The Zimbabwe Situation

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=9040

December 22, 2008

By Our Correspondent

HARARE - State agents arrested four Britons and an American in Harare on
Monday claiming they were spies who entered Zimbabwe more than a week ago
allegedly to finance activities aimed at overthrowing President Robert
Mugabe's government.

The four, who according to a ZBC news bulletin, entered the country on
December 13, allegedly claimed to be human rights doctors on a mission to
assess the health situation in Zimbabwe.

The four were arrested after it allegedly emerged they had falsified their
visit to Zimbabwe when in fact they were on a mission to sponsor the recent
revival of PF-Zapu while paving the way for the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) to take over power. The party was re-launched two weeks ago,
with Mugabe's former Minister of Home Affairs, Dumiso Dabengwa as its
leader.

"It emerged that the four were on a spying mission to meet with opposition
political leaders with a view to sponsoring the revival of PF-Zapu and
weakening the ruling Zanu-PF in order to pave way for the MDC-T to assume
power," the ZBC reported.

In the news bulletin on Monday the ZBC, which is controlled by government,
accused the opposition and NGOs of hosting the "spies".

"The team came as donors who were invited by the Zimbabwe Association of
Doctors for Human Rights for the sole purpose of assessing the heath
situation in the country particularly the cholera outbreak.

"However information gathered by ZBC news revealed that the four bogus
physicians ended up holding meetings with several diplomats and opposition
political leaders allegedly (MDC MPs) Paul Madzore and Blessing Chebundo,
civic organizations and student representatives."

The team is said to have visited several health institutions without
government permission.

The ZBC claimed it had gathered "concrete data that the team addressed
several meetings on issues pertaining to security in Zimbabwe".

"It also came to light that on 17 December at Park View restaurant, they
expressed their willingness to sponsor the revival of PF-Zapu so as to
destroy the unity accord and weaken Zanu- PF paving the way for MDC-T to
assume power," said the ZBC.

The ZBC did not state how it had gathered such detailed information. Neither
was it explained how four British citizens and an American could weaken
Zanu-PF on a brief visit to Zimbabwe. PF-Zapu, then under the leadership of
the former opposition leader Joshua Nkomo, who thereafter became Vice
President, merged with Mugabe's Zanu-PF in 1987 under the now much maligned
unity accord.

A group of disgruntled former PF-Zapu politicians broke away from Zanu-PF
last month to revive PF-Zapu.

The arrest of the "spies" is consistent with the current crackdown on
opponents accused by government of working with its external enemies to
effect regime change in Zimbabwe.

"Zimbabwe has over the years come under attack from the United States and
her allies in their attempt to effect illegal regime change in the country,"
said the ZBC.

"Observers say it is unfortunate that some Non-Governmental Organizations
continue to work with foreign forces to collect information for propaganda
purposes and carry out dubious missions to tarnish the image of Zimbabwe."

At least 26 people who include MDC activists and human rights campaigners
have been abducted in mysterious circumstances over the past few weeks by
suspected state security agents. Their whereabouts remain unknown.

President Mugabe's administration, which is blamed by many for creating the
conditions that led to the outbreak of cholera that has so far claimed the
lives of more than 1 100 Zimbabweans, is apprehensive about any information
that seeks to portray it as a violator of human rights.

Government last month barred a group of eminent former world leaders led by
former UN chief Kofi Annan who attempted to enter the country to assess
Zimbabwe's deteriorating humanitarian situation.

Government claimed the group, known as the Elders, had been sent by its
western enemies to bolster widespread claims that Zimbabwe was violating
human rights.

Zimbabwe slams Bush's stance on Mugabe as "diplomatic flute"

http://news.yahoo.com

HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe's government on Tuesday slammed US President George
Bush's government's declaration of loss of confidence in President Robert
Mugabe as a "diplomatic flute" by an outgoing administration.

"We have no time for US President George W. Bush's diplomatic flute. We are
talking about an administration whose sun has set," Mugabe's spokesman
George Charamba said, according to state-run The Herald newspaper.

About half of Zimbabwe's population needs food aid, UN experts said Monday,
as a first consignment of supplies designed to help fight a cholera epidemic
arrived in the troubled southern African nation.

As Mugabe faced fresh calls to step down from Western powers, the UN's
warning highlighted yet another crisis facing Zimbabwe as it also battles a
deadly cholera epidemic and runaway inflation.

And in a further bid to tighten the screw on Mugabe, US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said she planned to lobby Washington's allies to impose
sanctions against the regime in Harare.

"An estimated 5.5 million people may need food assistance," said the UN's
special rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutterhe, in a joint
statement from four senior UN officials.

There was "just not enough food" in the country of around 12 million which
was once the bread basket of Africa, he added, calling on Zimbabwe's
government and the international community for increased help.

In the same statement, the special rapporteur on health rights, Anand Grover
said the country's medical services could not control the cholera outbreak,
which has killed more than 1,120.

"Zimbabwe's health system has completely collapsed. It cannot control the
cholera outbreak which is spreading throughout the country, with a daily
increase in the death toll," he said.

As the UN experts sounded the alarm bells, the children's fund UNICEF was
delivering its first consignment of aid -- intravenous fluids, drip
equipment, essential drugs, midwifery and obstetric kits -- to boost
government services in the fight against cholera.

"This is a strategic measure to address a desperate situation," said UNICEF
acting representative in Zimbabwe, Roeland Monasch.

Once seen as a post-colonial role model, Zimbabwe's economy has been in a
downward spiral since the turn of the decade when thousands of white-owned
farms began being seized under a controversial land reform programme.

Food production has since plummetted and inflation has skyrocketed, hitting
231 percent when the last official data was released in August.

Zimbabwe has also been in political crisis since elections in March when the
long-ruling ZANU-PF party lost control of parliament and Mugabe was pushed
into second place by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in a poll for
president.

Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, pulled out of a
run-off after scores of his supporters were killed.

A power-sharing agreement signed by the two rivals in September was seen as
an opportunity for the country to turn a corner but it has yet to be
implemented amid disagreements over the control of key organs of state.

Under the terms of the power-sharing deal, Mugabe would remain president
with Tsvangirai becoming prime minister.

But with Mugabe now declaring that Zimbabwe is "mine", both the United
States and former colonial power Britain have the deal will be unacceptable
as unless the 84-year-old Mugabe leaves office.

"Power-sharing isn't dead but Mugabe has become an absolute impossible
obstacle to achieving it," said Britain's Africa minister Mark Malloch
Brown.

"He's so distrusted by all sides that I think the Americans are absolutely
right, he's going to have to step aside."

Malloch-Brown's comments came a day after the top US diplomat for Africa,
Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer, said Washington would not
restore aid to the cholera-wracked country unless Mugabe stood down.

In an interview with AFP, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she
would consult Washington's allies about imposing international asset freezes
and other sanctions against the Mugabe regime which Washington has already
put in place.

"I am going to consult with our allies, particularly with some of our
African allies and with the British and we will see," Rice said.

"But I think it high time that the international community step up the
sanctions on this regime."

Mugabe, who has ruled the southern African nation ever since independence in
1980, has made clear that he has no intention of standing down.

In a defiant weekend speech at ZANU-PF's annual conference, he vowed that he
would "never, never surrender" and that "Zimbabwe is mine."

Tsvangirai's passport released as SA pushes for unity government

http://www.newzimbabwe.com

Posted to the web: 22/12/2008 12:32:11
THE Zimbabwe government has finally released Morgan Tsvangirai's passport
following the intervention of the South African government, New Zimbabwe.com
is reliably informed.

Tsvangirai, the leader of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) has been stuck in Botswana after his emergency travel document he used
to leave Zimbabwe on September 9 expired.

He has refused to return to Zimbabwe since, insisting that he should be
given his passport first.

"He should have got his passport on Saturday," a government source said.
"The South African government applied considerable pressure on President
Mugabe for Tsvangirai to be issued his passport."

The official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not cleared
to talk to the media said the South African government was "very keen to do
whatever is necessary for the power sharing deal to succeed."

He added: "They (South Africans) are infuriated by the UK and US governments
who have scaled up their efforts to undermine the power sharing agreement.
They felt the Zimbabwe government was playing into the hands of those who
want to frustrate the agreement."

On Monday, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa said he could not confirm if
Tsvangirai had got his passport. "That information has not been confirmed.
When I spoke to him late on Sunday, he still had not received it. But it
could be a new development. I will have to check and get back to you."

President Mugabe revealed last week that he had invited both Tsvangirai and
Arthur Mutambara, the leader of a faction of the MDC, to be sworn-in in line
with a power sharing agreement signed on September 15.

Tsvangirai, meanwhile, spoke to reporters in Botswana and threatened to pull
his party out of the unity government talks at the start of the new year if
MDC activists believed to be currently held by security services without
trial are not released.

And on Sunday, the American government said it would no longer support a
power sharing agreement in which Mugabe remains President, effectively
undercutting Tsvangirai's message and presenting Mugabe with a propaganda
opportunity.

Mugabe has sought to lump Tsvangirai with US and British government efforts
to force him out of power. Mugabe's supporters say US President George Bush
is keen to see the back of Mugabe before his own term expires on January 13
as payback for British support in the invasion of Iraq.

No passport for Tsvangirai

http://www.zimbabwemetro.com

Local News
December 23, 2008 | By Gerald Harper

The MDC had dismissed media reports that the Zimbabwean government has
finally agreed to issue MDC President, Morgan Tsvangirai with a passport,
Metro can reveal.

Speaking on VOA`s Studio 7 last night MDC MP and Interior Secretary Sam
Sipepa Nkomo said the MDC has not received Tsvangirai`s passport.

"`Mr.Tsvangirai still has no passport,if they have indeed issued issued him
with a passport its still with ZANU PF officials,he has not received the
passport",said Nkomo.

"The passport was not delivered at Harvest House (MDC Head Office) it was
not at his Strathaven residence,there is no MDC official who has yet
received it so he did not get it.If he indeed got it we should not be
hearing it from the media or the South African government but from those who
are responsible for issuing passport here.",he added.

Tsvangirai, is in Botswana with only the ETD issued to him last month when
he left the country and believes he cannot return because he does not have a
valid travel document.

He has been denied a passport since early this year, the government claiming
it does not have the materials to issue him with a new one. But his party,
the MDC, has pointed out that thousands of other people have been issued
passports since Tsvangirai applied.

Family in anguish over abducted father

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=9026

December 22, 2008

By Our Correspondent

HARARE - The family of Chris Dlamini, the MDC's head of security, has issued
a petition demanding that Zimbabwe 's government explain his disappearance
at the hands of suspected state agents.

Dlamini remains missing amid fears over his security and safety.

"We believe the Zimbabwean government should pay attention to the righteous
public opinion and voices within and outside the country, and give a clear
answer to what happened to our father, Mr Chris Dlamini," a petition by the
family says.

"If the government has restricted his freedom of movement, it should issue a
legal notification to his family, to confirm that our father has not been
the victim of mafia-style kidnapping."

Dlamini has been missing since he was abducted by nine gunmen in Harare more
than a month ago.

The police have refused to respond to inquiries from Dlamini's wife about
her husband's whereabouts, she said.

Intelligence sources say Dlamini was under 24-hour surveillance for days by
state security agents before he was abducted.

His disappearance is believed to be linked to his alleged role in allegedly
organizing the so-called military training for MDC guerrillas in
neighbouring Botswana. Botswana strongly denies the allegations.

According to MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti, Dlamini is featured on one
of the three DVDs that President Roberr Mugabe's regime has produced to
buttress its claims that the MDC was indeed training insurgents in Botswana
military facilities.

Dlamini is reportedly featured on one of the DVDs "confessing" that the MDC
was planning acts of banditry with the ultimate motive of overthrowing
Mugabe. Biti says the confessions were extracted through coercion and
torture.

Dlamini was among the first to be abducted this month. Dlamini's daughter
Victoria has returned home from South Africa where she lives. She is
distraught about her father's disappearances. She complained that there had
been no cooperation whatsoever from the police.

"I cannot go back until I know where my father is," a tearful Victoria said.
"I don't know who to talk to at the moment. This is an incredibly tough time
for us. We just want to know if he is alive or dead."

Victoria also expressed concern for other political detainees.

Among those missing are rights activist Jestina Mukoko and photo-journalist
Shadreck Manyere. The High Court has ordered the police to investigate their
abduction and find them.

Two of Mukoko's workmates are also missing together with at least 23 members
of the MDC provincial executive in Zvimba, Mugabe's rural home.

The government has denied any responsibility for the abductions.

The government-controlled press has complied with a High Court order issued
by Judge Anne-Marrie Gowora to place adverts in newspapers soliciting
information about the detainees' whereabouts.

Human rights lawyer Otto Saki, one of the lawyers handling the abduction
cases, told The Zimbabwe Times that all efforts to locate the missing
activists had been futile.

Fears have been expressed that the wave of abductions would worsen given the
imminent collapse of the controversial power-sharing talks.

MDC leader and Prime Minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai has threatened to
pull out the talks with Zanu-PF if his party members and missing activists
were not released.

"If these abductions do not cease immediately, and if all the abductees are
not released or charged in a court of law by January 1, 2009, I will be
asking the MDC's National Council to pass a resolution to suspend all
negotiations and contact with Zanu-PF," Tsvangirai told a news conference in
Gaborone at the weekend.

"There can be no meaningful talks while a campaign of terror is being waged
against our people," he said.

The abductions have been organised under the auspices of a security
operation codenamed "Chimumumu" (Shona for a dumb person) which, according
to intelligence sources, seeks to eliminate political and human rights
activists.

The Dlamini family has been holding daily prayer vigils at their Harare
home.

"We urge the government .not to do anything that seriously violates
humanity, seriously violates laws, and seriously harms people's trust in the
government," said the petition.

Itayi Garande defends himself on Reporters' Forum

http://www.nehandaradio.com/

23 December 2008

MDC Senator Sekai Holland raised concerns about a UK based website run by
lawyer turned journalist, Itayi Garande, claiming it had now been
'infiltrated' by Zanu PF and was 'being used to spread stories in support of
Mugabe.' On SW Radio Africa's Reporters Forum this week Lance speaks to
Garande and asks him whether this pro-Mugabe label is justified? The
discussion gets heated when Garande is also asked whether calls for his
deportation from the UK, under western-backed targeted sanctions, are
justified.

Lance: Hello Zimbabwe and welcome to Reporters' Forum. This week we have the
editor of the Zimbabwe Guardian formerly known as Talk Zimbabwe.com, his
name is Itayi Garande, Mr Garande thank you for joining me on the Forum or
shall I say rejoining the Forum.

Garande: ehe..thank you Lance

Lance: Itayi you have been in the news for the best part of the last two
weeks and I will pinpoint one of the stories that have done the rounds. MDC
senator and veteran activist Sekai Holland expressing concerns about your
website, alleging that you are running stories supporting the Mugabe regime.
Lets start of with that accusation. Is it fair for anyone to conclude that
your website, Talk Zimbabwe.com or Zimbabwe Guardian is supporting the
Mugabe regime?

Garande: Well we are a news organisation just like everybody else. People
might have their opinions about how we report, that is their opinion and as
we said Sekai Holland is a concerned Zimbabwean about the issues that are
bedevelling our nation today, so she has got a right to have her own
opinion. But unfortunately thats not true.

Lance: But the accusation still remains are you saying you admit to the fact
that your editorial slant is in favour of the ruling party in Zimbabwe.

Garande: The problem we had was it was a one liner. There were no particular
issues or particular stories that were pin pointed that Sekai Holland
mentioned. I mean the editorial line that we take is pro-Zimbabwean. We can't
be more specific about that. I think a lot of the reporting that has
been....(interrupted)

Lance: But pro-Zimbabwean sounds rather very general, you have a crisis in
Zimbabwe and a lot of people feel instead of focussing on this crisis, you
are running stories that are essentially trying to hide the magnitutde of
the crisis and propping up the government that is in power.

Garande: Well that is your opinion Lance, I think

Lance: Its an opinion that has been expressed by a lot of people this is why
I am asking

Garande: There are a lot of other people who visit our site who express a
different opinion. I think the problem that a lot of people have is there
have had what I would like to call event focussed reporting which is not
just narrow in time but is very shallow in depth. I think it does not help
the audience if we dont see beyond the surface to the underlying sources of
Zimbabwe's problems. I think Zimbabwe cannot be reduced to one person, I
have noticed a focus on President Mugabe only as the source of all Zimbabwe's
problems.

I think it is that narrowness in reporting which has tremednously caused
some of the problems that we having. Zimbabwe's problem is a multi-facetted
problem which cannot be reduced to one political party or one individual.
And that is the type of reporting that we are trying to get. And also as
journalists we should pay more attention to the rational middle ground of
issues and less attention to extremes which is what I have found in most
reporting.

Lance: But the bottom line is anyone going through your site will realise
that you don't run any anti-government stories. Thats the bottom line?

Garande: Well we dont have to run anti-government stories or pro-government
stories..(interrupted)

Lance: So that translates into support, because if you are not running
anything that is not remotely critical of the government that really amounts
to supporting the government Itayi. Its straightforward.

Garande: Is the reverse true, do you run MDC stories?

Lance: No we are running pro-people of Zimbabwe stories, like highlighting
their suffering. You are not exactly..If I am to conclude from your
editorial slant, you are running stories that focus more on the leadership
of Zimbabwe than the people of Zimbabwe. Would that be a fair statement to
make.

Garande: It could be a fair statement. I think Nelson Mandela summed it up
very well when he came to England and said there is a leadership crisis in
Zimbabwe and in the region, I think what he meant which was misconstrued by
a lot of people, they thought he meant there was a Zanu PF leadership
crisis. I think we have got a general leadership crisis in the region and to
narrow down issues to single individuals, I think is a mistake.

Lance: Its a fair point to make Itayi we do have a leadership crisis in
Zimbabwe but the problem is that your website is accused of running
one-sided stories that focus on what is good about the government and what
is bad about the opposition.

Garande: Ah can you give me an example about what is good about the
government that we have covered.

Lance: For example Mr Itayi you have been running stories about imaginery
military bases in Botswana, I mean, I dont think you for one minute believe
those stories about bandits being trained in Botswana?

Garande: Well the SADC region have made it clear they are investigating that
case..

Lance: Would the SADC region not be better placed investigating the
abductions of people like Jestina Mukoko? They would rather be investigating
imaginery training bases in Botswana but why have we not had them for
example investigating something like Jestina Mukoko's abduction.

Garande: This is what I was talking about, event focussed reporting. I think
all those issues you highlighted are just as important as each other. I
think all of those issues have to be investigated. But to expect the
Zimbabwe Guardian to report on one or none of those...and in any case the
fact that you have missed...at SW Radio Africa the fact that you have not
reported about those bases..that shows another bias.

Lance: We have, but we have thrown in analysis about how ridiculous those
claims are. You have taken the oppositie stance and given oxygen to
ludicrous claims.

Garande: Well thats you opinion Lance, everyone holds an opinion. I can
assure you a lot of people will have so many different opinions.

Lance: Let me ask you a blunt question Itayi, so clearly if I am to visit
the Zimbabwe Guardian I am not going to see any anti-government stories,
thats for sure isn't.

Garande: Anti-government stories, I dont understand what you saying...if you
saying..(interrupted)

Lance: Stories that cover human rights abuses, stories that cover the
violence that we see in Zimbabwe, stories that cover political repression,
groups like the NCA, WOZA not being allowed to demonstrate, things like, we
are definately not going to be seeing that on the Zimbabwe Guardian.

Garande: well you will see some stories about abductions...(interrupted)

Lance: But I'm on your site right now, there is absolutely nothing of the
sort

Garande: Well we have got Jestina Mukoko reported..the missing uh uh Jestina
Mukoko.

Lance: That is the only one you put there and I think you took your cue from
the Herald because..the the same way you reported on that is the same way
the Herald covered the story.

Garande: But, so now we going into a different terrain, we going into how we
reporting, rather than the actual story...(interrupted)

Lance: I think this is why....(interrupted)

Garande: You not giving me time to answer

Lance: I think this is why people are making these conclusions Itayi. I mean
look as an organisation you are perfectly entitled to take any position that
you want. But the thing is people will be entitled to make conclusions from
the way they see you covering and you cannot complain if they make those
conclusions. I mean can you?

Garande: If you go on our site and check on the comments that people put
there, there are some comments that we censor obviously, which are profane,
which we think are not good for public consumption, the type of words that
are used, if you are asking us about..we will only report a story that we
get from our reporters in Zimbabwe. If you want me to write stories that are
preferable to you as Lance the journalist or the number of people you are
saying are saying we are pro-government then thats the wrong notion to take.
I think we will report a story on the basis of how we see the
event....(interrupted)

Lance: Okay lets do it this way Itayi..sorry to interupt you..I just wanted
to say in line with that let me read out for our listeners the type of
headlines you have right now. Mugabe warns industry and financial sector,
SADC launches Zimbabwe aid package worth over 30 million, Zimbabwe gets
70000 from Tanzania, Japan urges Zimbabwe to form all inclusive government,
New media the ferral beast destroying us, Venezuala expresses solidarity
with Zimbabwe, Zanu PF to challenge use of Zapu name, SADC analyzing
evidence, Mugabe sends letter of appointment to Tsvangirai, Elders snub
security council meeting on Zimbabwe, Botswana implicated in MDC militia
training, Removal of Mugabe will do more harm than good, Zimbabwe choleral
outbreak is genocide by Britain.'

I mean look its a clear pattern of really trying to hide the crisis and
focussing on things that could portray the opposition in a negative
light..that is straight forwad Mr Garande. I dont know why you are denying
this?

Garande: I can see how you are drawn to some bizarre extremes about our time
link stories. All those things you are mentioning there are things that are
happening in Zimbabwe.

Lance: So you admit you are just being selective in what you publish...look
its true, these are things that are happening in
Zimbabwe.....(interrupted)...

Garande: You and me know, we have been on these forums for a very long time.
You know that when you report you are reporting on the basis of the
investigation that has been done by the people that are giving you that
story. I can bet you at SW Radio Africa you have even more capacity to
report than we have simply because of the nature of your budget.

What I am saying as journalists we should know our role in society. Our role
is not to take those bizarre...which I will want to call bizarre extremes.
But in democratic decision making most of the people and their actions are
found in the middle these extremes that you are trying to bring, these
partisan extremes should be done by individuals not by journalists,
journalists should be, .....(interrupted)...

Lance: But that is a contradiction because your website is doing exactly
that. Your website has taken the position to support Mugabe and Zanu PF and
run stories that will never portray Mugabe in a negative light but always
portay the MDC in a negative light. You are doing exactly what you are
criticising.

Garande: Can you pinpoint for me a story on your site which is critical of
Morgan Tsvangirai.

Lance: We have several programmes that have criticised the MDC.

Garande: But we dont run radio programmes, we use the internet. I am saying
of all the stories that are on your website today, can you pinpoint any
stories that are anti-MDC. This is what I am saying. If we are at fault for
not showing the diversity of the Zimbabweans, then you could criticise us
for that.,,, .....(interrupted)...

Lance: The problem Itayi, and I think if we reduce this to maybe pro Mugabe,
pro Tsvangirai type of thing. The issue to make is Itayi. The people of
Zimbabwe are suffering. We might not have an appreciation of that suffering
because maybe we are in the diaspora, but there is nothing in the coverage
of the Zimbabwe Guardian to suggest you appreciate what the people of
Zimbabwe are going through? It would suggest from your coverage, you are
more interested in propping up the people who are causing that suffering.

Garande: If we report, Lance for instance if we report that SADC has given a
more than 10 billion aid package, I remember last week we reported that 1111
people, cholera had risen to that extent and then we report that SADC is
bringing some effort,,,, .....(interrupted)...

Lance: There is nothing wrong with that Itayi... .....(interrupted)...

Garande: And then if I take another story which we have on there, which is
that Mugabe has sent a letter of appointment to Tsvangirai, how does that
prop up, how does that prop up?

Lance: There is one analyst who used the following the phrase to describe
your website, he said the Herald's sister paper the Zimbabwe Guardian, now..
.....(interrupted)...

Garande: Again Lance you using opinions to state matters of
fact.....(interrupted)...

Lance: Well look this programme is about opinions, this is Reporters Forum
this is what we do here we discuss opinions, but look let me get to the
issue that has really been topical here. A lot of people are saying in view
of targetted sanctions that target people who are said to be aiding and
abetting the regime and Mugabe, you qualify under that criteria, because you
are supporting the regime from here in the United Kingdom and as a result
you should be deported. Whats your response?

Garande: Again Lance that is an opinion, I mean the flip side should be the
same, are you then saying we should discredit all the British people who are
in Zimbabwe who are criticising President Mugabe... .....(interrupted)...

Lance: The question is there exists a set of targetted measures targetting
people who support the regime and the argument is that you fit that criteria
and you should be deported because of those measures.

Garande: Deported to where? To Zimbabwe?

Lance: Yes Zimbabwe

Garande: Its your opinion Lance

Lance: No its not my opinion, I'm presenting what is already in the public
domain. So I am saying even if I was to say that is my opinion, my opinion
does not really matter on this programme.

Garande: I think you misrepresenting the facts... .....(interrupted)...

Lance: Okay just answer the question...do you think the call for you to be
deported because of your support, is misplaced.. .....(interrupted)...

Garande: Its very misplaced

Lance: Why is that, would you not fit the criteria of someone who supports
Mugabe?

Garande: Well Lance..(sighs). Do I fit the criteria of someone who supports
Mugabe?

Lance: Yes

Garande: No I don't.

Lance: You don't... OK

Garande: If you basing on, we are reporting on what's happening in Zimbabwe,
most of the stories that we are reporting on, you will find them in other
places. We have got the BBC reporting that SADC has increased those efforts
as well so..OK should I ask you a different question, yah? You have called
for the movement of troops to Zimbabwe. You have said Mugabe should be
removed by force, do you think that is responsible? Do you think condoning
war is responsible? You have used a forum like SW Radio Africa to call for
an armed insurrection in Zimbabwe.

Lance: I don't know which interview you are talking about here, I dont
remember a time that I called for war, I called for tough action, to change
the situation in Zimbabwe and I quoted... .....(interrupted)...

Garande: Wait a minute you asked me a question... .....(interrupted)...

Lance: But we cannot proceed on the basis of a misrepresentation. I quoted
Kenya's Prime Minister Raila Odinga and I said his attitude reflected a
paradigm shift for tougher action.....I did not say....
.....(interrupted)...

Garande: There is video that is available even on google, if you google it,
its availbale on You Tube right now, which has Lance Guma on Sky News,
saying there is tougher action that is needed now. Tougher action within the
current context would suggest... .....(interrupted)...

Lance: Would suggest? That is an interesting word, would suggest..But anyway
Itayi you are entitled to your opinions and I am entilted to mine, but you
are still running away from the question, the question is people are saying
there are measures.........(interrupted).

Garande: You had Tererai Karimakwenda on BBC World suggesting that lets have
troops right at the border of Zimbabwe. Tererai Karimakwenda is an employee
of SW Radio Africa. You were on Sky News, you had SW Radio Africa, Sky News,
you were calling for tougher action against Mugabe, at a time a Global
Political Agreement is being.....even the MDC itself has not called for
tougher action ..what they have said is we still support what is going on in
Zimbabwe. We still support dialogue.

Lance: The primary problem with what you are presenting is that when we give
analysis on programmes like that we are capturing the sentiment from the
ground and presenting it and saying this is what people are saying...
.....(interrupted)...

Garande: This was your..when you were on Sky News.. .....(interrupted)...

Lance: I think we rather diverting here, but we here to discuss..
.....(interrupted)...

Garande: We talking about reporting, expressing your views Lance is a good
thing, making an earnest attempt to understand someone else's view is
equally important.

Lance: Which is why we got you onto the programme Mr Garande, we got you
onto the programme to answer questions relating to this.

Garande: Helping and encouraging members of the community to make that
earnest attempt at reciprocal understanding is also a key aspect of public
journalism.

Lance: Which is why we want to you to answer the question. In view of
targetted snactions which are targetting people aiding an abetting the
Mugabe regime, do you feel you as Itayi Garande, editor of the Zimbabwe
Guardian fit that bill as someone who is aiding and abetting the regime?

Garande: Should I ask another question?

Lance: No we don't want that, answer the question

Garande: Its not black or white. Is that question you are asking me
consistent with the traditional notion of the journalists as a free society's
watch dog. You are supposed to be a journalist that is a watch dog for a
free and fair society. The Movement for Democratic Change a party that you
support.

Lance: Why are you saying a party that I support, I am not a member of the
MDC? If you are a member of Zanu PF it doesn't mean I am a member of the
MDC?

Unfortunately because of time constraints we had to cut that interview
there. That was Itayi Garande the editor of the Zimbabwe Guardian previosly
known as Talk Zimbabwe.com, that does it for Reporter's Forum this week, my
name is Lance Guma.

Source: SW Radio Africa.

Zimbabweans must rise up, says Boesak

http://www.pretorianews.co.za

December 23, 2008 Edition 1

Christelle Terreblanche and SAPA-DPA

As the UN warns that 5.5 million people in Zimbabwe - or about half the
population - need food aid, Allan Boesak has called on Zimbabweans to stand
and challenge President Robert if they want an end to their suffering.

Boesak told Independent Newspapers that he sees radical action by
Zimbabweans themselves as a more empowering option to the possibility of
foreign troops being sent in to break Mugabe's refusal to let go of the
reins while disease and hunger are killing thousands.

The cleric, who joined the Congress of the People last week in a return to
the political arena after 14 years on the sidelines, said the time for
passive resistance to Mugabe's stranglehold was over.

"I have always said that the people of Zimbabwe cannot avoid further
suffering before this thing ends," Boesak said in an interview. The only way
I have learnt (that would) get the world to sit up and do something is to
confront it with your own suffering.

"Not passive suffering as with a hunger epidemic or pestilence, but through
active suffering where you put yourself in harm's way for the sake of ending
the greater suffering ...," he said.

A first consignment of UN Children's Fund (Unicef) aid has arrived in
Zimbabwe to help fight the cholera epidemic which has killed more than 1 120
people, the UN agency said yesterday.

Intravenous fluids, drip equipment, essential drugs, midwifery and obstetric
kits were delivered by air on Sunday, said a Unicef statement.

Unicef supplies more than half a million litres of potable water daily,
together with 3 800 tons of water treatment chemicals for urban areas in
Zimbabwe, the statement said.

The World Health Organisation said on Friday that 1 123 people had died in
the epidemic with about 21 000 reported cases.

A stalled power-sharing agreement in Zimbabwe came under fresh strain
yesterday after Western powers said it would be unacceptable if Mugabe were
to remain president.

Although the opposition Movement for Democratic Change remains committed to
a deal which would allow Mugabe to stay on as president while its leader
Morgan Tsvangirai would become prime minister, both the US and Britain said
the 84-year-old had to leave office.

"Power-sharing isn't dead but Mugabe has become an absolute impossible
obstacle to achieving it," Britain's Africa minister Mark Malloch-Brown told
the BBC.

Malloch-Brown's comments came a day after the top US diplomat for Africa,
Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer, said Washington would not
restore aid to the cholera-wracked country unless Mugabe stood down.

Boesak said the world had not listened to South Africa's problems until the
people themselves resisted actively.

"Mugabe has to go," said Boesak who still believe targeted financial
sanctions could assist.

"That still remains a very effective way to target these criminals who use
the guise of governmental authority to rob their people," he said.

Meanwhile, the Special Rapporteur on health rights, Anand Grover,
highlighted the medical crisis facing the country as main public hospitals
were closed because of the lack of medical supplies, doctors and nurses.

"Zimbabwe's health system has completely collapsed - it cannot control the
cholera outbreak which is spreading throughout the country, with a daily
increase in the death toll," he said.

With the rainy season approaching, experts fear the crisis will deteriorate.

Businessmen under renewed pressure to quit Robert Mugabe's regime

http://www.timesonline.co.uk

December 23, 2008

Martin Fletcher
British companies that support Robert Mugabe's regime financially could face
new restrictions, a minister hinted yesterday.

Responding to a report in The Times that 14 British-based companies - and
four more based in British territories - were operating freely despite being
blacklisted by the Bush Administration last month, Lord Malloch-Brown, the
Africa Minister, acknowledged that Britain had been slow to restrict their
activities.

"Where the US moves, we try to stay as closely aligned to them as possible.
Our procedures, because they're done through Europe, are slower," he told
the BBC.

A Foreign Office spokesman refused to say which of the companies might be
targeted. Officials were reportedly worried that the Zimbabwean subsidiary
of the London-based Standard Chartered Bank was violating EU sanctions, but
Lord Malloch-Brown said that aid agencies depended on certain "big-name
banks" being able to operate in Zimbabwe.

Lord Malloch-Brown also backed Washington by declaring that a power-sharing
government in Zimbabwe was out of the question while Mr Mugabe remained
President. "Power-sharing isn't dead, but Mugabe has become an absolute
impossible obstacle to achieving it," he said. "He's going to have to step
aside."
On Sunday Jendayi Frazer, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa,
said that a coalition government was "off the table" while Mr Mugabe
remained in office.

On September 15 Mr Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), agreed to share power to break the
deadlock caused by the disputed presidential election. The agreement has yet
to be implemented because Mr Mugabe has refused to cede real power,
including control of the police.

South Africa, whose former President, Thabo Mbeki, brokered the agreement,
considers it the only way forward. So do some members of the MDC, who argue
that if they secure ministries such as health, education and finance they
can receive Western aid, expose corruption and reduce Mr Mugabe's powers of
patronage.

Britain can help push to get Robert Mugabe out of Zimbabwe

http://www.timesonline.co.uk

December 23, 2008

Bronwen Maddox: World Briefing
In less than a fortnight South Africa steps down from the United Nations
Security Council. Does that give Britain more chance to step up the pressure
to get Robert Mugabe out of Zimbabwe?

A tiny bit. The departure of South Africa removes the most obstinate of
three obstacles on the council to UN action against the President who has
brought Zimbabwe to despair.

Russia and China are still there, however, although the crisis, agonisingly
slowly, may create reasons for them to change their minds. A better chance
for a breakthrough is elections in South Africa in the spring and the
freedom to focus on foreign problems that they might bring.

Britain's outspokenness, after a year of misplaced faith in quiet diplomacy,
will help to rally the growing number of leaders, in Africa and elsewhere,
prepared to call for Mugabe to go.

But it won't make him go: only the region can do that, either by sanctions
or an African-led force. Both options are only just coming in from the zone
of the inconceivable.

The frustration with Zimbabwe is that everyone knows the solution - the
removal of Mugabe - where no one has the answer, for instance, to the
problems of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said one British official last
week. It has taken the outbreak of cholera for ministers to say so openly.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, was right (if late) in helping to
bring about the meeting of the Security Council last week, the first since
Russia and China vetoed sanctions in July.

Although the council heard the outright call from Britain for Mugabe to go,
consensus on intervention is not within sight. Kofi Annan, the former UN
Secretary-General, and one of three UN "elders" advising on Zimbabwe, did
not even attend to present a joint report.

He did not say why, but other diplomats said that it was for fear of seeming
too close to the UN and of offending South Africa. Britain could not
persuade him, despite his closeness to Lord Malloch-Brown, the Africa
Minister and his former adviser.

So what now? With South Africa replaced on the council by Uganda, which is
less reflexively supportive of Mugabe, Britain might push for a resolution
telling Mugabe to let UN envoys in. But more sanctions? Or armed
intervention? Those would depend on China and Russia abstaining.

Setting aside Russia for the moment - because any hope of changing its
position depends on isolating it - the question is whether China might
abstain. "China won't want to offend Africans," argues Alex Vines, the head
of the Africa programme at Chatham House.

Its position depends on the region's. Richard Dowden, director of the Royal
African Society, who says he is "sensing a push-back by African countries,
saying 'Don't bully us'", is sceptical that there is the political will. He
warns that Angola's support for Mugabe is so strong that it might even be
tempted to send troops to defend him if South Africa, say, intervened.

All the same, the decision by Britain to turn up the noise, while producing
no results so far, is forcing council members and the region to work hard to
defend positions that they must know are now untenable.

The zeros get out of hand in Zimbabwe

http://www.gulfnews.com

Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
Published: December 22, 2008, 23:36

The pale blue bank note that says 1,000,000 Zimbabwean dollars really means
10,000,000,000,000,000,000. Yes, that is 10 quintillion, taking into account
the 13 zeros Zimbabwe's central bank has lopped off in the last couple of
years to make the country's currency somewhat more manageable.

Every time the zeros get out of hand, Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank scythes away
00000s. The largest note, Z$100,000,000,000, released in July and useless
within weeks, looked so bizarre with all the zeros squeezed in that it
became an instant collector's item.

Regardless, inflation is soaring so fast in Zimbabwe that it is hard to
figure out what a Z$1 million note is actually worth on a given day.

Somewhere between July's Z$100 billion note and the more recent zero-reduced
Z$1 million note it is easy to get mixed up. Even more confusing are the
wildly different exchange rates that depend on how you pay for purchases.

Zimbabweans chuckle when they see a foreigner bumbling with their currency.
They launch into long, looping explanations that leave you lassoed by the
zeros, and more confused than when you started. It is difficult to resist
just holding up the Z$1,000,000 note and asking a reliable local, "What's
this worth?"

But they can get confused themselves. To my surprise, when I tried it
recently, my math-savvy friend no longer had the calculation in his head. So
he pulled up his cell phone calculator and tapped away.

"Ech! My cell phone can't cope with all these zeros," he grumbled, while I
stared at the bustling crowd on Robert Mugabe Street, wondering where they
could be going, in an economy where nothing works.

Finally he had an answer: "That's worth about 50 cents (Dh1.8), a bit less
than 50 cents."

So I used the blue notes for tips. Fifty cents might not sound like much,
but in early November, Z$1,000,000 was more than a week's pay for a police
inspector.

After tipping car guards, parking men and waiters for several days, I
checked the value again. It turned out my friend had been mistaken; the note
had been worth about $4, not 50 cents.

Hyper-inflation

Zimbabwe's hyperinflation rate, the highest ever known, is officially more
than 230 million per cent, but some economists place it in the quadrillions.
It seems just a matter of time before Zimbabweans will be grappling with
octillions, nonillions, decillions, duodecillions and more.

Just trying to explain the complications in the money system is, well,
complicated.

Imagine this: You go from the crowded, dusty streets of the capital, Harare,
into a dimly lit black market money changer's shop that masquerades as a
video outlet. Ask the dealer the rate for a US dollar and he says "27."
Twenty-seven "what" is not clear.

Ask him the rate for a South African rand (worth about 10 cents US), and he
still says, "27." But this time the decimal point is in a different place.
You walk out with a handful of pale blue notes and little idea of what they
are worth. If all that is complicated, try this scenario: You are in a
supermarket, and for the first time in months there is food there (though it
is too expensive for most Zimbabweans). You calculate the cost of about 2
pounds of meat: If you have a Zimbabwean bank account and pay with a debit
card, it will cost about $10.

If you exchange American cash for enough Zimbabwean notes to buy the same
meat, you will be out $1,000 because of a huge difference in the official
exchange rate, which applies to electronic payments, and the rate on the
black market. It would seem easy enough to just pay by debit card, but
nothing is easy here. In many supermarkets, bank debit cards do not work,
either because there is no power or the electronic transfer systems in banks
are overloaded.

For the masses squashed together like upright sardines in queues outside
banks, buying staples such as maize meal and cooking oil is a struggle. They
stand in line for hours to withdraw the maximum weekly limit of $Z100
million, about $10 on the black market these days, but not even enough for a
loaf of bread. The withdrawal limit was just lifted to Z$10 billion a week
to enable people to buy food for Christmas. The government also released a
new Z$10 billion note.

'Burning' cash

Many people use their Z$100 million for bus fare to town. It is a bizarre
situation: People come to town to stand in line to get money that barely
covers the cost of coming to town. Crowds of 500 or more jostle outside
banks in the heat. Soldiers prowl, beating people with batons when fights
break out.

Other Zimbabweans use their phones at work to track down hard-to-come-by
necessities and do quick deals.

That is not the only complicated trick. Ben, 28, a used-car salesman,
explains the art of "burning" money. He has the air of a magician making a
rabbit appear in a hat, only this time it is conjuring $1,000 out of $100 in
US currency in a day.

"It's very easy and simple," said Ben, who gave only his first name for fear
of prosecution for profiteering.

In a nutshell, by shuffling money between the exchange rates - one for cash
and the other for bank transfers - one can multiply a sum of US dollars by
tenfold or more.

Zimbabweans who are sent foreign funds by relatives abroad are generally in
the best position to employ the strategy.

At one point the government banned bank transfers to try to eliminate
"burning," but in December they re-introduced them with stricter limits.

Ben made several long, patient explanations before I got the gist of
"burning," carefully writing down each convoluted twist.

But as soon as I got the trick, it seemed to vanish, like looking at a
mirage.

It is confusing.

Zimbabwe, catastrophic to perilous: Smith

http://www.abc.net.au/

AM - Tuesday, 23 December , 2008 08:00:00
Reporter: Lyndal Curtis
PETER CAVE: Australia's Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, says the state of
affairs in Zimbabwe has gone from catastrophic to perilous. But, he has
stopped short of endorsing a call by the former Australian prime minister,
Malcolm Fraser, to cut off the country's electricity in an attempt to force
the dictator Robert Mugabe to step down as President.

Mr Fraser says the situation is so desperate Zimbabwe's neighbours must use
all means short of declaring war to force change.

The Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith, spoke to our chief political
correspondent, Lyndal Curtis.

STEPHEN SMITH: The Australian position all year has effectively been the
solution is for Mr Mugabe to walk off the stage, for him to leave. That
would be the best thing that could occur for Zimbabwe's future. That was
true in the immediate aftermath of the first round of parliamentary and
presidential elections and it remains true now.

LYNDAL CURTIS: The US envoy to Africa also says that Robert Mugabe is
completely discredited within the region. Is she right or has South Africa
still not moved far enough to condemn him?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, all year we've been urging South Africa to take a more
robust position, a more robust response, and that was true earlier in the
year. South Africa remains the nation state in Africa that can influence the
position in Zimbabwe the greatest.

So, we continue to urge South Africa, as we have publicly and privately in
the course of the year, to be much more robust in trying to get an outcome
in Zimbabwe which effectively doesn't involve Mr Mugabe.

LYNDAL CURTIS: The former prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, says options such
as not providing Zimbabwe with electricity should be taken because the step
after that, military intervention, would leave Zimbabweans worse off. Is it
time for drastic action?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, it's certainly time for ongoing pressure. I think one
would have to be very careful about the notion of cutting off electricity
because one of the things which Australia has sought to do very carefully is
to place pressure, through sanctions, on members of the regime, but, to do
its best not to adversely impact further on ordinary Zimbabweans.

And the reason, for example, that we are now the fifth largest humanitarian
contributor to Zimbabwe is because ordinary Zimbabweans are now living in
terrible circumstances.

We've also made it clear that as soon as we see progress being made towards
Zimbabwe emerging as a fully fledged member of the international community
and returning to democracy and respecting human rights and the rule of law,
we are open as are other members of the international community to provide
not just humanitarian assistance, but also to look at the rebuilding of
Zimbabwe.

LYNDAL CURTIS: Do you despair in the shorter term about the future of
Zimbabwe and do you think there's a realistic chance that things will get
better sooner rather than later?

STEPHEN SMITH: Oh I've been somewhere between a state of frustration and
despair over Zimbabwe for some time and I think I'm not alone or unique in
that respect.

I think the international community has been very frustrated and close to a
state of despair for some time and my grave fear is that however bad the
situation is in Zimbabwe now, my grave fear is that it will get worse before
it gets better.

PETER CAVE: The Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, speaking there to
Lyndal Curtis in Canberra.

Opposition calls for coordinated global response to Mugabe regime

http://www.abc.net.au

AM - Tuesday, 23 December , 2008 08:04:00
Reporter: Lyndal Curtis
PETER CAVE: The Federal Opposition says the Government is not taking strong
enough action against Robert Mugabe.

The shadow foreign affairs minister, Helen Coonan, also spoke to Lyndal
Curtis.

HELEN COONAN: Well, look I think the US Special Envoy got it right yesterday
when she said that the world has to speak with one voice. And quite frankly
I think Australia needs to speak a bit more loudly than we are currently
doing.

It is important that pressure is brought to bear, firstly on South Africa
and the South African development community states, to urge Mugabe to go.
They simply have to say, you cannot remain.

LYNDAL CURTIS: The Foreign Minister has described the situation in Zimbabwe
now as perilous. He says Mugabe should go and he's called for South Africa
to be stronger in its opposition to Robert Mugabe. Are you saying that the
Foreign Minister could be even stronger than that?

HELEN COONAN: Well, I think we can send a special envoy from Australia.
Obviously these representations to South Africa need to be coordinated.

It is dire. There are people dying; there are people fleeing Zimbabwe; and
inflation is out of control. It is a failed state and it needs to have much
stronger, coordinated world action than just domestic calls for things to
get better.

PETER CAVE: The shadow foreign affairs minister, Helen Coonan, speaking to
Lyndal Curtis.

Brave grandfathers defy president's vicious thugs

http://www.metro.co.uk

by AIDAN RADNEDGE - Monday, December 22, 2008
Human rights activists are being spied upon and even abducted in Zimbabwe,
while grandfathers beaten up and threatened with a bullet live in fear of
their lives.
If some had hoped Robert Mugabe was mellowing during truce talks with the
opposition, events suggest the president remains as ruthless as ever.

Much of the country's infrastructure and public services may be in meltdown,
but Mugabe can still call upon a loyal cadre of well-paid acolytes eager to
enforce a ferocious crackdown on dissent.

Even elderly grandfathers are not immune from being brutally beaten and
intimidated by Zanu-PF thugs, I learned during an undercover trip to the
country.

Bernard, a 66-year-old councillor, was abducted from his home, repeatedly
punched, and dumped - with a bullet left ominously in his hand.

His crime was to stand as a Movement for Democratic Change candidate in
local elections in Maswingo - and beat his Zanu-PF rival.

But Bernard has continued to stand up to his oppressors. The former teacher
said: 'Of course I was scared. But I refused to give the soldiers the names
they wanted. Not only my grandchildren, but everyone of school age in
Zimbabwe - they're being lost. I can't see how they'll ever recover from
what Mugabe is doing to this country.'

Neighbour Andrew, 70 - another MDC activist - has been beaten up twice. The
father of 18, and grandfather of eight, said: 'Zimbabwe is a country with a
heart of gold - but the teeth of Mugabe.'

"Life used to be good here, but what you see now is misery"

Photo: Manoocher Deghati/IRIN

Fond memories of mining

BINDURA, 22 December 2008 (IRIN) - Peterson Daiton, a mining engineer now based in Botswana, last visited Bindura Nickel Mine, about 85km northeast of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, nine years ago, when it was a thriving concern. "It is shocking; the mine has become a ghost of its former self," he told IRIN.

"When I visited it after such a long time, I thought I was lost - you don't hear the drone of the machines that had become a part of the life of the people here any more. It's now all ruins, and how sad to see one of the best mines in the country go down like that."

The nickel mine recently suspended operations, joining a growing list of gold, asbestos, coal and iron mines that have closed in the face of withering hyperinflation, officially estimated at 231 million percent annually, and government mismanagement.

In November 2008, Metallion Gold, which produced more than half the country's gold, shut down five of its mines, causing the loss of 3,500 jobs. According to Zimbabwe's Chamber of Mines, gold production fell from around 7,000kg in 2007 to 125kg by October 2008.

Asbestos mines have also come under extreme pressure since neighbouring South Africa banned asbestos use on health grounds. The Herald, a state-controlled newspaper, reported that about 70,000 workers in the industry were affected.

John Robertson, a Harare-based economic consultant, blamed the drop in gold production mainly on failure by the government to pass on payments to the mining companies; the Chamber of Mines said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe owed mining companies US$30 million.

"The gold mines have been left with no option but to suspend business because they don't have money to keep operating," Robertson told IRIN. "Nickel mining, on the other hand, has been affected by falling prices on the world market, but the bottom line is that corruption, mismanagement and a skewed economic environment are making it extremely difficult for mines to keep afloat."

He said it would be "a very long time before those mines that have closed can start operating again, and that adds to the woes of people and communities that depended on mining for a living but are already hard hit by financial woes."

"We had everything we needed"

The Bindura Nickel Mine once underpinned a flourishing community with a school, a clinic, well-stocked shops, and other social amenities. "Most of us never dreamt of a life outside this mining compound," Crainos Bhaureni, 54, a former underground mine worker from Malawi, told IRIN.

"We had everything we needed, even though outside people scoffed at us, saying we were poorly paid. We saw the collapse of the mine coming, though, because the situation has been deteriorating over the years."

Those of us that still remain in the mining compound are having a torrid time accessing health care. When diseases break out, they spread easily and residents have no money to cover medical expenses

The mine's clinic has closed and fallen into disrepair, while the staff accommodation is dilapidated, with sewage flowing into the roads and residents having to contend with no water for weeks at a time.

"Those of us that still remain in the mining compound are having a torrid time accessing health care. When diseases break out, they spread easily and residents have no money to cover medical expenses at the nearby Bindura Hospital, which in any case is performing badly," Bhaureni said.

Hardly a week passes without someone in the compound dying, he said, and the morgue at the hospital is overflowing with dead bodies because the relatives of those who die are too poor to claim them for burial. "They end up being given pauper's burial, and that pains the heart a lot."

The mine used to pay the teachers and also provided free maize-meal, beans and cooking oil at the end of every month to keep them at the school. But the death of the mine has seen the teachers leave.

Without access to education, children have joined the adults in illegal gold panning in the area, and also work underground, digging for ore in disused mines.

Migrants stranded

"Because of lack of a proper education, our children cannot find employment and they end up doing all sorts of bad things to raise money. Most of the young girls have now turned to prostitution, and you find them competing for clients at drinking places, even with their own mothers," Bhaureni said.

Most of the mine's workers are migrants with few alternatives and have decided to stay; for those who decide to leave, the going is tough - unemployment in Zimbabwe is estimated at more than 80 percent.

There have been no farm jobs since President Robert Mugabe embarked on the fast-track land reform programme that displaced more than 4,000 commercial farmers and caused the collapse of the agricultural sector, one of Zimbabwe's major employers.

Even if the economy is turned around tomorrow, it will take years before normal operations can resume. The mine is now flooded due to lack of activity, equipment is rotting, and almost all the skilled staff have left

"Even if the economy is turned around tomorrow, it will take years before normal operations can resume. The mine is now flooded due to lack of activity, equipment is rotting, and almost all the skilled staff have left," a senior employee who declined to be identified, told IRIN.

"I worked for this mine for many years and when I see it like that, I almost shed tears. Life used to be good here, but what you see now is misery and a lot of uncertainty among workers and residents."

Minister to form a new political party

Teacher, liberator, oppressor: the enigma of Robert Mugabe

December 23, 2008

He has massacred opponents and driven his country to ruin. Yet the tyrant of Harare remains a mystery

Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace: she appears infinitely avaricious

Martin Fletcher and Jan Raath in Harare

Robert Mugabe lives in a huge, new, Chinese-built mansion in Borrowdale Brooke Road, northern Harare, next to a white-owned farm that was seized, plundered and abandoned some years back.

Armed soldiers patrol the high-walled estate. Occupants of homes overlooking it were evicted when the President moved in.

Except when he leaves by helicopter, a bomb-proof Mercedes whisks Mr Mugabe out of the pagoda-style front gates, flanked by ornamental lions, for the 20-minute drive along one of the few well-maintained roads left in the capital to his office in an old colonial building in Samora Machel Avenue.

His motorcade includes two decoy Mercedes, truckloads of soldiers and an ambulance. Police clear the traffic and dawdlers are bludgeoned with the butts of AK47s. Any gesture at the President is prohibited by law.

Sewage fills a ditch 50 yards from the walls of his mansion. Crowds hitch for rides at every junction, people till scraps of common land for maize and vendors hawk pathetic piles of three or four onions or tomatoes. Zwakwana, proclaims graffiti on the walls. “Enough”.

What does he think — this man who regards himself as the liberator of Zimbabwe but long ago became its oppressor? Does he know — or care — how much his people suffer? Is he burdened by a sense of failure? Never has a country collapsed so far, so fast, except in war.

One of the remarkable things about the man who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years is how little anyone knows about him. Mr Mugabe has no friends to explain him to the world. He occasionally gives hour-long harangues that pass for speeches but he never gives press conferences, never commits his thoughts to paper and seldom gives interviews.

The last, to the author Heidi Holland in 2007, was an exercise in denial in which he praised the agricultural endeavours of his starving country, boasted of its mineral riches and predicted an economic resurgence within two years. He claimed to have a charitable disposition.

Mr Mugabe was always aloof, likes to intimidate interlocutors with long silences and does not know the names of his Cabinet Ministers' wives. He has grown ever-more reclusive, however. He used to visit shops in Harare but that has not happened for years.

He used to attend the Roman Catholic cathedral but now his long-time spiritual adviser, the Jesuit Father Fidelis Mukonori, goes to him. He never eats out. Diplomats find his regime as opaque as North Korea's. All that is certain is that behind the cartoon tyrant lies a complex and conflicted man.

Flickers of humanity emerge in Dinner with Mugabe, the book written by Ms Holland. She writes of his love for his first wife, Sally, who died of kidney failure in 1992, and how he still takes flowers to her grave. He was inconsolable when told, in a Rhodesian prison, of the death of their three-year-old son Nhamo. He was not allowed to attend the funeral.

Mr Mugabe, who was a teacher, organised classes for his fellow political detainees and later — as President — gave lessons to his staff. He formed a surprising friendship with Lord Soames, the last Governor of Rhodesia, and astonished the peer's family by flying to England for his funeral in 1987.

He permitted Ian Smith, the Rhodesian Prime Minister who imprisoned him for 11 years, to remain in Zimbabwe after independence. He once sent the family of his gardener to a shop in Harare to buy themselves clothes for Christmas presents.

Though he constantly denounces Britain he adores the Royal Family, serves visitors tea in porcelain cups and reads The Economist. He used to love visiting London, wears Savile Row suits and has used the same tailor in Harare, Solly Parbhoo, for decades.

A stickler for protocol, he rebuked his first post-independence Cabinet for not dressing properly and arrives at Parliament in a Rolls-Royce. He craves legitimacy, which is why he maintains the facade of democracy.

Mr Mugabe has always kept the cult of personality within bounds. His portrait hangs in most business premises and every town has a street named after him, but there are no statues of him, he has no grandiose titles and his face does not appear on banknotes.

While he is surrounded by corrupt officials and has seized a cluster of white-owned farms near his traditional home in Kutama, he appears more interested in power than money and lives frugally. He rises before dawn, forgoes breakfast, favours simple African foods, eschews alcohol and — though 84 and slowing down — still works punishing hours.

He has three children by his second wife, Grace — a daughter, Bona, in her late teens who attended a convent school in Harare; a son, Robert, who had to leave one of the top private schools in Harare because he under-performed; and a son, Bellarmine, who is at a private primary school.

Bona was awarded the most-improved prize for scripture at one parents' day. Her parents applauded, their security men followed suit and finally the other parents felt obliged to join in.

When and why Mr Mugabe became the monster he is now is debated widely. Some say that it happened after the death of Sally and his marriage to Grace, the secretary by whom he had already had Bona.

Sally, a woman who showed some compassion for downtrodden Zimbabweans, was the closest friend and adviser of Mr Mugabe and coaxed some emotional warmth from him. Grace — 30 years his junior — does the opposite.

She appears infinitely avaricious and spends more on a single shopping trip abroad than 90 per cent of her compatriots earn in their lifetimes. Their wedding in 1996 was breathtakingly extravagant.

Others say that Mr Mugabe grew steadily more bitter and enraged when white Zimbabweans scorned his early efforts at reconciliation in the 1980s and when white farmers backed the fledgeling opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 2000. The former freedom fighter hated being eclipsed by Nelson Mandela after the leader of the ANC was released from prison in 1990.

In truth Mr Mugabe was always ruthless, cold and calculating. After independence in 1980 he ordered the slaughter of 20,000 civilians in Matabeleland who supported his rival, Joshua Nkomo.

Other potential rivals died in mysterious circumstances and he once boasted of having “degrees in violence” to go with his seven academic degrees. His anger and vengefulness grew increasingly pronounced when the rise of Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC threatened his grip on power after 2000.

He ordered the seizures of white-owned land to destroy a reservoir of a million potential MDC votes among farm workers. In 2005 he unleashed Operation Clean Up Filth — destroying the homes and livelihoods of 700,000 township dwellers after another violent, rigged election. He has repeatedly withheld food aid from starving areas that support the MDC.

As the economy collapsed and his popularity plummeted Mr Mugabe has survived through ever-greater violence, repression and his mastery of the baser political arts.

He rents the loyalty of his lieutenants by allowing them to plunder the country. He endlessly plays off the feuding factions within Zanu (PF). He rallies Zimbabweans against fictitious enemies — Britain, America, white farmers and those Western sanctions, which are targeted solely at his inner circle.

Mr Mugabe has been written off many times but is infinitely cunning, which is why Mr Tsvangirai should be wary of entering a power-sharing government.

He learnt the skills of entrapment young. He lived in a village when he was a boy and his grandfather would send him out to catch birds to eat. He would build a cage of grass and sticks, put a few seeds inside and sit quietly reading a book until a bird entered the cage and was caught.

Mr Mugabe rose from the humblest beginnings to lead his country to independence. He was hailed, for a while, as one of the most enlightened leaders of post-colonial Africa, who co-opted whites and promoted education, health and agriculture. Had he stepped down after a decade he might have earned an honourable place in history despite the Matabeleland massacres.

Instead, he clings to the power that he believes is his by right — friendless, paranoid and increasingly out of touch with reality — as his legacy crumbles around him. “Zimbabwe is mine,” he declared defiantly last week. That said it all.

Musina at breaking point as refugees pour in

http://www.iol.co.za

Lee Rondganger
December 23 2008 at 07:10AM

The border town of Musina is at the coalface of a humanitarian crisis, as
residents and aid organisations battle to deal with a flood of sick, broke
and hungry Zimbabweans.

More than a 1 000 Zimbabweans are living on the streets of the Limpopo town,
scrounging for food and looking for work, just kilometres from their home
country.

They are living in deplorable conditions and are dependent on food aid from
organisations such as the United Nations, Save the Children and the South
African Red Cross, while Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)
provides them with medical care.

And despite the Christmas and New Year holidays being days away, Zimbabwe's
desperate keep streaming in.

Those with no money to head to Joburg immediately end up at the Musina
showgrounds, where non-profit organisations provide them with meals.

Most sleep in the open field with no shelter or mattresses, and have turned
the area into a refugee camp.

Nine portable toilets and four taps service the nearly 1 000 people.

Musina mayor Caroline Mahasela told The Star that the steady flow of people
into her town was putting pressure on the municipality's resources.

"We never expected to care for more than a 1 000 people, so there are
challenges. We are currently in the process of finding a suitable place for
the people to stay, where there will be sufficient toilets," she said.

While the conditions are terrible, people like Kufandaedzoa Mudzoriwa, from
Bulawayo, don't care.

"I would rather be here than in Zimbabwe," said the salesman, who left his
country a week ago.

"It is terrible back there. At least here in South Africa I have a chance to
find a job so that I can send money home. Right now in Zimbabwe, even if you
have a job, it is not worth it," he said.

While many in the camp talk openly about the hard- ship back in Zimbabwe,
others whisper, as rumours are rife that some among them are agents of
Robert Mugabe's feared Central Intelligence Organisation.

Said refugee said Charles Mashindi: "There are too many of them
(intelligence agents) here. But I don't care because my only concern is to
get to Joburg. As soon as I get money I am going to Joburg."

A parish priest at the St Martin's Catholic Church in Musina said the
situation was dire as they were handing out between 300 and 350 food parcels
every day to the most vulnerable people.

"In April we were only handing out between 30 and 40 food parcels every day.
That alone just shows how the situation in Zimbabwe has turned," he said.

To deal with the influx of people, the Department of Home Affairs has set up
a mobile office at the showgrounds where people can apply for asylum.

Officials say that since July last year, they have been processing up to 300
applications every weekday at the mobile offices, with more new faces
turning up every day.

The asylum-seeker documents are valid for only three months and must be
renewed until officials decide whether to grant the applicant asylum.

In addition to the influx of people, Musina has in recent weeks also had to
deal with an outbreak of cholera brought into the town by Zimbabweans
crossing the border in search for a health system that works properly.

By Monday, health officials said they had contained the waterborne disease
and were now treating only eight people for cholera at Musina Hospital.

Zimbabwe has been battling its worst cholera outbreak in decades, and the
disease has claimed the lives of more than 1 200 people.

Limpopo MEC for Transport Cassel Mathale visited Musina yesterday as
chairperson of the ANC in Limpopo, and called on Zimbabwe's political rivals
to resolve their "petty differences".

"This is a man-made crisis which the MDC and Zanu-PF must resolve for the
sake of people's lives. The two parties must find a solution to their
problems. What is happening here could have been avoided," he said.

While the death toll remains at eight in the province, Musina has recorded
15 cases since Sunday, bringing the total number of suspected cases treated
to 909, with five patients still in hospital, said department spokesperson
Phuti Seloba.

Botlokwa, near Musina, has reported 18 new cases and 11 were recorded in
Madimbo.

A total of 23 cases were also reported in Dilokong, with 42 people being
treated in hospital. The town of Knobel had three new cases, which brings
the number of suspected cases in this area to 49.

This article was originally published on page 3 of The Star on December 23,
2008

2010 fans 'unlikely' to visit Zim

http://www.iol.co.za

December 23 2008 at 07:59AM

By Clayton Barnes

The Zimbabwean Ministry of Foreign Affairs has intensified measures to
market the country's tourism sector ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup,
despite Fifa's call for football supporters to stay out of that country if
the cholera crisis persists.

Zimbabwe's national newspaper, The Herald, last week reported that
secretary for foreign affairs, ambassador Joey Bimha, was using the
diplomatic offices abroad to market its tourism sector.

Bimha said the country's specialised diplomatic course on offer to
hoteliers would "be tailored to share with them the ministry's experience in
diplomacy, and impart grooming, deportment and effective communication
skills required on the ever changing dynamic international plane".

The article quoted him as saying the course would help hoteliers
improve Zimbabwe's tourism product and promote a positive image of Zimbabwe,
to "boost tourist arrivals and room nights now and beyond the World Cup 2010
showcase".

This came just days after Fifa discouraged football supporters from
setting up base in Zimbabwe during the 2010 World Cup if the economic and
cholera crises persisted.

To date, the disease has claimed more than 1 100 lives and an
estimated 21 000 cases had been reported to Zimbabwean health authorities.

Fifa spokeswoman Delia Fischer said it was monitoring the situation,
but doubted Zimbabwe would form part of its 2010 plans. She said Fifa and
Match Hospitality, its official hospitality partner, were working with South
Africa's neighbours to see how supporters could be given a "truly African
experience", including tours to Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique and Botswana,
but not Zimbabwe at this stage.

She said all 32 World Cup teams would be based in South Africa
"because we are busy ensuring this country has the infrastructure and is
safe enough to host the teams".

Michael Tatalias, of the South African Tourism Services Association,
said it was unlikely that supporters would consider visiting the country.

Tatalias said Zimbabwe was one of the main reasons visitor numbers to
the region had dropped.

This article was originally published on page 3 of Daily News on
December 22, 2008

Can Mugabe turn Grace into Eva Peron?

http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com

22nd Dec 2008 06:07 GMT

By Chenjerai Chitsaru

HARARE's central business district has seen some mayhem recently.

Disgruntled soldiers of Robert Mugabe's underpaid army rampaged through the
capital's streets recently. They smashed plate glass windows and looted a
number of shops.

Last week, along Nelson Mandela Avenue, the huge plate glass at an internet
café was blown to smithereens as a teargas canister, apparently fired by
police officers on the alert in the city, smashed into it.

There was panic in the streets, with people scurrying hither and thither as
they feared the worst: the teargas canister would be replaced by live
bullets.

Such is the tension in Zimbabwe, nobody is in any doubt that the soldiers
and the police are under instructions "to do whatever it takes" to quell any
violence and unrest

All over the country, in the opposition MDC strongholds of the urban
centres, and Zanu PF's much-vaunted bailiwick in the rural areas, can be
discerned an atmosphere of unease.

This was not improved at all by the raucous anti-MDC ranting of President
Robert Mugabe and his cohorts at their conference last week in Bindura in
Mashonaland Central province, the home of Elliot Manyika, who died in a car
accident a few days ago and was buried at the Heroes' Acre .

Although he was only a minister without portfolio, Manyika was a key man in
the party, holding the position of national commissar.

There were rumours, both before and after his death, that he might have been
one of a number of Mugabe's party to be affected by the composition of a new
government which would include MDC members.

Many of Zanu PF's prominent members are bound to be affected, some of them
finding themselves virtually out of a job -at least, in the government.

Shortly after Manyika's burial, there was the shooting incident involving
another Mugabe ally, the Airforce commander, Perence Shiri, generally linked
to the Gukurahundi massacre of the 1980s.

The official line was that this was the work of enemies of the state. In one
instance, Zanu PF officials blamed the MDC for the attack.

But others, even neutrals, tended to single out internal squabbles within
Zanu PF.

The party conference in Bindura was aimed at solidifying Mugabe's position
and to strengthen the party in preparation - say critics - for a possible
rerun of the presidential election, which Mugabe lost to Morgan Tsvangirai
in March.

There was nothing spectacular at the conference, apart from Mugabe's
cliché-ridden closing speech. For many observers, there was a rather
outlandish tone of contempt for both Tsvangirai and the MDC in the party the
sloganeering.

It was if there were no talks at all to form a so-called inclusive
government, featuring as the new prime minister, the MDC leader. This
astonished many observers, who had imagined that Mugabe would be publicly
more conciliatory as the Sadc leaders seem inclined, recently, to distance
themselves from Mugabe's hardline position against Tsvangirai and the MDC.

This raised suspicion that Mugabe could be planning to spring a surprise on
everybody, including his party. It would now seem that there is no likely
successor to Mugabe at the head of the party, most of the contenders having
burnt their bridges by making it difficult for Mugabe to publicly endorse
them as his successor.

The unlikely scenario now being imagined is one in which Mugabe would put
forward his wife, Grace, as a "neutral" contender, even as a stop-gap
measure until a substantive candidate emerges.

During the March election campaign, Grace, a former secretary at State
House, featured publicly for the first time, supporting her husband and
going on the offensive against Tsvangirai and the MDC.

Although some of her speeches tended to be hysterical, there were those who
thought she was no longer the "Eliza Doolittle" that they had always figured
her out to be.

They thought she had "graduated" to an Eva Peron, the wife of the late
Argentine dictator, Juan Peron. Mugabe would be the first African leader to
groom his spouse in such a fashion.

But analysts say he is so desperate for his "dynasty" to continue that, in
the absence of an adult offspring, Grace, who bore his children in
circumstances which many Catholics in Zimbabwe thought were scandalous, may
be "it".

The succession battle in Zanu PF has been long and bloody and most of this
is a result of Mugabe himself wanting to be able to pick his own successor.
He wants someone who can continue his flawed political and economic
programme, which has landed the country into a veritable mess.

Emmerson Mnangagwa, a cabinet minister and a leading light in the party, has
been mentioned as a possible successor. But he is apparently showing signs
of being "his own man" and not likely to take Mugabe's advice on who to
include in a new leadership headed by him, the former security minister.

Joyce Mujuru, one of the vice-presidents in the party and the government,
had previously been counted among the favourites to take over the
presidency - until she, apparently, pushed for a role for her husband, the
former army commander, Solomon Mujuru, who is said to have brought up an
entirely new list of "possibles", including people Mugabe considered
enemies.

The speculation is now rife that there is so such preoccupation with the
succession battle that little attention is being paid to the conclusion of
the talks on a new government.

Zanu PF is using as a ruse the recalcitrance of the MDC leadership to agree
to its proposals for certain ministerial appointments to delay any decision,
while it tries to unravel the succession imbroglio.

This is where the Sadc leadership may be missing the point of what Mugabe is
really up to. A new government with Tsvangirai as prime minister would
receive such international approval and support, most of the world - except
perhaps for China and Russia - would probably rush in with much-needed aid.

The Zimdollar would probably bounce back to its pre-2000 levels against most
world currencies. There is no doubt that the IMF and the World Bank would
immediately "forgive" the country its previous delinquent behaviour and make
generous allowances for an infusion of aid and balance of payments
facilities.

Zanu PF would be seen for what it really is - a party that clung to power
for no other reason than its own survival as a party.

It would be accused, even by its former allies, of condemning the country
and millions of its people to a life of misery, not on any legitimate
ideological grounds, but out of selfish and almost evil motives.

Although Mugabe might not end up at the International Court of Justice for
crimes against humanity, his record as a leader in Zimbabwe, would be
effectively ruined: he might not even be buried at the Heroes Acre.

In reality, the people would no longer consider the land issue as the
shining example of Mugabe's era. They would instead think only of the years
since 2000. When their economy took a massive tumble and sent to the dogs
their reputation as a country self-sufficient in food.

A very proud man, unable to perceive of his future without the heroism of
the struggle for independence, Mugabe seems determined to hang on until that
part of the world which considers him a reckless and heartless leader
concedes, finally, that he did possess "the right stuff" to lead the
country, even if, at the end, he went disastrously off the rails.

What is scary about that is the legacy he would bequeath to future
generations. Few would accord him the respect of a wise, caring leader.

Most historians would not hesitate to place in the same compartment s Idi
Amin, Jean-Bedel Bokassa and Mobutu Sese Seko.

Dragging out the end

http://www.guardian.co.uk

Editorial
The Guardian, Tuesday 23 December 2008

Zimbabwe's nightmare will not end any time soon. The foreign office minister
Mark Malloch-Brown was only stating yesterday what had been evident for some
time - that efforts to form a power-sharing government were deadlocked and
that Robert Mugabe had become the chief obstacle to forming one. On Sunday
Jendayi Frazer, the US assistant secretary of state for Africa, said the US
would not support a power-sharing agreement with Mr Mugabe remaining as
president.

The target of both statements was not Mr Mugabe, who continues to mouth
inanities like "Zimbabwe is mine", but his Southern African neighbours. They
too were the subjects of Mr Mugabe's wrath when he dared them to invade his
country. He told Zanu-PF's central committee on Friday that he did not know
of any African country brave enough to do that. In other words: come and get
me.

The collapse of the deal signed in September is a challenge that South
Africa in particular, will find increasingly hard to ignore, not least
because it has consistently voted with Russia and China to block attempts by
the UN security council to get involved. But it always had the pretext that
an alternative was at hand, a negotiated end to Zanu-PF's monopoly on power,
and an African solution to an African problem. It is doubtful whether Mr
Mugabe ever intended to share power, or whether Thabo Mbeki, the mediator
appointed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), ever
intended to enforce a deal which gave Morgan Tsvangirai anything more than
the role of senior minister in a government in which Zanu-PF retained
control both of the military and the police. But while a process existed,
the inevitable outcome could be postponed. But now it cannot, and the South
African president, Kgalema Motlanthe, is left with nowhere to hide.

The SADC is already split with Zambia and Botswana calling on Mr Mugabe to
stand down, and Botswana offering to host a government in exile. The split
will deepen as the death toll from the cholera outbreak increases, as the
regime resorts to repression, and as the Movement for Democratic Change goes
underground or into exile. Declaring a state of emergency will do nothing to
help Mr Mugabe retain control of his country's economy, the health system,
and the ability to feed the population. Collapse is no longer a possibility
but a certainty. The only question, as the SADC is forced to supply ever
greater quantities of emergency aid, is how long it takes. The longer the
agony, the more it will fall on South Africa to end it. As it is, the only
thing that is growing in Zimbabwe is the graveyard.

Robert Mugabe Must Leave

The Bahama Journal

December 23rd, 2008

Today we send a reminder to all who celebrate Christmas. This reminder has
to do with the fact that the Jesus they celebrate was fated to be acquainted
with grief.
Indeed, this fact is not lost on the millions of people around the world
[many of them professing Christ as Lord and Savior] who are today being
distressed - crucified even - by war, pestilence and poverty.

Here the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe come to mind.

In this regard, it is interesting to note that, the Catholic Church in
southern Africa says that there can be no solution to the horrific crisis in
Zimbabwe as long as Robert Mugabe is in power.

As the Catholic bishops put their case, "We express our deepest solidarity
with the people of Zimbabwe at this desperate time. We recommit ourselves
and our people to praying that they will be able to unite and to have the
courage and the strength to persevere in the struggle to remove the evil
brought on them by Mugabe's dictatorship and the armed forces he uses to
enforce it."

We wholeheartedly agree with this position as taken by the Catholic bishops
of South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland.

As they say, "It is now time to isolate Mugabe completely and to remove all
forms of moral, material or tacit support for him and his party. Regardless
of whether he is a former 'liberator' or an 'Elder African Statesman', he
must be forced to step down."

They are absolutely correct when they say that, "No true liberator or
statesman clings ruthlessly to power as Mugabe has done, while his people
live and die in misery and destitution. No solution to the crisis in
Zimbabwe is possible as long as he is there."

Note also that, "The church statement, issued by Cardinal Wilfrid Napier,
spokesman for the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, noted that
Mugabe lost the March presidential election, but "he has continued to cling
to power, waging war against anyone suspected of not supporting him, and
refusing to share any real power with those who beat him in the election."

We note also that the bishops further said Mugabe "is willing to watch
thousands of innocent people die of starvation and cholera as long as he is
able to retain power. Like Pharaoh he is obstinate and refuses to listen to
the people (Exodus 8:15). He will do so only if enough pressure is brought
to bear on him."

The bishops also indicate that, regional political leaders, including the
new South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, have failed to push Mugabe. "

Like the bishops, we too take issue with all those African leaders who
continue to support the tyrant Mugabe. Indeed, like the same bishops, we
urge leadership in southern Africa "to re-direct their solidarity towards
the needs of the suffering people of the once-thriving country."

As the Catholic bishops note, "The South African Government has the capacity
to force Mugabe to go. All that is lacking is the political will. History
will judge very harshly the tacit support still given to Mugabe and the
little (if any) support given to his opposition as well as the total
disregard for the people of Zimbabwe."

More to the point, we agree with the bishops when they say that, "President
Motlanthe should stop immediately all collusion with Mugabe and cut off any
support South Africa is offering him, especially electricity and fuel. In
addition, any assets held by Mugabe and his cronies in South Africa should
be frozen immediately. "

By way of more general comment, we note that as it was some two thousand
years ago, so is it in today's world. Here we reference the fact that in
that time when Jesus Christ was born - the talk everywhere had to do with
the pervasiveness of a culture that was suffused in violence.

In addition, it was a world where many dared hope that - at long last - they
would be freed from the tyranny of Caesar. In other words, those times were
such that dread, hope and fear were to be found intertwined and woven
throughout that society.

While it was truly a time of despair; that era was also a time of hope.

Two thousand and more years later, hope and despair delineate the contours
of life in these times and in this world of ours.

With this as backdrop, we turn to that situation in Zimbabwe where an aging
tyrant and his power-mad cohorts preside over a cowered, diseased and
battered people.

As these thugs do what they must do [Christmas or no Christmas in mind] in
order to 'run things' in a troubled Zimbabwe, more and more men, women and
children are dying - some from hunger and some others from a dread
combination of HIV-AIDS and cholera.

In the meantime, that country's megalomaniac of a leader - Robert Mugabe and
his band of thugs - stubbornly and defiantly cling to the reins of power.

So, to this modern day pharaoh, the word remains in this blessed Advent
season: Let my people go!

Zimbabwe faces a grim future

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au

Jack the Insider | December 23, 2008

Article from: The Australian
While we're sitting down for our Christmas lunches, we might wish to pause
for a moment and reflect on the sort of Christmas the people of Zimbabwe
will experience this year.

On Tuesday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) released its 11th annual list of
the top ten major humanitarian crises around the globe. All the usual
suspects are there. Ahmad al-Bashir's Sudan, war in the Congo, the heartache
of Iraq's four million displaced citizens, ongoing humanitarian nightmares
in Ethiopia's Somalia region, entrenched state sponsored poverty in Myanmar,
the sorrow of malnutrition and disease affecting millions of the world's
children and the ravages of AIDS throughout sub Saharan Africa.

The failed state of Somalia is almost a perennial listing in this gloomy
catalogue of wretchedness. The people of Mogadishu are stuck in the cross
fire of a seemingly endless civil war. One in five Somalian children will
not live to their fifth birthdays.

And looming large on MSF's list is Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Once the bread basket of Africa, Zimbabwe is now nothing more than a basket
case.

Over the thirty years of Mugabe's rule, property has been raided and handed
to Zimbabwe's power elite, in the name of land reform. Profitable farms that
fed the country and created export earnings have been seized from their
owners and now lie in disorder and dysfunction.

Almost one half of Zimbabwe's population currently relies on food relief
from the World Food Programme.

Mugabe continues to blame drought for the food shortages but Zimbabwe is
living proof that famine and related disease can only occur with the active
participation of a corrupt and amoral state. Drought, crop failures, global
market downturns - all may create the preconditions but famine ultimately
has a political cause.

For the people of Zimbabwe who have had to endure political oppression,
state sponsored violence, famine and the outbreak of entirely preventable
diseases like cholera, there is fear now that their country will slide
further into despair.

Australia's Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith has indicated that there are
signs of further tumult and violence in the coming weeks.

Speaking to the ABC today, Smith said, "My grave fear is that however bad
the situation is in Zimbabwe right now, it will get worse before it gets
better."

As the urging of the world's leaders for Mugabe to go reaches a crescendo,
Mugabe simply digs in deeper. At the ZANU-PF annual conference on 19
December, Mugabe declared, ""I will never, never, never, never surrender.
Zimbabwe is mine."

These are words taken straight out of the African dictator's playbook.
Uganda's Amin, Zaire's Sese Seko, the Central African Republic's Jean Bedel
Bokassa - Mugabe's name rests fittingly in the litany of madmen who have
brought sorrow to sub-Saharan Africa.

Another measure common to African dictators is the final megalomaniacal
bloody purge. There are indications that Mugabe and his thugs have reached
that point and may commence the wholesale slaughter of the people of
Zimbabwe in the coming weeks.

Last week, the Commander of Zimbabwe's Air Force and close Mugabe ally, Air
Marshall Perence Shiri was shot and wounded outside his own farm (yet
another farm seized by force).

There is some talk that this is a sign that the Zimbabwean military is
fracturing as interests within it clamour for power in a post Mugabe phase
and a violent civil war may be in the making.

More likely is that Mugabe and ZANU-PF have contrived these events in order
to justify a security crackdown. More arrests and violence can be expected.

The next few weeks in Zimbabwe look very grim indeed.

There will be few festivities in Zimbabwe on 25 December this year. It is
only when Mugabe leaves in a wooden box that the people of Zimbabwe will
have anything to celebrate.

The lights of my life

http://www.mg.co.za

CHIEF K MASIMBA BIRIWASHA - Dec 23 2008 06:00

Every year, when Christmas time comes, the Harare City Council puts up
multicoloured lights in First Street, the city's main road. The lights glow
brilliantly like rainbow colours in the dark.

When the lights went up in late November, I was busy running around the city
in search of my baby son Tadana's three-month immunisation jab. As I
criss-crossed the city and passed through First Street, I couldn't help but
think that the Christmas lights were a big, tasteless joke given the
circumstances in Zimbabwe.

Every day, early in the morning till late into the night, hordes of men and
women huddled beneath the lights, waiting and hoping like little Godots to
get at their hard-earned cash locked up in banks. Money was in short supply,
and once you managed to withdraw some cash it flew away with the wind
because ofunquantifiable inflation. Perhaps as a sign of their dejection,
the people would leave loads of trash below the Christmas lights, turning
Harare's main street into a mess.

I don't think many of the people waiting in bank queues that stretched like
garden worms around the city gave much thought to the Christmas lights. I am
sure, for many long-suffering Zimbabweans, the idea of Christmas faded into
nothingness under the daily pressure to satisfy temporal necessities.

Anyway, as the Christmas lights blinked away, my wife Michelle and I took
baby Tadana to a local clinic, about 3km from where we live. We were shocked
to find that were no nurses except for an old lady at the front desk. She
informed us that the clinic had no stock of vaccines, and that we had to
make our own plan to get baby Tadana vaccinated.

I knew that this meant Michelle and I had to run like dogs until the
vaccines were found. Thoroughly dumbfounded, we went home splitting our
heads on what to do next. We thought of travelling to South Africa, Botswana
or Zambia to find the vaccines but we had no cash.

But as they say in Zimbabwe, you have to make a plan, and then shift it to
the left and the right and squeeze it until it is bone dry to make the
impossible work. Michelle summoned the mother inside herself and spent one
morning at work calling her friends with babies.

Luckily, she was given the names of paediatricians who are filling in the
gap left by a public health system that has failed to deliver services to
its own people. We contacted one of the paediatricians and for US$2 we
managed to get baby Tadana his jab.

I couldn't help but think about what is happening to millions of children in
Zimbabwe born in our season of despair, particularly in the rural areas.
Unlike baby Tadana, many children in my country are not receiving essential
vaccinations because of the collapse of the public health system.

It's like a whirlwind that will undoubtedly explode in the coming years: we
will surely witness a rise in children's diseases in my country, and my
spirit stings with pain at the thought.

Soon after baby Tadana received his jab, which made him bawl madly, we took
him on his longest journey in the human world -- to Mutare, approximately
265km from Harare. It's Zimbabwe's third largest city, located in the
eastern highlands and notorious for the nouveau riche flaunting loads of
cash made from blood diamonds.

In recent years, thousands and thousands of Zimbabweans have flocked to
Chiadzwa, a rural compound a few kilometres outside Mutare, to try their
luck at searching for diamonds. The blood diamonds have made many people in
the country get rich quickly while many others have lost their lives.

We arrived in Mutare at night after driving non-stop for nearly three hours.
From the top of Christmas Pass, which provides a panoramic view of the city,
Mutare's multicoloured lights look like a splatter of Christmas crackers in
the dark.

Michelle, Tadana and I were in Mutare for a clean-up campaign to sweep trash
off the city's streets with a group of young people who live in the city, as
part of the 16 Days of Action Against Gender Violence. The young people were
members of Youth Initiative for Democracy in Zimbabwe, a youth organisation
committed to a free, democratic and just Zimbabwe.

Michelle asked me to join so that I would look after baby Tadana while she
coordinated the clean-up activities. As I carried him around Mutare city
centre, I was amazed at the many stares that came our way from both men and
women.

There is a general stereotype that African men should not be seen in public
carrying tiny babies. It is regarded as a European thing for an African man
to carry a baby. I guess the stereotype is that men are justsupposed to
provide the baby's material needs while the emotional, soft, lovey-dovey
stuff should be solely the domain of women.

Whatever the case, carrying Tadana around gave me the closest sensation to
being pregnant that I think I could ever muster. To my satisfaction, Tadana
never cried. The way I see it, men need to claim the space of fatherhood and
show warmth, love and affection to their children.

When Tadana was born three months ago, I could never have predicted the
script that has played out so far. The journey from the pregnancy through to
the birth and first earthly months of baby Tadana has been mercurial,
jagged, rolling and full of new things that I daresay my creative
imagination could never conjecture.

In sum, it's been a journey with all sorts of unpredictable twists and
turns, much like my home country's political and socioeconomic landscape.

As we drove up towards Christmas Pass, on our way back to Harare after being
in Mutare for 24 hours, baby Tadana began babbling many sounds more than he
has done in the past. On our parenthood journey, Michelle and I eagerly look
forward to the day when baby Tadana will speak his first actual words.

But we make it a point to thoroughly cherish and embrace each moment with
our little bundle of joy. All said, when next Christmas comes, baby Tadana
will surely have much to talk about.

Zimbabwe! Any Lessons for Country And Continent As a Whole?

Public Agenda (Accra)

Daniel Chachu

22 December 2008

Accra - "I recall reading pessimistic analyses in the mid-1960s that said
South Korea was doomed to failure because it lacked the ingredients deemed
necessary for development. Yet in the span of a few decades, Korea and East
Asia have experienced the greatest increase in wealth for the largest number
of people in the shortest time in the history of humanity. When Africa's
challenges seem overwhelming and the statistics staggering, let us remember-
for every Afro pessimist today, there was an Oriental fatalist forty years
ago." Paul Wolfowitz, former President of World Bank.

The Cato Institute's Hanke Hyperinflation Index for Zimbabwe (HHIZ) puts
Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate at 2 trillion%, contesting official results
for July which puts the figure at 231 million%. Whatever it is, it is all
too clear that all is not well with Zimbabwe, to put it mildly. Perhaps a
better description would be a state of political and economic quagmire. But
how did this come about? Most analysts believe that what triggered
Zimbabwe's current crisis was President Mugabe's attempt to fast track land
reforms (which had been going on even before the country's independence)
with the aim of redistributing land back to black Zimbabweans. In my
opinion, the principle was right and indeed the British government had
provided million of pounds to facilitate the process after Zimbabwe's
independence. The implementation was however fraught with many problems.
Unfortunately too, Mugabe could not garner the confidence and trust of his
own people, as many accused him of redistributing lands to his ZANU-PF party
sympathisers. A combination of drought, the global food, fertilizer and fuel
crisis as well as a botched Presidential and parliamentary election have
contributed to worsening the situation. But can our leaders taken any cue
from the Zimbabwean case?

Even before the elections, the Zimbabwean economy was virtually on its
knees. Moreover, the droughts, food, fuel and fertilizer crisis affected
virtually the whole of Africa, with riots in several African countries. So
what makes the Zimbabwean case unique? Many believe that the turmoil has
mainly been driven by political and economic machinations from Western
countries opposed to the land reforms. This school of thought seems to
suggest that these western countries are seeking to protect the interests of
the minority white population engaged in large-scale agriculture in
Zimbabwe. Sanctions therefore intended to punish Mugabe and his government
have only ended up plunging the country into a deep crisis with the poor
bearing the brunt. Whether this conspiracy theory is true or not, I believe
our leaders have a lot to learn from the situation.

Firstly, building a strong and resilient domestic economy (certainly not the
type we have in Ghana where about 40% of our annual budget is donor-funded
with the IMF and World Bank running the show) is no longer a choice but a
necessity. Our leaders must aim at making Ghana self-sufficient in food
production just as China has succeeded in doing in the last thirty years.
Besides a green revolution, Ghana's industrial potential is yet to be
harnessed. A structural transformation would require adding value to the
many raw materials the country exports.

Moreover, Nkrumah's cry for a strong continental union is yet to resonate in
the ears and minds of African leaders. In an era of multilateralism, no
African country can survive on its own. Africa must prove that it can think
and make decisions on its own. Also, Africans must take advantage of the
market its 750 million population provides, bearing in mind that the US,
European Union, China and India, among others are scrambling for the same.
Further, our leaders must be wary of the many multilateral and bilateral
political and economic partnerships being bandied about, some of which are
undermining efforts to create sub-regional economic blocks and a continental
union.
Finally, Africans must believe in themselves! We must produce what we
consume and consume what we produce at the same time maintaining a carefully
sequenced trade relationship with the rest of the world.

(doc.chachu@gmail.com)

Mawere: My Zimbabwe and My Africa

22 December, 2008

On Friday, 19 December 2008, President Robert Mugabe addressing his party's
annual conference declared that "Zimbabwe is mine" and vowed never to
surrender to calls to step down, as his political rival threatened to quit
stalled unity government talks.

This is what he said: 'I will never, never, never, never surrender. Zimbabwe
is mine, I am a Zimbabwean. Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe never for the
British, Britain for the British.'

The concept of African citizenship is one that has confused many to the
extent that even Mugabe with the benefit of leading a post colonial state
for the last 28 years has not understood the concept in its proper context
and the obligations it imposes on its intended beneficiaries.

Like Mugabe, I was born in Zimbabwe. Unlike Mugabe, I have had to accept
that Zimbabwe like Africa belongs to all we believe in it and are willing to
contribute in shaping its future. To Mugabe, the face of a Zimbabwean is
black or what is commonly referred to as "mwana we vhu" meaning "son of the
soil".

The connection between what Mugabe believes in as Zimbabwean and land is a
direct and causal one helping explain why he holds the view that Zimbabwean
land must permanently be attached to the true owners of Zimbabwe i.e. black
Zimbabwean born like me.

To the extent that I have now acquired a foreign citizenship, albeit an
African one, Mugabe would regard me as a traitor of the highest order. After
all, he spent a greater part of his life fighting for what he believed to be
the Zimbabwean cause to accept that taking a foreign citizenship does not
injure any Zimbabwean interests.

Whose Africa is it anyway? The relationship between Africa and black people
will remain a contentious issue but what is important is that existential
capitalism will never advance the interests of Africa. The mere fact that
blacks are attached to land will not necessarily result in farm output to
feed the stomachs of the current generation.

If Mugabe's construction of Zimbabwean citizenship is allowed to take root
then the consequences are dire not least because there are many foreign born
blacks who have naturalized as Zimbabweans whose future automatically
becomes precarious as well as white Zimbabweans who over the last 28 years
have believed that they also had a vested future in the country only to find
that Mugabe does not accept their contribution and citizenship.

Imagine, for example, a white person who was so inspired by Mugabe's speech
on reconciliation in 1980 that he relocated to Zimbabwe bought a farm and
naturalized as a citizen. He now is called names but the output produced by
this farm was used to feed Zimbabweans.

It is also important to make the point that citizenship ought not to be
reserved to only natural persons but also to juristic persons i.e.
companies. There are many companies registered in Zimbabwe who may have
holders of share certificates who are domiciled outside Zimbabwe. Such
entities are in all respects Zimbabwean vested with the rights and
obligations of citizenship.

Should the face of Africa be restricted to blacks and what would be the
implications on economic progress? Unfortunately, capitalism has its own
rules and is founded on a simple concept that human beings are rational and
will pursue their own interests.

The experience of the last 52 years of post-colonial experience has shown
that blacks are not as patriotic as people like Mugabe would like them to be
for his own self-interest.

In fact, they have been known to pursue their own interests to the extent
that many of them are now living comfortably in the diaspora. They have
taken the choice to sell their time to the best bidder and in this case the
time of professional blacks has found more value in other parts of the world
than Zimbabwe or Africa in general.

Mugabe is not alone in holding the view that Zimbabwe should belong to black
people and title to land must be reserved for sons and daughters of the
soil. The same view is widely held in the rest of the continent.

Even after 28 years in power, Mugabe still continues to hold the view that
any call for a change of leadership necessarily means the return of the
British hegemony over land.

In making the case, Mugabe speaks for many who believe that Africa should
rather be poor than its citizens continue to be alienated from the land.
However, no attempt is made to explain how the mere transfer of title deeds
to black born Africans will improve the standard of living of all of
Africa's
citizens.

Mugabe should smart enough to know that Zimbabwe belongs to the people of
Zimbabwe and last time they voted they genuinely wanted to see a different
face in the statehouse.

I have made the point before that the election of Obama has opened a new
window of hope for even white Africans to aspire to the highest office.

The Obama phenomenon has many enemies including Mugabe who hold the view
that the concept of Zimbabwe should be a restricted one.

The statement made by Mugabe sums up what is at the root cause of Africa's
contemporary problems. The past is gone and the future can only be shaped by
the decision made by this generation.

Any leader should look at government as an organ of the people to serve
their interests. The state of Zimbabwe should ideally be a people's project
and the leader should know when it is time to go.

Mugabe's views resonate with many Africans to give him confidence that he
will not face any roadblock from any African head of state except a few who
are easily labeled as agents of imperialism.

Human nature and mankind's relationship to existence is more compatible with
the life of a rational being.

If one assumes Africans are also rational and the only mechanism through
which they can advance their interests is to put in place a system that
recognizes value and allows for trading.

In the case of land, a person could perhaps be given a right for 99 years
and can only proceed to add value to the land if he/she knows they can
convert the land into some other asset class like cash in an open market
system.

What Mugabe seems to advocate is a closed system whereby if a white person
were to approach a black person who has been allocated land with an offer
he/she cannot refuse, the black person would be condemned to only sell the
right to one class of people i.e. blacks who may not have the cash by virtue
of wrong policies put in place.

I have often made the case that white people are not successful as farmers
in Africa merely because of skin color but because of the system that they
put in place to promote and protect their interests. If blacks are against
the capitalist system and wish to replace it with some kind of existential
capitalism then poverty will remain part of the African story.

Without freedom, Africa's future will remain compromised. One cannot deny
that colonialism was a bad system and investing in the past will not feed
Africa. A modern Africa will require that farmers look at land as just like
any other asset class whose value is determined by what it can produce.

The Africa that we should want to see is an working Africa in which
citizens, for instance, go to a supermarket to buy beans without caring
about who produced the beans. They should be comforted by the fact that the
price they pay reflects what they think the beans are worth otherwise they
should have the option of buying the same beans from other farmers in the
country or outside the country as they case may be.

The moment Africa retreats to a stage where, for example, it becomes
important at the till to know who produced this or that product then
Africa's
future will continue to be doomed less by the machinations of its yesterday
enemies than by the rhetoric of its current leaders.

Mugabe has opened the great debate of our time and we should not be shy to
engage in it. Is it correct to say that Zimbabwe should belong to a certain
class of people and the market for Zimbabwean land should forever be
restricted to such a class of people irrespective of the economic
fundamentals at play?

State claims it has arrested western spies