Highlights
» Recounting has ended in Bikita West,sources tell us they has been no change in winners,but ZEC says announcements will be made on Thursday, however according to Section 66(4) of the Electoral Act, regardless of the recount, winners announced at the constituency centre remain the winners unless and until that result is set aside by the Electoral Court after petition & trial.
» Observers say new boxes seen at Masvingo West and new presiding officers are overseeing the recount.
» Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC-Tsvangirai won in all 23 constituencies including where ZANU PF won the House of Assembly and Senate except Bulilima East and Lupane East won by Simba H.Makoni.
» MDC-Tsvangirai is contesting Goromonzi West,where the seat
was initially declared as theirs.
Bikita West | Margin | ||
---|---|---|---|
MDC -Tsvangirai | 7048 | 19 | |
ZANU PF | 7029 | ||
Mutare West | |||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 7597 | 20 | |
ZANU PF | 7577 | ||
Bulilima East | |||
MDC | 3180 | 76 | |
ZANU PF | 3104 | ||
Gokwe-Kabuyuni | |||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 7234 | 78 | |
ZANU PF | 7156 | ||
Masvingo Central | |||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 4905 | 112 | |
ZANU PF | 4793 | ||
Goromonzi West | |||
ZANU PF | 6193 | 262 | |
MDC -Tsvangirai | 5931 | ||
Zhombe | |||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 5445 | 323 | |
ZANU PF | 5122 | ||
Masvingo West | |||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 4513 | 391 | |
ZANU PF | 4122 | ||
Silobela | |||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 4624 | 487 | |
ZANU PF | 4137 | ||
Gutu North | |||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 5045 | 702 | |
ZANU PF | 4343 | ||
Zaka West | 704 | ||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 4734 | 704 | |
ZANU PF | 4030 | ||
Buhera South | 1220 | ||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 8833 | ||
ZANU PF | 7613 | ||
Chimanimani West | 1451 | ||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 8558 | ||
ZANU PF | 7107 | ||
Gutu Central | 1631 | ||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 6398 | ||
ZANU PF | 4767 | ||
Bikita South | 1632 | ||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 6916 | ||
ZANU PF | 5284 | ||
Lupane East | 2056 | ||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 5424 | ||
ZANU PF | 3368 | ||
Gutu South | 2198 | ||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 5757 | ||
ZANU PF | 3559 | ||
Mberengwa West | |||
ZANU PF | 5508 | 2596 | |
MDC -Tsvangirai | 2912 | ||
Zvimba North | 5083 | ||
ZANU PF | 6784 | ||
Mberengwa East | 6041 | ||
ZANU PF | 7292 | ||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 1251 | ||
Mberengwa East | 6041 | ||
ZANU PF | 7292 | ||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 1251 | ||
Mberengwa South | 6982 | ||
ZANU PF | 8291 | ||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 1309 | ||
Mberengwa North | 7370 | ||
ZANU PF | 9722 | ||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 2352 | ||
Chiredzi North | 15734 | ||
ZANU PF | 18413 | ||
MDC -Tsvangirai | 2679 |
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday,
19 April 2008 20:57
THE MDC has claimed that 10 of its supporters
have been killed, 3 000
internally displaced while scores of others have
been injured by soldiers,
war veterans and youth militia in retribution for
voting against President
Robert Mugabe in last month’s election.
In
the rural areas, war veterans and Zanu PF youth militia have gone
on the
rampage, beating up MDC supporters and torching their houses and
killing
their livestock for food.
In towns and cities, heavily armed police
and soldiers have virtually
imposed curfews, beating and torturing anyone
they come across.
MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said the
escalating violence targeting
MDC supporters around the country “is very
disturbing and depressing”.
Chamisa said at least 10 MDC members
had died in political violence.
Four of the victims died last week, he
said.
He named them as Tapiwa Mubwanda of Hurungwe East, Murunde
Tembo of
Mudzi North, Tendai Chibika of Mutoko East and Moses Bashitiyawo of
Maramba
Pfungwe.
The Standard could not independently verify
the deaths.
Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena told The Standard
the MDC “should
not claim their supporters were killed by Zanu PF
supporters” as the police
were still investigating all cases of political
violence.
“I only know the case of a person who was killed in
Hurungwe and the
police are still investigating the case.
I am
not aware of the other three people you are talking about but we
are
investigating,” he said.
Chamisa said: “There is chaos in this
country. We are very worried
about this retribution campaign by Zanu
PF.
The violence is well-coordinated from the top and is being
fuelled by
hate speeches by the president of this country.
This
is how the genocide in Rwanda began, through such hate speeches.”
More than 20 MDC supporters are in hospitals in Harare alone with
broken
arms, hands, and head injuries after Zanu PF militia and war veterans
attacked them.
The MDC said the violence was widespread and had
created a
humanitarian crisis, particularly in the rural areas.
Some have fled their homes to stay with relatives in urban areas.
Others,
said the MDC, were destitute after their houses were burnt down.
“As we speak more than 3 000 families have been displaced with at
least 800
homes burnt down.
All this is happening because of the vacuum
created by not announcing
the presidential election results but the courts
are not concerned about
this,” Chamisa said.
The MDC secretary
for social welfare, Kerry Kay, yesterday appealed to
individuals,
non-governmental organisations for any assistance they could
provide to the
internally displaced people.
She said Harare, Mutare and Bulawayo
had been thronged by MDC
activists fleeing from Zanu PF militia and war
veterans in the rural areas.
In Harare’s high-density areas, scores
of people have for the past
week been brutally beaten by heavily armed
soldiers and the police. Among
the most affected suburbs are Kuwadzana, Glen
View, Glen Norah, Budiriro,
Epworth, Dzivarasekwa and
Chitungwiza.
The security forces have virtually imposed a curfew,
forcing the
closure of shops at 6PM and beating up anyone they see in the
streets after
that time.
Even those returning from work are not
spared.
“I was going home from Kuwadzana IV shopping centre on
Wednesday
around 6PM and some soldiers approached and accused me of stoning
a commuter
bus,” said Gannet Shapiro of Kuwadzana. “One of them clapped and
kicked me
in the legs repeatedly.”
In another incident,
soldiers pursued a dreadlocked man and used a
bread knife to cut off his
locks because “they made him look bigger than
everyone else”.
In Mabvuku, Bernard Chapingidza lost his cellphone in a beating that
followed after he got off a commuter bus.
“After they butchered
my backside with rubber rods they assaulted me
with clenched
fists.
This was after I asked for my phone, which I lost in their
melee.”
Chapingidza had scars all over his body and his left
eardrum might
have been ruptured.
He could barely
walk.
Last week, MDC polling agents fled their homes in Glen View
as the
army tracked them.
The soldiers confiscated MDC T-shirts
and thoroughly beat up people.
On Wednesday, soldiers reportedly
beat up patrons at a bar around 8PM
in Dzivarasekwa III. According to
eyewitnesses the soldiers told people to
“go home and sleep with their wives
rather than spend time discussing plans
to overthrow Mugabe”.
On Thursday around 7PM The Standard witnessed a group of soldiers
harassing
civilians in Glen Norah.
“What are you doing at this hour?” the
soldiers could be heard
shouting. “Run or we will beat you.”
A
young woman from Glen View told of how she was brutally beaten by
the
soldiers.
“I was coming from town.
The soldiers
approached me and asked if I was married.
When I said I wasn’t they
beat me up, telling me not to loiter around
like a prostitute,” she said,
asking not to be named.
On Wednesday evening at a bar in
Chitungwiza, armed soldiers forced
patrons to lick beer spilled on the dirty
floor and perform 50 press-ups,
before beating them up.
One
victim, Stephen Mutiti (27) said: “It was a horrible experience.
Just
imagine licking beer from the floor in a public bar!”
Mutiti
suffered multiple bruises all over the body
By Caiphas Chimhete,
Bertha Shoko, Sandra Mandizvidza and John
Mokwetsi
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 19 April 2008 20:49
THE MDC said yesterday it
had boycotted the recounting of the votes
for Parliament and the Presidency
after it alleged the discovery of ballot
boxes being opened and the seals
broken, while former UN Secretary General,
Kofi Annan, urged African leaders
to do more to address the crisis in
Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) said it had found problems
with tallies in 23 of
the 210 constituencies.
But MDC spokesperson Nelson Chamisa said
yesterday his party would not
take part in “a manipulated process whose
results are predetermined”.
He said some of MDC polling agents had
been driven away from counting
centres by soldiers and Zanu PF militia,
leaving the recounting to ZEC and
ruling party officials.
Chamisa said some polling agents had fled into the nearby mountains
after
riot police raided their homes. Others fled into urban centres fearing
for
their lives.
“We reject the process and the outcome because we have
discovered that
ballot boxes were opened and the seals broken,” Chamisa
said.
Among the areas the MDC claimed to have discovered ballot
boxes were
tampered with are Bikita South, Bikita West, Zaka South, Zhombe
and
Silobela.
“Now, with all this happening we don’t have
confidence in ZEC and the
whole recounting process. What we recognise are
the initial results, not the
ones they have rigged,” Chamisa
said.
ZEC deputy chief elections officer, Utoile Silayigwana, said
he was
not aware that ballot boxes were opened, but he would investigate,
but
efforts to get his comment later were unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, recounting started late in most constituencies.
Vote
recounting for the Goromonzi West constituency at Domboshava
Training Centre
started after 1 PM with officials from the MDC-Tsvangirai
camp saying they
were shocked at the slow process.
Out of the 43 polling stations in
the constituency, recounting had
been partly covered in six polling stations
— Glen Forest, Resthaven,
Joanine, Mistress, Sally Mugabe Heights and
Rankine — by 4PM.
But MDC officials alleged that the voters’ roll
for one polling
station, Domboshava Primary School, was
missing.
They allege that ballot boxes were in disarray and that
material used
and unused were in a mess.
They said officials
had given the excuse of auditing as the main cause
of the mess.
In Matabeleland’s Bulilima East constituency the recounting started
around
midday.
There was confusion over the venue.
They also
realised that Plumtree VID, the venue, was small and had to
take the ballot
boxes to Plumtree High School.
They started counting ballots for
the councillors. ZEC officials said
the process would take at least three
days.
Norman Mpofu of the MDC Mutambara won Bulilima
East.
The recounting was delayed because some of the candidates
were not
present.
There was no major incident.
In
urging African leaders to do more to address the crisis in
Zimbabwe, Annan
said the situation was dangerous, and could have an impact
beyond the
country’s borders.
Annan made his comments to reporters in the
Kenyan capital, Nairobi,
where he held talks with Zimbabwean opposition
leaders on Friday.
“On the question of Zimbabwe there has been
substantial international
attention.
“The question which has
been posed is: where are the Africans? Where
are their leaders and the
countries in the region, what are they doing?
“It is a rather
dangerous situation. It’s a serious crisis with impact
beyond
Zimbabwe.”
He said action by African leaders had helped resolve the
post-election
crisis in Kenya, where mediation led to the formation of a
coalition
government.
“You’ve just been through a crisis here,
and you’ve managed to solve
it, and I must say the credit goes to the Kenyan
people, to the African
Union — it was an African solution to an African
problem,” Annan said.
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 19 April 2008 20:45
CEPHAS Nyaungwe and his wife, Nyarai,
woke up at around 11pm on 10
April to a deafening knock on their
door.
Cephas says from the noise outside he could tell there were
many
people in his yard. But he could not make out what they were saying as
they
were speaking almost at the same time, in angry voices.
“All I could hear was ‘MDC’, ‘elections’, ‘kill’, ‘posters’ and I knew
I was
in serious trouble,” Cephas told The Standard from his hospital bed at
a
private hospital in Harare on Thursday.
“In the dark, I quickly
reached out for my clothes. My wife was about
to scream for the neighbours
to come and assist us but I told her to remain
calm until I had escaped
through the window.”
But as soon as Cephas leapt through the
window, he was met by more
than five people who began assaulting
him.
Meanwhile the other attackers had forced open the door to his
house
and began assaulting his wife and children.
Nyarai said:
“They (Zanu PF supporters) were kicking and beating me,
saying I should have
advised my husband to stay out of politics.
They asked me to scream
loud enough so that Morgan Tsvangirai would
come and rescue me. Before they
left they told me that everyone in Mutoko
should support Zanu PF, not the
MDC.”
On the other side of yard the attackers were determined to
maim her
husband.
“I was beaten up with knobkerries, electric
cables, sjamboks and heavy
logs until I could not even feel the pain,”
Cephas said.
“As they were beating me they said they wanted to
cripple me so that I
would never be able to do any MDC business
again.
They broke both my hands and legs and left when I had passed
out. I
know they were Zanu PF youths and I recognized some of
them.”
In the same village of Mawere in Mutoko, on the same night,
another
attack was launched in the home of the Kapikinyu
family.
Batsirai and his wife, Sarah, also awoke in the middle of
the night
after hearing voices outside.
As soon as he opened
the door he saw more than 10 Zanu PF supporters
who began assaulting
him.
Batsirai sustained a broken leg and seriously injured his
back. He was
ferried to hospital in a scotch-cart by his brother,
Patrick.
That same night the Kapikinyus and the Nyaungwes met by
coincidence at
the local clinic where both families sought
treatment.
All victims of this brutal attack, they helped each
other make the
journey to Harare after being referred there for specialized
treatment.
While Cephas and Batsirai were admitted to a private
hospital in
Harare and are lucky to be alive, many victims of the political
violence —
now widespread in the rural areas and farming communities — have
not been so
fortunate.
The MDC reports that at least four
activists have died from injuries
sustained after attacks by Zanu PF
supporters and war veterans.
The deaths have been reported in Karoi
and Mutoko.
Following the 29 March elections there have been
mounting incidents of
political violence which human rights activists have
accused Zanu PF of
fomenting.
The MDC says its members —mostly
in the rural areas — are being
punished by war veterans and Zanu PF youths
for voting for the opposition.
For the first time in independent
Zimbabwe Zanu PF lost its majority
in the House of Assembly to the
opposition.
Although the Zimbabwe Election Commission is yet to
announce the
results of the presidential election, the MDC has declared its
president the
winner.
In Mutoko Zanu PF supporters have evicted
hundreds of villagers from
their homes, says the MDC.
Among the
displaced are women and children who have been assisted
through the MDC
provincial offices to seek refuge here in Harare.
Speaking at a
press conference on Monday last week, MDC deputy
president Thokozani Khupe
said reports of violence, being condoned by
police, were “very
disturbing”.
Khupe said the MDC party headquarters had received
hundreds of
supporters displaced in the political attacks while more than 20
were
admitted at a private hospital in Harare on 14 April with serious
injuries.
“We are deeply disturbed by the situation.
We have written to the Southern African Development Community (Sadc)
to come
and monitor the situation here because it is getting out of hand,”
she
said.
“Many people will die if we stand around and do nothing. We
want Sadc
and the world to realize we have a really big problem before it’s
too late.”
By Bertha Shoko
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 19 April 2008 20:42
BULAWAYO — The United
States state department has warned its citizens
not to travel to Zimbabwe,
for safety and security concerns, in the wake of
escalating political
violence against MDC activists and supporters.
In an update of
warnings issued ahead of the 29 March elections, the
US last week said the
situation had become more volatile following delays in
the release of the
results of the presidential election.
Human rights groups and
opposition parties have reported an upsurge in
political violence blamed on
Zanu PF militias and war veterans.
“While the country awaits the
results of the 29 March presidential
elections, security forces including
some military and police, as well as
war veterans, are creating a climate of
intimidation and fear across the
country, particularly in rural areas and
high-density suburbs,” the US
embassy in Harare said in a
statement.
It said the update was aimed at alerting US citizens on
safety and
security concerns throughout Zimbabwe due to ongoing political
instability
US nationals were advised to carefully consider the
risks before
visiting the country.
No comment could be obtained
from the Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, the
Information Minister on the latest travel
warning.
The government has in the past dismissed US travel
warnings.
The US also warned American citizens against taking
pictures or using
video cameras in an urban setting, especially where there
is political
activity, to avoid arrest on charges of illegally practising
journalism.
in Zimbabwe without accreditation.
“Americans should be particularly aware of using video or telephone
cameras
in any urban setting or in the vicinity of any political activity,
as this
could be construed by Zimbabwean authorities as practising
journalism
without accreditation, a crime punishable by arrest,
incarceration and or
deportation.”
The travel warning expires in June.
Foreign journalists must be accredited by the Media and Information
Commission to practise journalism in Zimbabwe.
About six
foreign journalists were recently arrested on charges of
covering the
elections without official accreditation.
Last week, an American
and a Briton were acquitted of charges that
they violated the draconian
Access to Information and Prevention of Privacy
Act (AIPPA).
Zimbabwean authorities barred most foreign media from covering the 29
March
elections and warned that it would deal severely with journalists
sneaking
into the country to report illegally.
Post-election violence has
escalated in Zimbabwe following the
elections with war veterans and Zanu-PF
militia launching attacks on the
opposition.
There have also
been indications of steady military build-up around
the country amid reports
of security forces co-ordinating the attacks.
The MDC says the
violent campaigns are part of a Zanu PF strategy to
intimidate the rural
electorate where the party made inroads into ruling
party strongholds during
the elections.
By Nqobani Ndlovu
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 19 April 2008 20:39
LONDON —
An exhibition showcasing the work of one of Zimbabwe’s
prominent
photojournalists, Urginia Mauluka, opened in central London on
Friday
night.
Hosted by the Outer Chambers, the exhibition and reception
were
organised by the Refugee Council, which helped her settle in the UK
after
she fled Zimbabwe.
She had been badly beaten up by the
riot police while covering an MDC
rally to commemorate Soweto Day for The
Daily News before it was banned in
2003.
Soweto Day had also
been set aside by MDC youths to remember
opposition members and supporters
killed ahead of the disputed 2002
presidential election.
President Robert Mugabe won that election and quickly signed into law
the
draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA).
Urginia’s pictures on exhibition were supported by those
of her late
grandfather, the veteran John Mauluka.
Mauluka
worked for The Daily News until he retired in 2001. He died
later in
Malawi.
One poignant set showed Zimbabwean women celebrating the
birth of a
new Zimbabwe in 1980, when the country gained independence from
the British.
Urginia’s photos of political violence included one of
a scarred
opposition activist, with his back inscribed “MDC”.
This was alleged to be the work of a Zanu PF youth gang.
Also on
exhibition are happy pictures of Zimbabwe, taken by Urginia
and her
grandfather, a major influence in her career in photography.
She
joined The Daily News when he retired in 2001.
Urginia talked about
her love for photojournalism and how sad it was
that after learning to take
beautiful pictures in her grandfather’s studio,
representing him at weddings
and other happy occasions, her camera lens had
in the end been used to
capture political violence, hunger, diseases,
despair and other such ills in
Zimbabwe.
She narrated her trials and tribulations as a
photojournalist with The
Daily News: being beaten up on countless occasions
by war veterans and Zanu
PF youths as she went about doing her
job.
Some of the pictures on display show a battered Urginia in
tears after
being beaten up by the anti-riot police.
Another
shows her disembarking from the back of a police vehicle after
being
arrested.
In another, she is shown limping, with a colleague, Daily
News
reporter Guthrie Munyuki, his arm in plaster.
They had
been beaten up and arrested, then locked up by the police for
days before
being released.
They were charged with violent disorder and
participating in an
“illegal” gathering under the Public Order and Security
Act (POSA) and
denied access to the company lawyer and medical
attention.
In fact, the two were on assignment when they were
arrested.
The charges were later dropped for lack of
evidence.
Zim Standard
Business
Saturday, 19 April 2008 20:07
LONDON — Britain
advised citizens on Thursday against all but
essential travel to Zimbabwe
because of heightened tension following
elections that the opposition says
it won.
Britain’s Foreign Office issued new, stricter travel advice
a day
after Prime Minister Gordon Brown increased criticism of the conduct
of the
29 March elections, saying no one believed Zimbabwean President
Robert
Mugabe had won.
“We advise against all but essential
travel to Zimbabwe at this time
due to the continuing tension surrounding
the election and the deployment of
uniformed forces (police and military)
and war veterans across the country,”
the Foreign Office said.
Previously, Britain, the former colonial power, had advised only
against
travel to farming areas of Zimbabwe.
“The current situation is
unpredictable, volatile and could
deteriorate quickly, without warning,” the
Foreign Office said.
Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party lost control of
parliament for the first time
in the election.
Opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he won the presidential poll,
but no official
results have been released.
British Foreign Secretary David
Miliband has accused Mugabe’s
government of delaying the results to give it
time to find an “alternative
to the will of the people”.
Zimbabwe’s justice minister accused Brown on Thursday of treating
Zimbabwe
like a British colony. — Reuters.
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 19 April 2008 20:30
STATE universities have
more than quadrupled fees for this semester,
The Standard has
learnt.
Many students, turning up for the beginning of the semester
were
shocked to find fees had been hiked beyond their reach.
This led to riots at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and the National
University of Science and Technology (NUST) on Tuesday and Wednesday last
week.
At NUST, a number of cars and buildings were stoned
during the
skirmishes. At the UZ, a bank building on campus was
damaged.
At the Midlands State University (MSU) students had been
told to set
aside between $300m and $400m for fees. But when they went for
registration,
they were informed the fees at all state universities had been
reviewed to
between $3.7 billion and $4.34 billion.
At the UZ,
students pay an additional $10 billion for accommodation on
campus.
The Zimbabwe National Students’ Union (ZINASU) says the
new fees are
“nefarious and insensitive”.
“The government has
surely reneged on its social responsibility of
ensuring support for students
in institutions of higher learning and
guaranteeing the provision of the
right to education,” said Zinasu secretary
general, Lovemore
Chinoputsa.
He said “such absurd amounts of fees are beyond the
reach of many and
are just a measure to malign and segregate the elite from
the non-elite”.
Repeated attempts to get a comment from Higher and
Tertiary Education
Minister, Stan Mudenge were fruitless last
week.
But in his last interview with The Standard, on Wednesday 27
February,
Mudenge said they had “great plans” for the students when they
re-open.
Mudenge said then: “They will see what we are doing for
them when they
open for the new semester.
They should wait and
see what we are doing to address their present
plight and situation when
they open.”
Although the fees being charged at State universities
may appear less
by Zimbabwean standards today, Chinoputsa said “many
students are sons and
daughters of poor peasant farmers” who have no
reliable source of income.
“This is a deliberate move to deny the
students of Zimbabwe their
right to education.
Most government
officials have their children learning at
international universities where
large sums of the much-needed foreign
currency are paid to the prejudice of
the nation,” Chinoputsa said.
On Wednesday, UZ Vice-Chancellor
Professor Levi Nyagura was quoted as
saying the fees were “very little to
attract this attack”.
NUST spokesperson, Felix Moyo would not
provide details, saying the
violent incident happened when he was
away.
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 19 April 2008 20:26
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe
failed to rise to the occasion during his
independence anniversary address
to the nation, Zimbabweans who listened to
the speech told The
Standard.
Those who called on Friday afternoon, said they had
expected Mugabe to
speak on the burning issues facing the
nation.
They were not alone in sharing their dismay at an
opportunity
squandered. The Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn formation and the MDC
described Friday
as one of the saddest days in Zimbabwe’s 28 years of
independence.
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC-MT,
described Friday “the
saddest Independence Day since our independence from
colonial rule in 1980”.
He used the opportunity to thank President
Thabo Mbeki of South Africa
for his efforts in trying to bring an end to the
crisis in Zimbabwe.
Effectively, Tsvangirai relieved Mbeki of the burden of
the mediation
process.
“However,” Tsvangirai said, “we’ve asked
President (Levy) Mwanawasa
(of Zambia) to lead a new initiative to urgently
deal with the extraordinary
situation we face at this moment.”
In a reaction to Mugabe’s address at Gwanzura Stadium in Highfield,
Harare,
Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn said: “This Independence Day, Zimbabweans
deserved
independence from threats, from fear, tension and stress.
“They
deserved freedom from hunger, want. They expected a
reaffirmation of the
rights they fought for: one man, one vote, that vote to
be given to
whomsoever they please.
“Today was a momentous occasion, one which
called for statesmanship
and leadership, humility and recognition that this
is a nation divided, a
people on their knees and an economy paralysed by
human action.
It was time to speak of the big issues facing us, of
answering the big
questions confronting our nation, our people and our
leadership.”
Gwanzura is in Highfield whose two seats in the 29
March elections
went to the MDC.
Zimbabweans expected to hear
from Mugabe what was happening to the
results of the presidential elections
since it is his party and government
who are holding back the
announcement.
Instead, Zimbabweans were treated to banal
platitudes, a list of the
problems facing the country and a promise that
these would not be solved any
time soon.
“This is highly
disappointing,” Mavambo said. “This was his chance to
clarify matters, to
clear the foggy and polluted air that surrounds his
party, government and
ZEC on the election results.
No mention was made of the
results.
What the people of Zimbabwe got instead was a warning that
they will
be dealt with severely if they asked in protest about these
results.
“This is not leadership. This is not statesmanship. This
is not the
behaviour of a man on whom the responsibility of running the
affairs of our
nation rests.
Instead of leadership and wisdom,
the president professed ignorance
and pretended that there is nothing
untoward in our nation.”
Dr Simba Makoni, who leads Mavambo, called
for the release of the
presidential election results.
“Clear
leadership and guidance is what was needed today. Instead, the
business
community, yet again, heard a Head of State threatening them,”
Makoni said.
“Confrontational attitudes have no place in the modern era.”
Zim Standard
Local
Saturday, 19 April 2008 20:24
THE National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA) last week said it would not
be joining the MDC
in the post-Zanu PF era, insisting its job was to ensure
the Constitution
was changed and respected thereafter.
Lovemore Madhuku, the NCA
chairman, spoke to The Standard on the
sidelines of a Zimbabwe civil society
press conference in Harare.
He said the NCA, even with the MDC’s
Morgan Tsvangirai in power, would
continue its campaign of ensuring the
Constitution was adhered to.
Madhuku said: “Who said we were going
to join the MDC? No, that is not
the case. We remain what we are, even if
Tsvangirai changes the Constitution
should he get into power.
The NCA will be there to check if it is being followed seriously.”
Civil society organisations at the meeting including Crisis Coalition
of
Zimbabwe, Youth Initiative for Democracy in Zimbabwe (YIDZ) added their
voices to the chorus of protest at the “unacceptable delay” in the release
of the presidential poll results.
A joint statement read: “We
find the reasons given by the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) for this
delay to be inadequate, as all of the
results were displayed outside polling
stations at the close of counting and
verification on 29 March and were
therefore in the public domain.”
By lunchtime yesterday, the ZEC
had still not announced the results of
the presidential race.
There was concern among the organisations on reports Zanu PF had
already
embarked on a campaign of “violent retribution”.
“In Chimanimani
and Chipinge, we hear intimidation and violence has
started. It is our view
this shows lack of respect for the will of the
people,” read the
statement.
Sydney Chisi of YIDZ said: “For the sake of democracy we
all should
remain peaceful and vigilant as Zimbabweans.
It is
sad that citizens are being denied their simple right of knowing
their
leaders after voting. We all believe good will triumph over
evil.”
Zim Standard
Business
Saturday, 19 April 2008 20:18
TALKS aimed at securing
a comprehensive trade deal between Africa and
Europe are headed for the
rocks as it emerged that finance and trade
ministers from Africa sought the
removal of certain clauses from interim
pacts signed between the two
blocs.
Trade and finance ministers met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 10
days ago
and agreed that among issues requiring definition were
substantially all
trade, transitional periods, export taxes and free
circulation of goods.
Others included national treatment, bilateral
safeguards, infant
industry, non-execution clause and the Most Favoured
Nation (MFN) clause.
The MFN clause binds its members not to
discriminate between their
trading partners by granting special favours,
such as lower customs duty
rate for one of their products.
If
such special favours were to be granted, they had to apply across
all other
World Trade Organisation (WTO) members.
African, Caribbean and
Pacific (ACP) countries used to enjoy
unilateral trade preferences with the
EU for almost three decades under the
Lomé Conventions.
The
Fourth Lomé Convention was replaced by the Cotonou Partnership
Agreement in
2000, which extended these unilateral trade preferences up to
the end of
2007.
Most poor nations were unable to beat the 31 December
deadline and
instead signed temporary deals that run up to December in
preparation for
the full Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) in line with
World Trade
Organisation (WTO) regulations.
WTO rules advocate
reciprocal trade among members.
The ministers said the issues
needed to be reviewed and re-negotiated
“within the context of a
comprehensive and full EPA to ensure an all
inclusive comprehensive EPA that
would safeguard development and regional
integration efforts”.
Already, 18 African countries have initialled the Interim Economic
Partnership Agreements and have committed themselves to continue with the
negotiations with a view to concluding comprehensive and full
EPAs.
The ministers said the interim agreements were initiated in
order “to
avoid trade disruption that could result from failure to conclude
WTO
compatible arrangements by the deadline of 31 December,
2007”
The ministers proposed a road map in which the African Union
Commission, in collaboration with United Nations Economic Commission for
Africa and Regional Economic Communities would work “urgently” to “develop a
model/template of a full EPA to serve as a guide for EPA negotiating groups,
as need arises”.
The AU will encourage the negotiating groups
to use the proposed
template as a guide for harmonising the texts of the
comprehensive and full
EPAs with respect to areas of common interest to
ensure coherence and
consistency with the African agenda on regional
integration, they said.
The concerns raised by African ministers
came against a backdrop of
similar protests raised by civil society
organisations who have already
given EPAs a wild card.
A policy
series document has been published by the Regional Network
for Equity in
Health in East and Southern Africa, the Southern and Eastern
African Trade
Information and Negotiations Institute and Training and
Research Support
Centre.
It says countries under the Eastern and Southern Africa
(ESA) bloc
would lose a staggering US$473 million on import tariff
revenue.
Zimbabwe is a member of the Eastern and Southern Africa
(ESA) bloc
that is negotiating for reciprocal trade agreements with the
EU.
African ministers raised concern that their countries were set
to lose
as they did not have the capacity to compete on an equal footing
with the
EU.
“The EU should provide adequate and predictable
additional resources
beyond European Development Fund to meet adjustment
costs, to support supply
side capacity and build infrastructure, regulatory
capacity, competitiveness
and national and regional interconnectivity,” the
declaration said.
EPAs cover trade issues in six areas: fisheries;
services;
agriculture; market access; development and trade-related
issues.
By Ndamu Sandu in Brussels
Zim Standard
Business
Saturday, 19 April 2008 20:11
MORE
than three weeks after Zimbabwe held its elections, the dithering
over the
result shows little sign of ending.
Meanwhile Africa’s worst
basket-case economy continues to flounder,
without a leader to take stock of
what needs to be done.
In terms of statistics, Zimbabwe’s plight is
pretty much immeasurable.
Figures such as a rate of inflation of
more than 150 000% and an
unemployment rate said to be in excess of 80% are
startling, but also
largely meaningless.
After 28 years under
Robert Mugabe, emotive terminology such as utter
despair and desperate
destitution describe the situation in Zimbabwe better
than any maths and
statistics can ever do.
This is certainly the case for the 700 000
people who have been robbed
of everything, even their homes in urban slums
that were razed by Mugabe
under his controversial“Murambatsvina” (get rid
of filth) programme.
Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) party is
expected to ultimately take control of the
country.
The MDC says it has “learned from the past” and adopted a
five-year
reform plan that “would take into consideration both the economy,
the
security of the country, the investment — basically bringing the economy
from the dead weight it is at the moment”.
Roads and sewers
must be repaired. Power supplies must be restored.
The homeless need roofs
over their heads.
The wounded, the famished and the mentally
scarred will need
treatment.
In economists’ terminology, the
nation’s human capital has been
massively depleted.
There are
even doubts about the actual size of its population —
estimated at some 13
million people, though migration and early deaths on a
vast scale mean
nobody can say for sure.
Millions of those able to do so have fled
to seek better lives abroad
and to provide for relatives back in
Zimbabwe.
Life expectancy has plunged to 37 years from 60 years in
1990, World
Bank and UN figures indicate — though this is largely due to the
HIV/Aids
pandemic.
Infant death rates have soared to more than
123 per 1 000 in 2004, the
latest year when figures were available, from 59
less than a decade ago.
Half the remaining population is now under
the age of 18, according to
Save the Children estimates. More than one in
four of those under 18 are
orphans, many of them because their parents have
died from HIV/Aids which,
according to the United Nations Development
Programme, kills 3 200 people
per week.
So there is a great
shortage of experienced managers who can lead the
effort.
And
although literacy rates and education levels are relatively high,
at least
by African standards, many workers will nevertheless lack the
skills to get
the jobs done.
Zimbabwe’s farms are in a similarly sorry
state.
Looted by Mugabe’s cronies during the early 2000s from white
farmers —
many of whom had stayed when Ian Smith’s white minority-ruled
Rhodesia
became Zimbabwe in 1980 — the country’s most productive grain and
tobacco
farms have been either actively wrecked or sadly
neglected.
Farm failures have hampered the nation’s ability both to
feed its
people and earn foreign currency.
More than eight out
of 10 people survive on less than US$2 per day and
almost half the
population is at risk of malnutrition.
So although an agricultural
revival is both desirable and feasible, it
will require skills and
experience that in most cases have left the country.
Foreign
assistance will be required.
But even so, farm reform will be
hugely controversial.
An estimated 4 000 white-owned farms were
forcefully handed over to
landless black people under Mugabe, often to his
supporters.
So there are likely to be disputes over land ownership
after Mugabe.
Zimbabwe’s lucrative mining sector is still in a
better shape and
could offer a great economic boost for the country, but
there is growing
apprehension over a new law that requires that at least 51%
ownership of any
businesses and mines be in black hands.
Zimbabwe has massive reserves of platinum, believed to be the
second-biggest
in the world and operated by Zimbabwe Platinum Mines and
Mimosa Platinum
Mines and Impala Platinum.
Anglo Platinum is developing a new mine
in the Midlands, Unki.
Rio Tinto is active in diamond mining in the
country, Zimasco
Consolidated Enterprises owns the country’s largest
ferrochrome producer,
and there are activities by major gold mining
companies.
But resource development in Zimbabwe has declined in
recent years,
with many mines closing.
Costs have been pushed
higher by strict exchange rate regulations and
operating the mines has been
made difficult by the collapsing infrastructure
and the growing economic
crisis.
Tourism is another potential source of foreign earnings for
Zimbabwe,
though it could take time before travellers return.
Yet the underlying fundamentals of Zimbabwe’s economy, resource base
and
even parts of the corporate sector remain reasonably robust.
Many
foreign investors are sitting on the fence, eager to get in —
provided that
Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party is ousted.
Aid, loans or other economic
assistance from the likes of the
International Monetary Fund, the World Bank
and the European Union should
supplement an anticipated inflow of foreign
investment.
But much like the wranglings over the election, when it
comes to the
economy, nobody expects a quick fix. — BBC News.
Zim Standard
Opinion
Saturday, 19 April 2008 19:15
JOHANNESBURG — South
African President Thabo Mbeki has been lampooned
and condemned across the
world for saying there is “no crisis” in Zimbabwe
on his brief stopover in
the capital, Harare, on the way to an emergency
summit of the Southern
African Development Community (SADC) in Zambia to
discuss Zimbabwe’s
disputed 29 March elections.
Now there is also a growing chorus
from within the African National
Congress (ANC), Mbeki’s own party, in South
Africa, the continent and the
world for Mbeki to discard his much-maligned
policy of “quiet diplomacy” and
get tough on Zimbabwe’s President Robert
Mugabe.
Mbeki’s comment that “there is no crisis in Zimbabwe” drew
a sharp
response from Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition MDC, that
Mbeki
“needs to be relieved of his duties” as a mediator.
The
SADC appointed Mbeki to mediate between the MDC and Zanu PF in
2007.
One of the key provisions governing elections in Zimbabwe
— that
results be displayed outside polling stations — allowed Tsvangirai to
claim
victory in the presidential race by 50% plus one vote, which negates
the
need for a second round of voting.
The MDC overturned Zanu
PF’s parliamentary majority for the first time
since independence from
Britain in 1980, but the official result of the
presidential election has
still not been published, nearly three weeks after
the poll.
Britain’s Economist magazine said in an editorial: “Can Mr Mbeki
seriously
suggest, with a straight face, that the result would have been
held back if
Mr Mugabe had not lost?”
The Washington Post, under the headline
“Rogue Democrat”, commented in
an editorial: “The government of President
Thabo Mbeki has consistently
allied itself with the world’s rogue states and
against the Western
democracies.
“It has defended Iran’s
nuclear programme and resisted sanctions
against it; shielded Sudan and
Burma from the sort of pressure the United
Nations once directed at the
apartheid regime . . . Now Mr Mbeki’s perverse
and immoral policy is
reaching its nadir — in South Africa’s neighbour,
Zimbabwe.”
UN
Secretary General Ban Ki Moon expressed “deep concern” over the
delay in
publishing the presidential ballot at a UN Security Council meeting
in New
York, chaired by South Africa this week, and noted that “the
credibility of
the democratic process in Africa could be at stake here.”
ANC
spokesperson Jesse Duarte added to the Mbeki bashing: “It (the
ANC) is
concerned with the state of crisis that Zimbabwe is in and perceives
this as
negative for the entire SADC region.”
It is not the first time that
the ANC’s and Mbeki’s views on Zimbabwe
have been out of step.
In 1980, when Mugabe won Zimbabwe’s first democratic elections, Mark
Gevisser recounts in his biography, “Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred”, that
“Thabo Mbeki seemed to be one of the only ANC comrades (at a meeting) in the
whole of Lusaka who was not devastated (by the then Zanu party’s
victory).”
During the struggle against apartheid, the ANC was
allied to Joshua
Nkomo’s rival Zapu party.
That night, Gevisser
recounts in an interview with a mid-level ANC
exile, the celebrations of
Zimbabwe’s independence and shedding white rule
were as if “at a
wake.
I think we even said we would rather have had (Ian) Smith
than
Mugabe.”
In the early 1980s Mbeki was tasked with
building relations between
the ANC and Mugabe’s Zanu party.
Gevisser wrote on 17 April in the South African weekly newspaper, The
Mail
and & Guardian, that Mbeki admitted this relationship developed into
one
of “father (Mugabe) and son (Mbeki)”.
Chris Maroleng, a senior
researcher at the Institute for Security
Studies, a Pretoria-based
think-tank, told IRIN the “quiet diplomacy” label
was a misnomer, as “all
diplomacy is quiet.”
He said, “Mbeki knows South Africa learnt to
its cost that public
criticism of other African governments, even ones that
had no pretensions to
democracy, was a high-risk game.”
Maroleng pointed out that the 1995 execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and
eight
other political activists in Nigeria on trumped-up charges by Sani
Abacha’s
military dictatorship saw a “serious backlash” from other African
countries
after South Africa’s founding president, Nelson Mandela, called
for
sanctions against the oil-rich nation.
From then on, Maroleng said,
South Africa’s foreign policy has been
multilateral in its approach and
always “wary of pushing a Western agenda,
in case it is seen as a proxy or
lackey of the West”.
South Africa’s economic clout on the continent
— it produces 25% of
Africa’s GDP — has led to it being given disparaging
labels such as the
“Yanks of Africa”, but this is not mirrored in its broad
diplomatic
engagement on the continent.
On 17 April, after the
UN Security Council meeting, Themba Maseko,
South Africa’s ambassador to the
UN, said the situation in Zimbabwe was
“dire”, and the delay in releasing
the poll results was “obviously of great
concern”.
Maroleng
said this was being interpreted by many as a policy shift,
but South Africa
had criticised human rights abuses by Mugabe in the past,
although “maybe
not in the manner people would like to see.”
Mbeki has always
sought “homegrown” solutions rather than imposing
them, Maroleng commented,
and while “strong on pragmatism, it (this
approach) can be weak on
principle”, but he (Mbeki) has “an aversion to
force.”
In March
2008, on the eve of an African Union (AU) military operation
to reclaim
Anjouan, an island in the Comoros archipelago, from renegade
leader Mohamed
Bacar after nine months of fruitless negotiations, Mbeki said
the operation
should be delayed.
Much to the chagrin of the AU, Mbeki told an
international news agency
on 12 March that Bacar had offered to hold fresh
elections, and “this is
really the way that we should go.
I
don’t think there is any need to do anything apart or additional to
that.”
AU troops landed on the island a few days later and encountered
minimal
resistance.
SADC member states and the AU are not contemplating any
military
action against Zimbabwe, and probably never would, although Article
4 of the
AU Constitution gives permission “to intervene in grave
circumstances that
include war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity,
as well as a
serious threat to legitimate order”.
A shipment of
Chinese small arms, ammunition and rocket propelled
grenades en route to
Zimbabwe was diverted from the South African port city
of Durban, not by
Mbeki’s government, but by unionised workers refusing to
unload the ship’s
cargo because they are concerned that the weapons could be
used against
Mugabe’s opponents.
Maroleng said such a worst-case scenario “is a
continuation of what is
going on now [the refusal to announce presidential
results, and the alleged
beatings and assaults of MDC supporters] and
ultimately a clampdown by
Mugabe, backed by the military, and a worsening of
the humanitarian
situation and the inability of the region [SADC] to change
things.”
A more likely scenario might be a second round of voting,
with an
enhanced mission of SADC observers, and assistance by South Africa’s
Independent Electoral Commission.
However, Tsvangirai has said
that the MDC would not take part in a
presidential run-off ballot, as the
high levels of violence and intimidation
by Zimbabwe’s police and army since
the first round of voting would amount
to Mugabe “stealing the
election”.
Zim Standard
Opinion
Saturday, 19 April 2008 19:09
INDEPENDENCE is your 28-year-old son. He
looks 50, with a body so
ravaged by HIV and Aids and a hard drug habit that
his clothes hang on him
as if on a scare-crow.
He is a
chain-smoker and when he coughs his body rattles as if the
bones were pieces
of tin tied together with wire.
After each cough, the sweat pours
out of his body like from a sieve.
To be gender sensitive, let’s
make it the daughter. Apart from the
drug addiction, she is a prostitute
and, of course, has Aids, for which she
uses ARVs, supplied by a fat cat in
exchange for you-know-what.
She too looks 50, with dark blotches
under her eyes, which she tries
to conceal behind the thick lenses of the
most haute couture dark glasses,
bought by you-know-who.
She
chain-smokes and has such a controversial personal hygiene problem
most
clients buy her an expensive deodorant before transacting business with
her.
I grant you these are terrifying portraits of our
independence.
Yet the only people who can swear on a Bible that our
28th anniversary
of independence entitles us to robust celebrations are the
fat cats, the
thieves, the swindlers, the embezzlers, the corrupt
politicians and, in
general, the people who have blighted our independence
until it is one big
joke.
It’s probably difficult to
distinguish between the aforementioned and
the people who lost the recent
elections, but are now trying to “fix” things
to turn a rout into a
victory.
Each individual has their own expectation of independence.
It could be
a castle in Spain or a dacha outside Moscow or a penthouse in
Manhattan: the
ideal is a version of dolce vita.
For most in
Zimbabwe it is breakfast, lunch and dinner of maputi. For
the very filthy
rich few it’s a banquet with Beluga caviar and the finest
Scotch whisky to
round it off.
This is the real Zimbabwe — a country ruled by people
who look so
well-fed it’s almost obscene to count them among our
compatriots.
Even more disgustingly, they insist the country is
suffering under
Western sanctions — but cannot explain their expensive
suits, cars, houses
(big and small).
Then, in the suburbs, the
soldiers were beating up people, a day
before Independence Day.
A few spent Independence eve in hospital or holed up in their houses,
scared
of venturing out for fear of the soldiers.
All this because Zanu PF
has no stomach for defeat, or is frightened
to contemplate the aftermath of
a thorough hiding at the polls. Question:
Would all those involved in
Gukurahundi please stand up and be counted?
Question: Who ordered
the hits on Tichaona Chiminya and Talent Mabika
and many, many others in
2000?
After 2000, the meaning of Independence became, for many people,
fuzzy, problematical. Freedom from colonialism — Yes. Freedom from Want —
No. Freedom of Bashing —No. Freedom from Poverty, an emphatic, loud
NO.
Zanu PF has made spirited attempts to put a strange spin on the
meaning of independence: land, sovereignty, and empowerment.
The reality: food is still to be imported. Power and water may not be
luxuries now, but they could be as scarce as caviar in
Muzarabani.
Eighty percent of the able-bodied population is out of
employment.
Their empowerment is a myth, unless they are in the
Zanu PF youth
militia, or are soldiers and police officers, or sons,
daughters, cousins,
nieces and nephews, sisters-or brothers-in-law of the
aforementioned fat
cats.
About the elections — what elections?
At the time of writing, the only
results made public were announced by the
MDC. Zanu PF doesn’t believe the
MDC figures and is depending on a recount
to adjust the outcome.
It’s probably a gross injustice to allege
that Zanu PF is determined
to alter all the figures to suit its own devilish
designs.
But what has this party not done, over the last 28 years,
to ensure it
remains in the saddle for all time?
It has killed,
it has bashed, it has cheated, it has used terror. It
has used water
cannons, batons and guns to warn the people against
resistance.
But in the elections, the people stood up to them are now paying the
price,
with more bashing.
Meanwhile, regional leaders can only whisper
their protests. Not one
of them can publicly declare that President Robert
Mugabe is a disgrace to
all who consider themselves model African leaders —
if there are any.
People who look forward to a different
Independence Day celebration in
2009 must be counted among our Regular
Pollyannas: their infectious sense of
optimistic is sickening, unless . .
.
Unless Zanu PF bashes itself senseless, either by accident, or in
an
act of hara kiri.
saidib@standard.co.zwThis e-mail
address is being protected from
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view it
Zim Standard
Opinion
Saturday, 19 April 2008 19:06
ZANU PF’s presidential candidate in the
29 March harmonised elections,
Robert Mugabe, presided over Friday’s
Independence Day ceremonies in
complete disregard of the will of voters as
he sought to project the party
as the movement that brought about
liberation.
It was a farce.
The true face and
character of Zanu PF is being played out in
villages, on farms and in the
high-density areas, where a curfew has been
declared and a wave of terror
attacks has driven hundreds from their rural
homes.
The scenes
are reminiscent of the terror campaign of 2002 which
secured the rural vote
for President Mugabe.
Zanu PF’s worst excesses have been played out
in the rural areas
during the past three weeks.
The murderers
of Talent Mabika, Tichaona Chiminya, Martin Stevens,
Gift Tandare, and
Gloria and Martin Olds have launched a campaign of terror
that confirms the
often misunderstood meaning of the war cry, “Zanu
Ndeyeropa – (Zanu is a
murderous party and not an organisation that waged a
bloody and protracted
guerrilla campaign)”.
Since 14 April at least 150 people have been
arrested and detained in
custody at Harare Central Police Station in the
wake of Zanu PF’s
spectacular defeat in the 29 March poll, while Zimbabwe
Doctors for Human
Rights says it has so far seen and treated 173 cases of
injury resulting
from organised violence and torture.
Zanu PF
is prepared to employ terror tactics and maim and murder
because the people
dared to vote for the opposition.
The same pattern witnessed during
the 2000 and 2002 parliamentary and
presidential elections is emerging:
police make it clear they cannot act
against known Zanu PF perpetrators of
terror and so the abuses continue with
impunity.
What is
happening in Zimbabwe is one of the greatest tragedies of
modern times.
People believed in the promises of the former liberation
movement but it
turns out this is a movement of power-hungry criminals.
The people
who hijacked the revolution in 1963, when they split from
Zapu, are today
hijacking the will of the people and are determined to use
the full force of
the State’s repressive machinery and other extra-legal
processes in order to
exert their will over the people of this country who
spoke on 29 March and
declared they desired a new beginning.
These people, who will not
brook a change to the status quo, also have
a record of unfulfilled
promises. Before the March elections they promised
starving communities
throughout the country in general but in particular the
western part of the
country that maize shipments were on their way from
Malawi and
Zambia.
They hurriedly unveiled “Freedom Trains” and commuter
buses, in
response to the worst transport problems in this country’s
history.
They promised an end to recurrent water and power
shortages.
In health institutions across the country, people are
dying needlessly
because there are no drugs, contrary to promises made
before last month’s
elections. Zanu PF’s record of broken pledges is
incomparable.
Friday’s independence anniversary activities were a
grotesque
celebration of total subjugation of the will of the people to
determine
their destiny.
It was a sham celebration. Zanu PF’s
terror campaign is a declaration
of its determination to eliminate anyone
challenging its unquenched desire
to exercise unelected power.
In the face of State terror, the majority of us who believe in
democracy
must confront it on a different platform by continuing to
communicate the
illegitimacy of the dictatorship in a forceful and
uncompromising language
of rejection, deflating its pretensions to power.
Zim Standard
Opinion
Saturday, 19 April 2008 18:56
AFTER reading the
judgment of Justice Uchena in the case of the MDC
against the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC), one is left with an empty
feeling; a realisation
of the worst fears about the judiciary; that in
Zimbabwe, the wheels of
justice turn slowly and erratically.
With respect, it is a judgment
whose conclusion is as startling as it
is questionable on the
merits.
On 4 April 2008, the MDC made an urgent application at the
High Court,
to compel the ZEC to release the results of the Presidential
election held
on 29 March 2008.
The matter came before Justice
Uchena and with it the whole weight of
the key election rested on his
shoulders.
Justice Uchena initially acknowledged the urgency of the
matter of
announcing the results. He said at page 11: “In the absence of an
explanation the delay between 29 March 2008 and 4 April 2008 seems to be
unjustifiable and points to a lack of efficiency (on the part of the ZEC)
”.
Ironically, notwithstanding his acknowledgement of urgency, it
took
the learned judge 10 days to deal with the matter and deliver judgment
on 14
April 2008.
That is four days more than the delay
initially complained of. As if
that was not enough, the learned judge
dismissed the application with costs.
A lot was said in the
judgment but everything came down to one crucial
point: the power and
discretion of the ZEC to order a recount hence
necessitating a delay in the
announcement of the result of the presidential
election.
The
ZEC explained that the delay was caused by the complaints that had
been
raised by a party, presumably Zanu PF, under Section 67A of the
Electoral
Act in relation to counting of the votes.
Section 67A – Fish out of
Water?
The judge had to deal with the important question of whether
S. 67A of
the Electoral Act was applicable to the Presidential election
because it is
a provision that specifically deals with parliamentary
elections.
After considering the arguments, the judge decided that
it applied
because it was not specifically excluded by Section 112 of the
Electoral Act
as is the case with surrounding and related
provisions.
In this case the judge’s hands appeared to be tied
because the statute
does not exclude S. 67A from application to Presidential
elections and he
could not legislate even if he thought that in this case it
was like fish
out of water.
The 48-Hour Window
Nevertheless, S. 67A(1) on which the ZEC was relying requires that the
recount may be demanded by a party/candidate within 48 hours of the
announcement of the result. The rationale is clear: one cannot demand a
recount unless he knows the result.
The judge found, correctly
it has to be said, that S. 67A(1) could not
apply in this case because a
request could only have been made within 48
hours after the declaration of
the result of the presidential election and
clearly this had (and still has)
not been done.
The matter could have ended at that point because
this was the
erroneous basis on which the ZEC relied for the
delay.
This was not a proper legal basis for delaying the
announcement of the
results and the judge should have dismissed the defence
on that basis.
ZEC Discretion to Order a Recount
But
the judge went further to consider another provision, namely, S.
67A(4) and
found that the ZEC has a very wide discretion to order a recount
“on its own
initiative”.
It is on the interpretation of this provision that the
Judge dismissed
the MDC application.
The judge stated that the
ZEC could order the recount “on its own
initiative”. Having failed to place
the matter under S. 67A(1) because there
had been no announcement to trigger
the 48-hour window, the matter was,
therefore, placed under this catch-all
provision.
You have to wonder, however, why the legislature made
provision for
the 48-hour window under S. 67A(1) if the ZEC can receive
complaints at any
point (even before announcement of the result) which it
can then use as a
basis for delaying the announcement, allegedly “on its own
initiative” under
S. 67A(4).
In any event, it seems fairly
clear from the ZEC explanation that the
decision to perform a recount is not
“on its own initiative” but has been
prompted by the alleged complaints by,
presumably Zanu PF.
Curiously, the judge makes no specific enquiry
on this matter except
to conclude that the ZEC was entitled to act “on its
own initiative”.
Surely, in drafting these two separate provisions,
Parliament intended
there to be a difference between the ZEC acting “on its
own initiative”
under S. 67A(4) and acting on the basis of a complaint
under S. 67A(1)? But
in this case, the judge has read the complaints
supposedly made under S.
67A(1) as if they apply equally where the ZEC acts
“on its own initiative”
under S. 67A(4).
Constitutional
Standard
Further, Justice Uchena states that S. 67A(4) does not
state the time
when the ZEC may order a recount “on its own initiative”.
This is
interpreted as granting a wide discretion to the ZEC.
But, with respect, it is incorrect to read this provision in isolation
from
the rest of the provisions relating to elections.
In particular,
there is a clear Constitutional standard for judging
the conduct of the ZEC
which is to be found under Section 64(1) of the
Constitution and the judge
had correctly acknowledged this in the earlier
part of the
judgment.
It states that the ZEC must ensure that elections are
conducted
“efficiently, freely, fairly, transparently and in accordance with
the law”.
Having accepted that Constitutional standard, surely, the
conduct of
the ZEC in using its discretion must be measured
accordingly.
Reasonableness
Standard
But there is another important shortcoming in the
judgment. It is that
the judge appears to give way too much discretion to
the ZEC,
notwithstanding that the statute itself limits the extent of such
discretion.
It goes without saying that in any case discretion
must be exercised
reasonably.
But in this case the provision
states clearly that in deciding whether
or not to order a recount the ZEC
must have “reasonable grounds for
believing that the votes were miscounted
and that, if they were, the
miscount would have affected the result of the
election”.
It is clear that this provision imports a clear standard
of
reasonableness in the exercise of the ZEC discretion.
On the
contrary, the judge states at page 14, that, “It (ZEC) simply
should have
grounds for believing that the votes were miscounted” (emphasis
added).
With respect, it is incorrect to omit the important
factor of
reasonableness stated in the law because it makes a big difference
to the
exercise of discretion.
“Grounds” and “Reasonable
Grounds” are two different standards at law
and the learned judge should
know this.
The judge refers to “grounds”, contrary to the statute’s
wording which
requires there to be “reasonable grounds” for the ZEC
decision.
The standard of reasonableness means that the ZEC must be
objective in
its conduct and, crucially, it provides a basis upon which its
conduct may
be challenged.
In other words, the ZEC cannot get
away with giving flimsy and
unreasonable basis for ordering a
recount.
If the legislature intended it to be subjective reasons
that could not
be challenged for their unreasonableness, it would not have
used the term
“reasonable grounds” as it did.
The judge appears
to deal with this as if the ZEC only needs to have
subjective grounds as
opposed to an objective basis for its decision.
Appealability of
the ZEC Decision
In order to bolster the view that the ZEC has wide
discretion on this
matter, the judge refers to S. 67A(7) of the Electoral
Act which states that
the ZEC decision for a recount is not subject to an
appeal.
On the face of it, there must, surely, be strong
reservations as to
the constitutionality of this provision, given that it is
inconsistent with
the provisions that require the ZEC to act reasonably a
ground upon which
its acts or omissions may, surely, be
challenged.
What if it does not act reasonably and continues to
delay the
announcement because of a purported need to count and re-count the
votes ad
nauseam? Surely, that has to be and can be challenged for lacking
reasonableness?
In any event, as shown above the Constitutional
standard requires the
ZEC to act “efficiently, freely, fairly, transparently
and in accordance
with the law”.
That Constitutional test
matters because the Constitution is the
supreme law of the land and, surely,
the ZEC is required to act accordingly.
If it fails, the ZEC can be
challenged notwithstanding the Electoral
Act provision preventing
appeals.
To talk of a very wide discretion appears to be giving
undue weight to
this Electoral Act provision at the expense of the general
constitutional
context in which the ZEC operates and is expected to
act.
In any event, the judge could surely have taken into account
that
notwithstanding the no-appeal provision, the decision could surely be
subject to review on the manner in which the discretion is
exercised.
Parliament is very clear in the statute that it must
meet the
reasonableness standard.
Conclusion
It is
difficult to understand how the learned judge came to his
conclusion given
his positive findings throughout in favour of the
applicant. Perhaps it is
our collective folly to have expected too much of
one man.
Perhaps this was a load that one man could have only carried so far
and when
it became too much he just had to offload it somewhere.
Just a pity
that he left it in the wilderness.
Is there a way out of
this?
I am not sure the judiciary has the wheels to carry justice
in these
political matters.
As the famed American Judge Learned
Hand said many years ago, “Liberty
lies in the hearts of men and women; when
it dies there, no constitution, no
law, no court can even do much to help it
...”
Alex Magaisa is based at The University of Kent Law School and
can be
contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.ukThis e-mail address is being protected from
spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or a.t.magaisa@kent.ac.uk
Recounting The Counted
Letters
Saturday, 19 April 2008 19:59
A fair selection system
will naturally include a process of recounting
your chickens before they
hatch.
No one in their right mind could possibly object to this
process.
Regrettably, however, there are people around who have entered into
an
advanced state of mental incompetence, either by over-indulgence in
fomented
vegetable matter or by prolonged exposure to Western
neo-colonialism.
Such delusional persons will, without hesitation,
rush to court to
raise captious objections to this process.
They will waste valuable court time that could be far better spent on
farming activities by making ridiculous submissions such as that you should
only be permitted to recount your unhatched poultry if you have not only
counted them first, but have also announced how many unborn chicks you have
counted.
Equally fatuous will be their claim that the result of
the first count
must be announced as quickly as possible, rather than
treating the count as
a closely guarded state secret.
The judge
will, of course, laugh out of court such baseless
contentions and rule that
the official body in charge of this process must
have an absolute discretion
to do what it likes, when it likes, whether
others like what it is doing and
the pace at which it is doing it.
Now that we have demonstrated the
undoubted need for a recount, it is
important to provide careful instruction
on the method that should be used
when carrying out the
recount.
This is necessary because the counters messed up so badly
the first
time around. The same mistakes must not be made during the
recount.
One basic error was to treat the count as requiring a
simple
arithmetical process of adding up the agreed figures to arrive at a
total.
The mathematical principles that apply to a recount are
substantially
different from those applicable to a count.
With
a recount, the basic formula that should be used is Z=X+E+M. Here
Z is the
party that must win; X is votes actually received; E is extra
ballots
erroneously omitted; M is even more extra ballots kept in reserve in
case
they are needed to tip the balance.
The extra and even more extra
ballots can be derived from a variety of
sources, such as dead people and
people who are entitled to vote more than
once.
A second
formula should also be used to make sure that the process is
completely
above board.
This is as follows: L=X-D-M. Here L is the party
pre-destined to lose;
X is the number of votes actually received; D is the
number of its votes
that have mysteriously gone missing, using a
prestidigitation technique
known as Now you see them and now you don’t; M is
the number of further
votes that may have to be disappeared should this be
necessary.
At the conclusion of this process there is an obligation
to inform the
party who is claiming to have far more hatched chickens than
the winner that
it is sadly misguided and should accept that it is a
perennial loser, and
should not compound matters by being a sore
loser.
Its imperialist backers should also be told to keep their
filthy
mouths shut, instead of trying to invent a crisis when Thabo has told
everyone that there is none.
So, let no one make false
allegations there was industrial strength
rigging. The legal protections are
foolproof and absolutely guarantee that
the whole process will be squeaky
clean and fantastically fair.
The problem lies not in the process
but in unrealistic expectations by
anyone that they can harvest more
chickens than jongwe. Surely everyone
knows by now that only the party which
is able to extract refined diesel
from a stone can have a legitimate right
and duty to rule the roost forever.
The detractors must be
re-educated as soon as possible and it is
reassuring that re-educators have
been dispatched to every part of the
country to engage in gentle persuasion
which often results in self-inflicted
injuries.
The best way to
reform misguided persons who have false hopes and
dreams is to subject them
to the same sort of treatment that was meted out
to King Tantulus who was
surrounded by water and fruit that was just out of
his reach.
This may prove somewhat difficult, however, as both these commodities
are in
short supply, and even if they are available they are
unaffordable.
----------------
MDC Must Resist Zanu PF
Attempts To Steal Election
Letters
Saturday, 19 April 2008
19:56
MY heart bleeds at what is happening in Kenya and Zimbabwe. One
cannot
help but mourn the curse that has befallen this beautiful
continent.
Africa is full of leaders who are obsessed with power.
Building
consensus outside ethnic numbers is a strange development in Africa
that has
resulted in our loss of opportunities and hence has resulted in the
culture
of retribution.
Fear of retribution results in leaders
refusing to leave office
irrespective of whether they are delivering on
their mandates or not.
African leaders are cowards who fear
retribution for their mistakes
and hence try to entrench their position
through patronage in order to
defend themselves.
In Kenya we
have two very rich and educated leaders who have no
remorse in making poor
people suffer to promote their personal interests to
the highest office in
their land, instead of using their wealth to develop
their
motherland.
Africa’ s leading elite are the new slave masters of
the continent and
would be more than happy to parade their wealth alongside
their capitalist
friends in the West.
What they fail to realise
is that capitalists in the West have
mastered the art of sustainable
development and are aware that their
position is only sustainable in the
long run through growth and general
trickle down of benefits.
Developments on the subject of visionless leadership bring us to the
situation in Zimbabwe. One of the key elements missing in our leadership
across the greater part of the continent is the absence of the
truth.
Our continent has become a place of the rich few with a lot
of poor
people cheering them on and only for the poor to be abused as pawns
during
elections to lend credence and legitimacy to their exploitative
behaviour
and policies of mass exclusion from the mainstream
economy.
It is therefore not surprising that things in Zimbabwe
have turned out
to be what they are today.
A challenge to the
hegemony of the ruling elite is regarded as
treasonous misconduct. During
the elections of 2002 we had the service
chiefs led by Retired General
Vitalis Zvinavashe declaring before the
elections that they (army) would not
salute a leader who does not have war
credentials.
What they
failed to recognize was that the issue was not about an
individual or his
personality but about the people of Zimbabwe. Whoever
garners most votes
assumes an office in a representative capacity of all the
people of Zimbabwe
irrespective of their background, colour or creed.
During the
countdown to the 2008 harmonized elections a similar
development was
precipitated by the utterances by security service chiefs.
By pre-empting
the results of the electoral process the service chiefs
committed a serious
treasonous crime in any democracy.
The demand by the service chiefs
suggested that the people of Zimbabwe
have no rights other than through
submission to the will of the ruling
elite. Ironically, the service chiefs
are also the beneficiaries of
patronage and are a part of the
entrenchment.
Some of them are beneficiaries of more than one farm
against the
government’s own policy of one man one farm, hence their
resistance to
change.
A recent press report on Leo Mugabe’s
divorce proceedings speaks
volumes of the double standards of his uncle’s
corrupt regime. So we are now
made to understand that Leo Mugabe owns three
farms against government
policy. If Leo has been allowed to violate national
policy then it must be
far worse with his superiors within Zanu
PF.
My advice to the MDC is that they should not be part to a
process of a
run-off, re-run or recount in which they are set up to
lose.
The constituencies where recounts have been ordered will go
to Zanu PF
with a few going to opposition as a smoke screen but this is
intended to
ensure that Zanu PF ends up with a majority in both the House of
Assembly
and Senate, so that the emperor is granted a new lease of
life.
Wezhira
Gweru
--------------
Desperate Propaganda
Letters
Saturday, 19 April 2008
19:51
ZANU PF is resorting to desperate propaganda, which shows that it
is
trying to divert the nation’s attention on the unreleased results of the
presidential poll by claiming that Morgan Tsvangirai is begging for a
position of vice-president.
How can Tsvangirai beg for the
vice-presidency when everyone,
including those in Zanu PF are fully aware
that Tsvangirai won a majority
vote and as the party has repeatedly said,
there is no need for a re-run
because Robert Mugabe was heavily defeated in
the 29 March election, which
is the reason the results have not been
released.
It is therefore baffling that a winner could beg for the
vice-presidency to a loser.
The MDC has never approached Zanu
PF and it has no intention of
approaching the former ruling party over this
issue because it is fully
aware from the returns posted outside polling
stations that it won the
presidential election.
At no time did
the MDC’s deputy treasurer and newly appointed MP for
Makoni North and Ian
Makone, the MDC’s secretary for elections approach
Patrick Chinamasa with a
request from Tsvangirai, for him to be appointed
vice-president of
Zimbabwe.
Efforts by the MDC to have The Herald correct its and
Zanu PF’s lies
have been denied.
The MDC is already finalising
the formation of a government that will
provide people with jobs, food,
health and education, contrary to what Zanu
PF is doing by providing cheap
propaganda to a starving nation.
MDC Department of
Information and Publicity.
----------------
Independence Day
message to Zimbabweans
Letters
Saturday, 19 April 2008
19:49
I would like to join all Zimbabweans in commemorating the 28th
anniversary of independence.
Independence days provide a chance
to reflect on proud achievements, a
united sense of purpose and the
future.
Sadly, as Zimbabwe celebrates its 28th birthday, many
Zimbabweans are
unable to celebrate.
What should be a proud and
joyful day for Zimbabweans is overshadowed
by uncertainty and
fear.
Nearly three weeks after elections, the results are still not
known,
the economic tailspin continues and for many, hope is
fading.
Even more disturbing are the many reports of violent
retribution being
carried out in rural communities.
Since 8
April, there is growing evidence that rural communities are
being punished
for their support for opposition candidates.
We have disturbing and
confirmed reports of threats, beatings,
abductions, burning of homes and
even murder, from many parts of the
country.
I call on the
government to protect the human rights of all
Zimbabweans, on the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission to release the results of
the 29 March elections
immediately, and for all parties to respect the
outcome.
In the
meantime, I hope that Zimbabwe can find inspiration in the
anniversary of
its independence to move forward.
Zimbabweans have expressed their
desire for change and that will must
be respected. I look forward to the
day when the United States is able to
fully support the Government of
Zimbabwe’s efforts to serve the interests of
all Zimbabweans.
On 18 April 1980, the US warmly welcomed Zimbabwe’s independence, and
we
look forward to regaining the sense of co-operation and achievement we
shared on that day.
James D McGee
Ambassador of the
United States of America