Home

Blog

Bio

Byo South Develop.

Photos

Reports

Archives

Links

Subscribe

Contact

SW Radio Africa (London)
31 October 2007
By Tichaona Sibanda

The SADC led mediation talks on Zimbabwe resumed in Pretoria on Wednesday after a month long break. The talks, which are already behind schedule on several fronts, missed Tuesday’s key deadline for agreement on a broad framework for free and fair elections.

A source told us from Pretoria that during the month long break negotiators from Zanu-PF and the MDC have been comparing notes and reporting back to the facilitating team in South Africa.

‘A lot of ground was covered during this period because the negotiating teams made contact on a number of times and a number of concessions were made during this period,’ said the source.

David Coltart, MDC MP for Bulawayo South, said it was unfortunate that Zimbabweans were not being informed about the progress of the talks, but stressed that whatever the outcome, a transitional period of six months was needed to push through any changes agreed on by both sides.

‘If the mediation process were to be concluded today (Wednesday) we will not have sufficient time to establish conditions for free and fair elections. We need at least six months to put everything in place before calling for an election,’ Coltart said.
The MP from the Mutambara led faction said they understood the reasons for not meeting Tuesday’s deadline, because of the weighty issues under discussion.

The talks that resumed Wednesday are expected tackle the remaining issues on the agenda that include the roles of the police, military and the CIO during the elections.

By VOA News
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
22 October 2007

The cemeteries of Zimbabwe are filled these days with fresh graves, many of the smallest mounds covering some of what was the southern African nation’s future. An opposition leader says the acres of freshly dug graves are evidence of the ruin President Robert Mugabe has left Zimbabwe. The World Health Organization blames the rising death rate on a combination of AIDS, food insecurity and poor health care. We again join a foreign journalist for a look inside a nation teetering on the edge of humanitarian collapse — a reporter who must remain anonymous because independent reporting in Zimbabwe earns beatings and jail time, who files this undercover report from Bulawayo.

It is an hour before sunset in the city of Bulawayo and we are driving through Westpark Cemetery, situated on the edge of town.
Behind the wheel is a man we shall call William. His true identity, like mine, must be kept a secret for his own safety. William is a local mortician, a lucrative career in this part of the world, where the business of death is very profitable.

“Some people might say it is a political thing,” says William. “The ruling government is not doing anything to help the people. They say they are helping, but according to the death rate, there is nothing they are doing.”

A brisk winter wind rustles through the tall dead grass and dried flowers. Most of the graves, however, have hand-painted signs. They are decorated by rocks and wooden crosses. In this country, this is steady work.

The World Health Organization estimates that the crisis in Zimbabwe claims an average of about 3,500 lives each week. This has led to criticism of the Zimbabwean government and President Robert Mugabe, who will not allow the official figures to be released.

By VOA News
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
20 October 2007

Blessed with natural beauty, Zimbabwe was once a destination for thousands of world travelers. Amid an economic and humanitarian crisis, tourism in the southern African nation is at an all time low — except at The Victoria Falls. There, the government shields tourists from the privation and oppression many Zimbabweans complain they suffer.

A correspondent for VOA, who must remain anonymous for security reasons, files this undercover report from Bulawayo.

Victoria Falls continues to draw tourists to Zimbabwe.The mighty Victoria Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world, located on Zimbabwe’s northern border with Zambia, is still a hot spot for tourists. Although, their numbers have dropped by 30 percent since 2000, when the Zimbabwe government first began to seize white-owned commercial farms.

But here, on what is called a “booze cruise” down the Zambezi River, where the wine flows much like water, tourists are not thinking about Zimbabwe’s plight – the fact that 90 percent of the country is unemployed, that public demonstrations are forbidden and often brutally suppressed, and that something as simple as buying a packet of sugar can get you killed in a stampede of desperate shoppers.

Instead, hippopotamus, elephant and crocodile are welcome distractions. And as tourists enjoy the ultimate African vacation, they are shielded from the violence, poverty and desperation that exist in the rest of the country. With the exception of the falls, tourism in Zimbabwe is at an all-time low.

In early July, at a famous place further inland, we saw no tourists all week. Great Zimbabwe is a collection of ruins that are one of the most important archeological sites in the country, and what Zimbabwe was named after. The scene is deserted. The only other people there – the workers.

By VOA News
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
19 October 2007

The southern African Nation of Zimbabwe is suffering from massive inflation, rampant poverty and a 90 percent unemployment rate. But when people try to speak out against the situation and the current government under President Robert Mugabe, they say they are subjected to harassment, arrest and even beatings.

A correspondent for VOA, who must remain anonymous for security reasons, files this undercover report from Bulawayo.

A political meeting in the city of Bulawayo, the second largest city in the country, is an energetic occasion, full of singing, chanting and vitriolic speeches. Despite their powerful rhetoric, the men who are leaders of the opposition political party in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change, live with fear.

They fear arrest and violence because they speak out against the long-time President Robert Mugabe and his repressive government.

Their apprehension is not unwarranted. In March of this year, a protest staged by the opposition party turned violent, and police beat many members, including high-profile leaders.

“We are going to a safe house – where we live and work – in the underground of Zimbabwe,” says Jenni Williams, who has not slept under her own roof for over a year. She lives her life in fear that she might be followed and drives quickly through the back roads of Bulawayo to avoid the police roadblocks.

“Quite a few people know my face, and most people know the kind of work that I do,” she tells us. “And, it’s the most asked question of any of our members who are in custody – ‘Where does Jenni live?’ ”

She is a leader of a group called Women of Zimbabwe Arise – known as WOZA. They organize public protests, deemed illegal by the government and often brutally suppressed.

By VOA News
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
18 October 2007

We bring you a rare look inside the troubled southern African nation of Zimbabwe. Today, this nation of between 10 million and 12 million is teetering on the edge of what a member of its own parliament is calling “the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis.” But few outside Africa understand the depth of Zimbabwe’s plight because the government has declared independent reporting a crime. There are harsh penalties, including beatings and jail, for journalists working without government approval.

But for several months beginning in June, a television reporter was able to travel across Zimbabwe with a camera. A reporter for VOA, who must remain anonymous for security reasons, files this undercover report from Bulawayo. The report begins in a place well-known to many international tourists.

We are cruising the Zambezi River that separates Zimbabwe from Zambia, with a boat-full of visitors from Europe, the United States and Japan. It is called a “booze cruise” because the wine flows freely. The captain carefully maneuvers his boat into the shallower water — better for close-up photos of sleepy crocodiles lounging along the bank. But here, even the thunderous roar of one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls — cannot overpower the more discordant voices — now being raised in the less tourist-friendly parts of this troubled country.

Zimbabwe protest

Here — a noisy public street protest against the government of President Robert Mugabe, taking place in one of Zimbabwe’s largest cities. This one is staged by more than a hundred members of a group called Women of Zimbabwe Arise.

Minutes after this undercover video was taken, marchers were attacked by blue-helmeted riot police. Many of the women were beaten and arrested. One said, “They come running with battle sticks. They beat me, beat me all over and then they beat me at the breasts.”

By David Coltart

The sudden and dramatic collapse of Zimbabwe in the last decade has perplexed many in the international community. Furthermore the seemingly intractable nature of the crisis has caused some to believe that Zimbabwe is doomed to become a failed state in Africa. How can it be that a country, which in the late 1950s had an economy larger than Singapore, which at independence in 1980 had the second strongest economy in sub-Saharan Africa, can be reduced to the basket case status it is in now?

Economic collapse

The economic statistics are startling. The purchasing power of the average Zimbabwean in 2005 has fallen back to the same level as in 1953 when the then the Confederation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was established. 52 years of progress has been undone in less than a decade. Real GDP fell almost 30% from 2007 to 2003 and that trend has continued through 2004 to the present. As the graph below shows Zimbabwe is now in its ninth consecutive year of negative growth rates.

Agriculture

Not surprisingly every sector of the formerly diverse Zimbabwean economy has been devastated. The mainstay of the economy, agriculture, has been destroyed by the politically expedient and often violent land reform programme initiated by the Zanu PF government in 2000. For example annual wheat production has plummeted from a high of over 300000 tonnes in 1991 to less than 50000 in 2007 - production almost one third of what it was over 30 years ago, in which period the population has more than doubled.

The Tobacco industry, which used to be the single largest generator of foreign exchange, accounting for almost a third of all Zimbabwe’s foreign exchange earnings in 2000,has all but collapsed. The crop which earned some US$ 600 million in 2000 generated under US$ 100 million in 2006.

Statement by David Coltart

Professor Asmal’s statement (attached below)is one of the most important to come out of South Africa in the last decade since Zimbabwe began its slide into chaos. It gives the lie once and for all to the notion that there is no crisis or that it is the result of western imperialism.

His concluding remarks are particularly important. Zimbabwe arguably suffers the world’s worst humanitarian crisis today and yet there has been an appalling failure by the international community, particularly by the AU, SADC and the UN, to take action to relieve the suffering of the Zimbabwean people. Whilst the SADC mediation offers the best hope for a political solution, ZANU PF have a long history of indifference to the suffering of the Zimbabwean people and it remains unlikely that it will agree to a settlement that urgently and genuinely addresses the plight of Zimbabweans. Of particular importance in this regard is the need to depoliticise the distribution of food throughout the country, but especially in the south west of the country, a traditional opposition area which faces the most acute food shortages. Food has been used as a political weapon by Zanu PF since 1984 and it is still doing so today. For that reason it has tried to control the supply of food irrespective of catastrophic effect this has had on the population.

Since June the food shortages have dramatically worsened as a result of Zanu PF’s chaotic price control measures. Millions of Zimbabweans today face severe food shortages which Zanu PF has no capacity or political will to rectify.

There is an extremely urgent need for a massive humanitarian relief operation. This will only happen if SADC and the UN vigorously secure agreement from ZANU PF for the international community to intervene in the crisis. The ANC, because of its unique position, is the organisation that must now play the lead role in securing this objective.