The Namibian
Monday, April 14, 2008 - Web posted at 7:14:12
GMT
HARARE - As Zimbabwe's
election crisis heads into a third week - with
the results of the
presidential vote still not released - southern African
leaders appear more
intent on propping up President Robert Mugabe than
acting in the interests
of the Zimbabwean people.
A weekend summit of regional
leaders called for the swift verification
of the results in the presence of
all parties, but little else.
Despite calling their meeting an
"emergency summit", SADC leaders were
adamant that there was no crisis in
Zimbabwe.
President Robert Mugabe did not attend the summit,
claiming it was
unnecessary.
But analysts and others speculated
that either he could not look
fellow leaders in the eye, or did not think
much of their views anyway.
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa - one
of few African leaders to
openly criticise Mugabe - called regional leaders
together to try to resolve
the election standoff in Zimbabwe.
After the meeting, which was held in Zambia, Mwanawasa's foreign
affairs
minister told reporters there was no crisis in Zimbabwe, echoing
statements
made by South African President Thabo Mbeki, who met with Mugabe
on Saturday
ahead of the summit.
Mbeki dropped in on Harare on his way to the
summit and held his first
face-to-face talks with Mugabe since the disputed
elections.
"The body authorised to release the results is the
Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission, let's wait for them to announce the results,"
he told
journalists afterwards, insisting there was "no crisis" in his
northern
neighbour.
Mbeki, the chief mediator on Zimbabwe, has
pursued a policy of "quiet
diplomacy", which some critics have said simply
allowed Mugabe to continue
his autocratic rule unimpeded.
The
government's Bright Matonga called the summit's statement "fair".
"You've got to respect each member's sovereignty," he said.
"There
is a court process that we follow.
What we are doing is within the
law."
The summit declaration fell far short of opposition calls for
neighbouring leaders to pressure Mugabe to step down after 28 years in
power.
It also did not fulfil the hopes of the United Nations
and regional
rights groups for the summit to at least demand an immediate
announcement of
results from the March 29 vote.
MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, who attended the summit, claims to have
won the
presidential election outright.
Independent tallies showed
Tsvangirai won the most votes, but not
enough to avoid a
runoff.
The election commission has released results for the
nation's 210
parliamentary races showing the MDC winning 109 seats, giving
it control of
the parliament and humiliating Mugabe's Zanu-PF party, which
won only 97
seats.
Three seats will be decided in by-elections
and the remaining seat was
won by an independent.
'RECOUNT' TO
BE HELD Zimbabwean authorities said yesterday they would
recount the votes
from nearly two dozen parliamentary races as the ruling
part sought to
overturn election results that cost it control of the
legislature for the
first time in the nation's history.
While the focus in Zimbabwe had
been on the long delay in releasing
the presidential result, the overnight
announcement of a recount turned the
spotlight on the situation in
parliament.
Zanu-PF need only take back nine seats in the recount
to regain
control.
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) said
it would conduct a full
recount on Saturday of the presidential and
parliamentary ballots cast in 23
constituencies - all but one of them won by
the opposition, the state-run
Sunday Mail newspaper reported.
Commission chairman George Chiweshe said candidates, party
representatives
and observers would be allowed to witness the process, the
paper
said.
However, Zimbabwe's opposition challenged a recount that it
said was
loaded towards Mugabe's party as rigging allegations were
traded.
Political observers and rights groups have noted that there
has
already been more than ample time since the elections to tamper with
ballot
boxes.
They also re-emphasised that while the government
is pushing for a
recount of the presidential ballots, the presidential
result has not yet
been announced.
The MDC charges that Mugabe
is delaying the result while his party
wages a campaign of violence against
those who voted against him.
International rights groups have also
documented the attacks.
Government officials have dismissed all
charges of violence.
COURT BID The MDC filed a petition on Friday
to block any attempt at a
recount and a hearing is set for Tuesday,
opposition lawyer Alec Muchadehama
said.
He argued that ruling
party representatives had signed off on the
official tallies from those
districts after the vote, but are now alleging
it is
fraudulent.
"Suddenly, two weeks later, the same person who said
'this is the
outcome' and signed for it says they need a recount,"
Muchadehama said.
He said that in the district the MDC is
challenging, the party
representative had refused to sign off on the
result.
After it emerged that the ruling Zanu-PF had lost its grip
on
parliament, a party official described the latest elections as "the worst
run".
The ZEC falls under the ruling party.
Zimbabwe's High Court is expected to rule today on an opposition
petition to
force the immediate release of the presidential results.
The court,
stacked with judges loyal to Mugabe, has waited more than a
week to rule on
the urgent appeal.
IOL
April 14 2008 at 10:08AM
By Peta Thornycroft
One of
the authors of Zimbabwe's new electoral laws says next week's
scheduled
recount of 23 constituencies will be illegal.
Welshman Ncube, one
of two Movement for Democratic Change negotiators
who spent much of 2007
locked into rewriting some of Zimbabwe's contentious
laws with Zanu-PF
during SA-mediated "dialogues", on Sunday said Zanu-PF
complaints were
"concoctions after the fact, to be compliant with the law".
President Robert Mugabe is widely believed to have lost the
presidential
election by at least 7 percent and has delayed releasing the
results for
more than two weeks so that the vote can be "massaged".
However,
Judge George Chiweshe, head of the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC),
claimed on Sunday that Zanu-PF candidates in 23
constituencies had lodged
complaints within the prescribed 48 hours after
the polls closed, and
therefore had not broken the Electoral Act.
The results of the
parliamentary elections were public by April 1,
having been posted outside
polling stations and collected by civic and
opposition workers.
No statement was issued by the electoral commission about the
complaints nor
were competing candidates informed. This is the first anyone
outside of the
commission or Zanu-PF has heard about the complaints.
According to
Judge Chiweshe, "we sat as a commission and considered
them (the
applications).
"I can't tell you when we did this at this moment we
received them,
that is why we ordered recounts we didn't have to tell the
world. Why should
we? We are not obliged by law to do that.
"Are you calling me a liar?" he wanted to know.
Ncube labelled
Chiweshe a "blatant liar and a fraudster".
"The ZEC is acting in
collusion with Zanu-PF and if they think any of
us will believe them when
they are a gang of fraudsters, then they can go to
hell.
"They
are such brazen liars and they have had custody of the ballot
boxes for more
than two weeks. There is no guarantee that they didn't go
back and tamper
with the ballot boxes, so the outcome of the recount is a
foregone
conclusion."
He said MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai won a clear
majority, which was
why the results were not released.
MDC
secretary for legal affairs David Coltart said: "We have asked for
proof the
complaints were submitted within the 48-hour period.
"The delay
between the expiry of the 48-hour period and the writing of
the letters of
complaint by ZEC is inexplicable, unreasonable.
"The only inference
one can draw from the delay is that the commission
has connived with Zanu-PF
and therefore acted illegally.
"One would have expected the ZEC
would immediately have notified all
interested parties, but they took nine
days to do so.
"This is a brazen subversion of the Electoral
Act."
Last week a senior policeman with at least 20 years'
experience told
The Star that ballot boxes from a Midlands constituency, now
due for a
recount on Saturday, were brought into police headquarters in
Harare on the
morning of April 5.
He said five or six young
recruits took ballots for the presidential
election, marked for Tsvangirai,
and replaced them with duplicate ballots
marked with an X for
Mugabe.
Zanu-PF must win back nine seats to regain
parliament.
This article was originally published on page 1 of
The Star on April
14, 2008
Sky News
Updated:08:26, Monday
April 14, 2008
Sky News has been shown documentary evidence that
Zimbabwe's opposition
leader defeated President Robert Mugabe in the
nation's controversial
election.
The presidential poll took place
more than two weeks ago, but no result has
officially been
declared.
Instead, the government has announced a recount in 23 of the
country's 210
constituencies.
But opposition Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) has threatened to mount
a legal challenge against a new
tally.
It has already won enough seats to end Mr Mugabe's control of
parliament and
unofficially declared leader Morgan Tsvangirai the winner of
the
presidential poll.
n the latest twist in crisis, Sky News
correspondent Stuart Ramsay was shown
the MDC's secret computer database and
files that collated results from
across the country.
Photographs of
election results, text messages and paperwork from polling
stations have
been amassed by the opposition movement.
The MDC says the evidence proves
Mr Mugabe should be forced to admit he has
lost.
However, Ramsay has
also spoken to victims of horrific beatings who say they
were targeted by
pro-Government thugs, and evidence of intimidation both
inside and outside
polling stations.
He said there is evidence that Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF
party tried to rig the
elections, but were surprised when they failed - and
are now trying to force
another round of voting in order to allow them to
intimidate their way to
victory.
"The MDC leadership is now convinced
that the government is embarking on a
new phase of election corruption," he
said.
"In Zimbabwe it seems that winning a democratic election is
possible, but
taking power from Robert Mugabe and his people may be
impossible."
However, a court ruling is expected that may force
Zimbabwe's electoral
commission to reveal the result later
today.
Critics of the Mugabe regime blame his policies for Zimbabwe's
collapse from
a beacon of prosperity into an economic basket case, with
inflation rates in
six figures, unemployment at over 80% and average life
expectancy down to 36
years of age.
Angola Press Agency (Luanda)
13 April
2008
Posted to the web 14 April 2008
Luanda
Angolan Foreign
minister, João Bernardo de Miranda, Saturday in Luanda
denied that the
extraordinary summit of heads of State and Government of the
Southern Africa
Development Community (SADC) is an interference in Zimbabwe'
internal
affairs.
Speaking to journalists, the Angolan diplomat explained that it
is the
Southern Africa procedure to settle problems facing member
countries.
According to the minister, this is not the first time SADC
meets to duscus
concrete situations prevailing in a certain country of the
region, which
does not mean interference.
João Miranda was reacting
to utterances by the Zimbabwean minister of
information who said that his
government would not accept interference from
countries of the region during
the summit of heads of State and Government
on the elections of March 29
this year in that country.
He highlighted that positions should be
outlined with useful advises so that
SADC remains firm and the regin
continues enjoying peace that has been an
example to the various regions of
the continent.
João Miranda spoke of the need for the political parties
and all people
involved to be sensitive to help the people of Zimbabwe to
enjoy peace,
natural resources and works towards harmony.
The SADC
held an extraordinary session on Friday, in Lusaka to discuss the
post-electoral crisis hitting Zimbqabwe of late.
IOL
April 14
2008 at 07:10AM
By Angela Quintal
Opposition parties
have accused President Thabo Mbeki of betraying
Zimbabweans and making South
Africa the laughing stock of the world by
publicly stating that there is no
crisis in Zimbabwe.
The ANC, meanwhile, held fire, opting to wait
for a meeting of its
national working committee on Monday before makings its
views public.
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said on Sunday
that history
would judge Mbeki harshly. "Mbeki has shown himself to be a
lame duck
president at home. He has now lost the opportunity to show that he
can be an
effective leader in the region."
Mbeki's tacit
support for "the dictator on our doorstep" was not only
an embarrassment,
but caused millions of Southern Africa inhabitants and the
international
community to lose faith in the subcontinent's ability to
establish
sustainable democracy.
As British Premier Gordon Brown, Archbishop
Desmond Tutu and ANC
president Jacob Zuma demanded the immediate release of
the election results,
Mbeki was of the view that the election must run its
course, Zille said.
"In all legitimate
elections, releasing the results immediately as
they become available is
part of the election running its course. Mbeki
should therefore have stood
by his own logic and should have called for the
immediate release of the
election results.
"Any notion of a recount or run-off election
prior to the release of
the results is illogical and can be intended to
subvert the legitimate
outcome."
In his reaction, Freedom Front
Plus leader Dr Pieter Mulder called on
the National Assembly Speaker to call
a special sitting to discuss the
Zimbabwean crisis. "South Africa is
suffering irreparable damage on an
international level as a result of
Mbeki's disappointing and short-sighted
handling of the issue.
"Mbeki's view that there isn't a crisis in Zimbabwe, makes a mockery
of
South Africa in the eyes of the world. His view is short-sighted as there
is
absolutely no advantage for SA to attempt to uphold a totally discredited
Mugabe."
Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille accused
Mbeki of "using
his political approach of quiet diplomacy with Zimbabwe's
Zanu-PF as a
thinly veiled cover-up of what appears to be nothing less than
his open
support for Robert Mugabe".
"The ID would like to
appeal to President Mbeki to stop misleading the
world, or, if there is
something he knows about the current crisis in
Zimbabwe that makes him
appear so relaxed, to take us into his confidence
and tell us what it
is."
The ANC on Sunday opted for discretion ahead of its national
working
committee today, where it will discuss developments in
Zimbabwe.
There are some within the ruling party that want a firmer
line against
Zimbabwe, with suggestions that Mbeki should even resign as
mediator.
ANC spokesperson Jesse Duarte said the ANC would issue a
statement
after Monday's meeting and would not comment further until
then.
The ANC's recent outspokenness on Zimbabwe under the new
leadership of
Zuma is a departure from the "quiet diplomacy" approach of the
SA
government.
Duarte at the weekend denied there was conflict
between the ANC's more
upfront stance and the government's endlessly patient
approach to the Mugabe
government. She said the ANC fully understood the
president's position as a
mediator and wanted to ensure that there was no
impression that the ANC was
opposing Mbeki on Zimbabwe.
While
there had been no formal meeting between the party's leadership
and the
government to discuss the situation in Zimbabwe, there had been
"discussions
between individuals".
Speaking ahead of the Lusaka regional summit,
Duarte said the ANC
wanted to see Zimbabwe conform to the Southern African
Development Community
election guidelines, which include making the results
of elections known as
soon as possible. She said the ANC's concern was that
the election
procedures were discussed and agreed by all parties in
Zimbabwe.
Duarte expressed concern at reports that Mugabe's Zanu-PF
wanted a
recount of the vote, saying the ANC could not understand how such a
call
could be made without the election results being
known.
This article was originally published on page 5 of The
Star on April
14, 2008
The First Post
Both the West and Africa
have left it too late to help the opposition in
Zimbabwe, says ASH
Smyth
Zimbabwe's ballot boxes have been in the state¹s hands for a full two
weeks,
and now the courts have accepted the government's case for 'recounts'
in 22
constituencies. Victory in just nine of these would be enough to
re-establish a parliamentary majority for Zanu-PF.
After the brief
exhilaration of a purported MDC victory, the window of
opportunity is fast
closing for Zimbabwean democracy. As Electoral
Commission officials are
arrested, and Mugabe's goon-squads form ranks, the
blatancy of the
election-rigging has already begun to dilute meaningful
responses from the
international community.
Thabo Mbeki's craven policy of 'quiet diplomacy'
has undermined any efforts
at mediation by the South African Development
Community, and the tougher
stance of Tanzania's Levy Mwanawasa is meeting
with blank contempt.
At Saturday's crisis summit in Lusaka, Mugabe was
notably absent.
Western leaders, meanwhile, wax lyrical about democracy
but - neutered by
historical guilt and moral relativism - have singularly
failed to further
its cause in Zimbabwe. (Whatever happened to statesmen who
could distinguish
right from wrong?)
In return for their noble
maintenance of non-violent opposition, the MDC is
being hung out to dry. At
this stage, it seems unreasonable to ask them to
do more, but one thing they
must change: the decision not to contest a
presidential
run-off.
Sure, they might get robbed; but boycotting the process
however
illegitimate it is will do the MDC no more good than in previous
elections, and risks forfeiting everything they have achieved in recent
years. By going to the run-off, they can show the world they did everything
they could.
The Buddhists tell us that change comes only from within.
Let us hope they
are right. The recount is in six days, and no-one else
looks set to come to
Zimbabwe's aid.
FIRST POSTED APRIL 14, 2008
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
COLUMN
14 April 2008
Posted to the web 14 April
2008
Dianna Games
Johannesburg
A NATION in turmoil is the
"gift" of Zimbabwe's liberation heroes as the
country prepares to mark its
28th year of independence this week. Just when
a majority (it seems) of
Zimbabweans expected to celebrate the occasion by
seeing off the ruler who
has ruined their country, they are still saddled
with not only Robert Mugabe
but with his illegally reinstated cabinet, which
includes a number of former
ministers they voted out at the polls a
fortnight ago.
The
"president" is lying low and rumours are rife that his wife has left the
country with bags full of foreign currency. Violence is increasing and state
forces are terrorising the populace. So what is to be done?
The
eagerly awaited result of the emergency Southern African Development
Community (SADC) meeting on Saturday was, predictably, a damp squib. Zanu
(PF) was clearly worried that this time regional leaders might actually say
something about its shenanigans. The state-owned media launched a
pre-emptive strike on Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, calling him (of
course) an agent of the west .
But in the end, they need not have
bothered. The final communiqué lamely
called on the Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission (ZEC) to release the
presidential results and for all parties to
accept the outcomes.
Nothing groundbreaking in that. So why did the
meeting drag on into the
small hours of yesterday morning? It seems the
sticking point was whether
the situation in Zimbabwe constitutes a crisis.
President Thabo Mbeki
believes there is no crisis. He is no doubt joined by
Namibia, Angola and a
few others that steadfastly support Mugabe, no matter
what his antics. But
surely the mere holding of an emergency summit on the
Zimbabwe issue
indicates there is a crisis? It could not have been worth the
effort simply
to urge the ZEC to do its job?
The SADC communiqué also
urged the government to ensure that any runoff
presidential election was
held in a "secure environment". It is already too
late for that. Even as the
leaders met, the state's militias and security
forces were busy with a
violent campaign against anyone thought to have
voted for the MDC in the
poll.
The limp-wristed response really comes as no surprise. The
"Zimbabwe issue"
has been left unattended by SADC for years. A SADC meeting
held in Tanzania
last year, which finally had Zimbabwe as one of the agenda
items following
the brutal beating of MDC leaders, also ended without
result.
Although the world can see the situation in Zimbabwe is a sham,
the region
will buy into the sham, ultimately. SADC has proved it has no
stomach to do
otherwise.
The waiting game is putting further pressure
on the battered economy and on
the regional fallout as thousands more
Zimbabweans consider finding greener
pastures across the border to avoid
militias roaming the countryside,
arrogantly terrorising people. The ZEC's
agreement to recount 22 results
disputed by Zanu (PF) and one by the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
is to take place this weekend. No
presidential result will be forthcoming
before that.
There is almost
no doubt a recount will give Zanu (PF) a parliamentary
majority. There would
be no point otherwise. An announcement of Mugabe's
"landslide" presidential
win will follow. What follows next is uppermost in
people's minds. The
paralysis wrought by unfolding post-election events in
Zimbabwe does not
bode well for anything other than an endorsement of
whatever result the ZEC
finally comes up with.
Zimbabweans are starting to accept they will never
know the true outcome of
this election, no matter what result is finally
announced . That is just one
of the many tragedies of this unseemly
gerrymandering of democracy.
Meanwhile, all these drawn-out electoral
processes designed to ensure a Zanu
(PF) win will take time; media interest
in Zimbabwe is likely to wane, which
will play into Mugabe's
hands.
The MDC will find it hard to sustain interest in its case,
particularly in
Africa, where support for it is marginal at best. A coup by
boredom. That
would be a first.
Games is director of Africa @ Work,
an African consulting company
Business Day
(Johannesburg)
COLUMN
14 April 2008
Posted to the web 14 April
2008
Dumisani Muleya
Johannesburg
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe now
cuts a desperate and lonely figure in the region
after his stubborn boycott
of the weekend's emergency Southern African
Development Community (SADC)
summit in Zambia, called to discuss the crisis
sparked off by his refusal to
accept electoral defeat.
Mugabe's stayaway confirmed that he has lost
control of the situation, not
just at home but also in the region, where he
once posed as a leading
statesman.
From the time he came to power
in 1980, Mugabe tried to dominate the region
and ended up clashing with
other leaders, particularly former South African
president Nelson Mandela,
who took him to task at every turn on key issues.
Last year, Mandela called
Mugabe via his close advisers to urge him not to
contest the recent
presidential election . Had Mugabe listened to Mandela
and others ,
including his own senior party members, he would not be in this
humiliating
situation.
Mugabe is now a mere onlooker in regional affairs. Even at
home he is now
practically a hostage at State House, where he has been
served an eviction
notice. Regional leaders, all of them belonging to a
younger generation ,
gathered without him to discuss Zimbabwe and his fate
at the weekend. This
is unprecedented.
Mugabe's failure to attend the
meeting, where he feared being hauled over
the coals, showed his waning
authority and raises hopes that he might soon
be history -- if he is not
already.
Mugabe was miffed by the fact that SADC invited to the summit
Morgan
Tsvangirai, the leader of the main opposition party, the Movement for
Democratic Change. The ministers Mugabe dispatched to the meeting were
reduced to making facile claims such as "this meeting was organised by the
British". This sort of propaganda no longer has any purchase as the region's
patience with Mugabe wears thin.
Although SADC leaders were divided
at the meeting on what to do, as well as
over the use of the word "crisis"
in their communiqué, it was clear there is
now a growing consensus that the
situation in Zimbabwe can no longer be
allowed to continue as it has
.
After meeting Mugabe in Harare on his way to the summit on Saturday,
President Thabo Mbeki said there was "no crisis" in Zimbabwe. Other leaders
disagreed with him, saying the emergency meeting on its own confirmed there
was a crisis. Mbeki is still sticking to his "quiet diplomacy" approach,
despite his dismal failure to resolve the problem in the past eight
years.
Mbeki's mandate -- given to him by SADC leaders at the
extraordinary summit
on the Zimbabwe crisis in Dar es Salaam in March last
year to facilitate
talks between Mugabe's Zanu (PF) and the MDC -- was
renewed in Lusaka,
though the dialogue collapsed in January .
Mbeki's
argument that there is no crisis in Zimbabwe because the stalemate
can be
resolved through a runoff is unhelpful because it alarmingly ignores
that
Mugabe lost the election and is refusing to release the results. By any
description, that is a crisis. Mugabe is now ruling without a mandate .
Although he dissolved his cabinet before the elections, hoping to win and
announce a new one, he claims to have reconstituted the old one, to cover up
his rule by fiat. This is not just a crisis, but a monumental
disaster.
At least other SADC leaders can see this clearly. Officially
opening the
summit, the SADC chairman, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa,
said the body
could not "stand by and do nothing when one of its members is
experiencing
political and economic pain". Mwanawasa, who in the past has
said Zimbabwe
was like a "sinking Titanic", has compared the situation there
now to a
"house on fire".
SADC leaders must be careful to ensure
their semantic divisions do not
create room for Mugabe to come back via the
backdoor. Mugabe is trying to
reverse his defeat and that of his party by
recounting votes -- which is
illegal in the case of the presidential
election -- and having a runoff or
rerun. If SADC lets him off the hook, it
would be great betrayal of the
Zimbabwean people.
Muleya is Harare
correspondent.
The Sowetan
14 April 2008
Sowetan
says:
Zimbabweans, and indeed many South Africans, cannot be blamed for
blaming
the mayhem north of our border on President Thabo
Mbeki.
After all, the Southern African Development
Community has tasked Mbeki with
stopping the rot in Zimbabwe.
Simply
put, Mbeki has been asked to rein in Zimbabwe’s President Robert
Mugabe.
We know how Britain and the US contributed to the decay in
Zim – sanctions,
underhand tactics and amnesia over the Lancaster House
Agreement of 1980.
Mugabe could not be a friend of the West because of
his enduring position on
land for Zimbabweans.
But that does not give
Mugabe licence to resort to despotic means when his
people cry out against
the dramatic fall in expectations.
Mbeki’s quiet diplomacy over the years
has not yielded any tangible results.
Now the country is stuck in another
rut, with Mugabe refusing to release
results of the presidential elections –
held a fortnight ago – that could
end his rule.
Still, Mbeki says
there is no crisis in Zimbabwe.
His disavowal of the extent of the
HIV-Aids epidemic – he told us that he
did not know anybody who was killed
by Aids – should have prepared us for
his response .
His role in
Zimbabwe must now be seriously questioned.
He should stand up to Mugabe
or retire completely from the process.
Business Report
April 14, 2008
By Quentin
Wray
As the Zimbabwean election morphs from a beacon of hope
into a
comedic display of bully-boy politicking and rhetoric, President
Robert
Mugabe now stands accused of hatching a silent
coup.
This is the first instance I know of where the
government in
power stages a coup to stay there. Normally the niceties of
actually handing
over power to the new lot are dispensed with before coup
takes place, but in
this new century perhaps it is time for old rules to be
done away with.
Given how loathe our politicians are to
speak, based on
principles rather than practicalities, whoever ends up in
Harare's State
House once the dust settles, whether it be Movement for
Democratic Change
(MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai or Mugabe, will be welcomed
as the result of
a "free and fair" process.
But however
this plays out, Mugabe will have again shown the
African Union and the New
Partnership for Africa's Development up for the
paper tigers they
are.
Africa's inability to act against its own means The
Economist's
infamous "Hopeless continent" headline, which so incensed our
ruling elite a
few years ago, remains apt. The message repeatedly sent is:
if you are
unlucky enough to live under tyranny you're on your own. Nobody
will stand
up for you. No matter how dire your plight, you will remain an
"internal
matter" and your government's sovereignty will be cherished above
all else.
Looking beyond the immediate future, to when
Zimbabweans start
trying to fix what has been systematically broken, no
matter who is in
charge, it will not be easy.
Even had
there been a silky smooth transfer of power from
Zanu-PF to the MDC, the
results on their own would not have guaranteed
success. It will take a lot
more than the courage to stand up to an
oppressive regime to fix problems
that were decades in the making. Closer to
home, the results should serve as
a timely reminder that nobody, despite ANC
president Jacob Zuma's
remonstrations, gets to rule until the return of
Jesus
Christ.
It doesn't matter how many loyal cadres you
deploy to key
positions, how emphatically you position yourself as the only
party capable
of delivering freedom or how deeply rooted your belief that
opposition
implies a racist, imperialist, running-dog-of-the-West agenda.
When most
people lose faith in your ability to make their lives better, one
way or
another, you will be toast.
After all, Zanu-PF
lost control of parliament despite marauding
packs of violent war veterans
and youth brigade thugs - "assets" the ANC
neither has nor
wants.
Liberation parties in Mexico, India and now Zimbabwe
have learnt
this lesson, and without any doubt, one day the ANC will learn
it too. How
soon that day comes will depend on how effectively the party's
new
leadership tackles this country's enormous human development backlogs
and
the triple scourges of HIV/Aids, unemployment and
crime.
It also depends on how quickly effective opposition is
developed
to take the place of the anti-ANC group that now populates
opposition
benches.
A 2006 Zapiro cartoon, drawn at the
time of the last local
government elections, is testament to why none of our
opposition parties
will be the ones to topple the ANC.
Who wants to be ruled by the Anti-Constitution Dogma Party
(ACDP), Darkies
Absent (DA), Impetuous DeLille (ID), Increasingly Feeble
Party (IFP),
Prickly And Clueless (PAC), or the Uninspired Dead Movement
(UDM)?
The Namibian
Monday, April 14, 2008 - Web posted at 7:30:17
GMT
CHRIS OTTON
LUSAKA - The leaders of southern Africa
may have begun to cool towards
the 'Old Man' of the region Robert Mugabe but
they are still straining to
avoid showing disrespect towards Zimbabwe's
president.
Mugabe's absence from a regional summit in
the Zambian capital Lusaka,
which broke up early yesterday after some 13
hours of talks, spoke louder
than the largely anodyne 17-point joint
declaration released at its
conclusion.
With no leader willing
to put themselves up at a post-summit press
conference, it was left to the
host Foreign Minister Kabinga Bande to hold
the line that there is no crisis
across Zambia's southern border despite the
absence of results more than two
weeks after presidential elections.
"We listened to the two parties
(opposition and ruling party).
Both said there is no crisis in
Zimbabwe," said Bande.
Bande's words echoed those of South African
President Thabo Mbeki who
had stopped off in the Zimbabwean capital Harare
on his way to Lusaka,
telling journalists after meeting Mugabe there was "no
crisis".
"The body authorised to release the results is the
Zimbabwe Electoral
Commission, let's wait for them to announce the results,"
said Mbeki.
Mbeki has been the prime proponent of a much derided
policy of quiet
diplomacy towards 84-year-old Mugabe, not only the oldest
leader in the
14-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) but
Africa as a
whole.
The Zimbabwean opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), whose
leader Morgan Tsvangirai met SADC presidents
behind closed doors, has been
particularly critical over what it regards as
Mbeki's lack of "courage" in
standing up to Mugabe - still revered by many
Africans for his leading role
in a 1970s liberation war.
However, SADC made a point of not only thanking Mbeki for his
mediation
efforts in the election build-up but also asked him to "continue
in his role
as facilitator on Zimbabwe on the outstanding issues".
The response
from the MDC was hardly one of ringing endorsement, with
Secretary General
Tendai Biti saying there had to be "more vigour, more
openness and a
complete abandonment of the policy of quiet diplomacy".
But having
been granted an audience at the SADC high table, the MDC
did not want to
appear ungrateful with Biti detecting a "major improvement"
in the bloc's
previously cosy stance.
Tsvangirai was denied the red carpet
treatment but the very fact he
had been invited was taken as a slap in the
face by Mugabe who opted to stay
at home.
Zimbabwean Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa, despatched to Lusaka in
his absence, said the
invite was unacceptable and there was "no need for
regionalising" the
post-election situation.
While stressing Mugabe was not "in the
dock", Zambian President Levy
Mwanawasa insisted in his opening remarks that
Zimbabwe, where inflation is
well into six figures and unemployment over 80
per cent, was of legitimate
interest.
"SADC cannot stand by and
do nothing when one of its members is
experiencing political and economic
pain.
It would be wrong to turn a blind eye."
But
despite exasperation at the economic mess in what was once the
region's role
model, many SADC leaders continue to regard Tsvangirai with
suspicion.
Nampa-AFP
Chris McGreal
The Guardian,
Monday April 14
2008
The spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World
Bank in
Washington agreed on a three-pronged strategy for Zimbabwe in the
event of
regime change.
In the first phase, the Fund would be
responsible for restoring stability to
Zimbabwe's currency, which has fallen
precipitously as the country's
economic crisis has caused hyper-inflation.
The IMF has put aside $1bn for a
currency stabilisation
fund.
Simultaneously, the World Bank would announce a package of
humanitarian
assistance designed to ease the country's problems of poverty
and hunger
caused by the economic crisis.
Some humanitarian
assistance has been arriving in Zimbabwe through aid
agencies and charities
but the Bank believes a major increase in financial
support will be needed
over the coming months. Officials in Washington said
plans for the emergency
help from the Fund and the Bank had now been
finalised and the money could
start flowing to Zimbabwe within days.
The final part of the package will
be involve land reform. Although seen as
less pressing than stabilising the
currency or helping the hungry, the
institutions believe that the land
reform programme of Robert Mugabe is a
root cause of Zimbabwe's plight and
that new reforms to boost the country's
once-strong agricultural sector will
require western money.
Britain has agreed that its former colonial links
mean that it should lead
the way in funding land reform and that money would
be reallocated in the
Department for International Development's budget from
other spending
commitments.
New York Sun
Turtle Bay
By Benny Avni
April 14, 2008
Here is a question i
plan to ask Britain's Minister Mark Malloch Brown, who
will visit his old
Turtle Bay stomping grounds this week: Are the U.N.
Development Program's
representatives in Zimbabwe too close to the dictator
robert
Mugabe?
President Mugabe, who for decades has held back his country's
potential for
success on the pretext of fighting colonialist ghosts, is
justly one of
Britain's least favorite world leaders. He is currently
involved in a fight
for his long political life, attempting to steal the
recent election. Mr.
Malloch Brown, whose role for the British government
includes responsibility
for Africa and the United nations, would score a
victory for British Prime
Minister Brown — and for himself — if he gets the
Security Council involved
in Zimbabwe during this week's summit of world and
African leaders here. But
more about that later.
Prior to joining
Britain's government, Mr. Malloch Brown was the U.n.'s
deputy
secretary-general. Before that, between 1999 and 2005, as the UNDP's
administrator, he was hailed by admirers as a forceful leader who made
sweeping changes at the agency, and created practices and policies that
govern its activities to this very day.
it was therefore entirely
appropriate for Baroness Park of Monmouth to
address Lord Malloch Brown
during an April 3 debate on African issues in
Britain's House of Lords.
"Unless the present head of the UnDP" — Agostinho
Zacarias — "is withdrawn,
there will not be very much confidence in the
U.N.'s role in the future of
Zimbabwe," Ms. Park was quoted as saying by
Zimbabwe's Sunday news. "Two
successive UnDP leaders" — Victor Angelo and
Mr. Zacarias — "have been far
too close" to Mr. Mugabe.
A UnDP spokesman, David Morrison, told me the
agency has looked into the
matter of whether its officials ever accepted
land from Mr. Mugabe and has
determined that the charge is unfounded.
Privately, UNDP officials wonder
how they could ever operate in
dictatorships without being considered "too
close" to the local
dictator.
Zimbabwe's crisis is not expected to be on the agenda of
Wednesday's special
Security Council meeting on Africa's relations with the
United nations,
called by Prime Minister Mbeki of South Africa, which holds
the rotating
council presidency in April. Mr. Brown will represent Britain,
and will be
accompanied by Mr. Malloch Brown.
Currently, issues
involving Sudan-Chad, Somalia, Kenya, and other African
crises are expected
to be discussed only "at the margin" of the council's
summit, as a Western
diplomat put it last week. Mr. Mbeki was hoping to
raise Africa's profile in
general, and to stress international coordination
on the continent. He
certainly did not intend to embarrass Mr. Mugabe. On
his way to this
weekend's emergency meeting of southern African leaders, Mr.
Mbeki defied
some of his neighbor's wishes, stopping by for a visit with Mr.
Mugabe in
Harare. There is "no crisis in Zimbabwe," Mr. Mbeki announced,
indicating no
change in his longheld opposition to international
intervention in his
neighbor's affairs.
The London Times reported over the weekend that to
soften such opposition,
Mr. Malloch Brown is conducting a "discreet" visit
to Beijing, where he
would try to leverage worldwide anger over China's
policies in Tibet and
Sudan to convince the Communist regime to drop its
support for Mr. Mugabe.
China has long insisted that problems in places like
Burma and Sudan — not
to mention Tibet or Taiwan — do not add up to threats
to international peace
and security, the threshold for Security Council
action. getting Beijing, a
veto-wielding council member, in this case to
drop such opposition could
help pave the way for a British-led action on
Zimbabwe.
The British prime minister is thehighest-ranking official among
the Security
Council's permanent members planning to attend Wednesday's
council meeting
and the press in London will laugh at him if he returns home
without action
on Mr. Mugabe. Conversely, Mr. Malloch Brown will be crowned
a hero if the
council does issue at least a statement on Zimbabwe. But
first, Mr. Malloch
Brown will have to field a question about the role there
of the UnDP he once
led.
Reuters
Fri
Apr 11, 2008 4:42pm BST
(Reuters) - Tensions are rising in Zimbabwe over
delayed results of the
March 29 presidential election, in which the
opposition says it beat
President Robert Mugabe.
The ruling ZANU-PF
party lost control of parliament for the first time in 28
years in a
parallel vote.
An emergency regional summit is to be held in Lusaka on
Saturday. Below are
answers to some key questions on what could happen
next.
WHAT RESULTS ARE KNOWN?
Official results give the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) 99
seats in parliament, a breakaway
opposition faction 10 and ZANU-PF 97. One
seat went to an
independent.
The MDC said its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the
presidential poll
outright. Even though the results remain officially
unknown, Justice
Minister Patrick Chinamasa said ZANU-PF was preparing for a
runoff --
necessary if neither candidate wins more than 50 percent of the
first round
vote.
Senate results show contested seats split 30-30
between the combined
opposition and the ruling party.
Control of the
93-seat Senate will depend on who becomes president, with
powers to directly
appoint 15 members and strongly influence who gets other
positions.
HOW ARE REGIONAL COUNTRIES INVOLVED?
The 14-nation
Southern African Development Community (SADC) will hold an
emergency summit
in the Zambian capital on Saturday. A Zimbabwean
ministerial delegation will
attend.
Critics say the body is a toothless talking shop, too in awe of
liberation
hero Mugabe to take firm action. South African President Thabo
Mbeki, much
criticised at home for not taking a stronger line, led failed
SADC mediation
last year.
But ruling African National Congress leader
Jacob Zuma, who rivals Mbeki as
South Africa's most powerful man, has called
for the results to be released
and has taken a harder line than Mbeki.
Tsvangirai has met both of them to
discuss Zimbabwe's crisis.
WHY ARE
DELAYS SIGNIFICANT?
In past polls, results emerged quickly. This time
there is no presidential
outcome after almost two weeks. According to
electoral rules, a runoff
between Tsvangirai and Mugabe should be held
within three weeks of the
results announcement. The longer the delay, the
more time Mugabe has to
organise his comeback.
WHAT IS MUGABE'S
STRATEGY?
Mugabe had looked badly wounded by the parliamentary defeat and
there was
speculation he would step down. But strong backing by security
chiefs
appears to have strengthened the government's resolve to
counter-attack.
There are suggestions Mugabe will use presidential powers
to extend the
interval before a runoff to 90 days.
The MDC has
accused Mugabe of deploying pro-government militias including
youth brigades
and the feared independence war veterans to intimidate MDC
supporters. Human
rights organisations and the MDC say Mugabe has unleashed
a campaign of
systematic violence in response to his biggest defeat.
WHAT IS MDC
STRATEGY?
The MDC has called a general strike for next Tuesday to demand
the release
of results.
It has gone to the High Court to try to force
the electoral commission to
release the results. The court must first rule
on whether it has the
authority to rule on the MDC application. It was
expected to decide on
Monday.
The MDC is making frequent statements
to keep the Zimbabwe situation high on
the world agenda and has appealed for
foreign help to end Mugabe's rule.
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IN A
RUNOFF?
The opposition says it would unite behind Tsvangirai, which
should, on
paper, produce an overwhelming victory based on first round
results. But
Mugabe's control of state power, security forces and militia
could make this
much less certain.
WHAT IF MUGABE WINS?
If
Mugabe wins a runoff or first round results are revised to give victory
to
ZANU-PF, this is certain to be rejected by the MDC and some of its
supporters could take to the streets. However a Kenyan scenario of prolonged
protests and bloodshed seems unlikely because of the power of the security
forces.
An outcry in the West and increased sanctions against Mugabe
and his
entourage would be likely. But such measures have so far had little
effect
on changing things in Zimbabwe.
WHAT IF TSVANGIRAI
WINS?
If Tsvangirai wins and he can resist any violent crackdown by
ZANU-PF
militants and security forces, foreign powers are expected to flood
Zimbabwe
with aid to rescue the economy.
Former colonial ruler
Britain says it is working with the United States,
IMF, World Bank and
European Union to prepare a $1 billion recovery plan.
One option would be
for Tsvangirai to form a national unity government with
ZANU-PF
moderates.
(Reporting by Barry Moody and Michael Georgy)