Wakati huo ulifikia kuna baadhi ya wananchi Tanzania hii hii walivaa magunia!!!
1. Halafu nimekuwa nasikiliza BBC J'borg Wazimbabwe wakimbizi kama 1,000 wanalala kanisani la Methodist na kila siku kanisa hupokea kama 20 new Zimbabweans!
2. SADC took so long to intervene- now it is too late! Hope something good will come out of Lusaka meeting!
Bongolander,
Wewe utasemaje kuwa Smith alikuwa bora kuliko Bob?Historia umesoma wewe ?.Uchumi unaanguka zimbabwe kutokana sanctions, alipoingia zimbabwe Mugabe uchumi ulikua sana na waafrika wengi walipata elimu na maisha bora ambavyo walikuwa hawawezi kupata wakati wa smith.Uingereza iliacha kulipa land reform kama ilivyoaidi.90% ya ardhi ilikuwa mikononi wa wazungu huku waafrika wakifanya kazi kama watumwa wakijengewa vijumba vibovu vya nyasi.. Je ni vibaya kwa waafrika kuwa na ardhi yao wenyewe?
sasa niambie kwa nini wazimbabwe wamemchagua tena Mugabe?.Ni kwamba majority ya watu wako vijijini na ndio wamefaidika zaidi na land reform, waafrika wengi huishi vijijini they dont mind much about economics which the dont understand anyway they grow their own food which is not affected by money economy ..
MDC wanaonekana kama wakala wa hao wakoloni ndio maana hawashindi uchaguzi, ndio Zimbabwe ina matatizo lakini unajua mgonjwa anayeumwa anapaswa kula dawa chungu na ndio hii.
Matonga, who boasted that government has successfully taken over both the print and electronic media in Zimbabwe, said copies of the controversial New African edition had flooded into Zambia and are being distributed for free as Sadc leaders began meeting yesterday for a crucial summit placing Zimbabwe high on the agenda today.
Zimbabwe's annual rate of inflation jumped to 7,638% in July according to the first official figures to be published for three months.
The Central Statistical Office said inflation had more than doubled since May - the last official data released.
Financial Gazette (Harare)
NEWS
22 August 2007
Posted to the web 23 August 2007
By Rangarirai Mberi and Clemence Manyukwe
Harare
SOUTH Africa has rejected the possibility of direct financial aid to Zimbabwe, a plan proposed by other Southern African regional leaders, deepening uncertainty over the likely structure of an economic rescue package being worked out by the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
SADC last week tasked its 14 finance ministers to work out a comprehensive rescue plan for Zimbabwe after a summit that, as expected, held back any public rebuke of President Robert Mugabe whose ZANU PF party is seen frustrating regional efforts to heal a full blown economic crisis blighting one of the continent's once promising economies.
But South African Finance Minister, Trevor Manuel, said on Tuesday his country would not throw taxpayers' money into saving Zimbabwe's economy. Zimbabweans would have to do that on their own, he said.
Diplomatic sources said Manuel's comments were reflective of the dominant view within the ruling African National Congress and Thabo Mbeki's Cabinet towards Harare. Manuel is one of South Africa's longest serving finance ministers. "We cannot decide what kind of economy the Zimbabweans must have. They must get the prices to work, they must drive the changes. We cannot commit financial resources," Manuel said in a televised debate in his country's parliament.
Manuel's comments reveal differences within SADC over the form of an aid package for Zimbabwe. Tomaz Salomao, the SADC executive secretary, had in his Zimbabwe report to last week's summit, held in Lusaka, Zambia proposed that the region prop up what he sees as the country's "sanction-hit" economy by providing supplies, including energy and farm inputs.
His recommendations reportedly received backing from a section of the region. But a communiqué released at the end of the meeting said leaders only "took note" of the Salomao report, recommending that it be used as a basis by finance ministers to draw up a more comprehensive "economic plan to support Zimbabwe".
Given South Africa's political and economic clout in the region, Manuel's comments would suggest whatever assistance Zimbabwe was likely get from its peers would not include loans, as hoped for by the government. Tito Mboweni, the South African Reserve Bank governor had previously ruled out prospects of linking Zimbabwe's currency to Pretoria's solid rand.
Mboweni said Zimbabwe is a long way from being ready to join southern Africa's rand monetary union comprising South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland. Regional finance ministers, according to diplomats, would be asked to estimate the financial aid that would be necessary to stabilise Zimbabwe's flagging currency. Zimbabwe's known immediate needs include some US$253 million to feed up to three million people at risk of starvation.
But private economic consultants that have advised SADC, The Financial Gazette has learnt from South African sources, estimate Zimbabwe needs as much US$3 billion over the remaining months of the year for energy supplies and to stabilise the currency. A coalition of western countries had previously put forward a similar amount for a plan that would stretch for five years.
Zimbabwe has been scouring the continent for aid to shore up its economy. Negotiations over a possible US$2 billion loan from Libya have faltered, according to a senior Treasury official, "although lines are still open." Pleas for aid to other "friendly" countries, such as China, have been unsuccessful. Economists doubt that Zimbabwe is ready to implement any recommendations from SADC.
"Any help would depend on whether the government would implement what it is told . . . an economic rescue package would be incompatible with the kind of political objectives of the government. The government has previously ignored advice it has been given," said Tony Hawkins, professor of business at the University of Zimbabwe.
Hawkins pointed to Zimbabwe's rejection of reforms suggested by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato told a press conference in Mozambique this week that Zimbabwe had ignored its advice. The IMF, which has suspended all new aid to Zimbabwe, had proposed a raft of reform programmes it says are key to stabilising the economy, including transparency and the need to end controls on prices and the exchange rate.
"We are not encouraged by the response of the (Zimbabwe) authorities. Our advice to Zimbabwe is not the one they are applying," Rato said. Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of the National Constitutional Assembly, said Zimbabwe would not accept any aid with strings attached. He added that any SADC approach on Zimbabwe would not yield any results if it did not first make it clear to ZANU PF that its actions were unacceptable.
"I do not think SADC is serious. It has not condemned Zimbabwe so that politicians here know that what they are doing is not acceptable," said Madhuku. "The first step should be to condemn government's actions." President Mugabe has said Zimbabwe would go its own way, although there is growing admission from within his own government that policies such as price controls do not help.
State media has begun to question the policy, while Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu took further steps backwards this week by allowing price increases on a range of goods and services. Although there were reports last week that SADC had tied stringent reform conditions to any rescue package, statements by senior politicians in the region suggest President Mugabe prevailed at the summit.
SADC is now trying to rope in regional elders to pressure President Mugabe, according to Zambian finance minister, Ng'andu Magande. Kenneth Kaunda, the former Zambian president, told South Africa's eTV this week he would accept such a role. This new attempt by SADC will be seen as further evidence that President Mugabe faced no challenge to his policies at last week's meeting. Mbeki has also dismissed suggestions the summit had set conditions and deadlines for Zimbabwe.
"Nobody is looking for conditionalities. Nobody said there should be conditionalities to finding solutions. Solutions must be found -- that's all," Mbeki said. "Nobody has spoken about a specific date, but it is the process that will determine that. On the economic one, everybody is saying there is urgency on this matter and that the finance ministers will engage this matter immediately."
Manuel this week defended South Africa's policy of "quiet diplomacy" towards Zimbabwe, saying that foreign intervention to bring about regime change risked unleashing turmoil like in Iraq. Media reports said Manuel had told lawmakers that South Africa -- the top regional powerbroker -- was not in a position to dictate political and economic policy to President Mugabe.
"We must encourage Zimbabweans to solve their own problems. That is the most we can do because the decisions have to be carried by Zimbabweans into perpetuity," Manuel said in a heated exchange in parliament. "For those who don't understand, I ask that President Bush recruit them and send them to Iraq," Manuel, described as visibly angry by the South African press, said amid heckling from opposition lawmakers. "Then they will understand what regime change is about."
President Mbeki has long advocated quiet diplomacy towards Zimbabwe.
Since March he has acted as mediator between Zimbabwe's ruling party and the opposition, but so far there has been no visible progress. In the interim, there has been an upsurge in the number of desperate Zimbabweans crossing into neighbouring countries to escape the meltdown. Zimbabwe is in its worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1980, with runaway inflation and acute shortages of basic commodities.
The economic crisis is largely blamed on the seizure of white-owned commercial farms that began in 2000, disrupting the agriculture-based economy. Many in the West and elsewhere have held President Mugabe responsible, and critics complain of state control of the media, widespread intimidation and a clampdown on the pro-democracy movement.
The IMF has warned inflation might hit 100 000 percent by the end of the year.
NEWS
25 August 2007
Posted to the web 25 August 2007
By Loughty Dube
Harare
DETAILS of a plot hatched by the CIO spy agency working hand in hand with state media journalists have emerged with indications that the two worked hand in glove in planning and exposing the adultery story involving Archbishop Pius Ncube.
Archbishop Ncube was slapped with a $20 billion adultery lawsuit at St Mary's Cathedral a month ago after he was served with the papers by the Deputy Sheriff, who was accompanied by a large contingent of journalists and photographers from the state media. However, details have emerged that the journalists present during the serving of papers were part of a well-orchestrated plot involving the CIO.
It has also emerged that the state media journalists and even President Robert Mugabe had information about the issue long before the story was broken. Sources among journalists that were part of the team say the plot was master-minded by the state intelligence agency and involved editors at the state media organisations and involved a South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) team.
It also emerged that Archbishop Ncube was duped by the SABC team to agree to an interview where he unknowingly answered questions that were later on twisted to implicate him in the adultery case. The SABC team, led by correspondent Supa Mandiwanzira, arrived in Bulawayo two days before the adultery story was exposed, after fixing an appointment with Archbishop Ncube for an interview on the situation in Zimbabwe.
Archbishop Ncube agreed to the interview after he was told that Mandiwanzira was the SABC correspondent in Zimbabwe. However, SABC is now investigating the allegations that Mandiwanzira used SABC credentials to set up the sting interview after viewers raised concerns over the integrity of the South African broadcaster.
Mandiwanzira runs one of the top media production companies in Zimbabwe, Mighty Movies, and also provides the SABC with news productions on Zimbabwe. The current affairs managing director of SABC, Snuki Zikalala, quoted in South African media last week said they would investigate the matter immediately and take "appropriate action".
"We are hearing this for the first time. If there is any truth in what has been said then we will take the appropriate action," Zikalala said. He said Mandiwanzira was not a fulltime SABC employee, but owned an agency from which the SABC commissioned stories on a daily basis. Mighty Movies might lose its contract with SABC if it is found that Mandiwanzira abused his SABC credentials.
In a sting operation that was not communicated to station heads at the ZBC Montrose studios the Harare-based journalists, led by Mandiwanzira, arrived at the studios on Friday and did not state their mission as is usually the case when news crews have assignments covered in the jurisdiction of sister stations.
Mandiwanzira's cameraman was on Sunday, a day before the sting operation, at St Mary's Cathedral where he was seen filming the Sunday Mass but left earlier when he realised that Archbishop Ncube was not presiding over the ceremony. On Monday morning the day of the operation, Mandiwanzira, allegedly then provided SABC jackets to Zimbabwean state broadcasters, editor-in-chief Tazzen Mandizvidza and Voice of Zimbabwe station head Happison Muchechetere who interviewed Ncube, under the guise that they were from the SABC.
Mandiwanzira also recruited Montrose ZBC photographer, Solo Chinara to film footage that was used on the ZTV news bulletin.
According to the plan hatched by the CIO, the idea was to ensure that the SABC crew kept Archbishop Ncube in the city for the interview to allow papers to be served on him while cameras were rolling. It is alleged that during the interview one of the initial questions put to Ncube by Mandiwanzira was what he thought about Catholic bishops in the US who had broken their vows of celibacy.
Ncube replied to the question: "Everybody is a sinner, there is nobody who does not sin." The statement was later broadcast on ZTV to appear as if Ncube had been responding to a question on whether he had engaged in an adulterous relationship with Rosemary Sibanda, the woman whose husband is suing Archbishop Ncube for adultery.
Munyaradzi Nzarayapenga, the lawyer representing Onesimus Sibanda, the man suing Archbishop Ncube, convened a quick press conference for state journalists to announce the lawsuit. In Zimbabwe it is unusual for lawyers to call press conferences for any case they are handling. But the involvement of the state in the matter was made more apparent by statements made by President Mugabe, a week before the sensational allegations were made public.
Mugabe told Zanu PF supporters during a gathering at the Zanu PF headquarters in Harare, soon after a closed door meeting of the central committee, that there were some members of the clergy who were involved in sexual relationships with married women, yet they wanted to project images of puritans. Mugabe warned that clergymen sleeping around with other people's wives were going to be exposed soon for what they are.
"Where is the godliness?" Mugabe said at the time. "One cannot tell the difference between a bishop and a layman anymore. Some of them have sworn to celibacy, but they sleep around." The earlier claims by Mugabe indicate that he was aware of the impending smear campaign by the CIO to tarnish Ncube.
It has also emerged that the breaking of the story was to be done in three phases and after the publicising of the case there are still two more phases left before the media completes its hatchet-job on the vocal cleric. The other two phases will allege that Archbishop Ncube has two children with an Esigodini woman while in other stories the state media will allege that Sibanda will claim that Archbishop Ncube infected his wife who then infected him with the HIV and Aids virus.
Daily News said:]..............................................According to the trade minister, the cabinet task force is a temporary regulator, which would be replaced by a National Incomes and Price Commission run by a secretariat of professionals. Mr Mpofu admits that it will take time for supply to stabilize because industrial production is undermined by shortage of foreign currency needed to import raw materials and spare parts.
The imposition of sanctions means that manufacturers have to pay upfront for the imports. This has seriously limited production capacity utilization, which the minister estimates at 50 per cent but CZI puts at 33.8 per cent. "We are the only country in the region, which does not receive balance of payments support or aid from donors," laments Mr Mpofu.
To beat the sanctions, Zimbabwe has been shopping for machinery, industrial raw materials and consumer goods from China, India, Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan and Malaysia under the ‘Look East' policy, which Mr Mpofu says has kept the local industry going.
"Our industry is strong and vibrant despite the shortage of foreign exchange inflow," he said, adding that industries were being encouraged to have toll manufacturing arrangements with external buyers of their products to supply raw materials. The CZI chief executive said the question of sanctions must be addressed to give manufacturers access to credit and fair competition.
Apart from commodities shortage, power supply is very erratic, subjecting homes, especially in the suburbs, to lengthy outages. "Power supply is often restored late night when we have gone to sleep, which makes it useless," complained a resident of Mbare, a Harare suburb. Vehicles are seen on the road in Harare despite a serious fuel shortage but transport from the city to the provinces is scarce. The government has fixed the price of petrol at 60,000 Zimbabwe dollars per litre but the commodity is largely available on the parallel market for up to ten times higher price.
The shortages affect mainly low income people in the suburbs and out in the provinces, who are the majority. Government officials and well to do Zimbabweans get their supplies from across the border in South Africa and Botswana. "Plane loads of groceries and other supplies are delivered now and then for senior government officials. They don't feel the pinch," claimed a government critic, who said he is a war veteran.
African diplomats based in Harare said they have to send vehicles to the South African border to collect supplies. Zimbabweans from abroad and visitors carry substantial amounts of groceries with them. The shortage of basic commodities may be a short-term problem, depending on government willingness to ease conflict with business, but revamping industrial production is a major challenge for Zimbabwe, which will require the support of the Southern African region.
Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg
ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe stormed out of the recent Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit after an explosive clash with Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa during a closed session, it has emerged.
Mugabe's confrontation with Mwanawasa and his subsequent indignant departure from the meeting raised fears that the already divided regional bloc could be further weakened by further infighting and divisions.
The SADC is riddled with geo-political and personal rivalries among leaders which threaten to make it difficult to deal with internal conflicts and rein in rogue states. Mugabe's fracas with Mwanawasa was reminiscent of his row with former South African president Nelson Mandela during a SADC meeting in Angola in 1997.
Diplomatic sources who attended the summit revealed this week that Mugabe walked out of the meeting after a row with Mwanawasa over Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis. The sources said Mugabe went off in a huff after the unprecedented confrontation. Mwanawasa was chairing the meeting, which ended on a sour note.
The wrangle was caused by an attempt by Mwanawasa to table Zimbabwe for discussion, a move which enraged Mugabe. Mugabe arrived home early looking glum after hurriedly leaving the summit. Upon his return, he said the meeting went well but made it clear his regime would continue with its own programmes, regardless of what the SADC leaders were saying.
The SADC said it was preparing an economic recovery package for Zimbabwe, but Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba, said in his anonymous column in the government-controlled daily Herald that Zimbabwe did not need help from the region because "no aid cent will come from SADC countries", reflecting Mugabe's attitude after the summit.
This was contrary to President Thabo Mbeki's claims that there were no divisions over Zimbabwe at the summit and that the SADC was committed to helping Zimbabwe out of its crisis. He had described reports of division as "fictional" and said SADC leaders were not at odds over Zimbabwe.
But information gleaned from senior SADC diplomats indicates there were not just divisions, but a fierce clash between Mugabe and Mwanawasa that left the regional leaders shocked. They say the trouble started after Mbeki del-ivered his report on talks between the Zimbabwean ruling party Zanu (PF) and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Mbeki had earlier given the report to Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, the chairman of the SADC organ on politics, defence and security. Mbeki briefed the summit on Zimbabwe in his capacity as an SADC-appointed mediator .
Mbeki said in his briefing there was progress in the talks, although parties needed to intensify negotiations.
"After Mbeki delivered his report to the summit, Mwanawasa, as the chair of the meeting, said there was an urgent need to discuss Zimbabwe because the situation there had become 'unacceptable'. Kikwete said there was no need to discuss it because talks were in progress and Mbeki concurred," a senior diplomat said. "Kikwete then suggested Mugabe should be asked what he thought about Mwanawasa's proposal. When Mugabe was given the platform to speak he launched an angry tirade, attacking Mwanawasa left, right and centre before walking out in protest."
The diplomat said Mugabe angrily asked: "Who are you, Mwanawasa? Who are you? Who do you think you are?"
"Mugabe also said he was aware of Mwanawasa's recent meetings with western intelligence agencies on Zimbabwe. He said he would 'not allow Mwanawasa to sell out Zimbabwe as he has done to Zambia'," the diplomat said.
"During the process Mwana-wasa was shaken and he kept on saying: 'Mr President I didn't mean to say that; you misunderstood me. No, Mr President, that was not my intention' ."
Sources said Mugabe, after blasting Mwanawasa, walked out and did not return.
Efforts by colleagues - including Kikwete and Mbeki - to persuade him to return to the meeting failed.
Zimbabwe's state media in July published photographs of what it said was Pius Ncube in bed with a married woman who worked for his parish. His lawyers called the allegations an orchestrated attempt to discredit him.
Bishop Ncube, 60, has this year called for mass street protests and foreign intervention to remove Mr Mugabe.
A brief statement from the Vatican said Pope Benedict XVI had accepted Bishop Ncube's resignation under the article of church law that says a bishop should retire if he is ill or if "some other grave reason" had made him unsuitable for office.
The secretary general of one faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change told the BBC News website it was a "sad" day for Zimbabwe. "He fought the regime and the regime fought back," said Tendai Biti.
'Wicked regime'
Bishop Ncube says he offered to resign within days of the publication of the photographs, since when he has been keeping a low profile. The woman's husband has sued him for 20bn Zimbabwe dollars (about $160,000, or £80,000, on the black market exchange rate) over the affair.
PIUS NCUBE TIMELINE
December 1946: Born
1980s: Witnesses massacres in south-western Zimbabwe but prevented from speaking out
October 1997: Appointed Archbishop of Bulawayo
March 2007: Calls for mass protests to oust Mugabe
2 July 2007: Says foreign powers should remove Mugabe
10 July 2007: Calls Mugabe a "megalomaniac"
17 July 2007: Sued for adultery
11 September 2007: Resigns as archbishop
Bishop Ncube said he would remain a Catholic bishop in Zimbabwe, and would continue to speak out. He said he would work with ordinary people and would not be "silenced by the crude machinations of a wicked regime".
Last month, Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic Bishops backed Bishop Ncube, praising him for "exposing the evils". They said the attacks on him by the government and state media were "outrageous and utterly deplorable and constitute an assault on the Catholic Church".
In March, Bishop Ncube said he was prepared to stand in front of "blazing guns" at the front of street protests to bring down the government and urged other Zimbabweans to do the same.
Four months later, he said foreign powers should intervene to remove Mr Mugabe, saying this would be "the lesser of two evils".
The photos of him allegedly in bed with a married woman were published in state-owned media two weeks later.
'Dangerous path'
Former BBC Zimbabwe correspondent Grant Ferrett says Mr Ncube's hostility to Mr Mugabe's government stems from the massacres of his Ndebele people in the early 1980s. An estimated 20,000 people were killed, mostly civilians, by a North Korean-trained brigade of the army. President Robert Mugabe has reacted to criticism from the country's bishops by warning they were on a "dangerous path" if they became too political.
Zimbabwe has the world's highest rate of inflation - currently about 7,500% - and just one in five adults are in work.
The opposition says government critics are beaten up and even killed by state agents and supporters of Mr Mugabe.
The government denies such claims, saying there is a western plot to remove him from power.
President Robert Mugabe's government has put a bill before parliament that would give the leader room to choose a successor if he were to retire. Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said debate on the Constitutional Amendment Bill would start on Tuesday.
If approved, the law would also give parliament the power to elect a new president, should the incumbent fail to serve a full term. Zimbabwe's opposition fears the bill could undermine current talks. The talks about the constituion and polls next year have been mediated by South Africa.
Zimbabwe is battling a deepening economic crisis marked by the world's highest inflation rate and soaring unemployment. At present Robert Mugabe serves a term of six years - but if this bill is passed, it would run concurrently with the tenure of parliament for five years.
Constitutional amendments require a two-thirds majority to pass; a majority Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF enjoys.