Messages From Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe‘s government will withdraw soldiers from poorly secured diamond fields in the eastern part of the country following criticism over rights abuses, an official told the state-owned Sunday Mail.

Zimbabwe deployed troops to seal off the Marange diamond fields in 2008 to clamp down on illegal mining and smuggling after some 30,000 panners descended on the area. Human rights groups accuse the army of committing atrocities in the fields.

Last week Human Rights Watch released a damning report alleging that about 200 people had been killed during a military crackdown in the diamond fields.

A Kimberly Process review team – mandated to monitor and regulate diamond trade globally – visited Zimbabwe‘s diamond mines last week and called for the “immediate demilitarisation” of the Marange fields and measures to stop smuggling.

Zimbabwe‘s deputy mines minister Murisi Zwizwai, whose department has denied charges of killings by soldiers, told the state-controlled Sunday Mail that the army would be gradually pulled out of the diamond fields, which cover 66,000 hectares.

“We agreed to remove soldiers but it will be done in phases while proper security settings would be put in place,” Zwizwai told the paper after meeting the Kimberly Process team.

The Zimbabwe government also asked for assistance in modernising the Chiadzwa diamond mining operations in Marange, currently being conducted by the under-funded state firm Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation.

Industry experts say official diamond sales account for less than 10 percent of Zimbabwe‘s mineral earnings, but have the potential to join gold and platinum among the country’s main earners if the government clamps down on smuggling.

Zimbabwe‘s unity government, formed by rivals President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai in February, is battling to raise $10 billion to rescue the country’s economy after years of contraction and hyperinflation.

Western donors, whose financial support is seen as key to economic recovery, remain skeptical and have demanded broad reforms and an end to rights abuses before providing aid.

(Source)

On Thursday 25th June, 2009 J was walking back from the shops to his home in Macha ward, Muzarabani, when he was attacked by two well known Zanu PF men carrying an axe.  J was an MDC election agent in that area during last years elections.  Not long after the March 29th 2008 elections he was attacked by the very same two men who broke his left arm and two fingers on his right hand. His home was also destroyed.  This time their intention was to chop off his right hand.

The reason for this attack on J, was that he reported his assault last year to a Human Rights organisation, who has recently served summons on the attackers.

He managed to get away and ran to his home where his wife bandaged up the shattered arm.  He caught a bus a few hours later at 9pm, reported the case to the Muzarabani Police and then traveled to Harare, arriving at 6 am the next day. 

Medical experts requested that he sign a consent for an amputation before he went to the operating theatre, as they saw little hope of saving his hand.  Thank God, that was not the case. The surgeon did a wonderful job and J not only has his hand but also has movement and feeling.  He is still visibly traumatised by the second attack on him by these ZANU PF thugs.

I would like to quote ZANU PF’s provincial Chairman of Masvingo province, Mr. Lovemore Matuke, when interviewed by Radio VOP. He said “ZANU PF does not promote violence or lawlessness. He added that those who were overzealous during the elections, in the name of the party, should now face the consequences. If anyone committed a crime, then the law shall catch up with him. If someone sent them, then let that person be answerable and pay for them, not the party”.

One wonders if the man is plain stupid or totally “brain”washed?  Over 7000 victims of violence reported for medical treatment between March and September 2008, all victims of ZANU PF, militia, and the military brutality.  Many hundreds more were prevented from seeking treatment as their home areas were closed off by the militia.  Over 200 were brutally murdered, an estimated 200 are still missing (now presumed dead)?  Women and girls were gang raped.  MDC owned livestock was either stolen, killed and eaten, or burned alive by ZANU PF. MDC homes were destroyed and looted.

The Ministry for National Healing and Integration, headed by 1 MDC T Minister, 1 MDC M, and 1 ZANU PF Minister need to get their act together. Have they purposely left out the word JUSTICE?  

If we are to learn from other countries in the world, there cannot be healing and integration until the perpetrators have been brought to book.   How can that process begin -

• when the rule of law has still not been restored in Zimbabwe
• when MDC MP’s and officials are being thrown in jail on trumped up charges
• when the conditions of the GPA have not been met
• when ZANU PF MP’s are telling their constituents that campaigning has already begun and “must be better than 2008″
• when those ZANU PF thugs were rewarded with cultivators, ploughs, harrows, knapsack sprayers etc after “their excellent work” campaigning last year – more gifts from Gideon Gono’s Reserve Bank
• while the Military refuse to recognise and respect the Prime Minister…. ?

While the state sponsored thugs continue to act with total impunity, while the perpetrators of last year’s vicious brutality walk free (and all those who orchestrated Gukuruhundi in the 1980′s), there is little or no chance of any healing and integration! 

ZANU PF has to admit to its brutal campaigns of violence and start compensating the victims.

( by email)

Jocelyn Chiwenga, the wife of Zimbabwe’s Defence Forces (ZDF) commander, has taken the triplets of a poverty-stricken mother who appealed for help on national television. Jestina Kuwali, from the dormitory town Chitungwiza, surrendered her triplets to Chiwenga last week

The previous week, she had appealed on State television for help in settling a US$1,200 hospital bill and with buying equipment for the babies. The woman’s story elicited support from women’s groups, which donated food hampers and baby clothes for the triplets.

But as help was pouring in, Chiwenga is reported to have pulled up at the young mother’s Unit F lodgings in a convoy of Mercs, accompanied by army bodyguards and said she was taking the three babies.

Officials in the Department of Social Welfare said yesterday they were trying to establish the circumstances surrounding the taking of the triplets by Chiwenga when she did not have police clearance, required by Zimbabwean adoption law.

A social worker said frantic efforts to get to the bottom of the matter had been foiled by repeated failure to get access to the Chiwengas’ mansion. She alleged they had been chased away twice by soldiers manning the gate.

Kuwali declined to comment on the removal of her babies.

“Ndinongoda kutenda nezvandakaitirwa neruzhinji rweZimbabwe (I just want to express my appreciation for the generosity I have received from so many Zimbabweans),” said Kuwali.

A woman believed to be Kuwali’s aunt denied that Chiwenga had grabbed the triplets.

“Mai Chiwenga vakatora vana musikana uyu achiri kurapwa (Mrs Chiwenga temporarily took custody of the babies while the mother recuperates),” she said.

Efforts to obtain comment from Chiwenga were in vain.

This is not the first time that Chiwenga has attempted to adopt babies without authoriaation.

Two years ago, she took in a four-year-old orphan called Tanaka Jones from the Highfield high-density area. Tanaka was picked up soon after birth in central Harare, and taken to the Harare Children’s Home. That is where, four years later, Chiwenga spotted him.

Chiwenga already has two children, both from her previous marriage to a white Danish national.

It is believed Chiwenga, who met the ZDF commander General Constantine Chiwenga while she was a waitress at Jobs Night Spot along Julius Nyerere Way in downtown Harare, does not have any children with the top army general.

It is unclear if she finally managed to win the custody battle for little Tanaka but she turned up at the Highfield office two years ago, demanding the little boy’s birth certificate because she needed a passport for him.

The social welfare officials stood their ground and Chiwenga did not get the document.

In 2007, she beat up photojournalist Tsvangirai Mukwazhi at Makro supermarket in Harare during a tour by MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Flanked by bodyguards, Chiwenga hurled insults at the MDC leader, including a threat to “take his manhood” as she ordered company security guards to cage Tsvangirai’s entourage.

Her previous antics include ordering a white farmer to turn over his property to her or be killed during the height of the land grab, saying: “I have not tasted white blood for 20 years”. She then tried to sell the farmer’s produce to UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, but Sainsbury’s would not deal with her.

In 2003, she is reported to have beaten up a lawyer representing a reporter for the Daily News.

Group lawyer Gugulethu Moyo had gone to secure the release of the reporter, who had been arrested, and was pounced on by Chiwenga inside a precinct while police watched.

Critics have described her as “unbalanced” and unfit to take custody of vulnerable children.

(Source)

The Zimbabwean economy has undoubtedly transformed its complexion for the better over the last few months but the question that remains is whether enough has been done to keep it from sinking deeper into the murky waters as it enters the second half of the year.

The formation of the inclusive Government in February under which all the political parties agreed to give priority to the restoration of economic stability and growth in Zimbabwe completely transformed the political landscape, hence the economy. Political disharmony had long been identified as Zimbabwe‘s greatest undoing.

The official adoption of the multiple currency trading system in February (which many loosely refer to as dollarisation) has had a phenomenal effect in terms of resuscitation of business, availability of previously scarce goods and services and bringing back confidence into the economy.

This has brought with it the disappearance of the “dealer economy” and its evils as decent ways of doing business have given a breath of fresh air. But not so to the dealers themselves, many of whom have been left stranded, with nowhere to run.

Inflation, previously Zimbabwe‘s most elusive enemy, has been running in the negative territory (deflation) since February, with the month-month figure for May standing at -1 percent.

Last year annual inflation figures had reached 231 million percent. Progress recorded in this instance has largely been attributed to the switch from the Zimbabwe dollar transactions, the availability of goods and services at generally “affordable” prices. Speculative tendencies have disappeared much faster than they came.

Although the introduction of the US dollar, South African rand, British Pound and the Botswana Pula, among other currencies came at a price for many Zimbabweans who had trillions of Zimbabwe dollars in their accounts, the benefits arising there from have outweighed the losses.

Many though, still wish they could get access to their savings in one form or the other.

Prospects of achieving at least a four percent economic growth by year-end as predicted by Finance Minister Tendai Biti now sound achievable although there is so much that still needs to be done to get the economy into the overdrive.

The economy is believed to have grown by 1,8 percent in the first half of the year.

Industrial production has general risen to an average 30 percent from 10 percent although such companies as National Foods boast of much higher figures.

Minister of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion Elton Mangoma last week said employment had over the last few months risen to 15 percent, up from six percent, with more jobs expected to be created as new and expansion programmes gather pace.

Investors from all corners of the globe have begun to warm up to the opportunities that Zimbabwe has to offer, many of which have always beckoned for attention but were previously hidden under the veil of political disharmony.

Interest from South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, China, South Korea and other such countries have been expressed in the mining sector particularly, tourism, manufacturing, agro-processing and other sectors of the economy.

Many of them could aid a much faster recovery pace if followed through as promised. Such companies as Metallon Gold that had closed shop when the going got tougher last year are now re-opening their gold mines.

The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, which had last year become notorious for fuelling speculative transactions, has sobered up since reopening. Although it started off at a snail’s pace, the last few weeks have witnessed increased trades with the key industrial index at 154,42 points as of Tuesday while the mining index went up 3,36 points to close at 271,65 points on the same day.

In the first two months of trading which resumed on February 19, shares had gained by more than 120 percent, the biggest advance out of 88 equity markets tracked by international news agency Bloomberg. This performance was spurred by growing confidence in the economy.

Large parcels of shares have exchanged hands in recent weeks, as the bourse becomes one of the best investment options currently.

In his US$1 billion revised budget presented in March, Minister Biti was hopeful that the inclusive Government and the launch of STERP would anchor economic revival.

“The new inclusive Government is committing itself to putting Zimbabwe people and the country first by addressing the above challenges (hyperinflation, production capacity etc), geared towards turning around the economy and hence, afford the people of Zimbabwe better living standards,” said Minister Biti as he unrolled the revised budget before Parliament in March.

The 2009 Monetary Policy Statement issued by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono was also upbeat about growth projections with the RBZ chief saying 2009 would mark the turning point of the country’s economic fortunes premised on hard work, honesty and sacrifice.

The Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme was launched by President Mugabe in March. However, after all has been said and done, the funds to drive economic growth at the anticipated pace have largely remained elusive.

STERP says Zimbabwe needs more than US$8 billion to re-jig the economy but so far lines of credit and other forms of funding secured so far amount to about US$1,5 billion.

Companies need funds to recapitalise to achieve their potential while massive investments are expected to allow the mining sector to take off rapidly.

Banks, some of which are facing recapitalisation challenges, have remained constrained in their efforts to lend to business and individuals.

Some promises of financial packages from the region and beyond are still to be followed through, stalling progress in turning the economy around.

The absence of attractive instruments through which companies can raise money has hamstrung efforts by industry to increase production capacity.

Revenue generation, which has improved from US$20 million per month to about US$50 million, has remained far below Government’s financial requirements to meet salaries and to drive the economy.

However, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has embarked on more aggressive revenue collection measures which could yield better inflows into treasury.

Analysts are upbeat about prospects for the second half.

Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce and other economic believe the economy will be in better stead by year-end.

Speaking on the sidelines of an African Development Bank meeting in Dakar, Senegal recently, Minister Biti said the future looked bright.

“We should be able to obtain sustainable growth rates in real terms . Those (investors) who are sitting on the sidelines waiting for politics to completely resolve itself, waiting for what I call the landmine period to blow over, I think they may miss the boat,” he said.

Zimbabweans await to assess progress under the 100-day plan which was set in motion on April 29 and will run until August 6.

Under the plan, Government has set practical measures to implement the Global Political Agreement between Zanu PF and the two MDCs, and STERP.

Its exactly one month and four days before the deadline. The ground the respective ministries and Government arms will have covered by then, remains to be seen.

“The economy is now on the right track. We need to keep working hard to achieve the goals and objectives enunciated in STERP,” quipped one commentator.

(Source)

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Tuesday dismissed claims by Media, Information and Publicity permanent secretary George Charamba, that he could be breaking the country’s media laws by publishing his newsletter without a licence.

“There is nothing illegal about a newsletter,” Tsvangirai told journalists during a news conference, 24 hours after returning from a tour of Europe and America to source for relief aid for Zimbabwe.

“I have a website. This is the modern age. I have to communicate. You cannot keep things to yourself and still say you are communicating. Let the people know,” he said.

Charamba told the State controlled Sunday Mail newspaper during Tsvangirai’s absence that his ministry was investigating the legality of the weekly publication. 

“We have seen the publication, which purports to be from the Prime Minister’s Office, noted its circulation figures and we are looking at what the law says,” he was quoted as saying.

Under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), newsletters are not obliged to register with the country’s media regulating authority. 

With a print run of “400000″ copies distributed free of charge every week, government was anxious this surpassed the print run of most newspapers in Africa and should as such, be subject to the operations of Zimbabwe’s strict media laws as it was “clearly an organ of mass communication”. 

The bulletin, whose actual circulation is 40000, was launched during Tsvangirai’s absence to counter claims by the State media that his tour was intended to raise monies for local Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

Government has long accused NGOs of harbouring a regime change agenda against President Robert Mugabe. 

Charamba, who together with his ministry, were last month barred by the High Court from interfering with the affairs of the media, now faces contempt of court charges following his refusal to abide by the ruling.

Tsvangirai also challenged government officials accusing him of leaking government secrets through the newsletter, to officially present their complaints during cabinet meetings.

This was after the same issue of The Sunday Mail had also quoted unnamed government officials accusing the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader of “undermining cabinet” and violating the “Oaths of Secrecy” by publishing in the bulletin details of his official trip before briefing cabinet. 

“They know what channel to use,” he said, “The only channel where anyone in government can raise or any minister can lodge a complaint of that nature, if it exists, is in cabinet and I will answer that. Let them raise it in cabinet.” 

Most stories published in the fist issue of the newsletter were already in the public domain.

(Source)