified, but the truth in it is that God does not die because Jesus has been crucified – the truth cannot be killed.
The Life in Jesus is the vast possibilities that we have in life abundance – the possibilities of the blind seeing, the dead being raised, the deaf hearing; the resurrection itself. It is the overcoming of the forces of darkness, even where the religious institutions and powers work with secular powers as custodians of darkness.
So long as the way, truth and life are denied in Zimbabwe, Jesus is crucified. The Church that obliterates truth in Zimbabwe works not for the resurrection – it needs the Damascus experience.

WOZA in nation-wide talks with villagers

2006-10-19T11:10:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

Social justice consultations findings show rural people fed up with Zanu (PF)

‘Corruption topped the list, followed by escalating school fees and healthcare costs’

‘Our Chiefs are being used as pawns in a game of politics’

BULAWAYO - Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), last week visited Manicaland with the aim of consulting on Social Justice. The consultations are our way of finding out people’s vision of a socially just Zimbabwe. The information gathered will be compiled into a comprehensive document, the Dream Charter, and presented to the Legislature in November to serve as a guideline on how the electorate wants to be governed.

The Social Justice consultations and Dream Charter are modelled along the lines of South Africa’s Freedom Charter. This follows the realisation that unlike our SA counterparts who took the time to consult and to write down how they wanted to be governed after the attainment of independence, Zimbabweans simply waited for the freedom fighters to bring back independence but did not consult and indicate how they wanted to be governed, which has resulted in gross injustices.

Participants at our first port of call, Chimanimani Urban, said they longed for the lifestyle they used to lead in 1980 and beyond. Since then, their lives had lost all meaning due to the uncertain economic environment.

“We are failing to do the basic things that we could do in 1980 and even before independence, such as putting food on the table. Our lives now revolve around scrounging for crumbs to give to our children,” said one young mother.

They said the Legal Age of Majority Act had lost all meaning, as they had to fend for their children even up to the age of 28 because of unemployment. The old and disadvantaged, including orphans and widows, continued to receive ‘useless allowances’ or nothing from the Social Welfare Department.

Some of the concerns raised included escalating school fees and healthcare costs, but corruption topped the list.

“Corruption can only be dealt with at the core - which is at Government level. Leaders need to listen to the electorate’s grievances, we only see our leaders at election time. As for the chiefs, they have now been assimilated into the ‘corrupt breed’. They are now aligning themselves with the elite because they are now salaried and drive nice cars.

“The corruption has become so ingrained that you have to pay people to do their jobs, if you need help from the police you have to give them a ‘commission’,” said another Chimanimani resident.

The residents bemoaned the Government’s lack of transparency in allocating houses to victims of Murambatsvina.

“It’s been over a year since we lost our livelihoods to Operation Murambatsvina. We are still waiting for the government to construct the market shells they promised for informal workers. The houses we were promised under Operation Garikai have been doled out to the rich or the ‘more befitting’ such as the war veterans or the elite, and still we wait.

“The Council is now concentrating on shady deals and ostracizes the poor in the allocation of stands and land for agricultural purposes,” said another frustrated Chimanimani resident.

In Chimanimani Rural, Shinja area, participants were quite vocal, allaying a widely-held misconception that rural folk have remained staunch ruling party supporters, and are not very analytical.

The villagers demanded the right to be educated about their rights as their lives were now ruled by fear.

“We demand that we be educated about our rights. We do not know what is right or wrong in Zimbabwe any more as we are constantly being harassed. We are tired of the present leaders and need new blood, leaders who will listen to our problems and address them.

“The situation we are in right now is the same as a person who goes to bed but cannot change sides, you need to change sides and turn now and again, otherwise you wake up all sore and stiff,” said one old woman.

They complained that their chiefs were now being used as pawns in a game of political intrigue. Shinja villagers said they had become hopeless, and could longer afford to feed their families, pay school fees for their children or find any form of employment.

“Government should bring back commercial farmers so we can at least get jobs and have somewhere to buy food and send our children to school,” said another Shinja villager.

The villagers also demanded that the ruling party stop politicising food aid distribution. “If one does not hold a ZANU PF political card then they are not assured of receiving food aid, distribution should be left to the non-governmental organisations that bring aid. We also want the government to form relationships with other countries which can help us in trying times such as now,’ said another old woman.

The villagers demanded that the monetary authorities introduce ‘meaningful’ currency. Further consultations in Mutare in the Mahobo House area revealed the residents frustration with police’s heavy handedness in dealing with cross border trading. The residents agreed that in as much as cross border traders should follow certain procedures, police should be sensitive and also account for the seized goods as police end up benefiting from their toil.

“We demand our freedoms back, especially the freedom of expression. The police have now become more of ruling party spies, waiting to pounce on you if you say anything bad about the ruling party,” said a disgruntled youth.

Mutare residents also voiced their concerns about government’s neglect of health and education and the ruling party’s ‘omnipotent’ attitude.

In Nyazura, the villagers demanded that government start consulting and listening to their concerns and be tolerant of other parties and races.

“The land invasions scuttled our dreams because we were guaranteed jobs, but now we are not able to produce any food on the rocky patches that we live in. We cannot find employment elsewhere as commercial farmers were our only hope,’ said an unemployed Nyazura youth.

The villagers said they were tired of the current leadership, as it had failed to heed their problems.

“We have become ghosts in our motherland because the people that we elected to lead us have forgotten us. We should start incorporating whites in the leadership because we were better off in the colonial era, we need people with a conscience to lead us,” said one old woman.

The villagers said the government should help them start income generating projects to ease their hardships. They also denounced the use of bearer cheques and demanded proper currency.

“We are tired of using money with expiration dates, and when the currency changes we have no one to enlighten us and end up losing our money because these measures are effected without our knowledge, neither are we consulted. We want our coins back at least we could keep them safely and the money would still buy you something even after a year,’ said one elderly woman.

“We demand that some of the taxes that we are currently heaving under be removed or at least be reduced. How can we continue paying livestock tax when we are not benefiting from dipping facilities? What is that money being used for when we are being told that there is a shortage of chemicals?” Queried another villager.

They also agreed that leaders should stick to a five-year term and only be re-elected on merit to curb dictatorship tendencies.

In Kute village, in Nyamhanda Nyanga, villagers noted that the elected leadership was not serving people’s interests and demanded that more accountable leaders be allowed to take over leadership positions.

The River

2006-10-19T11:09:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

Chirundu’s border post has become a hive of activity with agricultural exports from Zambia and imports from South Africa jostling to get over the newly-built bridge that links Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The drive into Chirundu town slowly unveils organised chaos as long lines of trucks, cars and pedestrians alike seem to queue in a haphazard manner with high hopes of crossing the bridge before nightfall. It was a welcome relief when we turned away to the right of the customs entrance and after a very short sojourn into the bush found ourselves in the lush surroundings of our self-catering lodges on the banks of the river.
The noise at the border petered off into the distance as new noises, swirls and bubbles, claimed our senses. We gazed across the mighty Zambezi at a pod of hippos wallowing blissfully near a sandbank, oblivious to our arrival. As we contemplated how we would spend our first afternoon in Chirundu our combined thoughts went to a well-packed cooler box and secondly to making up the tiger rods.
Not long afterwards three boats boasting an assortment of live bates, lures and spinners, not to mention a fine selection of local beers, were being carried by the rivers’ perpetual current from fishing spot to fishing spot. Day 1 produced a spectacular sunset but not many fish. Nevertheless, the fishing would begin in earnest the next day and for now the sunset was waiting to be enjoyed to the full.
The mornings that followed began before first light around 5:30am. Three boats, as if on an imaginary starting grid, roared off in different directions to see who would catch the elusive tiger fish. A congregation each lunch time much further down the river would reveal the spoils so far and then a weigh-in at camp would determine the winners who enjoyed bragging rights until the next day.
The only sad part of the trip was to learn that the wildlife authorities had, without proper preparation or much thought, culled elephant that were a well-known attraction for visitors to the camps in the area. The elephants would make regular visits during the night and wander close by in front of the chalets. While the cull would have fed hungry families the authorities would not have realised the impact that the loss of tourists, and tourists spending their money in Zimbabwe and not Zambia, could have made on the local community.
Each day on The River is unique. The trip home had us recalling the sights, sounds, the wildlife and the fishing - we almost felt guilty for enjoying the holiday as much as we did when comparing it to the cost. Throughout our holiday the people we met relayed stories of the ‘good old days’ when tourists made them a good living. Those people are still there, still trying to make that living, and we will definitely be back next year to support them.
info@venues4africa.com
www.venues4africa.com

Campsites on the River
There are a number of exclusive campsites situated along the Zambezi River. The camps are for the visitor who seeks solitude and who wants to experience in full the wildness and challenges of the bush. With each Mana Pools Camp there is a braai stand and rudimentary toilet. Water is collected from the river or the reception office.
Visitors to these sites need to be fully self-equipped and be able to handle the remoteness and solitude of these unique camps. The camps are only allowed two vehicles and 12 persons per stay. Mucheni is eight kilometres west of Nyamepi and has four secluded camp sites. Nkupe is just over one kilometre east of Nymepi and has one camp site. East of the car park is Ndungu which has two campsites. Gwaya is short distance upstream from the lodges has one campsite, with cold-water shower, flush toilet and basin and a braai stand.

There are also two completely wild camping sites located in the southern sector of the Park close to Chitake Spring, near the foothills of the Zambezi Escarpment. The check-in point for these camps is at Nyakasikana Gate. Both campsites are without any facilities and are accessible only with four-wheel drive vehicles.

The Chitake Camps are located 150 metres downstream from the Chitake River crossing under a large Natal Mahogany near the river. The second Chitake Camp is situated on top of a small hill near a number of baobab trees and has a magnificent view south to the escarpment, north to the far off Zambezi, east to Mangangai and west to the Rukomechi River. The camp is about one kilometre from the spring.

To book any of these camps speak to Amy on +2634706109 or email venues@yoafrica.com today.

Overview of the cabinet

2006-10-19T11:08:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

BY MIKE ROOK

Under the stewardship of Zimbabwe’s 27 cabinet ministers listed below, the country has become a total basket case:
Emmerson Mnangagwa, General Nyambuya, Didymus Mutasa, Joseph Made, Stan Mudenge, Nicholas Goche, Paul Mangwana, Oppah Muchinguri, Rugare Gumbo, Flora Buka, Kembo Muhadi, Francis Nhema, Herbert Murerwa, Sydney Sekeramayi, Munacho Mutezo, Tichaona Jokanya, Ignatious Chombo, Amos Midzi, Patrick Chinamasa, Chris Mushawe, Sithembiso Nyoni, Elliot Manyika, Olivia Muchena, Webster Shamu, Josiah Tungamirai, David Parirenyata, Aeneas Chigwedere,
Despite shocking track records this gang of 27 cling on to power and its accompanying privileges without shame or conscience, hoping against hope that accountability will forever escape them in this world and the next.
The excessive employment packages for these elevated and ineffective decision makers cost struggling Zimbabwean tax payers billions of dollars annually, and their jaunts outside the country gobble up an abundance of scarce foreign exchange, that would be better utilised importing inputs to repair broken-down essential strategic services.
In an environment of hunger, unemployment and unaffordable education and basic health care, what do they do to justify their super elitist lifestyles?
Perhaps a brief comment on each ministry would shed some light on the matter.
Emmerson Mnangagwa, Rural Housing and Social Amenities: Emmerson’s task has been awesome. Due to the disgraceful debacle of Murambatsvina in the urban areas he has had to redouble his efforts to ensure adequate housing and social amenities for the thousands of homeless victims relocated to the countryside. This exercise is running way behind schedule.
General Nyambuya, Energy and Power development: I wonder if the old war horse has a job description to help him fathom the meaning of what is rather an ambiguous title. In the meantime it is apparent that his interpretation of responsibilities is to energetically support government in retaining power at all costs.
Didymus Mutasa, National Security - an excellent track record of discouraging any form of national security breaches, such as legitimate opposition and dissent, by condoning public beatings and arbitrary detentions.
Joseph Made, Agriculture - the clown prince amongst his peers. It has to be said that if his crop forecasts turned out to be even a close call Zimbabwe would once again be responsible for food security within the SADCC region.
Stan Mudenge, Higher and Tertiary Education: unfortunately for Stan his portfolio is now almost defunct. To enter tertiary and higher learning one first has to pass through primary and secondary school and in today’s Zimbabwe most parents do not have the wherewithal to manage even the basic charges levied by the educational authorities.
Paul Mangwana, State Enterprises monopolies, Anti Corruption. What a mouthful. Paul must be a busy man, particularly as the government has a monopoly on its tenure of office, and bearing in mind that most of the state enterprises are corrupt.
Oppah Muchinguri, Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development: women of Zimbabwe arise, Oppah is there for you. Gender sensitivity is not one of her strong points and the infamous Murambatsvina must have been a devastating blow to her credibility.
Rugare Gumbo, Economic Development: it’s mission impossible for Rugare.
Flora Buka, State Affairs responsible for Land and Resettlement Programme: a very popular member of cabinet is Flora. Just ask any of her honourable colleagues who are comfortably resettled on confiscated commercial farms.
Kembo Muhadi, Home Affairs: Where most countries are struggling to contain immigration, he struggles to contain emigration. He has to be congratulated in achieving his objective by ensuring the unavailability of Zimbabwe passports.
Francis Nhema, Tourism; Francis has two big advantages in his favour. The first is the Victoria Falls and the second is a totally devalued local currency.
Herbert Murerwa, Finance: not too stressful as his ministry has been taken over by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
Sydney Sekeramayi, Defence: defending the indefensible makes his job that much more difficult.
Munacho Mutezo, Water Resources and Infrastructural Development: concerning water resources the vagaries of El Nino must cause Munacho sleepless nights. When he discovers that infrastructural development actually means the basic organisation of a country’s large scale public systems he may just throw in the towel.
Tichaona Jokanya, Information and Publicity: this responsibility is somewhat of a conundrum for Tichaona. However he has grasped the mettle by sorting out exactly what information is politically correct, and censoring or closing down everything else. His astute philosophy is that bad publicity is better than no publicity at all.
Ignatious Chombo, Local Government: Ignatious has had a very fruitful term of office accomplishing the very difficult task of removing elected mayors and councillors, and replacing them with incompetent lackeys.
Amos Midzi, Mines: Amos is not one to be left out of acquisition. Like his counterpart in agriculture he has overseen government take over of profitable mining companies, causing dampening of international investment and the halting of large in-flows of foreign exchange.
Patrick Chinamasa, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs - he has a habit of often wearing fashionable designer shades, resulting in problems reading the small print buried in legal documents. He must be forgiven for his controversial interpretation of various points of law.
Chris Mushowe, Transport and Communications: his job is to ensure a viable and cost effective system of transportation for the movement of people and supplies. He must be out of the country on long leave. Otherwise he’d be aware of insufficient busses, an archaic and broken down railway system, and a national airline on the verge of collapse.
Sithembiso Nyoni, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises: Sithembiso has succeeded in ensuring that any enterprises in Zimbabwe are not only small to medium but insignificant.
Elliot Manyika, Minister without Portfolio – spend his time trying to discover exactly what he is supposed to do, and in the meantime he thanks his lucky stars every time his generous pay and allowances are deposited into his bank account.
Olivia Muchena, Science and Technology: a crucial portfolio, ensuring that the latest techniques are in place to jam the airways.
Webster Shamu, Policy Implementation: a tricky one for Webster as most policies are watered down or never implemented.
Josiah Tungamirai, Indigenisation and Empowerment: well-paid jobs for the boys is Josiah’s forte, with the proviso of course they slavishly support the ruling party.
David Parirenyatwa, Health: with run down hospitals, understaffed clinics, shortages of essential drugs, and highly inflated medical consultation charges, David is in the doldrums.
Aeneas Chigwedere, Education Sport and Culture: to say the least Aeneas is somewhat confused. He has serious problems understanding simple mathematics. This is aptly illustrated by his continuous directives to private schools ordering them to reduce income to below expenditure.
For Blair Bush and the European Union to implement targeted sanctions against these honourable ministers is in my opinion counter productive. It would improve Zimbabwe’s economy and the shocking performance of the country’s Executive if they were invited to attend educational tours of London’s Houses of Parliament, Washington’s Senate, and the EU head quarters in Brussels.

State media blames business sector

2006-10-19T11:07:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

By Our Correspondent
HARARE – Using its well-tried technique of turning cause and effect on its head, the state-run media reported the continuing spate of price increases as if businesses were to blame, instead of pinning consumers’ misery on the root cause – hyperinflation.
The Herald, for example, reported approvingly and unquestioningly on the regime’s planned enforcement of a price controls, with no mention of course that previous attempts had simply resulted in acute commodity shortages.
Spot FM, another regime mouthpiece, blandly reported the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) saying that the cost of a “family basket” rose from $96 000 in August to $112 000 in September. There was no testing of this against soaring prices.
“Instead, it just reported CCZ as planning to introduce a new ‘Tsaona Basket’ (Crisis Basket) that would contain fewer products a family of six would need monthly for basic survival without quizzing the logic of the move or explaining how it would translate into bringing food to the tables of the consumers,” the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) said in its report covering Oct. 2 – Oct. 8.
To add to the distortion, the state press generally portrayed the authorities as “championing the cause of the consumers in the face of profiteering by businesses,” the monitors added.
However, in a rare display of openness The Herald and The Chronicle reported the Parliamentary Legal Committee on Budget and Finance expressing concern over the worsening economic problems, saying the authorities had failed to curb inflation, and that they “just narrated the woes besetting the country … without proferring solutions.”
The private media, in contrast, blamed the distress on the regime’s policies. The Gazette, The Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard all reported another key development: a sudden plunge in the value of the local currency by nearly 100 percent against international currencies, triggering more price increases.
State media ignored this: but ZTV in its Financial Highlights went one better and misled its audience. “The Zimbabwe dollar against key currencies on the official market,” it said, adding “no notable changes were recorded in most key currencies as low volume exports failed to move the greenback above the $250 mark.”
Censorship by the state media characterised continuing coverage of the case of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) leaders beaten up in police cells after attempting to demonstrate. Not a single state mouthpiece reported court criticism of the police’s failure to investigate the brutal assaults.
However, the private media, including Studio 7, New Zimbabwe.com, The Financial Gazette and Zimdaily reported magistrate William Bhila criticizing the police for failing to produce a report he had ordered three weeks earlier on the beatings. Instead, the police produced affidavits saying they had used “minimum force.” The magistrate deferred the case and ordered the Criminal Investigations Department to investigate.
No mention either in the state media of the report by the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights saying the trade unionists’ injuries were consistent with torture and brutal beatings.
Similarly censored were the arrests of university students and teachers’ union leaders and the eviction and demolition of Porta Farm settlers’ homes.
MMPZ was critical of the coverage of the disputed Chikomba and Rushinga by-elections by both the state and private media. The state media simply covered Zanu (PF) approvingly, while the private showed sparse interest, devoting just 10 stories to the elections.

Sports news from The Zimbabwean

2006-10-19T11:06:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

PSL roundup

HARARE – Harare side Motor Action once again failed to take advantage of
Highlanders' slip up when they were held to a 0-0 draw by Lancashire Steel
in a Premier Soccer League match at Baghdad Stadium in Kwekwe on Sunday.

With Highlanders only managing a 2-2 draw with Railstars in a city derby at
Barbourfields Stadium, Motor Action failed to capitalize and close the gap
on the struggling log leaders.

Highlanders came back from behind to lead Railstars 2-1 at some point but
the city rivals came back strongly to equalise with a few minutes to go to
full time.

Elsewhere, Shooting Stars continued to struggle and are now in real danger
of being relegated after they were beaten 4-2 by Hwange at the Colliery.

Hwange raced into an early 2-0 lead only for Shooting Stars to come back
strongly to level the scores early in the second half.

But the pressure from the home team proved too much and they succumbed to
two late goals. In Zvishavane, Moses Chunga continued to struggle at the helm of champions CAPS when the Harare giants were soundly beaten 2-0 by relegation candidates Shabanie Mine at Maglas Stadium.

The defeat comes soon after CAPS were knocked out of the CBZ Cup by Division
One side, Lengthens, piling the pressure on the former Dynamos coach.

Harare giants Dynamos virtually sent Zimbabwe Saints to Division One with a
commanding 4-1 win at Rufaro Stadium.

In Gweru, Chapungu edged Monomotapa 1-0 at Ascot Stadium while Buymore beat
Masvingo United 2-1 at Gwanzura Stadium on Saturday. – ZimOnline

19 oct p 23 sports shorts
Bhasera is ‘dirty player’
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe under-23 and Maritzburg Football Club tough tackling defender, Onismo Bhasera, was last week labelled the “dirty player”, who commits most tackles and fouls in the South African premiership.
According to results for ratings of players and coaches made available to CAJ News this week and conducted last month, Bhasera, was the second worst dirty defender in the entire SA premiership after Dominic Isaacs of Cape Town Ajax, with 10 points from the panellists.
Isaacs tops the premiership league log with 13 points. Among other rough players listed on the top five for fouling strikers comprise Brett Evans (Ajax), Robert Ngambi of Leopards and Nathan Paulse of Ajax, a sad development that painted the Cape Town based soccer side with some dirty playing tactics in the field of play.
But it is the Zimbabwe under-23 international defender, whose hard tackling tactics and toughness at the back for Maritzburg that has caused so many tongues wagging.
In a match witnessed by CAJ News in Germiston against Moroka Swallows, Bhasera, was the fierce defender to beat each tine the opposition strikers were attacking the Maritzburg goal area.
Strikers could be seen thinking twice before taking on the Zimbabwe international under-23 right back. Bhasera’s dangerous and crude tackles earned him the name “Bad Boy” with more than 10 fouls in less than seven premiership outings. – CAJ News

Clubless coaches abound in Jozi
JOHANNESBURG - Three former Zimbabwe soccer coaches, now residing in South Africa, have started the season clubless.
They are former Zimbabwe Warriors and Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, former Warriors and Nigeria head coach Clemens Wseterhof and Zoran Pesic of Yugoslavia.
Before coming to South Africa, Pesic briefly coached the then flamboyant and former Castle Lager Premier Soccer League Champions of Zimbabwe, AmaZulu Football Club of Bulawayo, but is battling to find a club to coach in the South African premiership.
Grobbelaar, a Zimbabwe international goalkeeper, who once coached the Durban- based Umtata Bush Bucks, but was sacked when the club was demoted to the less fashionable Mvela Golden Division One League.
The former Zimbabwe coaches have joined a list of other demoted or fired South African coaches for producing poor results whilst others could insist that they were not given much room to prove their mettle.
Among other coaches, described as the PSL coaches on the wings, are Ted Dumitru, Paul Dolezar, Walter Rautmann, former South African’s Bafana Bafana captain Neil Tovey, who was recently relieved of his duties by South Africa Premiership defending champions, Sundowns.
Other clubless coaches include Trott Moloto, Angel Cappa, Miguel Gammondi and many others. - CAJ news

Warrior’s goalie butter fingers?

JOHANNESBURG - As Zimbabwe’s senior soccer squad intensifies it battle to win the sole ticket to the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations soccer finals in Ghana and Nigeria, it emerged that one of their dependable goalkeepers, Energy Murambadoro is not as reliable as we all believe.
Murambadoro has been described in the South African Premiership league as one of the five goalkeepers with “worst-to-save-shot” hands.
The former CAPS United goalminder, who is presently plying his trade at Benoni Football Club in South Africa, has been rated among the worst goalkeepers in the SA premiership.
Among the five poor goalkeepers, with the worst save-to-shot popularly known as “butterfinger” comprise Zimbabwe’s Murambadoro, Andre Petim of Ajax, Rowen Fernandez of Kaizer Chiefs, Wayne Roberts and Jason Barnad of Santos Football Clubs respectively.
The Benoni and Zimbabwe international goalkeeper is rated the third worst goalkeeper in the entire premiership after Petim and Roberts. The vote, conducted by the popular monthly magazine, Soccer-Laduma, described five other goalkeepers as the safe hands in the premiership.
They are Lawrence Ncala of AmaZulu, Denis Onyango of SuperSport, Aime Kitenge of Maritzburg, Calvin Marlin of Sundowns and Kakonje Kalilo of Golden Arrows respectively.
Zimbabwe, who badly needs safest hands as the Warriors are battling to sail through to the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations finals scheduled for Ghana, needs good goalkeepers such as young and acrobatic Kundai Mutasa, who is in Qatar and the likes of Tafadzwa Dube of Masvingo United and Lancashire Steel’s Washington Arubi.
Soccer analysts have argued that Murambadoro, was now a spent force in as far as competitive football league is concerned. - CAJ News

2 Chelsea keepers crocked
BY JOHN HUGHES

LONDON - Two star Chelsea goalkeepers, Petr Cech and substitute Carlo Cudicini, were stretchered off and taken to hospital with head injuries during a tempestuous 1-0 Premiership victory at Reading. Cech underwent surgery for a depressed fracture of the skull, Cudicini left the pitch wearing an oxygen mask. Two other players, one from each side, were sent off and 18 minutes' stoppage-time was added.

Manchester United stay top of the table on goal-difference from Chelsea after coming from behind to win 3-1 at Wigan. Alan Pardew, the West Ham manager, admiited after a sixth straight defeat, 2-0 at Portsmouth, that "any manager in this situation would feel a certain amount of fear for his job."

Juan Pablo Angel, the Aston Villa striker, endured a personal nightmare in a 1-1 home draw with Tottenham. The Colombian missed a penalty, then headed into his own net two minutes later to gift Tottenham the lead.

West Bromwich, boosted by Kevin Phillips' hat-trick, cruised to a 5-1 Championship success at Ipswich in caretaker-manager Nigel Pearson's last match as West Brom caretaker-manager before handing over to new boss Tony Mowbray. Cardiff top the table after winning 2-1 at Crystal Palace.

In the Scottish Premier, Japan's Shunsuke Nakamura hit a hat-trick in leaders Celtic's 4-1 win at Dundee United. Second-placed Hearts lie second after coming from two goals down to draw 2-2 in the Edinburgh derby at Hibernian, but once-mighty Rangers are 10 points off the pace after crashing 1-0 at home to modest Inverness.

* Manchester United's home clash with Liverpool on Sunday is the big weekend match in England. North of the Border, Celtic host lowly Motherwell on Saturday.

19 oct p 24 sport

When sport mirrors politics

BY BRUCE ALLARDYCE

A few weeks ago Sean Ervine’s bowling secured promotion for Hampshire in the Pro40 competition, Murray Goodwin’s 1649 runs helped win the County Championship for Sussex and Andy Flower not only topped the Essex batting averages, but was instrumental in securing Essex a successive Pro40 title. Factor in Heath Streak’s efforts with both bat and ball for Warwickshire and you get a picture of the success the former Zimbabwean test players have experienced on the county circuit.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe conceded 418 runs in the 3rd ODI against South Africa, and went on to lose by 171 runs. More recently they were bowled out by the West Indies for 85 runs in the ICC Trophy, were chased down inside 15 overs and dropped catches along the way. This result typifies the story of Zimbabwean cricket over the last 5 or so years.

During this time the administrators of the game in Zimbabwe have managed to display the same lack of unity, professionalism and morality that has dogged the politics of the country, with a combination of death threats, alleged racism in the selection policy and infighting resulting in a domestic game that now resembles a game of garden cricket in terms of quality and organization.

In a country where the political situation is in a state of perpetual chaos, cricket is in danger of being run into the ground by politically motivated administrators, who seem determined to ruin what was effectively a well-maintained sport with a healthy domestic cup. There is still enough public interest to successfully promote the game in a country where there is little to cheer at the moment. There is as much democracy being displayed among the suits of Zimbabwe Cricket as there is being displayed bythe Mugabe regime.

Since the rebel players left the squad the team has struggled, lost its test status, suffered a further exodus of quality players such as Tatenda Taibu and Andy Blignaut and has seen a number of young players being blooded into the world of international cricket. Look at the statistics and the word blooded should read bloodied, as since 2004 Zimbabwe have not won a test and have won a handful of ODI’s against Bangladesh, which hardly counts as progress, but is seen as a major accomplishment considering the age and experience of the current squad.

Players as young as 17 have been thrust into the international scene and have been carted around the park when bowling, had their techniques exposed when batting and have been on the end of some huge defeats. That cannot be good for any cricketer, especially a high-school leaver with practically no experience.

The future of cricket in Zimbabwe lies with the young kids in the high density suburbs who want to emulate the success of former captain Tatenda Taibu, batsman Hamilton Masakadza and all-rounder Elton Chigumbura. Established international cricketers who have expressed a desire to return to the Test arena, such as Andy Flower and Heath Streak, could only benefit the local game and add stability to a team whose average age is 21. But time is running out for them as the current administration shows no sign of changing.

The problem is that no-one at the ICC is prepared to get involved. Let’s face it, why should they? Cricket in Zimbabwe is often seen as the past time of privileged, usually white, beneficiaries of private school education. Whilst this is no longer true, it is still a game requiring specialist coaching, expensive equipment and a lot of commitment from the player from a young age. All of this in a country with the lowest life expectancy in the world, 80% unemployment and 1000% inflation? The ICC is not in the business of regime change.

What could the ICC possibly do? Completely ban Zimbabwe from ever playing Test Cricket again? New Zealand took 26 years and 45 matches to win its first test. Zimbabwe took 3 years. Should they revoke their ODI status? No-one is talking about banning Bangladesh based on results are they? Any complete ban would surely kill the game off for good. Mixing sports and politics is recipe for disaster, and while the administrators continue their mismanagement and power struggles, the players are left with the fact that they are considered a walkover by most teams.

VaMangwana vopomemera vanyori mhosva yokutengesa

2006-10-19T11:05:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

HARARE - Vakambomiririra gurukota rezvekuburitswa kwemashoko, VaPaul Mangwana vanoti zita rehurumende riri kusvibiswa nevatapi mukati menyika nekunze vasina gwara uye vanopiwa twumari nemasangano erubatsiro.
Vachitaura, pamusangano wakaendwa nevatapi vashoma vaibva kumakambani emapepanhau akazvimirira wakaitirwa mukirabhu yevatapi venhau - Quill Club, VaMangwana vakati vatapi venhau vainyanya kuda kunyora zvakaipa nezveZimbabwe.
Vakavayambira kuti kunyora kwavo kwaikanganisa magariro munyika.
"Vatapi venhau vanofurirwa nemakambani emapepanhanu anowana mari kubva kunze kwenyika vachida kuti nyika irambe iri muhapwa menyika dzekumavirira.
Ivo vatapi vakavaudzawo kuti hapana munyori angaenda kunonyora nyaya yemanyepo akasawanikwa aine mhosva, nyanyenyanye nemitemo mitsva yakaiswa nehurumende yokuti anonyora zvemanyepo mumapepanhau anosungwa.
Chokwadi ndechekuti hurumende inozvisheedzera kunyorwa zvakaipa nokuda kwayo kutyora kodzero dzevanhu nekodzero dzavo dzokuva nezvinhu kana mabhizimusi.
Asi VaMangwana vakaramba vachiti: "Hurumende yakagadza Media and Information Commission yaona kuti kuburitswa kwemashoko, seimwe nzira yekubatsira hutongi, hakwaifanirwa kungosiiwa vanhu vachiita zvavanoda.
Sachigaro weCommission yacho, vaTafataona Mahoso, vakabvunzwa kuti vakavharireyi mamwe mapepanhau vakashaya zvokutaura ndokubva vatiza vachibuda mumusangano wacho.

MaZimba Azara kuMozambique nenhamo.

(Desperate Zims flood Mozambique)

MUTARE - Mapepanhau ekuMozambique akaburitsa kuti mhomho dzevanhu vekuZimbabwe dzave kuenda kuMozambique kunotenga mafuta edzimotokari nezvimwe zviri kushaikwa.
MuZimbabwe muri kushaikwa zvinhu uye upfumi hauchina kumira zvakanaka, zvichisanganisira kushaikwa kwemari yekunze.
"Tave kuona maZimba akawanda achiuya kuzotenga mafuta edzimotokari nezvimwewo zviwanikwa nokuda kwekuipa kwaita zvhinhu munyika," vakadaro gavhuna veManica province kuMozambique, VaSoares Nhaca.
Vakati kunyanya kutenga kuri kuita maZimba kwava kutokonzera kushaikwa kwemafuta muManica, asi idambudziko raigadzirika haro.

(Violence corruption mar run-up to elections)

Kurohwa nehuwori zvokanganisa sarudzo

KADOMA - Zvinonzi vanhu vakawanda vekunze vari kunyoreswa kuti vazovhota musarudzo yameya weKadoma, asi mutemo uchiti vagari vemo chete ndivo vanofanirwa kuvhota.
Zvakawonekwa kuti veZanu (PF) vari pasi peKadoma Rural District Council vari kunyoresa kuzovhota musarudzo yemusi waOctober 28.
Meya weZanu (PF) aripo iko zvino, VaFani Phiri, vari kukwikwidzana naVaJonas Ndenda veMovement for Democratioc Change inotungamirwa naVaMorgan Tsvangirai. VaNdenda vaimboshandira minisiparati yeKadoma.
Mumwe ane ruzivo akati vagari vemuKadoma vari kunzi vanyorese kuzopiwa mapurazi munzvimbo dzakatenderedza guta.
Uye kurohwa nekusungwa kwevanhu vanotevera bato rinopikisa reMDC kwakatotanga.– SW Radio Africa

(Govt loses millions as tobacco bartered for fuel)

Hurumende yorasikirwa, fodya ichitengwa nemafuta edzimotokari

HARARE - Hurumende iri kurasikirwa nemari yekunze yakawanda nokuda kwokuti varimi vefodya vave kunotenga mafuta edzimotokari kuSouth Africa vachishandisa fodya yavo iyo yaiwanzotengwa nemari yekunze, hurumende yowana mari yekunze.
Gurukota rehupfumi, VaHerbert Murerwa, vakati hapana zvakadaro zviri kuzobvumirwa kuitika: “Fodya yose inotengwa nevatengi vari mu"A class" rinobhadharwa nemadhora ekuUnited States. Vasina madhora ekuUS vanobatsirwa kutenga neMemorandum of Deposit yavakaisirwa. Vakati gore rino hakuna zvekutengesa fodya murimi achipiwa zvimwe zvinhu.
Vaitaura kuvatengesi vefodya svondo rakapera..
Hurumende yakambobvumira kuti varimi vatengese vachiwana mafuta gore rakapera, asi izvi zvakaonekwa zvichishaisa hurumende mari nokuti hazvaizobuda pachena kuti kutengeserana kwacho kwakafamba sei.
VaJohn Chiweshe, veTobacco Merchants Association, vakati nhengo dzavo dzakange dzisingaiti zvekutengesa vachipiwa mafuta, asi vamwe vazivi vaiti mashefu emuhurumende ndiwo akange achiita izvi.

Children starving, warns UN

(Vana vofa nenzara)

HARARE - Vana vari kufa uye vamwe vachatofa vakawanda kana pakashaikwa rubatsiro nekukurumidza, sangano renyika dzepasi rose rinoona nezvevana (UNICEF) rakataura.
Sangano iri rakaona kuti vana vane makore ari pasi pematanhatu vazhinji vano vanorwara nekushaya chikafu kunyanya mumaguta.
“Vana vari kufa, uye tikasasimudzira mabasa edu avo vasina utano hwakanaka vachatangawo kufa, " vakadaro VaGerry Dyer, mutungamiri wehofisi yeUNICEF iri kuJohannesburg inoona zvekuchamhembe kweAfrica. .
Ongororo yavo yakabata vana 50,000 uye ndiyo ongoro hurasa yati yamboitwa yerudzi urwu, asi haina kutaura kuti vana vakatofa vangani.
Zimbabwe ndiyo yaisimbobatsira dzimwe nyika nechikafu, asi kusanaya zvakanaka kwemvura nekutorerwa minda kwevachena uko kwakaita kuti minda mikuru irare zvayo kana kuti irimwe padikidiki seminda yemumaruzevha, ndiro dambudziko.
Vebato rinopikisa nevemasangano ekodzero vanoti hurumende yavaMugabe iri kushandisa chikafu mukutsvaga mavhoti asi ivo vanhu zviuru vakatarisana nenjodzi yakaomesesa yenzara.

(WOZA in nation-wide talks with villagers)

WOZA yopinda mumaruwa

BULAWAYO - Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) yakapinda muManicaland svondo rakapera kuti inzwe kubva kuvanhu kuti vangade Zimbabwe yakaita sei, zvavanowana imomo zvozopiwa kudare reParamende kuti hurumende izive kutonga kunoda vanhu.

Vanhu paChimanimani vakati vaida hupenyu hwavaiva nahwo kumakore ekuma1980, kwete iko zvino.

“Iko zvino tiri kutadza kuita zvinhu zvataisatombofunga kuti tingatadza kuma1980, kana tisati tatombowana rusununguko, sekushaya chikafu. Iko zvino hupenyu hwedu hwangove hwekutsvagiridza chikafu kuti vana vadye," vakadaro vamwe amai.

Vakati mutemo wokuti mwana anonzi akura kana ave nemakore 18 hausisina basa nokuti vachangoramba vachiriritira kusvika vana vacho vava kutosvitsa makore makumi matatu nokuda kwekushaya mabasa.
Chembere nenherera hapana chadzichawana, idzo mari dzechikoro dzichingokwira pamwe chete nemari dzekunorapwa.

Huori ndechimwe chinhu chikuru chanetsa. “Huori hunogona kubviswa chete kana hwaita zvekudzipurwa padzinde rinova ndiyo hurumende. Vatungamiri vanofanirwa kuteerera zvido zvevanhu, kwete kungovaona pasarudzo chete. Iwo madzishewo apinzwawo muhuori nokuti vave kupiwa mari vachifamba nedzimotokari dzakanaka.

“Huori hwapindiridza zvokuti vanhu votobhadharwa kuita basa ravo ravanga vagara vachibhadharwa, kana mapurisa chaiwo!" akadaro mumwe mugari wekuChimanimani achichema-chemawo zvekare nekusatsarukana kwekupiwa dzimba kwakaitwa vanhu mushure mekunge dzimba dzavo dzaparadzwa paMurambatsvina.
“Kwatopera gore kubva patakapazirwa misika yedu, asi takangomirira zvatakavimbiswa nehurumende kuvakirwa mimwe. Dzimba dzatakavimbiswa dzeOperation Garikai dzakatopihwa vanadzo kare kana mawovheti nevamwe vanozivikanwa neZanu ( PF),” akadaro mumwe mugari.

KwaShinja WOZA yakavawana vanhu vainyatsotaura zvaishamisa kuti vanhu vanoti vagari vekumaruwa havatsoropodzi hurumende, kana kuti vose vanotevera Zanu (PF) kana kuti havaoni. Vaitochemera kodzero yavo yefundo nezvekodzero dzavo uye kuti vasagara vachitongwa nekutyisidzirwa.

Vaitiwo madzishe avo haachina basa sezvo vakachekwa muswe neZanu(pf) uye ivo havachagoni kuriritira vana vavo. Vamwe vaiti dai varimi vemapurazi makuru vadzoka kuti vanhu vawane mabasa. - WOZA

SA labour body to show Mbeki ZCTU torture video

2006-10-19T11:03:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

SA labour body to show Mbeki ZCTU torture video
BY VIOLET GONDA

JOHANNESBURG Recent video footage showing last month’s brutalisation of labour leaders by the police has sent shock waves around the world. The footage which was shown recently on BBC 2’s Newsnight programme in the UK was also released in South Africa this week by the Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA). Leader of the federation Mary Malete is reported to have said she would use the footage to urge President Thabo Mbeki to break his silence on Zimbabwe after giving him the film.

Analysts say the planned demonstrations by the ZCTU might have failed to take of but succeeded in exposing the large-scale repression in Zimbabwe. The labour movement was demonstrating for a better standard of living and working conditions.

Meanwhile Pat Craven the spokesperson of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said his trade union is in full support of this initiative and will also be sharing the video around for South Africans to see the extent of the crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

He said; “It is absolutely shocking to see the way in which the police attacked a group of peaceful trade union demonstrators who were trying to organise a march on issues of unemployment and poverty. We had already heard many reports (of the beatings) but seeing it on video really brought home the appalling brutality of the Mugabe regime.”

Craven said what was worse was Mugabe’s statements after he returned to Zimbabwe where he said the labour leaders deserved everything they got for demonstrating against his policies. “And so I hope this will bring to the attention of the world the serious attack on basic trade union rights which is being perpetrated by the government of Zimbabwe.” – SW Radio Africa

Industry grinds to a halt

2006-10-19T11:02:00.000+02:00

http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Tel/Fax: 02380 879675
General: 07714736382
P O Box 248, Hythe, SO45 4WX, United Kingdom

BY EDDIE CROSS

I went into a tyre dealer this week to have the front wheel alignment on
a truck checked. The staff were all sitting in the reception, the manager on
the forecourt and not a customer in sight. I was attended to and in 30
minutes was able to drive out with a much-improved steering performance on
the 8 tonne truck.

The Manager said to me: “We are so quiet that we wonder how much longer we
can carry on like this.” The city certainly was quiet – very little traffic
and I did not have to wait or queue anywhere. Great for me – not so great
for the business managers I was dealing with.

Yesterday, after leaving Hwange once the game count was over, we travelled
north to meet MDC leaders in the town of Hwange. This town is a large
rambling place, typical of company towns all over the world. Two geologists
working for Cecil Rhodes first pegged coal here in the late 1800’s. It has
three main reasons for being – the coal mines themselves, a large 840
megawatt coal fired power station built before Independence in 1980 and some
ovens used to produce coke and asphalt for the roads.

As we arrived and climbed the hill overlooking the mines and the power
station I immediately noticed that the power station was not working. No
smoke or steam from the stacks and the cooling towers. At the meeting I
asked a senior official what was happening? He told me the conveyor for coal to the power plant is broken down and they did not have sufficient equipment to keep the plant supplied by other means.

Now that is a disaster – to stop a coal-fired power station is an expensive
and wasteful exercise. They are designed to run continuously for long
periods, shut down only for major servicing and repairs. We also only have
the two main stations – Hwange and Kariba and these together are required to
supply the major part of our national requirements of about 2000 megawatts.
Take out the Hwange station and we are left with less than half our needs
even if Kariba is running at full capacity.

It goes beyond this of course. The mine has been unable to supply more than
a fraction of national demand for some time and a common sight is the large numbers of 30 tonne carriers standing waiting – sometimes for weeks – to be loaded. The coal crisis is so bad in fact that some large consumers are importing coal from South Africa. The coke ovens – a wonderful, simple and profitable business are also not functioning. They need major refurbishment and relining.

Then there is the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company. A plant built in the
midlands to process local iron ore into steel at the rate of about 100 000
tonnes of finished product a month. The equipment is state-of-the-art and
comparatively new. The South African Iron and Steel Corporation has been
eyeing this huge investment for years – they say it would fit in with their
own plants well and could be highly profitable. Indian steel magnates agree and some months ago a major Indian steel company was persuaded to take up a management contract at the plant.

They were promised the full cooperation of the State, although the people
negotiating the deal never discussed it with the Board or management. The
Indian team arrived with facilities for up to US$400 million in new
financing. They took up residence but within weeks they knew it could never
work. How do you run a plant like this in the middle of Africa with a
defunct railway system and no coal? After a futile visit to Hwange, the CEO
of the plant left the country with his money and has not come back. I can
understand why.

What astonishes me even more is that those responsible for this state of
affairs seem to be incapable of dealing with these situations in any sort of
coherent way. It does not take a rocket scientist to run these businesses.
They are relatively straightforward large-scale operations that require
sound management and maintenance. The skills are there – the money has been
invested and is available to turn these operations around. Those responsible
are just incapable of doing what needs to be done.

This year will be the last year of operation for the massive tobacco
processing plants in Harare – next year’s crop at about 20 000 tonnes or 10
per cent of the recent past, is just too small to warrant keeping the plants
in being. There may be some rationale for bringing in tobacco from the
region to process in Harare but the pressure is going to be there to move
the capacity to other countries – countries where a more rational business
environment exists.

Unilever is downsizing in Zimbabwe, Heinz is struggling to maintain their
investment. National Foods is down sizing after trying to hold their
operations together for some years. Most other firms are running on 30 per
cent of capacity – hoping for better days.

My own bakery is a small operation but it is closed at present – not for
price control reasons but because I do not have any flour. Today in Bulawayo
bread was very scarce and the larger supermarkets were selling “fancy”
loaves for Z$350 – substantially above the controlled price for the larger
conventional 700 gram loaf of Z$295. In my view this price is extortionate –
but that is what you get when you cannot keep the shelves full.

Fuel is selling at Z$1300 to Z$1400 a litre in Bulawayo and Harare and is in
short supply. People are bewildered by the prices and the shrinking value of
the money in their pockets. Customers in my own supermarket throw away the
smaller denomination notes as not worth carrying. The Z$1000 note has become
the most common note traded. Remember, that is a million in the old
currency!

Silent factories, empty streets, frustrated and scared shoppers. Where will
this all end? We now know that it will not end until Mugabe can be
persuaded that he has failed and must step aside for new leadership. Only
when that happens can we expect things to begin to improve. What a sad
situation where the man who once was the hope of a brighter future for all
Zimbabweans, is now a failed leader who is the main impediment to change and
recovery.

Residents power on the way in Harare

2006-10-19T11:01:00.000+02:00

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Harare residents have always resisted perceived or actual aggression by the regime’s Ignatius Chombo and the puppet commission running the affairs of Harare. They raise their voices at the slightest provocation and yet they take their time to respond as a collective grouping.

That is certainly changing as residents now take seriously the issues raised by the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA). The frequency of visitors to the association’s Daventry House offices and the volumes of residents’ reports/ enquiries that we receive confirm the relevance of CHRA in this struggle for our freedom as Harare citizens.

Our membership has risen from 3 000 in January 2006 to around 10 000 fully paid up members.
Members have proved themselves capable of staging well-coordinated, peaceful demonstrations. They ferry flowing sewerage and uncollected garbage to dump it at local District Offices.

Their determination and commitment is unparalleled. They have initiated grassroots mobilisation campaigns around the pertinent subjects of service delivery, health, the billing system of the municipality and the water supply and administration.

The objective now is to starve the illegal commission of the resources to finance its extravagance and restore the resident to his/ her rightful position in determining how the city’s 2007 budget is drafted, approved and implemented.

Public meetings have provided us with the platform to share our experiences. Residents have emerged stronger from the traumatic experiences of the past two years under the illegal commission. They foresee the end of tyranny. An opportunity to rebuild the city is imminent with elected representatives of the people, the councilors and a mayor.

They have only themselves to blame if they fail to capitalize on the administration gap that exists due to the absence of an elected council. That space is by right, up for occupation by residents through active participation in monitoring service provision by the municipality, input into the 2007 City budget, and pushing for municipal and council elections.

OUT OF AFRICA, OUT OF ZIMBABWE Part 2

2006-10-19T11:00:00.000+02:00

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OUT OF AFRICA, OUT OF ZIMBABWE
Part two A Sad Farewell

BY MIKE ROOK

The morning of March 18 was cold, with a thick grey cloud cover overhead. A chilly wind blew in through the airport terminal entrances and exits. Father and teenage son had arrived at Gatwick United Kingdom from Harare Zimbabwe.

We had, like millions of other Zimbabweans, been forced out of our beloved country to get a life and rediscover a future. We had left behind worthless money, almost zero employment opportunities, scarce and unaffordable commodities and services, and a shattered economy in free fall.

We had also left behind a citizenry in despair. Many felt betrayed, not only by their leaders and by Britain and the European Union, but also by their brothers and sisters in the African Union.

The previous day our Air Zimbabwe evening flight from Harare had left very late as the authorities searched the highways and byways for enough aviation fuel to fly to London.
Harare airport had seemed strangely quiet and subdued, almost in a state of mourning, reflecting perhaps the general feeling pervading the nation.

We had struggled to lift our cases on to the baggage scales and they were most definitely overweight. Not surprisingly, as my son and I were endeavouring to take with us as much clothing as we could pack.

Even though we carried some millions of dollars to pay for excess baggage it was not enough. The asking price was tens of millions for those extra kilos, and there was no option except to dig into our suitcases and shed some of our much-needed clothes and footwear. A dreadful setback.

Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank had no foreign currency to issue: therefore we were given no choice but to arrive destitute into the United Kingdom. Lack of finance would make the items left behind impossible to replace in the foreseeable future.

We passed through immigration and customs control without incident. I had always tried to play by the rules in a country that by its very nature made criminals of everyone. Now as I was saying goodbye was not the time to falter.

After clearing immigration and customs we wandered through the duty fee shop. We were almost alone except for one or two fellow travellers grabbing bottles of liquor that hadn’t been seen on the local supermarket or bottle store shelves for years.

We had paper worth a few hundred thousand left over and sensibly decided to buy chocolate. This was because after partaking of dinner and breakfast on the flight we had no idea when we might eat again.

My son did treat himself to a lucky charm bracelet reminding him of home. Walking onwards to the airport’s inner sanctum we sat patiently waiting to be called on board.
I wondered how many others booked on to the flight were also saying a final goodbye to their motherland.

If not leaving for good, it’s a safe bet to say that many were certainly visiting loved ones already exiled and settled on the far side of the planet.

Juice to feed the planes engines had finally been located and we were on our way. I am not ashamed to say that as the big jet lifted off Zimbabwean soil and started its climb over the outskirts of Harare, there were tears rolling down my cheeks.

My son’s tears had come much earlier, just before leaving the public area of the airport. Unlike me he had been born in Zimbabwe, and had never before left his native Africa.

The National Airline epitomises the friendliness and the hospitality of the average Zimbabwean. Upgraded to Business Class we left in style. Our arrival was to be a traumatic contrast.

As we descended into Gatwick Airport I peered out the cabin window only to see thick clouds scudding by. The plane has almost landed before visual contact was made with the runway. After taxiing to the terminal and being connected to another tube we were soon alighting from our cosy and comfortable transportation, but not before my son and I had exchanged handshakes and smiles with the cabin crew.

I remember a definite foreboding as I realised that the umbilical cord connecting us to home had been finally severed. I stared in awe as, standing on a moving walkway overlooking the airport apron, I saw dozens of parked aircraft from airlines I never knew existed.

Trolley at the ready we collected our worldly belongings and once again passed through immigration and customs with truly nothing to declare. Suddenly we were in the public domain and alone in the maddening crowd.

The information desk had seen it all before. Victims of civil wars and misrule from Africa, from Asia, from Eastern Europe, and from all corners of the earth. All were familiar visitors at United Kingdom airports.

I knew we were in for a rough ride ahead, but for my son it all seemed an amazing adventure. I salute his courage, tenacity, optimism, and most of all his invaluable support.
With him by my side failure was not an option.

We are now housed, my son is attending an excellent college, and I have a small but regular income At age 65 later this year, time is not on my side, but for my son the world is his oyster. That for me makes it all worthwhile.

Martha and Mary

2006-10-19T10:58:00.001+02:00

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I recently saw a film about the last days of Hitler. The dictator is in his bunker below Berlin moving imaginary armies around a map in a final effort to save Germany from defeat. The camera moves to the faces of the generals who surround the table and shows their total disbelief. When one of them tries to tell the leader ‘there are no armies left,’ Hitler shouts and rants at them. Gideon Gono is no Hitler but he is good at ceaseless activity, which does everything except actually face the reality. On the same day as The Herald covered its front page with his latest moves there was a report in another paper reminding us that the World Bank considers our economic crisis ‘ the worst in the world outside a war zone.’

A small group of people last week invited Archbishop Pius Ncube to talk to them about what the Church could do in Zimbabwe to help resolve the crisis. What was striking was his total honesty in the face of the situation. He simply said, ‘we don’t know what to do.’ In different ways he repeated the same message: there is no leadership, the ‘opposition’ is infiltrated and divided. We don’t know what to do. You come to a meeting hoping for some inspiration and you go away empty and desolate. But at least it is the truth.

Filling our news pages and screens with activity to create a sense of measures taken to solve our problems is like treating people suffering from HIV and AIDS with Panodol. We are seen to be doing something but we are avoiding the real issue. There is a story at the end of the tenth chapter of Luke’s gospel in which Jesus calls on some friends. They are two sisters and one of them gets busy preparing a meal, as any mother would do when a guest arrives. But she has a sister who is content to just sit by Jesus and listen to him. The busy sister complains but Jesus chides her gently and says, ‘no, your sister here has chosen the right thing to do.’

We have pondered the story of Martha and Mary for two thousand years and still can’t quite get inside it. We know Jesus is not condemning the work of Martha but he is saying that beyond work, beyond ceaseless activity, there is something more essential. And what is that? I cannot give a complete answer but it has to do with being quiet sometimes. It has to do with allowing reality to penetrate within me, listening to the cries of those who are suffering, attending to the heart of God who longs to heal his world but cannot do so unless invited.

News roundup

2006-10-19T10:58:00.000+02:00

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All is well Mujuru tells tourists
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Joice Mujuru last week stepped up efforts to rebuild the country’s battered tourism sector by telling hundreds of visiting tourists that all was now well in the troubled sector.
Mujuru blamed negative media surrounding the country’s land reforms for the collapse of the tourism sector over the past six years.
“Our land reform programme is now part of our history . . . I am happy to say that the issue has now been taken to its logical conclusion. May I therefore reassure our visitors from all the four corners of the world that you are welcome, you are safe, you are secure and you are free to move around in Zimbabwe,” she said.
But Mujuru’s reassurances come amid reports of continuing chaos on commercial farms around the country with fresh evictions having been reported in Manicaland and Mashonaland provinces only last month.
Zimbabwe’s tourism sector, which was the third biggest foreign currency earner before 2000, has been in the doldrums over the past six years after tourists shunned the country because of violence most critics blame on ruling party supporters. - ZimOnline

Water crisis threatens health

HARARE – A local group which works with communities to promote basic health
care on Friday warned that Harare was facing a serious outbreak of water
borne diseases due to a water crisis.

The executive director of the Community Working Group on Health, Itai
Rusike, warned that the city faced a serious outbreak of cholera, dysentery
and scabies if the current water crisis was not resolved immediately.

“When people drink dirty water from sewage-drenched streams, when toilets
don’t flush and when people don’t bath regularly, it’s a recipe for disease
outbreak,” said Rusike.

The CWGH is a coalition of 35 non-governmental organisations that deal with
health matters in Zimbabwe. The group works with communities in the
promotion of basic health care around the country.

Residents in the poor eastern suburbs of Mabvuku and Tafara, for example,
say they have gone for months on end without running water resulting in most
of them fetching water from unprotected wells.

Earlier this year, five people died of cholera in Budiriro suburb in Harare.
Cholera is a water-borne disease that thrives in unhygienic conditions.
Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa’s deputy, Edwin Muguti, conceded that Harare was facing a health time bomb but added that water provision was the sole responsibility of the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) and the Harare city council. – ZimOnline

Police assault MDC activists
GOKWE - Pedzisai Chilimanzi(28) and Wellington Chilimanzi both of Kamakuyu village in the area of Chief Nenyunga under Gokwe Chireya Constituency were seriously assaulted by police based at Nembudziya Police Station from September 28 to 30 this year.
The two MDC activists were overheard on September 20 by a CID detective by the name Maenzaniso talking about how they think MDC is going to win the Rural Council elections to be held on October 28. Maenzaniso reportedly ordered them to go with him to Nembudziya Police Station, accusing them of saying words that insulted the president. They refused.
On September 28, the two were raided by policemen named Madamombe, Shiri and Chinake at Chitekete Business Centre. They were forcefully dragged into a COTTCO truck going to Nembudziya. At a place called Zhomba, Madamombe allegedly used his hands to beat Pedzisai trying to force him to admit that he insulted the president.
The youth were seriously assaulted at Nembudziya Police Station by Madamombe who forced them to lie on the floor and he continuously beat them using an iron bar. An eye witness told The Zimbabwean that the two incurred serious injuries on the legs, back and lacerations on the hands.They were then thrown into the cells. On Friday September 29, Madamombe took them to room 27 where he again beat them using the same iron bar. On Saturday Shiri wrote a docket which accused them of insulting the president and the police. They were remanded in the cells until Monday ,October 2 when they were talken to Gokwe Magistrate Court.
A public prosecutor by the name Ngwenya analysed the police docket and he told the policemen that it was unnecessary for the two to appear in court since the case does not have merit.
The two did not appear in court but the police released them and told them to go home. They went to Gokwe Provincial Hospital where there were treated for their injuries and were discharged on the same day. Cephas Zimuto(MDC Chairman for Midlands North) assisted them with bus far to back to Chireya. – Own correspondent

Exit package for Sekesai
HARARE – The Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development has reportedly put together an exit package for the bungling Harare acting mayor, Sekesai Makwavarara whose term of office expires at the end of
December.
The move might see the end of the term being brought forward to next month as the ruling Zanu (PF) makes frantic efforts to clean up its mess ahead of the city’s mayoral elections that are likely to be held in January.
Makwavarara, who has been at the helm of the city’s illegal commission since 2004, has seen a serious collapse in service delivery, reducing the capital from the Sunshine City of Africa status to a dump city.
The package is said to include money, her current service vehicle, a Mercedes Benz
C-Class, a state of the art house built by council, and a number of perks. . – Own correspondent

Transport crisis worsens
BULAWAYO – Train drivers have embarked on a go-slow to protest a decision by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) to introduce compulsory breath tests in a bid to curb driving under the influence of alcohol. President of the Enginemen Association of Zimbabwe Abel Mahlangu confirmed the industrial action.
The tests were introduced in line with recommendations made by a commission of inquiry into the cause of a head-on collision between a passenger and a goods train at Dibangombe siding in Victoria Falls on August 27, which claimed eight lives and injured 34 other passengers.
Mahlangu said: “The truth of the matter is that train drivers are not happy with this move. The findings of the commission should first of all be made public, otherwise what it means is that all recent NRZ accidents were a result of driving under the influence of alcohol.”
In realiy, accidents were mainly a result of obsolete communication signals and the general poor condition of the country’s rail system.
In the last session of Parliament, a portfolio committee on transport and communications in its report said the country’s rail network laid in the 1890s had outlived its lifespan. The committee added that the rail infrastructure, especially signal equipment, had fallen prey to vandals, resulting in communication problems between controllers and enginemen. – Own correspondent

Sithole was true founder says widow’s book
LONDON - A veteran of Zimbabwe's 1970s war of liberation now living in the United States has published a book that says the late Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole,
her late husband, was the true founder of the struggle, not President Robert
Mugabe.
Author Vesta Sithole says Ndabaningi Sithole created the Zimbabwe African
National Union party, but lost control of it to Mugabe in the mid-1970s
and was eventually cut out of decision-making through 1980 when Zimbabwe
gained independence.
Entitled My Life With An Unsung Hero, the book is autobiographical in
approach - the author joined the liberation struggle at 19 and spent years
in exile - but also provides many new details on the life and career of
Ndabaningi Sithole, who died in 2000.
Vesta Sithole told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe
that she wanted to set the record straight and dispel misconceptions about
the struggle for black majority rule in Zimbabwe and her late husband's role
in that process. – Own correspondent

Award for Khumalo
LONDON - Thabitha Khumalo, Vice President of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions, has today been awarded a "Women of the Year Award", for the work
she has done with Action for Southern Africa on the Dignity! Period. Campaign, that so far as seen 2.5 million sanitary pads distributed to the most vulnerable women of Zimbabwe.
As Thabitha receives her award at the annual lunch held this year at the
Millenium Hotel in Mayfair, Euan Wilmshurst, ACTSA's Director said "This
award shows that despite the struggles Thabitha and all the women of Zimbabwe face on a daily basis, the campaign for access to basic sanitary protection has struck a cord. This award will mean the Dignity! Period. Campaign can continue to grow, and ensure that the dignity of the women of Zimbabwe continues to be restored." – Own correspondent

Anthrax outbreak in Mash West
HARARE - One person has died of suspected anthrax while 82 others have so far received treatment following an outbreak of the disease in Mashonaland West.
Eighty-two cases involving people and two cases involving cattle have reportedly been detected on Ngwarati and Mahewu farms in Trelawney last week. Anthrax is an acute, contagious disease characterized by septicaemia and sudden death.
The disease is caused by the bacterium bacillus anthracis whose unique feature is its ability to form dormant stages (spores) which can survive in the soil for many years.
Animals become infected by ingestion of contaminated feed or water. In the body, the spores multiply and produce a lethal toxin which kills the animal. Crispen Devere, who is the acting provincial environmental health officer, said his office had managed to contain the situation.
“It is the first time we have had an outbreak on those two farms but I wish to inform all concerned parties that we have managed to successfully treat all cases at Ngwarati and Mahewu farms,” Devere said. – Own correspondent

News roundup

2006-10-19T10:57:00.000+02:00

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Smith, Mugabe, never good neighbours – Masire

BY JERRY BUNGU

GABORONE - Former president of Botswana, Sir Ketumile Masire says Zimbabwe has never displayed any signs of good neighbourliness.
Masire’s memoirs “Very Brave or Very Foolish: Memoirs of an African Diplomat,” were published to coincide with Botswana’s recent 40th independence anniversary.
In a chapter on relations with neighbours, Masire devoted four pages to Zimbabwe, revealing that there were over 20 000 Zimbabweans in Botswana during the Chimurenga war.
“I first encountered President Mugabe when he was a freedom fighter and I thought he was a hard working man. He was imprisoned for a long time and after he was released, ZANU gained ground. We in the Front Line States tried to get ZANU and ZAPU to join together to form one liberation movement to oppose the Smith regime, but this proved very difficult. In part it was who would hold leadership positions as chairman and secretary-general. President Mugabe gave the impression that he was not keen to be chairman or secretary-general of the combined movements. Mr Nkomo was indecisive and saw virtue in both positions. Interestingly at the time, Mr Nkomo was clearly the king of his group, but it was not as clear to us that Mugabe was the king of his,” the memoir says.
Masire says the Lancaster Talks, which resulted in a negotiated settlement, did not go well with Mugabe who thought he could have been victorious over both the Smith regime and ZAPU.
Masire says of Mugabe: “While he never said anything directly, his attitude was that we in Botswana were Nkomo’s men. On the same principles as the South African government used, i.e. the friend of my enemy is my enemy, and he who is not for us is against us, he appeared to distrust us.”
He says there were questions over trade and transportation but security was the important issue. “Defence minister Nkala was particularly difficult and he was reported to have wanted to shoot up Dukwe refugee camp where many ZAPU refugees were living but Mugabe prevented that.
“In 1980, we had hoped that an independent Zimbabwe would help us reduce our dependence on South Africa and decrease vulnerability, but that was not to be the case. To start with, Zimbabwe imposed duties on imports from Botswana in clear violation of our free trade agreement.
He concludes: “Interestingly, with the difficult situation in Zimbabwe – partly the takeover of white farms, but mainly the persecution of many Africans and destruction of the capacity of the economy to function – we have not had a spill over in racial attitudes in Botswana. Batswana have truly been saddened by the political and economic destruction of Zimbabwe.”

News Roundup by Gift Phiri

2006-10-19T10:55:00.000+02:00

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Mangwana blames journos

HARARE - Zimbabwe’s acting information minister Paul Mangwana has complained that government is getting too much bad press both locally and abroad because journalists were unpatriotic and were selling out the country for donor trinkets.
Mangwana loudly protested in the Quill Club last week that the media was obsessed with reporting negatively about Zimbabwe.
He warned the small group of journalists drawn mainly from the private press that turned up for the meeting against “endangering national interests”.
“Journalists should not be misled by rich media houses that are financed from abroad within the context of neo-colonialism and contribute to the destruction of the economy for the sake of money,” he said.
Journalists told Mangwana that no news organisation or reporter would manufacture false reports about anyone and get away with it. They reminded the minister that penalties under the laws of libel and defamation have always seen to it that perpetrators of such injudicious acts are punished.
The truth, said one journalist, was that the Mugabe regime invited bad publicity upon itself through flagrant abuse of human and property rights.
“In fact, it could be strongly argued that the Zanu (PF) government often goes out of its way to ensure it acts in ways which guarantee something negative is said or reported about it on almost a daily basis,” he said.
Mangwana defended State-regulation of the press saying, “We had to come up with the Media and Information Commission because journalism, as powerful as it is as the Fourth Estate, cannot operate in a vacuum.”
MIC chairman Tafataona Mahoso, who also attended the meeting, was challenged to explain why he shut down four newspapers. He stormed out of the meeting.

Defence chief praises China

HARARE - Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi last week said Zimbabwe wishes to further strengthen already excellent and solid relations with China, revealing that the army was relying more and more on Beijing for essential supplies.
Sekeramayi made the remarks here on the occasion of the presentation of heavy plant equipment worth US$1 million “donated” to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
Sekeramayi said since independence, China had steadfastly assisted Zimbabwe in variety of ways in realizing the objectives of liberation and nation’s building.
The donation includes a grader, bulldozer, front-end loader, two tipping trucks and a tool box.
Sekeramayi.
Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Zhang Xianyi said China always regards Zimbabwe as her reliable “all weather” friend.

Tobacco bartered for fuel

HARARE - The government is believed to have lost foreign currency running into
millions of dollars through transactions where some tobacco buyers were
exchanging the crop for fuel.
It is understood that a number of transactions went through during the previous tobacco-marketing season where tobacco merchants sourced fuel from South Africa in exchange for tobacco.
Herbert Murerwa, Finance Minister said no such transactions would be allowed this tobacco season: “All purchases by A class buyers will be settled in United States dollars and those who fail to raise US dollars will be assisted through a Memorandum of Deposit facility. Barter deals will not be allowed this year.”
He was speaking to guests attending the review of the tobacco-marketing season last week.
Government had allowed barter deals in a bid to avert the shortages of fuel, but had been prejudiced in the process because of the lack of tight monitoring.
John Chiweshe, chairman of the Tobacco Merchants Association, said none of his members were involved in barter deals.
Sources in the tobacco industry said top government officials were among buyers who benefited from the tobacco barter deals.

Zim crisis costs SA R9 billion

JOHANNESBURG - The South African Communist Party, alliance partner of the ruling African National Congress, has condemned Zimbabwe’s “low-intensity democracy” saying it will seek to engage the opposition and the ruling party in Zimbabwe to resolve the deepening crisis.
After its recent central committee meeting, the SACP stopped just short of naming the ruling Zanu (PF) regime. It “condemned authoritarianism, torture of political opponents of the regime and gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe”.
Spokesperson Nkosiphendule Kolisile also announced that the party would send its own “fact-finding” mission to Zimbabwe in the next three months.
This is the party’s strongest statement yet on the situation in South Africa’s northern neighbour and the only strongly worded condemnation of the Zimbabwean regime to emerge from the alliance.
There has been concern within the SACP that not enough is being done to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis. The party now says it will seek engagement with the Zanu (PF) and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a “complementary and not parallel process” with those of the South African government and the ANC.
The IMF has predicted that inflation in Zimbabwe was expected to exceed 4000 percent next year. It also reported that the Zimbabwean crisis had cost South Africa’s “real economy” more than R9-billion last year.
“The SACP stands firmly for the promotion of an environment in which free
political activity can take place without fear of intimidation,” Kolisile said.
The SACP already has ties with other socialist political organisations, such
as Frelimo in Mozambique and the Communist Party of Lesotho.
Last month the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) condemned the arrests of Zimbabwean trade unionists for protesting against poor salaries and the poor provision of AIDS drugs.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions is expected to picket at the Zimbabwean border “soon” in solidarity with persecuted trade union leaders in Zimbabwe.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said the labour federation would “support our fellow trade unionists in their struggle for basic human rights and against poverty in Zimbabwe”.

Children starving, warns UN

HARARE - Children are dying of hunger in Zimbabwe and many others will die if emergency action is not taken soon, UN officials said last Friday.
A survey children under six years old by the United Nations agency for children, UNICEF, found high levels of severe malnutrition in several areas, especially in larger cities.
“Children are dying and if we don’t ratchet up our response many more children will become malnourished, and many of those who are already malnourished will die,” said Gerry Dyer, the head of UNICEF’s regional office in Johannesburg.
The survey, which studied 50,000 children, was the largest of its kind in Zimbabwe. UNICEF declined to give any precise figures for the number of children who have died or who are severely malnourished.
Zimbabwe’s agricultural production once helped feed all of southern Africa. But food production has been wrecked by erratic rains and the state’s often violent seizure of most white-owned commercial farms. Vast tracts of farmland either lie fallow or have been carved into subsistence plots.
The region has faced a food crisis in the past year but while the situation in most neighboring countries is stabilizing, in Zimbabwe, the crisis remains acute.
Opposition groups and human rights activists say that the government of embattled President Robert Mugabe is using food as a political weapon in a country where over a quarter of the people are at risk of starvation.

Zinwa needs Z$60 billion

HARARE – The Zimbabwe National Water Authority urgently requires about Z$60 billion to meet cash shortfalls caused by escalating prices of commodities and materials required by the water utility, and the high cost of foreign currency required to pay foreign suppliers of water reticulation chemicals.
Zinwa board chairman Willie Muringani said ZINWA had set aside $33 billion for expenditure this year but escalating costs had left it needing an extra $59,5 billion which residents must provide.
Inflation which which is hovering around 1,000 percent had eaten into ZINWA coffers while the Zimbabwe dollar’s dramatic fall against major currencies such as the United States of America dollar had not helped matters for the council treasury.
Muringani said ZINWA had not yet made a final decision on how to raise the additional money because it was still to consult residents and other stakeholders.
He said ZINWA had for the time being resolved to implement a number of cost-cutting measures including tightening allocations of fuel to staff, recycling of paper and forging of partnerships as well as out-sourcing non-core business and activities.
ZINWA will also step up efforts to collect all outstanding rates, rent and other charges from residents with plans to enforce payment through litigation.
Combined Harare Residents Association spokesman Precious Shumba said ZINWA had failed to provide water to the city and should simply cede the responsibility to people with the capacity to do so.

Desperate Zims flood Mozambique

MUTARE - Scores of Zimbabweans facing serious commodity shortages at home have been streaming into neighbouring Mozambique to buy fuel and other provisions, according to press reports from Maputo.
Zimbabwe has been experiencing severe economic hardships and political tensions. There are shortages of fuel and basic commodities, as well as foreign currency.
“We have seen many Zimbabweans coming to buy fuel and other supplies in our province in recent weeks given the deteriorating situation in that neighbouring state,” the governor of Mozambique’s Manica province, Soares Nhaca was quoted.
He said the extra demand for fuel by Zimbabweans had caused a shortage in Manica province, but the problem would be resolved.
Mozambique, which is a coastal country, imports its fuel supplies from the Middle East. Unlike Zimbabwe it has the hard cash to pay its bills. Mozambique’s state daily Noticias last week quoted a local government official as saying Zimbabweans were looting fuel in Manica province, but this was dismissed by Nhaca.
“The Zimbabweans have made normal purchases that any driver would make and there has not been anything extraordinary,” he said.

Ecological disasters abound

2006-10-19T10:54:00.000+02:00

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HARARE - “Disgusted” and “heartbroken” tourists have reported seeing elephants being shot by National Parks personnel.
At least five elephants have been shot in the past few weeks. The first elephant was shot right in front of some South African tourists who, after witnessing the distressing event, vowed never to travel back to Zimbabwe.
One eye witness, who wrote to the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, demanded an investigation into the incident. “The Zambezi valley is a wilderness area. The loss of game here has to be seen to be believed - national parks are entrusted to look after our wildlife heritage - which they are not. The callous and inhumane way they are dispatching the game here is appalling and under brutal conditions,” he said.
The ZCTF has also received a report of a black rhino cow being killed for its horn in Hwange National Parks.
The event was witnessed by people taking part in a game count. They heard gunshots and saw two men hacking away at the rhino. They were reluctant to approach the area as the men were armed but did file a report with National Parks.
The ZCTF also reported that river systems in Umfurudzi Wilderness, and in many other places around the country, are under constant attack from gold panners who are digging holes up to 15 feet deep and not refilling them. This is preventing the water from flowing and because of the mass of humanity involved in this practice, the animals are afraid to come down to the water to drink. – KJW

Water disconnections illegal

HARARE - Combined Harare Residents’ Association (CHRA) is delighted by the illegal Makwavarara commission’s statement that residents have not paid water rates imposed by the Zimbabwe National Water Authority in May 2006.
Spokesperson Precious Shumba says the threats of water disconnections issued by the City of Harare’s pr manager, Percy Toriro, in the local press this week were ill-timed, misinformed and unjustified.
“Water disconnections are illegal whatever the circumstances. CHRA urges residents of Harare to be resolute in their rejection of a corrupt, illegal and unaccountable system of administration led by the Commission running the affairs of the City of Harare. For the City to disconnect anyone’s water, they must obtain court orders,” said Shumba.
“If the City of Harare decides to be confrontational and proceeds to act outside the law, then CHRA will be left with no option but to respond in the best legal interests of residents.” – Own correspondent

MDC suspends Mubhawu
HARARE - Timothy Mubhawu, the MDC Member of Parliament for Mabvuku, has been suspended from the Tsvangirai MDC as a result of chauvinistic statements he made in parliament two weeks ago and the violence that broke out in his constituency in July.
A commission of inquiry investigating the violence noted that there are serious conflicts in Mabvuku between the MP and the District. The MDC leadership has now dissolved the entire district and Mubhawu has been barred from interfering with party structures there.
Mubhawu also sparked a furore when he said it is against God's principles that men and women are equal during a parliamentary debate on the Domestic Violence Bill.
“His statement was completely at variance with party policy and a very serious breech of discipline on a key issue. The party’s supreme decision making body, the National Council, made a unanimous decision to suspend him and to put his case to the National Disciplinary Committee for consideration,” said a party official. – SW Radio Africa

Endangered species hunted
LONDON - A symposium on sport hunting organised by Safari Club International attracted a large gathering at the London Zoo recently, including safari operators, hunters and government officials from Zimbabwe, who are accused of ignoring the illegal killing of endangered species. Several experts made presentations promoting hunting as a sport and its supposed benefits to the local communities. But there seemed to be a veil of secrecy surrounding the involvement of government officials in the safari business, the illegal seizure of private game reserves and abusive practices that are causing much damage to the environment.
It is no secret that war veterans, under orders from top government officials, have taken over protected areas and some national parks where a lucrative and reckless business in sport hunting is thriving. Foreigners seeking to kill rare species of animals like the black rhino are taking advantage of the lawlessness in the country and offering large sums of money to these corrupt officials.- SW Radio Africa

Students sent home before exams

HARARE - Many students whose parents failed to pay school fees for the third term were sent home Monday by school officials, who are insisting they cannot operate under the fee structure stipulated by education minister Aeneas Chigwedere.
The Association of Schools Trust has taken him to court over the issue, but the courts might take a long time to resolve the dispute while students lose out. Students said they had worked hard to get an education and were shocked to find that the final step of writing the O-level exams was now out of their reach.
The argument presented by the schools is that the Education Act should be applied only to fees charged for the third term of 2006. - SW Radio Africa

Beer price doubles
HARARE – Drinkers reeled on Monday as beer manufacturer Delta Beverages unexpectedly raised the bottle store price of beer by 50 percent for the second time in as many months.
A 350ml bottle of Castle, Black Label and Lion lagers, commonly known as pints, now costs $450 up from $300, while a “quart” or a 750ml bottle of the same brands has shot to a staggering $750, up from $400.
Premier lager beers such as Bohlingers and Zambezi, which only come in pints, are now selling for $600.
The hike is effected through a combination of increase in bottle deposit and basic price. The consumer will be paying $100 more towards quart bottle deposit, which is refundable, and an extra $50 as increase in pints deposit.
Delta corporate affairs executive George Mutendadzamera said the price was pushed up by soaring input costs in the manufacture of beer, driven mainly by expensive imports. – Gift Phiri

The day when everything went wrong

2006-10-19T10:51:00.000+02:00

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BY ZULU, Grade 4, Chiredzi

I remember the lorry I boarded at Masekesa one Sunday in January 2005. The inside was nasty, with some of the paint vanishing. The paint made people’s clothes dirty. Though the conductor was collecting fares, people were not satisfied with the condition of the vehicle.

My friend, John, had said to get down from the lorry but I just ignored him. Immediately after it’s departure the rain started to pour down. We and our luggage got wet because the lorry was uncovered. On the way we come across a wide river where there was a narrow bridge. The driver forced to cross, and on this he succeeded but slowly. We were shivering with cold as well as the fear of crossing the narrow bridge.

Since the lorry took long to cross the narrow bridge, the driver accelerated the lorry to a high speed of about 120 kilometres per hour. My friend shouted, “Zulu! Zulu! Stop the driver please, the road is slippery ” And I also noticed that for sure it was slippery. By then we were all filled with fear and coldness. I was fearing that how such a lorry could move at such a speed while the road was slippery.

On the two kilometre peg before our destination the lorry started to swerve. People started to shout to the driver to reduce speed, but due to the time delay he didn’t respond. The lorry overturned at a sharp corner, the front bars struck against a big rock, bumped and sunk in the mud ground.

I didn’t know how I come to the hospital. What I remember are two uniformed people who asked my name. I didn’t answer because I had just come round from an unconscious state. I had a bandage on my leg. On this day l lost my luggage, books and my voice as well

From then I am now careful, I check the conditions of any vehicle I want to board . I learned that it is dangerous to travel with any badly conditioned car, bus or lorry - and while raining.

The day I will never forget
BY SAM MOYO, Grade 5, Zengeza

There are many days in a year but there is only one day I will never forget. The day I will never forget is 19 May 2006. This was the day when I was chased away from school after my parents failed to pay school fees. The fees had been raised from $500 to $2 750 without warning. I was very sad and worried because I am a good student and I always got excellent marks at school. I cried the whole day and I refused to eat anything because I had no appetite.

I didn’t know what to do. I was only in grade five and I did not want to spend time playing with dirt in the streets or becoming a street kid. I want to be a doctor when I grow up and I work very hard to get good marks. Our teacher, Mrs Gumbanjera, is always telling me that I work very hard. My mother also cried with me because she did not know where she could get the money to pay for my school fees. My father also had no money because he was not working. He had not been working for two years and he spent most of his time reading and watching television at home. I begged him to give me money to go to school but he did not even reply to me. He just looked sadly at me.

My father was always looking for work everyday but it was hard to find. When he left his job as a bookkeeper in Harare, he bought us a lot of nice clothes and he was always taking us into town. After sometime, he stopped buying us things and he told us that life had become very difficult. He no longer gave us money to spend at school and he did not buy potato crisps and zapnax as he used to do.

My mother tried to borrow money from neighbours but they all said they did not have any money. Some of them said their children had also stopped going to school because of the school fees. Everybody was complaining about the high school fees and the cost of living. They were saying that everything had become very expensive and it was better to leave work and go and stay in the rural areas. Mother had phoned her brother uncle Mike, who is now staying in London with his family. Uncle Mike sent money for both my younger sister, Yeukai and I and after three days of staying at home, we started going to school. From that day, Uncle Mike and his wife are always sending us money and clothes but I will never forget the day I was chased from school.

Ndakaitirwa nyasha

2006-10-19T10:50:00.000+02:00

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Ndakaitirwa nyasha

BY TONDERAI, Grade 6, Chitungwiza
Rega zvipore akabva mukutsva, vanodaro vakuru. Tsumo iyi inondirangaridza zvakaitika kwandiri mugore ra 2004 musi wa 19 Chikunguru apo taiva takaungana pamba pedu muguta reChitungwiza. Vabereki vangu vaiva vandigadzirira mabiko okusvitsa kwangu makore mapfumbamwe ndave panyika. Nokudaro shamwaridzangun nevamwe vechikuru vaiva vakaungana. Zvukudya zvaiva mavhu namarara uye ini ndaiva ndakapfeka nhumbi itsva idzo dzandaiva ndatengerwa nababamunini vangu.

Sokuti taiva takagadzirira ndakafumo bata jongwe muromo ndichigeza muviri zvokuti vakakokwa vose vakazosvika ndatogutsikana kuti mucheno ndarova. Vanhu Havana kusvika nhambo imwe asi hazvina kupedza nguva musha usati wati tsvete nevanhu. Vanhu vanombofara veduwe, izvi zvaionekwa nemakwazisiro nekusekerera kwavaiita pamwe nekukorokotedza kwavaiita ini na vabereki vangu.
Mutambo wakaenderera mberi zvakanaka chose kusvika zuva rondorereka apo vanhu vaitamba mimhanzi yairidzwa muredhiyo. Zvainyatsoitika zvinotoda vaivepo kuzvitsanangura. Chadinorangarira iguruva raipfumbuka zvakachidza vamwe nokutosvora vamwe. Ini handina kuzopedza mutambo uyu zvakanaka nokuti ndakatosvorwa ne guruva riya, maziso angu ndokutanga kuvava zvikuru achirwadza. Ndaimakwenya zvinesimba zvokuti akazvimba. Ndakanzi ndinovata, mutambo ukazopera ndava mumba. Musi uyu ndavatahope dzembwa nokuti ndairwadziwa. Ndakashinyira nokushanyarika usiku hwose.

Ramangwana vabereki vangu vakaenda neni kwachiremba vemaziso pa
101 Josiah Chinamano Avenue kuHarare. Ndakasvikotariswamaziso nachiremba anonzi Kufa. Zvandakatsanangurirwa zvakandirovesa nehan. Chiremba vakati maziso angu haafanirwi kutosvorwa neguruva kana hutsi nokuti hazvipindirane nehutano hwangu. Ndakazogadzikwa pamuchini apondakaongororwa zvakadzama. Ndakazoudzwa kuti maziso angu aiva ne chirwere ichochaipedza maonero angu zvishoma ne zvishoma. Ndakazopihwa mushonga ndokuudzwa kuti ndinofanira kugara ndichiongororwa.

Vazhinji tinoziva muimbi anonzi Paul Matavire, zvinonzi akazvarwa achiona, asi akatozopofomara atobva zera. Ndakafunga kuti ndizvo zvandaizopedzisira ndaita daindisina kuwanirwa nyasha dzokuona chiremba nguva ichiripo. Kuona chipo chinobva kuna mwari asi munhu wozvichengetedza kuti ugare nacho. Regai ndibude pachena kutenda chiremba Kufa nokundipa kuziva kwokuti ndirambe ndichiona uye nokundirapa. Kusvika parizvino ndinoona kuti idzi ndidzo nyasha dzandakaitirwa.

Jail awaits Jono

2006-10-19T10:49:00.000+02:00

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Jail awaits Jono

HARARE - Moeletsi Mbeki, younger brother of President Thabo Mbeki, and Witwatersrand University (Wits) have separately applied for an order to have Zimbabwe’s former Information minister Jonathan Moyo jailed the next time he visits South Africa on allegations of absconding with millions of rands that he allegedly owes.
Mbeki told The Zimbabwean that they were shocked Moyo managed to sneak into South Africa and hold an interview with the BBC news channel for the programme HardTalk a fortnight ago. He said if they had been aware of this interview prior to the visit, they could have got Moyo arrested on fraud charges.
Moyo allegedly owes Endemol, a television production company in South Africa
headed by Mbeki, R100,000.
Moyo received this amount from the TV company after he invoiced it for the
production costs of a television documentary. He allegedly did not deliver
the documentary.
Mbeki said his company was now trying to recover the money, since Moyo was no longer a minister in the Zimbabwe government. He said previous efforts to attach Moyo’s luxurious home in Johannesburg, had been fruitless.
Moyo is also facing legal action from Wits for allegedly absconding with
part of a R100 million-research grant. The university has consulted lawyers about the claim against Moyo, who received money for a research project, The Future of the African Elite, as a visiting lecturer at the university in 1998. It was allegedly never completed.
Wits registrar Derek Swenner said the money related to unaccounted-for
expenditure incurred by Moyo while he was supposed to be conducting research
for the university in East Africa.
“He told the university that he was conducting research, but instead, we
found out that he was in Zimbabwe working for President Bob’s government.
When we asked Moyo to explain how the money was spent, he chose to resign.
The case is unresolved and currently with the lawyers.”
Moyo is also being sued by the US aid agency the Ford Foundation over an alleged illegal transfer of R1 million from its Kenyan office to a trust in South Africa. Money from the trust, Talunoza, was allegedly used to buy Moyo’s Saxonwold house, on Englewold Drive. Unconfirmed reports suggest this house has been sold.
Efforts to obtain comment from Moyo were fruitless. – Own correspondent

The Zimbabwe Dollar

2006-10-19T10:44:00.000+02:00

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These ZS1000 dollar notes were given to a customer as change in Harare at the weekend. They are in consecutive order 18 to 25 which indicates that they have just been issued by the Reserve Bank although they were printed some time back.
“In what other country in the world are you supposed to know that $1000 = $1 (new money) while $1000 = $1000 (if they are brown in colour). Of course it is an admission of inflation as $1000 was not buying anything when the bearer cheques came in and they could not allow it to suddenly rise in value to $1million (old money),” said the customer.

Models blame diaspora

2006-10-19T10:43:00.000+02:00

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HARARE – Two UK-based Zimbabwean models Ropafadzo Garise and Faith Matambanashe made a sponsored visit to Zimbabwe last week for the country’s Travel Expo. The visit was funded by the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority and Air Zimbabwe.
The two models said the country received negative publicity in the UK and “it is our duty to tell a true picture of what is in the country.
Garise said some Zimbabweans in the Diaspora were stifling economic turnaround strategies through bad publicity.
"It is sad to note that our fellow Zimbabweans are the ones who are
preaching the wrong gospel about our country. They say bad things about the
country, as they will be desperately seeking permanent residence in the UK,” staff reporter.

ZBH personal theatre of minister of info – MISA

2006-10-19T10:42:00.000+02:00

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ZBH personal theatre of minister of info – MISA

HARARE - Henry Muradzikwa has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings. He takes over from Rino Zhuwarara, a University of Zimbabwe media lecturer.
Muradzikwa is the former Editor-in-Chief of the New Zimbabwe InterAfrica News Agency (ZIANA).
The ZBH has been hunting for a new CEO for the past three months after the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Communications came up with a report critical of the state broadcaster on 1 June 2006.
MISA-Zimbabwe expressed concern that while the ZBH has been turned into a company through the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Commercialisation Act of 2001, the same station is expected to play a public mandate role at the same time operate for profit.
“There is need for an act that governs the public broadcaster and guarantees its independence from political and economic influence. These glaring policy contradictions indicate a lack of commitment to turning the ZBH into a public broadcaster and lends credence to a 1999 parliamentary report that the ZBH is, in fact, a personal theatre of every minister of information who comes into office. The new appointments at ZBH are, therefore, unlikely to change anything as the station will remain under the tight grip of the executive and closed to any alternative voices,” says MISA.

Mugabe buys loyalty

2006-10-19T10:41:00.001+02:00

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BY GIFT PHIRI

HARARE – Government has raised salaries of military personnel - the front-line enforcers of President Robert Mugabe’s brutal regime - by up to 150 per cent.
The increase, coming amid opposition threats to roll out mass protests, has drawn accusations that Mugabe was paying off key groups with a critical role in the wider effort to keep Zanu (PF) in power.
Zimbabwe’s security chiefs have over the past few months been agitating for a 10-fold increase in the salaries of the armed forces to ensure their loyalty against public protests.
The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Sunday vowed to press ahead with the demonstrations, which Mugabe has said would be ruthlessly crushed
Sources in the Army Data Capture Unit at the KG6 Barracks told The Zimbabwean that they had already completed working on the soldiers’ payslips.
“They are getting a 130 percent increase across the board,” the source said. “I understand there is likely to be another increase soon.”
A private in the 40,000 strong army earns $27,000 a month, a captain $42,000 and a major $58,000. After this increase a private will see his salary shoot up to $57,000. These figures exclude other allowances such as transport and housing.
The increase follows seething discontent among soldiers over poor salaries and working conditions. Military sources said before the raise, soldiers were increasingly unsettled by government’s refusal to increase their salaries and provide adequate food supplies to the army.
Disgruntled armed forces pose a serious threat to Mugabe’s regime, which depends on the state security apparatus for its survival.
Mugabe recently urged the armed forces to remain vigilant to deal with what he termed a “vicious imperialist onslaught” adding soldiers will obey instructions to turn their guns on protestors.
Soldiers who spoke to The Zimbabwean privately said the increase was still negligible as they had been expecting a 10-fold increase to cushion them against hyperinflation, currently running above 1,000 percent.
Some troops have reportedly been detained at 2 Brigade barracks in Harare in connection with “indiscipline” related to agitation for salary increases. Sources said the soldiers were expected to be court-marshalled.
Army spokesman Simon Tsatsa declined to comment on the salary adjustment and denied there was unrest within the ranks.
Army commanders are traditionally loyal to Mugabe and generals occupy the upper echelons of parastatals and government posts. Mugabe has militarised government bureaucracy by deploying former soldiers to perform civilian duties.

Survival money slashed

2006-10-19T10:41:00.000+02:00

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Letter from Home

BY LITANY BIRD

Dear Family and Friends,
Zimbabweans are notorious, possibly even world famous, for their ability to
"Make A Plan." It is because we are so ingenious, creative, versatile and
adaptable that the country has held together for the last seven years. Life
shouldn't be like this in the first decade of the 21st century but we have
learnt to cope with almost every deprivation that has been forced upon us.

In every home we have a botched up emergency plan for electricity and water
cuts, fuel and food shortages, non existent municipal services and
crumbling infrastructure. As individuals, however, as our hold on normal
life grows ever more tenuous, so does that of the State. Every month there
are less and less taxpayers as companies continue to cut their costs,
reduce their workforce or close down altogether. As our economy shrinks,
there is less and less money and resources available to keep the government
going and so they cast their nets further afield.

This week the bands of financial control got much tighter in Zimbabwe and
it is hard to see how ordinary people will be able to make a plan to
survive the new rules. For a few weeks you have not been able to cash a
cheque for more than Z$100,000 in a bank. No reason is given. If you ask, the tellers just shrug their shoulders and say they are following orders from above. For over a month investment and savings institutions have been refusing to accept any new customers.
Existing customers can only make deposits if other customers have made withdrawals
for similar amounts. This week 16 Money Transfer Agencies were closed down
without any warning by the Governor of the Reserve Bank. In an unexpected
swoop, the Governor said the operating licences were withdrawn with
immediate effect for what he called "non performance and deviant behaviour."

Almost all Zimbabweans who have left the country but still have family or
friends here, send money home every month through these Money Transfer
Agencies. This is how families who have been split up by economic necessity
have survived for the last seven years. One family member goes and earns
outside the country, sending money home to support the rest of the family.

It is not money for luxuries but for survival. It is money which pays school fees, bills, rentals and medical expenses. People have being using Money Transfer Agencies rather than government channels because they get up to five times more money on the exchange rate.
If a relation overseas was sending say US$100 a month it translated into Z$130,000 through a Money Transfer Agency. Now that same US$100 sent through the government, will only realise Z$25,000 dollars. This is a dramatic difference, which is going to have a devastatingly cruel effect on hundreds of thousands of people. It means that relations abroad will have to send five times as much money home for their families every month just to maintain the same level of support.

Undoubtedly some people will be able to "Make a Plan" to get around the new
ruling but many will not. Many hundreds of people are already illegally
crossing Zimbabwe's borders every day for a better life in neighbouring
countries, the numbers are bound to rise now. Until next time, thanks for
reading, ndini shamwari yenyu.

Diplomacy or conspiracy?

2006-10-19T10:39:00.000+02:00

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Letter from America BY STANFORD MUKASA

WASHINGTON - The directive to the South African Broadcasting Corporation to black out progressive Zimbabwean intellectuals known to be critical of the Mugabe regime represents the latest outrage in South African president Thabo Mbeki’s efforts to prop up Mugabe.
This attempt to control the press marks a black spot in South Africa’s post-apartheid democracy and freedom of the press, both of which have won the country international acclaim.
The fact that SABC is financed by the South African government should not be an excuse to control the broadcast medium. The logic must simply be that South Africa believes in the public’s right to know. This is a pillar of freedom of the press.
If the South African government feels a piece of information threatens the national security of the state and the nation let this be decided in a court of law.
Futile attempts by SABC to seek a court order to remove this story from the online edition of the Mail and Guardian merely expose the ignorance of whoever is in authority about the role, rights and obligations of the mass media.
It was to the courts’ credit that this complaint from SABC was thrown out with the contempt it deserved. It is also glaring evidence that whoever is in charge at the SABC has inadequate, if any at all, professional journalistic credentials for the position.
But this act of censorship – for that is what it amounts to – is not an isolated development. It falls squarely within the policy framework of President Mbeki’s policy and attitude towards Zimbabwe. Mbeki has repeatedly and consistently been a strong supporter of Mugabe.
His argument that his abortive Quiet Diplomacy policy had yielded at one time some signed agreement from Zanu (PF) and MDC on the way forward was denied by both parties. In other cases Mbeki has blocked any attempts to condemn Mugabe at international meetings, notably the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
The most amazing contradiction on Mbeki’s collaborationist policy on Zimbabwe is that South Africa is reeling under a heavy influx of Zimbabwean refugees estimated to number about three million.
One would expect Mbeki to play a leading role in resolving the situation in Zimbabwe, bearing in mind that it would also help South Africa and the SADCC region.
The international spotlight has faded on Mbeki as the key to resolving the Zimbabwean crisis. Nobody takes him seriously any more. Tragically Mbeki’s policy on Mugabe has become a model for the SADCC leaders who have now defined their roles as that of protecting him.
Thankfully, civil society in the region is not as supportive. South African trade union and church leaders, notably Bishop Desmond Tutu, and academics have unequivocally condemned Mugabe.
The opposition movement in Zimbabwe needs to cultivate a regional strategy with the civic society groups. Various strategies have been mooted such as refusing to carry goods and blocking the movement of goods between Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Let there be a regional and international convention of civic society groups to discuss strategies on how they can be involved in the onslaught against Mugabe.
The region’s economies are so interdependent that what happens in one country inevitably affects workers and masses in other countries.

Home affairs bows to ZEF pressure

2006-10-19T10:38:00.001+02:00

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JOHANNESBURG – Following threats to sue by the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF) over their stance not to give Zimbabwe asylum seekers the right to work and study, South Africa's Home Affairs department has made an about turn and is now according these two basic rights.
The Rosettenville Home Affairs Refugee Reception office was issuing Zimbabwean asylum seekers with a newly-changed section 22 permit that prohibited work and study.
This prompted some asylum seekers to seek assistance from ZEF and other refugee organisations, who threatened to make public and sue the Home Affairs department over this whole exercise that was discriminatory towards Zimbabwean refugees.
"I am happy that I got the permit papers that allow me to work and study here in South Africa, at least I know that I can now work and sustain myself. My other Zimbabwean colleagues who got papers were not so lucky as their papers prohibit them from work and study," said an elated Jonathan Makoni, an asylum seekers, who had just received his papers from Rosettenville on Friday.
"We thank the timely intervention of ZEF and their stance that they would make the whole practice public. At least we know we can now fend for ourselves," said another asylum seeker, Tabeth Vheremu.
The Home Affairs department has recently been under fire from human rights organisations and refugee organisations for their discriminatory practices which, said ZEF, were contrary to the South African constitution and international Human Rights Conventions which afforded everyone the basic right to work and earn a living.
According to a senior SA government official, who requested anonymity, the idea not to allow the refugees stay on their own in various refugee camps was deliberately aimed at helping them integrate, share professional and academic skills that would bring the much needed expertise in various fields currently lacking in this wealth country. He said most universities in the country were standing because of the foreigners.
The government official, who was also in exile during the apartheid era, said foreigners were the ones making the economy tick, with several foreigners forming own viable companies that have employed thousands of South African citizens.
No immediate comment could be obtained from the department of Home Affairs' Director General, Sibusisiwe Tshehle. - CAJ News

Rare partnership opens guest lodge

JOHANNESBURG - A rare partnership among refugees from three different African nations has embarked on a business venture that is likely to give them immense financial rewards.
Lovemore Sibanda from Zimbabwe, Sylvia Nalwamba from Zambia and Taffi Nyasulu from Malawi, all living in South Africa as refugees, pooled together financial resources and early this year mooted the idea of starting a guest lodge.
The new premises of the Mary-Ana Guest House venture in Sandton suburb are now open for business.
"We have established a comfortable and highly recommended base for the business or leisure traveller," said Sibanda, the group’s spokesperson.
The lodge is easily accessible to all the main arterial routes and is close to the Eastgate and Johannesburg Central Business District. Sibanda said they started the venture in response to the business opportunities that are being offered by the 2010 World Cup. - CAJ News

Zimbabweans caught out in SA nightclub drama
BY TICHAONA SIBANDA

JOHANNESBURG - Police in South Africa have been accused of brutality and ‘stealing’ after a team of heavily armed special forces stormed a nightclub in Kempton Park, Johannesburg looking for wanted criminals and illegal immigrants.

‘Ocean bar’ is owned by a Zimbabwean businessman and at the time of the raid was packed with over a hundred revellers, most of them Zimbabwean citizens working in South Africa.

Solomon Chikohwero, a pro-democracy activist based in Johannesburg, said when the police team forced its way into the nightclub they ordered everyone to lie down.

Those who initially resisted were beaten up and scores of patrons received minor injuries after the skirmishes. Chikohwero said police performed body searches on every individual, demanding identity papers.

‘On top of the identity papers, they took away money and cellphones, including passports with valid work permits. You wonder if this was a genuine raid by the police because in the end noone was arrested,’ said Chikohwero.

Initial reaction from the clubbers was that of shock at first but turned to anger when they realised the team had taken their money and phones. The team leader of the police group, described as white, is alleged to have shouted at the stunned patrons; ‘this is our country, we do what we want here.’

‘We can’t say the raid could have had some racial connotations because the majority of the police officers were black. This was xenophobia more than anything else,’ Chikohwero said.

Asked if any of the patrons had complained to the police about the raid, Chikohwero believes many could have decided against it because the majority of them are not documented and fear creating trouble for themselves if they approached the authorities. – SW Radio Africa

At war with the elephants

2006-10-19T10:38:00.000+02:00

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GOKWE - Precious Nyoni, 35, surveys his garden. The vegetable and sugarcane stalks are flattened, and half-eaten crops lie all around. This was his only livelihood, and in one night, it is all gone.

"(Zimbabwe's) liberation struggle ended in 1980. But now we have another
war, with the elephants. We are not allowed to kill them, hence we just
frighten them, but look, where am I going to get the food to survive when
everything has been trampled by these creatures?

"They are too many and I believe they should be reduced through a culling
exercise. Just recently, elephants destroyed 50 hectares of maize crop
belonging to some villagers. It means that all of us need food assistance
even before we have harvested," Nyoni said, looking as devastated as his
garden.

More than 600km north of Gokwe, in the Omay communal lands of the Nyaminyami
district, farmers come down from a rickety treetop watchtower. They have
worked in shifts through the night, guarding their lands from being raided
by an elephant herd.

Southern African countries have been plunged into an elephant management and
ecological degradation crisis that demands urgent action.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the ivory trade decimated elephant populations in
Africa as the giant mammals were killed for their tusks. After the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna
(CITES) banned trade in ivory in 1989, depleted populations began to recover
and now they are competing in some areas with humans for food and land.

An estimated 600,000 elephants roam the African continent. Fragmented
populations are to be found in 37 range states. Zimbabwe alone has a sixth
of the total population; nearly half of these crowded into the country's
most famous sanctuary, Hwange National Park.

Regional governments believe a legal and controlled ivory trade could bring
substantial economic benefits without jeopardising the conservation of the
species, or a further loss of biodiversity.

That could include halving the jumbo population to bring them to manageable
levels through translocation or exporting live animals to countries that
need them, which is approved by CITES. Also on the table is the
controversial culling method, which Zimbabwe would like to see resume after
a hiatus of 17 years. The practice was banned under CITES.

African countries have been divided over elephant culling. Kenya and some
West African states are strongly opposed to any resumption of the ivory
business, which they believe will provide cover for an illegal trade derived
from poaching.

Namibia, Botswana and South Africa are part of the pro-culling lobby. They
want to be able to trade their significant stockpiles of ivory to fund
conservation work.

CITES denied permission on Oct. 5 to the three countries to hold a special
sale of 60 tonnes of unprocessed elephant tusks they have stockpiled since
2002, a decision that will be reviewed at the 14th Conference of Parties
(COP 14) to the Convention, to be held in The Hague, Jun. 3-15, 2007.

At the last CITES conference, held in Thailand in 2004, Kenya's proposal for
a six-year moratorium on ivory trade was withdrawn, and Namibia's proposal
for an annual export quota of two tonnes of raw ivory was rejected.

However, permission was granted for trade in elephant hides and hair goods,
as well as non-commercial trade in worked ivory, provided it was accompanied
by a valid export certificate. South Africa also gained permission for trade
in elephant hides.

Tapera Chimuti, operations director of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife
Management Authority, said the country was unlikely to ask for approval at
COP 14 to sell ivory.

"If we were to ask for approval to sell ivory today, the whole world will be
against us for political reasons, although we have the best wildlife
management practice in place in almost the whole continent," said Chimuti.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean authorities are encouraging the participation of
local communities in elephant conservation efforts, through the Community
Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE), in which
villages are part of the decision-making process, and the main beneficiaries
of revenue earned from wildlife.

Based in Harare, CAMPFIRE was initiated in 1982, after an amendment of the
Parks and Wildlife Act (1975) that granted "appropriate authority" status to
popularly elected rural district councils so that they could manage and
benefit from the sustainable utilisation of wildlife.

According to the programme's director, Charles Jonga, CAMPFIRE has succeeded
in reducing conflict between people and wildlife, and has created
opportunities for sustainable economic development in Zimbabwe's rural areas
through natural resources management. Fifty-seven of the country's 59 rural
districts participate in the programme.

"CAMPFIRE's impact on national income is at least 10 million dollars
annually. If the multiplier on tourism activities is included, CAMPFIRE is
worth 20 to 25 million dollars to Zimbabwe's economy each year," Jonga
calculated in a Sep. 26 report. - IPS

Minister admits reforms not working

2006-10-19T10:37:00.000+02:00

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BULAWAYO - A Zimbabwe government minister at the weekend admitted that the National Economic Development Priority Programme (NEDPP) set up earlier this year had failed to resuscitate the country’s comatose economy.
Economic Development Minister, Rugare Gumbo, said the NEDPP had failed because it was a hurried project set up to deal with a national emergency.
Addressing business leaders and parliamentarians during a three-day 2007 pre-budget seminar Gumbo said the government had failed to manage the programme.
“The problem with the NEDPP is that it came as an emergency to solve the economic crisis facing the country and I agree that we failed to manage it and therefore it did not bear the desired fruits. “We are human beings and we make mistakes,” Gumbo said.
The remarks were the first by a Zimbabwe government minister openly admitting that Harare’s economic reforms were not working.
President Robert Mugabe’s embattled government had touted the NEDPP, set up last April, as the panacea to the country’s economic crisis with Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono consistently defending the programme as a huge success.
A confidential document prepared for the Economic Development Ministry leaked to ZimOnline last week also painted a picture of a government in crisis, ripped apart by serious infighting and uncommitted to ending a seven-year old recession.
The document entitled, “Memorandum to the National Security Council on the National Economic Development Priority Programme,” blamed the economic crisis on lack of urgency and lack of policy co-ordination by the government. - ZimOnline

Costly foreign education for Ministers’ kids ..while Zim kids sent home

2006-10-19T10:35:00.001+02:00

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BY GIFT PHIRI

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s cabinet ministers could be fleecing the treasury of millions of dollars in scarce foreign currency to educate their children at expensive colleges abroad while government is at loggerheads with local private schools over fee-capping legislation.
Amid this “grotesque extravagance,” hundreds of children from poor families on the other hand have dropped out of school for failing to raise the fees.
Several ministers are spending more than 100 times their annual salaries on tuition and residence fees for children enrolled at prestigious universities in Western capitals such as Harvard, Washington DC University, George Washington, Wolverhampton and Birmingham University, among others.
The Zimbabwean can reveal that Rural Housing and Social Amenities minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has a child, Chido, at Midlands College in Texas in the US where fees start at about US$24,000 a year (Z$38 million revalued). His daughter Chipo studied at Varsity College in Cape Town, South Africa and his son studied and is now living in UK.
Education minister Aeneas Chigwedere, is frantically trying to control fees at private schools in Zimbabwe supposedly because they are “charging exorbitant fees.”
And yet, at Harvard, where his child Pride studied the minister was forking out about US$42,000 (Z$67 million revalued) a year. Zimbabwean ministers earn an estimated Z$350,000 a year and under the country’s anti-money laundering laws individuals are barred from stocking foreign currency.
Mines minister Amos Midzi, who is spearheading the illegal takeover of foreign-owned mines, has a child, Tendai at George Washington University in the US.
Minister of Science and Technology in President Mugabe’s Office, Olivia Muchena, has a son, Kudzai, at Sunway College in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Higher Education minister Stan Mudenge has a son, Stan (Jnr) studying at the University of Washington DC.
Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi’s son studied medicine in Canada and now practises there. His daughter, Maggie Ambayi, is currently studying there. Health and Child Welfare minister David Parirenyatwa’s son, Jeff, is studying in Australia. Parirenyatwa had another son at Durham University in Britain.
Simbarashe Mumbengegwi (Foreign Affairs), Herbert Murerwa (Finance), Elliot Manyika (Minister Without Portfolio), John Nkomo (Speaker), Patrick Chinamasa (Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs) and Oppah Muchinguri (Gender) all have or had children at finishing schools or universities in Britain and America.
Political analysts said ministers were “trying to pull wool over our eyes” that they cared about the affordability of education to citizens when they were fleecing the treasury to finance their children’s tuition in forex.
The minimum wage for domestic workers in Zimbabwe is Z$8,000 a month and factory workers earn between Z$15,000 and Z$60,000 a month. Primary school fees start at Z$2,500 per term. Secondary education costs more than double.

Schools re-named

HARARE - Zimbabwe’s main opposition, the MDC, has scoffed at government’s “double standards” in renaming hundreds of schools, formerly with British names, after the country’s national heroes when ministers were surreptitiously sending their children to foreign schools.
Many private schools have over the past few months been renamed to honour liberation “heroes” and government figures from Zimbabwe in what has been described by critics as “an apparent bid by President Mugabe to pander to anti-colonialist sentiment.”
Among some of the prominent schools whose names have been changed is Harare-based Prince Edward High School, which has been re-christened Murenga Boys High, after a leader of an uprising against colonial settlers a century ago.
A girls’ school named after Queen Elizabeth has also been changed to the Sally Mugabe Girls High after President Mugabe’s first wife who died of kidney failure in 1992.
Other figures from British royalty and the colonial era, including British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Cecil Rhodes, the founder of Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was known before independence, have also been replaced. – Own correspondent

Police ignore AG’s order to arrest killer

2006-10-19T10:35:00.000+02:00

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Police ignore AG’s order to arrest killer

In the run-up to the 2000 general elections MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s assistants – Talent Mabika and Tichaona Chiminya – were petrol-bombed and killed in their car in Buhera.

The murders were committed in broad daylight with several witnesses present, including police officers who did nothing. During the inquest, the judge ordered the arrest of the alleged murderer, Joseph Mwale, a notorious CIO operative in Manicaland. Again, the police did nothing.

Since then several courts, including the High Court, have instructed the police to arrest Mwale. Their excuse has consistently been that they can’t find him – despite the fact that he continues to operate from the CIO headquarters in Manicaland (near the police station in Mutare) where he has been promoted. He continues to draw a state salary and lives in a government house. He has even been given a farm – grabbed by government without compensation from a formerly productive commercial farmer of course.

Such inertia on the part of the police has been increasingly evident since 2000, when the MDC emerged as a viable opposition in Zimbabwean politics and for the first time threatened the hitherto de facto one party state enjoyed by Zanu (PF) since Independence in 1980.

It has become routine for the police to do nothing in cases affecting opposition members. Court judgements are simply ignored.

But now, for the first time the Attorney General’s office, which is empowered by the constitution to prosecute criminals, has got involved. A formal letter was sent to the police in Manicaland giving them a firm deadline – October 6 – to arrest Mwale.

“The accused is facing a charge of murder which was committed in the year 2000. The docket was referred to your office with instructions that you arrest Joseph Mwale and bring him for initial remand. To date we have not received any information pertaining to the progress made by your office,” says the letter.

The deadline has come and gone. Nothing has happened.

Observers say no policeman in Zimbabwe has the courage to arrest a CIO officer for anything involving an opposition supporter. That would be more than their life is worth.

In glaring contrast to this is the enthusiastic zeal with which the police ‘dealt with’ the opposition and trade union leaders who dared take to the streets recently to protest against the ruling party. What a travesty of justice. We feel for the families of those involved.

Word for Today 41 –
“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards and will make the Valley of Trouble a Door of Hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth.” Hosea 1:14,15

Free Zim youths demonstrate against Mbeki

2006-10-19T10:34:00.000+02:00

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LONDON - The pressure group Free-Zim Youth (UK) marched and danced on the streets of London and staged a demonstration at the South African embassy last weekend. The event coincided with the fourth anniversary of the Zimbabwe Vigil.

The event, which was attended by more than 200 people, was filled with chants and songs against the Zanu (PF) government in Zimbabwe. Many political and human rights activists, Zimbabwean and non-Zimbabwean, attended the event showing solidarity with the Free-Zim Youth group.

Speakers included the prominent civil rights activist, Peter Tatchell, gender activist and advocate, Yvonne Marimo, and the African Liberation Support Campaign Network (ALSCN)'s Tokumbo Oku, who called on all Africans to show international solidarity as was done to the African National Congress (ANC) during the apartheid era.

Tokumbo blasted the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe for writing historic wrongs about his contribution and about neo-colonialism. He blamed Mugabe for presenting himself as an African revolutionary, instead calling him an "African dictator".

ALSCN is a democratic organisation led by Africans who support independent African organisations who are fighting oppression and tyranny in Africa, and who are fighting racism in the West.

The long trail marched from Zimbabwe House to the South African embassy in central London. Free-Zim Youth leaders, Alois Mbawara and Wellington Chibanguza were dressed in military gear to mark the renewed fight for democracy in Zimbabwe.

The group marched carrying a mock coffin symbolising the Gukurahundi massacres and this was dumped at the embassy.

Alois Mbawara and Wellington Chibanguza leaders of Free-Zim Youth, expressed their disappointment at Mbeki for not speaking out against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and blamed the South African leader as not being an honest broker in the crisis. They said that this is the first of a number of campaigns scheduled at the South African and SADC country embassies in the UK.

After the demonstration the Free-Zim Youth group marched back to the Zimbabwean embassy to join the Zimbabwe Vigil in marking their fourth anniversary.

The event included many groups, including the press from different Zimbabwean and foreign newspapers and many concerned people from the streets of London often stopped to join in the dances and find out more about the demonstrations.

"Mugabe should be ashamed of his betrayal of the Zimbabwean people," said one passer-by. "I saw him here in London in the late 70s during the Lancaster House negotiations and he seemed like a visionary who would make the lives of Zimbabweans better, instead he has made their lives worse, and should be ashamed", she continued.

The Youth said this was only the start of war with Mbeki. They are also demanding an update from the outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan before he leaves office.

Solidarity messages from YCL (young communist league) of South Africa, Gabriel Shumba (Zim Exiles Forum SA) and COSATU who are also working to put pressure on the South African Government. – Own Correspondent

Detention Watch from Zimbabwe Association

2006-10-19T10:32:00.000+02:00

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Detention Watch from Zimbabwe Association

LONDON - Recently the ZA was invited to speak at the AGM of Asylum Aid, a well known charity (co-author of Justice Denied). It was a good opportunity to publicise the situation of our members more widely, and also enabled us to build better links with a much larger more experienced organisation. As the area of asylum becomes even more complex and difficult, we have to accept that getting status as a refugee in the UK is going to get much harder.
New Legal Aid regulations are to be introduced in the coming months, which are expected to result in increased difficulties in accessing competent legal representation.
We are anxiously awaiting further news regarding the AA case but are unable to predict when this may be forthcoming. As long as it has not been fully determined, Zimbabwean asylum seekers should not be removed from the UK. Cases that are dependant on the AA case are unlikely to progress until AA is determined.
Reports have been received of two more people detained this week. One person was transferred to a detention centre after completing a prison sentence. The other was detained when signing but she arrived in the UK on a South African passport and is being regarded as South African by Immigration.
Some detainees have had problems getting out on bail and this is largely due to their poor reporting record. If your asylum case is ongoing it is important to stick to reporting regulations if you are to avoid such problems at a future date. For those worried about being detained when reporting it might be of interest to know that it costs over £800 a week to keep someone in detention.
We’ve had requests from members to send out information via email more regularly. The reason we had to stop doing this was because many faulty email addresses resulted in a lot of rebounding emails. If you would like us to send you information via email please email the office.
Please note that the ZA Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday 29 October at Development House.
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. We also have a website at www.zimbabweassociation.org

Deported Zims living in Malawi squalor

2006-10-19T10:31:00.000+02:00

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BY TERERAI KARIMAKWENDA

BLANTYRE - Thousands of Zimbabweans are reported to be living in squalor near Chileka airport after they were deported from the UK. Activist Patson Muzuwa from the Zimbabwe Association, a group that assists asylum seekers, confirmed the removals and said the group included women and children who had used Malawian passports to get into the UK.
Muzuwa said the deportees had documents proving they were actually Zimbabweans travelling on Malawi papers, because they require no visas. But the British government did not verify their authenticity with the Zimbabwean government. And authorities in Malawi confiscated all passports that had been acquired fraudulently, leading to some 3,000 stuck near the airport with no means of supporting themselves.
Malawian passports became extremely popular with Zimbabweans because they were easy to get through bribery and fraud. But as problems arose in the destination countries involving these fake documents, Malawi began tightening requirements for passports. Malawian citizens who used to get identity and travel documents for free are now being charged fees. Several corruption cases involving Malawian immigration officials were also exposed.
Muzuwa said the Zimbabwe Association has been working with human rights groups in Malawi and communicating with the Ministry of Home Affairs in order to help these desperate Zimbabweans. Malawi does not allow homeless drifters to sleep on the streets due to the country’s vagabond laws. So any illegal Zimbabweans caught near the airport or anywhere in Malawi can be jailed or sent back to the one place they escaped to begin with, Zimbabwe. – SW Radio Africa

Violence, corruption mar run-up to elections

2006-10-19T10:29:00.000+02:00

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KADOMA - There are allegations that hundreds of people from outlying areas are being registered to take part in the forthcoming mayoral elections.

Only those who live within the town’s boundaries are eligible to vote, but it has emerged that Zanu (PF) activists under Kadoma’s rural district council boundaries are being registered to vote on 28th October.

Incumbent Mayor Fani Phiri of Zanu (PF) is seeking re-election and will battle it out with MDC candidate Jonas Ndenda from the Morgan Tsvangirai camp. Ndenda is a former employee of Kadoma municipality.

A source told us other people within the boundaries are being invited to register their names with the local Zanu (PF) offices so they could be allocated farming plots in areas surrounding the town.

Already there have been significant incidents of violence and intimidation in the town. Last week several people were injured when soldiers from the nearby Suri-Suri defence forces base attacked innocent civilians in retaliation for an attack on a soldier.
The pre-election period is already characterised by arbitrary arrests of MDC officials and the bussing in of hundreds of Zanu (PF) activists to Kadoma to register for the poll. – SW Radio Africa

Bulawayo celebrates MDC's seventh anniversary

2006-10-19T10:27:00.000+02:00

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BY NELSON CHAMISA

BULAWAYO - An enthusiastic crowd of about 15 000 supporters, clad in colourful party regalia, turned up to celebrate the seventh anniversary of the MDC at the White City stadium arena in Pelandaba, on Sunday.
The jubilant crowd braved the scorching October heat and joined others who had begun to gather at the venue as early as 7am. Forget about the people's passion for the game of football, especially when Highlanders is playing. Yesterday, they were united in their passion for their party, the MDC.
There were speeches by representatives of the churches, the workers, the Zimbabwe National Students Union, the MDC national youth chairman Thamsanqa Mahlangu, women's assembly chairperson Lucia Matibenga, vice national chairman Lovemore Moyo, vice president Thokozani Khupe and the keynote address by party president Morgan Tsvangirai.
Mahlangu urged the youth to realise that the future belonged to them, Matibenga took a swipe at desk-top activists and cyber-revolutionaries who were quick to criticise those who are in the trenches while they themselves were doing nothing and remained tucked thousands of miles away from tyranny. She said Robert Mugabe remained the personification of the national crisis. Khupe thanked the people for retaining their faith and trust in the MDC as their only source of hope in a brutalised nation where hope itself stood the risk of becoming another scarce commodity.
In his keynote address, Tsvangirai said the existence of the MDC was in itself a testament of courage and determination to solve the national crisis, considering the regime's perennial ambition to extinguish the party from the country's political terrain.
Dislodging tyranny had become an urgent assignment for all democratic forces and a duty for every Zimbabwean in and outside the country, he said.
Mugabe's government did not deserve another day, another week or another year in office simply because it was illegitimate and had caused untold suffering to the people of Zimbabwe. The regime, he said, had managed to regenerate itself through a fraudulent electoral process in which Mugabe was both an umpire and wicketkeeper in the same game.
He said the MDC’s major achievement was to unite people, regardless of their tribe, in the realisation that we are all Zimbabweans who share a common vision of collective unity to save our country.
“No-one has chosen to be born Shona, Ndebele or Tonga. The MDC cherishes the people's diversity and envisions a nation where every Zimbabwean, regardless of their tribe, race, religion or creed, has every right to demand a new Zimbabwe and a new beginning,” he said. - Nelson Chamisa is the MDC Secretary for Information and Publicity

SAFM broadcasts adaptation of Johannesburg author's book

2006-10-11T15:27:00.000+02:00

Taung Wells, a novel by Martin Koboekae from Johannesburg has been adapted into a radio play for SAFM. The twenty-two episodes will be broadcast on Mondays to Thursdays at 19h45.

Taung Wells may also be prescribed for schools by some provinces next year. Koboekae’s two plays “Bush Tale” and “Third Coming” have also been adapted for SAFM. Bush Tale is an hour-long radio play and will be broadcast in December while twenty four episodes of

Sabata Mokae of the Mail & Guardian described it "Written with the accuracy of a historian and the dramatic detail of a playwright."

Another of his plays' "Third Coming" was also aired early this year by the Western Cape based Bush Radio. Adrienne Sichel of the Star described it: "A cultural satire. Koboekae’s writing flirts with parody as it jettisons didacticism for witty word play."

Zimbabwe Vigil Diary – 16th September 2006

2006-09-22T01:01:00.000+02:00

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LONDON - The savage repression of the workers’ demonstrations in Zimbabwe this week made the Vigil even more determined to stand up for our suffering brothers and sisters back home. We had with us founder Vigil member Addley, whose sister Grace Kwinje (MDC Deputy Secretary for International Affairs) was arrested during the demonstration on Wednesday.
We were relieved to hear that Lovemore Matombo, ZCTU President, along with the others had been released. On Wednesday, we had his niece Mercy with us in tears when she heard he’d been arrested and beaten.
These torturers must not think they can get away with it forever. The people know who they are and they will be brought to justice. The Vigil was addressed by Julius Mutyambizi-Dewa, newly-elected Secretary of the MDC UK. He said we must not be intimidated by the latest brutal response by the Mugabe regime to peaceful protest. He said that the police and the army are our brothers and some of them are beginning to see the light.
He had spoken to Grace Kwinje, who despite her ordeal, was defiant and determined to fight on. The Vigil made a spontaneous collection for this week’s victims of violence – but the main message we want to send them is our admiration for their courage.
We had a good attendance (including a large group from Milton Keynes) despite some regulars attending a London meeting arranged by the Britain-Zimbabwe Society on Zimbabwean skills and reconstruction. We are glad that so many came to join us to express their outrage at what is going on in Zimbabwe rather than talking about it.
Wonderful to meet the family of founder Vigil member, Patience. Her husband and two children have recently joined her from Zimbabwe. So many families have been divided by the Zimbabwean catastrophe so it’s a great joy to see a Vigil family reunited.
We are glad that so many of the new MDC-UK National Executive are activists, many of them members of the Vigil – we look to them all to do more than just talk. For this week’s Vigil pictures: http://uk.msnusers.com/ZimbabweVigil/shoebox.msnw. FOR THE RECORD: 72 signed the register.
FOR YOUR DIARY: Monday, 25th September, 7.30 pm: Zimbabwe Forum. Upstairs at the Theodore Bullfrog pub, 28 John Adam Street, London WC2 (cross the Strand from the Zimbabwe Embassy, go down a passageway to John Adam Street, turn right and you will see the pub).

LONDON – Scores of Zimbabweans last week demonstrated outside the offices of the Conservative and Labour Party offices in Leeds, Birmingham, and Manchester against the deportations of thousands of failed asylum seekers back to Zimbabwe from Britain.
The demonstrations were organised by the United Network for Detained Zimbabweans (UNDZ). The organisation’s spokesman, Noble Sibanda, said the demonstrators handed over petitions voicing their concern over ‘the contradictions which we continue to find in Tony Blair's government over the Zimbabwe crisis’.
"Nobody wants to be here any longer than necessary. Things are not yet okay in Zimbabwe and the British government knows that and that is why Zimbabwe is still under the targeted sanctions," said Sibanda. "As long as they haven't removed those sanctions then it means people are still being trampled on. We want the British government to work with us on this issue and many others. They should not run ahead of us but work with us."
In a recent court ruling, the British government won the right to deport thousands of failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers but lawyers have mounted a legal challenge. – Own correspondent

Detention Watch from Zimbabwe Association

2006-09-22T01:00:00.000+02:00

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LONDON - Savage reprisals against trade unionists and protesters in Zimbabwe have shocked us all. The viciousness displayed by the regime in its punishment of anyone who dares to speak out against its abuses has been breathtaking. We salute the brave men and women who will not be silenced.
A recent front page story in The Sun illustrated all that is worst about Zimbabweans in the UK. One young man recklessly endangered the lives of many women through his selfish and irresponsible behaviour. When apprehended he tried to pretend he was an asylum seeker. We understand that he has been returned to Zimbabwe but because of his family links with officials of Zanu (PF) will not be facing the same dangers as other forced returnees.
Rumours continue to circulate about the number of people who have been forcibly returned to Zimbabwe since 2 August. We do not think it is a large number. If anyone is able to help us by providing more information about people they know who have been removed it would be very helpful.
New people calling for help recently have all been picked up from workplaces. It is very difficult to help those who have not got their asylum papers in order. Everyone who is fearful of being detained should by now have arranged to leave a copy of their determination with a trusted friend or family member, plus a signed letter authorising us to look for a legal representative for them (if that is the help they require). Without authorisation or being able to access this information it is difficult for us to assist. Being organised simply enables help to be given.
Detainees continue to be moved from centre to centre which adds to the difficulties in obtaining legal representation for them. Most legal firms only offer their services over a certain area so if the detainee is moved suddenly to Scotland, for example, they may be unable to continue representing their client. This is confusing and depressing for those concerned. It takes time and effort to find decent representation and constant moves are very frustrating.
Numbers of Zimbabweans in detention known to us have risen slightly. This is mainly because we came across a small group of detainees in one centre who were previously unknown and had been there for some weeks. We have not heard of significant numbers of ‘new’ people being picked up and detained. Some of those picked up recently were released after a couple of days in police stations.
Our parting message is “Don’t be fearful. BE ORGANISED.”
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 Support queries: 27 September

A week is a long time in politics

2006-09-22T00:59:00.000+02:00

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BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Sometimes it is quite hard to keep track of all that is going on in this small corner of the world that is so important to us who live here. Must be doubly difficult for those who live “out there”. If you take the past week for example, the main points that we might record are as follows: -
Inflation rose in August to 28 per cent for the month – raising the annual average so far to 1204 per cent. This is dramatically up on the figure for July and the IMF followed this with a brief report that said that inflation was out of control and might reach 4000 per cent in 2007. On the ground the CEO of Dairibord was arrested when he raised the price of milk and the CIO started raids on the homes of senior executives of other companies alleging price fixing and profiteering. After claiming that fuel at controlled prices (Z$330 per litre) would be available, prices rose today to about Z$1000 a litre at retail outlets – local commuter transport charges rose by a third immediately.
The Deputy Minister of Mines reiterated that the State was determined to take 51 per cent of the equity in all mining concerns. Although the mining industry remained silent in the face of this threat, with the sole exception of the Zimplats operation, it now looks as if the rest of the industry will simply sit tight and await developments. All major maintenance and expansion is on hold and will remain so until the policy environment is clarified.
Literally billions of US dollars of investment are on hold as a result. It is yet another example of Zanu (PF) stupidity and greed.

The IMF announced that in their own view the Zimbabwe economy would contract by about 5 per cent again this year – bringing to 7 years the continuous decline in national economic output and coming on top of an over 7 per cent decline in 2005. In the same week the IMF and the World Bank raised their estimate of global expansion to 5,7 percent in 2006, citing strong growth in China and India and stronger performance in Africa. Global trade is growing strongly and the oil exporters are on a global spending spree that is helping offset the higher oil prices.
The Minister of Agriculture, that nutty guy Made, accepted for the first time that we might be short of grain. He explained to a Committee of Parliament that the GMB did not have the required stocks to overcome a shortfall in imports. This after he has persistently claimed we had grown a large crop of maize and would reap over 200 000 tonnes of winter wheat. The reality is that we have grown a small crop of maize (about 700 000 to 800 000 tonnes) and cannot expect to reap more than a tiny wheat and barley crop – no more than about 50 000 tonnes or 15 per cent of our needs.
What nobody has admitted is that the cotton crop – grown almost completely by small-scale farmers who are largely unaffected directly by the farm invasions, has declined by 30 per cent in a year of above average rainfall – a serious development. To emphasize the impact of this, the largest cotton spinner cut back production by 50 per cent last week and went onto short time. Clothing manufacturers were all rushing to try and find fabric to fill the hole in their programmes in advance of the Christmas season when demand is normally high.
On the democratic front, the State announced last Monday in the form of adverts in the government owned press that Rural District Council elections would be held at the end of October and that candidates had to register by Friday morning. Just to make sure everyone had the opportunity to serve their communities, the compulsory police clearances needed by all prospective candidates had to be processed in Harare and would cost Z$2 000.00 (two million dollars in the “old” currency). Now remember there are nearly 2000 seats up for election in these Districts – many in the most remote corners of the country. The Nomination Courts would be held at all Rural District Council Offices in each District.
The MDC had to find candidates, put them through selection procedures and clearance procedures, get their fingerprints done at local police stations and then send the prints to Harare by whatever means possible, get clearance and then get them back to the Districts in time for the applicants to submit their documents – which must include the new “long” birth certificates. All in 5 days! Well, that proved too much even for Zanu (PF) who knew of this plan well in advance and was working on candidates and we got an extension to Wednesday – another three working days. Still this makes a complete mockery of the democratic system – how on earth can people work within a system that is managed like this – we have not seen the voters roll and there has been very little voter registration activity.
Then Mugabe commandeered a plane from Air Zimbabwe, leaving passengers stranded all over the world (as we only have one long distance aircraft flying) and flew to Cuba for the Non Aligned Movement summit. He was in good company as he stridently announced to the world that “democracy was stupid” and that the demand for adherence to democratic principle was an excuse for regime change in counties like his own. How right he is – if we had a real democracy here, he and his clowns would be history, voted into oblivion by the people.
Just to endorse his view of the values of the rest of the world, the Minister of Information here said that “a free press would result in Zanu (PF) losing power” and this was why they were going to keep a tight grip on the press and the electronic media. We all knew that, but it was nice to have it confirmed by the regime itself.

Just to confirm the character of the regime we had the spectacle on Wednesday of 40 000 baton wielding riot police backed up by at least 24 water cannon – most of them brand new, freshly trained by Chinese experts in freedom and democracy, chasing a few hundred Unionists and MDC leaders who were trying to deliver a document to the Minister of Labour.
By my own tally, 260 people were arrested, many beaten in front of thousands of by standers and then taken off to Police Cells. There the leadership of the ZCTU was subjected to a brutal and savage beating. At least two – Lucie Mativenga and Wellington Chibebe were beaten about the head and have serious head injuries. They and others have broken arms and legs and crushed hands.
We will find out who was responsible (not just the Ministers) and we will eventually get justice for those injured in this appalling action.

A long overdue, but still welcome development was a strong statement from the traditional leaders of the Church in Zimbabwe calling for negotiations centered on a fresh vision of the future and to agree on a solution to the present crisis. This was echoed by voices abroad that said it was time to prepare for a post Mugabe era. We in the MDC agree with both sentiments but Mugabe remains obdurate and stuck in a morass of his own making.
Finally, Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the MDC, was on BBC World at the weekend on a call-in programme called “Have your say”. The programme was recorded in South Africa because the BBC could not get a permit to enter Zimbabwe. I may be biased, but frankly I thought he was fantastic. It was just what those of us who have worked with the man for the past decade have come to respect. He came across as a man of compassion and intellect, a real human being who wanted the best for his country and its people. There was one “planted” e-mail from a group in Zimbabwe that came via Ireland, but the rest were genuine questions and I think they mostly got a good thoughtful response. It was like a breath of clean air after all the rest. Pity it’s only on DSTV and the great majority of Zimbabweans will not have had the chance (the very few such chances) to actually see the man who almost certainly will be our next President.

Uproar over brutal police beatings of trade unionists

2006-09-22T00:56:00.000+02:00

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By our Correspondent
HARARE – Brutal beatings by police, with suspected soldiers joining in, of trade unionists arrested for trying to hold a peaceful demonstration in Harare have provoked national and international condemnation.
Reports of brutal behaviour and systematic use of torture by Robert Mugabe’s police are tragically now routine.
But this time, with some trade unionists appearing in court in splints, others hardly able to walk, and their secretary general Wellington Chibebe struggling to speak from a hospital bed, the results of the barbaric behaviour by the regime’s agents were there for all to see.
Outpourings against such official cruelty focussed renewed attention on the Robert Mugabe regime’s disdain for international conventions and the impunity it grants state agents to behave lawlessly.
Members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) were rounded up almost as soon as the Sept. 13 demonstration against the dire state of the economy and workers’ conditions began. Witnesses said police lashed out as they arrested the demonstrators. But the real brutality took place once they were herded into Harare’s notorious Matapi Police Station.
“We were told to get into cells in pairs … they started beating us up all over the body with batons and a knobkerrie. The assault carried on for about 20 minutes. I passed out because of excessive bleeding,” Chibebe told The Standard. He regained consciousness the next morning, having suffered severe head injuries, a broken arm and two broken fingers.
Chibebe said the language of some of the attackers made him suspect they were not all police officers. “They said things like, ‘We were trained to kill and not to write dockets’,” he added.
Magistrate Peter Mufunda held a court session at Chibebe’s bedside in the Parirenyatwa Hospital, granted him free bail, ordered an investigation into the assault and a full report to be delivered to court by Oct. 3. He also ordered that the perpetrators be brought to book.
ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo, also badly beaten, and 29 others appeared in court on charges of breaching the peace. Half had clearly been assaulted. They were granted bail of $20 000 each and ordered to report weekly to police. Earlier, defence lawyers had had to get a High Court order to be allowed to see their clients and to force police to take the seriously injured to hospital for treatment.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change, Doctors for Human Rights, Lawyers for Human Rights, the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance, and the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum which groups 16 organisations, all protested.
The US and British governments, international labour organizations, Britain’s Trades Union Congress, the African Regional Organisation of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) joined in.
“The state’s response confirms conclusively that this regime holds human rights and democracy in contempt,” said COSATU, which has long been at logger heads with Thabo Mbeki’s government for turning a blind eye to vote-rigging, suppression of free speech and other excesses by Robert Mugabe.
In London, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber accused the Zimbabwe authorities of “gross violations” of the International Labour Organisation’s conventions, signed by Harare, which oblige governments to observe workers’ rights. The TUC launched an appeal, calling for donations made out to “TUC Aid – Zimbabwe Appeal” to be sent to TUC Aid at its headquarters, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS.
“Torture in Zimbabwe is both widespread and systemic, demanding both a national and an international response,” the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum said, demanding the prosecution of the perpetrators of the latest assaults.
National Constitution Assembly chairperson Lovemore Madhuku pledged to hold more demonstrations soon. “The acts of intimidation and primitive repression that were shown by the police … will not deter the people of Zimbabwe from fighting for a democratic constitution that will help them reclaim their freedom,” said Madhuku.
In Brussels, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemned the police assault on Reuters TV cameraman Mike Saburi, who was filming police beating people when the police turned on him, assaulting and arresting him.
“Banning media coverage and trampling on press freedom will not solve any of the problems of Zimbabwe,” Gabriel Baglo, Director of the IFJ Africa office.

Where were the followers? Lessons to be learn about mass action

2006-09-22T00:55:00.000+02:00

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BY STANFORD MUKASA
‘The bruised leaders of the ZCTU see their brutalization by Mugabe’s thugs as a baptism of fire and they are all fired up and raring to go’

WASHINGTON - The ZCTU mass action last week was both a failure and a success. However, the jubilant state media and other propaganda machinery of the Mugabe regime were quick to pronounce it a flop.
Some analysts felt the ZCTU leadership had not adequately prepared its membership for the mass action. Others said people were reluctant to engage in a two-hour action that did not seem to promise any significant push for the demands the ZCTU was making.
But with unemployment in Zimbabwe at 80 percent the number of Zimbabweans in the formal workforce has shrunk considerably. Workers in the formal sector are no longer a very powerful force by themselves.
The ZCTU action may have been effective if it had been coordinated with protests from other groups in the opposition movement. This way Mugabe’s police would have had to deal with numerous protest groups taking place simultaneously.
Imagine if during the ZCTU mass action, Tsvangirai would have been leading his supporters in the historic march to Parliament and WOZA women would have been demonstrating as well as NCA! Another major issue that needs to be considered here is the fact that most supporters did not join when the ZCTU leadership took to the streets. This gave police and the army the golden opportunity to savagely beat the ZCTU leadership. Had people turned up in thousands police would have found it extremely risky to assault the ZCTU leadership.
A very troubling situation is that the ZCTU leaders, supported by some members of the MDC leadership, were out in full force and in front but with very few followers. This raises a serious question about whether the Zimbabwean opposition movement has a leadership or followership crisis.
How does the ZCTU membership feel about the barbaric assault on their leaders? And even after the assault the membership of the ZCTU does not seem to have been outraged enough to take it to the streets to protest.
One would have thought this assaulting of their leaders would have triggered a mass revolt! Yet for most membership it was business as usual while leaders were licking their wounds in hospital. ZCTU members must realize that their leadership are mere mortals. They are human beings just like anybody else. On their own, the leadership cannot achieve much and they stand a great personal risk like what happened to the ZCTU and some MDC leaders who took to the streets.
The same fate befell NCA chair, Lovemore Madhuku, when a few years ago he was savagely assaulted by police and left for dead. There was hardly any mass protest at this act of brutality.
Commentators and analysts have always talked about the need for a triggering event to galvanize the otherwise passive Zimbabweans into mass protests. There have been many such triggering events. The assault on the ZCTU leadership was simply the latest in a series of failed opportunities to mobilize.
Having said this, ZCTU mass action was not a total failure. Even though it was cancelled at the last minute the ZCTU leaders, by their very heroic stand against the Mugabe regime, made some important gains.
First it dramatized the ruthlessness of the Mugabe regime. The savage beating and manhandling of the ZCTU leaders once again brought the international spotlight on Mugabe and his despotic regime.
To those in the international community who were beginning to think that Mugabe was reforming or easing up or scaling back on violence the latest action showed clearly that violence is Zanu (PF)’s trademark.
The police and army had mobilized a large chunk of their manpower and military resources in a bid to cover all areas of the country. Had the mass action been indefinite it is very doubtful that Mugabe’s military machinery would have been able to sustain this kind of nationwide deployment.
The calling off of the mass action by the ZCTU must have come as a big relief to the already tense regime. What the ZCTU needs to do now is build on its success and learn from its failures.
Lesson Number 1 for the ZCTU and the opposition movement is that any preparations for a non-violent action must be planned using military strategies. This means an element of surprise. ZCTU and other opposition groups must have learned by now that giving widest publicity to their planned actions only helps the regime to plan a counter action.
Mass actions must never be publicly announced in advance. The opposition movement should use its own information networks, not the public mass media, to mobilize people.
The repressive law called POSA must never be followed. A mass protest is an act of civil disobedience. Not following the POSA requirement to notify the police is part of that civil disobedience strategy.
Secondly the opposition movement should learn to coordinate their actions. This fragmented and individualized approach to confronting Mugabe is potentially counterproductive. It renders the protesters easy prey to Mugabe’s military machine. If mass action is to be initiated, all opposition groups must be involved in their own ways.
It is also a good idea to spread out the mass action as much as possible. Create pockets of resistance throughout the city or the country. This will stretch the police and army to the limit and possibly degrade their resources and capacity to sustain their control of the protestors.
While it is important that leaders march in front of their followers adequate security measures should be undertaken not to expose the leaders to the brutality of the police and army. What happened with the ZCTU protest where leaders were savaged by the Mugabe military machinery must never be repeated.
Leaders must never be used as sacrificial lambs. For all we know the ZCTU leadership could have been killed by the regime’s trigger-happy, marijuana-smoking killer thugs. Mugabe’s dream is to wipe out the leadership of the opposition movement. The only thing stopping him is fear of what the masses could do in retaliation. This is why the apartheid regime in South Africa kept Nelson Mandela alive when they could have easily killed him.
Mass protests should be viewed in the broader context of a civil disobedience campaign in which alternative forms of non-violent protests should be explored and enacted.
The bruised leadership of the ZCTU has announced that the mass protests will continue. They see their brutalization by Mugabe’s thugs as a baptism of fire and they are all fired up and raring to go.

List of those injured

2006-09-22T00:54:00.000+02:00

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List of those injured

HARARE – The following were among those injured during the ZCTU demonstration last week:
1. Lucia Matibenga (ZCTU vice president and MDC women’s asembly chairperson)
She spent the night sitting at the charge office at Matapi police station without blankets and food. She was badly assaulted with batons and has a fractured hand. Her ears are bleeding. She has difficulty in hearing and breathing.
2. Wellington Chibhebhe (ZCTU secretary-general)
Suspected fracture and visible crack on head. Suspected fracture of both hands. Prostrate and heavily swollen.
3. Lovemore Matombo (ZCTU President)
In visible physical pain.
4. Ian Makone (MDC national executive member)
Fainted three times. Blood on his legs, unable to walk.
5. Moses Ngondo (activist)
Fractured left arm, swollen buttocks..
6. Toendepi Shonhe (MDC deputy organising secretary, Harare province)
Leg bleeding.
7. Dennis Chiwara (activist)
Leg injuries. Suspected broken ankle. Swollen all over.
8. Tererai Todini (youth chairperson, MDC Mbare district)
Badly assaulted all over with fists and batons.
9. Tonderai Nyahunzvi (activist)
Suspected fractured hand.
10. Tichaona Basket
Injured back, ribs and head.
11. Stephen Mutasa Mutsipa
Injuries all over.
12. James Gumbi
Bleeding back and buttocks.
13. Nqobizitha Khumalo
Injuries to the back, head and ribs. Passing blood-stained urine.
14. Rwapedza Chigwengwa
Swollen left arm and back injuries.

The people have spoken

2006-09-22T00:49:00.000+02:00

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LONDON – The MDC UK has announced the office bearers elected at its recent Congress. Making the announcement, the secretary for UK and Northern Ireland,
Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa, said the new officers were very aware that their election came with accountability.
“It is with this in mind that we reveal the names of those who are supposed to be accountable to you for the power that you have given to them,” he said.
Provincial Executive Chairperson, Ephraim Tapa, Central London Branch, ephtapa@yahoo.co.uk; Dep. Chairperson, Rodwell Mupungu, Northampton Branch, Secretary, Julius Sai Mutyambizi-Dewa, Central London Branch, Dep. Secretary, Virginia Ncube, Manchester Branch, Treasurer, Mary Kasirowore, North London Branch, Organising Secretary, Jaison Matewu, Portsmouth Branch, Dep. Organising Secretary, Edward Nyakudya, Coventry Branch,; Information and Publicity Secretary, Matthew Nyashanu, Birmingham Branch, Secretary for Women, Adella Mutero, Secretary for Youth, Jameson Mashakada,
Women's Wing Chairwoman, Adella Mutero, Reading,Vice-Chair, Fadzanai Muchenagumbo, Milton Keynes, Secretary, Jenipher Moyo, Walsall; Vice Secretary, Mercy Mwakipesile, Kent; Organising, Chipo Machida, South Beds, Deputy Organising, Bhuhle Maphosa, Treasurer, Victoria Tarupiwa, Information and Pub, Felicity Mucheuki.
Youth wing chairman, Jameson Mashakada, vice chair Linda Mtimbanyoka,
Harris Nyatsanza, Secretary, Tinashe Madamombe, Vice Secretary, Nomalanga Ndlovu, Organising Secretary, Vandirai Zano, Vice Org. Secretary, Alfred Mazhindu, Treasurer, Margaret Chipandambira. – Staff reporter

Zim included on Worst of Worst list

2006-09-22T00:44:00.000+02:00

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NEW YORK – Zimbabwe is included in the latest Freedom House Worst of the Worst list: The World’s Most Repressive Societies 2006 - an annual compilation of the most dictatorial regimes in the world. The organization’s executive director testified last week before the United States Congress and called on the UN Human Rights Council to address abuses in the countries listed.
The report, which is intended to assist the new Human Rights Council, as well as members of Congress, journalists and other policymakers, includes detailed descriptions of the dire human rights situations in eight countries judged to have the worst records in the past year. These countries are Burma, Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Also included are two territories, Chechnya and Tibet, whose inhabitants suffer intense repression.
In addition, The Worst of the Worst includes nine other countries near the bottom of Freedom House’s list of the most repressive: Belarus, China, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Zimbabwe. The territory of Western Sahara is also included in this group. While these states scored slightly better than the “worst of the worst,” they offer very limited scope for political discussion and activity.
“This report should be viewed as the minimal ‘to do’ list to be addressed by members of the UN Human Rights Council and those governments that profess to care about human rights,” Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director of Freedom House, told members of the House International Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Africa, Human Rights and Global Operations. “The Council urgently needs to prove that it can and will act in a constructive manner in furtherance of its mandate, and will be judged on its willingness and ability to take action to address country and situation-specific human rights violations,” she added.
The UN Human Rights Council was established this year as a replacement for the much-criticized UN Commission on Human Rights, and met for the first time in June. A number of decisions, including the establishment of a working group to determine guidelines for a new Universal Periodic Review, were taken at the meeting. However, despite the human rights crises that exist in places like North Korea, Darfur, Uzbekistan, and elsewhere, the Council has only exercised its authority for country specific action in two special sessions focusing on situations in Gaza and Lebanon, and then passed resolutions widely seen in the human rights community as unbalanced condemnations of Israel without reference to human rights violations by Hamas or Hizbollah or the states that support them. - www.kubatana.net

News from Zimbabwe

2006-09-22T00:42:00.000+02:00

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Police seize fuel
BY GIFT PHIRI

HARARE - Police last Thursday seized more than 300,000 litres of fuel from private oil companies in the Southerton Industrial area accusing them of profiteering from long standing arrangements in which they buy fuel at subsidized prices from the state oil procurement monopoly, National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, NOCZIM.
The senseless blitz, led by one Inspector Munyakamwe, was aimed at forcing the private oil companies to sell fuel at the regulated price of $335 a litre although the dealers had bought the fuel at $540 a litre from NOCZIM while others had imported the precious commodity.
After years of acute fuel shortages, President Robert Mugabe three years ago deregulated fuel imports and demanded that private oil companies supply fuel from their external hard currency reserves.
Angry oil industry executives slammed the crackdown, which is being spearheaded by a taskforce created through the Soviet-style committees under the National Economic Development Priority Programme, saying it was unsustainable to sell fuel at loss.
The effect has been a deepening fuel crisis spawned by the shortages as private oil companies simply refused to sell their fuel at that price. Executives said privately the crackdown late Thursday caused disarray in the energy sector and has pushed up the price of fuel to as much as $1,200 a litre.
The crackdown also lent credence to reports that a deal with South Africa and Equatorial Guinea to provide $30 million worth of fuel a month for the next year was falling apart after Zimbabwe failed to pay arrears in shipping and handling costs.
The government has pegged the price at $335 in a bid to hold down inflation, now running at a record 1,200 percent in the nation’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1980.
Acute hard currency shortages since 1999 have led fuel stations to run dry, with long lines of cars regularly waiting for deliveries.
The hard currency shortages have pushed up the illegal black market exchange rate to more than 850 Zimbabwe dollars to one U.S. dollar, compared to the pegged official exchange rate of 250-1.
International oil companies have said they would need to buy hard currency at inflated rates of a blended mix between the official and unofficial rates to remain viable.
Civil unrest erupted three years ago when fuel was raised by 30 percent. Commuters boycotted transport firms and vehicles were stoned until fuel prices were reduced on government orders.
Back then, Mugabe said foreign oil companies would be required to use their external hard currency funds to import fuel, but oil companies insist that they must be allowed to remit some hard currency abroad to avoid being left with large amounts of Zimbabwe dollars in a hyperinflationary economy.
Mugabe described state fuel imports sold by foreign oil companies in Zimbabwe as “this game of foolery” that reaped huge profits for them and losses for the state.
Part of filling stations that lost huge amounts of fuel include Birmingham Road Motors which lost 10,000 litres, Muhammed Mussa which lost 40,000 litres, Caltex Coventry, among others.

Mathematical illusion and the slide into poverty
BY MFANDAIDZA HOVE

At independence in 1980, Zimbabweans enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the region. In fact, we were three times as well off as the average citizen in Botswana. By 1990, our Gross Domestic Product per head was just under US$1,000. However, since 1999, this has fallen to less than US$400 and is expected to fall to US$350 per head by the end of 2006. Over 80% of Zimbabweans are now living on less than US$2 a day. The main reasons for this include the Government’s political illegitimacy, corruption and fiscal profligacy all of which have reduced all economic fundamentals to crisis levels.
This week’s release of the August Consumer Price Index (CPI) by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) revealing a sustained increase in inflation from 993.6% in July to 1,204.6% is further evidence of the continued economic meltdown.
According to the CSO, the month-on-month rate for August increased to 29.2% from 25.5% in July- an increase of 4.1%. On the face of it, this appears to be a modest change; however, this has very little bearing to the facts on the ground. Some of the issues that lead the nation to doubt the integrity of the inflation data released by the CSO include the following:
· The fact that the base year used is the Incomes, Consumption and Expenditure Survey of 2001- very unlikely to be representative of present trends;
· The extent (if any) to which parallel market exchange rates are taken into account in determining the monthly CPI. Given the fact that most producers access their foreign currency requirements through the parallel market, and consequently factor this in their pricing policies, failure to incorporate this into the monthly CPI casts serious doubts relating to its integrity.
In light of these doubts, the CSO’s calculations are a mathematical illusion and therefore fail to portray accurately the continued slide into poverty that the majority of Zimbabweans are experiencing.
The key issue to note is that for as long as this illegitimate government remains in power with the resultant pariah status that it has, the economic meltdown will continue. Consequently, hyperinflationary conditions will persist fuelled mainly by continued foreign exchange shortages, capacity utilization difficulties faced by the manufacturing sector, irresponsibly high budget deficits, increased central government borrowings on the domestic market and the illegal quasi-fiscal operations of the central bank.
The shortage of foreign exchange adversely affects the supply side of the economy in that this reduces output by the few producers that are still able to operate. Consequently, until a favourable business environment is restored, shortages will continue. An environment conducive to a functioning economy is one that enables business to generate foreign exchange through exports and one that attracts foreign direct investment, grants and loans. To the extent that the Zanu (PF) government has no capacity to address these basic issues, Zimbabweans cannot hope that a solution to this problem will be found in the foreseeable future.
We must point out that the crusade against the foreign exchange parallel market dealers is a futile exercise as the existence of such a market is a direct result of a dysfunctional economy. What is needed is a policy that addresses all economic fundamentals thereby ensuring that the incentives for the parallel market to exist are removed. Until this is done, the central bank will continue to address the symptoms and not the causes of the problem.
The scarcity of foreign exchange also results in concomitant shortages of fuel and other petroleum products all of which are imported. Since fuel is an important and significant input in the product cost build-up, any worsening supply of foreign exchange in the country leads to increases in the price of fuel. Such increases are, of course, subsequently factored in the prices of various products. Consequently, until industry and commerce can access fuel at affordable prices, hyperinflation will continue unabated.
A further major cause of inflation in this country, is government’s fiscal profligacy; the Zanu (PF) government is clearly unable/unwilling (or both) to live within its means. This is clearly demonstrated by the relentless increase in the budget deficits –a major source of inflationary pressures in this country. A more disturbing development is that these deficits are mainly financed by printing money, a major proportion of which goes in search of foreign exchange from the parallel market resulting in pressure on rates and the scarcity premiums there.
Finally, the quasi-fiscal activities of the central bank Governor are yet another major contributor to inflation in the country. The Governor continues to behave like a Prime Minister, dishing out printed worthless money across all sectors of the economy especially loss-making state-owned enterprises. The Governor needs to be reminded that the generally accepted view is that successful central bankers should be seen neither as heroes nor villains, but simply as competent referees, allowing the game to flow. – Hove is the MDC Secretary for Economic Affairs

City blames Zinwa

HARARE - In a move laden with hypocrisy, the City of Harare has released a damning report lambasting the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) for failing to provide clean water.
Ironically, the report by the illegally constituted commission-run municipality, comes barely six months after the parastatal took over water supplies for what they allege as: “… mainly because of the need to improve service delivery, which had deteriorated to unsustainable levels” said Zinwa’s weekly ‘What you should know column’ in the local media.
The report by the works department produced in December alleges that the water supplied by Zinwa continues: “to fail to meet the WHO (1993) guidelines and SAZ (1997) standards”.
The report adds: “Free residual chlorine is constantly low in the drinking water, viable counts (TVC) of bacteria and coniforms continue to be present in the drinking water. Toxin-producing blue-green algae is consistently present in the drinking water”.
The continued war of words by the two institutions comes after they have all failed to provide clean water to Harare metropolitan province. Harare supplies water to Norton, Ruwa and Chitungwiza among other cities.
The politically-motivated takeover of water supplies by Zinwa in May, raised questions at the parastetal’s capabilities to effectively manage the distribution of water. However, Zinwa has hit back saying the water treatment for Harare needs an ‘overhaul’ as it has become aged before they took over.
Perennial water problems have engulfed the city as the government-appointed commission bungled water treatment chemical tenders and unprofessional conduct to council business.
Recently, there was a dysentery outbreak in the province caused by the consumption of unsafe drinking water resulting in the loss of lives while many households went for weeks without water. – CAJ News

Teaching and Learning for HIV Prevention

2006-09-22T00:39:00.000+02:00

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1200 teachers mobilized to prevent child abuse and support gender-sensitive lifeskills

HARARE - In the wake of increasing reported cases on child abuse and the growing vulnerability of Zimbabwe’s children, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in partnership with the Ministries of Education, Sport and Culture and Higher and Tertiary Education, with an NGO the Flemish Office for Development Co-operation (VVOB) have embarked on a four year in-service life skills education and gender training programme for all teachers across the country.
The programme, which began with a five day training of more than 1200 teachers from 18 districts, was launched in the capital this week. The project will then be scaled up nationally.
"Teachers are the pillars of the education system and key change agents in Zimbabwean communities," said UNICEF Representative in Zimbabwe, Dr Festo Kavishe. "Through this programme we want to assist teachers to be more effective facilitators of life skills learning, promote children’s ability to say ‘no’, prevent and detect child abuse, know how to seek action, and to counsel children in need of care and support."
This in-service training programme, the first of its kind in Zimbabwe, will equip the teachers with skills to assist pupils in real life situations. The training will be in:
Learner-centred Lifeskills methodology – Teachers will strengthen their skills in using participatory methods to equip children with confidence-building, self-awareness, assertiveness, coping with one’s emotions, interpersonal communication, negotiation, decision-making and problem solving skills. These skills are critical for life in a world with HIV and AIDS.
Counseling - Teachers will receive basic counseling skills, so as to help pupils with the various emotional and social challenges they encounter.
Child Abuse prevention – Awareness creation of children's rights and how and where to seek action when these are violated.
Gender - teachers are being taught how to recognize gender sensitive situations in the classroom and how to deal with them to promote gender equity and empowerment of boys and girls in schools and communities.
While there is an existing national curriculum on HIV/AIDS, programme audits and field monitoring reports reveal that HIV/AIDS education is not being effectively taught in schools. In part this is due to the intergenerational communication barriers on sex and sex-related issues between teachers and their pupils. This is also because the school curriculum is over-loaded and teachers lack the necessary resource materials, motivation and supervision to deliver. This programme aims to remove these barriers to create a generation of well informed and balanced pupils.
This integrated life skills education and gender training programme aims to empower children to protect themselves most importantly from abuse. The AIDS epidemic and resulting orphan and economic crisis in Zimbabwe has made many children vulnerable to abuse. Despite a public outcry against child sexual abuse, a child friendly judiciary system, reported cases continue to rise. Anecdotal evidence from local NGO’s and clinics around the capital also show that there is a sharp increase in abuse. Last year alone, a local NGO recorded an average of 11 cases of sexual abuse in its area of operation every single day. School and community-based support systems remain weak.
"In these trying times, there is a growing need to make use of those people we have around us," said UNICEF’s Dr Kavishe. "Obviously parents must continue to be the front line in their children’s protection, but teachers are highly respected and spend significant amounts of time daily influencing behavoiur formation and development among children. This training gives teachers the know-how to play that role. Every community must continue to support and now ensure teachers have the respect and support they deserve."- www.kubatana.net

South African News

2006-09-22T00:25:00.000+02:00

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SA NGOs call for travel ban on Mugabe

JOHANNESBURG – The South African community has called on President Thabo Mbeki to put a travel ban on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and his ministers following the deportation of a coalition of the South African Youth Solidarity Forum.
The South African youths from various national bodies were deported upon arrival at the Harare International Airport on Wednesday last week.
Among other deported youth leaders comprise Young Communist League (YCL) National Secretary-General, Buti Manamela, South African Students Council Provincial Secretary for North West, Mothusi Tsineg, SA Youth Council executive official Nduluza Gceba, Young Christian Students Secretary-General, Bheki Mcetywa, Students Union for Christian Action, Thoko Ntone and Lucian Segami of the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum.
Addressing journalists on Thursday at COSATU House, Manamela, said the nation now want President Mbeki to effect a ban on the “increasingly unreliable Zimbabwean government”.
During the meeting, several South African NGOs Coalition (SANGOCCO), COSATU, The South Africa Communist Party (SACP), South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) and several other civic organisations were represented.
The organisations at the press conference called with one voice urging the African National Congress (ANC) and President Mbeki to put a travel ban on Mugabe and his ministers following the deportation on Wednesday.
The deportation came hard on the heels of an attempt by the ZSF delegation to visit Zimbabwe in solidarity with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).
Mothusi Tsineng of the South Africa Students Congress, North West Provincial Secretary, castigated this move by the government of Zimbabwe saying that the rule of law had now become a non-existent feature.
“The rule of law is not respected in Zimbabwe, and our passports were scratched by the CIO officers who were at the airport. The manner in which people are picketing in Zimbabwe shows that all is not well in the country,” said Tsineng.
There are reports that the deported delegation noticed the presence of CIO officers in the plane that was taking them to Zimbabwe.
“The CIO must operate and carry out its activities on Zimbabwean soil. It is not proper that they should be seen invading the South African territory to come and do their intelligence activities here,” said Buti Manamela, the Secretary General of the South Africa Communist Party (SACP) Youth League wing.
He said it was ironic that their own government did not subject them to such surveillance and it was saddening and alarming that they were now under the surveillance of a foreign intelligence organisation.
The decision to deport the delegation was indicative of the increasingly repressive and dogmatic attitude of the Zanu (PF) government.
The visit by the ZSF was made with the intention of making interpretations of the current socio-economic and political situation in Zimbabwe, meet with the government, the ruling party, civil society and the opposition to gain a wide understanding of the present political situation in Zimbabwe.
The visit by the ZSF was also an attempt to gain first hand insights into the impact of the wave of the displacements associated with Operation Murambatsvina.
Manamela pointed out that prior to this visit they had spoken extensively to the Ministry of Youth Development and Minister Savious Kasukuwere in particular and had also informed the Zimbabwean Ambassador Simon Khaya-Moyo.
“It is this kind of repression that contributes to the migration of Zimbabweans into South Africa. Without lasting solutions the crisis in Zimbabwe will continue to directly affect us here,” said the Secretary General of SACP.
The Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum is a network of progressive South African civil society organisations, including youth, women, labour, faith-based, human rights and student formations engaged in the promotion of solidarity for sustainable peace, democracy, and human rights in Zimbabwe. - CAJ News

Pressure mounts on Mbeki

JOHANNESBURG – Pressure is mounting on President Thabo Mbeki to take action against his Zimbabwean counterpart following the arrest and assault of trade union leaders last week.
The latest call comes from the Young Communist League (YCL), which was kicked out of SA's northern neighbour last week.
"We reiterate our call for speedy intervention by our government, the Southern African Development Community and the African Union. Our country is going to be the one that suffers most economically as continued poverty in that country leads to ordinary Zimbabweans fleeing here for better jobs and food," YCL national secretary Buti Manamela said.
About 2000 Zimbabweans are deported from SA every week, but many are known to come back soon thereafter because of the poor conditions in their country.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Minister of Labour, Membathisi Mdladlana, has been challenged to intervene on the persecution of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) officials and worsening violations of human rights in Zimbabwe.
Mdladlana is also current chairperson of the International Labour Organisation, and there has been rising concerns of the recent arrest, assaults and detention labour leaders.
The Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) called for the South African government to end its policy of quiet diplomacy and take a firm stance.
“Politics and political control is one thing, but human rights violation is completely another,” said Dennis George, General Secretary of FEDUSA.
“For too long we have let Zimbabwe be overlooked by the international community, the time has come to say this is no longer a matter of internal strife, it is a human rights issue.” - CAJ News

Gender and media awards

JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabweans proved that sexual discrimination in media reporting is not on the agenda, as they scooped four awards in a recent Gender and Media summit in South Africa. The awards were tightly contested with 187 entries in 12 categories from 12 different countries.
Virginia Muwanigwa, Phyllis Kachere, Tsvangirai Mukwazhi and Tsitsi Dangarembga all won awards which included a cash prize of R3,000 and an opportunity to speak at the summit.
Muwanigwa scooped the award for best print news and Kachere won her prize for her reporting on forced marriages of young girls. Dangaremba won the features award in the television category with her documentary Growing Stronger filmed and produced by an all female crew. Mukwazhi grabbed his award in the photography category.
Thomas Deve, the chairperson of the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA) said: “The fact that Zimbabweans won several awards, demonstrates improved consciousness on gender mainstreaming in the media. Mukwazhi was among the three males recognised for their gender sensitive coverage of events in a clear demonstration that gender issues can be addressed eloquently and professionally by both men and women.” - KJW

10 die in Jozi blaze

HILLBROW - Four bodies of Zimbabweans, who died during a blaze in Johannesburg, are still lying cold and stiff, in a mortuary here, as family members battle to raise money for the funeral.
The four members of the same family perished when their Yeoville home was burnt down on Thursday night, killing 10 people.
The deceased’s relatives made a passionate plea to fellow Zimbabweans to donate cash to foot the transport costs of the bodies to Zimbabwe.
Tinashe Murindi, a cousin of the deceased said they needed R28 000 to take bodies of their dearly departed to their final resting place in Bikita in Masvingo province.
“We only managed to raise R2 500 and each body needs R7 000,” said a visibly shaken Murindi, who travelled from Zimbabwe over the weekend to collect the bodies.
The four were identified by Murindi as Helman Pauguti (30), Paguti’s wife Marvis Moyo (28), their five months old Truly and Patricia Machenjere (19).
Police spokesperson, Captain Schalk Bornman, said they were investigating the cause the fire.
Well-wishers who want to assist the family in this hour of need can contact David Magodho on 078 2075 892 or Norman Machenjere on 0838705023.
Chairman of the Zimbabwe Refugees Forum (ZRF) Tawanda Mswazie, who arrived at the scene of the inferno on Friday morning, expressed disappointment over the late arrival of the Johannesburg Emergency Services.
“The police were notified of the burning house by neighbours at 1130 pm, but only arrived at 4 am, despite of the fact that Yeoville police station is only 40m away from the house,” said Mswazie.
Mswazie added that it was sad that Zimbabweans were dying in South Africa like rats, simply because the Zanu (PF) regime was making it difficult for them to settle in their own country. - Sibanengi Dube

Ngomakurira: Death Sentence

2006-09-22T00:23:00.000+02:00

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Prison is, by definition, a place where people are held. Their freedom is taken away.
Originally it was a way of preventing someone from harming others without actually killing him or her. Gradually prevention moved to punishment and retribution was added to the reasons for seizing someone by force.
But now in many countries there is a third aim – rehabilitation: the desire to help a person reenter normal life with a changed outlook. Great efforts are made to accompany a person in prison with counseling, spiritual care and skills training. We can be thankful that society, at least in its better moments, has moved on to such a noble desire.
But rehabilitation requires resources – human and financial – and Zimbabwe does not spend its money on such services, though the word ‘service’ does appear: ours is officially the ‘Zimbabwe Prison Service.’ That’s a start.
But how does the death sentence fit in to ‘rehabilitation?’ Is it an admission that we have failed on earth and we leave it to heaven to do the rehabilitating? One of the reasons why the death penalty is so distasteful to many societies today is that we sense we have no right to take away the life of another – no matter what the crime.
We may be able to prove in court that this person did this thing but even then there can be room for doubt. In the UK in the 1980s there were unsound convictions for the so-called Birmingham Six and the Guildford Four. There was pressure on state institutions at the time to be seen to be doing something about the IRA ‘terrorists.’ After exhaustive and exhausting campaigns the prisoners were released and their sentences were quashed.
But even if convictions are sound can we really know the motives of a criminal? During the time reviewed by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa 2 500 people were hanged; 95% were black and 100% of those who condemned them were white. Is it likely that the judges really understood the motives of those they condemned? One might argue that was an unjust state.
Where then is there a just state? Texas? One of the attractions writers work on in murder stories is how they ‘help us see what we don’t understand.’ (Colin Burrow in LRB, 22 Sept 05). Burrow brings light relief into the search for motives by having an accused explain, ‘This is why I did it: the peptides which control the level of greed in my body were at dangerously low levels, and owing to abnormalities in my hypothalamus my serotonin levels were low. Now do you understand?’
The key reason why taking another’s life can no longer be justified is our growing understanding of human dignity. A human being is just too mysterious to be tampered with. The ‘wonder of my being’ (Psalm 139) is beyond the comprehension of another person.

Travel news from the Lowveld

2006-09-22T00:21:00.000+02:00

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Forgotten Lowveld

For the past few weeks we have concentrated the articles on areas around Zimbabwe which we have termed “The forgotten regions”. Hopefully we have managed to sway at least a few people to go out and visit these areas and experience Zimbabwe as a package deal and not just as a one-stop option. Our final forgotten region brings us to the dry, hot Lowveld region of south-eastern Zimbabwe - home to private game farms, sugar-cane plantations and several National Parks.
The Gonarezhou National Park covers an area in excess of 5 000 square kilometers. “Gonarezhou” (meaning “Place of many Elephants”) can rival Hwange National Park, and is part of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, a massive Pan-African Park that includes Mozambique’s Gaza and South Africa’s famed Kruger National Park. This huge area is set to become one of the finest “peace parks” in the world - set up for the benefit of the wildlife, which do not abide by political boundaries and move freely between the three parks. In particular, Kruger’s elephant and eland migrate to Gonarezhou seasonally.
The main feature of this Park is the Chilojo Cliffs. They are one of the most prominent and enduring natural features of Gonarezhou National Park. Chilojo Cliffs are visible from 50 kilometres away. These magnificent red sandstone cliffs have been formed through eons of erosion and overlook the scenic Runde River valley. Composed of oxide-rich sandstone, the cliffs are spectacularly colourful at sunset.
Neighboring Gonarezhou is The Malilangwe Private Wildlife Reserve, which is completely non-profit making. It is funded by the Malilangwe Trust, founded by concerned conservationists around the world. The Reserve comprises 105,000 acres of private fenced land, with scouts patrolling the area day and night. Here, not only will one find the big five but also the small six – klipspringer, Sharpe’s grysbok, grey duiker, steenbok, Livingstone’s suni and oribi. This combination of small antelope is unique and has not been recorded together anywhere else in Africa.
Located within this private reserve are two of Africa’s most exquisite safari lodges – Pamushana Lodge (a member of RELAIS & CHATEAUX) and Nduna Lodge. Pamushana Lodge is perched on top of an escarpment with spectacular panoramic views whilst the delightful and rustic Nduna Safari Lodge is a lakeside lodge offering uninterrupted views of the luscious surrounding bush and spectacular rock formations.
Venues4africa.com has several magnificent accommodation options available on its database to enable you to go out and explore this “forgotten region”. Contact the team on info@venues4africa.com or www.venues4africa.com.

“RIVER LODGES OF AFRICA”

“River Lodges of Africa” incorporates three Safari Lodges in South Eastern Zimbabwe: Chilo Gorge, Senuko Safari Lodge and Mahenye are adjacent to Gonarezhou National Park. Chilo and Mahenye are CAMPFIRE projects; this is an innovative approach to conservation at village level, which seeks to empower local people to manage their natural resources in a sustainable way, and to use revenue derived from this to the benefit of the community.

CHILO GORGE Safari Lodge.
This elegant 28-bed lodge provides dramatic views of the river and adjacent Gonarezhou National Park, from each room Each lodge has glass doors that open onto a private balcony, and each room is equipped with mini-bar, overhead fan, separate en-suite facilities, telephone and safe box.

MAHENYE Safari Lodge.
This Safari Lodge offers an intimate experience of a magnificent wilderness. Each of the eight rooms provides private views of the river, local designs and materials such as woven reed walling have been used to great effect. Each room is equipped with an overhead fan and cool box for drinks, and en-suite facilities.

SENUKO Safari Lodge.
Situated on a granite hilltop providing a stunning base from which to explore the Save Valley Conservancy. Senuko’s rooms and facilities at the lodge are open-plan, bright and airy. Sixteen guests are accommodated in eight chalets, the front of the chalets are open-fronted with roll down canvas screens. Each chalet has two four-poster double beds in each, with a mini bar, overhead fan, writing desk and en-suite facilities.

The Lowveld Special
Zimbabwe Residents - Z$28 000.00 per person per night full board. Excludes activities, drinks, National Parks fees and extras.
Non Residents - U$120.00 per person per night full board and activities. Excludes drinks and National Parks fees. - Contact – venues@zol.co.zw

Innovative and magical Shakespeare

2006-09-22T00:19:00.000+02:00

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HARARE - Over The Edge once again turn their extraordinary creative talents to Shakespeare, bringing us an innovative and magical Much Ado About Nothing. Over The Edge are famous for adding their distinctive African edge to Shakespeare while maintaining the classical integrity of his text. The dynamic company has a reputation for creating inspiring and technically excellent work while always providing their audience with an exhilarating night out. This captivating comedy, directed by Zane E. Lucas, runs at the Harare International School from 25 - 30 September and is scheduled for the UK and Germany next March.
Much Ado About Nothing is an endearing and enduring comedy about love and gossip. It’s frivolous gaiety makes it one of the most accessible Shakespeare’s and brings us some of his best-loved characters. Many people will remember the movie with Emma Thompson and Kenneth Brannagh: expect something completely different, and just as entertaining... With the use of masks and ingenious set design the six-strong cast bring the multitude of characters to life. Placed in dry, dusty Messina - on the border of Zimbabwe and South Africa - this interpretation has a southern African flavour.
The story unfolds as Prince Don Pedro of Aragon returning victorious from a battle against his brother, visits his old friend Leonato. Claudio, the Prince’s right-hand man, falls in love with Leonato’s daughter Hero. When his good friend Benedick scorns marriage, Don Pedro and Claudio hatch a plot to make the obdurate Benedick and an equally feisty Beatrice, Hero’s cousin, fall in love. Don Pedro’s villainous brother plots to impede the merriment, and the comedy ensues; with mistaken identities, overheard rumours, reputations at stake and conspiratorial lies taken as truth - which in the end all amount to Much Ado About Nothing.
Harare audiences will see some of their favourite O.T.E actors in this production: Craig Peter, Kevin Hanssen and Zane E. Lucas; and the company is delighted to include in the cast Jason Mphepo, Erica Glyn–Jones, and introducing the talented Rumbidzai Machingura from the Theory X drama school in her Shakespearian debut. Outstanding designers Heeten Bhagat, Funki and Carine Tredgold complete the team, creating the unforgettable costumes, masks and set respectively. - Harare International School, 66 Pendennis Rd, Mt Pleasant, 26 - 30 September, Preview 25 September. 19h00, $800.00; pensioners and students half price. Contact: Craig Peter 091 314 552, Gift Marovatsanga 091 854 790