nanso-ke iwondo yeminda

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2229142

Zimbabwe evicts some black farmers who invaded white land
September 18, 2004

Harare - Hundreds of black peasant farmers were this week forcibly evicted from two formerly white-owned farms that they occupied during the 2000 land invasions, witnesses, civic groups and police said Friday.

A witness told AFP he saw scores of huts on fire after riot police had ordered all farmers without official permits to settle on the properties to vacate.

Police confirmed they were involved in the exercise to remove the farmers "who had imposed themselves", on the farms situated some 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of the capital.

"Yes, we moved in to remove them ... (and) some of the houses were burnt in the process," police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said in an interview.

He said the farms were for ranching and not suitable for crop growing, yet all of the farmers who had settled on them had planted the land to maize and other food crops.

"Hundreds of new farmers and their families are stranded at Little England and Inkomo Farms... after police torched and destroyed their huts following a government order to evict them," said a coalition of human and civic rights organisations, Crisis in Zimbabwe.


Police said a series of meetings had earlier been held between government officials and the settlers on the plan to evict them.

A witness said the farms were to be re-allocated to large-scale commercial black farmers, while the evictees were not given alternative accommodation.

Government embarked in 2000 on land reforms which saw veterans of the liberation war along with pro-government supporters invading white-owned farms.

The farms were parcelled into smaller pieces of land and allocated to landless blacks, some of whom had left their crowded communal rural homes to move to the new settlements.

Under the land reform program launched in 2000, nearly 4,000 of the country's 4,500 white farmers, who owned 70 percent of Zimbabwe's most fertile land, lost their property.

The controversial land reform plan is cited as one of the reasons for the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, once southern Africa's bread basket.

Akudliwe sona simulenga leso!! Toko!!!

'Don't laugh - it's my lunch' By Foster Dongozi

City workers scrounge as food prices soar TAWANDA is a junior manager at a departmental store in central Harare. The sight of him protectively clutching an elegant elephant skin briefcase would pass him off for a top-flight company executive with important corporate documents to guard.

The briefcase certainly contains something important to the recently graduated 23-year-old.
It is a food container with left overs from the previous night's supper.

At 12 noon, he furtively removes the food container and quickly gobbles the contents before any of his juniors have sight of his "lunch".

He is not alone in this desperate daily struggle to keep body and soul together.

Carrying lunch to work was, not so long ago, a preserve of industrial workers who performed menial tasks. The need to carry food was also
necessitated by the fact that there were few outlets from which to buy food while their meagre salaries meant they could not afford to buy from the few kiosks available.

But all that has changed. Thousands of the once tall and proud Zimbabweans, among them company executives, now carry left overs to work
because the traditional snacks of a just-out of the oven meat-pie, hamburger or the occasional fish and chips lunch at a restaurant are now
beyond the reach of many.

Tawanda can be regarded as among some of the lucky few who can at least afford a lunchtime "meal."

The meat-pie, long regarded in Zimbabwe by many as the lunchtime snack for young professionals has now been replaced by the "air-pie" and "sun
crush"- euphemisms for not eating anything over lunch.

"I earn over $2 million and have a wife and a daughter but as you are aware, that salary is not enough to enable me to indulge in the
occasional meat pie or burger," says Tawanda

"The irony of all this though," he adds, "is that while at university,I could have a burger anytime I wanted. If I buy snacks over lunch my
family will starve. That is why I have to devise ways of keeping hunger at bay." Tawanda says meat no longer features regularly at his dinner
table at home.

So what does he usually carry in his food container?

"The left overs are usually sadza and vegetables. That is why I would not want any of my juniors to see what I eat over lunch because I would be embarrassed," he said with a bleak gaze in his eyes.

But Zimbabweans are ever so innovative.

Despite enduring the rigours of a daily battle to get transport to and from work, they still manage to come up with strategies to beat the
hunger.

Avocadoes and tomatoes have come in handy in keeping hunger pangs at bay.

With a loaf of bread costing at least $3 500, enterprising but hungry workers are forming food clubs where they contribute money to buy bread,
avocadoes and tomatoes."From that we make sandwiches which we chase own with generous quantities of water," said a sales manager with a
publishing company in Harare.

Carrots and cucumbers have also emerged as favourites over lunch.

With a burger going for $14 000 and a pie costing $13 000 it is little wonder that cucumbers which cost as little as $500 have become the main component of the dietary requirements of Harare's workforce over lunch.

The avocado has just gone out of season, leaving the cucumber, tomato and carrot as alternatives.

A vegetable vendor, who identified himself as Mukanya, and owns several push-carts that ply the streets of central Harare selling cucumbers,
said the vegetable was so popular that he was making as much as $100 000 profit a day.

"It is amazing, but everyday from mid-day, people leave their offices to come and buy cucumbers and carrots which they eat. I have come up with a chilly sauce, which they add to the improvised lunch. With prices of food sky-rocketing, a lot of people now prefer vegetable snacks for lunch," said Mukanya.

The high food prices have led to the sprouting of informal food outlets especially at minibus ranks. One such venture is located at the Dzivarasekwa terminus in the city.

"Our outlet has become so popular with lunchtime patrons because we sell our food at garrulous clients.

The majority of clients are touts (mahwindi) who operate from several terminuses. "These informal food out-lets have come to our rescue
because as some of the most poorly paid people, we would not be able to afford reasonable meals," said one tout as he ate sadza and beans.

The search for cheaper lunchtime meals has left the traditional restaurants worse off.

"We have been experiencing a gradual decline in business over the past two years. We believe this has more to do with the erosion of disposable income and the search for cheaper alternative meals," Rudo Phiri, a
marketing manager at a fast food outlet told The Standard.

Atleast people will live healthy lifestles thus reducing the risk of heart disease,strokes and diabetes.

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That's another theory Mjida but kumnandi ukwenza njalo kungesi ntando yakho njalo usebunzimeni and kungela plani. How about the role of "stress" in inducing all the above illnesses you mention above Mjida!!

This would certainly cause stress related problems and malnutrition related diseases. Its very sad that we have reached such a state, when long ago we were viewed as the food basket for the whole region.

UMugaxa kadinwa nguye yedwa ongafuni ukuphuma esihlalweni, lo Dosantos. Nxx!

In the sense that its the executives that are now feeling it when yesterday they were the ones who were known for braaing meat at lunch times eating money they got from bribes makes me think this is the right thing to happen to them though the povo is suffering but wait a minute Mthwakazi has been surviving this way for 24 yrs and no newspaper has bothered to print it as headline news,we had to go to South Africa to make sure our parents don't carry amalaja to work.

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Okungapheliyo kuyahlanya kwazekwabafikela.

Ngizwe kuthwa sokule shortage yama Tshokolethi. Its sad, ilizwe elingela zwitsi!!! Lilizwe bani lonelo?

The worst problem ngeyokuthi abakhokheli abala nkinga ngoba bona bayenelisa ukuya impotha ifokolo abazifunayo eGoli kumbe ngaphingaphi. Yikho sibona kungela kudla elizweni, ngoba abakhokheli abathatha amasimu abenzi fokolo ngawo, balayo imali. Akudingakali ukuthi balime, fafuna amasimu only as property - okokuthi abantu bayalamba abalandaba lakho.

Sizakwenzani bakithi, ngesikhathi esizayo ukwenqabela into ezinje. Labantu abathatha amasimu njalo?

Asizi buzeni ukuthi kuyo zala nkomoni.