Zimbabwe Weekly Update – week ending 15 March 2010

Posted by ZDN on March 16, 2010

Politics

Morgan Tsvangirai said on Saturday that MDC and Zanu-PF supporters must stop fueling violence in the country, as he and Mugabe have a good relationship. He said they even eat together every Monday. Tsvangirai is on tour of Zimbabwe’s ten administrative provinces to explain the MDC’s position on the unity government.

Zanu-PF is printing over 1.6 million party membership cards to sell to its supporters countrywide, in a move widely seen as a recruiting and fund-raising project. Youth militia are allegedly forcing villagers in hunger-stricken districts to buy the party cards.

MDC supporters told Tsvangirai last week at a meeting in Masvingo that they wanted him out of the unity government, saying that Mugabe was acting in bad faith.

Switzerland on Saturday extended targeted sanctions against senior Zanu-PF officials by another year.

Norwegian Development Minister Erik Solheim called on the African Union (AU) Wednesday to intervene to break the deadlock between the partners in the unity government.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would help Zimbabwe as much as possible in view of the sanctions imposed on the country. Ahmadinejad was speaking during a meeting with Zimbabwean Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Didymus Mutasa in Tehran on Monday.

Governance

Government delayed its planned meeting with striking civil servants, requesting more time.

The visiting president of the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB) Michael Sommer has said he is “deeply concerned” by the Zimbabwean government’s disregard for workers’ and human rights.

Forty-nine death row inmates in Zimbabwe’s jails have not been assigned an execution date as Zimbabwe Prison Service is battling to attract suitable candidates to fill the post of executioner.

Business

Germany’s ambassador to Zimbabwe Albrecht Conze said Saturday that the new indigenisation law had ‘scared’ German investors. He said if the law remained, German investment would go “elsewhere.”

The government is holding public hearings and reviewing regulations for the implementation of the indigenisation law in an effort to bolster investor confidence.

United Nations anti-poverty campaigner Charles Abugre said the indigenisation law was in violation of international trade ideals, and could be a ploy to entrench Mugabe’s regime.

National Foods Holdings (Natfoods) has posted a US$1.4 million loss, blaming this partly on government’s waiver of duty on imports of basic commodities. Other local industries are also struggling to compete with duty free imports.

Economy

The Travel & Tourism Economic Impact report for 2010 released by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), says Zimbabwe’s travel and tourism sector may grow by 9.4 percent this year.

American tourists however have been advised to travel to Zimbabwe with cash, as ‘payment platforms’ for tourists are inadequate, according to Tourism Minister Walter Muzembi.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti on Thursday distributed US$100 million, part of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s US$510 million Special Drawing Rights fund received last year for infrastructural development.

The IMF has said it is still not prepared to offer Zimbabwe any new loans, citing the country’s continued political crisis, social instability and the new indigenisation law.

Industry and Commerce Minister Welshman Ncube said an immediate economic turnaround would be difficult before the debilitating electricity shortages are addressed.

Namibia’s power utility company NamPower will next week send a delegation to Zimbabwe for discussions with the energy ministry and ZESA officials, following news that Hwange Thermal Power Station may be decommissioned. Three years ago, NamPower gave ZESA US$40 million in return for a guaranteed supply of 150 megawatts for 5 years.

Violence

A damning terror report, called Cries from Goromonzi: Inside Zimbabwe’s Torture Chambers, by Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, launched on Thursday. The 83-page report details harrowing accounts of 23 people who were allegedly tortured in detention camps by state agents and Zanu-PF members. Tsvangirai was there to commission the report.

Reports of Zanu-PF violence and threats of impending violence are being received from locations across Zimbabwe and the situation is becoming increasingly serious.

The MDC has accused Zanu-PF of unleashing violence against its supporters in the Mudzi area in Mashonaland East. Zanu-PF thugs were allegedly raiding the homes of MDC supporters, taking their livestock in order to ‘teach’ them to vote for the Kariba Draft constitution.

Bindura Magistrate Story Rushambwa is living in fear after receiving death threats from senior Zanu PF officials who are accusing him of being anti-Zanu PF when handling political violence matters.

Zimbabwe Peace Project director Jestina Mukoko said that her organisation is still recording human rights abuses in the country and expects more violence as the country prepares for a new constitution.

Law

High Court Judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu reserved his decision to 31^st March on whether or not Deputy Agriculture Minister (designate) Roy Bennett should be acquitted. On Monday the prosecution had closed its case, prompting the defence to apply for a dismissal, saying the State had failed to show evidence linking their client to the alleged offense.

The Senate approved a reform bill, meant to reduce the powers of the Reserve Bank Governor, on Tuesday, despite Zanu-PF having earlier threatened to scupper it.

Zimbabwe’s High Court upheld the election of the first opposition Speaker of Parliament since independence, after a legal challenge by Jonathan Moyo of Zanu-PF. Moyo immediately launched an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Agriculture

The government has recruited some former white commercial farmers to assist newly resettled farmers in Mashonaland Central Province. In return, the farmers are allowed to stay and cultivate a small area around their homesteads.

The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) has embarked on a membership drive targeting former members, to provide it with financial support to mount an effective legal challenge of the land reform programme.

Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa said white commercial farmers could not attach government properties in South Africa for compensation as all of them are protected by diplomatic protocols.

Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said that the season’s harvest had not yet failed, contradicting Tsvangirai’s declaration that the situation is catastrophic. Made blames western sanctions for the collapse of irrigation infrastructure on small-scale farms.

Severe electricity shortages are jeopardizing chances of Zimbabwe harvesting a winter wheat crop that would ease chronic food shortages, Made told Parliament.

The Malaysian government has officially protested the seizure of a Malaysian-owned banana plantation in eastern Manicaland by a retired army general. The move threatens diplomatic ties between the two countries. Vice President John Nkomo has promised to intervene.

Diaspora

The majority of the Zimbabwean Diaspora may be excluded from the constitution-making process due to lack of funds, Edward Mkhosi, co-chairperson of the parliamentary select committee said last week.

Scores of Zimbabweans at Johannesburg Park bus station were injured on Thursday when South African police indiscriminately opened fire with rubber bullets on travellers boarding buses to return to Zimbabwe. The police also raided and closed two illegal bus stops used by buses going to Zimbabwe.

Non-governmental organizations like the Red Cross are no longer assisting the displaced Zimbabweans in De Doorns in the Western Cape. Conditions at the camp housing the Zimbabweans have allegedly deteriorated, with insufficient food and irregular water supplies.

South Africa will deploy police officers and soldiers along the Zimbabwe and Mozambique borders to curb the influx of illegal immigrants into the country and guard against cross border criminal activities.

Humanitarian

The International Red Cross has launched an urgent appeal for funding in response to a new hunger crisis in Zimbabwe. 2.8 million Zimbabweans are in need of food aid, and the number is expected to rise as a result of a widespread drought.

Aid agencies in Zimbabwe are appealing to donors to support the $378 million appeal launched last December to support humanitarian and early recovery efforts in the country. The 2010 Consolidated Appeal is just over 2 per cent funded.

Hundreds of starving villagers in the Gonarezhou National Park descended on a recently deceased giant bull elephant, reducing it to a skeleton in just less than two hours in a desperate scramble to provide food for their families.

Health

An outbreak of measles has hit 28 of the 62 districts of Zimbabwe and is spreading. The illness is deadly in a population where many are suffering from malnutrition, HIV and other conditions. According to the latest Epidemiological Bulletin of the World Health Organization (WHO) most of the victims belong to a religious sect which refuses vaccinations.Senior Zanu-PF officials sided with members of a Christian sect in Manicaland in their efforts to resist the child immunisation programme against a deadly measles outbreak. The sect members have been a source of support for Zanu-PF for years.

At least 24 children from Chegato Mission have contracted bilharzia after they used raw water from a nearby dam for bathing. Authorities fear the disease could spread at the school because of recurrent water problems.

A deadly strain of tuberculosis has reportedly hit Epworth, outside Harare. One case of the deadly multi-drug resistant TB strain has been confirmed with two more people in the same area suspected to be infected.

Five people died from typhoid fever in Mabvuku suburb, Harare. 40 other people have been infected in the area so far.

A widespread circumcision campaign is planned, targeting at least 1.2 million men over the next two years in a bid to stem the rise of new HIV infections across the country.

Education

Lecturers in Zimbabwe have received salary hikes and will now earn US$800 a month, up from $290. They have since returned to work after more than a month of partaking in a wider ongoing civil servant strike. Only lecturers have been awarded a pay rise so far.

Education Minister, David Coltart has said the main challenge his ministry was facing was restoring basic education for all children, as it was in the 1980s.

A government audit of the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Councils (Zimsec) questions the credibility of last year’s examinations and also raises issues of mismanagement. The audit, carried out in November last year, said Zimsec requires a complete overhaul.

Diamonds

The influential Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma has thrown his weight behind an investigation by the Committee on Mines into dubious aspects of the government’s activities in Chiadzwa. He declared his support after the directors of two firms licensed to mine diamonds at Chiadzwa dodged on Monday for the second time a hearing to probe their activities at the diamond field.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti has called for a complete overhaul of the laws governing the country’s diamond trade, saying all the mining leases that the government has awarded to firms in Chiadzwa should be cancelled.

The MDC youth wing is calling for nationwide demonstrations to lobby for the arrest of people linked to corruption at Chiadzwa.

Sport

While the West Indies won their series against Zimbabwe 4-1, New Zealand cricket has postponed a scheduled tour of Zimbabwe in June due to the unstable political and social climate. Chief executive Justin Vaughan said he was open to the tour being played at a neutral venue possibly in June 2011.

Media

Zimbabwe’s Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere told reporters last that if they write good stories about black empowerment he would make sure they were “empowered” too.

There is a growing trend in Zimbabwe to listen to exiled media outlets such as Voice of America (VOA)’s Studio 7, SW Radio Africa and the BBC in the face of biased coverage from the state-owned Zimbabwe Television (ZTV). The Zimbabwe All Media Products Survey (ZAMPS), which surveyed a sample of 2000 consumers in each town, said ZTV’s viewership had drastically dropped in the face of competition from free-to-air channels.

Sam Mtukudzi, twenty two year old son of legendary musician Oliver Mtukudzi, died in a car crash Monday morning while travelling from Bulawayo to Harare. Sam was an upcoming artist and was scheduled to tour the UK with his father in two weeks’ time.

The Good News

Zimbabwean lawyer and writer Nyaradzai Gumbonzwanda has been appointed to a UN advisory team on ways to better protect women in conflict situations. Gumbonzwanda will help advise the UN High-Level Steering Committee on ways to ensure that women’s voices are heard in peace processes.

Restoration of Human Rights Zimbabwe (ROHR) and Victims Action Committee (VAC) is launching a series of peace building initiatives at grassroots level with the chief aim of promoting tolerance in polarised communities.

One of Zimbabwe’s top Human Rights defender, Pelagia Semakweli Razemba, was recently short-listed for the Front-Line International Organization for Protection of Human Rights Defenders award.

Source: Zimbabwe Democracy Now