Zimbabwe 'asks farmers to return'

Zimbabwe 'asks farmers to return'
Zimbabwe's white farmers say they have been invited to apply for land - in an apparent U-turn by the government which has seized their land.
All but 300 of the 4,000 white farmers have been forced off their land since President Robert Mugabe started his "fast-track" land reform in 2000.

A farmers' leader says some 200 applications have already been made and more are coming in.

Critics say the reforms have devastated the economy and led to massive hunger.

Foreign currency

Much of the formerly white-owned land is no longer being productively used - either because the beneficiaries have no experience of farming or they lack finance and tools.

Many farms were wrecked when they were invaded by government supporters.


The government has admitted that the exercise has been beset by corruption.
But Mr Mugabe blames Zimbabwe's economic problems on a plot by Western countries to topple him.

"There is an understanding that our members want to play a significant role in agriculture production, food security and generation of foreign currency for the country," Trevor Gifford, Commercial Farmers' Union vice-president told Reuters news agency.

"It is within this context that we were invited to submit the applications and I do know that instructions have been given to provincial land committees to process the applications and we are now awaiting responses," he said.

'No going back'

Didymus Mutasa, the minister in charge of land reform, could not be reached for comment.

But on Wednesday he said: "There is definitely no going back on our policy on land."

He also said that 99-year leases for commercial farms would be distributed by June, which he hoped would lead to higher agricultural output.

Earlier this year, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told the BBC News website that any Zimbabwean was free to apply for land, whether white or black, as long as they used it.

Under colonial rule, the best agricultural land was reserved for whites - a policy which Mr Mugabe says he is trying to reverse.

But many white-owned farms were highly mechanised, productive businesses which formed the backbone of the economy.

The opposition says Mr Mugabe is using the land to buy votes.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4932060.stm

Published: 2006/04/21 16:53:56 GMT

© BBC MMVI

More woes as Zimbabwe health costs double

IOL - April 11 2006 at 12:09PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More woes as Zimbabwe health costs double

Harare - Zimbabwe has lifted a freeze on private health care charges, the official Herald newspaper said on Tuesday, allowing fees to double in a move likely to add to the woes of Zimbabweans grappling with soaring inflation.

From April 1, general practitioners' consultation fees have gone up by 100 percent to $58 (about R360), the paper said, adding that specialist physician fees have also been doubled.

Zimbabwe's health sector is among those hardest hit by a deepening economic crisis widely blamed on President Robert Mugabe's mismanagement, and showing itself in perennial shortages of foreign currency, food and fuel as well as constant water and electricity cuts.

"I do not want to kill the private sector. I want it to thrive so that it can complement the public health sector," Herald quoted Health Minister David Parirenyatwa as saying in justifying the price hike.

It follows a raft of basic commodity price hikes over the weekend in response to a sharp jump in inflation, now the highest in the world.

Parirenyatwa was not immediately available for comment.

Official figures released last week showed inflation vaulted to 913,6 percent in the year to March, triggering a 60 percent jump in the cost of bread for struggling urban dwellers whose salaries have failed to keep up with soaring costs.

The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe says an average family of five requires at least 35-million Zimbabwe dollars every month but an average middle class citizen earns just 15 million.

Political and economic analysts say many urban Zimbabweans have so far survived the country's long-running economic crisis through wheeling and dealing and through subsidies from relatives abroad who send money for groceries.

Private hospitals and doctors, who still offer far better service than the country's run-down government hospitals which are chronically short of drugs and trained staff, had wanted to hike fees by up to 240 percent.

Government doctors and nurses have staged a number of strikes over the last seven years to press for better pay, while thousands others have moved to neighbouring countries and further abroad in search of greener pastures.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, rejects charges he has misruled Zimbabwe and blames its economic woes largely on sabotage by his opponents in retaliation for controversial land reforms that has seen white-owned farmland forcibly redistributed among blacks.



Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-04-11 11:59:45



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© Independent Online 2005. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains.

Leizer Abrahamson celebrates his 107th birthday

In a country that has just been declared as having the lowest life expectancy in the world one unique man is celebrating his 107th birthday.

Leizer Abrahamson - a resident of the Savyon Lodge Jewish Old Age Home in Bulawayo - celebrated his birthday on the 2nd April with some 100 friends, family and fellow residents around him.

Rabbi Nathan Asmoucha of the Bulawayo Hebrew Congregation reported a very special party took place for Leizer. Valda Cohen said, " it is hard for anyone to imagine all the difficulties when Leizers family put on such an amazing function at Savyon - most of everything came with the family."

For full story on the birthday plus latest picture of Leizer and also pictures of his 105th birthday click here

In the true Jewish tradition - may we wish Leizer - "ad 120" ...until 120 years !

To read about Zimbabwe's life expectancy - click here

Zimbabwe has world's lowest life expectancy

Bloomberg Printer-Friendly Page: "Zimbabwe Has World's Lowest Life Expectancy of 36 (Update1)
April 7 (Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwe, which has the world's fourth- worst AIDS epidemic, overtook Swaziland as the country with the world's lowest life expectancy, data released today by the World Health organization showed.
In 2004, Zimbabweans could expect to live to the age of 36, with life expectancy for men at 37 and women at 34, the WHO said in its 2006 annual report released on its Web site. That compared with overall life expectancy of 37 in 2003. Life expectancy in Swaziland, where a greater proportion of the people are infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, rose to 37 from 35.
As of the end of 2003, the United Nations AIDS agency estimated that 1.8 million people in Zimbabwe carried the HIV virus. The country's infection rate was exceeded only by Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland. In 2003, Zimbabwe had a population of 12.9 million people, according to the Geneva-based WHO.
The country's economy shrank every year for the last six and its annual inflation rate of 914 percent is the world's highest.
People in Japan, where life expectancy is 82, live the longest, the WHO said.


To contact the reporter on this story:
Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg asguazzin@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 7, 2006 09:59 EDT "

FT.com / World / Middle East & Africa - Zimbabwe's economy spirals downward

Zimbabwe's economy spirals downward

By Tony Hawkins in Harare
Published: April 7 2006 03:00 | Last updated: April 7 2006 03:00

The warning by Christopher Dell, US ambassador to Harare, last week that Zimbabwe has "passed the point of no return" and will need substantial international assistance to achieve a recovery, echoes what Zimbabwean businesspeople are saying privately.

Some industrialists say their volumes have fallen by as much as 30 per cent in the first quarter of 2006 - and this after a five-year period in which industrial production has halved nationally. The Zimbabwe Tobacco Association estimates that production of tobacco, once Zimbabwe's chief export, will fall to 50m kilogrammes this year from a peak of more than 230m kgs in 2000.

Although this year's rains have been excellent, a number of quasi-official harvest forecasts suggest that the maize harvest will be no more than 700,000 tonnes, possibly less, against annual consumption of 1.8m tonnes.

In a remarkable climbdown from its previous "We can go it alone" stance, President Robert Mugabe's government has launched a $277m (€185m, £129.7m) appeal for humanitarian assistance. Food supplies worth $111m top the bill followed by requests for assistance for shelter, drugs and agriculture. The appeal estimates that at least 3m people, or a quarter of the population, will need food aid this year, but donor agencies say the figure is closer to 4m.

The business community is reluctant to speak out about Zimbabwe's worsening economic prospects and its political crisis. But privately its members say that there has been a strong fall in output in recent months that is not yet reflected in published statistics.

The business mood has been further soured by the government's threat to nationalise 51 per cent of foreign-owned mining companies. In response, mining groups and the Chamber of Mines, which represents the industry, have warned that the consequences would be "catastrophic" especially as the plan is to take 25 per cent of the companies' shares as "free carry", paying only for the balance of 26 per cent over the next seven years.

Fearing that such a move would put an end to any chances of attracting foreign investment in the industry, the government is seeking a compromise that would give it a 30 per cent stake, most of which it would pay for.

This week the government sought to mollify some of its mining industry critics by doubling the Zimbabwe dollar price it pays for gold - now the country's largest export. While this is tantamount to a 40 per cent devaluation of the official exchange rate (Z$99,200 to the US dollar), it is unlikely to have much impact on parallel market gold sales by small-scale producers, who are able to sell their bullion illegally to the black market at vastly preferable exchange rates.

The gold price move has led to calls from other exporters for similar treatment. They say that the pegging of the exchange rate for the last two months is eroding their profitability at a time when inflation is 782 per cent and forecast to reach 1,100 per cent by mid-year. In a belated effort to curb inflation, the central bank has tightened monetary policy and raised interest rates in recent weeks, but in so doing it has created a potential crisis in the banking sector.

Money market dealers are warning that if the daily "shortage" in the market gets to Z$10 trillion there could be casualties. "If the Reserve Bank goes on like this, you are going to see bank casualties," one dealer warns.

According to the International Monetary Fund, Zimbabwe is likely to run a public sector (budget) deficit of close to 50 per cent of its GDP this year. Financing this, economists say, at a time of sliding output, stagnant exports, increased food imports and maturing short-term offshore loans, will be hugely inflationary.

There are as yet few signs of any change of heart on the part of Mr Mugabe and his top advisers. "They are," says one businessman, "in bunker mode, convinced that someone or something is coming to rescue."

Print Page

Readiness to embrace democracy still a challenge
http://www.thestandard.co.zw

IT is my opinion that we have a very serious crisis in Zimbabwe. And I think its therefore necessary for us to try and determine what has led us to the situation we find ourselves in and hopefully try to see what we can do as individuals as well as collectively to get ourselves out of this crisis.

Over 30 years ago Ian Smith, was asked at a Press conference why he was not conceding to the demands of the nationalists who were then waging a war of liberation when what was then known as qualified or limited franchise was accorded some black people. He answered: "You people from Europe, romanticise the black people. You do not know them; we live with them and we know them better. Democracy as an institution, is foreign to the Africans. It came here with the white people and we are still in the process of educating the blacks on its merits. And it is a process which will take some time.

"What they know, that is the majority of the them, is that a chief is a chief, he does not have to be voted in or out of power. Now it is not good to give these people something they do not understand because it can quite easily be abused by the unscrupulous few at the expense of the vast majority."

He said something to that effect and I recall feeling indignant and coming to the conclusion that Smith was saying that simply as an excuse to justify his desire to cling onto power and protectthe privileged position whites occupied in Rhodesia.

I was convinced his observations were typical of a racist who believed his race superior and blacks inferior. I never tried to examine what he had said objectively.

I guess then and perhaps even today, Smith’s observations only confirmed what we had been telling each other, that he despised black people and therefore was an enemy of the blacks who must be fought.

It never occurred to me that his view deserved a sober assessment to see whether there was any truth in it. He was an enemy and everything an enemy says must be false and by extension everything those who were fighting against Smith said must be true.

It was against that background that I too threw in my lot and joined the swelling ranks of the forces that were fighting against the Smith regime. Little did I know that time would come when I would be forced to recall Smith’s observations and examine them in the light of events unfolding in the Zimbabwe which is claiming to be celebrating its Silver Jubilee "25 years of Independence and Democracy".

To what extent has Smith been proved wrong or correct by Zimbabwe’s experience for the past 26 years. That is the challenge I feel needs to be addressed by all of us in the wake of the MDC split.

In my opinion the split was over the question of democracy. The question was or is:

* To what extent is Morgan Tsvangirai democratic?

* To what extent is the general membership of MDC democratic?

* To what extent are Zimbabweans in general democratic?

That is the essence of issues at the heart of our crisis in Zimbabwe

It is my opinion that the question of whether or not Smith has been proved right or wrong in his observation 30 years ago about Africans not being ready to embrace democracy is still challenging us today just as it did then.

In my opinion, one of the fundamental aspects of a democratic culture is to accept that different views must be given a fair chance to be heard and where it is not clear which view has been embraced by the majority of the people concerned, then the vote is used to ascertain that.

The outcome of that vote must be respected and accepted as the view of the majority whether one likes it or not. The moment one feels that majority vote on any issue to which instrument of the vote has had to be resorted to is against the interests of be it a party or a country or a club is the wrong one and therefore must be rejected or overturned, unless if objections are being raised with regard to the unfairness of the process, one must know that he or she is violating one of the fundamental aspects of democracy.

What does all, this suggest? In my opinion it clearly demonstrates that we have not yet cultivated in our social and political outlook sufficiently high levels of a democratic culture to enable us to immediately sense the danger whenever anyone among us violates one of the fundamental principles of democracy. We still have the feudal mentality of generally being afraid to criticise a leader which mentality autocrats, thrive on.

We have not yet developed a love for justice, fair play and a love for certain ideas to a point where we are prepared to die fighting for ideas. We still ask who has said what and not why he/she has said what has been said and ask even further whether what has been said is not a violation of an idea we hold dear.


David Chikombera

Mutoko

Mugabe's elderly live on 13p a month

You wonder if it can possibly get any worse....and it
does!

Mugabe's elderly live on 13p a month

The Sunday Times London March 26, 2006
Mugabe’s elderly live on 13p a month
Christina Lamb, Bulawayo
IN ONE hand Frank Wiggill holds his monthly
pension statement and in the other a 500 gram packet
of salt. It is the only thing in the supermarket that
his pension will buy, unless he prefers to
splash out on two eggs. When Wiggill retired after 38
years as an engine driver on the Zimbabwean railways,
he looked forward to enjoying his twilight years in comfort.

Instead he and his wife Jeanette depend on monthly
food parcels from well-wishers and handouts from their
son in South Africa. The collapsing currency combined with
the world’s highest inflation — estimated at more
than 1,000% a year — has cut their pension to 13p a month.


“It’s embarrassing,” said Wiggill, 79. “I worked all my
life and here I am living on food parcels of milk powder
and toilet paper.” His monthly pension of Z$49,000 is less
than the cost of a newspaper (Z$50,000) or a loaf of
bread (Z$70,000). It would take him two months to buy
a pint of milk (Z$89,000) and nine months to afford the
cheapest pack of four toilet rolls (Z$440,000).

“The pension is a laugh,” he said. “It must cost them
Z$25,000 to post the statement.” This month the Wiggills
received nothing. Deductions for three items on prescription
(Z$30,000 a time) after Wiggill cut down a cactus and got
poisonous sap in his eye left him Z$41,000 in debt to the
pension company.

At the same time the monthly rates on his bungalow have increased to
Z$679,124. Water and electricity are extra. Like most Zimbabwean pensioners, the only way the Wiggills can survive is by selling their possessions. First they sold their Ford Cortina. Then Frank’s beloved piano and Jeanette’s sewing machine.
Next to go will be the precious Royal Doulton plates commemorating the centenary
of Cecil Rhodes’s founding of Rhodesia.

They placed the proceeds from the car with a lump sum from their son in
an investment fund from which they received a monthly income. But two
months ago the fund was suspended, leaving them with no income apart from the
pension.

“We’ll keep selling more and more till eventually we’ll have nothing
left,” Jeanette said. After learning from auctioneers that pensioners
were selling their furniture to buy food, people in the community set up the
Bulawayo Help Network. Three groups formed. One, which helps to pay rates and
rent, is funded by a benefactor; one donates medicines; and the other
provides food parcels for 200 pensioners.

All the organisations asked not to be named, fearing that President
Robert Mugabe would close them and arrest their volunteers.
That helping pensioners is a clandestine activity in Zimbabwe
illustrates just how repressive the Mugabe regime has become. Many of the pensioners
say they would die of hunger were it not for the volunteers. The Wiggills’
case is typical. According to one of the distributors of the food parcels,
some receive as little as $4,000 — less than 1½p. “I’ve come across some so desperate that they are living on blackjacks (seeds),” he said. “My own mother-in-law
receives just Z$4,000 and she is a diabetic whose drugs cost at least $4.5m a
month.”

Yet they are well aware that in their pleasant homes with crocheted seat
covers and proper beds, they are still better off than millions of black
Zimbabweans, many of whom had their homes demolished last year in
Operation Murambatswina, Mugabe’s clean-up campaign, and are now living in
makeshift shelters of plastic sheets and scrap metal.

After comfortable middle-class lives, sending children to good schools
and employing maids and gardeners, the white pensioners find it difficult to
get used to charity. “They’ve turned us into welfare cases which is not a
nice feeling when you’ve worked all your life,” said Val Goodes, whose
husband John worked for 36 years as an auditor for the railway company and has a
pension of Z$129,000 (about 30p).

Like the Wiggills, the couple are sent money by their children. “You
just scrape by,” said Goodes. “We long ago stopped buying dairy products or
fruit. When the kettle blew up, we found an old pot. When the iron went,
we stopped ironing things. Now the element has gone in the oven so I can’t
bake.” Their biggest fear is falling ill. The public health system is in such a
state of collapse that hospitals do not have sterile gloves or hand-wash
solution. Private hospitals demand money up front. “As for dentists,
well I will just have to die with the broken teeth I have,” Goodes said.
“It’s very stressful,” Wiggill agreed. “I lay awake at night worrying
about the situation, which doesn’t help the health.”

Finding himself almost destitute is not easy for a proud man who worked
throughout the bush war in the 1970s when his trains carried armed guards
and had three steel trucks on the front in case they hit landmines.

“I feel so isolated,” he said. “I used to go with friends to the pub for
a beer or fishing but now cannot go anywhere, so I don’t know what’s going
on.” The couple’s television and hi-fi blew up in a lightning storm. Their
only source of entertainment is a transistor radio. It is too far to walk into town and there is no bus service. The few old people who go to a supermarket often stare
dumbfounded at the million-dollar prices and leave with a single egg or a bread
roll. To buy this may mean queueing for an hour as shoppers count out
stacks of Z$20,000 notes. The last official inflation figure was 782% in
February, but most businesses estimate that it is well over 1,000%.

University students recently went on strike in protest at astronomical fee increases.
Arts and humanities courses rose from Z$3m to Z$30m a year and medical
courses from Z$4m to Z$60m. Mugabe said recently that the solution to the
economic crisis was printing more money. The dollar is now worth so little
that some people use petrol vouchers as currency. Most shops have counting machines or scales but some have stopped counting, preferring to compare the heights of bundles of notes. “I just let people pay in bricks,” said the owner of an upmarket
Harare restaurant where bills often reach Z$50m-Z$60m.

ABC News: U.S. Envoy: Zimbabwe in 'Massive' Crisis

ABC News: U.S. Envoy: U.S. Envoy: Zimbabwe in 'Massive' Crisis
U.S. Ambassador Says Zimbabwe's Economic, Political Crisis Beyond 'Point of No Return'
By ANGUS SHAW
The Associated Press
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis had "passed the point of no return" for recovery without basic internal reforms and substantial international help, the U.S. ambassador said in an interview published Sunday.

Calls by President Robert Mugabe for improved relations and "bridge building" with foreign nations so far had made no progress, Christopher Dell was quoted as saying in the independent Standard newspaper.


"It is our hope that in the face of the massive crisis that it has brought on itself, the government here will recognize that it needs to do more than talk about bridge building," Dell was quoted as saying.


In November, Dell was summoned to the foreign ministry in Harare after voicing similar criticisms of Zimbabwe's policies that he said plunged the nation into poverty. The envoy was warned he could be expelled from Harare.


In the interview published Sunday, Dell said the abuse of property rights by seizures of land and other private assets scared off investors and vital foreign financial assistance, though the United States remained the largest humanitarian aid donor $74 million last year.


Dell said in his 18 months in Zimbabwe, not a single U.S. investor had approached his office for information on Zimbabwe's business prospects and just 25 American firms were still doing business in the country.


"Zimbabwe has already passed the point of no return in its ability to recover from its crisis without substantial outside help," Dell said.


There was no immediate response from the government on Dell's remarks.


In the past, Mugabe has frequently accused Western ambassadors of meddling in the nation's internal affairs and said the country can manage its own homegrown recovery programs.


Zimbabwe's economy has been in a free fall since Mugabe's government began seizing thousands of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to blacks in 2000. Inflation has soared to 782 percent in the past year.


More than 3,000 people a week die of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses, while U.N. agencies estimate that about 4 million people are in need of food.


Last year, some 700,000 people lost their homes or livelihoods in a government demolition campaign aimed at street vendors, market stall holders and allegedly illegal housing.



Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures

Zimbabwe Coca-Cola stocks dry up

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Zimbabwe Coca-Cola stocks dry up: "Zimbabwe Coca-Cola stocks dry up
Zimbabwe has run out of locally manufactured Coca-Cola.
Retailers were told bottling plants in Zimbabwe had run out of the imported syrup used to make the drink and supplies would resume later this month.
The cola drought is the latest symptom of a foreign currency crisis gripping the country.
Agents in Harare for the US-based soft drink company said local production of the drink had stopped earlier this month, but refused to give a reason.
However, Coca-Cola agents told shop and bar owners that syrup had not been imported owing to foreign currency shortages, AP news agency reports.
Coca-Cola is normally available even in small villages in Zimbabwe, and supplies continued even throughout the bush war that led to independence in 1980.
Zimbabweans have endured shortages of fuel and basic foodstuffs in recent years, as a result of a foreign currency shortage.
The government blames the crisis on sanctions, while its opponents say a controversial land reform programme is responsible for a sharp drop in agricultural export earnings.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/africa/4836378.stm

Published: 2006/03/23 10:33:51 GMT"

South Africa invites Hamas

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World: "Former S. Africans concerned at Hamas visit

Former S. Africans concerned at Hamas visit


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David E. Kaplan, THE JERUSALEM POST Mar. 21, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Having "got a toe in with the Russian invitation," Hamas "is now upsizing to a foothold with a South African visit," Telfed (the organization representing Southern Africans in Israel) vice chair Annette Milliner, told The Jerusalem Post this week.

Former South Africans living in Israel doubted South Africa's ability to influence Hamas's hard-line agenda.

Milliner had little confidence that South Africa would succeed as a peace broker. "I believe Hamas will capitalize on the PR component of the visit, particularly if it includes high profile meetings with people of the stature of former president Nelson Mandela or Nobel Peace laureate, Bishop Desmond Tutu."

"Yes, there is that concern," admits Steven Slom, Chairman of the Israel-South Africa Chamber of Commerce. "Meeting with Mandela, Tutu or President Mbeki would be regrettable as that could lend the visit a certificate of respectability.

"On the other hand, South Africa is the one country that does enjoy the moral authority to make it clear to Hamas, that in order to advance the peace process, it would have to recognize Israel, abide by existing agreements and of course, renounce violence."

Prof. Monty Zion (emeritus) of Tel Mond, questions whether this status has not lost some of its tarnish. "This is no longer the Mandela era. South Africa failed recently to publicly join most the Western counties in condemning the Iranian president's outrageous statements that "Israel has no right to exist and should be dismantled". It has also been out of step in supporting rogue regimes like Mugabe's Zimbabwe." Zion fears that South Africa could shift in the direction of its northern neighbor if it's not careful.

South Africa was one of five countries alongside Algeria, Libya, Indonesia and Belarus that abstained when the International Atomic Energy Agency voted last month to report Iran to the Security Council.

Is the overture to Hamas a sign of the company that South Africa now wants to be associated with or is South Africa merely seeking to enhance its status as a major player on the world stage? Buoyed by a resurgent economy and meteoric rise in tourism, "South Africa is looking for a commensurate status in world affairs," says Solly Sacks of Kochav Yair. A former Chairman of the South African Zionist Federation, and today Director of World Mizrachi, Sacks believes that "this is fair enough but an invitation to Hamas is a tragic mistake.

"South Africa in the past saw fit to invite the likes of Castro, Gaddafi and Arafat and nothing changed in their behavior following such visits. Isolation is the only way to deal with these guys. It was the imposition of sanctions that finally influenced Gaddafi to soften his position, and closer to home, chipped away at South Africa's old apartheid regime," noted Sacks.

ZIMBABWE NEWS by CATHY BUCKLE

Subject: ZIMBABWE NEWS CATHY BUCKLE

Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2006
Subject: Cement Bag

Dear Family and Friends,
This letter is being sent out three days later than
normal because I am now entering the 92nd hour with only enough electricity
for lights in my home. At midday on Friday the voltage to my home crashed and
the power is insufficient to heat the water geyser, run a fridge or stove or even
boil a kettle. 25 telephone calls to the electricity supplier in the last four
days, a personal visit to the faults office, a number of offers to provide fuel or
go and collect electricians are all to no avail. In the villages less than 15
kilometres out of Marondera there is also no electricity which means the
grinding mills are not working. I was told by a friend that there are scores of people now going without food and that the atmosphere is extremely tense.

This morning there is literally mud coming out of the taps in my home which
means there are problems pumping water too. Zimbabwe is now entering the darkest
of days. It is hard to describe how anyone is surviving now and this week I had
the most amazing encounter which helped me put my own problems into perspective.

Standing at the entrance gates of a wholesaler there was a thin, gaunt, tired
looking man. On the ground next to him was a small pile of empty cement bags. He
bent and picked up a bag and held it towards me, asking me to buy it. An empty
cement bag, turned inside out and with two crude holes cut into the top for
handles. "Only thirty thousand dollars" the man said to me. This was literally
just an empty cement bag, it hadn't been sewn, reinforced or even cleaned very
well. I could think of no earthly reason why I would want an empty cement bag
but the look in the mans eyes, the slight trembling of his hand and the thinness
of his body gave me a whole lot of reasons. I gave the man forty thousand
dollars and told him to keep the change. I took my cement bag and the man called
out "God bless you, thank you," as I walked away. We both knew that the money
I'd just handed over would the man just half a loaf of bread but to me, and
obviously to him, selling cement bags enables a slither of dignity to be maintai
ned. Please keep the people of Zimbabwe in your thoughts and prayers in these
very hard times and thank you for reading.
Love
Cathy.

Copyright cathy buckle
7th March 2006. http://africantears.netfirms.com


My books "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are
available from:
orders@africabookcentre.com

Notes from a Refugee

Notes from a Refugee

by Mandi Steinberg (nee Burke)

As the sun rises over Tel Aviv my husband's just come in to the computer room to ask me "what the hell" I'm doing. I tell him that I'm visiting the graves at Warren Hills. He gives me a look of shock and says "right, well I'm going back to bed". What I don't tell him is how I stare at the photos of the Ohel until I can feel that African breeze, hear it whistling through the Masasa trees on the kopje just behind the reform community's plaques and clearly visualize the red clay type soil blowing in the wind. How I know that when you need to wash your hands you have to turn on the tap behind the sinks outside the Ohel (although I'm not sure if there's any water there now). I stare at the photos of my parents' graves too and worry that they're dusty and lacking in flowers. I feel like I am the ghost of Warren Hills Jewish Cemetery. This is what its like to be a refugee, in my heart at least. To feel that you've completely lost the land that you were born and grew up in as it will never be the same, and that no one else understands that. Unless they're Zimbabwean, black or white we have a unique bond with each other.

When we started thinking about raising a family I had a huge dilemma. Every parent (or prospective parent) would like to give their children more than they had. But we had such a wonderful carefree life in Zim that it's really hard to do that. Nevertheless we packed up and went to the end of the earth, New Zealand. There I bumped into fellow Zimbabweans who I could sit for hours chatting about "when we" days gone by in Zim and at Sharon School. After a couple of years, though, we had bigger emotional issues because as I have no home left in Zim I realized that the only other place that I can ever call home is Israel. But that's another story to be saved for the "Zimbabwean/South African Israelis who leave Israel and return" blog!

I now have a daughter and I try to pass on my Zimbabwean heritage to her. She's probably the only child in Israel who will know a few Shona words too!!

But I see that I'm not the only displaced person wondering around the virtual Jewish Community of Zimbabwe at odd hours of the morning. Dave seems to be out there with me searching for his roots and the past at odd hours of the morning. So next time I can't sleep and I decide to visit my families' graves I'll know that I'm not the only ghost out there.

PS: Thank you so much for this thoughtful website. It's the only thing left that I can cling to to remember our past.

PPS: Thanks to Benny Leon for taking the photos of the graves. Now at least my children will be able to see their grand parents' and great-grandparents' graves – as I'm not sure they will ever see them in person.

Zimbabwe inflation soars to all-time high

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Saturday, March 11, 2006 · Last updated 2:16 p.m. PT

Zimbabwe inflation soars to all-time high

By MICHAEL HARTNACK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Yearly inflation soared to an all-time
high of 782 percent in Zimbabwe, the former breadbasket
of southern Africa whose economy collapsed from years
of drought and the government-backed seizure of thousands
of white-owned commercial farms.

Prices rose 27.5 percent during the month of February
alone, and the average family of five needed about
$90 just to meet basic food needs, far above average
earnings, state radio said Saturday.

Trade unions say those still formally employed -
about 20 percent of the work force - earn about
$55 a month. Workers on formerly white-owned
commercial farms, by contrast, earn as little
as $3 a month from their employers, many of them
beneficiaries of President Robert Mugabe's "fast
track" land redistribution.

The value of the Zimbabwean dollar has been in a
freefall since February 2000, when Mugabe ordered
the seizure of 5,000 white-owned farms.

In 2001, $1 was equal to 55 Zimbabwean dollars.
In 2003, $1 equaled 700 Zimbabwean dollars, and
in 2005 $1 equaled 15,000.

Today, $1 is equal to 99,000 Zimbabwean dollars.

The seizure of the farms for redistribution to black
Zimbabweans, combined with years of drought, have
crippled Zimbabwe's agriculture-based economy.

United Nations agencies say 25 percent of Zimbabwe's
12 million people are now dependent on international
food relief, even though the country was for years
a major food exporter to the region.

The nation is suffering its worst economic crisis
since independence from Britain in 1980 - when $1
equaled two Zimbabwean dollars - with acute shortages
of food, gasoline, medicines and other essential
imports.

The U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe said in November
that gross government mismanagement and corruption
have reversed a half-century of progress in six years.

The Central Statistical Office said inflation was 782
percent for the 12 months that ended in February.
Moffat Nyoni, acting director of the government-run
Statistical Office, said prices of food and nonalcoholic
beverages rose 824 percent during that time.

State radio predicted that inflation would fall to 200
percent annually by the end of the year after a "bumper
harvest by new farmers," but an all-party parliamentary
committee warned before the November start of this
season's rains that production would be at an all-time
low due to shortages of diesel, seed, fertilizer,
chemicals, functioning farm machinery and skilled labor.

Farmworkers of Malawian, Zambian or Mozambican descent
have been forced to return to their parents' and
grandparents' countries of origin following eviction
by Mugabe's land recipients.

Mugabe conceded in December that shortcomings in his
land redistribution program contributed to critical
food shortages.

Poor planning, corruption, lawlessness, vandalism,
crumbling infrastructure and shortages of fertilizer
and seed have compounded the effects of recurring
drought, he said.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Zimbabwe 'running out of wheat'

BBC NEWS | Africa | Zimbabwe 'running out of wheat': "
Zimbabwe 'running out of wheat'
Zimbabwe has only two weeks of wheat supply left, while citizens are faced with soaring bread prices, Zimbabwe's main milling organisation has said.
The cost of bread has risen by 30%, pushing Zimbabwe's inflation rate to more than 600%.
Zimbabwe has been in economic decline since President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms in 2000.
The government is reported to have put its security forces on alert in case the discontent leads to protests.
David Govere, deputy chairman of the Millers Association, told AFP news agency the scarcity of wheat has meant a reduction in supplies to bakeries.

'Due to depleted stocks, GMB [state-run food distributor Grain Marketing Board] is now giving us 400 tons of wheat a week, down from 600 tons,' he is quoted as saying.
Shortages of wheat could force bakers to import flour from South Africa, which could lead to more price rises.
A loaf of bread in Zimbabwe currently costs $66,000 Zimbabwean (66 US cents), having risen 30% in just one week.
President Mugabe denies that his land reform programme has contributed to the crisis, blaming the effects of drought instead.
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the situation is becoming unbearable.
'It's terrible right now because of shortages,' Arthur Mutambara, leader of one of two factions of the MDC.
'Fuel is not available, commodities are unaffordable, unemployment 80%, inflation above 600%.
"It's a travesty of justice that the country has been so run down by Robert Mugabe's regime."

Food aid

Zimbabwe's leading millers - National Foods, Blue Ribbon and Victoria Foods - have shut production at most of their mills because of the wheat shortage, according to AFP.

International aid agencies say about 4.3m out of Zimbabwe's 13m people will require food aid until the next harvest in May.

The country has suffered increasing food shortages, rising unemployment and runaway inflation since the government began redistributing seized white-owned farms six years ago.

Economists say the rate of inflation could reach 1,000% by April.

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Turning Out the Lights in Zimbabwe

By Gideon Chawawa

HARARE, Zimbabwe, February 22, 2006 (ENS) - These days, the Makoni family can only afford bacon on Saturdays, soon after payday. It has become a symbolic reminder of years past, when Zimbabwe used to run smoothly and they used to breakfast on the typically English bacon, eggs and baked beans.

The Makonis are a middle-class family of five living in a middle-class suburb of Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. The family misses the short car trip they used to make to the supermarket to buy breakfast goodies. Because of the ongoing fuel crisis, they now send their eldest son Tatenda down to the shops to pick up the bacon and baked beans and thus save what little petrol they have for more pressing purposes.

When Mrs. Makoni opens the packet of bacon she realizes it smells bad. Mr. Makoni takes the bacon back to the supermarket, only to find a long queue of disgruntled shoppers bringing back rotten merchandise. Some have sachets of milk gone sour while others have steaks that have turned green.

“It’s the power cuts,” explained the demoralized shop manager. “We have been having intermittent power cuts for 36 hours.”


Harare neighborhoods like this can be cut off from electricity for days at a time. (Photo credit unknown)
Welcome to Zimbabwe in 2006, where such blackouts are daily occurrences and power cuts can last more than two days. It is now quite usual to see smoke rising from gardens and chimneys as people cook food and boil water on open fires.
When the power does come back, there is no guarantee it will stay on, and so there is frantic rush to cook the next meal, do the ironing, work on the computer and charge cellphones and batteries.

In factories, machines stop operating and pumps go quiet.

Assuming you can find them, a packet of six locally-made candles now sell for more than a quarter million Zimbabwean dollars, about US$2.50.

Officials at the government power utility Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority, ZESA, blame the power cuts on Gideon Gono, the powerful governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

ZESA Executive Chairman Sydney Gata told the government-owned daily "The Herald" that the government’s 2003 decision to reverse tariff increases it had already sanctioned was at the heart of the power crisis.

“A government-approved tariff adjustment was implemented in January, February and March 2003 but then reversed by the minister of energy at the request of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, which sought to meet its own inflation targets,” said Gata.

This, Gata said, led to ZESA suffering a 45 percent loss in revenues.


Street in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe (Photo credit unknown)
ZESA currently produces a kilowatt-hour of electricity at a cost of 1,386 Zimbabwean dollars but because of the low tariffs, sells it for just 218 dollars. As a result of the discrepancy, last year it suffered operational losses of eight trillion Zimbabwean dollars, US$80 million.
“Gono would like the world to believe the loss was due to mismanagement, yet the truth is the buck stops at his doorstep,” said the senior ZESA official. “Because of the loss, ZESA no longer has the money to import power from neighboring countries.”

ZESA generates about 60 percent of the country’s energy needs when all power stations are working at full throttle. At the moment, though, several units at the flagship Hwange plant near Victoria Falls are closed because of a shortage of coal and spare parts. Hwange normally supplies 15 percent of Zimbabwe’s electricity.

Small coal-fired power stations in the country’s two main cities, Harare and Bulawayo, have been shut down altogether. When transformer stations break down, they cannot be repaired because there are no spares.

The country imports about 40 percent of its normal total power consumption from South Africa, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In recent weeks, all three suppliers have cut off the power intermittently because of ZESA’s failure to pay bills.

Importing electricity costs ZESA huge amounts of money - nearly US$12 million a month, assuming it has the cash. As Gata told "The Herald," the company’s total revenue is currently equivalent to only a third of its import costs.

ZESA argues that if it could make its customers pay economically viable rates, it would earn enough Zimbabwean dollars both to buy the foreign exchange needed to pay for imported supplies, and to purchase the parts to repair broken-down equipment in power plants and transformer stations.

But the central bank chairman will not allow a price increase. “ZESA is charging sub-economic tariffs, thanks to Gono,” said a senior finance official at Electricity House, ZESA’s headquarters in Harare.


Gideon Gono is governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. (Photo courtesy Sokwanele)
The official said Gono is blocking tariff reviews because rising electricity prices would drive up the already massive rate of inflation, which in January reached 613 percent over January 2005.
What angers the general public is that the power cuts are not planned. In the past, ZESA used the national newspapers to announce the schedule for when different areas would be without power. But now it has stopped making predictions, so people have no way of making provision.

According to Gata, this is because the company is itself unable to do forward planning. “These power cuts are not part of planned load shedding by ZESA. With planned load shedding, we always advised our valued customers of the days, dates and times when it was in operation,” he said. “The [new-style] power cuts are due to factors far beyond the power utility’s control.”

The blackouts plunge many parts of the country into darkness at unpredictable times. Industry is the worst-hit sector, because some plants have no standby generators. Domestic users find themselves unable to cook, while perishables rot in their fridges.


Harare street scene (Photo credit unknown)
Precious Shumba, spokesman for the Combined Harare Residents Association, said it is scandalous that the public is left to guess when the power might be cut next. “ZESA is taking residents for granted,” he said. “Electricity just goes out at any time of day. It makes it difficult for people to plan their daily schedules.”
There seems to be no end in sight. The long-term solution for Zimbabwe would be to build more power stations while ensuring that existing ones have the resources to keep running. Zimbabwe’s power industry is mulling a 20 year development plan worth more than US$3.5 billion that would see the Hwange coal-fired plant upgraded with two more units, the Kariba hydroelectric station expanded, and a new methane powered unit built in Matabeleland.

But as the weekly "Zimbabwe Independent" commented, “All there is to the plan is a document which will be discussed for many years without anything actually being done, as demand for power continues to outstrip supply.

“Zimbabwe will soon not be able to import any power because exporters are anticipating increased domestic demand in their respective countries. Zimbabwe needs help.”

So the expansion strategy is a pipe dream, while central bank governor Gono refuses to allow the power utility to increase tariffs in the interim. For the Makonis, a return to their old breakfast habits seems a long way off.

{Published in cooperation with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Gideon Chawawa is the pseudonym used by a Zimbabwean journalist.}

allAfrica.com: Meltdown Looms Large Amid Fear Inflation Will Hit 1000%

allAfrica.com: Meltdown Looms Large Amid Fear Inflation Will Hit 1000%
Meltdown Looms Large in Zimbabwe Amid Fear Inflation Will Hit 1000%

Business Day (Johannesburg)
NEWS
February 14, 2006
Posted to the web February 14, 2006

By Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg

ZIMBABWE's rampant year-on-year inflation for last month surged to 613,2%, gaining 27,4 percentage points on the December rate of 585,8%, raising fears it is marching towards the 1000% mark.

The Central Statistics Office said yesterday that inflation accelerated due to rising costs of food, housing, education, water, electricity, gas and fuel.

Central bank governor Gideon Gono said recently the inflation rate would rise to 700%-800%, breaching the 622,8% record of 2004, before decelerating.

Analysts have warned that, barring a major policy shift, inflation could hit 1000% by the end the second quarter.

Analysts said that, given the controlled prices of goods and services and parallel market activities, inflation could already be at 800%.

The critical factor in driving inflation has been growing money supply through massive printing of paper money to finance government expenditure and prop up collapsing economic activities.

Broad money supply growth has been on an upward trend, from 177,6% in January last year to 411,5% in December.

Since 2003, the central bank has dished out a record Z$46- trillion in an attempt to arrest economic decline. But the money has largely ended up in consumption activities.

Further inflationary pressures have been fuelled by wage and salary adjustments, price increases and black market activities.

Following the revision of value added tax from 15% to 17,5% and introduction of a number of new tax measures in September last year, the prices of goods and services have escalated.

The yawning budget deficit of 8,6% is also a severe problem.

Government has been struggling to reduce its huge fiscal deficit largely caused by government's rising wage bill from 15,5% in 2004 to 20% of gross domestic product last year.

Zimbabwe's economy shrank 3,5% last year after a 4% decline in 2004 and a 10,5% fall in 2003.

New banknote for Zimbabwe

[ This article is from Sunday Times, South Africa. ]

New banknote for Zimbabwe
Wednesday February 01, 2006 14:48 - (SA)


HARARE - Zimbabwe's central bank has introduced a new 50,000-dollar banknote equivalent after it conceded that runaway inflation would soon shoot up to a record 800%.

The new purple denomination with a picture o the world-famous Victoria Falls, worth around 50 US cents or 40 euro cents, is the latest addition to a series introduced three years ago with a set validity period to ease critical cash shortages across the country.

"We have begun to use the new bearer cheque from today," Reserve Bank spokesman Kumbirai Nhongo said.

"It's not a new currency as such but a higher currency in the bearer cheque range which we are introducing as a temporary measure as we prepare to introduce a new currency later this year."

Zimbabwe is in the throes of economic crisis characterised by three-digit inflation, soaring poverty levels, an unemployment rate hovering at over 70% and chronic shortages of fuel and basic goods like cornmeal.

Central bank governor Gideon Gono has warned that annualised inflation could peak at 800% in March and later recede to below 500% in June before reaching double-digits in 2007, if there are bountiful rains leading to a good harvest.

At the country's independence from British colonial rule in 1980, when the local dollar was roughly at parity with the pound sterling, Zimbabweans used cents, one dollar coins and bank notes in four denominations.

However, due to inflation, the Zimbabwe government introduced four new denominations from 2001 while coins were phased out as the value of the Zimdollar continued to depreciate against major currencies.

Between May and September 2003 the country experienced critical cash shortages which prompted the reserve bank to issue three new denominations - called bearer cheques - the highest of which was for 20,000 Zimbabwean dollars.

The new 50,000-dollar banknote is valid until December.

Sapa-AFP

How to kill a country: Bob Mugabe

How to kill a country: Bob Mugabe

By Mondli Makhanya
Sunday Times - Johannesburg, RSA

At some point it just stopped being funny. The ranting and raving of one Robert Gabriel Mugabe, that is.

There was a time when the Zimbabwean leader's penchant for outlandish rhetoric could elicit a giggle and a bemused headshake.

Ever the great orator, Mugabe would respond to criticism by unleashing a torrent of anti-colonial and anti-Western bile. He would tell Tony Blair to "keep his Britain and we will keep our Zimbabwe", and accuse Western nations of wanting to recolonise his country. He would rant about how self-sufficient Zimbabwe was and how it did not need a leg-up from anybody.

But it stopped being funny as Mugabe intensified his destruction of the very country whose birth he had midwifed.

Over the past half-decade or so he has given us the definitive ABC on how to kill a country.

Although the signs of decline were present then, the Zimbabwe of six years ago was a functional republic.

There were sporadic fuel shortages, but with patience and at a monetary premium you could fill up your car.

The economy was teetering but the factories worked and the bourse ticked along. The currency was heading south but it was still nowhere near the Weimar republic denominations you see today.

And even though Mugabe and Zanu-PF were showing clear disdain for human rights and democracy, Zimbabweans were optimistic that their country would soon turn the corner.

There was hope and expectation in the air. The vibe on the streets of Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru and Victoria Falls felt a little like South Africa in the late ’80s.

All of that has been replaced by misery and hopelessness.

In six years the world has witnessed a phenomenon rarely seen in modern history ­ the unravelling of a society.

Those who know the Zimbabwean landscape will tell you the rot started to set in around 1997 when Mugabe, desperate for popular acclaim, caved in to the demands of rebellious war veterans and gave 50,000 of them an unbudgeted-for pay cheque of nearly US$3000 each.

Zimbabwe never recovered from that audacious raid on the treasury and the economy went into sharp decline. By 2000, as the Zimbabwean economy was about to be admitted to the casualty ward, the people started grumbling loudly. They rejected Mugabe's constitutional reform proposals and made it clear they would throw their weight behind the newly formed opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in that year's parliamentary election.

It was the thought of losing to this upstart party that unchained the Godzilla.

Mugabe first went for the white farmers ­ the very people who had feted his party and helped build its Harare headquarters. In an agricultural society where white farmers still hogged the most arable land, to many they represented the last vestige of colonial rule. They were an easy target.

War veterans led the charge and before long the Zimbabwean countryside was a lawless mass.

Commercial farming, the backbone of the country's economy, was destroyed.

Once the virus of lawlessness had set in, spreading it was easy.

The veterans turned on Zanu-PF's political opponents. Beatings, abductions, rape and torture became normal political conduct.

Looking back, it is not difficult to understand how Zimbabwe arrived at the precipice it is on today. One thing was always going to lead to the next as the country struggled to maintain its fabric.

Once the government had decided to allow rule by violent mobs, it was only logical that those sectors of society most threatened by the lawlessness would fight back using the only instrument available to them ­ the law.

The farmers, media, civil society organisations and the abused turned to the courts for relief.

Zimbabwe's judges, having built a culture of jurisprudence in the post-independence era, almost without fail ruled in favour of order and orderliness.

Then they were in the firing line. Judges were harassed, forced into retirement and the Bench was packed with Zanu-PF sympathisers.

With the opposition crushed, the media and the judiciary under siege, the economy destroyed and poverty rampant, Zimbabwe will enter 2006 officially in the category of basket case.

When United Nations (UN) head of emergency relief Jan Egeland pointed out the dire state of the country’s people after a visit to Zimbabwe the other week, Mugabe responded in typical style by dismissing the envoy as a "Norwegian ... (who) couldn't speak proper English" and accused him of being a Blair pawn.

"When he left the country he said nasty things about us," Mugabe thundered. "I am going to tell the (UN) secretary-general not to send us men and women who are not his own but are agents of the British. We don't trust men from his office any more.”

And it just wasn't funny any more.

Sunday Times
Jan 1, 2006

U.N. envoy says Zimbabwe's crisis is deepening

U.N. envoy says Zimbabwe's crisis is deepening
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
Wed Dec 7, 4:41 AM ET

Reuters - U.N. humanitarian envoy Jan Egeland left Zimbabwe on Wednesday after a four-day tour and said its humanitarian crisis was deepening, with millions in need of aid.

"The humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe is very serious. The need for international aid is big and growing," Egeland, the U.N. humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, told journalists late on Tuesday after talks with President Robert Mugabe and government officials.

"Millions of people are struggling with their back against the wall to fend off hunger, to fend off AIDS and a lot of other things," he said after visiting people living in shacks since they were evicted during government demolitions of shantytowns.

On Tuesday Mugabe rejected a U.N. offer to provide temporary shelter for victims of the slum clearance program but did accept an offer of food aid.

The U.N. says Zimbabwe needs emergency aid including tents to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of homeless but the government says it only needs help to provide permanent homes.

Egeland said there was progress on aid, especially for people suffering with HIV/AIDS.

"The people of Zimbabwe are suffering under several big problems. I am hopeful that we will have a more positive partnership in 2006 than we have had in the past," said Egeland.

EVICTIONS SHOULD STOP

Egeland said the government crackdown could have been avoided and urged authorities to halt further evictions after reports in the past month that families already living in the open were being forced to move again by authorities.

"I am again appealing for the eviction campaign to stop, there is not enough shelter ready to house those who have been evicted," said Egeland.

The evictions, which Mugabe argues were meant to root out illegal trade in scant basic commodities, left 700,000 people homeless or without a livelihood and affected 2.4 million others, U.N. estimates show.

A U.N. report criticized Harare and said the demolitions were carried out "with indifference to human suffering."

Egeland, who visited settlements where families have lived in makeshift plastic tents since their houses were destroyed in Harare and Bulawayo, said he and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan stood by that report.

The demolitions added to the woes of many Zimbabweans facing shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency, high unemployment and one of the highest rates of inflation in the world.

Mugabe denies responsibility for the crisis and says domestic and international opponents have sabotaged the economy in retaliation for his program of seizing white-owned commercial farms for redistribution to blacks.

Mugabe also accuses the United States and Zimbabwe's former colonial power Britain of trying to use the United Nations to settle political disputes.

Egeland said the U.N. would be feeding in excess of three million people by next February in Zimbabwe, where the country's agriculture output has fallen by more than half in the last five years.

Plight of Zimbabwe Jews reaches a new low

Pessimistic: Peter Sternberg. (Guy Raivitz)

from www.haaretz.com

Plight of Zimbabwe Jews reaches a new low

By Charlotte Halle

Some receive a monthly pension that is less than the price of a loaf of bread, others rarely attend events because they cannot obtain the gasoline needed to get there and there was barely a minyan of ten men for prayer services on the second day of Rosh Hashanah this year.

The picture that Peter Sternberg paints of the Jewish community that he heads, as president of the Zimbabwe Jewish Board of Deputies, is more than a little bleak.

"When you look in the cold light of day at what we're putting up with, it is unbearable," Sternberg told Anglo File this week during a visit to Israel.

Zimbabwe's Jews, a thriving community of 7,500 at its peak in the mid-1960s, now number less than 300. Like the rest of the country's population, they are struggling to get by in a devastated economy. Inflation is nearly 400 percent, there is an acute fuel shortage and supermarkets often lack even staples.

In the last few years there has been a steep rise in the number of Jews and other Zimbabweans who have left the former British colony. President Robert Mugabe has come under harsh criticism for his human rights record and his policies are blamed for bringing the country to the brink of economic and social collapse.

The remaining members of the Jewish community, many of whom still reside in large homes that reflect their former economic status, have been reduced to a standard of living that few could have imagined even a decade ago.

Sternberg reports on the difficulties of burying an elderly member of the community recently because there was no petrol for the hearse to transport the coffin to the cemetery.

Those who had hoped to retire on their pensions "haven't got a hope of surviving with the increase in prices because a monthly pension won't buy a loaf of bread," Sternberg says, quoting this week's exchange rate of one US dollar to 66,000 Zimbabwe dollars (black market rates are of course higher).

"It's amazing how people do manage to survive though, cobbling together money from here and there," Sternberg adds. `Here and there,' he explains, usually means investments, relatives abroad and part-time work - some members of the community continue to work well into their seventies. Only a handful receive welfare funds, whether from the local community or Jewish organizations abroad.

The institutions of the community, which are now concentrated in the capital city, Harare, and the second-largest city of Bulawayo, continue to limp along with heavily depleted numbers, says Sternberg. The two synagogues in the capital, the Harare Hebrew congregation and the Sephardi Hebrew congregation, began joining together two years ago for Shabbat services led by laymen.

The only rabbi who lives in Zimbabwe is an Israeli who leads the only other congregation the country, in Bulawayo. It holds its weekday services in the country's only Jewish old-age home, Savyon Lodge, which is currently at full capacity with 32 residents. Sternberg reports that a kosher butcher comes up from Johannesburg a few times a year to bring meat to the home and to the handful of households in the country that keep kosher.

Harare's Jewish primary school, he says, caters for some 200 children, including the offspring of some of the country's elite, but only about six Jewish pupils attend. "They keep it going for the sake of that half dozen," says Sternberg, adding that although there is only one Jewish teacher (an Israeli who teaches Hebrew), Jewish studies are taught. At the nearby Jewish nursery, just one Jewish child joined this year's intake; next year there will be none. The community's once thriving Zionist youth movements of Habonim and Bnei Akiva are now defunct.

The country's two Jewish women's organizations, WIZO and the Union of Jewish Women - of which Sternberg's wife Hermoine is national president - still function, but with heavily depleted numbers.

"Because of the number of people leaving, people are asked to take on more and more positions all the time," says Sternberg, noting that a couple of years ago he returned from vacation to find he had been made national treasurer of the community's umbrella organization, the Jewish Board of Deputies. Subsequently, when the national president left the country, Sternberg took on that position too.

Sternberg describes the profile of the Jewish community as mainly ex-businessmen, and to a large extent retired. For the last 25 years, the community's youth have travelled abroad for university studies - traditionally in South Africa, Britain or the United States - and have not returned.

"Offhand, I can't think of a single one who has come back, except for a brief period," says Sternberg, who has two children in the U.K. and one in the U.S. He adds that the community does have a few younger members who work in business and are earning enough to make it viable for them to stay.

He stresses that the problems facing the community are not exacerbated by anti-Semitism, but rather reflect the situation faced by the rest of Zimbabwe's population. "What hits them, hits us," he says.

Sternberg grew up in Gatooma (now know as Kadoma) in the Zimbabwean midlands, a town which once had a Jewish community of 70 people and where his father held the position of mayor. Sternberg and his wife relocated to Harare seven years ago, when the town's white population became negligible, a fate which is on its way to being repeated in the capital. As for the future of Zimbabwe's Jewish community, Sternberg cannot muster any optimism: So, is he thinking of leaving?

"Everyone has something like that in mind and most people will admit to giving it a thought," is all he will say. "Most of our friends have left over the last two or three years. It's a very frustrating place to be. Virtually everyone suffers from extreme stress. Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring, but not everyone [in the Jewish community] can leave. There is not always somewhere to go to. When you leave the country, you can't take anything with you because Zim currency is not cashable anywhere and it's been like that for 25 years. So you leave with no money - legally at least - which means you start off wherever you are with nothing. Not wanting to be a burden on your children has kept a lot of people in the county. Sure, there are plenty who regret not leaving earlier, but a lot of people felt there was a future in the country. It's not only the Jewish community, but everybody feels is this ever going to come to an end and when? It's a bleak future. That is definitely the case. There is no light at the end of the tunnel."

Zimbabwe national airline grounded for lack of fuel

Zimbabwe national airline grounded by fuel shortage
Tue Nov 22, 2005 7:48 AM GMT
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By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's state-owned national airline has grounded its entire fleet after running out of fuel as the southern African country's economy continues to crumble, company officials said on Tuesday.

Critics blame President Robert Mugabe's controversial policies and government mismanagement for a long-running crisis that has left a once vibrant economy struggling with shortages of food, fuel, foreign currency and a decaying infrastructure.

A senior Air Zimbabwe official said on Tuesday the national passenger carrier was forced to ground all seven of its planes on Monday, and to cancel all its domestic and international flights "until further notice" due to fuel shortages.

Air Zimbabwe officials say people were caught unaware at Harare airport on Monday, leaving passengers milling at check-in counters. But on Tuesday the airline ran radio advertisements advising passengers to check for new developments.

Air Zimbabwe's board of directors has responded to the grounding by suspending the airline's chief executive officer Tendai Mahachi and two other top managers, with transport officials saying Mugabe's government felt embarrassed by the halting of flights.

"All planes have been grounded because there is no adequate foreign currency to buy fuel and flights have been suspended until further notice," said one Air Zimbabwe official.

Air Zimbabwe's official spokesman, David Mwenga, and board vice-chairman Jonathan Kadzura, who issued a statement to state media announcing the suspension of the airline's top managers, were both unavailable for immediate comment on Tuesday.

In his statement, Kadzura said the board of directors had been forced to suspend the three "pending investigations into the serious disruptions of the national airline's operations and services to customers".

He said the board was working to restore services but gave no indication of when Air Zimbabwe might resume flights.

The airline has long-haul flights to London, China, Singapore and Dubai, and management was embroiled in a controversy earlier this year for allowing a plane to carry just one passenger to Harare from Dubai.

Critics say the airline is a victim of gross mismanagement and almost daily government interference in its operations, including by Mugabe who has sometimes commandeered planes for his business trips abroad.

Air Zimbabwe had 15 airplanes when Mugabe assumed power at independence from Britain in 1980, but the fleet has dwindled to seven, including two small planes bought this year from China.

Mugabe's critics say he has wrecked one of Africa's most promising economies through his policies, including seizures and redistribution of white-owned farms to his black supporters.

But the 81-year-old Mugabe says Zimbabwe's steep six-year economic recession, which has left the country with inflation above 400 percent, is due to sabotage by domestic and Western opponents trying to oust him over his nationalistic policies.

South Africa, Zimbabwe strengthen defense, intelligence ties

South Africa, Zimbabwe strengthen defense, intelligence ties

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) -- South Africa and Zimbabwe signed an agreement to strengthen defense and intelligence ties at a ceremony Thursday emphasizing the solidarity between the two neighbors in the face of growing international condemnation of Zimbabwe.

South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils praised Zimbabwe's "advances and successes" in the 25 years since its independence from Britain. He said the two countries shared a "common world view" and would "march forward shoulder to shoulder."

The comments contrasted with the criticism heaped on Zimbabwe by most Western governments, which accuse Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe of bringing his country to the brink of economic and social collapse and trampling on human rights.

In brief remarks at the signing ceremony, Zimbabwean Minister for National Security Dydimus Matasa, one of the most powerful and feared figures in Zimbabwe, said the greatest threat to the southern African region's security came from outside "influences whose aim is to effect regime change especially with regard to countries led by former liberation movements."

Zimbabwe has repeatedly accused its Western critics, the United States and Britain in particular, of plotting against Mugabe's regime. Mugabe has found allies among movements in the region such as South Africa's ruling African National Congress that fought colonialism and white rule. Mugabe supported the ANC in the fight against apartheid.

Regional heavyweight South Africa is the most important ally of an increasingly isolated Zimbabwe. President Thabo Mbeki maintains that his policy of quiet diplomacy is the only way to bring about economic and political reform.

Kasrils bristled at a press conference following the signing ceremony when asked about Zimbabwe's civil liberties record.

"We have very strong ties with our neighbor, and we are indebted to our neighbor for achieving freedom and liberty," he said. "This will never ever be forgotten by the people of South Africa."

Zimbabwe Minister of Defense Sydney Sekeremayi accused the West of feigning concern about human rights and civil liberties when it was only really interested in the seizure of land from white Zimbabweans for redistribution to blacks.

"The position that we have taken as a country to repossess our land is irreversible," Sekeremayi said.

The agreement signed Thursday provides for a Joint Permanent Commission on Defense and Security to boost military, police and intelligence cooperation, and to tackle specific areas of concern such as cross-border crime and illegal immigration.

There are an estimated 3 million Zimbabweans living in South Africa, many of them without papers, seeking refuge from political repression and economic collapse at home.

Under a separate agreement, Zimbabwe also promised to send flying instructors to train South African air force pilots and technicians.

Zimbabwe used to be one of Africa's most advanced countries with a highly educated and trained work force. It is now suffering from inflation of more than 400 percent, mass unemployment and shortages of most staples.

Analysts blame the meltdown in the agriculture-based economy on the chaotic and often violent seizures of more than 5,000 white-owned commercial farms since 2000.

The United Nations estimates that at least 4 million of the country's 12.5 million people are suffering severe food shortages.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Machal - A special breed

A special breed


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DAVID E. KAPLAN, THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 13, 2005

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They left jobs, interrupted their studies, and some even postponed weddings. Literally rescheduling their lives, they dropped everything to come and fight for the fledgling Jewish state. In cockpits and on board ships, in tanks and armored vehicles, treating the wounded in hospitals and on the front lines, these young idealistic men and woman - Jews and non-Jews - helped change the tide in Israel's War of Independence.

Most of them veterans of World War II, they brought their experience and expertise to the makeshift armed forces of the new state: Machal - Mitnadvei Chutz La'aretz - 3,500 overseas volunteers from 43 countries across the globe.

Among this special breed were some 810 South Africans, representing 23% of the total complement of overseas volunteers.

The South African Zionist Federation in Israel (Telfed) recently paid tribute to these veterans at Beth Protea, a South African retirement home in Herzliya.

"We are an endangered species; and while many of us are still around, we need to tell our story, particularly to Israeli youths who know very little about this chapter in our history," Smoky Simon, chairman of World Machal, told Metro.

In firm agreement was former Tel Aviv mayor Shlomo Lahat, who served with the South Africans. Addressing the gathering of veterans in Israel, he called for more education about Machal, "starting by including it in the school syllabus."

Asked about the contribution of women Machalniks, Simon smiles. "The first that comes to mind is my wife, Myra. We got married in South Africa so that we could come to Israel together, and spent our honeymoon fighting for the country. She was the first meteorological instructor in the Israeli Air Force. Many of her graduates became squadron and base commanders."

An exhibition of photographs and memorabilia was put together by David "Migdal" Tepperson who, at age 79, is still doing reserve duty. Tepperson is the longest serving soldier in IDF history and enjoys the rare distinction of having served in all of Israel's wars. On the day that David Ben-Gurion solemnly declared the establishment of the Jewish state, Tepperson was arriving by ship off the coast of Tel Aviv.

"Standing on deck, I watched as if it were a movie. Egyptian spitfires came over, strafing and bombing the city. Fortunately they didn't attack our ship, but it was my induction - this was my first day in Israel on Israel's first day and, clearly, we were at war."

Tepperson served in the Negev brigade that captured Beersheba, and participated in raids in jeeps often lasting two to five days. "On one occasion," he relates, "we passed a heavily outnumbered group of Egyptian soldiers who thought we were fellow Egyptians. They never believed we would move at night, and we shouted 'Salaam' as we passed them."

As people mingled among the exhibits, stories were recalled that became part of the war's folklore. One person related that on May 30, 1948, "A Messerschmitt flown by an American pilot, Milton Rubenstein, was hit by enemy fire and was downed in the Mediterranean off Michmoret. The pilot swam to shore, but as he could not speak a word of Hebrew and was afraid that he would accidentally be shot by friendly fire, he proclaimed his identity by screaming, 'Gefilte fish, gefilte fish!'"

Another related how the late Boris Senior, the South African commander of the base at Sde Dov, received orders to bomb Amman. The target selected was King Abdullah's palace, where Arab leaders were to meet. Fellow South African Dov Judah was Senior's navigator. He records that as Amman was "pretty well lit up and my navigational experience was not needed, I deposited the bombs. We made two runs on the palace, trying to hit it with 50-kilo bombs pushed out with the help of special handles affixed to the bombs. I never saw them explode - only the lights of Amman going out. We later learned that the bombs that had failed to explode drew curiosity among the enemy - bombs with handles? Some of these bombs were collected and transported to laboratories in England in an attempt to explain 'What the Jews were up to.' Clearly in the RAF, they had never come across the position of bomb chucker-outer!"

Stanley Medicks, chairman of Machal in Britain, Europe, and Scandinavia and instigator of the Machal memorial at Sha'ar Hagai, recalled an incident during the battle of Tamra, which opened the campaign to the north.

"I was a platoon commander of No. 1 platoon scaling a hill. Suddenly I hear shouting, 'Medicks, Medicks!' I immediately handed over command and said, 'Something has happened and they need me.' And through a hail of bullets from the Jordanians, I dashed to the top of the hill and was met by 'Where the bloody hell are the stretcher-bearers?'"

The guest of honor was Reuma Weizman, wife of late president Ezer Weizman, who had been one of the few Israelis in the fledgling air force comprising 95% Machalnikim. Simon recounted an incident when Weizman and four Machalnik fighter pilots, including Boris Senior, shot down four British planes piloted by members of the RAF. A fifth plane was shot down by Machalnik ground fire. This incident, which received major publicity in the British press at the time, involved South Africans both in the air and on the ground.

Concerned about possible political flack resulting from this incident, Air Force commander Aaron Remez called an emergency meeting of staff officers. Coming out of the meeting looking very somber was a Machalnik from the US, Danny Cravitt. He immediately reported to British Machalnik Morrie Mann waiting in the anteroom.

"What is going to happen?" asked a worried Mann.

Kravitz replied, "This is top secret and please, not a word to anyone."

"Of course," said Mann.

"We have just taken an operational decision to bomb London," revealed Kravitz.

Unfazed, Mann replied, "Danny, I couldn't care less. I come from Manchester."

While stories and anecdotes were amusingly and proudly recalled, on a more somber note Telfed paid honor to all Southern Africans who fell in the defense of Israel. Two young soldiers of South African parents laid a wreath for the 75 men and women who died in uniform.

Of concern to Maurice Ostroff, who commandeered a radar mobile station during the war, was "to set the record straight." He believes that the job of the Machalniks is far from over. There is one more battle to fight, in the arena of public relations. Alluding to Simon's statement that the Machalnikim are an 'endangered species,' Ostroff asserts that "We, who were there and know the facts, have one final mission - to correct the damaging distortions of our 1948 history by Israel's new historians."

He cited examples of Ilan Pappe of the University of Haifa, "who accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing in 1948"; Noam Chomsky of MIT, "who portrays Israel as a terrorist state"; and Norman Finkelstein, "described by the Washington Post as a writer celebrated by neo-Nazi groups for comparing Israel to Nazi Germany."

"We ignore the new historians at our peril," Ostroff warns. "We Jews are often accused of being paranoid, but there is much truth in the maxim 'Just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't after you.'"

Churchill's apt depiction after the Battle of Britain that "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" could equally apply to the debt the state owes to the overseas volunteers who came to fight in Israel's War of Independence.

The Machalniks' contribution represents one of the proudest chapters in modern Jewish history, when ordinary people behaved quite extraordinarily. As Ben-Gurion said, "This was a war not won by heroes. It was won by ordinary men and women rising above themselves."

In the Jewish spirit
Telfed also paid tribute to NACHAL, the South African volunteers who came in 1956 during the Suez campaign. In 1955, the Jews of South Africa were the first to react to the possibility that war was looming, and in early 1955 the South African Zionist Federation set in motion a program to dispatch volunteers to relieve kibbutzniks should they be called up for active service.

Les Amdur was one the more than 150 South Africans who volunteered their services. Like many of the other Nachalniks, he would later immigrate to Israel.

Addressing Telfed's tribute, Amdur said, "The people who volunteered were not all Zionists, some knowing very little about Israel or Judaism, but they all had one thing in common - a Jewish spirit to contribute to their fellow Jews in their hour of need."

Zimbabwe migrant: Rejoice Mkwananzi in Israel

From BBC News, 3 November


Zimbabwe migrant: Rejoice Mkwananzi


The BBC News website has been speaking to Zimbabweans who have left the country in recent years about their reasons and the risks they took. Rejoice Mkwananzi (not her real name), 49, gave up her position as deputy head teacher of an infant school in Zimbabwe and moved to Israel to be a maid so that she could support her extended family.


When I left Zimbabwe in 1999 I was the acting head teacher at a very respected junior school. I was in charge of 45 other teachers and would have soon been promoted to head teacher. Basically at that time wages were too low - and then it was so much better than it is now. Almost half of my salary would go to the taxman. I then had my mortgage to pay for, my car, my various policies and at the end of it all I was left with almost nothing. It was so hard to make ends meet. It felt as though the moment I received my salary, it was all gone. My life was hand-to-mouth. My sister had recently died tragically and her two children were left all alone. The way our society works is that the family steps in and takes over caring and providing as needed. And so instead of supporting myself and my poor-in-health mother, I now had to provide for my sister's two little girls too. If I had stayed at home I wouldn't have managed.


At that time the situation in Zimbabwe was really desperate. Now though, when I look back it was not all that bad! I met a cousin of mine who had a job in Israel and she told me that the family that she had been working for were looking for someone to help them. I was just lucky. The family paid for all my relocation expenses to where they live near Tel Aviv and sorted out a work permit for me. My initial intentions were just to stay a year. But things, back home, went from bad to worse and now I don't see myself going back. Well not soon anyway. I don't see how that would be possible. The work is so depressing. I never thought I would find myself doing these jobs. I clean the house, look after the children when they come home from school, sometimes I cook, I do everything. I leave my apartment at half-seven in the morning and get home at nine in the evening, and between those hours I am constantly on my feet. I only start work at the family's home in the afte! rnoon but to make more money I spend my mornings going about cleaning in different places. Some of the people are welcoming and good to me but the woman that I mainly work for, I couldn't call her exactly warm.


When I first arrived I used to share a three-bedroom apartment with a Ghanaian and a Kenyan. It was really difficult though and I had to be so accommodating. People are different - our cultures, the food we eat and how it smells, manners and all that. I couldn't get used to it. I am an independent woman and had always lived on my own, apart from when I was married. And so as soon as I could I found myself a one-bedroom apartment to rent. It is better to have my own space but I am lonely. One does not have a social life living here. There are several Zimbabweans and South Africans that I am friends with - we all stick together. They normally visit over our weekends - from Friday afternoons till Saturday. But few of them have the correct papers and so are too frightened to go out in case the police stop them. Instead we meet in people's houses. When I go around town I am sometimes nervous of a bomb going off. There was a time two, three years ago when we would h! ave to carry gas masks. And you feel frightened taking buses, because of the bombing. You can feel tensions amongst crowds of people. Nothing bad has happened to me. God has really protected me.


I miss home, so much. I applied and was given political asylum and so I cannot go home, not even for a holiday. If I went, I would not be allowed back. I wish I could do a proper job - doing this is killing me mentally and I have developed a low self-esteem. I love children and would give anything to be able to teach once more. My mother is physically very ill but is so strong mentally. I phone home once a week and she tells me to think of what I have achieved. I have achieved a lot and it makes me happy that I can support my mother and nieces but I am living for my family. I don't even have a boyfriend! My family depend on me for everything. I send them money to pay all their bills, pay for the school fees. I make sure my mother can pay to see a private doctor, and that she has all her medications. They depend on me left, right and centre. I hope all the things happening in Zimbabwe end soon. I want to go home and live the kind of life that I used to have.



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Haaretz - Israel News - They came, they fought - and some of them stayed

has gathered over 4,500 Machal-related photos and runs the Machal museum in Latrun. "The world must not forget what world Jewry did in 1948," he said.

As veterans and their families wandered among the boards of photographs, seeking out black-and-white images of their former selves, many of them were keen to reminisce about their experiences coming to Israel in 1948.

"It took us three days to get here [Israel] from South Africa," said Elhanan Rosenblum, who is originally from Boxburg, South Africa. He, like many of the Machalniks, never returned there after the 1948 war and now lives in Ra'anana. "We had to leave under the cover that we were students on a trip to Europe, as it wasn't allowed to come and fight. We landed in Italy, where we trained for 10 days before coming to Israel.

"I thought they ate herring and danced the hora all night in Israel; it wasn't quite like that but I have no regrets about coming here," added Rosenblum, who served in an anti-tank unit in 1948.

Like many of his fellow veterans, Rosenblum spoke about the rampant anti-Semitism in South Africa at that time, which was a key factor in his motivation to come and fight in Israel. "I felt I couldn't take it [the anti-Semitism] anymore," he said. "I had always dreamed about a place where all the Jews could go and be safe, and coming to Israel to fight was my chance to achieve that."

Other veterans at the event spoke about the sense of duty that pulled them toward risking their lives for the nascent Jewish state, even though some of them had already fought in World War II.

"Smoky" Simon, a Machalnik who was one of the first members of the Israel Air Force, had already served five years in the South African Air Force before volunteering to fight in Israel. "After reading about the horrors of the Holocaust, the deportation of refugees from Palestine by the British and the threat of extermination by the Arab nations, I felt it my duty to come [to Israel] and fight, " he said, adding, "during a crisis, the Jews must unify."

And unity remains important to the Machalniks, even 57 years on. The group holds reunions every year at a memorial site on the "Burma Road," the alternative route built to reach besieged Jerusalem in 1948. Throughout the evening, the veterans were slapping each other on the back, teasing, heckling, calling each other by nicknames and comparing Machal ties, like a group of fresh recruits.

"It's important the connection be maintained," said Stanley Medicks, chairman of Machal, London who came to Israel especially for the event. Medicks, who served as an infantry officer, said, "Coming to Israel to help build the homeland of the Jewish people is the most important and significant thing I have done in my life. Without Machal, Israel, with no tanks, no fighter planes and very little expertise, would not have survived in its present form."

From further afield was Barney Meyerson, chairman of Machal Australia, and his wife Bertha. Barney, who fought in the Palmach in `48, agreed such evenings were important, and also "very enjoyable." "It's nice to see so many of the old faces, " he said, "the very old faces."

In the more formal part of the evening's events, the guest speakers included Telfed chairman Itz Kalmanowitz and the former mayor of Tel Aviv, Shlomo Lahat, who denounced the "sin" of Israeli society in not sufficiently expressing its gratitude to the Machalniks. He called for more education about Machal in schools, in the army and in society in general.

Re'uma Weizman also attended the event. Her late husband, former president Ezer Weizman, was one of the few Israelis who flew fighter planes in the War of Independence, in an air force that was made up of 95 percent Machalnikim. Sid Cohen, who was also at this week's event and actually commanded Weizman in Squadron 101, was one of Israel's first fighter pilots and the father of the IAF fighter squadron - and does he have some stories to tell.

`When we needed you most'

Some 3,500 volunteers from overseas - men and women, Jews and non-Jews from 44 countries - came to fight in Israel in 1948 after the state's declaration of independence, bringing their much-needed experience and expertise to the fledgling Israel Defense Forces. Some 800 of these came from South Africa.

The Machal volunteers made a significant contribution toward winning the war and laying the foundation on which the IDF was built. Over 120 Machalniks were killed, many were wounded and taken prisoner.

In 1993, the Machal memorial was dedicated in Sha'ar Hagai by prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who said, "You came to us when we needed you most, during those dark and uncertain days in our War of Independence."