WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2001-08-28 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 8/28/2001 5:29:08 AM
Zimbabwe on the edge – From farms to firms
10/06/2001 – Carte Blanche Ruda Landman
Malcolm Boyland, managing director of The Avenues Clinic, Harare, reached his
breaking point when the hospital was invaded last month.
About 20 war veterans, together with ex-employees, came unannounced to this
hospital and surged into this room I was absolutely terrified. It was one
of the worst moments of my life, remembers Malcolm.
The threat of invasion by so-called war veterans has held the Zimbabwean
business community in the grip of fear for the last six weeks. Countless
people have been threatened, many beaten and millions of dollars extorted
from company coffers.
A settlement had been reached between the hospital and the ex-employees just
two weeks prior to the invasion. That out-of-court settlement was based on
recent Supreme Court precedents, says Malcolm.
Despite the legality of their position, the hospital was in a cleft stick:
Im not running a factory that makes shoes. I cant close. Factories have
closed. Businesses have closed. But this is the main independent hospital in
the country. We cannot walk away.
The hospital agreed to settle, and it cost them Z$6-million. But that was not
the end of it: I was telephoned and the message was very clear: (152)We are
going to come and kill you, you white bastard.
The war veterans say theyve been misrepresented by the media, and the top
echelon of the association agreed to meet with us to put the record straight:
Richard Chirongwe, National Secretary General Endy Mhlangu, Douglas Mahiya
and Samuel Mhlanga.
Everyone has his own theory about what is behind the business invasions. Fact
is that the labour ministrys system of dealing with disputes is totally
overloaded. It takes as much as three years to resolve any given case – a
situation the ruling party took full advantage of, says publisher of The
Independent newspaper, Trevor Ncube.
These guys are not fools, Zanu-PF. They have obviously been here for a long
time; they know the structures. They knew that the complaints were with the
Minister of Labour, that theres been a backlog there with the labour courts,
labour tribunals so they went in there and they retrieved those complaints,
and they systematically targeted all the companies that had pending
complaints, explains Trevor.
The strategy, he says, was to undermine the ZCTU – or Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions – which gave birth to the opposition MDC, the party which made a
clean sweep of urban seats in the elections last year.
The intention there was to portray Zanu-PF as caring for the workers, to
portray Zanu-PF as much more sensitive to the workers needs than the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions. And the war veterans – or so-called war veterans –
were now coming in to salvage the situation, says Trevor.
War veteran Samuel Mhlanga says their battle is about the economy: The
people who are fighting against us are the people who own industry, the
captains of industry. They are the people who were fighting us in the bush.
Today we are fighting the same people, but this time its economical.
Theres anger here on the streets – but at the same time Carte Blanche didnt
find much support for the war veterans either.
In the case of one Zimbabwean company, management and workers presented a
united front. Management refused to pay when the war veterans arrived, and
finally the workers protected the premises against them.
Managing Director Marco Gurrizio explains further: That was the day workers
decided to stand up and defend management. We took a back seat. Everybody –
all 130 workers – downed tools and came into the forecourt of the factory and
confronted them head on.
But for Marco it was a hollow victory: I think the biggest problem that we
have in Zimbabwe now is a lack of confidence. Everybody is totally, totally
demoralised. Nobody is investing in anything. Nobody is expanding. It is
really a horrible place to do business at the moment.
Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Simba Makoni, is keen to dispel
this perception.
I think there is a lot of exaggeration about the situation in my country.
There is also a lot of misinterpretation of the events in my country. I
accept, and so do many Zimbabweans – including all of us in the national
leadership – that we have problems, that we need to solve those problems. But
we feel somewhat grossly misunderstood, misrepresented and deliberately
rubbished, really. Zimbabwe has problems, we would admit. But Zimbabwes
problems are solvable Zimbabweans will solve their problems – with a little
help from their friends, says Simba.
Within a month, more than 100 companies were invaded. At the end of May the
government stepped in and declared all invasions illegal. Since then, 36
people have been arrested and charged with extortion.
Associate professor of development studies at Harare university, Brian
Raftopoulos, says that Zanu-PF is facing a crisis: In many ways, the ruling
party has very little else in its strategic arsenal to deploy for the
elections. The fast-track land programme is facing real problems because of a
lack of resources; the factory invasions have backfired; Zanu-PF has lost
three or four of its leading cadres either through death or resignation;
there are divisions within the ruling party and within the state that are
emerging.
Brian is concerned that Zanu-PF will be tempted to hang on to power at all
costs: The real danger, as I see it, is that because the president and his
party have so little else to offer Zimbabweans, they are likely to be capable
of doing anything to stay in power. It will be a crisis – not only for
Zimbabwe, but for the region as a whole. I think it means that the South
African government needs to take some pre-emptive steps in its discussions
with the president. I think the softly-softly strategy has not worked up till
now.
Trevor agrees: President Thabo Mbekis handling of the situation has been a
tremendous disappointment Some of us had patched in to Thabo Mbekis
renaissance – the re-growth and the regeneration of the African continent.
Why had we patched into that dream? We believe that renaissance is about
democracy, its about observance of human rights, its about a growing
economy. Those are the three things that Mugabe is trashing in this country.
Of concern to Brian Raftopoulos is what he calls the old boys club of the
SADC: Its a club, I think, which at the moment is trying to get a sense of
the future of liberation movements over the next 10 to 20 years. I think also
that people like President Thabo Mbeki, in terms of his relationship with
Mugabe, are holding a tiger by the tail. I think that this is a very
precarious policy that they are holding onto, because within Zimbabwe at
national level, the critique of the Zimbabwean regime is intensifying on a
daily basis. I think thats something the South African government – if it
cares about internal accountability – has to take account of.
Trevor thinks the ruling partys days are numbered: Zanu-PF is forcing
Zimbabweans to be violent in defending themselves, in protecting themselves.
For how long can you beat up people to support you? For how long can you
suppress people? I think theres a limit to that, no matter how much arsenal
youve got. No matter how powerful you are, there comes a time when people
say, (152)Enough is enough.