The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
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According to
well-placed sources the party, in the past accused of
donating money for
development just before elections to win support,
requires about $3 million
each week to finance its campaign activities in
the city.
But the party is said to have reorganised its campaign strategy
because there
is no money.
"A group of over 200 national youth service
graduates were supposed to
be deployed in Masvingo Urban to spearhead the
party’s campaign but the idea
has since been shelved due to financial
problems," said one ZANU PF source,
who spoke on condition he was not
named.
A spokesman for ZANU PF’s Masvingo provincial executive
committee,
Raymond Takavarasha, confirmed that the party did not have money
but he
played down the matter saying his party was still able to carry out
its
campaign programme for the forthcoming elections.
ZANU
PF, which had been a dominant force in Masvingo Province but has
lost nearly
all major elections in Masvingo city and other urban areas to
the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) party since the opposition party’s
formation in
1999, battles it out with mainly the MDC in the 30 and 31
August ballot to
choose councillors for Masvingo Town Council.
Takavarasha said:
"Yes, we do not have the money but Zanu PF is not
for money mongers. We want
people who have the party at heart. After all a
T-shirt does not
campaign.
"The issue of splashing money is an MDC tactic, not ours.
"The campaign is going on smoothly and we are confident
of winning the
polls irrespective of the money problem."
But
Takavarasha said his party had had to abandon the use of T-shirts
and flyers
for campaigning because it had no money to pay suppliers of
the
materials.
"Yes, we do not have the money but Zanu PF is not for money mongers.
Both ZANU PF and the MDC have fielded
candidates in Masvingo and in
more than 10 other municipalities where
elections are scheduled in two weeks
’
time.
Own Correspondent
Daily News
Tsvangirai demands progress on talks
OPPOSITION leader Morgan Tsvangirai yesterday demanded that the
ruling ZANU
PF party reciprocate peace overtures, warning that his Movement
for
Democratic Change (MDC) party had not abandoned mass action but had
extended
the olive branch only in a bid to find a peaceful solution to
Zimbabwe’s
crisis.
Tsvangirai, who was speaking at the burial of Kadoma
Central Member of
Parliament Austin Mupandawana (MDC) in the town, accused
ZANU PF of
insincerity towards dialogue, saying the ruling party was dragging
its feet
on an initiative by Zimbabwe’s church leaders to resuscitate
dialogue
between the country’s biggest political parties. Mupandawana died
on
Saturday.
Tsvangirai said: "Mass action is not yet off
the agenda. The talks are
an olive branch we are giving ZANU PF to test its
sincerity about ending the
crisis. But if we fail to make a breakthrough in
the talks then we will
resort to mass action."
Tsvangirai
spoke as it emerged yesterday that there were sharp
divisions within ZANU PF
over whether to endorse the church-led search for a
negotiated settlement to
break Zimbabwe’s political impasse.
Sources said there was also
bitter disagreement within the ruling
party over issues that should be on the
agenda, when and if talks with the
MDC are resumed.
The
well-placed sources said because of the bitter wrangling between
various and
competing factions within ZANU PF, the ruling party had failed
to submit its
written position on the talks to the church leaders.
ZANU PF
was supposed to have submitted its position to the leaders of
the Evangelical
Fellowship of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the
Zimbabwe
Catholic Bishops’ Conference last week.
The MDC has already confirmed in writing it is ready to resume talks.
"The delays
in submitting party proposals are mostly over the agenda
items and whether or
not we should accept the clergymen’s initiative. The
party would want wide
consultations before we make a firm commitment to the
proposals," a source
told the Daily News yesterday.
A spokesman for the three-member
church team, Trevor Manhanga,
yesterday said his group was scheduled to meet
ZANU PF chairman John Nkomo
on Monday to get an update on that party’s
position on the issue of
dialogue.
Manhanga said: "We were
in touch with Minister Nkomo and he suggested
we should meet him this Friday
or next Monday to hear their position. We
agreed that we should meet just to
see what the issues are."
But ZANU PF spokesman Nathan
Shamuyarira dismissed suggestions there
was disagreement in his party over
resumption of dialogue with the MDC,
which broke down last
August.
Shamuyarira said: "That’s not a true allegation. That’s
a falsehood on
Zanu PF’s position. We should negotiate directly with the
parties
concerned."
The ZANU PF spokesman would, however,
not say when the party would
submit its position on resumption of
negotiations in writing to the church
leaders.
Both ZANU PF
and state President Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai told
Manhanga and his group
in separate meetings that they were committed to the
resumption of dialogue
between their rival parties.
But Mugabe earlier this week
poured cold water on prospects for
dialogue when he demanded that the MDC
"repent" first before there could be
co-operation with his
government.
A week earlier, hawkish ZANU PF legal affairs
secretary Patrick
Chinamasa had trashed the church-led efforts to revive
dialogue as
insincere, accusing the clergymen of being biased in favour of
the MDC.
Tsvangirai yesterday warned Mugabe and his ZANU PF
party not to
misread the MDC’s readiness for dialogue for a sign of
capitulation.
The opposition leader, who accused ZANU PF of
wanting to use the
proposed talks for propaganda purposes, said the MDC would
not negotiate
forever.
He said: "We have our deadlines
because we cannot negotiate ad
infinitum, but we cannot discuss that because
we don’t negotiate through the
Press.
"ZANU PF has failed to
reciprocate our goodwill overtures to save this
country from total collapse.
Instead we feel that they want to use this
whole process of talks to portray
a picture of themselves to the
international community as a peace-loving
party." By Zerubabel Mudzingwa and
Precious Shumba
Daily News
Mugabe puts army ahead of starving nation
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe this week promised to nourish and re-equip
his army
in a move analysts said showed the ageing leader was more
preoccupied with
shoring up his stranglehold on power than with resolving a
bitter economic
and social crisis throttling Zimbabwe.
Mugabe’s decision to
prioritise security forces in a country where
five million people face
starvation because of severe food shortages was a
clear signal the military
remained the trusted guarantor of Mugabe’s
iron-fisted rule, they
said.
University of Zimbabwe (UZ) political scientist Eldred
Masunungure
said Mugabe’s pampering of the military, which he also showered
with praises
for crushing opposition protests in June, was also meant to tell
opponents
that the army would always be called in to quell
dissension.
Masunungure, who is head of the UZ’s political and
adminsitrative
studies department, said: "It is a demonstration of the power
of the
government that security issues rank high on its priority. It means
the
coercive instruments of power – the security forces – will continue to
be
deployed to quell any protests in the streets of
Zimbabwe.
"The issues of starvation, drought and medical drugs
are subsidiary to
the overall imperative responsibility of maintaining the
security apparatus,
hence the need to revamp it at any cost and making sure
it is well-oiled and
lubricated so that it can dispense instant justice to
those who (the
government) feels deserve it."
In a speech to
mark Defence Forces Day on Tuesday, Mugabe paid tribute
to the military for
crushing internal demonstrations called by the
opposition Movement for
Demonstration Change (MDC) in June to force him to
the negotiating table to
resolve Zimbabwe’s deepening crisis.
Mugabe told the security
forces that his government would prioritise
provision of modern weaponry and
training in modern warfare tactics in order
to ensure the military was well
equipped to crush "internal and external
enemies".
Earlier
on Monday during a commemoration of heroes of Zimbabwe’s 1970s
independence
struggle Mugabe had appeared to scuttle hopes for resumption of
dialogue
between his ruling ZANU PF party and the MDC, demanding that the
opposition
"repent" first before there could be co-operation.
But analysts
said Mugabe’s obsession with with arming soldiers to
fortify his rule when
Zimbabwe was mired in unprecedented poverty, hunger
and disease was blinding
him from the real crisis choking the nation while
upgrading him into the
elite squad of the tragi-comic African dictators.
Inflation has
hit an all-time high of 364.5 percent while the almost
valueless Zimbabwean
dollar has also joined a list of several other basic
commodities in short
supply in the once prosperous nation.
Unemployment is around 70
percent as commerce and industry, just like
everything else in Zimbabwe,
hurtles towards total collapse.
A burgeoning HIV/AIDS crisis is
killing at 2 000 Zimbabweans each week
at a time the public health sector is
collapsing due to years of
underfunding and mismanagement.
The government in a letter of appeal to international donors begged
for $23
billion worth of essential drugs to help stem the death tide.
And donor agencies warn the country could witness its first direct
deaths
because of hunger unless the international community chips in with
700 000
tonnes of food aid required to feed Zimbabwe up to the next harvest
in 2004.
But food relief would have to be delayed because the government
stalled in
notifying the United Nations World Food Programme, the
co-ordinator of the
humanitarian rescue campaign in Zimbabwe, the amount of
food needed to feed
the starving nation.
MDC shadow minister of defence Giles
Mutsekwa said Mugabe’s apparent
preoccupation with keeping the army happy
suggested he was prepared to
suppress Zimbabweans than deal with the myriad
crises facing the nation.
Mutsekwa said: "Mugabe seemed to say
that the main job of the army
after their mission in the Democratic Republic
of the Congo was to oppress
and suppress the people’s basic freedoms of
speech, movement and assembly.
"Equipping the army is not a
priority because we are not at war with
anybody. The priority area is to
ensure that people are fed to avert mass
starvation, stem the increasing
poverty, check the lawlessness pervading the
nation and the deteriorating
health crisis in the country."
Masunungure said that Mugabe’s
obsession with buying more guns for a
starving nation was also a sign of
paranoia associated with leaders unsure
of their rule.
The
respected UZ political analysts said: "When a leader reaches such
a stage
when all he thinks of is the army and instruments of coercion such
as
security agents, it demonstrates a sense of insecurity, real
or
imagined."
By Luke Tamborinyoka Chief News
Editor
Daily News
Farmer faces eviction to make way for
Barwe
THE government withdrew a land offer to John Davies, a
Norton white
farmer, to pave way for Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC)
chief
correspondent Reuben Barwe, the Daily News learnt
yesterday.
According to Barwe’s lawyer, Joel Mambara, Davies
was allocated 20
hectares of land at the disputed farm on 14 August 2002 by
Agriculture
Minister Joseph Made.
But Made also allocated
the whole farm to Barwe only eight days later,
according to Mambara, who
yesterday said he had applied to the magistrates’
court in Norton seeking an
order to evict Davies’ colleague, Les Cooper,
from the disputed
property.
Cooper is staying at the farm, known as Sunnyside
Extension Farm,
through an arrangement he made with Davies.
No comment on the matter was available yesterday from Made who
switched off
his mobile phone each time this reporter tried to call him.
Mambara said: "Minister Made withdrew his offer of land to Davies on
13
February this year because there was a double offer. Davies was supposed
to
make representations within seven days of receipt of the withdrawal of
the
offer letter but he failed to do that."
But one of Davies’
workers, Sam Mpande, told this newspaper that they
were carrying on with
farming operations on their part of the farm, which he
claimed was properly
allocated to his employer.
Sam Mpande, who is Davies’ farm
manager, said: "The situation is
really confusing. Barwe wants us to be
evicted.
"We have been to the courts on three occasions but the
matter has been
put on hold. We are continuing with our farming and we will
not be stopped
because we have an offer letter."
The
Presidential Lands Review Committee, set by President Robert
Mugabe to audit
the government’s chaotic farm reforms, is also said to have
probed how
Sunnyside Farm was allocated to more than one person. The
committee, led by
Mugabe’s former secretary, Charles Utete, interviewed
Barwe last week on his
claim to the property.
Barwe yesterday confirmed being
interviewed by the committee, saying
the committee came while he was at the
farm and asked him to explain how he
was allocated the farm.
He said: "They came to the farm and l explained to them how l was
allocated
that farm. I told them there was a dispute with some few settlers
who claimed
they had invaded the farm but had no offer letters."
Daily News
Africa must now bear on Mugabe to step
down
THE change of the guard in Liberia, where Charles Taylor
resigned as
president on Monday and flew to Nigeria for political asylum,
could provide
useful lessons for troubled Zimbabwe, where planned talks
between the
government and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) could
fail to rescue the country from total collapse.
While Liberia has been torn apart by civil war in the past 20 years,
Zimbabwe
is gripped by deepening political and economic anarchy after
President Robert
Mugabe presided over the virtual destruction of the
economy.
Taylor, for all his sins of the past, should be commended for seeing
the
light and stepping aside so that peace could return to the
shattered
land.
He obviously realised that Liberia is bigger than Taylor.
Soon after Taylor’s departure, his deputy Moses
Blah took over as
interim head of state. Understandably, the rebels who
brought the war to
Taylor’s doorstep in the capital Monrovia are demanding a
more neutral
figure to lead the country to a fresh start.
Although human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch have called
for the
arrest of Taylor and his subsequent trial at a United Nations-backed
court in
neighbouring Sierra Leone, the Nigerian government was magnanimous
enough to
offer him asylum.
In Zimbabwe, Mugabe still clings to power
despite mounting public
pressure for him to step down in the midst of a
rapidly worsening economic
crisis created by his government’s poor
policies.
Mugabe, accused both locally and internationally of
gross human rights
abuses, would need immunity if he were to step
down.
Members of the late Joshua Nkomo’s ZAPU party have not
forgotten the
1980s military crackdowns in Matabeleland and the neighbouring
Midlands
provinces in which thousands of people were killed by army
troops.
In addition, state agents have been accused of waging
acts of violence
against perceived MDC supporters during and after last
year’s disputed
presidential election.
If Mugabe does not
quit now, how long can he precariously cling to
power and at what cost to the
tottering and anguished nation?
The MDC insists that both the
2000 general election and last year’s
presidential vote were rigged by
Mugabe’s ZANU PF and regards the present
government as illegitimate, which
has exacerbated Zimbabwe’s political and
economic impasse.
Mugabe’s legitimacy is one of the issues that the opposition says must
be
discussed in talks with the government, something Mugabe does not even
want
to hear of.
Mugabe’s flawed land reform policy, hatched at the
last moment to head
off massive electoral defeat in the 2000 parliamentary
poll and last year’s
presidential vote, has turned Zimbabwe, once the
breadbasket of southern
Africa, into a humiliating beggar among sovereign
nations.
Although Mugabe’s colleagues in the Southern African
region have been
working behind the scenes to try to put things right, much
more needs to be
done at that level to make clear to the President that there
can never be
normality until democracy is restored to
Zimbabwe.
The African leaders could use their influence to
ensure that Mugabe is
not forced to go the Taylor route.
Whether or not an African country would be prepared to offer him
asylum would
depend largely on the modalities and timing of his departure.
Daily News
Only ZANU PF capable of achieving such
incompetence
It seems that our leaders have no conscience and
should never have
been elected to lead us.
We have the highest inflation rate in the world.
We are the only country to have run out of its own money.
We have the world’s fastest
shrinking economy. We need to beg for
food.
We cannot afford
to pay our bills to Mozambique when it was once
regarded as one of the
poorest countries in the world.
We cannot pay our international debts.
We are now the poorest country in the world. We cannot buy fuel.
We have no foreign currency. There are no medicines,
nurses and
doctors in our clinics and hospitals.
Our teachers are among the poorest paid in the world.
Our
agriculture base has collapsed. We are at the top of the list of
repressive
regimes and human rights abusers.
Foreign journalists are
banned. Holiday-makers cannot take pictures
without the risk of being
imprisoned.
Our President, parliamentarians and top business
people earn less than
a gardener in South Africa.
Our middle
income employees earn under the United Nations, minimum of
US$1 (Z$824) per
day. Seventy to 80 percent of our labour force is
unemployed, the highest in
the world.
Ninety-nine percent of our population struggle to
survive, 80 percent
live in poverty.
Our main export is
human beings. Twenty percent of our population
prefer to live outside
Zimbabwe.
We need visas to visit almost every country in the world.
Our President constantly accuses his politicians and
other government
appointees of corruption and working against the nation, but
is powerless or
unwilling to do anything about it.
We cannot
organise talks between the two main political parties
without external
assistance. We have daily been in international news for
three years for all
the wrong reasons.
The list of our "achievements" over the last three years is endless.
In any other country, the government
would hang its head in shame and
resign. Not here. Instead, they blame
everyone else in the world for their
incompetence. They carry on with
blundering policies showing everyone just
how incompetent they
are.
Travellers’ cheques! Imploring people to import fuel and
then
confiscating it when they try to sell it! Still fast-tracking farms
after
three years! Two land audits! Again the list is endless. Is there no
one in
ZANU PF who has any shame, pride, moral fibre, guts or whatever it
takes to
admit to having failed and resign? Or are they all brave men and
women
waiting for the inevitable uprising that will see their heads on
stakes? A
McCormick Harare
Daily News
Happy 40th birthday, ZANU PF!
Kindly
allow me to congratulate ZANU PF on the attainment of its
40th birthday.
Kindly further allow me to give the following interesting
observation about
the people’s party:
- The ability for the party to live such a
long life is commendable in
light of the fact that the life expectancy rate
has in the past 23 years
slid down from above 60 years to 30 years or
so.
- The party is about the same age as the wife of its Dear
Leader.
Incidentally, the Dear Leader is about double the age of the
party.
- In its 40 years of existence, the party has, like the
fabled cat,
lived at least four lives. The first one in 1963 (Sithole era),
the second
in 1976 (Mugabe era), the third in 1987 (Mugabe-Nkomo era) and the
last one
(or present one) since 1999 (Mugabe-Moyo era).
-
The party used to celebrate the cockerel (jongwe/iqude) until about
1987. The
domestic bird represents the dawn of a new era (post-independence
euphoria).
But now the cockerel has been replaced by the Great Zimbabwe
Ruins, that
possibly suggests what the party has done to this once beautiful
country –
turning it from being a great country into a huge ruin!
- The
party says it stands for "Unity, Peace and Development". But
ironically, one
can easily note the following:
- Unity – What unity? The country is
far from being united because a
party-led "hate" campaign has completely
overcome the gains originally made
from the 1980 reconciliation
policy.
- Peace – What peace? Under the party, Zimbabweans have
hardly known
peace. From the political genocide of Matabeleland in the 1980s
to the
political violence against the MDC in the new millennium, it has
always been
"pamberi ne hondo, jambanja ndizvo!"
- Development –
What development? In the 1980s, this country used to
be "the" African jewel.
It had all the potential, but look at how
underdeveloped it has become.
Today, Zimbabwe is as primitive as ever,
having returned to barter trade
since the modern system of currency has
failed dismally!
-
The party used to posture under Maoist-Marxist-Leninist dogma, but
has now
abandoned the hypocrisy almost recklessly. Today, the party’s elite
own two
or more farms and will not use any car unless it is a
luxury
Mercedes.
- The party was formed in a humble Enos
Nkala-owned home in Highfield.
Rightly so, because it was meant to be a
people’s party. But where is it
based now? On a multi-storey office complex
with the Sheraton Hotel and
Towers as its comfortable neighbours. Highfield
has now been abandoned for
the political misfits and wannabes such as Chinos.
It is now a party of
chefs (the bosses), sadly reminding us of George
Orwell’s Animal Farm. What
more can I say except to hope that since some
people say that life begins at
40, this month might mean that the party will
abandon its bad-boy image and
re-invent itself as a mature party, ready at
last to be of some good use to
the nation.
Happy 40th birthday, ZANU PF!
Rambai Makashinga
Harare
Daily News
ZBC must be public – not government –
broadcaster
PUBLIC broadcasting in Zimbabwe is a rarely discussed
topic within
the media industry. As a matter of fact, all matters
concerning
broadcasting, be it commercial, public or community-oriented, have
not
carved a niche within the public eye.
It is for this
reason that the Media Institute of Southern Africa
(MISA) (Zimbabwe Chapter)
is convinced that Zimbabweans need to raise points
of concern around the
nationally important issue of public broadcasting.
It is also
trite to note that the raising of concern on the
above-mentioned subject
matter is within the context that in Zimbabwe the
airwaves are not yet free
regardless of the much-touted Broadcasting
Services Act (BSA), as well as the
undemocratic Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy
Act.
As a fundamental premise upon which to understand where
the argument
in favour of public broadcasting comes from, I will share a
lighter moment
with the reader. A friend of ours was sitting a final
qualifying exam in a
law course and saw the least expected question
confronting him. The question
was asking him to discuss the point of view of
the Zambian and Zimbabwean
governments on fishing laws at Lake Kariba and the
overall effect that the
latter have on the fishing industry.
Our friend was perplexed but decided to begin his essay saying: "I
know
nothing about the point of view of the Zambians in the arbitration of
the
fishing problem at Lake Kariba and neither do I have an insight of
the
Zimbabwean government perspective. I shall, therefore, discuss the
question
from the point of view of the fish."
As a media
advocacy organisation, MISA shall explain things only from
the point of view
of the people as well as media workers because it is
within the citizens of
Zimbabwe that you find the victims of the current
Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation (ZBC) propaganda, who are the equivalent
of the
fish.
They (the people and journalists) do no partake in the
making of
unjust media laws, but at least they can tell anyone willing to
listen about
how the same said media laws are denying them the right to
freedom of
information as well as to freedom of expression.
The ZBC is currently the only player in the broadcasting industry
of
Zimbabwe. It occasionally claims that it is a public broadcaster and
exhorts
citizens of the country to pay licences in order for there to be
progressive
and good programmes. Moreover, there is the regular claim that
the
broadcaster is together with the people as evidenced through its tiritose
or
sisonke acclamations.
What can immediately be discerned
from the activities of the ZBC is
that it is trying painfully hard to give
the impression that it belongs to
the people of Zimbabwe. This is all well
and good as an impression, but it
is a far cry from the
truth.
Essentially, the purpose of a public broadcaster is to
ensure that
there is the representation of the diversity of the public that
the
broadcaster wishes to serve. There is no political correctness in the
arena
of public broadcasting. If there is an opposition party in the country,
if
there is a fraud of mega proportions, if there is an AIDS crisis, all
of
these things must not skirt the eye of the public broadcaster.
Public
broadcasting should seek to show to the people that it reflects
their
lifestyles to levels that are reasonably acceptable in a democratic
society.
Zimbabwe’s sole broadcaster does not reflect the
diversity of the
Zimbabwean people. It reflects the views of the government
and where it
attempts to reflect other perceptions of our society, it does so
in such a
piecemeal manner that no serious citizen can accept the broadcasts
as a
critical reflection of their lifestyle.
To place
greater emphasis on this point, it is important to quote from
a paper
presented at an important meeting of public broadcasters that was
held some
years ago in the United States of America:
"Public television must
never be ‘government’ television. It must
never sacrifice its quality, It
must not advocate, even by implication,
positions on partisan political
issues and must be equally accessible to the
broad spectrum of mainstream
political views. It must always work hard to
preserve the qualities that made
it public."
We are all too familiar with what has been
happening during the
by-elections that have been held in the country over the
last three or so
months. There has been limited reason to believe that ZBC is
committed to
playing the role of an independent public broadcaster. More
often than not,
it covers the issues of one party in a positive light and
those of other
existing opposition parties in a very negative
perspective.
As highlighted before, our matters of concern are
being raised within
the context of the lack of broadcasting diversity in our
country. And that
because there is only one broadcaster that is in operation
right now, there
is limited viewer choice for the citizens. It may sound like
a cliché, but
it must be repeated again and again: the ZBC is not a public
broadcaster; it
is a state broadcaster. It reflects the views of government
over and above
those of citizens.
Another important aspect
that makes public broadcasting "public" is
the funding it receives from the
state as well as from listeners’ licences
for its sustenance. This is
obviously derived from taxes paid by citizens of
the country and ideally
being funded by government should not be reasons to
impinge on the editorial
independence of a public broadcaster. A public
broadcaster is one that also
has a legal mandate to seek and acquire
viewing/and or listeners’ licences
from members of the public. These
licences are more or less the equivalent of
membership fees. The ZBC has a
legal mandate to ask for viewing licences from
every citizen it deems to
have a television or radio
receiver.
The distinction, however, between ZBC and a true
public broadcaster is
that it is not a criminal offence not to have a
licence. It is also not an
issue that will mean being hounded out of your
house by young men and women
threatening to arrest you if they do not see a
copy of your listeners’ or
viewers’ licence. A public broadcaster must have a
friendly and humane face
and cannot afford to be seen as working hand-in-hand
with the police or any
other state security agents as has been the case with
the ZBC.
Whether by design or by default, the ZBC has been
taking advantage of
its monopoly to provide shoddy and fairly uninteresting
radio and television
programmes to the public. In fact, its slogan that it is
Zimbabweans’ First
and Permanent Media Choice sends a serious chill down the
spine of anyone
who believes in freedom of expression, freedom of information
and the
promotion of media diversity.
It is, however, not
the business of a public broadcaster to be run
like a commercial broadcaster.
Amongst some of the critical attributes of a
public broadcaster is the
intention to ensure that educational and cultural
programmes are a regular
feature of radio and television programmes.
In South Africa,
the public broadcaster (SABC) reflects the ethnic
composition of the state as
well as ensures that there is no marginalisation
of any of the groups. That
is why sometimes one will find Afrikaans
programmes on the public broadcaster
in independent South Africa.
A public broadcaster does not
marginalise or appear vindictive. Where
and when there is political conflict,
it should simply tell the story and
leave it up to the citizens to decide. As
an ordinary citizen, the viewer or
the listener should view the public
broadcaster as the only outlet of
national truth and the most impartial
broadcasting agent. In Zimbabwe, the
opposite is clearly the truth. There
should be public confidence in the
manner in which the public broadcaster is
governed. The ZBC is at present
governed by the ZBC Commercialisation Act and
is exempted from registration
under the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA). This
Commercialisation Act also
separates the ZBC into two companies, one company
being a signal carrier
company and the other a broadcasting company. The
names of both companies
are self-defining and there is no need to delve into
the details. The issue,
however, is the lack of public knowledge around the
changes being effected
to the state broadcaster. Moreover, very few
licence-paying viewers and
listeners really understand the implications of
these changes to the
broadcaster. The Minister of Information appoints the
board of governors at
the ZBC as well as Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe
(BAZ). Whilst in any
democratic country the administration of national
broadcasting services is
naturally entrusted to the government of the day, it
is important to
understand the importance of having a democratic framework in
which the
electronic media should operate. The government of Zimbabwe has
extreme
arbitrary and undemocratic control of the broadcasting industry. The
BSA
allows for the minister responsible for information and publicity
to
determine with the non-compulsory advice of the BAZ who gets a
broadcasting
licence, the duration of that licence as well as punitive action
that can be
taken against those that violate any terms that are set out by
the BSA. The
phenomenal powers of the minister run contrary to the open
window that
should encompass the media. In South Africa, the Independent
Communications
Authority of South Africa (ICASA) runs the broadcasting
industry. ICASA is
not overridden by the powers of any minister. Its primary
purpose is to seek
the promotion of a diverse broadcasting industry in line
with constitutional
clauses that guarantee freedom of expression as well as
freedom of
information. It is appointed after public participation as well
as
parliamentary approval. In Zimbabwe, nothing of the sort occurs.
The
minister appoints BAZ members without public participation and
without
parliamentary approval. In addition, the BAZ has still not issued
any
commercial or community broadcasting licences and the
all-important
broadcasting regulations have not yet been issued. As a parting
comment,
there is no public broadcasting in Zimbabwe. Instead, there is a
state
broadcaster that is at pains to try and endear itself to the people.
As
such, it is imperative that the mantle to establish a true and
independent
broadcaster be taken up from the angle of advocating the freeing
of the
airwaves. The ZBC, together with the government, stand to benefit more
if
there are other broadcasting stations, other community radios and a
vibrant
electronic media industry. We owe it to the people of Zimbabwe to
ensure
that they have choices both in terms of public broadcasting as well
as
commercial broadcasting and to guarantee that never again should a
media
house claim to be "the first and permanent media choice" for
all.
By Takura Zhangazha
Takura Zhangazha is with the
Media Institute of Southern
Africa-Zimbabwe
News24
Zim needs time frame
14/08/2003 16:06 -
(SA)
Pretoria - A time frame should be set for the resolution of the
crisis in
Zimbabwe, Dr Siphamandla Zondi of the Africa Institute of South
Africa said
on Thursday.
The Southern African Development Community
(SADC) should also resuscitate a
task team it established in 2001 to deal
with the crisis, and empower it to
ensure compliance with what Zimbabwe had
committed itself to do, he said.
According to Zondi, the SADC should link
up with the international community
to reward Zimbabwe with positive
sanctions for every positive step taken.
Such sanctions could, for
instance, include convening a donors conference or
lifting the sanctions
imposed by the United States and the United Kingdom.
Zondi was speaking
in Pretoria at the release of an Africa Institute report
on the effects of
the Zimbabwean crisis on the SADC.
Che Ajulu, who co-ordinated the
report, said that contrary to perceptions,
the SADC had played a major role
to bring calm in the crisis.
"It is not like SADC has folded its arms. It
has tried to do something, but
there are other dynamics over which the SADC
has no control."
The efforts of the regional body had been hampered by
internal divisions,
mostly due to strategic national interests, he
said.
Many countries had benefited from Zimbabwe's woes.
"Possibly
that is why they are tight-lipped."
Tourism
Tourism, for instance,
had decreased in Zimbabwe but had surged elsewhere in
the region.
"We
have seen investment drop drastically in Zimbabwe; but it has spread to
other
parts of the region."
Skilled labour, including farmers and
professionals, had moved from Zimbabwe
to neighbouring
countries.
However, Zimbabwe's ailing economy had hit countries like
Namibia and
Mozambique hard.
Namibia and Angola had long been strong
supporters of Zimbabwe.
Namibian President Sam Nujoma, if he wanted to
stand for a fourth term,
would not like to throw stones at
Zimbabwe.
"If the SADC deals with Zimbabwe, and deals successfully with
it, he
[Nujoma] might be the next target."
The land reform programme
in Zimbabwe had also exposed the land
redistribution process in
Namibia.
Zambia had its own political and economic crisis, so it was not
really that
concerned about Zimbabwe, according to Ajulu.
South Africa
stood to suffer most from the negative consequences of the
situation in
Zimbabwe, he said.
Ninety percent of people leaving Zimbabwe were likely
to seek refuge in
South Africa.
Sanctions
Because Zimbabwe was
such a strong trading partner of South Africa, the
latter would not want to
rock the boat.
"There is a fear that if South Africa comes out too
strong, (President
Robert) Mugabe would try to isolate South Africa in the
region. South Africa
still needs the support of SADC in general to be able to
apply so-called
sanctions."
A unilateral approach by South Africa in
imposing electricity sanctions, for
instance, would fail without the support
of Zambia and Mozambique.
Furthermore, to isolate Mugabe could turn him
into a kind of "loose cannon",
Ajulu said.
The most important step for
SADC would be to try and get the Zimbabwe
African National Union Patriotic
Front and Movement for Democratic Change to
enter into dialogue, he
said.
Zondi said stumbling blocks in this regard included questions about
the MDC
by former liberation movements in the region - the MDC had sought
closer
ties with South Africa's Democratic Alliance and Renamo in Mozambique,
for
instance.
Legal wrangles - the MDC's court challenge to the
elections and the
prosecution of its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai - presented
another, he said.
The region had to push the MDC to recognise Mugabe as
president, and Mugabe
to acknowledge the MDC as a credible political
opponent, Zondi said.
"Unless we can get that, there won't be a move
forward."
Mail and Guardian
Churches call for pro-active policy on
Zimbabwe
Cape Town
14 August 2003 15:50
The
central committee of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) has
called
on the South African government to be more pro-active in its efforts
to
facilitate a resolution of Zimbabwe's crisis.
In a statement issued on
Thursday, following the committee's meeting earlier
this week, the SACC also
expressed its support for the continuing efforts to
ensure peace and
stability in Zimbabwe.
Representatives of the council's 24-member
denominations welcomed the
renewed communication between the government of
Zimbabwe and the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, the SACC
said.
"They recognised, in particular, the Zimbabwean churches' united
witness for
peace and human rights.
"The central committee expressed
concern for and solidarity with the
churches in Zimbabwe, and made the
resources of the SACC's reconciliation
and healing programme available to
support the peace process."
The committee also acknowledged the efforts
of the South African government
to promote peace and stability in
Zimbabwe.
"At the same time, however, the delegates urged Pretoria to be
more
pro-active in working for a just and sustainable solution to the
nation's
political and humanitarian crises," the SACC said. -- Sapa
Farmers need inputs early |
JOHANNESBURG, 14 Aug 2003 (IRIN) - A
shortage of inputs and inflation are hurting prospects for an agricultural
recovery in Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Farmer's Union (ZFU) told IRIN on
Thursday.
The country is once again badly affected by food insecurity as
a result of erratic weather, the effect of the government's fast-track land
reform on commercial agriculture and the impact of HIV/AIDS. Aid agencies
estimate some five million Zimbabweans will require food aid by January
2004.
Tafireyi Chamboko, the chief economist of the ZFU said that "if
farmers are provided inputs on time, if farmers get the necessary inputs support
- given that the forecast is for normal to above normal rainfall this season -
there should be an agricultural recovery".
However, there were
significant obstacles to this.
"There's a shortage of some of the inputs.
In terms of maize seed, we'll probably get about 50 percent of the requirement
from local [seed] production," Chamboko said. While the government had been
supplying inputs to new farmers through an inputs credit scheme, "there are not
enough inputs to meet the requirements".
"It is a major constraint. We
normally would prefer that inputs are in by, [at] the latest, mid-September,
because our [growing] season begins about then. If we can get inputs, at the
latest [by] mid-September, we would be able to plant ahead of the first rains,"
Chamboko added. But, "of course sometimes it does not happen that way. Inputs
are critical in the beginning of the season, if they are given late it's not
very helpful".
"Fertiliser is in short supply and it's also quite
expensive, given our inflationary environment. The major factor impacting on
farmers is the price of inputs - our inflation rate is now at 364.5 percent - so
we have a question of shortages, compounded by the fact that companies that
produce fertilisers are faced with a shortage of foreign currency to buy the raw
materials they need," Chamboko explained.
"You can see the circle there -
one thing affects the availability of another. Foreign currency shortage leads
to the prices of what little is available on the local market, skyrocketing," he
added.
Johannesburg - A South African group of health clinics on
Thursday urged
travellers to Zimbabwe to take out insurance for medical
evacuation, saying
health care there had declined dramatically.
Andrew
Jamieson, medical director of SAA-Netcare, a joint venture between
South
African Airways and Netcare clinics which delivers consulting and
treatment
service to tourists, said health care institutions were on
the
decline.
At Harare's main hospital, Harare Central, he said, "not
only is the
physical structure shabby, with broken windows and leaking pipes
lending an
air of abandonment, but the dispensary is poorly stocked with
medicines and
medical supplies.
"The situation is aggravated by a
chronic shortage of qualified nurses,
doctors and pharmacists as well as
poorly maintained and often
non-operational equipment.
"Even the
ancillary services, such as laundry, sanitation and housekeeping,
are not
functioning properly, such that general hygiene levels are
atrocious,"
Jamieson said.
"Clearly, medical evacuation to a country that offers good
quality health
care is a far better option."
News24
SADC wary of Zim regime change
14/08/2003 16:04 -
(SA)
Pretoria - Southern African countries are resisting putting
pressure on the
Zimbabwean government because they fear that foreign powers
are trying to
topple President Robert Mugabe's regime, a study published on
Thursday
found.
The study, by the Africa Institute of South Africa,
examined the impact of
the Zimbabwean crisis on Botswana, Mozambique,
Namibia, South Africa and
Zambia and found that southern African countries
saw Zimbabwe's opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as the "proxy
of the western powers".
"There is resistance to foreign pressure among
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) countries, who fear that there
is some attempt at regime
change in Zimbabwe," Che Ajulu, who was involved in
researching the study,
told a media briefing in Pretoria.
"The MDC is
seen as the proxy of western powers in Zimbabwe," he said,
adding that
dealing with Zimbabwe had been made more difficult by the MDC's
not
recognising Mugabe's government.
Ajulu said the 14-nation SADC had tried
to take firm action against Zimbabwe
at its summit in 2001, but this was
effectively blocked by Angola and
Namibia, which are strong supporters of
Mugabe's government.
He said the MDC had also tried to form an alliance
with the opposition
Democratic Alliance in South Africa and with the
opposition Mozambique
National Resistance in Mozamique, which had further
complicated things.
The Zimbabwean government received world-wide
condemnation for committing
human rights abuses as it embarked on a
fast-track land reform exercise
three years ago.
Cape Argus
Charles Taylor shows Robert Mugabe how it's done
...
August 14, 2003
By Max Du Preez
When
will the day come that President Robert Mugabe uses the words
former Liberian
president Charles Taylor uttered in his farewell speech on
Monday: "I'm out
of here"?
As much as the bloodshed in Monrovia in recent times was
reason for
Africa to be ashamed, Taylor's handing over of power and leaving
Liberia was
reason to be proud.
This should be how Africa
handles its problems: the bad leader,
flanked by three senior African
presidents, resigning and being whisked
away. One could see the satisfaction
in the body language of South African
President Thabo Mbeki and his Ghanaian
and Mozambican counterparts, John
Kufuor and Joaquim Chissano of
Mozambique.
It was good that the American troops did not have to
leave their ships
lying off shore. Nigerian troops arrived to start enforcing
the ceasefire.
The United States does have an obligation in
Liberia, founded by freed
American slaves, but Liberia is a part of our
continent and we should be
sorting out our own problems.
We
should also know that we cannot keep on accusing the US of being
the world's
ugliest bully and criticise it for interfering in the affairs of
other
nations, and then pressurise the US to come and interfere in an
African
state's affairs.
I was proud when I heard Mbeki announce in
Monrovia that South African
troops would also be sent as peace keepers. It
will probably stretch our
budgets and the SANDF's capacity, but it is a
sacrifice I believe we should
proudly make.
It is not only good
for African pride, it is also good for Africa's
image that helping herself is
now becoming the norm.
Besides, long before it became fashionable
to help the South African
liberation movement, Liberia did: they even
welcomed Nelson Mandela there
before he went to Robben Island.
The developments in Liberia follow on the dramatic diplomatic
successes in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, also an African initiative.
Mbeki
should get a lot of the credit for this turnaround on the
continent. It was
his near- obsession with the restoration of Africa's
dignity and his constant
campaigning for the African renaissance that has
lit the fire under other
African governments. And in Nigerian president
Olesegun Obasanjo he has a
good leading partner.
I hope the African Union's successes in
Liberia and the DRC will give
courage to the leaders of the different nations
on our continent that they
can achieve the same in other conflict situations.
Especially now that the
AU itself has publicly thrown out the old excuse of
not being allowed to
interfere in the internal affairs of a
nation.
African leaders should now turn their attention to the
civil war in
Sudan, the bloody conflict in Uganda and the brewing crisis in
Swaziland
where the upstart young king is behaving as if we're still living
in the
18th century.
But first of all there can be no excuse any
longer to postpone a
solution in Zimbabwe. What is really the difference
between Taylor and
Mugabe, both elected presidents? Could it be that people
were shooting each
other in Liberia, and in Zimbabwe they haven't started
doing that yet?
Like Taylor, Mugabe is clearly the source of
conflict and misery in
his country. Like Taylor, he would probably not walk
out of any
international war crimes tribunal a free man.
Liberia's instability has been a fact of life for a long time. The
country
was ruined long ago, and the rebuilding, if indeed it is now going
to have
peace, will take generations. In short, it's always been a bit of a
basket
case.
Not so Zimbabwe. The people are well educated, there's a
proper
infrastructure, until six years ago it had a sound and growing economy
and
massive potential as a tourism destination. It used to be a model state
in
Africa, a country that fed itself and exported food, a state with
a
respected judiciary and civil administration.
The longer we
wait to stop the further deterioration of Zimbabwe, the
more the fabric of
that society will be fundamentally damaged.
Rumours have it that
Mugabe plans to leave in December, but that is
five months away.
Imagine having waited five more months to boot out Charles Taylor. And
of
course, we don't know for sure whether Mugabe will indeed leave in
five
months' time.
Mbeki should now tell us why he was prepared
to be a part of the
unceremonious ousting of an elected president of a
sovereign country, but
when it comes to Mugabe, he says it is up to the
people of Zimbabwe and we
can't interfere.
He and his African
colleagues did not spend months and years trying to
persuade the government
and opposition of Liberia to talk and find a
solution, why is he doing that
in Zimbabwe?
If the only answer to that is that there was a war in
Liberia, then
would Mbeki do the same to Mugabe that he did to Taylor if the
Zimbabwean
anti-government activists actually took up arms and started
shooting?
The conditions for registration are also highly suspect since it
requires those who register to subscribe to a code of conduct that still does
not exist. This still has to be tested in law.