Zimbabwe Government Declares National Emergency In Cholera Epidemic

VOA

By Patience Rusere
Washington
03 December 2008

The government of Zimbabwe late Wednesday declared that the cholera epidemic
which has claimed more than 500 lives, and the breakdown of the national
hospital system, constituted a national emergency, the state-controlled
Herald newspaper reported.

The Herald quoted Health Minister David Parirenyatwa as telling a meeting
called in Harare to mobilize and coordinate a national and international
response to the crisis that there was a "critical shortage of resources" in
the Zimbabwean health sector.

"Our central hospitals are literally not functioning," the Herald quoted Dr.
Parirenyatwa as saying. "Our staff is demotivated and we need your support
to ensure that they start coming to work and our health system is revived."

Doctors and nurses in Zimbabwean state hospitals have been striking on and
off for the past year or more, but last month most of Harare's main state
hospitals essentially closed as medical staff walked off the job over low
pay and abysmal working conditions.

Dr. Parirenyatwa appealed to donors for medicine, lab chemicals, surgical
materials, X-ray film, food to feed patients other materials lacking in the
national health system.

"The emergency appeal will help us reduce...mortality," he said.

The Herald quoted the health minister as telling the meeting that the
government needed US$1.5 million a month to pay incentives to health
workers.

Deputy Water Minister Walter Mzembi told the meeting that authorities had
enough water-treatment chemicals for 12 weeks. The Zimbabwe National Water
Authority shut off water to the capital for about 24 hours earlier this week
citing a lack of such chemicals.

A World Health Organization official said earlier Wednesday that the agency
will continue to provide materials and funding to bring Zimbabwe's widening
cholera epidemic to a halt.

The United Nations agency said Tuesday that the epidemic had claimed 565
lives, but at that time the death count was rising at a rate of more than 80
victims a day.

WHO Epidemic and Diseases Spokesman Gregory Hartl told reporter Patience
Rusere of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the international community will
do all it can.

Civilisation in reverse

http://www.timesonline.co.uk

December 4, 2008

Zimbabwe's tragedy defies the world to look away
The townships of suburban Harare once boasted water and sewage systems that
were the envy of Africa. They are now as broken as Zimbabwe itself. Raw
sewage spills from manhole covers and is pumped into the city's main
reservoir. Thousands depend on the generosity of "water samaritans" lucky
enough to have their own boreholes. Where even the poorest had taps and
toilets of their own, people are queueing up at hand pumps, one engineer
laments. "Civilisation has gone in reverse."

People are also dying. A cholera outbreak that has killed more than 500
people could infect 60,000 by March, according to Oxfam. The outbreak is
spreading four times faster than usual for want of transport to take victims
to hospital, and basic medicines for those who get there. To contain the
epidemic the Health Minister has advised Zimbabweans to stop shaking hands,
but it has already spread to South Africa.

In Zimbabwe's rural hinterland five million people will soon need food aid
that the World Food Programme cannot afford to distribute. The Government is
powerless to count the number dying of hunger, much less hand out food
itself. But aid workers have seen children foraging in rubbish dumps
alongside wild animals, and in Matabeleland one story encapsulates the
despair of a nation - the story of a woman who, unable to feed her children,
fed them and herself a fruit that she knew was poisonous. They were buried
together.

Such are the tragedies that lend meaning to Zimbabwe's statistics; to its 90
per cent unemployment, its 230 million per cent inflation and its average
life expectancy of barely 40 years. In 1990, Zimbabweans could expect to
live to 63.

Nine months ago, Robert Mugabe was rightly excoriated for stealing a
presidential election having destroyed his country's economy and brutalised
its Opposition. Survivors clung to the notion that things could not get
worse. They were wrong. As disease and famine take hold, the army has been
condemned even in state-controlled newspapers for brazen looting. Morgan
Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, has concluded more in bewilderment than
anger that "everything seems to be collapsing around us".
The news from Zimbabwe can seem woefully familiar. This is, indeed, an
incremental catastrophe, eclipsed as an international priority by the
financial crisis. But it is real and preventable. Mr Mugabe could have
triggered the release of US and British aid worth £1 billion, and billions
more in investment, by ceding just one significant ministry to Mr
Tsvangirai. He has chosen not to.

Zimbabwe's neighbours cannot simply stand by. Nor can the United Nations
Security Council, which failed to pass a new resolution on Zimbabwe in July
because of an unconscionable and self-defeating Russian veto. If
international intervention on humanitarian grounds is justified in Darfur
and Congo, it is manifestly justified in Zimbabwe.

President Bush has six weeks left to shape his legacy. Barack Obama has
unprecedented moral authority in the continent where his father was born.
Jacob Zuma, the front-runner to become South Africa's next president, is no
Mugabe loyalist. Between them they can and must secure a mandate to help to
end Zimbabwe's nightmare - not after Mr Obama's inauguration, but now.

Swoop on Zim protesters

http://www.thetimes.co.za

Moses Mudzwiti Published:Dec 04, 2008

Mugabe's henchmen arrest doctors, nurses, journalists

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's return to Zimbabwe yesterday was marked by a huge
crackdown on pro-democracy activists who had planned marches in the capital,
Harare.

Secret police, working with informers, identified "ringleaders" in the city
centre and bundled them into unmarked cars. At least 10 people are known to
have been abducted in the crackdown.

a..
Raymond Majongwe, secretary-general of the Progressive Teachers' Union of
Zimbabwe, was detained with six others, all believed to be members of the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

Plainclothes policemen pounced on SABC journalist John Nyashanu and two
unidentified people in the city centre. Nyashanu previously worked for
state-owned ZBC TV. His fate remains unclear.

Activist Jestina Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, was picked
up in Norton, a small town 40km south of Harare.

Health workers, including doctors and nurses, were arrested after they tried
to protest against the government's failure to deal with the cholera
outbreak, which has killed more than 400 people in the past four weeks.

The crackdown, which started soon after Mugabe arrived back from the UN
summit in Qatar, prevented pro-democracy activists from marching into the
city centre.

On Tuesday night, activists had distributed flyers in downtown Harare
inviting ordinary Zimbabweans to take a stand against the worsening economic
and humanitarian crisis.

The clampdown came a day after Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi issued a
statement warning Zimbabweans to not break the law.

He claimed the rebellion by more than 100 soldiers had been contained.

Soldiers who had attacked "innocent citizens" and vandalised property would
be dealt with, he said.

Calling the soldiers' actions "deplorable", Sekeramayi said loyal forces
were on top of the situation.

It was the first time Mugabe's government had commented on the soldiers'
rampage, which started a week ago.

For five days running, hundreds of soldiers attacked foreign- currency
dealers in various locations in Harare. This culminated in a looting spree
on Tuesday.

"It won't happen again," declared Sekeramayi.

However, police sources said army chiefs had managed to put down the
rebellion only by promising each soldier a Z50-million cash payment.

"The soldiers were bused to Manyame air base, where they were given the
cash," said a reliable police source.

By late yesterday many activists had gone underground and were not available
for comment.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is still out of the country.

The movement's secretary general, Tendai Biti, is expected in court today to
face a treason charge.

Abduction in Zimbabwe Raises Fear of New Crackdown

http://newsblaze.com/

December 03,2008

The abduction today of Jestina Mukoko, one of Zimbabwe's most prominent
human rights activists, appears to signal that Robert Mugabe's regime has
renewed its campaign of violence against the country's civil society.
Freedom House calls for the immediate release of Mukoko and all other
prisoners of conscience and urges regional powers to break the political
deadlock that has sent Zimbabwe spiraling.

"Jestina Mukoko's kidnapping is part of a disturbing new escalation in
abductions and other human rights abuses in Zimbabwe," said Thomas O. Melia,
Freedom House deputy executive director. "This crackdown is what Mugabe and
his cronies do when faced with real problems like a mounting death toll from
cholera and a worthless currency."

Gunmen kidnapped Mukoko, director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project which
monitors human rights abuses, early today from her home. Witnesses believe
the armed men were plain clothed security agents with Zimbabwe's Central
Intelligence Organization.

The Zimbabwe Peace Project recently warned about a sharp increase
<http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/zpp_hrviol_report_0809.pdf> in
harassment and intimidation, mainly targeting critics of the Mugabe
government. Today in Harare, protesting health workers and unionists were
arrested and beaten by riot police.

Earlier this year, Mukoko's organization played a leading role in
documenting election-related violence that claimed the lives of more than
100 people, mainly opposition supporters. Elections in March resulted in the
opposition Movement for Democratic Change winning a majority in parliament
and MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai winning a plurality in the presidential
contest against Mugabe. When state-directed violence undermined the
scheduled presidential runoff election in June, Tsvangirai withdrew and a
mediation effort was undertaken by Southern African Development Community
(SADC), led by South Africa. However, Mugabe's refusal to allow MDC leaders
to assume control of key ministries has stalled power-sharing talks and
prevented the government from addressing the country's humanitarian crisis.

"The Southern African Development Community, led by South Africa, is
supposed to be brokering a political solution in Zimbabwe. Instead, SADC
stands idly by watching Zimbabwe implode," said Melia. "The world is waiting
for African governments to do what they have long said they would prefer-to
find 'African solutions to African problems.' It is entirely within the
capacity of South Africa and SADC to bring meaningful pressure to bear on
Mugabe and his cronies and they have declined to do so for reasons they do
not make clear."

Zimbabwe is ranked Not Free in the 2008 edition of Freedom in the World,
Freedom House's survey of political rights and civil liberties, and in the
2008 version of Freedom of the Press.

Freedom House, an independent nongovernmental organization that supports the
expansion of freedom in the world, has been monitoring political rights and
civil liberties in Zimbabwe since 1972.

Freedom matters.
Freedom House makes a difference. www.freedomhouse.org

ZCTU Leaders Arrested for Organising Strike

http://www.radiovop.com/


HARARE, December 3 2008 - At least 20 people, including Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) leaders, have been arrested for taking part
in an illegal strike on Wednesday.

The organisation marched in protest of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
(RBZ)'s unpopular cash withdrawal limits.

Police arrested and detained ZCTU secretary general Wellington
Chibhebhe, together with several leaders of ZCTU's affiliate organisations.

Scores of ordinary Zimbabweans were injured when anti-riot police
violently dispersed a gathering, which was being addressed by ZCTU president
Lovemore Matombo in the city centre.

Despite the harassment, the ZCTU leaders managed to deliver their
petition to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor, Gideon Gono.

Harare lawyer Alec Muchadehama, who is representing the group,
confirmed Chibhebhe was arrested by the police together with other ZCTU
officials, who include Gideon Shoko, James Gumbi and Ben Madzimure, editor
of The Worker.

South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) bureau chief, John
Nyashanu, and Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary
general, Raymond Majongwe, are among those arrested.

Muchadehama said the arrested are yet to be charged.

Baton wielding police officers were planted virtually along every
street in Harare's city centre to stave off further protests.

ZCTU wants daily cash withdrawal limits, which it says are both
illegal and constantly prejudice hardworking Zimbabweans who endure endless
trips to banking halls everyday to withdraw as little as $500 000, to be
removed.

Most Zimbabweans salaries remain trapped in their bank accounts while
they are forced to withdraw limited amounts which are not even enough to
cover a single trip into the city centre from any of the city's high density
suburbs.

The Central Bank this week however, reviewed daily cash withdrawal
limits to a maximum of $100 million per week while corporates will now
withdraw a maximum of $150 million.

The new cash limits coincide with the unveiling of new notes, namely
the $10 million, $50 million and $100 million.

The ZCTU dismissed the withdrawal limit increase, which it says does
not address the root causes of recurrent cash shortages.

Water Samaritans help stem Zimbabwe cholera epidemic as taps run dry

December 4, 2008

Women and children collect clean water from a Unicef truck in Harare yesterday. Dilapidated water treatment plants and broken sewerage pipes mean that cholera is sweeping through the country

Jan Raath in Harare

Yesterday morning my home intercom rang and a tiny voice asked: “Please sir, may I kindly have some water?” The request comes several times a day, and my neighbours' children or servants roll in with battered wheelbarrows laden with 20-litre plastic canisters, buckets, aluminium pots and anything else that can hold liquid.

For the past five weeks not a drop of water has come into the Harare suburb where I live via the water treatment system set up 50 years ago. But I am a boon to the neighbourhood. I have a borehole and a pump that sucks clean, cool water out of the earth.

More importantly, I don't charge. When the water crisis first crept up on the city about two years ago, people offered to pay me. Now, with the supply cut off, I and others with boreholes have become “water Samaritans”.

An Asian businessman has had a tap installed in an elaborate bricked fountain outside his front wall with a large sign saying: “Drinking water. Help yourself.”

On Monday, for the first time, the whole of Harare's water supply broke down after running out of purifying chemicals. “I was up in my office on the tenth floor and there was nothing to drink and the toilets blocked and stinking,” said Basil, a banker. “I was as helpless as if I were lost in the bush.”

The water crisis is yet another legacy of President Mugabe's rule. In 2005 his Zanu (PF) party stripped municipal authorities run by the opposition Movement for Democratic Change of control of urban water and sewerage services and set up the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa). It was bankrupt almost from the start and had few skilled staff. Water shortages set in rapidly, and now nearly every part of this modern city of about two million suffers continual water cuts, from up to a few hours a day to two years, in one township.

The authority had to stop pumping on Monday because it ran out of aluminium sulphate to treat Harare's water, which comes from Lake Chivero just west of the city. Every day, about 35 tonnes of raw effluent is pumped from Zinwa's sewage works, which has now collapsed, into the lake.

People have learnt to cope. It is easier in the suburbs, where many have boreholes. The water of thousands of swimming pools is scooped out in buckets to flush toilets. Manufacturers cannot produce enough large plastic water tanks.

Norma is one of the unlucky ones who lives in a bad area. She is forced to rotate between her friends who have water, dropping in at sunset with a towel, soap and shampoo. She calls it “social bathing”. Gertrude, a nurse, carries in the boot of her car two large canisters and a collection of plastic bottles that she fills up when she makes home calls on patients.

Harare Sports Club allows members to shower in its changing rooms, but was overwhelmed during Monday's disaster. Members were notified that henceforth they would be charged $2 for a shower.

In the townships, the water turns in a deadly cycle. Months without it mean that toilets are blocked, leading to people defaecating in the open, everywhere, at night. At the same time, the pressure of the trapped sewage is enough to flip open cast-iron manhole covers and spew the contents through the streets, into people's yards. The stench of faeces is all-pervasive.

The main water supply now comes from thousands of shallow wells dug in people's tiny backyards, where people queue to fill 20-litre chigubus (canisters) at an extortionate $1 a time. The wells are seldom protected, so the effluent runs straight in.

“This was a modern township, with a functioning reticulated system that pumped clean, safe water into the taps and toilets of every home,” said Pete, an engineer. “Now people are queueing up at primitive hand pumps, like rural villages. Civilisation has gone in reverse.” Some people take a pickaxe to a Zinwa pipeline, and collect the escaped water where it gathers in a pool, supplemented by trickles of sewage.

It has been like this for years, in nearly every poor, crowded township in the country, and inevitably cholera has struck. In two months, there have been more than 11,000 reported cases. The number doubled last week and more than 500 people have been killed in the outbreak.

A senior Western diplomat said that the true toll of the epidemic could be double the official figure. He accused Robert Mugabe's regime of “criminal and politically driven neglect” of Zimbabwe's water and sewerage system.

It is the same in the suburbs, where I see nattily dressed young women walking from the stream that runs through the golf course near me, with buckets balanced on their heads.

Yesterday, for the first time, I saw that a flow of sewage had forged its way down the road, and into the stream running through the golf course.

Frustration high in Zimbabwe's Army, a Mugabe power base

http://www.csmonitor.com

Hundreds of soldiers looted in the capital, Harare, in the past week. Has
President Robert Mugabe lost control?
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
and a contributor
from the December 4, 2008 edition

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa; and Harare, Zimbabwe - With rampant inflation,
high unemployment, and villagers forced to eat rats and wild fruits to
survive, Zimbabweans have become quite accustomed to hard times. But this
week, even Zimbabweans feel that things have taken a turn for the worse.

Starting Nov. 27 and continuing until Monday, Army soldiers rampaged through
the capital, Harare, after hearing that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe would
be unable to print enough currency to pay their daily wages. Hundreds of
soldiers took their anger out on street vendors, looting the markets for
food and other goods.

Combined with the Monday cutoff of public water supplies, for lack of
chemicals to prevent the spread of rampant cholera, the regime of President
Robert Mugabe appears to be imploding.

The looting by members of the armed forces is the beginning of an end to Mr.
Mugabe's regime, says University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer John
Makumbe. "It might look or sound small, but it is an indication of the
dissatisfaction that is in the Army and the general public of Zimbabwe," he
says.

Declaring the end game for a regime as tenacious as Mugabe's is, of course,
a risky venture. Judging by most measures, Mugabe's government should have
collapsed long ago - yet somehow it keeps going. But rebellion by
well-trained, well-armed soldiers in the capital city is never a good sign,
and with hopes of a political compromise between Mugabe and his opposition
rival Morgan Tsvangirai diminishing, the possibility of a violent and
uncontrollable uprising seems to be increasing by the day.

"As long as the security sector remains calm, things can keep rolling," says
Judy Smith-Höhn, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies
in Tshwane, South Africa. "But once these guys get riled up, that's when
things start escalating."

The rioting began last Thursday, when 100 hungry, angry soldiers assaulted
foreign-currency dealers and small shops in Harare. The spark for their
anger was an announcement by the Reserve Bank that depositors could only
withdraw 500,000 Zimbabwe dollars per day, the equivalent of 25 cents in US
currency, barely enough to buy a banana.

"That is when they went out onto the streets, snatching bags from members of
the public, especially those suspected to be foreign currency dealers," says
Abel Munacho, who deals in foreign currency in Harare. "They were demanding
to know where people got huge amounts of cash from, yet they were failing to
access the maximum cash withdrawal limit of $500,000."

By targeting popular clothing stores and food outlets in broad daylight,
Zimbabwean Army soldiers were venting their anger toward the
politically-connected members of the country's elite, who are able through
expatriate relatives or foreign business investments to access foreign
currency and survive the financial crisis untouched.

Yet, while such anger at Mugabe's cronies is widespread - and was a driving
force in Mugabe's loss in the first round of the country's presidential
elections this past spring - there was little sympathy for the Army rioters
in Harare. Angry foreign currency dealers and members of the public were
involved in running battles with the soldiers. Some soldiers also dispersed
people who were queuing up at automated teller machines to withdraw money.

The looting continued on Friday, when another group - now numbering 70 and
also in full uniform - went to Mupedzanhamo Flea Market in Harare's
high-density suburb of Mbare.

Agnes Mlambo, who sells clothes at the market, said there was chaos when the
soldiers arrived and started beating people while others were looting
anything of value.

"[The soldiers] were dropped by a military vehicle outside the gates and
they went into the market where they harassed both currency dealers and
ordinary vendors," she says. "They looted clothes, shoes, belts, and
everything they could lay their hands on."

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Simon Tsatsi on Friday said the soldiers who had run
wild were just unruly elements who wanted to tarnish the image of the Army.
"They are people who are just undisciplined, we do not instruct our soldiers
to do that and arresting foreign currency dealers is the work of the
police," he said. "We are definitely going to look at the matter."

The rioting soldiers all appeared to be of lower rank, witnesses said, and
no evidence has surfaced that higher-ranking officers were involved in the
riots.

Minister of Defense Sydney Sekeramayi on Monday said the situation was under
control. He also attributed the looting and violence to "unruly elements"
from the Zimbabwe National Army. "As a result, a number of properties were
damaged, innocent people injured, money, and property stolen," said Mr.
Sekeramayi. "These acts are unacceptable, deplorable, reprehensible, and
criminal."

Political analysts in Harare say the violence by soldiers is an indication
of the breakdown of the rule of law in the country. It shows that the
soldiers, like all Zimbabweans, are hungry, says Mr. Makumbe. One day, he
says, Mugabe's regime will fail to contain the hungry soldiers and that will
be the end of his rule.

Other analysts believe the looting by soldiers was a ploy by Mugabe and his
cronies to impose a state of emergency in the southern African country.
"What they wanted was to incite a few soldiers, cause chaos, and find reason
to impose a state of emergency in the country," says one analyst who
requested anonymity.

Rather than a spontaneous outburst, the rioting may have been a deliberate
tactic to relieve pressure from disgruntled soldiers and civil servants.
Instead of directing their anger at the state, which failed to provide
money, the soldiers attacked small-time hawkers, who sell goods they can no
longer afford.

"It could be a diversionary tactic to indicate that there is a problem,"
says Karin Alexander, a senior researcher at the Institute for Democracy in
Southern Africa in Tshwane. "Civil servants can't buy food, so you create a
target for their anger, the hawkers, and you divert attention from the
government."

Ms. Alexander calls the rioting "unprecedented," but she cautions that an
uprising would have to be significantly sustained, and joined by the general
population, in order for it to have a chance of toppling the government.
Harsh measures against the arrested soldiers over the next few days will be
calculated at halting any copycat riots.

Ms. Smith-Höhn says the Mugabe regime defies logic by staying in power, even
though it fails to perform even the most basic functions that citizens
demand.

"Generally there are three basic functions of a state: security, welfare,
and representation," says Smith-Hohn. "But in Zimbabwe, the state hasn't
provided security, welfare, or representation for years, and despite that
the state is still around. You start asking yourself what is it that keeps
the Zimbabwe state going."

. Our reporter in Harare could not be named for security reasons.

Tsvangirai asks African Union to take over mediation

3 December 2008

MDC President Morgan Tsvangirai has said the African Union should take over
mediation of the country's power-sharing process from the Southern African
Development Community, saying it has failed as an impartial regional
deal-broker.

The MDC leader issued the call for the involvement of the AU in Senegal,
after holding talks with President Abdoulaye Wade. Tsvangirai has been on a
diplomatic offensive lately to pressure SADC to remove Mbeki as the mediator
in the Zimbabwe crisis.

The three parties reached a landmark agreement in September on sharing
power, but have been haggling over the implementation process. The
allocation of government ministries is one of the major hurdles in efforts
to sort out the power-sharing deal signed by Robert Mugabe and Tsvangirai.
The deal allowed Mugabe to retain his office while making Tsvangirai the
prime minister. Arthur Mutambara, head of the MDC splinter group, would
become deputy prime minister.

An agreement to split cabinet posts between Mugabe's ZANU-PF and the MDC was
brokered in September, but ran aground when Mugabe sabotaged the plan by
allocating all key posts - especially those relating to security - to his
own party.

Reports now say the main stumbling block is the allocation of the Home
Affairs ministry, which SADC leaders last month ruled should be co-shared by
both parties. An idea flatly rejected by the MDC.

SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

RBZ introduces yet more new notes

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=8208

December 3, 2008

By Our Correspondent

HARARE - The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has introduced new $10 million,
$50 million and $100 million banknotes in a desperate bid to ease the
recurrent cash shortages plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy.

The bills will officially come into circulation on Thursday although they
were already in circulation on the foreign currency dealers market on
Wednesday. How newly introduced bank notes always find their way onto the
black market ahead of their official release by the Reserve Bank is an issue
that has confounded bank executives as well as financial experts.

The new notes will be the 25th, 26th and 27th notes introduced by the
Reserve Bank this year alone, excluding coins.

The Reserve Bank said it would also review cash withdrawal limits to
compensate for ever-accelerating inflation.

Because of high inflation, the market has become predominantly speculative,
most providers of goods and services are demanding cash as the only
acceptable means of payment, penalising those that could otherwise be
willing and able to use cheques for transaction purposes.

Cash shortages have persisted in the country over the past 14 months. The
latest negative developments follow the move by German firm, Giesecke and
Devrient, to halve money paper supplies to Zimbabwe.

Long bank queues are once again part of everyday life in which the maximum
withdrawal limit, which people say is too little, forces them to come back
to the bank virtually daily.

The Munich-based firm, which supplied the RBZ with paper for bearer cheques,
was asked by the German government to halt business with Zimbabwe because of
concerns it was helping prop up Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.

In the capital city of Harare, long queues are a daily feature at every
bank, but the longest queues can be seen at CABS, Beverley and the POSB.

People wake up to join queues as early as 5am, as long queues can be seen by
6am.

Meanwhile the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has readmitted NMB Bank, Kingdom Bank
and FBC Bank into the clearing-house.

CFX and the Zimbabwe Allied Banking Group remained suspended.

The banks were thrown out of the clearing house two weeks ago after the
central bank found that they were falling short of funds.

In a statement, the Reserve Bank said the banks had been readmitted into the
clearing house, but could not give the position regarding the remaining
banks.

"The readmission was after the institutions had made significant strides to
clear their outstanding clearing obligations to the satisfaction of the
central bank," said RBZ.

To avoid similar offences in the future, the RBZ says it has put in place
measures which the banks would implement together with other stakeholders to
restore normalcy in the market.

FBC Bank said it was in a sound and healthy position after pulling out and
dishonouring the fraudulent cheques back to the depositing banks.

"The bank is in a sound and healthy financial position and is able to meet
its clearing obligations to other banks.

"Our total cash surplus position as at 26 November (Excluding balances with
local and foreign banks on investments) stood at +$9 sextillion against our
total customer deposits and commitments of just under 3 sextillion," said
the bank.

FBC has, however, put in place measures that would assist and protect its
clients from future inconveniences.

"The Bank's risk management and corporate governance systems will stay
geared to protect our customers and stakeholders."

Extract from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission Act [Chapter 2:12]

ZANU PF to discuss shifting conference due to cholera

http://www.zimonline.co.za



      by Cuthbert Nzou Thursday 04 December 2008

HARARE - Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU PF party politburo will meet today to
deliberate on the party's restructuring exercise and the "near-mutiny" of
soldiers this week in protest against the unavailability of cash in banks.

Sources close to the party said the politburo that is chaired by President
Robert Mugabe will also decide whether the party's annual conference
earmarked for the town of Bindura in a fortnight should go ahead or be
postponed because of a cholera outbreak that has killed hundreds of people
across the country.

"There is a strong feeling that the conference should be moved to a later
date because it would be risky to have such a huge gathering under the
circumstances of a cholera outbreak," said a source, who however could not
say for sure whether the party meeting will be shifted.

Other ZANU PF insiders, who spoke on condition they were not named, said
while the question of whether to postpone the conference would be discussed,
the party leadership would also focus on the restructuring exercise with
particular reference to Harare and Mashonaland East provinces.

They said Mugabe, who returned to Zimbabwe from Qatar yesterday, was
concerned by growing infighting in ZANU PF Harare province, which resulted
in the party failing to elect its new provincial executive on three
occasions.

Current Harare province chairman and also mines minister Amos Midzi is
battling to retain the post against deputy transport minister Hubert
Nyanhongo and on several occasions the two's supporters have physically
clashed.

In Mashonaland East, the sources said, Mugabe wanted to use the politburo to
nullify the re-election of Ray Kaukonde as the party's provincial
chairperson on allegations that he was imposed by a faction headed by former
army general Solomon Mujuru.

Mujuru heads a faction opposed to Mugabe's continued stay as ZANU PF leader
and the country's president and has since 2000 been fighting for the
84-year-old leader's ouster.

In August this year, Mugabe fired Kaukonde as provincial governor for
Mashonaland East province.

Mugabe reportedly wants businessman Paddy Zhanda to be chairman of the
province.

"The party's restructuring exercise was completed in eight provinces," a
politburo member said yesterday.

"There are problems in Harare and Mashonaland East which we will try to iron
out. There is clear indication from the presidency that in Mashonaland East
there should be a re-run of the provincial elections, while in Harare we
must resolve the acrimonious relationship between Midzi and Nyanhongo," the
politburo member said.

The source said the pro-Mugabe faction in ZANU PF wanted Nyanhongo to
takeover from Midzi, whom they also accused of belonging to the Mujuru
faction.

The sources said the party would also deliberate on a report from the
secretary of security Nicholas Goche on soldiers who went on rampage since
last week, beating up innocent civilians, especially foreign currency
dealers, and looting shops in central Harare.

"Goche has been asked to prepare a report based on what the intelligence
organisations have gathered on the violent behaviour of the soldiers,"
another source said. "The party presidium is concerned by the near-mutiny by
the soldiers."

ZANU PF's presidium is made up of Mugabe, vice-presidents Joice Mujuru and
Joseph Msika and national chairman John Nkomo.

ZANU PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira was not immediately available for
comment on the matter. - ZimOnline

UN appeals for US$550m Zim aid

http://www.zimonline.co.za



      by Nokuthula Sibanda Thursday 04 December 2008

HARARE - The United Nations (UN) has appealed for US$550 million in
emergency aid for Zimbabwe where nearly half the population faces hunger and
a cholera outbreak has killed nearly 600 people since August.

According to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA), the aid will be required to among other things save and prevent the
loss of lives, assist displaced populations and restore livelihoods in the
new year.

OCHA said the alarming degradation of Zimbabwe's economy and rise in social
vulnerability continued this year adding that a protracted election period,
from March through August, essentially put the country on hold for six
months, during which election violence and government restrictions halted
most humanitarian field activities.

"A total of 35 appealing agencies, including UN agencies, inter-governmental
organisations, international and national NGOs, and community and
faith-based organisations, are requesting an amount US$550 million to
implement programmes and projects as part of the Consolidated Appeal Process
(CAP) 2009."

The UN humanitarian arm called on all stakeholders in Zimbabwe to support
and facilitate relief operations including allowing aid workers unhindered
access to vulnerable people.

Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis has deteriorated rapidly in the
absence of agreement on implementing a September power-sharing deal between
President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mugabe, Tsvangirai and another opposition leader Arthur Mutambara signed a
deal to form a government of national unity that analysts say would be best
placed to tackle a severe economic crisis ravaging Zimbabwe and seen in the
world's highest inflation rate of 231 million percent, acute shortages of
food and basic commodities.

But the power-sharing agreement remains in limbo despite negotiators from
Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party and the two opposition MDC formations reaching
agreement last week on details of a constitutional amendment required to
give legal force to the unity government agreement.

Zimbabwe's rival political parties have failed to form a government of
national unity because they cannot agree on who should control the most
powerful ministerial posts in the new government. - ZimOnline

Zimbabwe gets 9 million euros to fight cholera

http://www.zimonline.co.za



      by Cuthbert Nzou Thursday 04 December 2008

HARARE - The European Commission has provided nine million euros (about
US$12 million) to fight a deadly outbreak of cholera in Zimbabwe, which the
United Nations (UN) said on Wednesday has killed close to 600 people since
August.

The money from the commission's humanitarian "global plan" for Zimbabwe will
be provided to the UN and non-governmental partner agencies working in the
crisis-ridden southern African country to support water, sanitation and
hygiene actions, epidemic response and the provision of essential drugs.

Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian
Aid, yesterday said: "I'm shocked at the deteriorating humanitarian crisis
in Zimbabwe and call upon the authorities there to respond quickly to this
cholera outbreak by allowing full assistance from international
humanitarians and regional partners."

Michel described cholera as a disease of destitution that used to be almost
unknown in Zimbabwe.

"It can be kept at bay with clean water and good hygiene, and when there is
an outbreak, the death toll can be minimised through proper medical
treatment," Michel said.

"With almost no local capacity left in Zimbabwe to tackle the epidemic due
to the collapse of so many basic community services, help from outside is
crucial. This is a preventable tragedy and our priority is to save lives and
relieve suffering," he added.

The cholera outbreak is affecting most regions in Zimbabwe - including the
border regions with South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique - with more than
12 546 cases and 565 deaths recorded since August, according to the UN
Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

In 2007, the EC provided 90.9 million euros in both humanitarian and
essential development aid to Zimbabwe, which was channelled through its
international partners such as UN agencies.

The EC is the main donor to vulnerable population groups in Zimbabwe having
provided more than 500 million euros in direct support to the population
since 2002. - ZimOnline

TV licences: ZBH calls cops

http://www.journalism.co.za


Wednesday, 03 December 2008
Zimbabwe's cash-strapped state broadcaster has roped in the police to
force listeners and viewers to renew their licences, writes our
correspondent.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) has been running adverts
warning the public that police would launch a door-to-door visit accompanied
by ZBH  licence inspectors as it seeks to raise cash.

ZBC spokesman, Sivhukile Simango, said: "There is nothing sinister
about our campaign to have the public renew their licences. We are
quickening the process by involving police.

"Previously, we collected our fees through the post office and later
the police in situations where viewers were penalised for having not renewed
their licences on time." He refused to comment on whether police will mount
roadblocks to force private motorists and commuter omnibuses to pay for
their car radios.

Previously,  the ZBC  collected their  fees from roadblocks but were
later forced off the road after a public outcry.
Millions of Zimbabweans have not renewed their licences in the past as
a way of protesting against poor programming and services by the state
broadcaster.

Television programming is dominated by Chinese content and liberation
struggle  films.

Meanwhile, the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights' (ACHPR)
legal secretariat has completed its draft decision in the case brought
against the Zimbabwean government challenging provisions of the draconian
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA).

ACHPR Chief Legal Officer, Dr Robert Eno said that a draft decision
had been arrived at on the merits of the case brought against the government
by MISA-Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) and the
Independent Journalists Association of Zimbabwe (IJAZ) challenging a number
of sections of AIPPA.

He said the draft decision will now be submitted to the African
Commission for its consideration pending a final decision in the matter.
Details will only be known when the Commission makes its final decision.

Women victims of torture and rape in Zim picket in SA

By Alex Bell
03 November 2008

As desperate Zimbabweans continue to fight a daily battle to survive, a
group of young refugee women have taken their struggle against the Robert
Mugabe regime to the streets of South Africa.

The group of up to fifty women at a time has been picketing outside South
Africa's Union Buildings in Pretoria since last week, in protest against the
ongoing violence and abuse of women by Zimbabwe's state agents. The
country's
women were not only brutally beaten and tortured alongside the men during
the violent aftermath of the March presidential elections, but the women
were often also raped and sexually abused by ZANU PF militia.

Sox Chikohwero, a Zimbabwe rights activist based in South Africa, has helped
organise the picket outside the Union Buildings - the site of the South
African President's office and a favourite tourist destination in the
country. He explained on Wednesday that up to 85 percent of the Zimbabwean
women involved in the picket are survivors of rape, torture and beatings at
the hands of ZANU PF.

"These women fled to South Africa to escape torture, but the leaders of this
country have done nothing to stop the ongoing abuse in Zimbabwe," Chikohwero
explained. "The picket outside the Union Buildings is a chance for the women
to air their grievances to President Kgalema Mothlanthe."

Mothlanthe recently took over the role as the country's leader after Thabo
Mbkei was forced to resign by the country's ruling ANC. Mbeki has faced
severe criticism for his bias towards Mugabe and his 'softly-softly'
approach to the raging crisis in Zimbabwe. President Mothlanthe, as the
country's leader, as well as the chair of the Southern African Development
Community (SADC), has inherited a tainted position and pressure has been
growing on him to make amends for Mbeki's failures.

"The women want Mothlanthe to put his house, that is SADC, in order to make
a strong move in Zimbabwe," Chikohwero explained.

The picket will continue until the 9th December, and will be followed by a
mass demonstration and rally outside the Union Buildings on the 10th.

SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

Piling on the agony

Dec 3rd 2008 | JOHANNESBURG
From Economist.com

Zimbabwe asks for help as hundreds die from cholera

THE latest catastrophe to hit Zimbabwe is an epidemic of cholera. It has
spread across nine of the country's ten provinces, hitting at least 12,000
people and perhaps many more. The UN says that at least 565 people have
already died, but a local organisation says the death toll is already much
higher. On Wednesday December 3rd Zimbabwe's rulers asked for urgent
international help-medicine, equipment and funds-to tackle the outbreak.

The health-care system has collapsed. Harare's two biggest hospitals have
almost ceased to function. The water and sewerage system has broken down in
many places, including Harare, where the authorities turned off the taps
completely for a few days in a cack-handed attempt to stem the spread of the
disease. Sick Zimbabweans are streaming into neighbouring South Africa.

At the same time, food is running out. The last harvest failed. Severe
shortages will leave more than half the resident population of some 9m (it
is unclear what the population is now) needing handouts by next month. The
few Zimbabweans still formally employed, probably less than a fifth of the
working-age population, earn only a pittance, their wages long ago squeezed
almost into nothing by hyperinflation. Punitive cash-withdrawal limits
imposed by the central bank mean that people anyway cannot get hold of more
than a fraction of their earnings. Public-sector workers are staying away
from work en masse. Few teachers, for instance, now turn up. Dealing on the
black market, barter, subsistence and foreign currency sent by friends and
relatives abroad are the lifelines for most Zimbabweans.

For the first time in recent history Zimbabwe's security forces have started
to voice their anger. For the second time in a week, a few dozen disgruntled
soldiers ran amok in the streets of Harare after they had been unable to
withdraw cash from banks. Some shops were looted and illegal
foreign-exchange dealers beaten up before the enraged but unarmed soldiers
clashed with the police.

It is too soon to tell if such unrest will resume and spread or if the
authorities will contain the soldiers' anger by giving them extra perks
while crushing a mutinous few. But it is plain that soldiers, the ultimate
guarantor of Robert Mugabe's power, are no longer shielded from inflation,
running at hundreds of millions percent. Thousands have been told to work on
farms. Many are deserting. The senior ranks-colonels and upwards-still
benefit from access to farms and minerals and other business privileges, and
are probably still loyal to Mr Mugabe. But a question-mark may soon start to
hang over junior officers.

Almost three months after a power-sharing deal was signed, there is little
hope that a new government will be in place soon. Violence against the
opposition continues. After more talks in South Africa, the ruling ZANU-PF
and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change at least agreed on a
constitutional amendment providing for a new post of prime minister, to be
held by the MDC's leader, Morgan Tsvangirai.

It will take at least another month for the change to get Parliament's nod
and be enacted. Moreover, several big issues are outstanding, including how
ministries and provincial governorships will be divided among the rival
parties, who will be part of a new National Security Council, and what it
will do. Negotiations are expected to resume later this month. Meanwhile, Mr
Mugabe has unilaterally reappointed Gideon Gono, the central bank governor
presiding over the world's highest inflation rate, for another five years.

The 15-country Southern African Development Community (SADC), which has been
trying to break the impasse, does not carry much weight with either side. Mr
Tsvangirai's party dismissed a recent suggestion from SADC's leaders that
the home ministry, which controls the police, be shared with the ruling
party, while Mr Mugabe's side would hold on to the army and intelligence
service. Thabo Mbeki, a former South African president mandated as mediator
by SADC, reacted with a scathing letter, browbeating Mr Tsvangirai's lot for
rejecting the ministry-sharing idea and accusing it of being a Western
stooge.

Zimbabwe: Keeping His Head in a Blasted Economic Landscape

Business Day

Dianna Games

3 December 2008

Johannesburg - HEADING Zimbabwe's biggest conglomerate in the toughest
economic environment yet seen in that country is a job for only the most
energetic entrepreneur.

Nigel Chanakira, CEO of Kingdom Meikles Africa (KMAL), seems to be just that
entrepreneur; one of Zimbabwe's most prominent business survivors.

He says the experience Zimbabwean businesspeople have had over the past
decade has positioned them well for doing business in the rest of the
continent.
"Business has taken a battering but has managed to survive and even make
money despite a rapidly depreciating exchange rate. If you can do business
in Zimbabwe now, you can do business anywhere," he maintains.

Hyperinflation accounting, which businesses have been forced to do for the
past five years, has created new survival skills, he says. "We know how to
make a plan. But it is a headache to run a business in Zimbabwe right now.
It is difficult to satisfy clients' requirements."

Companies are relying on high margins and arbitrage to make profits. To
survive in a normalised business environment, they will have to restructure
the whole way business is done, he says.

Last year, Chanakira became CEO of KMAL, one of the top five companies on
the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, after a merger in December between Zimbabwe's
oldest company, Meikles Africa, its subsidiaries Tanganda Tea Company and
Cotton Printers, and the new kid on the block (relatively speaking), Kingdom
Financial Holdings.

KMAL is a highly diversified group that includes financial services,
agriculture, property, hotels, textiles, manufacturing and retail
operations. Despite Zimbabwe's business challenges, the company has had
positive reports from brokers, based on its high-quality assets, experienced
management and strong balance sheet. Its export businesses, focused on tea
and textiles, have provided a cushion against foreign currency challenges,
as have its hotels, which are still reporting reasonable business.

At the time of the merger, questions were asked about whether such an
amalgamation of interests was not flying in the face of the modern business
trend of unbundling to focus on core interests. But in an economy such as
Zimbabwe's, critical mass is important to leverage opportunities, Chanakira
says.

The Meikles family, which owns 43% of KMAL, has been one of Zimbabwe's most
enduring brands, with its roots in the late 1890s when the Meikles brothers
started a trading store in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia.

The group has remained a family business at its core although it grew to
become one of the country's biggest, owning hotels, supermarkets and
department stores across the country.

The subsidiaries that form part of the merger are also deeply rooted in the
country's business history. The Tanganda Tea Company was formed in 1924 and
produced its first commercial crop in 1930, while Cotton Printers was formed
in 1950.

Kingdom is an altogether different beast. It was launched in 1995 by members
of the new business elite and quickly rose to prominence, challenging many
longstanding competitors in the financial services world.

It consists of subsidiaries Kingdom Bank, Kingdom Stockbrokers, Kingdom
Asset Management, MicroKing Finance and Discount Company of Zimbabwe. The
company has the Moneygram franchise for Zimbabwe, which has been a winner
considering remittances are now almost on a par with mining and tourism as a
generator of gross domestic product.

The KMAL merger was primarily a defensive strategy to deal with the
indigenisation legislation introduced by Robert Mugabe's government last
year, which made it a statutory requirement for local and foreign companies
in Zimbabwe to have at least 51% indigenous ownership.

Chanakira says it was not just an issue of the Meikles group wanting to
protect itself; Meikles was also a significant shareholder in Kingdom, which
meant any government action against Meikles would also have implications for
Kingdom. Neither party wanted to risk falling foul of the government,
particularly amid concern about how the legislation might be implemented.
The two entities had been partners for more than eight years and Meikles had
increased its shareholding in Kingdom from 25% to 33%.

The legislation came into force only early last year, just weeks after the
merger was finalised and there is now talk that it may be reviewed to reduce
the shareholding requirement.

"From a business perspective, the merger was also an opportunity for me, as
an investor that had been confined to financial services, to diversify and
to be part of a larger group."

Chanakira spoke at the recent launch of the JSE's Africa Board, raising the
question of whether the company was looking at listing on the board.

Chanakira has frequently stated his intention to list in New York or London.
So is the JSE an option?

"It is an option but you need to follow the demand for our stock. If the
demand is greater on the JSE than it is in London, for example, then yes, we
would look at it."

KMAL has been rocked by a public spat between senior members of the board,
including Chanakira and chairman John Moxon, from the Meikles fold,
primarily over the sale of the Cape Grace hotel in Cape Town to a South
African company.

The boardroom battle involved heated exchanges between the new bedfellows,
many of them in the media, about issues of corporate governance, management
powers, race and fraud.

The hotel remains in the group and the issue has moved off the media radar.
However, at Chanakira's instigation, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is
investigating the externalisation of foreign currency by Moxon, which may
reopen the wounds.

Whatever the facts of the case, analysts believe the issue has been
unfortunate in the current politically charged environment and has dented
the company brand.

Chanakira is one of Zimbabwe's local success stories and has become a role
model for many Zimbabwean businesspeople. Only 42, he was named a young
global leader by the World Economic Forum in 2005 and has collected a number
of awards locally. He attributes his success partly to the skills he has
learned through his association with a motivational and training
organisation, the Success Motivation Institute. He holds the African
franchise for the institute and runs mentoring programmes in his spare time.

Chanakira has an eye on more regional opportunities for KMAL. Both parties
brought regional interests to the table. Meikles brought the Cape Grace and
Pick n Pay through its shareholding in Meikles's supermarket chain, TM,
while Kingdom brought with it a financial institution in Malawi and a bank
in Botswana.

KMAL is positioning its hospitality business to gain from the potential 2010
windfall. Its three hotels -- Harare's Meikles Hotel, the famous Victoria
Falls Hotel (in which it is in partnership with Zimbabwe's African Sun
group) and the Cape Grace -- are all within a two-hour flying time radius
from Johannesburg and thus well placed to get business from the tournament.

Chanakira, like many Zimbabweans, believes an economic turnaround in his
country could be quite rapid once conditions are right.

Zimbabwean business is a good investment, he says, particularly KMAL with
its stable of quality assets. "If you had to look at replacement costs, you
would quickly see that you could not find such quality assets at that price
anywhere."
The highly publicised economic meltdown has been damaging for outsiders'
perception of Zimbabwean businesspeople, he says. "But we can also
capitalise on the attention the country has had. There must be very few
people who don't know where Zimbabwe is. We can quickly turn this into a
positive for the country."

Comments from correspondents

Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 11:14 PM
Subject: Unorevesa here??

Do you mean that the senior ruling party officers are about to declare a
state of emergency? Is all this noise being caused by soldiers fake? Is is
meant to confuse us?
But how will the poor government of ours survive with the international
funding so as to be out of this cholera and economic meltdown.
Ndiudzewo mwana waamai toita sei. Tobata pfuti here against thios
illegitimate government.

Aaah tanzwa isu

----------

Re:World watches as Zim implodes S'Thembiso Msomi: Politics in Command
 Published:Dec 03, 2008

 Thembiso,

I have a question for you. Why do you say Morgan and robert need
each other? Mugabe is not needed by anybody.Actually he should be out
of the way.He is the main obstacle because he lost the election,he
lost the people.So why do you say they need each other?

I am also tired of this rethoric that Morgan did not garner enough
votes to avoid a run-off. That is BS!! everyone knows that the
results were held for a month and released after being cooked and yet
you say he did not get enough votes -CRAP!! Do not hide behind your
fingers and you should look at the whole forest and not the trees
around you.

C
-------------
dear sirs my wife was ejected from a greyhound bus this morning along with
all passengers heading for harare by cio .the bus was sent back to sa.r
.tague
----------------


The people revolution the last frontier before FREEDOM

Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd US President and the principal author of the
revered Declaration of Independence, says: "Timid men prefer the calm of
despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty".

Reading the quote above i couldn't help but compare it to the recent
development in Zimbabwe, were soldiers of the government ran amok and looted
shops due to what they term as non-payment of their salaries and the
deteriorating state of affairs in their native country.

It is my belief that the last frontier before REAL independence is for the
'timid men' to rise up and challenge the despotism of an illegitimate
government. The fact that this new uprising is by people who are already on
the government payroll further adds weight as to how desperate things up the
Limpopo River are!

Zim is finally waking up to itself. The people are rising up, you get a
sense that now Robert Mugabe is shaking in his boots as some of his
staunchest supporters, the military junta, is starting to break ranks. The
timid men have transformed to brave men - REAL soldiers and they are
fighting for the land of their fathers.

What the "quiet diplomacy" has failed to accomplish in over 6years the
people of Zimbabwe will achieve through their rebellion and by making the
country ungovernable. The small light has slowly crept in to the dark shack
that the Zimbabwean people have been living in for over 28 years and they
are excited at the prospect of liberty. They will not be cowed into timidity
anymore and Mugabe knows it. The despotic Mugabe's time is over. Finish en
Klaar!

Indeed as we reverberate the old words of the negro spiritual so
prophetically repeated by Dr Martin Luther King, junior, on that fateful
day: FREE AT LAST! FREE AT LAST! THANK GOD ALMIGHTY, WE ARE FREE AT LAST!

The Zimbabwean people might not be entirely free (government-wise) but the
uprising is the first sign that the Zimbabwean people have freed themselves
of mental shackles that kept them afraid of Mugabe for the past 7 years of
his torturous regime. Indeed, in their minds, the soldiers were free!

FREE to take to the street!
FREE to demonstrate to the world that they would not be cowed by Mugabe
FREE that they are no longer going to be used as pawns in a backfired
political game
FREE to know that for injustice to prevail, just men must sit and look away
FREE to want to re-construct their lives, restore agriculture, their
families and rebuild their economy
FREE to choose to want to be led better
FREE to associate with their fellow men in the struggle
FREE to demand an end to the humanitarian crisis that has beset Zimbabwe

Indeed, the Zimbabwean army that ran amok yesterday are free because they
have head the prayers of all the children of Zimbabwe when they cried to the
heavens for an end to their misery and to end the rule of a despot. Timid
men don't exist in Zimbabwe anymore. The Zimbabwean people want to live in
the 'tempestuous sea of liberty', and i wouldn't be surprised if Simba
Makoni emerges from the smoke; to claim victory for Zimbabwe as its new
leader since Morgan Tsvangirai's free-wheeling-and-dealing has done and
achieved very little for the people of Zimbabwe!

Viva the new Chimurenga of the People viva!!!
Away with an illegitimate government away!!!
Thata the people of Zimbabwe thata!!!

----------------

IT IS JUST BEYOD COMPRHENSION THAT THE ZIMBABWE RIOT POLICE CARRY OUT SUCH
BLATANT ACTS ON THEIR FELLOW COUNTRY MEN AND WOMEN - DO THEY NOT REALIZE
THAT THEIR MASTERS - CHIHURES - MUGABES AND THEIR CRONIES ARE SITTING
COMFORTABLY IN THEIR PALACES WATCHING THEIR SLAVES (I.E. SO CALLED POLICE)
DOING THE DIRTY WORK FOR THEM WHILST THEY (THE POLICE) ARE SUFFERING JUST AS
MUCH AS THEIR BROTHERS AND SISTER ON THE STREET.  WHAT A SHAMBLES AND GREAT
SHAME FOR THESE SO CALLED POLICE TO CONTINUE THEIR "CRIMES" - WHAT GOES
AROUND WILL ONE DAY SOON - VERY SOON COME AROUND. gOD BLESS THE SUFFERING
PEOPLE OF ZIMBABWE.
L

----------------
Subject: Re: Zimbabwe: Open Warfare, Police vs Army on 01 December

One begs to question the implimentation of a state of emergency. The
idea however is not far fetched. Putting into perspective that Sekuru
has used untold methods of bringing the nationals of Zimbabwe under his
grip and fold. Does he however have enough cause, to justify a state of
emergency.
Having the army and the police play fighting each other to deem it
neccessary to have the army (who are part of the sharade) turn around
and tell the coppers that they are now in charge of the security and
policing of the streets, does seem to be quite ludicrous. I still agree
though, that  Sekuru Bob has come to terms with the rejection of him by
the povo. That he has seen it fit to take control of the country and
oust democracy by means of self inflicting  a coupe de dat. By that he
does call a state of emergency; parliement is disolved;as commander in
chief he then usurps total power/control over every affair within the
country;Since Zanu pf is afraid of the desport allow his highness to 
continue ruling, while the rest of the world(including SADDC) stand
aside and do nothing.
Most importantly the vervorous people of Zimbabwe once again cower at
the old mans voice and hide from the hounds/ the green and blue bombers.
I see the picture quite clearly, does not sound ludicrous now. Bob has
his machinery working already. Waiting for the right opportunity to get
his plan into action.Thirty more years of Sekurus torture

Viva!Aluta continua
  

----------------
I PERSONALY BELIEVE THIS WAS LONG OVER DUE FOR THE ARMY AND THE POLICE DO
THE THING.THIS WAS LONG WAITED FOR IF THE ARM IS NOW FEELING THE PRSSURE OF
IT AND DECIDE TO ACT THUS GOOD,BUT THE PROBLEM IS THEY DO IT ON THE WRONG
PEOPLE THERE IS A STATE HOUSE WHERE YOU GUYS SHOULD GO AND DO ALL THIS,THAN
BEATING UP BANK TALLERS AND HELPLESS CIVILIANS. I APPRICIATE WHAT YOU HAVE
FINALLY THOUGHT KEEP IT UP BUT JUST DON'T ATTACK YOUR MOTHERS,FATHERS,
CHILDREN,AND SISTERS,LEAVING THE MAIN MAN UN TOUCHED AND HIS PUPPETS
AT LEAST YOU ARE FEELING IT NOW
SOMHLOLO