http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Tobias Manyuchi Monday 04 April
2011
HARARE – South Africa has angrily rejected attacks on
President Jacob Zuma
by Zimbabwean official media, which on Sunday labeled
him duplicitous and
questioned his suitability to mediate between Zimbabwe’s
squabbling ruling
parties.
In the clearest sign yet of growing
tensions between Pretoria and Harare,
the Zimbabwean government mouthpiece
Sunday Mail said Zuma was erratic and
an undesirable facilitator in the
talks between President Robert Mugabe and
Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
"President Jacob Zuma's erratic behaviour is the stuff of
legends," the
Sunday Mail said in an unusually harsh editorial by an
official paper on
Zuma, whose South Africa is Zimbabwe’s biggest trading
partner and has
helped Mugabe weather international pressure.
"The
problem with Mr Zuma now is that his disconcerting behaviour has become
a
huge liability, not only to South Africa but also to the rest of the
continent. Mr Zuma's duplicity is astounding. With such leaders, Africa is
in mortal danger," the paper said.
The paper also accused Pretoria of
supporting the West’s regime change
agenda in Libya when it backed UN
Resoultion 1973 that authorised NATO’s
ongoing campaign against Muammar
Gaddafi.
The comments that the Sundial Mail would not have dared publish
without
first seeking government approval came after Zuma and other regional
leaders
strongly condemned political violence in Zimbabwe.
Zuma’s
office promptly hit back rejecting assertions by the Sunday Mail that
Pretoria had by supported the toppling of Gaddafi or foreign occupation of
Libya and while maintaining relations between South Africa and Zimbabwe
remain warm and cordial subtly told Harare to shut-up or observe diplomatic
etiquette by communicating through official channels.
"Governments
have their own channels of communication, and relations with
Zimbabwe remain
warm and cordial," Zuma’s office said Sunday. "Should the
Zimbabwean
government wish to understand our position on Libya or any other,
they will
contact the South African government through the normal channels
as they
always do."
Zuma last Thursday briefed a summit of the Southern African
Development
Community (SADC)’s security organ on Zimbabwe’s political
deadlock.
The regional organ that comprises the leaders of Zambia,
Mozambique and
Namibia later issued a statement strongly condemning a
political violence by
Mugabe’s allies in the security forces against
Tsvangirai’s supporters.
Reacting to the organ’s statement Mugabe on
Friday said neither it, SADC nor
the African Union could prescribe solutions
to Zimbabwe.
He also made it clear that he would reject a roadmap to free
and fair
elections that Zuma as mediator was crafting for Zimbabwe, saying
elections
would be held in accordance only with the country’s Constitution
and laws.
The Sunday Mail in its editorial questioned Zuma’s suitability
to continue
as mediator in Zimbabwe while a top member of Mugabe’s ZANU PF
party,
Jonathan Moyo, virtually called for his sacking as
facilitator.
Moyo writing in the same paper said: “(the mere fact that
President Zuma of
South Africa voted for the atrocities that the US and its
NATO allies are
committing in Libya under UN Resolution 1973 makes him an
undesirable SADC
facilitator on the political and security situation in
Zimbabwe.
"Zuma can no longer be trusted if ever he was. The way that the
SADC Troika
is behaving on the Zimbabwean situation against the backdrop of
how South
Africa, Nigeria and Gabon voted with the African enemy on the UN
Resolution
1973 against Libya, shows beyond doubt that the time has come for
a major
rethink in Zimbabwe on who are our friends are or should
be.”
Analysts say without backing from the SADC and other African
countries
Mugabe would not have been able to resist international pressure
for so
long.
But it remains to be seen whether the diplomatic tiff
between Harare and
Pretoria is sign that neighbouring countries are fed up
with the veteran
Zimbabwean leader and now considering withholding their
crucial backing for
him. -- ZimOnline
http://www.dailynews.co.zw
By Stanley Gama, News Editor
Monday, 04 April 2011
09:14
HARARE - SADC is determined to persuade President Robert Mugabe
to retire,
in a twin bid to avert a catastrophic political and economic
meltdown in
Zimbabwe, as well as preserve vestiges of the octagenarian
leader's legacy.
High level diplomatic sources told the Daily News at
the weekend that
emissaries from the region would be sent to Harare in the
next few weeks, to
further pursue “a possible and desirable clean departure”
for Mugabe.
However, the sources acknowledged that Sadc knew it would
continue to face
stiff resistance from Harare, especially from “securocrats”
and
others close to him – as these disparate groups’ future and welfare
depended
on the president’s continued leadership of the country.
The
region also believed that Mugabe, 87, was troubled by health problems,
something expected considering his advanced age.
Given this reality,
the sources added, many leaders in the region were
baffled by Mugabe’s
“appetite to hang on to power”.
The presidency has fiercely and
consistently denied international media and
diplomatic reports that he is
suffering from prostate cancer.
The sources also espoused the fears
recently expressed by Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai – that Mugabe, who
has been in power for 31 years, was no
longer in charge of the country and
that it was the military that now held
away.
“There have been
discussions around the issue of President Mugabe quitting
to save the little
legacy he has left. It’s amazing that at his age and his
state of health, he
still wants to go on and this is what Sadc heads have
been telling him
jointly and at times separately,” one of the top level
sources
said.
“Every Sadc leader, and indeed those from the African Union, want
President
Mugabe to rest. We are doing it for the sake of Zimbabwe, for
Mugabe’s own
sake and for his family and children.
“We have told him
that Julius Nyerere left a legacy, Samora Machel left a
legacy and so did
Seretse Khama and Ketumile Masire , while Nelson Mandela
is a living
legend.
“Mugabe must not end up being an enemy of the people like Kamuzu
Banda,
Mobutu Sese Seko and Idi Amin. He still has time to correct the
situation
and to resign honourably, and this is what we have been telling
him,”
another said.
“President Mugabe has been reminded that his
friends like Kenneth Kaunda are
still respected around the world because
they lost elections and accepted
the results.
“We have told him that
he needs to rest for the sake of his health. We all
saw him arriving at the
summit (the Sadc troika on defence meeting that was
held in Zambia on
Thursday) and he does not look well at all. If anything,
his presence here
with his physical outlook actually intensified calls for
him to step
aside.
“When you talk to President Mugabe, he understands and at times
accepts that
his time has come, but as soon as he gets back home he suddenly
becomes a
changed man and makes public statements which are exactly the
opposite of
what we will have discussed,” another highly placed regional
diplomat said.
Mugabe, who was always surrounded by bodyguards, was
visibly walking with
difficulties at the Livingstone troika meeting – and
was ferried to and from
his room at the Zambezi Sun Hotel by a golf
cart.
Said the regional diplomat: “It is clear that President Mugabe is
being
abused by people around him, who do not want him to go for their own
political survival and selfish agendas.
“Sadc is putting this across
to him and he generally agrees but fails to
implement this when he gets back
home. Even former South African presidents
Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela
tried and failed to convince the old man to
go.
“Three years ago, the
elders, led by Mandela tried and failed to convince
Mugabe to retire, not
only because of his advanced age, but also to save
Zimbabwe from total
collapse.”
The Elders is an independent group of eminent global leaders,
brought
together by Nelson Mandela to offer their collective influence,
experience
and wisdom to support peace building efforts and to help mitigate
major
causes of human suffering, as well as to promote the shared interests
of
humanity.
Besides Mandela, other members of the group are Kofi
Annan, Desmond Tutu,
Jimmy Carter, Graca Machel, Mary Robinson, Fernando H
Cardoso, Gro
Brunftland, Lakhdar Brahimi, Ela Bhatt and Martti
Ahtisaari.
According to another Sadc diplomat, the elders are expected to
renew their
pressure on Mugabe to retire.
Contacted for comment
yesterday, Zanu PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said: “I don’t
know about that
discussion. Sadc leaders have no right to choose a person
to lead us in our
country. We have our own rules and way of doing it when
choosing leaders. We
know that President Mugabe is our party candidate for
the election and he
has been chosen by the people of Zimbabwe in every
election we have held
since 1980.
“We are focusing on the anti-sanctions campaign and
preparations for the
general elections under the leadership of President
Mugabe and we are
looking forward to winning in both the anti-sanctions war
and the elections
programme under his leadership”.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com/
04 April, 2011 02:55:00
Cape Times
THE tougher line which the Zuma administration has for
some time been
promising to take against Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe
at last emerged
on Thursday at the summit in Livingstone of the SADC’s
security troika.
The communiqué issued by the troika – Zuma, Zambia’s
Rupiah Banda and
Mozambique’s Armando Guebuza – was a remarkably forthright
statement by the
normally mealy-mouthed standards of the SADC (Southern
African Development
Community).
In all but name, it condemned
Mugabe’s Zanu-PF for the political violence
once again rising in the country
and the arrests, intimidation and hate
speech.
It also rejected his
evident intention to rush into elections as soon as
possible, which he could
win by hook or by crook. Instead, the troika
insisted that Zanu-PF and its
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) partners
in the troubled unity
government should properly implement all the agreed
steps towards elections,
mainly drafting a new constitution – which would
level the political playing
field – and putting this to a referendum.
That would push back the
elections which Mugabe hoped to have soon, to a
year from now,
Zimbabwe-watchers predict, and make it far less likely he
would win
them.
The troika leaders also chided the Zimbabweans – and again this was
clearly
aimed mainly at Mugabe and Zanu-PF – for their tardiness in
implementing all
such commitments, and imposed a new level of supervision to
ensure they did
so.
This supervision is clearly intended to be more
onerous; the new team to be
appointed for this task will set terms and
timetables for the Zimbabweans.
In all of this the troika was clearly
just adopting Zuma’s recommendations,
as South African officials made
clear.
The troika communiqué was also remarkable for what it omitted –
the
inevitable call on Western nations to lift their targeted sanctions
against
Mugabe and his Zanu-PF cronies. So the troika meeting was clearly a
comprehensive defeat for Mugabe, as he made clear when addressed Zanu-PF’s
Central Committee on Friday, railing against the SADC and South African
interference in Zimbabwe’s sovereignty.
He expressed particular
dislike of the troika decision to appoint officials
to set terms and
timetables for the Zimbabwean parties to stick to in
implementing their
commitments in the unity government and in their road map
to proper new
elections.
Mugabe’s spokesman, George Charamba, in his weekly column
under the pen name
Nathaniel Manheru in the pro-Zanu Herald newspaper, also
noted with dismay
the absence of the usual condemnation of sanctions,
suggesting that this
meant that Zuma and the SADC had now fallen under the
influence of the
dreaded Western imperialists.
He saw the troika
communiqué as the continuation of a trend in South African
foreign policy
more starkly illustrated in its decision to back a no-fly
zone and military
action against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.
Zuma’s tough
report on Zimbabwe to the troika, which clearly shaped the
strong
communiqué, adds another interesting piece to the puzzle of where
South
Africa’s foreign policy is going now.
Probably most commentators have
seen confusion and inconsistency, citing,
for example, contradictory
positions on the post-election crisis in Ivory
Coast and on
Libya.
They especially note Zuma’s strong criticism of the coalition
forces for
their attack on Gaddafi, just two days after South Africa had
voted for such
attacks at the UN.
There was food for the proponents
of the chaos theory in the SADC troika
communiqué too, as it condemned the
“obtrusive measures” taken by come
countries in Libya and called for
“adherence to the political track that was
initiated by the AU”.
But
one can also see the troika meeting outcome instead as further
confirmation
of an emerging trend towards a stronger, more independent
foreign
policy.
What the SADC will do next, now that Mugabe seems to have
rejected its
tougher line, though, will be telling.
Jakkie Cilliers,
head of the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, is
not too
impressed, believing the troika communiqué was more rhetorical than
substantive and that Pretoria and the SADC are not yet ready to get really
tough with Mugabe.
But it’s hard to deny that they seem at least to
have taken the first step,
by making their displeasure clearly felt.
http://www.thezimbabwemail.com
04 April, 2011
07:30:00 By Fortune Tazvida
ZAMBIAN President Rupiah Banda told
Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe to ‘shut up’
during a heated SADC Troika Summit
held in Livingstone, Zambia last week.
The 87 year old Zanu PF leader was
attempting to pile on the excuses for his
violent crackdown back home but
Banda told him he was talking ‘nonsense’.
Fresh from the humiliation of
his Zanu PF party losing the election for the
much coveted Speaker of
Parliament post, Mugabe arrived in Zambia expecting
the usual softly soft
approach from his peers in the SADC grouping. But even
his closest ally,
South African President Jacob Zuma, was uncompromising.
A regional
diplomatic offensive by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai just
shortly before
the summit seemed to have paid dividends. Tsvangirai
travelled to and met
the leaders of Zambia, Mozambique, Botswana, Swaziland,
South Africa and
Namibia respectively, briefing them on Mugabe’s crackdown.
During the
summit in Livingstone, Zuma and other leaders cornered Mugabe
over his
refusal to implement sections of his political agreement with MDC
leader
Morgan Tsvangirai. The summit also took place just days after Zuma
held a
private meeting with Tsvangirai at his Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, home.
One
diplomat told a Zimbabwean publication Nehanda Radio that SADC leaders
showed their impatience with Mugabe’s antics and were demanding that he
abide by their decisions. It was little wonder after the summit SADC issued
a strongly worded statement expressing its impatience with the impasse in
Zimbabwe.
“The summit noted with grave concern the polarisation of
the political
environment as characterized by, inter alia, resurgence of
violence, arrest
and intimidation in Zimbabwe,” the statement
said.
“There must be an immediate end of violence, intimidation, hate
speech,
harassment, and any other form of action that contradicts the letter
and
spirit” of the unity accord,’ it added.
But an angry Mugabe on
Friday accused the SADC grouping of trying to
interfere in Zimbabwe’s
internal affairs. On Friday he told a Zanu-PF
central committee meeting in
Harare:
“The facilitator is the facilitator and must facilitate dialogue.
(Zuma)
cannot prescribe anything. We prescribe what we should do in
accordance with
our own laws and our agreement. The (opposition) MDC thinks
SADC or the
African Union can prescribe to us how we run our things.” -
Nehanda Radio
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
04 April
2011
All 15 leaders in the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
have
been cited as respondents in a landmark legal case, launched by
Zimbabwean
farmers.
The application, made to the SADC Tribunal last
week, is the first time in
legal history that a group of heads of state is
being cited by an individual
as the respondent in an application to an
international court.
Jeremy Gauntlett, a leading South African advocate,
filed the urgent
application on behalf of two dispossessed Zimbabwean
commercial farmers,
both of whom ran highly successful farming enterprises,
and both of whom are
elderly.
This includes Michael Campbell of
“Mount Carmel” farm in Chegutu, who led an
historic legal battle in the
Tribunal against Robert Mugabe and his land
grab campaign. The Tribunal
ruled in 2008 that the land grab scheme was
unlawful, and ordered Mugabe’s
government to compensate farmers who lost
land, and protect the remaining
farmers from future illegal seizures.
That has not happened, and Campbell
was eventually forced off his property,
along with his family, when land
invaders burnt the farm down in 2009. In
reaction to the Tribunal’s findings
the government said rulings of the
international court were ‘null and void’
and held no sway in Zimbabwe. Land
seizures have continued ever since, and
last month Campbell’s son was forced
of his farm after a week long
‘jambanja’.
Also involved in this new case is Luke Tembani from the
“Remainder of
Minverwag” farm in Nyazura district, who took his case to the
SADC Tribunal
in June 2009. This was after the farm he bought with a loan in
1983 was sold
by the Agricultural Bank of Zimbabwe in 2000, without any
court hearings. In
August 2009, the Tribunal ruled that the repossession and
sale of Tembani’s
farm to recoup an outstanding loan was “illegal and void”.
The judges ruled
that he should remain on the farm.
But in defiance
of the Tribunal ruling Tembani and his family were evicted
two months
later.
Zimbabwe’s refusal to honour the Tribunal’s rulings was eventually
brought
before SADC leaders last year, who were urged to take action against
it’s
errant member. But instead of rebuking Zimbabwe or forcing Mugabe to
honour
the Tribunal, the court was suspended. A SADC summit resolved last
year to
‘review’ the role and functions of the Tribunal, a review that has
reportedly been conducted.
Campbell’s son-in-law Ben Freeth, who now
heads the SADC Tribunal Rights
Watch group, told SW Radio Africa on Monday
that this new legal case holds
the 15 SADC leaders to account, by asking
them to fully reinstate the
workings of the Tribunal. The application asks
for an order that ensures
“the Tribunal continues to function in all
respects as established by the
Treaty, which all the leaders are signatory
to.”
“African leaders must acknowledge that they have a responsibility to
their
people,” Freeth stressed, adding: “If they unilaterally decide to
abandon
them to a continent devoid of institutions through which justice can
be
sought, injustice and evil will continue to prevail, ordinary people will
continue to suffer and the continent will regress.”
MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SADC Tribunal Rights Watch
4 April 2011
New application to SADC Tribunal makes legal history
For the first time in legal history, a group of heads of state is being cited by an individual as the respondent in an application to an international court – in this case the Southern Development Community (SADC) Tribunal - located in Windhoek, Namibia.
Jeremy Gauntlett, SC, a leading South African advocate, filed the urgent application on behalf of two dispossessed Zimbabwean commercial farmers, both of whom ran highly successful farming enterprises, and both of whom are elderly.
The first applicant is William Michael Campbell of Mount Carmel farm in the Chegutu district of Mashonaland West province, and the second applicant is his company, Mike Campbell (Pvt) Ltd.
The third applicant is Luke Tembani of the Remainder of Minverwag farm at Clare Estate Ranch in the Nyazura district of Manicaland province.
The first respondent is the “Summit of the Heads of State or Government of SADC” and the Presidents of 15 countries, including Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe.
The second respondent is the Council of Ministers of SADC and the third is the Republic of Zimbabwe.
The application asks for an order that ensures “the [SADC] Tribunal continues to function in all respects as established by Article 16 of the Treaty.”
In the Preamble to the Declaration and Treaty of SADC, the SADC Heads of State agreed to be “Mindful of the need to involve the people of the Region centrally in the process of development and integration, particularly through the guarantee of democratic rights, observance of human rights and the rule of law…”
According to the protocol establishing the Tribunal, a person can bring a case after exhausting all available remedies or when unable to proceed under domestic jurisdiction.
Despite this commitment, in August last year at the two-day SADC Summit in Windhoek, the SADC heads of state decided “that a review of the role functions and terms of reference of the SADC Tribunal should be undertaken and concluded within six months.”
The terms of the judges presiding over the SADC Tribunal were not renewed and the Tribunal was effectively disbanded pending the outcome of the review.
Responding to widespread criticism, SADC executive secretary Tomaz Salamao claimed that the Tribunal had not been suspended and that it could “deal with those cases at hand” although it “could not entertain any new cases.”
For the Mugabe government, the decision was of major significance as the Tribunal would no longer be able to hear controversial cases regarding Zimbabwe’s conduct with respect to human rights abuses and the disastrous land reform programme which the Tribunal had judged to be unlawful.
The Campbell case
In October 2007, after exhausting all legal remedies under domestic jurisdiction, Mike Campbell filed a case with the Tribunal contesting the acquisition of his farm which had been transferred legally in 1999 with a “certificate of no interest” from the Zimbabwean government.
In March 2008, 77 additional Zimbabwean commercial farmers were granted leave to intervene. Interim relief similar to that given to Campbell on December 13, 2007 was granted to 74 of the farmers since three were no longer residing on their farms.
Eight months later, on November 28, 2008, the Tribunal ruled that the land reform programme was racist and unlawful and that the Zimbabwe government had violated the SADC treaty by attempting to seize the 77 white-owned commercial farms.
In response, Lands and Land Reform Minister, Didymus Mutasa said the government would not recognise the ruling.
The Luke Tembani case
Luke Tembani, a successful black commercial farmer, took his case to the SADC Tribunal in June 2009 after the farm he bought in 1983 was sold by the Agricultural Bank of Zimbabwe in 2000 without any court hearings.
In August 2009, the Tribunal ruled that the repossession and sale of Tembani’s farm to recoup an outstanding loan during a period of soaring interest rates - to which the bank was unable to put an exact figure - was “illegal and void”. The judges ruled that he should remain on the farm.
In defiance of the Tribunal ruling, Tembani and his family were evicted two months later and Tembani’s two primary school-going children were forced out of the school he had built personally on the farm at significant cost for children in the area.
Commenting on the decision to suspend the Tribunal, the group legal representative of South African civil rights initiative AfriForum, Willie Spies, said it was cause for serious concern. He warned that it was very bad news for the Southern African region if disregard for the rule of law was supported in this way.
“We do not want to be sending a message from Africa that we are disregarding human rights. We do not want to send a message that the rule of law is being trampled on when it does not suit the rulers in power,” Spies said.
In the Founding Affidavit for this new case, Campbell stated that the application was being brought on behalf of the commercial farmers who joined his case in March 2008 and their employees and their families.
“Many have been forced from their farms and are scattered around Zimbabwe….. With us they have suffered evictions, destruction of their homes and possessions, assaults, torture and other gross human rights violations,” Campbell said.
He said it had also not been possible to join hundreds of thousands of similarly affected farm workers, or to obtain separate affidavits from them.
“They live in daily fear of further attacks and dispossession, and of reprisals. Many now live hand-to-mouth, scattered near relief centres and across the country.”
Campbell’s son-in-law, Ben Freeth, who has supported him in his quest to gain justice through the SADC Tribunal, was also abducted and tortured with Campbell and his wife immediately after the Presidential run-off election in June 2008. They were forced to sign a paper stating they would withdraw their case, which was due to be heard by the Tribunal the following month.
Although Freeth has recovered fully from his injuries, which resulted in major brain surgery, the serious head injuries Campbell sustained have left him severely incapacitated.
“Despite this, Mike remains resolute and was able to sign the application - which will have far reaching implications for the sub-continent - with a quivering hand,” said Freeth.
“African leaders must acknowledge that they have a responsibility to their people,” Freeth stressed. “ If they unilaterally decide to abandon them to a continent devoid of institutions through which justice can be sought, injustice and evil will continue to prevail, ordinary people will continue to suffer and the continent will regress.”
“There are encouraging signs though,” continued Freeth. “Zambian President Rupiah Banda, who chaired the SADC double troika summit in Livingstone on Friday, said: ‘If there is anything that we must learn from the upheavals going on in the northern part of our continent , it is that the legitimate expectations of the citizens of our countries cannot be taken for granted.
‘We must therefore continue at the SADC level to consolidate democracy through the establishment of institutions that uphold the tenets of good governance for human rights and the rule of law,’ he concluded.
ENDS
Background information:
The Declaration and Treaty of SADC, Article 16 – The Tribunal, reads:
1. The Tribunal shall be constituted to ensure adherence to and the proper interpretation of the provisions of this Treaty and subsidiary instruments and to adjudicate upon such disputes as may be referred to it.
2. The composition, powers, functions, procedures and other related matters governing the Tribunal shall be prescribed in a Protocol adopted by the Summit.
3. Members of the Tribunal shall be appointed for a specified period.
4. The Tribunal shall give advisory opinions on such matters as the Summit or the Council may refer to it.
5. The decisions of the Tribunal shall be final and binding.
For further information:
Ben Freeth – SADC Tribunal Rights Watch
Cell: +263 773 929 138 (Zimbabwe)
E-mail: freeth@bsatt.com
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/
Apr 4, 2011, 17:07
GMT
Harare - Zimbabwe's energy minister, a close ally of premier Morgan
Tsvangirai, was released on bail Monday after a high court judge dismissed
attempts by state prosecutors to keep him in jail before he goes on trial on
corruption charges.
Elton Mangoma is facing what Tsvangirai describes
as a 'malicious
prosecution' by the police and state lawyers, which are
controlled by
President Robert Mugabe's arm of the country's coalition
government.
Mangoma, who was first arrested on March 15, is accused of
violating state
rules in connection with a multi-million dollar procurement
to relieve a
national fuel shortage.
He was granted bail but arrested
again on March 25, this time for allegedly
fixing tenders for electricity
meters for the state power utility.
A high court judge had ordered him
released on bail the first time, but the
state invoked controversial
legislation allowing suspects to be detained
while it appeals bail
decisions.
High court judge Joseph Musakwa on Monday dismissed the
state's right to
appeal and ordered Mangoma's immediate release, said lawyer
Selby Hwacha.
Mangoma also acts as a top negotiator on behalf of
Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change during talks with Mugabe's
ZANU(PF) party.
A meeting between party negotiators took place without
him Monday.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com
04/04/2011 00:00:00
by Lindie
Whiz
ZIMBABWE’S court system ground to a halt on Monday as magistrates
went on
strike pressing for better pay.
Magistrates currently earn
between US$206 and US$300 but they want the
lowest paid magistrate on
US$1,000 per month, rising to US$3,300 for the
Chief Magistrate.
The
Zimbabwe Magistrates’ Association (ZMA) gave a 14-day ultimatum to the
Judicial Services Commission in February this year, but the government
insists that it is broke.
Before Monday’s walk-out, the magistrates had
been on a go-slow for a week.
Douglas Vakai Chikwekwe, the president of
the ZMA said on Monday that the
government had requested a meeting in Harare
on Tuesday to discuss the pay
dispute.
“We have been invited to come
to Harare but we do not know the agenda,”
Chikwekwe told journalists. “If
there is no traction on our demands, then
our members will not go back to
work.
“We have been patient for long but now they have over stretched us and
there
is no going back until they meet our demands.”
But Rex Shana,
the deputy secretary of the Judicial Services Commission,
claimed they had
not been given notice prior to the strike.
The strike paralysed court
business countrywide, leaving hundreds of people
in remand prison after
their court appearances were cancelled.
At the Bulawayo Magistrates’
Court, prosecutors took it upon themselves to
advise suspects and witnesses
of a possible next remand date.
For prisoners already in remand prison,
prison officers were entering
possible next remand dates on the Warrant of
Detention, but the law requires
that a magistrate appends his signature on
the warrant.
Police found themselves in a bind as new suspects they were
bringing to
court for the first time were being referred back to police
cells which are
not designed to house suspects for more than 48 hours as
they do not have
the requisite facilities.
Magistrates currently earn
between $206 and $236 while regional magistrates
earn $300.
Local
junior chief court interpreters earn between $147 and $163 while a
clerk of
court earns around $156.
The ZMA is demanding payment of $600 for
magisterial assistants, US$1,000
for junior magistrates, $1,500 for senior
magistrates, $2,000 for senior
provincial magistrates, $2,500 for regional
magistrates, $3,000 for senior
regional and deputy Chief Magistrate and
$3,300 for the Chief Magistrate.
http://www.iol.co.za
April 4 2011 at 04:31pm
The Supreme Court
of Appeal (SCA) on Monday ruled against Free State
businessman Crawford von
Abo, who wanted the South African government to
compensate him for farms he
lost in Zimbabwe.
SABC radio news reported that the SCA set aside a
judgment by a high court
that ordered the government to pay him compensation
for the property he lost
during the land redistribution programme in
Zimbabwe.
This was because the South African government failed to respond
to his
request for diplomatic protection.
The SCA held on Monday that
even though South Africa's response to Von Abo
was inappropriate, it did not
give him legal rights to financial
compensation.
Von Abo built up a
large farming enterprise over 50 years in Zimbabwe, but
was left penniless
after his 14 farms were virtually destroyed by land
invasions.
He
had, since 2008, tried to get the South African government to take
diplomatic steps to address the violation of his rights in
Zimbabwe.
In February 2010, the High Court in Johannesburg found that the
South
African government had a constitutional obligation to provide
diplomatic
protection and ordered that it had 60 days to take all necessary
steps to
have Von Abo's violation of rights by Zimbabwe remedied. - Sapa
http://www.sabcnews.com
April 04 2011 , 10:46:00
The Minister
of International Relations and Cooperation Maite
Nkoane-Mashabane warns that
Zimbabwe could end up like the Ivory Coast if it
rushes into elections,
without implementing all the conditions of the
coalition agreement between
the MDC and Zanu-PF.
Mashabane was speaking on a wide range of issues
affecting various African
governments. She says Zimbabwe must not rush to
the polls without meeting
all the essential elements of the agreement agreed
upon.
"One of the preconditions is that they should conclude the
processes of the
new constitution, take it through the referendum process
before they go to
the next election. If we allow them to go into elections,
and not advise
them to first start implementing that which must be
implement, we'll end
up with another Ivorian situation," says the
minister.
President Jacob Zuma also made it clear at a SADC summit that
Zimbabwe
should adhere to the Global Political Agreement. His comments have
drawn
criticism from Zimbabwean state media supporting President Robert
Mugabe.
SEAN O'TOOLE AND
PAUL BOTES Apr 04 2011
10:07 |
I remember attending a meeting
addressed by the then Prime Minister of Britain in what was Salisbury and
hearing him make a version of his famous “Winds of Change” speech. It was a
seminal moment for Africa, much like Churchill saying after the Second World War
that an “Iron Curtain was descending across Europe”.
Somehow those two statements
went on to describe an era on each continent that lasted in Europe’s case for
over 50 years and about the same length of time in Africa (Ghana came to
Independence in 1958, South African transition to democracy in 1994). In 1998 a
small-scale farmer took a bus from his home in the Masvingo Province of
Zimbabwe, and after debussing in Mbare he walked several kilometers to the
Headquarters of the Trade Union Federation where he asked to speak to the
President, Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai.
Morgan is the sort of person
that does not stand on protocol; his secretary went to him and he agreed to see
the visitor without an appointment. The old man told Morgan that he felt he had
a vision from God. He said that he had been told in that vision to tell Morgan
that his Party symbol should be an open hand, palm outwards, depicting openness
and non-violence and that his slogan should be “Chinga Maitero” or “Real
Change”. It became the rallying cry of the MDC and in fact constitutes our
vision for the period through which we are traversing at present. At our first
Congress, Morgan paid for the man to come to Harare and he presented him to
thousands of delegates and gave him our first T-shirt with the slogan printed on
the front and back.
Over the past decade or more,
the forces of dictatorship in Zimbabwe have thrown everything at us – we have
been beaten, tortured, killed and maimed. Thousands have been imprisoned and
many have simply disappeared. In the State controlled press we are vilified
every day as “revisionists”, “sell outs” and “agents of the West”. We are
accused of wanting regime change – as if that is not what all politics is about!
It is certainly what we set out to do in 1998, Chinga!!
In 2006, after the split that
almost destroyed the MDC and saw Morgan Tsvangirai stripped of bank accounts,
vehicles and staff as well as a significant number of his original leadership,
we rebuilt the Party from the ground up and emerged, in my view stronger than
ever. At that Congress we adopted a “road map” to real change. It was quite
simple – democratic resistance, negotiations with Zanu, reforms to the electoral
process and then a free and fair election.
I well recall the near panic in
Zanu circles over our “Democratic Resistance” campaign. They could not
understand what resistance meant, were we going for an armed struggle? Was this
going to be mass action with thousands on the streets? They arrested people,
tortured them and even murdered a number of key activists, never quite believing
that we meant just what the title said – we would fight them with our votes, in
every possible way.
We have been faithful to that
old mans vision in 1998, we have not killed one person, we have not even broken
a glass window, or raised a stick to a Policeman. We have been the people of the
open hand, always laughing at our difficulties and facing scowls with smiles.
But we have pursued change, real change in our country consistently and
democratically, and slowly Zanu has been pushed back against the
ropes.
Nothing represents this sea
change better than the outcome of the SADC summit in Zambia last week. In 1999
when we launched our campaign, South Africa set its face against us and
supported Zanu at SADC, the AU and even at the United Nations. They covertly
funded the effort to restrain the forces of change in Zimbabwe, fearing that
they would spill over into South Africa and destabilize the ANC Alliance. The
majority of SADC leaders supported Zanu and Mr. Mugabe and felt that the MDC was
also a threat to their own status as former liberation
movements.
Now, suddenly, we have a
regional summit where in his opening remarks, the Chairman rebukes Mr. Mugabe
and demands that all leaders in the region listen to their people and allow
reform and change or face the wrath of the people. Mr. Zuma, President of South
Africa not only demanded that Zanu PF live up to the signatures on the Global
Political Agreement signed in September 2008, but stop the flood of propaganda
in the State controlled media and stop all acts of violence and intimidation.
They stated that the Zimbabwean leadership would not be allowed to deviate from
the GPA or the road map to free democratic elections that is contained in it.
Mr. Mugabe and Zanu responded
with fury, “we will not be dictated to by the region”; “we are a sovereign State
and will decide what is best for our country”. Even a veiled threat to leave the
grouping, but that is all wind. Zanu is stuck with playing the final game of
this series with the MDC on ground that is defined by the visions of a simple
peasant from Masvingo and a carefully crafted road map that follows the
guidelines set by 18 000 delegates to our 2006 Congress. It’s our game, our
rules and now the referee has said you must play on until the
final.
This key decision by the region
was of course preceded by the reelection of Lovemore Moyo as Speaker of the
House of Assembly. Again this was a strategic move by Zanu that backfired. They
had the case against Moyo on the books since 2009, but only chose to use it when
suddenly Mr. Mugabe looked mortal and they realized that if they stayed on the
field of the GPA, defeat and worse was the only outcome. They then triggered the
court case and had Moyo dismissed and set about trying to make sure they
won.
They put up S K Moyo as their
candidate, tried to lock up or neutralize our Members of Parliament and
hurriedly swore in two new Members. Hefty bribes were paid to a number of MDC
MP’s and they threatened their own MP’s with dire consequences if they went
against the Party line. They were confident that they had done enough to
recapture control of the central pillar of the State.
In the end they failed
miserably – 106 votes for the MDC candidate (one spoiled) and 93 for the Zanu
candidate – that is 13 votes for us that turned the tide and many came from the
Zanu benches. Just for a laugh we nominated Jonathan Moyo as a candidate to the
chagrin of Moyo himself and to the consternation of the entire Zanu front bench.
Although the nomination was at first accepted it was then disallowed after a
hurried appeal by the Crocodile, but if it had gone through, what a nomination
speech that would have made! We would have stated how eminently suited to be the
Zanu candidate he was, devious, without principle and dishonest, a hired hand
who will work for the highest bidder. But we were not allowed to have our say –
we responded with our votes, the very weapon we always said we would use to
defeat tyranny in our country.
Eddie
Cross
Bulawayo, 3rd April
2011