Well here we are - facing another year in Zimbabwe. No one I have spoken
to
is at all optimistic that this coming year will be any better than the
last.
In fact most - especially business persons say they think it will be
worse.
The question that arises is therefore what are our options? Some might
say
"what options" but we always have options from which we can choose those
we
feel might pave the way for our own security, prosperity and
future.
One such option is to pack up and leave. Millions have done so
and now about
a quarter of our population lives in other countries. I say our
population,
as if there was some prospect of these migrants returning to the
country of
their birth, but we must be realistic and say that the great
majority will
in fact never come back. It's not an easy option - the break
with the past
is painful and expensive. Relocation to a strange country and
living amongst
strangers is never easy. But it remains an option and
unfortunately for
those of who choose to stay, many are taking up this option
and the flight
of our human capital continues apace.
The other option
is to stay - if you do you have two new domestic options -
you can fight for
a better future or compromise with the regime and maybe
even join the gravy
train. Many have taken the latter route - and some white
Zimbabweans have
gone that route. The rewards can be considerable, although
the risks are also
significant. If you take this route you better keep a low
profile or run the
risk of attracting international and domestic opprobrium.
If you chose to
stay and fight then what are your options? Not many. There
is still the MDC -
damaged by the recent infighting over options - the
choice between compromise
and cooperation to secure progress. But now there
is also a new group
gradually emerging - Zanu and MDC renegades currently
coalescing around what
is being called the "Potato Party" because it's
symbol looks like a potato.
There are some significant people in this new
grouping - Moyo, Mabaleka
perhaps Munangagwa eventually - perhaps Dubengwa.
The infighting within
both the MDC and Zanu PF is in fact forcing people on
both sides to choose
perhaps this "third force" as some of its supporters
might call it - among
them the owner of the remaining independent national
weekly newspapers in
Zimbabwe and the Mail and Guardian in SA. While this
goes on the effective
maneuvering of the two main political leaders - Mugabe
and Tsvangirai, is
frustrating the efforts being made to change the course
of events inside both
Zanu PF and the MDC.
As everyone well knows, Mugabe is a wily old devil
and still has the levers
of power firmly in his hands - even though he is
being forced to rely on his
security and military chiefs for decisions and
initiatives - like those that
led to Murambatsvina. The young Turks and
others who dreamt of removing
Mugabe and then rebuilding what was left of
Zanu PF as a Party and with it
the Zimbabwean economy, are not winning the
struggle going on inside Zanu
PF. Likewise the group led by Welshman Ncube in
the MDC is finding itself
being expunged from the MDC and their support base
within the Party across
the country being marginalized and
shrunk.
This represents a major failure of South African foreign policy
in the past
six months. Given the responsibility of securing change and
progress on the
political front by the G8 leaders in July 2005, Mbeki chose
to try and
manipulate the Zimbabwean political scene to persuade Mugabe to
step down
early, persuade what was left of Zanu PF to then pick up the pieces
and with
Western help, start work on an effective political and economic
recovery
plan.
This is very important to Mbeki - Zimbabwe remains his
most important
foreign policy issue and he well knows his peers in the west
are judging him
by his success or failure to deliver what he has undertaken
to deliver. At
the same time he fears the emergence of an MDC government here
which might
then encourage COSATU and the other elements on the left of the
ANC
alliance, to go it alone and challenge ANC hegemony in South Africa
itself.
This is going to happen eventually but Mbeki knows he must postpone
the
emergence of such an opposition alliance while he builds the center in
SA
politics and makes sure that the ANC straddles that position.
Such
strategic imperatives in SA politics have been dealt a severe blow by
the
failure of the initiatives taken in the second half of 2005. The
growing
impatience of the UN system also now poses a threat and Mugabe's
belligerent
attitude both the need for a change in direction and in the
approach to the
humanitarian crisis here is a real problem. The impending
visit to the
region by a senior UN official to follow up the recent debate on
Zimbabwe in
the Security Council is an immediate challenge.
But back
to options. When Kissenger took up the cudgels on behalf of
western
Governments in 1976 and undertook to remove Ian Smith as an obstacle
to
progress and change in Rhodesia, he did so with consummate skill and
the
effective use of the power and influence that his position gave him. The
US
had nothing at stake and it was a cheap and relatively easy task. Mbeki
has
the power to do the same thing - and just as quickly but fears the
fallout
in his own backyard - he cannot have both.
The hard-line
position adopted by Mugabe is yet another example of the
options available -
not a very sensible one, but it is an option and
unfortunately it has the
effect of determining the shape of other options
that are in front of us. Can
we take another four years of Mugabe? There can
be little doubt that Zanu PF
is going to extend the life of this presidency
to 2010, early in 2006. Can we
take yet further economic collapse and the
continuing decline in the quality
and level of services that are available
to us and are essential to our
health and welfare?
The answer to both these hypothetical questions can
be both yes and no. Yes,
if we feel there is really nothing that can be done
about Mugabe given the
fatal strictures on SA foreign policy towards Zimbabwe
and the low priority
we attract in international circles even though we are a
polecat. No, if we
feel we still have the capacity to take matters into our
own hands and
effect change.
The MDC is steadily moving towards its
second national congress. 12 000
delegates are expected drawn from 1900 Ward
Committees and 120 Districts and
12 Provinces. The Party still has majority
support across the country and it
can organise and hold major political
rallies at will in almost every part
of the country. With 2 million paid up
members it is without doubt the only
opposition grouping that can command
national support and grass roots
muscle. The question is what direction to
take after Congress? When we
launched the Party in 1999, we set out to change
the government by legal,
democratic and peaceful means. We have stuck to that
until now. Now we know
that elections are never going to yield change, what
other options do we
have? Some would say that if we abandon the electoral
route then only
violence remains. The question is what sort of force can be
employed?
History is riddled with examples of people who have thrown off
the mantle of
tyranny by peaceful means - Gandhi in India, recently the
Orange revolution
in the Ukraine - the overthrow of Marxist dictators in
Europe in the late 80
's and early 90's. But here we are up against a
formidable opponent - one
with degrees in violence. But he has never been
weaker or more isolated. He
is also getting older by the minute.
When
the MDC meets in early 2006, it will know that Mugabe has decided on
"four
more years". That might be enough - just enough - to finally bring out
the
fighting spirit that we know exists in Zimbabwe. We know that because we
have
all seen it before, it takes a lot of provocation to bring it out - but
when
it does finally emerge not even their "degrees of violence" will save
them.
What option will you choose this day, I have bought mine!
Eddie
Cross
Bulawayo, January 2, 2006.
Zim Daily
Tuesday, January 03 2006 @ 12:05
AM GMT
Contributed by: correspondent
The
embattled Zanu PF government is putting in place plans to
make youth service
training and indoctrination compulsory, a move the
opposition charges is
part of a wider effort to contain a looming revolt
against government.
Zimdaily heard that all high school graduates would be
required to undergo
youth training in government centres to instill them
with "patriotism" and
an unbiased understanding of the country's history.
Previously youths have been volunteering to join the national
youth service
where they are paid, fed and clothed. Ruling party sources
said high school
graduates would require youth service training before
obtaining a clearance
letter to qualify for jobs. Zimdaily heard that Zanu
PF will use its
Parliamentary majority to push through the House despotic
legislation
requiring that all youths attend the training. Recently, Zanu PF
youth chief
Savious Kasukuwere hinted that all aspiring journalists will
also have to
undergo the training first After almost 25 years in power,
President Robert
Mugabe (81) is making every effort to keep his Zanu PF in
office ahead of
upcoming presidential elections in 2008.
The move comes as
the opposition has made a threat to roll out
mass action this year aimed at
overthrowing President Mugabe's government.
Mugabe's brutal crackdown on the
opposition which has included tacit
government approval of violence against
opposition activists and legislation
aimed at silencing any dissent in the
country has been criticised by the
international community. The main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
said the move was retrogressive
and immediately called on the government to
disband youth militias
altogether. The opposition blames the militias, many
dressed in green denim
uniforms, of disrupting its meetings and rallies.
Under sweeping security
laws, police must be informed of arrangements for
rallies four days in
advance.
Opposition spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the
making the youth
training compulsory was retrogressive and a clear
indication of President
Mugabe's increasing paranoia. "This silly move is
aimed at stopping our
revolt against government by enlisting the youths into
their camps and
promising them jobs. Forcing youths to attend military
training only exists
in Fascist regimes," Chamisa said. At least 100 people
died in political
violence over the past five years and thousands have been
left homeless from
the unrest. Zimbabwe is suffering its worst ever economic
crisis, with
unemployment at a record 70% and inflation at an all time high
of 502%.
Reached for comment, ZAnu PF political commissar
Elliot Manyika,
said the youth training programme was needed because
teachers and parents
had not properly emphasised the importance of
patriotism and the country's
liberation struggle to Zimbabwe's young people.
Manyika said young people
were leaving Zimbabwe because they had not been
trained to fully appreciate
their country and stand by it in times of
crisis. Manyika's remarks echoed a
recent vow by one of Mugabe's top soldier
that they would only support
former leaders of the nation's liberation war
that led to independence from
white rule in 1980. Infact the general warned
junior troops against
supporting the opposition. Presidential opposition
challenger Morgan
Tsvangirai did not participate in the war and has been
described by Mugabe
as a traitor to the nation's revolutionary ideals. The
youth training
centres dotted around the country have so far deployed
hundreds of uniformed
youths across the country on what Manyika describes as
"community service".
Zim Daily
Tuesday, January 03 2006 @ 12:04 AM GMT
Contributed by: correspondent
An army worm outbreak in several
parts of Zimbabwe had put more
than 20 000 ha of newly planted food crops
and pasture under threat,
zimdaily heard this week. An official of the state
agricultural technical
and extensions services told zimdaily that the
department was battling to
contain the outbreak, which had caused damage to
many crops. Other officials
of the service were not available for comment
yesterday. Army worm is a
migrant caterpillar pest that attacks pasture
grasses, cereal crops and
sugar cane.
Drought, floods and
economic problems have reduced Zimbabwe's
agricultural output this year
while a controversial, often violent land
reform programme, has made it
difficult for thousands of people to access
food. The UN World Food
Programme (WFP) said last week that the first
shipment of food aid for 330
000 Zimbabweans had crossed the border from
South Africa. The WFP spent
US$1.8 million to buy 6 160 tons of maize,
beans, peanuts and oil from South
Africa to be trucked into southern
Zimbabwe to feed 330 000 people over the
next month, a regional spokesperson
said.
Industry
officials said Zimbabwe might need to import up to 600
000 tons of maize to
supplement domestic output, which fell sharply to 1.476
million tons in the
2004/05 season from 2.04 million tons previously.
Earlier this month
Zimbabwe state television said the government had bought
150 000 tons of
maize from South Africa. The government has also seized 36
000 tons of maize
from commercial farmers accused of hoarding the staple
grain.
Port Lincoln Times, South Australia
By Natasha Ewendt
Tuesday, 3 January 2006
THE Zimbabwe
Connection helping South Africans flee their country has
folded, and Member
for Flinders Liz Penfold wants the State Government to
take on the
program.
Mrs Penfold said the exodus of Zimbabweans followed a campaign by
the
Zimbabwean government to reclaim farms and businesses, often in
violence.
She said she feared for the lives of some who may not have been
able to
escape.
"I had been talking to a man in Zimbabwe who was
trying to get out, and was
expected to be coming to South Australia on
August 15, but he has
disappeared without a trace - I haven't heard from him
at all, and I hate to
think what may have happened to him and his family,"
she said.
"This has happened before."
In a letter to Premier Mike
Rann, Mrs Penfold said the need to continue
helping Zimbabweans out of their
country was dire.
"The need is huge, with the last 4000 farmers being
removed from their farms
without compensation, and the country was now
ranked seven out of eight on
the United Nations scale of genocide - eight
being wholesale genocide," she
wrote.
Mrs Penfold said on November 28
Jill Lambert in Adelaide stopped running the
Zimbabwe Connection, which
brought Zimbabweans to Australia and provided
them with jobs, as Ms Lambert
was "burning out" and the personal physical
and financial cost was
increasing.
Mrs Penfold said she had met with Bruce Billson,
Parliamentary Secretary to
Federal Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone, on
the difficulties being
experienced in getting migration approval for
Zimbabweans.
She said the State Government should take on this important
project, as the
Zimbabwe Connection had been highly successful, with more
than 300 families
being assisted to migrate, mostly to regional South
Australia, and there
were more than 400 current resumes on Ms Lambert's
books.
"If we lose Jill and the Zimbabwe Connection, we lose a valuable
source of
willing, well-educated, English-speaking immigrants for
hard-to-fill job
vacancies and to lift the State's population," she
wrote.
A State Government response could not be obtained as Mr Rann was
away.
Targeting skilled migrants
MORE skilled migrants from
across the world could be heading to Eyre
Peninsula to help the region's
chronic skills shortage.
The Eyre Regional Development Board is
encouraging local businesses to
employ skilled migrants through its
database, which matches overseas people
looking for work in Australia to
local jobs.
The board's economic development officer Peter Mitchell said
migrants were
being urged to look at regional areas, where workers were
needed, instead of
capital cities.
Mr Mitchell said there was a range
of programs under way to make it easier
for migrants to come to regional
areas, which could be positive for the
local workforce.
"Like a lot
of other regions, Eyre Peninsula has a terrible shortage of
skilled people,"
he said.
The board's database had already helped several international
workers find
work in the region, Mr Mitchell said.
"If an employer
comes to me and says "I need a diesel mechanic, can you
help?" I can do a
search on the database and come up with a list of
qualified people who want
to come here," he said.
"We can give the CV to the employer, who will
then shortlist people and
contact them, and we go through the process of
getting the chosen person
over.
"Both the employer and the employee
have to enter a two-year contract, which
gives both parties a degree of
security, and they also get permanent visas.
"There could be some
problems - the person comes over sight unseen, so the
employer hasn't had
the chance to sit and talk to them, but so far it's
worked out
well."
Mr Mitchell said the board recently sponsored a Zimbabwe
Connection
get-together at the Dutton Bay Woolshed, so the people who had
moved to Eyre
Peninsula through the Zimbabwe Connection could
network.
Herald, Eastern Cape
Harare - Tourism numbers to Zimbabwe dipped by more than a
quarter in the
July to September period last year compared with the same
period over 2004 -
a cause for "major concern", an official report has
said.
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority released the report late on Friday,
saying
that tourist figures had slipped by 27 per cent in the third quarter
compared with the previous year.
The state-run ZTA said "a total of
336 971 tourists came into the country in
the third quarter of 2005,
representing a 27% decrease compared with 463 471
tourists who came into the
country during the same period in 2004." The ZTA
noted a general decrease in
arrivals, "particularly from the overseas
market.
"The continuous
shrinking of this market is a major concern for the tourism
industry as this
is a high- spending market which contributes a large
proportion to foreign
receipts," it said, giving no reasons for the slump.
Zimbabwe's tourism
industry, once a major foreign currency earner, went into
a tailspin over
the last six years as Europeans and visitors from the United
States shunned
the country following controversial parliamentary polls which
foreign
observers said had been rigged by President Robert Mugabe's ruling
party.
Tourism numbers further slumped when veterans of Zimbabwe's
1970s liberation
war seized white-owned farms under a new land reform
programme.
The government launched a "Look East" policy two years ago to
forge closer
ties with China and Malaysia, hoping for an influx of oriental
visitors. In
addition, China granted Zimbabwe approved destination status,
promoting it
as a recommended holiday destination for its nationals. But ZTA
boss
Karikoga Kaseke said the initiative had so far not yielded
much.
From July to September, European tourists accounted for 57%, the
United
States for 22% and the rest of Asia excluding China, 15%. Most
visitors
still came from Britain and the US, despite Harare's strained
relationship
with the two countries. - Sapa-AFP
The Independent, Bangladesh
STEVE BRYNES
Experts believe that fewer than 5,000 African
wild dogs (Lycaon pictus,
commonly known also as the Cape hunting dog or the
painted hunting dog)
currently exist in the wild, and their range has
declined from 33 to 15
countries. Typically living in packs of 2 to 30
individuals led by a
dominant male and female, the largest populations now
exist in Botswana,
Zimbabwe and Tanzania. Northern Botswana supports
approximately 700 to 800
wild dogs, one of only four populations containing
more than an estimated
250 to 300 dogs in the whole of Africa. The Okavango
Delta, where our camp
(Sandibe Safari Lodge) was located, and surrounding
areas support healthy
populations of all African large carnivores and the
wild dog population of
northern Botswana is the largest remaining
unprotected African wild dog
population on the continent.
The radio
call came in about 5:30, an hour before sundown. Sage, our driver
and guide,
turned to us and, with an obvious excited edge to his voice,
said, "Another
car has sighted the impala running. They are being hunted,
perhaps by wild
dogs. Let's try to find them." Hearing this, Carlos, our
tracker, moved from
his foldable seat on the front bumper into the 4x4
landrover, a precaution
he followed whenever we neared predators. And our
hearts beat faster at the
prospect of seeing one of the African continent's
most endangered
animals.
A half hour later, after innumerable bounces and jostles as we
rode over
Botswana's rutted, sandy roads or through the tall grasslands that
marked
the end of the rainy season (late March), we broke out onto the
middle of
Chitabe airstrip. Sage turned around once again and apologized,
"I'm sorry.
We have seen nothing; perhaps now, before it becomes too
dark, is a good
time to stop for a drink and a snack." As Sage repositioned
the vehicle to
the end of the dirt airstrip I tried to reassure my wife,
"Don't be
disheartened. This is Africa and animals, even elephants and
giraffes, can
almost miraculously appear and disappear in the blink of an
eye. You just
never know when you'll have a great sighting."
While
Sage prepared our safari "tea," Carlos checked a nearby bush and
pronounced
it safe for personal use, the cue my wife and I had waited for.
As my
wife paced back and forth assessing the covering power of the bush
from
every angle, I began to tend to nature. No sooner had I begun than I
spotted
a pack of dogs gliding ghost-like across the airstrip in the fading
daylight. Thrilled to near carelessness, I jumped from the bush yelling to
Sage, "Dogs, dogs!" all the while zipping up. (Safari tip: Zip first, then
jump from bush to alert guides.)
Sage instructed us to return to the
vehicle immediately so we could try to
follow the dogs. As we dashed back,
my wife trailed, lamenting, "But I
didn't get to go!" A clear case of you
snooze you lose, safari style. No
sooner had we piled into the landrover
than Sage sped headlong into the tall
grass, more in an attempt to intersect
with the pack than to follow it.
Within 2 minutes, Sage brought the
vehicle to a stop, pointed about 20 feet
to our left and whispered with a
mixture of subdued pride and reverence,
"There are the wild dogs with their
kill."
We had come upon a pack of seven dogs that had taken down an
impala. About
the size of a German shepherd, the dogs have long legs, large
ears and
mottled fur of browns, black and white.
Two aspects of the
dogs' behavior became immediately apparent. First, they
ate at a remarkable
speed, the carcass disappearing rapidly as we watched.
Second, this was no
feeding frenzy, but rather an organized and well defined
scene,
characteristic of the dogs' feeding style. We noticed that upon
completing
their meal, the first two dogs to eat immediately left the impala
to set up
a perimeter some 10 feet away, on guard for hyenas that were sure
to
arrive.
Indeed, when the pack finished and departed, we noticed hyenas
skulking in
the heavy dusk towards the kill spot. Sage moved our vehicle and
from a
short distance, we soon could hear the crunching of bones as the
scavengers
went to work. At about 5 pm of the following evening's game ride,
with the
sun still fairly strong, we discovered a second pack of four dogs
lying
helter-skelter in the thick grass under several trees. Other than
occasionally lifting their heads to peer curiously at us intruders, the dogs
laid still, conserving energy for the upcoming hunt. Finally, thirty minutes
later, the alpha female arose, nuzzled each pack member onto its feet, and
then led the pack off at speed.
Sage was unable to track the smaller
pack and at about 6:00, he stopped for
our evening tea. As we stretched our
legs and enjoyed the spectacular
African sunset, with breathtakingly
colorful displays both in the western
and eastern (from reflection) skies, a
herd of impala tore across the plain
about 200 yards from us.
Some
five minutes later we saw the pack of seven dogs from the previous
evening
appear out of heavy grass.
The pack fanned out and, surprisingly, moved
deliberately and inexorably
straight for us. Someone mentioned that in
recorded history, there were no
confirmed reports of wild dogs attacking
humans. I couldn't help remembering
Bill Murray's line from "Caddyshack" and
thought, "At least we've got that
going for us."
Sage must have had
similar thoughts, because, as the lead dog got to within
15-20 feet of us,
he suggested, "They are just curious abou t us, but you
may want to consider
climbing into the car."
Just then the group edged around us and, as it
did so, a noise in the grass
behind them, probably caused by a Springhare
(rabbit), prompted the pack to
yelp and scatter. The tension broke, we
laughed, a bit nervously really, and
Sage explained that dogs, when
startled, run first and investigate later.