News Africa Extended

News Africa Extended

HIV+ Ugandan women forcibly sterilised

Posted: 07 Sep 2016 12:24 PM PDT

A study has backed up claims by HIV-positive Ugandan women who say they were forcibly sterilised in government hospitals.

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Kampala - Ida, 29, was six months pregnant when she suddenly felt abdominal pains and went to a government hospital in Kampala.

Like all pregnant women in Uganda, she was tested for HIV as part of routine screening for the virus. She lost her baby and was then given the news that she was HIV-positive.

“I was in a lot of pain and the situation was bad. They told me they were going to clean my womb. They took me to the examination room and asked me how many children I had. I told them I had four,” she said, recalling the events of 2008.

“They were using English. I did not understand what they were saying because I never studied English. They told me they were going to give me treatment. Later when I gained consciousness I saw a dressing on my belly, but because I was in great pain, I couldn't ask questions.”

After the miscarriage, Ida tried for some years to get pregnant again. Eventually, she went to another hospital, where she was examined and told her fallopian tubes had been cut. Without her knowledge, she had been sterilised.

Joy, who, like Ida, did not want to give her real name, was sterilised in 2003, when she was 21 years old. She had been admitted to hospital in Kampala to deliver her first child. She was HIV-positive.

“They told me after birth that they would give me an injection so that I wouldn't give birth again for five years - which I accepted,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“I didn't know until later that I had been sterilised. I found out when I visited a clinic because I kept getting stomach pains.”

The doctor at the clinic asked to see her medical records which were with her uncle. When she asked to see the forms she learnt that her fallopian tubes had been cut and her uncle had signed the consent form.

“Upon hearing that, I started shedding tears. This has greatly affected my health. I just struggle to accept the situation,” she said.

A 2015 study carried out in nine districts of Uganda by the International Community of Women living with HIV Eastern Africa (ICWEA) found 72 out of 744 HIV-positive women surveyed had been sterilised. Twenty of them had been forced to undergo the procedure, or it had happened without their consent.

Hajarah Nagadya of ICWEA said that 18 of the 20 forced sterilisations had been carried out in government hospitals, and two cases occurred in private clinics.

“These women need psychological support such as counselling because a lot is going through their mind,” Nagadya said.

“Others want to consider a legal action, go to court and have the government compensate them.”

A spokesman for Uganda's Ministry of Health said it was not government policy to sterilise women living with HIV/AIDS.

Asuman Lukwago, the permanent secretary at the ministry, said such cases of forced sterilisation were a criminal offence. However, he said there may be exceptional circumstances in which doctors may decide to sterilise women if they believed their lives would be in danger in pregnancy.

According to UNAIDS 2015 estimates, Uganda has an HIV prevalence rate of 7.1 percent among adults aged 15 to 49. An estimated 790 000 women aged 15 and over are living with HIV in the east African country.

The ICWEA report said most violations of women's sexual and reproductive health rights - including forced sterilisation - occurred during childbirth, particularly when women were delivering by Caesarean section.

Health workers have access to women's bodies and the power to do what they believe is right for women living with HIV, without asking for consent, the report said.

The survey found that sterilised women often suffered anxiety due to failure to conceive, feelings of worthlessness and feeling outcast from their families and communities.

The report also showed that sterilisation could affect sexual relations including reduced sexual desire and painful intercourse.

Forced or coerced sterilisation among women living with HIV is a global concern.

Some of the first cases related to HIV/AIDS to be documented were in a 2007 study in Namibia conducted by International Community of Women living with HIV/AIDS (ICW).

The study found that three of 30 participants in a training project for young women living with HIV said they had been sterilised without their informed consent.

In 2012, a Namibian court ruled that state hospitals illegally sterilised three HIV-positive women. The women were presented with sterilisation forms just before or after giving birth, and weren't told what they were signing, the ruling said.

However, the judge did not feel there was sufficient evidence to prove that it was a discriminatory practice against women living with HIV.

In Uganda, none of the 20 women who underwent forced sterilisations had sought legal redress and said they felt there was no one to support them, the ICWEA report said.

“I have not heard of any organisation or laws for addressing my problem,” one of the women was quoted as saying in the report.

“I think the government should put in place a law and sensitise women about the issues related to sterilisation and the laws that can support women living with HIV.”

But in neighbouring Kenya, where similar cases of forced sterilisation have been reported, a group of women who had undergone forced or coerced sterilisation were helped by lawyers in 2014 to sue the government.

Reuters

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5 dead in Egypt train derailment

Posted: 07 Sep 2016 11:21 AM PDT

A train went off the tracks in the al-Ayat area, south of Cairo, killing five people and injuring 27.

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Al-Ayat - A train went off the tracks south of Egypt's capital, Cairo, on Wednesday, killing five people, according to the Health Ministry.

Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said 27 people were injured in the accident in the al-Ayat area, about 50 kilometres south of Cairo.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known, but Transport Minister Galal Said said he ordered an investigation.

Railway officials said the first three cars of the train, which was travelling to the southern city of Aswan, derailed. The accident halted train services from Cairo to provinces south of the capital for several hours before they were partially restored.

The accident came during one of the busiest travel times of the year, when millions of Egyptians leave Cairo and other big cities to head to their hometowns and villages for Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday that begins on Monday.

AP

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23 inmates dead in Ethiopia prison blaze

Posted: 07 Sep 2016 10:33 AM PDT

Families of prisoners are desperate for answers after Ethiopia's high-security prison, Kilinto, caught fire over the weekend.

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Addis Ababa - Families and relatives of prisoners are desperate for answers after Ethiopia's high-security prison, Kilinto, located on the outskirts, south of the capital Addis Ababa, caught fire on Saturday.

The fire broke out at around 8:10am and lasted a good “two hours” before the fire brigade from the Addis Ababa Fire and Emergency Prevention and Rescue Agency arrived at the scene.

State media, quoting an exclusive statement sent to it from the Government Communications Affairs Office (GCAO), said that 23 inmates had died, amongst which 21 from a stampede, burns and suffocation, while two were shot dead as they were apparently trying to escape.

Though the cause of the blaze remains unknown, the government says it is still investigating.

However, families are anxious to know the whereabouts of their loved ones. “I do not know where my son is. Is he shot dead or burnt alive or even is he alive? I have no idea. I rampaged everywhere in the prison compound, shouting and asking for him. I searched for him in hospitals but no one tells me anything and I could not find my son,” bemoaned Muchit Teka, the mother of Yonatan Tesfaye, a young senior opposition Blue Party member and prominent rights activist.

Tesfaye, the spokesman of the opposition Semayawi (Blue) party, was arrested in December 2015 and held in lengthy pre-trial detention for comments he posted on Facebook. He was held without charge for months and it was not until May 4 this year that he was charged with “incitement, planning, preparation, conspiracy and attempt” to commit a terrorist act.

The government says his posts against a government plan to extend the capital's administrative authority to the Oromia region were in pursuit of the objectives of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), which it considers a terrorist organisation. “Even if they are dead they should let us know as it is a customary and the right thing to do to rest the dead properly,” Teka cried. “How can they be silent about this? Don't they have families? What if they were in our shoes?”

Tesfaye's mother was not the only one lamenting the silence of the government in the wake of the deadly blaze. The compound is being guarded by security forces but families are waiting on the streets around it for information, while others desperately search hospital records. “We searched for them in hospitals and the prison but they are not there and no one would tell us. The government has the responsibility to inform where our families are,” said Bontu Bekele- Son of Bekele Gerba, a prominent politician and deputy chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC).

Local media reported that two buildings, as well as recreational and other facilities which inmates used were damaged by the fire.

According to reports, nine injured inmates and police members are receiving medical treatment. The remainder of the prison population were transferred to various other correctional facilities as large parts of the Kilinto facility was damaged.

The ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front is a multi-ethnic coalition made up of four parties.

The opposition and political analysts, though, say it is dominated by the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front. This is the main cause for the unrest, which according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch group, has seen at least 500 people killed by security forces since the protests began in November.

Though demonstrations first started among Ethiopian Muslim communities in 2012 demanding equal rights of people, it later spread to Ethiopia's biggest ethnic group, the Oromo, and then to the Amhara, the second most populous group.

The Ethiopian government, which is a close ally of many Western nations because of its strategic geographical location in the region, last month rejected a United Nations request that it send observers, saying it alone was responsible for the security of its citizens.

Various international organisations have released statements expressing their “grave concern” at the deteriorating situation in the country.

The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democracy Front, which is often accused by rights groups of regularly cracking down on the opposition and jailing journalists, won every seat in the 547- seat parliament in elections last year.

African News Agency

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Zanu PF manipulating food aid for political gain: ZHRC

Posted: 07 Sep 2016 07:39 AM PDT

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission has found that officials from Zimbabwe’s ruling party are denying opposition supporters food aid.

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Harare - Officials from the ruling Zanu PF party in Zimbabwe were denying opposition party supporters food aid, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission has found.

The ZHRC said on Wednesday that the food aid, mobilised to assist hungry villagers affected by the El Niño-driven drought conditions across the country, was being distributed along party lines, with Zanu PF officials denying food aid to opposition party supporters.

Addressing a press conference in Harare, ZHRC Chairperson, Elasto Mugwadi, said the commission’s investigators had unearthed that ruling party politicians were interfering in the distribution of the food aid for their personal political gain at the expense of deserving beneficiaries.

“Although the respondents or alleged perpetrators denied the allegations, the Commission, on the basis of evidence gathered, came to the conclusion that there was indeed discrimination and exclusion of certain citizens in the distribution of food aid in Bikita East, Mazowe Central, Muzarabani North and South and Buhera North Constituencies.

“These findings were replicated in the outcomes of similar investigations carried out in Zvimba South District. The ruling party members were the major perpetrators in violations linked to distribution of food, agricultural inputs and other forms of aid,” he said.

Mugwadi said community leaders such as village heads, headmen, village secretaries and district administrators, and in the case of Bikita East, the councillors, who were all members of the ruling party, told opposition party supporters openly that they would never get food aid.

He said those perceived to be opposition party supporters were also being excluded from food-for-work programmes in some districts, where Zanu PF youths were illegally involving themselves in the food aid distribution process in Bikita East and Mazowe districts.

“Furthermore, the investigators were informed that in the two districts in question, older persons who were not politically active but had family members such as children and grandchildren who were affiliated to the opposition parties were also being denied food aid,” Mugwadi said.

Mugwadi also revealed that some civil servants were also biased towards Zanu PF supporters, a development he said was against the provisions of the Public Service Regulations which required them to be apolitical.

“The long and short of the findings or outcomes of the investigations was that there was unbridled maladministration on the part of some public officials who were allegedly performing their duties partially and with bias against persons of particular political affiliations in contravention of the provisions of the Public Service Regulations SI 1/2000 which requires public officials to be apolitical and discharge their duties impartially and objectively,” he said.

Mugwadi also noted that there were cases of criminal violation of human rights by some public officials who were said to be stealing trust property in the form of food aid entrusted to them for distribution, as well as criminal violation of alleged assault perpetrated by some ruling party members on the Buhera North Ward 7 MDC-T councillor.

Mugwadi said they had recommended to the government that those found on the wrong side of the law be made to account for their actions, adding that most of the complainants were not aware of the procedures to be followed with regards food distribution.

“From the interviews conducted, it was noted that complainants from Buhera North Constituency were not conversant with the criteria of food aid distribution as stipulated in the National Policy on Drought Management. The lack of this vital knowledge exposes them to manipulation due to lack of transparency and accountability compounded by their ignorance of grievance procedures that may be available to them,” he added.

The Commission called on the Zimbabwe Republic Police to investigate all cases of criminal violations of human rights without bias and without fear and also timeously.

African News Agency

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Gigaba urges Basotho to get SA papers

Posted: 07 Sep 2016 06:51 AM PDT

Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba cautioned Basotho living in SA that the deadline to regularise their stay will not be extended

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Rustenburg - The end-September deadline set for Lesotho nationals to regularise their stay in South Africa by acquiring work permits will not be extended, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba cautioned on Wednesday.

“We're now close to closing the Lesotho Special Permit (LSP) application process. We had announced that this process would close at the end of June. We then extended it to the end of September. We're sticking to that end of September deadline for the closing of the applications,” Gigaba told reporters at a visa and permit facilitation centre in Rustenburg.

“We expect that the adjudication process and the issuing of the permits will take place until December. At the present moment, we have about 40 000 who have successfully filed their online applications. We also have more people who have submitted their applications but have not paid. We will see how we can accommodate them.”

About 66 000 Lesotho nationals have applied but the 40 000 have completed the application process by making a payment to the South African authorities.

Gigaba said “there will be no further extensions” once the application phase is concluded later this month.

The South African home affairs department, working in conjunction with their Lesotho counterparts, have made it possible for Basotho based in various parts of South Africa to apply for their smart identity cards and passports without returning to Maseru. Gigaba said the 40 000 successful applications prove there has been “an enthusiastic response from Lesotho nationals based in South Africa for this LSP”.

Lesotho Home Affairs Minister Lekgetho Rakuoane said the LSP project had helped his country to update the database of its citizens' population register, incorporating those working, studying or living in South Africa.

“Our database issue now quite improved. There are a lot of people who have been added into the database. This LSP platform has opened that opportunity for us,” said Rakuoane.

The Lesotho minister saluted Pretoria authorities for the “gesture of goodwill”. “It has been a huge relief which has been welcomed. This is indeed a gesture of goodwill,” said Rakuoane.

In June 2016, Gigaba's department announced a three-month extension of the LSP applications phase, following a request by the Lesotho authorities.

Maseru has deployed staff at various centres in South Africa to facilitate birth registration and identity documents enrollment.

African News Agency

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Zimbabwe’s Mangudya: ‘We messed up’

Posted: 07 Sep 2016 02:15 AM PDT

Reserve Bank Governor John Panonetsa Mangudya admits Zimbabwe made mistakes in the past as he tries to boost the economy by issuing bond notes.

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Harare - Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank Governor John Panonetsa Mangudya openly admits the country messed up in 2008 when it dollarised, which led to hyperinflation.

Now, he’s trying to right the economy, by introducing new bond notes - notes that the general public are not too keen on.

However, Mangudya hopes by introducing the notes, cash flow will be stimulated which, in turn, should boost the economy.

Mangudya’s endeavours come at a time when Zimbabwe is facing a massive cash crunch, with long queues at banks as citizens try withdraw cash. Withdrawals are limited to between $100 and $200 a day, Independent Media has been told. Investors have also being fleeing, leading to the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange weakening.

Investments have also taken a knock, with trade revenue on the ZSE hitting its weakest in the past seven years last month.

Read also: Cash shortages scare away investors in Zimbabwe

Speaking to IOL, Mangudya says Zimbabwe also needs to increase foreign direct investment. To do this, he says, the country needs a conducive climate, and to improve investment sentiment. Currently, Zimbabwe is seen as high risk – so high that, in fact, it doesn’t even have a rating. Mangudya admits “it’s a hard sell”.

As a result, the government is putting in place policies that are consistent and conducive to investment, he says. He cites security of tenure as one example, because foreign companies don’t want to invest and see their property taken away.

In addition, says Mangudya, government entities need to speak with one voice, which is part of the plan. He adds ease of doing business is another aspect that must be sorted out.

“We need to walk the talk.”

Vision

Mangudya says Zimbabwe is a polarised society and its citizens don’t have a shared vision of the country’s development. Despite this, the economy has many opportunities in areas such as mining, tourism and manufacturing.

Yet, Mangudya says, Zimbabwe is importing more than it exports. Although this has created a cash crunch, it is also an opportunity.

Mangudya says Zimbabwe has two main challenges. One is its current account deficit because it’s importing so much, and the other is its fiscal deficit.

Read also: Cash-strapped Zimbabwe axes state workers

Mangudya explains the country is spending 85 percent of its revenue on salaries and wages. The 15 percent that’s left over is just not enough to pump money into capital spending, let alone operational expenditure. It’s not enough for the country to invest in areas that will create employment, Mangudya explains.

The actual unemployment rate in Zimbabwe varies, depending on which stat is used, but the official rate in 2014 – the last time numbers were reported – was just shy of 12 percent. Some commentators put it as high as 80 percent.

Mangudya, however, has a strategy that he hopes will boost Zimbabwe’s growth from the anticipated 1.5 percent this year to 9 percent by 2018 – a rate that many have decried as unreasonable.

His strategy is mostly hinged on boosting exports, and increasing local industry. Currently, manufacturing is only using about a third of the available capacity.

Mangudya believes that, by increasing exports, and reducing a reliance on imports – and thus keeping cash in the country – the economy will be revived.

Dollarisation

Zimbabwe’s current woes date back to 2009, says Mangudya, when the country introduced dollarisation. This, he says, happened more by default than design.

Because the country used its reserve currency as a medium of exchange, it gave the impression that it had enough forex, and it also allowed money to flow out the country without restriction, says Mangudya.

Read also: No state jobs, no promotions in Zimbabwe

Mangudya adds that the investment environment was not conducive to foreign companies, so money flowed out the borders, and Zimbabwe also did not benchmark its currency properly.

This, Mangudya says, is what led to the hyperinflation seen around 2009 – when a loaf of bread would cost quantum times more between when a shopper stood in the back of the queue to when they made it to the front.

Hyperinflation, says Mangudya, is one of the reasons why Zimbabwe is currently so costly – as a legacy of hyperinflation, retailers are used to large mark-ups. This also means Zimbabweans cannot afford to spend, which means the economy is not stimulated.

As a result, says Mangudya, growth started stalling in 2012.

Boosting growth

Since then, the government has – from 2014 – put measures in place to boost growth. These include addressing fundamental problems, going back to basics, managing forex, and implementing policies so the country isn’t buying back cash that has left the country, what Mangudya calls a “wash account”.

In addition, the country has been pushing exports such as tobacco, gold and platinum – its major offshore sellers.

To boost this, says Mangudya, exporters can earn up to 5 percent of what they’ve exported once the cash lands in the bank. The Reserve Bank, he explains, will deposit the amount in the form of bonds – the currency Zimbabwe is trying to introduce – into the bank. This currency trades on par with the dollar, and the account holder can choose their currency on withdrawal.

Mangudya explains this will increase cash reserves in the county, as money circulation will go up, reducing Zimbabwe’s reliance on dollars. In addition, it will incentivise exports, which will bring more money into the country, he says.

Exports, says Mangudya, are his “printing press”. He explains the system will not lead to hyperinflation because the amount of bonds introduced is on par with the amount of dollars earned from forex through exports. And, he adds, the ratio is fixed at 5 percent of exports.

This, he says, will give Zimbabwe room to breathe. “We are foolish people, we made mistakes, this is the fixing period.”

In addition, Mangudya says, once the country's reliance on a currency it does not print drops, its interest rates will drop. Currently, Zimbabweans pay as much as 23 percent on a bond. This will also stimulate the economy, as cash is freed up, he says.

Mangudya anticipates $200 million to be added to the economy a year through exports alone. While this is a drop in the ocean compared to the $14 billion economy, he says this system will have a multiplier effect.

“There are plenty of opportunities here”.

Import limitation

Another way Zimbabwe is aiding the economy is to allow limited imports. Imports are now categorised on a necessity basis, explains Mangudya. This keeps forex in the country, and encourages industry.

Zimbabwe’s largest stationery producer, Rank, is currently benefiting from Zimbabwe’s import limitation policy, as it has grown plastic manufacturing capacity from 25 percent in January to 80 percent currently, while book production has gone from 40 percent to 100 percent, around the clock, says FD Ketan Naik.

Last year, the company had a large boost when government imposed an effective 60-percent duty on imported books, says Ketan Naik. On the back of this protection, the company has introduced a new line to make counter books because imports are too costly, he notes.

Ketan Naik says the company struggled in the last five years, and he is glad things are turning around. The group now aims to expand its distribution, and even export to SA in the future, he says.

* Nicola Mawson was hosted in Zimbabwe courtesy of private enterprise in SA.

IOL

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Is Mugabe well enough to try for re-election?

Posted: 07 Sep 2016 01:14 AM PDT

It is impossible to imagine Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe on the campaign trail in mid 2018, writes Peta Thornycroft.

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It is impossible to imagine Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe on the campaign trail in mid 2018, writes Peta Thornycroft.

It is hard to imagine that Robert Mugabe will seriously want to or could seek re-election in 2018 after watching him - a frail old man who will be 93 early next year - at his party’s youth league assembly in Harare recently.

His speech at the Saturday rally, both on and off script, came out painfully slowly and he spoke much of it with his eyes closed.

Perhaps, as some speculated, he was tired as he had returned home early that morning after a hectic ten days with business trips to Kenya, Swaziland and a three-day private visit to the United Arab Emirates.

He had interrupted his stay in Swaziland at the summit of the Southern African Development Community, returned home a day earlier then he planned, and took the long haul Air Zimbabwe plane later that night to Dubai. Three days later he made a night flight back to Harare.

Mugabe made jokes about his health and rumours that he had died as he shook hands with most members of the cabinet who usually go to Harare International Airport when he leaves the country and when he returns. Mugabe travels out of Zimbabwe every few weeks.

Many say even if Mugabe’s extreme frailty on Saturday was only temporary, it is impossible to imagine him on the campaign trail again in mid 2018.

At the last elections, three years ago, he spoke forcefully, often deviating from his script at several packed rallies ahead of the polls, and was still able to move around freely when he promised voters two million jobs and a revived economy. He had recovered from ill health in 2009, when he first went to Singapore for medical treatment.

Nowadays, despite extraordinary health for his age, Mugabe cannot move about freely. He is uncertain on his feet, and he speaks ever more slowly. He can read again since he had cataract operations in Singapore in 2011 and a second one in 2014.

Reading from his script on Saturday, Mugabe attacked judges of the High Court for granting permission to a coalition of opposition parties which was granted permission to march through Harare to press for reform of electoral laws.

Mugabe is angry with the courts. “They dare not be negligent in their decisions when requests are made by people who want to demonstrate, to hold these demonstrations,” he told the Zanu PF youth assembly. Speaking slowly, and with his eyes closed, Mugabe said: "In light of the violence that we had earlier on, surely they should have taken note that when permission was given four days ago, there was violence; when it was given two days ago, there was violence.

“To give permission again when they (judges) are in full knowledge that it is going to be violent or (there is a) probability that there is going to be violence is to pay reckless disregard to the peace of this country. We hope now they have learnt a lesson.”

Before the Harare High Court granted permission for the demonstration, police tear gassed a small gathering of opposition supporters in an open field on the western edge of the city. Protestors were not arrested when they put barricades in the streets nearby.

There was some looting in a crowded city centre street, packed full of informal shops later in the day. About 100 people were arrested from different parts of the city and three quarters of them were denied bail over five court days last week. About 15 of those arrested claim they were beaten up in the Zanu-PF headquarters later in the day.

Mugabe was due to lead cabinet on Tuesday. Insiders say he will go to New York ahead of the the UN General Assembly on September 13, and on this trip he is likely to be accompanied by first lady Grace Mugabe, who at present is reportedly still in Dubai. Their eldest son, Robert, studies there.

If Mugabe retired or died in office, the present senior vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, would take over the presidency for 90 days. Then the ruling Zanu PF would have to hold an internal election to appoint a new first secretary, who in turn would become the next president.

Some Zimbabwe domestic media say there is intense jockeying for position between two factions in the party, those who support Mnangagwa, and those who support a faction around Grace Mugabe and Zanu-PF political commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere, who is also home affairs minister.

Mnangagwa has been at Mugabe’s side for more then 50 years and was put out when in 2004, the Zanu-PF constitution was changed to ensure that one of the two vice presidents was a woman.

Joice Mujuru, in the cabinet since 1980 independence won the post. She remained there until she was sacked from the position ahead of the Zanu-PF 2014 congress. Subsequently she was expelled from Zanu-PF and now runs her own political party. Zimbabwe First.

Mnangagwa has denied there is any jockeying for positions within Zanu-PF. Many in the business community say, provided they are not quoted, they hope he succeeds Mugabe.

“it can’t come quick enough,” said the executive director of one of Zimbabwe’s largest industrial companies: “We know it won’t be a liberal democracy, but it will be a whole lot better then now because he knows what is wrong with the economy.”

Zimbabwe has to raise about US$1,8 bn to service debts at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and African Development Bank so that it can borrow more to repair infrastructure. So far, no one is sure where this money will come from.

Zimbabwe has now limited imports, particularly from South Africa, to boost local production. There is a critical shortage of US dollar notes at all commercial banks in Harare. Zimbabwe abandoned its currency in 2009 after hyper inflation made it worthless.

It is not clear whether Mugabe paid for his trip to Dubai last week, or whether funds for the Air Zimbabwe 767 and crew came out of the presidential budget.

Independent Foreign Service

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