[This report
does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations] |
Calls for Mbeki to engage leaders on Zimbabwe
SABC
April 21, 2008,
15:00
United Democrattic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa has written
a letter
to President Thabo Mbeki.
Holomisa is requesting that the
president meet with the collective
leadership of South African society to
discuss two issues - South Africa's
involvement in Zimbabwe crisis and the
future of the Scorpions. Holomisa
says there is still no legitimate reason
to dissolve the Scorpions.
In the letter to the president, Holomisa says
there seem to be differences
of opinion among South Africans on how to
handle the Zimbabwe crisis. He
says the handling of Zimbabwe's post election
crisis is coupled with
uncertainty about what a South African delegation
under his leadership is
currently doing in Zimbabwe.
Holomisa's
letter further states that while the mediation in Zimabwe is a
South African
Development Community (SADC) initiative, the UDM still feels
that president
Mbeki is still representing South Africa when mediating in
the affairs of
Zimbabwe.
Presidential spokesperson Mukoni Ratshitanga could not confirm
whether the
letter has already been received. But he says the presidency
will respond to
the UDM as soon as it receives the letter.
Zimbabwean unrest will hit SA hard: ANC
SABC
April 21, 2008,
19:45
The ANC says a destabilised Zimbabwe will hit South Africa hard.
Speaking
during meetings with in Berlin with political parties from Germany,
Brazil
and India, ANC Treasurer General Matthews Phosa, says plans for the
ANC to
meet with Zanu-PF were being put in place.
The meetings are
focused on common issues including HIV/Aids, food security
and climate
change, but the world's attention remains firmly on Zimbabwe and
Phosa says
the ANC is setting up talks.
"It’s a very serious situation and we want
to, in a comradely way, interface
with Zanu-PF. The preparations are
underway, our guys who need to make
contact are doing so and when the right
time comes, we will make it known.
We don't want secret meetings, we want
open dialogue with our colleagues,"
says Phosa.
The talks will not be
limited to Zanu-PF. There will also be meetings with
the Movement of
Democratic Change (MDC) and other parties.
Tonight ANC President Jacob
Zuma will take part in a north-south debate in
Berlin.
'Zimbabwean govt must not undermine
constitution'
SABC
April 21, 2008,
12:30
ANC President Jacob Zuma says the Zimbabwean
government
must not undermine its own Constitution and take the country down
a path of
deeper conflict. He made the comment at the start of a three
country
European tour.
Zuma's first stop on the
European tour is Germany where he
is meeting with the German Social
Democratic Party, the Congress Party of
India and the Workers' Party of
Brazil. Its a long standing partnership to
address common issues. Zuma says
they will discuss ways to influence their
respective governments in dealing
with the programmes of addressing the
plight of the
poor.
But the topic of Zimbabwe is still the one
everyone is
asking about. The ANC President said the Zimbabwean constitution
was being
undermined:" The Zimbabwean State has been for a long time
expected to
operate within its Constitution, I think its is a little bit out
of the way
to be seen to be undermining your own Constitution. We call on
the
Zimbabweans not to take the country on a path into deeper
conflict.
He added that it was undeniable that South
Africa was
feeling the impact of the crisis. "Our calling on the Zimbabweans
to do
whatever they can to to resolve the issue is not just a concern in
general,
it is very specific because we are affected in the throughout the
region,
particularly in SA."
The dlegation will
also visit London and Paris to answer
questions from current and prospective
investors.
Mbeki is a mediator in meltdown
SeattlePI.com
April 21, 2008
PAUL
VALLELY
Thabo Mbeki was always on a hiding to nothing. Anyone taking over
from
Nelson Mandela, the world's favorite leader, was bound to suffer by
comparison. But the South African president's failure to deal robustly with
Robert Mugabe after the Zimbabwean election fiasco has exhausted not just
the patience of the rest of the world, but that of his own citizens,
too.
It was all so different a decade ago when Mbeki was Mandela's deputy
and
anointed successor. True, those who had known him as a charming and
amusing
student at the University of Sussex were surprised at how glum and
dour he
became on entering government. But Mbeki decided that there was no
point in
trying to compete with Mandela's charisma, and presented himself as
an
intellectual and a technocrat -- the man capable of turning Mandela's
vision
of a better life into a political reality.
He cultivated the
image of an independent and original thinker, and
determinedly rejected
populism. First, he risked unpopularity by lobbying
the ANC to swap the
armed struggle for negotiations with the apartheid
regime. Then, in power,
he took difficult decisions on the economy. He was
shocked to find that the
white regime had bequeathed a siege economy close
to collapse rather than
the stashes of cash needed to provide new homes with
water and electricity
for the black population. He rebuilt the economy,
championing free-market
economics to attract foreign investment, control
inflation and create new
jobs, rather than giving in to his communist and
trade union comrades who
wanted pay rises in the public sector. He played a
leadership role in
forming the African Union and its New Economic
Partnership for African
Development.
But the disdain he developed for what others thought of him
-- he wanted to
be respected, not liked -- led him into an intellectual
arrogance. It
tripped him up mightily over the issue of AIDS. His
ideological distaste for
white colonialism fed a fixation that the idea of
AIDS being primarily
sexually transmitted was an attempt by white scientists
to paint blacks as
promiscuous and Africa as a place of disease and
hopelessness. For years, he
refused to make antiretroviral treatment for HIV
infection available.
Mandela became publicly cool towards his
successor.
But it was on the growing economic and political chaos in
Zimbabwe that he
has most disappointed. As international concern grew, Mbeki
remained
quiescently supportive.
Why? Was it out of respect for
Mugabe's status as a battlefield leader of
the liberation struggle, against
which the backroom boy Mbeki felt inferior?
Or out of a resentment at the
condemnation by white nations, including
Britain, the former colonial power?
Or because he thought the best way to
bring change was by what he called
"quiet diplomacy" behind the scenes?
Last year, he conducted private
negotiations with Mugabe's party, Zanu-PF.
He had some success. He forced
a change in Zimbabwe's election rules that
required the results at each
individual polling station to be nailed up on
its door. This is what, this
time, allowed independent observers to work out
that Mugabe had lost. But
the talks broke down without achieving a
substantive agreement on political
succession.
After the elections, other African nations appointed Mbeki as
mediator
between Mugabe and the poll winner, Morgan Tsvangirai. But he has
been seen
as too partisan towards Mugabe, pronouncing that there was "no
crisis" and
then giving permission for a shipment of Chinese arms to pass
through South
Africa to Zimbabwe, despite pleas that it should be
quarantined until the
crisis is over.
Tsvangirai called for him to be
replaced as the key mediator. Thabo Mbeki,
he said, had lost all
credibility. It was hard not to agree.
Paul Vallely is a columnist for
The Independent in Britain.
MDC supporters charged
News24
21/04/2008 19:41 -
(SA)
Harare - Dozens of Zimbabwe opposition activists appeared in
court on Monday
in the violent aftermath of last month's elections as the
government
rejected claims that it was arming groups of
vigilantes.
Around 30 people were brought before Harare Magistrates Court
to face public
order charges in connection with a general strike last week
called by the
opposition in a bid to force the result of last month's
general elections.
Prosecutors say they were behind a series of violent
incidents during the
strike on Tuesday of last week, including the burning
of commuter buses.
As the first two defendants were marched into the
dock, their lawyer urged
the court to adjourn their case, claiming they had
been assaulted while in
the custody of the security forces.
"We urge
the court to direct that the state investigate allegations of
assault," said
their lawyer, Alec Muchadehama.
"We are applying that the trial be
postponed to a suitable date for us to
have access to all state papers and
take instructions from the accused
persons who are denying the
charges."
Frivolous charges
MDC secretary for legal affairs
Innocent Gonese said opposition supporters
were being hauled before the
courts while none of the ruling party militias
had been arrested for the
alleged murders and assaults of opposition
sympathisers.
"We have
made numerous reports of attacks on our supporters and the police
usually
don't take any action," Gonese said outside the Harare court.
"On the
other hand we have lots of our supporters arrested on frivolous
charges. We
have gone through this route before and at the end of the day
the charges
are dropped for lack of any evidence."
In a press conference on Sunday,
the party's secretary general Tendai Biti
charged that 10 MDC supporters had
been killed and thousands forced to flee
their homes following attacks by
pro-Mugabe vigilantes.
However Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga
said on Monday the claims
by a "desperate" MDC should be treated with
contempt.
"The vigilante groups are those that you find in the media, in
... Mr Biti's
head," Matonga said on SA public radio.
"There is
nothing of the sort. These are imaginary vigilantes."
'One of the lost ones'
I
was one of the "lucky" ones born after the independence of Zimbabwe in 1980. I
also got a medal like the others when I was in grade six in 1992, for being one
of the first independent generations. Now I am a boy aged 28 after 28 years of
independence i have nothing and I have known only one president the honorable
RGM. But how honorable is my life my excellence. To start with I am in exile
(self imposed/refugee) in a country that is struggling with its own problems of
rebuilding after the apartheid era. The great imbalances that exist here in
South Africa are but a great challenge on there own. A country trying but
struggling to create a credible livelihood for its own citizens has its borders
ballooning with over 3 million Zimbabweans among other refugees from all over
the continent and beyond. I am one of them my president. Though educated and
having achieved a lot for people my age I sat at home suffering from
professional redundancy. After completing your studies at college you expect to
start something on your own or to get a job. I got nothing, I had my business
ideas and your government either stole them or pushed me down/aside. I was not
Zanu-Pf, I was not old enough and I was not loyal to get funding. But how long
are you going to punish us for your failures, we are but the products of your
loins and suffering. I am part of the generation that respected you and had hope
in the prosperity of "the Zimbabwe". When your first wife passed on I cried, I
cried for the love of her and the pain of loosing a grandmother figure because
she was the same age as my grandmother by the way. But now I wonder why I felt
sorry for you at all, you are not feeling sorry for me, for us and for our
country. You are not feeling sorry for my father and others; he worked as a
company clerk for 20 or so years and has nothing. A man who's savings where
eaten up or blown away by this monster you have crafted with ingenuity. The
monster called inflation that you created and failed to manage because when you
started destroying our once good farmlands and evergrowing industries you where
part of the conspiracy that has led to your own demise. Now you baby of
mismanagement, misrule and corruption has outgrown you and you put the blame on
us (learn a lesson or two from Akon). The land question had to be addressed and
I concur 100% but not the way you did sir. The living conditions had to be
addressed too, but not by destroying peoples homes Mr. President or caretaker
whatever they call you these days. The education system needed a bit of
adjusting but not the imminent destruction it has undergone. Our environment
needs to be sustainably managed to meet our needs and the needs of the future
generations but it will bleed and die if the Chinese continue to loot our
resources and give you weapons to kill us your children. I have lost respect for
you, for what you stand for and sometimes I wish God would do his part, which is
inevitable of course. But the choices I have already made of respecting each
being as long as they live holds me back I love you as a fellow man but I must
say I despise/hate you as a president and how ironic that is. Elections by the
way are also held to express the will of the people sir, caretaker President or
just Grandpa. You don't change how people feel if you brutalize them, you don't
win their hearts if you threaten them, you wont even win their votes even if you
kill their brothers, their mothers their fathers their sisters. They will hate
you more, and they will despise you even more. And even if you eke a
re-run/run-off, the peoples will, will always prevail. I wonder how you are
dealing with your conscience now because you have/you are trying to cheat, to
steal the vote and reverse the will, the desire and the only hope that people
had. Some things change but some things take time to change and when they do
change they can never be reversed and one of those things is the will of the
people it is final it is permanent it is irreversible and inevitable and it is
what it is 'the will of the people'.
From babavabonzochaivochaivo
Bulawayo Morning Mirror update
As many of you would have heard by now
Mags was released on Tuesday
on bail. At this stage they have seized her
travel documents and she
is confined to our home in Bulawayo. We are hoping
to get a
relaxation on the bail order when she comes before the courts
tomorrow (Tuesday). In fact we are hoping that the case will be
dropped
as it is not an offence to practice journalism in Zimbabwe
and in the cases
against assorted foreign journalists in Harare, the
attorney General has
declined to prosecute.
Margaret is in good spirits and has been
completely overwhelmed by
the incredible show of support from all her
readers around the world,
and from her friends here at home and abroad. At
this stage she is
not feeling up to communicating herself but has asked me
to convey
her heartfelt thanks to you all for your support, e-mails and good
wishes.
She also feels extremely complimented by the fact that we
believe her
arrest was largely as a result of confusion by the Zimbabwe
State
Authorities who could not decide whether she was the Sky
correspondent Emma Hurd or our free lancing risk taking 24 year old
daughter! Both of whom are now safely out of the country.
She was
however a little peeved by my reference to her as a '60 year
old', when in
fact she is only 59 and three quarters! She has asked
me to correct this
misconception!
All things being well I am sure that Mags will be writing
again by
the end of this week.
Thank you all again for your
support.
Rick Kriel
Media Talk: Zimbabwe - Where
Next?
Frontline
13 Norfolk Place, W2 1QJ
£7 (online), £8 (regular)
Thu 24 April at
7.30pm
Moderated by George Alagiah (presenter for BBC News and BBC World
and
specialist on Africa and the
Developing World).
With the
continued uncertainty surrounding the elections results in Zimbabwe
George
Alag iah (BBC) talks to
returning journalists Patr ick Smith (editor of
Africa Confidential), Danie
l Howden (deputy editor of
The
Independent) and Laur a Lynch (Europe Correspondent, CBC News -
Radio) as
well as Terera i Karimakweda
(journalist with SW Radio
Africa, specialising in Zimbabwe). We discuss the
problems in covering
Zimbabwe so far
and ask what the future may hold.
Is this the end
for Mugabe? Will there be a second round and will the
violence increase?
Will anyone be held
accountable, how will the economy be rebuilt and what
role will Zimbabwe’s
neighbours play?
Plea se book online at www.front linec lub.com
For mor e informat
ion plea se cal l 0207 479 8950.
Front l ine hos ts a weekly program of
ground-bre aking documentary scr
eening s, di scuss ions that
examine
the role of the media , and e vening s with some of the wor ld’ s be
st
journal is ts ,
photographer s , f i lmmakers and camer amen. I t is
London’ s leading
centre for discuss ion and
debate on the i ssue s
that shape the news industry .
Al l Front l ine e vent s are open to the
gener al publ ic, unle s s otherwi
se sta ted.
Plea se note tha t a s
of the 1st of January 2008 the pr ice for t icket s
purchased on the door
goes up
to £8 for ta lks and £6 for scr eening s. The pr ice for t ickets
purcha sed
onl ine stay s the same .
Events at Front line at a g
lance :
Sun 27 Apr 08 at 6.00pm – Preview Screening: The Age of Terror –
War on the
West - £5 (online) £6 (regular)
Mon 28 Apr 08 at 7.30 –
Screening: The Last Jew of Babylon with Inigo
Gilmore - £5 (online) £6
(regular)
Tue 29 Apr 08 at 7.30 – Media Talk: The Real Africa - £7
(online) £8
(regular)
Thu 01 May 08 at 7.30 – Media Talk: Does the
News Industry Value Fixers? -
£7 (online) £8 (regular)
Fri 02 May 08
at 10.00 p.m. – World Press Freedom Day Debate: New Media is
Killing
Journalism - £7 (online) £8 (regular)
Fri 02 May 08 at 7.30 p.m. –
Screening: India’s Missing Girls - £5 (online)
£6 (regular)
Tue 06
May at 7.30 p.m. – Media Talk: Demystifying the Congo - £7 (online)
£8
(regular)
Wed 07 May 08 at 7.30 p.m. – Media Talk: Congo Session: In the
picture with
Marcus Bleasdale- £7 (online) £8 (regular)
Sun 11 May 08
at 4.30 – Screening: The Greatest Silence – Rape in Congo - £7
(online) £8
(regular)
Mon 12 May 08 at 7.30 – Screening: The UN in Congo - £5
(online) £6
(regular)
Al l F ront l ine e v ent s a r e org ani s ed
by the F ront l ine Club Cha
r i t able Trus t (Re g i s t e r ed Cha r i t
y No.
1111898). We a r e not for profi t organi s a t ion and a l l door
ta k ings
a r e r e inv e s t ed in the F ront l ine e v ent s
progr
amme.
An exercise in patience
Sophie Shaw, a Harare-based
development worker, witnesses slow progress at one of the weekend recounts as
Zimbabwe's post-election paralysis continues
Monday April 21 2008
A Zimbabwe polling agent holds voting
papers during a recount. Photograph: Desmond Kwande/AFP/Getty
Images
Four policemen at a roadblock carrying assault rifles
direct me. It's six miles (10km) down a dirt road to the district
administrator's office where the recount is taking place. The road is bad -
nobody in a government Mercedes has been to this remote corner of Manicaland
since the last election.
The office must have looked grand once, but it is now
grim. There are broken panes, piles of rat droppings and a strange photo of
President Robert Mugabe from two decades ago; a young-looking 65-year-old with a
grimace for a smile. The compound is packed with bored police, tense party
activists and anxious presiding officers, who may be joining colleagues in
prison accused of corruptly inflating the opposition vote three weeks ago. They
are in for a hot wait in the sun, perhaps for several days, sleeping where they
can, before they are summoned.
A platoon of police and electoral commission
officials is extracting sorry-looking ballot boxes from a storeroom. At the end
of a long night of counting on March 29, presiding officers at 10,000 polling
stations around the country recorded their results, inventoried their boxes and
sealed them with padlocks and wax. Now one has a hole bashed in the side; others
are not securely fastened.
In a "boardroom" furnished with wobbly tables and
broken chairs, Priscilla is in charge of the recount. She carries her authority
well. She is from Harare and works for "a government agency, not the electoral
commission, but I'm acting for the electoral commission". She welcomes foreign
observers and I sit next to a large Angolan from the Southern African
Development Community team. He soon falls asleep as the rising sun, the throng
and activity push the temperature above 30C.
But before Priscilla can start, Lovemore, the new
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MP for this area, elected by a whiskery
majority of 20, objects to the recount. It is illegal and he demands that it be
stopped. He and Priscilla, who is determined to press on, argue for an hour.
Their exchange is tenacious and passionate, but logical and respectful. They
reach a typically Zimbabwean compromise. Priscilla will proceed, but Lovemore
will explain to the room what is wrong.
He clears his throat theatrically: "Respectfully
madam, I want the electoral commission to tell us here present who called for
this recount – was it themselves or the Zanu-PF? And I want to see the written
application for a recount. Was it submitted less than 48 hours after the
original vote? If not, this recount is illegal. I also want to know if the
original results recorded will be produced? And where have these ballot boxes
been kept? And who has had access to them? And if there are any differences
between the original results and what we see today, I want you madam to hold an
inquiry to find out why. Until these questions are answered the MDC takes part
in this recount under protest."
While Priscilla happily ignores these awkward
questions and bustles around to get things moving, Lovemore comes over to tell
me more. He won his seat despite intimidation of voters and attempts by the
ruling Zanu-PF to monitor individual votes. Now Zanu-PF is trying to overturn
his victory. It needs to snatch back a dozen marginal constituencies to regain a
parliamentary majority. Lovemore has heard that on April 9, 11 days after the
election, a group of Zanu-PF officials, helped by the electoral commission and
the police, broke into the ballot boxes, took out MDC votes and replaced them
with forged papers marked for Zanu-PF. Witnesses are ready to testify to this in
court, but their safety needs to be guaranteed.
Meanwhile, Priscilla has the first ballot box open.
There are problems – first a security tag has the wrong serial number, then the
number of votes does not match the number of names ticked off the electoral
roll. Priscilla looks wrathfully at the presiding officer, but he manages to
talk his way out of trouble.
The counting is paint-dryingly slow. The presiding
officer holds each vote up for scrutiny by party agents. There are protracted
arguments about individual papers – does a cross made with red ink mean that a
ballot is spoiled? And once the presidential votes have been counted, the
process is repeated for the senate, parliamentary and local council elections.
Then the presiding officer, who looks like he wants to vomit up his fear,
painstakingly goes through the electoral roll, checking that the number of names
ticked off equals the number of votes cast. It's 1pm before the first box is
finished. We've been at it for five hours.
The results are announced. Lovemore is pleased that
the votes match what he noted down on election night. This first box, at least,
has not been tampered with. There's a change of mood in the room as the
presidential result is announced: Tsvangirai 164, Mugabe 106, Makoni 5. These
figures have been suppressed for three weeks and for many in the room it's the
first partial confirmation of rumours that the MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai has
won and may even have scored the magic 50% that would give him the presidency
immediately.
Lovemore is in reflective mood as the day drags on.
He is frustrated that Tsvangirai is out of the country, but what else can the
leader do? He might be killed or arrested if he returns. Ordinary activists are
being beaten and burned out of their homes by Zanu-PF youth. Lovemore fears that
Mugabe plans to grind those who supported the opposition into submission and
then call for a run-off presidential vote. That would give the MDC a desperate
dilemma – whether to try to win a dirty fight or to boycott and hand Mugabe a
default victory. Even with such a feeble mandate, Mugabe might try to soldier on
for a few more years, at least while he has the strong backing of his South
African counterpart, Thabo Mbeki.
The Zanu-PF candidate, Charity, is a bright young
woman who explains to me that Zanu-PF is modernising and reaching out to the
disenfranchised 52% of the population. She has a point – the MDC is a
notoriously chauvinistic party. Lovemore shrugs his shoulders when I ask him
why: "The country has to eat before we can worry about advancing our women". I
don't get the feeling Lovemore spends much time worrying about Zimbabwe's
non-advanced women, but it is true that women suffer the brunt of hunger and
poverty resulting from the economic collapse.
At a snail's pace, I watch five out of 39 boxes being
recounted during the day. It's going to take at least three days to finish the
recount, maybe more. But despite the flaws in this weary process, there's no
sign yet that anybody has stuffed any of the boxes.
So why on earth are so many hundreds of people
spending so long on this pointless exercise? Maybe the rigging will be done
tomorrow or next week, when the observers are so weary that they've stopped
noticing what's happening. Maybe this huge exercise is simply intended to buy
time for a dying regime. Zimbabweans love to "make a plan" to address their
difficulties. Maybe Mugabe's plan is to soften the country up for a bloody
run-off. Maybe his friends need time to get money out of the country. Or maybe
there is no plan and he's just clinging on because he knows nothing other than
power. After all, he was voted out of office three weeks ago, so every day he
hangs on to the presidency is a victory.
• Sophie Shaw is a pseudonym
Hush in a land that
has ground to a halt
Business Day
21 April 2008
Wilson
Johwa
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Political Correspondent
TWO or three South African Police
Service trucks packed with
failed border-jumpers still arrive at the town of
Beitbridge every day.
Sometimes hired buses also bring illegals to the
International Organisation
for Migration’s refugee reception centre on the
Zimbabwe side.
But the numbers are hardly comparable to
the multitudes waiting
in the queue snaking out of SA’s passport control,
waiting to enter SA. On
the footbridge, shoppers and still others walk,
albeit only at day for fear
of being mugged after
dark.
When the power goes off in Beitbridge, as it
frequently does, so
does the water and the cellphone network. But there is
quiet acceptance of
the situation, just as the country’s politics is the
subject of hushed
discussions among friends.
Zimbabwe
feels like a place that has ground to a halt.
There are
hardly any buses or minibuses on the roads, so any
means of transport will
do. Much of the country feels deserted and many
people seem to be making
plans to leave.
Politics appears to be the stuff of those who
cannot leave
immediately. Activist groups speak of addressing the media in
SA or opening
an office in Johannesburg.
Along
Beitbridge’s main thoroughfare there is no whiff of
politics, not in
conversations or on posters. The pretence of normality is
unbearable.
It is the same in Harare, where despite the
ashen complexions
and Vaseline-shiny faces, plans are being made. For
instance, 23-year-old
Grace, who is in the military police, takes my number
and wants me to help
her get a job in SA where her young sister is living.
It is the same in most
places.
“People are tired.
They are weak and hungry. They have lived
through so much and they don’t
want to get beaten," said former
parliamentarian Trudy Stevenson, explaining
the lack of enthusiasm for a
presidential runoff
election.
Beneath the Shona hubbub, there is little
information or
explanation of why election results have not been announced.
Newspapers do
not help. They resort to blatant misinformation. Public radio
is no better.
Ahead of last Friday’s independence
celebrations, the radio
profiled long-dead national heroes and played some
of their favourite
music — American jazz or seventies
hits.
The unease is part of the daily reality manifested
by extreme
politeness to strangers. In the traffic, a minor transgression is
likely to
yield an apology. But Harare’s emptiness is accentuated by the
lack of
traffic, let alone traffic jams. Traffic is made up mainly of
vehicles of
the remaining companies that can afford fuel. Commuters are
forced to use
the overburdened, inefficient trains.
But it does not look so bad for the police and army, who have
their own
buses. Occasionally, a white bus with Zimbabwe’s national
colours — also
Zanu (PF)’s colours — down its side goes by. Found all across
the country,
they are part of the fleet bought with taxpayers’ money and
distributed
nationwide by President Robert Mugabe during the election
campaign.
Food is the preoccupation in most places.
Bread is unavailable
and where it appears, long queues quickly form. Mealie
meal has not been in
the shops since the end of last year. Many of those who
have it get it from
relatives in the rural areas. Sweet potatoes are, in
places, the new staple.
But because of the season’s heavy rains, the
prediction is that food will
run out long before the next
harvest.
Cresta Oasis is a city hotel where breakfast now
resembles a
frugal African meal, with chicken livers added. Some days hard
scones take
the place of bread. But the staff are exceedingly polite, doting
on the
black-only clientele with none of the haughtiness Jo’burgers complain
about
it. “How was the food? It’s important to enjoy your money when you pay
for
breakfast,” says one without a hint of irony.
At
Agriculture House, the head office of the Commercial Farmers’
Union ,
president Trevor Gifford is having a busy day responding to media
inquiries.
He says two black farmers along with white landowners were
targeted in a
mass mobilisation campaign ahead of an expected runoff in the
presidential
election . He says it all started after the ruling party’s
politburo meeting
after the March 29 elections.
Mbare is one of Harare’s
oldest suburbs. If there is to be a
protest in Harare, it will start in
Mbare, which still has the hordes,
though the market is a shadow of its
former self — thanks to the government’s
Operation Murambatsvina (Clean
Up).
Liquo r store owner James Mambo says that since the
elections he
has had record sales. To replenish his stock he has to join the
queue at the
brewery before dawn. During working hours or at the weekend,
customers come
in and just stay. “It’s all because of the political stress,”
he says.
Bulawayo, the country’s second-largest city, is
the worse for
wear. There is little sign it used to be Zimbabwe’s best-run
city. Gaping
potholes can be found in virtually all the roads. Garbage is no
longer
collected in the townships, leading to infestations of rats. The tap
water
is murky brown and does not appear safe to drink. When the sun sets,
everybody retreats indoors, partly because there is never any transport to
get around, but also because of the all-consuming darkness. It is hard to
find any functioning public lights.
As a Jehovah’s
Witness, Julian did not vote. But she follows the
latest developments on
satellite TV. Inviting friends over for a braai is
something she and her
husband can no longer afford. She complains that since
the end of last year
there has been no learning in the schools. Teachers
simply sit in the staff
room.
Julian is animated by President Thabo Mbeki’s comment
that there
is no crisis in Zimbabwe. “What planet is he living on?” she
asks.
NCA urges people to defend themselves
WE URGE CITIZENS TO DEFEND THEMSELVES:
NCA
The National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) strongly condemns the
Zimbabwe
Republic Police's failure to protect suspected opposition
supporters across
the country that are being targeted and indiscriminately
brutalized and
tortured for allegedly voting for the MDC.
We further
condemn the behavior of some police officers who are taking part
in these
acts of harassing ordinary citizens in the streets. We hereby
highlight to
the security services of our motherland their duty: to protect
the people of
Zimbabwe. The NCA stresses that the police should cease being
partisan, and
act professionally, refuse to be reduced to a party militia.
The Zimbabwean
police should start executing their duties so as to protect
their mothers,
fathers, siblings, sisters and brothers.
The NCA expresses its dismay
over reports that some uniformed forces (army
and police) have been spotted
escorting criminal elements, raising fear and
substantiating suspicions that
the move is sponsored by the state. We
deplore the militarization of the
state by the Harare regime. Mugabe has
lost elections and is holding on to
power through the assistance of the army
and the police. Thus we call on
security forces to be on the side of the
people. The will of the people
should be respected.
The NCA in light of the developments in the country
implores all Zimbabweans
to protect themselves from ZANU-PF hooligans and
militia. We urge
Zimbabweans to organise themselves in each and every corner
of the country
and form defense brigades to protect themselves against
organised state
brutality and detestable elements in our societies. Let the
masses of
Zimbabwe awaken to the fact that the government is at war with its
people,
thus the need to protect themselves. Let there be back up squads in
suburbs
to protect citizens' houses, property and human lives from ZANU-PF
malcontents. Youths should organise and patrol their localities during the
night to save their mothers, sisters and brothers from ZANU PF vampires’
purporting to be war veterans.
In the wake of Friday's attacks in
Warren Park the NCA calls those that go
to Pubs for drinking to be
organised, vigilant and alert (be ready to
react). We urge such to move in
groups of six and above. We urge them to
defend themselves. When leaving
these drinking places we urge people to be
in groups. Never walk
alone.
Meanwhile the NCA is busy compiling names of alleged perpetrators
who in the
fullness of time will be summoned to answer at an impartial
judiciary system
for these gross human rights violations. Anyone who might
be having names
and/or information leading to the identification of
perpetrators of these
atrocities can contact any of NCA offices across the
country.
There is a possibility of making our independence
real.
Bumbiro Ngarinyorwe Nevanhu
National Constitutional
Assembly,
NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON
MADOCK CHIVASA
Are we back to 1978?
swradioafrica.com
By Gandanga
K
Information reaching us from Zimbabwe is that a draft order dated April
15
and lodged at the Supreme Court seeks to declare Chiota and Shumba duly
nominated as candidates in the presidential election. This is good news for
Robert Mugabe and his illegal government. What this means is, if Tsvangirai
and his Movement for Democratic Change were to boycott the re-run of the
presidential elections as has been in the news recently, then there would be
other takers thereby giving legitimacy to Mugabe’s embattled
government.
This scenario reminds me of Ian Smith’s Internal Settlement
of 1978 that
gave birth to Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa who
led the UANC,
Rev Ndabaningi sithole of Zanu (Ndonga) and Chief Chirau who
were considered
to be moderates by Ian Smith signed the agreement that gave
birth to
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. By coming up with the idea of the Internal
Settlement,
Smith thought that he was going to dupe the Zimbabwean masses by
‘giving
them a black leader’, thereby perpetuate his minority rule in a
disguised
way. Smith didn’t want to face the Patriotic Front, made up of
Zanu and
Zapu. The liberation fighters coming through the Zambian and
Mozambiquen
borders were regarded as ‘terrorists’ by the Smith
regime.
If we look at our present situation, we can see that Mugabe
doesn’t want to
face the MDC in a free and fair election in the same way
Smith avoided the
Patriot Front. Mugabe is however not using the word
terrorist to describe
his adversaries. To him the MDC and its leadership are
regarded at ‘British
Puppets’. He would rather influence the courts to
revisit a case they had
long presided over to declare Justin Chiota of the
Zimbabwe People’s Party
(ZPP) and Gabriel Shumba of United People’s Party
(UPP) duly nominated
presidential candidates. This will pave the way to
their participation in an
election where the results would be a forgone
conclusion. As far as I am
concerned, we are now back to 1978 with Justin
Chiota and Gabriel Shumba
taking the roles once occupied by Abel Muzorewa
and Ndabaningi Sithole.
Simba Makoni may as well fail to see the ploy and
throw himself into the
election re-run as our new Chief Chirau. There is no
documented evidence to
support that Chief Chirau had a vibrant political
party, and neither does
Simba.
Back in April 1978, Muzorewa won the
majority of the votes in the ‘staged’
elections. Zimbabwe-Rhodesia’s new
government was in an impossible position,
they were a black majority
government who were still having to live with
sanctions, which had been
expressly imposed until a black majority
government came to power. These
sanctions were kept firmly in place under
the pretext that the elections had
excluded nationalist leaders. By trying
to stifle and exclude the MDC which
has a large following and that seems to
have won both the parliamentary and
presidential elections, the Mugabe
government may find itself exactly where
Ian Smith was 30 years ago. Time
will tell.
One man's misrule
International Herald Tribune
By Jeff Jacoby
Published: April 21, 2008
In retrospect, it was an exercise
in naïveté to have imagined that
Zimbabwe's brutal strongman, Robert Mugabe,
would relinquish power just
because he had lost an election. It has been
more than three weeks since the
March 29 vote in which Mugabe's party, known
as ZANU-PF, lost control of the
lower house of Parliament. Yet official
results in the presidential contest
between Mugabe and opposition leader
Morgan Tsvangirai have yet to be
released.
There isn't much doubt who
won. Public tallies posted at each polling
station showed Tsvangirai's
party, the Movement for Democratic Change,
garnering more than 50 percent of
the vote. Were the electoral commission to
certify those tallies, it would
mean Mugabe's 28 years at the top had come
to an end. But the electoral
commission, like everything else in Zimbabwe's
government, is controlled by
ZANU-PF. So there will be no official results
until the books have been
cooked to Mugabe's satisfaction.
Meanwhile, the regime's thugs have been
busy, staging raids against foreign
journalists and opposition-party
offices, invading farms owned by white
Zimbabweans, terrorizing voters in
the countryside. U.S. Ambassador James
McGee warned last week that Mugabe's
goon squads were carrying out "threats,
beatings, abductions, burning of
homes, and even murder" in areas where the
opposition party ran strong. A
group of Zimbabwean doctors say they have
treated more than 150 people who
had been beaten since the election.
Hundreds more have been detained, and
the MDC says at least two of its
workers have been murdered.
Not for
the first time, Mugabe is viciously stealing an election, and not
for the
first time, the international community is doing nothing to stop
him.
Particularly feckless has been South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki.
More
than any other regional leader, he could exert the leverage to force
Mugabe
to abide by the voters' decision. He has refused to do so.
A week after
the election, Mbeki insisted there was "a hopeful picture" in
Zimbabwe;
several days later he held a friendly session with Mugabe, then
declared to
the world that "there is no crisis in Zimbabwe" - merely a
"natural process
taking place."
Is it any wonder that Africa is so often thought of as
the planet's most
miserable continent?
"By failing to come together to
denounce Mugabe unequivocally," The
Economist concluded, Mbeki and other
African leaders "have not only
prolonged Zimbabwe's agony; they have damaged
the whole of southern Africa,
both materially and in terms of Africa's
reputation."
Rarely has one man's misrule so horribly wrecked a country.
The MDC's David
Coltart, a member of Zimbabwe's Parliament, surveyed some of
the data
recently in a study for the Cato Institute in Washington:
In
a country once known as Africa's breadbasket, agriculture has been all
but
destroyed. Manufacturing has collapsed. So has mining - gold production
has
fallen to its lowest level since 1907, even as world gold prices soar to
record highs.
Thanks to ZANU-PF thuggery, 90 percent of foreign
tourism to Zimbabwe has
evaporated. Insane economic policies have fueled an
inflation rate of well
over 100,000 percent. Zimbabweans by the millions
have fled the country, and
80 percent of those who remain live below the
poverty line. Death from
disease and malnutrition has exploded. Life
expectancy for men in Zimbabwe
has fallen to 37 years, 34 years for
women.
Mugabe and his loyalists stop at nothing to ensure their grip on
power,
Coltart writes. As of 2004, an astonishing "90 percent of the MDC
members of
Parliament elected in June 2000 had suffered some human rights
violation; 24
percent survived murder attempts, and 42 percent had been
tortured."
The government, meanwhile, is now accusing Tsvangirai of
treason. State-run
media claims he was plotting with Britain to overthrow
the regime. But the
real menace is Mugabe, who was preparing at week's end
to receive a 77-ton
shipment of Chinese arms, including AK-47 rifles,
mortars, rocket-propelled
grenades, and more than 3 million rounds of
ammunition. What is he planning
to do with so much additional firepower?
That, Zimbabwe's deputy information
minister said, is "none of anybody's
business."
On Thursday, a South African government spokesman belatedly
acknowledged
that the situation in Zimbabwe "is dire." Now maybe he'll say
how much more
dire it must get before South Africa - or any other country -
finally does
something about it.
In full: Miliband Mugabe statement
BBC