ZIMBABWE UPDATE: 4th Week September/ 1st Week October 2003 press clippings
From ZIMCIVINFO – in support of democracy, peace and civics in Zimbabwe
CONTENTS:

1. General features
2. The politics of hunger
3. The militarisation of Zimbabwean society and institutions
4. Political violence and other forms of repression

5. The presidential election and developments
6. Nepad and Zimbabwe
7. Impact on the region
8. The economy
9. Land
10. Crackdown on the media
11. Solidarity/activism/networking

FOR NAVIGATION: Click on the Content topics above and then press CTRL + HOME to return to the contents page.

With acknowledgement to ZWNEWS, Financial Gazette (Zimbabwe), The Daily News(Zimbabwe), IOL (South Africa), Kubatana.Net, News24 (SA), Pambazuka News, Sunday Times (SA), Regional Review, BBC, CNN, ANC TODAY, MDC website, AllAfrica.com

In this issue:

See Solidarity section (11) for full COSATU and SACP statements issued immediately after the arrest of union leaders and activists in Zimbabwe. The detained unionists were all released within hours of the statements being issued.

Extract from COSATU statement

“If the arrested trade unionists are not released within 24 hours, COSATU
will embark upon a process of solidarity action similar to that which it
organised in support of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions in August
2003, and calls upon its partners in the Southern African Trade Union
Coordination Council to do the same.”

Extract from SACP statement

“The South African Communist Party expresses its deep concern at the
detention of 41 Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) leaders today. The
SACP calls for their immediate release. The authorities in Harare need to
know that there is widespread outrage in South Africa about the detention of
trade unionists, the closure of newspapers, and the brutal harassment of
civilians, including very worrying reports about the systematic rape of
women and girls by rampaging youth militias.”

1. General features

BISHOPS TRY TO GET MUGABE, TSVANGIRAI TO TALK
Business Day (Johannesburg) October 7, 2003

Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg

ZIMBABWEAN church leaders are stepping up pressure for talks between President Robert Mugabe and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai to resolve the country's crisis.

Bishops Sebastian Bakare, Trevor Manhanga and Patrick Mutume are pushing hard for the resumption of talks between Zanu (PF) and the MDC.

Church leaders also want to meet Mugabe and Tsvangirai separately to urge them to restart talks. The clerics said yesterday they believed that if the two leaders met, relations would thaw, enabling dialogue. After failing to secure meetings on Monday last week, the church leaders are expected to resume their shuttle diplomacy this week.

The Zanu (PF) team meeting the bishops includes chairman John Nkomo and party spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira.

The clerics recently met Mugabe, Vice-President Joseph Msika, Nkomo and Shamuyarira before their initiative collapsed . The church leaders are also meeting Tsvangirai, MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube and party chairman Isaac Matongo.

The opposition party's position paper lists the restoration of democracy, political liberties and human rights as some of the key issues, but it has removed the issue of Mugabe's disputed presidential re-election last year .

Tsvangirai said last week his party was prepared for more compromises if that was what it would take to resume talks .

Official sources say the church leaders arranged a meeting between the ruling party's Nkomo and Tsvangirai on September 26.

They have also been able to ensure that Mugabe and Tsvangirai soften their stances to each other in public. The thaw between the two was displayed during the recent funeral of vice-president Simon Muzenda.

TUTU URGES ACTION ON MUGABE
Zimbabwe Independent (Harare) October 3, 2003

LEADING South African cleric, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has called on African leaders to increase pressure on Robert Mugabe.

Speaking to the IPS news service earlier this week during a visit to Malawi, Tutu said: "The time has come for African leaders to stand up and express their concern over deteriorating human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

If human rights abuses continue to worsen, the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe will be difficult to heal."

While commending Malawian president Bakili Muluzi for the interest he was taking in the deteriorating political and humanitarian conditions in Zimbabwe, Tutu stressed that more needs to be done. "The Zimbabwe crisis has affected the entire southern Africa region and there is need for African leaders to find quick solutions to the crisis," he said.

"When things are going wrong, we should be able to stand up and say that this is going wrong." Muluzi, along with Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki, are the main regional brokers in the Zimbabwean crisis. - IPS.

I'M NOT SATISFIED WITH ZIM
IOL NEWS (SA) October 03 2003

Washington: American President George Bush on Thursday declared himself "not satisfied" with efforts so far to promote human rights and political reforms in Zimbabwe and urged its neighbours to keep up pressure for change.

"The only time that this government and I, personally, will be satisfied is when there is an honest government, reformed government in Zimbabwe," he told reporters. "That hasn't happened yet; therefore, we're not satisfied."

Prodded to clarify his comments, Bush said he was not pleased "with the process" and "certainly not" with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, whose country lies in the grips of a festering political and social crisis, with the economy in chaos and more than five million people in need of donated food.

He also said he hoped President Thabo Mbeki - with whom he met during a July trip to Africa - would continue to lead efforts to put pressure on Mugabe.

'That hasn't happened yet; therefore, we're not satisfied'
"Our government has not changed our opinion about the need for the region to deal with Zimbabwe and the leadership there," said Bush, who added that he had sent the same message to Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano when they met last month on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

"When President Mbeki says they are working on it, to achieve this goal, I take him for his word. And I am going to remind all parties that the goal is a reformed and fair government. And that hasn't been achieved yet. And we'll continue to press the issue, both privately and publicly," said Bush.

The American president was speaking at a round table meeting with African media to set the stage for Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's October 6 state visit to the United States.

CHURCH LEADERS HIT OUT AT ZIMBABWE GOVERNMENT
AFP, 26 September 2003

Harare - Zimbabwean church leaders have hit out at the government's "irresponsible, inhuman, violent (and) partisan" methods of land redistribution, and accused it of fuelling a culture of violence. In the strongly-worded statement put out by more than a hundred clergymen from 59 churches, the church leaders said that "draconian pieces of law", such as the country's security and press laws were stifling fundamental freedoms. "We acknowledge the historical imbalances in respect of land redistribution. However, we do not approve of irresponsible, inhuman, violent, partisan and non-transparent methods of addressing the problem," it said. In 2000 President Robert Mugabe's government launched a fast-track programme of redistributing white-owned farms to new black farmers, which aid agencies say is partly to blame for chronic food shortages here.

The church leaders also strongly criticised the government's two-year-old national youth service programme, saying its members were responsible for serious human rights abuses. Zimbabwe is deeply politically divided between supporters of Mugabe's Zanu PF party and those of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Three church bishops are currently trying to get the two parties talking. The church statement acknowledged their efforts, but said it was concerned at the lack of progress. "We therefore urge all parties concerned to treat the talks with urgency," said the statement, which came from a meeting held earlier this month. It said South African delegates were also present at the meeting. The church leaders called for the immediate abolition of the youth service, "the immediate repeal of POSA (Public Order and Security Act) and AIPPA (Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act)" and a new constitution.

MIGRATION, NOT LAND, IS THE ISSUE
Business Day (Johannesburg) ANALYSIS October 9, 2003

Geoff Hill
Johannesburg

OVER the past two years, I have been researching a book on Zimbabwe and the question most people ask me is: will what has happened there be repeated in SA?

My own view is that it won't. The logic being that, just because Uganda fell under the tyranny of Idi Amin didn't mean that neighbouring states like Kenya and Tanzania followed suit and started butchering their people.

The Zimbabwean crisis is very much a product of Mugabe's need to stay in power long after the electorate has tired of him. But, if similar circumstances do ever emerge in SA, my worry is that we won't see them coming.

The problem is that, when people talk about Zimbabwe, they focus on the land invasions, but in SA the search for answers doesn't start there.

So where do you go? I'd start at Johannesburg's Park Station and long-haul buses pulling in from all over the country, each one packed with young men and woman from the rural areas coming to the city in search of a better life.

The problem is so bad that, if the rate of migration to cities like Johannesburg and Durban is not stemmed, city life including jobs, water, housing and general wellbeing will not keep pace with the surge in population.

That's where Zimbabwe's problem began. From independence in 1980 to the start of the farm invasions in 1999, the country's population almost doubled, but the number of people living in Harare jumped fivefold.

And Zimbabwe is not alone. The movement of people from rural areas to the towns is just as severe in Thailand, the Philippines, Kenya and Brazil. And in each case the typical migrant is aged between 18 and 30, educated and unemployed.

Studies by the United Nations and others have shown that when you educate people in the countryside, they invariably move to the urban areas. One report suggested that, after three years of primary school, a person was twice as likely to seek work in the city than someone with no education. After three years at high school, the ratio doubled again to four times as likely to move to the city.

In Zimbabwe, it was the urban poor, living six or more to a room, who led the revolt against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. However, their gripe was not land, but money and jobs.

In 1998, when they took to the streets and threatened to vote out the ruling party at the next election, the government tried to distract them with the land, but no one was listening and opposition grew because the real complaint had not been addressed.

Without question, there are rural communities in SA who need and deserve land and government should make sure they get it through legal means. But that will not prevent a revolution.

If you give land to families now, how many of their children will stay home and grow crops once they leave school? Experience in the rest of Africa suggests that those kids will head for the cities and try to put their education to work.

So what are the choices? One would be to close the rural schools and stunt the mental growth of a generation, but that would be unforgivable. The other would be to accept that SA is rapidly becoming an urban nation, full of skilled, hardworking young people who deserve the right to build themselves a better future.

At independence in 1980, the literacy rate in Rhodesia was already an impressive 70%, whereas across most of SA, less than half the population could read and write. Mugabe performed a miracle and, within 15 years, he had raised literacy to 95%. In that context, he remains one of my heroes.

But nothing was done to cater for the demands of an educated workforce.

When you've spent 10 years or more at school and your parents worked at three jobs to keep you there, your dreams go far beyond a life in the fields. The new generation would rather be on the internet than on the land.

If land was the issue then why, when it is there for the taking, have 2-million black Zimbabweans decamped to SA and about 600000 to the UK? Surely they should be claiming their plots instead?

But small-scale agriculture would never give them the income needed for clothes, school fees, cellphones, television and the myriad goods that are part of Africa's new culture.

So what are the options?

SA needs to put all its effort into industrial growth and government could help the rural areas by extending its programme of decentralisation and encouraging new investors through tax relief and other benefits to set up shop in the country towns where unemployment is highest.

Giving people land will not keep them at home, but if they can find jobs in their own communities, there's a good chance they will not migrate to the city.

Perhaps on the land there is room to test the Israeli kibbutz system in which a large number of people work an estate in line with best farming practice. This could cater for some of the thousands of unemployed people in places like rural KwaZulu-Natal.

As a journalist, hardly a month goes by that I am not called out to cover a protest staged by Zimbabwean exiles in SA. The demonstrations are invariably against Mugabe, all the participants are young, black and educated and, with their banners and placards, they deny the notion that land reform has delivered what the people really want.

I am a fan of the way the African National Congress has run this country over the past 10 years. SA has enjoyed more democracy and better government than any country in the history of this continent and there is much to be proud of.

But if the party's right to power is ever questioned, the challenge will come from the urban poor.

And, as in Zimbabwe, land will not be the issue.

Hill is southern African correspondent for a daily newspaper in Washington DC. His Book, Battle for Zimbabwe The Final Countdown (NewHolland), will be released on October 15.

2. The politics of hunger

ZIMBABWE FOOD CRISIS CONTINUES TO DEEPEN
Mail& Guardian (SA) 08 October 2003
Johannesburg

Zimbabwe's food crisis continues to deepen, with the country's staple cereal gap for the 2003/04 marketing year (April 1 2003 to March 31 2004) standing at 738 464 tons, of which 671 424 tons is maize, the latest Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net) report on the country says.

Food aid and commercial imports achieved by mid September have covered only
28% of Zimbabwe's 2003/04 marketing year's initial cereal deficit, the report
said.

Zimbabwe's food inflation was estimated at 487,3% in August.

The 2002/03-harvest is running out for most rural households, and purchased
foods are selling at prices that continue to escalate far beyond the reach of
the majority of poor households.

However, maize grain, cooking oil, rice and bread supplies continue to be stable in most areas of the country.

Maize meal, which was becoming more visible on the formal market, has become less so following the government's crackdown on major millers for selling the commodity at above government stipulated prices.

The World Food Programme (WFP) food aid distribution to about 1 164-million
beneficiaries went ahead in August without any disruptions, despite fears that
Zimbabwe government's new policy guidelines on humanitarian assistance would provide impetus for interference with humanitarian food distributions.

Access is by far the biggest constraint to food security for the urban population throughout the country. Food access constraints are compounded by high inflation and national cash shortages, which showed no signs of abating at the end of September 2003.

Rainfall prospects for the 2003/04-rainfall season, as currently forecast, are fair to good for the country.

However, changes in the agricultural landscape and shortages of inputs including fertilisers, seeds, fuel, credit and spare parts, are all combining to severely limit potential production for the 2003/04 agricultural season.

If current shortages of fuel, fertiliser, foreign currency, cash and maize seed persist, Zimbabwe will not be able to produce more than 1,2-million tons of maize (66% of national requirements) in the 2003/04 agricultural season, in the best of rainfall circumstances, Fews Net said. - I-Net Bridge

'PREVENT STARVATION AND DESTITUTION' UN APPEALS TO DONORS
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks October 7, 2003

Johannesburg

There's still time to "prevent the twin spectres of starvation and destitution" from occurring in Zimbabwe, said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in a plea for more assistance from donors.

UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Zimbabwe, J. Victor Angelo, said the generous support of aid efforts in 2002/03 had saved lives.

"I would like to express my gratitude for the timely and generous support given by the donor community during 2002/03. Through this extensive assistance, the international donors funded a wide range of humanitarian interventions, ensuring that the most vulnerable Zimbabwean households had sufficient food, that malnourished children benefited from special feeding programmes and that some recovery assistance was given to small-scale farmers. Lives were saved through these significant efforts," he said in a statement on Monday.

Angelo warned, however, that "the relief needs in Zimbabwe have increased in 2003. There remains a significant food deficit, and there are important requirements in sustaining key social services and the public health system. It is again a question of survival for many families".

Following a request for assistance from the government, the UN launched a new UN Consolidated Appeal for the country in July 2003.

"This appeal also gave a very strong focus on the impact of HIV/AIDS on the most vulnerable groups, and its particular effects on the lives of women and girls. Latest indications are that almost 780,000 children, approximately 13 percent of the entire child population in the country, have already been orphaned by HIV/AIDS," Angelo noted.

He added that there were significant competing global demands for humanitarian assistance in 2003/04, and recovery and reconstruction requirements in several parts of the world would demand exceptionally high levels of donor commitment in both the short term and the longer term.

"Despite these strategic pressures, I would like to alert the international community that there is a high level of vulnerability amongst Zimbabwe's population, requiring well-targeted and prompt humanitarian interventions. For example, nationally, the prevalence of underweight-for-age is at 17 percent and stunting at 26 percent, pointing to increased impoverishment and human insecurity," Angelo said.

He added that levels of funding needed to be "increased urgently" for aid agencies "to deal with serious food insecurity and an accelerated decline in health and safe water supplies".

"Moreover, a renewed commitment by the donors is necessary to ensure that there is an investment in community-based rehabilitation programmes. These are necessary to strengthen household food production and self-reliance, and to reduce a growing dependency on external aid," Angelo explained.

There was also a need to enhance the partnership between the donors and relief agencies, to bring "more durable solutions to the humanitarian problems in Zimbabwe". However, to achieve this, it "is necessary to increase the quality of the dialogue with the government".

"I have been assured by the government that the humanitarian programme will be implemented without political interference. My validation teams have shown that assistance is reaching the beneficiaries. The teams will also keep monitoring the delivery of humanitarian aid to ensure that it conforms to internationally accepted principles and standards," Angelo stressed.

Zimbabwe's dramatic economic decline, coupled with the humanitarian crisis, has seen growing poverty stretching the survival strategies of Zimbabwean households.

"I therefore appeal to the donor governments to urgently revive their generous assistance to Zimbabwe. There is still time to prevent the twin spectres of starvation and destitution from occurring," he concluded.

ZIM IS REALLY GOING HUNGRY
News24 (SA), 3 October 2003

Harare - The food crisis in Zimbabwe is worsening, with a majority of the country's districts having exhausted their food stocks, according to a UN report received on Friday. "According to reports from 58 districts in August 2003, food is becoming scarce, harvest stocks have been exhausted in a majority of districts and over half report a deteriorating food situation," the report said. The report comes a week after the UN's food agency warned that only a quarter of its appeal for funds to feed millions of starving people in southern Africa, most of them in Zimbabwe, had been met. An estimated 5.5 million Zimbabweans will require emergency food aid by early next year, out of a regional total of 6.5 million.

REPORTS OF STARVATION A BRITISH LIE - ENVOY
Zimbabwe Independent (Harare) October 3, 2003

Staff Writer

ZIMBABWEAN High Commissioner to Zambia, Cain Mathema has accused British investors of scheming to destroy his country's economy. Addressing trainee journalists at The Post, Mathema accused British investors of inciting Zimbabweans to rise against the government.

"Zimbabweans are not to blame for the current economic crisis in the country. Our economic problems are not due to mismanagement by the government," Mathema said.

"The problems have arisen because the people who control the economy do not like our government's land redistribution programme."

However, Mathema said the problem was temporary. "We are working very hard to bring the economy back to its feet," he said.

Dismissing claims that Zimbabwe's land redistribution would disrupt agriculture, the country's economic backbone, Mathema said white farmers stopped producing maize in the mid-1980s.

"Since the mid-1980s, when white farmers started producing only enough maize for their cattle, 80% of maize production has been from black farmers and with the redistribution of land, even more people will be able to grow their own food," Mathema said.

"Therefore the issue of starvation is just a lie that (British prime minister Tony) Blair, (US president George) Bush and their media have been peddling that because of land redistribution, people will starve."

Mathema explained that currently southern Africa, as a region, was facing a food crisis and wondered why Zimbabwe was singled out.

He said his government's land reform was a stepping-stone to economic freedom and warned that any forces bent on frustrating that mission would fail.

Mathema said indigenous investment was a prerequisite to sustainable development, which no country could afford to ignore.

"Any country that allows foreigners to control its economy will remain a slave country; its people will always be employees of somebody else and not employers," Mathema said. "This is why we have embarked on this programme of empowering our people with land, which is a key factor in our economic life."

President Robert Mugabe in 2000 embarked on a land reform programme which has displaced nearly all former white farmers and compromised the country's food security. Nearly six million Zimbabweans in urban and communal areas now survive on food hand-outs from the international community.

ZIMBABWE TO ALLOW WFP TO HANDLE FOOD DISTRIBUTION
VOA News, 25 September 2003

Tendai Maphosa

Harare - The government of Zimbabwe Thursday agreed to allow the World Food Program and its affiliates manage the distribution of food aid. Harare had earlier decreed all food distribution would be handled by pro-government local authorities, which led to protests from the donor community. The recent decree issued by President Robert Mugabe's government would have put local authorities in charge of deciding who gets emergency food and who doesn't. However, food donors raised strong objections, arguing that this would upset the established practice of having independent groups distribute food and would, in addition, politicize the process. A WFP official who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity said the U.N. agency had agreed with the government that food would be distributed solely on the basis of need, irrespective of political, racial, tribal or religious affiliation. The official said that the WFP would continue working with the non-governmental groups they had been working with in the past. The agreement affects only the WFP and its affiliates, and it is unclear how other donor groups involved in food aid would be affected. Government officials were unavailable for comment. According to the latest estimates, more than five million Zimbabweans will need food aid this year. Poor harvests and President Mugabe's controversial land reform program are being blamed for Zimbabwe's dire shortage of food.

3. The militarisation of Zimbabwean society and institutions

MUGABE 'USING RAPE AS A TOOL'
Mail& Guardian (SA) 09 October 2003

Ottawa

Senior members of Canada's three largest parliamentary parties called Wednesday on the Canadian government to indict Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Senior members of the governing Liberal Party, the right-wing populist Canadian Alliance and the regional, left-of-centre Bloc Quebecois said they were calling on Ottawa to issue a formal indictment against Mugabe.

At a joint press conference, Keith Martin, of the Canadian Alliance, said that if the government agreed to the three parties' demands, Mugabe could face arrest and trial if he ever stepped foot on Canadian soil or if he visited any other country with which Canada has extradition agreements.

In addition, said Irwin Cotler of Canada's governing Liberal Party, Zimbabwe should be "permanently suspended from the Commonwealth," an association linking Britain with more than 50 former colonies.

Martin said there was irrefutable evidence that "children as young as 10 are force to take part in torture and gang rape" by Mugabe's regime.

Martin claimed that Mugabe had been "using rape as a tool" to silence any opposition to regime. - Sapa-AFP

MBARE RESIDENTS FORCED TO ATTEND MUZENDA FUNERAL
The Zimbabwe Standard (Zim) 28 September 2003

By Our Own Staff

Marauding gangs of the Zanu PF vigilante unit, Chipangano, on Wednesday morning ran amok in Mbare closing down the Mupedzanhamo flea market and force-marching residents in the high-density suburb to attend the late Vice President Simon Muzenda’s body viewing at the Stoddart Hall. Members of the infamous terror group went on rampage as early as 7 am assaulting innocent residents, some of them on their way to work, and commandeering them to go to Stoddart Hall where Muzenda’s body was to be viewed by members of the public. The youths halted all operations at Mbare Musika bus terminus and the nearby vegetable markets ordering everyone to abandon their business "in respect of Muzenda", even though the State had not declared the day a public holiday. Said a Mbare resident who refused to be named: "Elderly women were made to stand by the roadside ululating as the coffin passed along Ardbernie Road. It was clear that the women did not belong to Zanu PF, as they were not wearing Zanu PF dresses as they normally do at State functions."

Chipangano members, clad in their familiar white T-shirts with pro-Zanu PF inscriptions emblazoned on their chests, covered all strategic entry points into Mbare and barred commuter omnibuses from ferrying passengers to work in city centre. At Mbare Market vendors were being threatened with permanent closure of their stalls if they did not attend the funeral. Most of them complied in fear. Elsewhere,war veterans from the Tongogara settlement, some 15 kms out of the capital, closed down schools around Norton when they descended on them and ordered teachers to board a Heroes’ Acre-bound Zupco bus. A teacher at Kumboedza Primary School said: "We were forced to shut down classes in the morning and coerced into a bus where the war veterans forced us to sing Rambai Makashinga (the commercial by Last Tawengwa, also known as Tambaoga) all the way to Harare." Meanwhile, hundreds of Zanu PF supporters travelling from Bulawayo and Victoria Falls for Muzenda’s funeral, failed to make it in time to witness the burial as their train arrived at least four hours behind schedule. The train, which was supposed to arrive at 7 am in Harare, only pitched up at 11 AM, about the same time Muzenda’s casket was being lowered into the grave.

4. Political violence and other forms of repression

NORWAY ENDS AID GRANTS TO ZIM
IOL NEWS (SA) October 09 2003

By Peter Fabricius

Norway has dropped Zimbabwe from its select list of main development aid recipients because of the deterioration in governance there.

However, it has elevated Madagascar, Kenya and Afghanistan to the status of key aid recipients because of positive developments in those countries.

The Norwegian foreign ministry announced that it was increasing its worldwide 2004 development assistance budget to a new total of about R15-billion.

Though Norway had already stopped giving development aid to Zimbabwe, indefinitely removing it from the list of key development partners has confirmed this decision.

A foreign ministry statement said it would devote more of its development aid to education, especially for girls and for the treatment of people with HIV and Aids.

More than 100 people, including trade union leaders, were arrested in Bulawayo and Mutare in Zimbabwe as police prevented them from marching in protest at high taxes, inflation and alleged human rights abuses.

SCORES ARRESTED IN ZIM BEFORE PROTEST MARCH
Mail& Guardian (SA) 08 October 2003

Harare

Scores of workers, among them labour leaders, were arrested on Wednesday in Zimbabwe's capital when they gathered to protest at high taxation, inflation and alleged rights abuses.

The protesters were rounded up by heavily armed riot police and made to sit down on the pavement in downtown Harare before they were taken away in police cars.

Riot police have been patrolling the streets of the city centre since early morning on Wednesday.

Eight union leaders were arrested in other cities of Zimbabwe overnight on Tuesday ahead of the planned protest march, Wellington Chibebe president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), said earlier.

Chibebe said the arrests took place in the cities of Bulawayo, Gweru and Masvingo.

A police spokesperson would not immediately comment on the arrests.

"We are protesting against high taxation, high prices of basic commodities, fuel and shortage of transport," said Chibebe.

Prices of basic goods have been going up on a weekly basis in Zimbabwe, where inflation is running at more than one percent a day.

In August the annual rate of inflation was officially calculated at 426,6%, but economists believe the true figure is much higher than that.

Chibebe said the unions were also protesting against alleged human and trade union rights violations by authorities.

Under Zimbabwe's security law, public gatherings and street demonstrations are banned unless permission is obtained in advance from the police. - Sapa-AFP

ZIMBABWE TARGETS UNION PROTEST
BBC NEWS (UK) Thursday, 9 October, 2003

More than 100 trade union members and leaders have reportedly been arrested across Zimbabwe on the day of a protest march in the capital Harare.

Police said the Zimbabwe Conference of Trade Unions (ZCTU) had broken the law by organising a public gathering without permission.

The train union federations in both the UK and South Africa have condemned the arrests, which included some 41 trade union leaders in Harare and over 100 in the eastern town of Mutare.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead, in Johannesburg, says it is yet another protest against the economic collapse in Zimbabwe - it was quashed by riot police armed with guns, batons and tear gas canisters.

Our correspondent says the ZCTU, Zimbabwe's trade union umbrella group, planned a march to highlight the workers' grievances over inflation, the high cost of transport, cash shortages as well as abuses of "human and union rights".

Respect

In a letter to Zimbabwe's High Commissioner Samuel Mumbengegwi, the UK's Trade Union Congress (TUC) demanded the release of unionists:

"The TUC and its affiliates are particularly concerned about the situation of several union officials being held in secret locations and the apparent targeting of a number of women trade unionists," read a letter from TUC General Secretary of the UK's Trade Union Conference, Brendan Barber.

"In this light, we request that you treat all trade unionists with respect and dignity and release them without delay."

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said: "It is regrettable that the Zimbabwe government sees trade unions as one of its main opponents, rather than as a partner to help reverse this political and socio-economic collapse."

The ZCTU, which has led strikes in the past against the government of President Robert Mugabe, said the arrests and the banning of peaceful protests were "a gross violation of human rights" when the lives of Zimbabwean people are so unbearable.

The cost of living in the country is rapidly increasing, fuel is scare and prices high and inflation is officially around 425%.

TOP UNIONISTS HELD IN HARARE
Business Day (Johannesburg) October 9, 2003

Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg

ZIMBABWEAN police yesterday arrested top leaders of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and scores of their supporters over a union attempt to stage mass walkouts and a demonstration.

Congress president Lovemore Matombo and secretary-general Wellington Chibebe were among the 53 labour activists arrested in Harare. They had wanted to protest against the high cost of living and high taxation. More than 100 unionists were picked up countywide for attempting to protest.

Several union leaders were beaten by government security agents in Bulawayo and state police refused to allow ambulances to ferry the injured to hospital, witnesses said.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said 53 unionists were arrested in Harare and two in Bulawayo. He did not say anything about the more than 100 labour activists reportedly arrested in Mutare.

The congress also wants an end to the shortages of fuel, cash, transport, food, basic commodities and foreign currency. It was also protesting against repression and human rights abuses.

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions immediately lodged a complaint with the International Labour Organisation over the wave of arrests and the assaults of unionists.

The confederation said it was concerned about the situation because "several union officials are being held in secret locations and the apparent targeting of a number of women trade unionists".

The banned Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) is temporarily relocating its operations to SA where it will concentrate on its relaunched electronic edition, while continuing the fight for registration as a legitimate newspaper back in Zimbabwe.

The ANZ, which published the Daily News and Daily News on Sunday, was closed on September 12.

It will publish an edition of its flagship title the Daily News on the internet.

"The web edition of the Daily News, formerly published from a Zimbabwean domain www.dailynews.co.zw, will be relaunched in the next two weeks on the domain www.daily-news.co.za," the company said.

The ANZ said it was committed to keeping Zimbabweans informed about "important national issues and also provide entertaining, as well as educational material on a variety of issues that may be of interest to our readers.

"We have had to accept that Zimbabwean laws do not permit us to base this operation in our country of origin but we are also open to the opportunities that other countries whose laws are less hostile to a free press provide," the ANZ said.

Daily News editor Nqobile Nyathi and a number of journalists will move to SA where they will file stories for the website.

ZIMBABWE UNION LEADERS ARRESTED
BBC NEWS (UK) Wednesday, 8 October, 2003

Some 40 Zimbabwean union leaders and workers have been arrested, ahead of a planned protest march organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.
The ZCTU said they wanted to demonstrate against the high level of inflation, increasing cost of living and of transport costs in the country, which is going through an economic crisis.

Heavily armed riot police started patrolling the streets of Harare from early in the morning.

The ZCTU had urged members to leave work and join the protest, but before the demonstration was able to start, police arrested the leaders, members of the ZCTU General Council and the general secretaries of individual unions.

They are currently being held by police.

'Rights violated'

The unions were due to hold their national protest against high taxation, the rapidly increasing cost of living, and the price and shortage of fuel, amid a deep economic crisis in Zimbabwe, where inflation is officially around 425%.
A ZCTU spokesman said the police action against them was a violation of their human rights and that the law was being used to suppress the freedom of association and of speech.

Under the country's strict security laws public gatherings and demonstrations are banned, unless permission is granted.

Members of the ZCTU in other Zimbabwean cities are reported to have been arrested overnight.

DOZENS ARRESTED AT UNION PROTEST IN HARARE
IOL NEWS (SA) October 08 2003

Harare - Zimbabwean police arrested dozens of demonstrators on Wednesday, breaking up a march called by the country's main labour union to oppose high taxes and soaring prices sparked by the country's economic crisis.

A Reuters correspondent saw riot police armed with batons loading people into trucks in the Harare's central business district on Wednesday as they tried to gather for the march.

Police officers were stationed at street corners throughout the district.

The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has led a number of strikes and protests against President Robert Mugabe's government, which it accuses of mismanaging the country since independence from Britain in 1980.

Mugabe denies the charges and accuses opponents of trying to destroy the country's economy.

The African nation is grappling with acute shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel. Unemployment stands at over 70 percent and inflation is near 430 percent, one of the highest in the world.

On Tuesday, ZCTU Secretary-General Wellington Chibebe said the union had asked workers to report to work on Wednesday and then assemble for the demonstration.

"We are demanding that the government reduces taxes and we are also saying there has to be sanity in the level of prices," Chibebe told Reuters.

Police were not immediately available for comment on Wednesday's arrests.

Street protests without police permission are banned in Zimbabwe under tough security laws enacted last year and which critics say are aimed at repressing criticism of Mugabe's government amid deepening economic and political turmoil.

ZCTU officials said they had not requested permission for Wednesday's march.

Prices of basic food stuffs have soared in recent months, prompting the government to hint at a return to price controls it relaxed earlier this year to kill a thriving black market.

Mugabe, 79, rejects charges of misrule levied against him, and in turn accuses local and international opponents of sabotaging Zimbabwe's economy to punish his government for its seizure of white-owned farms for redistribution to landless blacks.

POLICE HARASS WOZA OVER CASH PROTEST
Zimbabwe Independent (Harare) October 3, 2003

Loughty Dube

POLICE in Bulawayo have launched a crackdown on members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) who staged a demonstration over the persistent cash crisis outside the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) branch in the city, the Zimbabwe Independent has learnt.

The women, numbering over 200, on Tuesday demonstrated briefly outside the RBZ and chanted slogans denouncing government's failure to deal with the cash crisis bedevilling the nation.
Woza national spokesperson, Patricia Khanye, confirmed the police crackdown.

"Since Tuesday police have been visiting some of our members at their homes but have not found them. As it is, we are waiting for them to strike at any moment," Khanye told the Independent.

The women took mid-day shoppers by surprise when they pulled out banners and posters and started denouncing the decision to introduce travellers' and bearer cheques instead of bank notes

The women quickly dispersed before armed riot police arrived at the scene.

Police spokesman in Bulawayo, Smile Dube, said the police wanted to find out the motive for the demonstration.

"Police are investigating the women to find out who organised the demonstration and what the motive was," he said.

But Khanye said her organisation would continue the demonstrations until the government acted on the four-month cash crisis that has affected both businesses and consumers across the country.

"What we are saying is that we want a lasting solution to the cash crisis and travellers' and bearer cheques are temporary measures that have had no impact on the availability of cash in the country since they were introduced," Khanye said.

This is not the first time women from Woza have found themselves in trouble with the police. In May armed police broke up a peaceful demonstration called to commemorate World Women's Day in Bulawayo.

5. The presidential election and developments

MUGABE'S WOULD BE SUCCESSOR WAITS IN WINGS
IOL NEWS (SA) October 08 2003

By Basildon Peta

The race to succeed President Robert Mugabe is gathering momentum, with Zimbabwe's military supremo, General Vitalis Zvinavashe, set to quit his post in two months' time. He will possibly line himself up to succeed Mugabe if the 79-year-old leader decides to retire.

Politicians in Zimbabwe's largest political province, Masvingo, from where Zvinavashe hails, say that although he is being coy about his plans, his main wish is to fill the void created by the recent death of vice-president Simon Muzenda.

Muzenda also hailed from Masvingo, and was the kingmaker in the province.

By taking over Muzenda's role, Zvinavashe sees himself being able to achieve greater things - even having a go at the presidency, Masvingo politicians believe.

Zvinavashe, who has been head of both the Zimbabwe National Army and the air force, unsettled Zimbabwe's body politics earlier this year when he declared that Zimbabwe was in crisis and politicians needed to do something urgently to reverse the slide. His statements fuelled speculation that the army might be contemplating a takeover.

Zvinavashe, who rarely gives interviews, has not publicly made his plans known after quitting the army.

Political analyst Lovemore Madhuku said Zvinavashe might see his position in the army as a springboard for an effective role in politics.

ZIM'S INFORMATION MINISTER IN A MONEY MESS
IOL NEWS (SA) October 08 2003

By Basildon Peta

The trial of President Robert Mugabe's chief spin doctor, Zimbabwean Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, has started in Nairobi, Kenya. Moyo is charged with stealing $108 000 (about R700 000) from his former employer, the Ford Foundation.

Moyo, who caused a stir earlier this year when he described South Africans as "filthy, reckless and uncouth", is accused of defrauding the American-based Ford Foundation when it employed him at its offices in Kenya in the mid-1990s. He is accused of using part of the money to buy a mansion in Saxonwold, Johannesburg.

The case, which was first opened in 2001, was brought to court last week before Kenyan High Court Judge Onesmus Mutungi.

The Ford Foundation had sued Moyo and five others for allegedly misusing $414 000 (about R2,8-million) advanced for studies projects.

'Filthy, reckless and uncouth'
The Talunoza Trust, which was registered in South Africa by Moyo employing the first two letters of the names of his four children, is at the centre of the fraud allegations. The Zimbabwe Independent newspaper said Talunoza was used as a conduit to transfer funds for the purchase of his house in Saxonwold.

Moyo was a programme officer at the Ford Foundation in Nairobi from September 15, 1993 to December 31, 1997 before he moved to South Africa's Witwatersrand University in 1998.

The case is likely to be concluded in absentia as Moyo reportedly claims that the Kenyan High Court has no jurisdiction to hear the suit.

Wits University has accused Moyo of absconding with hundreds of thousands of rands for a project that he did not complete. He is also said to owe R100 000 to the television production company Endemol in South Africa, headed by President Thabo Mbeki's brother, Moeletsi Mbeki.

ZIM OPPOSITION DENIES MUGABE TALKS
Mail & Guardian (SA) 30 September 2003

Harare - Zimbabwe's leading opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), on Tuesday denied that negotiations had resumed with President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party. "This is media speculation. There are no talks in the country and this has been confirmed by Zanu PF," MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said. "Until the talks are formally resumed, talks about talks become exploratory in nature and, of course, pre-negotiation must be preceded by exploratory shuttles [by church leaders] between the two parties," he told a news conference. "All those cannot be concluded as talks," he said, adding "but we are looking at breaking the impasse so that the talks can resume". "We have done everything in our power to reduce tension between the MDC and Zanu-PF. That must not be misinterpreted as capitulation," he said.

Tsvangirai welcome a recent speech by Mugabe in which he said the two parties should settle their differences internally "as sons of the soil" without seeking foreign help. "Recent developments have put the talks agenda even at a higher level ... it will help create an environment in which the two parties will be prepared to negotiate this crisis," he said. But Tsvangirai called for the statement to be translated into concrete action, notably in reversing the ban on Zimbabwe's only independent daily newspaper. "Let's see The Daily News ban lifted ... and all the restrictions that are being imposed lifted, so that we can demonstrate that there is seriousness," he said. The forced closure of The Daily News was politically motivated, he said. "We view the closure of The Daily News as an attack, as an attack on the MDC. The paper has just become a victim of the whole strategy to emasculate the independent communication channels. We are not saying The Daily News is owned by the MDC, or a mouthpiece of the MDC, but we believe in the spirit of freedom of association. Any closure of any newspaper is an affront to democracy," he said. He said the MDC would launch a campaign to fight for a lifting on the Daily News ban.

MDC REJECTS MUGABE'S CALL FOR UNITY
The Daily Telegraph (UK), 25 September 2003

Harare - President Robert Mugabe called yesterday for unity between all Zimbabweans, including the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. But the MDC quickly rejected the rare display of conciliatory rhetoric as "public posturing". In a rambling speech at the state funeral of Vice-President Simon Muzenda, Mr Mugabe called on Zimbabweans to settle their differences internally and not "in Blair's home", referring to the British Prime Minister. "We are sons of the soil together, and sons of the soil should behave like sons of the soil, not rise against each other," he said. Since the formation of the MDC four years ago hundreds of its supporters have been killed and thousands beaten or imprisoned by Mr Mugabe's supporters and state security agents. Paul Themba Nyathi, an MDC spokesman, said: "Mugabe is leading a country where 70 per cent are unemployed, 80 per cent live below the poverty line and more than five million people require food aid. If he was serious about rectifying the situation he would take practical steps." The funeral, which began three days of national mourning, was attended by thousands of Zimbabweans who cheered the call for unity. But the loudest cheers came when Mr Mugabe castigated white farmers for failing to take part in the government's land seizure programme and blamed them for the loss of lucrative beef exports to the European Union.

CHANCE TO MEND FENCES WILL BE LOST IF MUGABE CLINGS TO OLD GUARD
The Cape Times (SA), 25 September 2003

By Basildon Peta

Has the death of Vice-President Simon Muzenda created an opportunity for President Robert Mugabe to unite his divided country by appointing the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change as a replacement? After all, some of Mugabe's staunch allies, like President Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo, have fought hard to encourage a united government in Zimbabwe as the only realistic way of rescuing the country from its seemingly bottomless economic and political quagmire. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the top brass of his party, including secretary-general Welshman Ncube and national chairman Isaac Matongo, demonstrated unprecedented magnanimity by visiting Muzenda's home in Harare to convey their condolences. As the country mourns the death at the weekend of Muzenda, who was 80, speculation has been mounting about how Mugabe will use the sudden vacancy to settle the succession question. Analysts say that in a functional democracy it would not be unreasonable to expect Mugabe to use his deputy's death as an opportunity to offer an olive branch to the opposition.

"But in the mad circus that Zimbabwe has become, it is more than foolish to expect this to happen," said University of Zimbabwe analyst Lovemore Madhuku. The reason is not the opposition's dislike for an unity arrangement with the Mugabe regime, but mainly Mugabe's demonstrated belief that Zimbabwe and his government would be far better off without an opposition. Although the MDC would probably refuse to be part of Mugabe's government, if Mugabe extended an olive branch this would portray him as a magnanimous statesman eager to take steps to resolve the crisis in his country. Although this would play to his advantage, Mugabe would most likely rather miss the opportunity. As it is, Mugabe used a memorial service for Muzenda as an opportunity to demonise the MDC as "British puppets" who would never rule Zimbabwe "as long as I live".

If the prospects of Mugabe's appointing Tsvangirai are zero, what about a young candidate from within Zanu PF who has the credentials - such as former finance minister Simba Makoni - to improve the party's credibility and standing? "There is no chance of this happening, either," said University of Zimbabwe political scientist Elphas Mukonoweshuro. "Mugabe will stick to the old guard and Muzenda's successor is going to come from the old school." Any young Zanu PF politicians who have shown a serious inclination to work with the opposition and engage the international donor community have been branded "traitors". None of the many analysts interviewed thought Emmerson Mnangagwa would not be Mugabe's choice. Mugabe has done everything to ensure that Mnangagwa, the Speaker of parliament and Zanu PF head of administration implicated by a United Nations report in looting the Democratic Republic of Congo - will succeed him. "If Mugabe delays announcing Mnangagwa's appointment, it will be because he wants to give him more time to consolidate his power in the party before elevating him," said Madhuku.

There are many reasons for Mugabe's sticking to Mnangagwa, but the most compelling is that the speaker is Mugabe's best insurance policy against future prosecution. In the early 1980s, as minister of state security in charge of Zimbabwe's dreaded spy agency, the Central Intelligence Organisation, Mnangagwa oversaw the systematic elimination of an estimated 25 000 Mugabe opponents in Matabeleland. The findings of a 1984 inquiry commissioned by Mugabe to investigate the Matabeleland massacres after an international outcry have not been made public, despite pressure by civic groups. Any moderate candidate who may, after taking office, bow to public pressure and release the findings is therefore automatically disqualified from the succession race. If, through some stroke of fate, Mnangagwa fails to be appointed, Mugabe's next choice, analysts agree, would be Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi, another hardcore Mugabe fanatic also implicated in the DRC looting. John Nkomo, the charismatic Zanu-PF national chairman considered by many as one of the few Zanu PF men who could make a difference by breaking with Mugabe's past, is out of the equation because of his moderate tendencies. Like many other opportunities that have arisen to resolve Zimbabwe crises, that of settling the succession question and brightening the country's prospects by appointing a credible candidate has come - but is certain to go begging since it is likely that Mnangagwa - a prominent member of Mugabe's old guard - will be appointed.

6. Nepad and Zimbabwe

OBASANJO CALLS FOR 'SEA CHANGE' IN ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe Independent (Harare) October 3, 2003

Dumisani Muleya

NIGERIAN president and incoming Commonwealth chairman Olusegun Obasanjo says President Robert Mugabe will not be invited to the club's summit in Abuja in December unless there is a positive "sea change" in Zimbabwe.

Obasanjo said in New York on Monday there has to be fundamental and far-reaching changes in Zimbabwe if Mugabe was to be invited.

So far Nigeria has said Mugabe and Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf who seized power through a military coup in 1999 are not welcome at the meeting.

Obasanjo was responding to a question as to whether he would reconsider Mugabe's ban as South African President Thabo Mbeki had initially urged.

"Well, it's a decision for me but it's not really a decision for me alone," Obasanjo said. "It's a decision for me with the Commonwealth leaders and for now, after appropriate consultations, I believe there has to be a sea change in Zimbabwe for an invitation to be sent."

Asked about the sea change represented by the closure of the Daily News, Obasanjo said: "I would say if that qualifies to be called a sea change at all, then it's a negative sea change."

Despite South Africa's initial protests over Mugabe's exclusion, Mbeki's spokesman Bheki Khumalo was this week quoted in the press accepting Obasanjo's decision.

Khumalo said Mbeki was among those consulted by Obasanjo over the Mugabe issue.

"The president accepts President Obasanjo's decision," he said "It is up to Nigeria to decide whether or not to invite President Mugabe."

Outgoing Commonwealth chair John Howard of Australia said inviting Mugabe to the Abuja summit when he was in blatant breach of the Commonwealth Harare Declaration principles on democracy, human rights and elections would be a "tragedy".

South Africa initially protested over Mugabe's exclusion before realising it was fighting a lone battle. Its official position on the issue has so far shifted no less than three times. But now Pretoria has accepted it is unlikely to change the club's stance on Mugabe.

On suggestions that Mbeki could boycott the summit over Mugabe's ban, Khumalo said: "There is no question of the president boycotting the event. That notion is a dead duck. He will be there with the other Commonwealth leaders to engage the issues."

The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) which met on September 27 in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly said Zimbabwe's suspension from the Commonwealth for electoral fraud would be reviewed in Abuja.

But CMAG said Zimbabwe was still suspended and would not be invited to the meeting. Mbeki recently claimed in parliament that Harare's ban ended in March.

CMAG members, Botswana, Malta, India, Bangladesh, Bahamas, Samoa, Nigeria and Australia, said there was little chance of Zimbabwe rejoining the councils of the Commonwealth because it remained in material breach of the club's principles and has failed to address key issues of concern.

Instead, they said Pakistan stood a better chance of bouncing back to the club earlier than Zimbabwe.

Australian Foreign minister Alexander Downer, who has taken a tough position on Mugabe, prepared a document for CMAG showing that Zimbabwe has not measured up to the Commonwealth "benchmarks" for its readmission.

He circulated the document demonstrating Zimbabwe's lack of progress in meeting Commonwealth benchmarks for democratic reform and insisted Mugabe has to comply with the club's principles.

Howard has made it clear Zimbabwe should not be readmitted until "the disappearance of Mugabe's government".

WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
The Sunday Mail (Zimbabwe – state-owned) COMMENT 28 September 2003

Much has been made and said of the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Abuja, Nigeria. There has been that feeling in certain quarters that Zimbabwe will be spited if not invited. These sentiments have been emanating mostly from the white section of the Commonwealth led by the garrulous Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, and the now strangely silent Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister. We think whether or not Zimbabwe is invited to Chogm is immaterial and inconsequential. We don’t see why Zimbabwe should be bothered with Chogm. It should get its priorities right and pay attention to only those meetings and programmes that add value to the country, the continent and the rest of the world. Zimbabwe should actually not attend the Commonwealth summit because it is not worth anything anymore. Since Don McKinnon became the secretary-general, the Commonwealth is no longer the same institution that it was under the leadership of Sir Shridath Ramphal or Chief Ameka Anyaoku. There isn’t much of a Commonwealth anymore. The organisation has visibly moved away from its development agenda and been turned into an extension of British foreign policy. We now have a Commonwealth that is not ashamed to champion British and American imperialism through the positions it takes in situations such as the invasion of Iraq. Howard, Blair and McKinnon have clearly killed the spirit of consensus that marked previous Commonwealth positions and meetings such as the one Zimbabwe had the pleasure of hosting in 1991.

In place of consensus now we have the megaphone diplomacy of the likes of Howard, which has not only irritated Zimbabwe but also other countries, notably South Africa. The white Commonwealth so boldly speaks about democracy, pointing a speck in black Africa’s eyes and yet ignoring the log in their own. When one hears them speak about matters of democracy and equity one would be surprised to realise that they are the same countries that do not practise what they preach. One would only need to hear from the Aborigines in Australia or the Maoris in New Zealand to understand the level of hypocrisy and to understand that in the case of Zimbabwe their agenda is to derail the land reform programme. Therefore Zimbabwe has a choice between going to the Abuja meeting and keeping the gains of its independence as enunciated in the land reform programme. It may as well say to hell with Chogm and concentrate on getting the land reform programme to work effectively. Going to Chogm would be to simply give Howard and Blair an undeserved opportunity to exert pressure on Zimbabwe and distract it from its programmes at a time it should be focused. The Commonwealth is too divided to be useful and we doubt if anything will come out of the Abuja meeting. The Commonwealth must be reminded that unless it works to achieve unity of purpose and returns to its development agenda it will be one organisation that is not worth losing sleep over.

7. Impact on the region

NEW DIPLOMAT TO PUSH ZIMBABWE POLITICAL DIALOGUE
Malawi Standard (Blantyre) October 7, 2003

Peter Banda
Blantyre

Malawi's newly appointed High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, retired judge William Hanjahanja has pledged to press for sustenance of dialogue between Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

Hanjahanja, a former High Court of Malawi judge and a one-time chairman of the Malawi Electoral Commission, told journalists after his appointment that he is happy that President Bakili Muluzi has sent him to Harare.

"It is not a secret that the political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe has greatly affected Malawi because Zimbabwe is one of our biggest trading partners in the region. The sooner the Zimbabwe political and economic crisis comes to an end the better," said Hanjahanja.

Hanjahanja said that the economic problems dogging Harare are spilling to other Southern African nations including Malawi.

He said that he has been delegated by President Muluzi to play a crucial role in fostering peace talks between ZANU PF and MDC.

President Bakili Muluzi is one of the key Southern African leaders that are mediating talks between the ruling and opposition parties in Zimbabwe.

"President Bakili Muluzi has already made some strides in the dialogue between ZANU PF and opposition MDC party. I hope my presence in Harare would facilitate continued dialogue, which Muluzi started," Hanjahanja said.

Early this month, Muluzi held discussions with a delegation from Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by the party's secretary general, Welshman Ncube.

The discussions were a sequel to a meeting earlier this year of an African troika on the Zimbabwean crisis, including besides Muluzi, presidents Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria.

After meeting Muluzi last month, Ncube told journalists the MDC delegation was in Malawi to brief Muluzi on progress so far between the opposition and the ruling ZANU-PF towards easing the "political tension" in Zimbabwe.

Ncube said although the MDC still does not recognise the government of President Robert Mugabe, it has complied with a request by the Muluzi-Mbeki-Obasanjo troika to reduce political tension in Zimbabwe.

"To show our commitment to lessening the political tension we have decided to start attending Parliament," he said.

Ncube also said dialogue between the two parties, which was started by religious leaders, was progressing well. He said he was hopeful that the Troika would convene another meeting soon to review progress and chart the way forward.

Meanwhile the Zimbabwean leader on Wednesday called for unity with the opposition. Speaking during the burial ceremony of his deputy, Simon Vengai Muzenda, President Robert Mugabe said the MDC was free to disagree with the government but should desist from co-opting Britain into the debate.

He said Zimbabweans should work together regardless of skin colour or political affiliation. According to the government owned Herald newspaper, Mugabe hailed the presence of the MDC leadership at the burial ceremony.

Mugabe is on record as having said that the solutions to the country's problems should be discussed internally without the involvement and interference of outsiders.

"True, there will be differences just like I would have arguments with my young brother. But we should keep the arguments within our house, not in (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair's house," the Herald quoted Mugabe as saying.

He said unity talks should not be held in a vacuum but should be in a directed manner, focused towards the attainment of certain fundamentals.

He said Zanu-PF and MDC were "sons of the soil and they should behave like sons of the soil."

"Every Zimbabwean had the right to dance. Do we also cherish the right to fight for it when it is threatened by others from outside? Who are we, and what are we? These are questions that must be answered" asked Mugabe.

Top MDC officials including the party's national chairman Isaac Matongo and deputy secretary general, Gift Chimanikira attended the burial ceremony of Muzenda.

Commenting on Mugabe's speech Nyathi said: "It is the responsibility of a leader to make an all-inclusive speech so as to reduce tension."

Nyathi said the MDC decided to attend the burial ceremony of Muzenda because of the positive contribution he made to the liberation of Zimbabwe.

8. The economy

HARARE SWAPS CHEQUES AS CRISIS DEEPENS
Business Day (Johannesburg) October 9, 2003

Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg

THE Zimbabwean government has ordered the withdrawal of its travellers cheques, barely two months after they were introduced to alleviate the country's cash shortage.

The travellers cheques, released into the banking system amid a lot of political hype by authorities, have been removed in favour of the easily convertible bearer's cheques that are now widely in circulation.

A senior central bank official said yesterday the government had ordered its printing firm, Fidelity Printers, to stop producing travellers cheques due to "their questionable legal tender".

The move points out the economic policy confusion and overall mismanagement of President Robert Mugabe's regime. His government has never adopted a suitable economic policies since it came into power 23 three years ago.

Zimbabwe has been battling a severe cash shortage for several months. The crisis was caused by hyperinflation the rate is currently 426,6% and the government's failure to anticipate the subsequent rise in demand for bank notes.

The government released new Z1000 bank notes last week, hard on the heels of the introduction of redesigned Z500 notes two weeks ago.

It pumped Z2,5bn in Z1000 notes into the banking system and will continue to introduce the same amount every day until December to improve money supply.

A similar amount in Z500 notes would be released into the financial system every day for the next three months, the government has said.

The cash shortage in Zimbabwe reflects the broader economic crisis that the country finds itself mired in.

Zimbabwe's growing list of shortages includes fuel, power, food and basic commodities, as well as foreign currency.

ZIMBABWE FUEL PRICE SHOCK
Business Day (SA), 2 October 2003

Shortages are expected to persist despite second drastic increase in a month

Harare - Fuel prices rose 60% in Zimbabwe yesterday, just a month after the cost of fuel was increased threefold. But experts warned that such drastic increases would not ease acute petrol shortages. The Zimbabwean government said that the private fuel companies were allowed to sell regular octane petrol at the new price to help meet rising importation costs and the declining value of Zimbabwe's currency against the US dollar. Masimba Kambarami, head of the private Petroleum Marketers Association, said the price increase would bring in only "a trickle" to empty petrol stations. "It is not what we wanted, but at least a trigger system has started (to link fluctuating importation costs to pump prices)," said Kambarami. The price of regular-octane petrol in Zimbabwe went up to Z$1980 a litre, with the official exchange rate Z$824 to the US dollar and a black-market exchange rate of more than Z$5000 to the greenback. Kambarami said Zimbabwe was suffering acute shortages of hard currency, and most of the oil groups were forced to buy US dollars for imports at the black-market exchange rate, which meant the new state-pegged price of petrol was still uneconomic for importers.

In last month's price increases, the government introduced an unorthodox second, lower fuel price for its own vehicles, public transport and for vehicles used in agriculture. The two-tier pricing system, intended to cushion impoverished commuters from fare hikes and keep fuel affordable for black farmers recently resettled on former white-owned farms seized by the state, has been plagued by corruption and profiteering. The country's economic crisis is blamed partly on the state's seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to landless blacks starting in 2000. The land seizures slashed production of tobacco, the main hard currency earner. Aid, investment and tourism earnings dried up as political violence and abuses of human and democratic rights worsened during the land seizures. More increases in petrol prices are expected to aggravate Zimbabwe's spiralling official inflation of 426%, one of the highest rates in the world. Apart from fuel and currency shortages there are also severe shortages of food, medicine and other imports. The hard-currency shortage led to petrol shortages that began three years ago after suppliers shut off regular shipments because they were not being paid.

NEW 'CURRENCY' FOR CASH-STRAPPED ZIMBABWE
Business Day (SA), 24 September 2003

Harare - Zimbabwe's central bank has launched a new form of payment in the latest bid to help ease a cash crisis that has rocked the country since April. Some Z$8.8 billion worth of bearer cheques were released to banks to dispense, according to the bank. On Friday a new Z$500 note will be launched, while a Z$1,000 note will be released on Wednesday next week. But economists expressed varying opinions on the new payment system, coming just days before the introduction of new higher denomination notes. Last month authorities introduced travellers’ cheques but the cash shortage has not eased, as people still queue for hours to cash their pay cheques. "I believe these are going to help ease the scarcity (of cash) and make things a bit better," said independent economist John Robertson. But opposition Movement for Democratic Change shadow finance minister, Tapiwa Mashakada, said the bearer cheques would not likely help stem the cash shortages. "I don't think it is going to solve the cash crisis because the public does not have confidence in these instruments as legal tender," said Mashakada.

The new bearer cheques, which will even be dispensed at cash machines, will be in use for six months only while the government assesses market needs. Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa announced last July that Zimbabwe's current 500-dollar note would be withdrawn at the end of September and replaced with a new banknote of the same value. But at the weekend, he said the old note would now be kept in circulation until end of the year. "People are now confused," said Mashakada. "We have a broken record - one small country with different forms of legal tender," he said. The acute shortage of cash, the first of its kind in the history of the country, has forced banks to limit maximum withdrawals to amounts which are so little they suffice to buy just five loaves of bread. Economists blame Zimbabwe's soaring inflation rate, now standing at 426.6%, for the note shortages.

9. Land

RESETTLED FARMERS ENCOUNTER FALLOUT FROM ECONOMIC MELTDOWN
IRIN (UN), 24 September 2003

Bulawayo - The prospects for agricultural revival in Zimbabwe in the new farming season have been thrown into doubt following reports that a parastatal charged with implementing the tillage programme among resettled subsistence farmers, is facing serious problems including the poor state of mechanised and other farming implements and a chronic shortage of fuel. District Development Fund (DDF) officials said more than half the tillage fleet of tractors was in a state of disrepair due to the shortage of spare parts, a situation which worsened early this year when Tanaka Power, a Harare-based agricultural equipment and supplies company, withdrew its services following DDF's failure to service its debt.

This year's crop farming season, which comes as the country is going through a multi-faceted social and economic crisis, holds little promise for these farmers. The DDF has said they will be required to pay Z$32,000 upfront per hectare tilled, and buy their own fuel at a subsidised rate of Z$200 per litre. Although the price is a remarkable climb-down from the current price of Z$2,000 a litre, DDF officials in western Matabeleland province said the farmers had complained, saying most of them could not afford the fees. "The situation in the tillage sections throughout the country is very bad. It would be a dangerous gamble for farmers to look to the DDF, because the tractors are in a state of disrepair. If they insist, they will find that the few that are in working order have no fuel, which they will have to buy themselves," said an official who refused to be named. "Besides the impossibility of villagers securing fuel without government help, the high cost of tillage charges can only be met by established, highly productive commercial farmers, as opposed to those coming from a subsistence background. Disc ploughs are also in short supply, while the few that are there also need to be replaced or somehow repaired - so the DDF is not ready for the tillage task and government is aware of that."

He said the DDF's plight worsened early this year when a Harare agricultural equipment and spares distributor withdrew from a service and equipment spares supply contract, citing the parastatal's failure to pay for services rendered in last year's farming season. "The company said it was failing to cope with the increasing ... [quantity] of equipment requiring service as the parastatal's debt soared, so they turned back all the DDF equipment. The situation, as it prevails now, is that even if the farmers manage to pay, they will not get the service. So failure by the farmers to pay would be a blessing in disguise for the DDF, because it has no capacity to deliver tillage services at the moment," he said. He added that under normal conditions, the DDF should have at least seven tractors assigned to tillage per district, but some districts still did not have any. "The highest number you can find working in the districts in Matabeleland will be two, but they also do not have fuel and the tillage programme has not started."

Farmers are required to organise themselves into groups and approach the Agricultural Rural Extension Services (AREX), which would in turn visit them individually to assess the hectarage they want tilled, and then calculate the amount and cost of the fuel required. AREX is charged with procuring the fuel, while the local rural district council is required to provide fuel storage facilities in the area where the tractors would be working. Given the new maize seed prices announced by the government last week, and the overall cost of tillage, a farmer has to fork out a total of Z$133,000 to till and plant one hectare of farmland. A 10 kg bag of seed maize, enough for 1 hectare, now costs Z$21,00, it takes Z$80,000 to fill the fuel tank of a tractor, and the cost of tillage will stand at Z$32,000. The DDF Director of Operations declined to give details on their state of preparedness and referred IRIN to the DDF Director-General, who was not immediately available for comment.

The managing director (MD) of Tanaka Power refused to expand on the circumstances surrounding the withdrawal of their contract with DDF, and referred IRIN back to the DDF. "This is a government contract and such issues are sensitive. DDF would be the best people to discuss that with." The government announced new maize seed prices, which were roundly condemned as unaffordable to farmers, following a submission to parliament by seed companies citing the low government-controlled prices as one of the major factors that could threaten their viability and, therefore, the sustainability of seed supplies in the new season. In the past two weeks the majority of stakeholders in the farm inputs and other agro-supplies sectors have pointed out that the combination of factors making up the Zimbabwean crisis would most likely scuttle any effort at agricultural revival, unless government acts to address the economic meltdown in the country.

ZIMBABWE FARMERS MAY FORFEIT PAYOUTS
Business Day (SA), 23 September 2003

Harare - Zimbabwe's white farmers have been told by the government that they must take the compensation package offered to them for their land or risk getting nothing at all, the agriculture minister has said. Many white commercial farmers have not collected the money because they are contesting the sums offered. Agriculture Minister Joseph Made was quoted in the state-run Herald newspaper yesterday as saying that Z$8bn in compensation money would be disbursed to new black farmers if the white farmers did not claim it. "There is a fund sitting idle and the intended beneficiaries are holed up somewhere in Australia, Canada, Britain or New Zealand," Made said. He did not give a deadline for farmers to collect the money. Under its controversial land reform programme launched in 2000, the government took over white-owned farms for redistribution to new black farmers. The government said it was paying for work done on the land, and not for the land itself, which it says was stolen by 19th century white settlers. But the white farmers' lobby, Justice for Agriculture (JAG), yesterday dismissed the latest move by the government as a "mere propaganda exercise". It said the figures being offered by the government to compensate dispossessed white farmers for work done on their farms represented on average 10%-25% of the real value. JAG vice-president John Worswick said: "They (the government) have failed to raise the finance for land reform. This is just another way of robbing Peter to pay Paul." According to a recent survey by the white-run Commercial Farmers' Union , an estimated 485 commercial farmers out of about 3291 operating in 2000 have remained on their land. The eviction of white farmers has been partly blamed by aid agencies and critics for Zimbabwe's worst famine in living memory.

10. Crackdown on the media

SADC URGED TO TAKE ACTION ON PRESS FREEDOM
Mail& Guardian (SA) 07 October 2003
Gaborone, Botswana

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been urged to take action on threats to press freedom in the region, particularly in Zimbabwe.

At a meeting with the SADC secretariat in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana, a Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) delegation raised concerns that the mandatory licensing of journalists could be open to abuse by governments.

A particular source of unease was Zimbabwe's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the recent shutting down of the country's only independent daily newspaper, The Daily News.

"These laws will infringe on the freedom of movement of all SADC journalists, as articulated in the SADC protocol on information, sports and culture," said Thomas Deve, Misa board member and former online editor of The Daily News.

"[The SADC protocol] calls for regional governments to harmonise their legislation on media, in pursuit of freedom of movement and access to information," he noted.

The three-day visit to Botswana, which ended at the weekend, is part of a regional campaign, titled SADC Journalists Under Fire: Speak Out for Free and Open Media – Targeting Violations against Journalists in the SADC Region.

"The major problem is the fact that under the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, for you to practise as a journalist you have to be licensed. What is also worrying for journalists is that some government departments do not recognise the accreditation card," said Miriam Madziwa, the Bulawayo-based editor of Zimbabwean newspaper The Tribune.

"The question becomes: why should we register if the accreditation card is not recognised by government departments?" Madziwa said.

During local government elections at the end of August, accredited journalists allegedly could not get access to polling stations, or information from officials, unless they had accreditation specifically allowing them to cover the elections.

While it has been argued that Zimbabwe's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act is meant to regulate the operations of the media and allow the free flow of information, the Misa delegation maintains that the Act is undemocratic, and places a number of onerous restrictions on the information that journalists, civil society and the public can access and report on.

Severe punitive measures that could be taken in the event of any crime being committed by journalists are also imposed by the Act. Records and other information relating to politics and other issues of national governance are strictly out of bounds, Misa said.

The Act does not confer the right to information on any person that is not a citizen, body corporate or mass media service, and not registered in Zimbabwe in terms of this Act or the Broadcasting Services Act.

"Zimbabwe should be a rallying call for countries in the region, because governments in the region undertook to expand and increase the number of players in the media industry," said Jacob Mafume, a Misa legal consultant.

"The situation in Zimbabwe is an indicator of how governments are moving, and the way they will implement SADC agreements. In Zimbabwe the government is trying to restrict media diversity and plurality," he charged.

Misa has just completed an audit of the status of the media in the region, with specific emphasis on Zimbabwe, as a basis from which to lobby for a more favourable media climate in Southern Africa.

The Misa delegation pointed out that the African Commission on Human and People's Rights has adopted a Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa. Principle VIII states that "any registration system for the print media shall not impose substantive restrictions on the right to freedom of expression". -- Irin

IN FOR THE LONG HAUL
Mail & Guardian (SA) COMMENT 26 September 2003

David Masunda in Harare

"We are here to bury the honourable Robert Mugabe." These words, uttered by a speaker at the funeral of a deceased senior Zanu PF figure, were to be published Zimbabwe’s Daily News last Saturday, but never saw the light of day. The man being buried was, in fact, former deputy minister of public construction and national housing Robert Marera. The relative making the speech quickly realized his faux pas and corrected himself. But it was enough for an alert Daily News journalist to pick up as a interesting angle for a piece for the Saturday edition. Leading the edition was a story about how Ministry of Energy officials were abusing their position to profit from the country’s fuel crisis. In The Daily News on Sunday was to be a story about growing Southern African Development Community concern over Zimbabwe. These stories were carted off in computers seized by the Zimbabwean police.

Daily News editor Nqobile Nyathi said while the lead was hard-hitting, the rest of the paper would have been a relaxed weekend read. The Sunday paper, however, was to be a hard-hitting one. According to The Daily News on Sunday editor Bill Saidi, the newspaper would have given the country’s draconian press laws a kick in the teeth. The newspaper would have carried an editorial condemning Zimbabwe’s Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act as "draconian and unconstitutional", said Saidi, the author of the editorial comment. The Daily News failed to publish the edition because police sealed off their offices and impounded computers. Efforts to publish the edition using facilities at other newspapers failed.

Legal experts and media practitioners in Zimbabwe were convinced that the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) was in for a "long haul" in its bid to get the papers back on the streets. Its efforts to obtain publishing licences through the courts for The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday would take much longer than anticipated said legal experts. "We know its going to be a long haul, but management has told us that they are prepared to pay our salaries for the next two years, if it is going to take that long in the courts," said a senior journalist at the newspaper. But even if ANZ was to move mountains and manage to get the administrative court to make a ruling on the MIC action, it would still be a "long haul" before the two papers are back on the streets because the matter might remain entangled in the courts, government sources said. On Monday police invaded the newspapers’ offices in central Harare for the second time and pounced on 127 computers, ostensibly to "access the company’s financial documents". This time they were more courteous; enough to obtain a court order before entering. "It’s like a graveyard here," said a Daily News reporter. "Although we have the desks, there are no computers and we are not doing any work. We just come here to chat and mingle."

SUSPENDED ZIM JOURNOS 'DIDN'T SHOW RESPECT'
IOL NEWS (SA) October 03 2003

By Basildon Peta

Two journalists at the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation have been suspended because they were not solemn enough after the death of President Robert Mugabe's deputy, Simon Muzenda.

The Financial Gazette reported on Thursday that the ZBC's acting head of radio and television services, Susan Makore, and head of production services, Douglas Dhliwayo, had been suspended.

"After the president had announced the death of Vice-President Muzenda, ZTV (the television station) and radio stations did not immediately switch to solemn programmes and music," one ZBC staffer told the newspaper.

"This is what led to their suspension."

Efforts to get comment from the ZBC and the two suspended staffers failed.

Muzenda was declared a national hero and buried last week. The death of a senior government minister in Zimbabwe is often treated as a very solemn matter.

During the mourning and burial period, the government-owned ZBC was expected to switch to revolutionary songs and omit hip-hop, soul and other music that is considered disrespectful.

Shortly after Mugabe announced the death of his other vice-president, Joshua Nkomo, in July 2001, the ZBC began airing revolutionary songs and repeated several speeches made by Nkomo during the liberation struggle. - Independent Foreign Service

HIGH COURT DISMISSES 'THE DAILY NEWS' CASE
Media Institute of Southern Africa (Windhoek) October 3, 2003

Windhoek

(MISA/IFEX) - On 1 October 2003, High Court Judge Tendai Uchena ordered the police to continue holding equipment they had confiscated from "The Daily News". The judgement followed a 17 September "The Daily News" appeal to have its seized equipment returned.

Judge Uchena did not give any reasons as to why the the 160 computers can not be released by the police. Under the law, the equipment could eventually be forfeited to the state.

BACKGROUND: In September, the police closed the offices of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of "The Daily News". Police then confiscated equipment after the Supreme Court ruled the group was publishing without a licence, contravening tough media laws introduced in 2002.

"The Daily News" had initially refused to register for a licence in protest against the laws. A government-appointed media commission rejected the paper's subsequent application for a licence in what the ANZ said was an attack on freedom of expression. Harare's Administrative Court was expected to rule on 3 October on an application by the ANZ to hear its appeal against the media commission's decision.

ANZ WINS COURT APPEAL
Zimbabwe Independent (Harare) October 3, 2003

Dumisani Muleya

Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) yesterday won a ruling in the Administrative Court following an application for an urgent hearing into the Media and Information Commission (MIC)'s decision to refuse to register it as a mass media service.

The court said the ANZ case was urgent and set the date for hearing as October 16. When the case opens, the court will determine whether or not the ANZ has been unfairly denied a licence by the MIC.

If it finds that the newspaper group has a case, the court will order the MIC to reconsider its decision. But the court has no power to set aside or nullify the MIC's determination.

ANZ legal advisor Gugulethu Moyo said yesterday's court ruling was a step in the right direction.

"The court ruled we have an urgent case and set down the date for hearing as October 16. We hope that this will be a move towards final victory," Moyo said. "But the problem is that the court has no power to alter the MIC decision. That is why we believe this case is a constitutional matter that should be dealt with by the Supreme Court."

Yesterday's ruling was a dramatic recovery by the ANZ after it suffered a further setback on Wednesday following the High Court's dismissal of its application for police to return its seized property.

The High Court rejected ANZ's demand to compel the police to give back its computers and equipment that it said had been taken unlawfully using an improperly issued search warrant. The judge gave no reason for his decision. Moyo said the ANZ would study the judgement before deciding on whether or not to appeal.

ANZ, publishers of the Daily News and Daily News on Sunday, had last week challenged police claims that they had seized ANZ's assets to use them as "exhibits" and to prevent the company from publishing illegally.

Meanwhile, police on Tuesday charged eight more ANZ journalists for operating without licences, bringing the number of those arraigned to 17. At least 45 journalists have been placed on the police's wanted list.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) this week called for a boycott of state newspapers to protest against the closure of the ANZ. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said banning newspapers increased the "democratic deficit" in Zimbabwe.

ZIM MEDIA NGO SEEKS ANC HELP
News24 (SA), 1 October 2003

Cape Town - A non-governmental organisation threatened with closure under Zimbabwe's media laws says it is sending delegations to six southern African countries to plead for a tougher stand against its government. A three-person delegation from the Zimbabwean chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa) which arrived in South Africa this week, said it would seek meetings here with key figures in the African National Congress. The NGO is threatened by Zimbabwe's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, used earlier this month to shut down the country's only independent daily newspaper. The chair of Misa Zimbabwe, Reyhana Masters-Smith, told a media conference in Cape Town on Wednesday that the Zimbabwean government was using both legal and extra-legal means, including harassment and detentions, to curb the media. "It's about silencing alternative opinion and expression. It goes far beyond regulating the media," she said. She said if Misa was closed, any NGO in the country would be under threat, whether it was working in the area of HIV/Aids, gender violence or food security. She said Misa delegations were visiting six countries in the region in a bid to get their leaders to take more decisive action on Zimbabwe, and to use the instruments of the African Union to resolve issues in that country. "We are hoping that if we tackle it on a regional level it will create a bit more pressure," she said.

Masters-Smith said the delegation to South Africa, made up of herself, lawyer Tawanda Hondora and Bornwell Chakaodza, editor of the Harare Sunday newspaper the Standard, would seek meetings with the chairman of Parliament's foreign affairs portfolio committee, ANC member Pallo Jordan. It also hoped to meet ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe. "We are here to tell it like it is," said Chakaodza. "The quiet diplomacy by Mbeki and other leaders within the region has completely failed." He said Misa was trying to persuade Southern African Development Community leaders, and South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki in particular, to engage Mugabe and his government in a "stronger, more robust way". Hondora said the delegations would be pressing for diplomatic letters of protest from individual countries either directly to the Zimbabwean government or to Zimbabwean embassies. Last week representatives of Misa South Africa joined delegations of the South African National Editors' Forum and the African Editors Forum in a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad to express their concern over media freedom in Zimbabwe. Misa Zimbabwe was ordered in June to seek registration with the state's Media and Information Commission on the grounds that it was "involved in public information and communication with mass audiences through its publications". It has since filed a court challenge to the legality of the commission. Misa, which has chapters in ten SADC countries, says it focuses primarily on the need to promote free, independent and pluralistic media. Its secretariat is in Windhoek.

THE CURSE OF A QUIET DIPLOMACY
Mail & Guardian (SA) Comment 26 September 2003

Bill Saidi, Editor of the Daily News on Sunday

Last week one of my reporters, seeing about 10 police officers swarming around our newsroom, commented wryly: "You would think we were hiding weapons of mass destruction, the way they barged in and scared the hell out of everyone." He didn’t seem frightened though, even as the detective in charge harangued Sam Nkomo, the CEO of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of the only independent daily newspaper in Zimbabwe, The Daily News, and its recently launched sister publication, The Daily News on Sunday. "I shall arrest you!" the detective shouted at Nkomo, a slightly-built 60-year-old who had performed his fair share of national duty during the struggle for independence. ANZ had just been told by the Supreme Court that before it could challenge the constitutionality of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, it had to register with the Media and Information Commission, the lynchpin of a law described by commentators, journalists and human rights activists as evil, draconian and anti-democratic. The effect of the ruling was to unleash the police on the premises of the publishing company. They were there to collect the computers and any other equipment used to produce the newspapers "unlawfully". Later I asked Nkomo, who had spent time in Zambia during the struggle, whether he had met President Thabo Mbeki, who had been in that country at the same time. No, he said, he had not.

My question was pertinent in that most of what was happening to ANZ was a result of the "quiet diplomacy" launched by Mbeki to help the people of Zimbabwe find real meaning in their hard-fought independence. Quiet diplomacy had emboldened Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to conduct the affairs of his nation with a palpably outrageous disregard for the niceties of the rule of law, consensus, or even any pretence that the people’s opinions mattered. Later, in the high court, Justice Yunus Omerjee, hearing ANZ’s challenge to the uncouth police action, was acerbic in his questioning of the hapless prosecutor assigned to handle the government’s case. "What does that mean?" he asked her after she read a passage from the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, trying to bolster the prosecution case. At one time, the courtroom burst into raucous laughter when the prosecutor said the police had acted because they were afraid the newspaper company would hide computers. Omerjee granted the ANZ application with an emphatic reference to the lawlessness of the police action.

But since 2000, when the wheels started coming off the experimental vehicle that Mugabe’s Zanu PF ruling party hoped to bamboozle the rest of the world into believing was heading for democracy, the rule of law has been virtually moribund in Zimbabwe. This was just one episode during the turbulent four-year existence of The Daily News. Long before its printing press in Harare was bombed in 2001, a junior reporter got the fright of his life when Mugabe asked him: "Who is funding your newspaper?" Before the bombing, key Zanu PF personnel, including Jonathan Moyo, the architect of the obnoxious Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, had warned that it was time something was done about The Daily News, then under the editorship of Geoff Nyarota. To this day, there have been no arrests for the bombing.

Mbeki has virtually endorsed the two elections others have condemned as grievously flawed - the parliamentary elections in 2000 and last year’s presidential elections. To challenges to take a more principled and tough stance against Mugabe, Mbeki has said the people of Zimbabwe must be allowed to sort out their own mess. He has also pleaded for a chance to apply his quiet diplomacy, which many Zimbabweans now believe to be responsible for Mugabe’s mounting arrogance. Mugabe’s refusal to countenance any resumption of dialogue with the Movement for Democratic Change has been cited as another product of Mbeki’s quiet diplomacy. If the actions against ANZ and its newspapers result in their demise, it will be on Mbeki’s head. Quiet diplomacy will have helped a ruling party alleged to have staged one of the biggest election frauds in history to silence its fiercest domestic critic. It may leave most Zimbabweans with little option but to wage their own struggle against quiet diplomacy.

ENTIRE STAFF OF BANNED ZIM PAPER WILL FACE THE MUSIC
The Star (SA), 24 September 2003

Harare - Zimbabwean police intend charging the entire editorial staff and the owner of one of the country's only independent newspapers with operating for an unregistered organisation. Following on the threat, the SA National Editors' Forum yesterday asked to meet Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to discuss what it said was media repression in Zimbabwe. "We are concerned at these developments and what appears to be a lack of firm response by your office to the violation of freedom of expression in Zimbabwe," Sanef's letter to Dlamini-Zuma said. The Zimbabwe government has already shut down the Daily News for operating without a licence. It has also charged five other directors of the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), which published the Daily News, with operating a media house illegally, and plans to take them to trial soon. The Daily News, which began publishing in 1999, refused to register its operations as required by tough media laws passed in 2002 in protest against the legislation. The laws were enacted soon after President Robert Mugabe was re-elected last year.

Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said the police wanted to question ANZ board chairperson Strive Masiyiwa, who lives in South Africa, over his role in the illegal operations. Masiyiwa, who moved to South Africa three years ago, also owns majority shares in Zimbabwean cellphone operator Econet Wireless. "The ideal situation would be for us to interview Masiyiwa face to face, but he is not here. However, we are still going to charge him, one way or the other, with the same charges his fellow directors are facing," Bvudzijena said. "We are also going to charge all those journalists who have been working at the ANZ without registration and the requisite accreditation." The group employed about 60 journalists. A government-appointed media commission on Friday denied a licence to the ANZ, saying the group had been found guilty by the courts of publishing the Daily News for nearly nine months without registration. The commission's decision came a week after police shut down the Daily News.

MEDIA BODY QUERIES ZIMBABWE MEDIA LAWS
Business Day (SA), 25 September 2003

Harare - The Zimbabwe branch of a regional media advocacy group said it had filed a court application challenging the legality of the state-appointed Media and Information Commission (MIC). The Media Institute of Southern Africa - Zimbabwe (MISA-Zimbabwe) said it had filed the application against the commission, which licences media in the country. Its application also seeks to have the requirement of an operating licence declared unconstitutional. The move comes amid intense international and local concern over a government crackdown on Zimbabwe's last independent daily, which was shut earlier this month over the licencing issue. Police were preparing to charge some 45 journalists of the Daily News for working without accreditation, and the paper's owners were charged on Monday for not having an operating permit. MISA-Zimbabwe has also asked in its court application whether, as an advocacy body, it is also obliged to register with the commission. "We asking the High Court to determine whether we are a mass media house or not. We want it to determine our character," group chairperson Reyhana Master-Smith told AFP.

MISA is an arm of a regional non-governmental organisation promoting media pluralism and independence which has branches in all southern African countries. The commission licences media services and journalists who operate in the country under the media law which came into effect last year shortly after President Robert Mugabe was re-elected to office in disputed polls. The law states that at least three of the maximum seven MIC board members should be nominated by an association of journalists and an association of media houses. MISA argues that neither an association of journalists nor any of the media houses had forwarded any names for the commission. "The board is therefore improperly and unlawfully constituted rendering any purported exercise of the functions and powers conferred upon... (it) null and void," the advocacy group said. The requirement for media organisations to register "places an undue restriction on the free flow of information by requiring organisations to register with a politically compromised body before disseminating information", it charged. Meantime the Daily News, which has been closed for 12 days after the Supreme Court ruled it was illegal, has filed applications with the Zimbabwean courts seeking an overturn of the MIC decision to deny it a licence.

11. Solidarity/activism/networking

Email Correspondence

In this email:

1. SACP statement on detention of Zimbabwean trade union leaders
2. ICFTU--Zimbabwe: Mass arrests of trade unionists by Mugabe regime

1. SACP statement on detention of Zimbabwean trade union leaders

The South African Communist Party expresses its deep concern at the
detention of 41 Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) leaders today. The
SACP calls for their immediate release. The authorities in Harare need to
know that there is widespread outrage in South Africa about the detention of
trade unionists, the closure of newspapers, and the brutal harassment of
civilians, including very worrying reports about the systematic rape of
women and girls by rampaging youth militias.

The priority task within Zimbabwe is the fostering of a climate of tolerance
and respect for the law, a climate that will support rapid progress in the
bilateral talks between ZANU PF and the MDC. This is a challenge that
confronts all Zimbabweans, but it is a particular responsibility of those in
authority.

We know from our own experience of an unfolding negotiations process that
popular pressure, and citizen activism are essential for an effective
overcoming of a political impasse. The SACP fully supports the nurturing of
bi-partisan negotiations, but negotiations must not be limited to
behind-the-scenes elite pacting, which, even if they succeed in the
short-term, will not produce a durable resolution to the social, economic
and constitutional crisis currently afflicting Zimbabwe.

8th October 2003

***************
2. ICFTU ONLINE...
Zimbabwe: Mass arrests of trade unionists by Mugabe regime 8/10/2003

Brussels, October 8, 2003 (ICFTU online): The ICFTU has lodged a protest
with the International Labour Organisation over the wave of anti-union
arrests and violent assaults being carried out today in Zimbabwe by the
country’s government. To date, some 41 trade union leaders have already been
detained in Harare and more than 100 in Mutare, including almost the entire
leadership of the ICFTU-affiliated Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).
In Bulawayo, several union leaders were subjected to violent assault by
government forces, and police refused to allow ambulances to ferry the
injured to hospital. ZCTU President Lovemore Matombo and Secretary General
Wellington Chibhebhe are amongst those detained.

The government’s action is the latest in a string of attacks on the trade
union movement, and takes place as the ZCTU and its affiliates were about to
undertake a series of peaceful protests against spiraling transport and fuel
costs, tax hikes, a drastic shortage of cash and ongoing violations of trade
union and human rights by the regime.

The ICFTU is particularly concerned about the situation of several union
officials being held in secret locations, and the apparent targeting of a
number of women trade unionists by the regime.

“Zimbabwe is a country in deep crisis, and the actions of President Mugabe’s
government today are those of a desperate regime. Only when human and trade
union right are fully respected, and the people of Zimbabwe can live in
conditions of full respect for democracy, can the enormous task of
rebuilding the country’s economy really begin”, said ICFTU General Secretary
Guy Ryder.

The ICFTU represents 158 million workers in 231 affiliated organisations in
150 countries and territories. The ICFTU is also a member of Global Unions:
http://www.global-unions.org

For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224
0210.

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions(ICFTU)
Boulevard du Roi Albert II 5, B1, B-1210 Brussels, Belgium. For more
information please contact ICFTU Press on: +32 (2) 224 0232 -
[email protected]

COSATU CALLS FOR RELEASE OF ZCTU ACTIVISTS
IOL NEWS (SA) October 09 2003

By Brian Latham and Basildon Peta

Harare - The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has demanded the immediate release of arrested Zimbabwean trade union leaders.

The federation said if this was not done, it would stage its own solidarity protests to shame the Zimbabwean government.

Zimbabwean police arrested at least 53 members of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), the main umbrella body representing labour movements in the country.

About 200 union activists gathered in central Harare to protest when armed riot police and plainclothes detectives swooped. It was not immediately clear what the protest was about, although last month the ZCTU warned it would hold demonstrations against cash shortages in October.

'We allowed them to hold their meeting'
"So far 41 of us have been taken to Harare Central police station," said Lovemore Matombo, the president of the ZCTU. He said police had taken "about 90 percent" of the organisation's national executive.

ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe was also in police custody, said his wife Tatenda.

Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena confirmed that 53 ZCTU members had been arrested. Speaking from Harare, he said: "We allowed them to hold their meeting, but when they began to march, we arrested them under the Public Order and Security Act.

"Now we have received disturbing reports that employers in the industrial sites are closing their businesses and encouraging their workers to demonstrate. We will be investigating, because, while employers are free to close their businesses, if they encourage workers to march, they will also be arrested."

Cosatu said it was demanding the immediate release of all those arrested and for the restoration of trade union rights, including the right to peaceful protest, which were guaranteed by international agreements, to which Zimbabwe was a signatory.

COSATU PRESS STATEMENT
COSATU condemns arrest of Zimbabwe trade unionists

The Congress of South African Trade Unions and trade unions throughout the
world condemn the arrest of at least 41 trade union leaders and members in
Zimbabwe.

The government action appears to have been a pre-emptive action to undermine
today’s national protest by Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)
against the high taxation rate, the high cost of living, transport problems,
cash shortages and violation of human and trade union rights by the
government. Among the 41 arrested are the President, Lovemore Matombo,
Secretary-General, Wellington Chibebe, most other top leaders of the ZCTU
and some ZCTU staff members. The police arrested them this morning as they
grouped to lead a protest in Central Harare. Several women are also amongst
them. The protesters were rounded up by heavily armed riot police and made
to sit down on the pavement in central Harare before being taken away in
police cars to Harare Central Police station, where they are being held.

One of the ZCTU leaders, Raymond Majongwe, has been separated from the others
and is at the moment being kept in solitary confinement. Riot police have
been patrolling the streets of Harare city centre since early morning on
Wednesday and eight union leaders were arrested in Bulawayo, Gweru and
Masvingo on Tuesday night, ahead of the planned protest marches. In
Bulawayo, police have been in running battles with the people and several
ZCTU leaders have been injured, including Thabitha Khumalo, a member of the
ZCTU women's advisory council. Police refused ambulances to carry the
injured people to hospital. In Mutare, 100 people were arrested while in
Gweru police also arrested some activists but the number is not yet known.

ZCTU Deputy Secretary-General, Collin Gwiyo, addressed the COSATU Central
Executive Committee on 27-29 May 2003 and ZCTU President, Lovemore Matombo,
addressed COSATU’s 8th National Congress on 17 September 2003. Both
meetings agreed on a programme which includes a commitment to solidarity
with the ZCTU.

Today’s arrests vindicate the correctness of COSATU’s analysis of
Zimbabwe’s political and socio-economic crisis. We share the ZCTU’s view
that the country has deteriorated so fast that it is now on the brink of
total collapse. The crisis is also impacting on all Zimbabwe’s neighbours
through the influx of economic refugees streaming into all the SADC
countries.

It is regrettable that the Zimbabwe government sees trade unions as one of
its main opponents, rather than as a partner to help reverse this political
and socio-economic collapse. Instead of understanding that workers are duty
bound to protest against attacks on their living standards, it sees them as
antagonists.

COSATU demands the immediate release of every one of those arrested and for
the restoration of trade union rights, including the right to peaceful
protest, which are guaranteed by international agreements, to which Zimbabwe
is a signatory.

COSATU calls on the Zimbabwe Government to convene a summit of all political
and social formations to engage in genuine negotiations to find urgent
solutions to the crisis. It also calls on SADC to convene a special session
on Zimbabwe to facilitate a Zimbabwe-inspired solution to the problems,
including helping to convene the summit referred to above.

If the arrested trade unionists are not released within 24 hours, COSATU
will embark upon a process of solidarity action similar to that which it
organised in support of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions in August
2003, and calls upon its partners in the Southern African Trade Union
Coordination Council to do the same.

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) has written the
following letter to the Director General of the International Labour
Organisation to request his personal intervention to ensure that our
comrades are released immediately.

8 October 2003 Mr Juan Somavia Director-
General ILO Geneva Switzerland

Dear Mr Director-General, Appeal for urgent representation to President
Mugabe We are receiving very disturbing news to the effect that the
Zimbabwean Police is having recourse to brutal force to arrest trade
unionists who have embarked today on a national protest against high
taxation rate, the high cost of living, transport problems, cash shortages
and violation of human and trade union rights by the Government. So far, 4I
are reported detained. We are fully convinced that the ZCTU was engaged in
legitimate trade union activity. Most top ZCTU trade union leaders and
several women trade unionists are also amongst those under arrest and they
are reportedly being detained in unknown places. We are very concerned about
the conditions under which they are being detained; we are suspicious that
their life may also be in danger. In the circumstances, we would kindly urge
you to intervene promptly with President Mugabe requesting their immediate
release and the assurance that trade unionists can go around freely
discharging their trade union work. We trust that you will intervene
urgently given the very serious nature of the government onslaught against
ZCTU trade unionists. Yours sincerely, General Secretary

News and Publicity - Press Statement:

[Press]Cosatu condemns ZCTU arrests

COSATU Communications Department - 2003-10-08

Patrick Craven Acting COSATU Spokesperson

[email protected] 082-821-7456 339-4911

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