Masses flee from Zimbabwe

.....South Africa has in recent months shown signs of exasperation with Mr Mugabe. Aziz Pahad, Deputy Foreign Minister, has spoken of the danger of a "failed state on our doorstep" and has called for "fundamental changes" to Mr Mugabe's economic policies. Official figures issued in Harare suggest that about 3.4 million people -- a quarter of the population -- are now living abroad. Some 1.2million are believed to have fled to South Africa.

Zim minister harvests where he did not sow

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MASVINGO - War veterans at Chikore Farm in the southern town of Masvingo are demanding Z$142 billion in compensation from a Zimbabwe government minister whom they accuse of harvesting where he did not sow.

The war veterans are accusing Stan Mudenge, who is the Minister of Higher Education, of forcibly harvesting and selling their tomato crop at the farm which has been the subject of a bitter ownership dispute between the former liberation war fighters and the minister.

In a letter of demand to Mudenge, a copy of which was seen by ZimOnline yesterday, the war veterans say they will institute legal action against Mudenge if he fails to pay within seven days. ...

"I do not own any other farm. Chikore Farm belongs to me and anyone intending to take it from me is like a person intending to take away my wife," said the minister.

The war veterans invaded Chikore Farm in 2003 in what was a fresh round of farm invasions against the few remaining white farmers following the violent farm seizures that began in 2000.

Last year, State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa who is also in charge of land reform, ordered the former fighters to move out of the property to pave way for Mudenge. The war veterans are however resisting the move demanding compensation for their loss.

Several government ministers and influential members of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF party have been accused in the past of using their powerful positions to push out black villagers who occupied farms after the ouster white farmers after 2000.

The government ministers have in most cases forcibly taken and sold unharvested crops on the properties without compensating the previous owners. - ZimOnline

Zim: offers little to fix economy

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's government unveiled changes to the 2006 budget in a policy review on Thursday, but critics said it failed to offer any proposals to reverse an economic crisis that has impoverished the population.

Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa predicted positive growth for the first time in 8 years, although lower than previous estimates, but did not spell out how he would tackle a meltdown widely blamed on the government which has left Zimbabweans grappling with soaring living costs.

Murerwa said the economy would probably grow by 0.3-0.6 percent during 2006, down from a previous estimate of 1-2 percent. It shrank 2.7 percent in 2005 and has contracted by more than 40 percent since 1999, pressured by chronic shortages of fuel, foreign exchange and food.

Murerwa had no answers for the economic crisis which has pushed inflation up to nearly 1,200 percent -- a world record -- and unemployment up to 70 percent.

"The challenges we are facing, though seemingly entrenched, are surmountable," he told parliament in a televised statement.

"The biggest challenge remains that of runaway inflation, which is constraining economic growth prospects and imposing enormous social and economic hardships on the population."....

Zim mulls devaluation of dollar

ZIMBABWE's central bank is expected to make a massive devaluation of the battered local currency when the governor announces his monetary policy statement on Monday.

The devaluation is aimed at closing the widening gap between the fixed official and parallel market rates.

The adjustment of the crashing Zimbabwean dollar could boost export earnings and ease foreign currency shortages.

It would, however, unleash a new wave of price increases across the crumbling economy.

The local unit, now the weakest currency in the world, is currently fixed at Z$101195,54 to the US dollar, while the parallel market rate has continued to fall away to Z$500000, making the official rate irrelevant.

The fixed rate has remained unchanged since the last monetary policy statement in January.

Zim "fueling HIV spread"

Yesterday, we read that Zim was doing a great job with HIV since their rate has gone down.
Today we read:

A human rights group says the "abusive policies" of the Zimbabwean government are fuelling the HIV/Aids epidemic.

Human Rights Watch says despite a recent drop in infection rates, 20% of the population had HIV with thousands dying each week.

They say current policies, including forced evictions and expensive health care, were squandering progress in the fight against the disease.

The Zimbabwean government has not yet responded to the report.

"Zimbabwe has been hailed as a 'success story' in the fight against Aids," said Joe Amon, director of the HIV/Aids programme at Human Rights Watch.

"But abusive government policies are blocking treatment for those who desperately need it and making even more people vulnerable to infection." ...
The New York based rights group said up to 1.6 million people in Zimbabwe were living with HIV but only 25,000 of the 350,000 people in immediate need of antiretroviral drugs had access to treatment.

They claimed forced evictions had left HIV sufferers living in appalling conditions and had also interfered with prevention measures.

Police are alleged to have destroyed nearly 2,000 outlets providing condoms in urban townships during demolition programs, which took place last year.

The report also claimed that non-government groups attempting to fight the disease, which kills more than 3,000 people a week, were harassed and intimidated by government officials.

Human Rights Watch called on the international donor community - which has withdrawn large amounts of assistance because of the government's poor human rights record - to increase funding for HIV/Aids programs.

HIV rate falls in Zim

HIV/AIDS prevalence rate continued to decline to 21 percent this year in Zimbabwe as more and more people changed their sexual behavior, Zimbabwean Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa has said.

One little problem: If people change their bahavior, the rate stays the same.
There are three ways to make the rate go down.

One: People with HIV migrate. The previous story noted that one quarter of it's people migrated. Since people who migrate tend to be healthy, they could not have AIDS but could be HIV positive (depends on how you make the diagnosis).
On the other hand, HIV is more common among the young and better educated, which is the same group that would be able to migrate.

Two: You increase the baseline population of HIV negative people. In other words, you have lots and lots of babies. This increases the negative numbers so the postive percentage goes down.

Three People with HIV die.
Alas, there has been a famine, and those with HIV are more prone to die of minor infections or of things like TB. With the decrease in money for drugs, with the emigration of doctors and nurses, with the flight to the rural areas where there is less medical treatment, and with poor nutrition, one would expect that many people with HIV would die of other diseases.

At a recent technological conference in Bulawayo, the second largest city of Zimbabwe, Parirenyatwa said his country had seen a remarkable decline in the prevalence rate from 31 percent in 1999 to 21 percent this year.

...

He urged researchers to explore the use of traditional medicines for the treatment of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses and improve the effectiveness of anti-retrovirals.

Of course there is no proof they work but it looks nice on paper.

Mugabe blames West for Zim's troubles

President Robert Mugabe opened a new legislative year Tuesday with a speech to Parliament blaming economic problems on the U.S., Britain and other Western critics of his human rights record.

Zimbabwe is in a state of economic collapse, suffering from the world's highest inflation rate _ more than 1,000 percent _ and shortages of all basic goods. A quarter of its 16 million people has emigrated since 2000 and millions more are dependent on aid....

Mugabe said a national regulating authority would be established in the coming year to monitor electronic communications. Critics say the move will give the secret police extraordinary powers to intercept mail, e-mail, telephone or cell phone communications.

Mugabe said recent rains have raised hope for an "economic turnaround" and a revival of agriculture under new, black holders of land grants. A recent government report said only 40 percent had occupied their farms or small-scale plots, leaving millions of acres derelict and unproductive......

Zim suspends Ivory sales

Authorities in Zimbabwe have suspended all sales of ivory in a bid to stop underhand deals, it was reported on Monday....

Last year police busted an ivory smuggling syndicate when they found 72 elephant tusks at a home in Harare's plush Greendale suburb.

Investigations have also netted a former legislator for the ruling Zanu-PF party, Walter Mutsauri, who allegedly abused his trophy dealer's licence by selling 67 tusks to two Chinese nationals, according to the Herald.

The newspaper said a six-member committee had been set up to establish a new working system for ivory dealers that will allow the authorities to better monitor their activities.

There is also a need to put in place stringent monitoring measures to control the country's domestic ivory market and ensure that all licensed ivory dealers adhere to what is required of them by Zimbabwe's laws and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), Mbewe added.
...

Zim's new mining regulations

Harare - Any operator exporting dimension stone extracted from a quarry in Zimbabwe shall offer at least 10 percent of each grade and category of dimension stone extracted to local processors.

According to the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe Regulations 2006 published in Friday’s Government Gazette, any processor who was also an operator or was affiliated to an operator and wishes to export dimension stone extracted from a quarry in Zimbabwe shall utilise all production from mining operations before applying for a quota of dimension stone from other operators.

The regulations describe dimension stone as any stone, including its products that were sold on the basis of its dimensions, whether in height, length or width and shall include granite marble.

Any processor who was also an operator or was affiliated to an operator and wishes to export dimension stone extracted from a quarry in Zimbabwe and has utilised all production from mining operations may apply, in equal quantities, for a quota of dimension stone from other operators....

Sweden gets behind HIV aids funding

Sweden is mobilising donors and other European countries to support Zimbabwe's fight against HIV/AIDS, Swedish Ambassador to Zimbabwe Sten Rylander said on Friday.

Most Western donors froze aid to Zimbabwe after President Robert Mugabe's controversial fast-track land reform programme began in 2000, followed by reports of violence and intimidation during the 2000 and 2002 elections.

"We want to pool resources and channel them through the civil society organisations and the United Nations," Rylander told reporters in the capital, Harare, adding that the country's drop in HIV prevalence - from 24.6 percent in 2003 to 20.1 percent in 2005 - was a positive development that had to be sustained....

Zim to spy on cellphones, email

The government denies any sinister intent, saying it is putting its anti-terrorism legislation in line with international practice. But Zimbabwe is not on the front lines of the war on terror, and government agents could use the proposed powers to monitor the communications of the political opposition, journalists and human rights activists who are critical of President Robert Mugabe.

Secret police and intelligence agents could violate attorney-client privilege, track financial transactions and negotiations, and eavesdrop on anyone's private life. Anytime a Zimbabwean visits a Web site, makes a deal or tells a joke, Big Brother could be listening or watching.

Internet and cell phone service providers would, at their own expense, have to provide the government with equipment to sort and intercept communications.

The aim "is to monitor and block communications for political reasons and to use information they get to persecute opponents," said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly, a group critical of repressive laws and actions of Mugabe's government.

Telephoned from neighboring South Africa, he said: "It is part and parcel of the process of controlling dissent and stifling democratic debate."

South Africa has quietly adopted a similar law, with the important difference that a court must approve any interception. In Zimbabwe, that authority would rest solely with Mugabe's minister of transport and communications....

Zim journalist wins award

THE Zimbabwe Independent news editor Dumisani Muleya's series of stories revealing the covert take-over of three privately-owned newspapers by Zimbabwe's intelligence services have won him the Free Press Africa Award at the CNN MultiChoice African Journalists Awards 2006.

Daily Mirror photographer, Desmond Kwande, scooped the Mohamed Amin Photographic Award for his snaps of victims of Operation Murambatsvina, a botched urban clean-up programme which left close to a million homeless.

The two journalists received their awards at a ceremony in Mozambique last Saturday....

2 journalists arrested in Harare (later released)

A total of 19 people, including 2 journalists, were arrested by armed police Wednesday as they demonstrated for the removal of the illegal commission running Harare and against a recent 1 000 percent increase in water charges imposed by the commission. The 17 protestors are all members of The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA). The 2 journalists are Ndamu Sandu of The Standard private newspaper and freelance journalist Godwin Mangudya. Both were covering the demonstration and it is not clear why they were arrested.
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RELEASED

President Taylor complains....

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor has said he is unhappy with "draconian" conditions in the Dutch prison where he is awaiting trial....

Mr Taylor was locked in his cell for up to 16 hours a day and could not make as many phone calls as he was allowed in Sierra Leone.

He also complained that his client was forced to eat "Eurocentric" food...

HERE is a list of Taylor's crimes against humanity...

Zimbabwe: Population and food

"....It is important to note that food supply is a national priority attainable either by intensifying crop production or by increasing the area of land under cultivation.

Experts assert that agriculture is a contentious issue in that Africa now needs more than 20 million tonnes of grain each year. This surpasses the current production.

With the population growing at more than three percent per year in many African countries and agricultural production increasing by a lower percentage, the deficit will continuously increase.

Thus, the pertinent question is how African producers can narrow the gap between supply of grains and other staple foods in light of rising demand....

In the past, food shortages have been bridged to some extent, by purchases and by food aid. However, neither of these options will offer adequate relief in the future....

Despite prevailing low productivity, environmental degradation and urban migration, Africa's situation, though desperate, is by no means hopeless, planners claim.

However, in order to institute further improvements to arrest and maintain balances between population growth and food security, experts note that rapid but measured action is undoubtedly called for in terms of policy changes.

According to experts, these policy changes should prioritise rural development like what Zimbabwe has embarked on. With that, more emphasis should be put on production, processing and marketing of food products.

There is no denying that the rate of increase in population in Africa is among the highest in the world and many see this as a fundamental contributor to under-development.

However, experts say there are many examples worldwide where increased population has made possible increased production.

At the time of the International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo in 1994, one delegate wrote: "Each new mouth comes attached to two useful hands and a brain, by which more food can be produced.".....

What is often lacking are the financial resources and the political commitment to prioritise the rural community in national development...."

American unions in solidarity with Zim Unions opposing Mugabe

The Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) has launched a major campaign to clip Mugabe of his “liberator” image in the African American community by exposing the thuggish actions of his regime against the Zimbabwean people.

CBTU President William Lucy announced that CBTU would aggressively reach out to African American media, labor websites/blogs and other progressive media this summer to get Americans “tuned into the Zimbabwe crisis.” Lucy also said CBTU would join other organizations in demonstrations at the Zimbabwe Embassy and other locations.....
Lucy, who is also international secretary-treasurer of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said,“CBTU will not be a silent witness to this tragedy unfolding on distant soil liberated by heroic freedom fighters. Zimbabwe’s people, who are suffering crushing poverty, homelessness, hunger and rampant violations of human and trade union rights, need to know that their cries for help echo in our hearts, no less than those of our sisters and brothers in South Africa who prevailed over the racist apartheid regime.”

Lucy was one of the founders of the Free South Africa Movement in the 1980s, which conducted the most effective grassroots anti-apartheid campaign in the U.S. He was also instrumental in raising union revenue to finance Nelson Mandela’s historic trip to the U.S. in 1990.

In the 1960s Mugabe became an icon of the Zimbabwe nationalist movement that fought white-minority rule and won independence in 1979. However, his Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) party has tightened its autocratic grip on power as Mugabe’s support in urban areas has drastically waned. In 2002, he was reelected in a vote marked by government intimidation of the opposition, a crackdown on the free press, and charges of vote rigging.

Mugabe’s descent from icon to despot is wrenching for many black Americans. In the 1960s, a lot of black activists here gave money and claimed solidarity with Zimbabwe’s liberation fighters. Josh Williams, president of the Washington, D.C. central labor council, recently returned from a visit to Zimbabwe with a verdict on Mugabe’s leadership.

“He [Mugabe] has lost touch with the people,” Williams said. “In the past 10 years Mugabe has become a totally different person.” Williams, who represented the AFL-CIO at the 25th anniversary convention of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions in May, said “Workers there [Zimbabwe] find it hard to accept that many of them are being beaten, arrested and harassed by the same people that they marched with 25 years ago for [Zimbabwe’s] liberation.”

Mugabe’s hand of repression greeted Williams when he arrived at the airport in Harare. “There were about 20 other labor organizations that sent representatives to the ZCTU convention,” Williams said. “But when we arrived at Zimbabwe’s airport, 11 delegates were denied admission and sent back home by the government, apparently because they had been critical of past actions taken by Mugabe.”

To squelch growing dissent from the displaced urban poor, the trade unions, and farmers whose lands have been confiscated by the military, Mugabe has virtually strangled democracy in Zimbabwe. ...

Doctors strike in Zim

...Intern doctors, referred to as junior doctors in Zimbabwe, are on strike for better pay and working conditions, the umpteenth time the interns who effectively run public hospitals have downed tools to press for better remuneration since the country's economic crisis began seven years ago.

The doctors have defied a government directive earlier this week to return to work while their grievances are being examined, insisting they would only call off the strike after firm commitment from the government to pay them Z$500 million per month, up from a present salary of $57 million which is way below the poverty datum line of $68 million.

The doctors also want the government to improve supplies of essential medicines and equipment in public hospitals, saying they are sick and tired of watching patients die of otherwise treatable diseases simply because there are no medicines.

But the strike has dealt a knock-out punch to the public health system that was already on its knees after years of mismanagement and under-funding.

For example at Mpilo and the United Bulawayo Hospitals - the two biggest referral hospitals in the city and the surrounding Matabeleland and Midlands province - only a handful of senior doctors could be seen attending to only the worst of emergency cases.

The outpatients departments at the hospitals were shut down.

It was the same situation at Harare Central hospital and at Parirenyatwa, the two biggest hospitals in the capital city and where ZimOnline reporters witnessed dozens of patients some on wheelchairs being turned away because there were no doctors....

G-8 Summit hardly discussed Africa

So states a VOA report...but if you read the report, you find this:

However, one Africa analyst does not agree that Africa was short-sighted by the meeting.

Yolanda K. Spiers is the head of the Protocol and Diplomacy Unit of the Center for International Political Studies at the University of Pretoria. She told English to Africa reporter William Eagle “I didn’t expect as much from this summit as I did from last year’s. I think if people did they were slightly naïve.” She says she sees encouraging signs that the G8, and in particular Britain and France, remain consistent in their support for Africa: “ Britain… rallied other countries to start the process of writing off debt to the most indebted countries, and (we find encouraging) France’s pressure for a progress report for the summit next year in Germany…Those (two) countries are committed to a process of getting Africa out of the poverty trap.”

Ms. Spiers says it’s important for Africa to have G-8 support, but she says the continent’s leaders need to take responsibility for happens within their own countries. Political oppression, she says, stunts economic growth. She says the continent needs to pull itself up by its bootstraps.

Tony Blair's website point out:

On Africa, we made modest, but important, progress in taking forward the commitments of last year, including:

• scaling up action on HIV/AIDS through replenishing the Global Fund in 2006 and 2007;
• new initiatives on vaccines for malaria and pneunoccoceus;
• fully funding the Education Fast Track initiative.

We agreed to review progress on Africa again at the G8 Summit in 2007 .

I have asked the International Development Secretary to set out key milestones for the coming 12 months in his next report to Parliament. These will include supporting 10 African countries, developing long term education plans and getting the debts cancelled for 5 more African countries. Kofi Annan will also convene the Africa Progress Panel to monitor progress.

I also discussed Sudan with a number of G8 leaders and Kofi Annan. We agreed the situation in Darfur was unacceptable and we needed a quick deployment of the UN force.

Don't consult Witchdoctors: I'm staying says Mugabe

President Robert Mugabe has ridiculed followers for consulting witch doctors to choose his successor, dismissing the suggestion that he is going to step down.

Robert Mugabe:cheers and laughter from the crowd

Shaking his fist, Mr Mugabe, 82, told Zanu PF leaders and party elders at a weekend "consultative" rally in the country's capital, Harare, that they should not rely on witchcraft to choose Zimbabwe's next president.

Mr Mugabe, who drew cheers and laughter from the crowd, told them: "The things we hear about succession, succession, succession. We hear lots of unbelievable stories about succession. We hear some people are consulting witch doctors, but the biggest witch doctor is the people of Zimbabwe. There is no need to consult witch doctors."...

Globalization: US, EU subsidies keep Africa poor?

BAMAKO (Reuters) - A delegation of U.S. cotton farmers visiting West Africa said Washington's multi-billion dollar subsidies to its cotton industry were worsening hardship in the world's poorest region.

During a trip to Mali, West Africa's largest cotton producer, the group of farmers from California, Illinois, Vermont and Kansas witnessed conditions in one of the world' poorest countries....

Francois Traore, president of the cotton growers association in neighboring Burkina Faso, noted that while there were only 25,000 cotton growers in the United States, there were between 15 and 20 million people in Africa dependent on the crop.

"We want the African farmer to be able to live from his work. The American farmer also lives from his work, but to the detriment of others," he said.

The European union is just as bad, but not covered by this article...just another question of how globalization will lower trade barriers to help poor countries...
Of course, one can argue that unicultivation of one crop whose prices rise and fall is not a good strategy for Africa...