news24
Mbeki 'denying' Zim
reality
10/04/2003 23:46 - (SA)
Barnie
Louw
Cape Town - An African psychosis of misplaced solidarity which
leads to a
denial of reality.
That is how Hermann Hanekom of the
Africa Institute diagnosed the
unwillingness of President Thabo Mbeki and
other African leaders to admit
the extent of problems in
Zimbabwe.
Hanekom was responding to a confidential Commonwealth report
which stated
the political, economic and social situation in Zimbabwe had
noticeably
deteriorated in the past year. The report flies in the face of
recent
remarks by Mbeki and President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria that
matters had
improved.
"Denial is a problem in Africa," said Hanekom.
"It's the one thing that has
remained unchanged since the Organisation for
African Unity was established.
It's threatening Nepad and the African
Renaissance - Africa may yet pay the
price in terms of development
aid."
He said the report left Mbeki and Obasanjo with egg on their faces.
By
contradicting Mbeki's stance on Zimbabwe, the report could tarnish the
SA
president's image as Southern African Development Community
(SADC)
strongman.
Reacting to the report, acting DA leader Joe
Seremane said Mbeki must
explain why he supported Obasanjo's recommendation
in February to rescind
Zimbabwe's Commonwealth expulsion. He should also
explain why he opposed
extending Zimbabwe's expulsion until Commonwealth
leaders met in December.
"Mbeki and Obasanjo acted unilaterally, without
considering the
deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe," said
Seremane.
NNP foreign affairs spokesperson Dr Boy Geldenhuys said Mbeki
and Obasanjo's
attempts to portray conditions in Zimbabwe as improving did
not tally with
the facts.
"This places the onus squarely on the
shoulders of the SADC task team
(currently on a fact-finding mission in
Zimbabwe) to offer proposals which
will force President Robert Mugabe to
reform," said Geldenhuys.
"The credibility of the SACD is on the line.
Simply sweeping human rights
abuses under the carpet, as happened during the
presidential elections, will
not serve the interests of the
region."
Financial
Times
Nigerian election to test democracy
By David
White
Published: April 10 2003 23:43
This is where it all broke down
before. On Saturday, Nigeria, Africa's biggest electorate, will choose its
legislators and a week later its president. It is only the third time in
Nigeria's history that an elected administration has held elections.
The
first time was in 1963-64. Barely a year after general elections, the army took
power. The next time was 1983 and the army returned three months later. For all
the defects and violence of its struggling democracy - and the peculiarity of
having two former dictators as the main presidential candidates - Nigeria will
be moving into new territory if it gets safely past this
election.
Tentatively, unevenly, and belatedly, democracy is gaining ground
in Africa. While some countries are still bloodbaths away from it, others now
have more political competition, freer media and greater civil liberties than at
any time since the first flush of decolonisation.
Apart from Nigeria, 16 of
Africa's 54 nations are now considered fully fledged or emerging democracies,
compared with around four at the end of the 1980s, according to political
analysts. The rest are a mixed bunch of aspiring democracies,
pseudo-democracies, semi-authoritarian, authoritarian and collapsed
states.
Could the domino effect spread African democracy in the way it once
spread military coups? Kenya's change of government last December set an
example, in a country that had been widely expected to implode under the weight
of old political habits. Its neighbour Uganda is now contemplating a switch to
open party competition.
But in Zimbabwe political repression has become
worse. Ivory Coast, once envied for its stability, is teetering on the verge of
breakdown. And Africa's first military coup in more than three years took place
last month in the Central African Republic.
Much of the continent is still
mired in the morass it fell into in the 1960s. Indeed, power struggles, ethnic
conflict, mismanagement, profiteering and political corruption characterise much
of Africa. "
Democracy is viewed as the social, political and economic
answer. On the whole, democratic countries tend to be better off financially
than non- democratic ones. It is not a coincidence that Botswana, among the
countries that have found new mineral wealth, should be the only one to have
managed its resources effectively and also one of the most established
democracies on the continent.
"It is not a question of resources," says
Daniel Bach of the Black Africa Study Centre in Bordeaux. "[Nigeria, the
continent's biggest oil producer,] is one country in Africa that has everything
going for it. In theory."
Surveys show that satisfaction with elected
government in Nigeria has fallen sharply since 2000, but that the idea of
democracy still commands support of more than 70 per cent. In contrast to the
huge popularity of military takeovers in 1966 and 1983, more than 80 per cent
oppose a military comeback. The army lost prestige in the 1990s dictatorship of
Gen Sani Abacha, considered Nigeria's most traumatic. Moreover, military regimes
are no longer the fashion in Africa or Latin America. Until the latest Central
African Republic upset, there was none left south of the Sahara.
In Nigeria
political assassinations have become commonplace, politicians run their own
militias, and the electoral commission lacks credibility. Despite four years of
elected government, the country still battles unemployment, poverty, violence
and graft. The country's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, set out to tackle
corruption when he took office four years ago but his effort was undermined
recently when parliamentarians voted to repeal a bill that would have targeted
them.
"The bottom line is nothing," says Mr Bach. "The corruption law has
become an example of corruption itself."
"The fundamental flaw in military
governance," says a Nigerian diplomat, "is that the soldiers come and say that
they're here today so they can leave tomorrow. This means no one looks to them
to set up any enduring institutions. The country is going to be on hold. The
truth of the matter is that they then stay as long as the fancy for power keeps
them."
Before the present government, Nigerians had only one four-year
interlude of civilian rule in 33 years. Many now in administrative posts have
been conditioned by working under military control. "We need perhaps 20 years of
continuous democratic government to genuinely change the culture that has
developed through such a long period of military government," says the
diplomat.
At independence, open representative government was expected to
prevail in African countries. The British, French and Belgians organised
elections before handing over their colonies. Constitutions and other democratic
trappings were put in place. Many of the new figureheads rejected the western
model as an alien imposition, but Africans did not offer an alternative
model.
Single-party systems were introduced in the name of national unity and
consensus, becoming machines for their leaders to perpetuate their power. The
only alternative sources of power were the armies, which toppled governments
when they failed to meet expectations. Africa became the home of the coup
d'état; there have been more than 70 in the past 40 years.
For western
governments, as long as the cold war lasted, democratic virtue mattered less
than political alignment. But from the early 1990s western pressure resulted in
a broad move towards multi-party elections. The experiment sometimes went
sour.
Today there remains a debate about whether multi-party politics fuels
tribalism. Africans usually consider allegiances to ethnicity, region or
religion more important than ideology. But then many western countries also have
to manage strong regional divisions, or have had to do so in the past.
For
every sign of advancing democracy, there is some countervailing evidence.
Elections, for instance. While almost every country has them - they are even
planned in Democratic Republic of Congo, which has not had a free vote since the
Belgians left - many are a sham. Zimbabwe's presidential contest last year was
condemned widely for vote-rigging and intimidation.
In three years, elected
governments in three countries have handed over power peacefully after being
voted out: Senegal, Ghana and Kenya. This is a rare occurrence in Africa. In the
first and last cases, the elections ousted parties that had been in power for
four decades. But there are only a handful of leaders who voluntarily left
office, such as South Africa's Nelson Mandela. More usually, African heads of
state are removed by natural death, assassination or unconstitutional takeover.
Two-term limits for presidents are gaining currency. Malawi's Bakili Muluzi
recently backed away from seeking a third term. Namibia is debating whether to
allow President Sam Nujoma, to go for a fourth term. Guinea and Togo have had
limits but dropped them. The latter's Gnassingbé Eyadema and Gabon's Omar Bongo
have been in place for more than 35 years, and Libya's Muammer Gadaffi for
almost 34.
The push for more democratic practices reflects the growth of a
more educated urban class, more politically savvy and connected, users of
internet cafes and mobile phones. "The trend and the mood is that people are
demanding more rights, more participation, more deliverables," says Jennifer
Cooke, an Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in
Washington. But this generational change is also behind recent upheavals in
countries where the channels for expressing grievances are
insufficient.
International pressure is another factor. In Kenya's case, for
instance, the US and others persuaded outgoing President Daniel arap Moi not to
try to hold on to power. But the idea of Africans policing their own systems of
governance, one of the main principles behind the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (Nepad), has so far been unsuccessful. It has never been clear how
this proposed "peer review" was meant to work. "It can't all be done overnight,"
Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister and a strong backer of Nepad, recently
told a London audience.
"It's going to take a long time even to agree what
the standards should be," warns one African diplomat.
The US is going its own
way by exerting pressure through preferential trade treatment and, for a more
selective group of countries, through aid from its new Millennium Challenge
Account scheme, which is tied to "good governance".
But George Ayittey, an
outspoken Ghanaian scholar and president of the Washington-based Free Africa
Foundation, is sceptical about its progress. Many incumbent governments are
being elected by default, he says. "In Africa we haven't really sat down to
think through this process of democracy, to institutionalise it."
"We just
think we can hold elections and that's democracy," Mr Ayittey said. "The trouble
is, some group may decide that the ballot box is not a credible means of change
of regime and may resort to guerrilla insurgency. In other words, more African
countries will implode because of the adamant refusal of their leaders to
implement real democratic reform."
In 1990, a former African military
dictator, distinguished by having stepped down from office, delivered a harsh
verdict on the continent's progress since independence: "The bald fact is that
in Africa we have squandered almost 30 years of nation-building efforts. Our
policies were too removed from social needs and developmental
relevance."
That former military dictator was Gen Obasanjo, current and
likely continuing president of Nigeria. His observation remains
true.
Washington File
10 April
2003
Human Rights Progress Amid Conflicts in
Africa
(Annual State Dept. report cites gains made on child labor,
human
trafficking) (890)
By Kelly Machinchick
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington
-- Though conflict and poverty continue to plague Africa,
undercutting
respect for human rights, a recent U.S. government report
points to some
solid gains in this area on which the region may be
able to build. Several
countries have made progress in advancing
political freedoms, and the region
as a whole is making a concerted
effort to halt child labor and human
trafficking.
The State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices was
released on March 31 and rates 196 nations worldwide using
criteria
that include: institutional change; political, press, and
religious
freedom; worker rights; corporate/social responsibility; and
human
trafficking.
In its introduction the report analyzed a number of
human rights
trends, both negative and positive and in Africa cited
several
examples of the political progress made on the continent:
In
Kenya, the December 2002 free elections and a peaceful transfer of
power
"signaled hope for the consolidation of democratic politics";
In
Madagascar, legislative elections were held after a political
crisis that
divided the island nation was resolved;
In Sierra Leone, the decade-long
civil war was officially declared
over in January and the Revolutionary
United Front was disarmed,
leading to "remarkably peaceful presidential
elections in May,
although there were reports of election irregularities";
and
In Angola, peace was finally achieved after 27 years of fighting,
in
large part aided by the death last year of UNITA leader Jonas
Savimbi.
"The former UNITA rebel movement has disarmed and is
transitioning
into an unarmed political party," according to the Report, "and
the
government -- working with the opposition -- is beginning to move
the
country toward new elections."
The "massive human rights
violations" of the civil war in Angola "have
come to an end," the report
notes. Although, "an increase of abuses in
Cabinda Province is worrisome. The
primary focus will now be on the
civil and political rights necessary for the
conduct of free and fair
elections as well as the establishment of the rule
of law throughout
the country."
While violence in the Horn of Africa
region remains subdued, the human
rights report says Eritrea's record
"worsened through 2002." In
contrast, however, it added, "all recorded
Ethiopian prisoners of war
(POWs) from the former conflict were released.
Ethiopia also released
the last of the Eritrean POWs during 2002."
The
lot of children in Africa seems to be slowly improving, the
report's
introduction noted, as governments take measures to protect
the younger
members of their respective societies. For example,
Burundi's government
"stated that it would not recruit child soldiers
in its war against rebel
forces. However, there are unconfirmed
reports that children continue to
serve in armed forces performing
occasional tasks such as carrying weapons
and supplies."
Awareness about trafficking in persons throughout Africa
grew, the
U.S. Government document reported. "More African
countries
participated in time-bound programs designed to eliminate the
worst
forms of child labor. In addition, many of these
cash-strapped
governments are increasingly working on creative programs to
prevent
trafficking and protect trafficking victims."
At the same
time, "Public awareness was raised at local government
levels in many African
countries, particularly in West Africa, about
traditional practices that are
being exploited by traffickers."
On the other side of the continent, in
Tanzania, the report noted,
"Children were mobilized to help identify
traffickers and other
children particularly vulnerable to being trafficked.
In Southern
Africa, some governments began devoting more attention to
the
differences between trafficking, smuggling and seasonal
labor
migration."
On the negative side, in Côte d'Ivoire child labor
remained an issue
of concern, and the recruitment of child soldiers in the
armed civil
conflict was cause for concern. Rebel groups in particular used
child
soldiers."
The report stated that unfortunately, some African
nations regressed
in their ability to treat their citizens fairly and with
respect.
Zimbabwe was held up as a prime example. Once a democratic model
for
Africa, its 11 million citizens have become victims of
oppression,
intimidation, and even torture at the hands of the government
of
Robert Mugabe.
"Zimbabwe's government has used a systematic
campaign of violence and
intimidation against stated and perceived supporters
of the
opposition, even to the extent of routinely and publicly denying
food
to these individuals. The Government manipulated the composition
of
the courts and repeatedly refused to abide by judicial decisions,
which
undermined the judiciary."
Western Africa continues to be wracked by conflict
that has "continued
to fuel human rights abuses. In Côte d'Ivoire, a coup
attempt and
ensuing civil unrest sparked violations by government and
rebel
forces. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, major
abuses
continued [although] Rwanda withdrew its troops by October, and
Uganda
only had 1,000 troops left in the country at year's end."
Also, in
Swaziland, said the report, "respect for rights and rule of
law took steps
backward with a government declaration that it would
not abide by court
decisions."
Although the broad canvas of human rights in Africa painted by
the
individual country reports continues to present a grim picture,
the
efforts of African citizens and governments to carve out democracy
and
freedom have made progress -- however slow and halting -- toward
that
ultimate goal.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of
International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web
site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
Daily
News
MPs
disappear
4/11/2003 6:30:43 AM
(GMT +2)
Staff
Reporters
The whereabouts of two MDC
Members of Parliament arrested by the
police this week were unknown last
night, as Paul Themba Nyathi, the party's
spokesman, was released from police
custody after the Bulawayo High Court
declared he was being held
illegally.
The two opposition MPs, Jealous
Sansole (Hwange East) and David Mpala
(Lupane), were arrested on
Wednesday.
Nyathi was arrested on Monday
on allegations of attempting to subvert
the
government.
The police alleged that
Nyathi, 57, together with other MDC officials,
including Gibson Sibanda, the
party's vice-president, organised last month's
stayaway which they said was
accompanied by violence.
Sibanda was
arrested last week and released on Monday on $1
million
bail.
Speaking from Bulawayo
yesterday, Nyathi said: "I have been released
and I am at home right now. I
must be honest, I was lucky because the police
treated me reasonably
well."
Justice Maphios Cheda ordered
Nyathi's immediate release and said
should the police want him prosecuted
they should proceed by way of summons.
After the judgment, the police tried to send Nyathi to the magistrates
'
court in an apparent bid to circumvent Cheda's ruling, but the
move
flopped.
Asked why they had not
brought Nyathi to court as ordered by an
earlier provisional order, Herbert
Ushewokunze, representing the State, said
he was not sure
why.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of two
other MDC MPs were unknown
yesterday.
The two were arrested as they drove from Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo
Airport.
Nicholas Mathonsi, their lawyer, said last night he was yet to
establish
where they were being held.
Sansole, speaking from police custody after their arrest, said the
police
accused him of ordering youths to puncture tyres of cars during last
month's
stayaway. He said they had further questioned him about ballot box
seals
found in his car.
It was not clear by last
night on what charge Mpala was being held.
After last month's stayaway, the police arrested more than 200 MDC
supporters
and officials for organising the protest and the alleged
accompanying
violence.
The crackdown followed President
Mugabe's order to the State security
agents to "crush" the
MDC.
Mugabe gave the directive at Heroes'
Acre during the burial of the
Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education,
Swithun Mombeshora, last month.
Daily
News
Soldiers evict retired cop
from police camp
4/11/2003
6:45:53 AM (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
JOSHUA Hondoma, a retired police
inspector, claims the police hired
armed soldiers to evict his family from a
house at Chegutu police camp.
Hondoma, who
retired last October, said he suspected he was being
victimised for attending
a Christmas party in Chegutu in 2001, hosted by a
losing MDC candidate in the
2000 parliamentary election.
He was one of
eight police officers who attended Philemon Matibe's
Christmas bash. Matibe
lost to Webster Shamu of Zanu PF.
Hondoma
said one inspector Chinakidzwa, the officer-in-charge at the
station, told
him he had been instructed by his superiors to give Hondoma's
family 24 hours
to leave the camp.
He was thrown out on 28
March this year.
"I asked if the
officer-in-charge could give the order in writing,"
Hondoma said last
Wednesday. "But within three hours of that notice, about
20 armed men in army
trucks and police vehicles arrived at my house,
accusing me of having refused
to vacate the house."
He said the men
refused to identify themselves, saying it was none of
his
business.
Yesterday, Chinakidzwa said in
an interview that he would advise
Hondoma to approach the Police General
Headquarters if he was disgruntled
with the manner in which he was
evicted.
Chinakidzwa refused to answer
further questions on the eviction.
A
policeman at Chegutu said according to police procedures, a retired
officer
was entitled to a three-month reprieve before moving out of
police
accommodation.
Hondoma said his
property was dumped at a stand he is developing in a
Chegutu
suburb.
"I believe they are victimising me
for attending Philemon Matibe's
Christmas party in 2001 because I was a
senior police officer then," he
said.
Hondoma said he was the deputy officer-in-charge at Chegutu Police
Station at
the time, before he was transferred to Harare Central
Police
Station.
Daily
News
Mudzuri urged to fire
insubordinate heads
4/11/2003
6:46:33 AM (GMT +2)
Municipal
Reporter
Harare residents have urged Elias
Mudzuri, the executive mayor, to
fire council heads of departments not
willing to work with him.
On Wednesday,
Mudzuri warned residents the city was facing "a serious
crisis", particularly
over water supplies. He said the council
owed
a South African company about US$600
000 (about Z$49,4 million) for
the supply of Ecol 2000, a chemical used to
kill algae.
The council only has about 17
days' supply of the chemical left but
stopped using it on Wednesday after the
quality of the water improved
following the recent
rains.
Mudzuri said other severe problems
were the increasing number of
potholes on the roads and poor refuse
collection services.
The residents asked
why all the directors were absent from a
consultative meeting with the mayor
at Town House on Wednesday to discuss
"these crucial
issues".
They asked Cuthbert Rwazemba, the
chief public relations officer, to
advise the heads of departments against
absenting themselves from next
Wednesday's
meeting.
An elderly man said of the
directors: "They should be here. If they
are not listening to you, we as the
people who voted you into office give
you the right to fire them, no matter
what they say."
The resident was
apparently referring to a mob that demonstrated
against Mudzuri at Town House
on 24 March, claiming he was victimising
employees who supported Zanu
PF.
"Next week, if we come here and we
don't see them, fire them," said
the resident to applause from a 100-strong
crowd.
At Wednesday's meeting, Mudzuri
complained he was receiving many
excuses from "lazy council
workers".
"I am not amused that they are
not here because they think it is
a
joke.
"They think it is the mayor's
business to address these issues and
when I come down on them they say I am
being political."
Over another matter,
Mudzuri said: "Vusimusi Sithole, Harare's acting
director of works, suspended
14 workers on allegations of misrepresenting
their qualifications as
artisans."
Rwazemba said the Ministry of
Higher and Tertiary Education, and not
Mudzuri, had confirmed the
certificates were forged.
Daily
News
NGOs urge State to spend more
on children's welfare
4/11/2003
6:47:10 AM (GMT +2)
Staff
Reporter
The government should spend more
money on children's welfare because
its allocations in previous national
budgets were inadequate, says an
association of non-governmental
organisations.
The National Association of
Non-Governmental Organisations (Nango)
says it believes not enough government
funds are being spent on
children's
welfare.
The association has
launched consultative workshops to lobby the
government to commit more funds
towards children.
At a provincial workshop
held in Marondera on Wednesday, Bob
Muchabaiwa, Nango's research and
information officer, said the paltry
allocations to children's needs in
previous national budgets had adversely
affected their
lives.
"Serious shortcomings of successive
national budgets on resources
allocated to the welfare of children had
energised the NGO sector to explore
ways of influencing the government to
present a child-friendly national
budget," he
said.
Muchabaiwa said it was imperative
for the NGO sector to lobby the
government for a budget with a positive
impact on children's lives before
another budget was formulated this
year.
Cuthbert Ndarukwa, the district
administrator for Marondera, said
district social services committees had
been established in Mashonaland East
province to identify children's needs to
be able to influence resource
allocation to
children.
"Children need food, clothes and
shelter and these are the issues a
child-friendly national budget must
address," Ndarukwa said. "We need to
have well brought-up children because
they represent the future generation."
John Mathe, a Nango consultant, said children bore the brunt of the
harsh
economic climate in the country and political commitment was needed
to
channel resources towards the revitalisation of the health delivery
system.
"The government needs to know that
access to health and education is
central to the well-being of
children."
The organisation estimates that
over four million children are reeling
under severe food shortages, partly
caused by the government's chaotic
fast-track land reform programme and the
drought.
Daily
News
Lawyers demand protection for
judiciary
4/11/2003 6:48:08 AM
(GMT +2)
Court
Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights (ZLHR) yesterday deplored the
upsurge in the harassment of judicial
officers and urged the government to
protect legal officers performing their
duties.
The lawyers' body statement comes
against a background of mounting
incidents of harassment and intimidation of
judicial officers by the police
and pro-Zanu PF
militants.
ZLHR called for the prompt
investigation of reports of assault and
harassment of lawyers, judges,
magistrates and prosecutors and the
prosecution of the
perpetrators.
"The ZLHR calls upon the
government to comply with its
responsibilities to guarantee the independence
of the judiciary," the
lawyers said.
"Official or unofficial extensions of the Executive, such as the
militia,
have no right to confront judicial officers to question them on the
exercise
of their official functions as part of the
Judiciary."
In the latest in a long
catalogue of abuses, seven people calling
themselves war veterans stormed
into the private office of Levison Chikafu,
a senior prosecutor at the Mutare
Magistrates' Courts.
They threatened to
assault him for "granting bail to MDC supporters
who were supposed to have
been remanded in custody".
On 18 March,
Gugulethu Moyo, the legal advisor of Associated
Newspapers of Zimbabwe,
publishers of The Daily News, was assaulted at Glen
View Police
Station.
She was subsequently arrested and
detained while attempting to secure
the release of Daily News photographer,
Philimon Bulawayo.
Alec Muchadehama, a
human rights lawyer, who had accompanied Moyo, was
also
assaulted.
On the same day, riot police
allegedly chased away human rights lawyer
Andrew Makoni from Glen Norah
Police Station where he had gone to represent
detained
clients.
Advocate Charles Selemani was
arrested allegedly for representing St
Mary's MP Job
Sikhala.
Gabriel Shumba, a human rights
lawyer, was arrested together with
Sikhala, detained and allegedly tortured
by State security agents who
implicated the MP in the burning of a Zupco bus
in the Willowvale industrial
area. Shumba was cleared of the charges but
decided to go into exile.
On 14 February,
police officers, including the officer-in-charge at
Bulawayo Central Police
Station, allegedly verbally abused and pushed ZLHR
members Perpetua
Dube,
Ndabezinhle Mazibuko, Thembelani
Mkhwananzi and Kucaca Phulu out of
the charge office where they had gone to
enquire about their detained
clients. The police allegedly told them the
police station belonged to the
police and not to
lawyers.
Daily
News
MDC threatens to veto Sadc
talk force
4/11/2003 6:48:44 AM
(GMT +2)
By Brian Mangwende Chief
Reporter
IN AN unexpected turn of events,
Zimbabwe could have muscled itself in
on the Sadc Task Force expected to
arrive in the country soon to probe
allegations of escalating political
violence and the contravention of basic
human
rights.
According to The Business Day of
South Africa, there was confusion
over the exact composition, mandate and
timing of the visit - which has
remained shrouded in secrecy - decided on at
last Friday's meeting in Harare
of the Sadc Foreign Ministers on the organ of
defence and security.
The newspaper quoted
a diplomat in Harare as saying the Zimbabwean
government would be part of the
task force.
The diplomat reportedly said
the countries represented would be
Angola, Tanzania, Malawi and Zimbabwe. The
MDC immediately said it would not
co-operate with the task force if
Zimbabwean government officials
were
included.
Welshman Ncube, the MDC
secretary-general, said yesterday: "The MDC is
disturbed by reports coming
from the media and other sources in the
diplomatic community suggesting that
the Sadc task force that will be coming
to Zimbabwe will include as part of
the team members of the government.
"As
the MDC, we state that we would reconsider our decision to
co-operate with
the task force by appearing before it and giving evidence
and our perspective
as well as our vision for the way forward in respect of
the Zimbabwe
crisis.
"We are firmly of the view that if
Zimbabwe is part of the task force,
then the findings would be as good as
predetermined."
Ncube said if the move
went ahead, it would compromise the search for
the truth about what is taking
place in the country. Efforts to get a
comment from the Angolan Embassy
proved fruitless yesterday.
The Business
Day said South Africa's foreign affairs department,
however, said South
Africa, Botswana and Mozambique would be on the task
force. The task force
was first formed in August 2001 when regional leaders
expressed concern about
the effects of the Zimbabwe economic situation on
the
region.
On the task force on Zimbabwe,
Stan Mudenge, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, said the Sadc fact-finding
mission was coming to Zimbabwe at his
behest and not as a matter of their own
initiative.
Daily
News
Suspects say they were beaten
up
4/11/2003 6:49:13 AM (GMT
+2)
Court
Reporter
TWO Chitungwiza men who allegedly
stole a pistol from Wayne
Bvudzijena, the police spokesperson, yesterday said
that they were beaten up
before they made statements to the police. Jeffrey
Musiiwa and Alexander
Masango said they were severely assaulted while in
police cells, and ended
up signing warned and cautioned statements they had
not read.
Their trial opened yesterday at
the Harare magistrates' court with
four witnesses testifying. The State
alleges that on 30 March, Masango and
Musiiwa smashed the front passenger
window of Bvudzijena's car, parked at
Chikwanha shopping centre in
Chitungwiza. They allegedly stole a CZ pistol
that was loaded with 15 rounds
of ammunition.
In his defence, Musiiwa
said: "I was quite surprised when I was picked
up by the police. Eventually,
they took me to St Mary's Police Station where
they continued to force me to
admit to the charge I was not aware of."
He said he was not given any chance to explain himself or to speak to
his
co-accused, alleged to have implicated him until he was brought to court
last
week.
Masango too said he was assaulted
before he ended up admitting to the
charges. But he said he only came to know
about the stolen pistol when he
was approached by a man named Munyaradzi who
wanted his help in selling the
pistol. The trial continues
today.
Daily
News
The Mole
Of denials
that do more harm than good
4/11/2003 6:26:05 AM (GMT +2)
Since the
Mugabe regime's humiliating 2000 defeat in the referendum on
the Jonathan
Moyo-doctored draft constitution, from which most of the people
's wishes and
input had been removed, Zanu PF, through the government, has
been on a
sustained mission of brutal revenge.
As we
have all come to realise, the government and Zanu PF are
now
indistinguishable. But that is beside the point. The point is that,
because
the people have openly and overwhelmingly rejected Zanu PF, the party
is
hitting back through the army, with the ferociousness of a wounded
tiger.
We all know how, in the aftermath
of each of the many incidents in
which the people have demonstrated they no
longer wish to continue being
ruled by the terrorist organisation that Zanu
PF has clearly turned into,
soldiers have been let loose on urban populations
to inflict on them maximum
physical
discomfort.
We have read with disgust and
horror how, acting like people possessed
(being, no doubt, under the
influence of powerful intoxicants and/or
hallucinogens), the soldiers have
pounded nightclub patrons to pulp, forced
some to roll in mud, urinated on
some people and forced others to drink
their own urine and even - horror of
horrors! - paired off male and female
nightclub patrons, total strangers,
forcing them to have unprotected sex on
the floor of
nightclubs.
These are, no doubt, sadistic
acts of extreme barbarism by any
standards. But, knowing Zanu PF's incredible
capacity for violence, which is
only matched by the party members' celebrated
incapacity for civilised
conduct, The Mole is not at all surprised at the
soldiers' savagery.
As the party's youths
"graduating" from the Border Gezi torture
training centres are demonstrating
only too well on a daily basis, sadism
runs through the veins of everyone who
identifies with Zanu PF. And violence
is what keeps that one big murderous
family together - and going.
Rather, what
The Mole finds surprising are the idiotic denials from
the army
authorities.
Each time such brutal
incidents of unprovoked attacks on innocent
citizens happily enjoying
themselves are reported, with eye-witnesses and
the management at the places
they will have taken place insisting the
perpetrators were soldiers, the army
has always denied responsibility. They
have always stupidly said: "It wasn't
us."
People say: Fine, it wasn't you, so
who did it? They say: Ask the
police. We go to the police and ask: Who did
it? And the police reply,
equally stupidly, if they respond at all in the
first place: "We don't
know." It is safe to think that they expect us
not just to take them
seriously, but to actually believe
them!
But, with all due respect, this
would suggest that there is a
supersaturation of abysmal ignorance, crass
stupidity and rank foolishness
among the top brass in our police force and
army.
Alternatively, our gentlemen in
uniform are either so dull or so out
of touch with reality that they
genuinely believe the entire civilian
population is made up of gullible
simpletons who will believe anything.
Tragically, if the latter is true, instead of being taken as a
mitigating
factor, it would, in fact, firmly confirm the first
assumption.
Which is that we have a whole
bunch of celebrated fools running the
army and the police force. And their
stupid denials which, in essence, are
naked and unintelligent lies, are doing
the army more harm than good. The
people no longer trust the army, much less
believe whatever those who speak
on its behalf
say.
n Talking about naked and
unintelligent lies, it is The Mole's strong
contention that, of all the lies
the army has ever told, and the lies are
legion, none has ever been as
pathetically unintelligent as the claim that
the young scoundrels - all 23 of
them - paraded before the Press with so
much fanfare at the beginning of this
week were "army deserters".
It is, of
course, inconceivable that the army's Major Alphios Makotore
could have come
up with such a gem of fiction without a little help from the
Department of
Information and Publicity in the President's Office. Its
alarmist tone bears
the unmistakable stamp of a well-known source,
permanently domicile in that
office, whose main brief seems to be to
manufacture crimes for the
MDC.
The whole tale was so incredible and
transparent for its falsehood
that even a kindergarten child could easily see
through it for the utterly
unconvincing fiction that it was. Predictably, The
Herald made it its front
page lead! It's a real pity, though, that its
creator did not come up with
that hilarious fiction earlier, because it would
have done perfectly for The
Herald on 1
April.
The fiction was published in The
Herald as follows, and I quote:
"At least 23
Zimbabwe National Army deserters have been arrested for
suspected links with
an underground military wing of the MDC that allegedly
planned to bomb all
service stations in Harare and other cities (NB - ALL
service stations! This
must certainly give you your first chuckle!) during
the two-day mass action
organised by the opposition party last
month.
"The deserters, all juniors with
the most senior being a female
corporal, are also suspected to have been
deployed in high-density suburbs
of Harare and Chitungwiza to beat up people
and tarnish the image of the
army in order to spark an
uprising.
"Recently there had been
numerous reports of people being beaten up by
people in uniform, prompting
the army to investigate. Military police and
the Zimbabwe Republic Police
were also following leads that could result in
the arrest of those people in
military regalia, who beat up people in
Highfield and Kuwadzana after the
results of the by-elections in the two
constituencies were
announced."
And now listen to this
trademark Rocket Scientist Motormouth stuff:
"The operation to bomb all
service stations was supposed to cause confusion,
shock and awe (now, we can
easily substitute that with "fear, alarm and
despondency", can't we?!)
throughout the country."
Now, this is one
hell of a cock-and-bull story if ever there was
one!
Not since The Chronicle came up with,
in rapid succession, first that
melodramatic fabrication about the MDC
planning to bomb all high-rise
buildings in Harare and Bulawayo and then that
other laughable fiction about
envelopes containing a deadly powder (anthrax
or something like that)
addressed to prominent
persons,
Jonathan Moyo included
(naturally), having been intercepted at the
post office, have we ever been
treated to such immensely ticklish bull.
It doesn't take special intelligence to see that this is all a made-up
story
hastily - and thus poorly - contrived to rescue the government from
the
sticky situation into which it has stuck itself by its ill-conceived
brutal
retribution against the MDC following its successful organisation of
the
stayaway quickly followed by the party's resounding victories in
the
Highfield and Kuwadzana
by-elections.
It is all an amateurishly
stage-managed affair to try and clean up the
egg from the government's face
by shifting blame onto the MDC in the wake of
the international community's
heavy censure of the Mugabe regime for its
shamelessly violent campaign
against the people in general and MDC members
in
particular.
The blitz was, of course, in
retaliation to the MDC's continuing
humiliation of the Zanu PF regime by
staging a hugely successful stay-away
and then proceeding to trounce it in
the by-elections.
Anyone who doubts this
analysis needs only look at the faces of the
so-called army deserters to get
convinced. They are all hardly out of their
teens. That makes them all Border
Gezi Camp products paid to stage-act to
save face for the Mugabe
regime.
But, make no mistake, no one is
fooled!
Daily
News
Beyond the Mountains
Futile to think Sadc or US can liberate
us
4/11/2003 6:36:06 AM (GMT
+2)
THE workmen, with greased hands and
equally greased worksuits and
overalls, are engaged in a spirited discussion
the other day at the Green
Market area of
Mutare.
This is an area sandwiched by the
sprawling Sakubva suburb to the
south and the city's downtown area to the
north, populated by informal
businesses. It's, if you like, akin to Siyaso in
Mbare, Harare.
"Do you really believe
these Sadc guys coming up here will make any
difference to the crisis we're
facing here?" one of the participants in the
discussion
asks.
"I doubt it," he quickly answers
himself without waiting for
contributions from other members in the impromptu
discussion group. "These
Sadc guys are the same who said President Mugabe's
re-election was free and
fair; the same ones who say there is no breakdown in
the rule of law here or
that the torture and arrests of the opposition is all
made up."
The discussion, I quickly
gather, was prompted by a visit to Harare of
10 foreign ministers and high
commissioners from Southern African
Development Community (Sadc) member
states.
For nine hours, the visitors met
with Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge -
apparently talking about State-sponsored
violence that has been the order of
the day ever since the opposition MDC
entered elective politics three
years
ago.
While the visiting
dignitaries expressed concern about events here,
promising to dispatch
another delegation soon to tackle the issue with the
Zimbabwean leader, the
workmen at the Green Market are not holding their
breath over
it.
For starters, these working people in
Mutare are convinced that none
among the Sadc leadership has enough guts to
stem the atrocities the Zanu
PF-led government is accused of in the name of
national sovereignty.
"What we may need
here," volunteers another participant, "is the
Saddam Hussein solution."
This, obviously, is a reference to the invasion of
Iraq by forces led by the
United States and Britain.
The US-British
forces went into Iraq, with oil reserves believed to be
only second to Saudi
Arabia's, to topple President Hussein because of his
repressive regime, free
Iraqis of despotism and usher an era of democracy in
the
region.
Of course, the participant
offering the "Saddam Hussein solution" is
quickly cut off by
colleagues.
Says one: "Let's not get
carried away, please! It is too simple, and
not correct, to say what's going
on in Zimbabwe is the same as in Iraq. No,
it's
not."
And, indeed, it is not. Let's
revisit Iraq again - three weeks after
the first missile was fired to signal
the start of the invasion.
Saddam, going
by 24-hour media reports, is all but incapacitated -
militarily and
politically, that is. His fate, at the time of this writing,
is shrouded in
uncertainty.
What is clear is that more
than 2 000 Iraq citizens, soldiers and
civilians, have died so far. A
considerable number of US and British
soldiers are also dead. And so are
journalists from various countries. Much
of the infrastructure, at least in
the capital Baghdad, is crumbling.
US
President George W Bush believes it's just a matter of days before
the white
flags - representing surrender - go up everywhere in
Iraq.
When that happens, the real reason
for the invasion - economic
considerations - will come into full focus. In
short, the war in Iraq is a
boon for some and a tragedy for
others.
As I noted previously, this
invasion is about securing oilfields,
testing the latest equipment and
gadgetry in the US and British war
arsenals, and propping up an ailing
American defence industry. It is also
about creating business opportunities,
especially in the US, for
conglomerates that specialise in reconstruction
work.
Consider this: the Bechtel Group,
the largest contracting company in
the US, is a finalist in a fierce race to
win the main contract to help
rebuild pulverised Iraq. I'm willing to bet my
bottom dollar this firm will
get the multi-billion-dollar
contract.
Why shouldn't it, given that one
of its influential members of the
board is George Schultz, a former secretary
of state (foreign minister) in
the US
government?
Schultz also chairs the
Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an
advisory board set up last year,
that has agitated for the Americans to
hit
Iraq.
Then there is the Defence
Policy Board, a highly secretive group whose
members are appointed by the
government. Its brief is to advise the Pentagon
(US defence ministry) on most
military issues.
It has been reported that
at least nine out of the 30 members on this
board have direct links to US
companies that benefited to the tune of US$76
billion (Z$4 180 billion) in
defence contracts between 2001 and 2002.
This board boasts James Woosley, a former director of the
Central
Intelligence Agency, among its membership. Woosley is also a member
of the
Committee for the Liberation of
Iraq.
The list goes on and on . .
.
Now, I ask the group at the Green
Market: what economic or strategy
interests does Zimbabwe offer Americans to
warrant an invasion?
My question is
greeted with blank faces.
As for the Sadc
task force, I doubt much will eventually come out of
it even if they are to
have a face-to-face meeting with the current resident
of State
House.
In fact, the current crackdown on
members of the opposition and anyone
perceived not to toe the ruling party
line is clear testimony that those in
power do not really care about outside
opinion as to how they are running
this
country.
To the fellas at the Green
Market, I wouldn't hold my breath, if I
were you, waiting for liberation from
Sadc or the Americans.
Daily
News
Leader Page
Despots
should not hide behind cheap
slogans
4/11/2003 6:29:57 AM (GMT
+2)
By Arnold
Sibanda
I must say that I am a very
disappointed person because of the circus
on ZTV called US-UK Invasion of
Iraq chaired by anti-war apologist
Ibbo
Mandaza.
First, it is a shame that
ZBC puts up such a programme purporting to
be a debate and installs a
moderator or chairperson who blatantly takes one
side and intervenes to
badger a participant who adopts a not necessarily
anti-war
posture.
Mandaza should not be a
moderator, but a panelist because he is too
biased to play a moderator's
role.
The way Eddison Zvobgo was hounded
by other panelists, including the
moderator, reduced the whole exercise to a
farce.
More reasoned and factual arguments
came from the panelists who were
not anti-war - Zvobgo, Bruce Wharton and
Retired Colonel Tshinga Dube. These
panelists put forward their arguments
unemotionally, unlike the likes of
Tafataona Mahoso, who seems to have become
an indispensable regular on
the
programme.
What we need are
arguments based on facts. Shakespeare Maya should not
have come onto the
programme as he had no knowledge of basic facts such as,
for example, that
Saddam Hussein gassed his own people, that he executes his
opponents, that he
tortures opponents and that he has used weapons of mass
destruction even
against his neighbours such as Iran.
As
for Mahoso, he has disgraced himself for too long on our television
screens.
We are tired of him. We are not zombies who are expected to lap up
his
anti-white and anti-American vitriol and support for torture,
intolerance,
murder, rape, etc, in the name of
sovereignty!
Shame on these dangerous and
reactionary intellectuals who have a lot
to lose and to answer for in the
event of Robert Mugabe's autocratic regime
finally getting kicked
out!
Dube faced uncalled-for wrath from an
always excited Happison
Muchechetere, who must be keen to rehabilitate
himself with State
authorities.
There
is also this Belgian journalist who is a favourite of the
establishment, for
what reason we know not. At the moment he postures as a
genuine anti-war and
pro-human life activist. In order to establish such
credentials with some
credibility, he chooses to be rabidly anti-American.
But the hollowness of
this stance is revealed by his silence on the excesses
of Saddam. The
journalist is not pro-human life at all, but simply displays
his ethnic
sentimentalism by being irrationally anti-British
and
anti-American!
What are the facts
in this war? Let us agree for a fact that after the
Gulf War in which the
Iraq sub-imperialists had invaded Kuwait, they agreed
in 1991 to destroy the
arsenal of weapons of mass destruction which they
possessed and which they
had, without dispute, used against their own people
and neighbours,
Iran.
Kuwait had been invaded and its
sovereignty violated. Iraq
demonstrated its disdain for such values as
national sovereignty and world
opinion.
The United Nations was simply brushed aside by the Iraqis. As the
Iranian
ambassador on the panel said: "The Iraqi leadership was foolish and
invited
this upon itself!"
So there you are! Those
who live by the sword will fall by the sword!
So when the sword is turned
against them they should not cry foul and try to
hide behind cheap slogans
such as "national sovereignty" and
"territorial
integrity".
Iraq has a
formidable array of weapons of mass destruction which, by
whatever standards,
there is no justification for a country to have. There
is not the slightest
benefit to humanity from this production.
Worse still, more than just moral outrage is required to fight against
this
evil. But then our Dr Maya says, and quite rightly, that the US
possesses
weapons of mass destruction and has used them, such as Agent
Orange in
Vietnam, the hydrogen bomb in Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and
gassing its
own citizens in subways and so on! That hardly justifies anyone
else doing
the same!
Analysts called on to Mandaza's
panel tell us that it is all for
strategic interests. If that were so, there
should be little moral outrage
against the war. This is a self-defeating
argument. War destroys wealth,
resources, infrastructure and
people.
There was no threat of stopping
the supply of oil to the world by
Iraq, but the fact that this potential is
there, given the sub-imperialism
of Iraq, would justify the jingoism of the
Americans and the British.
In any case,
who does not invade other countries when they imagine
their interests are
threatened? In the late 1980s a crisis took place in
Mozambique. The
Zimbabwean army invaded Mozambique to forestall an imminent
regime change in
that country. The reason given was that our Beira Corridor
lifeline had to be
protected.
Suppose Mozambicans, in their
sovereignty rights, had effected regime
change to install the MNR in that
country, logic has it that Zimbabwe would
intervene for another regime change
in defence of our interests. Rwanda and
Uganda were perfectly justified in
invading the Democratic Republic of Congo
following this
logic.
The point is that in our dislike of
Americans and British for their
imperialism we should not appear supportive
of local dictatorships.
If, as Ngugi wa
Mirii likes to argue, there a loya jinga in a country
that can lead to the
ousting of a dictatorship, well we would
agree.
But if it means leaving such a loya
jinga or armed internal opposition
to be humiliated by destructive biological
arsenals and torture chambers
such as are seen to exist and have been used
against Iraqi citizens and
their neighbours, then we beg to strongly disagree
with the Mandazas,
Mahosos, Mayas and Muchecheteres and all the anti-war
campaigners who do not
really care about the threat of Iraq sub-imperialism
and have not tasted it.
We have no moral
obligation to support latter-day Hitlers, Mussolinis,
Francos and de Gaulles
in this world. Saddam is a threat to human existence
and the Iraqis, just as
the rest of this world, has no need of
him.
Nobody, except those benefiting from
a dictator's dinner table, would
be against regime change in these
circumstances.
All dictatorships must go
in whatever way!
Arnold Sibanda is a
Research Fellow at the University of Zimbabwe's
Institute of Development
Studies
Daily
News
Leader Page
When will
Chigwedere stop playing the fool?
4/11/2003 6:29:05 AM (GMT +2)
In President
Mugabe's current Cabinet, there are ministers who have
failed to earn the
respect of their countrymen.
In fact,
mention of some of their names is met with gales of laughter
because their
clownish ways make it impossible to take them
seriously.
Mention of others provokes
angry curses because they are perceived as
the co-architects of the policies
responsible for the untold suffering in
this country
today.
Prominent among the first category
are the Minister of Education,
Sport and Culture, Aeneas Chigwedere, and the
Minister of Lands, Agriculture
and Rural Resettlement, Joseph
Made.
In the second category are the
Minister of State for Information and
Publicity, Jonathan Moyo, and Elliot
Manyika, the Minister of Youth
Development, Gender and Employment
Creation.
Moyo's name triggers
disaffection because it is associated with
cunning subversion of the people's
will in the final write-up of the draft
constitution whose rejection in the
2000 referendum influenced Mugabe to
virtually suspend the rule of
law.
Moyo's name is also associated with
masterminding the two most
repressive and anti-democracy laws ever enacted in
this country - the Public
Order and Security Act and the Access to
Information and Protection of
Privacy Act - which have turned life into hell
on earth for all Zimbabweans
outside Zanu PF's partisan
protection.
Manyika's name conjures up
frightening scenes of wanton aggression and
mindless violence to which
innocent, peace-loving Zimbabweans are daily
being subjected by the
much-loathed Green Bombers - the hordes of violent
youths trained by his
ministry at its infamous Border Gezi training
camps.
Apart from his reprehensible act in
misleading the nation with regard
to its maize stocks, Made's buffoonery has
in the main been dismissed as
relatively harmless tomfoolery. But
Chigwedere's blunders have had dire
consequences for the
nation.
His preoccupation with trivial
matters while turning a blind eye to
urgent issues has contributed
significantly to the sharp decline in the
quality of education in this
country, once one of the best in Africa.
People will forever find it baffling why, for instance, Chigwedere
thought
that it was more important to fret over the ill-conceived issue of
designing
one uniform for all schools and wasting his energy on the
pointless exercise
of renaming schools while weighty issues such as
hot-seating, unregulated
school levies and teachers' long-standing
grievances over paltry salaries and
appaling working conditions were crying
out for his
attention.
Now it has emerged that it is
not only on the educational front that
he has not been performing to
expectations and giving taxpayers good value
for their
money.
As was revealed in an article
published in this newspaper on Tuesday
headlined Chigwedere accused of
neglecting the arts, the minister has not
been performing according to
expectations on the cultural front of his
ministry
either.
For instance, the National Arts
Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ), which is
supposed to be autonomous, is not so at
the moment. Instead, it is operating
under the direct control of the minister
because it has no board of
directors as required by its
constitution.
In terms of the National
Arts Council Act - never mind its glaring
out-datedness in that it has not
been updated since 1985 - the minister is
responsible for appointing the
board.
And yet, it has now been without a
board for a whole year. This
constitutes a classic case of dereliction of
duty on the part of Chigwedere.
The board
is supposed to be responsible for formulating policies to
guide the council's
operations. Needless to say, its absence is a serious
handicap for the NCAZ
as it is virtually operating like a rudderless
ship.
The question must be asked: When
will Chigwedere stop playing the
fool? Sadly, the answer could be: Not until
Mugabe does something about it.
Which
seems most unlikely, for Mugabe seems to have a soft spot
for
non-performers.
Daily
News
Letters
Mugabe, beware
of the tide rising against your
regime
4/11/2003 6:36:41 AM (GMT
+2)
This is yet another letter to the
people of Zimbabwe. It is not about
race, but difficulties all races are
going through in Zimbabwe.
When we started
to feel the heat from Zanu PF, some took it
for
granted.
President Mugabe tested
the people's reaction for long and when he
realised that Zimbabweans were
long-suffering in silence, he promoted
himself to a
dictator.
The scientific and political
methodologies Mugabe used to turn into a
tyrant, now need smart people to
unravel.
That is the problem with
dictatorial strategies, they sometimes get
too complicated to get rid
of.
Although African dictators feel they
are larger than life, what they
do not realise is that they will find
themselves in hell.
Personally, I want to
praise Zimbabweans for telling Mugabe that he is
worse than Saddam Hussein.
As a nation, we need to stand together against
Mugabe's regime and say:
"Enough is enough!" Mugabe has pushed us into a
corner for too
long.
Today Mugabe is accusing MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai because he wants
to liberate the suffering
Zimbabweans.
Mr President, you liberated
us from racial segregation, but now let
Tsvangirai liberate us from the
poverty that you have created together with
your
cronies.
The destruction you are presiding
over is ample proof that there is
need for Tsvangirai to take
over.
It is surprising to the whole world
to hear Mugabe accusing the white
people of destroying the economy when they
are keeping his billions stolen
from our country. Whom does Mugabe think he
is fooling? The Zimbabwean
people or his wealth custodians
overseas?
In reality, Mugabe crippled the
Zimbabwean economy by swindling
billions of dollars out of the
country.
On top of that, he gave vast
farms to his puppet ministers just to
keep them idle. Who is better then - a
white man and Mugabe and his cronies
as far as helping the population of the
country is concerned?
The truthful answer
according to the suffering majority is that the
white man is far much
better.
Last but not least, Mugabe should
take note of the situation in the
country. The rising tide against the Mugabe
regime is going to overwhelm
the
perpetrators.
Angry
Citizen
California
USA
Daily
News
Police bar MISA from staging
show
4/11/2003 6:31:43 AM (GMT
+2)
From Our Correspondent in
Masvingo
THE police in Masvingo have
stopped the Media Institute of Southern
Africa (MISA) from staging a drama in
the city, claiming there is a shortage
of manpower to monitor the
activity.
The show was scheduled for this
Saturday at the Masvingo civic
centre
hall.
Superintendent Thomsen
Jangara, the officer commanding Masvingo
district, said if the show goes
ahead the police would consider it an
illegal
meeting.
In a letter to MISA's legal
officer Wilbert Mandinde, Jangara said:
"Thank you for notifying us of your
intended drama show.
"This office, however
does not grant you authority for this drama in
terms of Section 26(1)(3) of
the Public Order and Security Act.
"There
are many events lined up on the same day and the police cannot
cover this
event because of shortage of manpower."
Jangara later told The Daily News that some police officers were
busy
preparing for the independence holiday while others would be monitoring
the
movement of school children at the
weekend.
"There is nothing sinister in
advising MISA that we have blocked the
meeting," said Jangara. "MISA can
choose any day after two weeks because at
the moment we do not have the
manpower."
Officials at MISA said
yesterday they would file an urgent application
in the High court for the
meeting to go ahead.
The drama show was
supposed to feature the University of Zimbabwe
drama group. The group has
performed on several MISA occasions.
The
drama focuses on the establishment of community radio stations in
the
country.
However legal experts said there
was no need for MISA to seek
clearance from the police since the activity is
meant for entertainment.
ZimGateway
Why are the MDC trying to kiss a
spider?
Why are the MDC through a number of spokesmen falling
over backwards to
avoid confronting the army role in the brutal suppression
of the will of the
majority of Zimbabweans?
Is it that they do not
believe that the army are willing or able to commit
unspeakable
atrocities?
Before the brown bombers and 20 year old "war vets" came on
the scene we had
Gukurahundi, the atrocities in the DRC and Lameck Chemvura's
death after
being thrown from a moving train in 2001. The list just goes on
and on.
My guess is that the MDC has decided it needs the support of the
uniformed
services when it becomes the government of the day and as such have
decided
to abandon principle and get into bed a poisonous
spider.
Those with a basic knowledge of biology in relation to spider
copulation
with know that only the most nimble male spider will survive this
once in a
lifetime experience. On what basis does the MDC believe that its
chances of
survival are any better than the majority of male
spiders?
How should the MDC handle to uniformed services?
They
should look the generals in the face and tell them clearly that
without
exception those who have committed crimes will be called to account.
That in
terms of a future Accountability Commission every Zimbabwean will
be
required to make full disclosure about any role in crimes committed both
pre
and post independence.
What is clear to just about every
Zimbabwean is that the uniformed services
need to be purged on a radical
scale so as to produce the desired result of
non-politicised uniformed
services so why is this not clear to the MDC
leadership?
If the MDC
fail to put the military firmly in its place Zimbabwe will end up
as just
another sham democracy, like Turkey, where there is a civilian
government
which is kept under the ever watchful eye of a powerful
military
machine.
ZimGateway
Kick of a dying horse
IN 1990 I
had the privilege of visiting Malawi. Though I was young, I can
still recall
what I saw.
If you ever heard of the "Malawi young pioneers" - it was
real and
you will know what I am talking about. Those wishing to attend
schools and
colleges were not allowed to do so if they had no Malawi Congress
Party
(MCP) card.
To make matters worse everyone was forced to go to
the MCP meetings. Even if
they had businesses to run, they were told to
close.
Kamuzu was a great man. The word Kamuzu (meaning the lion of
Malawi) was one
of the most feared on this continent.
If someone was
near you and heard you talking about Kamuzu, they usually
said: "Be careful,
the grass will hear you". It was only a matter of saying
somebody can sell
you out to the holders of degrees in human rights abuse.
During that
time, there was a one-party system, meaning that there was no
democracy at
all.
Suddenly, on a sunny afternoon, a miracle happened. It was at
Chileka
International Airport in Blantyre when the Moses of Malawi
arrived.
As usual, there were passengers coming out of the airport when a
man without
any extraordinary weapon of war shouted in a high voice:
"Freedom! Freedom!
I have come to introduce the multi- party
system".
Before he even finished his words, he was arrested. But what
these people
did not know was the words of this brave man had gone miles
ahead.
This man is Chakufwa Chihana, leader of the Alliance for Democracy
(AFORD).
To cut my story short, after Kamuzu had realised that his days
were
numbered, he started what I can call strategic torturing and killing
of
innocent souls that had turned away from him.
Many people lost
their beloved ones, homes were destroyed, civil servants
lost jobs and
students in colleges were butchered for discovering the truth.
It was the
last kick of a dying horse. Little did Kamuzu know that his days
were
numbered.
As I part with you my friends, where is Kamuzu? Where is
Mobutu? Where is
Sani Abacha?
Kamuzu died a disgraceful death after
his house arrest. Mobutu died in exile
in Morocco after ruling Zaire as his
investment.
So dear citizens, be careful because the kick of the dying
horse is
dangerous. Though you might go to the moon, you will still touch
down.
For my dear brothers in Zimbabwe, starting from the lower position
in
society up to the highest, one day the law will catch up with
you.
Steve Mathambo, - Harare.
ZimGateway
Mbeki, Obasanjo must be remembered for their
betrayal of the people of
Zimbabwe
This is the protest of the
eloquent peasant. To stand up and demand change.
We have been used and
abused, raped and tortured, remembered and forgotten,
discovered and
forsaken, and harangued into silence.
Now we are angry, hungry, sick,
tired and weak. We have not lost hope yet.
Poverty and deprivation is gnawing
at the last sinew in us. We live by the
grace of a malignant
leadership.
Presidents Mbeki and Obasanjo, we are not interested in your
money. We do
not want your sympathy. We only want what is ours. The freedom
to associate,
to belong, to think differently, to see differently, to speak
differently.
The freedom to differ.
Our rights have been trampled upon
and pillaged from us. Many Zimbabweans do
not agree with what you say about
the political situation in our country. We
do not agree with you, but we
defend to the death your right to say it. Is
that not how it should be in a
democracy?
We do not want to purchase this commodity called 'rights'. We
do not want to
queue for it. We do not want to purchase it by loss of
property, limb or
life.
At the moment it is a luxury for the few. It
belongs to the mercenaries and
militias of the regime.
There is an
inequitable distribution of the land. After the 'land war', we
want another
war : to reclaim this asset called human rights from the few
and distribute
it among the masses. There is unfairness in the distribution
of this
wealth.
We do not claim to be above the law. We are not fugitives from
justice. We
are not docile, we are not satisfied. We are polite. We are
patient. We are
peaceful. We are people.
Between the two of you, one
has a country with one of the highest murder
rates in the world outside a war
zone. The other has a country with one of
the highest ethnic violence in the
world.
Perhaps to you that is normal. It is not this side of town! No
wonder why
you guys think we are at peace! This regime is at war with its
people.
Tell us, in your countries, do you humiliate and arrest
honourable members
of Parliament, priests and judges? Does justice belong to
the few?
And lastly to quote the historian John Travelyan: "Once on this
familiar
piece of earth walked other men, as actual as we are today. Driven
by their
own emotions, aspiration and intentions. There will still be others
after
us."
Edward Gombedza, - Bulawayo.
ZimGateway
Let's all shun
Independence Day celebrations this year
This is an open letter
to President Mugabe.
Mr President, we have come a long way in our
struggle and it is time to
reflect and take stock of what is happening in our
promised land.
The suffering, the shortages, the unemployment, the police
brutality, the
raping, the brain drain and all the violence taking place in
our land cannot
be allowed to continue.
You are the problem, Mr
President. You are now a liability to us as a
nation, Gushungo.
I
remember in the 80s when you used to blame Ian Smith for anything negative
in
this country. We accepted it because we were still enjoying the euphoria
that
came with independence.
We used to throng in our thousands to those
popular rallies held at Rufaro,
Gwanzura, Mkoba, Sakubva, Chinhoyi and
Rudhaka stadiums. Today if you were
to call for a rally I bet you wouldn't
attract many people - only paid Zanu
PF zealots and foolish women and
schoolchildren would attend.
So what has gone wrong, Gushungo? I will try
to answer this question in
brief with my humble submissions: You are now old,
tired and everything that
comes with age is fast catching up with
you.
I shudder to imagine how you really look when your hair is not dyed
and your
face not massaged. Long ago I watched in horror as Kamuzu Banda fell
at our
national shrine because of old age. I think this was also the case
with that
famous fall of yours in Kuala Lumpur.
You have surrounded
yourself with corrupt people, some of whom are now
filthy rich to the extent
that they are dying of obesity. Do you really
trust these people? For the
record, Professor Jonathan Moyo was fuming on
Dead BC the other day, saying
that it is not a matter of how many farms an
individual has, but the whether
these farms are still in white hands.
Really?
Remember, Mr President,
that it was not British Prime Minister Tony Blair
who redistributed land - it
was you. Where is the Land Audit Report? Did
land redistribution benefit the
majority of landless people? Remember
Gracelands? Makaruma pamusingagone
kutsenga, Gushungo! (You bit more than
you could chew!).
It was going
to be a noble thing of you to throw in the towel and accepting
the will of
the people, but alas, you have said you want to go "the Mugabe
way". You will
go that way and soon, I can assure you.
Just before the 2002 elections
some of us were willing to give you a
standing ovation but you betrayed us.
We all know what happened in the
presidential election. I do not want to talk
about something that is
currently being handled by our "capable
courts".
Apa makairasa, Gushungo! (You blew it!) We were willing to
defend you to
death had you accepted the will of the people, but now we want
every episode
of our struggle to be recorded, every shred of the truth to be
told and
those responsible to account for their actions.
Remember that
history is very stubborn, you cannot wish it away.
It is an issue of
morality, Mr President. It all started in the office, with
that second
marriage of yours. Where are your morals?
No wonder the Green Bombers are
told to rape their own sisters, kill their
own parents and maim their own
brothers! We do not want to include Blair in
our own affairs - unless we are
insane.
Mr President, I need to remind you that a plethora of degrees -
especially
in violence - are of no use to this country. What we want are jobs
for our
children, food on our tables and to be able to support our ageing
rural
folk, chete! Are you happy to see your educated children relocating to
Blair
's land? Are you happy to see your children waiting in meandering
queues,
struggling to get passports so that they can run away from you and
your
regime?
We need to remind you, Gushungo, that we are not fools.
Never make the
mistake of interpreting our peace-loving attitude for
docility. We were able
to dislodge Smith from the seat you occupy and history
is going to be
repeated on you!
Newton's famous Third Law of Motion
states: "To every action, there is an
equal and opposite reaction." What you
are doing to us can also be done to
you, Gushungo.
It is my
responsibility to remind you that one who lives a cruel life shall
die a
cruel death. But I fear it is already too late on your part. Sometimes
we
just need to let things go.
I am a chess player and at times in the game
it appears as if it is still
alright to make two or three moves when, in
fact, the game is already
finished. I feel sorry for you, Gushungo. The
writing is on the wall.
I would like to pose this question to you: What
happens when the Executive
becomes a liability? Chii chinoitika kana baba
vakarwara nepfungwa mumba?
(What happens when the father suffers from mental
illness?) Things fall
apart and our country is doing just that.
The
outcome of all the commissions of inquiry were never made public and
another
one was handed over to you only last week from the National Railways
of
Zimbabwe.
Do all the endless queues, the dirt and pollution make you
proud? Could you
really say you are an achiever? Please do not start blaming
Blair again.
You are to blame for our national crisis,
Karigamombe.
Godfrey Vladimir Gadaga - Gokwe