Zimbabwe News Update: China Pledges to Boost Ties; President Mugabe Meets US Official in Sirte; Editors Re-assigned

Gu Xiulian, vice-chair of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC), meets with Grace Mugabe, the First Lady of Zimbabwe and head of a visiting women's delegation, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, November 19, 2007.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

China pledges to boost ties with Zim

Xinhua-Herald Reporter.

CHINA has pledged to continue supporting Zimbabwe while vowing to boost ties with the country in the fields of mining, agriculture and construction.

According to media reports from Beijing, Mr Wang Jiarui — the head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and Mr Zhou Yongkang, who heads the CPC’s Central Political and Legislative Affairs Committee, told a visiting Zimbabwean delegation that their Government would drive for greater investment.

Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa heads the Zimbabwean delegation that has been in China since June 22.

Mr Wang reportedly told Minister Mnangagwa that it was in the two countries fundamental interests to expand co-operation in the mining, agriculture and construction sectors of the economy.

Xinhua also reported that Mr Wang called for the stepping-up of high-level exchanges and a strengthening of ties between the CPC and Zanu-PF, as well as youth and women’s organisations. The agency said Minister Mnangagwa in turn assured Beijing of Zimbabwe’s continued friendship and support for the One-China policy.

In a separate meeting, Mr Zhou said although China was facing its own difficulties in the global financial tumult, it would offer Zimbabwe help within its capacity. Mr Zhou encouraged Chinese enterprises to invest more in Zimbabwe.

"We will encourage and facilitate more Chinese companies to seek development in Zimbabwe.

"We sincerely hope to see stability in Zimbabwe, and hope the Zimbabwe people constantly improve their livelihood," Mr Zhou said.

Co-operation with China had benefited the Zimbabwean people in the past, Minister Mnangagwa said, adding that there was still great potential for bilateral co-operation in agriculture and other fields.

He expressed hope that more Chinese firms would invest in his country.

Following the arrival of the delegation in China, Beijing has already extended a US$950 credit line to Zimbabwe, the largest single injection of assistance since the formation of the inclusive Government in February this year. Zimbabwe embarked on a Look East Policy after Western countries slapped illegal sanctions on the country following the land reform programme.

This has seen China and other Eastern nations investing in Zimbabwe. — Xinhua-Herald Reporter.


President meets top US official

From Caesar Zvayi in SIRTE, Libya
Zimbabwe Herald

PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday met United States Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs Mr Johnnie Carson and Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo on the sidelines of the 13th Ordinary Session of the African Union General Assembly here.

The meeting with Mr Carson was the first time in several years that a senior member of the US administration has met President Mugabe.

Sources who attended the meeting said the President had a frank discussion with Mr Carson who requested the meeting, and was briefed on the process that led to the formation of the inclusive Government, its current state and the working relations between the three parties involved.

President Mugabe, the sources said, told Mr Carson that the Government was working well.

The meeting comes in the wake of recent attempts by some in the West to trash the inclusive Government by claiming that it was failing to meet set ‘‘benchmarks’’ even though all the parties that signed the Global Political Agreement have given the arrangement a clean bill of health and pledged their commitment to resolving any problems arising from the implementation of the agreement among themselves.

During Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s recent tour of Western capitals, the ‘‘benchmarks’’ were cited as an excuse to maintain the illegal sanctions regime on Zimbabwe and to deny the country development support.

Mr Carson, a career African-American diplomat, served as US ambassador to Zimbabwe between 1995 and 1997, and ended his tenure just before the bilateral dispute over land with Britain flared up.

There were no details of the President’s meeting with his Equatorial Guinea counterpart.

Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea enjoy cordial relations and Zimbabwe’s security forces were instrumental in apprehending a planeload of mercenaries who were on their way to Malabo, the E. Guinea capital, to try to unseat Mr Nguema’s government.

The summit, being held under the theme ‘‘Investing in Agriculture for Economic Growth and Food Security’’, enters its third and final day today with the leaders expected to come up with a common position on agriculture and a solid framework for food security.

AU Commissioner for Agricultural Develop-ment Ms Rhoda Peace has stressed the need to integrate the market for agricultural produce on the continent in light of unfair agricultural practices employed by Western nations that see African farmers failing to compete with their Western counterparts on the international market.

She also urged the leaders to work to convert the continent’s annual US$33 billion food importation bill into investment in agriculture.

The leaders are also expected to pronounce themselves firmly on the fragile peace and security situation plaguing various African countries, among them Madagascar, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Somalia. Also expected in the final communiqué is a strong African rebuke of the ICC arrest warrant issued against Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, who is in attendance here.


Zimbabwe Newspapers re-assigns editors

Herald Reporter

ZIMBABWE Newspapers has re-assigned most of the company’s editors to head the different newspaper and magazine titles with William Chikoto, current editor of the weekly Sunday Mail, taking over as editor of the company’s flagship, The Herald.

The group’s Editor-in-Chief Pikirayi Deketeke said yesterday that Zimpapers was embarking on some reforms to position the company to take advantage of new opportunities in the media industry both locally and regionally.

Zimpapers is currently the biggest and most influential media company in Zimbabwe, which is also the only listed media house in the country.

Chikoto, a veteran journalist with over 22 years experience, is credited with transforming The Sunday Mail from a single section newspaper to a multiple section Sunday paper, which is the biggest in the country in terms of both circulation and pagination.

His deputy will be Caesar Zvayi who is currently the night editor of The Herald while Itai Musengeyi, moves up from being news editor to assistant editor. The editor of Bulawayo-based Chronicle, Brezhnev Malaba moves over to head The Sunday Mail in Harare and will be deputised by Nomsa Nkala, who is the current editor of the Zimtravel magazine and assistant editor of The Herald. The Mail’s political editor, Munyaradzi Huni also moves up as assistant editor.

Malaba will be replaced by Innocent Gore at the Chronicle while The Sunday Mail’s Sarah Tikiwa takes over from Nomsa Nkala at Zimtravel.

Gore is the current editor of the regional newspaper, The Southern Times, a joint venture between Zimpapers and Namibia’s New Era.

The current editor of The Manica Post, Makuwerere Bwititi replaces Gore at The Southern Times in Namibia.

Bwititi’s job at the Post will be taken over by The Herald assistant editor, Hatred Zenenga.

The acting editor of the Bulawayo-based uMthunywa weekly, Gugulethu Ncube becomes the substantive editor of the Ndebele-language newspaper.

According to Deketeke, the opening up of Zimbabwe’s media landscape presents both opportunities and threats to the dominant role that has been played by Zimbabwe Newspapers over the last 100 years.

"The interest in Zimbabwe’s media industry is so huge that once this space is opened up, the country is going to be flooded by other new players both local and foreign. So we need to gear ourselves for the competition and remain on top of the game," he said.

Given the size of Zimbabwe’s economy, population and literacy rate, the country’s media industry should be comparable to South Africa or Kenya which boast of media companies that are listed and with interests in newspapers, radio and television.

"We are really excited about the future," said Deketeke.

The company is now vigorously pursuing opportunities on other platforms such as web and mobile editions of its newspapers, among other things.