The Spectator

LLOYD EVANS
WEDNESDAY, 19TH SEPTEMBER 2007
Lloyd Evans reports from the inaugural Spectator / Intelligence Squared debate and finds that he is still undecided on the question of whether or not Britain has failed Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe – last in the dictionary and too often last on the agenda. The new season of Intelligence Squared debates opened with the motion ‘Britain Has Failed Zimbabwe.’ Moderator Richard Lindley set the scene by taking us back to Salisbury, now Harare, on November 11th, 1965 where, as a young journalist, he reported on Ian Smith’s announcement of UDI. Back then, everyone expected that within weeks British paratroopers would descend from the heavens and sort the country out. They’re still waiting.

Peter Godwin, a Zimbabwean journalist, opened in support of the motion with an unsettling quip: ‘If we were in Zimbabwe you wouldn’t be able to go to supper until till you’d voted the right way.’ Listing Britain’s historic failures he described how colonial disengagement was cooked up by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and in particular by its snobbish mandarins who looked down on the white settlers and didn’t believe them capable of governing themselves. The rushed process of decolonisation led directly to Ian Smith’s act of rebellion. And Britain’s neglect didn’t end there. Even while Mugabe’s mass killings were being reported in The Sunday Times (Godwin knows about this, he was the reporter) the dictator was being feted by the British establishment, given an honorary degree from Edinburgh University and, in 1994, a knighthood.

In reply we heard from John Makumbe, a Zimbabwean lecturer in politics. A large man with a quiet and powerful presence he outlined the achievements of British aid in Zimbabwe. He spoke of irrigation programmes, action on human rights and successful campaigns against sexually transmitted diseases. ‘This has made Zimbabwean women the top users of the female condom in Africa,’ he said. Pause. Twinkly smile. ‘I hope that’s not including my wife. She has no business using one. I’ll call her later.’

Next up Tendai Biti, an opposition MP, who took issue with Makumbe’s reassuring words and joked that he should collect ‘a commission for doing a fine propaganda job on behalf of the Foreign Office’. Biti drew our attention to the scale of the crisis. There are shortages of everything. Life expectancy is 34. With inflation at 12,000% Zimbabwe makes the Weimar Republic look like a model of fiscal rectitude. He blamed Britain for the Lancaster House conference which had been ‘marred with blunders’ and had created ‘a loose dishonest constitution’. A disproportionate influence over government was given to the tiny 1% white minority. And worst of all, the constitution failed to limit the terms served by its presidents. Mugabe has profited from all these shortcomings.

Then a complete change of accent and mood with Chenjerai Hove, a columnist and poet living in Norway. He pared everything down to dramatic simplicities. What is the point, he said, of ejecting an oppressor if you retain the tools of oppression? ‘Go away, but let me keep your prisons, your handcuffs and your secret police.’ He argued graphically that Zimbabweans should take responsibility for themselves. ‘In 1980 Prince Charles gave us our flag and the right to manage our affairs. We didn’t expect bed and breakfast as well.’ And he read a stark, moving poem which concentrated the blame in one direction. ‘On your way to the house of power you left footprints of blood … a trail of widows, a trail of orphans, a trail of pain.’

RW Johnson’s opening put-down ‘I won’t be reading any of my poems,’ probably looks harsher here than it sounded on the night. Johnson argued, as Blair once did, for a brief but benevolent war. He gave the example of Sierra Leone where fewer than a thousand British troops arrived and were ‘greeted by cheering crowds.’ He also took on and demolished one of the main arguments against intervention – that Mugabe has characterised Britain as a neo-colonial bandit and that using force would vindicate Mugabe’s propaganda. ‘Well if we’d intervened in Rwanda the Hutu leaders would have had something to say. But so what?’ The problem is too big for such niceties, he argued. Intervention ‘will prevent genocide’ and therefore the case makes itself.

David Coltart, another Zimbabwe MP, finished for the opposition telling us that Britain is now viewed with deep suspicion throughout Africa. Guess why? Iraq. He suggested that if there had to be intervention it should come from others, from France and from the UN.

Then there were questions from the floor. And fresh arguments. Britain and the US are irrelevant, one speaker suggested, and China is the new power in Africa. Oh no it’s not, said another. China’s pulling out. A brave little chap called Freddie took the mike and stated in clear and persuasive tones: ‘England could have intervened but the leader of Zimbabwe is so cruel he probably wouldn’t listen.’ Massive applause.

The poet Chenjerai Hove finished with a dig at his president. ‘He is unaware of shortages. He shops from Harrods. That’s why Mugabe’s so angry with Britain. Because he can’t come shopping.’

Those listening on-line voted for the motion 54% and against 46%. In the room it was much more clear-cut. Initially there were 343 in favour and this rose to 455 after the debate. The 155 against rose to 203. And those tricky and elusive ‘don’t knows’ shifted from 230 to 35. I was one of them, I must admit, but for a ‘don’t know’ I’ve never felt so wonderfully well informed.

ABC
By Desmond Kwande of AFP
18th September 2007

With inflation at 7,500 per cent, Zimbabwe’s supermarkets have run out of food.

The latest report from the International Crisis Group has found Zimbabwe is close to complete collapse with four out of five people living below the poverty line and inflation running at 7,500 per cent.

The group is calling on the international community to close ranks behind South African President Thabo Mbeki’s efforts to achieve a political settlement.

Mr Mbeki is trying to mediate between the governing Zanu-PF party and the Opposition MDC Party.The independent think tank says the regional initiative is fragile as some Southern African leaders remain supporters of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe.

David Coltart, an MP with the Opposition MDC Party, wants the United Nations to do more.”The UN attitude towards the Zimbabwean crisis has been pitiful,” he said. “We need a far more pro-active approach taken by the UN and in particular by the secretary general.”

The British Foreign Office Minister with responsibility for Africa, Mark Malloch Brown, says countries other than Britain need to put pressure on Zimbabwe to bring about change.”We will press but we can’t go it alone on this,” he said. “This has got to be Africa and indeed for that matter, Europe and the rest of the world, who together combined insist on change in Zimbabwe.

“Our voice is very strong, but in a sense this point about the fact we were the former colonial power, means for our voice to be heard, others must join with us in this appeal.

“Southern African countries should also enlist a panel of retired African presidents to persuade Mr Mugabe to accept reforms and retire next year.”
– AFP

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters)

The humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe has become the world’s worst but is still largely ignored by the international community, a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said on Monday.

David Coltart, one of Zimbabwe’s leading white politicians and member of parliament for a mainly black constituency, said the crisis in the former British colony had far outgrown the ability of any single nation to tackle.

He accused United Nations food and health agencies of a gross dereliction of duty in keeping silent on the issue.”Zimbabwe is the world’s worst humanitarian crisis — but no one is talking about it in public,” he told Reuters on a visit to London. “It is absolutely catastrophic. The U.N. must act.

“Not only are people starving to death every day, but the collapse of the economy is starting to destabilise the region.”

Inflation in the country once known as the breadbasket of Africa is running at around 4,500 percent, unemployment is at 80 percent and price controls have stripped supermarket shelves bare.

Even staple foods like bread and maize meal are virtually impossible to get hold of and people have been reduced to scavenging.

President Robert Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, blames the economic disaster on meddling by outside countries, including former colonial power Britain.They in turn deny the accusation and blame Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF party for incompetence, nepotism and corruption.

“What we need is a massive humanitarian relief effort. Mugabe is deliberately using food as a weapon,” said Coltart, who is secretary for legal affairs for a faction of the MDC.
“The trouble is that on the surface everything is quiet — it is in the hospitals and in the morgues that you see the truth,” he added.

Coltart said mediation talks with South Africa were making some headway on issues like a new constitution, electoral law, security amd relaxing draconian media restrictions, but there was still a long way to go.

And time was running short with presidential and possibly parliamentary elections expected in March next year.”We need to get agreement on a new constitution by then, and it doesn’t give us much time to finish an awful lot of work,” Coltart said.

He urged his divided party to end internal feuding and prepare to fight the elections with a united front.”If we fight the election still divided it will be a gift to ZANU-PF and a disaster for Zimbabwe,” Coltart added.

© Reuters 2007.

The Times (UK), 15 September 2007

Jan Raath in Bulawayo

It did not smell too bad and her family had not become sick, even after drinking it for the past two months. “Some people say it is sewage, but they may be making it up,” she said as she heaved a 25 litre drum up the slope and into a wheelbarrow. In any case she, like many of the poorest people in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo did not have a choice: no water has flowed through the pipes in some neighbourhoods since July. A water expert who accompanied The Times to one of several boreholes in the impoverished Cowdray Park area of the city said that the liquid at the bottom of the pit was indeed sewage that had seeped through the soil from a nearby treatment plant. As the level of ground water sinks, the thousands who come to find water are forced to dig their impromptu wells ever deeper. All around were puddles and holes.

Critics of President Mugabe say that he is using water as a tool of political repression. In the early summer heat of the semi-arid western provinces of Matabeleland, the city of about 800,000 people is fast running out of water. Three of its five main reservoirs have dried up. The fourth is expected to be empty next month and the last one will be able to supply only 16 per cent of the city’s already tightly rationed needs.

“If we have even a mediocre rainy season this summer we are faced with the spectre of Bulawayo literally shutting down,” said David Coltart, MP of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. The water crisis is a dangerous extra strain on Bulawayo, which is already reeling from the country’s hyperinflation, critical shortages of basic food and electricity supplies, and the political repression witnessed in the rest of the country.

Church and political leaders believe that Mr Mugabe is determined to let Bulawayo wither without water. The Government has ignored repeated appeals for help. The city is the largest urban area in the country to be controlled by a council of the Movement for Democratic Change. “The problem is political,” said the Reverend Kevin Thomson, a leading figure in Churches In Bulawayo, an alliance of the city’s churches, which has begun an emergency water supply operation in the townships. “They don’t want to fix the problem. Just as they control the supply of food for political purposes, water has become another area for controlling people.” Already, most homes get a few hours’ water for two days a week, at not much more than a trickle. Showers are a luxury, baths unheard of. Large trees in gardens are dying.

In the city’s crowded townships, water distribution has become the predominant activity, with people carrying heavy 25 litre plastic drums on their heads, in wheelbarrows and on two-wheeled donkey-drawn carts. Residents start queueing at midnight at the big hand pumps that pull water from boreholes drilled by the city council. “I go to the borehole at 7am,” said Martha Sibanda in Luveve township. “I get back at 4 pm. Just one 25 litre. I have ten people in my house. The water that comes in two days per week, it is not enough for cooking, drinking and washing, but it is flushing the toilet that uses the most.” Forty-four gallon fuel drums, big plastic dustbins, portable plastic containers and buckets have disappeared from shops, but are touted on the black market for up to Z$13 million (£26). The black market has also just seized on a new opportunity, with 20 litres of water going for up to Z$50,000.

There is deep alarm over the likelihood of outbreaks of cholera. “We have an unprecedented convergence in Bulawayo of lack of water, no food, worsening poverty, disease and a high incidence of HIV-Aids [about 17 per cent of adults up to 45],” Mr Coltart said. “No other country in the world is experiencing a situation like that.”

Despite Bulawayo’s constant insecurity over its water supplies, the Government has provided no new sources of water since it came to power in 1980. “We wrote to the minister responsible for water for two months about the looming disaster,” said an official of Churches In Bulawayo. “There was neither acknowledgement of, nor any reply to, our letters.” Instead the Minister, Munacho Mutezo, declared that the Government would not intervene in the water crisis until the city council allowed his ? corrupt and incompetent ? ministry to take over the city’s water management. The council has also asked the Government to declare Bulawayo a “water disaster area”, which would allow the council to commandeer water supplies from private boreholes. The request has been ignored.

From Times Online
September 11, 2007

By Jan Raath, of The Times, Harare

Archbishop Pius Ncube, one of the most vocal opponents of Robert Mugabe, announced his resignation today as a result of an alleged sex scandal.

The Archbishop came under fire in July after images emerged in state-controlled media allegedly showing him naked in bed with a series of women.

In a statement today he said he had made the decision to resign “to spare my fellow bishops and the body of the Church any further attacks” from Mr Mugabe. There were a few, he said, “who will be delighted, seeing their mission as having been accomplished.” But he pledged to continue speaking out against the Government, saying: “I have not been silenced by the crude machinations of a wicked regime.”

Archbishop Ncube was summoned on July 16 by a lawyer — accompanied by a string of journalists from official media — to answer allegations of adultery with a woman employed at his office in the western city of Bulawayo. The accusations emerged after he was filmed by a secret camera in his bedroom, which the state-owned Herald newspaper claimed was set up by a private investigator hired by the woman’s husband to secure evidence of the alleged adultery.

The husband is now suing the Archbishop for 20 billion Zimbabwe dollars. State-run television also ran footage purporting to show him with other women.

Archbishop Ncube’s lawyer previously described the case as an “orchestrated attempt” to embarrass him, but the Archbishop himself has been largely silent on the matter.

“It is my feeling that I should face this case in court as Pius Ncube, an individual, not that the . . . Church should seem to be on trial because I am its head,” he said today.

Since he was consecrated in 1999 Archbishop Ncube, 60, the second-most senior member in the Church in Zimbabwe, has attacked Mr Mugabe relentlessly, denouncing him as “a murderous, corrupt dictator” and confessing that he prayed for the 83-year-old despot to die.

Observers say the adultery allegations bore all the signs of being a clumsily staged smear operation by Mr Mugabe’s secret police, who have repeatedly been caught out manufacturing plots to destroy the credibility of opponents.

The “private investigator” who had the camera placed in the Archbishop’s bedroom turned out to be a senior state intelligence agent. Mr Mugabe unwittingly revealed that he had been briefed on the surveillance well before July, when he said that some of Zimbabwe’s Catholic bishops “have girlfriends”.

A fortnight ago, the rest of the country’s Catholic bishops backed Archbishop Ncube vigorously. They said Zimbabweans “have not been deceived by . . . the hate propaganda and character assassination against those Zimbabweans who, like Pius, have spoken out in defence of the oppressed.”

The Archbishop said he would remain a bishop, working with “the poorest and most needy” in Zimbabwe, and lobbying for increased humanitarian support and medical supplies.

He said he had written to Pope Benedict and told him “within days of what was obviously a state-driven, vicious attack, not just on myself, but on the Catholic church in Zimbabwe”.

This week the Archbishop and other leading Catholics founded a trust to raise international awareness of Zimbabwe’s humanitarian crisis.

“Typically, he has acted honourably,” said David Coltart, a friend and leading MP of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Tuesday September 11, 2007
By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press Writer

VATICAN CITY (AP) – An archbishop who was an outspoken critic of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe before becoming embroiled in a sex scandal has resigned, saying Tuesday he wanted to shield his church from attack.

Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Archbishop Pius Ncube, 60, 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, a Vatican statement said.
In a separate statement released at the Vatican, Ncube said he had offered to resign because of what he called a “state-driven, vicious attack” on himself and the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe. The state media in Zimbabwe has closely covered a civil adultery suit filed there against Ncube by a railroad worker who alleged his wife, a secretary in Ncube’s office, had a two-year affair with the archbishop.

“In order to spare my fellow bishops and the body of the church any further attacks, I decided this was the best course of action,” he wrote.

He said he would continue speaking out in favor of the poor and suffering in Zimbabwe “who sadly become more numerous and more impoverished every day.”

“I have not been silenced by the crude machinations of a wicked regime,” he wrote.

Church officials in Bulawayo said Ncube planned to remain an ordained bishop and lead a new charity group known as the Zimbabwe Humanitarian Support Trust.

Other Catholic leaders were members of the trust, founded Tuesday, to draw international attention to the plight of Zimbabweans suffering from extreme poverty, malnutrition and the high prevalence of AIDS and related illness that go largely untreated in the crumbling economy, said David Coltart, an opposition lawmaker and close friend of Ncube.

In July, Zimbabwe state media showed images allegedly taken with a hidden camera in Ncube’s bedroom and purportedly showing him with the woman. Ncube’s lawyer has called the airing of the video an “orchestrated attempt” by the government to embarrass the prelate, who has long been critical of Mugabe.

In August, Zimbabwe’s Catholic Bishops Conference accused the government of making “crude attempts” to divert attention from the nation’s political and economic crisis by publicizing the affair allegations.

The bishops said Ncube, archbishop of Bulawayo, had shown courage, moral authority and fearlessness in exposing massacres by government troops in the western Matabeleland province during an armed rebellion after independence in 1980 and a brutal countrywide slum clearance operation in 2005.

Ncube has accused Mugabe of human rights violations and has called for him to step down. He has also urged Zimbabweans to demonstrate in the streets against the government amid the nation’s worst economic crisis since independence.

The archbishop has been largely silent since the allegations surfaced, declining to answer questions about his private life in a state television interview, but speaking of the importance of forgiveness.

He didn’t refer to the allegations at all in his statement Tuesday, speaking instead about his future. He said he would continue working for greater humanitarian support for Zimbabweans, in particular for food and medical supplies. “Recent events have brought me closer to God and have given me a clearer sense of mission,” he said.

Ncube’s troubles come at a time when Mugabe’s political opposition has been weakened by internal rivalries. It is unclear whether Ncube will emerge from the scandal an effective activist. In his statement Tuesday, Ncube acknowledged many would be bitterly disappointed by his resignation.

Coltart said Ncube “acted honorably” by resigning. “I think he was concerned about the damage this was doing to the church and he has decided to direct his attention toward humanitarian issues,” Coltart said.

Zimbabwe suffers runaway inflation that the International Monetary Fund expects to hit 100,000 percent by the end of the year; collapsing infrastructure; mass unemployment; and shortages of everything from bread to tractor spare parts. Mugabe, meanwhile, has muzzled the opposition with curbs on speech and gatherings, and has applauded police for beating opposition activists.

Associated Press Writer Angus Shaw in Harare, Zimbabwe contributed to this report.

Zim Independent 7 September 2007

Orirando Manwere

THE Zanu PF-dominated parliamentary portfolio committee on Local
Government, Public Works and Urban Development still maintains that the
takeover of water and sewer reticulation services in urban centres by the
Zimbabwe National Water Authority was not in the best interests of residents
as the purported consultation was confined to government circles.

Committee chairperson Margaret Zinyemba (Zanu PF) told parliament on
Wednesday that although her committee had given in to the cabinet directive,
the committee still stood by its ealier position that the takeover was
ill-timed and was not reflective of the view of the majority of the people
and other stakeholders in urban centres.

She was moving a motion to withdraw the debate on the Zinwa takeover
from the order paper following a response to the committee’s second report
by Water Resources and Infrastructural Development minister Munacho Muteza
last week.

“Following minister Mutezo’s response to my committee’s second report
last week, it appears there is no going back on the takeover of water and
sewerage reticulation services in cities and towns by Zinwa.

“However, I would like to point out that the decision is not in the
best interests of the public as water shortages and sewer bursts have become
the norm in residential suburbs. The situation is critical and it’s posing a
danger to our lives. There is an urgent need for Zinwa to correct the
situation,” she said.

Zinyemba, whose address was interrupted by loud applause from members
from either side of the House, said her committee had established that
consultations on the takeover were limited to government officials only.

She said it was the committee’s view that the earlier decision to
decentralise the services to local authorities was the best and should have
been upheld.

Zinyemba challenged the responsible ministry and Zinwa to deliver the
expected quality service to residents as a matter of urgency as the
situation was worsening by the day.

“The minister indicated in his response that the process of
rehabilitating infrastructure in all towns and cities would take long and
that Zinwa needed huge financial backing from government.

“We urge government to urgently provide the necessary funds so that
the problem of sewer bursts and water supplies are addressed as a matter of
urgency,” said Zinyemba.

Earlier Bulawayo South legislator David Coltart had urged the House to
lobby the government to treat the Bulawayo water crisis with urgency as the
city was facing a disaster.

Coltart told the House that he had learnt from stakeholders in the
city that a local company contacted to manufacture the required pipes would
accomplish the task in two years while a huge amount of foreign currency was
required to import critical components.

The Zimbabwe Independent
7th September 2007

THE Precious Stones Trade Amendment Bill on Wednesday went through its second and third readings in Parliament without amendments despite debate on the effectiveness of the proposed five-year mandatory custodial sentence for its contravention.
The Bill, which, among other things, seeks to redefine precious stones and make provisions for rationalisation of mining, was tabled before the House last week.

It sailed through and will soon be referred to the Attorney-General’s Office after Mines and Mining Development minister Amos Midzi clarified some “grey areas” in the Bill and agreed to incorporate suggestions by members.

The Bill is in response to challenges brought about by the recent discovery and illegal mining of diamonds in Marange.
It proposes a five-year mandatory sentence for contravening various sections, among other deterrent measures for individuals and companies.

However, Bulawayo South legislator David Coltart argued that there was need to give the courts the discretion to decide on sentences depending on the circumstances.

Following submissions by Shadreck Chipanga (Zanu PF, Makoni East) and Margaret Zinyemba (Zanu PF, Mazowe West) and Gabuza Joel Gabbuza (MDC, Binga), it was agreed that a minimum five-year mandatory custodial sentence should be deterrent enough.

Chipanga said the purpose of the legislation was to deter would-be offenders from committing such offences and such mandatory sentences would go a long way towards curbing illegal mining and smuggling of precious stones.

Midzi told the House that his ministry would incorporate all the submissions made by members, adding that his ministry would also carry out training for the police, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority officials and other personnel involved in the mining, marketing and protection of precious stones. — Staff Writer.