Zimbabwe Weekly Update – week ending 22 February 2010 | Zimbabwe Democracy Now

Zimbabwe Weekly Update – week ending 22 February 2010

Posted by ZDN on February 23, 2010

Politics

Finance Minister Tendai Biti said on Thursday the inter-party talks had reached a deadlock and were “going nowhere.” Biti called for South Africa and SADC to intervene.

President Robert Mugabe said on Wednesday the extension of targeted sanctions by the EU was a deliberate ploy by the West to undermine development in the country. But he said he would not breach the power-sharing agreement and pull out of the unity government over the issue of sanctions, stating it would be “stupid of us to do so.” The EU extended targeted sanctions by 12 months, but removed six individuals and nine companies from the list.

South African President Jacob Zuma said the sanctions against Mugabe and his allies were hurting his efforts to create conditions for free and fair elections. Zuma has said the only solution to the outstanding issues in the unity government is a free and fair vote.

In his 86th birthday broadcast on Saturday, Mugabe defended the law requiring foreign companies to cede 51 percent stake to locals, undermining Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s statement that the law was unworkable and would scare off foreign investors. Mugabe said the law was “irreversible,” and wise investors would continue to put money into the country.

Members of a US congressional delegation met Thursday with Mugabe and Biti to discuss progress in the inter-party talks. Biti said after the meeting he hoped the delegation would recommend amendments to the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic and Recovery Act, the basis for U.S. travel and financial sanctions.

Gregory Meeks, leader of the US delegation, said the meeting with Mugabe was “very constructive,” and he “looked forward to working with him.” The delegation, however, said Zimbabwe still had a long way to go in restoring political and economic stability.

Five new ambassadors and high commissioners belonging to the MDC were on Wednesday officially appointed. This is the first time in thirty years that ambassadors outside Zanu-PF have been appointed by Mugabe.

Governance

More than two thousand civil servants marched in Harare on Friday and presented signed petitions to Parliament and the offices of finance. The workers are demanding an increase from the current US$150 to US$630. They have vowed to continue with the strike until the government comes up with a better wage offer.

Zimbabwe’s police force has been ordered to join the civil servants’ strike, despite a law that uniformed forces are not allowed to take industrial action.

The Zimbabwe/Botswana Joint Permanent Commission will meet in Victoria Falls next week to discuss the diplomatic stand-off between the two countries after the arrest of three Botswana game rangers who accidentally crossed into Zimbabwe. The commission will sit from Monday to Friday.

China will not provide Zimbabwe with any further loans until it settles its existing debts, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara said. Harare owes Beijing an undisclosed amount in unpaid loans given to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority and the Zimbabwe Iron and Steel Company.

Business

The Affirmative Action Group said starting next month it would go from factory to factory in cities to help the government enforce the controversial indigenization regulations for black majority control of companies.

The South African-based company Impala Platinum threatened to call-off any further “expansionary investment” in Zimbabwe pending clarification over the new indigenization policy.

Two senior managers at the beleaguered Nestle plant in Harare have claimed they were fired for being black, allegations that will likely afford Mugabe’s supporters an opportunity to launch fresh attacks against the company.

Zimbabwe’s second largest hotelier Rainbow Tourism Group (RTG) plans to double its room capacity in the next two years to take advantage of an expected rise in the number of visitors to the region, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

Harare is the toughest city to live in, according to a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The EIU ranked Harare last out of 140 cities surveyed in its 2010 livability survey, due to the country’s ongoing social and economic crisis.

Economy

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week restored Zimbabwe’s voting rights after a seven-year suspension for unpaid debts. But the country is still ineligible for loans until it has paid off the US$1.3 billion it owes in arrears. The IMF said it had restored the country’s voting rights after a request by Finance Minister Tendai Biti.

The Central Statistical Office (CSO) announced Thursday a 4.7 percent increase in prices in the past two months, but it said the rolling three month average at 1.5 percent is still far from hyperinflation levels.

Hwange Thermal Power Station has suffered a complete loss of generation, which will likely lead to acute power deficits in the country. A series of faults on the regional power grid left Hwange unable to produce any power. Most cities have for the past week experienced prolonged electricity cuts, sometimes lasting more than 24 hours.

UNICEF has said that it will stop supplying local authorities with water purification chemicals in March this year, the reason undisclosed.

The country will look to the Diaspora to help raise US$50 million to help finance the rebuilding of the economy. The floating of a Diaspora Bond will serve as a means to recruit the resources of Zimbabweans abroad in the reconstruction of the country. The bond was first suggested last year in July, but it was put on hold for administrative reasons.

Tollgates on Zimbabwe’s major roads are earning the government US$1.7 million every month, Transport Minister Nicholas Goche told parliament on Wednesday. Goche said close to US$7 million was raised in the first four months of the tollgates being introduced.

Agriculture

At least 5 000 families were evicted from their homes and jobs on commercial farms in 2009, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) of Zimbabwe has issued a report charging that at least 16 Supreme Court and High Court judges have been given property seized from white farmers under the land reform programme, compromising their judicial objectivity in those cases.

Resettled farmers have allegedly confessed that their participation in the land seizure programme was as a result of spite towards the white community, and not to cultivate the land.

77 million kilograms of tobacco was sold on Tuesday, an increase from 56 million sold last year. The increase was due to firming prices in the industry and an increase in the number of farmers.

Law

The treason trial of Deputy Agriculture Minister (designate) Roy Bennett resumed on Monday. It was put on hold two weeks ago due to the civil servants’ strike.

Zimbabwe’s constitutional revision process has stalled again, this time over a disagreement between the government and donors supporting the project through the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Donors are demanding increased accountability, but Zanu-PF is accusing them of trying to hijack the redrafting process.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs last week heard that government must repeal the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) instead of amending it. The committee is conducting nationwide consultations on the oppressive law that limits freedom of expression and association.

The Zimbabwe police on Thursday night brutally assaulted more than twenty Great Zimbabwe University students in Masvingo who had on Wednesday supported the repeal of POSA.

The Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said last week it was seeking to give voting rights to prisoners and ill persons. ZESN, encouraged by recent reforms to the country’s electoral law, said it would push for other changes to the Electoral Act to give all Zimbabweans a say in the country’s future.

Media

The new Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) launched on Friday, amid hopes it will help reform the media industry in Zimbabwe. But there are questions over the organisation’s commitment to instituting these reforms.

Zimbabwe has the highest number of journalists in Africa who have been forced into exile during the past decade, many of whom had to abandon journalism as a career, according to the latest report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a US-based media protection group.

Violence

Armed members of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) this week forced the closure of Victoria High School in Masvingo, ordering teachers who were conducting lessons to join the civil servants’ strike. The state agents brutally assaulted and injured six of the teachers.

Six car loads of ZANU-PF youths on Sunday attacked a Movement for Democratic Change rally at Epworth, a very poor district on the outskirts of Harare. Reliable reports confirm many residents were badly injured by axe and club attacks, which continued into the early hours of Monday morning, with the militia systematically targeting the homes of known MDC members.

Cholera

Health officials said Wednesday cholera had killed nine people in the southern district of Mwenezi, and said it appeared to be spreading to neighboring regions. A further eight cases were under treatment in the area. Medical teams have been dispatched to contain the disease.

Wildlife

Zimbabwe game rangers last week killed a Zambian poacher and arrested eight others after a shoot-out in a wildlife park in Binga, north of the country. The game rangers said they recovered twenty elephant tusks, rifles and other arms from the poachers.

Diamonds

The Supreme Court has ordered the government to stop mining operations at the Chiadzwa diamond fields, which legally belongs to African Consolidated Resources (ACR).

ACR’s lawyers have filed a complaint against a senior police officer over his role in the seizure of diamonds from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe offices. The company’s attorneys say Police Assistant Commissioner Freedom Gumbo’s conduct amounted to “contempt of court, abuse of authority and robbery”.

Authorities said Wednesday they had accepted the nomination of Abbey Chikane, head of the South African Diamond Board, as Kimberley Process monitor for the Chiadzwa fields in a key step toward Zimbabwe exporting diamonds from the fields.

Mugabe last week threatened to defy the Kimberley Process, saying the country’s diamonds can be sold “elsewhere.” His comments will likely further dissuade potential donors.

Russian mining company DTZ OZEGO is allegedly secretly mining diamonds at Charleswood Estate, a large commercial farm in Chimanimani confiscated from Roy Bennett. The company is working with senior Zanu-PF officials who have kept the entire operation under wraps. The Center for Research and Development made a site visit to the estate and claims mining activities have been going on for a year now.

The Good News

A wildlife trust was recently launched in Zimbabwe to help further the conservation of wildlife and wildlife habitats. The Animal and Wildlife Area Research and Rehabilitation (AWARE) Trust will offer services such as free veterinary treatment to wild animals and facilitate conservation and education campaigns around animal health and welfare.

Zimbabwe’s prisons have seen a 93 percent drop in the death rate and are now under-populated by 24 percent, Deputy Justice Minister Jessie Majome revealed in parliament last week. Prior to the formation of the unity government, Amnesty International said 1,000 prisoners were dying every six months in Zimbabwe’s overcrowded prisons.

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