Monday, November 30, 2009

Zuma wants Zim back in the Commonwealth

HARARE -- South African President Jacob Zuma appealed for the readmission of Zimbabwe into the Commonwealth during a summit of the grouping of former British colonies held in Trinidad and Tobago, his spokesman Vincent Magwenya said.

In a statement Magwenya said Zuma told the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting that ended Sunday that accepting Zimbabwe back would show the international community’s support of efforts by the Harare coalition government to deliver economic and political change.

"Zimbabwe's re-admission into the Commonwealth, will serve as a recognition to the progress that has been achieved thus far. Equally, along with the lifting of sanctions, it will represent the international community's support and encouragement to parties to continue the dialogue that will deliver a lasting solution to the challenges facing the country," Magwenya quoted Zuma as having told the summit.

President Robert Mugabe withdrew Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth after the organisation condemned his controversial rule and had voted to maintain Harare’s suspension from the club. Mugabe and his government failed to abide by the principles contained in the Harare Declaration. In this Declaration, Heads of Government reaffirmed their commitment to work “with renewed vigour” to protect and promote “the fundamental political values of the Commonwealth”. Zimbabwe was suspended in 2002, and decided to withdraw from the Commonwealth in December 2003.

The announcement by Zuma follows an almost similar plea for Harare’s re-admission made by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday last week.

However Brown said more reforms including holding of free and fair elections were critical to ensuring Zimbabwe’s re-engagement with the Commonwealth and the rest of the international community.

- ZimOnline and Simba Nembaware

Friday, November 27, 2009

Political parties not uplifting women: Group

HARARE – A Zimbabwean women’s pressure group has castigated the three political parties in the power-sharing government for failing to promote the participation of women in politics.

In its gender audit report released on Wednesday, the Women in Politics Support Unit (WIPSU) said President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T and Deputy Premier Arthur Mutambara’s MDC-M are just the same when it comes to the treatment of female politicians.

“The three parties claim to believe in the core values of equality, justice, empowerment, non-discrimination, freedom and equity among others but none of these three parties had a substantive gender policy,” read the report entitled “Are Political Parties Serious About Gender Equality and Women’s Rights?”

“Only MDC-T had developed a gender and women empowerment policy by the second phase of the study. The MDC claimed they had a policy however most of those interviewed were not aware of it. ZANU PF claimed the country’s National Gender Policy is the ZANU PF policy since it went through ZANU PF processes before being adopted as the national policy.”

WIPSU is a feminist organisation which provides support for women in parliament and local government in Zimbabwe with the aim of increasing their qualitative and quantitative participation and influence in policy and decision making.

The gender audit report which was compiled between March 2008 and 2009 assesses the commitments the political parties in Zimbabwe have made in advancing women participation in decision-making positions.

The report further stated that members of the three parties are not even aware that there are gender policies in their parties. It said the parties have written policies that look good on paper but will not go further than the shelves.

“For all the three political parties, it is clear that there is a huge gap between rhetoric, policy on paper and policy in reality,” read the report.

The pressure group said the attitude of political parties in Zimbabwe is generally negative.

The group said it will present the report to the three political parties and lobby them to implement its findings and recommendations.
– ZimOnline

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Obama pays tribute to WOZA

Bulawayo - United States President Barack Obama honoured a group of women on Monday who have confronted Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and said they had defied a dictator.

"They often don't get far before being confronted by President Mugabe's riot police," Obama said at a ceremony for Magodonga Mahlangu and the organisation she helps lead - Woza, the acronym of Women of Zimbabwe Arise. In the local Ndebele vernacular language, Woza means come forward.

"By her example, Magodonga has shown the women of Woza nd the people of Zimbabwe that they can undermine their oppressors' power with their own power - that they can sap a dictator's strength with their own," he said, presenting the annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

With a countrywide membership of over 70,000 women and men, WOZA which was formed in 2003 as a women’s civic movement aimed at providing women, from all walks of life, with a united voice to speak out on issues affecting their day-to-day lives; empowering female leadership that will lead community involvement in pressing for solutions to the current crisis; encouraging women to stand up for their rights and freedoms; lobbying and advocating on those issues affecting women and their families.

Woza's nonviolence principles are premised on the believe that the power of love can conquer the love of power.In that respect WOZA has conducted hundreds of protests since 2003 and over 3,000 women and men have spent time in police custody, many more than once and most for 48 hours or more. Woza says as the frontline human rights defenders, they are willing to suffer beatings and unbearable conditions in prison cells to exercise their constitutional rights and fundamental freedoms.

WOZA was formed to be a litmus test ‘Tough Love’ is our secret weapon of mass mobilisation. ‘Tough Love’ is the disciplining love of a parent; women practice it to press for and to bring dignity back to Zimbabweans. Tough Love is a ‘people power’ tool that any community can use to press for better governance and social justice, especially for Zimbabweans. Political leaders in Zimbabwe need some discipline; who better to dish it out than mothers!

The United States wants Mugabe to halt political arrests and media censorship and to honour a power-sharing agreement signed in September 2008 with his political rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mugabe is a pariah in the West, blamed by critics for plunging his southern African country into poverty through his authoritarian rule and economic mismanagement. He has led Zimbabwe since the country's independence from Britain in 1980.

Mugabe has often blamed Western foes for ruining his country via sanctions, which he says are in retaliation for the seizing of white-owned farms on behalf of landless blacks. Critics say the policy is used as a tool to intimidate political opponents and to give land to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party loyalists.

After long negotiations, Zanu-PF formed a unity government in February with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, led by Tsvangirai, who is now Zimbabwe's prime minister.

- Reuters and Simba Nembaware

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

ZBH Managers Axed Over News Blackout

THE Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings (ZBH) last week suspended three managers after they were accused of leaking information about a government directive to ignore stories involving MDC-T ministers. Two weeks ago The Standard reported that the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity had ordered the state media to stop covering the MDC-T ministers until the party re-established contact with Zanu PF.

ZBH chief executive Happison Muchechetere had earlier informed managers at the country's sole broadcaster that all stories involving the ministers should be taken off air immediately.

But after the widely condemned directive was exposed, the news editor O'Brian Rwafa, Jacob Phiri (chief producer) and Freedom Moyo (bulletins manager) were suspended for 10 days pending investigations.

They were told to surrender ZBH property but they would continue receiving their full salaries.

Muchechetere refused to comment on the latest developments. He said: "You are a journalist and you know what to do." Media, Information and Publicity Permanent secretary George Charamba whom many believe is behind the suspensions was not available for comment yesterday.

However, eyebrows were raised when two managers who were actually given the directive were left unscathed. Insiders said there was a vicious witch-hunt that had seen management approaching a mobile phone service provider seeking information about the phone numbers the managers called over the weekend.

Their suspension brings to more than 10 the journalists and former managers who still draw salaries from the corporation without working after they were stopped from reporting for work on political grounds.

The state-owned broadcaster is still paying seven journalists it unsuccessfully tried to retrench last year on accusations that they supported the MDC-T in the run up to the March 29 harmonised elections.

ZBH has lost a string of court cases against the journalists but still refuses to re-engage them.
-The Zimbabwe Standard

Thursday, November 12, 2009

UN says hunger stunts some 200 million children

Nearly 200 million children in poor countries have stunted growth because of insufficient nutrition, according to a new report published by UNICEF before a three-day international summit on the problem of world hunger.

The head of a U.N. food agency called on the world to join him in a day of fasting ahead of the summit to highlight the plight of 1 billion hungry people.

Jacques Diouf, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization, said Wednesday he hoped the fast would encourage action by world leaders who will take part in the meeting at his agency's headquarters starting Monday.

The U.N. Children's Fund published a report saying that nearly 200 million children under five in poor countries were stunted by a lack of nutrients in their food.

More than 90 percent of those children live in Africa and Asia, and more than a third of all deaths in that age group are linked to undernutrition, according to UNICEF.

While progress has been made in Asia - rates of stunted growth dropped from 44 percent in 1990 to 30 percent last year - there has been little success in Africa. There, the rate of stunted growth was about 38 percent in 1990. Last year, the rate was about 34 percent.

South Asia is a particular hotspot for the problem, with just Afghanistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan accounting for 83 million hungry children under five.

"Unless attention is paid to addressing the causes of child and maternal undernutrition today, the costs will be considerably higher tomorrow," said UNICEF executive director Ann M. Veneman in a statement.

Diouf said he would begin a 24-hour fast on Saturday morning. The agency also launched an online petition against world hunger through a Web page featuring a video with Diouf counting from one to six to remind visitors that every six seconds a child dies from hunger.

The U.N. children's agency called for more strategies like vitamin A supplementation and breast-feeding to be rolled out more widely. That could cut the death rate in kids by up to 15 percent, UNICEF said.

"It is unrealistic to believe malnutrition can be addressed by any topdown U.N. scheme," said Philip Stevens, of International Policy Network, a London-based think tank. "The progress UNICEF's report points to in improving nutrition is almost certainly a result of economic growth, not U.N. strategies."

The Rome-based FAO announced earlier this year that hunger now affects a record 1.02 billion globally, or one in six people, with the financial meltdown, high food prices, drought and war blamed.

The agency hopes its World Summit on Food Security, with Pope Benedict XVI and some 60 heads of state so far expected to attend, will endorse a new strategy to combat hunger, focusing on increased investment in agricultural development for poor countries.

The long-term increase in the number of hungry is largely tied to reduced aid and private investments earmarked for agriculture since the mid-1980s, according to FAO.

Countries like Brazil, Nigeria and Vietnam that have invested in their small farmers and rural poor are bucking the hunger trend, FAO chief Diouf told the news conference.

They are among 31 countries that have reached or are on track to meet the goal set by world leaders nine years ago to cut the number of hungry people in half by 2015, he said.

"Eradicating hunger is no pipe dream," Diouf said. "The battle against hunger can be won."

FAO says global food output will have to increase by 70 percent to feed a projected population of 9.1 billion in 2050.

To achieve that, poor countries will need $44 billion in annual agricultural aid, compared with the current $7.9 billion, to increase access to irrigation systems, modern machinery, seeds and fertilizer as well as build roads and train farmers.

Agriculture investment from the private sector is also considered vital, and FAO is hosting a two-day forum in Milan starting Thursday with executives and business representatives to discuss how to coordinate such efforts.
-AP

Monday, November 9, 2009

Climate change solutions should include children - Save the Children

The United Kingdom based Save the children has recommended in its latest report, "FEELING THE HEAT - CHILD SURVIVAL IN A CHANGING CLIMATE", that policies on the adaptation to climate change should involve children as they have the right to participate in decisions that affect their lives, and as such, adaptation planning, particularly National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs), must involve children in identifying appropriate interventions, writes Simba Nembaware.

The reports says climate change is the biggest global health threat to children in the 21st century and notes that without concerted action, millions of children will be at increased risk from disease, undernutrition, water scarcity, disasters, and the collapse of public services and infrastructure. While "no one will be immune to the effects of climate change" Save the Children highlights that children under the age of five are largest group to be most affected.

In the forewood of the report Ulla Tørnæs, the Danish government's Minister for Development Cooperation said, "Children are not responsible for climate change. But they may ultimately be the ones suffering the most and in risk of not surviving. I urge all governments to recognise what is at stake for the children of the world and join the Danish government in protecting the children’s chances of survival in spite of climate change. I hope and trust that in Copenhagen in December 2009 we will agree to an ambitious climate agreement with a strong development focus. Now, more than ever before, the decisions we make today will affect the generations of tomorrow."

The direct effects of climate change on children include diarrhoea and water-borne diseases, malaria and other vector-borne diseases, hunger and malnutrition, increasing frequency of disasters, while the indirect effects are weakened health systems, fragile livelihoods, increased migration and displacement, impact on urbanisation, and additional burdens on women.

The report further reveals that most child deaths occur in the world’s poorest countries and communities with these children dying from a small number of preventable and treatable diseases and conditions, including diarrhoea, malaria and malnutrition. "An estimated third of the entire global childhood disease burden is attributable to changeable factors in food, soil, water and air. These diseases and conditions are predicted to worsen with climate change," and the spread of malaria in various parts of the world will be accelarated by climate change.

With access to clean water becoming more difficult in most parts of the globe, Save the Children says, it will therefore be harder to tackle diarrhoea, one of the biggest killers of young children. Dirty water and unsafe sanitation is a major secondary cause of child mortality.

According to the report, "climate change will increase the number of disasters like floods, droughts and cyclones that put children’s lives at risk. And it will have very severe consequences for food security and nutrition. One-third of deaths of children under five are linked to undernutrition. Climate change will make it much harder for poor families to give their children a nutritious diet."

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Anna Matopodza, "When I tell people I am a grandmother, they do not believe me"

HARARE- When Anna Matopodza, 55, from a village in the Buhera district of Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe, found out she was HIV-positive, she was anxious about who would look after her five children when she died. The thought of death haunted her for months; then she joined dance group and travelled around the world, teaching people about HIV/AIDS through song and dance.

"I tested HIV positive in 1996, after the death of my husband. My husband had been sick for a very long time; we were always in and out of hospital but I had never got the opportunity to get tested. I got tested after some counselling from an organization called Family Care Trust-Nyanga (Fact-Nyanga).

"Back then, in 1996, we didn't have the New Start Centres that are now offering voluntary counselling and testing around the country, so for someone to get tested it was a very difficult and an expensive thing.

"The result came back positive. I didn't even know what that meant, except that I knew I had a disease that had no cure, no treatment, and that I would soon die in the same painful way my husband had died.

"My concern was for my four girls - I was afraid that after I had died they would be forced to get married early and also expose themselves to the disease. I lost a lot of weight just thinking about all these things.

"When I joined Tsungai ['be strong' in the Shona language] support group I had no idea what to expect; I just joined because I was probably looking for answers. I found peace at this support group because we were no longer talking in hushed tones about HIV/AIDS.

"While in this support group I heard about the Murambinda Peer Educators Dance Group and I decided to join them. I wanted to let others know about this disease before it was too late.

"The children I was worried about years ago are all grown up now. The four girls are married and have children of their own. They all completed their education and they have good jobs.

"I didn't think I would live to see my children grow up, or to see my 14 grandchildren. My fifth child - my only son - is still at home with me, doing his studies.

"Many people died of stress in the 1990s because there was not much information about HIV/AIDS ... this is why I am part of Murambinda Dance Group, as old as I am.

"When I tell people I am a grandmother, they do not believe me because when I dance I have so much energy - there is no old and young when we are fighting HIV!"
-IRIN PlusNews

Monday, November 2, 2009

Zambia fuel shortages may cut maize output — official

LUSAKA. Zambian maize production in 2009/10 is likely to drop from the 1,9 million tonnes produced in the previous crop season if acute shortages of fuel persist, Zambia National Union of Farmers president Javis Zimba said yesterday.

Zimba said the union was very worried about the shortages, caused by the shutdown of Zambia’s sole refinery two weeks ago while Energy Minister Kenneth Konga said the 24 000-barrels-per-day Indeni refinery would resume production on Friday.

Zimba said farming inputs such as seeds had not reached some parts of southern Zambia because transporters had no diesel and the delay could cause late planting and poor yields.

"Unless the government sorts out this problem of fuel as quickly as possible, maize production will drop.

"The rain is just about to start and we are very worried that some farmers have not received the inputs," Zimba said.

Konga said the government had removed a 25 percent import duty on fuel and asked local oil marketing companies and the Independent Petroleum Group of Kuwait to import a total of 50 million litres of diesel and 30 million litres of petrol.

Konga said that the government had also hired Kenya’s Dalbit Petroleum to import another 25 million litres of diesel and 15 million litres of diesel while Indeni was shut.

Zambia has managed to turn its maize production around over the past three farming seasons, becoming a net exporter of maize on the back of good rains and a government policy to provide subsidised fertilizer and seed to small-scale farmers.
— Reuters.