Zimbabwe - Third Chimurenga journalism - Has Made been flying again? - Bribery or dialogue

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And now to the Notebook . . . Third Chimurenga journalism

2/6/03 1:19:00 AM (GMT +2)

World Food Programme (WFP) director James Morris is one guy we are certain now knows what we mean when we talk of Third Chimurenga journalism.

Morris, you will remember, was up in arms two weeks ago about a story in which the Herald alleged he had accepted the inevitability of the chaos on Zimbabwe’s farms, also known as the fast-track land reforms.

After writing to the Herald’s editor, Pikirayi Deketeke, complaining that the state mouthpiece had misrepresented him in the story, Morris got the shock of his life when Deketeke and company edited the very letter of complaint itself to the extent that it now conveys a different meaning altogether.

Morris had to dash off another letter to Herald House which reads: "Thank you for publishing my letter to the editor in the January 28 edition of the Herald, which was sent to correct a misrepresentation of my meetings with government.

"However, I note with concern the deletion by your paper of two key words in my original letter. This edit changes its meaning, so I am obligated to request that you publish this note and my letter of 25 January in its entirety.

"Specifically, I particularly stressed the importance of reaching former commercial farm workers, as well as vulnerable populations in resettlement lands, and those living in urban areas.

"The letter that appeared in the January 28 edition omitted the words commercial farm workers. Instead it refers to former workers. I am concerned with the plight of former commercial farm workers and do not want my statements on this matter distorted by the Herald."

Where are you Comrade Mahoso?

Has Made been flying again?

After a 24-hour visit to Zimbabwe last week, South African Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza told journalists in her country that Zimbabwean government officials had admitted making a mistake by taking too much land from the country’s large-scale producing white farmers.

A fact the South Africans have chosen to ignore in the past because of their "hear no evil, see no evil" quiet diplomacy.

But the reports of the Harare authorities’ admission was not what caught Mukanya’s eye. What was most startling was the suggestion that Zimbabwean officials had told Didiza that the country was expecting a maize crop of 1.1 MILLION TONNES.

Are we to assume Made has been flying again?

This is the same guy who last year circled the country in an army chopper and by the time he touched down was convinced Zimbabwe would have a bumper harvest.

After that, Made was deaf to the results of proper food supply surveys carried out by the WFP and other professional groups. As a result, the government was not quite prepared for the reality of maize meal shortages.

Where will more than a million tonnes of maize come from given how erratic the rainy season has been so far and the fact that the so-called new A2 commercial farmers, by Made’s own admission, have not taken up all the land given to them to produce food?

Our suggestion is that Made should be banned from flying in the interests of Zimbabwe’s food security.

Bribery or dialogue

So all this talk about renewed dialogue between the government and white commercial farmers is nothing but cheap bribery and political skullduggery.

It seems the government is desperate to bring the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU)’s leaders back to the negotiating table and hoodwink the Commonwealth troika, the EU and everyone else in the progressive world into thinking that it has finally seen sense.

So desperate in fact that the Ministry of Agriculture is now willing to withdraw the charges preferred against the very same white farmers that only last year it was calling the worst criminals under the sun.

In a letter signed by the acting director of the civil division at the Attorney-General’s office, Loice Matanda-Moyo, and marked to the attention of chief law officer Steven Musona, the lengths to which the government will go are made patently clear.

Part of the letter reads: "We refer to the above matter wherein we have been instructed by our client the Minister of Lands to instruct you to withdraw criminal charges against the above accused.

"The accused are currently engaged in dialogue with the government and it is not in the interest of our client to pursue the criminal charges at this stage."

There you are CFU, go ahead and make an agreement with these sharks and as they have done many times in the past, they will wriggle out of it and resurrect those same charges against you once they think it no longer serves their interest to let you off the hook.

A Benz for Midzi please!

So Amos Midzi hasn’t had the ritual ministerial Mercedes Benz allocated to him yet. The unlucky fellow can be seen driving around Harare in a Nissan hardbody truck just like any other not-so-successful indigenous business guy.

The truck, however, is rumoured to belong to the very cash-strapped Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), which we hope would not be putting it to better use.

Asked why he was using the ZESA truck, the Minister of Energy could only say he had not been allocated a car yet and was using what was available.

Mukanya hopes that this absence of a ministerial Benz at Midzi’s car park, instead of the easily blamed forex shortages, is not the major reason behind the worsening of Zimbabwe’s fuel crisis since the man took over fuel procurement. The fellow could just simply be de-motivated.

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