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Zimbabwe: Updates / Analysis
Zimbabwe: Updates / Analysis
Date distributed (ymd): 001005
Document reposted by APIC
+++++++++++++++++++++Document Profile+++++++++++++++++++++
Region: Southern Africa
Issue Areas: +political/rights+ +economy/development+
Summary Contents:
This posting contains short updates on Zimbabwe from the UN's
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN), as well as a
background analysis distributed last month through the Advocacy
Network for Africa (ADNA) and a reference to the recently released
report by the International Crisis Group
(http://www.crisisweb.org).
For additional background and references to on-line sources see
documents distributed earlier this year, including:
http://www.africafocus.org/docs00/zim0003.php>
http://www.africafocus.org/docs00/zim0005a.php>
http://www.africafocus.org/docs00/zim0005b.php>
+++++++++++++++++end profile++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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ZIMBABWE: Pessimistic outlook by ICG
IRIN-SA - Tel: +2711 880 4633; Fax: +2711 447 5472; e-mail:
irin-sa@irin.org.za
[This item is delivered in the "africa-english" service of the UN's
IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect
the views of the United Nations. For further information, free
subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail:
irin@ocha.unon.org or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you
re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this
credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial sites requires
written IRIN permission.]
JOHANNESBURG, 3 October (IRIN) - Three months after Zimbabwe's
parliamentary elections in June, the prevailing atmosphere in the
country has been described by the Brussels-based International
Crisis Group (ICG) as one of uncertainty, frustration and anger.
"There is no positive leadership," the ICG said in its latest
report On Zimbabwe. "No-one had a sense of where the country is
headed except down."
"While the new cabinet includes several new, competent ministers in
the economic area, there has been no discernible return to the rule
of law and good governance. The economy continues to spiral
downwards. The Government has announced its intention to
compulsorily acquire over 3,000 commercial farms, has publicly
identified over 2,000 of them, and has begun a 'fast track'
resettlement programme that would move settlers on to many hundreds
of them before the rainy season begins in November. This is not
land reform; it is a politically driven land grab which will
devastate Zimbabwe's agriculturally based economy without
immediately benefiting those being resettled," said the report
which was published last week.
"The culprit for Zimbabwe's continuing slide towards the abyss is
President Robert Mugabe. He learned nothing positive from the June
elections. If anything he has become more autocratic, determined to
maintain personal control regardless of the costs to the nation. He
ignores constructive advice from within Zimbabwe and from the
international community. In these grim circumstances, it is
imperative that the international community and regional neighbours
continue to provide wise counsel and bring whatever pressure they
can to bear on President Mugabe and his regime," the report said.
The ICG said the rule of law had to be restored, that government
should work cooperatively with the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) instead of victimising it. It also urged
the government to end the farm occupations, address the budget
deficit, and "re-engage immediately" with the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund, and other potential sources of outside
assistance. It also recommended that Zimbabwe withdraw its armed
forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The
international community, it said should promote democracy and human
rights in Zimbabwe, and maintain "a carefully calibrated" approach,
responding to performance, not promises.
If the government continued along previous lines, it recommended
that diplomatic relations be downgraded, that the Commonwealth move
to suspend Zimbabwe's membership, and that the European Union
consider suspension of its privileged trade access. The ICG is a
private, multinational organisation which seeks to help the
international community anticipate, understand, prevent and contain
conflict.
IRIN has been unable, after several attempts in the past week, to
reach government officials for comment on the report. [For the full
ICG assessment entitled, 'Zimbabwe: Three Months after the
Elections', see: http://www.crisisweb.org/]
SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs, 4 October
ZIMBABWE: Mugabe agrees to discuss resignation
In a sign of growing pressure from his ruling ZANU-PF party,
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has conceded to debate his
future as party leader, senior party sources said on Tuesday. DPA
reported that he had agreed to discuss the issue of whether Mugabe
will run in the next presidential election at the party's congress
in December.
At previous party congresses, attempts to raise Mugabe's leadership
and his succession have been blocked by party officials who refused
to put the questions on the agenda. Mugabe has been in power since
independence from Britain in 1980.
ZIMBABWE: Non-payment leads to World Bank blacklist
JOHANNESBURG, 4 October (IRIN) - The World Bank on Tuesday said it
had put Zimbabwe on a list of bad payers after the country failed
to service its loans for a period of more than six months.
In a statement released in Washington, the bank said President
Robert Mugabe's government owed a total of US $47 million in
outstanding payments, while its total debt amounted to US $889
million. The bank added that it had put this debt amount on a
non-accrual status.
"This action was in accordance with the bank's established policy
of placing all its loans and credits to, or guaranteed by, a
country in non-accrual status if payment on any loan or credit is
overdue by more than six months," the statement said.
According to analysts, the inclusion of Zimbabwe on the bank's list
of bad payers means Zimbabwe will no longer be eligible for any
World Bank loans. Other international banks, donors and investors,
added the analysts, were more likely to shun the country as the
result, which would further worsen the economic crisis faced by
Zimbabwe.
The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and major
donors last year suspended aid to Zimbabwe after the government
failed to control public spending and for misleading the IMF about
its spending in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Zimbabwe also faces serious foreign currency shortages, resulting
in failure to pay foreign suppliers of fuel and other raw
materials.
WHAT IS ZIMBABWE?
Bud Day, University of Zimbabwe, Medical College
<warren.day@nau.edu> and by Carol Thompson, University of
Zimbabwe, Political and Administrative Studies
<carol.thompson@nau.edu>.
[first distributed September 13, 2000 to the Advocacy Network for
Africa (ADNA) by the Northern Arizona Peace and Justice Network.
Please note that archives of action alerts, updates, and event
announcements among member groups of ADNA are
now available on the web at
http://www.africapolicy.org/adna]
There is concern among many activists in Southern Africa because
the media and even liberals in the USA are labeling Zimbabwe as a
'failed state' or that it is 'self-destructing.' Further, many
analyses of Zimbabwe rely on the simplistic notion that removing
President Robert Mugabe will solve everything. As activists, we do
need to expose every human rights violation, every breach of the
rule of law, and every corrupt act.
However, there has never been a livelier debate in Zimbabwe --
political, economic and social (e.g. gender rights). The people of
Zimbabwe have shown their patience, their determination and their
bravery in holding general elections, in voting, and in constantly
organizing in many civil society organizations to resolve the
problems. The press daily criticizes any abrogation of law and
order by the government, and it is exposing corruption, probably
to a higher degree than the US establishment media is exposing US
corruption. The churches are a strong voice of conscience, with
leaders assisting in democratic organizing. Labor is highly
organized and militant, as the recent general strike revealed. The
women are working in at least two dozen organizations to be
represented in the political discussions, in land redistribution,
in stopping the violence, in ending the HIV-Aids crisis.
National developmental NGOs are highly efficient and working to
overcome the extreme poverty by empowering rural peoples.
As for the government itself, within the parliament, the debates
are very lively and highly critical of executive branch policy.
The court system remains quite independent and ruled just recently
that one executive action was null and void (discounting all
mailed ballots for the election). Only the executive branch of
the government is still acting unilaterally and very often,
irresponsibly. One could point out many governments, including
the USA, when such a case was operative, and it took time to
change it. Within the ruling party, Zanu-PF, there is much
debate, and power struggles, over the next steps, economic and
political. The cabinet even has a member who says he will not join
a political party (Minister of Trade and Industry Nkomo) in order
to remain independent enough to do his job, and the Minister of
Finance has pledged that all government agencies will follow the
budget (Makoni).
Zimbabwe -- its civil society, its political parties, and most of
its government -- remains very democratic, involving higher levels
of commitment and participation than other, more mature
democracies.
Zimbabwe's economy, however, is failing. The reasons for that are
many, including corruption. However, the concern is that in the
USA, analysts seem to have forgotten the international context
which is marginalizing all African economies. The debt of
Zimbabwe in 1991, when it signed on to the IMF structural
adjustment program (SAP), was equal to its defense expenditures
during the 1980s when it was defending itself against apartheid
incursions. Any new government in Zimbabwe will be strapped with
apartheid debt.
The war in the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) was caused
by an invasion by Uganda and Rwanda, encouraged by the USA, with
the government of Zimbabwe defending the standing DRC government
against military overthrow, a long-term policy of the Southern
Africa Development Community (SADC). The war is highly unpopular
among the Zimbabwean people, who criticize that expenditure,
relative to social development needs, for the engagement was taken
unilaterally by Mugabe, without reference to the parliament.
With 6 governments and 3 guerrilla forces involved militarily,
(colonial) instability in the DRC remains, yet global corporations
are able to continue mining the minerals for incredible profits.
The majority of the Zimbabwean people are demanding complete,
immediate withdrawal, while knowing that any new government in
Zimbabwe will be burdened with another (in addition to Angola)
giant neighbor in turmoil.
As predicted by progressive Zimbabwean economists who advised not
signing, the SAP has de-industrialized Zimbabwe; according to the
latest figures, manufacturing output has declined by 25% since its
high in 1991, with textiles now below its 1980 level. Structural
adjustment has dismantled the internationally award-winning primary
health care system in Zimbabwe and has made primary education
unaffordable for many parents. HIV/AIDS has reduced life
expectancy in Zimbabwe to about 43 years. As is true in every
other country where it has been implemented, SAP has also
increased corruption in Zimbabwe.
No international agency or government has taken seriously the need
for land redistribution by offering sufficient funds to do it.
When South Korea and Taiwan redistributed land, American aid
provided hard currency to pay farmers for their land and the US
army went to the farms with the South Korean army to enforce it.
Land inequity in Southern Africa is a legacy of apartheid. No
amount of planning or transparency will provide sufficient funds
in Zimbabwe, Namibia or South Africa to compensate current
land-holders and to settle, with infrastructure, new farmers.
Instead of quickly labeling 'Zimbabwe' (the people, the state, the
executive or the economy?) as 'self-destructing,' we must insist
on linking the suffering of the peoples of Southern Africa to the
wider global issues.
Many Americans are involved in concerted work on debt
cancellation, peace, HIV/AIDS, the WTO, structural adjustment. It
is important to use the abysmal and rapid deterioration of the
Zimbabwean economy to illustrate the effects of
- economic apartheid (land and inequity)
- colonial wars, which become endless civil wars --Angola and DRC
(USA is #1 exporter of armaments)
- onerous debt (apartheid debt)
- global corporations (mining for profit and directly fueling war)
- structural adjustment programs (privatization of health
care/essential drug programs, education fees unaffordable to poor)
- USA fast-tracking intellectual property rights over drugs and
plants, resulting in unaffordable medicine of all kinds, in
biopiracy (TRIPs Plus, USA T rade and Development Act 2000)
The people of Zimbabwe are highly organized and dedicated to
change; your understanding and advocacy contribute to their
efforts!
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC). APIC provides
accessible information and analysis in order to promote U.S.
and international policies toward Africa that advance economic,
political and social justice and the full spectrum of human rights.
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