The Zimbabwe Situation

Zimbabwe Vigil Diary – 21^st August 2010

News that the British government had sent officials to Zimbabwe to assess conditions there for the return of failed asylum seekers was the talk of the Vigil. Fears were expressed that the team from the Foreign Office and UK Border Agency would not get a true picture of the situation: the continuing political violence despite the so-called unity government, the partisan application of the rule of law and renewed hate speech. Would the officials even venture into the wretched rural areas?

Patson Muzuwa of the Zimbabwe Association, which helps asylum seekers, was at the Vigil as usual: he criticised the British government for not sending an independent team to Zimbabwe. It turned out that another person at the Vigil had worked for the Zimbabwe prison service and had seen MDC people arrested for no reason, tortured and jailed. She confirmed that, in the last elections, prison workers had been forced to vote for Zanu PF.

The Vigil understands the problems facing the British government over the 20,000 or so failed asylum seekers from Zimbabwe. We know these include economic migrants and even Zanu PF supporters (some of them relatives of party chefs!). We have no brief for these people. But if the UK ends the moratorium on sending home failed Zimbabwean asylum seekers we urge it to make absolutely sure that no opposition activists are included. The Vigil has evidence that they are still in real danger.

To declare our own interest: the Vigil is not an asylum organisation but writes letters about the activism of supporters to help them in their asylum claims. We are sometimes astonished at how asylum tribunal judges can misdirect themselves on questions that could be established without doubt. For instance some judges have assumed that the Vigil is part of the MDC, others that photos on our website can be put on by anyone and the site is therefore open to abuse. One judge even questioned whether the Zimbabwean newspaper circulated in Zimbabwe! (This is of significance because the Zimbabwean newspaper reports our activities.) Asylum judges have also insisted that our supporters should have membership cards for the Vigil. We have never issued these – we keep a register and log attendance on our attendance database. Another judge said erroneously there are many other demos like ours with photographs of supporters on the web. This is not the case. Anyone who takes the trouble to scan the web on this matter will see that photographs of the Vigil appear on many other websites but they are clearly photos of the Vigil. There is no other regular Zimbabwean demonstration anywhere in the world apart from the Vigil.

These elementary shortcomings underline our reservations about the asylum process – reinforced when we see action taken against our supporter Thobile Gwebu, a Swazi lady who launched a Vigil outside the Swazi High Commission in London but was recently detained for deportation (see our last diary). She is a clear-cut case of someone who would be at risk if sent home and we are glad to say that her deportation was halted although she is still in detention.

Following the SADC meeting in Namibia, the Vigil ventures to make the following offer to the British government: if SADC’s demand is met that the Global Political Agreement in Zimbabwe is implemented in one month we will end our Vigils and eat our banners (and all go home…). We are sure that this will not happen as Mugabe rubbished the SADC meeting as soon as he got back to Harare. See: ‘Mugabe refuses compromise until western sanctions lifted’ https://www.zimbabwesituation.com/old/aug21_2010.html#Z1. We never cease to be astonished how MDC leaders delude themselves, see: http://www.theindependent.co.zw/comment/27699-comment-sadc-summit-churns-out-more-deception.html.

Another point – Sympathy on the demise of the SADC legal tribunal, which has been suspended because it ruled in favour of dispossessed farmers (hang the messenger!). See Events section for another showing of Mugabe and the White African.

For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimbabwevigil/. For the latest ZimVigil TV programme check the link at the top of the home page of our website. For earlier ZimVigil TV programmes check: http://www.zbnnews.com/home/firingline.

FOR THE RECORD: 170 signed the register.

EVENTS AND NOTICES:

· The Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the Vigil’s partner organisation based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for the Vigil to have an organisation on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the Vigil’s mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises through membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of ROHR in Zimbabwe.

· ‘Mugabe and the White African’ screening. Thursday 26^th August at 7.30 pm. Venue: the Rich Mix Cinema, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA. Q&A session with Director Lucy Bailey. The organizers are keen Zimbabweans should attend. For tickets: 020 7613 7490, boxoffice@richmix.org.uk.

· ROHR Liverpool Vigil. Saturday 4^th September from 2 – 5 pm. Venue: Church Street (Outside Primark), Liverpool City Centre. For details please contact: Anywhere Mungoyo 07939913688, Trywell Migeri 07956083758, Panyika Karimanzira 07551062161.

· ROHR Harlow general meeting. Saturday 4^th September from 2 – 6 pm. Venue: St James and St Lukes Church, Perry Road, Harlow CM18 7NP. Contact: Clement 07879123783, Bothwell 07725208657, llyod 07883695970, Paradzai Mapfumo 07915926323.

· ROHR Manchester general meeting. Saturday 11^th September from 2 – 5 pm. Venue: The Salvation Army Citadel, 71 Grosvenor Road, Manchester, M13 9UB. ROHR Founder, National Chairperson and executive members present. Contact Fenny Nyatsanza 07886310005, P A Karimanzira 07538534375, Charter Madzivanyika 07747141835 or A Mungoyo on 07939913688

· Ministering to the Diaspora: a case study of Zimbabweans in Britain. Wednesday 15^th September from 9.30 am to 5.30 pm. Venue: Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, SS Philip & James Church, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HR. A conference to help identify unique needs, the services Christian organizations are offering and can offer (but are not), identifying what more needs to be done and how this might be achieved, and drawing up a co-ordinated action plan. For more information, contact: Clayton Peel, capeel@ocms.ac.uk or phone 01865 882 421

· Vigil Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8157345519&ref=ts

· Vigil Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/zimbabwevigil

Vigil Co-ordinators

The Vigil, outside the Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, takes place every Saturday from 14.00 to 18.00 to protest against gross violations of human rights in Zimbabwe. The Vigil which started in October 2002 will continue until internationally-monitored, free and fair elections are held in Zimbabwe: http://www.zimvigil.co.uk.

Aug 22, 2010 12:00 AM | By Shelley Seid

With tourist numbers plummeting in recent years, our neighbour is finally seeing a turnaround in its fortunes - starting at the Victoria Falls. Shelley Seid runs on ahead and finds the water very fine indeed

My trip took me back to a time when life was slower, easier and gentler

IT'S our last morning in Zimbabwe and the situation is tense. We have to fly from Kariba to Victoria Falls and then cross the border to Zambia to catch our flight to Johannesburg. All this before lunch. We are strapped into our seats on the little Cessna Grand Caravan but we are unable to take off. And to think my major concern about Zimbabwe had been dealing with the metaphorical elephant in the room. I never thought the greatest stress would be the literal elephant on the runway.

Elephants, tangible ones, were a major part of my four-day excursion to Zimbabwe. As was a sense of space - more space than I had ever believed possible - along with the sort of breathtaking scenic beauty that turns to calendar kitsch as soon as it's photographed.

But Zimbabwe's natural splendour has never been in dispute. Nor has the spirit and warm-hearted nature of its people. But while in 1999 Zimbabwe could boast 1.4 million visitors, by the end of 2002, thanks to rising financial and political instability, the numbers had reportedly dropped by a whopping 75%. In 2008, they stood at around a paltry 223000. Things change, however, and word on the ground is that Zimbabwe's back, having reported a three percent growth last year, the first in a decade, thanks to a government of national unity and a stable currency.

Earlier this month, I was part of a group invited to enjoy the promised renaissance and some of the country's most well known attractions, starting, of course, with the wondrous Victoria Falls. I expected to gaze at it. I never for a minute dreamt of bungy jumping next to it, white-water rafting under it or foefie sliding across it. So I looked at it in awe, left my colleagues to throw themselves into the hands of fate and went for high tea at the 106-year-old Victoria Falls Hotel, from where I could see the spray of the 100-odd metre-high phenomenon and, I am sure, hear the screams of the jumpers while I sipped my Earl Grey.

Viewing the falls is not for the fainthearted; the walk to all 16 of the viewpoints is a daunting near 2km of winding trails and flights of steps through a lush and misty rainforest, and no matter how large or yellow your mac, you will get very wet. The site and its thriving vegetation have been barely interfered with: modest gravel paths, a statue of David Livingstone, a couple of benches and barriers of thorns and brambles to dissuade idiots from peering over the edge. Nature is not easily contained in Zimbabwe. Warthog mow the lawns of five-star hotels, impala and baboons saunter across roads and swing onto verandahs. At our hotel, the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge, spectacularly set above bushveld that stretches further than the horizon, great mobs of vultures feed daily.

A resurgence of Zimbabwe tourism is bound to start at Victoria Falls, a small, almost self-sustaining, enclave of resilience. Here, tourism reportedly grew by 70% in the first quarter of this year. It's not hard to see why. Activities aside, the very visible, very friendly Tourism Police advise, guide and protect tourists (from little more than the threat of being besieged by over-eager vendors selling defunct, billion-denomination Zimbabwe dollars); shops are full; credit cards back in vogue; and the electricity service is no worse than Eskom's.

Apart from an array of engagements with the Falls, our heady two-day stay included riding elephants, cruising the Zambezi, shopping for shoes, eating mopane worms and, whenever I managed to steal 10 minutes, sitting on the verandah of my room, looking out at the picture-postcard perfection of early mornings and late afternoons.

Dawn of day three saw us driving the single-carriage, traffic-free main Victoria Falls/Bulawayo road to Hwange National Park. Formerly known as Wankie but mercifully renamed in 1982, the park borders Botswana and is the size of Belgium - just over 14600km².

The Hide, where we stayed for 15 ridiculously short hours, is a luxury tented safari camp inside the park and built around a waterhole or pan. The camp is an intimate affair and caters to every whim of just 20 guests at any one time. Calling the 10 living quarters "tents" doesn't begin to do them justice. Each has a couple of solid walls, wooden doors, a private verandah, indulgent ablutions - including an outdoor bath or shower overlooking the pan - a bed that sings your name and just a hint of khaki canvas.

The Hide has two concealed hides, one on either side of the pan, where guests can get up close and personal with the wildlife, as did the visiting German aristocrat, recounted camp manager Barry Wolhuter, who took herself off to a hide with four tonics, a bottle of gin, and clear instructions to stay put. An hour later, the pan now hosting a large herd of elephant, Barry was shocked to find his guest back at the bar. I ran out of gin, she said airily. This was just one in an endless source of tales told by Barry around the dining table, where guests and staff, swaddled in cosy blankets, were plied with food, drink and diverting conversation. My own diversion lay ahead, in the form of my bed with a big, fat hot-water bottle nestling in its middle.

The next morning, a bush drive and breakfast behind us, we drove out of Hwange, past a large family of elephants meandering along the road. "The Presidential Elephants," said our driver, referring to the 400-odd, free-roaming elephants that, in 1990, Robert Mugabe declared as protected. But that's another story. Our story was taking us to Hwange airport, where we were to be the first passengers on Solenta Aviation's inaugural flight between Hwange and Bumi Hills, a hilltop hotel overlooking Lake Kariba. Flying low across the 220km-long lake, I made eye contact with a huge bull elephant having a bath and spotted waterbuck drinking skittishly at the water's edge. We watched the sun set from a boat on the lake and that night, around the bar, our young pilot spontaneously pulled out his classical guitar and delivered the soundtrack to the movie I had found myself in. It all came reasonably close to my idea of heaven.

My trip to Zimbabwe took me back to a time when life was slower, easier and gentler. An era when outlets had character, franchises were the exception and people took the time to listen. In the Zimbabwe I visited, what you see is what you get and what you get is instinctive hospitality and genuine engagement. It's a country that easily takes hold of your heart.

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Constitution Watch Content Series 3/2010 - 21st August [DevolutionPart II]

CONSTITUTION WATCH

CONTENT SERIES 3/2010

[21st August 2010]

Devolution Part II

In Part I of this discussion on devolution we outlined the provisions of the current constitution, as well as those of the “Kariba Draft” and the NCA draft constitution, which would devolve the central government’s powers to provinces and local authorities. We also discussed the advantages and disadvantages of devolution.

In this Part we shall deal with some of the issues which must be settled before devolution of power can take place. It is not enough for the constitutional outreach exercise to conclude [if it does] that most people want devolution: the constitution-makers will have to tackle these issues if devolution of power is to become a reality in Zimbabwe.

Issues to be Considered

1. How many provinces should there be?

This basic question is not easy to answer. The present Constitution is surprisingly ambiguous. In section 113 it defines the word “province” in such a way as to allow an Act of Parliament to fix the number and boundaries of provinces, while in section 34(1)(a) it suggests that (for electoral purposes at least) there should be 10 provinces. The Kariba Draft provides for 10 provinces whose boundaries are to be set out in an Act of Parliament, while the NCA draft constitution limits the number to five with their boundaries set out in a Schedule to the draft.

Obviously, if real power is to be given to provinces their number must be stated clearly in the Constitution, particularly if some members of Parliament are to be elected on a provincial basis. There is probably no need for provincial boundaries to be fixed in the Constitution, so long as the central government is not able to change the boundaries at will – in other words, boundary changes should require the consent of the provinces concerned.

2. Should the provinces form the basis of a federal structure?

There is no clear dividing line between a unitary State which has devolved powers to provinces and local authorities, and a federal State composed of semi-autonomous provinces. The answer to this question therefore depends largely on the extent of the powers that are devolved to the provinces (which is the next question). It may be noted, however, that the South African constitution gives a nod to federalism by allowing the provincial legislatures to adopt their own constitutions.

3. What functions should be devolved to provinces?

The central government should obviously retain some functions, particularly those that affect the welfare of the country as a whole. These would include:

· international relations and defence (though in the United States individual states have their own armed forces);

· communications such as railways, national roads and telecommunications;

· immigration and emigration;

· taxation, in so far as it is imposed by the central government.

But apart from those, the range of functions that can be devolved is limited only by the capacity of provincial and local authorities to exercise them and the willingness of central government to shed them. Education, for example, can be devolved to the provinces unless the central government wants to preserve national standards. Some functions can be shared: the provinces may be allowed to establish their own police forces, for instance, while the national police retain overall responsibility for enforcing the law. And there are some functions, such as town and country planning, which are most appropriately exercised at a local or provincial level.

4. How far should provincial governments control resources in their provinces and receive the benefit of those resources?

This problem is particularly acute in relation to mineral resources. Should provincial governments of Manicaland and Matabeleland, for example, have the right to allocate mineral rights over diamonds and coal, and to what extent should the people of those provinces benefit from the exploitation of “their” minerals? Neither question is easy to answer but there must be some equitable sharing of responsibilities and benefits if provincialisation is to work. It has to be remembered that while the diamonds and coal are situated in Manicaland and Matabeleland, those provinces are situated in Zimbabwe so Zimbabweans as a whole must obtain some benefit from them.

The problem goes further than minerals and relates to all forms of revenue. Should a provincial government be allowed to retain taxes and duties raised within the province? The answer is probably not, if the taxes and duties are collected by the central government provided there is some form of equitable sharing of revenues between the central and provincial governments. It would not be fair, for example, for the province of Masvingo to retain all the customs duties collected at Beitbridge, particularly if the goods on which the duties are levied are destined for other provinces in Zimbabwe.

So far as the new constitution is concerned, it probably cannot go further than the South African constitution (which is echoed in the NCA draft) by stating that an Act of the national parliament must provide for the equitable division of national revenue between the national, provincial and local spheres of government. In other words the new constitution should simply state that revenues must be shared equitably, and leave it to an Act of the central parliament, made in consultation with the provincial governments, to work out the details.

5. What sources of revenue should provincial and local governments have?

Obviously, if provincial and local governments have functions to perform they must be given the resources to do so. They should not have to rely solely on the central government for these resources, but should be able to raise their own revenues. Their revenue-raising powers cannot be unlimited, however:

· They should not be allowed to levy their own customs duties, for instance. If each province had its own border-post and taxed goods going in and out of the province, inter-provincial trade would suffer to the detriment of the national economy.

· In theory there can be no objection to provinces levying their own income taxes or V.A.T., though their power to do so may need to be limited in order to avoid prejudice to the national economy. Levying taxes can be a costly matter, however, and if provinces assume this function they may have to increase their bureaucracies and, as a result, the burden of costs they impose on the people of their province.

· Rates and other taxes on immovable property seem an ideal form of taxation for provincial and local governments, so long as there is some co-ordination between the taxes raised by a provincial government and the local authorities within the province. It should not be forgotten that rates, like other taxes, can be used to achieve social purposes in addition to raising revenue. Rates may be imposed, for example, in order to break up large land-holdings and encourage a redistribution of land.

To devolve functions and responsibilities without giving provinces and local authorities the financial resources to carry them out would result in ineffectual performance of functions and would result in a blame game as happened in the past — national government blaming local government and vice versa, with ordinary citizens being the losers.

6. What legislative powers should provincial and local governments have?

The answer to this depends on the functions that have been devolved to them. The greater the range of devolved functions, the greater should be the legislative powers of provincial and local governments.

A more difficult question is how far should provincial and local legislation be subordinate to national legislation passed by the central parliament. If national legislation can simply override provincial or local legislation, then the provincial and local governments will have no real autonomy. On the other hand, there must be some circumstances in which the central government, acting in the national interest, can overrule provincial or local governments. In the NCA draft constitution there is a provision which would allow the national parliament, by a two-thirds majority, to nullify provincial legislation which is prejudicial to the interests of the country or another province. The South African constitution is more detailed and nuanced, dealing with the resolution of conflicts between national and provincial legislation and setting out limited circumstances in which national laws prevail over provincial laws.

7. What should the relationship be between provincial and local governments?

Put another way, should municipal and district councils be autonomous or, if they are to be subject to control, should the control be exercised by the central government or by the government of the province within which they are situated?

The question is not answered clearly in either the Kariba draft or the NCA draft constitution. The Kariba draft seems to put local authorities under the control of the central government, while the NCA draft states that their powers must be exercised “subject to national and provincial legislation”: in other words, they are to be controlled both nationally and provincially.

The South African constitution takes a different approach by emphasising the independence of municipalities: both national and provincial governments “must support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities to manage their own affairs” and “may not compromise or impede a municipality’s ability or right to exercise its functions.” This seems sensible. If the new constitution deals with local authorities it should give them full autonomy within their spheres of responsibility, otherwise there is no point in mentioning them at all.

Conclusion

Three final points need to be emphasised:

1. The most important and difficult of the issues listed above can be summed up in two words: resources and finance. To what extent should the natural resources within a province be shared between the province and the rest of the country; and how can provincial and local governments obtain the necessary finances to carry out functions that have been devolved upon them? The success of any measure of devolution, and possibly of the entire constitution-making process, will depend on our finding satisfactory and democratic solutions to those problems.

2. Secondly, devolution must be accompanied by measures to ensure that provincial and local governments are democratic, transparent and accountable. In the absence of such measures there provincial and local governments will be inefficient and corrupt, and incapable of gaining and retaining the trust of the people.

3. Finally, devolution or provincialisation is not in itself a panacea for all the country’s ills. It will not prevent atrocities such as Gukurahundi from occurring, nor will it assist the victims of such atrocities from obtaining redress. For that to happen, there must be a change in our entire political culture and philosophy, rather than a mere change in the institutions through which that culture and philosophy is expressed.

Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot take legal responsibility for information supplied.

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Constitution Watch Content Series 3/2010 - 21st August [DevolutionPart II]