| The ZIMBABWE Situation | Our
thoughts and prayers are with Zimbabwe - may peace, truth and justice prevail. |
Johannesburg - Zimbabwe journalists have threatened to join
anti-government
pressure groups if their call for media freedom is ignored,
said the Media
Defence Fund (MDF) and the Media Lawyers Network (MLN) on
Thursday.
Responding to a Supreme Court's judgement to uphold certain
sections of the
Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA),
the MDF and MLN
called it a very dark day for press freedom in
Zimbabwe.
Rashweat Mukundu, research and information officer for the
media institute
of Southern Africa, MISA, said the decision had been met with
outrage by the
various affected bodies.
In Thursday's hearing,
bringing to an end 15 months of "hope and
speculation", four out of five
judges accepted that "the practice of
journalism was different from the other
liberal professions such as law and
medicine... it involves the freedom of
expression, the receiving and
imparting of information".
But Chief
Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku said in his judgement: "This
distinction, in my
view, does not place the practice of journalism beyond
the control of
statutory regulation."
The Independent Journalists Association of
Zimbabwe, IJAZ's, sought the
nullification of various sections of the AIPPA,
including a provision making
it mandatory for all journalists to obtain
accreditation from a
government-appointed commission.
But the Supreme
Court ruled that the clauses which compel journalists to win
accreditation
from the body and allow the media commission to develop and
enforce a code of
conduct, were constitutional.
IJAZ's lawyer, Sternford Moyo, said the
judgement by a supreme court,
dominated by judges who support President
Robert Mugabe's government, "was
not unexpected".
But Mukundu said all
eyes would now be on the outcome of the Daily News'
challenge of the Act, to
be heard in the Supreme Court on February 18.
Not overly
confident
"We are not overly confident. But only after that decision is
made can we
plan our route forward," he said.
Mukundu warned however,
that media freedom fighters in Zimbabwe were running
out of options and may
have to adopt a more hard-line stance.
"And while we wait, journalists in
this country (Zimbabwe) continue to be
arrested and forced out of work," he
said.
Mukundu said many freelance journalists were being refused permits
to work
and were often "arrested and beaten.
In a combined statement,
the MDF and MLN said the long-awaited judgement
"may be out but it leaves all
those who fight for freedom of expression
worse off, as all doors to the
practising of journalism in an enabling
society have been closed.
"We
reiterate that the sections upheld by the majority of the bench
severely
undermine the exercise of freedom of expression and through this
the
government is targeting the media operating in the private sector who
would
otherwise be beyond their control."
Edited by Tricia Shannon
Subject: Threatened prosecutions of Independent School Boards/SDAs
Dear
Friends,
Re Threat of prosecution against Independent School
Boards
The threat contained in today's Herald (attached) must be seen as
part of a
wider strategy to unsettle middle class urban people, of all races,
who are
perceived, correctly, as being anti the regime. This threat will not
be
resolved if schools respond in an uncoordinated, piecemeal,
individualistic
and weak fashion. Neither will the threat be deal with if
schools, or CHIS,
think that they can deal with it through appeasement or
negotiation. What
has happened to the CFU and farmers is a clear
demonstration that such
measures do not work.
We must also not deceive
ourselves into thinking that the regime is not
prepared to consider the
demise of private education. It has already
demonstrated that it is prepared
to do anything to remain in power. Most of
the ZANU (PF) elite have
sufficient money to educate their children
elsewhere in any event and they
will also probably calculate that a few
schools will remain, as has happened
in farming. My advice is to let them
prosecute but if they do a test case
should be taken up and senior counsel
employed from South Africa to challenge
the constitutionality of the
prosecution and the provisions they will rely
on. Simultaneously a public
relations campaign should be launched locally and
internationally
explaining the sinister motives behind this action.
Independent economists
should be retained to write on the economic/financial
predicament faced by
schools and such papers should be given widespread
publicity. But more than
anything else it is vital that a coordinated
strategy be agreed to -
individual Boards must resist the temptation of
thinking they can avoid
this by negotiating in isolation. Counter measures
must also be considered.
For example if Heads or Chairperson of Boards are
arrested consideration
should be given to closing the schools down in
protest. Lists of all Zanu
(PF) parents with children in respective schools
should be drawn up so that
those parents can be lobbied and advised of the
potential consequences of
this action. I stress that this should not be done
as a threat in any way -
they should just be advised that if Heads or
Chairpersons are arrested or
locked up and schools forced to close, either in
protest or because they
are no longer viable economically, their own children
will suffer. In
closing may I remind you I, over the last few years, have
repeatedly made
similar pleas (to litigate, to publicise, to understand the
sinister
political motivation and not to appease or negotiate from a position
of
weakness) to organisations such as the CFU and other
business
organisations. These pleas have largely fallen on deaf ears or have
been
ignored with catastrophic consequences for the farming and
business
sectors. This is now the next stage in a war being fought by the
regime
against the people of Zimbabwe. This war is by no means over and is by
no
means anywhere near won by the regime. In fact this latest action is
a
further act of desperation by the regime. If we stand together and if
we
take a firm stand on principle the regime will be defeated, not just in
the
application of this policy but in its goal to transform Zimbabwe into
a
totalitarian state. Yours sincerely, David Coltart MP Last
Updated:
Thursday, 5 February 2004
35 private schools face
prosecution
Herald Reporter
THIRTY-FIVE private schools have been
handed over to the police for
prosecution after they increased fees and
levies without Government
approval, the Minister of Education, Sport and
Culture, Cde Aeneas
Chigwedere said yesterday.
If found guilty, the
school development committees or boards for the 35
schools would be
dissolved.
This follows the suspension, pending disciplinary hearing, of
13 heads of
Government schools on Tuesday for increasing fees without
approval.
Some parents yesterday hailed the suspension of defiant school
heads saying
the move would ensure that children from humble families are not
priced out
of school.
Cde Chigwedere yesterday released a list of the
35 private schools.
These are Arundel, Bishopslea Primary, St George's
College, Chisipite
Senior, Chisipite Ju-nior, Eaglesvale Preparatory School,
Eaglesvale
Secondary, Hartman House Primary, Heritage Primary, Heritage High,
Gateway
Primary, Gateway High, St John's College, St John's Preparatory
School and
Lusitania from Harare region.
In Manicaland, there is
Hillcrest College while Barwick Primary was so far
the only school from
Mashonaland Central handed over to the police.
In Mashonaland East, the
minister named Peterhouse Boys, Peterhouse Girls,
Peterhouse Junior and
Watershed College.
In Mashonaland West, there is Bryden Primary,
Lomagundi College, Lomagundi
Junior, Lilfordia Primary, Rydings Primary,
while in Masvingo there is Kyle
High, Kyle Primary and Riverton
Academy.
Cde Chigwedere said Carmel Primary, Dominican Convent, Girls
College and
Petra College, all in Matabeleland North, Falcon College in
Matabeleland
South and the Midlands College in the Midlands Province, were
also handed
over to the police for prosecution.
He said the 35 schools
should immediately revert to the fees and levies
they charged last
term.
"This should be done until they negotiate new fee structures with
the
ministry," he said.
All schools need written approval from the
ministry before they can
increase fees or levies by more than 10
percent.
Cde Chigwedere said the law would take its course against the
schools in
question while an appropriate penalty would be imposed on
them.
Police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena
confirmed that
the schools had been handed over to the police.
He said
investigations were currently underway.
"The schools in question have
been handed over to our police stations
throughout the country and
investigations are still in progress.
"As soon as we complete our
investigations, we will charge them according
to the relevant sections of the
law," he said.
Some schools were now demanding as much as $7 million a
term.
A parent, Mr Paul Tsikai of Harare, said: "We welcome this move
because
many schools in the country were now being run like businesses which
put
profits before anything else."
He said good education was slowly
becoming a preserve of the rich.
"Even factory workers like me should be
able to send their children to a
relatively good school but at the moment,
that is proving impossible," said
Mr Tsikai.
Ms Catherine Chiparange
of Marlborough said it was high time the ministry
introduced tougher measures
against school heads and SDAs.
"We want them to be answerable to
Government because our children in
boarding schools get pathetic meals and
are staying under terrible
conditions yet we pay huge sums of money," she
said.
"It would be better if we were paying high fees and our children
were being
looked after well but that is not the case and there should be
some
explanation as to what the levy hikes are for."
An SDA member
from one of the 13 schools affected dismissed the
Government's move, saying
as long as there was no written communication,
the SDA in question would
continue operating.
"How long have they been saying they would act to
stop schools from
increasing levies? And when did they ever do it? They
should just stop
confusing people," he said.
Others said people should
just put their children in schools they could
afford and boycott those they
considered expensive.
"It is no big deal to send your child to a school
that costs $7 million if
you can afford it," said a parent who would only
identify himself as Mr
Muchina.
However, the move to suspend the
school heads and SDAs that had defied the
directive not to increase fees
without the ministry's approval appears to
be impractical since the fees and
levies had already been paid.
Cde Chigwedere said those who had already
paid the new "illegal" fees
should have the excess credited against the fees
and levies due next term.
The affected schools include Prince Edward
High, Mutare Boys High, Bindura
Primary, Chancellor Primary, Godfrey Huggins
and Fletcher High.
Cde Chigwedere said the process of flushing out
defiant schools was far
from over as teams from his ministry were still out
in full force scouting
for those breaking the law.
From http://www.herald..co.zw/
The Telegraph
We must stop Mugabe
(Filed: 07/02/2004)
Short
attention spans are responsible for a great many evils. Not long ago,
our
newspapers were full of gruesome stories about the suffering of black
and
white Zimbabweans. Yet it seems that we can only think about horrible
deeds
for so long before our minds wander back to the cosy world of
domestic
politics.
How Lilliputian that world must seem to women like
Gisela Honeywill, tied up
and raped while her husband pleaded with her
attackers, and then left to
speed to Harare in search of anti-retroviral
drugs. Her story, and others
which we carry today, reveal what has been
happening in Zimbabwe while we
have been transfixed by the Hutton inquiry.
The country is descending into a
kind of primal savagery. Whereas most states
pass from barbarism through
dictatorship to democracy, Zimbabwe has gone in
the opposite direction.
Five years ago, it was a happy enough place, with
food surpluses, property
rights, a free press, an elected parliament and an
independent judiciary.
One by one, those things have been destroyed by Robert
Mugabe's regime. Now,
order itself is giving way to a Hobbesian state of
nature. If a man wants
another's property, he seizes it. If he wants a woman,
he takes her. If he
resents those whose skins are different from his, he
drives them out.
Were we to measure the importance of news by its net
effect on human
happiness, the destruction of Zimbabwe would be regularly on
our front
pages. When there was mass rape and ethnic cleansing in the
Balkans, it
dominated the political agenda of the Western world. Why, then,
is Zimbabwe
different? It is further away, of course. Yet the United Kingdom
has a far
greater responsibility there, both as the colonial power and as the
mother
country of many of the planters.
There was a time when white
Zimbabweans could expect little sympathy from
the British Left, but the
enormity of Mugabe's crimes has brought even the
most determined
anti-colonialists to their senses. No, the real problem
seems to be that
people feel powerless to help, and therefore push the
atrocities from their
minds. Yet there are things which we could do, such as
actively sponsoring
pro-democracy activists, and seizing assets from leading
figures in the
regime pending compensation claims from their victims. It is
too late to
avert the catastrophe; but at least we can salvage some honour.
SABC
Zimbabwe vows to keep ban on foreign journalists
February 06,
2004, 10:05 PM
Zimbabwe hailed a supreme court ruling upholding its
restrictive media law
and vowed today it would not relax measures preventing
foreign journalists
from residing permanently in the country. Jonathan Moyo,
the information
minister, said a British inquiry's criticism of the BBC in a
row with Tony
Blair, the prime minister, over Iraq had vindicated its banning
of the
broadcaster. "We have no apology to make," Moyo told
reporters.
"We do not want to flood our country with foreign media
representatives when
we have a flood of Zimbabwean journalists with no jobs."
He said foreign
journalists could still make short reporting trips to the
country after a
stringent accreditation procedure. Zimbabwe's highest court
yesterday
endorsed legislation tightening government control over the media,
ruling
the laws do not violate free speech. Media groups condemned the
ruling,
calling the laws an "unnecessary evil" in a country calling itself
a
democracy.
President Robert Mugabe introduced the laws after his
controversial
re-election in March 2002, a move critics say was aimed at
silencing
opponents as the southern African country struggles with a deep
political
and economic crisis. Dozens of journalists have already been
prosecuted
under the act. It has also been cited in police attempts to close
down the
Daily News, Zimbabwe's largest privately owned daily newspaper and a
strong
critic of Mugabe's government.
"I am delighted about the
decision of the Supreme Court," Moyo said. He said
the government was forced
to act after realising that Western powers wanted
to use the foreign media in
"their campaign for unconstitutional regime
change" in Zimbabwe. "It will
take a stupid and irresponsible government not
to do something against such a
move," he said.
Moyo said Zimbabwe had been vindicated in banning the BBC
by last month's
indictment of the public broadcaster in a report into the
suicide of a
British weapons expert identified as the source of a BBC report
that said
Blair's government deliberately exaggerated Iraq's weapons
capability to
justify going to war.
The BBC apologised to Blair after
the release of the Hutton report. "These
guys are no good. Look what they did
to Blair," Moyo said. "But at least
they apologised to him. We asked for a
similar apology but they refused."
Zimbabwe banned the BBC after June 2000
parliamentary elections, alleging
biased reporting. The BBC denied the
charge. - Reuters
New Zimbabwe
Mugabe's nephew faces more charges
By Staff
Reporter
07/02/04
CHINHOYI legislator and businessman Phillip Chiyangwa
faces more charges
after police quizzed him over fresh claims that he misused
$36 million meant
for public works in Mashonaland West
province.
Chiyangwa’s four-hour detention came as he was making a routine
report at
Harare’s Central Police Station Friday morning as part of his
bail
conditions on unrelated charges of perjury, attempt to defeat the course
of
justice and contempt of court.
Chiyangwa’s lawyer Lloyd Mhishi of
Dube, Manikai and Hwacha and Partners
admitted that police were keen to
charge Chiyangwa on a new case, but
declined to answer further
questions.
Chiyangwa glibly said: "I had just gone there for my routine
reporting.
There is no case.”
The flamboyant business showman took
over a court room last month when
summoned to explain his interest in a
US$61m fraud scandal involving two
young managers of a capital asset
management firm.
In keeping with his elegant style, Chiyangwa sped to
court in his expensive
metallic grey BMW saloon and was clad in a black suit,
tartan shirt and
maroon tie. He carried a black leather handbag.
When
court proceedings began, Chiyangwa had the public gallery in stitches.
He
constantly referred to the prosecutor as a “young man”, prompting
the
magistrate to intervene.
"The courts do not operate that way,"
said magistrate Mishrod Guvamombe. "He
is a chief law officer in the
Attorney-General's office…a very top lawyer
for the government."
But a
defiant Chiyangwa interjected: "He is my young man. I was his chairman
in the
anti-corruption task force, where he was a chief lawyer. I do not
want him to
ask me unnecessary questions.”
When asked about police claims that he
held onto two cars which were needed
as evidence in the fraud case and hid
them in his house, Chiyangwa lost it,
firing a broadside at the police before
sending a chilling warning.
"As for the excited policeman, who brought up
these allegations, I will deal
with him at some stage," railed Chiyangwa, a
member of the notorious black
empowerment organisation – the Affirmative
Action Group.
He refused to withdraw his threat when asked to do so by the
magistrate.
In the latest corruption allegation, it is claimed that
Chiyangwa received
$36 million, part of a $60 million fund for public works
in Mashonaland West
province where Chiyangwa is the ruling Zanu PF
chairman.
He is said to have instructed the Chinhoyi council to release
the money,
before issuing two cheques amounting to $12 million to a senior
council
official and a Zanu PF youth leader in the province.
Observers
say the latest developments prove beyond doubt that Zimbabwe’s
law
enforcements agents are definitely out to get the young businessman who
for
long periods has been protected by his association with the ruling Zanu
PF
party. He is also President Mugabe’s nephew.
Recently, the
state-owned Herald newspaper claimed there was a plot to
discredit Reserve
Bank Governor Gideon Gono by some Harare businessmen
concerned about his
clean-up in the financial sector.
The paper claimed a fund had been set
up “to cause his downfall” by
“powerful politicians and businessmen” unhappy
with recent financial sector
reforms which led to the arrest of ENG Asset
Management directors on US$61m
fraud, and consequently that of Chiyangwa who
reportedly owns about 40
percent shares in the firm.
The Herald
claimed: “A number of secretive meetings are reportedly being
held to map out
ways of smearing Dr Gono by the businessmen and politicians
who feel the
governor is frustrating their illegal businesses and
political
careers.”
Last week we reported an alleged plot to kill
Chiyangwa. A man was arrested
by the police, although no charges have been
filed. Chiyangwa claims his
arrest is political, and that his opponents are
trying to prevent him from
joining the race to replace President Mugabe when
he finally goes.
The Herald
Angel of death brings prosperity to some
By Sifelani
Tsiko
Death has hit or destroyed many families; but it has brought prosperity
for
some, those who make the tombstones and coffins, create the
flower
arrangements for graves and open new funeral homes.
As more
people die from Aids, old age and other natural and man-made causes,
there
are more people in the funeral service industry.
But profit margins are
low, competition is intense and many families simply
cannot afford a grand
send off for their relatives.
Local funeral directors and funeral homes
say the country’s high death rate
has not translated the industry’s fortunes
into a boon owing to rising
inflation and low premium charges.
"It’s
not as rosy as people think," says Abel Chimutanda a spokesman for
Moonlight,
one of the country’s leading funeral assurance firms. "A lot of
people are
dying, most of them before their policies have matured, that is,
10-year
requirement.
"Most policies were taken years back. Now, with inflation
the costs of
materials, coffins, vehicles and operational expenses have shot
up
tremendously eating its way up into the perceived boon," he
said.
He says funeral assurance companies were making losses when they
rendered
services to premium holders that had not matured. "We make direct
losses
when we give a service and this is different from cash clients," he
says.
An estimated 3 000 people die every week in Zimbabwe and health
experts say
nearly 70 percent of them die early from Aids related
illnesses.
And this means that more than 160 000 people die every
year.
According to the United Nations Population Fund, the Aids-induced
death
differential is projected to widen rapidly during the next decade
estimating
the country’s crude death rate to hit a 12,9 per 1
000.
Even though funeral directors and funeral homes speak with guarded
optimism,
economists say soaring death rates in the country have led to a
growing
demand for funeral services, boosting demand for the
companies.
They say the well-healed in Harare were now demanding
customised services
which ranged from exclusive casket designs and other
lavish ceremony
settings.
The price of coffins and caskets had shot to
unimaginable prices in the past
year.
The cheapest coffin from
established funeral parlours now ranged between
$250 000 and $500 000 while
top range caskets were selling at between $3
million and over $5
million.
"Business is quite good for most homes," says a bereavement and
funeral
consultant.
"Most directors are not so keen to speak about it,
but I know generally that
business is not as bad as they would like to put
it," he said.
Mr Phillip Mataranyika, the managing director of Nyaradzo
Funeral Assurance
Company and secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Association
of Funeral
Assurers says while the assurance side of the industry battles
with high
claims, there is the services side which is experiencing high
demand due to
rising deaths," he said.
Florists, flower vendors,
coffin manufacturing firms and a chain of other
funeral service providers
have in a way benefited from the rising death
rate.
"Very few
companies are buying flowers for decoration," says Farai
Nyamundaya, a flower
vendor at Africa Unity Square.
"We are depending on bereaving families
who come here to buy flowers," he
said.
On a good day, he says, he can
make $160 000 or more and when business is
low, he gets about $15
000.
But Mr Mataranyika says it is not about making money only.
He
says the funeral service industry was also facing numerous challenges:
the
unavailability of burial space, the lack of maintenance of
cemeteries,
unregistered firms that were duping many policy holders and
rising
operational costs.
"The shortage of burial space is quite
critical for the people and also the
survival of the industry," he
says.
"We are discussing with authorities so that we can have a new site
for
burial. We also want authorities to maintain cemeteries in a better way
to
meet the expectations of the people.
"Cemeteries should be a place
where people can visit and reflect on their
lives and remember their departed
loved ones," he added.
Ratepayers were unhappy over the failure by
council to properly maintain
cemeteries in Tafara, Warren Hills, Greendale
and Granville — popularly
known as "Kumbudzi."
They complained that
the permanent resting-places had now been totally
neglected with unmaintained
grass and trees. These cemeteries also lacked
adequate security to curb
growing vandalism on graves by thieves.
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2004 3:29 PM
Subject: Hairy
caterpillars
Dear Family and Friends,
In an intricate and
close knit zipper pattern, about 100 pale green and
bright orange
caterpillars are clinging to a Msasa tree in the car park at
my son's junior
school. Lying side by side in a great swathe which is
almost three feet long
and a foot wide, the caterpillars have very long
hairs and their united
gathering is enough to scare away the most
determined of attackers. How I
wish Zimbabweans could unite and follow the
example of this great
congregation of Msasa moths because this week the
unrest and discontent in
the country reached dizzy heights and we all seem
to be wandering around
alone in a state of dazed paralysis.
It began on Wednesday when the
results of a parliamentary by-election in
Gutu were announced. The seat fell
vacant on the death of Vice President
Simon Muzenda last September. Out of 59
thousand registered voters in Gutu,
only 28 thousand voted. In the run up to
the election, the government
gazetted 10 commercial farms in Gutu which are
to be taken over by the
State. Opposition MDC offices in both Harare and
Bulawayo were raided by
police. The MDC were unable to hold even one rally in
Gutu and their
candidate was taken hostage for several hours by over a
hundred government
youths who attempted to get Mr Musoni to withdraw his
candidature. A
villager said that traditional chiefs warned residents that if
Zanu PF
didn't win people would be evicted from their homesteads. A chief
said that
he and his colleagues had been warned by government officials that
they
would be stripped of their positions and have their monthly
allowances
withdrawn if the MDC won. The MDC said that 7000 names of people
from other
constituencies had been added to the voters roll and when voting
began
maize was being distributed by government officials. Zanu PF
declared
victory and retired air chief marshall Josiah Tungimirai polled 20
699
votes.
On Wednesday and Thursday, shortly after returning from
watching football
in Tunisia, the Minister of Education announced that
headmasters from 35
schools across the country were to be suspended and
prosecuted for raising
school fees without government permission. Many of the
schools listed are
Zimbabwe's finest private institutions and, ironically, it
is to these
schools that government ministers, the new A2 farmers, and top
Zanu PF
officials send their children. Included in the list was the
headmaster of a
government school in Marondera. Because of his suspension
this headmaster
was therefore unable to take the school vehicle to collect
food for
boarding pupils, unable to sign cheques for daily food deliveries
such as
bread and unable to withdraw cash from the schools' bank
account.
The chaos deepened on Thursday and Friday when month end
Municipal Council
bills arrived in our post boxes. In Marondera my rates have
gone up by 1615
percent. Water has gone up by 1650 percent and refuse removal
by 1150
percent. Everyone in our town, from postmen to lawyers and factory
workers
to housewives are saying they are unable to pay the new
prices.
The mayhem this week included a demonstration calling for a
new
constitution which left the organiser beaten and paraded through
the
streets of Harare by police and over 100 others arrested. It also
included
an announcement from the Daily News that they have suspended
publication
after the Supreme Court ruled that all journalists must be
registered with
the government. For 9 amazing days the taste of democracy had
circulated
with people hiding copies of the newspaper under their shirts or
down their
trouser legs and passing them on. I read copies which had been
read by 20
people before me and each was then passed on again so that others
could see
what's really going on in Zimbabwe. Schools, ratepayers,
journalists and
opposition supporters have all been in the front line this
week and it
remains to be seen if we are capable of uniting like the hairy
caterpillars
in order to save our own lives. Until next week, with love,
cathy.
Copyright cathy buckle, 7th February 2004.
http://africantears.netfirms.com
My
books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears" and "Beyond Tears" are
now
available outside Africa from: orders@africabookcentre.com
;
www.africabookcentre.com ; www.amazon.co.uk ; in Australia and
New
Zealand: johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au
; Africa: www.kalahari.net
www.exclusivebooks.com
New Zimbabwe
Nyarota and Sipepa: Two faces of feuding Daily
News
By Nathaniel Manheru
07/02/04
LAST week I was rather too brief
on Geoffrey Nyarota’s fecund piece to MDC’s
Welshman Ncube and Paul Themba
Nyathi. One thing for certain is that it is
in fact a misnomer to link it to
just the two opposition members. The letter
’s universe is as densely
populated as an average Indian and Chinese city
combined.
Its contents
are a richly dense tapestry of intrigues, conspiracies,
machinations and
manoeuvres that more than befits the arcane world of
espionage and other
shades of traitorous behaviour. For that reason it
deserves a second and more
considered take, more so given that it amounts to
an eloquent admission by
Nyarota, all along in denial, that MDC is dead:
finished by
itself.
Nyarota’s so long a letter bemoans this fatal self-immolation,
this
self-rejection followed by death and disintegration of which his own
life in
self-exile is its vivid and natural existential metaphor. Much like
Nyarota
himself, the MDC has finally woken up to its sheer irrelevance
and
out-of-placeness, itself initially signalled by its unthinking
importation
of a political programme on the one hand and, by its exportation
of its
fighting and voting numbers to Unit K (United Kingdom), on the other.
Quite
how power and office would be captured through a strategy of eroding
its
numbers that way, I cannot say.
The truth is that its activists
who had been bred on an imported political
programme; who were now being
forced to survive in exile on meagre proceeds
as British Bum Cleaners (BBC),
soon drifted severally, too self-preoccupied
to remain homogenous, let alone
focused on the exporting cause. With yawning
distances between home and
exile, they could cast no vote, throw no stone
for their dying party,
appeasing their sense of commitment by periodic
spurts of meaningless
demonstrations rewarded by drink and debauchery in
English pubs.
For a
long time Nyarota would write about such strains and struggles of
those in
exile, but from home. He never thought that some day he would join
them.
Today he is one of the exiled lot, not through the "dastardly brutal"
acts of
the Zanu-PF regime and its minions, but through machinations of
those in his
own camp. That hurts. He finds himself deported from the
newsroom and exiled
from the country, not by President Mugabe, but by
"tribalist" Sipepa
Nkomo.
He thus cannot be a Meldrum. Nor can he be a Musekiwa given that
supposedly
homely politics victimise him. That too hurts. Instead he grimly
hovers
between Dongo’s quiet exit and anonymous re-entry, and Lupi’s
riotous
self-exile which nature contradicted through a quiet final departure
for the
nether, bereft of even a whimper.
To stare anonymity in the
face, that is the prospect that daunts Nyarota
and, like all in-betweens, he
rebels against the beckon of either fate,
inexorable though both are. So his
essay is a noisy smart that prefaces
oblivion, which is why its politics are
as unsustainable as they are
unedifying. Simply read, what chafes Nyarota is
not Zanu-PF or its errant
political schemers who sought to use him and The
Daily News.
What frightens him is the horror of an MDC without a Morgan
Tsvangirai. To
imagine Welshman Ncube and a Themba Nyathi sidelining
Tsvangirai and playing
leading roles, however meaningless, is one horror too
much. The plot he
describes in his eminently readable letter confines Ncube
and Nyathi merely
to ministering to the final disposal of MDC’s remains or
cadavers. The plot
Nyarota luxuriates in describing makes MDC a victim of a
plot in which it is
an accessory.
It is inconceivable that those
responsible for a sinister plot would, upon
its imagined triumph, simply pass
on power and office to MDC leaders whoever
they are. Did Machiavelli ever say
princes were given to such strange bouts
of generosity which border
profligacy? It sounds both naive and desperate
and much remains unsaid from
Nyarota’s piece. Beyond the plot he tells in
this letter, he should also tell
the world the scenarios drawn up avidly by
the British, with America’s
reluctant backing, scenarios drawn for him and
his colleagues at The Daily
News.
He should tell the world that he had been primed for a
now-or-never
take-over bid in 2002 which went disastrously bad. Together with
the MDC, he
had burned all bridges, and the absence of a fall-back position
which his
self-exile dramatises the tragic pitfalls of this
be-all-and-end-all plan.
That plan did not envisage an editing role for him
after March 2002. It
placed him closer to Tsvangirai, which is why the fate
of the two remain
intertwined. Both went for broke, welded together by a
tribal and regional
mortar which he accuses Sipepa of.
Today both are
battling to come to terms with a basic law governing the
shifty world
politics, namely, that nothing is possible until it passes. MDC
daily
atrophises while Zanu-PF continues to pare its flanks. This Nyarota
cannot
come to terms with, and mutual recrimination is his own way of
adjusting,
indeed the median between this unrelenting denial and sure
extinction. In the
meantime, he needs to remember that death draws requiems,
not eulogies. Fare
thee well boy from Nyazura! Farewell the scion from the
line of Rhodesian
chiefs!
Prick the cub and the lioness emerges from denial
Now
where stands my pretentious friend Biti now that Re-start has gone back
to
its real owners? For the benefit of those raised outside the
Zimbabwean
African cultural environment, biti refers to a drink that benignly
lies
between mahewu and the potent ngoto, a seven-day wonder brew that knocks
you
out with a few sips. Unlike skindo, it is supposed to be easy on the
throat
and mind, granting back your balance even after a prolonged gulp. Yet
it
appears to knock out Tendai who claims authorship of matters well beyond
his
ken.
Savaged by the public media and of course by yours truly, the
real authors
and minders of Re-start have now come to its defence. The
hare-eared Tony
Hawkins and the intellectually wrinkled John Robertson have
broken their
silence in defence of this hopeless composition over which
Tsvangirai
forcibly has to accept paternity.
Significant where the two
lay accent. For both Hawkins and Robertson, the
vision "cannot happen so long
as Zanu-PF is in power". Equally, both agree
that its strength is its
position on land which "does not jeopardise the
economy". "Every economic
problem", concludes the prescient Robertson, "has
a political cause",
obviously agitating for politics of regime change.
What economic problem
has settler politics caused, both before and after
independence, dear
Robertson? Where do you and Hawkins stand vis-a-vis those
politics? And is
the reverse of that statement also meaningful to you? As I
have always
maintained, it is to be expected that Robertson and Hawkins have
to defend
the white laager. What is hard to understand is a person whose
skin and
prospects under the settler political economy are as dark as two
moonless
nights put together, can agitate for white supremacy, indeed
agitate against
his own interests. Cry the beloved people!
Between the Beeb and
Blair
I watched and listened with fascination as Britain’s organic
intellectuals
struggled to reassert BBC’s honour after it was badly mauled by
one of their
Lords. I do not know the origins of this judge but I can only
imagine that
if he was found fit enough to do a clean-up job on Tony Blair,
he must be
part of the "nearly" crowd the Conservatives as real governors of
Britain,
have delegated to run the country in the meantime, with
disastrous
consequences for themselves and Britain.
I have always
maintained that the people who rule and run Britain do not
have their roots
in the English, Scottish or Welsh working class. Labour is
a comic interlude
between the successive governance of Conservatives. Except
this time around
it’s a tragic-comedy for Britain and the rest of the world
and such frivolity
on the part of the Conservatives should never be suffered
again. They must
rule Britannia or accept to be ruled by the Gauls or Hans.
Between 1923
and Lord Hutton, the BBC has come under no less than six Royal
scrutinies led
by Sykes (1923), Crawford (1926), Ullswater (1936), Beveridge
(1951),
Pilkington (1962), Annan (1977) and Peacock (1986). The accretive
result has
been to place BBC firmly into the arms of those that govern or
pretend to
govern.
In between such inquiring committees were scuffles between the
BBC and the
politicals, leading to its exile so it would handle home issues
benignly
while appeasing the British public with hard-hitting reports on
foreign
news. The foreign beat is what gives and sustains the British
illusion of
being a world power. Beyond the shores of Albion and away from
its cousins
overseas, BBC operates carte blanche, ironically the name of one
of its
programmes that led the lie of a genocide in Zimbabwe.
Gilligan
broke this rule and sought to operate carte blanche at home. All
hell broke
loose and heads rolled. Not that he did not know the rule. Far
from it. He
only correctly felt that Britain under Tony’s New Labour was as
good as an
overseas banana republic and handled it as such in his
story
treatment.
This is unavoidable when the newsman increasingly
finds and lives at home a
reality he ascribes to inferior climes abroad. But
beyond the degeneration
of British politics under New Labour, the British
public have had their
maiden test of the post-9/11 legal ethos. Having failed
to be a democracy
abroad, Britain is increasingly finding it difficult to be
one at home.
Meanwhile, what is Zimbabwe which has all along told the world
that the BBC
is an elaborate maze of the how-not-to-do-it of journalism,
supposed to say?
The standards Blair demands BBC to meet at home, we all in
the Third World
must insist on it individually and collectively. Again,
Zimbabwe has shown
the way. Bravo -
This is exeter
Bid to bring home Marjorie's ashes
The
family of an Exeter woman brutally murdered in Zimbabwe are
hoping to bring
her ashes back to her native city.
Marjorie Eggleston, 66, and her
husband Eric were killed at their home
in Prospect, near the Zimbabwean
capital, Harare, by a gang of armed robbers
last September.
Mrs
Eggleston had lived in Heavitree and Exmouth as a youngster before
leaving to
settle in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in 1962.
Her body has already
been cremated following a lengthy delay in
Zimbabwe due to the country's
critical shortage of fuel.
Now her relatives want to arrange a
memorial service and an interment
in Heavitree later this year.
Mrs Eggleston's sister, Valerie Clarke, who lives in Exmouth, said:
"We want
to have a service in Exeter but there are a few things to sort
out
first.
"We are now selling their house in Zimbabwe, so we
are waiting for
that to go through.
"And we won't hold a service
until my niece can come over from
Zimbabwe for it.
"She is
looking to leave the country but it's difficult at the moment.
We hope we can
arrange a service in Exeter so all the people who knew
Marjorie when she was
younger have the chance to come and pay their respects
to her. My niece
managed to arrange a service in Zimbabwe but they couldn't
get the cremations
done for ages.
"They were eventually done on different days. Now we
have got the
ashes and the men police think murdered them have been charged -
the whole
thing is nearly over for us at last."
Police in
Zimbabwe arrested four suspects following the killings and
they all have
since been charged with murder.
They are being held in custody in
Harare's main jail awaiting trial.
If convicted, they could face the death
sentence.
Post-mortems established that the Egglestons were beaten
severely
during a robbery at their house in a mainly black
neighbourhood.
Mrs Eggleston was shot in the back and lay dying
while the house was
ransacked.
When living in Exeter, Mrs
Eggleston was known by her maiden name of
Marjorie King.
She
later lived in Exmouth and worked for the chemists, Boots, before
marrying
and moving to Africa.
New Zimbabwe
Zvobgo recovers, back in Parliament in
weeks
07/02/04
FIREBRAND Masvingo South MP and ex-Zanu PF
legal supremo, Edison Zvobgo, who
was admitted to a South African hospital
late last year is out of hospital
and now recovering at his
house.
Last month we reported how Zvobgo was making steady progress
after
undergoing an operation to rectify an undisclosed ailment.
His
son Edison Zvobgo Jnr said his father was back in the country and is
expected
to resume normal duties in a fortnight.
"He is back in the country after
undergoing an operation and is
recuperating. He is going to be okay," he
said.
Zvobgo's political career is a source of fascination among
Zimbabweans who
are also enthralled by his sharp legal brain and intelligent
contributions
in Parliament.
The Harvard-trained lawyer, a member of
the ruling Zanu PF's decision making
body - the Politburo - missed the
party's annual conference early December
last year due his
hospitalisation.
His daughter, Tsungi, said although her father was now
able to speak, watch
television and peruse through literature, it would take
more time before he
fully recovers.
"He’s doing a little better now,"
Tsungi said. "He’s improving. Now he can
converse, watch television and read
books and newspapers," she said.
Zvobgo’s wife, Julia, suffered a stroke
while in South Africa comforting her
husband. She is now back in Harare where
she is undergoing physiotherapy.
"Unfortunately, my mother suffered a
stroke and she is on a wheelchair,"
Tsungi said. "She is attending
physiotherapy lessons, but definitely
recovering."
Zvobgo was flown to
South Africa a few days before he was to be hauled
before the ruling Zanu
PF's disciplinary committee on charges that he
refused to campaign for
President Mugabe during the March 2002 presidential
polls.
Zvobgo has
dismissed the allegations as "trumped up" charges, describing
them as
"demeaning and a pack of lies" by those bent on having him kicked
out of the
party. He said those accusing him were mere "strangers" to a
party he helped
set up and "visitors" who have nothing to lose if Zanu PF
was
divided.