The Star
August 28, 2007 Edition
1
Hans Pienaar
In Soweto an animated conversation strikes up. "The
West wants to liberate
Zimbabweans, but Mugabe won't let them," says
29-year-old Carrington
Nyeleleti.
Joburg Mayembe (39) joins in:
"Zimbabwe should have peace and unity. They
need a strong leader, not a
weakling like this Mugabe."
Original and unexpected opinions, but then
this is Soweto, a suburb of
Lusaka, and not Soweto, Johannesburg.
The
place is the Mukupa guest house, a compound in the poorer parts that
gets
packed every night with Zimbabweans returning from begging, selling
sweets
and Chinese trinkets on the streets . and prostitution.
Nyeleleti and
Mayembe are not Zimbabweans, but are frequent visitors to
Mukupa to come and
chill with a beer or two. In the daytime there are fewer
people and they
like the company. Especially of the female kind.
Mayembe gets really
worked up over the plight of the Zimbabweans. Actually,
he says, beer in
hand, it disgusts him, the "many, many" Zimbabwean women
who rely on
prostitution to make money to send home to their relatives.
He tries to
get a group of older Zimbabwean women to talk about their
desperate struggle
to eke out a living in Zambia by selling cheap goods on
the
streets.
He persuades one old lady to speak, on condition of "information
only", no
names.
But then a younger Zimbabwean woman arrives, dressed
seductively, wearing a
brown Western-style wig. They talk in Ndebele, and
one hears the words
"money" and "police".
They want to be paid for
their story. I say then I won't know whether
they'll be telling me tall
tales, and they walk off, in a huff.
At the long-distance bus station it
is the same story. Some women, sitting
among their belongings on the
concrete benches, wolfing down slices of white
bread with canned red beans
in between, want to talk, on condition of
anonymity, but others stop them.
Again one hears the word "police".
It has not always been like this. When
the Zimbabweans began arriving in
droves as the economic meltdown sped up,
they felt free to talk, and spoke
easily to researchers.
This was at
the time of Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa's famous
description of
Zimbabwe as a "sinking Titanic".
Mwanawasa expected some applause for his
bravery, since he was uttering his
remarks in Windhoek, capital of Namibia,
whose government still regards
Mugabe as a hero. But diplomats say when he
was met with a stony silence
from media and leaders in the region, he lost
his nerve.
Perhaps this filtered down to the ground. Researchers from
Southern Legal
Assistance Network (Salan) said there has been a marked
change in Zambia.
Police have swept down on "street vendors", echoing
Zimbabwe's notorious
Operation Murambatsvina, when 700 000 people were
forcibly removed from city
streets.
A month after the first phase of
its research, Salan encountered serious
problems. They could not find their
original respondents, and the rest
clammed up.
They believe part of
the reason for the clean-up was the approaching SADC
summit.
Zambian
NGOs have been battling a bill to control them along the lines of
the Public
Order and Security Act in Zimbabwe, which has been used to harass
NGOs
there.
The Zambian bill was withdrawn a week before the summit, but
activists
believe the government will try to "sneak it in" after the
summit.
Their fears were underlined by the deportation of a total of 70
activists
who had been travelling for days from Zimbabwe the day before the
summit
started.
The police decided they might demonstrate in
Zambia, and so take part in
political activities, which are banned for
foreigners.
The hand of the Zimbabwe embassy was clear, since the first
group of 55 had
been passed by customs on both sides at the Kirundi border
post, before a
phone call from the Zimbabweans led to their
arrest.
The deportation in itself was not the end of the world for the
activists,
who could exploit the publicity. But civic leaders pointed out
that the
deportees now had criminal records, and that the deportation stamps
in their
passports would cause them endless difficulties for the rest of
their lives
in the paranoid world of international air travel.
Zambia
went to extremes for security in the equally paranoid world of
African
summits.
Lusakunians have been cursing the government for a week of
closures of whole
suburbs. Jokes went around about the "block protocol
system": Thirty blocks
sealed off for presidents, twenty for ministers and
ten for any official
below.
Huge convoys of up to 35 vehicles sped
from airport to hotel to conference
centre, causing enormous traffic
jams.
The Zambian police took literally the tendency among leaders and
government
to keep journalists in the dark; a car full of journalists was
pulled over
and instructed to switch off its lights to let "first spouse"
Zanele Mbeki
and her convoy pass.
Abie Ditlhake, chair of the SADC
Council of NGOs, which held a parallel NGO
forum alongside the official
summit, said they are "extremely disturbed" by
the Zambian
actions.
One after the other Zambian NGO leader stood up to express their
shame over
the deportations, but they also cancelled a scheduled march on
Friday to
present a list of demands on Zimbabwe.
Activists are
warning that the cowed Zimbabwean refugees, the excessive
security and the
docile Zambian NGOs are all symptoms of a deeper malaise
affecting the whole
region.
Mehluli Dube, a Bulawayo student activist who escaped deportation
by
pretending to be honeymooning with another student, Maureen Kademaunga of
Harare, said: "Mugabe is exporting repression to the region - the only thing
Zimbabwe is exporting now, apart from diamonds."
The South African
government itself has grown disdainful of civil society.
Apart from heated
stand-offs with the Treatment Action Campaign, the
government shocked many
by usurping its own invention, the African Peer
Review
Mechanism.
When SA's country review was launched, the government
appointed a cabinet
minister to run it where other governments had appointed
civil society
representatives in that position.
Ditlhake said he saw
the "failures of silent diplomacy and the reluctant
interventions by SADC"
in Zimbabwe as part of a greater political crisis in
the region, in which an
inherited party-political culture brings with it an
internal practice of
"discipline and control".
The party is worshipped instead of being opened
up for debate and
questioning.
"The leader then gets elevated into an
infallible god, who can easily
manipulate the party machinery and thus the
government into his personal
interests."
A generally weak opposition
allows the former liberation movement to be
turned into "a potentially
dangerous weapon in the ready service of the
leader".
SADC heads of
state needed to get their peers to adhere to the many
protocols, especially
ones on human rights and elections that they were
continuously
adopting.
One of Ditlhake's group's projects will be to set up a
monitoring mechanism
to hold the SADC accountable to its protocols and its
founding treaty.
"The SADC remains a club of heads of state, whereas it
really belongs to all
in the region," he said. A monitoring mechanism will
serve to avoid
situations like that in Zimbabwe.
Or as Joburg Mayembe
put it in the Soweto shebeen: "We need a strong
leadership that accommodates
everybody," and not just 13 or 14 paranoid
leaders. - Independent Foreign
Service
Zim Online
Tuesday 28 August
2007
Own Correspondent
JOHANNESBURG -
Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has
extended an olive branch
to President Robert Mugabe, saying the veteran
president should not face
trial for crimes against humanity in order to
avoid plunging the troubled
country deeper into turmoil.
Speaking to journalists during a visit
to Australia, Tsvangirai, who
heads the larger faction of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), said
there was overwhelming evidence linking Mugabe
to killings and violence
against the people of Zimbabwe but insisted that a
trial would only cause
instability.
"Given the choice between
giving Mugabe amnesty and allowing him to
leave so that we can get on with
our lives and restore the stability of the
country, I think people would
chose that," Tsvangirai told an Australian
television
yesterday.
Several local and international human rights groups have
often accused
Mugabe of committing serious human rights violations against
political
opponents. Mugabe denies the charge.
Among the crimes
faced by the Zimbabwean leader, who is blamed for
running into the ground
the once-prosperous southern African economy since
taking over power from
Britain 27 years ago, is the murder of at least 20
000 minority Ndebeles in
Matabeleland and the Midlands provinces in the
early 1980s.
He
is also accused of authorising a campaign to persecute political
opponents
since 2000, which has involved beatings and denial of food to
perceived
opposition supporters.
Tsvangirai was brutally assaulted by
Mugabe's men last March following
his arrest after trying to seek the
release of fellow opposition officials
picked up by the police for attending
a banned prayer meeting in the capital
Harare.
The assault drew
international condemnation of Mugabe and prompted the
Southern African
Development Community (SADC) to call an emergency regional
summit in March
to discuss the political situation in Zimbabwe.
SADC tasked South
Africa's President Thabo Mbeki to mediate in talks
between Mugabe's ruling
ZANU PF party and the MDC.
Tsvangirai said the solution to
Zimbabwe's long-drawn crisis did not
lie in the removal from power of Mugabe
but the destruction of a political
culture of abuse and corruption, which
has taken hold on the country.
"Let's not get too preoccupied with
Mugabe," Tsvangirai said.
"Let's be preoccupied with the political
culture that has been
instituted, which disrespects people, that violates
people's rights, that
undermines the economic well-being of the people," he
added.
Zimbabwe has some of the world's toughest media and security
laws and
human rights groups have accused Mugabe of selective use of
legislation to
stifle democratic space.
He has used the
controversial Public Order and Security Act to ban
rallies by the MDC and
outlaw gatherings by any organisations seen as
hostile to his
government.
Tsvangirai meets with Australia's foreign minister
Alexander Downer
today. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 28 August 2007
By Lizwe
Sebatha
BULAWAYO - Zimbabwean teachers are demanding 400 percent salary
increments,
citing mounting poverty amid reports that 7 200 of their
colleagues have
resigned since last January over low pay and poor working
conditions.
They have threatened to abandon classrooms if the government
does not
increase their salaries to $15 million a month with effect from
September
from about $2.9 million currently.
The demands were
submitted to the Public Service Commission and the Ministry
of Education,
Sports and Culture at the end of July through the APEX council
that
represents all civil servants.
Tendai Chikowore, president of the
Zimbabwe Teachers Association and APEX
chairperson, confirmed the teachers'
demands to the government but refused
to disclose the increment they were
asking for.
"We made submissions to the government for salary adjustments
for the third
quarter of the year but I can't reveal the figures as it might
jeopardise
negotiations," Chikowore told ZimOnline yesterday.
Raymond
Majongwe, secretary general of the militant Progressive Teachers
Union of
Zimbabwe (PTUZ), defended the $15 million demands, arguing the
government
had reneged on a promise to review quarterly their salaries.
"Teachers
are now worse off than they were the same period last year," said
Majongwe.
"Unless the government makes an undertaking to award us $15
million
salaries, we are headed for collision as we are not going to allow a
situation where our teachers are pauperised."
He however did not
disclose whether the teachers had given the government an
ultimatum over the
salary increments.
Majongwe said a survey by his union had revealed that
7 200 teachers had
left the country since January this year in frustration
over low pay and
working conditions.
This is 44 percent more than the
5 000 teachers who left the country in the
whole of last
year.
Majongwe said most of the teachers had sought employment in
Botswana, South
Africa, Namibia and Swaziland.
"According to our
survey and reports from various provinces, over 7 200
teachers have left
since January. We have lost the greatest number of
teachers in the first
eight months of 2007 compared to previous years," said
Majongwe.
He
however conceded that the figures could be an understatement because more
teachers may have left during the second term school holiday which ends next
week.
"Most schools might fail to have lessons when they open next
week due to
lack of teachers," he warned.
The worst affected would be
peri-urban and rural schools because teachers
would not afford high
transport costs.
Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere could not be
reached for comment
yesterday as he was said to have travelled out of the
country.
He has always denied claims that Zimbabwe faces a shortage of
teachers.
Zimbabwe is grappling with a severe brain drain as
professionals continue
leaving the country to regional and overseas
destinations in search of
better paying jobs.
It is estimated that
there are 10 000 Zimbabwean teachers in South Africa,
some of them doing
menial jobs.
The South African government recently said it wanted to
recruit foreign
teachers to teach science and mathematics and that it
preferred the
"well-trained" teachers from its troubled northern neighbour.
- ZimOnline
Zim Online
Tuesday 28 August 2007
By
Nqobizitha Khumalo
BULAWAYO - The Solidarity Peace Trust has asked the
South African
Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) to take action against its
Harare
correspondent accused of aiding Zimbabwean state agents in a sting
operation
against a government critic and Catholic cleric Pius
Ncube.
In a letter addressed to SABC current affairs managing director
Snuki
Zikalala, the trust accused the broadcaster's Zimbabwean correspondent
Supa
Mandiwanzira of complicity in the sensational exposure of an alleged
adulterous affair involving Ncube and a married parishioner.
Ncube,
who is archbishop of the Catholic Church in Zimbabwe's second largest
city
of Bulawayo, is being sued for adultery by Onesimus Sibanda who claims
the
clergyman was involved in a sexual relationship with his wife,
Rosemary.
State newspapers, radio and television have in recent weeks
published
pictures they claim show Ncube making love to Rosemary, in what
some
observers have said is a well orchestrated campaign by state secret
agents
to humiliate and silence the bishop who has been outspoken against
President
Robert Mugabe and his government.
"We condemn in the
strongest possible terms the involvement of the SABC,
through Supa
Mandiwanzira, in the smear campaign against Archbishop Ncube
and in the
gross violation of the human rights of Archbishop Ncube and
millions of
Zimbabweans," read part of the Solidarity Trust letter.
It was copied to
the South African Broadcasting Complaints Commission, the
South African
Embassy in Zimbabwe, and the South African Parliament.
"It is alleged
that Mandiwanzira used his SABC credentials to assist the spy
Central
Intelligence Organisation and state media to ambush Ncube into
accepting an
interview, which was later doctored by government spin-doctors
to show as if
the cleric had accepted the adultery charges.
Solidarity Trust accused
SABC of invading Ncube's privacy by aiding a
Zimbabwe government campaign
calculated to destroy the social standing of
the archbishop and to silence
democratic voices in the country.
A fierce critic of President Robert
Mugabe and co-chairperson of Solidarity
Trust, Ncube was once quoted as
having wished the demise of the Zimbabwean
leader.
The trust urged
the SABC to "take immediate steps against Mandiwanzira" and
to unequivocally
apologise to Ncube and Zimbabweans in general for the role
of the SABC in
attempts to stifle democratic forces in Zimbabwe.
Zikalala was last week
quoted in South African media saying the SABC will
investigate allegations
that were raised against Mandiwanzira.
Mandiwanzira runs Mighty Movies
which is contracted by SABC to provide
footage on Zimbabwe on a daily basis.
- ZimOnline
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
27
August 2007
Widespread severe food shortages are making it hard to
obtain the essentials
of life even for the fortunate Zimbabwean families
whose relatives in the
diaspora buy them maize meal and other staples on the
Internet for delivery
inside the country.
Online suppliers used to be
able to get food to families in the country in
two days, but now it is
taking as long as a two weeks for some of the firms
to fill
orders.
Such businesses are being forced to turn to the informal or black
market or
import the goods from South Africa, boosting costs and stretching
delivery
times. Online business Sadza.com (sadza, prepared from maize meal,
is a core
component of Zimbabwean meals) has scaled back operations due to
the
shortages of basic commodities.
Founder Anesu Manjengwa said the
delivery of groceries which used to take 48
hours now takes up to two weeks,
testing the firm's resources and customers'
patience.
Zimbuyer.com
co-founder Laz Hege told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's
Studio 7 for
Zimbabwe that with the exception of meat and smaller items, his
firm is
still able to bring basic goods to thousands in desperate need of
food.
Zimbuyer.com has offices in Birmingham, England, and McKinnon,
Texas.
Both Hege and Manjengwa said that when commodities are not
available, they
either decline to take orders or inform customers that it
may take longer
than usual to get the items delivered to their families and
relatives.They
both say they have not raised the prices of the commodities
they offer for
fear of losing customers.
VOA
By Patience Rusere
Washington
27 August
2007
A senior official of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for
Democratic Change
who was held by police for about four months has been
suspended from his job
as a technician for the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply
Authority for failing to
report to work in that time.
Deputy
Organizing Secretary Morgan Komichi of the MDC faction headed by
Morgan
Tsvangirai is a technician at the Munyati Power Plant in Midlands
Province.
Harare police held Komichi and about 30 other MDC officials
and activists
for several months between March and this month on charges
they committed or
plotted violent acts - based on evidence that a high court
judge concluded
had been fabricated.
Other defendants include Glen
View member of parliament Paul Madzore and
Youth Secretary General Solomon
Madzore. Arrested in April, Komichi was
released early this month, and
charged that he had been severely beaten
while in custody.
Komichi
said he has not been receiving a salary for the past three months
and did
not receive a formal letter indicating his suspension. A ZESA human
resources manager who gave his name as Sibanda refused to comment, saying
the matter is in court.
The cases of Komichi and his co-defendants
have been put off to September.
Komichi told reporter Patience Rusere
that he suspects his suspension is
politically motivated as he has not been
found guilty for the charges he is
facing and he was denied bail for months,
making it impossible for him to go
to work.
African Path
Izzy Mutanhaurwa
August 27, 2007 05:35 PM
After the stolen presidential election of
2002 The Commonwealth (a
voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign
states all of which are
former colonies of the United Kingdom, except for
Mozambique and the United
Kingdom itself) appointed a troika<!--[if
!vml]--><!--[endif]--> consisting
of Thabo Mbeki of South Africa,
Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and John Howard
of Australia to resolve the
Zimbabwean problem. It failed before it even
started as the three presidents
never visited Zimbabwe as a group but rather
Mbeki and Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo visited Zimbabwe and met
Mugabe and Tsvangirai separately
each visit not lasting longer than 6 hours.
While John Howard
and Olusegun Obasanjo both were in favour of
rebuking Mugabe and demanding
free and fair elections as soon as possible,
Mbeki advocated negotiations
and foisted upon the troika the idea of a South
African type of settlement
after apartheid, a government of national unity
even though the elections
had been declared not free and fair by The
Commonwealth observer
mission.
His quiet diplomacy never yielded results as
Mugabe refused to
negotiate with MDC because we had filed a case challenging
the result of the
presidential elections. He failed to do or say anything
when President
Tsvangirai was arrested<!--[if
!vml]--><!--[endif]--> not once but twice on
trumped up charges of
treason. The 2005 Presidential elections came and went
past again stolen
conducted under unfair and intimidating conditions, Mbeki
was still talking
to Mugabe. While he was giving him money an emergency loan
of ZAR1 Billion
which was given to the Zimbabwean government, in the same
year the despotic
government of Robert Mugabe destroyed homes and
livelihoods of more than 2
million people under the guise of an urban
clean-up dubbed operation
Murambatsvina<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->.
The urban clean-up displaced millions of MDC voters that had been
voted MDC
throughout the rigged elections. Despite worldwide condemnation
Mbeki and
the South African government never said a word to criticise
Mugabe's regime
on Murambatsvina. Even the beating of more than 60
opposition and civic
leaders including Morgan Tsvangirai on March 11 was met
with silence from
Thabo Mbeki. A lot of people are skeptical of Mbeki's
chances on the other
hand he Mbeki argues this time around his so called
mediation will be a
success that now he has the mandate of SADC, another
ineffective body of
countries with common interests such as is The
Commonwealth which also
mandated the same Thabo Mbeki 5 years ago.
Thabo Mbeki's
mediation is a ploy that he uses to shield Mugabe from
international
censure. When George Bush visited South Africa in July of
2003, Mbeki lied
that the mediation process was going very smoothly, he said
"We are
absolutely of one mind about the urgent need to address the
political and
economic challenges of Zimbabwe." and I am sure that the MDC
leadership in
Harare should tread carefully before being led on another
merry-go-round
that characterised Thabo Mbeki's previous efforts. He has on
a number of
occasions tried to force-feed Zimbabweans into getting into a
marriage of
convenience with Zanu-PF in the form of a government of national
unity so as
to preserve Mugabe's status. Just before the dissidents led by
Welshman
Ncube broke away from the main MDC, Welshman was secretly meeting
with Zanu
PF officials such as Chinamasa drafting a constitution that even
The
President, Morgan Tsvangirai had no knowledge of but all with the
blessing
of Thabo Mbeki.
Thabo Mbeki needs a legacy to be remembered
by, the second
democratically elected President of South Africa after
Mandela. He needed
big feet to fill Mandela's shoes. Where Mandela excelled
as a world
statesman Mbeki's foreign policy still has to do anything of note
to leave a
lasting impression of Mbeki's tenure other than his denial of
AIDS. With
such ambitions to leave an equal lasting legacy like that of
Mandela he
wants to solve the Zimbabwean issue rather quickly without
addressing the
core problems that are blighting Zimbabwe. Mbeki does not
have interests of
Zimbabwean people at heart, its not the 6 million that are
experiencing food
shortages that are compelling him, neither is it the
record breaking
inflation of 4000 that Mugabe refuses<!--[if
!vml]--><!--[endif]--> to
officially announce, its his legacy at
stake. Also pressing is the issue of
World Cup that South Africa is due to
host in 2010, if the situation does
not change in Zimbabwe then the meltdown
will certainly affect South Africa.
Mbeki is keen to see political stability
to ensure success of hosting the
World Cup.
Before
anything can be done, before the preliminaries or whatever form
Mbeki's
mediation is going to take it should be made clear to him that the
Presidential elections and if the harmonisation goes ahead then also the
Parliamentary elections cannot take place without a people driven
constitution. The current field of political play favours Mugabe and there
is no way the MDC will even contest the aforesaid elections without a new
constitution. Secondly all political prisoners must be freed, given access
to medical attention, the beatings, abductions and arbitrary arrests of MDC
members must cease immediately, the militarised youth wing of Zanu PF must
be disbanded then we can sit down and talk about a transitional authority
that will take charge before elections that will also allow people like us
in the Diaspora to vote. If the conditions can no be met then it will be a
futile exercise for MDC to partake.
Kenya Business Daily
Written
by Koni Benson
28-August-2007: The dominant story in the mainstream
Press these days
is that the South African poor act out of desperation when
migrants and
refugees are violently attacked.
That the
"problem" is competition for scarce resources and that SA
must first get its
house in order, and solve the poverty crisis, and then
desperate South
Africans will stop lashing out at desperate asylum seekers.
This
story of displaced frustration and resentment does not fairly
represent the
range of opinions, and even more importantly, organised
actions of the poor
and working class in South Africa, who invest precious
resources in directly
supporting refugees and migrants, especially in the
case of Zimbabweans
right now.
In fact, new research is showing that while xenophobia
is rampant and
often played out amongst the poor in South Africa, it is also
precisely some
of the poorest South Africans living in shack and townships
who have been
the most sympathetic to the struggles of Zimbabweans worst
effected by the
current crisis.
South African movements of the
working class have mobilised around the
politics playing out in Zimbabwe
right now. In fact, the issue of Zimbabwe
has captured the attention and has
been prioritised by grassroots activists
in South Africa.
These
are groups of people many of whom are unemployed and cannot
often find taxi
fare to meet, and struggle with the challenge of solidarity
within the same
neighbourhoods and same city to fight for basic survival
like water,
housing, electricity, and health care. Yet, they are taking a
stand on
Zimbabwe. Why?
At the recent Towards an Africa Without Borders
Conference in Durban,
one Bulawayo debt cancellation activist argued for
solidarity between the
poor in South Africa and in Zimbabwe because our
interests are in the same
pot.
South African activists at the
conference likewise argued that "we see
our problem as rooted in poverty and
elite deal making, which sees no
international boundaries."
In
this view, President Mbeki and his SADC counterparts will not act
against
the Mugabe regime in defence of the Zimbabwean people - rather, they
are
angling for an "elite transition" similar to the ones in South Africa,
Namibia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where those who
have the backing of the rich and powerful, work out among themselves how to
divide the power and money.
From this perspective, the majority
of the people are excluded from
the process and inevitably the resulting
system leaves them at the mercy of
oppressors and exploiters and trapped in
the associated poverty and social
crises.
In Cape Town, for
example, women from a range of grassroots
organisations came together after
the March 11 violent attacks on women
activists in Zimbabwe to analyse the
relationship between state and domestic
violence and speak out on the way
elite politics were being played out
across women's bodies.
They argued that: "We see no distinction between domestic and state
violence, or between Zimbabwe and South. In fact, South African poor are
arguing that the melt down in Zimbabwe shares its roots with the same forces
rapidly entrenching poverty across the region.
It is precisely
this support by struggling South Africans for
Zimbabweans who are attempting
to organise for an alternative Zimbabwe that
is being ignored in the press
and falling further and further off the radar
of the South African
imagination of the poor who are continually painted as
inherently
xenophobic.
Benson is a researcher at the International Labour
Research and
Information Group in Cape Town.
New Straits Times
2007/08/28
By : RASHAAD JATTIEM, Cape Town, South
Africa
PLEASE permit me to respond to the letter of the Zimbabwe
Ambassador L.P.
Tavaya ("Question deserves honest answer" - NST, Aug 23)
wherein the
ambassador criticised Rehman Rashid's article - "Robert Mugabe
has a
question" (NST, Aug 17).
I am a descendant of the Malay-speaking
prisoners who were forcibly removed
from what today is known as Indonesia and
Malaysia, and taken to the Dutch
Cape Colony. During the apartheid era
(1948-1992), South African citizens
who were classified white had total
political and economic power. Citizens
classified non-white, that is blacks,
the Cape Malays, coloureds Indians and
Chinese, had no political
rights.
The oppressed of South Africa found hope in the decolonisation of
Black
Africa and welcomed the triumph of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo
in
Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Their victory was seen as a precursor for our
own
liberation from white tyranny.
Alas, our joy was to be shortlived.
Almost as if programmed to do so, the
new black leaders (and not just in
Zimbabwe) started to act as if they were
determined to prove that the white
racists were right all along when they
claimed that "the black races are
quick to wallow in, and enjoy the
trappings and material benefits of
political power. But they cannot, and
will not absorb and embrace the values
and responsibilities of democracy".
How sadly prophetic for Zimbabwe!
Mugabe, who has been president since
independence in 1980, inherited a
country which had an economy that was the
envy of many other states in
Africa.
In the meantime, the ruling party leadership became corrupted by
political
power. Their greed was too ravenous for them to relinquish
political
control. So they resorted to the "tried and trusted methods of
exercising
African democracy".
Opposition parties were banned; leaders
detained and tortured; workers'
trade unions were banned; and all political
opponents were branded as
traitors. (Sounds familiar, doesn't it?)
The
economic collapse of Zimbabwe was triggered by several desperate
and
inappropriate acts.
White-owned farms were seized, ostensibly for
distribution to the black
workers and landless citizens. However, it was soon
found that the
beneficiaries of the farm seizures were government ministers
and the ruling
party comrades.
White farmers were forced off their
farms and fled to neighbouring
countries; food production plummeted to
all-time lows; farm workers became
unemployed and streamed into the cities in
search of jobs and food, and to
add to Zimbabweans' woes, inflation had
started to spiral out of control.
President Mugabe thinks that the
problem of high inflation can be solved by
printing more money. And this is
exactly what he has done!
Ambassador Tavaya rightly asserts that
successive droughts have led to poor
harvests. But he fails to mention that
the crippling effects of the droughts
were compounded by hasty and unwise
economic and political actions.
No, Mr Ambassador, you cannot put all the
blame for your country's woes on
the drought, or on Britain, or the USA and
the European Union. A far greater
problem is said to be Mugabe's
mismanagement of the country.
Many people believe that Zimbabwe is on the
brink of collapse and that
Mugabe is making contingency plans to flee the
country.
When he appeared on the political scene, Mugabe was hailed as
the saviour of
Black Africa. But sadly over time, he has betrayed the trust
not only of his
people but also of many of his admirers.
What we want
is for Mugabe to resurrect the reform programme to which he
dedicated himself
when he first took political office more than 20 years
ago.
A measure
of success of his programme is in the benefits received by his
people, and
not the rhetoric which he and his cronies are so fond of
engaging in as a
defensive measure.
Please send any material for publication in the Open Letter Forum to
jag@mango.zw with “For Open Letter Forum” in the
subject
line.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
cathybuckle.com
Seventh
Spring
Saturday 25th August 2007
Dear Family and Friends,
The view
from Zimbabwe's window is absolutely gorgeous this week.
Evidence
of
spring and renewal is all around us. The sky is cloudless and blue, the
temperatures are rising and the blue headed lizards are out basking in the
sun again. The indigenous woodlands that have survived the army of winter
woodcutters are breathtaking as the Msasa trees go from red and burgundy to
caramel and a shiny butterscotch colour before finally preparing to shade
our land for another year. After nearly two months of government price
controls and the ugly mess they have created, the beauty and warmth around
us is the only thing keeping many people sane in this seventh spring of
Zimbabwe's turmoil. This week, after a long silence, government inflation
figures were announced and, as expected, the price controls have not helped
at all - exactly the opposite in fact. Inflation which stood at 4530% in
May, soared to 7634% in July.
I went to visit an elderly couple this
week and we exchanged delights about
the season and the climate and then
they showed me the letter which had just
arrived. I didn't know whether to
laugh or cry at the news about their
pension. The letter was from a senior
executive in one of the largest
pension fund companies in the country and
read as follows:
"We confirm that you are entitled to a monthly pension of
$0.85 cents.
This
pension is currently suspended. As the monthly pension
has now been eroded
by inflation, the company has now decided to pay out the
balance of your
pension as a lump sum. The lump sum payable to you is: $2.9
million
dollars."
I can't think of words that adequately describe the
outrage of this. A
monthly pension representing a person's working life and
the result of years
of payments being now worth just 85 Zimbabwe cents.
There is not a single
thing you can buy for eighty five cents in Zimbabwe,
not even one match
stick; in fact there aren't any coins in circulation in
the country anymore.
The couple told me they had agreed to accept the lump
sum payment because
they really had no other option but they knew that even
this amount would
only pay for 4 days of their board and lodge.
Young
or old there is just one way to survive these bleak times in Zimbabwe
and
that is one day at a time. We have all been forced into short term
thinking
and even shorter term planning as we try and keep food on the table
in these
days of government induced famine. There is still almost no food to
buy in
our shops - no oil, margarine, flour, rice, pasta, maize meal,
biscuits,
cold drinks or sugar. No soap, washing powder, candles or matches.
No meat,
eggs, dairy products or confectionary.
In a weeks time our children go
back to school but even this fact does not
seem to inspire our government
into action. How do they think schools are
going to feed the children who
stay for lunch or are boarders? How do they
think that parents who have been
forced to run their businesses at a loss
for the last two months are going
to be able to even pay school fees? How do
they think pensioners can survive
on eighty five cents a month? There are no
answers to the questions at any
level.
Even more worrying is that glorious as the weather is, it is
almost planting
time again and yet there is no seed to buy in our empty
shops and our day at
a time thinking caused by our governments day at a time
planning is
condemning us to even harder times ahead. It hardly bears
thinking about and
so we try not to and hope and pray that there may be an
end to this, just an
end.
Until next week, thanks for reading , love
cathy.
Received from S. Schoultz
I would just like to say
here! here! To Mavis Makunis’ article in the ZW
News of 24th August 2007
for those who read it too. I fully agree with her
on this. Perhaps Senator
Aguy Georgias who opposes the smart selective
sanctions and is challenging
the UK Govt in court, should come and live in
Zimbabwe for a while then he
can give his opinion.
Nothing irritates me more than narrow minded people
who give their opinions
without experiencing and seeing things with their
own eyes!!
Stu
Ps. I’ll get off my soap box now.
Received
From Robert Kerswell
LOOKING FOR CHLOE AND/OR NEVAN LEES MAY
Ex
Zimbabweans in New Zealand, whose parents farmed in Melsetter many years
ago, have asked me to try and find long lost friends of the
family.
Liz Murray (maiden name) is looking for Chloe and/or Nevan Lees
May who may
still be in Zimbabwe – or may have moved.
We would be
very grateful for any help in locating this family. Please email
me with any
details.
Many thanks.
Judy Kerswell
Robert@kerland.orangehome.co.uk
Received
from S. Schoultz
I have read the Zimbabwe news today and it involves the
government passing
through legislation that will allow the take over of
foreign owned
businesses and is likely to include Zimbabwean white owned
businesses. The
aim is to empower and give them to so called indigenous
Zimbabweans we are
lead to believe. Whatever happened to the Affirmative
Action Group that was
supposed to allow black people a better chance at
having a stake in the
economy? Has that failed and if so, what makes Mugabe
think this new crazy
idea is going to make Zimbabwe boom?
I would
like to know how they categorise disadvantaged people before 1980!
There are
far more disadvantaged people now since the year 2000 than before
independence. Everyone was housed and people had food on their tables and
those with electricity had electricity; not like now! We have urban
westernized cities looking like rubbish dumps with no water supplies and
sewerage running down the roads in high density areas.
Please could
someone from Zanu-PF explain to me who the indigenous people
really are?
Correct me if I am wrong but the Ndebele people came from South
Africa, and
the Shona people derive from north of Zimbabwe and that the true
indigenous
people are the Khalahari Bushmen whom were driven out by these
tribes prior
to the white settlers arriving.
It seems the current regime is worse than
the old Smith regime. The Smith
regime has been accused of being a racist
one etc but this government is
both racist and tribalist, has corruption at
heart and is at war with its
own people. If people were given a choice as to
which regime they were
better off with, I wonder what the result would be. I
am in NO FAVOUR OF
EITHER REGIME don’t get me wrong. But, I just wanted to
make a point that
the latest action which has sidelined the re-licensing of
white owned
abattoirs proves that some people in government are as good as
some of the
previous white people in the Smith regime, if not worse. This
makes me feel
good in a way because for years we have been accused of being
racist etc and
now we have the scenario of the pot calling the kettle
black.
Well I pray for a good rainy season ahead in Zimbabwe and, as
always, my
thoughts are with all those suffering in Zimbabwe. At least we
have some
decent sunshine here in mu-island.
Stu
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
All
letters published on the open Letter Forum are the views and opinions of
the
submitters, and do not represent the official viewpoint of Justice for
Agriculture.