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Fury at Zimbabwe UN role

West outraged as African nations help elect key minister to head environmental body

Tracy McVeigh, foreign editor
Sunday May 13, 2007
The Observer

A major rift between the West and Africa was exposed at the United Nations this weekend as Zimbabwe was controversially elected as head of the UN's main environment body.

Diplomats from the European Union and the US had strongly objected to a country that has destroyed a once-thriving farming industry, has a failing economy, an appalling human rights record and a poor record of looking after its wildlife and national parks, holding the post.

But in a secret ballot at the UN in New York, Zimbabwe was elected to lead the Commission on Sustainable Economic Development (CSD) by a 26-21 vote with three abstentions. It seems developing countries voted for Zimbabwe in a direct show of defiance against developed ones. EU nations led the objections to Zimbabwe's candidacy in a heated debate late on Friday.

The CSD's entire two-week session had earlier come under attack for its scripted speeches and inability to find common targets for green policies. The conference was brought to an end with no consensus after the 25-member EU refused to approve a paper that included no concrete measures.

The meetings then descended into further upset after the vote in favour of Zimbabwe's environment and tourism minister, Francis Nhema.

The post rotates among regions and Nhema was Africa's choice to lead the commission for the next year. Nhema, as a member of President Robert Mugabe's government, is the subject of an EU travel ban, meaning he cannot travel to Europe to meet ministers on commission business. Nhema responded by saying Western nations had the 'right to their opinions'. 'At the end of the day the majority rules as democracy does,' he said.

Many observers believe the result was an overwhelming snub to the US and the EU by developing nations, especially those in South America, who respected both the African block's decision and their refusal to be pushed around by former colonial masters.

'When they tell the African group to change, it's an insult to our intelligence,' said Zimbawe's ambassador to the UN, Boniface Chidyausiku. 'It's our right (to hold the chair). We're members of the United Nations and we're members of CSD, and the Africa group did make a decision and endorsed Zimbabwe.'

Germany's environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, pointed out that the travel ban against Mugabe's government meant Nhema would be restricted in his contact with those countries.

'It would not be possible for us to invite the chair, if it is from the government of Zimbabwe, or to have contacts with the chair,' said Gabriel, whose country holds EU's current presidency.

Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980 with inflation currently at 2,200 per cent and expected to rise. Mugabe's policies, including the seizure of white-held farms to resettle landless blacks and to give as gifts to his political allies - including Nhema, himself, who was given a 2,500 acre farm said to lie mostly idle - are blamed.

There is increasing controversy over the nature of international relations with Zimbabwe - last week it was revealed by the country's state-controlled newspaper, the Herald, that the football governing body FIFA had given South Africa permission to allow visiting teams to base themselves in Zimbabwe during the 2010 World Cup, while Australians are debating whether the nation's cricket team should tour in Zimbabwe. The Australian government is considering legal action to prevent the cricket team from touring Zimbabwe in September.

'Zimbabwe's election will be seen as an outrage by millions of people who look to the United Nations for help to escape from poverty,' the British minister for climate change and the environment, Ian Pearson, said in a statement. 'They will be asking how the body charged with promoting sustainable development will be able to maintain credibility while being chaired by a representative of a government whose failed policies have destroyed its own economy.'

Minister for Africa Lord Triesman also stressed his opposition to the appointment, saying: 'For a Zimbabwean minister to chair the commission while his own people suffer the appalling consequences of his government's policies, is wholly inconsistent with the commission's aims.

'It damages the credibility of the commission itself and its ability to deal with issues affecting the livelihoods of millions from the poorest countries.'

Fury at Zimbabwe UN role (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2078488,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12)

Tougher times as Zimbabweans grow poorer

by Fanuel Jongwe Sat May 12, 11:19 PM ET

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwean cashier Cosmas Gwizo does not look forward to pay day.

For the 43-year-old earning 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars a month (about 2,000 dollars) the receipt of his salary cheque is a painful rather than joyous occasion.

"Each time I receive my pay cheque I start scratching my head trying to work out how I will manage for the coming month and I find the money will not last me a week," Gwizo told AFP.

"I often forego basics like milk, cut down on things like meat and stay at home if I can't pay bus fare to work. It's painful when you work and yet you can't properly feed and clothe the body that toils."

In its most recent report, the government's Central Statistical Office (CSO) said the poverty threshold for a family of five had risen from 973,800 Zimbabwean dollars a month in February to 1.7 million in March as inflation reached 2,200 percent.

A family with an income below this margin is classified as poor, calculated on the cost of a basic basket of goods and services an average household requires to survive -- including foodstuffs, transport and basic healthcare.

Figures from the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) put the poverty line at 19,000 Zimbabwean dollars in May 2002, when annual inflation was at 113 percent.

Currently, an estimated 80 percent of Zimbabwe's 13 million population is classified as poor.

With the country's seven-year economic downspiral showing no signs of relenting, Gwizo is one of many facing a daily struggle to stretch his salary to care for a wife and three children.

"Most people are doing without a lot of things they need. How they are surviving with the little money they are earning is a big question," independent economist John Robertson told AFP.

"We have a very deprived population which is becoming more so as the developments continue."

The monthly salary for an average urban worker ranges between 90,000 and 500,000 Zimbabwean dollars. The price of a 10 kilogram packet of the staple maize meal is 114,000 Zimbabwean dollars and a loaf of bread costs 8,000 dollars.

Bus fare from the suburbs costs around 7,000 dollars one way.

Most families resort to skipping meals and many walk or cycle up to 30 kilometres (19 miles) to work.

Some supplement their salaries by moonlighting as smalltime traders of clothes or scarce commodities like sugar and cooking oil from under their desks at their workstations -- usually selling on credit.

Others double as cross-border traders and street vendors over weekends and holidays.

"I make an additional 450,000 dollars a month from selling mobile phone recharge cards to passers-by," says security guard Langton Bhowa.

"That is more than double my salary of 200,000 a month and is how I manage to come to work everyday."

For most families milk for their tea, margarine and jam have become luxuries and a square meal is a rare treat.

"Most workers are overstretched and can't meet their dialy requirements let alone invest," Best Doroh, a financial analyst with ZB Financial Holdings, told AFP.

"Wages and salaries are not keeping pace with inflation and ... that is the kind of trend we will continue to see."

The ZCTU said wages were so low that employers could be said to be enjoying slave labour.

"As the economy continues to slide so are disposable incomes," said ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo.

"We can no longer afford to send our children to boarding schools, neither can we afford one decent meal a day.

"Workers are subsidising their employers through finding other sources of income to raise bus fare."

The southern African country's economy has been on the decline since the turn of the century, and four out of five people are unemployed.

Tougher times as Zimbabweans grow poorer (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070513/bs_afp/zimbabweeconomyinflationconsumer;_ylt=Aqm8iH.pFKJipPVw3KXOjjJvaA8F)