VOA
By Peta
Thornycroft
Harare
18 February 2008
There
is growing uncertainty in Zimbabwe as politicians and analysts realize
that
President Robert Mugabe is likely to face a run off after the March 29
elections. For VOA, Peta Thornycroft in Harare reports on the
concerns.
Harare political scientist Eldred Masungurure says he believes
the ruling
party - Zanu PF - will try to bring off what he describes as "an
electoral
coup" when the results of the presidential balloting emerge after
the
elections next month.
He and other independent political analysts
do not believe it will be
possible for Mr. Mugabe to win an absolute
majority, as for the first time
in his political career he faces not one,
but two strong candidates.
Mr. Mugabe would, Masungurure says, have to do
massive amounts of rigging to
win a majority.
Many independent
analysts say that Morgan Tsvangirai, founding president of
the opposition
Movement for Democratic Change, was cheated out of a narrow
victory in the
last presidential poll in 2002. Mr. Tsvangirai has
considerable support in
many urban areas, particularly in the capital,
Harare.
One of the
challengers President Mugabe is facing, Simba Makoni, had been a
life long
member of the ruling Zanu PF until he was expelled earlier this
month, and
has held senior positions in both the government and the party.
Mr. Makoni
says he has considerable support from many of his former
colleagues in Zanu
PF. Analysts say that means it will be more difficult for
Mr. Mugabe's
supporters to rig this election undetected.
Analysts point out that
President Mugabe does not know which of the
legislative candidates on the
Zanu PF ticket will support Simba Makoni in
the presidential
poll.
Masungurure says it is hard to image that an already divided Zanu
PF, having
contested parliamentary, local government and senate elections on
March 29,
would be prepared or even able to stage a second round of
presidential
voting just 21 days later.
He said Zimbabweans should
not be surprised if President Mugabe decides to
break electoral laws if, as
seems most likely, he does not win a clear
majority.
He said
Zimbabweans should look carefully at what happened in Kenya last
month when
President Mwai Kibaki quickly had himself sworn into power before
any legal
objections to the result could be launched by the opposition.
Patrick
Chinamasa, a spokesman for Zanu PF who is also minister of justice,
says a
second round in the presidential poll will not be necessary as
president
Mugabe will win "resoundlingly." He described the opposition as
"make shift"
and he said Mr. Mugabe's opponents do not have a "platform or
any
cohesion."
Mail and Guardian
Angus Shaw | Harare, Zimbabwe
18
February 2008 05:28
Zimbabwe's ruling party, shaken by
internal divisions and a
potentially strong election challenge to President
Robert Mugabe, will expel
candidates running against its official nominees
in the March vote, the
official media said on Monday.
An
independent observer group, meanwhile, reported widespread
attempts by
Zanu-PF members to buy votes in the ruling party's nominating
contests
before the March 29 presidential, parliamentary and local council
elections.
Didymus Mutasa, a senior party official, said
that in a number
of key election districts more than one Zanu-PF candidate
had registered to
contest the same seat. Such duplicate registrations
threaten to split the
ruling-party vote to the benefit of the
opposition.
"Given the large number of such cases, we will
meet as a party
and deliberate on how best we can deal with that," Mutasa
told the state
Herald newspaper.
"Indiscipline can even
be seen among senior party officials and
that cannot be accepted," he said,
adding that candidates who refuse to
withdraw will be kicked out of the
party.
Former finance minister Simba Makoni upset Zanu-PF
earlier this
month by announcing that he was splitting from the party to
stand against
Mugabe, who has ruled since independence from Britain 27 years
ago and is
blamed for plunging Zimbabwe into unprecedented economic
crisis.
Makoni has called for other disillusioned members of
the ruling
party to stand under his banner as independent candidates. He has
already
picked up pledges of support from a breakaway faction of the
opposition
Movement for Democratic Change.
In the town of
Chinhoyi, north-west of Harare, witnesses said
Makoni supporters were
threatened by ruling-party militants as "traitors" in
tense scenes at the
town's nomination court on Friday, when the election
nomination process
ended.
The court also accepted ruling-party nominations long
after its
official closing time but barred some independent and opposition
hopefuls on
the grounds that they were late, said witnesses who asked not to
be named
for fear of reprisals. One independent who successfully registered
fled his
nearby home after it was raided by secret police agents of the
state Central
Intelligence Organization on Friday night, they
said.
It was not clear exactly how many of Zimbabwe's 210
constituency
districts had rival Zanu-PF candidates, as details of
nominations were still
being compiled. But at least five ruling-party
strongholds were affected.
The Zimbabwe Election Support
Network, an independent observer
group, said in its latest bulletin on
Monday that its observers countrywide
have reported "widespread vote buying
in Zanu-PF" in the party's primary
elections.
Many
aspiring candidates are selling scarce commodities such as
soap, cooking oil
and sugar to the electorate at heavily discounted prices,
it
said.
Near the southern town of Masvingo, a government
minister
distributed free sports kit and money for school fees. A second
minister
allegedly promised voters scarce cellphone lines, the support group
said.
It said the state Grain Marketing Board "played an
active role
in the campaigns", using the corn meal staple to entice voters
to support
favoured ruling-party nominees. In western Zimbabwe, people
attending a
ruling-party rally received 50kg bags of corn meal while others
were given
10kg bags of rice.
Observers also reported
fraud in voter registration in some
areas.
In one case,
50 ruling-party supporters were added to voters'
lists after being given a
residential address that turned out to be a hair
salon where no one lived,
the bulletin said.
Elections since 2000 were all marred by
violence, intimidation
and allegations of vote rigging. --
Sapa-AP
Monsters and Critics
Feb 18, 2008, 11:27 GMT
Johannesburg/Harare -
Riot police have arrested the Harare deputy sheriff
trying to open the
Anglican cathedral for a Sunday service, the cathedral
church warden Sekai
Chibaya said Monday.
The cathedral had been illegally occupied by a
renegade pro-ruling party
ex-priest and baton-charged parishioners waiting
for the church to be opened
and to begin a service, witnesses
said.
Watched by a group of about 20 parishioners on Sunday, a locksmith
accompanying the deputy-sheriff - whose name was not immediately available -
had just used a bolt cutter to open the padlock on the gate to the cathedral
when a squad of riot police drove up, Chibaya said.
The court
official was arguing with a police detail and two priests loyal to
dismissed
former bishop of Harare Nolbert Kunonga challenging a writ of
execution
granted by a high court judge on Friday.
'We thought ... help has come at
last,' she said. 'They jumped out the truck
and started beating us, and
bundled us - including the deputy-sheriff - in
the truck and took us to the
charge office. I was in shock,' she said.
The incident was the latest in
the struggle between Kunonga, dismissed by
the Anglican synod of Central
Africa, the Church's supreme authority in the
region, after he unilaterally
set up his own diocese in Harare, and the
newly enthroned replacement
bishop, Sebastian Bakare.
Bakare has been trying to assert court orders
giving him and his clergy
control of the Cathedral of St Mary and All
Saints, the senior parish in
Zimbabwe.
Three weeks ago, a high court
judge declared that Kunonga, a militant
supporter of President Robert
Mugabe, had no legal rights to be in the
cathedral following the synod's
appointment of Bakare.
He ignored the order, and attempts to have Bakare
enthroned in the cathedral
two weeks ago were thwarted by heavily-built
young men blocking the church
entrance.
No action was taken by
police, despite being shown the court order.
The enthronement had to be
held instead in a local sports stadium. The
cathedral has been locked since
then, except briefly for poorly attended
services held by Kunonga.
On
Friday last week, Bakare's officials obtained a writ of execution order
for
the deputy sheriff to ensure Kunonga allowed the cathedral to be opened
for
services by synod-endorsed clergy.
On Sunday at noon, three priests and
several parishioners arrived at the
cathedral where the gates were locked.
Immediately after the locks were
broken, a policeman arrived, followed by
two pro-Kunonga priests who have
also been dismissed by the synod and barred
the deputy-sheriff from going
any further.
They claimed they had
appealed against the order, but refused to show the
court official the
documents, Chibaya said. The deputy sheriff stood his
ground, but then the
riot police attacked.
Most of the others ran away. One man was badly
beaten on the arm, she said.
They left the two Kunonga priests alone. 'The
deputy sheriff and his
locksmith were not harmed,' she said.
'The
parishioners, their priests and Kunonga's men were held for two hours
and
then released,' she said. 'We wanted to go back with the deputy sheriff
to
start our service but they detained him.'
'They said they wanted a
statement for him. We held our service in the
cathedral car park instead.
Lawyers were planning to draft an application
for Kunongas arrest for
contempt of court,' Chibaya said.
Kunonga was given a farm taken from its
former white owner under Mugabe's
lawless seizure of white-owned farm land
that began 2000, and then drove off
the workers and their families living
there.
He was brought before a special ecclesiastical court in 2005 where
he was
accused of inciting ruling party militants to murder pro- democracy
party
supporters and of abusing church property.
The court adjourned
indefinitely.
zimbabwejournalists.com
18th Feb 2008 18:24 GMT
By a Correspondent
HARARE -
ARMED riot police beat up Anglican parishioners at the Cathedral
and
arrested five including a Studio 7 Correspondent Fazila Mahomed for
allegedly operating as a journalist without state accreditation from the
Media and Information Commission.
Some of those arested include a
member of the Vabvuwi Guild, a men's
fellowship in the Anglican Church
Evison Bhonzo and the Churchwarden for the
Cathedral only identified as Mrs
Chibaya and three others whose identities
could not be immediately
confirmed.
All parishioners were not charged and returned to continue
with their church
service, outside the cathedral after former Harare Bishop
Nolbert Kunonga
continued to defy Judge President Rita Makarau's judgment
that Anglicans in
Harare Diocese whould share the church services until the
dispute has been
finalised. They sustained some bruises on their
limbs.
The Zimbabwe Journalists for Human Rights said it condemned in the
strongest
terms the high-handedness of the state police against innocent
people
worshipping God, let alone the assault of a journalist carrying out
her
professional duties. Failure to produce a MIC accreditation card does
not in
anyway warrant harassment or threats.
"This display of
unnecessary bravado by the police demonstrates the lengths
at which they
will go to deny Zimbabweans their right to worship," the
association
said.
"Fazila was merely standing by the church witnessing as the deputy
sherriff
attempted to break the locks at the cathedral to allow parishioners
entry
into the church when the police arrested her."
The response of
the police has shown the world how crude and senseless the
police can become
when faced with unarmed citizens exercising their rights.
Given the
forthcoming elections, we urge the media to be watchful of
overzealous
policemen who act without thought.
She was represented at the police
station by lawyer Tafadzwa Mugabe of the
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
while the parishioners were represented by
Diocesan registrar Mike Chingore
and Diocesan Secretary Christopher Tapera.
The police confiscated her
tape recorder and headphones.
Fazila is set to return to the police
station tomorrow in the company of her
lawyer to know her fate.
Zimbabwe Today
How Mugabe's men plan to
sabotage Simba Makoni's bid for the Presidency
Zanu-PF's top operatives
are wasting no time in setting out to destroy the
Makoni campaign before it
even gets off the ground. A high level security
meeting was held on
Wednesday, plans were formulated, and on Thursday a top
secret Central
Intelligence Organisation (CIO) memo was sent out. As usual I
was one of the
first to see it.
It's a chilling document. It emanates from the office of
the CIO director
general Happyton Bonyongwe, it is coded DG/sm11, and it
puts all national
and provincial security operatives, spies, thugs and
bullyboys on "condition
red."
The memo describes Makoni as "too hot
to handle", says that in challenging
Zim1 (CIO code for Mugabe) he is posing
a big security risk, and adds that
the political atmosphere is charged up,
and "citizens are restless and ready
to vote out Zim 1."
This last is
an extraordinary statement. Apparently the top CIO men believe
Mugabe could
lose. But they are also intent on making sure it doesn't
happen, by all
fair, and as you will see if you read on, by all foul means.
The memo
essentially summarises the CIO's anti-Makoni plans. First, the
document
instructs: "Be advised to temporarily suspend all minor operations
in your
provinces for RDWK ahead."
"RDWK"? That was a new one on me. My CIO
source who showed me the memo told
me that, almost unbelievably, it stands
for "Real dirty work." That
certainly makes sense in the light of what
follows.
"Assign your trusted operatives to ensure a tough ride for
Makoni... Place
Makoni, his financial backers and disgruntled civil servants
who might
support him under top 24 hour surveillance. Employ all RDWK
strategies
without restraint. Mobilise street kids in urban areas, hire
them, then
plant them at all Makoni's rallies to cause violence. The police
will be on
hand to arrest rioters. Those arrested will be detained in jails
until after
the elections."
"Without restraint" are the key words in
the above paragraph. We know what
that means. Intimidation, violence,
beatings...
And for the first time in my experience this document gives
written proof of
how Zanu-PF uses food aid for its political ends. It reads:
"In rural areas
keep track on Non-Governmental Organisations when
distributing relief food.
Ensure that no non-card carrying Zanu-PF
individual gets food. Feed
villagers wth any tarnishing information on
Makoni that you can think of."
There is more, too much to be contained in
this space. It's all frightening.
We know that Simba Makoni is a man of
integrity and intelligence. We will
soon find out if he is a man of courage.
At least if he reads this - or some
of his people read it - then he will
know a little of what to expect in the
coming weeks.
The elections
take place on March 29. Not long to go. Ladies and gentlemen,
my fellow
citizens, to paraphrase an old Chinese curse, we live in
interesting
times.
Posted on Friday, 15 February 2008 at 12:10
Zimbabwe Today
Monday, 18 February 2008
It was
Nomination Day on Friday - and signs of the Zanu-PF split were there
for all
to see
Speculation about just who is supporting who in the forthcoming
battle
between Mugabe and Makoni has been erratic to say the least - and I
include
my own prophecies in that. But on Friday, when the Nomination Court
opened,
we could at last identify some of those Zanu-PD figures brave enough
to defy
the President and his clique.
The moment of truth arrived
when it came time for parliamentary candidates
to file their nomination
papers. Chaos reigned, as several top Zanu-PF
politicians defied
instructions to stand aside in favour of the alleged
"winners" of the
party's primary elections.
Instead they went ahead and filed their own
papers, the result of which will
be that in places two Zanu-PF names will
stand for the same seat. Ask Robert
Mugabe what he thinks of that, and you
are likely to get an uncivil reply.
Today it's my pleasure to record the
names of some of those brave enough to
put their heads above the
parapet.
Let us salute Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi, Senator
Dzikamai
Mavhaire, Eddison Zvobgo Jnr., and acting chief executive of the
Zimbabwe
Football Association, Henrietta Rushwaya.
Mumbengegwi
registered as a Zanu-PF candidate for the Chivi/Mwenezi House of
Senate
seat, which means he will clash with the Mugabe nominee, former
Masvingo
governor Josiah Hungwe.
Mavhaire - distinguished in being the first party
member, 11 years ago, to
call on Mugabe to retire - will go head to head
with another Mugabe
appointee, Maina Mandava.
Zvobgo also defied the
party directive, and will stand against businessman
and Mugabe appointee
Edmund Mhere. And Henrietta Rushwaya has a truly
heavyweight contest on her
hands, as she stands against the mighty madam
Shuvai Mahofa for the Gutu
South constituency.
All this has maddened the Mugabe camp, as National
Commissar Elliot
Manyika's tones revealed. "One cannot flout party procedure
and expect to
get away with it," he told me. "I assure you there will be
retribution this
week, no matter how senior a party
member."
Mreanwhile Simba Makoni played it cool, refusing to claim that
these rebels
were necessarily joining his campaign. "If they want to join us
they can,"
is all he would say.
Predictions are, many of them
will.
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 18
February 2008 15:24
BY STAFF REPORTER
HARARE
About
300 000 tonnes of maize believed to have been imported from
Malawi, South
Africa and other countries have been stockpiled by Zanu (PF)
at GMB depots
around the country for vote buying.
The party's political commissar was
this week preparing to launch the
election campaign by President Robert
Mugabe this weekend, which includes
distributing all sorts of things to the
electorate – maize, scotch carts,
ox-drawn ploughs and fertilisers,
although the latter is no longer required
at this late stage in the
agricultural season.
It was difficult by the time of going to press to
establish where
Mugabe would hold his rallies but we established that GMB
depots in most of
Mashonaland had received directives to prepare to release
maize stocks they
have been hoarding.
Senior officials at the GMB
depot in Harare confirmed to The
Zimbabwean that close to 100 000 tonnes of
maize were ready to be dispatched
for Mugabe's campaign. We also established
that depots in Murehwa, Bindura,
Chegutu and Marondera have been hoarding
stocks.
"We have stocks of up to 20 000 tonnes and some of them have
been
coming through Mozambique. We have been given instructed to start
preparing
for dispatching the maize," a GMB source at Murehwa depot said.
The
Zimbabwean witnessed recently four haulage trucks coming from the
Nyamapanda
border off-loading maize at Murehwa depot, which official there
said had
been purchased by the government from Malawi.
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 18
February 2008 15:19
John Makumbe
I have consistently insisted
that Mugabe and Zanu (PF) have always
rigged the elections in order to "win"
and retain power since 1985. I still
hold that view and I suspect that this
time around, Mugabe may find it
rather difficult to rig the elections for a
number of reasons. For starters,
Mugabe and his crumbling party do not
really know who their friends and
their foes are in this power game come
March 29. They do not know who among
the persons responsible for the rigging
machinery are loyal to Mugabe or to
Makoni or to Tsvangirai.
They
are not certain that the rigging machinery is not just as split
as Zanu (PF)
is given the numerous independent electoral candidates that
filed their
nomination papers last Friday. What if some of the key persons
responsible
for the rigging machinery are more inclined to rig the ballot in
favour of
either Tsvangirai or Makoni rather than Mugabe? Worse still, what
if all the
"riggers" decide not to rig the elections and allow the best
candidates to
win? This is a real nightmare to Mugabe who is fully aware
that he can never
win a contest against either Tsvangirai or Makoni.
The second reason
why it might be tricky for Mugabe and Zanu (PF) to
get away with a stolen
election this time is that the Electoral Act in
chapter 2:13 deals with the
issues of what happens if none of the
presidential candidates obtains a
majority of the total number of votes that
will have been cast in a
presidential election.
Section 110(2) of the Electoral Act provides
that "Where two or more
candidates are nominated and no candidate receives a
majority of the total
number of the valid votes cast, a second election",
must be held within 21
days after the previous election. Section 110(4)
provides that in the second
election, or what we normally refer to as the
run off, only the two
candidates who will have received the highest and
second highest number of
valid votes cast in the first election will be
eligible to contest.
But if the top two candidates receive an equal
number of votes in the
first election, then Parliament must, as soon as
practicable, after the
declaration of the results of that election, meet as
an electoral college to
elect one of the two candidates as President by
secret ballot and without
prior debate. In the light of the sudden break up
or splits within both the
MDC and Zanu (PF), the results of such a
parliamentary ballot could be very
interesting, indeed.
We live in
exciting times and in an exciting country. It is therefore
quite clear that
an absolute majority is required for any presidential
candidate to be
declared the winner. Any results that fail to produce a
candidate with a
fifty-one per cent of the valid votes will require a run
off. In the
forthcoming election, with three rather strong candidates, the
possibility
of all the candidates obtaining less than the requisite 51% or
higher cannot
be ruled out.
The need for as many people to turn out to vote cannot be
over-emphasized in this election. It is absolutely imperative that the
various parties and candidates that are contesting this election mobilise as
many voters as possible in order to make vote rigging very difficult for
those of a deceitful inclination. As noted earlier, the rigging machinery
may itself be divided with regards to whom to rig the election in favour
of.
The best practice would therefore be to allow the people of this
wretched country to speak through their votes. Sheer numbers may well
incapacitate the Zanu (PF) rigging machinery this time around. God bless
Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 18 February 2008 15:12
BY STAFF REPORTER
HARARE
The Mugabe regime has reportedly splashed out US$2m in scarce
foreign
currency to import tear-gas and other anti-riot material from China
and
Israel.
According to sources, tear-gas canisters were delivered
to the Police
Support Unit Headquarters in Harare, together with pepper
spray, toxic dye
and grenades such as those used on University of Zimbabwe
students in 2002.
Several students were left with permanent
injuries.
"These materials are already being distributed to police
stations
across the whole country," a senior source at PGHQ said. "Some
shall be
handed over to the army and Police Support Unit. Some we have used
before
but others, such as a toxic purple dye imported from China, are
wholly new
to us but compatible with the water canons we have."
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said: "I cannot discuss security
matters", while police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka said he was not the right
person to comment on the issue.
"Those materials were imported from
Israel and China at a cost around
US$2m," a government official said, on
condition of anonymity. "Some of the
things were purchased from the same
manufacturer that supplied the water
canons in 2002."
In 2002, the
Mugabe regime bought anti-riot equipment from Kibbutz
Beit Alfa, which
included customised anti-riot tankers, gas masks and
microscopic laser guns,
similar to those used by Israeli forces against the
Palestinian protesters
in their bitter clashes. The tankers that were
supplied to Zimbabwe are of
model RCU 4500 I based on an advanced
computer-controlled jet pulse system
and can fire up to 500 metres.
New Zimbabwe
By Staff Reporter
Last updated: 02/19/2008 00:16:47
PRESIDENT
Robert Mugabe faced open defiance on Friday last week when party
members
defeated in primary elections, including one of his ministers,
successfully
registered to stand as Zanu PF candidates in parliamentary and
senatorial
polls set for March 29.
President Mugabe last week presided over a Zanu
PF politburo meeting that
approved Zanu PF candidates for the joint
elections for the senate and
parliament to run concurrently with elections
for president.
But Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi, having lost in
primary elections to
former Masvingo governor Josiah Hungwe, still went
ahead and filed papers as
a Zanu PF candidate in
Chivi/Mwenezi.
Dzikamai Mavhaire also defied the party by filing papers
as a Zanu PF senate
candidate for Masvingo despite losing to Maina Mandava
in a party primary.
In Masvingo Central, Eddison Zvobgo (Junior)
registered to contest against
the official Zanu PF candidate, Edmund
Mhere.
Nation Madongorere filed his papers to contest against official
party
candidate Joseph Made in the Makoni West House of Assembly
race.
Zifa chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya was also sucked into the
Zanu PF
chaos after filing her papers as a Zanu PF candidate in Gutu South
where
Shuvai Mahofa is seeking re-election.
Didymus Mutasa, the
party’s secretary for administration suggested a re-run
of primary elections
could be ordered, and losing candidates forced to stand
down.
But
that could create fresh problems as primary elections winners would
unlikely
accept a rerun.
Mutasa said: “… one available option we have in some
constituencies is to
order a rerun in deserving cases under properly
supervised conditions and
ask the losing candidate to
withdraw.
"Indiscipline can even be seen among senior party members and
that cannot be
accepted.”
President Mugabe faced an open rebellion
two weeks ago when Simba Makoni, a
former finance minister and member of the
Zanu PF politburo declared he
would challenge the 84-year-old
leader.
Makoni has claimed he has the backing of senior Zanu PF
officials, which if
true could represent the biggest internal revolt against
Mugabe since he
came to power in 1980.
zimbabwejournalists.com
18th Feb 2008 13:02 GMT
By Ian Nhuka
BULAWAYO - The split in Zanu
–PF, following the decision by former politburo
member, Simba Makoni to gun
for the presidency in next month’s elections
have brightened the chances of
the mainstream faction of the divided
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
of
winning the plebiscite.
Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman for the MDC
said because of the chaos reigning
in Zanu-PF, the opposition party could be
the biggest winner as the ruling
party’s vote is likely to be split between
President Mugabe andMakoni.
“We are up against a bitterly divided Zanu
–PF,” said Chamisa, yesterday.
“This is probably the first time that has
Zanu –PF
split like that and that gives plenty room for our party to win. We
are
confident.”
Makoni, a respected political figure, businessman and
former Zanu-PF
politburo member successfully filed his nomination papers to
contest the
election as an independent last Friday, along with President
Mugabe,
Tsvangirai and another independent Langton Towungana.
It is
said Makoni enjoys the support of senior figures in Zanu –PF, chief
among
them the powerful Retired General, Solomon Mujuru, his wife
Vice-President
Joice Mujuru, former Home Affairs Minister, Dumiso Dabengwa
and many
others.
“So it is not far-fetched if I say that the presence of such high
profile
figures in the Makoni faction would split the Zanu –PF vote,” said
Chamisa.
He added that the disunity in the ruling party was also
dramatised last
Friday, when probably for the first time since independence,
dozens of
Zanu –PF candidates filed their nomination papers to compete
against each
other in certain constituencies.
The Zanu –PF
officials who registered to compete against fellow party
members did so
after the party failed to resolve widespread disputes during
its primary
elections.
The rows over the conduct of the primaries saw at least three
ruling party
aspiring candidates winning court orders against their
losses.
For example, in Masvingo Central House of Assembly constituency
Eddison
Zvobgo (Junior) successfully filed his nomination papers and will
slug it
out against the official Zanu-PF candidate, Edmund Mhere.
Another
notable seat where two ruling party candidates will fight against
each other
is the Masvingo senatorial seat where maverick politician,
Dzikamai Mavhaire
is pitted against Maina Mandava, said to be the official
Zanu – PF
candidate.
Finance Minister, Samuel Mumbengegwi registered as a Zanu-PF
candidate to
challenge Josaya Hungwe for the Chivi-Mwenezi senatorial seat.
In addition,
Tranos Huruva and Clifford Mumbengegwi,both registered as
Zanu-PF candidates
for the Chivi
North House of Assembly seat in
Masvingo.
In Manicaland’s Makoni West, Nation Madongorere registered as a
Zanu-PF
candidate although the party had endorsed Joseph Made, as the
official party
candidate for the House of Assembly seat. Bongayi Nemayire
and Sheila
Mahere, will also contest on a Zanu-PF ticket in the Makoni North
House of
Assembly seat.
“They are fighting against themselves,”
Chamisa said. “Even if Mugabe wants
to rig against this time, it would be
difficult for him to win.”
Business Day
18 February 2008
HARARE — A splinter group of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) party said on Friday it was backing Simba Makoni
because the
former finance minister had the capacity to split the military,
the bedrock
of President Robert Mugabe’s power.
Makoni, a member of
the ruling Zanu (PF) ’s politburo until his
expulsion last week, shook
Zimbabwe’s ruling elite when he announced he
would challenge Mugabe in next
month’s presidential elections.
Makoni filed his papers
to stand in the polls as an independent
against Mugabe and MDC leader,
Morgan Tsvangirai.
The leader of the breakaway MDC
faction, Arthur Mutambara, said
that though his group backed Makoni’s
presidential bid, it would field its
own candidates in parliamentary and
local government elections taking place
on the same day as the presidential
ballot.
Mutambara, whose group initially wanted to back
Tsvangirai but
failed to reach agreement, said his group would back Makoni
because of “his
strategic vision and track record of achievement as opposed
to the
short-term and narrow-mindedness of other opposition pretenders”.
ZimOnline
New Zimbabwe
By Torby
Chimhashu
Last updated: 02/18/2008 19:16:50
ZIMBABWE’S central bank
governor has sensationally claimed that political
rivals within the ruling
Zanu PF party hatched a plan to have him arrested
during his vacation in
December on allegations he helped a private firm
siphon $21 trillion from
the national fiscus.
Rserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono said he
had been vindicated by
a court ruling last week which absolved the central
bank of any impropriety
in releasing $21 trillion to a local company which
had promised to exchange
it for scarce foreign currency.
The RBZ
wanted to secure foreign currency for the purchase of agricultural
equipment
under a government programme.
"Those in positions of influence and
authority wanted me arrested. They
thought my arrest would finish me off and
they hoped I would pale into
insignificance,” Gono told New Zimbabwe.com in
an exclusive interview.
"Luckily for me, there was someone sober in the
police who felt they had to
give the court case a chance. But my enemies
were already seeing me in
prison garb. The truth has now come out for all to
see.
"I have been vindicated but I am pained that even journalists joined
this
grand scheme to have me arrested on allegations raised in court by a
prosecutor.”
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor broke his
silence three days
after a Harare magistrate cleared him of releasing $21
trillion to Flatwater
Investments improperly, hardly a month after the same
court accused the
central bank of raiding the fiscus for the benefit the
same firm.
In a ruling which appeared like an apology to Gono, Harare
Magistrate
Mishrod Guvamombe said the state had erroneously applied for an
order
seeking the arrest of the RBZ officials, yet the facts later presented
in
court showed the central bank had acted above board in its dealings with
Flatwater Investments.
Said Guvamombe: "An erroneous impression was
earlier created that trillions
of dollars were dished out under unclear
circumstances by the central bank
to undeserving people, and that was
Flatwater. It was clearly proved by the
state that there was a contract
between Flatwater and the RBZ.”
The ruling flew in the face of an
unprecedented attack on Gono by prosecutor
Tawanda Zvekare who accused the
central bank of releasing the money to
Flatwater Investments with "nothing,
totally nothing" in documentation. He
intimated that a verbal agreement
between the RBZ and Flatwater could have
been made in a beer hall or a
nightclub.
Zvekare charged Gono had entered into a verbal agreement with
Flatwater
Investments proprietors - Tazviwana Chivaviro and Nigel Marozhe -
who were
sentenced last week by Guvamombe for prejudicing the state after
they failed
to import tractors after being awarded the tender by the
RBZ.
But Gono was unforgiving to the prosecutor, claiming that he had
swapped
roles for a tormentor and persecutor.
Said Gono: "There was
no coincidence that all these inflammatory articles by
the media and
allegations of unethical and corrupt conduct by the governor
came in
January.
“This was a grand scheme by my enemies who again last year
during my
vacation came up with the story that I had used the taxpayers’
money to buy
a Mercedes Brabus. Everyone knows how that story collapsed upon
my return
from leave.
"While I don't contest court decisions, I
defend myself to win over malice.
Reckless statements such as those made by
the prosecutor do not help anyone.
People begin to lose confidence in the
justice delivery system."
The RBZ chief has had a love and hate
relationship with some senior ruling
party officials who accuse him of
harbouring presidential ambitions. In
turn, Gono says the officials are
“cash barons” conducting illegal
activities which are undermining the
country’s economy.
Gono has repeatedly quashed stories linking him to the
Zanu PF succession
battle which appears to have taken a different direction
since the
announcement by former Finance Minister Simba Makoni that he will
contest
President Robert Mugabe in next month elections.
Makoni is
reportedly backed by a faction belonging to retired army general
Solomon
Mujuru who has previously shown his disdain towards Gono and his
policies.
By Tichaona Sibanda
18
February 2008
The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission last week barred the
Zimbabwe Election
Support Network from conducting voter
education.
Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa told us the ZEC is
using an
amendment to the electoral act contained in the country’s
constitution, to
stop ZESN from conducting any voter
education.
‘Apparently there is a law in the constitution that requires
anyone wishing
to carry out such an exercise to have a licence from the
government. There
are indications from ZESN that they will soon have that
licence so that they
can continue with their work,’ Muchemwa
said.
Analysts have raised fears that because of the complicated
electoral
process, the March 29th election will result in the highest number
of spoilt
ballot papers since 1980. Voters in most urban areas will be
required to
vote for several candidates at onec - for president, parliament
(House of
Assembly and Senate) and local authorities.
Muchemwa said
while ZESN were shocked at this latest directive, the
organisation hopes to
continue with its civil education campaign. This
campaign allows them to
operate without any approval from the government.
Civil education is very
broad and deals with human rights and developmental
issues in the community,
while voter education teaches people about the
electoral
process.
‘Lawyers are saying there is no difference between what ZESN
were doing
before they were asked to stop and the civic education they
intend to embark
on now. It’s the same exercise with a different name,’
Muchemwa added.
With just six weeks to go before the crucial elections,
there are fears ZEC
is lagging behind in every department.
‘As we
speak today, ZEC has yet to publish anywhere the constituency and
ward
boundaries, the number and location of the polling stations, or how
voters
can tell which wards they now fall under. It looks like their
operations are
under financed because they lack capacity in whatever they
do,’ said
Muchemwa.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
By Tichaona
Sibanda
18 February 2008
A fourth presidential candidate last week
filed his nomination papers to
contest next month’s elections. The Zimbabwe
Election Commission presiding
officer Ignatius Mushangwe confirmed that Mr.
Langton Toungana had
successfully lodged his papers.
No one seem to
know who Toungana is or which party he represents. So far he
has not held a
press conference or presented his election manifesto. But
some analysts
believe his entry into mainstream politics is a CIO plot,
aimed at trying to
dilute the opposition vote.
Simon Muchemwa, our Harare correspondent,
said Toungana’s registration to
stand as an independent could have been a
last minute scheme by the CIO to
try and confuse the electorate, after
Makoni entered the presidential race.
‘These are last-minute plots that
never work. We have had independents who
have registered to stand against
Mugabe in the past, but as soon as
elections are over, it appears most of
these candidates evaporate never to
be seen again,’ Muchemwa
said.
Three others were duly nominated on the same day - Robert Mugabe,
the
Zanu-PF leader, Simba Makoni, Independent candidate, and Morgan
Tsvangirai
the MDC president.
Nomination papers for William Gwata of
the little-known Christian Democratic
party were rejected for failing to
satisfy the criteria, while former
ZANU-PF official Daniel Shumba was barred
from submitting his papers after
turning up at the close of nominations. But
a breakaway faction from the MDC
led by Arthur Mutambara did not put up a
candidate and decided to support
Makoni. Mutambara has opted to contest the
Zengeza West seat in Chitungwiza.
But Makoni insisted after filing his
papers: ‘I am not in an alliance with
anyone. I am an independent candidate
and I am standing alone.’
Meanwhile the MDC’s policy co-ordinator Eddie
Cross finally managed to
register as a parliamentary candidate for Bulawayo
South, after the
presiding officer in Bulawayo had initially declared him as
an alien, a
non-citizen.
Cross told us he was born in Bulawayo, grew
up in the country all his life
and has never held any other citizenship and
travelled most of my life on a
Zimbabwe passport.
‘I took the issue
to the High Court and won an order from the Judge who told
the Nomination
Court to treat me as a citizen and to act accordingly.
Eventually at 9.30pm
I was declared a candidate for the Bulawayo South
constituency,’ Cross
said.
He refuted claims in the state media that he had been barred from
standing
as a candidate because he had been ‘declared insolvent’ in
1994.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Africa News, Netherlands
Posted on
Monday 18 February 2008 - 16:09
Munyaradzi Mugadza, AfricaNews reporter
in Harare, Zimbabwe
After being at the helm of censuring former finance
minister for his bid
to contest the presidential seat and presenting
Mugabe's election
registration papers to the nomination court in Harare,
cabinet minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa has taken the centre stage ahead of the
harmonised polls.
Mnangagwa was in the past touted as among the
succession race together
with Dr Simba Makoni before the latter decided to
stand as independent
candidate because of claims that Mugabe wanted to die
in power.
When Simba Makoni called for a press conference to announce
his plans to
fight the Mugabe led Zanu-PF, Mnangagwa was the first cabinet
minister to
break the news that Dr Makoni had expelled himself from the
ruling party as
enshrined by the constitution despite Makoni's argument
that there was no
such clause in the constitution of Zanu-PF.
Also
to reporters speaking after presenting Mugabe's nomination papers,
Emerson
Mnangagwa, said Zanu-PF would as usual win the election come March
29.
"We're very confident of victory, 99.9% confident," president
Mugabe
recently revealed to the nation, adding that he was ready for the
polls
raring to go although the media were awash with reports of Simba
Makoni who
sneaked out of the ruling party ship.
The opposition was
concerned the elections would not be free. Mugabe had
been widely accused of
rigging the last three major elections and of using
security forces to quell
dissent.
However, four aspiring Presidents namely President Mugabe, MDC
faction
leader Morgan Tsvangirai , Dr Simba Makoni independent and little
known Mr
Langton Towungana.
There was also drama as at the
nomination court when Mr Daniel Shumba of
the United People's Party, Mr Abel
Ndlovu of Peace Action Freedom for All,
Mr William Gwata of the Christian
Democratic Party and Advocate Justin
Chihota were disqualified as
presidential candidates.
Some of their nomination papers were not in
order while others failed to
beat the nomination deadline time. But it is Dr
Simba Makoni who is going to
give Mugabe a tough test with recifying the
economy as his major mandate.
VOA
By Tendai Maphosa
London
18 February
2008
Next month Zimbabwe holds presidential, parliamentary
and local elections -
the first time all three polls have been held
together. But as Tendai
Maphosa reports from London, analysts and exiles do
not believe the poll
will bring about the change the country needs for it to
get out of the
political and economic crisis it has been mired in for
years.
With the elections only a few weeks away there is already
widespread
pessimism that the elections will not bring about the change
Zimbabwe so
desperately needs. Among those expressing concern is the
Britain's Africa
Minister, Mark Malloch-Brown, who said the odds are against
a free and fair
election in Zimbabwe.
Alex Vines, who heads the
Africa Program at the London-based think-tank,
Chatham House, echoed
Malloch-Brown's sentiments. Vines is well acquainted
with Zimbabwe having
worked there during the 1980s. He told VOA that while
the voting itself may
be free this time, Zimbabweans remain so affected by
the violence and
intimidation that marred past elections, the result of this
election is
unlikely to reflect the electorate's real choices.
"I think it [is going
to] be difficult given what's been happening in recent
years in Zimbabwe for
a free and fair election; and the days themselves
maybe more free but
[given] the context of the elections [it] is very
difficult to see how it
will be an open, democratic and fear-free election,"
said
Vines.
Since 2000, the contest has been between Mr. Mugabe's party and
the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) led by Morgan Tsvangirai. The MDC
came close to
winning the 2000 elections but has since been severely
weakened by violence,
arrests on trumped-up charges as well as internal
bickering.
But earlier this month the 84-year-old Zimbabwean leader's
former minister
of finance, Simba Makoni, announced he will challenge the
president as an
independent. Until he announced his run for the presidency,
Makoni was a
senior member of the ruling Zanu-PF led by the
president.
Vines notes Makoni's candidacy is an interesting development.
But Dewa
Mavhinga, a Zimbabwean working with the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum
in
London, describes the excitement around Makoni's candidacy as
overblown.
"The significance or otherwise of Makoni's candidature would
have come in
his ability to split Zanu-PF," said Mavhinga. "But if he fails
to draw
heavyweights from Zanu-PF then he is not significant at all. As he
is an
independent without a political party or a grassroots base, he is
unlikely
to unseat President Mugabe in the forthcoming poll."
The
crisis in Zimbabwe has seen an estimated three million people - a
quarter of
the total population - leave the country for political and
economic reasons.
The most popular destinations have been neighboring South
Africa, Botswana
and the United Kingdom. Launching his election manifesto
earlier this month,
Makoni called on those abroad to come home and vote.
Mavhinga said it is
unlikely Zimbabweans outside southern Africa will heed
the
call.
"People, particularly in the diaspora, which would be made up of
fairly
middle class and informed people are very aware of the shortcomings
of the
electoral process and therefore would not put much faith in the
process as
to travel all the way from the UK, New Zealand the U.S. to go and
vote,"
added Mavhinga.
There seems to be a consensus that the
opposition has to participate in
elections even though the electoral process
is heavily tilted in favor of
Mr. Mugabe's party. Chatham House's Alex Vines
says it is important for the
opposition to participate otherwise it becomes
irrelevant.
"They are not unique in this regard, this is a conundrum that
opposition
parties more regularly have found themselves in Africa but the
history of
parties that completely boycott is actually more grim than those
that
actually try and contest and have some space for negotiation and
relevance,"
he said.
Alex Magaisa is a Zimbabwean lecturer at the
University of Kent. He told VOA
that the upcoming elections are crucial for
the country's recovery and he
hopes that the prevailing hardships may push
the rural electorate, normally
intimidated into voting for Mr. Mugabe, into
rejecting him this time. But,
he points out that the splintered opposition
might hand Mr. Mugabe victory.
"If Mugabe wins, which is quite likely,
there will be no progress, Zimbabwe
will continue to be a pariah state and
that is the biggest obstacle," said
Magaisa. "The question that we are faced
with is not whether we change the
system of government or democracy in the
country, I think it's whether we
change the face of the national
leadership."
Magaisa added a change in leadership would unlock a lot of
possibilities for
Zimbabwe in terms of economic recovery and the democratic
process. Most
analysts note that if past elections are anything to go by,
Mr. Mugabe, who
has been in power since independence in 1980, will be
celebrating another
victory. And exiled Zimbabweans, who have fled his
regime, will still be
waiting for the change that means they can go
home.
IOL
February
18 2008 at 02:07PM
Ten years ago, South Africa's President Thabo
Mbeki attracted the
world's attention when he announced the arrival of the
African Renaissance.
But when the much heralded renaissance
actually arrived in Zimbabwe
two years later, in February 2000, and
threatened the power of Zanu-PF,
South Africa's leaders took fright and
became paralysed as President Robert
Mugabe set out to extinguish by force
the nascent Renaissance. This
paralysis eventually acquired a name: it
became known as South Africa's
"quiet diplomacy".
Meanwhile,
Mugabe went about systematically terrorising the supporters
of the
opposition the agents of the African Renaissance and wrecked his
country's
economy, with predictable results.
A quarter of
Zimbabwe's people fled to neighbouring countries, that
is, Zambia, Malawi,
Mozambique, Botswana, but especially to its bigger and
richer neighbour,
South Africa.
The South African government estimates that between
two and
three-million Zimbabweans now live in SA, mainly as illegal
immigrants.
Let us imagine that as a result of certain actions by a
Chinese
government, 100-million Chinese took flight to India, another
100-million
poured into Russia and a further 100-million into Japan. If this
were to
happen between China and its three neighbours, the outcome would be
predictable.
Japan, India and Russia would form a military
alliance and in no time
their armies would force out the offending regime in
Beijing.
Proportionally the 300-million Chinese referred to equates
to the size
of the population that has fled Zimbabwe's economic and
political crises and
taken refuge in the neighbouring
countries.
Far from the governments of Zimbabwe's neighbouring
states calling the
Zanu-PF government to order, they take every available
occasion to wine and
dine Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe.
They even go so far as to demand that the rest of the world must also
wine
and dine him.
Southern African governments recently demanded that
Mugabe be invited
by Portugal to the Europe-Africa Summit in Lisbon last
year despite the
travel ban to Europe by the European Union on Mugabe and
his cronies.
Why are Zimbabwe's neighbours mollycoddling the very
man who is
destabilising the Southern African region?
The
simple answer is shortsighted leadership in Southern Africa,
coupled with
fear of emerging more democratic political forces in Zimbabwe.
As
Zimbabwean society became increasingly more sophisticated, its
citizens
became better educated and more prosperous; they also demanded a
greater say
in how their country was run.
The emergence of these new,
well-organised, cosmopolitan and vocal
constituencies that were no longer
interested in the politics of race, but
in the accountability of governance,
has struck fear in the hearts of
established rulers, not only in Zimbabwe,
but in the whole of Southern
Africa.
It is this fear of
fundamental social and political change that
explains Southern African
governments' solidarity with Zanu-PF and Mugabe.
Southern Africa is
unique in Africa in that most of its countries are
still ruled by
nationalist parties that fought against colonialism.
These ruling
parties: Zanu-PF in Zimbabwe; MPLA in Angola; CCM in
Tanzania; Frelimo in
Mozambique; BDP in Botswana; ANC in SA; or Swapo in
Namibia, consider
themselves to be entitled to rule their countries forever
by virtue of
having struggled against colonialism.
Their attitude to the mass of
the people is paternalistic and they do
not accept that they should be
accountable to them.
The new ANC president, Jacob Zuma, recently
prophesied the ANC would
rule South Africa at least until the Second Coming
of Jesus Christ.
All this is, of course, shortsighted and largely
futile.
Nationalist parties and their governments in Southern
Africa can no
more stop the march of progress and history any more than the
colonialists
before them could.
During 1998-99, the Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), with the
support of many non-profit civil
society organisations, established the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC),
a new political party.
MDC's key objectives were to fight for a
more democratic constitution,
to combat corruption and to re-organise the
grossly mismanaged national
economy. The new party received support from
many prominent Zimbabweans in
the professions, trade, industry, media and
agriculture.
ZCTU seconded two of its leaders to the party - its
general secretary,
Morgan Tsvangirai, became MDC president and Gibson
Sibanda, its president,
became MDC's deputy president.
The rise
of the MDC illustrated more than anything to date the arrival
of the African
Renaissance. Twenty eight years ago, when Zimbabwe became
independent, its
social structure was simple: its social classes were
defined by
race.
At the apex of the social pyramid were the whites, who
controlled the
economy, the professions, and the mass media in an alliance
between public
and private sectors.
Below that were an
intermediate stratum, barely differentiated, made
up of wage earners, many
of them peasant migrant workers, with a sprinkle of
semi-professions and
professionals who acted as teachers, nurses, a few
doctors and lawyers,
shopkeepers, salespeople etc.
At the bottom of the pyramid was a
vast mass of undifferentiated
peasants who eked a living off the
land.
Twenty years after independence in 1980, Zimbabwe had become
a
transformed society with a rich and complex social structure.
New black players were prominent in business, the mass media, and
other
professions, organised labour and civil society in general.
In this
fast changing and dynamic environment it was the ruling party,
Zanu-PF, that
remained unchanged. In fact, the opposite had happened, it had
fossilised.
It was estimated that no Zimbabwean below 35 supports Zanu-PF.
Within one year of its establishment, MDC, with the support of its
civil
society allies, in February 2000 defeated Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF in a
referendum to adopt a new, more democratic constitution.
The
new constitution would have drastically reduced presidential
powers and
would have abolished the 30 unelected members of parliament
appointed by the
president. This was what caused panic among the rulers of
Southern
Africa.
A new type of party had emerged in the region that had been
created by
the people and was therefore not controlled by the African
elites.
Nationalism in Africa has always paraded itself as a
movement of
people fighting for their liberation.
Reality was
rather different.
African nationalism was a movement of a small,
Westernised black elite
that emerged under colonialism. Its fight was always
for its inclusion into
the colonial system so it, too, could benefit from
the spoils of
colonialism.
This was why independence did not
bring about economic transformation
in Africa as it did in Asia; if
anything, independence entrenched the
economic inequalities inherited from
colonialism.
The new black elites merely replaced the former white
colonial elites,
but the exploitation of the black masses continued as
before as did the
exploitation of Africa's natural resources, which were
exported to the rest
of the world.
It is this that explains the
fear of new age parties such as the MDC
by nationalist-ruled Southern
African governments.
They fear that new age, people-created
parties, will destroy the
neo-colonial system that the nationalist elites
live off.
This also explains the support for the Mugabe regime by
SADC states
despite the havoc Mugabe's actions cause in neighbouring
countries.
Moeletsi Mbeki is deputy chairperson of the South
African Institute of
International Affairs, an independent think tank based
at Witwatersrand
University in Johannesburg.
This article
was originally published on page 8 of Daily News on
February 18, 2008
18 February 2008
Prepared by ZESN and CHRA
Zimbabwe will have harmonized
elections on 29 March 2008. This mean that
registered voters will have four
choices to make. Amongst these choices,
voters will choose the President,
Senator, Member of Parliament and the
Councilor of their choice. It is
important for voters to know the boundaries
of their wards, polling stations
as well as the contesting candidates.
What is the role of the
Council?
Councils are responsible for the development and maintenance of the
local
area. This means that they are very important since their decisions
and
actions affect every person living in the area. Councils must ensure
that
waste and refuse is collected, water and sewerage systems work, access
to
health care by residents, construction and maintenance of roads and other
infrastructure. The council's main role is to ensure better livelihood by
improving the quality of social service delivery in a professional and
non-partisan manner.
Why vote for councilors?
Voting is every
citizens` right and responsibility
For democracy to function at a local
level
To ensure that the council spends its budget on the needs of the
community
So that they carryout residents issues from particular wards for
debate at
the council meetings
It's an opportunity for residents to
influence local governance policy
through their representatives.
Who
is a good councilor?
A person willing to serve the community
One who
represents all the residents and not just his or her own supporters
A person
who fully represents his ward at council meetings
A person who is
accountable to the residents in a ward
A person who does not cause division
along tribal or racist lines. (it is
only through common effort that the
community will develop)
You and the councilor
The resident must
participate in meetings called by the councilor
The resident must raise
issues that the councilor must take to council for
debate
The councilor
must call for regular meetings with all residents in this or
her ward
The
councilor must give feedback on issues discussed at council meetings
On
the Election Day
Remember that your vote is your secret
That every vote
counts
Your vote is your right
Remember to take your identity
particulars
Remember to participate peacefully before, during and after
the elections
Farai Barnabas Mangodza
Chief Executive Officer
Combined
Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
145 Robert Mugabe Way
Exploration
House, Third Floor
Harare
ceo@chra.co.zw
www.chra.co.zw
Landline: 00263- 4-
705114
Contacts: Mobile: 0912638401, 011443578, 011862012 or email info@chra.co.zw,
programs@chra.co.zw and admin@chra.co.zw
Yahoo News
Mon Feb 18, 7:48 AM ET
Pretoria (AFP) - Zimbabwe's elections
next month will be free and fair as
long as new laws on security and the
media are fully implemented, South
Africa's Foreign Minister Nkosazana
Dlamini Zuma said on Monday.
Speaking at a joint press conference
with her visiting New Zealand
counterpart Winston Peters, Dlamini Zuma said
it was vital that legislation
which was agreed on between the Zimbabwean
opposition and ruling party in
talks mediated by South African President
Thabo Mbeki is put into practice.
"If the Zimbabweans implement
everything that have agreed upon during their
negotiations on matters that
had kept them apart -- if they implement the
laws passed by parliament
around security, information, media and all those
laws ... the prospects for
free and fair elections should be good," she
said.
"The important
thing is all those things should be implemented now in the
run-up to
elections and during the elections."
Following the talks led by Mbeki,
Zimbabwean lawmakers passed a new public
order and security act which should
allow for opposition rallies to take
place except where police have reason
to believe they could result in
unrest.
They also passed a new media
law relaxing requirements for independent
broadcasters and newspapers to
operate and compelling the media to give
equal coverage to all political
parties.
However the opposition has accused President Robert Mugabe's
government of
failing to follow the new laws in the build-up to a March 29
general
election after the authorities tried to ban one of its rallies last
month.
And despite the new media law, the only daily newspapers and radio
or
television stations to currently operate are all
state-run.
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change has
rejected Mbeki's
claims the mediation talks have been a success and urged
the South African
leader to show some "couraage" in his dealings with his
neighbour Mugabe.
Peters, whose government has imposed a series of
sanctions against Mugabe
after he allegedly rigged his 2002 re-election,
said New Zealand would only
have "positive thoughts for Zimbabwe" if the
elections were fully
democratic.
"Unless an election is free and fair
it is not an election. It is a jack up.
It is a construction... It is
organised deceit," he told reporters.
By
Tererai Karimakwenda
18 February, 2008
A non-governmental organisation
that assists refugees in South Africa, has
called for the government there
to immediately send election observers to
Zimbabwe. The group ‘People
against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and
Poverty’ (Passop) also urged
the authorities in South Africa to call for
media controls in Zimbabwe to be
loosened before the polls on March 29th.
Passop is the group that organised
protests against police brutality and
xenophobia at the Central Police
Station in Cape Town earlier this month.
Director Braam Hanekom, was himself
arrested several times for demonstrating
against the victimization of
refugees by the police and immigration
officials.
Hanekom is quoted as
saying: "We urge the government to send observers
immediately to closely
examine this build-up to the elections. If there is
faith in the
transparency of the elections we will see a significant
decrease in
migration over the electoral period and even a possible reverse
migration.”
Meanwhile South Africa's Foreign Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini
Zuma, on Monday
said that Zimbabwe's elections next month will be free and
fair as long as
new laws on security and the media are fully implemented.
She was speaking
at a joint press conference with her visiting counterpart
from New Zealand,
Winston Peters.
Dlamini Zuma, whose government has
been accused of being too soft on Robert
Mugabe, was referring to changes in
the law that were agreed to at the SADC
initiated talks between ZANU-PF and
the MDC. South Africa’s President Thabo
Mbeki mediated at the talks but he
has so far failed to get Robert Mugabe to
implement the changes he agreed
to.
Additionally, the authorities in Zimbabwe have banned several
opposition
rallies and assaulted and arrested students and activists during
separate
peaceful protests since the talks abruptly stopped without any
signed
agreement. Dlamini Zuma did not make a reference to any of
this.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
News24
18/02/2008 17:36 -
(SA)
Cape Town - South Africa was fully prepared to send election
observers to
Zimbabwe if asked, said foreign affairs spokesperson Ronnie
Mamoepa on
Monday.
"If South Africa is invited to take part, either
in its own right or as part
of the Southern African Development Community,
it will not be found
wanting," he said.
Earlier on Monday, a South
African refugee NGO, Passop, urged the government
to immediately send
observers to Zimbabwe, which holds combined local,
parliamentary and
presidential elections on March 29.
Passop said that, as a result of the
hardships they faced in their own
country, there were more than three
million immigrants from Zimbabwe in
South Africa.
Possibility of
reverse migration
"If there is faith in the transparency of the elections
we will see a
significant decrease in migration during the electoral period
and even a
possible reverse," said Passop.
There was a serious threat
of electoral violence in Zimbabwe, and in
previous elections there had been
opposition allegations of vote-rigging.
"We urge the government to send
observers immediately to closely examine
this build-up to the
elections."
European Union and Commonwealth observers alike denounced as
flawed the last
presidential election in 2002 that saw Robert Mugabe win a
new term in
office, while an African Union observer mission gave the vote a
clean bill
of health.
Earlier this month, Zimbabwean Justice Minister
Patrick Chinamasa said his
government would bar foreign observers who did
not have "an open mind".
Some observers only served to "sow the seeds of
confusion, disunity and
ultimately bloodshed", he said.
EU monitors
were barred from the last parliamentary elections in 2005,
although teams
from so-called "friendly countries" - mainly from Africa, but
also including
Russia - were allowed in.
Reuters
Mon 18 Feb
2008, 11:51 GMT
MAPUTO (Reuters) - Mozambique has reconnected its energy
supplies to
Zimbabwe after the country settled part of its debt owed to
Mozambique's
state-run electricity firm, a newspaper reported on
Monday.
Zimbabwe has pledged to settle $16 million it owes to
Mozambique's Cahora
Bassa in six months, as it tries to ease a power crisis
that has worsened
the burden on its struggling economy.
The
state-controlled daily paper Noticias, said Zimbabwe's Electricity
Supply
Authority, ZESA, in January paid $10 million after Cahora Bassa
switched off
power for non-payment.
"The important documents of this agreement were
signed during the first week
of February, in which Zimbabwe promised to
settle the debt with our company
in a six month period, at the same time
paying their monthly bills," Cahora
Bassa chief executive officer, Paulo
Muxanga told the paper.
After non-payment, Cahora Bassa halved its power
supply to Zimbabwe to 75
megawatts in mid-December, then shut it down on
Dec. 28 because ZESA had
still failed to pay.
Zimbabwe's economy has
been in severe crisis for several years, resulting in
record inflation of
over 66,000 percent in December and chronic shortages of
basic goods like
fuel, food and cash.
New Zimbabwe
By Lebo Nkatazo
Last updated: 02/19/2008
05:37:51
ZIMBABWE’S President Robert Mugabe will likely be forced into a
second round
of voting after the country’s presidential elections on March
29 because of
Simba Makoni’s decision to join the race, a leading political
scientist said
this week.
Professor Jonathan Moyo believes Mugabe
will face a run off -- the result of
a 2002 amendment to the country’s
Electoral Act which requires that the
winner of the presidential election
must receive a clear majority – or 51
percent.
The Electoral Act
(Chapter 2;13) Section 110(3) states: “Where two or more
candidates for
president are nominated, and after a poll taken in terms of
subsection (2),
no candidate receives a majority of the total number of
valid votes cast, a
second election shall be held within twenty one days
after the previous
election in accordance with this Act.”
If the final two candidates are
split evenly, parliament sitting as an
electoral college, will vote to break
the deadlock.
Previously, the law allowed a candidate with more votes to
be declared
president. In neighbouring Zambia, President Levy Mwanawasa got
into office
after winning 27 percent of the vote, with the larger percentage
shared
fractionally between various other candidates.
Mugabe is
seeking a sixth term and was widely tipped to be coasting for
victory until
Makoni, a former finance minister and member of the Zanu PF
politburo,
entered the ring as an independent on February 5. Movement for
Democratic
Chang (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and relatively unknown
independent
Langton Towungana are the other candidates.
Moyo said: “Given what the
law provides, the likelihood of any of the
candidates getting 51 percent is
between slim and none because for the first
time we have three candidates
who are likely to draw solid support from
their strongholds, and their
respective strongholds are different.
“There is quite a sizeable chance
of disgruntled registered voters from both
Zanu PF and MDC who out of
desperation believe Makoni is a solution -- even
though he says he is
working alone -- actually voting for him..
“When you have three strong
candidates in an environment of desperation, it
is very unlikely anyone of
those will command a total majority of votes
cast. One may get more votes
than the other two, but not enough to get 51
percent as required by
law.
“What makes this election quite intriguing is that whereas Mugabe
called for
harmonised elections in order to avoid a situation where he comes
head on
with one candidate -- he did not want to run against the MDC
candidate
alone, he wanted to be assisted by his council candidates at ward
level,
house of assembly and senatorial at constituency level -- the stark
reality
he now faces is that he will most likely if not certain run
alone.
“The looming possibility of a run-off renders meaningless Mugabe’s
attempt
to harmonise elections in the hope of riding on its cocktail. While
he
thought he was clever or even wise by doing this -- he says people like
me
are clever but not wise -- his Amendment 18 which harmonised elections
might
turn out to be the greatest boomerang.
“He must now hope that
he will be part of that run-off, but if he becomes
part of that run off, he
will be alone. And people will now say simkhuthe
ngaphi (where did we miss
him)? If there is quite a wave, a huge anti-Mugabe
wave, that would be the
end of him.
“The mathematics of it if you look around where Tsvangirai is
popular and
likely to get support, where Makoni is popular and likely to get
support,
where Mugabe is popular and likely to pick more votes, none of them
is
guaranteed 51 percent, and that’s what will cause a run-off.
“In
the past all you needed was a simple majority, the same situation you
had
with Kenya under Daniel Arap Moi where he used to defeat the fragmented
opposition by getting more than them individually, and not more than them
put together.”
The Zimbabwean
Monday,
18 February 2008 15:23
HARARE
Zimbabwe's next president would
have to win the forthcoming
presidential election by a 51 percent majority,
raising high prospects of an
election re-run by two leading
candidates.
Electoral experts said the likelihood of an election
run-off after the
March 29 vote were very high and predicted that none of
the three main
candidates could out rightly garner a 51 percent majority
because of the
current neck-and-neck race for State House.
The
Nomination Court last Friday duly accepted nomination papers from
four
candidates who will fight the presidential poll. The candidates are
President Robert Mugabe of the ruling Zanu (PF) party, Morgan Tsvangirai of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change and two independent
candidates, Simba Makoni and Langton Towungana. But the real contest would
be between Makoni, Tsvangirai and Mugabe.
Legal experts said in the
context of a four-candidate contest, section
110 of the Electoral Act
becomes relevant.
"It states that the successful candidate in a
Presidential poll must
receive ‘a majority of the total number of valid
votes cast', that is, at
least 50 percent plus one of the valid votes cast,"
said an electoral
assessment by legal service Veritas. "If that does not
occur, a second
run-off election must be held within 21 days, in which only
the two
candidates who performed best in the first round will participate.
If the
second election results in a tie, Parliament must sit as an electoral
college to decide between the two candidates, by secret ballot and without
debate."
Experts say it was highly unlikely that any of the three
main
presidential candidates could garner a 51 percent majority.
ekklesia, UK
By
agency reporter
18 Feb 2008
Zimbabwe's Roman Catholic Justice and Peace
Commission (CJPC) has called for
the postponement of the national elections
due on 29 March 2008. They say
there are clear signs that the poll will not
be free and fair under current
conditions.
The J&P Commission
commented that both the established voter registration
process and the
requirements for the presidential and parliamentary
elections are
"cumbersome" and will make it difficult for citizens in many
areas of the
country to take part.
"There has been inadequate preparation and voter
education on the electoral
process," the Commission declared in a statement
released on 16 February.
It added that the confusion is compounded by the
presidential and
parliamentary elections being held simultaneously for the
first time.
Millions of Zimbabweans who have fled to neighbouring states
or who have
gone overseas to escape their country's economic meltdown should
be allowed
to vote because they still contribute significantly to Zimbabwe,
the
Commission said.
The Catholic Justice and Peace Commission urged
government authorities to
adhere to the Southern African Development
Community's Principles and
Guidelines Governing the Holding of Democratic
Elections "in letter and in
spirit."
"We would like to remind the
relevant authorities and citizens that
elections are a process and not a
once-off event," it said.
The justice and peace commission said that,
seven weeks before the
elections, citizens still did not have information
such as which candidates
would be running and which parties would field
candidates.
"We strongly recommend that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
be dissolved
with immediate effect and a new one be appointed in terms of
the new law",
the Commission concluded.
Alert Update
18 February
2008
ANZ Files Application
Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe
(ANZ) publishers of the banned Daily News
and Daily News on Sunday have
filed a fresh application with the
state-controlled Media and Information
Confirmation (MIC) in their
protracted battle to be registered to operate in
terms of the repressive
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(AIPPA).
The fresh application was filed on 14 February 2008 raising
hope for the
return of the two publications that have been out of
circulation since
September 2003 following the Supreme Court’s “dirty hands”
judgment in which
it ruled that ANZ was operating illegally as it was not
registered with the
MIC in terms of AIPPA.
John Gambanga, ANZ
chief executive officer, expressed confidence that they
would be granted an
operating licence by the end of March this year. “I am
confident that we
will be registered. I see no reason why we should be
denied the licence,”
said Gambanga.
Gambanga told The Standard weekly newspaper that he
had a “long chat” with
Chinondidyachii Mararike, the chairman of the special
committee that will
consider the ANZ application and had been assured that
past events would not
influence the committee’s decision in the
matter.
Mararike is on record saying: “We are there to enable. We
reaffirm our
commitment to act in a very balanced and impartial manner. Our
processes are
not at all pre-determined. We consider the application as it
comes and there
is a checklist of things that have to be
fulfilled.”
The special committee was constituted after court
findings on the bias of
MIC executive chairman Dr Tafataona Mahoso against
ANZ. Dr Mahoso is recused
from the adjudication of the ANZ
application.
End
For any questions, queries,or
comments, please contact:
Nyasha Nyakunu
Research and Information
Officer
MISA-Zimbabwe
By Tererai
Karimakwenda
18 February, 2008
We received a sad and tragic report
from the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum
(ZEF) in South Africa on Monday, that 5
deportees died and 36 were injured
in an accident while they were in transit
on Saturday. The accident occurred
between Musina and Beitbridge and it
involved a truck owned by South Africa’s
Department of Home Affairs, which
was transporting mainly women refugees
back to Zimbabwe. The 36 injured were
admitted to a hospital in Musina. Most
were treated and released, except for
6 women and two children who are still
in hospital.
ZEF director
Gabriel Shumba said the deceased have not been identified and
their
relatives have still not been informed. Shumba said that he had been
at the
border at Beitbridge with other ZEF officials from Thursday until
Friday.
They were monitoring reports of an increased military presence at
the border
and in Musina. The accident happened a day after they left.
Details of the
accident were provided to ZEF by their partner organization,
the Musina
Legal Advice Center.
Shumba said he noticed that there was an increased
number of South African
soldiers at the border. They normally do not get
involved in rounding up
refugees, but according to Shumba they were making
arrests. He described the
town of Musina as “a hive of activity” as many
more people are streaming
into South Africa.
Shumba believes the
sudden increase is related to the March 29th elections
in Zimbabwe. He said
it also appears the South Africa government is nervous
about an increased
outpouring of refugees from Zimbabwe, due to the violence
that usually comes
with elections.
The ZEF criticized South African immigration officials at
the border for
failing to advise Zimbabweans applying for asylum about their
rights. Shumba
said he has been involved in several cases where the
applicants had been
denied asylum at the border without being informed that
they had a 14-day
period to apply before being sent back to
Zimbabwe.
According to Shumba the treatment of Zimbabwean refugees by
South African
authorities is “inhuman.” He said he also found it “very
callous” that to
date, no officials from the South African government had
offered any
statements of sympathy to the families of the
deceased.
The incident highlights the difficult plight Zimbabwean
refugees continue to
face in South Africa. Last month South African police
raided a church
shelter in Johannesburg late at night, arresting 1,500
refugees, mostly
Zimbabweans. The police were accused of using excessive
force during the
raid and forcing arrested victims to pay bribes for their
freedom. As we
reported, an independent investigation is underway. There
have also been
several protests at the South African Embassy demanding
better treatment of
refugees.
Shumba urged all Zimbabweans in the
diaspora who can go home to vote on
March 29th to make sure that they do so.
He said his organization and many
others are engaged in educating
Zimbabweans about the importance of going
home to vote. This is part of the
“Get out the Vote Campaign” launched in
Johannesburg last
week.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
BULAWAYO, 18 February 2008 (IRIN) - The road
is uphill for most of the 15km,
but if Masikosana Ngulube wants to get to
school each morning in Bulawayo,
Zimbabwe's second city, she has no other
option but to get on her bike.
A bus ride is out of the question. What
was once cheap and unremarkable is
now a luxury for families on
ever-shrinking budgets, instead, mass
transportation increasingly means two
wheels and pedal power.
"Things have changed so much - I never thought I
would be forced to ride to
school," said Masikosana, 14, attending her first
year at Evelyn Girls' High
School on the outskirts of the city in the
southern province of Matabeleland
North.
At dawn each morning she
teams up with three boys from her neighbourhood in
a mini cycling club. "The
boys are a great help when one of my wheels
punctures or the chain comes
unstuck," said Masikosana. She keeps a tube of
gum and patches among the
books in her satchel. Her companions leave
Masikosana at the gates of her
school before heading up the road to Milton
Boys' High.
'
"Cycling
keeps her fit," quipped Claire Ngulube, Masikosana's mother, before
adding:
"It's the only way she can get to school with these frequent
increases in
fees and unpredictable hikes in bus fares."
Ngulube, who runs a
dressmaking shop in the city, said she was lucky that
her other two children
were still in primary school and could walk just a
short distance to get to
class.
Masikosana is less than keen on having to make the daily 30-km
round trip
between school and home. "The bike gives me problems because of
its
condition. I often get to school tired and am unable to concentrate,"
she
told IRIN. Her return journey is easier, as it is mostly downhill. "I
take
my time because I am not under pressure, unlike in the morning when I
have
to be on time for lessons."
Ngulube said sending Masikosana to
boarding school was not an alternative to
her cycling marathon because of
the food shortages pupils often suffer.
Zimbabwean boarding schools are also
notorious for demanding unbudgeted
mid-term "top up" fees to restock empty
pantries as a result of galloping
inflation, which in December 2007
officially hit 66,212 percent.
The continued depreciation of the
Zimbabwean dollar against major currencies
on the parallel market has also
driven up fuel prices. A litre of petrol
costs Zim$12 million (US$3 on the
parallel market), up from Zim$6 million
(US$1.60) late last year. Commuters
are now forced to fork out Zim$3 million
(just under a dollar) for an
average trip - three times more than they paid
just before
Christmas.
Minibus-taxi operator Sidney Gurura denied that the vehicle
owners were
exploiting the situation, and said they themselves were victims
of the fuel
price. "If we don't raise fares we will go bust and stop
operating."
Informal fuel traders who import from Botswana have filled
the supply gap
left by the state-run National Oil Company of Zimbabwe
(NOCZIM), which has
failed to import adequate supplies due to a
long-standing foreign currency
crunch.
Second-hand goods trader
Rasheed Mohammed is not complaining. Since schools
opened in January he has
been pestered by parents trying to get their hands
on bikes for their
children.
"Anything on two wheels with a frame is snapped up as soon as
we receive
it," Mohammed said. "New bicycles are beyond their reach and few
people are
letting go of bicycles they already have because they are handy
during the
current fuel crisis."
[ENDS]
[This report does
not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
swradioafrica.com
Mutumwa Mawere
18 February, 2008
Zimbabwe’s
population is now estimated at about 12.3 million after taking
into account
the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS and poverty. To say
that the
forthcoming elections represents a defining moment in the history
of post
colonial Zimbabwe would be an understatement.
The combined elections will
give the eligible and registered voters an
opportunity to decide at four
levels how Zimbabwe should be governed in the
next five years. The first
level is the Presidential election in which
citizens have to make a choice
between the four candidates that have been
successfully
nominated.
Two of the candidates, President Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai,
were the two
dominant players during the last Presidential election held in
2002. The
other two are Dr. Simba Makoni and Mr. Langton
Towungana.
To the extent that President Mugabe who has monopolised the
political space
since independence is also a candidate, it is important now
that the choices
are known for Zimbabweans to think seriously about the
future of the
country. The political space in Zimbabwe was dominated by ZANU
and ZAPU
during the first seven years of independence and thereafter through
to 1999,
the space was dominated by ZANU-PF.
However, during the last
8 years, President Mugabe and Tsvangirai have
dominated the political space.
Both ZANU-PF and MDC representatives were
elected to Parliament during the
2000 and 2005 elections and the successful
candidates have managed to
co-exist under the same House of Assembly.
Consequently, they share the
burden of governance as they have been involved
in the day to day
legislative agenda, which recently resulted in them
agreeing to
Constitutional Amendment number 18.
Prior to the emergence of the MDC as
a political actor, the civic society
organisations (CSO) from which the
founding members of the party were drawn
were agitating for a new
constitution. The National Constitutional Assembly
(NCA) was one such
institution advocating for a people driven constitution
arguing that the
parliament of Zimbabwe could not be trusted to deliver a
democratic
constitution. Understandably, the NCA then rejected the CA 18
agreed to by
both ZANU- PF and the two MDC formations.
At the core of the argument for
constitutional reform debate, was the issue
of process power and the role of
the President particularly given the
generally held view that President
Mugabe had manipulated ZANU-PF and the
people of Zimbabwe into agreeing
through their parliamentary representatives
to amend the Lancaster House
Constitution in a manner that has created an
Imperial Presidency in which he
has been able to run the country as if it
was a kingdom.
The quest
for a new constitutional order was successfully thwarted through
the use of
a Constitution Commission that was mandated to draft a new
constitution. The
credibility test for the draft constitution was primarily
the manner in
which the office of the President was treated. When the
constitution was
sold to the Zimbabwean public it was naturally rejected by
even the most
ardent advocates of the new constitution because it failed to
deal
decisively with the incumbent President.
I am only bringing this
historical record in order to put my thoughts, on
the points that the
registered voters participating in the forthcoming
elections have to think
seriously about, into some context. The attempt to
remove President Mugabe
through constitutional reforms failed so as the
attempt to remove him
through elections as well as subsequently through
ZANU-PF.
The
presence of President Mugabe’s name alone on the political menu raises
its
own issues about the credibility and transparency of the forthcoming
elections. President Mugabe has credited his government of holding free,
frequent and fair elections in which his party has always ‘won’.
As
American author and historian, Henry Brooks Adams, said over a hundred
years
ago: “No man, however, strong can serve ten years as school master,
priest,
or senator, and remain fit for anything else,” it has been observed
that
President Mugabe notwithstanding the fact that he may not know what to
do to
lift Zimbabwe up again fits into the category of persons who look to
politics as a career rather than as a service platform. A dilemma Zimbabwe’s
opposition is also faced with; imagine the fate of many after say they lose
their parliamentary seats in the March elections? Or what would become of
Tsvangirai should he cease to be leader of the opposition?
The post
election intentions of President Mugabe are not known but it has
been
speculated that he will relinquish power to a successor who would then
have
to be elected by parliament. However, there are no guarantees and
people are
genuinely sceptical and cynical about the future to the extent
that they
have surrendered their future to only four men.
It is now too late for
Zimbabweans to think of a President beyond the four
men that have qualified
as candidates. If President Mugabe were to win, the
other three contenders
will predictably challenge the results. It is
generally agreed that
President Mugabe does not offer anything new but if he
does win, very few of
his critics outside Zimbabwe will accept the results,
prolonging the
countries pariah status.
The country is on its knees and yet the
conversations at this late hour
between Zimbabweans and among the three
competitors for the top post
excluding President Mugabe suggests that some
Zimbabweans are not ready to
break with the past. Given the gravity of the
economic situation, one would
have expected Tsvangirai, Makoni and Towungana
to share a common vision for
Zimbabwe and a consensus on what the defining
hour should deliver.
While Makoni and Tsvangirai may disagree about the
context of change they
ought to agree that they are brothers in prosecuting
the struggle to usher
Zimbabwe into a new era. It cannot be said that it is
not healthy for Makoni
to have entered the Presidential race not only
because it has allowed people
to expand the menu of choices beyond the two
bitter enemies, President
Mugabe and Tsvangirai. Indeed, the entry of Makoni
has given voters an
opportunity to pronounce their opinion on whether they
wish to continue to
be spectators and victims while the stalemate continues.
It is not clear
whether President Mugabe would accept Tsvangirai’s victory
and vice versa. A
new dawn in urgently required in Zimbabwean politics and
Makoni may emerge
to be the only available option.
One cannot accept
a proposition that the entry of Makoni has denied anyone a
right to
participate in the elections given that the same old culprits are
still on
the ballot paper. It is expected that Makoni’s participation will
help
energise the Zimbabwean electorate to participate rather than fall
victim to
the MDC strategy of participating in a race while openly
acknowledging that
the vote will be stolen. This will have had the
effect of discouraging voters
from participating in the elections if Makoni
had not entered the
race.
A Zanu PF culture runs through the veins of even the most ardent
critics of
President Mugabe’s policies.
Although I hold no brief for
Makoni, I think that it would be undemocratic
for even any of his
competitors to characterise him as a surrogate of
someone else when it now
takes courage in an atmosphere of fear for anyone
to offer his name as an
independent. I am not sure whether the critics of
Makoni’s eleventh hour
entry into the race would have been satisfied if the
contest was between
President Mugabe and Tsvangirai only. Strangely, many of
them had dismissed
this election has having been won by the incumbent
President
Mugabe.
One Dr Lovemore Madhuku even went as far as to give an exclusive
interview
to the state run Herald that the opposition would be walloped in
this
election. A position he reiterated at a public meeting in Harare and
was
supported by the majority there. It may be the case that many of the
CSOs
are encouraging Tsvangirai to participate fully convinced that he will
lose
so that they can extend their lives. The NGO sector in Zimbabwe would
rather
have the stalemate continue and the elections inclusive because of
the
inherent financial benefits to the actors.
Ever since I
pronounced my personal opinion on what kind of change I would
like to see in
Zimbabwe, I have been encouraged by my critics who have
proceeded to allege
that my support for Makoni was motivated by an
underlying ZANU-PF agenda. It
did not surprise me to receive mixed messages
about Makoni because it
demonstrates that Zimbabweans are thinking about the
future of the country.
Some have accepted that the future will not be
complete if their preferred
candidate does not win the election ignoring
that what is at stake is not
the fate of the four candidates but the
country.
However, one needs
to unpack the logic behind my being defined as ZANU-PF or
Makoni for that
matter, I want to posit here that ZANU-PF is not only an
institution but a
culture that permeates every aspect of our society,
including the home, the
church and the so called alternative politics.
Zimbabwean national politics
is so diluted that many in the opposition camp
including parliamentarians,
for instance, are funded and sustained in their
livelihoods by the RBZ and
other state institutions, militating against any
argument that may be
advanced that anyone in the MDC is fresh faced and pure
as it may have been
at its formation 8 years ago.
If Zimbabwe was a person what would he/she
say about the four candidates?
Anyone who cares about the future of the
country is compelled to think
deeply about legacy issues. The people
privileged to vote in this defining
election have to think beyond the
confines of their own personal preferences
but for all the millions in the
Diaspora as well as future generations who
will no doubt look back and ask
the right questions.
Both President Mugabe and Tsvangirai have been at
each other’s throat for
the past 8 years and the country has continued to
deteriorate under their
watch. They have both claimed to be victims with
President Mugabe alleging
that Tsvangirai is nothing but an agent of third
parties while Tsvangirai
maintains that he is the de facto President of
Zimbabwe on the back of a
widely held view that he won the 2002 elections.
Tsvangirai disputes that
the MDC is a puppet of the West and yet ironically,
he now wants to argue
that Makoni is not a principal in his own right who
genuinely believes like
him that Zimbabwe’s brighter day is yet to come and
he has a stake in it.
There is a classic Zimbabwean disease that seems to
have afflicted many to
see beyond what is before them. Zimbabweans have to
choose from the four men
who are the political beauty pageants. Like beauty
queens the judges are the
registered voters who have to make the choice
based on their subjective
evaluation of what each candidate brings to the
table.
What does President Mugabe bring to the table? This question is
equally
applicable to the other three contestants. However, instead of
waiting for
the contestants to promise what they cannot deliver it is
important for
everyone interested in the future of the country to pose and
think about
what they want to see and work constructively in the remaining
days to make
sure that they are the change they want to see.
It is
naïve for anyone concerned about the future of Zimbabwe to think that
it is
someone else’s responsibility to bring the change they want to see.
President Mugabe has the African continent as well as the majority of the
developing countries while Tsvangirai has enjoyed the support of the
West.
Over the last 8 years, I have not seen any major drive to increase
MDC party
membership let alone to get people to register as voters. It has
been
reported that following Makoni’s announcement to enter the race, the
registration of voters increased suggesting that Zimbabweans do respond to
changes in the choices available. Notwithstanding, excitement and vibrant
debate has been generated as a direct consequence of Makoni’s entry into the
Presidential race in a manner that has dramatically transformed an
increasingly apathetic population.
What the above seems to suggest is
that Zimbabweans in general do not see
value in participating in the affairs
of their country through political
organisations. Many who support either
President Mugabe or Tsvangirai are
not even members of ZANU-PF or the MDC,
respectively. If citizens have
surrendered their future to political actors
then the change they expect to
see may not necessarily be what they want to
see irrespective of who is
elected.
If ZANU-PF, MDC and other
Zimbabwean political organisation unlike religious
institutions have failed
to capture the imagination of citizens then the
problem that Zimbabwe faces
may be more fundamental. I am not convinced that
the people who have been
nominated to represent MDC and ZANU-PF necessarily
share a common vision
with their leaders. Many are however trapped in this
partisan politics and
it becomes clear that many in ZANU-PF actually may be
against President
Mugabe’s candidature while those in the Tsvangirai
formation may not
necessarily be at one with him. Not discounting the
disillusioned in both
formations that claim to have been elbowed out of the
race for political
reasons and are now standing as independent candidates.
Assuming I am
correct in suggesting that the political labels that people
put on Makoni,
Mugabe and Tsvangirai have no real meaning because in real
life it is
difficult to locate a person who is ZANU-PF or MDC but what is
more
realistic is that there may be a convergence of thought between
Makoni/Tsvangirai/Towungana about the need for change. For Mugabe the change
that he wants to see would allow him to be President and the same applies to
his competitors. Zimbabweans would then need to makes choices discounting
the political labels because they ultimately may have no bearing in the
manner in which the government will operate. I am also not convinced that
ZANU-PF members are satisfied about the manner in which President Mugabe’s
government has conducted its affairs, thus the noticeable fears within the
party ranks of Makoni’s challenge to President Mugabe.
It would not
make sense to believe that the dismal economic performance and
the lack of
political and economic direction that Zimbabweans have been
subjected to
have only been transmitted on partisan grounds. I should like
to believe
that if there is no electricity or water in an area one would not
see only
ZANU-PF houses being privileged with supplies. The problems affect
all and
the current government has to shoulder the responsibility.
Outside the
contestations for political office there appears to be no life
in many of
the political organisations in Zimbabwe suggesting that the real
agenda is
to seize the state power and not necessarily to advance any
national
interest. If it is national interest that motivates people to seek
political
office then it should not matter who is ZANU-PF or MDC because
these are
mere labels seeking to divide and not unite people.
Makoni has rightly
chosen to wear no political label. I believe that it is
important that
Zimbabweans rise above the cheap politics of defining and
characterising
others as currency for advancing their political careers.
What do people of
Zimbabwe really expect from their government? Who really
should own the
government of Zimbabwe? If citizens are ready to reclaim
their heritage then
they have to think beyond the labels because whoever
becomes President has
to be accountable to the people of Zimbabwe and not to
the parties that
select them.
Only two candidates for the Presidency will not have the
baggage of
political organisations that are faction ridden, with
questionable
democratic credentials and maybe there is a chance that the
people of
Zimbabwe will come to a realisation that they are the true owners
of the
republic and not ZANU-PF or MDC. Consequently, Zimbabweans in
choosing their
leader in the next election will judge both the MDC and
ZANU-PF on
performance over the past 8 years for the former and the past 28
years for
the latter.
The MDC cannot continue to plead innocence and
play victim when it has been
involved in the process of governance together
with ZANU-PF, it also has to
shoulder responsibility for the disillusionment
in its ranks arising from a
myriad of problematic issues that are a matter
of public record. To put it
crudely, MDC legislators have enjoyed pecks of
being in parliament just as
ZANU-PF MP’s have, they have equally contributed
to the legislative agenda.
To make matters worse, it is significant to note
that the reason that caused
the two MDC factions to split appears to have
been forgotten as both
formations have fielded candidates for the
Senate.
And so one can safely argue that Makoni’s rise and popularity
is as much a
result of ZANU-PF’s inability to deliver positive change to its
members as
much as the MDC’s similar inability to deliver to its own
members.
ZANU-PF and MDC like any political parties are nothing but
associations of
people who may share a common purpose but it does not mean
that the
institutions own the members. Zimbabwe needs to turn a new leaf and
invest
in creating a new environment, with a progressive political culture
that can
operate above the partisan one that sections of the country have
now come to
accept as normal.
The person elected to be President of
the country must discharge his
responsibilities in the national interest.
Questions have been raised
whether an independent Presidential candidate
will have any chance of
winning if he does not have a political party behind
him forgetting that all
that the citizens will be asked to do is to elect
one of four men. Makoni is
contesting in one big constituency called
Zimbabwe, by the look of things he
appears to appeals to a diverse group of
Zimbabweans regardless of political
affiliation. Thus the fears and the
vitriolic attacks from hardliners in
both the
MDC and ZANU-PF, begs the
question of what they fear if they have a
satisfied
support
base.
The constitution of Zimbabwe does not require a President to belong
to a
political party. What it will mean if any of the two independent
candidates
wins the Presidential election, is he will have to appoint a
candidate from
the pool of successful parliamentarians. Given the
configuration of the
players in the various elections, it is evident that
only an independent
President has any prospect of creating a government with
a cabinet drawn
from the various political parties.
If the objective
of Zimbabweans is to move away from largely despotic
partisan politics then
it occurs to me that this can only be achieved by an
independent President.
I am not convinced that either President Mugabe or
Tsvangirai would have any
appetite for embracing MPs from either party given
the attitude already in
evidence against Makoni’s candidature, including the
inability of the two
MDC formations to agree to a coalition before the
elections.
My
observation is that the real injury that Zimbabweans feel is at the
Presidential level and for people to be convinced that there is change they
can believe in there must be a new President. It is not too late for
Tsvangirai and Makoni to come up with a joint election winning strategy for
the nation’s sake. If that is the position, then the onus is on both
Tsvangirai and Makoni to ensure that they communicate to their supporters
clearly that they vote for whomever you may wish at the local, parliamentary
and senatorial levels but vote against President Mugabe. This is the ideal
situation which unfortunately the polarised political ground no longer
allows.
Given the already publicised candidates lists, it is already
confusing the
long suffering people of Zimbabwe when the opposition seem to
be failing to
identify who is on which side. I would have thought that both
Tsvangirai and
Makoni would target the Presidency using the infrastructure
available to
make the voters know what is at stake. It is to the favour of
the already
fractured MDC as much as it is to Makoni that a combined
election strategy
that wins against the incumbent President Mugabe is
adopted. Future
generations will judge both Makoni and Tsvangirai on the
basis of their
actions during this hour of need and not whether they were
ever active
members of ZANU-PF before.
VOA
By
Peter Clottey
Washington, D.C.
18 February
2008
Opposition parties in Zimbabwe have reportedly welcomed
U.S. President
George Bush’s demand that next month’s general elections
should be free and
fair. President Bush, who is on his second African tour,
called Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe a dictator who is presiding over
staggering
inflation and harsh repression of his people. Bush pledged
America’s support
for freedom in the country, urging neighboring countries
to help solve the
political and economic crisis in Zimbabwe. Sydney Masamvu
is a Zimbabwean
with the International Crisis Group in South Africa. From
the capital,
Pretoria, he tells reporter Peter Clottey that President Bush’s
rhetoric
would put pressure on President Mugabe.
“First of all, I
want to make a qualification that what President Bush is
saying is quite in
sync with the behavior of President Robert Mugabe. And
his (President
Bush’s) description of him (President Mugabe) fits the bill
and his comments
are plausible in so far as they only help to up the
pressure. But I must
stay in the over all sense that the American line on
Zimbabwe, especially
some of their rhetoric statements have actually been
counter-productive to
some extent in trying to have leverage and influence
of the resolution of
the Zimbabwe crisis,” Masamvu pointed out.
He doubts whether President
Bush’s statement would have any significant
impact on how this month’s
elections would be conducted.
“I think mere talking is not going to
change anything. Actually what is
needed are practical actions involving all
actors, internationally and in
the regions to really exert practical
pressure. Mere talking or issuing of
statements, especially from the west,
Mugabe will just dismiss them with the
content they deserve,” he
said.
Masamvu called on the international community to help resolve the
ongoing
economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe.
“I think it’s
about time for all well-meaning countries within the region
and
internationally to lay the rule on Mugabe and make sure that they
outline
practical steps or measures, which they will take to bear pressure
on him
(Mugabe) as an individual, and as a leader of a country to follow
certain
principled lines to guarantee free and fair elections in Zimbabwe
and the
resolution of the crisis, failure of which there should be measures
to
enforce those resolutions. In other words, there should be defined carrot
and sticks,” Masamvu noted.
He said Zimbabweans are weary the March
elections are not going to be
credible.
“As the opposition leadership
has said and as any Zimbabwe watcher who is
conversant with the situation on
the ground, the Zimbabwe elections have got
predetermined elections results.
There is a flawed process. Nothing has
been done to open up the political
space to guarantee and uncontested
election contest, which will yield an
undisputed result. So in a sense,
nothing has changed practically on the
ground to warrant a free and fair
election, and as such we are going to
experience the same motion and
rituals, which we’ve had in the last
elections and, which had got a
predetermined outcome,” he said.
The Zimbabwean
Monday, 18 February 2008
15:10
South Africa has its chance to be rid of us
This week,
at a PASSOP meeting in a small township, I asked the group
of about 100
people how many of them would return to Zimbabwe if there was
work. I asked
in such a way that avoided a political connotation, but sought
indication a
positive change. They all immediately responded they would
leave, some
saying they would leave the same day.
The truth is our people in South
Africa miss home, they are suffering
here and given even a basic means of
survival they would return to their
homes across the Limpopo. With this in
mind we have begun to advocate that
South Africa makes sure that the
forthcoming elections in Zimbabwe are
transparent. If there is transparency
then, hopefully, stability will
return.
This stability would result
in more investment and would ultimately
result in employment. If we have
survival at home then we will return and
relieve the South African
government of its duty to support us. The efforts
made to deport immigrants
should best be focussed on resolving the cause,
not the result, of their
migration.
If South Africa ensures us our votes will be meaningful, we
will
surely vote and vote in the best interests of our country and
ultimately
ourselves. This could lead to the gains we pray for and lead to
the return
of our work force to where it belongs.
Our
statement:
We urge the government of South Africa to deploy observers
immediately
and to advocate for media controls to be loosen during
Zimbabwean electoral
process.
South Africa is faced with an ongoing
migration crisis, with over 3
million immigrants from Zimbabwe alone. This
crisis is a result of hardships
faced by Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe, they have
an election approaching and this
could encourage people to return. If there
is faith in the transparency of
the elections we will see a significant
decrease in migration over the
electoral period and even a possible reverse
migration. However, if there is
no confidence in the process the influx of
migrants will definitely increase
as it has rapidly in recent
times.
There is also a serious threat of electoral violence, with a
large
number of reported incidents than during previous elections. There
have been
allegations of election rigging by the opposition in previous
years and we
anticipate similar allegations unless the elections and this
crucial build
up stage are closely monitored. We also fear that if the
process is not
transparent we may be faced with a similar situation to that
of Kenya.
We believe that South Africa should involve itself at the
forefront of
the international electoral monitoring process, and feel that
the monitoring
of the build up process is the only way they can confidently
claim the
process will free and fair. We urge the government to send
observers as soon
as possible to closely examine the build up to the
elections; we believe
that observation is imperative at this time.
We also want the South African government to advocate for media
controls to
be loosened. This would ensure that the mass media can access
and publicise
the process, and allow for their use as a campaign medium for
all concerned
candidates. Media freedom is very much a part of the electoral
process.
If monitoring of the entire electoral process does not
begin
immediately, Zimbabweans will have no reason to believe that this
election
will differ from previous ones (which Zimbabwean immigrants largely
criticise), and therefore migration will continue and no-one will return to
vote. We have already seen people leaving the country to avoid possible
violence during this period.
From The Herald, 18 February
Court Reporter
The trial of businessman Nicholas Von
Hessen alias Van Hoogstraten, who is
accused of dealing in foreign currency,
money laundering, possession of
pornographic material and possession of fake
notes, failed to start last
Friday after defence lawyer Mr George
Chikumbirike raised several objections
and applications. Mr Chikumbirike
applied for the charge of possessing fake
R600 to be quashed saying the
facts on the State papers did not prove an
offence in terms of the Reserve
Bank Act. Mr Chikumbirike said the section
the State was trying to use to
charge his client with only dealt with local
currency, which was legal
tender in Zimbabwe. He further objected to the
production of an affidavit by
one of the State witnesses in court saying it
was inadmissible. He argued it
was received after his client had been asked
to plead to the charge, which
was prejudicial. The court further heard the
statement was given to the
defence late and that it was contrived as an
afterthought.
Mr
Chikumbirike sought to have the two charges of dealing illegally in
foreign
currency combined into one saying the split was unnecessary. The
defence
also requested for proof of authority to prosecute the pornography
case from
the Attorney-General’s Office before his client tendered his plea.
After the
authority to prosecute granted by the Deputy Attorney-General Mr
Johannes
Tomana was tendered in court, Mr Chikumbirike then challenged Mr
Tomana’s
appointment. He argued that Mr Tomana’s appointment was not
published in the
Government Gazette and he could not approve the trial. On
that basis, Mr
Chikumbirike made an application seeking the acquittal of his
client on the
pornography charge. According to Section 180 of the Criminal
Procedure and
Evidence Act, Von Hessen should demand immediate acquittal, on
the premise
that he pleaded not guilty to the charge in the absence of
prosecution
authority.
Responding to the application, prosecutor Mr Obi Mabahwana
said Mr Tomana
was duly appointed by the President in terms of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe
and that he had the powers to authorise a trial
under the Censorship and
Entertainment Act. Mr Mabahwana said the exchange
control charges could not
be treated as one as they were completely
different. He said charging
rentals in foreign currency and exchanging local
currency for foreign
currency were two different charges, which should be
separately dealt with.
Mr Mabahwana told the court that the Censorship Board
commissioners were
competent witnesses whose statements should be admitted
to court on the
pornography charge. The court also heard that the Reserve
Bank Act was
appropriate on the allegations of possessing fake R600. Mr
Mabahwana said
the RBZ was responsible for currencies of other countries
used for
international transactions. Harare regional magistrate Mr Morgen
Nemadire
deferred rulings on Mr Chikumbirike’s applications to Wednesday
this week.