http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8174
December 2, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - Zimbabwe's security forces vowed Tuesday night to
crush against
demonstrations planned for Wednesday against the Reserve Bank
of Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has called for
peaceful
protests against debilitating limits on bank
withdrawals.
The Zimbabwe Defence Forces, which include the army, air
force and the
police, gave warning that the military would not be an idle
observer during
the mass action planned by the ZCTU and other key civil
society
organisations.
Former Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi, in
a rare appearance on state
television during the main 8 pm news bulletin
Tuesday, apologised to viewers
for the actions of "unruly elements in the
army" who ran amok in the city
centre assaulting foreign currency
dealers.
He, however, warned that security forces would bring to bear its
full force
upon those perpetrators of uncalled for violence.
The ZCTU
maintains the protest will be peaceful.
Fearing an imminent revolt over
the withdrawal limits, central bank governor
Gideon Gono hastily raised the
limit to Z$100 million a week for individuals
last weekend.
But the
ZCTU has refused to call off the strike action saying the withdrawal
limit
review from Z$500 000 and Z$1 million daily to Z$100 million and Z$50
million per week, respectively, was not good enough.
Gono sought to
blame sanctions for the cash shortages, accusing Germany of
abruptly
terminating its 50-year contract with Zimbabwe to supply currency
paper.
"The RBZ is, therefore, doing all it can under the inescapable
realities on
the ground to ensure that both companies and individuals
continue to get
reasonable cash supplies for their daily transactional
needs," Gono said.
But ZCTU secretary-general Wellington Chibhebhe said
last night that no
amount of threatening would derail the planned
protest.
The planned demonstrations are deemed illegal under the terms of
Zimbabwe's
security laws as the labour unions have not sought police
permission.
Chibhebhe said one did not need police clearance to visit the
bank to
withdraw cash.
By committing the army to the streets and
threatening a showdown with the
ZCTU, Sekeramayi raised the stakes a day
after tensions boiled over after
dozens of troops from Cranborne Barracks
and in full camouflage dress,
staged mass action, seizing cash from money
changers, whom they accused of
consorting with the central bank to vandalise
the economy.
A soldier told The Zimbabwe Times that they seized the cash
because it was
given to street foreign currency dealers by the central bank
to source
foreign currency from the black market, starving banks of cash
that would
have been paid out to depositors.
The rampaging troops
were joined by hundreds of civilians at the corner of
Robert Mugabe and
Fourth Streets, in the heart of the capital, chanting
slogans denouncing
Gono and calling for his head.
"Harare experienced disturbances
perpetrated by a few unruly elements from
the defence forces," Sekeramayi
said on national television. "Those actions
are unacceptable, deplorable and
reprehensible. The Ministry of Defence
expresses sincere regret that this
has happened and would like to assure
Harare residents that this will not
happen again."
Sekeramayi said those behind the incident were being
investigated and those
found guilty would be brought to book.
He
slammed the call for protest action by the ZCTU "and some other
anti-government civic organisations".
Several pressure groups and
civil society organisations have stated that
they will join the mass protest
Wednesday and called on Zimbabweans to "rise
up in your millions and take
part in the nationwide peaceful protest ".
Zimbabwe's umbrella labour
body reiterated calls last night on all workers
and ordinary citizens across
Zimbabwe to join the anti-central bank
protests, despite threats of
suppression.
ZCTU president Lovemore Matombo said countrywide
consultations have revealed
a renewed preparedness among workers and
ordinary citizens to confront
President Robert Mugabe's authoritarian
capitalist regime.
The 250 000-member ZCTU said the review of the
withdrawal limit was a plot
to cheat Zimbabweans and demanded that caps on
withdrawals be removed
completely.
The protest comes hardly a week
after Mugabe renewed Gono's term of office
for another five years, a move
that has sparked widespread outrage given his
apparent policy failures and
interventions.
Matombo said workers and ordinary citizens would go to
their respective
banks on Wednesday and demand to withdraw any amount they
want. The workers
and ordinary citizens would picket the banks and would not
leave until the
withdrawal limits are removed.
Matombo said the
labour leaders would also lead a procession to the central
bank along Samora
Machel Avenue to present a petition to Gono.
A splinter labour union
sponsored by Zanu-PF to undermine the ZCTU has
immediately sprung to action
and urged workers to ignore the call by the
ZCTU to participate in the mass
protest.
"We encourage all workers not to participate in the illegal and
unnecessary
venture planned by the ZCTU," a statement from the Zimbabwe
Federation of
Trade Union (ZFTU) said. The ZFTU is aligned to the Zimbabwe
National War
Veterans' Association.
Matombo, however, said workers
had indicated that they were ready to brave
repression to gather at all
major banks across Zimbabwe demanding their
money.
The labour leader
said the protest would be the largest and most peaceful
demonstration to
date.
Analysts said that if the overall turnout for the protests was
huge, the
demonstrations might create a turning point.
"It seems that
the spirit of resistance is clearly on the rise and this
episode is going to
be very important in the unfolding struggle," said
labour activist
Munyaradzi Mushonga.
"A key aspect of this is going to be the area of
leadership, in particular,
whether the rank and file of key unions and
ordinary Zimbabweans will be
able to break through the suffocating
disorganisation and passivity of the
union bureaucracies. If this occurs,
then we could be in for very exciting
times."
The call for
Wednesday's mass action comes amid rising political tension and
deepening
hardships across the country.
Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is gathering
pace, and yesterday there were
almost no banknotes in circulation while
water shortages are intensifying
because of the lack of foreign currency to
buy chemicals to purify water.
Major employers, including government
institutions, were buying cash on the
black market to pay employees. Fuel
was unavailable at garages around the
capital and only small amounts were on
offer on the black market.
http://www.africasia.com
HARARE,
Dec 2 (AFP)
Zimbabwe's
main opposition party said Tuesday it will meet soon to discuss a
proposed
constitutional amendment creating the post of prime minister for
its leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, ahead of more power-sharing talks.
"The second issue
would be the time frame of the gazetting (or official
publication of the)
constitutional amendment and the third issue will be
what the MDC believes
are outstanding matters on the equitable sharing of
ministerial portfolios,"
Nelson Chamisa, spokesman for the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC) said
in a statement.
After that, he said, the three rival groups, including
President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the MDC splinter faction, will meet in
two weeks to
resume talks aimed at creating a unity government.
Late
last month, the MDC said it had reached an "understanding" on a
constitutional amendment crucial to forming a unity government, but other
disputes have not been settled.
"The issue of governors, the
composition and terms of reference of the
national security council, as well
as the matter regarding the appointment
of permanent secretaries,
ambassadors and other senior government
officials," Chamisa said.
The
latest round of power-sharing talks were suspended in November after
Tsavangirai accused mediator Thabo Mbeki, South Africa's former president,
of not fully understanding the situation in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe and
Tsvangirai agreed to a power-sharing deal in September after
disputed
elections earlier in the year, but it has yet to be realised.
http://www.independent.co.uk
Zimbabwe's state security begins to
break down after soldiers vent anger at
economic collapse
By Basildon
Peta in Johannesburg and Anne Penketh
Wednesday, 3 December
2008
An army investigation was underway in Zimbabwe last night after
President
Robert Mugabe's loyal generals vowed to take strong measures
against junior
soldiers who rampaged across Harare to vent their anger at
their suffering
in the country's economic collapse.
The soldiers'
violence was the latest indicator of the dramatically
worsening crisis in
which thousands are dying of a cholera epidemic. The
World Health
Organisation put the death toll at 500, but a senior health
ministry
official has told The Independent the real toll is nearer to 3,000.
The WHO
said "cholera outbreaks in Zimbabwe have occurred annually since
1998, but
epidemics never reached today's proportions".
State hospitals and clinics
have been shut across the country and the lack
of money to buy water
treatment chemicals means many major urban centres
have not had clean water
for over a year. Because of the breakdown in the
water system, residents are
having to drink from contaminated wells and
streams.
"There is a
general sense that everything is beginning to break down," said
a senior
Western diplomat, who described the situation in Zimbabwe as
"low-grade
anarchy" rather than a "mutiny".
In a clear sign that President Mugabe's
hold on his state security machinery
is starting to crumble, his once-loyal
soldiers ran amok across the capital
on Monday after they failed to access
their paltry wages in the
cash-strapped banks. The unarmed soldiers fought
with heavily-armed police
and several were arrested.
It was the third
outbreak of such violence since last Thursday. The sight of
rampaging
soldiers was then unprecedented. Army sources said an inquiry had
already
begun, with dozens facing courts martial. Unconfirmed reports say
three of
the 12 soldiers who took part in Thursday's riot have been killed.
A
sizeable body of Mugabe's fiercely- loyal generals were co-ordinating a
plan
to crush any likely mutiny from within the army. This had begun with
the
deployment of an internal crack unit, the military intelligence, to seek
out
those soldiers suspected of disloyalty.
As a result hundreds of fearful
junior soldiers had stopped reporting for
duty. Mass desertions are likely
to follow.
"Many of them will be kept away from the armouries because of
suspicions of
disloyalty. They simply won't have the means to stage a
full-scale coup or
embark on any sustainable revolt," said a middle-ranking
army officer who
did not want to be named.
He spoke of widespread
disenchantment within the army spawned by the
economic crisis. Soldiers'
salaries are now the equivalent of five US cents
per month. The food rations
they used to get to supplement meagre salaries
have been stopped because
imports have dried up because of the lack of
funds. Instead, soldiers are
being asked to bring food from home. Their
salaries, barely enough to cover
a day's bus fare, could not be drawn from
the banks because of a cash
shortage.
Despite these hardships, the sources said the mistrust within
the army
militated against any co-ordinated mutiny. Soldiers cannot trust
each other
because of spying by military police. President Mugabe has
disbanded the
presidential guard division and reconstituted it with
well-armed faithful
soldiers, mostly from his Zezuru clan. Other military
units are not so well
resourced. Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi, flanked
by army generals
Constantine Chiwenga and Philip Sibanda, condemned the
rebellious soldiers
and warned of tough action against them, at a press
briefing attended by
mostly state media in Harare. He vowed to bring the
culprits to justice.
Mr Sekeramayi also warned the Zimbabwe Congress of
Trade Unions against
going ahead with a planned nationwide strike to protest
against the cash
shortages today.
He questioned the coincidence
between the actions of the soldiers and the
strike call, suggesting that
labour leaders were trying to engineer a coup.
"Let me emphasise that those
who may try to incite members of the uniformed
forces to indulge in illegal
activities will be equally found culpable," he
said.
Zimbabwe in
numbers
231,000,000% Inflation rate in July, the last month for which
data is
available.
90% Unemployment rate estimate. More than three
million are thought to have
fled, mostly to South Africa, in search of work
and food.
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Nokuthula Sibanda
and Patricia Mpofu Wednesday 03 December
2008
HARARE -
Zimbabwe's labour movement will today press ahead with protests to
force the
country's central bank to scrap limits on the amount of cash
people can
withdraw from banks.
The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) plans
to lead workers and
ordinary consumers to their respective banks to demand
their money back
while the union plans to also hand a petition to Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ) governor Gideon Gono demanding that he lifts limits
on cash
withdrawals.
ZCTU secretary general Wellington Chibebe told
ZimOnline that police
summoned some senior officials of the union in the
central city of Gweru to
tell them to call off protests in the city. They
did not comply with the
order to call of the cash protests.
"ZCTU
central region officials were summoned by police in Gweru today
(Tuesday) to
call off tomorrow's (Wednesday) action but the action
continues," Chebebe
said.
The RBZ, which is struggling to import special paper required to
print
banknotes, limits the amount of cash individuals and firms can
withdraw from
their banks per day as part of desperate measures to curb a
shortage of
cash.
State media reported this week that the central
bank had increased cash
withdrawal limits with individuals beginning
Thursday now allowed to
withdraw $100 million per week while companies can
withdraw $150 million per
week.
However, the new limits remain too
low in a country suffering the world's
highest inflation of 231 million
percent and where people have to pay
several millions of dollars for simple
purchases such as household
groceries.
Hyperinflation and the
shortage of banknotes are the most visible signs of a
severe economic crisis
blamed on President Robert Mugabe's policies and that
is also seen in
shortages of food and basic commodities.
The ZCTU has in the past staged
crippling job boycotts, but of late calls
for strikes have received muted
response from workers.
Analysts said this was mainly a result of
government intimidation and
workers' fears of losing their jobs in a country
that has an 80 percent
unemployment rate.
Meanwhile doctors and
nurses who have been striking over poor pay and to
pressure the government
to act to save the public health sector from total
collapse say they will
step up protests today by marching to the Ministry of
Health's Kaguvi
building head office in Harare.
"We will be protesting at Kaguvi building
tomorrow morning at 0800 am sharp.
The strike is starting at 0800 am sharp,"
Hospital Doctors Association
chairman Amon Sivaregi said.
Police
thwarted an attempt by doctors to stage similar protests more than
two weeks
ago.
Zimbabwe's once admired public health system has collapsed after
years of
poor funding and mismanagement, worsened by an exodus of the most
skilled
doctors and nurses to foreign countries where salaries are better. -
ZimOnline
http://www.zimonline.co.za
by Own Correspondent
Wednesday 03 December 2008
JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwe's
opposition MDC on Tuesday appealed to the
international community for help
against a spreading cholera epidemic that
the party says has killed over 800
people since last month.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the party
said its deputy president
Thokozani Khupe had toured South Africa's border
town of Musina where
hundreds of affected Zimbabweans are seeking medical
attention.
Quarantined Zimbabwean patients lying in an open space
prepared for them by
South African health authorities told "harrowing tales
of their failure to
get medical attention in Zimbabwe" due to a strike by
nurses and doctors and
shortages of drugs, the statement said.
Khupe
told the cholera patients at Musina that the party would appeal to
international aid agencies and the donor community to help combat the
disease.
On Monday the opposition leader also visited Harare's high
density suburbs
of Mbare and Budiriro, where she called for urgent
international food and
medical assistance and urged President Robert
Mugabe's ZANU PF government to
declare the cholera epidemic a national
disaster.
MDC health secretary Henry Madzorera and committee member
Blessing Chebundo
accompanied Khupe on the South African tour.
In
addition to disease outbreaks, hunger is worsening in Zimbabwe, which is
also suffering a severe economic crisis that critics blame on wrong policies
by Mugabe, in power since the country's 1980 independence from
Britain.
Mugabe denies ruining Zimbabwe and instead blames the country's
problems on
sanctions by the West that he accuses of trying to force him out
of power -
ZimOnline
VOA
By
Lisa Schlein
Geneva
02 December 2008
The
World Health Organization says it is organizing a huge U.N. effort to
combat
a deadly outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe. It says an emergency health
plan
has just got underway to control the current outbreak, which has
claimed
nearly 500 lives since August. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from
Geneva.
The World Health Organization has sent an emergency team of
about 20
international experts to Zimbabwe. The experts will work with WHO's
national
staff in the country as well as with staff from other organizations
to try
to contain the cholera epidemic.
The outbreak, the worst since
1992, has infected more than 11, 700 people in
Zimbabwe. It has spread to
neighboring South Africa. Cases also have been
reported in Botswana and
Mozambique.
WHO said it aims to contain the epidemic and to reduce deaths
by providing
safe water and sanitation, particularly in health facilities.
The plan also
aims to isolate infected people, ensure early case detection,
improve access
to health care and ensure adequate care.
WHO
Spokeswoman, Fadela Chaib, told VOA the challenges are enormous because
Zimbabwe's overall health service has been steadily declining for the last
five years.
"There is no good surveillance and detection system. Less
than 30 percent of
the country is covered by surveillance. So, we do not
know ... what is the
extent of the health needs. But, we suppose they are
huge. The health system
is collapsing. The health professionals are not
working because the social
and economic conditions are really very bad. So,
they are trying to make
livings in other sectors ... in the country. They
are not well paid, if they
are paid," she said.
In addition, Chaib
said Zimbabwean health facilities face a massive shortage
in required
medicines. She attributed this to a decline in local
manufacturing capacity,
weakened by a shortage of foreign currency.
The country's health
situation is facing another threat from an anthrax
epidemic. The
organization, Save the Children, reported a deadly outbreak of
anthrax has
killed two children and one adult and killed 160 livestock, as
well as two
elephants, 70 hippo and 50 buffalo.
Elizabeth Byrs is a spokeswoman for
the U.N. Organization for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance. She
told VOA that anthrax does not
spread from person to person. But she said
people can get ill and even die
if they eat the meat of an animal that has
been infected with the disease.
"And, it is of concern because many
people eat infected meat because they
buy their meat from unlicensed
butcheries and these unlicensed butcheries
get their meat from sometimes
infected cattle. And there is also a concern
because of food insecurity for
the poorest population because the poor
people they eat carcasses of dead
animals because they do not have anything
to eat," she said.
Save the
Children reported very little anthrax vaccination has taken place
in
Zimbabwe during the past five years. It said the strain found in the
Zambezi
Valley is particularly virulent. It warned the outbreak could wipe
out at
least 60,000 livestock if it is not controlled.
December 1, 2008
Zimbabwe 2008 © Joanna Stavropoulou / MSF
“I am feeling a little uncomfortable,” Henry, a middle-aged gentleman, says quietly as he looks up at Clara from where he is lying on the dirty floor. Henry is so dehydrated his cheeks are completely sunken and his eyes stand out from his closely cropped skull. Clara Chamizo, a nurse on her first MSF assignment in Beitbridge, Zimbabwe, sees the extreme absurdity of this statement. She is standing in the middle of dozens of cholera patients lying on the dirt in the backyard of Beitbridge’s main hospital. Cholera has overwhelmed this border town of about 40,000 like contaminated wildfire.
“Normally, cholera starts with a few cases and then we have the peak after a few weeks,” says Luis Marķa Tello, the MSF Emergency Coordinator who arrived a few days after the first cases were reported and is surprised to see such high numbers now. Though research still needs to be done, Luis’s theory right now is that “a lot of people got cholera from the same source at the same time.”
On Friday, November 14, when the Zimbabwean Health Authorities in Beitbridge first reported cholera to MSF, there were five cases. Two days later, there were already more than 500; by the end of the week, there were more than 1,500.
Overwhelmed, Undersupplied Hospital Cannot Fight Cholera OutbreakZimbabwe 2008 © Joanna Stavropoulou / MSF
Patients were first placed inside Beitbridge’s main hospital, most lying on the cement floors, in very poor hygienic conditions. There is a lack of cleaning personnel as well as proper gear, chemicals, and water, not to mention all the hospital toilets have been blocked up for a long time.
On Sunday morning, the hospital had to make the decision to put all the patients out behind the buildings, on the dirt, so that body excretions could be absorbed into the ground. The sight was appalling: patients lying in the dust in the scorching heat; all asking for the life-saving drip (Ringer lactate IV fluid). There wasn’t even any water to give them, since the hospital, as everywhere in town, has its water supply cut on most days.
Clara and Veronica Nicola, the MSF doctor who is also the project coordinator at the Beitbridge project, were the only MSF expatriates in town when the emergency hit. Veronica, an Argentinean pediatrician who has been on several MSF missions, says she never has had to insert so many catheters in one day in her life.
“For me, the hardest thing was to be able to concentrate on one person,” said Veronica. “There was a man lying next to one of the trolleys under the sun. By the time I got to him, he was in shock. We tried to get a vein, like, ten times, but then he started gasping and he died right there in front of our eyes.” She pauses for a minute and then adds, “If I had seen him half an hour before, we might have been able to do something about it, but there were so many people lying there, people calling you. But still,” she adds thoughtfully, “we could have done something.” In her calm manner she summarizes, “It was very bad.”
In one week, 54 people died.
At the beginning of the crisis, the Beitbridge hospital did not have any IV fluid or oral rehydration salts (ORS) tablets in stock. MSF shipped over 800 liters of the Ringer’s fluid the first day of the intervention and since then there has been a continuous supply. Shipments of medical and logistical supplies arrived over ten days. A team of 16 expatriates, comprised of doctors, nurses, logisticians, and administrators were sent to Beitbridge. And more than 100 additional health workers, cleaners, and day workers have been hired locally.
In three days, a cholera treatment center (CTC) with 130 cholera beds—those with a hole in the middle under which a bucket is placed so that the diarrhea is released directly in the container—was set up.
Once the cholera bacteria enters the body, it releases a toxin which causes part of the intestines to suck all the water from the body. The intestines, unable to handle so much water, rejects it. The only thing that can be done is to give the body enough fluids to survive until the bacteria’s own life cycle expires, usually in about five days. If a person does not receive enough fluids, he or she can die within hours of contagion.
The only real way to prevent cholera is to have good hygiene and clean water. From the second day of the outbreak, an MSF car with two officers from the Zimbabwean Environmental Health Office (HEO) was dedicated to going around town, giving out information to the public on how to avoid getting cholera.
Town’s Problems Are Long-TermZimbabwe 2008 © Joanna Stavropoulou / MSF
The town of Beitbridge is a shifting tide of migrants, truckers, sex workers, unaccompanied children, and desperate people trying to find a better life – mostly by attempting to cross the border into South Africa. With the current economic crises in Zimbabwe, basic services are lacking and especially so in a town with such uncontrolled growth. There is trash everywhere, and open sewage runs through most of Beitbridge’s streets. Almost everyday there are cuts in the water and power supplies.
As the MSF car moved slowly through the neighborhoods and the Zimbabwean EHOs tried to give their speeches through a loudspeaker, angry crowds would gather to shout, “How do you expect us to control cholera when there is no water!” and “Look at this sewage running here right next to us,” “Why don’t you clean up the garbage in the streets?”
On the main highway, which transverses Beitbridge, there is an area where all the truckers stop on their way to cross over the border. Sometimes it can take days to clear the paperwork to cross, so they camp here, together with passengers or relatives. When the MSF car stopped there, the truckers gathered around and were just as angry as local residents. They showed some cesspools where they come to wash their hands and pointed out a dusty field next to them, covered in human excrement. “Where are we supposed to go?” pleaded one man.
These problems are long-term. The water station doesn’t have the parts to properly repair its pumps. Even if it did, it depends on electricity to be able to pump water from the water tower to the city. Electricity depends on a coal mine that hasn’t been paid in over a year and can no longer supply coal. Then, there is no fuel to run the garbage trucks and there is no money to pay salaries for people to collect the garbage. There are no equipment or supplies to fix the sewage system, and no money to pay personnel to do it. MSF is working on meeting the emergency needs in the short-term, but real solutions are needed to prevent future outbreaks.
ZIMBABWE’S feared military police yesterday patrolled the streets of Harare after all soldiers had been secretly ordered to remain in their barracks.
Soldiers went on the rampage in the city centre on Monday.
Dressed in battle fatigues, they assaulted foreign-currency dealers and made off with their money. They smashed shop windows and looted stores.
President Kgalema Motlanthe, who chairs the Southern African Development Community, was yesterday urged to be bold and act against Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe.
In a letter to Motlanthe, the DA urged him “to withhold credit, aid and electricity supplies” to Zimbabwe.
DA leader in parliament Sandra Botha said Zimbabwe was “one step closer to large-scale civil unrest” following the rampage by soldiers and the cholera outbreak that has killed hundreds of Zimbabweans.
Botha said Motlanthe must take every step to ensure that the situation in Zimbabwe was resolved quickly.
“If we fail to do so, we will also be failing the millions of Zimbabweans who are desperate for the return of democracy to their country,” she said.
Yesterday, security chiefs in Zimbabwe held lengthy meetings but no details were released.
But sources close to the investigations into the disturbances, which started on Thursday, say the security chiefs fear open rebellion.
At least six soldiers are being held at the Harare Central police station on charges of assault and theft.
The cash-strapped soldiers blame their predicament on currency dealers, whom they accuse of fuelling the cash crunch at banks. Many soldiers complained they were unable to withdraw their pay from banks.
The World Health Organisation reports that 484 Zimbabweans have died of cholera, a water-borne disease.
Botha said it was clear that Zimbabwe was unable to overcome its failures without the help of its neighbours and that South Africa was the only country with enough leverage over Mugabe.
“The president must make it clear to Mugabe, who has not made any significant strides to resolve the situation in Zimbabwe, that South Africa will not recognise a government that does not reflect the agreements of the power-sharing deal,” she said.
Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and the two MDC groups have failed to form a unity government despite former president Thabo Mbeki brokering a power-sharing deal in September.
Mugabe and prime minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai continue to disagree about who should control the home affairs ministry.
Botha said her party had drawn up a list of proposals to help Motlanthe resolve the impasse between Zimbabwe’s leaders.
She said Motlanthe should:
Botha said these sanctions would not harm ordinary Zimbabweans but will send a strong message to Mugabe.
http://www.iol.co.za
December 03 2008 at
06:26AM
By Stanley Gama & Siyabonga Mkhwanazi
Zimbabwe's capital Harare was calm but tense on Tuesday a day after
hundreds
of soldiers ran amok, rampaging through the streets and looting
from shops
in an unprecedented show of anger which has left President Robert
Mugabe's
government shaken.
While the government announced that the
situation was under control,
heavily armed military police and riot police
could be seen throughout the
city while convoys of armoured vehicles and
police trucks patrolled the
streets the whole day.
Witnesses
told The Mercury that military police were busy in the city
centre ordering
every uniformed officer to return to barracks as they feared
a repeat of
Monday's violent protests.
The soldiers ran
riot, accusing the country's leaders of making them
suffer while they
enriched themselves.
A combination of other factors is said to have
triggered the sudden
unrest by the usually loyal soldiers, including their
failure to access cash
from banks, their salaries being worthless and the
general hardships they
are facing.
It now turns out that the
protests were organised to be held at the
same time in all the major cities
but most were foiled even before they
started. Both the army and the police
were said to have made arrests
although they are still being kept a
secret.
Alarmed by the rampage and looting in which shops lost
goods worth
millions of dollars, the government on Tuesday issued a stern
warning to the
soldiers while at the same time confirming that they had
looted in the city.
The minister of defence, Sidney Sekeramayi,
also claimed that the
situation was under control.
"During the
last five days, Harare experienced disturbances
perpetrated by unruly
elements from the Defence Forces.
"As a result, properties were
damaged, innocent people were injured,
money and property was stolen," he
told a press conference.
"These actions are unacceptable,
deplorable, reprehensible and
criminal. The ministry of defence expresses
sincere regret that this has
happened and would like to assure Harare
residents and the nation that the
situation is under control."
Sekeramayi also warned the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions against
going
ahead with their planned nationwide strike scheduled for Wednesday.
"It is regrettable that these incidents happened at a time when there
is
also a call for a nationwide stay-away and demonstrations by the unions
and
some other anti-government civil organisations. The coincidence of the
incidents and the call for nationwide stay-away demonstrations raises a lot
of questions.
"The security forces shall take all necessary
measures to ensure that
peace and tranquillity prevail and that peace-loving
citizens are allowed to
carry on with their normal activities without fear,"
said the defence
minister.
Top police sources said there was
panic within the government as a
joint union and soldiers' protest might be
difficult to control.
With the capital Harare without water for a
second day running on
Tuesday, staff at the city's main hospital stayed away
from work.
The World Health Organisation said the cholera outbreak
could get
worse unless people were treated quickly.
The WHO
said 483 people were now known to have died from the
water-borne
disease.
Meanwhile, Congress of the People national spokesman
Phillip Dexter
has said Robert Mugabe should step down or "be forcibly
removed".
This article was originally published on page 2
of The Mercury on
December 03, 2008
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8164
December 2, 2008
By Our
Correspondent
HARARE - The MDC has accused Zanu-PF of double standards
after President
Robert Mugabe's party rejected a ruling by a SADC tribunal
in favour of
white commercial farmers whose properties were compulsorily
acquired by the
government.
The MDC made the statement a few weeks
after a SADC Summit ruled that the
party should co-manage with Zanu-PF the
Ministry of Home Affairs, which has
been at the centre of a tug-of-war
between the two parties.
Responding to the SADC ruling in the farmers'
case, Didymus Mutasa, the
outgoing Minister of State for National Security,
Lands, Land Reform and
Resettlement, described the tribunal as daydreaming.
He insisted more farms
would be acquired under government's land reform
programme.
Mutasa said: "They (the tribunal) are day-dreaming because we
are not going
to reverse the land reform exercise.
"There is nothing
special about the 75 farmers and we will take more farms.
It's not
discrimination against farmers, but correcting land imbalances."
The MDC
said Zanu-PF could not expect the MDC to be bound by the SADC summit
ruling,
which did not constitute a court, when Mugabe's party could not
respect the
ruling of a SADC tribunal.
"The MDC is concerned with Zanu-PF's
inconsistency after the party dismissed
as daydreaming the ruling by the
SADC tribunal in favour of 78 former
commercial farmers whose properties
were compulsorily acquired during the
chaotic land reform
programme.
"After Zanu-PF berated the MDC for disagreeing with the SADC
Heads of State
that the Ministry of Home Affairs cannot be shared, it is
only logical that
the regime should itself abide by the ruling of the SADC
tribunal."
The MDC said the November 9 SADC summit in Sandton, whose
resolutions the
MDC national council disagreed with, did not sit as a
constitutional court
and aggrieved parties had a right to disagree with its
resolutions
"But Zanu-PF will be setting a bad precedent in the region if
it chooses to
ignore the rulings of the courts. The MDC believes that the
course of
justice should not be sacrificed on the altar of political
self-aggrandizement.
"It is important to note that Zanu-PF has shown
consistency in its brazen
disregard of the rule of the law. But it would be
going overboard for any
credible government to describe a ruling by a
regional court as daydreaming.
"Zanu-PF is, therefore, in blatant
contempt of court and it is especially
ironic, coming as it does after the
same party has been calling on the MDC
to abide by a resolution, not a court
ruling, of SADC."
The MDC and Zanu-PF signed a power-sharing agreement on
September 15 but the
deal has stalled over the sharing of key ministries,
including Home Affairs.
The matter was taken before the SADC summit which
decided the ministry of
Home Affairs should be co-managed by both parties, a
suggestion which was
rejected by the MDC.
"Zanu-PF cannot have its
cake and eat it." said the MDC. "Zanu-PF cannot be
allowed to continue to
ignore court orders with impunity.
The party said only last month, the
State ignored a High Court order that 15
MDC activists abducted in pre-dawn
raids in their homes in Mashonaland West
province be released or brought to
court. To date, the whereabouts of those
activists remain
unknown.
Since 2000, there has been a systematic contempt of court
rulings and the
rule of law by Zanu-PF, said the MDC.
"The MDC
believes in the rule of law," the party said. "Zanu-PF believes in
the rule
of force and terror. We believe in the protection of citizens by
the law,
Zanu-PF believes in the tormenting, abductions, murder and rape and
torture
of citizens but most of all, Zanu-PF should live by what it
preaches.
"It must walk the talk, not to talk African while acting
unAfrican."
On Friday, the SADC tribunal ruled, in a landmark judgement,
that Zimbabwe's
planned seizure of dozens of white-owned farms violated
international law
and must be halted immediately.
The ruling came
amid growing impatience in South Africa and elsewhere in the
region with
Zimbabwe's deepening political and economic crisis.
"The applicants have
been discriminated against on the grounds of race," the
tribunal said in
ruling in favour of more than 75 white Zimbabwean farmers
who challenged the
legality of a controversial land redistribution programme
begun in
2000.
"The (Zimbabwe) government is directed to take all necessary
measures
through its agents to protect the possession, occupation and
ownership of
the land by the applicants."
The tribunal also ordered
that a handful of farmers whose land had already
been confiscated should be
compensated by June 30, 2009.
http://www.independent.co.uk
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Until it happened, the
sight of Robert Mugabe's loyal soldiers rampaging
against his regime was
unthinkable. So surely their unprecedented actions
ought to be the tipping
point for the 84-year-old tyrant. But in the weird
world that cynics call
Mugabeland, things are never straight forward.
Despite the widespread
disenchantment in the lower ranks, Mr Mugabe still
commands the support of a
higher clique. And its strength is never to be
underestimated. The loyal
ones who have a stake in Mugabe's continued stay
in power, regardless of the
suffering he creates, will maintain their
unimpeded access to whatever
privileges - and weapons - remain. They will be
his guard dogs.
The
junior - and unarmed - soldiers are unlikely to get support from a
battered
civilian population. With cholera rife and not enough food, the
people have
little energy. And what they do have is spent on daily survival.
Talks to
form a unity government remain stalled. Morgan Tsvangirai remains
adamant
that he won't join a unity government until he is given control of
the
police. The President is unlikely to concede, fearing that relaxing his
grip
would be tantamount to cutting his own throat. The actions of the angry
soldiers will only harden that stance. It was the military police, after
all, that moved in and crushed the military protests.
So a unity
government remains elusive. Perhaps the only real hope is the
call by
Botswana for regional bodies to oust Mugabe by closing their
borders. But
again, that will never happen.
http://www.thetimes.co.za
S'Thembiso Msomi: Politics in Command
Published:Dec
03,
2008
Like
it or not, Mugabe and Tsvangirai need each other
SOLDIERS went on the
rampage last week in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare,
looting shops and
assaulting illegal foreign currency traders.
The soldiers
clashed with the police as a protest over unpaid salaries
turned
ugly.
The capital has been without running water for more than 48 hours,
officials
having cut supply because of the cholera outbreak that has already
claimed
473 lives across the country.
According to the World Health
Organisation, more than 11000 cholera cases
have been recorded since
August.
Zimbabwe is now on the brink of a precipice.
But the most
frightening thing about this is that the world seems unwilling
or powerless
to do anything about it.
Passing the buck has been perfected into a fine
art by world leaders when it
comes to our northern neighbour .
The
United Nations has long left the matter in the hands of the African
Union,
which has, in turn, left the Southern African Development Community
to deal
with the almost decade-long crisis.
I am all for African solutions to
African problems, but frankly, our
continental leaders have long run out of
ideas on the matter.
Their only hope seemed to have been that former
president Thabo Mbeki, whom
they appointed as a facilitator in the talks
between Zimbabwe's warring
parties, would simply wave his supposed magic
wand and somehow convince
Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai to get
along.
After all, they must have thought, Mbeki had done something
similar during
the Democratic Republic of Congo talks and in various other
conflicts around
the continent.
Well, the miracle has not happened -
mainly because Mbeki's efforts depend
mostly on the sincerity of Mugabe's
Zanu-PF and Tsvangirai's MDC about
finding a lasting solution.
And
that is what is missing.
Mugabe clearly entered the latest round of talks
about Zimbabwe's political
future with the intention of extending his stay
in power, despite having
lost the presidential election.
Throughout
the negotiations, his party has conducted itself as if it was
doing
Tsvangirai a favour, as if March 29 had not happened.
Tsvangirai has not
been much better. Having agreed to the Mbeki- mediated
talks after SADC and
the AU convinced him to do so, Tsvangirai has been a
reluctant participant
throughout.
His approach to the talks suggests that he believes his party
to have more
political options than it actually has.
One day he is
calling for Mbeki's removal from the talks, the next he's
asking Mbeki for
help.
If the MDC leader did not believe that Mbeki would be a suitable
facilitator, he should have objected from the very beginning.
By
agreeing to having him act as facilitator, he legitimised the process and
disarmed those who were arguing that the then South African president would
favour Mugabe.
Tsvangirai's latest campaign to have either the UN or
the AU take over the
talks is a waste of time.
Like he did after the
March 29 polls, Tsvangirai is now lobbying the world
for
support.
During his visit to Senegal on Monday, he told president
Abdoulaye Wade that
the SADC mediation had failed and that other
international bodies now needed
to intervene.
But the truth of the
matter is that no one will raise a finger.
Tsvangirai should have learned
by now that the Western countries who have
been vociferous in championing
his cause always fail him where it matters
the most: taking meaningful
action.
It would also be helpful for the MDC leader to realise that
although he won
most votes during the March 29 polls, he did not garner
enough for him to
become the country's president.
In other words,
Tsvangirai needs Mugabe in much the same way that the
Zanu-PF leader needs
him to survive.
The sooner the two of them recognise this fact, the
better it will be for
Zimbabwe and her people.
Otherwise, the
soldiers' rampage through Harare could soon develop into
something more
ominous.
| ||
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MY days don’t begin because they never end — life in Harare has become one endless chase. Around the clock most of us in Zimbabwe’s capital are chasing after something.
Like my countrymen, I have honed my search-and-find skills. With an ear to the ground, I am ever ready to rush to where it is at. Sometimes my wife, Nyarai, and I make a quick 30km dash just to buy fresh milk.
All it takes is a phone call. There is always something available in limited quantities somewhere. All you have to do is stay on your toes. Ice cream, yoghurt, bread and butter can all be found at reasonable prices if you are connected.
Otherwise, the only other place to buy groceries is the local Spar, where prices are three times the norm elsewhere in the world. Besides, they only accept the rand, British pounds and US dollars.
But lately it’s fresh water we are chasing in Harare.
Nearly every second car has some huge water tank at the back. Even sedans are doing their bit. Everyone seems to be carrying water from one part of town to another.
The other day I hooted at the car in front of me and flagged the driver down. I thought his car was leaking fuel. It turned out it was water dripping from his boot.
Like most of the northern suburbs, Highlands, where I live, has not had a drop of state-provided tap water for more than four months. The taps that are running are fed by boreholes.
Somehow these once serene suburbs have turned into giant villages. Other than the presence of traditional chiefs, most people live exactly the same way they would in rural areas — without electricity and running water.
Many of the former “madams” in suburban Harare collect firewood and cook on open fires, just as their great-grandmothers did.
Regular power cuts have made cooking on an electric stove a distant dream.
Zimbabwean city women have even learnt to carry huge water containers on their heads.
If it wasn’t so awful we would laugh at how the passing years have turned back the hands of time. The lack of water has exacerbated the devastating cholera outbreak, which has killed more than 400 people in just a month.
Just like in the movie Hotel Rwanda, we have turned our swimming pool into a water reservoir.
In the movie, desperate people sought refuge at a hotel during Rwanda’s genocide. They ended up using water from the swimming pool when their taps ran dry.
The water crisis in Zimbabwe has taught us to control our bowels more effectively as well. Otherwise, one has to make countless trips to the swimming pool to fetch water with a bucket.
As for bathing habits, anything goes. From using the same bath water more than once to cleaning up with a moist towel. After all, we can’t give up the only one we have left — dignity comes with personal hygiene.
Like many Zimbabweans, my family and I have learnt to cope with our miserable existence. We cannot even afford to sleep.
The power generally comes back in the night, so most chores have to be done then.
Simple things like checking e- mails and watching television are major achievements when completed successfully.
I cannot remember the last time I watched a football match to the end because invariably, the power cuts out at some point.
When I first arrived from South Africa in the middle of the year, I thought my PC had packed up because it kept switching off.
The lights were turned on, but when my wife couldn’t get her expensive microwave oven to function we knew the power supply was dodgy.
Sometimes the electricity voltage supplied is so, low electric bulbs remain dim.
The later it is, the stronger the current, which is why Nyarai does her laundry and baking late at night.
Though we have a state-of-the- art generator, fuel is too expensive for us to be able to afford constant use. At R10 a litre, petrol is certainly not cheap.
The only liquid that has enjoyed an astronomical rise in price in Harare is water. A woman in Southerton, another suburb, was this week doing brisk business selling water for R2 a litre.
Our family borehole, which only works with electricity, has become the centre of our survival .
At night we fill up containers and distribute water to our many less fortunate relatives.
Now and again we also have relatives coming over to have a bath.
Our dinner conversations inevitably steer towards how badly President Robert Mugabe’ s government is running Zimbabwe.
Many times we reminisce how “Zimbabwe ruined Rhodesia”.
Luckily for now, we can still have dinner and a glass of water after.
http://www.thestar.co.za
Cholera death toll nears 500, water supplies to
Harare are cut and soldiers
go on the rampage
December 03, 2008
Edition 1
Sapa-AFP
Zimbabwe is slipping deeper into crisis as the
death toll from the cholera
epidemic nears 500 and members of President
Robert Mugabe's armed forces
stand accused of taking part in a looting
spree.
While the army played down violence by a "small number of
undisciplined
soldiers" directed against dealers in foreign currency, the
leader of the
opposition said the country was in complete
collapse.
With the capital Harare without water for a second day running
yesterday,
staff at the city's main hospital stayed away from work.
Employees also
failed to show up at hospitals in two other major cities,
Bulawayo and
Mutare.
The World Health Organisation said the cholera
outbreak could get worse
unless people were treated quickly.
The WHO
said 483 people were now known to have died from the water-borne
disease.
The most affected area was Budirio, a suburb of the capital,
where about 5
829 suspected cases had been recorded, said Elisabeth Byrs,
spokesperson for
the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs.
The children's agency Unicef said it was launching
a four-month emergency
campaign to boost supplies of clean drinking water
and care for 250 000
orphans - just a fraction of those who have lost their
parents to HIV/Aids.
The state mouthpiece Herald newspaper reported that
390 people had died and
that water had been cut off in nearly all of
Harare's suburbs and industrial
areas, as well as its central business
district. Water authorities cited a
lack of chemicals as the reason for the
shutdown.
It led residents to criss-cross the city in search of water,
even resorting
to lifting manholes to access pipes, and forced companies in
the industrial
area to exempt workers from duty.
Informal traders
were cashing in on the crisis, selling a 25-litre plastic
container of water
for $25 (about R260).
Anger towards black marketeers, long accused of
profiting from the country's
misery, has been growing with the cholera
crisis.
The looting in Harare on Monday broke out during an operation by
soldiers to
arrest illegal foreign exchange dealers. Several shops were
raided before
the police intervened and put a stop to it.
"Whatever
is happening is not the official position of the army," army
spokesperson
Colonel Simon Tsatsi said.
"We don't subscribe to that. It's probably
just a small number of
undisciplined soldiers who are doing
this."
The scene was calm yesterday morning, but there were fewer traders
on the
streets than normal.
Movement for Democratic Change leader
Morgan Tsvangirai, speaking in Dakar,
Senegal, on Monday night, warned that
the situation had reached disastrous
proportions.
"The country is
reaching a catastrophic level, in terms of food, health
delivery, education.
Everything seems to be collapsing around us," he said.
The cholera
epidemic has added to pressure on Mugabe and Tsvangirai to
implement a
power-sharing deal signed in September.
http://www.herald.co.zw
Herald Reporter
THE Reserve of Bank of Zimbabwe has
unveiled new $10 million, $50 million
and $100 million notes that go into
circulation tomorrow.
The release of the new notes follows the recent
review of cash withdrawal
limits to $100 million and $50 million for
individuals and company account
holders per week respectively.
Some
of the security features on the new notes include a colour shift stripe
with
RBZ on it, the Zimbabwe Bird colour shift on the front and a
see-through 10
000 000 on either side which are in perfect register on the
$10 million
note.
The see through 50 000 000 and 100 000 000 also appears on either
side of
the $50 million and $10 million notes respectively.
Before
the recent increase the withdrawal limit for individual account
holders was
$500 000 while companies were allowed to withdraw $1 million a
day.
The new family of notes join the $20 000, $50 000, $100 000,
$500 000 and $1
million notes introduced during the course of the
year.
The introduction of the new notes comes at a time when depositors
have been
spending hours in long queues at banking halls and ATMs to
withdraw cash.
RBZ Governor Dr Gideon Gono recently announced that the
central bank was
working to ensure workers have enough cash during the
festive season.
The Herald
Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Bulawayo Bureau
1 December
2008
Harare - HUNDREDS of Bulawayo residents were stranded yesterday
after
failing to withdraw money from a bank that had reviewed its charges to
a
whopping $2 billion.
The account holders -- most of them civil
servants -- could not access their
salaries as service charges, including
the minimum balance, gobbled up a
large chunk of their savings.
A number
of workers expressed anger at the rate at which the commercial bank
(name
supplied) was reviewing its charges upwards.
The clients who asked not to
be named for fear of victimisation said the
bank was defying Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono's
directive that charges should be pegged
at low rates.
"We can't have banks operating outside the law. The bank
has just increased
charges to $2 billion. We don't earn such an amount and
what do they expect
us to live on," fumed one client.
The clients
said the increase of bank charges was ill-timed since workers
expected to
withdraw $100 million on Thursday after the increase of the
withdrawal limit
from $500 000 a day to $100 million per week.
A number of the bank's clients
called on the central bank to intervene and
save them.
Officials at
the bank who declined to give their names said the charges
reflected the
real economic situation the country was going through.
"It just shows how
bad things are. The charges are due to high operational
costs," said one
official.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Wednesday, 3 December
2008
Is the alliance of forces that has kept Robert Mugabe in power
finally
starting to crack? For more than a decade now Zimbabweans have
watched their
once-prosperous country slide into penury and decay. Their
government's
mismanagement has brought hunger, disease, plunging
life-expectancy,
joblessness and hyperinflation to a land that was at one
time the
breadbasket of Africa. As the months and years have passed, and Mr
Mugabe
secured his power by fair means or foul, one could only marvel at
people's
forbearance. Every forecast that Zimbabwe could survive not a
moment longer
was disproved, as people somehow found a way.
It was
simply impossible to dislodge Mr Mugabe - and so long as he was there
any
change was out of the question. The lengths to which he went to cling to
power after elections this year in which he and his Zanu-PF party were
patently beaten showed what Zimbabweans were up against. The government was
finally forced to surrender its majority in parliament, but Mr Mugabe
himself hung on, eventually negotiating a power-sharing deal with the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change, every clause of which he
subsequently evaded.
One reason, perhaps the only reason, why Mr
Mugabe was able to flout the
judgement of his people for so long was the
alliance he had sealed with the
military and the veterans - his former
comrades-in-arms against the white
minority regime of Ian Smith. Now, it
seems, that alliance may be
dissolving. Police used tear gas to disperse
dozens of soldiers running riot
through Harare, smashing shop windows,
looting and shouting "Enough is
enough". The protest represented an
unprecedented breakdown of the hitherto
united front between the Zanu
leadership and the military.
With a cholera epidemic raging and much of
Harare without water, it is hard
to see how much longer Mr Mugabe's power
can endure. This time last year,
such a prospect might have been resisted as
leaving a dangerous power
vacuum. Now that there is a legitimately elected
leader waiting in the
wings, and a less cautious President in neighbouring
South Africa, that
danger is past. Mr Mugabe's departure is long
overdue.
December 2, 2008
Clapperton
Mavhunga
Soldiers run amok in Harare on Monday.
SINCE Thursday, Harare has witnessed an unlikely scene: soldiers in uniform rioting conspicuously for the world to see. They are protesting their loss of a preferential cash withdrawal facility and their demotion to a status into which government has consigned the rest of the citizenry: as garbage or pests.
Frustrated at the bank, on Thursday the soldiers began raiding forex dealers, shops, and the public. Strange! Why not confront Gideon Gono at Reserve Bank along Samora Machel Avenue if the purpose is noble?
Where were these soldiers all along while the masses were suffering? Why did they remain in uniform while thousands of their colleagues were choosing to ‘migrate out of reach’ rather than be sent to murder, torture, and rape fellow citizens and drive them into the mountains?
All of a sudden they emerge from the humus of state collapse like mushrooms, demanding a restoration of their VIP privileges? So what happens once they are restored huh? Are they going to play Robin Hood or Ned Kelly, who robbed the rich to give the poor? I didn’t think so.
What is to preclude us from suspecting, based on precedent, that they are no more than a camouflage for a very sinister plot to incriminate Mugabe’s opponents? Like the Entumbane and Connemara clashes and the resultant ‘dissidents’ which gave pretext to Gukurahundi? Like what happened to Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole? Like Cain Nkala’s murder?
The chronology of events is all on the internet. On 30 October, 12 MDC activists were abducted in Banket accused of receiving terrorist training in Botswana. They are still missing.
On 10 November, a fly-by-night insurgent group announced their meeting at a secret location in Johannesburg. Its spokesman identified himself as Mike Moyo.
Is this the same war veteran who told The Standard on 18 February 2001 that “all white judges will have their homes occupied” while “those black judges who sympathize with whites also need to watch out”? The Daily News had been bombed three weeks earlier and Chief Justice Gubbay forced to resign or his safety would not be guaranteed from Mike Moyo and his thugs. I digress.
On 18 November 2008, The Zimbabwe Times reported that Mugabe’s government had deployed the CIO in Botswana to hunt for MDC training bases. They found nothing.
Around the same time, we heard of Zapu’s revival by the same recycled politicians who had betrayed the people of Matabeleland when getting swallowed by Zanu-PF, people who had wined and dined while Cain Nkala was being sacrificed, who only talked about the Zambezi Water Project at election time. Today, Bulawayo is on the verge of total water shortage.
Meanwhile, wanton killing and forced labor was gathering momentum at Chiadzwa diamond fields, with people—who discovered the diamonds by themselves to begin with—being shot dead by the very soldiers who swore to protect them as a condition of taking up service in the army.
Now Chiadzwa is in Harare.
The “mutiny” and Zapu “revival” are too convenient that they look like flames being dangled for the moths (the public or opposition) to come out and burn themselves. Both are founded on rational grounds, which make excellent bait. The MDC-Mutambara faction has failed to deliver Matabeleland to Zanu-PF. Time for Plan B in case Botswana assails SADC to call for a rerun, and Matabeleland may need a tribal-based party as bait. The solution is simple: shift the Mavambo clowns to a “revived Zapu”.
What’s common to the “mutiny” and Zapu “revival” is the heavy military element. That is the common denominator to connect the shenanigans. Botswana, accused of training anti-Mugabe insurgents, is right next door. A masterful conspiracy….
All of which is not to dismiss the grievances the “mutineers” and “revivalists” are leaking to the press and public. The junior ranks can’t be immune to what every other citizen is going through, just as many of Nkomo’s former Zipra guerrillas are struggling and want back the NITRAM properties seized from them by government during Gukurahundi.
For the historically uninitiated, NITRAM was, like the vandalized ZEXCOM, an investment vehicle into which former guerrillas poured their demobilization funds to help themselves transition into civilian life. They bought a number of farms in Matabeleland and the Midlands where in 1982, Mugabe suddenly discovered arms caches. The crackdown on Zipra and Zapu began in earnest.
Genuine or fake, those behind the current “mutiny” have underestimated the public’s ability to wonder why soldiers mutiny with baton sticks instead of rifles and tanks, while the police pursue them armed with guns in place of their customary baton sticks.
Since when did you hear of soldiers mutinying unarmed, beating up innocent people instead of besieging the presidential palace?
Why now when people are struck down with cholera?
It requires no stretch of intellect to see this as an attempt to divert our attention from the horrors of the cholera epidemic. Did we not see the same drama when Reuben Barwe struggled under the weight of his oversized camera to show us where the body of Cain Nkala was buried?
Especially so at a time when the press is reporting the existence of Operation Ngatipedze Navo (Let’s Finish Them), with a clear intent to eliminate pro-democracy leadership. All that is left is a smoking gun.
Meanwhile people are dying like flies. Save for Botswana, whose foreign minister Phandu Skelemani said it like it is on the BBC’s Hard Talk, SADC is still treating our tragedy as a domestic dispute next door—in typical Chakafukidza Dzimba Matenga or Mai Chisamba style.
Don’t worry about them; cholera and anthrax will force them to act against Mugabe, with or without his games. The contagion is spreading. They will soon be running to the toilet, or the bush.
The epidemiological record of pandemics like rinderpest (1888-98), influenza (1918), trypanosomiasis (1930s-40s), and foot and mouth disease, anthrax and cholera (1970s) shows that it is impossible to control pathogens unless you secure human mobility and make certain that people are healthy and travel healthy. Otherwise they become vectors of disease.
Regional economies will be ruined, supposing it is not enough grounds for the region - and Africa - to intervene forcefully in Zimbabwe, which must now be viewed as a national security threat to all neighbors.
South Africa and Botswana export beef to the EU. In both countries, tourism is one of the leading foreign currency earners. Tourists don’t come to countries dripping with bugs; nor do global markets purchase foot and disease and anthrax-infected beef. Botswana has seen the light. We expect, but will never force, the rest of our neighbors to follow suit, or their citizens to force them to act. Not for us - only Botswana and Zambia have shown the humane grounds to do so. For them, otherwise Zimbabwe will not sink alone.
This is no longer the time to continue listening to Thabo Mbeki’s pathetic grandma stories and belated presidential speeches. He belongs to yesterday, just like Mugabe.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Zimbabwe's
President Robert Mugabe should be removed from office by force if
necessary
and South Africa should help, a senior member of the breakaway
party from
the ruling African National Congress said today.
By Sebastien Berger,
southern Africa correspondent
Last Updated: 8:47PM GMT 02 Dec
2008
"From my point of view the only way to solve the Zimbabwe problem at
this
point is to put enough pressure on Mugabe for him to go," Philip Dexter
told
journalists in Cape Town.
"And he should either go voluntarily,
or he should go by being forcibly
removed. And I think we have to support
the Zimbabwean people to achieve
that objective," he added.
Mr
Dexter, a former treasurer of the South African Communist Party and an
ANC
MP, resigned from both organisations in September. After the Congress of
the
People (Cope) was formed following the ouster of Thabo Mbeki from the
national presidency, Mr Dexter joined the new grouping, and is one of its
most prominent figures.
In a statement later Mr Dexter said he was
expressing his personal view, and
it was not party policy to remove Mr
Mugabe by military means. But if
democracy no longer existed in the country,
he said, "the Zimbabwean people
would have no alternative other than to
mobilise to remove him".In practical
terms, the prospect of South African
troops massing on the Zimbabwean border
is remote, even if Cope were to win
the general election due next year - and
its popularity has yet to be tested
at the ballot box.
Nonetheless Mr Dexter's comments are an indication of
how far Mr Mugabe's
star has fallen in South Africa in recent
months.
Mr Mbeki was long accused by critics of being too soft on his
northern
neighbour, but under the new president Kgalema Motlanthe the South
African
government has decided to withhold agricultural aid to Mr Mugabe's
regime.
With Cope taking an aggressive line Mr Mugabe, 84, has few
remaining friends
in the regional powerhouse.
The chaos in Zimbabwe
is affecting South Africa, where millions of people
have fled in search of
work, ever more seriously, particularly with the
current cholera outbreak.
Hundreds of patients have crossed the border to
seek treatment in the
frontier town of Musina, with a few deaths recorded in
South Africa, amid
fears the disease could spread.
Today the World Health Organisation said
the toll in Zimbabwe was
approaching 500, with more than 11,000 cases
recorded. "Previous epidemics
never reached today's proportions," it added
in a statement.
http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/hartley/2008/12/03/zimbabwe-time-for-regime-change/
3 December 2008, 00:04 GMT + 2
ON our pages today we
carry a story written by our former deputy editor,
Moses Mudzwiti, now a
resident of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare.
It is a harrowing account of just how
far this once vibrant city has sunk
under the watch of the tyrant, Robert
Mugabe.
The break down in the provision of basic services such as water,
sanitation
and electricity is so severe that they have all but ceased by be
provided by
the state.
Water, life's greatest necessity, is now traded in
plastic barrels on the
back of pick-up trucks.
Electricity is so erratic
as to render basic household appliances such as
stoves, useless.
On the
streets of Harare, soldiers have become a law unto themselves as the
state
has failed to pay them.
They once protected the people. Then they became the
tools of an ailing
regime.
Now they fend for themselves, breaking the
windows of clothing stores and
taking what they can like common
thieves.
The state propaganda sheet, The Herald newspaper and state
television
ignored the rampage despite the fact it took place a stone's
throw away.
The breakdown of Mugabe's state is complete.
There is no
longer any monetary system to speak of. Law and order have given
way to the
survival of the fittest.
South Africa and Botswana have begun to act more
decisively on the crisis,
cutting aid and threatening to close
borders.
But this is too little, too late.
Zimbabwe is becoming the scene
of a global health and security catastrophe.
The world's leaders need to
consider far more drastic steps to save the
lives that are in grave
danger.
A massive assistance programme - with or without the support of
Mugabe -
must be launched to restore water and sanitation and to end this
pernicious
regime once and for all.
I am a Zimbabwean who is one of
the lucky few. I now live in Melbourne,
Australia and I am no longer held
ransom to the ridiculous situation in
Zimbabwe. But I still feel for the
millions of poor people who have no
option but to continue living under one
of the worst oppressive regimes in
the world and I want to do something to
change their plight.
Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF have, over the years,
murdered and plundered the
country for their own benefit without one thought
for the people they are
supposed to represent. They have taken it
progressively further and further
to stay in power and continue their orgy.
They have the guns and power and
there appears to be no consequences for the
way they act. The most
disturbing thing about this situation is that the
SADC countries seem
generally to believe his behaviour is acceptable, except
for Botswana. (That
is a very bad sign for those who currently live in those
countries, they can
expect similar standards from their politicians when the
chips are down). As
the leader in the region I believe the South African
Politicians have a
moral obligation to pressurise Mugabe to go. After all,
in a situation where
it was almost impossible for him to win an election
Tsvangarai won a
majority. What no commentators seem to acknowledge is that,
under conditions
that allowed free and fair elections and no vote rigging
afterwards it would
have been an absolute landslide victory for Tsvangarai.
The people have
spoken and the other Africans who have demanded democracy
now ignore it.
I believe the only way to change this situation is to
pressurise the South
African Politicians to make a stand on Zimbabwe. And
the way to do that is
to mobilise people to boycott the World Cup Football
and every other
sporting event that South Africa is involved in. Believe me
the South
African public would soon ensure that the South African
Politicians focused
on Zimbabwe.
We need to call for a boycott of the
World Cup Football in SA and hold
demonstrations like Nepal supporters did
for the Olympics. That would give a
great launching point for the campaign
and we could kick on from there. What
do you think?
R