Reuters
Thu May
24, 2007 2:24PM EDT
HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe police on Thursday
extended a ban on political
rallies and protests in Harare which the
country's embattled opposition has
likened to "a state of
emergency."
President Robert Mugabe's government imposed a 3-month ban
against rallies
and demonstrations in February over fears of an opposition
uprising in the
face of a deepening economic crisis.
The Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) reported that police authorities
had extended
the ban by another month in central Harare and in several
volatile townships
in the capital "in the interest of preserving peace and
public
order."
Government and opposition officials were not immediately
available for
comment. But ZBC said police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena had
warned that
police would be tough with anyone who breaks the law.
The
main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is still waiting
for
the courts to hear its petition against the initial ban, which it
likened to
a state of emergency and came alongside a government crackdown on
its
leaders.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF administration has routinely used riot police
squads to
crush anti-government rallies, most recently on May 8 when they
used rubber
batons to disperse a march by human rights lawyers protesting
against the
arrest of two colleagues.
Tensions rose sharply in early
March after opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai and dozens of other MDC
members sustained serious injuries after
being arrested by police at an
aborted prayer rally in Harare.
The 83-year-old Mugabe accuses the MDC of
being stooges of Zimbabwe's former
colonial power Britain in an effort to
oust his government as punishment for
seizing and redistributing white-owned
commercial farms to landless blacks.
London denies there is such a plot,
and the MDC says it is not a puppet
party.
Critics say Mugabe has
mismanaged Zimbabwe's economy and violated human
rights, sending the
once-prosperous nation into a crisis marked by inflation
of more than 3,700
percent, unemployment of more than 80 percent and chronic
shortages of food
and fuel.
Financial Times
By Alec
Russell
Published: May 24 2007 19:09 | Last updated: May 24 2007
19:09
The Zimbabwean farmer looked older than his 47 years. He could
barely stop
coughing, having walked 12km to catch a bus to Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe's second
town, to look for medicines for his daughter. The ticket
had cost $Z45,000 -
barely $1 at the parallel market rate - his last
remaining cash.
That morning elephants, ranging free from the Hwange
National Park, in one
of the more bizarre manifestations of the lawlessness
spreading across
Zimbabwe, had rampaged over his small pumpkin patch. In a
minute his winter
larder was no more.
The tale of Christopher Ncube's
attempts to survive as a smallholder is
grimly emblematic of the
consequences of Operation Murambatsvina, or Clear
Out the Trash, the
government's forced removal of hundreds of thousands of
people from urban to
rural areas that began two years ago on Friday.
It also sheds light on
the implosion of Zimbabwe's agriculture, once the
mainstay of the economy.
Shadreck Mlambo, a senior official in the Ministry
of Agriculture, had to
admit to parliament this week that only a tenth of
the required winter wheat
crop had been planted.
Mr Ncube was one of many in the informal
settlements around Harare and
Bulawayo who woke two years ago to the sound
of policemen bashing at his
door. Within minutes he was outside with his
family, as the police set light
to his shack.
Days later his town
life was over. Instead he was on his way to a
five-hectare plot outside
Bulawayo to start again as a peasant farmer.
He was to be a foot soldier
in what President Robert Mugabe's supporters
hailed as a new agricultural
army, which would plough and sow their way to a
new prosperous
future.
His eyes flashed when reminded of that day - and the accompanying
government
spin. "I had never farmed before," he said. "The land was not
cleared. We
don't have cattle or farming implements ... the government has
given us
nothing."
Mr Mugabe's government said the operation was a
slum-clearance aimed at
reducing disease and driving out black marketeers.
The opposition Movement
for Democratic Change saw it as an attempt to
undermine its strongholds,
Zimbabwe's two big towns.
The government's
subsequent neglect of the evicted - estimated at between
700,000 and more
than 1m - lends credence to the MDC's argument. Amnesty
International
reported last year that a government rehousing programme had
provided just
over 3,325 new homes. Many of them, it added, were still
incomplete.
Two years on Mr Ncube and his household - his wife, five
children and three
Aids orphans from his dead brother's family - are still
struggling to
understand rural ways.
Other evacuees echo their
experiences. Edward Sibanda, a former security
guard, has an 11-acre plot in
Nyamandlovu, outside Bulawayo, on what used to
be a highly profitable farm.
The white farmer had to give up most of his
land six years ago when Mr
Mugabe sanctioned the occupation of most of the
country's commercial
farms.
Most of the plot, however - and indeed most of the expropriated
part of the
farm - lies sunbaked and untended. Mr Sibanda has a few
chickens, and a
scrappy vegetable patch but he too lacks tools and the
know-how to feed even
his family, let alone anybody else.
The
government is trumpeting a new initiative to revive agriculture. Gideon
Gono, central bank governor, is calling on local industry to build 100,000
ploughs and as many harrows, cultivators and ox carts.
In theory the
equipment is to be handed out to the new smallholders.
Companies have been
told to rush through orders by early next year,
conveniently for the ruling
Zanu-PF, just before March's parliamentary and
presidential
elections.
With the official inflation rate at 3,779 per cent, contracts
are welcome.
But businessmen have heard such talk before. "I am surprised we
weren't
asked to stamp Zanu-PF on the equipment," said the chief executive
of a
small manufacturing company. "While Zimbabwe could probably produce
100,000
ploughs, even if you can make them there aren't the oxen. There just
isn't
the capacity to pull them."
From The Namibia Economist, 23 May
Written by Staff Reporters
The US$40 million
loaned to Zimbabwe by NamPower for the rehabilitation of
Hwange power
station is being kept in an off-shore account in Botswana from
where it will
be directed to pay for equipment, suppliers and service
providers involved
in the rehabilitation of the power station. This was said
by Paulinus
Shilamba, the chief executive of NamPower, in an interview with
the
Economist last week. The information thwarts speculation on whether
Zimbabwe
will indeed direct the funds into the upgrading of the power
station as
intended. In exchange for the money loaned, Zimbabwe is to supply
Namibia
with 150 MW of electricity, guaranteed. Yet more questions and
speculations
regarding the reliability of this power deal emerged this week,
just as the
icy cold winter started progressing with sub-zero temperatures
recorded
around the country. Concerns have been raised over NamPower's
affirmation
that Hwange will start generating an unspecified amount of
energy for
Namibia by December this year, much earlier than expected. The
Hwange Power
Station has been on NamPower's energy development plans since
2005 but it
was only going to be possible with the construction of the
Caprivi Link
Inter Connector. The link is yet to be constructed.
Shilamba did not
respond to questions e-mailed to his office this week. But
NamPower has
earlier said, in the absence of the Caprivi Link Inter
Connector, the
electricity from Zimbabwe will be routed to Namibia through
South Africa
until the link is up and running. The 200/400 MW Caprivi Link
Inter
Connector will connect the Zambian grid at Livingstone and to
Zimbabwe's
Hwange. The plans are for it to then connect to the rest of
Namibia at Geru
power station in Oshikoto region. It will comprise of the AC
network
strengthening a 970-kilometre, 350 kilovolt (kV) High Voltage Direct
Current
(HVDC) bipolar line and converter stations. A 220 kV AC line from
Livingstone in Zambia to the Zambezi substation in Katima Mulilo was
commissioned in September this year. Another 285-kilometre 400 kV AC
transmission line will be extended from Auas substation to Gerus and
associated substations. The project will in total cost N$2.6 billion.
Critics also question Zimbabwe's ability to provide energy when the country
itself is generating power sufficient for only four hours. Shilamba
responded that the deal gives preference to Namibia and does not take into
account the worsening power supply problems in Zimbabwe. "We gave them the
US$40 million in foreign [money]. They cannot pay that back in US-dollars so
in exchange they agreed to give us power at a cheaper rate. They just have
to do that even it means they have to experience power shortage in their
domestic market," said Shilamba.
By
Tererai Karimakwenda
23 May, 2008
We have received reports that at
least 16 illegal diamond miners, 4 police
officers and a horse were killed
during a fight that occurred last week in
the Chiadzwa district of
Manicaland. Our Mutare contact Brendon Dhliwayo
said the deaths have not
been publicised and others have occurred since. The
situation in this area
where diamonds were discovered last year is tense
because the government is
trying to contain illegal miners who are desperate
villagers with no income.
Unemployment in Zimbabwe is over 80% so many
people are surviving by finding
products to sell on the black market.
According to Dhliwayo, the illegal
miners want the government to allow them
to make a living by selling
diamonds to any interested buyers. But the area
was cordoned off by the
police last December and the Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation took
over mining operations. Dhliwayo said top
cabinet officials and police and
army details have been abusing their
positions and benefiting from the
diamonds. He alleged that they send
immediate family members to collect
diamonds from the illegal miners and
from the area, some coming from as far
as Matabeleland. And the government
trained youth militia are being used to
provide security.
Dhliwayo accused them of using brutal force to control
the illegal miners.
He said they sometimes allow a few of the villagers into
the fenced off area
to mine, then share the profits with them. The deaths
are believed to have
occurred during a violent fight that took place about
ten days ago. Dhliwayo
said another miner was shot in the knee last week and
he died on the way to
the hospital.
A parliamentary committee has
been investigating allegations against top
government officials accused of
involvement in illegal mining. There are
reports that many witnesses are too
scared to testify against them. The
Zimbabwe government has also been
accused of selling illegal diamonds on the
international market, violating
global standards that were put in place to
control the sale of
minerals.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Tichaona Sibanda
24 May
2007
The state controlled Herald newspaper reported on Thursday that the
country's
once-thriving cotton industry faces collapse and the situation is
so serious
there could be no cotton next year.
The paper said the
reason for the crisis is the prevalence of
side-marketing, which sees cotton
growers selling their crops to
unregistered dealers instead of those they
were contracted to produce for.
Seiso Moyo, a national executive member
of the MDC responsible for lands and
agriculture, said it is a
misrepresentation of facts to blame the shortages
of cotton on farmers who
are selling to unregistered dealers. He claimed
most of the unregistered
dealers are Zanu (PF) heavyweights who are hoarding
the cotton and selling
it back to government at exorbitant prices.
'There is no shortage of
cotton in the country. Cotton is being grown but
where it is going after
being delivered is the question that needs answers.
But that should not be a
surprise because all major industries in the
country are being monopolised
by Zanu (PF) officials and this includes the
cotton industry,'
Moyo.
Rob Jarvis, managing director of Quton Seed company is quoted by
the Herald
saying around 19 000 tonnes of cotton planted this year was
earmarked for
seed to ensure next years crop, but much is being sold to
illegal buyers.
'Despite the fact that we have an industry body backed by
government to
prevent cotton being sold to buyers who have not financed its
production, it
is still happening. Now next season's crop is under threat
since this year's
seed multiplication crop, specially grown to become next
year's seed, is
part of this illicit trade. If this is not stopped
immediately there will be
no cotton crop next year,' Jarvis
said.
Moyo said the problem could be solved by strict monitoring of the
movement
of cotton because most of it was being held by top government and
Zanu (PF)
cronies.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe
news
IPS
Ignatius
Banda
BULAWAYO, May 24 (IPS) - Judith Moyo is unable to give her child
enough
food. She has to bring her 18-month-old daughter to a council clinic
for
check-ups every month because of what nurses call her ''slow
development''.
''I give her isitshwala leftovers from the previous
night,'' 33-year-old
Moyo says as she tries to keep the child quiet.
Isitshwala is a staple thick
porridge prepared from maize meal.
The
fourth of the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) seeks
a
two-third reduction in the deaths of children under five by 2015. But the
issues related to the first MDG, the eradication of extreme poverty and
hunger, will push the reduction of child mortality in Zimbabwe beyond the
target date of 2015.
Despite President Robert Mugabe's declaration in
Zimbabwe's first MDG
progress report in 2004 that the country was achieving
success in the
implementation of the goals, the continued lack of access to
basic services
makes this unlikely.
The World Health Organisation's
estimates for 2004 put the under-five
mortality rate in Zimbabwe at 129 per
1,000 live births. This has meant a
sharp increase since 1990 when infant
mortality was estimated at 80 per
1,000 live births. In 2000, it stood at
117 per 1,000 live births.
The United Nations Children's Fund reports
that while Zimbabwe saw a decline
in infant mortality in the early 1990s,
numbers have risen steadily after
2000 as health delivery services declined
amid growing international
isolation.
Zimbabwe therefore remains one
of a few countries to reverse the gains made
during the early years of
independence.
Apart from Moyo, other women at the government clinic also
admit that they
cannot provide enough sustenance for their newborns because
of escalating
food costs.
Selina Zulu makes regular visits to the
clinic. She used to give her older
children, who have since finished their
primary education, supplements like
peanut butter. But now she cannot do the
same for her three-year-old son
because of escalating
prices.
''Things have changed so fast. We have had to turn to feeding our
children
food which we know is not good for them,'' she said amid nodding
from other
women gathered at the clinic.
A nurse at the clinic says a
number of children under five have been put on
supplementary feeding. They
are getting rations from the United States
Agency for International
Development (USAID).
''Many of the children have been given the
anti-measles jab, but they remain
poorly fed. This is our main worry,'' says
Helen Dube, a nurse monitoring
the feeding and
vaccination.
Zimbabwe's economic decline has led to the breakdown of the
country's health
delivery system. Health care is now characterised by acute
shortages of
drugs and skilled personnel. This has affected levels of
measles
immunisation, which is one of the indicators for MDG 4.
In
the 2004 progress report, the Zimbabwe government promised that 90
percent
of infants will be vaccinated against measles by 2015.
But Stanford
Matenda, a researcher and chairperson of the National
University of Science
and Technology's Journalism School in Bulawayo, says
the economic decline
has made it virtually impossible for the country to
realise this goal. ''I
do not see us achieving it.''
''Just recently, government acknowledged
that nurses were not going to work.
The same goes for medical doctors.
Children do not have access to food, care
or medication, so it will be
difficult to attain these targets,'' argues
Matenda.
''When parents
are experiencing severe economic and psychological hardships,
it will also
be quite difficult for children to be healthy,'' he concludes.
Recently,
Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare Edwin Muguti told
striking
doctors that the government had no money to meet their demands for
salary
adjustments.
The lack of resources to meet service delivery needs will
also affect remote
rural areas. According to health officials in the western
border town of
Plumtree, the measles vaccination programme has been slowed
down by the
unavailability of medicine and medical
personnel.
Gertrude Chisale of Plumtree Hospital's documentation centre
says there has
been a steady rise in the number of deaths from measles as
the government
hospital struggles with resources. ''This year alone, we have
had at least
15 deaths of children under five and we expect the number to
rise if the
situation continues,'' Chisale tells IPS.
''We used to
have motorcycles for staff to travel to remote rural areas to
do
vaccinations. This has been stopped because government says there is no
money for fuel or for the maintenance of these bikes,'' says
Chisale.
Matenda hopes that international assistance will become
available to help
vulnerable groups such as newborn babies.
National Review
May 24, 2007 6:00 AM
Why do African nations line up in support of such a disreputable
nation?
By Brett D. Schaefer & Marian L. Tupy
Zimbabwe
was recently elected to chair the U.N. Commission on
Sustainable Development
(CSD), to the dismay of human-rights groups and
nations, like the United
States, that would like the United Nations to take
its responsibilities
seriously. This election is more than a travesty; it is
a cruel
demonstration of disregard for the suffering of the people of
Zimbabwe on
the part of the U.N. and those African countries that helped
Zimbabwe to the
chairmanship.
The United Nations defines sustainable development as
"development
that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
ability of
future generations to meet their own needs." The CSD was
established in 1992
to promote sustainable development, review
implementation of various
environmental agreements, and provide policy
guidance to local, national,
regional, and international levels. Explicitly
noted in the documents that
the CSD is supposed to promote is the notion
that "Good governance within
each country and at the international level is
essential for sustainable
development" and that "Peace, security, stability
and respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms. are essential for
achieving sustainable
development and ensuring that sustainable development
benefits all."
Looking the world over, it is difficult to find many
countries that
fail to abide by these principles to a greater degree than
does Zimbabwe.
When Robert Mugabe came to power in 1980, he inherited
well-developed
manufacturing and mining sectors, a competitive agricultural
sector, a
thriving tourist industry, and sound infrastructure. The country
has rich
mineral deposits of asbestos, chromite, coal, copper, diamonds and
other
gems, gold, iron ore, nickel, and platinum. The country was rightly
regarded
as one of the bright lights in Africa.
Beginning in
the late 1990s, Mugabe began facing serious challenges to
his authority. In
response to the growing opposition, he initiated a
ruthless, seven-year
campaign to maintain political power. During that time,
Mugabe has targeted
his opponents for abuse, legal harassment, and economic
punishment, and used
his authority to reward allies and elicit support from
the police, the
military, and other key groups. Notably, Mugabe started to
expropriate
large, mostly white-owned, commercial farms. With property
rights and the
rule of law severely weakened, credit and investment dried
up, sending
shockwaves through an economy that was heavily reliant on
agricultural
production.
Those policies have resulted in a precipitous economic
decline,
political repression, and a humanitarian crisis rivaling that in
Darfur.
Over the last seven years, Professor Craig Richardson of Salem
College
estimates the economy has shrunk by 40 percent, wiping out almost 60
years
of gradual economic improvements. The standard of living has dropped
to
levels last seen in 1948. The World Health Organization estimates that
Zimbabwe has the world's lowest life expectancy - 34 years for women and 37
years for men.
Unemployment is at 80 percent. The currency is
nearly worthless and
inflation currently exceeds 3,700 percent per year.
Last week, the
black-market exchange rate for one U.S. dollar reached 40,000
Zimbabwean
dollars.
The economic meltdown has led to
environmental devastation. Zimbabwe,
once known for its flourishing
wildlife, used to have a sophisticated
tourism industry that accounted for
up to 6 percent of the country's GDP.
Hunger and lawlessness have put an end
to that.
Brian Gratwicke, an Oxford-educated environmentalist and
Zimbabwean
national who runs a U.S-based nature and wildlife website
estimates that
"Eighty percent of 250,000 head of game that lived on
privately owned
commercial farms have been poached by land invaders - often
with the
encouragement of senior ZANU-PF officials who wanted to wrest
control of the
farms from their rightful owners." To make matters worse,
Gratwicke argues,
chronic environmental problems such as deforestation and
overgrazing, water
pollution, uncontrolled fires, human-wildlife conflict,
and wildlife-borne
disease are spreading through Zimbabwe.
On
both environmental and development grounds, Zimbabwe is a terrible
example
to the rest of Africa and the world. Electing Zimbabwe to chair the
committee charged with guiding U.N. policy in those areas is
absurd.
The election of Zimbabwe to the chairmanship of the CSD cannot be
dismissed
as an unfortunate aberration. The nomination of Zimbabwe to the
chairmanship
was widely reported and strongly criticized by the U.S. and
other countries.
Despite that criticism, the African regional group in the
U.N. refused to
back away from nominating Zimbabwe. Moreover, the African
group and the U.N.
have made a habit of such outrageous appointments. For
instance:
Zimbabwe currently serves on the Executive Board of the World
Food Program,
despite the fact that Zimbabwe, considered the breadbasket of
Africa only a
decade ago, is now unable to feed itself and regularly appeals
to
international programs for food aid. The primary reasons for the
devastation
of Zimbabwe's once flourishing agricultural sector are the
politically
motivated seizure of commercial farms, most of which were given
to Mugabe's
cronies, and other anti-market economic
policies.
Zimbabwe was elected to the Executive Board of the U.N.
Children's Fund for
a three-year term beginning in 2008 despite the fact
that, according to
UNICEF itself, one in four children in Zimbabwe are
orphans. This tragic
situation is in significant part due to the policies of
the Zimbabwean
government that have increased the spread of HIV/AIDS,
reduced life
expectancy, and eroded the health care system.
Zimbabwe
was elected to the Governing Council of the United Nations Human
Settlements
Program (UN-HABITAT) for a term expiring in 2010 despite the
government's
Operation Murambatsvina, which demolished informal housing and
markets and
rendered 700,000 urban Zimbabweans homeless or unemployed. It is
believed
that 70 percent of the urban population may have lost shelter or
employment
and over 2 million (more than 15 percent of Zimbabwe's
population) are
believed to have been indirectly affected by loss of
customers, employees,
or markets. The government told those affected to
"return to their rural
origins," even though most had no such home to which
they could return.
Indeed, many had initially become homeless when the
government sanctioned
the seizure of commercial farms.
The ability of Zimbabwe to routinely be
elected to such privileged positions
in the U.N. is illustrative of just how
little regard many states have for
the purposes of the U.N. and the
influence those states have over the
decisions, elections, and activities of
the organization.
This comes as little surprise to those who have
followed the United Nations
and its many failures over the years.
Nevertheless, it should embarrass
those governments in Africa that claim to
be trying to improve the lives of
their people, enhance the quality of
government across the continent, and
elevate the influence which the region
is given in international fora and
the seriousness with which it is
taken.
There is something fundamentally wrong when African countries feel
comfortable, and even are insistent, about putting a country like Zimbabwe
forward as a candidate for influential positions despite that country's
record of violations and abuses directly related to the position it would
assume. How can the rest of the world be comfortable giving Africa a
permanent seat on the Security Council, for instance, if the continent
cannot even rouse itself to put forward suitable candidates for lesser
bodies?
- Brett D. Schaefer is Jay Kingham Fellow in International
Regulatory
Affairs in the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom, a division
of the
Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies
at the
Heritage Foundation and Marian L. Tupy is a policy analyst at the
Cato
Institute's Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity.
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
23 May
2007
Members of the newly formed Bindura Residents
Association, said they are
being threatened and trailed by unknown
assailants, angry at them for
starting the association.
The members
said they have received anonymous phone calls, from people
accusing them of
forming the association to help the opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change, infiltrate Bindura, which is a ZANU-PF stronghold.
The Combined
Harare Residents' Association, which the anonymous callers
allege is an
opposition wing, assisted in the formation of the Bindura
Residents
Association.
Association secretary Chiedza Gadzirayi, who is also a
student at Bindura
University of Science and Education, told reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri of VOA's
Studio 7 for Zimbabwe, that many members are afraid to
leave the campus for
fear of being abducted.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Local relief groups complain that government pressure is
compromising their
ability to feed a hungry population.
By Nonthando
Bhebhe in Harare (AR No. 113, 24-May-07)
The Zimbabwean authorities have
a history of controlling access to food for
political purposes. As the
ongoing drought adds to the food shortages, and
the 2008 elections draw
closer, the government is once again focusing its
attention on
distribution.
By imposing restrictions on non-government organisations,
NGOs, officials
are curbing their ability to provide food aid. And as
international donor
find that their local partners are less and less able to
operate freely,
there is a danger they will divert food aid to countries
where it can be
distributed effectively.
During the liberation
struggle in what was then Rhodesia in the Seventies,
Ian Smith's white
minority regime withheld food from rural areas in an
attempt to starve out
rebel guerrilla groups.
Soon after independence in 1980, the new
administration of President Robert
Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party again
used food as a weapon against
political opponents. During the Gukurahundi
campaign, in which thousands of
civilians in the Matabeleland and Midlands
regions died, shops were closed
and relief aid was halted to these
drought-stricken areas, just to prevent a
few hundred armed dissident
fighters from accessing food.
Since 2000, when Mugabe launched a campaign
to dispossess white farmers and
redistribute their farms to landless people,
Zimbabwe has suffered severe
problems with agricultural production. As a
result, many people are reliant
on handouts from relief agencies or the
government.
As well as selective distribution through its own food aid
centres, the
government has tried to influence the way international relief
groups manage
distribution.
In the run up to the 2002 presidential
election, ZANU-PF members warned
local chiefs and headmen in some areas that
they would be denied supplies of
food aid for their communities if they did
not deliver an electoral victory
for Mugabe. The government also discouraged
international donor
organisations from giving out food, misleading them by
telling them that
Zimbabwe had had a bumper harvest.
Then in 2004,
months before the crucial 2005 parliamentary election, the
authorities
introduced the controversial Non-Government Organisation Bill
which
restricted the activities of NGOs and human rights groups,
particularly
those financed from abroad.
This attempt by Mugabe to stifle debate
served its purpose, as most NGOs
were uncertain about their future and
security, and many limited their
operations during that period.
As a
result, an estimated 2.3 million rural people in need of food aid had
to
rely completely on government assistance programmes. Food imports
arranged
by the MDC were seized at the border and distributed by government.
In
autumn 2006, the government lifted a ban on NGOs handing out food. But as
the country heads towards next year's make-or-break presidential and
parliamentary election, the government is again trying to control NGOs,
particularly those involved in food aid, human rights, civic education and
election monitoring.
Local aid groups are now jittery after
Information Minister Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu said all NGOs had been "deregistered"
and must apply for new licenses
to operate. Later, however, the government
said it had not banned NGOs but
simply put in place new policy guidelines
for their registration and
operation.
Under the new regulations, NGOs
now have to sign a memorandum of
understanding with the government
department relevant to their specialist
area, and can be stripped of their
official registration if they are deemed
to have exceeded their
mandate.
Towards the end of April, Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo
reiterated the
official line that any food aid that appeared to have
political strings
attached would be blocked.
"Government will
certainly sit down and decide which aid agencies or
organisations to allow
assisting with food distribution," he told the United
Nations information
agency IRIN. "We realise that there are organisations
bent on using aid as a
political tool to enhance the interests of the
opposition, and we are not
going to allow that."
The government is shipping state-subsidy grain for
public distribution - but
only to ZANU-PF strongholds. Given the state Grain
Marketing Board's history
of discriminatory allocation, supporters of the
opposition are likely to
suffer.
"Food distribution has been made
political," Fambai Ngirande, spokesperson
for the National Association of
NGOs, told IWPR.
"Distribution organisations have been compelled to give
food only to
card-carrying members of the ruling party. These agencies have
been denied
access to some areas, and told to leave the food with government
distribution arms."
Ngirande predicted that the pressure,
obstructions and surveillance NGOs now
have to endure would get
worse.
"As we are heading towards 2008, part of the election strategy is
to close
certain NGOs that deal with governance and human rights issues.
They also
want to monitor food; and given that it is a drought year, they
want to make
sure that they are the sole distributors of food aid," he
said.
Zimbabwe's food crisis may get worse, as stocks of the staple food
item,
maize, are said to be running out.
Domestic production of
maize, sorghum and millet for the 2006-07 growing
season is forecast to be
about 50 per cent of the preceding season. Cereal
production is forecast to
be enough to meet only 40 to 50 per cent of
domestic consumption
needs.
The United Nations Food Programme says nearly half of Zimbabwe's
13 million
people will need food aid this year, and a country which used to
export food
to its neighbour would need to import two million tons of grain
to get
through the year.
With no hard currency reserves, the
government will almost certainly be
unable to pay for adequate grain imports
- even taking hundreds of tons of
donated food into
account.
Ngirabnde said most foreign-funded organisations had already
significantly
reduced their aid to Zimbabwe, and given the worsening
environment in which
NGOs operate, they were liable to curtail it even
further; putting millions
of lives at risk.
"We are telling our
members that pulling out is not the answer, as it will
make it worse for
ordinary Zimbabweans," he said. "If we stop our
activities, the human rights
abuses, torture and denial of food because of
political affiliation will go
on. The situation demands an even greater
presence - we simply cannot afford
to close down.
"Most of our organisations are funded from outside, the
foreign policies of
those countries affect resources that come into
Zimbabwe. If the food
distribution is not done properly, then they would
rather go elsewhere where
there is also need."
Nonthando Bhebhe is a
pseudonym used by a journalist in Zimbabwe
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
24 May
2007
Zimbabwe's Parliamentary Portfolio Committees on
Health and Public Service,
Labor and Social welfare, held an open meeting
Thursday, to give the public
and other stakeholders an opportunity to share
their views about the
proposed National Health Insurance Scheme.
The
government, together with the National Social Security Authority, had
hoped
to launch the insurance scheme in July, despite objections from the
Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions, other stakeholders and the general
public, who are
concerned that the scheme would further strain Zimbabwe's
workers.
The proposed insurance scheme, NSSA officials say, will
co-exist with
private medical aid schemes, and by paying only 25-percent of
their current
contributions to their existing medical aid schemes, workers
would receive
the same benefits offered under the current Basic Cover
Medical Aid Scheme.
NSSA had argued that the current private health
schemes only cover
30-percent of the workers, leaving the remaining
70-percent uninsured, and
without access to affordable treatment in the
event of a health crisis.
Critics, however, said workers are already
burdened with a 3% National AIDS
Levy, and argued that a further 5%
deduction towards the National Health
Insurance Scheme, would leave workers
poorer.
Chairman, Blessing Chebundo, of the Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on
Health, told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe, that
many who attended Thursday's meeting, opposed the timing of
the proposed
launch, saying the economy is worse off now, than when the
scheme was first
proposed in 1991.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
23 May
2007
The World Diamond Council, which regulates the
global diamond trade, named
Zimbabwe and Venezuela as the only two countries
that have failed to prove
that their diamonds are conflict free.
The
chairman of the WDC, Eli Izhakoff, said while trade of conflict
diamonds, as
measured by the Kimberley Process, a body that ensures diamonds
are conflict
free, is on the decline, Zimbabwe and Venezuela, need to do
more to comply
with the Kimberley Process standards.
"We have problems in Zimbabwe,
where the government is cooperating in trying
to put their house in order,
and, hopefully, we can resolve the situation,"
Izhakoff
said.
Izhakoff told a meeting in Jerusalem that the two countries have
asked for
his help to become compliant.
The WDC is expected to send a
fact-finding mission to Harare, Friday, to
assess the situation.
But
mines minister Amos Midzi told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7
for
Zimbabwe, that Harare had complied, and was surprised by the WDC's
allegations.
In related developments, the magistrate court on
Wednesday granted bail to
Adele Farqhar and her husband Michael, the two
directors of Bubye Mine,
embroiled in an ownership wrangle with a business
group led by retired army
general Solomon Mujuru, husband of Vice President
Joyce Mujuru.
The two, who were arrested Monday, were ordered by the
court to pay Z$5
million bail each; surrender their passports and the title
deeds to their
Bulawayo house valued at more than Z$800-million. The two are
also to report
twice weekly at the nearest police station in
Bulawayo.
The Farqhars are also not allowed to leave their home until
June 4th.
But some ministry officials speaking on condition of anonymity,
told VOA
that it is not a coincidence that the Farqhars were arrested at
about the
time WDC is set to visit Harare.
They said their tough bail
conditions made it difficult for the Farqhars,
who had raised global
awareness of Harare's lack of compliance with the
Kimberley Process, to meet
with the WDC officials.
The Farqhars claimed that retired general Mujuru,
and his consortium, which
has physical control of the mine, had been
exporting diamonds in violation
of court orders and without proper
certification.
But the state, on the other hand, accused the two of
externalizing money and
also selling off company equipment at the Beitbridge
diamond mine, despite
the fact that the company had been
liquidated.
Bubye mine lawyer, Terrence Hussein, told reporter Blessing
Zulu that his
clients had been held under inhospitable conditions while in
detention, and
that he had been threatened by River Ranch legal advisor,
retired judge
Leslie Smith, who, he said, wrote to the Law Society of
Zimbabwe to have him
de-registered.
Smith denied the accusations, and
told reporter Blessing Zulu that he only
complained to the Law Society,
because Hussein was distorting facts.
By Lance
Guma
24 May 2007
Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has
released a report showing
the worsening plight of victims of Operation
Murambatsvina, the
controversial 2005 so-called 'clean up' exercise that was
carried out by the
Mugabe regime. In its 2007 annual report on Zimbabwe,
Amnesty said the
situation of thousands of people whose homes were destroyed
continued to
worsen without an effective solution being planned by the
authorities. Of
concern to the group is the fact that the government
continues to obstruct
humanitarian efforts by the United Nations and other
NGOs.
Simeon Mawanza a researcher with Amnesty International told our
Behind the
Headlines programme that the much hyped government Operation
Garika/Hlalani
Kuhle was nothing more than a public relations exercise meant
to cover up
the human rights violations of the 'clean up.' The re-housing
exercise has
failed to provide housing for the majority of victims with only
3,325 houses
built, compared to 92,460 housing structures
destroyed.
Amnesty's report also says construction in many areas appears
to have
stopped. Many of the houses designated as "built" are unfinished and
have no
access to water or sewage facilities and remain uninhabited. The
process of
allocating the new houses, some of which are incomplete, has also
been
slammed for lacking transparency. At least 20 per cent of the houses
built
have been earmarked for civil servants, police and soldiers according
to
Amnesty International.
Mawanza dismissed government claims the
exercise was necessary to clampdown
on criminal activities saying
international law was very clear on the need
to provide alternative
accommodation if a government sought to undertake
such an exercise. The
evictions traumatised victims and resulted in the loss
of property and
possessions worth billions of Zimbabwe dollars.
NB. The full interview
with Simeon Mawanza can be heard on the programme
Behind the Headlines with
Lance Guma. It is also available after broadcast
on our website archives for
2 weeks.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Reuters
Thu 24 May
2007, 15:49 GMT
HARARE, May 24 (Reuters) - A Zimbabwe court has postponed
the arson trial of
former test batsman Mark Vermeulen so that medical
examinations can be
conducted to determine if he is mentally fit to take the
stand, his lawyer
said on Thursday.
Vermeulen, 27, was charged late
last year with setting fire to the Zimbabwe
cricket academy, which was
housed in a thatched building, and the Harare
Sports Club (HSC). They were
heavily damaged in the fires.
If convicted, Vermeulen, who has played
eight tests and 32 one-day
internationals for Zimbabwe, could face up to 25
years in prison. His trial
was scheduled to start on Thursday.
"He's
been remanded to the 15th of June. There are still medical
consultations (on
his state of mind) to be done and that has necessitated
the remand," said
his lawyer Eric Matinenga.
Vermeulen, who had disciplinary problems
during competitions, was granted
Z$500,000 ($2,000 at the official rate but
$11 on the black market) bail
last November and ordered to surrender title
deeds worth Z$300 million and
travel documents to the court as part of his
bail conditions.
IOL
May
24 2007 at 04:31PM
Recruits at Zimbabwe's notorious youth camps
live in substandard
barracks, get very little food and may be at risk of
sexual abuse, a new
report said on Thursday.
Trainees at the
National Youth Service camps set up in 2001 supposedly
to instil patriotism
in young Zimbabweans frequently go to bed hungry and
are fed a monotonous
diet of sadza (corn paste) and beans or cabbage for
lunch, according to a
parliamentary report.
Members of parliament, including some from
President Robert Mugabe's
ruling Zanu-PF party, toured several National
Youth Service camps and
vocational training centres, which are also
government- funded.
They were horrified at what they found, said
the report, which was
quoted by the independent Financial Gazette
newspaper.
It was the first time ruling party
members have ventured criticism of
the National Youth Service.
Critics of Mugabe's government have long accused the authorities of
encouraging rights abuses inside National Youth Service camps, alleging that
trainees are brainwashed into beating up opposition supporters.
But Mugabe's officials normally angrily refute the charges. Earlier
this
month deputy Youth Minister Saviour Kasukuwere maintained the programme
was
a noble idea and said that soon all youths would have to undergo
training.
But the parliamentary report paints a bleak picture
of dilapidated
dormitories, minimal rations and for females the fear of
sexual abuse.
At one camp, in the southern Matabeleland region, the
barracks had no
doors or windows, the report said. Some youths complained
they had found
snakes inside the building.
At Kaguvi Vocational
Training Centre, MPs heard how one youth had his
arms broken in a scuffle
with army personnel over delays in the provision of
meals.
There were worrying reports that some female recruits to the National
Youth
Service had been sexually abused by male instructors and trainees,
said the
Financial Gazette.
The MPs have called for a police investigation
into the allegations of
violence. - Sapa-dpa
By Violet
Gonda
24 May 2007
Zimbabwean business mogul Mutumwa Mawere is on a
warpath with the Mugabe
regime. Currently in the process of fighting for his
companies in South
African courts, Mawere on Wednesday took more action by
filing an
application in the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. He said
his
companies were taken by force by the Zimbabwe government with no
compensation, and by using draconian measures that were put in place through
a presidential decree. The resilient businessman said the UK has the
jurisdiction to adjudicate in this matter because the businesses that were
nationalized in Zimbabwe belong to two English companies.
Mawere
said: "This is an application in the Supreme Court of England and
Wales in
which I am asking the court not to recognize the government of
Zimbabwe's
agents who are coming before the court (UK) with dirty hands."
The
Zimbabwe government is being represented in the UK courts by a nominee
company called AMG Global Nominees. Last year the UK courts ruled in a
preliminary action that AMG was a proxy for the Zimbabwean government. That
case is still pending. The latest case is to do with the constitutionality
of the actions of the Zimbabwean government.
Mawere's business empire
was seized by the Mugabe regime in 2004 after he
was accused of
externalizing foreign currency. He denies this.
We could not get a comment
from the Zimbabwean authorities.
35 of his companies were affected,
including his SA companies that were
supplying goods and services to
Zimbabwe. Mawere's vast business empire
included Zimbabwe's sole asbestos
mining company Shabanie Mashaba Mines,
plus Fidelity Life Insurance, ZIMRE
Holdings, CFI Holdings and First Bank.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
New Statesman
Barbara Stocking
Published
28 May 2007
In what circumstances would Oxfam's head choose to speak
plainly, even if
telling the truth endangered famine
relief?
Oxfam was founded in 1942 to bring aid to the oppressed
of Nazi Europe, a
cause that didn't make it popular with the Churchill
government. After the
Germans occupied Greece, the Royal Navy blocked the
shipping lanes. Food and
medicines couldn't get through to civilians, and
famine set in. Lifting the
blockade might have helped the starving, but
Whitehall wondered whether food
meant for the hungry wouldn't end up in the
bellies of German troops
instead, and gazed with some disdain on the new
lobbyists.
The founders of the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief were
stereotypical
members of the great and the good: bishops, academics, retired
teachers and
Quaker philanthropists, all of whom have been at the forefront
of liberal
causes for generations, and the butt of satirists for just as
long. In Bleak
House, Dickens gave us Mrs Jellyby, who had "very good hair
but was too much
occupied with her African duties to brush it", and was so
obsessed with
bringing edu cation and coffee cultivation to "the natives of
Borrioboola-Gha, on the left bank of the Niger" that her neglected daughter
declared: "I wish Africa was dead! I do! Don't talk to me, Miss Summerson. I
hate it and detest it. It's a beast!"
Yet Churchill's coalition
government found it no easier than its successors
to dismiss the new
charity. Mock if you like, implied Gilbert Murray, Regius
professor of Greek
at Oxford, founder of Oxfam and friend of half the worthy
causes of the
mid-20th century, but "be careful in dealing with a man who
cares nothing
for comfort or promotion, but is simply determined to do what
he believes to
be right". Murray was better at predicting the power of
organised conscience
than Dickens. The ad hoc response to the Greek famine
turned into the most
visible charity on the high street. It was infused with
the amateur air
English liberals adopt when they go out in the world to do
good. The first
head office was in a cramped room above the original Oxfam
shop in Broad
Street in the city centre; the second in a dingy parade of
shops in
Victorian north Oxford.
The tweeds and piles of dusty pamphlets are gone
now. Under the leadership
of Barbara Stocking, Oxfam has moved to a huge HQ
at a new business park on
the edge of town. Old hands find the identikit
postmodern box with its
dispiriting views of traffic jammed on the ring road
soulless, and I saw why
when I got there. This might be the head office of
any corporation in any
ribbon development anywhere in the industrialised
world. Once inside,
however, there's no denying the efficiency of the place.
Charity workers sit
in an open- plan office the size of a football pitch.
Neat shelving units
hold research papers, while a GM-free, organic,
fair-trade canteen offers
succour when they need a break from rescuing
Africa.
The businesslike atmosphere reflects the personality of the
director.
Stocking is a former regional director of the NHS who, according
to rumour,
was in the running for the top job. Corporate cant litters her
talk -
"making a difference", "meeting the challenge" and all the rest of it
- but
it would be a mistake to see her as another empty suit. The charitable
world
is notoriously uncharitable, but I couldn't find a director of a rival
charity with a bad word to say about her. Her own staff describe her as an
honest and popular manager.
Annus mirabilis
Above all, she is
a success. Under her leadership, turnover has hit £300m.
Oxfam now has more
than 750 shops in the UK, 6,000 staff all over the world
and sister
organisations in 13 countries. Oxfam officials have gone from the
charity
into government and helped make new Labour the most charitable
administration ever. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were the "Lennon and
McCartney" of poverty reduction, cried an approving Bono, and if you can
forgive the cheesy comparison, you can see his point. I would be
exaggerating if I said that aid was a major political issue in Britain, but
it matters more to voters here than in any other European
country.
The annus mirabilis for Oxfam was 2005, when Blair and Brown
pushed for the
G8 nations to agree to an extraordinary programme of debt
relief and
subsidies for Africa, Live 8 played Hyde Park, and the Asian
tsunami
provoked an outburst of altruism. "It was a time that people
recognised that
we are part of the global world," Stocking remembers with a
warm smile. "For
the first time, the new horizons of travel and the net came
together and
made people realise that if we're going to live happily in the
global world
we're going to have to make it better."
I wasn't as
convinced then and am less so now. Even at the peak of Make
Poverty
History's campaign, you didn't have to be a Telegraph-reading Tory
to think
the aid movement was taking a wrong turn. It presented a picture of
a world
as much the white man's to direct as it was at the apogee of the
European
empires. No one told the audience at Live 8 that Africa had
nepotistic
dictators in power or kleptomaniac families in office. They
stayed silent
about genocidal movements and spy-ridden regimes. All that was
needed to
rescue Africa from poverty was for the developed world to agree
more aid,
fairer trade and debt relief and - poof! -the suffering would end.
Two
years on, the neocolonialist view hasn't been shaken. A recent Oxfam
study
of global warming says, truthfully, that pollution from the rich world
will
hurt the poor world, but fails to ask how Africa can develop without
increasing its output of greenhouse gases. A report on foreign policy says,
again rightly, that the Iraq war has made humanitarian intervention harder
to justify, but it makes no condemnation of Ba'athist and Islamist
"insurgents", nor does it offer solidarity to their victims. A report in
advance of this summer's G8 summit condemns rich governments for failing to
honour promises made in 2005, but assumes the problems of the world are the
fault of the west and, by converse, that the remedies lie in western
hands.
The usual justification for lopsided vision is that pressure
groups can best
influence their own governments. A demonstration in London
against the
massacres in Darfur will have no influence on the regime in
Khartoum, but a
march to demand that the British government commit more
money to, say,
education in Africa might. If double standards and myopia
follow, then so be
it. What matters is what works. But the easy ride given
to Oxfam, Christian
Aid and the other aid charities overlooks a structural
problem. The aid
charities are hybrids with incompatible aims. On the one
hand, they provide
relief regardless of the political consequences - like
the Red Cross - and,
on the other, they lobby for political change - like
Human Rights Watch. As
Amartya Sen showed, dem ocracies don't have famines.
The great hungers of
the past hundred years were presided over by colonial
administrators,
communist tyrants and, today, African nationalists and
gangsters.
Dictatorships do not as a rule tolerate censure from anyone
inside their
borders. Therefore, if Oxfam were to speak out against the
obscenity of
Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe being elected to head the UN
Commission on
Sustainable Development, there's a fair chance Mugabe would
stop Oxfam
workers from relieving the suffering inflicted by his
economically
unsustainable regime. Its hybrid status means Oxfam has to
direct
disapproval at governments that won't respond to criticism by closing
down
Oxfam operations, but, rather, will invite Stocking in for a chat and a
cup
of tea.
Stocking has the strength of character to face hard
questions candidly. In
Darfur, I said, Oxfam is feeding 600,000 refugees on
the Chadian border. Is
that why it refuses to call the Darfuri genocide
"genocide"?
"It is a dilemma for us," she said. "We think we've got to
save lives today
while trying to get the international com munity to sort
out the bigger
problem. Now we will do our absolute utmost to go to the edge
of that. We
will try to give as much information out, but not in ways that
are
challenging to the Khartoum government."
I asked if she could
imagine circumstances in which Oxfam would choose to
speak plainly, even if
telling the truth en dangered famine relief. There
were two, she replied.
First, if charitable aid was a "sticking plaster"
that allowed the
international community to feel that conditions in, say,
Darfur were not so
bad. Second, if aid was keeping an oppressive government
in power, as may
soon be the case in Zimbabwe.
Future dangers
I suggested that a
better policy would be to help African progressives set
their countries free
by championing their causes and highlighting the crimes
of their oppressors.
If I'd confessed to stealing second-hand books from my
local Oxfam, she
couldn't have been more shocked. "No, no, that's not our
mandate. We want to
offer a way out of poverty that makes them feel they
have economic
opportunity and provides them with a right to be heard. It's
not our job to
help groupings that want to overthrow their governments."
She sounded
reasonable as she marked out her limits, but I was left
wondering how long
the aid charities could stay in British politics while
staying out of
African politics. The strongest criticism she would make of
governments in
the poor world was that some of them were corrupt. But the
trouble with
Africa is not that its post-colonial elites are corrupt - there
are corrupt
governments all over the world - it is that they are
unpatriotic. From Côte
d'Ivoire to Zimbabwe, post-colonial rulers have shown
that they would prefer
to bring the roof down on their wretched peoples
rather than let the
opposition challenge their power.
A thought experiment shows future
dangers for Oxfam. Suppose the G8 meets
all its 2005 promises. Suppose the
World Trade Organisation stops the rich
world subsidising its farmers. Then
suppose that nothing changes or, as Sen
would predict, that change for the
better comes only in those countries
already on the path to accountable
politics. Would Oxfam be able to rouse
governments and publics for another
Live 8? Or would governments and publics
echo young Miss Jellyby and say
that Africa was a beast?
At its birth, Oxfam had to decide whether
destroying tyranny was more
important than relieving immediate suffering,
and 65 years on it seems no
closer to an answer.
I asked Stocking if
she expected to see Africa break away from the demeaning
need for other
people's charity by the time we both retired. Yes, she
replied. Absolutely.
Look at the strides made in combating poverty in India.
The naysayers said
change was impossible, but it happened, for all their
sneers. I forgot about
the question and moved on, but it evidently niggled
away. As I left, she
corrected herself: "Perhaps not by the time we retire,
but maybe before we
die."