Rules for our Rulers [17:15m]: Download

• Zimbabwe marked its 30th anniversary of Independence this week on Sunday 18 April. For the first time, parties other than Zanu-PF were involved in the celebrations. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was cheered each time his image appeared on the live video monitor at the national stadium.

• The Chinese embassy in Harare made a significant financial contribution to the celebrations and activities in collaboration with Saviour Kasukuwere’s Ministry of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment, as part of a drive to strengthen diplomatic and business ties. The National Art Gallery exhibited a 30-year collection of photos featuring China-Zimbabwe diplomatic and business relations.

• Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe disagreed on the progress of the South African-mediated talks on implementation of the GPA. SA President Jacob Zuma promised impartiality in his government’s mediation efforts after the ANC Youth League leader, Julius Malema, had promised ‘undying support’ for Mugabe.

• Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara was invited to the USA by Congress’s Black Caucus to report on progress in the GPA that might warrant the lifting of targeted sanctions against top Zanu-PF officials and their businesses.

• Zimbabwean prosecutors have withdrawn charges of  ‘illegally keeping maize’ against Senator and MDC Treasurer Roy Bennett, a former commercial farmer who is still awaiting a ruling on his recent terrorism trial.

Governance

• A new multiple-entry Emergency Travel Document was introduced by the Registrar General’s office. The document, which has a 6-month validity, has several security features to prevent counterfeit copying.

• The (MDC-dominated) Harare city council has proof that billionaire Philip Chiyangwa, a relative of Mugabe, and the Minister of Local Government, Ignatius Chombo, have fraudulently acquired municipal land. So far the police response has been to interrogate journalists reporting the story, and arrest and ‘caution’ eight city councillors for ‘leaking’ the report. The affair is being seen as a test of the GPA, which states police should be impartial in their duty to bring charges against any criminal.

• Phillip Chiyangwa has announced he will sue the Harare City Council and local newspaper The Standard for US$ 900 million (R6,5 billion) for defamation over allegations that he illegally acquired city land.

• Zimbabwe prison services have advertised urgently for the services of a hangman.  The number of prisoners on death row has been increasing since 2005 when the previous hangman quit. Humanitarian and church organisations are meanwhile pressing for the abolition of the death sentence.

• Zimbabwe’s Law Society has called for the appointment of a new Anti-Corruption Commission as specified in the GPA. Members of the previous commission were appointed in 2006 by the Zanu-PF-led government and have done did nothing during their term of office except draw salaries. The Law Society points out that the existing commission is now operating illegally.

• The Ministry of Finance will move in to deal with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s debt and protect it from writs of execution, an initiative aimed at halting the stripping of the bank’s assets by creditors.

• Zimbabwe’s dilapidated weather stations and meteorological equipment need upgrading, but government does not have the US$7 million required to modernise the department.

Economy

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti has announced that the 2010 economic growth forecast could be cut from 7.7 percent to 4.8 percent due to political uncertainty and the country’s failure to attract foreign donor support. Biti said donors had so far provided only US$2.9 million to finance a US$810 million budget deficit, a shortfall which analysts say is due to the non-implementation of reforms under the GPA.

• The Industrialisation Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), a Danish development financial institution, is prepared to invest in Zimbabwe’s tourism sector among others but is holding out until there is political and economic certainty.

• Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate accelerated to 3.5 percent year-on-year in March. Finance minister Tendai Biti accused local businesses of stoking inflation, saying speculative price increases were creating inflationary pressure. “On analysis, the increase in the inflation figures has largely been food-driven,” he said. Month-on-month inflation rose to 1% in February from 0,7% in January.

• Dysfunctional parastatal, the National Railways of Zimbabwe, has contracted to purchase rolling stock from China while many of its employees have gone without salaries for months. 29 new coaches are due to be delivered in June.

• A peaceful demonstration outside electricity utility ZESA Thursday to protest the price and lack of electricity supply led to the arrest of around 60 members of WOZA (Women of Zimbabwe Arise). Most were held overnight and released but four leaders remained in custody over the weekend, including leaders Jenni Williams and Magodonga Mahlangu, who were honoured last year by President Obama.  WOZA is a community based social movement with 70,000 members countrywide.

Business

• Tsvangirai and Mugabe have publicly contradicted each other over the status of the empowerment law which would give black Zimbabweans a 51% interest in white and foreign owned companies.

• According to legal monitor Veritas, the Indigenisation Regulations [Statutory Instrument 21/2010] have not been suspended. They continue in force in the form in which they were gazetted on January 29. One amendment is expected to be gazetted in the near future to accommodate the views of the Parliamentary Legal Committee. There are still ongoing consultations which may result in further amendments but until these are gazetted – and there is not sign of this yet – the present regulations hold good.

• US investment fund African Century has bought a 25 percent stake in NMB bank. The fund’s CEO says that “..Investment will in the long term help the continent (Africa) more than any amounts of aid have.”

• South African fixed-line telephone provider Telkom is in discussions to sign a contract with Zimbabwe’s TelOne to provide the state-owned entity with a wide range of management services such as engineering expertise.

Agriculture

• A ban on beef imports from South Africa has been imposed to prevent the spread of Rift Valley fever. A beef shortage looms as Zimbabwean commercial beef production has plummeted following 10 years of de-stocking by white commercial farmers forced off their land and with no access to grazing.

• Co-Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi (Zanu-PF) is believed to be behind the invasion of Denlynian Game Ranch, a South African-owned wildlife conservancy near Beitbridge.  This latest invasion violates the bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement (BIPPA) signed between South Africa and Zimbabwe in November last year which protects South African-owned property in Zimbabwe. The invasion is a threat to tourism business in the area.

• On Friday, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Tourism, Walter Mzembi, told his South African counterpart that Zimbabwe would like to intensify tourism co-operation and secure at last 30 percent of all tourists who visit South Africa.

Mining/Diamonds

• The blocking of a fact-finding parliamentary committee to the Marange (Chiadzwa district) diamond fields at the end of March has been described as a delaying tactic to provide more time to conceal the military presence and show the pretence of a normal diamond mining operation.  On Wednesday the visit finally went ahead and Public Works Minister Theresa Makone announced that all was well and the diamonds were being mined according to international requirements.

• This contradicts the findings of the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme monitor for Zimbabwe, Abbey Chikane of South Africa, who noted in a report on his March fact-finding mission that the presence of too many state entities increased the risk of diamond leakages and the absence of paper trails made the situation worse. He said most state workers lacked specialised training.

• Mines Minister Obert Mpofu has admitted that his department did not follow proper procedure when it allowed the two firms, Mbada Investments and Canadile Miners, to work the Chiadzwa claims.

• If managed correctly, economists say the diamond wealth of Zimbabwe could fund the entire rebuilding of the country.

• Gold production in the first quarter reached 1.667 tonnes, compared to zero tonnes during the first quarter of 2009, but mines are still being hampered by intermittent electricity supply, according to a Chamber of Mines report.

• Four Zanu-PF officials have reportedly started fighting over which of them should be given ‘empowerment’ shares in the country’s largest lithium mine, Bikita Minerals. Board member and Zanu PF politburo member Dzikamai Mavhaire has already announced he wants 51% of the shares on the grounds that “giving me shares will not affect the viability of the company.”

New Constitution

• Zanu-PF has launched ‘Operation Hapana Anotaura‘ (Nobody Speaks) to silence rural people during the constitutional outreach programme to be undertaken by the Parliamentary Select Committee. The Centre for Community Development in Zimbabwe (CCDZ), an NGO working with traumatised communities, has expressed concern at this latest development.

• Victims fleeing political violence in Matabeleland Central province told reporters they were warned that “only selected Zanu-PF officials, youths and war veterans would be allowed to speak at outreach meetings. Anybody who spoke without permission would be beaten up after the constitutional outreach teams had left.”

Political Violence

• Zimbabwe’s civil society organisations are calling for the coalition government to temporarily postpone the re-introduction of the National Youth Service programme since the scheme had been prone to sexual and physical abuse and has been used as a political tool to maim or kill Zanu-PF perceived opponents.

• A Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) agent, Innocent Makamure, who went missing after denouncing President Mugabe and saying he felt used by the government for taking part in the torture and harassment of innocent MDC members, has been found dead.  His body was discovered floating in the Mwerahari River – foul play is suspected.

• In Masvingo, more than 100 informal traders, mostly women, had their wares looted and were brutally beaten on Saturday morning by a group of war veterans and Zanu PF youths who had demanded at least US$2 from each trader to pay for ‘independence celebrations’ on Sunday 18. Over 20 traders had to be taken to Masvingo General Hospital for treatment.

• Zanu-PF youth militia yielding iron bars and machetes descended on Dandare Primary School in Murewa and frog marched the school’s headmaster, John Chananda, out of the building after accusing him of being an agent of the MDC-T.

Elections

• President Mugabe has told his supporters they should prepare for general elections next year but commentators say it is doubtful whether this could be feasible before a new constitution is adopted.

• Reports from the rural areas indicate that Zanu-PF has stepped up youth militia deployment in most areas. Traditional chiefs, who have been used consistently to force villagers into voting for Zanu-PF, are reported to be receiving 100 percent salary increases.

• Villagers in Mutoko have reported seeing soldiers and war veterans brandishing brand new AK47 and FN assault rifles as well as Uzi sub-machine guns. There is growing concern that arms have been purchased by Zanu PF from China with money generated by Marange diamonds.

Humanitarian

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Zimbabwe government have said the measles outbreak has now spread to 48 districts in the country, with 200 confirmed deaths and at least 3,285 suspected cases since the outbreak was first announced in September last year.

• Human rights group Amnesty International marked Zimbabwe’s 30th Independence Day celebrations by releasing ‘a series of exclusively commissioned photographs which show the effects today on those evicted en masse in 2005 under Operation Murambatsvina’.  More than 700 000 people were rendered homeless or jobless and at least 2,4 million poor people were affected.

• The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) announced a contribution of US$5.5 million to support the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, to be channelled to targeted UN-approved organisations.

Media

• The work of the new Media Commission is being hampered by lack of funds. The task of drafting new regulations for licensing newspapers has been handed to the discredited Attorney-General, Johannes Tomana. This latest move has sparked outrage among media players who fear that Tomana may use his influence to block or delay registration of media houses seen as critical of Zanu-PF.

• First in line for licensing is the Daily News, banned by the previous Zanu-PF-appointed Media and Information Commission. In preparation, the Zimbabwe Times website masthead was last month replaced by that of the Daily News. Zimbabwe’s only privately owned daily newspaper, the Daily News was forced to shut down seven years ago and its printing presses were bombed.

• The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA Regional Office) announced Wednesday that the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) is to launch a second television channel on May 1.

Education

• The Zimbabwe National Students’ Union (ZINASU) faction which backs the parliamentary-led constitutional revision process has informed Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai that since January one student has been abducted, 51 have been arrested and 13 have been expelled.

Diaspora

• Gabriel Shumba, the Director of the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum in South Africa, Irene Petras (the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights) and Lovemore Matombo (the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions) ware holding the first in a series of workshops in London this week, aimed at garnering input and opinions from Zimbabweans in the Diaspora on transitional justice options.

Sport

• The Zimbabwe cricket team went to the West Indies to participate in the World 20Twenty tournament, with a new coach and former Zimbabwean greats, Grant Flower and Heath Streak, as specialist coaches.

The Good News

• US-based charity Operation of Hope started its seventh programme of surgical corrections for cleft-palate children referred from all over Zimbabwe, with 70 operations planned.

• The award-winning Dangamvura Old Students Association (DOSA) choir from Mutare has been selected to compete in the 6th World Choral Games in China in July.

• The Harare International Festival of the Arts is on next week:  27 April to 2 May.

Source:   Zimbabwe Democracy Now

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Rules for our Rulers [27:10m]: Download

Politics

• After a further visit to Zimbabwe by South African President Jacob Zuma, one of the major breakthroughs was a commitment by President Robert Mugabe to reverse his attempt to remove the mandates of MDC ministers. Negotiators from each side will present a progress report to Zuma on March 31.

• Zuma also met Attorney-General Johannes Tomana, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Gideon Gono and deputy minister of agriculture (designate) Roy Bennett. Tomana has since been offered a post as high court judge if he resigns as AG.

• Cabinet approved the Government Work Programme (GWP) 2010, a plan crafted by Tsvangirai whereby he will closely monitor the performance of cabinet ministers and thwart moves by Zanu-PF to usurp his authority.  The GWP must also repeal the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) and introduce two new laws to regulate the media before the end of the year.

• Zanu-PF youth militia are setting up guerilla-style ”liberated zones” in the whole of Mwenezi district in an attempt to eliminate the MDC in the event of elections next year.

• Thousands of MDC youths marched unmolested through Harare, demanding the arrest and prosecution of Zanu- PF thugs who perpetrated acts of violence, murder, rape and arson in the run up to the 2008 elections.

• However, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) banned a  peaceful demonstration organized by victims of political violence at Jerera Growth Point in Zaka.

Governance

• Part of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s property was auctioned off to pay its US$2.1 million debt to Farmtec Spares and Implements.

• Finance Minister Tendai Biti has ordered the formation of a new board to drive reform at the Reserve Bank, which has been operating without a board for a year.

• Legislators have proposed that the powers of the police be curtailed further beyond changes suggested in the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) Amendment Bill, which is currently before Parliament. Public hearings in all the country’s provinces found that most Zimbabweans want the powers of the police to be further reduced.

• The UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) released a report officially recognising that Zimbabwe state security forces have used arrests and torture of labour leaders to stifle union activity in the country.

Business

• Major changes to the controversial indigenisation law were supported by SA president Jacob Zuma. Public hearings revealed the majority of Zimbabweans condemn the new law.

• The government has issued notice that it will acquire land belonging to property tycoon Phillip Chiyangwa for undisclosed urban developments. The move has unsettled the property market as Chiyangwa has been selling off prime land, primarily to the Zimbabwean Diaspora.

• The Chinese have pulled out of a joint gold mining deal with Zimbabwe in protest over the government’s failure to honour its contractual obligations, deputy Mines Minister Murisi Zwizwai said.

• Fly Kumba, a new low-cost airline, made its maiden flight from Johannesburg to Bulawayo last Thursday. The flight costs four times less than traveling on South African Airways (SAA).

• The government owes state phone company Tel One millions of dollars in unpaid bills, paralysing the company’s operations.

Economy

• Zimbabwe will next month launch a new blue print to succeed the 2009 Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme (STERP). The new Medium Term Plan (MTP) is expected to help spearhead the recovery of the country’s ailing economy up to December 2015.

• Bank deposits increased by 35 percent during the last quarter of 2009 from US$1 billion to US$1.35 billion. The average monthly deposit growth was US$113 million, a 9 percent increase or 26 percent of GDP.

• State power utility ZESA owes other regional electricity suppliers US$100 million due to low tariffs and failure by customers to settle their bills. The utility is owed US$347 million in unpaid bills, and requires US$383 million to import power and improve electricity generation.

• The Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) index has tumbled by 11.5 percent over the past two weeks, while the mining index has shed a massive 22.7 percent on the back of the new indigenisation law.

Agriculture

• Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa is allegedly demanding as much as US$5 000 from white commercial farmers in the Midlands to “protect” them from eviction.

• Zimbabwe’s security forces want to prevent Gertrude Hambira, leader of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), from attending a regional court hearing in Windhoek, Namibia, on 24 March.  Despite two previous rulings by the SADC Tribunal, the lives, liberty and property of commercial farmers, farm workers and their families have continued to be violated by the Government of Zimbabwe. Ms Hambira is currently in hiding in South Africa for fear of her life.

Violence

• Zanu-PF has allegedly started recruiting youths for training in murder and torture techniques for a massive campaign of violence against the MDC soon after the FIFA World Cup, a report reveals. The purpose of the plan is to plunge the country into total anarchy, making the drafting of a new constitution impossible.

• Leading Zimbabwe Human Rights lawyer Dewa Mavhinga on Wednesday called for urgent regional action to save the country from sliding back into chaos, amid growing fears of a major upsurge in violence and tension in the rural areas.

• Violence and intimidation against MDC activists has continued in Buhera, as Zanu-PF steps up its efforts to force villagers to support the Kariba Draft. Zanu-PF militia and war veterans are reportedly abducting and torturing villagers.

• An MDC supporter’s house was last week burnt down by a Zanu-PF gang as renewed violence against the party intensifies, the MDC reported on Tuesday.

Diaspora

• A detained Zimbabwean asylum seeker in the UK has embarked on a hunger strike to protest alleged racism and mistreatment at the hands of detention centre employees. The 43 year old woman, who was tortured in Zimbabwe, has been locked up in the UK’s Yarl’s Wood detention facility for more than five months

Humanitarian

• Australia has pledged US$12 million to improve the provision of clean water in Zimbabwe and strengthen food security in the country.

Media

• The Zimbabwe Media Commission (ZMC) held its first meeting Thursday, after Mugabe approved its appointments. The new autonomous commission declared it would promote and protect media freedom.Tsvangirai told members of the new ZMC to ignore opponents of media reform and ensure the speedy registration of new media houses.

• State-run Zimbabwe Newspapers Group (ZNG) and two of its journalists are facing a US$10 million defamation lawsuit from an Harare private school over an article published in the company’s tabloid, H-Metro.

• ZNG performed dismally last year despite a monopoly on the daily newspaper market, recording an operational loss of US$329 000 during the year through 31 December 2009.

Diamonds

• The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy is forging ahead with its investigations into the diamond mining activities by Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners at Chiadzwa. Attorney General (AG) Johannes Tomana has told Mines Minister Obert Mpofu and his top officials that they could be jailed for refusing to appear before the parliamentary committee.

• Mpofu on Wednesday said UK-based mining firm African Consolidated Resources (ACR), which owns the mining rights to Chiadzwa, will never mine diamonds at the field as long as he is in charge of the ministry.

• Mines secretary Welcome Musukutwa has proposed restructuring the ministry, citing mismanagement of claims allocations, corruption and general incompetence of mining commissioners and other key staff.

Sport

• Zimbabwean authorities on Thursday questioned New Zealand’s decision to withdraw from a June 2010 tour of the country. Zimbabwe Sports Minister David Coltart said he believed the use of ‘health and safety risk’ as a reason was incorrect, citing well-run private health facilities in Harare and Bulawayo.

The Good News

• A new innovative programme called Male Champions has been launched to encourage men to support their wives in the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV programme. The lack of fathers’ involvement in PMTCT has for many years been cited as one of the major challenges hindering its success.

• Telecommunications company Liquid Telecom is undertaking an ambitious US$3.5 million project, which it claims will transform Harare into the most digitalised city ahead of most of the world’s biggest cities.

• 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

Most of these torture camps have been brought back in Mashonaland, Manicaland, Midlands. Many of the youth who were in the camps up to 2008 were put into the police, army and the CIO as a way of keeping them available in case anything happens. The youth are taking part in making sure that the constitutional process is disturbed and that the elections are to be held under the Kariba Draft, the current constitutional document. They are making sure they do their best to intimidate, torture and instill fear, so people will vote for the Kariba Draft in the referendum.

What surprises me is that the unity government is pushing the issue to remove the sanctions, and South African President Jacob Zuma was in the United Kingdom pleading with the west to lift sanctions, but not acknowledging the torture that will come thereafter. Once the sanctions are lifted, members of Zanu will go overseas and grab their wealth, stolen in Zimbabwe but hidden abroad, and take back their assets to local banks. Once they do that, come elections they will revive torture camps and people from the opposition will be killed and then, even if they bring back the sanctions, it will be of no use. For the safety of all of us in Zimbabwe, sanctions must stay. SADC must conduct the elections and not just observe. It must take part to make sure the referendum and the constitution-making process is done freely and fairly. If that is not done then the Global Political Agreement (GPA) will just be one other useless, ceremonial gathering of the time.

The political instability is the reason there are still torture camps in Zimbabwe, and there isn’t much hope it will improve. The only way the three political giants will make peace is if one joins the other, but Zanu will not give it easy to the two MDCs. They fear they will go from being heroes to prisoners in The Hague, so unless someone proves that they will be safe and they feel convinced maybe they would let the power go to the other parties or else nothing is going to happen. Zimbabweans will always suffer and the MDC will disappear like smoke in the air in the hands of Zanu-PF.

It is the duty of South Africa as the mediator to make sure that what was signed is being implemented, and to make sure ordinary people are not being abused by their own brothers and sisters. After the World Cup, there is speculation of xenophobia here in South Africa. If these militia camps are allowed, then there will be no place for us, the Diaspora, in Africa because we are targeted in South Africa for being foreigners and targeted in Zimbabwe for not supporting Zanu-PF.

• The MDC is demanding drastic action against Zanu-PF youths who last week threatened Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai for not calling for the removal of targeted sanctions. The youths were marching in the capital on Wednesday in protest against the sanctions. They also detained a freelance photojournalist Andrison Manyere for filming the demonstration, but he was later released.

• President Robert Mugabe on Saturday defended the new indigenisation law that requires all foreign companies to be 51 percent locally-owned, and he also warned foreign investors to keep away from the country’s mineral wealth. He was speaking at celebrations to mark his 86^th birthday. Tsvangirai and his two deputies did not attend Mugabe’s lavish birthday party which is estimated to have cost up to US$500 000.

• China said last Monday its embassy in Zimbabwe had thrown a birthday party for Mugabe on Sunday. Chinese businesses are investing heavily in Zimbabwe.

• An MDC rally on Sunday in Epworth just outside Harare was violently disrupted when Zanu-PF supporters in a three-vehicle convoy allegedly drove at the crowd, resulting in a brawl that left many injured. The act was condemned by the MDC who insisted on Tuesday that the Zanu-PF supporters sparked the violence.

• US embassy economic advisor James Garry on Wednesday rejected suggestions that Zimbabwe was unable to access loans because of the targeted sanctions against Zanu-PF elite. He said even if Washington were to repeal the sanctions law, Zimbabwe would still not be eligible for financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other funders because of outstanding arrears.  In January, the African Development Bank said Zimbabwe’s debt of close to US$6 billion was too huge to allow the country to access new money.

• South African President Jacob Zuma will use his state visit to the UK next week to plead with the British government to remove targeted sanctions against Mugabe and his supporters.

• Zimbabwe’s constitutional committee has said it hopes to produce a new draft constitution by next February, which could see fresh elections, initially earmarked for 2011, further delayed.

Governance

• Mugabe on Friday said the government is doing its best to increase salaries and improve conditions for civil servants, and asked workers to be patient while the government stabilizes the economy.

• The Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has allegedly recruited hundreds of street vendors and illegal street dealers as informers to monitor the activities of MDC officials and supporters, as well as diplomats and trade unionists. The youths have allegedly received Zanu-PF ideological training and are considered reserve militia.

• A new report accuses Zimbabwe Cabinet ministers in the previous regime of plundering state assets prior to the formation of the unity government last year. The special report, compiled by the parliamentary committee on public accounts, also revealed the irregular appointment of more than 10 000 ghost workers, crippling the government’s capacity to pay civil servants.

• Zimbabwe Prison Services (ZPS) allegedly does not have vehicles to transport remand and convicted prisoners to jail or to trial. At times, the police are called in to assist ZPS in transporting the prisoners.

• State-owned Air Zimbabwe is to retrench a further 468 workers this year after it laid off 700 workers last year. The airline has also had to ground two of its three Chinese aircraft due to a serious shortage of spare parts and debt to the plane’s suppliers.

• Zimbabwe and Botswana made peace last week when they met after weeks of tension following the arrest of three Botswana game rangers.

Business

• Zimbabwe will impose a levy on foreign firms to compel them to comply with the new empowerment law. Indigenisation Minister Savior Kasukuwere also said the new empowerment law is only the beginning of legal interventions his ministry will undertake as it seeks to further indigenise the economy, 30 years after independence.

• Mugabe and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono have reportedly differed on the indigenisation law, with Gono arguing that the act discourages investors. He has also said the law is being created by greedy Zanu-PF officials who want to grab companies for free, in the same way that they appropriated white-owned farms.

• South African mining group African Rainbow Minerals is facing resistance from its shareholders to invest in Zimbabwe. Shareholder Anglo-Rand Financial Services (ARFS) is objecting to the initiative to invest in Zimbabwe’s platinum group metals, citing the new indigenisation law as a concern.

• About 78 percent of exhibition space for this year’s Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) has been taken up, with seven African and Asian countries having already confirmed their participation.

• Nigerian immigrants with businesses in Zimbabwe said they were taking the Affirmative Action Group (AAG) to court over its threats to grab their businesses in the name of black empowerment.

• Zimbabwe’s largest auto assembler, Willowvale Motor Industries, is on the verge of collapse due to a US$3.4 million debt to its principal supplier in Japan.

Economy

• The Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) regulations will be finalized this year to provide the necessary legislation to help grow the sector. The new regulations are a component to the strategic plan launched on Monday designed to create an enabling environment for the growth of the industry.

• The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has teamed up with pan-African housing finance company Shelter Afrique to provide funding for the country’s tourism industry.

• The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe said prices of basic commodities rose 20.5 percent from January to February, placing pressure on low-income families.

• The Zimbabwe government is losing more than 30 percent of its annual revenue to widespread tax evasion due to “trade mispricing”, a new study by a US think-tank revealed last week. The study by Washington-based Global Financial Integrity (GFI) shows that Zimbabwe tops the list of countries that recorded the largest tax revenue losses as a percentage of total government income between 2002 and 2006, losing US$225 million over the five-year period.

• Zimbabwe’s government is earning only US$100 million per month, 65 percent of which goes to wages, Finance Minister Tendai Biti told said on Thursday. He also said Western donors are ready to cancel Zimbabwe’s US$6 billion foreign debt if the country declares itself a heavily indebted country, but Zanu-PF is firmly opposed to the idea.

• Zimbabwe is seeking US$135 million from two African financial institutions to deal with the debilitating nationwide power shortages. Zimbabwe’s state power utility ZESA said it would bring all the units of its Hwange power station back into operation by the end of March.

Agriculture

• The entire leadership of the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers’ Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) are in hiding after a series of arrests, raids and threats against them by Mugabe’s Joint Operating Command (JOC), lawyers said Sunday. The interrogations and threats followed the release of a documentary, “House of Justice”, that the union produced exposing the lawlessness and violence of Mugabe’s land seizures.

• South Africa’s High Court on Thursday upheld a ruling by the SADC Tribunal outlawing Zimbabwe’s land reform programme and paving the way for white commercial farmers who lost property under the chaotic land grab to file for compensation in South African courts. The ruling means that farmers can attach Zimbabwe government-owned property in South Africa as compensation for lost farms.  The Zimbabwe High Court in a ruling last month refused to enforce the SADC Tribunal judgement.

• Zimbabwe is taking legal action to recover US$3 million owed by Zambia for maize delivered prior to the land invasions a decade ago.  Last year, Zambia donated maize to the Zimbabwean government to ease massive food shortages.

• The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has been sued by Seed Co. International of Botswana, one of the largest maize and small grain seed suppliers in the Southern African region, over an outstanding US$3.6 million debt.

• Zimbabwe has declared 11 percent of its 2009/10 planted maize crop a failure after it was badly damaged by a dry spell, and has repeated calls for urgent imports, a crop assessment report has shown.  There has been widespread theft of irrigation equipment and general vandalism of infrastructure by new farmers and the Mugabe elite.

Law

• On Wednesday the Zanu-PF dominated Senate forestalled the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Amendment Bill through proposed amendments apparently meant to weaken it further. Zanu-PF once again adjourned debate on the bill, which aims to limit the Reserve Bank governor’s considerable powers, to March to allow them further time to study it.

• The treason trial of Deputy Agriculture Minister (designate) Roy Bennett was adjourned until next Monday after his defence declared the state witness not suitably qualified to assess the authenticity of email evidence against Bennett.

Diamonds

• Mines minister Obert Mpofu said Zimbabwe would pull out of the Kimberley Process (KP) if the diamond regulatory body finds the country has failed to comply with its regulations. Mpofu said Zimbabwe would continue to sell its gems to diamond trade markets.

• Mpofu has complied with a Supreme Court order instructing him to return diamonds from the Marange field to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, from which he removed the gems last month. The court had ordered the 300,000 carats of diamonds to be held by the central bank pending resolution of a suit against the government by UK-based African Consolidated Resources (ACR) over contested mining rights.

• The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions has called for an investigation into mining of diamonds at Chiadzwa, adding that diamonds should be bought and sold in a transparent matter that will benefit the country.

• Leaders in the global diamond industry are condemning the KP for allowing Zimbabwe’s diamonds to reach the consumer market. Online American jeweller Brilliant Earth said the KP was misleading consumers when labeling the diamonds as “conflict-free.”

• Human Rights Watch (HRW) said last Friday the KP was failing in its core mission following its failure to ban diamonds mined from Marange.

• The Zimbabwe-Russia Mining Protocol has been jeopardized after a Russian company pulled out, citing the controversy surrounding the Marange blood diamonds as its reason.

Health

• About 50 percent of children and teenagers admitted to hospitals in Zimbabwe are HIV positive, a new British study has revealed. Conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the study reveals the growing crisis of HIV infection acquired at birth in developing countries.

• Aid agencies operating in Zimbabwe have been urged to take antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) directly to people infected with HIV/AIDS amid allegations that some state officials involved in the distribution system were corrupt. The drugs are allegedly being sold on the black market in Mbare, a high-density suburb of Harare.

• The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as well as other organizations in the health sector have embarked on an intensive vaccination programme following a measles outbreak which has hit 28 of Zimbabwe’s 62 districts and is still spreading.

Humanitarian

• An ex-UN official, Zimbabwean Dr Georges Tadonki, is due to give evidence against Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, showing that Ki-Moon and other senior officials blocked cholera relief efforts in 2008 that could have stopped the deaths of 4 000 people.

• UNICEF’s regional child protection advisor for East and Southern Africa, Cornelius Williams, said between 3 000 and 15 000 Zimbabwean children move into and out of South Africa every month. He said the movement of unaccompanied children was one of the biggest problems confronting humanitarian agencies in the region.

Violence

• Human rights group ZimRights said armed Zanu-PF militia have set up torture camps in parts of Mashonaland West, Midlands and Manicaland provinces to threaten villagers if they denounce the Zanu-PF backed Kariba Draft constitution.

• The police have been accused of beating to death Wilson Sabun and of attempting to cover up the act by holding onto the postmortem results. Sabun was arrested at his house in Mutare on January 15 on allegations he impersonated a police officer.

Media

• Dumisani Sibanda, news editor with the state-owned Sunday News weekly, was elected the new Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) president following a re-election in Bulawayo on Saturday. Sibanda replaces Mathew Takaona, who has headed the union since 1999.

• Alpha Media Holdings (AMH), the publishers of the Zimbabwe Independent, the Standard and NewsDay, have appointed new editors for the newspapers in a restructuring exercise to position the company for a more liberal media environment.

Diaspora

• Zanu-PF has proposed in its nationality programme that only children born in the Diaspora be allowed dual citizenship. If this regulation is adopted, it could affect Zimbabweans living abroad who have taken up foreign citizenship. This has been interpreted as a method of stripping diasporeans of their nationality and thereby reducing voter numbers.

The Good News

• The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) has begun working on a case in which a Zimbabwean exiled lawyer, Gabriel Shumba, wants the Zimbabwean government to be held liable for torture.  The government denies the torture ever happened, despite evidence in the form of medical affidavits and records.

• The U.S. Embassy on Thursday honoured five Zimbabwean students for essays about their hopes following the election of Barack Obama as US president in 2009. The students received certificates, books, and cash prizes, while their schools will receive reference book collections for their libraries.

Source:  Zimbabwe Democracy Now

www.zimbabwedemocracynow.com

Politics

• Inter-party talks between the coalition partners will resume January 16.  The MDC on Friday Jan. 8 again announced it would not pull out of the unity government, saying any differences will be resolved. But on Tuesday Jan. 11, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said that any further farm invasions by Zanu-PF would cause his party to consider withdrawing.

• Southern African Development Community (SADC) ministers said on Friday they were unhappy with the slow pace of the inter-party talks. Mozambican Foreign Affairs Minister Oldemiro Baloi said they hope the negotiations will conclude soon.

• The Commissioner of Police blocked Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai from touring police stations around the country in December. Tsvangirai intended to visit police posts to meet officers, assess their work conditions and hear their concerns.

• Jonathan Moyo allegedly organised a secret meeting in Gweru to discuss strategies to form a new breakaway political party, to be led by Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. Moyo described the story as “fiction.”

• The European Union (EU) next month will meet to revise targeted sanctions and travel restrictions on President Robert Mugabe and other Zanu-PF officials. The revision of the sanctions list will be based on the implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA).

Governance

• Zimbabwean civil servants are demanding an increase in salary from US$155 a month to US$500, threatening to go on strike if the government refuses an increase.

• The more than 10,000 unemployed youths who were recruited last year when Zanu-PF needed foot soldiers to stop the then opposition MDC from penetrating the rural areas are still being paid US$150 a month.  Their role at this point, according to one of the loitering youths, is to “mobilize Zanu-PF supporters”.

Business

• Gold production rose 35 percent to 4.2 tonnes last year, despite erratic power supplies. This was up from 3.1 tonnes in 2008. In 1999, Zimbabwe produced 27.7 tonnes.

• Energy Minister Elias Mudzuri on Monday said he ordered ZESA, the country’s power utility, to stop exporting power to Namibia since the Hwange power station was not working properly. ZESA is providing Namibia with electricity to help settle a US$40 million loan to refurbish Hwange power station.

• ZESA has signed a US$8 million dollar deal with the Botswana Power Company to refurbish a shutdown thermal power plant in Bulawayo and ease power cuts in the country. Zimbabwe will export power to Botswana in return.

• Zimbabwe’s parliament is expected to approve the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) with South Africa when it resumes sitting next month. Investment Promotion Minister Elton Mangoma said both Houses of Parliament would ratify the agreement, which was signed in Harare on Nov. 27 last year.

• A top Nestle official slipped into Zimbabwe this week as the Swiss food giant resumed production after shutting down its plant in Harare in December. The visit, which was labeled as ‘routine,’ coincided with the re-opening of the plant. Nestle suspended operations at its Harare factory after two of its managers were taken for questioning by the police.  Controversy raged last year following revelations that Nestle was buying milk from Gushungo Dairy, located on a commercial farm in the fertile Mazowe district “acquired” by Grace Mugabe.

• Construction of a multi-million dollar dairy produce processing plant is reported to be underway at Gushungo Estates. The ban on sales of Gushongo milk at Nestle is believed to have prompted Mrs. Mugabe to construct the plant.

• Foreign investors can own up to 100 percent shareholding of their companies, depending on the merit of their proposals, a Zimbabwean cabinet minister said last week.

Economy

• Zimbabwe’s war veterans say they are entitled to a 20 percent share of any resource in the country because of the part they played in the liberation struggle, a Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLVA) official said. He also decried those who masquerade as war veterans.

• The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a London-based think-tank, expressed misgivings last week about the credibility of some of the economic programmes presented by the unity government. The think-tank said detailed and credible projections are needed.

Diamonds

• The Zimbabwe government last week was forced to suspend the controversial auction of 300,000 carats of rough diamonds from the Marange field in the Chiadzwa district by Mbada Diamonds.

• Mbada is a joint operation between the government’s mining arm, Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, and two South African companies, Grandwell Holdings and Core Mining. African Consolidated Resources (ACR) legally owns the rights to mine the lucrative field but has been prevented from doing so.

• ACR advised Interpol of the proposed auction and warned that any diamond sales from Marange would be classified as stolen goods.

• Human rights organisations have pushed for a ban on international sales due to gross human rights violations perpetrated against civilians by soldiers at the field. More than 200 miners are believed to have been killed during 2008.The diamonds do not hold Kimberley Process (KP) certification as Mbada failed to meet the stipulated conditions.

• International trade watchdog Global Witness on Friday Jan. 8 commended the cancellation of the auction, but warned that the country must show commitment to cleaning up its diamond sector. Global Witness also said it did not believe statements by mines minister Obert Mpofu that soldiers and police had withdrawn from the fields in November. Instead, they said it is likely the military has only withdrawn from two small areas.

• Chiadzwa communal area villagers are resisting government efforts to relocate 1,800 families to Arda-Transau, 100km to the west, in order to exploit the diamond fields.

• Mugabe has allegedly mortgaged diamonds from Marange to buy a new multi-million dollar Presidential helicopter, a Russian-made Mi6 transport helicopter delivered in Nov.

Law

• Senior judge Rita Makarau, who heads the High Court, said Monday the judiciary expects the three principals of the coalition government to lead by example and uphold the rule of law. She also decried the shortage of judges in the country and urged the government to increase funding for the judiciary.

• Members of Zimbabwe’s constitutional outreach team began training this week before being deployed across the country to collect people’s views on the document. The public consultation will last about three months, followed by the actual drafting and referendum by October.

• The treason trial of Deputy Agriculture Minister (designate) Roy Bennett (MDC-T) resumed at the Harare High Court on Tuesday following a six-week break.  The key state witness, Peter Hitschmann, took the stand first and rebutted much of the state’s case. He denied ever meeting Bennett and accused the police of creating a conspiracy.

• Attorney General Johannes Tomana, who is personally leading the State case against Bennett, then applied to impeach Hitschmann. Justice Chinembiri Bhunu will make a determination Wednesday whether the impeachment procedure against Hitschmann can proceed.

Agricultural Sector

• Zimbabwe’s remaining white farmers say the ongoing farm invasions and continued human and property rights abuses by senior Zanu-PF officials are impacting seriously on food security and are keeping foreign investors away from the country.

• A further five South African farmers in the east of Zimbabwe are to be evicted this week, following an alleged order by Land Reform Minister Didymus Mutasa to get rid of the remaining white farmers in the area.

• South African civil rights movement AfriForum won a court bid to sue the Zimbabwean government over its “cruel” and “revengeful” take-overs of South African-owned farms in Zimbabwe. On February 23, AfriForum will approach the court to force Zimbabwe and South Africa to register and recognize the SADC Tribunal ruling on land reform.

• Malawi has sold and exported fertilizer to Zimbabwe after local companies failed to produce sufficient due to a lack of raw materials. Zimbabwe still owes Malawi $100 million for its purchase of maize from the country three years ago.

• Farmers nationwide have experienced a shortage of Ammonium Nitrate fertiliser, a development that is likely to affect their yield.

• Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Tanzania, retired Major General Edzai Chimonyo, has invaded a banana plantation in Burma Valley near Mutare.  The plantation is owned by a Dutch and Malaysian company and is protected by a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA), a fact Chimonyo has refused to acknowledge.

• The Zimbabwe government has warned resettled farmers who are subletting their farms to former white commercial farmers that they risked losing their land. This follows reports that farmers, who benefited under the land reform programme, lacking the resources to utilize the farms, were now making arrangements with former owners.

• The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has made US$14 million in grants available to 52,000 Zimbabwean farmers and agri-businesses to increase production and raise incomes. The grants, which include vouchers for agricultural inputs and training, will be distributed through seven non-governmental organisations.

• Land invaders physically attacked a farming family in Rusape on Tuesday. This follows the eviction of three farming families in the area in the last three weeks.

• Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson’s documentary film, “Mugabe and the White African”, the story of commercial farmers Mike Campbell and Ben Freeth, who took their case to the SADC Tribunal in Windhoek, won Best Documentary at the British Independent Film Awards.  Shortlisted (Final 15) for the Oscars, it is showing in London and Edinburgh this month and has received excellent reviews, eg: “… Harrowing, unsparing, incensing and often, as an example of courage beyond the call, inspiring.”

Violence

• The MDC has condemned the government and the Attorney General’s office for failing to respond to a comprehensive report it submitted to the Attorney General naming more than 200 MDC supporters who were murdered by known Zanu-PF activists in the country’s 2008 presidential run-off election.

Education

• Education minister David Coltart wants to set up 20 academic centres of excellence this year to cater for disadvantaged children who will receive full scholarships.

Health Crisis

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported another death from cholera in the Midlands province, bringing the number of deaths to six since September last year. Meanwhile at least three cholera cases have been confirmed in Kadoma (Mashonaland West province) while 10 other suspected cases are still being investigated.

• A measles outbreak has affected at least 18 districts, with 869 cases reported countrywide, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The Zimbabwe Health Ministry said at least 41 people have died of the disease, many of them children, since the outbreak began last month.

• Zimbabwe police have been recruited to try to force a religious sect in the Manicaland province to have their children vaccinated against measles. Members of the sect have been locking their sick children in huts or hiding them in the hills to avoid vaccination.

• The National Aids Council (NAC), widely condemned for holding onto funds collected through the Aids Levy while thousands of people in need of life-prolonging drugs die prematurely, has bought antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) worth US$1,8 million. NAC also bought other equipment and support materials such as CD4 cell count machines and HIV test kits.

• The government plans to increase the number of people on ARVs to 300 000 this year, up from 180 000.

Humanitarian Crisis

• UK based protest group Zimbabwe Vigil is urging the British government to stop sending developmental aid to Zimbabwe until the GPA is fully implemented.

• Iran has said it is ready to offer humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe in times of need and to develop relations between the two nations.

Media

• A new book launched by the Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) scrutinises the role of the Zimbabwe media in covering the violent 2008 presidential run-off election. MMPZ head Andrew Moyse said he hoped it would provide a significant contribution to the national debate on press freedom.

• Zimbabwean soccer fans will be unable to watch the 2010 African Cup of Nations after the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) announced that it could not afford the US$6.5 million broadcasting fee required by the tournament’s broadcast rights holder.

Diaspora

• Immigration officials at the Beitbridge border post are arresting an average of 80 people a day, mostly Zimbabweans, for using fake South African passports.

• New funding from the Dutch government will support the humanitarian activities of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) which assisted 314,000 Zimbabweans at the Beitbridge centre between 2006 and 2009 after they were deported from SA. IOM said that another 57,000 Zimbabwean migrants were assisted between June 2008 and June 2009 at a similar centre it operates at the Plumtree border post with Botswana.

• An estimated four million Zimbabweans in the Diaspora will be given a chance to contribute to Zimbabwe’s constitutional making process.

Wildlife

• Zimbabwe war veterans living near the Humani Estates in Chiredzi District are poisoning the food and water of rhinos from a nearby game reserve to trap the rhinos and sell the horns to South African dealers. Cattle and other wild and domestic animals are also dying as a result of drinking and feeding off the poisoned sources.

Tourism

• The Zimbabwe Council for Tourism (ZCT) announced that it would spend US$3 million on training key personnel ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup to equip them with skills in customer service.

Source:  Zimbabwe Democracy Now

www.zimbabwedemocracynow.com

A Zimbabwean think-tank has published a report on ways that Zimbabwe could be rebuilt after decades of misrule. The report, published by The University of Manchester’s Brooks World Poverty Institute and launched by Finance Minister Tendai Biti, has among other recommendations, proposed an expatriate income tax, and fees for citizenship and a diasporean vote.

The suggestion of expatriate taxation has met with strong disapproval among diasporean commentators. But although the idea of income tax may be disagreeable, the proposal for a fee for voting should be strongly supported.

The universal covenant between a citizen and a government is basically this: “I pay my taxes and in return I get protection, citizenship rights, a vote and a civil service to administer the national infrastructure”.

Citizens should remember that this covenant works both ways. Of course there must be no taxation without representation, and so logically there can be no representation without taxation. A citizen has responsibilities as well as privileges.
(The USA taxes the income earned by its citizens working outside the US.  It does this in order to be able to provide social security and to finance US protection of its citizens abroad. Denmark, Norway, Morocco and many other countries do the same).

It is clear that the rebuilding of Zimbabwe requires finance from somewhere, and although expat income tax may come under discussion, it may never become law. But a fee for keeping one’s citizenship and being able to vote is an entirely separate proposition.

That the Zimbabwean diaspora could be allowed a vote will be a huge improvement on the present arrangement – where citizens abroad have no voting rights  at all. No huge outcry has been heard about that – but the minute a fee is proposed, the objections come thick and fast. “Voting rights are inalienable..,” shouts one. “Citizenship is a birthright..,” screams another. Both of these opinions are correct, but these overseas shouters have not objected to being disenfranchised before now!

It is normal to pay a fee for, say, the renewal of a passport, ID book or driving license. It is universally understood that secure documents such as these cost money to administer, to verify, print and deliver to the citizen.

It is therefore entirely practical to propose a fee to cover the cost of expat balloting. The country is broke; it has no resources to set up and run polling stations in every country where there may be a population of Zimbabwean citizens. Elections are costly, even in-country. How much more expensive would they be to operate from overseas?  Consider such items as the cost of ballot papers, ballot boxes, the salaries of polling officials, the security, the counters, the observers, and the final validation and transmission of the results.

Zimbabweans should remember that, in the years before 1980, the right to vote was hard bought. Many even paid the ultimate price: in the people’s chimurengas, they paid with their lives for the right to vote. Now, thirty years later, the people feel they should complain about a proposed expat voting fee of a few dollars?

The Zanu-PF side of the Zimbabwean Inclusive Government is very strongly against the idea of a diasporean vote. This alone should galvanise those citizens living abroad to do everything in their power to make sure they get it.

And for those commentators who plead the poverty of the refugee masses – the starving and vulnerable diasporeans in South Africa -  rather than shout the idea down, let them start to organise sponsors, donors and other campaigns to either help those voters get a ballot – or simply go home and vote for free.

Three million voters at the next election could sweep away any doubt as to how many, and how much, Zimbabweans are prepared to pay for change.

• 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.