Email: jag@mango.zw : justiceforagriculture@zol.co.zw
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THE
JUSTICE FOR AGRICULTURE TRUST PRESS STATEMENT
"JAG STANDS
FIRM"
Considerable speculation has been voiced over the recent
statements
purportedly made by the CFU and reported in the Sunday Mail
concerning the
U-turn made by the CFU and its change in attitude to the
Government's so
called Land Reform programme and a purported policy U-turn
also made by the
Government.
JAG wishes to remind all farmers of the
JAG Vision Statement " Justice for
all in Zimbabwe." That envisages and
enshrines the following:
1 Returning Zimbabwe to food
self-sufficiency.
2 Servicing the needs of our members for
compensation/restitution
and damages issues.
3 Striving for
Accountability, Integrity and Transparency.
4 Promoting National
Unity in Zimbabwe's Agricultural sector.
5 Resurrecting Zimbabwe's
Agricultural Industries.
We, as citizens of Zimbabwe, aim to achieve full
Compensation and
Restitution for all sectors of Zimbabwe's Agricultural
Community through:
A A non-selective application of Justice for
all.
B The complete restoration of the Rule of Law in
Zimbabwe.
C The universal respect for Property Rights and Human
Rights.
D Planning for the future legal recovery of Productive
Agriculture
in Zimbabwe.
There are over 4200 farmers illegally evicted
from their farms at this time,
many of whom have left Zimbabwe dispossessed
and destitute. Many can no
longer even afford to be members of the CFU. The
CFU's purported and
unrefuted statement in the paper therefore can only speak
on behalf of the
few and rapidly decreasing numbers of farmers left on the
land and is
certainly not representative in any way of the sentiments and
best interests
of the majority of Farmers and Farm Workers who have lost
everything over
the past five years.
JAG notes, with grave concern,
arising out of the fact that no compensation
has been paid, that no mention
was made about the compensation, restitution
and damages issues that
Government was to pay to farmers and workers upon
acquisition. Government,
through its Constitutional changes, has separated
Land Issues and tenure from
farm fixed improvements.
The CFU always supported a transparent and
properly managed Land Reform
Program, as envisioned by the 1998 Donors
Conference and witnessed by the
ZJRI initiative. For CFU now to state that
it fully supports the illegal
mayhem is difficult to understand.
JAG
is not a rabid anti-government organization. It is the Government
policies
regarding the land acquisition and how they have been implemented
and the
failure by Government to pay fair compensation to farmers and their
workers
and Government's attitude to damages claims ensuing as required by
Zimbabwean
and International law to which JAG is strongly opposed.
Since the
reported meeting between the CFU Presidential Group and Government
Ministers,
some four weeks ago, in excess of 20 farmers and their workers
have been
forcibly and illegally evicted from their farms in spite of
assurances given
by the Minister. How can the CFU reconcile this action
with the promises
made to it and still proclaim that farmers should be
encouraged to stay on,
or return to, their farms?
JAG considers that a premature return to one's
farm prior to a conducive,
lawful environment being established would be
foolish in the extreme. Not
only would the farmer be colluding in a badly
flawed legal process but also
he or she would be eliminating any possibility
of future compensation and
damages claims.
JAG wishes to strongly
caution any person considering signing a lease
purportedly giving him/her the
right to occupy land over which another
person or company holds legal
title. This exposes the new tenant to
litigation by the legal owner. Until
the titleholder has received adequate
compensation for improvements on the
land and damages paid, the lessee
cannot legally occupy the farm and use the
improvements thereon.
No proper lease conditions have been legislated
for, nor can that be done,
until the issue of original tenure is
settled.
The Justice for Agriculture Trust adheres strongly to its vision
statement.
"Justice for all in Zimbabwe" and advocates for the Zimbabwe
Citizen's right
to individual ownership of land and property in Zimbabwe,
especially
agricultural land. There can be no justice without reparation
for what has
been perpetrated. The Trust believes that true freedom and
empowerment of
the people of Zimbabwe will only come about through individual
and not State
ownership of the agricultural land.
It is well known
that the judges of the Supreme Court and the High Court of
Zimbabwe, with a
few exceptions, have farms that have been taken from white
commercial
farmers. They do not have title deeds, and so there is no
security of
tenure. If one of them gives a judgment, which is not
acceptable to the
Government, then his or her offer letter can easily be
revoked. That being
the case, there can be no justice on land-related
issues until such time as
there is legislation in force, which protects the
rights of the property
owner.
Washington Post
Hyperinflation Pushes Medical Treatment Beyond Means of Most
By
Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 11,
2006
HARARE, Zimbabwe Faris Kungara knows the pain is coming when the top
of her
head grows warm. The heat stretches downward, past her ears, and
becomes an
unbearable ache, she said. From the claustrophobic confines of
the gloomy,
waist-high shelter that serves as her home, Kungara prays for
relief.
But none comes, she said, because she is poor in a country where
inflation
approaching 1,000 percent has pushed the cost of health care
beyond the
means of all but the most affluent.
"There's nothing you
can do," said Kungara, a round-faced mother of three
with a gap-toothed
smile, "just because you don't have money."
Last month, a physician told
Kungara, 41, that she probably had
meningitis -- a potentially fatal
infection. He slipped a syringe into her
spine, withdrew a clear fluid and
deposited it into a plastic vial. He said
the hospital would test it and
begin treatment as soon as she paid the bill.
When Kungara protested that
she did not have any money, she said the
physician replied, "You go and find
it."
Then he handed her the red-topped vial and an invoice for $6.1
million
Zimbabwean dollars -- equal to a little more than $60 U.S. dollars.
It was
an impossible sum to Kungara, who is lucky to earn that much from
several
months of selling vegetables in the dusty, impoverished township
where she
lives, she said.
Doctors, patients and human rights
activists say such experiences have
become increasingly common as Zimbabwe's
beleaguered, cash-starved health
system refuses treatment to those who
cannot pay skyrocketing medical bills
up front.
Government hospitals
last week raised consultation fees by more than 300,000
percent, from a
third of a cent to about $10. The cost of medicine has
doubled or tripled
every few months. And officials recently announced that
they have only a few
weeks left of lifesaving antiretroviral drugs for the
20,000 AIDS patients
who receive them as part of a government health
program.
Health
workers say many other AIDS patients have already stopped taking the
medicine because of high costs, causing risks not only for those patients
but creating ideal conditions for the emergence of drug-resistant strains of
HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Elopy Sibanda, a physician, says
that nearly every day he receives test
results labeled "withheld until
payment is made."
Most of his poor patients have stopped coming for
appointments. For those
who do come, Sibanda said he must ask bluntly about
their means before
embarking on long-term treatments. The result, he said,
is a two-tiered
medical system reminiscent of the days of white rule before
Zimbabwe's
independence in 1980.
"They're creating a health care
apartheid," Sibanda said. "We're no longer
looking at the color of the
people. We're looking at the fatness of the
wallets."
Combined with
rampant HIV, the failing health system has contributed to a
falling life
expectancy that has become the shortest in the world. The World
Health
Organization reported in April that the average Zimbabwean man will
die by
37 and the average woman by 34.
Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya,
speaking by phone from his farm south
of Harare, acknowledged the exploding
cost of health care in Zimbabwe and
blamed it on Britain, the United States
and other Western countries that
oppose President Robert Mugabe, who has
ruled Zimbabwe since 1980. Jokonya
said those countries have caused the
hyperinflation through sanctions and
withheld vital health aid for political
reasons.
"What we don't have is the funds," he said. "The economy has
been under
siege for the last four years."
For Zimbabweans, the
economic crunch is affecting every phase of life.
School fees, rent,
electricity rates and grocery bills are rising far faster
than wages. A
recently announced increase of salaries for teachers and
soldiers still
leaves them below the country's official poverty line, and
the gains will be
eroded in six weeks if inflation is not curbed.
A decade ago, three
Zimbabwean dollars were worth one U.S. dollar. The
government now puts the
rate at more than 100,000 Zimbabwean dollars to the
U.S. dollar, and the
black-market rate is roughly double that. Bill-counting
machines have
proliferated as businesses struggle to determine the value of
the bricks of
currency customers must pay.
Benigna Gonyora, 45, whose husband died
three years ago, has seen the value
of his pension plummet in the face of
hyperinflation. It now is worth about
13 cents a month in U.S. currency, and
her entire family must survive on the
$90 a month they earn by sharing their
home with renters. That leaves little
to care for her mentally ill son,
Leon, 19.
Gonyora finally attempted to get Leon admitted to a psychiatric
hospital in
December, she said, but officials there first demanded $250 as a
deposit.
A doctor instead arranged for some medication that dramatically
calmed
Leon's episodes, she said, but those pills ran out in February. They
have
not even tried to buy more, nor has she asked a doctor to examine the
pus
oozing from his right ear.
But the most seriously ill person in
the house is Benigna Gonyora's brother,
Zacharia Mutuma, 48, who was
brain-damaged at birth and is prone to violent
fits. He spends much of his
day babbling and wandering around the house
naked.
Sedatives calm
him, but, because the cost is prohibitive, the family uses
them only when
they are donated. When the medication runs out and the
violent attacks
return, family members say they have no option but to return
to a more
primitive solution: They shackle Mutuma by his ankles to a rusty
post in
their yard.
"We can't afford to take him to the doctor," Gonyora
said.
The soaring cost of medical care is compounding years of trouble
that had
already pushed many poor and middle-class Zimbabweans to the brink.
The
economy has shrunk by 40 percent. Unemployment is estimated at 80
percent.
Hunger is chronic in many areas.
Bernard Gidesi, 42, a home
builder who has HIV, lost his job during the
government's "clean-up campaign
last year," when police destroyed supposedly
illegal slums and informal
markets. The housing construction business has
not recovered, and to make
matters worse, the room where Gidesi slept -- a
former veranda enclosed by
walls -- was destroyed, leaving only the roof.
About the same time, a
nongovernmental organization that was providing
Gidesi with antiretroviral
drugs abruptly closed. Without a job, he could
not afford them on his own.
As AIDS symptoms gradually weakened Gidesi, he
took to spending most of his
time in bed.
At night, he said, men returning from local bars would taunt
him as he slept
on a rusty cot on the exposed veranda. In the morning, dogs
roaming the
neighborhood would enter the yard and roust him from
sleep.
Gidesi gained a measure of privacy by hanging cloth and plastic
sheets from
the roof, but chronic coughing has returned and his body has
begun wasting
away.
"If I don't get help," he said, "I think I am
going to die."
Thoughts of death have begun to preoccupy Kungara as well.
She, too, lost
her home in the government "clean-up campaign" last year. She
also lost the
company of her two youngest sons, aged 10 and 15.
After
the house where she was renting a room was destroyed, Kungara built a
shelter out of the building scraps left behind, but it was large enough only
for her rusty metal cot, a few clothes and a small plastic box of medicine.
She sent her sons to a remote village to live with relatives.
Kungara
attempts to see her sons once every two months. But her headaches
have made
even selling vegetables too difficult on most days; she has no
money for bus
fare to visit. Her last visit was three months ago.
"I hope I feel
better," Kungara said last week, her head aching and her
forehead warm to
the touch, "because I want my children to see me while I'm
alive."
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI Index: AFR 01/003/2006
(Public)
News Service No: 115
11 May 2006
Embargo Date: 11 May 2006
00:01 GMT
African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights: Oral
statement on the
relationship between the African Commission and the African
Union
Chairperson, Commissioners,
Amnesty International is concerned
by the decision taken by the African
Union (AU) Assembly in January 2006, in
Khartoum (Sudan), which authorizes
the publication of the 19th Activity
Report of the African Commission with
the notable exception of the
resolutions on Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda
and Zimbabwe, adopted by the
African Commission during the 38th Ordinary
Session.
The decision of
the AU Assembly not to authorize the publication of these
resolutions is
unprecedented; it is also not supported by any provisions of
the African
Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights nor is it in line with the
different
institutional roles of the African Commission and the AU Assembly.
Amnesty
International has written in April 2006 to the AU expressing its
concerns on
these aspects of the AU Assembly decision. So far the
organization has
received no response.
Amnesty International believes that for the African
Commission on Human and
Peoples' Rights to perform effectively its role of
promoting and protecting
human rights in Africa, there should be no
interference by the AU political
bodies, such as the AU Assembly or the
Executive Council.
Resolutions adopted by the African Commission, as well
as concluding
observations to states parties' reports, reports of country
missions and
other reports of activities carried out by the African
Commission under its
mandate are not subjected to confidentiality. Their
publication should not
be delayed or made conditional upon publicizing the
governments' responses.
In this regard, Amnesty International notes that the
requirement of
confidentiality provided for in Article 59 of the African
Charter on Human
and Peoples' Rights applies only to "measures taken" under
the chapter
dealing with communications.
All AU member states are
parties to the African Charter and have undertaken
to implement effectively
and in good faith the provisions of the Charter to
ensure that the rights
contained therein are protected, respected and
fulfilled. Findings and
recommendations of the African Commission, the very
body established to
monitor the implementation of the Charter's obligations
by states parties,
should be respected and implemented. States parties have
opportunities,
during the sessions of the African Commission, to make their
views known.
They also have the possibility to contribute, both orally and
in writing,
during the AU Assembly's debate on the annual activity report of
the African
Commission. Such dialogue is crucial to ensuring the effective
monitoring of
the implementation of the African Charter by states parties.
However,
preventing or delaying the publication of resolutions and other
documents
adopted by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights may
amount to
political interference with its work and does undermine its
independence and
impartiality.
Promotion and protection of human rights is one of the
objectives of the AU.
As such all AU bodies, and in particular the AU
Assembly and the Executive
Council, must support and promote the work of the
African Commission by
acting upon its resolutions and recommendations and by
sanctioning those
states that are in violations of the obligations under the
African Charter
on Human and Peoples' Rights.
Amnesty International
continues to support the work of the African
Commission. The organization
encourages the African Commission to assert its
authority and to reaffirm its
independence by:
a.. reminding states parties of their obligations
under the African
Charter, which include the obligation to implement, in good
faith, the
recommendations of the African Commission;
b.. requesting
that all AU bodies support the work of the African
Commission, in line with
the AU objective to promote and protect human and
peoples' rights as clearly
stated in the Constitutive Act of the AU;
c.. publishing without delay the
African Commission concluding
observations to states parties' periodic
reports, its reports of country
missions, the reports of its special
rapporteurs and working groups as well
as resolutions adopted during its
sessions;
d.. requesting Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe to
report
back to the African Commission on the measures that they have taken
to
implement the recommendations contained in the Commission's
resolutions.
AI Index: AFR
01/003/2006 11 May 2006
May 11, 2006
By
ANDnetwork .com
ZIMBABWE and the European Union should re-establish
the strong ties
they used to enjoy in the past, the Secretary for Foreign
Affairs Ambassador
Joey Bimha has said.
Zimbabwe enjoyed
excellent relations with the EU after independence
but these became frosty
owing to the differences between Harare and its
former colonial power,
Britain, over the land reform programme. Speaking at
a reception held on
Tuesday in Harare to mark Europe Day, Ambassador Bimha
said the ties should
be resuscitated. "I will not be telling the truth if I
were to pretend that
the relations between the Government of Zimbabwe and
the European Union are
as strong today. "This, Mr Ambassador, is a sad
development, but a challenge
which your organisation and my country are
facing with increasing
determination to re-establish the strong relationship
we once enjoyed,"
Ambassador Bimha said. He was referring to Head of the
European Commission
delegation, Mr Xavier Marchal. He said this would not be
easy but can be
achieved as Zimbabwe was ready to engage the EU in dialogue.
"Your
Excellency, Zimbabwe is always ready to engage the European Union as
long as
such dialogue is carried out with the mutual understanding and
appreciation
of each others views. Zimbabwe has set no preconditions, no
benchmarks," he
said. He said Zimbabwe only wanted to be judged by the same
yardstick that
is applied to other countries. "We only wish to be engaged in
a manner that
respects the sovereignty of the people of Zimbabwe. "If we
approach our
engagement in this particular context, I am sure that we will
make
progress," Ambassador Bimha said. He said despite the stand-off between
Zimbabwe and the EU, the Government highly appreciated assistance rendered
by the EU in the form of social and humanitarian support. He also took the
opportunity to thank the EU for initiating programmes that helped the
country before and after independence. "Zimbabwe and the EU share a very
long relationship. That relationship was strong when Zimbabweans were under
the yoke of colonial domination and remained equally strong after the
attainment of independence. "The EU was active in many programmes which
helped the new and independent state of Zimbabwe establish itself as an
important actor in the region, on the continent and beyond. We will always
remain grateful for that assistance," he said. Mr Marchal said the relations
between Zimbabwe and the EU had deteriorated but with hard work and
meaningful dialogue the ties could be restored. He said in December last
year, Zimbabwe signed the revised text of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement
indicating its strong desire to revive relations with the EU. "By signing
this agreement Zimbabwe has in principle indicated her desire to remain in
this partnership. "With hard work, in the framework of a meaningful dialogue
on issues of content, we can eventually move towards better mutual
understanding with the view to re-establishing full and prosperous
relations," Mr Marchal said. The EU Day is the anniversary of the Schuman
declaration, under which the then Foreign Minister of France proposed a new
form of political arrangement for Europe with the aim of making war between
European nations unthinkable.
-The Herald-
By Lance Guma
10 May 2006
On the 25th of April this year
we reported how the Crisis in Zimbabwe
Coalition (CIZ) was organising 2
months of nationwide activities set for May
to commemorate the brutal
destruction of people's homes and vending stalls
under operation
Murambatsvina. Eight days before the beginning of those
activities, police in
Bulawayo have started hounding all the prominent civic
leaders based there.
Starting with the arrest of Amakhosi Theatre
productions director Cont
Mhlanga on Tuesday, police in the city followed
this up with visits to
Bulawayo Agenda leader Gordon Moyo and NCA Regional
Chairman Reginald
Moyo.
Crisis in Zimbabwe had said that starting on the 18th of May
the first
week will be dominated by overnight vigils, petitions, public
meetings and
various forms of theatre linked to the plight of victims of the
'clean up.'
Stretching up to the 18th of July various other forms of protest
and
remembrance activities are set to follow. The NCA is a member of
the
coalition and Reginald Moyo, its Bulawayo head, has been warned by
police
not to promote any 'subversive' plays. Officers visited the NCA
offices on
Wednesday looking for Moyo. On finding him away they left a note
instructing
him to report to the police station.
'I
reported to the police station and was warned by one senior police
officer
called Ndlovu. He said they will descend heavily on anyone who
engages in any
acts which are subversive.' Gordon Moyo from Bulawayo Agenda
got a similar
visit on the same day. Police also left a note for him to
report to the
police station, which he later did. Junior officers however
told him they had
no power to interrogate him up until the senior officers
handling the case
came around.
Last month Itayi Zimunya an advocacy officer
with CIZ said the
commemorations were meant to take stock of everything that
happened during
the clean up. They also want to use the opportunity to seek
assistance from
well-wishers eager to help the victims. The remembrance will
also raise
political issues linked to the much touted Operation Garikai which
the
coalition says has failed to provide housing for the victims. 'We want
to
know where the Z$3 trillion ear-marked for the project has gone to' he
said
at the time. With just days remaining, Gordon Moyo believes the
authorities
are panicking.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
Media Institute of Southern Africa
(Windhoek)
DOCUMENT
May 10, 2006
Posted to the web May 10,
2006
Statement by the Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA-Zimbabwe) on the
Occasion of the 39th Ordinary Session of the African
Commission on Human and
Peoples' Rights (ACHPR), Banjul, Gambia, 11 - 25 May
, 2006
Delivered by MISA-Zimbabwe Legal Officer: Wilbert
Mandinde
Chairperson,
Chairperson, honourable commissioners and
distinguished participants, we
thank you for the time that we have been given
to address this august house
on the exercise of the right to freedom of
expression in Zimbabwe.
We welcome the nomination of Commissioner Faith
Pansy Tlakula as Special
Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression in Africa and
urge her to work
tirelessly for the effective realisation of the right to
freedom of
expression in the whole of Africa.
Madam chairperson, we
salute your Commission for adopting a resolution on
the human rights
situation in Zimbabwe at the last session. We wish to
advise your commission
that the situation has remained unchanged and your
Commission should continue
to put pressure on the Government of Zimbabwe to
uphold the rule of law and
respect human rights. We are concerned though
that the government has
continued to demonise the work of this Commission
especially through the
state media and should be called upon to respect
resolutions and findings of
this Commission.
We are further concerned that the Zimbabwean government
is coming up with an
Interception of Communications Bill. The Bill will
enable the government to
spy into telephone and e-mail messages in what will
obviously be a blatant
and outright invasion of privacy and infringement of
the right to receive
and impart ideas without interference with one's
correspondence.
The proposed Bill will make it compulsory for service
providers to install
the enabling equipment on behalf of the state while
empowering state
agencies to open mail passing through the post and through
licensed courier
service providers.
The Bill stipulates that operators
of telecommunications services will be
compelled to install software and
hardware to enable them to intercept and
store information as directed by the
state.
Chairperson, in the findings of your fact-finding mission to
Harare in 2002,
you expressed concern over the suppression of fundamental
rights and
liberties through laws such as the Access to Information and
Protection of
Privacy Act AIPPA, Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and the
Broadcasting
Services Act (BSA) and recommended that the laws be repealed or
amended. We
note with concern that the legislation has neither been repealed
nor
amended.
We are further shocked that the Media and Information
Commission
chairperson, Tafataona Mahoso has reportedly submitted to
government
proposals to amend the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act
(AIPPA) to regulate the entry of foreign publications into
Zimbabwe.
Based on our experience with this commission, we foresee the
banning of
foreign publications into the country. The proposed amendments are
therefore
jarring as they come in the wake of unchallenged reports that the
government
is reportedly reviewing the Access to Information and Protection
of Privacy
Act (AIPPA) with a view to removing offending provisions in the
Act.
SABC
May 10, 2006, 22:00
There is no new movement towards a peaceful
resolution to the problems
in Zimbabwe, South Africa's foreign affairs
department said.
"I think currently we probably . have enough
reason to be concerned in
terms of the pace of movement," Ayanda Ntsaluba,
the department's director
general told Parliament's foreign affairs
portfolio committee.
Problems within the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change "are not
helping either in terms of creating credible
centres that can really engage
in a dialogue", Ntsaluba said. "What we are
really trying to do is
to...encourage the parties. It has become far more
complicated," said
Ntsaluba.
Ntsaluba said one of the
department's strategic priorities was to
"support a process of encouraging
all role-players to seek an amicable
home-grown solution to challenges
facing Zimbabwe". - Sapa
News24
10/05/2006 22:05 -
(SA)
Harare - Three people have been arrested as they attempted to
smuggle R720
000 worth of cigarettes into the country under a consignment of
coffee.
The three were arrested on Monday at Beit Bridge, reported
Zimbabwean state
radio on Wednesday.
According to the report, the
truck was coming into South Africa from
Zimbabwe's eastern city of Mutare
with a load of coffee.
The driver met two people who wanted to smuggle
221 boxes of cigarettes -
worth Zim$11.7bn - over the border.
The
driver agreed, but the trio were stopped by a senior Zimbabwean
customs
official, reported the radio station.
The smuggling of
cigarettes and some basic commodities is apparently rampant
in
Zimbabwe.
Border officials say cigarettes are often concealed in empty
fuel tankers
and smuggled into South Africa, where they fetch a much-higher
price.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By Bill Saidi
WORSE things have
happened in African leadership: Joseph Mobutu, later
reincarnated as Mobutu
Sese Seko, ruled his country for more than 30 years,
even after it was proved
that he had taken part in the arrest and later the
murder of the first prime
minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba.
Gnassingbe Eyadema ruled Togo
for just as long, even after it was
alleged he had played an active role in
the assassination of that country's
first president, Sylvanus
Olympio.
Gilchrist Olympio, the latter's son, still survives but has
yet to be
allowed to participate in an election in which he would inherit his
father's
mantle. Eyadema's son now rules Togo, his father, like Mobutu,
having died
of natural causes. The son was "elected" in a poll recalling the
same shady
goings-on as that of his father's many re-elections.
In
Burkina Faso, there was a similar end to the leader who was
succeeded by the
present president.
So, if Jacob Zuma does succeed Thabo Mbeki as
president of South
Africa, after sleeping with an HIV positive relative, who
is going to
quibble?
This will be particularly so since he
was acquitted of raping her.
What does it matter that he did not wear a
condom before the act?
He took a shower, didn't he? That, according to
Zuma, is guaranteed to
protect him from infection - or does it?
The
South African people, and particularly members of the African
National
Congress, have to decide if they want this man as their president,
after
Mbeki steps down after his second term.
Govani Mbeki's son has not
spoken of gunning for a third term of
office, as other African leaders have
done. But it's early days yet.
Among many commentators, abroad and in
South Africa, one word from
Nelson Mandela could make all the difference. At
the time of writing, Madiba
had not said a word about Zuma's future.
It was almost inevitable that Zuma and his supporters would implicate
the
media in his troubles.
Other leaders who have blamed all their problems
on the media, ought
to pause for a moment, before joining the
bandwagon.
What role did the media play in bringing Zuma and his
relative into
one bed? That of Cupid perhaps?
What role did
the media play in bringing Zuma together with the friend
who allegedly
implicated him in a shady deal, for which that friend is now
serving a long
jail term? Zuma himself still has answer for his role in
court.
We
know that many celebrities, particularly in showbusiness, blame
their
problems on the paparazzi. Quite often, some of them love to garnish
these
allegations, although it is well-known that pictures of film stars
cavorting
on a beach in the nude are guaranteed to sell many newspapers
and
magazines.
This is the nature of humankind: why would people be
aroused, one way
or the other, at the sight of a picture of a Catholic priest
and a Catholic
nun canoodling, than of the same priest baptizing an
80-year-old former
Methodist elder?
Most Zimbabwean
journalists must have felt a glow of vindication
during the visit to Malawi
of President Robert Mugabe. His host, Bingu
waMutarika, spoke publicly of a
newspaper, The Daily Times, criticizing him
for honouring a man of Mugabe's
odious human rights record by naming a road
after him.
WaMutarika
did not abuse the newspaper by calling it names or accusing
it of being a
puppet of the British government. The Malawian president has
been criticized
before by the same newspaper, for other lapses.
He evidently doesn't
subscribe to the notion that a Malawian newspaper
cannot criticize the leader
of their country unless the British or the
Americans have paid them to do
so.
Unfortunately, Mugabe seems firmly convinced that the only way that
a
Zimbabwean newspaper could criticize him or Zanu PF is only if they are
in
the pay of the British and their fellow imperialists.
It was
instructive to hear Mugabe speak, during his four-day visit to
Malawi, of
reconciliation between blacks and whites. It is not he first time
that the
president has spoken of that much-abused word, reconciliation.
Yet, I
remember, as far back as 1985, Mugabe berating the white
population for not
reciprocating in kind his grand gesture of
reconciliation, enunciated in such
ringing tones on the eve of independence
in 1980.
By 2000,
he had given up hope of the whites ever doing his bidding -
which turns to be
what reconciliation meant to him.
They would not give him back the land
as easily as he expected them to
in gratitude for sparing their leader, Ian
Smith's life.
Even in his speech in Malawi, Mugabe referred to how he
had allowed
Smith to continue to live in Zimbabwe, in spite of "the
thousands" of blacks
who had been killed on his orders.
It sounded
as if he was saying to the Western powers: "Look, I could
have ordered this
man executed, but I didn't. Why are you not helping me as
I helped you in
sparing the life of your kith and kin, this man who you
supported?"
Is it at all possible that Mugabe expected the West, in return for
sparing
Smith's life, to leave him alone, to let him do as he pleased in his
country
because he had been so magnanimous to them?
In quitting the
Commonwealth in 2003, was Mugabe saying to the
British: " You ingrates! I let
this disloyal son of yours live and this is
how you repay
me?"
The reality is that there were no compelling grounds on
which Mugabe
could have justified putting Smith on trial. He and this man
were at
Lancaster House together, negotiating the future of their country,
with
Britain, in the person of Lord Carrington, presiding over their
talks.
After the palaver had ended, everybody put their signature to a
piece
of paper, which signified their approval of the contents of the
agreement -
two of those people were Mugabe and Smith.
Smith must
have felt he was entitled to his rights as much as any Zanu
PF cadre who had
returned from the war of liberation. He had his vote and
the freedom to take
part in any election, which he did, in a weird
partnership, first with Edgar
Tekere, and then wth Lupi Mushayakarara.
These were not the gestures
of a man who was apologetic for his
politics of white supremacy.
Moreover, any open harassment of Smith would not necessarily have
boosted
Mugabe's image among his own people. To be sure, the lunatic fringe
of the
war veterans movement would have dandcferd all night if that
had
happened.
Mugabe's image was not helped at all when, for
the most
incomprehensible reasons, his government stripped Garfield Todd of
his
Zimbabwean citizenship. What crime had the man committed?
Most
Zimbabweans felt utter revulsion at this act of petty revenge
(Todd
supported Joshua Nkomo's PF-Zapu). Most would have felt just as sad
if Smith
had been hounded in this manner. If Smith had been captured while
trying to
hide in a cave - as happened to Saddam Hussein in Iraq - while
the
"vakomana" or "magandanga" roamed the country after winning the
struggle on
the battlefield, there probably would have been justification to
treat him as
a prisoner of war.
Yet he, Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe sat at the
same round table at
Lancaster House, to thrash out an appropriate document on
which they would
all agree to safeguard the security and prosperity of their
country.
To be sure, there were whites who hated the idea of
relinquishing
their privileged positions. In a stupid act of childish pique,
some of them
blew up an independence arch at the Harare international
airport. That act
alone, so senseless and stupid, lost the white community
many sympathizers.
They were not only sore losers, but were quite willing to
destroy the
country, as they left.
In many ways, that act has been
compared with the senseless
destruction on the commercial farms in the wake
of the invasions of 2000. By
letting loose the war veterans, under the
dubious leadership of such
demagogues as the late Chenjerai Hunzvi and Joseph
Chinotimba, Mugabe was
digging himself into a hole - to this day, he has not
been able to climb out
of it.
There may be other more
"nationalist" reasons on which to blame the
food and foreign currency
shortages. Yet the chaos is evident as we approach
the end of the rainy
season: tobacco output remains pitiable and the
prospects for a bumper wheat
harvest is problematical.
Mugabe has never appreciated what role a
truly free media can play in
marshalling the people's energies towards
rebuilding their country. In true
freedom, with the assurance that speaking
the truth will not land them in
jail or bring harm to their families and
relatives, what could turn the
people against their government?
Perhaps his host in Malawi, Bingu waMutarika, who spoke with little
contempt
of what one of their newspaper said of Mugabe's poor record on
human rights,
told him privately: "They are not such a bad bunch, really.
Reconcile with
them first and everything else will follow."
If Mugabe reconciled
himself to a free media, there is no telling how
Zimbabwe would benefit. Or
how he himself would benefit.in the end.
zimbabwejournalists.com
By
Ian Nhuka in Bulawayo
THE Grain Marketing Board (GMB) has
failed to pay farmers for grain
delivered to its depots in Lupane and Nkayi
in Matabeleland North province.
The grain utility, which has over the
past few years struggled to
finance costly maize imports because of foreign
currency shortage has not
paid farmers who delivered their produce several
weeks ago in the two areas,
raising fears that the crisis could be
national.
Chance Mhlope, a farmer in Lupane said staff at his local GMB
depot
told him when he delivered his grain that there was no money.
The failure by the grain monopoly has made it impossible for him to
pay
school fees for his children this term, which started on Tuesday,
he
said.
"We were told that the money is not yet available. We
are worried
because we need that money to pay school fees as our children are
going back
to school this week and we also need to start preparing for the
next
planting season," said Mhlope, a communal farmer near Lupane centre,
200km
west of Bulawayo.
He said he delivered three tonnes of maize
and two of sorghum.
Another communal farmer, Martha Mdlongwa who
farms in the same area
says she delivered five tonnes of maize expecting to
earn Zd$155 million for
the produce but has not been paid. She complained
that having worked under
very difficult circumstances in the arid
Matabeleland North district, it was
discouraging she was having to wait for a
longer time to get her payment.
Reports from Nkayi also indicate that
farmers have not been paid.
The GMB, which enjoys a monopoly in grain
trade in the country after
the closure of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Commodity
Exchange a few years ago,
has previously failed to pay for grain deliveries.
In some cases the
cheques it issued to farmers were dishonoured.
Recent reports indicated that the parastatal had invested the money
meant to
pay farmers, resulting in the delays in processing the payments.
But
the parastatal's acting chief executive officer Samuel Muvuti
refuted the
claims adding the government was mobilising the money to
pay
farmers.
Agriculture experts have questioned the ability of the
GMB to finance
grain purchases this marketing season after a massive increase
in the
producer price of grains from about Zd$2,2 million last year to
Zd$31,3
million per tonne this year.
Working with the figure of 1,8
million tonnes the GMB needs to amass
for national consumption and rebuild
its depleted strategic grain reserves,
the utility needs at least Zd$57
trillion to buy from producers.
Zimbabwe is mired in a seven-year
recession that has propelled
inflation to a world record of 913 percent and
triggered company closures,
fuel and foreign currency shortages.
The
Minister of National Security, Lands, Land Reform and
Resettlement, Didymus
Mutasa, who also oversees food security this week said
the government
allocated funds to the GMB three weeks ago.
He said the money was meant
to finance the purchases.
"The GMB now knows the (producer) price
and everything else that is
required with regards to the sale and purchase of
maize, so there is no
reason why they should fail to pay producers. However,
before the
announcement of producer prices there were problems as the price
had not
been determined," said Mutasa.
Announcing the price, which
exceeded farmers' expectations, the
Minister of Agriculture, Joseph
Made said it guaranteed farmers an
average 25 percent return after accounting
for overhead costs.
UN Integrated Regional
Information Networks
May 10, 2006
Posted to the web May 10,
2006
Harare
Newspapers headlines in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare,
announced last week that
anti-AIDS drugs were in perilously short supply,
endangering the lives of
HIV-positive people.
The government has
attributed the crumbling of its healthcare system - which
threatens its free
antiretroviral (ARV) programme - to sanctions imposed by
western
nations.
Whether part of a western conspiracy or not, the reality is that
last month,
Evellyn Chamisa, 36, had to share her month's supply of ARVs,
which help
prolong her life, with two of her friends.
"One of them
[friend] gets hers from Parirenyatwa hospital but she didn't
get them last
month, and one buys them privately but she had no funds
because they had
increased the prices. So they came to me and I gave them
each tablets so they
could at least have something," she said. The
HIV-positive widow has been
taking ARVs since February 2005.
Zimbabwe, which has one of the world's
highest rates of HIV infection, is
going through a severe economic crisis.
There are shortages of food and fuel
and inflation reached 913.6 percent in
March.
The government's response to the AIDS crisis was to declare a
state of
emergency in 2002, allowing cheaper generic drugs to be imported as
well as
locally made under World Trade Organisation rules. But local generic
drug
manufacturers are hamstrung by the scarcity of foreign currency, which
they
need to import raw materials to make the ARVs.
Last year's
Operation Murambatsvina ('Clean Out Garbage'), officially aimed
at rooting
out the blackmarket and criminals, encompassed unapproved housing
owned or
rented by the poor, and made life even more difficult. A year after
the
campaign, AIDS NGOs are still trying to locate displaced HIV-positive
people,
and fear that many have had to discontinue their drug treatment.
"We
still haven't traced some clients ... they've vanished as far as
we're
concerned. Others disappeared for weeks and were homeless and
incomeless,
which means they were not eating, and that's a problem when
taking [ARVs],"
Lynde Francis, who runs The Centre, an HIV/AIDS NGO with
4,500 registered
clients, told IRIN.
Any interruption in treatment can
lead to the HI-virus becoming resistant to
the medication, hastening progress
towards AIDS.
Chamisa was one of the victims of Murambatsvina. She was
living with her two
sons in a back room in Harare's high-density suburb of
Kambuzuma when the
crackdown on informal settlements was launched. She was
forced out of her
home but fortunately her landlady allowed her to move into
the two-bedroomed
main house.
Francis pointed out that a growing
number of people were finding it harder
to obtain ARVs in the present
economic climate, making resistance to
first-line medication inevitable, as
"it only takes a few [missed] doses to
develop resistance".
People
living with HIV/AIDS begin treatment on first-line drugs, and only
need
second-line ARVs if they become resistant. In Zimbabwe, second-line
treatment
is not free.
The Harare district coordinator of the beleaguered
Zimbabwean Network of
People Living with HIV/AIDS (ZNNP+), Sebastian
Chinhaira, said accessing
ARVs "in the first place" was a big enough
challenge.
"People wait for a long time, there are long waiting lists, we
are told
there are no doctors, and now, because the prices in the private
sector are
too high, they are coming to government hospitals and causing even
more
bottlenecks," the HIV-positive grandfather of three commented.
An
estimated 26,000 people are receiving ARVs, but just over 340,000
need
them.
Accessing medication is also vital to people who are not
yet eligible for
anti-AIDS treatment, but are suffering opportunistic
infections; they often
find there are no medicines in clinics. "If you get a
prescription and have
to pay for medicines, you have no choice but to throw
it [prescription]
away," Chinhaira said.
WHEN ELEPHANTS
FIGHT
Zimbabweans have had to make do with very little HIV/AIDS donor
funding,
which Lynde Francis described as trying to manage an "ever-expanding
problem
with an ever-diminishing pot of money".
She said it was
"understandable" that donors wouldn't want to "prop up" the
existing
government, but pointed out that by "withdrawing [funding] it's not
the
regime suffering, it's the man on the street".
Chinhaira agreed, saying,
"It really is true that when elephants fight, it
is the grass that suffers."
According to a 2004 analysis by the World Bank,
neighbouring Zambia received
US$187 in aid for every HIV-positive citizen,
whereas Zimbabwe's strained
relations with some donors meant it received
just $4 per person.
After
a three-year delay, a US $10.3 million grant by the Global Fund to
Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is finally making its way to Zimbabwe.
But
activists have stressed that this paled in comparison to what countries
"just
across the [Zambezi] river" were receiving from international
donors.
Nevertheless, AIDS NGOs are managing to make a difference. The
way Francis
sees it, "it's like we're on a speeding train with no brakes, and
we're
trying to save as many people as we can on a day-to-day
basis".
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the
United Nations ]
VOA
10 May 2006
The faction of Zimbabwe's
opposition Movement for Democratic Change led by
former student leader and
expatriate businessman Arthur Mutambara is moving
to redefine itself - but
also intends to do whatever is necessary to retain
the MDC
name.
Mutambara, addressing a meeting attended by about 300 supporters in
London
on Tuesday evening, repeatedly called his faction as a "new
party,"
suggesting to some that the grouping might be ready to adopt a new
name
other than the MDC.
But a top Mutambara advisor said the move to
reshape the faction's identity
was about ideological and political
positioning, and not renaming the
formation.
Mutambara himself, who
headed back to Zimbabwe late Wednesday, told his
London audience he is
setting a different course from the faction led by
Morgan Tsvangirai, the MDC
founding president, which will integrate national
liberation
symbolism.
Faction Deputy Secretary General Priscilla
Misihairambwi-Mushonga told
reporter Chinedu Offor of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that reconciliation
between the two factions seemed highly unlikely
at this point, adding that
the Mutambara faction was not prepared to
relinquish the name of the
Movement for Democratic Change.
Tsvangirai
faction spokesman Nelson Chamisa reiterated his formation's
position that
Mutambara's faction has no claim to the name, and that the
issues of
legitimacy and ownership of the MDC brand would be decided by
grass roots
opposition voters.
Elsewhere, battle lines between the two factions were
drawn in the Harare
suburb of Budiriro, where a May 20 parliamentary
by-election could provide a
reliable measure of the relative strength of the
two camps - and of possible
ZANU-PF inroads.
Though the ruling ZANU-PF
party is contesting the seat in the opposition
stronghold, candidates of the
two factions have been concentrating their
fire on each
other.
Representing Tsvangirai's faction is Emmanuel Chisvure, who had
close
personal ties to the constituency's late member of parliament,
Gilbert
Shoko, who died in February. The Mutambara camp has fielded Gabriel
Chaibva,
its chief spokesman.
Jeremiah Bvirindi represents the
Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic
Front.
The Zimbabwe Election
Commission has reported incidents of violence that
observers say have
involved all three groups. Mutambara faction candidate
Chaibva complained
that his posters have been vandalized and torn down by
Tsvangirai
supporters.
Reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe spoke
with Chaibva as
well as Tsvangirai-faction candidate Chisvure, asking about
their strategies
and expectations in the campaign, and whether they feared
ZANU-PF might
benefit from their rivalry.
ZANU-PF contender Bvirindi
declined to be interviewed.