Riot police patrol restive Zimbabwe township

Reuters

Mon Feb 19, 2007 1:46 PM GMT

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwean riot police patrolled a Harare township on
Monday to stop possible unrest a day after crushing an opposition rally the
government feared would spark a new street campaign against President Robert
Mugabe.

Heavily armed riot squads prevented the Movement for Democratic Change from
holding a court-approved rally in Highfield on Sunday, firing teargas and
water cannon to drive away stone-throwing protesters and arresting 122
people.

Political analysts said the crackdown had stoked tensions in the southern
African country, where people are struggling with a desperate economic
crisis, unemployment is surging, and where critics say Mugabe is trampling
over human rights.

The European Union on Monday extended sanctions on Zimbabwe for another
year, including an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe and
other top officials over charges of rights violations.

The sanctions were initially triggered by the controversial distribution of
white-owned commercial farms to mainly landless blacks and Mugabe's disputed
re-election in 2002.

On Monday, riot squads on foot and in armoured trucks were still patrolling
the streets of Highfield, but in smaller numbers than on Sunday.

Police armed with guns, rubber batons, shields, teargas canisters and
launchers were also on guard at the poor township's main shopping mall,
traditionally a flashpoint for political clashes.

"It's quiet here, but you can see there that they are not quite sure yet,"
one resident told a Reuters journalist, nodding towards one police patrol.

Tension has been rising in recent months over Zimbabwe's deteriorating
economy and skyrocketing cost of living, prompting some workers, including
doctors and teachers, to embark on wage strikes as inflation tops 1,600
percent.

The High Court on Saturday ordered the government to allow the MDC to hold
its rally, rejecting police arguments that they needed more time to find the
manpower to monitor it.

RALLY WORRIED AUTHORITIES

State media suggested the authorities were worried that the MDC wanted to
use the event to launch a wave of anti-government protests, and stopped it
"for security and political reasons".

The media said the rally was to be part of a British-backed drive "to
galvanise the regime-change lobby" and embarrass Mugabe, who turns 83 this
week and will celebrate his birthday at a huge party organised by his
governing ZANU-PF on Saturday.

"I think the government's heavy-handed approach yesterday, the decision to
ignore the court order and use force has further damaged its image at home
and abroad," said Eldred Masunungure, a political science professor at the
University of Zimbabwe.

"Both here and internationally, they are reinforcing the impression that
they are in trouble, and the use or show of force is just going to worsen
the tension, it's adding fuel to the fire," he said.

The MDC had said it planned to use the rally to launch its presidential
election campaign. The election is due in March 2008 but the ruling ZANU-PF
party plans to put it off until 2010 and to hold it at the same time as
parliamentary elections.

The MDC says Zimbabwe cannot afford Mugabe, charging that the man who has
led the country since independence from Britain in 1980 is to blame for the
economic crisis.

Along with the world's highest inflation rate, Zimbabwe has seen
unemployment climb to 80 percent while food, fuel and foreign exchange are
in short supply.

Critics blame the crisis on Mugabe's politically driven policies, including
the farm seizures. The veteran leader says Zimbabwe is the victim of
economic sabotage by his enemies.

(Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander in Brussels)

Tense calm in Harare

19 Feb 2007 17:54:14 GMT
Source: IRIN

 HARARE, 19 February (IRIN) - A tense calm prevailed in the Zimbabwean
capital, Harare, on Monday after a police crackdown led to several clashes
with angry supporters trying to attend an opposition party rally on Sunday,
sanctioned by the High Court.

There were unconfirmed reports that three people died in skirmishes between
the police and an estimated 50,000 supporters of the Morgan Tsvangirai-led
faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who had congregated.
Police said they were investigating.

The rally was to have seen the launch of the MDC presidential campaign at
the Zimbabwe Grounds in Highfields, a township known for political activism
since the 1950s. The running battles with the police spread to nearby
townships like Glen View and Glen Norah.

Police deployed six Israeli-made anti-riot water cannons to spray the MDC
supporters. The water from the cannons contains chemicals that cause skin
irritation.

An IRIN correspondent was caught up in the melee and witnessed heavily armed
police beating opposition supporters with batons and firing teargas into the
crowds. Some supporters who sought refuge in homes in the township were
followed and beaten by the police.

All bars in Harare's suburbs were closed by the police on Sunday. Most
residents in the townships remained indoors on Monday, while an uneasy calm
lay over the city.

Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman for the MDC faction, said more than 500
supporters had been beaten up and had sustained severe injuries. "We are
still making our own investigations on reports that three of our supporters
were beaten to death. What we can confirm is that MDC supporters have come
to our offices and we have referred them to private doctors, since hospitals
are not functioning well because of the strike by doctors. Many have been
admitted to private hospitals. A large number sustained broken arms and
legs; others had broken ribs, while others lost their teeth. It was carnage
of the worst order."

The police had refused to sanction the MDC presidential campaign launch,
claiming they did not have enough officers to ensure security at the rally.
In terms of the country's repressive Public Order and Security Act (POSA),
police have to be informed of any public meeting.

Although hundreds of opposition rallies have been barred by police, no
ZANU-PF rally has ever been stopped from taking place.

The MDC took their case to the High Court, where a judge ruled that
government had to allow the MDC rally, but more than 2,000 policemen
barricaded roads leading to the venue and were seen turning supporters back.

Political commentators said the ruling ZANU-PF party was uncomfortable with
the opposition launching its presidential campaign while they were still
locked in internal battles over the issue of who is to succeed President
Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe, who has been in office since 1980 and turns 83 this week, was
expected to step down in March 2008, but has suggested that his term be
extended to 2010 so that joint parliamentary and presidential elections can
be held in that year to save money.

However, Vice-President Joyce Mujuru and Rural Housing and Social Amenities
Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa are both believed to be intent on becoming
president next year.

With annual inflation running at nearly 1,600 percent, shortages of foreign
currency and food, tension has been mounting in Zimbabwe over the past few
weeks: faith-based and nongovernmental organisations, church groups, workers
in many economic sectors, and students have all staged sporadic
demonstrations around the country.

On 16 February, Tsvangirai's supporters held a lunchtime demonstration,
during which they attacked and destroyed a police station in Harare's
central business district and beat up four police officers severely before
stabbing them in the buttocks with sharp instruments. Several legislators
from the Tsvangirai faction have since been arrested on allegations that
they spearheaded the destruction of the police station.

MDC party secretary-general Tendai Biti was arrested on Saturday outside the
High Court, where he was getting the court order preventing police from
stopping their rally.

On 12 February, illegal vendors, tired of having their wares confiscated by
municipal police, beat up 10 officers who wanted to take their goods.

At the end of this week, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions will hold a
general council meeting, where calls for a nationwide strike are expected to
be endorsed.

Doctors and nurses have been on a strike for more than a month, demanding
better salaries and working conditions.

According to the latest survey by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, a family
of six has to fork out at least US$1,800 a month to meet basic living
requirements including food, shelter and education. The average salary
earned by most Zimbabweans is about $100.

Mugabe foe sees growing defiance in Zimbabwe

Reuters

Mon Feb 19, 2007 4:25PM GMT

By Cris Chinaka

HARARE, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition leader said on Monday
the fight against President Robert Mugabe had reached a new level, a day
after police crushed an opposition rally to prevent anti-government protests
from spreading.

Heavily armed riot squads stopped the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
from holding a court-approved rally in the capital Harare on Sunday, firing
teargas and water cannons at stone-throwing protesters and arresting 122
people.

"May I take the opportunity to place on record a growing mood of defiance
evident in the past week as our struggle for change takes a new turn,"
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the MDC, said in a statement.

"Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF (party) are at their weakest. We must express
ourselves out of the crisis through action. We have had enough. We say thus
far and no further," he added.

Political analysts said the crackdown on the opposition had stoked tensions
in the country, where people are struggling with a deep economic crisis,
marked by surging unemployment and chronic shortages of fuel, food and
foreign exchange.

The European Union on Monday extended sanctions on Zimbabwe for another
year, including an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze on Mugabe and
his top officials over the charges of rights violations.

The sanctions were initially triggered by the government's controversial
distribution of white-owned commercial farms to mainly landless blacks and
Mugabe's disputed 2002 re-election.

On Monday, riot squads on foot and in armoured trucks were still patrolling
the streets of Harare's Highfield township as well as its city centre, but
in smaller numbers than on Sunday.

Police armed with guns, rubber batons, shields, and teargas canisters were
on guard at the poor township's main shopping mall, traditionally a
flashpoint for political clashes.

"It's quiet here, but you can see there that they are not quite sure yet,"
one resident told a Reuters journalist, nodding towards a police patrol.

RALLY WORRIED AUTHORITIES

The High Court on Saturday ordered the government to allow the MDC to hold
its rally, rejecting police arguments that they needed more time to find the
manpower to monitor it.

State media suggested the authorities were worried that the MDC wanted to
use the event to launch a wave of anti-government protests, and stopped it
"for security and political reasons".

The media said the rally was to be part of a British-backed drive "to
galvanise the regime-change lobby" and embarrass Mugabe, who turns 83 this
week and will celebrate his birthday at a huge party organised by his
governing ZANU-PF on Saturday.

Eldred Masunungure, a political science professor at the University of
Zimbabwe, said the government's heavy-handed approach toward the opposition
and its decision to ignore a court order had damaged its image at home and
abroad.

"Both here and internationally, they are reinforcing the impression that
they are in trouble, and the use or show of force is just going to worsen
the tension, it's adding fuel to the fire," Masunungure said.

The MDC had planned to use the rally to launch its presidential election
campaign. The election is due in March 2008, but Mugabe's ZANU-PF party
plans to put it off until 2010 to coincide with parliamentary elections.

The MDC says Zimbabwe cannot afford an extended Mugabe rule, charging that
the man who has led the country since independence from Britain in 1980 is
to blame for the economic crisis.

Along with the world's highest inflation rate at about 1,600 percent ,
Zimbabwe has seen unemployment climb to 80 percent.

The veteran leader says Zimbabwe is the victim of economic sabotage by his
enemies. (Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander in Brussels)

EU extends sanctions on Zimbabwe for another year

SABC

February 19, 2007, 18:45

The European Union extended sanctions on Zimbabwe for another year today
including an arms embargo, travel ban and asset freeze on Robert Mugabe, the
Zimbabwean president, and other top officials. The list of those affected by
visa bans and the freezing of assets includes more than 100 ministers and
officials. The EU accuses them of human rights violations, and violations of
freedom of speech and assembly in Zimbabwe.

The sanctions were initially triggered by the controversial distribution of
white-owned commercial farms to mainly landless blacks and Mugabe's disputed
re-election in 2002. Critics say the seizures have destroyed Zimbabwe's
economy, turning the country from a regional agricultural leader to a nation
barely able to feed itself amid a deepening crisis marked by food and fuel
shortages and inflation nearly 1,600 percent.

EU-Africa summit on hold
Mugabe says the sanctions are responsible for Zimbabwe's economic crisis and
he says his land policy was necessary because former colonial power Britain
did not make good on promises at the time of Zimbabwe's independence in
1980. Plans for an EU-Africa summit have been on hold since 2003 because
Britain and several other EU countries refused to attend if Mugabe was
invited, while African states refused to attend if he was not invited,
diplomats have said.

Portugal hopes to stage such a summit in the second half of this year but it
is not clear how it will get around the Zimbabwe issue. - Reuters

Zimbabwe unfazed by EU sanctions extension

Yahoo News

Mon Feb 19, 9:37 AM ET

HARARE (AFP) - The Zimbabwean government has shrugged off a decision by the
European Union to extend sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's regime,
saying the move would not have any impact.

"Sanctions or no sanctions, it is not going to make any difference at all,"
junior information minister Bright Matonga told AFP Monday.

"It is the same old story, we have had sanctions for the past five years.

"They can extend the sanctions whenever. We do not give a damn actually."

The EU slapped sanctions on Mugabe and his coterie after the long-serving
ruler won elections in 2002 which the opposition insists were rigged.

The move to extend the sanctions for another year was taken without debate
at the start of a ministerial meeting in Brussels, the EU's German
presidency said.

The travel ban and also an assets freeze extend to anyone who has "taken
part in activities which seriously endangered democracy, respect for human
rights and the rule of law in Zimbabwe".

Those measures cover some 130 people, including Mugabe, his current and
former cabinets and leaders of his ruling Zimbabwe African National
Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party.

The travel ban on Mugabe has caused problems over the years, notably with
regard to EU-Africa summits.

Statement regarding breaches of the rule of law during the weekend 17/18 February 2007

During the past weekend the 17th and 18th February 2007 both factions of the
MDC attempted to hold meetings, as is their right in terms of section 21 of
the Zimbabwean Constitution, which were frustrated through the actions of
the police, the courts and the Minister of Home Affairs.

In Bulawayo the MDC (Mutambara faction) intended to launch its defiance
campaign at the Bulawayo City Hall on Saturday afternoon the 17th February
2007.  Having initially received no objection from the police it was then
subjected to a police raid on the 15th February 2007, the effective arrest
of its administrator on the 16th February 2007, who was then advised that
the meeting had been banned. When Secretary General Professor Welshman Ncube
MP appealed to the Minister of Home Affairs in terms of section 25 (5) of
the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) he was told by the Minister that a
decision had been taken to issue a blanket ban on all political meetings due
to the " volatile situation prevailing in the country".  Given the fact that
the Minister has no right to issue blanket bans a decision was taken to defy
the illegal banning of the meeting, whilst at the same time a challenge
against the ban would be launched in the High Court.

An urgent court application was made seeking an interdict preventing the
police from banning the meeting.  One of the points raised was that section
25 (5) of POSA violates both sections 18 and 21 of the Zimbabwean
Constitution. Section 25 (5) gives the Minister of Home Affairs the ultimate
power to determine whether political meetings should be allowed to take
place or not.  It is common cause that the Minister of Home Affairs is also
a politician (in the present case a politician who holds a very senior
position in the ZANU PF party).  To that extent the Minister of Home Affairs
is not a neutral arbiter; indeed he is a person with an obvious bias.

Section 18 (9) of the Constitution of Zimbabwean states that " every person
is entitled to be afforded a fair hearing within a reasonable time by an
independent and impartial court or other adjudicating authority established
by law in the determination of the existence or extent of his civil rights
or obligations". Section 25 (5) of POSA clearly violates this right as it
gives a member of one political party the right to determine the affairs of
another competing political party. This section also offends section 21 (1)
of the Constitution which states that "no person shall be hindered in his
freedom of assembly and association".  The power given to the Minister of
Home Affairs in this regard is an unreasonable hindrance in the exercise of
the right to freely assemble and associate.

Regrettably the situation was further compounded when the Registrar of the
High Court in Bulawayo was unable to locate a single judge who could hear
the urgent application.  It is common cause that judges are expected to be
available 24 hours a day and at the very least a duty judge should be
readily available at all times.  It should be stressed that this is a
constitutional obligation. The same section 18 (9) in the Constitution
states that everyone is entitled to "a fair hearing within a reasonable
time".  It is a well established practice a duty judge should be in place at
all times to hear urgent applications immediately.  The absence of a duty
judge in Bulawayo, either through dereliction of duty or through deliberate
action, resulted in a serious breach of the MDC's constitutional rights to
seek an urgent interdict against the police and the Minister of Home
Affairs. The Judge President is urged to investigate the matter and to
discipline those responsible.

What happened in Harare over the weekend appears to confirm that the ZANU PF
regime is determined to flout the rule of law. Unlike what happened in
Bulawayo the MDC (Tsvangirai faction) was advised of the banning of its
meeting scheduled for Sunday the 18th February 2007 early enough to lodge an
application in the High Court during normal business hours. Commendably the
High Court in Harare granted an application in favour of the MDC confirming
that its meeting could go ahead. However in an apparent confirmation of the
general directive advised to Secretary General Professor Welshman Ncube by
the Minister of Home Affairs on Friday the 16th February 2007, of that a
general ban on political meetings had been imposed, it has now been reported
that the police disregarded the High Court order and refused to allow the
MDC to carry on with its meeting. Other news reports detail the deployment
of hundreds of police officers in a determined effort to prevent the meeting
from taking pl
ace.

If these news reports are correct, and we have no reason to doubt their
veracity, the police must be condemned in the strongest possible terms for
this flagrant disregard of an order granted by the High Court of Zimbabwe.
In a statement I released last month I said "The truth is that the Judiciary
will always be seen by Zanu PF as some cumbersome appendix which is
necessary to maintain the façade of democracy and which on occasions can be
useful in furthering a political goal. But the Judiciary will never be an
institution which is revered by Zanu PF as an indispensable part of a
Zimbabwean democracy". Sadly the events of this past weekend provide further
evidence that that statement is true.

The wanton violence used by the police against supporters of the opposition
in both Bulawayo and Harare must also be condemned in the strongest possible
terms.

In any normal functioning constitutional democracy the flagrant disregard of
an order of court and its constitutional obligations by the police would
result in the head of that police force being forced to resign. That of
course will not happen in Zimbabwe because it is not a constitutional
democracy.  However we nevertheless call on both the Commissioner of Police
and the Minister of Home Affairs to resign in view of the disgraceful events
which have occurred in Zimbabwe this past weekend.

The Hon David Coltart MP
Shadow Justice Minister

Bulawayo
19th February 2007

Army officer threatens to shoot villagers over farm

Zim Online

Tuesday 20 February 2007

By Brian Ncube

BULAWAYO - A senior Zimbabwean army officer has ordered scores of villagers
resettled Zimbili Farm in Membesi, some 45km east of the second city of
Bulawayo to vacate the property or face dire consequences, ZimOnline has
learnt.

Soldiers from Imbizo Barracks in Bulawayo are said to have stormed the farm
and threatened to shoot the villagers unless they moved out by Friday this
week.

Sources said the soldiers were acting under orders from a senior army
officer, identified as Major General Nicholas Dube. Dube could not be
reached for comment on the matter yesterday.

The villagers say they were resettled on the farm in 2000 as part of
President Robert Mugabe's land reform programme under which vast tracts of
land were seized from whites for redistribution to landless blacks.

Trouble for the villagers began last November after the army officer told
the villagers to move out of the property arguing that the farm had been
allocated to him.

Attempts to broker peace between the villagers and the army officer by
Matabeleland governor Angeline Masuku, are said to have failed leading to
Dube seizing the farmhouse last month.

"The soldiers accused us of disrupting farming activities at the farm which
they said belonged to their boss. They said they will shoot us, including
our wives and children if they found us here next Friday.

"We don't know what to do because it was the government that brought us
here. It appears we have two difficult options to choose from, either we
leave or we die here," said Lot Moyo, one of the villagers.

Masuku confirmed the rift between the villagers and the army officer saying
she was still consulting her records to check who is wrongly occupying the
property.

"I am aware of the conflict but cannot act now because I am still trying to
consult the land ministry to find out who is wrongly occupying the land. We
need to move on and solve this issue once and for all," she said.

Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi said he was not aware of the matter but
promised to crack the whip if it was established that soldiers abusing their
authority by threatening villagers.

"I am definitely going to take that to the army bosses to check if the
allegations are true," said Sekeramayi.

Black villagers have often complained in the past that senior ruling ZANU PF
officials, army and government officials were hounding them of the farms
they occupied at the height of farm invasions about seven years ago.

Mugabe has also admitted that government ministers and senior army officials
had used their privileged positions to grab several farms for themselves
against the government's policy of one-man one-farm. - ZimOnline

Nine MDC officials still detained

Zim Online

Tuesday 20 February 2007

Own Correspondents

HARARE - Police on Monday failed to bring to court nine senior officials of
the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party who were arrested
over the weekend following an unsanctioned demonstration in Harare.

The nine, who include MDC secretary general in the Morgan Tsvangirai-led
MDC, Tendai Biti and Glen View legislator Paul Madzore, failed to appear in
court at the Regional Magistrates' Courts in Rotten Row in Harare.

"We expected them in court this afternoon (Monday) but we have been told
that they have been moved to other police posts. So we are scurrying around
to try and have them in court as soon as possible," said Martin Makoni, a
lawyer who is representing the MDC officials.

Nelson Chamisa, the spokesman for the MDC, also confirmed that the police
had failed to bring to court his party colleagues. Under Zimbabwe's laws,
suspects must be brought to court within 48 hours after their arrest.

"We are still trying to ascertain where they are being held," said Chamisa.

Meanwhile, police maintained a heavy presence in Highfield suburb, the scene
of violent protests last Sunday. Sources within the police say there were
fears within the government of further unrest following the weekend
protests.

Residents say the police had continued to maintain a heavy presence in the
suburb with crews of police officers wielding baton sticks and tear gas
canisters still patrolling the streets.

In Bulawayo, the police yesterday released seven MDC supporters who were
arrested for attending last Saturday's launch of a defiance campaign against
plans by the ruling ZANU PF party to extend President Robert Mugabe's term
by two more years.

The defiance campaign was launched by Arthur Mutambara who heads the smaller
faction of the splintered opposition party.

The seven were set free after they paid Z$250 admission of guilt fines.

The MDC supporters were being charged with violating the Public Order and
Security Act (POSA) which makes it an offence for Zimbabweans to gather in
groups of more than three to discuss politics without first notifying the
police.

"The seven were fined $250 each by the police after spending the weekend in
police cells. They were arrested by the police outside the city hall which
was supposed to be the venue of the MDC meeting," said Kossam �Ncube, a
lawyer representing the seven.

Both factions of the MDC have vowed to resist plans by ZANU PF to extend
Mugabe's term in office. - ZimOnline

International call tariffs set to go up

The Herald

Business Reporter

THE Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe is this
week set to hike tariffs for international calls after Zimbabwean cellular
phone operators cut down the number of international telephone calls from
Zimbabwe last week citing uneconomic charges.

Sources said the regulator was approaching the issue "as a matter of
urgency", saying it was looking into submissions made by the sector.

Without disclosing the proposed tariff margins by the cellphone companies,
sources indicated that the rise could be "substantial".

"Potraz is looking into the matter and something might happen this week," a
Potraz insider said yesterday.

Mobile phone operators argued that the current tariffs were "weak",making it
difficult to raise foreign currency to pay for termination rates, charged by
foreign networks to connect cellphone calls to recipients in their
respective countries.

Average rates for international calls are around $90 per minute. Local
operators are required to pay their termination rates in foreign currency.

All gatherings banned in Zimbabwe

United Press International

HARARE, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- The government of Zimbabwe is banning all
opposition political gatherings in an attempt to suppress discontent in the
African nation.

Heavily armed riot police began enforcing the new rule by breaking up a
rally in one town and preventing a gathering from taking place Saturday in
the capital city of Harare, The Telegraph reported.

Previously, gatherings were permitted provided police had granted
permission.

Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi said in court documents that due to
rising tension security ministers decided to ban all political meetings
except those associated with by-elections.

Unrest in Zimbabwe is being fueled by economic collapse and an inflation
rate of nearly 1,600 percent, the highest in the world.

Enduring famine at the banquet

New Zimbabwe

By Mary Revesai
Last updated: 02/20/2007 05:06:47
IT IS time once again for the people of Zimbabwe, the majority of whom can
no longer afford three square meals a day to experience "famine at the
banquet" when President Robert Mugabe and his supporters stage yet another
feasting orgy this week to mark his 83rd birthday.

In December, ordinary Zimbabweans struggling to put food on the table were
confronted with images in the media of delegates to the ZANU PF people's
congress held at Goromonzi High School gorging themselves on inordinate
mountains of food.

The incongruous scenes of lavish partying in the midst of austerity and
outright hunger for the majority of the populace will be repeated this week
when the Soviet-style 21st February Movement stages festivities to pay
homage and show adulation to Mugabe. Companies and bankrupt parastatals are
required to contribute towards the $300 million budget for the bash, to be
hosted by the Midlands Province.

They are also expected to insert sycophantic advertisements in the media
congratulating "His Excellency" on his longevity and expressing adulation
for the Dear Leader. The secretary general of the Zanu PF Youth League,
Absolom Sikhosana, has set the tone for the kind of ingratiation expected
with his claim that Zimbabwe could do with at least "one million Mugabes".
Sikhosana, who looks more middle aged than youthful, urged young Zimbabwean
to emulate the exemplary life of the man who has led the country for 27
years with such disastrous results.

This is why at Zanu PF functions, Sikhosana, who emerges from the woodwork
regularly to act as chief bootlicker, cannot explain why only 100 "Born
Frees", that is 10 from each province, will attend the festivities when the
21st February Movement is touted as an organisation designed to benefit
young people born after independence in 1980.

It is no secret that the majority of the youngsters attending the
festivities who are supposed to interact and relate to an octogenarian old
enough to be their great-great grandfather no longer celebrate their own
birthdays because of the economic hardships their parents face daily.

Many more who were not invited to the food fest have been orphaned by AIDS
and go to bed hungry. The large amounts of money being spent to focus
attention on one man could be put to better use if the "birthday boy" were
not so addicted to being hero-worshiped.

Instead of blowing more than $300 million on food and drink mostly for Zanu
PF fat cats, the funds could have been channeled towards paying school and
examination fees for thousands of so-called "Born Frees" throughout the
country who have dropped out of school because of economic difficulties.

There are countless needy groups and worthy causes that could be supported.
It is a sign of gross insensitivity and imperviousness to the suffering of
the people for Mugabe not to feel any pangs of conscience or a sense of
discomfiture about flaunting such conspicuous consumption for the sake of
massaging his ego when many Zimbabweans can no longer keep the wolf from the
door because of the ruined economy for which he bears the blame.

Aid agencies released figures recently showing that even more Zimbabweans
than originally estimated will need food aid this season. It is indefensible
that the head of state, whose violent and haphazardly implemented land
reform exercise has ruined the agricultural sector, does not give a hoot
about the plight of the people who now have to scrounge for basic
commodities.

That he sees nothing wrong with calling for belt-tightening for the
generality of the people while he and his cronies maintain and flaunt their
opulent lifestyles does not portray infallibility and dedication to lofty
ideals as Mugabe's spin doctors would have everyone believe.

I read an article in a magazine not long ago about the wedding of Queen
Elizabeth II and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947. At that time,
the sun truly did not set on the vast British Empire but the Queen's father,
King George VI directed that there should be no lavish spending and the
event should be mooted. This was in sympathy with his subjects who were
still struggling under rationing and economic hardships caused by the Second
World War. With inflation standing at almost 2000 percent and an
unemployment rate of more than 70 percent, Zimbabweans are experiencing
similar difficulties which are exacerbated by the fact that they are being
endured in peacetime.

It is clear that whether it is through expensive galas, a fuel guzzling
motorcade or inordinate globe-trotting, the Zimbabwean leader never thinks
about the plight of the people and the need to empathise.

The 21st February Movement celebrations this year ironically serve to prove
the veracity of a charge by maverick nationalist, Edgar Tekere that one of
the reasons why Mugabe has lost direction is the cultivation of a cult
personality around him.

Since the publication in December of his memoirs, A Lifetime of Struggle, in
which he blames Mugabe for the ruination of Zimbabwe's economy, Tekere has
been under sustained vitriolic attack by Zanu PF apologists. These
bootlickers have tried to paint a picture of the Zimbabwean leader as
someone who can do no wrong and dismissed Tekere as a mentally unstable
character who is not fit to criticise the supposedly saintly Mugabe. In a
most un-statesman like manner, Mugabe has sarcastically echoed these cruel
aspersions and dismissed Tekere as someone who should not be taken
seriously.

But Mugabe's eagerness to be placed on a pedestal and virtually worshipped
during events like the 21st February Movement celebrations shows that he is
the one who has gone "bonkers" as South African cleric, Archbishop Desmond
Tutu once said.

For him to be prepared to see teachers, who are paid slave wages and live
below the poverty datum line, being forced to cough up $4 000 each to make
the day of adulation and feasting possible is to demonstrate beyond doubt
how absolute power has corrupted him absolutely.

Meaningless and money gobbling oddities like the siren-blaring motorcade,
the endless airport send-offs and welcomes that rob the economy of hundreds
of man-hours and the 21st February Movement parties that benefit no one
would not continue if Mugabe had not become so hooked on being idolised.

Zanu PF may stoop so low as to expel Tekere, but the fact remains that he
spoke the truth on the quality of Mugabe's leadership.

Mary Revesai is a New Zimbabwe.com columnist and writes from Harare. Her
column will appear here every Tuesday

Woman beaten by police out side her house

Chiredzi South by-election results

By Tichaona Sibanda
19 February 2007

The Chiredzi South by-election has been 'won' by Zanu (PF)'s Callisto
Gwanetsa. According to the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) the
election was marred by voter apathy. But apathy is not quite the correct
word for mass intimidation and a climate of vote rigging.

National director of ZESN, Rindai Chipfunde-Vava, said out of a possible 50
000 voters only about 15 000 cast their votes on Saturday. She said at some
polling stations less than 20 people cast their votes the whole day. Only
29% of registered voters cast their vote.

Gwanetsa will now take the place of Alois Baloyi, a Zanu (PF) legislator who
died in September last year. Under normal circumstances Gwanetsa should not
have stood for election as it is illegal for a serving army officer or a
civil servant to do so. Chipfunde-Vava said despite information that
Gwanetsa was still a soldier they were having problems proving the
allegation.

But election observers in Chiredzi South saw him driving an army vehicle as
well as using army resources to run his campaign in the constituency. His
former boss, retired General Vitalis Zvinavashe, even threatened villagers
in Chikombedzi against voting for the opposition.

According to a pre-election report compiled by ZESN, Zvinavashe allegedly
said that if the people voted for the opposition they would be treated like
rebels. The government would cut food aid and deploy soldiers to deal with
such 'rebellious' residents.

Chipfunde-Vava said Gwanetsa took victory with 10 401 votes. Emmaculate
Makondo of the Tsvangirai Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) polled 3 300
votes.
Nehemiah Zenamwe, of the Mutambara MDC had 674 votes, while Maekani Chauke
of the United People's Party (UPP) garnered 896 votes.

Eddie Cross, policy coordinator for the Tsvangirai MDC, said Gwanetsa's
'victory' was a very predictable result in the circumstances. 70 percent of
all polling stations in Chiredzi South had no MDC presence as their agents
were denied access.

A statement released by the MDC information department described the poll as
a farce and accused Zanu PF of vote buying and intimidation ahead of the
weekend election. Zanu PF denied the charge.

Of concern also to opposition parties was the fact that the regime used
erasable ink as opposed to indelible ink. As a result there are genuine
suspicions that Zanu PF supporters voted more than once.

SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

Largest teachers union joins strike

By Lance Guma
19 February 2007

On Monday the Zimbabwe Teachers Union (ZIMTA), the largest union
representing teachers, instructed its members to join a general strike
initially called by the more radical but smaller Progressive Teachers Union
of Zimbabwe (PTUZ). Jacob Rukweza the Harare province chairperson of the
PTUZ told Newsreel that Tendai Chikowore, the ZIMTA president, issued
circulars to all schools advising teachers under their union to go on strike
with immediate effect. The move follows 2 weeks of negotiations between
government and the Civil Service Staff Association Apex Council, which
represents all government employees.

Its reported government on Friday made an offer of Z$180 000 per month as a
basic pay for teachers. The new figures would have meant the highest paid
teacher getting Z$240 000 per month, excluding allowances. The Apex Council
however refused to accept the increase saying it fell far below the Z$566
000 poverty datum line. Rukweza says ZIMTA is welcome to join the strike and
that as long as the interests of the two unions converged to benefit
teachers they were prepared to work together.

Raymond Majongwe the Secretary General of the PTUZ has in the past described
negotiations with government as a waste of time. With ZIMTA abandoning talks
with government the PTUZ position seems to have been vindicated. Teachers
under the PTUZ, doctors, and nurses have all been on strike for several
weeks, demanding better pay and working conditions. The civil service union
representing over 200 000 workers is considering strike action in the next
few days and has already placed adverts in the media, explaining their
position. Students grouped under the Zimbabwe National Students Union are
also protesting exorbitant tuition fees.

SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news

Tsvangirai's message to the people of Zimbabwe

19 February 2007

May I take this opportunity to place on record a growing political mood of
defiance evident in the past week as our struggle for change takes a new
turn? I wish to thank the thousands of peace-loving Zimbabweans for their
resilience, determination and resolve to take on the regime and express
themselves.

On Sunday, the people of Harare showed a deep sense of maturity as they
confronted hired gangs of thugs who defied a High Court order barring the
police from interfering with our rally.

May I acknowledge the powerlessness of senior members of our professional
police force who failed to execute their Constitutional mandate to respect
the rule of law and to observe a legitimate High Court order? Sunday's
events in Highfield, Harare, exposed the existence of a dangerous political
oligarchy, which has since usurped the ship of state and taken charge of
Zimbabwe. Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF are at their weakest level; they have
lost confidence in our professional police officers and other traditional
state structures. Mugabe is now heavily dependant on a rogue militia and
partisan paramilitary forces in his war against the people.

Zimbabweans are a peace loving people. That they have painfully avoided
anarchy, chaos or arms of war to resolve the Zimbabwean crisis demonstrates
their faith in an orderly political transition and a sovereign right to
change. We shall see democratic change through peaceful public expression.
All indications show that the hour for action has come.

Fellow Zimbabweans, our nation is firmly agreed that unless we unite against
this dictatorship, we are headed for an abyss. Across the political divide,
we are all convinced that the status quo is untenable; our destiny as a
people could be in tatters; and unless we get out of this deep hole, we risk
our values and our common humanity.

I am pleased to note that those who previously vilified us are now on our
side, having experienced what it means to live in a criminal state. There is
nothing left in the feudal Zanu PF plate to maintain a patronage system; the
propaganda war against the people has run its course; it is now clear to all
that we must act to save Zimbabwe from collapse.

A criminal state, run by a gang of criminals and a military oligarchy,
cannot negotiate itself out of chaos. A criminal state cannot enter into
social contracts with the people. A criminal state cannot run credible and
legitimate elections.

A criminal state cannot be expected to respect the rule of law, adhere to
the principles of good governance and craft coherent policies for Zimbabwe.
It is a state without a nation. For 27 years, Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF have
abandoned the nation. Our country has long disintegrated into a loose
coalition of clans and tribes, all desperate for a single national identity.
From Nyanga to Chipinge, right through Chiredzi, Masvingo, Gwanda to Binga
and Omay, the people feel neglected and abandoned by the regime in Harare
and are subsisting on their own.

Mugabe has marginalized millions of people in the southern and western half
of the country; all our urban areas, our mining settlements and any other
centres of valid economic activity. It is true that Zimbabweans - across the
political, ethnic and racial divide -- strongly feel a sense of exclusion
from the national and natural benefits of their birthright. We wish to deal
with this fragmentation and build a nation based on unity, fairness,
compassion, solidarity and inclusiveness.

For 27 years, our quest for national integration remains an elusive dream.
And, over the past seven years, the regime has sought to divide the people
further, pretending to empower a new class of citizens from within ranks.
That experiment has failed as evidenced by the chronic food shortages,
record unemployment, a collapsed economy, policy distortions and rampant
corruption.

For the past seven years, Zanu PF and Mugabe have abandoned the social
agenda and masterminded the collapse of national institutions - all in the
name of preserving political power through criminal means. The period saw
the imposition of a totalitarian state, using an ageing squad of serving and
former senior military officers. The period saw the political injection of
senior military officers into civilian administration and other state
institutions. By so doing, Mugabe formed a reckless military oligarchy whose
main task is to run bogus elections and to suppress the people of Zimbabwe.
The idea is to push Zimbabwe to a civil war and to avoid accountability in a
post-Mugabe era.

Fellow Zimbabweans, the replacement of the civilian state with partisan
Mugabe loyalists from the military oligarchy has far-reaching implications
for our nation. The military oligarchy has created a militia whose task is
to deal with civil society and the opposition. This military oligarchy
destroyed commercial agriculture; the military oligarchy has taken charge of
fuel supply and distribution, wildlife management, trade and commerce,
transport, agriculture inputs, food distribution and other strategic
locations - all designed to prop up Mugabe and manage election outcomes.

The regime has had to print money to meet the unending demands of this new
administration, which shuns free markets, and standard norms of commerce for
distributing goods and services. All public works have been shelved. All
social services have succumbed to political opportunistic infections from
the military oligarchy. The rule of law has long been abandoned. The people
are forgotten.

As was clear in Chiredzi in the just-ended election campaign, Zanu PF and
Mugabe desperately need the services of the military oligarchy to remain in
power. Examples abound where reliance on a military junta for civilian
administration and governance matters always ended with unkind results to
democracy.

Added to our existing political morass is Gideon Gono - the governor of the
central bank. Gono's latest political statement capped it all: failure is
now certain. Gono literally threw in the towel. The crisis in Zimbabwe is
political. No amount of tinkering with phony cash and excessive controls
shall address the root cause of the crisis of governance.
Our message to Gono is simple. By pushing through a dispensary of
painkillers, you are wasting our time and delaying the resolution of the
national crisis. Give way to political alternatives. Our message to Mugabe
is equally simple. Allow the people to exercise their sovereign right to
introduce viable political alternatives.
A social contract is impossible when workers and their leaders are denied
opportunities to express themselves. The social contract is already dead, as
long as workers are brutally attacked whenever they wish to assemble and
talk to each other. The social contract is history when journalists and
newspapers are banned from public service and ordinary people are refused
access to a free market of ideas.
Co-operation among political players and other stakeholders for whatever
national programme is only possible in a healthy climate in which tolerance,
respect for differences and a non-partisan approach to national affairs are
part of the game. With millions of Zimbabweans languishing in the Diaspora,
denied a basic right to vote and determine the fate of their country, Zanu
PF and Mugabe can forget about any meaningful social contract.
Instead of wasting time talking about social contracts in a totalitarian
state, let us focus our attention on a new Constitution. The rest
immediately falls into place. The national crisis is now beyond Zanu PF's
ability to attend to alone. The solution lies in our proposals, enunciated
through our roadmap whose signposts for progress require sincere and open
dialogue, a nationally accepted transitional arrangement, a new
Constitution, a confidence-building window and a free and fair election.
We are going into a Presidential election in 2008 convinced that the
election shall give us a superb opportunity to reverse the chaos before us
and embark on a massive reconstruction, rehabilitation and healing process.
We are determined to get into the Presidential election under a new
Constitution in order to restore confidence in the electoral process. We are
against elections under conditions, which produce contested outcomes. Our
call for elections in 2008 is out of the realization that the national
crisis cannot be extended by another day. We have had enough. We say thus
far, and no further.
Our priority shall reside in the resuscitation of fundamental institutions
of governance, the restoration of the rule of law and the introduction of an
accountable and caring government. The actions by workers, activists and all
professionals on the ground are commendable and more is on the way.
We believe the time to act is now. We make no apologies for organizing and
harnessing the power of the people. We must express ourselves out of the
crisis through action.

Morgan Tsvangirai

President.

Harvest time in Zimbabwe, refugees help themselves

19 Feb 2007 09:37:12 GMT
Source: UNHCR

TONGOGARA REFUGEE CAMP, Zimbabwe, 19 Feb (UNHCR) - Siri Kirogi moved through
the tall stalks, pulling weeds from the irrigation channels and filling a
sack with ripe ears of maize.

Although only 16 years old, Siri and her younger brother are caring for the
plot assigned to their family at Tongogora Refugee Camp when not attending
school. She also grows vegetables in a small garden beside their home in the
camp.

Siri arrived at the camp in 2004, a refugee fleeing the violence in her
native Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). She was accompanied by three
brothers, including the eldest who is now 20. In the jargon of the UN
refugee agency, they were unaccompanied minors; to most people they were
simply orphans whose parents had been killed in the DRC's wars.

The plot in the field and the vegetable garden are far from enough to feed
the four young refugees but they do provide a vital supplement. Rations were
reduced at Zimbabwe's only refugee camp during the last year, although they
still meet the daily requirement of 2,100 Kcal.

That was not just an economy measure. As in other countries, UNHCR is
pursuing a policy of making long-time refugees as self-reliant as possible -
providing essential aid but ensuring it does not create a culture of
dependency.

"This field is important because there is no other source of food but a
vegetable patch and the rations," Siri said as she adjusted the plastic
pipes the refugees use to siphon water into the field from concrete-lined
ditches.

The 2,100 refugees at the camp in eastern Zimbabwe are almost all from the
Great Lakes area - DRC, Rwanda and Burundi - and show little enthusiasm for
returning home. The 20 hectares of maize that are now being harvested
provide a welcome supplement to their diet. Most of the fields will be
planted next with beans.

A further 40 hectares is available but will require extra investment. The
land, located in one of the driest areas of Zimbabwe and with poor sandy
soil, depends on irrigation water brought from a river 15 kilometres away.

It was given for the use of refugees when Tongogara was first established in
the 1970s to house refugees fleeing the civil war in Mozambique, just over
the eastern border. The camp was later closed but reopened in 1997 to house
refugees driven out of the Great Lakes area.

The refugees have been using the fields on the outskirts of the refugee camp
for several years but UNHCR, through its local partner World Vision, decided
a year ago to focus on improving agriculture. After receiving expert advice
to develop the fields and improve agricultural skills, the refugees said
yields this year have soared.

"I was a tailor but now there's no work for me," said Bizimungu Dieudonne,
who arrived in 2003 from Burundi and was carrying a sack of maize on the
back of his bicycle. "There is no option. That is why I am doing this. We
have finished growing maize and the manager says there will be a meeting to
discuss what we grow next."

Each family gets a plot of 0.08 hectare - enough to grow about 80 kg of
maize. Dieudonne said it would enhance the diet of his five children for the
next two months. About 250 of the 650 family units in the camp have plots
and more would like to participate. Eight local Zimbabwean families have
been included, reducing potential tension. However, while the area under
cultivation can be increased somewhat, refugees will continue to need
rations.

"Zimbabwe is a very small country and demand for land is very high. The
opportunities for refugees are very limited. Those who want to do
agriculture will not get enough land," said Tapiwa Huye, a field officer
with World Vision. "But the population of refugees has now seen the value of
agriculture. They had feared it was a way to get them off of rations but now
many want to join the project."

The economic problems in Zimbabwe and sensitivity over land present
formidable obstacles to full local integration of refugees. A few refugees
each year are resettled to third countries like Canada, Australia and the
United States. UNHCR wants the remainder to be as self-sufficient as
possible while awaiting a lasting solution.

"The farm plots don't end the problem. But at least they can supplement
their rations," said Jennifer Msimbo, a UNHCR community services assistant
who lives at the camp and recognises the danger of dependence on handouts.
"And in the long-run the refugees are expected to go back home."

By Jack Redden
In Tongogara Refugee Camp, Zimbabwe

ZCTF REPORT - feb 2007

   

3 feared dead as police crush Zimbabwe protests

TSVANGIRAI argues with police officers after his party's rally was cancelled by heavy force ISRAELI-made anti-riot water tanks like the one above were used to crush the protests

By Torby Chimhashu
Last updated: 02/19/2007
THREE people were feared dead as hundreds others sustained serious injuries when riot police swarmed a poor township in Harare to stop an opposition rally Sunday.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was due to address a rally in Highfield hours after his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party won a High Court order re-instating the rally which had been cancelled by the police on the grounds of lack of manpower.

Truckloads of riot policemen and notorious government-backed militia from the Border Gezi Youth Training School invaded the Zimbabwe Grounds early Sunday morning to crush an MDC rally called to protest against rising prices, a deteriorating economy and the proposed extension of President Robert Mugabe's rule to 2010.

A strong crowd of about 10 000 people was sent scurrying in all directions as the armed police fired tear gas and water cannons into the crowd in a bid to disperse them.

Angry crowds hit back by throwing stones and rocks at the armed officers and the baton-wielding militia.

Sensing danger, the police called for reinforcements from the Support Unit which quickly unleashed the Israeli-made water cannons and anti-riot tanks which arrived in Highfield at the nick of time.

The water tanks are mounted with a cannon that can target a range of about 50 meters. For the first time, since their purchase from Israel in 2002, they were used to crush a rally.

The three water canon tanks sprayed the toxic water everywhere resulting in uncontrolled panic in and around the Zimbabwe Grounds. In the ensuing pandemonium, it is claimed that three people died as police used live ammunition as riots escalated.

Correspondents reported sightings of "three motionless bodies", but it could not be verified with the police or hospital authorities if the people had fainted or actually died.

The MDC, in a statement, also raised the prospect that three of its supporters might have died in the violence.

"Three people are feared dead while 127 people have been arrested and that is the price they have paid for turning up for an ordinary party rally," Nelson Chamisa, the party spokesman said.

Tsvangirai and his entourage twice had to change routes as Highfield resembled a war zone when the angry crowd blocked major roads into and out of Highfield with large boulders.

A group of journalists and some members of the MDC top brass sought refuge in the maize fields as police fuelled the carnage, indiscriminately beating anyone seen walking on the streets.

All shops and flea markets were closed as the beatings spread to bars and restaurants at Machipisa Shopping Center.

In one incident, police fired tear gas near the Apostolic Faith Mission Church in Canaan. Service was brought to a halt as congregators fled from the church. They were, however, forced back into church when the armed militia and police came charging at them.

Police refused to comment on why they had defied a High Court order by Justice Anne Mary Gowora which granted Tsvangirai to hold his rally in Highfield.

The police also refused to comment on the violent disturbances squarely blamed on them by the MDC and neutrals who were caught up in the orgy.

Earlier on Friday, Highfield police had refused to sanction the rally claiming lack of equipment and poor manpower to police the rally.

Tsvangirai tried despairingly to get an explanation from Machipisa Police Station officer in charge as to why they defied the High Court Order.

The MDC leader was threatened with arrest and beatings but stood his ground before he decided to abort his scheduled rally.

The MDC warned that no amount of repression would stop them from their fight against Mugabe and Zanu PF rule.

"This is the beginning of a protracted and sustained campaign to fight Mugabe. The MDC will not be cowed into submission by this desperate regime. We won't rest until we take back this country to democracy," Chamisa said in an interview with New Zimbabwe.com.

"What we have seen today is a dictatorship that is running scared. There is no doubt that we are now in a police state. The heavy-handedness used by police to stop a High Court-sanctioned rally shows how desperate this regime has become."

While the MDC deplored the knee-jerk tactics used by the police to crush the rally, Zanu PF cadre Joseph Chinotimba said the MDC had invited the wrath of the law-enforcement agents by assaulting a policeman on Friday.

"Vakarova mupurisa nge Friday. Saka ngavaregi kuchema nekuti ndivovakatanga nazvo (they (MDC) assaulted a police officer on Friday and must not cry foul because they stirred a hornet nest)," the war veteran said.

On Friday, police fought running battles with MDC youths who were marching along Samora Machel Avenue in solidarity with the striking doctors and college lecturers.

A male police officer was injured during the demonstrations but the MDC denied its members had assaulted him as claimed by the state-run Herald newspaper on Saturday.

MDC secretary general Tendai Biti and legislator for Glen View, Paul Madzore, were arrested in connection with Friday's demonstration.

It was unclear if the two legislators had been released late Sunday.

Coup plot: Court hears of Mugabe, Spain and Seals

Mail and Guardian

      Pretoria, South Africa

      19 February 2007 04:48

            The office of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, former Spanish
President José María Aznar and the United States Navy Seals all had some
connection to the alleged attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea, the Pretoria
Regional Court heard on Monday.

            State witness Ivan Pienaar, who helped with aeronautical
logistics for the coup, told the court how he flew Simon Mann -- alleged
mastermind of the coup -- to Zimbabwe a day before Mann and others were
arrested in Harare, allegedly on their way to Equatorial Guinea.

            After struggling to get a flight plan approved for his return
flight to South Africa, he was told to stay put by the control tower at the
international airport in Harare because clearance from President Robert
Mugabe's office was needed for his plane to leave.

            "It was not normal to get presidential clearance for a flight,"
Pienaar told the court.

            He said this was the second time that he flew Mann to Harare and
had to wait on the runway for presidential clearance before returning to
South Africa.

            Pienaar told the court that this had concerned him and that he
phoned Mann to tell him that everything might not have been as Mann had
hoped in Zimbabwe.

            However, the plane with 60 men from South Africa, allegedly
destined for Equatorial Guinea, left South Africa the next day and landed at
Harare, where they were allegedly supposed to pick up weapons provided by
Zimbabwe's Defence Industries.

            They were, however, arrested and spent more than a year in a
Zimbabwean prison for violating that country's immigration, aviation,
firearms and security laws before returning to South Africa.

            Pienaar was testifying against eight of those men, namely
Raymond Stanley Archer, Victor Dracula, Louis du Preez, Errol Harris,
Mazanga Kashama, Neves Tomas Matias, Simon Morris Witherspoon and Hendrick
Jacobus Hamman, who are facing charges of contravening sections of the
Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act in the Pretoria court.

            Except for Mugabe, Pienaar also told the court that Mann had put
everyone under pressure to get the coup done before March 14 2004, when the
Spanish election was to take place

            "It was so that the Spanish prime minister could sanction the
new Equatorial Guinea president before he had to leave office," Pienaar told
the court.

            Exiled opposition politician Severo Moto was to take over the
reigns of the East African country after long-time ruler President Teodoro
Obiang Nguema Mbasogo was overthrown and flown out of the country on March 7
2004.

            Pienaar told the court that apart from the men from South
Africa, they were told that a team of the Special Forces of the United
States Navy, the Seals, were also on standby "to go in".

            Like several other state witnesses, Pienaar said he was under
the impression that the South African government approved the mission. He
added that the US, British and Spanish governments also allegedly gave their
approval for the coup. -- Sapa

Zimbabwe could be heading for a state of emergency

Zimbabwejournalists.com

By Chenjerai Chitsaru

MANY advocates and campaigners for a truly democratic dispensation in
Zimbabwe must be sensing the ominous prospects of a country heading for a
state of emergency.

The government of President Robert Mugabe appears frustrated in its efforts
to rally the whole country around its ill-concealed drive to revive the
1980s plan to transform the political system into a one-party state one.

After the High Court granted the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led
by Morgan Tsvangirai, permission to hold a rally in Highfield Sunday, the
police decided that was not to be.

Earliest reports suggest, far from being "depleted" - as they told the High
Court on Saturday - the police descended on Highfield, the venue of the
rally, in large enough numbers to send MDC supporters fleeing in all
directions as the time for the meeting to start approached.

The upshot is that the rally did not take place as planned: the government,
probably at the highest level, decided allowing the rally to go ahead would
be taken as a sign of it weakening in its resolve to thwart each and every
attempt by the opposition to assert its democratic rights.

Not many analysts can be under any illusions that this government prefers to
operate in an atmosphere in which the population in general, but
particularly dissenting voices, tremble with fear whenever they contemplate
any action which can conceivably be viewed as a naked challenge to the
authority of the government.

And this rally, given the seal of approval of the law, was going to be one
of the most robust challenges to President Mugabe's authoritarian policies,

No doubt Tsvangirai, starved of any occasion during which he could declare
his own resolve to continue his open opposition to Mubabe's policies, would
have unloaded all the pent-up frustration he has felt since the last time he
was allowed to address a public rally in a city in which his party enjoys
far more support than Mugabe's Zanu PF, since the parliamentary elections in
2000.

Yet the violent break-up of the intended rally must be just one of the
signals of Zanu PF's readiness to resort to "emergency" tactics to survive
what is probably one of its greatest challenges to remain in power.

An incident during the hearings of a parliamentary portfolio committee in
Harare last week was a graphic illustration of the amount of irregularities
the government is having to deal with in its desperate efforts to present a
respectable image to the public.

Called to give evidence to the committee was the intelligence officer of the
central bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. This was on an extremely
ticklish issue: the sale of gold and the role of the central bank in
ensuring there are no irregularities.
There had been public evidence given to the committee of influential
politicians and other government officials being involved in the illicit
trade in gold, much to the embarrassment of the government.

The committee's hearing was being held in public, in the presence of the
media. Before he gave his evidence the RBZ intelligence officer, asked to
give his evidence in the absence of the media.

The suggestion was that most of what he was about to reveal would not sound
correct or even proper to public ears. Although it was assumed there was a
"security" element to the evidence he was about to give to the committee,
there was inevitable suspicion that some of it might involve "important
people" or information revealing serious acts of impropriety.

That the officer was protected by the committee only heightened suspicion
among journalists that there was "dirt" which the RBZ dare not wash in
public.

Soon, the government may be forced to evoke legislation recalling the days
of the state of emergency, shortly after independence in 1980.

Some of the legislation already in place already serves this purpose: both
the PublicOrder and Security Act and the Access to Information and
Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) are seen by many advocates of democracy as
being equivalent in their restrictive content to the laws under the old
state of emergency.

Some critics go as far as to suggest that the government, in apparently
infiltrating the media, is effectively trying to muzzle freedom of
expression, a device used widely during the state of emergency as official
censorship.

Two newspapers, a daily and a weekly, have been publicly alleged to be
controlled, fully or partly, by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO),
the dreaded security arm of the government.

Mugabe has never been comfortable running a country with the sort of
democratic institutions that ensure public accountability.

An example was his impunity in refusing to release the report of an
investigation he ordered into the origins of Gukurahundi, the massacre of a
reported 20 000 people in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces by a North
Korean-trained brigade sent in by Mugabe's government to quell a rebellion
by a group linked to Zapu, the junior partner in the government of national
unity formed after independence.

Only after an independent investigation by the Catholic Commission for
Justice and Peace reported the extent of the atrocities committed by the
government soldiers did Mugabe concede that it was "an act of madness" which
he hoped world never be repeated.

Another sign of the impending approach of government heavy-handedness in the
handling of opposition to its acts is the recent jailing of captains of
industry over what is alleged to be the illegal increase of prices of basic
commodities, whose prices are officially controlled by the government.

The new leader of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), Marah
Hatuvagone, appeared, initially to take a soft stance on what some of her
colleagues in the organization considered to be an outrageous act of
betrayal by the government.
Recently, she has hanged tack, joining in criticizing the prison terms as
counter-productive. Even Gideon Gono, the RBZ governor, has joined in the
criticism.
His criticism sounded strange to some of his critics.

Last year, Gono invited a South Korean academic to speak on the way his
country had revived its economy during the era of one of its dictatorial
rulers, Park Chung Hee. To many critics, Gono seemed to be advocating the
suspension of many civil liberties if the economic revival was to succeed.

In his latest monetary policy review statement Gono advocated a social
contract, involving the government, business and labour, to help stabilize
the economy.
One union leader accused him of "day-dreaming".

The workers would not support the scheme, he said. If the unions stood their
ground and refused to take part in a social contract the prospects of a
state of emergency might be enhanced considerably.

To some of his critics, Mugabe seems to be waiting for just such an
opportunity to deal with the unions, which he accuses of being the political
allies of the MDC, but also to be backed by Western countries and their
unions.

Mugabe seems to be frustrated with the unwillingness of the opposition,
including the unions and civil society, to join him and Zanu PF in
demonizing the West to the same extent that they are demonizing him.

There is little doubt Mugabe blames them all for the French president,
Jacque Chirac's failure to invite him to a conference to which he was
invited the last time it was held.

In fact, Mugabe blames them for the "illegal" sanctions which he claims the
West have imposed on the country since the 2000 land reform fiasco.
There are, no doubt, Zanu PF leaders who would not flinch from imposing a
state of emergency on the country if Mugabe was convinced that this would
ease his political and economic challenges.

Unfortunately for him, his latest setback can only settle very uncomfortably
with his fellow African leaders, particularly in Francophone Africa. For
most Zimbabweans, this might have the effect of making Mugabe more
conciliatory towards the opposition.

Yet, knowing how unpredictable the man is, some might fear that it could
drive him into a tighter corner, leading him to contemplate very seriously a
state of emergency as a last resort.

China's callous diplomacy

International Herald Tribune

Published: February 19, 2007

Misspent your country's wealth? Waged war against an ethnic minority? Or
just tired of those pesky good governance requirements attached to foreign
aid by most Western governments and multilateral institutions?

If you run an African country and have some natural resources to put in
long-term hock, you've got a friend in Beijing ready to write big checks
with no embarrassing questions. That's nice for governments, but not so nice
for their misgoverned people.

China's president, Hu Jintao, recently completed a 12-day, 8-nation African
tour in which he dispensed billions of dollars' worth of debt relief,
discounted loans and new investments. His itinerary included established
democracies like South Africa and hopeful newer ones like Liberia. But it
also included Sudan and Zimbabwe, two of Africa's worst-governed and
deadliest dictatorships.

Beijing's huge purchases of oil and other resources have made it the
continent's third-largest trading partner. Its callous yuan diplomacy is a
growing problem for some of Africa's worst-off people. China's oil appetite
has drawn it into an ugly partnership with Sudan, which is waging a
genocidal war in Darfur that has already killed at least 200,000 people.
China has blocked the United Nations Security Council from ordering Sudan to
accept an effective peacekeeping force and has shielded Sudan from any
serious punishments. On this trip, Hu wrote off Sudanese debts and provided
an interest-free loan for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to build a new
presidential palace. Another favorite is Zimbabwe's president-for-life,
Robert Mugabe. That is bad news for Zimbabweans hoping for free elections,
sane economic policies or merely a peaceful transition once the octogenarian
finally departs.

Even in Africa's better-governed countries, China's growing economic role
has not been much help to the poor. Chinese mining investors in Zambia, as
focused on the bottom line as any capitalists, have drawn complaints from
workers and environmentally minded neighbors. China's lending banks do not
subscribe to the international guidelines, known as the Equator Principles,
that are used to monitor and manage the social and environmental impact of
major outside investments. And a flood of cheap Chinese manufactured goods
has pushed some of the poorest and most marginal workers deeper into poverty
and unemployment.

China isn't the first outside industrial power to behave badly in Africa.
But it should not be proud of following the West's sorry historical example.

Immigrants & refugees

From The Financial Mail (SA), 16 February

Deal with it

By Peter Honey

SA's immigration system is a mess - from unskilled refugees through to
highly skilled professionals. But the tide of immigrants is growing, with a
wide-ranging impact on SA society. To trace the fault line in SA's
immigration system we begin at a makeshift jail in a demobbed army base
outside Musina, the bustling frontier town that nowadays feeds on the
desperation of Zimbabweans moving back and forth over the nearby Beit Bridge
border post for food and supplies. It is here that SA's encounter with
illegal immigrants begins. It ends in suburbs across SA where their presence
has become a fact of life. On a recent day, in what used to be a large
warehouse, a bedraggled group of prisoners sweats under a pall of
despondency. In the rank and captive heat 50 or 60 of them sit or lie on
padded canvas mats strewn haphazardly on the concrete floor: Zimbabweans and
Malawians mostly, but also four Indians who claim to have weaved their way
down Africa in search of new livelihoods, and a lone Somali who says little
but whose eyes speak unfathomable sadness.

These are remnants of the most recent "catch" by local army patrols and
police; a rounding-up of foreigners without permits or passports, who may
have crawled under the electrified razor-wire border fence or bribed their
way past corrupt officials. Earlier that morning, 284 such illegals were
trucked back to Zimbabwe, says one of the police officers assigned to guard
the captives. By tomorrow there will probably be as many again to
repatriate, he adds; in the pre-Christmas season it ran to 500 or more a
day, many of them multiple returnees. As I drive out of the army base, a
truck rolls in with another intake of illegals. A short while later,
standing on Beit Bridge spanning the Limpopo River, I watch two SA soldiers
marching a clutch of newly caught illegals along the service road that runs
along the border fence, taking them for documentary checking, detention and
eventual return to Zimbabwe. This, it seems, is the main preoccupation of
security officers in these parts. "Yes, I will come back," one of the
Malawians in the warehouse prison asserts. No doubt he will. But what then?
What if he succeeds in getting in and staying? "I can work the farm," says
one. "I want to do construction," offers another. These are typical
refrains, spotlighting the tragic futility of this incessant churn of
crossing, capture, deportation and re-crossing...

The border fence - an elaborate construction of wire hoops and electrified
wires, built in the 1980s - is now little more than a hideous joke. Holes
abound in the mesh where people have crossed repeatedly over the years; the
electricity is kept at low voltage, if at all, to set off an alarm, but is
easy to avoid. Anyway, the main fence stops a few kilometres east and west
of Beit Bridge, replaced by a simple barbed-wire fence, rickety and cut in
many places. It's simply a matter of walking across the usually dry Limpopo,
stooping under the wires, and one is in SA. The main challenge is the
distance and summer heat - and crocodiles when the river is flowing. "At
least crocodiles don't take bribes," mutters a Musina municipal official
with a gallows grin. Most who make it past the security net head for farms
in the vicinity where they will work for between R700 and R800 a month, says
Jacob Matakanye, who runs a legal advice office in Musina. He has just
secured sponsorship from international human rights aid group Atlantic
Philanthropies, mainly to assist refugees and prevent them from being
exploited by unscrupulous employers.

Matakanye says it was not uncommon for farmers and other bosses to hire
illegals for about a month and give them up to the authorities without
paying them. But that scam has become rare since it was exposed and the
authorities began taking a harder line, he says. "Most people who cross the
border illegally have no money, and they work for a few months until they
have enough to move on to better jobs further south, specially in Gauteng,"
he says. There they must take their chances in either lying low illegally,
finding casual work, or applying at the department of home affairs for
permits as asylum-seekers or refugees. Asylum-seeker permits can take two
years to work their way through the home affairs backlog, but the piece of
paper proving an application is pending is enough - at least in theory - to
protect the holder from arrest. That may be one reason why in major centres
like Johannesburg, suburbs such as Yeoville and Hillbrow are crammed with
foreigners openly plying their trade, where Igbo or Shona languages are more
commonly heard than SA dialects. Mozambicans, it is said, tend to congregate
in townships such as Alexandra; Somalis, it seems, can do business and
thrive anywhere. But in Cape Town, especially, where their traders' acumen
has roused latent xenophobia in some local communities, they have been
subjected to murderous attacks that left at least 21 Somalis dead last year.

No-one seems able to provide accurate numbers of these foreigners in SA and
their impact, positive or negative, on the economy. There is mounting
evidence that many, if not most, foreign Africans move to and from SA in a
constant flux. The longer illegal immigrants remain undocumented, the more
they run the risk of arrest and deportation. Most detainees are held in the
Lindela repatriation centre near Krugersdorp - a privately run facility that
is SA's main holding and processing camp for illegals. The cost of all of
this circular policing and repatriation is difficult to pin down, though all
concerned agree it runs to many tens of millions of rand each year. Home
affairs says it repatriated and deported nearly 210 000 illegals in 2005, a
26% increase over the previous year and well above the 163 000 average of
the past 12 years. How many of these are repeat asylum-seekers or refugees
it doesn't say. The economic collapse of Zimbabwe has made that country the
single biggest source of illegal immigrants in the past two years,
overtaking Mozambique. Since last May SA has deported more than 80 000
people back to Zimbabwe, many of them from other countries, says Hans-Petter
Boe, Southern African regional representative of the International
Organisation for Migration, which opened a repatriation facility on the
Zimbabwean side of Beit Bridge 10 months ago to provide food, transport and
assistance to deportees. But the nationalities of deportees may reflect less
the proportion of immigrants entering SA than the desire by the authorities
to target particular nationalities, says Sally Peberdy, project manager of
the Southern African Migration Project (Samp ).

to be continued...

Only Futility Will Anchor the Sinking ZANU PF Ship

Silence Chihuri

ZANU PF was it again full throttle, descending on the hapless community of
Chiredzi like a thunderstorm in pursuit of an increasingly elusive vote. The
main intention as usual, was to inflict as much shock and awe on the rural
people in and around Chikombedzi while masquerading as benefactors
splattering state food all over the place.

Despite scrapping through and wining the seat courtesy of the fractured and
fragmented MDC, the apathy shown from the extremely low turnout of less than
30% of those registered to vote goes a long way to show how generally,
Zimbabweans have become fed up of ZANU PF abuse. The allegations that
opposition polling agents were still subjected to the sub-human treatment
that has always been the norm in elections also shows that ZANU PF is not
going back on dirty tactics but actually advancing with impunity. The need
for unity of purpose in the opposition could never be over emphasised in
circumstances like this.

While the people came out in their droves to take the deserved food
handouts, that did not spur them out in equal strength to vote for a party
that has completely turned into a monster. Neither did dragging of the likes
of Joseph Musika from the sick -bed pay the desired dividends, nor did the
predatory militaristic antics of Vitalis Zvinavashe scare the people out of
their homes. Not even the motherly Amai Mujuru would woo the women to swap
their pots and pans for the ballot papers

Food is what the poor people of Chiredzi and those in other rural parts of
Zimbabwe are yearning for, not threats from people like Zvinavashe who have
obviously benefited from the hand of ZANU PF that rewards generously all
those who parrot the party line. No Zimbabwean has ever forgotten that on
the even of the 2002 presidential elections Zvinavashe was one of the
politically alligned service chiefs who made an unprecedented statement that
they would never salute a president who never fought in the liberation war.
Even in his retirement the life General is executing his avowed duties to
the letter.

The ZANU PF government has survived on threats ever since its inception in
1980. During the first elections at independence ZANU PF openly threatened
to return to war should they lose the elections to ZAPU or any other party
for that matter. Back then ex-ZANLA combatants were actively urged to "bury
their weapons and turn themselves empty-handed into the designated assembly
points" and the grand plan was to resort to these should their party lose
the elections. Acts of violence and intimidation were witnessed in the then
war-fatigued areas of Masholand though these were to be surpassed by the
genocide style Gulurahundi reprisals.

Although in 1985 the shadows of Gukurahundi were still re-visiting many
people in their dreams, the threat of going back to that dark reality was
not enough to scare especially the people of Matabeleland where ZAPU swept
all the newly delimitated constituency seats. However, in the Midlands the
tactics worked and ZAPU lost all its five seats to ZANU PF. While the 1990
general elections might have been held after the Unity Accord, they were
also held against a backdrop of the most severe ever drought that made
Zimbabweans to taste yellow sadza for the first time. With the inception of
ZUM to aid the stubborn though regional ZANU Ndonga, the temperature was
again raised. People were threatened with starvation and the unkown should
they vote for the opposition.

The threats turned to cold-blooded murder in the 2000 parliamentary
elections when for the first time, the new and vibrant Movement for
Democratic Change posed a real threat to the ZANU PF hegemony. The threats
were put into practice in all manner and form. Reports of violent incidents
including the killing of opposition activists became the order of the day
and this pattern was sustained into the runner up to the 2002 presidential
elections. Some of the incidents that have been documented by organisations
such the Zimbabwe Human Rights Forum on election related violence make
really sickening reading.

There is a long list of murdered people, the most well known cases including
that of Chiminya and Mabika among many others, and the minute details of
other similarly violent actions such as rape, beatings, torture, burning
down of houses and the general destruction of property that has been rampant
during all election periods. But from the look of things, it seems that all
the acts of violence are only serving to harden the people against an
increasingly inhumane government and ruling party. The recent incidents of
stone throwing and running battles with the police is a very clear sign of
times ahead especially as the regime pushes the people to the limit.

While the MDC party has been the biggest threat ever to ZANU PF, it is
ironical how the same party seems to be aiding ZANU PF by default. The
functioning of a party should not necessarily be attributed to its leader
but to its structures however, the direction of the party is a direct
consequence of the leader's judgement. At a time like this when there is
desperate need for real leadership from the opposition politcians, the issue
of Tsvangirai's judgement or lack of it, can never be ignored and needs be
revisited.

The recent decision to vow to go ahead with launching his presidential
campaign for elections that he says he will press to be held in 2008 may
sound courageous to those who have never heard him speak before. But to
those who know Tsvangirai fully well, this is yet another illogical
pronouncement because those words strike a disturbing code with futile
'Final Push' of 2002 when he promised to lead the march to State House but
never even tried to do so. Everyone wants the back of ZANU PF and the sooner
the better. However no toying with the feelings of the people will help any
desperate but flawed political grandstanding.

Tsvangirai says elections will be held in 2008 under a new democratic
constitution no matter what, ad this is on the basis of his determined
confidence. Mugabe's current term expires in March 2008 just a little over
thirteen months from now. This spectre throws in a few factors that work
against Tsvangirai's pronouncement, and one of them is his track record in
putting words into action when it comes to major political pledges.
Secondly, while everyone would like an early political scenario that
excludes ZANU PF as the main player, elections under the current
constitution no matter how soon, will be both undesirable and unbeneficial.
Yet the only but undesirable possibility at this point in time for elections
in 2008, will be under the existing constitution!

This is on the basis of the logistical aspects and practicality of executing
a fully comprehensive all-encompassing constitutional transformation,
especially where people would be aim for an all-inclusive consultative and
adoption process. Constitutional change is itself a daunting process and one
that can never be fast tracked for whatever political and expedient
intentions. Most countries that have undergone similar processes have done
so on average in no less than two years and South Africa is an example. The
situation in Zimbabwe today is a little bit detached from the ideal
pre-constitutional period and this is due to a host of factors ranging from
fragmentation to general non-conduciveness to such a process.

Thirdly, ZANU PF and not MDC can currently make the decision to go for
elections and for their record ZANU PF should be well known for ducking
decisions that they deem to be to their detriment. This one they will resist
vigorously and in typical ZANU PF fashion, unless of course they are
arm-twisted. Given that ZANU PF is a little bit of Golieth at the moment,
faced with several Davids that are but steadily swinging their slings into
the direction of the giant, it is yet to be seen whether ZANU PF can
actually be tamed.

In typical fashion ZANU PF have thrown the spanners right into Tsvangirai's
determined quest to press ahead with preparations in anticipation of
election in 2008 by refusing him his democratic right to present himself as
the presidential candidate of his party at Gwanzura Stadium. This once again
forces Tsvangirai back to the drawing board so he can come up with yet
another convincing and feasible rallying call because his first card has
been turn over. This is another dangerous gamble by Tsvangirai and the fact
that ZANU PF has successfully thwarted the launching rally, will only
encourage them to counter his next move in the same way while Tsvangirai's
confidence and judgemental credibility are dampened. This is Mugabe rallying
his charges to destroy democracy versus Tsavngirai whose own charges in
pursuit of same have been scuttled on the first battle.

On the other side of the MDC divide, Arthur Mutambara seems to have read the
mood and realised that what is required now though a campaign, it is one of
a different nature. In defiant style Mutambara launched the earlier
announced 'Defiance Campaign' aimed at defying whatever repressive obstacles
the brutal dictatorship will put onto the path to democracy. The launch was
held, not without the visible arm of the regime rearing its ugly presence,
in the second city of Bulawayo where the state machinery was defied in all
purposes and intends. By any measure the launch was successful because, even
though the venue of the launch itself was made inaccessible by the regime,
the spirit and process of launching the campaign was not stopped.

Ever since they tested the waters by announcing their much loathed so-called
harmonisation of the elections ZANU PF have retreated to base and have
betrayed very little if any hints of their next concrete course of action.
No one knows what exactly they will do next, other than of course sustaining
the current policy of repression. It is yet to be known whether they will
still seek to extend Mugabe's term to 2010 and then hold the elections in
that year, or they will still hold them in 2008 but under the same
conditionalities. Of course the simmering divisions in ZANU PF regarding
that issues is a welcome rarity but one that can never be naively banked on
because the party has a tradition of papering such cracks to keep the ship
afloat.

Not just elections in 2008 can turn our fortunes for better because there
are other political alternative arrangements that can actually usher in the
new but desirable democratic discourse. The situation in Zimbabwe today is
one that may actually warrant some kind of a transitional process. For
example, there could an interim arrangement whereby a caretaker authority
would be installed to oversee the constitutional process and then the
harmonised elections. This is one option that may actually be a much more
feasible and ideal situation because there are factors that are going
against the kind of political situation that we face today.

Whatever ZANU PF will propose to do, defying their every move is the way
forward. They need to be defied first because they are also in defiance. The
fact that they are still overruling and ignoring court orders only should
send a clear message to Tsvangirai that the battle for Zimbabwe may no
longer be won in the courts. The rule of law is observed in an environment
where the authorities enforce it, not where the authorities cast their
derisory but imposing figure on the legal and judicial institutions of the
state.

Chihuri writes from Scotland - contact him on silencechihuri@hotmail.com