Posted on 12/07/2002 3:13:03 AM PST by backhoe
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 6 December
Mangwana threatens Tswanas
Mthulisi Mathuthu
In a move that could further strain already frayed relations between Harare and Gaborone, it has emerged that the Minister of State for State Enterprises and Parastatals in the President's office, Paul Mangwana, threatened to flush out all Tswanas from Zimbabwe during an angry exchange with Botswana MP and head Of delegation, Shirley Sekgogo, in Brussels recently. He is understood to have said this while menacingly wagging a finger at the MP ahead of last week's aborted EU/ACP joint parliamentary assembly. Mangwana, who led the Zimbabwean delegation, is said to have confronted Sekgogo during a lunch-break on Monday last week following her forthright speech in which she blamed Zimbabwe for scuttling regional investment opportunities and for lawlessness. Sekgogo, MP for Selebiphikwe which borders Zimbabwe, also blamed Mugabe's government for triggering the exodus of Zimbabweans to Botswana due to its political repression and economic mismanagement.
An irate Mangwana who together with his counterpart Chris Kuruneri and other Zimbabweans working at the Brussels embassy had earlier tried to shout Sekgogo down, is said to have taken issue with the speech and confronted Sekgogo in full view of other delegates shouting at the top of his voice. "You Batswana people are always harassing us. We will drive you all out of Zimbabwe," he is alleged to have said while scowling and wagging a finger at a stunned Sekgogo. "You have been ill-treating our people for too long and now you say all this rubbish about us." MDC foreign affairs spokesman Moses Mzila Ndlovu, who was attending the meeting, intervened to console Sekgogo. Mzila confirmed the incident in a telephone interview from Bulawayo on Wednesday. "I was right there and was just telling Mangwana to stop it but he told me off," said Mzila who is MP for Bulilimamangwe North. "All Sekgogo had said was the truth but Mangwana didn't want to hear the truth."
Mzila said Mangwana looked as if he was about to manhandle her had it not been for other Botswana male delegates who pulled Sekgogo aside and shouted at Mangwana in Setswana to leave her alone. Sekgogo's office this week would neither confirm nor deny the incident. Diplomats in Harare told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that the Botswana government will formally complain to Harare over Mangwana's remarks. Botswana's ambassador to Brussels, George Sesinyi, has already complained to the EU and the ACP, sources say.
From AFP, 6 December
8 million Zimbabweans need food aid
Harare - Close to eight million people in Zimbabwe now need food aid, a government minister said on Thursday, quoted by the state news agency. Deputy Finance Minister Chris Kuruneri was reported by ZIANA to have told a visiting UN envoy that nearly eight million people - more than two-thirds of the population - need food aid following widespread crop failures here. The figure is up from previous estimates of 6.7 million out of the country's total population of 11.6 million. Zimbabwe is the worst-affected among six southern African countries facing famine this year, according to the United Nations.
From The Daily News, 5 December
Women protest against abuse in Zanu PF camps
From Ntungamili Nkomo and Nomvula Matatu in Bulawayo
Hundreds of disgruntled women rights activists yesterday took to the streets of Bulawayo to protest against violations of children’s and women’s rights. Nomusa Ncube, the chairperson of a Bulawayo-based women’s umbrella organisation called the Bulawayo Women’s Groups, said the women were fed up with reports of women being raped with impunity. She said they were extremely concerned about the immoral activities in Zanu PF camps and about domestic violence. The protest, which featured about 200 placard-waving women chanting anti-women abuse slogans, started at the High Court at noon. Some of the placards read "Sex for food: We say no." The women carried pots and wore black clothes. They marched to the Mhlahlandhlela government complex, where they tried to voice their grievances to the Matabeleland North Governor, Obert Mpofu, but were denied entry by security personnel manning the gate. Asked for his comment on the demonstration, Mpofu said he was in Parliament and could not say anything. Ncube said the women were concerned with reports of rape cases which she said were rampant in the Zanu PF youth brigade camps. She said many girls recruited for the so-called national service had reported cases of rape to a number of women’s groups. "What I can safely say is that women are very angry and frustrated with what is going on. Many girls from the Zanu PF camps have come to us complaining that they were raped, but that the perpetrators got away with it," Ncube said. She urged the government to stop what she called the "madness" going on in the camps if they had any conscience at all and compassion for the nation. She cited the HIV/Aids pandemic as a serious threat to the youths exploited by the government in the name of patriotism. Ncube said her office had received reports of women being forced to have sex with men who took advantage of the shortage of basic commodities and gave their victims maize-meal as payment for sex.
From BBC News, 6 December
Zimbabwe currency support drive 'fails'
A Zimbabwean drive to support its currency by cracking down on black market trade is failing, a report has said. The administration of President Robert Mugabe has closed down bureaux de change, and ordered exporters to exchange half of their foreign cash reserves into Zimbabwe dollars, in an effort to boost the ailing currency. But while the Zimbabwe dollar rallied last week to an informal rate of 700 to US$1, from as low as Zim$1,600 to US$1, most of the gains have since been lost, Reuters news agency said. One US dollar currently buys about Z$1,200, Reuters said. "What we saw last week was that momentary panic, but there is now another resurgence of the US dollar," a trader told the agency. Zimbabwe has for three years suffered a shortage of foreign currency, hindering efforts to import food and fuel in the face of a worsening economic crisis. According to the Financial Gazette newspaper, economic conditions have worsened such that half of Zimbabwe's industry could shut down for the first three months of next year to mull over survival strategies. The government has set an official exchange rate of Zim$55 to US$1. But with unofficial traders buying US dollars for 20 times the official rate, foreign currency has flowed onto the black market. The government's latest curbs were introduced in an effort to seize control of foreign currency trading. But economist Witness Chinyama told Reuters: "The problem is that the current government policies are not geared to improve the flow of foreign currency into the country. The parallel market will continue to thrive because that is where manufacturers are forced to source money for key imports."
From Business Day, 6 December
Expectation low ahead of talk shop
Harare Correspondent
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF party is expected to confront a pile of problems besetting the country during its annual conference in Chinhoyi next week. Zanu PF secretary for administration Emmerson Mnangagwa said the agenda of the meeting, which would be held from December 11 to 15, included the controversial land reform programme, the state of the economy, and the country's international relations. Other major issues that would be discussed were the food and fuel shortage crises, shortages of various commodities, elections, party restructuring, and the 2003 national budget. Mnangagwa, widely regarded as Mugabe's likely successor, said Agriculture Minister Joseph Made and his land reform counterpart, Flora Bhuka, would present audit reports on the land redistribution exercise detailing how much land had been acquired and the progress on farming activities by the resettled farmers. But the major debate who will succeed Mugabe has already been suppressed. Party spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira said at the weekend that the issue would not be discussed , but would be considered at Zanu PF's next congress in 2006.
This has dampened the spirit of the party's Young Turks, who were anxious to raise the matter during the Chinhoyi meeting. Party chairman John Nkomo is expected to present a report on the state of the party and its performance in the recent elections. However, Mugabe is unlikely to make major changes to party structures. The last changes in Communist-structured Zanu PF were during the 1999 congress in Harare. Those changes, which saw dissenting heavyweights like former ministers Eddison Zvobgo and Dumiso Dabengwa being flushed out, were confirmed only during the party's extraordinary congress in Victoria Falls last year. Zanu PF's annual conferences, which differ slightly from the congresses held every five years, are meant to offer party members an opportunity to discuss freely policy issues and matters affecting the party at large. This year's conference comes at a time of great economic and political instability. Zimbabwe is reeling from an economic meltdown with inflation at 144%, a chronic food shortage that will affect more than 6 million rural Zimbabweans, and shortages of other basic commodities, particularly fuel. Past conferences of Zanu (PF), which often postures as the sole embodiment and articulation of national interests and patriotism, have not been particularly decisive in resolving economic and political problems. This year Mugabe is likely to use the platform to attack his detractors at home and abroad for isolating his regime over his political repression and violent land reforms.
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 6 December
DRC intervention costs $100b
Dumisani Muleya
Zimbabwe’s four-year military expedition in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) cost the country over $100 billion and at least 150 lives, it emerged yesterday. Sources said the cost of the war - which at its height sucked in nine African armies and displaced more than 3,2 million people - included expenses incurred in arms and spare parts purchases, transport, equipment, fuel, salaries, food, medication and administration. The withdrawal of the army added to the cost in a big way. Government recently gave the military $480 million for the exercise when at least $700 million was needed. Insiders said the exercise in the end cost up to $1 billion. Sources said the 150-person casualty list included those killed in combat, those who went missing in action and those who died out of action. In 1999, the Independent obtained information on 92 casualties, including names, times and places of fatalities in some cases. But the total number of casualties has never been disclosed. Although government has promised to release the information, it is yet to do so. The financial cost of the war, which drained scarce national resources, was heavy. Government sources this week put the figure at $100 billion. In 2000, former Finance minister Simba Makoni told parliament that the country had sunk $10 billion into the costly adventure, but evidence showed the figure was much higher. Official information obtained by the British government from Treasury indicated at the time Zimbabwe was spending US$3 million a month in the Congo.
After plunging into the DRC conflict in August 1998, Zimbabwe ordered two large consignments of military hardware, including bombs, guns and fighter planes from Aerotech of Switzerland for $3,7 billion and other weaponry from China for $3,2 billion. The country made several other large purchases. But sources said Zimbabwe lost a lot of equipment during pitched battles and bungled missions despite President Robert Mugabe's denials over the weekend. There were persistent reports during the war that the army had abandoned tanks, personnel carriers, recovery vehicles, anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers in the field. In 1999, a Zimbabwean Allouette 3 helicopter gunship was shot down behind rebel lines. The bodies of Colonel Alfonso Kufa and Squadron Leader Herbert Vundla and the wreckage were not recovered. Sources said the cost of the war escalated when Zimbabwe decided in late 1998 to take the war to the Rwanda and Ugandan-backed rebel groups in the eastern part of the country where it had to build costly air bridges and establish communications across thick jungle terrain. Battles such as those at Kabalo and Kamina, which Zimbabwe won, also consumed considerable resources. The army also used massive resources at the battles at Bandaka and Pweto where soldiers ended up fleeing into Zambia after being routed.
That's no lie... Americans don't really appreciate how good this country is until they go abroad and see how Gawd-awful the third World is. God bless America, and all the good people who live within her.
My 2¢'s about the un?
American Policy Center on-line Declaration of Independence from the U.N.
As I recal,l the un has one or more "contingency sites" located in other nations... let's banish them there--
Moreover:
Child sex book given out at U.N. summit
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.