Police seek tribal healer, arrest followers, over gasoline deposits hoax in Zimbabwe
- From: "Zvakanaka" <lalapansi@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 05:50:14 +0200
It seems the authorities don't like their chains being pulled. Now they want
to arrest the jokers. Have they got no sense of humour?!? The problem here
is that zanupf have become victims of their own lies. They lie so much that
they will believe anything that they think will save them.
Even in Parliament, the are zanupf parliamentarians who are asking the MDC
to come to power soon because they now know that zanupf cannot fix the
monster that zanupf have created
-- -- -- --
Police seek tribal healer, arrest followers, over gasoline deposits hoax in
Zimbabwe
International Herald Tribune
The Associated PressPublished: July 22, 2007
HARARE, Zimbabwe: When traditional healer Rotina Mavhunga claimed in April
that she had discovered deposits of refined gasoline seeping from rocks near
a spiritual shrine, the find was heralded as manna from heaven.
Long-suffering Zimbabweans jumped on the news as a welcome respite from
their daily economic gloom - including an acute gasoline shortage - and the
government investigated reports that the liquid had powered a diesel
vehicle.
But on Sunday the bubble burst when state media reported that police had
arrested 50 followers of Mavhunga. The tribal healer herself was on the run.
Government spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira conceded that there were no fuel
deposits, according to the ruling party newspaper The Voice.
"Nothing convincing was found, meaning there were no deposits of diesel in
the area," the paper quoted him as saying.
The healer made headlines with her claims that she had found the gasoline
near an ancestral shrine in the Chinhoyi district, 100 kilometers (60 miles)
northwest of Harare, state radio said.
The witchdoctor told her followers the fuel could last hundreds of years and
was "a gift from ancestral spirits who saw their children suffering because
of the shortages of fuel," the state Sunday Mail, a government mouthpiece,
said.
Traditional healers are held in high regard in Zimbabwe, like many other
African nations, and superstition runs high.
Three top politicians, Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, Defense Minister
Sydney Sekeramayi and Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi, in charge of
police, went to the district to investigate the claims - a sign that the
government took them seriously.
But after their visit, "experts said it was scientifically implausible that
diesel would gush out of any rock," the Voice said.
From the outset, fuel industry executives said the only source of the gascould have been secret underground tanks abandoned by the white-led
colonial-era military in the last days of the guerrilla war that swept
President Robert Mugabe to power at independence in 1980.
The Sunday Mail said it was not clear under which laws Mavhunga or her
followers were to be charged.
Zimbabwe is in the grips of an economic crisis, which worsened after the
government on June 26 ordered sweeping price cuts of around 50 percent on
all goods and services, and cuts of more than 70 percent on gasoline,
bringing the price down to half the cost of importing it.
Gas stations have run dry and have been unable to replace fuel stocks.
Chaotic lines of vehicles were seen at designated gas stations Sunday as
drivers tried to cash in gas coupons, which are to be phased out Aug. 1.
Many vehicles were overloaded with empty fuel drums.
The fuel dealers rationed customers to 50 liters (about 12 gallons) each and
warned of the dangers of storing gasoline at home.
Gas shortages have crippled transportation services and shortages of basic
goods continued to worsen Sunday. Supermarket shelves remained bare of
cornmeal, meat, bread and other staples.
Pharmacies were running out of medication, and bars were running out of
liquor.
At least 3,000 executives and business managers have been arrested and fined
for violating the government's new price rules since June 26, and officials
have threatened to seize businesses that scale down their operations.
Official inflation is given at 4,500 percent, the highest in the world, but
private financial institutions estimate inflation closer to 9,000 percent,
factoring out reductions on goods that are no longer available.
.
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- Desperate or just stupid.
- From: sandycruden
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- Desperate or just stupid.
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