Harare - Basic commodities had all but disappeared from some shop shelves in
Zimbabwe Wednesday, a day after the authorities ordered a drastic 50 percent
price slash.
A snap survey in several supermarkets in Harare showed that bread, milk,
flour and cooking oil were no longer on the shelves.
'There's no supplies,' a shop assistant said in a supermarket in Harare's
Avondale suburb, popular with trendy young professionals, pensioners and
business people.
'No bread, no milk, no flour, no cooking oil, no eggs. Its a big problem,' he
told a shopper in the dimly-lit supermarket.
Avondale had been plunged into darkness by one of the capital's frequent
power cuts.
In a last-ditch bid to halt the dizzying price increases that have swept
Zimbabwe in the last few days, Industry Minister Obert Mpofu late Monday ordered
that prices be slashed by around half.
Under government orders, bread, which had been selling for as much as 55,000
Zimbabwe dollars a loaf was to be reduced to 22,000 dollars. Milk was to be
reduced from 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars per 500 ml to 27,000. A host of other new
prices were also announced.
Mpofu said the price increases were due to unruly behaviour on the part of
manufacturers and retailers. Business people however say they were forced to
hike prices because of the sudden collapse of the Zimbabwe dollar against the US
dollar.
The Zimbabwe dollar last week fell to 400,000 to the US for large
transactions on the black market, against the official exchange rate of 15,000
to the US.
By Wednesday supermarkets and suppliers appeared to be getting round the
government's decree by simply withdrawing their stock.
In a second supermarket, also in Avondale, there were empty shelves where
stocks of a popular brand of soap should have been. Shoppers were scrabbling for
a few remaining bread rolls.
By mid-morning, shop workers were lowering grills outside the shop as the
stores alternative power supply finally died.
In Sam Nujoma Street - where no bread, fresh milk, flour or eggs were to be
found - a shop assistant pointed angrily at expensively imported foods which are
not covered by government controls.
That's all my salary, he said, pointing to a box of South African breakfast
cereal priced at more than 700,000 Zimbabwe dollars.
com.
This
notice cannot be removed without permission.
Mozambique, Zim to ease visa rules
Sapa, 27 June
Maputo - Mozambique
and Zimbabwe will abolish stringent visa requirements
for its citizens by
the end of this year, official media has reported.
Vicente Veloso,
Mozambique's ambassador to Zimbabwe, was quoted in a
reported on Radio
Mozambique on Wednesday as saying talks to lift the visa
requirements were
at an advanced stage. He said an agreement would be signed
this week to
facilitate the lifting of the visas by December, this year, a
move that is
expected to facilitate the easier movement of people and goods
between the
two countries. Currently citizens of Mozambique and Zimbabwe pay
as much as
$30 (about R200) to enter each country on a single entry visa. In
the past
two years Mozambique has signed visa waiver agreements with
Swaziland, South
Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. Immigration authorities have
been quoted in the
local media as saying the visa waivers had resulted in an
increased movement
of people and goods.
Soldiers to enforce Zimbabwe price ban
Zimonline
Wednesday 27 June
2007
DIDYMUS Mutasa . . . business is working with foreign enemies to
effect regime change in Zimbabwe
By Farisai Gonye
HARARE - The Zimbabwe
government has drafted soldiers and police to help enforce a ban on price
increases it says are unjustified and meant to incite popular revolt against
President Robert Mugabe and his governing ZANU PF party.
State Security
Minister Didymus Mutasa on Tuesday told ZimOnline by telephone that an
unprecedented spate of price increases that has seen prices of basic goods
rising fourfold within the past week was the work of Harare’s foreign enemies
bent on unseating the government.
Enforcing the price ban was a security
matter that could not be left to the industry and economic ministries alone,
said Mutasa, who is a top lieutenant of Mugabe and is considered among the hawks
in the government.
"When business people work with foreign enemies to plan
an uprising of the people by unjustifiably increasing prices of goods, it
becomes a security matter," said Mutasa, who is also in charge of the
government’s controversial farm seizure programme.
Prices of basic
commodities have been on an upward spiral for the past three weeks, rising by
more than 500 percent during the period.
Economists say price increases
reflect a sharp depreciation in the value of the Zimbabwe dollar, which has lost
more than 125 percent of its value over the past three weeks and continues
sliding faster than any other currency on earth.
Mugabe’s government, which
has in the past accused business of conniving with its western enemies by
allegedly withholding commodities to create shortages in a bid to incite
Zimbabweans to revolt, on Monday reacted to price increases by announcing a
blanket freeze on prices.
Industry Minister Obert Mpofu, who chairs a
Cabinet Taskforce on Price Monitoring and Stabilisation, ordered the business
sector to reduce prices to 18 June levels, threatening those failing to do so
with unspecified action.
Mutasa, who also heads a joint security committee
comprising the Ministries of State Security, Defence and Home Affairs said
security forces would oversee an operation to force businesses to reduce prices
as directed by Mpofu.
He said: "All ministries falling into the security
category will be involved. Comrade Mpofu has done his job by announcing the
prices that businesses must adhere to. We will now enforce those prices, and we
are serious about it. We have to make sure that we avoid a price-induced revolt
that our enemies are working on."
However economists warned that commando
tactics favoured by the government would not work, saying what was required were
comprehensive political and economic reforms to end Zimbabwe’s economic crisis
and ensure stability of prices.
"You cannot use the gun to force businesses
to operate at a loss. Industry will just stop producing in hostile circumstances
as these, then the shortages (of basic goods) would worsen on the official
market," said Harare-based economic analyst John Robertson.
Political
analysts have said a total collapse of the economy could sweep Mugabe’s 27-year
old government out of power, with outgoing United States ambassador to Zimbabwe,
Christopher Dell, last week predicting the embattled Harare administration could
collapse before year-end.
Dell, an outspoken critic of Mugabe’s
administration, said no government throughout history had ever survived an
economic crisis of the magnitude Zimbabwe was facing, with inflation nearing
seven figure digits and the formal economy barely functioning.
Inflation -
pegged at more than 4 500 percent and the highest in the world - is the most
visible sign of Zimbabwe’s deep recession that has left more than 80 percent of
workers without jobs and spawned severe shortages of food, fuel, hard cash and
just about every basic survival commodity. – ZimOnline
A New Plan for Zimbabwe
New York Times
June 27, 2007
JOHANNESBURG, June 26 — Zimbabwe’s government has put forward legislation that
would require virtually all publicly traded companies to cede controlling
interests to “indigenous” citizens, raising the possibility of a sizable
redistribution of the country’s remaining wealth at a time when its economy is
collapsing.
The draft legislation, which was published Monday, would mandate that a 51
percent stake in the companies be transferred to Zimbabweans who were
“disadvantaged by unfair discrimination on the grounds of his or her race”
before April 1980, when the nation won independence from white rule.
The government calls it a plan for black empowerment, while critics label it
a bid to shore up crumbling political support for Zimbabwe’s president, Robert G. Mugabe. Given that Mr. Mugabe’s party
dominates Parliament, the measure will almost certainly pass.
The legislation would establish a government fund to help citizens buy stock
in public companies, and would allow the government to reject any corporate
mergers, acquisitions, investments and other transactions in which so-called
indigenous Zimbabweans did not hold a 51 percent stake. It was unclear, however,
how Zimbabwe’s bankrupt government, beset by hyperinflation and a currency
crisis, would finance the transfers.
Nor was it apparent how the companies’ new controlling stakeholders would be
chosen. The law apparently contemplates black workers at companies taking stakes
in their employers, a move that would surely win Mr. Mugabe some public support
as he prepares for what could be a difficult re-election campaign in early
2008.
Empowerment programs that transfer corporate stakes to black shareholders are
not unusual. South Africa’s government sponsors a highly successful, but much
criticized, program that has transferred large blocks of corporate stock to
workers and managers, and has helped make multimillionaires of a handful of
well-connected businessmen.
Mr. Mugabe’s critics, however, say the proposal is a scheme to loot the
remainder of Zimbabwe’s economy for the benefit of political insiders and
backers of the president. To them, the legislation evokes the specter of Mr.
Mugabe’s seizure of thousands of white-owned farms early this decade, mostly
without compensation, in what was then called a redistribution of land to poor
blacks. Instead, many of the best farms were awarded to leading figures in Mr.
Mugabe’s government and his ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front.
Rather than confiscating stakes in companies, however, the legislation
envisions a more gradual, potentially compensated transfer of ownership.
At the same time, the government began an effort to rein in Zimbabwe’s
hyperinflation, officially about 4,500 percent, but described by private
economists as approaching 20,000 percent. A cabinet-level task force on price
controls ordered factories and sellers to cut the prices of certain basic goods
and services by as much as 50 percent — to levels that existed roughly one week
ago.
Mr. Mugabe’s minister of industry and international trade, Obert Mpofu, said
that increased prices were unjustified and that they were “a political ploy
engineered by our detractors to effect an illegal regime change against the
ruling party.”
Shopkeepers throughout the country ignored the decree, according to several
Zimbabweans interviewed by telephone on Tuesday. “No one is even thinking about
freezing prices,” said one member of the ruling party, on condition of anonymity
because of a fear of retribution.
That person and others interviewed Tuesday suggested that both the price
decree and the ownership legislation reflected an increasingly frantic effort by
Zimbabwe’s rulers to contain the damage from an economy that has moved in recent
weeks from steep decline to outright free fall.
Inflation is now so steep that Zimbabwe’s currency is virtually worthless.
The plummeting Zimbabwe dollar, now trading on the black market at about 130,000
to one United States dollar, collapsed last week to as low as 400,000 to an
American dollar before recovering. The drop was almost certainly the result of
Zimbabwe’s reserve bank flooding the black market with freshly printed bills,
seeking to buy scarce foreign currency to pay its own debts.
Prices change daily, if not hourly; one news report last week noted that
golfers at a Harare country club were paying for their 19th-hole drinks before
teeing off after discovering that prices were rising while they were on the
course.
The nation’s industrial production, estimated to be running at only 30
percent of capacity, is grinding to a halt in many places. “The rapid rise in
prices is a killer for all concerned,” said Iden Wetherell, an editor at the
weekly Zimbabwe Independent newspaper in Harare. “What you’re seeing now is
people not bothering to go to work. It’s not worth it when their incomes are
consumed entirely by transport costs. Things are deteriorating exponentially
here.”
Mr. Mugabe’s critics and a Harare economist said Tuesday that the
“indigenization” legislation would almost certainly make Zimbabwe’s economic
havoc even more severe by driving away the few foreigners still willing to
invest in the country. The flight of foreign capital has been a crucial element
in Zimbabwe’s economic decline, and until the draft legislation was published,
the government had been courting Chinese investors and other outsiders, albeit
with little success.
“The investment environment here is very fragile, and this is the kind of
stuff that, even if it were warming up, would kill it,” said the economist, who
declined to be named for fear of retaliation by the government. “Obviously, it’s
going to scare even more people away.”
Foreign firms with stakes in Zimbabwean businesses reacted cautiously to the
proposal. “This is still a draft piece of legislation, which means it is open
for general comment,” said Ross Linstrom, a spokesman for Standard Bank Group of
South Africa, which has a subsidiary in Zimbabwe. Implats, a South African
mining giant with a large platinum mine in Zimbabwe, said through a spokesman
that it had already ceded part of its Zimbabwe reserves to the government and
that it believed that it was already in compliance with the law.
The government has said that the law will apply to all companies, including
the foreign banks and mining firms that power much of what is left of the
economy. However, legislation that would have transferred a 51 percent stake in
mining firms has lain dormant in Parliament for months, after mining firms
protested that it could lead to chaos and steep drops in production. More
recently, the government has indicated that it might nationalize some sectors of
the industry, like coal and uranium mining, but that it would impose less
stringent rules on some other sectors.
Some critics noted that one effect of the legislation would be to make a huge
pool of corporate stock available for distribution to lucky Zimbabweans —
factory workers and black managers, perhaps, but also those with political
influence. Some of Mr. Mugabe’s closest allies have become fabulously rich, even
by Western standards, during his 27 years in office, those critics say.
Moreover, Mr. Mugabe has frequently doled out patronage to ensure that his
close allies remain close. Earlier this month, Mr. Mugabe handed out more than
1,000 Chinese tractors and some 30 harvesters to members of the ZANU-PF ruling
party’s central committee, high-ranking officers in the army and air force,
provincial and national officials in the Central Intelligence Organization, and
ministers and deputy ministers in the government, among others.
Should the proposal become law, one member of the ruling party predicted,
corporate stakes would follow suit. “The situation is desperate here,” that
person said. “And so we are taking desperate measures.”
Zimbabwe tries to curb 4,500% inflation
But most businesses ignore a
government order to cut prices as monetary
values plunge.
By ASSOCIATED
PRESS
Published June 27, 2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's government
announced sweeping price cuts in a
bid to curb inflation Tuesday and said it
has set up a unit drawn from all
of its security agencies to enforce the
cuts.
But most businesses ignored the government's directive, and there were
no
reports of arrests.
Far from cutting prices, retailers have been
struggling to keep up with the
falling value of the Zimbabwean dollar, in
some cases curtailing their hours
of business to give employees time to put
new, higher prices on goods.
Inflation is now so steep that Zimbabwe's
currency is virtually worthless.
Prices change daily, if not hourly. One
report last week said golfers at a
Harare country club were paying for their
19th-hole drinks before teeing off
after discovering that prices were rising
while they were on the course.
Official inflation is running at 4, 500
percent, the highest rate in the
world, but independent financial
institutions calculate real inflation on
essential goods at closer to 9, 000
percent.
Official inflation could be expected to drop dramatically in light
of the
new official prices.
Industry Minister Obert Mpofu announced
Tuesday the price cuts of up to
two-thirds on a range of basic goods and
services, from commuter
transportation to bread, sugar, meat, milk, cornmeal
and even newspapers,
state radio reported Tuesday.
Mpofu accused what he
called "unscrupulous and insensitive economic players"
and "economic
saboteurs" of profiteering and using price increases as a
political ploy in
a campaign to bring down the government.
Mpofu ordered gasoline prices
reduced from about $4 a gallon to about $1.20.
Prices of cooking oil, tires,
soap and bus fares were to be cut by more than
half. State controlled
newspapers were to reduce their cover prices by
one-third, Mpofu
said.
President Robert Mugabe also recently moved to require that virtually
all
public companies cede controlling interests to "indigenous citizens, " a
plan the government calls black empowerment and Mugabe's critics label a bid
to shore up his crumbling political support.
The proposal, issued in
draft legislation published Monday, would transfer a
51 percent stake in the
companies to Zimbabweans who were "disadvantaged by
unfair discrimination on
the grounds of ... (their) race" before April 1980,
when the nation won
independence from white rule.
The proposal would establish a government fund
to help citizens finance
stock purchases, and it would allow the government
to reject any corporate
mergers, acquisitions, investments and other
transactions in which
Zimbabweans did not hold a 51 percent stake.
It was
unclear, however, how Zimbabwe's bankrupt government would finance
the
transfers. Nor was it apparent how the new owners of the companies would
be
chosen.
Mugabe's critics called the proposal another scheme to loot what
remains of
the economy for the benefit of government
insiders.
Information from the New York Times was used in this report.
Inflation-ravaged Zimbabwe orders prices slashed
Tue 26 Jun 2007, 13:27
GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE, June 26 (Reuters) - President Robert
Mugabe's government has ordered
prices of basic goods and services to be
slashed to protect Zimbabweans
battling with the world's highest inflation
rate, official media reported on
Tuesday.
The measure is intended to
return prices to the levels of June 18 -- since
when the price of many basic
goods has risen by up to 300 percent.
But it will be only a limited help for
consumers when prices of basic goods
such as cooking oil, flour and milk are
marked up every day. Official data
put annual inflation at 3,700 percent in
April, and the figure now is
certain to be far higher.
"Government is
aware that these escalating price increases are a political
ploy engineered
by our detractors to effect an illegal regime change against
the ruling
party and the government following the failure of illegal
economic
sanctions," International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu was quoted as
saying by
the official Herald newspaper.
Zimbabwe, once one of Africa's most prosperous
countries, is suffering not
only soaring inflation and poverty, but also
high unemployment and chronic
shortages of fuel, food and foreign
exchange.
Many of its 13 million people are unable to feed themselves or
their
families.
SHOPS DEFY ORDER
On Tuesday, shops in central Harare
seemed to be defying the new directive.
Instead of cutting prices, some
supermarkets simply emptied their shelves of
goods such as sugar, salt,
flour cooking oil, beef and fuel that would be
subject to the order.
"We
have been instructed by management to remove some of the products from
the
shelves for now," an assistant at a leading chain store said as shoppers
scrambled to buy bathing soap.
At another store there were long queues as
people stocked up, saying they
feared basic goods would now be in even
shorter supply. But for several
companies it was business as usual.
"We
have not reduced our prices because that has not been communicated to us
by
the owners ... In actual fact, some of the prices will go up tomorrow,"
said
Sam Makaza, a manager at a supermarket in downtown Harare.
Producers, who are
operating at a third of normal output, argue that the
price increases are
justified because they must pass on the cost of
purchasing the foreign
currency needed to import raw materials.
The value of the Zimbabwean dollar
has tumbled on the thriving black market,
where it was trading recently
between 170,000 and 200,000 to the U.S.
dollar. The official rate is
15,000.
Under the new directive, businesses must revert to the prices quoted
on June
18 while a commission investigates whether the recent jump was
justified,
the Herald said, quoting Mpofu.
"Government has directed
manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers to reduce
prices of basic
commodities ... by up to 50 percent with immediate effect as
it takes
measures against the wave of unjustified price increases over the
past few
weeks," it said.
Mugabe's government routinely blames the economic crisis on
sabotage by
Britain and other Western governments, which it says are
punishing Zimbabwe
for seizing thousands of white farms and redistributing
the land to poor
blacks.
Critics argue that it is Mugabe's mismanagement
that has led to economic
collapse.
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved
ACP-EU to discuss Zim but will pass no resolution
Zim Online
By Sebastian
Nyamhangambiri in Wiesbaden
27 June
The African Caribbean
Pacific-European Union (ACP-EU) joint parliamentary
assembly will today
debate the seven-year old political crisis in Zimbabwe
but will pass no
formal resolution because the southern African country is
not represented at
the meeting. Addressing a press conference at the start
of the meeting,
leaders of the ACP-EU said although Zimbabwe remained on the
agenda, no
resolution on the crisis was expected at the meeting because of
Harare's
absence. Legislators from Ethiopia, Botswana and South Africa had
lobbied
for the removal of Zimbabwe from the agenda altogether after Harare
failed
to send a delegation to the ACP-EU parliamentary assembly after
claiming
that its delegation headed by Zanu PF legislator Forbes Magadu had
been
denied visas to travel to Germany under EU sanctions. "As the ACP we
have
met and deemed that taking a position on Zimbabwe without giving it a
right
of reply would not be a good thing," said Rene Radembino-Coniquent,
the
ACP president. "But we will have a debate on Zimbabwe, of course."
Last week,
the EU rejected as false claims by Zimbabwe that its
parliamentarians were
denied visas to travel to Europe saying the two never
submitted their visa
applications at the Germany embassy in Harare. On
Monday, Glenys Kinnock,
the ACP-EU JPA co-president said the German
government did not deny a visa
to Magadu as he was not on the list of senior
Zanu PF officials who are
banned from visiting Europe. The EU imposed a
travel ban on President Robert
Mugabe and his senior government officials
about five years ago in protest
over the Zimbabwean leader's human rights
abuses and failure to respect
democracy. "We have an agreement (within the
EU) that as long as the
delegation is not on the list, it will be allowed to
come to the EU-ACP JPA.
We sought clarification on the matter and the German
authorities have told
us that they never received visa application from the
Zanu PF MP in
question," said Kinnock. Some senior officials from the
Zimbabwe embassy in
Belgium are attending the meeting in Wiesbaden as
observers.
Meanwhile,
some civic groups calling themselves Zimbabwe Civil Society on
Tuesday urged
the Joint Parliamentary Assembly to put more pressure on
President Thabo
Mbeki who is leading efforts to broker a political
settlement in Zimbabwe.
South African President Mbeki was last March tasked
by the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) to lead a fresh search
for a solution to
Zimbabwe's eight-year old political crisis. "In light of
the planned
elections in March 2008 the Zimbabwe Civil Society asserts that
the SADC
initiative must be time-bound and that results must be reached
urgently to
prevent any further collapse of the country," the civic groups
said in a
statement.
ALERT! ZINWA Lies to
Residents
COMBINED HARARE RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION (CHRA)
P.O Box HR 7870
145
Robert Mugabe, Third Floor,
Exploration House
Harare
Tel/Fax: +263 4
705114
Cell: 011 862 012, 011 443 578
0912
249 430, 0912 924 151
Email: info@chra.co.zw
Website: www.chra.co.zw
27 June
2007
ALERT! ZINWA Lies to
Residents
Harare- THE Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) has once
again been caught in its own trap of lying to its consumers. A potential disease
outbreak of diarrhoea and dysentery will have disastrous consequences.
The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, the Ministry of Water and
Infrastructural Development and the City of Harare have remained quite when they
must be taking urgent precautionary measures to address the pending disaster
before lives are lost. In 2005, nearly 26 lives were lost due to cholera and
dysentery after both the health ministry and the City of Harare failed to take
heed of CHRA’s recommendations.
Residents of Glen View, Glen Norah,
Msasa Park, Budiriro, and Kuwadzana have still not got water for bathing and
consumption, despite ‘assurances’ from the disgraced waster authority that water
would be readily available by midnight.
In an interview with the
State-controlled Newsnet on Monday evening, Lisben Chipfunde, the ZINWA General
Manager said the water authority was in the process of repairing a pump which
overheated last Saturday.
Chipfunde lied. The residents of the affected
suburb have been drinking water from open water sources since Friday, creating a
potential health crisis, while Chipfunde and the rest of the incompetent
managers at ZINWA draft lies after lies to explain their gross failure to
address the pertinent issue of water supply and administration.
CHRA
remains shocked that ZINWA’s officials can still continue to offer explanations
when it is apparent that they do not have the capacity to provide sewerage and
water services to residents of Harare.
Zimbabwe’s Parliament and Senate
have both recommended that President Mugabe’s Cabinet should revisit its
ill-advised decision to allow ZINWA to take over water supply, administration,
treatment and billing and sewer reticulation from local
authorities.
Residents have run out of patience. The Association has
been receiving calls from disgruntled residents who have indicated that they may
be forced to go on the streets in protest against the continued failure by ZINWA
and the City of Harare to provide clean and adequate water to residents, and
also for their continued exposure to flowing sewerage in their homes. No to
ZINWA!
“CHRA for Enhanced Civic Participation in Local
Governance”
Ends
________________________________________________________________________
For
further details please contact us on info@chra.co.zw, and on mobile 0912 924
151, 011 862 012, 011 443 578 and 011 612 860 or visit us at Exploration House,
Third Floor, Corner Robert Mugabe Way and Fifth
Street
Regards
Precious Shumba
Information
Officer
Combined Harare Residents' Association
Mobile: 011 612 860 or 0912
869 294
Tel: 04-705114
Website: www.chra.co.zw
"Stand Firm. Be of
Good Courage"
Blair exit robs Zimbabwe opposition of sponsor: Mugabe
africasia
27/06/2007 11:58 HARARE, June 27 (AFP)
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe told his domestic opponents Wednesday they
had lost their great mentor with the departure from office of his arch enemy,
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"Those among us ... who have teamed up with the Western governments to try
and affect regime change, we have seen how paranoid they have become lately with
the imminent departure of their mentor and sponsor Tony Blair," he said.
"They do not know which way to go and are busy right now visiting European
captials, tyring to seek favours with the new leaders there.
"Our message to them is that they should come back home and taste their own
medicine."
Mugabe, leader of the former British colony since independence in 1980, has
been one of Blair's most virulent critics, telling him to "keep his pink nose"
out of the troubled southern African nation's internal politics and accusing him
of trying to topple his government.
Blair's government was the prime instigator behind a package of targetted
sanctions imposed on Mugabe and his inner circle -- including a travel ban and
freezing of bank accounts - following allegations that he rigged his re-election
in 2002.
The British premier was due to hand in his seals of office later Wednesday
after more than 10 years in power.
Some reports about Zimbabwe false: SA judge
peoples daily
Visiting
South African Judge Moses Mavundla has said some media were misinforming the
world about the situation in Zimbabwe, The Chronicle reported on Wednesday.
Justice Mavundla said they had read stories in some newspapers peddling
falsehoods about the situation in Zimbabwe.
"Zimbabwe is a beautiful
country. We are surprised about the stories," Justice Mavundla said after a
meeting with Supreme Court judges.
Justice Mavundla was part of the
six-member team of judges from Pretoria High Court who were in Zimbabwe for the
past three days to share experiences with their local counterparts.
Team
leader and Deputy Judge President of the Pretoria High Court, Justice Jerry
Shongwe said his team had a fruitful time with their counterparts over the past
three days.
"We have learnt a lot from our counterparts. Indeed, we have
been empowered and I hope to return to Zimbabwe. We also hope that our
colleagues will visit us in South Africa to share our valuable experiences too,"
Justice Shongwe said.
This is the first time since 1980 that a team of
judges from South Africa has visited Zimbabwe. Zimbabwean judges are also
expected to travel to South Africa on a reciprocal visit.
Source: Xinhua
LONDON SERVICE OF SOLIDARITY WITH TORTURE SURVIVORS OF ZIMBABWE
the zimbabwean (27-06-07)
“Mugabe must pay for his sins” said the Zimbabwean academic and
human
rights campaigner John Makumbe at a church service in London in
solidarity
with torture victims in Zimbabwe. Makumbe told the gathering in
the historic
St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden that the Zimbabwean regime
had invented
new forms of torture, new methods of inflicting pain. He went
on: “There is
a price to pay for freedom and Zimbabweans are paying the
price”. Makumbe
said that one day soon there would be a Truth and
Reconciliation Commission
under which those who had committed atrocities
would be called to account,
with justice.
The service marked the United Nations International Day in Support
of
Victims of Torture and was conducted by the Rev Graham Shaw,
a
Methodist Minister formerly from Bulawayo now in Cumbria who said torture
is now
considered routine in Zimbabwe but there would be a day of
accounting.
He said by our mere presence at the service we had shown that
the
suffering in Zimbabwe had not gone unnoticed and that another Zimbabwe
was possible.
Brita Sydhoff, the Secretary General of the International
Rehabilitation
Council for Victims of Torture said that in the past six years 25,000
human
rights violations in Zimbabwe have been documented and the situation
was
worsening. Ms Sydhoff said she wanted to record her respect for the
dignity
and courage of those suffering in Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwean poet and writer, Chenjerai Hove, said he had cried when
he
had seen pictures of the brutality meted out to opposition activists.
The congregation joined in lighting candles in solidarity with
torture
victims, accompanied by the vibrant singing of the Zimbabwe
Association
Zimbabwe Vigil Choir accompanied by Sam and Fungayi on saxophone
and
Harriet on piano.
After the service, the congregation sang their way in procession to
the
Zimbabwe Embassy to lay flowers on the doorstep in tribute to
the
bravery of Zimbabwean torture victims.
Mugabe seriously off topic at Gunda's funeral
the zimbabwean
(27-06-07)
PRESI ENT Robert Mugabe said government would immediately take over
companies which continue to raise prices without any
justification.
Mugabe who does not miss any public gathering to denounce
western countries also said te British priminister Tony Blair and American
president George Bush should “mind their own business and leave Zimbabwe
alone.”
Speaking and the burial of national hero and Commander of 1
Brigade, Brigadier General Armstrong Gunda at Heroes Arce today, Mugabe said
government would ruthlessly take over companies which ignore their call to
reduce prices.
“We (government) would take over all companies which
continue to increase prices. If they want to be rough, we will show them that we
are even rougher,” Mugabe said.
“Prices should come down today. It is
going to be a rough game to any companies that refuses to oblige,” he
said.
Mugabe singled out bakers and manufactures as government’s major
targets.
He said the ruling party Zanu PF was there to stay and would not be
removed by “imperialists”.
He said that no-one should tell them what to do,
including those who once colonized Zimbabwe. He advised Bush and Blair to mind
their own business saying that people suffered in the bush during the liberation
struggle and would letnot outsiders change this regime.
Gunda died last
week on Thursday when his car was hit by a trains on his way to
Marondera.
BrigGen Gunda joins fellow military cadres interred at the
national shrine, among them former Zanla Commander Josiah Tongogara, who died in
a car accident in 1979, and Alfred Nikita Mangena and Lookout Masuku, former
Minister of Indigenisation and Empowerment, Josiah Tungamirai, Charles
Dauramanzi and Brigadier General Charles Gumbo.
BrigGen Gunda was born on
2 March 1957 and did his secondary education at St Killian Mission in Rusape
before leaving the country for Mozambique in 1975 to join the liberation
struggle.He received his military training at Tembwe in 1976 and later in China
from 1977 to 1978.Upon his return from China, he was posted to Chitepo sector in
Mashonaland Central province where he operated until the ceasefire in 1979.At
independence, he was attested into the Zimbabwe National Army as an officer and
in December 1981 he was commissioned a lieutenant after completing the Officer
Standardisation Academy.
His promotion in the army progressed as follows:
lieutenant (1981), captain (1984), major (1986), lieutenant colonel (1992),
colonel (1996) and brigadier general (2004) the rank he held until his untimely
death.
During his service, BrigGen Gunda attended the Command Staff
Course No 1 at the Zimbabwe Staff College, the Human Rights for Peacekeeping at
the Regional Peacekeeping Training Centre, Senior Officers’ All Arms Signals
Course and the Executive Programme for Commanders in the United States of
America, among other many courses.
Since attestation into the ZNA in 1980, he
held several appointments with different units such as Officer Commanding B
Company at 41 Infantry Battalion 19801982, Administration Staff Officer Grade 2
Facilities at the Directorate of Army Training 19841985, Command at All Arms
Battle School 19961998, commander Presidential Guards 19982005 and Commander 1
Brigade until his death.
It was during his time as commander Presidential
Guards that BrigGen Gunda displayed his versatility and extreme devotion to
duty.His responsibilities included the highly sensitive duty protecting the
President and visiting VVIPs and VIPs from other nations.
This was a highly
demanding task taking into cognisance the politically sensitive nature of his
responsibilities.
The responsibility required him to exercise extreme
diligence, initiative, unfailing devotion and loyalty as well as the highest
standards of command and foresight.
He was awarded the Independence
liberation 10 years service award, Mozambique campaign, the Long and Exemplary
award, and the Democratic Republic of Congo campaign medals, among
others.
BrigGen Gunda was posted to head 1 Brigade, covering Matabeleland
Province in 2005, a position he held until his death.
Change of currency
the zimbabwean
(27-06-07)
FOREIGN currency dealers who had been reaping huge returns when the dollar
crushed by and average of about 260% against major currencies since June 1 are
panicking following reports that the government South African and Botswana want
change their banknotes.
Due to the hyperinflationary environment, most
Zimbabweans had resorted to keeping their money in foreign currency as a hedge
against inflation.
Almost every Zimbabwean household had pula and rand in
store with workers preferring to convert their bearer cheques to foreign
currency. Some locals are also reportedly changing their money into either pula
or rand soon after receiving their salaries.
The change of the countries two
currencies was said would be made “soon” according to local bank sources.
“The transition is said to been at an advanced stage in both countries and
an official announcement might be made soon to the countries major trading
partners,” the source said.
The anxiety among the dealers has sent the pula
tumbling down to P1:Z$20 000. Last week, it was trading between Z$25 000 and
Z$27 000.
The rand fell from R1:Z$22 000 to between Z$17 000 and Z$19
000.
However, the official exchange rate for the pula is P1:Z$40 while the
rand is pegged at R1:Z$35.
Last week the Botswana’s media expressed concern
at the amount of its currency which was present in Zimbabwe.
Although a
clear-cut decision has not been made, it appears the authorities in that country
could eventually opt to phase out the existing banknotes. Should that happen,
foreign currency dealers would be left stranded with worthless currency.
According to the media in South Africa, its government was reported to be
uncomfortable with the amount of money in the hands of Zimbabwean foreign
currency dealers.
Currency crashes, so barter's better
the zimbabwean
(27-06-07)
Zimbabweans are switching to barter, payment in kind and the
use of foreign currencies, such as neighbouring South Africa 's rand, instead of
the local dollar to survive hyperinflation and the accelerating economic
meltdown.
Harare - Zimbabwe's currency is still officially pegged at Z$250 to
one US dollar; early last week the informal market price was about Z$100,000 to
US$1, but by yesterday, Monday 25 June it had crashed to Z$400,000 against the
US dollar. In January this year US$1 was being traded for Z$3,000.
The
country's inflation rate - the highest in the world - is officially at more than
3,700%, although independent economists believe the real rate of inflation is
around 20,000% and could reach 1.5 million% by the end of 2007.
Purses and
wallets have become redundant; Zimbabweans have been using shopping bags,
suitcases, sacks and other large containers to carry cash. Bank tellers are
hidden from view by huge piles of the increasingly worthless currency as long
queues wait to withdraw as much as they can in an attempt to beat the galloping
inflation that has crippled the country, once a regional economic
powerhouse.
Conversations in banking halls are drowned out by the constant
drone of money-counting machines - importing the machines is one of the few
remaining growth industries, but this mini-boom could also be ending, as
Zimbabweans are increasingly forced to resort to barter, payment in kind and
using foreign currencies.
Barter
"We pay for soybeans and can swap one ton
for a drum of fuel," said a recent advert in the state-sponsored daily
newspaper, The Herald; bartering is becoming commonplace as individuals, traders
and markets seek an alternative method of determining value.
Thomsen Siziba,
a newly resettled farmer in the prime farming area of Chegutu, Mashonaland West
Province , told IRIN that farm workers no longer wanted to be paid in cash, but
rather in kind.
"The gazetted (monthly) wages for farm workers is about
Z$70,000 (US$0.17 at the current parallel market exchange rate of Z$400,000 to
US$1) - which basically is not enough to buy two litres of cooking oil, which
costs Z$350,000 (US$0.87) - or a bar of soap, which costs Z$270,000 (US$0.67),
or a bottle of beer which costs Z$75,000 (US$0.18)," he said.
Siziba said
they knew the economy was collapsing and "a lot of the farm workers say they no
longer want long-term contracts which would tie them to me; the farm workers say
they would rather work for food and clothing handouts instead of money, which
they say is now worthless".
More than a third of the population will require
food assistance by early next year, according to a recent joint report by the UN
Food and Agriculture Organisation and the UN World Food Programme.
Ditching
the Zimbabwean dollar
Onward Chabvepi, a vegetable hawker in the capital,
Harare , told IRIN he had lost confidence in both President Robert Mugabe's
ruling ZANU-PF government and the local currency.
"The prices of just about
everything are increasing every day. I am not a sophisticated economist, but one
thing that I know is that our currency is now worthless, and that it is safer to
convert most of the money which I earn to South African rands, the US dollar or
the Botswana pula, which are much more stable currencies."
A tenant in
Belvedere, an up-market suburb of Harare, told IRIN his landlord had given him
notice that from July his rent should not be paid in Zimbabwean dollars but in
fuel, which currently sells for about Z$220,000 a litre. His monthly rent will
now cost him 80 litres of petrol, or Z$17.6 million (US$44).
Analysts said
the growing use of the South African rand or US dollar for day-to-day trading
was a watershed in Zimbabwe 's economic malaise. "It's a clear sign that people
no longer have confidence in the Zimbabwean dollar," said Prof Tony Hawkins of
the Graduate School of Management at the University of Zimbabwe .
He said the
hyperinflation cycle, fuelled by the government's printing of money, has led to
too much currency in circulation and people were opting to keep their money in
foreign currencies that were more secure.
"The key cause of inflation is
government and the central bank printing money - they are no longer publishing
the figures of the total money in circulation," he said.
Hawkins told IRIN
that although some people were engaging in barter trade, the chances that it
would become widespread were minimal. "Logically, you could see that happening,
but on a wider scale people prefer to sell their products in foreign currency,
which is more secure and does not lose its value."
Post-Mugabe era
Since
2000, more than a quarter of the population - over three million people - are
believed to have migrated to neighbouring countries in search of work, or
further afield to England and the United States. Only one in five people in
Zimbabwe is employed.
Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu
told IRIN: "As government, we are concerned about the daily price increases and
we have set up a taskforce that will work with security ministries and curb the
price increases. They will also investigate the causes of basic commodities
shortages, which are only found on the black market." Cross-border buying has
also increased.
The freefall of Zimbabwe 's economy has many commentators
believing that the endgame of Mugabe's 27-year rule is at hand, and cite last
week's talks in South Africa between the main opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change, and represen tati ves of the ZANU-PF government as an
indicator of this.
Donor countries, including Britain , the former colonial
power until 1980, are reportedly compiling a list of Zimbabwe 's requirements in
a post-Mugabe era, although there is no indication that Mugabe is contemplating
stepping down from office and has publicly stated that he intends running in
presidential elections scheduled for next year.
A US$3billion, five-year
stabilisation programme, which includes food aid, land reform and health
assistance, would be required, according to reports.
Article courtesy of IRIN
Last kicks of dying horse – Khupe
the zimbabwean
(26-06-07)
BY CHIEF
REPORTER
CHINHOYI - Opposition leaders brought their campaign to northern
Zimbabwe Sunday, telling some 5,000 supporters in Chinhoyi that President Robert
Mugabe’s days were numbered and that the dawn of a new Zimbabwe was nigh.
The
MDC Liberation Team, led by deputy President Thoko Khupe and also comprising
secretary general Tendai Biti, his deputy Tapiwa Mashakada and spokesman Nelson
Chamisa; vowed that the MDC was the messiah which would redeem Zimbabweans from
this economic and political quagmire. Khupe urged party faithful to remain
resolute in the face of deepening hardships and an escalating State-sponsored
terror campaign.
“These are the last kicks of a dying horse,” the fiery
opposition deputy declared, as she lambasted the spate of abductions and vicious
torture of opposition activists by security agents.
Morgan Tsvangirai, who
was in Europe, will be fielded as the opposition presidential candidate next
March. The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is also contesting all 200
constituencies in Parliamentary elections next March and the 50 contestable
Senate seats, but says that attacks by stalwarts of the ruling Zanu (PF) make it
too dangerous for candidates to campaign in most of them.
At least five
people have died in political violence since March 11, and squatters led by
veterans of Zimbabwe’s independence war from Britain have continued to occupy
4,000 white-owned farms. The government has identified 220 more farms, some of
them in Chinhoyi, which it will seize without payment and distribute to landless
peasants by September.
Many in the crowd at a football stadium adjacent to
the Orange Grove Hotel wore MDC T-shirts, but few T-shirts were visible on the
streets outside after the rally ended - supporters generally take them off to
avoid clashes with Zanu (PF) militants. An MDC Mash West official, claimed
however that such attacks had stopped in Chinhoyi because the ruling party
realised the MDC was now in a majority here.
“Some police and soldiers buy
MDC membership cards in secret,” he told The Zimbabwean. Earlier, the Town
Council had denied permission to the MDC to hold the rally in the Chinhoyi
Stadium ostensibly because Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo had denied
them permission. The rally was finally cleared at the last minute but at a much
smaller stadium situated a relatively longer distance from the residential
areas. Nevertheless, thousands turned up for the rally.
Marshals frisked
supporters for weapons as they arrived, and police - some with bayonets fixed to
their rifles - stood by in six Land Rovers and one truck, but the rally went off
peacefully, although the rally scheduled for Gokwe the previous day failed to
take off.
The good-humoured crowd chanted and performed toyi-toyis - victory
shuffles - as Khupe and her officials arrived in unmarked cars.
The MDC has
an uphill task, because the President appoints 44 of the 294 members of the
bicameral parliament. But, Khupe told the cheering crowd, “We want an election
that will not produce contestable outcomes. What we want is a free and fair
election.”
She warned government against rigging elections and said the MDC
will continue to push for the leveling of the playing field and the repeal of
despotic laws favouring Zanu (PF). Everyone who was 18 and over should register
and make sure they vote, she said.
But her main message was that the
83-year-old Mugabe, whose mandate expires in 2008, should leave office after
ruling Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 – “he is too old to do anything” -
and give power to the people.
Chamisa said there were deepening hardships
and mounting poverty in the country. The situation was no longer sustainable.
Zanu (PF) has vandalized the economy, said Chamisa.
Biti recounted
distressing statistics of economic decay and the systematic plunder of national
resources by the Zanu (PF) government. The opposition leader also warned against
the dire consequences of indegenisation laws forcing foreign owned companies to
cede majority shareholding to government. He said the MDC will unveil its new
economic blueprint, RESTART 2, which contains a raft of measures that will heal
the crisis-torn economy after the MDC government takes over from Mugabe.
One
young MDC supporter told The Zimbabwean he regarded Mugabe as a “father,” but
added: “He hasn’t done anything for us.... There are no jobs.”
Said another:
“The politicians are stealing like hell.”
Both were too frightened to give
their names, but later at Marumahoko Hotel in the ghetto, The Zimbabwean
witnessed an unprecedented sight: young people wearing MDC and Zanu (PF)
T-shirts drinking beer together in the tavern and obviously the best of friends.
Zimbabwe: Gono ordered to print Z$1 Trillion for Civil servants and Army
http://www.zimdaily.com/
Wed, 27 Jun 2007 00:55:00
Zimbabwe: Gono ordered to print Z$1 Trillion for Civil servants and Army
HARARE – Central bank governor Gideon Gono has been ordered by
President Robert Mugabe to print $1 trillion to cater for civil servants and
soldiers salaries that were hiked by 600 percent and 900 percent
respectively.
Munyaradzi Shonhayi
The move is set to trigger a massive
jump in inflation, which independent analysts say is now above the 20 000
percent mark. The official figure is 4 500 percent.
The civil servants and
soldiers salaries hikes this month were not budgeted for and Gono initially
declined to print the money when he met Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi on
June 4 arguing that it was inflationary.
However, Mumbengegwi took the case
to cabinet on June 19 where Gono was summoned and told by Mugabe to print the
money.
“When Gono met the finance minister he told him to go to hell. In
fact, he walked out of the meeting and declared that he will never print money
since his mission is to fight inflation. But last week Gono was forced to eat
humble pie when the Mugabe told him to print the money,” a source in cabinet
said on Tuesday.
The source said Mugabe emphasised that there was need to
cushion civil servants and soldiers who are living in abject poverty.
“Gono
was of the opinion that the government should find other sources of raising
money to pay the civil servants and soldiers. He suggested that their pay
increment should be factored in the forthcoming supplementary budget,” the
source said.
The government increased salaries of civil servants after they
threatened to go on strike, while soldiers expressed their disgruntlement with
their remuneration to their leaders.
The order for Gono to print money came
barely amid calls by captains of industry and commerce that money minting was
the major drive for inflation and that the central bank must stop
it.
However, Mugabe is on record saying his government would continue to
print money to meet its requirements.
Mugabe fired ex-finance minister
Herbert Murerwa early this year after he complained that Gono was printing money
to finance quasi operations, which in turn was inflationary.
The ageing
Mugabe said Murerwa was too much into “bookish economics.”
Gono, a
teaboy-cum-accountant started his career with ZimBank, another Government Bank
and eventually moved to the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe. He was appointed by
Professor Jonathan Moyo to head the University of Zimbabwe Council and awarded
himself with an honorary doctorate.
Those close to the Reserve Bank
governor claim he lacks basic understanding of economics and relies on his
advisor Munyaradzi Kereke who runs the show at the Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe.
"His biggest ‘achievement’ to date was to convert the Reserve Bank
into Mugabe’s personal asset looting whatever foreign currency they lay their
dirty hands on, said one analyst in Harare yesterday.
Meanwhile, the
retail price of a loaf bread raced to $45,000 Sunday, driven mainly by increases
in input costs, mainly fuel.
Before the increase, a standard loaf was selling
for $23,000. Industry and International Trade minister Obert Mpofu immediately
said the increase was illegal and threatened to jail executives who had
unilaterally sanctioned the hike.
The increase came hardly a week after
government announced it had set up a taskforce to clampdown on price increases.
The ministerial taskforce was reportedly enforcing a protocol on prices and
incomes ratified by labour, business and government recently. Bakers say the
price of bread was pushed in the main by rising input costs.
Industry
executives told ZimDaily that attempts to control the price of bread without
curbing prices along the supply chain would cause economic dislocation.
A
production manager at a City Bakery had this to say: “We are incurring heavy
losses everyday and we had no choice except increase in price. Its the only way
we can remain in business.” Since the beginning of this year, the price of flour
has increased by an average 90 percent every month, he said.
“Our businesses
are no longer profitable and the allegations of profiteering are baseless
because of hyperinflation, now above 4,500 percent,” the manager
said.
Another baker said: “There is massive demand for bread at the moment
because not all bakeries are operational. We are producing limited quantities of
bread and delivering it around town, but not to rural areas. This is because of
the high delivery costs.”
Many in Zimbabwe have removed bread from their diet
and resorted to mbambaira (sweet potatoes.)
Its time for opposition to act in unity
http://www.zimdaily.com/
Wed, 27 Jun 2007 00:04:00
Zimbabwe:
The MDC membership has now been overdosed with Party unity talks and is
fed up with reports of promises of unity instead of the integration of the so
called factions.
Hatirebwi Nathaniel Masikati
At any other time the
comical side of the Zanu PF divide and rule tactics that splintered the MDC
Executive into two halves on 12 October 2005 would not elicit a wink of my eye
let alone written comment. The gravity of the consequence of a Zanu PF electoral
victory to the entire country’s fortunes and its peoples lives are too ghastly
to contemplate.
Because of that the rational person in me forces me to once
again plead the people’s plight to the leadership in either camp to thoroughly
and critically examine their stance in contributing to the promotion of a two
faced MDC to represent the unitary objective of liberating the country from the
siege and haemorrhaging it suffers due to a unitary faced tyrannical Zanu PF
with divergent objectives but glued together by a common personal fear in each
of its leaders.
I strongly believe that very good and compelling grounds have
been advanced by the apprehensive party grassroots for the MDC to disband its so
called factions and unite to enhance its chances of attaining its formative goal
of replacing Zanu PF as the ruling Party in Zimbabwe but alas the Zanu PF
inspire division of the party still exists up to date and it appears it will be
in place by the time 2008 elections will be held.
Causes and Effects
The
causes of the 2005 splinter of the MDC Party Executive Council have been reduced
to the following issues:-
1. Tribalism in the
party
2. Zanu PF infiltration
3. Inter
Party violence
4. Senate elections
5.
Undemocratic practices of the Party’s President.
The effects of the split
have been evident to every member and include:-
i. Grassroots
supporter confusion and despondency
ii. Increased factional
violence and mudslinging
iii. Party assets
fragmentation
iv. Changed political focus
v. Wasted
Party time on re-unification dialogue
vi. Increased tribal
polarisation between factions
vii. Faction
defection
viii. Increased Zanu PF infiltration of the opposition
Party
ix. Mistrust
The bottom line is that in the final analysis
the split has not benefited the players but the architect of the Split Zanu PF
and if this continues into the election Zanu PF and not MDC will have the last
laugh.
Factionalism Perspectives
The tribal perspective has been given
prominence by the split. The Zanu/Zapu divide in the 1987 coalition has been
extended to the MDC by Matibili’s design. Zapu is defacto led by a Shona Joseph
Msika in the 1987 Gukurahundi induced Zanu PF merger whereas in the 2005 split
the Matabeleland segment of MDC is led a Shona robotics Professor Arthur
Mutambara. The similarities don’t end there. Both the MDC split and Zanu Zapu
marriage of convenience were for some reason timed to occur in an odd year maybe
to symbolise their uniqueness.
Zanu PF infiltration of the MDC has found
fertile ground in which to breed in the Mutambara led breakaway grouping in
similar ways Zapu was swallowed by Zanu in the so called 1987 Unity accord.
Consider the following excerpts from a recent Herald report in support of this
view:-
Zanu PF baits the MDC at the Mutambara faction headquarters inn
Bulawayo with the following statement after handing over tractors to MDC
Functionaries and Executives named in the report;
"It's a national event . .
. that realisation is important that there must be occasions when we must be
together. After all, we eat together. Nyaya yekudya inyaya yedu tese, hapana
asingararame nekudya. Kana toita politics dzekutukana tinenge taguta," the
President said.
The MDC swallows the bait hook sinker ant line and is
irreversibly trapped:-
"I am surprised that some Honourable Members go on
national television lambasting the Government and RBZ but these same members
criticise the Government when we are in our parliamentary portfolio committees
for not supporting farmers.
Now that the Government is doing exactly that,
they then choose to lambast (it), I think they (MDC MPs) need to be examined by
a medical doctor.
The tractor I got came late for me, but I will work hard to
produce at a farm I inherited from my father in Matopos and I will be inviting
the minister next year to see the wonders that I will be doing," said Sen
Ndlovu.
Zanu PF capitalizes on this political manna from the MDC and
advances its agenda as follows:-
"Those who do not want the tractors they
will be given to serious farmers," Minister Made said.
Although this
infiltration of the MDC by Zanu PF is clean and has maximum electioneering
impact for Zanu PF as it is given maximum press coverage by the State controlled
media other more subtle acts before the split were conveniently not highlighted.
During Morgan Tsvangirai’s trumped up treason charges trial his initial
accomplice and erstwhile secretary general had similar charges against him
withdrawn at pre-trial conference level. No reasons were given for this.
The
same Welshman Ncube was allocated a Zanu PF expropriated farm immediately
thereafter and he latently led the breakaway renegades and was on the list of
the tractor beneficiaries together with his new president AGO
Mutambara.
There is ample evidence to suggest that this breakaway is Zanu PF
sponsored more so than has hitherto been admitted. Other reasons are mere
smokescreens if you ask me.
Job Sikhala, Welshman Ncube, David Coltart, Edwin
Mushoriwa, Priscilla Musihairambwi Trudy Stevenson and Gift Chimanikire were
very vocal at the time of the split that Morgan Tsvangirai was more violent and
repressive than Matibili and thus they could not work with him.
Gift
Chimanikire’s Presidential ambitions of the renegade grouping were shattered
when AGO Mutambara was brought in through the back door and installed leader of
the renegades. He promptly realized that he had been used by a group with self
serving interests and returned to the fold of the group he had deserted.
In
hindsight the intra party violence was a Zanu PF brewed excuse for the split by
Zanu PF rather than a conviction of the renegades.
The main reason for the
split that was advanced and bought into by many was the ideological differences
over participation in Senatorial Elections of 2005. I refused to have wool
pulled over my eyes by this trivia.
A month before, the MDC MP’s who made
the Party’s executive council, had unanimously opposed the Senate formation by
Zanu PF. When the Senate became a reality after their Parliamentary motion
defeat we were sold this puerile that over half the MDC MPs that had opposed
Senate formation were now seeing political opportunity and a chance to defend
democratic space via this new political landscape. Utter crap.
I advance that
the split was not over the intra party violence or the Senate participation
differences but rather the insubordination of Tsvangirai by his intellectual
think tank headed by Welshman Ncube. Welshman Ncube is an intellectual
supremacist in the mould of AGO Mutambara, Robert Matibili Mugabe, Edison
Zvobgo, Jonathan Moyo and Dzingai Mutumbuka. He is a tribal opportunistic
puritan who realizes his chances of political success are limited by his tribal
origins and thus he uses the Shona shield to derive maximum benefit in the
background where he is not open to public scrutiny.
Many people do not know
that Welshman Ncube is not a founder member of the MDC as he was only invited by
the founders of the party viz Gibson Sibanda, Morgan Tsvangirai, Isaac Matongo
Thokozile Khupe and a host of ZCTU Trade Union affiliate Executive Councilors
who realized the need to have a sound and well educated think tank to galvanise
their political ideas in a country where the majority wrongly think academic
excellence is the benchmark for successful leadership.
The educated elite
were invited and when they thought they had become established they decided to
take over the Party but little did they realize why they were popular with the
grassroots of the Party.
Finally we are told the split was script written by
Tsvangirai’s undemocratic malfeasances that led to him overruling a 33-31 vote
in favour of participation in Senatorial elections of 2005. What hogwash.
There had been numerous attempts to unseat Tsvangirai by the Matabeleland
Axis of the MDC that had been resisted mainly by Gibson’s vote of confidence in
his colleague of years in the ZCTU’s leadership.
Zimbabwe's tax threshold to go up next month
http://www.zimdaily.com/
Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:12:00
Gideon Gono doubles as Reserve Bank governor and Finance
Minister | |
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe's regime starring
popular uprising will next month increase tax free threshold from $100 000 to
$1,5 million to cushion workers wallowing in abject poverty as a result of
government's poor political and economic policies.
Munyaradzi Shonhayi
In a notice on Monday,
finance minister Samuel Mumbengegwi said the threshold would go up on July
1.
"The tax free
threshold, which has been pegged at $100 000 per month from January 2007, has
not been adjusted in line with periodic review of salaries and wages.
Consequently, salary and wage adjustments on account of inflation are now
subject to higher rates of tax," Mumbengegwi said.
He added: "In
order to cushion taxpayers and in particular low income earners from incidences
of higher tax rates, as well as enhance disposable incomes, thereby raising
aggregate demand for goods and services, government is availing the following
tax relief measures - raising the tax free threshold from $100 000 to
$1,5 million per month and widening the tax bands to end at $25 million from the
current $5 million per month, above which income will be taxed at a rate of 47,5
percent."
However, the move
will not be of any significance to most workers as they earn an average of $500
000.
There are fears in
Zimbabwe that Mugabe's government would face a popular
uprising as a result of galloping inflation which has seen prices of most basic
commodities going up by over 100 percent in the last two
weeks.
Inflation is
officially pegged at 4 500 percent, but independent analysts say it is now over
the 20 000 percentage
mark. | |
Zimbabwe's players aim at Wimbledon double titles
Updated:2007-06-27
From:Xinhuanet
HARARE, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Two of Zimbabwe's top tennis players Cara Black
and Kevin Ullyett are in London gunning for the women's and men's doubles
titles, The Herald reported on Tuesday.
Although focus will be on the singles, there will also be interest in the
doubles which have over the past years produced some exciting matches in both
sections.
And the Zimbabwean flag will once again be flying at Wimbledon, hopefully for
the next two weeks, as both Black and Ullyett fight for honors in the women's
and men's doubles.
Black and her South African partner Liezel Huber, who won the 2005 Wimbledon
women's doubles title, are back at their favorite hunting ground on grass in
London where they are seeded second in this year's competition.
Winners of the doubles title at the Australian Open in January this year,
Black and Huber are back in London searching for their second Grand Slam title
of the season.
They open their campaign with a tricky first round tie against the unseeded
French pair of seasoned campaigner Nathalie Dechy and Severine Bremond later
this week.
Black and Huber moved to London on Sunday after playing in a warm-up grass
court tournament in Eastbourne last week where they reached the semi-finals,
losing to Kveta Peschke and Rennae Stubbsin a third set tie-break on
Saturday.
They now hope to pick up the pieces and go all the way to the final at
Wimbledon in a fortnight.
Black's fellow Zimbabwean Ullyett is partnering Australia's Paul Hanley in
the men's doubles and the two are seeded sixth.
Like Black and Huber, Ullyett and Hanley also face French opponents, unseeded
Nicola Devilder and Paul-Henri Mathieu, in their opening match.
Unlike Black and Huber, who have already collected four doubles crowns on the
road this year, Ullyett and Hanley seem to be struggling with their game in this
year's campaign where they have only won one title at the Sydney International
tournament in Australia at the beginning of the year.
They are hoping for a change of fortunes at Wimbledon where most of the
world's top doubles teams struggle to adapt to grass and fall by the wayside in
the early stages of the competition.