The Herald tops readership
Wednesday, 14 December 2011 00:00
Business Reporter
THE Herald has maintained its pole position as the most widely-read daily in Zimbabwe, with close to a million adult urban readers, according to a latest independent media survey.
In its third quarter report covering July to September, the Zimbabwe All Media and Product Survey shows that the Zimpapers flagship is read by an estimated 916,714 people from the age of 15.
This makes it the most widely-read daily among urbanites, being read by 36 percent of all urban Zimbabweans over 15.
It is a slight improvement compared to the second quarter when the paper was read by 34 percent of the adult population.
The latest Zamps results keep The Herald at the top of the readership list, as it has been for 12 decades.
The newspaper celebrated its 120th anniversary in July this year and during this period, it has been the most widely-read paper.
While the latest report has confirmed The Herald's dominance of the urban market, the previous independent Zamps survey also placed the newspaper as the most read among rural adults.
This time the rural market was not sampled.
Zamps samples the urban market quarterly, but the rural market less often.
NewsDay came second, edging the Daily News out of the second place.
Its urban readership is now 745 812 or 29 percent of the adult urban population.
Daily News gained four percent to 26 percent of the adult urban population or 662,131 readers.
ALSO SEE
* The Herald reaffirms market dominance
* Zimpapers, AB awarded radio licences
In fourth place is H-Metro, The Herald's tabloid stablemate with 22 percent of the market or 526,136 readers.
The Chronicle's is in fifth position and its readership marginally fell three percent to 12 percent.
B-Metro was stagnant at 7 percent.
Overall, the readership of dailies grew 8 percent during the period under review.
Last week, The Herald won the prestigious Superbrand of the Year Award in the print media category for 2011 for the second year running.
The contest was dominated by the Zimpapers stable, with the Sunday Mail coming third. NewsDay was second.
The Superbrand of the Year Awards is an annual event which recognises outstanding brands in the country.
Commenting on the latest results, Zimpapers group chief executive Mr Justin Mutasa said the Zamps results were an indication that the group was geared to maintain its dominance over the country's media landscape.
"The market has spoken and it is for all to see," said Mr Mutasa.
"We are very proud that we have remained on top and we shall move a gear up towards further improving our quality publications."
Mr Mutasa paid tribute to Zimpapers publications' readers and advertisers for supporting the group's titles.
Zamps is put out by the Zimbabwe Advertising Research Foundation, a trust that is backed by all major adverting agencies and major publishing houses.
The foundation is funded by a small levy on advertising, regardless of where the advertising is placed, so is financially independent of any media house, whether an agency or a media owner.
In turn, it hires an independent research group to conduct actual surveys.
This particular survey was done by Research Bureau International.
The foundation's role is limited to paying for the work and publishing the results.
Labels: THE HERALD
Read more...
Zimpapers to introduce radio station
Friday, 21 October 2011 00:00
Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
ZIMBABWE Newspapers (1980) Limited is ready to introduce a radio station to articulate Zimbabwe's aspirations, celebrate its culture and promote social cohesion, the firm's board chairperson Dr Paul Chimedza has said.
He said the project, to be launched within few months of securing a licence, will reflect positive language, build hope and reflect Zimbabwe's cultural and ethnic diversity.
The news content, he said, will portray life in a resurgent Zimbabwe.
Dr Chimedza said this during a Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe public hearing in which Zimpapers, one of the four shortlisted firms, is seeking a radio licence.
BAZ has shortlisted four firms out of the 14 applicants.
Zimpapers Talk Radio was the second firm to attend the public hearing after Hot Media (Kiss FM) made its presentation on Tuesday.
AB Communications and Vox Media Productions (VOP) are due to make their presentations next week.
Kiss FM directors include musician Oliver Mutukudzi, businesswoman Ms Sharon Mugabe, BancABC boss Douglas Munatsi, former Radio Three (now Power FM) staffers Musi Khumalo and Tonderayi Ndoro, Phibion Gwatidzo, Trevor Samusodza among others.
AB Communications has journalist Supa Mandiwanzira, Abigail Mvududu, Farai Rwodzi, Bruce Mujeyi, Farai Matsika, Trust Dube and Pachawo Chipurira as directors.
VOP is led by David Masunda, lawyers Mr Arnold Tsunga and Mr Tafadzwa Mugabe and Nhlanhla Ngwenya among others.
In his presentation, Dr Chimedza said Zimpapers Talk Radio was a 24-hour radio station.
"The project comes at a time Zimbabwe is coming out of a decade of political polarisation, economic hardships, social disenchantment and a state of hopelessness. People are now looking forward to a new era of economic revival, hope, peace and prosperity.
"On the economic front, factories are reopening, new shopping malls are being built, agriculture is beginning to pick up as evidenced by the record tobacco crop by new farmers and the mining sector is booming, while tourism and other sectors are also looking up."
Dr Chimedza said his roles as chairperson for Zimpapers and Transmedia boards were complementary.
He was responding to concerns raised by BAZ chairperson Dr Tafataona Mahoso on whether his dual role would not constitute conflict of interest.
He said he will recuse himself when deliberating an issue that might be perceived to be in conflict of interest.
BAZ commissioners also wanted to know if Zimpapers would not duplicate ZBC radio coverage since Transmedia had some pockets that it did not cover.
Dr Chimedza however said Zimpapers will provide funding to Transmedia to buy transmitters and enhance its coverage.
"Currently, Transmedia has one client (ZBH), for it to grow it should have many clients. Lack of funding is one reason why it has some pockets that are not covered," he said.
Zimpapers business development and marketing director Mr Tapuwa Mandimutsira said the company had a wealth of both financial and human resource base to undertake the project.
He said minority languages will be catered for, adding that Zimpapers had made comprehensive research on the need for another radio station.
Another board member, Dr Munyaradzi Kereke, said the fact that Zimpapers had incurred a loss in its half year trading did not mean that it did not have the financial muscle to launch a radio station.
"You might have bumper harvests in successive seasons, but have drought for one season . . . it does not mean you will have hunger that season because your granaries would be full," he said.
He said Zimpapers board member Mr Delma Lupepe had ceased to be director of Sedden Investments, which is also seeking a radio licence.
Dr Kereke was responding to a question from BAZ whether Mr Lupepe was not in conflict of interest by sitting on the boards of competing firms.
Zimpapers group chief executive officer Mr Justin Mutasa, group chief operating officer Mr Pikirayi Deketeke and other senior managers attended the hearing.
Labels: RADIO, THE HERALD
Read more...
Zimbabwe: Why MDC-T is Unlikely to Change
The Herald (Harare)
Published by the government of Zimbabwe
The Herald (Harare)
OPINION
8 September 2008
Posted to the web 9 September 2008
Then during President Mugabe's official speech opening that Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe, about 20 or more opposition MPs disrupted Parliament on camera. It is alleged by legal experts that
disruption of Parliament was clearly in violation of Section 21 (Schedule) of the Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act, Chapter 2:08.
The fact that neither the opposition nor individual members have apologised for what happened at the opening of the Seventh Parliament is consistent with the role of the opposition required by the UK, the US and the EU, but totally inconsistent with the expectations and aspirations of the majority of the people of Zimbabwe who want an inclusive government focused on reversing the damage caused by unilateral and illegal sanctions invited by the same opposition in 2000-2001.
It is therefore important at this stage in the history of the Anglo-Saxon onslaught on Zimbabwe for the media to alert the majority of the people of Zimbabwe to the dangers which the opposition continues to pose for this country.
First, from its beginning in 1999, the opposition and its "civil society" NGOs have allowed the Anglo-Saxon powers to parade the same opposition as part and parcel of the illegal regime change apparatus and as an internal proxy of the white West. When the leader of the Mutambara faction of this opposition recently allowed a belated interview to tell the same white powers to leave Zimbabweans to solve their own problems, that was exactly when seven MPs from that faction allegedly deserted the faction and rejoined the intransigent MDC-T.
Since late 2007, Zanu-PF and the Government of Zimbabwe have been urging the opposition to join them in denouncing and resisting the illegal, unilateral and racist sanctions invited upon the country by the same opposition back in 2000. The opposition continues to refuse to join Zanu-PF and the Government in this urgent effort.
Instead, a large number of officials and supporters of that opposition continued to lie about the reality of economic sanctions, choosing to define them as just travel bans. Morgan Tsvangirai, Learnmore Jongwe, Nelson Chamisa, Obert Gutu, Douglas Mwonzora, Rashweat Mukundu and scores of others have misled the people into believing that the sanctions were just travel bans meant to keep President Mugabe and a few of his "cronies" from travelling.
The unashamed denials were made on television, although other footage already existed on ZTV and BBC, in which Morgan Tsvangirai and Fidelis Mhashu had openly begged the world, and especially South Africa, to cut off the flow of petrol, diesel, electricity, finance, trade and everything else of consequence going to or coming out of Zimbabwe.
It was only after the British Labour government, the US Republican administration, and the EU began to target and threaten specific multinational companies over Zimbabwe in July and August 2008 that Tapiwa Mashakada of MDC-T finally admitted on ZTV that the sanctions were real economic measures targeting the whole economy and the people and not just travel bans on a few individuals. Yet, even after that, the opposition has remained silent on the issue of sanctions here, while its supporters abroad openly celebrate the effects of those same sanctions on the entire population of Zimbabwe.
In late 2002, NGOs supporting the MDC showed their support for Anglo-Saxon efforts to divide and destroy Zimbabwean society. They published a big document called "Is Zimbabwe on the Brink of Genocide?" They proceeded to answer their own question, indicating which alleged "tribe" was going to set up and massacre which other "tribe" using what issues and what means.
The MDC formations for their part helped the efforts of their NGO supporters by claiming that genocide was indeed an ongoing process in Zimbabwe, targeted against the opposition. How the MDC formations could be defined as a tribe or race subject to genocide remains beyond comprehension.
During the opening of the Seventh Parliament, those members of the opposition disrupting the proceedings clearly shouted that President Robert Mugabe and Government had no right to honour Kirsty Coventry as a sports heroine of national and international stature who won gold and silver medals for Zimbabwe at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing
It was in this part of their disruption of Parliament that the 20 or more MPs displayed the binary logic which the MDC-T has adopted from the rightwing who sponsored and founded the party.
The MPs shouted that, because Kirsty Coventry was of Caucasian ancestry, she could not and should not be hailed on behalf of the people by President Robert Mugabe and his Government. They went further to say that Kirsty Coventry belonged to them, to the opposition by virtue of her being of Caucasian ancestry.
This display of racist dualism has been an integral part of opposition thinking in Zimbabwe especially since 1999.
As a project sponsored by Anglo-Saxon powers, the MDC has adopted as one of its responsibilities the duty to erase the history of the African liberation movement by equating it with that of Nazism, fascism, apartheid and even UDI. The techniques used include what Naomi Klein calls recasting and conflating or conflation.
(Page 2 of 2)
In recasting, the African land reclamation movement which seeks to enable the dispossessed African majority to reclaim their land which was once stolen by white settlers is presented as reverse racism which leaves no room for whites who are reconciled to Zimbabwe. But, in fact, this movement merely requires all Zimbabwean citizens of all racial origins to accept that the State now controls land on behalf of all.
The people and that all those who have reconciled themselves with the new Zimbabwe are entitled to queue for land on an equal basis and they shall be resettled. The sponsors of the MDC formations want the opposition to portray the land reclamation movement a racist war by Africans and against all the people of Caucasian descent.
This recasting erases the fact that Guy Clutton-Brock, a Caucasian Briton from Wales, was among the first Zimbabwean heroes to be buried at the National Heroes Acre. This recasting erases the fact that former East Germany, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and former Soviet republics, together with China, were among the most faithful supporters of the African liberation movements of Southern Africa. This recasting seeks to erase the historical fact that it was President Mugabe who as Prime Minister in 1980 invited all Zimbabweans of all races to join the liberation movement in a process of national healing and reconciliation.
From the recasting, it becomes easy for the MDC formations and their white sponsors to conflate the interests of the few unreconstructed Rhodesians and Britons who rejected the hand of African reconciliation as if they are the universal interest of every Caucasian person who has ever lived on this planet. For it is only the few unreconstructed and defiant former Rhodesians and Britons who have so lost is because, by refusing to be resettled, they have refused to share that land with the dispossessed Africans.
The MDC formations are on the record claiming that the Daily News which used to be published by the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, was meant to be their mouthpiece.
It is from that mouthpiece that we find the roots of binary linking (in the MDC formations) which claims that President Mugabe, Zanu-PF and the Government of Zimbabwe cannot and should not honour a national star of Caucasian ancestry because "she is not yours; she is ours (MDC)." In other words, by virtue of her ancestry, Kirsty Coventry or any other white heroine or hero belongs to the foreign-sponsored MDC formations.
Proof of this binary logic and the assigned role of the MDC formations can be found in the Daily News, April 19 2002. R. S. Mazoyo published a letter entitled "White Presence in MDC gives Zanu-PF Hallucinations". The writer claimed that white people began to sit in harmony with Africans for the first time in the MDC and because of the MDC.
From there it was easy to claim that the African land reclamation movement was merely an African revenge orgy against all white people. It was driven not by desire for justice, fairness and restitution but by sheer black hatred of whites. The Daily News, June 15 2002, published a lengthy letter by one Marko Phiri, which conveyed this conflated message: Mugabe's white hate gospel has failed to poison race relations. The writer returned to paternalistic Rhodesian language of the late 1950s, race relations, rather than revolutionary solidarity.
Then on March 26 2003, The Daily News took the recasting and conflation to extremes. The President, in an address to mourners at Heroes' Acre, scoffed at British efforts to portray him as an African Hitler's reputation is one of over-running other people's countries and destroying other people's nations and institutions.
On the contrary, President Mugabe's only ambition was to enable the people of Zimbabwe to reclaim and control the territory and assets of Zimbabwe and nothing more. However, The Daily News of March 26 2003 turned the meaning of the President's remark completely up side down and inside out, declaring: "Mugabe equates himself to Hitler".
This MDC mission on behalf of white Rhodesians and the Euro-American white right explains the remarks shouted by the rowdy opposition MPs and Kirsty Coventry. This consistent mission, dating back to the founding of the MDC, also suggests that the opposition may not improve its behaviour even if it signs an agreement with Zanu-PF. A piece of paper may not change the mission or the history of the MDC documented here.
Labels: LAND REFORM, MDC, THE HERALD
Read more...
Someone has hacked The Herald, and replaced all the headlines with the word 'Gukurahundi' - as if they care one fig about it. I think it is obvious that this is what they want the world to think about, when they think about Zimbabwe. The entire western campaign has been about villification and denying the world the point of view of the Zimbabwean government and people themselves.
Whether it is from the BBC and it's lack of objectivity and professionalism, or the so-called opposition's use of sanctions, but unwillingness to even admit that there are sanctions, the campaign against Zimbabwe has been characterized by cowardice and lack of popular support.
Labels: COLOUR REVOLUTIONS, THE HERALD
Read more...
BBC reporting a disgrace
By Leo Makombe
NO wonder the BBC was banned from reporting from Zimbabwe as it behaves like a terrorist or spy media organisation if their recent story, "Mugabe faces rival from within party", broadcast on Monday January 14 2008 at 23:56GMT, is taken into consideration.
The BBC, it appears, also reported from ignorance, because if they had known that two Zimbabwe weekly newspapers had reported the story, they would not have acted as if it was breaking news. If it is the story of shortages, be it of foodstuffs or money, all newspapers including The Herald and privately owned newspapers in Zimbabwe are covering these daily and weekly.
To other fair-minded people, and me the reporter was covering stale news.
And for John Simpson to brag that he defied the odds and sneaked into Zimbabwe and managed to shoot video and then report when he had returned to his base is childish, because knowing the security system in Zimbabwe, he was being protected all the time he was in the country so that he could report back his stale news.
What would have happened if he had been arrested, as what happened to the e-TV crew of South Africa that was arrested when they were reporting on illegal diamond mining in Mutare? It seems the BBC either wants its reporters to be arrested, harassed or to report stale news. That is news to the BBC.
The BBC is now, as I said earlier, behaving like a terrorist or spy organisation. It is now stage-managing events just like it did during past elections, when it stage-managed events for the MDC.
This is why the BBC was banned from Zimbabwe, because it was partisan and acting on behalf of the British government who have an agenda against Zanu-PF and the Government it leads, an agenda they have sought to internationalise.
It is true that the ordinary Zimbabwean can afford a satellite dish and can tune and view the BBC and many other international television and radio stations.
The BBC is not popular; it is just like an other international TV and radio station.
The Government of Zimbabwe, which the BBC and other misguided people view as inhuman, allows people to access views from other international broadcasting stations, a situation that does not prevail in some countries the British government openly supports.
If the BBC did not know, we also have France24 on satellite, which is competing with the BBC on world news in addition to CNN, among other channels.
The BBC can interview all the anti-Zimbabwe people, I say anti-Zimbabwe because these people have nothing to offer the ordinary people in Zimbabwe, like Dr. John Makumbe, whose hatred of President Mugabe has outgrown him that he is so hypocritical that he is employed by the University of Zimbabwe whose Chancellor is President Mugabe.
If President Mugabe was so bad, why don’t Makumbe and Lovemore Madhuku quit their jobs at the UZ and concentrate on their numerous sojourns that have enabled them to hoodwink the Western world and donor agencies who are pouring money into their various money-spinning ventures? What is more, why haven’t they been fired?
I have always told my friends that Zimbabweans are very clever in that they can get money from foreigners with minimal sweat.
Is the ordinary person in Britain getting the pounds as easy as the likes of Madhuku, Makumbe and the MDC are doing in Zimbabwe? The British public is being taken for a ride by their own government.
The British public sweat to pay lazy and unemployable Zimbabweans.
What a shame! If ever there should be an uprising it should be in Britain, because their government is wasting money on a cause that does not benefit them. Even the BBC has fallen into the trap. Were the people who were moving with Simpson doing that for free? That is my ordinary cunning Zimbabwe brother at work.
Make money from gullible Westerners without breaking a sweat.
I also wish to remind the BBC that Zimbabweans do not just vote for anyone just because the BBC or British government says so. People from within Zanu-PF can form as many parties as they want (Edgar Tekere did so and what happened?), but if the ordinary person who has no access to the BBC knows you as we know Zanu-PF, the parties are doomed.
Why should someone who has a personal vendetta against Zanu-PF want the whole of Zimbabwe to fight his battles? Zimbabweans know what the British and their allies have done in other countries and they are now wiser and will not be hoodwinked.
In all fairness, if there are over a million Zimbabweans in the UK, why doesn’t the British government deport them now so that they can vote in the March elections so that the Government is democratically removed from office? No the British government will not do that, they continue poisoning us with the stale news from the BBC, simply because those numbers are cooked up.
In Zimbabwe we hold elections, we do not handpick leaders, as was done with Gordon Brown, so which system do the British want to teach us? If there is an illegitimate prime minister/president, it is Gordon Brown.
No wonder he did not attend the EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon, he knew it was for elected heads of state and government.
Zimbabweans welcome diversity and if it happens that the Young Turks from Zanu-PF form a party that can win the elections, fair enough.
We do not have any problems with that. But for the BBC to start campaigning for that stillborn party raises eyebrows, just as we have always queried the BBC’s support for the MDC.
Already, people are saying the "new" stillborn party is a creation of the West as a replacement to the MDC which is past its sell-by date, thus the proposed party has already lost relevance before its arrival.
With the news doing the rounds, it seems the new stillborn party will be a one-man show. Its proposed leader is hardly known in the rural areas where the bulk of the vote is. So please BBC, do not celebrate yet.
Disgruntled and power-hungry people from Zanu-PF have been dumped by Zimbabweans and the same will happen to anyone from anywhere who wants to use his disgruntlement to get into power.
People will ask you, if Zanu-PF was so bad why did you stay in that party for the past 25 or so years?
Coming to the MDC, the reason they lose the elections, like one sister stated in The Herald the other day, is that its membership is made up of people who do not vote. True, everyday at the MDC offices one would think there is a rally as unemployable — not unemployed — youths, men and women roam the street outside.
Such people have taken the MDC as their employer and the reason they do not want to vote is that when the situation changes for the better, no employer will engage them because they are lazy.
They would rather stick by Harvest House and hoodwink gullible opposition leaders, because they know the MDC will not win the elections as they withhold their votes.
Tsvangirai, instead of wooing voters, is busy threatening them with Kenya-style violence and boycotting the elections.
Whose child is he going to sacrifice and kill? What kind of a leader openly calls for violence against his own people? While Zanu-PF and everyone else in Zimbabwe is calling for peaceful elections, the MDC Tsvangirai faction is doing the opposite.
Why threaten people before elections? And why is the BBC silent on this? Would they be silent if it were Zanu-PF threatening violence? Let us not be blinded by being partisan. If it was in other countries, Tsvangirai would have been arrested.
He is calling for the equivalent of genocide, yet he fancies himself a potential president.
Tsvangirai is so obsessed with power that he is busy decampaigning for himself. He is doing the same thing he has done in the past whereby he has called for sanctions. It appears he does not learn from his mistakes.
Tsvangirai is in his last term as MDC president. If he loses in March, as he is likely to, then it will be good riddance for many in his faction. But Tsvangirai seems not to see this. He sees President Mugabe as his enemy and is not seeing the enemy within his own party.
Labels: BBC, JOHN SIMPSON, THE HERALD
Read more...
Zambian miners trapped as power fails
The Times of Zambia.
LUSAKA. OVER 300 miners were on Saturday night trapped in cages at both Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) and Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) due to power failure, which was experienced countrywide. And the Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) has called on the government to investigate and establish the cause of the power failure. Mineworkers’ Union of Zambia (MUZ) general secretary Oswell Munyenyembe confirmed the development in Kitwe on Sunday.
Munyenyembe said about 369 miners were trapped in the cages and were only evacuated on Sunday at around 06:00 hours. He said the union was concerned about the safety of the miners because once they were trapped, ventilation underground got affected.
Munyenyembe said there was need to seriously investigate and establish what led to the power failure. He said 179 miners were trapped at Konkola, 90 at Mindolo North and 100 at South Ore Body, Nkana.
But CEC managing director Neil Croucher said it was important that investigations were launched to establish the cause of the power failure. Croucher said although some miners in various mines were trapped, the company managed to switch on its Democratic Republic of Congo interconnector power system.
He said although the company did not know what led to the power failure, it suspected that there was a problem between Kariba North Bank and Leopards Hill in Lusaka due to lightning.
He said there was need to check with Zesco which, he said, would be able to issue a statement on the matter.
Croucher said power went off at around 19:38 hours but that the company was able to switch on its DRC power system around 20:00 hours.
He said power was sufficient to prevent loss of life underground in the mines.
In an interview earlier, investor relations manager Clare Musama said the company later in the night switched on gas turbine alternators, which, she said, continued in the night until 06:00 hours when power was restored.
Musama said by Press time, the company was still monitoring the flow of power to the mines due to voltage variations.
Meanwhile, pumps at Nkana Water and Sewerage Company (NWSC) treatment plant were not able to pump water due to the power failure, a situation that led to water shortage in Kitwe.
NWSC public relations manager Damaseke Chibale confirmed the development in Kitwe yesterday.
Chibale said the pumps could only pump water from yesterday at around 08:00 hours when power was restored.
And when contacted for a comment, KCM spokesperson Sam Equamo said he had not yet received a report on the miners being trapped.
Equamo said the company would only be able to issue a comprehensive statement today.
He, however, said part of Konkola was flooded and that they recorded some damages at the smelter in Kitwe. — The Times of Zambia.
Labels: MINING, THE HERALD, ZESCO
Read more...
Fireworks expected at MDC executive crisis meeting today
Bulawayo Bureau
FIREWORKS are expected at the troubled MDC faction’s national executive committee crisis meeting in Harare today amid revelations that many legislators in the camp are mobilising to oust their leader, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai. Sources said the legislators and other top leaders in the faction who are outraged by Mr Tsvangirai’s violation of the faction’s constitution have caucused well in advance and are expected to spring a surprise by openly confronting him for his cronyism and dictatorial tendencies.
They said most officials are prepared to kick him out of the top post at today’s no-holds-barred meeting.
Senior faction insiders who are reportedly opposed to Mr Tsvangirai are the faction’s spokesperson Mr Nelson Chamisa, organising secretary and former Mayor of Harare Mr Elias Mudzuri, deputy secretary-general Mr Tapiwa Mashakada, Kwekwe Member of Parliament Mr Blessing Chebundo and youth leader Mr Thamsanqa Mahlangu, among others.
On the other hand, Mr Tsvangirai enjoys the support of his secretary-general Mr Tendai Biti, national chairman Mr Lovemore Moyo and members of his widely-condemned "kitchen cabinet", Mr Ian Makone and Professor Eliphas Mukonoweshuro — although the academic is understood to have been privately expressing disquiet over Mr Tsvangirai’s leadership style of late.
"It is either he reverses the ouster of Lucia Matibenga as the party’s leader of the Women’s Assembly or we force him out of the party," said a Member of the House of Assembly belonging to the crisis-torn faction who asked not to be named as he feared victimisation.
Interestingly, today’s crisis meeting has been called by a Mr Tsvangirai who is desperate to restore his grip on the faction following a fallout with most members of his party over his decision to remove Mrs Matibenga and replace her with Mrs Theresa Makone. Mrs Makone is the wife of Mr Tsvangirai’s trusted friend and confidante, Mr Makone.
The decision to elbow out Mrs Matibenga has caused serious rifts in the party which are threatening to further split the fragmented opposition, which split into two factions in October 2005 after Mr Tsvangirai once again chose to defy the party’s constitution.
The MP said most parliamentarians and people with influential positions in the party were on Mrs Matibenga’s side as they felt that her ouster was unconstitutional.
Labels: MDC, THE HERALD, ZIMBABWE
Read more...
‘Let’s boost productivity’
Chinhoyi Bureau
PRESIDENT Mugabe has called for increased capacity utilisation in key pillars of the productive sector to ensure economic stability. The thrust, which is in line with the National Economic Development Priority Programme, requires that all potential in productive sectors such as tourism, agriculture, mining, and manufacturing, among others, is harnessed and fully utilised.
The President was speaking in Chinhoyi yesterday at the official opening of the Chinhoyi University of Technology Hotel School, the first of its kind in Zimbabwe, and capping of 260 graduates in agricultural engineering, post-harvest technology and international marketing. The hotel school will also be run as a commercial venture.
"It goes without saying that the main thrust of our current national economic development programme is to stabilise the macro-economic environment. As we work towards this objective, we should see increased capacity utilisation in the productive sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, mining, construction, tourism, transport and communications," he said.
Such an approach invariably needs to be complemented by highly skilled human capital for research and implementation of programmes.
Tourism and hospitality — as one of the major drivers of economic growth and foreign currency earners — should be supported through the development and training of highly qualified manpower.
President Mugabe commended the university and the ministries of Higher and Tertiary Education and Environment and Tourism for setting up the School of Hospitality and Tourism as an important milestone in the training of students – both locals and those from the region.
"The opening of the School of Hospitality and Tourism at the Chinhoyi University of Technology is a milestone for the institution and for the entire nation as it seeks to produce dynamic, innovative and entrepreneurial graduates richly endowed with practical skills for the development of our country," he said.
It comes at a time when Government, through the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, is working to reposition the tourism sector.
Harmonised and co-ordinated human resource training and development, the President said, was in line with the position taken by Sadc member states, which seeks to ensure that tourism training institutions in the region are complementary.
President Mugabe said Zimbabwe would reserve places for students from the Sadc region.
"In this spirit, and as part of the spirit of regional economic integration, Zimbabwe would be happy to reserve a quota of the places available for students from other Sadc countries."
Cde Mugabe said the region was aware of the global significance of tourism as the world’s fastest growing industry and called for clearly defined policies and strategies for its development and promotion.
Of concern, however, were the meagre receipts from tourism in the developing world and Zimbabwe in particular, which he attributed to the underdeveloped state of tourist attractions.
"Our concern and, indeed, that of our region is that the rich tourism potential which offers an array of features and a number of sites containing natural wonders of the world remains largely underdeveloped and, therefore, does not contribute to the economic well-being of our people and those of other regions," said Cde Mugabe.
He said developing nations were being "short-changed" by tour operators who organised packages that see some host countries getting very little from spendthrift tourists as they only pay for food and go to the next country.
Zimbabwe must seek to understand cultures and languages of friendly nations in line with the Look East Policy in view of the illegal Western sanctions, Cde Mugabe said.
This would enhance the country’s chances of penetrating the "globalised and diversified" arena of hospitality and tourism.
Cde Mugabe commended the university’s thrust to develop and specialise in tourism and hospitality, irrigation engineering, fuels and energy as directly responding to the current economic challenges.
A mechanism for quality control should be put in place at every level as tourism was by nature an international industry and called for the re-aligning of programmes with regional and international trends if Zimbabwe was to benefit from the 2010 World Cup soccer finals in South Africa.
Before capping the graduates, President Mugabe installed Professor David Jambwa Simbi as the substantive Vice-Chancellor for
Prof Simbi had been acting since last year and replaces Charles Nherera, who was jailed for corruption.
In his acceptance speech, Prof Simbi said he would do his utmost to steer the university to its potential and realise its objective of being the regional centre of excellence in technological innovation and development.
A qualified engineer with a bias in metallurgy, Prof Simbi was born in Nyazura in 1952.
He said realisation of the university’s objectives and goals would be guided by the recently launched 10-year strategic plan.
CUT, like other universities, faced the challenge of retaining qualified staff, most of whom are leaving in droves in search of greener pastures.
"For Chinhoyi University of Technology, it is becoming increasingly difficult to provide for continuity as well as allow for the development and establishment of institutional memory, further compromising research output and quality of community service," he said.
The university was doing all it could under the circumstances to offer incentives that could invariably lead to retention of staff by addressing accommodation concerns through negotiations for a build-operate-transfer arrangement with private companies while council has provided land for that purpose.
CUT had partnered with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and information technology multinational company Hewlett Packard to develop a national programme to reverse brain drain, an extension of the International Home-link Desk project funded by the International Organisation on Migration.
Local financial institution ZB Bank supported the setting-up of the hotel school and donated $1 billion.
Labels: HUMAN RESOURCES, MUGABE, NEDPP, THE HERALD
Read more...
Land Reform: Pipped at the post?
It is simple. When it comes to the land question, every patriotic Zimbabwean must simply become irrational. Kutopenga chaiko, as Comrade Chinx would say. I am sure even former white-owners of our land expect us to be that flamingly irrational. It reminds me of Bishop Kunonga’s humourous contribution to the "Zimbabwe we want" effort. He recalled a chance encounter with two men — one white, another black — locked in a mortal fight. Upon inquiring on the nature of the differences, which had triggered such a violent encounter, he was cryptically told the two were fighting for land. He says he did not need any more information.
He simply jumped into the fray, knowing fully well that the outcome of the fight would determine the Zimbabwe he wanted. The white antagonist soon found out he had an extra pitchy black torso to subdue, if his vain cause was to prevail. Our very fragile and even broken rural livelihoods as Africans simply exhort us to take an eflexive position on this one cardinal national question.
Hey, the white man is not sleeping
Two weeks back, I drew your attention to two developments on this very emotive issue. I referred to white farmers who had gone back to the courts to challenge the whole land reform programme. Behind them was JAG, the same JAG, which engendered its gender warriors going by the name of WOZA.
But I also made reference to another action by the same group designed to litigate using Sadc’s Windhoek-based Tribunal. I explained the rational, warning this was an attempt to get Sadc to condemn its own escape from the colonial legacy, indeed an attempt to get Sadc to condemn its own emancipation.
I should also add that the international court case on the same matter brought to Paris by both Dutch and British farmers on allegations that Zimbabwe was violating Bilateral Investments Protection Agreements, BIPPAS for short, from October 29 2007. Readers may remember that the EU sought to weaken Zimbabwe’s defences by invoking travel bans on our legal team led by the Attorney General. It would appear certain EU members sought to employ political conditions to engineer a default judgement on the matter, which was then supposed to open the floodgates to further litigation, possibly leading to a reversal of land reforms.
Clearly the land issue is not yet settled. Clearly it is not yet irreversible. From a white perspective, the land issue remains a septic wound: profusely suppurating, insistently nagging well into the night. They do not sleep. They do not forget. They will not forgive. Hence the recent ICG report which demanded that President Mugabe declares an end to the Third Chimurenga.
And hey, is the Blackman woken?
From an African perspective, the land hunger persists, with many still on the waiting list. A significant portion of land remains in white hands: a good 927 farmers at the last count, with possibly 726 materially still on the land. We have also seen strange arrangements taking place outside the agreed parameters of leasing: Some lazy blacks sub-leasing State land to former white farmers. We have seen hostile blueprints of the so-called "post Mugabe recovery economics", all of them predicated on what is termed "an acceptable, internationally supported land reform programme".
Even more sinister, we have seen a new sensibility within the African elite of wanting to ram and fasten the door to further land reforms, simply because they themselves now have the land. It is the I-am-in syndrome, which threatens to reinterpret the whole land reform programme as a limited clearance sell for an African petit bourgeoisie. This sensibility couches its argument around issues of food security, foreign currency earnings and regaining international acceptability. And all these are made synonymous with retaining whites on the land, freezing land reforms to limited beneficiaries, while boldly evicting peasants and war veterans who may have placed themselves or been placed on well capitalised pieces of land.
They convincingly point to vast swathes of underutilised land to argue the present challenge is not completion of land reforms. Rather, it is about turning the already reformed land into a productive and performing asset. It is quite difficult to ignore this view’s start-off premises, namely that of rampant underutilisation. No attempt will be made to challenge this poignant premise. None whatsoever. Land must be fully utilised. Rukuni said so. Utete said so. Manheru says so, too. But is that all? But what are the implications of such a well-founded argument? That, for me, is the question.
Rhodesia’s intellectuals in new lease
This week we have had two white irritants in the form of John Robertson and Bruce Gemmill. The latter was part of Rhodesia’s leftover white farmers; the former, Rhodesia’s organic intellectual. From the above I-am-in-so-stop-the-revolution mentality, whose existence is by the way well known to the white land lobby, a thought milieu has been created for bold resurgent white racism. Reporters who went to Chegutu will tell you they ran into despicable Rhodesian white racist arrogance expressing itself in open contempt of land reforms and the new black farmer.
The reporters will also tell you there were officials from the British and American embassies, both towed by JAG, both illustrating the still abrasive Western dimension of our land question. All this reorganised white interest needs an intellectual framework and defence.
Dutifully, the Zimbabwe Independent reports on an "agriculturally connected NGO" which it does not name, whose sub-committee has undertaken "to study and recommend how and why agriculture should be reconstructed".
The paper excerpts that sub-committee’s "reasoning and conclusion". The opening of that excerpt reads: "From approximately 1900 to 1977 Rhodesian agriculture was divided by race and law into two systems, namely the white populated system of large scale-commercial agriculture, holding its land under freehold title and confined to the commercial farming areas. Secondly, the black populated systems of peasant farming, holding its land under communal title and confined to the communal areas, land holding rights being at the discretion of the local chief".
Perfunctorily acknowledging this racialised land tenure system to be a political problem, the sub-committee hurries to redefine the source of subsequent problems: "This inequality was pumped and hyped to the maximum by the present government (Zanu (PF), that is] to justify the destruction of commercial agriculture.
It was a politically driven act of retribution against a section of the population, both black and white, who were supportive of the opposition party, the MDC. It had nothing to do with land reform". The outcome was "massive injustice and misjudgment… foisted on the whole population".
Another Clare Short in male form
The excerpt leaps beyond the matter on hand to make a large statement about colonialism and African independence, clearly in a manner reminiscent of Clare Short: "We recognise there were many injustices directed against the black population during white minority rule, such is the nature of colonialism.
History cannot be changed, only the future has relevance when planning economic recovery and poverty alleviation.
This is not a callous dismissal of colonial injustices but a recognition of today’s reality. Agricultural and economic realities should prevail over populist and racial politics if we are serious about achieving a civilised standard of living for the population of Zimbabwe".
Just in case you are not insulted enough, get this: "In contrast [to commercial agriculture], peasant agriculture is the hallmark of underdevelopment…. Peasant agriculture is regarded as the bottom rung of human existence".
Harkening Zimbabwe-Rhodesia
Let us temporarily forget about the hand behind the pen, to deal with these wrinkled ideas which strike me as a determined assault on black Zimbabweans. First the benchmarking in the report. 1900 to 1977 neatly coincides with both the rise and consolidation of white Rhodesian land-based power, which is the essence of the land question, as we have known it.
The year 1977 was especially significant in that UDI laid, through a phoney internally generated "de-racialised" land reform programme, a foundation to a superficially reformist land programme which the Rhodesians through Lord Carrington sought to foist on the Patriotic Front at Lancaster House.
It allowed for some modicum of adjustment to land ownership, and even a sprinkling of black farmers in hitherto white commercial zones, but without changing the essence of Rhodesia’s land tenure. This is what Robertson and his colleague are glorifying. In a sense, Rhodesia was adjusting its land regime to prefigure the Internal Settlement and the subsequent birth of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia under a black face.
The same document, albeit in mutated form would re-emerge at the ill fated 1998 Donor Conference. The overriding goal for these initiatives and that which we are examining in this analysis has always been the preservation or restoration of white landed rights with which Zimbabwe’s commercial agriculture is made synonymous.
False closure
What is worse, the two dates give an illusion of closure to white land-based injustices: these began in 1900 and ended in 1977! Politically, this is a late invitation to get us to embrace the Internal Settlement as the era of African emancipation.
In terms of the country’s agrarian reforms, this claim seeks to postulate that Rhodesia made and unmade its own land colonialism.
Considering that we say the struggle was about land, it means we were liberated by white volitional generosity, not by black arms of war.
A real assault on liberation history, as we know it! This is staggering. After 1977, land justice had been restored, Robertson tells us, thanking white sense. It means all those who claimed to be fighting after 1977 were simply bloodthirsty, power-hungry tyrants!
Turning causes into consequences
Second: the piece reduces the whole land reform programme which started in 2000 to "political retribution" and "massive injustice", a real return to antediluvian times or "the bottom rung of human existence". We are back to Dell’s "voodoo economics" only put on Rhodesian tongues. The programme had no takers and was thus "foisted on the whole population".
It is a view that does not recognise any land need among Africans, something I thought the white world had at least conceded early on in the debate.
To that extent, it marks a hardening of positions, in fact a repudiation of concessions made earlier. Except many MDC members were happy to receive land, which suggests they were happy victims of this unwanted land reform.
They are happier to have received implements for working that same land. Their leadership does acknowledged the need for land reforms, only contesting the way it was done. So which MDC is this study referring to? And how many MDC officials or supporters had land before 2000 to have been dispossessed, alongside Rhodesia’s embittered white landed gentry whom these two gentlemen defend?
What is worse, how would the Zanu (PF) government visit political retribution on landless black MDC supporters through land reforms, as claimed? How do you dispossess a person who wields no land? In any case what started, the land issue or the MDC?
The era of noble savages
Third: we are told peasant agriculture is "the bottom rung of human existence". This is our world so vainly castigated. We are children of peasants. So why did modern Rhodesia create and preserve a peasant sector until 1977? Was it because Africans were exactly that: African and too unreconstructed to be taken into an era of "civilised standards of living", itself Ian Smith’s favourite phrase? You begin to see unrepentant Rhodesian racism that is at the core of this whole so-called study. It is a statement of racism a condemnation of Africans as un-evolved and un-evolving.
And since the independence government is both vindictive and economically irrational to levels of destroying "civilised standards", clearly the subcommittee’s reasoning and conclusion imply political governmental reforms fashioned after white Rhodesia.
After all, "all evidence stacks up in favour of commercial agriculture (read white agriculture)". Robertson and Gemmill are not writing for a Zanu (PF) Government or anything close to it. They are writing for a protean political governmental creature founded on a combined Rhodesian and
Mutability in Immutability
Fourth: History cannot be changed! I suppose it can only be destroyed in favour of "uncivilised standards". Robertson and Gemmill repudiate subaltern history of struggle with such frightening finality. It is an attempt to suggest that "Rhodesia never dies", but one proclaimed on its very tomb. The two men hanker after Rhodesia and its land dispensation. Robertson may be genuinely mistaken; surely Gemmill cannot. His present state and bitterness away from the colonially ill-gotten land, does confirm that indeed Rhodesian history has been challenged and changed!
What is worse, the whole import of their sub-committee is to challenge and change another history — to them clearly African and therefore unpalatable — defined by and formed through the 2000 land reforms. The two men want to reverse Zanu (PF)’s land reforms, which means challenging Zanu (PF) and its history which, willy-nilly, is the history of all black Zimbabweans regardless of political affiliation. Both Tsvangirai and Mutambara have now recognised that the land question is indeed an African national question that cannot be ducked in the name of fulfilling oppositional functions.
Succour from a fissure?
What is the significance of all this? Well, this is an indicative piece, indicative of the mood in the white camp. Shell shocked by the land reform between 2000 and 2005, the white tribe appears to have taken on a new feeling of defiant resurgence, a feeling that a new milieu tolerant of its racist arrogance and drivel is finally come. This may suggest either of the two following things: That the white vlok has detected a fissure within Zanu (PF) leadership, giving succour to its resurgence. Or that there is a real desperation in the country that the ruling party is about to be ready to collapse or to clutch at a serpent.
I happen to know that Zanu (PF) is not about to collapse; quite the contrary, it is feeling quite sanguine. It is importing agricultural equipment like a party that is not about to go away. It has divided the EU, a real novel feat in the history of the interface between Europe and Africa. Its candidature for March 2008 is as good as decided. Its opponent, the MDCs, is in disarray. The economy is beginning to respond to its policy importuning. So there is no question about a collapse. Which leaves the first item possibly.
Place of white man in Zimbabwe
I have always said it will be a very sad day indeed if any forum within Zanu (PF) burns its time and ardour debating the place and role of the white man in independent Zimbabwe. That simply should not be an issue. While it is true that the struggle was against a system, not a race, it is ineluctably true that the system depended on a specific race for its sustenance. It still depends on that same race for its survival in post-independence, which is how it continues to mould, forces which keep Zanu (PF) busy.
Zanu (PF) cannot dodge the issue of race in its effort to found a new society. White power remains paramount in the economy. It remains paramount in the very indigence of post-colonial Africans. Certainly the struggle was not about weighting the rights and interests of a mere 900 white farmers as equivalent to the rights of 13 million black Zimbabweans for whom 90 years of colonial rule would not end until 2000.
Why would so much energy be burnt on the fate of remnant white farmers to the exclusion of 30 000 plus African farmers already on the land? What have we given these 30 000 to expect results from them? What? Surely seed packs alone are not enough? Surely fertilizer alone is not enough?
To all intents and purpose, 2007 is the year which the Zanu -PF government has made a real and telling intervention to follow through on its emphatic land delivery between 2000 and 2005. The year 2007 is the year Zanu-PF has begun to address the issue of productivity.
It cannot expect the result a day later. Not even a season later. That never happened with white Rhodesians who had years and years of assistance from their Government. Why judge the underprovided new farmer so harshly in terms of tractors and farming loans he or she is just beginning to get? Is it not better to se what Muzvondiwa does to land with the new implements than to condemn him in favour of Beattie well before he had made the first furrow?
Do we abandon the people because we want Beattie for a civilised neighbour? Do we condemn an agricultural model that reared us for decades, indeed which made us who we are merely because we have big power, big means and big white friends? The spirits of little bird nzo are always in the nest. Let us know where we came from and who made us. Zanu-PF cannot survive the morning after without a correct position on land.
Icho!
Labels: LAND REFORM, THE HERALD, ZIMBABWE
Read more...
Cash boost for wheat farmers
By Zvamaida Murwira
COMMERCIAL wheat and barley growers will be paid a bonus of $29,25 million a tonne while growers of seed for both crops will get $35,1 million a tonne as part of a cocktail of incentives to boost production. The bonus means commercial wheat farmers will now get a total of $71,25 million a tonne since the Grain Marketing Board buys the cereal at $42 million a tonne.
Wheat and barley seed growers — who are paid $50,4 million by seed houses, the Grain Marketing Board and other contractors — will now get a total of $85,5 million a tonne.
Announcing the measures yesterday, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono said under the new scheme, wheat and barley farmers for both commercial and seed crops have the option to be paid either 100 percent in local currency or 50 percent in foreign currency with the remainder in local currency.
Wheat and barley prices have been set at US$250 a tonne for commercial production and US$300 a tonne for the seed crop with seed prices being calculated at 20 percent above the producer price of the commercial crop.
Dr Gono was speaking at the weekly Government media briefing at Munhumutapa Building. The weekly briefings were introduced by the Ministry of Information and Publicity last week to keep the nation informed of developments in the agricultural sector, the mainstay of the economy.
Yesterday’s briefing — which was attended by the Minister of Information and Publicity, Cde Sikhanyiso Ndlovu; Minister of Agriculture, Cde Rugare Gumbo; and Minister of Agricultural Engineering, Mechanisation and Irrigation, Cde Joseph Made — was meant to update the media on farming preparations for the 2007/08 farming season.
Farmers who choose to be paid in local currency shall receive $71,25 million a tonne for the commercial crop, calculated at US$250 multiplied by Z$30 000 (the official rate) adjusted by the overnight investment rate, which is currently pegged at 850 percent.
For seed wheat and barley, the grower shall receive $85,5 million a tonne.
Dr Gono said the GMB, registered contractors and seed houses would continue to pay the Government-announced producer price of $42 million a tonne for the commercial crop and $50,4 million a tonne for the seed crop with the central bank paying the bonus balance of $29,25 million a tonne for the commercial crop and $35,1 million for the seed crop.
The central bank will pay US$125 a tonne for the commercial crop and the US$150 a tonne for the seed crop, being 50 percent of the import parity price to growers who choose the foreign currency option.
The foreign currency component will be deposited directly into the individual farmers’ Foreign Currency Accounts, under the same conditions as those applicable to corporate FCAs.
The FCA retention period for farmers shall be a maximum of 30 days during which the farmer can exercise the option to sell their FCA entitlements to the central bank and still access the once-off interest overnight window return.
Dr Gono said the central bank had, within the past 24 hours, finalised the financial and logistical arrangements to import an additional 12 400 metric tonnes of maize seed.
The delivery of the maize seed is expected within the next few days and the seed houses involved have since been granted the import licences by the relevant authorities.
"We have signed contracts for funding arrangements, seed houses have already been given import licences in 45 minutes. That’s uncharacteristic efficiency," said Dr Gono.
"Faxes of import licences were sent to Botswana and Zambia and they have confirmed receipt and said delivery would start next Monday."
The central bank chief said packaging firms have been assisted with funding and would produce 30 million storage bags to be warehoused at an undisclosed place for the next harvest of maize.
"We have secured a line of credit with a Western country for the manufacture of packaging material," he said.
With immediate effect, said Dr Gono, banks are required to decentralise their decision-making to allow processing and disbursement of loans at branch level.
Banks are expected to process all applications from farmers within five days as they were no longer required to submit applications to Fiscorp (Private) Limited Company, a subsidiary of the central bank, disbursing the money within 48 hours.
Applications exceeding $50 billion would continue to be submitted to Fiscorp, and banks are only required to submit schedules of approved projects and total funding required.
"Banks should expeditiously reply to applicants so that if it is a regret they can start looking for alternative sources of funding because seasons know no time or respect bureaucracy. We are now doing away with the bureaucracy in banks," he said.
"Where a branch manager or staff seeks a favour or bribe,, we would like to know. We call upon those people being frustrated to let us know. We are trying to make sure that there is agility in everything."
Turning to the availability of goods in shops, Dr Gono said there has been a marked improvement but people should appreciate the need for a balance between viability of business and affordability.
"There must never be expectations from consumers that prices should be at the same level as three months ago. There is also an animal called inflation and the National Incomes and Pricing Commission. Prices of goods like newspapers, for example, must be decontrolled so that they are available," said Dr Gono.
"Consumers need to realise that in an inflationary environment, it was inevitable that producers need some modicum of price adjustments to create the capacity to meet their next and successive production and purchase order schedules."
He urged the business community to actively interact and conform to guidelines of the NIPC.
Dr Gono said beneficiaries of the Government-initiated farm mechanisation programme would from this week start receiving their invoices.
He said preparations for the third phase of the farm mechanisation programme, set for January next year, had since gathered momentum.
"The coming week marks the delivery of truckloads of implements to various provinces," he said.
Cde Made said Government seeks to fully equip commercial and communal farmers in the next three months with tractors.
"The full impact of mechanisation would be felt next season," said Cde Made.
Cde Gumbo said all provinces must by the end of this week have submitted their cropping programmes and hectarage to his office so that focus would be on production.
He emphasised the need for all households to plant at least one hectare of crops to boost food security.
The Press conference was also attended by Secretary for Information and Publicity Cde George Charamba; Secretary for Agriculture Engineering, Mechanisation and Irrigation Dr Shadreck Mlambo and Secretary for Agriculture Mr Ngoni Masoka.
Labels: GIDEON GONO, JOSEPH MADE, LAND REFORM, MECHANISATION, RUGARE GUMBO, THE HERALD
Read more...
Illegal sanctions must be denounced by all
EDITOR — As you know, the issue of illegal sanctions is relevant for Zimbabweans and Cubans, with the latter having been subjected to an economic embargo for over 47 years. On October 30, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly will once again consider the resolution entitled: "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States of America against Cuba."
For the 16th consecutive occasion, this issue will be debated and voted at the UN General Assembly, and as on the previous 15 times, Cuba expects that the overwhelming majority of UN member states will vote against this abhorrent policy imposed on Cuba by different US administrations over the past 47 years.
I am quite sure that the issue of sanctions sounds very familiar to everyone here in Zimbabwe, because after testing this policy against Cuba, now they are trying to implement the same policy against the brotherly people of Zimbabwe.
The present US administration has stolen more commercial brands and additional millions from Cuban funds frozen in the United States. It has adopted sharper reprisals against those who do business with my country or establish relations with Cuba based on cultural or tourist exchanges. It has put stiffer pressure on our allies to subordinate their relations with Cuba to the aims of "regime change," the driving force of its policy of hostility against Cuba.
In that way, Washington is trying to add more governments and countries to its policy against Cuba, in accordance with the Torricelli and Helms-Burton Acts that legalised the extraterritorial nature of the blockade. Under these two Acts, Cuba is not allowed to purchase medicine and food from US subsidiaries in third countries, and any ship that enters Cuban waters is not allowed to enter any port in the US until six months have elapsed. The secretary of state can deny the entry into the US of foreign employees and directors of companies "violating" the blockage.
George W. Bush approved the implementation of the measures included in the report of the so-called "Commission for Assistance to a free Cuba", aimed at intensifying the blockade by discouraging tourism and investments in Cuba, by restricting financial flows and visits to the island, by placing more restrictions on family remittances and visits to the country and, furthermore, by cutting off any educational, cultural, sport, religious and scientific exchanges between the US and the Cuban people.
State terrorism is carried out systematically and inhumanly by the US government against the Cuban people regardless of sex, age, race, religious belief or social position. It is part and parcel of the hostility, blockade and the aggression, which has cost the Cuban nation more than 3 000 lives.
According to conservative estimates, the blockade has resulted in direct economic suffering to Cuba to a total of more than US$89 billion in almost 50 years. The sectors of the economy that have been more affected all these years are food and health care, precisely those that have a direct impact on the quality of life of Cuban people.
Denunciation of these unjust sanctions against our people will be kindly acknowledged by the people of Cuba and the rest of the world. Zimbabwe’s support gives us strength to go on with the struggle.
Cosme Torres Espinosa.
Ambassador of Cuba to Zimbabwe,
Harare.
http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=26253&cat=8
18 mining firms get uninterrupted power supplies
Bulawayo Bureau
AT least 18 mining companies have signed up to pay for power in foreign currency and receive uninterrupted power supplies under a deal between Zesa Holdings and the Chamber of Mines.
Chamber chief executive Mr Douglas Verden yesterday said that more companies were coming aboard.
"When the memorandum of understanding was signed we had about eight companies who entered into the deal but now the number has doubled to more than 18," he said.
Some of the companies were being delayed by problems of connecting to the national grid.
"Most companies do not have a dedicated line that connects them to the national grid. Under the agreement, companies must have a line that will directly connect the mine to the main source of power."
However, some of the companies were failing to meet the extra costs of erecting a dedicated line.
In other cases, for some companies, their power lines pass through other firms that are not interested in the deal.
"Due to the extra costs, some companies that are nearer to each other have teamed up to erect a dedicated line that will feed both of them," he said.
However, Mr Verden said the power deal has significantly improved production in mines.
Meanwhile, Mr Verden called for a review of the gold price, adding that the price announced by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor, Dr Gideon Gono, early this month — of $5 million per gram — had now been eroded by inflation.
Labels: CUBA, SANCTIONS, THE HERALD
Read more...
EU deals Brown a body blow
By Sydney Kawadza
THE European Union has dealt British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a body blow after its parliamentarians invited President Mugabe to attend the EU-Africa Summit set for Lisbon, Portugal, in December. EU parliamentarians and their Pan African Parliament counterparts jointly announced the invitation in South Africa last Friday.
Head of the EU parliamentary delegation Mr Michael Gahler and PAP chairperson of the Ad Hoc Committee on Relations with the European Parliament Mr Marwick Khumalo announced at a joint Press conference that they had discussed, and resolved that Cde Mugabe should attend the summit to give his side of the story and discuss challenges confronting Zimbabwe with other leaders.
The announcement by the EU and PAP MPs came barely 24 hours after Mr Brown — still smarting after Africa and other EU states refused to endorse his anti-Mugabe stance — clambered from his high horse, saying he would not oppose President Mugabe’s attendance.
Mr Brown — who held informal talks with South African President Thabo Mbeki ahead of the rugby World Cup final in France on Saturday — reportedly assured Mr Mbeki that he was not trying to stop anyone from attending the summit.
The EU and PAP parliamentarians will hold a pre-summit meeting a day before the official opening of the EU-Africa Summit as they hope to influence deliberations by the heads of state and government.
The announcement by Mr Gahler, first vice president of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, is significant given that he hit the headlines for the wrong reasons in June this year after conspiring with the German embassy in Harare to deny visas to the Zimbabwean delegation to the 13th Session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Forum in Wiesbaden, Germany.
The delegation was supposed to present a draft resolution condemning EU sanctions on Zimbabwe for consideration in Wiesbaden.
PAP has also, on numerous occasions, tried to sponsor anti-Zimbabwe resolutions in its meetings.
Mr Brown has cut a lone figure as most EU member-states, the AU, Sadc, Comesa and other regional groupings have refused to endorse his campaign to have President Mugabe excluded from the summit.
He has, however, found sympathisers in the Nordic countries that have not echoed his boycott threats.
EU president and summit host Portugal has said it respects Africa’s position that President Mugabe should attend the summit and said Britain’s stance on Zimbabwe was against European interests.
Portuguese Foreign Minister Mr Luis Amado said no country "can be pushed aside from dialogue and from the development of long-term strategic relations between the EU and the continent".
European Commission chief Mr Jose Manuel Barroso concurred, saying the summit should not be derailed by the standoff between Britain and Zimbabwe.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said all African leaders, including President Mugabe, should attend the summit.
The last EU-Africa Summit was held in Cairo, Egypt, in December 2003, and there has been no other summit for the past four years as Africa refused to give in to British demands to hold a summit excluding Zimbabwe.
Africa has maintained that the summit should involve leaders from the continent and invitations should not be selective.
Labels: AU, EU, THE HERALD, ZIMBABWE
Read more...
Regime change needed within MDC
By Caesar Zvayi
ST JUDE, the Patron Saint of Lost Causes would really be proud of the MDC, a party that gives new meaning to the phrase ‘‘with a friend like you, who needs enemies (read with leadership like this, who needs an opponent)?’’
This is because with the party’s propensity for gaffes it apparently does not need Zanu-PF to lose elections given Morgan Tsvangirai’s predilection for shooting himself in the feet to the point of being unable to pose any serious challenge to Zanu-PF.
The sheer stupidity and shallowness of MDC politics makes Student Representative Councils look sophisticated. One can’t help but wonder whether the MDC leadership devise the hare-brained schemes or simply pander to what their foreign handlers, ignorant of Zimbabwe’s socio-economic or political context, decree.
For instance, over the past few months, MDC leaders have been sitting down with their Zanu-PF counterparts, under the aegis of the Sadc initiative on dialogue, to thrash out areas of concern. So successful have been the meetings that they culminated in a landmark agreement on Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 18) Bill. No small feat given that exactly two years back, the original MDC broke up because of differences over the provisions of Amendment (No. 17) Act, which reintroduced a bicameral legislature.
In fact unconfirmed reports say Zanu-PF and MDC negotiators have since made other landmark agreements, that will leave the likes of Lovemore Madhuku and the so- called MISA-Zimbabwe without causes. The maturity MDC legislators across the divide showed on Amendment (No. 18), and the touching addresses the legislators gave in Parliament, all of which indicated that they were committed to putting Zimbabwe first in everything they do, won the MDC a modicum of respect from progressive people the world over.
This is because this was the first time the opposition party had done something meaningful for nation building, it was the first time MDC leaders acknowledged that they are Zimbabweans first, before being ‘‘strategic partners’’ or ‘‘allies’’ of the western world as Arthur Mutambara would love to put it. Surprisingly all that momentary sensibility has come to naught, the MDC is back to its lackey mode of trashing African processes by threatening to pull out of the talks accusing Zanu-PF of ‘‘intensifying repression and violence against MDC members.’’
Last week the Tsvangirai faction held a Press conference at Harvest House to announce that they would pull out of the talks if Zanu-PF does not stop alleged intimidation, and murder of opposition supporters.
Nelson Chamisa claimed MDC supporters have been killed over the past few months, and that the Government was closing democratic space as the police were refusing to sanction MDC rallies? The question that springs to mind is when did the police start doing this because since January, Chamisa’s information and publicity department has been gloating about ‘‘people power’’ and churning out copious Press statements lauding the success of the rallies the faction was holding throughout the country. Every week Chamisa announced that the MDC held successful rallies in various parts of the country, drawing ‘‘huge crowds that showed Zanu-PF’s game was up.’’
A good example of these statements was the one he released on February 6 2007 where he said, among other things;
‘‘The MDC leadership at the weekend heightened its nationwide campaign to rally the nation in demanding a people-driven Constitution and rejecting plans by the Zanu-PF regime to extend its tyranny.
"In Harare, the national chairman, Isaac Matongo, addressed huge crowds in Mufakose and Mabvuku at the weekend, where he told the people to resist plans by the regime to extend the people's suffering to 2010.
‘‘Next week, the national chairman and other senior party leaders will address another rally in Epworth in Harare South as the defiance campaign gathers momentum. In Manicaland, President Morgan Tsvangirai addressed two rallies at Zhawari and Gwirindindi business centres in Mutare West, the President congratulated the people in the two wards for voting for MDC councillors in the rural district council elections held last August.
‘‘In Chiredzi South, members of the Liberation team led by national organising secretary Engineer Elias Mudzuri addressed several rallies over the weekend. Throughout the provinces and across the length and breadth of the country, the MDC has various teams that are interacting with people at grassroots level."
In fact it was this momentum that saw the Tsvangirai faction announcing that it would launch its presidential campaign at Zimbabwe Grounds on September 8.
So what has changed now, why is Chamisa singing a different tune? The answer is simple, the Tsvangirai faction is now in election mode, and this is how it prepares for elections. But, unlike other political parties, the preparation does not involve campaigning through selling party programmes and policies to the electorate, it involves preparing for the post-election environment and grandstanding to the foreign gallery.
The MDC leadership does this by creating self-fulfilling prophecies and scenarios to use as justification to reject the outcome of the elections, and to back its claims that there is no democracy in Zimbabwe.
And this, more than anything else accounts for the MDC’s dismal showing in all elections held since 2000, not the tired allegations of rigging. The Tsvangirai faction does not campaign for the minds of Zimbabweans, but for the benefit of its western sponsors who badly need it to play the great victim, to justify their ruinous engagement with, and sanctions against Zimbabwe.
Contrast the MDC Tsvangirai faction’s approach to what Zanu-PF was doing, and you get this feeling that those in the MDC are beyond salvation. At a time Zanu-PF, through the Government, was busy clamping down on profiteering businesses, Tsvangirai was rabidly opposing and telling the world ‘‘Mugabe embarks on a clearance sale.’’
At a time Zanu-PF was empowering newly resettled farmers with agricultural implements under phase one and two of the Farm Mechanisation Programme, Tsvangirai was touring Australia and the United States asking for more sanctions and thanking his masters for the sanctions they imposed in the quest for illegal regime change.
And Tsvangirai expects to win when he squares off against Zanu-PF at the polls? How childish can one get? But why is the MDC so desperate to torpedo the Sadc initiative?
It appears the latest MDC campaign of demonisation is designed to serve three purposes.
The first and most urgent one is to abet British premier, Gordon Brown’s anti-Zimbabwe agenda ahead of the EU-Africa Summit set for December 8/9 in Lisbon, Portugal. This is because Brown is looking increasingly ridiculous in claiming there is political intolerance in Zimbabwe at a time the main political parties Zanu-PF and the fractious MDC are engaged in serious talks that have since borne tangible results. What is more, most of the meetings were held in Zimbabwe in the absence of South African facilitators, which proved that Zimbabweans have the capacity to sit down and resolve their problems.
This spelled doom for the anti-Zimbabwe campaign that thrives on alleged political repression and intolerance. What is more, the west justifies their illegal sanctions by claiming that they are meant to help ‘‘oppressed Zimbabweans’’ and with the MDC dutifully playing great victim, the claims find purchase among the gullible.
Amity between Zanu-PF and MDC destroys that platform which is why the westerners are opposed to the initiative. This explains why Tsvangirai is now singing their tune.
The second reason tied to the first, of course, has to do with Brown’s increasingly futile campaign to lampoon Zimbabwe ahead of the EU-Africa Summit to justify his threats that he will boycott the EU-Africa Summit if President Mugabe is invited. Brown badly needs a limping MDC, even a playacting one, as evidence of ‘‘Mugabe’s brutality.’’ It appears the MDC will stop at nothing, even fabrication, to give him a dossier to save face. The allegations that MDC supporters are being brutalised and murdered are just that, allegations. Consider the following cases from Mashonaland East the MDC is using in its attempt to justify claims of ‘‘Government repression.’’
Ian Kay, the faction’s Mashonaland East provincial secretary for local government is the architect of the campaign as he is busy trying to gain cheap mileage by misrepresenting ordinary incidents as acts of violence against the MDC.
The first case involved one Herbert Chapendama, the MDC Marondera district vice secretary, his wife, Christine and four children who were admitted at Marondera hospital on October 10 complaining of nausea which later developed into diarrhoea and vomiting.
The family is suspected to have drank poisoned water from their well in the Dhirihori area before falling ill.
On admission at the hospital, all other family members were treated and discharged while Herbert was detained for observation. Samples were taken from the family to establish the cause of the illness, but Kay saw an opportunity to turn this unfortunate incident to his faction’s advantage.
Two days later he transferred Herbert to Borradaile hospital, a private health centre in Marondera where he was detained for observations despite being reported to be out of danger at Marondera hospital.
He was later discharged on 13 October. During Chapendama’s stay at the private hospital Kay made frantic efforts to locate the Studio 7 contact person in Zimbabwe to have the incident broadcast as political persecution by Zanu-PF claiming Chapendama had been assaulted.
The second case involved one Jabulani Chiyoka, the Tsvangirai faction’s youth assembly secretary for policy implementation who, on August 23, was stabbed to death at Wenimbi country club in Masikana area following an altercation with one Palastky Sakala, the murder suspect.
Chiyoka is alleged to have challenged Sakala as to why he was putting on a look-alike Zimbabwe National Army camouflage jacket when he had never been attested into the army. Sakala who was in the company of his two cousins Tadius and Ronzai Saurombe was incensed and a fist-fight ensured between Sakala and his cousins on one hand and Chiyoka and other MDC activists Tafirenyika Nyandoro and Jabulani Vandi on the other.
Chiyoka and Nyandoro were stabbed during the melee and Chiyoka died on admission at Marondera General Hospital while Nyandoro was treated and discharged. Sakala was later arrested after being implicated by Nyandoro.
He appeared in court on August 30 2007 facing murder charges and was remanded in custody pending further investigations. Despite, obvious indications that this was a criminal case, Kay held a meeting at his house in Marondera on August 27 to implicate Jorum Mbizi, Zanu-PF Marondera DCC secretary for security as an accomplice in the murder.
Kay is alleged to have asked Chiyoka’s relatives who attended the meeting to complete affidavits linking Mbizi to Chiyoka’s murder. The affidavits accused Mbizi of having threatened Chiyoka for causing political discord in the area through his MDC activities. During the meeting Kay indicated that he was going to have Chiyoka’s death published in the western media in order to tarnish the Government.
Consequently, the human rights group, Zimbabwe Peace Project in its August 2007 report singled out Mashonaland East as having "a definite increase in the level and degree of violence" in reference to Chiyoka’s death.
The third reason, as Herald columnist Nathaniel Manheru pointed out has to do with infighting within the MDC, where sections linked to Tsvangirai believe Tendai Biti’s profile is being boosted by the agreements he is reaching with Zanu-PF. These concessions, when contrasted with Tsvangirai’s puerile, abortive combative approach of the past seven years, expose the naivete of Tsvangirai’s approach, which is why his advisors reportedly believe Biti has to be stopped at all costs, even if it means withdrawing from the progressive inter-party dialogue.
What these scenarios indicate is that the MDC Tsvangirai faction is a mere non-governmental organisation masquerading as a political party, because what is paramount to its leadership are the interests of its leadership, and their foreign sponsors. This is because since the MDC was formed eight years ago, its leadership has always proved, with reckless abandon, that they value western opinion more than the opinion of Africans and even Zimbabwean voters. This is why Tsvangirai sees it fit to campaign in Australia and the US than in Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe yet Zimbabwe has a constituency-based voting system.
This is why Tsvangirai would want Zimbabweans to continue suffering the depredations of the sanctions he refuses to condemn to this day, as he mistakenly believes that he stands a chance of assuming power either on the strength of protest votes or on the back of a popular uprising.
The Sadc initiative on dialogue is the first step in the two stage road map Sadc proposed for the resolution of the problems, and Tsvangirai does not even want to see the first stage — dedicated to resolving political problems — go through. Isn’t it high time Zimbabweans sent the strongest message to him come 2008 that the only regime change needed is within the MDC?
Labels: MDC, SADC, THE HERALD
Read more...
State begins drive to boost food security
Herald Reporter
WORK to mobilise farmers countrywide to grow at least one hectare of maize began yesterday with five Cabinet ministers and provincial governors meeting in Harare to work out modalities for the programme meant to ensure food security.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Operation Maguta, Agribank and Agritex (formerly Arex) are included in the massive programme to mobilise smallholder, A1 and communal farmers to increase production and help meet National Strategic Cropping Targets for the 2007/2008 summer farming season.
Minister of Agriculture Cde Rugare Gumbo, Minister of Agricultural Engineering, Mechanisation and Irrigation Cde Joseph Made, Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development Cde Ignatius Chombo, Minister of State for Policy Implementation Cde Webster Shamu, Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises Cde Sithembiso Nyoni, provincial governors, RBZ Governor Dr Gideon Gono, Agribank chief executive Mr Sam Malaba and Operation Maguta head of operations Brigadier-General Douglas Nyikayaramba met to strategise the mobilisation of farmers.
The meeting was closed and Cde Gumbo briefed journalists after the consultations.
"The meeting focused on communal farming, mobilisation of food security on a household level. Each household is expected to produce 2,5 acres (one hectare) of maize this summer farming season.
"We believe that this would go a long way in the form of meeting national food security," Cde Gumbo said.
He said the massive communal food mobilisation programme would be co-ordinated by the five ministries who would work hand in hand with provincial governors.
Provincial governors, he said, would work with chiefs who, in turn, would also work with village heads in collaboration with Agritex.
Provincial governors should start consultations with chiefs to mobilise village heads to identify farmers for the programme in preparation for releasing inputs, said Cde Gumbo.
"The concept we are trying to develop is that everyone at all levels participate in food security so that we deal with challenges of food shortages," he said.
Cde Gumbo said the thrust of the programme was to encourage farmers to increase production of small grains such as sorghum and rapoko and other crops like soyabeans and groundnuts.
He said seed and fertilizers were adequate and urged farmers to work together for success.
"We feel very strong that if we engage our people to this level, we can eliminate food shortages."
The other ministries and provincial governors were satisfied with progress on preparations for the summer season.
"We discussed at length and we were all at consensus that the programme was in the right direction.
"Let me also point out that all governors expressed their readiness and what remains is to follow up on seed and fertilizers," Cde Gumbo said.
The minister said at least 57 000 tonnes of Compound D fertilizer has already been imported for national requirements while there was a deficit of between 10 000 to 15 000 tonnes of maize seed.
"We may have problems of fertilizers, but we assure the nation that everything is being done to mitigate the problem.
"Maize seed, we are right there, we are only short of about 10 000 to 15 000 tonnes. This should be met in the next few
weeks," he said.
He said Government was also looking at ways of revamping Agritex to make it more effective.
"We want to revamp Agritex to make it mobile so that it is found in every ward and we want this to be implemented soon," said Cde Gumbo.
Progress meetings with provincial governors will be held once every fortnight and particular ministries dealing with agriculture will be expected to have submitted statistics of their provinces starting on Friday next week.
In a related issue, Operation Maguta has distributed a total of 8 336,71 tonnes of maize seed out of the 26 000 tonnes farmers, under the programme, require countrywide.
In Mashonaland East, 2 134,88 tonnes have been delivered, Mashonaland West (1 823 tonnes), Mashonaland Central (2 026,4 tonnes), Manicaland (893,2 tonnes), Masvingo (623,99 tonnes), Midlands (657,24 tonnes), Matabeleland South (88 tonnes) and Matabeleland North (90 tonnes).
Brig Gen Nyikayaramba said more deliveries to all the provinces were expected soon.
He said 22 000 tonnes of Compound D fertilizer that was secured by Government under the operation had been accessed by farmers.
He urged farmers not only to rely on Government handouts but also to be innovative.
Operation Maguta targets communal, A1 and A2 farmers.
Labels: MAIZE, RUGARE GUMBO, THE HERALD, ZIMBABWE
Read more...
Egypt pledges to assist Zim
Herald Reporter
EGYPT has pledged to provide assistance towards boosting Zimbabwe’s agriculture mechanisation and irrigation capacity as part of its support to the land reform programme. Briefing journalists soon after meeting the Minister of Agricultural Engineering, Mechanisation and Irrigation, Cde Joseph Made, yesterday, Egyptian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Gamil Fayed said his country’s main priority would be to make sure that the deals clinched with Zimbabwe come to fruition.
"I would like to express my government’s support to Zimbabwe’s land reform and mechanisation programmes. We have some expertise in irrigation and mechanisation and we are willing to co-operate with the Zimbabwean Government in that area.
"Egypt has a well developed irrigation system and Zimbabwe would benefit immensely from it.
"I would like to add that we export lots of fertilizer to neighbouring countries and even to Latin America. I will take your request to my government and promise — Egypt will do as much as it can to provide Zimbabwe with some fertilizer. I also want to promise that you will soon receive positive answers," Mr Fayed.
He said Egypt had a number of successful projects in dairy and livestock production, which Zimbabwe could tap into.
Mr Fayed, who started work last week after presenting his credentials to President Mugabe, also pledged to increase co-operation between the two countries.
In response, Cde Made said there were a number of projects that Zimbabwe was pursuing with the North African country especially in irrigation, mechanisation and land reclamation that the two countries need to implement with haste.
"Egypt has done well in irrigation and it has one of the most developed irrigation sectors in the world. We want them to assist us to introduce and implement methods that are convenient in Zimbabwe.
"There were also initial agreements to import machinery from Egypt and we believe as a ministry there is need to move with speed on such projects that have been on the drawing board for some time. We are also trying to look into the supply of vaccines and medicines to complement the restocking exercise," he said.
Cde Made said the Government was looking at efficient ways of utilising electricity and water resources through the promotion of drip irrigation.
Government has embarked on a massive mechanisation programme under which farmers are being equipped with tractors, planters, combine harvesters and animal drawn implements to boost production.
Under the same programme, Government will rehabilitate irrigation facilities to increase production.
Labels: AGRICULTURE, EGYPT, MECHANISATION, THE HERALD, ZIMBABWE
Read more...
‘Transparent voluntary organisations welcome’
Herald Reporter
GOVERNMENT of Zimbabwe would always welcome voluntary organisations such as Operation of Hope as long as their objectives are transparent and in tandem with the laws, regulations and policies of this country, a cabinet minister has said. The Minister of Health and Child Welfare Dr David Parirenyatwa said his ministry strongly re-affirms its policy of a harmonious co-existence with organisations working in health related areas as this was critical in helping to enhance health service delivery.
In a speech read on his behalf by his deputy, Dr Edwin Muguti, during a farewell dinner for a United States’ team of medical doctors under Operation of Hope on Saturday, the minister said the organisation had done an impressive performance.
"I am reliably informed Operation of Hope has changed the lives of about over 1 800 children and families through its re-constructive surgeries of cleft lip and cleft palate conditions," said Dr Parirenyatwa said.
He stated that in Zimbabwe, Operation of Hope has, since its inception in October 2006, successfully carried out 43 re-constructive surgeries.
Dr Parirenyatwa said in all the cases performed in 2007, there were no complications or adverse reactions after the surgeries.
"This was an impressive performance and a confirmation that Operation of Hope thrives to attain lofty standards when executing its duties," he said.
The team which visited Harare Children’s Hospital on the same mission to perform re-constructive surgeries on children with cleft lip and cleft palate conditions, comprised of three surgeons- an anaesthetist, a programme director, three theatre nurses and four medical assistants.
"Dr Joseph Clawson, and your team, we indeed appreciate what you are doing to the people of this country and I urge you to continue with the same spirit of having a soft heart for the people of Zimbabwe," said Dr Parirenyatwa.
He said their mission to Zimbabwe was sending a clear message that they were being motivated by the love of the children and the overwhelming desire to assist on humanitarian grounds.
"To my ministry, this is a bold and positive step as this could be a harbinger for greater things to come in strengthening collaboration with your organisation," he said.
He said cleft lip and cleft palate conditions were common congenital anomalies, which required re-constructive surgeries.
Dr Parirenyatwa said the magnitude of this problem was not well known in this country and there was need for more research in this area.
"It is only after appropriate research has been carried out, that as a ministry, we could take appropriate intervention measures.
"There is a need for funding of research in this critical area to enable the ministry to make an appropriate national response," he said.
He appealed to stakeholders to support research in this area in order to make appropriate corrective measures.
He requested Dr Clawson and his team to assist Zimbabwean surgeons through training so that they could acquire requisite professional skills to enable them to operate children with cleft palate and cleft lip conditions.
Dr Parirenyatwa said it would be an unfortunate chapter in the country, if they failed to benefit from the vast skills that Operation of Hope has acquired since its establishment.
"There is an urgent need for the ministry to identify some few surgeons who could be considered for more specialised training for cleft lip and cleft palate as well as other facial deformities. I believe that Operation of Hope is prepared to facilitate the implementation of such a noble programme," he said.
Dr Parirenyatwa applauded the private sector especially Kingdom Bank for supporting the Operation of Hope mission to Zimbabwe, through funding for the multi-media campaign and provided a minibus to ferry the medical team.
Labels: NGOs, THE HERALD, ZIMBABWE
Read more...
MDC: Culling political profit from cadavers
Strange things are happening I tell you! While most Zimbabweans regard MDC politics as negatively anti-people and anti-nation, very few appear to have budgeted for MDC’s latest histrionic: that of pasting its name-tag on every dead body in Zimbabwe.
It is indeed politics taken to bizarre limits. MDC seems unaware that the dead doth not voteth, which is why it spends precious campaign time on cadavers. Of course, I have never died myself. Nor do I look forward to that ineluctable, unknown, but still dreaded state.
Like all things human and mutable, I am set to die some day, die but once only, never to get the joy of telling the living whether or not the dead do have political predilections. For now and in this human state, I am inclined, without of course barring the benefit of hindsight in death, to assert that dead men and women hold no political opinion.
Chinja! in the graveyard?
I see disbelief on your face, gentle reader. The MDC cannot sink to this bizarre level, I hear you say. I will make things a little lighter and gentler for you. I will give the MDC some momentary reprieve. I will assume I am being metaphoric, to encourage you to suspend a bit of your disbelief for the sake of this discourse.
When a whole party burns its ardour and sparse resources lobbying Blair, Bush and Brown who are not registered to vote here in Zimbabwe, what is the difference with shouting "Chinja!" in an eerie graveyard?
When a party exiles a good part of its constituency to Britain and South Africa, in an electoral environment of constituency-based (now ward-based!) voting laws, how different is this from building a political cell in sepulchral Granville?
Tagging cadavers
But that is death as a political metaphor, which is not what I am talking about. I mean real dead bodies which the MDC has turned into campaign tools.
Last week we got all sorts of fatuous claims from MDC’s Chamisa alleging the resurgence of inter-party violence. Of course, he was taking his cue (he always does) from Sekai Holland also quite active in New Zealand, supported by the disgraced former judge, Paradza.
There she told Helen Clark that political violence was mounting, voicing the threat of pulling out of talks. Biti countered. The MDC knows that the outside world has always donated on the bogey of political violence, which is why its inflows are as good as its synthetic descriptions and images of violence. In this drive, not even holy parts of woman are spared, which is why we have seen the MDC begging through bare bottoms.
With very few bottoms now left, the MDC has got to find another cynosure for donor compassion and generosity. The MDC, through one Kerry Kay, its "welfare" officer claims the parry had one of its cadres politically murdered in Marondera.
Curiously, no police report is generated to validate that alleged political violence. Instead, a murder report is filed with the local police by the family of the victim.
The same case which the MDC claims is political violence is reported as a fatal brawl at a beer party. It involves drunken youths whose parents, ironic enough, are high-ranking officials of Zanu (PF)! Undeterred, the MDC tags its name on the resultant corpse. Case one.
Kerr Kay again
Several weeks ago, we had a report of an allegedly thieving farm labourer who is beaten to death allegedly by soldiers after a pilfering incident at a farm owned by a Cabinet minister.
The report implicates the minister’s wife and some soldiers at a nearby Air Force base. Several weeks later — this week — we are told again by the same Kerry Kay that apparently the dead man and his surviving colleagues were all MDC supporters!
Another tag on another cadaver. Case two. You get case three, four, five fatuously coming from Chamisa by way of dire threats to Zanu (PF), motivating the impressionistic Financial Gazette to fear for the ongoing talks.
Replaying victim politics
Since then, the MDC hierarchy has been enjoying this newfound escape from the gnawing and nagging challenge of stretched cohesion. Claiming dead bodies regardless, has become Chamisa’s formula for getting his fissiparous party out of the winter of discontent.
Expelling loud farts of statistics of what the evil party terms "rights violations" is its latest way of drawing donor attention to itself. The story is not that the MDC is once again playing its victim politics; it is that the ruse still has avid takers.
To create an impression of deteriorating rights situation, the lonely crowd called NCA has now found a purpose. Without police authority, it is taking to demonstrations, deliberately to provoke police reaction.
It is clear Madhuku’s wallet is deflated, and it’s time to inflate political temperature! Then Woza, the Woza. It has now started spewing its mindless viragos, again to provoke situations for a loud count for the world. Also Zinasu.
Whys and Wherefores
Why all this? Well, to help Brown make a decent case for boycotting Lisbon. Between now and Lisbon, there will be countless provocations, all of them photogenic to help with the British cause. After all, is that not MDC’s reason for existence? Additionally, the MDC hopes claims of violence will justify the despatch of a self-fulfilling EU human rights envoy they fully know Zimbabwe will never entertain. Or better still a UN envoy through whose report Zimbabwe will crash-land in the Security Council as a subject for collective international action.
More important, there are compelling dynamics within the MDC for playing up the thesis of gratuitous political violence. Put aside fund-raising which is just as important.
Take in the growing factionalisation of Tsvangirai’s MDC, and you begin to come closer. The inter-party talks have had the unintended effect of raising the profile of some, while taking profiles of others to the nadir.
Morphing powers
And Biti, whose fortunes have risen considerably, has not helped matters. Using this new-found clout, he has suspended women leaguers led by Lucia Matibenga.
On this one he has the support of Mrs Tsvangirai who wants to see Ian Makone’s wife rise in substitute.
Talks-derived clout has morphed into decisive disciplinary action. There is a wild flutter in the dove-coat. Those in the corner are fighting back and have targeted the talks – poor talks — for attack.
They imagine Zanu (PF) would be the loser should the talks come to grief. Pity them! Their calculation is simple: you break the talks’ amplitude, you ground the soaring Biti.
So the Mukonoweshuros, the Chamisas, the Goneses, the Mashakadas, the Hollands, the Kays, the Bennetts are all united and ranged against Biti via the talks. The timing of the attack is curious.
The talks have dealt with 18th Amendment, the draft Constitution, POSA, AIPPA, the Electoral Act, etc, etc. Biti comes to Harvest House waving these victories of sorts, in the process wrecking the prospects of the likes of Madhuku. A Biti holding a draft constitution kills Madhuku’s one-cause struggle, does he not? But then how will Madhuku eat? A fight from the belly is definitionally vicious.
A uniting shot
Both sociology and psychology teach that the quickest way of forging solidary relations in a variegated group is to fire an unexpected shot.
Everyone becomes a victim in a way that unites. The MDC hierarchy badly needs such a uniting shot to keep everyone bonded on the deck. The British love it. The Americans love it. An MDC which opts out of talks ostensibly on grounds of violence, checks the current momentum towards Western irrelevancy in Zimbabwe’s politics.
It puts Mugabe back on the spot. It contains the independent-minded Mbeki. It restores MDC’s sagging fortunes in the eyes of the Western community, currently so badly united or ambivalent. The other EU and its new members are not quite clear on what stance to take regarding Brown’s threat to boycott Lisbon.
The African connection
But there is another fear, deep fear which is coming through human rights NGOs. The Zimbabwe Government has fielded Secretary Mangota for the chairmanship of the AU’s African Commission for Human and Peoples’ Rights.
It is Sadc’s rightful turn and his prospects are quite bright. Until now, the ACHPR has been an important plank for Britain and her poodles here.
They are likely to lose it. In desperation, they hope that if they can get Zimbabwe’s rights image tarnished, Mangota’s prospects can be reversed, or at the very least dimmed. It is a bit too late but they will still try. Meanwhile, anyone with a dead body, including the Medical School and its 300 cadavers, could sell it to the MDC!
The church, the loin
Gentle reader, I take it you have not ignored the sub-plot from the pulpit which runs parallel to national politics.
I am referring to the goings-on in the Anglican Church. I have always thought that the church, being His sacred body, would be a place of sacred amity and holy deeds.
Even its misdeeds, one believed, arise as inadvertency, indeed arise in the spirit of striving for righteousness.
Judging by the news from the Church this year, it would appear there is greater passion and rheum in the Church than there is in secular politics. The Church seems governed from the human loins.
First, we had the case of the then Archbishop of Bulawayo facing allegations
of feeding on his flock. In the end he resigned as if to suggest that indeed he faced real allegations! In a show of bravado, he promised to fight it all out in a secular court. It gets some of us confused when holy men prefer earthly salvation. But the loins had had their day in challenging the spire.
Loving sin or the sinner?
Then you have this brand new furore over gays between scriptures, this time in the Anglican Church. Not that the Anglicans are unclear on this one vexatious matter.
Their position seems so clear and unadulterated: homosexuality is outside God’s wish as expressed through His scriptures. Declarations to say so have been passed, apparently with remarkable unanimity and communion.
But the same Church urges bishops to handle those affected by the misdeed with sensitivity, the same way the scriptures urge a compassionate handling of sinners. Jesus did not join in the stoning of the woman accused of adultery.
Therein lies the confusion. What did he mean by that action? Did compassion for the sinner exonerate the sin? Amazing how the Church has not recovered from its propensity for bloody, schismatic disputes. I am sure my readers are aware that well before the rise of Protestantism, Catholics slaughtered one another over a simple question: If a fly drowns in the priest’s blest wine, is the fly blest, or is the wine defiled? What started as a simple dispute became a basis for drawing blood and with time, a basis for schism .
Those who suggested the wine would have been defiled were accused of underestimating God’s ability to cleanse sin, or overestimating sin’s power over holy goodness; those who suggested the fly got blest suggested redemption comes by a sheer happy misfortune, never through sustained penitential effort.
I can also recall John Milton and his Paradise Lost series. He would have died on the stacks, save for time which was beginning to challenge church verities, including the notion of apostasy.
His "sin" was to turn God and Satan into competing characters in his epic series. As a fallen archangel, Milton’s Satan comes through as a shrewd, calculating character of unparalleled brilliance. As humans who share in his foibles, we tend to gravitate towards him, indeed to identify with him.
God, on the other hand, emerges as a flat voice of holy edicts, seemingly hostile to fallen man’s enterprise. He can’t fit in the narrative, or else he ceases to be God. So he is no match for the restless and striking Satan. In the end Milton comes through as for the Devil, but without intending it, itself a deadly sin given 18th century bigotry.
The church, the pimp?
Today the Anglican Church gives us yet another hefty ecclesiastical dispute over what to us mere mortals appears a straightforward matter.
Surely the Lambeth position decries homosexuality as a sin, but without calling for the persecution of the sinner? Surely, handling the sinner with redemptive compassion is not to embrace the sin?
The idea was never to get gays to perform the offices of their strange love, leaning against the pulpit. Or using the holy cloth to mop beads of sweat from ill joy.
It was to understand their sin in order to defeat it. This is the Kunonga line which people like Bishop Taonezvi, apparently less from their own sexual preferences which I hear to be normal, and more from the need to secure resources from rich gay-happy churches overseas, do oppose. Can the Church prostitute its body the same way a hungry street kid does when faced with a tempting offer from a hungry rich gay? Does the Church want morally impoverishing and aggravating secular riches?
Ecclesiastical courts?
But it is worse. Assuming Kunonga has to be tried for causing schisms, apparently by fanatically upholding the holy testament, who tries him? Who prosecutes? Triple Gs? Who presides? Justice Chitakunye? If those who claim to defend the Church really want to be taken seriously, why have they not familiarised themselves with church law? Why have they not arraigned him in an ecclesiastical court?
How do they raise charges against a bishop using secular law and in a secular court? Why Triple Gs? What has happened to the church’s legal desk? And why issue out pastoral laws ahead of the trial? Pastoral laws with intemperate language reminiscent of secular politics? It gets quite baffling.
Beyond the phallic
Until of course you get to know the underlying politics. When President Mugabe compared gays to cats and dogs, he sounded like an angry old man showing what the media has come to term "homophobia". I have never understood what that means, or that getting a bad name for a good reaction to something sinful, necessarily dignifies the evil.
If Mugabe is a homophobe, why are these strange men and women not homos in the censorious sense? Many could not understand why the President reacted so sharply, simply because few realised that sexual permissiveness was a carnal correlative to an ideological position.
It is a vivid metaphor for neo-liberalism’s give-ness. It is a way of overthrowing our values by challenging the mores around a foundational reproductive assignment. Tell me: is it very difficult for a man who agrees to become a woman to another man, to also agree to shift from being a major in his country to being a minor? A minor who undresses and bends to gratify the unholy passion of an outsider? What greater conquest can ever visit such a man, such a people. To be made pimps? To be made pimp people? A nation of eunuchs? Indeed, this assault on our sense of sexuality was followed by a greater assault which has taken us to this day.
This is why what is happening in the Anglican Church must be properly understood, namely as a sub-plot to national politics. Remember that political conquest always has its phallic side. Beware. Icho!
Labels: MDC, THE HERALD, ZIMBABWE
Read more...
