Yahoo News
by Fanuel
Jongwe
HARARE (AFP) - The bitter feud between Zimbabwe's President Robert
Mugabe
and the opposition appeared to be easing Monday as the government
agreed to
soften tough security and media laws ahead of next year's
elections.
Amid ongoing talks between the ruling ZANU-PF and main
opposition Movement
for Democratic Change, the government published
proposals to amend the
Public Order and Security Act, Access to Information
and Protection of
Privacy Act, and the Broadcasting Services Act.
While
the MDC said they would prefer the laws be scrapped in their entirety,
they
expressed continued commitment to the talks being mediated by South
Africa's
President Thabo Mbeki which analysts said were now bearing fruit.
"What
it shows is that Zimbabweans can sit down and resolve issues," deputy
information minister Brighton Matonga told AFP.
MDC spokesman Nelson
Chamisa said the party would have preferred "a
wholesale package not
piecemeal amendments" but it nevertheless "remains
committed to the process
of dialogue".
The three pieces of legislation have all been introduced
since 83-year-old
Mugabe's disputed re-election in 2002 when he fended off a
challenge by MDC
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
The security laws have
been used by authorities to ban protests by
opposition groups, including a
rally in March when Tsvangirai and other
opposition figures were assaulted
by the security services.
The media law has been used to expel at least a
dozen foreign correspondents
and shut down four independent newspapers
including a popular daily renowned
for its anti-government
stance.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the three bills would be
tabled
before parliament on Tuesday together with the Electoral Laws
Amendment
Bill.
"We had a meeting of the (ruling party) caucus and
requested them to back
four bills we are introducing in parliament
tomorrow," he told state media.
The proposed changes to the laws,
contained in a government gazette, would
compel police to meet with
organisers of rallies if they intend to ban them.
Only if there is reason to
believe a rally could turn violent can it be
banned.
Other amendments
would provide for the reconstitution of the media
commission to include
representatives of journalists' unions as well as
opening up the airwaves to
private broadcaster by easing licensing
requirements.
Mbeki was
mandated by leaders of the regional Southern African Development
Community
(SADC) in March to broker talks between Mugabe's Zimbabwe African
National
Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) and the MDC.
Signs of progress came in
September when the MDC reached an agreement with
the government on the
adoption of a bill which paves the way for joint
presidential and
legislative elections next year.
Chamisa said the two sides remained at
odds in several key areas, declaring
"a deadlock on critical issues such as
the constitution and the voters' roll
and the general behaviour of
ZANU-PF."
But Joseph Kurebga, a political scientist at the University of
Zimbabwe,
said there were clear signs their stand-off was
ending.
"The two groups are now closer to reaching an agreement than any
other time
before. It's no longer impossible for the two groups to reach a
compromise,"
he said.
"The gap between the two sides is narrowing.
The fact that government has
agreed to amend the security law means the
assumed threat posed by the MDC
is declining."
Godfrey Chikowore, an
analyst at Harare's Institute of Development Studies,
agreed the omens for
an agreement on an election framework were good.
"They have equally
agreed on the amendments. It shows an agreement will be
reached soon. We see
no other reason they would fail to reach an agreement."
Once seen as a
post-colonial success story, Zimbabwe is in the throes of an
economic crisis
with annual inflation officially at nearly 8,000 percent.
Monsters and Critics
Dec 17, 2007, 12:35 GMT
Johannesburg/Harare - In a
move likely to be welcomed by reporters in
press-starved Zimbabwe, President
Robert Mugabe's government has suggested
allowing some journalists to work
without press cards, it emerged Monday.
Under the tough Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA)
signed into law shortly
after Mugabe's disputed election win in 2002, all
reporters have to be
accredited by a state- controlled media commission.
The press cards have
proved notoriously difficult for independent reporters
to
obtain.
Dozens of reporters have been arrested, four newspapers closed
down and more
than four Zimbabwe-based foreign correspondents have been
forced to leave
the country in the last five years.
The opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has complained the press
laws have been
applied selectively to silence opposition sympathizers.
Under amendments
to the AIPPA being proposed by the government as part of a
number of
concessions granted to the MDC during South African-mediated
talks,
unaccredited reporters may once again be allowed to work, legal
sources said
Monday.
Accreditation is no longer compulsory, said independent watchdog
Veritas.
However unlicensed journalists will not be allowed to attend
parliament or
national events. And they risk being suspended from practice
by a new media
council, whose chairman will be appointed by the state media
commission.
If the amendments become law foreign correspondents wishing
to enter
Zimbabwe will also be allowed to stay for 60 days, double the
length of time
they were previously allowed.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche
Presse-Agentur
From The Star (SA), 17 December
Lusaka - Although Zimbabwe's repressive media and public
assembly laws were
set to be profoundly reformed in parliament, a political
agreement between
Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change
has not been
agreed. It may never be agreed unless President Robert Mugabe
delays
elections way beyond the due date of March and allows them to be held
under
a new constitution. Yesterday, Zanu PF leaked information via the
state-controlled Sunday Mail that an agreement was due to be signed with the
MDC following nearly nine months of South African-facilitated talks.
However, MDC executives have agreed that while they will vote for the
reformed laws tomorrow, there will be no agreement. "We will support the
amendments because there are great improvements to present laws, but we will
be asking our negotiators to go and see (President Thabo) Mbeki to say that
Mugabe is being too difficult, impossible," an official said. David Coltart,
the MDC's founding legal secretary, who is in SA attending a conference,
said yesterday: "Unless there is an agreement regarding a new constitution
being introduced prior to the election and a reasonable time period between
its introduction and holding an election, then any agreement will not be
possible. I fear this is yet another cynical ploy of Zanu PF to subvert the
good intentions behind the mediation process."
By Henry
Makiwa
17 December 2007
The government on Saturday published
amendments to repressive security and
media laws, as a response to
opposition demands at the mediated talks
between Zanu PF and the MDC.
Analysts have however dismissed the proposed
changes as cosmetic, saying
they will not bring about any significant
changes.
According to a
government gazette there will be amendments to the Public
Order and Security
Act (POSA), the Broadcasting Act and the Access to
Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) – which have helped Mugabe
to entrench his
rule. The development has raised concerns that the
opposition is not getting
key issues addressed at the talks.
Under the new amendments political
parties seeking to hold public gatherings
can now appeal to a magistrate if
police turn down their application.
Currently they have to appeal to the
Minister of Home Affairs. Instead of
randomly barring public meetings,
police would now be required to "enter
into dialogue" with the concerned
party to explain the reasons for
prohibiting the meeting.
The
government will also amend AIPPA by reconstituting a state-appointed
commission that regulates the country's media. Mugabe would appoint members
of the media commission, from a list submitted by a bi-partisan
parliamentary committee. The media will be opened to foreign owners but
foreign journalists remain barred from working permanently in
Zimbabwe.
Changes made to the Broadcasting Services Act include a
provision for the
sole public broadcaster, the Zimbabwe Broadcasting
Corporation (ZBC), to run
news and programmes in a fair manner without bias
towards the ruling party
and government. In addition, foreigners can now
have majority shares in a
broadcasting service. It however remains to be
seen if ZBC can be
transformed into an objective
broadcaster.
Political analyst Eanest Mudzengi said: “Its obvious that
the opposition has
fallen into the Zanu PF trap and have legitimised
Mugabe’s script. To make
matters worse, they don’t seem to have noticed that
Mugabe has been on these
talks to merely buy time while consolidating his
power base. The amendments
are mere window dressing that will appear as if
the MDC has had their
demands met, but in essence there will be no change at
all as the democratic
space is still stifled.”
In a statement, the
Media Institute for Southern Africa (Zimbabwe) also
dismissed the
amendments. The media body said: “The proposed amendment Bills
contained in
the extraordinary gazette reflect no serious intentions on the
part of
government to democratise the laws in question, dwelling instead on
inconsequential issues which will not advance basic freedoms such as the
right to freedom of expression, media freedom and freedom of assembly and
association.”
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
New Zimbabwe
By Dr Alex T. Magaisa
Last updated: 12/18/2007
07:16:32
RECEIVED wisdom attributes the collapse of Zimbabwe to rampant abuse
of
human rights. So pervasive is this view that the language of human rights
dominates every facet of discourse on Zimbabwe.
That the human rights
perspective is so dominant is testament to the great
efforts of the human
rights movement both in and outside Zimbabwe. The
result is that challenges
to the power and legitimacy of the Mugabe regime
are invariably predicated
on human rights violations. That may well be true
but to the extent that it
obfuscates other grounds upon which the authority
of the regime can be
effectively challenged, the human rights narrative has
been
limiting.
In other words, it is important to appreciate that there are
other ways of
attributing the collapse of Zimbabwe, beyond the human rights
narrative. One
of these ways, it is respectfully submitted, is to understand
the collapse
as a failure of resource management by an inadequate
regime.
The preference for the language of human rights is understandable
– the
evidence of abuse is capable of dramatic and effective presentation
evoking
emotion and sympathy across nations, it is popular and makes
headlines.
Indeed, the human rights movement has created an industry in
which
individuals gain a living whilst doing something about which they feel
passionate.
But the dominance of the human rights narrative should
not lull us into the
belief that it is the only or even main index upon
which the power
structures within a nation can be managed or challenged. The
human rights
narrative has been hugely useful in mobilising the population
but its
dominance has also been limiting.
It has been limiting in
that it is at once too narrow and too dominant in
relation to other ways of
understanding the problem and challenging the
power structures of the Mugabe
regime. It is too narrow because it confines
the critique of the Mugabe
regime within the language of human rights, so
that every aspect of its
failures, even if it can be articulated and
challenged on its own
independent basis, tends invariably to be couched
within the human rights
narrative.
This is hardly a complete representation of the weaknesses of
the Mugabe
regime and the consequent collapse of the country. Rather, it has
to be
said, it is more apt to specify the regime’s incompetence in managing
the
nation’s resources. It is neither necessary nor inevitable to dress this
in
the language of human rights. The fact is they have had 27 years to
transform the nation’s economy but instead, having inherited a sound economy
from their colonial predecessors, they have caused its demise. To say that
this is a result of human rights violations is to mask the managerial
incompetence of the regime, which should be a legitimate point of challenge
by those who think they can do better.
The opposition’s claim to
power should not simply be that they claim to be
better protectors of human
rights but that they are better managers of the
country’s economic
resources. The opposition can and should be able to
challenge the power of
Zanu PF on its failures on the economic front,
outside the usual human
rights narrative.
The land question is a concrete and relevant example of an
issue that has
been dressed in the language of human rights, whereas, it
can, equally and
perhaps more effectively be dealt with from the perspective
of economic
management.
In other words, the relative weaknesses about
and emanating from the
contentious Fast-Track Land Reform Programme are best
captured and
effectively represented as an illustration of the regime’s poor
grasp of
economic fundamentals. It is undoubtedly a human rights matter, but
from a
political viewpoint, the most potent charge against the regime is
that both
the process and outcome has shown the regime’s failure to usefully
and
profitably manage a strategic economic resource.
To simply view
land as a matter of human rights is to confine the matter to
cyclical
debate, in which holders claim their existing rights, against
equally
legitimate rights of those that seek to redress historical wrongs.
An
economic view of land however, cuts across such cyclical debates,
focussing
mainly on whether land is put to its most effective use in terms
of
productivity. The blow of the seizures might have been cushioned if the
regime had made a proper plan to economically manage the resource properly
and effectively.
As it is, seven years after the initial farm
seizures, the issue is not
confined to whether the government violated human
rights but whether it has,
in fact, managed that resource effectively. That
it has failed and has shown
no promise that it can do any better should be
sufficient ground to
challenge its authority. The question has to be asked:
What does it hope to
do in the next five years that it has failed to achieve
in the previous 27?
This is the regime’s greatest point of weakness, shorn
of the cyclical human
rights debate.
It is, of course, easy to
categorise everything under the banner of human
rights but it does not
always provide an accurate picture or strategically
effective challenge.
Countries can and a number do thrive economically,
despite charges of human
rights violations, China being, perhaps, a
prominent example, with one of
the world’s fastest growing economies yet
remains accused of all kinds of
rights violations.
But it is not even necessary to go that far. The
average Zimbabwean often
reminisces about the old days, referring
ironically, to the colonial days.
“Zvaiva nani” – “it was better”, they say,
a sad indictment of the current
regime’s economic performance. It is not
that Rhodesia was the best
protector of human rights. Far from it! It is
that despite being a human
rights violator, the colonial regime remained an
effective manager of
economic resources, so that even though tainted by the
unfairness and
inequality, even those in the periphery were capable of
sustaining even the
most basic existence, which persons in comparable
situations today cannot.
A rural businessman could operate a shop in the
township – which today he
cannot. Thus at that time, the greatest challenge
against the regime’s
authority was its failure to respect human rights but
the same could not be
said of its ability to effectively and productively
manage the economy. As
it stands today, the present regime fails on both
counts, yet whilst much is
made of the human rights failures, little is
attributed to poor economic
management.
This, of course, is not to
diminish the value of human rights nor is it to
undervalue the efforts of
the movement that sustains the language of human
rights. It is simply to
urge alternative strategies of challenging the
legitimacy and validity of
claims to sustain authority – to say that the
challenge does not simply have
to be human rights based but can also be
articulated on the basis of poor
economic management. It is to suggest that
the challenge can more usefully
be sustained on the basis of the regime’s
painfully evident failures in
economic management.
It is for the opposition forces to address these
limitations and demonstrate
cogently how it can do better in terms of fair,
equitable and profitable
resource management that would sustain a sound
economy. Hardly three months
before the presidential and parliamentary
elections, there is no indication
from the respective parties, about their
policies on these issues, besides
continual critiques of the patently
obvious collapse.
As it is, Zimbabwe presents a perfect case study for
students of management
on how not to manage economic resources. It does not
need the apparel of
human rights to demonstrate these failures. But in
challenging the power
structures, it is necessary to articulate a position
focussing squarely on
these specific failures and how the opposition hopes
to do better. That way,
there is movement and diversity from the cyclical
human rights debate,
towards those aspects to which the regime can have no
ground to stand on.
Dr Magaisa can be contacted at wamagaisa@yahoo.co.uk
Zim Online
by Patricia Mpofu Tuesday 18 December
2007
HARARE – Zimbabwean media and pro-democracy groups on
Monday rejected
proposed amendments to tough security and media laws, saying
the changes
were piecemeal and fell far short of
expectations.
President Robert Mugabe’s government at the weekend
published a raft of
draft amendments to Zimbabwe’s security, broadcasting
and media laws it said
were agreed at talks between the governing ZANU PF
party and the main
opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), brokered
by South African
President Thabo Mbeki.
However, the Zimbabwe chapter
of the regional Media Institute of Southern
Africa (MISA–Zimbabwe) and the
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CZC) said the
proposed amendments dwelt on
inconsequential issues and would do little to
enable Zimbabweans to enjoy
basic freedoms such as the freedoms of
association, assembly, and
expression.
“The proposed amendment Bills contained in the extraordinary
gazette reflect
no serious intentions on the part of government to
democratise the laws in
question,” said Nyasha Nyakunu, MISA-Zimbabwe
research and information
officer.
The government had used the Access
to Information and Protection of Privacy
Act (AIPPA) and the Broadcasting
Services Act (BSA) to control the media by
banning independent newspapers
while preventing independent radio stations
from setting up in
Zimbabwe.
The security Act was mainly used to ban the opposition and
civic society
from campaigning or organising anti-government
protests.
Nyakunu said in a press statement that the proposed amendments
do not go far
enough and instead dwelt on inconsequential issues that would
not advance
basic freedoms such as the right to freedom of expression, media
freedom and
freedom of assembly and association.
“The Access to
Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Bill proposes
to make
changes to those parts of AIPPA dealing with media regulation and
accreditation of journalists without among other issues addressing the right
to access information held by public bodies,” he said.
The government
is seeking to amend the AIPPA by reconstituting a
state-appointed commission
that regulates the country's media.
Members of the media commission,
which is appointed by the Minister of
Information, would now be appointed by
the President from a list submitted
by a bi-partisan parliamentary committee
and should have media experience.
The media will be opened to foreign
owners but foreign journalists remain
barred from working permanently in
Zimbabwe.
Changes made to the BSA include a demand for public
broadcasters to run news
and programmes not biased in favour of the
government while foreigners can
now have majority shares in a broadcasting
service.
POSA will be amended to allow political parties seeking to hold
public
gatherings to appeal to a magistrate if police turn down their
application.
Currently they appeal to the Minister of Home
Affairs.
The CZC, a coalition of more than 300 civic society
organisations
campaigning for a democratic solution to Zimbabwe’s crisis,
said civil
society want the three laws totally repealed.
“These
proposed amendments are piecemeal and fall short of expectations. As
civic
society organisations we have called for the total repeal of these
tough
media and security laws,” said CZC co-ordinator Jacob Mafume.
“AIPPA and
POSA are synonymous with repression that is why we want them
totally
repealed,” said Mafume, who for example questioned the ability of
ZANU PF
dominated parliamentary committee’s ability to ensure media
freedom.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a debilitating political and economic
crisis that
is highlighted by hyperinflation, a rapidly contracting GDP, the
fastest for
a country not at war according to the World Bank and shortages
of foreign
currency, food and fuel.
Critics blame the crisis on wrong
policies and repression by Mugabe, who has
ruled the southern African
country since its 1980 independence from Britain.
He denies the charge. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Cuthbert Nzou Tuesday 18 December 2007
HARARE – Zimbabwe
has awarded a $206 trillion tender to build a new
parliament to a Chinese
construction firm, in yet another sign of growing
ties between Beijing and
President Robert Mugabe’s government.
Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma
told ZimOnline that the Chinese firm,
Nangtong International, was already on
site in Harare’s Kopje area where the
new parliament will be
built.
"The company is already on the ground and we expect construction
to start
next year," Zvoma said. “The estimated cost of the project is $206
trillion
and so far the government in the 2008 budget set aside $10
trillion. We hope
more money will be made available."
Mugabe has
cultivated relations with China as part of a new "Look-East"
policy adopted
after a fall out with Western countries that have imposed
targeted sanctions
on the Harare government as punishment for failing to
uphold human rights
and democracy.
China - on a drive to expand economic links with Africa -
has since 2000
paid particular attention to Zimbabwe, selling Mugabe's
government fighter
aircraft and agreeing to a number of business deals in
exchange for mining
and other concessions.
Beijing has however been
accused of casting a blind eye to human rights
abuses by Mugabe’s government
and other rogue regimes in Africa such as in
Sudan in its bid to gain access
to their raw materials.
Zimbabwe’s present Parliament was built in 1895
as a hotel before being
converted to a parliament in 1898.
The
structure of the building remained unchanged until 1937. The chamber was
enlarged between 1937 and 1938. In 1969, the building was raised to six
stories.
In 1989, the House of Assembly chamber was renovated to
accommodate an
additional fifty members.
In 2000, the House of
Parliament was further expanded when adjacent Pax
House building was leased
to it. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Simplicious Chirinda Tuesday 18 December
2007
HARARE – The Zimbabwe government says it will abide by
last week’s ruling by
the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
Tribunal not to evict a
white farmer pending finalisation of his
case.
The SADC Tribunal ruled that William Michael Campbell should be
allowed to
stay on his property in Chegutu pending the final determination
of his
appeal against the seizure of his farm.
Zimbabwe’s State
Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, who is also in charge of
land reform and
resettlement, said Harare will respect the judgment.
“The Namibian court
does not know the situation on the ground . . . but we
will abide by the
ruling,” said Mutasa who is still pushing for the ouster
of the few
remaining white farmers in Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe government signed into
law the controversial Constitution of
Zimbabwe Amendment No. 17 two years
ago. The new law allows the Harare
authorities to seize farmland without
compensation.
It also bars courts from hearing appeals from dispossessed
white farmers.
Campbell says the new law is a violation of his
constitutional rights. The
Supreme Court, which is hearing the matter,
reserved judgment on the matter
last March.
The white farmer says
President Robert Mugabe’s land reforms, that have seen
about 4 000 farmers
lose their properties, were racist and illegal under the
SADC Treaty adding
that Article 6 of the treaty bars member states from
discriminating against
any person on the grounds of race, ethnic origin and
culture.
Zimbabwe is a signatory to the SADC Treaty. - ZimOnline
Zim Online
by Cuthbert Nzou Tuesday 18 December
2007
HARARE – A former senior ruling ZANU PF party official
in Mashonaland West
province, Jimayi Muduvuri, has launched a controversial
pro-ruling party
campaign that vilifies opposition supporters as agents of
the Devil.
In an advertisement in the state media at the weekend,
Muduvuri said his
Heal Zimbabwe Campaign was premised on the understanding
that “Christians
who support opposition parties were practising false
religion.”
Making liberal quotes from the bible, Muduvuri said the first
opposition
leader in the universe was Lucifer and Christians should
therefore shun
opposition politics as it is counter to divine
will.
“If the system of opposition was started by Lucifer, then it means
there’s a
spirit of 'Luciferness' in all opposition parties in the world
over,” read
the advert. “Voting for an opposition party is like voting for
Satan.”
Muduvuri says there is no democracy in heaven adding that
Christians should
be wary of words beginning with the letter ‘d’ – such as
death, divorce and
democracy.
Muduvuri, who is the former ZANU PF
provincial treasurer in Mashonaland
West, is not new to
controversy.
In 2004, Muduvuri who was seeking the right to represent
ZANU PF in Kadoma
Central constituency, caused a stir when he bought ladies’
intimate wear in
an attempt to lure female voters to vote for
him.
Although he won the right to represent the party in the 2005
parliamentary
elections, he subsequently lost to Editor Matamisa of the main
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
President
Robert Mugabe has over the past seven years launched blistering
attacks on
the MDC as agents of the British bent on reversing the gains of
the
liberation struggle.
The MDC came within a whisker of ousting Mugabe in
the last presidential
election in 2002 losing by about 400 000 votes. The
veteran Zimbabwean
leader squares off against the same enemy in March next
year. - ZimOnline
SW Radio Africa
(London)
17 December 2007
Posted to the web 17 December
2007
Lance Guma
What was meant to be a smooth sailing
endorsement of Robert Mugabe at the
recent Zanu PF congress, degenerated
into a farce after National Chairman
John Nkomo blocked war veterans leader
Jabulani Sibanda from addressing
delegates.
The event captured live
by ZBC television saw a visibly irate Nkomo telling
Sibanda, 'You! You are
the problem. Stay away from the table.'
Trouble started when war
veteran's deputy leader Joseph Chinotimba thanked
Sibanda for organising a
march in support of Mugabe's candidacy. He then
called Sibanda to the podium
so that delegates could salute him for his
work. As the war veteran's leader
walked up to the podium, Nkomo moved
swiftly to block him and then ordered
him to sit down. The Zanu PF chairman
chaired a disciplinary committee that
suspended Sibanda from the party in
2004 for his role in the infamous
Tsholotsho meeting, that allegedly plotted
to install Emerson Mnangagwa as
Vice President.
Loud heckling and jeering could be heard at the City
Sports Centre in Harare
as the war veterans tried get their leader to the
podium while Nkomo stood
his ground. A furious Mugabe then grabbed the
microphone from Nkomo and
called for order. The noise went on for a further
minute before tempers
calmed down.
'Chimurenga ichi. Hatidaro.
Ngatiitei discipline. Ngatigarei pasi. Nyaya
yaJabulani Sibanda tinoiziva
tichaitaura pano. (This is a struggle. We don't
do that. Let's be
disciplined and sit down. We are aware of the Jabulani
Sibanda issue and are
going to discuss it), Mugabe said. The incident is
said to highlight the
internal divisions within the party and how Mugabe had
to seek endorsement
outside party structures using a suspended member.
SW Radio
Africa (London)
17 December 2007
Posted to the web 17 December
2007
Tichaona Sibanda
Negotiators from the two MDC factions
and the ruling Zanu-PF party met South
African President Thabo Mbeki in
Pretoria on Saturday in an attempt to break
the deadlock over some
outstanding issues from the SADC sponsored talks.
The two MDC factions
are united in insisting that elections cannot be held
in March next year.
Eddie Cross, policy co-ordinator for the Tsvangirai led
faction told
Newsreel on Monday that one of the major sticking points was
Zanu-PF's
refusal to implement the transitional constitution, which all
sides agreed
to three months ago.
'Unless these issues are dealt with, we don't see
ourselves participating in
any election. The negotiators met Mbeki and the
MDC factions insisted that
it is impossible to have elections in March.
Unfortunately he (Mbeki) had to
rush to Polokwane for the ANC congress and
promised that he would deal with
the issue this week,' Cross
said.
After almost six months of talks, the country's feuding political
parties
remain unable to reach agreement on the implementation of the
resolutions
that have been agreed to.
Several key issues remain
undecided. Chief among them according to Cross is
the introduction of a new
constitution before elections. Robert Mugabe
insists the constitution will
only be implemented after the elections.
'The negotiators still have to
settle a couple of issues, and I'm optimistic
that this will be done soon.
But if Mbeki fails to unwrap the issues that
remain outstanding, issues that
are crucial to a free and fair election,
then we will insist on the issue
going to the SADC heads of state for
another emergency summit,' added
Cross.
A number of other issues were also brought to Mbeki's attention,
ranging
from Zanu-PF's unilateral decision to appoint known party
sympathisers to
the Zimbabwe Election Commission and the demarcation of new
constituency
boundaries without input from the MDC.
'All these moves
are being done outside the spirit of the SADC sponsored
talks. We told Mbeki
that all the appointments must be reversed and that the
MDC must be
consulted on these issues because we are still a partner in the
negotiations,' said Cross.
He explained that a new constitution
defines issues of citizenship and
allows millions of Zimbabweans living in
the diaspora to exercise their
right to vote. These and all other issues
contained in the new constitution
are in accordance with SADC protocols on
free and fair elections, according
to Cross.
By Henry Makiwa
17
December 2007
Three student leaders were assaulted by soldiers in
Bulawayo for protesting
at the delay of a Harare-bound train on
Saturday.
Themba Maphenduka, Sheunesu Nyoni and Brian Mtisi of the
National University
of Science & Technology were on their way to a
Zimbabwe National Students
Union meeting in the capital, when they were told
that their train had been
delayed. According to witnesses the three
protested fiercely when it was
learnt that the train was delayed because
Zanu PF delegates meeting in
Harare were using it.
Soldiers manning
Bulawayo railway station then rounded them up, accusing
them of inciting
travellers into acts of public disorder and started
assaulting them.
Maphenduka told Newsreel that they were continuously
assaulted for two hours
before police arrived to arrest them.
He said: “We thought the police
would end our misery, instead they locked us
up for six more hours. It is
obvious that there is no freedom of expression
in this country and that it
can be a fatal mistake to criticise Zanu PF and
Mugabe. We were severely
beaten for merely registering our justified
complaint that the train had
been delayed. We suffered very bad injuries
from the beatings and the
unlawful arrest that followed and we are just
thankful that we have had the
support of fellow students in getting
treatment.”
SW
Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
From The Sunday Tribune (SA), 16 December
Myrtle Ryan and Eleanor Momberg
A
radical increase in poaching of Zimbabwe's beleaguered wildlife recently
has
seen a new twist: many former wildlife protectors are now their
trigger-happy assailants. Rhino numbers, in particular, are plummeting.
Johnny Rodrigues, Chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said 12
rhino had been killed in the past three months. They included three black
rhino (one due to give birth within a week) gunned down by men in military
uniform at Imire Safari Ranch at Wedza; a mother and her calf shot in the
Hwange National Park; three white rhino shot in the Mazoe area; and two
black rhino shot by poachers in Chiredzi. In a follow-up operation at
Chiredzi, parks staff recovered camping equipment, a rifle and a rhino horn.
"It has been reported that a rhino in a pen at Shearwater Adventures, in
Victoria Falls, has also died, but we don't have the details," said
Rodrigues.
About years ago, there were more than 40 rhino in
Matusadonna Game Reserve.
"Last week, it was reported that there are only
six left," Rodriguez said.
"Midlands Conservancy had 56 rhino. The last we
heard about a year ago is
that they are left with only 21. The others were
shot. Bullets from AK-47s
were found in their bodies." Rodrigues said that
the organisation had
recently received a report of canned hunting 15km from
Kwe Kwe. It appears
three lion hunts were sold for $25 000 (R172 000) each.
In addition, it had
received numerous reports of elephants being shot - so
many that there was a
"silent cull" taking place. "We believe the hunting
quota of 500 elephants a
year has now been increased to 1 000. We recently
received a report from an
investigator who saw about 900 elephant carcasses
from the air in Chisarira
National Park. He said there were more carcasses
than live animals," said
Rodrigues.
A tourist visiting Hwange
National Park in November reported seeing three
elephant carcasses and a
foetus in the Robins Camp area. The foetus was
untouched, but the adult
carcasses had been cut up and the meat stripped
from the bones. He said
chronic food shortages in Zimbabwe were driving
people to behave like
barbarians. He told of the death at Kariba of one of
the residents'
favourite elephants, "Short Trunk" - so named because the tip
of his trunk
was missing because of a snare. Rodrigues said Short Trunk had
been walking
along the main road when a group of 30 local residents started
stoning him.
The elephant panicked and ran down the embankment, off the tar
road,
stumbled and fell into a shallow gully. He was unable to get up. The
locals
continued to stone him until a woman arrived on the scene and called
for
help. A group of rescuers arrived and tried to push Short Trunk up, but
their efforts were in vain.
"By this time, he was extremely
stressed and traumatised. The helpers tried
to keep him cool by pouring
buckets of water over him. All the while, his
tormentors were squatting on
their haunches nearby, waiting for him to die
so they could take the meat,"
said Rodrigues. As it was too late to do
anything further, they left the
elephant there for the night with National
Parks guards watching over him.
"The helpers returned early the following
morning and tried to pull him up
with a Land Rover, using a rope tied to his
tusk and foot, but that didn't
work, so they called for a front-end
loader.Two younger elephants stood
nearby, as if to keep him company and
give him moral support. While waiting
for the front end loader to arrive,
Short Trunk gradually grew weaker and
then died just as it (the loader)
arrived," said
Rodrigues.
Meanwhile, a poacher was shot dead by Kruger National Park
rangers on Friday
morning, less than a month after two others were arrested
as they had tried
to flee across the border to Mozambique. Raymond Travers,
a park spokesman,
said the poacher had been killed in a shootout in the
Stolsnek section,
between Pretoriuskop and Berg-endal in the south-west of
the park. The
poachers had walked into a ranger patrol shortly after
midnight. Rangers had
increased their patrols after two rhino carcasses were
found in the area two
weeks ago. "In the fire-fight, one poacher was killed.
Follow-up operations
are being conducted in the area in concert with police
to find the rest of
the group," Travers said. Various weapons, including a
modified hunting
rifle, a home-made shotgun, spotlights and camouflage
uniforms were
confiscated by police after the shooting.
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 17 December 2007 20:03
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe made it clear he
intends to continue ruling
Zimbabwe for the next five years, extending his
stranglehold on Zimbabwe to
32 years. The wily politician has rallied his
ruling Zanu (PF) party around
his leadership and cowed party critics who
wanted to loosen his control.
Addressing the first day of the party's
extraordinary congress in Harare,
Mugabe made it plain that he will crush
potential challengers, and promised
to accelerate the transfer of economic
resources to blacks.
He was greeted with rapturous welcome at the City Sports
Centre - and
expectations faded that the three-day conference would see a
challenge to
his candidacy.
Mugabe implied that the Mujuru faction was
disloyal, and accused it of
bad-mouthing him and the party.
"Not everyone
aspiring for a position will win," he said. "Avo vacharuza
musarudzo
dzemuparty ngavasazorovera bhora mudondo. (Those who lose primary
polls,
should not kick the ball out of the pitch)."
Promising to continue his
populist indigenisation policies, including the
grab of mines and
foreign-owned companies, he expressed hope for his
"revolution" and said an
over-arching empowerment charter was needed to give
a bigger stake to black
Zimbabweans.
"National independence and freedom would be meaningless until it
carries
with it the right to resources," he said.
Mugabe claimed he was
being demonised for fighting for the rights of his
people.
"Their welfare
is my welfare, their suffering my suffering. They own
Zimbabwe. Mr. Blair,
Mr. Brown, Mr. Bush, you don't belong, you are not one
of them. So keep out,
keep out, keep out."
This claim is obscenely hollow give that under his rule
the majority of
Zimbabweans are poorer than they have ever been and life
expectancy is the
lowest in the world - an average of 36 years. His policies
have destroyed
the country's once thriving agricultural base, together with
education,
health and the economy - vastly enriching only a handful of his
cronies and
himself.
He repeated his mantra that the opposition was the
creation of the British
and that it would never rule "my Zimbabwe" and later
appealed for a
violence-free poll. Analysts pointed out that this was yet
another example
of his double-speak as state-sponsored political violence
continues to
escalate.
Political analyst Ibbo Mandaza, who is also
Executive Director of the Sapes
Trust think-tank said: "I think the main
thing that motivates him is that he
wants to die in office. The monarchist
thread in nationalist politics is
quite strong." - Chief Reporter
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 17 December 2007 20:05
MUZARABANI - At least two people have died and many more are
missing after
torrential rain caused mass flooding in northern Zimbabwe,
bursting
riverbanks and washing away at least 43 villages.
Officials have
declared a state of emergency for the low-lying area of
Muzarabani, which
has been devastated by a fortnight of heavy rain.
Roads, bridges and huts
have been washed away and more than 900 people are
reportedly
affected.
Officials have appealed for donations of aid and medical supplies,
with the
Civil Protection Unit and the Red Cross coordinating the relief
effort,
while the Airforce of Zimbabwe is airlifting scores of villagers
marooned by
the floods.
"Health authorities are expressing fears that
water-borne diseases might
affect the population," police spokesman Oliver
Mandipaka said.
Assessing the destruction was difficult because of damage to
provincial
infrastructure, officials said. Aerial footage showed floodwaters
rising
almost to the roofs of huts.
Two of the dead were a 13-year-old
and another aged two, who were washed
away together with their
village.
"Some of them that were washed (away) by the flood have not been
found,"
said Mandipaka. - Chief Reporter
UNICEF
Programme expected to reach over 400,
000 children
HARARE, 14 December 2007- The European Commission (EC) today
donated €10
million to UNICEF Zimbabwe to improve the plight of orphans and
vulnerable
children. The funds come at a critical time when one in four
children in
Zimbabwe has lost one or both parents, the vast majority - 1.3
million - as
a result of AIDS.
This single largest donation ever from
the EC to UNICEF in Zimbabwe promises
substantial relief and assistance to
close to 400 000 Zimbabwean children
who are presently at risk of being
deprived of an education and good
health.
“Today children in Zimbabwe
are hardest hit by the socio-economic challenges
and the impact of
HIV/AIDS,” said EC Head of Delegation, Ambassador Xavier
Marchal. “The
communities are struggling. Through these funds we hope to
support the
efforts of parents and communities across this country.”
As part of
Zimbabwe’s National Action Plan (NAP) for orphans and vulnerable
children,
UNICEF is embarking on a programme of support to improve the
health,
education, protection and nutrition of such children. The programme
is
rolled out through a core group of 27 non-governmental organizations and
150
smaller community based organizations under the coordination of a
government-run secretariat.
The funds from the EC will go
towards:
• Increasing school enrolment of orphans and vulnerable
children
• Family and community support
• School nutrition programmes
•
Increasing the number of children with birth certificates
• Increasing access
to food, health services, water and sanitation
“We are grateful to the EC
for their continued support of UNICEF’s work,”
said UNICEF Country
Representative to Zimbabwe Dr F. Kavishe. “These funds
will make possible
programmes critical to the health and well being of a
growing population of
children left on their own in Zimbabwe.”
The Programme of Support has
established a mechanism for donors to pool
their funding and finance
interventions for orphans and other vulnerable
children, with UNICEF serving
as the manager of the funds and civil society
as implementing partners,
under the overall coordination of the Government.
Extending to 2010, the
Programme of Support is structured to mobilize
increased and more
predictable funding for orphans and vulnerable children
so that programmes
can make a lasting difference. Several donors are already
contributing and
the EC now joins this basket with a contribution of € 10
million.
“This bold and pioneering initiative has demonstrated in the
past year how
working together with a unity of purpose, can dramatically
scale up efforts
to reach more children in need and we are proud to have
joined this
initiative,” said EC Head of Delegation, Ambassador Xavier
Marchal. “By
affirming that the care and protection of Zimbabwe’s most
vulnerable
children is a collective responsibility, the Programme of Support
creates an
unprecedented possibility for real progress to improve the living
conditions
of hundreds of thousands of children.”
The contribution
from the EC will add to funds from other key donors such as
the UK’s
Department for International Development, the German Government,
Swedish
International Development Agency (SIDA) and the New Zealand
Government in
implementing Zimbabwe’s National Action Plan for OVC.
About
UNICEF
UNICEF is on the ground in over 150 countries and territories to help
children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The
world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF
supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality
basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from
violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the
voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and
governments.
For further information, please contact:
Tsitsi
Singizi , UNICEF Communications , Tel: 263-4-703941/2; Mobile:
263-91-2 943
915
VOA
By Jonga Kandemiiri
Washington
17 December
2007
The faction of Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for
Democratic Change headed
by MDC founder Morgan Tsvangirai said Monday that
it intends to form a
united front of all democratic forces to defeat
President Robert Mugabe in
2008 elections.
The MDC grouping said it
will approach the rival faction of Arthur
Mutambara, other opposition
parties and civic groups with its proposal for
common action. Following the
MDC's rancorous split in late 2005 over whether
to contest elections for a
new senate and subsequent efforts to patch up
their differences have come to
naught.
Tsvangirai faction spokesman Nelson Chamisa told reporter Jonga
Kandemiiri
that the MDC's Christmas present to the nation this year will be
a united
political front.
The Mutambara faction declined to comment
immediately on the overture.
VOA
By Carole Gombakomba
Washington
17
December 2007
Moves made over the weekend by the top
decision-making body of the
Zimbabwean opposition faction led by Morgan
Tsvangirai to temporarily
resolve a conflict over the leadership of its
women's assembly failed to
relieve internal tensions, sources
said.
The national council of Tsvangirai's grouping of the Movement for
Democratic
Change took up the vexed question as to who is the rightful
leader of its
women's assembly - ousted chairwoman Lucia Matibenga or
successor Theresa
Makone - but punted rather than deciding, leaving Makone
in place until
after the next elections.
As the next elections won't
take place until March at the earliest, and the
council said the final
decision wouldn't be made until three months after
that, the decision in
effect left Makone in possession of the office and
Matibenga partisans
fuming.
The council offered Matibenga a seat on the national executive
council, a
wider body with lesser powers than the council. Matibenga said
she was
seeking advice on the offer, while Makone declined to comment on the
council's decision.
But council member Aaron Chinhara, MDC Midlands
North provincial treasurer,
told reporter Carole Gombakomba of VOA's Studio
7 for Zimbabwe that the
resolution in his opinion reflected the position of
the party leaders who
imposed Makone as the women's assembly chief over
opposition by the majority
of council members.
Plan
Date: 17 Dec 2007
17 December 2007: Plan is stepping up emergency food relief for
the starving
children and families of Chiredzi district in
Zimbabwe.
Chilonga community in Chiredzi, about 560km south east of
Harare, is facing
severe food deficit with 130,000 people in need of urgent
food relief.
Plan is implementing the World Food Programme’s (WFP)
vulnerable group
feeding (VGF) scheme amid appeals from village headmen to
increase the
monthly ration and extend the scheme up to May
2008.
Starvation prevalent
According to village headmen, the
entire Chiredzi rural community is food
insecure and symptoms of starvation
and hunger are prevalent.
“For this season, signs of another severe
drought are already widespread as
evinced by the number of livestock that
have died so far due to insufficient
grazing land. Human loses may not be
recorded per-se but nutritional
deficiencies amongst children are emerging,”
said headman Bob Madzimure.
The majority of families in Chilongo
community are headed by women. Most of
the men immigrated to South Africa to
work illegally and rarely come back.
“Seeing off our children to school
knowing fully well that they did not eat
anything is the most painful
experience. We wish the school supplementary
feeding scheme could be
resuscitated to sustain our children’s health
thereby keeping them in
school,” said Nyarai Chifamba, a mother of 5, whose
husband left for South
Africa in 2003 and hasn’t come back.
“While we appreciate the food
relief, the ration hardly lasts a month even
though we are now eating once a
day. Our appeal is for the maize ration to
be increased to 15kg per family
member,” she added.
Survival hopes
These sentiments are shared by
the entire community whose hopes of survival
are rooted in the VGF
scheme.
Under the WFP’s scheme, food relief is provided to the most
food-insecure
households to safeguard the nutritional status of vulnerable
groups and
mitigating further depletion of assets due to hunger.
More
than 2,000,000 people in Zimbabwe will require food assistance by March
2008, according to WFP projections.
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 17 December 2007 20:27
'My wife died because
the National Payment System has collapsed'
'Zimbabweans are not stupid.
Take them for granted at your own peril'
Dear Governor
I write
this open letter to you with a lot of grief. My wife suddenly
fell ill in
the early hours of December 3 and needed immediate specialist
attention. A
well-wisher rushed us to Harare Central hospital. After four
hours of
waiting for the doctor, my brother offered to foot the bills for a
private
doctor. He rushed into town, collected bank details from a
well-known
private clinic and made a bee line for the bank to make an RTGS
as the
cut-off time drew nearer.
Getting cash was out of the question. You are
well aware of the severe
cash shortage in the country. The private clinic
insisted that no payment,
no treatment. There was a winding queue at the
bank for RTGS transactions.
Just after 1200, my brother phoned to say he
couldn't beat the RTGS cut-off
time. I could feel tears swelling in my eyes
as I watched my deaf wife
writhing in pain, with my four-year-old son
looking at her confused at why
nobody was interested in assisting
her.
I prayed that at least the doctor at the general hospital would
turn
up. He finally did and I was relieved. But it was short-lived. He
looked at
my wife and wrote a couple of tests that were required urgently to
diagonise
the cause of the illness. None of these tests could be carried out
at the
hospital because the machinery was not working. He recommended
Paracetamol
to reduce the pain.
That day was the longest in my
life. The following day, we were at the
bank by 0330hrs but already there
was a queue. When the bank opened its
doors five hours later, pandemonium
ensued and the queue became useless. My
brother did however manage to submit
the RTGS on time but I couldn't get
cash, so we left the bank and rushed to
the private clinic. If we thought
our misery was coming to an end, we were
wrong! The clinic told us they
would only attend to my wife after the RTGS
had cleared - their contention
being that some RTGS transactions were taking
as much as 72 hours. My wife
died the following day without receiving
medical attention!
Burying my wife was not easy either. The funeral
parlour also insisted
on the RTGS clearing first. We couldn't buy enough
food for the mourners as
the vendors at Mbare musika do not accept
RTGS.
When I was browsing the internet this week, I saw an intriguing
Poll
on ZBC's NEWSNET website (www.newsnet.co.zw), "Who do you blame for
the cash
shortages?" The answers: RBZ - 73.95%, Banks - 3.54%, and Forex
Dealers -
22.51%. This actually provoked me to write this open letter to
you.
I would be naive to blame you for everything that befell my dear
wife.
She died mainly because the National Payment System has collapsed.
Nobody
has faith in it anymore. That is why everyone wanted to see money in
their
account before assisting. We couldn't get cash. The facilities to take
care
of my wife's illness were there, and money was there from relatives,
but it
was locked up in the banks!
It is extremely naive for RBZ to
blame parallel market activities for
the shortage of cash and the collapse
of the national payment system.
Zimbabweans are not that stupid. It is a
shame that you, as governor, have
decided to behave like opposition
politicians, who oppose everything for the
sake of opposing, no matter how
good it is. Everyone thinks RBZ should have
acted long ago, but you, because
"they" said it first, will not act,
otherwise people will think you are
dancing to their tune!!! SHAME!!
You blame parallel market activities
for the cash shortages! Z$58
trillion in circulation only translates to an
average of less than ZW$6m per
individual, enough for transport fares for
one week only, lunch excluded!
How many items can you buy with ZW$6m? The
majority of business in Zimbabwe
is from informal traders. Do you really
expect these people to use plastic
money? Have you ever tried to install a
ZIMSwitch POS at Mbare Musika?? Does
it not make sense to you that since
more than 80% of Zimbabweans are not in
formal employment, it means the
majority of this 80% is involved in informal
trade. This translates to more
than 50% of the cash outside the formal
banking system because there are no
banking facilities customised for
informal traders.
Are parallel
market activities responsible for the near-total collapse
of the Zimswitch?
The more than 72 hours needed for RTGS?
You always hide behind the
so-called "barons" that only exist in your
hallucinations! Ghosts that
invade your dreams because of the subconscious
realisations that you are
traumatising the innocent man on the street. Once
again, let me reiterate
that Zimbabweans are not that stupid. Take them for
granted at your own
peril.
In our neighbouring countries (Zambia and Malawi), reports say
currency in circulation is the equivalent of more than US$200-300 million
(using an open exchange rate used in their country).
I once admired
you, "our Governor", for your rare courage to speak out
against corruption.
You really used to "take the bull by the horns"! But
your biggest weakness
is that you sometimes become hysterical, loose focus,
lock your logic inside
a safe and like a charging bull, trample on the
defenceless!
Yours
in grief, TN
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 17 December 2007 20:09 MATABELELAND - A traditional leader
in
Matabeleland North has accused senior Zanu (PF) officials of grabbing
free
farming inputs aimed at boosting agricultural production after years of
food
shortages.
Chief Madliwa in Nkayi, Nesigwe area told The Zimbabwean:
"There was no
transparency in the distribution of farming inputs as most of
the ordinary
people were excluded from the list of beneficiaries by senior
Zanu (PF)
officials."
Chief Madliwa's area of jurisdiction borders
Kwekwe, Zhombe, and Gweru in
the Midlands Province, Chief Sikobokobo to the
West and Chief Tshugulu to
the South. There are five headmen under him. -
Tracy Shoko
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 17 December 2007 20:15
HARARE - Civil rights activists
in Zimbabwe have threatened to launch mass
protests to block the enactment
of a draft constitution expected to be
signed this week by President Robert
Mugabe's ruling Zanu (PF) party and the
opposition in SADC-brokered
talks.
A spokesman of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), Maddock
Chivasa
announced the move after a meeting of the NCA, which is a coalition
of local
churches, unions and human rights groups, this week.
He said
both the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the
ruling
party should expect mass protests if they signed the draft
constitutional
bill.
"The NCA wants to clarify to the MDC and Zanu (PF) that their intention
to
come and impose a constitution in Zimbabwe will be morally and
principally
denied by Zimbabweans," Chivasa told The Zimbabwean.
"We will
mobilise the people of Zimbabwe to resist and reject any
constitution
imposed on them by greedy politicians of the day. The draft
document which
has been agreed on by the MDC and Zanu (PF) remains an
agreement between
them and cannot be a constitution for Zimbabwe."
The talks, brokered by the
SADC, are currently being held under the
facilitation of President Thabo
Mbeki of South Africa. The two parties
adjourned last week to allow the
ruling party delegation to attend their
extra-ordinary congress last
week.
Although details of the provisions in the new draft constitution
remains
sketchy, the NCA said the future of Zimbabwe could not be entrusted
to Zanu
(PF) and MDC.
"The NCA is aware of the dangers of trusting
politicians to secretly decide
on issues that affect the nation," Chivasa
said. "The move by the political
parties to write the constitution of the
country undermines the fundamental
principles of democracy and
constitutionalism. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans
and the people should be
accorded the right to shape a future they want."
The NCA spearheaded the
successful campaign against a new constitution in
February 2000, which gave
President Mugabe his first ever electoral defeat.
Zimbabwe has not had a
popular constitution since gaining independence from
Britain in 1980,
following a protracted liberation struggle against the
rebel Rhodesian
Government of the late Ian Smith.
The country has been operating on the cease
fire document, signed at
Lancaster House in Britain in 1979.
Chivasa said
Zimbabweans will deny the draft constitution that will be
signed by the
political parties this week on the basis that citizens never
gave any
mandate to MDC and Zanu (PF) to write a constitution of the country
on their
behalf.
"The NCA wants to make it clear that irregardless of what Zanu (PF)
and MDC
will agree on, the people of Zimbabwe will continue pushing for a
new people
driven constitution which guarantee them social, political and
economic
rights," he said.
However, political analysts are skeptical and
say unless the political
culture in the country changes, a new constitution
would not necessarily
transform Zimbabwe into a democratic society. However
Chivasa said: "A
leadership that comes out of a bogus election will remain
illegitimate and
controversial in the eyes of all stakeholders."
zimbabwejournalists.com
17th Dec 2007 18:43 GMT
By Chenjerai Chitsaru
BEFORE the
extraordinary congress of Zanu PF last week, Oppah Muchinguri of
the women’s
league announced in a televised meeting in Harare that each
province of the
party would receive $1 billion for development.
She wore a sling on one
arm which raised much speculatoion: had she hurt
herself while weeding in
her field, or had she been involved in a vigorous
exchange with another
member of the party, over what to do with the $1
billion for Manicaland
province, her turf?
Muchinguri is a powerful member of the top echelon of
the party. After her
appearance with the sling, the rumour spread that she
had indeed been
involved in a skirmish of some sort with a fellow
member.
Moreover, at the congress in Harare later, there was pen
skirmishing, halted
only when President Robnert Mugabe, fed up to the gills
with the unruly
behaviour of some delegates, brought proceedings to a
halt.
He lashed out at members who he said lacked discipline, including
one who
many people thought had been his favourite troubleshooter, Jabulani
Sibanda,
the centre of the skirmishing.
Mugabe warned that the fracas
over Sibanda would probably be the highlight
of media reports on the
congress – rather than the substance of the
proceedings – his endorsement as
the party candidate.
He was right: that incidednt was unprecedented and
did receive maximum
attention in the independent media.
In reality,
though, Mugabe’s almost shrill intervention presaged a possible
protest vote
against him, and his party in the harmonized 2008 election.
Unless, in
the meantime he manages to whip everybody into line, the
prospects of
different anti-Mugabe factions ordering their members to vote
for the MDC
seem quite likely.
Never has Zanu PF gone into an election so
divided.
Factions led by Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Mujurus (Solomon and
Joice) are
likely to insist that their members make a significant gesture to
show
Mugabe that they are not to be trifled with, taken lightly.
In
many ways, Mugabe has brought these coal fires upon himself. Many critics
have surmised that, in his old age, the man still believes he has the
charisma which has enabled him to rule the roost since 1975.
His
record has become so vulnerable many of his former adherents, including
Mnangagwa and the Mujurus now want to distance themselves from his failure
to raised standards of ordinary people and improving the country’s political
and economic stature in the world.
Even more crucially is the
prospect of him failing to win the election with
a thumping majority,
raising the prospect of Zanu PF having to form a
coalition with the
MDC.
That opposition, although weakened by its splits, could use as a
bargaining
chip, a threat to call on the international community
to
Demand that Mugabe account for some of his past actions while in
power.
Mugabe’s readiness to ditch Sibanda, who led the Million Men and
Women march
to drum up support for the president, suggested he recognized
what a
political blunder he had made in alienating the former old guard in
Matabeleland.
He had not denounced Sibanda’s so-called solidarity
marches, held in open
defiance of the old PF Zapu leaders. At the congress,
Sibanda appeared
willing to subject them to the final humiliation: taking
the podium in
defiance of an order by John Nkomo, the chairman of the
proceedings, not to
go ahead and make a speech.
Mugabe’s speech to
calm tempers had a tone of extreme annoyance, primarily
because all this was
being relayed on live television. The divisions in his
party were being
given such public airing there was no chance of accusing
the independent
media or the West of orchestrating it.
His grip on the party, it became
clear, was slipping. The former PF Zapu
leaders, among them the
voce-president Joseph Msika, had been prepared to
walk out of the congress
if Jabulani Sibanda had insisted on making a
speech.
Zanu PF has
always lost most of Matabveleland since the 2000 elections
during which the
MDC announced its arrival on the political stage.
The opposition party’s
split in 2005 saw a weakening of its strength in the
provinces, but there
seems to have been a rallying of forces before the 2008
poll.
The
real prospect of Mugabe being hurt by a protest vote lies in Mashonaland
East and Central. Joice Mujuru seems to have Mash Central sewn up behind
her; her husband, Solomon seems to have rallied Mash East behind
him.
Any shift in loyalty by these two provincers could reduce
considerably Zanu
PF’s strength in Parliment.
Mnangagwa, whose
bailiwick is the Midlands province – where he actually lost
his
parliamentary seat – is marginal for Zanu PF.
To avoid losing the four
provinces, Mugabe may already have
cobbled together a number of deals with
the “godfathers (mothers) in the
provinces, in exchange for their support.
What they demand in return could
be an enormous chunk of favours.
So,
in essence, Mugabe may have to engage in serious horse-trading to ensure
he
remains in charge.
Yet all this may change if the playing field is
leveled, as demanded by the
MDC and apparently approved by President Thabo
Mbeki of South Africa.
There is now so much disaffection against Mugabe
and Zanu PF, particularly
over the economy. Most ordinary voters will be
keen to make their voice
heard through a protest vote against Zanu
PF.
Still to be taken into account is the likelihood of an election
similar to
the ones held after the 2000 “watershed” poll: so tightly
controlled by Zanu
PF the chances of a victory for the opposition is
impossible to imagine.
At the Zanu PF congress, Mugabe scoffed at the
prospect of acceding to
opposition party demands for a June rather than a
March election. The
electoral deck is entirely in his hands, to be
manipulated as and when he
feels like it.
Although most pundits have
already dismissed the prospect of an opposition
victory, they may not have
given enough credence to the possibility of Zanu
PF tearing itself
apart.
Perhaps now that the evidence of such a rupture was abundantly
presented at
the congress, they may revise their calculations.
Of course,
there is always the likelihood that massive apathy could hurt the
opposition. Some of their members may already have decided that nothing,
short of a political earthquake, could dislodge Zanu PF from power and will
thus not even bother to go to the polls.
Yet to many of them, the
crisis of Zimbabwe has become so painful, there is
a good chance even Zanu
PF members may feel it is time to try and make a
difference.
It would
not be the first time they defied the odds – in the 2000
parliamentary
election, they did defy Mugabe and Zanu PF and almost did to
him and his
party what voters in Zambia and Malawi had done to Kenneth
Kaunda and Kamuzu
Banda.
Zimbabwe
Standard (Harare)
16 December 2007
Posted to the web 17 December
2007
Sandra Mandizvida
Pain in my Heart is not just another
HIV/Aids documentary worth wat-ching.
This heart-rending true story tells of
two adult patients infected by the
disease as they reveal their fears and
hopes, their intimate and emotional
feelings.
The 26-minute
documentary produced and directed by Hopewell Chin'ono, a
trained broadcast
journalist and filmmaker, talks of Angelina, a 27-year-
old single mother of
two who is HIV positive and is failing to access
anti-retroviral
medication.
Peter, another HIV/Aids patient, 44 years old, recovered from
the brink of
death after River of Life church came to his rescue by giving
him
anti-retroviral drugs.
Angelina was not so fortunate since the
church could only help seven people
out of 55 on their
books.
Chin'ono, who filmed Angelina for three months up to six hours,
before she
died, describes how she struggled, not only with HIV and Aids,
but also with
the deadly opportunistic Cryptococcul Meningitis
infection.
The disease requires a number of powerful drugs, which are not
readily
available in government hospitals.
The film portrays how
HIV/Aids does not only affect the infected but also
people around
them.
It describes the painful struggles of Angelina's seven-year-old
daughter,
Beauty, who has to look after her mother and her six-year-old
brother,
Nigel.
There is a dramatic reversal of natural roles, as
Beauty has to take over
the running of the household, as the home becomes
child-headed.
Angelina talks about her pain and her fears for her
children should she
succumb to the deadly illness.
"Sometimes I do
not sleep, thinking about what would happen to my children:
they will be
street kids," she says.
She is finally admitted to Parirenyatwa hospital,
where she dies.
After her death her two children were put under the
custody of their
relatives but Chin'ono had to take Beauty from her uncle in
Hurungwe when he
found her herding cattle, instead of going to school. In
the meantime, he is
trying to locate Beauty's young brother, Nigel, so that
the two can be
reunited.
The film carries interviews with Oliver
Mtukudzi as he talks about how HIV
and Aids had personally affected him and
he advocates for people to talk
about it so they can deal with the stigma
attached to the disease.
Chin'ono said there had been massive responses
from Zimbabweans, especially
from those in the Diaspora, who watched the
film and now want to help
Angelina's children and other HIV and Aids
orphans.
"Over 6 000 people have watched the film on the Internet so far,
and they
want to help the kids. We have set up a trust called Angelina
Chiyanike
Trust. The board of the trustees includes Oliver Mtukudzi, Dr Rati
Ndhlovu,
Dr Hilda Mujuru from Parirenyatwa and Irene Petras, a human right
slawyer,"
he said.
The film has been shown on ZTV and Sky
Television.
It was produced and financed by Television International, a
television
production company owned by Chin'ono.