Zimbabwe Weekly Update – week ending 24 Nov 2009

Posted by ZDN on November 25, 2009

Politics

Zanu-PF pre-Congress provincial nominations reveal a widening rift within the party. Vice-president Joice Mujuru has been nominated to retain her position, representing a defeat for the man even insiders call ‘the cruellest one’ – Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. John Nkomo is set to become the second vice-president, replacing the late Joseph Msika. Nkomo’s vacated post of Zanu-PF national chairperson will then go to Simon Khaya Moyo, Zimbabwe’s ambassador to South Africa. Meanwhile the Zanu-PF Congress, which was scheduled to be held in early December, has been postponed, reportedly due to lack of funds.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was invited to Tripoli for a meeting with Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi, current head of the African Union (AU), and was received with full military honours. Colonel Gaddafi has been a strong supporter of President Mugabe.

The three principals in the transitional government resumed negotiations on Monday to resolve outstanding issues after the first deadline last week, set by the SADC Troika, was missed. The talks yesterday were attended by all teams from Zanu-PF and the two MDC formations. Meanwhile South African President Jacob Zuma has postponed his scheduled Dec. 5 visit to assess progress after the parties missed last week’s deadline.

Malawi has been highlighted in a petition to the EU which calls for punitive action against SADC countries which “support Mugabe’s tyranny”. The Zimbabwe Vigil pressure group presented the petition to the EU’s Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Karel De Gucht, in Brussels this week. “Why, for instance, should Malawi get £70 million in balance of payments support this year from the UK alone when its people face starvation because of a reckless loan to Mugabe, which predictably has not been repaid?” reads the petition.

Zimbabwe has been selected to host the 26th Plenary Session of the Parliamentary Forum of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Officials said most of the group’s 14-member countries were expected to take part in the session, scheduled for next week in Victoria Falls.

Governance

Zimbabwe’s civil service audit is on. Public Service Minister Eliphas Mukonoweshuro told reporters on Wednesday that the US$4 million needed to bankroll the audit, which is set to run from Nov. 30 – Dec. 18, has been provided through the Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund, a World Bank administered fund. The audit, to be conducted by independent auditors, will physically confirm the number of genuine civil servants. Critics say the 300 000 strong public workforce is overrun with supporters of Mugabe, who allegedly receive salaries each month without actually serving the state – and that in addition there are close to 20 000 ‘ghost’ workers. The audit, which will exclude the uniformed security forces, comes amid allegations that Mukonoweshuro also announced civil servants will be getting bonuses this year.

Parliament on Wednesday unanimously approved the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Amendment Bill, which aims to reduce the bank chief’s powers by appointing an independent board. This is the first major law to be passed by parliament since the formation of the transitional government. The catch? One of the amendments was a clause giving the bank governor and employees immunity “for anything done in good faith and without negligence.”

Zimbabwe’s co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa is looking for technical expertise and financial resources to overhaul the country’s voters’ roll. MDC MP Tongai Matutu tabled evidence supporting his motion in parliament that the voters’ roll used in last year’s disputed elections contained gross irregularities. These included 74 021 voters above 100 years old, and 82 456 between the ages of 90 and 100 in a country where life expectancy is just 35 years. The roll also includes significant numbers of deceased people who had been registered to vote. Zimbabwe is expected to hold fresh elections next year.

Business

Tourism received a boost when a number of Western countries lifted warnings against travelling to Zimbabwe after the transitional government was formed. Zimbabwe Council of Tourism president, Emmanuel Fundira, said 362 000 people had visited the country by August compared to 100 000 visitors the year before. Zimbabwe is hoping to benefit from the Soccer World Cup to be held next year in South Africa.

On the list of most corrupt nations, Zimbabwe this year improved from number 14 to number 34 out of 180 countries, according to the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI). TI said Zimbabwe’s position was still of concern due to the breakdown of the rule of law. The CPI measures the perceived levels of public office corruption in a country and is a composite index, drawing on a number of expert and business surveys.

National coal producer, Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) will this week receive the first consignment of haulage excavating equipment worth US$5 million from a South African company to augment its ageing mining fleet and supplement the massive open-cast dragline, which has been inactive for months.

Diamonds

Zimbabwe has started withdrawing troops from the country’s eastern diamond fields to meet Kimberley Process (KP) reforms over human rights abuses, state media reported on Thursday. “We have done a lot since the last review by the [Kimberley Process] as part of our efforts to comply with their recommendations as well as towards achieving and fulfilling compliance,” the state-run Herald quoted Mines Minister Opert Mpofu as saying. The withdrawal of soldiers comes as the government, through its mining arm Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, signed a joint venture with two South African firms to mine diamonds in Marange.

Diaspora

Xenophobic attacks against Zimbabwean asylum seekers in South Africa has reignited, this time in the poverty-stricken town of De Doorns, 150 km from Cape Town. Nearly 2,700 asylum seekers evacuated their shacks last week after local mobs chased them out, claiming they were robbing them of jobs. They are currently residing in a temporary safety camp.

People Against Suffering Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP)’s Braam Hanekom on Friday accused local authorities of not doing enough to prevent the attacks. He said the tensions in the community have been building since a week prior, tensions he said police and government officials were “more than aware of.”

South African based MDC party officials have angrily denied a story carried by the state-run Herald newspaper, that their entire executive had been sacked for misappropriating funds. Information secretary Sibanengi Dube charged, “It is obvious to everyone the Herald is on a mission to discredit the MDC-T.”

A 24 year-old Zimbabwean man has been held inside an immigration detention centre in Portsmouth, UK, for over a year, awaiting deportation. Tatenda Jera was taken into custody by the UK border agency for violating his visitor’s visa. His asylum claim has been denied three times.

Media

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has launched a public broadcasting report published by the South African-based Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AFRIMAP) and the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA). The report urges the repeal of Zanu-PF-led legislation repressing freedom of speech. At a meeting chaired by the Media Institute of Southern Africa’s Zimbabwean Chapter, Tsvangirai said the media industry should be self-regulated, and called for editorial independence.

Tsvangirai on Wednesday dismissed recent media reports suggesting that former Media and Information Commission (MIC) chairman Tafataona Mahoso had bounced back as head of the Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ). “The final composition (of BAZ) has not yet been decided upon despite the premature announcement to the contrary,” he said.

Humanitarian Crisis

About 1.6 million Zimbabweans will need food aid between now and the end of December, said the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) in a new food security report carried out in September. The US-based organisation found that around one million of those at risk live in the rural areas, and the remaining 600 000 in the cities. The assessment cites poverty and unemployment as contributing factors to the continuing food insecurity in the country.

One hundred children die every day in Zimbabwe, while one in every four is an orphan, according to a UNICEF official. Dr Peter Salama, the UNICEF representative to Zimbabwe, said HIV/Aids remains the number killer of children. “Around one in 10 children today die before the age of five. “While the rate of under five mortality has dropped all over the world, it has gone up in Zimbabwe by more than 20 percent,” said Salama.

The Family Support Trust Clinic at Harare Central Hospital said more than 30 000 cases of child sex abuse were reported in the last four years. Zimbabwe accounts for at least 1 million orphans under 17 years, according to a UNAIDS report of 2008.

The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria has extended the availability of some US$38 million in unused grants to the country, hoping to speed implementation of programs not implemented due to the political and economic turmoil of recent years.

Economy

Zimbabwe’s state power firm, ZESA Holdings, has increased power cuts, resulting in unscheduled cuts in most cities for the past three weeks, at times lasting for 12 hours. The cuts are due to insufficient power imports, low generation capacity and heightened vandalism. Industrial output has increased from 10 percent at the start of the year to 40 percent after the formation of the coalition government. With this increased industrial demand for power, the electricity cuts are hurting the recovering economy. Power cuts have also caused water shortages in Harare.

ZESA on Monday said foreign investors were reluctant to provide funding badly needed to boost power generation because of uncertainty about the country’s future political and economic direction.

Legal

The State has invoked the controversial Section 121 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (CPEA) to defeat the bail order given to MDC employee Pascal Gwezere, who is accused of breaking into a military armoury and undergoing military training in Uganda. “This is just an abuse of the section and you know we are challenging it at the Supreme Court,” said Gwezere’s lawyer Alec Muchadehama. Gwezere, who was abducted by state security agents from his home two weeks ago, was severely tortured and denied medical treatment.

Meanwhile Alec Muchadehama, a leading human rights lawyer, is himself is being harassed: A Harare magistrate on Tuesday removed Muchadehama from remand. He is being charged with contempt of court for allegedly causing the unlawful release from custody of his MDC clients, Kisimusi Dhlamini, Gandhi Mudzingwa and Andrison Manyere, who were abducted at the end of last year and severely tortured.

The Roy Bennett High Court trial: First the judge barred the prosecution from submitting evidence obtained under torture, then on Monday the state’s first witness admitted that evidence brought against Bennett was insufficient to secure a conviction. Chief Superintendent James Makone admitted that several weapons displayed as evidence in court had no connection to Bennett, and that he was yet to uncover other incriminating evidence. Bennett is being tried on terrorism charges, which he denies. Bennett’s defence lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, has ended each court day trying to secure a promise from the court that Bennett will not be rearrested, further heightening concern that more spurious charges will be brought against her client.

Violence

Four MDC activists from Muzarabani South have fled their homes after they were tipped of a death threat on their lives, following a resolution at a Zanu-PF meeting on 13 November to eliminate all MDC party position holding activists. Youths are allegedly being recruited as officers on the Zanu-PF payroll to carry out acts of violence to destabilise the MDC ahead of next year’s elections.

A well-known Catholic priest in Banket has been savagely beaten by soldiers for hesitating at a road-block. A revered humanitarian, Father Wolfgang Thamm is in his late sixties. The German ambassador in Harare has lodged an official complaint.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) provincial officials in Zaka on Tuesday said they were living in perpetual fear following abductions of their members in recent weeks. MDC councillor for ward 23 in Zaka West constituency, Mungoni Mazhindu, was on Friday last week abducted and severely tortured before being dropped off again near his home. Mazhindu said his assailants told him that he was getting the ‘sweet’ reward for supporting MDC-T.

Peace activist group WOZA (Women of Zimbabwe Arise), has received the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. WOZA co-leaders Magodonga Mahlangu and Jenni Williams accepted the award from President Barack Obama in a ceremony also attended by the late senator’s widow, Ethel Kennedy.

Farming Sector

Zimbabwe and China are negotiating arrangements for contract farming as the Asian giant steps up efforts to ‘assist the country’s agrarian reforms’. However observers say that Chinese investments in contract farming will not assist the country’s food situation, as crops grown under such a system will be exported.

Residents of Inyathi have rallied behind a local farmer, Glen James, whose land has been forcibly seized by a Bulawayo High Court Judge, submitting a petition for the farm to be left in peace. The Judge’s hired thugs, believed to be Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives, have been using government equipment, including tractors, and also weapons, to plunder the land and stop farming activities. Locals explained that James is a vital part of the local community, helping with development projects and allowing local cattle herders to water their animals on his land. Even local members of the War Veterans Association, who have notoriously led farm invasions over the years, expressed their support for James, whom they say is part of the community.

While the main rainy season has commenced, small-scale and communal farming communities are still battling to obtain seed maize and fertiliser. Oxfam and other NGOs are providing urgent assistance in several provinces, but analysts say it will not be enough to produce a large enough harvest to feed the nation next year.

Source: Zimbabwe Democracy Now

www.zimbabwedemocracynow.com