ANGUS SHAW, Associated Press Writer
May 17, 2007
11:28 AM
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate surged
to an
unprecedented 3,714 percent at the end of April, the official state
newspaper reported Thursday, as the government set up a commission to try to
bring prices down to single digit levels.
Prices more than doubled
last month as shown by a 100.7 percent increase -
the highest on record - in
the consumer price index calculated by the state
Central Statistical Office,
the Herald newspaper said. In the past year they
increased
36-fold.
The Herald said that President Robert Mugabe on Monday signed
into law
regulations to enforce wage and price controls through
''comprehensive price
surveys and inspections,'' with a penalty of up to
five years in jail for
violators. The ultimate aim would be to bring
inflation into single digits.
In recent years, the government has tried
to freeze prices for corn meal,
bread, cooking oil, meat, school fees and
transport costs with little
success. Socialist-style controls have driven a
thriving black market in
scarce commodities.
Sugar, unavailable in
regular stores for weeks, fetches at least 10 times
the government's
designated price at a dirty market in Harare's impoverished
western township
of Mbare.
Minibus drivers, the country's main commuter transport,
routinely ignore
government directives on fares, citing soaring black market
prices for
gasoline. Commuters questioned at police roadblocks often lie
about the fare
they paid or risk being thrown off the bus and left
stranded.
The independent Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries estimates
most
factories across the country are running at around 30 percent capacity
or
less, and countless businesses have shut down, fueling record
unemployment
of about 80 percent.
Many consumer items have
disappeared altogether, forcing supermarkets to
fill out their shelves with
empty packaging behind the few goods on display.
The worst economic
crisis since independence in 1980 is blamed on
corruption, mismanagement and
the often-violent seizures of thousands of
white-owned commercial farms
since 2000 that disrupted the agriculture-based
economy.
Increases in
the price of fuel, transportation, vegetables and meat
contributed to
April's surge in the consumer price index, which was double
the increase in
March of 50.3 percent, the Central Statistical Office said,
according to The
Herald.
The international benchmark for hyperinflation is a 50 percent
monthly
increase.
The government warned Wednesday that the price of
bread is likely to rise
because only a fraction of the normal wheat crop has
been planted.
In Zimbabwe's bizarre economic meltdown, a regular can of
locally made baked
beans in a supermarket now costs three times the price of
the equivalent in
Europe, compared at the official exchange rate of 15,000
Zimbabwean dollars
to the U.S. dollar.
The Reserve Bank last year
introduced sweeping currency reforms knocking off
the final three digits -
thus 250,000 Zimbabwean dollars became 250
Zimbabwean dollars - in a vain
attempt to tame inflation.
Even so, consumers are still forced to carry
around huge bricks of notes to
pay for scarce supplies and basic
services.
For example, a pest control service on Wednesday charged 1
million
Zimbabwean dollars to a homeowner whose house was plagued by rats
that are
thriving as the country's sanitation and garbage collection
collapses.
May 17th 2007 | HARARE AND
JOHANNESBURG
From The Economist print edition
IT IS hard to imagine that things could get any worse in Zimbabwe. But, sure enough, day by day, they do. Since the opposition, NGOs and church groups organised a protest rally that was brutally crushed in March, the police and militias have been intimidating, arresting and beating up political opponents, journalists, lawyers and ordinary people alike. The government has even warned the Catholic bishops, once considered inviolate, to shut up or suffer the same fate. Meanwhile the inflation rate has passed 2,200%; last week the national power company announced that it would ration electricity in cities, possibly to a meagre four hours a day, just as the southern hemisphere's winter is starting to bite.
Power cuts are already frequent, but the latest blackouts mark a new low. Residents of Harare, the capital, have been rushing to get firewood and paraffin, though a domestic worker's monthly wage can buy only five litres (1.3 American gallons) of paraffin or two litres of cooking oil. Many companies, already operating at about 40% of capacity, say the cuts will force them to reduce their working hours even more. “The whole thing is a nightmare,” says Lovemore Mandebvu, who runs a small furniture-making factory in Harare. “We don't know when we will have power and when it goes. This is affecting our output. Then at home water runs out when you are bathing, and the electricity goes while you are cooking.” Hospitals must use gas stoves, coal-fired boilers, fuel generators, solar power and candles.
Basic staples like maize are becoming harder to buy. The official rate for the Zimbabwe dollar is 250 to the American one, but the street value is now closer to 32,000. Many Zimbabweans survive only thanks to the 3m or so friends and relatives who have emigrated. Every day desperate Zimbabweans cross the Limpopo river, braving crocodiles and occasionally drowning, to try their luck in neighbouring South Africa. Trapped into illegality there, many are exploited and abused.
Those who stay face the increasingly arbitrary power of the police and militias. Since the crackdown in March, there have been raids on Harare districts such as Highfield and Glenview, known opposition strongholds, where random beatings and arrests have become common. President Robert Mugabe's government claims that the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is responsible for the violence and is behind a wave of bombings. The MDC says the bombs are planted by the police to justify repression. Last week lawyers protested against the arrest of two colleagues and the routine defiance of court orders by the police. A march was dispersed and several lawyers assaulted.
The latest efforts of Zimbabwe's neighbours to improve things are still going nowhere. After the violence in March, the Southern African Development Community, a regional club of 14 countries, mandated South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, to encourage negotiations between Mr Mugabe and his opponents. But the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank, says that Zimbabwe's ruler has shown no willingness to co-operate with the regional initiative to prepare the ground for presidential and parliamentary elections due next year, when Mr Mugabe looks likely to run again. At present, there is little chance the elections will be fair.
But some of Zimbabwe's neighbours are sounding exasperated. Last week the Pan-African Parliament, a talking-shop with a secretariat in South Africa, said it would send a mission to investigate human-rights abuses. Mozambique's energy company, a big supplier of Zimbabwe's electricity, may switch off power unless it gets paid. And South Africa's government, long in denial about the crisis on its doorstep, has just granted political asylum to Roy Bennett, the MDC treasurer who fled Zimbabwe to avoid another arrest. It turned down his application last year.
Still, this rare build-up of pressure was released last week when, to the dismay of the United States, the European Union and many others, Zimbabwe's minister of environment and tourism, Francis Nhema, was elected to chair the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, where he will preside over discussions on land and rural development. Astonishingly, the UN's African members, whose turn it was to hold the rotating post, could think of no better candidate than one from a country whose agriculture has been largely destroyed by its government's catastrophic policies. Like many other Zimbabwean bigwigs, Mr Nhema himself pocketed a farm that was confiscated a few years ago—and has already let it lapse into ruin.
Global Politician
Lawrence Ndlovu - 5/19/2007
Zimbabwe's annual inflation
continued breaking new ground rising to 3,713.9
percent in April signaling
that the country's economic woes are far from
over. Figures released by the
Central Statistical Office (CSO) Thursday
showed that surged a record 1
513.7 percentage points from 2 200.2 percent
in March to 3 713.9 percent,
the highest in the world, in a country where
the majority lives below $1 a
day.
On a month on month basis CSO said that prices had prices had risen
by 100.7
percent last month after a 50.5 percent rise in March. It
attributed the
rise to an increase in prices of domestic power, food, fuel
and commuter
transport fares. The rise in prices would be a further blow to
Zimbabweans
where four out of five people are out of work.
Analysts
predict that inflation would continue in its upward trend in the
coming
months. Analysts say Zimbabwe still has to import grain after a
successive
pathetic agricultural season since the takeover of land from
commercial
farmers began in 2000.
Zimbabwe has only managed to produce 500 000
tonnes of maize against a
requirement of 2.4 million tones, a sign that the
central bank will import
grain.
In his monetary policy review
presentation in January, central bank Governor
Gideon Gono said that
inflation would continue rising, but taper off to
between 300-400 percent by
the end of the year.
In its World Economic Outlook for April 2007, the
International Monetary
Fund said annual inflation was set to end the year at
2,879.5 percent,
before hitting 6,470.8 percent in 2008.
The World
Bank described Zimbabwe's woes as unprecedented to a country that
is not at
war.
Zimbabwe, whose economy contracted 4.4% last year, is its seventh
year of
recession blamed on mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe's
government.
The veteran leader denies the charge instead blaming the
recession of
successive droughts and "illegal" sanction.
Yahoo News
by Fanuel Jongwe Thu May 17, 11:26 AM ET
HARARE (AFP) - A new
pricing law approved by Zimbabwean President Robert
Mugabe as inflation
exceeded 3,700 percent could worsen rather than relieve
widespread shortages
and price rises, analysts warned Thursday.
The National Incomes and
Pricing Commission Act was signed into law on
Monday as part of a clutch of
measures aimed to rein back galloping price
rises which reached a new high
of 3,714 percent in April.
It provides for the appointment of a commission
"to monitor price trends of
goods and services, producing price monitoring
reports and initiating
corrective measures in cases of unscrupulous
businesses affecting Zimbabwe's
pricing system."
But analysts were
doubtful that the law would rein in the inflation spiral,
warning instead
the new controls could worsen shortages of basic goods and
spawn a
burgeoning black market.
"What we have noticed in the past is that if
controls are imposed, goods
disappear from the formal market only to
reappear on the black market at
more than double the official price," Best
Doroh, a financial analyst with
leading finance group ZB Financial Holdings,
told AFP.
"The law is not addressing the issues. We need to make sure
industry is able
to produce and bring the economy back on
track."
University of Zimbabwe economics professor Tony Hawkins said the
measure may
only bring short-term relief to Zimbabweans sinking deeper into
poverty as
inflation spiral shows no sign of relenting.
"The incomes
and pricing act will only have a short-term effect and I don't
think it's
very different from all previous measures such as the price
controls which
have failed," Hawkins said.
"Inflation may slow down for a few months but
it will bounce back. The new
law is more (about) threats than anything
else."
Harare-based independent economist Thomas Mutswiti said
Zimbabweans should
"brace ourselves for the worst."
The annual
inflation rate has been on a roller-coaster ride since December
2004 when it
shot up to 622.8 percent. In March this year it breached the
2,000 percent
mark to reach 2,200 percent.
Zimbabwe's Central Statistics Office
attributed the latest jump, reported
Thursday, to the soaring cost of
domestic power, meat, vegetables, gas and
other fuels, as well as passenger
transport.
The inflation rate translated into a 36-fold price increase in
the year
since April 2006.
The state-run Herald newspaper hailed the
commission to be appointed by
Mugabe under the new law as "an essential part
of the process to slow down
inflation and eventually bring it down to single
digits while at the same
time minimising its damage on the pocket of the
ordinary person by dealing
with incomes as well as prices".
The
government in April last year unveiled an economic blueprint to try and
revive the country's moribund economy within nine months by, among others,
generating foreign currency, attracting more foreign tourism and improving
agricultural production.
The initiative has yielded little so
far.
In July last year, the central bank slashed three zeros from the
country's
currency in another bid to curb inflation.
The southern
African country is in the seventh year of economic recession
characterised
by high inflation, massive unemployment and chronic shortages
of foreign
currency and basic goods like fuel and the staple cornmeal.
Central bank
chief Gideon Gono has described inflation, often referred to as
"our number
one enemy" in official speeches, as "the economic HIV."
Reuters
Thu 17 May
2007, 13:45 GMT
By Nelson Banya
HARARE, May 17 (Reuters) -
Zimbabwe's inflation, which reached a new record
high in April, has been
stoked by chronic food shortages caused by the
country's controversial land
reforms, the head of the central bank said on
Thursday.
Official
figures released on Thursday showed prices in the southern African
country
jumped annually to a record 3,700 percent in a stark sign of the
economic
turmoil blamed on government policies.
The cost of living doubled in
April -- touching a record 100.7 percent
month-on-month from 50.5 percent in
March -- while the annualised figure
climbed from 2,200 percent
previously.
The Central Statistical Office said prices of food -- which
makes up a third
of the consumer basket used to calculate inflation --
domestic power, fuel
and public transport fares had contributed to the
significant rise in price
levels in April.
The inflation spiral is
the clearest sign of a deep economic crisis, blamed
on President Robert
Mugabe's policies such as the seizure of white-owned
farms to resettle
landless blacks.
Addressing parliamentarians in Harare on Thursday,
central bank Governor
Gideon Gono said disruptions of commercial farming,
shortages of key inputs
and poor planning meant Zimbabwe -- formerly a
regional bread basket --
would continue to struggle to feed
itself.
Mugabe's government, which blames declining agricultural
productivity on
poor rains, has declared 2007 a drought year.
"When
the governor urges a stop to the disruption of farming activity, he is
told
to stop delving into areas that do not concern him, but I do not need
to
lose sleep thinking about sourcing foreign currency to import food," Gono
said.
"I hardly have a good night's sleep, yet we've got the
land."
Zimbabwe's government has lined up more staple grain imports
following
another poor farming season, and Gono said the food deficits would
continue
to stoke inflation.
Apart from maize, Zimbabwe faces a huge
wheat deficit amid revelations this
week by the agriculture ministry that
only a tenth of the targeted 76,000
hectares of land had been put under the
winter wheat crop.
"Inflationary pressures emanating from the food
sub-category reflect food
insufficiency and related supply bottle-necks,"
said Gono.
The U.N World Food Programme had earlier stated that at least
1.4 million
Zimbabweans would require food aid until this month, but
agencies expect the
number to grow after a failed summer crop in the 2006/7
season.
Mugabe denies his land reforms have created an unprecedented
economic crisis
and instead blames Western sanctions.
"Even with the
drought, why should we be importing food today when we've got
the land and
have put in place drought mitigation measures?", asked Gono.
By Violet Gonda
17 May 2007
At a summit in Ghana on
Thursday the Minister of Justice Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs Patrick
Chinamasa, launched a blistering attack on
radio stations broadcasting into
Zimbabwe and called on the African
Commission to help close them down.
Speaking during a session on the status
of human rights in Africa, the
government minister went on a propaganda
campaign claiming media groups and
non-governmental organisations have a
western agenda that is pushing for
regime change.
Chinamasa said there is a massive misinformation drive by
SW Radio Africa,
Voice of America's Studio 7 and Voice of the People (VOP).
He then asked the
Commission to put pressure on the countries hosting these
radio stations to
shut them down.
Arnold Tsunga the Deputy Chairman
of VOP, said it was clear that the regime
was trying to play psychological
games to try and win the sympathy of
Africans but delegates were not fooled
but actually shocked. He said: "It is
not surprising that a minister from
Zimbabwe can come before the African
Commission and stupefy and make a
complete mess of himself in terms of
attacking the rights to freedom of
expression in Zimbabwe which is enshrined
in the African Charter of Human
and People's Rights."
Responding to this latest attack on the media our
station manager Gerry
Jackson said: "Chinamasa has conveniently left out the
fact that radio
stations are forced to broadcast from outside, because
independent radio is
not allowed in Zimbabwe."
Armed para military
forcibly shut down Zimbabwe's first independent radio
station Capital Radio,
started by Jackson in 2000. All the equipment was
seized after just 6 days
of tests broadcasts. Despite broadcasting
regulations brought in at the
time, that government claimed would allow for
licences for private
broadcasters, there are still no independent stations
in
Zimbabwe.
Abel Chikomo from the Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe
(MMPZ) said it
was really worrying to see the Minister showing these strong
views during
the plenary session.
In a wide ranging speech to the
Africa Commission, Chinamasa also admitted
to the plenary that the police
did use violence against opposition officials
on March 11 and added that the
authorities will continue to use 'appropriate
force' to crush acts of
"terrorism." He claimed between 2000 and 2005 more
than 650 NGOs were
created with a regime change agenda, and the government
will make every
effort to fight the siege it is under.
Sources in Ghana said the
minister's statements were so threatening that the
mood among Zimbabwean
delegates from civic society changed during the
meeting. It was feared that
some of the civic groups were going to withdraw
their names from the list of
speakers as a result of the threats. But Jacob
Mafume the Chairperson of the
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said the NGO
community and members of the civic
society were going to submit their
presentation, which will show the true
extent of repression in Zimbabwe. The
groups are also receiving a lot of
support from other human rights bodies in
Africa.
Zimbabwe has seen
an escalation of violence against perceived opponents of
the government in
recent weeks. Scores of opposition, civic activists,
church leaders,
journalists, student and lawyers have been beaten and
arrested. The orgy of
violence has resulted in 4 people killed since March,
while 32 MDC members
have been in custody for almost two months.
Mafume said that the
government has shown no repentance and continues to
brutalise innocent
people.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By
Tererai Karimakwenda
17 May, 2007
Instead of redeveloping agriculture
and assisting the remaining white
commercial farmers producing food for the
nation, the government has
continued with its policy of violent evictions
known as jambanjas. While
food shortages intensify and experts say the
situation will worsen, a
campaign of illegal and violent removal of white
farmers continues. The
evictions, originally carried out by resettled
farmers and war veterans, are
now under the control of the military. This
new strategy completely bypasses
the rule of law. And former farm workers
now unemployed have become
outcasts, working for bread and a cup of
tea.
John Worsley Worswick from Justice for Agriculture told us about 400
white
farmers who remain in Zimbabwe. Of that number only about 250 are
still
productive. Worswick explained that government enacted Amendment #17
to make
sure evicted farmers could not legally challenge their removal. But
the
farmers found a loophole which allowed them to get their day in court.
So
the government resorted back to its original violent jambanja tactics.
Worswick said there is a farmer under siege in Chisipite just outside
Harare. And 2 farmers, 1 from Karoi and the other from Vic Falls, were
evicted last week.
Army officials and soldiers who are part of
Operation Maguta, the military
management of farm activities, are now being
used to take over farms
illegally. Worswick said the open display of arms is
a common feature.
Farmers under siege become too scared to resist. The
whites are also seen as
a threat by government because they witness what is
happening in the rural
areas, and the many deaths from malnutrition.
An
outcast society of unemployed farm workers has developed from the
evictions.
According to Worswick, they are rewarded for any work they get
from the new
black owners with some bread and a cup of tea. No money changes
hands at the
end of the month. The lucky ones might receive a 10kg bag of
maize as a
month's wages.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Lance Guma
17 May
2007
Mugabe's security forces maintained a crackdown against student
activism in
the country by abducting two more student leaders at the Bindura
University
of Science Education (BUSE). Student Representative Council
president
Tinashe Madamombe and Secretary General Moreblessing Mabhunu were
abducted
by suspected state agents at the old site campus in the morning. A
statement
from the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU) said the
abductors used a
vehicle whose registration details they could not verify.
Coincidentally the
two leaders were the subject of a ZINASU alert barely a
day ago, describing
how they were being threatened with death for attending
a ZINASU general
council meeting over the weekend.
Details of the
abduction remained sketchy late Thursday. The Vice President
of the SRC
Chiedza Gadzirayi and other concerned students confronted
university
security staff for an explanation on the abductions. The Chief
Security
Officer there, identified as Muchena, suggested to the students
that the two
had been taken to Bindura Central Police Station for
questioning. University
authorities are said to be accusing the students of
conniving with a
visiting student delegation from South Africa to organise a
demonstration on
campus. Two other student leaders from the university of
Zimbabwe, Prosper
Munatsi and Munyaradzi Chikorohondo were arrested last
week Thursday
following clashes with riot police. One other student was
expelled while 8
others suspended. All are candidates in ongoing student
council
elections.
Meanwhile two leaders from the Zimbabwe Youth Movement, Collen
Chibango and
Wellington Mahohoma, were released from custody Thursday
following their
arrest on Tuesday. The two were arrested for allegedly
inciting 60-80
vendors to resist arrest after police tried to pick them up
for 'illegal'
vending. The youths questioned the decision in light of the
harsh economic
environment in the country and were arrested. They say they
were assaulted
in custody.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
African Path
Trust Matsilele
May 17, 2007
09:33 AM
But a divided movement in which freedom fighters fight
amongst
themselves cannot win over any substantial section of the
population. Only a
united movement can successfully undertake the task of
uniting the country,
this is an extract from the former South African
president Nelson Mandela's
Reflections in Prison page 15.
When I read
this I said for sure this is the kind of struggle which
Zimbabweans
should engage in, a struggle were all progressive forces set
aside their
selfish agenda and put a cause for a liberated Zimbabwe ahead as
a way of
ensuring that the present repressive and illegitimate government
leave
office as of yesterday. This is a principle the Nelson Mandela's
generation
incorporated and eventually made the apartheid regime history by
fighting
arms akimbo with the association of Indian
Communities.
In September 2005, a squabble within the
vibrant opposition MDC left a
loophole and a huge opportunity for ruling
ZANU PF to maximise its rigging
and divide and rule tactics. Tensions became
rampant within opposition
supporters as they were left in a dilemma of
choosing which faction to stand
with and in the process the ZANU PF has
managed to rig the senates elections
and all by-elections held under such
suspicions.
A lot of stories have been circulated to the
cause of the split though
not the focus in this presentation. The MDC
Mutambara's Mkwananzi in less
than a month addressing Zimbabweans in South
Africa said MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai asked the MDC leadership to go for
an in-house elections to
determine whether to go for senates elections or
not and the vote would
decide the course of action. When Tsvangirai who was
vying for a protest of
the elections lost, took his jacket and left the
Harvest House (MDC offices
in Harare).
On the other
side the Secretary General of the MDC Mutambara Welshman
Ncube is alleged to
have been the man fighting against going for elections
and on the last
minute Ncube said the party would go for elections, then
divisions emerged
with others saying Ncube was bribed by the ZANU PF to go
for elections
whilst some saying Tsvangirai's dictatorship had caused
these
divisions.
Now Zimbabweans are faced with another election
in less than 11
months. ZANU PF has already chose its candidate or imposed a
candidate upon
in the name of Robert Mugabe now (83) who has ruled and
ruined the country
in the past 27 years with many even wishing that things
would have been
better if Ian Douglas Smith had continued as president as
problems persist.
Reports of rigging are reported to have already started,
Zimonline published
an article saying teachers were sent forms to fill their
political
affiliation and to me it is a way of preparing for another massive
rig were
all teachers who will fill ZANU PF as their party which highly
likely to
happen as teachers in the past been attacked by National Youth
Militia and
ZANU PF for allegedly supporting MDC
As I
write this article the government has withheld releasing of
inflation
figures, pegged at 2200% by April 2007.Unemployment is above 80%
and if one
loses the job chances of getting another job in Zimbabwe are
zero. This has
made the public even more dependent on its repressive
government which made
the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union planned strike a
huge
flop.
The MDC as agreed in the Save Zimbabwe campaign
banner are to chose a
candidate in less than few months to fight it with
Mugabe. The veteran
leader defeated Tsvangirai in the 2002's most disputed
elections, though the
candidate has not been named it is alleged the MDC
Tsvangirai has already
cleared the air by saying Morgan will be the
candidate. The MDC Mutambara
wants conditions set which a candidate who will
only meet conditions fill
the post.
This is an
election were the two MDC factions should unite. By the end
of this week I
will be receiving feedback from the MDC Mutambara's faction
from its South
African branch as to who they propose should be the
candidate. Nqabitho Dube
the information officer has confirmed this
development.
Tribalism is one of those key issues which is rocking the MDC
supporters
since the split some have been made to hate Morgan more than the
way they
hate Mugabe. The same applies to Ncube. The most surprising thing
is that
Welshman Ncube's name has been spoken of a lot more than the way
Tsvangirai's name has been spoken about. This is one of the challenges
facing such a candidate in waiting to unite the party and defeat Mugabe next
year who has been
defeated before but won through his arch
rigging expert Tobaiwa
Mudede, the Registrar General.
The two MDC factions have agreed that they will not go for elections
next
year until a new democratic constitution is in place to ensure a level
ground. Two days ago one of the online news organisation quoted Emmerson
Mnangagwa as saying the MDC had been given three conditions to adhere to as
preconditions for talks by the South African president Thabo Mbeki who is
mediating the talks under SADC's commands during his temporary chairmanship
of the house of Assembly. The conditions are:
1) MDC
should acknowledge that Mugabe is the legitimate president of
Zimbabwe
2) MDC should acknowledge that Mugabe won the 2002
elections
3) MDC should denounce violence
And
Mugabe's condition is to bring sanity back in Zimbabwe in both
economy and
politics. Efforts to get confirmation from Mbeki's office were
unfruitful.
If the conditions are to be taken as
serious, not as a mere ZANU PF
propaganda message of pre-empting dialogue
impending, Mbeki's efforts are
almost futile as the MDC can never deceive
its constituency which elected it
in power by saying Mugabe won the 2002
elections were hundreds were abducted
and some killed. Some of the cases are
still pending to date in the High
Court hence accepting those conditions
will mean the appeals will be
withdrawn and sanctions given to Mugabe for
cheating in elections will be
null hence declaring Mugabe persona no
grata.
This is another litmus test for the MDC strength and
survival in
Zimbabwean politics; challenges are in choosing one candidate,
uniting the
votes, protesting elections if a new constitution is not in
place and last
resisting Mugabe's bribery tactics-meaning eliminating all
opportunists who
would want to sacrifice the cause of the struggle for their
individual
constituencies.
Above all Mandela's message
remains that a divided movement in which
freedom fighters fight amongst
themselves cannot win over any substantial
section of the population. Only a
united movement can successfully undertake
the task of uniting the
country.
SABC
May 17, 2007,
17:00
President Thabo Mbeki says meetings between him and Zimbabwe's
government
and opposition parties are progressing well. Mbeki has been
mandated by the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) to facilitate
talks between
Zanu(PF) and the opposition Movement of Democratic Change
(MDC).
Mbeki says it is critical for the Zimbabwean government and
opposition
parties to resolve problems. Speaking in the National Assembly,
he added
that he could not give further details before reporting back to the
SADC.
Mbeki says South Africa will have to live with influx of
Zimbabweans into
the country. He says the country is committed to helping
the rest of Africa
resolve its problems. Mbeki says the resolution of
problems in Sudan's
Darfur region will play a significant role in the
direction that the whole
continent will take. He says many conflict areas
are looking to South Africa
to help them.
Ending human rights
violations
Mbeki has dismissed suggestions that the government is spending
money in
conflict areas instead of at home. Human Rights Watch (HRW)
recently called
on Mbeki to put human rights abuses at the centre of his
mediation efforts
between Zimbabwe's Zanu(PF) and the MDC.
Georgette
Gagnon, the HRW spokesperson, says Mbeki has a chance to push for
an end to
massive human rights violations that are fuelling Zimbabwe's
crisis.
Gagnon's comments accompanied a report released by the HRW in
Johannesburg
on the Zimbabwean government's ongoing crackdown on its
political
opponents.
John Kufuor, the African Union chairperson and Ghanaian
president, also said
the African leaders were concerned about the political
situation in
Zimbabwe. Speaking before his meeting with Mbeki at the Union
Buildings
recently, Kufuor said Zimbabwe was embarrassing the continent. He
said the
beating of opposition members in Zimbabwe was worrying factor.
SABC
May 17, 2007,
20:15
President Thabo Mbeki says South Africans will have to learn to
live with
the influx of illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe. Responding to
questions in
the National Assembly today, he said it was not possible to
separate the two
countries by a big wall.
Political analysts believe
some three million Zimbabweans may be in South
Africa illegally after
fleeing an economic meltdown in that country.
Referring to talks between the
Zimbabwe government and opposition parties,
Mbeki said talks were
progressing well. He added that it would be improper
to divulge details of
the engagement before speaking to Southern African
Development Community
countries. The region mandated him in March to act as
facilitator in talks
between Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change.
Mbeki says South
Africa is committed to helping the rest of Africa resolve
its problems.
Mbeki says the resolution of problems in Sudan's Darfur region
will play a
significant role in the direction the whole continent will take.
He says
many conflict areas are looking to South Africa to help them. Mbeki
has
dismissed suggestions that the government is spending money in conflict
areas instead of at home.
African Path
Ntandoyenkosi Ncube
May 17, 2007 11:18 AM
SOUTH Africa on Wednesday evening deported 1 800 illegal Zimbabweans
by a
train, a senior official at Lindela repatriation centre in Krugersdorp
confirmed yesterday referring questions to department of Home Affairs Acting
Head of Communication, Jacky Mashapu.
The group was
deported for allegedly breaching immigration
law by entering South
Africa without visas and some did not have
passports.
"Chief what are you saying about Zimbabweans. Yes we deported them
yesterday
evening because our mandate is to deport all the illegal
immigrants that
come here. We don't deport Zimbabweans only but all the
nationalities who
are here illegally", Mashapu said.
International
Organisation for Migration (IOM) recently reported that
more than 100 000
Zimbabweans were deported from South Africa last year and
the rate of
deportation is rising sharply. More than 50 000 Zimbabweans were
deported
between January and March this year alone, most between the ages of
18 and
24 years.
Nearly 800 children, aged between 11 and 17, were
returned to Zimbabwe
in the same period. But the numbers deported are just a
fraction of the
total number of Zimbabweans coming to South
Africa.
South Africa deports between 600 and 6 000
Zimbabweans every week from
the Lindela repatriation centre, with the
country being the destination of
choice for illegal Zimbabwean who number
over three million, according to
unofficial estimates.
An immigration official at the repatriation centre said a group of
1800
illegal Zimbabweans was deported for allegedly breaching immigration
law by
entering South Africa without visas and some did not have
passports.
"Yesterday evening we deported 1800 Zimbabweans
by train and we still
having more 3000 Zimbabweans here (at Lindela) who are
still here awaiting
deportation. These are people who have breached
immigration laws by entering
South Africa without visas and some did not
have passports", an official
said.
President Thabo
Mbeki's government has admitted that it was fighting a
losing battle against
the influx of Zimbabweans fleeing poverty and
repression in their homeland,
with many deportees returning within weeks.
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
17 May
2007
Despite various reports that Zimbabwe's junior and
senior residents at state
hospitals around the country have gone on strike,
demanding more pay and
better working conditions, Amon Siveregi, a junior
resident at Parirenyatwa
Hospital, said residents are still reporting to
work.
Siveregi, also a member of the Hospital Doctor's Association,
insisted that
residents plan to stick to their plan to only go on strike at
the end of the
month, if the government does not address their grievances.
But, the
president of the Hospital Doctors Association, Kudakwashe
Nyamutukwa, told
Studio 7 that some residents had already stopped going to
work.
Siveregi, however, said the ongoing strike by nurses and a few
doctors, has
led to the deterioration of conditions and services at state
hospitals in
Harare and Bulawayo.
Siveregi told reporter Carole
Gombakomba of VOA's Studio Seven for Zimbabwe,
that resident sometimes don't
show up for work, not because they are
striking, but because they cannot
afford the high transport costs.
Reporter Carole Gombakomba also spoke
with labor expert Mike Sambo, who said
although the junior and senior
residents deny being on strike, the situation
in some hospitals indicates
some form of job action by the healthcare staff.
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Tactical failings of Zimbabwean opposition have played into the
hands of the
regime.
By Norman Chitapi in Harare (AR No. 112,
17-May-07)
While Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party is making it as hard as
possible for
the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC, to
campaign, let
alone win, the synchronised presidential and parliamentary
elections
scheduled for next year, the MDC is just as complicit in its own
downfall,
political analysts say.
Draconian laws, such as the Public
Order and Security Act, render it almost
impossible for the MDC to address
its supporters; intelligence service-run
electoral institutions, like the
Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, tilt the
ballot in favour of the ruling
party; while the government's monopoly over
the four radio stations and the
sole TV channel ensure opposition voices are
rarely heard.
Since the
beginning of the year, the government has moved up a gear. It has
become
blatant in its attacks on pro-democracy movements, which it accuses
of
fostering what it calls "a regime change agenda" and stirring up civil
unrest in the country. Since the arrest and brutal attack on opposition
leaders and their supporters for trying to attend a banned rally on March
11, government pressure on the opposition has intensified.
Up to 600
MDC and civil society activists have been detained, assaulted and
tortured
since the abortive rally, dubbed "Black Sunday". They include
ordinary
people, journalists attempting to cover opposition activities and
lawyers
trying to secure their release. Police have routinely ignored court
orders
to allow those beaten access either to their lawyers or medical
treatment.
"It is a state gone berserk. It is the ultimate break down
of law and
order," lamented a political analyst in Harare.
This
followed the arrest and beating up of four senior Harare lawyers on May
9
for demonstrating against the detention by police of two of their
colleagues
who were seeking bail for detained opposition activists.
Southern African
Development Community Lawyers' Association president
Sternford Moyo, a
veteran lawyer in Harare, said they would challenge the
deliberate
subversion of the law by the state. He deplored the attack on
lawyers going
about their duty to ensure every Zimbabwean had access to
legal
counsel.
Analysts, however, said these attacks could not go on forever,
noting that
violence of this kind had a limited impact. The analysts said
there was
enough resentment in the country against the ruling party over the
collapsing economy, which the opposition could easily tap into if it was
organised and able to change its strategies.
"Therein lies the
biggest problem for the MDC," said another analyst in
Harare. "Instead of
organising its local structures, even without holding
rallies (they are
banned), the MDC is more visible when complaining against
police brutality
or in its messages delivered to foreign audiences."
The analyst said the
MDC leadership put too much faith in the influence of
the international
community instead of local voters. "We all know [President
Robert] Mugabe
doesn't care what the West says. After all, he believes they
want him out of
power. But more than that, the MDC is addressing the wrong
audience. Who
reads the Washington Post or the South African Sunday Times?"
he asked,
referring to foreign newspapers that carried recent speeches by
MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai.
He said the MDC was failing to set up strong
structures in rural areas to
challenge ZANU-PF. Referring to the MDC 's
performance in its first
parliamentary election in July 2000, the analyst
said the party had won
several seats in rural areas despite the worst
electoral violence ever
witnessed in the country.
He also said the
MDC apparently didn't have a coherent programme for rural
areas. He said
this made it hard for it to penetrate countryside
communities, which have
received land free from the ruling party. He said
the MDC was also failing
to counter claims by new ZANU-PF landlords that it
planned to return land to
white commercial farmers.
"While ZANU-PF is able to talk about the land,"
said the analyst, "the best
the MDC can talk about are human rights and
democracy. While all this is
valid, it is a hard sell to ordinary people.
They want seed, fertiliser,
draught power and transport."
Another
analyst said the MDC was also losing support in urban communities
because of
its "negativity". He said the party was focused on negative
factors without
offering a better vision and purpose to restore people's
hopes.
"It
is well to expose ZANU-PF's incompetence and corruption," he said. "But
surely they must show us the way forward. There is too much negativity in
their politics.
"When they tell their supporters that elections under
the current
constitution produce 'predetermined outcomes', this breeds
apathy among
voters. Why should people vote when you already know the
result? It becomes
very difficult to gauge their level of support and how
far the outcome is a
result of rigging."
Along with inducing voter
apathy, the analyst said the MDC wasted too much
time deciding whether to
participate in elections, "This shows bad
leadership. Indecision is a
definite no-no in leadership. People don't owe
any politician a living and
want to vote and get on with their lives."
But when leaders threaten to
boycott elections one day and the following day
turn around to say to people
"go and vote for us", they are not doing their
party any good service. This
has worked badly for the MDC in the past and
ZANU-PF has probably won by
default.
People are looking for new and positive strategies to beat
ZANU-PF and those
can only come from leaders - leadership cannot be
subcontracted to the moral
influence of foreign governments, he
said.
Norman Chitapi is the pseudonym of an IWPR reporter in Zimbabwe
COMBINED HARARE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION (CHRA)
P.O Box HR
7870
145Robert Mugabe, Third Floor,
Exploration
House
Harare
Tel/Fax: +263 4 705114
Cell: 011 862 012, 011 443 578
0912 249
430, 0912 924 151
Email: chrainfo@zol.co.zw
Website: www.chra.co.zw
15 May
2007
THE City
of Harare and the controversy-ridden Zimbabwe National Water
Authority
(ZINWA) have both come up with controversial systems of looting
resources
from the already burdened residents in the low-density suburbs by
making
them pay for services they do not use.
Residents of Newlands have been
furious for the past fortnight with the City
of Harare after it asked them
to pay for sewerage connections yet the
majority of them have not connected
to the main sewer system. They still use
their septic tanks which are
emptied once they fill up.
Their main concern is that they are being
asked to fund a non-existent
service, which they are not receiving. ZINWA
has notified them that they
will be billed for sewerage charges in spite of
their septic tanks.
At the same time more residents are seriously worried
that the City of
Harare is going to bill them $400 000 each for new lidded
bins. This
information is contained in notices on April rates bills send out
to
residents in the low density suburbs. It indicates that residents will be
billed the full cost of the new lidded plastic bins. It is suspected that
the deal is benefiting someone in the City administration since the matter
was never put to public tender, as far as residents are
concerned.
Thereafter the bins will be ready for collection from district
offices.
CHRA is worried and is investigating how this came into being
and who
authorized this mandatory way of ripping ratepayers' money. The
public has
never been consulted on this and the Associated urges the City of
Harare to
make public its position regarding this clear attempt to rob the
public of
their hard-earned cash. Those mostly concerned are the pensioners
who have
no source of money to pay for additional charges.
"CHRA for
Enhanced Civic Participation in Local
Governance"
Ends
________________________________________________________________________
For
further details please contact us on info@chra.co.zw, and on mobile 0912
924
151, 011 862 012, 011 443 578 and 011 612 860 or visit us at Exploration
House, Third Floor, Corner Robert Mugabe Way and Fifth Street.
New Zimbabwe
By Lebo Nkatazo
Last
updated: 05/18/2007 03:47:32
RESERVE Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) chief Gideon Gono
said Thursday he was under
pressure to quit, and conceded that the printing
of trillions of dollars has
not helped to turn around the
economy.
Gono, talking to MPs, also hit out at his critics in parliament
and the
ruling Zanu PF party who opposed his economic revival strategy,
saying they
were misguided.
He singled out those who were calling for
the establishment of a foreign
currency allocation committee for most
criticism.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Budget and Finance
headed by Guruve
North MP David Butau (Zanu PF) opposed the managing of
forex by one man and
said Gono must also account for the RBZ's quasi- fiscal
activities in a
report presented to parliament this week.
The Zanu PF
economic committee tabled similar recommendations at the party's
conference
in December last year.
Gono appeared before the Budget and Finance
Committee on Thursday to face
his critics.
"They say the governor is
big-headed, he has got ambition. Some hide behind
the camouflage of the
legislature and bring out their spears so that the
governor can be moved.
Not before my term is finished!" Gono thundered.
"We offer no apologies
for interfering in all spheres of the economy. We
offer no apology for doing
the unorthodox. Those who wrote economic
textbooks never experienced
Zimbabwe's land reform."
The governor said for as long as parastatals,
local authorities and other
government departments went to the RBZ to beg
for money, he would have an
interest on how the money is spent.
"I
hardly have a good sleep at night. I sleep facing the stars.why should we
be
importing food when the RBZ has printed trillions and trillions? We are
being told that we cannot produce because we are susceptible to drought,"
Gono said.
Gono also rejected the formation of foreign exchange
allocation committees
to manage the scarce foreign currency in the country,
calling such a
recommendation "illogical".
He said: "It is therefore,
illogical and misguided for some sections of
society to recommend to
government the formation of foreign exchange
allocation committees thinking
that this would in itself solve the
prevailing foreign currency
shortages."
Zimbabwe is going through its worst economic recession in
history, with
record inflation of 3714 percent and massive
unemployment.
President Robert Mugabe and the Reserve Bank blame the
decline on sanctions
imposed by Western countries, but his critics point to
the botched land
reform exercise which saw bands of Mugabe's loyalists march
on commercial
farmland, driving out white farmers and disrupting
agriculture.
IPS
Tonderai
Kwidini
HARARE, May 17 (IPS) - ''In terms of the number of women in
government, yes,
we are making progress. But if you dig deep about why these
women were
appointed you will find that they are only important when it is
voting
time,'' says Zhean Gwaze, a gender activist and
journalist.
She contends that women in government are simply there to
serve the
interests of male politicians. Human rights activist Alice Chibwe
agrees:
''We have a female vice-president but what matters is the job that
she is
doing. She is not doing any qualitative work to further the interests
of
women.
''This is one of the reasons why the realization of gender
equality by 2015
becomes a big joke," says Chibwe, who works for the
Southern African Human
Rights Trust (SAHRIT), a non-governmental
organization with a special
interest in human rights work. The United
Nations' Millennium Development
Goals set 2015 as the target year for the
advancement of gender equality.
In Zimbabwe, gender disparities
characterize all aspects of development. The
country is ranked 109th in the
global gender-related development index. This
reflects the generally low
status of women with respect to access, control
and ownership of economic
resources and positions in decision-making
processes.
Gwaze says
Zimbabwe has ''a long way to go before achieving gender equality.
In terms
of politics, we have not even reached the 30 percent quota system
in
parliament. The proposed 50-50 percent parliamentary representation by
2008
is unattainable''. In the 150-member parliament only 23
parliamentarians are
female.
According to Chibwe, the country ''has made some strides in
adopting
policies and a legal framework that promotes gender equality but
the
socio-economic situation in the country impedes progress''.
In
2004, the government adopted the National Gender Policy (NGP). The policy
seeks to promote the integration of gender perspectives into the design,
implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes. The
policy was developed with the assistance of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP).
As part of the NGP, President Robert Mugabe this
year promulgated the
Domestic Violence Law. It was drafted by the
government, NGOs, the UNDP,
female politicians and women's organizations.
The law seeks to provide
protection and relief to victims of domestic
violence.
Levels of domestic violence in Zimbabwe are alarmingly high.
Police records
of 2006 show that one in every four women suffers abuse
during her lifetime.
Almost 60 percent of murder cases going through the
High Court are related
to domestic violence.
The UNDP is this year
supporting the development of the Zimbabwe National
Human Development
Report. The report will be focusing on gender and
development to give a
precise account of those aspects which stifle the full
participation of
women in decision-making.
The UNDP is also actively assisting with
women's participation in national
budgetary processes in Zimbabwe. It wants
to link governance and poverty
reduction to the participation of women in
decision-making processes. As a
result of this move, the government in April
this year launched the Gender,
Budgeting and Women's Empowerment
Programme.
Gwaze feels strongly that the adoption of the latest gender
programme is a
way for the government to buy time in the current political
crisis gripping
the country.
The enactment of these policies aimed at
eradicating discrimination against
women is yet to be seen in practical
terms. ''I feel men still have more
advantages than women,'' states Clotilda
Chidawanyika, the founder and
managing director of Transafrik, a Zimbabwean
money transfer company.
''Yes, the government is doing something but it
can do better. For a woman
to be successful, she has to put in twice the
effort and go an extra mile in
order to be recognized. There are more
chances in life for men than there
are for women. I think 2015 is too early
for Zimbabwe, unless there is a
radical change in policies and
politics.''
The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) still has a male face.
Investing and
dealing in stocks has largely remained a male domain and only
a small number
of women deal on the ZSE. Of the 35 stockbrokers involved in
the day-to-day
trading on the local bourse, only four are women and three of
these are not
yet registered brokers.
But while many people in
Zimbabwe complain about society's token approach to
gender equality, Chipo
Mtasa, the managing director of a leading Zimbabwean
leisure company, begs
to differ. ''It was initially not easy for me to be so
visible, but I made a
strong effort to establish good contacts from the very
beginning.
''I
never found it a challenge being a woman in business and I never felt
marginalized. For me, the playing field has been even,'' says
Mtasa.
Women are not alone in the fight for gender equality.
Padare/Enkundleni
Men's Forum is a male anti-sexist organization dedicated
to fighting gender
inequality.
''We are working to develop a
men-based social movement that contributes to
the elimination of
discrimination against women. We will do this through the
promotion and
facilitation of ideas and actions that enable the
participation of men in
the struggle for a gender-just society,'' says the
organization's advocacy
officer, Eddington Mhonda.
The law enables Zimbabwe to fulfil its
international obligations as required
by the various international human
rights instruments, including the UN's
Convention on the Elimination of all
forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW).
Zimbabwe is also a
signatory to the Southern African Development Community
(SADC) Declaration
on Gender and Development of 1997. Under the declaration
countries committed
themselves to the achievement of a target of at least 30
percent women in
political and decision-making structures by 2005 and the
promotion of
women's access to resources.
VOA
By Blessing Zulu
Washington
16 May
2007
Non-governmental organizations from African countries
resolved to place
Zimbabwe's alleged human rights violations high on the
agenda of an African
Commission on Human and People's Rights session that
opened Wednesday in
Accra, Ghana.
Their resolution called on Harare
to stop "harassing, intimidating,
assaulting, arresting and detaining human
rights defenders, including
members of the legal profession."
The
NGOs urged Harare to repeal repressive laws such as the Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act, also known as AIPPA, the Public
Order and Security Act, or POSA,, and the Broadcasting Services Act, among
others.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, representing Zimbabwe,
was expected to
present shortly a report defending the government. Sources
said the report
denies allegations of human rights abuses, and blames the
country's economic
crisis on Western sanctions.
"The undeclared and
declared sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe, investor flight,
shortage of basic
commodities, a range of externally generated inflationary
pressures and
sustained diplomatic isolation orchestrated by Britain and its
allies
against Zimbabwe are negatively impacting on Zimbabwe's security,
political
and economic well being, hence the quality of life and the
fundamental
rights of its people," the Zimbabwe government report said.
Harare also
accuses Britain of funding the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change in
hopes it will reverse the land reform program if it
gains
power.
Britain has refuted this charge, as well as Harare's contention
that
sanctions are the cause of Zimbabwe's economic woes. Western sanctions
against targeted specific government and party officials, including
President Robert Mugabe.
The legal advisor for the Zimbabwe Chapter
of the Media Institute of
Southern Africa, Wilbert Mandinde, representing
NGO's at the summit told
reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that human rights
abuses in Harare are escalating and the
Commission must intervene.
But Zimbabwe's Ambassador to the United
Nations Boniface Chidyausiku, told
reporter Zulu that NGO's are
misrepresenting facts on the situation in
Harare.
Secretary General
Tendai Biti of the Movement for Democratic Change faction
led by founding
President Morgan Tsvangirai, refutes Harare's claims that it
is a creation
of the West.
Mail and Guardian
Harare, Zimbabwe
17 May 2007 09:15
Zimbabwe's cost of living doubled in a single month in April as
annual
inflation surged to 3 713,9%, a further sign of economic turmoil in a
country where four in five people are jobless.
The
Central Statistical Office (CSO) said on Thursday prices
jumped by 100,7%
last month after a 50,5% rise in March, when annual
inflation had been 2
200,2%.
Raging inflation is the most visible sign of a deep
economic
crisis which critics say has been worsened by President Robert
Mugabe's
policies, such as his seizure of white-owned farms to redistribute
to black
Zimbabweans.
An economic recession has seen
unemployment soar to around 80%
and sparked shortages of foreign exchange,
food and fuel, leaving many
Zimbabwean families unable to feed
themselves.
The CSO said prices of domestic power, food, fuel
and commuter
transport fares had contributed to last month's
increase.
The central bank early this year projected the
inflation rate
would come down to between 300% to 400% but analysts said
those projections
would not be achieved. The International Monetary Fund had
seen inflation
accelerating to 3 000% by the end of the
year.
Economic analysts see more price pressures from the
imports of
the staple maize to plug a huge deficit this year. They say the
Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe could be forced to scrounge for foreign currency on
the black
market, further weakening the country's already battered currency
and
pushing up food prices.
Zimbabwe's foreign currency
crunch worsened after donors and
investors shunned Mugabe's government over
its policies, such as the land
seizures.
On Saturday, the
European Union and the United States -- which
have imposed travel and
financial sanctions on Mugabe's government -- were
critical of Zimbabwe's
election to chair the United Nations Commission on
Sustainable
Development.
A US official said Harare was unsuitable to head
the agency
because its agriculture, which used to be the breadbasket of the
Southern
African region, was now on its knees.
Mugabe has
defended the land reforms as necessary to redress
colonial land imbalances
that left 70% of the most fertile land in the hands
of 4 500 white farmers,
and accuses Western powers of sabotaging the
economy.
Lack of farming inputs
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe farmers have only
planted 10% of the
targeted winter wheat crop hectarage just two weeks
before the recommended
planting deadline lapses, official media reported,
stoking fears of bread
shortages.
The black farmers have
complained of lack of farming inputs such
as fertilisers, chemicals, seed
and fuel, and some lack commercial farming
skills.
A
parliamentary portfolio committee on agriculture was told that
the target of
76 000 hectares -- which would have produced 400 000 tonnes of
wheat --
would not be achieved due to shortages of fuel and
fertiliser.
Wheat is the country's second staple grain, after
maize. -
Reuters
The Herald (Harare)
Published by the government of Zimbabwe
OPINION
17 May 2007
Posted
to the web 17 May 2007
Harare
YET again, there has been inadequate
planning and preparation for the winter
wheat crop, a development that could
translate into a huge deficit for the
grain next year.
It is apparent
that we have learnt little from the experiences over the past
six years,
where the country has been found wanting when it comes to
planning and
preparation for winter wheat production.
This week, some of the key
people in wheat production portrayed a gloomy
assessment of the winter wheat
prospects for this year.
Secretary for Agriculture Dr Shadreck Mlambo and
the District Development
Fund director-general, Mr James Jonga, told the
Parliamentary Portfolio
Committee on Lands and Agriculture that the targeted
winter wheat hectarage
will not be achieved.
Out of the projected 76
000 hectares, only 8 000 hectares have so far been
put under
wheat.
The deadline for planting wheat is May 31. We are racing against
time.
This is a bleak outlook, which will necessitate an expensive grain
importation programme at a time when the country is grappling with a
shortage of foreign currency.
There is a litany of problems, which
include shortages of key inputs such as
fertilizers, tillage and irrigation
facilities, all stemming from dismal
planning and preparations.
We
believe the DDF director-general is being forthright by clearly stating
that
we must not fool ourselves and give a sunny projection of the winter
wheat
prospects when in actual fact there are no tractors to till the
targeted
hectarage.
Another problem is that while the Government has over the past
years
provided farmers with heavily subsidised inputs such as diesel and
fertilizers to stimulate production, these have sadly been the subject of
abuse by some farmers.
These unscrupulous farmers have diverted the
diesel and fertilizers meant
for winter wheat to the parallel market for
selfish gains.
There should be a mechanism in place to plug all loopholes
and make sure
that all the inputs are put to productive use.
Zesa
Holdings had played its part and guaranteed wheat farmers 20 hours a
day of
uninterrupted power supply.
Electricity load-shedding has had a negative
impact on wheat production in
the past years but with the dismal
preparations, the efforts of the power
utility could be in vain.
We
take this opportunity to advise the authorities concerned not to rush and
talk about the hectarage to be cropped under wheat without getting a clear
picture of the available resources.
This has been the case with
winter wheat over the years.
New Zealand Herald
Mirko Bagaric
5:00AM Friday May 18, 2007
If the Australian
Government really cared about the people of Zimbabwe it
would desist from
futile grandstanding in the form of preventing its
cricketers touring there.
Instead the Government would take decisive action
by removing the murderous
Robert Mugabe regime from power.
History shows sporting boycotts only do
two things: punish sports fans and
deny competitors the opportunity to
display their skill.
Prime Minister Howard has labelled Mugabe a "grubby
dictator" and accused
him of using "Gestapo" tactics". Howard has correctly
noted that Mugabe has
presided over the "systematic and brutal oppression of
civil society and
political opposition".
The Mugabe regime has
summarily killed and beaten untold people and Zimbabwe
now has the lowest
life expectancy rates in the world. On average women die
at the age of 34
years - remarkably, this is down from 62 in 1980.
The futility of
Australia's opposition to Mugabe underlines much of what is
wrong with
international affairs. In the end, talk of no tolerance towards
despots is
just that.
The typical response to dictators who go about
summarily monstering their
own people is feigned concern following an
isolated news report. Then the
world gets busy doing nothing about it, apart
from the occasional sports
ban.
Perhaps this is a bit too harsh. Mass
murders of civilians by their
governments normally rate a mention at the
United Nations and it will often
denounce such actions, sometimes even in
very serious tones, but in the end
it will almost always "do"
nothing.
It's a hard job saving thousands of innocent people from cruel
deaths. It
would require setting foot beyond six-star accommodation with top
notch
debating facilities. Downright miserable that would be.
Thus,
the innocent folk who are born in countries ruled by tyrants keep
"copping
it on the chin".
The number of people killed in internal conflict and
through wanton acts of
dictatorial violence since World War II (170,000
million) exceeds the total
number of people killed during both major
wars.
There are appalling examples of governments massacring their own
people. In
1994 the genocide in Rwanda resulted in 800,000 people being
murdered in 100
days; Pol Pot killed two million; and in the 1970s 300,000
people were
murdered in Uganda while 1.5 million were killed in Ethiopia. It
is easy to
multiply such examples.
In all cases, the rest of the
world knowingly stood idly by - although some
of these events sparked
"furious" debates at the UN.
Time for a perspective check. The
devastation occurring in Zimbabwe should
be used to put in place a clear
framework regarding the obligation of the
international community to prevent
the killing and starvation of citizens by
their own governments.
As
international law stands, the main obstacle to getting rid of tyrants who
kill thousands of their own citizens is state sovereignty. However, this
concept is overrated. Invisible lines on the earth's surface have no moral
standing and can't trump moral standards which are of universal
application.
In reality, the main disinclination to stop preventable mass
killings of
strangers in other parts of the world is that they are strangers
and are in
other parts of our world. It is true that the world (or parts of
it) has, on
rare occasions, stepped up and drawn a line in the sand and said
no to
despots, stopping them from more mass killings.
Successful
interventions include Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in 1979;
Tanzania's
intervention to remove Idi Amin from Uganda in the same year and
Nato's
invasion of Yugoslavia in 1999. The success of these interventions
and the
absence of criticism of such action demonstrate that state
sovereignty is no
barrier to humanitarian interventions. In fact it shows
respect for state
sovereignty is an excuse, rather than a reason for the
inaction of the
world.
At present, humanitarian intervention is opportunistic and
expedient in
nature.
It is time for a fundamental global re-think to
this approach. Humanitarian
intervention should be transformed into a duty
upon the world's nations.
Human life, especially when there are thousands at
stake, is too important
to leave to chance. If this problem is not expressly
addressed now, legal
and social commentators are likely to be addressing the
same issue into the
22nd Century.
We should not wait until then. It
is only reasonable to believe that waiting
will result in future generations
seeking solutions while lamenting the
killing of another 170 million or more
people by their own governments.
Surely, one century with 170 million
preventable deaths is sufficient reason
to seriously consider fundamental
reform of the global approach to
government-sponsored killings of their own
people.
So when is humanitarian intervention appropriate?
This is
not difficult. Humanitarian intervention should be mandatory in
cases of
large-scale government-sanctioned killings. The Security Council
should be
given the authority and responsibility to muster Coalitions of the
Willing,
perhaps selected by ballot, to supply the necessary resources.
If it
fails in its role, citizens from countries ruled by despots should be
conferred automatic citizenship rights to Security Council member nations -
nothing like self interest to stimulate action.
There's a job already
waiting for the Security Council in Zimbabwe. Rather
than wasting time on
futile cricket bans, Australia needs to act on its
supposed newfound concern
for the people of Zimbabwe and petition the
Security Council to authorise an
international force to remove Mugabe.
This is something that would uplift
cricket and non-cricket fans alike.
* Dr Mirko Bagaric is a lawyer and
author of Critical Perspectives of
International Law and Human Rights (to be
published by University Press of
America in late 2007).
The Age, Australia
May 17,
2007 - 6:49PM
Zimbabwean accusations that Australia is funding
terrorism and Prime
Minister John Howard is a war criminal are nonsense that
no one believes,
Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer
says.
Zimbabwe's Information and Publicity Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu
told ABC
Radio that Mr Howard had Gestapo-like tendencies and was "the
international
Gestapo".
The outburst comes after Mr Howard banned
Australia's one-day cricket team
from touring to the southern African nation
in September because of the
despotic regime of President Robert
Mugabe.
"Everybody knows those kinds of statements are not to be taken
seriously. It
is so obviously not true," Mr Downer told reporters in
Adelaide.
"I think making those kinds of statements, coming from the
mouth of a
minister of a government, tells you a great deal about what sort
of
government we are dealing with here.
"This is a dictatorial
regime, which has plunged its country into almost
total poverty and has
abused severely the human rights of anybody who dares
oppose or criticise
the government.
"I think it is a tragedy what has happened in Zimbabwe
and I think the
sooner that the regime of President Mugabe comes to an end
the better."
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
17 May
2007
Five members of Zimbabwe's National Constitutional
Assembly, are still under
in police custody, following their arrest
Wednesday in Harare, while
peacefully demonstrating against the proposed
18th amendment to the
constitution and demanding a new
constitution.
Police had reportedly arrested 10 people at the protest,
that attracted
around 100-people around African Union Square in Harare, NCA
officials said.
In March, NCA chairman Lovemore Madhuku fractured his
arm, when, together
with top civic and opposition officials, including
founding Movement for
Democratic Change president Morgan Tsvangirai, he was
badly beaten by police
while attending a prayer meeting called by the Save
Zimbabwe Campaign.
National director Ernest Mudzengi of the NCA, told
reporter Jonga Kandemiiri
of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the five being
held at Harare Central
Police Station, had not been charged, but had been
badly beaten.
Mudzengi said one of the members who sustained serious
injury from the
beatings, was admitted to a hospital, but under police
custody.
Channel 4, UK
Friday 18 May
2007
Reporter Evan Williams and Director Siobhan Sinnerton reveal
startling
claims that the Mugabe Government is using the supply of AIDS
drugs and food
aid to gerrymander upcoming elections.
As Zimbabwe
spirals ever deeper into repression and starvation, an
Unreported World team
just back from three weeks travelling undercover
through the country reveals
startling claims that the Mugabe Government is
using the supply of AIDS
drugs and food aid to gerrymander upcoming
elections.
Reporter Evan
Williams and Director Siobhan Sinnerton travel as tourists to
avoid the
scrutiny of Mugabe's pervasive intelligence service. They meet
members of
the political opposition, women who have been imprisoned and
tortured,
families desperate for food and struggling with 2000 percent
inflation, and
the tragic households headed by children orphaned by the AIDS
pandemic.
Williams and Sinnerton arrive just as the government
intelligence service
launches a new campaign of repression, abducting and
beating scores of
opposition members across the country.
Arriving at
the country's second largest city, Bulawayo, the team talk to
church leaders
and members of a new underground movement. The picture they
are given is
bleak: on top of the repression, a lack of food, jobs and
medical services
is causing massive hardship. Williams and Sinnerton
interview women
activists who say they were jailed for days with their
babies and subjected
to humiliating abuse.
One opposition MDC Party MP claims that you're more
likely to get access to
government food and AIDS drugs if you are a
supporter, or member of, the
ruling Zanu-PF Party. She says if you are not a
Zanu-PF supporter you will
have more trouble obtaining these life-saving
services. She claims this also
includes the delivery of food from
international aid organisations.
Avoiding detection by Mugabe's
ubiquitous secret police and intelligence
services, the team are taken into
rural villages rarely seen by the outside
world. They find that severe
shortages of food and medicine is particularly
hitting the orphans left
behind by the ravages of AIDS. One priest tells
Williams that there are tens
of thousands of orphans in the countryside
struggling to survive. He's
trying to set up an orphanage for some of them
but can't afford food or
clothes.
Their team's final leg is a tense journey through the capital
Harare. Here,
a human rights lawyer tells Unreported World that the police
are now
systematically torturing suspected opposition members and preventing
legal
representation for those taken in.
It's not just suspected
opposition activists who are being targeted. One
journalist describes
suffering four days of brutal torture at the hands of
senior police
officers. His 'crime' was trying to report for an opposition
newspaper and
he was warned he would be killed if he continued working. He
was arrested at
the same time as a TV journalist who was abducted and killed
for allegedly
sending TV pictures of the police beating of opposition
leaders out to
foreign broadcasters.
In Harare's sprawling townships Williams and
Sinnerton find plenty of brave
but tragic child-headed house-holds
struggling just to find food every day,
following the death of both parents
from AIDS.
As the team leaves the country, it's clear that in what was
once one of
Africa's wealthiest, best educated countries entire generations
are being
"dumped to die" by a callous, corrupt government.
African Path
May 17,
2007 09:10
AMWritten by Gavin Chait
In 1492 Rodrigo Borgia, a
Spanish cardinal, is said to have bribed all his
rivals the equivalent of
millions of dollars in order to become Alexander
VI, the 215th Catholic
Pope. In comparison to Nigerian elections, he got in
cheap.
Alhaji
Umaru Yar'Adua is rumoured to have spent more than US$ 100 million
securing
his election as president. Most Nigerians had an inkling he would
win as he
never bothered campaigning.
"His victory was like Maradona's Hand of God
goal that allowed Argentina to
win their 1986 quarter-final World Cup match
against England. When Yar'Adua
won he said, 'Don't blame me for winning, I
didn't declare myself
president.' Maradona cheated, but the referee was the
one who allowed it."
Father Matthew Kukah is an engaging speaker. He has
been a member of
Nigeria's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was part of
the commission
that investigated their electoral system, and is the
vicar-general of the
Catholic Diocese of Nigeria. And he is in Cape Town to
give his impressions
of the recent election.
"It has massively
expanded the vocabulary of Nigerians," he laughs.
"Everyone is learning new
words: the election was a 'charade', it was
'fraudulent'. Everyone has
bought into the belief that these were the worst
elections in Nigerian
history. Which is why it is interesting that (South
African) President Thabo
Mbeki was the first to declare the elections free
and fair and to
congratulate Yar'Adua on his success. I don't know what he
sees that we
don't. Comparisons with Zimbabwe will not be mentioned," he
laughs
again.
Kukah was alluding to Zimbabwe's dictator, Robert Mugabe, who,
after
stealing the last pretence at elections in his country in 2003,
received
South African observers and ministers who also declared him freely
elected.
South Africa has abandoned any interest in promoting democracy in
Africa
over creating the delusion of African unity.
And everyone
wants to know, "What does this mean?"
At the end of 1998, for reasons it
will take too long to explain, I was
walking through the muddy, slushy and
muggy central part of Mozambique
attempting to get back to South Africa. I
had fallen in with a group of
Nigerians travelling without passports and
also making the long trip south.
Sunny, one of the chaps, was about seven
foot tall and had a voice that made
James Earl Jones sound like a whiny
school-girl.
General Sani Abacha had recently died of what was being
called a heart
attack. The Nigerians laughed cheerfully at this. "No," said
Sunny, "he had
made the other generals angry, so they put poison in his
Burantashi (a
native Hausa-Fulani virility drug) when he was with some
prostitutes." Then
they continued in even more surprising fashion. "It's
like Saro-wiwa, he
also upset the wrong people."
Ken Saro-wiwa was a
famous Nigerian novelist from the Rivers Province in
Southern Nigeria. The
province houses the Niger Delta and is the site of
Nigeria's oil wealth.
They are one of the largest producers in the world yet
more than half of
Nigerians live in absolute poverty, below the UN's measure
of US$1 per day.
Saro-wiwa created the Movement for the Survival of the
Ogoni People (MOSOP)
in support of the Ogoni's demand for Shell, which has
the concession for oil
extraction in the delta, to distribute the wealth
more fairly and to clean
up their astonishingly messy operations there.
He, along with 12 others,
was arrested and executed. Most, including myself,
had always believed he
had been killed because of his confrontation with
Abacha.
The
Nigerians considered this naïve. Hadn't Saro-wiwa been a mainstay of the
institution until then, hadn't he been a popular television producer and
local star? No, he would never have achieved such success without the
support of the right people. He was stealing from them. They punished
him.
I repeat this not to promote different versions of history but to
indicate
that, whatever else I may have learned about Nigerians, the most
important
is their love of drama, intrigue and conspiracy. Nigeria's version
of
Hollywood, Nollywood, is the third largest producer of films in the
world.
Most of them are predictable stories along the theme of conspiracy,
murder,
drama, intrigue, happy ending.
So Father Kukah's presentation
is like a Nollywood movie.
My notes are a mess, but I've extracted what I
can.
Nigeria is comprised of 36 states, 764 local councils, over 400
ethnic
groups and is largely divided between Muslim north, and Catholic
south. 140
million people live in this chaotic nation. And they have exactly
one
important industry. Oil.
It is owned by the government. Whoever
owns the government owns the oil. And
pockets all the money. Spending a few
hundred million to secure that largess
is nothing.
"And you don't
start campaigning right away. Whoever wins an election will
get to serve
both terms allowed under the constitution. No-one loses a
second-term
election," says Kukah. "This allows candidates to spend a long
time
planning."
When Abacha went the "right" people decided to bring Olusegun
Obasanjo out
of retirement to be president. Obasanjo had previously been a
military
dictator of Nigeria but handed over to the civilian government
kicked out by
Sani Abacha. The "right" people felt that Obasanjo would be
easily pliable
and easy to push out at the end of one term.
Obasanjo
had different ideas. He filled the cabinet and all the provinces
with
supporters and went on to hold the country for a second term.
Approaching
the end of that term he called on Kukah to be secretary of a
commission to
investigate the Nigerian electoral code. Hundreds of lawyers
spent months
creating a massive document to ease fraud at the ballot and
reduce
confusion.
"But this was all a ruse," says Kukah. "He wasn't interested
in reforming
the election process. Abacha wanted to stand for a third term
and change the
constitution." But here everything fell apart. Nigeria's
parliament rejected
that proposal and, for good measure, all the hard
negotiated plans for
electoral reform.
"The election was not stolen
on election day," says Kukah. "Box stuffing,
intimidation, violence, voter
roll fraud, killings ... these are all
symptoms. The election was stolen
right from the beginning."
Obasanjo started looking for a way to maintain
power while not in
government. His party, the People's Democratic Party
(PDP), called for
applications. It cost US$ 35 000 merely to be considered
to receive an
application form to request permission to apply to become a
candidate for
the PDP. To win the right to contest the elections cost a
fortune. It became
a bit like venture capital. Shadowy figures would put up
the money on
condition that certain things be agreed in advance.
At
the same time Obasanjo began the second phase of his machinations. The
government appointed Financial and Economic Crimes Commission declared that
they would publish a list of public figures guilty of corruption. Many of
the most attractive candidates found themselves listed. This went to
court.
"Court after court declared that the commission did not have the
right to
simply publish names. Investigations must be conducted by the
courts, not
appointed commissions. But it was done. The burden of proof was
not
necessary and many candidates were simply excluded."
Then the
last phase. "Poll after poll, organised by the PDP, declared that
General
Mohammadu Buhari and Umari Yar'Adua were neck and neck. By April 14
Nigerians were already traumatised and confused," says Kukah.
Yet one
of the most popular candidates, Vice-president Atiku Abubakar, was
entirely
neglected. Now he and Buhari are seeking to contest the election
through the
various electoral tribunals.
"How can you contest in the tribunals if the
tribunals all belong to the
government?" asks Kukah. "The tribunals tell us
that Yar'Adua is good, but
in what way? I've travelled in the state where he
is senator, and it is no
different than anywhere else in
Nigeria."
So, now what? Can anything beneficial come out of this
election?
"Notice that the three candidates were all Muslims. I think
that it is very
encouraging that so many Catholics were prepared to help
Muslims steal the
presidency. It indicates that we are crossing our cultural
divides," says
Kukah, possibly seriously.
"The legitimacy of the
elections won't come from the ballot; it will come
from the actions. In one
state the people went to the courts to have a
senator who they accused of
stealing an election removed. After three years
the courts agreed, but then
the people didn't want him to go, because he'd
done a good job. The real
test will be whether there is electricity for more
than four hours a day,
whether there is sanitation, or running water. If
Yar'Adua delivers this,
then he will be a good president."
Professor Laurence Schlemmer, a South
African analyst of African politics,
once said, "Africans are very sceptical
of politics and politicians. They
know that all politicians lie. So they are
pragmatic and vote for the ones
who tell the best lies. It is only in more
developed countries that you
react in shock when politicians sometimes don't
do exactly what they
promised."
Nigeria is a populous nation filled
with creative and ambitious people. The
only reason it remains poor is
because of corrupt and venal politicians.
With that much money up for grabs
it is no wonder that fraud abounds.
Whoever won the elections would have
bribed their way into that position.
At which point, during question
time, the agitated young man sitting to my
left leapt to his feet and ranted
on, "MOSOP and Shell in Ogoni Land ... you
are helping Shell ... Ogoni
people power ... something in 1965 ... again in
79 ..." oh, hell, I give
up.
I turned around. Suddenly the whole room was waving placards. Kukah
looked
worried. Perhaps the man has spent too long wondering in the
corridors of
power and some of the mud has splattered. Perhaps. But Nigeria
is a chaotic
soap-opera and everyone is related in some way to each other.
The invective
being shouted back and forth showed the incredible
interconnectedness of the
power-struggle.
Until one person's success
does not entirely infuriate another, leading to
violence and repression,
Africa will not stabilise and grow.