http://news.yahoo.com
AFP
18 mins ago
HARARE
(AFP) - Thousands of churchgoers held an open air protest service in
Harare
on Sunday in a row over property belonging to the Anglican Church.
At
least 4,000 worshippers from around Zimbabwe gathered in a square
adjacent
to the city's Anglican cathedral, complaining about what they said
was
police harassment.
Bishop of Harare Chad Gandiya said police had stopped
worshippers entering
the cathedral and had made threats.
"The
custodians of the law are the ones denying us access, threatening to
arrest
us or use teargas to force us out. There are church wardens who have
been
arrested and some who bear marks of beatings," he said.
Zimbabwe's
Anglicans have been embroiled in a feud since 2007, when the
former bishop
of Harare Nolbert Kunonga refused to hand over property in
protest at what
he said was the church's pro-gay stance.
Kunonga, a supporter of
President Robert Mugabe who once described the
president as "more Christian
than myself", set up his own diocese with a
clique of supporters.
For
two years Kunonga and his followers have stopped the majority of
churchgoers, led by Gandiya, getting into church buildings, forcing them to
hold services in the open air.
"This is not normal," Gandiya told
worshippers in Africa Unity Square, next
to the cathedral, on
Sunday.
"If all was well we would be holding this church service inside
that
building, but we are being denied entry.
"We are gathered in the
open not because there is no room in the building
where we are supposed to
be but because we are being denied access," he
said.
The bishop said
the police threats would not deter the congregation and they
would continue
their struggle peacefully.
By Tim Witcher
(AFP)
DAVOS, Switzerland - Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai is pressing
the world to end sanctions on his country as it
climbs out of a political
and economic abyss but wherever he goes the shadow
of Robert Mugabe follows.
The two will soon have been in an uneasy
"inclusive government" for a year.
The relationship remains difficult,
Tsvangirai said on the sidelines of the
World Economic Forum in Davos where
he tried to convince global leaders to
take a new look at the African
nation.
"How do you deal with a president who was determined to see your
destruction? How do you deal with the level of acrimony that existed between
us?" said the prime minister.
Tsvangirai and the veteran president,
who is the subject of a western travel
ban and asset freeze, now meet every
Monday and then go to the regular
cabinet meeting.
"I have taken a
decision that we can work together, despite this acrimony,
for the good of
the country. There is a working relationship. Personally I
don't know what
his intentions are but I think what is important is for us
to ensure that we
finish this transition."
"I cannot predict that a coup will happen or
derailment of the project, but
I am satisfied that so far all the
indications are that this process is
irreversible."
Tsvangirai pulled
out of a runoff presidential election last year, citing
deadly violence
against his followers. Further trouble was only avoided when
Mugabe agreed
to set up a unity government with his arch-rival as prime
minister.
Tsvangirai said "toxic issues" remain with Mugabe's ZANU-PF
party over
control of the central bank, use of the attorney general's powers
and the
share of other political posts.
But his foreign trips abroad
are now devoted to getting aid, investment and
trying to convince the
international community to ease sanctions.
Tsvangirai met Canadian Prime
Minister Stephen Harper in Davos. "His view is
that the perception out there
is still very negative as long as Mugabe is
there.
"As far as we are
concerned, the country has to move forward with or without
Mugabe."
Tsvangirai insisted there has been "significant progress"
with the
government's dual aims of stabilising the country and "national
healing"
changes to improve democracy and make constitutional
reform.
The Zimbabwe dollar was eradicated in favour of a multi-currency
regime.
Inflation, once estimated in the billions of percent, is now minus
three
percent, said the prime minister. "We are in a deflationary
state."
Tsvangirai said there can be no new Zimbabwe currency for at
least two or
three years until the country's production base is functioning
again.
On the political front, he said a constitutional referendum would
be held in
October and then he and Mugabe would set a date for elections in
2011.
"We have done so much in so little time," he said. "However I would
be the
last to say that everything is rosy" and acknowledged international
"scepticism" at the slow pace of implementing political change.
But
he said: "This is a delicate moment, to support the process that is
taking
part in Zimbabwe."
"We are not sliding back. Suddenly the country is
moving forward and now is
the time to look at the country in a more positive
environment."
The European Union meets on February 20 to discuss
Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai
would like them to take "a two stage approach" to ease
some sanctions and
acknowledge progress has been made.
He also wants
foreign companies to return to Zimbabwe and is keen to renew
links with
China. The mining, tourism and agriculture sectors are all
important to the
government.
There is platinum, gold, diamonds and huge coal deposits in
Zimbabwe,
Tsvangirai said, adding that there is no limitation of profits
being taken
out of the country.
China broke off a business
relationship with Mugabe's party about five years
ago, Tsvangirai said, but
now China wants to renew links.
"They have said they will work with the
inclusive government. What it means
is that we will have to revisit some of
the projects that were suspended
five years ago."
Tsvangirai called
it a key relationship. "Who wants to avoid one of the
biggest developing
economies in the world?" he declared.
"Zimbabwe has to open up to all
possibilities and I think that China is one
of those possibilities."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk
January
31, 2010
FOR Ray
Finaughty, the dream of farming Africa's rich soil has ended as the
campaign
to drive Zimbabwe's white farmers from their land enters its final
stage.
One by one the last white farmers are being beaten into
submission. Four
more had their farms seized by marauding gangs last
week.
"They do not want us whites," one farmer said.
Finaughty,
43, will never forget how his world came crashing down. One
moment at his
Manda farm there was stillness. Then came a burst of noise and
confusion. A
screaming, drunken mob hammered at the gates.
It was the climax of a
two-year eviction campaign against him. He had fought
step by step in the
courts. Their judgments in his favour were all ignored.
With no respect for
the rule of law in Zimbabwe, he finally lost the battle.
Armed with
spears and sticks, a mob threatened him and his wife, Loraine, by
driving a
tractor against the gate of their home. "We're going to kill you,"
they
said. The family were given 10 minutes to pack their life's
belongings.
It was not the first attack that Finaughty had weathered. In
one savage
beating his attackers suggested breaking his legs as he lay
injured in a
field. "Leave him. He's dead," he heard one of them
say.
Finaughty crawled away and saved himself. He had four broken ribs
and
concussion.
Another time, acting in self-defence, he had to shoot
dead an armed robber
who broke into his farmhouse. The police were
sympathetic and took no
action. But they treated the seizure of his farm
differently.
"This is political. It's a hot potato. We can't get
involved," said
Vengisai, the chief inspector, when Finaughty contacted his
office.
So the Finaughty family drove away from the farm they loved.
Soon, they
believe, much of the land they had cultivated will be
derelict.
Behind them they have left 90 loyal workers and their families,
some 400
people in all. They have been forced to abandon 6,000 chickens, 190
head of
cattle and a valuable tobacco crop, all of which could be
lost.
"You have to take it on the chin and walk away," Finaughty said in
Harare
last week. "That's the bottom line."
Finaughty was born in
Zimbabwe and is proud that his great-grandfather was
one of its first white
settlers.
He bought Manda, east of Harare, in 1994 and made it into a
successful
enterprise. He did everything he could to comply with President
Robert
Mugabe's chaotic land reform programme. In 2001 he accepted giving up
three-quarters of Manda, which was sub-divided into 86 plots for black
Zimbabweans with whom he peacefully coexisted.
"I don't play
politics. I believe we whites are in Africa as visitors," he
said.
Afterwards he kept his head down and stayed on what remained of
his farm,
more than 1,600 acres, which have now been violently taken away
from him.
The culprit is Winnie Mushipe, a top official of the Reserve
Bank of
Zimbabwe. But behind her is believed to be Didymus Mutasa, one of
Mugabe's
old guard.
Two years ago Mushipe was controversially
allocated the farm by Mutasa, then
the lands minister. A former head of the
state intelligence service, Mutasa
has been a notorious supporter of
Mugabe's campaign to run the rest of the
whites off their
farms.
Mushipe had no legal right to seize the farm. She had followed no
legal
procedures.
The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) accuses Mutasa
of orchestrating some of
the worst of the latest farm invasions. He owns
more than 10 farms in the
area.
"An evil bastard," is how one evicted
farmer described him after Gavin
Woest, another white farmer, was allegedly
threatened with death and told he
had just minutes to leave his farm, which
Mutasa's wife coveted.
Mutasa was unrepentant. "These white people create
stories," he said. "I
have not gone to America or Britain for land. I get my
land in Zimbabwe,
which is my country. What's wrong with that?"
Since
2000 some 4,200 white farmers have been driven from their land and at
least
18 have been murdered; Don Stewart, the last to die, was strangled and
burnt
to death in his farmhouse in December.
Of the 300 still farming, more
than half have been served with official
eviction notices. In another blow,
Zimbabwe's High Court last week rejected
a South African regional court
ruling, which the government was meant to
follow, that the land seizures
were racist and illegal and white farmers
should be allowed to return to
their land.
"Enforcement of that judgment would be fundamentally contrary
to the public
policy of this country," said the judge.
"Without a
doubt the agenda has always been to get rid of us whites. They do
not want
us," responded Deon Theron, the CFU president.
He had hoped that the
unity government would oppose the new wave of
seizures. Since becoming prime
minister in the unity government, Morgan
Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC) has dismissed
the seizures as "isolated
incidents".
"They [the MDC] cannot be seen to be supporting white
farmers. They are
still caught up with that, instead of saying what is right
is right and
wrong is wrong," Theron said.
"This is happening at a
time when we need investors to revive the economy.
But no investors want to
put their money in a country that has no respect
for property rights or the
rule of law."
As he spoke, the telephone rang in his office with news of
another invasion,
this one of a farm belonging to Rudolf Du Toit, a
neighbour of Finaughty.
A drunken mob was scaling his security fence. Du
Toit, 69, fired shots in
the air to keep them out. They told him that he was
leaving "dead or alive".
In the end he left alive, with just a suitcase
of clothes.
"By the next election there will not be one white farmer on
the land," said
Thomas Beattie, 67, a veteran farmer who was driven off his
farm in
November, even though he was once a Zanu-PF supporter.
"It is
nothing less than ethnic cleansing."
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=27105
January 31, 2010
By Our
Correspondent
BULAWAYO - The Parliamentary Select Committee says Police
Commissioner
Augustine Chihuri has demanded payment $3 million before the
release of
police officers to accompany outreach teams during the
constitution making
process.
Speaking to The Zimbabwe Times during
the launch of the Radio Dialogue
Report on Constitutional Reform Activities
in Bulawayo on Saturday, the
Parliamentary Select Committee co-chairman,
Douglas Mwonzora said Chihuri
was demanding $3 million to release only 1000
officers.
"We wrote to Chihuri requesting police officers to provide
security at our
outreach meetings but he said the police will only be able
to provide 1000
officers at a cost of U$3 million. On top of that the
committee is also
expected to provide food and transport for the officers.
This is a national
duty and we do not understand why we are made to pay such
a big amount a for
national duty," said Mwonzora
Mwonzora said his
committee feared that 1 000 officers may not be able to
cover all the
country's wards.
"We are intending to do three consultative meetings for
each ward.
Considering that the country has got more than 700 wards it is
clear that
the number of officers allocated to this mammoth task is very
little. These
are some of the issues which we think should be addressed
before the
exercise begins," said Mwonzora.
The Parliamentary Select
Committee co-Chairman also dismissed reports that
the constitution-making
process collapsed saying everything is on track and
the funds are
available.
Last week the Herald reported the constitution-making process
had collapsed
following sharp differences between three governing parties on
rapporteurs
to lead the constitution making process.
"The
constitution making process is still on track and nothing will stop us
from
having a new constitution," said Mwonzora.
http://www1.sundaymail.co.zw/
Sunday,
January 31, 2010
By Charlotte
Musarurwa
TOUTS, who operate as rank marshals, have literally taken over
all space at
most of Zimbabwe's bus termini, claiming they are there to help
travellers.
The rank marshals have literally turned into "Godfathers"for
commuters and
commuter bus operators.
Stories abound of come commuters
who engage in fistfights with the rank
marshals after sharp
disagreements.
The disagreements are usually caused by the rank marshals'
behaviour as they
are notorious for banning those they disagree with from
boarding the
commuter buses.
Some commuter bus operators have had to
change termini after being "banned"
by the rank marshals from loading their
vehicles.
The rank marshals usually demand money from the commuter bus
operators for
parking their vehicles at certain ranks.
This is despite
the fact that the ranks are controlled by municipalities
under which they
fall.
The bus operators would have already paid to the municipalities for
them to
load from certain ranks.
But it seems as if the rank marshals are
slowly getting out of hand.
At undesignated points leading out of Harare, the
rank marshals demand that
each vehicle owner picking up passengers from
there pay them money
equivalent to the fair for two passengers.
If the
vehicle is new in that route, the rank marshals force the drivers to
pay a
joining fee equivalent to four passengers' fare.
Failure to comply can result
in one's vehicle being damaged or the rank
marshals just gathering at the
front to prevent the driver from leaving.
It appears as if the police have
since given up on the rank marshals as
their presence is failing to act as a
deterrent.
The rank marshals themselves acknowledge that what they are doing
is
illegal.
"We are not legalised to operate at ranks by the City of
Harare," said
Leonard Marise, who operates from Copacabana bus
terminus.
"As soon as we see the officials or police from the municipality,
we run
away and we also do the same when we see the Zimbabwe Republic
Police."
Marise said the rank marshals were not employed by anyone and
neither was
their presence requested.
"We employed ourselves as rank
marshals," he said.
"This was after we realised there is need to bestow order
at such busy
places.
"There are 11 of us at this rank (Copacabana) and we
swap duties so that
five of us come each day, while others go off
duty."
Marise said the rank marshals allocated themselves different duties at
the
bus termini.
Some load passengers into the commuter buses, others
record the number of
the buses coming into the rank and some would be
recording number plates on
the vehicles.
But the rank marshals have
earned themselves a bad tag for flouting almost
every law.
They make
noise and easily turn violent against each other and those who
have
different travel arrangements with them.
Above all, they have become known
for shouting obscenities without batting
an eyelid.
Some of them have
since appeared in courts for harassing people, with others
facing charges of
sexual assault, especially on women wearing mini-skirts.
But there are some
rank marshals who actually earn more money than an
average degreed worker in
the city.
"We earn a living my sister through this job that we are doing,"
said
Tafadzwa Chitadze, who is nicknamed "The Boss" at the Albion Street
rank.
"One can earn up to US$50 per day and we sometimes earn more depending
on
the day. We charge US$1 for each kombi which parks here."
Chitadze
said the rank marshals were also trying to be good citizens by
helping the
police to arrest thieves and pick- pockets.
They even have their own laws
which every rank marshal has to adhere to and
they hold meetings every
Thursday to confirm the rules.
But to rank marshals like Marise, life has to
go on even if their work is
not officially recognised.
Marise said the
best solution was for the authorities to work hand-in-hand
with them.
"We
are saying to the City of Harare that let's work together as one, rather
than harassing each other everyday," he said.
Marise accused municipal
police of asking for bribes from the rank marshals.
It turned out that rank
marshalling is a "profession" exclusive only to
former commuter bus
drivers.
Another rank marshal at Copacabana rank claimed that he had been a
commuter
bus driver since 1996, but became a rank marshal in 2003 after
being elected
by the drivers who operated at the rank.
He claimed to have
bought his own commuter bus using proceeds from rank
marshalling.
But
some passengers have accused the rank marshals of being thieves after
they
lost their valuable goods at the ranks in unclear circumstances.
Rank
marshals went into hiding two years ago after the Government launched
"Operation Murambatsvina", which was meant to clear the streets and reduce
slums.
City of Harare's public relations manager Mr Leslie Gwindi said
that touting
was illegal.
"We don't even know who gives them authority to
carry out the activities
they do," he said.
"We arrest them on a weekly
basis, but they keep coming back after paying a
fine. We are not engaging in
any talks with them with the intention of
legalising them."
Mr Gwindi
said only registered commuter bus operators were allowed to
operate at the
ranks.
Despite Mr Gwindi's utterances, some of the touts have become so
cunning
that they operate just behind the city's Town House.
The noise
these rank marshals make is actually within earshot of the
officials working
at Town House.
But the city council sometimes raids the rank marshals, though
they
resurface as soon as they pay fines.
In December last year, 27
commuter bus drivers, conductors and rank marshals
were each jailed for an
effective three months for touting for passengers at
various pick-up points
in Harare.
At least 15 others were ordered to perform 10 hours of community
service.
Mbare magistrate Mrs Rebecca Kaviya separately jailed the 27, who
pleaded
guilty to contravening sections of the Road Motor Transportation
Act.
The touts were initially sentenced to four months in prison before one
month
was set aside on condition that they are not convicted of similar
offences
over the next five years.
National traffic police spokesperson
Inspector Tigere Chigome said that rank
marshals were causing havoc at
various termini countrywide.
He said the police would continue with patrols
to stop touting.
Insp Chigome said the touts encouraged drivers to load
passengers from
undesignated points.
"We have managed to arrest 952 rank
marshals and touts countrywide with
effect from the festive season up to the
15th of January 2010," he said.
"We don't want passengers to be suffering
because we have a literate group
of Zimbabweans who are able to read the
routes written on the bus. The
passengers have the right to choose the type
of transport they want."
But it seems more needs to be done to ensure that
the rank marshals are put
under control for passengers to move
freely.
Otherwise innocent travellers will continue to suffer abuse by some
who take
the law into their own hands.
http://www.universityworldnews.com/
31 January 2010
Issue:
46
Zimbabwe student leaders held a crisis meeting with Prime Minister
Morgan
Tsvangirai last week after it emerged that 28% of students had
dropped out
of the country's leading university because of a lack of foreign
currency to
settle tuition fees.
The University of Zimbabwe opened on
Monday but students have been
struggling to raise fees of between US$300 and
$1,500 in a country where the
highest paid civil servant earns less than
US$200 per month and unemployment
is pegged at 90%.
Zimbabwe
abolished the use of the Zimbabwe dollar in February last year at
the
formation of an inclusive government between long-time ruler President
Mugabe and Tsvangirai, who is the leader of the Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC).
The United States dollar, South African Rand and
Botswana Pula were declared
legal tender. The adoption of the
multi-currencies has been credited with
reducing inflation from a
world-record 231 million percent to just 7%. But
it has caused major
problems for students, who have struggled to find the
required
funds.
Some institutions of higher learning, such as Mutare Polytechnic
College,
have declined to release the examination results of students who
failed to
pay last year's tuition fees - a development that has affected an
estimated
90% of its students.
The Zimbabwe National Students Union,
Zinasu, confirmed last week that its
leaders had held a crisis meeting with
the Prime Minister and raised a
number of issues.
Besides the problem
of unaffordable fees, they discussed the continued
victimisation of student
leaders by the security forces, mechanisms and
proposals to re-introduce the
"learn now pay later scheme" to cater for
underprivileged students, and the
role of students in the
constitution-making process.
Tsvangirai had
"welcomed the issues raised and promised to look into the
challenges even if
it means sourcing international assistance," said Zinasu
in a statement,
adding that the union would "continuously follow-up on these
issues to
ensure that action is taken. The same issues will also been tabled
with the
Ministry of Higher Education in forthcoming meetings."
Zinasu also
complained that the new semester had opened at the University of
Zimbabwe
with no students able to stay in campus residences due to lack of
water and
dilapidated infrastructure. Renovations are in progress. Last year
the
university was closed because of lack of water, prompting the United
Nations
Children Fund to drill boreholes.
Students have been forced to look for
alternative accommodation off-campus,
where many are living in squalid and
grossly overcrowded conditions - as
many as 56 in a house - posing health
hazards, said the statement.
"The students cannot continue to be held at
ransom and they have vowed to
stage a massive demonstration until the halls
of residence are opened,"
Zinasu added.
http://sundaystandard.info
by Sunday Standard Commentary
31.01.2010 8:27:10
P
The case of three Game Scouts who lost their way into Zimbabwe while on
patrol along the Lesoma Border will in the next few days stretch and prove a
serious test case for Botswana's diplomatic capabilities.
By
snatching these scouts and charging them with criminal offences, Zimbabwe
is
to the letter behaving like Iran which now and then likes to hog
international attention to itself by arresting Western citizens before
charging them with all the silly offences of violating the Islamic
Republic's
sovereign integrity and espionage only to release them a few days
later on
account of compassion.
It would seem like this is a new tactic
that Zimbabwe is trying.
What the tactic normally does is that it
deflects the public's attention
from the crimes of such countries like
Zimbabwe and Iran.
Botswana should proceed with caution not to play into
the hands of Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe is today run by a Government that is nursing
bruised egos.
It is a Government that is also doing everything to prove
to the world just
how wronged it has been - from international sanctions to
what President
Robert Mugabe likes to call re-colonisation and
imperialism.
As we know Botswana Government has been at the forefront of
international
condemnation of President Mugabe and his regime.
It was
only a matter of time that Zimbabwe Government found something with
which to
punish their Botswana counterparts for daring to speak out on the
political
situation in that country.
There is nothing wrong with that.
Zimbabwe's
sinister and underhand tactics only become a problem when in
trying to mete
out that revenge, ordinary Batswana get caught in the
crossfire.
We
have in the past made it clear that whatever Botswana does, we should be
careful not to harm ordinary Zimbabweans, in whose behalf the Zimbabwe
Government is not even operating.
While it is important for Botswana
Government to appreciate the simple fact
that Zimbabwe is a failed state, it
is perhaps more important to underscore
the fact that unlike, say the United
Kingdom or the United States which can
shout directives from afar, Botswana
and Zimbabwe are linked together by
much more than just a porous
border.
The two countries' destinies are not mutually
exclusive.
There simply is no way Botswana can be detached from
Zimbabwe.
In short, there is simply no way Botswana can be safe and
prosperous while
next door to the east, Zimbabwe is going down the
gutter.
Even as Zimbabwe Government behaves irrationally as it did this
week by
arresting the game scouts, Botswana should be careful to remember
that
Zimbabwe is not a properly functioning state. Thus we should be patient
with
them, and at all cost avoid temptations to humiliate them. If anything
as a
country we should be at the forefront of efforts to uplift and help
them
restore themselves to the dignity into which they once lived.
In
our dealings with the Zimbabwe Government, we should remember that they
are
a failed state, which has egos that have to be caressed and nursed.
This may
sound simplistic, but it is not. Actually it is in the long term
interest of
Botswana.
Just for the record we are in no way saying Botswana should
condone or
countenance the inhuman treatment the Zimbabwe authorities are
meting on
their people.
We are in no way saying Botswana should
coddle Zimbabwe for the abuses and
excesses the Zimbabwean Government is
doing.
But rather we are saying Botswana should be humble enough as to
accept its
natural position or better still geographic proximity to
Zimbabwe. We should
accept our natural responsibility to assume efforts to
help Zimbabwe.
Back to the matter of the three Game Scouts: Zimbabwean
authorities are
clearly grandstanding on this matter.
They also are
equally clamouring for public attention.
After a long spell of feeling
humiliated by Botswana, they now feel they
have gotten Botswana where it
will hurt most.
We may not agree with them.
But the truth of the
matter is that on this one they have law on their side.
In that respect
Botswana counterparts should be careful not to play into
their hands by
giving them what they want.
If Zimbabwe does not want to give diplomacy a
chance, Botswana should not
grovel.
They should leave the law to take
its course.
In short there should be no horse-trading which can only give
Zimbabwe
government a kind of legitimacy it clamours for, but does not
deserve.
Begging Zimbabwe and pleading with them only gives legitimacy to a
rogue
state that destroyed millions of lives of its citizens.
Unless
circumstances drastically change, what Botswana should only be
concerned
with is the welfare and health of the said Game Scouts. Beyond
that,
grovelling to Zimbabwe is akin to what the western countries often do
every
time their citizens are kidnapped by Iran.
http://sundaystandard.info
by Tanonoka Joseph
Whande
31.01.2010 8:29:45 P
Those troublesome yet useless talks
between Zimbabwe's Movement for
Democratic Change and the "opposition"
ZANU-PF have been suspended once
again.
While it was Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai who set the pace last year by
pulling out of both the
talks and the government, this time it is Robert
Mugabe and his ZANU-PF who
are pulling out of the talks, accusing Tsvangirai
and the MDC of
treachery.
We knew this would happen because the talks were not necessary
in the first
place.
They were forcing matters in that there really
was nothing to discuss except
to tell the loser, Mugabe, to vacate State
House. But they were holding
these talks to camouflage the continued
presence in government of Mugabe and
his ZANU-PF.
Yes, the talks were
all about treachery, robbing the Zimbabwean people of
their electoral
choice.
Is anyone still keeping count of how many years these two parties
have been
embroiled in these talks over the same issues and, so far,
produced almost
nothing?
I have stopped caring already because, like
I said right from the start,
these so-called talks were not designed to
produce any results but were
designed by Mugabe to stall any forward
movement and delay any positive
developments that might have been instigated
by the MDC.
There was never any desire on Mugabe's part to see a peaceful
resolution of
the outstanding issues.
Over the years, the talks were
abandoned several times as the MDC accused
ZANU-PF of negotiating in bad
faith.
Towards the end of last year, the MDC threatened to pull out of
not only the
talks but from the government as well. And indeed they did for
a few weeks
but embarrassingly came back on their own, less than a month
after walking
out.
The talks are meant to enable Mugabe to stall any kind
of progress at will
and when it suits him.
The talks have been halted
numerous times, suspended and suffered from a
curious recurring of the
principal negotiators' absences and who always gave
frivolous excuses for
their absence.
But ZANU-PF was ecstatic when they read comments made in
Parliament by
British Foreign Secretary David Milliband last Tuesday. It is
the kind of
talk ZANU-PF had waited for for a long time and this time the
British gave
ZANU-PF what they wanted.
"In respect of sanctions
(against Mugabe and his officials), we have made it
clear that they can be
lifted only in a calibrated way, as progress is
made," said Milliband. Then
he added the unfortunate part which was music
to Mugabe's old ears. ". and,
above all, to be guided by what the MDC says
to us about the conditions
under which it is working and leading the
country."
ZANU-PF wasted no
time and pounced on the MDC.
Blackmail!
The inter-party
negotiations were then dealt a serious blow when ZANU PF's
Politburo said
there would be no more Global Political Agreement concessions
until the
sanctions had been lifted.
In short, the outstanding issues remain
outstanding just like they have been
since before the government of national
unity was conceived.
And you thought they do not know how to
stall!
ZANU PF Deputy Secretary for Information and Publicity, Ephraim
Masawi, said
that remarks by the British Foreign Secretary to the effect
that, 'London
would remove sanctions at MDC's request' exposed
MDC-Tsvangirai's
"treacherous role in the initiation and drafting of the
illegal sanctions
against Zimbabweans".
ZANU-PF's mouthpiece, The
Herald, said that the party was a "tool of Western
imperialism, and that the
hypocrisy of the MDC-T's denial of its role in the
evil saga of the
imposition of illegal sanctions now stands exposed for all
to
see".
Milliband's remarks were unfortunate to say the least. While the
sanctions
imposed on Mugabe somewhat "assisted" the MDC, the sanctions were
a reaction
to the abuse of Zimbabweans and the merciless raids on the
fiscus.
Tsvangirai has no power over the lifting of sanctions yet he behaves
as if
he does.
In a reaction that will please the ZANU-PF corner,
Tsvangirai on Friday
called on the west "to ease sanctions and
ZANU-PF".
Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic
Forum in
Davos, Switzerland, Tsvangirai defended the unity government and
called for
the West "to ease travel and financial restrictions targeting
President
Robert Mugabe and his inner circle", saying progress in the
country should
be "rewarded".
He is trying to accept responsibility
for something he did not create and
this convinces Mugabe that, indeed,
Tsvangirai had something to do with the
imposition of these
sanctions.
But Tsvangirai is beginning to feel euphoric with the diplomatic
passport he
carries and his blunders will now become more pronounced as he
tries to fit
into being a statesman.
Last week he snubbed South
African President Jacob Zuma who, like Botswana,
has called for fresh
elections in Zimbabwe. It was Tsvangirai who responded
on behalf of the
unity government and the choice of words and tone he used
exposed a
diplomatic amateur consumed by euphoria at being a Prime
Minister.
Towards the end of last year, Tsvangirai accepted ZANU-PF's
demand to put on
the agenda of their endless talks the issue of radio
stations broadcasting
from outside the borders of Zimbabwe.
ZANU-PF
was pushing Tsvangirai to stop the "malicious broadcasts into
Zimbabwe from
pirate radio stations abroad".
As if Tsvangirai had any control over these
radio stations, he agreed to put
the item of "pirate radio stations" on the
agenda, once again creating the
impression that those radio stations, manned
by exiled Zimbabwean
broadcasters, were within his sphere of
influence.
It is a shame that he does not think deeper than what he
should. When the
west imposed sanctions on Mugabe and his cronies,
Tsvangirai conveniently
thought the sanctions had been imposed for his
benefit, not the people's
benefit.
Likewise when exiled former
Zimbabwean broadcasters set up radio stations
outside Zimbabwe to supply
information to the rank and file, Tsvangirai
misguidedly believed the former
Zimbabwean broadcasters were his people.
It is such a shame to be so unable
to read simple situations like these.
It is a typical George W Bush mentality
of "either you are with us or you
are with them".
Criticising Mugabe
does not mean support for Tsvangirai and vice versa.
Needless to say,
Tsvangirai has now become very comfortable with the
situation he finds
himself in and finds the courage to defend the unity
government while his
party members and officials remain locked up as new
ones are arrested for no
reason at all.
The fact is that Tsvangirai cannot call for the removal of
sanctions because
the reasons why those sanctions were imposed are still in
effect.
The sanctions must remain until Mugabe and his goons start
implementing
serious human rights reforms. There is no evidence that this
government of
national unity is guided by any of the agreed points in the
Global political
Agreement.
Sanctions must not be lifted until there
is rule of law. The escalating farm
invasions are an indication of the
absence of both human and property
rights; and Tsvangirai is calling for the
lifting of sanctions?
If western and European countries listen to
Tsvangirai, they will in effect
be reinforcing the ongoing repression and
impunity in Zimbabwe.
If Tsvangirai now feels comfortable seeing his
followers being beaten up,
arrested and made to disappear, it might also be
time for western and
European countries to slap travel bans and sanctions on
Tsvangirai and his
people.
We want sanity in politicians as
Tsvangirai slowly starts to forget.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai are partners in
this government and if Tsvangirai
believes he is Mugabe's equal and defends
him, fine, but then he too should
be blamed for what is going
on.
Sanctions must remain in place or even tightened until our liberties are
restored unconditionally, whether Tsvangirai is there or not.
http://news.iafrica.com/
Article By: Tim Witcher
Sun, 31 Jan 2010
12:24
Zimbabwe Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is pressing the world to
end
sanctions on his country as it climbs out of a political and economic
abyss
but wherever he goes the shadow of Robert Mugabe follows.
The
two will soon have been in an uneasy "inclusive government" for a year.
The
relationship remains difficult, Tsvangirai said on the sidelines of the
World Economic Forum in Davos where he tried to convince global leaders to
take a new look at the African nation.
"How do you deal with a
president who was determined to see your
destruction? How do you deal with
the level of acrimony that existed between
us?" said the prime
minister.
Tsvangirai and the veteran president, who is the subject of a
western travel
ban and asset freeze, now meet every Monday and then go to
the regular
cabinet meeting.
"I have taken a decision that we can
work together, despite this acrimony,
for the good of the country. There is
a working relationship. Personally I
don't know what his intentions are but
I think what is important is for us
to ensure that we finish this
transition."
"I cannot predict that a coup will happen or derailment of
the project, but
I am satisfied that so far all the indications are that
this process is
irreversible."
Tsvangirai pulled out of a runoff
presidential election last year, citing
deadly violence against his
followers. Further trouble was only avoided when
Mugabe agreed to set up a
unity government with his arch-rival as prime
minister.
Tsvangirai
said "toxic issues" remain with Mugabe's ZANU-PF party over
control of the
central bank, use of the attorney general's powers and the
share of other
political posts.
But his foreign trips abroad are now devoted to getting
aid, investment and
trying to convince the international community to ease
sanctions.
Tsvangirai met Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in
Davos.
"His view is that the perception out there is still very negative
as long as
Mugabe is there.
"As far as we are concerned, the country
has to move forward with or without
Mugabe."
Tsvangirai insisted
there has been "significant progress" with the
government's dual aims of
stabilising the country and "national healing"
changes to improve democracy
and make constitutional reform.
The Zimbabwe dollar was eradicated in
favour of a multi-currency regime.
Inflation, once estimated in the billions
of percent, is now minus three
percent, said the prime minister. "We are in
a deflationary state."
Tsvangirai said there can be no new Zimbabwe
currency for at least two or
three years until the country's production base
is functioning again.
On the political front, he said a constitutional
referendum would be held in
October and then he and Mugabe would set a date
for elections in 2011.
"We have done so much in so little time," he said.
"However I would be the
last to say that everything is rosy" and
acknowledged international
"scepticism" at the slow pace of implementing
political change.
But he said: "This is a delicate moment, to support the
process that is
taking part in Zimbabwe."
"We are not sliding back.
Suddenly the country is moving forward and now is
the time to look at the
country in a more positive environment."
The European Union meets on 20
February to discuss Zimbabwe. Tsvangirai
would like them to take "a two
stage approach" to ease some sanctions and
acknowledge progress has been
made.
He also wants foreign companies to return to Zimbabwe and is keen
to renew
links with China. The mining, tourism and agriculture sectors are
all
important to the government.
There is platinum, gold, diamonds
and huge coal deposits in Zimbabwe,
Tsvangirai said, adding that there is no
limitation of profits being taken
out of the country.
China broke off
a business relationship with Mugabe's party about five years
ago, Tsvangirai
said, but now China wants to renew links.
"They have said they will work
with the inclusive government. What it means
is that we will have to revisit
some of the projects that were suspended
five years ago."
Tsvangirai
called it a key relationship. "Who wants to avoid one of the
biggest
developing economies in the world?" he declared.
"Zimbabwe has to open up
to all possibilities and I think that China is one
of those possibilities."
http://www.globalpost.com
By Zimbabwe Correspondent (author
cannot be identified because of Zimbabwe's
press restrictions)
Published:
January 31, 2010 09:32 ET
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabweans have a
reputation as a friendly people and
that extends to its
journalists.
South Africans are endlessly jostling among themselves but
their northern
neighbors in Zimbabwe acknowledge they are a docile lot and
therefore prone
to the depredations of political gangsters in their
midst.
Despite the state violence during the 2008 election, Zimbabweans
still
generally eschew warfare. Go to any meeting or bar where the males of
the
species congregate and you will be struck by the bonhomie and
back-slapping
that goes on. There are disagreements galore, especially when
politics are
involved, but the more intense the debate, the more the
contestants smile at
each other and hold on to their opponent's
hand.
The Quill Club, haunt of Zimbabwe's journalists, is a noisy but
tranquil
place. In central Harare, in the faded glory of the Ambassador
Hotel, which
enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s and 60s, the Quill Club is a
tattered but
busy bar, tucked up a steep flight of stairs from the
lobby.
Bitter acrimony and violence are rare in the press club. Reporters
from the
rival state and independent press buy each other drinks even as
they argue
over the battles between President Robert Mugabe and Prime
Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai.
When the white settlers arrived in 1890
in the inland territory they named
Rhodesia, they justified their presence
by claiming to defend the "passive"
Shona against the "warlike" Ndebele, the
two principal ethnic groups.
Simplistic notions of this sort are unhelpful.
But it is true that
Zimbabweans are slow to fight for their rights,
something their South
African cousins hold against them in countless
editorial columns.
"When will these Zimbabweans take to the streets and
boot the old man out?"
it is asked in reference to the country's 85-year-old
President Robert
Mugabe, widely disliked but still very much ensconced in
office.
The positive side of this coin is that wherever you go you are
greeted
warmly and reminded when you last met.
Throughout January
people ask: "How was the holiday?" Or "How's the new
year?" For the
curmudgeons among us this is particularly annoying. But a
mumbled response
will only provoke a further inquiry into the health of the
whole family.
There is no escape.
Amongst journalists there is an even warmer bond. If
you have worked with
somebody in a newsroom, even for a brief period, it is
assumed that you are
known to his or her brothers, parents, cousins and
colleagues. You are
therefore greeted as somebody who wants to know about
the entire family even
though you have never met them.
If you have a
career such as teaching behind you, you will be expected to
remember whole
generations of Zimbabweans.
Most of us understandably don't want to be
"Mr. Chips," the cinematic
British school master who aged while his pupils
remained the same. But there
is really no choice. If a teacher meets a
former student, he or she will be
forcefully reminded exactly which year and
what class was being taught.
In many cultures former pupils will cross
the road to avoid meeting an old
teacher, in Zimbabwe you will be hunted
down and made to exchange greetings.
While the Zimbabwean smile is
endearing, it can also be an impediment.
Journalists smile when they ask the
president or other luminaries an awkward
question. The smile says "I don't
want to inconvenience you with this
terrible question but my editor made me
ask you." That's why so many
questions begin: "Some people say
."
Zimbabwean journalists also have a ready laugh when the president
signals
that what he has just said is a joke. In addition to the
interviewer, you
can hear his officials off camera falling about with
hilarity. This
completely vitiates any attempt to put him on the spot. With
the interviewer
grinning away, you know the rest of the interview belongs to
Mugabe, which
is galling for those us for who want to confront
him!
There are dilemmas emerging from all this pleasantry.
A
reluctance to argue with others means issues are not so easily solved.
Zimbabwe's current political negotiations are bogged down precisely because
all sides want to avoid confrontation. Mugabe is on his annual vacation and
hasn't signed a new press-licensing commission into existence because nobody
dares ask him.
All very vexing. But you can be sure of one thing.
Whatever our differences
and however heated our discussion, there will be no
fist-fights at the Quill
Club tonight.