Zimbabwe Weekly Update – week ending 8 Dec 2009

Posted by ZDN on December 9, 2009

Politics

The three principals of the unity government failed to meet the 30-day deadline set by SADC to resolve outstanding issues in the unity government. The South African three-person mediation team consequently returned to Harare for another round of talks to help speed up the process. The team will return to Pretoria Tuesday to present a report to President Jacob Zuma, who will forward it on to President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique, the current chairman of the SADC Troika. The negotiation talks are shrouded in secrecy, but the parties are reportedly close to reaching an agreement, and have so far found common ground on media reforms and the appointment of provincial governors.

Governance

Youth Development Minister Saviour Kasukuwere this week admitted to parliament’s public accounts committee that his ministry hired 13 000 youths just before last year’s violent presidential election run-off to work nationwide as voting ‘ward officers’, violating public service job recruitment regulations.

Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Affairs Minister Eric Matinenga on Wednesday said the country would have by this time next year a new and democratic constitution. He said that the violation of people’s rights could only be stopped once a democratic, people-driven constitution is in place.

Economy

In his Budget, presented last week, Finance Minister Tendai Biti’s announced that for the first time in 12 years, the country is posting positive economic growth numbers of 4.7 percent, compared to a 10.9 percent decline in 2008. Biti attributed this to improved performance in all sectors under the stimulus of incoming aid as well as the introduction of hard currency. Biti predicted a national growth in GDP of 7% in 2010. He also said that Zimbabwe’s total debt, including arrears, was at US$5,4 billion as of October 31 2009.

Zimbabwe has been recording huge monthly trade deficits with China since the start of the year, according to data from the Central Statistical Office (CSO). Data for October shows that Zimbabwe only exported US$487 719 to China but imported goods worth US$6.7 million during the same month. The only time Zimbabwe recorded a trade surplus was in February when exports of US$28.8 million were more than imports of US$6 032 612.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai visited Cape Town last week for a series of meetings with leading figures of the Zimbabwe Diaspora to discuss ways to kickstart Zimbabwe’s economic growth. One of the main outcomes of the meetings was an action plain detailing an economic reconstruction programme. The plan has not been made public.

The German Ambassador to Zimbabwe said a group of major donors known as Friends of Zimbabwe were hoping to persuade the World Bank to increase its support to the Multi-Donor Trust Fund, a vehicle set up to help the transitional government rehabilitate the economy. But he said this would only happen if the Global Political Agreement (GPA) was fully implemented.

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) on Thursday appealed to the government to adopt the South African rand as a currency of reference, citing the multi-currency system as confusing. The CZI also hailed the 2010 National Budget as a progressive budget that focuses on key issues of reconstruction, equitable growth and stabilization.

Business

Zimbabweans are experiencing power cuts of up to 20 hours daily, yet ZESA, the state owned power utility, is exporting power to Namibia at a discounted tariff to help settle a US$50 million loan. ZESA is supposed to provide 180 megawatts of power to Namibia for a minimum of five years.

The new Chirundu one-stop border post between Zimbabwe and Zambia, near Lake Kariba, will enhance trade between the two countries and save about $486 million annually in costs incurred due to long delays at the old border.

The German government sent an official letter of complaint to Zimbabwe, lamenting that German investment continues to be under threat due to ongoing lawlessness in the country. The letter follows an attempt by some Zimbabweans to take over a German-owned farm near the border with Botswana.

Humanitarian Crisis

More than 70 aid organizations, led by the United Nations, on Monday launched an appeal for US$378 million to meet Zimbabwe’s humanitarian needs, to improve health, water and sanitation.

Fifty HIV/Aids activists last week marched from Mhondoro to Harare to raise awareness about the disease and push the government to make life-saving anti-retroviral drugs universally available.

Meanwhile the mainstream MDC has appealed to the unity government to make anti-retroviral drugs accessible to Zimbabweans. In a statement to mark World Aids Day on December 1, the MDC said HIV/Aids remained one of the biggest threats to development in Zimbabwe.

The Gender Support Programme, a basket fund aimed at increasing the economic participation of women in Zimbabwe, has been re-launched after a faltered start earlier this year. The fund seeks to improve gender equality and equity in Zimbabwe.

A World Food Programme (WFP) representative said Zanu-PF has caused countless suffering to the vulnerable children of Mbuya Nehanda Children’s Home, following the invasion of the home’s farm by war veterans in 2000. Party supporters looted the institution’s property, which led to deteriorating standards at the institution.

Violence

A government organ for national reconciliation, formed by the unity government, will examine all cases of human rights violations before and after the country’s independence, including Gukurahundi, the genocide that killed thousands of innocent Ndebele civilians in the 1980s.

Zanu-PF chairman John Nkomo said he regrets the political violence during last year’s elections, and said the country should never experience such violence again. Nkomo is the second senior member of Zanu-PF within the past two weeks to condemn the violence. Last month Zanu-PF secretary for women’s affairs Oppah Muchinguri also criticized last year’s attacks.

Twelve Zimbabwean students at Fort Hare University, who had their presidential scholarships withdrawn in September for allegedly supporting the MDC, are stuck in South Africa because they fear for their lives if they return home. The university has offered them travel money to return home and re-negotiate their scholarships, but they are afraid of being arrested if they do so.

A new report, released by the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), noted a significant decline in human rights violations in the country in August, the most recent period it has documented, though the organization documented resistance in some rural areas to the unity government. Reported violations eased from 1,335 in July to 527 in August, with a notable decline in incidents of severe violence.

A nine-year old son of an MDC activist in Chimanimani was reportedly abducted but later found dumped in a bush. The alleged motive was to pressure the parents to join Zanu-PF.

Legal

MDC employee Pascal Gwezere, who was abducted from his home last month and severely tortured, is still in prison after the Attorney General’s office filed an appeal against Gwezere’s bail in the Supreme Court. Gwezere, who is being kept on “trumped up” theft charges, will remain behind bars until the Court reaches a decision.

Diamonds

African Consolidated Resources (ACR) and its five subsidiaries have lodged an urgent eviction application to remove the Government from the Marange diamond fields in the Chiadzwa district after the High Court dismissed their previous eviction request. No date for the hearing has been set.

Media

A number of journalists from privately-owned media organizations boycotted the Zimbabwe Union for Journalists’ (ZUJ) congress in Bulawayo last Friday, where Dumisani Sibanda, editor of the government-controlled Sunday News, was elected new president of the union. The absent journalists complained the election was a sham.

Deputy Minister of Media, Information and Publicity Jameson Timba last week told journalists in Harare that Minister Webster Shamu and permanent secretary George Charamba need to stop their interference in the editorial content of the state media. He said his ministry has “no business in any of the newsrooms of Zimpapers.”

Voice of America (VOA), an external radio service that broadcasts “Studio 7” from Botswana into Zimbabwe, has fired back at the government’s complaints about “pirate” radio stations. VOA’s Director of Africa Broadcasting said the complaints were completely inaccurate and without truth, and said she was disappointed by the government’s position.

Travel

Foreign airlines have stopped using the country’s airspace because the state-run Department of Meteorological Services’ equipment is antiquated and incapable of providing crucial weather information to aircrafts. Zimbabwe lies on the major route of airlines flying between Europe and South Africa, but planes now fly east or west of the country.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti has allocated millions of US dollars in funding to the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) to refurbish the country’s strategic airports. The upgrade of the airports is in preparation for the numerous visitors anticipated in the country during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

The Zimbabwe delegation failed to attract any 2010 World Cup finalists to set up their training bases in Harare and Bulawayo next year.

Children

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said six Zimbabwean children were among nearly sixty African children who were rescued from child traffickers in southern Africa over the past four years.

Farming Sector

Members of the agricultural sector said growth projections of 10 percent in agriculture next year and the subsequent season can only be achieved if resources are made available on time. Budget allocations of US$55 million for the 2009/2010 agricultural season would not be enough to revive the sector, therefore more resources must be made available for the 2010/2011 season.

Hester Theron (79), a commercial farmer facing eviction from her farm in the Beatrice District, has been given temporary reprieve after filing an urgent appeal against a Harare magistrate’s ruling in November that she vacate her farm within a month. She was also sentenced to a three-month jail term, suspended for five years on condition she vacated the farm by Dec. 8. But a High Court judge last Friday ruled that her eviction be halted until the appeal is heard – which could be a matter of months, or possibly even years.

Wildlife

A report compiled by international rhino specialists reveals that South Africa and Zimbabwe are at the centre of a resurgent rhino smuggling and poaching crisis, led by phoney “sport hunters” from Vietnam who come to hunt, allegedly with the help of Vietnamese embassy staff.

Zimbabwe has suspended wildlife hunting licences in an effort to curb poaching that has been on the rise since the beginning of the year. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife, which oversees national parks in the country, placed adverts in the press warning permit holders to stop hunting with immediate effect.