Latest News from Rhodesia

LATEST RHODESIAN NEWS

According to the 2008 CIA World Fact Book (released on 17^th 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, January 24, 2008

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), January 10, 2008

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, December 19, 2007

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. Salaries are failing to keep pace with galloping inflation - the world's highest at nearly 8000% - which has inflamed tensions in a country with rising unemployment and enduring foreign currency, fuel and food shortages. In spite of claims of recovery in the regime-controlled media, Mugabe's government has so far failed to rein in the economic slide, which started when the ruling ZANU-PF regime seized White-owned farms and launched attacks on the official Black opposition.

- Southern Cross Africa News, December 15, 2007

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, October 31, 2007

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, September 22, 2007

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, August 17, 2007

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, August 13, 2007

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 August 7, 2007

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, July 29, 2007

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 - July 11, 2007

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, July 9, 2007

[ 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, June 22, 2007

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, June 10, 2007

[3 Pics] Ian Smith & Kevin Woods, African James Bond meet

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, June 5, 2007

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, May 31, 2007

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), May 12, 2007

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, May 9, 2007

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, April 19, 2007

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, April 8, 2007

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, April 4, 2007

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, March 23, 2007

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, March 14, 2007

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, March 3, 2007

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, February 28, 2007

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, February 13, 2007

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, October 28, 2006

“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.