http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona Sibanda
4
November 2008
Southern African leaders are set to meet in South Africa on
Sunday, hoping
to bridge the gap and reach an agreement between the
country's political
parties. Both Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF and Morgan
Tsvangirai's MDC remain
worlds apart, even after signing the power-sharing
deal on 15th September.
South Africa's Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie
Mamoepa, told Newsreel in an
e-mailed response that they were still in a
process of finalising details of
the venue.
'As soon as they are
finalised we will communicate publicly, hopefully
tomorrow morning,' Mamoepa
said. However a report from the African News
Agency, APA, quotes officials
from South Africa saying the summit will be
held in Pretoria.
There
is some cautious hope that a full SADC summit might get the two sides
to
agree to put an end to months of conflict and achieve a just and lasting
peace. While both sides have publicly pronounced they were committed to
honouring the deal, success is still far from guaranteed, given the
fundamental historical and political differences between the two warring
parties.
Last week Monday, the SADC Troika, a grouping of heads of
state from
Mozambique, Swaziland and Angola who form the bloc's security
committee,
failed to secure a breakthrough in talks on the formation of an
inclusive
government. The summit on Sunday aims to bring together all the
leaders of
southern Africa to save the power-sharing deal, seen as the best
hope for
ending months of political turmoil and halting the country's
shocking
economic collapse.
While ZANU PF contends that only the Home
Affairs ministry remained as the
sole issue still to be resolved Tendai
Biti, secretary-general of the MDC,
outlined six outstanding issues to be
resolved by the SADC Summit.
He named the six as; the allocation of a
number of Ministries; the sharing
of provincial governorships in line with
the outcome of the 29th March
elections; the composition, functions and
constitution of the National
Security Council; the appointment of Permanent
Secretaries and Ambassadors;
and the drafting of Constitution Amendment No.
19;
The last issue is to be resolved is about the alterations made to the
original agreement. ZANU PF's chief negotiator Patrick Chinamasa made the
alterations, without consulting negotiators from the MDC.
MDC
spokesman Nelson Chamisa confirmed on Tuesday that Tsvangirai would
attend
the summit, even if the regime continues to refuse to renew his
passport. He
added that they expected the 15-nation regional grouping to
increase
pressure on Mugabe.
'Tsvangirai will be going to the meeting, and we hope
that the summit will
help to break the impasse. SADC has to use its
leverage, especially on
Mugabe to see sense and to see that people are
suffering,' Chamisa said.
The MDC MP told an international news agency
that he hoped the Sunday
meeting would be the final negotiation to start a
new chapter, after months
of relentless hardship for most
Zimbabweans.
'The people are suffering and we should start acting to make
sure we
alleviate the problems facing the people. We expect finality and
closure to
this whole issue. The suspense and anxiety has been
excruciatingly painful
for Zimbabweans,' Chamisa added.
The
protracted political feuding between the two bitter rivals has dimmed
any
hopes of easing the plight of the people in Zimbabwe. The World Food
Programme last week said about five million will need food aid by the end of
the year, as the country buckles under the world's highest rate of
inflation, estimated at 231 million percent although economists say it is
running into the trillions.
and was assured that the issue would
be rectified. It is not known who made
the alterations, but the agreement
was tampered with after it was given to
Zanu PF to allow government to do
official binding and inserting in folders.
http://news.yahoo.com
Tue Nov 4, 10:36 am
ET
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's opposition party expects a southern African
summit
this weekend to resolve an impasse on how to share control of key
ministries
under a troubled power-sharing deal, a spokesman said on
Tuesday.
"We are expecting the equitable distribution of key ministries,"
said Nelson
Chamisa, spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC).
"We are hoping the Sunday meeting is the final negotiation to
start a new
chapter. The people are suffering and we should start acting to
make sure we
alleviate the problems facing the people," he told
AFP.
"We expect finality and closure to this whole issue. The suspense
and
anxiety has been excruciatingly painful for Zimbabweans," Chamisa
added.
Leaders of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community
(SADC) will
meet Sunday in South Africa to try to salvage a power-sharing
deal in
Zimbabwe.
President Robert Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai signed the deal on
September 15, but efforts to form a unity
government have stalled over
disputes on which party will control the most
important ministries.
Key regional leaders have held two smaller summits
over the last three weeks
in hopes of pressing the rivals into a compromise,
particularly over control
of the home affairs ministry, which oversees the
police.
The full SADC summit this weekend will now try to broker a deal
to save the
unity accord, which had originally been hailed as an end to
months of
political unrest and a step toward pulling Zimbabwe from economic
ruin.
http://www.philly.com
The Associated Press
GOMA, Congo - Rebels in
Congo are accusing Angola and Zimbabwe of mobilizing
troops to fight in
Congo in a repeat of a 1998-2002 war that drew in armies
from a half-dozen
African nations.
Rebel spokesman Bertrand Bisimwa has offered no proof of
the allegation,
which Zimbabwe denies. Angola has not yet
commented.
Congo's government appealed last week for help from longtime
ally Angola.
A resurgence of Congo's long-running fighting on August
displaced some
250,000 people, but has since subsided.
The conflict
is fueled by tensions left over from Rwanda's 1994 genocide. In
1998 the war
sucked in a half-dozen countries. Angola and Zimbabwe fought
for Congo in
exchange for access to copper and diamond concessions. Rwanda
and Uganda
backed rival rebel factions
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
04
November 2008
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) and other
organisations will
embark on mass protest action starting next week, to push
for the set-up of
a transitional government to immediately address the
desperate humanitarian
crisis in Zimbabwe.
The group said in a
statement released Tuesday that it is "increasingly
evident that the leaders
of the political parties involved in the dialogue
have lost touch with the
reality and magnitude of the crisis in Zimbabwe."
It comes after the
Southern African Development Community Troika on
Politics, Defence and
Security failed to resolve the political impasse
between ZANU PF and the
MDC, despite the signing of a power sharing
agreement. The NCA said such a
failure shows that "the destiny of Zimbabwe
cannot be left exclusively to
politicians, whatever their levels of
popularity."
The humanitarian
crisis is set to leave up to half the population starving
within the next
two months, with a UN assessment predicting that an
estimated 5 million
Zimbabweans will face starvation in January. The
widespread food shortages
are already taking its toll on the nation, with
countless numbers dying from
hunger related diseases. At the same time, the
collapse of the country's
health system under Robert Mugabe's regime means
that thousands more are
dying from preventable and curable diseases such as
cholera, because of a
critical lack of medical staff and supplies.
The NCA's chairman, Dr
Lovemore Madhuku, explained on Tuesday that it and
other organisations will
push for SADC, as well as Zimbabwe's political
figures, to adopt an urgent
three point plan towards immediate action on the
dire humanitarian
situation.
Madhuku said that the humanitarian crisis needs to be top of
the agenda, and
will only be effectively dealt with following the set up of
a transitional
government.
"During the life-span of the transitional
Government, Zimbabweans must be
given full freedom to write their own
constitution in an open process such
as that outlined in the Zimbabwe
People's Charter," Madhuku added.
Madhuku conceded that pressure needs to
be put on Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF
as an individual party, given their hold
on power. But he argued that it is
clear that pressurising ZANU PF to give
up power is not possible. "If the
political parties do no reach an agreement
then we, as the NCA, will call
for a neutral transitional authority," he
explained.
The NCA said it will campaign for the three point plan through
civic
advocacy and street protests. The first protests to push for this
position
will be held next Tuesday in five centers: Harare, Bulawayo,
Mutare,
Masvingo and Gweru. These will be followed within days by further
protests
in which the NCA will be working with other organisations
supporting this
three-point plan.
November 4, 2008
(Interview between Violet Gonda of SWRadio Africa and Professor Welshman Ncube, secretary general of the MDC led by Prof. Arthur Mutambara)
REPORTS last week claimed Professor Welshman Ncube, the secretary general of the MDC faction led by Arthur Mutambara had “doctored” the power sharing agreement document signed by President Mugabe and his opposition rivals on September 15. Ncube tells SW Radio Africa’s Violet Gonda that the claims are a malicious fabrication:
Welshman Ncube: (The allegations) can only be the product of people who are extremely malicious, who have no journalistic ethics who run with a stupid false story without even the decency of talking to the people who are accused of the fraudulent alteration of a document. As far as I know I did not take part nor participate in any alteration of any agreement at all.
The fact of the matter is that yes there are alterations in the document which was signed by the principals on the 15th. Those alterations are three - I will come to that in a moment.
We all have three copies or three versions of the agreement. The first version of the agreement is that which we as the negotiators negotiated and signed each page. All the six negotiators signed and authenticated each page so each of the six of us can check if there are any alterations against the originals which we signed as negotiators.
The second document was signed by the principals when agreement was reached on the 11th of September 2008 and it is that document which is constitutive – we make reference to that.
The document which was then signed by the parties at the formal ceremony on the 15th of September was just a formal document which is not constitutive, which was simply a formal public ceremony to give effect to something which had already been agreed previously… That is the second document (Sept 11th) and it is correct.
So the first two documents are correct. The third document which was signed at the formal ceremony on the 15th of September has three alterations or three omissions – if I may call them that. As far as we know we have raised this with Zanu PF and (Patrick) Chinamasa whose Ministry of Justice was responsible for producing the final document which was to be signed by the principals.
Minister Chinamasa has freely admitted that he made one of those alterations because – he explains – he was advised by his principal (Robert Mugabe) that the three principals – Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and Robert Mugabe had agreed to alter the document to that effect. And as far as we know that is not correct. We have indicated that our principal told us he never agreed on such an alteration. We have checked with our principal (Mutambara) who denies that he ever agreed to change the document to that effect.
And that particular change is a change in the original that we negotiated and agreed. It was to provide that the five existing Senate seats shall go to Zanu PF. There shall be created an additional six Senate seats – four of which will go to Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC and two of which will go to Arthur Mutambara’s MDC. It is that clause which Chinamasa altered to read that the existing five will go to Zanu PF and there shall be created an additional nine - three to be shared equally among the three parties. That was never part of the agreement. It is an invention of Patrick Chinamasa and he admits that he is the one who put it there.
The South Africans were not involved. We were not involved. I was not involved. So it is absolutely malicious for someone to suggest that some of us were involved when in fact the person who altered the document freely admits that he altered it and explains why he altered it, in that respect. Then there are two … (interrupted)
Violet Gonda: Before you go to the next clauses or the next issues that were deleted. Just to be fair, you mentioned that there are some people with malicious intent who accuse you of doctoring this agreement and you mentioned one of our reporters here. But to be fair, if you read the story that he wrote he actually says it is the Tsvangirai MDC that has accused Patrick Chinamasa, yourself and Thabo Mbeki’s representative Mujanku Gumbi of tampering with the document.
Ncube: That might be so but the story does not say who in the MDC Tsvangirai has made that accusation and no journalist worth his salt would buy such a defamatory, malicious story, without in fact attributing to a specific person in MDC Tsvangirai who is making that accusation so that we can all confront that person, and if need be sue that person for defamation and for malicious defamation. The responsibility… (interrupted).
Gonda: But you know with the way the talks have been conducted – the secret nature of getting information has been difficult for journalists to get comment, even from officials who are engaged or directly involved in these negotiations. So journalists are left with no choice but to use unnamed sources in most of their stories because of the difficulties we face. Do you not agree that this could also have been a problem, a problem that was created by the politicians themselves?
Ncube: I don’t agree Violet. These are no longer negotiations. This is now a public document on which someone is commenting on a public document which is out there in the public arena and if anyone claims that there is some misrepresentations, alterations in that document that person must be prepared to stand up to it. And any journalist who writes it must be able to say ‘you surely must stand up and defend your accusations?’ You cannot simply say I shall be a nameless source to such a scandalous, such a defamation in my respectful view.
So if indeed there is a person in the Tsvangirai formation who made that allegation they must take responsibility but as things stand, we don’t know, simply because this person has not been identified.
Gonda: So what other clauses…?
Ncube: But be that as it may there are then two other paragraphs which are missing from the final document signed on the 15th. And these paragraphs which are missing, the first is the one which provides that anyone appointed Vice President or Prime Minister or Deputy Minister shall be ex officio members of the House of Assembly and should such a person already be a member of the House of Assembly, the party to which he or she belongs shall appoint a non-constituency member of the House of Assembly. That clause is completely missing and nothing replaces it. It just disappeared from the document.
Equally missing is a third clause which basically states that in the appointment of senior government positions such as Ambassadors and Permanent Secretaries - the President, the Vice Presidents, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Ministers shall sit and agree on those appointments. That clause is also missing. Incidentally these two clauses come one after the other in the agreement and they are both missing.
And Patrick Chinamasa – when we have asked him, the Minister of Justice – he says he doesn’t know what happened to them, he did not remove them, they must have dropped out of the electronic copy accidentally. And there is no dispute that they should be there everyone accepts that they should be there. No-one knows how they were dropped off the agreement.
And in any event it is ridiculous for anyone to suggest that the South Africans would participate in such a fraudulent activity, they have no interest in it. Equally ridiculous is that we would or I would participate in removing clauses from an agreement – clauses which would allow my party represented by the Deputy Prime Minister to participate in the appointment of senior government employees; and indeed I will participate in removing a clause which creates a parliamentary seat for my President who is a Deputy Prime Minister. What interest would I have in actually subverting an agreement in such a way that the interests of my party to be represented are in fact compromised?
So it is pure nonsense for anyone to suggest that I would have participated in the alteration of a document in a manner which prejudices my party. You need to be a fool to actually believe such nonsense.
Gonda: So what is going to happen with the clauses that were deleted?
Ncube: It really doesn’t matter because the constitutive agreement is the agreement which was signed on the 11th of September by the Principals. Those clauses are there and that is the agreement. What happened on the 15th of September was merely a formal ceremony. The agreement is embodied in what was signed on the 11th of September.
The document signed on the 11th of September has all the clauses that we need and that are now supposedly in dispute. So as far as some of us are concerned, it’s a non-issue because the agreement which is operative, the agreement which was reached, is the agreement which was signed by the negotiators. The clauses are correct and the agreement which was signed by the Presidents on the 11th – which is the constitutive agreement - all the clauses are there and they are correct.
So, as far as I am concerned, it’s an academic question; we should all go back to the agreement which is not in dispute, which is what was signed by the negotiators and the principals on the 11th of September.
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Violet
Gonda
4 November 2008
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe
(PTUZ) has said chaos is
characterising examinations across the country, as
the industrial action by
the majority of teachers continues.
PTUZ
President Takavafira Zhou said the authorities have now compromised the
credibility of exams as army personnel have been distributing exam papers to
rural schools and headmasters are being ordered to sit down with the army,
chiefs, headmen and youth militia to invigilate.
Teachers have not
been attending classes saying their salaries are being
eroded by inflation,
and this has resulted in children in many government
schools not receiving
any proper learning. The PTUZ have repeatedly called
on the government to
postpone exams, but they are going ahead as scheduled.
Grade 7 exams have
just finished and some 'O' and 'A' Levels started on
Monday. Zhou said:
"Several schools failed to write Shona and Ndebele paper
2 at grade 7, while
hundreds of pupils did not turn up for examinations in
rural parts of
Zimbabwe."
The outspoken union leader said the government move baffles
logic and common
sense, as they are going ahead in spite of the logistical
problems and the
obvious fact that teachers will not be prepared to mark
such fraudulent
exams.
"With '0' and 'A' level exams starting
yesterday and picking up momentum
next week, one would have thought that the
government would have learnt from
grade 7 exams that things are abnormal and
stopped the exams," Zhou said.
He told SW Radio Africa: "We have been
informed by headmasters and teachers
that after failing to get teachers as
invigilators, the headmasters had no
option except to resort to the chiefs,
youth, the headmen, and we have it
also on record that the exams are being
distributed by army personnel."
The teachers union said it was now
cataloguing all the anomalies involved
with a view to producing a
comprehensive report at the end of the exam
process.
http://en.afrik.com/news12372.html
State-owned Air Zimbabwe said
Tuesday it planned to start flying to Teheran,
the Iranian capital, shortly
as part of a search for new profitable routes.
Joachim Bango, the head of
air transport at the airline, said the national
carrier would be flying five
times a week to Teheran. He said the move
follows the signing of a bilateral
air services agreement between the two
countries. Air Zimbabwe has expanded
its regional and international
destinations in recent years, adding
countries such as DR Congo, China,
Dubai and others. It said the move was
intended to compensate for low
business at home, where the local economy has
shrunk by around 80 percent in
the last few years. (Tuesday 4 November -
14:37)
BULAWAYO,
4 November 2008 (IRIN) - Takunda Moyo, 35, seems the epitome of a successful
business person: he drives a sleek car, wears designer label clothes, and is
never short of a dollar or two. He is part of a new class of entrepreneur - the
illegal foreign exchange hustler.
Photo:
Wikimedia Commons
Money-go-round
As one of the front men for the cartel
that runs the business in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, Moyo is several
rungs up the ladder from the people who stand on the pavements all day.
His job is to supply them with daily cash floats and communicate new
currency rates to thousands of individual dealers in the city. "The foreign
currency exchange business is a complex web, and all the women you see on the
streets, changing foreign currency, are simply employees of a big cartel that
runs the illegal black market in the country," Moyo said with a chuckle.
"They are the big fish," he remarked, preferring not to divulge whether
or not he actually knew who the cartel members were. "Trying to sniff them out
will put you in big trouble, my brother. They are well connected in big places
and nothing happens to them; they control this country."
How forex
prices are set and adjusted is a mystery to most Zimbabweans, like the
ever-rising inflation rate, which, officially, is 231 million percent, but
independent economists estimate it could be high as a billion percent. The point
is that with goods increasingly denominated in foreign currency, getting your
hands on some has become a necessity.
"Food prices are always going up,
as people are charging in foreign currency," complained Nomathemba Moyo, who
lives in the working-class suburb of Magwegwe. "The price changes daily with the
movement of foreign currency rates."
Moyo provided some insight into how
the rates are calculated. "There are several factors our bosses look at, and
they include availability of cash, demand, and the rates from the Old Mutual
'implied rate' [a daily estimate produced by the insurance firm]."
This
rate can be influenced by big companies making large purchases as they source
foreign exchange for imports, and in so doing push down the value of the local
currency.
Here to stay
In an economy in which 8
out of 10 people are unemployed, the only job Sifiso Nyoni, 26, has ever had is
as a currency trader, but she has no idea who she really works for.
"Every foreign currency dealer on the street knows
that the people who bring the money to us [and communicate the rates] are just
small," she said. "But there are others - bigger people, who are controlling the
black market."
Read more
A day in the life of hyperinflation
How do you rein in 231 million percent inflation?
All aboard for a 2,500km shopping trip
Despite numerous measures put in place by the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe to try and curb the parallel currency market, it continues to
thrive, mainly because it offers much better prices than the official rate, and
- so the rumour goes - because the cash-strapped government itself uses it.
"The rates are attractive on the black market, so I will rather risk
arrest than change at the banks, where the rates are ridiculously low," said
Mercy Sibanda, who had just changed R100 (around US$10).
Currently the
US dollar is trading at Z$100,000 and the South African rand is worth Z$10,000.
At independence in 1980, one Zimbabwean dollar fetched US$1.47.
http://en.afrik.com/article14827.html
"In the measures underway, the
Reserve Bank plans to introduce a number of
new, higher denominations,
review the cash withdrawal limits as well as
commence aggressive campaigns
for increased usage of other alternative means
of payment."
Tuesday 4
November 2008, by Bruce Sibanda
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has introduced
new $1 million, $500 000 and
$100 000 banknotes in a desperate bid to ease
the recurrent cash shortages
plaguing the inflation-ravaged
economy.
The bills will officially come into circulation on Friday,
although they
were already on the foreign currency dealers market this
morning.
As high as they are, though, the highest bill can only buy eight
loaves of
bread. The highest new note is equal to just US$6.
The new
notes with be the 22nd, 23rd and 24th notes introduced by the
Reserve Bank
this year alone. The central bank also said it will review cash
withdrawal
limits to compensate for ever-accelerating inflation. The
withdrawal limit
for individuals is still $50 000 a day while that for
companies is $10
000.
In a statement last night, the central bank said: "In a market that
has
become predominantly speculative, most providers of goods and services
are
demanding cash as the only acceptable means of payment, penalising those
that could otherwise be willing and able to use cheques for transaction
purposes.
"In the measures underway, the Reserve Bank plans to
introduce a number of
new, higher denominations, review the cash withdrawal
limits as well as
commence aggressive campaigns for increased usage of other
alternative means
of payment."
Signs of a severe cash shortage are
showing across the country as citizens
are currently struggling to access
cash from their various bank and
financial institutions' accounts.
A
serious cash shortage has persisted since October 2007.
Long bank queues
are once again part of everyday life in which the maximum
withdrawal limit,
which people say is too little, forces them to come back
to the bank
virtually daily. Bank sources hint the cash situation is poised
to
deteriorate further in the coming weeks.
People wake up to join queues as
early as 5am, as long queues can be seen by
6am.
http://www.iol.co.za
November 04 2008 at
11:52AM
By Celean Jacobson
The sale of almost four
tons of ivory by Zimbabwe on Monday raised
$450 000 (about R4,5-million) for
conservation in a country whose economic
crisis has left authorities
battling to maintain vast reserves and protect
elephants, rhinos and other
game.
The sale, which was held in the capital, Harare, is part of
series of
ivory auctions being held for the first time in a
decade.
Last year, the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species
ruled that Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe
could sell 108 tons
of stockpiled ivory to approved Japanese and Chinese
buyers. The final sale
will take place in South Africa this
week.
Morris Mtsambiwa, director-general of the
Zimbabwe Parks Authority,
said the funds from Monday's sale will be used for
elephant conservation and
to help them better manage the country's national
parks.
Zimbabwe's economic crisis, which has led to a critical
shortage of
food, fuel and other basic goods, has had a devastating effect
on a country
once known for its natural beauty and wealth of
wildlife.
Endangered rhinos are being killed almost weekly by
poachers while the
illegal trade in game meat is flourishing as hungry
Zimbabweans turn to
alternative sources of food.
Man-made
watering holes have dried up because of a lack of fuel to
keep pumps going,
forcing animals to travel long distances in search of
water. In some cases,
they are even fighting each other for precious drops
to drink.
"The situation is very bad. It's very sad," said Amir Khalil, from
View
Pfoten, an international animal welfare organisation that recently sent
a
fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe.
Khalil and his team toured the
Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe's
flagship reserve, and found it devastated
by drought and littered with snare
traps. "Animals are being wounded from
the snares and there are no vets," he
said.
Tom Milliken of
Traffic, an international organisation that monitors
the illegal trade in
wildlife, said there had been a "major increase in
poaching" for
food.
"As the economic situation worsens, hunger and poverty in
rural areas
is greater than ever," he said.
Milliken warned
that organised syndicates who targeted rhinos for
their horns were reversing
gains made to boost their numbers.
Mtsambiwa acknowledges rhino
poaching is "out of control."
Vehicles bought from the proceeds of
Monday's sale will help ensure
greater protection for the animals, he
said.
Johnny Rodriguez, of the Zimbabwean Conservation Task force,
believes
that unless there is a political solution to his country's
problems, it is
in danger of losing its natural heritage.
"We
are seeing less and less animals," he said. "Where you used to see
herds of
thousands, you are now seeing only hundreds." - Sapa-AP
HARARE, 4 November 2008 (IRIN) -
Zimbabwe's AIDS organisations have condemned the government for failing to
account for more than US$7 million provided by the Geneva-based Global Fund to
Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Photo:
Obinna Anyadike/IRIN
Home-based care workers struggle
with lack of funds
The money was held by the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), but allocations were released "erratically and only partially", the Fund said, and warned
that no future grants would be approved until all of the remaining US$7.3
million was transferred to commercial banks and "we are satisfied that our funds
are safe".
Executive director of the Fund, Prof Michel Kazatchkine, said
the dribble of money released by the RBZ, along with Zimbabwe's wider economic
crisis, had affected the implementation of programmes, "including the supply and
distribution of drugs".
"A full audit of both the financial bottlenecks
and programme implementation issues has been carried out by the [Fund's] Office
of the Inspector General over the last three weeks and a report will be issued
soon," Kazatchkine said.
The Fund said it had been assured by the RBZ
the money would be transferred by 6 November.
The chairperson of the
Zimbabwe Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS, Benjamin Mazhindu, told IRIN he
feared the cash-strapped government, which ordered in 2007 that all foreign
exchange accounts be lodged with the RBZ, could have dipped into those funds.
"Evil and insensitive"
"Our suspicions are that
the RBZ was diverting money, meant for people and organisations fighting the
spread of HIV/AIDS, towards buying fertiliser, seed and the national football
team. That, for people living with HIV/AIDS, is unacceptable, evil and
insensitive, as it means somebody is gambling with our lives."
Tinashe
Mundawarara, programme manager of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights and an
expert on AIDS and human rights law, told IRIN his organisation would wait for
the audit before commenting.
"However, should it turn out that some
fraudulent activities were taking place, then we will demand that the
[Zimbabwean] House of Assembly should institute an urgent audit of all Global
Fund money.
"If the RBZ is found on the wrong side of the law, then
there will be grave consequences for people living with HIV/AIDS because money
from the Global Fund occupies critical space in the fight against HIV/AIDS,"
Mundawarara said.
The Global Fund has five ongoing grants in Zimbabwe
worth US$88 million, and between 2004 and 2007 disbursed just over US$39
million, which has helped to enrol 13,000 people in AIDS treatment programmes
and supply 330,000 insecticide-treated bed nets to combat malaria.
Zimbabwe has had a fraught history with the Fund, but excitement was mounting that a US$500 million proposal made
earlier this year would be approved after the application was ruled "technically
sound", the penultimate step to final approval by the Fund's board of directors.
In seven rounds of funding disbursements, Zimbabwe's applications have
been successful in only two. Health Minister David Parirenyatwa has frequently
accused the agency of political bias, which the Global Fund has strongly denied.
Maxwell Kapachawo, the head of a network of religious leaders living
with HIV/AIDS, said failure by the RBZ to account for the Global Fund grant
money underlined the disregard the authorities had for HIV-positive people.
"What they may not know is that we may lose the US$500 million which had
[almost] been approved for Zimbabwe. The implications for people living with
HIV/AIDS are dire because those funds go a long way in assisting us where the
government cannot do anything."
Of the 1.7 million people living with
HIV in Zimbabwe, 320,000 are in need of antiretroviral drugs but only 100,000
are accessing free government treatment.