http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written
by Zimbabwe mail
Saturday, 12 December 2009 12:45
HARARE -
The Zimbabwe Mail can reveal that a document is
circulating and fliers
distributed this morning amongst Zanu PF delegates to
the party's congress
urging members "to reclaim their party from the
presedium". (Pictured:Robert
Mugabe is struggling to rescue his long time
favoured successor Emmerson
Mnangagwa)
The document, believed to be a summary of Jonathan Moyo's
authored plan for
a Zanu PF break-away plan and its colourful fliers which
have been
distributed openly by a group of party rebels led by former
Chairman of Zanu
PF Harare province, Hubert Nyanhongo are all urging party
members to "to do
whatever possible to reclaim their party from unelected
leaders".
The fliers are written in English, Shona and Ndebele
languages.
The national congress of ZANU-PF of Zimbabwe President Robert
Mugabe opens
in the capital Harare Thursday amid high expectations.
Last
night our reporter witnessed a Nissan 4x4 pick up truck off-loading
defiant
banners, fliers and placards at the Kopje Plaza, the NETONE building
and
they where taken into the basement by people believed to be aligned to
the
embattled Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.
The Mnangagwa faction has set
up its operational base in the Kopje Plaza's
fourth floor and the command
centre being run from Firstel Cellular's board
room.
Firstel Cellular is
a Zanu PF owned mobile phone company siezed from Mutumwa
Mawere and it
occupies the entire fourth floor of the Kopje Plaza.
The Zimbabwe Mail
reporter was shown around the place by an overzealous
Senior member of the
faction and he showed him army communication radios
hidden in the
basement.
Unconfirmed reports said in the last 48 hours some of the ring
leaders of
the rebel party members have been seized by the intelligence
forces and
scores of party supporters have since fled into the neighbouring
South
Africa as the battle to control Zanu PF reaches fever peach.
We're
also told that last night a man died in a fist-fight at the Zanu PF
Harare
District offices near Fourth Street bus station and scores were
injured as
things got out of control during a pre-congress briefing. The
dead man was
accused to be a spy agent for Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Sources said, South African
President Jacob Zuma has kept a close touch with
his Zimbabwean counter-part
with reports that President Mugabe has sounded a
security scare alert as the
battle ground moves into the control of security
forces.
President Jabob
Zuma in turn has informed other SADC leaders of the
challenges facing
Zimbabwe and on his visit to Zambia he has briefed the
Zambian President of
the need to set-up his army ready to assist if there is
an urgent
need.
Today, Botswana President Ian Khama, a former Army commander himself,
will
tour army bases in the Chobe District which is situated around the
Zimbabwe-Botswana border, and our source revealed that this is part of the
latest SADC security alert plan as they fear Zimbabwe could degenerate into
a civil conflict.
We can reveal that the Southern African Development
Community (SADC)
Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomao was tasked by SADC leader
to meet
President Mugabe early this week in order to get some feedback and
the
Zimbabwean President raised the security concern which has since been
communicated to the region's Defence Ministers.
A battle over who will
eventually succeed 85-year-old President Robert
Mugabe as party leader
threatens the future of his long-ruling ZANU-PF but
analysts say an
immediate split is unlikely at a congress this week.
By balancing competing
factions and through a political patronage system,
Mugabe has kept a tight
grip on ZANU-PF since becoming party leader in the
mid 1970s and spearheaded
a guerrilla war against white minority rule.
But as Mugabe heads into the
twilight of a political career spanning over
half a century, his lieutenants
have stepped up an internal fight for prime
positions to take over the party
when Mugabe retires. He has not given a
date.
Rival factions have been
jostling for posts in ZANU-PF's "presidium"
leadership before a five-yearly
party congress opening in Harare on Friday,
widening cracks within ranks
already torn over personalities, ethnic and
regional issues.
"These
fights are going to go on until Mugabe goes, and when he goes ZANU-PF
is in
danger of disintegration," said Eldred Masunungure, a leading
political
analyst.
"There is no consensus candidate on who should succeed Mugabe, and
Mugabe
himself has apparently created that crisis to remain in power,"
Masunungure
told Reuters.
But whoever eventually wins the battle to
succeed Mugabe -- whenever his
position becomes vacant -- will have a huge
task to reorganise a party which
many critics say just managed to hang onto
power last year through violence
against the opposition.
TERMINAL
DECLINE?
A post-election standoff with the rival Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC)
forced Mugabe to sign a power-sharing deal with its leader
Morgan
Tsvangirai. Since then the new government has struggled to rebuild
the
shattered economy and attract much-needed aid funds.
"All the
fighting that is going on in ZANU-PF is not going to help them at
the next
elections against the MDC," said Lovemore Madhuku, chairman of
political
pressure group National Constitutional Assembly.
"What is emerging is a weak
and divided party, a party probably in terminal
decline," he said.
The
two-day congress will endorse Mugabe as party head for five years, and
confirm a new policy-making central committee.
A faction led by former
army General Solomon Mujuru has gained an upper hand
in the succession
battle as Mujuru's wife, Joice Mujuru, 54, has been
nominated by most of
ZANU-PF's provincial executives to remain as
vice-president to
Mugabe.
This makes Joice Mujuru, for now, the front runner to succeed Mugabe
as
ZANU-PF leader if he steps down, ahead of rival faction leader Emmerson
Mnangagwa, who local media has for long touted as a favourite to takeover
from Mugabe.
The congress will also confirm John Nkomo, 75, current party
chairman to
become the second ZANU-PF vice president, replacing veteran
politician
Joseph Msika who died aged 86 this year.
Zimbabwe's ambassador
to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo, 64, has been
earmarked to fill Nkomo's
party chairman post.
The issue of Mugabe's successor has divided ZANU-PF
along ethnic lines, with
Mnangagwa's faction charging that Mujuru's group
seeks to preserve the party
presidency for another member of Mugabe's Zezuru
ethnic group.
"The problem of tribalism or ethnic tensions has been swept
under the carpet
in ZANU-PF for a long time, but I think this is going to be
a real issue if
some things appear so obvious," said Masunungure.
Mugabe
has flatly refused to discuss his retirement plans, but analysts say
he is
unlikely to contest the next presidential poll -- expected in the next
two
years or in 2013 if the current unity government runs a full term.
He will be
heading towards his 90th birthday by then, and may not get his
party support
to continue in power.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
December
12, 2009
Mugabe says his fractured party is 'eating itself up'
Jan Raath
in Harare
They were supposed to be celebrating on a grand scale -
10,000 of President
Mugabe's closest supporters coming together to affirm
his continued hold on
power. But at the Zanu (PF) congress yesterday
delegates sat stunned to hear
their leader berate his party for infighting,
saying that Zanu was "eating
itself up".
Normally defiant, Mr Mugabe
admitted to the party's five-yearly meeting that
it had "lost" presidential
elections last March - a first-round defeat that
was followed by a bloody
campaign of repression. "The reason why we lost in
March last year was
because of factions," he said. "When it comes to
elections, the party
strangles itself. It is eating itself up and the MDC
says, 'Do much more'.
The more intense the internal fights we have, the
greater opportunity we
grant to the opposition to thrive."
Observers say that the divisions in
the party, mostly on tribal lines, mark
the worst internal strife that Zanu
(PF) has experienced since Mr Mugabe
came to its head in the 1970s. And
while past congresses have been lavish
celebrations of its continued rule,
this time the state coffers are
controlled by the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), Zanu (PF)'s hated
enemies, reducing the scope for extravagant
spending.
The big issue on the agenda was how the party was beaten by the
MDC in
parliamentary and the first round of presidential elections in March
last
year, leaving it forced into the unprecedented but faltering
power-sharing
agreement with the MDC. But behind that are serious questions
concerning Mr
Mugabe's remaining time at the top as well as the potential
power struggles
to succeed him.
The congress was preceded by
months of tumultuous elections to choose
representatives on Zanu's district
and provincial organisations as well as
its women's and youth leagues and
the notorious war veterans' movement. This
weekend, however, is the moment
for selection of the party's top
leadership - excluding, of course, Mr
Mugabe's position.
At the weekend Mr Mugabe produced a top Zanu (PF)
leadership filling the
posts of president, two vice-presidents and party
chairman that consisted
solely of his own Zezuru tribe - part of the Shona
people - and the Ndebele
people of western Zimbabwe. He brushed aside
demands for inclusion from the
other four large ethnic groups, effectively
setting most of his party
against him.
"There are too many leaders
now. They are building another party, not Zanu
(PF)," Mr Mugabe
said.
The loyalty of the upper levels of the army, police and secret
police are a
major and dangerous factor in Mr Mugabe's survival, but,
diplomats say,
their effectiveness is reduced because they are as riven by
political
fissures as much as the civilian party members.
"Mugabe
must have agonised over that speech," said Eldred Masunungure, the
head of
the respected Mass Public Opinion Institute. "It was the best way to
try to
deal with the divisions. But it won't work. He no longer has the
mental and
physical stamina to put a halt to this struggle. Zanu (PF) will
tear itself
asunder."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
December
12, 2009
Jonathan Clayton: Analysis
Even Robert Mugabe's fiercest
critics concede that he is an astute and
cunning politician. As such, he
knows that the game is up. Yesterday he
effectively admitted as much to the
Zanu (PF) faithful.
Since the once all-powerful ruling party was forced
into last year's
power-sharing agreement with the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC), it
has seen its remaining power and influence slowly ebb
away.
It has no moral authority to govern. Everyone knows a few small but
significant improvements, such as the first economic growth for 12 years and
increased foreign aid, have come about as a result of an MDC hand on the
finance ministry.
Ministries controlled by Zanu (PF) remain mired in
incompetence and
inefficiency. Now, they are also paralysed by power
struggles as Mugabe's
cronies look with anxiety to the
future.
"Their hands are dripping in blood and their pockets are full
of booty. They
are afraid that all their gory misdeeds will be exposed once
they are out of
power. So, they must cling to power by all means but in so
doing they dig
deeper graves for themselves for such tactics backfire and
hasten the end.
Mugabe knows it but is powerless to stop it," said George
Ayittey, a
political analyst and expert on Zimbabwe.
South Africa,
which so often in the past whitewashed their misdeeds, is now
exhibiting a
decisiveness and firmness which was unthinkable in the days of
former
President Thabo Mbeki.
President Jacob Zuma, with the full support of the
Southern African
Development Community (SADC), has made it clear thaqt the
Global Political
Agreement - as the power sharing deal is known - is the
only show in town.
Mr Zuma, with the recession hitting jobs in his own
country, is determined
to end the political crisis north of the
Limpopo.
Mr Mugabe's cronies know they cannot go back, but are incapable
of moving
forward. They are haunted by fear of reprisals, retribution and
paranoia.
Political commentators believe real power in Zanu (PF) is now
held within a
cabal of no more than 200 people, comprising senior military
officers,
members of the secretive Joint Operations Command, which
effectively runs
the party, and a clique of Mugabe cronies linked by
business or family ties.
"ZANU pf has lost all credibility with the
Zimbabwean people. It has become
an imposition - a cancer - on Zimbabwe's
body politic - a far cry from the
liberation stature it once enjoyed," Mr
Attiyeh said.
Political commentators say that to have found a peaceful
solution to the
Zimbabwean crisis in the period when Mr Mugabe had the
unequivocal support
of a sizeable armed forces component and a sizeable
proportion of the
population may have presented a major problem. To be faced
instead with a
clique of just 200 or so people who have brazenly amassed
great wealth for
themselves and their families while leaving the Zimbabwean
people
impoverished is totally different situation.
http://www1.voanews.com/
Delegates to the
Copenhagen Climate Conference including Zimbabwean youths
were calling for
global greenhouse gas emissions to be cut in half by 2050.
Selah Hennessy
& Marvellous Mhlanga-Nyahuye | London & Washington 11
December
2009
A first-draft deal at the United Nations climate conference in
Copenhagen
says the world should halve world greenhouse gas emissions by
2050.
The blueprint was released at the end of the first week of the
conference.
European leaders pledged more than US$10 billion to help poor
countries cope
with climate change, as Selah Hennessy reported from
London.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwean youth delegates in Copenhagen said they
hope President
Robert Mugabe when he shows up in the Danish capital next
week will
highlight the challenges facing the country and the need for
solutions.
Delegate Anesu Makina, studying climate change at the
University Of East
Anglia in the United Kingdom, told VOA Studio 7 reporter
Marvellous
Mhlanga-Nyahuye that she has been frustrated by reactions from
older
delegates at the conference who did not take the views of young people
seriously.
http://www1.voanews.com
Conducted by
Afrobarometer and the Mass Public Opinion Institute of Zimbabwe
polled 1,200
people in Zimbabwe's 10 provinces and found that 73% wanted a
new and freely
elected government within two years
Benedict Nhlapho | Johannesburg 11
December 2009
A survey commissioned by Washington-based Freedom House
and released in
South Africa on Friday showed a majority of Zimbabweans
desiring democratic
safeguards including a presidential term limits and an
independent
judiciary.
A majority wanted to see new elections held
within two years.
VOA Studio 7's Benedict Nhlapho reported from
Johannesburg.
Conducted by Afrobarometer and the Mass Public Opinion
Institute of Zimbabwe
polled 1,200 people in Zimbabwe's 10 provinces and
found that 73% wanted a
new and freely elected government within two
years.
Most respondents saw the current power-sharing arrangement between
the
ZANU-PF party of President Robert Mugabe and the Movement for Democratic
Change led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai as a temporary, second-best
solution compared with another round of national elections.
But the
survey found three in four Zimbabweans pleased with the progress
achieved by
the unity government on the economic front.
Unveiling the survey in
Johannesburg, Freedom House Deputy Programs Director
Daniel Calingaert said
the data will provide a critical tool for the unity
government in mapping
the way forward for the country.
The survey revealed interesting
differences of opinion between supporters of
the MDC and ZANU-PF. Among MDC
supporters, 64% want those who committed
political violence in 2008 to admit
to their crimes, but 56% of ZANU-PF
backers want to leave the past behind
and move forward.
Two-thirds of MDC supporters demand that the
perpetrators of such violence
be prosecuted, but nearly half of ZANU-PF
supporters said they believed that
amnesty should be granted for such
crimes. Yet 78% of self-identified
ZANU-PF supporters said violence is
never
Freedom House analyst Charles Mangongera said the survey shows a
growing
hunger for democratic principles within ZANU-PF ranks.
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=25811
December 12, 2009
By Raymond
Maingire
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe has again attacked the United
Kingdom and
the United States of America for what he said is a relentless
campaign to
seize control of Zimbabwe's rich mineral resources.In his
opening address at
the ongoing Zanu-PF congress in Harare Friday, President
Mugabe decried what
he said was infiltration of the country by the two rich
countries.
"If the rich countries of the West see that you are a
naturally resourced
country and they envy those resources, they find a way
of penetrating into
your systems and indeed of wanting to control those
resources," Mugabe said.
He warned party supporters to be wary of Great
Britain which he said
continued to use Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's
Movement for Democratic
Change MDC, Zanu-PF's partner in the inclusive
government, as a front to
advance an anti-Zimbabwe agenda.
"Defence
of the natural resources means political defence through our being
together," he said, "being united in making a stand that Zimbabwe is for
Zimbabweans and those who come here who are not Zimbabweans must support
us.
"We have the right to national sovereignty and the right of control
over our
resources. When we open avenues for their participation, we are not
saying
they can become the owners of our country.
"We are only saying
become partners with us and nothing more, nothing more,
nothing
more."
There was loud applause from the delegates as Mugabe said
this.
He said the MDC was formed in Great Britain through the Westminster
Foundation and was now parroting a western agenda.
The Westminster
Foundation for Democracy (WFD) was established in London in
1992 "to support
the consolidation of democratic practices and institutions
in developing
democracies". The foundation says on its website that it
specializes in
parliamentary strengthening and political party development;
working at
national, regional and local levels.
The foundation is sponsored by the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and
is accountable to the British
Parliament for its expenditure.
Mugabe said MDC was talking a language
"contrary to the language of the
revolution" through support of the
continued existence of sanctions against
Zimbabwe and advocating for the
reversal of the land reform programme.
Although Zanu-PF had embraced the
MDC as a partner in the inclusive
government, Mugabe said, the two parties'
appreciation of national issues
was wide apart.
"We say svinurai,
MDC, chinjai pfungwa. Nyika ndeyenyu, haisi yevarungu
kwete. Haisi
yanaBennett, (We say to the MDC, 'Wake up, change your way of
thinking. The
country belongs to you, not to the white people. It does not
belong to Roy
Bennett and others.')," Mugabe said.
"These people are settlers. Even if
Bennett and the others were born here,
they remain the off-spring of
settlers."
Mugabe said only divine intervention would make the MDC
realize the folly of
blindly following the white man's thinking.
"We
need that day when we can pray for the readjustment of our mental
setup,"
he said.
Mugabe also lashed at some Zanu-PF members and accused them of
"playing into
the hands of the enemy by squabbling for positions using
channels which are
not availed by our party's constitution".
Zanu-PF
on Thursday thwarted an attempt by some party delegates to reopen
nominations for the positions of Zanu-PF vice president and national
chairman.
Mugabe read the riot act to some provincial chairpersons
who threatened to
resign from their positions in protest over what they
alleged was the party's
continued imposition of candidates into the
presidium.
The congress will confirm Mugabe as leader of Zanu-PF for
another five-year
term, with Joice Mujuru and vice president designate John
Nkomo as his
deputies. Zimbabwe's ambassador to South Africa Simon Khaya
Moyo will return
from Pretoria to become the new national chairman of the
party. Moyo was a
protégé of the late PF-Zapu founder, Dr Joshua
Nkomo.
Sources within the party say reform-minded members in the
leadership of
Zanu-PF now view Mugabe's reelection as leader as
retrogressive. They are
said to blame the plunge in the party's fortunes in
elections last year to
his faltering leadership.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Tendai Maronga and Clifford Nyathi Saturday 12
December 2009
HARARE – Zimbabwean mobile phone users were this
week bombarded with
mysterious text messages (SMS) claiming that the
country’s security chiefs
were not prepared to salute Vice President Joice
Mujuru.
The SMS messages also claimed that delegates would ditch
President Robert
Mugabe at the party congress ending in Harare
today.
The source of the messages is not known. But some observers
suggested
disgruntled members of Mugabe’s bickering party could be
responsible for
sending the messages that also criticised party top leaders
for imposing
loyalists to positions of influence ignoring choices made
during provincial
nominations.
The messages started circulating
Tuesday with the first SMS message sent out
purporting to welcome delegates
to the congress and claiming that the sender
was a member of the ZANU PF
youth league.
More messages were soon to follow and this time urging
delegates to use the
congress to reclaim that the party from the party
presidium. One SMS
message claimed that the party had been “hijacked from
the people and they
(delegates) must use the floor to take it
back”.
Another text message read: “Mutasa (Didymus, senior party leader)
says he
will not allow rules to be broken for election to party chairman –
plans to
challenge SK Moyo, ZPFC SMS.”
In the run up to the congress,
Manicaland provincial leaders had nominated
party secretary for
administration Didymus Mutasa for the post of chairman
ahead of Zimbabwe’s
ambassador to South Africa Simon Khaya Moyo who is known
among ZANU PF
followers as SK Moyo.
Another text message claimed that one of the two
ZANU PF factions led by
Mujuru and her powerful husband Solomon Mujuru was
pushing to have a “young
and vibrant” leadership take charge of the
party.
Asked about the phone text messages, ZANU PF spokesman Ephraim
Masawi said
they were the work of enemies trying to cause divisions in the
party. “This
is the work of our enemies. We will not be affected at all.
There are people
who want to create divisions within the party but they will
not succeed,” he
said.
The party’s secretary for youth Absalom
Sikhosana also denied that the
messages were coming from ZANU PF youth
league.
Sikhosana said: “It (message) is coming from the enemy. That is
how the
enemy operates. That is not our project. It is a project of the
enemy
intended to cause confusion and chaos during the congress. Our people
must
just ignore them. The youth league is looking forward to the congress
to
help in building the country.’’
Meanwhile mobile phone operator
Econet Wireless Zimbabwe on Friday issued a
statement distancing itself from
the text messages adding that it had asked
a Swedish telecoms company, Tele2
Comviq, to stop sending political messages
to Zimbabwe.
Econet
communications manager Rangarirai Mberi claimed that investigations
had
established that millions of unsolicited messages were being sent
periodically to Zimbabweans through the Swedish firm’s
network.
The Zimbabwean firm said it would cooperate fully with
the authorities by
providing any available information leading to the
identification of those
behind the text messages. – ZimOnline.
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Own Correspondent
Saturday 12 December 2009
HARARE – South African mediators on Friday
urged Zimbabwe’s squabbling
political parties to step up dialogue to resolve
power-sharing differences
ahead of next year’s FIFA World Cup finals that
South Africa is hosting.
Zimbabwe could miss out on spin-offs from the
World Cup if the country was
still caught up in political wrangles by the
time the soccer tournament
commences next June, a spokeswoman for the South
African mediators, Lindiwe
Zulu, said.
"(There is) progress on the
dialogue between the parties," said Zulu, after
the mediators’ visit to
Zimbabwe this week, the second in as many weeks.
"The good thing is that
they (party negotiators) are talking. If they are
not ready then Zimbabwe
will miss out on the benefits of the World Cup, we
as South Africa are ready
for the World Cup."
South African President Jacob Zuma appointed a new
team of mediators to help
quicken the pace of dialogue to resolve a host of
outstanding issues and
disputes arising from last year’s global political
agreement (GPA) that gave
birth to Zimbabwe’s power-sharing
government.
The South African President is said to be keen to have the
Zimbabwean
political dispute resolved to avoid bad publicity that could
cloud the World
Cup tournament that is happening on African soil for the
first time ever.
Zulu said her team will submit a report to Zuma on the
talks between
negotiators from President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party and
the two MDC
formations led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy
Premier Arthur
Mutambara.
She said the mediators were planning to
return to Zimbabwe to monitor the
inter-party negotiations but did not say
when exactly they would be
returning.
"We will be (coming) back once
they (negotiators) have completed something,"
she said. "The earlier the
issues are resolved, the better for the welfare
and social status for the
people of Zimbabwe."
The mediators, comprising Zulu who is president
Zuma's international adviser
and former cabinet ministers Charles Nqakula
and Mac Maharaj, have held
meetings with the negotiators from ZANU PF and
the two factions of the MDC.
They have also held separate meetings with
Mugabe, Tsvangirai and Mutambara.
The SADC organ on politics and defence
on November 6 gave the Zimbabwean
parties up to 30 days to open up
negotiations to resolve the outstanding
issues that have held back their
power-sharing government.
The outstanding issues include Mugabe’s refusal
to rescind his unilateral
appointment of two of his top allies to head
Zimbabwe’s central bank and the
attorney general’s office.
Mugabe has
also refused to swear in Tsvangirai ally Roy Bennett as deputy
agriculture
minister, while the MDC-T is also unhappy by what it says is
selective
application of the law to target its activists and officials.
On the
other hand Mugabe, who insists that he has met all his obligations
under the
GPA, accuses the MDC-T of not living up to a promise to lead a
campaign for
lifting of Western sanctions against the veteran Zimbabwean
leader and
members of his inner circle. – ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Lizwe Sebatha Saturday 12 December
2009
BULAWAYO - The government has ordered an audit of Matabeleland
Zambezi Water
Trust (MZWT)'s accounts, amid an escalating tug of war between
MZWT chairman
Dumiso Dabengwa and Water Resources Minister Sipepa Nkomo for
control of the
Trust.
Dabengwa took charge of the Trust when he was a
government minister and a
member of President Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF party.
He has since left the
party to revive the old opposition PF-ZAPU
party.
But Dabengwa has sought to retain control of the MZWT that was set
up by
concerned leaders from the Matabeleland provinces to spearhead the
Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project (MZWP) that is seen as providing a
lasting solution to the southern region's perennial water woes.
The
project to draw water from the Zambezi River to the arid Matabeleland
region
is also a sure vote-catcher for any political party.
However the water
project has moved at a snail's pace despite the government
claiming that it
has provided funds to quicken progress, while there have
also been numerous
but yet to be substantiated allegations of misuse of
project
funds.
Nkomo, who this week announced that the government was planning to
takeover
control of the MZWT, said auditing of the Trust would begin upon
his return
from Denmark next week.
The minister, who like Dabengwa
also hails from Matabeleland, said: "What
Cabinet has done is to ask me as
the minister responsible to talk to all
stakeholders and produce a
comprehensive report on MZWT and MZWP . . . and
obviously, the report will
include what the MZWT has done about the MZWP
project, including MZWT's
audited financial accounts."
He added: "I think you are aware that Arnold
Payne (a former Bulawayo
councillor and water activist) once went to court
to try and force MZWT to
produce audited financial accounts . . . I do not
quite think the audited
accounts report was produced. The government is
concerned."
Dabengwa could not be reached for comment over government
plans to audit the
MZWT.
But the PF-ZAPU chairman has criticised the
government for wanting to seize
control of the water project and accused
Nkomo of trying to nationalise a
regional project.
Dabengwa told
journalists this week that the MWZP was an initiative of the
local people
and that the government had no right to take it over.
The opposition
politician accused Nkomo of always talking about devolution
of power to the
regions and yet doing the opposite when it came to the MWZP.
He said: "We
want to point out that Sipepa Nkomo seems to be operating
against the grain
by seeking to nationalise regional projects at a time when
everyone has seen
the need for devolution." - ZimOnline
http://ca.reuters.com
Fri Dec 11, 2009 2:33pm
EST
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The
United States, the EU and other Western
powers blasted the U.N. General
Assembly on Friday for ignoring Zimbabwe's
reported failure to comply with
international efforts to curb trade in
"blood diamonds."
The
192-nation body adopted a resolution warning that "trade in conflict
diamonds continues to be a matter of serious international concern" and
increased vigilance was vital.
The assembly was responding to a
report on conflict stones by Namibia, which
chairs the diamond industry's
Kimberley Process, a certification scheme set
up in 2003 in the wake of
devastating civil wars in Angola, Sierra Leone and
Liberia.
Those
wars were largely financed by the diamond trade.
Although the resolution
was adopted, a number of Western delegations
criticized the assembly for
failing to mention concerns about Zimbabwe,
which is suspected of not
complying with Kimberley Process safeguards.
Namibia's report to
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there were "credible
indications of
significant non-compliance with the minimum requirements of
the (Kimberley
Process) by Zimbabwe."
U.S. delegate Laura Ross said: "We regret that
language reflecting this
concern has not been included in the text of this
resolution."
Speaking on behalf of the European Union, Sweden's U.N.
Ambassador Anders
Liden voiced similar views, as did delegates from Japan,
Australia and
Canada.
Zimbabwe's U.N. Ambassador Boniface Chidyausiku
rejected the suggestion that
Harare was not complying with the
rules.
"We are committed to the Kimberley Process," he told the assembly,
adding
that the United States and others were trying to politicize the issue
by
attacking his country.
Zimbabwe was one of the resolution's
co-sponsors.
Before the implementation of the Kimberley Process, conflict
stones made up
about 15 percent of the world market. They are believed to
account for less
than 1 percent of stones traded today, although many
diamonds remain
untraceable.
The Namibian report warned that blood
diamonds could be making a comeback.
It said Internet sales and postal
shipments "have become issues of concern,
as it has proved difficult to
track and reconcile rough diamond shipments."
In January, Israel replaces
Namibia as the chair of the Kimberley Process.
The United States, European
Union and other Western delegations complained
that the assembly resolution
failed to welcome Israel's 2010 chairmanship.
The adopted resolution
simply "takes note" that Israel will chair the
Kimberley Process. Bashar
Ja'afari, the ambassador of Israel's enemy Syria,
proposed removing any
mention of the Jewish state from the resolution, but
his motion was
defeated.
A United Nations panel of experts said in October that Israel,
whose diamond
trade is worth more than $10 billion, may be involved in the
illegal export
and sale of blood diamonds from Ivory Coast. Israeli
officials rejected the
accusation.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by MISA
Saturday, 12 December 2009
12:37
Journalists Faith Zaba and Wongai Zhangazha who are employed by the
privately owned Zimbabwe Independent were on 10 December 2009 barred from
covering the ongoing Zanu PF congress which opened in Harare on 9 December
2009.
Constantine Chimakure, news editor with the weekly newspaper,
confirmed to
MISA-Zimbabwe that Zaba and Zhangazha were barred from covering
the official
opening of the congress by security details at the Harare
International
Conference Centre. Chimakure said the two had simply been told
that they
were not welcome at the venue of the congress.
He said they had
tried in vain to contact Zanu PF deputy spokesperson
Ephraim Masawi for
further details on the matter but that his mobile phone
was not being
answered.
MISA-Zimbabwe Position
MISA-Zimbabwe strongly condemns the
above incidence and expresses its great
concern over the continued
suppression of media freedom and freedom of
expression in Zimbabwe.
Ironically this occurred on the day when Zimbabwe
together with the rest of
the world was commemorating International Human
Rights Day held under the
theme, Embrace diversity, End discrimination. This
is a serious
contradiction in terms as it deprives the independent media of
its lawful
and professional role of freely accessing and disseminating
information in
the public interest.
Discrimination against the privately owned media only
serves to entrench
media polarisation and clearly contravenes the provisions
of Article 19 of
the Global Political Agreement signed by Zanu PF and the
two MDC formations
resulting in the birth of the inclusive government. Under
the agreement the
three political parties, among other issues, committed
themselves to freeing
the media space and secure media
diversity.
Regrettably, the Zimbabwean media space remains restricted with
the
independent media being vilified and discriminated against despite
global
calls for embracement of diversity and an end to all forms of
discrimination.
As the constitution making process gets underway,
MISA-Zimbabwe reiterates
its demands for a constitutional provision that
explicitly guarantees media
freedom as critical to the citizens' fundamental
right to access information
from a diverse, independent and pluralistic
media.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by FUNGI
KWARAMBA
Saturday, 12 December 2009 12:33
As the country joins the rest of
the world in marking the world Human Rights
Day on 10 December, Zimbabwe's
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai said in a
statement that Human Rights is
not a foreign concept that was imposed upon
the country by foreign
countries, but that human rights are formed by the
values of each and every
Zimbabwean. (Pictured: Zimbabwe's Prime Minister
Morgan
Tsvangirai)
This year Human Rights Day is marked under the theme Embrace
Diversity, End
Discrimination.
Tsvangirai said that it was because of the
human rights that Zimbabweans
waged a protracted war of liberation against
the Ian Smith regime. "Indeed
our liberation war heroes went to war
specifically to assert human rights
for all Zimbabweans- to reject and
defeat the idea that such rights should
exist only for a privileged few,"
said Morgan.
The President Robert Mugabe regime is accused of gross human
rights abuses
by he international community, such as Operation Murambatvina
in 2005 that
made over 700 000 people homeless, some of the victims of the
operation are
still homeless up to date.
Tsvangirai said that this year
Human Rights day is more significant in the
country as the country embarks
on drafting a new constitution.
"Our Constitution will represent the supreme
law of the land that entrenches
the rights we wish to be governed and the
manner we want to be treated by
the state our neighbors and the regional and
international communities,"
said Tsvangirai.
The MDC leader who was won
Human Rights Accolades added "Only those that
wish to keep us oppressed can
oppose our right to choose the standards and
mechanisms by which we wish to
have our freedoms guaranteed."
In 1948 on the 10th of December the United
Nations' General Assembly adopted
the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
Some of the articles in the declaration are "No one shall be
subjected to
torture or to cruel inhuman treatment or punishment, and No one
shall be
subjected to arbitrary arrest detention or exile."
Zimbabwe
seems to be staggering on implementing the articles of which it is
signatory
to with torture still common in Zimbabwe jails. The case of Pasco
Gwesere
the MDC-T Transport Manager who has been languishing in prison for
over 40
days now comes to mind.
Gwesere was alleged tortured in police custody and up
to now he has not
received medical attention as ordered by the state.
Gwezere was abducted at
gunpoint from his home on the 27th of October and is
accused of
masterminding the theft of firearms from the heavily guarded
Pomona Barracks
in Harare.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49648
By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Dec 11 (IPS)
- While food is readily available in shops and some
political and economic
stability is returning in Zimbabwe, vulnerable groups
such as children and
people living with HIV and AIDS still face a shortage
of food.
It is
this vulnerable group that has galvanised the international community
into
action to mobilise humanitarian support in the form of food, medication
and
water facilities.
This week the Red Cross launched an appeal for $33.2
million to extend an
on-going emergency food operation in Zimbabwe to
September 2010. The
operation is led by the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society
(ZRCS) with the support
of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies
(IFRC). The operation, begun last year, is providing food
assistance to over
220,000 beneficiaries across Zimbabwe.
ZRCS
Secretary-General Emma Kundishora said that vulnerable people in rural
areas
will be assisted with direct food aid, while those in the urban areas
will
receive food vouchers to be redeemed in supermarkets.
"The food vouchers
are a pilot project for us and we are currently
negotiating with the
selected supermarkets where our beneficiaries will be
able to buy food
items," Kundishora told IPS.
"We are hoping to start the programme early
next year as we have already
received positive indications of support from
our sister societies. It is
critical to extend the programme because our
beneficiaries do not have food
and most of them are unable to produce food
anywhere."
In the long term, the ZRCS will provide agricultural inputs
like seeds and
fertilisers, agricultural training, and increasing community
access to safe
water.
The U.N. Assistant Secretary General for
humanitarian affairs, Catherine
Bragg, visiting Zimbabwe at the beginning of
December, commended the "great
progress" made in easing Zimbabwe's
humanitarian crisis but called for
continued donor support.
The U.N.
has launched the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP), a planning and
resource
mobilisation tool used mainly for emergency responses. Under the
CAP, the UN
has appealed for $378 million in aid for 2010 to cover food and
medicines,
and bolster health, education, sanitation and access to safe
water.
The United Nations Children's Educational Fund (UNICEF) is
operating a
malnutrition monitoring programme for children across the
country. UNICEF
Zimbabwe Spokeswoman Tsitsi Singizi, told the Voice of
America Studio 7 that
conditions for children are most severe in districts
such as Mudzi,
Mashonaland East province, where food is often in short
supply.
UNICEF says a third of the country's children are not getting
enough to eat,
and as a result, one Zimbabwean child in five suffers stunted
growth.
According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs
(OCHA), seven percent of under fives suffer from acute malnutrition.
The
U.N. agency estimates that 1.9 million Zimbabweans will need food
assistance
between January and March 2010.
"The need to support
'humanitarian plus' or early recovery programmes is
highlighted by the
deterioration in existing infrastructure and loss of
employment
opportunities," OCHA said in a statement.
The National Aids Council (NAC)
estimates that 761,000 children in Zimbabwe
have lost one or both parents to
HIV and AIDS. Currently there are more than
1.1 million children under the
age of 15 who have been orphaned as a result
of the disease.
"The
food situation is a cause for concern but food aid is not sustainable,"
Fambai Ngirande, spokesman for the National Association of Non-Governmental
Organisations told IPS, adding that the country's economy is still not on a
firm footing.
"We should also be focusing on full economic recovery
(to allow) us to
consolidate local food security and this rests on
government creating a
politically-conducive environment that will bring in
investors to benefit
the economy."
HARARE
On
Thur 17th Dec 2009, two hundred senior nurses of Zimbabwe aged 60
years and over and still working in Zimbabwe’s public health system will be
attending a special party held in their honour at the Crowne Plaza, Monomotapa,
Harare. The Christmas party has been organised by Zimbabweans both at home and
abroad in association with United Action for Youth (UAY), a UK registered
charity, to acknowledge and appreciate the outstanding commitment, dedication
and contribution these nurses have made to the nation.
The majority of these nurses are working past retirement or have returned from their retirement after the age of 65 to help out with the acute staffing crisis the country has been experiencing over the past few years. They have had to work under very severe conditions, returning to the basics of nursing of empathy and tender loving care in the absence of medicines in hospitals. All this was done, at one point, for next to no pay.
Everjoyce King, one of the organisers of the Christmas Party says, “Our senior nurses have been a true example of ultimate service to the people. They have been a linchpin to Zimbabwe’s public health system, continuing in their jobs of caring for the sick at a time when most of us would have chosen given up. Their commitment and dedication humbles us. This Christmas party in their honour is the least we felt we could do to acknowledge and appreciate them for who they are – an outstanding contribution to society.”
Ms King is inviting all Zimbabweans who are interested in acknowledging these nurses to go to www.zimsnrnurses.wordpress.com and leave a Thank You message for the nurses. Messages picked at random will be read out to the nurses at the party.
For
a chance to make a contribution:
go to www.justgiving.com/zimseniornursesparty
where you
will be able to buy a ticket for a nurse or to
buy a raffle ticket for yourself.
With raffle tickets, there are fantastic prizes like 2 Nights bed & breakfast for 2 ppl at any African Sun hotel (Conditions apply), Econet phone lines, set of Gel Nail Extensions etc are up for grabs!!!
We are on FACEBOOK!!!
We’d love to receive Thank You messages we can read for the nurses on the day so we are also inviting you join our group and to leave messages on our Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=1177708204756#/group.php?gid=167314256605:
We aim to receive 200 msgs by the 17th and 1000 members joining our group.
THANK YOU for your support!!
http://www.zimonline.co.za/
by Mutumwa Mawere Saturday 12
December 2009
OPINION: What is a politician? This question was posed
by Vusi Sindane in
his article entitled "Simple Politics Part 1 of 2"
http://www.africaheritagerivonia.com/?p=305
to help challenge our minds on
the need for and the role of political actors
in economic and social change.
We all want to be governed well and yet
humanity has not found a reliable
instrument to select the right politician
who can deliver on the promise.
Electoral democracy has not produced the
kind of outcomes that people expect
and deserve.
The education system
is able to discriminate efficiently among citizens.
People who do not make
it in the educational system tend to accept their
fate in life and surrender
their future to the educated mistakenly believing
that there is a causal
link between being book smart and an effective
politician.
Although
the educational system is not perfect, generation after generation
people
have come to rely upon it as a dependable basis of discrimination and
social
stratification.
Those that make it still remain human but their claims on
life become more
expensive. They tend to make it as politicians and yet
nothing in their
training prepares them for service and
humility.
Without measurement, the value of education to humanity would
just be
academic.
When people are graded they tend to excel and want
to do better than the
generation before them.
We all strive for
excellence when we know that someone is watching and
grading us.
Even
in the arena of sports, for example, the spectators are the judges and
this
normally energises people to distinguish themselves on the field.
The
political market is complex and its players are difficult to understand
and
rate.
Is it fair for anyone to expect another person to do what one can
do for
himself/herself?
We all expect to be led well forgetting that
the leaders are after all human
and subjective. They can only see what their
eyes allow them to and hear
what their ears allow them to.
Those that
are close to politicians automatically become advantaged in as
much as those
that are close to the CEO in a private setting.
In business, we know that
success is secure if underpinned by service.
If you pick in a store you
must pay and equally if you pay you must pick.
However, in the political
market if you elect you are never be guaranteed of
the quality of the people
you select.
Even if the chosen people may really be rotten apples, there
is nothing that
one can do in between elections to reverse the selection and
citizens have
to live through it.
In some countries they may never
know what the difference looks like because
the incumbent may be persuaded
by those close to him/her to believe that the
future is not secure without
him/her at the helm.
Once elected, the citizen who becomes a politician
ceases to be like the
people who elect him/her. He/she assumes a new life
and acquires the powers
that are created by the citizens that he then
presides over.
In a representative democracy, a politician is really a
person to whom power
is surrendered by the voters so that he/she can preside
over state affairs
on their behalf.
In a functioning constitutional
democracy, citizens never lose control of
their project i.e. the state as
they are constantly alert to any abuse of
power.
However, in many
developing nations, citizens are not organised enough in
between elections
to provide the checks and balances required.
When we look back at
Africa's post colonial history, we never pause to think
what form of
government we would have had if colonialism had not visited the
continent.
Republican constitutions that have been adopted by many
African states were
largely borrowed from other people's
experiences.
A republic necessarily requires a different political
mindset from that
which is resident in the majority of our
heads.
Most politicians are not trusted largely because they tend to
promise what
they cannot deliver.
We look up to people who derive an
income from the sweat of others and when
they administer public funds they
behave as if they have generated the
funds.
Politicians would like
the public to believe that the state is capable of
creating resources
forgetting that free people are capable of generating
extraordinary outcomes
not because political actors want them to but out of
self interest.
A
good politician ought to be a servant whose primary mission is to advance
the interests of the people he/she represents.
Africa has produced
its own political superstars. If anything, the world
knows more about what
they say than what they actually do in office.
Largely because of weak
institutional foundations, many African political
parties from whom
politicians are drawn tend to be weak and underfunded.
Whilst people find
faith more attractive, politics is not readily embraced
as a career leaving
the few who choose to invest in the political industry
being unaccountable
thereby exposing citizens to helpless in terms of any
change agenda without
divine assistance.
It has been remarked that any person who overstays in
power ceases to be
sane and useful to him/her.
Power can corrupt and
absolute power is toxic.
However, politicians are daily encouraged by
citizens who constantly
approach them for assistance and facilitation on
things that they can do for
themselves in the belief that a politician's
purpose is to serve his circle
of friends and not the nation at
large.
The only reason I call my car mine is because of the law. Without
the rule
of law, what is mine may only be so when there is no stronger
person to
claim such right or asset.
We have accepted that we must be
nations of laws otherwise the rules of an
animal farm will apply and yet
many of our societies exhibit characteristics
of an animal
farm.
Politicians become powerful on the back of state power and it is
not unusual
for politicians to use such power to limit freedom.
With
respect to political role models, Africa has few of them.
For the youth
who want to serve their nations, the space is continues to be
dominated by a
few and the landscape is infested with dangerous landmines
and political
potholes.
Although competition produces best outcomes for the consumer
regrettably the
same cannot be said in the political industry where big man
see in people
who have made a career out of politics and see no future out
of it.
The foundations of nation state building in Africa have to be
located in the
colonial story.
The settlers understood that they had
to fend for themselves and create a
new home with the kind of civilization
they were accustomed to.
Political power was inextricably linked to
economic power. Institutions were
built to serve the people who needed such
institutions. State actors had no
choice but to play a catalytic and
supportive role.
There was no room for tyranny against the settler
community from whom
resources were to be generated to support the state.
Tyranny was directed at
the majority who were simply not part of the deal on
account of the fact
that it was deemed that they had no stake in a modern
state.
Independence brought with it a new dispensation that should have
allowed for
greater citizen participation in civic and state
activities.
However, the space continues to be limited and crowded by
tired faces of
Africa who do not know when to leave office.
We need
to invest in political literacy so that citizens can assume more
control of
their future than allow a few wise men/women to decide their
future.
There is much at stake for us to refuse to be part of
it.
Does a politician need to be smart? We all want our politicians to be
book
smart and yet no leader has to write any examination before elected.
We all
trust that the selected people will know what the real purpose of the
state
is and what citizens want to see.
However, any civilisation
that trusts anyone with too much power is doomed
to fail.
We need to
appreciate the real purpose of the state as an instrument of the
power to
advance their cause rather than as the driver of change.
The selection
process of political actors is too imperfect to be trusted and
the rules
applied in the industry are treacherous at best and not
people-centred. -
ZimOnline
Dear Family and Friends,
Not a lot of
school leavers in Zimbabwe will want to remember the
last two years of their
education. For most its been a time of such
hardship, disappointment and
despair that it will be nothing short of
miraculous if they pass their O
Level's which are now almost finished.
One youngster whose education
I have been helping with since she was
five years old, has just written her O
Level's and looking back on
her schooling is a horrible nightmare and
something no child should
have to go through.
In 2000 when she was 7
years old and learning to read and write,
*Tsitsi found herself on the
roadside with her parents when we were
all evicted from our homes on a
commercial farm by a bunch of Zanu PF
thugs.
In 2003, when she was 10
and practising her spelling and learning
about grammar, Tsisti changed
schools and went back to live in a
rural village. Her Aunt and Uncle had both
just died of Aids and
there were two young cousins who had to be taken care
of. Every cent
was needed and every pair of hands too.
Back in a rural
school in 2005, a 12 year old learning about
geography and science, Tsisti
suddenly found she had to share her
desk and then sit on the floor as scores
of new children arrived.
Their homes in towns had been destroyed by
government bulldozers in
what was called
Operation Murambatsvina and
the school and village were suddenly full
of strangers who had lost
everything. Tsitsi learnt that when someone
came to the doorstep and held out
an empty bowl it meant they were
hungry and the family would have to share.
That same year Tsitsi
missed many days of learning when teachers were
forced to go to Zanu
PF rallies, or when the school was closed for elections
and the
teachers went away to do polling duty. There were plenty of
strange
young men around, threatening, frightening and watching and
Tsitsi
learned to stay close to her Mum. At the end of that year
Tsitsi
wrote her Grade 7 examinations marking the end of junior school.
It
would be two years before she got the results and she hadn't done
very
well.
For the whole of 2008, a 15 year old teenager, Tsitsi only spent
32
days at school. The rest of the time the school was not
operating.
There were no teachers, the classrooms were locked and a
lone
caretaker was sometimes there but he always told the children
they
could not even come and read the textbooks and should go away -
try
next week. This was the year when Tsitsi should have been studying
the
first year of the O level syllabus.
When Tsitsi went to pay exam fees to
write 7 subjects at O level in
November 2009, she was told she also had to
pay for paper to write
the tests on and she sacrificed one subject because
she didn't have
enough money. She dropped another subject in order to pay the
10 US
cents per student per day being demanded by teachers in order
to
teach this last term. This 10 cents a day is on top of school
fees,
school association levies and a raft of other charges that
arise
almost every week for one miscellany or another.
Tsitsi has just
finished writing her 5 O level exams and left school.
At the end of her
school life she has only ever done her homework by
candlelight; she has never
learnt how to even switch on a computer;
she missed the entire first year of
her O level syllabus and has only
been allowed to take a text book home after
school three or four times
in her entire school life.Tsitsi has done almost
her entire schooling
wearing second hand uniforms, no shoes or second hand
ones that were
not the right size and carrying her books in a plastic bag. In
her O
level year Tsitsi dug weeds from a field for two weeks in
exchange
for a second hand school dress.
Thirty years ago Mr Mugabe
and Zanu PF promised education for all by
the year 2000 but Tsitsi is the
reality of what they gave us. No one
really knows how Education Minister
David Coltart managed to get
Zimbabwe's schools open again this year or how
he persuaded teachers
to work for a pittance, but he did. All credit to him
and to
thousands of teachers and hundreds of thousands of students
for
enduring, suffering and sacrificing. Until next time, thanks
for
reading, love cathy�Copyright cathy buckle 12 December 2009.
www.cathybuckle.com
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
OUTSIDE
LOOKING IN
Written by Pauline Henson
Saturday,
12 December 2009 17:21
Dear Friends.
In the same week that the Minister of
Finance vigorously condemned the
excessive spending by government ministers
on foreign travel, comes the
news that Robert Mugabe is to attend the UN
Climate Change Conference in
Copenhagen next week.
It's hard to see
what meaningful contribution Mugabe can make to a debate on
climate change
when he and his bunch of crazed war veterans have done more
than a little to
contribute to it by chopping down trees, slaughtering wild
life and
destroying the natural environment. While the AU fulminates about
the west's
miserly contribution to the funds allocated to help poorer
nations
counteract climate change, they remain silent on Zimbabwe's
destruction of
the environment. No doubt, Mugabe will manage to blame
sanctions for climate
change along with all the other ills he and his party
have brought down on
the heads of Zimbabweans at home and in the world-wide
diaspora.
But
before he ventures into the Scandinavian winter, Mugabe must first face
the
10.000 or so delegates at the Zanu PF Congress. With a complete blackout
of
news about the 'Talks', on the grounds that "discussing them in public
would
only weaken their positions" - whatever that means! - journalists in
Zimbabwe have filled their columns with speculation about Mugabe's future
and the possible splits inside Zanu PF. We are led to believe that the party
is desperate to revive its fortunes, financially and politically.
Unfortunately, that does not include ditching the Dear Leader. It seems that
Zanu PF top people, terrified of losing their ill-gotten gains and of
prosecution by the ICC, have firmly endorsed Mugabe as Party Leader for the
next five years. By which time the Dear Leader will have reached the grand
old age of 91, almost in line for a telegram from HMQ. His real intention of
course is to remain in office until death, always assuming he admits that
possibility! Only death would automatically exclude him from prosecution for
human rights abuses, at least from an earthly court.
On International
Human Rights Day, AIDS Free World, an international
advocacy group, issued a
damning report that indicated quite explicitly that
prior to the 2008
elections Zanu PF mounted a systematic campaign of rape
against women
aligned to the MDC. The report contains sworn affidavits of 70
victims of
rape by Zanu PF supporters who actually gave their names to their
victims
and told them why they were being raped: because they were wives,
mothers,
daughters or sisters of MDC officials. There were no less than 380
rapes and
241 perpetrators named in this report which further claimed that
the
campaign was quite deliberate. It was organized by the Joint Operations
Command and Mugabe not only knew about it, he was complicit in that he
refused to punish those responsible. "The evidence is incontrovertible and
unassailable," maintains Stephen Lewis the co-director of AIDS Free World.
Will the rest of the world take any notice of this detailed 64 page-long
report? Will SADC or the AU, armed with such a damning indictment of one of
their own members find the courage to condemn Robert Mugabe and the Zanu PF
members responsible for such heinous crimes against humanity? On past
experience, it is unlikely, I would say.
For me, there was one small item
of good news this week. That was the news
that the MDC has expelled and
suspended members of their party found to be
corrupt. "All the bad apples
are going to be crushed," announced Nelson
Chamisa. "We don't want a culture
of violence, we want a culture of
discourse." At last, we have a frank
admission of something which many of us
have suspected for a very long time:
that the MDC is not immune to the
all-pervasive moral decline that has
dominated Zimbabwean political and
social life in recent years. The MDC
cannot continue to expect the
unquestioning support of ordinary Zimbabweans
at home and abroad if they
abandon the moral integrity that first attracted
us to the party. Many of us
profoundly disagreed with their decision to join
Zanu PF in a government of
national unity but we accepted it because we were
told it was the only way
forward if the country was not to be plunged into
even greater suffering.
When I heard fellow Zimbabweans expounding the view
that the MDC in
government would be no better than Zanu PF, I dismissed it
as mere cynicism
of the sort one hears all the time about the behaviour of
politicians. I
heard it again this week when a good friend from home, exiled
here in the
UK, phoned me. He had been a passionate supporter of the MDC
from the
beginning but now he is utterly disillusioned. "They're all the
same," he
said, "once they get into power." You can be sure he won't be
going home any
time soon no matter how often Morgan Tsvangirai urges
Zimbabweans abroad to
return and help rebuild the country. "Go home to
what?" my friend asked,
"When there are no jobs." He has a point.
An
editorial in the Zimbabwe Independent this week claimed "Zimbabweans in
the
diaspora will not return home until there's peace and security," to
which I
would add justice and equality for all, not excluding Zimbabweans of
a
lighter shade. When the MDC regains its courage and moral integrity and
raises its voice in defence of human rights for ALL Zimbabweans, regardless
of their race and colour, then I might begin to believe in them
again.
Yours in the (continuing) struggle PH
BILL WATCH SPECIAL
[12th December 2009]
House of Assembly Portfolio Committees and Senate Thematic Committees
14th to 17th December
All the
meetings listed below will be open to members of the public, but as observers
only, not as participants. [See note at
the end of this bulletin on public attendance/participation at different types
of committee meetings.]
Monday 14th December Morning at 10 am
Portfolio Committee on Natural Resources, Environment and
Tourism
Briefing
from CAMPFIRE Association
Committee
Room No. 311
Clerk: Mr
Ndlovu
Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructure
Development
Oral
evidence from Air
Committee
Room No. 1
Clerk: Ms
Macheza
Tuesday 15th December Morning at 10 am
Portfolio
Committee on
Agriculture, Water, Lands and Resettlement
2010 Budget Review
meeting with Ministry of Agriculture Officials
Committee
Room No. 4
Clerk: Mr
Ndlovu
Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce
Oral evidence from the
Association of Textile Industries
Committee
Room No. 311
Clerk: Mr
Ratsakatika
Wednesday 16th December Morning at 9 am
Thematic
Committee on Peace and Security
Oral
evidence from Ministry of
Agriculture
on food security
Committee
Room No. 4
Clerk: Mr
Daniel
Thursday 17th December Morning at 10 am
Portfolio Committee on Education, Sport and
Culture
1. Briefing
from the Iranian Delegation on Culture
2.
Chairman's briefing on UNESCO
Committee
Room No. 4
Clerk: Miss
Mudavanhu
Public Attendance at and Participation in Committee
Meetings
These
portfolio and thematic committee meetings are open to the public to attend as
observers only. Members of the public wishing to attend a meeting should
telephone Parliament first [on
Members of
the public are only free to participate when committees call public hearings.
Veritas will send out separate notices of these public hearings and outline the
procedures. Committees also sometimes have meetings where invited stakeholders
[and those who notify Parliament that they consider themselves stakeholders and
are accepted as such] are able to make representations and ask questions. These
meetings will be highlighted in these notices. Portfolio and thematic
committees also have meetings for deliberations which are not open to the
public, and these are not listed in these notices.
Veritas makes every effort to ensure reliable information, but cannot
take legal responsibility for information supplied.