CIO takes over private media Dumisani
Muleya ZIMBABWE'S state security agency, the Central Intelligence
Organisation (CIO), is seeking to emulate South Africa's apartheid-era
information blitz by covertly taking over newspapers hitherto seen as
independent of state control.
As state-owned media lose their
credibility, the government regards control of the independent press as a
more viable route to win the hearts and minds of a restive
population.
Information obtained from high-level intelligence sources
shows the CIO in 2002 started manoeuvres to muscle into the Financial
Gazette and the Mirror Newspapers Group's two titles, the Daily Mirror and
Sunday Mirror, which they now control. Billions of taxpayers' funds were
poured in to the project.
The CIO tried and failed to buy into
the Tribune and is currently making moves to muscle into the ruling Zanu PF
mouthpiece, The Voice.
"The CIO controls those three newspapers
(Fingaz and Mirror titles)," an intelligence source said this week. "They
control a large stake, if not 100% of the Fingaz, and 70% of the Mirror
group. Ibbo Mandaza (Mirror chief executive and editor-in-chief) owns 30%,"
the source said.
Mandaza was not able to comment, saying: "Phone me
later, I'm on another line."
It is thought the CIO copied its
strategy of owning newspapers through shelf companies or as silent
shareholders from Angola where the largest circulating daily is owned by the
intelligence service.
South Africa's intelligence machinery in the
1970s was involved in setting up newspapers and covertly occupying media
space in what became known as the Muldergate scandal.
CIO
director-general Happyton Bonyongwe was said to have been the chief engineer
of the media project when current Labour minister Nicholas Goche was still
in the State Security portfolio. Repeated efforts to get comment from him
failed yesterday.
It is understood the CIO seconded intelligence
officers to the Mirror group to re-organise the media house. Officers in
Bonyongwe's office, including Emmanuel Gumbo who was attached to the CIO
External Branch, have been working on the project.
Sources said
Gumbo recruited three staff members of the now defunct Information and
Publicity Department, Georgina Sabawo, Chris Murimbi, and Joseph Neuso, to
assist in his enterprise.
It was also said the CIO has deployed its
own media specialist, Alexander Kanengoni, as deputy editor-in-chief of the
Mirror papers. Kanengoni, a former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings head of TV
services, runs the papers. Another CIO agent, Sign Chavonga, now based at
"Red Bricks" (CIO headquarters), was at one time attached to the
Mirror.
The Mirror newspapers have no editors since the departure of
Innocent Sithole but only deputy editors, Tichaona Chifamba (Daily Mirror)
and Ruzvidzo Mupfudza (Sunday Mirror), who report to
Kanengoni.
Sources said the covert operation was revealed through an
audit done by CIO assistant director for administration, Memory Chasakara,
who was subsequently promoted to hush her up.
Chasakara is
understood to have complained after discovering the CIO was paying up to 83%
of the Mirror group's operating costs. She was then kicked
upstairs.
The sources said the CIO also tried in vain to buy into
the closed Tribune newspaper. Bonyongwe was said to be anxious to add The
Voice to his stable.
Sources said the CIO was also instrumental in
the closure of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) titles, the Daily
News and Daily News on Sunday. The two papers were closed in 2003. Another
paper, The Weekly Times, was also closed earlier this
year.
Zimbabwe's media tyranny has been escalating in recent years in
tandem with rising political repression. Dozens of journalists have been
arrested, while foreign correspondents were deported under draconian media
laws.
Sources said the intelligence service influenced the recent
decision by the Media and Information Commission (MIC), led by
government-media columnist Tafataona Mahoso, to refuse to reopen the ANZ
whose flagship Daily News was twice bombed during its short life between
1999 and 2003. Nobody has been prosecuted. The MIC also recently denied the
Tribune an operating licence.
The CIO is understood to have staged a
dramatic boardroom coup in 2002 against Octadew consortium that was headed
by former Financial Gazette editor-in-chief Francis
Mdlongwa.
Octadew comprised Harare-based medical doctors and
businessmen, Sylvester Saburi and Solomon Mthethwa in addition to Mdlongwa.
The group initially bought the paper from Elias Rusike's Hamba Investments
Holdings.
The agreement of sale was signed on October 1 2002 after
both parties had agreed on an evaluation of $200 million by the Financial
Gazette's financial advisors, the MBCA, as the price tag.
Rusike
had sold the paper to Octadew on the strict understanding that the new
owners would maintain an "editorial policy that is independent of any
government, political party, and/or big business".
The editorial
charter was incorporated in the agreement of sale.
However,
differences later emerged between Octadew and the then CBZ
(now trading
as Jewel Bank) chief executive, Gideon Gono, who was said to have secured
equity by putting the consortium under financial pressure.
Gono had
financial leverage because Octadew had borrowed the
$200 million from the
CBZ to finance the deal. Gono said in 2002 he did not own the Financial
Gazette because he was only a "financial advisor" in the deal.
It
was said the CIO had no difficulty moving into the Mirror group because it
owed CBZ a lot of money after failing to attract advertisers.
Sources
said Gono forced the Financial Gazette to create the position of financial
director to accommodate his appointee, Blazio Tafireyi, when there was a
financial manager, Albert Mushonga, already in place. Tafireyi has since
left the paper. It is widely thought this was done to ensure the real owners
of the paper got to know the financial state of affairs at their new
company.
"After Octadew paid Rusike $200 million through Hamba
Investments, it became clear something was wrong with the deal," a source
said. "All sorts of problems emerged and it inevitably collapsed after a
short period. A boardroom coup had been staged."
In a statement
issued on November 6 2002, Octadew said the deal had broken down due to
"differences centering on the implementation of the newspapers' broad vision
and operation issues".
After the deal failed, Octadew owners went to
South Africa in a last-ditch effort to secure funds from exiled tycoon
Strive Masiyiwa who owns mobile cellphone company Econet. Octadew had failed
to find alternative funding locally due to the credit crunch in the
market.
Masiyiwa refused to help out.
"Masiyiwa asked what
was in the deal for him," a source said. "He was also surprised how Octadew
wanted him to fund a closed deal which could not be opened by any amount of
capital outlay. He told Octadew he couldn't give them money because in any
case he wasn't a bank."
When options ran out for Octadew, Rusike, who
wanted the paper bought by independent owners, could not find a white knight
to salvage the Financial Gazette or sufficient shark repellent to deal with
the CIO who were circling behind the scenes.
Sources said the CIO
grand plan was to buy into as many private papers as possible to win the
hearts and minds of an increasingly sceptical population amid deteriorating
social and economic conditions.
This initiative was intended to
redefine the media landscape and help the increasingly unpopular government
to hold sway across a vast swathe of the territory of public
opinion.
Sources said the CIO media bid was akin to South Africa's
Muldergate scandal, sometimes called Infogate, in the late 1970s when the
apartheid regime embarked on a massive covert campaign to set up newspapers
at home and buy space in foreign media. Connie Mulder was Minister of
Information at the time.
Army, skewed laws handed Zanu PF victory - NGOs Ray
Matikinye A COALITION of non-governmental organisations has discounted ballot
stuffing as the sole method Zanu PF used to rig the March election in which
President Mugabe's party beat the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change by 78 seats to 41.
The MDC has challenged the results citing
massive rigging in the election. It is currently entangled in court actions
challenging the outcome of the presidential poll in 2002.
In a
report titled Of Stuffed Ballots and Empty Stomachs, the Zimbabwe Human
Rights NGO Forum attributes Zanu PF's victory in the March election to
militarisation of the electoral process and skewed
legislation.
For instance, Justice George Chiweshe who chaired the
Delimitation Commission and one of the other two commissioners, Job Whabira,
a former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Defence, as well as retired
Lt Col Kennedy Zimondi who was chief elections officer on the Electoral
Supervisory Commission, have a military history.
"In the 2005
election this was manifested by the presence in the electoral process of
military personnel, or personnel with a military background, with, in
addition, a significant influence being exerted by a partisan police force,"
the report says.
It notes that a common thread that ran through all
the various pieces of legislation that established and regulated the
electoral process in Zimbabwe was that those responsible for its
implementation and supervision were almost all either selected by government
or subject to government interference and influence.
It says for
Zanu PF to have won the ballot in a climate of massive economic decline
defied logic.
According to the report, an analysis of voting figures
by polling stations suggests that if there was any stuffing of ballot boxes,
it was not significant enough to affect the result.
More people
turned out to vote for Zanu PF than the MDC owing to Zanu PF's capability to
withhold food to starving villagers, the report says.
It says having
increased the power of traditional leaders by giving them influence in the
distribution of food and land and having secured their sympathies through
largesse, the ruling party deployed these leaders to ensure that villagers
voted and voted favourably.
"This strategy was combined with a
relentless campaign to portray the opposition and its supporters as
responsible for Zimbabwe's economic decline and as enemies of the state and
the opposition was unable to counter this," it says.
The MDC,
which posed the stiffest challenge to Zanu PF since 1980, suffered serious
losses to the original 57 seats it won in 2000 during last March's election.
The MDC initially sought to contest the poll results from 13 constituencies
but has withdrawn some of the petitions citing the improper composition of
the Electoral Court.
A REMARK
made in jest by Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka about land reforms
in Zimbabwe has sparked a major political controversy. Speaking at the first
African conference on distance education at Unisa on Wednesday,
Mlambo-Ngcuka said South Africa could "learn from Zimbabwe about land
reform".
She said many believed South Africa's own land reform
process was too slow and too structured.
It required "a bit of
oomph", she remarked.
"We learnt a few lessons from Zimbabwe - how to
do it fast," she said to
laughter from delegates, including Zimbabwe's
Education minister, Stan Mudenge.
"We may need some skills from
Zimbabwe to help us," she said.
Although Mlambo-Ngcuka's remark was
met with loud laughter from the delegates, the Democratic Alliance and
others reacted with shock.
On Wednesday night, Murphy Morobe, head of
communication at the Presidency, said there were several light-hearted
moments during the conference.
"The deputy president made this remark
during a light-hearted exchange between her and Dr Mudenge, whom she knows,"
he explained.
Morobe said that notwithstanding the "light-hearted"
moment, the point was that South Africa could learn from Zimbabwe "or any
other country" about the important issue of land reform.
He
added: "The deputy president definitely did not agree or disagree with the
Zimbabwean issue when she made those remarks. The fact is that our land
reforms need 'oomph', as she said, but one should not elevate a
light-hearted moment and turn it into a fact."
South Africa's
northern neighbour has been plagued by high unemployment, economic collapse
and critical food shortages, and has faced international criticism for its
land reform programme and recent clean-up drive, which left more than 700
000 people homeless.
The DA said in its reaction to Mlambo-Ngcuka's
remarks: "Surely the deputy president is joking?"
Party
spokesperson Kraai van Niekerk said the DA believed that the lesson for
South Africa lay in not following the same route taken by its troubled
neighbour.
"Zimbabwe offers a textbook example of ways in which
land reform should not be carried out. A power-hungry dictator has driven
his economy to the edge of collapse. A thriving agricultural system is now
just a distant memory, and the president dishes out farms and land to his
supporters in the defence force."
The land reform programme in
South Africa had progressed far too slowly, but the blame for this, he said,
rested with the government.
"The legal framework is in place and
there are enough landowners and farmers who want to be part of this
process.
"The government is trying to turn landowners into villains
instead of recognising that they are victims of government slackness and
failure to vote the funds."
Van Niekerk added that Mlambo-Ngcuka
should realise that, as deputy president, she needed to act in a much more
balanced and responsible manner when she made public appearances. - The
Star.
'Police blitz unlawful' Susan Mateko THE conduct of
the police in executing Operation Murambatsvina in Bulawayo has been
declared unlawful by the High Court which ruled that the confiscation and
seizure of goods from vendors interfered with individual's property
rights.
Bulawayo judge Justice Maphios Cheda ruled on August 2 that in
destroying shacks and seizing and confiscating goods, the police had acted
outside the confines of the law.
United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan's special envoy on habitat, Anna Tibaijuka, came to the same
conclusion in her hard-hitting report on the operation last
month.
Justice Cheda made the ruling in the urgent chamber
application filed by Bulawayo Upcoming Traders Association (Buta), a
grouping of hawkers and vendors who challenged the police's confiscating of
their goods during the clean-up.
Buta cited as first, second and
third respondents respectively the officer commanding Bulawayo Province, the
Commissioner of Police and the Bulawayo City Council.
Said
Justice Cheda on the conduct of the police in destroying shacks and seizing
goods: "This conduct on the part of the police was unlawful. Police are
empowered to enforce the law but can only do so within the confines of the
law and not outside it. The indiscriminate and wanton destruction as
described by applicant and not denied by first and second respondents cannot
be allowed."
He said the seizure of goods was
unlawful.
"The seizure and confiscating of traders' merchandise in
the absence of a court order is unlawful as this interferes with
individual's property rights," the judge said.
The judge also
took a swipe at the Bulawayo City Council for allowing the vendors to sell
their wares in the open. The court papers say the council was collecting
rentals from the traders but had failed to provide appropriate shelter for
them to conduct their business. The judge said the shelters that the vendors
were using, made of metal roads and covered with canvas, were not
proper.
"In my view that is not the type of shelters any local
authority properly applying its mind would allow," said Justice Cheda. "In
fact by allowing this type of conduct on the part of the applicants, the
third respondent (council) was perpetrating an illegality."
The
court called on the Bulawayo city council to "re-visit its allocation
programmes of these vending bays bearing in mind the need to adhere to their
own by-laws and regulations in the city".
Robert Ndlovu of James,
Moyo, Majwabu & Associates who was representing Buta, this week said the
city council had agreed that the vendors could return to their vending
bays.
MDC candidate breaks ranks Ray Matikinye DOUGLAS
Mwonzora, the losing MDC candidate for Nyanga in the March election, has
broken rank with other opposition candidates who have since withdrawn their
court petitions and is pressing ahead with his challenge of the March poll
result in the Electoral Court.
The MDC initially filed petitions to
contest the poll outcome in 13 constituencies, although it said electoral
fraud was rampant in 30 of the 120 constituencies. After the election MDC
secretary for legal affairs David Coltart said his party had lost faith in
the judiciary but was challenging the outcome just to expose poll
fraud.
The opposition party's legal department withdrew court
petitions by Heather Bennett (Chimanimani), Elphas Mukonoweshuro (Gutu
South), Ian Kay (Marondera East), Aaron Chinhara (Gokwe) and Hilda Mafudze
(Manyame) and had sought to withdraw the petition by Mwonzora.
On
Wednesday he re-applied for the case to be heard. Mwonzora had lined up 70
witnesses against the respondent's 25 when the court told him his party had
withdrawn the petition.
"I am changing lawyers," said Mwonzora. "The
MDC had wanted to withdraw my petition like it did with the others but I see
no merit in letting Zanu PF off the hook. It is a case that I can win with
the irrefutable evidence available," he said on
Wednesday.
Mwonzora, the vice-chairperson of the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a key ally of the MDC, lost the March poll to
Paul Kadzima of Zanu PF by 2 887 votes.
He is contesting the
figures given "unequivocally" by the chief elections officer to the nation
for his constituency by the end of the day which showed significant
variation with those finally declared.
His petition reads: "The
election in Nyanga was characterised by intimidation, undue influence,
corrupt and illegal practices by the district administrator for Nyanga and
Chief Saunyama acting in concert or by the elections agents of the
respondent acting on direct orders or with the concurrence of the
respondent."
In his petition, Mwonzora cites more than 30 instances
when the local chiefs or Zanu PF functionaries either openly intimidated the
electorate or threatened that they would forgo food assistance if they voted
for the MDC.
Voters displaced by Murambatsvina - MDC Loughty
Dube THE MDC has expressed concern at the displacement of its voters under
the government's clean-up operation as the party prepares to lock horns with
Zanu PF in the Bulawayo mayoral elections due tomorrow.
The MDC
spo-kesman for Bulawayo, Victor Moyo, said a lot of his party's supporters
were displaced by the government orchestrated clean-up exercise that saw
thousands of people lose their homes.
"We know that the whole
operation was implemented by Zanu PF to change demographic voting patterns
in urban areas but that is not going to deter us because we are going to
retain the city come Saturday evening," Moyo said.
He said the MDC
was hoping to get over 100 000 voters casting their ballot in favour of its
candidate, Japhet Ndabeni Ncube.
Ncube, who is the incumbent
executive mayor for Bulawayo, battles it out with Zanu PF's Dickson
Abu-Basuthu for the highest seat in the city.
The election will act
as a barometer of urbanites' anger over destruction of their properties by
President Mugabe's government.
Moyo supported the view that the
electorate would vote against Zanu PF because the people were still angry
over the destruction of their properties by the government and were likely
to use their emotions when casting votes.
Zanu PF secretary for
Information and Publicity, Effort Nkomo, however dismissed claims that the
people of Bulawayo will vote against his party saying the MDC through its
mayor Ncube was also responsible for the destruction of the
properties.
"If there is anger over Murambatsvina, then there should
be anger also against Ncube because as the mayor of the city he is also part
of the government and there is no way the people can be angry at Zanu PF and
not be angry at the incumbent mayor," Nkomo said.
He however said
Zanu PF had covered ground in terms of the campaign and further said the
party would wrestle the mayorship from the MDC.
Nkomo said he was
encouraged by the peaceful conduct of both parties during the mayoral
campaign.
Ncube in an interview this week expressed confidence that
he would retain his position.
"The campaign has been peaceful,"
said Ncube. "We have held rallies in halls, open spaces and we have also
embarked on door-to-door campaigns where we have been issuing fliers and
come Saturday (tomorrow) we will be celebrating," Ncube
said.
Ncube also expressed concern at the displacement of his party
supporters under the clean-up operation.
Meanwhile, police in
Bulawayo on Wednesday night arrested 12 opposition MDC activists for
distributing fliers urging people to vote for incumbent mayor
Ncube.
The 12 activists were arrested in Bulawayo's Emakhandeni
suburb as they went on a door-to-door campaign to garner last minute support
for Ncube.
Moyo said the police alleged that the eleven were arrested for
causing disorder and chaos in the suburb.
Police spokesman, Wayne
Bvudzijena, promised to look into the matter when contacted for a comment
yesterday afternoon.
Spy saga: hubby was abducted mafia-style Dumisani
Muleya THE wife of jailed South African spy Tendai Matambanadzo, also called
Tendai, has for the first time spoken out on the mafia-style abduction of
her husband by the Zimbabwean state security agents over the dramatic
espionage case.
Tendai said she was initially devastated by the
sensational issue but was relieved when Matambanadzo got five years in
prison instead of a possible 20 years.
She said she was bracing
herself for the tough life without her husband.
"It was a difficult
situation because we did not know what was going on. The way it happened was
dramatic. He disappeared for seven days and we searched at every police
station in vain," she said in an interview.
"We went through a period
of uncertainty but in the end, on judgement day (in February), I was
devastated but also relieved because he had been convicted although it was
for five instead of 20 years."
Accompanied by her husband's brother,
Tichafa Matambanadzo, who was always at her side from the start to the end
of the trial, Tendai said the case developed in a manner which left her
emotionally drained and shocked.
"It was dramatic throughout. The
saga started on December 14 last year when our gardener came and told me
there were people outside the gate looking for my husband but they had
indicated he should not tell me," she said.
"I didn't know who they
were and what they wanted so I immediately tried to phone him (husband) to
tell him about the situation. His phone was off. I had had lunch with him
that afternoon and his phone had no battery. So I then remembered that and
decided to drive to where I thought he was."
Tendai said that marked
the beginning of what was to become a painful physical and emotional
experience for her. "As I drove out of our home (in Chisipite) I saw a car
following me. It flashed lights for me to stop and I did," she
said.
"The men, four of them, drove close to me but suddenly made a
fast U-turn in the opposite direction. It seemed initially they had thought
I was escaping with my husband but when they realised I was alone they got
away."
Tendai proceeded to look for her husband but they missed each
other along the way. When she returned home about an hour later she found
that he had been seized by people she did not know.
She then
phoned her lawyer Selby Hwacha to start the long search for her
husband.
"We searched at every police station in Harare but we
couldn't locate him. Two days later we filed a missing person report," she
said.
After that Tendai spent a week in the dark, agonising about the
fate of her husband. She had no clue about what was going on and
why.
"But out of the blue he phoned after seven days to say he was
fine and I asked him where he was. He just said 'I'm fine'," she
said.
"After that we started communicating through people we didn't
know. On one occasion, he phoned to say there were people who would phone me
and I should go to meet them at the shops and give them warm clothes," she
said.
"I packed the clothes and went with Tich (the former radio and
television personality) to meet them. It was on December 23. We gave them
clothes and bought him some cigarettes. My husband later phoned to say he
had received the items."
At that point the Matambanadzo family at
last had a clue about what was happening because on the same day the
Zimbabwe Independent published a story reporting Tendai was among those
arrested on espionage charges.
Matambanadzo was arrested by Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives separately from the other alleged
accomplices - Zimbabwe's ambassador-designate to Mozambique Godfrey Dzvairo,
Zanu PF foreign affairs director Itai Marchi, former Zanu PF MP Phillip
Chiyangwa and Zanu PF deputy security chief Kenny Karidza.
A CIO
operative who has now killed himself was also arrested. A South African
secret service agent, Aubrey Welken, was arrested over the
issue.
Matambanadzo has been jailed for five years, while Dzvairo and
Marchi went in for six years each.
"We were very relieved that
even though he was going, he got five years.
"He is a very strong man
blessed with leadership qualities and we know he was mentally geared for
it," Tich said.
"He has adjusted to the situation and he is now more
concerned about us than himself."
Tich said they were doing their
best to help his brother's family.
"They are trying but obviously it
can't be the same as when he was there," Tendai said.
"But we
were relieved the issue is finally over and we are now waiting for him to
come back home."
RBZ rejects Harare turnaround plan Augustine
Mukaro THE Reserve Bank has rejected Harare council's much-publicised
turnaround strategic plan as not sufficiently profitable for the local
authority to repay the loan advanced by the bank.
The RBZ had
promised the council $1,2 trillion to implement its strategic turnaround
plan under its Local Authorities Reorientation Programme.
The council
planned to unbundle operations on the lines of Johannesburg's Unicity
structure to improve service delivery to ratepayers.
The plan was
approved by government last year and was supposed to be implemented
beginning January. The unbundling process involved the transformation of
city departments into 12 autonomous business units.
City treasury
officials said chances of council getting the funds were very slim
considering the current cash-flow hitches plus the social nature of council
services.
"Council's current cash-flows will not sustain the
repayment of the loan, making the RBZ sceptical about funding the plan," the
officials said, adding: "The RBZ wants council to provide bankable projects
which will generate surplus money or even increase council income. But that
is very difficult because our services are of a social nature. We are not a
commercial entity seeking to make a profit."
They said full
cost-recovery was almost impossible.
Town clerk Nomutsa Chideya, the
architect of the plan, said he was out of town referring all questions to
acting city treasurer Cosmas Zvikaramba.
Zvikaramba said he was not
allowed to comment without clearance from the public relations department.
Leslie Gwindi (council's public relations manager) could not be reached for
comment as he was out of his office.
The Harare plan borrows heavily from
the Johannesburg Unicity structure.
The document also resembles
sacked executive mayor Elias Mudzuri's Vision Harare 2010 strategic plan,
turned down by Local Government minister Ignatious Chombo in 2003, which
councillors claimed was prepared by over 25 stakeholder
organisations.
The Mudzuri document was sponsored and coordinated by
Fredrick Neumann Foundation to the tune of $20 million.
The
Johannesburg structure is made up of 10 utilities in the form of registered
companies wholly-owned by council, run on business lines by a city manager
and executive directors.
The utilities are self-funding, receiving no
annual grants from the city and provide billable services direct to
individual households.
Harare's plan envisages the creation of 12
autonomous business units to run council affairs along commercial
lines.
The plan proposes that the local authority wholly-own the
business utilities and where necessary enter joint ventures and smart
partnerships for technology transfers with the private
sector.
The business utilities would include Harare Corporate,
responsible for information technology, procurement, human resources, public
relations and administration; Harare Metro which will be in charge of the
municipal police and municipal courts; Harare Water which will cater for
water and sewerage treatment, managed by an autonomous Harare Water
Authority; Harare Estate which will deal with estate development, valuation,
housing and council properties; Harare Infrastructure in charge of roads and
lighting; Harare Health in charge of primary health delivery; Harare
Environment will take over the general cleaning of the municipal area and
refuse collection and disposal; Harare Holdings will be the corporate entity
that warehouses council's businesses such as nurseries, chalets, crusher
station and farms; Harare Finance will be in charge of accounting, budgeting
and revenue collection; Harare Social will deal with social services,
recreation and sporting facilities; Harare Emergency will shelter the fire
brigade and ambulance services; and Harare Civic will be introduced to give
the city a new dimension in civic participation, consultations, and dialogue
in order to bring residents and council officials closer together.
GOVERNMENT'S proposed constitutional amendment to effectively
nationalise all land it acquires could mark the end of private property
ownership and dash hopes of any economic recovery in the near
future.
Analysts say government's proposed constitutional amendment to
the Land Act to ensure all land gazetted for acquisition since 2000 is not
contested in the courts of law will undermine property rights and reduce the
market value of land.
The Human Rights NGO Forum warns that
nationalising land will erode the fundamental right to property and hamper
economic revival plans.
Making its submission on the proposed
Constitutional Amendment Bill, which will effectively nationalise land, the
human rights umbrella body said the move was "ill-advised and
damaging".
"Not only landowners will be affected: anyone with an interest
or right in land will lose their right or interest if the land is acquired
under the new section, and they will not receive compensation except for
improvements," the group said.
"Mortgagees will therefore lose their
security and will be unable to recover anything from the state to mitigate
their loss."
The NGO Forum said although their primary concern was human
rights, the proposed law would have "disastrous economic
effects".
"Owners and occupiers of land, particularly rural farmland,
will lose all security of tenure. They will become mere tenants-at-will of
the state," it said.
"Large-scale commercial agriculture will be
impossible because financial institutions will not underwrite agricultural
activities for fear that someone will publish a notice in a Government
Gazette and render their security worthless."
The forum said
prospects of economic recovery would be shattered by the
legislation.
"Any hopes of economic recovery through agricultural
develop-ment will wither as soon as the new law comes into force," it said.
"Industrial development, too, may be retarded because, as indicated above,
the section will apply to land that is capable of being used for agriculture
even if it is being used for something else."
The civic group said
the impact of the Bill on human rights was chilling.
"The impact of the
proposed law on human rights is equally obvious. It will deprive Zimbabweans
of their right to property and to protection of the law, although these
rights are guaranteed by our constitution and by international instruments
to which Zimbabwe is a party," it said.
"The Bill is appalling in its
wide reach and arbitrary nature. There is no applicable definition of
'agricultural land', so almost all land in Zimbabwe will be subject to
expropriation under the new law."
The forum said only land that was not
possible to farm would fall outside the ambit of the law. "Hence even
residential stands in urban areas will be subject to compulsory acquisition
under the law, provided the stands are large enough to produce a few flowers
and vegetables," it said.
"Agricultural land - whatever that is - may be
acquired for any purpose whatever. The mere fact that a landowner has fallen
from political favour will be sufficient reason to expropriate his
land."
Analysts said the amendment would completely derail Reserve Bank
governor Gideon Gono's call to make agriculture a bankable business. In May
Gono advocated a "command" form of agriculture so as to revive the country's
food security and self-sufficiency.
The analysts said Gono's call had
provided a glimmer of hope to the collapsing agricultural sector and offered
a direct shift from government's populist policies that have reduced the
one-time breadbasket of southern Africa to a net importer of food while vast
stretches of former productive land lie idle.
"Since the March
election there has been a lot of excitement and expectations, which has been
instilled by a new government policy of production and the stated
implementation of an ambitious recovery programme but the amendment will
take us backwards," one analyst said.
He said while there has been a lot
of encouraging words said and offers of huge amounts of short-term, low
interest concessionary finance by the RBZ, there is still instability on the
ground, with farmers facing daily evictions.
Farmers' organisations
warned that the proposed constitutional amendment would result in land being
owned along party lines rather than the capacity to produce.
Justice
for Agriculture chairman John Worswick told a parliamentary hearing last
week that the amendment would nationalise all farmland, making it lose its
market value.
"If the amendment passes, land in Zimbabwe will be owned on
the basis of patronage and not one's productiveness or ingenuity," Worswick
said. "While China has accepted the need for individual property rights,
Zimbabwe is moving completely in the opposite direction," he
said.
Worswick said land the world over was not owned by the state but by
individuals and companies with leases and title deeds, which gives the land
market value.
Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) president Doug
Taylor-Freeme last week took a swipe at the proposed amendment saying it
would speed up the collapse of agriculture.
"It is extremely alarming
to note that a new proposed gazette announcing a constitutional amendment to
the Land Act has been put to parliament," he said. "It is proposed that all
land gazetted for acquisition since 2000 cannot be contested in court. As
virtually every white farmer has been listed for acquisition in some way or
the other this surely provides direct evidence that a process of ethnic
cleansing is taking place."
Taylor-Freeme said the proposed gazette was
an admission that the existing Land Act was not workable and that government
had failed to acquire land in an orderly, legal and amicable way, hence the
use of violence, disruptions and forced evictions that have occurred since
2000.
"If the objective of the authorities by introducing such draconian
legislation is to get agriculture back to work they are wrong! It is likely
to increase the conflict of ownership of the business on the land and reduce
meaningful investment in agriculture," Taylor-Freeme said.
He said
there was no will or capacity to find a lasting solution to the crisis in
the farming sector because fundamental principles had not been dealt
with.
"Nationally agricultural output has predictably declined further
despite claims from various authorities that more hectares have been planted
and higher tonnages expected. In the business world such claims have become
a national joke as authorities attempt to cover up the reality on the
ground," he said.
Taylor-Freeme said a major constraint to increased
productivity was the uncertainty of tenure in the agricultural sector where
farmers are evicted on a daily basis.
The constitutional amendment
comes at a time when prospects of producing enough food in the 2005/6 season
have been dealt a major blow by the shortage of inputs.
Seed and
fertiliser companies revealed to farmers at their recent annual congress
that they would not be able to meet the country's requirements due to forex
shortages and continued evictions of producers.
Zimbabwe's largest maize
seed producer, Seed Co, said a paltry 33 000 tonnes of seed would be
available from local producers.
Seed Co chief executive Pat Devenish said
around 16 000 tonnes were expected from his company.
"Our seed
production dropped from 26 000 tonnes last year to an estimated 16 000
tonnes expected this year," Devenish said. "The drop can be attributed to
poor rains this year and lack of expertise on seed production by the new
farmers."
Pannar and other seed houses are expected to avail 17 000
tonnes.
Zimbabwe requires 100 000 tonnes of maize seed to meet demand for
its commercial, resettled and communal farmers. The deficit can only be
covered through expensive imports.
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe this week made it categorically clear he
would not be forced into talks with the opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) but declared he was willing to engage with British Prime
Minister Tony Blair.
His rationale - or rather his pretence - is that
the MDC is a front organisation for the British and therefore there is no
use in talking to a puppet when he can deal with its master.
This is
Grandmother's logic, especially for someone who wants to posture as a
serious statesman. Why should Blair indulge Mugabe's self-serving illusions
about the MDC? More to the point, why should Mugabe reject national dialogue
with Zimbabweans and prefer to talk to Blair when as recently as March he
was campaigning against the British leader in what he comically called an
"Anti-Blair" election?
Did his party "win" the "Anti-Blair" election only
to beg Blair for talks and hypocritically engage a man he has called all
sorts of childish names?
Blair has nothing to gain whatsoever from a
dialogue of the deaf with Mugabe and everything to lose from being seen to
indulge a discredited dictator. So where does this leave Mugabe?
The
clear message which came out of the president's plea for talks with Blair is
that he does not trust Zimbabweans - the MDC and all its voters as well as
other citizens. It is now crystal clear that Mugabe would rather engage
former colonial masters, who by the way gave him an honorary knighthood when
he was still playing ball, than his own compatriots who have genuine
grievances against his failed leadership.
This further confirms Mugabe's
detachment from the real world.
Will his desperate political manoeuvres
to drag the British into what is essentially a national question promote
sovereignty and patriotism?
It is clear Mugabe's anti-British rhetoric
was contrived to generate a false fight between Harare and London while
cultivating his persecution complex as a victim of a former colonial
power.
Now that the British have rejected his antics, he still wants to
rope them into his web of deceit and save face by agreeing to a truce with
Blair. The British, with their vast experience in diplomacy around the
world, would be unlikely to fall for such clumsy tactics. Blair will be
keeping Mugabe at the end of a very long barge-pole.
Certain issues
are now beyond Mugabe's real control. The Zimbabwean crisis has become a
regional and international emergency. The international community, including
the UN, AU and Sadc, and leaders such as South African President Thabo Mbeki
and Nigerian ruler Olusegun Obasanjo, are now firmly involved in the issue
whether Mugabe likes it or not.
The appointment of former Mozambican
President Joaquim Chissano as the AU envoy to the Zimbabwe crisis confirms
this. South African efforts to provide Zimbabwe with a financial bail-out to
avoid the country's expulsion from the IMF confirms firstly that Mugabe has
damaged the economy beyond his capacity to repair it, and secondly the
crisis has reached such alarming proportions that it can only be contained
through multilateral diplomacy.
This explains why Mugabe's rule is now a
cause for international concern. It also explains why the president is
showing increased signs of irritation. His country is being treated like a
failed state which endangers its neighbours.
South Africa is trying
to tackle the humanitarian crisis created by Mugabe's criminal urban
demolition blitz - Operation Murambatsvina.
These efforts put Zimbabwe's
crisis at the heart of international diplomacy and Mugabe may not wriggle
off the hook unless African leaders elect to rescue him again, hoping he
will listen to their "quiet diplomacy" overtures for him to make a peaceful
exit from power.
Mugabe's remarks that he would rather talk to Blair than
Zimbabweans exposed his double standards. He will happily talk to the
"imperialists" when it suits him but it is not acceptable for anybody else
to do so!
Mugabe must understand there is a time to play to the gallery
and a time to be serious. The issue is not for him or Zanu PF to talk to the
MDC. This simplistic dichotomy which pretends Zimbabwe is divided into Zanu
PF and the MDC is totally unhelpful. What is required is a solution to the
crisis Mugabe's bankrupt rule has spawned and a restoration of
democracy.
What is needed as a matter of urgency is national dialogue to
find a way out of this man-made disaster, characterised by hyperinflation,
and shortages of foreign currency, food, fuel, power, and
water.
Mugabe alone self-evidently has no solution to this. Every time he
opens his mouth the crisis grows worse. It is not Blair's crisis, it is his
own that has brought the UN, the AU and the South Africans onto the national
scene. That is the sovereignty he has bequeathed us. He must now accept his
incapacity to govern and let others offer their solutions - before it is too
late.
IN its deep-seated convictions of near megalomaniac proportions
that it is omnipotent and infallible, government has long attributed the
diverse ills that plague Zimbabwe to the vile machinations of
others.
Its intense paranoia that others are firmly set upon its
destruction, convinces government that there are those obsessed with
bringing it down by resorting to diabolically evil actions which, in order
to destroy it, inflict ever greater hardships and distress upon the
Zimbabwean populace. Thus, ever since the economy was set upon a path of
never-ending decline, in late 1997, government has sought to identify those
responsible for that decline wilfully oblivious to the incontrovertible fact
that it is itself the cause of destruction of the economy.
First and
foremost, it has cast blame upon the United Kingdom in general, and its
Prime Minister Tony Blair in particular. As alleged co-conspirators and
accessories to Britain's supposed actions, government has repeatedly, and
unhesitatingly, pointed its accusatory finger at the USA (and especially at
its president, George Bush), at the European Union, at white Zimbabweans
(with white commercial farmers ostensibly being at the forefront of the
alleged anti-Zimbabwe government campaign), at the opposition, and at the
independent press and allied media.
As the economy progressively
weakened, many scarcities developed. Those scarcities ranged from petroleum
products to electricity, basic commodities such as bread, sugar, flour,
cooking oil, soap, coal and much else. Foremost of the causes of the
shortages has been a gross, growing non-availability of foreign currency,
required for the importation of manufacturing inputs, spares for plant and
machinery, and other essential elements of most manufacturing
processes.
Inevitably, as has been the case the world over, in instances
of inadequacies of supply to meet market demand, a virile black market soon
developed. That market is thriving and is probably the only sector of the
Zimbabwean economy enjoying real growth.
Whensoever demand for a
product outstrips supply, the price of the product rises and continues to do
so as customers compete for the product, until such time as the price
reaches a resistance level where the consumer will no longer be willing to
purchase, usually because no matter how greatly he needs the product, he
cannot afford it.
This is a very strong characteristic of black markets,
wheresoever they may be. The Zimbabwean economy is no exception. As the
prices rise, consumers become increasingly embittered, with that bitterness
reaching a pinnacle when the consumer must either forgo other products in
order to fund that which he needs most, or he must go without a product,
notwithstanding need.
That bitterness, and the concomitant hardships,
provokes the populace to seek to blame someone for the misery and the
distress suffered, and in Zimbabwe the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) is
usually alongside government at the forefront of identifying recipients of
blame.
After all, it is the task of CCZ to protect the consumer,
and therefore it strives vigorously to destroy the black market and to place
blame for its existence upon those that it perceives to be responsible for
its existence, instead of upon the real culprit - being
government.
Naturally, government is extremely sensitive to the
situation, for it does not wish to be the recipient of blame and
particularly as its conviction of its omnipotence and its infallibility
motivates it to believe that the circumstances cannot possibly be due to it.
Therefore, it casts around to find someone to blame and, upon doing so, very
rapidly convinces itself that the focus of its ire is in fact the
cause.
For a considerable period of time it has unhesitatingly accused
the manufacturing sector, aided and abetted by the wholesalers and
retailers, of being the culprits who, driven by extreme greed, seek to
profiteer at the expense of the poor consumer.
It is, insofar as
government is concerned, irrelevant as to whether or not the manufacturers,
wholesalers and retailers are actually at fault. It suffices that they are
credible targets upon whose shoulders blame can be placed, and that
credibility, and the need to place fault upon someone other than government,
enables government to convince itself that they are actually the culprits.
This was, and is, the stance of the president, the cabinet, the former
Minister of Industry and International Trade, Dr Samuel Mumbengegwi and, as
recently as last week, of the secretary for Industry and International
Trade, Rtd Col Christian Katsande, strongly supported by the
state-controlled media.
He is reported to have said that government
would probe manufacturers to find out factors behind the product shortages,
and that "our ministry is concerned about the continuous shortages of
commodities at a time when we have reached an agreement with manufacturers
about price adjustments. Anyway, some measures are being discussed to ensure
that operations of manufacturing firms are strictly monitored" so as to
ensure that manufacturers continued to supply enough goods to
retailers.
He stated that government is committed to ensure the
availability of goods in the formal markets, for "black market trading is
not tolerated in Zimbabwe as it leads to an increase in prices. So our main
agenda is to ensure that manufacturers comply with production
targets."
Concurrently, the CCZ has forthrightly and scathingly
criticised manufacturers for creating "artificial shortages" of most basic
commodities in order to "push prices up". The Bulawayo regional manager of
the CCZ, Comfort Muchekeza, is reported to have said that most retailers are
selling products at much higher than set prices, or are rationing such
products in order to give the impression that those products are not
available.
The contentions of Katsande and Muchekeza were strongly
supported in an editorial in Zimbabwe's largest circulation daily newspaper,
owned indirectly by government. It sought to prove that manufacturers
operate in bad faith and to the prejudice of consumers by rebutting claims
of manufacturers that product shortages were due to non-availability of
foreign currency to import raw materials, machinery and spare parts, over
and above other constraints.
The editorial posed the question: "If
this were so, how do the manufacturers explain that those seemingly scarce
commodities are available within the black market?" It demands that
manufacturers, "as partners in development, need to behave responsibly and
desist from feeding the black market".
It appears to be beyond the
capacity of government, or its press, to consider that there can be any
other causes of the shortages, and yet that is the reality. It is very
evident from the magnitude of unsuccessful bids at each and every foreign
currency auction that there is a massive insufficiency of foreign
exchange.
The inability to access the extent of foreign currency needed
has severely impaired industrial productivity. Government and the misguided
editors and reporters could rapidly establish the realities of manufacturing
productivity by non-confrontational interaction with the Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries and its members. If they did so, they would soon
discover that many factories are constrained to production of 30% or less,
of productive capacity. Others have been reduced to working two or
three-day weeks.
As to availability of the scarce products in the
black market, there is a very simple and extremely credible, easily
verifiable explanation. Black marketeers realise that their opportunities
are most pronounced when shortages exist, and are therefore very alert to
the development of any scarcities. They carefully monitor when any supplies
whatsoever of those insufficiently available, necessary products are
delivered to retailers, and immediately purchase the suddenly available
goods, thereby restoring an environment of shortages, whilst simultaneously
acquiring the trading stocks for their operations thereafter.
That
this is so is not mere speculation, for many have observed (including this
columnist) that within minutes of products such as sugar, flour and cooking
oil, reaching the supermarkets large queues develop, with each person
purchasing the maximum permitted quantities, and very shortly thereafter,
those purchased products are available for sale by the black marketeers in
close-by sanitary lanes, the few remaining flea markets, and the
like.
Moreover, when the retailers "ration" products, with the intent of
supplying as many customers as possible, it is very evident that many of the
queuing customers are colleagues and syndicates, collaborating in buying as
much as possible, so as to intensify the shortages, and so as to maximise
the quantity of the goods they have for sale.
Government's paranoia
is becoming so pronounced that it blinds itself to these facts, but dwells
upon ill-conceived perceptions, demoralising already severely distressed
manufacturers, and discouraging investors who abhor excessive
regulation.
WHAT do you call a man who wants to speak to foreigners but will
not speak to his fellow Africans? Muckraker reckons he is a hypocrite
suffering from an acute inferiority complex. That's a terrible situation for
a nation to find itself in, particularly where the person so afflicted is
the leader of that country.
President Mugabe has ruled out talks
between Zanu PF and the opposition MDC. He has also refused to meet MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai because instead he wants to meet British prime
minister Tony Blair. His excuse is that Tsvangirai is Blair's
puppet.
If this kind of reasoning had been used by a white man he would
have been labelled a racist of the worst type. He would have been pilloried
for looking down upon Africans. Mugabe can't be accused of being a racist in
this case, but there is clearly a pining to meet his master at 10 Downing
Street. He told his supporters at Heroes' Acre on Monday that he wanted to
speak to Blair, although he didn't say what about.
"When will they
(MDC) learn that power to rule Zimbabwe comes from the people of Zimbabwe?"
asked Mugabe. So what does he want from Blair?
Well it does appear that
the sense of isolation is getting more unbearable as problems in the country
mount. A dream meeting with Blair is seen as the first tentative step
towards rehabilitation. Unfortunately he will have to wait until the end of
time, to borrow Professor Jonathan Moyo's expression.
Mugabe even scoffed
at African friends such as Thabo Mbeki and Olusegun Obasanjo who have been
calling for national dialogue. "Today we tell all those calling for such
ill-conceived talks to please stop misdirecting their efforts," he
warned.
So for Zanu PF supporters and the rest of the country who were
foolishly thinking that wisdom comes with age, it is back to the drawing
board as they say. Blair's ghost is firmly ensconced at State House and will
not go away. But as we have warned in the past, the solution to Zimbabwe's
problems does not lie in Britain. Our problems start and end in Harare. Does
Mugabe seriously believe he needs to meet Blair before Zimbabwe can grow
sufficient maize to feed itself?
The Herald has come up with a novel
idea to deal with "the dreaded quelea birds" that threaten wheat farmers in
the country. They must be harvested and eaten is the solution that has been
put forward by the brains at the Herald .
Zimbabwe destroys millions
of these birds each year, said the Herald , but "no one has yet come up with
a permanent solution to end the menace". Did they expect such a solution to
come out of Joseph Made's head?
More importantly, we seem to have found
another convenient excuse for the chaos on the farms. Last time around it
was drought, this time it must be the quelea birds.
When the Herald
told us not to miss its exclusive interview with former Finance minister
Chris Kuruneri, we wondered what he was going to say. The paper didn't
disappoint with its heading on Saturday, "I'm not bitter:
Kuruneri".
But he was never quoted saying he was not bitter with his
incarceration for over 15 months without trial or bail.
Despite
telling us that the minister was staying away from his family, the writers
still wanted us to believe their fable that he wasn't bitter. "I had chosen
to be at my farm but was not allowed," said Kuruneri who is under 24-hour
house arrest in Glen Lorne.
He said he was not allowed to talk to the
press either. Nothing useful came out of the hour-long
interview.
Just what did the Herald expect Kuruneri to say? That the
country is under a heartless dictatorship?
And there were many
denials on that day: "I'm not bitter: Kuruneri"; "I'm not a copycat: Mafia";
"I'm not biased, says Mhlauri." Had the subs just returned from a refresher
course on denial journalism we wonder?
A row has erupted in the UK over
the award made by British American Tobacco, the British-based cigarettes
multinational, to Monica Chinamasa, wife of Zimbabwean Justice minister
Patrick Chinamasa, the Sunday Telegraph reports.
She was presented with
$25 million prize money at the BAT Tobacco Grower of the Year awards
ceremony in Harare recently.
Richard Yates, a Zimbabwean farmer, told the
Sunday Telegraph the Chinamasas took the farm from him in September 2003.
"They virtually evicted me at gunpoint,'' he said.
Yates still has
the title deeds to the 800-hectare farm in the Headlands area. Although he
was paid some compensation by the Chinamasas, he is still waiting for full
payment. "As far as I am concerned I still own the farm,'' he
said.
The prize has sparked outrage among critics of the Zimbabwean
government, the Telegraph says, many of whom believe international
businesses should avoid any involvement with the country because of its
appalling record of human rights abuses and illegal land grabs.
Kate
Hoey, the British Labour MP and former minister who has recently returned
from a fact-finding mission in Zimbabwe, described BAT's actions as
"shocking".
"I am very surprised that BAT has done this,'' she told
the Telegraph . "It's pretty shocking for a multinational corporation to
reward theft. It is like someone stealing a race horse and winning the Grand
National.''
But BAT refused to apologise for its involvement in the
awards. "It is not our place to say how that farm was acquired and whether
we believe it to be right or not,'' said a spokeswoman.
"BAT believes
that it is not our place to condone or condemn governments.''
Roy
Bennett, a former farmer and MP, was quoted by the Telegraph as saying BAT's
apparent tacit support of the regime was particularly shocking in the light
of an initiative taken recently by the United Nations' Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
"As soon as you get companies
the size of BAT involving themselves in issues that are clearly issues of
human rights, it is indefensible,'' Bennett said.
Muckraker agrees. This
newspaper has repeatedly drawn attention to companies that are adopting
amoral positions on human rights and governance issues, even though the way
this country is governed impacts on their ability to do business. Nestlé
provided a glaring example recently.
In this context we were rather
surprised recently to see a report in the Business Herald stating that
telecoms company Econet had "thrown its weight behind efforts to turn around
the economy".
"As one of the largest companies in Zimbabwe we consider it
our duty to lead the way in ensuring that the economy is turned around," a
company spokesman said following Econet's commitment of $200 billion to
network expansion.
This would encourage investors to have confidence in
the country, he said.
Somebody needs to point out to Econet that they are
ill-served by naïve statements of this sort. Anybody using the expression
"turnaround" is attempting to deceive the public when no such phenomenon is
taking place. The economy is currently being sabotaged by spendthrift
management. Every consumer knows that.
If Econet wants to be part of
an economic turnaround it should point out why no investment can take place
until confidence has been restored in fiscal management. The IMF was very
clear on that.
Econet's spokesman said the slowdown in the economy had
not affected the level of telephone traffic.
Of course not. People
still have to communicate. What we want to see from Econet is a better
service, not statements about non-existent turnarounds designed to impress
the government.
P
resident Mugabe has been making equally
misleading claims about his recent visit to China.
"I am happy to
announce that our Look East policies are beginning to assume a concrete form
and yield quantifiable economic results for our nation," he said at Heroes
Acre.
Our question is: Who will be doing the quantifying? As South
African newspapers pointed out, he did not mention gruelling shortages of
fuel and food. And what results have come out of China to date apart from a
flood of cheap manufactured goods?
Mugabe called on Zimbabweans to
grow more food, because "until and unless we feed ourselves, we remain
vulnerable to outside influence and subversion".
Who has subverted
agriculture over the past five years? Whose policies have resulted in
national ruin? They are not difficult to quantify. How does he get away with
this empty posturing? He has nothing to show for his trip to China and he
knows it. Which explains the fist-waving aimed at Thabo Mbeki and Kofi Annan
whose position has been strengthened by the failure of the China
trip.
The MDC also came in for particular abuse with Mugabe once again
pinning the "stooges" label on them. But he didn't say what we should call a
leader who sells the country to the Chinese.
Meanwhile, the South
African Catholic Bishops Conference last weekend invited Deputy President
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to a special service of blessing at Marianhill near
Durban. They evidently felt that after recent statements that the suffering
in Zimbabwe was an internal matter she needed their help.
Richard
Menatsi, the secretary-general, told the SABC the Zimbabwean government
through its policies and actions had wreaked havoc and suffering among the
people. They, therefore, had reservations about financial assistance being
given to Zimbabwe.
Menatsi said they had invited the deputy president to
receive the church's blessing as she was occupying an important position in
the country and they wanted to offer her all their assistance. He said the
Catholic Church was concerned about fraud and corruption. According to
Menatsi, the Catholic Church faced serious challenges of bringing comfort
and compassion to people in countries such as Zimbabwe where widespread
suffering is the order of the day.
Has the Herald's Fortious Nhambura
found out the correct date of the arrival of the Pioneer Column yet? He was
10 days wide of the mark, a reader points out. And Olley Maruma appears to
be mixing up Yankee Doodle Dandy with Crocodile Dundee to produce a film
called "Yankee Doodle Dundee". Very amusing!
The Sunday Mail's Emilia
Zindi, who interviewed Nathan Shamuyarira on land reform, needs a word of
caution. Yes, the governments of South Africa and Namibia are facing
difficulties in forging ahead with land reform policies. But listen to their
spokesmen - and even South Africa's radical Landless People's Movement - and
you will hear the same thing: "We don't want to go the way of
Zimbabwe".
Zimbabwe is being held up as an example of how land reform can
go bad unless managed in a proactive way. Emilia, who made no disclosure
about her interest in land reform, should have asked Shamuyarira what has
happened to his biography of President Mugabe. Why does that no longer
appear to be in the pipeline?
And why does Shamu think Britain and
America need Zimbabwe's agriculture to "sustain" their economies? Which bits
of the basket case do they need?
Finally, amidst all the indignation over
the Tibaijuka report, why did nobody ask what happened to government's
pledge of "Housing for all by the year 2000"? How come that target came and
went without anybody noticing?
Tourism in limbo as sector declines 8% Godfrey
Marawanyika THE country's tourism sector continues on a downward spiral after
it recorded an 8% slump in the first six months of this year, while hotels
operated below break-even point.
Tourism statistics prepared by the
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) for January to June show that the country
received 766 986 visitors compared to 830 178 over the same period last
year.
Last year's figure also showed a decrease of 36% compared to
the same period in 2003.
The ZTA said that over and above the 766
986 tourist arrivals, there were 298 614 people in transit, while 282 328
were day-trippers.
Of the one-day arrivals, 121 401 came through the
Nyamapanda border post, while Victoria Falls recorded 62 112
visitors.
During the first six months of the year, the country
recorded a total of 856 578 returning residents.
Although
Zimbabwe has sour political relations with European Union member states and
the United States, opting to deal with Asian countries, visitors from Europe
still constitute the majority of tourists.
"Of the total overseas
tourist arrivals, Europe contributed 60%, America 20%, Asia 13% and Oceania
7%," the ZTA said in a report.
"The leading source countries remain
the United Kingdom (28%), the USA (14%), France (8%), Benelux (Belgium,
Netherlands and Luxemburg) (6%), Canada (5%), China/Hong Kong (4%) and
Austria (4%)."
Overall, between the first half of 2004 and this year,
European markets registered an increase of 21%, while Asia, which the ZTA
considers an emerging market, declined by 15%, Oceania by 5% and America by
1%.
The ZTA could however not release the period's earnings, arguing
that they were still to be handed over to them by the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe.
The government has over the past three years been focusing
its attention on doing business with Asian countries - China, Malaysia,
Thailand and Singapore.
Despite the political shift, this has so
far failed to translate into real economic gains.
The country's
Approved Destination Status given by China has not been followed by an
influx of visitors.
The ZTA said hotel occupancy rates remain "even
lower than the point of break-even".
During the first half of the
year, Masvingo region recorded a decline both in room and bed
occupancies.
Its bed occupancies decreased from 37% in the first half
of 2004 to 28% this year.
Low interest rates make govt bonds unattractive Eric
Chiriga/Thomas Mutswiti ANALYSTS say government bonds are not attractive
enough to be fully subscribed because of their long maturing periods and low
interest rates.
Currently the average 91-day Treasury Bill rate is 185%
and compounding the rate for three years will give a better return than
holding the three-year paper giving a Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate of
return of 164%.
The capital market has been awash with bonds as the
government strives to get funds for capital projects, parastatal
resuscitation and local authorities reorientation.
The bonds have
also been issued to assist government in converting short-term loan to
long-term debt.
The government last week invited applications from
investors to subscribe for the three-year bond at an interest rate of CPI
flat.
The offer closed yesterday.
Recent $500 billion
bonds were quoting an interest rate equivalent to the CPI
rate.
In spite of the RBZ engineering all forms of incentives to
attract investors, the bonds have largely been under
subscribed.
Market watchers say there is zero return in investing in
bonds because the interest rate offered is equal to the inflation
rate.
The interest rate on the bonds is the annual rate of inflation,
effectively providing zero real returns.
They believe that in the
short to medium-term interest rates will continue to firm and hence fear
losing out by holding on to the long-term paper.
A dealer from one
discount house also attributed the under subscription to the unattractive
terms being given.
Given also the thrust by the Reserve Bank (RBZ) to
target an inflation rate of 80% by year-end that would mean a paltry return
to the investors.
Economic analyst, John Robertson, said government
bonds are always under-subscribed because of the negative real rates of
interest.
"The interest rates do not compensate the lender for
inflation. At the end of the year the lender gets less for his money,"
Robertson said.
He said government's imposition of prescribed asset
ratios on pension funds was also unfair.
The funds are obliged to
tender for the bonds.
"Pension funds have become victims of massive
redistribution of wealth and pensioners cannot retain their lifestyles,"
Robertson said
"Government borrows money for recurrent expenditure
and not for investment and it ends up borrowing again to repay another
debt."
Robertson said the government has become a victim of its own
policies that are stripping away savings.
Investors would rather
rollover their short-term investments than hold bonds as evidenced by the
current support being given to Treasury Bills (TBs) issues in the primary
market.
There are competing options for the same money that the
government wants to raise.
The pension fund manager has the
option of investing in the stock market where the realised return has more
often than not beaten the fixed income securities even where the rate is
floating but without premium above inflation.
Another issue is
the liquidity issue.
The bond market in Zimbabwe is so thin that it
is very difficult to liquidate the instrument at a fair value or sell the
bond without suffering substantial loss of value.
With stocks the
pension fund manager simply restructures his portfolio by selling some
shares should he urgently need funds.
Pension funds that already meet
the prescribed asset ratios are thus turning to the stock market and
property section where real returns potential is better.
Pension
fund managers also highlighted they were being robbed through requiring them
to buy unattractive bonds as prescribed assets and hence suggested that
actuarial input be made when the government sets prescribed asset
ratios.
They argued that the current 40% requirement at sub optimal
rates of return meant that the Zimbabwean pensioner would be very poor at
the end of the day yet the manager has a duty to invest where real returns
will be realised for the client.
As long as pension funds comply
with the prescribed asset ratios they will not subscribe to new issues and
instead invest in stock market for long-term capital growth, which will be
above inflation or buy Treasury Bills in the secondary market if the rates
are attractive.
The undersubscription has also been attributed to the
lack of investor confidence in the RBZ on the back of continuous policy
uncertainties particularly with regards to interest rates.
The
RBZ has been constantly reviewing interest rates and that has meant that
those people who take up bonds with rates not CPI linked at any point in
time will suffer a considerable amount of interest rate risk.
If
interest rates fall during the life of the bond, the holders of the bond
will enjoy higher prices and hence portfolio values go up. In the event that
such rates go up, the prices of the bonds will fall causing a fall in
portfolio values.
This interest risk has been exacerbated by the
policy uncertainties that the RBZ has embarked on.
Interest rates
are being changed arbitrarily.
Analysts also cited the mid-term
monetary policy statement by RBZ governor, Gideon Gono, where he announced
interest rates of 180% and 190% for secured and unsecured overnight
accommodation respectively and then a week later another 10% rate hike was
made.
They said that such policy uncertainties have the effect of
undermining public confidence in these financial instruments to the extent
that even well structured bonds are being undersubscribed.
One
fund manager said he believes that the issues are under-subscribed because
the money that the authorities want to raise is too much and the market does
not have that kind of money.
"Buildings form the core assets of
pension funds and these are not liquid investments such that even if the
pension funds were to conform with prescribed asset ratios that would take
time," he said.
To reinvigorate the interest in the government
financial instruments, the RBZ should offer a reasonable premium above the
CPI to enable investors to realise real returns.
"A rate of CPI
plus 10% would give reason to investors to buy the government stocks," one
analyst said.
Power cuts to continue Godfrey Marawanyika POWER
outages currently plaguing Zimbabwe's urban areas are set to persist for the
foreseeable future as the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority does not
have the US$7 million needed to service its generators.
The perennial
outages have also hit industry, resulting in reduced productivity across all
sectors of the economy.
The central bank is allocating only US$125
000 to Zesa due to high demand for hard currency from other
sectors.
Since the beginning of the winter season, the country has
been experiencing shortages of 500 MW on a daily basis.
The
blackouts, which are expected to last until the end of the cold spell, have
seen a huge surge in demand for power because of winter wheat irrigation and
curing of tobacco.
Obert Nyatanga, Zesa's general manager for
corporate affairs, said their generators were in dire need of
maintenance.
"There is need to repair most of the generators. Most of
them are continuously breaking down," he said. "We expect the blackouts to
last until the end of this month at the earliest," he said.
"The
repairs do not come cheap as they require foreign currency. We do get some
from the Reserve Bank but have to wait like everyone else," said
Nyatanga.
Over the past two months the country has been
experiencing serious power blackouts, which have resulted in industry
operating at below 50% of capacity.
Zesa generates 68% of
national power requirements with 750 MW from Kariba Power Station, 590 MW
from Hwange Power Station and 100 MW from internal thermal power
stations.
The balance of 650 MW comes from Eskom (300 MW),
Hydroelectrica de Cahora Bassa (250 MW) and 100 MW from Snel in the
DRC.
Zesa needs US$13 million a month to import power, pay debts and
to purchase spare parts.
The power utility has since warned that
because of the low volume of water supplies at Kariba Power Station the
country could face serious power deficits.
Confederation of
Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) president Pattison Sithole said most of his
members were being badly affected by unreliable power
availability.
Although he could not be drawn into commenting on
the overall business lost due to power outages, he said Zimbabwe Sugar
Refineries was feeling the impact of the power cuts.
Sithole is
group chief executive of ZSR.
"I cannot comment on the level of lost
business for the industry as we have not done an assessment," he
said.
"However, at ZSR last week we had two days without power so
there was no production."
Sithole said a number of CZI members
had been affected by the unreliable power supplies, which made it virtually
impossible to set production targets.
"Right now, we do not have a
plan of what to do because of the shortages of electricity," he said.
SOUTH Africa's National Assembly speaker Baleka Mbete told
parliament's programme committee yesterday that she would approach Finance
minister Trevor Manuel to make a statement on the proposed loan to
Zimbabwe.
The committee is attended by the whips of the various political
parties represented in the Assembly.
Mbete said: "I am
approaching the Minister of Finance to make a statement (on
Zimbabwe)."
She said it was "clearly" a matter of public interest and
the statement would be an opportunity "to see what this is all about". It
would also give parliament the opportunity "to express itself", said
Mbete.
Cabinet is expected next week to provide a final pronouncement
on the loan to troubled Zimbabwe but it has already agreed "in principle" to
aid Zimbabweans but said this was tied to long-term economic and
constitutional reforms involving civil society, business, labour and
political parties.
Embattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has
already said he would not accept SA aid if it depended on dialogue with the
official opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) - although the
opposition party has indicated that it had not demanded bilateral talks with
the ruling Zanu PF.
Official opposition Democratic Alliance chief
whip Douglas Gibson said in a statement that following President Mugabe's
apparent rejection of the bail-out for his country, "government must in no
way bend its conditions or beg the Mugabe government to accept its offer of
financial assistance".
"It is now quite evident that government's
strategy on the proposed loan is starting to fall apart. It was obvious
right from the outset that attaching conditions to the bail-out package
would be problematic because first, the Mugabe government has proven time
and again that it cannot be trusted to abide by its word, and second because
it has also made it clear on a number of different occasions that it will
not accept any conditionalities.
"What is also concerning is that the
government's apparent insistence on talks between Zanu PF and the MDC is out
of step with the views of the MDC. The MDC has made it clear that it has
never demanded talks ... and further that it has no interest in serving in a
government of national unity with Zanu PF.
"What is now glaringly
obvious is that years of a confused and misguided foreign policy towards
Zimbabwe have now come home to haunt the government. It is quite bizarre
that after the government and ANC delegations went out of their way to
legitimise a fundamentally flawed election held earlier this year that the
government has now decided to put the issue of elections and talks on the
table.
"How can the government make such a demand when its official
policy is to view Zanu PF as the democratically-elected government of
Zimbabwe? Had it not adopted such a fawning approach to Zanu PF over the
last five years then it would have been in a much more credible position to
make such demands."
Gibson said: "It now appears that yet again
President Mbeki has been outplayed by the cunning of Robert Mugabe, who will
quite obviously not accept strict conditionalities. Now is the time for the
government to play hard ball and either enforce these conditions or more
appropriately abandon the loan altogether. Either way the time has come for
President Mbeki to take the nation into his confidence about how the
government is going to act." - I-Net Bridge.
Is it a few moments before dawn.? By Admire
Mavolwane AT this moment in time the toughest question one may unfortunately
(or otherwise) be called upon to address and probably provide some insight
into is: "What does the future hold for the country?" Or, "Where will
Zimbabwe be in two months' time?"
The same question can be posed
across our social and economic endeavours, starting at a macro level and
trickling down to micro levels such as firms, schools, churches and even
households.
The deeply religious might open the Holy Book, read a few
wise words, and perhaps proclaim that "the end is nigh".
Business
people, however, are by their very nature an optimistic lot and would vow
that things will come right one day. Politicians would proffer advice
through parables or metaphors like "the night is always darkest just before
the dawn" and hence, with the future looking very dim indeed, things are
about to get better.
The cynics would obviously counter by stating
that "we have heard all that before".
Everyone probably has their
own very strong opinion on this vexing question which, understandably at
this point in time, cannot be addressed with much conviction.
The
country's back appears to be firmly against the wall and outside or foreign
intervention on the economic front has never been more critical. It is
heartening that the authorities are at least aware of this fact, to judge
from media reports.
No official figures have been put forward as
to how much the country is set to borrow from South Africa but the
authorities did confirm that they have opened negotiations with their
counterparts across the Limpopo River.
It has also been confirmed
that the IMF decision on Zimbabwe has been postponed to September 9 - some
say this stay of execution is at the behest of South Africa. Investors
appear to have already taken a position on the loan, the consequences of
accessing, or losing it, and even on the fiscal policy review which has been
postponed twice already.
The minister responsible has justifiably
been busy shuttling between Harare and Pretoria.
The four-day
sojourn obviously allowed investors to take stock, weigh the pros and cons
and decide on the best route. Clearly, the consensus was to seize the bull
by its sharp horns because after the holidays, the market took off from
where it had tentatively left off but with even more zest.
This
Wednesday, the industrial index shrugged off the vacation blues gaining
3,24% to reach a new all-time high of 4 257 771,58 points. All indications
are that the bulls are unstoppable with the onset of the reporting season
and release of the July inflation figure likely to be the tonic needed to
start a stampede.
However, judging by the results released so
far, the former could prove to be a hindrance rather than a
catalyst.
Dairibord (DZL) threw down the gauntlet, releasing six
months to June 30 results on July 29 followed last Wednesday by Interfresh
whose interim numbers were unveiled to the market through the customary
analysts' briefing.
Starting with DZL; turnover increased by 203%
to $470,5 billion spurred on by significant sales volumes growth across most
of the product lines.
Operating margins however succumbed to
inflationary and possibly political pressures, declining from 18 to 15% with
this compression attributed to price controls on milk products and
inflationary increases in costs. Operating profits thus grew by a watered
down 140% to $68,4 billion.
The 40%-owned associate ME Charhon
contributed $10,6 billion to the bottom line, compared with $3,1 billion in
the prior period whilst interest inflows of $9,8 billion were recorded, a
noteworthy recovery from the finance charges of $3,4 billion in
2004.
Attributable earnings of $58,7 billion were realised showing an
increase of 218% on the $18,5 billion achieved in the same period last
year.
The group remains in a healthy cash position closing the period
with a bounty $47,6 billion after paying off $23,3 billion to the
shareholders as a dividend and utilising a further $20 billion to fund the
purchase of shares donated to the Employee Share Trust.
As has
become the norm, the board did not commit itself as to what the company will
deliver for its shareholders in the second six months. It did, however,
express its confidence that the group is well-geared to face up to the
current economic challenges and will continue to produce satisfactory
performance.
Interfresh's interim results, whilst showing a
rather solid performance, were presented by the new regime in such a sombre
tone that they left many downbeat. Although not different from the previous
set of results, where history will confirm that the company has never
outperformed market expectations, the vitality and panache of the previous
CEO, Evan Christophides, somehow induced a sense of hope and optimism in the
group's future.
Turnover for the six months was up 134% to $185
billion, driven mainly by local sales which grew by 170% whilst exports
increased marginally by 39% amid viability concerns in the export
markets.
Poor quality citrus fruit coming from outgrowers which had
to be diverted to the juicing factory - obviously the country is now paying
the price of the 2000 adventures -also affected the quantity of citrus
exported. This combined with weak international prices on the flower side of
the business contributed to the lukewarm top line
performance.
Reduced export revenues coupled with high local
inflation saw margins yielding four percentage points to 10%.
The
firming of the US dollar against the euro also affected margins as the
revenues from flowers are in euros whilst freight and logistics are charged
in American dollars. Consequently, operating profits increased by only 80%
on the previous period to $19,7 billion.
Attributable earnings of
$12,8 billion were realised, up 133% on the first six months of
2004.
Whilst the new exchange rate of $17,500 to the US dollar will
go a long way in improving the viability of exports, it will not be too long
before local inflation catches up, unless regular reviews are
effected.
The announced impending closure of the Smithfield hypericum
venture and Citrifresh Exports cast a dark pall over the future of the
group, especially as these ventures are no more than two years old and,
according to previous management, held a lot of promise. Furthermore, the
decommissioning costs were not available and could be a surprise hit to the
income statement come year-end.
In similar vein to DZL, the board
of Interfresh gave a non-committal outlook, which serves to underline our
assertion that the future, be it in business, political or social circles,
is now even more unpredictable than what we had previously become accustomed
to. Understandably, those entrusted with the preservation and enhancement of
shareholders' wealth are not willing to put their heads on the block and
promise superior returns come year-end.
THIS week we
run in full the report of United Nations Special Envoy Anna Tibaijuka on
Operation Murambatsvina. We have no doubt that a majority of our readers
will have seen government's and civil society's very different reactions to
the report but have not had the opportunity to read it themselves.
We
provide an opportunity this week for our readers to acquaint themselves with
the useful remarks by Tibaijuka, not only on Murambatsvina but on why the
country is in this parlous state.
We would like to thank civic groups
who came in to advertise in the supplement or sponsor the publication of the
long report which I believe is a useful record of our short yet eventful
history since 1980.
That President Mugabe's government has tried to
convince us that the report is biased and inspired by the British does not
detract from the fact that Zimbabwe has garnered more medals for notoriety
by executing Operation Murambatsvina in the brutal way that they did.
Zimbabwe is a bad boy in the hood and as opposition MDC secretary-general
Welshman Ncube said in a statement last week, the UN report "gives Mugabe an
opportunity to break with the past and make peace with the people of
Zimbabwe and the outside world".
Our dear leader is not
interested in this. That is why his government elected to condemn the report
without making an effort to publicise its contents. If the report was a
really nasty piece of literature based on falsehoods, Mugabe could have done
his government a favour by publishing it so that people could judge for
themselves.
As was the case with the African Commission on Human
and Peoples' Rights report on Zimbabwe last year, the government saw it fit
to mobilise people against a report they had not seen. We will strive to
publicise all reports on Zimbabwe, negative or positive, because Zimbabweans
have a right to know what the international community thinks about their
country even if it amounts to a public flogging of its
leaders.
It is the hallmark of despotism to bombard the public with
tired presidential speeches which are reproduced in full in the state media.
The speeches have unfortunately long ceased to be useful archival
material.
In case you missed the Heroes Day offering, wait for the next
burial at the national shrine or Unity Day in December. Even then the
president will not talk about fuel problems or inflation or HIV and Aids or
the IMF debt. At Rufaro Stadium on Tuesday he spoke glowingly about the
campaign in the DRC which contributed immensely to our poverty. When is he
coming home to deal with Zimbabwe's predicament?
By contrast the
Tibaijuka Report deals with all the contentious issues we face today. That
is why Tibaijuka is not the flavour of the month in official circles. Read
her comments about the rule of law, property rights and about the
judiciary's failure to protect sacrosanct rights of the downtrodden
citizenry.
She comments without fear or favour on the ills of the
land reform programme and the assault on property rights. She did not have
kind words for "overzealous" politicians responsible for Operation
Murambatsvina and on how the economy has been screwed up. Indeed, she said
those responsible for initiating the clean-up campaign should be
prosecuted.
The report, an omnibus of varied inputs from a
cross-section of Zimbabwean society, including government, is important
because it brings to the fore the fact that everyone is agreed that the
economy is in a mess. There is agreement on the broader political context
that Zimbabwe requires more than just aid for the victims of Murambatsvina
and the so-called reconstruction programme. It needs a political settlement.
Tibaijuka's team could not miss that, hence the reference to dialogue in the
report. Please read the report in full.
More significant though
is the fact that she has set the agenda for any internal dialogue. AU
chairman Olusegun Obasanjo's anointed mediator in Zimbabwe, former
Mozambican President Joachim Chissano, has his work cut out for him when
drawing up the agenda. But first he has to convince Mugabe that the talks
are not "ill-conceived" and that efforts to promote dialogue by the
international community are not "misdirected efforts".
Mugabe knows that
any agenda for dialogue will have to deal with the crucial issue of the
shrinking democratic space, a haven for authoritarianism. He knows that
dialogue will entail media reform and doing away with oppressive laws like
the Public Order and Security Act. Also on the agenda should be reform of
security arms and the civil service which have all the bad traits of the
ruling party.
As Zimbabweans, we need to openly start debating
possible agenda items for national dialogue. Mugabe's obduracy aside,
dialogue will soon take place and it should have total local
ownership.
Significantly, Mugabe is subtracting himself from this crucial
process by pursuing Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street. He evidently misses
Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer's and Tesco. He can go on shopping sprees
while we face the reality at home.
But the bitter truth that he
should be told is that Blair is neither the cause nor the solution to our
problems of governance, economic mismanagement and political repression.
Everybody seems to understand that except him!
Tsvangirai welcomes Chissano's appointment Sat 13 August
2005
JOHANNNESBURG - Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai
on Friday welcomed the appointment of former Mozambican president Joaquim
Chissano to mediate in the country's crisis but said Chissano faced an
uphill task convincing President Robert Mugabe to agree to talks with the
opposition.
Tsvangirai, who has in the past accused South
African President Thabo Mbeki of siding with Mugabe when he tried to broker
negotiations in Zimbabwe, said Chissano, a close friend of Mugabe, had to
prove he was not taking sides in the southern African country's long-running
political dispute.
The African Union (AU) this week appointed
Chissano to mediate between President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF and
Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Tsvangirai told the Press from Seychelles , where he is holidaying:
"President Chissano is somebody who has left a very good legacy in
Mozambique . After 16 years of war he managed to resolve issues with the
opposition and left power without any controversy.
"I think
that gives him much more integrity and greater credentials to intervene in a
country which has also been instrumental in keeping the conflict in
Mozambique under control. He knows the burden is to prove that one is not
taking sides or you will not make progress."
But Tsvangirai, whose
MDC party poses the biggest threat Mugabe's 25-year iron fisted rule, said
the former Mozambican leader would, "have to find all the skill in the world
to convince the other side, which is a bit intransigent, to come to the
table."Zimbabwe is grappling its worst ever political and economic crisis
which critics squarely blame on economic mismanagement and repressive rule
by Mugabe.
The Zimbabwean leader denies the charges and instead
says Zimbabwe 's problems are mainly because of sabotage by Britain and its
Western allies who are out to punish his government for seizing land from
whites and giving it to landless blacks.
Fuel, essential
medical drugs, electricity and hard cash are all in severe short supply
while 1.2 million tonnes of food aid are required or a quarter of Zimbabwe
's 12 million people could starve
But Mugabe earlier this week
ruled out talks with the MDC to find a solution to Zimbabwe's crisis saying
it would be more useful to talk to British Premier Tony Blair, who he claims
is the principal behind the MDC. He also said he would however consider
talking to the MDC if the party stopped backing Western sanctions against
Zimbabwe government leaders. - ZimOnline
Defence applies for acquittal of Daily News journalist Sat
13 August 2005
HARARE - Defence lawyers representing banned Daily
News journalist Kelvin Jakachira on Thursday applied for the acquittal of
their client who is being charged for practising without licence from a
state media body.
Beatrice Mtetwa, who is representing Jakachira,
said she had applied for the discharge at the Harare Magistrates' Court
rguing the state had failed to prove its case.
The magistrate
is set to make a ruling on the application on Wednesday next week. Jakachira
faces a maximum two-year jail term if convicted.
Media and
Information Commission (MIC) chairman Dr Tafataona Mahoso, who is the sole
state witness in the case, conceded he had not personally considered
Jakachira's application among several others filed by the Daily News
journalists because their employer was not registered as a media service
provider.
The MIC chairman also admitted under cross examination
that one could not be prejudiced from practising if one does not receive a
determination from the regulatory body on the status of one's
application.
Mahoso argued that the applications by the journalists
had not been received by the January 2 2003 deadline. But the MIC chairman
was reminded by Mtetwa that there was a strike by Zimpost workers during the
same period which could have led to the delay in the movement of
letters.
"Mahoso also conceded that once an application has been
posted to the given postal box, one is deemed to have applied and that if
the MIC takes its time to collect the mail, that should not prejudice the
applicant," said Mtetwa.
Jakachira is being charged under
Section 83 (1) of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA) Chapter 10:27 which bars journalists from practising without a
licence from the MIC.
He is accused of practising without a licence
between January 2003 and September 2003 when the paper was shut down after a
Supreme Court judgment that ruled the paper was operating
illegally.
Eight other Daily News journalists who are facing
similar charges are expected to appear in court on 12 October
2005.
More than a hundred journalists have been arrested under the
country's tough media laws in the last two years. Four newspapers, including
the Daily News, have also been shut down during the same
period.
World press rights watchdog, the Committee to Protect
Journalists rates Zimbabwe among the three most dangerous countries in the
world for journalists. The other two are Iran and the former Soviet Republic
of Uzbekistan. - ZimOnline
ZANU PF official jailed for assaulting MDC supporters Sat
13 August 2005
HURUNGWE - A ZANU PF official from Hurungwe
district, about 290 kilometres north-west of Harare , was this week jailed
for three months for severely assaulting two opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) party members for wearing their party's
regalia.
The official, Albert Nyamapfeka, who is also a councillor
of the Hurungwe Rural District Council, beat up Medrina Humbasha and
Chamunorwa Dekesa when they turned up at a district development meeting two
weeks ago dressed up in T-shirts and other attire emblazoned with MDC
insignia.
ZANU PF members attending the same meeting were also
dressed up in their party regalia.
Sentencing Nyamapfeka to
jail, Hurungwe magistrate Morris Dingane said: "There was no need to fight
if you were addressing a developmental meeting and to say the two provoked
you by their attire is unacceptable in a democratic society."
Militant ZANU PF supporters have been accused of routinely beating up,
torturing or even murdering opposition supporters but very few have ever
been prosecuted, let alone jailed for the offences. - ZimOnline
Lawyers vow to fight proposed constitutional changes Sat 13
August 2005
HARARE - Zimbabwean lawyers on Friday said they will
fight proposed constitutional changes barring landowners from appealing
against seizures of their properties in the courts.
"We intend
to challenge the passage of this evil piece of legislation in all manners
and through all channels available to us," said the lawyers in a petition to
Zimbabwe 's judges and parliamentarians.
At least 100 lawyers
signed the petition.
The lawyers say they will take to the streets
next Thursday to protest against the planned constitutional changes in the
Constitutional Amendment Bill which is before parliament.
"As
officers of the court with a duty to the law, we cannot sit back and fail to
act while fundamental rights accruing to people are being
attacked."
Under the new law, the government can seize farmland
without paying compensation and bar farmers from contesting the seizure of
their properties.
The lawyers criticised the proposed
amendments saying they threatened to "ursurp the authority of the
courts."
"The amendment effectively usurps the authority of the
courts by denying people recourse to the law challenging state action which
violates fundamental human rights," the lawyers said.
The Bill
also seeks to reintroduce the Senate which was abolished more than 10 years
ago.
Civic groups and the main opposition Movement for Democratic
Change party have criticised the move saying President Mugabe wants to
accommodate his pals who were left out of parliament during last March's
controversial election. - ZimOnline
The ruling African
National Congress' (ANC's) approach to the rulers of Zimbabwe was in
"striking contrast" to its past approach to the apartheid regime, says
official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Tony Leon.
Leon said
in his Friday internet column, SA Today, that in October 1991 - three years
before the end of white minority rule in South Africa - then ANC official
(now South African President) Thabo Mbeki and (now Finance Minister) Trevor
Manuel took a strong public stance against any loans from the International
Monetary Fund for the government of then-President FW de Klerk.
Mbeki
and Manuel then were the leaders of the by then unbanned ANC's campaign to
isolate South Africa internationally.
Leon noted that Mbeki and Manuel
issued a 'double warning' to the IMF and World Bank ahead of their
conference in Bangkok, Thailand, and stipulated the following: "Firstly,
that any premature lifting of financial sanctions will enable the South
African cabinet to stall, and thereby imperil, the peace process. ANC
backing for loans from the IMF will be given only when an interim government
is installed.
"Secondly, that a future ANC government will feel free to
renegotiate any foreign loans made to De Klerk's administration if its terms
are deemed unduly onerous."
Leon said that by giving a loan - which
cabinet is expected to finalise next week - to President Robert Mugabe
today, "without making concrete political change an explicit and public
condition of that assistance, President Mbeki and Minister Manuel are doing
exactly what they opposed in 1991 - namely, propping up a government whose
rule has become an affront to human rights and a pariah in the international
community.
"President Mbeki and Minister Manuel, among others, argue that
a loan to Mugabe is necessary because we cannot afford to allow Zimbabwe to
collapse. But Zimbabwe has already collapsed - and it has done so partly
because South Africa's policy of quiet diplomacy over nearly six years has
been such an abject failure."
Manuel in particular had said, Leon
noted, that South Africa did not want a 'failed state' on our borders. "He
is offering us a choice between anarchy on the one hand, and
authoritarianism on the other.
"Neither he nor his government seems
willing or able to find the backbone to stand up for the third and best
option: renewed constitutional democracy, with Mugabe out of
office.
"Mugabe is not seeking emergency aid for the sake of his people.
If he were, he could make do with far less, and he would allow international
relief agencies to handle the money.
"In fact, giving billions of
rands to the (Zimbabwe ruling) Zanu-PF regime will do little to ease the
suffering of ordinary Zimbabweans and will in all likelihood achieve the
opposite by helping Mugabe stay in control. President Mugabe has repeatedly
stood in the way of aid, most recently delaying a South African Council of
Churches delivery of basic foods into the country on the flimsiest of
pretences.
"We must insist on the implementation of a 'road map to
democracy' ... the establishment of an interim government, the drafting of a
new constitution and the holding of new elections," said Leon.
"Only
then will it be appropriate for us to provide large-scale assistance to
Zimbabwe - as a reward for progress, not an incentive to pillage and
plunder."
[ This report does not
necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 12
Aug 2005 (IRIN) - The Zimbabwean government has dug in its heels over
proposed constitutional amendments and challenged its critics to take their
concerns to parliament.
Human rights activists and lawyers have slammed
the controversial Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No.17 Bill of 2005,
labelling it the latest in a long line of alterations to the
constitution.
Zimbabwe's fundamental law has been amended 16 times by the
ruling ZANU-PF government, the most notable being the abolition of the Prime
Minister's position, which led to the creation of an Executive Presidency in
1987.
Under the draft Bill the government seeks the power to restrict
freedom of movement in the name of national interest and security. If
passed, the proposed legislation will give the state the right to suspend or
withdraw the travel documents of citizens.
Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasa told IRIN on Thursday that there was no need for law-abiding
citizens to worry about the proposed changes because they were aimed at
improving national security.
"All laws are created to protect national
interests and this is just one of them. The restrictions on travel and
movement are not new, as it is normal procedure for any suspects to be
placed under such conditions," Chinamasa said.
"The Bill is due in
parliament, possibly this week. There is no need to discuss anything about
it until it goes through parliament. Those complaining about it should make
their representations to the parliamentary portfolio committee on justice,
legal and parliamentary affairs," he added.
Chinamasa would not be drawn
on the criteria for determining whether an individual or group posed a
threat to "national interest".
In representations to the Parliamentary
Portfolio Committee for Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs last week,
Zimbabwe Human Rights Lawyers (ZHRL), a civic group, complained that travel
restrictions were likely to be used against opposition party members and
civil rights activists, who have been critical of Harare's
policies.
Since March 2001, ZANU-PF legislators have argued for the
confinement of opposition leaders who enjoy political links and travel
rights to countries considered active in maintaining targeted sanctions
against some top ruling party officials.
Despite the concerns raised
by the opposition and civil society groups, the Bill is expected to sail
through parliament, which is dominated by the ZANU-PF.
US envoy pledges continued food aid to
Zimbabweans
MUTASA, Zimbabwe (AFP) - US envoy Tony Hall told
Zimbabwean families affected by the AIDS pandemic the United States will
help by continuing to provide food aid to the southern African
country.
"We are going to continue to help you and we hope that you will
get better," said Hall, the US ambassador to UN food agencies and a leading
US advocate of aid. Hall toured a feeding center run by a US-funded
non-governmental organisation, Africare Zimbabwe, which provides rations of
maize, cooking oil, beans and corn meal porridge to 255 households and to
1,470 orphans living with AIDS.
The visit to the eastern Zimbabwe
region came after a brief meeting with Zimbabwean Social Welfare Minister
Nicholas Goche in Harare that Hall described as "very
frustrating."
"We talked a lot about the situation here in Zimbabwe, the
high inflation, the long lines of people waiting for gasoline, the
HIV/AIDS problem and the fact that there just isn't enough food," Hall
said.
"He said 'we have it taken care of' and that everyone is being fed
and everybody is okay'," said the US envoy.
The UN World Food
Programme estimates that 4.3 million Zimbabweans are in need of food aid but
the government of President Robert Mugabe has said that far fewer people --
2.4 million -- are hungry in a country of close to 13 million.
At the
feeding center set up in a secondary school, Africare director Sekai
Chikowero said the recent government campaign to demolish homes, market
stalls and small businesses had aggravated food insecurity.
"The
people in rural areas do not have the capacity to take in some of the
displaced from urban areas who are coming here," said Chikowero.
The
10-week campaign that ended in late July left some 700,000 Zimbabweans
without homes or livelihoods, or both, according to a UN report released
last month that harshly condemned the blitz.
The government has said
the demolitions were necessary to rid urban areas of crime and grime and has
since embarked on a reconstruction program to build new
housing.
Zimbabwe is also one of the countries hardest hit by the HIV and
AIDS pandemic with at least 3,000 people dying weekly from AIDS-related
illness -- or about one person every three minutes -- according to the
National Aids Council.
The battle with the pandemic has been
compromised by a collapsing public health sector and dwindling funding due
to strained relations between Harare and big western donors.
Hall,
who is the US ambassador to the Rome-based World Food Program (WFP) and the
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), was to visit new settlements for
some of the victims of the demolitions campaign on the final day of his
Zimbabwe visit.
ZIMBABWE: Journalist for
banned newspaper goes on trial
New York, August 12,
2005-The trial of a journalist accused of working without accreditation for
the banned Daily News opened yesterday in a Harare court, according to his
lawyer and the Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA). Kelvin Jakachira
faces up to two years in prison in what is seen as a test case for other
former Daily News journalists.
Jakachira is accused of working
for the banned paper between January and September 2003 without the
government license required by the Access to Information and Protection of
Privacy Act (AIPPA). The Daily News, Zimbabwe's only independent daily, was
forced to close in September 2003 after the Supreme Court ruled that it was
operating illegally under AIPPA.
Jakachira's lawyer, Beatrice
Mtetwa, told CPJ the defense presented evidence that her client had applied
for a license from the government-controlled Media and Information
Commission (MIC), but received no reply-meaning that he was not operating
illegally under AIPPA. MIC chairman Mahoso Tafataona argued that his agency
could not accredit Jakachira to work for the Daily News because it was a
banned publication, she said.
The case was adjourned to
August 17. At least eight other former Daily News journalists are facing
similar charges and are likely to be brought to court in October, according
to MISA. Their prosecution could depend on the outcome of this case, CPJ
sources said.
"Prosecuting a journalist for doing his job speaks
volumes about the appalling state of press freedom in Zimbabwe and flies in
the face of basic international standards for freedom of expression," said
Ann Cooper, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "We
call on the government to drop these unfounded charges against Jakachira and
his colleagues, to permit the Daily News to reopen, and to repeal the
repressive AIPPA."
Since AIPPA became law in February 2002,
the government of President Robert Mugabe has used it to detain and harass
dozens of critical journalists, and to close four newspapers. It has not
successfully prosecuted a journalist under this law.
Fences Not the Only Barrier for Cross-Border Park Stephan
Hofstatter
KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, South Africa; Aug 12 (IPS) - The
Pafuri-Banyini pan in South Africa's north-eastern Kruger National Park
teems with game. Elephant bulls amble among clumps of marula trees and
impala leap gracefully across the grassland, where buffalo
graze.
Located in the triangle between the Limpopo and Luvuvhu rivers
where South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique meet, the pan is more than an
idyllic corner of Kruger, however: it will ultimately lie at the heart of
the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. This conservation area will encompass
35,000 square kilometres, allowing animals to follow ancient migration
routes between the Kruger in South Africa, the Limpopo National Park in
Mozambique and Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe.
The pressures
that are being brought to bear on the pan are indicative of problems that
the transfrontier park as a whole will have to grapple with -- a matter of
increasing importance as the deadline approaches for dropping another
stretch of border fencing to create the conservation area.
The first
section of fence to be taken down was a 15-kilometre strip in 2002, between
Mozambique and South Africa -- just north of where the Shingwedzi River
enters the Kruger. This year, a 30-kilometre section of fence will be
dropped south of the Shingwedzi - also between South Africa and Mozambique -
after the presidents of Zimbabwe, South Africa and Mozambique open the
border post at Giriyondo.
This post, between Kruger and the Limpopo
National Park, is the first to be opened under the transfrontier park
initiative. The ceremony is scheduled to take place in October.
Jack
Greef, a former special forces operative who has worked in wildlife security
in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Tanzania -- and
who now runs a crack ranger unit in Kruger -- believes dropping the fence
without beefing up patrols on both sides of the border will worsen
poaching.
Reports have already surfaced of rhino poachers from Mozambique
driving into Kruger through