http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Violet Gonda
17 December 2008
The
unspeakable terror of being taken from your house and abducted is the
daily
reality of many Zimbabweans. So far at least 23 people are known to
have
been kidnapped from their homes in the last seven weeks, and the number
has
increased with three more victims.
The MDC-T reported on Wednesday that
three activists were abducted, in three
different parts of the country.
Graham Matehwa, the MDC youth chairperson
for Ward 26 of Gwangwadza village
in Makoni South constituency Manicaland,
was picked up by four armed men
Wednesday morning. The party said two of the
abductors were identified as
Isaac Dangirwa and Lucky Chingara.
Another MDC youth activist, Bothwell
Pasipamire of Kadoma Central in
Mashonaland West province, was kidnapped
four days ago; while Peter Munyanyi
of Ward 8 in Gutu North constituency
Masvingo province, was abducted this
week at Uchinda Business Centre, by
armed soldiers led by a colonel.
Meanwhile a group of MDC activists
abducted from the Banket area are still
missing, almost two months after
they were abducted from their homes around
27 October, and the police have
not complied with court orders.
One of the victims' lawyers, Alex
Muchadehama, said it is now a question of
who is going to police, the police
and the security agents, as they are the
perpetrators of
violence.
Muchadehama said the police are ignoring court orders even in
the case of
Jestina Mukoko, the Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project.
Police were
ordered to place alerts in the media, to conduct thorough
searches and to
update the courts on a daily basis, but they have done none
of this.
A frustrated Muchadehama said it's now total lawlessness that is
being
perpetrated. No one has been arrested in the normal sense of the word,
or
advised of their rights to a lawyer, or has appeared in court before an
impartial judge and tried within a reasonable time. "That due process in
terms of the constitution has not been followed.'
The lawyer is
concerned that there will be an increase in abductions, as
more and more
activists report that they are being tailed by 'faceless
thugs.'
Meanwhile it's reported that almost all MDC activists in
Bindura are on the
run, and they have been under constant threat since the
death of ZANU PF
gangster Elliot Manyika in a car accident last
week.
The MDC issued a statement Tuesday saying the police have falsely
imprisoned
three party officials in Bindura. 11 of the 12 MDC councillors of
the
Bindura Municipality fled their homes after police arrested Ward 10
councillor Norbert Dhokotera and two other MDC activists, in pre-dawn raids
on Monday night. Those arrested are being held at Bindura Central Police
Station on undisclosed charges.
Dhokotera had been arrested and then
released last week on false charges of
petrol bombing the houses of Zanu PF
supporters. He was released after it
turned out that it was Zanu PF youths
who had petrol bombed five houses
belonging to MDC supporters.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
N
Wednesday, 17
December 2008
More than 600 members of the National
Constitutional Assembly (NCA)
took to the streets in Harare's Central
Business District (CBD). The march
was a continuous call for the government
to embrace the NCA's three-point
plan for the achievement of democracy and
national recovery. The
demonstration was however disrupted by riot police
and there were several
arrests and injuries.
The protest started at
the corner of Cameroon Street and Jason Moyo
Avenue. The demonstrators had
placards calling for a transitional
government, free and fair elections as
well as a people driven constitution.
As they proceeded towards Parliament,
the demonstrators chanted slogans and
distributed fliers outlining the NCA's
three point plan.
As they neared parliament, the protestors were
attacked by riot police
who also threw teargas, leading to their
dispersement. More than 11 people
were picked up whilst 8 other experienced
serious injuries.
Meanwhile, only 20 of the 51 people who were
arrested in the wake of
yesterday's demonstration have been released. The
20, who were being held at
Budiriro 2 Police Station, were released without
any charges preferred
against them. The other 31 are however still detained
at Central Police
Station. They have been denied access to food as well as
legal aid.
The NCA strongly condems the continued use of repressive
state
apparatus to silence dissenting voices. No amount of violence and
intimidation however strong will deter us from our cause. We also condemn
the unlawful detention of our members and call for their immediate
release.
We remain committed to our cause for the achievement of
democracy and
national recovery.
Issued by NCA Information and
Publicity Department
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Lance Guma
17
December 2008
Police in Harare moved to crush another demonstration by
the National
Constitutional Assembly on Wednesday, arresting 11 activists
and injuring 6
others. According to NCA spokesman Madock Chivasa, up to 1000
activists,
some of them frustrated members of the public waiting in cash
queues, joined
the protests demanding a transitional authority to break the
political
deadlock. NCA activists grouped together at the Copacabana
Restaurant before
marching uptown towards parliament, where MP's were
entering into a second
day of sittings.
Riot police however
intercepted the marchers near First Street and used
teargas to disperse
them. Those caught and arrested by police were clobbered
with baton sticks,
resulting in the injuries. Chivasa told Newsreel one of
the activists
holding the main NCA banner during the march was abducted by
unidentified
men wearing plain clothes. His whereabouts are still unknown
and the NCA is
also trying to ascertain his name. He has still to be located
in any one of
the police stations searched so far.
On Tuesday the NCA held countrywide
demonstrations in which 51 of their
members were arrested. Chivasa said only
20 of the 51 have been released
from Budiriro Police Station where they were
being held. No charges were
placed on them. The remaining 31 from Tuesday's
demo are being held at
Harare Central police station. With Wednesday's
arrest of 11 activists, the
total number of NCA members in custody is
42.
The NCA is demanding a transitional government, free and fair elections
and
a people driven constitution. They issued a statement condemning the,
'the
continued use of repressive state apparatus to silence dissenting
voices. No
amount of violence and intimidation however strong will deter us
from our
cause. We also condemn the unlawful detention of our members and
call for
their immediate release.'
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Alex Bell
17
December 2008
Parliament reopened this week, more than a month after
sitting was adjourned
because of the chronic shortage of water and cash, and
unsurprisingly the
effects of both such shortages were hot topics of
debate.
Last month parliamentary business came to a halt just a few hours
after the
legislators had resumed sitting, when the Speaker of the House of
Assembly,
Lovemore Moyo, called an adjournment until December, citing
shortages in
both water and financial resources. The House of Assembly had
originally
been forced to adjourn on the 23rd October to 11th November
because of lack
of funds from government, after reports claimed that MPs
based outside
Harare were being turned away from hotels in the capital as
there was no
money to pay their bills.
MPs returned to the parliament
building on Tuesday, where only eight days
worth of sessions have so far sat
since the new parliament structure was
elected earlier this year. Hot on the
agenda was both the collapse of the
country's economy in the past month, as
well as the devastating cholera
outbreak that has officially claimed almost
1000 lives.
MDC Chief Whip Innocent Gonese said that on Tuesday
legislators in the lower
house of Assembly had moved the adjournment of the
house "to debate what is
a very concerning and worrying issue and that is
the cholera outbreak."
Gonese said MPs expressed great concern over the lack
of clean, healthy
water available for distribution, and further explained
that the Zimbabwe
National Water Authority (ZINWA) had been proved to be
incapable of
providing safe water.
"A parliamentary portfolio
committee had made recommendations to the house
that ZINWA did not have the
capacity to deliver on it's promises to provide
real and safe service,"
Gonese said. "This has since been proven to be
correct."
On
Wednesday, while the Senate was adjourned until next year, debate
continued,
but moved onto the issue of the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy.
Gonese
explained that there are definite concerns that all structures in the
country have collapsed, and said the motion for debate was received with
"overwhelming support from the house."
The House of Assembly is
expected to adjourn until the New Year.
http://www.buanews.gov.za
Compiled
by the Government Communication and Information System
Date: 17 Dec
2008
By Luyanda Makapela
Pretoria -
President Kgalema Motlanthe has announced that the Southern
African
Development Community (SADC) was expecting Zimbabwe to finally form
an
inclusive government by the end of this week.
"Due to the current
negotiations currently taking place between the two
Zimbabwe parties, we are
very optimistic that an inclusive government will
be formed before the end
of the week," said President Motlanthe at the Union
Buildings on
Wednesday.
Addressing reporters in Pretoria on the SADC's announcement
that it will
launch a non-partisan assistance programme on the humanitarian
crisis in
Zimbabwe, Mr Motlanthe said the establishment of an inclusive
government in
that country was something long overdue and there was a great
need to speed
up the process.
"An inclusive government in Zimbabwe
should be established sooner than
yesterday as it is almost a year since the
March elections, we are waiting
and hoping that the Movement for Democratic
Change leader, Morgan
Tshvangirai and Professor Arthur Mtambara will be
sworn in as Cabinet
members by the end of this week," he said.
With
regards to the media reports and allegations that Botswana was training
MDC
cadres to overthrow President Robert Mugabe, President Motlanthe said
that
SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Co-operation was tasked to
deal
with the matter and verify whether this was true.
"The Organ has been to
Botswana and met with its authorities and we are
awaiting a report from them
(SADC Organ), but our view is that there is no
substance to that
allegation," said Mr Motlanthe.
He said the reason why SADC was of the
view that these allegations were
baseless was that this was not allowed,
according to SADC principles.
President Motlanthe said since the
allegations were made officially, it was
SADC's mandate to investigate such
allegations.
On Monday, the Zimbabwean Government had gazetted the
Constitutional
Amendment No. 19, which gives legal effect to Zimbabwe's
proposed inclusive
government once it is approved by
Parliament.
Zimbabwean Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa has already
indicated that the
Bill providing for the setting up of the inclusive
government would be
tabled in Parliament after which it would take about two
weeks to be debate
and passed into law.
The Bill requires a two
thirds majority to pass through Parliament.
Mr Chinamasa called on all
parties represented to support the Bill as none
of the parties had the
required majority to ensure its passage alone. -
BuaNews
http://www.apanews.net
APA-Harare (Zimbabwe)
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe is due to form a
unity government within
the coming week in a bid to end an eight-month
hiatus that has dragged the
troubled southern African country deeper into
economic crisis, his spokesman
said here on Wednesday.
Responding to Monday's decision by the UN
Security Council to block efforts
to send a military force to Zimbabwe,
presidential spokesman George Charamba
told the official Herald newspaper
that Mugabe would proceed to announce an
all-inclusive government even if
opposition leader and prime
minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai remained in
a self-imposed exile in
Botswana.
Tsvangirai's Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) and Mugabe's ZANU PF have
been locked up in a bitter
dispute over the allocation of cabinet portfolios
in the unity government
since they signed a power-sharing agreement in
September.
Mugabe
published a constitutional amendment last Saturday which paves the
way for
him to announce a new government.
"I happen to know that some time this
week or early next week, communication
inviting both MDC formations to join
government would be made," Charamba
said, according to the state-owned
daily.
Tsvangirai has not returned to Zimbabwe since early November when
he
attended an emergency summit of the Southern African Development
Community
in South Africa.
He said he fears he would not be allowed
to leave the country if he returns
home since the government has refused to
issue him with a full passport
following the expiry of his previous travel
document last year.
He has been travelling on a temporary document which
is usually valid for a
single trip.
JN/nm/APA 2008-12-17
http://www.swradioafrica.com
By Tichaona
Sibanda
17 December 2008
The Zimbabwe regime's case against Botswana
was dealt a major blow
Wednesday, when the SADC chairman disclosed the
regional bloc does not
believe Botswana was training MDC 'militants' to try
to overthrow Robert
Mugabe.
Briefing journalists in Pretoria, the SADC
chair and South African President
Kgalema Motlanthe, made it clear the bloc
'never believed' the allegations
leveled against Botswana by Zimbabwe.
Botswana has vehemently denied the
allegations, while the MDC described them
as a 'joke'. Tendai Biti, the MDC
Secretary General, said the allegations
were part of a plot to create a
pretext for declaring a state of emergency
that would give Mugabe broad
security powers.
Journalists were of the
view that what Motlanthe said Wednesday could be
read as criticism of
Mugabe's leadership, but the South African leader
stopped short of an
explicit denunciation.
Zimbabwe has been trying to build up a case against
Botswana, accusing the
western neighbour of training MDC 'insurgents' to
oust Mugabe and increasing
tensions between the two countries. Botswana's
President Ian Khama is one of
few African leaders to publicly criticize
Mugabe. He has called for new
elections, after Mugabe and MDC leader Morgan
Tsvangirai reached deadlock
over posts in a shared
administration.
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa on Monday told the
Herald newspaper the
regime had evidence Botswana was giving military
training to members of
Tsvangirai's MDC as part of a plot to remove Mugabe.
Chinamasa added that
Botswana had 'availed its territory, material and
logistical support to the
MDC-T, for the recruitment and military training
of youths for the eventual
destabilisation of the country with a view of
effecting illegal regime
change'.
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi
on Tuesday told the Herald newspaper that
Air Marshal Perence Shiri's
'assassination' attempt had been politically
motivated, and he said the
shooting was part of 'a buildup of terror attacks
targeting high-profile
persons, government officials, government
establishments and public
transportation systems.'
His statement cited bombings in August of the Harare
Central Police Station,
a road and railroad bridges, as well as November
bombings of the criminal
investigation department's headquarters in Harare
and, again, the police
station. It alleged that after investigations of the
attacks, plastic
explosives were recovered from a senior MDC
official.
But Motlanthe's statement in Pretoria put paid to ZANU PF's
strategy of
concocting evidence based on alleged confessions by abducted MDC
activists.
According to some reports the regime recently sent a dossier
containing
hundreds of pages and three DVD's showing MDC 'insurgents'
confessing to
training in Botswana. The MDC said the people featured on the
videos were
party activists abducted from Mashonaland West a month ago,
including their
director of intelligence who was abducted from his home in
Harare.
The MDC said this is a strategy the regime has used countless
times against
anyone who has dared challenge Mugabe's hold on
power.
The party's chief representative in the UK Hebson Makuvise said
SADC must
have grown tired with the same story line Mugabe has used for over
two
decades.
'Remember these are the same allegations they brought
against Ndabaningi
Sithole, Edgar Tekere and lately Morgan Tsvangirai. What
do these men have
in common? They all have stood up against Mugabe's misrule
and it just tells
you these are cooked up stories that they manufacture each
time they are
cornered,' Makuvise said.
The chief representative said
Motlanthe was the best placed person to
rubbish the allegations, taking into
account that Mugabe last year made the
same allegations against the South
African government.
'ZANU PF made similar allegations last year against
South Africa to a point
were Thabo Mbeki invited them to search the so
called MDC training camps on
South African soil. After weeks of searches
they found nothing and nothing
was never heard of again about these
allegations. So Motlanthe being part of
the South African government and
head of SADC knows better,' Makuvise added.
Meanwhile, questions are
being raised about the recent sequence of events
that have seen one of
Mugabe's main architects of terror dying and two being
injured in
unexplained incidents.
Elliot Manyika, who terrorized the whole country
when leading the Border
Gezi green bombers, died in a mysterious car crash
two weeks ago. Last week
the chief commander of farm grabs Joseph
Chinotimba, sustained serious
injuries in another car crash. Reports say he
is now paralysed after
suffering a broken back. and questions remain as to
why details of the
incident were only released in the state media on
Wednesday.
Last Saturday the most infamous of Mugabe's henchmen, Air
Marshall Perence
Shiri, is reported to have survived an assassination
attempt, although
events around the incident raise many questions. With
ZANU PF well known
for eliminating its own opponents, many observers believe
these three cases
clearly indicate in-fighting, jockeying for position and a
party facing
imminent collapse, as it turns on it's own.
From The Cape Argus (SA), 16 December
UN waits for SA to leave security council before moving on Zim
crisis
Joe Lauria
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
called Robert Mugabe "mad" at a UN
Security Council closed-door meeting last
night, but diplomats said the
council had put off action against the
Zimbabwean president until South
Africa leaves the council at the end of the
month. As a two-year,
non-permanent Security Council member, Pretoria has
taken the lead in
blocking UN engagement in Zimbabwe. It kept the issue off
the agenda as long
as it could until South Africa helped point the way for
Russia and China to
veto UN sanctions against Mugabe and his cronies earlier
this year,
diplomats said. Britain has led the opposing council charge to
confront
Mugabe. London called yesterday's meeting at which Rice, the prime
minister
of Croatia, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon blasted Mugabe.
South Africa has
consistently argued that UN involvement in Zimbabwe was
meddling in a purely
internal matter that did not infringe on international
peace and security.
But Britain and its US and European allies say the
cholera epidemic spilling
over Zimbabwe's borders into Botswana, Mozambique
and South Africa are a
reason for international intervention. They were
backed yesterday by Ban.
The secretary-general took a swipe at former
President Thabo Mbeki, still
the Zimbabwe mediator for the Southern African
Development Community (SADC),
who has been criticised in the West for
protecting Mugabe. "Despite our
continued efforts, I unfortunately have to
conclude that neither the
government nor the mediator welcomes a UN
political role and there is
limited space for my good offices," Ban told the
council. "This clearly
limits our ability to effectively help find immediate
remedies to this
crisis."
Zimbabwe has refused to allow Ban's special envoy to enter
the country. The
government blocked a group of elders, led by former US
president Jimmy
Carter and former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. After
naming human rights
abuses, diseases and economic problems that Ban blamed
on the government,
the secretary-general said: "There is still denial of the
gravity of the
humanitarian situation in the country and the collapse of
state structures."
Ban called for the immediate formation of a unity
government. Talks between
the government and the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change have
collapsed. Though calls for outside intervention,
including international
military action, are rising, Miliband told the Cape
Argus that it was up to
Zimbabweans to find a political solution. through
political negotiations.
Dumisani Kumalo, South Africa's ambassador,
told the meeting that while
there was consensus that Zimbabwe was in
trouble, there was disagreement on
a solution. Kumalo said SADC could help
Zimbabwe without outside
interference. This ran directly counter to
Miliband, who said: "I think that
the crisis in Zimbabwe is a crisis for the
whole of Southern Africa and
that's why it belongs on the agenda of the UN
Security Council." He said
Britain had called the meeting to "re-start UN
engagement on this issue".
Rice made a strong presentation to the Security
Council, at one point
questioning Mugabe's sanity, one diplomat said. "She
didn't make proposals,
she just vented," he said. That was in keeping with
the rest of the council,
which proposed no concrete measures to be taken.
Diplomats said they
expected Britain to take up the matter again after the
new year, when South
Africa's time on the council will have elapsed. Its
seat is being taken by
Uganda, which has not played the kind of direct role
in Zimbabwe that
Pretoria has.
http://www.nasdaq.com/
PRETORIA
(AFP)--President Kgalema Motlanthe said Wednesday South Africa
wouldn't join
international calls for Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to
step down,
saying it was "not for us" to do so.
"It's really not for us," he said
when asked at a news conference how bad
conditions had to get in Zimbabwe
before South Africa would say it was time
for him to step down.
"I
mean I don't know if the British feel qualified to impose that on the
people
of Zimbabwe but we feel that we should really support and take our
cue from
what they want," he said.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-17-080434ET
http://www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe/archives/2944
The MDC notes with disbelief the assassination attempt of Air
Marshall
Perence Shiri as reported in The Herald of 16 December
2008.
As a party, we condemn the use of violence in any form whatsoever
as an
instrument of navigating any political crisis or as a means of
achieving or
attaining any political goal. We therefore wish Perence Shiri a
quick
recovery wherever he is.
However, in our respectful view, it is
important to identify and unpack the
real reasons behind the destabilization
and internal conflicts in Zanu PF
which we consider to be behind the
assassination attempt on Perence Shiri.
In our view, central to the slow
and decisive death of Zanu PF is the fact
that this is a nationalist party
that is now fundamentally exhausted and
tired. Exhausted nationalism creates
conditions for internal destabilization
and a discourse of internal civil
conflict. When that happens, "The
revolution begins to eat its own
children."
Any nationalist party, for it to survive, has to undergo
periodic rebirth
and renewal. Unfortunately, Zanu PF has failed to renew and
refresh itself
and those who have been controlling it since time immemorial
have failed to
pass on the baton.
The party has thus remained
arrested in a modicum of sterility, banality and
dishonesty. It is a party
that believes its own propaganda and at the end of
the day, is violence to
thank for its extrajudicial existence.
In short, it is the unresolved
issue of succession in Zanu PF that is at the
root cause of the violence
against Perence Shiri and the dislocation in Zanu
PF. We saw this
dislocation in November 2004 when six province chairpersons
were expelled
after the failure of the Jonathan Moyo and Patrick Chinamasa
failed debacle.
That same crisis gave birth to Simba Makoni and the
Mavambo/Kusile
experiment and only this weekend, we saw the revival of Zapu
and the
election of Dumiso Dabengwa as national chairman.
In our view, there are
so many individuals and factions vying to succeed the
aged Mugabe. However,
each of those factions has a control and influence on
members of the army.
Therefore, Zanu PF factionalism and unresolved
succession battles are also
being played out in the military junta. The
arsenal used against Shiri could
only have been owned and possessed by
members of the Zimbabwe National
Army.
For the stability of this country and the good of its people, it is
important and imperative that Zanu PF resolves its succession issue. This
matter is not an internal one to the extent that conflicts in Zanu PF over
the same have a multiplier effect in the peace and stability that is
enshrined in our Constitution. Violence threatens the rule of law, the
Constitution itself and gives excuse to the declaration of a state of
emergency. This country surely cannot afford this.
We therefore hope
that the Zanu PF Bindura conference will not be another
talk shop and will
put a full stop on the succession issue.
MDC Information and Publicity
Department
Via Press Release
This entry was written by
Sokwanele on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
http://www.nzherald.co.nz
4:00AM Thursday Dec 18, 2008
Daniel
Howden
President Robert Mugabe is planning to declare a state of
emergency in
Zimbabwe, the Opposition said yesterday, after what the
Government claims
was an assassination attempt on the Air Force
chief.
Perence Shiri, one of Mugabe's inner circle, was shot in the arm
on Sunday,
media reports claim. Attacks of this kind are almost unheard of
in Zimbabwe,
where the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change has
insisted on using
peaceful means.
A day earlier, the Zimbabwe
Government accused neighbouring Botswana, whose
President, Seretse Ian
Khama, is among the few African leaders to openly
criticise Mugabe, of
training rebels to launch a coup attempt. The
accusations were strenuously
denied, but Opposition leaders fear they will
be used as justification for
another violent crackdown on political
opponents.
A senior Opposition
leader, Tendai Biti, said the ruling party was getting
ready to declare a
state of emergency as a prelude to outlawing the MDC.
Air Marshal Shiri
was reportedly ambushed on the way to his farm, which was
seized from a
white farmer eight years ago, and is now recovering in a
Harare
hospital.
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The Home Affairs
Minister, Kembo Mohadi, said this had been an attempt to
destabilise the
country. "The attack on Air Marshal Shiri appears to be a
build-up of terror
attacks targeting high-profile persons, government
officials, government
establishments and public transportation systems,"
Mohadi
said.
Earlier this week, the Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, said he
had
"compelling evidence" that MDC members were being trained in Botswana to
fight.
The Zimbabwe people are in the grip of what Opposition Senator
David Coltart
has called the "perfect humanitarian storm". A cholera
outbreak has claimed
at least 1000 lives, the United Nations says, with
officials from Zimbabwe's
Health Ministry privately saying the real figure
could be at least five
times higher. With the collapse of the health system,
Zimbabweans have been
flocking across the borders to South Africa, Botswana
and Mozambique.
Mugabe, 84, claims cholera is being used as a cover for
foreign
intervention, and one of his ministers accused Britain and the
United States
of using "chemical warfare" against the country. Despite the
crises, Mugabe
and his ruling Zanu-PF party have refused to honour a
power-sharing
agreement with the Opposition.
- INDEPENDENT
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
4:00AM Thursday Dec 18, 2008
Daniel
Howden
Perence Shiri is a name that will permanently be connected to the
worst
crimes against humanity in Zimbabwe.
While much of the world
was still feting Robert Mugabe and the new
independence government in 1982,
Colonel Shiri, as he then was, was leading
a battalion of North
Korean-trained soldiers in a massacre of political
opponents in
Matabeleland.
Researchers believe as many as 20,000 were murdered and
dumped in unmarked
graves. That atrocity cemented Colonel Shiri's place in
the Mugabe regime
and catapulted him up the military ranks. Ever since, he
has been at the
fore during each of the worst periods of
oppression.
He was promoted to the rank of air marshal and rewarded with
a selection of
farms seized from white owners.
Marshal Shiri is also
a leading member of the Joint Operations Command, the
inner cell of Mugabe
cronies who planned the terror campaign unleashed on
the population after
the March election defeat for the ruling party. He is
among the handful in
Zimbabwe with the most to fear from any future war
crimes
investigations.
- INDEPENDENT
http://www.monstersandcritics.com
Africa News
By Jan Raath Dec
17, 2008, 12:43 GMT
Harare - President Robert Mugabe's once
indomitable Zanu-PF party gathers on
Thursday for its annual national
conference with little of substance on the
agenda and the threat of cholera
looming over the three-day jamboree.
The 4,000 delegates are to issued
with bottled water and water bowsers will
be on hand at the venue, a tiny
state university in the agricultural town of
Bindura, about 80 kilometres
north of Harare, said party spokesman Ephraim
Masawi. Delegates will also be
barred from bringing food into the venue.
However, medical experts who
asked not to be named said the conference was a
potential catalyst for a new
outbreak of the epidemic that has killed close
to 1,000 people and infected
over 18,000 since it began in August.
Residents in Bindura confirm that
the university had been without running
water since the beginning of the
year, and the toilets have been out of
operation for months. Authorities
finally sent students home in October.
A nearby high school in whose
classrooms most delegates are due to
accommodated, is also without water,
the sources said.
'It's madness to bringing together a crowd that size,'
said e medical
source. 'Many of the people attending will be from urban
townships where the
epidemic is at its worst. It's almost a certainty that
people with cholera
will be there, mingling, shaking hands, sharing
food.'
Last week Mugabe declared that authorities had 'arrested' the
epidemic, an
assertion that was met immediately with vigorous denial from
the World
Health Organisation and aid agencies.
In November,
authorities banned Zanu-PF's hated opponent, Morgan
Tsvangirai's Movement
for Democratic Change, from holding a rally in Harare,
citing 'a danger of
the spread of cholera.'
Cholera is the latest crisis to hit Zimbabwe,
already dogged by widespread
hunger and the collapse of state
services.
The party conference takes place amid rumblings of growing
discontent within
Mugabe's clique.
Several incidents of rioting and
looting by soldiers in Harare recently
exposed serious levels of
indiscipline and discontent.
Within Zanu-PF itself, there are open signs
of rebellion. At this week's
elections for the leadership of the party's
Harare province, the most
important in the country, factional violence broke
out.
The state-controlled Herald reported that youths from one faction
stoned
police trying to keep order. The leadership of one faction had to
flee on
foot.
In the western provinces of Matabeleland, almost the
entire Zanu--PF
membership is rumoured to have deserted out of discontent,
leaving a
threadbare hierarchy.
The shooting in the hand of air force
commander Perence Shiri at the
weekend, coming after the death in a car
accident of another senior party
official, have also stoked speculation of
spiralling Zanu-PF infighting.
Mugabe's regime has accused the MDC of
training youths in Botswana for
'banditry' - claims rejected by Zimbabwe's
neighbours in the Southern
African Development Community as to be taken
'with a pinch of salt'.
The MDC has lashed back, saying violence
involving Zanu-PF members is likely
caused by the party's unresolved
succession issue.
Mugabe has ruled with a vice grip for nearly 29 years.
Ever since his
authority and popularity began to be questioned in the
mid-1990s, discussion
about when he will retire and who will replace him
have been firmly quashed.
'This is a nationalist party that is now
exhausted and tired,' said Nelson
Chamisa, spokesman for the MDC, which
dealt Zanu-PF its first-ever electoral
defeat in elections this
year.
'Zanu-PF has failed to renew and refresh itself and those who have
been
controlling it since time immemorial have failed to pass on the baton,'
he
said, adding: 'When this happens, the revolution begins to eat its own
children.'
At public appearances over the last week, the smooth-faced
Mugabe looked as
if he had aged rapidly. He appeared haggard, anxious - but
as grimly
determined as ever.
http://www.zimeye.org/?p=844
By Moses Muchemwa
Bulawayo (ZimEye)-Over fifty mental patients
at Zimbabwe's Ingutsheni
hospital in Bulawayo have died of hunger as the
institution has run out of
food and depleted drugs stocks.
.
A senior
official at the hospital, Naboth Chaibva said the deaths were
caused by an
acute shortage of food. He noted that as a result of the
unbalanced diet,
the hospital continued to record a number of deaths because
of
malnutrition.
Deaths related to hunger are also recorded daily in
prisons.
Under normal circumstances Ingutsheni hospital patients get
three meals a
day and snacks but all that is a thing of the past. Chaibva
added that the
number of inmates have been slashed to 450 from 600, citing
serious shortage
of food. The 400 inmates at the institution are not getting
a high protein
diet although their medication requires a lot of
food.
Zimbabwe is reeling under one of the worst economic crisis
worldwide, with
an inflation figure hitting 5 quintillion, according to
independent
statisticians. The economic meltdown is blamed on President
Robert Mugabe's
28-year rule.
To worsen the shortage of food, the
hospital is operating with a skeleton
staff since doctors, nurses and other
medical staff are leaving the ravaged
country to neighbouring states for
greener pastures. Chaibva said
experienced staff was resigning due to
pathetic salaries.
The deaths at the mental health institution come
against a backdrop of
rising cholera deaths, which have reached 1 000. Close
to 20 000 cases have
been recorded countrywide.
Zimbabwe's economy,
healthcare and education systems have collapsed, with
critics pointing
Mugabe's maladministration and rampant corruption as forces
behind the
deteriorating living standards.
(ZimEye, Zimbabwe)
(moses Muchemwa is a
journalist and partner with the ZimEye. He can be
contacted at mmuchemwa@zimEye.com)
This entry
was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 10:23 am
http://www.radiovop.com
Chiredzi- Chiredzi General Hospital,
Masvingo's second largest
hospital which services clinics from as far as
Crook's Corner in Chikombedzi
and Rupangwana on the border with Manicaland,
was closed this week following
a critical manpower shortage as nurses and
doctors' strike deepens.
Speaking to Radio VOP soon after
the closure of the Hospital, Chiredzi
West Member of Parliament Moses Mare
said: "The situation is very bad in
Chiredzi. As I am speaking, eightpeople
have already died due to lack of
medication since the closure of the
hospital. Cholera is still making a
bumper harvest in my area."
"Zinwa (Zimbabwe National Water Revenue) has completely failed and now
the
hospital has been closed. We are very worried because this development
would
mean more deaths in Chiredzi," explained Mare.
The institution was
also facing serious food and medical shortages
among others.
"I
am still shocked, I never thought the situation would end up like
this. Our
lives are in danger, we can not afford to go for medication in
private
institutions because we don't have the money. We are appealing to
the
authorities to help us immediately," said a resident Malver
Dhlakama.
Most residents cannot afford private surgeries as they
charge clients
in foreign currency.
"I can not afford the money
for medication at private hospitals
because they are charging a minimum of
R100 as consultation fee. We don't
earn forex and we shall die if the
situation is ignored," said another
resident.
The Provincial
Medical director (PMD) Dr Robert Mudyiradima could not
comment as he was
reported to have gone to a funeral service. His deputy Dr
Jaravaza also
failed to shed light concerning the issue. Dr Jaravaza said he
was still in
the process to get accurate information from Dr Ngere, the
District Medical
Officer.
Most major hospitals in Zimbabwe have closed under similar
conditions.
Meanwhile, Cholera is still spreading in Chiredzi town.
There are
three recorded deaths in the town while 120 cases of Cholera were
treated
this month. An average of 47 patients are treated for cholera at the
Chiredzi Poly Clinic.
Gwachara resettlement area recorded more
incidences of Cholera as they
lack clean water for consumption.
Zimbabwe is facing a cholera outbreak since August that has seen 1 000
lives
lost.
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Chiredzi Town (Chiredzi West constituency) We have a known 147 cases
of
Cholera with 6 deaths to date.
People are angry and frustrated
trying to get money out of the banks
and when they do manage this task they
can buy very little food with it. I
have not seen any NGO food in Chiredzi
at all.
Local Communal areas. (Chiredzi East, North and South
constituency's)
There are reports of Cholera cases and deaths coming in from
the communal
areas, but nothing official, definitely wide spread now with a
report that
it is within 12km of Chikombedzi Township a hundred km to the
south of
Chiredzi. (Chiredzi South constituency)
NGO's are in
the communal areas distributing grain but reports say
that many needy people
are getting nothing, it seems that if a village has
some cattle or goats
they get less because they are told to sell their stock
for
food.
Comment
In all these areas there is no visible
effort to combat the spread of
cholera; even with a massive effort put in
place, I feel that cholera and
other diseases will spread rapidly into our
neighbouring countries and
eventually overseas. Zimbabwe has a dysfunctional
government in fact a bunch
of criminals running it for their own gains and
they have no compassion for
the people.
If nothing is done soon
to end the Mugabe regimes rein of terror,
there is no telling what disease
or evil will appear next.
http://www.radiovop.com
HARARE, December 17, 2008 -
THE General Plantation Workers' Union of
Zimbabwe (Gawpuz) has embarked on
campaign to education farm workers about
cholera which has killed nearly 1
000 people in the country since the
outbreak in August this
year.
Gapwuz secretary-general Gertrude Hambira said
the campaign was
started after releasing that farm workers were some of the
people affected
by the disease because of their status in society.
She said educating farm workers about the causes, symptoms and
prevention
methods would help them fight the disease.
The workers were also being
taught how to help a cholera patient
before taking him or her to the nearest
health centre.
"We believe that knowledge is power and once the farm
workers know
what not to do, that is the beginning but our main worry is
that there is no
provision of good quality water at the farms and has called
on the concerned
stakeholders to assist with the provision of medication and
water
purification tablets," said Hambira.
Gapwuz is the country's
largest farm worker representative body with
over 30 000 members. Hambira
said the wave of cholera, a contagious disease,
which has hit most urban
areas in Zimbabwe, has not spared the farming and
rural areas as farm
workers have also succumbed to the disease.
She said farm workers were
most affected because most of them do not
have access to clean running
water.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) fears that the disease that
broke
out in August may affect 60 000 people in a few weeks.
The 'Freedom Fone' project is being run by a non-governmental organisation
called Kubatana. Digital Planet, BBC World Service's technology programme, spoke to Brenda
Burrell who is the organisation's technical director. "What we are trying to do with Freedom Fone is simplify the interactive use
of voice response (IVR) for non-technical users", said Ms Burrell. "IVR has been around for many years now and many people have used it when
they hit an automated answering service that directs them to select certain
numbers from their keypad to direct their call to the relevant place. "The aim of the project is to make IVR a means to which people can extend
their information campaigns," she added. Prototype These audio clips populate an IVR menu through which callers can navigate for
information. "Essentially what you do is upload audio files, so they build these little
audio menus, so that you can welcome someone to your service and offer them
options that they can select," said Ms Burrell. The target market for Freedom Fone is among development organisations or
social groups in communities, who know that the best way to reach their
audiences is through telephony rather than through tools like the internet and
email. "The most common technology device they have is a mobile phone and many more
people have access to those than they do to the internet and email," said Ms
Burrell. "We know that increasingly in some countries, more people have access to
mobile phones than they do to television or radio," she added. Freedom Fone has been used as a prototype in a number of information
campaigns, one of which was a sexual health campaign called "Auntie Stella".
"Young people have questions that they are often embarassed to ask, so we
felt that this was an interesting way to deploy Freedom Fone - targeting an
audience that typically has taken to mobile telephony," said Ms Burrell. As the project is still in its early stages, every information campaign is
providing new and creative ways of disseminating the information using IVR. "It could be information on where they could get themselves tested for HIV,
or it could be a service that provides a very small minority with information in
their own language," said Ms Burrell. The future The feedback from those that have used Freedom Fone has been positive. "We found people to be quite inspired by the prospects of what could be done
with the tool," said Ms Burrell. "We have had people from the DRC contact us, they are interested in using the
tool to provide support to women who have been the victims of sexual assault as
a result of the unrest in that country. "We have also had people from Thailand, to help support sex workers because
they are an audience that's unlikely to access radio and will need to be
producing their own support materials over time. "It's just a question of re-directing information and how we package it," she
added. The project is based in Harare, Zimbabwe, where news and information are
heavily censored by the government, so the safety of those using and consuming
information via Freedom Fone is an issue. "People can use Freedom Fone to convey whatever message and whatever content
they need to," said Ms Burrell. "However, this tool is going to make a difference to anybody reaching out in
the health services or those working in disaster relief scenarios," she added.
Alka Marwaha
BBC World Service
A new information
service to deliver news and public-interest information via land, mobile and
internet phones is being trialled in Zimbabwe.
Audio files are stored
by Freedom Fone in a content management system, which is updated through a
simple browser interface.
Although
texting could be another way of delivering information, it does have its
limitations. "One of the limits of SMS is there are only 160 characters that you
can use to leave your message," said Ms Burrell.
One of
the major drawbacks of the phone information service is the cost. "Its major
impediment is that people have to dial up and pay for information, or your
service has to pay to dial or call back," said Ms Burrell.
http://en.afrik.com
The UN issued a warning,
Tuesday, indicating it may cut food rations to the
crisis-stricken country
of Zimbabwe. The number of Zimbabweans who receive
food rations is expected
to soar from 4 to over 5 million next month amid a
growing cholera crisis
which is also expected to worsen and possibly affect
the whole region during
the rainy season, which has already begun.
(Wednesday 17 December - 13:11)
http://uk.reuters.com
Wed Dec 17, 2008 1:56pm GMT
HARARE
(Reuters) - Zimbabwe's central bank on Thursday injected 80 trillion
Zimbabwe dollars (5.2 million pounds) in new bank notes into the economy in
a bid to end cash shortages that have seen hordes besieging banks amid a
deepening economic crisis.
Zimbabwe has the highest inflation rate in
the world, officially above 231
million percent but believed to be
significantly higher, and bank notes have
joined a long list of shortages in
the country.
The crisis-hit southern African country is also battling a
cholera epidemic
that has killed at least 565 people, according to the
United Nations.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe RBZ.L Governor Gideon Gono told
reporters the
central bank would continue to take measures to meet the high
demand for
cash.
"Banking institutions were issued with a total of
Z$80 trillion to prepare
their systems for the increased cash withdrawal
limits beginning on the 4th
of December, through the issuance of new notes,"
Gono said.
The central bank introduced new higher value notes in Z$10
million, Z$50
million and Z$100 million denominations and raised cash
withdrawal limits
five-fold to Z$500,000 million per week from December12,
and Z$10 billion
per month with effect from December19.
Workers would
be allowed to withdraw their entire salaries upon presentation
of a pay
cheque, from January 12 2009, Gono said.
He said the new measures had
been agreed to with the country's main labour
federation, the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions ZCTU.L, whose leaders Gono
met on Wednesday after
they called for nationwide protests over the bank
note
shortages.
Tensions rose as groups of unarmed soldiers this week clashed
with police
after going on a rampage, seizing cash from foreign currency
traders and
looting shops.
Critics say President Robert Mugabe's
policies, such as the seizure of
white-owned farms to resettle landless
blacks, have ruine the economy. He
blames Western sanctions for the
crisis.
Analysts say a power-sharing pact signed by Mugabe and bitter
opposition
rival Morgan Tsvangirai presents the best hope to rescue the
economy, but
the agreement is threatened by a raging dispute over control of
key
ministries.
(Reporting by Nelson Banya; Editing by Phumza Macanda
and Victoria Main)
http://www.zimdaily.com
By NOZIPHO
MASEKO
Published: Wednesday 17 December 2008
ZIMBABWE - HARARE -
President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday decided against
declaring a state of
Emergency in Zimbabwe, after mulling this option,
ending intense
speculations that kept the country on tenterhooks.
After a string of
statements from both the ruling party and opposition
politicians since late
last weekend, openly speculating about President
Mugabe's plans to declare a
State of Emergency, a top Politburo member
announced that Emergency was not
being clamped and "all speculations and
rumours about it are
unfounded".
The official, who spoke after attending the crucial Zanu-PF
Politburo
meeting in Harare Tuesday, said the President wants free, fair and
transparent elections if the talks with the MDC failed. He had played safe
since weekend neither confirming nor denying moves to clamp
Emergency.
"The President wants free, fair and transparent
elections if the talks with
the MDC flops," the official said. "Any action
that will play a negative
role is not in line with his
thinking.
In the current situation, the President thinks that
there is no requirement
of a State of Emergency and that is why there is no
question of imposing
Emergency now," he said.
Mugabe's
decision came a day ahead of the official opening of his Zanu-PF
national
people's conference in Bindura tomorrow. He opens the conference
with his
party embattled and deeply divided, rocked by massive factionalism
and
desertions.
Significantly, the official admitted there was
pressure from different
quarters for the imposition of a State of Emergency.
There was pressure on
the President from different political sources that it
was time to impose
Emergency, but the decision was left for President Mugabe
himself to make,
he said.
Outgoing Justice Minister Patrick
Chinamasda stocked the speculation fires
when he said that there was
"compelling evidence" that the MDC was preparing
for war while negotiating
and that condition was ripe for a state of
Emergency and the government was
seriously considering it.
He said the MDC was working with
Botswana, offering military training to MDC
supporters. Chinamasa had also
cited "external and internal threats" and the
deteriorating law and order
situation in the country.
"There is a provision in the
constitution regarding imposition of emergency
but the president is of the
opinion that the present time is not fit for
enforcing it," the official
said.
Many political analysts believe that the accusations that
the MDC could have
been linked to the shooting of Air Marshall Perence Shiri
last weekend made
some government ministers to openly speculate about
it.
Also, exiled former MDC President, Morgan Tsvangirai, widely
reported to be
a special guest of Botswana President Ian Khama, said that
imposition of
emergency would be a 'drastic' step.
President
Mugabe reportedly considered the option of either going for
emergency which
could be imposed without a resolution of the combined
meeting of parliament
consisting of house of assembly and senate.
The immediate benefit
of the emergency, which besides suspending fundamental
rights, also empowers
him to dissolve the opposition-dominated Parliament
which is refusing to
form government before he gives them key ministries,
diplomatic appointments
and perm sec posts.
While the state of emergency was to restrict
courts to enforce fundamental
rights, a lawyer with the Zimbabwe Lawyers for
Human Rights said if it was
imposed there was sufficient scope for the
Supreme Court to decide whether
the conditions were justified or not for
imposition of emergency.
"There was absolutely no case to impose
emergency. Even if Pressident Mugabe
had imposed it, the Supreme Court would
have struck it down. We were going
to ensure that," he said.
He however
admitted: "But it would have been a tough call."
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Wednesday, 17 December
2008
AS the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe spreads across
regional borders,
southern African governments have come together to discuss
a regional
strategy to stem the outbreak. But the cholera outbreak and other
emergency
conditions are symptoms of the broader political crisis in
Zimbabwe. There
will be no end to the suffering unless regional leaders
acknowledge this
fact.
The world has watched this collapse
as it has evolved. A recent Human
Rights Watch mission to Zimbabwe
documented the abusive policies, corruption
and repressive governance that
have led directly to the economic collapse,
humanitarian crisis and growing
public desperation. Poor governance,
state-sponsored violence , intimidation
and corruption have not only
prevented Zimbabwe's citizens from exercising
their civil and political
rights but have also denied them their right to
satisfy their most basic
social and economic needs - for food, health and
clean water.
The lack of safe drinking water, which caused the
cholera outbreak, is
the direct result of the government's economic
mismanagement and poor
governance. Many Zimbabweans have not had access to
water that meets even
basic sanitary requirements for almost a year now
because of the poor
maintenance of delivery systems.
As for
access to food, the state-sanctioned post-election violence not
only
destroyed many granaries, but also led to much forced displacement,
leaving
much of the population dependent on food assistance. Official
interference
in the operations of humanitarian agencies that distribute food
aid worsened
the crisis.
Southern African leaders need to recognise that the
food and health
crises in Zimbabwe cannot be separated from the political
crisis. People are
not only losing their political rights, they are dying of
disease and hunger
as a direct result of the situation. Sadly, the
indications are that
regional leaders continue to tiptoe around the
problem.
With Robert Mugabe refusing to cede any meaningful
executive power to
the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the
power-sharing agreement signed
on September 15 is no longer viable. The
world hoped that the agreement
would lead to the end of his government's
abusive practices, the formation
of a credible government of national unity
and a gradual recovery in the
country's economic and social
conditions.
However, southern Africa - SA in particular - has
continued to hide
behind the failed efforts of its mediator, Thabo Mbeki.
Mugabe has been left
in the driver's seat to continue with his abusive
policies and practices,
while Mbeki chose a soft target, casting MDC leader
Morgan Tsvangirai as the
more intransigent party in the mediation process,
and placed all the
pressure on him to end the political
impasse.
Leaders of Southern African Development Community (SADC)
countries
continue to push Tsvangirai to sign an agreement that would leave
Mugabe in
control of repressive institutions of the state.
SADC
leaders need to move beyond the mindset of a quick backroom
political fix
that leaves Mugabe running critical institutions that have
caused the very
policies which have led to Zimbabwe's food and health
crisis. International
assistance in bringing an end to the current
humanitarian crisis may help
Zimbabweans in the short term, but there can be
no long-term solutions
unless repressive political institutions are
dismantled and abusive policies
and corrupt practices are halted.
SADC leaders should exert
concerted political pressure, insisting on a
clear political reform agenda
that includes dismantling security structures
and reforming the police and
other repressive institutions. An end to
corruption and human rights abuses
are absolute requirements for a
settlement of the crisis. SADC leaders must
not accept any deal short of
that.
Until that happens, the
humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe - and its
harmful and spreading effect on
the rest of the region - will continue. - By
Tiseke Kasambala
Kasambala is senior researcher on Zimbabwe for Human Rights Watch.
http://story.irishsun.com
Irish Sun
Wednesday 17th
December, 2008
(IANS)
Zimbabwe's neighbours in the Southern
African Development Community
Wednesday announced a new mechanism for
delivering urgent humanitarian aid
to the crisis-hit southern African
country.
South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, whose country
currently chairs
SADC, said financial and material aid would be channelled
through a new
structure called the Zimbabwe Humanitarian and Development
Assistance
Framework (ZHDAF).
The ZHDAF, which would be non-partisan,
would comprise of government,
non-profit organisations, religious leaders
and agricultural unions, he told
a press conference at government buildings
in Pretoria.
Every member of the 15-nation grouping was expected to
contribute to ZHDAF
'in accordance with (their) resources and
capabilities'.
All parties to Zimbabwe's political impasse, including
autocratic President
Robert Mugabe, supported the initiative, he
said.
'President Mugabe accepts also that the situation is very dire and
that the
people of Zimbabwe need assistance to relieve them of the
deprivation
they've had to endure for some time,' Motlanthe said.
The
severe cholera outbreak that has killed around 1,000 people since August
had
compounded an 'already bad situation', characterised by serious food
shortages, he said.
Over three million Zimbabweans are in need of
food aid, a number expected to
exceed five million by early
2009.
Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis has accelerated in recent months in
the
absence of a legitimate government.
Mugabe's Zanu-PF has been in
negotiations with the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) about
the formation of a unity government for three
months since signing a
power-sharing agreement in September.
Motlanthe said he was optimistic
that the new government would be in place
by the end of the week after a
constitutional amendment giving effect to the
September deal was gazetted by
government.
The MDC has, however, vowed to block the amendment's passage
through
parliament until all of its concerns about sharing power with Mugabe
are
addressed.
http://www.rsf.org
Zimbabwe 17 December
2008
Reporters
Without Borders is very disturbed by the abduction of freelance
photojournalist Shadreck Manyere and attempted abduction of Obrian Rwafa, a
reporter with the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), in
separate incidents on 13 December, just 10 days after the kidnapping of
journalist and human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, who is still
missing.
"Whoever was responsible, these kidnapping were clearly designed
to sow
terror among Zimbabwe's journalists, whose investigative work is more
indispensible than ever in the current social, economic and public health
situation," Reporters Without Borders said. "The authorities must do
everything possible to identify the perpetrators and instigators and bring
them to justice."
Also known as "Saddam," Manyere was seen for the
last time at a garage in
Norton, 40 km west of Harare, on 13 December.
Sources close to Manyere said
he had received a phone call from someone
asking to meet him. As he readily
agreed, it is believed he knew the caller.
His family has not heard from him
since then and his mobile phone has been
turned off.
His wife said that, the day after his disappearance, a group
of police
officers went to the family's home and ransacked it.
Rwafa
said he was outside his home on 13 December when unidentified
individuals
accused him of lying about the situation in Zimbabwe, began
hitting him and
forced him into a white car, which then drove off. By
wrestling with the
driver, Rwafa forced the car off the road and managed to
escape. He said the
attack seemed to have been politically motivated as his
assailants did not
try to rob him. He is currently in hospital with head
injuries and
bruising.
George Charamba, the permanent secretary for information and
publicity and
President Robert Mugabe's spokesman, has meanwhile twice
threatened
journalists working for foreign news media, which he accuses of
waging a
propaganda war against the government.
In an interview for
ZBC on 12 December, he accused the local bureau of
foreign news media of
quoting President Mugabe of out context when they
reported that he said the
government had "arrested" the cholera outbreak.
Charamba added that the
government was not obliged to accredit foreign news
organisations under
Zimbabwe's press law, called the Access to Information
and Protection of
Privacy Act.
He repeated his threats the next day in a column in the
state-owned daily
The Herald, accusing the Reuters, AP and AFP news agencies
and the France
24, BBC and Al Jazeera TV news stations of "rewriting" the
news copy
provided by their local staff to "suit their nations' agendas."
There would
be a "robust response," he added.
In January 2007, the state-run water authority, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) issued a stark warning:
Zimbabwe's Grief: Cholera and Strange Things
Witches: "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble".
The witches' incantations in William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" certainly resonate with the tragedy that Zimbabwe has become. The country has been a cracked house for some time. The only difference between now and then is that the house is uncontrollably leaking from all corners and there is pandemonium everywhere.
As Zimbabwe shrinks further into horror in form of cholera deaths, political assassinations and abductions, poverty and disease as well as impending mass starvations, it is imperative upon Mugabe to prove to Zimbabweans and the world that his conscience is not dead and that he is indeed still sane. Is he not left with nothing by now? Turning in his grave, Shakespeare must be writing another one entitled: "Now does he (Mugabe) feel his title hang loose about him, like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief."
First of all we need to expose the brazen and ridiculous lies peddled by Mugabe and his men that "the cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe is a serious biological, chemical war force, a genocidal onslaught, on the people of Zimbabwe by the British," as stated on the state-controlled national television by Mugabe's Minister of (Mis)Information , Sikhanyiso Ndhlovu. Sadly it is the only television network in Zimbabwe.
The shameless remarks above have to be exposed for what they are, with some quick fact-check:
On February 20 2006, World Health Organization (WHO ZIMBABWE) released a report stating that cholera outbreak started in Chikomba on November 28 2005. Harare outbreak was reported in Glen View on December 28 2005. Many other parts of Zimbabwe began to experience the same problem. The cause was stated as contaminated water as government financially struggled to chlorinate its water supplies.
In January 2007, the state-run water authority, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) issued a stark warning:
"A breakdown at a major sewage treatment plant had left it spewing 72 mega-liters of raw sewage per day into a river that feeds into Lake Chivero, Harare's main source of drinking water." (Associated Press)
On February 2, 2007, almost two years ago, Associated Press also reported that "Nineteen people have contracted cholera in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, in the first outbreak of the often-deadly disease in the city in a year, Zimbabwe state radio reported Friday. The 19 are from the impoverished eastern townships of Mabvuku and Tafara, where residents have gone without clean running water for days and have been using unprotected wells, the report said."
The problems related to water supplies, did not start yesterday as the Mugabe regime wants the world to believe. Associated Press (Feb 2, 2007) also reported that "Health officials have been sent to the area to hand out water purification tablets. Zimbabwean Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa said the situation was 'under control,' the report added". A similar reckless and misleading conclusion was made by Mugabe last week (December 11, 2008) stating, "so now that there is no cholera, there is no cause for war anymore." We have just learnt from UN that the cholera death toll has gone past 1000 and the number of infected has more than doubled to over 18 000.
The Associated Press also stated that "Harare once was known as the Sunshine City because of its cleanliness, but six years of economic decline have taken their toll. In many suburbs, garbage goes uncollected for weeks because the authorities have no fuel to power waste collection, while sewage flows freely from broken pipes authorities say they have no money to fix."
As usual, Mugabe and his men proved again that they are forever stuck in a state of self-deception and denial. We all know that this is about an illegitimate and failed leadership presiding over a pariah of a state.They chastised "maBritish" with the same old tired rants charging that "Gordon Brown must be taken to the United Nations Security Council for being a threat to world peace and planting cholera and anthrax to invade Zimbabwe – our peaceful Zimbabwe,"
How dare they call Zimbabwe peaceful when hundreds have been butchered mercilessly under the hands of Mugabe and his men just in 2008 alone? What is peaceful about Zimbabwe when political violence and several abductions are on the increase? What is peaceful about Zimbabwe when millions face starvation? Where are the twelve MDC activists whom they abducted? Where is Jestina Mukoko?
In any country other than Zimbabwe, such negligence and dereliction of duty that has caused a death toll of over 1000 (and mounting) would have been met with great public outrage, several lawsuits, multiple resignations, imprisonments and impeachments. I have a message for Robert Mugabe: For the sake of the people of Zimbabwe, please go away, to hell if possible (and don't come back)! Cholera is not a neo-imperialistic chicanery; it is an indictment of your disregard for the dignity and sanctity of human life.
Fast forwarding to other issues that also constitute a litany of Zimbabwe's turmoil, there have been a lot of strange things happening in the land lately. Since the soldiers went on a rampage demanding access to their 'hyper-inflation –bartered' money as well as the Manyika debacle, conspiracy theorists have mushroomed. As many have argued that the rampage was indeed staged, I had to quickly resume my mildly interesting 'job' of blogging.
The bottom-line of my argument was also encapsulated in my previous article "Mugabe's Self-inflicted Miserable Quandary (www.nationalvision.wordpress.com) .Simply put, what we are seeing in Zimbabwe is a case of 'chickens coming home to roost', it is a spontaneous implosion. I argued that people must not continue to elevate Mugabe to some kind of a political genius. He is a tired and paranoid man, devoid of any solution about how to get Zimbabwe out of the mess he created.
'Given Mugabe's own mounting sense of doom and waning conviction of indomitability, there is no doubt these are the last days of the dictatorship. With a usurped presidency and a crumbling crown to secure, only violence is his last resort as he has done throughout his tenure. That same violence will be used indiscriminately on foes and friends alike. No one is safe anymore, not even his so called closest allies.
When Mugabe declared that he was President after losing the elections, he did not anticipate all these problems that have developed in such a short space of time. Not even Lady Macduff (Grace) herself. Things will only get worse the longer he hangs on.
The recent death of his top 'general' Elliot Manyika, though overwhelmingly welcomed by Zimbabweans, should see his epitaph reading "To Whom It May Concern: Be Very Afraid". Coincidentally there has been a surge in 'state accidents and incidents'. In the meantime, there will be blood (within Zanu PF) as the vicious internal power struggles and the plots for customary rituals thicken.
Could it be a ploy to declare a state of emergency? No. If so, then what? The problems facing Zimbabwe are too ghastly to contemplate while no one in Mugabe's government has a clue on how to solve them. While Zimbabwe is already a near-failed state, it is less likely to reach the levels of Somalia or Sudan.
The underlying political dynamics have to be changed if progress is ever going to be made in Zimbabwe. President Morgan Tsvangirai has the people's mandate to restore Zimbabwe's pride. It will happen. Unfortunately, for now, Mugabe is choosing a path that will leave Zimbabwe in greater grief than already experienced. As argued earlier, seizing the opportunity to settle for a bona fide government of national unity will afford him a quasi-graceful exit from Zimbabwe's political arena that is long overdue.
http://www.channel4.com
Last Modified: 17 Dec 2008
The
academic year has just ended in Zimbabwe but for most families it has
come
as a non event, writes guest blogger Helen.
Parents whose children attend
rural government schools have reached the
point of utter despair after a
year in which their children have had less
than a month in the
classroom.
Lilian is 15 and this year should have finished the first half
of her
O-level syllabus but at the end of 52 weeks her school writing books
have
only got two or three pages of writing in them.
All year it has
been one thing after another that has kept the classrooms
closed: teachers
on strike; elections; schools being used as polling booths;
post election
violence; more elections and then more strikes.
In the last term of the
year which began in September, Lilian's parents
hoped that at last their
daughter might be taught some lessons but by then,
after four months of
abductions, beatings and post election violence, all
the teachers had
fled.
On the first week of term all the children arrived at the
school but no
teachers turned up. By the second week some children were
still walking to
school every day but the teachers strike had
deepened.
At the beginning of the third week Lilian came back from the
school after a
couple of hours and said that the classrooms were still
locked, the
Headmaster hadn't turned up and a caretaker told the children to
try again
next week.
Six weeks into the semester and at the point
when children should have been
having a long weekend for half term, Lilian
still hadn't seen her teacher,
opened a single book or even set foot in her
classroom.
In despair her parents began looking for a place for Lilian at
other
schools. All the other rural government schools were in the same
position:
closed, without teachers and not offering any chance for a teenage
girl to
write her O levels.
Mission schools were still operating but
because of the collapse of the
government schools, the church based
institutions were all grossly
over-subscribed.
At one Mission school
that Lilian's father went to, the Headmaster said that
he had been
intimidated into enrolling eighty more students then they had
facilities to
cope with.
These were the children of government cronies and army men and
people with
connections to the ruling party.
The Headmaster had no
choice but to agree to take them in despite the fact
that he had run out of
desks, chairs and text books and the teacher to pupil
ratio was three times
more than it should be.
Urban schools were not much better: more students
than places; collapsing
infrastructure; decrepit equipment and a rapidly
dwindling number of
teachers.
Lilian and her parents will accept any
place at any school for the 2009
academic year. Even with cholera stalking
the towns, raw sewage flowing in
the streets and alleys of high density
areas and no food in the shops,
anything is better for Lilian than not being
able to finish her schooling.
If she cannot get some O-levels, Lilian
knows that she is destined for a
teenage marriage and a life of toil growing
vegetables and trying to eke out
a life engaged in subsistence agriculture
in a dusty, primitive village.
http://www.bluemountainscourierherald.com/courierherald/pictorial/125105
Author: Erika Engel,
Staff
Date: Dec 17, 2008
He's been beaten, jailed and exiled from his
home in Zimbabwe by the Robert
Mugabe led Regime.
Roy Bennett
fights for democratic change from his refuge in South Africa.
Now, he
is the treasurer general of the opposition party in Zimbabwe called
the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). It's a post-liberation movement
without precedent in Africa, and the people's struggle is all uphill.
Bennett was a farmer in Zimbabwe years ago when the infrastructure was
second to none and the country had a reputation as Africa's biggest exporter
of food. Now people starve, there is no clean water or sewage treatment, and
an education is a luxury unknown.
"I will stay in it until we've
delivered change to people, then I will be
happy to get out of it and be a
simple farmer again," said Bennett at
Ashanti Coffee Enterprises in
Thornbury on December 11.
He made the stop in The Blue Mountains on a
recent on a recent trip to
Canada. David and Amy Wilding-Davies, owners of
Ashanti, and Karen Clegg,
marketing coordinator, invited him to the coffee
shop and presented him with
a cheque for $3,100 - a result of a Zimday
fundraising event at the coffee
shop on November 29.
Bennett will put
the money in a Zimfund and use it to buy medical supplies
for victims of
political violence. He spent a couple hours speaking to the
small crowd that
gathered in the coffee shop. They were eager to ask
questions and listened
to Bennett's first-hand account of political
corruption and resilient
Zimbabweans.
"You've got to take your hat off to the Zimbabwe
people," he said, noting
the brutality and torture done to them for defying
the Mugabe regime and
voting for democratic change.
"[The people]
lose everything," he said. "Their income, their homes. Their
families are
raped, they are imprisoned, beaten ... We as a party are unable
to support
them, but they've continued strong, wanting change."
He has photos on
his computer of vicious acts of torture and violence.
Infrastructure
has crumbled, and the people are devastated. Neighbouring
countries have
declared their shared borders disaster areas because of the
rampage of fatal
diseases. All the horror, says Bennett, began after voters
rejected Mugabe's
constitution to grant him absolute rule of the country for
life.
"The problem in Zimbabwe is a political problem," said
Bennett. "So until we
can bring about political change, we are not going to
be able to ease the
suffering of the people."
He says it is
resources that will win the war for change. Without them, the
people remain
oppressed, and their stand against Mutable, though defiant and
courageous,
gains no ground.
But Bennett is not in Zimbabwe anymore, he and his
family are in South
Africa, they could move to Canada, be far away from the
suffering. Bennett,
himself said there isn't anything good in Zimbabwe right
now. Why not leave?
His answer is calculated, but shaken with
emotion.
"In life you have a lot of choices," he
starts.
He interrupts the thought to explain his history as a farmer
in a new
community. He got involved with the people there. Taught them about
income
farming. Helped them develop stability. They pushed him into
politics.
Fifteen died in the fight for change.
"It's an honour
to represent them," said Bennett. "They have shown
solidarity and sacrifice
on my behalf ... It's not about me or my family,
it's about them. Those
people - they have seen hope. They have seen truth
and honesty ...I would be
walking away from these people ... surely they
haven't given their lives in
vain."
It's a dark time for a nation that fell from glory. The
infrastructure that
was second to none, even under Mugabe's early rule, has
crumbled. AIDS and
Cholera are rampant and vicious.
Bennett says it's
genocide in a country that was once a "gem." People are
dying because the
government will not provide what they deserve. They want
only a roof over
their heads, education for their children and two meals a
day. It's not a
stretch for a country that once was the largest exporter of
food in
Africa.
"You never ever know about the adversity or the suffering of
people until
you get there," said Bennett. "Their only hope is in fellow
people who do
good."
The owners at Ashanti committed themselves
to forming a local group to
support the MDC and the people of Zimbabwe in
their fight for change.
HARARE, 17 December 2008 (PlusNews) - Farai
Zhova, 15, from Kadoma, about 140km southwest of the Zimbabwean capital, Harare,
was just 10 years old when a school lesson about HIV/AIDS changed her and her
mother's life for the better.
Photo:
Kristy Siegfried/IRIN
"I want
to urge all parents to talk to their children about
HIV/AIDS"
She talked to IRIN/PlusNews about watching
her mother, Evelyn Mazula, 40, struggle with a mysterious illness for two years
before becoming convinced that her mother was HIV-positive and persuading her to
be tested.
"My mother fell ill in 2001. At first she could still do
certain things on her own, but eventually the illness took over her body. She
lost a lot of weight and spent most of the time in bed. She could not get up on
her own.
"Every day I used to wake up very early in the morning and make
porridge for her. I would feed her before leaving for school; then I would take
a bucket of water, soap and a towel and bathe her in bed.
"At first my
father used to be very supportive, but after my mother's illness continued he
started not coming home. When he did come to check on us he was verbally
abusive. He would tell my mother to go back to her family's home because she had
become useless. This used to pain me very much.
"One day my grandparents
came to our home and my father asked them to take my mother with them. My father
said some hurtful things and my grandfather wanted to beat him up.
"My
grandfather is a reverend in the Anglican church. He is a gentle and kind man,
but on that day I saw another side of him. Our neighbours had to come and stop
the fighting. The very same day we left for my grandparents' home. My father
didn't want me to leave - he hid my clothes - but my grandfather wouldn't hear
any of it.
"At my grandparents' place life was much better, as they took
care of my mother very well. Occasionally I would help but I had more time to do
my schoolwork, since the role of taking care of my mother wasn't just with me.
"All the time my mother was ill, my grandfather kept encouraging her to
get an HIV test but my mother always refused. She kept insisting she had been
bewitched.
"I didn't even know what my grandfather was talking about. I
kept wondering to myself what the words 'HIV test' and 'AIDS' meant. One day at
school I asked my teacher about these words and she gave the whole class a
lecture.
"All the symptoms of HIV/AIDS that she spoke about, my mother
had. Later on, after everyone had gone home, I told my teacher this and she told
me to go and teach my mother everything we had learnt that day.
"At home
that evening I told my mother all I had learnt. I told her to get tested so that
she can get help, and that my teacher had told us that after getting tested
there are herbs and drugs that HIV-positive people can take to recover.
"After I told my mother all this she cried for a very long time. My
grandparents ran to her bedroom and asked what was wrong. When I told them, they
too cried.
"A few days later my mother went to get tested and her result
was positive. She got tested four times after that but the result came back the
same. She had a hard time accepting, but eventually she did.
"In 2005,
after AIDS drugs became available in government hospitals, my mother was one of
the first people in Kadoma to get the drugs. Now she is strong and healthy and
is able to work and take care of me.
"Everyone here in Kadoma knows her.
She is a peer educator and a counsellor. She now travels around the world
teaching people about HIV/AIDS. I am very proud of her.
"All I wanted
was for her to get well, so that she could take care of me again and see me
grow. Everything else doesn't matter. I want to urge all parents to talk to
their children about HIV/AIDS, because as children we are often left out and
feel confused, hurting and lonely."
[ENDS]
http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk
Wednesday, 17th
December 2008. 4:01pm
By: Obert Matahwa.
Harare:
Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has already
carved a place in
history for himself by challenging President Robert
Mugabe, father of the
country's liberation and a freedom fighter.
But it remains an open
question, however, whether or not he will ever
get a stab at governing the
country and restore Zimbabwe to its "jewel of
Africa" status.
The likelihood of a breakthrough in the talks between Mugabe and
Tsvangirai
is fading, and analysts wonder whether the opposition Movement
Democratic
Change is experienced enough to wrestle power.
The former trade
unionist is in a checkmate position from which his
arch enemy is most likely
to emerge the victor by demanding that he keeps
executive
power.
Over the past eight years Tsvangirai's MDC has repeatedly
requested
talks with the ruling ZANU-PF party --- the only hope Zimbabwe's
crumbling
economy has of ever coming back on track and of defusing a
volatile
situation.
Although former SA President Thabo Mbeki
insists that talks between
the government and MDC are being held behind
closed doors, very little has
resulted from these.
Recently
Mugabe unequivocally reiterated his refusal to negotiate with
the opposition
any further as he believes they are still a front for Western
powers and he
referred to the MDC leader as "prostitute" for embarking on
diplomatic tour
of the Africa continent. Mugabe further took a swipe at
British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown saying "his head must go for some
medical correction"
He criticised Tsvangirai's trip to Senegal, adding, "He
is a devil. We don't
intend sitting around a fire with the devil."
University of
Zimbabwe political science professor Eldred Masunungure
points out that ZANU
PF has been abusing state institutions to suppress the
people, at times by
means of brute force. Abductions of opposition members
have become a common
feature of Mugabe's reign of terror.
Events over the past years
have shown ZANU-PF is much more experienced
than the MDC. The latter would
have to gain experience through a coalition
government before being in a
position to resolve complex national issues
that continue to rock the
Southern African nation.
Series of arrests and trials have been
brought against Tsvangirai to
weaken his political standing. In 2002,
Tsvangirai was trapped for eight
months in a treason trial that nearly
incapacitated the MDC.
An experienced politician would have seen
through that trap,
Masunungure notes. He maintains political leaders have
instincts and need
clear judgement to analyse events as they develop and to
act accordingly.
Masunungure believes Tsvangirai is "blinded" by
the prospect of
attaining power. Opinion polls conducted at the time
indicated Tsvangirai
can win any election against Mugabe but he lost quite a
number, nonetheless,
amid hefty accusations that Mugabe's side had
cheated.
Some analysts believe the MDC had not done enough to
secure
alternative action in case they lost the elections. They did not
immediately
have capacity to push ZANU PF out of power when they won the
March
elections. The party appears to have been totally at a loss after
defeating
Mugabe and the election commission could not enthrone the
MDC.
MDC attempts at getting talks with ZANU-PF off the ground had
been
supported by leaders of the region, including Mbeki. But Mugabe still
holds
regional leaders and the opposition in contempt and has shown that he
is not
interested in sharing power. Observers say Mugabe has run out of
ideas and
that only talks can "save" him from the present
situation.
Meanwhile, an air of uncertainty is continuing. To date,
suspected
state security agents have been abducting opposition and civil
society
members to strike fear into the nation while positioning the ruling
party
for a fresh election.