Messages From Zimbabwe

Annual inflation for May galloped to 1 700 000% as the Zimbabwean dollar continued to crash causing prices of goods and services to skyrocket. A top official in the Ministry of Finance told Businessdigest that government has now forecast the figure to reach between 1 800 000% and 2 000 000% for the month of May. May inflation rose by 961 396 percentage points from the April figure of 732 604% to 1 694 000%. The 1 694 000% was for the CSO’s inflation computations for the period from May 1 to May 23. Non-alcoholic beverages and cereals continued to be the major drivers. The official said the Central Statistical Office (CSO) had been conducting weekly computations of inflation for the entire month of May.“They have computed weekly moving averages on the figure,” the official said. “Last week the figure was 1 694 000% and this week we expect it to hit 2 000 000%. We will only know next week when they compile data for this final week of May. The annual inflation figure for March stood at 355 000% while that for February was 165 000% but the CSO insists that even these figures were not official. As government, our reasonable approximation for June now stands at not less than 4 000 000% and not more than 5 000 000%,” the official said.

The weekly moving inflation figure for the first week of May was 1 200 000% according to the source. However, CSO acting director Moffat Nyoni disputed the figures this week saying inflation figures for May had not yet been computed. Nyoni insisted that the CSO was experiencing problems with the availability of products which affected the consumer basket used to calculate inflation. He also said the CSO was yet to compute inflation figures for April despite the removal of duty on food imports. “The number of observations we use have been affected,” Nyoni said. “It has gone down and this affects the strength of our figures which will be very weak. Inflation is nowhere near that figure. We have a time lag and the May data will be available late in June.” Nyoni however conceded that the figure for March stood at 355 000% saying it had been leaked. He said the figure was not officially released. Businessdigest broke the story on March inflation figures two weeks ago with Nyoni strenuously denying the figures were true.

“The March figure was leaked out,” Nyoni said. “I would not like to comment on your figures. In the past, people have come up with their own baskets and inflation figures. I would not recommend the use of these as they don’t pass the test.” Economists and the business community said they believed inflation for May would end the month closer to 2 000 000%. “It is impossible for inflation to end the month at less than 2 000 000%,” said businessman David Govere. “Our calculations show that inflation has already surpassed 1 600 000% in recent weeks.” Economist John Robertson said his estimates for May year-on-year inflation had been 1 800 000%. “My projections had placed inflation at 1 800 000% for May,” Robertson said. “It seems I was not far off the mark.” Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce president Marah Hativagone said the chamber believed the latest inflation figures are accurate. “We think they are very approximate,” Hativagone said. “Whoever is computing those figures must be using what is on the ground. Unlike official CSO figures which are released and far from reality, these figures reflect a basket of commodities that are available.”

Inflation has continued to rise steeply on the back of increased money supply, spiralling domestic debt, declining production and scarcities of foreign currency and food. The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has been accused of injecting huge and unsustainable amounts of local currency into official circulation causing inflation to skyrocket. Several listed companies whose financial years ended between February 29 and March 31 now face suspension if they fail to release inflation-adjusted results owing to the CSO’s failure to release inflation figures. There now appears to be no respite for the general public, as prices of goods continue to rise. Companies have been pushing up their prices in line with the deregulated inter-bank exchange rate. The Zimbabwean dollar was this week trading at US$1:$620 million, up from US$1:$480 million last week.

A loaf of bread which was selling for $180 000 earlier this year is now going for around $280 million in most shops. It is going for between $400 million and $450 million on the black market. A 2kg packet of sugar which was pegged at $7 million is now selling for $700 million. A kilogram of meat which was at $30 million is now selling for between $1,5 billion and $2,5 billion. A 750 grammes bar of soap which at the beginning of the year was $2 million now calls for one to fork out $1,8 billion. In January, a packet of fresh milk was selling at $1,3 million. The same packet now sells for $190 million, while a kilogramme of salt which was selling for less than $2 million is now pegged at $440 million.

(Source)

President Robert Mugabe’s vision is so poor that he cannot read newspapers, Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu has unwittingly disclosed. Ndlovu told state media editors at a briefing last week that Mugabe had complained that he really wanted to read papers about what was happening in the country, but could not because the print was “the size of ants”, and asked the minister to tell editors of the state newspapers to increase the font size. Ndlovu took the President’s message to the editors. “We could not believe it when the minister said the President had told him to ask us to increase the size of the font. We all looked at each other amazed at what he had just said. We could not hold ourselves and openly giggled about it,” said an editor who attended the briefing. Herald editor Pikirayi Deketeke suggested to Ndlovu that perhaps he did not understand what Mugabe was referring to. Deketeke said the President may have been referring to adverts by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC), which were in even smaller print.

Ndlovu rejected Deketeke’s construction, telling him: “No, the President clearly said he could not read stories in the Herald. Once when he wanted to read a story on page two about MDC and ZANU PF he failed. He called me and said ‘Sikhanyiso what is this? Yibunyonyo (It’s ants)’.” Deketeke told Ndlovu it was unfortunate that there was nothing the editors could do about the font size, as it was a worldwide standard and could not be changed. Mugabe’s state of health is a closely guarded secret, but the disclosure by Ndlovu has given a hint that the 84-year-old leader’s health may be failing. Mugabe arrived in Harare from the Far East hours just before he was scheduled to launch his June 27 presidential election run-off campaign. It is believed he visited doctors, possibly in China, to be “boosted” for the gruelling run-off campaign against MDC’s Morgan Tsvangirai, who is four decades his junior. New Zimbabwe.com readers reported a sighting of Mugabe on May 24 inside a Carrefour hypermarket in Singapore, shopping with his family. “They spent much time in the toiletries section. I have to say that the scene was quite surreal,” one reader said.

(Source)

Ethiopia’s former Marxist ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam, sentenced to death by his country’s supreme court, will remain in Zimbabwe under the protection of President Robert Mugabe’s government, a government minister said on Tuesday.

“Our position has not changed. He remains our guest in Zimbabwe. He will remain in Zimbabwe and we will protect him as we’ve always done,” Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said on Tuesday.

Ethiopia’s supreme court sentenced Mengistu to death on Monday, granting a prosecution appeal that a life sentence he received last year did not match the seriousness of this crimes.

Mengistu, who has lived a life of comfortable exile in Zimbabwe since he was driven from power in 1991, is unlikely to face punishment unless Mugabe loses a run-off election next month and gives up power.

Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change, whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai will face Mugabe in a second round presidential vote on June 27, said dictators like Mengistu were not welcome in the country.

“It only takes a dictator to hang around fellow dictators. Birds of the same feather, this is why (Mugabe’s ruling) ZANU-PF is clinging on to Mengistu,” MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.

“We don’t want dictators on our land. The people of Ethiopia suffered for such a long time.”

Chamisa hinted that Mengistu may be extradited if Tsvangirai wins next month.

“Of course we do not condone killing or the death sentence as MDC, but we want justice to be delivered to the victims and to the perpetrators so that there’s restoration,” he said.

The MDC said in 2006 it would withdraw the protection afforded by Mugabe’s government, which considers Mengistu a friend of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.

Matonga said there had been no formal request regarding Mengistu from the Ethiopian government.

“Even if they make the request, he’s not going anywhere.”

The prosecution in Ethiopia appealed against a life term imposed on Mengistu in January 2007, after he was found guilty of genocide arising from thousands of killings during his 17-year rule that included famine, war and the “Red Terror” purges of suspected opponents.

He and more than a dozen other senior officers were found guilty after a 12-year trial that concluded Mengistu’s government was directly responsible for the deaths of 2,000 people and the torture of at least 2,400.

(Source)

ZNU 122 released. In today’s programme I look at apparent call to arms by Mugabe, a warning that the country is teetering on the edge of civil war, the return to the ZANU PF fold of Dumiso Dabengwa, the brutal killing of a heavily pregnant MDC supporter, the threat of war by the army and the realigning of new ranks in the ZRP.

You can hear the programme using the multiplayer in the right hand sidebar of The Bearded Man blog. The programme is also available for download, should you wish, from here.

I noted yesterday afternoon, that the internet response was terribly slow. So if the programmes take a while to begin to play - sorry!

As usual, all historical programmes are available to play from my Odeo page, should you so wish.

Take care.

‘debvhu

With his rival back in the country, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe fought for his political survival Sunday as he kicked off his election campaign.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai arrived home Saturday after a six-week absence vowing to end the three decade rule of post-independence leader Mugabe in a run-off election scheduled for June 27.

Despite fears of an assassination plot and the threat of treason charges, Tsvangirai returned to Zimbabwe looking relaxed and launched into a blistering attack on Mugabe who has presided over the economic collapse of the country.

Mugabe was set to deliver his first official campaign speech in Harare on Sunday in which he is expected to tear into Tsvangirai and his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party with his habitual fiery rhetoric.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa set the tone when he linked the opposition to colonial-era enemies Britain and white farmers — but he admitted that the ruling ZANU-PF party was now fighting for survival.

“We are now fighting with our backs to the wall,” he told the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper.

Former trade union leader Tsvangirai defeated Mugabe in a first round of voting on March 29, but not by enough to secure an outright victory.

He had been abroad since shortly after a first round of elections on March 29, lobbying regional leaders to pressure Mugabe into hold elections under the watchful eye of regional peacekeepers and election observers.

Both the MDC and ZANU-PF were scheduled to hold rallies on Sunday.

The aftermath of the disputed first-round polls, the results of which were delayed by nearly five weeks, has been marked by violence that the opposition claims is designed to rig the run-off.

Rights groups and the United Nations have said the attacks are being directed at followers of Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), with pro-government militias accused of a campaign of terror in the countryside.

On his return on Saturday, Tsvangirai made clear his position on several lingering questions.

Firstly, he rejected the idea of a coalition government with Mugabe, which some have suggested would allow the 84-year-old leader a graceful exit and prevent further violence.

And he called for regional peacekeepers and election monitors from regional body the Southern African Development Community to be deployed by June 1.

“I am hoping that on Tuesday when they (SADC) meet they will be able to concretise but I told them by the 1st of June you should put these people on the ground otherwise we don’t need them,” he said.

“You can’t have peacekeepers and observers two weeks before an election they will not be of any benefit.”

No Western monitors were allowed to oversee the first ballot and teams from SADC and the African Union were widely criticised for giving it a largely clean bill of health.

Tsvangirai is threatened by a treason charge after he was accused of plotting to overthrow Mugabe with connivance from former colonial power Britain in April.

Tsvangirai, who was beaten unconscious while in police custody in March last year, has faced treason charges on two previous occasions.

He had twice announced his intention to return to Zimbabwe only to delay the move and his long absence from the country ahead of the June 27 run-off had begun to raise questions about his leadership qualities.

Tsvangirai had announced he would return last Saturday, but pulled out at the last minute, citing an assassination plot.

(Source)

Zimbabwe opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, Thursday said he would return home this weekend, after nearly a month and a half out of the country, despite fears of an assassination plot.

Speaking during a visit to a violence-hit township in Johannesburg, he told reporters that he would return home on Saturday, to begin campaigning ahead of a run-off election against veteran President Robert Mugabe scheduled for June 27.

He also linked the violence against immigrants in South Africa to the crisis in his homeland, where inflation is the highest in the world at 165,000 per cent and employment runs at 80 percent.

“The causes for this crisis are none other than our political crisis back home,” said the former trade union leader as he visited Alexandra, a slum area in northern Johannesburg where anti-immigrant violence began last week.

Meanwhile, the Zimbabwean government has accused the United States and Britain of fanning the politically-motivated violence rocking the country ahead of the run-off election.

President Robert Mugabe told police Thursday to ignore opposition accusations that they are behind political intimidation and blamed his foes for violence, ahead of a presidential election run-off.

In a new twist to the long-drawn out political crisis in the southern African country, President Robert Mugabe’s government said it had unearthed “overwhelming evidence” that the US embassy and other Western embassies in Harare were playing a pivotal role in the violence.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader Mr Tsvangirai beat Mr Mugabe in the initial polls in March, but failed to avoid the run-off, says 42 of its supporters have been killed and thousands displaced by the violence blamed on ruling party followers.

The violence flared up soon after it emerged that the ruling Zanu PF had lost its parliamentary majority to the MDC factions, for the first time since independence from Britain in 1980.

Speaking on a live programme on state television Thursday evening, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa claimed that the two countries were providing transport to MDC youths from the cities, allegedly carrying out the attacks in rural areas.

“There is evidence of a third force behind politically-motivated violence cases,” Mr Chinamasa said.

“We are aware that the US and British embassies, with the help of their allies, are bussing MDC youths to attack hapless ZANU PF supporters.”

He claimed that the two countries were only paying medical bills for MDC victims of the violence, ignoring the ZANU PF supporters.

But MDC spokesman Mr Nelson Chamisa, who was also part of the panel, immediately shot back, accusing the minister of lying.

He said the police had been reluctant to respond to reports that their supporters were being killed and tortured by veterans of the country’s liberation war and ZANU PF youths because of political pressure.

Despite the government’s vehement denials that soldiers were involved in the spiralling violence, the United Nations last week said security forces, youth militias and war veterans and supporters of both ZANU PF and the MDC were perpetrating acts of violence.

“There is an emerging pattern of political violence inflicted mainly, but not exclusively, on rural supporters of the MDC party,” the UN’s country representative, Mr Augusto Zakarias said.

Mr Mugabe, 84, accused Zimbabwe’s former colonial master, Britain, and the US of funding the MDC to effect a regime change.

He says the two countries are bitter that he took away commercial farms from white farmers, for redistribution to landless blacks.

Last week, ambassadors from Western countries, including representatives from the US and Britain, were detained at a police road block outside Harare after they visited victims of the violence in rural areas.

The MDC officials have expressed fears that there appeared to be a campaign to ensure that the party’s members flee their homes, so that they do not vote in the presidential run-off.

Meanwhile, the party said police had arrested two of its newly-elected legislators, Ian Kay and Amos Chibaya, on what it called “an onslaught on key party activists and leaders to render it comatose ahead of the runoff.”

“The charges against Chibaya are that he addressed a rally two weeks ago, where he sought to incite junior police officers to rebel. The charges against Kay are unclear,” MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told Reuters.

At least six MDC lawmakers have been arrested since the combined March elections, and the opposition says 43 of its members have been killed by militias loyal to Mugabe.

But speaking at a ceremony to confer ranks on senior police officials in Harare, Mr Mugabe said the MDC was on an “evil crusade” to divide the people of Zimbabwe.

“The Zimbabwe Republic Police and all security agencies should not shudder because of the barrage of false and orchestrated criticism by the opposition…,” he said.

“The MDC opposition, formed at the behest of Britain in 1999, is on an evil crusade of dividing our people on political lines as they continue to fan and sponsor heinous acts of political violence targeting innocent citizens,” said President Mugabe, who dismisses his opponents as stooges of the West. The MDC denies the charge.

Zimbabweans hope next month’s run-off will arrest a downward economic spiral.

Mr Tsvangirai is a former union leader who has been a thorn in Mugabe’s side for a decade as the head of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the main opposition group.

The son of a bricklayer, Mr Tsvangirai was born in 1952 in central Zimbabwe.

He worked in a mine to feed his family and cut his political teeth in the labour movement as a mine foreman.

Mr Tsvangirai helped found the MDC in 1999.

Despite intimidation, it stunned the ruling party by winning 57 of 120 seats at stake in a 2000 parliamentary vote.

Mr Tsvangirai was acquitted of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe and seize power before 2002 presidential elections.

Mugabe’s party won a crushing majority in a 2005 parliamentary election, which the MDC said was rigged.

The MDC split in 2005 in a bitter feud over how to tackle Mugabe. A splinter group accused Mr Tsvangirai of behaving in a dictatorial fashion.

Mr Tsvangirai was arrested at an anti-Mugabe rally in 2007.

He said he had been attacked at a police station. Critics said the incident help revive his sagging political fortunes.

The long-awaited second round follows the disputed 2008 presidential elections, in which official results showed Mr Tsvangirai beat Mugabe, but not by enough votes to avoid a run-off.

(Source)

Officials of Zimbabwe’s embattled opposition Movement for Democratic Change said Wednesday that the the body of abducted activist Tonderai Ndira was found Tuesday in a Harare hospital mortuary, bringing the death toll among officials and members of the party to 45 amidst continuing deadly political violence across the country. MDC sources said the body was found when party members went to the Parirenyatwa Hospital mortuary to recover the bodies of two other activists. Ndira was abducted last week from his Mabvuku, Harare, home last week by 10 armed men, they said. Elsewhere, several truckloads of supporters of the ruling ZANU PF party disrupted a funeral at the Warren Hills cemetery in Harare on Wednesday. Some of the mourners, who were burying slain opposition activists Godfrey Kauzani and Cain Nyevhe, were injured as they attempted to flee from the attacking militia members.

Opposition member Wisdom Mujeri, one of those attacked by ZANU PF militia at the cemetery, told VOA that mourners were so terrified that they were unable to defend themselves. In Buhera West constituency in Masvingo province, a source said Mazungunye School was shut down Wednesday morning after ZANU PF militia beat teachers.They said school children scurried for cover as teachers were beaten, the source said. In Manicaland, opposition sources said more than 30 people had sought refuge at the party’s provincial offices in Mutare after fleeing violence in rural areas. The Movement for Democratic Change headquarters in the Harvest House office block in Harare continues to receive inflows of refugees from political violence, which has created a small-scale humanitarian crisis in the building amid concerns that inadequate sanitation could lead to an outbreak of disease.

(Source)

Weary Zimbabweans are facing a new wave of massive price increases that put many basic goods out of their reach.

Independent finance houses said in an assessment Tuesday that annual inflation rose this month to 1,063,572 percent based on prices of a basket of basic foodstuffs. As stores opened for business Wednesday, a small pack of locally produced coffee beans cost just short of 1 billion Zimbabwe dollars. A decade ago, that sum would have bought 60 new cars.

A loaf of bread cost 200 million Zimbabwe dollars - enough for 12 new cars a decade ago. Fresh price rises were expected after the state Grain Marketing Board announced up to 25-fold increases in its prices to commercial millers for wheat and the corn meal staple.

The collapsing economy was a major concern of voters who dealt longtime President Robert Mugabe a defeat in March 29 elections. His challenger, Morgan Tsvangirai, topped the poll but did not win the simple majority needed to avoid a runoff. The two face each other in a second round June 27.

Mugabe was to officially launch his runoff campaign with a rally at his party’s headquarters in Harare Sunday, the state-run Herald newspaper reported Wednesday.

The opposition’s campaigning has been hampered by violence blamed on Mugabe’s government and party. The opposition claims Tsvangirai is the target of a government assassination plot and he has been out of Zimbabwe since shortly after the March 29 first round. He plans to return to Zimbabwe to campaign for the runoff once security measures are in place, his aides have said.

Mugabe, speaking as he reviewed graduating police cadets Wednesday, characterized the opposition as a tool of former colonial ruler Britain, a familiar campaign theme from him. He also accused the opposition of fanning violence. Independent observers have said that while there have been some retaliatory attacks by the opposition, the vast majority of the attacks have been carried out by Mugabe supporters.

The opposition, “formed at the behest of Britaon in 1999, is now on an evil crusade of dividing our people on political lines,” Mugabe said.

The economy was on shop clerk Jessica Rukuni’s mind as she left the public swimming pool in downtown Harare’s central park with three disappointed children. She found the new admission price of 100 million Zimbabwe dollars - 30 US cents or 19 euro cents - out of reach.

“The point is that it’s far too much for most people who don’t get US dollars,” she said.

The divorcee’s income is the equivalent of about one US dollar a day. Her family has one basic meal a day.

One kilogram (2 pounds) of chicken more than doubled to 1 billion local dollars Tuesday and rental for a two-bedroom apartment rose from this month’s end to 22 billion Zimbabwe dollars - eight times the May price.

The state Rent Board, where unfair or inflated rental hikes are reported, has had no working telephones for several months, a telephone operator at the Ministry of Housing said.

In the economic meltdown, manufacturing industries, running at below 30 percent of their capacity, reported growing absenteeism by workers facing soaring commuter bus fares.

Economic analysts say unless the rate of inflation is slowed, annual inflation will likely reach about 5 million percent by October.

Zimbabwe’s official annual inflation was given by the government as 165,000 percent in February, already by far the highest in the world. The government has not updated that - the state statistical service has said there were not enough goods in the shortages-stricken shops to calculate new figures.

“The crunch is going to come when local money is eroded to the point it is no longer acceptable” in commercial activities or as earnings, especially by longtime ruler Mugabe’s loyalists, said independent Harare economist John Robertson.

Already, more transactions are being done in US dollars, both openly and in secret.

Robertson said sectors of the economy - phone services, the supply chain, maintenance of equipment or manufacturing - may collapse one at a time, but a country continues to exist even in chaos or anarchy.

“In the end, a country must fall into line with international financial standards to balance its books” as experience in once-inflationary Latin American countries has shown, he said.

He said that meant re-engaging with international financial institutions, lenders, donors and investors traditionally dominated globally by Western countries, the main source of hard currency.

Mugabe accuses the United States, the European Union and especially former colonial ruler Britain of using their economic influence to back his opponents and bring about his ouster.

He has severed ties with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial organizations. But Mugabe’s “Look East” policy to attract trade and investment from China and Asia has yielded a fraction of what is needed to halt inflation.

In the fastest shrinking economy outside a conventional war zone, much of the nation’s crucial savings have been used up in government borrowing and spending without corresponding productive income.

“It is as though a starving man has eaten his left foot and starts eating his right foot to survive in the short term,” Robertson said.

Zimbabwe’s economic decline has been blamed on the collapse of the key agriculture sector following the seizures, often violent and at Mugabe’s orders, of farmland from whites. Mugabe claimed the seizures begun in 2002 were to benefit poor blacks, but many of the farms went to his loyalists.

(Source)

The controversial former bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga, has been officially excommunicated, thereby stripping him of his ability to function as a cleric in the Anglican Church. The announcement by the dean of the Church of the Province of Central Africa, the Rt. Rev. Albert Chama, comes following disturbing reports of continued harassment and violence from local police against Anglicans trying to worship in Zimbabwe’s capital city. Last week, Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court dismissed an application from Kunonga to take control of Harare’s Anglican churches. However, police in Harare have continued to use physical force in their attempt to bar worshippers from attending church services at the city’s Anglican cathedral. Kunonga, who is an avid follower of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and has praised him as “a prophet from God,” was replaced in December 2007 by Bishop Sebastian Bakare, who is supported by the majority of the country’s Anglicans.

Bakare said his main concern is how to provide pastoral counseling to many church members who have been psychologically traumatized and stressed. “Our people have been spiritually wounded and we can only pray and hope that God’s Grace will sustain and heal us,” he said. “The present persecution will not destroy us at all.” Chama had declared the Diocese of Harare vacant in October 2007 after Kunonga had attempted to withdraw the diocese from the province. In his recent announcement, Chama said that he pronounces upon Kunonga “and all those who support him the sentence of Greater Excommunication, thereby separating them from the Church of the Province of Central Africa and the Anglican Communion, by the actions taken of withdrawing from the Province of Central Africa, forming another Church, and casting aside the Constitution and Canons of the Church of the Province of Central Africa.” Chama’s announcement calls on the “faithful in the Church of the Province of Central Africa and the Anglican Communion…to join with us in humble supplication that these our erring brothers and sisters may speedily attain true repentance, for their own souls’ health and the wellbeing of the Body of Church.”

(Source)