Zimbabwe Weekly update – week ending Tuesday 1 June 2010

Posted by ZDN on June 1, 2010

Politics

Zanu PF is turning to the Communist Party of China as preparations for a possible election in Zimbabwe gain impetus. As a result of the memorandum of understanding signed, the Communist Party of China will help train Zanu PF leaders in party building, rejuvenation and mass mobilization, as well as information and communication management.

Australia has taken a tough stance on Zimbabwe, demanding that President Robert Mugabe must “move off the stage” before the international community can bankroll the country’s reconstruction and revival.

Dumiso Dabengwa, leader of the re-formed ZAPU, announced his party is suing the government for the return of properties confiscated shortly after independence in 1980 by Zanu PF.

A survey by the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU) and the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe found that 85 percent of the 2,000 women polled did not think that the government represented them, as women were not consulted during the negotiations leading to the formation of the GPA.

A faction of the Apostolic church in Mutare reported that one of their prophets and outspoken MDC member exiled in Mozambique has been abducted by Zanu PF operatives. It is not clear what the motivation could be apart from intimidation of the sect.

Two student leaders from the Zimbabwe National Student’s Union (ZINASU) were hospitalised on Friday after they were abducted before addressing a student’s gathering in Masvingo. The pair was severely assaulted by Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives.

Governance

The Zimbabwe government has revoked the specification of prominent businessmen Matumwa Mawere and James Makamba. The de-specification clears the way for former Schweppes, First Bank and Shabanie Mashaba Mines boss Mawere, and former Telecel chief Makamba, to return to Zimbabwe and reclaim their confiscated assets. Maware says he will have to fight the state in court to recover his.

Zimbabwean MP Willas Madzimure, who is also the chairman of the Zimbabwe chapter of the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption, has urged the legislature to adopt measures that will force all MPs, judges and senior state officials to declare their assets. He said his constituency believes that some politicians have corruptly amassed wealth outside of the public scrutiny.

The City of Harare’s Finance Director, Cosmos Zvikaramba, has resigned amid reports of his involvement in corrupt deals during his tenure of office. Zvikaramba was infamous for taking directives from Local Government Minister Chombo instead of being accountable to his superiors at Town House.

Diplomatic

Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the USA gave in to an insulting outburst at an Africa Day event in Washington, heckling from the floor and calling Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson a ‘house slave’. He also accused America of trying to colonise Zimbabwe, before leaving the room.

Australia’s Foreign Affairs minister has stated that there will be no increase aid or lifting of sanctions against Zanu PF human rights abusers until Mugabe has stepped aside and genuine reform is implemented in Zimbabwe. “The coalition government has failed to implement the global political agreement in full because of Mugabe. He should move off the stage if the country is to re-engage with the international community,” he said.

Meeting in South Africa, the Group of Elders, which includes former US President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Graca Machel, voiced their great concern Monday at the slow pace of implementation of the GPA, and warned that it would be premature to hold elections in Zimbabwe without electoral reform.

Mining / Diamonds

Abbey Chikane, the Kimberley Process (KP) monitor is in Zimbabwe on his second visit to assess whether operations at Marange comply with KP standards.Chikane has made sensational revelations about how state security agents managed to open his bag without his consent and photocopy some correspondence, which was later publicised through the state media.

Mines Minister Obert Mpofu told the state-owned Herald newspaper that he had “suspended all diamond exports from Zimbabwe with immediate effect until the issue of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) has been sorted out.” Meanwhile the Centre for Research and Development (CRD) in Mutare published a report saying that up to 2,000 carats of diamonds extracted in Marange are being smuggled out of the country each day, a significant proportion to the Gulf region.

Police then raided the CRD offices in Mutare to arrest the director Farai Maguwu. Failing to find him, they visited his home and in his absence arrested his younger brother on charges of ‘obstructing justice’. Lisben Maguwu was released on bail on Monday, while Farai Maguwu is assumed to be in hiding.

A man from Zimbabwe’s eastern Mutare city has pressed charges against the police after he was allegedly brutally assaulted by a group of officers who mistook him for an illegal diamond miner.

Over 1,700 families have been ordered to vacate their villages in Chiadzwa by next Tuesday, apparently to pave the way for more controversial diamond mining in the area.

President Mugabe told the Chamber of Mines’ annual Congress in Victoria Falls that the Government would not expropriate or nationalize mines, but said that “The implementation of the empowerment initiative will take cognisance of the need to promote growth.”

Mining company RioZim, which announced plans to build a US$3 billion coal-fired power station in Zimbabwe, has also announced a rights issue which aims to raise US$40 million to restart its gold, nickel, and coal mining operations and commence chrome mining.

Legal

Two workers at the Gays and Lesbians Association of Zimbabwe (GALZ) have been charged with an additional crime: ‘undermining President Robert Mugabe’. The GALZ members, Ellen Chademana and Ignatius Muhambi, were arrested last Friday when police stormed the organisation’s Harare offices claiming they were looking for dangerous drugs and pornographic material. They were released on bail after a week in jail. Homosexuals have also been victimized recently in Uganda and Malawi.

MDC Senator Morgan Komichi has also been charged with ‘insulting President Mugabe’, by singing a song at a rally in Bindura in January. The song contains a line which translates as “”Grace’s husband reminds me of my donkey which died a long, long time ago”.

The Commercial Farmers’ Union has announced it will sue the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for millions of dollars in export earnings which were looted from their foreign currency accounts before the formation of the inclusive government in 2009.

MDC parliamentarian, Pishai Muchauraya of Makoni South has been summoned to appear in court to face unspecified charges. “Most of the many cases brought against MDC MPs have been thrown out by the courts, but Zanu PF wants to revive them in the belief there would be convictions this time around,” said Muchauraya. Mugabe has just appointed one of his most pliable loyalists, George Chiweshe, as Judge President of the High Court.

Economy

The chief executive officer for the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) said that Zimbabwe has not entered into an agreement with Eskom to export electricity to South Africa during the World Cup. Zimbabwe would only play the role of being a transporter of power from other countries to South Africa, he said.

Zimbabwe is enduring an acute energy deficit, with only two operational generators at Hwange thermal power station producing just 70Mw instead of its capacity 750Mw.

The International Monetary Fund has recommended that Zimbabwe should stick with its current use of mixed hard currencies including the U.S. dollar and South African Rand until the country has instituted sound fiscal policies and reformed its central bank.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti, speaking at the African Development Bank annual assembly in Ivory Coast on Tuesday, has revised upwards the country’s 2010 economic growth forecast to about 7 percent citing improved foreign investment inflows and increased donor assistance. However, accumulated interest is pushing up public debt and currently totals around US$6.2 billion, higher than previous estimates. The current account deficit is estimated at US$ 1.9 billion.

Indigenisation Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has told foreign banks operating in Zimbabwe that if they are not willing to provide working capital to businesses they should leave the country. In an apparent attempt to regain credibility with workers, he has blamed the banks for failing to rescue firms which have collapsed or have been laying off workers to survive. He boasted that banks may ‘be nationalized’ if they do not fund failing businesses.

The state-run Herald newspaper reported in its business section that cash shortages were taking a heavy toll on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in a surge of profit taking. Liquidity shortages are placing strain on the banking sector and causing interest rates to rise to as high as 40 percent.

Business

Chinese firm Sinosteel Corp which owns Sinosteel Zimbabwe Chrome (formerly ZIMASCO) says all furnaces are now operating at full capacity and the company is working on expanding output of the smelting plant by about 30 percent to 50,000 tons of ferrochrome per annum.

Air Zimbabwe is facing a Parliamentary investigation for gross mismanagement and possibly corruption. The inquiry has been prompted by complaints from workers who face retrenchment.

Media

Zimbabwe’s Media Commission has finally granted licenses to four private daily newspapers, including the previously banned and bombed Daily News and the Daily Gazette, which ceased publication in 1995. New titles are the Mail, a Zanu PF Youth League paper, and NewsDay a newcomer which promises ‘balanced’ reporting. No new broadcasters have yet been licensed.

Agriculture

The inclusive government has abandoned Operation Maguta/Inala as it moves ahead to implement short-to-long-term drought mitigation strategies following crop assessments by three ministries revealing that over 205,000 households face starvation this year. President Mugabe in 2005 launched the command agriculture operation under the military arguing that the move was aimed at ensuring food security and a surplus for export.

Illegal evictions of commercial farmers took place in the district of Inyathi (Matabeleland North) with convoys of armed police arriving at farms without warning and evicting the owners at gunpoint. Oscardale Farm, Riverbank and Felton farms were all targeted during the weekend of 25 May.

At Cedor Park farm in Nyamandhlovu near Bulawayo, the owner James Taylor was arrested at the weekend and charged with ‘occupying State Land without a permit’. Taylor is diabetic and was refused medication by the acting Officer in Charge. Taylor’s son who went to the police station to assist his father was also detained. Both men were released on Monday.

Two similar incidents occurred the same weekend in the Shamva North constituency in Mashonaland, this time with so-called ‘war veterans’ accompanied by Zanu PF youth militias carrying out the attacks.

Health/Humanitarian

Amnesty International and the Coalition Against Forced Evictions this week called on the Zimbabwean government to provide adequate alternative accommodation or compensation to those left homeless and jobless after Operation Murambatsvina. The programme of mass forced evictions five years ago left more than 700,000 people homeless or jobless, or both.

The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is seeking an estimated US$17 million in humanitarian aid for Zimbabwe, which the group said this week is still ‘fragile’. The country is facing current acute emergencies on several fronts, including ongoing measles (5 million children at risk), cholera (23 districts) and typhoid outbreaks, the silent but devastating HIV and AIDS epidemic, vulnerable children and the plight of displaced persons.

The World Health Organisation reports that 2.9 million children were vaccinated in the national immunisation against measles campaign last week.

Incessant power cuts have impacted heavily on the operations of Chinhoyi provincial hospital, which recently was forced to throw away stocks of food, blood and critical drugs that had gone bad when refrigeration units were cut off. Bodies in the mortuary are also decomposing.

Diaspora

Diaspora groups in the UK have joined together in order to combine their views and recommendations via the Zimbabwe Diaspora Focus Group (ZDFG) which will present a united voice when engaging with the UK Government.

The Good News

While on a three-day state visit to South Korea, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was conferred with an honorary doctorate in law by Pai Chai university in recognition of his contribution to the development of Zimbabwe.

The Zimbabwe national cricket side trounced India’s junior national side with 10 balls and six wickets to spare in the first of two matches in a Tri-nations which includes Sri Lanka.

Tourism has picked up with a surge in bookings by South Africans who apparently intend to holiday away from the crowds during the FIFA World Cup in June/July.