Messages From Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said Saturday he was still determined to reach a power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe despite the breakdown of talks between the two leaders.

Four days of negotiations ended Friday without producing an agreement on the allocation of Cabinet posts in a unity government.

“Our objective is to bring this government, Mugabe in particular, to the negotiating table … shouting and screaming but coming to the negotiating table,” Tsvangirai told thousands of supporters at a rally in the second city of Bulawayo.

The collapse of the talks is a disappointing setback that is likely to worsen the country’s economic and humanitarian woes.

“The biggest challenge we have is what has been left in this country. There is nothing. Zero,” Tsvangirai said.

Talks were mediated by former South African President Thabo Mbeki who brokered a Sept. 15 deal between Mugabe and Tsvangirai after the opposition narrowly won March parliamentary elections

The leaders have called for intervention from regional and African leaders. They will attend a meeting of the Southern African Development Community to be held in Swaziland on Monday.

(Source)

Dear Friends and Donors,

Where to start?

Since the last update in July, we have, once more, another ‘new’ currency, which was introduced on the 1^st August.

This time, TEN zeros where lopped off and the old coins once more became legal tender and $5 was worth 5 billion old Zim dollars. Pensioners who were receiving meagre pensions of around 60 million no longer receive anything as that amounts now to a fraction of a cent. Already, every single commodity is in the tens of thousands of dollars. Since this introduction, more notes of higher values have been produced we now have a $1,000, $10,000 and this week $50,000.

Almost all businesses will not accept a cheque, cash only. The maximum withdrawl this week was raised to Z$50,000 each day. What will that buy after standing for several hours in a queue at the bank? Minced beef at Z$90,000 a kilo? Obviously not. Bread at Z$17,000 a loaf, 6 eggs at Z$20,000 and perhaps one potato at Z$90,000 a kilo. Then queue again the next day. Never mind paying large accounts of utilities bills or perhaps buying your life saving medication (if you can afford it). Just one American dollar at the time of writing is worth around Z$16,000 (Z$160,000,000,000,000 before 1^st August, not forgetting to add the three zero’s taken off in ‘06). In 1980 the Z$ was equal in value to the US$.

Shops are almost empty, what goods are available for payment in Zim dollars are at ridiculous prices as the shopkeeper tries to hedge against inflation estimated at over 1 TRILLION percent. How about a tin of beans for the equivalent of US$80?

In this climate, ‘Rand’ shops have sprung up in the most unlikely places. Some selling from private homes. These charge on average a 100% mark up on the South African price. Fine if you have access to foreign currency, if not you can’t buy.

Where then does this leave ‘our’ pensioners? No income, no transport to cross border shop?

S.O.A.P., here in Bulawayo is working hard to procure goods from South Africa and we have also had to start buying from one of the new importers. Luckily, because we are buying in bulk we get a special discount and pay a 60% mark up. As can be imagined this has increased our overheads dramatically.

With bereavements and people moving away, in October, we supplied food to 173 needy pensioners but these numbers do increase by 5 or 6 each month. ‘Our’ recipients will need help for the rest of their lives whatever happens.

As always, we stress that it is YOU that enable us to carry on distributing groceries because of YOUR generosity. We thank YOU all once more for giving ‘our’ pensioners a little dignity and some hope in these very trying times.

Thank you and God bless you all.

Dave Gill and Louise Campbell.

(Source: by email)

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has acknowledged concerns regarding Robert Mugabe’s recognition as head of state of Zimbabwe as “legitimate”, admitting that at the time of the summit meeting in August, Mugabe had not been elected into office through a credible process.

The Zimbabwe Exile Forum (ZEF), a South African-based NGO working with people who have fled from the political violence in Zimbabwe, brought an urgent application before the SADC tribunal in Windhoek seeking the suspension of Mugabe’s invitation to the SADC summit.

It also sought an order that SADC, its organs and institutions refrain from allowing Mugabe and his government to participate in SADC more generally as representatives for Zimbabwe.

The ZEF is being assisted by Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), Namibia’s Legal Assistance Centre and South African advocate, Richard Moultrie.

Priti Patel, acting director of SALC said today: “SADC should be applauded for acknowledging that concerns regarding its recognition of Mugabe as head of state were legitimate.

“But SADC’s response thus far has been woefully inadequate in ensuring a democratic and peaceful transition in Zimbabwe.”

In its response to the application, SADC said that as it has decided the current situation in Zimbabwe must be settled through dialogue, the invitation to the summit was directed not only to Mugabe, but also to representatives from the opposition parties.

The organisation therefore asked the tribunal to turn the application down.

“The settlement of the dispute requires the parties to sit together and talk to each other,” the SADC reply said.

Gabriel Shumba, the director of ZEF, said that “Given Mugabe’s recent attempts to unilaterally convene a government in violation of the negotiated peace agreement, this response from SADC arguing that the peace process is continuing is worrisome.

“If SADC does indeed believe these concerns are legitimate then it must step up and embrace its role as the key regional institution and remove any official recognition of Mugabe as a representative for the republic of Zimbabwe.”

(Source)

ZANU PF has told former South African President Thabo Mbeki that the MDC is too inexperienced to handle the ministry of finance, the party’s chief parliamentary whip, Joram Gumbo told VOA’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe.

“Comrade Mugabe thinks he should retain the portfolio of ministry of finance because he thinks that over the past few years we have survived under sanctions.. we have had some means for surviving under those difficult times,so he believes that if the implementation of this agreement does not mean that by the following day there will be an end or lifting of sanctions… we should then continue with the present administration… that’s the basic argument,” said Gumbo

Gumbo went on to deny that ZANU PF is responsible for the economic meltdown and instead accused the MDC of siding with the international community.

The official inflation rate surged last week to 231 million per cent and the World Food Programme this week launched an appeal to feed 5 million Zimbabweans. It said more than 80 per cent of the population was surviving on less than $2.50 a day.

Independent economists say that inflation this month will run into the trillions. That has forced the Government to allow shops to accept US dollars and the South African rand, because Zimbabwe’s dollar is all but worthless.

A loaf of bread, which cost Z$500 at the beginning of August, now costs between Z$7,000 and Z$10,000, even when it can be found.

Economists say the root cause of the country’s hyperinflation is the government’s policy of printing ever more money to meet its own needs, which has the effect of destroying the Zimbabwe dollar’s value in terms of hard currency, sending the cost of anything imported soaring.

And with the economy in a downward spiral. Officially, one US dollar is worth Z$180. But on the black market, it fetches Z$8,000 - and that is for cash, which is in desperately short supply. For bank transfers, the rate is Z$1.5million to one.

These figures are even after the currency was revalued in August, when 10 zeros were knocked off.

“The consequences of such a rate of inflation is absolute desperation, despair and poverty,” said Eldred Masunungure, professor of political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.

Simba Makoni, former Finance Minister, blasted ZANU PF for its inflexibility and said demands made by by ZANU PF are both illogical and unjustifiable.

“We all know why we are in this mess and who brought us here,” he said. “It would be illogical and unjustifiable for people to demand posts they know pretty well they failed to deliver in the last 28 years.

“Without saying it, it is pretty clear that there are some ministries that cannot go to one party because of its failure to deliver the goods over the last 28 years,” he said.

Meanwhile reporters monitoring talks at Harare’s Rainbow Towers hotel say all the principals, Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara have arrived at the hotel and could soon begin meetings with Mbeki.

(Source)

Victimization of perceived supporters of the MDC still continues in Karoi, 7 months after the disputed March 29 elections.

It is reported that the notorious ZANU PF member of parliament for Magunje, Frank Ndambakuwa allegedly dismissed 25 of his farm laborers  from his Ian Crocker Farm, accusing them of voting for the MDC during the March 29 elections.

Ndambakuwa is responsible for spearheading the violent crackdown against MDC supporters in Magunje and Hurungwe East post March 29 and is personally responsible for the April shooting of Peterson Kwenda that resulted in him losing his left leg.

Victimisation is set to continue since the government, responsible for organizing and funding the brutual post March 29 onslaught did not give the order for the violence and victimization to be stopped. As a result animosity will continue between supporters from ZANU PF and MDC, leaving the possibility of reconciliation a faraway dream.

The province of Mashonaland West, where Karoi falls in recorded a significantly high number of incidents of political violence and is where the first murder case of an MDC supporter was recorded.

Hunger and suffering has taken its toll on some residents in Karoi who in desperation have resorted to visiting nearby farms where they pick left over maize grain and soya beans from last season’s harvest from the fields to supplement on food. The town of Karoi grew and prospered hinging on commercial agriculture as the main economic activity, and the collapse of agriculture after the farm invasions resulted in a large influx of unemployed ex farm laborers moving into the town.

The town has gone for more than a month without clean running water and residents are getting untreated water from a nearby dam. This has consequently resulted in an increase of diarrhea cases at the local district hospital, and if the current situation remains unaddressed an outbreak of the deadly cholera is foreseen in the near future.

(Source)

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai threatened Sunday to pull out of a power-sharing deal if President Robert Mugabe pushed ahead with his decision to allocate key ministries to his party.

“If they (ZANU PF) do it that way, we have no right to be part of such an arrangement,” Tsvangirai told a rally in Harare attended by about 8,000 of his his supporters.

“The people have suffered. But if it means suffering the more in order for them to get what is at stake, then so be it. We will renegotiate until an agreement is reached but that does not mean we will compromise for the sake of it,” he said in a mixture of his native Shona and English languages.

“We had thought that they would be reasonable and equitable in power-sharing. If you say all the 15 ministries which are key are mine (referring to ruling ZANU PF), we (in the MDC) disagree,” he said.

Talks on implementing a stalled September 15 power-sharing agreement in Harare were branded dead in the water Sunday by opposition leaders soured by Mugabe’s weekend unilateral decision to award key posts to his ruling party.

Chief mediator in the talks, former South African president Thabo Mbeki, will on Monday in Harare seek to hold discussions with each of the three parties which signed up to the power-sharing accord.

(Source)

The following ministerial allocations were discussed but not concluded in the deliberations of the three principals when they met on Friday, except that ZANU PF wanted to take the ministries of Finance, Home Affairs, Local Government & Foreign Affairs from the MDC. This list, contrary to the one published by The Herald, captures the general understanding during the deliberations.

MDC-T

Finance

Economic planning

Home Affairs

Foreign Affairs

Justice & Legal Affairs

Local Government

Health & Child Welfare

Education

Energy & power Development

Media & Information Publicity

Labour & Social Welfare

Women, Gender & Community Development

Environment, Natural Resources & Tourism

ZANU PF

Defence

Lands, Agriculture & Resettlement

Mines & Mineral Development

Parliamentary & Constitutional Affairs

Youth Development & Indigenization

Higher & Tertiary Education

Public Service

National Housing & Social Amenities

Public Works

Water Resources, Development & Management

Information & Communication Technology

State Enterprises & Parastatals

Transport

Small & Medium Enterprises

Prisons & Correctional Services

MDC-M

Science & Technology development

Regional Integration & International Cooperation

Industry & Commerce

(Source: by email)

MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai will on Sunday 12 October 2008 address a rally at Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfield, Harare dubbed the “Big Sunday Rally”.

President Tsvangirai is expected to unpack the character and substance of the political deal that was signed by the three principals of the three major political parties on 15 September 2008 in Harare.

Members of the MDC national executive are expected to address the rally, which is expected to start at 10.00 am.

(Source)

ZANU PF loosing councilor for Ward 15 has taken maize from the Biet Bridge GMB depot and sold it at an inflated rate. This maize was meant for the MDC winning candidate Ishmal Gilbert to distribute to the people in his Ward 15 in Chiredzi South.

This corruption by ZANU PF will not stop until there is genuine Law And Order in Zimbabwe.

(Source: by email)

Zimbabwe’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said no new talks on a unity government would be held on Monday and called for regional mediation to resolve a dispute on how to divide key ministries.

“As far as we are concerned, there are no talks lined up today [Monday],” Nelson Chamisa, spokesperson for the MDC, said.

He denied a report in the state-run Herald newspaper, which said President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party and the MDC would meet Monday to resolve their differences over control of the finance and home affairs ministries.

“Nothing has been concluded. ZANU PF and Mugabe are trying to mislead the world and the nation,” Chamisa said.

“It is now time the Southern African Development Community [SADC] and the African Union come and assist in this matter,” he added.

The MDC had called last week for SADC or the AU to help break the impasse, but Mugabe’s party insisted that no outside mediation was needed.

But new talks on Saturday among Mugabe, Tsvangirai and MDC splinter group leader Arthur Mutambara failed to resolve differences.

Chamisa said the MDC had proposed leaving Mugabe control of the Defence Ministry, if the opposition were given home affairs.

“It’s a deadlock,” he said. “The country is at a standstill and people are dying of hunger and yet ZANU PF is not moving an inch to take this country forward.”

The South African government said on Friday that former president Thabo Mbeki, who brokered the power-sharing deal, had agreed to resume his mediation to resolve the crisis.

“We will issue a statement when he does go,” Mbeki’s spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga said on Saturday.

Under the South African-brokered deal, Mugabe will remain as head of state after nearly three decades in power while Tsvangirai is to take up a new post of prime minister and Mutambara will be a deputy prime minister.

The deal was heralded as an historic initiative to resolve Zimbabwe’s political deadlock and economic meltdown.

Once one of Africa’s most-prosperous countries, Zimbabwe now suffers the world’s highest rate of inflation, last estimated at 11,2-million percent, with millions dependent on food aid.

Meanwhile, six months after elections, Zimbabwe still lacks a functioning government and is on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Following the worst wheat harvest since the independence war, bread has run out and sugar supplies are set to follow. USAid, the American government humanitarian agency, is warning that the country could run out of maize, the staple food, by next month.

Farming officials say the government’s stated aim of producing maize on 500 000 hectares this season is unattainable.

“We are in serious trouble,” said Jabulani Gwaringa, of the Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union (ZFU), which represents small-scale operators. “There is no seed, fertiliser and crop chemicals on the market. Banks are not offering farmers any credit. In July we had produced about 25 000 metric tonnes of seed maize. We are down to 9 000 because farmers opted to eat their hybrid seed or sell it to millers.”

(Source)