LATEST RHODESIAN
NEWS
The death rate inside Chikurubi prison, about 12 miles
east of Harare [Salisbury], compares with the worst jails in history, according
to The Standard, an independent
weekly newspaper. Of the 1,300 inmates, at least 700 have died in revolting
conditions. Six were found dead in their filthy cells yesterday alone. About
the same number died last weekend. Some 100 bodies, many of them mutilated by
rats, are stacked up in the prison mortuary. If they are unclaimed, they will
be buried as paupers in prison grounds. The collapse of Zimbabwe's economy and
of the state itself has crippled the prison system, leaving thousands of
inmates with scarcely any food. Any provision of medical care has also
collapsed, leaving prisoners to die of starvation and disease. Chikurubi packs
about 30 inmates into cells designed for only 10. An off-duty warder confirmed
the figure of 700 dead and said the mortality rate in other prisons was
probably similar. "It's the same at all the rest of the prisons around the
country," he said. "We often find six died at a time. A lot have
AIDS, but die quickly because they don't have enough food." Since Zimbabwe's
new coalition government took office in February, the International Committee
of the Red Cross has begun improving prison conditions, installing a borehole
in Chikurubi two months ago.The death rate has recently fallen, but prisoners
still succumb almost every day. Between November and January, 327 deaths were
recorded at Chikurubi - almost a quarter of all the inmates.Major-General
Paradzai Zimondi, the commissioner of prisons, is in President Robert Mugabe's
inner circle. "He has never been to see what is going on in Chikurubi"
said the warder. "He doesn't care."
- Daily Telegraph, May 19, 2009
The
Zimbabwean government has decided to suspend the country's national currency
for a year, which has in fact already disappeared from circulation, state-run
media reported on Sunday. "The
- AfricanCrisis,
As Mugabe
continues persecuting White farmers, eight of them have been arrested for
refusing to vacate State land. Two of the farmers have already appeared in
appeared in separate courts in Chegutu and Chiredzi over land-related issues.
The harassment of farmers comes hard on the heels of calls by Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai to halt the farm invasions. The farm invasions are likely to
affect
-
AfricanCrisis,
Harvey
Clifford Potter (aka Cliff), was born during the depression in
- ORAFs
report,
- ZWNews,
More than
30,000 people in
- report sent by RH-GE (
I have
just returned from Mutare (Umtali) , numbed by the
slaughter I have seen. When contacted with the news of these events I packed a
truck with food and
blankets and went down with my staff to see what help we could offer. I could
not imagine what I was about to see. Bullets whistling across
main roads, people screaming and running as bullets punched holes through their
homes, bodies being dumped into army trucks. I eventually placed the
food and blankets with a church group for distribution and headed to central
Mutare (Umtali) to see if I could get help sent south to Marange. Everyone, ZRP
included, are too scared to move. Helping a family look for two missing
relatives at the Mutare (Umtali) morgue has left me with visions of horror that
will haunt me to my death day. I estimate over 200 bodies lies in rotting piles
at the morgue, grotesque heaps of what were human beings until a few days ago.
They are unknown persons, families are scared to come
forward to claim them, fearing the same fate. The stench is indescribable;
power is off in Mutare (Umtali) for between 12 and 18 hours per day. You may
ask what this is all about. It is simple. The dead are “suspected”
by the military bosses to be illegal diamond panners. No due process, no
presumption of innocence, no right to defend ones self in a court of law, just
instant summary execution by the defenders of this “liberation”.
Top businessmen in Mutare (Umtali) have been picked up by the army, and taken
away, tortured for a few days, released, no charges, no crimes, just a
"suspicion" that "maybe you know something". They are also
robbed of any Forex they have on them/in their homes. I met two of them at an
attorneys office, one is a 70 year old man, his back and buttocks beaten for 3
days, until he begged them to kill him, then they realised he actually did not
know anything. Another, Ari Badhella (family of Badhella Traders) bought his
way out of the torture sessions.
- report sent by “Neil”,
Growing
international fury came as cholera ravaged the people - 575 have died and
13,000 are infected - and the economy is worse than anything the world has
seen. The
- AfricanCrisis,
The
embattled Zimbabwean strongman, Robert Mugabe ordered the chilling execution of
16 rioting soldiers in a cold blood murder carried out by members of the
Presidential Guard death squads at its PG HQ Base in Dzivarasekwa, north-west
of the capital. Three others died during torture, we can reveal. The callous
act has been communicated to all members of the armed forces as a chilling
warning by the paranoid regime. Last night, a fast track military court marshal
at Army Head Quarters' KG6 Barracks was presided over by the retired High Court
judge Major General George Chiweshe, sitting with three other assessors, two
Majors and a Captain. They passed death sentences to the 16 soldiers and it was
signed by Robert Mugabe just before
-
AfricanCrisis,
The
Zimbabwean capital,
- Reuters
report,
Nearly a
decade of economic meltdown has made it impossible for
resorted to shallow wells and rivers to obtain drinking water. Meanwhile the
United Nations says about half the population is in urgent need of food aid.
Unemployment is estimated at 90% and official inflation at 231 million % - the
highest in the world. The health and economic problems plaguing the country
come as a power-sharing deal between Mugabe and opposition signed in September
has failed to take off. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has
refused to form the government of national unity, accusing Mugabe of grabbing
all the key ministries such as foreign affairs, local government, finance, home
affairs and defence.
- SAPA
report,
Inflation levels in
- Daily Telegraph,
November 14, 2008
Rhodesian regimental colours raised in
On Saturday 27 September 2008 at
Hatfield, Hertfordshire the Rhodesian Light Infantry Association unveiled and
re-dedicated the RLI Trooper Statue. This service was carried out in the Chapel
and the Armoury of Hatfield House by kind permission of the Marquess of
Salisbury. Salisbury in Rhodesia was named after his family, and the
Marquess’s brother, who was a member of the RLI, was killed in action.
The Sunday started at the ‘Comet Hotel’ in Hatfield town centre.
The hotel was named after the world’s first jet engine airliner which was
manufactured by the local De Havilland aircraft company. Although the hotel is
called the ‘Comet’, the king size model of an aircraft sitting on
the top of a pole in the forecourt is that of a De Havilland
‘Dove’. There were over one hundred and fifty RLI members and
visitors registered, receiving a complimentary bag containing a souvenir
programme, an RLI glass tankard and given a clip-on lapel name-tag, plus the
extra security protection of a plastic RLI wrist band. This tag was green and
had the picture of the trooper statue on it. At the main entrance of Hatfield
House the steps were graced by six standard bearers holding the flags of the
Rhodesian Light Infantry, and also eight buglers of the ‘Rifles’
who played a fanfare. The chapel is big for the household but was too small to
seat one hundred and fifty ‘botties’, so well over one hundred were
seated in the armoury. Col Ron Reid-Daly was present in the upper echelon of
the chapel. There were four large television screens in the armoury so that
everyone could see and hear the service. The two venues were next to each other
and connected by a short passage - so short in fact that when Pipe Major John
Spoor in his splendid Scottish regalia played the bagpipes and marched from the
armoury into the short passage to the chapel; in doing so he disappeared from
our sight and immediately re-appeared on the television screens After this part
of the service everyone went back to their coaches and were transported to the
bank of the River Lee where the Trooper statue was draped in the Green and
White. After a short service and speeches which mentioned the Rhodesian Air
Force and its air cover and helicopter transportation into forward areas, the
Marquess of Salisbury unveiled the Trooper Statue, with the Last Post played by
the buglers of the Rifles Band. Many wreaths of flame-lilies were laid at the
base of the statue. Following this all were entertained by the playing and
marching of the Rifles Band and Buglers. The Trooper Statue is sighted on a
wide grass bank with its back to a commercial forest of tall straight pine
trees, fronted by a copse of deciduous trees.
- report sent by ORAFs,
Zimbabwe’s
inflation rate has risen to 2.2 million per cent, the government said
yesterday. Mugabe accused Britain of trying to seize control of resources in
Zimbabwe.
- Daily Telegraph,
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This is what Mugabe and his thugs are doing to the
elderly people in Zimbabwe. We need to have Mugabe and Thabo Mbeki answer for
crimes against humanity.
- pictures
sent by ex-Rhodesian refugee now living in Melbourne, Australia,
The Zimbabwe Vigil, a London-based protest
group, has launched a campaign to have the 2010 Football World Cup moved from
Text of
the Petitions:-
1. "A Petition to the International
Federation of Football Associations (FIFA). With the deteriorating
situation in Zimbabwe and the likelihood of unrest spreading to South Africa we
call upon FIFA to move the 2010 World Cup from South Africa to a safer venue.
By the time the World Cup takes place President Mbeki's support of the Mugabe
regime will have made the whole region unsafe because millions more refugees
will flee Zimbabwe prompting further xenophobic violence in neighbouring
countries. FIFA must ensure that World Cup teams and their supporters are not
endangered."
2. "A Petition to European Union
Governments. We record our dismay at the failure of the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) to help the desperate people of
- report sent
from the FLF (
Mugabe’s
onslaught against his opponents widened to include their families yesterday
when the wife and child of the mayor of
- Daily Telegraph,
Mr X arrived by bus in a town north of
- Report
sent anonymously,
Zimbabweans were given the stark
choice yesterday of eating or voting, as Robert Mugabe tightened his grip ahead
of the final round of voting in the presidential election. James McGee, the
- Daily Telegraph,
Deep into the night a bunch of gangsters burst
through the outer gates of the
Report sent by Bob Vinnicombe (
The
illegitimate ZANU-PF government is at war with its citizens. This war
intensified after
- report
submitted to AfricanCrisis,
This
evening on television I saw that the MDC's spokesman had said that
approximately 500 of their members have been injured in attacks by Mugabe's thugs.
He also said their houses and huts were being set on fire.
- AfricanCrisis,
Details of a widespread brutal
campaign by the military to keep Mugabe in power has been revealed to The Sunday Independent. Central to the
plot are hundreds of "command centres", led by war veterans and
youths in police uniform, which are being established across
- report by Petra Thornycroft,
Residents of the eastern border
city of Mutare [Umtali] were shocked by the spectacle of uniformed Chinese
soldiers patrolling the city centre along with Zimbabwean security forces.
About 10 Chinese soldiers all carrying revolvers, were part of a heavy security
deployment in the city centre. While the situation in the city was generally
calm, as residents went about their normal business despite the call by the
opposition to stage a strike, policemen, all armed with AK rifles, teargas
canisters and baton sticks and some driving around in water canons, patrolled the
poorer residential areas of the city. The Chinese soldiers, along with about 70
Zimbabwean senior army officers are booked in the Holiday Inn, in the city centre. “We were shocked to see
Chinese soldiers in full military regalia and armed with pistols checking into
the hotel,” said a hotel employee. Meanwhile, the incidence of violence
targeting opposition supporters is escalating in Manicaland Province, prompting
the MDC to make an urgent appeal for tents and relief food supplies to assist
hundreds of displaced people in the rural areas. Patrick Chitaka, the MDC
chairman in Manicaland Province, says the party requires, as a matter of
urgency thousands of tents, food packs and medical supplies to assist thousands
of MDC supporters who have been displaced in rural Manicaland. The MDC says
about 200 people have been beaten up while more than 1000 have been displaced
by the violence.
-
TheZimbabweTimes.Com,
An SAA
flight, whose passengers included MDC leader and potential Zimbabwean President
Morgan Tsvangirai, battled to land at Harare [Salisbury]
Airport because runway lights had been switched off.
But SAA spokesperson Robyn Chalmers said the company "had no record"
of such an event. Tsvangirai was on his way back after his brief visit in South
Africa, where he met, among others, ANC president
Jacob Zuma. He caught the 7pm flight (SA23) to
Harare [Salisbury] on Monday, which was
supposed to land at around 9pm. According to a
passenger, who spoke to The Star on condition of anonymity, the plane had to fly around the
airport because the pilot could not see the runway lights. "The pilot told
us that we have passed the airport and there was still no word from the tower
about switching on the lights. He said he was facing a dilemma either to return
to Johannesburg or fly around the airport.
"But he raised the concern that he may run out of fuel if he did not land
in the next hour," said the passenger. He confirmed that Tsvangirai was on
the same flight and that the lights were finally switched on, to the relief of
anxious passengers.
- AfricanCrisis, April 10, 2008
People in Zimbabwe queue daily for
fuel. This has been their way of life for several years now. In the days of the
Rhodesian Bush War we had worldwide economic sanctions against us. Back then
Ian Smith's Government issued fuel ration cards and we could only buy fuel
according to our monthly allowances. So a farmer would be allowed more fuel
than a normal urban dweller for example. In this organised way we never had
queues and problems like this.
- AfricanCrisis,
According to the 2008 CIA World Fact Book (released on 17th
January 2008), Zimbabwe has slipped to second to last poorest country on Earth,
just ahead of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It’s GDP per capita
stands at a paltry $500. Furthermore, it ranks third to last in unemployment
rate which stands at 80%. Zimbabwe also ranks fourth to last in life expectancy
at 39.5 years. 24.6% of its population lives with HIV/AIDS, making it the
fourth most infected in the world. Lastly, when it comes to inflation, it ranks
dead last with an estimated figure of 6072%.
- AfricanCrisis,
A reunion of the Rhodesian
Parachute Jumping Instructors took place in Busselton, Western Australia in
January 2008, at which former RPJIs from various parts of Australia and from
South Africa were able to attend. The highlight of the reunion was a sky-dive
undertaken by Mike Duffy proudly trailing the Rhodesian flag.
- report sent by ORAFs (RhAF Association),
Police in Zimbabwe have arrested
two more White farmers for defying government eviction orders, news reports
said on Wednesday. Johannes Fick and Gideon Theron, both farmers in the
tobacco-growing Beatrice district south of the capital, appeared in court on
Tuesday, said the official Herald
newspaper. "It is alleged the two extended their occupation without
government authority," said the Herald.
The two will stand trial in January next year. More than a dozen White farmers
have been arrested since the authorities started enforcing eviction orders in
October. Until then, only 400 or so White farmers were still left on their
farms after Mugabe launched his controversial programme of White land seizures
in 2000. The government had given some of the White farmers until the end of
September to leave. Some of those who have been arrested want to challenge the
country's land laws that they say violate their constitutional rights.
Zimbabwe, once a renowned farming country, has suffered declining harvests
since land reforms were launched.
- SAPA report,
The
ever-escalating cash squeeze and runaway inflation has made a mockery of the
Zimbabwean currency and normal economic activity. A newspaper advertisement
showed a four-bedroom house with a pool and tennis court in Harare's
[Salisbury’s] leafy Glen Lorne suburb selling for just under Z$1
trillion, a whopping $33m at the official bank rate but only $667 000 on the
widely used black market. An identical property cost half the price only a
month ago. Prices of household furniture, groceries and food and rentals have
more than doubled in the past month as businesses seek to eke out a profit and
remain afloat, but at a cost to consumers ravaged by the world's fastest rising
prices. Shops which were emptied of basic goods after Mugabe announced a
blanket price freeze to tame inflation in June, have started restocking but
prices have sky-rocketed.
-
Southern Cross Africa News,
The very first thing you see upon entering Harare
International Airport is a portrait of “His Excellency” the
President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe. I recall my very first steps off the South African Airways flight from
Johannesburg last year, seeing that grim visage and understanding immediately
that I was entering a totalitarian state. As a prominent South African told me
before I left for Zimbabwe, a surefire sign that you’re in an
undemocratic country is the proliferation of presidential pictures. Writing in
the Sowetan, a South African newspaper serving the country’s
Black townships, about a recent trip to Harare Airport, Andrew Molefe observers
“To step out of an aircraft at Harare International Airport is to step
into a chamber of horrors. If an international airport is supposed to be the
face of a country, Zimbabwe is slipping dangerously towards the edge of a
precipice. The airport ablution facilities aren’t working. Human waste
greets visitors who need to use the toilets. The taps have run dry.” The
latest bad news to emerge about Zimbabwe is that British Airways has decided to cut all flights to and from the
country due to the fluctuating state of the economy. This is a major
development, considering Britain’s historic ties to Zimbabwe and the
relatively large number of people holding British citizenship who live in
Zimbabwe. BA has also been an important transport method by which Zimbabwean
asylum seekers have made their way into the United Kingdom. To understand the
gravity of this news, keep in mind that the only other time in history that British Airways cut off service to
Zimbabwe was in 1965 after the then “rebel” colony of Rhodesia
declared a Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom,
which the British government declared to be an act of treason warranting severe
international sanctions. Things have changed considerably for this service
cut-off, however: Zimbabwe is no longer a fledgling nation, but a failing or
failed state run by a brutal autocrat. For now, the only way Zimbabweans will
be able to travel to England is via Air
Zimbabwe, which, in the words one Zimbabwean, “has developed what you
might call a reputation for being unreliable.” Not only is jet fuel hard
to come by in Zimbabwe - causing flights to be delayed for days - but the
carrier has only one international aircraft, which Mugabe frequently
commandeers for his jaunts abroad, often without advance notice.
-
CommentaryMagazine.com,
Harare, Zimbabwe - Police stopped villagers from slaughtering
and eating a giraffe that strayed into the outskirts of the capital amid
chronic food shortages caused by an economic crisis, the official media
reported Saturday. The adult giraffe was believed to have wandered from nearby
farmland. Wildlife authorities took the giraffe away after police kept a crowd
from killing it "for the pot," the state Herald reported. Zimbabwe is suffering shortages of meat and basic
foods in an economic meltdown that has left it with the world's highest
official inflation - nearly 7,000%. Independent estimates put real inflation
closer to 25,000% and the
International Monetary Fund forecast it reaching 100,000% by the end of the
year. A government order to slash prices of all goods and services by about
half
in June has left stores across the country empty of meat, cornmeal, bread and
other staples and crippled transportation services. The National Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said this month that it was launching a
campaign to raise awareness about the moral and ethical issues surrounding
cases of pets being slaughtered for meat. It said while it was not illegal to
eat dog meat in Zimbabwe, the nation's laws covered the humane killing of all
animals. In recent weeks, authorities also have reported one of the worst
spates of bush fires across the country in recent memory, largely blamed on
people who set fires to flush out the rodents. Roasted mice are a traditional
dish in some areas.
- Article by
Angus Shaw, Associated Press writer,
British military commanders are reviewing contingency plans
for the evacuation of up to 22,000 Britons from Zimbabwe after months of rising
violence and food shortages. The Ministry of Defence has been asked to look
urgently at what logistical help it could provide amid “real
concerns” in Whitehall about Zimbabwe’s slide into chaos.
Diplomatic sources said that the review was focusing on a “civil
contingency plan”, which included seeking help from neighbouring countries.
There is no plan to send in troops. “Military evacuation from a third
country would only be used as a last resort,” one source said. Under
existing plans, Britons would be advised to take routes out of Zimbabwe into
South Africa and to head for a former military base at Artonvilla in Limpopo
province (Far Northern Transvaal). The MoD has been asked to consider whether
it could help in the airlift of Britons from the region. The diplomatic sources
said that if the MoD were unable to do so, chartered commercial aircraft would
fly the evacuees to Britain.
- report posted
by AfricanCrisis,
Zimbabwe has lost over 90 percent of its wildlife since the
government's controversial land grab, with an estimated 60 percent of animals
having been killed by poachers to relieve massive economic woes, according to a
report released by Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF). Johnny Rodrigues,
author of the report, said wildlife had been almost wiped out on Zimbabwe's
former private game ranches in the seven years since President Robert Mugabe
began seizing and dividing the areas into small plots. "Some 90 percent of
animals have been lost since 2000, while the country has seen an estimated 60
percent of its total wildlife killed off to help ease massive economic woes
indiscriminately. There's a lot of commercial poaching, there are people on the
ground snaring these animals," said Rodrigues. According to the task
force, Zimbabwe had 620 private game farms before the land seizures began, but
now has 14. And of 14 conservancies before 2000, only one remains.
"They're telling the world they want the tourists to come back, but the
tourists aren't going to come back because most of the animals you see nowadays
have amputated legs. It's just like a rehabilitation center," he said. The
report acknowledges that the findings are still preliminary - many of the
farmers whose land was seized have left the country, so in some cases the group
had to rely on hazy reports from people still near the former ranches. "We
are not claiming to 'know' how much wildlife has been lost," the report
said. "We have just tried to make the most accurate estimate possible with
very limited data to work with."
Still, the trend is a disaster, because Zimbabwe once had
some of the world's most progressive and successful conservation policies. Rodrigues blamed the government for
killing 100 elephants last year so their meat could be served as part of
Independence Day celebrations. His report exposed that the Zimbabwean government
recently sold ivory to China in exchange for military hardware. According to
the report, of 62 game ranches 59 made massive losses, including the killings
of a total of 75 rare black rhinoceroses and 39 leopards. Most of the losses
appeared among antelope, including 9,500 impalas, nearly 5,000 kudus, and 2,000
wildebeests. The report said "The country's economic meltdown has had a
wide-ranging and devastating impact on what is one of Africa's premier tourist
draws. The numbers help give a rough estimate of the environmental impact of
Zimbabwe's recent descent into economic and political chaos". The document
reported evidence of widespread slaughter of game on the private ranches
occupied under Mugabe's controversial land redistribution programme. Government
regulations meant to shield the animals have been disobeyed, and wildlife
officials have been forced to focus their limited resources on Zimbabwe's
national parks and reserves.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/viewinfo.cfm?linkcategoryid=3&linkid=8&id=5543
- report sent
by JMK, New York,
Zimbabwe suddenly looks like it has been in a war. The
shops are empty, there is little traffic and everyone is walking around
in a daze. People stop me and ask what is going on? Well just remember Pol
Pot. He came to power in Cambodia in the mid seventies, launched what
they called the Khmer revolution and in a matter of months they
reduced the capital city to a shell occupied by 25 000 people - down from
two million. In the process they had killed hundreds of thousands of skilled
and experienced Cambodians, forced millions into the rural areas
where they were required to undergo re-education and make a living
from subsistence
agriculture. It will take Cambodia millennia to recover after
this rapacious and ideologically driven regime was removed from power by
military intervention. People outside Zimbabwe have no idea of just what
has happened in Zimbabwe in the past month. Conditions have gone from
difficult to impossible. I am not exaggerating when I say there are
no basics - no flour, no maize meal, no cooking oil, no margarine, no
matches, no fuel, no meat, no eggs. On top of this there are widespread
shortages of water and electricity. I simply do not know how people
are surviving. These terrible conditions are being deliberately created in a
Pol Pot style
operation that is supposed to be dealing with run away inflation. Its real
goals lie elsewhere. We now know that this operation was planned a long time
ago -probably as soon as it became apparent that elections would have to
be held in March 2008. This is no knee jerk reaction to inflation, or to
remarks by the US Ambassador about regime change. It began with an exercise to
generate a sudden spurt in inflation. This was achieved when the
State started buying foreign currency on the open market in June, using
freshly printed currency. In a week of frenzied activity the price of the US
dollar went from about Z$70,000 to Z$400,000. Importers and industrialists
were forced to raise prices to cover the replacement cost of stocks. The
State then unveiled its "operation good governance". Under
secret orders, the security forces were instructed to impose price reductions on all
businesses. There was no legal basis for these instructions -just orders
to go into firms on a systematic basis and order them to
cut prices or else. Managers and owners were specifically targeted to
intimidate them into compliance. These have been arrested in their
thousands, abused and held over in filthy, overcrowded cells with ordinary
prisoners. Trillions of dollars of stock values were slashed from prices,
no rational basis for these price cuts were sought or tolerated.
Suddenly firms faced the situation where they could not restock,
could not manufacture and sell for a profit - most of their
established products were now being priced into the market at
below cost. The more you produced, the faster your demise. Fuel was priced
at half its landed cost and overnight some Z$400 billion in stock
values was lost as customers scrambled to buy cheap fuel at
half price or less. All imports stopped. The prices of all staple
foods was likewise set at half or less the cost of production and
when stocks ran out there was nothing to sell. Now many theories have been put
out about this operation - it was popularist is one, "they are
preparing for the elections and forcing firms to cut prices is an attempt to
curry favor with voters". Many actually say it was about
time that business was brought to heel - a reaction to
the sharp price hikes caused by the first stage of this
operation. It is too early for that to be the real reason; they
see it as one outcome, but with little long-term value in their
strategy. My own view, based on what I know about the background, is that
this is a carefully planned and ruthless exercise to reduce the urban
voting population, undermine the remaining support base of the MDC and
take full control of the population and the economy in time for the
March 2008 elections. The dismantling of the commercial farm industry has
reduced the voting population on commercial farms from 2 million to about
600,000 and all of them are now under the control of either the State
or ZANU- PF elements who can dictate how they vote. These resettled
areas are virtually no go areas for the MDC. In Communal areas the food
supply has been brought under control and direction, as has all other
essentials for survival including the right of abode. Traditional
leaders are tightly controlled by the State and are now under close
supervision by resident CIO operatives who watch their every action. They
have been through three elections and now believe that they
can control the vote in these areas by these means. They are probably
right. So the remaining threat is the urban vote. Now in the majority,
with over 6
million people living in urban areas, the towns and cities are
the last remaining centers of opposition. So like Pol Pot, the powers
that be, in this case the small coterie of leaders surrounding Mugabe
and the people involved in the Joint Operations Command, have decided
to do some surgery. When this operation is concluded they hope to have
reduced the urban population by as much as half, destroyed or taken over all
major firms in the private sector and facilitated the takeover of all
other surviving firms by loyal ZANU-PF supporters. They are
deliberately halting food supplies to the cities, destroying jobs and
the transport industry. They will then take the pick of the commercial
and industrial infrastructure that remains - intact, almost as if a
neutron bomb had been used, and move on from there. The remaining urban
population would then be in the same position as the population in the
rural areas - under tight control and able to vote only under
supervision. Then ZANU-PF can allow an election to take place - probably in
March as planned, even with observers for the last few days of the
campaign and during the vote itself. ZANU-PF feels confident that it can
win a clear majority - even a two-thirds majority vote under such
circumstances. The only other issue is what happens to the three million
Zimbabweans displaced by this ruthless, but clever scheme. Most of them
will swim the Limpopo or cross the border at Beitbridge. Once in South Africa,
or Botswana, or Zambia or the UK or the USA, they will settle down,
breathe a sigh of relief to be somewhere where sanity prevails and try to make
a living, any sort of living. They will gradually be assimilated and will
start sending small sums of money "home" to
keep their relatives alive in Mugabe's national detention camp.
Most importantly, they will not be able to vote. What remains of
Zimbabwe will be a sea of poverty and subsistence activity
with Party controlled islands of prosperity. A few foreign firms
will be allowed to exploit our resources under close supervision and
control and the output used to support the lifestyles of the new
elite who will continue to enjoy the luxury and pleasures that
have become their norm in recent years on the gravy train. It has
nothing to do with price control.
- report by
Eddie Cross, Bulawayo, forwarded
For Rod Swales and many of Zimbabwe's 4,000 White farmers
forced off their land by President Robert Mugabe's chaotic and violent land
reforms, the chance to start afresh somewhere else was too good to pass up.
Neighbouring countries welcomed them with open arms and furnished them with
land, while the agricultural companies provided them with cash incentives. But
five years later, 52-year-old Mr Swales is back in Zimbabwe at the forefront of
a new wave of pioneers. Far from being deterred by the country's downward
economic spiral, the farmers are convinced that it will hasten the end of Mr
Mugabe's rule, and speed the day when they can set up in business once again.
"I do believe the wheel is turning and sanity will prevail at some
stage," Mr Swales said. "I speak to various ZANU- PF moderates and
all of them advise us to be patient, there will be change, this thing can't
continue."Mr Swales believes Mr Mugabe's regime is nearing the end, that
an economy battered by inflation reported to have hit 13,000 per cent in June
and where supplies of even basic foods such as maize flour and cooking oil have
dried up, must surely soon collapse altogether. But Mr Swales admitted that the
prospect of getting his old farm back up to production would be daunting.
"Two weeks ago I went out to see it. It's an absolute wreck. It's the
closest I've come to crying for some time. The barns, the roofs, the sheds,
everything had been stripped. It will cost an untold figure to put that right
and make it productive again.
"But we are resilient people, we've hung in through wars and we'll
hang in through this."
- Sunday
Telegraph,
Zimbabwe has imposed tight profit margins for businesses,
stepping up a price rollback programme that has led to empty store shelves,
long petrol queues and renewed fears of a total economic collapse. Mugabe
ordered that prices for a wide range of foodstuffs and consumer items be
slashed two weeks ago, accusing businesses of raising prices as part of an
effort by Western opponents to overthrow his 27-year-old government. On
Wednesday state radio reported a government taskforce overseeing the
anti-inflation price scheme had set the price mark-up from producers to
wholesalers at 5% and at 10% for prices from wholesalers to retailers. Industry
and Trade Minister Obert Mpofu, who chairs the taskforce, also has revoked
permits of private slaughterhouses and transferred all the country's
meat processing business to the larger state-owned Cold Storage Company (CSC),
it said. Mpofu moved against the abattoirs - which handle about 40% of the
country's meat business - because they had stopped meat supplies. "In view
of this, the government has thus, with immediate effect, revoked the licences
of all private abattoirs," he was quoted as saying by state radio. The new
measures came as the government increased police patrols to enforce the price
controls, which analysts say may provide temporary relief to a long-suffering
population but is bound to worsen Zimbabwe's economy. Zimbabwe is struggling
with chronic shortages of food and fuel and inflation of 4,500%. Last month the
government ordered businesses to roll back prices on bread, beef, mealie-meal,
milk, oil, and salt, sugar and other basic commodities in an effort to stem
inflation. The forced price cuts, however, have sparked a wave of panic buying
around the country, leaving many urban shops empty of basic goods that were
already in short supply as a result of the country's eight-year recession. Long
petrol queues have resurfaced in the capital Harare, and hordes of shoppers
sometimes lay siege outside supermarkets in the hope of new deliveries of
sugar, cooking oil and bread - the most desired products. A Reuters
correspondent saw dozens of shoppers jostling outside a shop in the city centre
after rumours that a bread delivery van was on its way. "I have to buy
because I didn't get any yesterday," one man said. "And now when I
have any money I am in the habit of buying anything that I think I
need because there is no guarantee that these things will be available in the
future," he added. Zimbabwe's central bank has increased the daily cash
withdrawals that
individuals and companies can make from Z$1.5m to up to Z$20m to help people
cope with the rocketing inflation. Private economists say the actual figure is
probably double the reported government rate of 4’500% for May. Critics
accuse Mugabe, who has been in power since 1980, of mismanaging what was once
one of Africa's most prosperous economies and suppressing political dissent.
The 83-year-old Zimbabwean leader denies he has run the economy into the
ground, blaming the problems instead on what he calls sabotage by Western
opponents who are punishing him for seizing and redistributing White-owned
farms to Blacks.
- Reuters
Report -
In Mugabe’s
Zimbabwe terror is so endemic that not even the daughter of a former prime
minister known as a supporter of Black rights is immune from rape. Judith
Todd’s father, Sir Garfield Todd, was Rhodesia’s last liberal
leader and she was imprisoned, force-fed and exiled under Ian Smith’s
rule for her efforts to promote Black majority rule. She returned to head a
development agency working particularly with the [terrorist] war veterans who
had fought for [Mugabe’s] Zimbabwe.
But when she criticised Mugabe’s regime she was detained and raped
by a senior army officer. It was, she said, an example of the culture of fear
used to preserve Mugabe’s rule.
- Daily Telegraph,
[ We await Ms.
Todd’s admission of her grave errors in siding with such evil terrorists
during the 1960s. - Ed.]
Zimbabwe's beleaguered currency has lost half its value in
three days, black market dealers said last night, prompting predictions that
the country was plunging into an economic meltdown that its veteran leader
Robert Mugabe would not survive. According to the government in Harare
[Salisbury], one US dollar is worth 250 Zimbabwean dollars. But the free market
rate yesterday reached more than Z$300,000 to one US dollar. "It's gone
crazy," said one illegal trader. "People are holding out for the
highest bidder and mentioning as much as 400,000-1, which could be tomorrow's
price. It's changing by the hour. Rates have doubled since the start of the
week." While Mugabe's demise has been predicted time and again over the
years, analysts believe that the financial crisis now threatens his hold even
on the loyalists who have kept him in power for so long. John Makumbe, a senior
lecturer in political science at the University of Zimbabwe, said: "It is
the economy that is going to bring the regime down. "I don't think it's
very sustainable. Right now the transport sector is grinding to a halt. A lot
of people are now in abject poverty. With a million dollars you will be lucky
to buy two or three items." A six-mile minibus ride into the city centre
could cost a tenth of someone's monthly wages, he said. "I don't think
Mugabe will last long if the situation is not arrested by an injection of
foreign currency or some alleviation of the cost of living." Christopher
Dell, the outgoing US ambassador to Zimbabwe, predicted inflation could reach
1,500,000% by the end of the year. He told the Financial Gazette in Bulawayo: "The first phase of Zimbabwe's
liberation [from Mugabe's rule] is coming to an end as the economy is
collapsing around us and the second phase to define the future of Zimbabwe past
a few old men is coming in the next few months." Splits are now emerging
in Mr Mugabe's ZANU-PF party and last week a "coup plot" was
proclaimed by the authorities, who charged six people with treason. One of the
defendants said the accusations were an attempt to cover up internal divisions.
But on top of its abysmal handling of the economy, which has been shrinking for
the last eight years, the Harare government itself bears direct responsibility
for the collapse of the currency. While accusing Britain and other countries of
seeking to destroy Zimbabwe's finances, the central bank has printed vast
amounts of Zimbabwean currency to buy illegal dollars in a desperate attempt to
pay off the foreign debts of state-owned fuel and electricity companies. More
notes have been printed to pay salary increases for soldiers and policemen,
even as senior ZANU-PF officials were able to buy US dollars at the official
rate and resell them at vast profit. Last month the Central Statistical Office
announced that inflation had reached 3,713.9% a year in April - a calculation
of unusual precision for an economy in chaos. According to NMBZ Holdings Ltd, a
local bank, the figure for May had risen to 4,530%. Other estimates put it as
high as 9,000%. The official Chronicle newspaper
yesterday blamed Britain and the United States. "The plan is to topple the
government before the March 2008 general elections, which the West knows the
opposition could never win," it said.
- Daily
Telegraph,
Mugabe has been told by
his own intelligence chiefs that he will lose if he sticks to his insistence on
standing again in Zimbabwe’s presidential elections next year. The
83-year-old, who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, was given the warning last
month. He is said to have been livid. Happyton Bonyongwe, Mugabe’s
intelligence chief, told the president that voters were so disenchanted with
his government that he faced “grave embarrassment”. Bonyongwe
presented a report compiled by the intelligence services warning Mugabe to find
an alternative candidate to represent the ruling ZANU-PF party, as he would be
defeated and gravely embarrass himself because of levels of social discontent
that have reached boiling point. The report was presented to a meeting of the
joint operations command, which brings together senior representatives of the
police, army, prison service and the Central Intelligence Organisation. It said
support for the president was at rock bottom because of severe economic crisis,
with ordinary Zimbabweans struggling to survive in the face of inflation of
more than 3,700%, unemployment at 80% and shortages of basic foodstuffs and
fuel. “Mugabe said he was not giving up on next year’s polls as
this would be a victory to our colonisers [Britain], who want to rule us using
their puppets in the MDC,” said one of those who attended the meeting.
- Sunday Telegraph,
![[3 Pics] Ian Smith & Kevin Woods, African James Bond meet](rhod_files/image014.jpg)
Kevin Woods, the South African super-spy whom Mugabe jailed
for about 20 years or so, and who was released because of health problems, met
with former Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith in Cape Town earlier this year.
- report posted
by AfricanCrisis,
Despite an undertaking from Peter Chingoka, the then
interim chairman Zimbabwe Cricket , that the report on the investigation of
charges of financial maladministration would be made public, no one apart from
ZC and ICC have seen it. Chingoka announced sixteen months ago that an
independent auditor "of international repute" would be asked to
undertake a thorough investigation of the board's affairs following serious
allegations from a number of stakeholders that large sums of money were
unaccounted for. However, the audit was ultimately entrusted to Ruzengwe and
Partners, a small Harare-based outfit. And the terms of reference were drawn up
by the interim board, the body at the heart of the allegations. "Their
report will be there for all to see," Chingoka said at the time.
Unfortunately, although the initial report was delivered to the ICC in
November, nobody outside the ICC and ZC has been allowed to know what it
contains. Few expected anything sensational. When the audit was announced,
Clive Field, the former players' association chief executive, was sceptical.
"In the time which has passed since these issues were highlighted last
year, it seems to me there would have been ample opportunity to sanitise the
books," he said. "All we could originally hope for was that the audit
was done quickly. "A senior administrator said that ZC had "appointed
a small one-partner local firm who had little chance of investigation the
affairs as it was too complex. It would need the assistance of an international
firm, as funding included sponsorship worldwide ... as the rights to the
various tours would have been put together and sold by Octagon CSI and others
and would need the international resources to follow through the paper trail
and establish where the funding ended up." The ICC remains tight lipped, only
saying that Sir John Anderson, the chairman of New Zealand Cricket who is
overseeing the process, is still in dialogue with Ruzengwe and Partners. It is
hoped that things will be sorted in time for the ICC's AGM at the end of June.
What the ICC cannot say is whether the audit will be placed in the public
domain. Against this backdrop of secrecy, Zimbabwe Cricket's coffers are about
to swell by another US$11.5 million from the World Cup. Given the virtual total
secrecy with which ZC operates, the ICC owes it to the game, to all those who
worked tirelessly to build Zimbabwe cricket, and to the thousands of local
cricketers who are scraping by with almost no equipment, to make public the
report. We were unable to obtain any response from Zimbabwe Cricket. The board
refuses to answer any questions from Cricinfo as it objects to our coverage of
cricket in the country.
- CricInfo,
Zimbabwe is back at another crucial junction in its short
history. At home the economic and political crisis intensifies by the
day. Inflation in April was probably over 8,000% year on year, the
currency has slipped to new lows and is trading about 30,000 to 1 against the
US dollar. Severe food shortages are evident and prices have skyrocketed.
- report sent
by Eddie Cross (Bulawayo),
Pressure is growing for the ICC to take action against
“Zimbabwe Cricket” from an unlikely, and usually low-profile, group
- the game's statisticians. Until this year, despite increasing reporting
restrictions, the Zimbabwe board, aided by dedicated volunteers, has always
supplied scorecards of first-class and List A matches to the media. But many of
the old statisticians have been driven away, while others have been ostracised
by the board. Last year there were increasing problems with the accuracy of the
data, and often queries had to be flagged with ZC when cards did not add up or
data was missing. These were almost always resolved. However, this year ZC has
failed to supply any data, even to its domestic media or on its own website,
which is increasingly inaccessible and which has not been updated for several
weeks. No cards have been provided for Faithwear
Cup matches, the country's List A competition, which took place more than
five weeks ago. A source close to the board said that it was unlikely that they
would be made available as in some instances the cards had been lost, while in
others the data was so poor as to be almost unusable. "Releasing them will
be more than embarrassing," he admitted. Cricinfo has made several requests for the information, and the ICC
and the influential Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians have
also contacted ZC. In almost all instances, the board has failed to even
acknowledge the mail. A few cards for the Logan Cup, the first-class
competition, have been obtained, but in every instance this has been through
volunteers or Cricket Kenya, who have a side in the competition. This will be
the first season in the 103-year history of the tournament that scorecards have
not been available. The board only published the fixture list on the morning of
the first round of matches. Bill Frindall, the BBC statistician, told Cricinfo that "this situation sadly
comes as no surprise". He added: "The ICC should threaten ZC with
suspension of their membership and the withdrawal of first-class and List A
status. They should also withhold Zimbabwe's 2007 World Cup fee which is bound
to end up in the hands of their puppet administrators. No doubt the ICC will
prevaricate as usual. What a pity those ludicrous multi-national matches of
2005 [the ICC Afro-Asia Cup and Super Series] were not staged in Harare. The
scores would have been lost forever. It highlights the growing shambles that is
ZC," one administrator in Zimbabwe, who did not wish to be named, said.
"They can't even sort the basics, so it doesn't take too much imagination
to work out what a complete mess other things it is responsible for are. The
game is dying on its feet. If people don't even know that matches are happening
locally, what hope is there?".
- Cricinfo,
Mugabe declared
yesterday that he had overcome alleged British-backed efforts to topple him.
Mugabe, 83, described the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change as “the shameless local puppets” of a
British conspiracy. Earlier he said a two-day general strike called by unions
this month was part of “the offensive of [Tony] Blair’s final
push”. “The man is about to retire and wants a last push in
Zimbabwe,” Mugabe told hundreds of children and teachers during a speech.
He said that Britain wanted to make Zimbabwe a colony again.
- Daily Telegraph,
Zimbabwe is to set up a new radio station to counter what it
perceives as propaganda from outside countries against Robert Mugabe, the
country's president. Zimbabwe's information minister made the announcement
after talks on Friday with Rasoul Momeni, Iran's ambassador to Harare
[Salisbury], in a deal to
refurbish public broadcasting studios in Bulawayo. Iran has already funded the
upgrading of studios in the capital, the new station will cost $39.6m. In the
face of growing criticism of his human-rights record, Mugabe has in recent
years increasingly turned to other countries, including Iran, for help.
- report sent
by Bob Vinnicombe, NSW, Australia,
Young women used iron rods to beat pleading grandmothers and
called them whores, while a policewoman shouted "Now go for the
heads!" This is how a prayer meeting in Harare [Salisbury], Zimbabwe,
turned into an "orgy of violence", says William Bango, 53, a senior Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
member and spokesperson for party leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Bango told Beeld
from his Johannesburg hospital bed how he, Tsvangirai and other MDC members
were beaten with "unheard of cruelty" by Zimbabwean police on Sunday
March 11. Bango described seeing a grandmother, 64-year-old Sekai Holland,
repeatedly
hammered with a pole by young women who called her "one of Blair's
whores". The assault took place at the Machipisa police station, where
Bango and
other MDC activists were taken after police banned a prayer meeting in
Highfield township. "We were ordered to lie on the ground. Then the orgy
of violence began, with the usual accusations that we were the puppets of Tony
Blair and the Whites, and that we wanted to give our land back to the
colonialists." The beatings lasted for three-quarters of an hour. They
even dragged Tsvangirai from his idling car, and began hitting him. The woman
in charge shouted: "Now the ribs! Now the buttocks! Now go for the
heads!" Ironically, Zimbabwe was sliding back steadily to the "iron
age" just as South Africa was getting ready for 2010 Soccer World Cup, he
said. "But South Africa can't exist as a supermarket in the desert. The
entire tournament will suffer if there's a thug in the neighbourhood."
- Beeld,
Today the Rand went over 3,000 to 1 [to the Z$], the US$
went to over 30,000 to 1 and the price of beer, bread and fuel doubled. I
raised our salaries by 50% two weeks ago and I am going to have to find another
100% next week. People cannot afford even the basics, money has no value
and everybody is talking about prices and the specter of economic collapse. The
government simply does not know what to do next - a 400% salary increment to
teachers is now virtually wiped out just weeks later. They have imposed
price controls only to find that market prices have soared to, in some cases, 5
times the so-called controlled price (bread is now about Z$4000 a loaf - the
controlled price is Z$825) even though the latter was fixed just two months
ago. When the State tries to enforce prices on traders, the product just
disappears overnight. I have not seen a bottle of vegetable oil in 4
months. The only product that is occasionally available is imported from
South Africa. State institutions are not able to move with the kind of speed
that is needed to survive in this situation. All of them are reeling under the
strain - foreign exchange is unobtainable except on the parallel market and
there the prices rise daily. They cannot generate enough local currency to pay
for the currency they need - and it has to be in cash. Maximum withdrawals
from the banks are Z$1 million - that is not enough to fill your tank at
Z$17,000 or Z$18,000 a litre. The total collapse of these institutions is now
almost inevitable - they simply cannot pay their bills and cannot buy the
essentials they need to operate. People must be close to saying that it is
simply not worth their while going to work. I run a retail operation and have
watched my sales rise from about plus 1000% up at the start of last year to
4,800% this month. That just about tracks the sort of inflation that
ordinary people now face in their daily lives. In this situation we must
remember that this affects everybody. Pretty soon we are going to face
complete stock outs of essentials and only those who have foreign exchange will
be able to get them. The quality and delivery of all services is about to
crash.
- report sent
by Eddie Cross, Bulawayo,
At long last, President Robert Mugabe's stranglehold on
Zimbabwe may be loosening. Throughout his 27 years of dominance, the old
dictator's opponents have always risked assault, torture or worse. The
bludgeoning meted out to Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, and about
100 of his supporters after they tried to hold a prayer meeting on Sunday, was
entirely standard. Violence of this kind has been enough to suppress Mugabe's
critics outside the ruling ZANU-PF party. Meanwhile, his skilful manipulation
of factions within the ruling party has always thwarted any internal challenge.
But there are growing signs that Mugabe is finally losing his grip. Never in
its 44 year history has ZANU-PF been as divided as it is today. Mugabe appears
to be in a state of open warfare with both his party's main factions. One is
led by Solomon Mujuru, a retired general and former army commander who wants
his wife, the vice-president Joyce Mujuru, to succeed Mugabe. The other major
faction is dominated by Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has served in the cabinet since
1980 and was once a favourite for the succession. But he had a spectacular
falling out with the president. In the past, Mugabe always would have been
clever enough to ally with one faction against the other. At the very least he
would have turned them against one another and kept each permanently
off-balance. But today, both the Mujuru and Mnangagwa groups appear to have
become united against him. There is no other explanation for Mugabe's apparent
failure to extend his term of office. Last year, he announced that he would not
bother seeking re-election when his present term ends in 2008. Instead, he
would simply amend the constitution and postpone the next election until 2010.
But this proposal seems to have been dropped. Both major factions have an
interest in Mugabe stepping down next year and opening the way for their
champions to seize the presidency. They appear jointly to have thwarted the bid
to rewrite the constitution. Having been defeated, Mugabe is now talking about
standing for re-election next year. Two factors are eroding Mugabe's position
every day. First, he is 83 and his mental powers are visibly failing. While
physically fit, the edge has come off Mugabe's mind. Second, Zimbabwe's economy
is in meltdown. At first, this national calamity did not threaten his grip on
power. On the contrary, by driving the black middle class out of Zimbabwe and
leaving the rest of the population destitute and with no thought except
day-to-day survival, economic collapse probably reduced the chances of popular
unrest and helped Mugabe. But the crisis is reaching such proportions that the
Zimbabwean state itself is disintegrating. Mugabe can no longer afford to pay
his security forces. The police and the army rank-and-file are just as
desperate as everyone else. This combination of discontent within and without
ZANU-PF is unprecedented. Mugabe's final days may be upon us.
-
Daily Telegraph,
The conditions Mugabe rendered in Zimbabwe do not merely
stem from idealistic economic and social policies gone awry. He has undertaken
a campaign of violence and starvation against political opponents, the fallout
of which is killing tens of thousands, if not more, every year. In 2005, there
were roughly 4,000 more deaths each week than births, a rate that the famine
has surely increased. As early as 2002, the BBC was reporting that people in Matabeleland,
the southern region of the country where the minority Ndebele tribe lives, were
starving. That same year, on the eve of a massive drought, the Minister of
Zimbabwean State Security said, "We would be better off with only six
million people. We don't want all these extra people." Today, according to
the World Food Program, 38% of Zimbabweans are malnourished. The fallout has
rippled through society: Zimbabwe has the world's highest inflation rate
(1,600% annually, expected to hit 4,000% by the end of the year) and an HIV
prevalence of at least 18%, and probably higher. It also has the lowest life
expectancy, by far, in the world: 34 for women and 37 for men. Last year,
42,000 women died from childbirth. The weekly death rate exceeds Darfur's.
- The New
Republic,
The situation in Zimbabwe has deteriorated sharply in the
past few days. The government has imposed a ban on public meetings, the
strikes are continuing with the state- run hospitals now completely paralysed.
Doctors and Nurses refuse to go back to work. The universities are due to open
on Monday but staff are on strike and there are no signs of
compromise. Students plan to join the strike on Monday in support of their
lecturers and demanding attention to the stark conditions under which they are
living. The ZCTU has announced a national strike in a month's time and the
State Security Minister has threatened them with dire action. Now a form of
curfew is being imposed on the high-density townships across the country in an
effort to bring the situation under control. These are clearly signs of
panic in the realms of government. Tomorrow should be the start of a 4-month
freeze on prices and wages - however I understand the proposal has been
abandoned as being simply unworkable. No statements are forthcoming from
the authorities and, to say the least, there is considerable confusion in
business and Union circles. The Governor of the Reserve Bank speaks of a
"Social Contract" but none exists. However the most serious indicator
of collapse is in the open market price of foreign exchange. Driven by the
frantic efforts of people to buy foreign exchange in any form for a variety of
needs from education fees to water chemicals for the cities and those who want
to externalize or even protect their assets. No one wants to hold local
money - and the options are the stock market, foreign exchange and assets such
as property or simply business stocks. Today was no exception - the US$ went to
7,500 to 1, the Pound to 14,200 to 1 and the Rand was at 1,100 or 1,200 to 1.
These are dramatic devaluations in a matter of a few days and importers simply
do not know what to sell their imported products for when it comes to replacing
their stock. Fuel distributors closed their outlets today while the
adjusted to the new situation. We bought fuel at Z$6,600 and watched as
the company ratcheted up its price to Z$7,500 while we were present. That
seems to be the price at the moment. Bakeries are all over the place -
most are charging double the "controlled" price. This means a new
surge in inflation and it is now clearer than ever that the government has lost
all semblance of control in the economy. Gold sales are declining even
more rapidly as mines close down in the face of unrealistic prices and exchange
rates. Food is now being imported to meet all our basic food needs - local
stocks are exhausted. I watched a special programme last night on SABC about
the plight of the border jumpers. Anyone watching that could not help but
be moved by the plight of the people affected by this crisis in
Zimbabwe. To see them risk crocodiles, armed gangs, the SA Police and Army
and thirst and exposure to get away from Zimbabwe and try to make a living, any
sort of a living, in South Africa was heart wrenching. A White farmer described
finding a dead woman next to a game fence with a baby that had lived for 3 or 4
days after the mother had died of exposure. If someone with power does not do
something to get this situation back under control, they better prepare for a
real flood of refugees into South Africa - because the situation in Zimbabwe is
simply no longer tenable.
- report sent
by Eddie Cross, Bulawayo,
Inflation in Zimbabwe
has reached such proportions that it destroyed the value of a new national
currency before a single one of its banknotes had been spent. The world’s
highest inflation rate, which rose to a record 1,594% yesterday, rendered the
new money worthless before it could be distributed. Mounds of banknotes - all paid
for in scarce hard currency - are lying unused in warehouses. Mugabe’s
regime ordered the new money from a German company in 2004. At the time
inflation was a relatively modest 400% and Mugabe was anxious to avoid the
impression of economic chaos. Jonathan Moyo, then information minister,
disclosed that Mugabe personally insisted that a banknote of 1,000 Zimbabwe
dollars could be the highest denomination of the new currency. Yet by the time
the new currency had been designed, printed and delivered Z$1,000 had a
purchasing power of about nine pence. Today it would be just enough to buy a
box of matches. Rather than release a currency whose largest banknote is
roughly the value of one tomato, the Reserve Bank in Harare [Salisbury] simply
stockpiled the useless money. At present prices in Zimbabwe are doubling
roughly every 30 days. By next month the new currency’s largest banknote
will be worth about half a tomato.
- Daily Telegraph,
It is now certain that 2007 is going to be much worse than
2006. Inflation is going to be higher, the economy will almost certainly
shrink - for the 9th year in a row and the flood of economic refugees into
other countries will, if anything get worse. Shortages will be more
widespread and this will create additional problems for those of us who live
here. I predict that the coming agricultural season will be much worse
than in the past year. Output across the board will be lower - without
exception. Then there is the situation in ZANU-PF. Mugabe is no longer
functioning effectively as Head of State - he is working very short hours and
for whatever reason is already in a state of semi-retirement. He has moved
to his new home in Harare [Salisbury] and goes into the office late in the
morning returning home before mid-day. Few people are seeing him and it is
clear that government is confused and divided - no strong central direction is
apparent. Everybody is doing his or her own thing. Then there is the
succession debate. Rumours abound about Mugabe's future plans - they all
point to him stepping down and it would appear from our sources that the debate
on whether to allow him to remain President until 2010 has been
quashed. It would appear to us that he is now committed to retirement in
March 2008, if not sooner. A recurrent ZANU-PF nightmare is that he might
become incapacitated sooner than March 2008, leaving ZANU-PF unprepared for the
succession battles that will follow.
- report sent
by Eddie Cross, Bulawayo,
|
|
“Skip” Rausch (left)
and Robert Shipley (right) proudly unfurl the Rhodesian flag on the bridge of
HMS Cavalier at the Historic
Dockyard Chatham during a visit by the Springbok
Club/Empire Loyalist Club to celebrate Trafalgar Day in October
2006. (The last operation which HMS Cavalier engaged in was the
notorious Beira Patrol to enforce UN-imposed sanctions against Rhodesia
during the late 1960s - though it is widely believed that none of the Royal
Navy personnel took this ridiculous operation seriously!) |
|
A scene
from the Rhodesian Pioneer Club’s
highly successful 2006 July Braai, which was held at their new home in
Trentfield, Nottinghamshire, on the banks of the River Trent. The July Braai
fulfils three roles; firstly it’s a great weekend for everyone
involved, secondly it’s a huge fund-raising event for charity work,
which as the situation in “Zimbabwe” deteriorates ever deeper
will become all the more important, and finally it is a chance for everyone
who had to leave their beloved homeland, to re-kindle the spirit and
brotherhood of the Rhodesian nation, and ensure that it is not lost on the
future generations who will now be raised overseas. |
|
Zimbabwe's prisoners face acute food shortages and are going
weeks without soap or toilet paper, reported a parliamentary committee on
Friday. Some inmates have resorted to using pages ripped from Bibles to wipe
themselves clean, said the report, which sounded the alarm about deteriorating
prison conditions amid Zimbabwe's worsening economic crisis. The report found
that malnutrition and disease were widespread in Zimbabwe's overcrowded jails,
designed for 16 000 people but holding many more. Prison authorities have
insufficient funds to buy food, which lead to the spread of
malnutrition-related ailments such as pellagra, intestinal disorders and mental
disorientation. Water and power outages were also common, said the committee,
and sanitation facilities were in urgent need of repair at most facilities. The
report said blankets in the prisons go unwashed for months. The Harare
[Salisbury] Remand Prison had its water supply cut off for failing to pay its
bills. Cooking pots and other kitchen implements at the prison were filthy and
"not fit to carry food for human consumption". When Chikurubi maximum
security jail ran dry, water was ferried in by chain gangs wielding buckets,
said the committee, but 73 inmates had diarrhea as a result of the shortages.
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown has been blamed on disruptions to the
agriculture-based economy, linked to years of drought and the seizure of
thousands of White-owned commercial farms for redistribution. Inflation is at
1043%. There are acute shortages of hard currency and petrol. The report found
that prison authorities could often not take inmates to court for scheduled
bail hearings and trial appearances because they did not have petrol. According
to the report, five of the eight vehicles belonging to the Harare [Salisbury]
Remand Prison had broken down and could not be repaired due to a shortage of
spare parts. Few of Zimbabwe's families could afford to pay the bail of more
than $Zim 200,000, leaving many of the accused to languish in jail, said the
report. Delays in the court system also meant some prisoners remained in
custody for more than five years.
- www.news24.com,
I was thrilled to see your
photograph of the Queen wearing the flame lily brooch to the Easter service at Windsor. The brooch was given to her
by the
schoolchildren of Rhodesia
for her
21st birthday. Each child donated a tickey (three pence) to pay for the brooch,
which was designed and made by local jeweller H. G. Bell. Queen Elizabeth liked
the brooch so much that she ordered two more to be made, one for herself and
one for Princess Margaret, so Mr Bell visited Johannesburg again to buy de Beers diamonds for the new order. I clearly
remember going to school with my ticket for Princess Elizabeth.
- letter to the Daily Telegraph,
May 17, 2006, from June
Searson, Borrowdale,
A contingent of 40 members of the Rhodesian Services Association attended the ANZAC Day parade with
the Hobsonville RSA (Returned Servicemen's Association) in Auckland, New Zealand
recently. ANZAC day is the local equivalent of Poppy Day and there were
hundreds of memorial parades all around Australia and New Zealand. Hobsonville
RSA invited the Rhodesian group to join their parade some ten years ago, and
attendance has been growing ever since. A wreath was laid commemorating all
Rhodesian's contribution in not only the two world wars, but in many subsequent
conflicts in various parts of the world.
- report sent by John Pringle (New
Zealand),
The average Zimbabwean
woman is dying at 34, according to figures released on Friday in the World Health Organisation (WHO) annual
report for 2006. Zimbabwean men can expect to live only to 37. While the WHO
linked the shocking statistic to the high incidence of HIV-Aids, many doctors
complained that it was also because of the collapse of the health system in
Zimbabwe, which is struggling through its worst political and economic crisis.
“The life expectancy for women in Zimbabwe is not only about HIV-Aids. Many
women are dying during pregnancy, or during or after delivery. It is
shocking,” said Peter Iliff, a doctor and a member of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human
Rights. The report, based on figures available for 2004, said that in a
single year Zimbabwean women’s had become, on average, two years shorter.
Mugabe’s policies have seen the country’s economy shrink by more
than 40% in the past six years and inflation has soared, becoming the highest
in the world. The price of bread rose by 60% overnight on Friday after official
statistics confirmed that inflation was close to 1,000%. Zimbabweans battle
with chronic shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency, and with a crumbling
infrastructure and the poor medical services highlighted by the life expectancy
figures.
- Sunday Telegraph,
In one hand Frank Wiggill holds his monthly pension
statement and in the other a 500 gram packet of salt. It is the only thing in
the supermarket that his pension will buy, unless he prefers to splash out on
two eggs. When Wiggill retired after 38 years as an engine driver on the
Zimbabwean railways, he looked forward to enjoying his twilight years in
comfort. Instead he and his wife Jeanette depend on monthly food parcels from
well-wishers and handouts from their son in South Africa. The collapsing
currency combined with the world's highest inflation - estimated at more than
1,000% a year - has cut their pension to 13p a month. "It's
embarrassing," said Wiggill, 79. "I worked all my life and here I am
living on food parcels of milk powder and toilet paper." His monthly
pension of Z$49,000 is less than the cost of a newspaper (Z$50,000) or a loaf
of bread (Z$70,000). It would take him two months to buy a pint of milk
(Z$89,000) and nine months to afford the cheapest pack of four toilet rolls
(Z$440,000). "The pension is a laugh," he said. "It must cost
them Z$25,000 to post the statement." This month the Wiggill’s
received nothing. Deductions for three items on prescription (Z$30,000 a time)
after Wiggill cut down a cactus and got poisonous sap in his eye left him
Z$41,000 in debt to the pension company. At the same time the monthly rates on
his bungalow have increased to Z$679,124. Water and electricity are extra.
- Sunday Times, March 26, 2006
At least 15 men have
been arrested by Zimbabwean police amid allegations of a plot to launch an
armed rebellion against President Robert Mugabe. A cache of weapons was
reportedly seized and those held included some senior officials of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
An MDC member of parliament Giles Mutsekwa, a former officer in the Zimbabwe
National Army, and Brian James, the treasurer of the MDC’s Manicaland
province, in eastern Zimbabwe, were arrested last week. Roy Bennett, a former
opposition MP, who spent six months in prison last year, has been named by
police as being “wanted for questioning” in connection with the
alleged plot. Police claim they unearthed a cache of weapons in Mutare [Umtali]
and linked the haul to a Britist-based group, the Zimbabwe Freedom Movement, which the authorities claim has strong
ties to the MDC. A clutch of automatic rifles, AK47 rifles and some weapons
more than 40 years old were allegedly found, along with thousands of bullets
and a two-way radio system at the Mutare [Umtali] home of Michael Peter
Hitschmann, who police said was a member of the ZFM. Mr. Hirschmann, who
claimed to have served in the Rhodesian Army during the 1970s Bush War, is
alleged to have made a confession to police about the ZFM, its members and
links.
- Daily Telegraph,
Zimbabwe has two weeks
of wheat left and bread prices rose 30% in the past week alone, the
country’s Millers’ Association warned.
- Sunday Telegraph,
The corpses of at least 20 newborn babies and foetuses are
found each week in the sewers of Zimbabwe's capital, some having been flushed
down toilets, Harare [Salisbury] city authorities said, according to state
media yesterday. Town Clerk Nomutsa Chideya said the babies' remains were found
among a wide variety of waste and garbage cleared by city council workers
unblocking sewers and drains in Harare [Salisbury]. "Apart from upsetting
the normal flow of waste, it is not right from a moral standpoint. Some of the
things that are happening now are shocking," the Herald, a government mouthpiece, reported Chideya as saying. Acute
shortages of revenue and petrol in the nation's worst economic crisis since
1980 have crippled public utilities and garbage collection services across
Zimbabwe. Hospital fees and charges for scarce medicines have soared. Church
and charity groups blame economic hardships for an increase in back-street
abortions. Inflation is running at 613%.
Associated Press report, February 18, 2006
Mugabe has reversed his land policies and has offered some
white farmers their land back. With the fastest-shrinking economy in the world,
Mugabe has had to backtrack on six years of chaos and his own determination to
rid Zimbabwe of all White farmers. At the beginning of 2000, in an orgy of
violence, Mugabe seized the land, homes, equipment and infrastructure of about
4,000 White commercial farmers who produced nearly half Zimbabwe's foreign
currency. In the process Mugabe rewrote property laws, changed the constitution
and nationalised more than 20 million acres. About 1,5 million people lost
their homes and jobs. The economy collapsed and continues to contract, while
inflation powers towards 1,000%. The ruling ZANU-PF's all- powerful politburo
has been informed and selected journalists in the state-controlled media have
been briefed on how to spin the dramatic policy reversal. As of now, so the new
policy goes, the 5% or about 250 remaining White farmers still on small
portions of their land will immediately be offered state leases for their own
land. Some will be hoping that their full land holdings will be restored as a
second stage. Then the leases will be extended to some farmers who have already
been evicted, particularly where there is no activity on that land. Some fled
to Britain, Australia, New Zealand or South Africa. The government will admit,
in the next few days, that it has only used about 50% of the land it seized. In
reality, land economists say nearer to 80 to 90% of the land is lying idle. In
anticipation of this change of policy, the Commercial
Farmers Union - which has already advised some members to apply for leases
- issued a rare statement calling for a "moratorium on land and
agricultural policies". It said all those in agriculture should get
together and "rebuild the entire industry to return as the principal
employer of labour and generator of food and foreign exchange. We have the
energy and capacity to help bring Zimbabwe back once again to be the bread
basket of the sub-continent". Behind closed doors last week, the
International Monetary Fund told Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa that land
seizures should halt immediately and that without increased agricultural
production there was no chance of halting Zimbabwe's slide. But some white
farmers are cynical. "The government vastly underestimates the damage of
its insane polices," said one of Zimbabwe's former top cereal producers.
"They probably believe that allowing some of us to return will turn the
economy around in a single season. We won't be able to do anything without
international finance, and we won't get that until there is political
reform," he said.
- Cape Argus,
The effective
nationalisation of Zimbabwean cricket in Harare [Salisbury] has further damaged
their Test credibility and, according to the players, carries ominous
similarities with the demise of farming. The government dissolved the Zimbabwe
Cricket Board, setting up an interim panel for six months, and they announced a
cull of administrators along racial lines. Gibson Mashingaidze, an army
brigadier and chairman of the Sports and Recreation Commission, said that he
was unconcerned about the possible repercussions. He said that White and Asian
directors were left out for “their racial connotations and having their
own agendas and not government policy”. The brigadier, speaking on behalf
of the sports minister, added “We’re prepared to be chucked out of
the Test status. The government are saying we are starting afresh. We are not
bothered. Those who want to stay in can stay, but those who want to go are free
to go. They can go to India, Canada or wherever. We are not bothered.”
Clive Field, the Zimbabwe players’ representative, said “This
smacks of what happened on the farms. The government said they would simply
re-populate the farms with new farmers. They didn’t have the technology,
they didn’t have experience, they didn’t have capital. Look where
our farming is now: we’re importing food. I think cricket will go along the
same lines very quickly.”
Field said that he expected players to leave the country in droves.
“It might be the end of cricket [in Zimbabwe], because you can’t
just produce cricketers out of a hat. The senior guys aren’t happy with
what was said today, and the more junior players don’t see a future in
the game here.”
- Daily Telegraph,
Zimbabwe’s state
airline grounded its entire fleet yesterday after running out of aviation fuel.
For the first time in its 25-year history, Air
Zimbabwe cancelled flights to every destination. All seven of its aircraft
sat on the apron at Harare [Salisbury] airport “until further
notice”. Hundreds of angry passengers thronged the check-in desks at
Harare [Salisbury]. Zimbabwe’s spiralling economic crisis means that the
country has no foreign exchange to buy essential imports. Fuel shortages have
been acute for five years. The airline has been ruined by the collapse of
Zimbabwe’s tourism industry and interference from Mugabe’s regime.
- Daily Telegraph, November 23, 2005
In 1976 Ian Anderson of the Candour League of Rhodesia wrote the following: “From
Thermopalae (480BC) to Malta (AD1565)…it has often fallen to a small
community or people to give a moral examples to its larger and more powerful
neighbours … in each case valuable breathing space was gained for other
parties to rally to the cause and to complete the task so boldly initiated by
faith. “We in Rhodesia have a very strong sense of national purpose. We
feel we have been singled out by Providence to be the stumbling block in the
path of Communist aggression. There is yet time for the Western powers to put
Rhodesia’s stand in its historical perspective; but they are leaving it
dangerously late…” [Rhodesia: Myths and Facts]. In standing firm
against Communist aggression for 15 years, Rhodesia indeed won valuable
breathing space for the free world. In much the same way as the 300 Spartans
held up the enormous invading force of Persians at Thermopalae, and as the
courageous knights resisted the Islamic invasion of the small island of Malta,
I believe that, in time, history will recognise that the sacrifices and courage
of Rhodesians in resisting Communist terrorism contributed to the ultimate
collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe in 1989. Had Rhodesia not resisted, the
consequences could have been absolutely disastrous. Had South Africa fallen to
Communism during the Cold War, the strategic Cape sea route and vital minerals
essential for Western industry and defence, would have fallen into the hands of
the Soviet Union with catastrophic consequences. The reign of terror and state
sponsored terrorism of Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF regime in Zimbabwe have
only vindicated Ian Smith’s position. In time it will become even clearer
that in no small measure Ronald Reagan’s successful stand against
Communist expansion in the 1980’s was made possible by Rhodesia’s
stand against Communist terrorism in the 60’s and 70’s. The history
of Rhodesia confirms the disastrous consequences of the unprecedented foreign
interference and the rejection of Rhodesia’s internal settlement. Even
more seriously, there is a real danger of Mugabe’s example of lawless
land invasions in Zimbabwe being followed in Namibia and South Africa.
- www.frontline.org.za,
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The Hon. Ian Douglas Smith being awarded with the Order of the Flame Lily. The citation
on the scroll reads: "... in recognition of his upholding of the ideals
upon which the nation of Rhodesia was founded; his courageous leadership in
the face of adversity; his wisdom and statesmanship in the transition to
international acceptability; and his care and concern for the people of
Rhodesia to this present day." |
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The big Rhodesian-Zimbabwean Reunion opened at the Shamwari
Club near Hillcrest in Natal with a flag raising ceremony on Sunday 6th
November 2005. The skirl of bagpipes drew the crowd to the flag staffs, where
representatives of the former Rhodesian security forces raised the flags of
Southern Rhodesia and Rhodesia. When the bagpipes ceased, the bugler sounded
the reveille for the opening of this momentous week, as the rain started to
pelt down. At the lunch, people met old friends - some for the first time in
many years. Monday saw the usual crowd at the bar, as people started to arrive
from all over the world. By Tuesday celebrations were in full swing with the
"English Pub Evening" in true English style, and entertainment being
provided by Tony Darrell and his band. Wednesday morning was beautiful and
clear - ideal for the few staunch fishermen who rallied at the Inanda Dam for
the bass fishing competition. By breakfast - bacon, wors, eggs and rolls - not
many fish had taken the worm. However, by the second session these well
seasoned fishermen started to catch large mouth bass, but none weighed so much
as a kilogram. As usual many large ones got away! Still, it was an enjoyable
day, which ended with a couple or more chibulies at cut off time. That evening
a John Edmond Concert was held, with John live on stage, accompanied by his
lovely wife, Teresa, working the instrumental backing. Songs old and songs
new, mostly about days of yore, had the folk singing and clapping. It was
an evening filled with nostalgic memories of Rhodesia for the more than 400 people
present. On Thursday morning the reunion golf day was held, and was a
great success. Johnny Haswell entertained with his humour during the prize
giving. That afternoon John Edmond did a special show for the pensioners, some
of whom were bussed in from afar, so that they could participate during
daylight hours in the reunion. In the evening the BSAP Regimental Association gathered at the Tudor Rose Pub in
Hillcrest while the usual crowd kept the Shamwari Club pub open till late.
Friday the 11th started with the commemoration of UDI at 13.15 hrs. After
replaying the address to the nation delivered by Prime Minister Ian Douglas
Smith exactly 40 years previously, John Redfern proposed a toast to Rhodesia.
In the evening the "Come as You Were" party took place. A couple of
the ‘young ladies' were dressed in their school uniforms from yesteryear
– wearing their hair in pony-tails. One guy was wearing his camo with a
Corps of Engineers stable belt and beret. Lew Lloyd-Evans wore his No.6
Rhodesian rugby jersey - albeit somewhat tight on him, and there were many
others among the 600 people present who ‘dressed for the occasion'.
Needless to say, the evening was a great success. The pub did run out of Castle
Beer and Coke for a short while, despite plenty of movement between the cold
rooms and the bar all night long. People partied until 03.00 hrs the next day.
Apart from the liquids, Erica and Roy provided tasty meals throughout the
evening. Saturday started with a "Remembrance Parade" organised by
the SAS Association, attended by
approximately 400 people who gathering for a memorial service at this SAS
Memorial at the Flame Lily Park in Malvern. Wreaths were laid by
representatives of the various Rhodesian forces, as well as the British SAS,
South African Special forces, and the Flame
Lily Foundation. The lunchtime gathering at the Club was well attended,
while preparations were in being made at the International Conference Centre
for the Gala Dinner. Over 800 people sat down to an excellent meal, with a
starter of line fish, followed by shank of lamb and ending with mango
cheesecake. The speeches were exceptional, with Peter Rawson acting as MC.
Richard Wood, with his excellent wit and dry sense of humour spoke on the
security forces of Rhodesia; Ann Grant spoke on the women of Rhodesia, and
provoked a tear or two; Doug Watson dealt with the sportsmen and women of
Rhodesia, John Haswell closed with his own special brand of humour. Between the
speeches and during the meal, the building of Kariba and scenes from Rhodesia
were displayed on the big screen. John and Mary Redfern were presented with an
award for their valued contribution towards the interests of Rhodesians over
the past two decades, and John Edmond was made a Member of Honour of the Flame Lily Foundation in recognition of
outstanding support in furthering the objects of the Foundation, and his
dedication in "keeping the flame alive" by bringing Rhodesians in
various parts of the world together. After the speeches, John Edmond
entertained the audience with his songs and music that put them in dancing mood
for the rest of the evening. Between dances, SAS group photographs were taken
and some RLI veterans tried their best to entertain the crowd with their
rendering of "When the Saints Go Marching In". The closing ceremony on
Sunday the 13th was well attended, with the lowering of flags to the strains of
the Last Post, and the Rhodesian National Anthem being played on the bagpipes.
The consensus was that it had been a great week, as words of appreciation were
declared to all those involved in the organisation. The event ended with the
raffle of an iced fruit cake in the shape of Rhodesia, donated by Pet Bester,
and the issuing of other wonderful prizes.
- report by Liz Archibald of the Rhodesian
Association of South Africa Durban Branch, November 2005
Mugabe has been in power for a quarter century, and the
results have been catastrophic. Unemployment is at 70 to 80 % and inflation at
350 %. Zimbabwe's foreign debt has climbed to more than $4.8 billion, but that
didn't stop Mugabe from recently spending an estimated $400 million on
military equipment. With his recent "cleanup" program, Mugabe
has rendered 700,000 Zimbabweans homeless and driven 500,000 children from
their schools. In some cases, the police beat slum inhabitants to death when
they attempted to defend their possessions; others were buried under the ruins
of their corrugated metal huts. At least 200,000 farm workers lost their jobs
as a result of the expropriation campaign. The situation has since become so hopeless
that the head of Zimbabwe's central bank, Gideon Gono, recently said the White
farmers should be brought back. But Gono's plea fell on deaf ears. Only last
week Mugabe's thugs attacked three White farmers so violently that they had to
be hospitalized. The United Nations World Food Program estimates that more
than 4 million Zimbabweans will soon need food aid. About 3 million
Zimbabweans have already fled to Botswana or South Africa.
- report sent
by Agnes Römer from Germany,
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The UK
Branch of the BSAP Regimental Association
held their 58th Annual Regimental Dinner at the Victory Services Club in central London on Friday 30th
September 2005, at which the Guest of Honour was General Sir Michael Walker
GCB, CMG, CBE, ADC Gen., the Chief of the Defence Staff. Pictured above are
[left] a scene at the top table. Seated from left to right are: Peter Phillips
(Chairman of the UK Branch of the BSAP
Regimental Association), General Sir Michael Walker and Barry Henson (BSAP Regimental Association
representative from Cyprus); [middle] assembled members of the Association
enjoying the sumptuous dinner, with some of the many Rhodesian flags on display
in the background; and [right] General Sir Michael Walker with Alan Harvey, an
official guest representing the Springbok
Club.
Fuel prices in Zimbabwe
were doubled for the second time in 10 weeks yesterday. Shell said Mugabe’s government had agreed to raise the price
of a litre of petrol from 10,000 to 22,300 Zimbabwean Dollars (about 50p), with
diesel also doubling. Zimbabwe has suffered erratic fuel supplies since 1999
due to chronic foreign currency shortages during its economic crisis, which
deepened with the collapse of its lucrative farm sector following the seizure
of land from White owners. The fuel crisis has deteriorated recently. Many
filling stations have had no fuel for weeks and even public transport operators
have been forced to take their vehicles off the roads.
- Daily Telegraph,
In what has been
described as a further attempt to keep his armed forces on-side, Mugabe has
announced that close to 6,000 members of the defence forces are still to
benefit from his notorious land grab and evictions campaign. Mugabe told
thousands gathered at a Harare [Salisbury] stadium to mark Defence Forces Day
that some members of the military had already been given land - both farmland
expropriated from White farmers, and plots ‘cleared’ of Black
squatters and informal traders. More than 3,000 White farmers were forced off
their farms, and 700,000 Black Zimbaweans lost their homes or their livelihoods
during the ZANU-PF regime’s state terror campaigns which, critics say,
was aimed at supporters of the opposition MDC.
- Southern Cross Africa News,
Zimbabwe is approaching what is called an
economic melt-down. Inter alia, Zimbabwe's national airline has had to cancel
flights on some of its established routes, including the popular Harare
[Salisbury] to London route, due to its worst fuel shortage in years, while the
man in the street is forced to queue for days to get hold of some of the
dwindling supplies of petrol - amid a general shortage of virtually anything.
However, cynics have pointed out that such predictions have been made before,
and that neighbouring South Africa, which is ruled by the allied ANC, is
already planning to help its former 'struggle comrades' overcome its latest
problems.
-
Southern Cross Africa News,
Armed riot police and
youth militia of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party are rounding up homeless
people who sought refuge in church compounds where they fled after their homes
were demolished by the government. Witnesses said hundreds were cleared from
about 17 churches in the country’s second city of Bulawayo. Clergymen
said they believed the homeless had been taken to a government
“transit” camp and would then be dumped in remote rural areas. They
were victims of Mugabe’s “Operation Restore Order”, during
which security forces burned legal and informal dwellings in the Killarney
township in Bulawayo on June 10. The United Nations has said more than 200,000
people were made homeless during Mugabe’s campaign in urban areas, home
to most supporters of the opposition Movement
for Democratic Change. The new direction in the crackdown came as it was
announced that the national airline was suspending several domestic and
international flights because of dire fuel shortages. Imports of diesel and
other fuel have been erratic since 1999 amid foreign currency shortages due to
poor exports. The fuel woes have exacerbated an economic crisis with food
shortages, record unemployment and one of the highest rates of inflation in the
world.
- Daily Telegraph,
As pressure from outside Black Africa mounts,
the shortages of basic commodities in Zimbabwe have intensified. Most retail
shops have run out of essential goods such as salt and soap. The recent
shortages also add to the list of basics that have disappeared from shelves as
companies grapple with perennial foreign currency shortages and increased
overheads caused by skewed economic policies. The list of shortages includes
milk, bread, flour, cooking oil and toothpaste. Experts say the list is likely
to widen as the economy continues to crash and government intensifies its
interference in the manufacturing sector. The ruling ZANU-PF regime is also
likely to worsen the situation with its plans to reintroduce price controls.
Fuel is nowhere in sight and queues have now become the order of day with motorists
spending as much as two weeks parked at service stations hoping for a product
that just is not there.
- Southern Cross Africa News,
Since mid-May, Zimbabwean police have been
demolishing houses, cottages, backyard shacks, flea markets and squatter camps
as part of what the government says is a campaign which they claim is aimed at
curbing crime and easing pressure on overcrowded towns and cities. In addition
to creating homelessness up to 750,000 people have been forcibly removed from
their livelihoods human rights groups say. Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
says the police are trying to drive opposition supporters out of urban areas
into the countryside where Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF is dominant.
-
Southern Cross Africa News,
The Herald, the state-controlled Zimbabwean daily, has admitted that the ruling
Mugabe regime has been forced to cover a grain deficit of nearly 2 million tons
of maize. According to The Herald,
the regime is importing 1.8 million tons, almost all of its needed grain - to
offset a deficit the southern African country is facing this year. As usual a
drought is blamed for the short-fall, but critics say the crisis has been
caused by falling production at formerly White-owned farms that were seized and
handed to Blacks and cronies of the ruling ZANU-PF regime from 2000 onwards. In Rhodesian days the
country regularly provided not only for its own needs, but exported a surplus.
Since the arrival of Black rule “Zimbabwe” has depended on food aid
and imports for several years to meet requirements averaging from 1.8 million
to two million tons of maize per year, according to statistics released by the
ZANU-PF regime itself. A forecast
last year promised a return to self-sufficiency, but this month Mugabe
admitted to United Nations envoy
James Morris, the director of the World Food Programme (WFP), that he was ready
to accept food aid. The WFP estimates up to four million people will require
food aid this year. Not only is staple grain in short supply, but other basics
such as sugar and cooking oil are not always readily available. On top of this
petrol stations have run dry and long queues have become the norm.
- Southern Cross Africa News,
Outspoken White
“Zimbabwean” opposition MP, Roy Bennett, has been freed having served a jail sentence for shoving a
Black minister to the ground for insulting him. Bennett, then one of only three
White Zimbabweans who held seats in the last parliament, served nine of a
12-month prison term. He is a commercial farmer and a member of the main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) party. He pushed the Black government minister Chinamasa to the floor,
after the minister accused Bennett's ancestors of being "thieves". A
month ago Bennett went before the country's appeals court, the supreme court,
to challenge the sentence and the validity of the special parliamentary
committee which heard his case, saying it was dominated by ruling ZANU-PF deputies
and was therefore biased against him. During the hearing state lawyer Rumbidzai
Gatsi initially conceded that the sentence imposed on Bennett was excessive,
but later withdrew her statement - allegedly after threats from the ruling
ZANU-PF regime which controls the judiciary. Bennett was barred from contesting
the March 31 elections, but his wife Heather ran in his place, losing the seat
to a ruling ZANU-PF candidate.
- Southern Cross Africa News,
Mugabe was accused
yesterday of displaying “senile dementia” when he boasted to
Zimbabwe’s parliament that “great strides” were being taken
towards “economic recovery”. The president hailed the march of
progress in a capital where bulldozers have demolished thriving factories and
township shacks alike, throwing tens of thousands on to the streets. The
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
denounced his stumbling, hesitant performance at the official opening of
parliament, saying that Mugabe had finally lost any “grasp of
reality”. The razing of townships and street markets across Zimbabwe has
now led to 30,000 people being arrested and 200,000 left homeless.
- Daily Telegraph,
Paramilitary units armed
with batons, riot shields, and tear gas patrolled main roads in Zimbabwe's
capital last weekend as police warned they would not tolerate protests against
their crackdown on street trading - the only livelihood for thousands of poor
township dwellers. The police, under direct orders from Didymus Mutasa, the
head of the secret police (Zimbabwe's Central Intelligence Organization), have
brutally removed any competition to Chinese traders whose shops have sprung up
around the capital over the past few years. Mutasa said law and order had to be
preserved and Harare's Police Chief, Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka, said
9,653 people were arrested in the five-day blitz on street vendors, flea market
stalls, and other informal businesses. This crackdown appears to be part of an
orchestrated pro-China initiative. Mutasa, who is now overseeing the
distribution of land to the Chinese, would not comment on charges that the
Mugabe regime is giving tobacco farming land to the Chinese in exchange for war
planes and other arms. What is certain is that the Zimbabwean government is
buying these arms and the only imminent threat to Mugabe is his own people.
Police Chief Mandipaka said people were preparing to demonstrate but that
police were ready and commuter minibuses (the main form of transport across
Zimbabwe) were prevented from entering the city centre. As Zimbabweans fight
off hunger and oppression, some have had the courage to fight back. Angry
demonstrators clashed with police over the weekend in the most serious unrest
since President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party stole a landslide victory
in the March 31 parliamentary general election. But the violence by
demonstrators may backfire, according to Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
He recognizes classic Mugabe tactics and is accusing the 81-year-old tyrant of
provoking conditions for declaring a state of emergency, which would give him
unlimited powers of detention, seizure, and censorship. Tsvangirai also accused
Mugabe of ordering the crackdown in response to pressure from newly-arrived
Chinese businessmen to stop second-hand dealers undercutting their cheap
imports. "The country has been mortgaged to the Chinese," Tsvangirai
said in a statement. "How can we violently remove Zimbabweans from our
flea markets to make way for the Chinese? The majority of Zimbabweans depend on
informal trade to feed, clothe, and educate their families." Since western
countries imposed sanctions on the Mugabe regime three years ago for failing to
uphold democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, the Zimbabwean leader has
responded by looking East. Mugabe himself vigorously courted Chinese
businessmen to invest in Zimbabwe, who in the last three years have descended
on Harare and the country's other major cities, setting up shop at every street
corner to sell cheap clothing and electronic goods. But Zimbabweans have
responded with cut-throat competition and informal trading. Police Chief
Mandipaka said operators of informal businesses had been fined for operating
without city council licenses or for possessing scarce staple items such as
maize meal, sugar, and gasoline intended for resale on the black market.
"Police will leave no stone unturned in their endeavour to flush out
economic saboteurs," said Mandipaka. One local academic joked that Mugabe
had "yellow fever" since he can only see allies in Asia, which he
knows will not criticize his oppressive policies. But the academic also raised
a more serious point: Mugabe is throwing his own political cronies off tobacco
growing land and oppressing street hawkers in towns to make way for the
Chinese; and he is selling out his country to the Chinese in order to cling to
power. So far, the West has done nothing to stem the tide of human rights abuse
in Zimbabwe and has steadfastly refused to push for a UN resolution or any
military solution.
- article by Roger Bate, News Corporation, Weekly Standard,
Nationwide electrical blackouts for days
on end have embarrassed the ruling ZANU-PF regime of President Mugabe. The
power cuts caused lifts in buildings to stop working, traffic lights to go out,
cafes and restaurants to close and cinemas to send patrons away. Opposition
leaders have linked the blackouts to the general decline and lowering of
standards under the Mugabe regime. Mugabe 10 years ago vetoed Western
companies' completing plans for massive upgrading of Hwange [Wankie] Power
Station in favour of his own scheme to give the project to a Malaysian
consortium. The scheme was never followed through.
- Southern Cross Africa News,
Mugabe has brazenly cocked-a-snook at a
European Union travel ban and flown into Rome to attend Pope John Paul II's
funeral. Italy is obliged to let him enter under accords with the Vatican,
which is legally a separate state. The trip was immediately denounced by one of
Mugabe's fiercest human rights critics, Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube of
Bulawayo. "That man will use any opportunity to fly to Europe to promote
himself. The man is shameless," said the archbishop. According to the
state-controlled Zimbabwean radio, Jesuit-educated Mugabe was accompanied by
his acting finance minister, Herbert Murerwa, and the normal numerous Black
Africa-type entourage of undisclosed size. It was not confirmed whether his
wife, Grace, was among them, but she normally accompanies her husband to go
shopping.
- Southern Cross Africa News,
Thousands of Zimbabweans
raised their hands for change yesterday at the largest rally of the opposition
election campaign. Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, was greeted by a sea of open palms
as he addressed 15,000 supporters in the capital Harare [Salisbury]. However,
the contest is heavily rigged against Mr. Tsvangirai. There is less violence
than in any recent campaign but every branch of the electoral machinery is
slanted in Mugabe’s favour. Independent surveys have shown that the
electoral roll is stuffed with the names of voters who have died or emigrated.
At least one million names have been falsely registered.
- Daily Telegraph,
The hungry children and the families dying
of AIDS here are gut-wrenching, but somehow what I find even more depressing is
this: Many, many ordinary Black Zimbabweans wish that they could get back the
White racist [sic] government that oppressed them in the 1970's. "If we
had the chance to go back to White rule, we'd do it," said Solomon Dube, a
peasant whose child was crying with hunger when I arrived in his village.
"Life was easier then, and at least you could get food and a job." Mr.
Dube acknowledged that the White regime of Ian Smith was awful. But now he
worries that his 3-year-old son will die of starvation, and he would rather put
up with any indignity than witness that. An elderly peasant in another village,
Makupila Muzamba, said that hunger today is worse than ever before in his seven
decades or so, and said: "I want the White man's government to come back.
... Even if Whites were oppressing us, we could get jobs and things were cheap
compared to today." His wife, Mugombo Mudenda, remembered that as a
younger woman she used to eat meat, drink tea, use sugar and buy soap. But now
she cannot even afford corn gruel. "I miss the days of White rule,"
she said.
- New York Times article by Nicholas D.
Kristoe, March 23, 2005
According to a UN report and other
information, the Zimbabwean economy has declined by 38% from 1999 to 2003 - the
highest for any country in the world. Less than 50% of the agricultural land
taken from White farmers is still in production. In the period from 1988 up to
2004 life expectancy has dropped from 63 years down to 33 years. About half of
the adult population, more than three million, are said to have emigrated. Most
of these are now in South Africa, where they are disfranchised and powerless to
prevent the re-election of Mugabe.
-
Southern Cross Africa News,
The MDC is increasingly
perplexed by claims by the South African Government that the elections in
Zimbabwe will be free and fair and by its claims that it does not see any problems
in Zimbabwe’s Electoral System. The MDC does not understand the South
African Government’s ignorance about the situation in Zimbabwe and the
basis for such optimism and believes that the position adopted by the South
African Government is not only misinformed, but also dangerously
premature. At present it is clear to each and every objective observer
that conditions for a free and fair election do not exist in Zimbabwe. There is
therefore nothing whatsoever to suggest that the elections will be free and
fair, or indeed legitimate. The electoral environment is actually worse than it
was during the March 2002 presidential elections. Contrary to the view
propagated by the South African Government, their counterparts in Harare
[Salisbury] are not taking any meaningful steps to ensure the elections will be
free and fair. The voters’ roll is in a shambles, violence and
intimidation remain prevalent, equal access to the state media is a myth and
the elections will be managed and run by the same biased electoral bodies which
have manipulated the electoral process to the political advantage of the ruling
party in previous elections. The much trumpeted new electoral commission has no
direct role to play in this election. It was established far too late to have any
meaningful influence on the process. More importantly, anything it does do is
subject to the authority of the Mugabe appointed Electoral Supervisory
Commission. This compromises its independence. The MDC and other
progressive forces in Zimbabwe are therefore deeply concerned to hear the South
African Government praising the new ‘independent’ commission and
citing its establishment as proof that the Zimbabwe government is complying
with the new regional election standards. Nothing could be further from the
truth. MDC meetings and rallies continue to be banned or disrupted by the
police under the notorious Public Order and Security Act. 16 MDC candidates
have already been the victims of arbitrary arrest and police harassment and
scores of MDC activists have been arrested for such innocuous crimes as putting
up posters. No ZANU-PF supporter has yet to be arrested for this
‘crime’. The complicity of members of the police and army in
incidents of political violence casts a dark shadow over the legitimacy of the
entire electoral process. The MDC urges the South African Government to
re-think the wisdom of publicly expressing its confidence in the capacity of
Mugabe and ZANU-PF to host free and fair elections when there is a dearth of
evidence on the ground to support such an optimistic outlook. Positive
signals from regional neighbours provide unnecessary succour to the authorities
in Zimbabwe and often serve to galvanise those bent on engaging in
anti-democratic activities. To the people of Zimbabwe, the optimism expressed
by the South African Government is increasingly viewed as misplaced solidarity
and a deliberate attempt to frustrate the new beginning they so desperately
desire. This perception undermines public confidence in the objectivity and
impartiality of South African and SADC observer missions. There is a
growing suspicion in Zimbabwe that the sole objective of the SADC and South
Africa observer missions is not to ensure the full expression of the ‘one
person, one vote’ principle but to legitimise a ZANU-PF
‘victory’, regardless of the manner in which this
‘victory’ is achieved. There is an urgent need to demonstrate
that this is not the case. However, the decision by the Zimbabwe Government not
to invite the SADC Parliamentary Forum (who published an adverse report on the
2002 Presidential poll) to observe the elections, and the public defence of
this decision by South Africa, sows further doubts in the minds of the people
vis-à-vis the impartiality of the observers who have been invited. The
people of Zimbabwe want food, jobs and better living standards. They must be
free to vote for the party they believe is best equipped to address these basic
grievances. Any moves to compromise the exercise of this basic and hard
earned right would severely damage the credibility of both the South African
Government and the SADC. Rhetorical commitments to promoting good
governance have to be followed up by concrete action if they are to be taken
seriously. The elections in Zimbabwe provide the first real test of this commitment.
- MDC press release,
Ole Sande, 66, one of
the few White farmers left in the Banket district north of Harare [Salisbury],
was beaten to death last weekend.
- Daily Telegraph,
Zimbabwean sporting authorities have been
forced to admit that what was long touted as one of the country’s
“top female athletes” is actually a man. The discovery came when
multiple medal winner Samukeliso Sithole was waiting with friends for a train
at a Zimbabwean railway station. A man then approached the group and said that
Sithole was actually a man. Sithole was subsequently arrested by police in the
Midlands chrome-producing city of Kwekwe [Que Que], where a government doctor
confirmed he was male. However, the athlete claims he was born with both male
and female genitals. He also told a Kwekwe [Que Que] court that his parents had
consulted a witch-doctor (‘traditional healer’) in the eastern
district of Chipinge, and that the this ‘healer’ had provided herbs
which made him female, but because his parents had only paid half the fee due
his male genitalia had reappeared - just before the test. In fact, he said, on the day that he
appeared in court he had been due to pay the settlement amount and if he had
been able to do this, his male genitalia would have gone away again.
- Southern Cross Africa News,
So many doctors and nurses at Zimbabwe's
government hospitals have left the Black-ruled country that its health sector
is now in crisis. According to latest reports, the medical brain-drain has
reached such critical levels in Zimbabwe that bodies are piling up for months
in morgues because there are no pathologists to conduct post-mortems. A report
presented last month at the ZANU-PF party congress was forced to admit that
only about 9% of pharmacists required in hospitals are currently at work along
with less than half of the doctors. At least 1,530 doctors are needed, but only
687 were working at state institutions in 2003, against 6,940 nurses out of a
required 11,640, according to a health ministry report. Like in neighbouring,
equally Black-ruled South Africa, the most popular destinations for emigrating
health professionals are Britain, Australia and Canada.
-
Southern Cross Africa News,
Mugabe intensified his
purge of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party yesterday when four senior
officials were charged with spying. Among the four, who face 20 years in jail,
was Philip Chiyangwa, the president’s cousin.
- Daily Telegraph,
The International
Bar Association has launched a stinging attack on Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe, saying he should be held accountable for his reign of terror. Mark
Ellis, the IBA executive director, said there was well-documented and
staggering evidence that Mugabe's government has committed murder, torture,
rape, abduction and enslavement. The attack on Mugabe's regime was contained in
a six-page IBA supplement on the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe published
Friday in South Africa's weekly Mail and
Guardian and Zimbabwe's weekend independent newspapers. "Zimbabwe's
descent into this unimaginable chaos is the result of the perverse policies of
Mugabe," Ellis said in the supplement's lead article. "His systematic
oppression of an increasingly impoverished people and his government's
widespread policy of subverting the press, the rule of law and human rights are
a desperate and brutal attempt to retain political power at all costs."
Ellis said other inhumane acts by Mugabe's government include the systematic
policy of denying food aid to anyone who is not a member of his ruling ZANU-PF
party. Ellis also said Mugabe should be held accountable by the International
Criminal Court. Even though Zimbabwe has not ratified the creation of the
court, he said a post-Mugabe government could request an investigation and
indictment. "If Mugabe can manipulate and evade domestic and regional
justice, he should not be able to elude international justice," wrote Ellis
- in a thinly veiled reference to Mugabe's Black regional neighbours, who,
under the leadership of “new” South African president Thabo Mbeki
have not only refused to condemn the Zimbabwean state terror, but have come out
in full support of Mugabe's repressive, White-hate policies. Ellis added that
an investigation by the court would counter what he called the "woeful
response to Mugabe's crimes" by many African nations.
-
Southern Cross Africa News,
Chinese money is helping
keep Mugabe's government afloat, and Zimbabwe's national airline is to start
flying to the Chinese capital Beijing twice a week. The plan, announced by
Chinese media, comes as China is upping its influence in Zimbabwe's battered
economy. The latest stage of a long-standing relationship has seen floods of
cheap goods imported from China, and big construction deals go to Chinese
firms. Air Zimbabwe is thought to have only two working long-haul aircraft,
although it expects another two from China thanks to a deal signed earlier this
year. The Beijing flights will help service China's extensive investments
in Zimbabwe, estimated by Zimbabwe's government to be worth US$600m but by the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change
to be much higher. China's relationship with Zimbabwe dates back to the 1980s,
when troops were trained by Chinese advisers - as well as those from North
Korea and elsewhere. As aid dried up in the 1990s, the Chinese extended
assistance, as well as funding military improvements. But with Zimbabwe's economic
isolation of the past four years - and its spiralling troubles, including 700%
inflation and 70% unemployment - the relationship has strengthened. As many as
9,000 Chinese are believed to be in Zimbabwe working on a wide range of
projects. In construction, the Chinese are understood to be working on
hydro-electric and coal power stations, bridges, airports, and the
reconstruction of Zimbabwe's most important border post at Beit Bridge with
South Africa. A Chinese consortium also has a management contract with Zisco,
the state steel firm, while technology firm Huawei has a $440m contract to
supply telecoms equipment. In addition, the Zimbabwe government confirmed
earlier this year it was buying $200m of military equipment from China -
although a spokesman later denied it. Zimbabwe's mineral wealth, which includes
platinum, gold and diamonds, may also be a cause of China's heightened
interest.
-
A Zimbabwean, Reason
Tafirei from Harare's [Salisbury’s] satellite city of Chitungwiza, has
been charged under public order laws for calling President Robert Mugabe a
dictator. Tafirei, who was unemployed, boarded a bus in the generally
anti-Mugabe township and shouted: "Mugabe is a dictator who rules by the
sword and Tony Blair is a liberator." He has been charged under Zimbabwe's
notorious Public Order and Security Act which makes it illegal to denigrate the
president. Tafirei has yet to be sentenced.
- Southern Cross Africa News,
A prominent White Zimbabwean
MP was jailed last night for a year with hard labour for his part in a scuffle
in which two ministers were knocked to the floor of parliament last May. MPs
voted last night by 53 to 42 to jail Roy Bennett, a member of the Movement for Democratic Change who has
been arrested and tortured repeatedly by the Mugabe regime. The incident was
sparked when Patrick Chinamasa, the justice minister, called the White MP a
racist. Mr. Bennett hit him and then traded blows with Didymus Mutasa, the
anti-corruption minister.
- Daily Telegraph,
A group of about 30 White holidaymakers,
including 14 South Africans, some “Zimbabweans” and two
Australians, who were on an annual fishing trip in a fishing camp on the Zambezi
river, have been arrested by Zimbabwean police after displaying the Australian
flag and, allegedly, expressing their joy over the acquittal of opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai during a party at night. On the morning after the
party, heavily-armed Black police arrived, arrested all of them, and drove them
under escort to Karoi police station, about 200km north of Harare [Salisbury].
-
Southern Cross Africa News,
Night falls across Harare [Salisbury] and
Tracy Ncube sashays up Fife Avenue in a tight skirt and borrowed shirt to sell
the only thing she can. Half a dozen other young women are already stationed
outside Tipperary's Bar and Ncube
picks her spot, a tree opposite the car park illuminated by headlights. She has
been a prostitute for two weeks and has bagged three customers, earning $45.
Zimbabwe's youth were once considered Africa's brightest, graduates of one of
the continent's best education systems which bred sophistication, confidence
and ambition. But the economy has crumbled and, with it, opportunity. There are
virtually no jobs. About 90% of the country's 11,8-million people live on less
than $1 a day. Hyperinflation and food shortages are making the middle class
destitute. So, a fortnight ago, Ncube (23) turned to prostitution. 'These days
life is very hard. My family doesn't know that I do this, but how else am I to
survive?'
She was visibly nervous. Her voice
trembled, but she was determined to bag a fourth customer to earn between $7
and $20. Aid jargon calls prostitution, or transactional sex, a 'negative
coping mechanism', a desperate but effective way to get by. Others emigrate,
flying to Britain to work as nurses or jumping a fence to scrounge jobs in
Botswana or South Africa. Their pay keeps many families afloat. For President
Robert Mugabe, all this is excellent news. Inflation is close to 400%,
unemployment is at 70% and hunger and homelessness are spreading, but there is
no sign of revolution. On Saturday, the country was digesting the surprise
acquittal of the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who had been charged
with attempting to assassinate the president. On Friday a high court in Harare
dismissed the case which for two years had crippled his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). It was a significant boost
for the party but there was little public jubilation. Partly this was because
police in riot gear patrolled the capital with guns and batons. A military jet
roared low overhead to reinforce the authority of a regime in power since 1980.
But another reason was resignation. Analysts say that the ruling ZANU-PF party
will sweep parliamentary elections due next March because opposition has been
crushed. Starved of an independent media and the right to campaign freely, the
MDC has withered, according to a senior MP who asked not to be named. Its
narrow defeats in rigged elections in 2000 and 2002 were high-water marks, he
said. Both cause and symptom of its malaise are to be found on Fife Avenue. At
night, the smart, leafy suburb close to the city centre is a red-light
district. None of the prostitutes had a good word to say about Mugabe, whom
they accused of despotism, but none responded to the MDC's plea to rally at the
high court for Tsvangirai's verdict. 'Look, I'm a working girl. I need to sleep
and do things around the house during the day,' said Talent Mushonga (23).
Samantha Hazvinei (24) said girls as young as 15 and middle-aged married women
were turning up. 'We are too many ladies looking for too few men. I need to
come earlier and earlier and stay longer to get business.' A UN report last
year said poverty and hunger were fuelling child labour and prostitution. An
aid worker, who did not want to be named because of a crackdown on
non-governmental organisations, said she knew middle-aged women, including
nurses, teachers and police officers, who had turned to prostitution. Maxine
(27) a three-year veteran of Fife Avenue, said the new arrivals were reckless.
'They are hot hot, chilli chilli, all in a rush. But they don't last, they die
fast.' Official figures show that 24.6% of the adult population is infected
with HIV, one of the highest rates in the world.
- Guardian Unlimited,
Having successfully driven off thousands of White farmers, and ruined
the agricultural sector in the process,
Zimbabwean authorities are now driving off thousands of Blacks who were
at the forefront of ‘the people’s hunger for land’ campaign
and were used to occupy formerly White-owned farms under Mugabe's land grab
scheme in 2000. For the last three weeks, paramilitary police have raided
scores of farms in once-productive White commercial farming areas, evicting
settlers and burning down their homes. Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena was
quoted as saying "We are moving in countrywide as a way of trying to
normalise the resettlement patterns." Thousands of evicted Blacks have
camped at the roadsides, sheltering with their belongings. All those
interviewed said they had been there since 2000 when Mugabe launched his
revolutionary land reform programme which urged Blacks to help themselves to
White-owned land.
- Southern Cross Africa News,
A week before his third
birthday, Sunshine, a pet giraffe, was shot last Tuesday by a game warden, then
braaied and eaten by police officers, a headmaster and primary school children
in Zimbabwe, 120km from the South African border. Several parents have
expressed dismay that their children, from Mabeka Primary School in West
Nicholson, were taken on an outing by their school principal, and watched a
National Parks official shoot the
tame giraffe at point-blank range.
Thea Akeroyd, who looked after the orphaned infant giraffe after its mother was
poached in October 2001, was in tears on Friday as she recalled the incident,
which has shocked the community. I was in Bulawayo at the time. When I returned
home, I was told that Sunshine had been taken away by a senior policeman,
a uniformed policewoman, the headmaster of the school, and a bunch of kids,
some of them very young. "My husband Gary returned a couple of hours after
me, and went to the school which is next door to us to fetch Sunshine. He found
them drinking alcohol, and cooking our giraffe. They were loading some of the meat into a truck. I have reported
this to the police, I have the case number, and they are investigating. Some
people from National Parks and some important people in the district have been
in contact with us and are very angry. Akeroyd said in June she was visited at
Tods Guest House, owned by her husband's family, by Assistant Commissioner
Ephraim Katya who told her she needed a permit to keep the giraffe as a pet. He
had been worrying us for a couple of years because he wanted to take this
property for a high person in government, and we didn't move. I went to
Bulawayo to National Parks to get a permit, but they just laughed at me,
because there is no such permit, there is no rule like that." Akeroyd said
Sunshine was a local celebrity and would have been domesticated if he had been
able to get inside their home. He used to try and come inside, but of course he
couldn't, but it made us laugh, and we kept him in a pen close to the house.
All the kids around here loved him. When visitors came from South Africa they
loved him. People all around were used to him because he enjoyed human company.
So when they came to take him to be killed, he just went with them, he wasn't
scared." She said they had witnesses who saw their long-necked pet shot at
point-blank range. Assistant Commissioner Katya from West Nicholson police on Friday
confirmed that Sunshine had been killed at the primary school. "He was shot by the man from National Parks,
not by the police. We did not eat
his meat, "he said."
- The Star (Johannesburg),
In this nation that once
boasted one of sub-Saharan Africa's most vibrant economies, things have become
so bad that people have taken to telling a wry joke: "What did we have
before candles?" The answer: "Electricity." Four years of
turmoil have turned back the clock here. Ambulances are drawn by oxen.
Hand-guided cattle ploughs have replaced farm machinery. The state railroad
uses gunpowder charges on the tracks to warn trains of danger ahead. The
often-violent seizure of thousands of White-owned farms for reallocation to
Black Zimbabweans, coupled with erratic rains, has decimated Zimbabwe's
agriculture-based economy. Mugabe argues that the land seizures have corrected
ownership imbalances from British colonial days that left one-third of the
country's farmland in the hands of about 5 000 White farmers. Many seized farms
went to Mugabe's cronies and lie fallow. Ownership deeds were abolished,
denying most new farmers collateral for loans for equipment and materials.
Tobacco production - once the country's biggest hard-currency earner - has
dropped by nearly 75% since the seizures began in 2000. The economic free-fall
has been marked by regular power blackouts and acute shortages of fuel, spare
parts and new technology. Soaring inflation and a shortage of hard currency
have made it impossible to import machinery needed to rebuild the economy.
Once-fertile farmland now has the desolate look of a junkyard; farm machines
that used to rumble through fields now stand idle, broken down or plundered for
components. "Whole irrigation systems are down, farm equipment is at a
standstill or in a shocking state of repair," said John Worsely-Worswick,
head of a farmers' support group. A formerly White-owned estate that produced a
fourth of the nation's wheat has been broken up into small parcels of land for
Black farmers, bringing intensive, large-scale farming to a halt. In an unusual
admission of economic weakness, the government recently estimated that at least
35,000 new tractors are needed to revive mechanised agriculture, which began
here with the importation of the first tractor in 1911. Foreign investors and
aid groups have been withholding support because of alleged government
corruption and human-rights violations. The independent Southern African Railways Association has described Zimbabwe's
broken railway system as lagging at least 50 years behind present-day
standards. Faced with a shortage of ambulances in the crumbling national health
system, nine wooden carts hauled by oxen went into service in July to ferry
pregnant women, children and other non-emergency cases safely - and slowly -
along rural dirt roads to the nearest clinics. Abraham Kochi, a house painter
from western Harare [Salisbury], said he can no longer find kerosene for his
stove and is forced to cook with firewood. This new reliance on firewood by
poor families has caused severe deforestation. As poverty deepens, the Zimbabwe National Association of Traditional
Healers has reported a sharp increase in patients consulting herbalists and
spiritualists who practise centuries-old rituals that had previously been
waning. Doctors say midwives are now sealing off the umbilical protrusion of
newborns with string, and dentists say many of their patients are using salt
instead of toothpaste. Unemployment of nearly 80% has forced many skilled
workers to eke out a living as street vendors. "We have gone back in
time," said Worsely-Worswick, of the farmer's support group.
- SAPA-AP press report,
Zimbabwe’s
opposition yesterday accused Mugabe of preparing to rig the next election after
a law was published giving him the power to appoint key figures overseeing the
poll. Critics say he has begun a campaign to guarantee victory next March while
giving African nations that support him enough grounds to declare the contest
free and fair. The stated purpose of the electoral commission bill is to meet
international standards. One of these is for elections to be supervised by an
independent commission. But the draft law gives Mugabe the power to appoint
every member of the commission, including its chairman. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change denounced
the law as “cynical”. David Coltart, the shadow justice minister,
said the proposed reforms were an “attempt to pull the wool over the eyes
of Zimbabweans and the international community”. The MDC has announced
that it will boycott all elections unless the [ZANU-PF] regime ends the
political violence that has plagued Zimbabwe for
the past four years and introduces genuine reforms.
- Daily Telegraph,
In two decades of misrule, Zimbabwe has been transformed from one of the
most prosperous states in Africa, able to sell its surplus agricultural produce
to less fortunate neighbours, into a country of ZANU-PF “haves” and
perhaps 6,000,000 starving “have-nots”. There are still upwards of
30,000 people of British extraction in what used to be Rhodesia. That apart,
several million Black citizens unfortunate enough to be born into the wrong
tribes - the largest being the Matabele - are now dying under Mugabe's iron
hand to allow his personal grip on power and the domination of the Shona
majority to continue. The country has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection of
any in Africa, at what the World Health Organisation estimates as a
conservative 34% of all adults. Another third of the population is living on a
subsistence diet of food handouts used as a weapon to keep them weak and unable
to revolt. The UN confirms that previous food deliveries have been hijacked by
the regime and issued only to those willing to vote for ZANU-PF. The others
starve. More than 3.5 million have fled abroad in search of work to support
their families or to escape repression. Some 800,000 orphans created by the
AIDS epidemic and Mugabe's intervention in local diamond wars in the DRC have
now been denied the chance of continuing their basic education because the
government cannot spare the £440,000 it would cost to underwrite their
school fees. The number of children attending school has fallen from 93% - the
highest in Africa - to just 65% as the economy collapsed in the wake of the
disastrous land-grab policy. Yet Mugabe has found £120m to buy
ground-attack jets and armoured vehicles from China to bolster the forces which
are the bedrock of his rule. His "throne" is supported by their bayonets.
Their loyalty, in turn, is dependent on his ability to pay and feed them.
Although he still claims that Zimbabwe is self-sufficient, the UN says this
year's harvest will produce barely half of what the population needs, placing
an estimated 4.6 million citizens at risk. Mugabe has rejected foreign aid and
refuses to meet UN officials. At the root of the problem is the fact that,
while there were traditional inequities in the distribution of the most fertile
tracts of land, the White farmers ran highly successful, well-organised
businesses. Not only did their taxes bolster the general economy, but their
exports earned vital foreign currency and the entire process provided
employment for thousands of Black Zimbabweans. The land-grab policy was introduced
as a desperate ploy to shore up popular support by playing the race card and
transferring the blame for Zimbabwe's ills to the former colonial masters.
Instead, it has crippled a country where inflation is currently running at 500%
and still climbing. The regime, despite support from other African leaders, has
been expelled from the Commonwealth. Its senior officials are barred from
international travel because of human rights abuses and vote-rigging in
stage-managed elections. Mugabe's family and henchmen have also appropriated
most of the prime land for themselves as personal estates. Despite repeated
denials by the British government that it has contemplated military action to
topple Mugabe, the Army has drawn up a contingency plan. It has such plans, however
unrealistic, as a reaction template for crises anywhere in the world. Zimbabwe
is a large, landlocked country bordered by South Africa to the south,
Mozambique to the east, Zambia to the north and Botswana to the west. Only
Mozambique and South Africa have deep-water ports suitable for landing an
invasion force and keeping open their supply routes. Beira in Mozambique is the
closest port, although poor road infrastructure across country would make South
Africa the staging post of choice. Neither country would be willing to play
host to a cross-border operation by White troops against another Black leader.
Nor would they be likely to supply their own soldiers as bit-players. A
British-led force would have to have enough tanks, attack helicopters and fighter-bombers
in support to ensure a rapid, low-casualty victory. The military estimate is
that most of the Zimbabwean regulars would simply melt away in the face of
overwhelming firepower, unwilling to die for a dictator whose latest
"gift" to his increasingly hungry people is a fleet of ox-driven
ambulances as fuel shortages begin to bite hard. The one problem would be a
post-invasion insurgency on the Iraqi model, although planners think this might
be limited, given Mugabe's growing unpopularity. With the input of substantial
international food-aid, the re-establishment of the infrastructure of a
functioning government rather than a private fiefdom for the chosen few, and
the lifting of sanctions, any unrest would be likely to be short-lived.
Zimbabweans are starving. Even at the height of a world embargo, Iraqis were
not. The
commonest question posed by British soldiers sweltering in the sand of northern
Kuwait in the build-up for the invasion of Iraq last year was "Why aren't
we in Zimbabwe?" Officers privately admit that they are concerned by the
inconsistencies of the UK's new interventionist foreign policy. Zimbabwe was a
British colony for the better part of a century. It retains, whether it likes
the fact or not, a moral responsibility for the well-being of the country's
inhabitants, Black and White alike. Yet, practical difficulties aside, the
government has steadfastly evaded that responsibility, relying on soft
sanctions and diplomatic initiatives while people are dispossessed, deliberately
starved and murdered in large numbers. If we can take up arms for Kosovars with
no British connection, what price loyalty to those with real ties?
- report sent by Bert of S.A.Magte,
The
exodus of Zimbabwe's small and anguished White population is
under way with record numbers leaving their homeland, mostly for Britain
or Australia. They say they have hung on during
the past four tumultuous years hoping Mugabe's "hate" campaign
against them would ease, but it did not, and two months ago when he shut down
private schools for a week for raising fees, they lost their nerve. Up to three
million Black Zimbabweans have also gone into exile, estate agents say there
has been a flood of houses on to the property market in the past few weeks that
has slashed prices to record lows. Most Whites, of whom perhaps 30 000 remain
in Zimbabwe, say they will never return.
"It was a painful decision because this is the only home we know,"
said Jeremy Callow, 55, one of Zimbabwe's best-known
lawyers. "I love Zimbabwe, love the people, but
can't take it any more." The "last straw" is different for each
family who boards the planes for distant lands. Callow succumbed to
"relentless" pressure traipsing through the courts to assist White
farmers legally recover possessions, and when he succeeded, applying in vain to
get court orders enforced. “I can't cope any longer with seeing grown men
cry. I spent 80% of my time with farmers counselling them and I am not trained
for that. The courts do not have the capacity to process thousands of farms
seized by the state. So they change the laws, move the goal-posts." Under
a new law ahead of the flawed presidential elections in 2002, Callow, like
thousands of other Whites born in the country, had to renounce access to British
or other foreign claims to citizenship to vote. “It is costing an arm and
a leg to claim my British citizenship now," he said. Among about 350 White
farmers who remain on the land enduring varying levels of instability are some
who have never been touched by ruling ZANU-PF party militants, but are now
abandoning their homes. "We have recently noticed quite a number who have
been left alone the last four years but are leaving," said Hendrik
Olivier, the director of the remnants of the once 4,000-strong Commercial
Farmers' Union. One of Zimbabwe's most successful
younger industrialists, who asked not to be named, decided to go to Australia a
few months after his family was attacked in December in their home about 20km
south of Harare [Salisbury]. The family moved to the city and tried to settle
in a new and glamorous mansion in a leafy suburb. It is now up for sale.
"We couldn't recover. In April I sold my business and as soon as our work
permit arrives we will go. “We have young kids and schools are a problem.
I will miss it, especially the bush. We have family in South
Africa, but the future is uncertain there."
- Sunday Independent,
Mugabe’s government announced plans today to
nationalise all Zimbabwean farmland after forcing more than 5,000 White farmers
off their properties in an often-violent redistribution programme. Title deeds
to all productive land will be cancelled and replaced with 99-year state-issued
leases, reported the Herald newspaper,
a government mouthpiece. “In the end all land shall be state land and
there shall be no such thing as private land,” Land Reform Minister John
Nkomo said. Since 2000, the government has been seizing White-owned farms for
redistribution to Black Zimbabweans. The controversial programme, combined with
erratic rains, has crippled the country’s agriculture-based economy and
sparked political clashes. Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, now
suffers acute shortages of food, hard currency,
petrol and other imports. United Nations crop forecasters predict the country
will produce only half its food needs this year.
- report
sent by B.C., Cape Town,
This is Anthony
Bodington, Manager of Masapas Ranch. For your record, he was ambushed
by illegal squatters, poachers and so-called “war vets” on the
Ranch at 4pm on Friday 21st May 2004 and abducted together with
his 6 game scouts. The assailants were armed with
machetes, assegais and knobkerries. They were held captive in the bush for the
duration of the night, until they were rescued by police at daybreak
on 22nd May. All the abductees were subjected to gross verbal and
physical abuse. Anthony was assaulted the worst of all, and at one
stage was held down and had to endure the motions as if they were going to cut
his arm off. He has since been hospitalized in Triangle. He is severely
traumatized, very badly bruised, especially on both his elbows which
were subjected to prolonged blows with heavy sticks.
- report sent by J.M., Pretoria,
A White farmer has
allegedly shot dead one of Mugabe's
supporters during an attack on his property. Spiro Landos, 48, a farmer of
Greek descent who grew vegetables for British supermarkets, was seriously
wounded before being detained by police in hospital in Mutare [Umtali], 160
miles south east of Harare [Salisbury]. During the attack he was pinned down by
a 30-strong mob. He apparently drew a gun and fired a warning shot in the air.
But one man was hit and died. Mr Landos is recovering from surgery and is
unable to walk. His relatives fear he will be charged with murdering one of
Mugabe's "war veterans". They said they were anxious about his
prospects for a fair trial in a highly-charged racial and political environment
following Mugabe's anti-White rhetoric during an interview with Sky News this week. Friends said
Mr Landos had been asking police to disperse a mob of ZANU-PF supporters from
his land for a week before the attack on the farm, Riverside, in the Odzi
district. When he failed to return to his homestead after dark on Monday a
friend found him near the farm gate, semi-conscious and bleeding from head
wounds. The incident was the first in which any farmer has fired a weapon since
Mugabe ordered the land grab of more than 20 million acres in 2000. Up to 3,000
farmers have been attacked or hounded from their homes. It has been a violent
few days for many of the country's remaining White farmers. John
Worsley-Worswick, a spokesman for the pressure group Justice for
Agriculture,
said: "The latest onslaught has been sudden after a relatively quiet
couple of months. In all cases the attackers have had a common message that
Whites must leave and go to Britain." A White manager of a wildlife
sanctuary, Anthony Bodington, 35, was abducted and tortured in southern
Zimbabwe and is recovering in a private hospital.
- report sent by Ann Bishop, Cape Town,
The Hon. Ian Douglas Smith talking to members of Rhodesians Worldwide and the Springbok Club at the Rhodesians Worldwide Kent Branch's monthly braai at Chilham in May 2004. |
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The price of bread in
economically ravaged Zimbabwe has rocketed by up to 50% due to a shortage of
flour, state media said. Bread is now selling at most shops for between Z$2,800
and Z$3,000 per loaf, state radio said. Standard bread prices were previously
set around Z$2,000. "The wholesale price of bread is now Z$2,500, while
the retail price is pegged at Z$2,900 a loaf," Armitage Chikwavira,
chairman of the Bakers' Association of Zimbabwe told the state-run Herald newspaper. The Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation said retailers were blaming the price hikes on the
shortages of maize meal and wheat flour. Aid agencies estimate that Zimbabwe
will this year face shortages of up to 800,000 tonnes of maize meal, a national
staple. Some of the agencies blame the country's controversial land reform
programme, which saw the seizure of White-owned farms for redistribution to new
Black farmers, for cutting maize production. Annual inflation last month stood
at 583.7%.
- www.AfricanCrisis.org,
Robert Mugabe was
airlifted to South Africa for emergency medical treatment yesterday after
collapsing at his state residence in Harare [Salisbury], a member of his
security staff said last night. The 79-year-old dictator was flown by military
aircraft to Johannesburg after a violent vomiting fit. He was accompanied on the
flight by his wife Grace, personal doctors and a string of aides. His collapse
followed a similar bout of illness three months ago, for which he was also
treated in South Africa. Last night, road blocks were set up around Harare
[Salsbury], manned by riot police and soldiers to dispel any mass protests.
Reinforcements from police, army and militia outside the capital were drafted
into Harare [Salisbury] to shore up the ZANU-PF regime. "We were ordered
not to give any details of the president's illness in case it brought people
out on to the streets," a senior member of the 'Green Bombers', the
notorious youth brigade created by Mugabe, told The Sunday Telegraph.
Mugabe is understood to have vomited repeatedly during Friday night then
collapsed as he attempted to get out of bed yesterday. On arrival in
Johannesburg, he was driven away in an entourage of cars accompanied by
bodyguards, according to a witness who saw him at the airport. He is understood
to have been driven to a clinic for treatment. He was previously treated at a
private hospital near Pretoria. Mugabe is taken outside Zimbabwe for treatment
to reduce the threat of news of his illness leaking out and prompting popular
unrest. Reports of a similar collapse late in October, when he was said to have
suffered uncontrollable vomiting, prompted uproar. At the time, spokesmen for
his regime denied that he was ill or had left the country, insisting it was
"business as usual". However, television pictures purporting to show
the president at an international cultural conference are said by broadcasters
to have been old footage. A member of staff at Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation later revealed that they were asked to find recent footage of Mr
Mugabe and play it during the national news bulletin to "calm public
opinion". In fact, the pictures used dated from his ruling ZANU-PF's
annual party congress meeting, at Victoria Falls, last August. Supporters of
the regime have sought to play down Mugabe's medical problems, but rumours of
ill-health and strokes have dogged him in recent years. Mr Mugabe's latest
collapse and emergency hospitalisation will intensify jockeying within ZANU-PF
over his succession. After 23 years in power, the president has appeared
increasingly frail in recent months while at the same time showing remarkable
stamina. Last night, a spokesman for the South African government said: "I
have no information on whether Mugabe is in the country or not."
- report sent by J.M.,
Pretoria, February 12, 2004
Visitors to troubled
Zimbabwe are to get special police protection under a government plan to
"restore confidence" in the southern African country as a tourist
destination, the state-owned Sunday Mail reported. A special tourism
police unit is to be set up "aimed at increasing the safety of tourists in
all the country's tourist destinations", the newspaper said. Amid
worsening economic hardships in Zimbabwe, foreign tourists have increasingly
been targeted by local criminals. Robberies involving tourists have claimed two
lives this year, with an Australian killed in the world-famous Victoria Falls
resort in January and a young South African tourist shot dead in the second
city of Bulawayo in June.
- report sent by
"Rhodesia was Super", November 18, 2003
A scene from the "Rhodie Reunion" at the Johannesburg Social Club in November 2003. |
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According to media
reports, 43 people have starved to death in Zimbabwe's second largest city,
Bulawayo. The predicted famine, which is blamed by independent analysts on the
ruling Black regime's expropriation and expulsion of White farmers, might
eventually affect more than 5 million people, if reports by aid organisations
are to be believed.
- Southern Cross Africa
News, October 31, 2003
Zimbabwe's main public
hospital, Harare [Salisbury] Central, does not inspire confidence. Its shabby
exterior is dotted with broken windows and leaking pipes. The wards themselves
are little better, epitomising the decline of this country's once proud health
system. Outside visiting hours the relatives of the patients wander the
grounds. Many spend all day at the hospital, simply because they cannot afford
the bus fare to make more than one journey. Zimbabwe has entered its fifth
successive year of economic decline, which has whittled away the ability of
households to make ends meet. The country faces critical shortages of foreign
exchange, inflation has reached 364% and is forecast to hit over 500% by the end
of the year. Five million Zimbabweans, more than half of the population, are in
need of food aid. Harare Central is where the city's poor, who cannot afford
health insurance, are forced to come. Within its morale-sapping walls, there
seems to be more dying than curing. The high death-rate is linked in part to
AIDS. Recent estimates indicate that around 34% of Zimbabwe's 15 to 40 age
group is HIV-positive, and more than 2,500 people die every week of
AIDS-related causes.
- report sent by T.
Jackson, August 13, 2003
"Zimbabwe" is
becoming a really interesting place. The only country in the world where your
largest note - $500 - can't buy you a beer, which is $650. A roll of 1-ply
toilet paper costs $1000. There are approximately 72 sections on the average
roll, so it is cheaper to take your $1000, change it into $10's, wipe your arse
on 72 of them and get $280 change. An additional benefit is that you get to
wipe your arse on Mugabe's face!
- report sent by
R.Richard (ex-Durban, now living in Canada), June 13, 2003
Irish Guards Piper
Christopher Muzvuru on the road to Basra.
A Zimbabwean soldier
killed in Iraq who had signed up to serve in the British Army has been denounced
as a "traitor" by Mugabe's regime. Piper Muzvuru, 21, who said
shortly before his death that his dearest ambition was to play the bagpipes
before the Queen, was killed by a sniper in Basra. Piper Muzvuru enlisted into
the British Army in February 2001. He joined the Irish Guards in October 2001
and soon completed a course at the Piping School in Edinburgh. He was the first
Black piper in the regiment's 103-year history. Up to 200 Zimbabweans are
serving in the British Army. On the day of his death Piper Muzvuru was
interviewed by a reporter from an American news agency. "I always wanted
to learn the bagpipes," he told Martin Walker of UPI. At dawn on April 6,
as his regiment prepared to launch an attack on Basra, Piper Muzvuru played two
Irish tunes on his charter, a small pipe usually kept for practice. He was
killed by sniper fire later that afternoon.
- Daily Telegraph, April
20, 2003
At a meeting of the
London Branch of the Springbok Club held on 27 August 2002 a motion of
support and solidarity with Mr. Cecil John Coleman was passed unanimously. Mr.
Coleman had that day been issued with a Section 8 Order by the Mugabe
government to seize his farm in Mashonaland, which specialises in honey
processing.
The Conservative
Monday Club staged a reception in honour of the Hon. Ian Douglas Smith at
the prestigious RAF Club in central London on May 8th 2002. There was a packed
audience, which among others included two peers of the realm, one sitting
British MP, one former Rhodesian cabinet minister and one former Rhodesian
senator. In a powerful and indeed inspiring address Ian Smith outlined the
problems and chaos which currently prevailed in "Zimbabwe", but was
optimistic that once the Mugabe regime was removed (which he anticipated would
be very shortly) then the country could swiftly resume its position as the
"jewel of Africa". He was also full of praise for the British people,
who had in the past created the greatest Empire the world has ever known. He
feared that they were currently suffering from self-doubt however, but called
on them to remember their glorious history and to re-establish their
self-confidence. During the following question-and-answer session Mr. Colin
Lucas stated that he considered Ian Smith the greatest world statesman since
Sir Winston Churchill - a remark which was greeted by raptuous applause by the
rest of the audience.
- report sent by HKH,
May 2002
The MDC Solidarity
Campaign staged two demonstrations calling for the removal of the despotic
ZANU-PF regime in London on 19th January 2002. The first was held outside the
U.S. Embassy, where a large placard reading "CIA please note: Mugabe has
links with Al-Qa'eda and must be brought to trial for genocide" was
unfurled. A bagpiper played a rousing tune before the protest party of some two
dozen set off to join a much larger demonstration outside the Zimbabwe High
Commission. There was spontaneous applause as the bagpiper led the joining
group of supporters up the Strand playing the stirring strains of "Sarie
Marais", and it was estimated that the combined crowd of protestors
numbered some 300 people. Both protest demonstrations were covered by Channel 4
News.
- report sent by HKH,
January 19, 2002
An appropriate placard being displayed at an MDC Solidarity Campaign protest outside the Zimbabwe High Commission in London during November 2001. |
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Their country is
disappearing down a black hole.
- comment made by
Nicholas Winterton MP in Parliament about Zimbabwe, November 27, 2001
Whites were not the only
race coming under attack in the racially-motivated parliamentary election
campaign currently ravaging Zimbabwe. Asians, in particular, are being
targeted, most notably through a hate-filled document sent to prominent
businessmen in the community and believed to have originated from the offices
of Black economic empowerment organization, the Affirmative Action Group. The
document, "Indigenization versus Indians" comes as a rude shock to
many Asians who as second or third generation "zimbabweans"
considered themselves "indigenous." The contents of the document
state that this is not how the propagators of affirmative action in Zimbabwe
view them. "Black people did not die for this country so that Indians
could go on oppressing them," states the document. The situation is the
same as in many other countries where the Indian communities have lived, even
for generations, but failed to establish good relations with other communities.
Indians came to be regarded, with some justification, as only looking out for
themselves.
- report sent by Kishore
Balakrishnan, August 18, 2001
A reception was held in
honour of the Hon. Ian Douglas Smith by the Rhodesian Christian Group in
central London on Thursday 31st May 2001. In a powerful address the Hon. Ian
Smith emphasised the evils emanating from the Mugabe regime, and told how even
some members of his own party and the South African government now wanted him
to go, as he was an embarrassment to Black Africa. He went on to praise the
genius of the British people over the years, which had created the Industrial
Revolution, made great scientific and medical discoveries, and had founded the
greatest Empire which the world had even seen - exemplified by Cecil Rhodes's
"Cape to Cairo" vision. He was worried about the present state of the
British nation however, which seemed to have lost faith in itself, and called
upon the younger generation to re-capture their former glories and self-belief.
- report sent by HKH,
June 1, 2001
Mugabe's
State sanctioned violence moves to the cities "click" to access
in-depth article by Anthony LoBaido on the current escalating chaos and attacks
upon businesses in Zimbabwe.
- WorldNetDaily, May,
2001
MDC Solidarity Campaign demonstration outside the Zimbabwe High Commission in London. |
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A large MDC Solidarity
Campaign protest rally calling for the arrest of Robert Mugabe on charges of
torture under the 1984 UN convention, and the suspension of
"Zimbabwe" from the Commonwealth until it stops human rights abuses,
took place in London outside the Zimbabwe High Commission on Saturday April
21st. Over 200 people took part in this demonstration from all sections of the
population, confirming the MDC's commitment to cultural diversity and a
democratic society. Weirdly there were a number ZANU/PF "national"
flags on display at this demonstration, but although this undoubtedly put off a
number of potential supporters it was probably more a result of ignorance and
naivety rather than deliberate provocation. There were also a good number of Rhodesians
Worldwide supporters at the demonstration, once again emphasising the fact
that there will be a place for everyone in the country under the forthcoming
MDC government.
- report sent by HKH,
April 2001