Zimbabwe Weekly Update – week ending 8 Feb 2010

Posted by ZDN on February 9, 2010

Politics

The three principals in the unity government reached a small breakthrough on Friday when they agreed to appoint the chairs of two of the Commissions – the Electoral and the Human Rights – who were named as Justice Simpson Mtambanengwe and Professor Reg Austin respectively.

The South African mediation team is expected to meet negotiators from the three principal parties ahead of the resumption of inter-party talks today.

Parliament was forced to adjourn prematurely on Wednesday after chaos erupted between the political parties over the issue of sanctions.

A visiting UK delegation has expressed satisfaction at Zimbabwe’s economic progress but called for the resolution of outstanding issues in the GPA.

A US Congressional delegation will visit Zimbabwe later this month to review the power-sharing deal and assess US humanitarian work in the country.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti said in a statement last Tuesday that the MDC is ready for an election after he accused Zanu-PF of creating conditions for a total breakdown of the unity government.

Echoing this, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai told the radio station Voice of America (VOA) News that the inter-party talks would likely reach a deadlock, and that early elections could be the only solution to the political problems.

The MDC has lodged an official complaint with the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC), which oversees the power-sharing agreement, about “unjustified arrests and harassment” of its officials and supporters by state security agents.

Tsvangirai has rejected a circular from President Robert Mugabe’s office directing ministers to report to his two vice-presidents instead of to the Prime Minister.

Members of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIO) team assigned to Mugabe during a visit to an international telecommunications summit last October were each paid a total of US$50 000 (US$5 000 a day) over Mugabe’s 10-day stay. On another trip to Rome in November, his security detail was paid the same. In Zimbabwe, most of the population lives on less than US$1 per day.

Governance

Zimbabwe’s civil servants went on strike on Friday after last-minute negotiations with the government failed. They are pushing for a five-fold wage hike. Civil servants earn on average a paltry US$150 (R1 100) a month. They are demanding up to US$630 (R4 900) a month.

Zimbabwe and Botswana officials will hold security talks over the detention of three Botswana game rangers who inadvertently strayed across the border last month.

Mines Minister Obert Mpofu has returned two expensive vehicles he illegally took away from the Ministry of Industry and International Trade when he changed portfolios last year. Mpofu is one of several government officials named in a damning report to parliament on the pervasive looting of state assets.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Public Accounts has reported massive irregularities and ‘gross incompetence’ in government ministries and departments in scams that may have cost the Treasury millions of dollars. These include payment of ghost workers and the irregular employment of 10 000 youth officers.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions says it has recorded more than 2 300 cases of violation of workers’ rights in 2009, most of them committed by state security agents who have routinely assaulted and tortured union activists.

Business

Major Zimbabwe mining group Rio Tinto has proposed that locals have 10 percent ownership of foreign-owned companies, and not the 51 percent the government wants under a draft law that has scared off investors. The Chamber of Mines of Zimbabwe president said government had in principle agreed to the proposal.

Zimplats, which is owned by South Africa’s Impala Platinum (Implats) – the world’s second biggest platinum producer – reported a US$50 million operating profit in its quarterly report ending December 2009 released thisweek. The company is also owed US$34 million by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

The failure of Zimbabwe’s coalition partners to fully implement the Global Political Agreement (GPA) is keeping foreign investors away, according to separate reports released last week by Renaissance Capital, a Russian investment house, and the World Bank.

Economy

The UK Treasury said Friday that it supports the restoration of Zimbabwe’s voting rights in the IMF, attributing its decision to the improved macroeconomic environment in Zimbabwe under Finance Minister Tendai Biti.

Senior IMF director Samuel Itam said on Wednesday he was ‘cautiously optimistic’ the international community would support Zimbabwe’s request to restore its IMF voting rights.

The cost of food for a family rose 10 percent last month, according to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe government spent nearly R86m (US$11.6m) in one year in fees for children and relatives of mostly top Zanu-PF officials who are studying in South African universities while local universities struggle to function.

Agriculture

The SADC Tribunal said ongoing land invasions in Zimbabwe were beyond its control, that it was unable to enforce its ruling, and that it was up to the SADC Summit to take up the matter.

Commercial farmer Ben Freeth, who is campaigning for the implementation of the SADC Tribunal ruling, has been accused of contempt of court after he criticised a High Court judge’s decision in January to dismiss the ruling in Zimbabwe. The Law Society of Zimbabwe will decide if Freeth should be charged.

The South African government may be forced to pay up to R100 million in damages to South African farmer Crawford Von Abo, whose farms were seized in Zimbabwe as part of the land grab. The North Gauteng High Court on Friday found that the government was liable for Von Abo’s losses, as they neglected to prevent the violation of his rights by the Zimbabwean government.

A magistrate on Tuesday granted bail to five white commercial farmers who were arrested in Chipinge last week for failing to vacate their properties. Another farming family in Rusape came under siege from farm invaders last week.

Zimbabwe needs to urgently import 500,000 tonnes of maize to avert shortages. Agriculture Minister Joseph Made says the crop has been affected by an extended dry spell. But the Commercial Farmers’ Union said that 1,8 million tonnes would be required.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fewsnet) said in a new report the number of Zimbabweans in need of emergency food aid now stands at 2.17 million, a huge jump from the December figure of 1.74 million.

Diamonds

The court-ordered transportation of 60 kg of diamonds to the Reserve Bank was suspended after an armed gang raided the offices of mining firm African Consolidated Resources (ACR), the legal owners of the Chiadzwa diamond claim, and stole the company’s computers.

Mines Minister Obert Mpofu (Zanu-PF), backed by armed police, on Thursday night removed a 29kg consignment of Chiadzwa diamonds worth millions of dollars from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), violating a Supreme Court order that the diamonds remain in the custody of the central bank until the mining rights case between ACR and the government is resolved.

Violence

More than thirty men and women from the Bhuka area (Masvingo) were severely beaten on Saturday by Zanu-PF youths for failing to comply with the headman who instructed they should not attend an MDC rally the previous day.

MDC activist Peter Magombedze, who died in December, was “killed by severe blows during the barbaric assault” by members of the police, an autopsy report has confirmed. Two police officers, Sergeant Zvinavashe and Sergeant Nzori of Nembudziya police station, have reportedly since been arrested in connection with the death.

Villages in the remote Rushinga district north-east of Mount Darwin report that people who want to contribute to the constitution-making process are being threatened with death or vicious beatings comparable to the June 2008 violence.

Law

Zimbabwe’s constitutional committee has put the outreach exercise on hold because it cannot send teams to interview people without police backing. Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri has demanded US$3 million in payment to release 1 000 police officers to accompany outreach teams.

Police on Wednesday arrested eleven students for holding a public students’ meeting on the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) campus. The Zimbabwe National Students’ Union (ZINASU) is demanding the arrest of a security guard from the university after one of the students was severely beaten.

A Harare magistrate this week removed senior MDC official Pascal Gwezere, charged with stealing weapons from an army barracks, from remand after the state failed to produce sufficient evidence linking him to the crime. Gwezere was abducted last October by state security agents and was severely beaten in custody.

Attorney General Johannes Tomana has said prosecutors are free to oppose bail and even overrule magistrates as long as they are acting according to ‘law’.

Roy Bennett treason trial: Tomana accused the defence of “caricaturing him and demeaning his office.” Bennett’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa had demonstrated that false emails could easily be created, using a spoof message from Tomana himself.

Twenty-two members of the pressure group Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) were arrested while holding a structural meeting on the constitution-making process in a private home in Bulawayo on Tuesday. They were all later released and, in a surprising move, the police apologized.

Health

Bulawayo’s Mpilo Hospital is only sustaining operations through donations because government has not released most of the promised funding since January last year. The 1 000 bed hospital needs about US$600 000 but has so far received only US$60 000 from government coffers and in donations.

Diaspora

Zimbabwe’s Co-Ministers of Home Affairs on Saturday urged thousands of Zimbabweans living in South Africa to return home and help rebuild the country’s economy. Addressing a gathering in Johannesburg, Ministers Kembo Mohadi (Zanu-PF) and Giles Mutsekwa (MDC-T) said the government is ready to drop all charges against political activists and specified business people who are currently living outside the country. Unemployment in Zimbabwe however, remains over 90 percent.

Fifteen Zimbabwean civic organisations in the UK met in London last weekend to choose a taskforce to coordinate the constitutional awareness and information-gathering process in the UK.

Wildlife

Zimbabwean officials are unhappy that Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) chief Willem Wijnstekers will tour a top private conservancy during his visit to Zimbabwe next week, allegedly fearful he will learn too much about endemic poaching decimating the country’s wildlife.

Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority’s claim it has not carried out a game census since 2008 due to a lack of funds is said by some conservationists to be a ploy to hide the extent of poaching by officials working in cohorts with ministers and other senior government officials.

The Good News

Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams on Friday launched an exhibition in the UK of photographs showcasing the work of Anglicans in Zimbabwe. He praised their courage and faithfulness in the face of violence from state authorities attempting to close down their services.

The Zimbabwean government and Iran will jointly set up a helicopter repair, maintenance and training centre in Zimbabwe. The centre will benefit Zimbabwean technicians as well as their counterparts across Africa.

The Zimbabwe Open golf championship has been relaunched after a nine-year hiatus and will regain its place on the South African “Sunshine Tour” in April.

Source: Zimbabwe Democracy Now