News in Brief

BINDURA – An entire ward in rural Bindura has been denied farming inputs and equipment as punishment for supporting the opposition MDC.

Angry villagers from Ward 18, which comprises 14 villages in Mashonaland, told The Zimbabwean last week that their ward was the only one in the area denied ox-drawn ploughs and other equipment sourced by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe under the government’s recent farm mechanisation scheme.

The ward, located within a Zanu (PF) stronghold under Elliot Manyika, voted overwhelmingly for the opposition during last year’s rural council elections. Since then, it has not benefited from any scheme organised by the Government.

“The whole thing is so unfair. Everyone should be allowed to choose a political party of his or her choice. Even criminal is the use of inputs acquired through tax payers’ funds for partisan purposes. This is vote buying,” said MDC Bindura Rural Acting Chairperson Alfred Chitonho. – Takesure Bizure

Speculators ignore new currency threat

HARARE – Money merchants are holding on to heaps of cash, despite last week’s threats by Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Gideon Gono that a new currency was to be launched.

Zimbabwe is facing a severe cash crisis that has seen banks releasing as little as $5m per client.

Government says this is intended to get cash back into the formal system, at a time when much of the $58 trillion in circulation is in the hands of speculators.

But a snap survey at Road Port, a thriving foreign currency street market in central Harare, showed it was business as usual. Foreign currency traders were seen with heaps of cash stashed in their car boots.

“My friend, this is the only way we can survive. The current Government has made it difficult for us to make an honest living. I do not care about what Gono says about changing the currency. What I am concerned about is spinning the money before it is changed. I do not mind when,” said a defiant foreign currency dealer, opening a bagful of 200- and 100-dollar notes.

Gono announced last week that he intends to launch Sunrise II, a sequel of last year’s controversial Project Sunrise, which saw teams of police officers and youths from the National Service camps deployed to confiscate cash from individuals and companies. – Takesure Bizure

 

Coercion and intimidation? Just the usual election preparations  

HARARE – With three months still to go before the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections, it seems coercion, intimidation and evictions have begun in all provinces.

This week The Zimbabwean talked to activists for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Harare, Chitungwiza and Masvingo province.  

They told how gangs of Zanu (PF) hitmen had ordered them to leave the area or be killed.

Munjodzi Mnashe, in Zengeza Two of Chitungwiza, said: “These youths accused us of working for a puppet party which is pursuing the interests of the West. I thought of going to the police for help, but when I realised who was behind these evictions, I knew I would be wasting my time.”

In Masvingo, 15 men and their families moved to an MDC safe house after Zanu (PF) officials evicted them.

The MDC’s Masvingo Provincial Chairman, Wilstaff Sitemele, confirmed the situation: “This is further proof of this regime’s continued disregard of the rule of law. It is also an indication that the ruling party is negotiating in bad faith at the ongoing talks with President Mbeki of South Africa.” – Allen Muzhingi

Police demand money and food from dealers

BULAWAYO – Underpaid junior police officers are demanding bribes from illegal foreign currency dealers.

Several osiphatheleni,  as the dealers are known in the city, revealed this week that the junior police officers were flocking to an area dubbed The World Bank – at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Hebert Chitepo Street – and were demanding food and money.

“It does not matter what they find you doing there. If they suspect that you are an illegal foreign currency dealer, they just demand that you give them money or food so that you continue operating without hassles. We usually comply because that makes them handy in future when one is caught in police raids,” said Nomusa Moyo.

The dealers said most of the demands were from members of the police cycle patrol and the crime prevention units.

“We get very little from the Government and that is another way for us to survive,” said a junior police officer.  

Police national spokesman, Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena, refused to comment. – Bayethe Zitha

Small businesses head for ruin

HARARE – More than 90 percent of Zimbabwe’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are facing closure as a result of the ongoing economic crisis, according to a survey by an advertising and events management company.

The research by South African based GloMedia found that only 10 per cent of firms were operating profitably, and a significant number of businesses collapsed in their first five years. Hundreds of thousands of jobs are under threat as a result.

“Currently, the main problem faced by local entrepreneurs is raising capital. This mainly entails borrowing from banks and other financial institutions such as Small Enterprises Development Committee (SEDCO) and loan booths,” said GloMedia. – Own correspondent