The Shame of the African Union

LINK

Our world has no shortage of brutal dictators (a phrase that itself seems redundant). Among the most increasingly ruthless tyrants is Robert Mugabe — once the liberator of Zimbabwe from white colonialism, now the scourge of its black citizens. Reporting from Harare on July 22, the Daily Telegraph of London wrote: "Armed riot police and youth militia of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF Party are rounding up homeless people who have sought refuge in church compounds." The homeless are mostly children, who are herded in the freezing cold night to rural locations and out of the reach of hope.

They are among the more than 700,000 victims of Robert Mugabe's "Operation Restore Order" that — as the July 24 International Herald Tribune reports — has bulldozed "shacks, workshops and market stalls across Zimbabwe's urban center." (Many of the now-homeless adults in such neighborhoods voted against Mugabe in the last government-rigged election.) ....

A July 7 front-page story in the Financial Times began: "Kofi Annan yesterday urged African leaders to break their silence over actions by governments, such as Zimbabwe's, that were undermining the continent's credibility in the eyes of the world." The U.N. secretary-general emphasized: "What is lacking on the continent is (a willingness) to comment on wrong policies in a neighboring country."

But in the same article, Olusegun Obasanjo, president of Nigeria and presently the chairman of the African Union, defiantly said he would "not be a part" of any public condemnation of Mugabe.

Moreover, as The New York Times reported on July 6: "Tanzania, Namibia and Zambia are among those (African nations) that have praised Mr. Mugabe's economic policies in recent months," or even more appallingly, "have stopped protesters from criticizing them."
Also insistently silent on the rampant ferocity of the Mugabe regime is Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa, who has long claimed he is pursuing "quiet diplomacy" in his dealings with Mugabe. ....

They have also been abandoned by the justly venerated Nelson Mandela, who has marred his autumnal years by refusing to say a word in criticism of Mugabe.

Zim's public hospitals run out of medicines

LINK
September 29, 2005
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HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Zimbabwe's state-run hospitals can't afford medicines and equipment because of foreign currency shortages and have had to turn away patients, a government newspaper reported Wednesday.

Living in the wake of Zim's urban "tsunami"

LINK:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/26/wzim26.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/09/26/ixworld.html

"We live like pigs. No, pigs live better than us. We eat berries from the bush, which is food for baboons. That is our life since the tsunami," said Roderick Tchakayika, a father of five, outside the remains of his neighbours' house, which was knocked down on June 19.

Mr Tchakayika, 48, was talking about what Zimbabweans call their own "tsunami" - a man-made event almost as extreme as the Asian disaster.

The pitiful conditions in the Hatcliffe Extension

It is three months since President Robert Mugabe sent in bulldozers that within hours flattened 4,000 homes in Hatcliffe Extension, about 20 miles north of Harare. Life was hard before; it has since become unbearable.

Most people of this suburb, who all owned "stands" - small patches of land - on which they had built small homes, are living in pitiful circumstances.

Most also lost their incomes as they were largely informal traders, also targets of Mr Mugabe's ''Operation Clean out the Filth'', whom police have been ordered to prevent trading again.

Refugees in Zim

There are places worse than Zimbabwe: They are actually getting refugees from central Africa...
LINK: http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/0,,2-11-1662_1806397,00.html
In the meanwhile, Zim refugees are going to S A LINK= http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1747143,00.html

In the meanwhile, Uganda sees history repeating itself in Mugabe: LINK http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1745854,00.html

Killing the goose that laid the platinum egg

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=84&art_id=vn20050925110438460C272064

Alas, blogger is not working...

Platinum giant Zimplats is the goose that lays the biggest and shiniest eggs in an otherwise bleak Zimbabwe, but President Robert Mugabe's desperate tax collectors nearly killed the goose last week.

Hours before the giant corporation prepared to shut off the giant furnace which spews out Zimbabwe's most reliable source of foreign currency, Deputy President Joseph Msika had to step in to stop an extraordinary and unprecedented calamity.

Zim players "missing" in UK

LINK

Eight Zimbabwean soccer players and two officials have failed to return to Zimbabwe after a trip to Britain, the state-run Herald newspaper reported on Saturday, with football insiders saying the men may have stayed behind to flee economical and political hardships in their own country....

One Zimbabwean soccer player who did not want to be named said it was "a bit early" to say exactly why the players remained put but that "some players went to Britain and then start to think what exactly it is that they are going back to in Zimbabwe." Zimbabwe has in recent years seen at least four leading soccer players leave the crisis-hit country for Britain in the face of severe criticism from local authorities.

Anarchy...

LINK
A white commercial farmer was chased off his land in Zimbabwe and the manager of a coffee plantation was beaten up by gun-toting men, the owners of the properties told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Thursday....

Last week the capital Harare was reported to have only one fire engine on the road with just a quarter tank of fuel left. Municipal authorities said they were being forced to buy fuel on the black market to keep municipal services operating.

Earlier this month the government hiked the price of diesel and petrol by more than 100%, but the measure has not improved availability. As fuel becomes scarcer, it is reportedly being sold on the black market for as much as Z$120 000 ($4,61) a litre....

More on increase in fuel prices LINK
Harare - Crippling fuel shortages in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo have brought almost all essential services to a halt, the mayor said on Thursday.

Japhet Ndabeni-Ncube said Bulawayo's entire fleet of municipal vehicles was off the road, and burst sewerage and water pipes were left unrepaired....


In the meanwhile, there are threats to confiscate Maize...LINK

ZIMBABWE has threatened to launch Operation Bring Back Maize in a bid to stave off food shortages in the country.

The move demonstrates increasing desperation on the part of authorities to deal with the current food crisis.

Central bank governor Gideon Gono told a parliamentary portfolio committee on agriculture on Tuesday there was a need to raid farmers to recover maize he claimed was being hidden.

“I will suggest that since we are good at operations, we need to launch Operation Bring Back Maize,” he said.

“There is maize in the provinces and it should be brought to the (state-owned Grain Marketing Board). The maize we will recover will be able to fill our silos,” Gono said...

For those who know the hidden history of democide, the way the Ukrainian famine of the 1930's started was when Stalin confiscated all the farmer's stored grain in the Ukraine...alas, that left farmers with nothing to eat and no seed crops...leaving millions to starve...

Similarly, the famine of China's "great leap forward" in the 1960's was accompanied by claims of 'hoarding" and had their army confiscate rice from farmers, leading to a couple million dead...

Mugabe's successor chosen

LINK

Zimbabwe’s ruling party is contemplating yet another amendment to the constitution that would clear the way for Vice President Joyce Mujuru to take over from President Robert Mugabe for two years after his term ends in 2008 – without an election, say officials in Mr. Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front.

The rationale offered by ZANU-PF officials backing the amendment is that installing the second vice president – and heir apparent, say some - from 2008 to 2010 would allow the next presidential and general elections to be held in the same year.

those who ignore history...

LINK

....A panel of experts on Zimbabwe admitted frustration on Tuesday that international pressure against President Robert Mugabe has failed to weaken his hold on power.

Tom Woods, a top African affairs official at the United States State Department, said the grim prospect for Zimbabweans is that Mugabe will remain in power until his term ends in 2008....

...In recent years, he said, the United States has provided $300-million in food aid to Zimbabwe, "a country that used to feed itself and the region"....

The dirty little secret of dictators: They steal any "aid for themselves and their cronies...and then cry for food aid, which they also steal...

Confiscated farms not being used....

LINK
Zimbabwe's central bank governor has described as "criminal" the under-utilisation of land by local farmers who benefited from the government's controversial land redistribution, the Herald newspaper said on Wednesday.

The official daily said Gideon Gono told parliament's land reform and agriculture committee that no amount of finance could make agriculture successful until land was fully exploited.

"It is criminal the manner in which we are using land," Gono said. "We only need to understand that our neighbour South Africa can achieve 5 to 8 tonnes of maize per hectare or even 15 tonnes a hectare using irrigation and here we are priding ourselves at 0.5 tonnes per hectare."

Zimbabwe is mired in its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, blamed on President Robert Nugabe's policies -- particularly the seizure of white-owned farms for the resettlement of landless blacks.

Agricultural output has fallen sharply, leaving the former breadbasket of the region with severe food shortages and an economy that has shrunk over 30 percent in the past five years.....

Critics say the land reforms have largely benefited Mugabe's cronies, most of whom have neither the will nor the know-how to engage in productive farming.

The government has acknowledged that some senior officials have amassed farms that they are not fully utilising, but says Zimbabwe's food shortage has largely resulted from drought.

The IMF and Zimbabwe

LINK

Zimpundit has posted an article on the IMF and ZImbabwe....here is an excerpt:

....In fact the arrears were not the major issue on the IMF agenda in terms of its relationship with Zimbabwe. What was the real issue was quite simply the failure by the Zimbabwe leadership to get to grips with the problems that had resulted in the almost total isolation of the country diplomatically and the near total collapse of the economy. During successive visits to the country, the IMF team has asked local Zimbabweans "how do you carry on under these circumstances?" They looked at the statistics and were astonished that we were still functioning.

We also wonder how we survive - and obviously this is both an achievement and a failure, because allowing the whole pack of cards to collapse might have brought change sooner than it will do in the near future.

And so we have the specter of the Zanu PF regime contradicting itself with respect to the IMF issue. One minute they do not matter and can "go to hell". The next we are scouring the country for our last remaining sources of foreign exchange to make a meaningless payment to the Fund which will ensure that we are not expelled but are then left with insufficient resources to import essentials like food.

Just speculate with me for a moment on what the Fund might demand in a wish list to the Zimbabwe authorities in order to restore our status as a functioning and welcome member of the Fund. My own list would incorporate the following:

-Zimbabwe must make take steps to end its diplomatic andpolitical isolation and to restore democratic credentials to its government.

-Zimbabwe must respect the rule of law and theindependence of its Judiciary and it must respect the legal rights of itscitizens and investors.

-Zimbabwe must restore freedom of the press and liberalizeits electronic media. It must dispose of its controlling shareholding in theZimbabwe Newspapers Group.

-Zimbabwe must observe all human and political rights asdescribed in the UN Charter and in its supporting agreements to whichZimbabwe is already a signatory.

- Zimbabwe must adopt, without delay, a comprehensivepackage of macro economic reforms designed to unify both exchange rate andinterest rate regimes, to restore fiscal and monetary stability anddiscipline.

-Zimbabwe must implement a wide range of reforms designedto strengthen the private sector and the market mechanism.

-Zimbabwe must give urgent and immediate attention to the humanitarean crisis.

It is now too late to rescue the 2005/06 agricultural season and we will have to wait another year before meaningful remedial action can be taken in the farm sector.

The IMF decision keeps the pressure on for reform, it gives South Africa time to exercise its responsibilities in the region and it does not make our situation any worse. I guess that is a lot to achieve under these circumstances. What are the chances of Zimbabwe meeting the IMF on all key issues - zero....

Poverty and governanace

Several people have posted articles about the link between corrupt govenments and poverty.

LINK

Easterly found that, "Over 1970-94, there is good data on public investment for 22 African countries. These countries' governments spent $342 billion on public investment. The donors gave these same countries' governments $187 billion in aid over this period. Unfortunately, the corresponding …increase in productivity… was zero."

If half a trillion dollars of investment and aid can't raise economic output, then what can? "The paper instead finds support for democratic institutions and economic freedom as determinants of growth that explain the occasions under which poor countries grow more slowly than rich countries." In other words, poverty -- and its alleviation -- are directly linked to governance.

LINK is Easterly's actualy report...
HER
Then GHReynolds, aka Blogfather, has an editorial HERE, discussing how countries signing human rights treaties have nevertheless gone on to kill their own people...

However, I disagree with one of his solutions: guns. He has forgotten nasty civil wars like Lebanon,....and you need pushy civilians, not civilians who for thousands of years learned being passive was the best way to stay alive (e.g. chinese peasants, Jews in medieval Europe, and the Mashona tribe in Zimbabwe).

Finally, Kopel et al discuss democide in Zimbabwe: alas, they are predicting what is happening right now, since the article was written in 2001...LINK

....In his 1992 book Revolution and Genocide, Robert Melson, a Professor of Political Science at Purdue University, enumerated factors which scholars on the subject have identified as predisposing a nation towards genocide: The presence of powerful, ambitious leaders with no compunctions about murdering political opponents is one of the requirements. These leaders cunningly exploit internal strife and economic distress to their advantage. And they employ the rhetoric of hatred and fear, and the scapegoating of potential victims, in order to demonize a minority population so that the minority appears to be evil and in league with outsiders, intent on overthrowing the prevailing society.

All of this is in play in Zimbabwe, today....

Katrina vs government atrocities?

LINK

Ah, but we have proclaimes our goals, what's the problem?

The big dirty secret about many "goal" projects (including the UN's big plans) are...only on paper...

So we hear this LINK

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe launched the Zimbabwe Millenium Goals (MGDs) Report amid pomp and ceremony two weeks ago, but analysts have dismissed the event saying the lofty objectives contained in the document are unattainable in present-day Zimbabwe.

They said Zimbabwe had not shown political commitment to achieve the main focus of the plans of halving poverty and diseases by the end of this year

Mugabe criticizes UN

LINK

In his address to the U.N. General Assembly Sunday, Mugabe said while his country was the focus of world criticism, black residents of the U.S. Gulf Coast were left unprotected during Hurricane Katrina, the Voice of America reported.

In July, the U.N. housing agency, Habitat, filed a report critical of Zimbabwe's government after homes of slum dwellers were destroyed leaving 700,000 homeless.

"Where is the Zimbabwe famous Habitat, I ask? Why should it maintain ominous silence? For here is real work of the homeless for it! This, indeed, is where it rightly belongs, and not anywhere in Zimbabwe," Mugabe said.

He also said the General Assembly should not be diverted from its important role in re-establishing multilateralism through what he called distractions -- such as Britain putting the Zimbabwe homeless issue before the U.N. Security Council.

"It is my hope that the council will reject this attempt at neo-colonialism," Mugabe said.

The refugees begin

LINK
alternate LINK

Johannesburg - The anticipated influx of Zimbabwean economic refugees has already started and rural areas in Limpopo are being overwhelmed by hordes of immigrants seeking work and food.

A City Press investigation has revealed that villagers in many parts of the province have opened up their hearts and homes to the refugees, but now fear that they are being swamped.

Refugee numbers are a major concern for the security services and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) has commissioned an audit to establish the extent of the problem....
Police in the area told City Press that at least 100 immigrants were arrested daily in the Vhembe district alone. At Matangari village, villagers called in the police to move out immigrants after complaints that they were about to outnumber locals....

the tip of the iceberg....

Mugabe goes to the UN

LINK
Nope, no problem here, folks, just move along:

Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly, Mr Mugabe said the demolition of vast urban areas was an effort to boost law and order and development.

He insisted that the slum clearances were followed by well-planned building projects designed to rehouse the poor.

The fact that these "plans" haven't been done doesn't matter, he "plans " to help these people...and paper plans are more important than reality in the UN...

In an interview with the Associated Press news agency, Mr Mugabe denied that Zimbabwe was in the grip of a famine.

He said that the country has ample stocks of potatoes and rice, yet the population insists on eating corn, a traditional staple.

The people of Zimbabwe are "very, very happy," Mr Mugabe said, blaming corn shortages on years of "continuous drought".

Yup...the problem is the drought...of course, removing the best productive farmers has caused a bit of the famine too...as history repeats itself...Russia and China and Cambodia have shown removing the best farmers leads to starvation...what's that saying, those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it?

Bring on the Tigers

LINK

Zimbabwe is about to import four endangered Siberian tigers from China for captive breeding, officials say.....

A biologist working for the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, Peter Mundy, told AP news agency the plan was "a complete load of garbage", adding that the country even lacked the resources to look after its own wildlife.

"It would be cruel," Mr Mundy said, adding that the park's seasons, climate and vegetation were not suitable for those animals, whose native region is seasonally covered in snow.

But Dick Pitman, head of a conservationist organisation, the Zambezi Society, said he approved of the plan provided it was run by tiger experts with adequate foreign funding, and the animals were not allowed to leave the park.

Let them eat FrenchFries....

LINK

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, said in an interview with The Associated Press that his people are "very, very happy" though aid agencies report 4 million of 11.6 million face famine.

"You describe it as if we have a whole cemetery," Mugabe said of a reporter's description of the southern African nation's dire straits, blaming "continuous years of drought."

The problem is reliance on corn, he said during Friday's interview, "but it doesn't mean we haven't other things to eat: We have heaps of potatoes but people are not potato eaters ... they have rice but they're not as attracted (to that)."

(sorry not many posts: phone problems...lots of rain and blackouts, and the phone line gets snagged and cut by people driving around puddles)

Cricket anyone?

It says something about both Google and sports that half the headlines on Zim is about their sports teams...

The international leaders shout, oh we are apolitical...

LINK

Of course, Zim is not above banning sports reporters from getting information. LINK

It is likely that ZC banned the reporters as tough questions were expected in the light of yesterday's statement issued on behalf of the country's players which slated the board, accusing it of being "at best incompetent, and at worst, a bully".

Well, that goes along with THIS

During a state visit to Cuba, Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwe president, said he had approved laws passed two weeks ago by Zimbabwe's parliament that allow his government to effectively nationalize formerly white-owned farms and impose travel bans on "traitors."

Or maybe it is merely a way to hide the growing corruption scandal LINK

MUMBAI/CHANDIGARH/KOLKATA, Sept. 13. — The two members of the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption Unit is reported to have visited Mumbai today in connection with their reportedly ongoing inquiry into the alleged fixing of certain matches in the tri-series featuring India, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
However, no confirmation could be had about the veracity of this information either from the Board of Control from Cricket in India office here or the local police. Yesterday, a section of the Press had reported that two ACU officials – Mr Alan Peacock and Mr Martin Hawkins – were in New Delhi recently to probe allegations that the tri-series was fixed. ...

Mumbai police claimed they have established Mumbai bargirl Tarannum Khan’s links with bookies, took her passport and said they are still examining her role in the organised crime syndicate of bookies and the underworld.
“As of now, we can book her under the Gambling Act but we do not want to reach to a conclusion in a hurry and would explore if Tarannum could be booked under a more stringent law,” a senior Crime Branch official said here.
Tarannum Khan, who hit the headlines after an Income Tax raid at her plush suburban Andheri bungalow earlier this month revealed huge cash and property investment details.
However, in Chandigarh, the BCCI today ruled out initiating an inquiry into allegations that the series in Zimbabwe was fixed.
“As of now, we are not going to initiate any inquiry as we have not received any complaint from anywhere.

Zim won't hold Human Rights meeting

LINK
...."They indicated that they were considering hosting the next session but later indicated that due to circumstances beyond their control their were unable to host the summit," Eno said.

Analysts say Zimbabwe had avoided submitting a formal request in writing, fearing the wrath of the Commission because of the controversial "clean up" operation.

The operation drew the ire of the international community prompting the UN secretary general to send a special envoy to assess the impact of the "clean up" blitz.

Anna Kajumalo Tibaijuka was in the country in June and produced a damning report on "Operation Murambatsvina"...

Enough food...not enough food...

LINK
Johannesburg - Zimbabweans have been told they will have enough food as maize imports from South African and other countries continue, Zimbabwe's Herald Online reported on Monday.

It said this assurance came from the chairperson of the National Task Force on Grain, Didymus Mutasa, and from Agriculture Minister Joseph Made.

Their comments come after a statement last week by the secretary for agriculture, Simon Pazvakavambwa, that the country was left with three weeks of food.

Mutasa said the country was importing about 15 000 tons a week from South Africa....

Mugabe gov't destroys human rights

LINK
The amendments, among other things, nationalize Zimbabwe's farmland and deprive landowners of the right to challenge in courts the government's decision to expropriate their land. It also authorizes the government to deny passports to people whose travel abroad would not be deemed in "national interest." Human rights advocates say this measure is aimed at preventing critics of Mr. Mugabe from going abroad and speaking out against his regime.

HIV crisis deepens due to "evictions"

LINK

Well, at least Mugabe doesn't place his HIV positive people in concentration camps...like his friend Fidel... LINK


After all, the only tyrant in the world is Blair LINK

Mugabe visits Castro

LINK

Mugabe was received with military honours at Jose Marti airport.

He immediately fulfilled a promise, made by his spokesman in Harare, to use the trip to commiserate with his Cuban colleague about US influence over the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, saying that Zimbabwe would never be a friend of the IMF because it worked on behalf of the powerful and did not give real assistance to the needy.

Mugabe said he and Castro would share ideas on dealing with what he called imperialist policies....

Fuel price increase in Zim

LINK

three weeks of food left

LINK
Nyanga - Zimbabwe is left with only three weeks supply of food, Ministry of Agriculture permanent secretary Simon Pazvakavambwa disclosed on Thursday...
Harare, which initially denied Zimbabwe faced food shortages, has refused to formally appeal for help from the World Food Programme (WFP), although President Robert Mugabe last June assured WFP boss James Morris that his government would accept help from the United Nations food relief agency. Mugabe’s cash-strapped government has insisted it has enough resources to ensure none of the estimated four million Zimbabweans or a third of the country’s total 12 million people in need of food aid starved. WFP officials say without a formal appeal for assistance by Harare, it is difficult to mobilise adequate aid for Zimbabwe.....

Zim aims at lowering child mortality

LINK
The MDGs (minimum development goals) include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental, sustainability and developing a global partnership for development.

Bible as toilet paper?

LINK

UMMM....no leaves available? No water available?

The more significant fact is not the hygiene challenged headline, but the fact that some prisoners have untreated TB; in malnourished people, and HIV positive people, this is a real threat.

The good news and the bad news

LINK
bad news:
Zimbabwe is headed for another "gloomy" agricultural season because many farmers do not have access to fertiliser, chemicals and seed, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

LINK
bad news:
price of petrol is doubled
LINK
good news ---not

If you complain, they can pull your passport to shut you up

Economics 102: Industrialization cures povety

LINK

Mugabe is ordering more farm seizures...
But I'm not posting for that reason (although seizing the most productive farms during a famine is not the way to feed your people, and of course, giving the farms to your cronies instead of locals makes a sham of land reform, but never mind).

The reason I'm posting is this comment:

Mutasa yesterday said the unavailability of land to many Zimbabweans was partly responsible for worsening poverty in the southern African country. “We are poor not because we do not have the skills, but because we do not have the land which is what we fought for,” the Security Minister said.

Umm: fellahs...that's not quiet true.

It IS the skills...

Those running the small farms are poorly educated women...with small hoes, and using slash and burn agricultural techniques...

You aren't even giving to farms to people with good agricultural skills...ask your Chinese friends to go in and teach these, and maybe the famine will disappear in the same way that Kansas is no longer a famine area like it was in the 1950's...

The way to lift a large number of people out of poverty is to encourage foreign investment to build factories, improve mines and the infrastructure, educate your kids, and to teach those actually farming to be efficient (Hand plows, fertilizer, genetically modified crops that resist disease and drought, irrigation pumps, trucks and roads to ship the crops to the cities, people who know how to run supermarkets and shops etc.)

By "throwing out" the most productive farmers, you get less food, but by destroying rule of law to do it, you are discouraging the people who actully could get your people out of poverty...

Sports news at 20 past the hour

It amazes me on Google headline searches that Zimbabwe has so many SPORTS links...

So we should not wonder to see that the priority is this:

LINK
The Environment and Tourism Ministry of Zimbabwe has set up a steering committee to spearhead the country's tourism promotion ahead of the 2010 World Cup soccer extravaganza to be hosted by neighboring South Africa, a local media the Herald reported on Tuesday...

The government is doing its part to ensure that all goes according to plan with private sector participation expected to go a long way in capitalizing on South Africa's hosting of the World Cup.

Zimbabwe is expected to gain significant mileage from the month-long soccer showcase in terms of tourism revenue and employment creation.

To this end, the world's biggest soccer showcase is set to boost Southern Africa's economies and open up new prospects for business and tourism.

It is also anticipated that direct foreign investment will increase and earn Zimbabwe the much-needed foreign currency.

Tourism is one of the country's biggest foreign currency earners and has the potential to do even better given Zimbabwe's unequalled natural endowments such as teeming wildlife, the majestic Victoria Falls, the heart-stopping beauty of the Eastern Highlands and man-made historical monuments such as the Great Zimbabwe, among others.

It is anticipated that if Zimbabwe wins its bid to host the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, the country would have scored a major coup as this will open the doors to a flood of soccer enthusiasts and talent scouts.

Tourism accounts for about 6.5 percent of Zimbabwe's Gross Domestic Product.

And then there is this: LINK

Lene Reihnsteiffel, call your office, Mugabe wants you to film his glorious sports teams

Rural areas lack food

LINK
JOHANNESBURG, 6 September (IRIN) - The dilemma of food availability and affordability in Zimbabwe could translate into worse-than-expected needs during the traditional lean season before the new harvest in March/April next year, say aid workers. In its latest situation report the World Food Programme (WFP) noted that the "availability and/or accessibility [of food] remained problematic in much of the country", and that the state's "Grain Marketing Board (GMB) depots have consistently received insufficient grain to meet the needs of vulnerable households". "In addition to the problems and delays in sourcing adequate grain by the GMB, lack of transport and fuel supplies are exacerbating the situation. The GMB has reportedly asked local authorities to organise and collect grain from the depot with their own transport, but this has met with little or no success," WFP pointed out. Market traders have reported shortages of maize and are expecting prices to rise. In Masvingo province in the southeast of the country, "the GMB maize grain was available in local shops in two districts, and reappeared in open markets in two additional districts", but "shortages of bread, milk and salt continued" in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo. "I am very concerned that, due to high inflation and the resultant constant price increases of staple goods and essential services (including education, which has is now very costly), the worst-case scenario from the 2005 ZimVac [Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee report] will become a reality," an aid worker, who wished to remain anonymous, told IRIN. The Zimbabwe VAC report indicated that 2.9 million people - an estimated 36 percent of Zimbabwe's rural population - would require food aid during the year ahead. The number of people in need was based on the government's announced plan to import 1.2 million mt of maize to address food shortages brought on by drought, inadequate access to inputs and limited tillage. However, if the imported maize was not made available through the GMB, or if it increased in price, the number of people requiring food assistance would rise substantially.

Remember; Rural areas don't get publicity and people will die of disease not "stavation"...

Human rights under seige

LINK

On Tuesday last week, ruling party MPs ensured that Zimbabweans will hence forth live in perpetual terror of the State when they enthusiastically passed the Constitutional Amendment Bill No 17.

Its passage into law will transform this country into a vast Gulag, effectively declaring Zimbabwe a de facto one-party State. The Bill is a coup that completes the full cycle of repression by plugging the loopholes in both AIPPA and the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).....

The next front of assault on property rights, at the rate at which things are going, could be foreign factories and companies, or those whose owners are deemed to threaten national interests.

The usurpation of the authority of the judiciary poses a serious threat to efforts at turning around the economy, while the timing of the passage of the Bill was an instructive demonstration of the dearth of strategic planning and timing in the ruling party. Whether it was a show of the now familiar mindless and empty bravado directed at the visiting International Monetary Fund mission that was in the country, the mind boggles.

The IMF team is unlikely to have been impressed with both the Bill and the 11th hour payment of the US$120 million towards settling Harare's arrears in the hope of staving off expulsion from the international financial institution.

Human rights under seige

LINK

On Tuesday last week, ruling party MPs ensured that Zimbabweans will hence forth live in perpetual terror of the State when they enthusiastically passed the Constitutional Amendment Bill No 17.

Its passage into law will transform this country into a vast Gulag, effectively declaring Zimbabwe a de facto one-party State. The Bill is a coup that completes the full cycle of repression by plugging the loopholes in both AIPPA and the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).....

The next front of assault on property rights, at the rate at which things are going, could be foreign factories and companies, or those whose owners are deemed to threaten national interests.

The usurpation of the authority of the judiciary poses a serious threat to efforts at turning around the economy, while the timing of the passage of the Bill was an instructive demonstration of the dearth of strategic planning and timing in the ruling party. Whether it was a show of the now familiar mindless and empty bravado directed at the visiting International Monetary Fund mission that was in the country, the mind boggles.

The IMF team is unlikely to have been impressed with both the Bill and the 11th hour payment of the US$120 million towards settling Harare's arrears in the hope of staving off expulsion from the international financial institution. The best that Zimbabwe can now expect from the IMF Board is that it will not expel the country, but neither will it open the taps to new balance of payment support, simply because Zimbabwe has not demonstrated any resolve to put the economy on the path to recovery. Mere expressions of intent are one thing, determined action towards attainment of an economic turnaround is quite another.

The actions of the ruling party MPs demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt where the real threat to national interests and security is coming from.

They may celebrate in the mistaken belief that in withdrawing travel documents from people who are calling for this country to be punished by the international community, they are responding to the EU and US travel sanctions. But, in fact, they are building a wall around Zimbabwe out of which people considered "dissidents" will not be allowed. The immediate targets are members of the opposition MDC and those from non-governmental organisations and civic society groups. To this, add media houses and practitioners.....

Zim's big problem

I am amazed that HALF the links on the Google headline search are about sports, usually cricket...

So now we see the REAL crisis in Zimbabwe:

LINK
Zimbabwe cricket has been thrown into new turmoil as team members protest against a decision to axe four players.

Stuart Carlisle, Craig Wishart, Barney Rogers and Neil Ferreira have all had their new contract offers withdrawn by Zimbabwe Cricket boss Osias Bvute.

"The players expressed views as to what they believed they were worth," said Bvute. "Those figures were in excess of their performances."

as the saying goes, I'll play the world's smallest violin while they cry their eyes out feeling sorry for themselves...

Zim minister begs IMF not to expell Zim

LINK
05 September 2005 07:50
Zimbabwe's central bank head on Sunday obliquely pleaded against the country's threatened expulsion from the International Monetary Fund and denied using undeclared foreign exchange to pay back part of the IMF debt.....

South Africa's Business Day newspaper on Thursday said the money came from "undeclared foreign exchange reserves which could be seen by the IMF as a serious violation of its rules on transparent presentation of key data".

Gono said: "For anyone to suggest that we either raided exporters' FCAs [foreign currency accounts] or raided any other depositors' facilities ... is scandalous to say the least."

He said the funds accrued came through belt-tightening and not from "diamonds in the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] ... or [President Robert Mugabe's] friends in the region," namely South Africa.

Zim bank chief begs IMF not to expell Zim

LINK

05 September 2005 07:50

Zimbabwe's central bank head on Sunday obliquely pleaded against the country's threatened expulsion from the International Monetary Fund and denied using undeclared foreign exchange to pay back part of the IMF debt.....

South Africa's Business Day newspaper on Thursday said the money came from "undeclared foreign exchange reserves which could be seen by the IMF as a serious violation of its rules on transparent presentation of key data".

Gono said: "For anyone to suggest that we either raided exporters' FCAs [foreign currency accounts] or raided any other depositors' facilities ... is scandalous to say the least."

He said the funds accrued came through belt-tightening and not from "diamonds in the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] ... or [President Robert Mugabe's] friends in the region," namely South Africa.

Zim bank chief begs IMF not to expell Zim

LINK

05 September 2005 07:50

Zimbabwe's central bank head on Sunday obliquely pleaded against the country's threatened expulsion from the International Monetary Fund and denied using undeclared foreign exchange to pay back part of the IMF debt.....

South Africa's Business Day newspaper on Thursday said the money came from "undeclared foreign exchange reserves which could be seen by the IMF as a serious violation of its rules on transparent presentation of key data".

Gono said: "For anyone to suggest that we either raided exporters' FCAs [foreign currency accounts] or raided any other depositors' facilities ... is scandalous to say the least."

He said the funds accrued came through belt-tightening and not from "diamonds in the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] ... or [President Robert Mugabe's] friends in the region," namely South Africa.

Zimbabwe: CIA Is Behind Kidman Movie

LINK

Gee, no wonder the movie was a bomb...the CIA can't even make hit movies anymore...

Aid finally allowed in (it's only been a month)

LINK

Harare - Zimbabwe has lifted duties for 6 000 blankets donated by South African churches for victims of Harare's recent urban demolitions which will now be distributed, an aid body said on Thursday.

"We got a duty-free letter so we can now distribute the blankets," Christian Care director Reverend Forbes Matonga told AFP but added that authorities were still demanding customs duty on food items to Zimbabwe.

"It will be costly to distribute the blankets and food separately so we are now pushing for a rebate for the beans and cooking oil."

Zimbabwe's revenue authorities demanded customs duty for the blankets and barred aid workers from distributing consignment.

South African churches donated blankets and sent two other trucks packed with maize, beans and cooking oil to Zimbabwe two weeks ago to help hundreds of thousands left homeless and destitute in the clean-up drive.

LINK

By Tererai Karimakwenda
02 September 2005

The tonnes of food donated by The South African Council of Churches (SACC) to help victims of operation Murambatsvina were finally cleared by Zimbabwean authorities on Friday, a month after the package was put together for the desperate families.

Speaking for the churches, Ron Steele confirmed the final duty-free permits had been granted and the trucks would be leaving Johannesburg for Zimbabwe. Blankets that were released from a bonded warehouse in Harare earlier this week are already being distributed by Christian Care, the local NGO working with the SACC and Zimbabwe's Council of Churches.

The month delay was caused by the Zimbabwe side which first demanded certificates showing the maize was not genetically modified, then insisted on charging duty on the donated goods even though it was the Zimbabwe government that created the crisis. Despite all the difficulties, the SACC said they are still willing to help. They are meeting on Monday to decide the next step.

How to pay debts: Steal the cash

LINK

Zimbabwe's central bank took foreign currency from the accounts of private corporations to pay some of its debt to the International Monetary Fund, which has threatened to expel Zimbabwe for failure to pay down its debt.

Central Bank Governor Gideon Gono says Zimbabwe's repayment of $120 million, less than half its debt to the IMF, was drawn from exporters and others with foreign currency reserves.

This week, many exporters say, they found their foreign currency accounts empty. They say they use that money to import spare parts and components for manufacture.

Officials from two foreign-owned banks in Zimbabwe, who insisted on anonymity, confirmed that the Central Bank drew on the foreign currency accounts....

LINK

however, not enough was stolen, apparantly....
There go the telephones...

Telkom has pulled the plug on Zimbabwe's telecoms utility Tel*One for failing to honour a $18-million debt (about R501-million), Business Day reported on Friday.

It said the move had thrown Zimbabwe's telecommunications into chaos.

Tel*One spokesperson Phil Chingwaru confirmed Telkom had disconnected Zimbabwe for non-payment.

Totalitarianism anyone?

Publius Pundit notes that Mugabe's destruction of law and human rights continues at a faster pace than he predicted...

Basically, this is the first step in the long (or short, maybe) process of demolishing any opposition Mugabe has in the country.

In his Marxist policy of land seizures, he has been mostly hung up by challenges to the actions by white farmers who were evicted from their farms several years ago. This constitutional amendment would effectively allow Mugabe to seize the land without any judicial process whatsoever. Those who have their cases in court will lose, and those whose land will now be seized might as well leave the country and forget about it.

Well, they would, if the other constitutional amendment didn’t restrict travel....

And Zimpundit also laments what is going on:

...In a matter of hours, when Mugabe signs his assent making the bill law, Zimbabweans will not be allowed to travel freely if they are deemed a "threat to national security." We also won't be able to own the country's best land nor seek legal recourse to fight the government's annexation of said land. Effectively, government will assume control of 100% of the lives of Zimbos within the country.

But this is nothing new to the people of Zimbabwe; life and all it entailments have always been the domain of the party. They control what people can hear and see in the media. They control what people need to learn and what knowledge is. They control the market forces and hence the prices of exchange of all goods. The state controls free speech. They control what one can wear and where one can live. They also have a monopoly on the "undisclosed illness" diagnosis for those among them who succumb to death. In sum, there is no aspect of life in Zimbabwe protected from the controlling hands of ZANU-PF....

Food Aid blocked

LINK

President Robert Mugabe blocked a $30m (£17m) emergency relief appeal for the victims of his controversial "clean-up" campaign, as the UN warned that people in his country's southern region were foraging for food in the wild.

The World Food Programme yesterday warned that a sharp increase in grain prices had left the UN agency short of the funds it needed to feed millions of hungry people in the area. "We need food and cash now," Mike Sackett, the WFP regional director for southern Africa, said. "Many who have already eaten their food reserves are surviving on wild foods and relying on other desperate coping strategies.....

But this Angolan paper says othewise: LINK

(the UN Team) said 700 000 people were directly affected by the demolitions, and a further 2.4 million indirectly, figures which the Zimbabwe government disputes.

The Harare authorities say at most 200,000 people were affected by the exercise, and these were now being provided proper housing and trading places under a ZWD3 trillion (ZWD24 000=1USD) funded by the government.

OCHA said the dispute over the figures was the only thing holding up implementation of an agreement between the two sides on the provision of humanitarian relief.

Green Bwana alert: Eat only politically correct food

Remember how Mugabe held up a convoy of trucks from South African churches because they didn't have a proper paper stating that none of their food aid was contaminated by genetically modified food?


Well, Zim is not the only country allowing it's people to starve rather than risk politically incorrect food...


LINK

Green groups, which already have indirectly killed thousands by banning cheap, effective DDT control of mosquitoes, now have influenced other countries to refuse to use artificially modified food crops, even though it means starvation...LINK

Ironically, one of the major causes of cancer in Africa, including in Zimbabwe, is mould that grows on ground nuts and other foods, which is a known carcinogenic, and causes cancer of the liver...


But green Bwanas who are so worried about the small number of people harmed by technology ignore that people in poor countries die from lack of technology every day....


But then here in the Philippines, which also stopped spraying with DDT, is now in the midst of a Dengue fever epidemic...our province lost seven people so far, the latest a 7 year old from our town...and now they are spraying the ditches with a strong, toxic insecticide...which causes me to have a severe allergy if I go outside the day they are spraying...however, I am willing to stay inside if it means our children are safe...

Zim rewrites constitution

LINK

The slate of amendments, the 17th since independence from Britain in 1980, strips landowners of their right to appeal expropriation and declares that all real estate is now on a 99-year lease from the government.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said this would stop 5,000 evicted white farmers from frustrating land redistribution to black Zimbabweans.
"It will close the chapter of colonization," Mr. Chinamasa said during a stormy half-hour debate that preceded the vote.
The bill also gives the government authority to deny passports if it is deemed in the national interest.
"This will take away the right of those people to go outside the country and ask other countries to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe," said Mr. Chinamasa, who is among 200 of Mr. Mugabe's elite barred from traveling or owning bank accounts in the United States and European Union countries.
The overhaul also calls for a new 66-seat Senate to be formed, which critics charge the ruling party will use to increase its patronage powers.