Zanu PF determined to win at all costs

As Zimbabweans ready themselves for the 2023 crunch elections, they are likely to be characterised by violence, similar to that of 2008. Preparations are already in a shambles. That means the African election observers (from the Southern African Development Community and the African Union) as well as those looking on from the outside are unlikely to reach credible conclusions as to whether they were free and fair. Violence in the Zimbabwean context is complex. There have been waves of government-sponsored violence since the 1980s and in the 2018 post-election protests, the army shot dead six protesters and civilians.

Elections: Govt dangles land to youths, war vets

Land minister Anxious Masuka’s announcement that youths are exempted from joining the waiting list for available land has been described as “a Zanu PF campaign gimmick” ahead of the 2023 elections. Masuka told farmers in Kwekwe that the waiting list had shot up to 261 000, but said war veterans and youths needed not worry. “They ask us if land is still available and the answer is yes and no. Those who wish to have land must go on that waiting list. For youths, we have said this is now a fast track, they don’t have to queue,” Masuka said. Youth represent over 60% of the population, and about 44% of voters’ roll.

Govt fails to account for US$10bn

The mystery over the US$10 billion budget overrun by the Zimbabwe government from 2015 to 2018 is deepening, with Auditor-General Mildred Chiri yet to gain access to documents revealing how the money was spent, while legislators are pressing public officials to account for the massive taxpayer funds. Treasury officials say major expenses incurred during the period in question include Command Agriculture, the 2017 military coup preparations and execution, as well as the 2018 general elections. The Mnangagwa government is accused of running a parallel government which avoids formal government procedures.

Rwanda recruits Zimbabwean teachers

Rwanda has started recruiting Zimbabwean teachers after the two countries signed an agreement early in 2022 and 491 teachers have now been shortlisted for interviews. Rwanda’s minimum requirements are a bachelor’s degree and a post graduate qualification. Zimbabwe has an unemployment rate of over 80 percent due to years of economic regression and has been negotiating deals with countries such as South Sudan to export some of its multitude of unemployed university graduates. In Zimbabwe, only 150 000 teachers cater to 4.2 million pupils and the contentious average monthly salary is just US$100-120.

Gold leakages report: Maguwu death threats

ZANU PF functionaries are reportedly infuriated by the launch of the Centre for Natural Resources Governance (CNRG)’s latest report which exposes massive corruption in the gold industry in Zimbabwe. Director of CNRG, Farai Maguwu, who has received numerous awards for his courage, has received death threats for exposing the mass-scale gold looting. The reports says the sector has spread its tentacles from alluvial gold deposits along rivers and dry riverbeds to large scale disused mines now patronized by politicians and ZANU PF officials, with dire environmental consequences.

Zimbabwe’s disappearing gold

Illicit financial flows in the artisanal mining sector in Zimbabwe are responsible for leakages of an estimated 3 tonnes of gold, valued at approximately USD157 million every month, reports the Centre for Natural Resources Governance. The sector has now spread its tentacles from alluvial gold deposits along rivers and dry riverbeds to large scale disused mines patronized by politicians and ruling party officials. The sector is characterized by lawlessness, violence, blatant disregard for human rights and reigns of terror through marauding gangs. 

Takeover of black-owned farm illegal – SCA

Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court  has accused ZANU PF secretary for administration and former mines minister Obert Mpofu of resorting to “anarchy and chaos” in his bid to wrest control of a highly productive and legally purchased Matabeleland North farm part-owned by a prominent rights lawyer. Mpofu, reputed to be one of the largest land owners in Zimbabwe, occupied Esidakeni Estate in Nyamandlovu in November 2021 after driving out the farm’s owners – scientist Zephaniah Dhlamini, lawyer Siphosami Malunga and miner Charles Moyo. The dispossession of the respondents by the appellants was unlawful, the judges ruled.

Zambian President HH addresses European Parly

Introducing recently elected Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema at the European Parliament, EP President Roberta Metsola said Zambia stands as an example of a mature democracy for the whole of the African continent. “Zambia is back in business, in the Champions league”, President Hichilema said. He reiterated Zambia’s commitment to put people’s interests, reforms, free media, the rule of law, youth and education at the top of his political agenda. He advocated for enhanced Africa-EU cooperation, more trade, and more exchange of knowledge. “We categorically say no to the war in Ukraine,” he stressed.

Thousand dollar shopping again in Zim

In Cathy Buckle’s latest newsletter, she reports that on the first day of July 2022, just after people had been paid, the huge supermarket was almost empty, the sign if anyone needed it, that people can’t afford the thousand dollar food in the supermarkets anymore. It wasn’t a pretty picture: these are some of the standard, regular grocery items most people buy: 10kg Maize meal Z$5,329; 2 litres cooking oil Z$3,299; 2kgs flour Z$1,199; Sugar: none to buy; 375 ml Peanut butter Z$1,099; 500g Jam Z$1199; 100 tea bags Z$1,499; 500g Cerevita cereal Z$2199; 1kg Oats Z$2,199. This while the ruling elite become millionaires….

Zim lobbies to rejoin Commonwealth

Zimbabwe at the ongoing Commonwealth summit in Rwanda continued with lobbying for readmission 18 years after it was thrown out of the body over allegations of human rights abuses. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government submitted an application on May 15, 2018 to re-join the grouping of 54 countries, less than a year after the ouster of strongman Robert Mugabe in a military coup. The late Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe between 1980 and 2017 with an iron fist, was at the loggerheads with the Commonwealth over ongoing human rights abuses and electoral fraud.

Zim debt climbs to over US$17 billion

Zimbabwe, which is classified to be in debt distress by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), now has to settle a further US$420,4 million to pacify the Paris Club before moving to tackle more unsettled commitments estimated at over US$17 billion across lenders. Major lenders have demanded that the country clears debts to the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Paris Club and others before approaching them. Critics blame extensive plunder, corruption and mismanagement for Zimbabwe’s growing debt crisis. Lenders want these to be addressed before they return to the fold.

Dr Alex Magaisa: an irreplaceable loss

The passing of Dr Alex Magaisa has been a huge blow to Zimbabwe where he was revered as an outstanding academic, commentator and hero. Born in 1975, Alex Tawanda Magaisa read law at the University of Zimbabwe and at the University of Warwick and joined Kent Law School in 2007. In Zimbabwe, he was instrumental in the crafting of the country’s 2013 constitution. He also served as an adviser to Dr Morgan Tsvangirai, the former prime minister of Zimbabwe, in 2012 and 2013. He was an authoritative voice on Zimbabwean legal and political matters and was well known for his incisive Big Saturday Read blog.

Successful agriculture is built on title deeds

Land rights activist Ben Freeth says the country’s agriculture sector will remain in the doldrums until authorities give title deeds to farmers who benefited from controversial land seizures at the turn of the century. Freeth, who represents several white former commercial farmers whose land was forcibly taken from them and parcelled out during the contentious programme, told the Zimbabwe Independent last week that by depriving citizens of title deeds for land, Zimbabwe was shutting doors to any hope of accessing bank loans by local farmers. “In successful agricultural countries, all are built on title deeds,” he said.

Inflation soars, economy and schools in crisis

Since Cathy Buckle’s last letter two weeks ago, she writes that Zimbabwe’s economic crisis has escalated at a frightening pace. She notes that in a fortnight, “the street rate for one US dollar has gone from Z$460 to Z$600 plus while the bank rate continues to trail far behind at Z$338. Two weeks ago a loaf of bread was Z$469, last week it went up to Z$640 and yesterday it was Z$825 in my home town. Schools have also reached a new crisis point this week and sent out an SOS to parents for a ‘top up’ of fees saying they had been eroded by inflation.” She says that some have run out of food and have been forced to close early.

Ukraine war fuels food crisis in Zim

Joseph, Tinashe, Marlvin and Pardon are part of a wave of Zimbabwean refugees who left their economically-hit homeland for a better life elsewhere. After their perilous individual journeys they arrived in South Africa, eventually get jobs in restaurants, gained interest in wine, became sommeliers (wine stewards), meet and bonded with one another, and were encouraged to form the first-ever Zimbabwe team to compete in The World Wine Blind Tasting Championships—the Olympics of the wine world. The documentary Blind Ambition follows their ambitious path to their unlikely spot in this annual competition held in France.

Documentary: Blind Ambition

Joseph, Tinashe, Marlvin and Pardon are part of a wave of Zimbabwean refugees who left their economically-hit homeland for a better life elsewhere. After their perilous individual journeys they arrived in South Africa, eventually get jobs in restaurants, gained interest in wine, became sommeliers (wine stewards), meet and bonded with one another, and were encouraged to form the first-ever Zimbabwe team to compete in The World Wine Blind Tasting Championships—the Olympics of the wine world. The documentary Blind Ambition follows their ambitious path to their unlikely spot in this annual competition held in France.

Pressure piles over diaspora vote

Exiled Ntabazinduna Chief Felix Ndiweni, who is chairperson of MyRight2Vote pressure group, based in the United Kingdom, said that the 2023 elections outcome would be ruled illegitimate by the international community if the more than five million Zimbabweans in the diaspora are not allowed to vote. Ndiweni’s remarks came weeks after underfire Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda called for the amendment to the electoral laws to allow for the diaspora to vote, prompting harassment from ZANU PF. This human right was promised during the war of liberation by ZANU PF and ZAPU,” Ndiweni said.

Reliving Zimbabwe’s land invasion horrors

Ben Freeth, spokesperson for SADC Tribunal Rights Watch, tells Sydney Kawadza, chief reporter at the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper, what his family and fellow commercial farmers went through at the hands of “war veterans” as victims of the fast track land reform programme from 2000. This comes after a South African Supreme Court of Appeal overturned an earlier High Court ruling that could see Zimbabwe forced to compensate dispossessed former commercial farmers. Freeth says restoration of property rights is essential as every successful country has been built on the back of security of tenure for all.

Cathy Buckle: Seizing maize and déjà vu

“The shocks await us every time we go in the supermarkets,” writes author Cathy Buckle in her latest newsletter from Zimbabwe.  The official inflation statistic is 131% “but realistically it’s 256% according to John Hopkins University economist Steve Hanke who’s been watching Zimbabwe’s economy for a very long time. Zimbabwe’s own respected economist, Tony Hawkins, said this week he agreed with Steve Hanke and that ‘Zimbabwe now has the highest inflation rate in the world.’ The deeper we go into the mire however the more the figures become almost irrelevant… even a loaf of bread is just under Z$500,” Cathy says.