Desperate Zimbabweans use cell phone transfers to get cash – The Zimbabwean

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In this photo taken Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019, vendors are seen on their mobile phones while selling cash in Harare, Zimbabwe. With inflation soaring and cash in short supply, many Zimbabweans transfer funds using their mobile phones and pay a premium to get currency. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

With inflation soaring and cash in short supply, many Zimbabweans transfer funds using their mobile phones and pay a premium to get currency. Marara is one of many cash vendors doing a roaring trade.

People huddle around his wooden stall, one eye on their mobile phone screens and another on a small counter brimming with coins.

“These are my banks nowadays,” said Mishy Tshuma, a customer referring to her mobile phone and the makeshift stall. To get cash, she has to pay Marara on a transfer by her phone and pay a hefty premium.

And in a country where cash is king, she has little choice but to pay the extra amount.

Tshuma said she has to transfer 135 Zimbabwe dollars from her bank through her phone to get $100 Zimbabwe dollars in cash, and that is for coins. For notes, the premium jumps to 40%.

Like many things that are in short supply in Zimbabwe, such as electricity, water and gas, cash is scarce and the country’s economic problems are blamed for rising tensions.

The shortage of currency notes and coins shouldn’t be much of a problem in a country ranked by a World Bank 2018 report as having one of the highest numbers of people in sub-Saharan Africa using cell phone transfers, what is called mobile money. More than 80% of all transactions in the country are conducted through mobile money, according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country’s central bank.

The World Bank says increased use of mobile money is a welcome sign of a greater proportion of the population engaged in the banking sector. Yet, in Zimbabwe it is more a matter of the difficulty and the cost for ordinary folk of getting ready access to cash.

Many retailers and service providers demand payments in cash only. Others, including street vendors, charge a higher price for goods paid for using mobile money or bank cards. Those able to pay in cash get sizeable discounts of up to 50%.

With many factories closed or operating only for a few hours due to widespread power cuts that last up to 19 hours a day, Zimbabwe imports most of its goods. Businesses need cash to buy foreign currency from the illegal black market to restock, said Harare-based economist John Robertson.

Many Zimbabweans travel by bus or freight trucks to neighboring South Africa to buy essential items such as cooking oil, rice, toilet paper and toothpaste and they need cash to buy South African rand on the black market.

“Cash will continue to have a much higher value than money sitting in the bank,” said Robertson.

The frantic hunt for cash often turns into begging. At the long lines to buy gasoline or diesel and in supermarkets, women, men and children move from person to person asking for cash. “Can I use my phone to pay for your goods, if you pay me cash?” they plead.

Enterprising people are cashing in on the shortage to sell cash at a premium to desperate people.

Some people still wait in long lines outside their banks in the faint hope of being allowed to withdraw a bit of cash. But many have long given up because banks are usually unable to dispense cash, even to their own account holders.

Cash vendors become their only option, despite the steep fees that they charge.

“Paying extra to cash out is allowing someone to steal your money. Say no to 30% or 40% extra,” says an advertisement by Econet, a telecommunication firm that handles the bulk of the country’s mobile money transactions.

Cash vendors said they are recording booming business in spite of such warnings by telecoms firms and the police.

“It’s not easy getting this cash. I also fork out money to get it so my customers have to pay more if I am to make any profit,” said Marara, between serving a stream of clients at a busy market. He said he can sell up to 2,000 Zimbabwe dollars (about U.S $200) for a 40% profit on a good day. He buys the cash from public transport taxis operators, fruit vendors and supermarkets.

“They charge me (premiums of) between 15% and 20%,” said Marara.

The cash shortages are just one of many problems facing the once-prosperous country, where inflation peaked at a decade high of 175% last month before the finance minister suspended the country’s inflation reports.

The continuing price increases of gas, school fees, food items and government services mean Zimbabwe “will still have a high rate of inflation” even if it is not announced officially, said economist Robertson.

“It is puzzling that the finance minister can suspend publication of inflation statistics, is it adult viewing?” joked Robertson. “I reckon inflation was way above 200% in July and it’s on its way to 300%,” he said.

For many, such as Harare resident Tshuma, who lose a large part of their wages to cash vendors, they are learning to do with less.

“These (cash) vendors are killing us,” she said. “After paying for the cash we can’t buy what we need because we can’t afford it.”

Zimbabwe’s hope is devoured by the Crocodile – The Zimbabwean

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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/zimbabwes-hope-is-devoured-by-the-crocodile-329b2sp7w

A friend of mine went to the supermarket near her home in Harare at the weekend and bought six cartons of milk, a bunch of bananas and bones for her dog. Then she braced herself for the six-hour queue at the petrol pumps and went to fill up the family saloon. By the time she arrived home, this simple excursion had cost her close to the typical monthly salary of a mid-level civil servant in Zimbabwe. “And you know what,” she added. “I’m so embarrassed since I know most of the cashiers can’t afford to shop at their store.”

Once again, this beautiful but blighted nation is in crisis. One doctor told me there were no drugs in her hospital. There is no water most of the time, the electricity cuts off 18 hours a day and many families are going hungry. A western businessman, fighting to keep his company afloat when there is no power to run his plant, no fuel to transport goods and no cash to pay staff, said one in 12 of his employees had fled the country in recent weeks. “Good luck to them,” he said ruefully. “This is the worst it has been here for more than a decade.”

How quickly that burst of optimism after the overthrow of Robert Mugabe two years ago has turned to despair. When security chiefs engineered a coup, they promised things would change after 37 years of repression, rampant corruption and gross economic ineptitude that led to the second-worst hyperinflation in history. His hands may have been stained in blood as Mugabe’s former enforcer but Emmerson Mnangagwa, the new president, declared Zimbabwe was “open for business” after taking power.

Never mind his nickname, the Crocodile, nor the shooting of citizens when an election result was delayed amid claims of fraud and voter intimidation. Mnangagwa wooed gullible foreign politicians, wore the scarf in national colours adopted by pro-democracy activists, hired public relations people to polish his image and turned up at Davos to hobnob with the global elite.

“I am working toward building a new Zimbabwe: a country with a thriving and open economy, jobs for its youth, opportunities for investors, and democracy and equal rights for all,” he claimed as he pledged reform and promised freedoms.

But while the 95-year-old Mugabe lies sick in a Singaporean hospital, darkness has again descended on the country he helped free from British colonial rule in 1980. Rival factions in the ruling Zanu (PF) party bicker like balding men over a comb, among them allies of “Gucci” Grace, the loathed former first lady once accused of trying to poison the ruthless Mnangagwa with ice cream from her stolen dairy farm. Inflation is rocketing again, estimated to be running at 500 per cent annually, while critics are charged with sedition, activists tortured and demonstrations over a deteriorating economy are met with brutal force by baton-wielding security goons.

One United Nations agency says that within months almost half the 17 million population might struggle to eat a single meal a day in a country once called Africa’s breadbasket. The government blames drought. But the big issue is, yet again, blundering by a despotic regime focused more on plundering wealth than helping its people, symbolised by its dismal efforts to shore up the crashing new Zimdollar currency with foreign currency banned two months ago. “It is not like before when there was no food in the shops,” one Harare resident said. “Now there is plenty of food but no money to buy it. It feels surreal, more uncertain than ever.”

Many Zimbabweans are dismayed by the speed of this latest decline. But despite joyful celebrations over the November 2017 coup that ousted “the old man”, there should be no surprise over the failure to deliver a better future when the same old Zanu (PF) faces are seen in charge of their country.

Britain has joined the European Union and United States in speaking out against the human rights abuses. To our shame, however, few outsiders were more complicit in cheering on the coup and promoting Mnangagwa’s cause than British officials in their desperation to regain influence.

Three years ago our diplomats backed an attempt to bail out Mugabe’s government, to the fury of Washington, with one key player confirming to me their involvement in a misguided effort to impose monetary stability. Opposition figures believe Britain went on to back Mnangagwa actively and assist his cosmetic makeover into a reformer.

After the new president’s first 150 days in office, Boris Johnson as foreign secretary praised Zimbabwe’s “impressive progress”. One local source said a British diplomat apologised this year for their supportive stance after 17 people were killed, 16 raped and 900 arrested during a crackdown on fuel price protests.

Mnangagwa, who is 76, was linked to the worst excesses of the Mugabe era, with a history of crushing dissent despite his sudden pose as a democrat. Yet once again, Britain fell for the arrogant delusion that autocrats are a safer bet than democracy in turbulent places — just as in so many other African and Middle Eastern nations, from Egypt and Saudi Arabia through to Rwanda and Uganda. Now we see the legacy of such stupidity as Zimbabwe disintegrates, its people suffer more distress and the Crocodile devours any lingering hopes of change.

The Surprising Path That Some Kids Take to the Ivy League

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The Surprising Path That Some Kids Take to the Ivy League – The Zimbabwean

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You’ve read a lot over the past year about kids who end up in the Ivy League because of their parents’ wealth and wiles, kids with obscene advantages. I’d like to introduce you to another kind of kid who landed there. Her name is Wadzanayi Mayiseni. She goes by Wadzi.

Before Wadzi, 19, arrived at Columbia University last month for a summer bridge program to prepare for her first year, she’d never been to the United States. She’d never left Africa. She’s from Zimbabwe, one of the poorest countries in the world, where her mother, who raised her without any help from her father, has been out of a steady job since Wadzi was 9.

When Wadzi was 12, she found out she had bone cancer, which meant not just chemotherapy but the amputation of most of her left leg. I asked her how, psychologically and emotionally, that changed her. She said it made her more determined.

“You’re not defined by the things that hold you back,” she told me. “You’re defined by how you rise above them.” She refused to be placed in classes for disabled children and later figured out how to get a scholarship to one of Zimbabwe’s most esteemed private high schools. Then she figured out how to translate that into the best college education possible.

She got help with that last part from the nonprofit United Student Achievers Program, which for two decades has identified disadvantaged high school students of enormous promise in Zimbabwe, coached them through applying to top-notch colleges outside of their country and steered them toward futures they never imagined.

And by “disadvantaged,” I mean students who in some cases grew up herding livestock and in other cases were strangers to computers. I mean orphans: Largely because of the AIDS epidemic, about a third of Zimbabwe’s USAP students have lost both parents. I met one such student, Getrude Makurumidze, last year; by the time she was 9, her mother, father and 6-month-old sister had died from complications related to AIDS. She then bounced among the members of her extended family who could afford at a given moment to keep her. She nonetheless went on to graduate from Bryn Mawr and is now in medical school at Georgetown University.

There are USAP programs in other developing countries. They not only provide students with the guidance necessary to apply to foreign colleges but also help with application fees and financial aid forms. Zimbabwe’s USAP was the model and remains the gold standard. It has sent more than 400 students abroad, mostly to the United States, where the schools they’ve attended include Stanford, Harvard, Yale, M.I.T., the University of Chicago, Duke, Pomona — you name it. Many went on to earn Ph.D.s. Many became physicians. Six won Rhodes scholarships.

CreditJoshua Bright for The New York Times

That’s worth dwelling on for several reasons, starting with this one: Zimbabwe is the sort of place that President Trump had in mind when he used a fecal epithet for poor, black and (to his thinking) worthless countries, but there is obviously great potential there, needing only to be recognized and nurtured. Countries don’t fall neatly into categories: good versus bad sources of immigrants. Reality is more complicated. Talent is universal.

For example, in another desperate part of Africa, Somaliland, there’s a remarkable school, Abaarso, that Jonathan Starr, an American philanthropist, opened in 2009. It educates children in grades 7 through 12. Its alumni have been admitted to and received financial aid from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, M.I.T., Swarthmore.

Those institutions’ receptiveness is another reason I’m writing this. Yes, America’s richest colleges stay that way by giving special consideration to families with the means to make big donations. But they simultaneously use some of their wealth, if not quite enough, to educate students who cannot contribute a dime to their tuition.

Zimbabwe’s USAP is also the story of the difference that one person can make. It’s run by and was the brainchild of Rebecca Zeigler Mano, an American who married a Zimbabwean, moved to Zimbabwe and couldn’t just shrug off the country’s misery.

“There’s a big gap — a big chasm — between the talent that we have in Zimbabwe and the opportunities,” she said on the first of two occasions over the last 13 months when I spoke with her in New York. She returns frequently to America, in part to raise funds.

Her program has become so well known and widely respected in Zimbabwe that every year she gets 700 to 800 applications for about 35 spots. “I like to tell Harvard that we are more competitive than they are,” she said. Many of the applicants are from remote rural areas; she tirelessly crisscrosses the country to interview them.

She also builds networks in the United States for the students who come here, so that they have places to go on school breaks — they can’t afford to fly home — and so that there are people to help with things like sheets and blankets. At the start she didn’t factor in their entire array of needs and got reports that USAP students were sleeping on bare dormitory-room beds.

“She’s one of my life heroes,” said Bruce Wharton, who was the public-affairs officer in the American Embassy in Zimbabwe when USAP began. “I don’t know anybody who has done so much on an individual, personal level to make our world better.”

Rebecca Mano, founder of USAP, said over 700 students apply for about 35 spots in her program.

CreditJoshua Bright for The New York Times

Her ambitions are expanding: She plans to open a USAP boarding school in Zimbabwe next year. Money permitting, it will give up to 50 Zimbabwean students their 11th- and 12th-grade educations, so that they’re in the best shape possible to thrive when they go to college abroad.

She told me that she also hoped that the school would give the kids a deeper investment in Zimbabwe. In her ideal scenario, they bring the knowledge that they’ve acquired in college back to a country with a shortage of leaders, of innovators, of hope.

Wadzi said that she could envision getting a medical degree in the United States, becoming a pediatric oncologist and then returning home to help children who confront medical scares like the one that she survived.

I asked her about her impressions of America so far. She mentioned a trip to see, up close, a world-famous landmark that was familiar from so many pictures: the Statue of Liberty.

“It was right in front of me,” she said. “I was awe-struck.”

Education doesn’t just help the individual, said Wadzi. “It helps a whole generation, it helps a whole family, it helps a whole society.”

CreditDamon Winter/The New York Times

“You know the crown represents seven continents?” she added, referring to the spikes that radiate from it. She was transfixed by the fact that an icon so central to one country would allude to all the others; by the generosity of that symbolism; by its inclusiveness. “I remember really smiling,” she told me, “because I felt a part of that.”

She said that the tablet that Lady Liberty holds brought to mind studying, learning, growing. That, too, made her smile. “I’m here for an education,” she said. “And there’s a statue embodying what I’ve come for.”

Freedom House Urges Zimbabwe Must Halt Violent Crackdown on Dissent – The Zimbabwean

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WASHINGTON — President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government has been urged to stop the current crackdown on people intending to stage public protests over the deteriorating economic situation in the southern African nation.In a statement, Freedom House said Mnangagwa’s government, which promised to usher in a democratic state following the ouster of former President Robert Mugabe in a military intervention in 2017 and subsequent presidential elections in 2018, is violating citizens’ rights and freedoms.

“The government of Zimbabwe must end its violent crackdown on dissent in the country and immediately investigate reports of beatings and torture by state security agents,” said Jon Temin, director of Africa programs at Freedom House.

Temin said, “These attacks violate Zimbabweans’ rights to free assembly, association, and expression, and have continued despite repeated promises by President Emmerson Mnangagwa that his government would usher in a new dispensation that respects fundamental rights. If Zimbabwe truly wants to break with its abusive past, those found responsible for these heinous acts should be held to account.”

Freedom House is an independent watchdog organization that supports democratic change, monitors the status of freedom around the world, and advocates for democracy and human rights.

The attacks come in the wake of protests organized by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change that were expected to be staged in Harare, on August 16, and later in other parts of the country. Suspected security agents reportedly abducted, beat, and tortured activists, civil society leaders, and members of the opposition in the days leading up to the planned protests.

Police subsequently prohibited the demonstrations, but hundreds of Zimbabweans congregated in defiance of the ban on August 16. Police violently dispersed the protesters using whips, batons, and tear gas. Arrests of civil society leaders and human rights defenders have continued since then.

Several countries have expressed concern over human rights violations in Zimbabwe being allegedly perpetrated by Mnangagwa’s government.

In a joint statement recently, the heads of mission of the European Union, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States of America said the government should respect the Zimbabwe Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, movement and assembly and the right for people to protest peacefully.

“Intimidation, harassment and physical attacks on human rights defenders, trade union and civil society representatives and opposition politicians-prior to, during and following the demonstrations in Harare on 16 August – are cause for great concern. The Zimbabwean constitution guarantees the right to personal security from violence and prohibits physical or psychological torture. The heads of Missions urge the authorities to respect these fundamental rights and to hold perpetrators of violence legally responsible.”

They urged President Mnangagwa’s government to respect the constitutional rights to freedom of assembly, association and expressions as well as to peaceful protest.

Quick Guide to Zimbabwe: Visa-free travel for South Africans – The Zimbabwean

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Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has taken the decision that foreign currencies are no longer acceptable as legal tender in the Southern African country.

Fin24 reports Ncube states the Zimbabwe dollar is now the only acceptable medium of exchange for local transactions.

However, the decision should not concern tourists to Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) has issued a statement saying the necessary measures are in place to ensure that travellers are not inconvenienced in any way by the ban on forex.

A Tourism Update report states travellers should be mindful of false social media reports and that “police are not authorised to stop and search people for foreign currency”.

These are the payments methods still applicable in Zimbabwe, according to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority:

  • Credit cards are readily acceptable everywhere in Zimbabwe, where the relevant arrangements have been made with international credit card companies such as VISA, MasterCard and others issued by different banks in the countries of origin of the travellers.
  • Service providers do have international credit card-enabled point-of-sale (POS) machines.Visitors may also withdraw local cash from international credit card-enabled Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) of the different banks.
  • These will be clearly marked as international and will have the logos of the accepted credit card companies.
  • Foreign cash may be exchanged at the bank, bureau-de-change or at any other authorised foreign currency dealers at the prevailing bank rates.
  • Visitors are however encouraged to use plastic money and only exchange amounts of money in cash that they anticipate using.
  • However, visitors may convert their money back to their foreign currency subject to prevailing terms and conditions.
  • Online payments and telegraphic transfers remain acceptable forms of payment in Zimbabwe.Visa fees, where applicable, are payable in foreign currency and may be paid in cash at any port of entry.
  • The Government of Zimbabwe has an e-visa system and intending travellers may apply and pay for their visas online.
  • Tipping is not a commercial transaction and hence visitors are at liberty to tip as they wish. It becomes incumbent upon the recipient to ensure adherence to the foreign exchange regulations.

Planning a trip to Zimbabwe: 

Zimbabwe, our neighbour which recently gained a new hope in the form of political change – proves to be a country with so much to offer its own people, as well as South Africans.

Rich in wildlife and nature experiences, bursting with African pride and welcoming of all people, Zimbabwe offers more than just a safari getaway – it offers a slice of an authentic African experience.

From shopping at local markets and sleeping in the wild, to exploring a Natural Wonder of the World and being fully immersed in local cultural activities, there’s so much to do in this small region of Zimbabwe.

To help you delve into the natural and cultural beauty of Zimbabwe, here’s what you need to know when planning your trip.

Visa requirements: No. Zimbabwe is visa-free for South Africans with a valid passport for a stay up to 90 days.

Medical requirements: It’s highly advised to take anti-malaria tablets and carry mosquito repellents. Vaccines for typhoid, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, cholera, yellow fever, rabies, and influenza are recommended.

National Carrier: Air Zimbabwe.

Airport Hub: Harare International Airport.

Flight Route: Fly direct from Johannesburg or Cape Town, with a number of airlines, to Victoria Falls or Harare.

Currency: Zim$25  = R1

Travel adapter: Type D and G.

Time Zone: Same time zone as SA (GMT+2)

Public Transport: South Africans usually drive across the borders, but if you fly instead, then you can rent a car, travel via bus or catch a ride with the National Railways of Zimbabwe. There are two types of buses – express services that run according to a set timetable and local buses that have no schedule and generally wait until it’s full to leave. There are also metered taxi companies that provide transport in major cities. Transport can also be arranged with the hotel where you are staying, or a tour company such as Wild Horizons, to drop and pick you up from your desired destinations.

Climate: Varies by altitude. There is a dry season, including a short cool season during May to October when the whole country has very little rain. The rainy season is typically a time of heavy rainfall from November to March.

Best time to visit: The dry May to October winter season is generally the best time to visit Zimbabwe for game-viewing in mild temperatures and to experience little to no rainfall and a lower malaria risk.

However travel operator Wild Horizons says that “From August onwards, the months of summer provide the perfect opportunity to experience white-water rafting, river boarding and canoe trips up the Zambezi River. Bird life during this time is at its most spectacular, with a huge variety of migrant birds returning south to spend the summer months in and around the Zambezi River. Photography will also be excellent during this time of the year as much of the surrounding wilderness will be in.”

Languages: Zimbabwe has 16 official languages – Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, sign language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda, and Xhosa.

Useful Phrases: English is widely spoken and most people living in major cities are multi-lingual. However, it’s vital to get schooled on some of the main phrases and words in Shona – one of the major languages spoken in Zimbabwe – to ease communication when you’re travelling the country. Here are some key words:

  • Hello – Mhoro (one person), Mhoroi (many people)
  • How are you? – Wakadini zvako? (one person), Makadini zvenyu? (many people
  • Goodbye – Sara Zvakanaka (one person), Sariayi Zvakanaka (many people
  • Excuse me – Pamusoro (one person), Pamusoroyi (many people)
  • How much is this? – Chinoita marii?
  • Sorry – Ndineurombo
  • Thank you – Waita zvako (one person), Maita zvenyu (many people)
  • I don’t understand – Handisi kunyaso nzwisisa

Food to try: Mopani worms and a variety of game meat, including wartog and kudu, as well as crocodile are must try delicacies of Zimbabwe. Tradition foods that you must taste are: Sadza – stiff maize meal served with meat, sauce, gravy, sour milk, or stewed vegetables; Bota – porridge flavoured with peanut butter, milk, butter or jam; Dovi – peanut butter stew with meat or vegetables; Nhedzi – wild mushroom soup; and Mapopo candy – Papaya cooked in and dusted with sugar. Also try Whawha, a traditional maize beer.

Travel tips

What to pack:

  • Your passport, arrival and return tickets, adequate money.
  • A camera, notebook/ tablet or smartphone, power-bank to stay charged on the go.
  • Comfortable, lightweight, and casual clothes.
  • Comfortable sandals, sneakers and strong shoes if you decide to go on hikes.
  • A hat, sunscreen, sunglasses.
  • An umbrella/ rain coat during the rainy season.
  • A warm jacket for evening game drives.
  • Hand sanitiser, tissues, wet wipes, insect repellent – sprays and lotions, prescription medication.
  • Binoculars for safaris/sightseeing, waterproof bag to store personal belongings when on boat cruises/ water activities.

Tips while exploring:

  • Learn the common phrases in the local language and about local culture, and respect cultural norms.
  • Take anti-malaria tablets while visiting Zimbabwe which is in a high malaria zone. Be sure to inquire from a travel clinic in your home country well in advance before your trip.
  • Organise airport transfers before you depart.
  • Don’t take photos at border crossings or of government buildings. Have a positive attitude with authorities.
  • Drink bottled water.
  • Take note of your safety briefing at game drives and tours.
  • Always listen to your guide.
  • If you feel unwell while you travel, tell your guide or accommodation hosts.
Zim’s Econet puts media unit up for sale after closure announced

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Zim’s Econet puts media unit up for sale after closure announced – The Zimbabwean

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Ernst & Young said in a newspaper advertisement on Friday that it will oversee offers for all or part of the company’s shareholdings in businesses in Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mauritius, Ghana, Kenya and Dubai.

Econet Media, which operates under the brands Econet Media and Kwese, runs businesses that offer satellite broadcasting, free-to-air television and digital distribution of media content.

Quick Guide to Zimbabwe: Visa-free travel for South Africans
Botswana looks to Zimbabwe for horti goods

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Zimbabwe police arrest 10 union officials as clampdown deepens – The Zimbabwean

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The authorities have been cracking down on dissent in the country and preventing opposition-led demonstrations.

Police earlier in the day arrested 10 union officials as they tried to lobby the finance minister over low pay for teachers, witnesses said.

They bundled officials from the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe into a truck outside the finance ministry. They also arrested the group’s lawyer, Douglas Coltart, and a journalist with online news outlet newzimbabwe.com who was filming the arrest, the witnesses said.

The journalist was later released without charge.

The union had been trying to present a petition to finance minister Mthuli Ncube over teachers’ salaries, which average around 500 Zimbabwe dollars ($50) a month.

Police spokesman Paul Nyathi could not immediately comment.

The umbrella group for unions, known as the APEX Council, said the government’s new, higher pay offer would mean the lowest paid civil servants earned 1,023 Zimbabwe dollars per month compared with their demand of 4,750 dollars.

It said that it would consult its members and that talks with the government would resume on Tuesday.

The economy is mired in its worst crisis in a decade, and security forces have in the past week snuffed out five attempts by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) to hold street demonstrations, dashing hopes that the government might live up to promises of becoming more tolerant of dissent than the one it replaced.

The party’s national organizing secretary Amos Chibaya on Friday appeared before Harare magistrates charged with failing to stop a demonstration the MDC tried to hold in the capital a week ago. He denies the charge.

The protest was planned as the launch event for a nationwide protest movement against the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mnangagwa was elected a year ago on a promise of breaking with the strong-arm tactics that characterized Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule, and engineering an economic upturn.

The MDC accuses Mnangagwa of political repression and blames his government for mismanaging the economy, triggering triple-digit inflation and widespread shortages of fuel, power and bread.

It said in a statement Chibaya’s detention “is testimony that the regime is undertaking a brutal program of persecution by prosecution” of MDC members.

If convicted he faces a one-year jail term or a fine.

State prosecutors opposed his application for bail, saying he would likely commit the same crime. The magistrate said she would make a bail ruling on Monday, which means Chibaya will spent the weekend in detention.

Chibaya is also facing trial on subversion charges linked to violent protests in January that prompted an army crackdown that led to the deaths of more than a dozen people.

Residents say police have increased patrols in Zimbabwe’s cities, where the MDC enjoys more support, since last week.

Botswana looks to Zimbabwe for horti goods
Violence in Zimbabwe Is Escalating

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Violence in Zimbabwe Is Escalating – The Zimbabwean

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Imagine coming home and finding your entire house ransacked, your valuables stolen and your children tied to poles, their backs bleeding from being whipped with a sjambok. The sight rips your soul out and makes you want to find whoever did this to your loved ones and ensure they face justice.

You go and report the matter to the police and the greatest horror greets you. The ones manning the police station are putting on your stolen clothes and sipping tea out of your prized china. Rage fills you as you realize that it was they who violated you and your loved ones. Immediately you launch into a demand for your property, you call out their injustice and demand compensation. Then it happens without warning or shame. The whip cuts across your face and as you cover it in pain, the black boot of the senior cop smashes into your gut. You fall to the ground helpless, unable to scream out in pain or for help. The reality is that you have been robbed by those charged with protecting you — and now they will rob you of your voice too.

It’s August 2019, and there is no doubt about the unbearable magnitude of the economic hardships that ordinary Zimbabweans are facing: no electricity for 19 hours a day, crippling fuel shortages, the rising cost of living and runaway inflation. Basic commodity goods and services such as bread, water and public transport are no longer affordable to ordinary people. These endless struggles put even more pressure on Zimbabweans whose money was lifted directly from their bank accounts by the authorities and replaced with electronic money, which has now lost most of its value.

The attempt to protest against these painful hardships by ordinary people, who have suffered from years of political and economic misrule, has invited yet another season of police brutality. There are countless beatings of civilians, mass arbitrary detentions and more human rights violations.

The main opposition MDC Alliance recently called on all Zimbabweans to march peacefully and petition the government on the deteriorating economic situation. The first of those marches, slated for Aug. 16, was banned by the police — in clear violation of our constitution which guarantees us the right to protest peacefully and petition our government for whatever grievances we might have.

Despite the ban, Zimbabweans decided to exercise their constitutional right regardless – and were met with a display of disproportionate and excessive force by the police. The internet and newswires were awash with pictures and videos of citizens sitting on the ground being bludgeoned with batons and whipped by police officers. Women and the elderly were hit with blows to every part of the body from riot police.

Days before these scenes of brutality, civic society leaders were abducted, interrogated and tortured. Dumped and left for dead, the oozing welts all over their bodies, chemical burns and broken legs told a story of a ruthless regime determined to silence any criticism. This week, one of our best-known comedians, Samantha Kureya, went into hiding after being abducted from her home, beaten, stripped and made to drink sewage.

We have called for peaceful protests in the so-called “new dispensation” of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration, and without fail they have all ended up in bloodshed, brutalized bodies, mass incarcerations and threats of death. There is no political will whatsoever in this government to allow Zimbabweans to exercise their basic freedoms, such as freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. Every avenue of protest has effectively been criminalised and once again just as Robert Mugabe did, there is an attempt to abduct, torture and criminalize dissenters.

This is why we march, organize boycotts and speak out continually for the right to protest injustice. We must never give that up for that would be to give up everything.

It is hard to describe the kind of soulless brutality that has and continues to take place in Zimbabwe. But the more powerful scene playing out in all of this, is that in the face of guns, baton sticks and tear gas, people still came out to march. Old, young. Men, women.

Besides the fact that those people were beaten, the undeniable truth is that they were not afraid to show that our hope is stronger than the authorities’ hate. They stood their ground and refused to let it ever be said that we did nothing. Some people, the fearful or the privileged, who have the luxury to tweet and sit out protests, want to claim that it is a waste of time.

What they don’t understand is that hope is not passive or apathetic. Instead it’s like a wave, though it subsides for a moment, it rises again and again. And with hope, we shall reclaim our freedoms one day.

Zimbabwe comedian is latest in torture of government critics – The Zimbabwean

Posted on by TSA Press

Comedian Samantha Kureya lays in her hospital bed in Harare, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019. Kureya was abducted from her home, stripped naked and tortured by masked men with assault rifles, for performing skits perceived as being anti-government, the latest in a string of alleged abductions of government critics. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Barely two years after euphoric scenes engulfed Zimbabwe following the forced resignation of former repressive ruler Robert Mugabe, frustration and fear have returned.

Comedian Samantha Kureya was this week dragged from her bed, stripped naked and tortured by masked men with assault rifles for skits perceived as anti-government. She spoke to The Associated Press from her hospital bed.

“I am living in fear,” she said, complaining of “severe pain” in her legs and on her back.

Kureya said the men claiming to be police officers dragged her from bed half naked and bundled her into a waiting car on Wednesday night. They beat her using short whips, forced her to roll in a stream of sewage and drink from it, she said.

“I was wearing my underwear and a T-shirt when they took me, they didn’t even give me a chance to dress properly,” she said. Her abductors forced her to strip naked during the torture and warned her against mocking the government before abandoning her to seek clothing and help from strangers, said Kureya.

She had received threats on social media before the abduction, she said. Her latest skit mocked security agents for beating up demonstrators that included elderly women.

Political tensions are rising in Zimbabwe as the economy deteriorates with inflation at over 175% and growing dissatisfaction with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over from Mugabe less than two years ago with promises of a “new dawn” and a “flowering of democracy.”

Human rights groups say at least six activists were abducted and tortured by suspected security agents ahead of an opposition demonstration last week. Police later used violence to disperse demonstrators in Harare on August 16.

On Friday, police broke up a protest by a group of teachers and arrested nine people, including a lawyer for the teachers and a journalist filming the arrests, according to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, an NGO providing them with lawyers. They are yet to be charged, said the organization.

One of the activists abducted and tortured ahead of last week’s demonstration, Tatenda Mombeyarara had visible wounds on his legs, hands, buttocks and back. His kidneys were damaged and doctors put metal plates and pins on his fractured left leg and hand, he said, showing AP a scan while lying on a hospital bed. He said he was beaten with sjamboks (short whips), gun butts and a wheel spanner and also submerged in a pool of dirty water at a quarry dumpsite.

“They told me ‘you think you are a hero, all that will end today. You are going to die and your American sponsors will not save you’,” said Mombeyarara, who has been in hospital for the past nine days. “I am still traumatized. The pain was unbearable. I thought I was going to die.”

An opposition member of parliament said unknown people fired shots at his house Wednesday night, while a top official was arrested Thursday and accused of failing to stop supporters from demonstrating against the government. Since January, more than 20 activists have been charged with plotting to unseat Mnangagwa.

Police spokesman Paul Nyathi said the recent abductions and attacks “are being investigated” but denied that security agents were involved.

“We cannot blame security agents (for the abduction) because investigations are still underway,” he said.

Government spokesman Nick Mangwana blamed the attacks on “a force” he associated with Mugabe “to impair President Mnangagwa’s image as a sincere reformer.”

The U.S embassy in Zimbabwe and the European Union Delegation to Zimbabwe said in a joint statement earlier this week that reports of worsening human rights abuses were of “great concern.”

Kureya, the comedian, said she would continue poking fun at the government despite her abductors threatening to “put a bullet” in her mother’s head if she continues with her work.

“That is how I survive,” she said. “I don’t have any other job, plus we all can’t just keep quiet when things are as bad as they are in this country.”